This is the final part of the five part series on the rental process for tenants, and this final installment is about ongoing living and termination.

Once you have spent the first few weeks in your new apartment and are nicely settled, it is important to ensure that you take responsibility for the ongoing upkeep and condition of the apartment.

Whilst the landlord is responsible for structural issues you need to check your contract for who is responsible for minor maintenance issues.

There are really four key areas to focus on as a tenant:

1. Keep it clean

2. Keep it dry

3. Repair any damage

4. Pay your bills

1. Keep it clean

This will minimize the chance of having an insect infestation such as beetles or cockroaches.

To help with this you should keep all food stuffs in tightly sealed containers.

Keeping the place clean will also keep it smelling as nice as possible.

2. Keep it Dry

Keeping an area dry will keep mould at bay.

During humid times of year your best bet is to use a dehumidifier and air conditioner to dry the air.

If you do find mould starting to appear, treat it straight away. You can do this by cleaning it with a solution of water and white vinegar and making sure the area is dry.

3. Repair any damage

Make sure that you take responsibility for anything damaged, even by accident, and repair it. Rectify any damage you or your family cause and keep the receipts. You may want to let the landlord know what has been done.

It is also a good idea to make sure that the air conditioners are serviced once a year and the filters in them cleaned regularly.

Making sure that the windows get cleaned once a year on the outside is a good idea as it brightens up the apartment and lets in the light.

4. Pay your bills

Make sure that you pay your bills on time and pay the final bills before check out. If you dont, the cost will be deducted from your deposit and you could face problems with the utility companies. This may also delay the security deposit refund process.

Giving notice

If you are intending to vacate the property ensure that you give the landlord the appropriate notice which, under Macau law, is 90 days. You can also check your contract for requirements.

Do not be tempted to use your deposit to pay the final months rent as this is in contravention of contracts and Macau law.

Once you have given notice your agent or landlord will arrange a check out and inspection with you and return the appropriate amount of the security deposit.

If you would like to know more about tenancy administration, please feel free to contact us at the e mail address below.

Tenancy Management Services: Service available immediately including bill payment, rent payment, maintenance support, property related translation services and more.

Bill Paying Service For Tenants & Owners: Utility bill set up and payment service available, e-mail Admin@JMLProperty.com for details

Juliet Risdon is a Director of JML Property and a property investor.

Having been established in 1994, JML Property offers investment property & homes. It specializes in managing properties for owners and investors, and providing attractive and comfortable homes for tenants.

www.JMLProperty.com

info@JMLProperty.com
When the French energy giant Total signed a landmark gas deal with Iran this month, the companys chief executive lauded the nearly $5 billion investment as a trailblazing initiative for peace.

Were here to build bridges, not walls, Patrick Pouyanne said in an interview with Agence France-Presse at the signing ceremony in Tehran.

The venture, which includes Chinas National Petroleum and the Iranian company Petropars, will develop the South Pars gas field under a 20-year contract. It is Irans first major energy contract with a European firm since a nuclear deal with world powers lifted sanctions on Iran last year.

Economic development is also a way of building peace, Pouyanne said.

Pouyannes remarks reflect a broader vision among European leaders for improving ties with Iran, in part by encouraging firms such as Total to invest now that major sanctions are gone. But his comments also highlight the growing rift between the United States and Europe over how to engage with Iran, which the Trump administration has identified as a global menace and singled out for sanctions and isolation.

Since President Trump took office, Europe and the United States have pursued increasingly different courses on Iran, casting doubt over the future of the nuclear accord, which limits Iranian nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief and other trade.

For Europe, the nuclear deal negotiated in 2015 has facilitated relations with a key, if problematic, player in the Middle East while opening a vast consumer and energy market to European companies.

[Trump administration plans to certify Iranian compliance with nuclear agreement]

Many European banks and firms have been reluctant to jump in, but French, German and Italian companies have also invested in sectors including renewable energy, luxury hotels and auto manufacturing. On Thursday, the French company that makes Peugeot and Citroen cars said that its sales nearly tripled in the Middle East and Africa in the first half of the year because of new production in Iran.

The Europeans are returning, the Chinese are returning, the Russians, Ukrainians  its all over the place, said Fabien Dany, a Tehran-based consultant who advises companies on the Iranian market. There are very big companies with appetites for investment in Iran, he said. And theyre going through with it.

But in Washington, the agreement, which was negotiated by the Obama administration, has been portrayed as a boon for a repressive regime that threatens the region. Some in the White House are pushing for harsher measures against Iran, because they say that the country should not go unpunished for activities such as ballistic-missile development.

In April, the administration informed Congress that Iran was in compliance with the deal, a certification it must make every 90 days. But it also put the accord under review  with the option to abandon it entirely. On Monday, the administration plans to certify again. Officials have said the policy review should be completed before the next certification is due in October.

In the meantime, the Treasury Department has not even said whether it will allow companies such as Boeing to do business with Iran, despite potential sales the firm says would create tens of thousands of American jobs.

There is a clear division between where the Europeans are going and where the Americans are going on Iran, said Ellie Geranmayeh, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. The Europeans have embarked on a path of rapprochement. The U.S. is looking at a policy of isolationism and containment.

The optics of Totals $4.8 billion investment, which analysts say has the backing of the French government, were seen as, Were going ahead despite all the uncertainties of the U.S. administration,  Geranmayeh said. The Europeans are messaging: Our foreign policy on Iran now is different to yours in Washington. Were not just going to automatically follow suit. 

Critics of the European approach, and of the deal more generally, say the pro-business attitude has blinded the international community to incremental violations of the accord by Iran, as well as more heinous activities in the region.

Iran, critics point out, has twice breached the limit the accord places on heavy water, a chemical used in nuclear reactors capable of yielding plutonium. Still, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the body tasked with monitoring Irans nuclear program, certified in June that it was in compliance with the agreement.

Europe sees Irans violations as individual and accidental, said Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank. FDD has taken a critical stance on the deal, and its chief executive, Mark Dubowitz, has publicly urged Persian Gulf states to refuse to work with companies that do business with Iran.

Because European businesses want to return to Iran, they are inclined to downplay those violations, Taleblu said, adding that U.S. officials believe that the violations add up to something much more nefarious.

But should the White House decide to pull out of the accord or push for a renegotiation of the deal, analysts say, the United States would struggle to bring Europe and other signatories such as Russia or China on board. The administration would also face obstacles enforcing stricter sanctions without support from other world powers.

European nations have been pretty open about their commitment to the deal and readiness to counter any U.S. opposition, said Richard Nephew, former principal deputy coordinator for sanctions policy at the State Department.

The Total deal in particular says that the company itself and likely the French government are prepared to battle a U.S. decision to snap back the sanctions for anything less than a very good reason, he said.

Geranmayeh said European leaders are already discussing contingency planning for if the U.S. were to overtly or covertly start to interfere with European foreign policy on Iran.

The Europeans are playing the middle ground and are trying their best to keep the Americans on board with them, she said. But they are also saying, If there is unreasonable obstruction to that, we are going to be looking at what our options are. 

Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more:

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Grandparents and other extended relatives are exempt from President Trumps travel ban, a federal judge in Hawaii declared late Thursday, again stopping the administration from implementing the presidents controversial executive order in the way that it wants.

U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson wrote that the governments narrowly defined list of who might be exempt was not supported by either the Supreme Court decision partially unfreezing the ban or by the law.

Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents, Watson wrote. Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The Governments definition excludes them. That simply cannot be.

Watson wrote that refugees with an assurance from a resettlement agency could also be exempt from the ban.

[Travel ban takes effect as State Department defines close family]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement Friday that the Justice Department would reluctantly return directly to the Supreme Court to again vindicate the rule of law and the executive branchs duty to protect the nation.

Once again, we are faced with a situation in which a single federal district court has undertaken by a nationwide injunction to micromanage decisions of the coequal executive branch related to our national security, Sessions said. By this decision, the district court has improperly substituted its policy preferences for the national security judgments of the executive branch in a time of grave threats, defying both the lawful prerogatives of the executive branch and the directive of the Supreme Court.

Later, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to intervene and allow the government to enforce the executive order as it had been, arguing that Watsons decision empties the Courts decision of meaning.

Only this Court can definitively settle whether the governments reasonable interpretation is consistent with this Courts stay, Justice Department lawyers wrote.

Many justices left Washington to travel after their most recent term ended, but they often rule in emergencies when they are in different places. In the meantime, Department of Homeland Security and State Department spokesmen said their agencies were reviewing the decision with the Justice Department, and working on implementation of Watsons decision.

At issue is how far the administration can go in keeping out relatives of U.S. residents under the presidents travel ban, which temporarily bars entry for all refugees and the issuance of new visas to residents of six Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

(Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

The Supreme Court ruled late last month that the government could begin enforcing the measure, but not against those with a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.

The court offered only limited guidance on what type of relationship would qualify. Close familial relationships would count, the court said, as would ties such as a job offer or school acceptance letter that were formal, documented and formed in the ordinary course.

The administration said it would let into the United States from the six affected countries parents, parents-in-law, siblings, spouses, children, sons and daughters, fiances, and sons-in-law and daughters-in-law of those already here.

Still banned, however, were grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. And the administration also said it would keep out refugees who had a formal assurance from a resettlement agency.

The state of Hawaii, which has been suing over the travel ban, soon asked Watson to intervene.

The district judge had initially ruled against Hawaii in the case, telling it to go straight to the Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit also rebuffed the states request, although it offered a way forward: Watson, the appeals court said, would have jurisdiction over a reframed request. Hawaii then filed such a request, setting up Watsons ruling Thursday  which allows the entry of those the government had wanted to keep out.

Hawaii Attorney General Douglas S. Chin said in a statement: The federal court today makes clear that the U.S. government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit. Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough. Courts have found that this Executive Order has no basis in stopping terrorism and is just a pretext for illegal and unconstitutional discrimination. We will continue preparing for arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in October.

While the Supreme Court partially unfroze Trumps travel ban, it did so only temporarily, indicating it would truly take up the case in the fall. By that time, the bans might have expired. The barring of new visas to those from the six Muslim-majority countries is supposed to last 90 days, and the barring of refugees is supposed to last 120 days.

Robert Barnes contributed to this report.
The Justice Department on Thursday released a single redacted page from Attorney General Jeff Sessions security clearance form from November that indicated he had not had any contact with a foreign government official in the past seven years.

That contradicts his later admission that he had met with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, twice last year. At the time, Sessions was a U.S. senator and an adviser to Donald Trumps presidential campaign. The meetings occurred in July and September.

Sessionss omission may not be a violation of security clearance rules as long as the contacts occurred in his capacity as a lawmaker, U.S. officials say. But other experts say he should have erred on the side of transparency.

The watchdog group American Oversight, whose lawsuit forced the disclosure of the form, said that FBI investigators should have been told about the meetings. The group learned Thursday in court that the bureau did not turn up the information on its own.

Sessions disclosed the meetings only after The Washington Post inquired for an article published in March.

(Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

The question on the form, known as an SF86, asks the applicant to say whether he has had any contact with a foreign government, such as an embassy or its representatives, inside or outside the United States in the past seven years.

Sessions put an X in the box marked No.

Ian Prior, a Justice Department spokesman, said in a statement that Sessionss staff was told by the FBI investigator handling the background check that he need not list meetings with foreign dignitaries in connection with Senate activities. Other U.S. government officials with clearances who have dealt extensively with foreign officials say they, too, have been advised that they dont need to list contacts with such officials.

It would be a different matter if [Sessions] was acting in his capacity as a campaign adviser, said an aide to Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), whose office looked into the matter.

Sessions met with Kislyak in July during the Republican National Convention and in September in his Senate office.

Evan Lesser, an expert in security clearance investigations, said its better to report the contacts. The lines can be blurry between conversations that you might have with a foreign national that specifically relate to Senate work and something that may be outside that, he said. Thats why its important to list everything.

Sessions, an early Trump supporter who advised the campaign on foreign policy, was nominated in November to be attorney general. The job he was being vetted for  the highest law enforcement official in the country  is very sensitive, and any contacts with Russian officials would have been good to disclose, said Lesser, president of ClearanceJobs.com.

Its not just about foreign influence, but could someone hold some sway over you? he said. Its precisely why youre required to list the entirety of your foreign connections, including meetings and financial ties. Its really to understand, is there a potential conflict of interest, or could this person be coerced in some kind of way?

Sessions did not disclose his Kislyak meetings during his confirmation hearing in January. His explanation was that he had met with the ambassador as a member of the Armed Services Committee, not as a Trump adviser.

Nonetheless, watchdog groups see Sessionss answer as part of a troubling pattern of Trump associates not disclosing contacts with the Russian government.

Last year, Trump officials insisted that the campaign had not had any communication with Russian officials. This week, the New York Times reported that Trumps son Donald Trump Jr.; son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with a Russian lawyer whom they thought had information from the Russian government that could help Trumps campaign.

From Jeff Sessions to Jared Kushner to Donald Trump Jr., the presidents closest confidants appear to have collective amnesia about their dealings with the Russian government, said Austin Evers, the executive director of American Oversight.


Jake Sullivan, who was the senior policy adviser to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 run for president, appears at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington on June 9. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

If all had gone as planned, and as most in Washington had expected, Jake Sullivan would be hard at work just steps from the Oval Office.

He was the elite of the Washington elite: Rhodes scholar, Yale Law School graduate, clerk to a Supreme Court justice, the person at Hillary Clintons side when she circled the world as secretary of state, a steady voice in the Situation Room for President Barack Obama.

The conventional wisdom held that Sullivan was a lock to be the national security adviser in a Clinton administration. At 40, he would have been the youngest to hold that position in U.S. history.

Instead, Donald Trump won the presidency, and Sullivan says he sometimes feels like a ghoulish reminder to friends of an election that shook the Washington establishment like no other in decades.

On a recent evening, he was pushing open a battered orange door, climbing stairs covered with fraying carpet and striding into a dimly lit apartment where two dozen Yale Law School students were waiting to hear from him. Most of them were desperate for some version of the life he had led in Washington.

Sullivan, though, has never felt less certain about where both he and his country are headed. He divides his time between an empty think-tank office in Washington and Yale, where he lectures one day a week on law and foreign policy. Almost everything about his professional life is transitory, uncertain, unsettled.

[Trump keeps praising international strongmen, alarming human rights advocates]

I feel a keen sense of responsibility for the outcome, he told friends in the immediate aftermath of Clintons defeat. Months later, the feeling had not faded.

Clinton and others in her innermost circle of advisers often speak of the election as if it had been stolen from them. They rage against Russian interference, complain about the last-minute disclosures by former FBI director James B. Comey, and criticize Obamas unwillingness to take a more forceful line with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Remember, I did win more than 3 million votes [more] than my opponent, Clinton said in a recent interview.

Sullivan, more than most in the Clinton orbit, has begun to shoulder blame for the loss and his role in it. He wants to understand his mistakes and figure out how to fix them.

I have the humility of the defeated, he says as if it were a mantra.

On this night, Sullivan settled into a ragged, hand-me-down chair at the front of the Yale student apartment and looked around at the room full of smart, ambitious young people. He balanced a plate of greasy pizza on his lap. Someone handed him a beer.

You all know Jake Sullivan, a second-year law student said by way of introduction.

Have you bounced back?



Accompanied, from left, by Jake Sullivan, Nick Burns and campaign chairman John Podesta, Democratic presidential nominee and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton waits to meet with Ukraines president, Petro Poroshenko, in New York in September 2016. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Everyone involved in Washington policy knew Jake Sullivan, or at least they knew of him.

For years he had been discussed as the next in a long line of gray-suited Washington wise men dating back to the end of World War II. The late diplomat Richard Holbrooke insisted that he had all the makings of a future secretary of state. Clinton confided to friends that she thought he could be president.

Sullivan gazed out the window down Hillhouse Avenue, a stretch of road that Mark Twain had called the most beautiful street in America, and in the direction of the apartment  three blocks away  where he had lived as a law student in the early 2000s. The students were clad mostly in jeans and sweatshirts. Sullivan wore the uniform he favors when outside of Washington  suit pants, a solid button-down dress shirt and no tie. His hair was combed in a ruler-straight part.

He ran through a list of his early mentors who had helped him find purchase in Washington: There was Leslie H. Gelb, the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, where Sullivan had spent time as a summer intern, assigned by happenstance to Gelbs office.

There was Strobe Talbott, who runs the Brookings Institution. In 2000, when Sullivan was starting law school, Talbott had just been chosen to lead the newly formed Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. Those were the heady days when the mainstream foreign policy consensus was that globalization was a force for good, Sullivan recalled. He had sought out Talbott after learning that they had both been Rhodes scholars and edited the Yale Daily News.

There was Holbrooke, who on Gelbs recommendation had suggested Sullivan to Clinton when she was running for president the first time. And finally, there was Clinton herself, who adored and trusted Sullivan and had made him part of her innermost circle of advisers.

Its about seizing opportunities and saying yes,  Sullivan said of his career and two unsuccessful Clinton presidential runs. He paused and added wryly: If you do that, you can take part in not one but two election catastrophes.

Clinton tapped him in 2012 to help start secret talks with Iran over its nuclear program, and when she left government, Obama brought him to the White House, where Sullivan was part of the small group in the Oval Office each morning for the presidents daily intelligence briefing.

The students peppered Sullivan with questions about the Iran negotiations. Those questions, though, were largely a prelude to the subject that was really on their minds: the election, its aftermath and the long-term prospects for people like them in Washington.

We were all devastated by the election, a third-year law student said. Have you bounced back?

If fill-in-the-blank Republican had won, I would feel like things were pretty good for me, Sullivan replied.

For the first time in a decade, he had weekends off. He loved teaching. He was newly married. But, the Trump factor makes it hard, he said. I am still losing sleep. Im still thinking about what I could have done differently.



President-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, leave a morning worship service at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington on Inauguration Day. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Another law student pressed harder on the wound. Do you have a theory about what happened?

I dont know, Sullivan said. He paused and stared at the ceiling.

You dont have to . . . the student added, fearful that he had pushed too far. Sullivan considered his answer for a few more awkward seconds.

Its a conversation for better pizza, he replied.

In other forums and at other dinners Sullivan was sometimes willing to wrestle with a version of the students question. At the Harvard Faculty Club a few weeks earlier, a former British parliamentarian, who in 2015 had lost his seat to a 20-year-old Scottish Nationalist, described the problem as he saw it.

Its a fight between politicians with answers and politicians with anger, he had said.

I get PTSD just hearing that, Sullivan had replied.

Sullivans post-traumatic stress disorder that night led him to flash back to an argument with Clinton on her campaign plane. He was her senior policy adviser but was worried that her prescription-heavy speeches were missing the point of the election.

Maybe we should just focus on diagnosing the problem and relating to peoples pain? he recalled suggesting to her during her primary battle with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

No, Clinton had replied. This is a job interview. People want to know how I am going to fix it.

Sullivan said he regrets not pushing the issue, even as it became more and more evident that the general election wasnt going to be decided on policy.

In the campaigns final days, Sullivan was more nervous than most on the Clinton team that the election was slipping away. His colleagues chalked it up to his fretful and frequently self-critical nature. He has a tendency to wear the hair shirt, one former colleague said.

Now Sullivan wonders whether he should have pressed Clinton harder to dial back the policy prescriptions in favor of empathy or possibly even a little outrage. I mean, Build the wall is not really a policy solution, he said. Its a statement that gets to the heart of peoples concerns about immigration and . . . identity.

But, before he goes too far, a defensiveness of Clinton and his role in the campaign takes hold. Its all about telling people that you get what they are going through and Hillary was certainly capable of that and had some incredible moments and displays of that, Sullivan continued. He played down the significance of his exchange with Clinton on the plane.

Thats more of campaign tactics issue, he said.

Something audacious



Khizr Khan walks offstage with his wife, Ghazala, at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 28. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

Sometimes when hes searching for answers, Sullivan thinks back to the fourth night of the Democratic National Convention, when Khizr Khan, whose son was killed in Iraq, pulled a pocket-size Constitution from his suit jacket and scolded Trump for trampling Americas highest ideals.

We had our answer, Sullivan told the Yale students. The flag signified a great country, an inclusive country, a generous country.

But the campaign never succeeded in turning that moment into a unifying message, and the presidential debate soon returned to divisive issues of race, immigration, inequality, abortion and transgender bathrooms, he said.

I used to believe we just needed to take that night and stretch it over the span of the campaign, Sullivan said. But thats not a solution, because you still have to deal with real issues. Our agenda involves a lot of ideas that are still controversial.

Sullivan was going on about the growing and scary divide in the country when a law student from a rural town in Kentucky interrupted his monologue: Coming from a flyover state, it is difficult for me to even be on the same wavelength as the people I grew up with.

The students confession brought Sullivan back to his own upbringing in Minnesota. He was 13 when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. A few months later, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, eager to meet with some average Americans, visited a home in Sullivans Minneapolis neighborhood. Sullivan remembered Latvian and Estonian Americans protesting for Baltic independence along the Soviet premiers motorcade route. He felt a sense of what America could mean to the world.

As a candidate, Trump had rejected the very idea of American exceptionalism as an unnecessary burden. I dont think its a very nice term. Were exceptional. Youre not, Trump had said at a tea party rally in Texas. I want to take everything back from the world that weve given them. Weve given them so much.

Sullivan increasingly thought that the antidote to Trumpism was a full-on embrace of American exceptionalism of the sort he had felt in Minnesota. We need something audacious thats rooted in our national DNA; who we are as a people, he said. There needs to be a call to arms that can motivate people.

But he struggled to describe his idea in detail. To spur his thinking, he read a dense 1890 essay by military strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan, making the case for America as a global naval power. He studied historian Stephen Kinzers book, The True Flag, on Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain and the birth of the American empire.

He played with ideas that he hoped might resonate in Minnesota or Kentucky. Our exceptionalism is rooted in the idea that we have the ability to innovate and solve hard problems  climate change, pandemics, nuclear proliferation, he posited at one point. Maybe Americas exceptional mission was rooted in an unshakable commitment to a strong and growing middle class, he suggested a few weeks later.

But none of these formulations seemed big, audacious or inspiring enough.

Sullivan often insisted that he had developed his views about the world at a public high school in Minneapolis. But he is also unquestionably a product of Washingtons insular foreign-policy elite.

Even as partisan rancor took hold in the country, these Republican and Democratic internationalists had long insisted that they were different. They agreed on the biggest issues: The United States had a unique moral authority in the world and bore a special leadership burden. Almost the entirety of the Republican foreign policy establishment had signed letters opposing Trumps candidacy.

Sullivan embodies many of these elites courtliest qualities. He does not shout down opponents or even tweet. Many Republicans have kind words for him. He has a huge amount of integrity, said Mark Dubowitz, an outspoken critic of the Iran nuclear pact. You dont get talking points and an unwillingness to acknowledge problems from him.

As a candidate and even in office, Trump challenged just about every foreign-policy piety. He trash-talked Americas alliances, questioned the wisdom of nuclear nonproliferation efforts and rejected the ideal of a U.S. foreign policy built around democratic values, human rights and enlightened self-interest.

The response from Washington barely resonated outside of the Beltway. We believe that abandoning traditional U.S. support for the international order would be a serious strategic error that would leave the United States weaker and poorer, and the world more dangerous, read a recent Brookings report put together by a team of Washington luminaries that included Sullivan.

Lately, he had begun to question the worth and wisdom of these efforts. For years, the foreign-policy establishment has preached the importance of sustaining the U.S.-led, rules-based international order  an exhortation that, at best, was meaningless to most Americans. At worst, it smacked of soulless globalism.

To Sullivan, the most striking example of the establishments intellectual exhaustion was the mammoth 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Trump officially abandoned earlier this year. Republican and Democratic national security analysts for years had touted the pact as essential to U.S. national security and containing China. Sullivan had supported it, too.

But few of those experts, he said, paid any attention to the details of the pact and its potentially negative effects on American workers. Instead, they assumed that free trade was a net positive and focused on other issues, such as maritime disputes over island chains in the South China Sea, Sullivan said. In the process, the elite lost touch with the concerns of the very people it was supposed to serve and defend.

The gulf, Sullivan insisted, was symptomatic of a much larger problem.

How do we solve for this basic and growing division in our society that gets to issues like dignity and alienation and identity? Sullivan asked. He caught the eye of the young law student from Kentucky, sitting just a few feet away from him. How do we even ask the question without becoming the disconnected, condescending elite that we are talking about? Sullivan asked.

The question hung in the air.

A home away from Washington

Sullivan began to think recently that he could more easily answer these questions if he moved away from places such as Washington, Harvard or Yale.

Thats not a value statement about who constitutes the good people of the land, he said in an interview. I dont think that by going to live in Minnesota or New Hampshire or Tulsa, all of a sudden youre gaining wisdom you cant gain elsewhere. But you do gain a perspective. Youll see things from a different vantage point, and that matters.

Sullivans first move when he finished his Supreme Court clerkship in 2005 was to return home. He had turned down a $250,000 signing bonus from a big firm in Washington to accept a position with a smaller law practice in Minneapolis that focused on the agriculture and food industries.

Back then, he imagined a life split between government service in Washington and a more normal existence in Minnesota. In Washington everything is built around the job because the jobs are all-consuming, he said. In Minnesota the job is one aspect of your life.

Sullivan had planned to move back to Minnesota in 2013 when Clinton left the State Department. He was thinking about running for Congress or becoming a U.S. attorney, but Obama persuaded him to come to the White House. Obamas pitch was that you can always go home, said Ben Rhodes, a top foreign-policy adviser to the president at the time. Thats never going away, but heres an opportunity to work at the highest levels of the White House and you never know when thats going to come around again.

Even after he finished his White House job, Sullivan remained tied to Washington through the Clinton campaign and through his wife, who is scheduled to begin a clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer that will keep them in the nations capital for at least another year.

Then the plan is to leave Washington next year and settle someplace where he can put down roots. He imagines becoming involved in community projects where the results will be more real, immediate and tangible. Minnesota is one option. New Hampshire, where his wife grew up, is another.

The other possibility is that he stays. I have given up hope of looking people in the eye and telling them we are moving anywhere, based on the last decade, Sullivan said.

Its rare for anyone at Sullivans level in the foreign-policy world to leave Washington or return home. The issues have become too complicated. The money is too good. One Asian country recently offered Sullivan $25,000 for a two-day visit.

Whats that all about? he recalled thinking before turning it down.

The Yale students worries, meanwhile, ran in the opposite direction. They fretted about the opportunities still available to people like them in Trumps Washington.

Is this the death knell of the technocracy and the elite? one student asked, summarizing the thesis of a recent widely read article in Foreign Affairs magazine.

Before Sullivan could answer, another student clarified: Is there a coastal elite 2.0, or are we all finished?

Sullivan wasnt the sort to succumb to the prophecies of doom that had taken hold in some sectors of Washington and academia. Even Trump still depended on his own version of the Washington elite, Sullivan told the Yale students. The president leaned heavily on generals to execute his foreign policy; his Cabinet was stacked with billionaires. Goldman Sachs is running our economic policy, Sullivan said. So there will always be a demand for expertise.

Sullivans evening with the Yale students was nearing its end. The sky outside had grown dark. His slice of pizza was cold on his plate.

I still believe passionately in finding a home outside of D.C., he said.

Virginia or Maryland? one of the Yale students joked.

Maybe, he continued, the best service I can render right now is outside of Washington.

Sullivan edged toward the door. The next day he planned to meet with Clinton in New York to review her memoir, and maybe, if they finished in time and he wasnt too tired, attend a dinner with the French ambassador. Back in Washington.

Read more:

A Trump advisers odyssey from Washingtons fringes to the center of power

I took an Afghan war vet to Brad Pitts bad, anti-military movie. He liked it.

How a woman in England tracks civilian deaths in Syria, one bomb at a time
A Russian diplomatic compound, seized by the U.S. in 2016, sits abandoned in Upper Brookville, New York. (Andrew Gombert/EPA)

Russia said Friday that it is ready to take reciprocal measures if the United States does not return property in this country seized in December as part of the Obama administrations response to Russian meddling in the U.S. election and harassment of American diplomats in Moscow.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that the allegations of interference and other accusations were an obvious lie.

She said Russia was also planning possible retaliation for the December expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats. One of the easy options, she said, would be to demand a reduction in the number of Americans assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, which she said far exceeds the number of Russians in Washington.

Thomas Shannon, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov plan to meet in Washington on Monday to discuss issues including the expulsions and the seizure of two properties owned by the Russian government in this country. Then-President Barack Obama said that the resort compounds on Marylands Eastern Shore and on New Yorks Long Island were being used for intelligence purposes.

An earlier meeting between Shannon and Ryabkov, scheduled for late June in Russia, was postponed because the United States was not ready for meaningful discussion, Zakharova said.

A 45-acre Russian diplomatic compound, seized by theU.S. in 2016 in connection with suspected Russian hacking activities, sits abandoned on the banks of the Corsica River near Centreville, Md. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA)

Russia has repeatedly denounced the compound seizures as violations of international law.

Recent indications that the Trump administration was preparing to return the properties brought criticism from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who argue that Moscow has done nothing to warrant a reprieve from punishment for its meddling in the U.S. presidential election last year.

The interference, confirmed by U.S. intelligence agencies, and allegations of Trump campaign collusion with interests in Russia, remain under investigation by a special counsel and in Congress.

Administration officials have said that they consider the issue of the compounds a diplomatic squabble and that taking it off the table would enable greater cooperation with Russia in more important areas, including the war against the Islamic State in Syria.

Leading up to the meeting Monday, the administration has been reviewing conditions under which Russia, which still owns the compounds, could be permitted to reoccupy them. One option under consideration is stripping the premises of the diplomatic immunity they previously enjoyed.

Sebastian Gorka, a senior White House adviser to President Trump, told CNN on Friday that it was time for the U.S.-Russia relationship to move on. Trump, he said, pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin on multiple occasions about election tampering when they met last week at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg.

The president was not in a court of law, Gorka said. He pressed, he pressed the president of the Russian Federation, [and] the president of the Russian Federation denied the allegations.

We have to move on in the interest of U.S. national security and saving innocent lives, he said.

In a tweet on Sunday, Trump said that sanctions were not discussed during his meeting with Putin. Nothing will be done until the Ukrainian and Syrian problems are solved, he tweeted. The United States and European partners maintain a set of economic sanctions against Russian persons and entities in response to Russias intervention in Ukraine, including the annexation of Crimea.

White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that sanctions were discussed but indicated that the discussion was specific to election meddling, an apparent reference to the diplomatic expulsions and compound seizures.

Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said that the seized property has not been returned. Far from reversing the decision to expel our diplomats, Washington is refusing to issue visas to those who are supposed to replace them.

A State Department spokesman, noting that visa adjudications are confidential, declined to respond.
Welcome to The Independent Herald E-Edition! Check back each week on Tuesday to see our[Read More]
The following companies are subsidiares of General Motors: 2140879 Ontario Inc., ACAR Leasing Ltd., ACF Investment Corp., AFS SenSub Corp., APGO Trust, Adam Opel GmbH, AmeriCredit, AmeriCredit Financial Services Inc., Annunciata Corporation, Argonaut Holdings LLC, Astyx Inc., BOCO (Proprietary) Limited, Banco GM S.A., Boco Trust, BrightDrop LLC, BrightDrop Solutions LLC, BrightDrop Vehicle Distribution LLC, CHEVYPLAN S.A. Sociedad Administradora de Planes de Autofinanciamiento Comercial, Cadillac, Cadillac Europe GmbH, Carve-Out Ownership Cooperative LLC, Chevrolet Deutschland GmbH, Chevrolet Otomotiv Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Chevrolet Sales (Thailand) Limited, Chevrolet Sales India Private Ltd., Chevrolet Sociedad Anonima de Ahorro para Fines Determinados, Controladora General Motors S. de R.L. de C.V., Cruise, Cruise LLC, Cruise Munich GmbH, DCJ1 LLC, DMAX Ltd., Dealership Liquidations Inc., Delphi Energy and Engine Management Systems UK Overseas Corporation, EDS (Electronic Data Systems), GCAR Titling Ltd., GM (UK) Pension Trustees Limited, GM Administradora de Bens Ltda., GM Asia Pacific Regional Headquarters Ltd., GM Components Holdings LLC, GM Corretora de Seguros Ltda., GM Cruise Holdings LLC, GM Defense LLC, GM Eurometals Inc., GM Finance Co. Holdings LLC, GM Financial, GM Financial Bank, GM Financial Canada Leasing Ltd., GM Financial Colombia Holdings LLC, GM Financial Colombia S.A. Compania de Financiamiento, GM Financial Consumer Discount Company, GM Financial Holdings LLC, GM Financial Insurance Company, GM Financial Mexico Holdings LLC, GM Financial de Mexico S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.R., GM Financial del Peru S.A.C, GM Global Technology Operations LLC, GM Global Tooling Company LLC, GM Global Treasury Centre Limited, GM Holdings Australia Pty Ltd, GM Holdings U.K. No.1 Limited, GM Inversiones Santiago Limitada, GM Investment Trustees Limited, GM Korea Company, GM LAAM Holdings LLC, GM Mobility Europe GmbH, GM Personnel Services Inc., GM Philippines Inc., GM Protections LLC, GM Regional Holdings LLC, GM Retirees Pension Trustees Limited, GM Speciality Vehicles UK Limited, GM Subsystems Manufacturing LLC, GM Technical Center Korea Ltd., GM-DI Leasing LLC, GMAC Administradora de Consorcios Ltda., GMAC Prestadora de Servicios de Mao de Obra Ltda., GMCH&SP Private Equity II L.P., GMF Funding Corp., GMF Global Assignment LLC, GMF International LLC, GMF Leasing LLC, GMF Wholesale Receivables LLC, General Motors (China) Investment Company Limited, General Motors - Colmotores S.A., General Motors Advisory Services LLC, General Motors Africa and Middle East FZE, General Motors Asia LLC, General Motors Asia Pacific Holdings LLC, General Motors Asset Management Corporation, General Motors Australia Pty Ltd., General Motors Australia and New Zealand Pty Ltd., General Motors Auto LLC, General Motors Automobiles Philippines Inc., General Motors Automotive Holdings S.L., General Motors Belgique Automobile NV, General Motors Chile Industria Automotriz Limitada, General Motors China LLC, General Motors Daewoo Auto and Technology CIS LLC, General Motors Egypt S.A.E., General Motors Europe Limited, General Motors Financial Chile Limitada, General Motors Financial Chile S.A., General Motors Financial Company Inc., General Motors Financial of Canada Ltd., General Motors Global Service Operations Inc., General Motors Holden Australia NSC Pty Ltd., General Motors Holdings LLC, General Motors IT Services (Ireland) Limited, General Motors India Private Limited, General Motors International Holdings LLC, General Motors International Operations Pte. Ltd., General Motors International Services Company SAS, General Motors International Services LLC, General Motors Investment Limited, General Motors Investment Management Corporation, General Motors Investment Participacoes Ltda., General Motors Investments Pty. Ltd., General Motors Israel Ltd., General Motors Japan Limited, General Motors LLC, General Motors Limited, General Motors New Zealand Limited, General Motors New Zealand Pensions Limited, General Motors Overseas Commercial Vehicle Corporation, General Motors Overseas Corporation, General Motors Overseas Distribution LLC, General Motors Peru S.A., General Motors Research Corporation, General Motors South Africa (Pty) Limited, General Motors Taiwan Ltd., General Motors Technical Centre India Private Limited, General Motors Treasury Center LLC, General Motors Uruguay S.A., General Motors Ventures LLC, General Motors Warehousing and Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., General Motors de Argentina S.r.l., General Motors de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., General Motors del Ecuador S.A., General Motors do Brasil Ltda., General Motors of Canada Company, General Motors-Holden's Sales Pty. Limited, Global Services Detroit LLC, Grand Pointe Holdings Inc., Grand Pointe Park Condominium Association, IBC Pension Trustees Limited, Lease Ownership Cooperative LLC, Lidlington Engineering Company Ltd., Limited Liability Company "General Motors CIS", Maven Drive LLC, Millbrook Pension Management Limited, Monetization of Carve-Out LLC, Motors Holding LLC, Multi-Use Lease Entity Trust, North American New Cars LLC, Omnibus BB Transportes S. A., OnStar Connected Services Srl, OnStar Egypt Limited, OnStar Europe Ltd., OnStar Global Services Corporation, OnStar LLC, OnStar de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., P.T. G M AutoWorld Indonesia, P.T. General Motors Indonesia, PIMS Co., PT. General Motors Indonesia Manufacturing, Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center Company Ltd., Prestadora de Servicios GMF Colombia S.A.S., Rapid Motor Vehicle Company, Reliance Motor Car Company, Riverfront Holdings III Inc., Riverfront Holdings Inc., Riverfront Holdings Phase II Inc., SAIC GM (Shenyang) Norsom Motors Co. Ltd., SAIC GM Dong Yue Motors Company Limited, SAIC GM Dong Yue Powertrain Company Limited, SAIC GM Wuling Automobile Company Limited, SAIC General Motors Corporation Limited, SAIC General Motors Sales Company Limited, SAIC-GMAC Automotive Finance Company Limited, SAIC-GMF Leasing Co. Ltd., Servicios GMAC S.A. de C.V., Shanghai OnStar Telematics Co. Ltd., Sidecar Technologies, Ultium Cells LLC, Vehicle Asset Universal Leasing Trust, WRE Inc., and Zona Franca Industrial Colmotores SAS.

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Wells Fargo & Company, a diversified financial services company, provides banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management. The Consumer Banking and Lending segment offers diversified financial products and services for consumers and small businesses. Its financial products and services include checking and savings accounts, and credit and debit cards, as well as home, auto, personal, and small business lending services. The Commercial Banking segment provides financial solutions to private, family owned, and certain public companies. Its products and services include banking and credit products across various industry sectors and municipalities, secured lending and lease products, and treasury management services. The Corporate and Investment Banking segment offers a suite of capital markets, banking, and financial products and services to corporate, commercial real estate, government, and institutional clients. Its products and services comprise corporate banking, investment banking, treasury management, commercial real estate lending and servicing, equity, and fixed income solutions, as well as sales, trading, and research capabilities services. The Wealth and Investment Management segment provides personalized wealth management, brokerage, financial planning, lending, private banking, and trust and fiduciary products and services to affluent, high-net worth, and ultra-high-net worth clients. It also operates through financial advisors. Wells Fargo & Company was founded in 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Shake Shack Inc., the burger-and-fries chain founded in New York, will open its first location in Hong Kong next year, setting the stage for a push into the fast-food hotbed of mainland China.

The restaurant will be opened with licensee Maxims Caterers Ltd. and a total of 14 locations are planned in Hong Kong and Macau through 2027, Shake Shack said Wednesday. The chains upscale burgers and fries will appeal to the population there, and the restaurants will provide a base for eventually going into China, according to Chief Executive Officer Randy Garutti.

Youre seeing changing preferences for what was traditional fast food, he said in an interview. Theres a continued thirst for great brands and a premium level of food at an approachable price.

While about 90 percent to 95 percent of the menu will be the same as in the U.S., there may be more chicken items, said Garutti, who sees opportunities in mainland China, where Maxims operates other dining brands including Cheesecake Factory Inc.

Shake Shack may look to grow overseas as the U.S. market becomes increasingly saturated with restaurants offering fast-food burgers. The companys same-store sales fell 2.5 percent in the latest quarter, missing analysts projections, as cold weather hurt some locations. A recent report also found that the chain is suffering from a lack of customer loyalty in the U.S. despite its more upscale image.

Shares of the company have declined 3 percent this year through Tuesdays close, while the Standard & Poors 500 Restaurants Index has jumped 17 percent.

Expanding into China comes with challenges as other fast-food companies have faced supply-chain scandals and anti-Western sentiment there. Last year, Yum! Brands Inc. spun off its China unit to focus on turning around its U.S. business. The owner of KFC and Pizza Hut had struggled to boost sales in China as local competitors offer discounted prices and gain market share.

Shake Shack already has some locations in Asian countries, including Japan and South Korea, among its 135 restaurants. Still, Garutti said the U.S. is its main avenue for growth.

Domestic sales will be the lions share of the business going forward, he said. We have massive growth ahead here in the states. Leslie Patton, Vinicy Chan, Bloomberg
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Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, engages in residential real estate development and construction in the People's Republic of China, the United States, and internationally. It develops residential projects, such as multi-layer apartment buildings, sub-high-rise apartment buildings, high-rise apartment buildings; and auxiliary services and amenities, such as retail outlets, leisure and health facilities, kindergartens, and schools, as well as office, mixed-use, and commercial properties. The company also acquires development sites through public auctions of government land and acquisitions of entities. In addition, it provides property management services for its developments and other real estate-related services; landscaping, engineering and management, real estate consulting, leasing management, management consulting, and technical services; operates retail stores; and installs intercom systems. Further, it engages in the purchase, sale, lease, and brokerage of real estate; sale of construction materials; development and sale of robots; operation of internet platform for real estate property financing; and provision of electronic commerce and catering services. Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd. was founded in 1997 and is based in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.
Service Corporation International provides deathcare products and services in the United States and Canada. The company operates through Funeral and Cemetery segments. Its funeral service and cemetery operations comprise funeral service locations, cemeteries, funeral service/cemetery combination locations, crematoria, and other businesses. The company also provides professional services related to funerals and cremations, including the use of funeral facilities and motor vehicles; arranging and directing services; and removal, preparation, embalming, cremation, memorialization, and travel protection, as well as catering services. In addition, it offers funeral merchandise, including burial caskets and related accessories, urns and other cremation receptacles, outer burial containers, flowers, online and video tributes, stationery products, casket and cremation memorialization products, and other ancillary merchandise. Further, the company's cemeteries provide cemetery property interment rights, such as developed lots, lawn crypts, mausoleum spaces, niches, and other cremation memorialization and interment options; and sells cemetery merchandise and services, including memorial markers and bases, outer burial containers, flowers and floral placements, graveside services, merchandise installations, and interments, as well as offers preneed cemetery merchandise and services. Service Corporation International offers its products and services under the Dignity Memorial, Dignity Planning, National Cremation Society, Advantage Funeral and Cremation Services, Funeraria del Angel, Making Everlasting Memories, Neptune Society, and Trident Society brands. As of December 31, 2021, it owned and operated 1,471 funeral service locations; and 488 cemeteries, including 299 funeral service/cemetery combination locations covering 44 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The company was incorporated in 1962 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Turtle Giant are reconvening in Macau tomorrow night at Rua de Nossa Senhora do Amparo for their first concert in the city since December last year.

Band members Antonio Conceicao, Fredji Ritchie and Robert Ritchie describe themselves as Macau and Sao Paulo natives. Though they live in different cities, separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, the trio continues to write and produce indie-rock tracks.

This weekend, Turtle Giant will introduce some of their latest material that Antonio Conceicao said has never before been performed in the MSAR. Speaking yesterday to the Times, the vocalist-bassist assured that the trio also plans to revisit their earlier tracks that first earned the band its popularity.

Conceicao said that Turtle Giant is now looking to record a new EP. The album will break from the tradition of recording exclusively in Macaus Dom Pedro V Theater; this time recorded partly in the United States and Portugal as well.

In an interview with the Times last night, the bands vocalist offered his opinion on the development of Macaus cultural and creative scene and the governments role in cultivating the sector.

I always think that Macau is a little bit behind in how they are pushing kids to know the world in a cultural sense, he said. That curiosity is what drives people to want to know these things.

Is it about exposure to this sort of music? At some point yes, it has to be about exposure. I dont think it matters whether you are young or a little bit older, added Conceicao, but at some point you dont know what you dont know.

The artist believes that while government support to the industry is commendable, it can only take local acts so far. To become successful artists beyond the incubator stage usually requires the participation of the private sector, he argued.

I dont know if this is a job for the government, he told the Times on the idea of government plans to create sustainable creative and cultural industries.

I dont know how many countries have their governments pushing their top artists and cultural icons you go to the biggest pop countries in the world and the government has little involvement. It has a lot more to do with private investment. The biggest pop artists succeeded through the private sector, not through the public sector.

Though the government has done a great job to incentivize people to create  and we cant expect all subsidized projects to be great  [] it might be slightly misguided [on the behalf of the government] as the subsidies are supposed to develop a career, and maybe it doesnt quite have this impact.

Last year, at This Is My City festival in December, Turtle Giant presented singles from their Many Mansions I album as a warm-up to the evenings headline act, legendary Portuguese artist Rui Reininho.

Outside of music writing and concert playing, the band has also begun its foray into producing music for U.S. television shows, including one called Supergirl earlier this year.

We had the first experience [working with television] in 2013 with other series, and its a gig that we love, said Conceicao. We love the idea of having our music played in film and TV. There is a reciprocal relationship: movies have fed us, and we feed our ideas with movies.

The concert starts tomorrow night at 8:30 p.m. at Beer Temple on Rua de Nossa Senhora do Amparo, according to organizers.

Hidden agenda picked on

COMMENTING ON recent media reports suggesting Hong Kong authorities are taking a tougher stance on alternative music venues in the neighboring SAR, Conceicao said that, to the best of his knowledge, only two organizations have had a long-running problem. Im not into the political side of Hong Kong, he said, but in my experience [] the only two that ever had a problem were Beating Heart and Hidden Agenda. [] I guess Hidden Agenda has always been picked on and raided a bunch of times by police and fireman, he added, because they keep moving to different warehouses. Hong Kong authorities say that the raids are due to ongoing regulatory problems with the premises. The latest raid on Hidden Agenda took place over the weekend and the clubs owner was arrest on suspicion of allowing foreign citizens to perform without the appropriate visas.
As India integrates itself ever more fully into Washingtons military-strategic offensive against China, relations between New Delhi and Beijing and between India and its other nuclear-armed neighbor, Pakistan, continue to deteriorate.

For the past month, Indian and Chinese troops have been arrayed against each other on a Himalayan ridge, the Doklam or Donglang Plateau, that is claimed by both China and Bhutan.

The confrontation is being widely described as the most serious since India and China fought a month-long border war in 1962. Both Indian and Chinese officials have repeatedly made thinly veiled threats of an impending military clash.

Meanwhile, India and Pakistan continue to regularly exchange artillery barrages across the Line of Control (LoC) in disputed Kashmir. In the past week, New Delhi and Islamabad have both condemned one another for killing poor villagers with indiscriminate shelling across the LoC, while boasting about killing enemy soldiers.

Further enflaming the situation, Islamist anti-Indian Kashmiri insurgents reputedly attacked a busload of Hindu pilgrims returning from the remote Amarnath cave shrine Monday night. The attack left seven people dead and 19 injured.

Indias government immediately seized on Monday nights atrocity to intensify repression of the mass protests that have convulsed Jammu and Kashmir, the countrys only Muslim-majority state, for the past year.

Kashmir has been at the center of the reactionary strategic rivalry between India and Pakistan from its very outsetthe bloody 1947 communal partition of South Asia into an expressly Muslim Pakistan and a predominantly Hindu India. Over the course of the subsequent seven decades, the Indian and Pakistani bourgeoisie have both shamelessly abused and manipulated the Kashmiri people. Today India is led by the Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while Pakistans rulers seek to advance their own mercenary interests by using Islamist organizations to channel the opposition to the Indian state in a reactionary, communalist direction.

Emboldened by the strategic support and new weapons it has received from the US, Indias BJP government has pursued an increasingly hardline policy against Pakistan. For most of the past three years it has been insisting that it will keep even the most rudimentary ties with Pakistan in the deep freeze until Islamabad demonstrably halts all logistical support from Pakistani territory for the anti-Indian insurgency in Kashmir.

Last September Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered Indian Special Forces to mount illegal cross-border raids inside Pakistan, and then proclaimed that India would no longer adhere to strategic restraint in its relations with Pakistan.

During the ensuing months-long war crisis, China came to Pakistans support.

Beijing and Islamabad have a decades-long all weather military-strategic partnership. But as the Indo-US global strategic partnership has become stronger over the past decade and especially since 2015, China and Pakistan have responded by forging still closer ties.

Whilst Indian military strategy has long envisaged the possibility of having to fight Pakistan and China simultaneously, Indias new Army Chief, General Bipin Rawat, has himself repeatedly portrayed this as a live threat by boasting that India is ready to fight a two-front war.

Tensions between China and India over their long, disputed border are nothing new. Indias corporate media regularly publishes inflammatory articles alleging Chinese incursions across the Line of Actual Control that delimits current Indian- and Chinese-controlled territory.

What is different in the current dispute is the aggressive stance being taken by Beijing, the attention it is being given by Chinas state-run newspapers, and New Delhis insistence that control over the Doklam Plateau affects its core strategic interests.

On Wednesday Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang dismissed the claim of Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar that just as the two countries have managed their border differences in the past, so the current standoff can be handled even if it persists for months, even years.

Geng took issue with Jaishankars description of the border standoff as a difference, saying that it is an outright dispute. Moreover, he emphasized that Beijing does not consider this to be similar to previous border spats. China, he said, has explicitly pointed out that the illegal trespass of Indian border troops into Chinas territory this time took place at the defined Sikkim section of the China-India boundary, which is utterly different in nature from the previous frictions between the two sides at the undefined sections of the China-India boundary.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman went on to reiterate Beijings demand that India unilaterally withdraw its troops from the disputed Doklam Plateau area as the precondition for any talks.

India, however, is adamant; it and the tiny kingdom of Bhutan, which does not even have diplomatic relations with China, will not permit Beijing to gain the upper hand in the Doklam. To do so, India claims, would place China in a position where, in the event of a war, it could seize the strategic Siliguri Corridor. A narrow slice of territory some 50 kilometers from the Doklam Plateau, the Siliguri Corridor connects Indias seven northeastern provinces with the rest of the country.

Until very recently, Beijing generally turned the other cheek in the face of Indian actions it considered hostile or threatening. This was because it was painfully aware that a key US strategic aim is to harness India to its anti-China offensive and feared an aggressive response would only drive New Delhi into Washingtons welcoming embrace.

However, China is now quite prepared to push back forcefully, including by threatening India with military action.

Beijing has clearly concluded that its previous policy failed. Under Modi, India has been transformed into a veritable frontline state in the US drive to thwart Chinas rise and force it to forgo any challenge to US hegemony in Asia. India has opened its military bases and ports to routine use by US warplanes and battleships; forged bilateral and trilateral military-strategic ties with American imperialisms principal military-strategic allies in the Asia-Pacific, Japan and Australia; and routinely parrots Washingtons provocative stance on the South China Sea dispute.

Moreover, India is openly challenging China on multiple fronts. To Beijings dismay, it recently tested a ballistic missile, the Agni V, that is said to be capable of raining multiple nuclear warheads on any major Chinese population center from anywhere in India. New Delhi has intensified its support for the Tibetan government-in-exile and recently organized for the Dali Lama to tour Arunachal Pradesh, a northeastern Indian state that Beijing calls southern Tibet and says rightfully belongs to China.

The Indian press is full of alarmist articles about the military-strategic threat from China, including claims that large numbers of Chinese submarines are plying the Indian Ocean and that Beijing is plotting to transform various Indian Ocean ports whose construction it sponsored into Chinese naval bases.

Pointing to the massive joint Indo-US-Japanese naval exercise that is now being held in the Bay of Bengal and the recent US deal to sell India naval surveillance drones, the Chinese media counters that it is China that is threatened with encirclement. Given the importance of the Indian Ocean for its trade and oil imports, declared an editorial in Mondays China Daily, it is China that should feel security concerns.

Amid the current Indo-China border dispute, there are increasing calls from the Indian media and various military-security think tanks for New Delhi to further expand and formalize its military-security alliance with Washington.

Yesterday, the Indian Express published an op-ed column by former Indian Navy Chief Arun Prakash that calls for the India-Japan-US triad on display during the current Bay of Bengal war games to be elevated to strategic status. Pointing to Chinas hostility and aggressive posturing  both on our land borders and sea, Prakash says, realpolitik demands India ensure a favourable regional balance-of-power through cooperation and partnerships; striking short-term alliances if necessary.

Thus far, Washington has said nothing about the Doklam Plateau standoff. But when Modi visited the White House last month, Trump touted the strategic convergence between the US and India and vowed to expand and deepen the Indo-US military-strategic alliance.

Recent events underscore the extent to which US imperialisms reckless drive to employ India as a satrap in its confrontation with China has transformed all of South Asia into a geopolitical powder kegone that threatens to plunge the region and even the world into catastrophic conflict.
Brazils former Workers Party (PT) President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was convicted on corruption charges Wednesday and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. He will not be jailed until his appeal is heard, and, theoretically, he could still run for president in the 2018 election.

The court action against Lula comes amidst a crisis of bourgeois rule in Brazil that is rapidly spiraling out of control.

It is less than a year after the removal of Lulas hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, through her impeachment on trumped-up charges of budgetary manipulations. Her former vice president and now head of state, Michel Temer of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), is also facing criminal charges and a mounting rebellion from his right-wing base in the Brazilian congress that could spell his ouster.

Temers approval rating has fallen to 7 percent, while every major political party and institution of the Brazilian state has been thoroughly discredited by the unending revelations of corruption emerging from the three-year-old Operation Car Wash ( Lava Jato ) investigation. This political crisis is unfolding as the ruling class prosecutes a full-scale assault on the basic rights and social conditions of the working class, which has taken its initial form in sweeping labor and pension reforms.

The conviction of Lula came in the first in a series of pending corruption cases against the former president. It involved the so-called triplex scandal, in which prosecutors charged that he accepted $1.2 million worth of bribes in the form of a three-story, beach-front apartment and renovations to the structure provided by the engineering firm OAS. It was alleged that the company provided the favors in return for aid in securing lucrative contracts with Brazils energy giant Petrobras.

The scandal was a small part of an estimated $2 billion in assets drained out of the state-run company in a scheme of wholesale bribes and kickbacks that involve every major political party and every significant political figure in the country.

Lulas defense attorney, Cristiano Zanin Martins, declared that the judge leading the Car Wash investigation, Sergio Moro, had disregarded evidence of innocence and had used the process for the purpose of political persecution.

The reality, however, is that the entire Workers Party is saturated with corruption. The PT was founded in 1980 in the wake of a wave of strikes and mass student protests that fatally undermined the 20-year, US-backed military dictatorship. The party, along with the trade union federation with which it is affiliated, the CUT, served from its origins as a political instrument for diverting the revolutionary strivings of the Brazilian working class back under the domination of the bourgeois state.

During its dozen years in power, the PT emerged as the principal party of Brazilian capitalism, defending the interests of a ruling financial and corporate oligarchy both at home and abroad. It used the power of the state to promote the growth and profits of a layer of Brazilian transnational corporations headed by billionaires, such as Odebrecht, OAS and JBS. These firms, in turn, funneled money back into the coffers of the PT and other parties, as well as into the personal pockets of leading politicians.

The PT and Lula were able to survive earlier exposures of this corrupt operation (which included the so-called mensalao scandal of a decade ago, in which the PT was paying monthly stipends to congressional deputies to secure their votes in favor of government-backed legislation). This was under conditions in which the economy was continuing to grow, fueled by the commodities boom and rising demand from China that underlay all the political projects of the so-called left governments of Latin America.

Today, Brazil remains in the grip of the countrys worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Predictions earlier this year of renewed growth have fallen flat, and unemployment continues to rise, hitting 13.3 percent in May. The real jobless rate, counting so-called discouraged workers who have ceased looking for non-existent jobs, is probably closer to a quarter of the workforce.

With no prospects for a growth in foreign investment or a renewal of the rising exports that predominated during Lulas presidency, the turn by the Brazilian bourgeoisie and all its parties, including the PT, is toward a redoubled assault upon the working class.

On Tuesday, the Brazilian Senate approved a labor reform that strips workers of unemployment benefits, slashes break times and reduces vacation rights, while facilitating the full transformation of the workforce into casualized, contract labor at the mercy of employers.

While the legislation is wildly unpopular and has provoked popular protests and strikes, the major union federations deliberately sabotaged a general strike that had been planned for June 30 in opposition to the reform.

Rather than mobilize the working class against the right-wing government, the unions sought to reach a deal to amend the legislation in the area that mattered to them mosta proposal to eliminate the automatic deduction of union dues from workers wages. Temer has reportedly agreed to propose an amendment to the bill passed by the Senate to secure the unions income stream. The deal underscores the character of these organizations, which represent the interests not of the working class, but those of privileged upper middle-class layers of officials and bureaucrats tied to the capitalist state.

Temers presidency, however, is hanging by a thread after he was named in a plea bargain agreement reached with executives of the JBS conglomerate who directly implicated him in bribe-taking. He has been formally charged on one count of corruption and faces further accusations.

For the charges to go to trial, the congress must vote to send the matter to Brazils Supreme Court. While it initially appeared that Temer would prevail in such a vote, there are now reports that the group of right-wing parties that make up the governments base are prepared to ditch him in favor of the speaker of the lower house of congress, Rodrigo Maia of the DEM. The DEM is the right-wing party that emerged as the political successor to Arena, the official party of Brazils military dictatorship.

Maia would assume the post of interim presidency during the 180-day period given for the Supreme Court to try Temer. If Temer is convicted, an indirect vote by the congress would choose the next president, with the favored candidate apparently being Maia, who is himself implicated in soliciting campaign donations in return for political favors to OAS, the same firm involved in the case in which Lula was convicted.

In the midst of this rapidly escalating political crisis, Temer delivered a speech Wednesday in which he portrayed Brazils CIA-backed military coup of 1964 as a manifestation of the vision of the Brazilian people being incompatible with the democratic system.

1964 arrived and it was the centralizing inclination of the Brazilian people, said Temer. The people like to have an organism that is in charge of everything, especially what is based upon an absolute obedience to the judicial order.

He went on to lament the tumultuous currents engulfing his government, adding that an absolute contempt for institutions is again reborn from a stupendous force and everyone starts saying that we have to change. This is very bad for our country.

The remarks of the embattled president read like a plea for the imposition of a dictatorship under conditions in which the Brazilian bourgeoisie cannot impose the policies it requires by peaceful means.
Donald Trump arrived yesterday in Paris at French President Emmanuel Macrons invitation for a meeting and a joint press conference, before attending the Bastille Day parade today on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris. Macron sent an unambiguous signal: despite his differences with Trump, he still places his relations with US imperialism at the center of his diplomatic strategy.

Macron launched the joint press conference by praising the symbolic and important trip of Trump, who is hated among workers in France, and hailing the centenary of the US entry into World War I against Germany. Trumps visit, he declared, would celebrate not only our national holiday but also the centennial of the intervention of American troops alongside France The presence of Donald Trump was not only natural, but a good thing for the history of our two countries.

Macron then listed subjects where he shares Trumps positions: limiting free trade by reinforcing protectionist antidumping measures, censoring the Internet by editing out supposedly terrorist statements on social media, and waging imperialist wars in Africa and the Middle East.

After US, French and allied forces bombed the Iraqi city of Mosul during a siege that claimed 10,000 lives and displaced 700,000 people, Macron hailed the US role in Iraq. Fourteen years ago, Washington launched an illegal invasion and military occupation of that country, which cost over a million lives and was opposed by Frances right-wing president at the time, Jacques Chirac. Macron, on the other hand, insisted that he thanks Trump for what US troops have done in Iraq in recent years.

Trumps statement also underscored the reactionary character of Macrons presidency. He applauded Macrons authoritarian policy of rewriting the Labor Code by decree to slash workers wages and conditions, calling it a struggle against bureaucracy, and also applauded the strength of French troops now occupying Mali.

The invitation of Trump marks a shift in Macrons foreign policy that points to the profound instability of relations between the main imperialist powers of the NATO alliance. After a quarter century of imperialist wars and deepening economic crisis following the 1991 dissolution of the USSR by the Stalinist bureaucracy, NATOfounded on a common hostility to the USSRis being torn apart by deep rivalries that threaten to erupt at all points into open conflict, or even war.

During his presidential campaign this spring, Macron reacted to Brexit and Trumps election by moving closer to Germany. For his first trip outside France as president, the week of his election, he traveled to Berlin to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel and to try to revive the traditional Franco-German axis as the motor of the European Union (EU). This seemed to align him with Merkel in her conflict with Trump, who has denounced Germany and even threatened it with trade war, by blocking its exports to the United States.

However, only a few days after the July 7-8 G20 summit in Hamburg, Trump is back in Europe this week, to celebrate with Macron the centenary of a war against Germany. Yesterday, Trump and Macron both kept an extraordinary silence on Germany. This silence was all the more deafening, in that Macron was just coming from a joint meeting of the French and German council of ministers that very morning in Paris, after which Merkel and Macron held another joint press conference to announce several major initiatives.

As Germany abandons the policy of military restraint it adopted after the defeat of the Nazis in 1945, and tries to emerge as the hegemon of a remilitarized Europe, Paris and Berlin are signing several military agreements. Perhaps most importantly, they are agreeing to collaborate in developing and manufacturing a fighter jet. Merkel also announced, however, that she might consider creating a budget for the euro zone and the position of a European minister of finance.

This noncommittal statement was a reaction to pressure from Paris. Speaking to Ouest France and dailies of Germanys Funke press corporation, Macron had just sharply attacked Berlins diktat imposing deep austerity across the euro zone since the Greek debt crisis erupted nearly a decade ago, in 2009.

The euro zone, he said, does not function well because it has nourished divergences. Those who were indebted ended up more indebted. Those who were competitive ended up more competitive. He added, Germany is also benefiting from the dysfunction of the euro zone. This is not a healthy situation, because it cannot last.

Macron called for a government of the euro zone that would transfer tax funds between euro zone countries, a policy long opposed by Berlin: In France, if the Paris area did not subsidize the rural districts, national unity would not last very long. For that, we need a budget, a government which decides upon how to spend this budget, and democratic forms of control which do not exist at present.

These deep tensions inside Europe underlie Macrons invitation to Trump. European capitalism is incapable of overcoming its internal contradictions, which twice in the 20th century erupted into world wars. After 40 years of austerity, deindustrialization, and growing indebtedness, France no longer has the economic weight to function as a full partner of Germany in a Franco-German axis that would try to direct the EU. Macron reacts by trying to blackmail Berlin, signaling that Paris could align itself with Washington and a more frankly anti-German policy.

The French press pointed to the growing military divergences between Paris and Berlin, particularly on Russia and Eastern Europe. For Paris, wrote Le Monde, relations with Moscow must remain pragmatic, guided by national interests. For Berlin, they are inscribed in territorial defense strategy and the very architecture of European security Thus, for Germany, sending troops to Lithuania in the name of a NATO policy of reassuring the country since [Russias] annexation of Crimea is a priority. But that is not the case for France.

At their joint press conference, Trump and Macron worked to smooth over their previous conflicts. Both suggested that Trump might, in the coming years, moderate his opposition to the Paris climate accords and asserted that their dinner on the Eiffel Tower after the press conference would be a meeting between friends.

Macron also confirmed the abandonment of Paris former Syrian policy of war for regime change against President Bashar al-Assad. Calling cooperation with Moscow in the Middle East a necessity, he added: We have indeed changed French doctrine on Syria We have a principal objective: the eradication of all terrorist groups, whatever their political sensibility We do not make Assads departure the precondition for French engagement in Syria.

Whereas Chinese President Xi Jinping had just met Merkel in Berlin before the G20 summit in Hamburg, Macron added that Xi was not his friend, even if he had had a fruitful discussion with Xi.

Macrons rapprochement with Trump underscores the deeply reactionary character of his presidency. When questioned by a journalist, Macron refused to criticize Trumps Muslim ban or his plan to build a wall to keep people from immigrating across the US-Mexican border.
President Trump and son Donald Trump Jr. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Alex Brandon/AP, Matt York/AP)

WASHINGTON  President Trumps legal team was informed more than three weeks ago about the email chain arranging a June 2016 meeting between his son Donald Jr. and a Kremlin-connected lawyer, two sources familiar with the handling of the matter told Yahoo News.

Trump told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that he learned just a couple of days ago that Donald Jr. had met with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, hoping to receive information that would incriminate Hillary and was part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump. A day earlier, on Tuesday, Donald Jr. released the email exchanges himself, after learning they would be published by the New York Times.

Trump repeated that assertion in a talk with reporters on Air Force One on his way to Paris Wednesday night. I only heard about it two or three days ago, he said, according to a transcript of his talk, when asked about the meeting with Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in June 2016 attended by Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, then Trumps campaign chief, and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner.

But the sources told Yahoo News that Marc Kasowitz, the presidents chief lawyer in the Russia investigation, and Alan Garten, executive vice president and chief legal officer of the Trump Organization, were both informed about the emails in the third week of June, after they were discovered by lawyers for Kushner, who is now a senior White House official.

The exchange apparently was initiated on June 3, 2016, when a Trump family associate, publicist Rob Goldstone, emailed Donald Jr. with an offer of something very interesting  official documents and information that would be very useful to your father. On June 8, 2016, Trump Jr. forwarded an email to Kushner and Manafort about the upcoming meeting with the subject line: FW: Russia-Clinton-private & confidential. Trump Jr. wrote back later that day, telling Goldstone if its what you say I love it especially later in the summer.

The discovery of the emails prompted Kushner to amend his security clearance form to reflect the meeting, which he had failed to report when he originally sought clearance for his White House job. That revision  his second  to the so-called SF-86, was done on June 21. Kushner made the change even though there were questions among his lawyers whether the meeting had to be reported, given that there was no clear evidence that Veselnitskaya was a government official. The change to the security form prompted the FBI to question Kushner on June 23, the second time he was interviewed by agents about his security clearance, the sources said.

But the information that Trumps lawyers were told about the emails in June raises questions about why they would not have immediately informed the president. Trumps campaign is under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion with Russian government officials. The emails appear to be the first hard evidence of contacts between top campaign officials and someone connected to the Kremlin.

A spokesman for Kasowitz declined to comment, saying the matter involved privileged information. Garten did not respond to an email request for comment.

Richard Painter, the former chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush told Yahoo News Thursday night that he finds it weird and unbelievable that Trumps lawyers would not have informed the president about a matter so sensitive relating to the Russia investigation. You have a professional obligation to inform the client about information that he needs to make informed decisions, he said. That would be especially true for a client who feels the need to comment on every last thing in the world, he added.

Pushing back the discovery of the emails to the third week in June also raises additional questions about the initial public statements made by the White House after the existence of the meeting was first reported by the New York Times on July 8. At that time, Trump Jr. issued a public statement describing the session as a short introductory meeting in which the primary topic of discussion was the adoption of Russian children by American families. The actual purpose of the meeting, to obtain damaging information about Hillary Clinton ostensibly collected by the Russian government, wasnt mentioned in Trumps initial statement.

The next day, Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, said in an interview that the meeting was a big nothing burger.

The president himself repeatedly described the Russia investigation as fake news and ridiculed television networks reports about it. With four months looking at Russia  under a magnifying glass, they have zero tapes of T people colluding. There is no collusion & no obstruction. I should be given apology! the president wrote in two tweets on June 26.

The real story is that President Obama did NOTHING after being informed in August about Russian meddling. With 4 months looking at Russia  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2017

..under a magnifying glass, they have zero "tapes" of T people colluding. There is no collusion & no obstruction. I should be given apology!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2017

But questions were raised about President Trumps account of when he learned about the meeting, in light of a statement he made on June 7, 2016  before the meeting, but after the email exchanges with Donald Jr. On that day, Trump promised a major address the following week that he said would describe Clintons corrupt dealings to give favorable treatment to foreign governments, including the Russians. White House officials have said the timing of Trumps statement was a coincidence and that his promised address about the Clintons was postponed when, a few days later, an Islamic State-inspired security guard went on a rampage at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., killing 49 people.

Aside from questions about the credibility of White House statements, the disclosure of the emails potentially has raised new questions about Kushners security clearance. He initially filed his SF-86 on Jan. 18, leaving out any mention of meetings with foreign government officials during the transition and the campaign. His lawyers have said this was inadvertent and that a member of his staff had prematurely hit the send button for the form before it was completed. Within twelve hours, they have said, Kushner notified the FBI that he would make amendments and disclose his meetings with foreign officials.

This was followed by a revised security clearance submission on May 11 in which Kushner reported more than 100 meetings with officials from over 20 countries, including a meeting with the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and another with Sergey Gorkov, head of a Russian state-owned bank.

The revised security clearance led to Kushners first FBI interview about the matter in mid-May, the sources said. The bureau is now reviewing Kushners second amended form following the new disclosure about his meeting with the Russian lawyer. His lawyers are confident that it wont raise any additional problems since, as they have asserted, Kushner had forgotten the meeting  he was only briefly present  and had no intent to conceal it. In the meantime, he has an interim security clearance, sources said.

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Yahoo News photo illustration; photos: AP, Getty

Yahoo News Health Care Declassified series provides continuing coverage of the Republican efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. Well combine our own reporting with the best insights from around the Internet to give you the latest on the future of health care in America.

With the latest incarnation of the Senate plan to dismantle the Affordable Care Act unveiled Thursday, the scramble is on for GOP leaders to seek out the undecided lawmakers and win them over.

Four such lawmakers  Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Rob Portman, R-Ohio., Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska  have said they are undecided after also expressing major reservations about the first version of the bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., likely needs every one of them to vote to bring the bill to the Senate floor, as Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., say they are firmly opposed to even beginning debate on the issue. McConnell can afford to lose only two of his 52 members to have the bill pass over united Democratic opposition.

Below we take a look at each of the undecided senators:

Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is chased by members of the media on her way to view the details of a new health care bill on Thursday. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

For West Virginias junior senator, Medicaid could be the deal breaker. The Better Care Reconciliation Acts proposed rollback of Obamacares Medicaid expansions caused her to publicly come out against the bill soon after it was introduced last month, but despite similar provisions in the new version, Capito has yet to denounce it.

In a statement published on her website on Thursday, Capito said she continues to have serious concerns about the Medicaid provisions, but that she looks forward to reviewing the revised Senate health care legislation.

One in six nonelderly residents of West Virginia would become uninsured under the Senates first draft of the BCRA, according to a study by the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The revised bills inclusion of a modified version of the so-called Cruz-Lee amendment could also keep Capito from moving to a yes. Capito said last week that the amendment, which would allow insurers to offer cheaper, non-Obamacare-compliant plans in states where they also offered Obamacare-compliant plans, would make it too difficult for people with preexisting conditions to get coverage.

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Capito also expressed concerns about the original bills lack of funding to stem the opioid epidemic. Her state has the highest proportion of drug-related deaths in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The new draft, however, includes the $45 billion of funding that Capito and Portman asked for.

Any health care bill to replace Obamacare must provide access to affordable health care coverage for West Virginians, including our large Medicaid population and those struggling with drug addiction, Capito said in the statement. I opposed the previous draft because it did not ensure access to affordable health care in West Virginia, did not do enough to combat the opioid epidemic that is devastating my state, cut traditional Medicaid too deeply, and harmed rural health care providers.  Taylor Rogers

Rob Portman, R-Ohio

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, during a roundtable discussion at the Adams Recovery Center for Women in Cincinnati on July 5. (Photo: John Minchillo/AP)

Portman first opposed the bill for its cuts to Medicaid, but he says hes undecided on the revised legislation even though the cuts to Medicaid remain largely the same.

In a Thursday statement, Portman said he plans to review the text of the legislation and a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis once published. When asked by an NBC reporter if he was a yes on the motion to proceed, Portman said, No, but he didnt confirm that hed vote against the bill, stating that he looks forward to reviewing the legislation.

Portman has said that the Medicaid cuts in last months draft could inflame Ohios opioid epidemic, as the bills Medicaid policies would affect drug treatment. The most recent version of the bill would still cut Medicaid and phase out its expansion but includes a $45 billion fund to help individuals who are addicted to opioids.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, sharply criticized the new bill Thursday morning, calling the legislation still unacceptable for its cuts to Medicaid and failure to stabilize the health insurance market. While governors hold no authority over their home-state senators, Kasichs criticism could make it more difficult for Portman to support the legislation.

Portman and Kasich have both said they are open to a more gradual decrease in cuts to federal Medicaid funding.  Julia Munslow

Dean Heller, R-Nev.

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., is surrounded by members of the media on his way to view the details of a new health care bill on Thursday. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Perhaps the most heavily watched vote, Heller is undecided on the revised bill, telling reporters Thursday that he plans to read it over the weekend.

Heller first opposed the bill for cutting Medicaid funding and leaving tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans uninsured compared with current law. Nevada expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, though Heller has said he supports phasing out funding for the expansion over seven years. The Medicaid cuts in the most recent version of the bill are largely the same as those in the version Heller opposed. The CBO has yet to score the revised legislation.

Its going to be very difficult to get me to a yes, Heller said in June. You have to protect Medicaid-expansion states. Thats what I want. Make sure were taken care of here in the state of Nevada.

The initial bill also failed to bring down premiums, one of Hellers reasons for his opposition. The revised bill would provide an additional roughly $70 billion for states to use to reduce premiums.

Reports say Heller met with McConnell in a closed-door meeting after the revised bill was released. But aside from announcing that he plans to read the bill over the weekend, Heller has remained largely mum on the revised legislation.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican who stood by Hellers side when the senator announced his opposition to the first bill, said his early take on the revised version is that its not different from the earlier draft, and therefore would cause [him] great concern. If Sandoval comes out in opposition to the revised bill, it would make it much more difficult for Heller to vote in favor of the legislation.

Heller, who is regarded as one of the most vulnerable sitting senators, is up for reelection in 2018 in a state won last year by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.  Julia Munslow

Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and other lawmakers head to the Senate on Thursday for a meeting on the revised Republican health care bill. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Murkowski has been a longtime critic of the secretive drafting process, calling it icky.

I am not a reporter, and I am not a lobbyist, so Ive seen nothing, a frustrated Murkowski told the Independent Journal Review at one point.

She has also raised issues with several of the provisions in the bill, including one to roll back the Medicaid expansion, which has boosted coverage in her home state. Alaska stands to lose more than $3 billion in Medicaid payments over six years under the bill, according to a state-commissioned report unveiled earlier this month. Due to the states high health care costs, this could punish Alaskans, especially children, the elderly and the disabled.

What Im learning is the same problems that we had before, under the House bill, are still there, Murkowski said after the first version of the Senate bill was unveiled last month, although she did not voice outright opposition to the measure and instead pledged not to vote for a bill that would not act in her states best interests.

Related slideshow: Protesters across the country oppose GOPs health care plan >>>

The proposal introduced Thursday maintains steep cuts to Medicaid, which Murkowski said as recently as Wednesday remained an issue for her.

The [Affordable Care Act] allowed for Medicaid expansion. The ACA didnt address traditional Medicaid.  Why do we not focus on the urgency of the concerns with the ACA? Murkowski told Politico. Lets deal with the urgency of the issue. Lets set Medicaid off to the side.

But the new version also includes nearly $2 billion in funding for the state to stabilize exchanges in states with high premiums, a provision that specifically targets Alaska. In the past, Murkowski has opposed a carve-out for her home state.

Think about it: If you had subsidy changes that only affect Alaska, but dont do anything with regards to the impact of Medicaid cuts, I dont see how that can help the balance here, she told reporters last month.

Murkowski expressed more openness to the idea Thursday, telling reporters she had been working with the states other GOP senator, Dan Sullivan, on the proposal for weeks.

We have been working to make sure high-cost states have some way forward, and I think you see weve done it in that provision, she said.  Andrew Bahl

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Soldiers of the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service walk next to the bodies of Islamic State militants in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq, July 9, 2017. (Photo: Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters)

MOSUL, Iraq  Bodies of dead Islamic State fighters still lay in the streets of west Mosul. Severed limbs from corpses were burnt, charred and strewn among the rubble of destroyed houses. The stench of death, a mixture of bodily waste and rotting flesh, mingled with the smell of garbage that hung in the air. The only way to cope with the nausea was to avoid deep breaths and take small sips of flavored sodium water from a plastic bottle that was melting in the broiling sun. But the stench was not the only thing the dead ISIS fighters left behind.

As Iraqi forces extend their control over the city, killing or chasing away remaining ISIS fighters, they encounter reminders of the regime imposed by the militant cleric Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared a new Islamic caliphate at the Great Mosque of al-Nuri. Meant to be a new era and empire, it has fallen in just three years. Al-Baghdadi himself has been reported killed, although his death has not been confirmed.

The ISIS fighters have continued to resist even after the battle was lost, rocking the city with explosions that shattered ancient structures and sent debris flying to land in heaps on the streets.

Iraqi forces listening in on ISIS radio transmissions heard signs of dissent and chaos in the ranks. The militants argued over which brigade had more men, who was most badly injured and whom they should leave behind. Their injuries went largely unattended and open to infection. They were weak, their morale low, and Iraqi forces knew they could take advantage of their weaknesses.

Wahlid, an Iraqi special-forces soldier, told me, Theyre fighting their hardest, then he added, but among themselves they have disputes.

A radio used by Iraqi special forces to monitor ISIS. (Photo: Ash Gallagher for Yahoo News)

In a dimly lit room in a house near the front lines used as a base by Iraqi special forces, Wahlid told stories about listening to ISIS. The air conditioning was on full blast inside the house. He sat on a couch, drinking energy drinks and smoking cigarettes. An old walkie-talkie on an end table next to him crackled with voices chattering back and forth. An Iraqi commander shouted, Get the Humvees out; find a safe place. ISIS had coordinates for Iraqi soldiers in another neighborhood, and he was telling them to move before ISIS attacked.

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Related slideshow: In Mosul, the war is never over, even when the shooting stops >>>

Wahlid laughed and with a smirk told what he considered a humorous story about an ISIS suicide bomber stranded in his explosive-filled car in the middle of the road. The [Iraqi] soldiers shot at him, Wahlid said. His car broke down, he pressed the button and it didnt work. So the militant who was in the car called on the radio back to the other [ISIS] militants, telling them, The infidels broke down my car, but I cant make it explode, I cannot blow it up because the button does not work. If you have any other way, brothers, blow it up, I want to blow up the car on the infidels.

Iraqi forces called for an airstrike. The car blew up.

ISIS fighters left behind a legacy of self-inflicted martyrdom, expecting rewards in heaven if they died fighting their alleged enemies. They saw themselves as heroes. The world did not agree.

Many came from other countries, tens of thousands of them who left behind a life they knew for a desert they didnt know. Perhaps some of them left their homes for money, or a chance to be part of history. But the history they created is still desperate to leave them behind.

Many times, soldiers on the front lines admitted they couldnt understand the ISIS fighters. They spoke different languages. Troops reported chatter in what they thought was Russian, Turkish and an Eastern language they couldnt identify. One of the soldiers from the Najaf battalion, Rami, said that he was ethnically Turkmen and that sometimes he could understand the Turkish ISIS fighters.

A German ID card left behind by ISIS militants. (Photo: Ash Gallagher for Yahoo News)

The fighters also left behind their identities and documents. An Iraqi soldier said that while fighting at the front line, he noticed a woman in a black robe and hijab, a scarf around her head. He caught her eye. I waved for her to run toward me, he said.

He thought she was a civilian trying to escape. But when she moved along the wall in front of her house, he realized she was hiding an M-16 beneath her clothes. She realized she was exposed and fled. The soldier said she got away. He never said why he didnt shoot.

But when he approached the house later, he found her identification. She had a German name on a German ID card. He also found a marriage certificate, issued by ISIS. She was married to a Russian fighter. What they left behind was a marriage that would never be recognized anywhere else. ISIS created its own system, its own contracts, records that are meaningless to a world that would never recognize the Islamic State.

ISIS had its own religious police, too, and punishment officers, who would correct or even arrest civilians who didnt follow their rules and laws. One member of ISIS left his officers vest in the streets.

And when they fled, ISIS fighters left behind their weapons. Iraqi soldiers picked up weapons throughout the fight, some made in ISIS bomb factories, including mortars and rockets, and old Soviet-era rocket-propelled grenades that ISIS modified and improved. If the weapons were functional, Iraqis repurposed them and killed ISIS fighters with their own weapons. Wahlid demonstrated an RPG-7. They have made some updates to it, he said. Theyve mixed the powder, and the wings [they added] will make it fly.

Mortars left by ISIS in a house near the Old City in Mosul, Iraq. (Photo: Ash Gallagher for Yahoo News)

Some ISIS rebels werent killed by Iraqi forces or their own weapons but instead were caught and arrested. They were sent to intelligence battalions to be interrogated. At a small base on the outskirts of Mosuls Old City, Iraqi intelligence officers allowed foreign journalists limited access to several suspects in custody. Bearded, with zip ties around their hands, the captured fighters were ushered back and forth between rooms. Some of the mens eyes looked young, some old, but all seemed worn out and solemn. An intelligence officer pointed to one man and said he knew the man was ISIS because he had confessed.

But of all that ISIS left behind, most of all the armed group left Iraqi citizens grieving, even those who sympathized with the Sunni-linked fighters as a way to resist what they saw as an oppressive Shia-majority government. Even they had turned against ISIS, after three years of living under its governance.

The civilians who fled left behind everything they owned. They left behind loved ones whom they will never get to bury. They left photos of their mothers and fathers, taken in the days before the war and occupation.

Photos left behind in the Old City of Mosul, at a house occupied by ISIS, perhaps dropped in a moment of desperation. (Photos: Ash Gallagher for Yahoo News)

Shoes, scarves, T-shirts and dresses littered the streets. White flags still hung on the doors. Families believed that if they hung white cloth on their doors they might be safe. The Iraqi soldiers assured the people of Mosul that the white flags would signal they were on the government side and against ISIS. The civilians didnt want to be arrested or questioned; they wanted to escape. But as the city grew more dangerous, the white flags were not enough to save them. A new order came down from the Iraqi forces: run.

So they ran. And they left their flags behind, hung from the ruins of their devastated city, once a thriving metropolis in the very cradle of civilization.

Ash Gallagher is a journalist covering the Mideast for Yahoo News.

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Gendarmes hold back protesters near Paris's Gare du Nord station: Pictures by: Lizzie Dearden

Bastille Day protests threatened to boil over into violence at the end of Donald Trumps visit to Paris, as his opponents took to the streets for the second consecutive day.

Mask-wearing demonstrators threw glass bottles and missiles at lines of riot police blocking roads near the French capitals Gare du Nord station, stopping a huge march in its tracks.

Tensions rose as demonstrators attempted to push forward using a lorry and reinforcements arrived armed with tear gas, but the stalemate ended when police abruptly pulled back and let the march continue.

It was a tense end to a previously upbeat protest, encompassing a diverse range of anti-Trump activists as well as socialists, pro-Palestinian groups, migrants rights activists, environmentalists and anti-fascists.

No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA, chanted marchers holding Make The Planet Great Again signs, shortly after Mr Trump and his entourage left Paris following grand Bastille Day celebrations with Emmanuel Macron.

Lisa Gilmore, an American tourist holding an ironic placard calling herself a paid protester, said: We feel he does not represent us, we dont want people to think that he does and were doing everything we can to get him out office.

Her friend, Julia Hartle, called the US President hostile to the planet, while Californian Lori Chapin said his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement was the icing on the cake.

Ive thought he was a buffoon for 25 years and when he became President I was embarrassed for my country and the world, the 63-year-old added.

But the ire of most French marchers was directed mainly at Mr Macron and his policies on workers rights, the economy, conflict and the countrys ongoing state of emergency.

The Front Social accused the French President of parading as a war chief at the Bastille Day military parade with the racist and misogynistic US President as his accomplice.

After the initial relief brought by Marine Le Pens defeat in the French presidential election, there is widespread dissatisfaction with Mr Macron on the French left.

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Florent, an activist with the New Anticapitalist Party who did not want his surname to be published, said he was opposing Mr Macrons planned labour reforms.

He is right wing and I think he is starting to realise that he will be getting a lot of trouble, he added.

Protesters from the Droits Devant migrants' rights group at a Bastille Day march (Lizzie Dearden)

Mr Macron argues the reforms, making it easier to hire and fire employees, will boost growth but opponents argue that they erode fundamental rights.

Gaby Fries, a German woman living in Paris, said Mr Macron was continuing a war on workers rights in France.

Mr Macron is playing a double game  on one day he says something on television and the next, the government is doing the opposite. Its a facade, she added.

When I speak to friends in my circle, they hate Mr Macron.

The French President is riding high on his partys landslide victory in the recent parliamentary elections, but faces an uphill struggle to unite France on key issues including the economy, migration and counter-terror laws.

His invitation to Mr Trump was seen as a savvy move to ingratiate himself with a President dedicated to a protectionist America first trade policy, and strengthen cooperation on environmental issues and the fight against Isis.

Mr Macron wooed his American counterpart with a tour of war monuments to mark the 100th anniversary of the USs intervention in the First World War before settling down to a bilateral meeting on Thursday, followed by a plush dinner at the Eiffel Tower.

American family Benjamin Paloff, Meg Thomas and their children Breina, nine, and Zeke, seven, at the Bastille Day march in Paris (Lizzie Dearden)

Mr Trump was then guest of honour at Fridays grand Bastille Day celebrations in central Paris, sitting next to his host to watch fly-pasts, a huge military procession and performances, including a marching bands rendition of Daft Punks Get Lucky.

The unlikely pair  who have taken numerous swipes at each other in recent months  appeared comfortable and chatted freely throughout the spectacle.

Mr Macron ended the festivities with a speech hailing a friendship across the ages between France and the US.

And that is why I wish to thank them, thank the United States for the choice it made 100 years ago, he added. Nothing will ever separate us.

The leaders put their infamous white-knuckled greeting in Brussels behind them with a 27-second goodbye handshake before Mr Trump, his wife Melania and dignitaries headed to the airport.

Protesters from the Droits Devant migrants' rights group at a Bastille Day march in Paris on 14 July 2017 (Lizzie Dearden)

Mr Macron swiftly departed for Nice, for a memorial to the victims of the Isis terror attack that killed 86 people on Bastille Day last year.

The French President made a speech at the scene where an extremist ploughed a lorry into families, before meeting victims families under tight security, amid fears of further attacks targeting crowds.
Only a few days ago, Malala Yousafzai was finishing her final high school exams. On Tuesday, she landed in Iraq to meet with displaced girls here who have spent years out of school. This is not how most young people spend the summer before college, but Yousafzai has become a champion of education rights for girls since the Taliban tried to kill her in 2012 in Pakistan.

I want to ensure that there are more girls that can speak up and stand with me, because theres nothing special in me[I dont] have some kind of special ability or talent, Yousafzai said in an interview with TIME in the Hassan Shami camp for internally displaced people, just outside the newly liberated city of Mosul. We need to encourage girls that their voice matters. I think there are hundreds and thousands of Malalas out there.

Yousafzai is visiting Iraq as part of her Girl Power Trip, aiming to raise awareness about the importance of girls education, in particular visiting areas affected by poverty and conflict. We were living in the same situation, Yousafzai tells a dozen Iraqi schoolgirls seated at metal desks. We were displaced in the Swat Valley [in Pakistan] for three months because of terrorism and extremism.

Most of these girls lived under ISIS for almost three years and only escaped Mosul as Iraqi forces took their neighborhoods in the spring. Many like, Nayir, the 13-year-old from western Mosul accompanying Yousafzai on her visit, stopped attending school in 2015. The first year ISIS was there I stayed in school, says Nayir, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. But then, the second year, ISIS changed the curriculum.

Teachers in Mosul describe how the militants showed up at schools with new books. The math lessons used bullets instead of apples and Arabic lessons told inspirational stories of young suicide bombers. Parents were in a tough positioneither send their children to school and risk having them indoctrinated by ISIS, or keep the home with no education at all. Like many parents, Nayir choose the later. For almost two years, she sat in the house.

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Before ISIS, I lead a normal life. I went to school. I went out with my sister and my friends, says Niyir. We couldnt do anything under ISIS.

Nayirs family fled Mosul in April, after ISIS killed her father and blew up their home. Now they live in the Hassan Shami camp and Nayir attends class with other Iraqi girls. In some way, the girls attending class in this tent, in the 40-degree heat, are the lucky ones. The United Nations childrens organization, UNICEF, says 3.5 million children are missing out on education in Iraq, putting them at increased risk of child labor, recruitment into armed groups and early marriage, particularly for girls.

Some families prefer their daughters to get married earlier, because theres burden on the family, said Yousafzai. Some displaced families, across the region, marry-off their daughters, simply because they are unable to feed and support them. [We need to] ensure that this message is sent to refugee families [..] that education is important for their daughters.

Yousafzai also says the international community needs to increase financial support for education for displaced children. They would say that these families are going to return [home] anyway, so lets not invest in infrastructure. There are no schools, Yousafzai said, giving the example of Syrian refugee children, many of whom have not been to school since they fled the country more than five years ago. People often forget that this is the way that the refugee children can have a future, that you educate them, otherwise it is a generation lost. If you dont educate these children, then it is very challenging for the country to rebuild.

Countries also need to step up to help those who flee war-torn countries out of fear or desperation, she adds. If you look at how many people are suffering because of wars and conflicts, we have to open our hearts, we have to open our homes, we have to support these people.

Yousafzai, hasnt been able to return to her country, Pakistan, since she was flown to the U.K. for emergency medical treatment after the 2012 attack. Instead shes been finishing high school in the British city of Birmingham. While she tours Iraq, shes waiting for the results of the her A-Level exams  the equivalent of the U.S. SATs  and to find out if shell get into Oxford University. Its been tough for the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate to balance her advocacy work with the normal concerns for a new high school graduate.

It has been challenging, because I was getting my own education. I had to go to school. I had to do my homework. I had exams. I had teachers, she told TIME. And then, I come out of school and then theres another life, where you have lots of things to do.

Yousafzai turned 20 years old on Tuesday. In the almost five years since the attack she has gone from a child victim of the extremism, to one of the worlds best known activists. I wanted to change the world when I was 11. I wanted to be the prime minister of Pakistan and fix everything, she said. And I still believe in change. I still believe that through your contributions, raising your voice, you can bring change in your community.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave a speech Tuesday night to a Christian religious freedom group with anti-gay right stances. The remarks Sessions made, however, are unknown. The Department of Justice (DOJ) will not release what he said and the address was closed to the public.

The DOJ did not respond to International Business Times request for the contents of the speech nor comment about the event.

The speech was given to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) during an event they held called the Summit on Religious Liberty. The meeting took place at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, in Dana Point, California according to ABC News Wednesday.

READ: Jeff Sessions Evades Kamala Harris' Question During Congressional Testimony

The non-profit Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which tracks extremist groups in the U.S., has designated the ADF a hate group because of their stances towards LGBTQ people.

Were concerned that Attorney General Jeff Sessions would make a speech behind closed doors to a group that supports criminalizing homosexuality and marginalizing LGBT people around the world, said David Dinielli, SPLC deputy legal director in a statement. He should immediately make his remarks to the group public and be prepared to defend them. The LGBT community  as well as all Americans  needs to know if he is capable of upholding our countrys fundamental promise of equal protection under the law.

ADF is the most extreme anti-gay legal organization -- so extreme that it does not concede even that gay or transgender people should be permitted to exist as such, said Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights to CNN Thursday. They are a truly destructive force in our country, and it is appalling that the attorney general of the United States would lend them the imprimatur of his office.

The ADF is representing a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The baker claimed making the cake would violate his religious liberty under the Constitution and the high-profile case has risen to the Supreme Court.

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READ: Jeff Sessions Could Be Testifying In Joe Arpaios Immigration Case, Too

The summit promised to bring together prominent legal advocates, scholars, cultural commentators, business executives, and church leaders to examine the current state of religious freedom. And together, we will develop legal and cultural strategies to allow freedom to flourish in the United States and around the world.

ADF, also did not respond to IBTimes request for comment.

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The mother of a murdered 2-year-old was set to be released from jail after serving less than two years for her role in covering up her daughters death. Rachelle Bond, the mother of Baby Doe Bella Bond, was scheduled to be sent to rehab to aid in her recovery from heroin addiction, a judge ordered Wednesday.

Bond, 41, pleaded guilty in February to being an accessory after the fact to her daughters murder. In a deal with the state, Bond agreed to testify against her boyfriend at the time, Michael McCarthy, in exchange for her freedom after the trial.

Read: Who Is Baby Does Mother, Rachelle Bond?

Bond said she witnessed McCarthy, 37, murder Bella because she wouldnt go to sleep. She said they both wrapped Bellas body in trash bags and weighted them down before tossing the baby into the Boston Harbor. Bella was discovered weeks later but could not be identified and was dubbed Baby Doe.

It took three months for authorities to ascertain her identity.

McCarthy was convicted of second-degree murder in June and sentenced to life in prison.

She doesnt want to make a statement  ever, her attorney, Janice Bassil said Wednesday, according to the Boston Herald. She really doesnt have family. She doesnt have friends. People are very hostile towards her. She has nothing. She is scared about her future. And regardless of what people think about her involvement or not, she grieves the loss of that child every day.

Throughout the trial, the defense and prosecution volleyed blame back and forth between Bond and McCarthy. Prosecutors argued McCarthy was obsessed with the occult and killed Bella because he thought she was a demon, while defense attorneys argued that it was Bond who was infatuated by the supernatural. Upon his conviction, McCarthys defense attorney called the decision a travesty of justice and said he would seek an appeal.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet L. Sanders ordered Bond to be released to a drug rehab program, after which she would be released with two years probation. Public opposition to the deal and Bonds release was widespread, but Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley defended the decision.

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Read: Whats Next For Michael McCarthy After Baby Doe Murder Sentencing

There would have been no prosecution of Michael McCarthy without the cooperation agreement that we made with Rachelle Bond to secure her testimony, Conley said Wednesday. You know, justice is elusive. Its a difficult concept. In my view, with this sentence, coupled with what she will bear now for the rest of her life, justice has been served. The true killer has been held accountable.

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Fireworks explode in the sky above the Eiffel Tower Fireworks explode in the sky above the Eiffel Tower, in a picture taken from the Montparnasse Tower Observation Deck, at the end of Bastille Day events in Paris, France, July 14, 2017. (Photo: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters)

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived standing in a military jeep and surrounded by cavalry  repeating a scene from his inauguration two months ago aimed at reinforcing a message that he heads an important military power.

But it came as a fierce row raged between Macron and his armed forces chief, General Pierre de Villiers, over proposed defense budget cuts that are part of his bid to put the French economy in order.

Trump arrived with his wife Melania in a black sedan to be greeted by French first lady Brigitte Macron.

At the parade, the two heads of state sat together in a stand applauding, pointing and touching each other on the arm as military aircraft flew overhead. Trump saluted as U.S. military personnel  some in World War One battledress  opened the march-past with the Arc de Triomphe in the background.

Mr. Trumps presence at my side is a sign of an enduring friendship and I want to thank him, Macron said in a speech afterwards. Nothing can ever separate us I want to thank America for the choice made a hundred years ago

By the end of the 1914-1918 war, more than a million U.S. troops were stationed in France alongside soldiers of French, British and other nationalities fighting Germany.

One marching group evoked another military landmark of Franco-American history, carrying a pennant marked Fregate Lafayette, a frigate of the French navy named after the 18th century French aristocrat general Marquis de Lafayette, who helped in the American Revolutionary War against the British.

For France, this years Bastille Day has an additional poignancy as the first anniversary of one of the deadliest Islamist militant attacks of the past few years.

After the parade, his first as President, Macron will head for the Mediterranean city of Nice, where he will join a commemoration for the 86 people who died when a Tunisian man drove a truck at a crowd on the waterfront a year ago. (Reuters)

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Speaking together at the 2017 graduation ceremony for the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush took what was perhaps a subtle swipe at President Donald Trump when talking about leadership qualities.

Humility, Bush responded Thursday when asked about the most important trait for a president to have, NPR reports. I think its really important to know what you dont know and listen to people who do know what you dont know.

Realize its about the people, not you, Clinton elaborated. A lot of these people who are real arrogant in office, they forget.  You dont want to say, God, look at all those people I beat.'

The two men, who are good friends and like to say that theyre each others brother from a different mother, as Bush quipped Thursday, also joked around during the conversation. When Clinton said the best thing for a politician is to be consistently underestimated, Bush replied, I was pretty good at that.
London (AFP) - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II sought to sweep differences with Spain aside on Wednesday as she hosted a banquet for the country's King Felipe VI, just hours after he called for a deal on the status of Gibraltar.

"With such a remarkable shared history, it is inevitable that there are matters on which we have not always seen eye to eye.

"But the strength of our friendship has bred a resilient spirit of cooperation and goodwill," the Queen said at the Buckingham Palace banquet to mark the Spanish royals' state visit.

While her government grapples with Brexit proceedings, the British monarch stressed that "whatever challenges arise" both her country and Spain will prosper.

Guests were served a three-course menu including Scottish beef with bone marrow and truffles, with a Madeira wine sauce.

The glitzy occasion closed the first day of the visit, which saw Felipe raise the issue of Gibraltar in an address to parliament.

"I am confident that through the necessary dialogue and effort our two governments will be able to work... towards arrangements that are acceptable to all involved," he said.

Referring to the history of diplomatic relations between Britain and Spain, he added: "I am certain that this resolve to overcome our differences will be even greater in the case of Gibraltar."

With a population of just over 32,000, Gibraltar has been a British overseas territory since 1713 but Spain has long laid claim to the rocky outcrop.

Unlike Britain, Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly to stay in the European Union in last year's referendum, and it depends on an open border with Spain for its workforce and trade.

But Spain wants shared sovereignty and the EU has promised Spain a veto over the extension to Gibraltar of any future trade deal between Britain and the bloc, prompting outrage in London.

Gibraltar's chief minister Fabian Picardo said that while the population wanted friendly relations with Spain, their position on sovereignty remains clear.

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"In the times in which we live, territories cannot be traded from one monarch to another like pawns in a chess game," he said in a statement.

"In Gibraltar the people have spoken loud and clear. Our freely expressed democratic wishes must be respected and that means understanding Gibraltar will remain 100 percent British," Picardo added.

- Brexit 'saddens' Spain -

Anticipating the tone adopted later by his host, the king's speech was overwhelmingly conciliatory, speaking about shared history between the two countries as well as joint efforts against terrorism after four attacks in Britain this year.

He said Brexit "saddens" Spain but that it fully respected the result of last year's vote.

Felipe spoke about the hundreds of thousands of Spaniards living in Britain and Britons living in Spain, whose future hangs in the balance.

"These citizens have a legitimate expectation of decent and stable living conditions for themselves and for their families," he said, calling for a Brexit deal that would provide "sufficient assurance".

There are an estimated 300,000 British citizens living in Spain -- the majority are retirees -- and around 116,000 Spaniards living in Britain.

The king also expressed sympathy over the recent terror attacks in Britain.

A Spaniard was among eight people killed in an attack by three Islamist sympathisers wielding knives and wearing fake suicide vests in the London Bridge area last month.

Felipe paid tribute to 39-year-old Ignacio Echeverria, who reportedly struck one of the attackers with his skateboard before being stabbed.

The king said Echeverria behaved in "an exemplary and heroic manner".

The visit by Felipe and his wife Queen Letizia was delayed twice, once while Spanish politicians formed a new government last year and again in June because Britain held a snap general election.

The Spanish royals were greeted earlier on Wednesday by the British monarch -- a distant cousin of Felipe -- at an elaborate ceremony in central London.

Felipe will meet British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday where the subject of Gibraltar could be raised again.

Business will also be on the agenda, with Spanish executives from Ferrovial, a Heathrow airport shareholder, Santander Bank and telecoms firm Telefonica accompanying the royals.
Chinas economic might is catching up to the United States  or is seen to be catching up.

Thats according to a new report from the Pew Research Center, which released results of a 38-nation survey Thursday afternoon. While the majority of those polled still correctly believe the United States is the worlds biggest economy, 12 nations  including Canada, Russia, and most of western Europe  believe China has the largest economy in the world.

Pew detected a dramatic shift; only six nations said Beijing possessed the worlds strongest economy when the question was asked between 2014 and 2016. Since then, the number of countries that view the United States as playing second fiddle to China has doubled. And more striking is the change thats taken place in just the past year: Canada, the U.K., Germany, Spain, and Italy all went from seeing America as the biggest player to viewing China as the top dog.

In Asia, where countries are closer to Chinas brand of geoeconomic bigfooting, the story is quite a bit different. A host of U.S. allies and partners, including Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India all see the United States as the global economic powerhouse. Notably, theres one regional exception: Australia now believes China is the biggest player.

Pew attributes the rise of Chinas standing to the aftermath of the Great Recession. While the United States and other relatively wealthy Western nations have slowly bounced back from the crisis, economic growth rates have been low compared with those of China, India and other emerging economies, the report said.

This change in perception makes some sense, given President Donald Trumps retreat from the global stage. Hes killed the Trans Pacific Partnership, a massive trade deal meant to create an Asian free trade zone. Hes pulled back on a potential trade deal with Europe. And hes renegotiating NAFTA with Mexico and Canada.

But given Chinas deep-seated economic woes  rising labor costs; crushing corporate and government debt; woefully inefficient state firms; rampant pollution; a dearth of arable land and clean water; and a shrinking workforce  many experts are a lot more worried about a Chinese slowdown than about Beijing stealing the global economic crown.

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The poll, taken among nearly 42,000 respondents, also offers an eloquent view of how the world sees great power leaders. Some 53 percent figure Chinese President Xi Jinping will do the wrong thing in international affairs; Russian president Vladimir Putin sours 59 percent of the population. But fully 74 percent of respondents said they had little or no confidence in Trump.

The only world leader to receive positive marks in this category is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with 42 percent expressing confidence in her.

The overall standing of the United States on the world stage is also in decline. From 2014 to 2016, 64 percent of those polled held a favorable view of the United States. Thats down to 49 percent in 2017. The view of China remained relatively flat, dropping from 50 to 47 percent.

Ed Goldberg, a professor at the NYU Center for Global Affairs, said that Trumps rise on the world stage has emboldened China, as reflected in the Pew results. Xi is seen as the grownup in the room, Goldberg told FP.

Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/Getty Images
The District of Columbias Death With Dignity Act was dealt a surprise congressional setback late Thursday night, when the House Appropriations Committee voted not only to defund the implementation of the bill, which had been expected by proponents, but to rescind the new law completely.

The law, passed by the D.C. City Council by an 11-2 vote last fall, would allow terminally ill patients to receive a life-ending prescription from a physician who determines they have less than six months to live.

Congress has oversight authority over all D.C. laws, which means it can vote to nullify an action of the City Council within 30 legislative days after the law in question is signed. A Senate resolution to do so did not make it out of committee early this year, and while a House resolution was passed in committee, it never made it to a floor vote. Hence the D.C. legislation became law on Feb. 18, when the 30-day window closed.

But in what proponents of the measure call an end run, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., who is a physician, proposed an amendment to the current House Appropriations bill that would void the D.C. law completely.

In introducing his amendment, Harris said that Congress has the ability to judge anything the District of Columbia does that is bad policy. This is bad policy. He went on to say that one-quarter of patients who would seek help under the act would do so out of depression, and I went to medical school. The treatment for depression was not death.

Kim Callinan, chief program officer of Compassion & Choices, which supports death with dignity legislation throughout the country, said that Harris interpretation of the bill is wrong. Callinan said Harris called the bill a physician-assisted suicide act and spoke about doctors directly injecting patients with lethal drugs, when in fact the bill requires that patients be able to ingest any medication on their own. The physician doesnt act, the patient does. [Harris] doesnt realize how this works, she said.

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In response to Harris assertion that patients seeking death would be depressed, Callinan cited the requirement that patients undergo a psychological screening. She said a similar provision has worked well in Oregon, where medical aid in dying has been allowed since 1997.

She added that the bill does not facilitate suicide, which she defines as a person ending their life when they otherwise would not have died. Medical Aid in Dying, she said, is when disease makes the end of life inevitable and a patient chooses to make that end less painful.

Mary Klein, a D.C. resident who has terminal ovarian cancer, agrees. Death with dignity is not suicide, she said after the amendment was passed. Its the cancer that is slowly killing me. Suicide is when a person who is not terminally ill takes his or her own life.

Klein has been following the fate of the D.C. bill closely, as she sees it as tied to her own. In a profile by Yahoo News last month she described her decision to eventually make use of the D.C. Act. This was horrible news, she said of the Appropriations Committees 28-24 vote, which was essentially along party lines. The committee voted to impose their will and beliefs on me and take away the most personal choices  how to die.

Callinan takes issue with the timing of the amendment. It was an abuse of power, she says. The opportunity for them to repeal that law was in February when they were going through the 30-day review. That failed. And to do it now is to misuse the appropriations process to do what opponents of medical aid in dying could not openly do before. This end run is shameful, its wrong and now D.C. residents who are dying are being deprived of the peace of mind that this law brings.

The measure still faces a vote in the full House and must also be passed by the Senate. Callinan says proponents will be appealing to the 77 members of Congress and 12 senators from states where similar legislation is in effect, because this would send a federal message that those state laws are also in jeopardy from Congress.

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Maurice (Karin Konoval), Luca (Michael Adamthwaite), Rocket (Terry Notary), and Caesar (Andy Serkis) on the warpath (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

Warning: This story contains potential spoilers for War for the Planet of the Apes.

Lets start by stating the obvious: War for the Planet of the Apes is not a direct prequel to the 1968 sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes starring Charlton Heston. Instead, the new Apes, which arrives in theaters this weekend is, in the words of director Matt Reeves, an answer to the series of simian sci-fi films of the 1960s and 70s.

The interesting thing for me about these movies is that the originals exist, and they exist as a kind of trajectory, Reeves tells Yahoo Movies. But Rise [2011s franchise reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes]changed the timeline. In the 68 movie, theres a nuclear holocaust, thats why we see the big reveal of the Statue of Liberty at the end. But the apes have evolved naturally over the course of thousands of years. Thats all been changed. So these movies will never meet up exactly. But they are in a dialogue with the originals.

Taylor (Charlton Heston) and Nova (Linda Harrison) meet the twist ending (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

And that means there are intentional linkages between War  which caps a trilogy of Apes films starring Andy Serkis as chimpanzee chieftan Caesar (following Rise and 2014s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). Here are seven of the notable callbacks and connections, along with a little directors commentary tossed in.

Caesar and Cornelius: Andy Serkis chimp in the new trilogy is the namesake of the character played by Roddy McDowell in 1972s Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and 1973s Battle for the Planet of the Apes. The Caesar of those movies also leads an ape uprising, but in the circular logic of those earlier films, he was the son of Cornelius, the benevolent chimpanzee who aids Hestons character Taylor in the 1968 original and later time-travels from the ape future to the Earth of the 1970s (and also played by McDowell). In the updated Apes trilogy, Cornelius is the infant son of Caesar.

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Caesar (Andy Serkis) and Cornelius in War (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

Nova: Taylors mute love interest (Linda Harrison) in the 1968 film and its 1970 sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, was part of a tribe of nonverbal, primate humans in conflict with the simian society.

Linda Harrison as Nova in the original 1968 Apes (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

In War, we meet a young girl (Amiah Miller) who cannot speak. She is named by the apes for a car part she fancies, which comes from a certain kind of Chevy. Nova was meant to be literally the same character, explains Reeves. Shes an answer as to how there was a character like Nova [in the original film].

Nova earns her name (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

(Planet of the Apes fans know how important the character names have been in the rebooted series. While Caesar, Cornelius, and Nova are intended to correlate to specific characters in the original saga, many other monikers in the films have served as tributes to the creative team behind the 68 classic, beginning with Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Caesars mother was named Bright Eyes, which is what the kindly chimp Zira nicknamed Charlton Hestons Taylor in the 1968 original; Maurice the orangutan was named after Maurice Evans, who played lead antagonist Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes; Tom Feltons cruel caretaker Dodge Landon took his first and last names from Taylors astronaut buddies; Buck the gorilla alluded to actor Buck Kartalian, who played the ape Julius; David Oyelowos evil Steven Jacobs was a reference to Planet of the Apes producer Arthur P. Jacobs; and Tyler Labines Robert Franklin was a nod to original Apes director Franklin Schaffner.)

The Virus: Theres an explanation for Novas inability to speak  she has been afflicted with a mutated strand of the simian virus (which increased the intelligence of apes and wiped out large swaths of the human population) that renders its victims into speechless savages. Which provides a retconned explanation for Novas tribe in the original movie. The apes and humans have a very different relationship in the 68 film, and the humans are mute. Why are they mute? We thought, Oh, we can explore this sort of story and give her that name so she becomes an answer to that question, says Reeves.

The young Nova (Amiah Miller) (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

The Planet of the Apes: Woody Harrelsons warmongering character, known only as The Colonel, deliberately borrows from Marlon Brandos iconic Col. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (the film has many allusions to Francis Ford Coppolas classic Vietnam film, including graffiti that reads Ape-ocalyse Now), but he also understands the stakes. He rallies his troops and offers a monologue that explains his take-no-prisoners attitude  and predicts the simian-centric future. This is our last stand, the Colonel says. If we lose, it will be a planet of apes. The moment flips the script from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, where it is Caesar who advocates for violence.

The Colonel (Woody Harrelson) faces off with Caesar (Andy Serkis) (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

Alpha and Omega: We are the beginning and the end. Thats the cry of the Colonels troops as they prepare for battle. Its also a nod to Beneath the Planet of the Apes, where Taylor recognizes the doomsday bomb by the Greek letters Alpha and Omega inscribed on its fin  i.e., the beginning and the end.

The Alpha-Omega bomb (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

The Forbidden Zone: In the 1968 film, the Forbidden Zone is the wasteland where Taylor and his fellow astronauts crash land. In War, we get a glimpse of the familiar-looking desert, which the apes must pass through to find their idyllic settlement. Says Reeves, Somehow Caesars world becomes like the world of that 68 film.

Beyond the desert, the apes find a peaceful land to settle (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

The Beach: At the climax of the 1968 film, Heston rides along the shore of the Forbidden Zone where he discovers the remains of Lady Liberty  a scene that is echoed in War when Caesar and his cohorts traverse a beach on horseback.

Caesar rides across a beach in an echo of the original Apes (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

Once you know the Statue of Liberty thing, thats it. Its Earth, we got it. Youre not going to fool anybody, says Reeves of his War. So whats nice about that is it means the stories are no longer about what happens, but how they happen. When you do a story about the how rather than the what, it becomes psychological and you can explore the nature of all of the characters.

Theres an interesting dialogue between the films without it literally being the same universe.

Watch: How War for the Planet of the Apes Evolved From Planet of the Mo-Cap Actors:

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DVOREC, Czech Republic (Reuters) - A zoo in the Czech Republic is celebrating the birth of quintuplet white lions, a rare breed on the verge of extinction in the wild. The animals, four females and a male, were born on May 4 and are now 10 weeks old and healthy. Lions normally have two to three offspring in a litter, and quintuplets are extremely rare. Zoo officials said that it had been challenging to get the kittens away from their mother in order to ensure that they were maintaining a healthy weight. "Everyone can surely understand that to support all the five babies (young) is a hard task for the mother," zoo owner and keeper Viktor Ambroz told Reuters. White lions are a genetic mutation unique to the Timbavati and Kruger National Park areas of southern Africa and became technically extinct for at least 12 years until being reintroduced to the wild in 2004. There are believed to be fewer than 13 white lions left in the wild and only up to 300 in captivity, according to the Global White Lion Protection trust. (Reporting by Reuters TV; writing by Mark Hanrahan in London; editing by Mark Heinrich)
By Ronnie Cohen (Reuters Health) - African-American and white women who regularly chemically straightened their hair or dyed it dark brown or black had an elevated risk of breast cancer, recent research suggests. I would be concerned about darker hair dye and hair straighteners, epidemiologist Tamarra James-Todd said after reviewing the report in Carcinogenesis. We should really think about using things in moderation and really try to think about being more natural. Just because something is on the market does not necessarily mean its safe for us, she said in a phone interview. James-Todd, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, was not involved with the new research. The study of 4,285 African-American and white women was the first to find a significant increase in breast cancer risk among black women who used dark shades of hair dye and white women who used chemical relaxers. Black women who reported using dark hair dye had a 51 percent increased risk of breast cancer compared to black women who did not, while white women who reported using chemical relaxers had a 74 percent increased risk of breast cancer, the study found. The risk of breast cancer was even higher for white women who regularly dyed their hair dark shades and also used chemical relaxers, and it more than doubled for white dual users compared to white women who used neither dark dye nor chemical straighteners. The association between relaxers and breast cancer in white women surprised lead author Adana Llanos, an epidemiologist at the Rutgers School of Public Health in Piscataway, New Jersey, although she worried enough about the safety of hair relaxers in African-American women like herself to stop using them years ago. A lot of people have asked me if Im telling women not to dye their hair or not to use relaxers, she said in a phone interview. Im not saying that. What I think is really important is we need to be more aware of the types of exposures in the products we use. The study included adult women from New York and New Jersey, surveyed from 2002 through 2008, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, plus women of similar age and race but without a history of cancer. Women were asked if they had ever used permanent hair dye at least twice a year for at least a year. They were also asked if they had ever chemically relaxed or straightened their hair for at least a year. While the vast majority - 88 percent - of blacks had used chemicals to relax their hair, only 5 percent of whites reported using relaxers. For dark hair dye, the numbers flipped, though the differences were not as dramatic. While 58 percent of whites said they regularly dyed their hair dark shades, only 30 percent of blacks did. The most striking results showed increased risk in the minority of black women who used dark hair dye and white women who used chemical relaxers. Black women who used chemical straighteners and white women who used dark hair dyes were also at higher risk for breast cancer, but that might have been due to chance. James-Todd said that because so many of the black women used chemical relaxers and so many of the white women used dark hair dye, links would have been hard to detect. Theres no reason to believe that chemical relaxers and hair dyes would increase the risk for women of one race and not of another, she said. She believes the association stems not from genetics but from cultural norms. It could also boil down to products, and women from different cultures might use different straighteners and dyes. But the study did not ask women to specify the products they used. The study included the largest population of African-American women thus far examined for breast cancer risk and dark hair dye, according to the research team. Previous studies have shown that long-term users of dark dyes have a four-fold increased risk of fatal non-Hodgkins lymphoma and fatal multiple myeloma, the authors write. Prior research also has associated dark hair dye use with an increased risk of bladder cancer. A 2016 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that breast cancer rates are generally similar for black and white women, at around 122 new cases for every 100,000 women per year, although black women with the disease are more likely to die from it. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2ujsWXd Carcinogenesis, online June 9, 2017.
Senior Pastor Jim Garlow stands inside Skyline Wesleyan Church, which seats 2,000 people, in La Mesa, Calif. (Photos above and below: Ariana Drehsler for Yahoo News)

As Washington struggles to come up with a new health care insurance system, Jim Garlow believes he has a solution, but he worries about sharing it publicly  simply because he is a pastor.

Garlow, lead pastor of Skyline Church in La Mesa, Calif., blames a provision in the federal tax code known as the Johnson Amendment for what he calls the self-censorship of pastors across the nation. It forbids 501(c)(3) nonprofits, a category that includes most of the nations churches and other charitable organizations, from getting directly involved in elections. (It is not a criminal statute; violators face only the loss of the organizations tax-exempt status.) Many hail it as a protector of Thomas Jeffersons famous wall of separation between church and state, but to Garlow and other outspoken pastors around the nation, it is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.

Morally and theologically, I dont believe the government has any role in dictating what a church or faith community says or does not say in the pulpit at all, Garlow said. It a matter of conscience, based on that particular pastor and that congregation.

The amendment only explicitly prohibits outright endorsements or opposition of candidates running for office, but Garlow, along with thousands of other pastors and advocacy groups, fears that speaking out on hot-button political issues, such as health care or immigration, could also violate the amendment, causing their organizations to lose their tax-exempt status.

As a result, Garlow calls the IRS the pulpit police.

The picture that suggests  of federal agents surreptitiously monitoring sermons  conflicts with reality. The amendment has been enforced only once in the six decades it has been on the books, against a church that took out a full-page newspaper ad against Bill Clinton.

Yet Garlow still sees reason for concern. Now where the ambiguity sets in is even the IRS has been a bit challenged by explaining what the Johnson Amendment is, he said. For example, if one candidate is pro-abortion and the other candidate is pro-life and you say, Christians should vote pro-life, and you dont even mention the names of the candidates, is that not in fact a de facto endorsement? I would contend it probably is.

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That consideration has not, obviously, prevented churches from taking stands on abortion or other contentious political questions. Garlows concerns seem mostly theoretical. But as long as the amendment remains in effect, future administrations could interpret it more strictly.

Aside from the hypothetical practical consequences, Garlow sees advocating against the Johnson Amendment as a moral responsibility. To him, preventing religious leaders from joining the national discourse on political issues is not only a violation of the First Amendment, but it also robs the nation of unconventional viewpoints that could make useful contributions to solving the countrys problems.

If that were to occur, wed have an enormous reduction in human suffering and an enormous reduction in poverty, Garlow said. Every inner city thats hurting is there because of public policies based on faulty principles. Those principles could be turned.

The pulpits of America can save America from disaster, Garlow said. We have a colossal economic failure of a health care plan that was doomed at failure from its outset, and were going to have the same again unless we can realize that health care is an individual responsibility; No. 2, its a family responsibility; and No. 3, the Scripture says care for one another.

He believes, based on his own religious convictions, that health care sharing programs such as MedShare and Liberty Healthcare Share, where members make monthly contributions to cover each others medical care costs, would be less expensive and more stable than government-subsidized markets. He also believes that it is his right to urge his congregation to vote for candidates who would fight for similar programs in Congress.



Garlow says his goal is not to use his 2,000-member church as a political machine to sway elections. He believes that advising his congregation on the issues of the day is a vital part of his role in his church, which is to counsel parishioners on how best to live their lives within their religious beliefs.

A bill to overturn the amendment, the Free Speech Fairness Act, has been introduced in Congress. It would lift the restrictions on political speech by pastors, but would not permit churches to use tax-exempt funds for political activities such as purchasing advertising. But some experts on civil liberties are concerned about tampering with the status quo.

Not having the Johnson Amendment would  push religion to become more politicized and vulnerable to co-opting by partisan forces than it already is, said Mark Chaves, Duke University professor of sociology, religious studies, and divinity.

Chaves believes that the amendments ambiguities leave room for pastors to provide the moral guidance that their congregations rely on.

Congregations already have ways to make it clear which candidates they support or not through slanted voter guides and whatnot, Chaves said. [Repealing the Johnson Amendment] would risk further politicizing religion in America, and I think thats why I personally think it would be a very bad idea to encourage this further. Its already politicized, and I think it would be a bad idea to push it further in that direction.

Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson in 1954, left. President Trump signs an executive order aimed at easing an IRS rule limiting political activity for religious organizations. (Photos: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images, Evan Vucci/AP)

Others, like Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, are less worried about what the expanded political freedoms would mean for churches and the 37 percent of Americans who fill their pews weekly, but on the impact such legislation could have on the USAs famous wall of separation between the church and state.

The rule, however, was not written with the First Amendment in mind. Most scholars believe the measure, introduced by future President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1954 while he was a senator from Texas, was designed to silence Facts Forum and the Committee for Constitutional Government, two vocal nonprofits financing an opponent in his Senate reelection bid.

Johnsons chief aide at the time, George Reedy, later stated that the amendment wasnt aimed at churches, and Johnson never intended that outcome. Religious organizations were affected because they share the same tax-exempt status as the organizations Johnson disliked.

For this reason, the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative advocacy group, has been fighting to challenge the amendments constitutionality in court for nearly a decade. Every year, thousands of pastors preach explicitly political sermons and send recordings of them to the IRS hoping to provoke an audit they could challenge in court. So far, the IRS has not taken the bait.

What we have always said is, its the job of the pastor to decide whats said in the pulpit, not the IRS, said ADFs senior counsel, Erik Stanley. We have never placed any content controls on whats said from the pulpit. All we are advocating for is the right of the pastor to determine what is said in the pulpit and what guidance he should give his congregation.

Regardless of the IRS posture of enforcement, the government has to be clear that a pastor can speak freely from the pulpit, and thats way the statute itself needs to go, Stanley said.

Despite their lack of success, Stanley remains hopeful. President Trump said in February that he will totally destroy the Johnson Amendment.

Among those freedoms is the right to worship according to our own beliefs, Trump said at the National Prayer Breakfast. That is why I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution.

Trump signed a religious freedom executive order in May that did little to solve the problem, according to Stanley and Garlow. The Free Speech Fairness Act will likely not even come up for a vote this year, according to Stanley. Some lawmakers, however, are attempting to work around it, adding language to a federal spending bill that would require a Johnson Amendment investigation to be greenlighted by the IRS commissioner, who would then be required to consult Congress.

But for now, the amendment remains law. That, however, hasnt stopped some pastors from discussing politics from the pulpit as they see fit.

Senior Pastor Ron Johnson Jr. at Living Stones Church in Crown Point, Ind. (Photos above and below: Alyssa Schukar for Yahoo News).

I think the church has always had a responsibility to speak to those in power and to articulate Gods view on these important issues, said Ron Johnson, pastor of Living Stones Church in Crown Point, Ind. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and we believe again that we have a moral responsibility to help shape public policy and that the church should not be muzzled, should not be silenced.

Johnson says he pretty much ignores the amendment himself. He made headlines in 2008 when he was quoted in the Washington Post saying that Christians who planned to vote for President Obama displayed severe moral schizophrenia.

He regards this as an example of the churchs participation in public discourse, but not a specifically political statement: I think some people think that if the Johnson Amendment is somehow removed, our churches will become political action committees, Johnson said. No, that is not going to happen. You know, we dont have any desire to somehow turn the church into a political institution, as some on the other side of the issue may be accusing. What I see happening is acknowledging the freedom that churches had from the very beginning of this country to talk about important public issues and to have our say, and to have our voice and to be able to be a part of public discussion and discourse.

Not all Christians are eager for their pastors to raise their voices on government issues, however. In a 2016 poll, Pew Research Center found that 47 percent of Americans dont think churches should publicly express their views on political and social issues. Chaves, who runs a national survey of church congregations, also estimates that pastors such as Johnson and Garlow are in the minority.

To Garlow, neither the opinions of his critics or skeptical Christians matter. He firmly believes that the United States will be better off allowing more voices into the political arena.

Johnson agrees.

The church should not be told [that politics are] none of our business, Johnson said. It is our business.

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Ethics experts describe omission of meeting with Donald Trump Jr and Russia lawyer as consciousness of guilt and say it warrants re-evaluation of clearance

Jared Kushners White House security clearance should be re-evaluated after the revelation that he attended a now notorious meeting with Donald Trump Jr and a Russian lawyer, according to a former White House ethics tsar.

Democratic senators were still more forceful on Wednesday, one saying of Donald Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser: I dont know why he still has a job.

Kushner is facing growing pressure over his presence at the June 2016 meeting, which email correspondence published by Trump Jr said was intended as part of a Russian government effort to damage Hillary Clintons election campaign.

Kushner was required to disclose all meetings with foreign government officials over the past seven years when he applied for security clearance for his White House role. He initially failed to mention the Trump Jr meeting, then included it on a supplemental form.

Norm Eisen, the former ethics tsar in Barack Obamas administration, told the Guardian on Wednesday: Given the nature of the meeting, it stretches credibility to say he simply forgot it when he initially filled out his forms. That puts him on the hook for false statements liability, possibly. At any rate, it increases his exposure.

The pattern of omission by Mr Kushner and others in Donald Trumps circle of their Russia connections increasingly points to a consciousness of guilt.

Crucial to the question of whether Kushner is charged with making false statements is intent. His lawyer has claimed the omissions were an honest mistake.

Eisen, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said: I think, certainly, the security clearance should be re-evaluated. One must balance the principle of innocent until proven guilty with the less prudential standards that go into giving a security clearance.

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The pattern of omission by Kushner and others in Donald Trumps circle increasingly points to a consciousness of guilt. Norm Eisen

Once a security clearance is granted its much harder to take away, and if this pattern of omission had been known when the security clearance was being considered, I doubt it would have been conferred.

Trump Jr released a series of emails on Tuesday that revealed he had eagerly agreed to meet a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer offering damaging information about Clinton. Trump Jr and the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, claim they ended up talking primarily about sanctions banning the adoption of Russian children by American citizens.

The president defended his eldest son on Wednesday, using Twitter to praise his performance in a Fox News interview. In the interview with Sean Hannity, Trump Jr admitted that, with hindsight, he would have done things differently.

My son Donald did a good job last night, the president wrote. He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest witch hunt in political history. Sad!



Christopher Wray, Trumps nominee to lead the FBI, told a Senate confirmation hearing he did not consider special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference to be a witch-hunt.

Kushner kept his usual low profile but faced growing calls to step down after months in which he said nothing while Trump and his associates repeatedly and misleadingly denied contacts with Russians. Whereas Trump Jr is a private citizen and businessman, Kushner is potentially more vulnerable because he is a member of the administration with security clearance.

On Capitol Hill, Democratic senators were happy to talk about Kushner. Connecticuts Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, said: I dont know why Jared Kushner still has a job. He allowed the president of the United States, the vice-president, every spokesperson in the White House to openly lie about his contacts with the Russian government.

You dont think the Republicans would be calling for the resignation of an Obama official who allowed the president and the vice-president to openly lie about a major national security issue? He watched his father-in-law go on TV and say, No one in my campaign talked to the Russian government.

He knew that was false. Either he didnt alert the president or the vice-president, or theres a much bigger problem, and the president and the vice-president knew that they were lying.

New Mexicos Martin Heinrich, a member of the Senate intelligence committee, said Kushner should not maintain his security clearance until investigators get to the bottom of what transpired between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

Theres this collective amnesia situation going on over there, where everybody suddenly forgot all of these meetings with Russian interests, Heinrich said. Its just not credible.

Heinrich would not say if Kushner should resign, but was terse when asked about his role as one of the presidents top advisers. Then he should act like a senior adviser, Heinrich said.

Asked if Kushner should lose his White House position, Democrat Brian Schatz of Hawaii told the Guardian: Thats the decision that the president gets to make but let me put it this way, if he were not related by marriage to the president, I think hed be already gone.

A security clearance entitles Jared Kushner to  the keys to the kingdom in terms of our nation's crown jewels Senator Richard Blumenthal

Some Republicans voiced concern. Senator Lindsey Graham, a frequent critic of Trump, said he was still waiting for answers from the White House and the FBI on the status of Kushners security clearance.

Last month, Graham joined Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee and the panels Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley, in signing a letter to Marcia Lee Kelly, deputy assistant to the president and director of White House management and office of administration, and acting FBI director Andrew McCabe.

The letter was sent following reports of previous contacts with Russians that Kushner had failed to disclose on an FBI questionnaire, such as meetings with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak and Sergey Gorkov, the CEO of Vnesheconombank, a Russian state-owned bank sanctioned by the US.

Asked if Kushners clearance should be revoked, Graham said: I dont know. I have no idea about that.

Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat on the judiciary committee, pointed to his own letter to Kelly last month, seeking an immediate review of Kushners security clearance. In the letter, Blumenthal and two Democratic colleagues raised concerns over reports that Kushner sought to establish a back channel to the Russian government during the presidential transition period.

A review of Kushners clearance, Blumenthal said on Wednesday, was now no longer a matter of choice.

He continued: They absolutely must review his security clearance. Hes indicated numerous meetings with the Russians, concealment of them, and the White House has offered contradictory statements about them.

A security clearance entitles Jared Kushner to full access to the most secret and potentially significant information about our national defense and security, the identity of our agents who may be operating in countries like Russia. Its the keys to the kingdom in terms of our nations crown jewels.

Trump Jr has claimed that he told Kushner and Manafort nothing of the substance of the June 2016 meeting when inviting them, but the email chain shows they were sent the full correspondence under the subject heading Russia  Clinton  private and confidential.

If it is not revoked, the reason can only be his father-in-law is President Trump. That's no reason at all in a republic Professor Laurence Tribe

Trump Jr told Fox News Kushner left the meeting after five or 10 minutes when he realised it offered nothing pertinent. Veselnitskaya told NBC News that Kushner left the meeting after seven to 10 minutes.

Like Trump Jr, Kushner could be accused of violating campaign finance laws by soliciting a thing of value from a foreign government or a foreign national. Samuel Issacharoff, Reiss professor of constitutional law at New York Universitys school of law, said: Whether the facts are sufficient to bring it under that statute is a little grey, but I think the better of the argument is that they seem to be there.

Issacharoff added: I suspect that as [former FBI director] Mueller goes through his investigation this will be tied ultimately to other matters, but standing alone theres clearly an intent to bring a foreign government into American electoral activity.

Kushners legal status is complicated. Obviously the more times he changes his declaration as facts emerge about things he knew or should have reported, the more difficult it is to maintain that these are innocent omissions, Issacharoff said.



Laurence Tribe, a professor at Harvard law school, wrote in an email: Jared Kushners failure to disclose that memorable (and probably unlawful) June 2016 meeting with a Russian attorney is itself a serious and independent crime under 18 USC section 1001 punishable by five years in prison, and it would no doubt justify revocation of his security clearance.

If it is not revoked, the reason can only be that his father-in-law is President Trump. But that is no reason at all in a republic rather than a hereditary monarchy and under a constitution that bars titles of nobility. So Id say his security clearance certainly ought to be revoked.

CNN reported that the emails from Trump Jr about the June 2016 meeting were discovered as Kushner and his legal team carried out a document review for his testimony before Congress. As soon as the messages came to light, a source said, Kushners disclosure form was amended to include the meeting.



Kushners lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, issued a statement on Saturday that saidKushner had over 100 calls or meetings with representatives of more than 20 countries, most of which were during transition. Mr Kushner has submitted additional updates and included, out of an abundance of caution, this meeting with a Russian person, which he briefly attended at the request of his brother-in-law, Donald Trump Jr.

As Mr Kushner has consistently stated, he is eager to cooperate and share what he knows.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy White House press secretary, insisted Kushner did nothing wrong. I think Democrats are trying to play political games, and I think its ridiculous, she told reporters.

Huckabee Sanders claimed the White House was being as transparent as humanly possible. Asked if the drip drip drip is undermining the White House credibility, she shot back: I think its actually undermining the credibility of the media.
People rally in favor of single-payer health care for all Californians outside the office of California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, June 27, 2017, in South Gate, Calif., as the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on its health care bill. (Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES  Soon enough, the Republican Partys seven-year crusade to slay the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) will come to an end. On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled yet another revision of the GOPs fraught repeal-and-replace legislation, and the controversial bill will either find the 50 Republican votes it needs to pass the upper chamber of Congress in the next few days  or it will perish once and for all.

Thats the challenge facing Republicans right now. The challenge facing Democrats is how to respond.

Going beyond attacking Republicans over a plan that would take insurance away from tens of millions of Americans  and galvanized by a progressive resistance that has yanked the party to the left since Donald Trump was elected president  an increasing number of Democratic elected officials are coalescing around a new health care message in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections: Its time for single-payer insurance.

The shift has been dramatic. A majority of voters (53 percent) now back the idea of all Americans receiving coverage through a single government plan, up from 40 percent in 1998-2000, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll. In the House, Rep. John Conyers Jr.s Medicare for All bill has already attracted 113 co-sponsors  nearly twice as many as in the last congressional session, and more than half of the entire Democratic caucus. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is urging Democrats to run on single-payer in 2018 and 2020, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose insurgent bid for the partys presidential nomination thrust the issue into the national spotlight, is set to introduce his own single-payer plan after the Obamacare debate concludes.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the Senate chamber after announcing the revised version of the Republican health care bill. The bill has been in jeopardy because of opposition within the GOP ranks. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Where we should be going is to join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people as a right, Sanders said in March.

But could campaigning under the banner of government-run health insurance really propel Democrats back to power in Washington, D.C.? And if so, could they really transform America into a single-payer country like Canada?

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For a preview of the road ahead  and the potential pitfalls  theres no better place to look than California.

The Golden State has been on the front lines of the single-payer fight for decades now. In Sacramento, Democrats have introduced at least seven single-payer bills since 1992. Two of them passed the legislature  one in 2006 and one in 2008. Both were vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican. Socialized medicine is not the solution to our states health care problems, Schwarzenegger said at the time, invoking his predecessor Ronald Reagan.

This time, however, was supposed to be different. In 2011, Democrat Jerry Brown, who argued for a single-payer system during his 1992 presidential campaign, succeeded Schwarzenegger as governor. Five years later, Democrats won supermajorities in both houses of the California legislature. And earlier this year, two state senators introduced another bill (SB 562) designed to wipe out Californias private insurance market and create a single-payer system.

The old barriers had finally broken down. The stars were aligned. And yet, after SB 562 passed the more progressive state Senate, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (who insists he supports single-payer) abruptly intervened in late June and shelved the bill for the remainder of the 2017 session.

California Gov. Jerry Brown speaks during an event on health care at the U.S. Capitol March 22, 2017. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

SB 562 was sent to the Assembly woefully incomplete, Rendon snapped. Even senators who voted for SB 562 noted there are potentially fatal flaws in the bill, including the fact it does not address many serious issues, such as financing, delivery of care, cost controls, or the realities of needed action by the Trump Administration and voters to make SB 562 a genuine piece of legislation.

Gov. Brown, meanwhile, piled on.

Where do you get the extra money? Brown told reporters. You take a problem and say Im going to solve it by something thats even a bigger problem, which makes no sense.

Progressive activists were furious. Rendon and his family received death threats. Outside the speakers Capitol office, one protester pretended to stab a bear in the back with a fake knife; the blade had Rendon written on it. With public opinion turning, Republicans floundering in Washington, and Democrats firmly in control of both the governors mansion and the legislature, activists wondered why squander a perfect opportunity to make the lefts single-payer dream a reality? Why chicken out now?

Its an important question  and a revealing one for progressives who hope that single-payer will finally go national in the wake of the GOPs war against Obamacare.

Among single-payer proponents here in California, two competing explanations for SB 562s implosion have emerged. If you agree with Rendons decision, youre likely to believe that the bill itself, and the activists behind it, are to blame. And if you disagree with Rendons decision, you probably think cash is the real culprit.

Both rationales should trouble Democrats who want their party to run on  and eventually implement  a nationwide single-payer system.

Yolanda Sanchez, left, and her daughter, Michele Sanches-Nelson, a registered nurse, wait in line with other members of the California Nurses Association and supporters to enter the Capitol to call for a single-payer health plan, Wednesday, June 28, 2017, in Sacramento, Calif. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

The blame the bill explanation is complicated, having to do in part with the peculiarities of Californias legislative process, which is constrained in complex ways by ballot initiatives such as one requiring that a set percentage of the budget be devoted to education. But the basic gist is that SB 562 was a mere shell of a bill that failed to address many of the major challenges facing such a massive insurance overhaul  see Rendon, above  and that this was a strategic misstep by its major union backer, the California Nurses Association.

Last decades single payer bill  included measures for cost control, patient advocacy, regional planning, quality of care, global budgeting, delivery system improvements, build-out of service networks, incentive payments to recruit health personnel, transition costs, statewide databasing, dispute resolution, fraud prevention, a formulary for prescription drugs, and a lot more, writes the Intercepts David Dayen. It was a serious bill that set real guidelines.  It thought of almost everything. SB 562 kicks nearly all of these questions down the road.

Related slideshow: Protesters across the country oppose GOPs health care plan >>>

As a result, Democrats disinclined to shoulder the political risks of transforming Californias entire health insurance system  such as the states most powerful Democrat, Gov. Brown  could easily dismiss SB 562 as an unfunded, underbaked pipe dream (even though studies have suggested it would be financially viable.)

The blame the money explanation is a lot easier to understand. As Lydia ONeal and David Sirota report in International Business Times, Health insurers and pharmaceutical companies [have] substantially boosted their donations to California Democratic candidates in gubernatorial election years, giving more than $16 million to Democratic candidates and the California Democratic Party in the 2014 election cycle  almost double what donors from those industries gave in the 2006 election  and collectively donating more than $3 million to Brown and Rendon since 2010. In short, opponents of Rendons decision are claiming that corporations have bought him (and other like-minded Democrats) off.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., at a press conference discussing Republican attempts to dismantle Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act on Capitol Hill Jan. 4, 2017, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Zach Gibson/AFP/Getty Images)

So why should both of these competing explanations unsettle national single-payer proponents?

Because both of them vividly illustrate how much intraparty resistance single-payer would generate even if Democrats were to win back Congress in 2018 and the presidency in 2020 (which is a big if). National Democrats  especially those from swing districts  are even more risk-averse than their counterparts in deep-blue California, and many of them would be similarly inclined to avoid voting on a measure that opponents could caricature as a budget-busting foray into socialized medicine. National Democrats also receive a lot of money from the health industry  $69 million in 2016 alone. If Democrats cant pass single-payer in Sacramento, theres little chance they could pass it in Washington, D.C.

Not that this will prevent more and more Dems from running on single-payer in the coming elections. After all, thats what Democrats have been doing in California for decades now. In fact, if the party does win back Congress in 2018, legislators may even send a single-payer bill to Donald Trumps desk, just as California Democrats did with Schwarzenegger. What the states latest single-payer skirmish shows, however, is that the calculus changes when its a Democrat who would have to sign such a bill into law. Single-payer proponents might dream of whats possible under a unified Democratic government. But so far, at least, California has provided a disappointing answer: not much.

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President Donald Trump and newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron held a joint press conference Tuesday during which they expressed diplomatic sentiment for the two countries working together.

At the end of their remarks, the world leaders shook hands. It was mostly amiable and certainly far less strained than public interactions between the two in the past. Trump did, however, pause during his remarks at one point to touch Marcon's arm, a gesture to which the French president did not appear to respond.

The two leaders are an unlikely pair.

Trump in the past has expressed admiration for Macrons far-right opponent Marine Le Pen. The American president also snubbed France and the world when he pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord. Macron retaliated with an invitation to American scientists continue their climate research in France.

Make our planet great again, said Macron in a video.

READ: Macron Assassination Plot Foiled, As French President Calls For End Of State Of Emergency

There was also the awkward handshake during their first meeting in May. Macron geared up for Trumps notoriously aggressive handshakes, and when they met Thursday, Macron grabbed Trumps hand tightly and didnt let go  an apparent power play. Macron said the handshake wasnt innocent.

Trump has alienated the U.S. from several key relationships in Europe, notably Germany, but Macron decided to offer Trump an invitation to Paris. Trump, took him up on it, surprising some.

Trump is in Europe for the second time in a week. He had traveled to Poland and then Germany for the G20 summit. The trip comes in the middle of a new breaking scandal in the ongoing controversy of Trumps connections to Russia.

His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., released emails this week in which he enthusiastically agreed to take dirt on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, despite the information seemingly coming from the Russian government's effort to help his father. Trump Jr. then took a meeting in June 2016 with a Kremlin-connected lawyer and brought along Paul Manafort, who at the time was running Trumps campaign, and Jarred Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and current presidential advisor.

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READ: Emmanuel Macron, Trump Feud: French President Trolls With Make Our Planet Great Again Website

The president defended his son on Twitter but has not appeared in front of media to publicly address the scandal. White House press briefings have been entirely off-air this week. It remains to be seen how cagey Trump will be when he takes questions for the first time since the news broke at a noon press conference with Macron. The presidents counselor, Kellyanne Conway, has been making the rounds on cable television attempting to throw water on the story.

Trump Jr.s email revelation, uncovered by New York Times reporting, kicks more dust into the air of a swirl of investigations. The Intelligence Committee of both the House and Congress are investigating connections between the Trump administration and campaign and Russia. The Justice Department appointed special counselor Robert Mueller to investigate the Trump administration.

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Mr Trump appears to have changed his views: Getty

The President has been accused of changing his position as to whether or not he knew about his eldest sons meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer at which members of the Trump campaign expected to receive incriminating material about Hillary Clinton.

In an interview with Reuters, Mr Trump said he knew nothing about the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, until he read about it in the New York Times.

No, that I didnt know until a couple of days ago when I heard about this, he said.

Yet ThinkProgress has pointed out that while Mr Trump was on Air Force One and on his way for a meeting in Paris with his French counterpart Emanuel Macron, the Presidents position on the issue appeared to shift - at least a little.

In comments that reporters initially believed were off the record, Mr Trump said of his learning of the meeting that was also attended by Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort: In fact maybe it was mentioned at some point.

Ms Veselnitskaya has denied working for the Russian government (AP)

He added: They talked about the adoption stuff which was actually a big thing at the time but nothing happened. He said he was not informed that the meeting had been held because the Trump campaign members believed they were to be given incriminating material on Ms Clinton provided by elements of the Russian establishment.

Mr Trump was asked if he supported his sons offer to speak with Capitol Hill investigators looking into the issue. I think if he wants to, he said.

Mr Trump added: Honestly, in a world of politics, most people are going to take that meeting. If somebody called and said, hey - and youre a Democrat - and by the way, they have taken them - hey, I have really some information on Donald Trump.

Youre running against Donald Trump. Can I see you? I mean, how many people are not going to take the meeting?
Critics of Donald Trump Jr.s decision to meet with a Russian lawyer offering damaging evidence about Hillary Clinton have accused him of collusion. But its not at all clear whether President Trumps eldest son actually broke any laws.

Collusion is a vague term and is not itself a federal crime. Whether Trump Jr. broke any laws depends on the nature of his cooperation with Russia, if any, and whether he impeded any investigations into the matter. No law enforcement officials have accused Trump Jr. of committing a crime, and he has publicly denied having done anything wrong.

Here are four legal areas that are under public debate regarding the Presidents eldest son agreeing to accept opposition research from a foreign power.

Campaign Finance

Trump Jr. could have run afoul of campaign finance law if Russia was offering an illegal campaign contribution that he agreed to accept. To be considered an illegal campaign contribution, what Russia offered must be considered of value, as defined by campaign finance law. There are reasons to question whether simply exchanging information with a foreign national would count.

Having meetings and discussions with foreign representatives or foreign countries is not itself regulated, says Jan Baran, a partner at Wiley Rein. And in fact, the [Federal Election Commission] has for decades acknowledged that a foreign national who may not make a campaign expenditure under law may be a volunteer for a campaign.

In the past, the FEC has approved foreign nationals to work as unpaid volunteers on campaigns and allowed a congressmans wife who was a member of Guatemalan parliament to campaign with him, Baran says. Everyones upset that Don Jr. met with Russians, says Baran. But I dont see where theres a violation of campaign finance laws, let alone a conspiracy to violate those laws.

But other election law experts disagree. Robert Bauer, White House counsel to former President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2011, explained to New York why he thinks the information Russia offered Trump Jr. could be considered of value under the law. The Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, said the campaign wanted that material, or wanted negative information on Hillary Clinton very badly, said Bauer. An important part of the Trump campaigns strategy was to create major doubts about Hillary Clinton . . . and so any material that somebody could acquire that would dramatically support those claims was of exceptional value to the campaign.

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If Bauer is right, then some argue that he could be in legal jeopardy even if the meeting didnt result in any valuable information changing hands, as Trump Jr. has claimed. The fact that he . . . met with her is an overt act that may support criminal intent, Notre Dame University law professor Jimmy Gurule told USA Today. Ignorance of the law is no defense.

Obstruction of Justice

Trump Jr. could find himself in trouble not just over the meeting itself, but for his shifting accounts of how it transpired. Did I meet with people that were Russian? Im sure, Im sure I did, Donald Trump Jr. told the Times in March. But none that were set up. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form. Then he said the meeting was only about an old program involving American adoptions of Russian children. Then he admitted he invited both campaign manager Paul Manafort and top campaign aide Jared Kushner to sit in on the meeting knowing they would discuss information about Clinton.

Lying to the public or the media is generally not a crime, thanks to the broad free speech protections of the First Amendment. But if Trump Jr. provides shifting or untruthful explanations to the investigators probing links between the Trump campaign and Russia, he could be charged with providing false statements or obstructing justice, both of which are crimes.

Treason

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Clintons former running mate, said Tuesday that Trump Jr.s actions had risen to potentially treason. As the only crime defined in the Constitution, treason is a serious offense. But its also rarely prosecuted. There have been just 30 treason trials in the U.S. since 1789, according to the Constitution Center.

In Section III of Article III, the Constitution reads: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

It is not clear whether Russia is an enemy of the U.S. as defined by the treason clause. The answer is probably not. The two countries have a generally adversarial relationship, but the U.S. is not in a declared war with Russia, which means that Trump Jr.s actions would likely not be considered treasonous.

For purposes of American treason law, the details of Donald Trump Jr.s relationship with Russia are irrelevant, writes Carlton F.W. Larson in the Washington Post. He could be a paid foreign agent of Russia; he could take an oath of allegiance to Russia; he could even bug his fathers White House bedroom on behalf of Russian intelligence. None of those actions would amount to treason in the narrow sense that our Constitution defines it.

The Logan Act



The Logan Act of 1799 bars citizens from engaging in any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government . . . with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government . . . in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States.

But the Logan Act has never been successfully used, according to Steve Vladeck at Lawfare. The last indictment under the Act took place more than 200 years ago. Theres a legal doctrine called desuetude that says statutes may lapse if theyre never enforced, making it even more far-fetched that the Logan Act could be employed against Trump Jr.

 with reporting by Massimo Calabresi
Mr Akhmetshin has been active in Washington for a number of years, mostly on Russia-related issues: Hermitage Capital Management

A Russian former military operative with links to counterintelligence also attended Donald Trump Jrs notorious meeting with a Russian lawyer about obtaining possibly incriminating information about Hillary Clinton.

Rinat Akhmetshin, a dual Russian-American citizen and lobbyist who has been accused of acting as an unregistered agent for Russian interests and with ties to Russian military intelligence service, or GRU, has confirmed he attended the meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Also participating in the meeting was a US-based Russian translator, Anatoli Samochornov, who had worked previously for Ms Veselnitskaya and the US State Department at various points.

Mr Akhmetshin said he accompanied Ms Veselnitskaya to Trump Tower on 9 June 2016. Although he had known and worked with Ms Veselnitskaya for a number of years, he said he had only learned about the meeting that day when she asked him to attend. He said he showed up in jeans and a T-shirt.

Mr Trump Jrs account of the meeting, which has shifted several times, failed to mention the presence of Mr Akhmetshin, or the translator. Mr Trump Jr said he had agreed to the meeting, also attended by Mr Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and campaign manager Paul Manafort, because he was told Ms Veselnitskaya had material damaging to Ms Clinton that was high level and sensitive information [and] is part of Russia and its governments support for Mr Trump.

Mr Akhmetshin said Ms Veselnitskaya brought a plastic folder with her, containing printed documents that detailed what she believed could potentially be the flow of illicit funds to the Democratic National Committee. Ms Veselnitskaya presented the contents of the documents to the Trump associates and suggested that making the information public could help the Trump campaign, he said.

Mr Trump Jr asked the lawyer if she had all the evidence to back up her claims, according to Mr Akhmetshin, including whether she could demonstrate the flow of the money. But Ms Veselnitskaya allegedly claimed the Trump campaign would need to research it more.

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After that exchange, Mr Trump Jr lost interest, Mr Akhmetshin said. They couldnt wait for the meeting to end, he told the Associated Press.

Mr Akhmetshin said he does not know if Ms Veselnitskayas documents were provided by the Russian government. He said he thinks she left the materials with the Trump associates. It was unclear if she handed the documents to anyone in the room, or simply left them behind, he said.

Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said that the reports about Mr Akhmetshin add another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting.

Mr Trump Jr has insisted the meeting did not amount to much, that he was offered no information on Ms Clinton and that in truth Ms Veselnitskaya wanted to talk about the Magnitsky Act, a piece of US legislation that sanctions a handful of Russians the US believes might be linked to the 2009 death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

Ms Veselnitskaya has denied offering any information to Mr Trump Jr and working for the Russian state.

Ms Veselnitskaya has denied working for the Russian government (AP)

Mr Akhmetshin has been closely associated with Ms Veselnitskaya for several years and has worked with her in an effort to overturn the Magnitsky Act. Mr Samochornov did translation for Ms Veselnitskaya in relation to her lobbying and legal work in the US.

In 2016, Ms Veselnitskayas client, Denis Katsyv, head of the company Prevezon, registered a nonprofit company in Delaware called the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation (HRAGIF) in February 2016, which says its aim is to overturn an adoption ban on impacting American couples but which many believe is a front to lobby against the Magnitsky Act, the passage of which is said to have infuriated Vladimir Putin.

The HRAGIFs registered lobbyist was Mr Akhmetshin, who took UK citizenship in 2009.

Earlier this year, Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he wanted to learn more about Mr Akhmetshins activities.

In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security in April, Mr Grassley wrote: I write to obtain information regarding Mr Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian immigrant to the United States who has been accused of acting as an unregistered agent for Russian interests and apparently has ties to Russian intelligence.

He added: Mr Akhmetshin is a Russian immigrant to the US who has admitted having been a Soviet counterintelligence officer. In fact, it has been reported that he worked for the GRU and allegedly specialises in active measures campaigns, subversive political influence operations often involving disinformation and propaganda.

Rinat Akhmetshin has worked as a lobbyist on behalf of various Russia-related issues for a number of years (Bill Browder)

Mr Akhmetshin has denied that he worked for the GRU, saying he served in the Soviet Army from 1986 to 1988 after he was drafted but was not trained in spy tradecraft. He said his unit operated in the Baltics and was loosely part of counterintelligence.

The development has infuriated President Trump, who had hoped to get away from the Russia story, even as special prosecutor Robert Mueller continues a probe into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russias alleged effort to interfere in the 2016 election.

Mr Akhmetshin said he has not been contacted by Mr Muellers office or the FBI about the meeting with Mr Trump Jr. He said he is willing to talk with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Earlier this week, Mr Trump was obliged to defend his eldest son, saying that anyone would have taken the meeting.

Speaking in France, where he was meeting with President Emmanuel Macron, he said: I do think this, that taken from a practical standpoint  most people wouldve taken that meeting. Its called opposition research, or even research into your opponent. Ive only been in politics for two years, but Ive had many people call up, Oh gee, we have information on this factor or this person, or, frankly, Hillary.

He added: Thats very standard in politics. Politics is not the nicest business in the world.

Mr Akhmetshin did not respond to repeated inquiries from The Independent. President Trumps lawyers also failed to respond.

Elsewhere, a former Trump campaign adviser, Michael Caputo, said after he testified to the House Intelligence Committee in closed session on Friday that he had no contact with Russians and never heard of anyone in the campaign talking with Russians.
President Donald Trump said he will invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House, but only at "the right time".

He said: "I dont think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would.

"Look, its very easy for me to say absolutely, I wont. Thats the easy thing for me to do, but thats the stupid thing to do. If you dont have dialogue, you have to be fools."

Mr Trump made the comments on Air Force One on Wednesday night but they were only published late on Thursday.

Mr Trump also described how he had pressed Mr Putin at the G20 in Hamburg last week over election hacking but had not wanted to get into a "fistfight".

The US president said he asked Mr Putin "very simply were you involved with the meddling in the election? He said, absolutely not. I was not involved. He was very strong on it.

"I then said to him again, in a totally different way, were you involved with the meddling? He said I was not, absolutely not."

He then decided to move on to discuss Syria.

Mr Trump said: He said absolutely not, twice. What do you do? End up in a fistfight with somebody, OK?"

He added: "I'm not saying it (the election hacking) wasn't Russia. What Im saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is. You know, China is very good at this. I hate to say it, North Korea is very good at this."

Speaking later at a press conference alongside French president Emmanuel Macron, Mr Trump defended his son Donald Jr.

Mr Trump said "most people in politics" would have acted similarly after his son was called to testify in front of a Senate committee over a meeting with a Russian lawyer during the presidential election.

The extraordinary prospect of the president's eldest son being publicly quizzed by senators about his connections to Russia could take place as early as next week.

Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, confirmed he was sending a letter to Mr Trump Jr asking him to attend, and that the committee would issue a subpoena if necessary.

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The committee is one of several in Congress that have launched inquiries into Russian meddling in last year's US presidential election. A special counsel, Robert Mueller, is also investigating.

President Trump, speaking in Paris, defended his son as a "wonderful young man" and said what he had done was "very standard in politics" which was "not the nicest business in the world".

He said: "I think, from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research or even research into your opponent. Zero happened from the meeting. A lot of people would do it.

"I've had many people call up 'Oh, gee, we have information on this factor or this person, or frankly, Hillary'. I think it's a meeting most people in politics probably would have taken."

Mr Trump Jr confirmed this week that he met lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York on June 9, 2016.

He disclosed emails that showed the meeting was set up by an acquaintance Rob Goldstone, a British-born music publicist who represented a Russian pop star.

In the emails Mr Goldstone told Mr Trump Jr that he would be meeting a "Russian government attorney" and could expect sensitive information damaging to Hillary Clinton which was part of a Russian effort to support his father.

Ms Veselnitskaya has denied connections to the Kremlin, and Mr Trump Jr has said the meeting "went nowhere" so he did not tell his father about it.

High profile Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and will question Mr Trump Jr, promised to "pursue justice without favour" and added: "Were there other meetings? I'm going to go wherever the facts take us."

Mr Graham added: "If any government tried to help my campaign I would say no because they're trying to to destroy democracy. It's a pretty simple proposition in America. He's a relevant witness. This is a chance for Donald Trump Jr to tell his side of the story."

Paul Ryan, the Republican House Speaker, said: "Any witness who's been asked by Congress to testify should testify."

My son Donald did a good job last night. He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2017

The controversy overshadowed the unveiling by Republicans in Congress of a new revised proposal to overhaul America's healthcare system.

Republicans have fought for seven years to dismantle Obamacare, former President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement. which they argue is an expensive example of government overreach.

The latest Senate bill retained key taxes levied on the wealthy under Obamacare in an attempt to assuage the concerns of moderates Republicans.

It also included an amendment from the conservative Senator Ted Cruz allowing health insurers to offer cheaper coverage plans not including benefits like mental health services and addiction treatment.

The revised bill also included $45 billion for fighting America's opioid addiction epidemic.

Its fate still hangs in the balance amid internal disagreements between Republicans. Mr Trump said this week he would "very angry" if the bill does not pass.

A healthcare overhaul represents Mr Trump's first major legislative battle as president and an inability achieve it, despite Republicans holding both chambers of Congress and the White House, would be a major setback.

Meanwhile, a new government analysis of Mr Trump's budget plan concluded it would result in a $720 billion deficit at the end of 10 years instead of the slight surplus promised.

A Congressional Budget Office report said the Trump administration's calculations relied on overly optimistic predictions of economic growth.
The story around Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner are titillating. But the real issue is: what did the president know and when did he know it?

Lets remember that the Russians all had something they desperately wanted and needed out of the new Trump administration Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP

In the unfolding Russia scandal enveloping the White House, we are so fascinated  and entertained  by the supporting cast that we are losing sight of the man in the starring role, Donald J Trump.

This week, thanks to great reporting by The New York Times, weve been captivated by some new characters: Donald Trump Jr, a Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya and Rob Goldstone, the rotund music promoter who was their go-between.

Then, there is the presidents son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who accompanied Trump Jr to the June meeting with the Russian lawyer to gather damaging goods on Hillary Clinton. Did he dime out his own brother-in-law and disclose the meeting in order to draw attention away from himself?

As the Trump campaigns digital captain, did he have the skill to direct all the Russian bots and trolls that spread dirt on Hillary Clinton in key political precincts? (This theory of the case was put forth in a recent coop from McClatchy). Should Kushners security clearance be rescinded? Should he be prosecuted for leaving out information about his Russian contacts on Form 86, the required disclosure for White House officials?



Yes, this is all titillating stuff, but it diverts us from the real issue at the heart of the Russia scandal: what did the president know and when did he know it?

From the first disclosures about fired national security adviser Michael Flynns meetings with the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, that question keeps getting overlooked. Why would Flynn have initiated these meetings on his own? Surely, someone else must have deputized him to be the emissary between Russia and the campaign.

Similarly, it strains credulity that Kushner, a complete neophyte in foreign diplomacy, would have undertaken on his own the setting up of a secure back-channel to the Russians. Who suggested he do so? And Jr? He is nothing other than his fathers cypher and surrogate.

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Its true that Donald Trump Jr and Kushner have business ties to rich Russian oligarchs and Russian banks involved in their real estate deals. Its possible that Kushners originally undisclosed meeting with banker Sergey Gorkov during the transition was about his familys troubled investment in a Fifth Avenue office tower.

In 2008, Donald Trump Jr gushed about all the Russian money pouring in for New York real estate. But the timing of their meetings  right after Trump clinched the Republican nomination and right before he took office  suggests politics, not business, was the subject at hand.

Lets remember that the Russians all had something they desperately wanted and needed out of the new Trump administration: the lifting of US sanctions against the outlaw state for its Crimean and Ukrainian land grabs. Isnt it clear that this scandal is about a quid pro quo: Russian help to elect Donald Trump so that he could free his friends from the bonds of the sanctions.

Its simply ridiculous that such a deeply corrupt and grand bargain, had it been made, could have been struck without the express knowledge and direction of Donald J Trump. Theres no way the father was an unwitting chump.

He says he did not know about his sons tete a tete with the Russian lawyer, but surely he knew the Russians were lobbying to relax the sanctions, including the Magnitsky Act. His son-in-law would never have attempted his back-room pirouettes without his father-in-laws express blessings.

Anyone who has watched the Trump family dynamics knows that the sons, son-in-law, and Ivanka are consumed by filial devotion. Their clout and success in the business and political worlds are completely dependent on Donald Trump. The senior Trump was also Michael Flynns ticket back to power after being fired by Obama. Not one of them would have endangered their status with Donald Trump by engaging with the Russians without his knowledge and approval.

This is particularly true of Kushner, whose more tenuous ties are through marriage rather than blood. With his Harvard background, smoother demeanor and broad White House portfolio, he does seem properly cast in the role of Machievelle.

But having visited his own father in a federal slammer, surely he knows better than the rest of the Trump clan the awful consequences of breaking the law. At 36, still a young age, could he have hatched and executed a complex plot of Russian political collusion and risked his whole future? Its doubtful.

Its his father-in-law who has a history of striking deals with all kinds of sketchy characters from the worlds of real estate, reality television, professional wrestling and international beauty pageants.

Certainly, Kushners security clearance should be immediately revoked. His high-priced defense lawyers, Jamie Gorelick and Abbe Lowell, have their work cut out for them in shielding Kushner from prosecution for lying on federal forms or violating federal campaign laws as a top member of the Trump campaign. Kushner has said he intends to cooperate with congressional investigators probing the Russia affair. We shall see.

In this scandal, there are inescapable comparisons to Watergate. That investigation ended with a lingering mystery: it remains unknown whether Richard Nixon ordered or knew beforehand about the burglary of Democratic Party headquarters, the event that shattered his presidency. Donald Trumps direct role in polluting and subverting the 2016 election must not remain a mystery.

The relatives who fill the rooms in Donald Trumps House of Atreus may be culpable, too, but they distract from the real person of interest, the president of the United States.
- Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

It may have been meant as a compliment, but whether Brigitte Trogneux, the wife of French president, Emmanuel Macron, appreciated being told she was in 'such good shape' was a matter of conjecture.

Last month the US president just about got away with telling Caitriona Perry - the Irish broadcaster RTE's Washington correspondent, that she had a "nice smile".

The Irish journalist posted a video on Twitter describing the incident as a "bizarre moment", but did not appear to have been offended by the remark even if others thought it was blatantly sexist.

However, passing a comment on the appearance of France's First Lady - even a favourable one - could have been seen as a diplomatic gaffe.

To add insult to injury he repeated the comment to Emmanuel Macron, the French President before turning back to Ms Trogneux and remarking "beautiful."

Matters were probably not helped by the US President then inflicting his now notorious "yank and grip" on her as well.

The US president was treading on very sensitive territory with M. Macron being 25 years younger than his 64 year-old-wife - a subject which has generated some discussion in France.

French President Emmanuel Macron (R), his wife Brigitte Macron (2nd L), US President Donald Trump (3rd L) and First Lady Melania Trump (2nd R) pose with French chef Alain Ducasse Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP

At 71, Mr Trump is 24 years older than the First Lady, Melania - but the age gap has caused far less comment.

During the French election campaign, those who sought to make capital out of the age difference between M. Macron and his wife were accused of misogyny.

Tiphaine Auziere, Ms Trogneux's daughter described the attacks as "totally outrageous" in one interview.

Here's that awkward handshake between Trump and France's Brigitte Macron. pic.twitter.com/5Ci6lAWuV6  Meg Wagner (@megwagner) July 13, 2017

The Paris incident will be seen as just the latest offence on a lengthy Trump sexism charge sheet.

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During the election, he said that nobody would vote for his Republican rival for the nomination, Carly Fiorina, because of her appearance.

His feud with Rosie O'Donnell, a comedian, culminated with the then business tycoon dismissing her as a slob.

As a candidate, his campaign came close to being derailed by the leaking of a torrent of taped sexist remarks and a high profile feud with TV presenter Megyn Kelly, who challenged his track record during the first Republican candidates' debate.
Mr Trump's comments came aboard Air Force One: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trump says that he would invite Vladimir Putin to the White House, but that right now isn't the right time.

"I don't think this is the right time, but the answer is yes I would," Mr Trump said on Air Force One during a flight to Paris to celebrate Bastille Day with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The statement comes following an extended meeting between the two world leaders at the G20 summit last week, where they met for the first time in person. Their meeting on the sidelines of that summit was only supposed to last a half hour but ended up running well over two hours long.

That meeting, which Mr Trump said went very well, just months after the US President said that relations with Russia may have reached an all time low. Those comments came after Mr Trump green lit launching missiles in an attack on Syrian military targets in response to alleged chemical weapons attacks from the Syrian government. Moscow and Washington have disagreed in Syria with respects to whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should remain in power, which the Russian government favours. The US government has called for the removal of Mr Assad.

Mr Trump and Mr Putin reportedly discussed a range of issues during their meeting in Hamburg last week, including cyber security concerns, terrorism, and a Syrian cease fire. Mr Trump, notably, said that he had pressed Mr Putin on Russia's reported meddling in the 2016 election - which has resulted in US sanctions on the Eurasian country - but that Mr Putin plainly denied those claims.

After landing in France, Mr Trump praised the cease fire he helped broker during a joint press briefing with Mr Macron. He acknowledged that the agreement had only lasted five days so far, but that he had hopes that it would continue.

Mr Putin appears content with the cease fire agreement. During a press conference following his meeting with Mr Trump, the Russian president praised his American counterpart, saying that he is much sharper in person than his TV personality would lead people to believe. He then indicated that he felt the US had reached a "pragmatic" place in its view on Russia.

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Mr Trump's relationship with Russia and its President has been the source of both fascination and scandal. The US President repeatedly stated on the 2016 campaign trail that he believed that improving the American relationship with Russia would be a great improvement on the status quo, but then later failed to fix the relationship in the first few months of his campaign.

And, beyond the official international diplomacy, Mr Trump's 2016 campaign has been under scrutiny by federal investigators for potential contacts with the Russian government. A recent email posted on Twitter by Donald Trump Jr showed that at least three Trump insiders - including Mr Trump Jr himself - had met with a Kremlin linked attorney who promised damaging information from the Russian government on Hillary Clinton. It was the latest in a series of scandalous revelations that critics contend show collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Whether Mr Trump will be able to build upon the apparent good will between him and his Russian counterpart remains to be seen. Both of his predecessors attempted to thaw relations between Washington and the Kremlin, only to find that doing so was a bit beyond their reach. That includes an attempt by the administration of former President Barack Obama in which former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton literally brought out a red "reset" button to symbolise a reset on relations between the two countries.
US President Donald Trump appeared to hold the door open to reversing his decision to pull America out of the 2015 Paris climate change agreement after a charm offensive from his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in the French capital.

On a visit to France for July 14 Bastille Day celebrations to mark the centenary of America's entry into the First World War, Mr Trump was asked about whether he might review his position on climate, which drew widespread response from other world leaders, French in particular.

To general surprise at the Elysee Palace, the US president said: "Something could happen with respect to the Paris accords."

He added: "Let's see what happens, but we will talk about that over the coming period of time and if it happens that will be wonderful and if it doesn't that'll be OK too."

Mr Macron said that while he was in "strong disagreement" with Mr Trump, he "respected" the fact that he was being true to "campaign commitments", and that France remained committed to the accord.

There was no "sudden and unexpected change," he insisted, however. "I hope in the end to be able to persuade him."

Clearly charmed by his visit to a capital he only recently decried as unsafe and "infested by terrorism", Mr Trump appeared to place America's special relationship with Britain on the back burner as he waxed lyrical about "America's first and oldest ally".

Emmanuel Macron shares a laugh with Donald Trump

"France helped us secure our independence," he went on, saying the two countries had an "unbreakable bond" and calling Mr Macron his "friend".

In bringing Mr Trump to Paris, Mr Macron has clearly stolen a march on the embattled Theresa May. London's offer of a state visit for Mr Trump met fierce criticism and warnings that he would be greeted by mass protests, and he decided to postpone it until next year.

The US leader was also quizzed about a friend named Jim, who he previously has claimed no longer frequents Paris any more because it was rife with Islamist terrorists.

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Asked about his previous disparaging comments, he said: "It's going to be just fine because you have a great president.

"I think is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. He's a tough president. I really have the feeling that you are you going have a very peaceful and beautiful Paris. I'm coming back," he beamed.

After a bumpy start to their relationship, notably their now notorious muscular handshake, the two leaders clearly clicked this time.

"Emmanuel, nice to see you. This is so beautiful," the US president told Mr Macron as they met at the Hotel des Invalides where Napoleon Bonaparte and other French war heroes are buried.

Patting Mr Trump on the back several times, the French president smiled as they began a tour of the grand 17th century military complex. Mr Trump also hazarded a Gallic double peck on the cheek to French first lady Brigitte, dressed in white. Melania, in red, only received the one bise from Mr Macron.

The US president was then captured complimenting Mrs Macron's appearance in video posted by the French government's Facebook account.

At one point, he turns to Brigitte Macron, 64, and tells her: "You're in such good shape."

He repeats the observation to the French president before turning back to Mr Macron's spouse, and remarking: "Beautiful."

The first ladies then escaped for a private visit of Notre Dame cathedral, where Melania lit a candle, and the pair went on a 45-minute boat ride down the Seine.

Emmanuel Macron welcomes US First Lady Melania Trump while his wife Brigitte Macron welcomes US President Donald Trump Credit: AFP

The two leaders held talks lasting an hour in the Elysee Palace and a half before the two couples dined on lobster and caviar at the Michelin-starred Jules Verne restaurant on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.

Weeks after Mr Macron hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Palace of Versailles, Mr Trump will bask in the trappings of the Bastille Day military parade today (Fri), where hundreds of US troops will march with their French counterparts down the Champs-Elysees.

This year's event features 63 planes, 29 helicopters, 241 horses and 3,720 soldiers. Some 11,000 security forces will guard the French capital.

Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte pose with Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at Les Invalides museum in Paris, France, 13 July 2017 Credit: AP POOL

Mr Macron has braved domestic criticism to invite Mr Trump, viewing it as counter-productive to isolate the US on the world stage.

"What Emmanuel Macron wants to do is to bring him into the circle, include him in discussions," government spokesman Christophe Castaner said yesterday (Thurs).

"If France can play a role as a facilitator, I'm proud that Emmanuel Macron can contribute to that."
Around 170 families so far have been forced into camps by the Iraqi military - Corbis News

Families of alleged Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters are being forced from Mosul into detention camps by the Iraqi military to receive physiological and ideological rehabilitation, Human Rights Watch has said.

While the liberation of Mosul from the jihadists has been applauded worldwide, human rights groups have warned that Iraqi forces and allied militias have been carrying out retributions campaigns against people they accuse of ties to Isil.

Iraqi forces have been accused of carrying out extrajudicial executions and Iraqs Western allies have warned that such persecution will make it far harder to overcome the sectarian tensions that Isil exploited in the first place.

In a new report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said at least 170 families of suspected Isil fighters had been forced into rehabilitation camps and accused Iraqi forces of collective punishment.

Iraqi authorities shouldnt punish entire families because of their relatives actions, said Lama Fakih, the groups deputy Middle East director. These abusive acts are war crimes and are sabotaging efforts to promote reconciliation in areas retaken from ISIS.

Iraqi officials have said that such camps are necessary to try to unwind some of the damage done to people living under Isil rule and to prepare them to re-enter Iraqi society.

The first camp near Mosul was opened at Bartalla, a Christian town outside of Mosul that was devastated by the jihadists, and is designed to hold 2,800 families. At least 10 women and children have died on the way to the camp or inside the camp itself, medical workers told HRW.

Most of the people brought there were women and children. Iraqi authorities said they would be screened and investigated for their ties to Isil before being allowed to leave.

Some of the families there said openly that their sons or husbands had fought with the jihadist group. But others appeared to have been victims of Isils brutal rule.

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One woman said she had divorced in an Isil-run court last year but that the jihadist judge who presided over the case then took her a sex slave and kept her in his home.

He fled with his family as the fighting drew nearer but left her locked in the house, where Iraqi forces found her and assumed she was an Isil family member, she said.

Now she is being held at the camp along with other women and children.
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An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration earlier this week unanimously recommended approving a breakthrough genetic therapy to treat a rare but deadly type of childhood cancer.

Here's why the news has cancer researchers excitedand what it means for families with children diagnosed with the cancer.



What Is the New Gene Therapy?

The new therapy, developed by the Swiss drug company Novartis, is known as as CTL019 (tisagenlecleucel). Its sometimes referred to as a living drug, because it relies on using a patient's own immune system to fight cancer. Doctors take a type of white blood cell called T-cells from a patients bloodstream, genetically modify them to attack cancer cells (as shown in the image above), then infuse them back into the patient.

This opens up a whole new world for cancer research and treatment, says Gwen Nichols, M.D., chief medical officer of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, a nonprofit organization that helped fund research on the therapy.

Who Might Benefit From It?

The drug is meant to help children with B-cell acute lympoblastic leukemia (ALL) who don't respond to chemotherapy, radiation, and other existing treatments. There are about 2,500 cases of ALL in the U.S. each year, and about 620 children who don't recover with that standard care.



The FDA advisory panel recommended approval based mainly on a Novartis trial, which found that among 63 such patients treated with CTL019, 52 went into remission.

The therapy is intended as a last resort for children who would otherwise die in a matter of weeks, Nichols says. That's because the therapy, while potentially lifesaving, also carries serious risks, including a life-threatening reaction called cytokine release syndrome.



When Will the Therapy Be Available?

The FDA will make a final decision on the drug by October 2017, according to Novartis spokesperson Julie Masow.

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The approval of the therapy is contingent upon Novartis' response to a number of issues, including chemistry, manufacturing, and safety questions.

CTLO19 was designated as a "breakthrough therapy" by the FDA back in 2014, which the agency grants to drugs that treat serious or life-threatening conditions and that demonstrate the potential to be significantly more effective than existing therapies.

But because of the complexity and novelty of the CTL019, says Masow, it will initially be offered at just 30 to 35 treatment centers in the U.S.

"This strategy will help ensure that each site is fully prepared with the necessary infrastructure in place to support the special ordering, cell collection, chain of identity, use, and site-level care associated with CTL019," Masow says.

How Much Will It Cost?

That's unclear, but it's expected to be very expensive.

Novartis has not announced how much it will charge for the drug therapy if it's approved. But Reni Benjamin, a biotechnology analyst for the financial services company Raymond James who tracks the gene therapy market, estimates the price will be set at around $450,000 for the one-time treatment.



Though that may sound exorbitant, Nichols points out that the therapy is complex and "has to be done in a specialized medical center and patients have to be hospitalized and carefully monitored for several days," she says.

Novartis' Masow told us that the price of CTL019 will take into consideration the value this innovative treatment brings to patients, society and the healthcare industry, both near-term and long-term and that the company is "committed to doing everything we can to ensure that patients who can benefit from CTL019 will have access to therapy."

That could include assistance with costs, if needed, Masow says.

Will Insurance Cover It?

Private insurers, and Medicaid, have not yet said whether they will cover the therapy. But Benjamin suspects they will, pointing out that the therapy will be used on a small number of patients. "The drug companies are talking to the payers, and at this point it seems that the payers are onboard with covering it."

Editor's Note: This article and related materials are made possible by a grant from the state Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Grant Program, which is funded by the multistate settlement of consumer-fraud claims regarding the marketing of the prescription drug Neurontin (gabapentin).





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.
Donald Trump Jr on Tuesday night, defending his June 2016 meeting with a

A former Soviet spy joined a Russian lawyer in a meeting with Donald Trump Jr on the promise of information that would incriminate" Hillary Clinton, it was reported on Friday.

Rimat Akhmetshin, a US citizen born in Russia and described by Radio Free Europe as a "Russian gun-for-hire [lurking] in the shadows of Washington's lobbying world" was at the Trump Tower meeting, AP confirmed.

The June 2016 meeting, brokered by a British music publicist, Rob Goldstone, caused a political earthquake when it was revealed earlier this week. It is illegal to solicit campaign support from a foreign national, meaning that Mr Trump Jr, the eldest son of the president, could face criminal charges.

On Tuesday night Mr Trump Jr sought to defend his encounter with Natalia Veselnitskaya, telling Fox News that it was opposition research, and standard political practice  although he wished now he had declined to attend.

Mr Trump Jr was asked: "as far as you know, as far as this incident is concerned, this is all of it?"

"This is everything. This is everything," he replied.

In an interview with AP yesterday, Mr Akhmetshin made unverified claims that Ms Veselnitskaya had brought documents with her that detailed what she believed was the flow of illicit funds to the Democratic National Committee.

She presented the documents to the Trump associates and he recalled her saying: This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money.

Mr Akhmetshin also claimed that Mr Trump Jr. asked the attorney if she had all the evidence to back up her claims, including whether she could demonstrate the flow of the money, according to AP. But Ms Veselnitskaya said the campaign would need to research it more.

This account contradicts claims earlier this week by Ms Veselnitskaya that she had not brought any damaging information on Hillary Clinton to the meeting.

Natalia Veselnitskaya

On Friday morning the presence of the former Soviet counter intelligence officer in the meeting was reported by NBC News.

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Mr Akhmetshin was a well-known lobbyist, who, according to Talking Points Memo, had worked for Fusion GPS - the firm that produced the "dodgy dossier" on Mr Trump's activities in Moscow.

In 2007 he was described in a book Oil and Glory as a charming English-speaking former Soviet Army counterintelligence officer, who in 1999 went to work lobbying Washington on behalf of crusading Kazakh politician Akezhan Kazhegeldin.

The stylish Akhmetshin looked harmless enough, with his designer spectacles and fresh, youthful face, wrote Steve LeVine in his book.

In 2009 Mr Akhmetshin became an American citizen.

Mr Akhmetshin was one of two lobbyists registered with the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation, which was founded in February 2016 and run by Ms Veselnitskaya, and dedicated to helping restart American adoption of Russian children.

In practice, this means overturning the Magnitsky Act - a series of sanctions placed on Russian officials, in retaliation for the death of crusading lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison.

Donald Trump and Russian espionage

President Vladimir Putin banned the adoption of Russian children by Americans as payback for the Magnitsky Act.

Mr Akhmetshin was paid $10,000 by Ms Veselnitskayas group, according to his registered-lobbyist disclosure form.

In April 2016 he met Dana Rohrabacher, a California congressman known to be supportive of Mr Putin, in Berlin, and approached him in connection with the Magnitsky Act.

Mr Rohrabacher was sympathetic, and told CNN that prosecution of a cases related to the Magnitsky Act was intended to create hostility and belligerence toward Russia.

Some US officials suspect Mr Akhmetshin of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News claimed.

In May 2016 he visited Mr Rohrabacher and was shown around the Capitol.

Mr Akhmetshins appearance caught the attention of Kyle Parker, a House Foreign Affairs Committee staff member who was a driving force behind the original Magnitsky Act.

Mr Parker sent an email to colleagues, obtained by Politico, warning them that Mr Akhmetshin used to spy for the Soviets and specializes in active measures campaigns - an Cold War term for propaganda, disinformation and other "dark ops".

Donald Trump and the Russian connections

Mr Parker declined to comment on the email.

Mr Akhmetshin acknowledged having been a Soviet counterintelligence officer, but said he was drafted into the job.

Just because I was born in Russia doesn't mean I am an agent of the Kremlin, Mr Akhmetshin told the site.

On June 14, 2016 - five days after the Trump Tower meeting - he was photographed with Ms Veselnitskaya on Capitol Hill, sitting behind the former US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing about US Policy Towards Putins Russia.

After the meeting Politico reported that he had dinner at the Capitol Hill Club with Mr Rohrabacher.

Mr Akhmetshin has denied any claims to current Russian spy agencies.

On April 4, 2017 Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, wrote to John Kelly, homeland security secretary, to ask for confirmation whether Mr Akhmetshin had registered as a foreign agent, acting to advance the interests of a foreign power.

Ms Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer, has denied working for the Kremlin, despite being introduced to Mr Trump Jr as a Russian government attorney who had information coming from Russias chief prosecutor.

The Kremlin said it has no links with Ms Veselnitskaya.

But the presence of the former spy in the meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya, which has not been reported before, will certainly add to exasperation among politicians across the spectrum, who are astonished at the mess in which the White House now finds itself.

Donald Trump Jr with his father

When Mr Trump Jr was first asked about the meeting, he made no mention of the promise of dirt on Mrs Clinton, and issued a statement saying: We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.

He was then forced to issue clarification after clarification, amid days of further revelations.

Even some Republicans are begging Mr Trumps team to come clean about who they have met, to prevent the damaging drip-drip of revelations from obscuring all other political progress.

If you had a contact with Russia, tell the special counsel about it! Dont wait until The New York Times figures it out! said Trey Gowdy, a congressman for South Carolina who chairs the House oversight committee.

Someone needs to get everyone in a room and say, from the time you saw 'Dr. Zhivago' until the moment you drank vodka with a guy named Boris, you list every single contact with Russia.

Alan Futerfas, Mr Trump Jrs lawyer, confirmed he has spoken to the individual.

"Its very simple, said Mr Futerfas. "The person was described as a friend of Emin [Agalarov]s and maybe as a friend of Natalia [Veselnitskaya]s.

Agalarov is a pop star and a client of Mr Goldstone, a music publicist who arranged the meeting with Mr Trump Jr.

Mr Futerfas said he spoke to the former spy, who came to the meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya.

"He is a US citizen. He told me specifically he was not working for the Russian government, and in fact laughed when I asked him that question.

The Donald Trump campaigns Russia connections

Mr Futerfas confirmed that, for the purpose of security or otherwise, the names were reviewed but said Mr Trump Jr knew nothing about the man's background at the time of the meeting.

I have absolutely no concerns about what was said in that meeting, he said.

President Trump has defended his son's decision to meet with Ms Veselnitskaya, saying "most people would have taken that meeting."

"My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer but a Russian lawyer," he said on Thursday, in a joint press conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"From a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research or research into your opponent."

Later Michael Caputo, who was an adviser to President Donald Trump's presidential campaign, said he told a U.S. House of Representatives committee that he never heard of anyone in the campaign talking with Russians.

"Today I spent my time in front of the committee detailing the fact that I had no contacts with Russians and I never heard of anyone in the Trump campaign talking with Russians," Caputo, a political consultant, told reporters after testifying at a closed meeting of the House Intelligence Committee.
By Eric M. Johnson

(Reuters) - Two former staff employees of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives have been indicted after an investigation into the circulation of private, nude images and videos of the member and the members spouse, U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips said on Thursday.

Juan McCullum, 35, of Washington, D.C., was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of cyberstalking, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement.

Another former House staffer, Dorene Browne-Louis, 45, from Maryland, was indicted on two counts of obstruction of justice for lying to investigators and the grand jury about her knowledge of McCullum's activities, prosecutors said in the statement.

A representative for the U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia could not immediately be reached by Reuters to ascertain whether Browne-Louis or McCullum had legal representation who could comment on their behalf.

Browne-Louis was also accused of deleting pertinent text messages she received from McCullum, a former reality TV star, prosecutors said.

Browne-Louis pleaded not guilty to the charges on Thursday and was released on personal recognizance pending a July 19 hearing, prosecutors said in the statement. McCullum's first court appearance has not been scheduled.

Prosecutors did not name the lawmaker in their statement.

The indictment was returned by a federal grand jury on Tuesday and unsealed on Thursday.

The charge of cyberstalking carries a maximum of five years in prison and potential financial penalties, federal officials said. The charge of obstruction of justice carries a maximum of 20 years of incarceration and potential financial penalties.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Ben Klayman)
(This July 12 story corrects name of vessel in eighth paragraph and year it sank) By Nina Chestney LONDON (Reuters) - One of the biggest icebergs on record has broken away from Antarctica, scientists said on Wednesday, creating an extra hazard for ships around the continent as it breaks up. The one trillion ton iceberg, measuring 5,800 square km, calved away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica sometime between July 10 and 12, said scientists at the University of Swansea and the British Antarctic Survey. The iceberg, which is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Delaware or the Indonesian island of Bali, has been close to breaking off for a few months. Throughout the Antarctic winter, scientists monitored the progress of the rift in the ice shelf using the European Space Agency satellites. "The iceberg is one of the largest recorded and its future progress is difficult to predict," said Adrian Luckman, professor at Swansea University and lead investigator of Project MIDAS, which has been monitoring the ice shelf for years. "It may remain in one piece but is more likely to break into fragments. Some of the ice may remain in the area for decades, while parts of the iceberg may drift north into warmer waters," he added. The ice will add to risks for ships now it has broken off. The peninsula is outside major trade routes but the main destination for cruise ships visiting from South America. In 2007, more than 150 passengers and crew were evacuated after the MS Explorer sank after striking an iceberg off the Antarctic peninsula. The iceberg, which is likely to be named A68, was already floating before it broke away so there is no immediate impact on sea levels, but the calving has left the Larsen C ice shelf reduced in area by more than 12 percent. The Larsen A and B ice shelves, which were situated further north on the Antarctic Peninsula, collapsed in 1995 and 2002, respectively. "This resulted in the dramatic acceleration of the glaciers behind them, with larger volumes of ice entering the ocean and contributing to sea-level rise," said David Vaughan, glaciologist and director of science at British Antarctic Survey. "If Larsen C now starts to retreat significantly and eventually collapses, then we will see another contribution to sea level rise," he added. Big icebergs break off Antarctica naturally, meaning scientists are not linking the rift to manmade climate change. The ice, however, is a part of the Antarctic peninsula that has warmed fast in recent decades. "In the ensuing months and years, the ice shelf could either gradually regrow, or may suffer further calving events which may eventually lead to collapse  opinions in the scientific community are divided," Luckman said. "Our models say it will be less stable, but any future collapse remains years or decades away." For a graphic, click http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/ANTARCTICA-LARSEN/010041GT36Y/ANTARCTICA-LARSEN-RIFT.jpg (Editing by Toby Chopra)
(MOSUL, Iraq)  Airstrikes, shelling and other heavy clashes shook a small sliver of western Mosul on Tuesday in renewed fighting, a day after the government declared victory over Islamic State militants in Iraqs second-largest city.

Amnesty International, meanwhile, proclaimed the battle for Mosul to be a civilian catastrophe, with more than 5,800 noncombatants killed in the western part of the city. The top U.S. commander in Iraq rejected the groups allegations, however, that the U.S.-led coalition violated international law.

In a sign that IS militants were still holding out in the shattered Old City, plumes of smoke rose as mortar shells landed near Iraqi troop positions and heavy gunfire rang out. Airstrikes pounded the edge of the neighborhood west of the Tigris River throughout the day.

On Monday, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared total victory in Mosul, flanked by his senior military leadership at a small base in the citys west.

The militants overran the northern city in summer 2014, when the extremists seized territory across Iraq and Syria. The campaign by Iraqi forces and the coalition to retake the city began in October 2016. The operation killed thousands of people, left whole neighborhoods in ruins and displaced nearly 900,000 from their homes.

A statement late Monday from IS said its fighters were still attacking Iraqi troops in the al-Maydan area of Mosuls Old City, purportedly killing and wounding many and seizing weapons and ammunition.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said in a recorded video after al-Abadis declaration that the victory in Mosul did not eliminate IS from Iraq and theres still a tough fight ahead.

Townsend, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said the coalition will continue to support its Iraqi partners, and he urged Iraqis to unite and prevent a return of the conditions that allowed the rise of the extremists.

In Baghdad, Shiite politician Karim al-Nouri echoed those remarks, urging the government to review its policies in Sunni areas of Iraq to avoid previous mistakes that led to the emergence of IS.

Story continues

The government needs to work on removing fears of marginalization and terrorism affiliation in Sunni areas, said al-Nouri, a senior member of the Badr Organization. He said he believes Iraqi forces should stay in Mosul until it is fully secure before handing control to local forces.

Lawmaker Intisar al-Jabouri from Nineveh province, where Mosul is the capital, said uprooting IS extremism ideology was the key to peace in Mosul, which reeled under the groups harsh rule for three years.

She urged Baghdad to invest in good relations between the residents and the security forces and take all necessary measures to prevent terrorism groups from returning to Mosul.

In its report, Amnesty International alleged that all sides in the conflict violated international law in the battle for Mosul. IS fighters carried out forced displacement and summary killings, as well as using civilians as human shields.

Iraqi forces and the coalition failed to protect civilians, the report said.

In all, 5,805 civilians may have been killed in the fight for western Mosul by coalition attacks, Amnesty said, citing data from Airwars, an organization monitoring civilian deaths due to the coalition against IS in Iraq and Syria.

The scale and gravity of the loss of civilian lives during the military operation to retake Mosul must immediately be publicly acknowledged at the highest levels of government in Iraq and states that are part of the U.S.-led coalition, said Lynn Maalouf, the research director for the Mideast at Amnesty.

The report, which covered the first five months of 2017, noted how the militants moved civilians with them around Mosul, prevented them from escaping and created battle spaces with dense civilian populations, while Iraqi forces and the coalition failed to adapt their tactics.

The Iraqi forces and the coalition continued to use imprecise, explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated urban environments, Amnesty said, adding that some violations might constitute war crimes.

At a briefing Tuesday in Washington, Townsend rejected the allegation that international law was violated by the coalition.

I reject any notion that coalition fires were in any way imprecise, unlawful or excssively targeted civilians, he said.

I would challenge the people from Amnesty International or anyone else out there who makes these charges to first research their facts and make sure theyre speaking from a position of authority, Townsend added.

He said the coalition went to extraordinary measures to safeguard civilian lives, measuring every single time how many civilians may or may not be in the target area and what munition to employ and how can we strike that building and take out only that room and not the entire floor or the entire building.

In Geneva, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein urged the Iraqi government to ensure that human rights will be respected in post-IS Mosul.

Zeid described Mosuls fall as the turning point in the conflict against IS, but warned that the group continues to subject people to daily horrors in its remaining strongholds of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, and in Hawijah, north of Baghdad.

Horrific though the crimes of ISIL are, there is no place for vengeance, said Zeid, using another acronym for the Islamic State group.

He cited allegations of threats of collective punishment and forced evictions in Mosul by Iraqi security forces and their allies. He also cited three years of rights violations during IS control of Mosul, including abuses like sexual slavery of women and girls that have left deep scars on Iraqi society.

For more than two years before the Mosul operation began, Iraqi forces backed by coalition airstrikes slowly reclaimed territory that IS militants had seized as part of the groups self-described caliphate.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi troops went through a coalition training program.
By Martin Howell and James Pomfret HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Friday she shares the compassion of people over the death of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo and acknowledged "anxieties" about "incidents" in the former British colony that can potentially erode its autonomy. Lam was speaking in her first interview with the international media since she was sworn in as the city's new leader by Chinese President Xi Jinping on July 1. "Hong Kong people are always very compassionate and so I share that compassion of many Hong Kong people by sending my condolences to the wife and the family of Mr Liu," Lam, a devout Catholic, told a Reuters Newsmaker event in Hong Kong. Chinese officials have long branded Liu as a "subversive" so such comments are unusual and the only sympathetic remarks so far from a Beijing-backed leader regarding his death. Liu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for his efforts to promote democracy in China, died on Thursday at the age of 61 of multiple organ failure while in detention [L4N1K51AG]. Liu was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power". Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997. It enjoys wide-ranging freedoms not granted in mainland China, a promise of full democracy at some future date, and an independent judiciary under a so-called "one country, two systems" formula. But the abduction by mainland agents of Hong Kong booksellers who had published critical books on China, and Beijing's efforts to disqualify democratically elected, pro-independence lawmakers in the local legislature, have rattled confidence in that arrangement. 'ANXIETIES AND PERCEPTION' In a wide-ranging interview, Lam acknowledged concerns about certain "individual incidents" in the city. She said it was her duty to accurately reflect them to the central government in Beijing. "I would say there are worries, there are anxieties, there is a strong perception over individual isolated incidents, but unless you've got evidence to prove there are clear breaches then it will remain at the level of anxieties and perception," Lam said, without elaborating. She did say, however, police were still investigating the booksellers' cases. Britain called the cases a "serious breach" of the Joint Declaration -- the 1984 treaty that paved the way for Hong Kong's return to China -- and said one of the booksellers, a British passport holder, had been removed from Hong Kong "under duress". Hong Kong's high court on Friday removed four opposition lawmakers from the city's legislative council for failing to sincerely take the oath of office, in a significant blow to the opposition that could weaken its one-third veto bloc in the 70-seat assembly. [L4N1K43NH] While the lawsuit had been initiated by her predecessor, Lam said she wouldn't intervene in the case "Building bridges still has to be done in a lawful way. I dont think this CE (chief executive) or any government official should compromise on the rule of law just because we want to be friendly. But Im sure the judicial process will go on." Speaking about Hong Kong's financial sector, Lam said it has a lot of catching up to do, particularly given big strides in financial technology on the mainland, and needs stronger leadership. She also expressed concern over stock price manipulation in the territory. XI'S HARDER LINE Xi took what some saw as an explicitly harder line about Hong Kong's future during his visit marking the 20th anniversary of the financial hub's return from British to Chinese rule. Xi warned in a speech that any attempt to endanger Chinese sovereignty and security, challenge its power, or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities would be acts that cross "the red line" and are "absolutely impermissible". Lam said she would seek to enact contentious national security laws, known as Article 23, "as soon as possible," without giving a specific timetable, that would prohibit acts of treason, secession, sedition and subversion against China. A proposed blueprint for those laws in 2003, however, was seen as a grave threat to Hong Kong's autonomy, and drew a half-million protesters to the streets before it was finally shelved. Over the past two decades, Hong Kong's "one country, two systems arrangement" has come under considerable strain, as the city's opposition forces have agitated for full democracy and railed against creeping Chinese interference in various sectors including business, politics, media, law and education. The 60-year-old Lam has said she hopes to lead Hong Kong "towards new glory" in the next five years and heal divisions that have festered since the massive 2014 pro-democracy protests that blocked major roads in Hong Kong for 79 days. Lam also pledged to stand by the people of Hong Kong in protecting their rights. "If our core values are being undermined by whatever things happened both in Hong Kong or not in Hong Kong, then of course I have that duty." At times, Lam, the mother of two grown sons, showed a lighter side, boasting that she slept soundly through the night when asked about the insomnia of leadership. She expressed hopes she could ease the pressures of Hong Kong's pressure cooker school system, saying parents should let their children "dream" - and acknowledging that was not a traditional Asian "Tiger Mum" thing to say. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Hong Kong public opinion poll (interactive) - A look at citizens' view on the future of the territory under China http://tmsnrt.rs/299O0cu Hong Kong public opinion - A look at citizens' view on the future of the territory under China http://tmsnrt.rs/2tnzxjF ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Anne Marie Roantree, Venus Wu, Twinnie Siu, Greg Torode. Editing by Bill Tarrant)
The House of Representatives voted down a measure on Thursday that would have banned the coverage of transition-related health care for transgender troops.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Republican from Missouri, had proposed the measure as an amendment to the defense authorization bill, arguing that taxpayers should not foot the bill for procedures such as gender reassignment surgery because that would divert the funds from more important priorities. This is different from somebody going in and having a cold, she said during debate on the floor.

Democrats, including California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, were harsh in their criticism of the bill, calling it a mean-spirited and unjust attempt to discourage transgender people from serving in the military. We owe these heroes an immense debt, Pelosi said. The defense bill before us today should be about honoring that responsibility.

The amendment narrowly failed, with 209 supporting and 214 opposing. Two dozen Republicans opposed the measure, which comes at a time when the military is still adapting to the open service of transgender troops.

Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter lifted the ban on transgender people serving in the military last year and troops have been able to access medically necessary treatment since October of last year. In late June, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis delayed the enlistment of new transgender troops, originally planned to begin on July 1 of this year, giving the branches a further six months to assess whether that change will affect the readiness or lethality of the force. Transgender troops already serving in the military were not affected by the decision.

In the past, gender reassignment surgery has often been banned from coverage  by both private insurance and government programs  because it was viewed as experimental or cosmetic. While Hartzler argued that there is still a lack of medical consensus on the effectiveness of gender transition treatments, organizations such as the American Medical Association have in the last decade released statements saying that research supports the effectiveness and medical necessity of treatments such as surgery for individuals with gender dysphoria. That is the official diagnosis for individuals who experience a marked difference between the individuals expressed/experienced gender and the gender others would assign him or her.

Story continues

Medicare started covering gender reassignment surgery in 2014, after a decades-long ban, in response to a lawsuit filed by a transgender woman who was also a veteran. The Department of Health and Human Services board found that given advances in research and practice, the exclusion was not reasonable anymore.

In pushing the amendment, Hartzler also argued that the surgery is very costly. Estimates of the potential cost for transition-related care among military members vary wildly, ranging from about $2.4 million per year to several times that amount. That is partly because estimates of transgender troops in the military remain inexact. The Williams Institute estimates that there are roughly 8,800 thousand active duty military members who are transgender. Other research suggests the number could be as low as 1,500. In addition, not all transgender people need or want surgical treatment.

In a statement to TIME, Hartzler said she would continue to pursue the issue. I am disappointed by the outcome of todays vote, she said, but the issue still remains and steps must be taken to address this misuse of our precious defense dollars.
Liu Xiaobo, speaking during an interview in 2008 - AP Video

Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Peace laureate and Chinas most well-known political prisoner, died at a heavily guarded hospital on Thursday after a battle with liver cancer.

The death of the 61-year-old dissident and veteran of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 sent shockwaves through Chinas activist community and among human rights campaigners across the world.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said Mr Liu was a "courageous fighter", while the Norwegian Nobel Committee accused Beijing of having a heavy responsibility for his premature death.

Rex Tillerson, the United States Secretary of State, expressed condolences over the death of Mr Liu and called on Beijing to release his wife, Liu Xia, and allow her to leave China.

Mr Liu, who was jailed in 2009 for state subversion, was transferred from prison to hospital in the north-eastern city of Shenyang last month.

Amid increasingly desperate calls from supporters for him to be granted his dying wish to receive treatment for his condition abroad, Mr Liu remained in China where he died on Thursday evening, local officials said.

His friends claim Chinas refusal to allow him to travel overseas was an attempt to shorten his life, and ensure he could not criticise Beijing in his final moments.

"I think it is a political murder, Hu Jia, an activist and friend of Mr Liu told The Telegraph.

"I am in so much pain, but I have no more tears to shed as I have already cried too much over the past few days. I was expecting him to be taken away from his hospital bed, but no miracle happened.

Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia, who was kept under effective house arrest by Beijing Credit: Reuters

Mr Liu was handed an 11-year prison term for calling for sweeping political reforms in a manifesto entitled 'Charter 08.

He became only the third person to receive a Nobel Peace award while imprisoned by his own government, and the first to die in custody since tuberculosis killed Carl von Ossietzky, 48, a German pacifist, in 1938.

Mr Liu had spent time in prison in China before 2009, and was already the countrys most famous government critic when he was sentenced for his part in Charter 08.

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But he became a global figure when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010 at a ceremony where he was represented by an empty chair.

The award was made in recognition of Mr Lius long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.

Despite the Nobel Committee being independent from the government, China froze diplomatic ties with Norway  although relations have warmed in recent months.

In this undated handout photo, Liu Xiaobo is attended to by his wife Liu Xia in hospital Credit: AP

Beijing had repeatedly dismissed foreign criticism of its treatment of Mr Liu, saying that it is an internal affair.

Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said: The Chinese governments arrogance, cruelty, and callousness are shocking  but Lius struggle for a rights-respecting, democratic China will live on.

Mr Liu was born to an intellectual family in Jilin province in Chinas northeast and led a life of fearless activism.

The former professor of literature at Beijing Normal University wrote about the value of individual freedoms and nonviolent resistance.

He was influential at the Tiananmen Square protests, which ended when tanks rolled into central Beijing killing hundreds, possibly over a thousand protesters.

Protesters mourn outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong Credit: AP Photo/Kin Cheung

Mr Liu was said to have saved the lives of many students when he negotiated between the army and protesters as they ended their occupation of the square.

Chinese police have kept Mr Lius wife, Liu Xia, under house arrest for several years and activists in China are now concerned for her fate.

Calls for Ms Liu to be given her freedom were also made by Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French Foreign Minister.

Mo Shaoping, Mr Lius lawyer, told The Telegraph: I do not know what Liu Xia will do next, but based on my understanding, she wants to leave for another country where she can live the rest of her life."

The White House said Donald Trump was "deeply saddened" to learn of Mr Liu's death.

In a statement, it added: "The Presidents heartfelt condolences go out to Liu Xiaobos wife, Liu Xia, and his family and friends. A poet, scholar, and courageous advocate, Liu Xiaobo dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy and liberty."

Additional reporting by Christine Wei
Jezebel

Its been nearly two decades since actress and former Scientologist, Leah Remini, has been looking for Shelly Miscavige, the missing wife (and First Lady) of the Church of Scientologys de facto leader, David Miscavige. Shes dedicated entire episodes of her A&E series to her investigation, mentioned it innumerable times in the press, and even confronted church officials with questions at Tom Cruises 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes. Now, via viral thread on Twitter, Remini has detailed a new devel
During my time as director of Israels General Security Service, the Shin Bet, I was among those responsible for maintaining my countrys security in a tumultuous and dangerous region. It was my job to consider every threat and every challenge. Among the most serious threats that I worried faced Israel was the possibility of Iran developing a nuclear weapon. That was one danger I knew we could never accept.

Now, as the world marks the two-year anniversary of the adoption of the nuclear agreement with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon is more remote than it has been in decades. Thanks to the agreement, Irans nuclear program has been defanged and all its pathways to a bomb blocked.

While no agreement is perfect, this achievement must not be underestimated. For decades, leaders and experts in Israel and among our allies contemplated the drastic steps we might have to take to restrain or destroy Irans nuclear program. That included potential military operations that might have triggered a major escalation and cost many lives  with no guarantee of achieving their goal.

Through the JCPOA, the major world powers came together to ensure  without a single shot being fired  that Iran dismantled key nuclear infrastructure and submitted itself to thorough monitoring and inspection. Two years later, the results are in, and they show the effort has been a clear success.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that Iran has complied with the terms of the agreement. It has dismantled and removed two-thirds of its centrifuges. It has reduced its stockpile of enriched uranium by 98 percent, shipping over 25,000 pounds out of the country. The core of its Arak reactor, which could have allowed Iran to produce weapons-grade plutonium, has been removed and its shell filled with concrete. Perhaps most importantly, Tehran has provided inspectors with unprecedented access to its nuclear facilities and supply chain.

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In the face of this success, even some of the agreements most vocal critics have grudgingly accepted its positive impact. In April, President Donald Trumps administration certified to Congress that Iran continues to be in compliance with the JCPOA. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after leading a vociferous international campaign against the agreement, now remains mostly silent on the subject. And while the majority of my colleagues in the Israeli military and intelligence communities supported the deal once it was reached, many of those who had major reservations now acknowledge that it has had a positive impact on Israels security and must be fully maintained by the United States and the other signatory nations.

Of course, Iran remains an extremely dangerous regime and a bad actor across the Middle East. Its support for terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and regimes like that of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continue to contribute to regional chaos and present a major threat to Israeli security and U.S. interests. Israel and its allies must remain extremely vigilant and active to counter the Iranian threat.

But it is for precisely these reasons that the nuclear agreement is so important. By ensuring that such a dangerous regime can never possess nuclear weapons, the deal makes it easier for Iran to be confronted for its other malign behaviors. The Trump administrations primary international accomplishment, for instance, has been to enlarge the coalition of moderate Sunni Arab countries who are threatened by Irans territorial ambitions. If Iran had been protected by a nuclear umbrella, it would have been impossible for countries such as Egypt, Jordan, or Saudi Arabia  as well as Israel and the United States  to array themselves so staunchly against Tehran. Key sanctions on Irans support for terror, human rights violations, and ballistic missile programs also have remained in place.

And while Irans hardliners retain key positions of power, the willingness of the international community to pursue tough diplomacy has helped empower more moderate Iranian leaders. President Hassan Rouhani, a strong proponent of the agreement, was re-elected in May despite the opposition of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Rouhani understands and fears the consequences of major military confrontation  and his election serves as an important indicator that much of the Iranian people prefer a path of compromise and increased dialogue with the West over recklessly pursuing nuclear ambitions and conflicts.

As a guardian of Israels security, my job was to prepare for the worst  while searching always for bold and proactive measures to head off disaster and stop threats in their tracks. The nuclear agreement is a good example of the kind of solutions to which I aspired. It has neutralized a major threat to the world, while ensuring that the United States and its allies have the tools, the information, and the leverage that they need to confront the Iranian danger and make the region, and the world, a safer place.

Photo credit: DEBBIE HILL/AFP/Getty Images
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli ministers have frozen a plan to allow for the construction of thousands of Palestinian homes in a West Bank city, a statement said Thursday, a move that followed Israeli settlers' objections.

Israel's security cabinet took the decision in a meeting Wednesday, the statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said, despite ministers having previously approved the project.

The plan is for Qalqilya, said to be the most densely populated Palestinian city in the West Bank with more than 40,000 residents and surrounded by Israel's separation wall on three sides.

It is located in the northern West Bank, near the Israeli cities of Kfar Saba and Raanana.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman and military officials favour the plan as part of a so-called "carrot-and-stick" policy to reward Palestinian cities Israeli security forces view as calm in recent years.

Lieberman has disputed reports that it would allow for up to 14,000 housing units, saying it would be a maximum of 6,100.

The plan would extend the city to allow for the new homes into the part of the West Bank known as Area C, under complete Israeli control.

Some 60 percent of the West Bank is part of Area C and Palestinians face near impossible odds in gaining construction permits there.

Israeli settlement building has meanwhile continued in Area C, though settler leaders argue it has advanced too slowly and harshly criticised the Qalqilya plan.

Under Wednesday's decision, Israel's full cabinet will hold another discussion on the issue, though with a broader scope.

"The cabinet will discuss a global construction policy and Area C planning in 10 days," the statement from Netanyahu's office said.

Israel's current government is seen as the most right-wing in the country's history, with key ministers opposing the creation of a Palestinian state and advocating settlement construction.
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israeli security forces detained Jerusalem's top Islamic cleric as crowds gathered in the Old City following an attack Friday near a highly sensitive holy site that killed two police officers, the cleric's son said.

The grand mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the city's highest Islamic authority, had earlier gathered in the Old City with others and condemned the closure of the Al-Aqsa mosque for prayers after the attack.

Israeli police said they had no comment.

Hussein's son Jihad Hussein told AFP his father had been taken to a police station near the Old City.

"Until now, we don't know what is going on with my father," he said.

One of the mufti's bodyguards, Khaled Hamo, said police "entered the crowd and took the mufti."

The incident came after three Arab Israelis opened fire on Israeli police, killing two before fleeing to the ultra-sensitive holy site where they were also shot dead in one of the most serious incidents in the city in recent years.

Security forces locked down the area and the Al-Aqsa mosque was closed to Friday prayers after the attack in a highly unusual move.

Hussein had earlier condemned the closure of the mosque compound for prayers.

"I have very little information about it, but it doesn't mean you should close the mosque for prayers," he told journalists at the Lions Gate entrance to the Old City, near the holy site.

Hussein was detained at the Lions Gate, the bodyguard said.
- AFP or licensors

Palestinian gunmen ambushed and killed two Israeli police officers at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on Friday, bringing bloodshed and chaos to a religious site that is sacred to both Jews and Muslims.

According to Israeli police, the three attackers smuggled weapons into the mosque complex - which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount - and then burst out and opened fire on the officers early on Friday morning.

All three of the attackers were killed in the shoot out. One of them was gunned down on a plaza in front of the Dome of the Rock, one of Jerusalems best known sites.

Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces outside Jerusalem's Old city on Friday Credit: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

The shooting led to the cancellation of Friday prayers at the mosque for the first time in decades. Israeli authorities said the mosque, which is the third holiest site in Islam, would remain shut until at least Sunday.

The attackers were all Israeli citizens of Palestinian descent and came from an Arab village in northern Israel, according to the Shin Bet, Israels equivalent of MI5. Two of them were 19 and the third was 29 and all they appear to all be relatives.

One of Jerusalem attackers posted a selfie at al-Aqsa right before the shooting. He wrote: "Tomorrow's smile will be more beautiful" pic.twitter.com/Bfs2iLh0li  Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) July 14, 2017

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but at least one of the gunmen appears to have been motivated by the belief that Israel was trying take control of the mosque.

Mohamammed Hamed Jabreen posted a selfie of himself in front of the Dome of the Rock shortly before the attack, with the message: Tomorrow's smile will be more beautiful, God willing.

Under an agreement struck after the 1967 war, Jews are only allowed to go the site at certain times and cannot pray there, while Muslims can access it at almost all times. Jewish visits to the site are a constant source of tension.

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Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas speaking on Friday Credit: ABBAS MOMANI/AFP

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, spoke after the attack and both appealed for calm following the violence at the sensitive site.

Mr Abbas condemned the attack but also called on Israel to re-open the mosque and allow Friday prayers to go ahead. Israeli authorities refused, saying they needed to search the complex for weapons.

Mr Netanyahu said he remained committed to the status quo agreement at the mosque complex. Israel has always denied it has any plans change the agreement, which has more or less held for fifty years.

Palestinian Muslim worshippers pray outside Damascus Gate, a main entrance to Jerusalem's Old City on Friday Credit: GALI TIBBON/AFP

Reuven Rivlin, the Israeli president, said: "We cannot allow for agents of murder, who desecrate the name of God, to drag us into a bloody war, and we will deal with a heavy hand against all the arms of terror, and its perpetrators."

The most senior Islamic cleric at the mosque, Mohammed Hussein, was taken into custody by Israeli troops but released later in the day.

Police sealed most of the gates of Jerusalems Old City after the attack and many Muslim worshippers prayed in the streets in 91F (33C) heat.

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Mahmoud Abu Khdeir, a 74-year-old Palestinian man from Jerusalem, prayed in the street when he was not allowed to go to the mosque.

Asked what he thought of the attack, he replied: "We say it is good and it is bad. It's good because for the young men who did it, they are heroic and fought the occupation. It's not good because al-Aqsa is a house of God and it's Friday, the holy day, and people came from all over to pray."

Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian man following clashes outside Jerusalem's Old city on Friday Credit: Ammar Awad/Reuters

The two police officers killed were both from Israels Druze minority. They were named as Kamil Shnaan, 22, the son of a former Israeli member of parliament and Haiel Sitawe, who became a father three weeks ago.

They were both buried on Friday night, just hours after their deaths.

A wave of unrest that broke out in October 2015 has claimed the lives of at least 277 Palestinians, 42 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, a Sudanese and a Briton, according to an AFP toll.

Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.

Others were shot dead in protests and clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

The violence has greatly subsided in recent months.
Fox News host Sean Hannity interviewed Donald Trump Jr. on Tuesday night after the president's son came under fire over his meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump Jr. on Tuesday released the transcript of his email discussion with the Russian government on Twitter, stating he met with the Kremlin-connected lawyer, who was expected to provide him with details about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that could help prevent her from winning the presidency in 2016.

The emails mentioned June 9, 2016, meeting between the Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya, Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. On Tuesday, Trump Jr. defended his actions saying he wanted to hear what the Russian lawyer had to say about Clinton.

Read: Twitter Reacts To Donald Trump Jr.'s Interview On Sean Hannity's Show

"Maybe this is something," Trump Jr. said of his thinking leading up to the meeting. "I should hear them out. ... This was again just basic information that was going to be possibly there. ... I wanted to hear them out and play it out," he said.

While all the focus was on Trump Jr. on Tuesday, Hannity too came into the spotlight for his sit down with the 39-year-old. Hannity, who hosts "The Sean Hannity Show" on Fox News Channel, is married to Jill Rhodes. Here are some quick facts about Hannity's wife.

1. Jill Rhodes is a Native American and has been married to Hannity since 1993. The couple dated for a year before getting married. They have two children together  Patrick and Merri Kelly. The family lives in New York City, where Rhodes worked as a book editor in Manhattan.

2. Hannity met Rhodes in Alabama, where he was working an event for WVNN, according to People magazine. Rhodes is a graduate in journalism from the University of Alabama and has worked as a political columnist for the Huntsville Times.

3. In an interview with People, Rhodes said about Hannity: I looked at his face and I said, That is the man Im going to marry.

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Read: Sean Hannity Conspiracies - 7 Theories Promoted By Fox Host

4. In 2002, Hannity dedicated his book "Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism" to his wife.

The most important acknowledgment I make is to my family  my wife, Jill and my two children, Patrick and Kelly, to whom I dedicate this book. They are the ones who put up with the long work hours I needed to invest in this project. They are the ones who make it worth doing  and who make my life complete and happy on more levels than I can explain. I am blessed to have them in my life, he said at the time," Hannity said.

5. Hannity caused a bit of a controversy in 2013 when he admitted to a caller on his radio show that he thought about other women other than his wife. You cant help notice attractive people! And if you say you can, youre full of it! he said.

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Mr Dimon said he wished the US invested more in infrastructure: Getty

The chief executive of the USs largest bank has voiced his frustration with political gridlock in Washington and said it was sometimes an embarrassment being an American citizen.

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co, is known for his frequently outspoken comments. Last year, he turned down an opportunity to become Donald Trumps Treasury Secretary.

His bank reported a profit of $7.03bn for the second quarter, 13 per cent higher than last year. It has made $26.5bn over the past 12 months, a record profit for a US bank, according to the Associated Press.

$JPM reports 2Q17 net income of $7.0B; $1.82 EPS on revenue of $26.4B; ROTCE of 14% https://t.co/fd6YicK60w  J.P. Morgan (@jpmorgan) July 14, 2017

Despite that, Mr Dimon had colourful words for journalists and analysts who participated in a conference call to discuss his latest results.

Its almost an embarrassment being an American citizen travelling around the world ... listening to the stupid s*** we have to deal with in this country, he said. At one point we all have to get our act together or we wont do what were supposed to do for the average Americans.

Mr Dimon also called on the media to focus less on the the quarter-to-quarter changes in his business, and look at larger issues, such as infrastructure, the opioid epidemic, taxation and jobs.

[The media] should be writing a lot more about that the stuff that is holding back and hurting average Americans. Who really cares about fixed-income trading in the last two weeks of June, I mean seriously, he said.

He paid particular attention to the issue of infrastructure, comparing the USs failure to invest, particularly when compared to the situation in other countries.

I was just in France. I recently in Argentina, was in Israel, was in Ireland. We met with the prime minister of India and China, said Mr Dimon.

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Its amazing to me that every single one of these countries understands that practical policies that promote business and growth is good for the average citizens of this countries, for jobs and wages, and that somehow, this great American free enterprise system, we no longer get it.

He added: The American business sector is powerful and strong, and its going to grow regardless. What Im saying is, it will be much stronger growth had we made intelligent decisions and we were not gridlocked.


VALLETTA (Reuters) - Maltese lawmakers voted on Wednesday to legalize same-sex marriage on the Roman Catholic Mediterranean island, fulfilling Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's campaign promise to make this the first law brought before parliament in his new term. The law, which drew cross-party support, removes words including as "husband", "wife", "mother" and "father" from the Marriage Act and replaces them with the gender-neutral "spouse", "parent who gave birth" and "parent who did not give birth". Muscat said such wording was needed to avoid categorizing any member of society. He rejected accusations that this could spell the end to "Mother's Day" or "Father's Day", saying such suggestions were "laughable". "I think this is an historic vote. It shows that our democracy and our society are maturing ... It is a society where we can all say we are equal," the prime minister told reporters. Muscat won a second term in office on June 3 and had vowed to reinforce his call for equality in society. Once a staunchly conservative nation, Malta has been steadily adopting more progressive legislation in recent years. In 2011, the country voted in a referendum to allow divorce, and in 2014 it approved civil partnerships. Malta was the 24th country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage with Tuesday's vote coming just two weeks after German lawmakers approved a similar measure in June. The opposition Nationalist Party backed the introduction of same-sex marriage, despite fierce criticism from some conservatives, who said it marked a damaging departure from the party's Christian-Democratic principles. "You have pushed the party into a lose-lose situation and it seems many of you cannot even see it," said former finance minister Tonio Fenech, who is no longer a member of parliament. In the end, only one opposition lawmaker voted against the bill, while 66 parliamentarians supported it. There were no abstentions. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said his party backed the law because society was changing and because it did not alter anything from the civil partnerships law which gave civil partners the same rights as married couples. The Malta Gay Rights Movement celebrated the new law with a party attended by hundreds in a square outside the prime minister's office in the capital, Valletta. (Reporting by Chris Scicluna; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Bank-goers withdrawing cash from an ATM in Corpus Christi, Texas got more than their money's worth Wednesday afternoon when notes begging for help popped out of the receipt slot.

A contractor changing the electronic locks to the machine at a Bank of America's ATM was accidentally locked inside the room connected to the ATM outside and desperately sent S.O.S notes.

"Please Help. I'm stuck in here, and I don't have my phone. Please call my boss," read one of the notes.

Man trapped in ATM slips notes to customers begging for help https://t.co/ud7gVBWZp4 pic.twitter.com/1OpMMF6Log  Orlando Sentinel (@orlandosentinel) July 13, 2017

According to local police, the unnamed contractor left his phone and swipe card in his truck and couldn't get out.

"He left his phone in his truck, hes installing a new lock on the door, and he gets locked inside the building where the ATM is," Officer Richard Olden of Corpus Christi Police explained to local Texas station KRIS-TV.

A report in the Washington Post stated that officers on the scene estimated that the contractor  whose name and business was withheld from the report  was stuck in the ATM for 2 hours.

International Business Times attempted to contact the Corpus Christi Police to confirm the amount of time he was stuck in the room, but received no answer.

READ: Bank Of America Earnings Could Soar As Interest Rates Grow Higher

Corpus Christi police lieutenant Chris Hooper confirmed Olden's account of the incident and said that the contractor was stuck Wednesday when he attempted to change the lock that leads to the ATM.

"You cant just turn the knob and exit," Hooper told the Washington Post.

Since the ATM still worked outside while the contractor was trapped inside the ATM room, people who were routinely getting cash were met with notes slipped through the receipt slot.

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Officer Olden said that at first, the people receiving the notes thought it was a joke, but eventually someone took the notes seriously and called the authorities. Police arrived at around 2 p.m. and had to kick down a door to get him out of the room.

"We come out here, and sure enough we can hear a little voice coming from the machine. So we are thinking this is a joke. It's got to be a joke," Olden said, adding that it was a "once in a lifetime situation."

READ: Bank Of America Blank Email: 'No Subject' Messages Widely Reported By Users

Twitter users agreed Thursday that they would have thought that notes coming from an ATM would be a joke while others were confused as to how someone could be stuck inside an ATM.

I'll admit, if I received 1 of these notes, i would have thought I was on a Punk'd episode. https://t.co/r1jfei1Qw5  Myles Bartley (@mbart1990) July 13, 2017

I'm wondering the same thing Even more Write a letter?He must carry a Pen lol  Robert J Pippet Sr (@RobertpippetSr) July 13, 2017

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Watch this video and ask yourself when you realize Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala knows this stop is...suspect.

Video of two Orlando officers pulling over Ayala  the only black state attorney ever elected in Florida  was released last month and has now begun to bounce around the internet. The interaction between Ayala and one of the officers gets a bit awkward after he asks what agency she's with and she replies that she's the state attorney.

"Thank you, your tag didn't come back," the officer says by way of explanation, meaning that they scanned her license plate and didn't get a match to a registered vehicle. "I've never seen that before."

Ayala asks why her tag was run, and the officer says they do it all the time to check for stolen vehicles and such.

And then he says, "also the windows are really dark," the officer says, at which point viewers can see Ayala look straight ahead and let a smile spread across her face that says something along the lines of, "...right."

"I don't have a tint measure, but that's another reason for the stop," he says. Ayala then asks for the names of the officers.

The state attorney has since said that the tint "was in no way a violation of Florida law." She did call the stop "lawful," though she also wants to sit down with the chief of Orlando police to talk about what happened.

The police, for their part, defended their practices in a statement.

"The Orlando Police Department allows the running of tags for official business only, and this is done routinely on patrol," department officials wrote in the statement. "As you can see in the video, the window tint was dark, and officers would not have been able to tell who, or how many people, were in the vehicle. No complaint has been filed in reference to this traffic stop."
After first lady Melania Trump touched down in Paris with her husband Thursday, she headed to a local childrens hospital to meet the patients.

Read: What Does the Body Language of President Trump and Vladimir Putin Say About Their First Meeting?

Melania visited Necker Hospital, which is the countrys largest and oldest pediatric infirmary. It was founded in 1778.

The first lady, who speaks French, chatted with children in the Enfants Malades wing. During the visit, she also met and shook hands with doctors, nurses and other staff.

She later shared an image of her meeting one of the children on Twitter.

Thank U @hospital_necker for allowing me to visit your wonderful patients & inspirational staff. Continued prayers for good health for all. pic.twitter.com/3keri8EUC4

 Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) July 13, 2017

The hospital also shared images.

Necker Hospital has previous ties to America. The late street artist Keith Haring donated a large sculpture to the facility in 1987.

Read: No Room at the Inn for President Trump as All Luxury Hotels in Hamburg Are Booked

The Trumps are in France for a two-day visit to celebrate Bastille Day. On Thursday, while Melania spent time at the hospital, her husband partook in official duties for the French holiday.

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The first family was also in Europe last week for the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

Watch: Pope Francis Asks Melania What She Feeds President Trump

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The mom whose baby went limp in her arms on a stifling plane last month is speaking out about the day she thought she was losing her 4-month-old son.

Read: United Apologizes After Toddler Bumped From Flight Has to Sit on Mom's Lap for 3-Hour Journey

The plane was an oven with wings, Emily France told Inside Edition.

Her ordeal started when she and her baby, Owen, got on a United Airlines flight at the airport in Denver headed to El Paso.

They were going to meet her husband, Kevin, who is an astrophysicist.

When I boarded I noticed how hot it was immediately and I started putting wet wipes on Owen to try to keep him cool, she recalled. They kept assuring us we were gonna take off (and) it would cool off as soon as we took off.

But after about an hour, the plane was still on the ground and there was no air conditioning.

She says she was allowed to take her son off the aircraft for a while to cool down, but when they got back on, the cabin was still stifling.

They closed the doors, we were taxiing, the heat was unbearable inside the plane, especially for an infant ... (they) can't tolerate the same heat adults can, she said.

No one ever gave us an explanation. I heard the flight attendant say a million times It just won't cool off 'till we're in the air, she said.

As the delays continued, the heat in the plane got worse.

A mother knows, I heard a cry from him I have never heard before and I saw a skin color Id never seen, she said. And then he just stopped crying and went limp in my arms.

The flight attendants were bringing ice in garbage bags to hold against his body and ice wrapped in napkins and passengers were helping me and saying strip his clothes off.

The photo of the concerned mother at the open door while she waits for an ambulance made headlines around the world.

That is the worst moment of my life and it was just complete chaos around me. It was clear that they didn't know what to do, she said.

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She did believe she was going to lose her son.

Read: Woman Feared for Son's Life After He Passed Out on Hot Airplane: "The Worst Moment of My Life'

I was standing in front of the open plane door stuck on the tarmac and I just thought please don't go, she added.

The ambulance arrived and rushed Owen to the hospital and is now back home.

I know he lost consciousness ... I'm hoping for the best. We're really scared. I'm watching him, she added.

United told Inside Edition in a statement "this should never have happened. We are profoundly sorry to our customer and her child for the experience they endured. We are actively looking into what happened to prevent this from occurring again."

Watch: United Passenger Says She Was Forced to Urinate in Cup After Airline Forbid Her From Using Bathroom

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The mother of a 4-month-old baby who overheated on a United Airlines flight last month spoke out about the incident in a new ABC interview that aired Thursday. After the child began screaming, his eyes rolled in the back of his head before he fell limp with shallow breathing as a result of the temperature in the cabin while the plane was taxiing. France claims she was forced to wait 15 minutes before she was able to exit the plane and be rushed to an emergency room, where the infant was hospitalized.

France revealed in the new interview that she feared for her infant sons life aboard the Texas-bound flight from Denver International Airport during a heatwave. Flight crew let France and her son off the plane to cool off during a delay, with the pair eventually returning to the plane some 20 minutes later to await departure. But the flight was again delayed, at which time her sons health reportedly began deteriorating at a rapid pace. She recalled to ABC that it was extremely hot on the plane and added that everyone was complaining.

A mom knows, and he made a cry that Ive never heard before, France told ABC News. His coloring  Ive never seen that color before. He was screaming, and then he just stopped. And my son went limp in my arms.

Read: United Airlines Apologizes To Colorado Mother Whose Infant Son Fell Ill Aboard Delayed Flight

France said she then requested an ambulance, but it was another 15 minutes before she was able to exit the carrier. In the absence of stairs to exit the plane and no jetway, she was unable to leave the aircraft. When asked if she feared for her sons life, she replied, I thought I was going to lose my son.

They looked at me and said, We cant get you off the plane. That was the worst moment of my life, she said.

Ultimately, the child was able to receive medical care and was discharged from the hospital the same day. United Airlines confirmed the incident in a statement to International Business Times.

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This should never have happened, a United Airlines spokesperson said. We are profoundly sorry to our customer and her child for the experience they endured. We are actively looking into what happened to prevent this from occurring again.

The airline also confirmed the length of time that France awaited medical attention for her son as his condition continued to worsen, a situation she described as chaos.

The pilot returned to the gate as the crew called for paramedics to meet the aircraft, a spokesperson said. Medical care was provided to the child within 16 minutes of the Captains call for paramedics.

Read: Gay Father Plans To Sue United Airlines After Being Accused Of Molesting Son On Flight

Speaking with the Denver Post last month, Frances attorney David Rapoport revealed that he and his client planned to approach the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board with the incident. He also threatened a possible lawsuit against United Airlines.

Cabin safety for infants and everyone else is part of an airlines job, Rapoport said. Airlines owe their passengers the highest duty of care under federal and state law. Infant safety is part of that duty, and the airline here failed everyone aboard that overheated flight.

According to ABC News, United Airlines has yet to apologize to France directly for the incident. When asked whether the airline's staff was prepared to deal with an emergency situation like hers, France replied absolutely not. She said she hopes that sharing her story will enact change to prevent similar incidents from occurring.

I want to share it in hopes that another mom or parent never has to go through this ever again, she said.

United Airlines

Photo: Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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An FBI agent testified Monday that an MS-13 gang member filmed and narrated the killing of a 15-year-old girl in a Virginia park, according to the Washington Post Monday.

Damaris Reyes Rivas, 15, was killed in a Fairfax County Virginia park on Jan. 8, 2017. Authorities said Venus Romero Iraheta, 17, was one of ten members of the MS-13 gang who killed Rivas. The gang members were reportedly authorized to kill Rivas because they claimed she had a role in the death of her boyfriend, a fellow MS-13 gang member named Christian Sosa Rivas. The two were of no relation. Eight others are tied to the death of Sosa Rivas in early January 2017.

Read: How The MS-13 Street Gang Was Started In The US

Iraheta allegedly told Rivas, see you in hell before stabbing her 13 times with a knife. Another gang member then used a wooden stake to stab her in the neck. Iraheta previously had a sexual relationship with Sosa Rivas.

A 17-year-old boy named Jose Cerrato reportedly helped plan Rivass killing. He filmed Iraheta stabbing her because he planned to send the video to MS-13 leaders as proof that he could follow orders.

It is unclear if the video was sent, but Cerrato was promoted within the gang after the killing, testified FBI Special Agent Fernando Uribe to a Fairfax County judge Monday.

romero iraheta mugshot

Photo: Fairfax Count Police

A Fairfax County judge ruled Iraheta would be tried as an adult, according to CBS-affiliate WUSA in May 2017. Cerrato, as well as four other gang members, would also be tried as adults. Iraherta and Cerrato face murder and other charges.

MS-13, short for Mara Salvatrucha, was established in the 1980s as an international criminal gang meant to protect Salvadoran immigrants in California from other gangs. The gang presence grew and it is now active in 42 states, Washington D.C. and parts of Central America, mostly El Salvador. The 13 in the name indicates the 13 seconds members are beaten as part of gang initiation. The FBI reported that MS-13 has over 6,000 members.

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If someone dies in a clique as a result of a fellow member, the person is killed in retaliation, Agent Uribe said Monday.

Read: How Many MS-13 Gang Members Are There In US? Los Angeles Police Arrest 21 Members

Cerrato was close friends with slain 21-year-old Sosa Rivas. He and other members of MS-13 lured Rivas into a park on Jan. 8, where they interrogated her over her involvement in the death of Sosa Rivas. Iraheta also reportedly cut off Rivass diamond tattoo.

Agent Uribe testified that the gang members tortured Rivas and forced her to strip so she could feel the pain Sosa Rivas felt before he died. According to the search warrant, video footage shot by Cerrato show Rivas bleeding on the ground.

more mugshot 2

Photo: Fairfax Police Department

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Photo: Fairfax Police Department

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President Trump fired off a string of tweets about health care while in France, where he is visiting French President Emmanuel Macron.

Trump released the burst of health care tweets as he headed over to Fridays Bastille Day Parade, visibly increasing pressure on Republican lawmakers to fulfill his longtime campaign promise to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Republicans Senators are working hard to get their failed ObamaCare replacement approved, Trump tweeted. I will be at my desk, pen in hand!

Republicans Senators are working hard to get their failed ObamaCare replacement approved. I will be at my desk, pen in hand!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2017

Trump singled out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has struggled to gain enough GOP support to pass the health care legislation through the Republican-controlled Senate. The president warned Republican lawmakers that after seven years of OCare disaster that they must come through and pass the bill.

So impt Rep Senators, under leadership of @SenateMajLdr McConnell get healthcare plan approved. After 7yrs of OCare disaster, must happen! After all of these years of suffering thru ObamaCare, Republican Senators must come through as they have promised! Trump wrote.

Trump also praised Vice President Mike Pence, who worked to pass the House version of the legislation. The presidents tweets about the vice president reportedly came as Trump stepped out of his limo.

.@VP Mike Pence is working hard on HealthCare and getting our wonderful Republican Senators to do what is right for the people, Trump tweeted.

POTUS is tweeting about Pence while stepping out of his limo. Whatta town!  Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 14, 2017

Senate Republicans unveiled the latest draft of the health care legislation on Thursday. Because Democrats have maintained a united front against the bill, McConnell can only afford to lose two GOP votes in order to pass the bill with Pences tie-breaking vote.

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So far, two GOP senators have publicly announced their opposition to the Thursday version of bill. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have even said they will vote against the motion to proceed on the legislation.

Still deep cuts to Medicaid in Senate bill. Will vote no on MTP. Ready to work w/ GOP & Dem colleagues to fix flaws in ACA.  Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) July 13, 2017

The health care bill doesn't sound much like repeal to me. Lets stop them. Now. https://t.co/7wHBrxYzam  Rand Paul (@DrRandPaul) July 12, 2017

Trump is scheduled to return from France later in the day Friday.

Read more from Yahoo News:
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Prominent Palestinian politician and rights campaigner Khalida Jarrar has been ordered detained for six months without trial by Israeli authorities, a rights group said.

Jarrar was arrested earlier this month over her membership of a movement that Israel considers a terrorist organisation.

She had been released from prison only a year before.

A legislator in the largely defunct Palestinian parliament, she was given a six-month administrative detention order, said the Addameer rights NGO that she used to head.

A confirmation hearing will be held at Ofer military court in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on July 17, Addameer said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

The detention "constitutes an attack against Palestinian civil society leaders", the movement said.

The Israeli army said Jarrar was arrested on July 2 and that a six-month administrative detention order was issued against her because of her activities "as an important official of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organisation".

In a statement it said such orders are issued as a preventive measure of last resort in cases where detainees represent "a serious and concrete threat to security".

Jarrar is a senior figure in the PFLP, a Marxist party considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

Many of its leaders are in custody and Jarrar has been jailed multiple times.

The 54-year-old had only been released in June 2016 after 14 months in an Israeli jail for allegedly encouraging attacks against Israelis.

Israel's controversial administrative detention policy allows imprisonment without trial for six-month periods, renewable indefinitely.

Israel says the policy is intended to allow authorities to hold suspects while continuing to gather evidence, with the aim of preventing attacks in the meantime.

But the system has been criticised by Palestinians, human rights groups and members of the international community who say Israel abuses the measure.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club says around 6,500 Palestinians are currently in Israeli jails, including around 500 in administrative detention.

Jarrar is the 11th member of the Palestinian parliament currently in jail, according to the prisoners' club.
The parents could face the death penalty should they be convicted: Weber County Sheriff Department

Parents in Utah have been charged with the murder of their three-year-old daughter after over a year of taunting the child with food.

Cellphone video taken by the parents shows Brenda Emile, 22, and Miller Costello, 25, offering their malnourished food before snatching it away to discipline her. A progression of the videos shows the toddlers physical condition getting worse over about a year and a half, local media reports.

Her extremely malnourished body was found at the familys home after the parents called the police to report that she wasnt breathing.

Police said that the girl was covered in wounds  burns, cuts, and bruises  and that the injuries were in various levels of healing. Some appeared to be fresh. Others were much older, they said.

The cell phones of the parents showed that they had abused the girl between January 2016 and June 2017, and the girl was visibly upset in the videos. One showed the father smacking her in the face with an infants foot.

Mr Costello acknowledged to police that he knew that the child was in danger of dying if he didnt bring her to get help, but that he did not go to a doctor. He indicated that Ms Emile had told her that the childs siblings had injured her, but that she was fearful of bringing her to the doctor for fear of a police investigation, and losing her children.

Two other children were taken away from the house to be put in state child protective services.

Prosecutors have charged the parents with aggravated murder, which could lead to the death penalty if they are convicted.

The Utah prosecutors are asking that the parents be held without bail, noting that they have ties in several other states and that Mr Costello frequently travels for his job as a scrap metal dealer.
President Trump once described his friend Jim as a "very, very substantial guy," but people are seriously starting to doubt if Trump's friend Jim is even real.

In the past, Trump has used his friend Jim as a puppet to push messages about Paris. Trump spoke of Jim on the campaign trail and, in February, used his story as an example at CPAC in Maryland to show how terrible terrorism has become in Paris.

SEE ALSO: Trump is getting crushed at his own handshake game

No matter the issue, Trump knows a guy https://t.co/cIOonfB7Hy



Meet Jim, a very, very substantial guy who says Paris is no longer Paris pic.twitter.com/u2H7kiCbon  Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) February 24, 2017

Nobody knows if Jim is real or not, and people are strongly considering that Trump made up an imaginary friend and named him Jim.

According to a new report from the Associated Press, the identity of Jim remains a mystery. Trump has never provided a last name for Jim, and the White House did not respond to a request for comment about the identity of Jim.

Following the story of Jim at CPAC in February, Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, trolled Trump and Jim on Twitter using a photo of herself with a Disney exec, joined by Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

A Donald et son ami Jim, depuis @LaTourEiffel nous celebrons l'attractivite de #Paris avec Mickey et Minnie. pic.twitter.com/unuRB1traY  Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) February 24, 2017

To Donald and his friend Jim, Hidalgo wrote in French. Celebrating the attractiveness of Paris with Mickey and Minnie.

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In March the New Yorker also attempted to find out who the mysterious Jim is  unsuccessfully. They proposed plenty of men named Jim which Trump was either friendly with or worked with previously, but were unable to find him.

So is Jim even real?

Let us remind you that Trump  yes, the President of the United States of America  has admitted to making up fake people in the past, so it's not below him to possibly make up a Jim to push a narrative.

In 2016, The Washington Post reported that Trump previously posed as men, named John Barron and John Miller, to act as a bragging spokesperson for himself. Trump denied the allegations, but the Post also dug up a lawsuit from 1990, in which Trump confirmed that he had previously used the name John Barron.

I believe on occasion I used that name, Trump said at the time.

It's a simple fix, really. The White House can tell the world the true identity of Trump's friend Jim. Until then, the world will speculate that Jim is very much an imaginary person.

can someone please explain to me if imaginary Jim is real or not https://t.co/AQFDImX2IS  chelsea hassler (@chelseaadelaine) July 12, 2017

The President of the United States has an imaginary friend named Jim https://t.co/iMNewPVg5q  Henry Leconte (@henrylec1) July 12, 2017

Trump in Paris: The curious case of his friend "Jim." (Spoiler alert: Jim is not John Barron but may be imaginary.) https://t.co/Qf8tSQpbpW  Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) July 12, 2017

"The White House has not responded to a request for comment about who Jim is..."



https://t.co/YJpFe0Qw6k  Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) July 12, 2017
The person of interest in the disappearance of four young Pennsylvania men has confessed to murdering them, a defense attorney told reporters Thursday evening.

Cosmo DiNardo, 20, feels deep remorse and is very emotional," said Paul Lang, one of his lawyers.

Read: Person of Interest Arrested in Case of 4 Missing Pennsylvania Men

In exchange for his full confession, DiNardo will be spared the death penalty, Lang said.

A motive for the killings was not released. DiNardo has a history of mental illness and has previously been held against his will in a psychiatric facility, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by Bucks County police.

Late Thursday, The Associated Press reported DiNardo killed the men because he felt cheated or threatened during drug transactions, according to an anonymous source with knowledge of his confession.

"Every death was related to a purported drug transaction, and at the end of each one there's a killing," the person said, according to The AP.

DiNardo said he killed the men after selling them marijuana and burned their bodies at his parent's farm, the wire service said.

As he was led out of a Bucks County courthouse in shackles earliler Thursday, DiNardo said "I'm sorry," to reporters who yelled questions at him.

The remains of 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro were found Wednesday in a 12-foot grave on a sprawling farm owned by DiNardos family, authorities said. Other remains were also found there, and DiNardo told authorities where to find all of the bodies, his attorney said.

Social media erupted Thursday with photos of DiNardo apparently holding a gun, and allegations that he exhibited aggressive behavior and wrote disturbing online posts.

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Look at these pictures. Looks like a pretty scary guy to me. Mental illness and firearms do not mix well. #cosmodinardo #missing4 #cosmo pic.twitter.com/aB0X3mrms8  James Leech (@JamesLeech19) July 13, 2017

DiNardo's parents reportedly own a successful concrete and construction business.

Jimi Tar Patrick, 19, has been missing since last Wednesday. Finocchiaro, Mark Sturgis, 22, and Tom Meo, 21, disappeared last Friday.

DiNardo has been arrested twice since the young men, who knew each other, vanished last week.

Read: Body Found in Mass Grave Identified as 1 of 4 Missing Pennsylvania Men

On Monday, he was picked up on a weapons charge and held in lieu of $1 million bail. His parents posted his bond on Tuesday night.

He was back in custody Wednesday for allegedly trying to sell Meos car, prosecutors said.

On Thursday, his attorney said he confessed to killing the four men. Prosecutors did not immediately comment on what charges DiNardo may now face.

A phone message left Thursday night by InsideEdition.com with Lang's office was not returned.

Watch: Police Searching for 4 Young Men Who Went Missing Within Days of Each Other

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By Mitra Taj and Teresa Cespedes LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's former President Ollanta Humala and his wife turned themselves in to authorities late on Thursday after a judge ordered them to spend up to 18 months in jail while prosecutors prepare charges against them for alleged money laundering. The ruling by Judge Richard Concepcion, which triggered jeers from the couple's supporters during a public hearing that stretched over two days, marked the second time he has mandated jail time for an ex-president since a massive graft scandal in neighboring Brazil rippled into Peru. Prosecutor German Juarez cited testimony from former executives of Brazilian builder Odebrecht - at the center of the graft scandal - to accuse Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, of taking $3 million that allegedly stems from corruption.Juarez also accused the couple of taking illegally-obtained cash from late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. "Here's a president who rose to the presidency and governed us with an electoral campaign built on illicit money. Thats serious because it morally wounds society," Juarez said. Humala, a mild-mannered former military officer who governed Peru from 2011 to 2016, turned himself in with Heredia, the co-founder of his nationalist party, immediately after the ruling. Both denied wrongdoing and called their pre-trial detention unfair. "This confirms abuse of power, which we will face in defense of our rights and the rights of all," Humala said on social network Twitter, as television showed images of the couple walking into a building of holding cells, escorted by police. The ruling came a day after former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for graft and dealt a further blow to the left in Latin America. Unlike Humala, Lula will remain free on appeal. Humala recast himself as a more moderate leftist like Lula to win the 2011 election, following an unsuccessful 2006 presidential bid as an ally of Chavez. He ended his five-year term with low approval ratings last year, despite backing private investment and starting social programs for the poor. Humala's downfall jolted Peru's political system, though he is not expected to run for office again. Rightwing groups celebrated his downfall, while leftists urged prosecutors to investigate Odebrecht's links to conservative politicians. Centrist ex-president Alejandro Toledo, believed to be in the United States, refused to turn himself in this year, after Concepcion ordered him jailed before a trial over allegations of having taken a $20-million bribe from Odebrecht. Toledo and Humala rose to power on the support of those who once believed they would counter the graft and autocratic rule of the 1990-2000 government of then president Alberto Fujimori. President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has said he might pardon the rightwing Fujimori, who is now serving a 25-year sentence for human rights violations and corruption, in a quest for better ties with Fujimori's supporters in Congress. (Reporting by Mitra Taj, Teresa Cespedes and Reuters TV; Editing by Paul Tait and Clarence Fernandez)
A series of strange selfies are being used by police to help capture a Texas woman who's on the lam with her 5-year-old daughter, authorities said.

Megan Boulter, 25, is wanted by the Kaufman Police Department in a bizarre shoplifting case where the woman twice tried to run over a Walmart store detective, Capt. Ed Black told InsideEdition.com Wednesday.

Read: Shoplifter Made Decoy Baby Out of Bra in Attempt to Steal Goods: Police

"We still havent caught her yet," Black said. Officers took several selfies from the womans Facebook page, sporting different hair colors and styles, and posted them on the departments social media sites. In the images, Boulter makes several wacky faces and sticks out her tongue.

The mother was observed shoplifting last week with her 5-year-old daughter in tow, the chief said. When she was approached by loss prevention officer, she ran into the parking lot dragging the baby along, Black said.

Boulter jumped into her red Dodge Challenger, with the female security agent on her heels, he said. The woman slammed the car in reverse and tried to back over the loss prevention officer. Twice, Black said.

Read: Suspected Shoplifter Caught Outside Ikea With Frying Pan Stuffed Down Her Leggings

She sped out of the lot and led police on a high-speed chase down a four-lane highway, passing cars on the shoulder, he said. Because there was a child in the car, officers called off the pursuit, Black said.

Police are asking for the publics help in finding Boulter, who has been hiding out in different locations, helped by a male friend, Black said.

Weve come close to getting her twice now, he said. Both times we just missed her.

She faces charges of aggravated robbery and child endangerment, the chief said. She turned a simple shoplifting into a felony.

Watch: Employee Refuses to Let Alleged Shoplifter Go Until Cops Arrive

Story continues

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Some Americans and members of Congress have called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

What happens after a president is impeached?

The vice president would take his place, but other parts of the government continue unchanged. That may not be a bad thing. However, partisan polarization can be magnified in the process. Many Americans already think the government is too divided along partisan lines and that corruption has reached the highest levels of government. These beliefs fuel declines in public trust and dissatisfaction with the government in general.

In my book on the rule of law in Central America, I discuss several occasions in which presidents were removed from office before their terms ended. The current political crisis in the United States shares similarities with political issues in Latin America. We are seeing radical partisanship, public dissatisfaction and perceived poor government performance. Since only one U.S. president has left office due to wrongdoing, examples from Latin America can give us some perspective.

Lasting reforms after Watergate came from a Congressional committees investigation and recommendations, rather than from the simple resignation of President Nixon. Impeachment is inherently political and, as I have observed in Latin America, does more to punish enemies than clean up politics. Removing a president who is a bad apple may help, but a real cleansing takes more effort.

After impeachment

Take Brazil as a case in point. Former President Dilma Rousseff was impeached in 2016 in the midst of an anti-corruption investigation known as Operation Car Wash. There were already pending corruption investigations against 37 of 65 members of the congressional impeachment commission, but none of them were forced from office. It is no surprise that Rousseffs impeachment appeared to many to be inspired by sexism rather than just anti-corruption efforts.

Rousseffs replacement, President Michel Temer, was charged with corruption-related offenses in June 2017. However, Temers political party and their allies control the majority of the Congress and the president of the Congress is an ally of Temers. A formal impeachment is unlikely to go forward.

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We see a similar failure to pull out the root of corruption in the Guatemalan Spring of September 2015. Then Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina was forced to resign in the face of massive popular protests. He was implicated in an investigation into corruption at the national customs agency, for which he was arrested the day after his resignation. He had also been accused of taking bribes from a Spanish firm in exchange for granting it a lucrative long-term contract with the government of Guatemala.

An election was held just four days after Perez Molinas resignation. Jimmy Morales, a television comedian with no political experience, won the presidency over a former first lady. Morales ran as an outsider with the slogan not corrupt, not a thief. After his first year in office, which opponents have derided as inefficient, Morales is also facing a corruption scandal involving accusations that his son and brother had fraudulent dealings with a government agency.

Take an older example, from Honduras. The military coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in 2009 was authorized by that countrys Supreme Court and was backed by the majority of its Congress. The Honduran Supreme Court argued that Zelaya was planning to reform the constitution to give himself more power as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had done.

Some eight years after Zelaya was removed, Honduran political elites continue to participate in widespread corruption, including direct ties between some political elites and organized crime. Because so many of the elites are corrupt, none of them rock the boat.

Even prosecuting and jailing presidents for corruption doesnt seem to solve the problems that lead up to these crises. Often the rest of government continues to be overly partisan and even corrupt  and public satisfaction with government drops even lower.

In Nicaragua and Costa Rica, for example, former presidents have been jailed on corruption charges, but those convictions were ultimately overturned on appeal. In 2013, Guatemala became the first country to convict a former head of state of genocide in a national court. Ten days later, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court reversed General Efrain Rios Montts conviction over an evidentiary matter  although 2017 may yet see a new trial. The point is, it is extraordinarily difficult to make charges stick against even a former president, especially if he or she still has sizable support in the government.

Beyond impeachment

Problems with governance are rarely fixed by going after even an unpopular or corrupt president if fundamental institutional problems are allowed to continue unchecked. Impeachments weakness is compounded by its often partisan deployment.

What else can be done to clean up politics?

The hard work of demanding transparency more generally may help get at the root of the problem. Progress in Guatemala has been buoyed by an international anti-corruption commission that has helped local officials shine a light on official wrongdoing at every level of government.

Ultimately, using legal channels to improve political institutions, rather than focusing on just one bad politician, can enhance the rule of law.

Rachel E. Bowen, Associate Professor of Political Science, The Ohio State University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Photo: The Conversation

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By Alexandra Zaslow

The Queens skyline continues to evolve as tens of thousands of new apartment complexes and brand new skyscrapers are quickly rising to compliment the once solitary Citicorp building. New businesses moving into the vastly changing Long Island City Area include a large number of technology companies.

Companies like Shapeways, whose factory in LIC produces amazing products using 3D technology. Shapeways has over 8 Million products in their database, and use an online platform where over 40,000 people are selling their products online to customers around the world.

You can design products in your computer, you can upload them to our site and then we can turn them into real things using 3d printing, states Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO and Co-Founder of Shapeways.

Just around the block from the Shapeways warehouse lies C4Q, a nonprofit organization that is utilizing technology in the best way possible, education and community building. Founded by Jukay Hsu and David Yang, both from immigrant families who made their home in Queens, C4Q help adults move from poverty to the middle class by running a ten month program that teaches the student how to code.

On average, our students go from making 18,000 to 85,000 a year, and they work at some of the best tech companies here in New York City and across the United States, Yang said.

The program embraces diversity, with participants of all genders and color learning skills that may have been hard to find in their immediate surroundings.
UPDATE: 6:10 p.m. EDT  Cosmo DiNardo admitted on Friday to killing all four of the missing Pennsylvania men and revealed the locations of their bodies to the police, the Associated Press reported Friday. DiNardo was formerly a person of interest in the case.

Original story:

The man who authorities called a person of interest in the disappearance of four Pennsylvania men apparently exchanged text messages with his friends about the men. Shared with the Philadelphia Inquirer by an unidentified source involved in the conversation, the text messages appeared to show Cosmo DiNardo unconcerned about the missing men.

Authorities continued searching Thursday for Jimi Patrick, 19, Tom Meo, 21, Mark Sturgis, 22, and Dean Finocchiaro, 19, all of whom last week were seen for the last time in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Read: Case Of 4 Missing Pennsylvania Men Has Mind-Boggling Scope, Authorities Say

Cosmo isnt your buddy Dean missing, one person in the group message asked last weekend. Arent you worried about buddydead [sic] dean.

I mean, I know the kid, Cosmo answered. But yeah I feel bad for his parents. Hes a pill-popping junky who had 2 duis He prob just jumped parole Or probation.

The group messages shared were part of a Snapchat conversation titled, Tom WYA, a reference to Tom Meo, one of the missing men. WYA stood for where you at?"

Tom where the [expletive] you at? one message read. Mark where the [expletive] you at? Dean aka Ryan Smith where the [expletive] you at?

Two unidentified participants in the conversation said Ryan Smith was a pseudonym for Finocchiaro.

DiNardo, 20, was arrested Wednesday after being accused of stealing and trying to sell the car of one of the missing men. Police found a deep grave on a massive farmland property belonging to DiNardos parents Wednesday evening. The human remains inside were confirmed to be one of the four missing men, identified as Finocchiaro.

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In another portion of the messages, DiNardo complained about people coming onto his familys property.

Yeah well a bunch of people went to my properties and now the cops are waiting to arrest them for trespassing, he said.

DiNardo also said he couldnt understand why investigators were searching the land.

Because no reason for people tone [sic] at my place where we dont live, he wrote. I have no clue bro its weird people keep hitting me up I have no idea whats up.

Read: Police Suspect Foul Play As 4 Pennsylvania Men Go Missing In Single Week

After unearthing Finocchiaros remains, authorities continued the search for the other missing three boys. Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said Thursday the situation was a homicide, make no mistake about it.

We are going to bring each and every one of these lost boys home to their families, said Weintraub. One way or another.

Cosmo DiNardo

Photo: Twitter

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By Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia sought to reassure NATO on Thursday that its war games in September would respect international limits on size, but NATO's chief remained wary about their scale and scope. Russia and Belarus aim to hold maneuvers that some NATO allies believe could number more than 100,000 troops and involve nuclear weapons training, the biggest such exercise since 2013. NATO allies are nervous because previous large-scale Russian exercises employed special forces training, longer-range missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles. Such tactics were later used in Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and in its intervention in Syria, NATO diplomats say. After a meeting on Monday of the NATO-Russia Council, a liaison forum, Moscow's ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization called on the alliance to stop "demonising" the exercises. "Today was a major step, we were asked to brief on (the) Zapad exercises and I really hope this will help stop the demonising ... and rumors about threats," Alexander Grushko told reporters, using the Russian name of the maneuvers. "The problem is..., we read a lot of speculation and have heard from NATO countries. Some were saying it would be 200,000 in number, some were saying 100,000. Today we gave our figures," Grushko told a news conference. He declined to give details. Under a Cold War-era treaty known as the Vienna document, which sets out rules for large-scale exercises, war games should not number more than 13,000 troops, should be publicized well in advance and should be open to observers. Grushko said that if Zapad reached the Vienna threshold, Moscow would invite observers. TENSIONS PERSIST NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg declined to discuss Russian troop numbers that were divulged at the session of the NATO-Russia Council, which brings together NATO envoys and Russia's top diplomat to the alliance. However, he said that judging by past experiences, Moscow could still mask the true size and scope of the war games. "From previous experience, related to previous exercises, we have every reason to believe that there may be substantially more troops participating than the official reported numbers," Stoltenberg told a separate news conference. The Baltic states have said they will press the United States and NATO to take additional security measures in the region. Estonia has said Russia may leave troops in Belarus after the exercises finish. Such a move could see Russian troops on the border with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia just as U.S.-led NATO stations multinational battalions in the Baltic region in response to Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea. Despite what officials said was a calm and professional meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, the public comments pointed to tensions that persist between Russia and NATO since Crimea's annexation and Moscow's support for separatists in Ukraine. Little progress appeared to be made on efforts to fly warplanes more safely over the Baltic Sea after the latest intercepts that both sides say involved dangerous pilot maneuvers. NATO wants Moscow to file the flight plans of Russian pilots, respond to air traffic control or identify themselves with cockpit transmitters, known as transponders. The Kremlin says all Russian flights over the Baltic are conducted in strict accordance with international law. (Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Mark Heinrich)
WASHINGTON  The Russian-American lobbyist who attended a controversial June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. said he was there by chance, as a result of a last-minute invite, and that he strolled into Trump Tower without anybody asking for proof of who he was.

No one asked us for IDs, Rinat Akhmetshin told Yahoo News in a brief telephone interview Friday. We literally walked in without any security check.

Akhmetshins presence at the meeting, first reported by NBC News, raised new questions about the credibility of multiple White House statements about the meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer that was also attended by Paul Manafort, then Trumps campaign chief, and Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law.

It has also raised new questions about the purpose of the meeting given that Akhmetshin, who once served in the Soviet military, has long been suspected of Russian intelligence ties  allegations that he has persistently denied.

As Akhmetshin related to Yahoo News from the French seaside town of Biarritz, where he said he was surfing with his daughter, he happened to be having lunch in June 2016 with Natalia Veselnitskaya  the Russian lawyer with whom he had partnered in lobbying against the Magnitsky Act, a law passed by Congress and bitterly opposed by the Russian government, to impose sanctions on human rights abusers in Russia and other countries.

Rinat Akhmetshin (Photo: Hermitage Capitol)

To fight the law, Veselnitskaya had set up a Delaware limited liability corporation called the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative. The group spent $120,000 to lobby Congress on the issue last year, with $10,000 of those funds going to Akhmetshin, according to lobbying records.

Akhmetshin said he was not expecting to attend any meeting at Trump Tower that day. In fact, he was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt when Veselnitskaya told him that she had a meeting scheduled and asked him to come along. Although Trump Jr. has insisted that Vesenikstaya mainly wanted to talk about Russian adoptions, Akhmetshin said she brought a folder with information about an American hedge fund operating in Russia that she believed was funneling money to the Democratic National Committee. She spent years researching this stuff, he said. She left the folder with her hosts at Trump Tower, Akhmetshin said, adding that he had never seen its contents and doesnt know the details of what was in it. I didnt prepare the document, he said.

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Akhmetshin cut the interview short, saying he had to have dinner with his daughter. Knowing of his work with Veselnitskaya, Yahoo News had originally reached him by phone in Moscow on Monday, not long after stories about the lawyers meeting at Trump Tower first broke. When asked why he didnt tell a reporter then that he had also attended the meeting with Trump Jr., he replied: You didnt ask me.

Read more from Yahoo News:
After the uproar of the Russian email controversy, the author of a Donald Trump tell-all book says Donald Jr. has always been the problem child.

Read: Meet the Publicist Behind Donald Trump Jr.'s Email Controversy

Donald Trump has often been asked, 'Which of your kids gave you most trouble, which was most problematic?' and his answer is always Donald Trump Jr., Washington Post senior editor Marc Fisher, the author of Trump Revealed, told Inside Edition.

His son was a key figure in Trump's campaign, but his relationship with his dad has been rocky in the past, especially after Donald Sr. divorced the mother of his three oldest children  Ivana  in 1992.

For more than a year after Donald Trump and Ivana separated, Donald Jr. did not talk to his father," Fisher told Inside Edition. "He was that angry, that alienated from his father, that betrayed and this period of rebellion went on for some years."

Father and son did eventually reconcile. The president even introduced him to his wife, former model Vanessa Haydon. She and Trump Jr. married in 2005 and have five children.

Meanwhile, questions have been raised about what President Trump knew about the explosive emails that promised incriminating info about Hillary Clinton.

A campaign speech was delivered on June 7, 2016, four days after Donald Trump Jr. was contacted by publicist Rob Goldstone, who said he had dirt on Clinton.

Trump, with Ivanka and Melania by his side, promised during the speech that he had some big news in the coming days on his opponent.

I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week, and were going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons, Trump said. I think youre going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. I wonder if the press will want to attend. Who knows?

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Two days later, Trump Jr. was to meet with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Goldstone about the alleged Clinton intel.

The New York Times obtained a screenshot of Goldstones Facebook page, showing that he checked into Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, the day of the gathering, with the status: Preparing for meeting.

Trump Jr. appeared on Hannity Tuesday night to defend himself and insist that his father knew nothing of the rendezvous.

"I didn't know if there was any credibility," Trump Jr. said. "I didn't know if there was anything behind it, I can't vouch for the information. Someone sent me an email. I can't help what someone sends me. I read it, I responded accordingly."

Trump Jr. denied knowing Veselnitskaya prior to the meeting. The attorney told NBC News Tuesday morning that she did not have "any damaging or sensitive information about Hillary Clinton.

She added: It was never my intention to have that."

The president took to Twitter Wednesday morning to defend his son and say everything is fine in Washington.

Read: Chelsea Clinton Lashes Out at President Trump Amid Ivanka Stand-In Uproar

My son Donald did a good job last night. He was open, transparent and innocent, he tweeted. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!

My son Donald did a good job last night. He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2017

The W.H. is functioning perfectly, focused on HealthCare, Tax Cuts/Reform & many other things. I have very little time for watching T.V, he added.

The W.H. is functioning perfectly, focused on HealthCare, Tax Cuts/Reform & many other things. I have very little time for watching T.V.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2017

Trump Jr. admitted to Hannity that he may have made a mistake.

In retrospect, I know more now, but hindsights always 20/20, he said.

Watch: Artist Creates Image of Vladimir Putin in Wheat Field Ahead of G20 Summit

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A second person was arrested Thursday in the case of four missing Pennsylvania men. Sean Kratz was arrested as an accomplice to Cosmo DiNardo, who confessed to either the participation in or commission of the murders of the four men.

Kratz, 20, was taken into custody mere hours after DiNardo admitted his involvement. In exchange for his confession, DiNardo, 20, prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty against him. DiNardo reportedly named Kratz as part of the agreement, a source told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Read: Who Is Cosmo DiNardo? Man Who Confessed In Pennsylvania Killings Previously Spoke Of Murder

Kratz allegedly used construction equipment to bury the four bodies, according to WPTS.

Kratz was out on bail on separate charges before his arrest in connection to the case. He had two burglary cases pending in the Philadelphia court system, the Inquirer reported. In the first, Kratz was charged with burglary, criminal trespassing, theft and receiving stolen property, among other charges in the 2016 case. The second charged him with conspiracy, burglary, trespassing, theft and other charges in an incident that took place about six months prior.

Jimi Patrick, 19, Tom Meo, 21, Mark Sturgis, 22, and Dean Finocchairo, 19, all went missing sometime last week. The remains of at least one of the men, Finocchiaro, were located on a 68-acre property belonging to DiNardos parents. Authorities said they were working to determine who the rest of the remains inside the 12-foot deep grave belonged to.

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub had not yet commented on Kratzs arrest or DiNardos confession.

DiNardo did not explicitly say whether he killed the men himself, his attorney Paul Lang said in relaying his clients confession. An unidentified source, however, told the Associated Press that DiNardo said he killed the men at separate times after selling them marijuana and then burned their bodies at the family farm. One victim was killed July 5 while the other three were killed July 7, the source said.

Story continues

Read: Texts From Cosmo DiNardo Show Lack Of Concern About Missing Pennsylvania Men

DiNardo, who reportedly suffered from schizophrenia, killed the men because he felt cheated or threatened during drug transactions, the AP report said.

Every death was related to a purported drug transaction, the unidentified source said. And at the end of each one theres a killing.

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President Donald Trump arrived in Paris on Thursday for a Bastille Day visit with French President Emmanuel Macron, with whom he has shared several awkward handshakes in recent months.

President Trump and First Lady Melania greeted their French counterparts outside Les Invalides before visiting the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Trump has demonstrated an inclination for intense handshakes, but in the short time since Macrons election, he and Trump have managed to draw international attention for their at-times awkward interactions.

Heres how the Trump-Macron greetings have evolved:

The swerve

One piece of footage from the Nato Summit in May showed Macron walking toward a group of NATO leaders. He appeared to be moving toward Trump, until he swerved to greet German Chancellor Angela Merkel first.

As far as Macrons concerned, Merkel is the most important person in the line-up, India Ford, a body language expert and the founder of Talkbodylanguage, told TIME in May. When he swerves towards her, you can see Trump thinking wait a second  Im the most important person here. Obviously, in any line-up youd go first to the person who demands the most respect. In Macrons eyes that must be Merkel and Trump is not pleased.

When Macron greeted Trump shortly after Merkel, their first handshake resembled an aggressive tug of war that lasted too long.

A Bruxelles, unis avec nos allies de @NATO. pic.twitter.com/7nyaoI8hki  Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 25, 2017

The knuckle-buster

Their second handshake at the NATO Summit also lasted an unusually long time, as the two leaders maintained a tight grip that turned their knuckles white before they finally pulled away. Its a very aggressive handshake  its like a knuckle-buster, Ford told TIME in May.

Story continues

President Trump and Emmanuel Macron had a really long handshake https://t.co/zRM6gTtk6Z pic.twitter.com/Vsc02QCGUT  TIME (@TIME) May 25, 2017

Tug of war style

Trump and Macron met again at the G20 Summit last week in Hamburg, Germany.

According to a pool report description, Macron came over and had another aggressive tug of war-style handshake with Trump, reminiscent of the drawn-out grip the two had in Brussels in May. This time, after a few seconds, Trump pulled Macrons hand toward his chest in more of a hand clasp.

Dont see the Trump-Macron handshake on wires. This bro-clasp is handshake-adjacent though:



???? Reuters pic.twitter.com/jt14ooiFDE  Tom Namako (@TomNamako) July 7, 2017

Bastille Day

Their greeting on Thursday appeared friendly  Macron put his left hand on Trumps back, and Trump patted Macrons arm. But once again, their handshake lasted an unusually long time, as both seemed reluctant to break away, even while Trump turned and appeared to comment on his surroundings.
By Julia Edwards Ainsley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday released a government form dealing with contacts he has had with foreign nationals, including Russian government officials, but much of it was redacted. Form SF-86, required for government employees working in national security, indicated Sessions has had no immediate contact with any foreign government or its representatives in the past seven years. However, Sessions has said he met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. A large portion of the document was left blank. As a United States Senator, the Attorney General met hundreds, if not thousands, of foreign dignitaries and their staff. In filling out the SF-86 form, the Attorney Generals staff consulted with those familiar with the process, as well as the FBI investigator handling the background check, and was instructed not to list meetings with foreign dignitaries and their staff connected with his Senate activities," said Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior. Sessions released the form in response to a lawsuit filed by American Oversight, a group that advocates for government transparency and sued DOJ in April after the extent of Sessions' contact with the Russian government was called into question. Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, said the form was evidence that Sessions lied to the FBI investigators overseeing his security clearance. "Jeff Sessions is our nation's top law enforcement officer, and it is shocking one of his first acts after being named Attorney General was to lie to the FBI on an issue of national security," Evers said. Sessions recused himself from the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the election after media reports revealed he held undisclosed meetings with Kislyak. Sessions admitted to having the interactions, but said they were held in his capacity as a U.S. senator, a position he occupied for 20 years before becoming attorney general. Former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in May, testified that his agency had information on Sessions that would lead them to believe his continued involvement in the federal probe would be "problematic." It was later reported that Sessions had another undisclosed interaction with Kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington in April 2016. Sessions told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had no recollection of the interaction. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is now leading the investigation into Russian meddling in the election. Read the full document http://tmsnrt.rs/2ueV9Ct (Reporting by Julia Edwards Ainsley; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Andrew Hay)
With Adam Rawnsley

Trump in France. President Donald Trump has landed in Paris, where hell meet French President Emmanuel Macron for talks on counterterrorism, and to attend the Bastille Day parade. For the first time, 200 U.S. servicemembers will lead the parade in Paris in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into the First World War.

The two leaders are also looking to make headway on their divisions over trade and climate change. And politically, both men have something to gain: Macron is seeking to raise his global profile early on in his administration, and Trump has been dealing with a series of domestic blows at home, revolving around Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The New York Times has a good timeline on the scandal this morning, here.

Trump will also huddle with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford and other U.S. military leaders in his quick, one-day trip.

Pentagon policy nominee rips Kremlin. While Trump has been cautious criticizing Russia  unlike virtually everyone else in his administration  his pick for the No. 2 policy job in the Pentagon David Trachtenberg wasnt shy about sharing his feelings on the Kremlin during his nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday.

Answering a question about Russian involvement in Syria, he said, I think Russias objectives in Syria are clearly antithetical to our objectives. I believe Russia has propped up the Syrian regime. It has been the greatest enabler of Bashar al Assads atrocities there against his own people. Russia has worked with Iran to destabilize the region. Russia has also threatened to shoot down American planes. The White House recently ordered the State Department and Pentagon to begin working on a ceasefire implementation plan with Russia in southwestern Syria.

NATO, Russia talk playing chicken. After a series of close calls in the skies over the Baltic Sea over the past two years, NATO and Russia will discuss flight safety in a meeting in Brussels on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal notes that the Baltic Sea has become the focal point for this new white-knuckle geopolitical tussle. Rhetoric is rising in the region, where newer NATO members on Russias border are nervous and Russias military has shown a willingness to use close intercepts as political messages.

Story continues

Russia gobbles up more of Georgia. Just before President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putins tete-a-tete at the G-20 on July 7, Russia quietly annexed about 10 hectares of Georgian territory on behalf of the Republic of South Ossetia, a polity recognized by just four countries (including Russia), writes FPs Noah Buyon. The move went largely unnoticed  except, of course, in Georgia proper, where Prime Minister Giorgi Margvelashvili decried creeping occupation. That generalized silence is what the Kremlin was counting on.

New U.S. bases in Syria. Some Internet sleuths have located what appear to be two more U.S. bases in Jordan and Syria. The two airstrips could support drones, helicopters, and special operations airplanes, the Daily Beast reports.



Iraq forcing ISIS families into camps. Human Rights Watch is claiming that Iraqi security forces have forcibly relocated at least 170 families of alleged Islamic State members to a closed rehabilitation camp as a form of collective punishment, Reuters reports. These abusive acts are war crimes and are sabotaging efforts to promote reconciliation in areas retaken from ISIS, said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

Naming names. The White House announced a series of appointments on Wednesday evening, led by Dr. Joseph H. Felter III as deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia. Felter is a former Army Special Forces officer and head of West Points Combating Terrorism Center.

 Andrew F. Knaggs has been also been selected for deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and combating terrorism.

 Kathryn L. Wheelbarger as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.

Welcome to SitRep. Send any tips, thoughts or national security events to paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or via Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley.

Carrier visit. Chinas first aircraft carrier is off on its maiden voyage, and passed through Taiwans air defense identification zone on its way back from a visit to Hong Kong, according to Reuters. The Liaoning has steamed close to Taiwan at least three times previously in what Taiwanese officials interpret as a show of force to what Beijing regards as a breakaway province.

Timing. Cyber Berkut, the hacking group described by U.S. intelligence as a front organization for Russian state-sponsored cyber activity, has awakened from months of slumber to post a conspiracy theory about Ukrainian government support for Hillary Clinton.

Tea for the Tillerman. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is headed back to Qatar in a bid to resolve the standoff between Doha and its neighbors. Tillerson already met with Dohas discontents in Saudi Arabia, but doesnt appear to be making any headway thus far, with Saudi officials reacting coolly to a recent countering terrorist financing agreement between the U.S. and Qatar.

How Kalashnikov got its groove back. Russias Kalashnikov Concern, maker of the iconic AK-47 assault rifle, was hit hard by U.S. sanctions against it in 2014, losing a chance to open up a factory in the United States. But now the Wall Street Journal reports that the company is back and doing better, doubling its revenues to $300 million. Sanctions forced the company to shift from catering to a civilian market to a military one, signing big ticket deals with governments in Asia and Africa.

Attack of the (hobby) drones. The Air Force is powerless to stop tiny hobby drones from buzzing its might F-22 air superiority fighter jets at Air Combat Command bases in the United States. Flight Global reports that Air Combat Command commander Gen. Mike Holmes complained that he lacks the authority to deal with the problem, noting that an F-22 narrowly avoided running into a small drone as it landed at a U.S. base.

Grunts in space. Congresss plan to carve a separate space service out of the Air Force is running into opposition from both the White House and Secretary of Defense James Mattis. In a letter to Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), Mattis writes that its premature to add additional organization and administrative tail to the department at a time I am trying to reduce overhead, according to The Hill. The White House also took a swipe at the space corps proposal in a statement of administration policy about the National Defense Authorization Act, saying its already in the midst of a strategic review on space issues and is ready to suggest modifications to the idea once its reviews are complete.
The Social Security and Medicare trustees issued their 2017 annual report on Thursday, and it began with an alarm bell.

Both Social Security and Medicare face long-term financing shortfalls under currently scheduled benefits and financing, the trustees wrote in the summary of the 268-page document. The Trustees recommend that lawmakers take action sooner rather than later to address these shortfalls.

The Trustees also projected the biggest increase in payouts in yearsa 2.2% increasewhich comes to an average of about $28 per person.

Insolvency is on track for 2028 for the disability fund and 2034 for seniors. Insolvent, however, does not mean empty; it means that the funds would not be able to completely fulfill its debts to the public. Its not as bad as a $0 check sent to American seniors, but the stakes are still high.

As the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-partisan group dedicated to balancing the budget, noted in a paper on Friday, the cuts would be large and abrupt and growing from 23% in 2034 to 27% in 2091. The late-century date may prove reassuring to some, but a 23% cut takes the average

Social Security benefit payout from around $1,400 to $1,080. This would be a significant blow.

Source: CRFB

A root cause for the financial woes for Medicare and Social Security is the aging baby boomer population, and the trustees estimate the cost jumps will be higher than any GDP growth that could potentially offset things. Meanwhile, lawmakers have not made progress addressing the difference between these two numbers by raising more money, raising the retirement age or dialing back payments.

The gap is getting bigger, and politicians have their heads in the sand, said Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Politically, the available options are incredibly explosive. Raising taxes is unpopular, and restricting payments to seniors is also unpopular. This leaves both Democrats and Republicans at an impasse.

Story continues

Ways to save the program

Lawmakers have proposed changing how benefits are calculated, raising the payroll tax slightly, or subjecting all wages to payroll taxes (right now, wages up to $127,200 get taxed for Social Security). The CRFB has a tool that lets people model the Social Security fund to see how different policy solutions would keep the program solvent.

For example, raising the payroll tax 0.7% and subjecting all wages to payroll tax would keep the program solvent for another 75 years. However, it would still be on a road to running out.

On the benefit-cutting side, slowing benefit growth for the top 70% of earners, increasing the retirement age, and modifying cost-of-living adjustments would close the funding gap, but also not permanently.

Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance focusing on consumer issues, tech, and personal finance. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann. Got a tip? Send it to tips@yahoo-inc.com.

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On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert had a little fun with flashcards, when he mocked Kellyanne Conways recent appearance on Foxs Hannity.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Conway had gone on Hannity to discuss Donald Trump Jr.s ongoing saga regarding his possible collusion with Russia. She ended up holding up two flashcards, one that read Conclusion and Collusion and another that read Illusion and Delusion.

Conclusion? Collusion. No. Illusion, delusion, yes. I just thought wed have some fun with words, Conway said.

Conways use of flashcards and rhyming to discuss a serious topic ended up backfiring for her, big time, when she was instantly memed all over the Internet, and it didnt take long for Colbert to get in on the action. Not surprisingly, he had a little bit of a different take on the Trump Jr. situation than Conway did.

Watch Stephen Colbert audition Donald Trump, Sean Spicer, and others as the new voice of Kermit the Frog:

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Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram or leave your comments below.
The Sri Lankan navy undertook the 12-hour rescue after spotting the elephant struggling to stay afloat several miles off the coast. (Photo: Caters News)

For members of the Sri Lankan navy, a routine morning patrol took an unexpected turn on Tuesday when an elephant was spotted struggling to stay afloat after having been pulled miles off the coast by currents.

Slideshow: Sri Lankan navy rescues stranded elephant miles off the coast >>>

When naval personnel said it spotted the elephant eight miles from the shore, the animal was struggling to keep just its trunk above the waves while the rest of its body was underwater. Navy divers then tied ropes to the elephant and called for two additional boats to help gently pull it back to shore in what became a 12-hour rescue mission.

Sri Lankan navy divers try to tie a rope around an elephant that had strayed into the open sea and was struggling to stay afloat. (Photo by Sri Lanka Navy Media Unit HA/REX/Shutterstock)

It is not unusual for elephants to swim long distances, Avinash Krishnan, a researcher for the Indian animal conservation group A Rocha, told the Guardian, but they tire quickly.

And the saltwater isnt good for their skin, so in this case, the situation probably warranted human intervention, Krishnan said.

Sri Lankan navy divers tie a rope around an elephant that had strayed away into the open sea. (Photo by Sri Lanka Navy Media Unit HA/REX/Shutterstock)

After the dramatic rescue at sea, as described by the Sri Lankan navy on its website, naval personnel gave the elephant to wildlife officials before releasing it back into the wild.

A group of naval personnel attached to the Eastern Naval Command saved an elephant caught in a current in the seas about 8 Nm off Kokkuthuduwai, Kokilai. (Source: maps4news/Sri Lanka Navy/Yahoo News)

They usually wade through shallow waters or even swim across to take a shortcut, said Sri Lankan navy spokesperson Chaminda Walakuluge. It is a miraculous escape for the elephant.

Sri Lankan navy divers attempt to rescue the elephant. (Photo by Ari Lanka Navy Medical Unit HA/REX/Shutterstock)

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Former Tennessee teacher Tad Cummins  who is set to go on trial for kidnapping and allegedly having sex with one of his students  has requested a new trial date, according to reports Thursday.

Cummins was arrested in April after police found him with then-15-year-old student Elizabeth Thomas in Northern California.

Cummins initial trial date was set for July 25 in Nashville. However, he filed a motion July 6 asking his trial date to be set in January 2018 in a bid to conduct additional research and investigation in the case. The 51-year-old has been indicted on charges related to sex crimes with a minor. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Read: Tad Cummins Letter To Wife Before Absconding With Elizabeth Thomas Enters Evidence

In light of the serious nature of the charge, the ongoing plea discussions, and the need to conduct additional research and investigation, undersigned counsel submits that the interests of justice will be served by the granting of a continuance. Further, he submits that the denial of a continuance in the present case would deny him the reasonable time necessary for effective preparation, taking into account the exercise of due diligence, the motion read.

Cummins and Elizabeth went missing March 13 prompting Amber Alert for the minor in multiple states. Law enforcement officials believed Cummins had kidnapped the teen and launched a manhunt for him. The pair was found April 20 in Northern Californias Siskiyou County. Cummins was charged with transporting a minor across state lines with intention to engage in sexual activity. If convicted, he could end up in jail for 10 years minimum and would be fined $250,000.

Several reports had suggested Cummins and Elizabeth had a romantic relationship. However, law enforcement official dismissed the reports saying the teen was a minor.

FBI agent Utley Noble testified in May that the former health science teacher confessed he had sex with Elizabeth most nights when the two were on the run. Cumminss estranged wife Jill told Inside Edition in April that he admitted having sex with the minor.

Story continues

I said, Well, did you sleep with her? she told Inside Edition. And he said, Yes, I did. And I didnt want any details.

Elizabeths father Anthony Thomas told People magazine July 5 his family was preparing for the highly emotional trial.

Its a highly emotional issue, Thomas told People [Going to court] is going to be very difficult for everybody.

Weve spoken many times as a family, he said, adding: [Going to court] is just something were going to have to go through.

He did not disclose Elizabeths current location, however, he said she is having the familys support and receiving help from counselors.

Read: Tad Cummins Tried Using Kayaks To Take Elizabeth Thomas To Mexico With Fake Spanish Names

We are doing fine, Thomas said. Its just a process you have to go through. [Were] being very supportive.

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A fracas broke out Friday on the floor of the Taiwanese Parliament as lawmakers exchanged blows over an infrastructure project for the second day in a row.

Amid negotiations over a budget review for the infrastructure project, rival politicians pushed one another to the ground, threw water balloons and hoisted padded office chairs over their heads.

In a video of the brawl, a whistle is blown repeatedly  seemingly in an attempt to regain control of the floor  but lawmakers ignored the call for order and continued to fight and yell at one another. One man brandished a chair over his head and appeared to prepare to throw the chair, but stopped short of actually launching it into the air.

A few lone lawmakers attempted to pull their fellow politicians off of one another, but were unable to stop the chaos.

The Friday fight erupted after Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers pressed forward with the reforms despite opposition from a rival party. On Thursday, a water balloon was thrown at Premier Lin Chuan. Opposing politicians successfully relegated him to the side of the chamber once more on Friday as the skirmish flared up on the floor.

The session was suspended Friday morning, AFP reported.

The controversial infrastructure plan was introduced by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP, and would bring light rail lines, flood control measures and green energy facilities across the country, according to AFP. Lawmakers from the opposing Kuomintang Party have criticized the $13.8 billion plan for favoring DPP supporters, claiming that the plan was constructed with the intent to gain support for the party before regional elections next year.

According to AFP, one lawmaker who felt unwell went to the parliaments clinic after the fight.

The Taiwan presidents popularity has plunged from a 70 percent approval rating when she took office last year to under 40 percent currently, according to AFP.

The Friday clash occurred one day after two female lawmakers started shoving each other during negotiations on the same project.

Read more from Yahoo News:
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas repairman found that one of the hardest parts about being trapped while servicing a bank's automated teller machine was convincing customers coming for cash that he was stuck. The ATM technician shouted and passed notes begging for help through the machine's receipt slot for about three hours on Wednesday but his appeals were mostly ignored, police said. "Most people thought it was a joke," Corpus Christi police spokeswoman Gena Pena said on Thursday. The man, who was not identified, left his phone in his vehicle, she said. Since the area housing the ATM had thick walls and his voice did not carry well outside, he wrote polite notes. "Please help. I'm stuck in here and I don't have my phone. Please call my boss," a note broadcast on Houston TV station KHOU showed. The station blocked out the number. One customer who received a note showed it to a police officer passing by, which prompted a call to the boss and a rescue operation. The man was found uninjured, police said. "The poor guy was just mortified," Pena said. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Former TLC star Toby Willis pleaded guilty to child rape.

Willis was the patriarch of TLCs former reality show The Willis Family. On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and was sentenced to 40 years of imprisonment, People reported.

READ: Did Jinger Duggar breaks family rules for wearing pants?

Julie Hibbs, the circuit court clerk in Cheatham County, Tennessee explained that Willis received a 25-year sentence for two counts of rape and 40-year sentence for the other two counts. The four sentences will run concurrently and will be served in their entirety. So, Willis will only be in prison for 40 years.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation started investigating Willis, 47, in August 2016 for sexual abuse involving an underage girl. The incident happened 12 years earlier when the girl was only between 9 and 12 years old.

Willis left his home in Ashland City to escape the law enforcement. He fled to Greenville Kentucky but was arrested on Sept. 9, 2016. He was initially charged with one count of rape, but three counts were added earlier this year, Billboard reported.

Willis and his family traveled around the country as a singing group. Aside from Willis and wife Brenda, their 12 children ages 5 to 24 sang and danced. They were popularly known as The Willis Clan. They catapulted to fame after reaching the quarter-finals of Americas Got Talent Season 9. Their series on TLC aired for two seasons and concluded in April 2016.

The Willis Clan already released a statement about the sentences and thanked their fans for the outpouring of love and support during this most difficult year. They were also grateful for the District Attorneys office for its diligence and sensitivity in handling the case.

Although the criminal case has concluded with Toby Willis receiving 40 years for the crimes he committed, the impact on the victims will remain much longer. The family is appreciative and grateful that people have respected their need for privacy during this trying time and asks for continued respect as they seek to move forward, the statement read.

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Meanwhile, Willis rape case is the third sex scandal that plagued TLC. In 2014, the network first canceled Here Comes Honey Boo Boo after Mama June rekindled a romance with a convicted sex offender. In 2015, it axed 19 Kids and Counting following Josh Duggars molestation scandal.

Were you surprised about Willis case? Drop a comment below.

The Willis Family

Photo: TLC

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Marc Kasowitz, attorney for President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the National Press Club: Getty/ Win McNamee

The lawyer representing Donald Trump in the various investigations into his campaigns ties to Russia recently responded to a critic by telling him to watch your back , b*****.

The lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, was contacted by a retired public relations professional who was troubled by a recent ProPublica article about him.

The public relations professional sent an email to Mr Kasowitz with the subject line: Resign Now.

You dont know me. I dont know you. But I believe it is in your interest and the long-term interest of your firm for you to resign from your position advising the President, he wrote.

Mr Kasowitz initially responded, simply: F*** you.

Over the course of the next 30 minutes, however, the lawyer continued to harangue the man, urging him to Call me. Dont be afraid, you piece of s*** Stand up.

8/ Then, 15 minutes later, Kasowitz replied again: pic.twitter.com/sw4C1rEh4w  ProPublica (@ProPublica) July 13, 2017

I already know where you live, Im on you, he continued. You might as well call me.You will see me. I promise. Bro.

In yet another email, the lawyer said: Im on you now. You are f****ing with me now Lets see who you are Watch your back , b****.

Following the publication of the email exchange, Mr Sitrick sent a statement to The Atlantic's Rosie Gray saying that Mr Kasowtiz intended to apologise to the recipient.

"The person sending that email is entitled to his opinion and I should not have responded in that inappropriate manner," Mr Kasowitz said in the statement. "...This is one of those times where one wishes he could reverse the clock, but of course can't."

The critic told ProPublica he was so disturbed by Mr Kasowitz's emails, he forwarded them to the FBI to ensure they were recorded. Legal experts contacted by ProPublica disagreed as to whether the written threats constituted a crime.

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The email exchange stemmed from a recent ProPublica article, which claimed Mr Kasowitz could have trouble getting a security clearance because of an alleged history of alcohol abuse.

Mr Kasowitzs spokesperson, Mike Sitrick, has since denied several aspects of the story, including the alleged history of alcoholism.

statement from Kasowitz spox Mike Sitrick just landed in my inbox: pic.twitter.com/Ljds0cKH2R  Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) July 13, 2017

While Mr Trump has employed Mr Kasowitz frequently over the last 15 years, The New York Times reports that his relationship with the White House has recently gone south.

Three people close to Mr Trumps legal team told The Times that the President has grown disillusioned with Mr Kasowitz  and the lawyer has become frustrated with Mr Trump, too. The sources suggested that Mr Kasowitz may soon resign.

Mr Kasowitzs spokesman responded briefly to these reports on Wednesday, saying simply: The NYT story is not accurate.
A cache of emails from the Democratic National Committee were published online during the election campaign: Getty Images / Mark Wilson

A Republican donor who died soon after telling a newspaper he tried to obtain Hillary Clinton's emails from Russian hackers during the 2016 presidential election killed himself, according to a report.

Peter W Smith, a former equity adviser, was found dead around ten days after telling the Wall Street Journal he tried to acquire emails missing from Ms Clinton's server.

Ms Clinton said she deleted some 30,000 online messages because they related to her personal life.

But Mr Smith told the Journal he thought the emails were connected to her official duties. He said and his team had found five groups of hackers, two of them Russian, who claimed to hold the emails.

Mr Smith claimed his efforts were independent of Donald Trump's campaign. Yet he implied he was working with Lt Gen Michael Flynn, who served as the President's national security adviser until he was fired over his alleged contact with Russian officials.

A cache of emails from the Democratic National Committee were published online during the election campaign. US Intelligence agencies said Russia launched a cyber attack in July last year with the intent of helping Mr Trump's campaign.

Peter W. Smith, GOP operative who sought Clinton's emails from Russian hackers, committed suicide, records show https://t.co/3RCEJ44FHX pic.twitter.com/u2QdqsTErV  Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) July 14, 2017

According to death records from Olmsted County, Minnesota, Mr Smith killed himself in a hotel near the Mayo Clinic on 14 May, The Chicago Tribune reported.

Police found a note from the 81-year-old saying he was taking his own life because of bad health and an expiring life insurance policy, the newspaper said.

In the note recovered by police, Smith reportedly apologised to authorities and said "NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER" was involved in his death.

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He reportedly said he he was taking his own life because of a "RECENT BAD TURN IN HEALTH SINCE JANUARY, 2017", adding that the timing related to life insurance of $5 million expiring.

Earlier this week two Democratic Party donors and a former party staff member launched an invasion of privacy lawsuit against Mr Trump's campaign and one of the President's advisers,

They are accusing them of conspiring in the release of hacked Democratic emails.

Associated Press contributed to this report
By Ginger Gibson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Government watchdogs filed a complaint against Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort on Thursday with the federal agency that oversees elections, arguing the three violated the law by meeting with a Russian who was offering purportedly damaging information on Hillary Clinton. The complaint with the Federal Election Commission was signed by Common Cause, the Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21 and two campaign lawyers involved with those groups. It identified as respondents the Trump campaign and Trump Jr. Common Cause filed a complaint earlier this week with the agency. Thursday's complaint added three attendees at the meeting: Manafort, who was Trump's campaign manager at the time, Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and Rob Goldstone, who arranged the meeting. The complaint takes advantage of information disclosed in email exchanges with Trump, Jr., son of President Donald Trump, that detailed how and why the meeting in 2016 was arranged. The Federal Election Commission is the only federal agency that can bring civil charges for violations of the campaign finance law. However, because the panel requires bipartisan agreement to move forward on any actions, critics have expressed concern that the agency was unlikely to take action. Democrat U.S. Representative Grace Meng wrote to the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday asking it to take up Common Cause's first complaint against Trump Jr. The organizations said in Thursday's complaint that the emails provided evidence that Trump Jr. violated the law by asking a foreign national for something of value, which they argue the law would define as "including the fruits of paid research, hacking, or similar investigatory activity." "The evidence is clear that Don Jr. knew that the offer of opposition campaign research came from the Russian government, and the law is clear that giving such valuable research for free would have been a contribution to the Trump campaign, said Brendan Fischer of the Campaign Legal Center. The complaint said that Manafort and Kushner, by attending the meeting knowing the subject matter, are also at fault. Donald Trump, Jr. and the White House have insisted there was no wrong doing. Democratic lawmakers want the Federal Election Commission to bring civil charges against Donald Trump, Jr., saying the meeting violated the law. The Department of Justice could bring criminal charges. (Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Chris Sanders)
Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump said in an interview Wednesday that he has a good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, after the two met for more than two hours in Hamburg last week.

"People said, 'Oh, they shouldn't get along.' Well, who are the people that are saying that? I think we get along very, very well," Trump told evangelical Christian leader Pat Robertson on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

"We are a tremendously powerful nuclear power, and so are they. It doesn't make sense not to have some kind of a relationship," Trump said.

Trump, who has come under criticism for his reluctance to criticize Putin directly over Russia's meddling in US elections last year, said the two had an "excellent meeting" on the sidelines of the G20 summit last Friday.

"One thing we did is we had a ceasefire in a major part of Syria where there was tremendous bedlam and tremendous killing," he told Robertson, according to a partial transcript released by CBN.

"The ceasefire has held for four days.... That's because President Putin and President Trump made the deal, and it's held."

Trump said that he felt Putin would have preferred Hillary Clinton win last year's election -- even though US intelligence says the Russian leader directed a covert effort to help defeat the Democrat.

"We are the most powerful country in the world and we are getting more and more powerful because I'm a big military person. As an example, if Hillary had won, our military would be decimated," Trump said.

"That's why I say, why would he want me? Because from day one I wanted a strong military, he doesn't want to see that."

On Saturday, Putin told reporters he had hopes for the bilateral relationship after meeting Trump.

"The Trump that you see on TV is very different than the real Trump," Putin told reporters at the G20 in Germany.

"He perfectly understands whom he is talking to and answers questions quickly. I think personal relations were established."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is "very likely" to state that Iran is adhering to its nuclear agreement although he continues to have reservations about it, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. Under U.S. law, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days of Iran's compliance with the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Trump has a congressionally mandated deadline of Monday to decide. The landmark 2015 deal struck with Iran by the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany is aimed at preventing Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon by imposing time-limited restrictions and strict international monitoring on its nuclear program. In return, Tehran won relief from punishing international economic sanctions. If Trump does state Iran is in compliance, it would be his second time since taking office in January to do so despite his promise during the 2016 campaign to "rip up" what he called "the worst deal ever." The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Trump could always change his mind. Iran denies seeking nuclear arms. However, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded in December 2015 that Iran worked on the design of a missile-borne nuclear warhead until 2009. While lifting nuclear-linked sanctions, the United States maintains sanctions related to Iran's ballistic missile program, human rights record and what Washington charges is its support for international terrorism. (Reporting By Steve Holland; Writing by Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Yahoo Finance polled 25,000 Trump voters in late June, and found that 11% of them say they wouldnt vote for Trump again, with 6% unsure. A large majority of Trump voters said they would vote for their candidate again  yet Trump seems to be losing the swing voters who put him over the top in last years presidential election, as Alexis Christoforous and I discuss in the podcast above.

I interviewed some of those Trump regretters to find out why theyve soured on the candidate they helped put in the White House last November. Some readers ask why we focused on a minority of voters losing faith in Trump, instead of a majority who continue to support him. The answer lies in Trumps thin margin of victory last November, and even shakier approval ratings now. Trump won the electoral vote last year due to victories in four key swing states  Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin  where his margin of victory was less than 2%. If Trump has lost that margin  and more, as our poll suggestsit will continue to weaken his political clout, while endangering Republican odds of holding Congress in the 2018 midterms and the White House in the 2020 presidential election.

Some Trump regretters are disappointed the president has engaged in so many petty squabbles that seem to distract him from important business. I expected competence, Fred Wedel, 74, a retired petroleum engineer who lives outside Sacramento, told us. The only thing Ive seen is gross incompetence. Others feel Trumps policies will harm the working class he promised to help, while cutting taxes for the wealthy. His withdrawal from the Paris climate accord rankles some who voted for him. Others fear theyll be harmed by GOP efforts to roll back Medicaid or limit healthcare subsidies to lower-income Americans. And some simply cant abide Trumps penchant for dishonesty. Alexis and I plumb the issues in the podcast, which we hope you enjoy.
WASHINGTON  President Trump, due to unveil his new strategy for fighting the war in Afghanistan, faces what some aides are calling a victory problem  how to define success in Americas longest war and sell the war-weary U.S. public on the possibility of sending a few thousand more troops into the nearly 16-year-old conflict.

In recent days, White House officials have declined to say whether the new approach will roll out by mid-July  in keeping with a timetable Defense Secretary Jim Mattis laid out weeks ago. And they wont say what role the commander in chief might play in selling the plan, including a potentially open-ended commitment, to Americans.

We have a victory problem, a senior administration official recently told Yahoo News, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe internal debates.

Not everyone agrees on how to define it, and definitely not everyone agrees on how to pursue it. We dont completely agree on ends, and we definitely dont completely agree on means. And we wont, even after a strategy rolls out.

The question of how to define victory in Afghanistan bedeviled both of Trumps predecessors. And now, a decade and a half after the first U.S. bombs fell there, it falls to the former real estate developer with a penchant for short declarations on even the most complex issues.

Now, we never win a war. We never win. And we dont fight to win. We dont fight to win, Trump complained to the National Governors Association in late February. So we either got to win or dont fight it at all.

Since George W. Bush unleashed U.S. military might against the Taliban on Oct. 7, 2001, some 2,400 Americans have died in the conflict and more than 20,000 have been wounded. Barack Obama surged tens of thousands of troops into Afghanistan in 2009 but later drew frequent criticisms from Republicans, who accused him of focusing on withdrawing U.S. forces rather than defeating the Taliban. Obama aides said their main goal was making local security forces self-sustaining in order to extricate the United States from a seemingly intractable conflict.

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Inside the Trump administration and among outside experts, theres a general consensus that Americas foremost national security goal is to prevent Afghanistan from slipping back into its pre-9/11 state as a safe haven for extremists plotting to strike at America or its allies.

After that, though, things get murky. How many U.S. troops are needed? How many will stay for how long? How many are NATO allies willing to send, and to play what role? How much responsibility does America bear to build or shore up Afghan institutions, a process that candidate Trump (and his most fervent supporters) would likely have rejected as wasteful nation-building?

Success is defeating the ISIS and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, and secondly an Afghan government that does not melt down, does not collapse, and is able to control its territory enough so that it does not become a safe haven for terrorists who threaten the U.S. and its allies, Stephen Hadley, who served as George W. Bushs national security adviser, told Yahoo News.

We want the Afghan people to build a healthy, prosperous democracy  it is key to long-term peace and prosperity in Afghanistan, and we should certainly support that effort, Hadley said. But thats primarily their job, their responsibility and will take a long time.

Leon Panetta, who served as defense secretary and CIA director under Obama, said the United States must help the Afghan government and security forces.

The problem is, you cannot allow Afghanistan to fail and become a safe haven for al-Qaida and for terrorism more broadly to attack our country, Panetta told Yahoo News.

If you cannot allow it to fail, then the question then becomes what do you do? Panetta asked. In the short term, you probably have increased personnel and support from the United States for the government in Kabul. And probably have a long-term presence similar to our presence in South Korea.

At a mid-June hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., pressed Mattis to define victory.

Mattis replied, The Afghan government  with international help  will be able to handle the violence and drive it down to a level that local security forces can handle.

Mattis also noted that it would probably require a residual force training Afghan troops and carrying out missions against extremists so that they remain at a level of threat that the local government and the local security forces can handle.

Thats the kind of open-ended prospect that makes Trumps populist advisers, led by Steven Bannon, recoil, the senior administration official told Yahoo News. Bannon worries that Trump would get sucked into a doomed nation-building project, the official said.

There is, however, broad consensus that the United States is not currently on a course for victory.

Were not winning in Afghanistan. And we will correct this as soon as possible, Mattis told that same Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. I believe by mid-July we will be able to brief you in detail.

The Pentagon has made clear it wants thousands of additional troops, on top of the roughly 8,400 U.S. forces and about another 7,000 from NATO allies.

In that hearing, Sen. John McCain, the panels chairman, warned Mattis sharply that lawmakers patience with the Trump administrations handling of Afghanistan was not infinite and that a plan was overdue.

I was confident that within the first 30 to 60 days we would have a strategy from which to start working, McCain said, adding, Unless we get a strategy from you, youre going to get a strategy from us.

Hadley said success would include a political component  an effort to encourage an Afghan-led process to reach a political settlement among all Afghan parties, including the Taliban, but without making Washington responsible for the outcome of that process. And the United States should provide aid to the Afghan government to battle corruption and help provide jobs.

But Panetta warned that the United States needs to set realistic goals. We used to talk about building a 21st-century society there, a modern economy. I just think weve overshot the mark, time and time again.

But for at least one expert, the debate over what, and how much, to commit to Afghanistan is beside the point.

What to do about Afghanistan is not the most important question for the Trump administration to address, said Andrew Bacevich, a Boston University professor of international relations and history whose only son, an Army lieutenant, was killed in Iraq in 2007.

The core issue is: What is the nature of this conflict we are in with Islamism? Weve been at this now for decades, Bacevich told Yahoo News. Its brought us to the longest war in our history  a war with no end in sight.

Bacevich has long argued for a complete reassessment of Americas posture in the Middle East and against Islamists  a shift away from military solutions and towards more responsibility on local governments and local forces.

The United States needs to cut its losses and try something else, other than the war on terror, he said. Afghanistan is quite literally the forever war, in which different strategies with different troop levels have still left America in the quandary it faces in 2017.

Wheres the evidence of progress? he asked. I dont see any evidence.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey has sent two ships and a submarine to monitor a drilling vessel in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the military said on Thursday, in a move likely to increase tension with Cyprus after reunification talks failed last week. The drilling work, a contractual obligation between Cyprus and France's Total , comes a week after the collapse of talks to reunify the divided island nation, split between ethnic Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Ankara has said it will take measures against Cyprus for engaging in gas and oil exploration around the island. It says that hydrocarbon resources in the waters around the divided island should belong to both sides. The military said it had deployed the frigates and a submarine to the eastern Mediterranean to "guarantee the security of oil transportation". Another frigate was dispatched to monitor a drilling vessel off the coast of Cyprus, it said. Turkey's energy and foreign ministries are working together to plan steps against the Greek side's unilateral steps, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday, without giving details on what those steps might entail. The "West Capella" drilling vessel, which was contracted by France's Total and Italy Eni , moved into position to start exploring for gas this week. Turkey, which invaded Cyprus's north in 1974 in response to a brief Greek-inspired coup, says the island's internationally recognized government has no jurisdiction to explore for hydrocarbons. (Reporting by Daren Butler and Ece Toksabay; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A Holy See tribunal has indicted two former top officials of a children's hospital on charges of diverting nearly half a million dollars to renovate the apartment of a high-ranking cardinal, the Vatican said on Thursday. The two, Giuseppe Profiti and Massimo Spina, respectively the former president and treasurer of the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome, were ordered to stand trial, a statement said. The first hearing was set for July 18. The indictment accuses the two men of spending 422,000 euros ($481,000) in 2013 and 2014 on refurbishing the large Vatican apartment of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was not indicted. Profiti and Spina made no immediate comment. Bertone, 82, was the Vatican secretary of state for most of the pontificate of former Pope Benedict and was one of the most powerful men in the Holy See. He was removed from office in 2013, eight months after the election of Pope Francis. The renovation work started a few weeks later on the spacious property, which is next door to the Vatican guest house, where the pope lives in a modest suite. The indictment of two people close to Bertone indicated that Vatican prosecutors were determined to pursue even delicate cases, a Vatican official said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss details of the case. Profiti and Spina risk prison sentences of three to five years if convicted, under Vatican laws on conspiracy to commit a crime and misappropriation of funds. Bertone's comfortable lifestyle clashed with that of the pope, who shunned the large papal apartments in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace and has urged Church prelates to lead humble, frugal lives. When the Vatican confirmed last year that Profiti and Spina were under investigation, a lawyer for Bertone said the cardinal had never asked for, nor authorized payment for the restoration work from hospital funds. Hospital officials said at the time that Bertone had given 150,000 euros of his own money to Bambino Gesu to make amends for damage done to the hospital's image. According to the Vatican indictment, Profiti and Spina diverted the money directly to the head of the Italian construction company that did the work inside the Vatican. The Bambino Gesu, considered one of Italy's best pediatric hospitals, is in Rome but has extra-territorial status as part of the Vatican, a sovereign state. It was founded by a wealthy Italian family in 1869 and donated to the Vatican in 1924. (Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Robin Pomeroy)
Jerusalem (AFP) - Two Israeli police officers shot when Arab assailants opened fire in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday have died from their wounds, authorities said.

Police confirmed the deaths, with the three Arab Israeli attackers also shot dead by security forces after fleeing to an ultra-sensitive holy site in Jerusalem's Old City.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the two officers died in hospital.

The incident was among the most serious in Jerusalem in recent years and threatened to raise Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

Arab Israelis are descendants of Palestinians who remained on their land following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

They largely identify with the Palestinian cause.

The three assailants were killed at the site known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, the location of regular clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police, but where gunfire rarely occurs.

The site includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

The Al-Aqsa mosque was closed for Friday prayers after the attack by Israeli authorities in a highly unusual move.
By Dan Levine and Mica Rosenberg (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's temporary ban on travelers from six Muslim-majority countries cannot stop grandparents and other relatives of United States citizens from entering the country, a U.S. judge said on Thursday. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu also opens the door for more refugees and deals Trump a fresh courtroom defeat in a long back-and-forth over an executive order that has gone all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. The state of Hawaii had asked Watson to narrowly interpret a Supreme Court ruling that revived parts of Trump's March 6 executive order banning travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, as well as refugees for 120 days. The Supreme Court last month said the ban could take effect, but that anyone from the six countries with a "bona fide relationship" to a U.S. person or entity could not be barred. The Trump administration then interpreted that opinion to allow spouses, parents, children, fiances and siblings into the country, but barred grandparents and other family members, in a measure Trump called necessary to prevent attacks. Watson harshly criticized the government's definition of close family relations as "the antithesis of common sense" in a ruling that changes the way the ban can now be implemented. "Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents. Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members," he wrote. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. Trump's order is a pretext for illegal discrimination, Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin said in a statement. "Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough," Chin said. Chin had asked Watson for an injunction allowing grandparents and other family members to travel to the United States. Hawaii and refugee groups also had argued that resettlement agencies have a "bona fide" relationship with the refugees they help, sometimes over the course of years. The Justice Department said its rules were properly grounded in immigration law. Watson said the assurance by a resettlement agency to provide basic services to a newly arrived refugee constitutes an adequate connection to the U.S. because it is a sufficiently formal and documented agreement that triggers responsibilities and compensation. "'Bona fide' does not get any more 'bona fide' than that," Watson said. Melanie Nezer, vice president of global refugee advocacy group HIAS, said the ruling should mean that refugees can continue to be resettled in the United States, beyond a cap of 50,000 set by the executive order. That limit was reached this week. "We are thrilled that thousands of people will be reunited with their family members," said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project. More than 24,000 additional refugees should be allowed to travel to the U.S. under Watson's order, she estimated. Watson did not grant everything the state of Hawaii sought, however. He rejected a request to categorically exempt all Iraqis refugee applicants who believe they are at risk due to their work for the U.S. government since March, 2003, as interpreters and translators, for instance. Watson also refused a blanket exemption for those eligible to apply to a refugee program aimed at protecting certain children at risk in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. The roll-out of the narrowed version of the ban was more subdued than in January, when Trump first signed a more expansive version of his order. That sparked protests and chaos at airports around the country and the world. (Reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco and Mica Rosenberg in New York; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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The Senate GOP legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act appears all but dead for now, but Republican efforts to repeal the law are not, injecting even more uncertainty about the future of health insurance into an already shaky market.

That uncertainty poses immediate threats as consumersand insurance companiesare left lingering in healthcare limbo.

The confusion over whether the ACA ultimately survives means some people will have fewer choices, higher premiums, and bigger out-of-pocket costs," says Chris Sloan, a senior manager at Avalere Health, a healthcare consulting firm.



And the longer uncertainty about healthcare reform lasts, the bigger the impact on consumers, he says.

Here's how you could feel the pain:

Fewer Plans to Choose From

One of the key areas of uncertainty centers on subsidies that, under the ACA, help consumers cover out-of-pocket costs such as deductibles and co-pays for office visits and prescription drugs.



Under the current system, insurance companies cover those costs upfront, then get reimbursed by the federal governmentto the tune of about $7 billion per year.

Insurance companies depend on those reimbursementscalled cost-sharing reductions, or CSRssaying that without them they can't make money on the plans they sell through the ACA exchanges.



President Donald Trump wants the Senate to repeal the ACA and deal with a replacement later. In the meantime, the Trump administration has agreed to reimburse insurers for those expenses only on a month-by-month basis. And without long-term assurance, many insurers say that continuing to offer ACA plans is too financially risky, prompting many to say they may have to drop out.

Higher Premiums

The uncertainty about CSR reimbursement also means that insurers that do offer plans for 2018 will probably charge higher premiums.

For example, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is asking for a 22 percent increase in premiums but said if CSRs were funded, it would need to raise rates only 8.8 percent.

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Overall, among the companies whose rate increase proposals for 2018 plans are public so far, insurers are asking to boost premiums an average 34 percent, according to Charles Gaba, who is tracking the rate filing data at ACAsignups.net.

While those are steep increases, it's important to note that under the ACA, most consumersabout 85 percentreceive substantial subsidies that help defray the costs of their premiums, Eibner says.

If Senate repeal efforts are ultimately successful, those subsidies would go away so the premium increases being implemented now would be even more painful down the road.



More People Without Insurance

Under the ACA, if you don't get insurance from your employer, Medicare, or Medicaid, you have to buy it on your ownor pay a penalty, the so-called "individual mandate."

While the Trump administration is pushing for a quick repeal of the ACA, it has already signaled that even if efforts to repeal the ACA fail, it might not strictly enforce the penalty in the meantime. The prospect of greater leniency could prompt some people to forgo signing up for insurance. If the penalty isn't enforced, healthier people are more likely to choose not to have insurance and that would drive costs higher for everyone who wants insurance, Sloan says.

Evidence that this may be happening comes from a recent Gallup-Sharecare survey, which showed that the percentage of Americans without health insurance rose to 11.7 percent in the second quarter of 2017, up from 10.9 percent at the end of 2016.

Though that's still well below the uninsurance rate before the ACAwhich reached 18 percent in 2013it's still a significant increase, according to the Gallup-Sharecare survey, equivalent to about 2 million more people without insurance.

Other factors could also be contributing to the bump up in uninsured people, including the fact that the Trump Administration also has curtailed ACA outreach efforts designed to encourage enrollment.

And, of course, some people may have dropped out simply because they couldn't afford insurance in the face of the stiff premium increases of the last few years.

States Take Action on Their Own

As efforts in Washington stall, some states are moving ahead with their own plans to shore up their insurance markets, which could help consumers.

Last week, Alaska got a waiver from the feds to create a reinsurance program that could help lower ACA premiums in that statewhich are the highest in the nationby 20 percent, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The reinsurance program would direct some federal money to the state, which it can use it to offset the cost of insuring people with high-cost medical conditions.

Officials in Iowa, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Oregon have said they are considering similar programs, according to HHS.







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Washington (AFP) - US congressional Democrats and Republicans condemned Beijing on Friday over the recent death of Liu Xiaobo, saying the demise of the imprisoned Nobel laureate highlighted the Chinese government's disregard for human rights.

"Liu Xiaobo's death is a tragedy and a deep affront to the basic notions of justice and human decency," said top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi during an appearance at a special hearing on the late democracy activist.

The former House speaker said the Chinese government, through its arrest and nine-year imprisonment of Liu, had shown a "shameful disregard for basic freedoms," and that the United States must speak out for human rights in the Asian giant.

Liu, a writer who had become a living symbol of the Communist government's intolerance for dissent, died Thursday in custody at a Chinese hospital at age 61.

A White House statement issued shortly after Liu's death described him as a "Chinese political prisoner" but made no direct mention of the Chinese government.

And President Donald Trump, on a trip to Paris, avoided criticism of Beijing over Liu's death.

- A 'permanent stain' -

But Republican Chris Smith, chairman of the House foreign affairs subcommittee on global human rights, which hosted the hearing, offered a fiery denunciation, blasting the communist government for its "extraordinary assault" on the rule of law and human rights.

"This crime -- the death and silencing of Liu Xiaobo -- should follow the Chinese Communist Party like an unwashable permanent stain," Smith told the hearing, adding that governments and rights groups should work to preserve Liu's legacy.

"The US cannot be morally neutral or silent in the face of the Chinese government's repression of fundamental freedoms. Human rights is not a secondary interest."

The hearing featured three witnesses who had worked with or backed Liu in various capacities, including US-based Chinese dissident Yang Jianli, who once represented the family.

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Yang denounced the way Liu was "slowly murdered by the regime in front of the world," and said the international community must hold Beijing accountable.

Lawmakers and witnesses said the focus should also turn to the activist's widow Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since 2010 and is said to suffer from depression.

Perry Link, who once served as Liu's translator, said the activist knew his death was imminent and wanted to "spend the last of his energies to help his beloved and long-suffering wife... to get out of China."
By Ian Simpson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A grand jury indicted a white former University of Maryland student for murder on Thursday in the stabbing death of a black U.S. Army officer that is still being investigating as a possible hate crime, authorities said.

Sean Urbanski, 22, of Severna Park, Maryland, who was a member of a racist Facebook group, was indicted for common-law murder over the on-campus death of Lieutenant Richard Collins III in May, said John Erzen, a spokesman for the Prince George's County state's attorney.

"Right now, the investigation into the motive, including whether it was a hate crime, is still ongoing," Erzen said in a telephone interview.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was helping police analyze Urbanski's digital devices. "We expect that to conclude in the coming weeks," Erzen said.

Witnesses have told police that an intoxicated and incoherent Urbanski approached Collins and two friends on a campus sidewalk early on May 20.

He told Collins, who had been commissioned as a lieutenant a few days before, "Step left, step left if you know what's good for you."

When a puzzled Collins said, "No," Urbanski stabbed him in the chest. Collins, 23, died a few days before he was to graduate from Maryland's Bowie State University.

Police arrested Urbanski on the University of Maryland campus in a Washington suburb.

A police investigation showed that Urbanski was part of the Alt-Reich group on Facebook, where members post disparaging material about African-Americans, Jews and others.

Erzen said prosecutors planned to seek life without parole for Urbanski, who remains jailed without bond. His attorney, William Brennan, did not respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Gwendoline Christie, who plays Brienne of Tarth on HBOs Game of Thrones, is the shows most underrated style star. Here, a look at Christie in 2013, left, and 2017. (Photo: Getty Images)

On the HBO series Game of Thrones, the female leads have enjoyed a kind of character growth surprising for a show about king slayers and dragons. In fact, Wired says that the show, which enters the first half of its last season on July 16, will end in total female domination.

As the shows characters have grown, so too have the actresses who portray them  nowhere more obviously than in their red carpet style.

When Game of Thrones premiered in 2011, most of the actresses were relative unknowns. Casting directors chose the brunette Emilia Clarke, then 23 and without a major acting gig in her rearview, to play the icy blond Daenerys Targaryen. The Mother of Dragons became as popular a face on the show as she did in real life, especially to fashion tastemakers.

Emilia Clark in 2011 and 2017. (Photo: Getty Images)

While Clarke played one of the shows most popular characters, she certainly wasnt the only actress to catch the fashion worlds attention.

Sophie Turner, a.k.a. Sansa Stark, also casually blossomed in the fashion world, becoming the striking blond Louis Vuitton campaign model who posts selfies with the brands beloved creative director, Nicolas Ghesquiere.

Sophie Turner in 2012 and 2017. (Photo: Getty Images)

Maisie Williams plays Sansas younger sister Arya, a feisty tomboy, busy learning how to sword-fight and rejecting social norms. Offscreen, Williams is a fashion darling. Shes been on the cover of the Sunday Times Style magazine, has modeled for Converse alongside fellow acting prodigy Millie Bobby Brown, and often wears House of Holland to red carpet events. A far cry from Aryas sensibilities.

Maisie Williams in 2012 and 2017. (Photo: Getty Images)

Then there is Lena Headey, whose onscreen malevolence as Cersei Lannister lends itself well to a bad-girl wardrobe IRL that includes wearing a screen-printed muscle T-shirt and leopard print bra on late-night talk shows  that is, when shes not donning the Row or Jil Sander or Prada for Net-a-Porters magazine, the Edit.

Lena Headey in 2011 and 2016. (Photo: Getty Images)

Criminally underrated, by this writers estimation, is Gwendoline Christies off-camera style. The 6-foot-3 English actress who plays highborn lady-turned-knight Brienne of Tarth embraces the fashion world more publicly than perhaps any of her co-stars, despite their numerous magazine covers. Christie attends Miu Miu fashion shows and the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards; the British Fashion Awards named her Red Carpet Fashion Ambassador in 2015; Christie works with legendary activist-designer Vivienne Westwood to promote free gender expression in fashion and beauty; and, to be sure, Christie too has had her name printed in Vogue.

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Gwendoline Christie in 2013 and 2017. (Photo: Getty Images)

The show may be fantasy, but the real-life fashion flaunted by these women is definitely real life goals.

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Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.

Alexandra Mondalek is a writer for Yahoo Style + Beauty. Follow her on Twitter @amondalek.




One of the largest icebergs ever recorded has just broken away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Over the past few years Ive led a team that has been studying this ice shelf and monitoring change. We spent many weeks camped on the ice investigating melt ponds and their impact  and struggling to avoid sunburn thanks to the thin ozone layer. Our main approach, however, is to use satellites to keep an eye on things.

Weve been surprised by the level of interest in what may simply be a rare but natural occurrence. Because, despite the media and public fascination, the Larsen C rift and iceberg calving is not a warning of imminent sea level rise, and any link to climate change is far from straightforward. This event is, however, a spectacular episode in the recent history of Antarcticas ice shelves, involving forces beyond the human scale, in a place where few of us have been, and one which will fundamentally change the geography of this region.

Adrian Luckman / MIDAS , Author provided





Ice shelves are found where glaciers meet the ocean and the climate is cold enough to sustain the ice as it goes afloat. Located mostly around Antarctica, these floating platforms of ice a few hundred meters thick form natural barriers which slow the flow of glaciers into the ocean and thereby regulate sea level rise. In a warming world, ice shelves are of particular scientific interest because they are susceptible both to atmospheric warming from above and ocean warming from below.

Back in the 1890s, a Norwegian explorer named Carl Anton Larsen sailed south down the Antarctic Peninsula, a 1,000km long branch of the continent that points towards South America. Along the east coast he discovered the huge ice shelf which took his name.

For the following century, the shelf, or what we now know to be a set of distinct shelves  Larsen A, B, C and D  remained fairly stable. However the sudden disintegrations of Larsen A and B in 1995 and 2002 respectively, and the ongoing speed-up of glaciers which fed them, focused scientific interest on their much larger neighbour, Larsen C, the fourth biggest ice shelf in Antarctica.

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This is why colleagues and I set out in 2014 to study the role of surface melt on the stability of this ice shelf. Not long into the project, the discovery by our colleague, Daniela Jansen, of a rift growing rapidly through Larsen C, immediately gave us something equally significant to investigate.

Nature at work

The development of rifts and the calving of icebergs is part of the natural cycle of an ice shelf. What makes this iceberg unusual is its size  at around 5,800 km its the size of a small US state. There is also the concern that what remains of Larsen C will be susceptible to the same fate as Larsen B, and collapse almost entirely.

Our work has highlighted significant similarities between the previous behaviour of Larsen B and current developments at Larsen C, and we have shown that stability may be compromised. Others, however, are confident that Larsen C will remain stable.

What is not disputed by scientists is that it will take many years to know what will happen to the remainder of Larsen C as it begins to adapt to its new shape, and as the iceberg gradually drifts away and breaks up. There will certainly be no imminent collapse, and unquestionably no direct effect on sea level because the iceberg is already afloat and displacing its own weight in seawater.

Some great aerial footage from @BAS_News of the rift on Larsen C! pic.twitter.com/aXyCx9QTzX  Project MIDAS (@MIDASOnIce) February 21, 2017

This means that, despite much speculation, we would have to look years into the future for ice from Larsen C to contribute significantly to sea level rise. In 1995 Larsen B underwent a similar calving event. However, it took a further seven years of gradual erosion of the ice-front before the ice shelf became unstable enough to collapse, and glaciers held back by it were able to speed up, and even then the collapse process may have depended on the presence of surface melt ponds.

Updated #Sentinel1 InSAR sequence shows final branching at the rift tip as it reaches within 4.5 km (2.8 miles) of breaking through to calve pic.twitter.com/6F1Bs8Zmkv  Adrian Luckman (@adrian_luckman) July 6, 2017

Even if the remaining part of Larsen C were to eventually collapse, many years into the future, the potential sea level rise is quite modest. Taking into account only the catchments of glaciers flowing into Larsen C, the total, even after decades, will probably be less than a centimetre.

Is this a climate change signal?

This event has also been widely but over-simplistically linked to climate change. This is not surprising because notable changes in the earths glaciers and ice sheets are normally associated with rising environmental temperatures. The collapses of Larsen A and B have previously been linked to regional warming, and the iceberg calving will leave Larsen C at its most retreated position in records going back over a hundred years.

However, in satellite images from the 1980s, the rift was already clearly a long-established feature, and there is no direct evidence to link its recent growth to either atmospheric warming, which is not felt deep enough within the ice shelf, or ocean warming, which is an unlikely source of change given that most of Larsen C has recently been thickening. It is probably too early to blame this event directly on human-generated climate change.

You may be interested in: When an Antarctic iceberg the size of a country breaks away, what happens next?

Adrian Luckman, Professor of Glaciology and Remote Sensing, Swansea University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Photo: The Conversation

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A mock-up video shows how the iPhone 8, or iPhone Edition, might look like when it releases in September.

The iPhone 8 is expected to come with a bezel-less OLED display screen, which will make the devices better looking than previous models. However, some analysts believe the new screen technology wont convince people to upgrade their iPhones, according to a note seen by Business Insider.

Although the OLED screen can emit more accurate colors and could use less battery than current iPhone displays, the feature alone might not be a driving factor for consumers, Barclays analysts said.

Read: iPhone 8 Facial Recognition Feature: Apple Patent Details Advanced Biometric Technology

The analysts wrote:

"In terms of the year ahead, OLED displays continue to be top-of-mind for investors when contemplating form factor improvements that could drive a growth revival, particularly with the iPhone. With OLED, we struggle to see the incremental benefits visually that would inspire a customer to replace an adequately-performing device. While battery life could improve with OLED, our conversations with industry participants suggest that most consumers will not notice any major must have experience changes because of new OLED displays versus LCD. We think that this dynamic, if sustained, could limit the upside potential related to new OLED-based devices that likely sell for a premium, which could keep average selling prices from moving much higher."

If the iPhone 8s only feature is the OLED screen display, that will not be enough to get iPhone fans to upgrade, the analysts said.

Its also worth noting that the steep $1,000 price for the device could keep people from upgrading. The high price could affect sales of the iPhone 8, Deutsche Bank analysts said earlier this week.

"Generally, when prices go up, demand goes down," the Deutsche Bank analysts said. "A scenario where prices go up and demand goes up seems highly unlikely in our view."

Read: How Private Is Your iPhone, WhatsApp Chat? EFF Downgrades Apple In Privacy Practices Report

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The analysts also predicted Apple wont sell as many iPhone 8 units as it did with the iPhone 6, saying the anticipated boost in iPhone replacement for the 10th anniversary smartphone wont happen.

"We believe investors will be disappointed by iPhone growth in FY-18 and FY-19," the analysts wrote.

iPhone 8 Features, Rumors

Apple is said to have signed a two-year deal worth $9 billion with Samsung for OLED panels. The Cupertino company is reportedly set to receive 80 million panels delivered from Samsung for the smartphone.

Although the OLED screen might not entice Apple fans to upgrade their phones, other features might.

The iPhone 8 is rumored to come with an embedded Touch ID, wireless charging technology and a vertical dual-camera system for better pictures. The device is also expected to come with a 3D-sensing front camera, which could allow for AR and VR capabilities and facial recognition technology. The 10th anniversary iPhone could also come with a True Tone feature for the display, a 10W power adapter with USB-C connector and an integrated USB-C Power Delivery chip, which will allow for faster charging.

The iPhone 8 will be released this fall alongside the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus.

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The past few months have been absolutely swamped with Galaxy Note 8 leaks, from schematics and components to release date rumors and concept images. Through all of these leaks, including our own exclusive leak, weve managed to piece together a fairly complete picture of the upcoming phablet. But on Thursday morning, without warning, Samsungs official Exynos Twitter account shared an image that appears to feature the Galaxy Note 8. After all that build up, Samsung spoiled the surprise itself.

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One look at the phone in the tweet and you can tell that it isnt a Galaxy S8 or a Galaxy S8+. While is shares some similarities with the flagship phones released earlier this year, the top bezel is thinner than that of the S8 or S8+ (which is what recent leaks have suggested as well). The display appears to stretch even further over the sides as well, making the Infinity Display name even more appropriate.

Considering were likely still a few weeks out from the Galaxy Note 8, theres a chance that this isnt the final hardware. That said, its worth stressing that the tweet above came from an official Samsung Twitter account, so it would be especially strange if the model in the image was inaccurate.

Samsung didnt include any further information about the Note 8 in the tweet or the linked webpage, but recent reports claim the phone will feature a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED display with 2K resolution and an 18.5:9 aspect ratio, Exynos 8895 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 6GB of RAM, a dual 12-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization and a 3,300 mAh battery.

Samsung is expected to officially unveil the Galaxy Note 8 before the end of the month, with plans to launch the phone and have it in stores as early as August 23rd to beat the iPhone 8 to market.

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Moon Express MX-1E settles onto the lunar surface. (Moon Express Illustration)

Moon Express has laid out the plan it intends to follow to send probes to the surface of the moon and start bringing lunar samples back to Earth by 2020.

The plan calls for completing work on Moon Express MX-1E lander and its 3-D-printed PECO rocket engine, setting it on Rocket Labs Electron launch vehicle and sending it to the moon by the end of this year.

At least two more missions would follow, heading for the moons south polar region in 2019 and 2020.

The Florida-based companys lunar exploration architecture was unveiled today at a Capitol Hill news conference in Washington, D.C.

Bob Richards is co-founder and CEO of Moon Express. (Courtesy of Bob Richards)

In an advance interview, Moon Express co-founder and CEO Bob Richards told GeekWire that the plan was well past the proposal stage.

Were not proposing this to anybody, he said. Were doing it.

A year ago, Moon Express received the federal governments preliminary thumbs-up for its first moon shot  becoming the first commercial venture to win such a go-ahead for a mission beyond Earth orbit.

Huge hurdles remain: The Electron rocket hasnt yet gone through a fully successful orbital trial, and the MX-1Es rocket engine still has to be tested. We havent fired the thing yet, Richards said.

Nevertheless, he voiced confidence that Moon Express will succeed in time to win the top award of $20 million in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition for commercial moon exploration.

Moon Express is competing against four other teams for the prize, and a launch deadline is looming at the end of the year.

Richards emphasized that the XPRIZE money isnt the primary motivation for Moon Express efforts. Nobody invested in Moon Express to win a prize, he said. Rather, the companys main focus is to carry payloads to the lunar surface for its customers, including the research teams behind the MoonLIGHT laser-ranging experiment and the International Lunar Observatory.

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Moon Express also aims to get some business from NASA, which is expected to revise its expedition plan to put more emphasis on lunar operations and data collection as a prelude to Mars missions. The company is already partnering with NASA on a no-funds-exchanged basis through the space agencys Lunar CATALYST program.

The piece de resistance would be the 2020 sample return expedition, known as Harvest Moon, which could be the first U.S. space shot to bring fresh material back from the moon since 1972. (China is planning to launch a lunar sample return mission later this year.)

I have no doubt that a sample return mission will be a very profitable mission, Richards said.

Richards didnt lay out the projected cost for the planned expeditions, but past estimates of the cost for the first mission have ranged from $25 million to $60 million. In January, Richards said that mission was fully funded, thanks to a $20 million infusion of capital.

One of the ventures major funders is Naveen Jain, a Seattle-area tech entrepreneur who co-founded Moon Express and serves as its executive chairman.

A spectrum of spacecraft

Moon Express MX-1E

Moon Express MX-2

Moon Express MX-5

Moon Express MX-9

Moon Express MX-9 ascent

The mission architecture calls for building a spectrum of spacecraft, all powered by PECO engines. Richards said PECO is an acronym of sorts, standing for propulsion thats eco-friendly. The engines would use hydrogen peroxide and RP-1 kerosene as propellants, rather than the highly toxic hydrazine monopropellant thats typically used for thruster systems.

The MX-1E would be powered by a single PECO engine and measure a meter (yard) in width. The probe would be small enough to fit inside the low-cost Electron rockets fairing, but powerful enough to deliver up to 30 kilograms (66 pounds) to the lunar surface.

For the XPRIZE mission, the MX-1E would be sent into low Earth orbit aboard an Electron, and then make its way to the moon during a four- to five-day cruise.

The spacecraft would go into a pole-to-pole orbit around the moon and set itself up for a landing near the lunar equator. Richards said the site still has to be chosen, but will not be anywhere near a historic site such as the Apollo landing zones.

Once the lander takes care of all the duties required by Moon Express commercial customers, it would fire its engines again for a 500-meter hop to satisfy the XPRIZE requirements. The primary mission on the lunar surface would last about 10 days to two weeks. Then it would power down for the long lunar night.

We will say our goodbyes to the spacecraft as the sun sets, Richards said.

To the moons south pole and beyond

Moon Express has designed a two-stage spacecraft known as the MX-2, basically made up of two MX-1s yoked together, end to end. Such a spacecraft could fit inside Virgin Galactics Launcher One rocket, Richards said.

The MX-2 would have twice the MX-1s payload capacity, making it suitable for more ambitious missions, either to the moons south pole or to deep-space destinations in the inner solar system.

What were unveiling is a solar system exploration architecture, Richards said.

The lunar south pole is of particular interest because past missions point to the presence of water ice deposits at the bottom of permanently shadowed craters there, as well as mountaintop sites that bask in permanent sunshine and can maintain continuous radio contact with Earth.

Exploring a potential permanent outpost would be the primary goal of Expedition 2 in 2019.

For Expedition 3, the sample return mission, Moon Express is going to need a bigger lander: One option would be the MX-5, a design that makes use of five PECO engines. It could carry as much as 150 kilograms (330 pounds) from low Earth orbit to low lunar orbit, with a range of configurations to support moon landings and surface operations.

The MX-5 spacecrafts 3-meter-wide (10-foot-wide) deck would fit inside Indias PSLV rocket, or the unpressurized trunk of a SpaceX Dragon capsule, Richards said.

Moon Express MX-9 would be even bigger, measuring 4 meters (13 feet) in width with nine PECO engines. You could put two, maybe three MX-9s in a SpaceX Falcon 9 shroud, Richards said.

Richards figures that spacecraft could transport up to 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) from geostationary transfer orbit to the lunar surface. Both the MX-5 and the MX-9 could be configured so that an MX-1 or MX-2 pops out for the return journey to Earth, or the next leg of an interplanetary robots odyssey.

Were creating a platform that people can build their dreams on, Richards said.

The first dream could become a reality, or fade away, within six months.

Moon Express has a contract with Rocket Lab for up to five Electron launches, the first of which is set to lift off from New Zealands Mahia Peninsula. Rocket Labs first flight test sent an Electron into space but fell short of sending it into orbit.

More tests are planned in the months ahead, and if Rocket Lab can work out all the kinks, Moon Express is expected to get one or two chances to go for the XPRIZE before the end of the year.

Moon Express shows off a full-sized model of its MX-1E lunar lander in D.C.; company CEO Bob Richards at left. pic.twitter.com/j0CARdqULJ  Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) July 12, 2017

Although the launch pad is in New Zealand, Moon Express operations are headquartered at Launch Complex 17/18 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Thats where the company is setting up a spacecraft factory as well as a test range for engine firings.

Richards said the pace of operations should quicken this summer, leading up to the maiden space mission.

Yet another space venture is in the midst of a big construction project just down the road: Blue Origin, the company founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, is building a 750,000-square-foot factory for its New Glenn rocket  a rocket that Bezos says could make deliveries to the lunar surface by 2020.

Richards said he isnt fazed by Bezos interest in lunar missions. In fact, he thinks its fantastic.

I believe that everything that Blue Origin is doing is very synergistic with everything that were announcing, he said.

Who knows? Maybe someday the New Glenn will be launching MX-9 probes to the moon, Mars and beyond. We would absolutely love to use the New Glenn, Richards said.

More from GeekWire:
Samsungs Galaxy S8 sales arent as great as we thought, or at least thats what some analysts believe. That could be one of the reasons why the Galaxy Note 8 is arriving a few weeks earlier than expected. But the Galaxy S8 is still a hot proposition, and if youre looking for a high-end smartphone, it should definitely be on your list. In fact, if youre looking to keep things fresh, Samsung is about to launch a brand new version of the Galaxy S8.

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No, Samsung did not redesign the phone. And the internals remains the same. What changed is the color of the handset. A Coral Blue option is expected to be available from Best Buy this week, Droid-Life reports.

Currently, there are only three color choices available for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ in the US, including Midnight Black, Arctic Silver, and Orchid Gray. Samsung also launched a Rose Pink Galaxy S8+ in Asia a few days ago.

In other words, its regular business at Samsung. The company did the same thing with previous Galaxy S versions, releasing new color options months after the phone hit stores.

The new Coral Blue hue should be available with both locked and unlocked versions of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ soon.

The color will be exclusive to Best Buy, apparently, but the retailer has not confirmed it yet. The Coral Blue Galaxy S8 phones should start selling as soon as they arrive in stores, possibly as early as Thursday.

Before you hurry to get one, you should know that theres one big reason to avoid buying the phone for a couple of weeks. Best Buy could soon discount the Galaxy S8 series by as much as $250, and the promotion is supposed to kick off in the fourth week of July.

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Two policemen were killed and a third was lightly wounded in a terror attack on Friday morning when three terrorists opened fire at Border Police forces at the Lions' Gate in Jerusalem's Old City. The three attackers were shot and killed by police.

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The three terrorists arrived at the Temple Mount at around 7am armed with two Carl Gustav rifles and a handgun. As they approached the Lions' Gate, they noticed Israeli patrol officers and started shooting at them.

The terrorists then fled towards one of the mosques in the Temple Mount complex. Police gave chase, shooting and killing all three.

Terrorists firing at police (:  )

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A video of the attack shows one of the terrorists, who was initially declared "neutralized," get up and try to hurt an Israeli officer, who then shot and killed him.

Two of the policemen, Ha'il Satawi and Kamil Shnaan, were taken to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Mount Scopus in critical condition, where they succumbed to their wounds. The third policeman, 39, was hurt from shrapnel and was taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the capital in light condition.

The two slain officers

A Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedic was also lightly hurt from shrapnel and was treated at the scene.

Wounded taken to the Hadassah Medical Center (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Ha'il Satawi, 30, from Maghar, was in the Border Police during his army service and in 2012 enlisted as a patrol officer at the Border Police's Temple Mount Unit. He is survived by his wife, three-weeks-old son, parents and three siblings. Satawi will be laid to rest at 4pm Friday in Maghar. Satawi with his newborn son Ha'il's cousin, Sheikh Asaid Satawi, lamented the Border Policeman's loss. "What good is this conflict, to make a two-week-old baby an orphan? I hope these would be the last casualties of this conflict; that the leaders would sit together and resolve the issues. Have every people in their own state. Enough with the bloodshed," he said. The cousin described Ha'il as a happy person, who helped all and was beloved by all. "The service in Jerusalem is dangerous, that's well known, but he loved helping people. Everyone around him loved him and his laughter. He was a man who gave happiness to anyone who knew him," the sheikh said. Mourners' tent for Ha'il Satawi in Maghar (Photo: Avihu Shapira) Kamil Shnaan, 22, from Hurfeish, started serving as a patrol officer in the same unit seven months ago. He was the son of former MK Shachiv Shnaan. He is survived by his parents, one brother and three sisters. Shnaan will be laid to rest at 5:30pm Friday in Hurfeish.



Kamil Shnaan Kamil's uncle, Sliman Marad Shnaan, said his nephew was supposed to get engaged in September to a girl from Daliyat al-Karmel. "He was a salt-of-the-earth child, who loved helping everyone. He had dreams of building a home with his fiancee. He loved the homeland and the country. He wanted to study in academia and continue advancing in the police." Kamil's cousin said that he miraculously managed to survive a skirmish during his army service, when a rocket landed next to him, killing two other soldiers. "He always said, 'if I got through the service on the northern border, everything else is easy,'" the cousin said. "He always had a smile on his face."

The three terrorists were identified as Israeli Arab citizens from Umm al-Fahm: Muhammad Ahmad Muhammad Jabarin, 29, Muhammad Hamed Abed al-Atif Jabarin, 19, and Muhammad Ahmad Mafdel Jabarin, 19. The terrorists have no previous history of security related offenses, according to the Shin Bet.

Israeli IDs of the three terrorists

The Shin Bet and the Israel Police are investigating the incident and a gag order has been put on all details relating to the investigation.

Three hours before the attack, two of the terrorists posted a photo of theirs on Facebook with the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the background and wrote: "The smile will be more beautiful tomorrow." An hour before the attack, one of them wrote: "Thank God and enough."

Two of the terrorists on the Temple Mount

One of the terrorists

A relative of one of the terrorists was shocked to learn of the attack. "We didn't know they were planning to carry out an attack. We are all in shock. If we had known, we would have stopped them immediately. We do not lack problems. We are against such acts. This shooting contributes nothing to us but destroys everything. Now everyone will attack us," he said. "When I received the message, I thought this was a case of mistaken identity, because my relative is a quiet person and did not think of shooting policemen," he added, summarizing that "this is an event that should not have happened." "When I received the message, I thought this was a case of mistaken identity, because my relative is a quiet person and did not think of shooting policemen," he added, summarizing that "this is an event that should not have happened." No Friday prayers on Temple Mount

Following the attack, the Temple Mount complex was cleared of visitors and all of its entry gates were closed to allow security forces to search the site for additional weapons. The Jerusalem Police district commander announced Friday prayers will not be held on the Temple Mount.

Israeli security forces set up barricades to prevent entry to the Temple Mount and stopped several senior Muslim figures, including the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Hussein, from entering the complex.

Security forces in Jerusalem's Old City following Friday's attack at the Lion's Gate (Photo: Reuters)

The mufti called on Muslim worshipers to arrive at the barricades and hold Friday prayers there. "There isn't a force on earth that would prevent them from getting to al-Aqsa and holding Friday prayers," he said.

Security forces holding searches in Jerusalem's Old City (Photo: AFP)

Police detained for questioning guards of the Islamic Waqf, the Jordanian body in charge of the Temple Mount, who were at the complex during the attack. According to the Islamic Waqf Authority, police also confiscated the guards' cellphones.

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, who arrived at the site of the attack, was briefed by Jerusalem District Police Commander Yoram HaLevy on the initial findings of the investigation into the incident.

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh at the scene of the attack (:  ) X

"This is an unusual and extreme incident," the police said in a statement. "A shooting on the Temple Mount is a grave event, sensitive and significant on both the domestic and international levels and will be handled accordingly."

"This is, without a doubt, a very grave incident, and we are taking thorough measures on the Mount, primarily searching the entire complex to ensure there are no more weapons there," Alsheikh told reporters.

When asked how weapons were smuggled onto the Temple Mount, the police chief explained that "throughout the years, every Friday, tens of thousands of worshipers enter (the complex). They don't go through a security check when they enter as is usually done at secure sites. This is not like the Western Wall... Since you can't allow 180,000 people in for prayer through so few gates, it's obviously simpler to bring weapons onto the Temple Mount. The arms weren't necessarily brought in this morning, they could've been brought in two weeks ago, two months ago, half a year ago, or even a year ago."

Security forces in Jerusalem's Old City following Friday's attack at the Lion's Gate (Photo: Israel Police)

Speaking to the terrorists' motives, Alsheikh said, "It does not appear to be a bunch of guys, who for some personal reason are tired of living, so they come here. It appears to be something more meaningful, but it's not unusual compared to other cells that have been stopped since the beginning of this wave of terrorism."

Following the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Yoav Mordechai.

The prime minister and the leadership of the defense establishment decided to keep the Temple Mount complex closed for the day, search the area to ensure there are no other weapons hidden there, and maintain the status quo.

"I want to send my deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the criminal terror attack today on the Temple Mount," Netanyahu said in a statement. "This is a sad day in which our Druze brothers are paying the heaviest price in our shared mission to defending the security of our country. I salute them and their heroism."

Security forces in Jerusalem's Old City following Friday's attack at the Lion's Gate (Photo: Reuters)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Netanyahu to condemn the attack and demand the reopening of the Temple Mount and warn of the ramifications of such a move or of taking advantage of the situation to change the status quo. Netanyahu clarified to Abbas there will be no change to the status quo.

Jordanian media, meanwhile, reported that government officials in the Kingdom were in talks with Israel in an effort to reopen the Temple Mount.

Weapons used by the attackers

A member of the Fatah leadership, Abbas Zaki, said closing the Temple Mount "is a blatant violation, which we will not accept. Everyone must resist Israel's moves. The three young men who were killed in Jerusalem were the ones who faced the real terrorism. We are now paying the price of the fake peace from the Oslo Accords. Resistance is the choice of all Palestinians and it is what will free the homeland."

The Hamas terror organization said the attack "is a natural response to the Israeli terrorism and the dirtying of the al-Aqsa Mosque. The attack shows the intifada continues and that our people are united behind the resistance."

Israeli security forces on the scene of the attack ( )

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COGAT, Maj. Gen. Mordechai, posted a message in Arabic on his Facebook page, saying: "Three terrorists carried out a criminal terror attack at the holy Temple Mount complex and defiled it. They came in armed and carried out a terror attack. Therefore, in the short time they have, Israeli security forces are taking measures to ensure there are no other weapons at the site. We want to safeguard the freedom of worship, and the police forces in their actions tried to do just that. This is a terror attack that is unacceptable to us, and we hope the entire Arab world condemns it clearly and decisively."

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who also arrived to the scene of the attack, called on leaders of the Israeli Arab public and leaders in the Palestinian Authority "to calm tensions and call for moderation out of concern for the safety of the public."

He pointed the finger at the Islamic Movement, saying, "They're the ones causing the tensions on the mountain" both inside Israel and in the PA.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan talking about attack (:  )

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President Reuven Rivlin also called on the Arab leadership in Israel and outside it "to express a clear position against this criminal attack."

"The murderous terror attack at the Temple Mount was stopped by the courageous Israeli policemen who threw themselves in the way, and prevented an even greater disaster," Rivlin said in a statement. "We cannot allow for agents of murder, who desecrate the name of God, to drag us into a bloody war, and we will deal with a heavy hand against all the arms of terror, and its perpetrators."

We owe a debt of life to the sons we have lost. Our hearts are with the bereaved families at this difficult time, and we pray for the recovery of the wounded," he added.

A bloody year in Jerusalem

This attack was preceded by several stabbings and shootings in the capital, as Jerusalem's Old City and its surroundings have become a focal point for terrorist activities since the beginning of the year.

In June, three terrorists armed with semi-automatic weapons and knives struck in two different parts of Old City near the Damascus Gate, fatally wounding 23-year-old border policewoman Hadas Malka, who later succumbed to her wounds. Five others were wounded in the attack.

In May, a 37-year-old police officer was moderately wounded in a stabbing attack near the Lions' Gate. The terrorist, Mohammad Abdullah Salim al-Kasji, a 57-year-old Jordanian citizen, arrived in Israel a week prior via the Jordan River crossing in Beit Shean. He was critically wounded in the attack.

Security forces in Jerusalem's Old City following Friday's attack at the Lion's Gate (Photo: AFP)

In April, a British student named Hannah Bladon was killed after being stabbed multiple times in the chest in a terror attack at IDF Square on Jerusalems light rail route. Bladon studied at the Hebrew University as part of a student exchange program, for only one semester.

Just two weeks before that, two civilians and one police officer were moderately wounded during a stabbing attack on Hagai Street in Jerusalem's Old City. The terrorist was shot dead by security forces after being chased by the police and Border Police.

In March, two 20-year-old border policemen were moderately wounded after being stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist in another attack that took place near the Lions' Gate. The attacker was shot dead by one of the injured officers.

In January, four IDF soldiersthree women and a man in their 20swere murdered and 17 wounded when a Palestinian truck driver deliberately rammed into pedestrians on a popular promenade overlooking the Old City.
Stunning Ghanaian-Nigerian actress, Yvonne Okoro has expressed her readiness and willingness to join Ghanas local industry popularly called Kumawood if the industry can meet some conditions.

Click here for all the latest art and entertainment news in Ghana

Actress Yvonne Okoro

In a phone interview with B Ice on Kumasi-based Agyenkwa FM, the budding actress revealed that when she was in school in France some years back, she used to enjoy the local movies. She added that she had a lot of respect for the actors who made headlines in the local movie industry.

READ ALSO: Top Kumawood actor opens up about the reason he does his own makeup

The 32-year old actress who is also a graduate from the University of Ghana added that she would accept to appear in a local movie produced by a movie producer from the industry if she was called upon.

However, she indicated that before she would make such an appearance in a kumawood-produced movie, the conditions must be right. Speaking about her conditions, the beautiful actress indicated that she had to receive a good deal in terms of the movie contract and the timing of the movie should also be perfect.

READ ALSO: Kafui Danku raises rumors of pregnancy with new photo on social media

She bemoaned the class distinction between the movie industries in Ghana and said that movies were all about acting and you did not need to be of a certain class in your private life to be able to fit into a movie scene which was all about make-believe.

Yvonne Okoro has starred in many movies in Ghana and has acted alongside some of Ghanas best in the movie industry including working with Shirley Frimpong Manso, Joselyn Dumas and Yvonne Nelson.

YEN is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident?

Want to tell about a local problem? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition?

Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YENs official Facebook Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YENs official Facebook Facebook page, or contact us via info@yen.com.gh

Source: YEN.com.gh
TWIN FALLS  Employees at Lamb Weston say there is palpable tension at the Twin Falls plant ahead of a vote today and Saturday to determine whether they will be represented by a Boise union.

In a months-long dispute between the company and Teamsters Local Union 483, employees on both sides of the issue have flung accusations of harassment and intimidation at the workplace and online.

Workers in the middle have been left to wonder whether it is union supporters or the company itself engaging in intimidation or harassment.

Meanwhile, the union filed charges this week claiming Lamb Weston is participating in unfair labor practices  charges Lamb Weston says are untrue.

We work hard to build a positive working environment, and we value the contributions of all our team members, Lamb Weston spokeswoman Shelby Stoolman said in a statement. We believe these allegations are false, and the claims made about our working environment are a purposeful misrepresentation.

We are confident that weve operated within the regulations and guidelines set forth by the NLRB, and well cooperate fully with any investigation into the complaints.

Voting takes place Thursday and Saturday to determine whether the majority of employees at the plant want union representation.

Its tense, very tense, Lamb Weston employee Lisa Powell told the Times-News on Wednesday.

For Powell, who opposes having a union, the confrontations have not been at work, but have been especially noticeable on social media pages.

In one Facebook group, Teamsters Local Union 483 Director of Representation Darel Hardenbrook posted a comment: How many felony sex convictions do the anti-union employees have? The post later appeared to have been taken down.

But other employees have reported issues in the workplace itself. Hardenbrook has gathered dozens of pages of testimony from employees saying they have been taken into supervisors offices and questioned about their union membership.

The union charges that Lamb Weston has threatened to retaliate against employees if they joined or supported union  and has interrogated employees about union activities. Iranian immigrants, specifically, are being targeted, Hardenbrook said.

John Harding, a mechanic in the processing area, argues there is a lot of misrepresentation of the truth on the side of the union, and earlier allegations of intimidation are unfounded. He said he will vote against the union because he feels the pay scale and benefits are fair, and he prefers an incentive-based versus a seniority-based pay scale.

One employee posted a petition in the employee breakroom for those united in voting no on the union.

It was quite shortly vandalized by the pro-union folks, Harding said.

Jason Samargis, a vocal union supporter, denies allegations that the union and its supporters are intimidating others. In a mandatory employee meeting, he said, a firm Lamb Weston hired presented arguments against the Teamsters and unionization.

When he tried to ask questions, he said two supervisors told him his questions didnt matter and were irrelevant. One supervisor allegedly leaned in to him and said Its OK, sweetie before making a kissing noise.

Theyre blaming me for the union (vote), he said. Im not going to get scared. Theres nothing to be scared of.

The Teamsters filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board this week after attempts to contact the county prosecutor were unreturned, Hardenbrook said.

These violations that have occurred have served to chill the free will of these employees, he said.

Additional charges after the union vote will likely not be brought up unless the company acts to terminate a union supporter, he said.

The vote outcome will be made known to employees following its close Saturday, Samargis said.

I think its a 50-50 chance right now.
TWIN FALLS  A wrecked car that has been in the Snake River Canyon near the Perrine Bridge for more than a year will be removed soon.

The city of Twin Falls has made a deal with Markys Super Tow to take the car out, and it will be done within the next few days, said city spokesman Joshua Palmer.

The car has been there since a fatal crash in November 2015 and has prompted some calls to emergency services from concerned onlookers worried it was a newer wreck. Firefighters and paramedics responded to the scene a week ago, after they got a call and wanted to make sure it was that car and not a more recent crash.

Palmer said the city entered into the $6,000 deal with Markys in October, but the cars removal got delayed.

There was a whole sequence of issues, everything ranging from weather to (issues with) a boom truck they use, Palmer said. We spoke with them, and they said within the next few days they would have it out.
SHOSHONE  A pretrial conference for a Carey school bus driver has been pushed back to next month.

Richard Mecham, 67, was charged in June with misdemeanor reckless driving after an April crash injured a dozen students.

A pretrial conference was originally slated for Friday in Lincoln County Fifth District Court. But its now scheduled for 11 a.m. Aug. 4.

Police said Mecham was driving a school bus west on U.S. 26 on April 18 when he drove off the right shoulder of the road, over-corrected and rolled the bus west of Richfield.

Students were traveling to a track meet in Gooding. A dozen of the 39 Carey Junior High School students who were on the bus were hospitalized.

All were released by the next afternoon.

A collision report from Idaho State Police says Mecham was asleep, drowsy or fatigued while operating the school bus. The report lists distraction as another contributing circumstance.

Mecham is no longer employed by the Blaine County School District.
TWIN FALLS  A school superintendent is recording a video about how he decides when to call a snow day. His daughter knocks him to the ground.

Schools canceled, she said. Youre welcome.

Educators laughed Wednesday after watching the video during the College of Southern Idahos P20 conference.

Eric Sheninger, a senior fellow on digital leadership with the International Center for Leadership in Education, played the video as part of his keynote address  BrandED: Tell Your Story, Build Relationships, and Empower Learning.

He was previously a school principal in New York and hes the author of six books. He also gave Tuesdays keynote address.

The talk focused on how educators can use storytelling and social media to talk about good things that happen in schools and to reach their community.

The CSI Fine Arts Auditorium was full and people were even sitting on the floor.

You want to build trust? Let people know what youre doing, Sheninger told the audience. Be transparent.

Its the second year for the P20 conference for preschool-through-college teachers. It kicked off Tuesday and continued through Wednesday.

More than 620 educators participated, hailing from across Idaho and surrounding states. The purpose is to help improve teaching practices and give educators innovative ideas to bring back to classrooms this fall.

Its good to get to see and get some perspective on what other teachers are doing, said Brett Darrington, an English teacher at Kimberly High School. He has been teaching for 10 years.

Educators dont do a good job telling their story, Sheninger told the audience during the keynote address, so the public forms their own assumptions about the amazing work youre doing.

Educators can set up alerts  such as via Google Alerts or Mention  for their name, school or school district to track what people are saying, Sheninger said.

Plus, using social media allows schools to have greater transparency, welcome feedback, meet stakeholders where they are and reinforce a message through using multiple tools, he said.

Sheningers examples of some of the most effective platforms include YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram.

Its not about how many likes or shares a post gets, he said, but whether your story or work impacts at least one other person.

With using social media, its important to develop a strategy, Sheninger said. The point here is you gotta be consistent.

Tammy McMorrow, a first-grade teacher in Kuna, said both keynote addresses were a highlight of the P20 conference.

She likes that the event is near the Treasure Valley and its over the summer  so she doesnt have to get a substitute teacher for her class.

McMorrow led two sessions at the conference, including one about creating classroom books with students.

The P20 conference is a chance for teachers to share stories and improve their teaching practices, she said, because were kind of isolated in our schools and our classrooms.

McMorrow, who has been teaching for 23 years, released a book in June called Gatekeepers: Lets Talk About Teaching. Its a collection of 50 short reflections on good teaching practices.

Session topics Wednesday included dual credit, digital portfolios, digital citizenship, transforming recess, supporting students who have disabilities and helping students improve their behavior.

In a grassy area outside CSIs Taylor Building, about 10 educators gathered for a session about the Playworks model. Its used to support positive social interactions during recesses.

A team from Kimberly Elementary School  which has nearly 1,000 students  shared how the initiative is working at their school.

They suggested ideas for educators, such as transitions that can be used to help students from one activity to another. The first one they tried out: touch something pink  thats not on a person  and form a circle in the shade.

Nearby in the Shields building, Mary Spiker, a Pocatello kindergarten teacher and Idahos 2017 Teacher of the Year, led a session about how to keep young children accountable without a behavior chart.

Spiker shared a system she has used in class involving little green monster pictures.

She draws lines on a whiteboard  above the line, below the line and bottom line  to show students which types of behavior are acceptable and which arent.

Spiker places green monster cutouts on the board, each representing a different action.

Every day, she talks with students about which behaviors fall into which categories, she said. Now I felt like they had a way to gauge their behaviors.
EDEN  Police are searching for a man who fled on foot after leading police on a short vehicle chase.

Jerome County Sheriff Doug McFall said the call originated in Eden as a domestic dispute. McFall said the man tried taking his child from the mother and the police were called.

The man took off in a vehicle before abandoning it and fleeing on foot. The Jerome County Sheriff's Office is searching for the man.

Lori Stewart, spokeswoman for the Twin Falls Sheriff's Department, said officers from the department are assisting with the call.

This post will be updated as details become available.
EDEN  Police are still searching for a man who fled on foot Thursday night after leading police on a short car chase.

Police say Jeffery Arlyn Krohn, 49, took an 11-month-old baby girl from her mother Thursday and drove away. Krohn then returned to the mother and handed the baby to her through the window as she walked down a road in Eden, said Captain George Oppedyk of the Jerome County Sheriffs Office.

Krohn led Jerome County Sheriffs officers on a short pursuit before abandoning the Ford Taurus under the interstate near 4000 E. and 990 S. in Eden, about three miles east of Travelers Oasis Truck Plaza.

Krohn was carrying a firearm in the car, Oppedyk said.

Oppedyk said its unknown whether the mother is Krohns ex-wife or ex-girlfriend. The call came into the Jerome County Sheriffs Office at 6:15 p.m.

Krohn has felony warrants out of Twin Falls and Jerome County that include multiple failures to appear, telephone intimidation, malicious injury to property and disturbing the peace.

Oppedyk said police lost sight of Krohn before he abandoned the car. Officers never saw which direction Krohn fled on foot. Police searched several nearby houses. Officers called off the search at 9:30 p.m. Twin Falls County Sheriffs Office and an officer from the Kimberly Police Department assisted in the search.

If you have any information about Krohn, contact Jerome County Sheriff at 208-595-3360 or SIRCOMM at 208-324-1911.
A very real reason why rural voters are unimpressed by the Affordable Care Act is that, even with the ability to pay, they do not have trouble-free access to a doctor. If they have a good primary-care physician, they face extended travel and appointment delays when they need a specialist. Forget the scare tactics of the opponents of single-payer health care. In rural America, there is currently no choice of provider and lengthy delays for treatment.

This was brought home to me this weekend when I had the opportunity for discussion with relatives in Denver. We were gathered to discuss the health and care for our 81-year-old matriarch, and my niece said, I dont know what people in rural areas do. We have so many choices and can always find a doctor to see us right away even if it isnt the first one we call. That isnt available outside of a large city.

What can Idaho do about this situation? Recognize that this condition requires state funding that is not currently available. Or, as I am not afraid of saying, raise taxes. The dilemma confronting rural health care requires money, and as Idaho already has demand for all current revenues, it requires new revenue.

The Community Health Centers in Idaho already contribute to better rural health. CHCs are federally subsidized clinics furnishing coordinated medical, dental, behavioral health and low-cost pharmacy care in rural areas and to people who pay their bills on a sliding scale determined by their total household income, as well as people who have insurance. Family Health Services in the Magic Valley and Fairfield currently has eight such clinics.

The main impediment to the increase of patients served as well as the number of these clinics is the number of providers who are available. Even the inducement of paying student loans is often not enough incentive to come to Idaho.

How can Idaho spend money that helps? The state can significantly fund larger numbers in the nurse practitioner and physician assistant programs offered by Idaho State University as well as the nursing programs offered by colleges like the College of Southern Idaho. The funding is about both space and instructor salary. Idaho institutions can find the students, but they cannot find the capacity to meet the demand.

Boise will soon host a private school that will turn out new doctors of osteopathy every year. The Legislature should offer student funding in exchange for a contract to practice in rural Idaho for multiple years. Our two major hospital systems already host intern programs, and their capacity to do more can certainly increase.

Idaho can provide money for mobile medicine. FHS already has a mobile dental bus. It is possible to put medical, behavioral health and pharmacy services in a bus that serves tiny towns on a regular basis. Telemedicine can provide specialized care, including routine surgery, if the infrastructure is in place.

We can, of course, wait for the federal government to solve this. Even if we join all the rural areas in the 50 states with this problem, I doubt that Idahoans would be thoroughly satisfied by the results. If we educate our people here, they can practice here. Money spent stays in our state generating more taxes. Better health care is an inducement to settle in smaller towns.

Expanding Medicaid is still necessary. However, one person who commented on a previous column said he didnt want to compete with more people for the scarce medical resources. No matter what happens

in D.C., Idaho has a problem Idaho can fix. Funding better health care throughout the state isnt sending tax money to bloated government entitlements. It is an investment which benefits every Idahoan and brings us solidly into the 21st century.
Churches in Egypt have called on members, including Christian Copts, to suspend all activities outside churches over security threats revealed by intelligence agencies.

Religious sources have indicated that conferences and religious camps will be suspended for three weeks following threats detected by authorities.

We are talking about conferences and travel for religious events, for three weeks, because we have information in cooperation with the responsible agencies that attack attempts have been detected, Reverend Andrea Zaki, head of the Egyptian Evangelical Church told AFP.

Father Rafik Greish, a spokesman for the Coptic Catholic Church, said Copts complied with the interior ministers decision to cancel church trips and camps until further notice, Reuters notes.

Masses will continue at churches where security presence has been beefed up.

The decision to suspend activities outside churches comes in the backdrop of mounting threat against minority Christians following the attack against a group of Copts traveling to a monastery, in May. Masked men killed 29 voyagers while wounding over 40 other people.

The Coptic Christians were also victim of coordinate terrorist attacks early April after two attacks claimed by the Islamic State group (IS) targeted two churches in Alexandria and Tanta.

Another IS-masterminded suicide bombing hit a Coptic church in Cairo in December.
Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank.
Stanford researchers using smartphones to track the activity levels of hundreds of thousands of people around the globe made an intriguing discovery: In countries with little obesity, people mostly walked a similar amount per day. But in countries with higher levels of obesity, there was a big gap between people who walked a lot and those who walked very little.

The researchers used data captured from smartphones to analyze the physical activity of 717,527 men and women from 111 countries, whose steps were studied for an average of 95 days. A paper describing the findings was published online July 10 in Nature. The lead author is graduate student Tim Althoff. The senior author is Jure Leskovec, PhD, associate professor of computer science.

If you think about some people in a country as activity rich and others as activity poor, the size of the gap between them is a strong indicator of obesity levels in that society, said study co-author Scott Delp, PhD, professor of bioengineering and of mechanical engineering.

The researchers dubbed this phenomenon activity inequality to evoke the well-established concept of income inequality.

A related finding was the powerful role that gender played in country-to-country differences. Prior studies of physical activity, done mainly in the United States, have shown that men walk more than women, and this was borne out in the global findings. What surprised researchers, however, was how greatly this gender step gap varied from country to country, with negative consequences for women.

When activity inequality is greatest, womens activity is reduced much more dramatically than mens activity, and thus the negative connections to obesity can affect women more greatly, Leskovec said.

The researchers, who are sharing their findings on an activity inequality website, hope their work will help improve public health campaigns against obesity, and support policies to make cities more walkable.

Smartphones and steps

Smartphones are equipped with tiny sensors called accelerometers that can automatically record stepping motions. The researchers acquired the data for this study from the Azumio Argus app, which tracks physical activity and other health behaviors. Azumio de-identified the data but provided key health demographics: age, gender, height and weight. The last two data points enabled the researchers to calculate each persons body mass index.
Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by poor social ability and verbal communication skills, as well as restrictive and repetitive behaviors. Not all children with the disorder are equally affected; symptoms range in severity. In 2014, Parker and Hardan and their colleagues discovered that oxytocin levels vary greatly in children both with and without autism, and that those with low oxytocin have more social impairment regardless of whether they have autism.

That discovery made the researchers wonder if oxytocins benefits as an autism therapy might be confined to kids whose levels were low to begin with. Other trials of oxytocin in autism have produced mixed results but did not take subjects baseline levels into account.

The new study included 32 children with autism who were randomly assigned to receive an intranasal oxytocin spray or a placebo spray twice daily for four weeks. The childrens blood oxytocin levels were measured before and after the four-week period. The childrens behavior was assessed at the beginning and end of the trial using a standardized questionnaire completed by their parents. The hormone was found to be safe, with no adverse events reported.

Intriguing placebo effect

As in many trials, the researchers saw some improvement even in children given the placebo, though the effect was less pronounced than it was in the oxytocin group. Children who had low oxytocin at baseline received more benefit from placebo than those who began with high oxytocin  and their bodies own production of the hormone rose modestly. This unexpected finding suggests a possible biological explanation for the placebo effect, which is common in studies of psychological and psychiatric treatments, Parker said. The idea that increases in natural oxytocin production might explain how patients benefit from a placebo merits future research, she added.

Hopefully, this is a first step to identifying the characteristics of people with autism who respond to specific treatments.

Among the children who got oxytocin, those with the lowest oxytocin levels at the beginning of the trial experienced the greatest improvements in social behavior. Oxytocins effects were specific: the hormone did not change the frequency of repetitive behaviors, nor did it affect childrens anxiety levels.

A large trial of oxytocin for children with autism is now underway at several institutions across the United States, and Hardan and Parker are curious about whether the bigger trial will replicate their findings. Hardan, who treats children with autism at Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford, is not advocating that physicians start prescribing oxytocin for their patients yet.

If our findings are replicated in the large NIH-funded trial, then I might consider doing baseline oxytocin measurements as part of my clinical practice to try to determine if specific patients will respond, he said, noting that this could be difficult because, at present, blood oxytocin levels are not measured routinely in clinical labs. Oral or sublingual administration of oxytocin would not necessarily produce the same results as the intranasal oxytocin tested, he also cautioned.

Hopefully, this is a first step to identifying the characteristics of people with autism who respond to specific treatments, Hardan said. Because of the heterogeneity of the disorder, we need to start doing clinical trials not to see if there will be a response, but more to see who will respond to possible treatments.

The work is an example of Stanford Medicines focus on precision health, the goal of which is to anticipate and prevent disease in the healthy and precisely diagnose and treat disease in the ill.

Other Stanford-affiliated authors of the paper are postdoctoral scholars Ozge Oztan, PhD, and Debra Karhson, PhD; medical student Jacqueline Summers; clinical research coordinator Robin Libove; undergraduate students Raena Sumiyoshi and Lisa Jackson; Kyle Hinman, MD, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences; Kara Motonaga, MD, clinical assistant professor of pediatric cardiology; Jennifer Phillips, PhD, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences; former postdoctoral scholar Dean Carson, PhD; and Joseph Garner, DPhil, associate professor of comparative medicine.

Parker, Hardan and Garner are members of Stanfords Child Health Research Institute.

The research was supported by grants from the Mosbacher Family Fund for Autism Research, Stanfords Child Health Research Institute, the Yani Calmidis Memorial Fund for Autism Research, Autism Speaks, a Stanford University School of Medicine Deans Postdoctoral Fellowship and the National Institute of Mental Health (grant T3MH019908).

Stanfords Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences also supported the work.
Having undergone two aneurysm surgeries, Sandi Rodoni thought she understood everything about the procedure. But when it came time for her third surgery, the Watsonville, California, resident was treated to a virtual reality trip inside her own brain.

Stanford Medicine is using a new software system that combines imaging from MRIs, CT scans and angiograms to create a three-dimensional model that physicians and patients can see and manipulate  just like a virtual reality game.

After donning a headset connected to the VR system, Rodoni could clearly see the ballooning blood vessel, as well as the spot where her neurosurgeon, Gary Steinberg, MD, PhD, would place a clip to repair it. Because I had been through this before, I thought I knew it all until I saw this, she said. I felt better knowing it was so clear to the doctor.

Created by the Colorado startup Surgical Theater, the VR system is helping train residents, assist surgeons in planning upcoming operations and educate patients. It also helps surgeons in the operating room, guiding them in a three-dimensional space.

For the residents, class is held in a room in the hospital basement. Under low lighting, and surrounded by three massive screens, the residents settle into reclining chairs complete with drink holders  all promising a comfortable ride inside the human skull.

Once the residents don headsets, an instructor  who shows up as an avatar in a white coat  can lead them inside the brain of a patient. The system allows instructors to highlight different components of the brain, such as arteries to show an aneurysm, bones to show skull deformities or tissue to show a tumor, while rotating the view to illustrate how a tumor or aneurysm looks from different angles. They can also progress, as avatars, through the steps for removing a tumor or fixing an aneurysm, starting outside the skull.

A window into the brain

Surgeons make their way down to the Neurosurgical Simulation Lab to practice an upcoming operation. Because theyre practicing on images from the actual patient, rather than a generic brain, they can map out the surgery ahead of time. Its a window into the brain  and a window into the brain of the particular patient were going to operate on, said Anand Veeravagu, MD, an assistant professor of neurosurgery and the head of the Stanford Neurosurgical Simulation Lab.
The UN has expressed concern about what is already the worlds fastest growing refugee crisis, as thousands of South Sudanese civilians are fleeing to neighboring Ethiopia.

The mass exodus is taking place as Government troops advance on a rebel stronghold in the Upper Nile region.

Reports from the UN International Organization on Migration (IOM) suggest that Government forces are now approaching the town of Maiwut, 25 Km north-west of Pagak. Im gravely concerned by this ongoing situation, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in South Sudan, David Shearer, told reporters from Juba, the capital, a UN press release said.

He added that while it is unclear which side began the fighting, the military advance by the South Sudan forces is not in the spirit of the unilateral ceasefire declared by the Government in May.

Shearer said there has been active military engagement over the past week north of Pagak, and at least 25 aid workers have relocated in the area as a result of the insecurity.

The senior UN official, who is also the head of the UN Mission in the country, or UNMISS, also voiced great concern about an orphanage near Torit, south of Juba, surrounded by Government and rebel fighters who are preparing to fight.

Its unacceptable that 250 innocent children, and the people who care for them, find themselves in no-mans land between the warring parties, the press release quoted Shearer as saying.

Requests by UNMISS to access the Hope for South Sudan Orphanage have been denied locally, on the ground.

The UN official urged both sides to reflect on President Salva Kiirs Independence Day message of peace and withdraw from the facility.
Reporters without Borders (RSF) has called for the release of Said Chitour, an Algerian freelance journalist who has been held arbitrarily ever since the intelligence services arrested him when he landed at Algiers international airport on June 5.

There are no grounds for keeping Chitour in pre-trial detention and doing so for more than a month is clearly excessive, stressed RSF, expressing concern about the conditions in which he is being held because he is diabetic.

Chitour, who is well known in Algiers and works for such international English-language media as the BBC and Washington Post, is accused of passing confidential documents to foreign diplomats.

After his arrest at the airport, he was taken directly to Dar Al Beida court, which ordered him held under article 65 of the penal code. This article provides for life imprisonment for anyone who, with the intention of passing them to a foreign power, gathers intelligence, objects, documents or processes whose compilation and use are liable to harm the nations defense or economy.

But everyone is innocent until proved guilty and pre-trial detention is an exceptional measure that must be justified by clearly stated circumstances, such as a danger of flight or a threat to public order, said RSF in a press release, deeming Chitours detention excessive.

Furthermore, pre-trial detention should not be extended indefinitely without a date being set for the trial. When pre-trial detention is extended without any grounds and without a trial date, it becomes arbitrary and the principle of the presumption of innocence is violated, RSF editor-in-chief Virginie Dangles said, calling for the release without delay of Said Chitour as he has health problems.

Furthermore, the Algerian authorities  in particular, the presidents office, which oversees the intelligence agencies that arrested Chitour  must publicly state the grounds for his pre-trial detention, because we so far know nothing about what he is alleged to have done, Chitours lawyer, said.

The case has parallels with that of Touati Marzoug, a blogger in pre-trial detention since January at Oued Ghir prison in Bejaia for posting a Skype interview with a person described as Israeli diplomat.

He is facing up to 25 years in prison under article 71 of the penal code. RSF issued a press release in February condemning the disproportionate nature of the charges and possible sentence.

In a report entitled Algeria, the invisible hand of power over the media, RSF describes how the Algerian authorities use the threat of pre-trial detention to intimidate journalists, citizen-journalists and media workers.

Algeria is ranked 134th out of 180 countries in RSFs 2017 World Press Freedom Index.
The US envoy to Tripoli met with Head of Libyan self-proclaimed chief of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Sunday in the Jordanian capital Amman, reports say.

Ambassador Peter Bodde reportedly held talks with self-style Khalifa Haftar on the Libyan crisis, which erupted in 2011 following the killing of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO and US-backed revolution.

The US embassy Thursday confirmed the meeting saying that the US envoy called on all Libyan factions to reduce tensions and move toward a compromise on the basis of the Libya Political Agreement (LPA), which provides a roadmap for a transitional government and national elections, Libya Herald reports.

Libya has been governed by two rival governments; namely the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) established in Tripoli and Beida-based government supported by Haftar.

Haftar has been opposed to the GNA that he accuses of harboring foreign agenda.

The US appears to support the GNA after it endorsed the unity governments last year battle against the Islamic State group (IS) in Sirte. US airpower pounded the Islamist militants, leading to the liberation of Gaddafis hometown in December.

Mixed signals appeared in recent months after one of Haftars regional backers; the United Arab Emirates (UAE), presented Haftar to the US as the right man in Libya in the fight against terrorism.

Haftar last week announced victory over terrorists in Benghazi, the second city of the oil-rich North African country. The victory came after three years of fierce fighting between LNA forces and Islamist militants.

Last Tuesday, Armed groups aligned with Haftar said they took control of the town of Castelverde, 75 kilometres east of Tripoli, after days of fighting with GNA forces that failed to dislodge them.

Analysts say Haftar eyes the Libyan top job.
CiDA Strengthens International Partnership in Migration

CiDAs Project Manager of Partnership for Migrants Rights (GPMR), Tornike Abashidze, attended a general council in Brussels of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM).Current topics in the migration field were discussed in the general meeting. The participants also voted on and unanimously supported CiDAs membership in the platform.PICUM is a non-governmental organization whose mission is to protect the rights of undocumented migrants across Europe. It unites 156 organizations of 31 European countries, which have an opportunity to deepen international partnership and participate in the development of the protection mechanism of unconditional migrants across Europe.Through membership of PICUM, CiDA becomes part of the largest network in Europe related to undocumented migration and will be engaged in the monitoring of the migration policy in the European Union, as well as effective support of the process of Georgian undocumented migrants in Europe.CiDA has recently begun a project on migration that offers free legal consultations to migrants. The project is implemented with the support of the Open Society Foundations and it aims to unite the efforts of the Regional Civil Society Network, government, business, and media for the purpose of effective protection and strengthening of the rights of current, potential, and returned migrants through awareness raising and advocacy.
Georgias new 5 Lari silver collector coins released

Brand new 5 GEL (Georgian lari) silver collector coins are coming into circulation today to promote the Georgias rich culture and history of ancient winemaking traditions.The new coins picture Georgian vine varieties, wine and a large, ancient Georgian winemaking vessel qvevri.With these new 5 GEL coins Georgia will participate at this years prestigious wine festival at Bordeaux Centre for Wine and Civilisations in France, where Georgia will be among the special guests of the event.The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) came up with the idea to release vine-themed new coins especially for this event, where Georgia will promote its viticulture and wine history.Japan Mint, a government-administered organisation responsible for producing and circulating Japanese coins, produced 1,500 Georgian coins.Price for one 5 GEL coin is 60 GEL.The main composition of the coin is the golden qvevri and dark red wine within it. On the same side of the coin there is pictured vines with roots, leafs and grapes. On the bottom of the coin will be written: "sakartvelo", "2017", "GEORGIE", "5 lari". (Ge.Georgia...5 lari).On the other side of the coin the Bordeaux-based wine museum and cultural centre is pictured. The shape of the building is said to symbolise the spiral flow of wine swirling in a glass.The script on the other side of the coin is: "LEXPOSITION "VIGNOBLE INVITE" DE LA CITE DU VIN DE BORDEAUX", "LA GEORGIE - PREMIER INVITE".The designer of the new coins is Nino Gongadze.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson was approaching the dugout at Tropicana Field to throw out the first pitch at the Tampa Bay Rays game against the Red Sox on July 7, when a woman shouted his name.

"She came down the aisle to tell me: Please don't let them take my health care away," Nelson recalled. "I hear that all the time. People come up to me on the airplane, street corners, public buildings, ballgames -- where ever I am. Some people have told me 'I would be dead without my healthcare.'''

Because of that, Nelson said, he predicts that the revised Senate healthcare bill, which was released on Thursday, is all but dead and repeal of Obamacare is on the ropes.

"I think the message has gotten through,'' Nelson said Friday after a series of constituent meetings at his Tallahassee office. "I think it's going to be hard for them."

Even Gov. Rick Scott, a long-time advocate of repealing Obamacare, said in an op-ed released Friday that smaller changes should be on the table even though he still says "Obamacare must be repealed immediately."

"D.C. politicians have focused only on the grand bargain of repealing and replacing Obamacare, ignoring the opportunity to make incremental changes to get rid of the taxes and mandates and roll back the federal welfare state,'' Scott wrote.

Nelson believes that Florida has put itself in a bind by refusing to expand Medicaid to 138 percent of poverty, which he says is about $45,000 for a family of four.

"Now the states like Florida are saying we want you to make us equal with all 31 states that have expanded Medicaid, including states that have Republican governors,'' he said. "This is not only the irony but the travesty of the situation."

Under Obamacare, Florida could have drawn $5 billion a year in federal funds and would have had to match a maximum of $500 million a year to cover an estimated 800,000 uninsured, he said.

Instead, Florida has persuaded the Trump administration to expand the Low Income Pool program and reimburse hospitals and health care about $1 billion over the next two years to compensate for the care for the uninsured. But to get that money, local governments must pay a 40 percent match for 60 percent of the federal funds.

"So the people of Florida are going to pay $400 million to get $600 million when in fact, if they had expanded Medicaid, they would have paid a maximum of $500 million to get $5 billion," he said.

"They are paying more for it out of the pockets of the taxpayers of Florida and now when the health care bill revision is up, they say they want extra compensation so that the state's that expanded Medicaid don't get ahead of us. It's backwards."
via @SteveBousquet

House Speaker Richard Corcoran's Watchdog PAC has hired Jamestown Associates, the Philadelphia-based Republican media firm that shaped Donald Trump's TV ad campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The firm's CEO, Larry Weitzner, and Barney Keller will provide strategic advice to Corcoran as he considers a possible run for governor of Florida next year. They will join with the Fort Lauderdale-based pollster Tony Fabrizio, who has advised Gov. Rick Scott in addition to a long list of GOP candidates around the country. Adding Jamestown Associates is likely to accomplish the obvious goal of generating more buzz about Corcoran's political plans.

"Speaker Corcoran founded Watchdog PAC with the intent that it would spread the message of conservative reform across Florida," said Watchdog PAC chairman James Blair. "We will continue to build an organization of people that will help achieve that goal."

Remember Trump's "Deplorables" TV spot? That was the work of Jamestown Associates. Weitzner also was involved with a pro-Trump "super PAC" in the 2016 election. The Washington Post ran this enlightening piece on Weitzner's Trump ad strategy last December.
@amysherman1

President Donald Trump talked about his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Networks Pat Robertson on The 700 Club.

Trump said that the two nuclear superpowers need to have a good relationship, but that Russia and United States will not always agree.

"We are the most powerful country in the world and we are getting more and more powerful because I'm a big military person. As an example, if Hillary had won, our military would be decimated. Our energy would be much more expensive. That's what Putin doesn't like about me. And that's why I say, why would he want me? Because from day one I wanted a strong military. He doesn't want to see that," Trump told Robertson in the 30-minute interview that aired July 13.

Trump boasted about his progress on promises including his effort to reduce regulations, pulling out of the Paris climate agreement and his eagerness for senators to give him legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it.

Keep reading from PolitiFact.
@alextdaugherty @verambergen

As the House of Representatives debated a proposal that would ban medical treatments for transgender individuals serving in the military, Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of California had a brief message:

Choose what gender you are before you join.

A smattering of Democrats gathered to oppose the amendment offered by Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., quietly gasped.

After Hunter finished speaking, Sean Patrick Maloney, an openly gay congressman from New York, took his turn at the podium.

No one in the Pentagon has called for this, Maloney said. The Hartzler amendment would single out and rob a small group of military service members and their families of their health care merely because these folks, or members of their family, experience gender a little differently.

Just under an hour later, the House of Representatives narrowly voted down Hartzlers proposal 214-209, to audible cheers from the House floor.

Two dozen House Republicans voted with 190 Democrats to sink the amendment that would prohibit military funds for soldiers seeking medical treatment related to gender transition.

Its a hurtful amendment, its not needed, said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, a noted advocate for LGBT rights who has a transgender son. I view it as a personal issue, because as a mom Im impacted, but its an issue of fairness for everyone. You dont have to know someone thats transgender or have someone in your immediate family to feel this impact. Its just needlessly hurtful and serves no useful purpose.

Ros-Lehtinen was among the 24 Republicans, including Miami Rep. Carlos Curbelo, who voted against the amendment. Miami Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart voted in favor.

Hartzler argued that her amendment would save the military money, and said the Department of Defense could buy 13 more F-35 fighter jets with the money that would be used for gender reassignment surgeries and hormone treatments for transgender service members.
For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page
BILLINGS  Bethany Yellowtail has made a name for herself in the L.A. fashion world, but her dream is to return home to Montana to manufacture her lines.

Yellowtail, a member of the Northern Cheyenne, said Wednesday in Billings that her experience growing up on the Crow reservation is woven into her clothing line, B. Yellowtail, created in 2014.

She lives and manufactures in southern California.

I learn from you guys. I see 100 B. Yellowtails when I go home, the 29-year-old said at the Billings DoubleTree by Hilton hotel.

Yellowtail was a keynote speaker at the Innovate Montana Symposium, a three-day event in downtown Billings that attracts business owners statewide. The conference, in its third year, is sponsored by the office of Gov. Steve Bullock, who moderated discussions with keynotes.

Other speakers included Jason Williams, CEO of Blackfoot, a telecommunications firm in Missoula, and Dave Morin, a former manager for Facebook and a Helena native.

Yellowtail sat on stage with Bullock and spoke for about 45 minutes before a crowd of several hundred. Organizers said they sold about 600 tickets.

Yellowtail learned sewing from relatives and a teacher, Pat Mischke, at Wyola schools. She parlayed those skills to secure a spot at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles, where she graduated in 2009.

She then gave herself a year to find a job in her field, and she sent out dozens of unsuccessful applications as the self-imposed deadline grew near. She paid the bills working at Starbucks and worried her shot wouldnt come.

Finally, a company called BCBG Max Azria gave her a shot as an assistant, learning the business from others.

During her two years there, Yellowtail was already thinking about her own brand. Her challenge was developing clothes that honor her heritage but steer away from the Native American stereotypes seen all over the fashion world.

What does that mean to tell that story in clothing? How does that translate to fabric? Yellowtail said.

Last fall, she designed a line of Protector Gear in honor of those protesting the North Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota.

She also has an online gallery through her own line to give other Native designers a platform for their work.

B. Yellowtail has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Forbes magazine and other national publications. In February, she spoke at a New York fashion event about diversity in the industry.

Yellowtail has always been humble about her roots, though shes learned to be proud of who she is.

She said she remembered shyly telling one man in California that she grew up in Montana, a simple "rez girl." He told her, sharply, that she should speak proudly of her roots and how they shaped her.

In that exchange, Yellowtail said she gained a greater appreciation and perspective of her heritage and home state.

Being from Montana, being from the rez is what makes me unique  I had to go to Los Angeles to realize that, she said.
Camp Daze, Missoula's four-year-old independent music festival, continues Friday through Saturday with a deliberately diverse line-up.

Co-organizer Nickolas Hawksley said they tried to keep the genres diverse, loosely aiming for a laid-back indie-pop vibe.

This year, they also tried to avoid a line-up that was too heavily stacked into a dudes-only punk rock festival.

One of the most prominent bands this year is Mega Bog, a vehicle for Erin Birgy's idiosyncratic songs and highly original arrangements. She played at Free Cycles community bike shop earlier this year, and brought along her guitarist Meg Duffy, who's been catching ears with her technique and style.

June West, a Missoula native who recently moved back home, has an amazing vocal range she puts to use in well-crafted folk-based songs. (She has an album in the works, so there's potential to hear new material.)

Seattle's Great Grandpa will appeal to fans of melodic-but-noisy alt-rock guitar lines that never overwhelm their catchy writing.

It's not all guitar-based music either. Salt Lake City's Choir Boy builds off of 1980s synth-pop, and has what Hawksley described as an operatic voice, one that will appeal to fans of Tears for Fears. Missoula's Shahs are tough to pin to a specific genre, drawing from disparate influences like Randy Newman, Ethiopian music, Tropicalia, country and psychedelic rock.

The diversity of the line-ups is meant to be surprising but natural.

"That's the goal of the bills: to flow but also be unique," he said. "As long as you're open-minded about what you're going into, you'll find something."

All of the bands, local and non-local alike, are active parts of their local and regional music scenes. They have an open application process that they whittled down to the 45 bands spread over three days.

This year, the shows will all take place at all-ages, non-bar venues. The exception are the two shows upstairs at the Union Ballroom. Attendees can head down to the Union Bar between sets if they want a drink  all of the shows are otherwise alcohol-free. On Saturday, they're curating the music at the Northside-Westside Block Party on North First Street West.

Overall, they want anyone who's interested in music to feel welcome. Last year's attendance at VFW and Palace Lounge shows was strong, and they'd like to build on it for their first year at all-ages venues only.

"We just want the bands and the people there to feel like a part of something that's specific to Missoula," Hawksley said.

Camp Daze organizers host shows throughout the year in Missoula. To keep up with their events, go to their Facebook page. To help pay for the rental space at the Zootown Arts Community Center, they've set up a Patreon page at patreon.com/thebasementfund.

Friday, July 14

Betty's Divine

5:30 p.m.: Ancient Forest

6 p.m.: Erin Szalda-Petree

6:30 p.m.: Mega Bog

7 p.m.: Pleasures

Free Cycles

7 p.m.: Lee Corey Oswald

8 p.m.: Vundabar

9 p.m.: Great Grandpa

10 p.m.: Rozwell Kid

Union Ballroom

10 p.m.: Go Hibiki

10:45 p.m.: Blood Orphans

11:30 p.m.: Western Daughter

12:15 a.m.: Sun Blood Stories

Saturday, July 15

Northside Block Party

4 p.m.: Cory Fay

5 p.m.: Cairns

6 p.m.: G Claw Lady Arm Wrestlers

7 p.m.: Charcoal Squids

8 p.m.: June West

9 p.m.: Cat Positive

Union Ballroom

6:30 p.m.: Shahs

7:15 p.m.: Free Music

7:45 p.m.: Flying Fish Cove

8:30 p.m.: Human Leather

9:15 p.m.: Grandad

10 p.m.: Mommy Long Legs

10:45 p.m.: Choir Boy

11:30 p.m.: Slugs

12:15 a.m.: Tabor Mountain

1 a.m.: Partygoers
Depression in kids appears to start as early as age 11, according to a recent study published in the journal of Translational Psychiatry. How can parents tell if a child that young is depressed?

The child may not say, Im sad,  says Dr. Victor Fornari, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York.

Depression often begins in children as high anxiety, Fornari says. They may refuse to go to school or may worry about a parent dying. They may have headaches, stomachaches or pretend to be sick. They may be afraid to fail or be rejected. Things they felt comfortable doing they may not be comfortable doing anymore.

With 11- or 12-year-olds, usually you look for a change in functioning, Fornari says. It could be a change in sleep habits or appetite or a loss of interest in activities previously enjoyed.

Irritability can be a hallmark of depression, Fornari says. Everything annoys them. They fight with the parents. They fight with siblings. Parents think its a discipline issue, but at age 11 kids arent usually so rebellious, Fornari says. Theyre having a problem; theyre not being bad, he says.

Children may have negative thoughts about themselves or their bodies.

They may be extremely sensitive to being teased. When people are feeling bad, comments can really feel like harpoons, Fornari says.

Of the 27 Montana children who committed suicide between 2014 and 2016, 74 percent displayed warning signs before their death, according to the Montana Suicide Mortality Review Team. About 63 percent used a firearm. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Montanans 17 years old and younger.

Montanas 2017 Strategic Suicide Prevention Plan cited a study called, "Gun Storage Practices and Risk of Youth Suicide and Unintentional Firearm Injuries," which said restricting youth access to firearms is associated with significant reductions in the risk of unintentional and self-inflicted firearm injuries and deaths among adolescents and children.

Programs and policies designed to reduce accessibility of guns to youth, by keeping household guns locked and unloaded, deserve further attention as one avenue toward the prevention of firearm injuries in this population, according to the study.

If parents suspect depression, they should contact the pediatrician or family doctor for an evaluation. Talking to the childs teachers can also help, because they may also notice changes in behavior or demeanor. A child can be referred to a mental health professional for cognitive behavioral therapy or medication if necessary.
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HELENA  Montana's top utilities regulator broke ethics laws when he used office resources to write a column that disparaged a candidate for the regulatory body during last year's election, the state's chief political watchdog ruled Friday.

Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan issued a fine of $3,000 against Montana Public Service Commission Chairman Brad Johnson for violating the state's Code of Ethics.

Mangan said Johnson broke the law by penning the letter in his office using a government computer and his state email account. In addition, Mangan said, Johnson violated the ethics code by having his agency's legal counsel review his op-ed piece targeting 2016 candidate Caron Cooper.

Johnson said he was disappointed by the ruling but did not plan to file a legal challenge.

"I'll work with the commissioner of political practices to bring this to a final resolution," Johnson said.

Nevertheless, he said, the ruling could have a chilling effect on the ability of elected officials to defend themselves against criticism.

Cooper was seeking a spot on the PSC when Johnson wrote his commentary, which was published in October in the editorial pages of at least three newspapers. She later filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Political Practices.

The intent of the letter, Johnson said, was not meant to be a statement opposing the Cooper's candidacy but to rebut criticism against the regulatory agency. Johnson did not dispute that he used agency resources to write his commentary, but argued that the piece should not be considered as electioneering.

Mangan disagreed and said Johnson's piece was "express advocacy which solicits opposition to Ms. Cooper, a clearly identified state candidate."

The Public Services Commission is the state's chief regulator of power companies and other utilities.

Cooper could not be immediately reached for comment.
Volunteers from the West Coast to the East trekked to Salish Kootenai College this week to teach Native Americans about technology and computer science.

The college held a free, four-day technology camp for Native American students in high school or who had recently graduated to give them insight into what types of careers are open to them in the tech sector.

The camp was put on as part of the Flathead Tech4Good Community Outreach and Professional Development initiative, launched by SKC Professor Jonathon Richter, department chair and lead instructor for the colleges Media Design, Film, & Television programs.

For four days, the students learned from people like Elizabeth LaPensee, who has won awards for her work as a writer, artist and designer of games, comics and animation. LaPensee is Anishinaabe and Metis and part of her work has included creating games that pass on her culture.

One of these games is Honour Water, a singing game that teaches her tribes water songs and language, LaPensee said. Early in her career, LaPensee questioned how someone could code the teachings of her ancestors, but the enthusiastic response she has had to her work has convinced her to continue on.

There arent enough Native Americans in the technology sector right now, said Cory Cornelius, a research scientist for Intel Labs and enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Cornelius lives in Portland, Oregon, but flew out for the camp this week to help mentor students interested in pursuing a future in technology.

Cornelius sees places where more Native American knowledge is needed, for example with the development of the Siri app.

That voice could be translated into other Native languages, but there needs to be a Native person there to speak up, Cornelius said.

Cornelius mentorship made an impact on students like 14-year-old Mossy Kauley, who will be a freshman next year at Ronan High School. Kauley loves math and science and wants to be an engineer one day.

She was most interested in Cornelius explanation of how sand is made into silicon for computer processors. Kauley took a robotics class through her middle school and might retake the class again, if there arent other computer science class options available to her.

Regardless of what is offered in school, the camp provided the students with a sheet of places they could access open-source education resources to foster their technology education.

The sheet was created by Tara Penny, a project manager for the non-profit group NPower, an organization that helps young adults from under-served communities launch digital careers. Penny helped to organize the camp and flew out from Brooklyn, New York, to volunteer for the week.

Technology serves everybody, but we dont have enough people of color or women driving the values of technological development, Penny said.

These are jobs people can do from anywhere, said Mary Byron, a retired partner in the Technology Division at Goldman Sachs. Byron was a benefactor of the camp and has spent her retirement helping to advocate for more diversity in the technology sector.

Companies are looking for people with diverse backgrounds to contribute, Byron said. Corporations dont want all their people in one place, they want them across all of the countries.''

This is why Richter hopes more students who may not have an interest in a traditional career will continue to be exposed to paths like this.

Every single kid that came to this camp was talented, Richter said. It felt like we did something good for the 15, 16, 17 or so kids who showed up. It was back-to-back days of programming and instruction. Even during lunch there were lectures, and the entire time they were engaged.

This includes students like 19-year-old Daniel Vollin, a recent graduate of Arlee High School. Vollin wants to continue to learn at SKC for a while but hopes to one day attend the University of Washington and work toward a career in audio design for video games.

Before attending the camp, the idea of working with technology was intimidating to him, he said. But the interactive format of technology education has made learning more enjoyable.

Their eyes are opened to the fact that this isnt incredibly hard, this isnt for nerds, Richter said.
The managers of the Hollywood Mobile Home Park are taking steps to improve the notorious Westside trailer court, starting with handing out eviction notices.

According to KEI Property Managements attorney, Thomas Orr, 28 non-payment notices and 22 eviction notices were filed in Missoula County Justice Court this week.

Our assignment from KEI is to address rule violations and rent violations in the manner required by state law, Orr said Thursday.

The non-payment notices go out first, followed by eviction notices if tenants dont pay.

Already four tenants have responded to Orrs office about the non-payment notices, he said, and theyve tried to give notice before filing against tenants in court.

We always would like to see if we can get people to correct their actions, he said. Its not our goal to go and make 20 or 30 families homeless.

KEI has owned the park since 2013 and, according to Justice Court records, has only filed suit a handful of times before this weeks action.

In late May, members of the Missoula City Council and the Westside Neighborhood Association met with KEI owner Devin Khoury and Orr to talk about the mobile home park.

The park is well-known by Northside/Westside residents and the Missoula Police Department as a frequent site of drug use, dealing, assaults, disturbances and a myriad of other crimes both minor and major.

The eviction and non-payment notices arent aimed at any wrongdoers, Orr said, simply those from whom KEI hasnt gotten payment.

Common sense tells me that sometimes the two kinds of violations coincide with each other, he said.

There are a total of 88 units in Hollywood, Orr said. KEI owns the property and rents spaces to tenants, who own their mobile home.

If evicted, the tenant gets a set amount of time to move their belongings, including the mobile home, out of the trailer court.

Orr was hired in late May by KEI to resolve short-term issues with the park. He couldnt comment on the companys long-term plans for Hollywood.

Were just trying to get the place cleaned up and operating in a much more functional manner, Orr said.

This is not just the mobile home park, he continued. There are issues with the neighborhood that have been issues for many, many years  that did not arise overnight and will not be resolved overnight.

The pressure from the City Council came after members of the Westside Neighborhood Association took up the issue with their ward representative Jordan Hess.

A public meeting in June detailed their concerns. President Michaela Schager said she and neighbors had numerous stories of finding hypodermic needles in their yards, hearing gunshots and being awakened at night from constant police presence.

On Wednesday, KEI owner Devin Khourys brother Damien appeared at the Land Use and Planning Committee asking for a rezone for an apartment building he wants to put in on Wyoming Street.

City Council members were quick to ask Khoury about his brothers business, which Damien said he had no part in.

We want to talk to your brother, Ward 3 representative Gwen Jones told him at the meeting.

Thursday, Hess said he was cautiously optimistic with Orrs progress report.

"There's a lot to do...Im pleased to have a line of communication and Im glad theyve made some progress, he said. Youve got to know who lives there and youve got to have legal leases.

Mobile home parks are tough to manage under state law, which neither protects them under landlord/tenant laws nor homeowner laws.

Orr has represented property management companies across the state and said he has seen similar issues in Great Falls, Butte and Helena. Filing the notices this week was no small feat, he said.

We dont believe that the majority of Hollywood tenants are bad people, Orr said. Its our goal to improve and maintain the quality of life for everyone there."
By the time the sun sank below the edge of the hillside an hour and a half into country crooner Lyle Lovetts set, it was clear what Nick Checota meant about building a venue that delivers a world-class experience.

On Thursday, seven months after the unveiling of a plan to build a 4,000-seat venue at the former lumber mill in Bonner, Lovett and His Large Band took to the stage just up from the bank of the Blackfoot River for the first performance at the KettleHouse Amphitheater.

In front of the stage, the crowd spread between the varying levels of seating: a general admission pit, rows of reserved chairs, a set of private boxes, and at the top a sloped lawn that fits around 2,000 and was covered Thursday by a collection of blankets and Crazy Creek-style camp chairs.

The amphitheater is the result of a collaboration between Checota and his wife Robin, owners of the Top Hat Lounge and historic Wilma Theatre, and KettleHouse Brewing Co. owners Tim OLeary and his wife Suzy Rizza, who built a new, 23,000-square-foot brewing facility next to the amphitheater.

The crowd clapped as Lovett walked on stage and gave an equally loud cheer minutes later when a cloud slid in front of the sun and provided temporary shade from the early-evening heat.

Thank you so much for bringing us to Bonner, Montana. We are so proud to be the first show here, Lovett said.

KettleHouses new American lager, christened what else but Bonner Logger, was the drink of choice at the concession stands that flank the ends of the bowl.

Joe Harrington and Tim Durkin came from Spokane to be in town for the opening show.

Lyle Lovett is playing Spokane tomorrow so we could have stayed but we wanted to be here for this, Harrington said.

The amphitheater came through on Checotas promise that every audience member would have a clear view, with the 60-foot-wide stage more than ample enough to hold Lovett and his dozen musicians.

And from the seating set up in the pit to the short wall at the rim of the back hillside, the sound system carried every note and vocal of the groups mix of big band, swing and country twang clearly and crisply.

Were really happy with how it's going and the crowd seems to be having a good time, Checota said.

The roughly 1,400 paid parking spots filled up by show time, although Checota said he thinks a slightly more efficient system will be able to fit in a few more spaces.

Logjam Presents, Checotas event production company, also organized shuttle buses from downtown Missoula to the amphitheater. The $5 trips began leaving from the Top Hat Lounge two hours before Lovett and his crew came on stage. And though the lines for the shuttle stretched down the block, the system appeared to move people efficiently.

As an added incentive beyond avoiding traffic and parking, the Logjam shuttle was free to anyone who chose to grab some food or drinks before the show and spent more than $12 at the Top Hat restaurant.

Bob and Laura White sipped cans of beer as the bus headed down Interstate 90 on its way to the turnoff leading to the amphitheater. The Whitefish couple hadnt seen Lovett play live before, and were even more excited when they learned the show was the first one at the new venue.

That just makes this all the more exciting, Laura said.

Logjam Presents has already lined up a handful of shows for the venue for the next few months, including Tedeschi Trucks Band, Pat Benatar and Melissa Etheridge as well as appearances by Primus and Slayer. The KettleHouse Amphitheater will surely be packed again Sunday when alt-rock weirdos Ween roll through town.
Firefighters battling five blazes in northwest Montana are bracing for the potential of thunderstorms that could pack high winds and dry lightning Saturday.

On Thursday, crews on the 1,145-acre Lazier Creek 3 fire saw some increased fire activity that included some tree torching and spotting due to warmer weather and gusty winds.

In the afternoon, there was a little more wind than what was expected, said Fire Information Officer Anna Callahan. They werent super strong winds, but they were sustained.

The winds caused a small spot fire outside the fire line on the southeast edge of the fire burning south of Highway 2 and west of the Thompson River Road.

Two more hot shot crews arrived to help with the fire Thursday, which brings the number of firefighters assigned to Lazier Creek 3 to 300.

The fire is now considered 35 percent contained. It didnt grow in size Thursday.

The 78-acre Rogers Mountain fire burning three miles northwest of Happys Inn is now 60 percent contained. Crews completed laying hose around the perimeter of the fire. Fridays efforts focused on the southern edge where the fire was most active Thursday.

There are 69 firefighters assigned to that fire.

The other three smaller fires burning in the complex are either considered completely contained or nearly so. Crews were focused on extinguishing the remaining hot spots and other mop up work.

The National Weather Service is calling for the potential of strong isolated thunderstorms Saturday in northwest Montana with temperatures expected to rise in the mid 90s for the area. The storms could bring lightning and gusty winds.

Cooler temperatures are in the forecast after Saturday.

The containment of the Lazier Creek fire continues to go up slowly, Callahan said. We want to wait and see what comes through tomorrow. After that, we might have a better idea on how long its going to take to contain this fire.

Officials are warning the public to be extremely careful in the woods this weekend, including watching where you park. Exhaust pipes and vehicle undercarriages can get extremely hot and easily start a fire if parked in dry grass and brush.

The Weyerhaeuser Company has banned campfires until further notice on land it owns in Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, Missoula, Sanders and Ravalli counties due to the high forest fire danger.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wants to hear the publics opinions on what they think is great about the great outdoors.

The BLM Missoula Field Office will hold a series of focus groups, engaging the public in a conversation about recreation management on BLM-administered public lands in Granite, Missoula, and Powell counties.

The focus groups, scheduled for July 14 and 15 in Seeley Lake, Greenough and Missoula, will be hosted by Colorado Mesa Universitys Natural Resource Center and the BLM Missoula Field Office.

The idea behind the focus groups is to open dialogue between BLM land managers and the public on recreation issues, to provide information for future planning efforts and project assessments, and to gather data needed to better understand the publics desired outcomes for recreation management in the three-county area, said Joe Ashor, Missoula Field Office manager.

We welcome and value diverse views from all members of the public,'' he added. "We strongly believe partnerships and inclusion are vital to managing sustainable, working public lands.

The sessions are part of data collection associated with the Missoula Field Offices Resource Management Plan revision.

This research seeks to engage residents, business owners, local leaders, recreational user groups and visitors that either participate in recreational activities in this region, or have a stake in the quality of the experience of those that do.

The focus groups will be facilitated by Dr. Tim Casey, professor of political science at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colorado, and Dr. Randy Virden, professor emeritus at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Each focus group session will last about two hours. The dates, times, and locations are:

 Friday, July 14: 9:30 a.m., Holiday Inn Missoula Downtown, Madison/Jefferson Rooms 200 S. Pattee St., Missoula

 Friday, July 14: 3 p.m., Seeley Lake Community Hall 3248 Highway 83, Seeley Lake

 Saturday, July 15: 9:30 a.m., Lubrecht Forest 38689 Hwy 200 East, Greenough

For more information, contact Joe Ashor at 406-329-3717 or jashor@blm.gov, or Dr. Tim Casey at 970-248-1095 or tcasey@coloradomesa.edu.
Butte police are on the lookout for two individuals who they say cashed seven fraudulent cash vouchers at Walmart totaling more than $3,500.

Undersheriff George Skuletich said police responded Tuesday afternoon to the Harrison Avenue Walmart where they meet with loss-prevention staff who said that a man and woman cashed seven counterfeit rapid reload cash vouchers, each for the amount of $503.74, and had the money loaded onto a prepaid card. Skuletich said prepaid cards aren't traceable.

The individuals, who Skuletich said are an African American female and an African American male, cashed the counterfeit vouchers Monday around 6:30 p.m.

Skuletich described the vouchers as being similar to a cashiers or travelers checks. He noted that the vouchers had a bank logo and Walmart logo printed on them. Based on this and the fact that each voucher was written for the same amount, police believe the couple may be duplicating the checks with a printer, the undersheriff said. He added that other large stores should remain vigilant as the man and woman could try to print different logos on other counterfeit vouchers.

Walmart, meanwhile, has notified other store locations in Montana.

Skuletich said the man and woman left Walmart in a small black sedan, possibly a Toyota Camry. The couple is still at large, he said.

People with information are asked to call police at 406-497-1120.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Stars react to Thursday's 69th Primetime Emmy nominations:

___

"I woke up to a GIF from my publicist Erica of a shirtless Anthony Rizzo from the Cubs and knew it was good news (because a shirtless Rizzo is always good news)."  Elisabeth Moss, up for best drama series lead actress for "The Handmaid's Tale."

"I'm going to put on my cowboy boots, my ruffled shirt and my jeans  something completely different from Winston Churchill."  John Lithgow, who with his wife are heading to a Lyle Lovett concert in Montana to celebrate his supporting drama actor nomination for "The Crown."

"If you think I'm tough, you should see my wife. She's a Montessori ex-schoolteacher. I've taken her mantra from that school classroom and put it into cooking."  Gordon Ramsey, nominated for reality-competition host for "MasterChef Junior."

"Texts started coming in from people but we weren't caught up. We almost gave up... and then we figured out how to get it on her phone."  Dan Fogelman, showrunner of "This Is Us," who, with his wife, watched the nominations from their bathroom.

Me and my two dads are going to the emmys! Thank you @TelevisionAcad for honoring us all (& my sister! ) #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/8ahak1fjqJ  Sterling K Brown (@sterlingkb1) July 13, 2017

"Dan Fogelman ... you are a cherub faced, literary assassin! I look forward to working with you for the rest of my life!"  Sterling K. Brown, nominated as best drama series lead actor for "This Is Us." Fogelman created the show.

Oh Shit!! A EMMY NOM?! I really got to get fine now lmao!! Wish my parents was here to see this!! CHEAH!! So grateful!! pic.twitter.com/aAlEyS9ru1  Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 13, 2017

 Leslie Jones on Twitter from the gym about her supporting comedy actress nomination for "Saturday Night Live."

"As someone who grew up, for better or worse, watching award shows religiously, I'd be lying to say this doesn't feel insane and wonderful."  Billy Eichner, host of "Billy on the Street," up for best variety sketch series.

"For me, it is not only a celebration of having failed so badly in physics at high school, but also great for Nat Geo... bringing Einstein questioning into the spotlight."  Geoffrey Rush, up for leading limited series actor for National Geographic's "Genius," in which he plays Albert Einstein.

"Every day working with this incredible cast and crew is a dream (and not one of those dreams where you wake up being operated on by guys in a glass basement)."  Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, co-creators of "Westworld," which got 22 nominations.

"I hope years from now, when we look back on this time, it will be remembered as ground-breaking and a moment of when an artistic renaissance came through and took focus on an era where we can change the world. And we ain't nowhere NEAR DONE!!!!" Brian Tyree Henry, up for best drama series guest actor for "This Is Us," and who also stars on nominated comedy "Atlanta."

Wow! So thrilled about the #Emmys Nominations for #BigLittleLies! The cast & crew worked so hard to make this happen! Thanks to all the fans pic.twitter.com/5acNwqFw9m  Reese Witherspoon (@RWitherspoon) July 13, 2017

 Reese Witherspoon is nominated for best actress in a limited series or movie for "Big Little Lies."

Thank you to the @TelevisionAcad for nominating me alongside these powerful women https://t.co/aFSiTaPZDf  Viola Davis (@violadavis) July 13, 2017

 Viola Davis is nominated for lead actress in a drama series for "How to Get Away with Murder."

 David Harbour is nominated for supporting actor in a drama series for "Stranger Things."

 Riz Ahmed is nominated for lead actor in a limited series or movie for "The Night Of" and guest actor in a comedy series for "Girls."

 Tracee Ellis Ross is nominated for lead actress in a comedy series for "black-ish."

We would like to thank the Deep State for todays Emmy nominations. Congrats to our entire team and their shadowy government ties. pic.twitter.com/eCOddnr7ce  Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) July 13, 2017

 "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" is nominated for best writing for a variety series and best writing for a variety special for "Full Frontal With Samantha Bee Presents Not The White House Correspondents' Dinner."

If at first you dont succeed, try try try try try try try try try try again! #Emmys2017 #HOC pic.twitter.com/NkABF5qRTb  Kevin Spacey (@KevinSpacey) July 13, 2017

 Kevin Spacey is nominated for lead actor in a drama series for "House of Cards."

 Angela Bassett is nominated for guest actress in a comedy series, Lena Waithe is nominated for best writing for a comedy series, and Aziz Ansari is nominated for lead actor in a comedy series and best writing for a comedy series, all for "Master of None."
HELENA (AP)  Montana's top utilities regulator broke ethics laws when he used office resources to write a column that disparaged a candidate for the regulatory body during last year's election, the state's chief political watchdog ruled Friday.

Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan issued a fine of $3,000 against Montana Public Service Commission Chairman Brad Johnson for violating the state's Code of Ethics.

Mangan said Johnson broke the law by penning the letter in his office using a government computer and his state email account. In addition, Mangan said, Johnson violated the ethics code by having his agency's legal counsel review his op-ed piece targeting 2016 candidate Caron Cooper.

Johnson said he was disappointed by the ruling but did not plan to file a legal challenge.

"I'll work with the commissioner of political practices to bring this to a final resolution," Johnson said.

Nevertheless, he said, the ruling could have a chilling effect on the ability of elected officials to defend themselves against criticism.

Cooper was seeking a spot on the PSC when Johnson wrote his commentary, which was published in October in the editorial pages of at least three newspapers. She later filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Political Practices.

The intent of the letter, Johnson said, was not meant to be a statement opposing the Cooper's candidacy but to rebut criticism against the regulatory agency. Johnson did not dispute that he used agency resources to write his commentary but argued that the piece should not be considered as electioneering.

Mangan disagreed and said Johnson's piece was "express advocacy which solicits opposition to Ms. Cooper, a clearly identified state candidate."

The Public Services Commission is the state's chief regulator of power companies and other utilities.

Cooper could not be immediately reached for comment.
HELENA  The new version of the Senates plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act doesnt make broad changes from the previous renditions wiping out of Medicaid expansion and hasnt won over the support of Montana lawmakers and those in the healthcare industry who opposed it before.

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican who has not taken a public position on any iteration of the bill, did not have a stance yet Thursday.

"Sen. Daines is currently reviewing the bill while waiting for additional analysis on the bill and listening to Montanans," a spokeswoman said.

Daines has previously said he needs to see a Congressional Budget Office markup, which would estimate the impacts of the bill, before he decides. With the previous version of the bill, he said he wanted to hear from Montanans during a town hall conducted by telephone before making up his mind. Daines has said in the past he wants a bill that improves access to care and lowers costs while preserving Medicaid for the disabled and children and not ripping the rug out from those covered by Medicaid expansion.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, sent out a press release Thursday that conveyed his continuing opposition.

This plan rips away coverage from thousands of Montanans, allows insurers to deny Montanans coverage if they have pre-existing conditions like high blood pressure, and imposes an age tax on folks in their 50s and 60s, Tester wrote. This pig got more lipstick, but it still smells like a pigpen. Congress needs to work together to address rising premiums and deductibles, and when they are ready to work in a bipartisan manner, Ill be waiting at the table.

Much of the focus on the effects of the bill in Montana has centered around changes to Medicaid and Medicaid expansion. More than 216,000 Montanans are covered by Medicaid, 96,846 of whom are children and 19,085 adults who have disabilities. Nearly 80,000 people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or $16,400 a year, gained coverage under expansion starting in 2016.

The state gets an enhanced federal match for money it spends on expansion coverage. But the Senate plan lowers the match severely and eliminates it entirely by 2024. The state could not afford to keep the program running without the enhanced match. Language in state law also calls for the expansion to be shut down if the federal match rate drops below what was set in the Affordable Care Act.

Aaron Wernham, CEO of the Montana Healthcare Foundation, said Thursday he doesnt see any improvements to the Medicaid situation.

The foundation enlisted Manatt Health earlier this month to estimate the impacts of the previous bill on Medicaid and found it would cost the state $5.3 billion in federal funding between 2020-2026. Cuts would be so severe the state would struggle to pay for other priorities like education and infrastructure.

While the bill does put more money  $45 billion over 10 years  into addressing the opioid epidemic, Wernham said that likely wouldnt be enough to offset the losses in Medicaid funding that covers behavioral health, mental illness, and substance abuse.

Thats one of the most important tools Medicaid has offered us is a way to stably reimburse practices that want to take care of those patients, he said. We recognize this bill has some funding added to take care of those problems, but it doesnt really appear to make up in any way for the funding thats in Medicaid itself.

He also said that funding through grant programs that may or may not be reauthorized doesnt encourage hospitals to hire staff or take on additional areas of service.

John Doran, the divisional vice president of external affairs at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana, said Thursday he was still reviewing the specifics of the new version of the bill, but from the insurers standpoint, the No. 1 need is still to stabilize the insurance marketplace.

Currently theres a lot of uncertainty on the rules and regulations, which is adding to the instability of the marketplace, he said.

The new bill offers the option for insurance companies to sell plans that don't meet some of the requirements laid out in Obamacare, such as covering preventive care, something critics have said would create a separate pool for healthy young people who dont want to pay for full coverage and drive up costs for older people. Doran said that choice in plans is a good thing, but its important to not create two different pools of customers.

He also emphasised Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana wants to see a bill that has some sort of mechanism to encourage broad and continuous coverage and ways to help offset the cost of purchasing coverage.

The new version of the bill does not have a requirement for individuals to have insurance or employers to provide it. It does increase the subsidies to defray the cost of buying insurance for those who qualify.

There needs to be some incentive for people to buy a health insurance (plan) and keep it throughout the year, Doran said.

Heather OLoughlin, co-director of the Montana Budget and Policy Center, said the new bill doesn't make any changes that sway her organizations opinion that the bill is bad for Montana.

It is clear that this bill cannot be fixed and the Senate should scrap this plan and find ways to make health insurance more affordable and stabilize the markets. The Senate continues to make minor changes to the legislation, but the facts remain the same: it will end Medicaid expansion and make health care unaffordable for many of those with pre-existing conditions and older Montanans."

Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, who championed Medicaid expansion, echoed Testers makeup-on-a-farm-animal comments when assessing Tuesdays version of the Senate bill.

"They tried to put lipstick on a pig  and failed, Bullock said in a statement. The bill still slashes Medicaid, still threatens coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions, and still means higher costs for less care for millions of Americans. It's certainly no improvement."

Also on Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, and Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, announced on CNN they are working on their own health care bill that would send money to states in the form of block grants. Graham said on CNN the bill would keep taxes in place on the wealthy, repeal the individual and employer mandate and medical device tax, and let states have more control.

"Rather than try to run health care from Washington, we're going to block grant it to the states, and heres what will happen: If you like Obamacare, you can re-impose the mandates at the state level. You can repair Obamacare if you think it needs to be repaired. You can replace it if you think it needs to be replaced. It will be up the governor. They have a better handle on this than any bureaucrat in Washington.
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines announced Thursday $5.28 million in funding for Community Health Centers in Montana  including $1.41 million for the center in Butte.

The money is to provide improved continuity of care, mobile services to rural locations, and increased access to affordable care.

Don Foley, interim CEO at the Southwest Montana Community Health Center, 445 Centennial Ave., said the center is grateful to both Daines and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester for their continued support.

That support "allows us to continue our mission of providing high-quality health care to all people, regardless of their ability to pay," Foley said Thursday.

The private nonprofit clinic serves more than 13,000 patients each year with primary medical, dental, behavioral health, and pharmacy services. The $1.4 million provides six months' worth of Community Health Center grant funding.

"Medicaid payments and grant funding are the biggest sources of revenue needed to serve our mission," Foley added.

Daines said Montana's Community Health Centers provide reliable access to affordable health care close to home.

"I'm pleased that Montanans ... will continue to have the health services they rely on," he said.

The Department of Health and Human Services also awarded grants to:

Livingston: Community Health Partners Inc.: $2,473,472

Libby: Lincoln Community Health Center: $1,385,381
Most of my birding is from Warm Springs Wildlife Area downstream to the Missoula area. However, if you are going to have a good year list for the state, you must go to a few other hot spots to exceed 250 species in a year. Several of these areas are places like the Plentywood/Westby area in the spring and fall for migrants, Glacier National Park for ptarmigan, hawk-owl, boreal chickadee and other alpine and wet coniferous forest species. A trip to Billings and southeast Montana is also a must as are several of the states WMAs and National Wildlife Refuges such as Freezout, Medicine Lake, Bowdoin and Metcalf.

We also have a rather unique birding environment much closer to home here in southwest Montana in the Dillon area. We often think of western and southwest Montana as being west of the Continental Divide, but Dillon is actually east of the Divide. Ten miles or so south of I-90 on I-15 you cross the Continental Divide at an elevation of 5,879 feet at Deer Lodge Pass. Its too bad Lewis and Clark didnt know about this pass. Had they crossed it, they would have been at the headwaters of the Columbia River and a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Instead they went over Lemhi Pass southwest of Dillon, and nearly perished getting to the Snake River. But that is another story.

Once you get across the Divide the environment becomes much drier and you can find six species of birds that are difficult to find anywhere else in southwest Montana.

My wife and I went to Dillon the third week of May and found all six of these species. I was able to photograph five of the six and they are included with this article. The first of these species is McCowns longspur. This species can be found along the highline, and southcentral Montana, as well as along Birch Creek Road 10 miles north of Dillon. Take I-15 exit 74 and travel east on Birch Creek Road. The road connects with Old Highway 91 within a few miles. McCowns are a ground feeder and prefer sparsely vegetated land with cacti and short grasses. That is exactly the kind of habitat this area is. Look for a pale colored, sparrow-like bird with a white face and throat, black breast and gray body. In breeding season the males show chestnut epaulets (shoulder stripe).

Our next species is the unique and fascinating burrowing owl. They prefer the same habitat as the McCowns longspur, but need an area with ground squirrel burrows to nest in. I only found this species because I stopped at MacDonalds and a group of men having coffee recognized me from my articles in The Montana Standard and we talked birds. One of them mentioned a burrowing owl, and with their directions we found two at a nest hole in the vicinity of the McCowns longspur. This owl seems out of place peeking up out of the ground, and the best picture I got was of an adult eyeing me suspiciously from his nest cavity.

The next species is a bit of a biological mystery. For several years, a great-tailed grackle has been seen year-round in Dillon. It is totally out of range, with the nearest breeding ranges in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. There has been some movement north in this species, but they are general not seen much farther north than Nevada and Colorado. Professor Jack Kirkley of Western Montana College has done considerable research on this oddity, and found it seems to winter on McDonalds French fries and has bred with the common grackles in the area, creating a hybrid. It appears from Kirkleys work that this may be the first documented record of breeding between the two species. We found the bird easily near the college in a large spruce tree with common grackles. The great-tailed has an extremely long tail compared to the common grackle.

For the last three species we traveled to Bannack and took the Bannack Bench Road south. To find the gray flycatcher, look for sagebrush at least 6 feet tall in the gullies. Walk to the edge of the gullies and look down into them and listen and look for the gray flycatcher. If necessary, sparingly play their song, they typically respond immediately. This flycatcher is only reliably found in this area of Montana. There have been a few reports of the species south of Billings in Bear Canyon, where they're much more difficult to find. The species is overall gray without the typical green, buff or yellowish overtones of most flycatchers. The bill is long and straight. The long tail extending well beyond the wings. There are also white wing bars. Look for tail dipping  a clue you have properly identified the flycatcher. These traits in a tall sage environment make this species relatively easy to identify.

The second species along Bannack road is not hard to find. The sage thrasher is constantly singing and drowns out other songs. Look for a grayish bird with a streaked breast and a yellow eye. They are usually sitting on the tip of a sagebrush or post, singing for all they're worth.

The final unique species to the Dillon area is the sagebrush sparrow, formerly called the sage sparrow. I have found the species in several areas along the Bannack Bench Road, but you have to be a little more diligent as the song is soft and does not carry far. The species is easily identified by its grayish head and nape, white eye ring and white spot in front of the eye. Additionally, it has a black central breast spot, and a white stripe below the eye. This sparrow is one of the first to migrate to the area in the spring, and is very sulky, preferring to be on the ground in low sage rather than the tall sage occupied by the gray flycatcher. The day that my wife and I observed them, we had four to six of them singing from the top of short sage plants.

So there you have it. Six interesting and fascinating species in the Dillon area. With a little effort on your part, you can add all of them to your year or life list. Another common species in the area that is always fun to see and hear are rock wrens, but they are found throughout the state.

Take a day, visit Dillon and then see how many of these six species you can find before you call it a day. You wont regret the effort, if you have never seen these six beauties.
Jim Axelson reappointed to state board

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock recently reappointed Jim Axelson, owner and operator of Axelson Alternative Cremation of Butte, to another five-year term on the Montana Board of Funeral Services.

Axelson has served as the board vice chairman and is the board secretary.

The Axelson family has been involved in funeral service in the community for more than 75 years and offers cremation and related services to area families.

The board was established by the Legislature to protect the public by providing oversight of the funeral industry in Montana. It serves under the Montana Department of Labor and Industry.

Butte plans escort for Capt. Holton

People interested in helping escort Capt. Robert Holtons remains from the Bozeman airport to Butte on Friday, July 21, are asked to meet at the west parking lot of the Butte Chamber of Commerce, 1000 George St., at 12:45 p.m. The entourage departs at 1:15 p.m. for Bozeman.

Details: Roger Knoell of the United Veterans Council at 406-491-6563.

Montana Linemans Rodeo Saturday

The Montana Linemans Rodeo will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 15, at Butte Rodeo grounds, 6354 Albany St. There will be fun for young and old with bucket truck rides for everyone interested as well as games and events for the children.

Open-class entries needed for fair

Officials from the Butte-Silver Bow Fair are looking for open-class entries.

Consider entering arts and crafts, handmade clothes, food, flowers, photography, and other items. Find and like us on Facebook at Butte-Silver Bow Fair. For those who dont have access, rules and regulations and entry forms are available at the MSU Extension office or the Civic Center office.

The fair will be held at Aug. 3 through 5 at the Butte Civic Center, and check-in is Aug. 2.

Queens to host public open skate

The Copper City Queens will host a public open skate from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 19, at the Butte Community Ice Center, 1700 Wall St. This will be their last public skate of the summer.

The cost is $5 per person, and participants will be required to sign a liability waiver. Quad skates, roller blades, and razor scooters are welcome. There will be a limited number of adult sized skates available for rent.

Uptown Toasters announce winners

This weeks competition winners for the Uptown Toasters, Toastmaster Club # 9765, include Trent Martin, best speaker; Jeff Amerman, best evaluator; and Brandon DeShaw, best table topics respondent.

The next meeting is at noon Tuesday, July 25, at the Butte Archives, 17 W. Quartz St. Details: 406-782-3280.
An Anaconda-Deer Lodge County official this week called Atlantic Richfields letters to residents asking them to waive the right to sue the company confusing.

Atlantic Richfield offered $1,000 to residents in East Anaconda earlier this year that, once residents signed the agreement, put a waiver on the property deed giving up the right to sue the company. Atlantic Richfield is responsible for the cleanup of more than 300 square miles of contamination in the area caused by the now-defunct Washoe Smelter.

County officials cried foul on those waivers in March, expressing concern that residents didnt fully understand the impact of agreeing to the trade. Atlantic Richfield responded by allowing residents to void the agreement if theyd already signed the waiver, which attaches to the property owners deed forever.

But Atlantic Richfield has kept the offer on the table for residents who choose to pursue it and sent new letters as recently as last week.

The subsequent letters, however, are still confusing, County Planning Director Chas Ariss said at Wednesdays Anaconda Superfund Task Force meeting.

Ariss received such a letter last week as part of an access agreement for lead abatement at his home.

He explained that the letter laid out two options for agreeing to allow access: one that would agree to the payout and waive future rights to sue, the other of which would not. Both included lead cleanup.

"The access agreements were not labeled Option One and Option Two," said Ariss, explaining that he had to read the agreements line by line to know which he was signing. He said that his expertise was key to understanding the documents but that someone without that knowledge might have trouble.

Ariss worked for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality for years and was previously involved in Idahos Bunker Hill Superfund site.

"I'm surprised," he said. "(Atlantic Richfield is) a very professional company. I would find it hard to believe that in a mission like that, labeling the access agreements ... you have to wonder, was it intentional, or was it just an oversight?"

Monte Beck, a Bozeman-based lawyer who is working with several Anaconda residents on the issue of heavy metal pollution in their homes, called the offer predatory.

"Almost everyone we talked to  and we talked to a lot of (people)  said, 'I didn't understand this would affect my deed. I didn't understand this would go on the legal title to my home,'" Beck said.

He said that for a legal agreement to hold up, every party must understand the terms of the contract and their implications and that transparency was lacking in this case.

Brett Clanton, a spokesperson for Atlantic Richfield, did not comment on the letters or any changes they may have made to increase clarity for recipients, saying that the company is working with property owners on remediation.

The task force board members said that they would be looking into sending a letter to the community explaining the issue in more detail and that they'd take the public's concerns to Chief Executive Bill Everett so that he could present them in meetings with Atlantic Richfield.

Part of the largest Superfund complex in the country, Anaconda was for decades polluted by smoke from the nearby Washoe Smelter, which processed ore from the Butte mines. The smelter closed in 1980.

EPA decided in 2013 to address lead contamination. EPA previously believed that an earlier arsenic cleanup would remove much of the lead as well but found that not all the lead had been removed.

A statement from Atlantic Richfield reads:

Atlantic Richfield is committed to implementing remediation in the community in a safe manner that minimizes the impacts to residents. As part of that effort, Atlantic Richfield, under the direction from EPA, is working directly with property owners to secure access, explain the assessment work and results, and to develop and implement the remedial action. The AR team, along with the agencies, work closely with property owners to answer questions and address concerns.
FRIDAY, JULY 14

BEAR SAFETY

A free, public Forest Service talk on bear safety is 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at the Philipsburg Bay boat launch, Georgetown Lake, and 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Piney boat launch, Georgetown Lake. Demonstrations using inert bear spray also are planned.

LIVE THEATER

The Cutler Brothers' third show of the 2017 Deer Lodge theater season, The 39 Steps, opens Friday and continues through July 23 with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 general admission, and reservations are recommended. Details: 406-846-4096 or cutlerbros.com.

CAVERNS TALK

The Resurgent Wild with Chris Preston will be from 8 to 9:30 p.m. at Lewis & Clark Caverns, Whitehall. The restoration of animals like grizzly bears, bison, and wolves means that, in some contexts, Montanas wild nature may actually be starting to increase again.

DOG, GROG FEST

Area brews and live music are featured under the big tent next to Virginia Citys Bale of Hay Saloon from 5 p.m. to midnight Friday and noon to 7 p.m. Saturday. Wee Dog Night on Friday features folk, rock, and rockin country by Chad Ball. On Saturday, Montana breweries share wares, with music by the Mike and Rich Duo from noon to 7 p.m. and bluegrass by the Gallatin Grass Project at 9:30 p.m.

CLUBS AND MEETINGS

BUTTE

Retired Night Shift Nurses and Friends will meet at 12:30 p.m. at the Montana Club.

Retired Mine Workers will have a luncheon at 12:30 p.m. at the Legion Oasis. A meeting will follow.
 

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MISSOULA  Firefighters battling five blazes in northwest Montana are bracing for the potential of thunderstorms that could pack high winds and dry lightning Saturday.

On Thursday, crews on the 1,145-acre Lazier Creek 3 Fire saw some increased fire activity that included some tree torching and spotting due to warmer weather and gusty winds.

In the afternoon, there was a little more wind than what was expected, said Fire Information Officer Anna Callahan. They werent super strong winds, but they were sustained.

The winds caused a small spot fire outside the fire line on the southeast edge of the fire burning south of Highway 2 and west of the Thompson River Road.

Two more hot shot crews arrived to help with the fire Thursday, which brings the number of firefighters assigned to Lazier Creek 3 to 300.

The fire is now considered 35 percent contained. It didnt grow in size Thursday.

The 78-acre Rogers Mountain Fire burning three miles northwest of Happys Inn is now 60 percent contained. Crews completed laying hose around the perimeter of the fire. Fridays efforts focused on the southern edge where the fire was most active Thursday.

There are 69 firefighters assigned to that fire.

The other three smaller fires burning in the complex are either considered completely contained or nearly so. Crews were focused on extinguishing the remaining hot spots and other mop up work.

The National Weather Service is calling for the potential of strong isolated thunderstorms Saturday in northwest Montana with temperatures expected to rise in the mid 90s for the area. The storms could bring lightning and gusty winds.

Cooler temperatures are in the forecast after Saturday.

The containment of the Lazier Creek fire continues to go up slowly, Callahan said. We want to wait and see what comes through tomorrow. After that, we might have a better idea on how long its going to take to contain this fire.

Officials are warning the public to be extremely careful in the woods this weekend, including watching where you park. Exhaust pipes and vehicle undercarriages can get extremely hot and easily start a fire if parked in dry grass and brush.

The Weyerhaeuser Company has banned campfires until further notice on land it owns in Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, Missoula, Sanders and Ravalli counties due to the high forest fire danger.
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Roger Phillips didnt want to be a hero. But he didnt want to be a villain either. He most certainly did not want to go to Vietnam, but the then-19 year old had no choice. It was either join the U.S. Navy, or be drafted to the U.S. Army.

Phillips, now 69, chose the Navy. And from late 1967 to early 1969, Phillips worked in the fire room of a U.S. Navy ship that sailed up and down the coast of Vietnam. From his spot deep in the bowels of the ship, Phillips could hear gunshots.

But it is the treatment he received when he came home from the war that make his voice catch.

When we were back in the States, traveling, we had to wear our uniforms and thats when they tuned in on us, he said.   Once you got off the base, you were fair game.

The tides have since changed.

In the last 5 years, Ive been thanked more times than I can remember for being a vet and serving our country, he said.

Now he and other Vietnam veterans are being honored with a commemorative book, "Vietnam War 50th Commemoration: A Time to Honor: Stories of Service, Duty and Sacrifice.

Phillips thinks its a step in the right direction.

I think its a good idea, he said. It sounds like somebody cares."

In the coming weeks, Jen Watkins-Schoenig, veterans affairs director in Muscatine County will distribute more than 400 free copies of the book to any Muscatine County Vietnam veteran who served "in country" or, like Phillips, on U.S. Navy ships stationed in Southeast Asia.

This is one small token, another way, to say thank you for your service and that we recognize that youre a veteran and that you probably didnt have a choice where you went and what you did, but we still appreciate what youve done, she said.

Thus far, she said, she has distributed six copies.

The 155-page hardcover book is a publication of Remember My Service, a company that creates commemorative military books, soliciting sponsors to underwrite costs.

Hours of distribution will be 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Veterans Affairs office, 315 Iowa Ave., Suite 1., Muscatine.

The Iowa Commission of Veterans Affairs committed $400,000 for 40,000 copies of the book and is making them available to counties based on the number of Vietnam-era veterans living in each.

Watkins-Schoenig is restricting initial distribution to those who were stationed in the Southeast Asian country or in the waterways near these countries.

They just were there, she said. I think its just important to get to them first if they want a copy.

The first nine pages of the book were written specifically for Iowa audiences, with the remainder containing stories from people across the country. Books published for other states have their own introduction.

Money for the Iowa books came from the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund that receives money mostly from the sale of veterans car license plates, Dan Gannon, chairman of the Commission of Veterans Affairs, said.

But the commission still needs to raise another $200,000 and is seeking donations from corporations as well as individuals, Gannon said.

The Iowa edition is not yet available for sale to the public, but Gannon said he expects it will be some time in the future. The Utah edition, for example, is sold by amazon.com for about $50, he said. The Musser Public Library also has one copy of the book.

Stories in the book are arranged in chronological order, providing a history of the war. Chapters are Early War, The Buildup, Year of the Offensive, Peak Strength and Coming to an End.

Within those chapters are timelines of other events occurring in the world at the same time: On June 6, 1968, U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated while campaigning for president; on July 20, 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 landed on the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong took "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"; and on March 29, 1971, the U.S. Army court-martialed Lt. William Calley for his part in the My Lai massacre.

For many, the war engendered what Marine Maj. Robert "Bud" McFarlane once called "a searing sense of national loss." But "A Time to Honor" reminds everyone of the service, duty and sacrifice of those who fought.
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 []
Dennis Okari is back on social media after taking a long hiatus following his highly publicized break up with Betty Kyallo.

The two journalists went their separate ways just six months after tying the knot in an internet-breaking wedding in October 2015.

As the shocking news of their breakup unfolded, Dennis Okari remained silent about the whole mess and even took down all his posts on social media.

The NTV journalist made his comeback this week, returning with cryptic and inspirational messages.

The posts, which include the hashtag #comingsoon, suggest the journalist might be planning a new motivational project.

He captioned his first post about strategy as follows: Things dont just happen, they are made to happen. Approach life with a tactical strategy. Dont just set a goal for your life but have a plan towards that goal. Strategy is the rough road that will take you to that ultimate goal. You get it right sometimes and wrong most times but keep going because eventually you will get there.



In another post, he wrote:

The foundational truth of Genesis is Divine Order. What God set out to do was introduce order where there was darkness, emptiness & chaos. What Satan set out to do in Genesis is to disrupt that order.

He is still doing it today.

When the order of anything is interrupted, there is chaos and confusion.

The divine order of God was to have YOU run the affairs of earth. He has given YOU the authority.

When you walk with God, your walk will be different, your language will be different and you could be misunderstood but keep walking. You were born to be peculiar not ordinary. The steps of a righteous man are ordered by God.



Your guesses are as good as ours on what it all means but keep it Nairobi Wire for when more information is available.
Residents of Mathira in Nyeri County have been left stunned with the bizarre sighting of a cockerel whose job is to guard a business premises.

This is after a bar owner in the area sought the services of a witchdoctor to help flush out thieves who have been stealing from his business.

His bar in Mathira Constituency has been broken into several times and property of unknown value stolen. He is said to have lost faith in the police and resorted to a witchdoctor based in Meru.

The witch doctor gave him a cockerel which has been perched atop his bar since Saturday, 8th July.

According to residents, the cock has been circling the roof in a clockwise direction and it does not eat.

The thieves are expected to be identified in seven days and have been warned of dire consequences should they fail to return the loot.

According to the bar owner, once the cockerel dies the thieves would suffer the same fate.

Once this cockerel dies, a lot of people will lose their lives. Let them be warned, he said.

The pubs rear door is boldly written in capital letters Never joke with my work.

Residents are now eagerly waiting for Sunday to find out if the thieves will have surrendered.
AMERICAN CANYON COMMUNITY CHURCH

Worship at 10 a.m. Programs for children and youth during worship service. 2 Andrew Road, American Canyon.

ARBOR ALLIANCE

Join us Sundays at 5 p.m. Why 5 p.m. worship? It is a good time for busy people and young families. Kids church and nursery available. The Arbor Alliance Church is located at 721 Trancas St., Napa. A place of joy and refreshment in Christ. thearborchurch.org, 530-304-4704.

BEIT ABBA

Messianic Jewish ministry of The Fathers House is held the first and third Friday of each month at 7 p.m. Child care provided for ages infant to 7 years old. The Fathers House, 2557 Napa Valley Corporate Drive, Napa. tfh.org/beitabba.

CARMELITE MONASTERY

Mass times: Sunday, 9 a.m.; Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. (except for the first Saturday of the month, Mass will be at 11 a.m.). Morning of recollection every first Saturday of the month: Spiritual Talk, 9-10 a.m.; Confessions, 10-11 a.m.; Mass, 11 a.m. Bible study, on Tuesdays with Father Michael Buckley: Tuesdays, 8:30-9:30 a.m. following the 8 a.m. Mass (contact the office to confirm time and day at 944-2454, ext. 103). Confessions-English: Monday, Wednesday, Friday; 10 a.m.-noon, 3-5 p.m., 8-9 p.m. Confessions-Spanish: Wednesday, 10 a.m.-noon, 3-5 p.m., 8-9 p.m. 944-2454; oakvillecarmelites.org.

CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL LIVING

Services are 9 and 10:30 a.m. with Youth Program at 10:30. Guest musician/speaker Karen Drucker will be doing both services. Teen Summer Camp July 15-22. Spiritual Cinema Night July 14 will feature the family film Moana at 7 p.m. Open Meditation Wednesdays 6:30-7 p.m. Join us in supporting Crush MS July 29, 3-6 p.m. 1249 Coombs, 252-4847.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH

Sunday service and Sunday school for youths up to age 20 at 10 a.m. The Wednesday evening service is at 7:30. Child care provided at all services. New hours for the Reading Room, located in our church building, open to the public weekdays except Wednesdays, 1-4 p.m. All current Christian Science literature, including the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the renowned Christian Science Monitor, are available to all to read or purchase; 2210 Second St., Napa; 255-5255; christiansciencenapa.com.

CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, NAPA  SECOND WARD

Sacrament meeting is each Sunday at 10 a.m., followed by Sunday School at 11:15 and Priesthood and Relief Society at 12:10 p.m. Young mens and young womens programs are on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Corner of Trower Avenue and Dry Creek Road, Napa. 224-6496.

COMMUNITY CHURCH OF LAKE BERRYESSA

This Sunday we will join with Valley Christian for joint services. We are welcoming a new pastor Steve White to Valley as Pastor Randall Roach is retiring. Services will be at the Capell Valley Volunteer Fire Station on Highway 126, just west of Moskowite Corners. 252-4488.

CONGREGATION BETH SHALOM

Summer Worship will start with a delicious Oneg Shabbat at 5:30 p.m. Friday, July 14 followed by Kabbalat Shabbat Services from 6 to 7 p.m. The community is welcome to meet our new spiritual leader, Rabbi Niles Goldstein. 1455 Elm Street, Napa, cbsnapa.org, 253-7305.

CORNERSTONE MINISTRIES

Sunday service is at 10:15 a.m. Spanish Church begins at 1:30 p.m. Sunday school and childcare are available at both services. Our midweek service is at 6:30 on Wednesday nights. There is childcare and childrens activities at this service. Middle school and high school study meets on Wednesday nights as well at 6:30 p.m. in the Youth Room. On Thursdays at 6:30 p.m., Freedom From Bondage meets in our Youth Room. 3305 Vista Ave, 252-2909. cmnv.org.

COVENANT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Looking for a welcoming place to worship on Sunday morning? Come and join us at 10:30 a.m., 1226 Salvador Avenue, Napa. The Rev. Lynda Hyland Burris will lead the service, assisted by liturgist Russ Kindig. Special music will be presented by soloist Jack Bailey. Quiet activities are provided for children and youth to use during the service; even adults are encouraged to move quietly to the Arts in Worship Center, as the Spirit leads them. Sunday School will resume in September. 255-9426; cpcnapa.org; facebook.com/cpcnapa.

CREEKSIDE COMMUNITY CHURCH

Join us for Sunday services at 9 and 10 a.m.. Childrens programs during the 10 a.m. service. On Wednesdays at noon and at 6 p.m. CrossWalk Talk, come and talk about some of the most provocative themes from the book, The Shack. Your faith will stretch. Visit us; our primary mission is to usher people into a growing, life-enhancing, world-improving relationship with God. 1050 Hagen Road, Napa. CreeksideChurchNapa.org; 255-7266.

CROSSWALK COMMUNITY CHURCH

Join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for services in the courtyard. Childrens programs also available during the service. Meet with Pastor Pete on Wednesday at noon in his office for continued discussion of Poverty in America. 2590 First Street, 226-1812.

FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Envision is our current sermon series, focusing in on the vision of First Christian Church. Well be looking closer at 1 and 2 Timothy and how each of us has a place in the larger picture. Sunday services are at 8:45 and 10:30 a.m. 2659 First Street, Napa. fccnapa.org.

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Please join us this Sunday, for two services, 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Pastor David will be preaching at both services on Holy Arithmetic. Scripture reference will be John 14. After both services, in our Welcome Center, there will be coffee and treats. Childcare for newborn to age 5 is available all morning. Sunday School: Friendship Class meets at 10; class for kindergarten through grade 5 will meet at 10:30 a.m. 1333 Third St., 224-8693, fpcnapa.org.

GRACE CHURCH OF NAPA VALLEY

Sunday services: Worship service at 9 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. Adult Sunday school classes at 9 a.m. Childrens service at 9 and 10:40 a.m. Nursery and preschool care available. Junior high ministry meets Tuesday, 7 p.m.; high school meets Wednesday at 7 p.m. at 3765 Solano Ave., Napa. 255-4033, GraceNapa.org.

HIGHLANDS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

We continue a six-week teaching series titled Vision. What could the church be? What should the church be? Where is the church going and how do we get there? We hope to bring clarity to some of these questions as we chart a new direction. If youre a regular church attendee, never been or maybe its just been awhile, we invite you to come join us this Sunday and start the adventure with us at 10:30 a.m. Spanish speaking service on Sunday evenings starting at 6:30 and an Alcoholics Anonymous group that meets weekly on Monday and Wednesdays from 6-7 p.m. 970 Petrified Forest Rd., Calistoga.

HILLSIDE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

We meet at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. at 100 Anderson Road, Napa. 255-3036; hccnapa.com.

HOLY GROUND CHRISTIAN CENTER

Sunday worship begins at 10 a.m., and Bible study is Wednesday at 7 p.m. 3860 Broadway, Suite 111, American Canyon. 373-2015.

LIVING VINE CHURCH

We meet every Sunday morning at 10. 3305 Linda Vista Avenue, Napa. 226-5551.

MEMORIAL CHAPEL AT VETERANS HOME OF CALIFORNIA, YOUNTVILLE

Sunday worship service, 10:15 a.m. Coffee fellowship one hour before service. Bible study on Wednesday at 1 p.m., Fellowship Room, with refreshments served; prayer meetings Thursday at 1 p.m. The memorial chapel is on the Veterans Home at Yountville campus on California Drive, across from the administration building. 944-4840.

MONT LA SALLE CHAPEL

Roman Catholic liturgical services are open to all in this chapel of the De la Salle Christian Brothers at 4401 Redwood Rd., Napa. Sunday Mass is celebrated at 11 a.m.

NAPA COMMUNITY SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

Storms of life  they are a fact of living in this world. The longer we live, the more we realize that life is full storms, by the experiences we have to look back on. Knowing that life is full of storms does not make it any easier to go through the storms. But there are whispers of hope. Come and join us for the worship service this coming Sabbath, July 15 at 11:15 a.m. Our speaker is Executive Pastor Glenn Gibson. His sermon title is Peace. napacomm.com, 1105 G Street, 252-2444.

NAPA METHODIST CHURCH

We are a progressive and reconciling church, where all are welcome. Two Sunday morning services: 9:30 a.m. Sanctuary service and an 11 a.m. modern-style Fusion Worship service held in the Asbury Room. Childrens Worship and Nursery are available during both services. Silent Meditation is Mondays at 5:30 pm in the Sanctuary. Vacation Bible School is July 24-28; 625 Randolph Street. 253-1411, napamethodist.org.

NAPA-SONOMA FRIENDS MEETING (QUAKERS)

Sunday worship at 10 a.m. Silent meeting in the custom of Friends. Meet at the VOICES Youth Center, 780 Lincoln Ave. Enter at parking lot on left side of building, using door at end of wheelchair ramp. Quaker signs will be posted on Sunday mornings. We welcome visiting friends or those who are new to Quaker practice. nvquaker@gmail.com; 253-1505.

NAPA VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH

Join us Sundays at 9:30 a.m. for Bible Study for all ages, 10:30 a.m. for worship service and a fun, interactive and energetic childrens program for preschool through fifth grade. Nursery provided for all Sunday services. Sunday evenings at 5 p.m., join us for A Study in Revelation with Steve McCoy. Steve will guide you verse by verse through the book of Revelation. Learn all about what the Bible says about the end times and what it means. The public is invited. 303 Trower Ave., Napa. napavalleybaptist.org, 252-2100.

NAPA VALLEY BIBLE CHAPEL

We start services by remembering the Lords death, burial and resurrection during a time of worship and thanksgiving at 9:30 a.m., followed by a fellowship and coffee time starting at 10:30 a.m. At 11 a.m., we enjoy a time of Bible teaching. On Wednesdays at 6 p.m., we meet for a brief Bible study and a time of prayer. A movie night/home Bible study is held in downtown Napa at 6 p.m. on Fridays. 1559 Second Street, Napa. napavalleybiblechapel.com.

NAPA VALLEY COMMUNITY CHURCH

We welcome you to meet guest Pastor Robert Van Hofwegen, who is preaching on Sunday morning, on Genesis 12, Never too late for an Adventure. Abraham in faith obeyed God, leaving his home, and bringing his family to move to a place he didnt even know, listening to a God he didnt really know! Services are at 10 a.m. Sunday School & Childcare for children. Open Forum immediately after the service. 4149 Linda Vista Ave, Napa. 337-4328. NapaValleyChurch.org. NVCC is a family oriented ministry affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church.

NAPA VALLEY LUTHERAN

Sunday worship at 10 a.m. Fellowship time follows. All are welcome because all belong to God. The church is located at the corner of Jefferson and Elm, Napa. Info, 226-8166, napavalleylutheran.org.

NAPA VALLEY UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS

July 16, 10 a.m. What Are We to Make of God? Traditional Service with Rev. Bryan Plude and Service Assistant Anne Jungerman. In a series of sermons on problem words and concepts for UUs, Rev. Plude looks at different ways of understanding God and what those understandings might mean for UUs. Infant care, child care, and religious education provided. 1625 Salvador Ave., Napa; nvuu.org; 226-9220.

NEW LIFE TABERNACLE

Sunday school at 10 a.m., followed by worship service at 11 a.m. Sunday evening service the first Sunday of every month. Bible study on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. at 2625 First St., Napa. 255-1062; NewLifeNapa.com.

ST. APOLLINARIS CATHOLIC CHURCH

Join us each third Saturday at the crossroads of faith and culture. St. Apollinaris Catholic Church 3700 Lassen St. Napa. 257-2555.

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST

St. John the Baptist Church holds daily masses in English at 7:30 a.m. and 12:05 p.m. Weekend masses are Saturday at 5 p.m. (English) and 7 p.m. (Spanish) and Sunday 8 a.m. (Spanish), 10 a.m. (English), noon (Spanish), and 5 p.m. (English). Wednesday evening mass at 7 (Spanish). Corner of Caymus and Yajome downtown.

ST. JOHNS LUTHERAN CHURCH

Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. Childrens Church during the 10:15 a.m. service at 3521 Linda Vista Ave., Napa. 255-0119; StJohnsLutheran.net.

ST. MARYS EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Worship on Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. or Sundays at 8 a.m. or 10 a.m. (organ and choir). Childrens Chapel (Sunday school) is at 9:50 a.m. Sunday. Nursery care is provided during the 10 a.m. service. Coffee hour follows the worship services on Sunday at 1917 Third St., Napa. 255-0991; StMarysNapa.org.

ST. STEPHENS ANGLICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Sundays at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., sing using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Refreshments and social time after the 10:30 Service. Evensong and Bible Study Wednesdays at 6 p.m. at 1250 Oakville Grade, Oakville. 944-8915, ststephensoakville.org.

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHURCH

Mass times are Saturday at 4 p.m. (English), Sunday at 8 a.m. (English), 11 a.m. (English) and 1:30 p.m. (Spanish). Daily mass is at 9 a.m., except on the first Friday, which is at noon and in English at 2725 Elm St., Napa. 255-2949; stthomasaquinasnapa.com.

SALVATION ARMY

Join us for services Sundays at 10 a.m. at 590 Franklin St., Napa. napasalarmy.org.

THE FATHERS HOUSE

Service times are Saturday, 6 p.m., Sunday at 9 and 11 a.m. Child care and Kids Church are available (ages infant through sixth grade). Youth ministry Encounter meets every Wednesday night at 7. Celebrate Recovery meets on Monday nights at 6:30. The Fathers House, 2557 Napa Valley Corporate Drive, Napa. tfh.org.

UNITY SPIRITUAL CENTER IN NAPA VALLEY

Historic Grange Hall, 3275 Hagen Road (1/2 mile east of the Silverado Trail), Napa. Parking next to the building. UnityinNapaValley.org, 255-6881.

YOUNTVILLE COMMUNITY CHURCH

July 16, Contemporary Worship, 9:30 a.m. and Traditional Worship, 11 a.m. Lead Pastor Jim Huckaba is continuing a sermon series called Armed And Dangerous.  Sundays sermon is entitled Turn It Around. From Acts 2:36-39, and Matthew 3:8. Adult Bible Class, 9:30 a.m, in the New Ministry Outreach Room. Childrens classes, 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. in the Callison Ministry Center Room 1 Jesus and Me. (birth-kindergarten), and first-fifth grades are offered. Vertical Student Ministry 11 a.m.; fifth-eighth grades and high school students in the new Ministry Outreach Room. 6619 Yount Street, Yountville, 944-2179.
Members of the Measure H Oversight Committee put on their hard hats Wednesday afternoon and headed out to three school construction sites to inspect furious action.

Their goal: to make sure taxpayer money is being spent where it is supposed to be, or, as committee member Kevin Brooks put it, going and kicking the tires.

Measure H, which was approved by voters last year, allowed the Napa Valley Unified School District to sell $269 million in general obligation bonds. The measure promised to make repairs and upgrades to district schools, addressing things like earthquake damage, fire safety, plumbing and mechanical systems.

The district is working on five projects this summer using funds provided by Measure H, including work at El Centro Elementary, Valley Oak High School, West Park Elementary, Snow Elementary and Shearer Elementary.

The tours first stop was at Valley Oak where walls are torn down, ground is torn up and caution tape abounds. The school is undergoing seismic upgrades, asbestos abatement, and other improvements, including a new air conditioning system and the addition of science stations in two classrooms, said Don Evans, head of district construction and planning and tour guide for the day.

Theyve never been able to offer science (at Valley Oak), Evans said.

Evans said that although classrooms at the school will be complete by the time classes start up on Aug. 16, administrative offices might not be.

The summer for us has shrunken to about 60 days, Evans said. This school right now is on a 60-hour work week.

Construction on the schools began on June 9 after student went home for the summer.

One of the schools with the most construction is El Centro, the next stop on the tour.

This is clearly the biggest project, said Elizabeth Emmett, district spokeswoman. This is where most everythings going on.

El Centro is being expanded to twice its size and, when it is complete, will serve about 600 students, Evans told the committee.

The school is being expanded in preparation for Salvador Elementary Schools closing due to declining enrollment.

While crew members worked to Nirvana songs, Evans said that only the first phase of the project will be finished this summer. Work on the inside of the buildings will not begin until next summer, he said.

Evans said that the school is getting new electrical throughout because the current service panel isnt large enough to support the size of the school post-expansion.

The final school visited during the tour was West Park, which is getting an expanded office, HVAC replacement, seismic upgrades and changes related to Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, Evans said. The biggest problem at the school, though, Evans said, has been asbestos.

Student areas at West Park are scheduled to be finished by Aug. 16 with offices complete by Aug. 24.

Although the tour didnt make it to Snow or Shearer, Evans said that the work being done at Shearer is some of the most intrusive. The schools current heating and cooling system, he said, is beyond repair. Evans didnt say whether or not work at Shearer would be complete by the time school starts in August, but he did say that the kids will have a place to go and sit down on the 16th of August.

Committee member Scott Warren, whose daughter just graduated from Napa High School, said he thinks the district is using money approved by Measure H appropriately.

Its money that needs to be spent, he said. I think theyre spending it where they need to.

Leon Brauning, committee member and representative from the Napa County Taxpayers Association, said he wasnt so sure. Its too soon for the committee to take a tour, so he opted not to go as a form of protest, he said. Brauning, who opposed Measure H, said the committee needed to bore down on budget line items.

The Measure H Oversight Committee, which was appointed by the NVUSD board of education, consists of 10 members, but only seven stayed for the entirety of the tour. Evans said that he would like another four people on the committee.

The oversight committee is required to have at least one member active in a business organization located within the district, one member active in a senior citizens organization, one member who is the parent or guardian of a child enrolled in the district, one member who is both a parent/guardian of a child enrolled in the district and active in a parentteacher organization or school booster organization, and one member active in a bona fide taxpayers organization.

Members of the Measure H Oversight Committee meet every other month on the second Wednesday of the month for a period of two years.

For more information, visit nvusd.org/measureh.
AMERICAN CANYON  Two American Canyon projects  senior apartments and roadway improvements on Highway 29  are back on track after being delayed by higher than expected contractor costs.

Valley View Seniors Homes is expected to hold a groundbreaking ceremony on July 20 to celebrate the start of construction on 70 cottage-style rental units for seniors. Preliminary work on the site has already begun.

Were thrilled, said Community Development Director Brent Cooper about the affordable housing project.

The developer for Valley View ran into some trouble earlier this year when it sought bids from contractors to start building. The estimates came in about $4 million more than Satellite Affordable Housing Associates (SAHA), a nonprofit developer out of Berkeley, had expected.

SAHA tried a second time by requesting another round of bids. The work was still projected to be $2 million over budget, prompting SAHA to ask the Napa County Board of Supervisors for financial help to avoid delays that might have resulted in it losing funding promised from other sources.

Even with $2 million in new funding from the county, Valley View had to push back its groundbreaking from the spring to mid-summer.

Another American Canyon project that had its construction postponed was located at the intersection of Napa Junction Road and Highway 29. The city had planned to add turn lanes on the eastern portion of the intersection and widen curbs at the northwest, southeast and northeast corners.

But when the Public Works Department went out to bid for the project, it received only one estimate, which turned out to be higher than what city engineers believed appropriate.

Ghilotti Brothers, Inc. said they could do the work for $1.43 million. A city engineer calculated the costs to be $1.12 million.

So Public Works Director Jason Holley asked the City Council to reject the bid so he could go back out and ask for estimates again from companies.

In June, his department received two bids: one from Ghilotti Brothers, this time for $1.27 million, and another from Ghilotti Construction Company, for $1.17 million. Despite sharing similar names, the two companies are independent of one another, according to Holley.

After reviewing both bids, Holleys department awarded the contract to Ghilotti Construction, whose estimate was deemed responsive and responsible, according to a staff report given to the City Council.

City Councilmember David Oro told Holley at a meeting on June 27 that it was a smart move to take a second try at getting bids, which wound up saving the city money.

Councilmember Mark Joseph said saving money was a sweet deal, particularly for an important project intended to help handle more traffic coming from the new apartment complex, Canyon Ridge, and the nearby retail center.

Holley said despite requesting two rounds of bids, the project should be completed by the end of the year. He expected mobilization, or the beginning work of construction, to commence in late July.

SAHA expects Valley View to be completed in about a year. The 70 units will be rented at below-market rates to residents 55 years and older, with some units reserved for military veterans.

Both Holley and SAHA previously said the construction industry has been facing higher demands for work since the economy rebounded, but has suffered labor shortages that have made it challenging to keep up with projects. The situation has resulted in rising labor costs as well as contractors charging more for their services.
Hand over all the information you have on every voter in your state, went the demand from President Trumps newly appointed Advisory Commission on Electoral Integrity. That included a list of all registered voters names, birth dates, party identification and voting histories, plus the last four digits of all voters Social Security numbers.

So much for the old-fashioned secret ballot.

So sweeping was the demand that even the commissions vice chairman and de facto chief  the man who signed the order  said his own state of Kansas would refuse to turn over Social Security numbers to his own commission.

What would the federal government do with all this information, if it were turned in? The commission and that vice chairman, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, wont say. But its common knowledge that should the data get into demonstrably hackable federal computers, it would be fair game for almost anyone from corporations to foreign powers like Russia, which already has an alleged history of stealing electoral data bases.

This was the second major assault by Trumps administration on citizen privacy, the first coming when his appointees to the Federal Communications Commission announced in May they plan to rescind previous net neutrality rules that prohibit commercial use of customer information held by Internet service providers.

California was the first state to react to the voter information demands, with Secretary of State Alex Padilla announcing the day the demands arrived that he would fill none of them. Within a week, he was joined by the top voting officials of 43 other states, including many considered rock-ribbed Republican red, like Kentucky, Indiana and Mississippi.

Said Padilla, I will not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally (in 2016). Californias 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.

His GOP counterpart in Mississippi was more colorful. They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi is a great state to launch from, said Delbert Hosemann. Louisiana Republican Tom Schedler added that The commission has quickly politicized its work by asking for an incredible amount of voter data that I have (always) refused to release.

Fortunately for voters who could be at risk for identity theft if Padilla and his colleagues complied with commission demands, Kobachs group (formally headed by Vice President Mike Pence) has no subpoena powers and there is no known penalty for not cooperating. Maybe thats why Kobach is refusing one of his own demands. It is also true that the Constitution gives each state the power to conduct its own elections.

But Padilla was probably correct, too, in guessing that Kobach & Co. have already decided what their report (due in mid-2018) will say. Hes the one who spurred Trump to claim that his loss of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton last year was solely because of illegal immigrant voters.

Neither Trump nor Kobach ever presented evidence for the claim of massive illegal voting, a charge Kobach has made for at least 10 years, since his days as a lawyer for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, long classed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law center.

As secretary of state, Kobach has tried for years to ferret out illegal aliens voting in Kansas. Wikipedia reports that as of last spring, he had found six cases of illegal voting in his six-plus years in office; all involved double voting, none by undocumented persons.

As Padilla noted, there is no basis for or proof of claims that massive illegal immigrant voting occurs or ever has. Republicans first made the claim when Democrat Loretta Sanchez in 1996 ousted longtime Orange County GOP Congressman Robert Dornan, one of the biggest upsets ever in California politics. The GOP majority in the House investigated then for electoral irregularities, but found so few even it had to admit the phenomenon was insignificant.

The bottom line: This is one more form of California resistance to Trump administration attempts at actions that are political anathema here. Resistance has never been more justified than in this case.
After months of tough urban combat, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory Monday over the Islamic State in its last strategic stronghold in Iraq. Iraqis celebrated in the streets, and Americans should cheer as well.

The liberation of Mosul and the inevitable, approaching liberation of Raqqa in Syria will not be the end of the Islamic State and its evil ideology. But they crush the group's pretense to having an actual "state" based upon it. As its surviving leaders scurry to the corners of the desert, no longer can they claim to head a winning movement. Their defeat diminishes the inspiration for violent extremists, or simply lost souls on social media, to attack Americans and our friends. This is a necessary step forward in combating terrorism. Americans are safer for it.

The credit for liberating Mosul should go to the brave Iraqi forces who carried out the fight, as well as to the Kurdish peshmerga forces. But credit is also due to the superb execution by U.S. and coalition forces of the military campaign plan to train, equip and enable Iraqi security forces put in motion more than a year ago.

Conducting the campaign in this way was strategically necessary to set the conditions for a truly lasting defeat of the Islamic State. An alternative would have been to use U.S. ground forces from the get-go. But this would have ceded our military advantage to the enemy in the urban terrain of a foreign country, and it might also have induced some who are helping the campaign (or at least sitting on the sidelines) to join the enemy. Finally, it would have left the problem of post-conflict stabilization and governance unresolved. History has shown this task is difficult for outsiders to accomplish.

Importantly, credit goes to my successor, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford for not only continuing this military campaign but also continuing to seek ways to accelerate it. And then there are the superb military commanders: the U.S. Central Command's Joe Votel, campaign leaders Sean McFarland and Steve Townsend, and a host of others.

While there's much to celebrate in the fall of Mosul, we also need to steel ourselves for the road ahead. The defeat of the Islamic State in Mosul and Raqqa is necessary but not sufficient.

At this stage, I am less concerned about the military campaign in Iraq than the political and economic campaigns that must follow. Unless Iraqis are satisfied with what comes next, there will be a slide back to chaos and radicalism. I also believe that a sustained U.S. military presence will be needed in order to improve Iraqi security forces and enable them to keep the peace. Coalition partners are essential: Italy, for example, is superb at training police. Gulf Arab states can make a major contribution to lasting security in their own region by providing critical economic assistance.

Syria will be even more complex. Among the most important decisions that the Trump administration has made was approving the provision of arms and training to Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces to lay siege to Raqqa. This was controversial because Turkey opposed such a move, but it is the only viable option for liberating Raqqa. While the final decision did not occur during the Obama administration, I strongly supported backing the SDF, including the Kurds. Now, the Islamic State's days in Raqqa are numbered. Going forward, however, it will be important that we continue to reassure Turkey, a NATO ally, by holding the SDF to its commitments.

Russia has played no constructive role in these impending U.S.-led victories. President Vladimir Putin sent forces into western Syria under the pretense of fighting terrorism and inducing a political transition away from the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad. Putin did neither. Any broader U.S. cooperation with Russia beyond deconflicting military operations would require Moscow to meet conditions that it has never met. The United States should avoid being enticed by new Putin gambits along the same lines.

Elsewhere, and for some time to come, the fight against extremist terrorism will need to continue. In Afghanistan, for example, I was grateful to President Barack Obama for approving my and Dunford's recommendations first to delay drawing down, and then to increase, the U.S. forces advising and assisting Afghan forces and the government of President Ashraf Ghani. I strongly support continuing efforts to improve security there. It's not just that we cannot allow Afghanistan once again to become a base for attacking the United States; there's also the upside of maintaining a security partnership in a region of strategic importance.

We will need to maintain our resolve to achieve a lasting defeat of the Islamic State. But for now let's thank our troops and their commanders. Let's thank the Iraqis and the Syrian forces taking on the terrorist group. The world should note that no country but the United States could have led such a coalition to victory. That's a fitting rejoinder to anyone who believes our internal disarray and partisan politics are reason to doubt U.S. staying power.
I much appreciated the town hall-style meeting held by Peter Mott and Gordon Huether at Compadres on July 12. With standing room only, residents and business owners had an opportunity to voice their concerns about neighborhood issues as well as broader concerns about the growth of tourism in the Valley.

What we heard over and over from Councilman Mott was the word balance. By this, I assumed he meant balancing the interests of the vineyard/wineries/restaurants/hotels that serve the tourist economy, thereby bringing money into the city coffers, with the interests of local residents who see increasing tourism infringing on their quality of life and damaging our environment.

'Balance' is a polite word. It is a word for gymnasts and checkbooks. It is a word that says I dont want to offend the business interests that, as a councilman, supervisor, or commissioner, I rely on for my political support. And I dont want to offend my constituents who vote for me.

I believe the financial interests of tourist-related businesses and those of residents is now out of balance.

The word I would substitute is "limits." It is time for our elected and appointed officials to broach this thorny issue. It is a difficult discussion to have; no one wants to be seen as excluding others from enjoying the benefits we derive from living in such a beautiful place. But other cities have had this painful discussion and determined that they must take a stand against continued development and greed. I hope our officials will have the guts to do the same.

Iris Barrie

Napa
The historic train depot in Rutherford, originally built in the 1870s, is inextricably linked with the valleys rise to prominence. Its present decay is heartbreaking to those who know its glorious past and confusing to those who question why the disintegrating structure is not just rebuilt or torn down.
Thomas Brown makes wine for many clients, often producing some of the highest-scoring and most sought-after wines in California. One of these brands is Schrader, a small producer based out of Calistoga that makes a few thousand cases of cabernet sauvignon-based wines that primarily source grapes from top vineyards such as Andy Beckstoffers section of the To Kalon vineyard in Oakville.

Schrader did not have their own winery (they made their wines at another winery through a custom-crush-type arrangement), and they didnt own their own vineyard. What they had was a wine brand that collectors clamored over, mostly because of Browns skill as a winemaker, but partly because of Schraders skill as a marketer.

Of course, Beckstoffer would argue that much of their success was due to the quality of the grapes.

Whatever the case, the Schrader brand sold for millions of dollars (the word on the street is somewhere less than $50 million, but I have no confirmation of this from anyone involved).

The question is, why would Constellation Brands, the third-largest wine and beer company in the United States with some 50 million cases of wine sold a year and first-quarter revenue at $1.9 billion, purchase such a brand?

There are a few possible strategic rationales for buying such a brand, with access and control of the To Kalon vineyard probably near the top.

Constellation purchased the majority of the To Kalon vineyard back in 2004, when it purchased the Robert Mondavi Corp. in a $1.03-billion cash deal that was the biggest wine purchase in the history of the Napa Valley. The deal was brokered by Ted Hall, the chairman of the Mondavi board and an ex-McKinsey and Co. consultant.

Hall now owns and operates what is fast becoming another massively valuable wine enterprise, his Long Meadow Ranch winery that includes an organic farming operation, the Farmstead Restaurant in St. Helena and a recently submitted plan for a hotel.

Beyond purchasing Mondavis winery and massive world-wide distribution network, Constellation found themselves with most of the To Kalon vineyard. Beckstoffer owns about 80 acres or so of the remaining portion.

To Kalon was originally planted in 1868 and seems to have always produced wonderfully distinct wines. Ancient Greek for the highest beauty, the To Kalon name, largely through Beckstoffers marketing genius, became synonymous with some of the best wines from the Napa Valley: Mondavi Reserve, Schrader, Tor, Paul Hobbs, Harlan, Opus One and many others.

For many years, Beckstoffer seemed to own the entire To Kalon brand position, requiring those who purchased the grapes to pay astronomical prices and even to add his name to their wine labels.

And producers were willing to play because making wines from this vineyard was a near guarantee that the wines would score highly with reviewers such as the Wine Spectator and Robert Parker Jr.

Years passed and everything seemed to be working fine: Beckstoffer became even more linked to To Kalon, producers that used To Kalon fruit sold their high-scoring wines for ever-increasing amounts and, strangely, Constellation just kept out of the way, not leveraging the To Kalon branding strength in their marketing.

But then a couple years ago, there must have been this moment in the Constellation boardroom. I can almost hear the conversation:

Hey, Bob, dont we own about 80 percent of the To Kalon vineyard?

Yes, Sally, I think we do.

Well, Bob, arent those To Kalon wines selling for crazy amounts and everyone seems to know that name is linked to high quality?

Again, Sally, I think you are correct. That is true.

OK, Bob, then why the heck are we not using the To Kalon name on everything we can get our hands on?

Good point, Sally. Lets start tomorrow.

And they did. Now the To Kalon name is prominently displayed on the Mondavi highway signage, and you cant go very far into the Mondavi complex before hearing about the To Kalon legacy.

But Constellation, a company that is legendary for wanting to acquire and control their world, does not control all of To Kalon yet because Beckstoffer is not going to sell (his portion is in a land trust anyway), and he has long-term contracts for much of the sale of much of the fruit and his section is in a land trust.

And thats where these two businesses are colliding and why every producer of Beckstoffer To Kalon with a long-term contract should be expecting a call from Constellation  they want what you have, but maybe not for long.

And for now Beckstoffer is laughing all the way to the bank  for now he holds all the cards.
According to John F. Jack  Tognetti, owner of the Aloise Francisco Vineyards in Los Carneros, the secret to a long life is moderation, hard work and a little wine.

People who eat too much or who run on concrete put too much stress on their bodies, Tognetti said on the patio of his Los Carneros home just south of the town of Napa.

The key is moderation and being good to your body, but its also important to get out there and do some physical work every day  our bodies and minds were made for working. I eat small meals  a simple salad and a small piece of fish, for example, and I only have small amounts of wine when I do drink.

Tognetti, who turned 100 this year, talked about his life and his philosophy as the afternoon Carneros breeze began to pick up, rustling the leaves of the fig, plum, pear, apple and peach trees that border the house, beyond which the meticulously farmed Chardonnay vines fade into the distance.

Im out in the vineyard every day  theres always something to do, Tognetti said. At the moment, weve just finished disking and done some fine-tuning on the pruning. To get the grapes to ripen without sun damage, we manage how the leaves of the vine interact with the grape clusters. The most important thing is to be out there doing the work, understanding your place.

Born in 1917, he grew up in San Francisco and spent summers on his grandfathers farm in Watsonville.

My grandfather had come from the Italian-Swiss border region of Italy (near Lake Como) in the early 1880s and settled in Watsonville before bringing over my grandmother and father, who was about 12 at the time, Tognetti said. They lived in a cottage without running water or a toilet and had only a wood stove to heat the place. They made their own bread, butter and cheese and taught me how to be frugal. My brother hated it, but its when I first fell in love with farming.

At the Watsonville farm, Tognetti helped harvest apples and apricots, and he also took care of the livestock that included sheep, pigs and chickens. Life was not easy.

My grandmother would make a big pot of soup, with beans and rice  so thick you could walk on it  and wed eat that for the week, Tognetti said. Every Sunday, she might kill a chicken or rooster to eat, but that was a big deal for them. They always grew their own grapes and made a little wine, but my grandmother would give my grandfather a hard time if he drank too much.

Back at high school in San Francisco, he met his future wife, Camille, and they started dating, which continued while Tognetti studied agriculture at UC Davis.

After high school, my mother took me to Davis and said, This is where you are going, Tognetti said. At that time Davis was not what it is now. It was called Cow College and there were only about 1,000 students.

World War II was percolating in Europe and the draft was looming, so after graduation Tognetti took a job with the American President Lines (APL) shipping fleet.

My father worked for APL, and we thought it made a lot of sense for me to work there while the war was heating up, Tognetti said. Eventually, the military took over APL to transport soldiers to the battlefields and they offered me a position, which I was happy to take, but there were some close calls.

Tognetti said he had been scheduled to be in Pearl Harbor on the day it was attacked, but his ship had been delayed and missed the devastating bombardment.

After the war, Tognetti rejoined APL and rose in the ranks. Eventually he moved the family to Hong Kong, where he oversaw the shipping fleet from Korea to Karachi. But he longed for the farming life with which hed grown up, so on a trip back to the United States he purchased the Carneros property in 1966.

The property already had this small house, a barn and a well, so I thought this would be perfect, he said. I told the real estate agent that I was getting old (he was in his mid 40s at the time) and that I didnt feel like building things up from scratch. I also liked that there were 600 prune and 400 pear trees that could produce a little income.

By the 1980s, Tognetti had determined that grapes were the crop of the future and that because of the cooler weather in Carneros it was important to plant chardonnay grapes.

Most of the grapes grown on the vineyard are now sold to Schramsberg Vineyards, which makes sparkling wines, but that wasnt always the case.

For a while I was selling the grapes to some pretty well-known chardonnay-makers, Tognetti said. But theyd want the grapes to hang out there drying up in the sun for months before picking them. At one point, I thought, why not just sell the grapes to a sparkling producer? That way we could pick early at 18 or 19 brix and not lose all that money from dehydration. Thats when I started selling to Schramsberg. Now, we sell our 135 tons to them at about $2,500 per, and thats more money than Ive ever made at any of my previous jobs.

Jacks chardonnay grapes come from a pocket on Bayview Avenue adjacent to Carneros Creek that has worked really well for us for many years, said Hugh Davies, Schramsbergs president.

This relatively cool pocket of Napa Valley, with its dark, loamy soils allow for really high acid retention in the fruit, he added. These grapes consistently deliver vibrant, tasty and tart fruit that helps carry a wines palate and deliver long-aging potential as well. And beyond the quality of fruit, the grapes come from the vineyard of one of the coolest guys I know.

Tognettis wife, Camille, passed away a few years ago. But one of their sons, Robert, and their daughter, Wendy, launched the Tognetti Family Winery in 2012, producing a few hundred cases of chardonnay a year.

For over 30 years, Dad has grown some pretty spectacular grapes here, but we wanted to make a little wine from them, too, Robert said. We started making wine in 2000, and our first public release was the 2012 vintage. It is nice to have the family name on a wine label, and our kids are also getting involved, which makes this a three-generation endeavor.

The 2014 Aloise Francisco Vineyard (Aloise and Francisco are Camille and Jacks middle names) Chardonnay ($55 per bottle) is gold in color with aromas of spiced pear, hazelnut and buttered toast. The flavor profile is a contrast of sweet baked apple quickly followed by acidic spiced lemon and a chalky minearlity in the finish.

Tognetti grapes can also be found in a limited-release sparkling wine, the Schramsberg Tognetti Vineyard Blanc de Blancs.

We have produced a couple of vintages so far, Davies said. The 2009 was released a few years ago, while the 2012 is a new release. We produced about 1,000 cases of the 2012. It was included in one of our cellar club shipments this year, and is otherwise available at the winery for $80 a bottle.

It might not always be evident that the success of our wines and our industry has been built on long-term relationships, Davies said. Grape-growing and winemaking are really long-term propositions. Vineyards are planted with 25 to 30 year horizons in mind, sometimes even longer. Weve worked with Jack and his family to replant his whole property to five different clones of chardonnay in order to maximize the range of fruit depth that we might be able grow there.

Weve learned from him as weve gone and hes learned from us. Weve developed a connection and a partnership that has endured for over 20 years. Weve come to know his children and grandchildren, and similarly hes known three generations of our family. You know that youve tapped into something pretty special when you experience those bonds that commenced before you were present and that you sense will be there after youre gone.

This valley and the Davies have been good to us, Tognetti said. We are blessed to have been a part of this place during an exciting time in the wine business. Im not sure what the future holds for this place, with so many people coming, but thats not up to me. My hope is that weve added some good to the place and have lived frugally, without taking more than we gave. And hell, its been a pretty good run so far.




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Anthony Flores and Otilia Marquez, students in the Puerto Rico International Education Program, high-five as they finish preparing the land to be sown in a community farm in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Students Stephanie Flores and Cesar Lopez are in the background. Photo courtesy of Alicia Afshar

Student Anthony Flores discovered that indeed The World is Your Classroom earlier this summer when he studied in San Juan and Vieques, Puerto Rico. Flores and his classmates were exposed to the educational, social and health needs of the island population, and gained experience working for social change. Some of their activities included working on a community finca, or farm, and helping to conduct an exit poll on the recent referendum on decolonization.

The Puerto Rico International Education Program, tied to the course, Literacy Education for Social Change, is led by Julian Jefferies, assistant professor of literacy and reading education. This two-week, Cal State Fullerton study program brought together 16 students from across majors, several students from the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao, as well as faculty members from both universities.

The course and the chance to study in Puerto Rico helped immerse students in community-oriented research projects, offered a critical perspective of colonialism in education and gave them the opportunity to experience first-hand the cultures of Puerto Rico, said Jefferies, who has organized the program since 2015.

For Flores, a criminal justice major who plans to graduate next year, it was not just the white sandy beaches, wild horses that roam the countryside, learning the bomba, a traditional dance, or nighttime kayaking to see microorganisms that give the water a blue-green glow, but also the educational and personal experiences.

What are some of the benefits for you and your peers?

This trip was life-changing in all aspects. We all came back with ideas for our communities, career goals, academic goals, personal goals  and much more. We all learned important life skills, not only on this trip, but also throughout the semester in class. Dr. Jefferies has a unique way of teaching because he doesnt limit teaching to the four walls of a classroom. He goes above and beyond to help us learn about ourselves, understand the world around us and learn skills that are going to help us succeed in the future.

What one valuable lesson did you learn?

On a personal level, I learned first-hand what it means to be in solidarity with the people. I had the opportunity to complete exit poll surveys and interact with many Puerto Ricans who shared how they feel about the political issues affecting the island.

What were some of the highlights?

I volunteered to be on live radio show in Vieques along with some other students and we spoke about our island adventures and ourselves. We listened to a panel of women who spoke about issues affecting the island. We worked on a finca that provides fresh fruits and vegetables to the local community. We toured the El Fortin Conde de Mirasol fort, built in 1845, and museum, where we saw some amazing art exhibits that represent the oppression the people on the island went through. We took a tour of archeological sites and the U.S.-built bunkers. We toured the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, and had a dialogue with students who were active in the manifestations and the fight for justice within the universities. They explained why they demanded accessible and affordable education for all students. We also participated in workshops on career development, career options and grad school.

How did the experience help shape your academic goals?

It helped motivate me to finish strong and encouraged me to continue with grad school, which I wasnt sure of before the trip. As for my future career goals, it reaffirmed that I want to pursue a career in international teaching.

Why participate in such study programs?

It takes you out of the classroom setting and into the real world. Before we left, Dr. Jefferies hosted a potluck with our parents. We all received a key chain with the words, The World is Your Classroom. Those words describe the answer for this question. The things you learn while youre in a program like this are things you cant learn anywhere else. Every student should make an effort to go on a study away or study abroad program. It will absolutely have an impact on their academic and personal lives.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-13 19:31:20|Editor: Mengjie

President of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) Meng Hongwei, also vice minister of China's public security, speaks at a high-level dialogue hosted by the Interpol in Lyon, France, July 12, 2017. The dialogue called for an alliance between the public and private sectors for cross-industry and cross-border cooperation to more effectively combat cyber and financial crimes. (Xinhua/Zhang Xuefei)

LYON, France, July 12 (Xinhua) -- A high-level dialogue hosted by the International Police Organization (Interpol) here Wednesday called for an alliance between the public and private sectors for cross-industry and cross-border cooperation to more effectively combat cyber and financial crimes.

Cyber and financial crimes have become more and more rampant globally, and law enforcement sectors face many difficulties in tackling them, Meng Hongwei, Interpol president and vice minister of public security in China, said at the dialogue.

Law enforcement agencies, banks, financial institutions, Internet service providers and telecom operators need to establish an alliance and partnership, and develop a quick response mechanism to provide necessary and timely help when one partner is attacked, he said.

Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock said the organization is ideally positioned to be the gateway and interface for more streamlined cooperation between global law enforcement agencies and private industry partners.

Interpol's network will provide accurate and valuable information for the law enforcement officials from all countries, he said.

Nearly 200 representatives from the law enforcement, financial, telecommunications and Internet sectors are taking part in the two-day dialogue.

It is reported that law enforcement institutions will conduct a two-month global action against financial crimes under the coordination of Interpol after this event.

With 190 member countries, Interpol is the second largest intergovernmental organization next to the United Nations. It has been playing an important role in facilitating international police cooperation, preserving global security and some other aspects.

Meng was elected president at the Interpol General Assembly held in 2016 and will serve until 2020.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-13 21:33:00|Editor: Song Lifang

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DAR ES SALAAM, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian authorities, through a 3.7-million-U.S.-dollar loan from the World Bank, have embarked on a program to improve working conditions for small-scale miners, a senior official said Thursday.

Alex Rutagwelela, acting director of exploration and drilling with State Mining Corporation (STAMICO), said the program will address challenges facing small-scale miners, including poor mining methods.

"The government decided to carry out this program after it had realized that small-scale miners were conducting their activities in hazardous environments," said Rutagwelela.

The official said the program will initially be implemented in seven mining areas in the East African nation.

He mentioned the areas as Buhemba in Mara region, Itumbi in Mbeya region, Katente-Ushirombo in Shinyanga region, Mpanda in Katavi region, Kange in Tanga region, Kyerwa in Kagera region and Masakasa in Lindi region.

The program is expected to be completed in one year, said Rutagwelela, adding that the program will also involve construction of seven mining centers.

"The centers will also be used to train the small-scale miners on different skills concerning mining and other skills related to their activities," he told a meeting with small-scale miners in Mara region.

Omahe Makina, a small-scale miner, commended the government for undertaking such a program, saying it will help in solving problems facing them.

"This program will improve the way we are doing mining activities and subsequently help reduce poverty," said Machera Mwikwabe, another small-scale miner.

Mwikwabe said poor mining working conditions had been a major roadblock to meeting their goals.

In February, more than five small-scale miners died at Buhemba gold mine in Mara region after they were trapped inside a pit following the collapse of the mine.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 01:20:25|Editor: huaxia

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VILNIUS, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Lithuanian State Food and Veterinary Service (VMVT) confirmed on Thursday the biggest case of African swine fever (ASF) to ever hit the country, following years of the Baltic country's efforts to tackle the spread of the virus.

The positive ASF results were found in a test at a pig farm in Central Lithuania with 23,464 pigs, said VMVT.

This is "the biggest ASF case in Lithuania so far," said VMVT in an announcement.

All the pigs kept by the farm will have to be slaughtered, according to local news agency Elta.

VMVT also took immediate measures to prevent the spread of ASF in areas surrounding the farm.

Vidmantas Paulauskas, the deputy head of VMVT, told Lithuanian national radio LRT that he suspected had a "human error" was behind the ASF case at the farm.

The farm is to incur losses of about four to five million euros (4.55 to 5.69 million U.S. dollars), Algis Baravykas, the head of the Lithuanian pig producers association, told LRT.

It's the second big ASF case in Lithuania in years. In 2014, around 20,000 pigs were slaughtered due to the outbreak of ASF in Danish-owned farms in Eastern Lithuania.

The disease was brought to Lithuania in late 2013 by infected boars from Belarus. Since then, the country saw a rapid spread of ASF. Seven out of 60 Lithuanian municipalities have been in a state of emergency over the disease for more than two years. At the end of last year, the Lithuanian government revoked the state of emergency, claiming the virus has been tackled.

The virus causes no threat to people but is lethal in pigs and boars. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 01:40:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Jozsef Laszlo Toth, president of the World Petroleum Council, delivers a speech at the closing ceremony of the 22nd World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 13, 2017. The 22nd World Petroleum Congress concluded on Thursday in Istanbul with high hopes for developing new cooperation in the future. (Xinhua/He Canling)

ISTANBUL, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The 22nd World Petroleum Congress concluded on Thursday in Istanbul with high hopes for developing new cooperation in the future.

"The congress constituted a great opportunity for developing new cooperation," Jozsef Laszlo Toth, president of the World Petroleum Council, said at the closing ceremony following five-day extensive discussions.

"We want to build new bridges in the coming years," he added.

The Istanbul congress launched under the theme of "bridges to our energy future" was aimed at addressing important issues and challenges facing the oil and gas sector, namely non-conventional gas explorations, climate change, carbon emissions and the fluctuations in oil prices.

The next congress will be held in the U.S. city of Houston in 2020.

Addressing the closing ceremony, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner praised the congress in Istanbul and said, "They set the bar very high for the series in Houston."

Around 3,000 delegates from more than 90 countries attended the congress, including heads of state, ministers, government officials as well as representatives from the sector and international organizations.

The World Petroleum Congress, the largest gathering for the industry, is organized every three years by the London-based World Petroleum Council and includes 65 member countries from around the world, representing over 96 percent of the global oil and gas production and consumption.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir meets with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia July 12, 2017. (Reuters photo)

CAIRO, July 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday ended his four-day Gulf tour failing to end the month-long standoff between Qatar and its Arab neighbors, which raises new doubts about the U.S. leadership in the Trump era.

No breakthrough was announced before Tillerson headed home from Doha.

In a surprise move, the top U.S. diplomat returned to Kuwait on Wednesday and to Qatar on Thursday, after meeting with the foreign ministers of the anti-Qatar Arab quartet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

Analysts said that the only major result of Tillerson' s Gulf tour is the signing of a deal with Qatar on combating terrorism financing.

But as the Gulf crisis showed no signs of easing after Tillerson's visit, doubts were raised about the U.S. global leadership under the administration of President Donald Trump.

LIMITED RESULTS FROM TILLERSON'S VISIT

Tillerson started his Gulf tour on Monday in Kuwait, which has been playing as a mediator in the Qatari crisis, before heading to Qatar on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt on June 5 severed their diplomatic ties with Doha and imposed a blockade on the tiny rich Gulf nation, accusing it of supporting terrorism and interfering in their internal affairs.

Doha has denied all the charges, while rejecting an ultimatum issued by the four Arab countries to accept their list of 13 demands as preconditions for ending the dispute.

To tackle one of the core accusations against Doha, Tillerson signed in Doha Tuesday a memorandum of understanding on combating terrorism financing.

Tillerson said the deal "reinvigorates the spirit of the Riyadh summit," referring to the meeting held by Trump and Arab leaders in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in May. The summit aimed at unifying the Muslim world to fight terrorism via measures including cutting off terrorism funding.

But Tillerson's statement that Qatar's position in the standoff was "reasonable" raised eyebrows in the anti-Qatari camp.

In response, the Saudi-led bloc issued a joint statement, saying that the U.S.-Qatar deal is insufficient and they will keep close watch on Qatar's future behavior.

As expected, no tangible results came out of the Wednesday meeting between Tillerson and the foreign ministers of the Saudi-led alliance in Jeddah.

Abdulrahman al-Rashed, former General Manager of Al Arabiya News Channel, blamed Tillerson's pro-Qatar position for damaging the chance of ending the stalemate.

"What increased suspicion is how he (Tillerson) rushed to concluding that Qatar's demands are reasonable before he even listened to the other involved parties," al-Rashed wrote in an opinion piece published on the Al Arabiya website.

He said Tillerson must realize that his pro-Qatar stance "complicates the problem, which is already complicated, and prolongs the crisis."

U.S. LEADERSHIP QUESTIONED UNDER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Tillerson, as the top U.S. diplomat, is widely believed to be undercut by his big boss, President Trump, and the White House, which have taken over many of diplomatic powers from the State Department.

Trump has been using his tweet account to conduct most of the U.S. diplomacy, by tweeting almost daily on foreign policy decisions and initiatives, without prior consultation with Tillerson.

Moreover, senior White House adviser and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner overshadows Tillerson as the top diplomat in the U.S. government. Indeed, Kushner has been deeply involved in most of the crucial U.S. diplomatic duties.

When it comes to the Qatari crisis, there is also confusion over the Trump administration's real position, as the White House and State Department seem to have different responses.

From the onset of the standoff, Tillerson, a former oil executive that has close ties with many political and business leaders in the Gulf, sounded a more soft tone toward Qatar. He even pushed the Saudi-led bloc to ease the blockade on Qatar, citing humanitarian reasons.

But then Trump publicly expressed support to the Arab bloc's move to hold Doha accountable for financing terrorism and having close ties with Iran, an arch enemy for the U.S. and Gulf states. He even slammed Qatar for financing terrorism "at a very high level."

Due to limited authority and the possibility of a failure to end the feud among Gulf allies, Tillerson's spokesman R.C. Hammond had already downplayed expectation about a breakthrough, insisting that Tillerson was not playing a role of a mediator in the crisis.

"Our job is to make sure everybody continues to talk to each other," he said.

In an editorial published Tuesday, the British daily Financial Times decried the lack of a serious U.S. foreign policy under the Trump administration and the Tillerson-led State Department.

"By contrast, under Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump's secretary of state, US diplomacy is missing in action," it wrote, making a comparison with previous U.S. governments.

It added that the fact that Trump is a president besieged by scandal and the State Department has failed to have a team in place "is taking a mounting toll on America's global position."

U.S. BENEFTING FROM GULF STANDOFF

However, for some Arab experts, the Trump administration is not really motivated to resolve the standoff in the Gulf sooner, as long as it benefits from it.

Some experts suspect that Trump was behind the Saudi-led quartet's move to cut diplomatic ties with Doha, which happened right after Trump's meeting with their leaders in Riyadh in May.

Medhat Hammad, professor of Iranian and Gulf studies at Egypt's Tanta University, told Xinhua that the U.S. goal is to undermine the stability of Western Asia region and contain Russia's influence via sowing confrontation and feuds, particularly between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

"The main strategic purpose of these U.S. intentions is to ruin the Russian presence in Western Asia," Hammad said.

Mokhtar Ghobashy, deputy chief of the Arab Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, echoed Hammad's views.

"All these actions give the impression that the United States acts like a guardian of the Gulf region," he told Xinhua. "The U.S. does not want other parties to have the upper hand in settling the Qatari crisis, particularly Iran and Russia."

They pointed out that the U.S. is benefiting from the situation in the Gulf, by recently securing lucrative business, investment and military deals worth billions of U.S. dollars from rich Gulf nations, which reply on U.S. political and military support.

"In principle, the U.S. is carrying out the strategy announced by Donald Trump during the presidential campaign, when he described Saudi Arabia as a dairy cow that should be milked," Hammad said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 02:30:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CAIRO, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian authorities said on Thursday that China has agreed to import grapes from Egypt after two years of intense negotiations.

The announcement was made by the Egyptian Agriculture Export Council in a press release.

Citrus is also among the fruits being exported to China, it added.

Negotiations are underway to allow more Egyptian agricultural products to be exported to China, according to the press release.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 02:30:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIGA, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Around 150 demonstrators staged a picket outside the Prosecutor General's Office here on Thursday morning to demand Prosecutor General Eriks Kalnmeiers' resignation over his alleged failure to properly investigate dealings of influential politicians and businessmen.

Latvia's weekly magazine IR has published a series articles containing transcripts of the so-called "oligarch talks" -- wiretapped conversations of former politicians Andris Skele and Ainars Slesers, as well as Aivars Lembergs, the long-standing mayor of Latvia's port city of Ventspils, ex-banker Valerijs Kargins and current Agriculture Minister Janis Duklavs.

According to these publications, which in recent weeks have caused great public outcry in Latvia, the politicians and businessmen used to gather at the Ridzene Hotel in the Latvian capital to discuss topics like influence peddling in various state-owned enterprises, securing the firing of certain high-ranked public officials and gaining control over media.

The picket by the Prosecutor General's Office was organized by the Progressives, a small liberal political party without representation in parliament. The party's activists said during the protest that the "oligarch talks" had been the last straw and that they demonstrated Kalnmeiers' inability to do his job, that is, to ensure the conviction of the influential figures involved in illicit dealings.

Public trust in the rule of law in Latvia has been shattered, and the prosecutor general has to assume responsibility for that, some protesters said.

The picket, which had gathered mainly young people, was also attended by Juris Jurass and Juta Strike -- former officers of the Latvian Corruption Prevention Bureau.

The Corruption Prevention Bureau probed the "oligarch case" for several years but the investigation did not result in calling anyone to account as it was concluded that the wiretapped conversations were not sufficient evidence for prosecution.

The hour-long picket was peaceful.

Kalnmeiers, who did not leave his office to meet with the protesters, said he had no intention of resigning.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 03:41:37|Editor: huaxia

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BISHKEK, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Special services of Kyrgyzstan detained a member of the international terrorist organization, the press service of the National Security Committee said on Thursday.

The detainee is a 23-year-old Kyrgyz citizen, who was recruited by the emissaries of terrorist organizations in 2015 while staying abroad and transferred to the Syrian-Iraqi zone of armed conflict.

After receiving combat training, the detainee came back to Kyrgyzstan to create a militant underworld.

A criminal case has been filed against the detainee, who is now placed in the jail of the Kyrgyz National Security Committee.

According to the latest official data, about 500 Kyrgyz citizens in Syria are members of international terrorist organizations. About 45 Kyrgyz citizens died in war and about 50 returned to their homeland.

In 2016, 17 terrorist attacks were prevented in Kyrgyzstan and eight terrorist groups were eliminated. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 03:41:38|Editor: ying

Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti holds a press conference during a forum for cooperation between Italy and Libya in the fight against illegal immigration in Tripoli, capital of Libya, on July 13, 2017. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)

TRIPOLI, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj met on Thursday with Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti in the capital Tripoli

According to the prime minister's media office, the meeting discussed issues of illegal immigration and human trafficking, as well as programs to train Libyan coast guard and secure Libya's southern borders.

Serraj hailed Italy's efforts in fighting illegal immigration and expressed hope that other European countries will "share the burden."

"Libya will do whatever it can to work with Italy to defeat human traffickers and relieve pressure on Italy's coast," Serraj told Minniti.

Minniti said Italy calls for more attention on migration across the Mediterranean and necessary support for Libyan coast guard.

"Italy appreciates GNA's efforts to step up its commitment in fight against human traffickers," Minniti said.

Because of the insecurity and chaos in Libya, many immigrants choose to cross the Mediterranean in rickety boats to Italian shores and many of them drown on the way.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 03:57:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ROME, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Two people have died and hundreds have been evacuated due to raging wildfires in various parts of southern Italy, Italian news agency ANSA reported Thursday.

The two victims, men in their late 60s, died while trying to put out the flames that threatened their properties in two small villages in the southern Calabria region.

Hundreds of holidaymakers have been evacuated from three campgrounds in the southern Basilicata region as fires encroached on the area.

In the southern Campania region, the military has blocked off access to a national park on Mount Vesuvius that overlooks Naples.

"We are on constant patrol to flag other outbreaks and stop possible arsonists," Army Major Carlo Bianchi told Italian news agency ANSA. The army has been at work on Mt. Vesuvius since July 1.

Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti on Wednesday night called for more military units to be deployed to the area. He later took to Twitter to lash out at arsonists.

"Arsonists are idiotic criminals. They face over 20 years in prison under environmental crime law," the minister tweeted.

A total of "703 interventions underway in Italy, of which 495 due to forest fires," the national firefighters corps tweeted on Thursday afternoon.

Over 26,000 hectares of forest have gone up in flames between mid-June and July 12. Half of them, or about 13,000 hectares, have burned down in Sicily alone, Legambiente environmentalist group said in a statement.

The amount of forest lost so far is almost equal to that which burned down in all of 2016, according to Legambiente.

The environmentalist group pointed the finger at "organized crime and pyromaniacs" as those responsible, along with dry weather and high temperatures.

Italy's Civil Protection Department said in a statement that, at Italy's request, three French firefighting aircraft had been sent via the European Civil Protection Mechanism and had landed in Rome. They are to be deployed to critical areas.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 04:22:17|Editor: Liangyu

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By Xinhua Writers Guo Yina, Liu Shuai, Xia Lin

KENTUCKY, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Ben and Othniel Stockler, 20 and 17 years old, live in Kentucky in mid-western United States. Ben has been enrolled at the West Kentucky University, and Othniel at local high school. The brothers believe Mandarin-learning will help them a lot in their careers if they grasp one more language.

They also share a common pursuit: the beauty of Chinese language and culture.

"I choose Chinese originally because it was a challenge to me. The Chinese language seemed very difficult to learn at the beginning. However, I am pleased to find that it's not as hard as you think," said Ben.

Othniel echoed the view, saying that "I think learning new words is definitely the most difficult part about it, because I'm not very good at remembering vocabulary. There are times when I have to take a break as it gets really difficult. But I don't think I've ever wanted to stop learning Chinese."

Like most Americans, Ben and Othniel find it hard to learn Mandarin. What makes them different is that they have gone through the difficulties, and eventually discovered all the related fun and joy.

They can sing Chinese folk song and occasionally enjoy the hallucination induced to their taste buds by hot pot, a popular dish in China.

These are all the merriments arising out of their learning process of Mandarin.

"It has changed my mind and expanded my vision. I've learned different ways of thinking and to see things in a different way. There's a learning to see things from a less individualistic point of view," Ben told Xinhua.

PROUD FOR BEING ABLE TO SPEAK IN CHINESE

Ben and Othniel have been inspired to learn Mandarin by Li Xia from China's Qinghai Province.

She is a guest Chinese teacher at Othniel's middle school in Kentucky State. She has observed that learning Chinese language had become more and more popular among teenagers and even younger ones.

"At our school, 69 students learnt Mandarin in 2016, and 142 in 2018," said Li.

At Li's middle school, 95 percent of the Mandarin-learning students attended standardized Chinese test.

"I was surprised by their devotion to Chinese learning when I arrived here. They feel proud for being able to speak in Chinese, which is a very good phenomenon," Li added.

Meanwhile, at the Confucius Institute of the West Kentucky University, Mandarin learners increased by 10 folds in the past seven years. Some of them had started to learn Mandarin during middle school, or even earlier.

Institute director Pan Weiping has attributed this phenomenon to the rapid development of China's economy and influence over the years. Pan said China has become the second largest economy in the world while the U.S. still maintains the largest. The U.S. students understand if they can master more languages, it will be helpful for finding jobs in the future. "I think that's the main reason behind," said Pan.

DO AMERICAN THINGS IN AMERICAN WAY

Mandarin teaching and learning pose challenges for both lecturers and students, said Pan, adding that the task can be well handled, if American things are done in the American way.

"We have encountered with some challenges. At first we offered free class, but were suspected of underlain motivations. It is a common wisdom in the U.S. that there is no free lunch in the world. So we've learnt to do the American things in the American way. Now, American students can choose Mandarin classes at almost every school with such a curriculum,"said the director.

Repeated training of teachers is another recipe for the success of the institute, and lecturers are tailored to suit each specific class.

"The teaching quality is very important. After being trained for two weeks in July, lecturers will return to their schools. At the end of September, they will get back to be retrained over the problems they found during the past two months. They should teach their students in the American way. In January, the training will start again," said Pan.

Cultural exchange is also highlighted at the institute, thanks to the principal of the university who allowed the first floor of library to be transformed into an exhibition center.

Each time a student walks in, it always takes him 30 seconds or even 5 minutes to feel the Chinese elements exhibited here. As days goes on, they know more and more about China.

TIDE RIDERS

Either the university or the high school provides quality service for Mandarin-learning students, Ben and Othniel are fortunate to be the tide riders, though they have not yet totally recognized the fact.

"I repeatedly remind my students that global perspective must be maintained and diversity respected," said Li.

One day, when kids like Othniel can finally benefit from his linguistic advantages, he will say it is truly worthy to master a foreign language, especially Mandarin, since very young, Li hoped. Enditem (Amanda Zhang contributed to the writing)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 04:22:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BRASILIA, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian meatpacking group, JBS, had paid monthly bribes to around 200 agricultural inspectors for several years, according to documents turned over by its executives during a corruption investigation.

On Thursday, financial daily Valor Economico published that these monthly payments were worth up to 20,000 reais (6,000 U.S. dollars) for each agricultural inspector who had been "bought" in exchange for flexibility in the application of sanitary norms.

A list of all those involved will be sent to Brazil's prosecutor-general within 60 days, as part of the cooperation agreement signed by Wesley Batista, one of the owners of JBS.

In his statement, Batista admitted that the payment of bribes had been a regular practice to gain the favors of federal inspectors during their inspections of the company's facilities.

On March 17, the federal police launched Operation Weak Flesh, which revealed systematic violations of sanitary regulations by the country's largest meatpacking company, including the sale of meat past its sell-by date.

JBS, the largest meatpacking company in the world, saw around 60 of its production facilities found in violation of regulations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 05:58:12|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Thursday welcomed the liberation of Iraq's northern city of Mosul, saying that it marks an "important milestone" in the global effort to defeat the Islamic State (IS).

In a unanimous statement, the 15-nation council commended the Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi people for the successful effort in the battle to rid Iraq from IS.

Iraq formally announced on Monday that Mosul has been freed from the IS after nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

The council also asked relevant parties to comply with their obligations to protect civilians as the Iraqi security forces liberate the remaining pockets of IS-controlled territory.

"The members of the Security Council recognized the Government of Iraq's ongoing partnership with the United Nations to stabilize liberated areas across Iraq and called on all Iraqis to continue to work toward this important task," said the statement.

Mosul, 400 km north of Iraq's capital Baghdad, came under IS control since June 2014 when government forces fled. The IS capture of Mosul enabled its militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 06:58:40|Editor: ying

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BRASILIA, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The Commission on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship (CCJ) of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies voted on Thursday to reject the corruption charges against President Michel Temer by 40 votes to 25.

In this way, the CCJ advises the full Chamber of Deputies to vote against the report elaborated by deputy Sergio Zveiter, which recommended accepting the charges.

This result was expected as, in recent days, the government succeeded in changing a number of CCJ members who had threatened to vote against the president.

Ahead of these changes, Temer was set to lose a CCJ vote by 32 to 30, according to estimations by Brazilian media.

Before the vote on Thursday, Zveiter said the government had used public money to try and save its mandate, which consisted "obstruction of justice."

However, this vote is a non-binding, advisory motion for the full Chamber of Deputies which must now vote on whether to accept the corruption charges against Temer.

Prosecutor-general Rodrigo Janot filed charges against Temer at the Supreme Court, accusing the president of accepting bribes from meatpacking group JBS since 2010.

If the Chamber of Deputies and the Supreme Court both accept the charges, Temer will step down from office for 180 days and face trial.

This would be the first time that a sitting president has been charged before the Supreme Court.
Source:Xinhua| 2017-07-14 07:34:30|Editor: Mengjie

An international stone exhibition is held in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, July 13, 2017. The exhibition will last for 8 days at the Kunming international conference and exhibition center, which attracted businessmen from 23 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Hu Chao)
Source:Xinhua| 2017-07-14 07:30:55|Editor: Mengjie

China's aircraft carrier Liaoning is seen during a new training mission upon arrival at an unidentified sea area, July 13, 2017. Chinese aircraft carrier formation conducted coordination training on Thursday. (Xinhua/Zeng Tao)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 09:30:46|Editor: ying

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by Matt Walsh

CANBERRA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government said on Friday that it will introduce new laws requiring internet giants such as Google and Facebook to assist law enforcement agencies by handing over and decrypting messages from suspected terrorists and criminals.

Similar to Britain's Investigatory Powers Act, which requires companies to comply with investigations, the new laws are set to be introduced into Parliament when sitting resumes next month.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Friday that world leaders agreed at last week's G20 meetings in Hamburg that more needed to be done to stop terrorists and criminals from communicating freely online.

Speaking at a media conference, Turnbull said Australia's laws needed to apply "online as well as offline."

"We need to ensure that the internet is not used as a dark place for bad people to hide their criminal activities from the law, and the AFP must have the powers, as do the other intelligence agencies to enforce the law online as well as offline," Turnbull said.

"Increasingly, communications across the net, whether it's messaging or voice applications, are encrypted end-to-end. So while they can be intercepted, they cannot be read.

"We want to ensure the brilliant tech companies bring their brilliance to assist the rule of law. Not through 'back doors', but through legitimate ways so they can keep us safe," he said.

"These are vitally important reforms designed to keep Australians safe."

Speaking at the same press conference, Attorney-General George Brandis explained that encrypted messages were the "greatest degradation of intelligence capability ever seen," and that the government intends to "work with the companies" to resolve the issue of serious crime being hidden online.

"We are not changing any existing legal principle," Brandis said. "We are contemporizing the existing laws. The laws were written before the advent of social media and before the ability to encrypt messages online."

"In the spring sittings of Parliament, the government will bring in legislation which will impose an obligation upon device manufacturers and service providers to provide appropriate assistance to law enforcement when it is necessary to interdict or to investigate serious crime, be it counter terrorism, organized crime, or the operation of pedophile networks."

Earlier on Friday, speaking on the Nine Network, the coalition government's Leader of the House and Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said the government does not expect any resistance from the industry giants, considering the potential implications involved in letting terrorists go unchecked.

"I think if (companies) do try and fight the government trying to protect Australians they'll be on the wrong side of the argument," Pyne said.

Meanwhile the opposition has said it would consider a bipartisan approach to the laws; spokesperson Anthony Albanese said the opposition Labor Party's priority was "keeping Australians safe."

"We'll look at any legislation with the same approach we've had to all of this, which is a common-sense approach that we must keep Australians safe," Albanese told Nine Network.

"Governments have that responsibility and we should have a bipartisan approach."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 09:55:49|Editor: ying

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YANGON, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar has established diplomatic ties with Seychelles at ambassadorial level, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday.

The move came after permanent representatives of the two countries to the United Nations signed a joint communique on the establishment in New York on Wednesday.

Both sides claimed that the diplomatic relations and cooperation are established on the basis of the principles of the UN Charter and the norms of international law.

Seychelles is the 7th country with which Myanmar has established diplomatic relations this year and the 121st country for having such ties since Myanmar's independence in 1948.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 10:26:03|Editor: Mengjie

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by Fei Liena

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Born on the Java island of Indonesia, Hendy Yuniarto used to be surrounded by seas and mountains, even active volcanoes. He never imagined that one day he would live in a dry and cold place such as Beijing.

However, this became a reality after he graduated from Indonesia's Gadjah Mada University with a master's degree in linguistics and cultural science.

NEW OPPORTUNITY, NEW LIFE

After working as a lecturer and a journalist for a local newspaper for a couple of years, Yuniarto joined an education exchange program between China and Indonesia, and got a job opportunity to move to China to teach Indonesian culture and language at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) in 2015.

"I want to make my students and Chinese people know my country more, not just Bali island," Yuniarto said, laughing.

"I also want to learn Chinese," he said. "China has such a rich culture as well as a long history."

Meanwhile, Myat Thiri, a young biotechnology scientist from Myanmar's former Science and Technology Ministry, got the chance to come to China under the Talented Young Scientist Program (TYSP) of China's Science and Technology Ministry.

Thiri joined the bioremediation research team of Professor Yang Yunan from China's Beihang University from October 2015 to April 2017, and conducted many ecological inspections, pollution source investigations, and microorganism experiments.

"My specific scientific job was to find the relationship between the outbreak of isopods and mangroves dying-off. I enjoyed my job and have learned a lot from my Chinese colleagues," Thiri said.

"After working and studying together for 18 months, we have a lot of happy memories," said Yang, Thiri's mentor, adding "We also found that Thiri has many good qualities for us to learn from."

"For example, from July 2016 to February 2017, we conducted ecological investigation and sampling at the mangrove natural reserve area at Hainan's Dongzhai Port three times. Under harsh conditions such as heat, sunburn and muddiness, Thiri always worked hard and with pleasure. She was also very helpful to others and willing to share her expertise and experiences with others," Yang said.

Yuniarto's life as a teacher in Beijing also suits him well. While he is teaching, Yuniarto likes to combine Indonesian culture with language. He wants his students to learn his mother tongue in the context of Indonesian culture and history.

"I enjoy what I am doing very much because I feel proud to introduce my country to my students," the young man said.

GETTING TO KNOW CHINA

Yuniarto also very much enjoys his leisure time in Beijing. He loves visiting Beijing's historical places, such as the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, the hutongs and the Forbidden City.

He also loves Chinese movies, especially Kungfu films. "I am a big fan of Jackie Chan!" he said.

To fully understand Chinese culture and history, Yuniarto joins in all sorts of traditional Chinese festivals, such as the Lantern Festival, the Tomb-Sweeping Day, and above all, the Spring Festival.

"Chinese culture influences people's daily lives in many activities, especially how they respect their parents and the elderly," he said.

Similarly, in her spare time, Thiri took tours in and around the city of Beijing and to Hainan Island in south China. "When I was young, I always wanted to see how huge the Great Wall of China is. I enjoyed the sceneries of China."

FUTURE PLANS

Currently working as a research officer at an environmental lab of the Biotechnology Research Department under Myanmar's Education Ministry in Yangon, Thiri thinks her work experience in China has helped her a lot in her current job.

"I can apply that knowledge in my research field," she said.

Cai Jianing, deputy director-general of the Department of International Cooperation under the Chinese Science and Technology Ministry, said that since the ministry initiated the TYSP in 2013, more than 200 young scientists from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Egypt and other countries have come to China to participate in China's scientific research work, greatly promoting the exchanges of scientific and technological researchers among countries along the Belt and Road, and helping cultivate many international ringleaders in science and technology.

"Our next step is to further promote the scientific and technological exchanges between China and the countries along the Belt and Road, jointly establish experiment labs, enhance cooperation among science parks of Belt and Road countries, and speed up technology transfers," Cai said.

As for Yuniarto, he still wants to live a few more years in Beijing before returning to his home country.

"My current Chinese level is only intermediate, so my future plan is to continue my studies here in China, especially for a Ph.D. program in Chinese culture," he said.

"Then I will come back to my country, and teach Indonesian students and people Chinese language and culture."

In the past few years, China has been expanding educational cooperation with the countries along the Belt and Road, with many foreign scholars and students like Yuniarto participating in it.

Statistics showed that till this April, China has signed 45 bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreements with Belt and Road countries, and signed mutual recognition agreements on academic degree and diploma with 24 Belt and Road countries.

Tian Xuejun, vice minister of the Chinese Education Ministry, said that during the process of "heart to heart connection" among the people in Belt and Road countries, education serves as a glue, a catalyst, and a lubricant.

"Education is a fundamental subject and has a characteristic of nourishing all softly," Tian said. "That's why educational exchange is getting increasingly important."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 10:46:12|Editor: ying

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YANGON, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar earned 23 million U.S. dollars from export of jade in the first quarter of the current 2017-2018 fiscal year which began in April, up 746,000 dollars year-on-year, official report said Friday.

The country also fetched 61.9 billion kyats (45 million U.S. dollars) earlier in March when over 4,200 lots of raw jade were sold at a government-sponsored jade exhibition, the Ministry of Commerce was quoted as saying.

Myanmar jade is mainly exported to China and India.

During the last 2016-2017 fiscal year, Myanmar exported over 11,000 tons of raw jade worth of 246.736 million U.S. dollars to neighboring markets especially China.

According to statistics, total export value of mineral products including jade reached 865.865 million U.S. dollars in the last fiscal year.

Myanmar's jade is mainly produced in Lone Khin and Phakant in northernmost Kachin state, while ruby and sapphire in Mogok in Mandalay region and Mongshu in Shan state.

The government has encouraged production of finished jade products instead of raw jade for natural resources reservation and more tax earning.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 10:56:15|Editor: ying

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MINSK, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Belarus will invite international organizations and neighboring countries to observe the Belarusian-Russian joint exercise West 2017, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

In a bid to increase transparency, Belarus will send invitations to representatives of international organizations, such as the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, said Dmitry Mironchik, a spokesperson for the ministry, at a news briefing.

"Military observers from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Sweden and Norway will be invited as well," he added.

Mironchik said the upcoming exercise does not pose a threat to anyone.

"Any concerns and fears, which some countries and politicians are voicing, are absolutely artificial and are characteristic of the Cold War times rather than the real current situation," he said.

The joint military exercise will be held in September and such exercises are held biennially.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 11:01:15|Editor: ying

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MELBOURNE, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Australian researchers have made a significant breakthrough in developing a treatment for common viral diseases, the lead scientists told Xinhua on Friday.

The international collaboration, led by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, identified a protein, Nox2 oxidase, which is triggered by viral diseases such as influenza, the common cold, dengue fever and HIV.

Once triggered the protein, which was discovered in plants, fungi and mammals, suppresses the body's antiviral reaction, resulting in a more severe infection.

Stavros Selemidis, the lead author of the study, said that the team had developed a drug that successfully trialled a prototype drug in mice that limited the impact of Nox2 oxidase.

He said while human trials were still at least five years away, he believes the drug "has strong potential."

"Current treatment strategies are limited as they specifically target circulating viruses and have either unknown or very little effect against new viruses that enter the human population," Selemidis said.

"We developed a novel drug delivery system to target this protein, which drastically alleviated the burden of viral disease."

RMIT worked with the University of South Australia, Trinity College Dublin and Monash University to make the breakthrough, a collaboration that Selemidis described as "absolutely critical."

Callum Drummond, Vice-Chancellor or Research and Innovation at RMIT, said the project held immense promise.

"The unique partnership between Selemidis' laboratory at the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences at RMIT and his collaborators continues," Drummons said in a media release.

"Selemidis' laboratory and his collaborators are pursuing further research to aid development of novel drugs for further trials and this is showing great potential."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 11:36:29|Editor: MJ

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by Will Koulouris

SYDNEY, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A survey of chief financial officers, in Australia has found this week that confidence in the global economic outlook is still riding high, despite the many challenges present around the world.

The Deloitte Access Economics report stated that a greater number of Australian business leaders are positive on the strength of the Chinese economy, and its subsequent positive impact on the fortunes of the Australian economy.

"The strong performance of the Chinese economy has boosted optimism among Australian CFOs, who rate it as having a positive impact, net plus 25 percent, on the Australian economy in the first half of 2017," the report said.

"This is up from the smaller positive impact, net plus 7 percent, recorded in the second half of 2016."

Deloitte CFO program leader Stephen Gustafson, one of the authors of the report, said over 40 percent of those surveyed were more optimistic than six months ago, due to the "higher rates of growth in Asia stimulating demand for our (Australian) exports."

"And with a more positive global outlook, and strong demand out of China providing favorable tailwinds for Australian business conditions, we hope to see both confidence and optimism remain in net positive territory," Gustafson said.

With the Chinese trade figures for June released on Thursday, Kelvin Lam, an economist at HSBC, told Xinhua in a statement that the figures were strong for the month, and "higher than industry expectations".

"Machinery & electronics and high-tech products continued to be the main drivers for exports, while resilient demand for capital goods and crude oil were behind the strength in imports," Lam said.

"In all, we think the industrial upgrading in China and stronger global demand will support export growth in the coming quarters."

This data out of China was also "encouraging" for the Australian economy, according to chief economist at the Commonwealth Bank Craig James, who told Xinhua that the figures that show June exports up by 11.3 percent year on year, and imports up 17.2 percent, are good news for Australia.

"The latest Chinese data is encouraging with both exports and imports well up on a year ago and the trade surplus expanding as well as beating forecasts," James said.

"China is Australia's largest trading partner and a strong Chinese economy is in our interests."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 11:51:30|Editor: MJ

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 13 (Xinhua) -- A racist Airbnb host has been ordered to pay a 5,000-dollar fine and take a college-level course in Asian-American studies after she canceled reservation because the guest is Asian, The Guardian reported.

In February, Dyne Suh, a 26-year-old law clerk, drove with friends to a mountain cabin in Big Bear, California which she had booked via Airbnb. But after hours of trip in rain and snow, she received text messages from the host, Tami Barker, canceling her reservation.

The texts read: "I wouldn't rent it to u if u were the last person on earth" and "One word says it all. Asian."

The host also said: "It's why we have Trump ... and I will not allow this country to be told what to do by foreigners," according to The Guardian.

Suh, who is an American citizen though it was hardly relevant in the case, recounted the experience in a YouTube video posted in April.

"It stings that after living in the U.S. for over 23 years this is what happens. No matter if I follow the law... no matter how well treat others, it doesn't matter. If you are Asian, you're less than human and people can treat you like trash," Suh, who worked as a law clerk at the Riverside County Public Defense's Office, said in the video.

After Suh filed her complains to Airbnb, the accommodation sharing service provider carried out its own investigation and banned Barker from the platform.

Suh also complained to the California department of fair employment and housing (DFEH), which ordered Barker to make a personal apology to Suh, pay a 5,000-dollar fine and take a college-level course in Asian American studies.

Airbnb, which is headquartered in San Francisco, reached agreement with the DFEH in April which allows the regulator to test and penalize Airbnb hosts for racial bias. Barker is the first Airbnb host that has been punished under the agreement.

Airbnb gave in to the DFEH's demand after researches and a growing number of reports suggested hosts regularly refuse guests due to their race, a problem exposed in 2016 under the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 12:21:50|Editor: MJ

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BARCELONA, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Expectations for Spain's so-called "Golden Visa" were once very high and it turned out that it is less well received by Chinese citizens, according to a seminar on Chinese migrants in Spain.

Spain launched the "Golden Visa" law in 2015, granting non-EU citizens Spanish residency who make investment in Spain's real estate or public debt spheres.

A seminar held on Thursday at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, or UAB, aimed at analyzing the dynamics and the situation of Chinese immigrants in Spain.

According to figures obtained by panelists at the seminar, the number of Chinese who have come to Spain with the "Golden Visa" is only a few thousand.

Nevertheless, the number of Chinese immigrants in Spain grew spectacularly in the last 10 years. In 2006 there were 100,000 Chinese with a residence permit and in 2016 the figure reached 203,000.

The Chinese are a very young community, with 25 percent of the population aged under 15, said Joaquin Beltran, a researcher in the Department of Translation and Interpretation and East Asian Studies at UAB.

He stressed that different groups can be identified among all of the Chinese migrants. The elite promotes large investments in Spain. Those working in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the majority and they interact more with the Spanish society as they work in the services sector.

Most people believe that the Chinese are very hardworking and they attach a lot of importance to family and education which "are the values that the Chinese still have," he told Xinhua.

According to Minkang Zhou, coordinator of a research project on China at the UAB, the majority of Chinese students come to do masters in the area of humanities as well as in the area of science and technology.

Zhou called for more information sharing and training by governments at different levels so that immigrants could live within the Spanish society with better cultural, legal and language knowledge, among others.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 12:26:55|Editor: MJ

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LA PAZ, July 13 (Xinhua) -- A shootout between heavily armed robbers of a jewelry store and police in the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz left six people dead and another five injured on Thursday, the Bolivian news agency (ABI) said.

According to a preliminary police report, four assailants, some carrying machine guns, took several employees of the EuroChronos jewelry store hostage "to use them as human shields" as they were leaving with the robbed items.

In the ensuing shootout with police arriving at the scene, three of the assailants were killed, as was a police lieutenant. Another store employee was killed inside the premises, though the circumstances of her death are not yet clear.

The sixth fatal victim was the general manager of the jewelry store, Lorena Torrez, 30, who died later in the day while being treated in hospital for a gunshot wound.

The injured, including a police officer, are in stable condition, ABI said.

Gonzalo Medina, regional commander of the police force's special anti-crime unit, said the criminals killed were Brazilian nationals wanted in connection with other crimes, and belonged to the Sao Paulo-based Primeiro Comando da Capital organized crime ring.

ABI described the brazen early-morning robbery as the most violent of the past 50 years.

The same store was robbed in 2014, with assailants stealing nearly 1.5 million U.S. dollars in cash and jewelry, police records show.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 12:41:56|Editor: ZD

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UNITED NATIONS, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The UN envoy for Africa on Thursday called on the Security Council to further support the fight against terrorism in West Africa, including strengthening the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel.

"Terrorism and violent extremism, which aggravate humanitarian crises and erode the integrity of the region's States, have exacerbated traditional threats in West Africa and the Sahel region, which includes Mali, Mauritania, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Nigeria and Niger and Chad," warned Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the head of the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWAS).

The efforts of the region's states towards broader development, increased investment, improved infrastructure and job creation are being undermined by factors of insecurity "both traditional and new," he added.

"These factors, combined with climate change, youth bulge and unemployment and unchecked urbanization constitute veritable push factors underpinning the surge in irregular migration and human trafficking," he said.

In the Sahel, instability in Mali continues to spread into northeastern Burkina Faso and western Niger, as evidenced by the recent deadly attacks in the border areas between these three countries, said the envoy.

In the Liptako-Gourma region, which links Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, the past month has been marked by an intensification of terrorist activities and violent extremism, including coordinated cross-border attacks on border crossings.

The envoy called on the Security Council to further support the national and regional initiatives of the Sahel states against violent extremism and terrorism.

Turning to the situation in the Lake Chad Basin, Chambas said that despite the remarkable efforts of the Multinational Joint Force against Boko Haram, recent attacks demonstrated that the terrorist group remains a "serious threat" to the region.

"This insecurity also extends to the Gulf of Guinea, where piracy is increasing," he said.

In view of these threats, he thinks the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel presents an effective multidimensional response to streamline efforts and reduce duplication between the various initiatives in the Sahel.

Chambas said he is ready to continue working with the states of the region to strengthen justice, the rule of law, security reform and national reconciliation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 13:17:04|Editor: ying

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TOKYO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Debates were still going on in Japanese academic and media societies days after Tokyo and the European Union (EU) agreed in principle to a trade pact after four years' talks.

The announcement on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which was hailed by an official Japan-EU statement as "highly ambitious and comprehensive," was made on July 6 in Brussels, a day before the G20 summit was to be held in Hamburg, Germany.

"Amid moves of protectionism, we could demonstrate our commitment to raising the banner of free trade," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a press conference attended also by European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Proponents said the deal, under which trade barriers between Japan and the EU are expected to be significantly lowered for a sweeping array of products, is positive for pushing for free trade.

Akio Mimura, chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the deal would put brakes to the protectionism momentum in the world.

Sadayuki Sakakibara, chairman of Keidanran (Japan Business Federation), said the deal would not only boost economic growth and create jobs for the two sides, but also make a great contribution to shaping a free and open world economic order.

However, the overall mood in Japan has not been very blissful as there are still concerns and doubts over the EPA, especially in the Japanese farm sector.

Masayuki Nishihara, chief of the Hokkaido Farmers Association, said the group is firmly against the framework deal which was hastily reached and could have vital impacts on Hokkaido agriculture.

An editorial of the Asahi Shimbun said the agreement was hastily reached on the eve of the G20 summit, with both sides having their own agenda, while problems remain to be solved.

Further discussions will have to be held on some parts of the deal, including rules on investment and investment disputes solving mechanism, and there could be changes as the deal still needs to be formally signed and ratified, according to the editorial.

It is noted that part of the reasons for the slow progress of the deal in the past years was because of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade pact designed to involve 12 countries which was previously spearheaded by the United States.

Japan has focused most of its attention on the TPP until Donald Trump's election last year. The new U.S. president quickly decided to pull his country out of negotiations over the pact, which has accelerated talks between Japan and the EU.

Li Bo, a research fellow at the International Center for Chinese Studies in Aichi University, said the Japan-EU EPA, if coming into effect, will boost trade between the two sides as it promotes free trade and stimulates investments.

But he warned that bilateral and multilateral free trade deals always have a certain degree of exclusivity, which means signatories of such deals would grab more interests while non-signatories would have to shoulder opportunity costs.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 13:17:05|Editor: ying

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KATHMANDU, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Foreign television channels operating in Nepal will have to transmit their television contents without advertisements from Sunday, Nepal's Ministry of Information and Communication (MoIC) said.

In line with Clean Feed Policy-2016 introduced by Nepali government last year, foreign channels, which are mostly Indian ones, will be barred from broadcasting in Nepal with advertisements.

The move is expected to boost Nepal's advertisement market and help Nepalese media to get more advertisements because foreign advertisers willing to cater Nepali consumers will have to invest in Nepal.

Subsequently, Nepali artists and other stakeholders to be used in creating an advertisement are expected to get more employment opportunities in the country.

Nepal's advertising industry and media enterprises have long been demanding the implementation of the Clean Feed Policy.

In a notice issued by the ministry on Wednesday, it has told foreign broadcasters and companies that distribute signal of foreign television contents that it would license downlink the foreign channels only if they are without advertisements.

As per the notice, the ministry will renew such license only after confirming that the foreign television contents are without advertisements.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 14:17:27|Editor: ying

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PARIS, July 14 (Xinhua) -- "The friendship between our two nations and ourselves is unbreakable," visiting U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday after talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

Macron, for his part, said Washington remained Paris's "strategic ally," despite "strong disagreement" over climate change.

"Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord, let's see what happens," said Trump, indicating a possible change in his stance on the Paris accord, which he withdrew from a month ago.

"We will talk about that over the coming period of time and if it happens, that will be wonderful, and if it doesn't, that'll be okay too," he added.

SEEKING COMMON GROUND AMID DIFFERENCES

While the two leaders put the climate and trade divides to one side for the moment, they highlighted their shared determination to find more in common such as efforts to counter terrorism in Middle East and negotiate a ceasefire in Syria.

The U.S. head of state, who is on his third trip to Europe since taking office, arrived in Paris Thursday morning for Bastille Day celebrations, in a diplomatic move to soften divergence with France by seeking common ground on security and fight against terrorism.

"There are a lot of issues on which France and the Untied States are engaged, some very much in agreement, notably, fighting terrorism," said Jean-Thomas Lesueur, a French analyst of French and European politics.

"But the great divergence is the climate obviously. There is no question about that for now," he added.

Trump pulled out of the Paris climate deal in early June, triggering widespread condemnation by its old allies in Europe including Germany and France.

Last week when taking part in the annual summit of the Group of 20 (G20) in Hamburg, Trump reiterated his position to ditch the Paris Agreement while the rest of G20 members pledged their efforts to support the climate deal.

Meanwhile, embracing a trade protectionist stance, Trump has pursued a more isolationist stand as part of his "America First" doctrine.

A joint declaration adopted by the G20 leaders recognized the "role of legitimate trade defense instruments," which was widely seen as a concession to Trump's administration.

TRUMP'S EUROPE POLICY STILL DEVELOPING

"There was a lot of apprehension about Trump's visit to Hamburg for the G20 meeting, firstly with the anti-capitalist protest and the protests against Trump, especially for some of the stances he has taken on different issues," said Professor Todd Landman, a pro-vice-chancellor at the faculty of social sciences, University of Nottingham.

"He is challenging pre-conceptions and tearing up long-standing alliances," said the professor.

"Trump wants to be different and wants to start again, separating himself from those old alliances as part of his mission to 'Make America Great Again,'" said Landman.

"The Trump administration's policies towards Europe are still forming. President Trump seems to be moving from what you could call a more nationalistic and populist foreign policy to something that is more mainstream," said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank.

In May, Trump used the occasion of his maiden summit with leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders to, once again, remind his fellow NATO alliance leaders of being not "fair" to U.S. taxpayers and demand the bloc members increase their military spending.

Trump had previously supported Britain's shock Brexit vote, claimed the European Union (EU) was a doomed would-be superstate and dubbed NATO "obsolete," casting shadows on the relations between Washington and Europe.

However, later, Trump publicly committed himself for the first time to the NATO charter's Article 5 on mutual defense.

"And certainly we are there to protect, and that's one of the reasons that I want people to make sure we have a very, very strong force by paying the kind of money necessary to have that force," Trump said.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF U.S.-EUROPEAN RELATIONS

Although Trump may have soured relationships with old allies from across the Atlantic Ocean, he will be aware that just as Europe needs the United States, the United States needs Europe, Landman said.

"U.S. engagement and support for building the institutions of modern Europe have helped that continent enjoy an unparalleled period of peace and stability," said Steven Pifer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.

The institutions include the EU, NATO, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"Some analysts say we are at a pivot point in U.S.-European relations," Pifer noted.

"I think the challenge for the administration remains to articulate a positive vision of its foreign policy that is able to mobilize international support across the economic, political and security realms," said Jeffrey Rathke, a senior fellow with Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

"He (Trump) has already gone from calling NATO obsolete to being a supporter of NATO," Kupchan said, adding: "The next big question is, will he go from being a skeptic of the EU to being a supporter of the project of the European integration."

If Trump makes those changes - being supportive of NATO and the EU, there will be a basis for a continuation of a strong transatlantic partnership, Kupchan added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 14:27:32|Editor: ying

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NEW DELHI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Three people including a woman were killed Friday by Naxals rebel group in India's eastern state of Bihar, police said.

The killings took place in Barhat of Jamui district, 176 km south of Patna, the capital city of Bihar.

"We have recovered three bodies belonging to two youth and one woman near a dam that falls under Barhat police station," a police official said.

Local media reports said the Naxals suspected the slain to be the police informers and had placed a letter near the bodies.

Police have registered a case and launched a probe into the matter.

Naxalites are also known as "Maoists".

Maoist insurgency has its genesis in the violent left-wing rebellion that began in 1967 at village Naxalbari in Indian state of West Bengal.

Currently Maoists are active in more than a third of India's districts across central and eastern India.

India's former prime minister Manmohan Singh once termed the Naxalite movement as India's "greatest internal security challenge".

New Delhi has deployed several companies of its paramilitary forces to take on Naxals in their strongholds.

The insurgency reportedly has claimed more than 6,000 lives and rendered thousands of poor inhabitants homeless.

In April, 25 paramilitary troopers of India's Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed in Naxal attack in central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 14:42:49|Editor: ying

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TALUQAN, Afghanistan, July 14 (Xinhua) -- One police officer was killed and five police personnel were wounded in a clash in Afghanistan's northern province of Takhar overnight, provincial police spokesman said Friday.

"The clash flared up in Bagh-e-Yaran locality of Dasht-e-Qala district late Thursday night after Taliban militants attacked a police patrol in the area," spokesman Khalil Asir told Xinhua.

One police vehicle was also damaged, the official said, adding that militants also suffered casualties during the fighting, but their number could not be exactly specified as they evacuated their casualties after the clash.

The province bordering Tajikistan, as well as neighboring Kunduz and Baghlan provinces, has been the scene of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban militants have been trying to challenge the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region.

Local observers believe that the Taliban would intensify activities in summer to gain more territory and defame the government ahead of winter and snowfall in the mountainous country.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 14:57:55|Editor: ying

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ISLAMABAD, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan military said on Friday that the security forces had foiled an early morning terrorists' attack from the Afghan side of the border.

Two suicide bombers, who were among a group of the attackers, were killed by the security forces in Khyber tribal region, which borders Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, an army statement said from the Inter-Services Public Relations, the army's media wing.

The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar said it was involved in the attack on a military camp.

"Security forces foiled terrorists attack on border post in Khyber Agency," the statement said.

"Terrorists including 2 suicide bombers from across the border attempted fire raid and target Misthara post, 2 km northwest of Jarobi on Pak-Afghan Border," the statement said.

Two soldiers got injured in exchange of fire with the terrorists, it said.

Pakistani security officials insist that Pakistani militants, who have escaped as the result of major military operations in tribal regions in recent years, have crossed into Afghanistan and now operate from there.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have nearly 2,600 kilometers common border, mostly porous, and the militants used to take advantage of the absence of an effective border management system.

Pakistan says it has started fencing its border with Afghanistan to stop the cross-border movement of the armed groups.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 15:08:00|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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NEW DELHI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Over 1.75 million people were affected in India's northeastern state of Assam by the current wave of floods, officials said Friday.

Of the state's 33 districts, 26 are reeling under flood fury. According to local government officials, overall 29,000 people are staying at 123 relief camps set up across the state.

Officials said several rivers were currently flowing above the danger level in the flood affected areas.

The flood has claimed 52 lives and killed 32 wild animals.

"Two children drowned at South Salmara today and with this the death toll has gone up to 52 in the state," state-run broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) quoting officials said.

Apart from residential areas, the flood water has submerged national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

"A total of 134 camps of the Kaziranga national park are submerged," local forest minister Pramila Rani Brahma told media. " At least 32 animals including three rhino calves drowned in the flood."

Local authorities said they were using drones to prevent poaching at Kaziranga national park.

"As of now, 90 animals have been rescued safely and additional forces have been deployed at Kaziranga," Brahma said.

Floods are an annual occurrence in Assam during the monsoon season.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 15:18:01|Editor: Song Lifang

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MADRID, July 14 (Xinhua) -- FC Barcelona confirmed late on Thursday night that they have reached agreement to sign Benfica's Portuguese international right back Nelson Semedo.

The 23-year-old will cost Barca around 30 million euros and will undergo his medical tests at the Camp Nou Stadium on Friday.

The Barcelona website describes Semedo as an "offensive full-back with superb physical attributes" and he has played 63 games for the Portuguese champions in the last two seasons.

Semedo is Barca's second signing of the summer after the club decided to take up the buyback option on Gerard Deulofeu and will provide competition for Sergi Roberto on Barca's right flank.

His arrival will also end interest in signing Arsenal right back Hector Bellerin, who himself if a former Barca youth team player.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 15:33:08|Editor: Xiang Bo

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CHANGSHA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-one Pere David's deer were rescued in central China's Hunan Province after their habitat around Dongting Lake was flooded in June, local authorities said Friday.

Continuous rainstorms have hit Hunan in the flood season, leaving most of the deer's habitat in the city of Yuanjiang flooded by swollen Dongting Lake.

The Local forestry department has received frequent reports of deer trapped or injured.

Zheng Huaiyun, director of a local forestry station, said two of the 21 deer they rescued suffered foot injuries. The deer are being treated in captivity and will be released in the wild after recovering.

The forestry department in Yuanjiang has set up a temporary rescue station for the deer, and will invest 400,000 yuan (59,000 U.S. dollars) to expand the area of the station.

Pere David's deer are named after a Basque missionary to China who introduced them to Europe in the late 19th century.

The species were extinct in China by 1900 due to natural disasters and hunting. In 1985, 22 of the deer were brought to China from what was then the world's only herd, in Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom.

China is now home to over 5,000 Pere David's deer, accounting for 80 percent of the world's total. Hunan's Dongting Lake area has China's largest population of free-roaming Pere David's deer.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 15:43:14|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Ministry of National Defense on Friday dismissed concerns over reports of military aircraft passing through the Miyako Strait in the Western Pacific, saying they were "routine exercises."

"It is legitimate for Chinese military planes to fly through the strait, and more similar training will be conducted on the high seas as needed," said Ren Guoqiang, spokesperson for the ministry.

"The parties concerned don't need to overact and make a great fuss about it. They will feel better after getting used to such drills," Ren said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 16:03:21|Editor: Xiang Bo

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KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The positive momentum of Malaysia's trade may continue in the second half as China's domestic demand remains firm, said economists.

Stronger import growth in China will help Malaysia's export growth maintain an upward trajectory in the second half, said MIDF Research, a local consulting firm in a report on Friday.

China's imports from Malaysia in June increased by 10.2 percent year-on-year.

"The bilateral trade outlook between China and Malaysia remains positive for the second half and for 2018," IHS Markit's Asia Pacific's chief economist Rajiv Biswas told Xinhua.

Rajiv said strong upturn in global electronics demand is giving a boost to bilateral trade between China and Malaysia, which attributes a large portion of its exports to electrical and electronic products.

Rajiv highlighted the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the upcoming new Apple iPhone as the key drivers to spur stronger demand for electronics exports.

Structural factors, such as the adoption of automation and higher penetration of electronic components in automobiles, has also helped boost global demand for electronics and linked Malaysia with China's electronics manufacturing supply chain, he said.

"Overall strong growth in Chinese domestic demand is also bolstering Chinese imports of Malaysian industrial raw materials, notably petroleum products, chemicals and rubber products," He added.

On June 7, Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry said Malaysian export to China in May increased by 51.5 percent to 10.73 billion ringgit (2.50 billion U.S. dollars), the highest year-on-year growth since February 2010.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 17:39:20|Editor: Xiang Bo

Children learn to play the pipa, an ancient zither-like instrument at the cultural center in Baofeng County, central China's Henan Province, July 14, 2017. The public classes for children are held by the cultural center of Baofeng County during every summer vacation since 2011, which include classes for musical instruments, dance and opera. (Xinhua/He Wuchang)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 16:59:01|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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CAIRO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- At least five security men were killed on Friday when militants opened fire randomly in a checkpoint in Egyptian province of Giza, an interior ministry source said.

"Two policemen and three recruits were immediately killed after an attack with guns on their fixed checkpoint in Badrasheen district, south-west Cairo," official news agency MENA quoted the security source as saying.

Meanwhile, local media said according to eyewitnesses that "masked men on a motorbike have opened fire from automatic machines before fleeing the scene."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 17:14:12|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A mainland spokesperson on Friday said that Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its leader's repeated arbitrary attacks on the mainland are dangerous behavior.

Taiwan authorities and the DPP have made reckless remarks on the mainland's political system upon Liu Xiaobo's death from illness, said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office.

Ma said that Liu was sentenced due to violating Chinese law. Following his diagnosis of liver cancer, relevant departments and medical institutions of China made all-out efforts to treat him humanely in accordance with the law.

Ma said that the DPP and its leader had lifted the deceptive veil of "maintaining the current situation," attacked the mainland repeatedly and aggravated cross-strait conflicts, attempting to pull cross-strait relations back to tensity and turbulence.

"Such behavior is very dangerous," said Ma.

Only people on the mainland have the right to judge the mainland's political, economic and social development, said Ma, adding that the DPP should focus on and reflect on the chaos they have brought to the island and the harm they have done to cross-strait relations.

Political manipulation, shifting focus and misleading people will not succeed, Ma said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 17:29:19|Editor: Xiang Bo

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PROVIDENCE, the United States, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai on Thursday urged Washington to revive negotiations over the bilateral investment treaty (BIT) concerning the world's two largest economies.

After 33 rounds of negotiations over the past 5 years, the BIT talks between China and the U.S. have been shelved by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.

"Reaching a high-level bilateral investment treaty was an important outcome of previous economic and trade dialogues between China and the U.S. If concluded, this agreement would take care of many pressing concerns of the business communities of both countries," said Cui.

Cui made the remarks when speaking at a luncheon jointly held by the China General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC) and the U.S. National Governors Association in Providence, capital of the northeastern U.S. state of Rhode Island.

"Today, every state and almost every congressional district has Chinese investments. These investments have brought a total of 141,000 jobs to the U.S., and most of them in manufacturing. Chinese investment is making positive contributions to the local economy, employment and tax revenues," Cui said.

The cumulative value of U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) in China reached over 240 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2016, while the cumulative Chinese FDI in the U.S. totaled 110 billion dollars, according to a report jointly released by the Rhodium Group and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR) in May.

In 2016, Chinese companies invested a record 46 billion dollars in the United States, tripling the amount seen in 2015 and a tenfold increase compared to just five years ago, the report said.

"In order for more investment programs to succeed, there is a clear need to make sure the federal-level policy tools, like CFIUS (the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States), will play a facilitating rather than obstructing role," Cui said.

With regard to the trade balance issue between the two countries, Cui said, "There could be deficit or surplus at any given time. But it is not about who wins or who loses. In the long run, everyone will win from a burgeoning economy."

China and the Untied States will hold the first round of their Comprehensive Economic Dialogue next week in Washington, D.C. This is one of the four major dialogue mechanisms the two sides reached in April.

"We are looking forward to the mutually-beneficial outcomes of this dialogue. We hope the dialogue will be a meaningful exchange and help to build an even stronger basis for our economic and trade relations, as we deal with the uncertainties of the global economy," said the Chinese ambassador.

Cui meanwhile voiced his confidence about the future development of China-U.S. relations.

"I am confident that, with the solid basis we have built in the past 46 years, with the political wisdom of our leaders, and with the joint efforts of people from different sectors, cities, states and provinces, China and the U.S. will be able to build a long-term partnership of win-win cooperation for our shared future," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 17:29:21|Editor: Xiang Bo

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CAIRO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- At least five security men were killed on Friday when militants opened fire randomly in a checkpoint in Egyptian province of Giza, an interior ministry source said.

"Two policemen and three recruits were immediately killed after an attack with guns on their fixed checkpoint in Badrasheen district, south-west Cairo," official news agency MENA quoted the security source as saying.

Meanwhile, local media said according to eyewitnesses that "masked men on a motorbike have opened fire from automatic machines before fleeing the scene."

"The gunmen poured flammable material on the dead bodies, in an attempt to burn them, but the gathering of the residents stopped them," Youm7 news website quoted the eyewitnesses as saying.

MENA added the investigation team moved immediately to the place of attack, and interior ministry ordered blocking the nearby entrances and exits and spread several movable check points to track the attackers.

Remote areas of Giza have been center for sheltering Islamists and remnants of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood since the army-led ouster of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 in response to mass protest against this one-year-rule.

Egypt has been suffering wave of anti-security attacks after the topple of Morsi that left hundreds of security men and dozens of civilians killed.

ISIS branch in North Sinai claimed responsibility of most of the attacks that have been basically centered in Sinai Peninsula. Recently some attacks have expanded to the capital and other cities.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 17:39:31|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Technological problem might force Apple to delay the release of its next flagship smartphone -- iPhone 8, U.S. news network the CNBC cited a report from Bank of America as saying.

The report, written by Bank of America Merrill Lynch's two analysts, said the iPhone 8 "will ship 3-4 weeks delayed given technological issues which Apple and its suppliers are working through."

The observation, according to the CNBC, was made after the two analysts' recent visits to Apple's suppliers in Asia.

Apple has not released a launch date for the as-yet announced iPhone 8 but it typically releases new iterations of the device in September.

The report said the problems are with the new fingerprint sensor and 3D-scanning technologies.

The fingerprint sensor is said to be the first from Apple that would be integrated into screen, replacing the current physical button on the smartphone.

The 3D-scanning technology would be used to verify a person's identity and allow the owner access to iPhone's softwares by scanning th user's face.

Prior to the report, other financial firms such as RBC Capital Markets, Cowen,and Drexel Hamilton had said last month that Apple's next big handset announcement could be delayed to October or even November. Shares of the iPhone maker traded mildly over lower Wednesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 17:49:37|Editor: Xiang Bo

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MOSCOW, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Russia is open for constructive cooperation with the Council of Europe despite its decision to suspend payment to the organization, the State Duma's International Affairs Committee chairman said Thursday.

The lawmaker said the Council of Europe remains an important area of cooperation and is the broadest platform in Europe.

"We will continue our work as a member of the Council of Europe and fulfill our obligations despite the absolutely reasonable decision to suspend budget payments until the rights of our delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have been restored," Leonid Slutsky said.

Slutsky made such remarks during a visit to Moscow by Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

On June 30, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov informed the Council of Europe that Moscow decided to suspend the country's 2017 contribution to the organization's budget.

In April 2014, PACE approved resolutions depriving the Russian delegation of the right to vote over the annexation of Crimea. Following the resolutions, Russia decided to leave PACE in late 2015, repeatedly stressing that it will only return to the organization after full restoration of its delegates' voting rights.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 17:49:40|Editor: Xiang Bo

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LHASA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Ngawang Sogdoi, a 34-year-old monk in Tibet, is the most anxious he has ever been.

Starting on Monday, Ngawang, along with eight other candidates, took a seven-day preliminary examination needed to earn the Geshe Lharampa, the equivalent of a doctoral degree in his school of Buddhism.

Geshe Lharampa, which means "intellectual" in the Tibetan language, is the highest academic title in the Gelug school of Buddhism. Since 2005, slightly more than 100 monks have received the degree in Tibet Autonomous Region. Most of the degree holders are over 40 years old, making Ngawang one of the youngest candidates.

Drepung Monastery, where the preliminary test of the examination takes place, is crowded as usual. At Tsogchen (Great Chanting Hall), candidates are tested by more than 20 examiners and 400 peers who can also raise questions.

The history of "Lharampa" goes back 400 years.

"It is the dream of almost all monks to reach such a level," said Ngawang Sogdoi, who became a monk at the age of eight, and started learning scriptures at the age of 15.

"I finished the Five Classics of Buddhism at the age of 28," he said. Ngawang's brother is also a Lharampa degree holder.

The Lharampa examination takes the form of debate, questions and answers. Ngawang is from the Rato Monastery in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. He goes through two examinations a year, but none is more demanding than the Lharampa exam.

"It is a test of brains, physical strength, stamina and devotion to Buddhism," he said.

From July 11th to July 15th, the examination starts at 9:00 a.m. and will not end until afternoon each day. Candidates barely drink any water for two hours during the debate.

"The Geshe exam brings together high monks from many monasteries. I'm the only one from my monastery to take the exam. I have many things to worry about," Ngawang said.

Emphatic clapping during the examination conveys the intensity of the debate for outsiders, and it serves as a quick reminder for Ngawang to stay focused in his interpretation of Buddhism.

"If I give an answer that does not quite address the question, the examiner will clap his hands and sometimes speak up loudly to correct me," he said.

"Through the study of Buddhism, I have learned several ways to stay calm, and I am grateful for that," he said.

Ngawang Sogdoi gets up at 6:00 a.m. and spends nearly 11 hours each day learning scriptures and other lessons at Rato Monastery.

"To prepare for such a high-level examination, I have had to put in extra work, and when I lie down, it is usually 1:00 a.m.," he said.

Drepung Monastery is not closed to visitors during the exam season, so tourists may observe the examination.

"Standing here, I can imagine the long history of this monastery, and I am very lucky to see such an examination as part of the Tibetan culture," said Franz, a tourist from Germany.

When Ngawang finishes the preliminary test, he will have to wait until April of next year to take the final test at Jokhang Temple.

In 2016, Ngawang also attended the High-level Tibetan Buddhism College of China in Beijing to further his study. His studies at the college will also earn him a doctoral degree in the academic field.

Ngawang travelled to Tianjin, Chengde and Shanghai during his studies in Beijing and speaks fluent Mandarin.

"My aim is to continue to study every single day. After the examination I will return to my monastery. I'm a quiet person, and it's best for me to spend the rest of my life learning in the monastery," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 18:25:07|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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JERUSALEM, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Two Israeli police officers succumbed to their wounds in hospital, the police chief said, after three Arab citizens of Israel shot them in an attack in a holy site in East Jerusalem on Friday.

The assailants, residents of the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in central Israel, were killed by a police force.

The gunmen, armed with two rifles and a gun, arrived at the al-Aqsa mosque compound, a major sacred site in East Jerusalem on Friday morning. After the morning prayer, they walked towards the Old City gates nearby and opened fire at a group of police officers, according to, Luba Samri, a spokeswoman with the police.

The attackers injured three officers before they escaped towards one of the mosques in the area. A police force found them after a short manhunt and shot them dead, Samri said.

The police officers were evacuated to hospital together with a third officer, who suffered moderate wounds, according to a spokesperson with the emergency medical service.

After less than five hours, police chief, Roni Alsheikh, announced that two of them died in hospital.

The rare gunfight took place in a flashpoint site, holy to both Muslims, who know it as the Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews, who revered it the Temple Mount. The site has been at the center of a spate of violence in the West Bank and Israel that broke in mid-September 2015.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told reporters at the site that the investigation is still ongoing. "Today's terror attack was an extremely severe event which crossed all red lines. We will need to reevaluate all of the security arrangements on the Temple Mount and its environs," he said.

He called on Arab and Jewish leaders "to work to calm the situation and maintain the quiet in Jerusalem."

Following the shooting, Commander of the Jerusalem District Yoram Halevi ordered to shut down the compound, canceling all the Friday prayers at the site.

In an unusual step, a police force went inside the site in in order to scan it, Samri said. The site was annexed by Israel, together with the rest of East Jerusalem, shortly after Israel seized from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. Because it is the third holiest site in Islam, the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf controls and manage it.

Israel has accused the Palestinian National Authority of "inciting" the unrest. The Palestinians said it was the result of the 50-year Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, home to more than 5 million Palestinians.

The Israeli-Palestinian violence has claimed the lives of at least 250 Palestinians, most of them identified by Israel as attackers, 44 Israelis, two U.S. tourists, two African asylum seekers, two Jordanian tourists, and a British student.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 18:25:08|Editor: ying

Israeli policemen guard the site where attackers were shot dead inside al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, on July 14, 2017. Two Israeli police officers succumbed to their wounds in hospital, the police chief said, after three Arab citizens of Israel shot them in an attack in a holy site in East Jerusalem on Friday. The assailants, residents of the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in central Israel, were killed by a police force. (Xinhua/Muammar Awad)

JERUSALEM, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Two Israeli police officers succumbed to their wounds in hospital, the police chief said, after three Arab citizens of Israel shot them in an attack in a holy site in East Jerusalem on Friday.

The assailants, residents of the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in central Israel, were killed by a police force.

The gunmen, armed with two rifles and a gun, arrived at the al-Aqsa mosque compound, a major sacred site in East Jerusalem on Friday morning. After the morning prayer, they walked towards the Old City gates nearby and opened fire at a group of police officers, according to, Luba Samri, a spokeswoman with the police.

The attackers injured three officers before they escaped towards one of the mosques in the area. A police force found them after a short manhunt and shot them dead, Samri said.

The police officers were evacuated to hospital together with a third officer, who suffered moderate wounds, according to a spokesperson with the emergency medical service.

After less than five hours, police chief, Roni Alsheikh, announced that two of them died in hospital.
Angolan Vice President Manuel Domingos Vicente meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Chang Wanquan, in Luanda on July 13, 2017.(Xinhua)

LUANDA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Angolan Vice President Manuel Domingos Vicente said his country thanks China for its support of Angola's rebuilding and economic development.

Vicente made the remarks while meeting with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Chang Wanquan, in Luanda on Thursday.

The vice president said the two countries enjoy a firm foundation for bilateral friendly cooperation, which is important to maintaining global peace and stability.

He said Angola highly values the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China, and stands ready to coordinate development with China under the initiative so as realize common development and benefit the two peoples.

For his part, Chang said his visit aims to materialize the important consensus reached by the leaders of both countries, to consolidate pragmatic cooperation in all fields including defense and security, and bring bilateral ties to a new level.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 18:40:16|Editor: Lu Hui

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FUZHOU, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of villagers burnt incense in Pu Zhao Tang, the village temple in Yangchun, eastern China's Fujian Province, Thursday evening while praying for the return of the missing ancient Buddha statue that was once worshiped in the temple.

The statue is unusual because it contains the mummified skeleton of a Song Dynasty (960-1279) Buddhist monk.

The prayer rite was observed on the eve a transnational lawsuit filed by the Chinese villagers to a Dutch court in pursuit of the stolen Buddha, which is currently held by a Dutch collector.

Villagers exchanged information on the case in the temple. On Friday, the first hearing was held in a court in Amsterdam.

Lin Wenqing, a villager, told Xinhua that the village committee hired a team of Chinese and Dutch lawyers to attend the hearing.

After they heard from media reports that the statue was displayed at a "Mummy World" exhibition at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in 2015, the village went through official and private channels to negotiate with the Dutch collector for the return of the statue.

"The Dutch collector had given three conditions on a presumed return of the statue, which astonished our villagers and were refused," Lin said.

Lin said the collector Oscar van Overeem wanted to give the Buddha to a renowned Chinese Buddhist temple rather than "an unknown village temple," and that he also wanted money and other things from China in exchange for the Buddha.

The Dutch collector claimed he collected the 11th-century relic in 1996, one year after the statue was stolen from the temple. Local people still display the statue's hat and clothes in the temple.

Media reports revealed that X-rays had shown an intact skeleton was inside the Buddha statue.

Lin said the Buddha had been worshiped inside the village temple for over 1,000 years. Although the statue was stolen, villagers still hold a praying ritual every year on the Buddha's birthday on Oct. 5 in the lunar calendar.

The statue is of Zhanggong Zushi, a local man who became a monk in his 20s and won fame for helping people treat disease and spreading Buddhist beliefs.

When he died at the age of 37, his body was mummified as he had wished and placed inside the statue during China's Song Dynasty. The statue has been worshipped in the village temple ever since.

Hundreds of residents in Fujian wrote a letter to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in March 2015, pleading for return of the statue. The letter was handed to European-Chinese groups in the Netherlands, which delivered it via the Chinese embassy.

"We believe this is the Buddha we have been searching for over the past 20 years and we look forward to its return," the letter said in both Chinese and English.

The Dutch court registered the village's lawsuit in June 2016.

The villagers have volunteered to set up a relic protection association to deal with the claim.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 18:40:20|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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MOSCOW, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Defence Ministry announced here on Friday that the Russian air force had intercepted foreign jets for six times in the past week.

About 20 foreign aircraft conducted aerial reconnaissance along the external border of Russia's airspace within the week but did not trespass into the country's territory, the ministry said.

The number of air incidents involving Russian planes and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ones has increased over the past years since the U.S.-led alliance ratcheted up its military presence on Russia's western border in 2014.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 18:45:20|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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LONDON, July 14 (Xinhua) -- London police said on Friday that they had arrested a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery after five acid attacks have been reported in the city.

The Metropolitan police said in a statement that the teenager is currently in custody at an east London police station.

The spate of acid attacks came after corrosive substances were thrown in people's faces in five attacks across north-east London.

Two men on a moped carried out the attacks over 90 minutes in Hackney, Stoke Newington and Islington on Thursday night, the statement said.

One of the victims suffered "life-changing injuries" as was described by the police.

The assaults occurred amid increasing concern about the drastic rise in acid attacks in the city.

Local media said that since 2010 there have been more than 1,800 reports of attacks involving corrosive fluids in the capital. Last year, it was used in 458 crimes, compared to 261 in 2015, according to police figures.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 18:45:22|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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by David Musyoka

NAIROBI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Friday released an alert warning of worsening hunger in East Africa due to poor rains that has left crops scorched, pastures dry and thousands of livestock dead.

The alert issued by FAO's Global Information and Early Warning Systems (GIEWS) warned that the third consecutive failed rainy season has seriously eroded families' resilience, and urgent and effective livelihood support is required.

"Timely humanitarian assistance has averted famine so far but must be sustained," the UN agency said.

It said conditions across the region are expected to further deteriorate in the coming months with the onset of the dry season and an anticipated early start of the lean season.

According to FAO, most affected areas, which received less than half of their normal seasonal rainfall, are central and southern Somalia, southeastern Ethiopia, northern and eastern Kenya, northern Tanzania and northeastern and southwestern Uganda.

"This is the third season in a row that families have had to endure failed rains - they are simply running out of ways to cope," said FAO's Director of Emergencies Dominique Burgeon.

"Support is needed now before the situation rapidly deteriorates further," Burgeon said.

The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the five countries, currently estimated at about 16 million, has increased by about 30 percent since late 2016. In Somalia, about half of the total population is food insecure.

The alert said food security situation for pastoralists is of particular concern, in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, where animal mortality rates are high and milk production from the surviving animals has declined sharply with negative consequences on food security and nutrition.

"When we know how critical milk is for the healthy development of children aged under five, and the irreversible damage its lack can create, it is evident that supporting pastoralists going through this drought is essential," said Burgeon.

In Somalia there are unfavourable prospects for this year's main Gu crops, after the Gu rains were late with poor rainfall and erratic distribution over most areas of the country.

In the Lower Shabelle region, the main maize producing area, seasonal rainfall was about 50 percent below average and drought conditions are currently affecting up to 85 percent of the cropland.

Livestock prices have plummeted due to poor animal body conditions and this, coupled with soaring cereal prices, has severely constrained pastoralists' access to food. Rangeland and livestock conditions are expected to further deteriorate at least until the next rainy season starts in October.

In addition, fall armyworm, which has caused extensive damage to maize crops in southern Africa, has worsened the situation.

In Kenya, the pest has so far affected about 200,000 hectares of crops, and in Uganda more than half the country's 111 districts are affected.

In Ethiopia, unfavourable belg rains in southern cropping areas are likely to result in localized cereal production shortfalls. Drought is also affecting yields in Kenya's central, southeastern and coastal areas.

In Tanzania, unfavourable rains are likely to result in localized cereal production shortfalls in northern and central areas, while in Uganda production prospects are unfavourable for first season crops in the southwestern and northern districts.
Maja Gojkovic, president of the National Assembly of Serbia, receives an interview with Xinhua in Belgrade, Serbia, on July 11, 2017. (Xinhua/Nemanja Cabric)

BELGRADE, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Upcoming visit of top Chinese legislator Zhang Dejiang later this month is an opportunity to talk about creating new ways for exchanges between parliaments of Serbia and China in order to support increasing cooperation of the two countries, Maja Gojkovic, President of the National Assembly of Serbia, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Gojkovic, who became the speaker in 2014, said that she already lists the visit of Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of National People's Congress (NPC) of China, as one of the key moments in her mandate.

MORE PARLIAMENTARY COOPERATON

Speaking about the cooperation of the two parliaments, Gojkovic reminded that Serbia and China established diplomatic relations in 1955 and since then the two nations have kept on forging it into relations of deepest friendship.

She pointed out that "in the past several years all highest officials of our country are contributing to this" and that the two countries have established comprehensive strategic partnership last year.

"Our relations are at the highest strategic level. We call this 'a friendship of steel', and it is important that representatives of our two countries work as actively and frequently as possible to strengthen these relations," she said.

Gojkovic thanked China and its leadership for supporting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia and for respecting international laws, adding that Serbia respects the one-China policy and the vision of the Chinese leadership, and that one of Serbia's priorities is to continue developing the successful economic cooperation between the two countries.

She said that during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last year in Serbia, they talked about further development of bilateral ties on the parliamentary level.

PARLIAMENTS CONTRIBUTE TO PARTNERSHIP

Speaking about the ways in which the two legislative bodies can contribute to concrete achievements, Gojkovic mentioned that the Serbian parliament has ratified all international agreements signed between leaders of China and Serbia, and that there are great forms and potential for future cooperation at the parliamentary level, which can also benefit the economic and cultural cooperation of the two countries.

"We are convinced that the decisions and international agreements ratified by Serbia, such as the visa liberalization, and our wish to have a direct flight between Belgrade and Beijing or some other major Chinese city will boost arrival of a greater number of Chinese investors, and that in future we will have a large number of direct investments from China," she said.

She further mentioned multilateral cooperation which involves support of Serbian delegations to China at parliamentary assemblies such as the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) as well as several international forums.

Gojkovic, who is also the president of the parliamentary committee for culture and media, said that the cooperation in those areas is also important, and that it is a way of public diplomacy which is convenient for the two countries and their people to get to know each other.

"Agreements were signed and ratified concerning the establishment of cultural centers of the two countries in Belgrade and in Beijing, and those are all new ways of cooperation in culture that will advance our bilateral cooperation," Gojkovic stressed.

She further said that the parliamentary friendship group with China is currently one of the biggest groups, with 89 MPs from all political parties headed by Zarko Obradovic, vice-president of the Socialist Party of Serbia, and chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the parliament, to which the friendship group with China is attached.

"The current members of the parliamentary friendship group with China visited China several times together with the Foreign Affairs Committee, and they had opportunities to make personal contacts with their Chinese counterparts and talk about topics of utmost importance for our cooperation."

"They certainly talked about possibilities of parliamentary support to all projects conducted by our two countries bilaterally as well as within the 16+1 cooperation model of China and Central and East European Countries and the Belt and Road initiative, a great strategic project," she said.

"I am satisfied that such a friendship group was established too at the National People's Congress of China," she said.

"It is natural for the National People's Congress of China and the National Assembly of Serbia to give their contributions to advance our historically good bilateral relations," Gojkovic said.

UPCOMING VISIT

Gojkovic said that during her upcoming meeting with Zhang Dejiang, they will talk about all kinds of concrete cooperation in order to provide support to the comprehensive strategic partnership established in 2016 during President Xi's visit to Serbia.

"We feel that this high-level visit of the chairman of the Standing Committee of NPC will take the cooperation even further and open yet another door for our relations," she said.

"We will talk about how we can improve our relations and how our committees can cooperate through parliamentary friendship groups through new, more concrete forms," Gojkovic revealed.

"I will propose to my counterpart that we establish a joint committee of our two parliaments that would meet once per year to discuss all forms of cooperation between our countries in the economic, as well as the cultural sphere, and we will discuss what parliaments can do to contribute even more and better," she said.

"It is of extreme importance that I will have the opportunity in my mandate, in just a couple of days, to welcome the chairman of the Standing Committee of NPC, Mr Zhang," Gojkovic said.

"This is truly a special signal of our friendship," she concluded.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 18:55:31|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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HOHHOT, July 14 (Xinhua) -- North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is suffering from a severe drought, which has damaged crop yields and caused economic losses.

The National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly launched an emergency response Friday, sending a work team to the region to help guide disaster relief work.

According to the regional civil affairs department, Inner Mongolia has seen less rainfall and higher temperatures than normal this year. Since the beginning of July, more than half of the region has experienced temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius. In the central and western areas, temperatures at 17 monitored sites have exceeded 35 degrees Celsius.

By 10 a.m. Friday, more than 4 million people in 10 cities had been affected by the drought, with more than 2 million people requiring disaster relief. About 2.7 million hectares of crops and 34.3 million hectares of grassland have been affected, leading to a direct economic loss of 5 billion yuan (737 million U.S. dollars).

Authorities have taken a variety of measures, including digging new wells, water diversion projects and cloud seeding operations.
A Maasai woman carries water at Olomayiana West, Kajiado County, Kenya, Feb. 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Sun Ruibo)

NAIROBI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Friday released an alert warning of worsening hunger in East Africa due to poor rains that has left crops scorched, pastures dry and thousands of livestock dead.

The alert issued by FAO's Global Information and Early Warning Systems (GIEWS) warned that the third consecutive failed rainy season has seriously eroded families' resilience, and urgent and effective livelihood support is required.

"Timely humanitarian assistance has averted famine so far but must be sustained," the UN agency said.

It said conditions across the region are expected to further deteriorate in the coming months with the onset of the dry season and an anticipated early start of the lean season.

According to FAO, most affected areas, which received less than half of their normal seasonal rainfall, are central and southern Somalia, southeastern Ethiopia, northern and eastern Kenya, northern Tanzania and northeastern and southwestern Uganda.

"This is the third season in a row that families have had to endure failed rains - they are simply running out of ways to cope," said FAO's Director of Emergencies Dominique Burgeon.

"Support is needed now before the situation rapidly deteriorates further," Burgeon said.

The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the five countries, currently estimated at about 16 million, has increased by about 30 percent since late 2016. In Somalia, about half of the total population is food insecure.

The alert said food security situation for pastoralists is of particular concern, in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, where animal mortality rates are high and milk production from the surviving animals has declined sharply with negative consequences on food security and nutrition.

"When we know how critical milk is for the healthy development of children aged under five, and the irreversible damage its lack can create, it is evident that supporting pastoralists going through this drought is essential," said Burgeon.

In Somalia there are unfavourable prospects for this year's main Gu crops, after the Gu rains were late with poor rainfall and erratic distribution over most areas of the country.

In the Lower Shabelle region, the main maize producing area, seasonal rainfall was about 50 percent below average and drought conditions are currently affecting up to 85 percent of the cropland.

Livestock prices have plummeted due to poor animal body conditions and this, coupled with soaring cereal prices, has severely constrained pastoralists' access to food. Rangeland and livestock conditions are expected to further deteriorate at least until the next rainy season starts in October.

In addition, fall armyworm, which has caused extensive damage to maize crops in southern Africa, has worsened the situation.

In Kenya, the pest has so far affected about 200,000 hectares of crops, and in Uganda more than half the country's 111 districts are affected.

In Ethiopia, unfavourable belg rains in southern cropping areas are likely to result in localized cereal production shortfalls. Drought is also affecting yields in Kenya's central, southeastern and coastal areas.
Muslim worshippers pray outside Damascus Gate, a main entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, on July 14, 2017, after the Al-Aqsa mosque was closed for Friday prayers by Israeli authorities following a shooting attack in the area. (AFP photo)

JERUSALEM, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, assuring him Israel will keep the status quo in East Jerusalem's holy compound, where a fatal shooting attack took place earlier.

The al-Aqsa mosque compound, holy to both Muslims and Jews, is one of the most sensitive sites in the region. The flashpoint site is holy to both Muslims, who revered it as the Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews, who know it the Temple Mount.

On Friday morning, after joining the morning prayer at the mosque, three Arab citizens of Israel opened fire at a group of Israeli police officers near the gates of the compound, injuring two officers who later died in hospital from their wounds, and moderately injuring a third officer.

The gunmen were subsequently shot and killed by the police.

In a rare talk over the phone, Abbas told Netanyahu that he denounced the attack, according to a statement released by the Israel Prime Minister's Office.

"Netanyahu clarified that Israel will take all the necessary measures to assure the security in the Temple Mount, without any change in the status quo," the statement read.

Israel annexed the site, together with the rest of East Jerusalem, shortly after it seized the territory from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. Because the compound is Islam's third holiest site, the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf controls and manage it.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told reporters at the site that the investigation is still ongoing. "Today's terror attack was an extremely severe event which crossed all red lines. We will need to reevaluate all of the security arrangements on the Temple Mount and its environs," he said.

He called on Arab and Jewish leaders "to work to calm the situation and maintain the quiet in Jerusalem."

Following the shooting, Commander of the Jerusalem District Yoram Halevi ordered to shut down the compound, canceling all the Friday prayers at the site.

In an unusual step, a police force went inside the site in in order to scan it, Samri said. The police also questioned Waqf officials and arrested some of them for further investigation.

Local media reported that special forces of police and military soldiers were deployed in East Jerusalem and checkpoints in the occupied West Bank, citing fear of wide protests.

The al-Aqsa compound has been at the center of a spate of bloody violence in the West Bank and Israel that broke in mid-September 2015.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 19:41:08|Editor: ying

The Special Military School of Saint-Cyr Legion march during the annual Bastille Day military parade in Paris, France, July 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Chen Yichen)

PARIS, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Emmanuel Macron, France's youngest president in modern history, on Friday celebrated his first-ever Bastille Day, or French National Day, with the usual pomp, military parade and flight show, commemorating the centenary of the United States entering World War I.

Alongside his guest of honor U.S. President Donald Trump, Macron presided over the military parade down the Champs Elysees Avenue with some 3,720 soldiers, including 211 armored vehicles, 241 horses and 92 jets and helicopters flying over the sky.

At around 10:30 local time (0830 GMT), French fighter jets, Rafale and Mirage 2000 followed by U.S. F-16s opened the annual parade with an air show, symbolizing the two countries' military cooperation.

After an infamous fierce handshake in their first meeting in May, Macron, a pro-business reformist and Trump, an advocate of nationalism, looked relaxed during the parade.

"This is a wonderful national celebration. Our two nations are forever joined together by the spirit of revolution and the fight for freedom," Trump said at a press meeting on Thursday.

Macron said Washington remains Paris' strategic ally despite strong disagreement over climate change.

"One needs to continue dialogue even with disagreement. I'm in strong conflict with President Trump over the climate issue. But it's essential to have regular exchanges," he said.

"We have found reliable allies, friends, who came to our rescue; the United States of America is one of them. The presence of President Donald Trump and his wife is a sign of a friendship that goes through time and I want to thank them for the choice made 100 years ago," Macron told the gathering on Friday.

After the parade, the French president joined a commemoration in the southern city of Nice to honor the 86 people who were killed when a man drove a truck at a crowd celebrating the Bastille Day last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:06:21|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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JALALABAD, Afghanistan, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Two civilians were killed and seven others wounded in two separate incidents in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Friday, said the provincial government in a statement.

Gunmen armed with silenced pistols shot dead poet Esmatullah Bashari and Qudrat Ullah at a local bazaar in Khogyani District roughly at 11 a.m. local time, the statement said.

Authorities were investigating the motive behind the killing as the assailants fled the scene shortly after the firing.

nearly at the same time, seven civilians, including a woman and four children, were wounded after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attached to a bicycle was detonated in the 5th Police District of provincial capital Jalalabad city.

According to the statement, the injured did not suffer life-threatening wounds, but they were receiving treatment at a regional hospital in the city, 120 km east of Kabul.

Provincial Governor Gulab Mangal strongly condemned the attacks and instructed the security officials to find and bring to justice the perpetrators behind the explosion and the shooting, the statement noted.

The Afghan civilians continue to bear the brunt of armed conflicts as 715 civilians were killed and over 1,460 others injured in conflict-related incidents in the first three months of the year, according to figures released by the United Nations mission in the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:06:24|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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TIRANA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Albanian police on Friday said they seized around 16.5 tons of marijuana hidden in a southwestern village named Llakatund, Vlora district.

The head of State Police Haki Cako participated in an operation carried out in several cities, mainly in southern Albania.

The drugs were hidden in two houses while police also seized five machine guns, spokesman Gentian Mullai told reporters.

Police also seized 1.3 tons of cannabis in another village in Kavaja district (50 km west of Tirana). Four persons were arrested while police suspect other persons were involved in this case.

Similar operations continue across the country.

Last year, authorities here destroyed 2.5 million cannabis plants and seized several tons in anti-smuggling efforts.

The Albanian government has pledged to destroy all cannabis plants as well as bust organized groups involved in drugs cultivation and trafficking.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:06:26|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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RAMALLAH/GAZA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Israel's decision to ban Palestinian Muslims from praying in al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday, in the wake of an earlier shooting attack, has outraged the Palestinians, who called for large protests, demonstrations and rallies.

Various Palestinian factions, mainly President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party, Islamic Jihad and Islamic Hamas movement, warned Israel of consequence of closing al-Aqsa Mosque in the face of thousands of Palestinian prayers who arrived in East Jerusalem for Friday prayers.

Osama al-Qawasmeh, Fatah spokesman in the West Bank, denounced in an emailed press statement closure of the mosque and ban of Muslim prayers.

He called on the Palestinians to head to al-Aqsa Mosque and prevent the closure.

Israel closed al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City in East Jerusalem on Friday after three Palestinian gunmen opened fire at an Israeli police force, where exchange of fire expanded to the yard of the mosque.

The gunmen, as well as two Israeli policemen were killed.

Islamic Hamas movement's spokesman in Gaza Hazem Qassem said in an emailed press statement that his movement welcomes and hails the shooting attack in Jerusalem, adding "the operation (attack) is evidence that our people and its political trends are ready to sacrifice their blood for the same of al-Aqsa Mosque."

"Every Israeli action against al-Aqsa Mosque will be strongly confronted," he added.

Following the attack in the Old City, the Israeli police shut down the gates that lead to al-Aqsa Mosque and prevented the Palestinians from entering into the yard of the mosque.

Tens of thousands gathered in the streets that lead to the old city, and protested the closure of their mosque.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone and expressed his condemnation to the shooting attack in the old city of Jerusalem.

The Palestinian state-run news agency WAFA reported that Abbas expressed to Netanyahu his extreme rejection and condemnation to the attack.

The report also said Abbas asked Netanyahu to cancel all the Israeli measures taken to close al-Aqsa Mosque before tens of thousands of Muslim prayers on Friday.

Abbas warned that the Israeli measures "may lead to negative consequences and might be used by other groups to change the religious and historic position of the holy places."

Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad in Gaza said in an emailed press statement that it welcomes "the heroic attack in Jerusalem that was a natural response to the Israeli measures in Jerusalem."

The group also warned Israel of closing the mosque and it said "it will forcibly confront the measure."

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other minor Palestinian factions welcomed the shooting attack in Jerusalem and condemned the closure of al-Aqsa Mosque before Muslim worshippers during Friday prayers.

Abbas made a series of phone calls with Jordanian, Arab and international officials, urging them to pressure on Israel to cancel the closure of the mosque, reported WAFA.

Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, the Immam and the Speaker of al-Aqsa Mosque condemned the closure, saying that it is the first time since 1969 that Israel closes the mosque in the face of Muslim prayers.

These actions "are totally rejected and condemned," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:06:28|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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NEW DELHI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- India's top court Friday directed the country's premier investigating agency - Central Bureau of India (CBI) - to probe into the alleged extra-judicial killings in northeastern state of Manipur.

The court asked the CBI director to appoint a team of officers to conduct the probe into the alleged killings at the hands of army, paramilitary and police.

"CBI will look into these cases of deaths," the court said. "We have ordered the CBI director to constitute a team in two weeks."

The Supreme Court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking probe and compensation in the alleged 1,528 extra-judicial killings from 2000 to 2012.

The apex court pulled up local Manipur government for not taking action into alleged staged gunfights by armed forces.

Rights groups accuse government forces of misusing a controversial anti- insurgency law - Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) - to commit rights abuses. However, the government and armed forces deny any such charges.

AFSPA gives forces the extraordinary powers to search and shoot a person on mere suspicion and provides impunity to the troopers.

Manipur is a conflict- ridden state in India's northeast. Several separatist groups in the state have run long armed insurgency. The groups often target Indian armed forces in the state.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:06:31|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday that the one-China principle has become the general consensus of the international community.

It was reported that Taiwan's current leader, Tsai Ing-wen, issued a "most heartfelt welcome" to visiting Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes. Tsai said on Twitter that Taiwan and Paraguay signed new economic cooperation agreements.

China and Paraguay do not have diplomatic ties, and Paraguay is Taiwan's only so-called "diplomatic ally" in South America at present.

"Any attempt to create 'two Chinas' or 'one China, one Taiwan' will be firmly opposed by the Chinese people," Geng said, adding that such an attempt is not in accordance with the fundamental interest of the people of Taiwan.

The spokesperson urged the Taiwan authority to come back to the right track set in the 1992 Consensus, which affirms that both sides of the strait belong to one and the same China.

"We also advised some people in Taiwan not to have a very limited outlook or deceive themselves and others," Geng said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:06:33|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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LONDON, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A series of postage stamps celebrating contemporary architecture in Britain was issued by the Royal Mail Friday.

The 10 stamps celebrate a number of iconic buildings, including Tate Modern in London, the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh and the London Aquatic Center.

All of the featured buildings have become famous landmarks in towns and cities across Britain.

Royal Mail's stamp strategy manager Philip Parker said: "These new stamps celebrate visionary buildings which combine stunning architecture with great engineering."

The stamps have been introduced as a way of marking the renaissance in recent years of contemporary architecture in Britain. The past two decades has seen a surge in the construction of new public buildings in Britain.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "There has also been a renewal of confidence in British architecture led by world-famous architects including Dame Zaha Hadid, Lord Richard Rogers and Lord Norman Foster, along with a host of other talents."

The buildings celebrated in the postage stamps include The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, the Giant's Causeway Visitor Center in Northern Ireland and the London Aquatics Center built for the London 2012 Olympics.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:11:33|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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BEIRUT, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's State Security agents arrested Friday two Syrian nationals on suspicion of spying on the country's army forces, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

According to the NNA report, a State Security patrol in the south Lebanon town of Nabatieh arrested Mohammed Aa. and Hussein S., both Syrians, over allegedly spying on the Lebanese army.

The suspects were referred to the military court upon the request of the Government Commissioner, added NNA.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:11:35|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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BERLIN, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The German government is placing high hopes in the UN global climate conference to be held in Bonn later this year, describing the event as the "most important climate conference since Paris" on Friday.

Jochen Flasbarth, German secretary of state for the environment, said that the United States' decision to abandon the Paris climate accord gave the meeting in Bonn between Nov. 6 and 17 added significance.

"Bonn will be at the center of world events in November," Flasbarth said. The key question was whether the momentum of Paris could be saved despite Washington's abandonment of the climate deal.

U.S. President Donald Trump was isolated with his position on climate change at the recent G20 summit in Hamburg. All other heads of state in attendance, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to join forces in reducing CO2 emissions caused by human activity.

Flasbarth did not expect the outcome of upcoming German federal elections in September to influence Germany's negotiation position as there was a broad consensus on combatting climate change within the domestic party landscape.

Although Germany will technically host the UN conference, it will officially be held under the leadership of the government of Fiji, a Pacific island nation which is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels caused by climate change.

Flasbarth said that the conference would be an "enormous logistical challenge." Germany expects to spend around 120 million euros (137 million U.S. dollars) on the organization of the summit. Security concerns forming a focal point for authorities following clashes between protestors and authorities during the Hamburg G20 summit.

Residents were shocked and dismayed by a trail of destruction left by left-wing extremists from across Europe in their city. Shops were looted, cars set ablaze and hundreds of police officers injured.

Nonetheless, Flasbarth was optimistic about the prospects of the UN climate conference saying, "I think it's a huge chance for Bonn, a huge chance for Germany."

He believes that Bonn's position against other more prominent UN locations such as Geneva will be strengthened as a result.

German authorities expect 25,000 guests to attend the conference, including government representatives, non-governmental organizations and 1,500 journalists.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:11:38|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao (R) meets with Miroslav Lajcak, president of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly, in Beijing, capital of China, July 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to deepen cooperation with the UN to contribute more to global peace and development, Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao said on Friday.

Li made the remarks when meeting with Miroslav Lajcak, president of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly.

Lajcak was elected on May 31 this year to serve a one-year term as president of the 72nd UN General Assembly. He will replace the current president, Peter Thomson, when the next assembly session convenes in September this year.

China supports the UN's leading role in global governance, Li said, noting that China hopes the UN will have concrete achievements in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Li said China is implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and also promoting the common development of Belt and Road countries.

Lajcak spoke highly of the Belt and Road Initiative, saying he hopes China will play an important role in supporting the UN General Assembly.

Lajcak is visiting China from July 13 to 14, and he also held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:26:48|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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BERLIN, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A total of 35 police officers are being investigated in the wake of violent clashes between protestors and authorities during the recent G20 summit, a Hamburg interior authority spokesperson confirmed to German newspaper Die Welt on Friday.

A total of 27 of the 35 cited cases concern allegations of bodily harm caused by police officers.

Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has defended police officers and denied excessive use of force at anti-G20 demonstrations.

"There was no police violence," he told radio channel Nordeutscher Rundfunk on Friday before information about the ongoing investigations was made public.

In riots which lasted for several days surrounding the G20 summit, almost 500 police officers were injured, dozens of cars were set ablaze and shops were looted.

Some reports have accused the police of provoking the clashes and being unnecessarily aggressive towards peaceful protestors.

Scholz rejected such claims and described the police's role at the summit as "very brave" and "very difficult."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:26:51|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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SOFIA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A joint naval exercise of eight NATO members began on Friday in Bulgaria's Black Sea zone, officials said.

The joint naval exercise Breeze involved 20 ships, one submarine, four airplanes, two helicopters and 1,700 troops from the eight NATO countries

The Royal Navy's air defense destroyer HMS Duncan, Turkish frigate Yildirim and Romanian frigate Regele Ferdinand from the Standing NATO Maritime Group Two, Bulgarian frigate Drazki and Greek fast attack craft Ritsos are some of the vessels involved in the drill, the Bulgarian Navy said in a statement.

A U.S. P-8 Poseidon patrol plane and a mobile Italian maritime traffic control center as well as staff officers from Poland also participate in the exercise, along with representatives of 21 Bulgarian agencies, local authorities and NGOs, the statement said.

The main idea of the 10-day exercise led by Bulgarian Navy, was to improve interoperability and interaction during a maritime crisis response operation, and certify the frigate Drazki according to the NATO Maritime Evaluation Programme (MAREVAL), the statement said.

Bulgarian Navy held Breeze drill for the first time in 1993, with the participation of three visiting warships including a U.S. frigate and two Turkish minesweepers.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:31:56|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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HELSINKI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- In the wake of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, Finnish political decision makers have expressed relief that the event has not witnessed another Yalta agreement and thus a looming danger for smaller countries has been averted in Europe.

Finnish fears about a would-be re-emergence of spheres of interest in Europe came up in unusually explixit terms in a podium discussion this week hosted by the Finnish Foreign Ministry at the Finland Forum event in Pori, western Finland.

Minister for Foreign Trade Kai Mykkanen said there had been perhaps fears about "a new Yalta where spheres of interest could be harshly distributed, but now it looks more like business as usual", Mykkanen said. He referred to the 1945 meeting of the World War Two victors in Yalta for the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization.

"There could have been more dangerous elements in the meeting," Mykkanen said, "like in January we feared that the world could end up in a trade war through the U.S.-China polarization, but that did not happen."

"So far we have experienced a lot less than what we feared," Mykkanen said.

Finnnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini assured the audience that "great powers do not agree on matters over the heads of small countries".

Soini said it was important that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump met, and that they talked long. "Perhaps it went fairly satisfactorily. Expectations are naturally high in those kind of first encounters and it would have been deplorable, if it had failed."

"We live in such a world that it is in the interest of small countries like Finland that the great powers talk," Soini said. He added that multilateral and rule-based international cooperation is important to small countries.

The possibility of spheres of interest has been mentioned in Finnish political discussion recently, especially with regard to the Russian geostrategic interest.

Timo Soikkanen, former professor of political history at Turku University and the official historian of the Finnish Foreign Ministry, told Xinhua on Friday that the expressions of relief should be seen in the context of geopolitical history.

"When leading western countries have wanted to reach an agreement with Russia, they have often forgotten the small countries of eastern and northeastern Europe," Soikkanen said.

Historically, Finland was believed to be the subject of a spheres of interest deal between Germany and Russia in 1939. After the World War Two, Finland was largely considered as a grey zone between the spheres of influence of the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.

Soikkanen underlined the wisdom of the post war policies of Finland. "The way of Finland after the World War Two was to deal with Russia on its own and try to make the best of the situation," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 20:31:59|Editor: Xiang Bo

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by Xinhua writers Qu Junya, Xiong Ping, Tang Lu

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- India has repeatedly ignored China's call for pulling its border-crossing troops from Doklam area back to its own territory. However, turning a deaf ear to China will but to worsen the month-long stand-off and put itself further into embarrassment.

India should not regard the existing situation as the same as or even similar to the previous two stand-offs in 2013 and 2014 near Ladakh, a disputed area between China, Pakistan and India in southeastern Kashmir. Diplomatic efforts led the troops frictions there to a well-arranged end. But this time it is a totally different case.

This is the first time Indian troops have crossed the border in the Sikkim section India has demarcated with China, which, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said, is also the only determined boundary between the two Asian countries.

"The Sikkim section of the China-India boundary has been defined by the Convention between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet(1890)," and both Chinese and Indian governments have repeatedly acknowledged it, Geng noted.

In June, Indian troops brazenly crossed into the Chinese territory in Doklam, stayed there and obstructed China from building a road there. Many arguments and protests from China have failed to bring India back to reason.

New Delhi claimed encroachment of its own territory by China before saying it sent troops to "protect" its "ally" Bhutan, a sovereign state which has apparently so far made no such an invitation for the sake of that boundary area.

India has to know illegal stay of its troops in Doklam will by no means force a fait accompli there, and that it has to change mind before things going even worse.

China has made it clear that there is no room for negotiations on this incident, and India must withdraw its border-crossing troops from Doklam. For China, border line is the bottom line.

In addition, India's illegal move in Doklam runs contrary to the fundamentals on international relations it has advocated since 1950s along with China and Myanmar. The five principles of peaceful co-existence include mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.

In recent years, some Indian civil groups, tinted with intense nationalism, have been constantly stirring up anti-China sentiments, even clamoring to boycott "the commodities of hostile countries" at a time when the situation on China-Indian boundary intensified.

On the occasion that the trespass by the Indian troops took place at the Sikkim section of the China-India boundary, some senior officials of India made irrational remarks, which further fueled the unnecessary tension.

As an old Chinese saying goes, peace is most precious. It has been noticed that Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar recently has made positive remarks in Singapore, saying that "India and China should not let differences become disputes."

What China would like to see more are corresponding actions taken by India.

China has a will to solve the problem peacefully by diplomatic means, and China also cherishes the peace and serenity in the border areas, but the precondition is that the trespassers of India must withdraw unconditionally.

It is highly anticipated that India would abide by the basic principles of international law, and would not stick to its errors stubbornly.
File photo taken on August 27, 2013 shows the logo of Mercedes Benz on a car of German auto giant Daimler AG in Bailleul, northwestern France. (AFP PHOTO/PHILIPPE HUGUEN)

BERLIN, July 14 (Xinhua) -- German Minister of Transport Alexander Dobrindt has ordered an investigation into diesel vehicles of the carmaker Daimler to find whether it cheated on emissions with software, German media reported Friday.

The Stuttgart-based multinational automotive firm, which is famous for luxury cars such as Mercedes, is another German carmaker targeted by the authorities for allegedly diesel vehicles emission cheating, following its rival Volkswagen.

The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) will seek to determine whether Daimler's diesel vehicles were programmed with illegal software in order to falsify emissions data. Passenger vehicles, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and vans with the motor-types "OM642" and "OM651" are affected.

A Daimler representative told Xinhua that the company cooperated "fully with the authorities" and would not "comment on speculations."

According to German media reports, the illegal software could be installed in more than one million of Daimler's motors. The emissions levels officially measured for the affected vehicles were manipulated with the use of a hidden mechanism which made cars operate more efficiently in test settings than they do in actual street conditions.

The Ministry of Transport confirmed that its diesel investigative commission had invited Daimler representatives to its offices on Thursday afternoon to discuss the allegations.

A search warrant by the Stuttgart district court, seen by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, WDR and NDR accuses Daimler of having sold vehicles which exceeded legal emissions thresholds in Europe and the United States for nearly ten years between 2008 and 2016.

The warrant cited led to police raids on the corporate offices of Daimler, as well as those of other unnamed firms.

Daimler had previously promised Dobrindt to upgrade 247,000 Mercedes vehicles, following emissions measurements by the Federal Motor Transport Authority.

Aside from pursuing charges of "emissions cheating" with illegal software, the German state attorneys also believe that Daimler misled customers with false and hence unlawful advertising regarding their pollution levels.

Two individuals are under official investigation, although authorities expect that the number of Daimler employees involved in alleged wrongdoing was higher.

The search warrant considered the conditions for a Europe-wide revocation of registrations as given, potentially leading to further damage suffered by owners of Daimler cars as a result of the scandal.

Nevertheless, the Federal Motor Transport Authority saw no reason to take such a drastic step for now.

Speaking to Xinhua, Daimler said that it saw "no risk that vehicle approval may be revoked."

The investigations into Daimler mark yet another blow to the reputation of Germany's automotive industry following the global "dieselgate" scandal.

Volkswagen AG was the first German carmaker which was revealed to have engaged in "emissions cheating" for its Diesel vehicles in 2015. A U.S. federal judge ruled in April 2017 that Volkswagen must pay 2.8 billion U.S. dollars fine for rigging diesel-powered vehicles to cheat on government emissions tests.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 21:32:31|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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SEOUL, July 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump demanded the renegotiation on free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea, which in turn resolved to squarely face his call by preparing for the expected negotiations on the amendment or modification of the bilateral FTA.

U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer sent a letter on Wednesday to South Korean Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan to hold a special session of the joint committee on the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, which came into force in 2012.

Under the bilateral free trade deal, either side can ask for the special session. The other side, in principle, is required to accept the request within 30 days.

On his flight to Paris for a summit meeting with his French counterpart Wednesday, Trump described the U.S.-South Korea FTA as a "horrible deal," vowing to put things right by "renegotiating" the deal.

The U.S. leader initially took issue with the pact during a joint press conference in Washington following his summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in for two days through June 30.

In response, President Moon instructed his aides Thursday to prepare for all possibilities, saying it needed to weigh whether the U.S.-South Korea FTA increased the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea.

Local newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported Friday that Moon's comments indicated the bilateral FTA was not a direct cause of the increased U.S. deficit in trade with South Korea.

A senior Blue House official, who declined to be identified, told local reporters Thursday that the growing U.S. trade deficit with South Korea was not directly caused by the free trade deal.

During his meeting with senior secretaries, President Moon stressed that South Korea should squarely face the call from the U.S. side, saying that if negotiations on the FTA kick off, the South Korean side would have what it wants in the bilateral deal.

"The signing of the FTA would not necessarily mean the everlasting deal. Upgrade or review of the FTA is possible at any time. The USTR also premised the modification," Bong Young-shik, a research fellow at Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul, told Xinhua.

Trump used the word of "renegotiating" which hinted at the wholesale revision or even the repealing of the FTA, but the South Korean government said the USTR only mentioned "follow-up negotiations" to revise a part of the pact.

Bong said Trump used an aggressive word of renegotiation to give an impression of honoring his campaign pledge to "domestic audience" for political purpose, forecasting a pragmatic approach by the U.S. side to the negotiations.

As the Rust Belt of the U.S. Midwest states was the major supporting base for Trump, the U.S. side would try hard to win concessions in steel and auto sectors from the South Korean side, the researcher forecast.

According to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) data, South Korea's auto exports to the United States reached 15.49 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, about nine times bigger than 1.68 billion dollars of the U.S. car exports to South Korea.

Citing the local auto industry, the Korea Economic Daily newspaper said the nine-fold gap was mainly attributable to lack of competitiveness of U.S. models compared with German and Japanese cars that surged in sales in recent years.

For the past five years since the U.S.-South Korea FTA took effect in 2012, South Korea's car exports to the U.S. rose at an annual average rate of 12.4 percent, much lower than 35.5 percent of growth in the U.S. auto exports to South Korea.

The newspaper said the U.S. deficit in steel trade with South Korea stemmed mainly from global supply glut, noting that the U.S. side has already imposed anti-dumping and counter-vailing duties on South Korean steelmakers.

In the upcoming negotiations, South Korea would be able to make a give-and-take deal with the United States given that South Korea had posted a lot of deficit with the United States in the services trade.

South Korea's services deficit with the United States worsened from 10.9 billion dollars in 2011 to 14.3 billion dollars in 2016.

During the same period, South Korea's overall trade surplus with the United States increased from 13.3 billion dollars to 27.7 billion dollars.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 21:42:37|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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MOSCOW, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Russia's state-owned arms supplier Rosoboronexport has launched more than 30 spacecraft in the interest of 14 countries since its establishment in 2000, the company said Friday.

"The special arms exporter has had a hand in putting into orbit 30-plus spacecraft of 14 countries, including Great Britain, Germany, Italy, China, Norway, Sweden and the European Space Agency," Rosoboronexport's press service said, citing its director general Alexander Mikheev.

The company's contracts have seen 15-plus civil spacecraft being sent into sun-synchronous orbits by small-lift launch vehicles, it added.

According to the press service, Rosoboronexport plans to start a marketing campaign at the upcoming international aviation and space show "MAKS-2017" scheduled to be held next week, in a bid to boost the competitive edge of Russian enterprises in the global market and also improve domestic services.

Rosoboronexport, a member of the state-owned industrial and defense conglomerate Rostec, is Russia's sole state intermediary agency for exports and imports of defense-related products.

The company has exported 1,300 aircraft and associated equipment totaling 65 billion U.S. dollars since 2000, and its exports over the past five years accounted for 15 percent of world exports of military products, according to data published previously.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 21:47:38|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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PHNOM PENH, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Friday that Malaysia has arrested 79 Cambodians in its crackdowns on illegal migrant workers.

The Malaysian immigration police launched crackdowns on illegal foreign workers on July 1.

"According to information from the Malaysian authorities, 47 Cambodian male workers and 32 female workers were detained in their operations," the statement said, adding that the Malaysian side has not made a decision on whether to deport them or to take them to court.

The statement said the ministry has advised the Cambodian embassy in Kuala Lumpur to negotiate with the Malaysian authorities on the repatriation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 22:05:54|Editor: Song Lifang

Photo taken on July 13, 2017 shows a cave dwelling courtyard in Shanzhou District of Sanmenxia City, central China's Henan Province. Sanmenxia city is located on the biggest loess plateau in the world. Many farmers here live in a unique kind of underground cave dwelling, which is called by the locals "pit yards" or "cave dwelling courtyards". National intangible cultural heritage as it is since 2011, the local government has been making efforts in protecting and promoting this folk housing style in recent years. (Xinhua/Zhu Xiang)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 22:02:52|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- China is looking to improve the integration of health care and elderly care services by encouraging more cooperation mechanisms for health care and elderly care institutions, an official said Friday.

Wang Haidong, an official at the National Health and Family Planning Commission, made the remarks at a press briefing on a guideline on elderly care services, which was published by the State Council in early June.

China aims to have over 80 percent of its medical institutions set up green channels for the elderly to enjoy more convenient medical services in 2017, while more than 50 percent of the elderly care institutions will be able to provide various medical services for their customers, Wang said.

Elderly patients will be a priority for family doctor services, who are expected to offer the elderly basic medical and customized health care services. The goal stands that by the end of 2017, 60 percent of China's elderly will have their contractual family doctors.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) will push forward public finance to provide subsidies for all elderly with financial difficulties or disabilities, said Meng Zhiqiang, an official from the MCA.

Issues such as elderly care facilities, senior education services, and health management for the elderly were also discussed and overviewed at the press briefing.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 22:17:57|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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DUBAI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) State Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash tweeted on Friday that the Qatar crisis, which pits the Arab quartet and Qatar, would not end soon.

Gargash, who regularly comments on the Qatar crisis to his 437,000 followers on twitter, said the Arab bloc, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain, and Qatar were "heading into the long estrangement."

Because the quartet was "a long way from political solution linked to Qatar to change its orientation," he said it would mean that "we have to find a different pattern of relationship."

The Arab bloc cut ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting "extremism and terrorism," an allegation which Qatar denied.

The bloc also issued a land, sea and air embargo on Qatari planes and ships.

On a possible exclusion of Qatar from the six member states forming Gulf cooperation council (GCC), the UAE minister of state pointed out that "Although we may lose the confused and awkward neighbor ... we gain clarity and transparency."

The GCC members Kuwait and Oman have not cut ties with Qatar. Kuwait has been playing the role as a regional mediator since the rift erupted which marks the worst crisis in the GCC history since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson left Qatar on Thursday with no breakthrough reported in resolving the month-long dispute.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 22:28:44|Editor: Song Lifang

A student looks at animal specimens at Hebei Museum in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, July 14, 2017. As summer vacation comes, many parents bring their kids to Hebei Museum to watch exhibits and learn knowledge. (Xinhua/Wang Weiqian)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 22:28:05|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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ADEN, Yemen, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A commander of pro-government police forces in Yemen's southern province of Taiz was killed Friday in an exchange of fire with unknown attackers, a security official told Xinhua.

The unknown attackers opened fire and killed Brigadier Mohamed Abdullah, the commander of police force in Misrakh district of Taiz province, the security source said on condition of anonymity.

Four of his bodyguards were killed after they engaged in an exchange of gunfire with the attackers, the security source said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but police sources in Taiz said they suspected terrorist militants had carried out the attack.

"Suspected terrorist elements set up an ambushed and assassinated him because of the responsibility he had, it's clear," a police officer said.

The assailants had fled the scene to unknown locations, and that a manhunt was underway, the police officer added.

Meanwhile, fresh street gun fights broke out between rival pro-government militias in Taiz province on Friday, causing unknown casualties, according to residents.

Taiz province has for long been under total blockade and witnessed indiscriminate shelling by the Shiite Houthis who control most parts of Taiz province.

Yemen has been suffering from a civil war and a Saudi-led military intervention for around two years.

The civil war began after the Houthi militants with support from forces loyal to the former president ousted the UN-backed transitional government and occupied capital Sanaa militarily in September 2014.

The legitimate government controls the south and some eastern parts, while the Houthi /Saleh alliance controls the other parts including the capital Sanaa.

The UN has sponsored peace talks between the warring factions several times, but the factions failed to reach common ground.

The civil war, ground battles and airstrikes have already killed more than 10,000 people, half of them civilians, injured more than 35,000 others and displaced over two millions, according to humanitarian agencies. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 23:08:19|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CAIRO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Egypt expressed grave concern on Friday over violent acts at the al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, where a fatal shooting attack took place earlier in the day.

Spokesman for Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Ahmed Abu Zaid, warned in a press statement of any consequences that may undermine the international and regional efforts to revive the stalled Palestinian-Israel peace process.

He urged all parties to show restraint to avoid descending into a cycle of violence as well as taking measures that might affect the freedom to worship in the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Three Arab citizens of Israel opened fire at a group of Israeli police officers Friday morning near the gates of the compound, injuring two officers who later died in hospital from their wounds, and moderately injuring a third officer.

The gunmen were subsequently shot and killed by the police.

The al-Aqsa mosque compound, holy to both Muslims and Jews, is one of the most sensitive sites in the region. Muslims revere it as the Noble Sanctuary, and Jews know it as the Temple Mount.

Israel annexed the site, together with the rest of East Jerusalem, shortly after it seized the territory from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war.

The al-Aqsa compound has been at the center of a spate of bloody violence in the West Bank and Israel that broke in mid-September 2015.

In a rare talk over the phone, Abbas told the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he denounces the attack.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 23:08:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GENEVA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said Friday it is "alarmed" over the violence and continued displacement of civilians from Kasai, a region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo afflicted by conflict since late 2016.

The estimated number of displaced people in Kasai now stands at more than 1.3 million, said the UN agency.

William Spindler, the refugee agency's spokesperson, said at a UN briefing that "During recent missions to two provinces bordering the main conflict region, Kwilu and Lualaba, UNHCR's team met some extremely vulnerable new arrivals."

Many of those fleeing said they had to make their way through dense forest without food, drinking water and medicine. They said they had seen people dying on the way, including women and children.

Among the vulnerable cases were civilians wounded or mutilated, with machete and gunshot wounds, said Spindler.

"Many new arrivals show signs of deep trauma after having experienced or witnessed atrocities, in a situation where no psycho-social support is available," he said.

The risk of sexual abuse and exploitation makes the situation particularly worrying. Many children and women fled on their own. Some unaccompanied minors are without proper foster care arrangements.

UNHCR said it is closely working with national partner organizations in five provinces affected by the displacement (Kasai, Kasai Central, Kwango, Kwilu and Lualaba), with more than 267,000 hot meals distributed each day.

Host communities with limited resources are accommodating the majority of those displaced and many of those fleeing have expressed worries about their children having stopped attending school.

The conflict in the Kasai region, which started in late 2016 between a local traditional leader -- the Kamuina Nsapu -- and state authorities, continues to expand, with other armed groups springing up and committing severe human rights abuses against civilians, said UNHCR.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 23:43:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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JUBA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said Friday it plans to re-establish a peacekeeping base in the volatile Yei border town where government soldiers were accused of killing 114 civilians.

The UNMISS spokesman Daniel Dickinson told Xinhua in Juba that the decision follows the Thursday remarks by David Shearer, the UNMISS head, who described the situation as terribly sad on visiting the town located 150 km southwest of the capital.

"The Head of UNMISS David Shearer visited Yei on Thursday on a mission to assess the need for a base in the area which is continuing to experience violence and human rights abuses, including murder, rape, torture and looting," said Dickinson.

Shearer earlier described the situation in Yei as "terribly sad" given it remains the war-torn country's bread basket whose potential has been badly affected by the renewed violence in July 2016 spreading to the once peaceful Equatoria region, hence forcing 70 percent of the population to flee into Uganda and DR Congo.

"This was a highly prosperous town with well-educated and hardworking people. It's incredibly fertile land too. You have everything that you would want here and yet it has been destroyed by war," Shearer said.

Yei is the town where the UN Secretary General's Advisor on Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, visited last November and warned of potential of ethnic hatred and killings morphing into genocide.

The UNMISS head said they will support bringing back Yei to its former position, but on condition the UN is provided unlimited access into the surrounding countryside and also to be able to talk to the opposition as well as the government.

Shearer added there were conditions that needed to be met before a base could be established including the cooperation of local authorities, a genuinely inclusive grassroots peace process and guaranteed access for peacekeepers to enable regular patrols to outlying areas.

He added political leaders, religious and community groups are urging the UN to provide protection for civilians who are unable to travel beyond the town itself because of ambushes and ongoing violence.

South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013 after political dispute between President Kiir and his former deputy Machar led to fighting that pitted mostly Dinka ethnic soldiers loyal to Kiir against Machar's Nuer ethnic group.

The 2015 peace agreement to end the violence was again violated in July 2016 when the rival factions resumed fighting in the capital forcing the rebel leader Machar to flee into exile.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions into refugee camps in neighbouring countries like Uganda.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 23:43:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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PYONGYANG, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The Swedish charge d'affaires ad interim met here on Friday with Hyeon Soo Lim (Rim Hyon Su), a South Korean-Canadian pastor detained in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Lim talked about his health condition during the meeting and asked the charge d'affaires ad interim "to convey his request to the Canadian government for making active efforts to settle his issue."

The report said the DPRK had arranged the meeting between the Swedish Embassy, which has consular affairs duty for Canadian citizens in the DPRK, with Lim "on the basis of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and in the humanitarian spirit."

Lim was sentenced to life-time labor by the country's supreme court for his hostile acts against the DPRK in December 2015. He was arrested by the DPRK in February 2015 on charges of "insulting the supreme dignity of the DPRK" and "plotting against the state."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-14 23:48:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LUSAKA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Friday held talks with Catholic Bishops in a move aimed at promoting dialogue in order to ease tension in the southern African nation following last year's disputed elections.

Lungu met 12 bishops from the Zambia Council for Catholic Bishops at State House during the meeting which lasted one hour, presidential spokesperson Amos Chanda said.

The presidential spokesperson said Lungu held fruitful discussions with the bishops who also granted them permission to hold a meeting with leading opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema who has been in detention for about three months after he was arrested and charged with treason.

The request was granted after the bishops requested that they be allowed to have access to the opposition leader in a spirit of promoting dialogue in order to engage him on the need to commit to a civil political process in addressing matters of national concern.

Zambia has witnessed heightened political tension following last year's general elections, whose outcome the leading opposition party has rejected, citing fraud.

The tension was exacerbated following the arrest of the main opposition leader in April.

The country has witnessed damage to key public properties, including the setting on fire of markets, forcing the Zambian leader to declare a threatened state of emergency through invoking Article 31 of the constitution in order to allow security agencies to deal with threats of arson.

On Tuesday, Hichilema called for unconditional dialogue to ease the tension in the country.

He said time has come for all stakeholders to put their differences aside for the good of the nation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 00:14:10|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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JAKARTA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- China called for deeper cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) so as to achieve mutual development as the regional bloc marks its 50th anniversary this year.

The call was made by Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Xu Bu when addressing a seminar titled "ASEAN at 50: A New Chapter for ASEAN-China Relations" held here Friday.

"We should seize the opportunities and waste no time to move our relations onto a higher plane," the ambassador said.

China and ASEAN should push forward win-win cooperation in connectivity, production capacity, promoting trade and investment, and reaping benefits from the upgraded protocol of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA).

The two economies should combine their strength and potential to carry out those efforts, aimed at synergizing China's Belt and Road Initiative and ASEAN Vision 2025 in the future, he added.

"China is also ready to promote and support the growth of sub-regional frameworks such as the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation and the East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) to assist in narrowing the development gaps within ASEAN and move forward ASEAN community building," Xu said.

Prioritizing dialogues to settle regional issues, respecting each other's concerns and national condition were also part of efforts that need to be implemented to improve the strategic partnership between China and ASEAN, the ambassador said.

Ambassador Xu added that close relations between China and ASEAN is an inseparable part of the strategic partnership between the two.

To make the two sides closely know each other, China and ASEAN need to enhance cooperation on cultural, science, technology, environmental protection, tourism sectors and intensify exchanges among youth, media organizations, think tanks and local provinces, he said.

Hailing Ambassador Xu's remarks, ASEAN Deputy Secretary General for Community and Corporate Affairs AKP Mochtan said that intensifying contacts between communities of the two economies was a bright idea as it would create good foundation towards synergizing the goals of Belt and Road Initiative and ASEAN Vision 2025.

"Excellent community-to-community contact will lead to a civilization based on shared destiny community," Mochtan said at the seminar.

China established dialogue relationship with ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, in 1991. The two sides forged a strategic partnership in 2003.

China continues to be the largest trading partner of ASEAN, and ASEAN is China's third largest trade partner.

Two-way trade was recorded at 452.2 billion U.S. dollars last year. Combined two-way investment had exceeded 183 billion dollars by the end of this May.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 00:14:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CHICAGO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Champaign County Crime Stoppers Friday announced to raise the reward for clues leading to whereabouts of missing Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang to 50,000 U.S. dollars at the request of Zhang's family.

Representatives of Champaing County Crime Stoppers, a crime victim service in Champaign in the U.S. state of Illinois, and Zhang's family jointly made the statement at a news conference held in the auditorium of the Illinois Fire Service Institute, Champaign.

The reward money will come from community donations to an online fundraising effort.

With the 10,000 U.S. dollars already offered by FBI, the total reward will be 60,000 dollars.

Zhang's family hoped that new information could aid the ongoing investigation.

At the news conference, Zhang's family expressed their gratitude for the help and support they have got. "Yingying is our pride and joy. She is smart, hard-working, brave and kind," Zhang's family said. "We continue to maintain hope that she has survived this ordeal until we find her."

Zhang's family said they would consider additional reward if anyone can bring Zhang back safely.

26-year-old Zhang, a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), was last seen entering a black Saturn Astra car driven by 28-year-old Brendt Christensen on June 9. Police arrested Christensen for kidnapping Zhang on June 30, but Zhang's location is still unknown.

The FBI believes Zhang is deceased, based on facts presented in court and court documents and other facts uncovered during the ongoing investigation.

Christensen was indicted on July 12 by a federal grand jury on a criminal charge related to Zhang's abduction. He remains in custody.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 00:19:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LUSAKA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Friday called on member states to adhere to the UN minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.

In remarks ahead of the Nelson Mandela Day on July 18, 2017 and the Day of Prayer and Action for Prisoners on the 15th July, the UNODC expressed concern that prisoners in many countries have continued to experience inhumane conditions, adding that time has come for states to provide conducive environments for inmates.

"A large number of prison systems around the world are at a stage of crisis, with serious effects on prisoners, their families and societies as a whole, UNODC National Coordinator in Zambia Sharon Nyambe told reporters during a media engagement.

The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners were named after the South African icon who spent 27 years in prison in order to honor his legacy.

The official added that it was the responsibility of member states to make a difference in the lives of prisoners following reforms going on in many countries to ensure that prisons move from penal facilities to correctional facilities.

According to her, the ultimate purpose of imprisonment was undermined in prisons which were overstretched and poorly managed.

The UNDOC, she said, has designed guidance materials and will be providing technical assistance and advisory services to member countries in the field of penal reforms.

This was aimed at helping member states develop or strengthen penitentiary legislation, policies and practices in line with the rules.

The UNODC has also developed the Nelson Mandela Rules compliance checklist which forms part of its global programs on addressing prison challenges, she added.

In Zambia, she said the UNODC has this year provided 175, 000 US dollars for supporting rehabilitation programs in correctional facilities and the social reintegration of prisoners upon release.

According to UNODC figures, about 115 countries in the world have 100 percent overcrowding in prisons.

The UNODC acts as the custodian of the international standards and norms related to the treatment of prisoners, including the Nelson Mandela Rules.

Percy Chato, the head of the Zambia Correctional Services said at the same occasion that efforts were made to ensure that the country's correctional facilities adhered to the Nelson Mandela Rules in the treatment of inmates.

The authorities, he said, will do everything possible to embrace the basic principles in the rules.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 00:34:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GENEVA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese diplomat on Friday said that the UN-led Syria peace talks in Geneva is an important step in the process for a political solution to the Syrian conflict, and the most important thing now is to maintain the peace process in a sustainable manner without disruption or stalling.

Xie Xiaoyan, Chinese government's envoy for the Syrian issue, told Xinhua in an interview that China supports the UN in playing a leading mediation role and is willing to make positive contributions for the talks to achieve concrete results as soon as possible.

"At present, there are still big differences between and among the Syrian government and the oppositions, so a step by step approach should be taken to handle the relatively easier problems first so as to form more consensus and accumulate mutual trust," he noted.

The Chinese envoy, on his fourth trip to Geneva for peace talks on Syria, said that another priority now for the talks is to consolidate the ceasefire on the ground and at the same time achieve some periodical results.

"Negotiation itself is not the purpose, some phase fruits are needed to give confidence to both sides of the negotiations and to the regional and international community," he said.

According to the Chinese envoy, it is also important to adhere to the principle of self-determination in the political process of the Syrian issue, that is, to let the Syrian people to decide their own future.

Arriving here in Geneva earlier this week, Xie held meetings with the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, both the Syrian government and opposition delegations as well as senior diplomats from other regional and international powers.

The new round of the Intra-Syrian Talks kicked off here on July 10, which UN officials said was aimed at simplifying peace negotiations to wind down the nearly seven-year civil war.

The last UN-led talks aimed at brokering a political solution between Syrian warring factions ended on May 19 without going deeper into the scheduled topics.

Since the war in Syria broke out in March 2011, the crisis has claimed more than 320,000 lives and displaced millions, the UN estimated.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 00:39:23|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CAIRO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Two tourists were killed Friday when a man attacked a group of tourists with a knife in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Hurghada, state-run Ahram Online website reported.

Earlier in the day, Egyptian ministry of interior said six foreign female tourists were injured in a knife attack in a beach resort of the city.

The ministry said the assailant, who sneaked to the resort from a nearby public beach, was arrested and being interrogated on his motives.

Local media assume that the attack could be a terror act.

Egypt has been suffering waves of terror attacks after the military ousted former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule.

Earlier on Friday, five security personnel were killed when militants opened fire randomly on a checkpoint in Egyptian province of Giza.

The Islamic State branch in North Sinai claimed responsibility for most of the attacks which have so far left hundreds dead.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 01:29:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GENEVA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The UN migration agency IOM reported Friday that 103,175 migrants and refugees had entered Europe by sea in 2017 as of July 12.

Up to that date, there were 2,357 deaths during Mediterranean Sea crossings involving migrants and refugees trying to get to Europe.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the figures showed that almost 85 percent of people had arrived in Italy and the remainder came to Greece, Cyprus and Spain. Many of the migrants had left from Libya in North Africa.

By contrast, in the same period last year, there were 240,014 people who had landed in Europe after making perilous sea crossings.

IOM said its Rome spokesperson, Flavio Di Giacomo, reported that as of July 9, a total of 86,121 migrants had arrived in Italy by sea.

He explained that the total did not include most of the 7,721 migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean route between July 10 and 12.

IOM's spokesperson in Libya, Christine Petre reported that on July 13, some 263 migrants were rescued at sea in two separate incidents.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 01:29:37|Editor: ZD

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (L) meets with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen in Vienna, Austria, on July 14, 2017. The heads of state of Austria and Germany stressed the amicable relations of their two countries and a common approach to the migrant crisis, during a meeting in Vienna on Friday. (Xinhua/Pan Xu)

VIENNA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The heads of state of Austria and Germany stressed the amicable relations of their two countries and a common approach to the migrant crisis, during a meeting in Vienna on Friday.

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen had earlier hosted his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Hofburg Palace, with both leaders later appearing at a press conference where they stressed close bilateral ties.

Steinmeier also refered to the Austrian leader as a "new friend in Vienna."

The talks between both leaders centred on European issues including the ongoing challenge of migrants attempting to stream into the continent, which Steinmeier said could not be solved without a joint European solution.

He said simply closing the borders is not enough, and that migrants instead need "reasons to stay in their home country."

The leaders also discussed the situation in the Western Balkans, including the need for continued stability that will be maintained if the region keeps its future perspectives fixed on Europe.

They said the EU must also not let the situation there out of its sight.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 01:34:39|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CHICAGO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History teamed up with Off Color Brewing to create a new beer inspired by artifacts discovered during archaeological digs in Taixi and a Changzikou tomb dating back to the Late Shang/Western Zhou Dynasties.

The new beer was unveiled Thursday night at an official launch party at the museum.

The beer was named QingMing after the Chinese festival in April and the famous 12th Century scroll by Zhang Zeduan. The Field Museum displays a 17th Century reproduction of the scroll in its Cyrus Tang Hall of China along with many other Chinese artifacts. Among the artifacts on display at the launch party includes a 18th Century bronze "pitch pot" from Beijing, a popular drinking game.

Dr. Gary M. Feinman, MacArthur Curator of East Asian Anthropology at the Field Museum, gathered literature on early Chinese alcohol production for John Laffler at Off Color Brewing. Laffler was inspired by the fruits incorporated in making certain Chinese alcohols as well as the mold saccharification of rice.

"I've always been interested in mold-based saccharification," Laffler told Xinhua. "It's really fun for us as brewers coming from Western traditions where we use grain-based enzymatic degradation of starch and simple sugars."

Crossing cultures and centuries to recreate flavors from ancient Chinese alcohols was a challenge for Off Color Brewing. While sourcing ingredients Laffler found that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deemed some of the ingredients and flavorings necessary for brewing the alcohols are not currently legal.

The end result of the Off Color brewing process is a modern recreation of Chang and a stronger, drier herbal version of Li, a low alcohol rice or millet-based beer with a flavor profile of peaches and lemon rind with aromas of tea, bubblegum, and sake followed by a complex fruit, herbal, and floral character. The finish, as the alcohol evaporates off the tongue, leaves hints of nectar, honey, and perfumed rice.

Feinman presented the historical significance of alcohol in China at the QingMing Beer launch, revealing that analysis of archaeological evidence from various excavations shows alcohol has been consumed in China for at least 5,000 years.

"Alcohol is not only an important part of early rituals in China, it actually is very important to almost any cultural region you want to look at," Feinman told Xinhua. In his presentation, Feinman explained the connection to alcohol as something that breaks down inhibitions and helps to solidify the links and ties between people if used in the proper context that goes along with building communities.

"I think it's neat that here at the Field Museum we have this event that brings in the community to see the historical significance of alcohol, get together and in a sense use alcohol the way it' s always served humankind," said Feinman.

The QingMing Beer launch party drew nearly a hundred history and beer enthusiasts from all over the country. Michael, a resident of Washington D.C. was visiting the Field Museum when he saw the event.

"I've been to the Field Museum many times," Michael told Xinhua. "I saw this event was today and I enjoy good beer, especially craft and specialty type beers, so it was a great opportunity to try something new."

QingMing Beer will be distributed to thirty-nine states in limited numbers starting Monday, July 17, but is already available at the Field Museum and Off Color Brewing's online Bottle Shop. The Field Museum plans to continue teaming up with Off Color to create unique beers that can accompany their exhibitions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 02:20:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TALLINN, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Environment ministers of European Union (EU) member states on Friday reaffirmed Europe's commitment to the Paris Agreement and stressed the role of cooperation in climate action.

On the second day of a two-day informal ministerial meeting, the ministers agreed to keep the promise to reduce EU carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030, which, in the long run, will benefit not only the environment but also the well-being of people and the competitiveness of the economy, Estonian Environment Minister Siim Kiisler was quoted as saying in a press release.

"As the leaders of G20 recently stated, a strong economy and a healthy planet are mutually reinforcing, and the Paris Agreement is irreversible," he noted.

The ministers said that effective climate action would require cooperation, including working with the private sector and local authorities, if the global agreement were to be a success.

Kiisler said the EU would continue to demonstrate global solidarity by investing in international cooperation to reduce climate-related risks, noting that the EU and its member states provided a total of 17.6 billion euros (about 20.2 billion U.S. dollars) from public budgets toward the efforts.

He also said that both climate and energy were among the priorities of Estonia's six-month presidency of the Council of the EU, which began in July. The program during the country's rotating presidency includes a reform of the emissions trading system (ETS); reducing emissions in sectors falling outside the ETS, and pushing forward with the clean energy package.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 02:35:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BISHKEK, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The government of Urumqi of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwestern China financed the installation of telemedicine equipment for 15 health organizations in Kyrgyzstan, the press service of the Ministry of Health reported on Friday.

Within the framework of the Cross-Border Remote Medical Service Platform project, representatives of medical institutions of the two countries conducted test consultations on medicine by video communication. To implement this project, the Chinese side provided the regional medical institutions of Kyrgyzstan with computer and network equipment.

The launching of the project on remote cooperation of medical specialists will allow conducting of training on raising the skills through TV educating. Experienced doctors of the Kyrgyz National Hospital can now remotely monitor the actions of other colleagues and give them advice in real time, the report said.

The use of electronic communication technologies for health needs, namely patient treatment and training of health workers, allows to increase access and quality of medical services.

This project will also improve the quality and safety of medical services, by providing remote medical assistance to the population in accordance with unified standards and sharing experience between health organizations of the two countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 03:35:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RABAT, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved on Friday a loan of 200 million U.S. dollars to Morocco to boost the country's industrialization plan, local media reported.

The loan will be directed to finance the first phase of the support program of the Industrial Acceleration Plan, the financial daily L'Economiste said on its website.

The Industrial Acceleration Plan aims by 2020 to create 500,000 new sustainable jobs and significantly increase the share of industry in GDP to 23 percent, versus 14 in 2014.

The AfDB has also approved a risk-sharing agreement amounting to 50 million dollars for the benefit of the Moroccan Central Popular Bank (BCP), the same source noted.

The program will be able to hedge a portfolio of transactions of up to 100 million dollars, supporting the equivalent of 700 million dollars of intra-African business operations over a three-year period, it pointed out.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 04:15:49|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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WASHINGTON, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of Defense said on Friday the leader of the Islamic States (IS) group in Afghanistan Abu Sayed was killed by U.S. forces in a raid earlier this week.

The airstrike, which occurred on July 11 on the IS headquarters in Kunar province, also killed other extremist members, said Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White in a statement.

The strike was believed to "significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan," according to the statement.

Sayed was the third IS leader in Afghanistan that has been killed by Afghan and U.S. forces in the past 12 months. His predecessors were dead in late July 2016 and late April this year respectively.
Screen shot shows Othniel Stockler speaking to Xinhua News Agency on June 26, 2017. (Xinhua)

By Xinhua Writers Guo Yina, Liu Shuai, Xia Lin

KENTUCKY, the United States, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Ben and Othniel Stockler, 20 and 17 years old, live in Kentucky in mid-western United States. Ben has been enrolled at the West Kentucky University, and Othniel at a local high school. The brothers believe Mandarin-learning will help them a lot in their careers if they grasp one more language.

They also share a common pursuit: the beauty of Chinese language and culture.

"I choose Chinese originally because it was a challenge to me. The Chinese language seemed very difficult to learn at the beginning. However, I am pleased to find that it's not as hard as you think," said Ben.

Othniel echoed the view, saying that "I think learning new words is definitely the most difficult part about it, because I'm not very good at remembering vocabulary. There are times when I have to take a break as it gets really difficult. But I don't think I've ever wanted to stop learning Chinese."

Like most Americans, Ben and Othniel find it hard to learn Mandarin. What makes them different is that they have gone through the difficulties, and eventually discovered all the related fun and joy.

They can sing Chinese folk song and occasionally enjoy the hallucination induced to their taste buds by hot pot, a popular dish in China.

These are all the merriments arising out of their learning process of Mandarin.

"It has changed my mind and expanded my vision. I've learned different ways of thinking and to see things in a different way. There's a learning to see things from a less individualistic point of view," Ben told Xinhua.

Screen shot shows Ben Stockler speaking to Xinhua News Agency on June 26, 2017. (Xinhua)

PROUD TO SPEAK CHINESE

Ben and Othniel have been inspired to learn Mandarin by Li Xia from China's Qinghai Province.

She is a guest Chinese teacher at Othniel's middle school in Kentucky State. She has observed that learning Chinese language had become more and more popular among teenagers and even younger ones.

"At our school, 69 students learnt Mandarin in 2016, and 142 in 2018," said Li.

At Li's middle school, 95 percent of the Mandarin-learning students attended standardized Chinese test.

"I was surprised by their devotion to Chinese learning when I arrived here. They feel proud for being able to speak in Chinese, which is a very good phenomenon," Li added.

Meanwhile, at the Confucius Institute of the West Kentucky University, Mandarin learners increased by 10 folds in the past seven years. Some of them had started to learn Mandarin during middle school, or even earlier.

Institute director Pan Weiping has attributed this phenomenon to the rapid development of China's economy and influence over the years. Pan said China has become the second largest economy in the world while the U.S. still maintains the largest. The U.S. students understand if they can master more languages, it will be helpful for finding jobs in the future. "I think that's the main reason behind," said Pan.

DO AMERICAN THINGS IN AMERICAN WAY

Mandarin teaching and learning pose challenges for both lecturers and students, said Pan, adding that the task can be well handled, if American things are done in the American way.

"We have encountered with some challenges. At first we offered free class, but were suspected of underlain motivations. It is a common wisdom in the U.S. that there is no free lunch in the world. So we've learnt to do the American things in the American way. Now, American students can choose Mandarin classes at almost every school with such a curriculum,"said the director.

Repeated training of teachers is another recipe for the success of the institute, and lecturers are tailored to suit each specific class.

"The teaching quality is very important. After being trained for two weeks in July, lecturers will return to their schools. At the end of September, they will get back to be retrained over the problems they found during the past two months. They should teach their students in the American way. In January, the training will start again," said Pan.

Cultural exchange is also highlighted at the institute, thanks to the principal of the university who allowed the first floor of library to be transformed into an exhibition center.

Each time a student walks in, it always takes him 30 seconds or even 5 minutes to feel the Chinese elements exhibited here. As days goes on, they know more and more about China.

TIDE RIDERS

Either the university or the high school provides quality service for Mandarin-learning students, Ben and Othniel are fortunate to be the tide riders, though they have not yet totally recognized the fact.

"I repeatedly remind my students that global perspective must be maintained and diversity respected," said Li.

One day, when kids like Othniel can finally benefit from his linguistic advantages, he will say it is truly worthy to master a foreign language, especially Mandarin, since very young, Li hoped. Enditem (Amanda Zhang contributed to the writing)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 06:16:38|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ANKARA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish government is prepared to extend the state of emergency for another three months, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Friday.

Since Turkey's current state of emergency will expire on July 19, the government will demand the extension of the emergency state from the parliament next week, Yildirim told a meeting with media representatives at the PM office.

"We plan to propose the extension of the motion to the National Security Council," he said.

The National Security Council, Turkey's top security board, will be held on July 17 to put forward an advisory decision for the extension, private channel NTV reported.

The parliament will convene on July 18 to discuss the extension of the emergency state.

Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party deputy leader Bulent Tezcan slammed the government as being addicted to ruling the country under a state of emergency, saying it should be lifted immediately.

Ankara declared a state of emergency after the coup attempt last year. On April 19, the state of emergency was extended for a period of three months and set to expire on July 19.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-15 06:16:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LJUBLJANA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- While receiving a delegation of Chinese scientists at his office in Ljubljana on Friday, Slovenian President Borut Pahor said his country wants to enhance cooperation with China in the science and technology.

The Chinese delegation was headed by Bai Chunli, the president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In his keynote speech, the president said he was happy to receive the highest representatives of China's sciences, saying Slovenia has strong wishes to develop cooperation with China in the most advanced fields.

During the meeting, Bai and his host Tadej Bajd, the head of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU), presented President Pahor with their plans for academic cooperation, which is already underway in the study of karst topography.

Bai and Bajd reviewed with the president on the countries' plan to expand the cooperation to biomedicine and researcher exchange.

Pahor also proposed the setup of a replica of an astronomical instrument by Ferdinand Augustin Haller von Hallerstein (also known by his Chinese name Liu Songling), an 18th-century Slovenian astronomer who spent 35 years in China, in both Beijing and Ljubljana as a monument to Slovenian-Chinese friendship.
Quality linked to competitiveness

This may involve changes to legislation, regulations and standards.

Accreditation ensures confidence and trust in the competence of certification and testing agencies and the procedures utilized. The Ministry of Trade and Industry is currently preparing a note for Cabinet for the establishment of the National Accreditation Agency of Trinidad and Tobago (Accredi- TT). This will be an independent national accreditation body, to accredit companies and organisations that provide conformity assessment services according to International Standards.

Minister Gopee- Scoon informed the stakeholders present that Trinidad and Tobago has never had a National Quality Policy, she said there has been sporadic growth of quality entities, laboratories, equipment and legislation, but with obvious attendant gaps in the quality infrastructure.

Therefore, a well-developed National Quality Policy will guide and foster these institutions to function in a more aligned and rational manner. In this way the Quality Policy can positively influence industrial development and have a marked effect on trade. Quality goods and services will attract and retain customers, open new markets and expand product offerings. It is incumbent on any government therefore to develop a Quality Policy carefully, endeavouring to align it with country realities, market demands, international best practices and formal agreements; and this is indeed this governments approach. She called for the cooperation of all stakeholders to ensure the success of the policy.

Minister Gopee-Scoon said Quality is everyones responsibility.

Developing National Quality requires cooperation and collaboration, between and among agencies and sectors, Ministries and Institutions in order to successfully improve the productivity and competitiveness of our country in order to increase trade and protect consumers and the environment.

Lawford Dupres, Chairman Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of (TTBS) affirmed the commitment of the TTBS to lead the development of this Policy, he said, As the National Standards Body, the TTBS is strategically poised to lead the task of developing a National Quality System (NQS), consistent with the Governments vision for the advancement of Trinidad and Tobago towards first world status. He also endorsed Minister Gopee- Scoons call for continued public and private sector stakeholder deliberations, involvement and commitment to a NQS that works and benefits all.

Ramon Madrinan, Team member, Mesopartner delivered an insightful presentation on the importance of quality infrastructure.

He demonstrated the impact of a Quality Policy on various sectors of the economy
Connect and Sign

Sandrine Rattan, coordinator of the event, said the event was to provide a platform for existing and potential entrepreneurs to connect directly with stakeholders who are in the business of entrepreneurial development.

She said at the forum: This is not an expo. It is a forum opened to young people interested in business plan development, interested in obtaining a loan, interested in mentorship, network expansion, investment, legal support, business accounts and interested in different kinds of demands. Stakeholders such as Amcham (American Chamber), UWI Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, Auxesis Business Services, First Link Business Services, the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), National Entrepreneurship Development Company Limited (Nedco), The Youth Training and Employment Partnership Programme (YTEPP) and host YBTT (Youth Business of Trinidad and Tobago) the host of Connect and Sign 2017, were all on hand to provide the support for which entrepreneurs were looking.

Rattan said, Its the first of its kind (forum)being held in Trinidad, and an event where things are happening in real time. The event was open to everyone in, or interested in business.

At the UTT booth, Inshan Meahjohn, Assistant Vice President of Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialisation, UTT told Business Day his team comprised representative of UTTs Student Recruitment Services - Knowledge TT, which is an online free portal for training and its Ustart incubator programme to help people start businesses and accelerate businesses.

He said: UTT is quite unique in that the university offers 56 academic programmes, and those programmes are in many diverse areas such as maritime, aviation, engineering, fashion and agriculture. He surmised: What that means is that our students come out with very unique marketable skills. He also said: Many times we produce a work force graduate, and what UTT has the ability to work with are a whole host of mentors within the university.

We have a physical space of 5,000 square feet in Frederick Settlement, Eteck Park in Caroni, a physical incubator, and a virtual incubator for people who dont need the physical services. We will also be providing very shortly, loan funding as well at the university.

So we are providing a 360 degrees (of) service including the physical location, the mentorship and traffic. The UTT incubator is designed for staff and students and alumni, and currently they are producing in the incubator, the support of 50 companies, some of which are looking at exporting in the agri processing industry. He added that UTT is producing companies, because they were properly and academically trained, properly integrated into the programmes and then they handle them in the incubator side to form a business.

Meahjohn explained: We get a student from day one, and that student is mentored by his lecturers. We get to understand if he has the ability to take risks, can he work with other students? Can he handle failure before he even gets to the point of the characteristics of entrepreneurship? We have entrepreneurial courses that are embedded but the universitys focus is really technical skills. He also said, even if there is a service that UTT does not provide, they work with the other stakeholders in which to do so.

Anil Seepaul, Centre Coordinator - ETIIC, the training arm of Nedco (National Entrepreneurship Development Company Limited) stated that ETTIC provides training services as well as business advisory services.

Anyone can just walk in to any of the branches in Barataria, San Fernando or Chaguanas and get advice on their business, how to keep better records, or advice on how to launch a new product, or advice on how to tender for a contract. We have training courses specific to those areas. In addition, you can speak with a business advisor as well. And as if that is not all Seepaul said there is also a conference room that you can rent, to meet with anyone if the need arises.

Nedco will fund all business with the exception of primary agriculture business, that is crop cultivation, animal husbandry and all agro related products.

However, if one chooses to go into agro processing, Nedco will fund that.

Manager - Business Development, Auxesis Business Services, Jason Charles said: We actually help small businesses grow and we have persons who are interested in getting into business grow into developing their business. We are essentially a firm that deals with convenience. Seepaul stated that ETTIC allows the entrepreneur to concentrate on their core competencies.

He said: We are about convenience so if you are a baker we allow you to concentrate on baking while we handle all the operational aspects of the business like administrative, accounting, legal, business planning, registration services, graphic designing, trademarking services. He also said the good thing about them is that they dont have standard pricing. What they do is meet with the person, have initial consultations with the person and develop... depending on what stage you are, we are about helping people as well.

The cost for a new entrepreneur will be far different from someone who is in an energy industry company.

We price according to the entrepreneurs needs, he said adding that they are about training as well, and offer idea generation.

He said sometimes you have decisions that need to be made, so they play a devils advocate, so that the entrepreneur can get an objective opinion to help them guide their decisions for their businesses.

Stacy Charles, Liaison Officer, Business Incubator, UWI Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, the first commercial business incubator in the TT said their entrepreneurs are given access to training and resources at the ALJ GSB, and are currently in partnership with YBTT to maintain a formal relationship with all the incubators in TT.

It is actually free to get into the business booster programme and you dont have to be a student at ALJ or have an MBA.

What the selection committee basically looks for is creativity and innovation through your business plan which you will have to submit for entry, said Charles.

Charles also said UWI-ALJ GSB Business Booster, also known as Biz Booster is the first CBI in TT. We are a virtual incubator but our entrepreneurs are given access to training and various resources at the UWI ALJ GSB.

We are currently on our third cohort incubator and recently took BizBooster to Tobago.
Jacobs changing the black narrative

The Trinidadian- born, award-winning Canadian documentary film-makers work with Mina Shum on The Ninth Floor has changed how the world viewed the six Caribbean students who mounted a protest against institutional racism at the Sir George Williams University, Canada, in the late 1960s.

Jacob produced the film and reframed the perspective surrounding the events which led to Caribbean students, Trinidadians among them, being deported from Canada and damage to the universitys computer centre.

But if Jacobs story is known, one would know that he has always sought to change perceptions.

In telling Newsday how he got into film-making, Jacob said: I think it must have been when I was about ten or 11. I remember going to a movie theatre in Trinidad and I saw the movies of the day. As a matter of fact, they gave charitable showings like Joan of Arc and the teachers would take the entire school out. On Saturdays there were matinees and some of the schools would go. I must have seen one of the pictures and I looked at the movie and I looked at how the Africans were depicted in those movies. They looked to me as though they were silly. They came across as a caricatureI kept thinking if I were making a movie and setting it in Trinidad and they [would] see people the way that I would [see them], not behaving like buffoons.

I just got fascinated by this concept of the movies and said wow when I grow up what I would like to do is maybe become a movie star. Not a star, in that sense of the word, but become involved in the production. The former Point Fortin resident attended Queens Royal College, Port-of-Spain, with mas legend Peter Minshall whose work on a play written by the late Derek Walcott left an indelible mark on him.

Since then Jacob has won awards such as the 1998 Canadian Gemini Award for his film The Road Taken and again in 2001, he won the Gemini award for the Best Science, Technology, Nature, Environment or Adventure Documentary Programme.

Jacob has created and produced more than 50 films and has worked with the Canadian National Film Board since 1997.

He was recently awarded by the Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta with the Outstanding Achievement Award, recognising his outstanding accomplishment, contribution to media art, and body of work at FAVA Fest, the societys annual festival.

Jacob arrived in Canada in 1968 and attended the University of Alberta in Edmonton and read for his Bachelor of Education degree.

Then he pursued his Masters in Film Studies at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

For Jacob, entering the school of cinematic arts was like walking on thin airbecause you have this dream and youre working in the movie industry. The ultimate goal, at that time, was to come back to TT and to try to tell local stories. Although, he did not return to TT to tell his stories, his work has re-engineered understanding both in Canada and beyond.

The Canada Government in a news release on Jacobs outstanding award said: Since the early 1980s, Jacobs work has explored the experiences of black Canadians as well as other stories from Canadas multicultural communities; first as a trailblazing independent director_and the first black Albertan director_and then as a producer with the NFBs Pacific & Yukon Studio in Vancouver. He is regarded as Albertas first black film-maker. He recalled how he made his first film. When I graduated and I went back to Alberta.

There was not a film industry per se in Edmonton, the city I lived in at the time.

So I just had to figure out what do I do right now and I had a Bachelor of Education degree so I started teaching. I got a job teaching in the country, Northern Alberta, two-and-ahalf- hours drive from Edmonton.

I ended up teaching in this Northern Alberta community and then someone said to me, you know there is a black community just half an hour from here. I was completely taken aback by that. Because when I got to Alberta we heard the rumours that there werent too many black people in Alberta because of the weather. They could not stand the winters when I heard that I just got in my car, right away and drove around there and started talking to these people. And these were black Americans who had emigrated from Oklahoma.

Oklahoma had made it illegal for blacks to vote in their election. So they all migrated and settled in Northern Alberta.

So I did this documentary film and it was called We Remember Amber Valley. Amber Valley was the name of the community. So that was the first film that got me involved in telling the black Canadian story. I was the only black film-maker there. Jacob has told the stories of people often unheard. His works include 1991 Carols Mirror, an educational film about race and culture in the classroom, 1996 The Road Taken, about the experiences of black Canadian sleeping- car porters, and The Journey of Lesra Martin, about Lesra Martin, a Canadian youth who helped to free Rubin Hurricane Carter from prison.

At the time when Jacob thought of returning to TT, there was only the Government Film Unit and TTT. Both of which were not a fit for the kind of film-making he had studied.

And so, Jacobs brand of non-fiction has cemented him as one of Canadas top film-makers.

But part of the style he chose was also because he wanted to do something that was not being done in neighbouring US.

When asked why he chose non-fiction, Jacob said, It is a survival philosophy [making non-fiction as opposed to fiction].

A lot of people dont realise that Canada is next door to the US and the US, through the sort of Hollywood machinery, is the worlds most dominant media production centre.I analysed it in my mind and I said I dont want to emulate the Hollywood production While, Jacob does not have a connection with the local film industry, he only came to the TT Film Festival last year, he believes that the local film industry is on the right track and has seen much development.

He believes there could be and should be what I call Caribbean story-telling. The language might be different whether they come from Jamaica, Haiti, or one of the Dutch islands but at the end you see something that is Caribbean. How Caribbean films are marketed needs to be looked at, he said. When asked if he felt Caribbean content was ready for an international audience, Jacob said: A good story, is a good story, is a good story. I think one of the advantages for me of studying in North America, is that you get to see stories from around the world. Sometimes we use the term insularity but sometimes you just have to expose yourselfWhen something travels or is well told it would travel the world and TT stories fall into that same category. You just have to bring your story-telling skills up to a certain level. The cinema has a certain language and once you have learnt that language, then you can speak the language of cinema to anybody, anywhere in the world. Selwyn Jacob would be present at The Ninth Floors screening on July 20 at the University of the West Indies, Centre for Language Learning from 6pm.
Tech camp to open at Jungle Jam

Deidre Cristal Lee Kin of Dingole told Newsday: We usually run this type of camp for older kids but this year, because of the many requests from parents, what better opportunity to teach the younger kids something new.

What makes our camp special is that we promote what we like to call a play to learn mindset. We encourage play and group interaction as the gateway to creativity, curiosity, problem-solving and experimentation which are foundational learning activities. Instructors will be guiding children on adventures in learning which might involve them in programming a tiny robot to dance, or entering a virtual world to paint in 3D, or using their hands to construct fantastic contraptions.

Activities will also include creating like an artist, building like an engineer, designing like a technologist and questioning like a scientist, and also an introduction to robotics.

Lee Kin said: Through play we engage them to solve problems collectively, become design thinkers and to imagine with intention! As to who precisely will be conducting activities at the camp Lee Kin said: We conduct the tech camps ourselves. The Dingole team is an award-winning tech start-up that specialises in immersive technologies. The Steam Start camp is a way for us to share our knowledge and skills to create more opportunities for the upcoming generations. She added that Dingole has been doing a lot of community outreach programmes and the response has been very positive.

As a young leader of the Americas we work closely with the US Embassy on projects and this is what we wanted to do this summer for the kids. We will be working together with the US Embassy to execute tech-camps in at risk-communities, therefore in August there will also be a Steam Start Tech Camp for this initiative, Lee Kin said.

That camp will be held from August 7 to 11 at the US Embassy, for children 11 to 15 years from specific communities.

For more info: Facebook page @dingoleltd
EMBASSY WORKER RESCUED

However, quick work by police which included the use of GPS (global positioning system) tracking led to officers intercepting a car and arresting the driver who was on his way to collect the ransom.

The victim, who was in the backseat, was rescued unharmed.

The rescue of 58-year-old Zhang Sajio took place almost four hours after he was snatched while walking to work along Haig Street, St Clair shortly after 7 am.

A person later called an official of the Chinese Embassy and demanded $20,000 for Sajios safe release.

Officers of the Criminal Gang and Intelligence Unit, the Anti Kidnapping Unit, the Cyber Crimes Unit and Port of Spain CID led by Deputy Police Commissioner Harold Phillip and including ACP Irwin Hackshaw, Ag ACP Radcliff Boxill, Ag Superintendent Ajith Persad and others swung into action.

Officers cordoned off several parts of the Western Main Road as part of efforts to locate the kidnappers.

The caller to the Embassy gave instructions for the money to be dropped off near the Roxy roundabout.

Unknown to the kidnappers, the vehicle used in the snatching  a stolen white Honda City sedan  was outfitted with GPS and at 11.30 am, officers picked up its location and gave chase. The vehicles was forced to a stop near the Digicel IMAX cinema and the driver was arrested. In the backseat, Sajio lay bound and gagged.

He was taken to hospital for treatment and later released to the care of Embassy officials. The suspect who hails from El Socorro remains in custody. A loaded pistol, found in the car, has been seized by police.

This is the latest in a series of attacks this year, on Chinese nationals living and working in this country.

For this year, three Chinese nationals - all involved in business - have been murdered while Sajio is the first Chinese to be kidnapped.

This is also the second kidnapping for ransom this year and follows on the snatching two weeks ago of Puff n Stuff bakery owner Gregory Laing who was released unharmed after a $270,000 ransom was paid.

A specially convened press briefing at Police Administration Building in Port of Spain, called specifically to deal with the kidnapping case, DCP Phillip assured that the police service is prepared to deal with all incidents of kidnappings and other crimes.

Asked if he is concerned that kidnappings are on the rise, Phillip assured that the police would investigate all claims of kidnapping.

Recently, a woman posted on social media a claim that she was the victim of a kidnapping in St James.

Phillip added that while the TTPS is assessing security arrangements he would not say if plans are afoot to increase security for foreign diplomats. The victim (Sajio) was not a diplomat himself, he was a member of the support staff at the embassy but at the moment we are evaluating the security and the incidence of kidnappings. Newsday attempted to contact officials at the Chinese Embassy for comment but was unsuccessful.
Baby-in-fridge doctor freed by police

Upon Budhoorams release from the San Fernando police station at 3.30 pm, police confirmed investigations into the death of the baby, born to a couple from Fyzabad, will continue.

At about 2 pm, while he was still in custody, police swooped down on Budhoorams office in Cocoyea Village. He has been a doctor for the past 35 years. Earlier, investigations led police to the Sewlal Trace, Fyzabad home of the babys mother Cindy Gail Sooknanan, 22. An autopsy revealed no foul play as the baby died of complications arising out of being born prematurely. Detectives interviewed Budhooram in the presence of his attorney Subhas Panday. When police did not lay any charge on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and yesterday yet his client remained in custody, attorney Panday who led attorney Petronella Basdeo, filed a Habeas Corpus writ in the San Fernando High Court, seeking Justice David Harris instruction to the police to show cause for the doctors continued detention without charge.

The writ was filed against the Commissioner of Police and Justice Harris, in granting it, ordered that Budhooram be brought to the court today at 9 am and in the meantime, he (Budhooram) was to be released immediately.

Budhooram walked out of the CID offices with Panday but declined to speak to Newsday when questioned on the circumstances which led to him being detained.

He also declined to talk about his time in custody and if he was treated well by police.

Panday who spoke on the doctors behalf, said the police released Budhooram on their own accord. He confirmed that detectives visited the doctors office yesterday. Asked whether any tangible material was taken from the office, Panday said, That is for the police to answer. I want to reiterate, the police decided to release the doctor so therefore I am of the view that he is not culpable of any wrongdoing. The babys body remains at the Forensic Science Centre in St James. Yesterday, police sources said an issue has arisen regarding burial. They said that since the babys birth was not registered and no birth certificate was issued, there can be no death certificate and the latter is required in law for proper and legal disposal of a body.
Why you meeting she?

I was appalled to see that instead of talking with us (the trade unions) he wants to talk to those who he said previously could not do the job... but he wants to have talk sessions with them, an angry Roget said, adding, you condemn them for not being able to do the job (yet when) you run out of ideas you want to talk with them. We are at our wits end and must take action. He raised the issue of Rowleys invitation to Persad-Bissessar at JTUMs second mobilisation exercise at Busy Corner in Chaguanas.

What is particularly galling for Roget and the trade union movement is the fact that it was the very same Rowley and the Peoples National Movement (PNM) that signed a memorandum of understanding on August 27, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain, in which there was an agreement for consultations.

Turning his attention on possible job cuts in the private sector as alluded to by Rowley during the latters conversations forum on Tuesday at the Point Fortin East Secondary School, Roget declared he would have none of this and neither will the labour movement allow itself to be fooled by pronouncements made on political platforms.

I want to say to this government and those in charge of governance in this country, people are suffering and no amount of talk, no amount of trying to convince me that I have to suffer more for you to balance your books, will suffice, Roget said.

And so we are only hearing about announcements on political platforms about public sector cutswe will not accept that! It is our right to do what we think necessary in defence of our members, from daily paid workers to to public sector workers.

We will not accept that workers must bear the brunt and that the full yoke of adjustment must rest squarely on the shoulders of workers, he said.

That is not what we sat and drafted out and agreed to (when the MoU was signed). Indeed, we were aware back then of the challenges we would face and as a result of that we drafted a proper way forward, a blueprint to surmount and overcome all challenges. Roget said he was appalled that Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, a former leader of the Public Services Association (PSA) is unaware of how many persons have been retrenched since her government took office in September 2015 or that retrenchment is being considered in the public service.
CNC 3 blanked for not observing protocol

Other media personnel (including Newsday) present were allowed to cover the brief ceremony as all requirements were met by them.

The advance submission of names of media personnel to the Office of the President is one of several protocols implemented following last months controversial attendance of Sea Lots community leader Cedric Burkie Burke at the swearing in of Port of Spain South MP Marlene McDonald as Public Utilities Minister, despite Burkes name not being on the list.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley advised President Anthony Carmona to revoke McDonalds appointment on July 2 and later highlighted Burkes attendance as the reason for firing her.

Following an internal investigation into the breach of security protocol in Burke being allowed to attend the swearing in, new arrangements were implemented at the Office of the President
Doctors reattach one of two severed hands

Surgeons told 32-year-old Nigel Bholas relatives they will have to wait to see if the reattached hand will function. A source said because Bhola lost a lot of blood and because of the length of time it took to get him to the hospital, there may be little hope of the other hand being reattached.

Police said yesterday Bhola is still at the Intensive Care Unit of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in critical but stable condition.

Investigators who attempted to interview Bhola on Monday were advised to speak with his doctors before any interview can be done.

On Saturday at about 1.30pm Bhola and a man had an argument over a piece of land which the two of them were hired to clear.

The deal to cut the grass fell through and Bhola allegedly blamed the man for the loss of the contract.

It is alleged Bhola went to the mans home at Bagatelle in San Juan and dealt him a blow to the head with the flat side of the cutlass.

The cutlass fell to the ground and the man allegedly took the cutlass, ran after Bhola and chopped off his hands. Bhola fell to ground and was taken to the hospital. The suspect remained in hiding up to yesterday.
Full military rites for soldier who died after lengthy illness

Williams-Valcin, 44, who served as a member of the Defence Force for over ten years, was described as a loving and compassionate individual by her family and colleagues. Williams-Valcins husband, Ellington Valcin delivered an emotional rendition of Joe Cockers love ballad, You are so Beautiful, in tribute to his late wife.

Defence Force colleague, Captain McIntosh praised her for her years of service and said she was the embodiment of service before self.

A true credit to the Defence Force, she adjusted well to her basic training and went on to become a fine soldier. Her calm demeanour was a reflection of her maturity. Nothing was ever too much for her to do, she was an honest loyal and passionate servicewoman. The service ended with a military procession along Long Circular Road to the Military Cemetery in St James where she was laid to rest. She is also survived by her sons Gianni and Shaquille.
Sinanan: OAS lawsuit $ funding highway

He made the remark after Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan announced new construction packages heading to tender at yesterdays post-Cabinet news briefing at the Diplomatic Centre, St Anns.

Sinanan said Cabinet agreed to four additional packages being tendered (to give a total of seven so far), and five more packages are for tender next month. He said a stretch of highway from Gulf City Mall to Dunlop Roundabout in Point Fortin will take two years to complete.

Sinanan said the Moruga Road rehabilitation project will consist of fixing 22 landslips and constructing 22 culverts plus road repair where needed. He said it will begin very shortly and maximise the use of local content thereby giving opportunities for local contractors.

Regarding the Tobago sea bridge ferry, Sinanan expressed confidence in Port Authority board chairman Allison Lewis describing her as someone who is thorough in her decision-making process. Im putting my faith that Mrs Lewis and the board would have done the right thing, he said.

My information is that we have two vessels en route to TT. One would be here on Sunday which would take care of the cargo aspect of it, and sometime later this month we have a ferry vessel that is expected to arrive on the island. Saying the due date was supposed to have been July 17, he said he expects the board took their attorneys advice on this.
Gopeesingh: Sinking Fanny Village school a PNM project

Newsday was told on Wednesday that construction of the new school began in 2015 after the original school was burnt in April of 2015.

However, Gopeesingh said when he assumed office, no activity had taken place at the site for several years after the original contractor ran into some difficulties with the foundation.

The contract was valued at $23.6 million and it was awarded to Ashana Construction Limited, said Gopeesingh.

Part of the foundation was constructed but the contractor was experiencing recurrent flooding at the foundation site. He had done a certain percentage of the work but for about two years subsequent to when we came into office, no work was done because of the problems with the foundation. Gopeesingh said because of Ashanas inability to continue the project, their contract was terminated and negotiations between the Education Facilities Company Limited (EFCL) and Ashana went on for about two years before Ashana was paid about $6million for the construction of the incomplete foundation.

The EFCL later hired Vikab Engineering Consultants Limited and CEP Limited to appraise and recommend designs for a new structure to deal with the water logging problem at the site.

It is a problem we inherited and were trying to fix, said Gopeesingh.

The consulting companies recommended that a single-storey building be built instead of a two-storey one. Gopeesingh said tenders for the new design were put out in 2014 and was awarded to Construction Services and Supplies Limited (CSSL) in February 2015 for $25 million. He could not give an exact figure for how much CSSL was actually paid, but said it would have been the usual 10 to 20 per cent mobilisation fees that contractors are paid for work started.

I want to warn the honourable minister that he must not try to continue to mislead and continue to speak untruths. Gopeesingh said Minister in the Ministry of Education Dr Lovell Francis claim that there was a plan to retrofit the school which would have ran the cost up to about $68 million was untrue. I do not know where he got that from.

Another deliberate, vicious and sinful untruth spoken by the honourable minister. Garcia, in response to a question from an irate parent at the Conversations with the Prime Minister event at Point Fortin on Tuesday night, said the school was discovered to have been built in a swamp.

Garcia said the builders were going to be held accountable for wasting public funds.

Since the original school was destroyed by fire, 250 students have been housed in a community centre and a prefabricated building close to the old school building.
Planning Ministry hosts digital workshops

Through its partnership with RSC International, the ministry isaiming to empower local NGOs, social development groups and community agencies using digital technologies to assist them in enhancing their operational efficiency throughout the IT Enabled Services (ITeS) sector Attendees included participants represented through the Gift for Life Foundation, members of the visually impaired community, various womens organizations focused on gender equity and empowerment and students from the Caribbean Union College.

The workshops centered on computer repair and refurbishment, robotics and game design, computer skills for the visually impaired and digital media train the- trainer training provided to participants to teach their peers.

RSC International, is in the process of conducting online workshops and peer to peer support teaching for local and regional students through their online teaching teams.

These teams comprise several national scholarship winners and students who volunteer their time and services to disenfranchised groups and personnel to build capacity in academic and or business endeavors through ITeS training.
The REAL swamp: Democrat corruption and foreign collusion under Obama, Hillary, pales in comparison to Trump

During an interview this week with former Obama administration official and Hillary Clinton campaign manager, John Podesta, regarding his ties to a Kremlin-backed energy firm on whose board he sat and from which he received 75,000 shares, Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo told her guest in no uncertain terms that Democrats, not President Donald J. Trump and Republicans, were far more into Russian collusion.

[T]he point Im making here, John, is that theres much deeper ties to Russia on the Democratic side than there are on the Republican side, and its just a head-scratcher that this has been taking more oxygen out of the room over Trump, when in fact it has been your team that has been in bed with the Russians, she said.

There can be no doubt that her assessment is completely true, as there seems to be plenty of evidence pointing to lengthy ties between todays top Democratic politicians and operatives, and Mother Russia. (RELATED: Legal expert: No crime committed by Donald Trump Jr. in talking with a foreign source about NOTHING)

Lets take a look at the myriad of examples:

 Uranium One: During her stint as secretary of state, as Bartiromo pointed out to Podesta and as other critics of her and her former boss have as well, Clinton played a role in a multi-agency process allowing Russian-owned firms to obtain a Canadian company with a stake in some 20 percent of all strategic U.S. uranium reserves, giving Vladimir Putins government a massive victory.

As The New York Times reported in April 2015, just as Clinton was preparing for what would become her second failed presidential bid, that millions of dollars flowed into her and husband Bill Clintons pockets, both personally and via their family foundation, as the deal progressed, leaving the Russian firm Rosatom one of the largest uranium producers in the world:

Beyond mines in Kazakhstan that are among the most lucrative in the world, the sale gave the Russians control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the United States. Since uranium is considered a strategic asset, with implications for national security, the deal had to be approved by a committee composed of representatives from a number of United States government agencies. Among the agencies that eventually signed off was the State Department, then headed by Mr. Clintons wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

 Pay-for-play: Throughout the life of the deal, the Clintons were personally rewarded.

As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation, the Times said, adding: And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.

At the time the deal was approved, the Obama administration, with Clinton taking the lead, was attempting to reset with Russia, and that was seen as perfectly fine by the obscene, incestuous D.C. swamp; now that Trump seeks his own version of a Russia reset, hes being accused of collusion.

 Israeli election collusion: As the insane #NeverTrump establishment media continues to hunt for any shred of proof there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, President Obama actually colluded with political forces opposed to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, whom our former commander-in-chief constantly worked to undermine because he disagreed with Netanyahus politics. As The Washington Times reported a year ago, the Obama White House even used taxpayer money to fund the collusion:

The State Department paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayers grants to an Israeli group that used the money to build a campaign to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in last years Israeli parliamentary elections, a congressional investigation concluded Tuesday.

Some $350,000 was sent to OneVoice, ostensibly to support the groups efforts to back Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement negotiations. But OneVoice used the money to build a voter database, train activists and hire a political consulting firm with ties to President Obamas campaign  all of which set the stage for an anti-Netanyahu campaign, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in a bipartisan staff report.

The subcommittee even found evidence of Obama administration collusion: An email from OneVoice to the top U.S. diplomat in Jerusalem, Consul General Michael Ratney, telling him of the groups plans.

 Ukrainian collusion: There most certainly was collusion with a foreign government in an effort to defeat one of last years presidential nominees, but it wasnt via Trump and it wasnt via Russia.

Rather, the Clinton campaign utilized Ukrainian operatives to dig up dirt on the Trump team, as reported by The Daily Wire:

Peter Hasson of The Daily Caller reminded everyone of a Politico report detailing the coordination between the two: Democratic National Committee (DNC) operative Alexandra Chalupa met with Ukrainian government officials for dirt on Paul Manafort, who at the time was rumored to replace Corey Lewandowski as Donald Trumps campaign manager.

Once Manafort officially became Lewandowskis replacement, Chalupa shared her opposition research on Manafort with the DNC, and they were ecstatic about it.

Bartiromo was spot-on when she told Podesta that him and his Democrats  not Team Trump or Republicans  were neck-deep in collusion and corruption involving Russia and other foreign governments before, during and after the 2016 election.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

DailyWire.com

DailyCaller.com

WashingtonTimes.com

TheNationalSentinel.com

Submit a correction >>
It started in mid-September  Black Friday specials. I took the bait when I saw an email from a retailer offering sales that were way ahead of the traditional Friday after Thanksgiving Black Friday sales. Beat the rush! Get all the deals before anyone else offers them and you lose out! Get y
French company Faurecia, a world leader in car parts manufacturing, is planning to build in Morocco its third plant specialized in car interiors and emissions control devices.

The plant will open its doors next year in the coastal city of Kenitra, Faurecia Chief Executive Patrick Koller said in a statement, following the inauguration of the companys second Moroccan production site, a seating facility, in Sale, capital Rabats twin city.

The seating plant represents an investment of 15.4 million and employs 1,300 workers making seat covers and leather trim for vehicles such as the Peugeot 3008 and 5008, as well as Opel models built at PSA plants.

Faurecia is the 8th largest international automotive parts manufacturer in the world. In 2013, it was No-1 for vehicle interiors and emission control technology. One in four automobiles is equipped by Faurecia. It designs and manufactures seats, exhaust systems, interior systems (dashboards, center consoles, door panels, acoustic modules) and decorative aspects of a vehicle (aluminum, wood).

Faurecias customers include the Volkswagen group, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault-Nissan, Ford, General Motors, BMW, Daimler, Fiat/Chrysler, Toyota and Hyundai-Kia among others.

Headquartered in Nanterre, France, Faurecia employs 5,500 engineers and technicians. The company operates over 320 production sites and 30 R&D centers in 34 countries worldwide, with 460 patents filed in 2012.

About half of these sites are manufacturing plants operating on the just-in-time principle. Faurecia joined the United Nations Global Compact in 2004. While French car manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen is Faurecias controlling shareholder, holding around 57.4 pc stake, Faurecia is run as an independent company.

Groupe Renault has just celebrated the one millionth car built at a factory in Morocco. Based in the city of Tangier, the Renault-Nissan factory builds vehicles for more than 70 countries.

Its landmark car, sold to a customer in Turkey, was a diesel-powered, five-seat Dacia Lodgy, finished in azurite blue.

Half of all Renault-owned Dacia cars are produced in Morocco, either at the Tangier plant or in Casablanca, where Renault cars have been produced since 1966. Since its inauguration in 2012, the Tangier factory has produced 478,840 Dacia Sanderos, 320,780 Dacia Dokkers and 193,181 Dacia Lodgys. The Dacia Logan MCV is also produced at the factory.

The plant has a production capacity of 340,000 vehicles annually and 7,939 employees who work eight-hour shifts, six days a week. It is the first factory designed by Groupe Renault with zero CO2 emissions as 90 per cent of the complexs power comes from renewable sources, such as a biomass heating plant on site.

Francois Mariotte, sales and marketing director of Dacia, said: Dacia is a fast-growing brand that has benefited considerably from the performance of the Tangier plant.

Since its construction in 2012, the plant has experienced an exceptional ramp-up and achieved the expected quality level in record time thanks to its trained and skilled staff. The Tangier plant is inseparable from Dacias success story.
Moroccos increasing diplomatic and economic clout in Africa enables it to offer a gateway for Russian business wishing to invest on the continent.

The visit by Moroccos foreign Minister to Moscow is part of a Moroccan endeavor to strengthen its role as a platform for Russian investments towards Africa.

His Majesty King Mohammed VI is keen on boosting partnership with Russia on all levels. Russia plays an important geo-political and economic role [internationally], Moroccos foreign minister Nacer Bourita told the media at the closing of the sixth joint Moroccan-Russian commission for economic, scientific and technological cooperation, convened in Moscow.

Morocco aspires to be Russias major Arab and African trading partner. We are ready to put all our efforts to reach that goal, he said, adding that the kingdom looks forward to seeing Russia among its ten major trading partners.

Bourita highlighted the sectors of agriculture and fisheries as main areas of cooperation, underscoring the growing fruitful cooperation in the areas of technology, pharmaceutics, and the automotive industry.

Morocco is the second largest trading partner of Russia in the Arab world and Africa with a total bilateral trade value of $2.5 billion.

In March 2016, King Mohammed VI paid a visit to Moscow where he held talks with President Vladimir Putin. The visit added momentum to the strategic partnership between the two countries.
Moroccos phosphates company, OCP, denounced the political piracy practiced by South Africa, which has been detaining the vessel Cherry Blossom loaded with 55,000 tons of Moroccan Sahara phosphates bound for New Zealand for more than 70 days, in a hostile act revealing the striking partiality of Pretorias justice system.

In a statement, the OCP and its Sahara subsidiary, Phosboucraa, decried in the strongest terms the biased decision of the South African justice in maintaining the ship held in Port Elizabeth, adding that the South African judiciary has no legitimacy to rule on the core of the case.

This is an act of political piracy committed under judicial cover, deplored the OCP, denouncing South Africas blatant interference in the political process led by the UN Security Council.

OCP accused the South African judiciary of having passed an eminently political decision and committed a gross abuse of power.

The OCP rejected South Africas interference in issues relating to Moroccos sovereignty and territorial integrity, adding that South African courts are not qualified and have no jurisdiction to rule on the use of natural resources in the region.

Last May, a South African judge ordered the ship to remain held in Port Elizabeth pending a full trial on the matter after the Polisario put forward political arguments challenging the legality of the transaction in a bid to use the justice system of its South African ally to undermine Moroccos economic interests.

In a comment to New Zealander media on the case, Ballance chief executive Mark Wynne, buyer of Phosphates cargo on board Cherry Blossom, said that the decision of the OCP and its subsidiary to withdraw from the ruling is a pragmatic solution because the case could have dragged on in the court for months if not years.

Wynne vowed that his company, Ballance, would continue to buy fertilizer that was mined in the contested region. Legally and ethically we are comfortable with buying it, and the Moroccans will continue to mine it, he said.

Last Month, a court in Panama dismissed a similar attempt by the Polisario to block a cargo of Moroccan phosphates heading to Canada. The Panama court made it clear that a local court was not the appropriate venue to resolve international disputes and that the phosphates cargo did not belong to the Polisario.

The Polisario, a separatist entity based in the authoritarian Algerian state, is not eligible to plea or claim to represent the population in the Sahara who have their own legitimate elected bodies. This has been stressed by a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling that stressed that the Polisario is unqualified to challenge the Moroccan-EU farm agreements and that the agreements do not concern the Polisario Front.

Holding Moroccan phosphates cargos in international ports in response to complaints filed by a separatist entity that is not recognized by the UN is in itself a violation of international law.

The Polisario is not recognized by the International community as a representative of the commercial interests of the population of the Sahara, although it is considered as a party in the political process to find a solution to the Sahara conflict.

Phosboucraa is the main private employer in the Sahara with nearly 2200 employees, 76% of whom are locals. The companys revenues are invested in the region in the fields of human and industrial development.
Kellyanne Conway. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The official Trump administration line used to be that no member of the campaign had any contact with Russia. Mike Pence: Of course not. Why would there be any contact? Kellyanne Conway: Absolutely not. And I discussed that with the president-elect just last night. Those conversations never happened. I hear people saying it like its a fact on television. That is just not only inaccurate and false, but its dangerous. Conway today has a new standard:

Kellyanne Conway on Fox News: "The goalposts have been moved. We were promised hard evidence of systemic, sustained furtive collusion."  Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 14, 2017

The goalposts have definitely been moved here. After having heatedly denied any contact with Russians, its now insufficient to demonstrate that contact took place. Even demonstrating that collusion took place isnt enough. The evidence has to be hard and the collusion must be systemic, sustained, and furtive.

Producing evidence that satisfies all these new conditions is definitely going to be tough. Hard evidence of systemic, furtive collusion? If it only lasted a short time, then its not sustained. Hard evidence of sustained, furtive collusion? Sorry, if only some members of Trumps campaign were involved, then it isnt systemic.

Of course furtive is the real trick. Remember when the New York Times discovered emails of a Trump campaign meeting held on the specific promise of collusion with Russia? Donald Trump Jr. hastily tweeted the emails, and the Trump administration hailed him for his transparency. So, really, whatever evidence comes to light, Trumps people can just admit to anything theyre caught on, and then it isnt furtive any more.
Ed Rogers, lobbyist and Americas worst op-ed columnist. Photo: The Washington Post

Ed Rogers is a Washington lobbyist, and, for reasons I have never been able to discern, a regular op-ed columnist for the Washington Post. Rogers may indeed be the worst op-ed columnist in America  certainly the worst one writing for a respectable publication.

Rogerss published work suffers from a series of fatal deficiencies. First, as founding member of a lobbying firm with a wide-ranging portfolio and a presumably enormous income, literally everything he writes suffers from crippling conflicts of interest. Second, he is a terrible writer whose arguments lack any originality, persuasive power or, quite often, even facial plausibility. One of the unique trademarks of a Rogers column is outsourcing the work to other, better columnists (which is to say, virtually all of them). For instance:

As David Ignatius said this morning, Its strange that the Democrats who were so angry at [Comey] are now furious at his firing.

Or:

Anyway, everyone should also carefully consider the arguments made by constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz presented some compelling legal insight. The president, he writes, is the head of the unified executive branch of government, and the Justice Department and the FBI work under him and he may order them to do what he wishes.

Or:

The Wall Street Journal notes that this bill includes enormous conservative policy victories, even if they arent everything we or other free-marketers would like. Democrats built the entitlement state piecemeal over decades, and it will have to be reformed in pieces that are politically sustainable.

Rogerss most recent effort sets out to defend the Trump administration from accusations of campaign collusion with Russia. As usual, Rogers outsources his central thesis to another columnist:

As Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz stated yesterday, it is unlikely that attendance at the meeting violated any criminal statute. Well said, Mr. Dershowitz.

Nobody is saying attendance at the meeting was ipso facto a crime, since we dont know what happened at the meeting. It is ipso facto evidence of the campaigns eagerness to cooperate with Russias influence operation, which did include illegal acts.

Rogers then pivots to arguing that Donald Trump Jr. is definitely telling the truth about the meeting:

And yet, the media would have you believe that the meeting Trump Jr. described as literally just a wasted 20 minutes is a smoking gun that will inevitably take President Trump, his administration and his entire family down forever.

Given that Trump has lied repeatedly about this subject, first denying having any contacts with Russians, and then misstating the premise of the meeting, is there a particular reason to assume his current account of what went on is necessarily correct?

Rogers proceeds to declare the emails exculpatory, without explaining why:

In reality, Trump Jr.s emails show he has nothing to hide.

Rogers asserts this and then moves on. In reality, the emails almost certainly show that Trump had a phone call with Emin. In several emails, Trump Jr. and Goldstone set up a phone call in quick, rapidly returned messages, followed by a gap, then Trump thanking Goldstone for his assistance. (Goldstone: Ok hes on stage in Moscow but should be off within 20 Minutes so I am sure can call Rob. Trump: Rob thanks for the help.) Did the phone call happen? Trump hasnt said. Thats definitely one thing he is hiding.

Rogers proceeds with his assertions that obviously Trump Jr., after a series of lies, is now telling the truth:

I dont think Trump Jr. went on national television last night and told a bunch of lies.

You hear that? He went on national television. Its not like lying on local television. Being on national television is practically like being under oath. It would apparently be unheard of to lie in such a venue.

Rogers does concede that not everybody would agree:

Undoubtedly, the presidents enemies will believe that they are justified in feeling otherwise. But Trump Jr. has little incentive to do anything but tell the truth at this point.

He has no incentive to lie? What if he did something illegal or grossly unethical? Then admitting it would put him in a bad position. That seems like an incentive to lie, doesnt it? And given his pattern of lying about this exact subject in the past, that incentive may be relevant.

If you ignore the central revelation of the emails, which is that they reveal Trump being receptive to Russian efforts to help his fathers campaign, and further ignore his pattern of omissions and lies before being cornered with the truth, and then further assume both that Trump is now telling the truth and that no other harmful news will emerge, then yes, he might be innocent. But why does the Post need to give a lobbyist op-ed space to make these assertions? Cant they just cut and paste quotes from Trump himself?
Who needs enemies when you have a son-in-law like this? Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images

In the first few months of the Trump administration, both the president and his political opponents placed much hope on Jared Kushner, a 36-year-old real-estate heir with no experience relevant to the job of senior White House adviser. The left hoped that Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, would act as voices of reason, fighting against climate change, attacks on LGBT rights, and Steve Bannons general inclination to blow things up. Meanwhile, President Trump tasked his son-in-law with just about every thorny issue facing his administration, from rewriting U.S. trade agreements to solving the opioid epidemic to brokering peace in the Middle East.

Kushner has had a few successes (like possibly saving NAFTA) and several major failures (such as failing to prevent Trump from ditching the Paris climate accords and bungling a trip to Jerusalem). But for the Trump administration, hes proven to be a disastrous hire largely due to his inept handling of the Russia scandal.

Back in May, Kushner was reportedly among those urging President Trump to fire FBI director James Comey. That sparked a massive, days-long crisis that culminated in the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Russias election meddling and the Trump camps potential involvement. The New York Times reported that while White House staffers ultimately decided to respond with a statement saying they welcomed the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Kushner was one of the few dissenting voices, urging the president to counterattack.

Later that month, Kushner was at the center of another episode in the ongoing Russia scandal when reports emerged that he tried to establish a secret backchannel between the Trump team and the Russian government in December. Several weeks later, the Washington Post reported that Mueller was looking into Kushners finances and business dealings.

At this point, Kushner cant do much about his meetings with Russians during the campaign, or his potentially shady business dealings. However, hes consistently tackled Russia-related issues in a manner thats created unnecessary problems for his family members and fellow White House staffers.

While Donald Trump Jr. is currently at the eye of the Category 5 hurricane surrounding the White House, his emails about a meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer, which Kushner attended, are apparently coming to light now because of his brother-in-law.

When Kushner initially filed his application for a security clearance in January, the foreign contacts section was blank. His lawyers said this was an accident and in May they filed a revised form listing more than 100 meetings with officials from over 20 countries  but not the meeting with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. The Times reported that the emails from Don Jr. were discovered in recent weeks by Mr. Kushners legal team as it reviewed documents. The SF-86 form Kushner filed with the FBI was then updated for a third time to disclose the meeting.

CNN fleshed out the timeline on Thursday, reporting that Kushners lawyers provided the amended SF-86 on June 21. A few days later, Kushners team ignored a reporters question about the filing:

On June 26, CNN asked a White House spokesman assigned to Kushner about the additional meeting on the amended security clearance form, including that it was organized by Donald Trump Jr.

But Kushners team did not respond. On June 28, Jamie Gorelick, Kushners lawyer handling the issue, sent a letter to the FBI to complain about what she believed was an improper leak, according to a person close to the matter.

A source close to Kushner said his team discussed whether they should just go public with the information, but Kushner told his lawyers he planned to sit down with the president to discuss the meeting and the email that had been discovered. So, if true, Kushners instinct was to get the president more deeply involved in the handling of evidence that may be construed as proof that his campaign colluded with Russia.

The Times reported that Trumps attorney for Russia-related matters, Marc Kasowitz, is so fed up with Kushners behavior that hes considered resigning, and that sounds like the kind of thing hes talking about:

Mr. Kasowitz and his colleagues have complained that Mr. Kushner has been whispering in the presidents ear about the Russia investigations and stories while keeping the lawyers out of the loop, according to another person familiar with the legal team. The presidents lawyers view Mr. Kushner as an obstacle and freelancer more concerned about protecting himself than his father-in-law, the person said.

Its not clear if Kushner actually had a chat with his father-in-law about the meeting, but if so, the president has been lying about it. Trump has repeatedly said he only learned of the emails and the meeting a couple of days ago.

Yahoo reported on Thursday that attorneys representing the president and the Trump Organization were informed of the emails right after they were discovered by Kushners legal team. Its possible that the attorneys didnt update the president, but Richard Painter, the former chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said he found that idea weird and unbelievable. You have a professional obligation to inform the client about information that he needs to make informed decisions, he said.

Even if Trump wasnt personally informed, Kushner and a number of other people in his orbit were aware of the issue for weeks  yet the White House appeared caught off guard when the Times broke the story on July 8. Trump Jr.s initial response, which required multiple follow-ups, was reportedly drafted by top Trump advisers on Air Force One as they returned from a trip to Europe.

White House staffers who didnt inherit billions have been hesitant to get involved in Russia-related matters because they cant afford to hire a high-priced lawyer should they be pulled into the Mueller probe. But CNN noted on Thursday that those aides may have exposed themselves to special counsel scrutiny when they scrambled to craft Trump Jr.s response.

Nevertheless, Kushner is reportedly pushing White House staffers to get even more involved and mount a more vigorous defense. According to Politico, his argument is that the meeting impacts Trumps presidency, so the White House should deal with it. But some people on the communication team, including Press Secretary Sean Spicer, say the issue should be left to the lawyers who were hired to handle the scandal.

Sources said Kushner was angry that the White House communications team wasnt immediately putting surrogates on TV, issuing talking points, and calling up cable news outlets to complain about their chyrons.

Jared wanted to get surrogates, he wanted an op-ed in the [Wall Street] Journal and the [New York] Times, and we said, Wait, we have to talk through how that will play out. Who is going to say it, who is going to put their name on the op-ed and what baggage do they have? said an outside adviser.

Some of the turmoil, CNN reports, stems from the feeling among White House aides that the PR strategy is designed to protect Kushner, the only person mentioned in the emails who works in the White House. Who do you have to protect? You have to protect the guy who filled out the form saying I never took this meeting, one source said.

But according to Axios, Kushners view is that the Trump administration can squash the whole controversy over Trump Jr.s emails with a bit of good PR  and peace in the Middle East.

The view in Kushners orbit is that the brutal new revelations are more P.R. problems than legal problems. And if he makes progress with his Middle East peace efforts, perceptions would be very different.

So far hes been wrong about firing Comey, ignoring legal advice, failing to prepare a coherent response, and creating new questions about who knew what, and when they knew it. But hey, hes Jared Kushner. If he cant make this Russia scandal blow over, nobody can.
See any 60-pound bags of drugs? Photo: David Maung/Bloomberg via Getty Images

President Trump had a 70-minute off-the-record session with reporters on Air Force One Wednesday night, only to have the White House release excerpts of the conversations Thursday. One topic that came up among the many: that border wall. The House GOP just proposed allocating $1.6 billion toward the construction of the wall  though thats only a fraction of the walls total cost. Trump had previously suggested equipping the border wall with solar panels to give Mexico a discount and help defray its multi-billion-dollar price tag, and a reporter wanted to know, was he really, actually serious about that idea?

No, not joking, no, Trump said. There is a chance that we can do a solar wall. He also elaborated on other feature hed like to see: transparency. Literal transparency. You have to be able to see through it, Trump said. In other words, if you cant see through that wall  so it could be a steel wall with openings, but you have to have openings because you have to see whats on the other side of the wall. Because drugs, Trump explained:

And Ill give you an example. As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you dont see them  they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? Its over. As crazy as that sounds, you need transparency through that wall. But we have some incredible designs.

This is actually not the first time the Trump administration has talked about a see-through wall; Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney pitched a similar idea in an interview with Hugh Hewitt back in March. Border controls actually telling us that they like the one you can see through, because it reduces the number of violent attacks on our folks, Mulvaney said. So its a complicated program.

Trump also admitted that his big, beautiful, solar-powered, see-through wall would only stretch 700 to 900 miles along the 2,000-mile border because of natural barriers, such as mountains and some rivers that are violent and vicious, and the approximately 650 miles of physical barriers that are already in place  though those will surely be made great again. Were taking wall that was good but its in very bad shape, he said. Were making it new.
Notwithstanding predictions of a Democratic Senate bloodbath in 2018, Heidi Heitkamps favorability rating in North Dakota is 60 percent, while Republican Jeff Flakes popularity in Arizona is underwater. Photo: U.S. Senate

Perhaps as a tonic for the troops at a time when Senate Republicans are being engulfed by chaos of their own making, veteran spinner Karl Rove devoted a Wall Street Journal column to a baleful assessment of the reelection prospects of Senate Democrats running in states carried handily by Donald Trump last year.

Theres a certain dated quality to Roves analysis; he writes as though these senators are fresh from gazing in awe at Trumps 2016 victory and are trying to decide whether to fight back or run for the hills. In reality, these pols have for the most part chosen to oppose every unpopular thing Trump and the congressional GOP have proposed this year, which fortunately for red-state Democrats is nearly their entire agenda. Still, the 2016 numbers are indeed daunting for some:

The 25 Democratic senators who face re-election in 2018 are already gearing up for a fight. Their latest quarterly fundraising reports, released over the past two weeks, show impressive totals, ranging up to $3.1 million. But for the 10 Democrats from states carried by President Trump, a well-stuffed war chest may not be enough.

This is especially true for six senators in states where Mr. Trumps victory last November was huge. He won Joe Manchins West Virginia by an astonishing 42 points; Heidi Heitkamps North Dakota by 36 points; Jon Testers Montana by 20; Joe Donnellys Indiana and Claire McCaskills Missouri by 19, and Sherrod Browns Ohio by 8.

Rove goes on to make a very dubious assertion that we are going to hear a lot from Republicans between now and November of 2018:

They must all keep an eye on the presidents favorability ratings. On Election Day, Mr. Trump was viewed favorably by 37.5% of voters and unfavorably by 58.5%, according to the RealClearPolitics average. As of this Wednesday, his ratings stood at 40.4% favorable and 53.6% unfavorable.

Mr. Trump is likely to be more popular in states he won than his national average: The larger his margin in those states last November, the better he stands now. If this trend holds through 2018, Democrats in states Mr. Trump won by double or nearly double digits could face stiff re-election contests.

This argument ignores the rather pertinent fact that Trump was running against a rival who was almost as unpopular as he was. In 2018, Republicans wont have the luxury of running against Hillary Clinton. Instead, they will be up against well-known Senate incumbents with their own public profiles, and in a midterm environment where there is usually a wind blowing against the party controlling the White House.

So while we should indeed keep and eye on the presidents favorability ratings, those of the senators in question are even more relevant. As it happens Morning Consult just released an update of its home-state favorability assessments for all 100 U.S. senators, and the very Democrats Rove thinks are in inherently deep trouble are actually doing quite well. Joe Manchins ratio is 57/31; Heidi Heitkamps is an even more impressive 60/28. Jon Tester (50/39), Joe Donnelly (53/25), and Sherrod Brown (50/29) are at or above the magic 50-percent level that often connotes future victory, with limited unfavorables, and Claire McCaskill (46/38) isnt exactly plumbing the depths of unpopularity, either.

In fact, the one senator up in 2018 whose favorability numbers are underwater is a Republican, Jeff Flake of Arizona (37/45).

Another problem for the GOP is that it is struggling to find credible challengers to theoretically vulnerable Democrats in some states (as in Missouri, where consensus GOP favorite Representative Ann Wagner decided not to take on McCaskill), and is facing potentially fractious Republican primaries (as in Indiana, where Representatives Luke Messer and Todd Rokita are already attacking each other) in others.

There is plenty of time for things to change in the months ahead, and nobody on the Democratic side has any reason to feel complacent about holding onto Senate seats in one of the more lopsided landscapes in living memory. But for now, a Democratic red-state bloodbath in 2018 looks unlikely. And if congressional Republicans continue to flail around in the clumsy pursuit of an unpopular agenda, the odds of survival for Democrats in Trump Country will only go up.
Collaborator. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Every American intelligence agency believes that Russia tried to subvert our countrys democratic process in 2016. Presumably, so do Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner, seeing as they (at least) tried to participate in that subversion. And the Trump White House officially accepts the verdict rendered by the intelligence community and Donald Jr.s old emails.

For some strange reason, however, the president appears physically incapable of publicly condemning Russias efforts.

Virtually every member of Congress believes that the Kremlins attempt to compromise our election merits retaliatory sanctions. But the Trump White House apparently thinks that the best way to prevent Russia from meddling in our elections again is to make sure that Moscow suffers no lasting punishment for its previous interference. Last December, the Obama administration seized two Russian diplomatic compounds in retaliation for those efforts. Trump has, reportedly, been trying to find a way to give those back since his very first days in office.

On Thursday, Jake Tapper asked the White Houses senior cable news surrogate Sebastian Gorka to explain the administrations reasoning.

We want to give collaboration and cooperation a chance, Gorka explained. The fact is we may not share the same philosophy, we may not share the same type of statesman view of the world but the fact is there are some issues of common concern.

When Tapper suggested that such a policy would amount to rewarding a foreign power for interfering in our domestic affairs, Gorka replied, Jake, Id ask you the question: Do you wish us to have bad or deteriorating relations with the nuclear power that is the Russian federation?

Gorka says WH is considering giving back compounds to Russia because we want to give collaboration a chance https://t.co/d4GFLUMbZH  The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) July 13, 2017

The United States doesnt dole out rewards to countries because they possess a nuclear weapon, Tapper observed.

Gorka insisted that Trump was right to approach global affairs from a pragmatic viewpoint rather than pursue the disastrous ideologically tinged lack of statesmanship of the Obama White House.

You dont think its weak at all to let Russia go after having interfered in the 2016 election with no punishment at all? Tapper asked.

Gorka chuckled before replying, The last thing you could say about Donald J. Trump  is that hes weak.

Apparently, this exactly the kind of of rapier wit that the president is looking for in his spokespeople. As Axios reports:

Gorkas stock has soared as President Trump has watched him on various cable channels fighting with the hosts and accusing them of being part of the fake news industrial complex.

Before Trump left for Paris yesterday evening, he was asking West Wing staff, Did you see Gorka? So great, I mean really, truly great. Trump loved, in particular, when Gorka told CNN morning host Alisyn Camerota that more people are interested in cartoons than CNN, and that the networks ratings are lower than Nick at Nite.

Gorka came into the White House as a terrorism analyst, one who would advise (one-time National Security Council member) Steve Bannon. But Gorka boasts no genuine expertise on Islamic extremism. He does, however, know a thing or two about how to use a posh accent to convince stupid people to believe lies. And the Trump administration will surely have plenty of use for that service for a while yet.
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Shells Nigerian unit declared a force majeure on Bonny Light crude oil exports effective 12:00 local time on Thursday, just two weeks after it had lifted a previous force majeure on exports of the grade.

According to Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd, as quoted by Reuters, the force majeure was declared after Aiteo, the operator of the Nembe Creek Trunk Lineone of two pipelines that export the Bonny Light gradeshut down the line.

On June 30, a Shell spokesman told Platts that the company had lifted a force majeure on Bonny Light exports on June 28. That force majeure was declared on June 8 after the other export pipeline, Trans Niger Pipeline, was shut down following a sabotage attack by oil thieves. The grade was exported, but cargoes were delayed by around 10 days.

Exports of Bonny Light in June were planned at 203,000 bpd. The July plans, as of mid-June, were for 164,000 bpd of Bonny Light.

According to data compiled by Reuters, as of June 22, Bonny Light loadings for August were set at 226,000 bpd. At that time, the grade was under the previous force majeure declared by Shell.

As of June 22, Nigerias crude oil exports were set to exceed 2 million bpd in August, the highest loadings level planned in 17 months. The August plans compare to 1.84 million bpd initially set for July, but loading delays on the Bonga, Bonny Light, and Qua Iboe grades pushed some cargoes from July into August, according to Reuters data.

Over the past two months, Nigeria has been steadily recovering production, to the point that OPEC is now considering putting a limit on the crude output of the African country, which is currently exempt from the cuts together with fellow African OPEC member Libya. Nigerias oil production rose by 96,700 bpd to 1.733 million bpd in June, and its Oil Minister Emmanuel Kachikwu said earlier this week that the country was ready to support OPECs cuts and limit its own crude oil output when it reaches a stable 1.8 million bpd.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Global oil production surged in June as producers opened the taps, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). OPEC was a major culprit, with Libya and Nigeria doing their best to scuttle the production cuts made by other members.

But it wasnt just those two countries, who are exempted from the agreed upon reductions. OPECs de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, also boosted output by an estimated 120,000 bpd in June, from a month earlier. That put Saudi production above 10 million barrels per day (mb/d) for the first time in 2017. Those gains, combined with the 80,000 bpd increase from Libya and a 60,000 bpd jump from Nigeria, plus some smaller contributions from Equatorial Guinea, put OPECs June production 340,000 bpd higher than in May. It also took the cartels compliance rate down to just 78 percent from 95 percent in May, the worst monthly figure for the group since its deal came into force at the start of the year.

Even worse, the production figures from Libya and Nigeria are much higher at this point than their June average. Over the past few months, the two countries have added 700,000 bpd in new supply, offsetting nearly half of the 1.8 mb/d in the combined OPEC/non-OPEC cuts. And more barrels could be on the way. Libyas output is now above 1 mb/d, a four-year high, and Nigeria could see production soar towards full capacity of roughly 1.8 mb/d during August, the IEA says, up from 1.59 mb/d in June.

The IEA noted that the production cut deal is averaged over the entire compliance period through March 2018, so one months worth of data might not mean much. But it does not bode well. If the higher level of production continues, or if the compliance rate slips further, it would throw most projections about rebalancing out the window. It will be a very difficult six months for the oil industry, Fatih Birol, the IEAs executive director, said at a conference in Istanbul. It will be riding on the storm.

Still, OPEC woes also mean that U.S. shale is suffering too. Prices collapsed in June, and there are many more causes for concern about the health of the shale industry than previously. The IEA said that [f]inancial data suggests that while output might be gushing, profits are not, with even executives from the industry saying that oil needs to be north of $50 per barrel for shale growth to be sustainable. U.S. shale might still grow in the near-term, but the recent exuberance is being reined in, the Paris-based energy agency concluded. Related: Halliburton Sees Oil Price Spike By 2020

For now, though, non-OPEC supply is depressing the oil market. Global oil production is up 1.2 mb/d from a year ago, and non-OPEC [is] firmly back in growth mode, the IEA said in its report. Next year, things dont get much better. Non-OPEC countries  led by the U.S., Canada and Brazil  will add 1.4 mb/d of new supply, enough to meet the entire growth in global demand. As such, any gains in output from OPEC would merely return the market to a surplus. That raises a very big question about what OPEC plans on doing after March 2018 when its deal expires. For now, it has no exit strategy.

The silver-lining for oil prices is that demand was much more robust in the second quarter compared to the first, leaping from 1 mb/d to 1.5 mb/d. The IEA revised up its overall 2017 demand growth figure to 1.4 mb/d, an increase of 0.1 mb/d compared to last month.

Putting supply and demand together, the IEA predicts that global inventories should have drained at a rate of 0.7 mb/d in the second quarter, although incoming data suggests the drawdowns might not have actually occurred at such a pace.

Ultimately, the message from the IEA was much more pessimistic than in previous months. In May, the agency said that the rebalancing is essentially here and, in the short term at least, is accelerating. But that bullish sentiment has all but vanished. [W]e need to wait a little longer to confirm if the process of re-balancing has actually started in 2Q17 and if the waning confidence shown by investors is justified or not, the IEA wrote this week.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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We've had more energy-related newsflow than we can shake a stick at this week, but as we head into the weekend, hark, here is a cornucopia of crude and energy-related tidbits assembled for your perusal.

--It was a little perplexing to read a headline this week which said 'Saudi Arabia's June oil output up on domestic summer crude burning'. Saudi Arabia may have increased its production last month by 190,000 barrels per day (per OPEC direct communication), but exports increased by four times that. Hum dee dum.

The latest monthly OPEC oil market report shows that Saudi direct crude burning for power generation is down year-on-year for the last 13 consecutive months, dropping in May by 56,000 bpd YoY - or 9 percent. The latest drop is attributed to lower temperatures compared to May 2016, as well as slowing momentum in the manufacturing sector.

The Wasit natural gas plant, which is now operating at its full capacity of 2.5 Bcf/d, is no doubt part of this equation too. All this said, parts of Saudi Arabia saw record temperatures last week in central and eastern parts of the Kingdom - temperatures soared to 53 degrees Celsius for the first time on record.

--We highlighted earlier in the year how Saudi Arabia and the UAE were likely to supplement lost revenues from the OPEC production cut deal by exporting more products. We continue to see this trend play out in our ClipperData, with Middle East exports of gasoline and middle distillates outpacing year-ago levels. This may also be a positive signal, indicating stronger end-user demand for products.

(Click to enlarge)

--According to the Indian Oil Ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, gasoline, diesel and LPG demand continued to show strength in June, underpinned by stronger economic growth. Diesel demand, which accounts for 40 percent of total product sales, is up 6.5 percent year-on-year (to 6.8 million tons).

Gasoline demand rose 12 percent (to 2.1 million tons), while LPG demand increased 16 percent (to 1.9 million tons). Offsetting this strength, petcoke, naphtha and bitumen demand fell. As the Indian economy recovers from the speed bump of demonetization at the end of last year, petroleum demand looks robust.

Related: The Major Wildcard That Could Send Oil To $120

This article suggests that Indian crude imports from the Middle East have dropped to their lowest share since 2015 - our ClipperData indicate otherwise. We saw it below 60 percent in February, when India pulled in more West African and Latin American barrels (think: Nigerian and Venezuelan crude).

(Click to enlarge)

--There were two wonderfully juxtapositioned views expressed at the World Petroleum Congress earlier this week in Istanbul. The first was from Royal Dutch Shell's CEO Ben Van Beurden, who highlighted the company's plans to invest as much as $1 billion a year by 2020 into renewables.

This contrasted with comments from Saudi Aramco's CEO Amin Nasser, who said it will invest more than $300 billion over the next decade to maintain its spare oil-production capacity and to develop natural gas resources, highlighting 'we need about 20 million additional barrels a day over the next five years' to offset rising oil demand and the natural decline at developed fields, expressing his concern that 'about $1 trillion in investments has been lost in the current downturn'.

--Peak oil has been a buzzword this week, and coincidentally, my latest feature on NPR's Texas Standard on Monday addressed the possible timing of peak oil demand - the interview can be found here.

We discussed how it was impossible to know when peak oil demand is coming - and that wide-ranging estimates only underscore this. The IEA projects its likelihood of being beyond 2040, while Royal Dutch Shell sees it as soon as mid-next decade.

France is banning the sale of gasoline and diesel cars by 2040, while Volvo is only going to design electric cars or hybrids after 2019, while Rolls Royce is skipping building hybrids, and shifting straight to creating electric cars. The chart below illustrates that, according to Bloomberg, electric vehicles are set to account for all the growth in global vehicle sales within a decade:

(Click to enlarge)

--The IEA has been busy this week. The chart below is from their publication about natural gas, in which it highlights that China, India and other developing countries will import more than 50 percent of global LNG volumes by 2022.

Related: Will The EV Hype Actually Help The Oil Business?

Global gas demand is expected to grow by 1.6 percent per annum to 2022, with global consumption reaching 4,000 Bcm at this point. China is projected to account for 40 percent of this growth. The U.S. is projected to account for 40 percent of global natural gas production growth over the same period, accounting for more than a fifth of global gas output by 2022.

(Click to enlarge)

--Finally, the below chart is also from the IEA, and has been grabbin' headlines this week, as it highlights the passing of a milestone: global electricity investment overtaking the investment in fossil fuel supply last year.

But as the chart below illustrates, this is less to do with rising investment in the electricity sector, and more to do with tanking investment in fossil fuel supply. Capital spending in the fossil fuel supply sector has fallen 38 percent in the last two years. Energy investment on the whole in 2016 was down 12 percent on the prior year.

(Click to enlarge)

By Matt Smith

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Over the next seven years, Iraq will need Iranian natural gas supplies to feed its power-generation plants, because domestic gas output will not be enough, Iraqs Minister of Electricity, Qasim Al-Fahdawi, has said.

New stations are entering into service soon, hence the countrys need for gas imports, Iraqi News quoted Al-Fahdawi as saying.

Natural gas output from Iraqs southern fields in the Basra province will not be enough to meet the demand for powering electricity generation, according to the minister.

However, Iraqs need for gas imports could lessen in the future, after planned fields for producing non-associated gas come on stream, such as Siba, Mansouriya, and Western Anbar, the Iraqi minister said.

Last month, Iran finally started exporting natural gas to its neighbor Iraq, after a four-year delay due to the challenging security situation in war-torn Iraq. The exports have started at a daily rate of 7 million cu m, according to a deputy oil minister who spoke to IRNA, as quoted by Reuters, but should reach 35 million cu m at an unspecified point in the future.

The gas will be supplied under two contractsone for exports to Baghdad power plants, and the other to Basra. Iran already supplies electricity to its energy-hungry neighbor.

Iran, for its part, signed earlier this month its first Iranian Petroleum Contract (IPC) with a Western major since most sanctions on Iran were lifted. Frances energy major Total SA signed a contract to develop phase 11 of the South Pars gas field in Iranthe worlds biggest gas field. Phase 11 of the South Pars (SP11) project will have a production capacity of 2 billion cubic feet per day or 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day including condensate. The gas produced from the project will supply the Iranian domestic market starting in 2021, Total said on July 3.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Kuwait plans to increase its crude oil production capacity to 4.75 million bpd by 2040, compared to a current capacity of 3.15 million bpd, the CEO of Kuwait Petroleum International, the refining arm of Kuwait Petroleum Corp., told Bloomberg in an interview published on Thursday.

Kuwaits more immediate plans are to raise its capacity to 4 million bpd by 2020 and keep that capacity until 2030, when it would seek to start raising it to 4.75 million bpd by 2040, Kuwait Petroleum Internationals CEO Bakheet al-Rashidi said.

This is one of the targets, and it is not approved yet, but we will definitely go beyond 4 million barrels a day starting from 2030, al-Rashidi told Bloomberg.

Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) wants to add or expand refining capacity outside Kuwait and is looking at the growing markets of China, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

We see growth in these countries, so we will be there, al-Rashidi said.

KPI also plans to have the capacity to refine 800,000 bpd of crude oil outside Kuwait within five years, and to further raise that capacity to 1.3 million bpd after 2030, with Kuwaiti crude supplying at least 65 percent of the companys new refineries abroad, according to the manager.

KPI has a 200,000-bpd plant under construction in Vietnam and has a preliminary agreement with PetroVietnam to expand the capacity to 400,000 bpd after 2025, al-Rashidi told Bloomberg.

According to the Kuwaiti manager, global refining capacity would jump to 110 million bpd by 2040 from 97 million bpd now, which could narrow the refining industrys profit margins after 2024 due to possible excess capacity.

Kuwaits total crude oil production averaged 2.954 million bpd in 2016, according to OPEC data. This year, under the OPEC production cut agreement, Kuwait has pledged to cut 131,000 bpd off its October 2016 output, and pump no more than 2.707 million bpd. It has largely complied with its commitment so far.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Residual fuel consumption in Saudi Arabia jumped to 625,000 bpd in April, the highest since October last year, and contrary to the general global trend of declining fuel oil demand worldwide, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

"Although Saudi Arabia increasingly desires to move its domestic power sector away from crude oil towards natural gas, residual fuel oil has become increasingly important, the IEA said in its monthly oil market report released Thursday, and quoted by Platts.

Indeed, [Saudi] use of fuel oil may grow strongly as 2020 approaches with the possibility of more material becoming available due to the International Maritime Organization-mandated changes in marine fuel specifications, the IEA said.

Although oil product demand globally is strong, fuel oil demand has been declining in consumers such as India, Japan, Korea, and Russia, according to the international agency.

On the other hand, higher Saudi demand is mostly driven by the power generation sector and by desalination plants.

The Saudis have been one of the few [countries] increasing their fuel oil intake, largely because they've realized how uneconomical it is to use their own crude oil for power use, one fuel oil trader told Platts.

According to market sources, Saudi Arabia imports fuel oil from Greeces Motor Oil Hellas, which ships one cargo per month to Saudi Aramco under a term contract.

In its International Energy Outlook 2016, the EIA said last year that large reductions in global demand for residual fuel oil (RFO) are expected to come from decreases in its use for power generation and for space heating.

In the power sector, the cost of pollution controls, maintenance, and RFO heating often offset the lower cost of RFO in comparison with natural gas and other more expensive fuels. Consequently, power sector demand for RFO, especially in industrialized countries, is expected to decrease, although it may continue to serve as a transitional fuel in the power sectors of non-OECD countries that may be more sensitive to price and less sensitive to environmental and health implications, the EIA said.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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The United States and Mexico will expand their energy ties, the two countries energy ministers said after a meeting in Mexico. The Associated Press quoted U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry as saying Mexico was a very, very important partner in energy.

The meeting comes ahead of a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which, according to Perry, did not cover the energy sector when it came into force in 1994. The renegotiation, he said, should make the entire region a powerful energy source for the world.

Perrys Mexican counterpart, Joaquin Coldwell, for his part, said that Mexico plans to build two new pipelines that will boost U.S. natural gas exports to its southern neighbor. This will bring the total gas pipeline export capacity from the U.S. to Mexico to 19. The AP notes that Mexico accounts for 58 percent of the U.S. gas exports and 40 percent of crude oil exports.

The additional export capacity will be needed: a recent announcement from finance minister Jose Antonio Meade said that by the end of the year, Mexicos crude oil production could slip below 2 million barrels daily. This would be the lowest output level since 1980. According to Meade, 2017 production will average 1.947 million bpd, down 9.6 percent on 2016. In 2019, however, production will begin to recover, he said.

Related: Macquarie: OPEC Deal To Collapse In 2018

This decline in productiona result of underinvestment and field depletionis the basis of a recent increase in efforts to stimulate new discoveries. Earlier this week, the countrys oil and gas regulator announced the successful close of two onshore oil and gas exploration auctions that saw 21 out of 24 new blocks awarded to several companies.

Meanwhile, however, Canadian Renaissance Oil Corp., which operates the Ponton onshore field, said it had approved a force majeure for the field because of an environmental dispute. The field was previously operated by local state major Pemex.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Venezuelan shipments of crude oil to Cuba have fallen 13 percent in the first six months of 2017, according to official PDVSA data seen by Reuters this week.

Havana reduced electricity use quotas for its state-run businesses by 28 percent last year, but the government did not put caps on residential consumption.

Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez set up contracts with communist Cuba regarding oil supplies back in 2000. In return, Cuba offers Venezuela doctors and other medical services.

The documents showed that PDVSA sent Cuba 72,350 barrels of crude and refined products per day through June  13 percent less than the same period last year.

Currently, Cuba relies on foreign oil for more than two thirds of its daily consumption, with over 100,000 barrels of crude flowing from Venezuela every day for years. Their dependence on Venezuelan oil has come to an end as President Nicolas Madura struggles to reduce the effects of a production shortage that has caused mass shortages of day-to-day and medical supplies.

Cuba needs at least 70,000 bpd from Venezuela to cover its energy deficit and avoid deeper rationing. A larger or total loss of the Venezuelan supply would have a high political and financial cost for Cuba," as it attempts to prepare for an increasing number of tourists, this year, said Jorge Pinon, an energy expert at the University of Texas in Austin.

Related: The Major Wildcard That Could Send Oil To $120

Cuba is currently probing for oil in its own offshore wells, with some hope of finding a vast untapped reserve, but so far, theyve run dry. In response, theyve reached out to Russia. In May, Russia exported its first shipment of oil to Cuba in decades. The tanker, carrying 250,000 barrels of Russian oil, was just the first installment of a total 1.9 million barrels to be sent by the Russian government-owned oil company, Rosneft.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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HMD Global will start selling the Nokia 6 on August 23. Users will have to register for the first sale on Amazon.in. According to the e-commerce website, only registered users can participate in the sale. This new sale date might disappoint the people who were eagerly waiting for the top version of the three android Nokia smartphones. Nokia's phones garnered a lot of attention when the device was launched back in June.



The Nokia 6 will be running a stock Android Nougat out of the box. The company will be focusing on online sales with the Nokia 6 in comparison to Nokia 3 and Nokia 5 which were essentially selling to make their presence felt in the offline market.



According to a report by India Today Tech, the company is trying to meet the demand of Nokia 3. A Nokia spokesperson said, "We are humbled by the response to Nokia 3. Currently, we are ramping up our production for Nokia 3 on priority to meet the existing consumer demand. In the coming week, we will start production of Nokia 6 and Nokia 5 to get them ready for sales starts by mid-august."

According to the company's schedule, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 were supposed to hit the Indian market in the first week of July but owing to the mega tax reform, GST, there seems to be a delay in sales.



Nokia 6 has a 5.5 Inch HD display powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 which is supported by 3/4GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB internal storage.



On the camera front, the phone houses a 16MegaPixel rear camera 8 MegaPixel front facing snapper. The rear panel also houses a 3000 mAh battery unit. The device is priced at Rs 14,999 which pits it against the likes of Moto G5 Plus and Redmi Note 4.
Directors to get Nawaz are sitting abroad,Imran Khan working for them: PLM-N

LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz hawks have stopped the chorus of blaming elements in the military establishment and judiciary for hatching conspiracies to oust Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.



The PML-N leaders have now completely shifted their focus from the establishment and judiciary to the Joint Investigation Team that probed the money laundering allegations against the Sharif family and submitted its report to the apex court.



Our message of conspiracy has already been conveyed to the people and our workers. Now we are only focusing on further discrediting the JIT and challenging its report in the court, a senior PML-N leader from Punjab told reporters on Thursday.



The PML-N leader gave two reasons for changing the focus  the Supreme Courts notice of speeches by Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, MNA Talal Chaudhry and PMs special assistant Asif Kirmani, which had the content indicating the involvement of the establishment and judiciary in conspiracies to send Nawaz Sharif packing, and the prime ministers directives in this regard.



Interestingly, the PML-N hawks have also changed their earlier narrative and now alleged that directors to get Nawaz are sitting abroad and the PTI chairman is working for them here.



Attempts to get Saad Rafiques reply to a query whether the foreign directors he was talking about possessed the Pakistani passport were not successful.



During the 2014 PTI sit-in in Islamabad, the PML-N had accused a former ISI chief of orchestrating the protest to oust Nawaz Sharif.



Since the JIT has submitted its report to the SC, there is no point in showing public strength or reiterating our old stance. There has been a consensus in the party, including [Punjab] Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, that PM Sharif will not bow to any pressure to resign no matter how much pressure the opposition manages to exert. The Sharifs will face the case in the apex court and accept its verdict, the PML-N leader said.



The Punjab government believes that there has been no evidence of the military establishment or judiciary involved in any kind of conspiracy in the Panama Papers case.



There is no evidence of conspiracy against the Sharif family by any institutions, including the army, in the Panama Papers case. If someone has he must come forward. The JIT is, however, open to scrutiny, Punjab government spokesman Malik Ahmad Khan told mediamen.



When it was alleged that Imran Khan was performing on the script written by the directors abroad, he said, it was because Mr Khan was playing outside the boundary of the democratic system. Political stability is the need of the hour for the progress of the country and when Imran and company try to hamper this progress through sit-ins one thinks about the script writers sitting outside the country who do not want Pakistan to move forward, Malik Ahmad said.



PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry rubbished the federal ministers story of the script writer(s), saying the person the PML-N hawks were referring to was living in Pakistan and working in a construction group. The PML-N should better find conspirators in Dubai, Qatar and Calbiri font Microsoft. The Sharif family is still living in the 1980s. Since the Sharifs remained part of every conspiracy against the political system, they think the same is happening to them and the establishment is behind it, he told newsmen.



Fawad Chaudhry said in todays Pakistan it was not possible for anyone to conspire against the democratic system in the presence of vibrant media, strong civil society and independent judiciary.



The JITs findings are criminal investigation and the Sharif family cannot challenge them in the apex court. The SC may refer the case against the premier and his children to the NAB court where they may contest it, he added.
Pakistan to grant visa to the mother of Kulbhushan Jadhav

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria on Thursday said that Pakistan is considering Indias request for the grant of visa to the mother of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav.



India had requested Pakistan to allow Avantika Jadhav to meet her son, who was sentenced to death by a military court on the charges of espionage and terrorism.



Indias External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj claimed she had written a personal letter to Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz asking for the approval of Avantikas visa application so that she may travel to Pakistan.



However, addressing the weekly news briefing in Islamabad, the FO spokesperson said that asking for recommendations from Aziz to grant visas was against diplomatic norms.



He also regretted that India had imposed strict restrictions on the grant of visa to Pakistani patients. Indias belligerence poses threat to regional peace and security.



He expressed serious concerns over frequent ceasefire violations by Indian forces on the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary. He also remarked that India had continuously been violating the ceasefire agreement, adding that innocent Kashmiris, including children, were being targeted by Indian troops.



The Indian side is deliberately heightening tension in order to divert world attention from its atrocities in occupied Kashmir. Indian forces committed 542 ceasefire violations in the current year in which 18 civilians embraced martyrdom.



It may be mentioned here that on July 10, five innocent people, including four women, were martyred in unprovoked firing by Indian troops along the LoC, according to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).



Four others, including three girls, were injured due to the firing, which occurred in Rawalakot sector, Satwal, Manwal and Tatrinote areas along the LoC.



Before this, back-to-back violations occurred on July 8 and July 9 after which at least two civilians were killed due to unprovoked Indian firing.



The FO spokesman said that Pakistani forces gave befitting response to the Indian aggression but they were demonstrating utmost restraint, as Pakistan had no desire to escalate the tension. The world community and the United Nations have also expressed concerns over the LoC situation.



The spokesperson said, The 44th session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), which was held in Abidjan, Republic of Cote dIvoire, on July 10-11, 2017, condemned the state terrorism in the IHK and called upon India to implement the United Nations Security Council resolutions on IHK.



Nafees Zakaria said that the resolution, which was unanimously adopted by the 56-member council, noted that Jammu and Kashmir remains the core dispute between India and Pakistan, and its early resolution is imperative for bringing peace to South Asia.



The council expressed its support to the widespread indigenous movement of the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir for their promised right to self-determination and observed that the just struggle of Kashmiris cannot be equated with terrorism. The spokesperson said that the council also called upon the United Nations and the international community to play their due role in stopping the continuing bloodshed in IHK and for the implementation of the UN Security Councils resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, which guarantee Kashmiris right to self-determination through a UN supervised plebiscite.



Pakistan believes in resolution of all issues through dialogue. It is time that the international community takes concrete measures to stop the bloodshed in the valley.



He said that the Kashmir disputes reflection in the UKs Labour Partys election manifesto, and in the January 19 debate in the House of Commons of the UK, represented increasing concern over the current unacceptable human rights situation in IHK.



Zakaria said, The Kashmiris observed Youm-i-Shuhdah to commemorate the unprecedented sacrifices rendered by Kashmiris in 1931. We pay tribute to shuhdah (martyrs) and express solidarity with Kashmiris in their struggle against Indian unlawful occupation of their territory.
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FORT EDWARD  Matthew Slocum was sentenced Friday to 82  years to life in prison  almost six years to the date from the day he killed his mother, stepfather and stepbrother.

A jury last month convicted Slocum, 29, in Washington County Court of all charges related to the killing and arson in White Creek that claimed the lives of Lisa Harrington, Dan Harrington and Josh OBrien. He shot them to death with a 12-gauge shotgun and then set the house on fire before fleeing to New Hampshire with his then-girlfriend Loretta Colegrove.

This was the second conviction of Slocum in the past five years in the case. The original conviction in 2012 was overturned when an appeals court ruled Slocums confession should not have been admitted because police continued to interrogate him after he said Yeah, probably, in response to a question of whether he needed a lawyer.

Judge Kelly McKeighan imposed consecutive sentences on the three counts of second-degree murder. He imposed concurrent sentences on the lesser charges of arson, criminal possession of a weapon, tampering with physical evidence and misdemeanor petit larceny.

They will run consecutive to the murder counts.

More than 60 people including family members packed the courtroom for the sentencing.

The court heard three powerful victim impact statements.

Raymond Harrington, father of Dan Harrington and grandfather of OBrien, told the court that the family felt like they had to walk on eggshells for fear of swaying the jury, but Slocum maintains all his rights under the law.

I feel that our lives are on trial, he said.

He also expressed frustration with the fact that the retrial was ordered and they had to find out about it by watching the news.

On July 13, 2011, Matt Slocum took three lives. He chose his path. He made his choice. Matt Slocum spoke two words, yeah probably. That got us to this point today, he said.

Slocum has not expressed remorse for the killing, according to Harrington. He quoted Slocum as saying that when he was 10 or 11 years old, he knew he could kill somebody and not even think about it.

This speaks volumes to who he really he is, he said.

Harrington said the killings were a crime against humanity itself.

Harrington put a container with some scraps of paper left from the fire on top of the bench.

Everyone look at this tote. Three precious lives  gone. Josh, Dan, Lisa  gone. A beautiful home  gone. A happy home  gone. Two family dogs  gone, loving pets, gone. All their possessions  gone. Everything. Gone.

This is what Matt Slocum chooses to leave behind at 118 Turnpike Road, six years and one day ago. Just a few charred papers.  This is our reality for the rest of our lives, He said.

Harrington asked the judge to give Slocum a dose of reality.

He should die in prison. Thats not excessive. Thats justice, he said.

Raymond Coon, Lisa Harringtons brother, asked Slocum how he could kill his own mother, his brother-in-law, Dan Harrington and Joshua, who he said was possibly the best friend Slocum had.

How could you do that? We will always remember Lisa, Dan and Josh because we loved them so much and I hope that Lisa, Dan and Josh will haunt you, Matt Slocum, for the rest of your life! Coon said.

And on your judgment day, may God show you as much mercy and you showed your mother Lisa, Dan and Josh! Coon added.

Pollyanna OBrien, Joshuas mother, said she felt like she wanted to die and experiencing heartache that will never go away.

I have a vision in my head of how terrible it most have been for Josh. My 24-year-old son looked into the eyes of his murderer and knew he was going to die, she said.

She said she is afraid that she will forget the sound of his voice. Joshuas son Ayden will not grow up with his father.

My heart breaks for the relationship that is lost between father and son, she said.

She described wearing some of his ashes around her neck and cleaning his gravestone. This is the only thing she has left of him  unlike Slocum.

He at least retains the gift of life  unlike Dan, Lisa and my handsome son Joshua, she said.

McKeighan said Slocum has declined to take responsibility for anything in his entire life. That will continue into prison.

All the people in the audience will pay their taxes so once again you dont have to pay your bills, he said.

When asked by McKeighan, Slocum declined to offer any statement, saying Im good.

After McKeighan imposed sentence, a member of the audience yelled rot in Hell scum bag.

Raymond Harrington said outside the courtroom that he wants Slocum to die in prison.

You could try this case 100 times and find him guilty, because he is guilty, he said

Life will never be the same for the family, they said.
QUEENSBURY  Rachel Seeber, the Republican candidate for Queensbury supervisor, is undertaking a write-in primary campaign for the Conservative Party nomination, against the wishes of local Conservative Party leaders who have endorsed Democratic incumbent John Strough.

The contest for the Conservative Party line will put the towns 259 registered Conservatives in the forefront of political attention in the first leg of campaigning, and be an indicator of overall strength among philosophical fiscal conservative voters, a predominant block among the local electorate.

Both candidates have had Conservative Party backing in previous political campaigns.

Strough, a two-term incumbent supervisor, had the Conservative endorsement in both 2013 and 2015, and in his previous bids for 3rd Ward Councilman.

Seeber, a two-term supervisor at-large on the Warren County Board of Supervisors, had the Conservative endorsement for at-large supervisor 2015.

Since I have announced that I am running for the Town Supervisor in Queensbury, I have spoken to a number of Conservative voters, and I have found they are very positive about my message. ... I believe our Conservative voters in Queensbury deserve a choice, Seeber said.

I am the endorsed Warren County Conservative Party candidate, Strough said. I have received very strong support and accolades from Conservative Party registrants for the job I was doing as Town Supervisor.

Seeber, on Thursday, filed Opportunity to Ballot petitions, signed by registered Conservative Party members, a mechanism which entitles registered Conservative Party members to write her name, or any other name, in on the Sept. 12 primary ballot, according to the Warren County Board of Elections website.

The petition allows voters to write in anyones name  not just specifically Seebers name.

Stroughs name will actually appear on the primary ballot.

New York election law allows candidates to run on multiple party lines in the general election and combine the total number of votes received on all party lines.

However, except in the case of judge races, candidates not enrolled in the political party must receive permission from party leaders in order for nominating petitions for that party to be valid.

The opportunity to ballot primary is a mechanism for a candidate to seek the partys nomination without receiving permission from party leaders.

Seeber said she sought the Conservative Party endorsement, but did not receive it.

The Warren County Conservative Committee unanimously endorsed and authorized incumbent John Strough to run for the office of Queensbury Town Supervisor, in accordance with the bylaws of the Warren County Conservative Party, said Warren County Conservative Party Conservative Chairwoman Carol Birkholz.

Seeber also has filed nominating petitions to run on the Republican, Independence, and Reform ballot lines, and has filed an opportunity to ballot petition for the Womens Equality ballot line.

The Womens Equality Party, a liberal third party that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and others founded in 2014, has six registered members in Queensbury.

Strough also has filed nominating petitions to run on the Democratic line.
Orange County (Calif.) Register

For more than a decade, the United States Congress has ceded war-making powers to the executive branch and abdicated its constitutional responsibility to debate and declare war if and when it is necessary.

The result has been a foreign policy that is increasingly disjointed and counterproductive, with the nation in a state of perpetual, aimless war.

On June 29, in a surprising display of bipartisanship, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee took an important step toward regaining congressional authority over matters of war and peace, voting in favor of an amendment to a broader defense spending bill to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force provided to the president following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Introducing the amendment was Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., the lone member of Congress to vote against the 2001 AUMF, who said of her vote against the AUMF that I knew then it would provide a blank check to wage war anywhere, anytime, for any length by any president. Lee has repeatedly sought repeal of the 2001 AUMF over the years, only now receiving significant bipartisan support.

Several Republicans, including military veterans, made clear it was time for Congress to fulfill its constitutional obligations. Weve had leadership honestly on both sides that have put off this debate again and again and again, said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., in support. If were going to send people to war, we owe them the support of the Congress of the United States.

The amendment, which would give the Congress 240 days after approval of the appropriations bill before the AUMF would expire to debate the issue, was approved by voice vote. While the legitimacy of the vote has since been disputed by Speaker Paul Ryan and the House Foreign Affairs committee, the vote sends the important message that Congress should not continue shirking its responsibilities over a key component of American national security and international affairs.

The 2001 AUMF, passed just three days after the attacks of Sept. 11, grants the president sweeping authorization for military force against those nations, organizations, or persons the president determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.

The resolution has since morphed into a justification for a much broader set of interventions around the world, with only tenuous connections to the attacks of Sept. 11, from justifying military operations in Libya, Pakistan and Yemen, to fighting groups that didnt even exist in 2001 like al-Shabaab in Somalia and ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

The AUMF has even been invoked to justify the warrantless surveillance of Americans and detention of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

The past 16 years have vindicated Lees suspicion that the AUMF would serve as justification for wars without limits.

It is time for Congress to revisit and repeal prior AUMFs, and if it is necessary, debate and pass new authorizations with clear targets and time limits to keep Congress in the conversation. Without debate and limitations, America will remain in a state of perpetual war, with civil liberties threatened, countless dollars spent and human lives lost in pursuit of vague, open-ended and potentially unwinnable objectives.
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Two members of the Sisters of St. Francis order in Clinton will celebrate their anniversaries, and one will profess "First Vows" on Saturday, July 29, at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Clinton.

Sister Yvonne Gehant and Sister Michael Marie Burns will celebrate anniversaries of their entry into the congregation, called a Jubilee, and Sister Emily Brabham will profess the initial vows.

Bishop Thomas Zinkula will preside at the Mass.

"I am looking forward to celebrating the Jubilee Mass with the Clinton Franciscans. This will be my first visit to Clinton as the bishop of the diocese, and it will be a pleasure to honor the many years of professed religious life of Sisters Yvonne and Michael Marie and a delight to witness Emily profess first vows," he said in a news release.

Gehant, who celebrates 70 years of religious life, was born in West Brooklyn, Illinois, and transferred to Mount St. Clare Academy in Clinton her senior year of high school. During that year, she decided to become a nun with the order.

"What influenced me to join the Sisters of St. Francis was the good example of the Sisters at Mount St. Clare Academy when I was a student there," she said.

Gehant spent many of her years of active ministry teaching students at the junior high level. She began teaching sixth-grade students at St. Francis de Paula School in Chicago and later taught in California, Rochelle and Macomb, Illinois, serving as principal for 12 of those years. In Clinton, Gehant taught at Sacred Heart School and at Mount St. Clare College.

For an additional 28 years, she served in various capacities at Mount St. Clare College as an English instructor, business office manager and assistant in the office of the academic dean. She directed the Mount St. Clare Elementary Tutoring Program from 1991 until it closed. For 19 years, Gehant was the general secretary of the St. Francis order, and she served in that capacity until 2008 when she retired.

Sister Michael Marie Burns celebrates 60 years of religious life. She was inspired to become a nun when she was in the first grade. In her youth, she walked Pershing Boulevard every day to St. Boniface Grade School where she met many Clinton Franciscan Sisters, including her first-grade teacher and inspiration, Sister Mary Lacy.

As she discussed her many years of caregiving, teaching, ministering on campuses, mentoring in religious education and her new endeavor as a spiritual director, she said, I am very happy. I didnt look at other congregations 60 years ago, but this was the right one. How lucky can you be?

The Clinton native began her ministry teaching elementary students at St. Francis de Paula School in Chicago and at parochial schools in Vail and Akron, Iowa, and Riverside, California. She served as a campus minister for college students for 10 years, first at the University of California in Riverside; California State College, San Bernadino; and the two community colleges in Riverside and San Bernadino, and later at Viterbo College in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

She earned a masters degree in pastoral studies from Loyola University, and at St. Bonaventure University, she completed a second masters degree in Franciscan studies. For the next 18 years, she ministered as religious education director at three different parishes in Illinois and Indiana. Her final nine years of full-time active ministry were spent as a caregiver, house manager and qualified support professional at Sophia House Esperanza, Chicago, a residence for people with developmental disabilities.

Burns resides at The Canticle, where she serves as a member of the Liturgy Committee. She is also a member of the Spiritual Life Committee for LArche, Clinton, and leads a monthly prayer service for residents of Mercy Living Center South. A certified spiritual director, she is available for individual spiritual direction.

"Its as if God allowed me to know when to move and when to stay," she said of her different ministries. "When I began all those years ago, I saw rules as rules but over time and especially with college students ... They came to help me understand people arent made for the law, the law is made for the people ...

Sister Emily Brabham is the daughter of Linda and Dale Brabham of Sherwood, Oregon, and will profess vows of poverty, chastity and obedience for the first time July 29.

Brabham has been in initial discernment for four years. She has participated in the life and mission of the Sisters and the inter-community programs for pre-novitiate and canonical year while she directed the youth ministry for the parish of St. Francis Xavier in LaGrange, Illinois. She lives at the Franciscan Dwelling place in Chicago.

"The gift of the Clinton Franciscas is an indescribable joy that I thank God for every day ... I seek to serve Gods people and live out the mission through peacemaking and active non-violence while embracing the conversion of heart," she said.
Cemetery woes

Barb Ickes traces the sad decline of the Fairmount Cemetery in her latest and searches for what, if anything, can be done to restore it.

A different kind of blue-eyed blonde

Local angler John "Doc" Henyan had never seen a sunflower yellow 55-pound catfish until he pulled one out of the Mississippi.

A new monument to Bix

The Beiderbecke Museum and Archives  a long-planned facility honoring the life of the jazz legend  finally opens in the basement of the River Music Experience in downtown Davenport on July 24.

Opposites don't always attract

Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders and Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway will be under the same roof this Saturday as the political opponents each hold events at the same time Saturday at the downtown Des Moines convention hall.

Weather

Expect moderate temperatures and no rain through Saturday morning.

Traffic

Expect delays west on I-74 WB from Exit 4 - US 67 to the Mississippi River bridge in Bettendorf.
Iowa Rep. Todd Prichard is leaving the campaign trail for a few weeks so that he can take part in his annual Army Reserve training.

Prichard, a Charles City Democrat who is running for governor, will be heading to Europe on Monday, part of a nearly three-week stint in which he will take part in multinational exercises in Bulgaria.

A lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, Prichard manages distribution for the 103rd Sustainment Command.

"We're responsible for making sure the supplies and materials reach the theater," he said.

Prichard, who is 43, has 22 years of service and has deployed overseas four times, including Egypt in 2003 and Iraq in 2006 and 2007. He said this is his last year in the reserves.

Prichard has emphasized his military service while running for governor, but his stint overseas will take him off the campaign trail. He said even in his absence, however, his campaign will be active.

When he returns in August, Prichard said, he will be pitching a goal that his campaign announced to create 50,000 net new jobs over five years that pay at least $50,000 a year.

"Unemployment in the state is low, but good jobs are hard to come by," he said. He called the plan 50-50 by 5.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and former Gov. Terry Branstad have frequently cited the state's low jobless rate, but Democrats have complained that wages in the state are too low.

Accomplishing the goal of creating 50,000 new higher-paying jobs will require additional investments in education and things such as broadband in underserved parts of the state, Prichard said.

Prichard is an attorney in Charles City but grew up in Davenport. He is one of seven Democrats who have announced campaigns for governor or are considering it.

Prichard was elected to the Iowa Legislature in 2013.
Four "old dudes" pulled in quite a lunker earlier this month in Pool 14 of the Mississippi River, but the color of its skin  not its size  has kept them talking about it.

Ive been fishing this river for 60 years, and Ive never seen anything like this, said Loyal Tullius, referring to the 55-pound flathead catfish that measured 47 inches long. Its as yellow as can be, and it has blue eyes.

Just hours before their rare-colored find two weeks ago along Steamboat Slough near Princeton, Iowa, the guys, who shared details about their strategy, landed a 48-pound flathead catfish in the same area.

In place of a traditional rod and reel, they stuck a 10-foot-long PVC pole into the muddy shore and fastened a thick cord to the structure. For bait, they hooked a bluegill to the end of the line, which dangled about a foot under the surface of the water and eventually lured the bottom-feeding fish.

As Tullius piloted his boat, John Doc Henyan of Cordova used a net to hoist the hefty creature aboard.

It scared me at first, said Henyan, 69, who earned the nickname, Doc, during his service as a combat medic in the Vietnam War. I knew we had a good one on there, but I did not expect to see that big yellow head come out of the water.

What makes it yellow?

Puzzled by its pigment, Tullius, 74, sent inquiries to numerous biologists in the region, including one at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque.

Meanwhile, he stored it in a 250-gallon tank on his property in Port Byron.

Speaking for his crew, Tullius, who assumed the fish was albino, wanted to know why it was yellow and whether anyone wanted to take it for research purposes.

After examining photos of the fish, Andy Allison, director of living collections at the Dubuque institution, quickly ruled out his caller's theory.

Instead, he thought it could be leucistic, which means it has less pigment than normal, but more than a true albino would possess.

Allison called it remarkable that the fish lived as long as it did in the dark depths of the Mississippi River, where it would be easier for predators to spot versus brown ones.

Most species can produce unusually colored animals now and then, but most often they dont survive for long, he said. At this adult size, it would have no natural predators other than humans.

Although it was not as bright as this fish, John Perkins caught and released a 38-pound flathead catfish with yellow patches last July under the Interstate 280 bridge in Davenport. He used 50-pound test line and live shad for bait.

In response to Tullius' other question, Allison said he did not want to take in the fish because he already has two similar-sized flathead catfish. They live in the museums largest freshwater aquarium, which represents the main channel of the Mississippi River, and holds 35,000 gallons of water.

They can be aggressive when defending their caves, said Allison, who mentioned Tullius' call sticks out among the "odd" queries he receives. "People tend to call us with weird animal questions now and then, but that's the first of anything like that we've had."

What happened to the fish?

Because he couldn't find anyone to take the fish off his hands, Tullius decided to skin it and clean it himself, along with the 48-pound catfish they wrangled that same day.

"I've got about 100 pounds worth of fillets in the freezer," he said.

They plan to split about 60 pounds among their group of four fishermen and serve the remaining fillets next month during the weekend of the 20th annual Scouting Clays Classic.

The main event is held at the Bi-State Sportsman's Association's shotgun shooting club in Colona, where Tullius serves as the president.

Henyan, the Vietnam War vet, said the white meat is "absolutely delicious."

Davenport angler Samuel Brown, who recently wrestled a 65-pound flathead catfish to shore just east of the roller dam at Lock and Dam 15, also is feeding others with his big catch.

He kept the head for himself, but he filleted, packaged and delivered other portions of the 44-inch-long fish to a combination of friends and those in need.

My catfish list is getting longer, so I guess Ill be fishing more, said Brown, an Oklahoma native, who retired from the U.S. Army in 1996. "I've always been a giver by nature."

Gunning for the record

The viral photo of a smiling Brown and his monstrous catch, shot by Quad-City Times' chief photographer Kevin Schmidt, has been shared more than 1,500 times on Facebook.

"We can't go to dinner without someone saying, 'There's the guy who caught the 65-pound fish,'" said Brown, who nicknamed it "Hulk." "It's everywhere."

This marks the second time in the past 14 months that his fishing success has caught fire on social media.

In May 2016, Brown lifted a 45-pound flathead catfish, which he coined "Beast," up over the seawall in the exact same spot.

At Croegaerts Great Outdoors in Rock Island, store manager Jon Hurt said he regularly weighs in 20- to 30-pound flathead catfish.

Although he doesn't see 35- to 50-pound catfish quite as often, that doesnt mean theyre not out there, he said.

Weve got some monster fish around the area, said Hurt, who goes by Captain Jon. Normally, the people who catch them either dont know they ever had them or dont have the equipment to handle them.

Theyre not long fighters, but when you first hook them, youve got your hands full."

Brown, 61, said he battled each of his fish for about 25-30 minutes. He used 60-pound test line and bluegill to attract them, and a gaff, or long stick with a hook, to pull them to land.

I knew he had to be a beast when he first hit," Brown said, referring to his 65-pounder. "If youre by yourself, you have to have a plan of action if you do get something like that on your line."

Looking forward, he hopes to break the record for largest flathead catfish ever registered in Iowa, which was caught in 1958 in Chariton. The fish weighed 81 pounds and measured 52 inches, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

"Im telling everybody that Im going to get it," Brown said. "I want to land a 90-plus pounder; I want to hold the record for awhile."

If he does lure that record-breaking fish someday, the master angler said he would follow the rules of CPR: catch, photograph and release.
The broken down air conditioner that is barely working at the Rock Island County Justice Center will be getting replaced soon, said Dick Fisher, the chair of the countys Public Building Commission.

The commission will be spending up to $164,000 for the new air conditioner and new access key pads for the jail that were installed when the jail was first built.

Sheriff Gerry Bustos on Thursday said replacing of the air conditioner is long overdue, and that during the period of high dew points over the past several days the floors in the Justice Center and jail would not dry.

There was water all over the floors, Bustos said. We had fans and dehumidifiers going but the dew points were so high that the floors stayed wet.

According to the National Weather Service, the dew point is the atmospheric temperature below which water droplets will condense and form dew. The higher the dew point temperature, the hotter and muggier it feels.

The reason the county had to ask the Public Building Commission for money to fix the air conditioner and upgrade the keypads is because the county already has spent its maintenance money, Fisher said.

According the agreement Rock Island County has with the Public Building Commission, the county pays $1.49 million a year as a rental payment to the commission for the justice center. The commission returns around $500,000 annually to the county to cover maintenance costs and the bulk of the remainder is used to pay off bonds.

The bonds issued to build the justice center will be retired in 2018 after which ownership of the building goes to the county.

Fisher said the county has already has spent the $500,000 the commission returned for building maintenance.

Its a loan that the county will pay back, he said of the money for the new equipment.

The building commission approved $120,000 for the new air conditioner and $44,000 for the new key pads, Fisher added.

Bustos said he has signed the purchase order for the air conditioner Wednesday. He was able to get it for $112,000. I thought it would be around $200,000 but we were able to get it for a lot less, he said.

However, he said, since 2009, the county has spent $110,000 on repairs to the old air conditioner to keep it running.

The air conditioner that keeps both the Justice Center and the jail cool is one big unit that has two sides, Bustos said. There is one side that has completely failed. The other side may be operating at 50 percent of its capacity. It has meant many uncomfortable days for inmates and jail and court staff.

It went down the week before the 4th of July, Bustos said of the air conditioner. By the time we get the new one installed it will have been a month since the old one broke.

Bustos said replacing the old access keypads is necessary as it is past time to upgrade, and those keypads are a safety issue for both jail staff and inmates.

We have to stop waiting for things to fail before we fix them, Bustos said. Im trying to change that mentality. In terms of the access keypads, were talking about 1985 technology.
Game on.

That was the essence of Ron Corbetts message as he stood in front of reporters Wednesday in Des Moines.

Corbett said that in the first three weeks since he officially launched his campaign for Iowa governor, he accumulated more than $1 million in campaign donations and pledges.

It was a clear signal from Corbett that he thinks he, the outgoing Cedar Rapids mayor, will be able to develop the support and resources  and by resources, we mean money  necessary to mount a legitimate challenge to Gov. Kim Reynolds, the successor incumbent in the Republican primary race.

One of the early questions surrounding Corbetts campaign was whether he  or any Republican, really  could present a serious challenge to Reynolds, who has built-in advantages of serving in the office, an already healthy campaign account of more than $1 million as of late 2016 and support from much of the GOP establishment.

Corbett aimed to answer that question with Wednesdays announcement.

What this shows is that people around the state of Iowa arent bought into this establishment narrative that the race is over before it starts. The race is just beginning, Corbett said at the news conference in Des Moines. I think it shows that Iowans around the state arent exactly comfortable with Kim Reynolds carrying the status-quo baton for the next four years, that theyre really open to new faces with a new agenda and a new game plan.

Corbett also challenged Reynolds to reject donations from political action committees and national organizations, including the Republican Governors Association.

Thats not likely a challenge the Reynolds campaign will accept, although a spokesman did point out to The Gazette in Cedar Rapids that the vast majority of her fundraising has come from Iowa donors.

Of the $652,740 Reynolds raised in 2016, while she was lieutenant governor, 87 percent came from Iowa donors, according to state campaign finance records online.

If the intent is to keep support coming from Iowans, obviously, weve sort of checked that box, Reynolds campaign manager Phil Valenziano told The Gazette.

Regardless of what comes of the out-of-state fundraising challenge, Corbett said his early fundraising haul proves he is a true competitor in the GOP gubernatorial primary race.

I realize the establishment is trying to not have a primary, and theyve done a lot of work trying to convince people that I dont have a chance, he said. That narrative is a fake narrative. I do have shot.

New state law causing dispute

Yet another of the significant pieces of legislation signed into law during the 2017 session of the Iowa Legislature may be headed for the courts.

The defunding of state money to Planned Parenthood and the restriction of public employee collective bargaining rights are among the new state laws that are being challenged in Iowa courts. A provision in a package of gun regulations may soon join them.

The gun regulations bill passed this year by the Republican-led Legislature reinforces the state law that does not allow weapons bans in public buildings by providing an avenue for residents to sue local governments that enforce such a ban.

But shortly before that law went into effect, Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady issued a court order stating firearms should not be allowed in Iowa courthouses.

That set into motion a dispute in Woodbury County, where the Sheriff David Drew has pledged to uphold Cadys order and maintain a weapons ban in the courthouse, drawing a rebuke from some county supervisors. Drew and Supervisor Matthew Ung have in recent days traded accusations of politicizing the issue.

It may eventually fall upon the courts to determine whether local law enforcement may continue to enforce firearms bans or restrictions in courthouses.
Since President Trump announced he will withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, over 1,400 U.S. cities, states and businesses have stepped up to vow that they would do so independently of the federal government.

The United States Climate Alliance, a bi-partisan group of states, is committed to upholding the agreement. The goal of the alliance is to bring states together to reduce emissions 26-28 percent from 2005 levels, in order to meet or exceed the targets of the federal Clean Power Plan, which Trump has promised to undo.

Nearly 300 mayors, representing 60 million Americans, have also committed to adopt, honor, and uphold the Paris Climate Agreement by becoming Climate Mayors. Last week, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which includes both Republican and Democratic mayors, adopted a series of resolutions that are far more assertive than federal climate policy, including a pledge supporting cities' adoption of 100 percent renewable energy by 2035.

The overwhelming majority of Americans, including those who voted for President Trump, support climate action, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.

We call upon Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner to make the commitment to join the United States Climate Alliance and we call upon Clinton Mayor Mark Vulich, Davenport Mayor Frank Klipsch and all area mayors to become a Climate Mayor.

Laura Anderson

Clinton

Editors note: Anderson is marketing director, Franciscan Peace Center
DES MOINES  It will be quite the convergence.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people will descend upon the same downtown Des Moines convention hall at the same time on Saturday for separate political events.

Running side-by-side throughout the day, the events will draw distinctly different political crowds to the same spot.

One event is the annual convention for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, a populist community action group. That events keynote speaker is Bernie Sanders, the liberal, independent U.S. senator from Vermont who in 2015 and 2016 challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president.

The other event is the Leadership Summit hosted by The Family Leader, a conservative Christian organization. Among the many conservative speakers slated for the event is Kellyanne Conway, the adviser to and spokeswoman for Republican President Donald Trump.

Both events are scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The CCI convention will be held in the Iowa Events Center; The Family Leadership Summit will be held in the Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center, which is housed within the Iowa Events Center complex.

Two crowds from polar opposite ends of the political spectrum converging on the same downtown Des Moines building at the same time.

The Family Leaders event is being billed as Principle Over Politics, as attendees are encouraged to engage in government while thinking bigger than individual politicians or elections, according to the organization.

Its a rare opportunity when we in the Midwest get to hear from such an impressive lineup of speakers, and the summits themes couldnt be more timely or needed today, Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The Family Leader, said in a news release.

With one of Trumps top advisers and public defenders scheduled to speak at his event, Vander Plaats said this week that the recent revelation that the presidents son during the 2016 campaign met with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have unflattering information regarding Clinton has increased the suspicion of some Republicans.

Theyre not rushing to any sort of judgment, but their suspicion is heightened, Vander Plaats told CNN.

Meantime, in the same building, CCI will be holding its event, billed as Revolution Iowa: From Protest to Power.

(Saturday) will be a day when everyday Iowans from across the state will gather to build a future that works for all Iowans for generations to come. Were our best hope for change, Barb Kalbach, the groups board president, said in a news release. It will be a powerful day that will take the resistance of today to the political revolution for tomorrow.

Sanders appearance at the CCI event is the first of two he has scheduled in Iowa this summer; he is scheduled to appear in Iowa City for a book reading in August. The appearances in the first-in-the-nation caucus state will fuel speculation that Sanders is considering another run for president in 2020.

During an interview this week on Sirius XM satellite radio, Sanders said it is too early to think about 2020, but he also declined to rule out another presidential campaign.

Im not taking it off the table, Sanders said during the interview. I just have not made any decisions, and I think its much too early.
HOT SPRINGS | Residents here expressed concern last week over the impact of underground testing for oil and natural gas deposits in southwestern Fall River County that's scheduled to start as soon as August.

Paragon Geophysical Services Inc., a Kansas-based seismic survey and exploration company, plans to begin testing on 46,000 acres of private and public lands. The testing would cover 23,000 acres of privately held lands and an equal amount of Buffalo Gap National Grasslands property, between Provo and Edgemont. This acreage includes the former Black Hills Army Depot, which is now part private land and part Buffalo Gap grasslands.

County residents raised their concerns about the testing at two public meetings last week. They fear that it could disturb the ammunition, bombs, rockets and wide array of chemical weapons buried in vaults and trenches at the former Army depot.

Hannan E. LaGarry, an Oglala Lakota College geology professor who has spent 30 years exploring Black Hills geology, said he worries that the seismic testing could shake loose some of the more stable rock strata beneath the ground and open pathways previous closed by natural forces, such as aquifers and caves.

He talked about how a small earthquake near Chadron, Neb., shifted rock enough to divert the flow of that citys water supply aquifer, forcing the city to find another source at great expense.

He also expressed concern about the impact the testing could have on Wind Cave. LaGarry said that Wind Cave, with much of it still totally unexplored, is likely to be connected to the site, and that portions of the cave under the former Army depot could collapse with seismic testing.

Stuff falls down all the time in the cave, he said. A collapse could be a consequence. Youd see a shallow sinkhole.

Cindy Brunson, a rancher whose property adjoins the former Army depot, noted that some of the land being considered for testing overlapps an area at the former depot where munitions were incinerated.

Im not against oil and gas exploration, Brunson said, but why are they doing this on an old military base, where ordnance, but not chemical weapons have been addressed?

According to Mike McNeil, head of the U.S. Forest Service in Hot Springs, the earliest testing could begin is Aug. 1. The Forest Service is the lead agency in the process because it oversees the above-ground management of the grasslands involved. The federal Bureau of Land Management controls the mineral rights below the grasslands.

McNeil noted that leases for the land to be tested have been authorized.

In May, he told the Fall River County commissioners that USFS would put four conditions on the testing:

 No seismic testing prior to Aug. 1, to protect raptors and sharp-tailed grouse, currently nesting on the grasslands.

 All roads must be returned to their previous condition following testing.

 No travel on wet roads.

 People must be contacted prior to testing.

If paleontological or cultural issues arise, McNeil said the policy of the Forest Service is to mitigate them and stay away from potential problem areas.
Two local Family Thrift Centers and the Prairie Market on the north side of Rapid City will close in October.

The Family Thrift Center at 855 Omaha St., Family Thrift Express at 3464 Sturgis Road and Prairie Market at 11 New York St. will be shuttering their doors as part of a reconsolidation effort by their parent company, SpartanNash.

An exact date for the closings has not been determined.

We take every store closing very seriously, and this is by no means a reflection of our great team that works at those stores, said Meredith Gremel, vice president of corporate affairs and communications for SpartanNash. This is not a reflection of what is going on on the national platform by any means.

Gremel explained that the planned closings come as two other local Family Thrift centers  at 1516 E. Saint Patrick St. and 751 Mountain View Road  undergo remodeling. Employees at the closing stores will have an opportunity to transfer to the remodeled stores, Gremel said.

The three stores employ around 100 people.

We made the decision to consolidate our resources into remodeling and reinvesting into those two stores so we can continue to provide the best service, she said, adding that the leases at two of the closing stores will expire in the next 18 months.

The closing is in cadence with the remodeling efforts of the other two stores. It made sense to do it at this time.

Associates at the affected stores were notified Wednesday, Gremel said, and some of the stores prescription services are being sold to local Walgreens stores.

SpartanNash, a food distributor and grocery store retailer based in Grand Rapids, Mich., has 151 corporate stores across 10 states, according to Gremel. The nations fifth-largest food distributor, it distributes to 2,100 independent locations across 47 states and is also the leading distributor to U.S. commissaries throughout the world.

The Prairie Market on New York Street and the Family Thrift Express on Sturgis Road have been owned by SpartanNash for more than 20 years. The Family Thirft Center on Omaha Street was purchased from the Albertson family in 2008, Gremel said.

Tom Stephens, 62, who buys his prescriptions from the Omaha Street store, said he was disappointed to learn it would be closing this fall. Its going to be hard for all of Rapid City because weve gotten all our prescriptions there for years, Stephens said. I dont know what options we got.

Stephens, who lives near Johnson Siding, said an employee at the store told him that his prescriptions were being transferred to the Walgreens on Mount Rushmore Road.

He said he hopes another company purchases the building so he can continue buying his medicine at the Omaha Street location.

Mary Corbine, food security manager of Feeding South Dakota, said the closings "will impact a lot of people, and not just the people who are food insecure."

Corbine has been working with a food security committee through Rapid City Collective Impact, which has been tracking data on Rapid City's food deserts since March.

Food deserts are considered areas devoid of fresh and healthful foods and usually occur in impoverished areas.

The food security committee was planning to release the information within the next few weeks, but after learning that three grocery stores are closing, Corbine said their data may shift.
ABERDEEN | A man accused of killing his fiancee has posted a $1 million bond and is now living in the northeastern part of South Dakota.

Joseph Schmitz, 47, posted bond in Lake County on July 6, the Aberdeen American News reported. Court documents show that Perry Strombeck of Rapid City provided the bond money.

Brown County Chief Deputy Tom Schmitt said police are aware that he's living in Aberdeen and that Lake County officials are monitoring his location by GPS.

Schmitz is accused in the April 2016 death of Corina Booth, who police said was shot three times at a home on Lake Madison.

Court documents show Schmitz called 911 to report he had shot Booth after she attempted to stab him. An open pocket knife was found next to Booth, who was found lying on a mattress, but the knife appeared unused, according to the court records.

Schmitz has pleaded not guilty to alternate counts of felony first-degree or second-degree murder.

He was only allowed to be released on several conditions. Schmitz must notify law enforcement of his Aberdeen address; he must pay $5 per day for GPS monitoring; he cannot contact the victim's family or potential witnesses; he must stay in Brown County; he must notify Lake County officials if his address changes; and he must attend all court hearings.

The next court hearing for Schmitz is scheduled for July 25. He is expected to stand trial Oct. 5.
FORT PIERRE | Landowners could ask that parts or all of the water in some public lakes and sloughs in South Dakota be declared off-limits to recreational users, under a rule proposed Thursday by state governments Game, Fish & Parks Commission.

To qualify, the water would have to be in a nonmeandered lake or slough and be above the applicants private property. The landowner wouldnt be required to appear when the commission considered the request.

As many as 1,000 landowners might have properties that could qualify, according to Tony Leif, director for the state Wildlife Division.

A landowner would have to apply for his or her property to be considered by the commission. The proposed rule faces a public hearing at the commissions next meeting, Sept. 7-8 in Sioux Falls.
Three years after he was initially charged, a former Ellsworth airman was convicted Thursday of receiving and possessing child pornography while on base and in Rapid City.

After deliberating for close to four hours, a federal jury found 25-year-old Colby Haggerty guilty of two counts of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. Each count carries a sentence of five to 20 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors said that between 2009 and 2014, while Haggerty was living on Ellsworth Air Force Base, he downloaded at least 1,000 pornographic images of children onto his dorm computer. His activities were discovered by law enforcement officers with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

And in 2015, in Rapid City, more images were found on his cellphone.

The victims were as young as infants and no older than 12, including foreign children, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Collins.

Haggerty custom built a computer system especially to house the images, Collins said during closing arguments at the Rapid City federal courthouse on Thursday morning. At certain moments, she pointed to Haggertys confiscated computer system, which had been wheeled into the courtroom, including a tower bearing the words tuff inside.

Haggerty, the prosecutor said, had admitted committing the offenses when interviewed by investigators.

His lawyer, George Grassby, countered by highlighting flaws in the interview, such as Haggerty not being told he had a right to an attorney and being led by investigators to make false confessions.

I ask you to consider these statements as unreliable, Grassby told jurors on the fourth and last day of the trial.

Haggerty, he said, was in the U.S. Air Force for four years, defending our country, and he wasnt hiding anything.

He denied that the child porn images on Haggertys computer and cellphone belonged to the defendant. They were accidentally downloaded onto his computer by a virus, Grassby said, and transmitted to his cellphone by a roommate who was a sex offender.

Hackers could have also been responsible, the lawyer said, adding: There are many ways these things could have been placed into a computer without Colbys knowing.

Grassby said also that there was no independent verification of the methods that computer investigators used.

After the jurys guilty verdict was announced at 3 p.m. Thursday, Grassby asked Chief Judge Jeffrey Viken for an acquittal, saying there had not been enough evidence for a conviction. Viken denied the request.

Haggerty is detained at the Pennington County Jail. His sentencing has not been scheduled.

Ellsworth Air Force Base earlier confirmed that Haggerty was a member of the Air Force until 2015 and that his last assignment was at the base.
As of late, I have been keeping my eye on the U.S. Drought Monitor. The monitor is updated each Thursday, and as I write this, over 50 percent of the state is in a drought with an additional 32 percent experiencing abnormally dry conditions. Things are worst in the northcentral part of the state, particularly in Corson, Dewey, Campbell, Walworth, McPherson, Edmunds and Potter counties. Right in the center of this seven county area the drought monitor now indicates extreme drought conditions. Looking at the U.S. map, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states currently experiencing severe drought.

Drought is not unusual here. In the first few years of statehood, South Dakota experienced a prolonged drought that lasted from 1887 until the mid-1890s. The conditions were so bad that some people started packing to move back east. Gov. Arthur Mellette implored individuals to donate food, clothing and coal to farmers who were impacted. He himself gave $3,600 of his own money and later said some would not have survived the winter months without the private donations.

The situation we are faced with today is not as dire. Still, even a less severe drought affects everyday life in South Dakota. To some, it means just minor inconveniences  like no fireworks or campfires, but to others it can mean a major disruption of ones livelihood. More than anyone, our farmers and ranchers are feeling the impact. The drought has stunted grass growth and hay production in much of the state, and our ag producers are scrambling to keep livestock fed.

In response to the increasingly dry conditions, I have declared a statewide emergency to provide producers some relief. Under the emergency declaration, farmers and ranchers across the state may cut and bale state highway ditches adjacent to their property. The order authorizes producers to transport feed without a Commercial Drivers License, waives federal trucking regulations and permits haulers to move oversize hay loads up to 12 feet wide from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. I have also activated the State Drought Task Force which monitors drought effects and coordinates the exchange of information among governmental, agricultural, fire and water-supply entities.

This week I also sent a letter to Secretary Perdue of the U.S. Department of Agriculture requesting the department make available as soon as possible Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres for emergency haying and grazing. The early release of CRP acres could be tremendously helpful for South Dakota farmers and ranchers during this challenging time.

The emergency declaration, drought task force and the potential availability of CRP acres will provide some relief to those who are suffering from the drought, but government help is limited. Ultimately, it is the perseverance of South Dakotans that will pull us through. The drive to overcome has been instilled in us by our ancestors and it is what carried us through droughts in our past.

This was something President Franklin Delano Roosevelt witnessed when he visited South Dakota during the Great Depression. After his South Dakota trip, he said this:

No cracked earth, no blistering sun, no burning wind, no grasshoppers, are a permanent match for the indomitable American farmers and stockmen and their wives and children who have carried on through desperate days, and inspire us with their self-reliance, their tenacity and their courage.

I could not agree more.
Businessman charged with bribing Mari El Republics ex-head arrested in absentia again

MOSCOW, July 14 (RAPSI, Oleg Sivozhelezov)  Moscows Basmanny District Court on Friday repeatedly arrested Nikolay Krivash, founder of Akashevskaya poultry factory, who stands charged with giving a bribe to Russias Mari El Republic Leonid Markelov, in absentia, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Lawyer Igor Trunov proposed a 5-million-ruble bail (about $84,000) for Krivash.

Earlier, lawyers of Krivash said that he is undergoing medical treatment in Israel where he had left before initiation of criminal proceedings against him. Defense team qualified charges against Krivash as unproved.

On May 22, Basmanny District Court issued an arrest warrant for Krivash in absentia. However, the Moscow City Court later overturned the ruling and remanded the case for retrial.

Investigators believe that Markelov has received a 235-million-ruble bribe ($4 million at the current exchange rate) from Krivash for patronage and assistance in the property payment of funds provided by state support for development of the agricultural complex. Alleged Markelovs accomplice, head manager of Telecompany 12 Region, Natalia Kozhanova, is charged with mediation in bribery.

Markelov and Kozhanova have been put in detention. Markelov pleaded not guilty to receiving the bribe.

On April 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted voluntary resignation of Markelov, who was governing the region for 16 years.
Two new state programs will provide training and up to $64 million in annual funding for tribes to prevent suicide and to offer preventive health care to Native Americans, which Montanas top health official called a historic investment.

The announcements by Department of Public Health and Human Services Director Sheila Hogan came during a Thursday meeting of the Interim State-Tribal Relations Committee in Helena.

She also presented updates about how the agency hopes to improve daily operations to better serve Native Americans, and spoke about the lack of a director for the Office of American Indian Health after its first leader left in protest this spring.

At the heart of discussions was one stark fact: Native Americans, on average, die 20 years sooner than other Montanans.

In recent years, the state has talked about doing more to collaborate with tribes to close that gap. The disparity results from health, social, political and economic factors exacerbated by federal programs built as part of treaty agreements to serve tribal communities separately from other Americans. Those programs, including the Indian Health Service, have historically been underfunded, understaffed and held to lower-quality standards.

Perhaps the most robust result of the state discussions to date came in April when Montana secured federal funding for preventive health care by adding a new program to an existing Medicaid waiver. For the each of the next two years, Hogan said about $64 million will be available for tribes to spend on offering preventive health care services after developing a plan and negotiating a contract with the state.

We pay the treatment piece, but we do not have funds to address the prevention piece, Hogan said, referencing the fact that the federal Indian Health Service, as well as state programs, pay for care after someone is ill. Because Native Americans receive less preventive and routine care, they are more likely to be diagnosed later than other Montanans and are more likely to have minor issues develop into serious conditions.

The Tribal Health Improvement Program will be open to federally recognized tribes with what are commonly called 638 agreements, a type of contract that allows tribes to take over management of some services offered by IHS. The federal funding is likely to continue beyond the initial two years, like other programs supported by the waiver, said DPHHS Medicaid Director Marie Matthews.

It could be endangered, however, if health care reforms proposed by U.S. Congress modify parts of the American Indian Health Care Act incorporated into the Affordable Care Act, which includes additional tribal-specific provisions.

The Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana was the first to participate in an early version of the program, whose initial successes since 2009 were critical to securing the new federal funding, Hogan said.

Lesa Evers, tribal relations manager for the department, lauded the program as innovative, not just because it might be the first direct partnership between tribes and the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She said it preserves Native autonomy to tailor unique solutions for their communities particular needs.

Participating tribes will receive gradual funding increases as they move through three tiers of the program that could range from broad-based prevention services to intensive, one-on-one support for people with the highest levels of Medicaid spending  often a sign of unmet preventive or maintenance health needs.

It is unclear when tribes might begin negotiating to join the program.

People, in a way, are paralyzed. We as Indian people have never had access to prevention dollars, Evers said, describing the reaction of tribal leaders upon learning about the new funding opportunity. People are waiting for a minute to think about what this really could mean . Theyre dreaming right now.

Hogan also shared an update with the committee about ongoing efforts to prevent suicide in Montanas Native communities.

The 2015 Legislature dedicated $250,000 to study the issue in Indian Country and to develop an action plan.

Tribal members packed a committee room at the state Capitol in January to present the result, the Montana Native Youth Suicide Reduction Strategic Plan, and to urge legislators to approve funding to implement the plan. The coalition that wrote the 104-page report, with help from a professional consulting firm, left $130,000 unspent to give that effort a jump start.

Hogan said about $50,000 of the 2015 funds will pay for the state to host a Zero Suicide Academy to be attended by four representatives from Montanas eight tribal governments and five urban health programs. Attendees will apply what they learn at home and teach others. The training is part of a national suicide prevention curriculum.

The remaining $70,000 will be divided among the 13 groups to spend as they see fit on related programs, which breaks down to $5,384 each.

The 2017 Legislature approved an additional $250,000 to spend over the next two years to implement three other parts of the Native Youth Suicide Reduction plan. Legislators also made another $750,000 available to suicide prevention programs serving any population, if they qualify. Tribes and urban health programs also can apply for that money.

Hogan said they hoped to start collecting applications this fall.

Vice Chair Rep. Alan Doane, R-Bloomfield, said he was frustrated that so little of the 2015 funding would be spent directly on services, noting that the committee had previously called on the coalition and its partners to spend less on administrative work.

I realized it takes a lot to get a program started. I hope out of this next $1 million that more  gets to boots on the ground, he said. Government, we can be way more frugal in administration and get the money to people its supposed to help.

Chairman Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, agreed, noting all eight committee members had signed the letter.

Sen. Lea Whitford, D-Cut Bank, pushed back to defend the coalitions work and the final Native Youth Suicide Reduction Plan. She argued that developing a detailed action plan has long-term value and that partnerships formed during the process have strengthened programs throughout the state.

It opened the door for people to communicate. I realize that youre looking at the $5,038 some dollars. What youre missing is the bigger picture, she said. This Legislature, the past Legislature had asked, What is your plan? How are you going to go forward? Thats what you have in front of you.
BILLINGS  Despite an agreement worked out last year, a group of Montana legislators is reigniting a debate over why state helicopters cant be used to fight federal fires except when lives are threatened.

On Wednesday the Environmental Quality Council  composed of 12 legislators and four members of the public who met by conference call  unanimously approved sending a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Secretary of the Department of the Interior Ryan Zinke stating their displeasure with the federal standards.

Regarding the issue relative to the Department of Agriculture, there appears to be an ongoing refusal on the part of the federal government and the Forest Service to allow our Montana (MT-205) helicopters to be classified as approved aircraft for initial attack on federal lands, the letter stated. The aircraft are safe and effective and are integral to fighting wildfires in Montana. For them to be allowed on all lands in the state except federal land because of a bureaucratic technicality is not logical.

June meeting

The letter was drafted after a few members of the EQC stated their displeasure with the agreement at the groups June 30 meeting.

This is insane what goes on here with federal rules on the state, said Rep. Bradley Hamlett, R-Cascade, at that meeting. This defies gravity  makes no good common sense.

Its a disagreement that seems unlikely to be resolved since the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservations firefighting aviation department and the Forest Service are unwilling to change. The states MT-205 helicopters are modified Vietnam-era Bell UH-1H helicopters with increased power. More power means the copters can carry 324-gallon buckets. Forest Service policy, which has been based on investigations into past helicopter crashes, requires similar sized helicopters to limit their water buckets to 224 gallons.

They wont change and neither will we, John Tubbs, DNRC director, told the panel in June.

This is bananas, said Scott Aspenlieder, one of the EQCs public members. Its beyond crazy and illogical.

Tubbs told the group that the DNRC is satisfied with the agreement and state firefighters are willing to deploy if necessary, even if federal agencies havent requested assistance. Tubbs said the Forest Service is basing its decision on a fleet of what is mostly contract helicopters, owned privately and paid to fight fires.

Eastern fires

The EQCs letter also addressed federal firefighting resources in Eastern Montana, where a drier than normal spring and extensive hot weather have caused almost daily fire starts.

The other issue is relevant to Secretary Zinke and also demands federal attention, the letter stated. We request that the Bureau of Land Management pay particular attention to the wildfire risk this season in eastern Montana. Many people have worked very hard in recent years to address concerns about the greater sage grouse and the bird's habitat. We are concerned that the BLM does not have adequate firefighting resources necessary in eastern Montana to combat a wildfire that could consume valuable sage grouse habitat and wipe out the work the state has done in recent years to protect that habitat. We ask that you bolster firefighting forces in eastern Montana as soon as possible.

My understanding is that weve been doing reasonably well with ordering and getting resources, although they have been coming from a reasonable distance away, said Al Nash, BLM state information officer. Thats not unusual.

The BLM does pre-position crews when fire danger is high. Right now the northern Rockies is at a preparedness level of 3 while the national level is at 4. The bigger the number the greater the number of fires and an increased demand for resources.

Were confident we have what we need for the current fire activity, Nash said.

Burning

The National Interagency Fire Center is forecasting above-normal significant wildfire potential for the eastern half of Montana through September. So far this year Montana has reported six large fires that have burned across 47,500 acres. Of those six, four were being fought out of the BLMs Miles City Field Office. The largest is the 30,000-acre Tongue River Complex, which is composed of the Lee Creek and Witten fires.

The Lee Creek fire is about 3,356 acres and 95 percent contained. Crews will continue to patrol and mop-up the fire perimeter on Wednesday. The Witten fire is 28,684 acres and 55 percent contained. There will be a community meeting to update the public about the fires at the Charging Horse Casino meeting room at 7 p.m. this evening in Lame Deer.

The 11,000-acre July fire burning in the Little Rocky Mountains is the states second-largest fire. On Tuesday the 398 firefighters assigned to the blaze were supported by aircraft and conducted burnout operations to strengthen control lines on the north edge of the fire and to remove unburned fuels in the interior, according to the website InciWeb.

Five fires that ignited Monday about 39 miles northwest of Jordan have been combined into the 3,000-acre Blue Ridge Complex. Twenty-three firefighters successfully conducted a burnout operation Tuesday night along the east flank of the fire, halting the fires progress in that direction, according to InciWeb.
When Mary Rodriguez was a child, she could only count five houses in view from her familys farm in Corvallis.

Rodriguez doesnt begrudge those who have moved nearby, but wants to make sure her familys land stays the way it is in perpetuity. Thats why shes partnered with the Bitter Root Land Trust to seek a conservation easement on 105 of her familys 110 acres.

Marys mother and father bought the 110 acres of land in 1948. They milked dairy cows and raised chickens there until 1975 when they moved into Corvallis.

The Curdys leased their land from 1975 to 1992 to another man who also raised dairy cows. After he left, Rodriguez moved back and has lived there ever since.

We were starting this process when mom first got sick, Rodriguez said. We fell off for a while when she went into assisted living, but now were doing it to honor her posthumously.

Rodriguezs mother, Frances Curdy, delivered eggs from the farm in Corvallis in a 1960 Dodge Dart station wagon nicknamed, the hearse. She remembers helping her mother often.

I would have to clean and brush the eggs with my mother before she went out to sell them, Rodriguez said. Well, if I didnt have my homework done beforehand it wasnt getting done.

Other than the new houses that have sprung up around their farm, not much has changed around their land, according to Rodriguez.

It was a quiet place, and this used to be a dirt road, Rodriguez said. Oh and we used to have a big maple tree in the front yard. Wed climb up it as kids to watch the cars go by.

Many of the buildings on the farm today are original to the time period when Rodriguezs parents lived there. While the house has been resided and additions were added, it is still the same frame as when it was built circa 1910.

A large red barn, which once housed around 80 dairy cows, stands behind the house. Rodriguezs father, Everett Curdy, built the barn shortly after moving onto the land.

Everett Curdy constructed the barn from sections of siding removed from the barracks at Fort Missoula after the interned Italians were allowed to leave. Everett Curdy also used sections from the barracks to help build the original building of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Stevensville.

Rodriguezs brother, Willis Curdy does much of the work around the farm today. He said he remembered the farm as a place where they worked hard as kids.

Dad broke his arm in 1959, Willis Curdy said. He was greasing a belt and his coverall got caught in a pulley system that broke his ulna and radius. We all had to pick the slack after that.

After a hard 27 years of farming their land, the Curdys retired. According to Rodriguez, they deserved it.

When they retired they got to do lots of the things they never could, Rodriguez said. Cause you cant just leave a dairy farm. There werent ever vacations.

Once retired, Everett and Frances Curdy did the snowbird thing down in Arizona and belonged to the Golden Age Club in Hamilton where the highlight of their week was dancing.

The Curdy Farm was reviewed by the Open Lands Bond Program, which assists landowners in finding the funding to conserve their land. It would cost $125,000 for the Open Lands Bond Program to help purchase the easement, according to Gavin Ricklefs, the executive director of the Bitter Root Land Trust.

The $125,000 covers the development value of the land that the Curdy family is giving up. Because the appraised value of the conservation easement is $400,000, the Open Lands Bond Program is getting a pretty good deal, according to Ricklefs.

That money is the communitys investment into ensuring this land stays agricultural, Ricklefs said.

Willis Curdy said he first heard about the program from a meeting hosted by Steve Powell, the former lands director for the Bitter Root Land Trust.

Steve Powell was a very good administrator at the Bitter Root Land Trust, Willis Curdy said.

Ricklefs has been working on the Curdy Farm project for about a year now. He said the land is special because of the high quality of its soil.

Its 100 percent soils of importance, Ricklefs said. Its really productive farm ground. The type of farm ground that we have to have to continue to produce food locally in the future.

Many of the surrounding farms in the area of the Curdy Farm have been conserved through the work of the Bitter Root Land Trust.

It fits in well with other easements in the neighborhood, Ricklefs said. The other unique attribute of this land is that is surrounds Summerdale Park. You can go and sit out in Summerdale Park and you look out over the Curdy Farm. So it really provides a classic agricultural open space backdrop.

The Open Lands Bond Program has reviewed the Curdy Farm easement project and recommended approval. On Friday last week, the Ravalli County Commissioners visited the Curdy Farm to do a walk through and meet with Rodriguez and Cury.

The commissioners will conduct a public hearing on the proposed conservation easement in the commissioner's meeting room Thursday July 20, at 11:00 a.m.
The Daly Mansion is celebrating Marcus Daly in a different way this year, with "A Step Back in Time" on Saturday, July 22.

April Westberry, Daly Mansion events coordinator, said a different name and new activities will make the mansion celebration special.

The event will have self-guided tours with re-enactors staged around the house and on horses on the grounds, vintage cars, rope making, face painters, animal balloon makers and the childrens tea on the back porch. The Ragtime Society will play music at the gazebo and the mansion volunteers will be cooking and selling hotdogs and bake sale items.

"A Step Back in Time" is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Prices for the day's event are $6 for everyone older than 12; children younger than 12 are free.

The childrens tea has two seating times of noon and 2 p.m.

Whats new is that we will have vendors on the grounds this year, Westberry said. So far, well have 406 Store with all things Montana and Lulu Roe with clothing for Scottish lassies. I think well have more filter in.

In the evening, "A Step Back in Time" hosts a Titanic-inspired aerial performance by Moksha Aerial Studio Collective from Missoula.

MASC is coming to do acrobatics on the ground, but they will also have a big stand with aerial silks they will perform from and use poi balls, Westberry said. They usually light them on fire, but since our theme is Titanic they thought it was a little opposite from iceberg.

Caffe Firenze is catering the dinner, with the menu based on the first class food served on the Titanic.

The dinner in the tent and the show just south of the tent costs $45 for those older than 12 and $30 for children 12 and younger. Reservations must be made by July 19 by calling 406-363-6004, ext. 2.

A change of date means two weekends of celebrating Marcus Daly as the Daly Mansion is hosting "A Step Back in Time" on Saturday, July 22, and Hamilton Downtown Association is celebrating Daly Days on July 28 and 29, with the Microbrew festival on July 29.

The Daly Mansion is located at 251 Eastside Highway in Hamilton.
The New York Review of Books Daily

In the late 1960s Mao Zedong, Chinaas Great Helmsman, encouraged children and adolescents to confront their teachers and parents, root out acow ghosts and snake spirits,a and otherwise amake revolution.a In practice, this meant closing Chinaas schools. In the decades since, many have decried a generationas loss of education.

Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was sentenced to eleven years for ainciting subversiona of Chinaas government, and who died of liver cancer on Thursday, illustrates a different pattern. Liu, born in 1955, was eleven when the schools closed, but he read books anyway, wherever he could find them. With no teachers to tell him what the government wanted him to think about what he read, he began to think for himselfaand he loved it. Mao had inadvertently taught him a lesson that ran directly counter to Maoas own goal of converting children into alittle red soldiers.a

But this experience only partly explains Liuas stout independence. It also seems to have been an inborn trait. If there is a gene for bluntness, Liu likely had it. In the 1980s, while still a graduate student in Chinese literature, he was already known as a ablack horsea for denouncing nearly every contemporary Chinese writer: the literary star Wang Meng was politically slippery; aroots-seekinga writers like Han Shaogong were excessively romantic about the value of Chinaas traditions; even speak-for-the-people heroes like Liu Binyan were too ready to pin hopes on aliberala Communist leaders like Hu Yaobang. No one was independent enough. aI can sum up whatas wrong with Chinese writers in one sentence,a Liu Xiaobo wrote in 1986. aThey canat write creatively themselvesathey simply donat have the abilityabecause their very lives donat belong to them.a

He carried his candor with him when he went abroad. At a conference on Chinese film at the University of Oslo in 1988, he was surprised to learn that European Sinologists couldnat speak Chinese (they only read it) and were far too naAve in accepting Chinese government statements at face value. aNinety-eight percent are useless,a he observed (and the conference itself was aagonizingly boringa ). From Oslo he went to New York, to Columbia University, where he found it irritating that postcolonial theorists were telling him how it felt to be the subaltern Other. Shouldnat he be telling them that?

In the spring of 1989, two experiences, the first in New York and the second in Beijing, profoundly altered the course of his thinking and his life. He was just finishing a book, Chinese Politics and Chinaas Modern Intellectuals, which explored several ways in which Western civilization can be aa tool to critique China.a Now, though, visiting the West, he found that the model was not so clear. Issues like the energy crisis, environmental protection, nuclear weapons, and what he called athe addiction to pleasure and to commercializationa were human problems, not particularly Eastern or Western. Moreover, a visit to New Yorkas Metropolitan Museum of Art had brought him an epiphany: no one had solved the spiritual question of athe incompleteness of the individual person.a Even Chinaas great modern writer Lu Xun, whose fiction was so good at revealing moral callousness, hypocrisy, superstition, and cruelty, could not, in Liu Xiaoboas view, take the next step and astruggle with the dark.a Lu Xun tried this, in his prose poems, but in the end backed off; he acould not cope with the solitary terror of the gravea and afailed to find any transcendental values to help him continue.a

Chinese Politics had already been sent to its publisher, but Liu decided to add an aEpiloguea anyway, and, with characteristic honesty, used it to undermine the bookas main theme. To be aan authentic person,a he wrote, he would now have to acarry out two critiques simultaneouslya : one of China, still using the West as a measuring rod, and another of the West itself, for which he would have to start over, from scratch, and rethink everything. He finished the essay in March 1989, ending it with the words athis epilogue has exhausted me.a

The next month he boarded an airplane in New York bound for Beijing, not from exhaustion but because he had read about the student demonstrations for democracy in Tiananmen Square and felt a duty to support them. aI hope,a he wrote, athat Iam not the type of person who, standing at the doorway to hell, strikes a heroic pose and then starts frowning with indecision.a

In Beijing, the studentsa idealism moved him. He helped them to plan a hunger strike and joined it himself. His approach was non-confrontational, almost Gandhian. In his aJune 2nd Hunger Strike Declarationa he wrote that aa democratic society is not built on hatred and enmity; it is built on consultation, debate, and votinga[and on] mutual respect, tolerance, and willingness to compromise.a Less than two days later Liu had an opportunity to put his words into practice. As tanks began rolling toward Tiananmen Square and it was already clear that people in their way were being killed, Liu and his friends Zhou Duo and Hou Dejian negotiated with the attacking military to allow students in Tiananmen Square to exit safely. It is impossible to say how many lives they saved by this compromise, but it was certainly dozens and maybe hundreds.

Afterward, though, Liu made what he later regarded as a amistakea that he rued for the rest of his life. He sought temporary safety in the home of a foreign diplomat. He later heard that othersamostly ordinary citizensahad stayed in the streets to help people who were wounded or were still being shot at. They risked their own lives to offer help, and when the government set punishments for participants in the acounterrevolutionary riot,a these ordinary people were treated more harshly than the student demonstrators. Many received prison sentences of eighteen to twenty years, and some were executed. Liu himself was sent to Qincheng Prison, an elite facility where the political opponents of top leaders are held, and stayed only nineteen monthsaadeathly bored, but thatas about it.a

Liu felt haunted by the alost soulsa of Tiananmen, the aggrieved ghosts of students and workers alike whose ages would forever be the same as on the night they died. He wrote that he could hear their plaintive criesaaweak, helpless, heart-rendinga arising from beneath the earth. Each year on the anniversary of the massacre he wrote a poem to honor them. His afinal statementa at his trial in December 2009 opens: aJune 1989 has been the major turning point in my life.a In October 2010, when his wife Liu Xia brought him the news of his Nobel Peace Prize, she reports that he commented, aThis is for the aggrieved ghosts.a

After his release from Qincheng Prison in 1991, Liu was banned from publishing in China and fired from his teaching post at Beijing Normal Universityaeven though students there had always loved his lectures. He began to support himself by writing for magazines in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and overseas. The rise of the Internet in China in the early 2000s gave a huge boost to circulation of his essays, not only outside China but inside, too, as overseas friends found ways to skirt the governmentas Great Firewall and send them back into China. Before 1989, his essays had been mostly on contemporary Chinese literature, but now he addressed topics in history, politics, and society, revealing a rich erudition. He also began to write poetry. The breadth of topics in his poems and essays can be startling: Confucius, Kant, St. Augustine, farmers in Jiangsu, Olympic athletes, humor in China and Czechoslovakia, pornography and politics, the Internet revolution, Obamaas election, a murdered puppy, international relations, the Dalai Lama, Chinaas aeconomic miracle,a and much more.

Consistent with his adoption of a ano enemiesa philosophy after 1989, the fiery tone of his earlier writings now cooled. But his utter candorahis seeming inability not to be candidadid not change. By the middle of the 2000s, Liu Xiaobo was commonly viewed as Chinaas leading dissident. In the spring of 2008, some of his friends conceived the idea of writing a citizensa manifesto calling for free elections and constitutional government in China. They called it "Charter 08," in conscious admiration of VAclav Havel and Czechoslovakiaas aCharter 77.a Liu Xiaobo did not join at first, but in the fall, when the drafting was well underway and momentum was building, he threw his energy into the project. He edited drafts and tried to remove needlessly provocative language that might prevent some people from signing. He then worked hard to solicit signaturesanot only from known dissidents but from workers, farmers, state officials, and others willing to gather under the broad tent of asking for a more open and liberal society. The language of the Charter is moderate. Much of it already appears in Chinese and United Nations documents. But a few lines, like awe must abolish the special privilege of one party to monopolize power,a clearly did go beyond what Chinaas rulers could stomach.

It is clear that Liuas work on Charter 08 led to his eleven-year prison sentence a year later, and to his Nobel Peace Prize a year after that. At the Nobel banquet in December 2010, a member of the selection committee told me that her group had for years been wanting to find a Chinese winner for their prize and that the previous yearas events amade this finally seem the right time.a Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Politburo were likely annoyed to realize (if ever they did) that their imprisonment of Liu helped pave the way to his award.

It might seem puzzling that an advocate of ano enemiesa who actually worked to soften the language of the Charter should have been singled out for punishment during the governmentas crackdown. Several of Liuas colleagues were detained and interrogated, and had their computers confiscated, but only Liu was sent to prison. While it is a standard device in Communist Chinese political engineering to akill a chicken for the monkeys to see,a the question remains why a pacifist chicken would be their choice.

The answer seems to be that the Charter movement was viewed as an unauthorized aorganizationa of which Liu was the leader. The men who rule China have shown in recent times that they can tolerate tongue-lashings from the populace so long as it comes from isolated individuals. An unauthorized organization, even if moderate, must be crushed. In 2005 Hu Jintao issued a classified report called aFight a Smokeless Battle: Keep aColor Revolutionsa Out of China.a It said people like Nelson Mandela, Lech WaAAsa, and Aung San Suu Kyi are dangerous. If similar movements appear in China, Hu instructed, athe big onesa should be arrested and athe little onesa left alone. In November 2008, when Chinese police learned that people were signing Charter 08, it was officially labeled an attempt to start a acolor revolution.a That made Liu Xiaobo a abig onea who needed to be brought down. There are signs that Liu himself understood the mechanism. When he joined the Charter effort he told his friends that, in addition to editing and gathering signatures, he would atake responsibilitya for the Charterain effect, risk being a abig one.a

Why Hu Jintao and his people decided on a sentence of eleven yearsanot ten, twelve, or some other numberawas a mystery at the time and remains so now. Of the many guesses that have been offered, one was that eleven years is 4,018 days and there are 4,024 Chinese characters in Charter 08. Thus: one day for every character you wrote, Mr. Liu, and weall waive the final six. (This was a guess, but not a joke. That petty-minded and highly personal kind of thinking is common in elite Chinese politics.)

The combination of Charter 08 and a consequent Nobel Prize seemed, for a time, to open a new alternative for China. Chinese citizens had long been accustomed to the periodic alternations between amore liberala and amore conservativea tendencies in Communist rule, and had often pinned hopes on one or another high official, but Charter 08 seemed to say that there can be another way to be modern Chinese.

It was hard to find people who disagreed with the Charter once they read it, and it was precisely this potential for contagion that most worried regime leaders. That was their reason (not their stated reason but their real one) for suppressing the Charter, for imprisoning Liu Xiaobo, and for denouncing his Nobel Peace Prize. Their efforts have been effective: most young Chinese today do not know who Liu Xiaobo is, and older ones who do are well aware of the costs of saying anything about him in public.

The controls on Chinese society have been tightened during the last few years, under the rule of Xi Jinpingathe opposite direction of what Charter 08 called for. This raises the question, aIs the Charter dead? Was the effort in vain?a It is difficult, but my answer would be no. The organization has been crushed but its ideas have not been. The governmentas continuing effortsaassiduous, inveterate, nationwide, and very costlyato repress anything that resembles the ideas of Charter 08 is evidence enough that the men who rule are quite aware of its continuing power.

It would have been wonderful to hear Liu Xiaobo himself answer the question. The world was not been allowed to hear one sentence from him since his aFinal Statementa at trial in 2009. In June of this year, he was moved to a prison ward in a Shenyang hospital with late-stage liver cancer. He asked for safe passage for himself, his wife, and his brother-in-law to go to Germany or the US so he could receive treatment. The Chinese government refused, saying Liu had already received the best possible medical care and was too weak to travel. He died on July 13.

It is unclear why, in the final weeks of his life, Liu agreed to drop his desire to remain in China despite his consistent rejection of the marginalization that exile inevitably brings; he may have wanted to use his last energies to help his long-suffering wife Liu Xia and her brother Liu Hui get out of China. But his captorsa thinking could not have been clearer: it had nothing to do with medical care and everything to do with preventing Liu Xiaobo from speaking his mind one last time. What were his thoughts during his eight years in prison? What did he foresee for a world in which Chinaas Communist dictatorship continues to grow?

Liu Xiaobo has been compared to Nelson Mandela, VAclav Havel, and Aung San Suu Kyi, each of whom accepted prison as the price for pursuing more humane governance in their homelands. But Mandela, Havel, and Suu Kyi all lived to see release from the beastly regimes that repressed them, and Liu Xiaobo did not. Does this mean his place in history will fall short of theirs? Is success of a movement necessary in order for its leader to be viewed as heroic?

Perhaps. It may be useful, though, to compare Liu Xiaobo and Xi Jinping. The two were separated in age by only two years. During Maoas Cultural Revolution both missed school and were banished to remote places. Xi used the time to begin building a resume that would allow him, riding the coattails of his elite-Communist father, to one day vie for supreme power; Liu used the time to read on his own and learn to think for himself. One mastered the skullduggery and sycophancy that a person needs to rise within a closed bureaucracy; the other learned to challenge received wisdom of every kind, keeping for himself only the ideas that could pass the test of rigorous independent examination. For one of them, value was measured by power and position; for the other, by moral worth. In their final standoff, one awon,a the other alost.a But two hundred years from now, who will recall the names of the tyrants who sent Mandela, Havel, and Suu Kyi to jail? Will the glint of Liu Xiaoboas incisive intellect be remembered, or the cardboard mediocrity of Xias?

July 13, 2017
The Alamo fire doubled in size during Friday night and is now sharing attention from area firefighters with the Whittier fire burning in the S
Robin Simcox is the Margaret Thatcher Fellow in the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Washington, D.C., 20002; Website: www.heritage.org. Information about Heritage's funding may be found at heritage.org/about/reports.cfm.
Letters to the Editor: Thank you for help, Losing ourselves, Controlled burns important, Fireworks problem misrepresented, Thank you to Marian
UPDATE: The film's U.S. publicist has reached out to inform us: "The version shown at TIFF was unfinished and it has been recut. The character played by Billy is a minor character - not the lead - in this cut, which is what will be shown in theaters.



"The story is not told from the point of view of the fictional Steve McKee character. It focuses on Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man."

Original article:

In November 2015, production began on Birth of the Dragon, which aimed to recreate "the mid-1960's fight between Lee and Wong from the point of view of a young martial arts student whose allegiance became torn between Lee and Wong Jack Man. To this day, people still argue about who won the famous fight, but one thing is certain: after his battle with Wong, Bruce Lee reinvented himself and his style of kung fu."

As our own Todd Brown pointed out at the time: "The story here will be told from the point of view of fictional character Steve McKee, to played by Billy Magnussen, a student of Lee's whose loyalty is torn between Lee and Shaolin master Wong Jack Man as he enters the world of kung fu." Philip Ng was chosen to portray Bruce Lee and Yu Xia was set to play Wong Jack Man. George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau) directed, and Corey Yuen was selected as action choreographer.

The film debuted at the Toronto Film Festival last year and was "slaughtered," according to Edmund Lee in South China Morning Post. Lee states: "The film is getting a new trailer today that goes to comical lengths to hide its American protagonist, ahead of its August 25 release in the United States."

You can watch both trailers below and judge for yourself. Please feel free to weigh in with your comments below!
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Windy. Mostly cloudy skies will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low around 40F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Windy. Mostly cloudy skies will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low around 40F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
At long last, the Kate Steinle murder trial begins tomorrow, Friday. Here's a quick refresher:

32-year-old Kathryn "Kate" Steinle of San Francisco was shot and killed on July 1, 2016 while strolling along Pier 14 with her parents. 54-year-old Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez has been charged with her murder. He apparently used a gun that he found underneath a public bench, which had been stolen days before from a Bureau of Land Management officer's car. And he's an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who had previously been deported and had been transferred to SF to face drug charges, which were dismissed.

The murder was soon sucked into the vortex of the national news cycle and has been used by some on the right as an argument against San Francisco's sanctuary city policy. Lopez-Sanchez, it turned out, had been released from San Francisco County jail a few months before the murder and in accordance with the city's policy, was not turned over to immigration officials for deportation. His crime is also the impetus of the new "Kate's Law," which expands sentences for people who try to get back into the United States after they've been deported. "Kate's Law" was passed by the House in recent weeks. It still needs approval from the Senate and the Steinle family wants no part of it.

You can read all of our coverage of the Kate Steinle murder here.

Trial of man charged with murder of Kate Steinle set to begin, via @jonahowenlamb https://t.co/mWN3OnFbWc pic.twitter.com/PmrZUb0IR1  SF Examiner (@sfexaminer) July 13, 2017

The San Francisco Examiner reports that Lopez-Sanchez, who has pleaded not guilty, will make his first appearance in his trial proceedings on Friday before Judge Garrett Wong in Department 22 of San Francisco Superior Court. His attorney is former San Francisco Supervisor and candidate for Mayor Matt Gonzalez.

On July 3, The San Francisco Chronicle published an op-ed by Gonzalez, which read in part:

For those who want to whip up fear of immigrants, it is politically expedient to cast Lopez Sanchez as dangerous. But the truth is he's never previously been charged with a crime of violence. He is a simple man with a second-grade education who has survived many hardships. He came to the U.S. repeatedly because extreme poverty is the norm in many parts of Mexico. He risked going to jail so that he could perform a menial job that could feed him. Each time, he came to the U.S. because American employers openly encourage illegal immigration to fill the jobs U.S. citizens don't want.

Lopez-Sanchez claims that the gun went off accidentally  and Gonzalez is expected to argue that the particular model of gun used is notorious for having a hair trigger. Also Lopez-Sanchez says he never intended to shoot Steinle, who was shot with one bullet to the back which penetrated her heart and killed her, and Gonzalez will argue that ballistic evidence shows the bullet ricocheted before hitting her.

Obviously this murder trial will be a big deal in local and national news for weeks or months to come. We'll keep you updated on how it plays out.

Related: Trump Promises Immigration Law Named For Kate Steinle In Wednesday Speech
The YIMBY movement is not just a San Francisco thing, and this weekend in Oakland, self-described YIMBYs are gathering in Oakland for the second annual YIMBYtown conference, sharing ideas about how to get cities to build more and denser housing.

YIMBY (Yes in my backyard) became a thing here in the last few years, most notably with figures like 2015 mayoral candidate Amy Farah Weiss and the pro-development Bay Area Renters Federation (BARF), whose outspoken leader Sonja Trauss recently announced her candidacy for District 6 Supervisor in 2018. Their position is essentially to try to counter arguments against housing development, push for higher height limits, and run a counter-offense to the NIMBYism that some see as having hindered development and consequently driven SF rents to skyrocket over the last two decades. Trauss herself will be the closing speaker at YIMBYtown on Sunday, and former supervisor now state senator Scott Wiener will be addressing the conference as well.

The New York Times reports that about 200 people are expected to attend YIMBYtown, which kicked off Thursday night with a social mixer and gets rolling today with breakout sessions titled "Whats the matter with San Francisco? Redistribution and Support for Housing Growth" and "Open Neighborhoods: How YIMBY land-use policy can connect with anti-segregation policy."

Former Boulder, Colorado mayor Will Toor, whose city sponsored the first YIMBYtown conference last year, tells the Times in a statement, "It is great to see a second national Yimby conference bringing together activists from this burgeoning movement. It is clearer than ever that if we really care about solving big national issues like inequality and climate change, tackling the lack of housing in thriving urban areas, caused largely by local zoning restrictions, is key."

SF neighborhood groups and many activists on the left have come to hate Trauss for her political position, which they would describe as "more housing at all costs." And as anyone who's been around the city for any length of time knows, there is a lot of tension over gentrification, shadows being cast by tall buildings, and out-of-scale or simply dense development taking over previously less dense neighborhoods.

But in terms of the supply-and-demand argument, the YIMBYs would say that the relative glut of new market-rate housing that's been completed in the last few years, albeit mostly quite expensive, has had the effect of stabilizing and in some cases pushing rents slightly down  though YIMBY foes, be they NIMBY or otherwise, are going to say that we should be building affordable housing only, because SF has enough luxury housing for the tech elite.

And so it goes.

Previously: Pro-Development Group Loses Bid To Take Over SF Sierra Club
He noted that in the first six months of 2017, the world oil prices stayed at a low level, affecting the groups operation.The PVN also encountered falling production at oil and gas fields as well as obstacles in financial and price mechanisms and tax policies, he added.Oil and gas processing companies such as the Oil and Gas Fertilizer and Chemicals Corporation and the Ca Mau Oil and Gas Fertilizer Joint Stock Company faced fierce competition from imported products, while oil and gas services companies suffered from decreased exploration and exploitation activities, he said.Despite the difficulties, the PVN has managed to surpass all business production targets set by the Government by 2-19 percent, he said.Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said PVN plays a crucial role in the economy and contributes over 10 percent to the countrys gross domestic product (GDP).He asked the PVN to focus all resources on oil and gas projects in the remaining months of 2017.The ministry will coordinate with the PVN to propose adjustments to financial mechanisms and measures to remove bottlenecks for the group.

VNS
Students joined trips, travelling to Ho Chi Minh City and Mekong Delta provinces of Tien Giang and Vinh Long. They visited local farmer cooperatives, talked to farmers to learn about the agricultural situation, the production systems of smallholder farmers and the role of businesses in the agricultural sector, governmental and non-governmental organizations in supporting small-scale farmers and improving food security in the region.



The program opens to students in 2nd year and above, who are undertaking agriculturally-focused degrees. Preference will be given to students studying agricultural science, agricultural technology, sustainable agriculture or similar degrees. Students studying a mainstream degree (science, commerce, international business etc), and with a strong agricultural background and desire to develop their career in agriculture, are also invited to apply.

Since its launch in 2010, the program with tours to India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines and Vietnam has brought more than 100 students from across Asia Pacific together. The trip is primarily funded by Syngenta with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).





By DANG LAM  Translate by Kim Khanh
When I was in graduate school, historians were taught to dismiss conspiracy theories with an ironic smile. After all, what can a cabal of conspirators accomplish when history is determined by vast social forces? But some of the professors underestimated the power of individuals working in concert, behind closed doors, especially when animated by an all-encompassing ideology, embraced with fundamentalist fervor and impervious to contrary evidence. By faith alone they move forward.

Anyone reading past the USA Today headlines (and isnt trapped in Fox News hell) has had reason to suspect the worst. Midcentury American values are under assault from a conspiracy emanating from the billionaire Koch brothers and their friends. Having hijacked the Republican Party, they are spending millions of dollars on Congressional and state campaigns. Stooges are being placed in power to implement legislation written for them by well-funded right-wing think tanks. The assault is aimed not only at Obamacare, trade unions and alternatives to fossil fuel, but on democracy and humane values. Basic opportunities and support for all of societys members? Nah.

Duke University history professor Nancy MacLean investigates the little known roots of the Koch conspiracy in Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Rights Stealth Plan for America (Viking). Aside from the usual roster of radical free market society economists that provide the Kochs with bedtime reading, she identifies the Nobel Prize-winning economist James McGill Buchanan (1919-2013) as the strategist behind their plans.

Like other militant libertarians, Buchanan was a philosopher of resentment who balked at government programs that taxed the rich to feed the poor. In his version of liberty, everyone fends for himselfthe governments only tasks are guarding the borders, punishing criminals and essentially empowering the rich to get richer. Strengthen those bootstraps if you want to rise, because the government will lend a hand to no oneexcept, of course, to help the one percent by removing all impediments to corporate power.

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Buchanan differed from his colleagues by devising a plan for moving from the abstractions of academic libertarian economists to the reality of a Dickensian society. He was the Bolshevik of capitalism, hurrying history forward by drawing plans to seize the government only to undermine itand to do so with honey-sweet phrases. Lets not speak of demolishing public education. Lets talk instead of school choice.

One problem with Buchanans fine talk of liberty comes down to the sheer scale of the wealthy Americans whose fortunes, often based on government contracts or concessions, purchase greater liberty than the rest of us could ever afford. The monopolies enabled by such wealth blocks the liberty of the less fortunate to rise.

Libertarianism is a seductive creed, but falls prey to the accumulation of power that inevitably accrues to a wealthy class unchecked by government, unions and civic organizations. Quoting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, MacLean reminds readers: We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cant have both.

Ganesh Sitaraman of Vanderbilt Law School conveys similar concerns along different avenues in The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution (Alfred A. Knopf). Political power is increasingly concentrated in a smaller group, creating legitimate fears that government has been co-opted to serve corporations and wealthy individuals, he writes, looking back to a golden age (roughly 1945-1975) of prosperity rising on the efforts of an expanding middle class.

Some of Sitaramans history lessons are reductive. According to him, The economic assumptions of our constitution were not just egalitarian but agrarianignoring the egalitarian reckoning of each slave as three-fifths of a person and the influence of New Englands commercial class on the early republic. Nonetheless, his point is apt: stable democracies stand a better chance in predominately middle-class societies.

Sitaraman is less concerned than MacLean with the culprits behind middle-class decline than with urging significant structural reform rather than the Band-Aids prescribed by Barack Obama. The economic notions of Donald Trump are left unexplored as the book went to press before Inauguration Day.
Screenings

Free blood pressure screenings, 9:30-11 a.m. Wednesdays at Countryside Senior Living, front lobby. No appointment necessary.

Programs/Self-Help Groups

Al-Anon Information Center, call 712-255-6724.

Al-Anon and Alateen, meetings locally. For times, dates and locations of area meetings, call 712-255-6724.

Alcoholics Anonymous, beginners information, call 712-252-1333.

Arc of Woodbury County, serving the mentally challenged, 5:15 p.m. meeting, second Monday of the month at Mid-Step Services, 4303 Stone Ave. For families and interested persons.

Child Care Resource and Referral, provides resources, education and advocacy for children, parents, and child care providers. Assists in child care needs. For more information, call 712-277-1180.

Co-Dependence Anonymous, 7 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays at First Lutheran Church, Fireside Room.

Co-Dependents Anonymous (CODA), 10 a.m. Saturdays at Hawkeye Club, 420 Jones St.

Compassionate Friends, 7 p.m. fourth Wednesday of each month (third Thursday in November and second Sunday December) in Mercy Medical Center's Leiter Room. For families who have lost children. Contact Nancy Webb 712-212-4032 or Don Mulder 712-541-5512.

Clinics

Siouxland District Health immunization clinics, call for appointment, 712-279-6119 or 1-800-587-3005.

Information

Family and Addictive Illness series, for more information, call 234-2300.

Iowa Fathers, 6 to 8 p.m. fourth Tuesday of each month at Hope Lutheran Church, Education Building, 218 W. 18th St., South Sioux City, Neb. Support group to help single, divorcing and divorced parents residing in the state of Iowa.

Mercy Pathways Outpatient Program, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, on the third floor, Mercy's Central Medical Building, 801 Fifth St., Suite 360. Provides hope, help, opportunity to connect through group therapy for individuals experiencing personal, relationship, psychiatric issues. For more information, call 712-279-5991.

Narcotics Anonymous, meetings daily, various times, dates and locations. For more information, call 712-279-0733.

Overeaters Anonymous, 1 p.m. Tuesdays at Wesley United Methodist Church, 3700 Indian Hills Drive; 6 p.m. Tuesdays at St. John's Lutheran Church, 402 Lane Ave., Storm Lake; 7 p.m. Tuesdays at Church of the Nazarene, 226 N. Main St., Viborg, S.D.; 5:30 p.m. Thursdays and 9 a.m. Saturdays at Newman Center, 320 E. Cherry St., Vermillion, S.D.; 10:30 a.m. Saturdays at Hawkeye Club, 420 Jones St. A 12-step recovery program for people who have problems with food and weight. No fees.

St. Lukes Outpatient Behavioral Health Program, 9 a.m. to noon Monday, Tuesday and Thursday on fifth floor of St. Luke's, located at 2720 Stone Park Blvd. Offers several levels of outpatient care including partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and group therapy. This program provides support and integrated treatment to individuals experiencing personal or relationship issues as a result of their mental illness. For more information and admission criteria, call 712-279-3906.

Sobriety By Faith, 8:30 a.m. Saturdays at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1421 Geneva St. For more information, call James Mothershead at 712-577-9715.

The Link-Recovery and Freedom, 1603 Glen Ellen Road; 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday workshop, and Christian 12-step meeting 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. For all ages. Call Dee at 389-7432.

Tarahouse Meditation Center, 8 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 6:30 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, all at 3112 Rebecca St. Three easy 10-minute sessions in small group; beginners welcome. For more information, call 490-6410.

Blood pressure and blood sugar screening, 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesdays in the lobby at Westwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Free to public.

Support Groups

Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, 7-8:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Hawkeye Club basement, 420 Jones St. For more information, call 277-5935.

Celebrate Recovery, Bible-based 12-step recovery group. Thursdays at 6 p.m. at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive. Childcare provided. 712-490-3343. All welcome.

PFLAG of Siouxland, (Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays), 7 p.m., fourth Monday of January, March, May, July, September and November. St. Mark ELCA Church, 5200 Glenn Ave., in the upstairs meeting area. 712-258-3116.

Singles widowed and divorced, all ages, 4 p.m., Sundays. McDonald's at Sixth Street and Lewis Boulevard. 712-252-2675.

GriefShare, 6:30 -8:30 p.m. every Tuesday until Dec. 6 at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive, Sioux City. 712-276-5814.

H.E.L.P. Ministries, spiritual NA support group, "Sunday on Saturday" service 6-8 p.m every Saturday at 513 Main St., Sioux City. Donald, 712-574-1744.

HIV/AIDS Support Group, meets weekly. For more information, call Darla or Teri at Siouxland Community Health Center, 712-252-2477 or 888-371-1965.

Hospice of Siouxland, seeking volunteers. For more information, call 712-233-4144 and ask for a volunteer coordinator.

La Leche League of Siouxland, breastfeeding support group meets every third Thursday at 11 a.m. at Morningside Lutheran Church. Children are welcome. For more information, call Mary at 712-546-7280 or Jacquie at 712-255-2998.

Living Each Day Cancer Support Group, 7-8 p.m. second Thursday of the month, Floyd Valley Hospital, Conference Center Room 2, Le Mars, Iowa. Open to all cancer patients, cancer survivors and family members. No charge. Pre-register by calling 712-546-3441 or 800-642-6074, ext. 441.

Mom and Baby Support Group, 10-11 a.m. last Monday of the month at the Orange City (Iowa) Hospital, lower level. For new moms and babies. 712-737-5260.

Tri-State Sober Project, 12-step meeting, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Tuesdays, Friendship Community Church, 305 Sergeant Square Drive, Sergeant Bluff. 6-7 p.m., Thursdays, Transitional Services of Iowa, 1221 Pierce St., Sioux City.

Doug's Donors Support Group, information for organ donors and recipients, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Fridays, 5:15-6:30 p.m. second Thursdays of the month at Mercy Cafeteria Woodbury Room. 712-277-1050.

Divorce Care, 6:30 -8:30 p.m. every Tuesday until Dec. 6 at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive, Sioux City. 712-276-5814.

NAMI Siouxland, (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Support Group meets 6:30 p.m., second Tuesday of the month at Friendship House, 1101 Court St. For individuals and family members dealing with mental illness. 712-255-4209.

Orphan Sunday, 3:30-5 p.m. Sunday at Sunnybrook Community Church loft, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive.

Post Polio Support Group, 11 a.m. first Thursday of the month at Perkins Restaurant by Menards. 712-490-8213.

Relationship Support Group, 7 p.m. Fridays at Marketplace Mall. For more information, call 239-3129.

Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, Individual and Support Groups. For more information, call CSADV in Sioux City at 712-258-7233; Plymouth County at 712-546-6764; Monona County at 712-423-3443. Advocacy and support available 24 hours a day at 1-800-982-7233. All services free of charge and confidential.

Sickle Cell Disease Support Group, 11 a.m. third Saturday of each month at St. Luke's Hospital, meeting room 1. For patients, their family and any concerned member. Call La'Keshia Rainey at 712-203-2019 for more information.

Single and Parenting, 6:30 -8:30 p.m. every Tuesday until Dec. 6 at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive, Sioux City. 712-276-5814.

Sioux City Association of the Deaf, 7 p.m. third Saturday of the month at Morningside Church of Christ, 5015 Garretson Ave. Regular meeting, September-May; no meeting, June, July, August and December.

Siouxland Autism Support Group, second Thursday of the month at Northwest Area Education Agency, 1520 Morningside Ave. For more information, call Julie Case at 712-490-8939.

Siouxland Epilepsy Support Group, 5 p.m. third Tuesday of the month at Prestwick Apartment Clubhouse, 4230 Hickory Lane. For anyone diagnosed with seizures or epilepsy and family or friends. For more information, call Steve at 274-6927.

Siouxland IC support group, meets quarterly in Sioux City. For patients struggling with interstital cystitis. For more information, call Jacque Dundas 316-641-9766.

Siouxland Informational Group for the Blind, 2-5 p.m. second Tuesday of the month at Northern Hills Retirement Community, 4002 Teton Trace. For more information, call 712-266-8926 or 258-8151.

Grief support group, 5:30-7:30 p.m., beginning Oct. 5 for 13 weeks (may join at any time), Crescent Park United Methodist Church, 2826 Myrtle St., Sioux City. Scott, 712-899-6315.

Siouxland Ostomy Association, 2 p.m. first Sunday of each month (except September, which will be second Sunday; and no meetings June, July, August), in Room 300 at Mercy Medical Center, 801 Fifth St. For more information, call Dick Lindblom at 251-2453.

Siouxland Parkinson Disease Support Group, 1 p.m. fourth Monday of the month at Siouxland Center for Active Generations, 313 Cook St. For more information, call Sally Reinert at 402-987-3516.

South Sioux City Weight Support Group, 8:30 a.m. Wednesdays at St. Paul United Methodist Church, South Sioux City. For more information, call 494-1401 or 494-2133.

Disabilities Resource Center of Siouxland, 520 Nebraska St., Suite 101: Women's Support Group, 1:30 p.m. first Wednesday of the month; LGBT Support Group, 1:30 p.m. first Friday of the month; Adult ADHD, 6 p.m. second Tuesday of the month; Advocacy Group, 1:30 p.m. third Tuesday of the month. For more information, call 712-255-1065.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly, group meetings various times, days and locations in Siouxland. For information on the chapter in your area, call 1-800-932-TOPS.

Voice Disorder Support Group, meets as needed at Mercy Medical Center, Buena Vista Room. 712-279-2686.

Women's Peer Support Group, in Wayne and South Sioux City, Neb., for those who have experienced domestic abuse. For more information, call the Wayne office at 402-375-4633 or 1-800-440-4633; in South Sioux City, call 402-494-7592. Help and support available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Services free and confidential.

Woodbury County D.M.D.A., noon-2 p.m. first Saturday of the month at Country Friendship Acres, 4501 West St.; 7-8 p.m. first Tuesday of the month at 515 Court St. in the Community Room; 7-8 p.m. second Tuesday of the month at 441 W. Third St. in the Community Room; 7-8 p.m. third Tuesday of the month at 409 W. Third St. in the Community Room. Support group for people with disabilities and mental disorders.

Natural Mamas in Siouxland, 1 p.m., third Tuesday of each month in the Garretson room of the Morningside Public Library. All ages of children are welcome to come with moms. For sharing natural living tips, recipes, natural remedies and health, homemaking, mothering, etc. For more information, call 402-913-0038 or visit their Facebook page.

A Step Beyond support group, 3:30 p.m. second Tuesday of the month, except for August, November and December when it meets at 5:30 p.m. (no meeting in January) at the Christy-Smith Resource Center, 1819 Morningside Ave. For more information, call 712-276-7319.

Divorce care, 5 p.m., Sundays. Fireside room, Morningside Lutheran Church, 700 South Martha St.

Gamblers Anonymous meetings, 4 p.m. Thursdays at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 315 Hamilton Blvd.; 7 p.m. Wednesdays, Morningside Presbyterian Church, 4327 Morningside Ave.; 7 p.m. Tuesdays, St. John Lutheran Church; 7 p.m. Sundays, Hawkeye Club, 420 Jones St.. 712-277-2901.

Art therapy support group, 5:30 p.m. second Thursday of the month at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. Registration required, call 252-9387.

After Breast Cancer Support Group, 5:30 p.m. third Tuesday of the month at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. For more information, call Brenda, 252-9370.

After Prostate Cancer Support Group, 5:15 p.m. first Tuesday of the month at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. For more information, call 252-9426.

Alzheimer's Association, Big Sioux Chapter Support Group, 2 p.m. second Tuesday of the month; 4 p.m. third Tuesday of the month (under age 65) at 201 Pierce St., Suite 110 (Famous Dave's building); and 6 p.m. first Tuesday of the month at the Barnes and Noble Cafe. For more information, call Emily Lord at 712-279-5802.

Christy-Smith Funeral Homes of Sioux City, extensive grief library at the Morningside location. Open to the public during weekday hours. For more information, call 276-7319.

Chronic Pain/Chronic Illness Support Group, 7:30 p.m. fourth Wednesday of the month in the lower level of the Orange City Hospital. For more information, call 712-737-5260.

Connections Area Agency on Aging, and Mercy Medical Centers Older Adult Services Welcome to Medicare, 1:30-4 p.m., the first Friday of every month at Connections Area Agency on Aging, 2301 Pierce St. To pre-register, or for more information, contact Connections Area Agency on Aging at 712-279-6900.
Joint VBS

SIOUX CITY | Westminster Presbyterian Church and Faith United Presbyterian Church will hold the joint Vacation Bible School "4 Journeys to Bethlehem" Monday through Thursday at Westminster Presbyterian, 2915 Glenn Ave.

Bible school will begin with music and a short introduction of the night's activities each evening at 6 p.m. in the sanctuary. A light supper will be served at 5:30 p.m.

Children age 3 through fifth grade are welcome to attend. There is no cost and pre-registration is not required. Registration may be made by emailing westpres@siouxlan.net or by calling 276-3613.

Movie night at Riverside United

SIOUX CITY | Riverside United Methodist Church, 617 Wright Ave., will host a movie night from 6-10 p.m. Saturday in the fellowship hall. Taco in a bag, popcorn and refreshments will be served. All are welcome; admission is free.

Outdoor Eucharist service

MILFORD, Iowa | St. Alban's Episcopal Church will hold their third annual outdoor Eucharist service led by the Rev. Thomas Early at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Lodge at Gull Point State Park, 1500 Harpen St., Milford, Iowa.

A potluck with root beer floats provided by the Youth Group will follow the service.

VBS

SIOUX CITY | Bethany Lutheran Church, 1201 Dubuque St., will host a Vacation Bible School for elementary age children from 5:30-8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. All denominations are welcome.

This year's theme will be "Barnyard Roundup- Jesus Gathers Us Together (Part 2)", focusing on Psalm 23. A supper and late snack will be provided.

Contact 712-490-8213 to register.

There will be supper and a snack for the children.

Ordination service

SIOUX CITY | Erica MacCreaigh will be ordained as Minister of Word and Sacrament and installed as the new pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church on Sunday.

Central Seniors meeting

SIOUX CITY | Central Seniors of Central Baptist Church of Sioux City will hold a meeting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Golden Corral restaurant.

The program will feature businessman Perry Bourne who will share his experience on an African safari.

Food and fun series

SIOUX CITY | Dr. Bruce Forbes of Morningside College will be featured at the Food and Fun Series at Grace United Methodist Church, 1735 Morningside Ave., at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

A light meal of hamburgers or hot dogs, salads and desserts will precede the program at 5:30 p.m. All are welcome.

Forbes' topic will be "Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Rivals or Sister Religions."

Church fundraiser

SIOUX CITY | Siouxland Unity Christian Church, 605 Court St., will be holding a fundraiser 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

A meal of hamburgers, chips and a drink will be available for $4. Egg rolls will also be sold. In addition to food, some clothing items will be for sale.

For more information, call 712-899-8344.
SIOUX CITY | Can a spangly tiara give a woman super powers?

Maybe, since Jenna Rehnstrom-Liberto is still able to place the crown she earned as 2004's and 2005's Port of Sioux City River-Cade Queen on her head without the aid of a mirror.

The rhinestone-encrusted headpiece can also act as a time machine of sorts.

"Can't believe it's been almost 15 years ago," the KCAU co-anchor said with a laugh. "I feel like a 19-year-old every time I wear this crown."

"I first wore my crown 20 years ago," Jeana Goosman, a Sioux City attorney and 1998's River-Cade Queen, said. "Wearing your crown always takes you back in time."

One of Iowa's longest-running summer festivals, River-Cade started in 1964 as a way to celebrate the importance of the Missouri River to the region.

The coronation of the Port of River-Cade Queen and her Royal Court of Princesses has been an important component from the very beginning, according to Amy Oliver, a River-Cade royalty chaperone and a 1984 River-Cade princess.

"Over the years, River-Cade has awarded its royal court with more than $200,000 in college tuition money," the Sergeant Bluff woman said, noting that this year's queen will receive $4,000 for college while her two princesses each will receive $3,000.

River-Cade also has given young women a chance to gain self confidence while representing the popular festival.

This is the reason Oliver has remained involved as a volunteer. It's also why she was so pleased that her daughter Abby Rook was crowned River-Cade Queen in 2013 and 2014.

Perhaps not too surprisingly, Oliver's daughter Erin will be one the 14 vying for a crown at the River-Cade Royal Coronation Ceremonies beginning at noon, Saturday, at the Sioux City Convention Center, 801 Fourth St.

"The River-Cade Queen and her Royal Court have represented a large part of myself and my sister's lives since we were little girls," Rook said. "We got to ride on the River-Cade floats during the River-Cade Parade and meet all of the entertainers performing at River-Cade concerts."

"Summers wouldn't be summers if we didn't meet new female role models every year," she said. "My sister and I are very fortunate for that."

When Rachel Thompson was crowned River-Cade Queen in 2011, she felt fortunate that the event wasn't cancelled.

"That was the year the Missouri River flooded," the Lawton, Iowa, native said. "I can remember people putting sand into sandbags at the Tyson Events Center parking lot.

"It was a very memorable year because everybody in the community pulled together."

Erin Ernst said getting involved with her community was a chief reason she entered the competition.

The Whiting, Iowa, resident was chosen to be one of River-Cade's princesses in 2016. She will soon be relinquishing her crown.

"I'm sure it will be very bittersweet," Ernst, a CT scan technologist for Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, said. "I totally bonded with (2016 River-Cade Queen) Rachel Joens and Morgan Whitehead (2016 River-Cade Princess). It's become a sisterhood among the three of us."

Hearing that, Rehnstrom-Liberto nodded her head in agreement.

"When I moved to Sioux City to attend Morningside College, I didn't know that many people," the Hartington, Neb., native explained. "The friends that I've made in River-Cade remain some of my closest friends."

Plus the experience gave Rehnstrom-Liberto a certain notoriety.

"People always come up to me and say they remember me as the River-Cade queen," she said, smiling. "That's pretty cool."

It also gave Rehnstrom-Liberto the skills she needed for a career in broadcasting.

"When you're facing the judges, they're looking for a good communicator," she said. "You are the ambassador for River-Cade, after all."

Being River-Cade royalty also looks good on a resume. Just ask Goosman, who hired Thompson to be her law firm's marketing director and Rook to be an administrative assistant.

"Maybe it's because I'm a former River-Cade Queen but I know how hard you work," she said. "The year I was Queen, I appeared at more than 50 events and more than 50 separate parades."

"You need a good work ethic," Goosman continued. "You also need to be a moral person. That's why I was fortunate when hiring Rachel and Abby."

Asked about the toughest job a member of River-Cade Royalty will face, Rook comes up with a ready answer.

"The smile contest can be a heart-breaker," she said. "How can you be critical of a smiling child."

Yet Rehnstrom-Liberto said the River-Cade Parade has some hidden hazards.

"When we were on the River-Cade float, the Royal Court was required to stand on what we called our 'Barbie' stands," she said. "We'd be anchored in place by a mechanism hidden by our poofy skirts. That's the only way we wouldn't fall off the float."

However, that sounds safer than the elephant Thompson rode while introducing the Abu Bekr Shrine Circus.

"I actually had a blast," Thompson said. "I got to ride the elephant and blow the whistle to get the circus going. That was a very good time."

On the one hand, Goosman never rode an elephant. On the other hand, her 1998 River-Cade Parade appearance was considered the hottest in history.

Asked how hot it was, Goosman guessed "It felt like it was 210. I may be off a bit, though."

Despite the heat, she said she loved every minute of her reign. So did Rook.

"Unlike other River-Cade Royalty, my reign lasted two years, not one," Rook said. "Still, the time went so quickly."

Thompson said her River-Cade experience gave a chance to see Siouxland in a new light.

"I could've started my career anywhere but I decided to stay in Sioux City," she said. "I don't know if that would be the case if it wasn't for River-Cade."

Thompson's words of advice: Network like crazy and enjoy every minute."

Rehnstrom-Liberto agrees with that sentiment.

"Whether you win or not, it's a great experience," she said. "It's one you'll never forget."

This is good news for Ernst.

Even though she worked in Omaha for much of the past year, Ernst took her River-Cade Princess role quite seriously.

"I'd appear at events every chance I got," she said. "I didn't want to waste a minute of being River-Cade Royalty."

Though bittersweet, Ernst said she's ready to pass on her royal title to someone new.

"You never really stop being River-Cade Royalty," she said. "It feel like you're simply pasis gon a baton."
ELK POINT, S.D. | Search crews continued Thursday to look for the man who went missing in the Missouri River Wednesday afternoon.

The Union County (S.D.) Sheriff's Office identified the man as Chris Reeves, 27, of Tallahassee, Florida.

Sheriff Dan Limoges said Reeves was swept away while swimming with friends at what is informally known as Burbank Beach, located about 5 miles west of Elk Point, around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. Search teams worked until nightfall unsuccessfully and reconvened Thursday morning to continue.

"We've had some areas of real interest but it just didn't pan out," the sheriff said about Thursday's search. "At this point, nothing has been recovered."

Limoges said the rescue teams will continue Friday morning and develop another game plan.

He estimated about 20 people with the Union County Sheriff's Office; Dixon County (Neb.) Sheriff's Office; South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks; and other area rescue crews were looking Thursday. Divers were combing the waters, which are 40 feet deep in areas.

The sheriff said they have notified Reeves' family of his disappearance and the ongoing effort to find him.

This is the third drowning-related incident in the Burbank Beach area in three years. The first two individuals were found dead.
SIOUX CITY | A very dry period in July will extend for several more days in Siouxland, as the forecast holds little chance of precipitation.

The National Weather Service in Sioux Falls forecast for Sioux City is quite dry. Much of the area has received little rain, after a series of thunderstorms in late June.

Additionally, heat will increase, as weekend temperatures will rise into the 90-degree range.

The Sioux City forecast calls for a mostly sunny day on Friday, with a high temperature of 87. After that, the next three days have similar forecasts, with broad amounts of sun.

The anticipated high temperature is 93 on Saturday, 92 on Sunday and 92 on Monday. All three days are forecast to be sunny, and overnight lows are in the range from 66 to 68 degrees.

The first chance for rain is Tuesday, when the precipitation chance is 40 percent after 1 p.m., with possible thunderstorms.

Thus far in July, Sioux City has received one-tenth of an inch in rain, far below the monthly average through July 14 of 1.5 inches.

Since June 1, Sioux City has received 1.8 inches of rain, down from the historic average of 5.37 inches.
SIOUX CITY | The city of Sioux City has received nearly $39 million in low-interest loans from state agencies to help finance the relocation of utility lines related to the Interstate 29 reconstruction.

The awards were announced Friday by the Iowa Finance Authority and Iowa Department of Natural Resources, as part of $78 million distributed statewide. Other Northwest Iowa towns also received substantial awards for projects.

Sioux City will receive $33 million for relocation of sewer lines for the I-29 work, plus $5.7 million for the relocation of water lines. Interstate 29 work broadening the highway to six lanes and reworking exits through the metro has been a hugely costly decade-long project that will finish in 2019.

The city, which is responsible for moving the lines in the state right-of-way, plans to use its water and sewer funds to repay the nearly $39 million in loans over the next 20 years.

Anticipated loan payments are among the reasons the city has raised both its water and sewer rates this year to bolster the funds. The city in July entered the second year of a three-year 6.65 percent water rate increase and the first and only year of a 3 percent sewer rate increase.

Affordable financing programs through the State Revolving Fund play a significant role in advancing water quality improvements throughout Iowa. These programs are available to assist with both the planning and design and construction phases of water infrastructure projects, Iowa Department of Natural Resources Director Chuck Gipp said in a release.

The program has awarded more than $2.6 billion since its inception.

Other DNR awards Friday to Northwest Iowa cities include:

-- Albert City, $2.8 million, sewer treatment improvements.

-- Alta, $1.35 million, water project.

-- Cleghorn, $200,000, water project planning and design.

-- Galva, $238,000, sewer project planning and design.

-- Harris, $339,000, sewer infiltrations and inflow corrections.

-- Milford, $97,500, sewer project planning and design.

-- Pierson, $291,000, water treatment improvements.

-- Smithland, $109,500, sewer project planning and design.

-- Spencer, $1.5 million, sewer project.

-- Wahpeton, $1.2 million, water storage improvements.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa  Todd Prichard wears many hats as a private citizen, attorney, state lawmaker and candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor.

For the next three weeks, the Charles City Iowa House member will be off the campaign trail while he wears the hat of an Army Reserve officer in multination training exercise.

Prichard, 43, a lieutenant colonel, will be going to Bulgaria for his annual training beginning Sunday with about 200 members of a unit that is responsible for making sure supplies flow into the theater of operations.

Our goal is to increase our readiness and proficiency, said Prichard, who enlisted in the Reserve while a student at the University of Iowa in 1996. This will be his fifth overseas tour as part of the Reserve and Iowa Army National Guard. He was deployed to El Salvador in 1998, Kuwait in 2000, Egypt in 2003, and Iraq in 2006 and 2007.

In addition to improving military readiness, Prichard believes his 22 years in the military is an important part of his preparation and qualification to be governor.

It plays into the narrative of who I am, Prichard said. His service offers insight into who I am and how I view service. Running for governor is an extension of me serving.

His service and experience as a leader would definitely be an asset as governor.

Being an officer for a couple of decades has given me a real education on how to lead as well as perspective on what it means to be responsible for the well-being of others, Prichard said.

The centerpiece of Prichards campaign is his 50-50 in 5 plan to create 50,000 jobs that pay at least $50,000 a year in the first five years of his administration. To do that, he said, the state will need to invest in education, infrastructure such as broadband and re-prioritizing state economic development resources such as tax credits to attract companies that will create good-paying jobs.

Prichard plans campaign events through the end of the week before he departs Sunday. In Bulgaria, his unit will be participating in Exercise Saber Guardian 2017, a multinational exercise under U.S. European Commands Joint Exercise Program with between 30,000 and 40,000 soldiers from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, the United States, NATO allies, and Partnership for Peace nations.

During the annual training, military rules restrict Prichard from engaging in political activity. However, his staff and supporters will continue to organize volunteers, raise resources and participate in events across the state, according to spokesman Norm Sterzenbach.

In addition to Prichard, former Iowa City Mayor Ross Wilburn, Sen. Nate Boulton of Des Moines, former Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Andy McGuire, former Des Moines school board President Jon Neiderbach, John Norris, former aide to Sen. Tom Harkin and Gov. Tom Vilsack, Coralville nurse and union president Cathy Glasson and Des Moines businessman Fred Hubbell are running or contemplating a bid for the Democratic nomination.
Early yesterday morning, the Associated Press reported that one of the biggest icebergs ever recorded - a trillion-ton behemoth more than seven times the size of New York City - has broken off from the Antarctica Ice Shelf.

Captured by satellite, A.P. says the giant chunk snapped off an ice shelf and into the South Pole Sea, and now it is triggering disagreement among scientists over whether or not global warming is to blame.

So what is global warming?

Lets begin with the term greenhouse gases.

These are gaseous compounds in the atmosphere that are capable of absorbing infrared radiation, thereby trapping and holding heat in the atmosphere.

And by increasing the heat in the atmosphere, greenhouse gases are responsible for the so-called greenhouse effect, which ultimately leads to global warming.

But what are greenhouse gases, and what sort of harm are they capable of?

Greenhouse gases are a hot topic when it comes to global warming.

These gases absorb heat energy emitted from the Earths surface and reradiate it back to the ground.

This way, they contribute to the greenhouse effect, which keeps the planet from losing all of its heat from the surface, at night.

The concentrations of various greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, determine how much heat is absorbed by the atmosphere, and how much it should reradiate back to the surface.

Human activitiesespecially fossil-fuel combustion since the Industrial Revolutionare responsible for steady increases in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The four most significant greenhouse gases are:

* Water vapor;

* Carbon dioxide;

* Methane;

* Surface-level ozone

The heat they generate is invariably responsible for the carving up of the icebergs in the South Pole, and even though this is not unusual, it is an especially big one this time.

According to Project MIDAS, a research group based in Britain, the size of the iceberg that broke off covers an area of roughly 2,300 square miles (6,000 square kilometers), more than twice the size of Luxembourg.

Its volume is twice that of Lake Erie, U.S.A.

Project MIDAS also said: It broke loose from the Larsen C ice shelf, which scientists had been monitoring for months, as they watched a crack grow more than 120 miles (200 kilometers) long.

It also revealed that scientists have indicated that global warming has caused a thinning of such shelves, but they differ on whether the latest event can be blamed on climate change.

The iceberg that broke off is considered unlikely to pose any threat to shipping. And since the ice was already floating, the breakup wont raise sea levels in the short term.

However, the project also pointed out that the iceberg removed more than 10 percent of the ice shelf, and if that eventually hastens the flow of glaciers behind it into the water, there could be a very modest rise in sea level.

Still, another report has revealed that two other Antarctic ice shelves, farther north on the Antarctic Peninsula, collapsed in 1995 and 2002.

That sped up the slide of glaciers, which contributed to sea-level rise, David Vaughan, director of science at the British Antarctic Survey, said in a statement.

He also said: Our glaciologists will now be watching closely to see whether the remaining Larsen C ice shelf becomes less stable than before the iceberg broke free.

Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California, Irvine, said the breaking off of the iceberg is part of a long-term major loss of the ice shelves in the peninsula, progressing southbound and resulting from climate warming.

As for Swansea University glaciologist Martin OLeary, a member of the MIDAS project, he called the ice shelf collapse a natural event, and were not aware of any link to human-induced climate change.

Still, a spokeswoman for the British Antarctic survey said theres not enough information to say whether the calving is an effect of climate change, though theres good evidence global warming has caused the thinning of the ice shelf.

And so the confusing stories continue.

As for all of us who are living on these small islands and atolls we call home as theyre tottering unsteadily on the unpredictable South Pacific Sea, let us hope and pray that the ice shelf in the Antarctica would somehow be prevented, from complete collapse at any time now.

Indeed, lets pray that the equally unpredictable President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, would quit being a spoiled lout, and declare obsolete all those greenhouse gas-firing equipment and machinery, and ban them from being used everywhere in America.

After all, if it hadnt been for those silly greenhouse gases that are being produced everywhere else but here, there wouldnt be any fear among any of us of being swamped out of ones home night or day, here in the South Pacific today.

* DANICA KIRKA of the Associated Press, and Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc. were relied upon in connection to certain, relevant matters as this editorial comment was being written.
If you want a place to relax and meditate then Samoa is definitely that place.

This is the belief of Tiffany Arthur from Guyana, South America.

Tiffany has been here in Samoa for about six months and this is her home for the next two years.

This is my first time here in Samoa but Im here for a reason, she told the Dear Tourist.

Im a student at the N.U.S. doing a Masters in Development Studies through a scholarship and Samoa was on that list and I was selected to come here.

It has been a wonderful experience the people are very welcoming and family-like and it brings that warmth which feels like a home away from home.

Im staying with a Samoan family at Vaivase Uta but the care I receive from them feels like Im back home with my mother.

Having lived here for about six months, Ms. Arthur said she is missing home but Samoa is giving her every reason not to feel homesick.

The food is excellent and I have tried the taro, breadfruit and the palusami because I have those in my country as well, she said.

The family that I am staying with are lovely and they always make me feel welcome which is why Im not missing home too much.

But dont get me wrong I miss my mother I have to get used to that here because it will be my home for the next two years. It has been an amazing experience so far.

Whenever I call home I always tell my family that they have to come and visit here because its a beautiful place and very religious.

Samoa is a place to be if people want to have that peace and relax.

Its a place to meditate and enjoy life and to be away from their usual busy schedules.
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme  La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza.



Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres.




On Sunday, July 23, Clinton Raceway will host the second annual Vic Hayter Memorial Trot for the late Stratford, Ont. resident, hotelier and harness horse owner, Vic Hayter.

The inaugural event, held in 2016, was the familys way of honouring their late father, who always made time to come to Clinton, despite his busy career in the hotel business.

Hayter, who passed away in February of 2016 was an avid owner of Standardbreds for 38 years, and rarely missed a Sunday afternoon card at Clinton.

When my father passed away early in 2016, my family and I were thinking of a way to commemorate his name and keep his memory alive. states Vic's son, Greg Hayter. It had to be something that matched the things he loved most in life. The three things he loved most were his work, his family and animals, specifically his love for dogs and horses. I knew that we couldnt include work so I thought what better way to do this then to have a special day in his honour at his all time favourite racetrack involving family, horses and the Humane Society.

"So of this, the 1st annual Vic Hayter Memorial day at the races was born. My family and I have vowed to continue this tradition year after year in hopes that the day will only become bigger and better, year after year, all the while keeping the memory of Big Vic alive!

The Hayter family will continue to keep his memory and his love of animals alive as they invite family, friends and the community to support the fundraiser for both the Stratford Perth Humane Society and the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society.

Raffle tickets are currently being sold for $5 each, and feature great prizes from both the Best Western Plus Arden Park Hotel in Stratford and the Four Points by Sheraton in London. The draw will be made at the track Sunday afternoon. A 50/50 and silent auction will also take place during the live race card, followed by a Pineridge Roast Beef BBQ. Tickets for the BBQ are $15, take-out is available and all the proceeds will go to both causes.

This year, the Baden Coffee Company will be participating in the day as well with a special blend of coffee named Hayter Reserve. It's a directly traded specialty coffee produced locally, right here in Ontario, paying tribute to Vic and his love for Standardbred horses and Cocker Spaniels. The Hayters are generously providing 300 free samples to fans following the first race on the card.

For those interested in taking part in the festivities, but would rather not drive, there is a bus leaving Stratford from the Best Western Plus Arden Park Hotel at 12:00 noon with a pick up at the ValuMart in Mitchell at 12:30 p.m. $25 will get you on the bus, a BBQ ticket and live race program. To book a space please call the front desk at the Best Western Plus Arden Park at 519-275-2936 as limited seats are still available.

As an addition for race fans, a miniature horse meet and greet will happen at the grandstand from 2:00 - 2:30 p.m. with an on-track exhibition race following race nine.

Live race post time for the 10-race card, including the $12,500 Vic Hayter Memorial Trot is set for 1:30 p.m.

(with files from Clinton)
There were three divisions of Pennsylvania Sire Stakes races for two-year-old colt and gelding pacers on a muggy Thursday afternoon (July 13) at Harrah's Philadelphia. They each went for purses of approximately $53,000.

The first division was taken by Jimmy Takter trainee Pro Beach (Yannick Gingras). The two-year-old colt by Somebeachsomewhere - Darlins Delight used the pole position to his advantage, making the lead and rating the quarter in :28. The controlled tempo continued through the half (:57.3), but picked up dramatically closer to home. Aleppo Hanover (George Brennan) attacked first over, with Chris Ryder trainee This Is The Plan (Dave Miller) riding his coattails. In the stretch, Pro Beach held off the fast closing This Is The Plan to win by a nose in 1:53.3 in his first career start. Suddenly Sam (Marcus Miller) finished third.

Pro Beach ($3.20) is owned by Brixton Medical, Marvin Katz, and The Hatfield Stables.

Division two saw Wild Bill (Scott Zeron) power past Nutcracker Sweet (Tim Tetrick) to win under wraps in 1:52.3. The son of Somebeachsomewhere - Wild West Show sat early, as Julie Miller trainee Hayden Hanover (Andy Miller) made the lead. The pacesetter was immediately confronted by Nutcracker Sweet, who cleared just after the quarter. Wild Bill pounced past the half, unleashing a strong uncovered initiative to seize command at the three-quarter pole. Nutcracker Sweet was second, while Hayden Hanover finished third.

A full brother to Huntsville, Wild Bill is owned by trainer Ray Schnittker.

In the third division, Done Well grinded gamely en-route to an easy victory. The son of Well Said let the speed develop in front of him early, as Jimmy Takter trainee Decoy (Dave Miller) brushed to the top. Done Well confronted the leader at the three-quarters, and went on to a willing victory in a day's fastest 1:51.2. Karpathian Kid (Marcus Miller) finished second, while Decoy held third.

Now two-for-two as a freshman, Done Well is owned by the conglomerate of Stambaugh, Wingfield Brothers, Leeman, and Keith, and is trained by Brian Brown.

(with files from Harrah's Philadelphia)
It will be a busy day at Dresden Raceway this weekend as National Bring A Friend Day, Legion Day and the second leg of the Mark Austin Pacing Series will all overlap.

Bring A Friend Day will include a plethora of activities. The first 50 friends that arrive at the track will get a free program and a $2 betting voucher. Drivers will be available for a meet and greet before the races, and the track will also offer tours of the paddock area, judges stand, and rides in the starting car.

There will be tons of prizes handed out as patrons can spin the wheel to win.

All Royal Canadian Legion and American Legion members are invited to the track to help celebrate their contributions to each community. Legion members will be honoured during the day with winners circle photos and will be given a hat to commemorate their service to the community.

The second leg of the Mark Austin Pacing Series hits the track as all four winners from last week will be moving behind the gate.

Step In My Groove, Action Town, Pull The Shade and Big Bad Carly all visited the winners circle in the first leg of the series. The $10,000 Final is slated for next Sunday (July 23)

Fans of harness racing that cant check out the festivities live can watch and bet on the races streamed on dresdenraceway.ca, with a 1:30 first race post time. To view the entries, click one of the following links:

 Dresden Entries

 Dresden Program Pages

(with files from Dresden)
Play at the new site will be free and first come, first served through the...
Now that state legislators have agreed on a new plan to fully fund K-12 public education, collective bargaining talks have resumed in earnest between the Longview and Kelso school districts and local teacher unions.

With contracts set to expire at the end of August, negotiators had reached a stalemate as both sides waited for the Legislature to produce an education funding plan. In the end, lawmakers solution to the state Supreme Courts McCleary decision  which required the state to pay teachers more  includes complex changes that will dramatically alter how Washington educators will be compensated.

Its the biggest change in how teachers are paid in 30 years, said Rich Wood, a spokesman for the Washington Education Association. Almost everyone who is currently teaching has been paid under the existing system, and thats largely going away, he said.

The new salary schedule, which will be phased in beginning with the 2018-19 school year, is based on a so-called levy swap that requires the state to pay a larger share of teacher salaries. In past years, teacher salaries have been supplemented in large part with funds from local levies.

In the 2016-17 school year, the average state contribution for a starting teachers salary was $33,412. How much districts actually got from the state varied widely because the state used an arcane accounting formula that rewarded districts that hired experienced teachers with masters degrees. Education advocacy groups argued the state formula reinforced economic inequities throughout the state.

Under the new salary structure, the minimum state contribution for a first-year teacher will increase to $40,000 beginning in 2019. Maximum teacher pay will be capped at $90,000 per year, with exceptions for specialized teachers that teach science, technology, or math; bilingual education; or special education. Any increases above the maximum must be bargained for and funded locally.

Districts will still be allowed to use local levies to supplement salaries but the levies will be capped at $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed home value and new requirements will be placed on how levy funds can be used. Local school levies in Longview for 2016 were $3.31 per $1,000 of assessed value, according to public record.

For the 2018-19 school year, union negotiations for salary increases are limited to a minor cost of living increase or the statewide average teacher salary for that year.

Union officials say bargaining has become more important than ever. Thats especially true for teachers in districts like Longview and Kelso, where teachers on average have been paid less than others in similar-sized districts. For the 2017-18 school year, theyll have a one-time shot at securing significant pay increases before the new state restrictions on collective bargaining kick in.

The bottom line is that its still down to bargaining, said Roy Maier, Lower Columbia Region director for WEA. Maier is representing both Longview and Kelso teacher unions in negotiations.

The districts get that money as an allocation from the state and then you have to go to the table and try to get it, he said.

Maier said its in everyones interest to give Longview and Kelso teachers a pay bump that aligns with the average pay for each districts size code. Size codes group districts together based on student enrollment.

The average annual contribution from levy funds for a first-year teacher from other districts the same size as Longview was $12,994 last year, while a first-year Longview teacher, on average, received $7,942.

For school district the same size as Kelso, the average from levy funds for a first-year teacher was $9,589, compared to $7,344 for a first-year Kelso teacher.

Ron Kramer, human relations director for Longview Schools, said the district is still sorting through the details of the states new salary allocation model, adding its too early to tell exactly how it will affect negotiations.

We anticipate working closely with the Longview Education Association on figuring out what those statutory changes mean for the short- and long-term bargaining, he said in an interview. What we are determined to do is make sure we bargain in good faith with the LEA, he said.

The new budget deal will also take health care benefits off local negotiating tables. Nearly all school employees will be moved onto a new state-run health plan beginning in 2020, which will be subject to collective bargaining with the governors office and then approval by the state legislature. There will also be adjustments to how some teachers are paid based on class size.

Given the numerous changes to education in Washington, the main certainty seems to be that it will take more time to know what it all means.

There are tremendous changes taking place in this state, said Wood of WEA. All 295 school districts are going to have to work through them with their school employees and with their communities to implement them, he said.
Tensions between the longshoremens union and the Port of Longview bubbled to the surface this week as a Local 21 leader publicly criticized the port for slow operations and an unaddressed jurisdictional dispute.

ILWU Local 21 President Billy Roberts vented his frustrations at a port commission meeting Wednesday, pointing to a Sunday night accident on the ports rail line as an example of a changing mentality among port staff.

At about 7 p.m. Sunday, a rail car derailed temporarily at the port after a worker accidentally did not align a switch on the tracks properly. No one was hurt and there was no environmental damage, according to the port. Instead of immediately fixing the switch though, repairs were delayed to the next morning shutting down work on a job.

Roberts argued it would have normally taken just a few hours to fix the switch, so that dockworkers could complete their work for the customer. Postponing the rail repairs likely caused the ports customer delays and extra expenses, he said.

About 14 dockworkers went home early even though they had already been paid for a full days work, he said.

The ports superintendent on duty made the decision to delay the repairs based on an estimate that it would have taken six hours to put the locomotive back on the track and move the empty cars out of the way, said Norm Krehbiel, port CEO. Then maintenance staff wouldnt be able to begin fixing the switch until about 2 a.m. Monday, he added.

Setting up lights and operating heavy machinery to fix the switch at night could have introduced safety hazards, Krehbiel said. Instead, workers began fixing the problem at 7 a.m. Monday. The track wasnt operating again until 1 p.m.

Although that was single incident, Roberts and other longshoremen say its represents a growing inefficiency and slow mentality at the port that they worry could drive away customers if not changed.

I just dont know where were going with this. Are we trying to really compete (as) Washingtons Working Port or are we just going to stand out with our hands out looking for a rent check? Roberts asked commissioners, referring to the ports new slogan.

This is not the way we do business. Weve got a working agreement and we need to start following it, Roberts said, holding up a pocket-size white book of the contract agreement between the port and Local 21.

Beyond his concerns about inefficiency, Roberts argued the port wasnt honoring its working agreement with Local 21 by refusing to address a dispute in third-party arbitration process.

The dispute revolves around who should be allowed to move cement blocks used as barriers around cargo. Because its cargo related, the longshoremens union argues its a job for its members, while the carpenters union says its a job for its maintenance workers at the port.

For the last two months, Roberts said Local 21 has to tried to have the matter settled through arbitration, but the port declined at first to do so. Instead, the port argued it was a jurisdictional matter that should be handled by a state commission that deals with inter-union disagreements, Roberts said.

The port had not actually refused arbitration though, Krehbiel said. Port staff were evaluating the matter and they had planned to respond to the unions request some time this week, he said. After Roberts remarks Wednesday, the port agreed to move forward with arbitration. The two unions still will aim to resolve the disagreement through the state commission, too.

On Thursday Krehbiel seemed surprised by some of Roberts comments, and he said that other than Sundays incident he wasnt aware of any specific incidents in which the port responded slowly to an emergency situation. However, Krehbiel said he would reach out to the union to discuss their concerns. The two sides have a meeting set up next week.
The intersection of Nevada Drive and West Side Highway remains closed following a Thursday morning truck crash. Crews are working to repair a damaged train trestle, but its not clear when the road will reopen.

A concrete pump truck crashed into the train trestle early Thursday morning, knocking the bridge to the side by about six feet in some sections, said Shane McCoy of Cowlitz County Public Works. The trestle remained on the bridges columns, and the truck had been removed from the scene by mid-morning.

The concrete truck was too tall to fit under the trestle, which has a height just shy of 12 feet.

Nevada Drive serves as an arterial road to the Columbia Heights area in Longview. Drivers heading south on Columbia Heights Road can detour to Fishers Lane to connect to West Side Highway instead.

Cowlitz County dispatch received calls reporting that a truck had struck the trestle at about 6:30 a.m. Thursday. Crews from Cowlitz County Public Works and Patriot Rail Co. were at scene evaluating the damage throughout the day.

Our first order of business is to make sure the bridge is safe for the motoring public, said Jon Holladay, an engineer with Patriot Rail.

Were going to encourage people not to come up to try to see it and not to trespass on railroad property, he said.

By late Thursday afternoon, Patriot engineers had determined they would not be able to move the bridge back into place, so instead they will remove the bridge, said Mark Koelsch, spokesman for Cowlitz County Public Works.

Until rail and county crews can come up with a plan to remove the damaged bridge, the road will remain closed.

We hope by (Friday) to have a better idea of when West Side Highway will reopen, Koelsch added.

Koelsch did not know whether the bridge would be replaced because that portion of the rail line isnt used frequently.

The company has mainly used the 30-mile Weyerhaeuser Woods Railroad for storage purposes after it ran its last schedule run in March 2015. Historically the rail line was used to haul logs, lumber and wood waste for Weyerhaeuser Co. and most recently, to haul wastewater from the countys Headquarters Landfill.
IANS

The Australian government said on Friday that it will introduce new laws requiring internet giants such as Google and Facebook to hand over and decrypt messages from suspected terrorists and criminals.

Similar to Britain's Investigatory Powers Act which requires companies to comply with investigations, the new laws are set to be introduced into Parliament when sitting resumes next month, reports Xinhua news agency.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Friday that world leaders agreed at last week's G20 meetings in Hamburg, Germany, that more needed to be done to stop terrorists and criminals from communicating freely online. Speaking at a media conference, Turnbull said Australia's laws needed to apply "online as well as offline".

"We need to ensure that the internet is not used as a dark place for bad people to hide their criminal activities from the law, and the AFP (Australian Federal Police) must have the powers, as do the other intelligence agencies to enforce the law online as well as offline," Turnbull said.

"Increasingly, communications across the net, whether it's messaging or voice applications, are encrypted end-to-end. So while they can be intercepted, they cannot be read. We want to ensure the brilliant tech companies bring their brilliance to assist the rule of law. Not through 'back doors', but through legitimate ways so they can keep us safe," he said. "These are vitally important reforms designed to keep Australians safe."

Earlier on Friday, speaking on the Nine Network, the coalition government's Leader of the House and Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said the government does not expect any resistance from the industry giants, considering the potential implications involved in letting terrorists go unchecked.
tech2 News Staff

According to a report in Dawn, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has asked Facebook to link the phone numbers of its users to their Facebook accounts. The move is apparently an attempt to reduce the number of fake accounts on Facebook. The telephone numbers are verified through a biometric identification system in Pakistan, and according to the authorities in Pakistan, the verification of Facebook accounts with mobile numbers will tackle the problem with fake accounts.

Facebook has indicated that it will continue to support such requests. While fake accounts are usually up to no good, the reason why Pakistan is coming down hard on them is a complex issue, which we will be coming back to later in the article. For now, we will focus on the various ways Facebook has used to identify fake accounts.

Linking of phone numbers to Facebook profiles was a move taken by Facebook back in 2012. The effort was to allow for easier recovery of accounts in case the password is forgotten, provide an additional method of authentication, and allowing users to stay in control of their accounts. Facebook also identifies fake accounts by scanning behavior patterns. This can be as simple as an excessive spread of spam, an activity that genuine users are less likely to indulge in. The tactic allowed Facebook to remove over 30,000 accounts in France alone.

Torrents of messages and repeated posts are both red flags. Facebook is taking the steps to bring down fake accounts to reduce the amount of misinformation circulating on the platform. Facebook tweaked its formula for tracking fake accounts by checking how large the circle of friends of a user were, and focusing on those with smaller circles even though their reach might not have been considered to be wide enough to warrant action.

The measures were taken in response to mounting pressure from Europe, after multiple governments threatened lawsuits and legal action against extremist propaganda and other content posted on the platform, that were in violation of the local laws. Facebook has also started using automated techniques to track fake accounts. One of the approaches does not even involve scanning the contents of the posts themselves, but the frequency of the posting activity. The improved detection algorithms and automation were supported with more features for users to report content and users themselves.

Any user who comes across a fake account can report the profile directly from the profile picture itself. This method of reporting a fake profile to Facebook is particularly useful for those who have been impersonated on the platform. If users are unable to find the particular profile picture, or cannot report the user for some reason, a fake profile can also be reported by filling out a form. The reporting function works for even the users or organisations who do not have a Facebook presence of their own.

There are even third party services that help identify fake profiles. FakeOff is an application by an Israel based startup that scans the activity of all your friends and tags the suspected fake profiles. These profiles can then be reported to Facebook. The application scans up to a year of the Facebook activity of the suspected profile, and gives a credibility score from one to ten. About a quarter of the investigations conducted through the FakeOff application has turned out to be fake profiles.

Circling back to the demand in Pakistan, the comments beneath the Dawn article are polarised into two camps. There are those who support the initiative, and claim that the move will curb crime. The other type of comments are on how the move will restrict free speech, and may even lead to the deaths of Facebook users. This is because the PTA has asked Facebook to link to mobile numbers specifically to track down "blasphemous content" which is illegal in Pakistan. This revealing report by the BBC explains what it is like to be an atheist in Pakistan.

In March 2017, Pakistan threatened Facebook and other social networks with unspecified strict action if concrete steps were not taken to tackle the problem of blasphemous content on their platforms. Facebook is the most used social network in Pakistan, and the company agreed to send a delegation to Pakistan to discuss the issue. Facebook had then indicated that it will support any steps to ensure that the local laws of any country will not be violated.

The concerns of Facebook cooperation with Pakistan authorities possibly leading to the death of users is not unwarranted. In June 2017, Taimoor Raza a 30 year old from the Punjab province of Pakistan was sentenced to death for committing blasphemy on Facebook. The young man apparently indulged in a debate on Islam with a counter terrorism agent. He was one among fifteen arrested for blasphemy in Pakistan in 2016. The government in Pakistan has also circulated messages encouraging people to report users who circulate blasphemous content. Human rights organisations have expressed concerns on the stringent laws on blasphemy in Pakistan.

In 7 July, Facebook officials met with Pakistans interior minister to discuss the removal or blocking of blasphemous content on the platform. A report by Dawn in May indicated that more than forty banned outfits in Pakistan were operating on Facebook, and openly spreading sectarian and extremist ideology. Officially, the crackdown on social media was to remove the blasphemous content and the extremist content, but activists have said that the government is also coming down hard on writers and bloggers who criticize the government or the military.
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The French government said on Thursday it would appeal against a court ruling in Google's favour with regard to 1.1 billion euros ($1.25 billion) in tax.

"We will appeal this judgment in defence of the interests of the state," budget minister Gerald Darmanin said in an answer to a parliamentary question on Wednesday's ruling. The Paris administrative court said Google, the main business of U.S.-based Alphabet Inc, was not liable for the tax demand, in line with a court adviser's recommendation made in June.

This is not the first time the US tech giant has been put under the scanner for taxation in Europe. It was previously fined for $ 3 billion by the European Union for an antitrust case.

The court battle between the French government and the California-based tech giant went for six years. French Budget Minister, Gerald Darmanian, had asked Google to pay taxes for providing services to insert ads online in France. According to the French tax administration, Google was liable to pay for the services it provided from its Ireland office in France. However, the court noted that since the Google Ireland office, did not have the human resource to set a permanent office in France, it won't be taxed.

According to a Guardian report, most of the US tech giants have come under the scanner, where the European countries are attacking these companies for paying low taxes.

With inputs from Reuters
tech2 News Staff

German officials probing carmaker Mercedes-Benz, which is owned by Daimler, have found no signs so far that the carmaker made use of illegal software to manipulate emissions, a government spokesman said on 14 July, 2017.

Daimler said based on current information available to the carmaker they would fight allegations about using an illegal software defeat device with all legal means.

The Stuttgart-based carmaker was summoned for a meeting on 13 July, 2017 to address allegations that it had sold more than a million cars with excessive emissions in Europe and the United States.

German magazine Der Spiegel on Friday said, without citing sources, that officials from Germany's vehicle certification authority KBA believe Mercedes-Benz may have diesel cars equipped with an illegal defeat device, and that KBA is optimistic it can deliver proof.

Upon being asked about the article in Der Spiegel, a KBA spokesman said, "We need to wait for the results of investigation to be published." KBA reports to Germany's transport ministry.

The report comes after the company introduced The Mercedes-Benz X-class which will be the carmakers first pickup truck will be unveiled in production form of 18 July 2017. The new Mercedes X-class pickup has been developed in what is said to be a three-way joint venture with parent company Daimlers alliance partner RenaultNissan.

With inputs from Reuters
IANS

India and Australia have reaffirmed their commitment to an "open, free, secure, stable, peaceful and accessible cyberspace" and pledged to work together on matters of common interest in the field and to combat threats.

"Australia and India reaffirmed their commitment to an open, free, secure, stable, peaceful and accessible cyberspace enabling economic growth and innovation and reiterated their support for the multi-stakeholder approach to internet governance," said the joint statement issued after the second Australia-India Cyber Policy Dialogue in Canberra on Thursday, a copy of which was shared by the External Affairs Ministry here on Friday.

"The two countries agreed that the bilateral cyber policy dialogue provided a strong foundation for existing and future cooperation."

The statement said that both countries reaffirmed their commitment to the rules-based order and to enhancing their understandings of how these rules applied to state behaviour in cyberspace.

New Delhi and Canberra also reaffirmed their commitment to act in accordance with the previous reports of the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (UNGGE) on developments in the field of information and telecommunications and, "in particular, the 11 voluntary norms of state behaviour set out in the 2015 report".

"Australia and India reaffirmed that responsible behaviour of states in cyberspace is subject to the UN Charter in its entirety and existing international law," the statement said, adding they also stressed "that such behaviour includes respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms".

According to the statement, both countries observed that the cumulative reports of the UNGGE "have gone a long way to deepening common understandings, not just about how international law and norms apply to cyberspace, but they have also provided important guidance on confidence building measures and capacity building".

"This combined framework helps reduce the risk of conflict by creating clear expectations for responsible state behaviour in cyberspace."

Australia and India resolved to work together to deepen common understandings on these important issues, including at the upcoming Global Conference on Cyberspace in New Delhi in November 2017.

Both sides discussed the full range of cyber issues including cyber threat perceptions, respective visions of the future of the internet and cyberspace, updates on domestic cyber governance and policy, developments in regional and international fora and growth of the digital economy.

"Further, the two sides also agreed on a plan of action, which identified points of contacts on various issues of mutual interest in the area of cyberspace," the statement said.

While Sanjay Verma, Joint Secretary for Cyber Diplomacy in the Ministry of External Affairs, led the Indian side in the dialogue, the Australian side was led by Tobias Feakin, Ambassador for Cyber Affairs.

The next round of the dialogue will be held in India in 2018.
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Eugene Kaspersky, the CEO of the Russian cybersecurity software firm that bears his name, had a big American dream.

He wanted his company to go beyond selling anti-virus software to consumers and small businesses and become a major vendor to the U.S. government, one of the world's biggest buyers of cybersecurity tools. Kaspersky set up a U.S. subsidiary, KGSS, in Arlington, Virginia that would be focused on winning that business. He sponsored flashy conferences with high-profile speakers, including Michael Flynn, who was briefly President Donald Trump's national security adviser, sought to join U.S. trade groups and even underwrote programming on National Public Radio.

All of this was done to burnish Kaspersky's image and help it become an accepted vendor for the U.S. government despite its Russian roots, according to people familiar with the strategy. But Eugene Kaspersky was never able to overcome lingering suspicions among U.S. intelligence officials that he and his company were, or could become, pawns of Russia's spy agencies. Kaspersky "has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage efforts," the company said.

Kaspersky's American ambitions were further eroded by the sharp deterioration in U.S.-Russia relations following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014, and later when U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia had hacked the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Testifying before the U.S. Congress in May, U.S. intelligence chiefs for the first time publicly expressed doubt that Kaspersky products could be trusted.

FBI agents last month interviewed Kaspersky employees, asking whether they reported to Russia-based executives and how much data from American customers could be seen by Russian employees, according to three current and former employees. The FBI declined to comment on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the U.S. General Services Administration, the government agency that manages the federal bureaucracy, removed Kaspersky from a list of approved vendors, saying GSA's mission was to ensure the security of U.S. government systems. There is also a bill before Congress that would explicitly bar the Defense Department from using any Kaspersky products.

Kaspersky says his company is being targeted for political reasons. "These reckless actions negatively impact global cybersecurity by limiting competition, slowing down technology innovations and ruining the industry and law enforcement agency cooperation required to catch the bad guys, he said in a statement to Reuters.

The Arlington offices of KGSS were empty when a Reuters reporter visited them on Thursday. A Kaspersky spokeswoman said most of the staff, which number less than 10, often work from home. The U.S. clampdown comes even though officials have offered no public evidence to suggest the company has done anything untoward or that the Russian government is using its software to launch cyber attacks.

Two former employees and a person briefed on the FBI case told Reuters that Kaspersky software has at times inappropriately inspected and removed files from users' machines in its hunt for alleged cyber criminals, even when those files were not corrupted by viruses. Kaspersky Lab believes it is completely unacceptable that the company is being unjustly accused without any hard evidence to back up these false allegations, the Kaspersky spokeswoman said in response, in an email.

Unusual step

It is extremely rare for a company to be singled out for federal buying restrictions in the absence of clear evidence of wrongdoing."This sets a really dangerous precedent" where other nations could make similar, unsubstantiated claims against U.S. vendors, said Robert M. Lee, a former cyberwarfare operative for U.S. intelligence and now CEO of cybersecurity startup Dragos. The Russian government has denounced the Kaspersky crackdown and said it does not rule out retaliatory measures. Officials at U.S. tech companies with significant operations in Russia say they fear they could become targets.

Federal contracting databases reviewed by Reuters show only a few hundred thousand dollars in purchases from Kaspersky, and an employee confirmed the company's federal government revenue was "minuscule." But Kaspersky also sells to federal contractors and third-party software companies that incorporate its technology in their products, so its technology may be more widely used in government than it appears from the contracting databases, U.S. officials say.

Founded in 1997, Kaspersky grew rapidly through the 2000s to become one of the world's leading anti-virus software companies. But the company was dogged from the start by suspicions about its ties to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the KGB. Eugene Kaspersky attended a KGB school and the company has acknowledged doing work for the FSB. As the company grew, Kaspersky was determined to overcome those fears.

"We have to be more American than Americans," Kaspersky told Reuters in 2013 when a U.S. goodwill offensive began.

"Public shaming"

A cornerstone of the effort was a series of KGSS-hosted conferences in Washington where prominent U.S. officials including Flynn, a former Defense Intelligence Agency director, former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden and House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul discussed cybersecurity issues.

The company privately courted U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials by sending experts to brief them on nation-state hacking campaigns uncovered by the firm, according to people present at those meetings. "They came to us and said, 'We want to change our image, we know people don't trust us'," said one former senior Obama administration official who took part in some of those meetings. But the suspicions never subsided. When the company sought to join one Washington-based technology trade organization, it was "politely told it couldnt happen," according to an industry source with direct knowledge of the matter.

The source said industry group officials had an inside joke: "Kaspersky (membership) is like having the Kremlin join." Not coincidentally, Kaspersky's government sales effort never gained traction. In an email to Reuters, the company noted "complexities associated with doing business with North Americas government sector." Privately held Kaspersky said its U.S. revenue, most of which comes from selling anti-virus software to consumers and small businesses, slipped from $164 million in 2014 to about $156 million in 2016.

Some U.S. national security experts say Kaspersky is being treated unfairly. Lee said he has long been bothered by the "public shaming" of Kaspersky by people who make allegations without presenting evidence. The U.S. government has the right to choose not to use Kaspersky products for any reason, he said, but "the way they are doing it" is wrong.

"I dont believe in geographic restrictions that say, 'Because Kaspersky is a Russian-based company, therefore it is bad,'" said former White House cybersecurity policy coordinator Michael Daniel. "You would want your decision to be based on actual corporate bad behavior."
tech2 News Staff

Luxury mobile brand Vertu, which sold mobile phones in the range of $14,000 and more for a niche luxury market, is reportedly shutting down its operation after last-minute attempts to save the struggling phone maker failed. Vertu's accounting deficit of nearly GBP 128 million, as pointed out by BBC, could not be resolved even after Turkish businessman Murat Hakan Uzan bought the company earlier this year.

By defaulting to pay the required deficit, Vertu's liquidation would result in the loss of nearly 200 of its employees. Though, as reported by the Daily Telegraph, Murat Uzan sought to buy the manufacturer out of administration in a pre-packaged deal of GBP 1.9 million, the offer was rejected by the creditors.

Beginning as a arm of Nokia in 1998, Vertu had become famous for creating handsets with exorbitant pricetags. The company employed leather, alligator and lizard skin, precious metals, titanium, and jewels, as well as synthetic sapphire for its phone screens and body. Even though there was a customer base ready to complete the hefty payment for getting their hands on an exclusive Vertu phone, it is apparent that they were no enough to keep the company afloat.

However, as Uzan still has the design and technology licenses, it may be possible that Vertu-branded smartphones may be produced from TCL factories, according to Android Police. But it still remains to be seen what companies out there are looking to make the ultra-luxury handsets a viable business.
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The US Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved allocating a larger consolidated block of spectrum for use by motor vehicle and aircraft radar systems to help avoid crashes.

The FCC first approved 1 GHz of spectrum in 1995 for motor vehicles to use radar that allowed for the introduction of collision avoidance and adaptive cruise control systems that are credited with preventing tens of thousands of crashes annually.

Thursday's decision expands the band that vehicle radars can operate to 5 GHz of spectrum and will improve lane departure warning, blind spot detection systems, automatic braking and pedestrian detection, the FCC said.

In 2016, some 20 automakers reached a voluntary agreement with US auto safety regulators to make collision-avoidance braking systems standard equipment by 2022, a move that could eliminate 1 million crashes a year.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency was giving automakers "the bandwidth needed" to allow "proven technologies that enable services like collision avoidance, blind spot monitoring, and lane change assistance" and allow for "new innovations."

Automakers will exit some other smaller portions of spectrum used for some radar systems as part of the expansion after 2022, the FCC said. The vote harmonises vehicle spectrum with European rules that could allow automakers to bring technologies to the US market faster, the FCC said.

The decision will also lead to improved aviation safety by boosting foreign object debris detection radars on airport runways and aircraft wing-tip radars that can help avoid collisions with objects while moving on airport grounds.

The move was prompted by a petition filed by German auto supplier Robert Bosch GmbH in 2012. Continental AG said the expanded spectrum will allow for "better range separation, range accuracy, angular accuracy, and reliable object discrimination."

FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly voted for the change but noted automakers were granted another block of spectrum in 1999 for vehicle-to-vehicle communications, but it has gone largely unused.

In December, the US Transportation Department proposed requiring future new cars and trucks to be able to "talk" to one another, but it has not been finalised. Automakers are pursuing technologies to assist drivers in avoiding crashes while working on fully self-driving cars.

US traffic deaths jumped 8 percent in the first nine months of 2016, following a spike in 2015 when road deaths had their highest full-year increase since 1966. In 2015, total US traffic crashes rose by 4 percent to 6.3 million.

Reuters
Academic exchange, coop between CUB, MDIS

Dr Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat, Founder and Chairman, Board of Trustees, Prof William H Derrenger, Vice-Chancellor, Canadian University of Bangladesh, Dr R Theyvendran, Secretary-General and Rishabh Nigam, Manager- Audit and Business Analysis, Management Dev

Campus Report :

A delegation from Singapore based sixty years old institution namely Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) visited Canadian University of Bangladesh (CUB) recently. The purpose of the visit was academic exchange and cooperation between the intitutions. It will be the first ever affiliation between a Bangladeshi university and an educational institute in Singapore.

Dr Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat, Founder and Chairman, Board of Trustees, Prof William H Derrenger, Vice-Chancellor, Canadian University of Bangladesh, Dr R Theyvendran, Secretary-General and Rishabh Nigam, Manager- Audit and Business Analysis, MDIS discussed on students and faculty exchange between these two institutions. Under this exchange program, students of Canadian University of Bangladesh can transfer their credits for higher study in Singapore. Canadian University of Bangladesh will bring experienced faculty from MDIS, Singapore.

Among others, SM Arifuzzaman, Associate Professor and Head, School of Business, Hanif Mahtab, Associate Professor, School of Business and Proctor and Head of Career Service Wing and Md. Latiful Khabir, Assistant Professor of School of Business and Head of Student Service Wing and Students' Directorate, Canadian University of Bangladesh were present in the meeting.


Departmental proceeding not same as criminal proceeding

High Court Division :

(Special Original Jurisdiction)

Md Rezaul Hasan J

Kashefa Hussain J

Khandokar Kamrul Hasna...............

..........................................Petitioners

vs

Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, represented by the Principal Secretary, Prime Minister's Office and others ...............

............... Respondents*

Judgment

August 2nd, 2016

Constitution of Bangladesh, 1972

Article 102

A departmental proceeding is not same as a criminal proceeding. It is not necessary in a departmental proceeding that any persons should be found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, a stand of proof required in a criminal proceeding. The preponderance of probability is enough to found a person guilty in a departmental proceeding. This difference between these two forums has to be understood and to be followed consistently. One is not barred by the findings of other, nor the procedure followed by them are of equal stringenecy in nature. . ... (11)

AKM Ali with Nigar Sultana. Advocates-For the Petitioner.

AKM Zahirul Huq, DAG with Abdur Rokib (Montu).

AAG and Samira Tarannum Rabeya. AAG-For the Respondents.

Judgment

Md Rezaul Hasan J : On this application, filed under Article 102 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, a Rule Nisi has been issued, calling upon the respondents to show cause as to why the respondent No.1 should not be directed to dispose of petitioner's application dated 2-9-2014 as evident from Annexure- "K(1)" to the Writ Petition and for pass such other or further order or orders as to this Court may seem fit and proper.

2. Facts leading to issuance of the Rule are that, while the petitioner was working as Administrative Officer-cum-Common Service Protocol Officer, the petitioner, with oblique motive, had falsely identified one Mahbub Alam as Redwan Mujib Siddique and managed visa for Mahbub Alam and thus contrived to and had sent him to Italy as a member of entourage of the Hon'ble Prime Minister. Consequently, a chargesheet dated 11-1-2001 was issued upon the petitioner was asked to show cause as to why he should not be dismissed from the services for the said misconduct under Rule 3(b) of the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules 1985. He was also placed under suspension on 11-12-2000, as per 11 (1) of the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal), Rules, 1985. The petitioner had submitted a written statement denying all the allegations. Thereafter the authority issued a second show cause notice upon the petitioner proposing major penalty and the petitioner again submitted his reply for the 2nd time pleading his innocence. However, without considering his reply the authority, quite illegally, dismissed him from his service, by their order dated 29-5-2001. The petitioner filed a Departmental Appeal against the said order, which was rejected on 23-7-2001 and subsequently he filed a petition, before the Administrative Tribunal, as per provisions of Section 4(2) of the Administrative Tribunal Act, 1980, against the respondents, for declaration that the order dated 29-5-2001, issued by the Respondent No.2, dismissing the petitioner from his service and that the order dated 23-7-2001, rejecting his departmental appeal, are illegal, void, without jurisdiction and of no legal effect and to direct the respondents to reinstate the petitioner to his service with arrear salary and other attending benefits. However, his petition was rejected by the Tribunal, by a judgment and order dated 19-4-2003. Thereafter the petitioner preferred Appeal No. 115 of 2003 before the Administrative Appellate Tribunal, which was dismissed for default, by it's Order No. 20 dated 20-3-2008, since none of the parties appeared before the Appellate Tribunal on that date. It further appears from the record that, a First Information Report was simultaneously lodged against the petitioner on 23-7-2010, at Sher-E-Bangla Nagar Police Station, by one S.1. Mijanur Rahman, which was registered as Sher-E-Bangla Nagar PS Case No. 32 dated 23-7-2010, corresponding to GR No. 245 of 2010 and the Police, after investigation, submitted chargesheet No. 124 dated 6-4-2011 against him, under Sections 419/465/471/109 of the Penal Code read with Section 11 of the Pass Port Act. The petitioner obtained bail in GR No. 245 of 2010, from the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate, Dhaka. In that court, the said GR case was fixed for framing of charge on 18-3-2012. The petitioner filed an application under Section 241 A of the Code of Criminal Procedure before that court. The Magistrate Court has taken up the petition under Section 241A for hearing along with the matter for framing charge. The Magistrate, after hearing the petition, has discharged this petitioner along with one Md Saifur Rahman from the charges brought against them. Thereafter the petitioner has filed a representation, on 2-9-2014, Annexure- K (I) to the Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) with a prayer to reinstate him in the service, apparently, since he was discharged by the criminal court on the self-same allegations. But he received no response to his representation dated 2-9-2014. Hence, he has filed this writ petition and obtained the rule as quoted above.

3. The learned Advocate Mr Dr AKM Ali appeared along with learned Advocate Ms. Nigar Sultana for the petitioner. The learned Advocate for the petitioner, having placed the petition, along with other materials on record, mainly contends that the petitioner has submitted a representation on 2-9-2014, addressing the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office and the representation was received in that office on 7-9-2014, annexed to this petition as Annexure- K(I). The learned Advocate next submits that, the petitioner is the victim of the circumstances and the petitioner was dismissed from his service illegally, which will be evident from order dated 18-3-2012, passed in G.R. No. 245 of 2010 by the Metropolitan Magistrate, Court No. 6, Dhaka, whereby the petitioner has been discharged, upon hearing an application filed by him under Section 241 A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, from the charge brought against him under Sections 419/465/471/109 of the Penell Code read with Section 11 of the Pass Port Act. As the petitioner was not found guilty by the trial court for committing the same offence for which he has been dismissed from the service. therefore, he has very reasonably submitted the representation on 2-9-2014, before the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office, for reinstating him. But the Prime Minister's Office does respond to his application dated 2-9-2014. Hence, he has prayed for direction upon the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office, Respondent No. 1 to this petition, to consider his representation. He concludes that this rule has merit and the same may be made absolute by passing an appropriate direction as prayed for.

4. Learned Deputy Attorney-General Mr AKM Zahirul Huq appeared along with Mr Abdur Rokib (Montu), AAG on behalf of the respondents and have opposed the Rule.

5. We have heard both the sides, perused the petition along with other materials on record.

6. Facts leading to filing of this writ petition has been narrated herein above, in brief.

7. We find that, admittedly the petitioner was the Administrative Office-Cum-Common Service Protocol Officer of the Prime Minister's' Office and a charge sheet was issued, on 11-1-2001, against him specifying the allegations brought against the petitioner, under Rule 3(b) of the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1985 and the petitioner was suspended pending enquiry, keeping provision for allowing him subsistence allowance. He gave a reply to the charges brought against him.

The reply having found not satisfactory a second show cause notice dated 28-2-2001 was served upon the petitioner, specifically asking him to show cause as to why he should not be dismissed from the service in accordance with the provisions of Rule 4(3)(d) of the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1985. The petitioner gave reply to the second show cause notice, on 14-3-2001. It further appears from the letter of dismissal dated 29-5-2001 (Annexure-D-2), that a departmental proceedings was initiated in which the petitioner was given all opportunity to defend himself as per provisions of the aforesaid Rules. The enquiry Officer has found him guilty of the charges brought against him. Therefore, he has been dismissed from service according to the aforesaid rules, on 29-5-2001.

(To be continued)

It is also admitted that treafter the petitioner has filed a departmental apeal. But the said appeal was dismissed by an order dated 23-7-2001. Subsequently the petitioner has filed an application under Section 4(2) of the Administrative Tribunal Act, 1980, before the Administrative Tribunal, Dhaka, challenging the aforsaid order dated 23-7-2001, which was registered as Case No. 160 of 2001. The Administration Tribunal, by an elaborate judgment and order dated 19-4-2003, rejected the case of the petitioner filed under Section 4(2) of the Administrative Tribunal Act, 1980, in which, as we find, all legally material facts were duly considered by the Tribunal. It is also admitted that, being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment and order dated 19-4-2003 of the Tribunal, the petitioner had preferred an Appeal No. 115 of 2003 before the Administrative Appellate Tribunal, which was dismissed for default by order No. 20 dated 20-3-2008. Section 6(a) of the Administrative Tribunal Act, 1980, provides for preferring appeal before the Appellate Division under Article 103 of the Constitution against any judgment and order of the Appellate Tribunal.

8. In view of the foregoing facts and circumstances, we are of the view that the petitioner having not preferred any appeal under Article 103 of the Constitution, before the Appellate Division, as per provisions of section 6(a) of the Administrative Tribunal Act, 1980, the judgment and order 19-4-2003, passed by the Administrative Tribunal, has become final.

9. Once a dispute has been settled by the judicial body, there is no scope to refer the aforesaid representation dated 2-9-2014, Annexure- K(l), to the Principal Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office and thereby to re-open the matter. In other words, the Principal Secretary, Prime Minister's Office, being the executive authority, cannot sit in appeal over the judgment passed by the Administrative Tribunal or by any other judicial/quasi-judicial authority, by re-opening the matter. Nor this Division, far less the executive organ, can arrogate to itself the jurisdiction vested in the Appellate Division under Article 103 of the Constitution, read with Section 6(a) of the Administrative Tribunal Act, 1980.

10. On the other hand the executive authority, in this case the Principal Secretary of Prime Minister's Office, has no competence or authority to re-open the issue already decided by a competent judicial body or Tribunal or to sit as court of appeal over a judgment passed by any court or any Tribunal. Any persos aggrieved by any judgment or order of a court or Tribunal can address to the higher forum in the judicial highrearchy, if there is any, not to any other person or authority. The order or judgment thus passed is final and conclusive, so far as a dispute resolved by it. This is based on the doctrine of separation of power.

11. As regards the contention, though no more necessary to address indeed that the petitioner was discharged from a Criminal case filed against him, we do hereby hold, to make it clear, that a departmental proceeding is not same as a criminal proceeding. It is not necessary in a departmental proceeding that any persons should be found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, a stand of proof required in a criminal proceeding. The preponderance of probability is enough to found a person guilty in a departmental proceeding. This difference between these two forums has to be understood and to be followed consistently. One is not barred by the findings of other, nor the procedure followed by them are of equal stringenecy in nature.

In the light of the deliberation recorded herein above, we find no merit in this rule.

Order

In the result, the Rule is discharged.

No order as to cost.
Herath double strike hurts Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe\'s Regis Chakabva reacts as he leaves the field after being dismissed during the first day\'s play of the only Test match between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Friday.

AFP, Colombo :

Sri Lanka spinner Rangana Herath took two early wickets to rattle Zimbabwe as the visitors took lunch at 96-4 on the opening day of their one-off Test at Colombo on Friday.

Herath, who took 2-36 in the first session in Colombo, provided early delight to new Test captain Dinesh Chandimal after he lost the toss and Zimbabwe elected to bat first.

The hosts, who saw Angelo Mathews step down as captain after their shock defeat to Zimbabwe in the one-day series, looked much the better side in the first 28 overs.

Veteran left-arm spinner Herath sent back openers Regis Chakabva for 12 and Hamilton Masakadza for 19 at the R Premadasa Stadium.

Paceman Lahiru Kumara removed Tarisai Musakanda, caught behind for six as the visitors slipped to 38-3.

Craig Ervine and Sean Williams tried to stem the rot with a 32-run fourth-wicket partnership but off-spinner Dilruwan Perera broke the stand in his second over, claiming Williams for 22.

Ervine battled on to reach 19 at the break with Sikandar Raza unbeaten on 17. The duo put together 26 runs to try and steady Zimbabwe.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and visiting Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena holding bilateral talks at her office on Friday.
Number of women journos in BD increasing

UNB, Dhaka :

Gone are the days when women were hardly seen in Bangladesh's journalism. Now their number is growing fast as more and more girls are taking up the profession breaking all the barriers.

Though the girls are taking up journalism with a great passion, they currently face newer problems forcing many to give up halfway through.

"Though many families are now encouraging their girls to choose journalism as a profession, the environment in many media houses for female

journalists are not favourable yet," Kazi Nafia Rahman, a Staff Reporter at a national online newspaper, told UNB.

There are still many problems like discrimination in salary structure, job insecurity, and harassment by male colleagues for which many promising girls, being depressed, are leaving this profession, said Nafia who is ready to face all the obstacles.

She thinks media houses can organise counseling programmes to recognise the problems the female journalists face in their workplaces as they have to take care of both the family and the profession.

Nusrat Jahan Audety, a sub-editor at Dainik Amar Din, a national daily, said women are interested to join this profession as they think it is a better medium to get connected with people and serve society with their professional works.

Journalism is a challenging profession and girls who love taking challenges are joining this profession, she said. "I've chosen this profession as I love taking challenges since my childhood."

"In some offices, women are undermined by their male colleagues. They also don't get proper recognition of their good works from the colleagues and offices unlike their counterparts," Nusrat told UNB.

Women should be treated as human being not as 'women' in media houses, and if they are treated with respect they can go a long way, she added.

Farzana Rupa, a Special Correspondent at Ekattor TV, a private news television channel, said the presence of women journalists are visibly increasing in journalism but the number is still much less than their male counterparts.

"Though the number of women journalists is low, their successes are noteworthy in this field, which is inspiring the new generation women to join the profession," said Rupa.

Regarding policymaking, Farzana said there is no visible representation of women journalists yet at that level, and this is a great lacking. "The female journalists are not given the opportunity to hold the policymaking positions though they are capable or sometimes better skilled than their male counterparts," Rupa observed.

About the working environment, she said the owners in most cases still cannot ensure the necessary working environment for female journalists.

"There're still some organisations which don't have separate washrooms for female journalists, while male journalists make problems over maternity leave," she added.

Rupa said the owners and policymakers of the media houses need to ensure the safe and secure work environment for women journalists and provide training to make them aware about their safety in emergency situation.

Angur Nahar Monty, a joint news editor at News24 TV, said media houses need to take adequate measures for providing skill development training to female journalists which is very important.

Monty, also the coordinator of Women Journalists' Network, Bangladesh, said female journalists have to manage both home and office. "So, the office has to understand that they are not helping their female colleagues rather it is their right."

Responding to another issue, Monty said many times they see lots of girls to leave the profession in the middle of their journey for various reasons. "Instead of giving up, female journalists should take the challenge to survive. They'll have to fight back by being skilled and competent using their merit," she said.

Monty said in many electronic media female journalists are still chosen considering their external beauty and glamour but in print media they have proven themselves with their skills and expertise.

Ekushey TV CEO Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul said the number of female journalists is increasing notably in recent days. "There was a time when female journalists worked in some particular beats or in the news desk but now the situation has improved a lot. We've overcome many problems of female journalists like night-shift working and transportation problems," he said.
Judge expands definition of 'close relative'

BBC Online :

Grandparents and other relatives of people living in the US cannot be barred from entering under President Trump's travel ban, a judge has ruled. The order, by District Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii, is a fresh legal blow to Mr Trump's immigration crackdown.

The judge said the ban had interpreted a Supreme Court ruling too narrowly.

That decision, made last month, partly reinstated the ban on refugees and travellers from six Muslim-majority countries. It said only those with "bona fide" family ties would be let into the US.

But the Trump administration decided that did not include grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and cousins. Judge Watson, however, disagreed - and ordered that those restrictions should not be enforced. "Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents. Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members", he wrote.

Judge Watson's ruling has far-reaching consequences for the United States, and not just Hawaii.

He is one of about 700 judges in the district courts, which - despite the name - are part of the federal system, rather than local state courts. Their role is to interpret the law on federal issues using powers devolved to them by the Supreme Court.

The new ruling also offers hope to refugees who have a close relative already in the US, as they should now be able to enter - despite the fact that Mr Trump's 50,000 cap on refugee admissions for the year was reached earlier in the week. Another disputed issue was whether a refugee group agreeing to take someone in counted as the type of close connection needed to circumvent the travel ban.

But Judge Watson ruled that assurances from a resettlement agency were adequate.

"An assurance from a United States refugee resettlement agency is formal, it is a documented contract, it is binding bona fide does not get any more bona fide than that," he wrote.

Hawaii's attorney general, Douglas Chin, said the ruling meant the government could not ignore the "scope" of the Supreme Court decision "as it sees fit".

"Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough. Courts have found that this Executive Order has no basis in stopping terrorism and is just a pretext for illegal and unconstitutional discrimination," he said. Hawaii is continuing to prepare for the Supreme Court hearing later in the year, he added.

Mr Trump's ban on travel to the US for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen has been controversial since its announcement. The Supreme Court is still considering the current version of the law, and allowed a temporary ban to come into effect in June pending their full judgement. Mr Trump says the restrictions are needed to keep America safe and prevent terror attacks. However, critics including states and refugee advocacy groups have said the ban discriminates against Muslims. An initial version of the ban, published in January, sparked mass protests at airports and a series of legal challenges that prevented its implementation. Mr Trump drafted a new version in March, dropping Iraq from the list of countries, clarifying the position of "green card" holders, removing priority for "religious minorities" in mostly-Muslim countries, and softening a tough stance on Syrian refugees. But courts struck down the new version within days, with a Virginia court claiming it was "rooted in religious animus" toward Muslims. That prompted the Trump administration to go to the Supreme Court for a ruling, where conservatives hold a majority of five to four.

The nation's highest court allowed the ban to go ahead temporarily, until it makes a full decision in October.
BNP in peril

Reza Mahmud :

The leaders of the BNP and its front organizations are anxious about the future of the party and whether party chairman will go to polls through effective strategies or choose a wrong decision again.

The political analysts think that the party which has been out of power for 11 years has no effective strategy to defeat the ruling Awami League's tactics to hold and win next National Polls, keeping the BNP unprepared.

But the BNP senior leaders said that the party Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia will disclose a formula over poll time 'election-helping' government soon. They are optimistic

that the formula will be acceptable to the government.

Sources said, the BNP's mid-level leaders and activists are worried about their inadequate preparations. They said that the high command stated seriously that without framing election time 'neutral' government, the BNP will not take part in the upcoming polls. But there is no visible plan to realise the demand.

They think, the party has no practical strategy to compel the government to hold next polls under a neutral government.

When contacted, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told The New Nation, "It would not be so easy for AL to hold one-sided polls again."

He emphasized," First the government must create an environment to hold an inclusive election, and then the EC should announce its road map of the next polls."

Mirza Fakhrul said, the government should build a road first and then the election commission should draft a map. Otherwise everything will be meaningless.

Most of the party men think that the ruling party may hold the 11th national polls without the BNP in the race as happened on January 5, in 2014.

"The grassroots level leaders and activists fear the AL's old strategy for one-sided polls again. There are about 24,000 cases filed against the BNP and its front organizations' leaders and workers. They even cannot move comfortably fearing police swoop. Still we shall take part in the election after realizing our demand of inclusive polls, in order to stop AL from getting walkover," Ruhul Quddus Talukdar Dulu, one of the Central Organising Secretaries of the BNP told The New Nation.

In this situations, BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia is going to United Kingdom (UK) today for treatment. She will discuss with the party Senior Vice-Chairman and son Tarique Rahman, who is living there for long, regarding party's tactics on up coming polls.

Khaleda Zia has discussed the matter with the Standing committee members on last Thursday night in her Gulshan residence.

The political analysts said that the BNP passed around 11 years out of power. They said if the BNP stays another one term that is another five years out of power, the party may not able to keep its leaders and activists active any more.

"I think the BNP leaders will not repeat its mistake. The government may not meet the BNP's demand for election time government. The BNP should take preparation with the trust on the people. If they could make the people conscious, the ruling party may not able to rig vote," Professor Imtiaz Ahmed of Dhaka University told The New Nation.

While Dr. Zafrullah, the trusty of the Ganosaystho Nagor Hospital said, "The BNP has no capability to make any change in the country's politics. If the party wants to sustain more, they should be strategic enough. In these circumstances, the party should form an anti-government platform with other political parties."

The party grassroots leaders are also angry at the incapability of the party leaders.

BNP Standing Committee Member Dr. Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain told The New Nation, "The Awami League once bluffed the people of Bangladesh saying they are just holding an election only to protect the Constitution. They said before the January 5 polls in 2014, the government was surely holding a free and fair polls which must be participatory for all political parties including the BNP soon. But they took aside the promise to stay in power. The national and the international quarters have no trust in the government. In these situation, they must not able to hold another one sided election."

He said that Begum Khaleda Zia will disclose a formula over election time neutral government soon which will be acceptable to all.

BNP Standing Committee Member Mirza Abbas also told The New Nation, "If the government applies any tactic to make the BNP unprepared for holding one-sided polls, we must apply sufficient strategy to foil them."

When questioned about the AL leaders speech that there is nothing about election time helping government in the Constitution, BNP Standing Committee Member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy told The New Nation, "The government should ameud the Constitutions for the sake of democracy and an acceptable polls."
5 gold bars seized at Benapole

Staff Reporter :

Customs Intelligence on Friday arrested a passenger at Benapole land port for carrying 5 gold bars in his body.

Those secretly-hidden gold bars, weighing 580 gram worth Tk 28 lakh,

were tied in his left thigh

Acting on a tip-off, the Customs Intelligence made a drive and checked the passenger's body and identified him as Jalal Ahmed.

He was arrested at 9.30 am at the port, said a press release.

The arrested passenger is under investigation of Customs Intelligence while a case has been filed against him at Benapole Land Port Police Station.

Earlier on Wednesday, a passenger was arrested at the same port with 7 gold bars beneath his shoe.


Dhaka, Colombo agree to sign FTA this year: FS

UNB, Dhaka :

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on Friday agreed to sign Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by this year, aiming to further strengthen and institutionalise bilateral trade cooperation between the two friendly nations.

The decision to sign the FTA was finalised at the official bilateral talks between visiting Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena

and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina held at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

After the meeting, Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque briefed reporters. Prime Minister's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim was also present.

The Foreign Secretary said the FTA with Sri Lanka would be Bangladesh's first such deal with any country and necessary study would be done prior to signing the agreement.

He said, the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena would kick off a new journey in the bilateral relations of Dhaka and Colombo as the Sri Lankan President termed his visit to Bangladesh a historic one.

He said, both leaders asked the officials concerned to complete all the necessary steps quickly regarding the FTA so that this could be done shortly.

He also mentioned that if the FTA is inked it would help Bangladesh sign such FTAs with other countries. He also mentioned that there are some FTAs in the pipeline.

"To me, this is a big political process towards trade and investment between the two countries," he added.

About signing of 14 instruments and deals after the official talks, Shahidul Haq said seven of these were on trade and investment which means that the two sides highly focused on boosting trade relations.

About the MoU on agriculture cooperation, Shahidul Haq said Sri Lanka wants to develop its agriculture sector taking lessons from Bangladesh's tremendous success.

Pointing out the cooperation on higher education, he said a huge number of medical students from Sri Lanka are studying in Bangladesh and the two sides signed the MoU to further enhance cooperation in the sector.

Besides, an agreement on visa rebate of the official and diplomatic passport holders was also signed, aiming to make official level consultations more effective, he added. In addition to the 14 documents, a joint statement would also be issued at the end of the visit of Maithripala Sirisena, the Foreign Secretary said adding that a framework has been given for the first time regarding the relations between Dhaka and Colombo.
Coalition govt could be a solution but can`t be optimistic: Mainul

Staff Reporter :

While taking part at a discussion event in Bangla Vision Television Thursday night on democracy and the forthcoming National Election Barrister Mainul Hosein said with regrets that after twenty years of struggle for democracy, nine months of Liberation War and more than forty years since independence, our people are not still sure of the most fundamental thing that we should have free and fair election.

Our criminal justice system has also not changed for emphasising the need of protecting fundamental rights of a person arrested, he added.

In reply to a question he expressed the view that a jointly agreed coalition

government could be a solution for a credible election. But that is not to happen.

Another discussant Prof Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque also suggested the role of President Abdul Hamid to try a coalition government.

Nobody among the participants agreed that the next national election can be held like it was last time (in 2014).

Prof Dr. Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, VC, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur and Shyamol Dutta, Editor, Daily Bhorer Kagoj were also among discussants. The talk-show was moderated by journalist Mostafa Feroz.

Barrister Mainul was very critical that the fundamental right of liberty or the judicial principle that nobody is guilty until so found by a court is not getting due consideration for granting bail. Criminal Procedure Code of British days is still held high, we are not free if fundamental rights are not meaningful in our lives.

He finds it most disappointing that a police FIR is all that is necessary for condemning a person to suffer imprisonment. If he is to be considered innocent why he should be in jail before trial, that question does occur to many. His Lordship a former Chief Justice most unkindly observed in a reported case that a person named in FIR is a criminal and to be treated as such.

Now, arresting people and locking them up in jail is too easy for the free police.

He explained that the definition of corruption as given by Transparency International is that it has to be about abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Its objective is to make the government corruption free for the need of good governance. But in practice the Anti-Corruption Commission officials are less active about corruption in high places of the government, rather they are more busy with offences which cannot be called corruption. The law has given them too wide powers for easy abuse.

Barrister Mainul Hosein was emphatic that blaming the Election Commission will not make the election free and fair. Mere free election, if any at all, will not solve the crisis of democracy. Or it will ensure good governance. We have to follow the Constitution every way.
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Does anyone know a photographer who lives north of Lockerbie named Paul Grubb? He's a photographer on Flickr and I can't figure out how to contact him. I'd like to make some comments on the B&W conversion of this photograph of his (which is perfectly fine as he has it, no insult intended at all) for teaching purposes here. I would only reproduce a detail (a portion of the image, that is). I would rather not do it without his permission.

I've spent several hours attempting to contact him. I've found his Facebook page (a message from a non-"friend" is likely to go unanswered, I know from experience); his Instagram account; his Flickr photostream; and his websitenothing I can see provides an email address or any means of contact.

Which raises another questionwhat good is social media for photographers if it doesn't provide any means of contact? Perhaps this particular person just doesn't want to be contacted, I don't know.

I'm not very good with social media, obviously. Maybe one of you is better at it.

As I said before, technically I have the right under the Fair Use doctrine of the Copyright Act to reproduce work in order to comment on it or critique it. But I'm loathe to do that to a fellow photographer without his or her consent. It might be legal, but it doesn't seem polite.

I hope this illustrates the relative impossibility of doing critiques of found work on a regular basis here on TOP. The whole enterprise would just slow to a crawl if I had to do all the work to secure permissions to use examples.

Paul Grubb describes himself as a "Sony a6500 bore and keen walker :) ." He's done some very nice work, mainly in color.

[UPDATE: I sent Paul a note via Flickr Mail. The problem might have been that after I signed up to join Flickr, somehow the path took me back to Flickr in my un-logged-in state, and even thought I thought I was signed in I still didn't see any way to make contact. Every mistake that happens on a computer or the Internet is your fault, though, so, my fault. MJ]

Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)

Featured Comments from:

David Raboin: "Every photographer should spend the hour or two that it takes to link together all their online presences. Last week, I was contacted by two national TV news networks to use an aerial photo I took of one of the large California wildfires. They found me through Twitter and then followed the link back to my website that has all my contact info. Of course they wanted my work for free so I told them to bug off, but it was fun anyways."
MURPHYSBORO  Prosecutors say Gaege Bethune punched and attempted to rob 19-year-old Pravin Varughese of his money, leading the college student to become "dead weight" and later die from hypothermia after he was left for five days in the woods in the middle of winter.

On Thursday, a Jackson County grand jury indicted Bethune on two counts of first-degree murder in the death of Varughese, a Southern Illinois University student from Morton Grove. A special prosecutor, Illinois State's Attorney Appellate Prosecutor David J. Robinson, was assigned to lead the case.

In the first count, Bethune is charged with first-degree murder "in that he, in committing or attempting to commit a forcible felony with an independent felonious purpose  namely, aggravated battery in violation of 720 ILCS 5/12-3.05(a)(1) (West 2014) (battery which causes great bodily harm or permanent disability other than by the use of a firearm without lawful justification), knowingly made physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature  inflicting, by the defendant's own statement, multiple punches to the head and face and rendering the victim 'dead weight'  causing great bodily harm or permanent disability or disfigurement other than by use of a firearm to Pravin Varughese  including, forehead contusions/impressions and injuries to the nose consistent with blunt force trauma to the head  and Varughese's hypothermic death, while not a direct result of the aggravated battery, was a natural and foreseeable consequence of that independent felonious conduct; this act punishable by a determinate sentence of not less than 20 years and not more than 60 years in prison "

In Bethune's second count of murder, he is charged with committing first-degree murder "in that he, in committing or attempting to commit a forcible felony with an independent felonious purpose  namely, Robbery in violation of 720 ILCS 5/18-1(a) (West 2014) (knowingly taking property, to wit United States Currency, from the person or presence of another  namely, Pravin Varughese  by the use of force of by threatening the imminent use of force), is responsible for the hypothermic death of Varughese, which was the foreseeable consequence of that independent felonious conduct; this act punishable by a determinate sentence of not less than 20 years and not more than 60 years in prison (730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-20 (West 2014)."

Bethune turned himself in to authorities on Thursday and his bail was posted at $1 million; he posted bond Friday afternoon and was released. He is next scheduled to appear in Jackson County Court for an arraignment on Tuesday afternoon.
CARBONDALE  In an open letter to her Facebook friends and followers, the mother of a 19-year-old found dead in a patch of Carbondale woods in 2014 thanked the investigating agency and prosecutors who filed murder charges against the man believed to have been the last to see her son alive.

The post was written by Lovely Varughese, the mother of Pravin Varughese, a Southern Illinois University Carbondale criminal justice student who was found dead Feb. 18, 2014, in a wooded area near Buffalo Wild Wings, some days after he was reported missing on Feb. 13.

On Thursday, a Jackson County Grand Jury returned an indictment for two counts of felony murder, first degree, against Gaege Bethune of Eldorado. The 22-year-old Bethune, believed to be one of the last people to see Varughese, said, in one account, that the two fought and that Varughese got out of his car and ran off into the wooded area.

Bethune turned himself in Thursday; his bail was set at $1 million. He posted bond and was released around noon Friday.

In a telephone conversation on Friday afternoon, Lovely Varughese said the investigators uncovered that there was a robbery of some sort, which figured into that night's events.

"Now we know there was a robbery," she said. "We always thought there was some kind of robbery, but I am so glad the Carbondale Police Department (was able to investigate and get the information to) the special prosecutors."

Since her son's death, Lovely Varughese has battled for information on what happened to her son, refusing to accept a Jackson County coroner's finding that her son died from hypothermia. At the bottom of that same Facebook post, she thanked the funeral director for making her look at her son's body; one photo Varughese has made available shows two dark one- and two-inch long bruises over Pravin's right eyebrow area.

The family commissioned its own autopsy, which indicated that blunt force trauma caused Varughese's death. The Varughese family sued then-Carbondale Police Chief Jody O'Guinn, the Illinois State Police trooper whose dash-cam video appears to show Bethune emerging from the wooded area off Illinois 13, near where Varughese's body was found a few days later; and Bethune.

The case garnered extra attention when the Investigation Discovery network released an eight-minute video about Varughese's death. That video includes grainy footage showing someone carrying what could have been another person across an otherwise deserted strip of residential street.

That street, Lovely Varughese said, was College Street, that video footage secured from a camera recording on that street. She said the video footage was included in the death investigation information she received from the Carbondale Police Department in May 2016.

Before he disappeared, Pravin Varughese had reportedly been partying on College Street.

The Illinois State's Attorney Appellate Prosecutors on the case, Dave Neal and David Robinson, were not reachable by telephone or email messages on Friday.

Pravin Varughese's mother praised their work, as well as that of other investigators.

"We are extremely thankful to the Special Prosecutors Mr. David Robinson, Mr. David Neal and their Director Mr. Delfino for the thorough investigation they did into this case and keeping us informed and for treating us with dignity and professionalism," Lovely Varughese writes in her Facebook post.

"We want to thank all the agencies that assisted them with forensic and all the resources they need to prove this case," she continued. "We appreciate and thank the Carbondale Police Department, Police Chief Jeff Grubbs, Lt. [Mark] Goddard, Det. [Brandon] Weisenberger, Det. (Hammel) and all the other officers who worked countless hours including coming in on weekends and work overtime in assisting the Prosecutors with this investigation. Without the assistance of these officers the Prosecutors could not have done their job and we appreciate and thank every single one of them. I know they spent countless hours following up on every lead and communicated with the Prosecutor constantly."

The Carbondale Police Department would not comment on the video or proceedings.

"We can't answer any evidence-based questions as we are precluded from doing so based upon Supreme Court rules when there is a pending prosecution," Carbondale Public Relations Officer Amy Fox said.
Jackson County state's attorney Michael C. Carr said in a news release Thursday that Joseph D. Trexler, 36, of Carbondale, pleaded guilty to the charge of residential burglary and was sentenced to serve eight years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, which will be followed by a three-year period of mandatory supervised release.

On June 25, 2015, officers with the Murphysboro Police Department were dispatched to Roblee Avenue in Murphysboro for a report of a burglary. Through the course of the officers investigation of the burglary, it was learned that entry was made into the residence via a door that had been broken. Blood that was left on the door was collected and sent to the Illinois State Police crime laboratory in Belleville for analysis. The analysis of the blood revealed the DNA profile of Joseph D. Trexler, the release said.
DU QUOIN  There was a palpable sigh of relief throughout the state July 6 as the Illinois House voted to override Gov. Bruce Rauners veto of a proposed budget deal, ending the states historic budget stalemate.

As relieved as many were, state educators are left holding their breath  despite outlining funds to be delivered to state schools, there is no approved funding formula to match the language in the states budget.

The problem with the budget is the evidence-based model has not been passed yet, said Gary Kelly, superintendent of Du Quoin Community Unit School District 300. He said this leaves area schools in limbo.

Kelly said his district, though they are not sure when the funding formula will be signed into law, will be able to start school on time, but he knows it will be a struggle for some. He said their property tax payments will come in with enough time to send them into the school year.

The funding model in question is a needs-based system that would score districts based on various factors, including property values and population. Kelly said it was designed to help districts like his that have high populations of poverty and low property tax values. Senate Bill 1 was approved by both the House and Senate at the end of May, but has not been sent to the governor, who has pledged to veto the bill.

Illinois Secretary of Education Beth Purvis said the governor has no problems with the core of the bill, its needs-based funding model, but he does disapprove of the way the bill also lumps into the formula funds to pay for pensions for Chicagos public school system.

The pension issue should be addressed outside the school funding bill, Purvis said. She said Rauner believes it to be unfair that Chicago Public Schools would receive credit for their pensions as part of their base funding, drawing these funds away from in-need school districts.

By giving Chicago Public Schools that credit, it diverts money, as much as $100 million a year, from other tier one and tier two schools, Purvis said. She added that in the past, CPS received block grants from the state to pay their pensions, but added that in 11 of the last 25 years, the school system either did not pay or partially paid on their pension plans.

The governor absolutely wants schools to open on time, she said, but added that with the Senate holding the bill back for review, they are creating a crisis that could force a situation where the school year would start without funding being freed up from the state. Purvis said the governor wants the bill to come across his desk to have the conversation.

Purvis said there is a second bill making its way through the Senate, SB1124, which separates pensions from the regular funding bill, and uses very similar language to SB1 when it comes to the needs-based formula. She said this bill is in the spirit of something the governor would sign.

The damage is done

Mike Goodman had his last meeting with the Chester School Board as superintendent of Chester School District 139 in June. He resigned after 18 months on the job. He said the budget struggles over the past two years wore him down.

Goodman said he made the decision to come out of retirement and lead the district because his heart beats to educate.

I was doing it because I love education, Goodman said. That said, though, Goodman admitted that the daily battle of petitioning legislators to sign a budget, keeping concerned teachers and parents at ease and trying to find creative ways to shave pennies off a dollar got the better of him.

I was extremely frustrated. That basically started day one, Goodman said.

Goodman said hes pleased that there is a budget and looks forward to seeing that help area schools, but he said the damage has been done.

Its going to take some time, Goodman said, adding that he knows the schools are likely not to feel flush any time soon. I know the states not going to just flood all these school districts with money, he said.

When he left, Goodman said the schools had accrued $900,000 in debt over two years because of reduced or inconsistent funding coming from the state. He said this is not a good way to do business.

You are borrowing money to pay past bills and when you are paying past bills then, you know, theres a good chance that the new bills that come in you are going to be in the same situation at the end of the school year, Goodman said, admitting that this was not unlike using a credit card to pay down a mortgage.

There are other long-term effects beyond financials that have to be recognized, too, Goodman said. In his last meeting with the board, he recommended that the district consider limiting supplies teachers could use that were not directly related to instruction. This meant making due with old chairs and tables and even limiting some extracurriculars. Coupled with no raises, Goodman said this could be demoralizing for teachers and left him deflated.

Mentally, that was difficult on me because there was no money there that we could give people pay raises, Goodman said. He said he knew some of the lower-paid employees were essentially working for health insurance as the majority if not all of their checks would go to pay for premiums.

Ultimately, even though the budget was passed within weeks of his resignation, Goodman said he made the right choice to leave. From the outside looking in, though, he said hes not sure the problem is indeed over.

Then I worry about next year, Goodman said. They may start this whole argument again. It wont surprise me a bit.

Lorrie LeQuatte is new to her job. She was sworn in July 6 as the new regional superintendent of schools for the Regional Office of Education 21. She knows the work ahead of her, but said the recent events in Springfield leave her with a brighter outlook for education in her region.

I'm encouraged that Illinois has a passed budget for the first time in two and a half years, LeQuatte said.

Kelly said if the funding formula is approved, it will set schools back up to be on par financially to pre-impasse levels, and though the Du Quoin district can start on time, they definitely we want it as soon as we can get it."

LeQuatte agrees.

(The) SB1 funding formula will be greatly beneficial for school districts in Southern Illinois, she said of the proposed funding model.

Regardless of how much more feet dragging there is and no matter how long the effects of the budget impasse are felt, Kelly said he always comes back to his core mission  to teach.

Our job is to educate kids so thats what we are going to do, he said.
CREAL SPRINGS  Fish dealers, fur buyers, timber harvesters and taxidermists are all involved in the commercialization of natural resources, and during his 29 year career as a deputy federal game warden and conservation police officer, Marion native John Will dealt with them all.

Will, who retired in 2002, brings his years of experience in conservation by acting as a timber broker for people interested in harvesting the trees on their land.

Most people think conservation law enforcement just governs hunting and fishing licenses," he said. "But the commercialization of natural resources is a big business and a lot of people dont realize it. And one of my biggest jobs was working with the timber industry.

In his time as a conservation officer Will said he saw many landowners getting taken advantage of by unscrupulous timber buyers and saw timber brokering as a way to help out land owners and make a little extra money during his retirement.

Most timber buyers are as honest, but there are a number of them out there who are not. And 90 percent of your land owners dont know the difference between a maple and a hickory. Put the dishonest ones with the people who do not know the value of what they are looking at and youve got trouble, Will said.

Kevin Robbins found that out the hard way when he and his wife were the victims of a dishonest timber buyer.

Because of a miscommunication, my wife ended up signing a contract with someone I had reservations about," Robbins said. "We had been approached by someone about harvesting our trees who had a name similar to someone John recommended to us, and through a series of mishaps, my wife ended up signing the contract with the wrong person.

Robbins said the individual with whom they signed a contract with came and logged their land and then withheld payment. In addition, the company damaged his hay field and cost Robbins an untold amount in lost seed and damaged equipment.

Finally, after aggressively pursuing the buyer, the payment Robbins received was drastically less than they had been promised, and the paperwork the buyer provided as proof of sale showed truck weights that did not correspond to the volume of timber that had been taken.

Will said this is not uncommon, especially when landowners sell their timber by the ton. While buying or selling in this manner is not illegal, it may not bring the seller top dollar for their resources.

The only trees people should sell by the ton are those that are used for pulp and firewood, because it doesnt matter what grade of wood is used for those two things. But if someone has any concern about the value of their trees, they should have some take a look at it.

According to Will, timber is harvested in different grades and for different uses. Veneer logs are the highest quality, generally unblemished, and mostly used as a decorative covering for a coarser wood.

Next come grade logs which are used in making solid wood furniture and other items that require a good looking surface. At the bottom of the scale are the saw logs which are used in making pallets or mats for heavy construction.

In addition, some wood have proprietary uses. Oak, for example, is used in making wine and whiskey barrels and must be of stave grade.

Will said that how much a tree is worth depends on how many board feet it contains, and what grade the wood is. As an example Will talks about working with a farmer who was removing walnut trees from his pasture.

At the time, I was able to get him $100 per tree, and the tree buyer came in and harvested 25 walnuts. So he did pretty well. But right across the road there was a wooded area with two beautiful walnuts on property owned by someone else. I was able to get that guy $2,200 for just those two trees because of their quality.

Will said that when people sell their timber by the ton, they may miss out on the opportunity to make a bit more money by identifying the more valuable trees. But that does not mean that all trees are valuable. Some may look good on the outside, but have problems deep within.

You may have a log that looks good once it is laid down, but when it is milled you find out there is a mineral stain or insect damage, or a fire ring left by a fire that came through 80 years before.

Will said he knows of instances where trees have grown over old spikes used as footholds for deer stands that no one knew were there until it broke an expensive blade, and in once case seriously insured someone.

Because attaching a dollar amount to a tree in the field is somewhat of a guessing game, Will says that people selling timber should do two things. First, they should have a signed contract which legally obligates the timber buyer to carry out his or her promises.

Dont just go by a handshake. I have seen many instances where a deal is done that way, the buyer comes and logs the property, then denies a deal was ever cut, leaving the landowner with damage and loss, Will said.

Second, they should get a deposit.

A buyer knows there is at least certain amount of money in the timber. Plus, by giving you a deposit he is assuring that he will not walk away from you. If hes got money invested hes going to want to get the money back out. Its a kind of insurance. I look for a deposit of about 10-20 percent of the estimated value, Will said.

Will also said a common scam is for a buyer to underestimate the board-foot length a tree will produce. All timber harvest is measured in board feet, but a property owner will rarely know the difference between a tree that holds 100 board feet and a tree that holds 150 board feet.

While there is nothing wrong with going it alone when considering harvesting timber, Will says that often times a timber broker like him, or a timber consultant, who generally has a degree in forestry, can take some of the guess work out of the process.

Besides the degree, the other difference between Will and a timber consultant lies in who pays for their services.

Will said a consultant will generally charge a flat fee per acre and that fee is paid by the seller. The consultant will go out and appraise the timber, mark a map where the trees of value are, and come up with a fairly exact number for the board foot length he find there. They will also put the sale out for bid and generally sell it to the highest bidder.

As a broker, Will does much of the same work, but he is paid by the buyer. In addition, Will stays with the process until it is complete, oftentimes working in the field to grade logs once by one once they are cut to assure the seller gets the proper value for their property.

Shannon Parks, the owner of Me & Dad Mills in Marion has worked with Will for a long time and said he appreciates the work that brokers like Will and other timber consultants do.

To have someone there as a middle man keeps everyone honest and saves us a lot of time. It helps to have people like John working with property owners because it gives them some confidence that they are not being taken to the cleaners, Parks said.
CARTERVILLE  Stacee Read, director of network development for the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, says substance abuse has been around forever. She and Eric Nation, director of training and development for the organization, believe that changing the outcomes for those children is possible, but will take collaboration from all the parties involved.

Its about all of us changing, Read said.

The groups mission is to change the status quo by empowering practitioners to identify and respond to children living in dangerous drug environments.

Read and Nation presented an all-day training Thursday at John A. Logan College on stopping the cycle for drug-endangered children. The training was sponsored by Prevent Child Abuse Illinois and The Poshard Foundation for Abused Children.

What children are considered drug-endangered? National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children defines drug-endangered children as those who are at risk of suffering physical or emotional harm as a result of illegal drug use, possession, manufacturing, cultivation or distribution. They may also be children whose caretakers substance abuse interferes with the caretakers ability to parent and provide a safe and nurturing environment.

Statistics show that 2.1 million children live in homes where a parent uses illicit drugs. Nation says that is low because the statistics only include families involved in the child-welfare or law-enforcement systems.

When a parent abuses drugs, children are: Three times more likely to be verbally, physically or sexually abused; and four times more likely than other children to be neglected.

Nation used the example of a child playing near the street who inches closer and closer to the roadway. Most adults would go intervene if a bus were traveling toward the child, but do not want to get involved if the problem is substance abuse.

Why is it with substance abuse that we wait for the children to get hit by the bus? Why would we stop Jack from getting hit by a school bus, but let him get hit by the substance abuse bus? Nation said.

Read and Nation say the answer is more collaboration across disciplines. Often law-enforcement officers have information that child welfare personnel do not have and vice versa. A teacher may not know dad is in jail or mom is hospitalized due to an overdose. Sharing information and files can provide children with access to services that can break the multi-generational cycle of abuse.

Nation pointed out that it does not take much to email a police report to other agencies that might benefit from the information and be able to intervene on behalf of a child. He also stressed that anytime a child is present and officers are called, whether for domestic violence, drug abuse, a traffic stop or any other call, it should be documented in the police report. The same goes for other agencies  child welfare, probation, mental health, medical, etc.

It is when risk isnt super high that I struggle, Read said. If it is in the house, children have access. They have risk.

Some of the risk for children in households where adults are involved with drugs include: attachment disorders, educational issues, environmental chaos, lack of supervision, violence and domestic violence, loss (from childs perspective), ingestion and exposure, human or sex trafficking, and lack of necessities like healthy food, clothing and shelter.

Recently, we have seen an increase in fatalities due to parents substance abuse and sleeping habits, Nation said.

These deaths, although often reported as accidents, often have a root in substance abuse.

As the training went on, several of the people attending spoke about programs in their disciplines that others in the room did not know existed.

Weve got to start talking about what our programs are and what we provide, Nation said.

Nation said training is his way of giving back, so other cops dont make the mistakes he made early in his career. He said other adults need to get involved, too.

Report what you believe is abuse and neglect, and never give up, Nation said.

Jo Poshard of The Poshard Foundation said communication has been lacking and there seems to be a breakdown among agencies. She said she hopes the training is the first step in changing that.

Participants in the training included law enforcement personnel, mental health, educators, substance abuse specialists, clergy, medical staff and others.

For more information, visit www.poshardfoundation.org.
Are you second guessing your investment choices? When you try to manage your investing on your own -- and even when you have help -- it's common to look around and wonder if you could be doing better. We offer personalized financial strategies with a broad range of investment choices and support from a talented force of market analysts, investment planning specialists, and portfolio managers. Call today for a second opinion. Robert W. Shealy, Jr., CFP Senior Vice President - Investments Julie E. Haltiwanger Senior Registered Client Associate 5370 A Sunset Boulevard Lexington, SC 29072 Phone: 803-957-0455 or 866-957-0455 Fax: 803-957-0545 Email: robert.shealy@wellsfargoadvisors.com Website: www.robertwshealy.wfadv.com Investment and Insurance Products  NOT FDIC Insured  NO Bank Guarantee  MAY Lose Value Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, is a registered broker-dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company.  2016 Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC. All rights reserved. *$100,000 Minimum Investment
An Orangeburg bank will celebrate a grand opening Aug. 3.

GrandSouth Bank will have a grand opening at 9 a.m. at its 1055 St. Matthews Road location. The bank is located in front of Orangeburg Mall.

The public is invited to attend. Refreshments will be served.

GrandSouth Bank Market Executive and Senior Vice President Michael Delaney described the bank's early business in Orangeburg as "unreal."

"It has been overwhelming," he said. "It is much better than anticipated."

"I think it is an exciting time not only for me and my team but more importantly, I am excited for the community in Orangeburg in general to have a true community bank back here and available and open to our citizens," Delaney said. "It is a win-win for the bank, and a win-win for everybody here who is looking for simplified banking like it used to be done."

The 4,600-square-foot standalone bank provides a full range of services.

Allen Fairey, GrandSouth Bank senior vice president, and Delaney, both formerly of First Citizens Bank, announced in 2016 their plans to open the bank at the former site of United Hospice of the Midlands.

Initially, the bank operated out of the former KB Consignment Furniture Store before moving into a standalone temporary structure in the fall of 2016.

The bank has operated out of its current permanent building since the second week of May.

GrandSouth Bancorporation is a bank holding company with assets of $559.4 million at March 31.

GrandSouth Bank has five other branches in South Carolina, located in Greenville, Fountain Inn, Anderson, Greer and Columbia.

GrandSouth Bancorporation, the parent company, was founded in 1987.
A physics professor shared the science and the excitement behind the upcoming total eclipse with Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce members on Thursday morning.

"It's not a science thing, it's a human thing. You don't have to go hundreds of thousands of miles to see this thing. It's truly an amazing event. I think it's going to be a very fun event," Dr. Donald Walter said.

He teaches physics at South Carolina State University and is a member of the American Astronomical Society, among other affiliations. He was the keynote speaker at the Chamber's "Business at Breakfast" event held at the Broughton Street Venue.

Courtesy Management Vice President of Operations Barry Hood anticipates an economic boost from the eclipse. The company oversees and manages several Orangeburg hotels by the U.S. 601 and Interstate 26 interchange.

"Our hotels currently are full for that particular weekend. We have a regular event on the weekend and then on Sunday and Monday, we have people coming just for the eclipse. Orangeburg's going to be full," Hood said.

He said the excitement is real.

"We've been building up for six to eight months on this, so weve got a good head start on everything," Hood said.

A total solar eclipse will occur from coast to coast across a portion of the United States on Aug. 21. Orangeburg County will be in the direct path of the total solar eclipse.

Walter said that alone is exciting because the last time South Carolina was in the path of totality for a solar eclipse was in was on March 7, 1970, and the next one won't be until 2052.

"The sun is going to disappear from the sky in the middle of the day. It's going to be about two minutes and 23 seconds," Walter said.

Orangeburg Preparatory School teacher Kathy Creech said she was a 15-year-old during the 1970 eclipse.

"All the kids in the neighborhood had pinhole boxes and went out and looked at it. I remember it just like it was yesterday," Creech said.

Orangeburg at that time was on the edge of the path of totality, when the sun is totally obscured by the moon, Walter said. It lasted for 45 seconds to a minute.

At 2:43 p.m. on Aug. 21 -- weather permitting -- the skies across Orangeburg County and nearby communities will again grow darker than normal.

The event will mark the first time in 99 years that the United States has experienced a total solar eclipse sweeping across the country, and its the first total solar eclipse on U.S. soil since 1991.

Walter said ISO-certified solar safety glasses or a number 14 or darker welder's glass are the safest methods for direct viewing of the eclipse.

Projection, or indirect, viewing can also be done in a number of ways, including making your own cardboard projector, or taking an index card and punching a fine needle point into it. The index card is held between the sun and another sheet of paper or the ground, where the image of the sun will be projected onto it.

He described the corona as "the best part" of the total eclipse. The corona is the sun's outer atmosphere, which is visible during total solar eclipses as a pearly white crown surrounding the sun and which can display a variety of features, including streamers, plumes and loops.

"When you're enjoying the corona, look around to see if you see if you can see any stars and planets," Walter said.

A Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse Experiment aims to capture the images of the inner solar corona, a region of the solar atmosphere that is typically challenging to image, using a network of more than 60 identical telescopes operated by citizen scientists, high school groups and universities.

Walter said S.C. State is coordinating the viewing at the seven sites in South Carolina, including Clemson and Lander universities, Coker College, Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College and S.C. State.

The sun will be tracked along its 2,500-mile path of totality. Each viewing site involved in the experiment will produce more than 1,000 images to provide an unprecedented 90 minutes of continuous, high-resolution images.
Recaptured inmate

being held in

highest security

COLUMBIA (AP)  Authorities say a convict who escaped from a maximum security prison using equipment flown into the facility by drone is now being held in South Carolina's highest security facility.

Online records showed Jimmy Causey was being held Thursday in a lockdown unit at Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia.

Authorities say Causey used wire cutters apparently brought in via drone and coordinated with others by cellphone to escape from Lieber Correctional Institution near Charleston. He was on the run for three days before being captured last week in Austin, Texas.

He escaped from a different prison in 2005 by hiding in a trash truck.

Causey was returned to South Carolina on Wednesday after being extradited from Texas.

S.C. deputies

warn of fake

firefighters scam

GREENVILLE (AP)  Sheriff's deputies are warning that two men pretending to be South Carolina firefighters are conducting a scam when they try to get inside homes to check on smoke detectors.

Greenville County sheriff's spokesman Ryan Flood told local media outlets that the men are going door to door claiming to be firefighters with various county fire departments who want to check smoke detectors. Flood says in at least one case, the suspects were in a red truck.

Flood says the Greenville County Fire Chief's Association says no members of their departments are going door-to-door making such a request.

Sheriff's deputies are working to identify the suspects.

Official identifies

man killed by officer

LAKE VIEW (AP)  State police are trying to determine what happened when a sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man in rural South Carolina.

State Law Enforcement Division spokeswoman Katherine Richardson said investigators and crime scene specialists were in Lake View near the South Carolina-North Carolina state line Wednesday afternoon.

Dillon County Coroner Donnie Grimsley said Wednesday evening the man was 40-year-old James Gerald Davis of Lake View. Davis' body has been sent to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston for an autopsy.

Sheriff's Capt. Cliff Arnette said the deputy involved was not hurt. The officer's name hasn't been released. Arnette didn't release details of what led to the shooting.

Lake View is about 130 miles northeast of Charleston.
WASHINGTON -- As we think back on the G20 summit of world leaders in Hamburg, we recall everyone speculating as to whether Presidents Trump and Putin "liked" each other. And did the American president push Moscow hard enough on the hacking of our elections?

I have a different question for both men: Didn't you have mothers who taught you to sit up straight?

Look at the pictures from their little private meeting on July 7 and one sees them both crouched over ominously, like simians leaning forward with their arms hanging loose, as though they were going to pounce on some poor creature. They never smile. Indeed, their eyes stare down, as though discouraging anyone who might disturb them.

Perhaps they are only in a Hollywood mood, pretending they are Mafia dons out of "The Godfather." Or perhaps at least one of them really is.

Rather than two men who "lead," which means to guide, to govern and to rule, they look like two men who "order," which means to command, to mandate, to dictate.

The scene reminds one to look back at the photos of the Yalta Conference in February 1945. At that crucial World War II meeting on the Black Sea, dominating Churchill was sitting with his usual command of the occasion; ailing Roosevelt, though bundled in his protective cape against the cold, projected the very soul of dignity; evil Stalin, only the slightest of grins occasionally touching his lips, was probably thinking about how many of his countrymen he had killed that day.

Yet they were all sitting up straight.

And at the G20 meeting last week, photos of other leaders revealed straight backs, too.

Germany's Angela Merkel sat with her legs casually crossed, unfussily confident about being in charge of her house. The Argentine leader posed artistically, and the Australian had a pleasantly no-nonsense demeanor about him. Perhaps most important, Chinese President Xi Jinping leaned back with an unchanging Buddha smile, seemingly at home with the (other) leaders of the "free world."

President Donald Trump came home to new Russia scandals. But especially after the G20, the issue is not really about meetings; it is that Trump and his people identify with the Russians -- and like them so much!

Why?

The wise foreign affairs columnist Anne Applebaum wrote after the summit in The Washington Post about Russian money. "We do know that Russian money flooded into New York real estate ... over the past 15 years. ... 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."

And neither Presidents Obama nor Bush "understood the subtle ways in which a large, kleptocratic, semi-criminal state on Europe's borders could threaten Western stability."

Masha Gessen, the brilliant Russian-born biographer of Putin, wrote in The New York Times of the "conditions" that bind such men as Trump and Putin: "ignorance" about the world, a "love of power and grandeur," "shared prejudice" (mainly against Muslims), an "inability or an unwillingness to distinguish fact from fiction" and "moral neutrality."

Vladimir Putin is, of course, a real killer, disciplined and single-minded; Trump is only a hypothetical one, a rough man driven by social resentment against Fifth Avenue New Yorkers, and a guy who kills deals. Yet the two meet in the field of the unmannered slouch.

The meanness, the debasement of others, the cruelty toward the weak, the refusal of all of the best virtues of the West: It's all there, behind those photos. Putin hates the West and yet yearns to be equal to it; Trump grew up hating those "other" New Yorkers on Fifth Avenue and in Newport, and put into practice his father Fred's injunction to be a "killer" and not a "loser."

But Americans should realize that, whatever Trump is really thinking or feeling, the events of June in Hamburg meant that, for many in the world, an American president effectively allied himself and his clan with Russia; he walked out of that strange jungle meeting looking like a leader with a Third World mindset that everyone across the globe could see.

Australia's ABC called the American president "an uneasy, awkward and lonely figure on the world scene," and that is a good description. Still, lurking in the back of our minds is the fearful question as to whether "The Donald" is an aberration in American politics -- or whether he IS us.

But that's a question for another day.
By Azernews





By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan's northeastern region, Guba has hosted a gala concert with participants of the 2nd International Folk Dance Festival "Bridge of friendship", organized by the Baku City Main Department of Culture and Tourism.

"Bridge of friendship" festival was held at the Azerbaijan State Theatre of Young Spectators on July 7-13.

More than four hundred dancers from Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Israel, Moldova, Latvia and Georgia joined the grand event organized by the Baku City Main Department of Culture and Tourism in Baku, Trend Life reported.

The festival aimed at promotion of youth folk art and creating cultural bridges between countries.

The tours around major landmarks of Baku were organized as part of the event.

Before the concert, guests visited the Guba Genocide Memorial Complex in Guba city - monument created in memory of tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis killed during the genocide and massacre perpetrated on Azerbaijani lands by the Armenian armed forces in 1918.

Addressing the event, the head of Guba City Executive Power noted that Azerbaijan is a genuine example of multiculturalism and tolerance, inter-civilizational and inter-religious dialogue, where for centuries peacefully together coexisted the representatives of various peoples, ethnic groups, religions.

The guests expressed their gratitude for the hospitality. Then the participants made a procession through the territory of the Green Theatre dressed in national costumes and gave a concert, which was met with applause of spectators.








By Azernews





By Laman Ismayilova

A concert of graduate of Baku Musical Academy and the Norwegian Education Institution Grieg Academy, Humay Gasimzadah (pianoforte) and graduate of Baku Musical Academy Zhala Aliyeva (cello) has been held at the Azerbaijani Embassy in Hungary.

The event was co-organized by the Azerbaijani and Norwegian Embassies, Report.az reported.

Speaking at the event, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Hungary Vilayat Guliyev touched upon the Azerbaijani-Norwegian ties highlighting the importance of similar events in the promotion of the Azerbaijani culture and art that has rich history.

In his speech, Ambassador Olav Berstad noted that 15 years ago he worked in the Norwegian Embassy in Azerbaijan and during the activities he had the opportunity to look more closely at the rich Azerbaijani culture and arts.

Before the start of the concert, the performers honored with a minute of silence the memory of two-year old Azerbaijani resident Zahra Guliyeva and her grandmother Sahiba Allahverdiyeva killed as a result of another provocation of the Armenian armed forces on July 4.

Afterwards, the young musicians performed famous works of Azerbaijani and Norwegian composers. The excerpts from the works of Edvard Grieg, Fikrat Amirov and other classical and contemporary composers sounded at the concert.

Since the beginning of the 1990s Azerbaijan and Norway have developed an increasingly strong relationship. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on June 5, 1992. The Norwegian embassy in Baku was opened in June 1998.

The co-operation has been growing especially in the field of energy, and several Norwegian companies have established themselves in Baku.








By Azernews





By Kamila Aliyeva

The decision of the U.S. authorities to introduce anti-dumping measures against the steel of Turkish production caused discontent of Ankara, which appealed to the World Trade Organization with a complaint against Washington.

Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci named the anti-dumping investigation and introduction of additional tariffs on Turkish steel exports to the U.S. as unjustified.

Zeybekci stated the unacceptability of the position of the American authorities, Anadolu news agency reported.

Turkey already brought this issue to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for discussion two years ago and the corresponding process is underway, according to Zeybekci.

"The U.S. authorities conducted three investigations to spread anti-dumping measures to steel produced in Turkey, but could not make a proper decision. It was taken only with the fourth attempt," the Turkish minister said.

Turkey has filed a complaint against the U.S. in the WTO, but nevertheless there should not be such problems between the allies, the minister said.

"However, when it comes to economic interests, the U.S. itself supports the production of American production. For example, we are aware of the support of U.S. companies from the American Cotton Exporters Association (U.S. Cotton). We took a step back and the investigation revealed that Turkey was right in its suspicions," he added.

Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he is considering quotas and tariffs to deal with steel dumping from China and other countries, despite warnings from economists that such an action could lead to damaging consequences.

Currently, the U.S. maintains more than 150 countervailing and antidumping duties on steel imports, including some as high as 266 percent.

Turkey's steel export to the U.S. stood at $1.1 billion in 2016, with a 7.15 percent decrease from the previous year. On the basis of volume, Turkey's steel export in 2016 increased by 2.4 percent, reaching some 16.5 million tons.

Due to the decrease in commodity prices, the total value of steel exports amounted to $9.1 billion, an 8.1 percent decrease compared to that of the preceding year.
By Azernews





By Kamila Aliyeva

U.S. President Donald Trump begun a visit to Paris on July 13 and was greeted by French leader Emmanuel Macron, who showed him Napoleons tomb before they held talks on Syria and counter-terrorism.

Before the meeting, the two leaders appeared keen to set aside their differences on climate change as they voiced intention to work together on other matters.

Following the talks, both leaders attended a press conference which became Trump's first contact with journalists after the recent publication of information about the meeting of the president's son with a Russian lawyer during his presidential campaign in 2016.

Macron drew attention to the common positions and differences in the approaches of Paris and Washington to world problems. At the same time, the French leader noted that there is a close mutual understanding between France and the United States on most issues.

Macron said that he had agreed with Trump about the need to defend free and fair trade. He also informed about the agreement on joint actions against cybercrime and propaganda on the Internet.

Trump, in his speech, stressed the historical role of France in affirming the ideals of freedom. He drew attention to the long-standing friendship and alliance between the two states, in particular, the participation of "thousands of French" in the war of the American states for independence from Britain.

The first question at the press conference concerned the Paris Climate Deal. Trump said that he is exploring the possibilities of developing U.S. cooperation with other member states of the Paris agreements.

The U.S. President also mentioned other topics discussed with Macron, in particular, Syrian crisis and situation in Ukraine, without revealing specific details.

A question regarding his sons meeting with a Russian lawyer during the presidential campaign was also asked. Trump stated that the media had inflated the details of the meeting, and again named his son an honest young man who did not take anything important from the meeting with the Russian lawyer stressing that he was not a government lawyer.

Macron, in connection with the same issue, confirmed that he adheres to "non-interference" in the affairs of the United States.

As for Bashar Assad, Paris intends to work closely with all parties to achieve a lasting political solution, the French President said.

The use of chemical weapons is unacceptable, according to Macron.

Presidents of France and the United States following the talks on July 13 proposed the establishment of a contact group to draw up a "road map" for the future of Syria. It should include permanent members of the UN Security Council, "interested participants from the region," as well as a representative of Damascus.

The meeting was the first since their encounter in Hamburg, Germany for the G-20 summit.
BMW Group sales achieved their best ever June, with sales in the month totalling 232,620, a 2.1 per cent increase year-on-year.



It was also a record first half-year with sales of the BMW Groups three premium brands, BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce, increasing by 5 per cent; a total of 1,220,819 vehicles have been delivered to customers around the world so far this year.



Dr Ian Robertson, member of the BMW AG board of management with responsibility for sales and Brand BMW, said: June rounds off our best ever first half-year and the BMW Group remains the worlds leading premium car company.



Weve already sold more than a million BMW vehicles this year, which is a new first-half-year record. June also saw our successful electrification strategy expand still further to include the Mini brand, meaning customers can now choose from nine electrified BMW Group vehicles, he said.



With sales of these models up by eighty per cent compared with the first half of last year, were looking forward to celebrating delivery of the 200,000th electrified BMW Group vehicle later this year, he added.



The brand achieved its best-ever first half-year, topping the million mark for the first time ever by this point in the year. Global BMW sales totalled 1,038,030 units, an increase of 5.2 per cent on the same period last year.



Sales of BMW brand vehicles in June totalled 192,873, up 2.0 per cent compared with the same month last year. A wide range of models throughout the range contributed to this growth.



Sales of the BMW X1 increased 45.2 per cent (136,748) in the first half-year while deliveries of the BMW X5 increased by 10.6 per cent (89,958). BMW 1 Series sales grew by 6.5 per cent (91,802) in the first half-year, while deliveries of the flagship BMW 7 Series increased during the same period by 26.9 per cent (32,290).



June saw the arrival of the Mini Cooper S E Countryman ALL4 in the dealerships, the ninth electrified vehicle from the BMW Group which is available to purchase today.



The popularity of the BMW Groups innovative premium electrified vehicles continues to grow at a rapid rate: in the first six months of the year, a total of 42,573 BMW i, BMW iPerformance and Mini Electric vehicles were delivered to customers, an increase of 79.8 per cent on the same period last year.



First-half-year production of electrified vehicles totalled 51,725. The group is well on track to achieve its target of selling 100,000 electrified vehicles in 2017.



Sales of Mini brand vehicles achieved a new record for June with 39,443 units delivered to customers around the world, an increase of 3.0 per cent compared with the same month last year.



June rounded off the brands record first half year, with sales totalling 181,214 (+3.6 per cent).



Mini continues to achieve sustainable growth in sales around the world, said Peter Schwarzenbauer, member of the BMW AG board of management responsible for Mini, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad.



Sales of the new Mini Countryman are particularly pleasing and Im delighted that with the launch in June of the Mini Cooper S E Countryman ALL4, electric mobility is now available on a large scale from the MINI brand, he said.



Customer interest in this car has been extremely high and Im confident we will see continued growth across the brand in the second half of the year, he added.



In the first half of 2017, the Goodwood-based Rolls-Royce brand delivered 1,575 (-6.5 per cent) motor cars to customers. The same period in 2016 was particularly strong due to the popularity of the newly introduced Rolls-Royce Dawn. This base effect, and the absence from the market of the Phantom pending the introduction of the new Phantom later this year, account for the decrease in sales year-on-year.



Despite considerable ongoing headwinds in the luxury sector in several regions, Rolls-Royce continues to strive for long-term sustainable growth.



BMW Motorrad achieved its best-ever June with a total of 17,260 motorcycles and maxi-scooters delivered to customers, an increase of 15.1 per cent on the same month last year.



Those figures helped BMW Motorrad achieve a record first half-year with sales totalling 88,389 in the first six months of the year, up 9.5 per cent on the same period last year.



Additionally, with the automotive market experiencing challenges in several significant markets, the BMW Group continues to follow its policy of balancing sales around the world to achieve sustainable, profitable growth.



Europe is the BMW Groups most significant sales area and despite recent downturns in the regions two largest markets, Germany and the UK, overall BMW Group sales for the first half of 2017 are up 2.2 per cent.



BMW Group sales in Asia continue to achieve significant growth this year, driven mainly by China, where combined BMW and Mini deliveries are up 18.4 per cent in the first half-year. This strong increase is largely due to full availability of the BMW X1 and the popularity of the new BMW 1 Series sedan, a car designed exclusively for China.



BMW and Mini sales in the Americas continue to be affected by the decline in the overall automotive market in the USA. Meanwhile sales in other markets in the region maintain their positive growth, with BMW Group deliveries in Mexico and Latin America achieving a further double-digit increase, it sated.  TradeArabia News Service
Batelco, Bahrains leading digital solutions provider, will implement new registration rules for applying for postpaid and prepaid mobile services from July 12.

The Bahrain Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has introduced new regulations governing the registration of sim-card enabled devices for all of Bahrains mobile operators including Batelco, a statement said.

The regulations state that all individuals as well as commercial and government organisations applying for new mobile services (whether postpaid and/or prepaid lines) must provide the relevant documentation as outlined by the TRA.

As part of the new regulations, the authorised person/s applying for the service will be required to provide a valid ID and scan their fingerprint. Fingerprint scans will be verified by the IGA (Information and eGovernment Authority).

Furthermore, the TRA has introduced a limit to the number of prepaid lines that can be registered under one ID (whether for individuals or commercial entities).

Batelco is in the process of notifying all its commercial and government customers about the newly required registration details. Information is also available on batelco.com and additionally Batelco personnel can help to guide commercial and government customers through the process by calling 17881144 while consumers may contact 196 for support, Batelco said.

Batelco supports the efforts of the TRA and works closely with the authority to ensure the delivery of world-class communications services to residents of Bahrain, the statement added.-TradeArabia News Service
The Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) and Labor Fund Tamkeen signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) today (July 11) to support the development of the Online Hotel Integration Project recently launched by the BTEA.



The MoU is in line with kingdoms strategy to further develop the tourism industry and encourage the private sector establishments to invest in this robust industry.



The Online Hotel Integration Project links all the data related to the hotel industry under one system. The system will be updated periodically with the latest figures and data.



The signing ceremony was held between BTEA chief executive officer Shaikh Khalid bin Humood Al Khalifa and Tamkeen chief executive officer Dr Ebrahim Mohammed Janahi in the presence of senior management from both entities.



As a part of the MoU, Tamkeen will cover 50 per cent of the total cost of the project by supporting the three-star, two-star and one-star hotels, along with hotel apartments. The other hotels are currently listed and included in the project which will be completed within one year, said a statement.



We are pleased to cooperate with Tamkeen to further develop the project that primarily aims to enhance the capabilities of the hotel establishments in the kingdom and create a database that measures their real contribution of the sector to the GDP, said Shaikh Khaled.



Such e-services effectively contribute to the development of the kingdoms tourism sector and it is vital to keep pace with the global digital evolution. The Online Hotel Integration Project is a step in the right direction and we are aware that we need to continuously improve our e-services based on the international trends and standards, he added.



Dr Janahi said: We believe in the growing role of the tourism and hotel sector in the kingdom as one of the key economic sectors. We aim to support its growth and fully support its needs.



During the last decade, we supported around 40,000 companies from the private sector across various industries in order to elevate the economy and achieve Tamkeens mission to position the private sector as a main contributor to the national economy, he added.-TradeArabia News Service


An estimated Dh2 billion ($544 million) will be generated from onsite food and beverages (F&B) sales at the Expo 2020 Dubai, offering a huge opportunity for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the sector, it was revealed today.



Expo 2020 Dubai held its highly successful BusinessConnect F&B session, marking the first step on the journey to Expo for SMEs in the food and beverage sector.



The session, which saw more than 100 SMEs take part, outlined the food and beverage pathway and timeline including encouraging them to sign up to the Expo 2020 Dubai e-Sourcing portal so they can keep track of all the current and upcoming procurement opportunities.



These opportunities include taking a share of an estimated Dh2 billion in onsite food and beverage sales generated by visitors attending Expo from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021. In addition to this, an estimated five million meals will be needed to keep the Expo 2020 workforce fed during the six months of Expo.



The Expo 2020 Dubai timeline for SMEs to bid for contracts to deliver F&B services at Expo is as follows:

 Register on e-Sourcing portal (now)

 Deliver SME business profiles (Q3, 2017)

 Primary catering operator package releases (Q3-Q4, 2017)

 Meet the Buyer event with lead catering operators (Q1-Q2, 2018)

 For selected SMEs, pitch your concept (Q1-Q2, 2018)

 Negotiations and awards (Q1-Q2, 2018)

 SME partnership connections defined (Q2, 2018)

 Planning phase (Q4, 2017-Q4, 2019)

 Testing phase (Q1-Q2, 2020)



Manal AlBayat, senior vice president, business development and integration at Expo 2020 Dubai, said: This BusinessConnect F&B session is just the beginning of the journey for SMEs in the food and beverage sector to Expo 2020 Dubai. Not only does it enable us to explain timelines and present opportunities to the SMEs, we also get to hear their questions and incorporate their feedback into our planning.



Through these sessions we are delivering value to SMEs by encouraging networking and providing them with a platform to connect with each other, therefore boosting opportunities across the region before, during and after Expo.



At peak, up to 85,000 meals are expected to be served per hour during Expo 2020 Dubai, across 30,000 sq m of front-of-house space for food and beverages (F&B). As a result, Expo will be a major opportunity for F&B firms, as well as a chance to showcase the many cuisines and cultural diversity of the UAE.



This session provided us with a detailed understanding of the procurement process and the fantastic opportunity which Expo is providing SMEs like us the chance to be a part of, said Mansoor Al Bastaki, founder and CEO of MAB Food Trucks, a food truck supplier based in the UAE.



We know this is just the start, but with more than three years to go to Expo 2020 Dubai it is great to see Expo planning ahead and inviting SMEs to get involved so early in the process.



Expo 2020 Dubai is committed to supporting the SME sector across the region as part of its plans for a lasting economic legacy. Last year, it announced that 20 per cent of direct and indirect spend for the Expo will be awarded to SMEs.



The BusinessConnect series aims to shift the traditional model of procurement to one based more on the value of collaboration, with each edition delivered in the format of an open dialogue and focused on a specific aspect of Expo 2020 Dubai.



To date, it has brought together senior representatives from a wide spectrum of industries to explore critical areas such as marketing and communications, ICT, architecture and design, real estate and youth.  TradeArabia News Service


A public-private economic development organization in Casper has come under fire from City Council over concerns that the group is failing to report how it spends public dollars.

Frustration with the Casper Area Economic Development Alliance, or CAEDA, was on display at a Council meeting Tuesday.

CAEDA representatives had been asked to share financials with City Council after members briefly weighed eliminating funding for the group during city budget talks last month. But the presentation started inauspiciously, as Mark Pepper, chairman of the public board that funds CAEDA, announced that Council members would not be hearing about the agency.

For anybody who came for a CAEDA presentation, this is an Economic Development Joint Powers Board presentation, Pepper, who is chairman of the board, said.

The board receives about $400,000 per year from the city and another $100,000 from Natrona County and funnels that money to CAEDA for operational costs.

Pepper spoke for 20 minutes about what CAEDA does in the community  primarily business recruitment, infrastructure improvements and grants  without breaking down how the citys money is spent.

CAEDA to court wind turbine manufacturing industry The Casper Area Economic Development Alliance announced Monday it will pursue manufacturers 

Then he turned it over to CAEDA CEO Charles Walsh.

Walsh himself launched into a presentation that also did not detail how public money was spent, beyond noting that it was used only for operational costs like salaries. CAEDA solicits private funds to use for investments in amounts that dwarf the public contribution. CAEDA officials worry that opening the groups books would sink confidential negotiations to recruit businesses to Casper.

Councilman Dallas Laird repeatedly asked for a precise breakdown of where Caspers contribution to the Economic Development Joint Powers Board was being spent.

I would vote to give you no money until you start doing it, he said.

Councilwoman Amanda Huckabay joined Lairds attack, noting that other organizations funded by the city were required to present annual reports. She said the joint powers board failed to breakdown salaries and operational costs.

Pepper defended the opacity, arguing that because CAEDA was not a public agency it did not need to disclose those details.

Its a contract with a private company, he said. Its a private scenario.

But Pepper added that he would be happy to begin making quarterly presentations to City Council. In fact, Pepper said he had sought to do so in the past but scheduling conflicts had interfered.

When we talk about dollars, they went to salary, went to operations, went to office space; thats really where your money goes, Walsh said.

Walsh, who was hired last fall, added that he wanted to improve communication between the group and City Council.

Several Council members noted a history of poor relations between the city and CAEDA that pre-dated Walsh and suggested those earlier interactions were coloring the tense meeting.

Past leadership certainly did not communicate and do things that were necessary, said Vice Mayor Ray Pacheco, who sits on the joint economic board. That was remedied.

Mayor Kenyne Humphrey announced plans to start rotating members on the two seats available to City Council on the board, currently occupied by Pacheco and Councilman Bob Hopkins, and to fill the seat on CAEDAs board of directors open to a city official. That seat is currently vacant.

But she also made clear her displeasure with the presentation.

I told you guys we needed numbers, Humphrey said. Im disappointed we didnt get those.

Councilman Chris Walsh said that Pepper and CAEDA CEO Walsh were likely bearing the brunt of Councils frustration with groups that have failed to report back to the city despite receiving public funds.

Council cut funding to several community organizations in the budget they approved in June after learning the groups had failed to submit the required annual reports. While members discussed eliminating CAEDAs funding, City Attorney Bill Luben noted that the funding existed as part of an agreement with the county and that simply eliminating it from the budget was not feasible.

Councilman Walsh said that while it was important for groups to properly report their spending to the city, Council must first set clear expectations.

Its our fault if we do not accept responsibility by putting out standards on what we want, Walsh said. We cant deflect this.

Humphrey said Council would discuss setting clear expectations for groups receiving city money.

The only place to move is up, she said.
The public has another chance to meet Vietnam veterans and thank them for their service from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday on the upper concourse of the Natrona County International Airport.

The reception will serve as a reunion for veterans  up to 90 are expected  who were featured individually in the two-year project, They Served With Honor, undertaken by Star-Tribune Communications with the help of many sponsors.

The project included weekly, lengthy articles with then-and-now photographs, which have been compiled into a hardcover book by the same title. The reception will serve as a book signing. Those without books will be able to purchase them at the event, but there is no obligation to purchase a book if you go to the reception.

People have been reading about these veterans and their dramatically interesting stories, and now this is the chance to meet them, shake their hand and most importantly, thank them for their service, said Dale Bohren, general manager of the Star-Tribune.

At 10 a.m., prior to the reception, the veterans and their families will meet privately. Each will be given a book, compliments of the sponsors, and have lunch.

This will be their chance to get together for the first time outside the pages of the book, Bohren said.

Although this second lengthy veterans project is now complete  They Served With Honor/World War II  was the first, Bohren said the newspapers commitment to veterans remains strong.

Were not going to stop covering veterans, their issues or their families, he said.

Bohren lauded the men and women who came forward to tell their stories in detail, some for the first time since their service in Vietnam ended.

There are people on the ground in heavy fighting, who have individually remarkable stories; helicopter pilots, low-flying aircraft and high-flying aircraft; two conscientious objectors, and family member stories, because they typically get left out and there are remarkable family stories, Bohren said.

Of all of the stories  104 total  Bohren recalled Wayne CHair, now a Northern Arapaho elder.

Prior to his leaving for Vietnam, CHairs grandfather and father asked him, that war is not our war, why go fight them?

CHair told the reporter, We were citizens of this great country of ours and were trying to do our duty.

All of the profiles that ran in the Casper Star-Tribune and Casper Journal over two years are available at trib.com/honor/vietnam.

There will be valet parking available on Saturday at the airport and the room is handicapped accessible. Refreshments will be served.
Natrona County generally fell below the statewide average in several testing categories across grade levels, according to Wyoming Department of Education test results released Thursday for third- through eighth graders.

The results are markers showing how students  testing in math, reading and, for fourth- and eighth graders, science  are performing. The test measured the percentage of students who were below basic, basic, proficient, advanced, basic and below and proficient and advanced.

Students improved marginally in math and by two percent in science, compared to last year. Reading declined by less than a percent.

In statewide comparisons to last year, third- through eighth-grade students showed percentage improvement in almost half of the categories.

In a conference call with media Thursday, state superintendent Jillian Balow pointed out that fourth-grade math has seen a 2.8 percent increase this year, which is a 10.8 percent increase over recent years. Statewide eighth grade science also saw improvement.

Asked about decreases in math scores for some grade levels, Balow said while the state had seen some yo-yoing of scores, they were statistically insignificant.

Its almost a holdover even thought it looks like there are decreases, she said. But she noted that state officials are always concerned about school improvement.

Many of the changes from last year in the test scores were relatively small. Kari Eakins, spokeswoman for the department, told media that staff hadnt had a chance to dig into district-specific data because theyd released the results as quickly as possible. Thus, she said, it was too early to say which districts had struggled the most.

But she and Balow said the department would provide resources to struggling districts, from professional development to the potential to collaborate with other districts.

Generally, Natrona County  the second largest district in the state  fell below the state average across all tested grade levels for the percentage of students who were below proficient, advanced and percent proficient and advanced. Of 84 total scores across third- through eighth-graders, Natrona County saw decreases in 51, though some were marginal.

But the district was, in total, above the state average in basic and beat statewide levels of students who were basic and below.

Natrona third-graders were higher in proficiency in math and reading than state averages. Fourth-graders were higher in all areas tested  math, reading and science  for basic levels and were more proficient in science. Fifth-graders were more proficient and advanced in math and reading.

But sixth- and seventh-graders were below the state average for proficient and advanced in every area tested  in one case by 3.5 percentage points.

Additionally, sixth- through eighth-graders fell below the state average in basic and below in every content area tested (math, reading and, for eighth-graders, science). They also fell below average for proficient and advanced in every category.

It wasnt all bad news for Natrona County. Fourth- and fifth-graders beat out statewide scores for below basic in every tested category. The districts students, compared to last year, showed improvement in a number of categories.

State- and districtwide test results for ACT are not yet available, department spokeswoman Kari Eakins said Thursday. Theyll be released next month.

This is the last year for the PAWS assessment. The state will move to a standard called WY-TOPP next year, which will allow districts to test students more frequently and receive scores faster.

Some leading lawmakers, including Sen. President Eli Bebout, have criticized Wyomings performance, pointing out relatively low ACT scores, for instance. Theyve said Wyoming, which pays around $16,000 per student, has not received bang for its buck.

Balow said it was impossible to say what effect the scores may or may not have. She said the department will continue working to improve test scores and that conversations on education funding were critical but said it was much too early to draw a correlation between the two.
CHEYENNE  State lawmakers voiced concern about ongoing drainage problems at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins. But the official overseeing temporary repairs at the troubled facility assured them work is progressing, just more slowly than expected.

Lawmakers last year allocated $7 million for repairs while they try to figure out a long-term solution for the 16-year-old prison built on unstable soil.

Floors and walls have buckled and cracked. Full repairs would cost around $100 million while replacing the prison would cost $250 million to $300 million.

Its unlikely the prison will become uninhabitable, project manager Ian Catellier told the state Building Commission on Wednesday. There are no concerns about occupying the building, he said.

Still, the ongoing drainage problem concerned Senate President Eli Bebout of Riverton, who asked Catellier what was being done to keep water out of the building.

When I was there last time, you could see where water would run right into the building, Bebout said. We saw that last year, and you still have water up to the building?

Soil conditions have led to areas that expand or contract when moisture is introduced, usually by rain and melting snow, Catellier said.

I think you could say the soil conditions would be better if they were kept dry, he said. Moisture has a large effect on the particular soils in this area.

Work to address the drainage issues has been done and more will take place before winter. Other work will have to wait until next year.

Gov. Matt Mead asked why some of the work was taking so long.

Public processes and precautionary measures to ensure the work was done correctly were likely to blame, Catellier said.
Once upon a time, praising the essence of what is America was a good thing.

Normal, even.

Not anymore. Do that now and you are written off as a racist or a member of the alt-right. Mention God and country and you are branded a Nazi. Talk about traditional family values and you are a homophobe. Discuss following the rule of law about immigration and you are labeled with all sorts of phobes.

If you talk about protecting Western culture and values, leftists will lose their minds the way they did after President Donald Trumps speech in Poland recently before the G20 summit in Hamburg. Social media lit up with ridiculous inferences about Trump being Hitler 2.0.

The problem is, though, Trumps speech about the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 was fact-based, commemorating one of the darkest seasons in Polands history. A time when Poles were desperately sandwiched between two evils and unsuccessfully tried to oust the Nazis already occupying Warsaw so they could retake control of their city before the advancing Soviet army had time to invade and occupy.

Here is an excerpt from this remarkable speech:

Through four decades of communist rule, Poland and the other captive nations of Europe endured a brutal campaign to demolish freedom, your faith, your laws, your history, your identity  indeed, the very essence of your culture and your humanity.

Trump then recalled the awe-inspiring day, June 2, 1979, when a million Poles gathered to celebrate Mass. Trump said, They must have known during that exact moment during Pope John Paul IIs sermon when a million Polish men, women and children suddenly raised their voices in a single prayer. A million Polish people did not ask for wealth. They did not ask for privilege. Instead, one million Poles sang three simple words: We want God.

Trump continued, In those words, the Polish people recalled the promise of a better future. They found new courage to face down their oppressors, and they found the words to declare that Poland would be Poland once again. As I stand here today before this incredible crowd, this faithful nation, we can still hear those voices that echo through history. Their message is as true today as ever. The people of Poland, the people of America, and the people of Europe still cry out We want God.

Trump also talked about the horrific slaughter of Polands huge Jewish population reduced to almost nothing after the Nazis systematically murdered millions of Polands Jewish citizens along with countless others during that brutal occupation.

Trump brilliantly bridged a connection between Polands past and the current global war on terror: We are confronted by another oppressive ideology, one that seeks to export terrorism and extremism all around the globe. America and Europe have suffered one terror attack after another. Were going to get it to stop.

Somewhere between condemning Soviet Russia and communism and Nazis slaughtering Jews, the Warsaw crowd roared with elation while American leftists writhed in torment before their heads exploded.

One would have to wander deep into the hinterlands of lunacy to believe that standing against jihad and standing up for God and country and freedom and family is somehow a bad thing. Sadly, though, that is where we are today.
For the past six years Zayna has been the go-to spot for Mediterranean food in midtown Tucson. The small space at 4122 E. Speedway always seems to be full, and on weekends you can expect a wait.

Thats one of the reasons the restaurant is moving to a significantly larger space just down the street.

Youll soon find the Lebanese and Syrian specialties at the former Molinas Midway, 1138 N. Belvedere Ave., which closed in May after 64 years in business.

The Star reported that the Molina siblings had sold the space in April. The sign is still on the door, but Zaynas is expected to open in about a month and a half, said manager Amer Said.

With four large dining rooms and enough seating for 200 people, the Molinas space is significantly larger than Zaynas current location inside what used to be Feast. The new spot also has no street visibility from Speedway, since its tucked back in a neighborhood off Belvedere Avenue.

But Said isnt worried.

We just have to have a different system, he said. We have regular customers who will follow us.

The new spot will have better parking, as well as space for larger parties that were previously turned away. There will also be more room in the kitchen to put out the fresh colorful plates that Zayna is known for. But dont expect changes in the menu. Its going to be the same.

Plans have not been worked out for Zaynas existing space.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some July 14 papers in history. With a subscription to newspapers.com you can search the Arizona Daily Star and many other newspapers using keywords or dates, and download articles or pages.
The constitutional right of juries to decide how much to award victims in civil lawsuits does not block a judge from overturning their verdict as excessive, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Justice John Lopez, writing for the unanimous court, said trial judges should be circumspect when substituting their judgment for that of the jury that decided how much to award a victim. And he said that power is limited.

Because a jury plays a vital role in our civil justice system, a trial court may not simply substitute its judgment for the jurys, Lopez wrote.

He said, though, that judges are in a unique position to guard against unjust verdicts. And Lopez said that gives them the right to conclude that an award is not supported by the evidence.

But Lopez said there also is a safeguard: When that happens, the victim is entitled to demand an entirely new trial rather than accept the scaled-back verdict. And thats what happened here.

The case involves Michael and Julie Soto who were passengers in a taxi driven by Anthony Sacco when it collided with another vehicle.

The Sotos sued Sacco and Discount Cab, for whom he was driving. The defendants admitted liability, with a trial solely to determine damages.

According to court records, Michael Soto suffered multiple fractures to his dominant arm and underwent surgery to permanently implant a plate and screws to stabilize it. The couple testified that he experienced significant pain and emotional distress since the accident, preventing him from participating in physical activities he previously enjoyed.

But his doctor placed no limits on his activities and told him to use his arm normally, using pain as a guide.

His medical bills topped $40,500 but he made no claim for future medical expenses or lost wages.

The Sotos sought $725,000; the defendants suggested something between $90,000 and $120,000. Jurors awarded $700,000 to him and $40,000 to his wife.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Gordon concluded the award to Michael Soto was excessive and not supported by the evidence, reducing it to $250,000. When the couple declined, Gordon issued an order for a new trial and they appealed.

Lopez pointed out the provision of Arizona Constitution, adopted at statehood in 1912, which says the right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate. But he said that does not end the matter.

We recognize that a trial judge plays a role akin to  a ninth juror in civil cases when ruling on a motion for new trial, including motions based on excessive or insufficient damages, he wrote.

A trial judges unique position is the primary buffer against unjust verdicts, Lopez explained. And the trial judge performs an indispensable function without which our system of justice could not hold out the promise of a uniform application of the law.

Even then, however, Lopez said that unique position does not translate to absolute power.

A trial court should not disturb a jurys damage award unless the judge is firmly convinced it is inadequate or excessive and is contrary to the weight of the evidence, he wrote. And he said Gordon did that.

Lopez acknowledged that Gordon, in reducing the verdict, did not spell out exactly why he thought the jury award was too generous. But he said the fact that Soto did not make any claims for future expenses or economic losses was enough to support the trial judges conclusion the award was excessive.

There was no immediate comment from the couples lawyer.
PHOENIX  A campaign group has suspended its effort to use paid circulators to gather signatures against new limits on the ability of citizens to enact laws via the ballot box.

Campaign manager Joe Yuhas said Thursday that all the financial resources of Voters of Arizona, a coalition of individuals and groups involved with ballot initiatives, are being funneled into convincing a judge that one of the new rules set by the Legislature violates the state constitution. That leaves no cash for anything else, he said.

The campaign to refer two of the new rules to voters has not ended, Yuhas said. He said volunteers continue to try to get the 75,321 valid signatures needed on each of two separate petitions.

But Yuhas, who has worked on multiple petition campaigns, conceded that the chances of putting both measures before voters are sharply diminished without paid circulators.

We know from the outset that a referendum drive is very challenging, he said, with backers having just 90 days from the end of the legislative session to gather the signatures, a deadline that is Aug. 8 this year.

So we knew it was an uphill challenge to begin with, he said.

The suspension is likely to mean that, effective Aug. 9, it will no longer be legal for organizers of any future petition drives to pay circulators based on the number of signatures they collect.

Such payment isnt allowed under one of the new laws passed by the Legislature and set to take effect Aug. 9, HB 2404. Supporters of that change said paying per signature invites fraud as circulators seek to boost their earnings.

Foes said circulators are only paid based on the number of valid signatures they get. They argue that the change is intended to make it more difficult and more expensive for voters to propose and enact their own laws  laws disliked by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Less clear is the fate of the other change, HB 2244, which would require judges to invalidate initiative petitions  those that propose new laws  if there is not strict compliance with all election requirements. That measure would overturn Arizona Supreme Court rulings that voters should get a chance to make a final decision on proposals if petition drives are in substantial compliance with the law.

Foes have been seeking to refer HB 2244, too, to the ballot. But they are asking Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens to rule that lawmakers overstepped their bounds. It is that legal effort that Yuhas said is swallowing up the funds that otherwise would have gone to paid circulators for both measures.

On Friday, attorney David Cantelme, representing legislative leaders, argued to Stephens theres no legal basis for the court challenge. Cantelme said the challenge to the law is premature until theres an actual case of alleged harm to the challengers abilities to put future measures before voters.

Its not until the court makes its decision and either orders a measure off the ballot or back on the ballot can there be any actual result, Cantelme said. Until then, its fanciful.

But attorney Andrew Gaona, for the other side, told Stephens she can and should decide now whether the stricter standard for initiatives is unconstitutional.

Individuals who are weighing putting measures on the ballot in 2018 testified that the new standard will mean not only higher costs to gather the signatures but is also depressing fundraising efforts as donors know it means less likelihood of success. Gaona said that means HB 2244, if it takes effect, will effectively kill future initiative drives before they get started.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the circulation of petitions is core political speech,  he told the judge. The chilling of speech is, in and of itself, an injury.

Stephens said she will rule by Aug. 4.
Louis Taylor, who served four decades in prison for the downtown Pioneer Hotel fire in 1970, was arrested Thursday in connection to an armed robbery.

Taylor, 63, is a suspect in an armed robbery at Riverpark Inn, 777 W. Cushing St., that occurred last month, according to a Tucson Police Department Facebook post.

Video and forensic evidence collected at the scene resulted in a positive identification of Taylor, states the post.

A man captured on video surveillance at the inn shows that the man walked behind the counter where the clerk was standing. Police said he confronted the clerk and produced a baseball bat while demanding money from the register.

The man was given an undisclosed amount of money and he assaulted the clerk, causing minor injuries, before he fled the hotel and headed north, said police.

On Thursday, officers from the Downtown District located Taylor and he was booked into the Pima County jail for armed robbery and kidnapping, police said.

Anyone with information in the case is asked to call 911 or 88-CRIME, an anonymous tipster hotline.

In 2013, Taylor was released from prison after spending 42 years behind bars after a Phoenix jury convicted him of the arson deaths of 28 of 29 people who died in and after the hotel fire.

Advocates for Taylor had long crusaded to get him released from prison on the fire case, claiming evidence used against him was faulty and insufficient, but prosecutors maintained he was guilty. He was 16 at the time of the fire.

Taylor was released from prison after he pleaded no contest in the deaths as part of a deal worked out with the Pima County Attorney's Office and the Arizona Justice Project, according to a Star article. The agreement set aside Taylor's original conviction and gave him credit for time served.

Taylor maintained his innocence and the prosecutor's office insisted the deal did not exonerate him of wrongdoing.

In interviews after his release, Taylor said he had trouble finding work and adjusting to life outside of prison.
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Youth 4 Swaraj (Y4S), a student wing of Yogendra Yadav led farmer dedicated movement Swaraj Abhiyan is launching a youth oriented nationwide farmers movement from Jantar-Mantar, New Delhi on July 18.

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For this nationwide campaign, Y4S has started a campaign titled Main bhi Kisan ki Santan (I, too a farmers offspring).

The movement follows the Kisan Mukti Yatra that began on July 6 from Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh. The Kisan Mukti Yatra began with the twin objectives of Rin Mukti aur Poor Daam (Debt Free Farmer & Remunerative Price).

As the Yatra was beginning from Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, in a desperate attempt to prevent the Yatra from proceeding, Madhya Pradesh Police arrested several farmer leaders including Yogendra Yadav. The statement from Y4S said, But that did not deter the leaders of Kisan Mukti Yatra from proceeding with the Yatra and with the joint effort of hundreds of farmers organisations spread across the country, the movement has become bigger and stronger today. 

The Yatra which has already covered Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat is at present in Rajasthan and is scheduled to cover Haryana & Uttar Pradesh before it reaches Delhi on July 18.

Statement from Y4S and Swaraj Abhiyan said, Our country is going through a major agricultural crisis with farmers submerged in debt. This crisis has reached such a level that everyday the news of farmers committing suicide comes from one part of the country or other. We are living in such times that farmers who are feeding the nation are unable to feed their own families. And when they fail to pay their debts, they are subjected to such cruel defamation that they give up their lives.

Moreover, it said, Farmers have to suffer not only during natural calamities like drought. After suffering from drought for two years, when the farmers witnessed a good yield this year, they are again faced with a situation where they are suffering from heavy loses. Added to this is the fact that on most occasions, the government has failed to purchase the crops that farmers have produced. And Kisan Mukti Yatra has been successful in highlighting the failures of promises of the government at such times. This farmers movement has emerged as the a ray of hope for the country and to keep this hope alive, the farmers need the support of the youth.

Making an appeal to the youth to join the farmers movement, Manish Kumar, National Convener for Y4S said, The time has come for youth to contribute their energy towards the farmers movement that is going on in the country.

He further stated, This fight is not just for saving farmers or farming. This is the fight of every citizen, every youth of this country. It is only when farmers and farming will survive that the countrys villages will be able to sustain. And only when the villages will be able to sustain, the cities can survive. And this inter-dependency makes this farmers fight a fight of every citizen in this country. In fighting for the rights of the farmers, lives real nationalism.

Students from various universities such as Delhi University, JNU, Jamia Milia and several colleges in the capital have offered their support with the farmers movement from July 18 at Jantar Mantar.
London experienced five seemly random Acid Attacks. In less than an hour and a half, paramedics attended multiple incidents where innocent people in the streets of London became victims of painful acid burns. One victim was described to have a life-changing injury from the acid, 7 News Australia reported. The BBC picked up the story and reported that "the attacks began at 22:25 BST on Thursday in Hackney Road."

Paramedics rushed to help the victims who were in terrible pain. Watch the video below.

London streets terrorised by two men on a moped

Police investigating the attacks were quoted by ITV News as saying that the reports consisted of two people on a moped riding around with a corrosive liquid.

The acid was flung into the faces of people, after which the vicious attackers sped away. One teenage male has since been arrested. The Metropolitan Police will fully investigate the incident, the BBC reported.

Twitter became the go-to source for updated information, and Londoners tweeted their fear of going outside.

5 more acid attacks within 90 minutes in London. This is getting really scary now. I now refuse to go anywhere near east London. Too risky  Ryan (@LanterneRouge79) July 14, 2017

One teenage male has been arrested for acid attacks in London

According to a report by the BBC which was updated following the arrest of at least one young male, "one 32-year-old man on a moped was left with facial injuries after a moped, with two male riders, pulled up alongside him in Hackney at about 22:25 BST." The two men on the moped threw acid in his face and stole his moped.

At that stage, there were two mopeds with young men on them.

Later, another victim was reported from the Islington area, followed by another two in Shoreditch high Street. Following a robbery in Cazenove Road, Stoke Newington, police discovered that yet again acid had been thrown at a victim.

Acid attacks are becoming common in London

In late June and early July, there were other acid attacks in the United Kingdom. At the time, a lot of people believed that Muslims were being targeted by right-leaning radicals. Back then, fear was already evident and many people started to label the acid attacks as terrorism.

I'm now genuinely fearful going to #London due to the increase of #AcidAttacks ! This IS #terrorism !  MavroudisWorldwide (@MavroudisWorld) July 2, 2017

On 7 July, Leading Britain's Conversation, a popular Twitter account noted that there have been over 80 acid attacks this year alone.

Speculation is mounting as there seems to be nobody addressing the rising problem. Other people noted that it is more common for Muslim women to suffer acid attacks, so the randomness of the recent attack seems to be unusual.

Conservative govt covering up acid attacks in London #terrorism https://t.co/bEkuCPOgIF  Daniel Blake's sista (@Injury_Claims_) July 7, 2017

Sky News wrote that the police are treated all of the attacks as linked and have called for witnesses to come forward to assist with their investigations.
Arlene Foster and her 10 DUP MPs at 10 Downing Street entered by the front door, but for some reason left via the back door like they had something to hide or did not wish anyone - especially the media - see them leave. Why the secrecy as the world's media would have seen them arrive at Downing Street so why didn't they leave the way they had come?

The DUP founded by the Rev. Ian Paisley is a staunchly Unionist party with a deep Protestant Christian ethos which governs some if not of all of their policies. They could be called right-wing as they do not accept same-sex marriage, are climate change deniers and are very pro-Brexit.

Would this have been part of their negotiations with Theresa May in Downing Street?

It is expected that an informal coalition agreement will be signed today between the Conservatives and the DUP bringing this loose arrangement government into being. Certainly, this gives Arlene Foster who could easily give Theresa May a run for her money in talks a certain amount of leverage with the now weakened Theresa May administration.

What Arlene Foster may have asked at the meeting

Arlene Foster and Theresa May have worked together behind the scenes on things they agree on in the past and in some ways some areas of the Conservative party mirror aspects of the DUP. It can be guessed even though Arlene Foster keeps things close to her chest that she will have a set of demands or requests in return for helping Theresa May stay in power.

Certainly one of the requests will be for more money for Northern Ireland in helping with infrastructure, and money for schools and hospitals. Many in Northern Ireland, especially the Loyalist community, see this DUP-Conservative arrangement as a good thing if the deal is signed today, as it may highlight the areas of Northern Ireland that need investment.

Even some Republicans have grudgingly admitted if this investment is forthcoming from the central government in London it could be a good thing for Northern Ireland.

John Major's warning

Former Prime Minister John Major who was involved in talks with both sides of the Northern Irish conflict peace talks before handing over to Tony Blair has warned he has reservations about his party going into government with the DUP.

The DUP has been accused of having links to Loyalist paramilitary groups and this maybe is one of John Major's concerns.

He may also be warning against going down a road with the DUP that may somehow entrap Theresa May's already enfeebled administration. Of course, Major's concerns could be completely unfounded, but on the other hand, they may be justified. Only time will tell.

DUP in talks with Sinn Fein regarding Stormont

Sinn Fein and even the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny have expressed their misgivings about the DUP going into government with the Conservatives. Their worry is that it may make the negotiations a little skewed as it may feel like the British government is backing the DUP in talks rather than being objective.

The British government will realise the importance of talks to get a Stormont administration running again and will remain completely objective in talks between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

If the talks fail it may bring back direct rule from London which after all the good work of the Good Friday Agreement and the time both Sinn Fein and the DUP shared power together would be a complete shame.

Northern Ireland has enjoyed peace and prosperity for a long time now let us hope this continues.
US President Donald Trump has met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, one week after he met with Russian President vladimir putin at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Following his meeting with Macron, there was a press conference during which Trump discussed his meeting with Putin. Russia was already a part of the line of questioning, thanks to the recent situation with Donald Trump, Jr. and his dealings with Russia.

Trump and Putin making strides in Syria

One of the biggest issues with Putin is that he is in cahoots with Syrian President Bashir al-Assad.

Trump is very anti-Assad, having blown the hell out of his air force with ballistic missiles back when he used chemical weapons to kill a lot of his own people. Apparently the meeting between Trump and Putin led to a ceasefire in a little section of the south of Syria, and Trump said that theyre working on getting a second ceasefire to take place in a very rough part of Syria.

This is good news, right? Trump also added that this is on the right trajectory. He hinted that he and Putin are going to get other parties involved and keep the ceasefires rolling and eventually, according to the US President, you will have no bullets fired in Syria. Fingers crossed!
An American man vacationing in Greece was beaten to death by a mob. Nine of the men who took part in the beating were arrested and charged with intentional homicide.

The American Man, 22-year-old Bakari Henderson, was at a party resort in the Greek island of Zakynthos called Laganas when he was attacked on Friday. The New York Times reported that an argument with Henderson started after he wanted to take a selfie with a female bartender. It escalated quickly into a brawl. Henderson was with his friend and they were set to leave when the suspects followed them and attacked him.

Other reports said that someone confronted the female bartender about hanging out with the Americans. However, one of the friends of Henderson, Daniel Brown, claimed that they were minding their own business and were not talking to anyone when they were attacked. They performed life-saving first aid on Henderson such as CPR before he was taken to the hospital, Chicago Tribune reported.

Attack caught on surveillance video

Metro reported that a surveillance video showed the attack outside the bar on the streets. The attack lasted for 30 seconds but because so many threw punches and kicked Henderson, he died from head injuries. They only stopped after someone told them to but authorities did not state yet who that person was.

Henderson was from Austin, Texas and had just graduated from the University of Arizona. He was in Greece for a vacation as well as for a photo shoot for the opening of a clothing line. He was planning to travel to Spain but it was not stated if it was for another photo shoot or just a vacation.

Details about the suspects

Five of the nine charged remain in jail before their trials.

They already underwent their preliminary hearing this week. The other four suspects will be heard later this week. All of the men charged are Serbian. Two worked at the bar, one of whom is identified as a 32-year-old who worked as the bars bouncer and the other bar employee is a 34-year-old Greek bartender.

The bar is known as a place that serves cheap alcohol and where a lot of fights break out.

This was not the first time that someone died from an argument, as a British man was stabbed to death in the area six years ago.

Family of victim releases statement

A statement from the family of Henderson said that the victim loved spending time with his family and friends and he also loved to travel and meet new people. They noted that he was an inspiration as he lived life to the fullest. They are now focusing on getting his body home so they can grieve properly.
The four men who went missing on Friday in Bucks County, Pennsylvania were killed and burned. As police searched for them, Human Remains were discovered recently and it was confirmed that they belonged to one of the missing men.

Police said in a statement that the remains belonged to Dean Finocchiaro, 19. He was found in a grave that was more than 12 feet deep. The grave is said to have other human remains and is located on a property in Solebury Township.

Details on other missing men

Police said they cannot confirm yet if the other remains belonged to the three other people who went missing - namely 19-year-old Jimi Tara Patrick, 22-year-old Mark Sturgis, and 21-year-old Tom Meo.

Patrick went missing on July 5 while Finocchiaro, Sturgis, and Meo vanished on July 7, The Washington Post reported.

Property owners son arrested

The son of the owners of the property where the remains were found was arrested. He was identified as 20-year-old Cosmo DiNardo. He was charged with theft and receiving stolen property after he tried to sell Meos car, a 1996 Nissan Maxima, to a friend for $500.

The judge who set DiNardos bail at $5 million before he admitted his role in the deaths of the four men said that such an amount was set because they believe he is a flight risk and suffers from a mental illness. He is also a danger to the community. The lawyer of DiNardos parents, Fortunato Perri, Jr., said that the DiNardos sympathize with the parents and the families of the missing men.

The parents of DiNardo are now cooperating with authorities, ABC 6 reported.

DiNardo admitted that he burned the four men separately. He said that he sold marijuana to them and then burned them. He did not talk about the circumstances that prompted the killings. Because DiNardo admitted that he burned the victims, the death penalty sentence is no longer applicable as part of the plea deal.

DiNardo previously arrested

DiNardo was arrested for a weapons offense earlier this year. He was accused of having a 20-gauge shotgun and ammunition in his possession. He is not allowed to possess weapons due to his mental illness. He was placed in a mental health institution in the past for being schizophrenic.

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub and his team believe that the men who went missing knew each other in some way and that they were all tied to DiNardo.

Meo and Sturgis met DiNardo when the latter tried to sell him marijuana. DiNardo and Patrick went to the Holy Ghost Preparatory School, while Finocchiaro was linked to DiNardo because they are members of a Facebook page that sells ATVs.
Congressman Bill Flores (R-Texas) wants Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner out of the White House. In an interview with KBTX on Wednesday, the GOP member suggested to the U.S. president that it would do him good "if he removed all his children" from their admin positions.

Russian interference in U.S. elections

His statement came after the presidential son's meeting with a Russian lawyer in the wake of election campaign came to light earlier this week. In fact, Trump Jr. even released his exchange of emails with Rob Goldstone, who reportedly helped in setting up his meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya in Manhattan on June 9, 2016.

The reams of emails released showed that President Trump's eldest son was offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton who was then running against his father for the highest post. Trump Jr. said he initially thought he was meeting Veselnitskaya to discuss American adoption of Russian children.

Here's my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017

Although he confessed that he was interested in receiving the offer of Goldstone to attack the Democratic Party's presidential bet, the presidential son said there was "nothing" significant about his meeting with the Russian lawyer.

He even said that he would not have remembered the caucus until he saw the news reports.

"It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame," he told Fox News on Tuesday.

The meeting, which took place at Trump Tower, was also attended by Paul J. Manafort and Jared Kushner who submitted confidential government documents to confirm their presence during the meeting. The assembly becomes the first confirmed private meeting between Russians and Trump's campaign team in the wake the of the campaign for the 2016 U.S. elections.

Cong. Flores thought the meeting should not have taken place. I think he thought he was looking out for his fathers best interest," he said. "I wish that he would get [Trump Jr., Ivanka, and Jared] out of the way so that we could have a professional staff at the White House on policy issues.

Trump and his family at White House

Ivanka and her husband, Jared, were given their respective positions right after Trump was seated at the White House in January.

The businesswoman reportedly works as her father's advisor without salary. Kushner, who is also a senior advisor to the president, was previously questioned for failing to disclose his meeting with Russian officials Sergey Kislyak and Sergei Gorkov in December 2016.

Trump Jr., although he has no official admin position, has recently become even more controversial for his meeting with the Russian lawyer during the election campaign.
It is almost time for a new season of "90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After" and everyone is wondering where Mohamad Jbali is at because he seems to have disappeared. Could he have been deported? After his split from Danielle Mullins, it is possible that Mohamad was sent back home.

What is going on with Mohamad and Danielle now?

Back in October, Danielle filed for an annulment stating the reasons were fraud and infidelity. They were not actually allowed to get an annulment, but a divorce was actually granted. Mohamad shared that he hadn't talked to Danielle and that he knew he was now divorced.

He did say that they didn't fight over any of the details, which is a good thing. In the preview for the new season of "90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After," Danielle can be seen screaming about how much she hates Mohamad, so obviously she didn't take the news of their marriage falling part well.

Danielle has done a great job of keeping fans updated on how things are going with her via social networks. Now, Mohamad did at first, but now he isn't at all and fans want more details about what is going on with him. It has been over a month since he has updated his social networks at all, which makes everyone think that maybe he has been deported.

What could be going on with Mohamad?

Nobody really knows what happened to Mohamad.

There are rumors that he was sent back to his native Tunisia. There was even a change.org petition where people were hoping he would be sent back. His green card was a two-year conditional one. Now that he is divorced, it would make sense that they would possibly send him back home. Danielle said that they need to have her signature for his green card to go through and it doesn't sound like she will be signing that at all.

The other idea that fans have is that maybe TLC just wants him to be quiet. It is making people talk about Mohamad and wonder about his whereabouts. With the new season coming, this is exactly what they need. They want people to watch the show so that they can figure out where he is at so keeping him quiet is a great marketing idea.

The episodes were filmed a while ago.

Where do you think that Mohamad Jbali is at? Do you feel like he could have been sent back home? Sound off in the comments section below on your thoughts, and don't miss new episodes of "90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After" when it returns to TLC. This season should end up answering the question of where Mohamad is at, and everyone will finally know the truth.
US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron react during a press conference on Thursday in Paris. Both leaders commented on China and their relationship with President Xi Jinping, in reponse to a Chinese reporter's question. [Photo/Agencies]

A press conference between US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday at one point turned into impromptu discourse on China and its leader.

Perhaps in keeping with his penchant for needling the American media, Trump gave his second question to a Chinese journalist instead of an American one.

Joint press conferences that US presidents hold with foreign leaders traditionally include two questions from reporters from the host nation and two from the visiting nation.

Trump gave the first American question to an ABC News reporter. Near the end of the press conference, instead of an American reporter, Trump called on a Chinese journalist, who identified himself as a reporter for Phoenix TV of China. The reporter, Yan Ming, asked Trump about his relationship with President Xi Jinping.

"You have just met with the Chinese president during the G20 Summit," Yan asked. "How do you want to continue to work with China, and what do you personally think about Mr. Xi Jinping?"

"Well he's a friend of mine," Trump said. "I have great respect for him. We've gotten to know each other very well. A great leader; he's a very talented man. I think he's a very good man. He loves China. He wants to do what's right for China.

"We've asked him for some assistance with respect to North Korea, probably he could do a little bit more, but we'll find out. We're now working on some trade deals.

"He's let beef (exports) go back in, certain financing go back in, credit card financing and various other things go back in at my request, which is a great thing for our farmers. We're going to be working on some very major trade components.

"President Xi is a terrific guy. I like being with him a lot, and he's a very special person," Trump concluded.

Macron said he first met Xi on the sidelines of last week's G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

"Early next year I will be traveling to China," Macron said. "We had some initial contacts which were extremely fruitful and positive. I have a lot of respect for President Xi over the past few months he did express his willingness to have a vision for multilateralism.

"Many of us remember his words in Davos," where he "very strongly expressed his vision of the role of China. We have a number of joint commitments, including on climate, he's very committed to that."

Macron said there have been some differences, but "as permanent members of the (UN) Security Council, we want to work together on all of the topics we've been discussing today".

Macron said Xi is "one of the great leaders of our world (who is) implementing a major, ambitious reform of China the society and economy."

The New York Times and Associated Press reporters were miffed about who got to ask the questions.

"Macron said the final question should go to an American journalist," The Times' Maggie Haberman wrote. "POTUS did not call on a US journalist."

"Seems like a clear violation of protocol for this question not to go to an American journalist," tweeted Jonathan Lemire, a White House reporter for AP.

"Like the members of the White House press corps, the president wants a free press, and he can call on any reporter he chooses," Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNN.

williamhennelly@chinadailyusa.com
CAIRO  The Egyptian authorities said on Thursday that China has agreed to import grapes from Egypt after two years of intense negotiations.

The announcement was made by the Egyptian Agriculture Export Council in a press release.

Citrus is also among the fruits being exported to China, it added.

Negotiations are underway to allow more Egyptian agricultural products to be exported to China, according to the press release.
SHENYANG - The hospital where Liu Xiaobo received medical treatment has done its best to save his life, his main doctor Liu Yunpeng said here.

"Since the day Liu Xiaobo was admitted, the hospital has made every effort in his treatment," said Doctor Liu, of the First Hospital of China Medical University, at a press conference late Thursday night.

Well-known experts from China as well as Germany and the United States were also invited for joint consultations, said Liu, director of the medical oncology department of the hospital based in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province in northeast China.

During the treatment, doctors with the hospital held 25 consultations, had five joint diagnoses with Chinese experts from outside, and briefed Liu Xiaobo's family on his illness for 23 times, Doctor Liu said.

Professor Markus M. Buachler of the German University of Heidelberg, and professor Joseph M. Herman, of the US MD Anderson Cancer Center, were also invited to the hospital for joint consultations.

Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in jail in December 2009 for inciting subversion of state power. He was released on medical parole upon diagnosis of liver cancer.

He died of multiple organ failure due to liver cancer Thursday. He was 61.

In reply to questions of why the patient was not transferred overseas for treatment, Doctor Liu said the patient was in a critical condition that did not allow him being moved to elsewhere.

"The situation was very dangerous, he might be in need of receiving surgery at any time," the doctor said.

"US and German experts spoke highly of the hospital's work, believing the patient had received quality treatment. They held that hospitals in their own countries could not have done a better job," Doctor Liu said.

He also said Liu Xiaobo's type of liver cancer was very hard to be diagnosed at the early stage, and that it developed very quickly at the late stage.

During his last hours, Liu was accompanied by his wife and several relatives. They were very grateful for the hard work of all the doctors and nurses, according to the hospital.
Abigail Reynolds plans a book incorporating images, texts and other documents originating from her experience, as well as moving-image works using her 16mm footage. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A British artist embarked on a unique six-month journey by motorbike to visit sites in China, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and Iran. Bo Leung in London reports.

British artist Abigail Reynolds recently embarked on a six-month journey in search of lost libraries along the ancient Silk Road route, traveling by motorbike.

The artist, based in Cornwall, England, followed a route to trace and document 16 libraries lost to conflicts, natural catastrophes and war. It resulted in her visiting locations dating from 291 BC to 2011 in China, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and Iran.

"The journey itself was challenging and huge, encompassing three quarters of the globe, traversing multiple cultures, none familiar to me," she says. "The journey took me to the edges of my knowledge, just as the lost libraries took me to the edge of visuality."

She says she chose the Silk Road because it is a symbol of exchange among cultures.

"The Silk Road was open for the longest time and it was always a positive symbol of connection and communication," she says. "I knew that there would be libraries along that route because books were a precious commodity, along with silk, gold, medicines and all the other things that empires desire."

Reynolds loved the idea of following the same path taken by well-known figures before her.

"There were some very well known, celebrated libraries that were lost and found along the Silk Road and I enjoyed the idea that I would be following a meaningful line and making a journey that many people had made before me such as Marco Polo and Muhammad Ibn Battuta."
Norodom Sirivudh, founder of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace

What is the meaning of a think tank?

Norodom Sirivudh says: "We try to think without tanks, and I advise you not to use tanks without thinking."

Perhaps this clever answer laced with humor has several layers of meaning. After all, Sirivudh is the founder of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, and the chairman of the think tank's board of directors.

As a sign of how much the CICP has risen in importance, it was the only non-governmental partner of the World Economic Forum on ASEAN 2017, held in Phnom Penh on May 10-12.

Think-tank activities aside, Sirivudh is also a prince  half-brother to former Cambodian king Norodom Sihanouk. He has served as a deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs, as well as a member of the National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia (Funcinpec) party. So he brings to the table a wealth of accumulated knowledge and experience in politics and economics.

Speaking to China Daily at his residence in Phnom Penh, the 66-year-old cast his mind back to 1993, when the institute for cooperation and peace was founded.

Cambodia had been completely isolated. "But following the elections supervised by the United Nations, my party Funcinpec won and I became the foreign minister," he said. "The 'second kingdom' was born, but how could we reconnect with the world?"

These were the thoughts that laid the foundation for the concept of the institute for cooperation and peace. Also, Sirivudh wanted Cambodia to become a member of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

He created the institute with the idea of using Track II diplomacy  activities outside of official government channels  to reach out to the ASEAN Institutes of Strategic and International Studies (ASEAN-ISIS). He and his team took the chance to learn as much as possible about the Southeast Asian grouping from the network of institutes.

"That is how we created the institute for cooperation and peace," Sirivudh said.

"We fed to our government what we learned from ISIS Track II to prepare it to join ASEAN one day. It took the effort of three foreign ministers to finally have Cambodia become a member in 1999."

The think tank joined ASEAN-ISIS in 1997 and has evolved in many ways. Among its responsibilities are following up the use of Track II diplomacy on regional security issues and promoting studies and exchanges between ASEAN members as well as ASEAN+3  which groups the 10 member countries with China, South Korea and Japan.

"Our role is to be a bridge," he said. "We are interested to see how to sit down and promote dialogue, and not always talk about violence, protests and jail."

Sirivudh repeatedly stresses the institute's independence. "We are not here to support the view of the government, or go against it," he said.

Equally important to Sirivudh is to see the institute being financially independent. "If possible, I avoid being dependent on the government, although it is difficult. But we are not against think tanks that have support from the state."

Having worked with the organization for 23 years, Sirivudh is happy that it has become well-known in the region. It is often approached by researchers from different universities around the world, asking for internships.

"We are small but well-connected," he said. "The idea is to make Cambodia more visible, not in terms of the government but in terms of research."

Ask Sirivudh why he is so passionate about the work he does at the think tank and he points to the political ideology he supports: Sihanoukism, named for the former king of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk.

"What we did was try to convince others that our interest is not to be against anybody, but to promote the balance of power. Don't use armed forces but use diplomacy instead.

"This is especially relevant to Cambodia because we are a small country. We were a victim of the Cold War. As the saying goes, when elephants fight, the grass suffers."

He feels it is in the interests of Cambodia and ASEAN to "take care" of the big powers in the region  namely Japan, South Korea, and China.

"China's growth is becoming a concern for some people. But for Cambodia, China's growth is our growth. I don't see any reason to be too concerned about this."

He brings up the issue of South China Sea maritime disputes. Sirivudh said that ASEAN should stay out of it, recalling Cambodia's decision last year to not participate in any ASEAN joint statement on the issue. He said the maritime disputes should be resolved on a bilateral basis between the affected countries.

Domestically, he is aware that Cambodia has many problems  ranging from poverty, low GDP and drug trafficking  and these are things he watches and spends time thinking about.

"Being the royalty of a poor kingdom is not a good thing. I show my passport to an immigration officer and it says 'prince'. But look at the GDP rating, it's not so good."

His fervent hope is that Cambodia's general elections next year will be stable. With around 1.4 million of the population  or 9 percent  in the 15-19 age bracket, he worries there could be upheaval in the streets if the country's youth do not agree with the election result.

Despite this uncertainty, Sirivudh remains optimistic. And he believes that a young and energetic population, lacking only education and training, makes Cambodia attractive.

"We are on the right track in terms of our future and potential," he said.

As the interview draws to a close, Sirivudh introduces the topic of agriculture. "I often tell the leadership, don't forget nature. We have no shortage of land and space  be agriculture-oriented."
Mae Yih (holding papers), a former member of both houses of Oregon's Legislature, is joined by members of her extended family on June 13 at the Museum of Chinese in America in New York. Xiao Hong / China Daily

A groundbreaking Chinese-American politician reflects on key to success

As the first Chinese American to serve in a state senate in the United States, Mae Yih believes that if you want to build cross-border trade relations, the first priority is to build trust.

Yih, a former member of both houses of Oregon's legislature, introduced and helped pass legislation that established a sister-state relationship between Oregon and Fujian province in 1983.

After many years of efforts to facilitate the relationship between "my adopted country the United States of America and my beloved mother land  the People's Republic of China," Yih said, "I think when you have trust and friendship, you can do a lot of work together."

Born in Shanghai in 1928, Yih grew up in a fairly well-off family. Her father owned two textile mills, a nightclub and hotel  which is now the Peace Hotel  and a car dealership.

In 1948, Yih transferred from St. John's University in Shanghai to Barnard College in New York City, majoring in economics.

The president of Barnard at the time, Millicent McIntosh, encouraged students to get involved in decision-making, "at the time when women were still not granted the same rights as men," said Yih.

"She would share important remarks at the weekly student assembly, she would always repeat the same message: Use your education, be involved in the history-making process for the benefit of your community'," Yih recalled.

"Those words would have a profound impact on my life, because those were the words that later inspired me to begin the journey that would lead to my public service career," said Yih.

After finishing her studies, she married Stephen Yih in New York in 1953. Three years later, she moved with her husband to Albany, Oregon for his work.

"Believe it or not, my public service career started when my sons were in elementary school: one of their teachers called and asked if I could bake cookies for the class' volunteer day," Yih said with a laugh.

Yih volunteered at her children's school, eventually running for the local school board. She started service on the Clover Ridge Elementary School board in 1969, moving to the Albany Union High School board in 1975.

Yih's work on the school boards earned the respect of her colleagues and it was suggested she run for the Oregon House of Representatives.

In 1976, the local Democratic Party chairperson asked Yih to run for the Oregon State House. Yih won the election, defeating the 14-year incumbent Republican. Yih took office in 1977 and went on to serve three two-year terms in the House.

In 1982, Yih decided to run for the State Senate. She won the election and was re-elected to four more four-year terms, winning the seat of Senate President Pro Tempore for the 19931995 session.

In 2002, Yih decided not to seek re-election and retired at the end of her term in January 2003.

Yih said the reason she never lost an election was because she always put people first in her work.

Yih's many accomplishments included passage of laws establishing enterprise zones to promote job creation; legislation to expedite child support and reduce public assistance; property tax relief; appropriations for a regional adolescent drug and alcohol abuse treatment center; and school curriculum changes to encourage sexual abstinence to reduce teen pregnancy.

During her time in office, Yih made a concerted effort to enhance China-US relations and trade exchange. She sponsored legislation establishing an Oregon trade representative office in Shanghai in 1999. She also arranged for legislative trade delegations to visit Fujian province and other cities in China four times.

During the trips to China with her colleagues, she said their Chinese counterparts welcomed them with banquets.

"We drank mao-tai (a Chinese liquor) and in Xinjiang, we'd have to cross arms drinking when toasting," Yih recalled, explaining that's how the Chinese do business.

"We build friendship, then we work together."

"Grassroots exchange is always a good way to seek cooperation," she added.

Today, China is Oregon's largest export market. The US International Trade Administration estimates Oregon exports there $5.82 billion annually.

Yih said she is grateful she could act as a bridge to understanding, friendship, trust, peace and prosperity between her mother country and her adopted country.

"I cannot claim credit for all of those exports, but I know that my contacts and my efforts have made a positive difference," Yih said.

Following her retirement in 2003, Yih received a Distinguished Service Award from the Albany Chamber of Commerce.

The Albany street where her district office was located has been named Yih Lane.
ABC News(NEW YORK) -- A Maryland mother is hosting "CPR Parties" to help teach CPR to members of her community so they can feel confident and prepared in the case of an emergency.



Laura Metro, 42, told ABC News that the parties -- which feature finger food and music -- are her way of making learning the life-saving resuscitation technique fun.



"People don't want to think being in these situations. They don't want to think about their loved ones dying," Metro said. "So it helps to kind of couch it a little bit."



Metro said she made it her mission to spread CPR awareness after her son almost drowned at a local pool in 2011 and was saved by a family friend who performed what CPR he knew on her son, who was 3 years old at the time.



"He wasn't breathing," Metro said of the incident, saying that even though he has since made a full recovery, every night when she puts him to sleep she still listens for his breath.



Metro said that teaching CPR in her community began as a way for her to cope with the aftermath of the harrowing incident when her son stopped breathing, saying, "doing these parties was absolutely, especially in the beginning, my way of coping."



In the six years since her son's life was saved, Metro has hosted 150 CPR parties, reaching more than 1,000 people.



She partners with the organization "Rescue One Training For Life" to get instructors with CPR expertise.



Metro said that for her learning CPR means "empowerment."



"It really means giving you the skills to be able to save the lives of the people that you love," Metro added. "It's really empowering you in those situations where you will feel the most helpless you've ever felt in your life, but just giving people those skills so they know how to handle that scenario."



Lipica Shah, health and safety instructor for the Greater New York Red Cross, shared CPR tips Friday on ABC News' Good Morning America.



Shah said the first step when a child is in distress is to check if the child is still responsive. If the child is not breathing, the adult should call 911 and start compressions.



To start compressions, place one hand on the child's forehead and two to three fingers in the center of the child's chest, along the breastbone. With fingers placed vertically, press down 30 times on the child's chest, according to Shah.



Once you've done 30 compressions, Shah said to begin giving oxygen to the child. Shah also said all parents should take a formal CPR course to learn the lifesaving technique.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
President Xi Jinping and Governor General David Johnston of Canada witness the signing of cooperative documents at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Thursday, Xi said the two nations have wide common interests. Wu Zhiyi / China Daily

China and Canada should initiate negotiations on a free trade agreement as soon as possible, President Xi Jinping said on Thursday, while calling for joint efforts to promote bilateral trade.

The two countries should push forward cooperation in such areas as energy, resources, modern agriculture and clean technology, Xi said during his meeting with David Johnston, governor general of Canada, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

The two leaders witnessed the signing of two memorandums of understanding on establishing the China-Canada Joint Committee on Culture and Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games cooperation.

Noting that China and Canada both have importance in the Asia-Pacific region, Xi said the two nations have wide common interests and huge space for cooperation. China would like to maintain high-level exchanges with Canada, make full use of dialogue mechanisms at all levels and expand exchanges in government departments, legislative bodies and political parties, he said.

The president called on the two countries to respect each other's core interests and major concerns, and to push forward the development of the China-Canada strategic partnership.

China and Canada should deepen cooperation in areas including trade, law enforcement, science and people-to-people exchanges, Xi said, adding that the two countries should make full use of each other's complementary advantages to achieve mutual benefits.

Johnston started a five-day visit to China on Monday. He visited the Chongqing Planning Exhibition Gallery on Tuesday in Chongqing and had a hot pot meal with Chinese students who will go to Canada to study in autumn.

Canada admires China's achievements in sustainable development, poverty reduction, environment protection and scientific areas, Johnston said.

Canada would like to enhance high-level exchanges with China; strengthen cooperation in trade, science and sports; and boost communication in global and regional affairs, he said.

Johnson recalled his first visit to China in 1980, when he worked at a Canadian university re-establishing medical exchanges with Chinese hospitals and universities.

"Mr President, it's wonderful to be back in China. I feel I'm like returning home," he told Xi.

Premier Li Keqiang also held talks with Johnston on Thursday afternoon, during which Li called on Canada to make joint efforts with China to send a signal supporting free trade to promote global economic recovery.
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HA NOI  Recent gains in the volume and value of rice exports can be attributed more to low prices than to better quality or greater market penetration, experts say.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), in the first six months of 2017, rice export turnover reached 2.8 million tonnes, up 6.3 per cent in quantity and 4.9 per cent in value over the same period last year.

While this marked a recovery after a somewhat quiet period, Tran Ngoc Trung, director of the Vinh Phat Investment Corporation, said the real reason behind the increase was lower prices offered by Vietnamese exporters compared to other countries in the region. He explained that Vietnamese businesses did not have enough information regarding the international rice market to increase their own prices in time.

Looking at statistics for the past two months, at the beginning of May, the price for Vietnamese 5 per cent broken white rice was about US$350 to $354 per tonne, whereas the same type of rice from a Thai exporter was priced at $390 per tonne, $388 per tonne for Indian rice and a whopping $412 per tonne for Pakistani rice.

It is understandable why international buyers would opt for Vietnamese rice, pushing the turnover way up in June, Trung said.

This trend is further confirmed by data from the Viet Nam Food Association (VFA), in which price hikes occurred mostly in the first three months of 2017, while the average price for exported rice since April 2017 has been recorded as lower than the previous year, despite the average of six months being $13.2 per tonne higher than the same period in 2016.

Of particular note is that rice export prices dropped $20 per tonne and $11.38 per tonne in April and May 2017 respectively over the same months year.

Vietnamese rice exporters agree that for the first five months, the rice export market was quiet as businesses had to wait for the Government to finish signing contracts with traditional markets like Malaysia, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

When the contracts were finalised in June, market prices had already surpassed the prices quoted in the signed contracts.

It is estimated that the price for 5 per cent broken white rice on the open market is about $405 to $410 per tonne, while the price agreed to in the contracts is just $370 per tonne.

The VFA further said that although at the moment, the majority of Vietnamese rice for export have around the same prices as the same varieties from India, Myanmar or Pakistan, which is only $10 to $15 per tonne lower than Thailands prices, the chief concern for Vietnamese producers was that they failed to adjust prices as demand rose, which will ultimately result in a loss.

Thailand has sold most of its stored rice, while Bangladesh is having a rice shortage after crop losses due to natural causes and the Philippines is looking to import more rice.

Lam Anh Tuan, director of the Thinh Phat Foodstuffs Company Limited in Ben Tre Province, said he saw the open market to be a better profit-making opportunity than the Governments collective contracts. He also said that another concern for Vietnamese rice producers is that production costs may exceed export prices. For example, the price of whole grain rice has increased by $44.5 per tonne to $370 per tonne, so for producers to turn it into white rice, the current export prices of $370 to $400 per tonne could result in their making a loss.

Nguyen Van on, director of Tien Hung Company Limited in Tien Giang Province, said he also favoured the free market, saying it will be an opportunity for Vietnamese producers to increase exports of high quality rice.

The VFA gave cautious agreement, saying if individual businesses focused too much on meeting the demand in the free markets, they would fail to produce the agreed amounts for collective contracts. This means that the Vietnam Northern Food Corporation and its southern counterpart will have to compensate, as happened once in 2009. Nonetheless, increasing added value on the free rice market will be a good thing for small and medium-sized enterprises, it said.

Vietnamese businesses should always be aware of regional competition, whether it is through lower prices or better quality. It is crucial that they follow market trends to make timely adjustments and be well prepared for any change in demand and supply, said Tuan.  VNS
BINH DUONG  The Italian Trade Agency, the National Association of Manufacturers of Footwear, Leather Goods and Tanning Technologies, and the Viet Nam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (LEFASO) inaugurated the Italy-Viet Nam Footwear Technology Centre at the Lefaso Centre in the southern province of Binh Duongs Di An District on Wednesday.

With its experience in the leather industry, Italy will assist Vietnamese companies in improving product quality through collaboration and the launch of the centre, which will enable technology transfer, consultancy and training of human resource.

The centre is equipped with modern machinery and equipment imported directly from Italy and other European countries, allowing small and medium-sized enterprises in the leather-footwear industry to approach, research and develop new products.

The centre also joins hands with the HCM City Industry and Trade College to organise training programmes for staff in charge of production, design and product development at footwear enterprises, apprising them about leading global design and manufacturing trends.

Diep Thanh Kiet, vice chairman of LEFASO, said The Vietnamese footwear industry has a wonderful chance to strengthen its trade relations with Italy in particular and the European Union in general.

Italy is the fashion centre of the world, and so expansion of trade between Viet Nam and Italy in the field of footwear is very necessary. Bilateral trade has developed quite well in recent years. In 2016 Viet Nam exported more than US$380 million worth of leather-footwear products to Italy, or 8 per cent of its total exports to the EU market.

The idea of establishing the centre took shape two years ago during a meeting of the Italy-Viet Nam Intergovernmental Committee in Ha Noi.  VNS
HA NOI  The Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) and the Viet Nam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) on Thurday held a conference to promote smart manufacturing for Viet Nams textile industry.

Truong Van Cam, VITAS vice chairman, said that it was critical for Vietnamese textile firms to renovate their manufacturing systems toward smart production amid the industrial revolution 4.0.

The industrial revolution 4.0 will bring significant changes and moving towards smart manufacturing is necessary for labour-intensive industries like textiles in which labour can easily be replaced by machines, Cam said.

Cam said opportunities would be there for those who took action to move towards smart manufacturing.

Smart manufacturing would bring a number of benefits such as increasing productivity, output, reducing costs, enhancing management efficiency and improving the working environment.

At the conference, Vietnamese firms learned about smart manufacturing trends from leading Korean experts in dying, smart fabric management and 3D design, to improve competitiveness of Vietnamese firms.

According to Vu uc Giang, VITAS chairman, South Korea was the fourth largest garment and textile importer of Viet Nam with import revenue jumping from US$979 million in 2011 to $2.28 billion in 2016.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam and Turkey agreed on Thursday to strive for a surge in two-way trade - from the current level of US$725 million to $4 billion by 2020. The agreement was reached during the seventh meeting of the Viet Nam-Turkey Joint Committee chaired by Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade (MoIT), Tran Tuan Anh, and Turkish Minister of Labour and Social Security, Mehmet Muezzinoglu.

Muezzinoglu suggested launching negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement while the Vietnamese side asked Turkey to recognise Viet Nam as a market economy and minimise trade defence measures against Viet Nams exports.

In industry, the Vietnamese MoITs Agency for Regional Industry Development and the Small and Medium Industry Development Organisation of Turkey (KOSGEB) signed an action plan to continue promoting joint work on small and medium-sized enterprise issues.

As regards investment, the two sides reached consensus on the contents of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on co-operation in the management of economic, industrial and processing zones.

They also agreed on the contents of the MoU on customs co-operation between the Ministry of Finance and the Turkish Ministry of Customs and Trade.

The two countries are refining agreements on statistics, science and technology, labour, education and training, culture, tourism, health care, natural resources and environment.

Collaboration in energy, food processing, construction, machinery and equipment will also be strengthened.

At a ceremony to sign the minutes of the meeting, Minister Anh said Viet Nam and Turkey already signed agreements on aviation, navigation and double taxation avoidance.

Turkey has launched direct flight services connecting Ha Noi and HCM City.

In the first five months this year, two-way trade between the two nations reached $724.6 million, $634.9 million of which was Viet Nams exports, mostly cell phones, fibers, computers, electronics and spare parts, rubber, machinery and equipment, iron and steel, apparel, peppercorns, cashew nuts, wood and wooden furniture, fisheries, footwear, and handicrafts.  VNS
BINH PHUOC  The southern province of Binh Phuoc has attracted eight foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with combined registered capital of US$31.8 million in the first six months of this year.

The figure is below the provinces expectation, requiring local policy makers to revise a specific strategy to increase FDI attraction.

To improve business and investment climate, monthly dialogues are being held to help enterprises and investors operating in Binh Phuoc, director of the provincial Department of Planning and Investment Vo Sa said, adding that numerous measures have been taken to attract investors, particularly the construction of infrastructure facilities in industrial parks and clusters.

The construction of infrastructure facilities is underway to lure investors to large industrial parks, such as the 2,000ha Becamex-Binh Phuoc urban and industrial zone, even as the ong Xoai 3 IP, Minh Hung-Sikico IP and the Hoa Lu border gate economic zone are ready for investors to move in.

However, geographic location, poor transport system and limited human resources are the provinces disadvantages in attracting investment, according to experts.

Tran inh Thien, deputy head of the Vietnam Economic Institute, suggested Binh Phuoc take advantage of its vast land and favourable climate conditions to develop high-valued industrial plant material areas, such as cashew nuts, pepper, rubber, fruit trees, and particularly clean vegetables, to supply for HCM City.

The provincial Peoples Committee has approved a plan to develop smart and hi-tech agriculture to lure investors. Under the plan, the province has zoned off 1,000ha for hi-tech agriculture in Loc Ninh and Hon Quan districts and ong Xoai Town.

Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Loi urged sectors to call for investment in the smart agriculture production chain, particularly for regional connectivity to ensure a sustainable source of clean materials, such as cashew nuts and peppercorns.

Dozens of cooperatives have been established and joined the chain. The clean pepper growing model has proven effective and been multiplied across the province.

According to director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Van Loc, the province has over 134,000ha of cashew trees, accounting for nearly 50 per cent of the nations coverage, producing 280,000 tonnes per year.

Over 70,000 tonnes of cashew nuts are shipped abroad each year, generating $504 million or one third of the provinces export values.

The locality also has over 270 plants and over 1,600 small facilities processing cashew nuts, creating jobs for 50,000 labourers.

Currently, the province is home to 163 FDI projects, worth nearly $1.5 billion.-VNS
BA RIA-VUNG TAU  a en Reservoir, which supplies water to 90 per cent of the people in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, is at risk of being severely polluted.

Many local residents in Chau uc and Tan Thanh districts bordering the reservoir are worried that the waste water treatment plant in neighbouring ong Nai Province will affect the reservoir water, the Lao ong (Labour) newspaper reported on Thursday.

Residents have repeatedly complained to provincial authorities of the strange water colour as well as stench from Song Xoai and Cha Rang streams  the arms of the a en reservoir.

According to local authorities, the location of the plant is upstream of the reservoir. If Cha Rang stream, about 20km from the reservoir, is polluted by waste water from the ong Nai Province plant, the a en reservoir will be severely affected, particularly in the rainy season.

In May, the Peoples Committee of Chau uc District reported the incident to provincial authorities and asked them to provide a response. Recently, the Peoples Committee of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province directed relevant agencies to co-ordinate with ong Nai Province to survey the area and draw up plans to protect the reservoir.

The hazardous waste incinerator with a capacity of 24 tonnes per day was put into use in 2014 but some construction has not been completed. A 2,000sq.m solid waste burial site is full.

The plants construction, including the solid waste burial site, the leaking waste water treatment system and waste water reservoirs have not yet been inspected by the Vietnam Environment Administration and granted a certificate of completion.

According to the investors environmental impact report, the plants treated waste water is discharged into the drainage system before flowing to streams and then to Cau Moi Lake in ong Nai Province.

But in fact, the survey revealed that the plants waste water is discharged directly into Cha Rang Stream in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, the newspaper reported.

Water being tested

In order to avoid the risk of contamination to a en Reservoir, the Peoples Committee of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province has proposed the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to review the report and ask investors to ensure environmental safety.

The committee also required the investor to stop the current waste burial and remove all buried waste for burning.

Nguyen Van No, an official of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Water Supply Joint Stock Company, said that since hearing reports from local residents, the company and relevant units of the two provinces took water samples for testing every month to analyse the water quality.

At present, the water in reservoir was still safe, No said.

"However, it is necessary to take measures to prevent and avoid the risk of contamination of the whole provinces water resource," he said.

Director of the ong Nai Provinces Department of Natural Resources and Environment ang Minh uc said the two provinces worked together and also affirmed that there was no environmental impact at present. However, they will come up with specific solutions to deal with the risk of future pollution, he said.  VNS
SON LA  The northern mountainous province of Son La should mobilise all resources at hand to overcome its current difficulties and enhance biodiversity protection, a senior official has said.

Nguyen The ong, Deputy Director General of the Viet Nam Environment Administration under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said this at a meeting with local authorities on Tuesday.

The meeting aimed to review the provinces enforcement of the law on biodiversity and implementation of the national biodiversity strategy (until 2020, with a vision through 2030).

Relevant departments and sectors, particularly the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment, need to thoroughly study the law on biodiversity and the law on forest protection and development to advise the provincial Peoples Committee on biodiversity issues, ong said.

In response, officials of the province called on the ministry to help Son La improve the capacity of State management agencies on biodiversity and bio-safety; and to complete relevant legal policies and mechanisms.

The ministry needs to further study local biological resources, particularly special, rare species and sensitive ecosystems, they said, adding that there was also a need to promote public awareness of biodiversity.

Several biodiversity issues were discussed at the meeting, including management, development of rare gene sources; conservation of flora and fauna, development orientations for medicinal plants, functions and tasks of relevant bodies and local budget for protecting and conserving biodiversity.

Officials said the province has issued several legal documents and developed numerous strategies and plans to protect the environment. They said the province has taken steps to strengthen its environment management apparatus and stepped up enforcement of environmental protection regulations as well as its supervision.

Son La is said to have 1,800 fauna species, including 61 rare species listed in Viet Nams Red Book in 2007. The province is home to five nature reserves: Copia, Sop Cop, Ta Xua, Xuan Nha, and Muong La.

Under the provinces plan on biodiversity conservation until 2020 with a vision towards 2030, Son La will pay close attention protecting and developing natural biodiversity in submerged areas like the Hoa Binh and Son La hydropower plant reservoirs and the upper reaches of the Ma River.

The province has nearly 779,600 hectares of forest, accounting for 45 per cent coverage of the local natural area.

It is home to 622 plant species, including 27 placed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam has become a major tourist market for Japan and the island nation hopes to attract more Vietnamese visitors, said Kuroiwa Yuji, governor of Kanagawa Prefecture, at a seminar held on Thursday in Ha Noi to promote Kanagawa tourism.

The seminar was organised by Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and the representative office of the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) in Ha Noi.

Kanagawa Prefecture is located just south of Tokyo, an hour drive from Tokyo International Airport. It is home to Kamakura and Hakone, two popular destinations near Tokyo.

Famous for hot springs, natural beauty and the view across Lake Ashinoko of nearby Mount Fuji, Hakone is one of the most popular destinations among Japanese and international tourists looking for a break from Tokyo. Kamakura offers numerous temples, shrines, historical monuments and beautiful beaches.

Governor Yuji said at the event that the festival Viet Nam Festa in Kanagawa was held in Kanagawa in 2015 and 2016, helping Japanese people appreciate the culture of Viet Nam, with 400,000 people attending last year.

Over the last few years, Viet Nam has become a major inbound market of Japan. According to the statistics of Japan National Tourism Organisation, Vietnamese travellers spend an average JPY237,000 (US$2,000) per person/per trip, he said.

Tourist exchange between the two countries has rapidly increased in recent years.

Last year, 740,000 Japanese tourists visited Viet Nam, an increase of 10 per cent over 2015. In 2016, 234,000 Vietnamese tourists visited Japan, 26 per cent more than in 2015.

The Vietnamese government offers 15-day visa waivers for Japanese citizens, while the Japanese side has simplified immigration procedures for Vietnamese citizens.

Ha Van Sieu, deputy director of VNAT said at the seminar that Viet Nam hopes to attract more Japanese tourists and that Japan will further simplify visa procedures to encourage more Vietnamese people to visit Japan.

In March this year, Japan opened a tourism representative office in Ha Noi (JNTO) which has played a significant role in speeding up the growth of Vietnamese tourists to Japan and vice versa.  VNS
On occasion of the National Day of France on July 14, Viet Nam News presents an article written by the Ambassador of France to Viet Nam, Bertrand Lortholary

France was one of the first countries to support Vietnams policies of renewal and openness. Nowadays, Frances priorities in its relationship with Viet Nam are developing economic exchanges, fighting climate change and bringing Vietnamese youth closer to France.

In this aim, France and Viet Nam can rely on the dynamism and diversity of their long-standing and constantly evolving cooperation.

We strongly support the teaching of the French language in the Vietnamese education system. Today, more than 40,000 young Vietnamese are learning French in school.We believe that learning foreign languages from a young age is fundamental. Learning French also benefits the students as they are exposed to a different way of teaching and learning. That is why we support programs of bilingual classes, but also the teaching of French as a second foreign language. Indeed, with 374 bilingual classes, French remains the second language in Vietnamese schools in terms of numbers of learners, after English.

Learning French is also useful to pursue high quality studies. France attracts more and more Vietnamese students and is, outside of Asia, the third destination country of Vietnamese students and the first in Europe  about 7,000 students are currently registered in the French higher education system. The quality of French higher education is well known.

We are also developing actions to strengthen the bridge between education and employment. We started to run job fairs in November 2014, and they now take place annually. We have developed a great network of alumni and this is also a great way for people who have studied in France or in Viet Nam in French curricula to find jobs.

In the field of co-operation, projects are too numerous to be listed. However, one of the best illustrations is a remarkable cultural cooperation project in France at the Avignon Theatre Festival, that is to say the presentation Saigon produced by Ms Caroline Guiela Nguyen. Ms Caroline Guiela Nguyen and her troupe completed an artists residency within the French Institute in HCM City during which she wrote this play and identified young Vietnamese actors at the Theatre and Film University. Today, I am delighted to observe that this fruitful cooperation led to such a success. We are now working on organising a tour of the presentation in Viet Nam in 2018 so that the Vietnamese public also has a chance to savor this touching and sentimental piece of art.

Another highlight is the emphasis we have put in recent years on gastronomy with Good France. Launched in 2015 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, and renewed each year on March 21st, it gathers more than 2,000 participating restaurants around the world every year. Beyond gastronomy, it is also a great occasion to address substantial issues, such as traditional know-how, food safety or vocational training in the field of hospitality. These are great topics for Viet Nam as the needs in this sector are huge given tourism forecasts for the coming years.

Our cooperation is also very rich in the fields of literature, cinema, health, governance and justice, and in terms of economic cooperation which has recently led to the conclusion of great projects crucial to Viet Nam in the fields of infrastructure, transportation, environment and adaptation to climate changes.

France mainly finds the reasons of its success in its cultural diversity. Throughout history, deep and broad influences have put France at the avant-garde in many aspects of culture, including politics, philosophy, arts, gastronomy, fashion and sports. Our mission is to share it with our Vietnamese friends.

If you have a chance to travel around France, you will also be amazed by its cultural heritage and diversity everywhere: the Roman engineering of Pont du Gard, the Gothic splendor of Mont Saint-Michel, the multiple flavors of Lyonnaise cuisine, the Celtic rhythm of Breton music

Frances Geographic diversity is impressive too: Metropolitan France has four coastlines, five mountain ranges and three broad climatic regions. Wide fertile plains dominate most of the north and west, making France the agricultural epicenter of Europe. Sprawling, forested lands occupy Frances southern interior. If you include overseas territories, you will start to have a glimpse of how vast France really is.

Joyeux 14 Juillet and long life to the Vietnamese-French Friendship!VNS
A baby gets vaccine against measles in Thanh Hoa Province.  VNS/Photo Thanh Hai

Mai Khuyen

The recent emergence of an anti-vaccine trend in Viet Nam has sparked a debate, with many parents, officials and other stakeholders weighing in either side, mostly favouring vaccinations as a life-saver.

Votaries for vaccines argue very passionately that there is strong evidence of the method saving millions of lives on its way to becoming an indispensable part of public healthcare.

They say that 200 years after the discovery of vaccine by the English physician Edward Jenner, immunisation has been credited with saving approximately nine million lives a year worldwide.

In all, vaccines are said to have brought seven major human diseases under some degree of control - smallpox, diphtheria, tetanus, yellow fever, whooping cough, polio, and measles.

Despite this strong evidence, vaccine controversies have continued to surface time and again over at least 80 years.

The argument in favour also states that recommended vaccines are safe and effective, that unsubstantiated scare-mongering has actually resulted in outbreaks and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases.

The recent anti-vaccine trend in Viet Nam, not surprisingly, has quickly caught on because of social media. Thousands of members of a social media group, mostly parents, have been debating whether or not to get their infants vaccinated.

Many members of this group have highlighted cases where children have suffered abnormalities and complications after getting vaccinated, with some proving fatal.

Experts and pediatricians have strongly condemned the trend saying it is groundless and likely to harm children far more than any real or imagined negative effects of vaccines.

While it is easy to stay on the side of the experts, the latest trend cannot be dismissed out of hand, and the debate that it has generated needs to be welcomed as an opportunity to take a fresh look at the issue, to go beyond binary perspectives and see where it gets us.

In Viet Nam, it was in the 1980s that the country first embarked on a national campaign called expanded vaccination programme. It was initiated by the Ministry of Health with support from the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Childrens Fund.

The programme aimed to provide free vaccination services for children under a year old, protecting them from the six most common and deadly diseases. It is said that this programme helped the country succeed in eliminating polio and neonatal tetanus.

There was no discernible anti-vaccine trend 30 years ago. People trusted at the programme, possibly because dissemination work by the healthcare sector and local authorities. There was also no scepticism about the quality of the vaccines used.

What has changed in the last 20 years is that there is greater fear today. The important thing is not to dismiss this fear as irrational and based on fake conspiracies. The fear has to be looked at seriously, because there is evidence of the dangers of vaccine that cannot be overlooked.

There have been several cases of children dying suddenly after being vaccinated. The healthcare system that administers the vaccines is not perfect, and questions have been raised about the quality of vaccines, inadequate preservation and weak supervision of many unqualified health workers.

Against this, it is said that many parents have turned against vaccines because they trust something they have read on the Internet or other media about links between autism in children and the vaccines they are given.

This argument posits that parents see autism as a risk not worth taking; that it is a condition worse than measles or polio; that people think autism is a fate worse than death from some other disease.

Are these misperceptions caused by inadequate or wrong information?

Personally, I can vouch for the fact that my childrens doctors never fully explained the side-effects that a vaccine can have. One of my children had a pretty strong immune response to a vaccination, with symptoms indicating some developmental regression. This was scary as a parent.

I had no idea how serious this reaction would become, whether this was permanent. Fortunately, the reaction subsided after a few weeks, but the experience stayed, and I remained sceptical of vaccination benefits for years.

Such scepticism should be seen as normal, but also as something medical professionals should address seriously, because they cannot but look at this issue from the perspective of parents.

While scepticism, fear and superstition might indeed be factors behind the new anti-vaccine trend, they might not be the only ones.

The fundamental questions that the trend raises cannot be ignored, if only on the basis that constant questioning of accepted truths is the basis on which scientific advances, including those in the medical field, have taken place.

Some of these fundamental questions have to do with the veracity of claims made by pharmaceutical firms, doctors, government agencies and even international bodies like the World Heath Organisation. None of them have a perfect record in truth-telling, so it should be okay to ask if vaccinations are as effective immunisers as they are made out to be, given some incriminating evidence against them.

The other question is a corollary to the first one. If they are not as effective, are some of the side-effects being downplayed?

What are the lessons that stakeholders have drawn from previous vaccine failures that are said to have provided insufficient protection, and in some cases, caused outbreaks instead of preventing them?

There have also been reports about toxins and antibiotics in vaccines. What are the steps being taken to address this problem, even if it has been overstated?

All the benefits that vaccines have delivered do not delegitimise these questions, and it is up to the primary stakeholders to address them in public interest, and to win public confidence.  VNS
President Tran ai Quang receives Spanish Ambassador Jesus Figo Lopez Palop Ha Noi yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sang

HA NOI  President Tran ai Quang on Thursday expressed Viet Nams desire to constantly strengthen bilateral and multilateral relations with all nations.

He was speaking at separate receptions hosted in Ha Noi for two incoming and two outgoing ambassadors.

Welcoming Spanish Ambassador Jesus Figo Lopez Palop, President Quang affirmed that Viet Nam wanted to intensify its friendship and multifaceted co-operation with Spain  an important member of the European Union.

He said the two nations should hold more meetings and visits at all level, and called on officials of both sides to continue working closely together in organising activities to celebrate the 40th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations this year.

He also asked for Spains support for Viet Nams run for the position of a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2020-21 tenure, and for Ambassador Pham Sanh Chaus candidacy as UNESCO General Director for the 2017-21 tenure.

Ambassador Palop stressed the significance of regular exchange of high-ranking delegations between the two countries and underlined co-operation prospects in economy, trade and energy.

Palop also expressed confidence that Viet Nam will succeed in its run for a seat at the UN Security Council for the 2020-21 period and Ambassador Chaus candidacy for the UNESCO post.

Welcoming Yemeni Ambassador Adel Mohamed Ali Ba Hamid, President Quang said Viet Nam will create optimal conditions for the diplomat to fulfil his tasks.

President Quang said he hopes the internal situation in Yemen would stabilise soon through dialogue. Viet Nam wished the people of Yemen a peaceful, stable and prosperous life, he said.

Ambassador Hamid briefed his host on the domestic situation in Yemen and current difficulties facing the country. He affirmed that Yemen is interested in boosting bilateral relations, especially in economy and trade.

Outgoing envoys

President Quang also received Finnish Ambassador Ilkka Pekka Simila and Greek Ambassador Nikos Kanellos, who called on him to bid farewell.

Quang lauded the Finnish Ambassadors positive contributions to strengthening friendship and co-operation between Viet Nam and Finland during his tenure.

He thanked the Finnish Government for providing valuable ODA for Viet Nam over the past years, adding that Finnish-funded projects have been carried out effectively, especially in poverty reduction, clean water supply, rural development, forestry management and innovation.

He also praised the effectiveness of the second phase of the Viet Nam-Finland Innovation Partnership Programme, and the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Science and Technology and Finlands TEKES Foundation in March 2016 to support joint projects, technology transfer and commercialisation of research results.

He also applauded Finlands initiative to set up a bilateral strategic partnership in education, renovation, information and communication technology, water management, forestry and clean technology.

Ambassador Simila said there was potential for even stronger co-operation between Viet Nam and Finland. The upcoming visit to Finland by Vice President ang Thi Ngoc Thinh in October this year will be a good chance for the two sides to enhance co-operative ties, he said.

Receiving Greek Ambassador Kanellos, President Quang expressed his pleasure at the development of friendship and co-operation between the two countries, and appreciated the diplomats contributions to strengthening bilateral ties.

He proposed the two sides continue co-ordinate closely at the UN and ASEAN-EU and ASEM mechanisms. He asked Greece to support the early signing and approval of the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement.

Viet Nam will create optimal conditions for businesses of both sides to expand their partnership, initially speeding up the signing of a double tax avoidance agreement and a shipping agreement, he said.

Ambassador Kanellos affirmed that Greece will work harder to promote relations between the EU and Viet Nam. He praised Viet Nams achievements in national development and construction, and promised to continue contributing to the growth of relations between Greece and Viet Nam.  VNS
THUA THIEN-HUE  The Bach Ma National Park has been selected as the site for the worlds only breeding centre for the saola, the extremely elusive forest-dwelling bovine only found in the forests of Viet Nam and Laos.

The sao la is a critically endangered creature that was the eighth new large mammal species to be discovered in the 20th century.

The selection of the park in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue as the breeding site was made by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in technical partnership with the Saola Working Group.

The centre is scheduled to be built by the end of this year or early next year, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Information about the breeding centre was released on the occasion of the second World Saola Day, observed on July 9 every year.

A WWF statement said the centre marks a renewed sense of hope and urgency for an international partnership to develop the first-ever conservation breeding programme for the saola, an antelope-like mammal so rare that no biologist has ever seen it in the wild.

Also known as the Vu Quang ox, spindlehorn, or Asian bicorn (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), the saola is one of the worlds rarest large mammals found only in the Truong Son Mountain Range of Viet Nam and Laos.

A ranger sets up a camera trap for the saola and other forms of wildlife in a forest in A Luoi district, Thua Thien-Hue Province in snapping wildlife and saola.  VNS Photo Cong Thanh

Although the partnership, coordinated by the Saola Working Group (SWG), has made significant advances in the protection of saola habitat in the Annamite mountain range on the border of Viet Nam and Laos, commercial poaching remains rampant, leaving the saola teetering on the edge of extinction.

Time is running out for the saola, said William Robichaud, co-ordinator of the Saola Working Group with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC).

A conservation breeding programme for a species as elusive as the saola certainly faces challenges, but inaction now poses an even greater risk to the survival of this remarkable animal. With the support and expertise of some of the worlds premier field conservation organisations, leading conservation-oriented zoos, and governments of both range countries, we are well-positioned to make a difference before its too late.

Before bringing animals into the centre, however, the team will need to find them.

Since the species astounding discovery in 1992, only about 10 saola have ever been captured alive, all caught by local villagers in Laos and Viet Nam. Without professional veterinary and husbandry care, the longest that any of the animals lived was a few months. The last saola known to be captured alive was in 2010 in a village in Laos. It died in less than a week.

Biologists have also only photographed the species five times in the wild since its discovery 25 years ago, all by camera traps  twice in Laos and three times in Viet Nam.

The most recent camera trap photos were taken in 2013, when a WWF camera trap caught images of an animal in a saola nature reserve in central Viet Nam. It was the first photo of a saola in the wild in more than 15 years.

A saola ccaught on camera in central Laos (Bolikhamxay Province) in 1999.  Photo courtesy William Robichaud

Saola are difficult to detect because of their elusiveness, which gives them the nickname Asian unicorn, and because they live in dense forest in remote and difficult terrain.

We are in a race against the clock to save the saola and it will take an all-out effort to ensure their survivalthrough captive breeding and increased enforcement efforts against poaching, wildlife trade and habitat destruction," said Van Thinh Ngoc, country director, WWF-Viet Nam.

"The few confirmed sightings of saola are a testament to the dedicated and tireless efforts of the forest guards. We hope one day that these guards will be rewarded with a growing, healthy saola population in the Central Annamites Species Recovery Landscape.

SWG biologists and partners are currently testing several techniques to detect the saola, ranging from tried-and-true methods, like automated camera traps, to newer ones including environmental DNA.

Camera trap efforts in the saolas range have provided invaluable information about other rare and endemic Annamite species in recent years, including the Annamite-striped rabbit and the critically endangered large-antlered muntjac, which is a species of barking deer.

Large and medium-sized mammals in the Annamites are threatened by intensive poaching, usually accomplished by the setting of wire snares. SWG and partners will also use the breeding centre to establish the first conservation programme for the large-antlered muntjac, which was discovered two years after the saola. This will be the first organised attempt to breed either species.  VNS
QUANG NINH  Van on District in the northern province of Quang Ninh plans to carry out forceful removal of construction violators in the protected Bai Tu Long Bay national park.

The violators will also face penalties this month, the district authorities said.

Bai Tu Long bay, located near the famous UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay, was deemed largely uninhabited until recent media reports surfaced regarding construction of beachside resort-like facilities in the area.

Most of the violators illegally used forest land to build resorts, said a report submitted by the district authorities to the provincial Peopeles Commitee earlier this month.

From 2012 to 2016, in the area near Va Gieng Temple in Thang Loi Commune, a local named Tran Quoc Dung constructed a two-storey wooden house with total floor area of 80sq.m, a 100m long embankment as well as concrete roads and temporary lodging houses for construction workers. From 2016, he also constructed several other houses and bamboo huts.

On Soi Dau Island, Pham The Duy was given permission to hire forest land from 2009 with a tenure of 50 years, for forestry purposes only. However, it was found that Duy has illegally cleared forest land to build multi-storey houses, a courtyard and a dock. Enforced removal was supposed to take place back in 2012, however, due to "certain roadblocks," it has not been completed.

On the east side of The Vang (Golden Ticket) Island, on the 180ha land currently managed by To Van Chuong, several constructions  including a ship dock, two houses, one temple, and a number of apartment houses  have been built since 2009. The violations were only discovered three years later.

Another case, Hoang Truong JSC was granted permission to manage 126.4ha of forestland for forestry purposes from 1996. By 2016, the company was asked to demolish the new house built in the land without permission, but the company has still not abided with authorities order.

o To JSC was allowed by local authorities to breed and farm mollusks on Banh Sua Islet of Ban Sen Commune, however, in recent times, it was discovered that the company has conducted tourism activities without permission from relevant authorities.

The report also pointed out that the owners of new buildings have shown a lack of co-operation with authorities, by not showing up to meetings or refusing to sign admissions of their offences, nor do they follow authorities orders to remove violating construction works.

The report also noted difficulties for authorities to carry out enforcement measures as the sites of violations are in remote locations, while the scale of the construction was large.  VNS




HCM CITY  Several items suspected to be belongings of dead soldiers of the Liberation Army have been uncovered, following days of excavation in an open field west of the busy Tan Son Nhat Airport.

The 7.5ha land in Ward 15 of Tan Binh District was suspected to be a mass grave holding hundreds of remains of soldiers killed during the Tet Offensive in 1968.

The military campaign, one of the largest of its kind during the Viet Nam War, was initiated by the Peoples Army of Viet Nam against the Americans and their allies in the South. The campaign, launched in the spring of 1968, came as a surprise and dealt a major blow to the US force. However, the campaign was also one of the deadliest in terms of casualties sustained by both sides.

Made in charge of surveying and excavating the site, the 7th Military Region, HCM City Command, Air Force Division 370 and the local department of labour began work one week ago, when information on the specific location of the burial site was still vague. Commanding officers and witnesses from the war were enlisted to help locate the site.

Ngo Tuan Nghia, commissar of the HCM City Command, said, recently, an American war veteran had offered documents and decades-old photos pointing to a possible mass grave within the modern airports area.

Vu Chi Thanh, one of the few living survivors of the 16th battalion which struck the airport on January 31, said, less than 100 soldiers survived the offensive out of 550 members of the battalion, and the bodies of 300 dead soldiers remain at large.

Accounts from witnesses corroborated with acquired official documents and photographic evidence, Major General Tran Huu Tai said.

All construction in the area and its vicinity has been suspended for fear of disturbing the excavation site or in case the excavation site needs to be expanded.

ao Ngoc Dung, minister of labour, invalids and social affairs, and o Can, deputy chief officer of the General Political Department under the Ministry of Defence, on Wednesday arrived at the site, offered instructions and supervised the excavation works.

The excavation is one of the most significant in HCM City and could last for a whole month.  VNS
HA NOI  Major structural flaws have been discovered on the Tan Vu-Lach Huyen Bridge in the northeastern city of Hai Phong, set to become Southeast Asias longest cross-sea bridge when it opens.

The management board of the joint Japanese-Vietnamese project has until the end of this week to explain the problems and detail its plans to fix them, said Nguyen Van Cong, deputy minister of transport.

After inspecting the 94 per cent of the bridge, the State Council for Pre-Acceptance Test for Construction Works found several shortcomings in the foundations, surface and girders, among them the sinking of the surface at the head of the bridge.

The council warned the management board that opening the bridge to traffics planned at the end of August could affect the projects quality and endanger users.

The Ministry of Transport has asked the project management board and contractors to implement repair work as requested by the council. Heads of the ministry are scheduled to conduct an on-site inspection, deputy minister Cong said.

Bui Huy Kiem, an official from the project management board, told the zing.vn e-newspaper that the conclusion of the council was correct. The management board will ask executers to fix and improve the shortcomings, he said.

The Tan Vu-Lach Huyen highway project involves the construction of a 15.63km highway integrating a 5.44km sea-crossing bridge, which will be the longest of its kind in Viet Nam.

The new highway will link the Ha Noi-Hai Phong Expressway at the Tan Vu Interchange in Hai An District to the new Lach Huyen Port on Cat Hai Island. The project is expected to reduce travel time between the two ends from the current 2.5 hours by ferry to just 15 minutes.  VNS
KHARTOUM  Sudan said on Thursday it would press on with efforts to achieve a full lifting of US sanctions against Khartoum, even as it hoped Washington would reverse its decision to extend a decades-old trade embargo.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump prolonged a review period to October 12 before his administration decides whether or not to permanently lift the sanctions imposed in 1997.

His predecessor Barack Obama had eased the measures in January, but kept Sudan on review for six months, a period that ended on Wednesday.

Trumps order to extend the review period angered his Sudanese counterpart President Omar al-Bashir who ordered Khartoum to halt ongoing talks with Washington over sanctions until October 12.

Bashirs National Congress Party also warned on Thursday that any unrest that erupts in Sudan will be because of the US extension.

Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour, however, attempted to rein in the rising tension, vowing that Khartoum will work with Washington to ensure the embargo is fully lifted.

"We hope that the United States reverses its decision and sticks to its commitments," Ghandour told reporters.

"We will not be aggressive and we will not go out on the streets."

The Sudanese foreign and defence ministries will "continue communicating" with US officials to ensure the sanctions are lifted, he said.

Sudans powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) will also continue communicating with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), he said.

Not a small regional player

Obama had made the permanent lifting of the sanctions dependent on Sudans progress in five areas of concern at the end of the review period.

Those include giving more access to humanitarian workers in war zones, counterterrorism co-operation with the United States, an end to hostilities against armed groups in Sudan and halting support for insurgents in neighbouring South Sudan.

In his executive order, Trump extended the deadline by three months, saying "more time is needed" to review Khartoums progress on the five conditions.

In recent months, several US and Sudanese officials have said that there was progress on meeting Obamas conditions, also known as "five tracks".

Ghandour said Khartoum had in fact gone "too far" in engaging with Washington.

"Which is why what has been positively achieved, we will build on it without jeopardising or endangering our sovereignty," he said.

He said that Washington should realise that Sudan was "important for peace and security" in the region. "We are not a small regional power," the minister said.

US security warning

Later on Thursday the US embassy in Khartoum issued a security warning to all American citizens in Sudan, urging them to "remain at home" on Friday.

"Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence," the embassy said on its website.

"You should avoid areas of demonstrations, and exercise caution if in the vicinity of any large gatherings, protests, or demonstrations."

No Sudanese group had so far urged protests or demonstrations on Friday against the US extension of sanctions.

Washington imposed a complex set of economic sanctions on Sudan in 1997 for its alleged backing of Islamist militant groups.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a US commando raid in Pakistan in 2011, was based in Khartoum from 1992 to 1996.

Washington has also pointed to accusations of scorched-earth tactics by Khartoum against ethnic minority rebels in war-torn Darfur.

At least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since the Darfur conflict erupted in 2003, the UN says.

Bashir himself is wanted for genocide and war crimes related to the conflict in Darfur, charges he steadfastly denies. AFP
UNITED NATIONS  The United Nations said on Thursday it will ask countries to voluntarily hand over $40.5 million remaining from the budget of the soon-to-close mission in Haiti to help victims of cholera there.

The General Assembly adopted a resolution endorsing a proposal from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who is facing a major shortfall in the $400 million needed to help Haiti recover from the epidemic.

Haiti has been in the grips of a raging, years-long cholera epidemic that has claimed some 9,500 lives, after infected UN peacekeepers from Nepal introduced cholera. The peacekeepers were sent to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon was forced to apologise to the Haitian people for the cholera outbreak, but the United Nations insists it is not liable for the damage.

The UN mission in Haiti known as MINUSTAH will shut down in October, ending a 13-year operation that fell out of favor with Haitians.

Guterres will ask all contributors to the peacekeeping budget to notify him within 60 days whether they are willing to shift their share of the unspent money to the cholera fund.

The United States, the biggest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping, last month announced that it will be taking back its share of the unspent budget and will not be making a contribution to the fund.

US Deputy Ambassador Michele Sison said Washington has already provided $100 million to help Haiti respond to the cholera outbreak and that "the United States is not in a position to contribute in this way."

President Donald Trumps administration is seeking deep cuts to its funding for the United Nations and its peacekeeping missions.

Addressing the assembly, Jamaicas Ambassador Courtenay Rattray said the United Nations must not "turn a blind eye" to Haitis cholera crisis "which stands starkly as a stain against the good name of the United Nations."

Rattray said the funds from the missions budget "would be small relative to the amount required" for the $400 million trust fund but that "every feasible source of funding can make a difference.

Launched in October last year, the fund has failed to draw contributions.

Only seven countries have so far contributed -- Chile, France, India, Liechtenstein, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Britain -- for a total of $2.67 million.

Canada and Japan have separately granted $8.5 million to help Haiti.  AFP
LONDON  Prime Minister Theresa Mays government published a draft law on Thursday to formally end Britains membership of the European Union, but opposition parties and the leaders of Scotland and Wales threatened to block what they called a "naked power-grab".

The new bill would repeal the 1972 European Communities Act, convert an estimated 12,000 existing European regulations into British law and end the supremacy of EU legislation.

"This bill means that we will be able to exit the European Union with maximum certainty, continuity and control," Brexit Secretary David Davis said.

But ministers are braced for a battle over provisions that give them new powers to amend the EU laws as they are transferred without full parliamentary scrutiny.

These so-called "Henry VIII" powers will be limited for two years, but opposition parties warn they could be used to force through changes to other legislation.

The main opposition Labour Party threatened to hold up the bill with amendments in the House of Commons, while the leaders of Scotland and Wales also warned they could not support it.

First Ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Carwyn Jones said the bill was "a naked power-grab, an attack on the founding principles of devolution and could destabilise our economies".

Mays minority government remains fragile one month after the snap June 8 election in which her Conservative Party lost its majority, forcing it to seek an alliance with Northern Irelands small ultra-conservative Democratic Unionist Party.

In a BBC interview marking one year since taking office after the Brexit vote, May admitted she had shed "a little tear" as the election results came in but said she had never considered resigning.

Sweeping new powers

May began the two-year process of leaving the EU on March 29, setting Britain on an uncharted journey.

Extricating Britain from four decades of membership is no small task, and the new European Union (Withdrawal) Bill is one of eight Brexit bills the government will introduce.

May appealed to rivals to work with her, saying she wanted the "biggest possible consensus".

But Labours Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer vowed to fight the "sweeping new powers for ministers that are fundamentally undemocratic, unaccountable and unacceptable".

He also warned the bill lacked protections for employment, equality and environmental rights.

Officials do not propose to transfer into British law the EUs Charter of Fundamental Rights, saying everything in the charter will be covered elsewhere.

The small pro-European Liberal Democrats also warned of a battle when the bill is debated in the autumn, with leader Tim Farron saying "this will be hell."

Sturgeon and Jones complained the bill does not provide for the promised transfer of EU powers to their respective devolved governments.

But Mays Scottish minister David Mundell said that eventually Brexit would result in a "power bonanza for the Scottish parliament".

The first ministers and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn held separate meetings in Brussels on Thursday with EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

The Frenchman insisted he would only negotiate with Mays government.

Horrendous

Formal Brexit negotiations began last month and the two sides have already clashed over the future rights of European citizens living in Britain.

The new bill set the stage for another row, as briefing notes suggested its powers could be used to remove those rights if no Brexit deal is reached.

The 3Million, a campaign group representing the estimated number of Europeans living in Britain, said the prospect was "horrendous".

Ahead of the next round of Brexit talks starting this week, Britain also published three new position papers on Thursday, including one confirming that it would withdraw from the European Atomic Energy Community.

Mays weakened political position has cast doubt on her Brexit strategy, and Barnier had urged Britain on Wednesday to provide more information, warning that the clock was ticking.

Under the EUs exit procedures, Britain will leave the bloc on March 30, 2019, whether it has negotiated a divorce settlement or not.

The head of Britains public spending watchdog had earlier criticised the governments lack of unified leadership on Brexit, saying its plans were "vague".

National Audit Office chief Amyas Morse said that if ministers failed to properly prepare for new customs arrangements after Brexit, it would be a "horror show".  AFP
CHARLES CITY  A Charles City man has been arrested in connection with a homicide in Jasper County.

Randy Louis Linderman, 52, was arrested Thursday in Charles City on a charge of first-degree murder. He has been transported to the Jasper County Jail in Newton.

Linderman is accused of killing Luis C. Ramirez Berber on March 6. Ramirez was found dead in his Maple Street home in rural Jasper County in March, and an autopsy determined he died of blunt trauma.

The case was investigated by the Jasper and Floyd county sheriffs offices, the Charles City Police Department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

Evansdale man arrested for threats

EVANSDALE  An Evansdale man who held police at bay Monday night has been arrested for allegedly pointing a gun at an officer during the standoff and threatening to kill and shoot two women.

Thomas Nathaniel Keith, 37, of 1121 Third Ave., was arrested Wednesday on Black Hawk County charges of assault on a peace officer. He was then arrested by Bremer County sheriffs deputies for two counts of first-degree harassment for phone and text threats against the women.

Keith had been initially detained following a standoff at his home in the Casebeer Heights neighborhood that drew law enforcement from three agencies and a tactical team.

The charges allege Keith sent a text message to a woman in Bremer County on Monday threatening to put a pretty hole in her head if she left her home and then posted on Facebook he was going to bleed her slow and painful, court records state.

Another Bremer County woman received several voicemails in which Keith allegedly threatened to kill her and her daughter, records state.

On Monday night, an Evansdale officer when to Keiths home to check on his welfare around 8 p.m., and when he arrived, he saw Keith through a sliding glass door pointing a black powder rifle at him, records state. The standoff ended around 9:45 p.m. when a sheriffs negotiator talked Keith into surrendering, and he was initially taken to a local hospital for an evaluation.

Keith also had made indirect threats to assault a Bremer County deputy, but he wasnt charged, according to the Bremer County Sheriffs Office.

Four detained in cell phone store burglary

WATERLOO  Police detained four people after a strip-mall cell phone store was burglarized Wednesday night.

Kevin Anthony Parker Jr., 23, of 441 Allen St., and Prince Hussen Fahart, 19, of 704 Allen St., were arrested for attempted third-degree burglary in the break-in at Next Generation Wireless/U.S. Cellular at 1513 Flammang Drive. Two juvenile girls were also taken into custody in the cell phone store break-in.

Parker also were arrested for fifth-degree theft when officers investigating the burglary discovered he allegedly took headphones and speakers from Walmart earlier that night.

Police were called to a break-in at Next Generation Wireless around 10 p.m. Wednesday, and officers found the front glass door had been shattered with several people fleeing the scene. A possible getaway car was located at the apartment complex in the 1400 block of Oleson Road off of Camelot Drive and towed.

A brief foot chase ensued, and police detain four people in the 1100 block of Oleson Road, across a wooded area from the suspected getaway car. One of the suspects was taken to Covenant Medical Center as a precaution for a medical issue following the chase.

Police also searched two homes in connection with the burglary investigation Wednesday night.

Authorities said Wednesday nights break-in was the second burglary to the cell phone store in as many days.

On Tuesday, officers were summoned to an alarm at the business at 5:05 a.m. for a similar crime. Someone had thrown a brick through the glass door and took a single cell phone, according to the report.

It wasnt clear if the break-ins are connected.
WATERLOO  A group of kids is making a mark all over the Cedar Valley.

Theyre currently working on a project sure to draw lots of eyes in downtown Waterloo.

Members of the Youth Art Team, during the programs first summer camp this week, are putting their brushes to work on panels that will be installed on the refurbished Fourth Street bridge.

The process of creation began Monday with a trip to the river, where the campers gazed at the water and listened to the sounds of nature while sketching everything that came to mind. The next day, they turned those sketches into artworks painted on large panels to be placed on the bridge.

It was kind of difficult to get your design off the paper onto the board, which made it confusing and interesting at the same time, Sophie Matlock, 9, said.

Some of the children presented the idea for their project at the City Council meeting Monday night. Londrell Cooper, 13, and another member of the core group stood bravely before the council in order to get the OK.

Since 2010, the group has taken on similar community projects such as painting the Plaid Peacock mural and creating canvas paintings to sell in the community for a fundraiser.

Cooper, who has been a member of the team for two years, said nature is his favorite thing to paint and draw because it is what he finds to be the most beautiful.

I want people to feel happy and think that Waterloo is a great place to live in, said 9-year-old Libby Nosbisch.

Nosbisch, along with her sisters Becca and Josie, participated in the camps five morning sessions this week. A second camp takes place next week.

Araceli Lopez, 10, decided to come to camp after helping the Youth Art Team and other local art groups with the Urban Intervention project, in which artists constructed and painted wooden butterflies and surprised the community with their work in March 2016.

Jordan Bell, 11, likes painting and working with colors and tools that help him be creative and use his imagination.

The young artists will be the sole creators of the art panels for the bridge. Every brush stroke, line, shape and pattern came from their imagination alone; no adults were involved in the art.

Thats a major rule for us, said Heidi Fuchtman, Youth Art Team director. The transfer of the design can be pretty hard but we just help them do it because we really want the kids to know that it was theirs. Its a big no-no to ever have a grown-up do something.

The ideas for the designs also come directly from the students. The camp attendees and team are often encouraged to find inspiration for their artwork by simply taking notice of whats around them.

Its really fun to watch when they just have a little space to be listened to and give their voice to the matter. Its not really about the art, its about the whole experience and meeting people in the community, Fuchtman said.

The group and camp rely mainly on donations for funding and paint, and donations can be made at www.youthartteam.com. Their work can also be seen on their Facebook page.
CEDAR FALLS  Bible talks will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. Sunday at the Cedar Falls Municipal Band Hall, 211 Washington St.

All are welcome.

For inquiries, call M. Chardeen at (402) 594-3909 or G. Henderson at (763) 331-4410.

WATERLOO  First Presbyterian Church will host a service at 10:30 a.m. July 21 for Gale Quirk to celebrate her life.

Some of her relatives and friends intend to wear green in recognition of her appreciation of flowers and plants; information will be available on organizations where Quirk served.

Those who would like to join the family for a lunch after the service should RSVP by Wednesday to Chuck Quirk at quirkc2@mchsi.com, 290-7590 or 245 Alta Vista Ave.

Memorials may be sent to the Childrens Council, Cedar Valley Hospice, Faith Temple Baptist Church or First Presbyterian Church.

WATERLOO  The women of Union Missionary Baptist Church, 209 Jackson St., will celebrate their ninth annual Womens Day at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Theme is Women, let us exalt the Lord together. The program is full of songs by the womens chorus, directed Heather Newman, with a solo by Cornella Hailman.

Aleisha Flint will be introduced by her husband, the Rev. Thomas Flint.

Call 235-1213 for more information.

WATERLOO  Payne Memorial AME Church, 1044 Mobile St., will mark its 105th church anniversary Thursday and July 21, at 7 p.m. nightly.

Theme this year is Standing on a firm foundation and winning in a losing situation.

The Rev. Charlie Edmonds of Kentucky will be guest evangelist. Edmonds will conduct a workshop from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 22.

Events are open to the public, free of charge. The Rev. Thomas Flint is pastor.

WATERLOO  St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church, 2024 Clearview St., will have the Rev. Otha Rockett and congregation of Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church of Kosciusko, Miss., as special guests on Sunday.

A Mens Day Worship is planned for 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.

The public is welcome, and the pastor at St. Mark is the Rev. Brian Dale.

WATERLOO  Dave Cushing will lead a talk at the Waterloo Catholic parishes Summer Forum Series from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday at COR, 220 E. Fourth St.

He will discuss how religious convictions, or religious worldviews, contribute to how individuals and groups respond to climate change. The program is open to adults and young adults of all ages. More information is available at waterloocatholics.org/summer-forum-series.

WATERLOO  The Catholic Parishes in Waterloo will host a listening session for inactive, alienated, discouraged and former Catholics at 7 p.m. Wednesday at COR, 220 E. Fourth St.

This opportunity is for anyone who wishes to discuss their past, present or future relationship to the Catholic Church in a safe, nonjudgmental environment.

For information, contact Dave Cushing at 234-9912 of dbqwcaf@dbqarch.org.

CEDAR FALLS  A new Bible study group is being formed. Organizers want it to be intense, but lively, dealing with questions and topics that are rarely tackled.

Participation is free, and no materials are required. Participants are recommended to bring a Bible and notebook.

Meeting times and places may vary to accommodate work schedules. Spanish speakers are available.

For more information, contact Vanessa H. at 610-2384 or biblestudies@post.com.
TOLEDO  A lawyer for Tait Purk, convicted of killing his fiancee in 2000, asked a judge Friday for a new trial, arguing there was lack of evidence, unfair prejudice and possibly jury misconduct.

Scott Hunter, Purks lawyer, argued the jury may have unfairly judged his client because of testimony submitted about previous offenses of domestic violence, which included he had choked fiancee Cora Okonski once before, a burglary of a convenience store, stealing a vehicle and drug sales. He said the court should have excluded those from evidence.

Not to mention whether Okonski is even dead is in dispute because a body was never recovered, Hunter pointed out.

Purk, 50, was convicted by Iowa County jury in May of killing Okonski, 23, of Tama, on April 16, 2000. The trial was moved from Tama based on pretrial publicity. Although her body was never found, prosecutors during trial argued Purk buried her body in a remote area, based on witnesses testimony.

The defense argued at trial there was no evidence to suggest Okonski was even dead, since a body was never found.

Hunter said the states evidence was weak that Purk killed Okonski because she knew he committed a burglary of the Jiffy convenience store in Tama and was going to turn him into police. Its not credible motive because Okonski also was involved in the burglary, he added.

Purk, during his testimony, admitted he stole the truck and for the first time admitted he broke into the convenience store, but he denied killing Okonski.

The state also argued Okonski was going to tell police about Purk dealing drugs, which makes no sense because there was evidence Okonski was a drug user herself, Hunter said.

The evidence of prior domestic abuse incidents of Purk allegedly choking her out and that he burned her clothes also shouldnt have been submitted, Hunter said.

The jury could have convicted him solely based on prior bad acts  the verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence, Hunter said.

Hunter also pointed out two of the witnesses were jailhouse snitches who are felons that were under the belief they would benefit from their testimony. Hunter said he didnt know if they did received less prison time but they thought they might.

During trial, Chad Rogers testified Purk told him, while both were in a halfway house, he killed Okonski because she was going to tell police about his involvement in stealing a truck and a store burglary.

Sean Ward testified Purk told him in 2005  while both were serving time at the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan.  he grabbed Okonski by the throat and choke slammed her. Purk thought he had knocked her unconscious but then realized he had broken her neck.

Another witness, Ricky Jo Sanchez, a neighbor and friend, said Okonski told her Purk threatened to kill her the day she went missing.

Hunter also argued one of the jurors telling the others she felt threatened by Purks family staring at her caused improper bias against Purk and none of the jurors were asked about it after the judge found out following the verdict.

Judge Mitchell Turner said he recalls they talked to the court attendant, who wasnt under oath, that day of the verdict and she said one of the jurors felt the family was staring at her and another juror said they didnt think that was the case.

Tama County Attorney Brent Heeren, in resisting a new trial, said there wasnt specific factual allegations to support jury misconduct.

Heeren said he understands the defense disputes the facts of the case and thats why it goes to a jury. In this case, the jury reviewed all the evidence and made a decision.

Heeren argued the testimony of Sanchez and others testified about what happened that day and in previous times showed premeditation and two witnesses said Purk confessed the crime to them. All the statements corroborate each other when taken together.

Turner said he would make a ruling regarding the motion for a new trial within a week or so. Purks sentencing is set for July 28.

For years, Okonskis disappearance was treated as a missing persons case until investigators took another look in 2015 and ultimately charged Purk with first-degree murder in December 2016.

Purk, before being charged in this case, already was serving time in a federal prison in Kansas for manufacturing methamphetamine and a firearms violation.
WATERLOO -- A shooting Friday in Waterloo has turned into a homicide investigation.

One of two men shot has died, police said, and the other remains hospitalized after the broad daylight shooting Friday.

Waterloo police responded to a call for shots fired shortly before 4 p.m. in the 100 block of Center Street and were later called to a home at 1200 Ackermant St. to find two men who appeared to be in their early 20s suffering from gunshot wounds.

Both men, whose names were not being released by police pending notification of relatives, were transported by Waterloo Fire Rescue to the hospital. One man later died, police said.

The victims arrived at the home in a black sport utility vehicle, which had front-end damage and a deployed airbags. A neighbor said the injured driver ran into the house while the passenger stayed in the car.

The neighbor said there was not a history of trouble at the home and did not believe either of the victims lived there.

The shooting apparently happened near the intersection of Utica and Center streets, roughly 10 blocks away.

Waterloo police officers had secured that area and the home where the victims were discovered.
DES MOINES  The cost of settling claims and resolving disputes lodged against the state government for workplace misconduct, employee mistakes or other malfeasance topped $3.73 million in fiscal 2017, figures from the State Appeal Board show.

Last fiscal year marked the sixth time since 2000 that yearly state judgments and settlements were below the $4 million mark, which was good news for budget managers who have seen costs soar due to past problems relating to the ill-fated TouchPlay lottery program, film tax credits and state prison construction issues.

This was a down year, said Joseph Barry, a risk manager with the Iowa Department of Management who tracks data for the three-member board made up of State Auditor Mary Mosiman, State Treasurer Mike Fitzgerald and Department of Management Director David Roederer.

We didnt have a lot of oddities this year, Barry said. We seem to have peaks and valleys with those. One year we have the TouchPlay, then we have the film thing and then we had the prison construction stuff. This one was a fairly normal year.

The states largest payouts occurred in years when payments were made to resolve claims tied to the shutdown of the Iowa Lotterys TouchPlay program in fiscal 2008, a judgment stemming from the now-defunct state film tax credit programs in fiscal 2012 and disputes over construction of the new maximum-security prison in Fort Madison in fiscal 2015.

The bulk of the fiscal 2017 claims paid by the state involved medical problems at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, which accounted for more than $2.6 million. Overall, settlements and judgments involving institutions under the Board of Regents topped $3 million.

State officials agreed to pay $1 million from the general fund as part of a $3 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit brought by Kevin Johnson and his family alleging UI Hospitals improperly performed a procedure in 2013 that left him with lower paralysis and kidney injury. A physicians group paid the remainder of the malpractice settlement.

A separate $500,000 settlement involving UI Hospitals stemmed from a lawsuit brought by Barbara Gericke of Tiffin, alleging doctors failed to inform her of possible side effects from a procedure involving her leg that ultimately resulted in an above-knee amputation.

The state paid $50,000 of that settlement, as well as a separate $255,000 share of a judgment for the family of a man who underwent hip surgery and later suffered a stroke and died shortly after procedures were done to correct earlier medical mistakes.

The state also agreed to pay $75,000 to an Iowa State University student who lost part of a finger to a band saw she was operating as part of a school project in 2015.

In separate matters, the appeal board agreed to pay a $315,000 judgment  paid equally in increments of $157,500 by the UI Physicians group and from the states general fund  to the estate of Rebecca Martin, to settle negligence claims against the UI Hospitals for a 2012 exploratory procedure that resulted in partial paralysis.

It also agreed to pay a share of a $150,000 settlement to the estate of Kent C. Carder, whose family alleged UI Hospitals failed to properly treat his kidney cancer.

Records show that the state also:

l Agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit from the family of a patient at the Clarinda Mental Health Institute who choked to death while eating a peanut butter sandwich in 2013. Officials said Richard Rollins Meredith died after workers gave him the sandwich rather than pureed food that was ordered by his doctor;

Agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit involving a foster child who was bludgeoned with a brick and drowned by another foster child in 2013

Paid $239,595 for the attorney fees and expenses of Dennis L. Smith, a former ISU employee who alleged the school eliminated his position after he filed complaints about his boss;

Approved a $950,000 judgment to settle a wrongful-death suit brought against UI Hospital by family members of Rollin Hoffert, with $500,000 paid by the UI Physicians organization and $450,000 from the state general fund;

Agreed to pay a former UI student $75,000 after he suffered serious injuries in a 2012 fall from a climbing wall at the university;

And agreed to pay a couple $50,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging negligence on behalf of a UI Cambus driver after Elizabeth Lester was struck in a crosswalk.

Mosiman, the board chairwoman, said the panel looks to avoid costly litigation where possible, which sometimes mean negotiating settlements in situations where the state was found to be negligent.

Its subject to what happens during the year, she said of the overall payout. A lot of them are emergencies, they are certainly out of the ordinary, but we do our very best in making sure that what were approving is the most cost-effective manner of getting through these emergencies.
DES MOINES  Republicans in the Iowa Senate were significantly more conservative in 2017 than previous years.

Thats according to the calculations of one national conservative groups legislative scorecard, which was published recently.

But such a declaration would come as little surprise to anyone who followed the 2017 session of the Iowa Legislature, during which Republicans used their unfettered control of the state lawmaking agenda to pass a slew of conservative priorities, including restrictions on abortion, lawsuits and public employee collective bargaining, changes to state gun regulations and an identification requirement for voters.

Legislative scorecards are published by advocacy groups to show whether lawmakers vote with priorities declared by the groups. The groups hope these scorecards inform voters and perhaps pressure lawmakers to consider crucial votes.

But legislators and experts question whether the scorecards are effective to either of those ends.

Conservative marks

Such scorecards more commonly rate members of Congress. But the American Conservative Union Foundation also publishes an annual scorecard on state lawmakers. The group identifies conservative bills that were introduced during a session and then notes the vote of each lawmaker from all political parties.

The groups scorecard for the 2017 session of the Iowa Legislature said all 29 Republicans in the Senate voted with the groups priorities at least 89 percent of the time. And each of the 23 Republicans who also were in the Senate in 2016 showed a double-digit rating increase to this year.

Did Republicans in the Iowa Senate suddenly become more conservative in 2017? Or were other factors at play that influenced the scorecards results?

Some Senate Republicans made small jumps in the American Conservative Union Foundations scores from 2016 to 2017, while others made giant leaps. The scores of Sens. Mark Segebart, from Vail, and Dan Zumbach, from Ryan, each increased more than 40 percent.

Eight more GOP senators scores increased at least 30 percent.

It may boil down to opportunity. In 2017, Iowa Statehouse Republicans for the first time in 20 years had complete control of the state lawmaking process: majorities in the House and Senate to go along with a GOP governor.

Given how long the Democrats held the Senate, it was not surprising that there was a buildup in the number of bills that Republicans would like to see passed, said Tim Hagle, a political science professor at the University of Iowa. The 2017 session was the Republicans first opportunity to get such legislation through, so there was a lot of it.

Perhaps just as notable is the unity in the Senate Republican caucus. All 29 Senate Republicans were rated by the conservative group between 89 percent and 95 percent.

While the percentages varied in part because some legislators missed a few votes, the caucus voting was remarkably consistent: Of the 24 bills the American Conservative Union Foundation tracked, Senate Republicans voted in unison in favor of all 24. In terms of the foundations ratings, however, the Iowa senators lost points, because the foundation wanted no votes on two of the bills.

The rankings confirm the solidarity and conservativeness of the GOP in the Iowa Senate, said Christopher Larimer, a political science professor at the University of Northern Iowa. With the exception of one, all Republican Senators were in the 90th to 100th percentile. Given how far right the Legislature moved on certain tax and social issues this past session, the rankings were not particularly surprising.

There was slightly more fluctuation in the House Republican ratings. The highest House GOP scores were in the low 90s, while the lowest Republican score was a 70 percent from Rep. Clel Baudler of Greenfield.

There was a bit of a conservative wave this last election (2016), and I think the (Republican) House and Senate members are about where our base is, said Jeff Kaufmann, state GOP chairman. I think theyre where a vast majority of Iowans are.

Even though the American Conservative Union Foundation pushes for a conservative agenda, it also graded Democrats votes on the same bills. And the Democrats actually had a little more disparity in their  obviously low  scores.

For example, there were Senate Democrats who scored in the low single digits; Sens. Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City and Janet Petersen of Des Moines voted with the group 4 percent of the time, on one of 24 bills. That bill was a reform of the states civil asset forfeiture process.

But the range of Democratic scores goes all the way to the 50 percent for Sen. Tod Bowman of Maquoketa. Bowman represents largely rural Jackson County in eastern Iowa.

Playing a role

Kaufmann, who is a former member of the Iowa House, said state legislators like to check out ratings such as the American Conservative Union Foundations, but he said that is motivated more by curiosity than to influence a vote on a piece of legislation.

Rick Bertrand, a Republican state senator from Sioux City, said he does not see legislative scorecards unless someone shows them to him.

Bertrand said legislators are more motivated to vote with the desires of voters in their districts than to cast a vote in order to obtain a higher rating from an issue advocacy group. As an example, he notes the vote he cast in 2015 in favor of a 10-cent increase on the states gas tax. At the time, the state transportation department said the tax increase was necessary to support its road repair and construction budget.

Bertrand said even though his vote in support of the gas tax increase betrayed his conservative principles, it was the right vote to cast for his district in order to help hasten the completion of a four-lane highway expansion.

More legislators need to make decisions based on their districts, not strictly their ideology, Bertrand said. (With the gas tax vote) I understood the importance of Highway 20s completion and what it meant to this side of the state. ... At the end of the day, it was a vote I had to take, and its a vote Im proud of.

Legislators also sometimes use scorecard ratings on the campaign trail. Especially if a legislator receives a challenge from within his or her party, a good rating from, for example, a conservative group can look good on a Republican candidates resume when making a campaign pitch to voters or prospective donors.

I think legislators pay attention to such rankings to some extent, particularly when it comes to fundraising and touting conservative credentials in the lead up to a primary, Larimer said. Democrats may be even more likely to tout such rankings in their own primaries in 2018 as evidence of their rejection of the GOP agenda, particularly given how partisan the 2017 legislative session was in terms of votes and issues raised.

Experts were more skeptical that legislative scorecards carry any weight with or influence voters.

I think your average Iowa voter does not even know these scores exist, said Kedron Bardwell, a political science professor at Simpson College. These scorecards are mainly for activists and people who already get involved each year by contacting legislators on an issue or problem they care about a lot.
CEDAR RAPIDS  Todd Prichard wears many hats as a private citizen, attorney, state lawmaker and candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor.

For the next three weeks, the Charles City Iowa House member will be off the campaign trail while he wears the hat of an Army Reserve officer in multination training exercise.

Prichard, 43, a lieutenant colonel, will be going to Bulgaria for his annual training beginning July 16 with about 200 members of a his unit that is responsible for making sure supplies flow into the theater of operations.

Our goal is to increase our readiness and proficiency, said Prichard, who enlisted in the Reserve while a student at the University of Iowa in 1996. This will be his fifth overseas tour as part of the Reserve and Iowa Army National Guard. He was deployed to El Salvador in 1998, Kuwait in 2000, Egypt in 2003, and Iraq in 2006 and 2007.

In addition to improving military readiness, Prichard believes his 22 years in the military is an important part of his preparation and qualification to be governor.

It plays into the narrative of who I am, Prichard said. His service offers insight into who I am and how I view service. Running for governor is an extension of me serving.

His service and experience as a leader would definitely be an asset as governor.

Being an officer for a couple of decades has given me a real education on how to lead as well as perspective on what it means to be responsible for the well-being of others, Prichard said.

The centerpiece of Prichards campaign is his 50-50 in 5 plan to create 50,000 jobs that pay at least $50,000 a year in the first five years of his administration. To do that, he said, the state will need to invest in education, infrastructure such as broadband and re-prioritizing state economic development resources such as tax credits to attract companies that will create good-paying jobs.

Prichard plans campaign events through the end of the week before he departs Sunday. In Bulgaria, his unit will be participating in Exercise Saber Guardian 2017, a multinational exercise under U.S. European Commands Joint Exercise Program with between 30,000 and 40,000 soldiers from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, the United States, NATO allies, and Partnership for Peace nations.

During the annual training, military rules restrict Prichard from engaging in political activity. However, his staff and supporters will continue to organize volunteers, raise resources and participate in events across the state, according to spokesman Norm Sterzenbach.

In addition to Prichard, former Iowa City Mayor Ross Wilburn, Sen. Nate Boulton of Des Moines, former Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Andy McGuire, former Des Moines school board President Jon Neiderbach, John Norris, former aide to Sen. Tom Harkin and Gov. Tom Vilsack, Coralville nurse and union president Cathy Glasson and Des Moines businessman Fred Hubbell are running or contemplating a bid for the Democratic nomination.
OSAGE -- An Osage man is accused of threatening a person with a gun, police say.

Bryce S. Zahradnik, 25, is charged with felony intimidation with a dangerous weapon.

Osage Police were dispatched at 12:25 a.m. July 10 for a dispute at a residence in the 1000 block of Main Street, according to court documents.

Once officers arrived at the home, they say they found Zahradnik at the front door holding a gun.

The victim, who called 911, said Zahradnik was beating down the back door and threatened to kill me with a gun after he had left the house for a short period of time following an argument, the complaint states.
Fifth in a series of articles on this years Eight over 80 winners. CEDAR FALLS  Uyntha Duncan admits she was astonished to hear she was chosen as an Eight over 80 honoree for the class of 2017.

Everything Ive done in my life, Ive done not for recognition, but because I wanted to help. I wanted to help make peoples lives better. If I saw a need, I would get involved, said Duncan, who turned 80 last fall.

She was nominated by Robert J. Brown. I have known Uyntha Duncan for approximately 15 years and have been amazed at what she has done for the community. If there is any major need in the Cedar Valley, its likely that she would be involved in some capacity, he said.

The retired registered nurse has a lengthy professional resume that spans nearly 60 years, including serving as a program reviewer for National Head Start, a health consultant for Community Development Institute for Kansas City Region VII and public health service nurse consultant. She was health coordinator and staff nurse for Tri County Head Start and a home care nurse for Cedar Valley Hospice. She also has extensive experience in health ministries.

Duncan received her nursing degree in 1958 at Iowa Methodist Hospital School of Nursing, and earned bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Northern Iowa.

I went back to school when I was 45, and 10 years later, finally got my masters degree, Duncan said. I didnt do everything by myself. Ive loved being surrounded by people who were as passionate about what they were doing as I was. I worked with some really talented people.

As a volunteer, Duncan has been involved in Quakerdale, Visiting Nurses Association, American Red Cross, Wheaton Franciscan Health Care Board of Directors, UNI Museum, Family and Childrens Council, Habitat for Humanity, Cedar Falls Historical Society, Friends of Cedar Valley Hospice board of directors and more.

Each person has to decide for themselves how much they want to give of themselves, Duncan explained. Volunteering isnt for everybody, and thats OK, because they have other talents and interests they can pursue.

Duncan grew up in Reynard, 20 miles west of Fort Dodge. When she was 4 years old, her 2-year-old sister was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Duncan helped her dad on their farm while her mother took her sister to Iowa City for treatment.

I could drive a tractor at 5; I just couldnt press the pedals myself, Duncan recalled, smiling. My dad was kind and good to me. When I was 7, I made up my mind I was going to be a nurse.

Duncan has received numerous awards over the years, including the mayors award for lifetime achievement from the Volunteer Center of the Cedar Valley in 2011. That same year, she was named volunteer of the year by the YWCA Women of Persimmon.

In 2012, her volunteer work was recognized during the Visiting Nursing Associations 80th anniversary, and in 2009, she was one of 13 individuals in the U.S. and Canada named a State Farms Embrace Life honoree.

Several years ago, Duncan faced personal health issues. My doctor said I really needed to take care of myself. I could see the big picture too, so I began giving up many things Id been involved in, except what was near and dear.

She added, Ive slowed down, but not much. If you keep your eyes open, youll see a need that needs to be filled. You only have one life to live, so you might as well do it well.

Everything Ive done in my life, Ive done not for recognition, but because I wanted to help. I wanted to help make peoples lives better. If I saw a need, I would get involved.
EXIRA (AP)  Authorities say several departments have been called in to help battle a blaze burning in the downtown of a western Iowa community.

Firefighters were dispatched early Friday morning after the blaze began in a two-story building housing Jerry's Bar in Exira. Water tanker trucks were deployed to help firefighters keep the fire from spreading to adjacent buildings.

No injuries have been reported. It's unclear when firefighters expect to extinguish the blaze. Exira officials didn't immediately return calls from The Associated Press.

Exira is 66 miles west of Des Moines.
WATERLOO - Paul Reuter and Eddie Cahill had a little history with their coffee Wednesday morning, courtesy of the Grout Museum District.

They got a sneak peek at the Grouts year-long Korean War exhibit, which opened today.

It was history they helped make.

Both served in the U.S. Navy in Korea. They strolled into the exhibit area to check it out after attending one of the Grouts weekly veterans coffee receptions.

They liked what they saw in the exhibit called The Cold War Ablaze: Iowans in the Korean War.

Its wonderful, said Cahill, who served on the attack transport troop carrier USS Montrose. When we came home it was a forgotten war. It really brings it to life.

He noted a mother and her young son who was curious about the war, strolled in to the exhibit area while there for another activity. He and Reuter walked up to give the young man some first-hand history .

He lit right up, Cahill said, at meeting two real-life veterans of the war.

Its super. Were glad to see it, said Reuter, who served on the destroyer USS Robinson. Its information for the general public, to realize what people went through. I went through it, was able to do my part for the country. And it brings back memories.

Reuter served on a committee of Korean War veterans who helped plan the exhibit.

The exhibit is much like an earlier Iowans in the Vietnam War exhibit put on by the Grout in 2015-16. It includes some historic background on the circumstances leading up to the war, but mainly focuses on what the individual soldiers, sailors, Marines and Air Force personnel experienced.

A stark reminder is a large floor map of Korea. Were hoping people can point out where they were serving, said Erin Dawson, Grout exhibits curator. Visiting veterans can walk to the spot on the map where they served.

It is kind of interesting to get Korean veterans to come in here and ask them where they were, said Christopher Shackelford, historical content and program developer.

The Korea map is surrounded by a 1950-53 timeline of the war with a display of military dog tags for all 567 Iowans killed in the war, placed along the timeline at the time they fell.

This is everything you need to know about the Korean War (history) contained in one area, and the rest of it is the Iowa troop experience, Dawson said, with items donated or loaned by Iowan veterans, in a day-to-day life display of what ground troops would carry.

There also is an exhibit of artifacts of two Iowans killed during the war, donated by their families.

It also includes weaponry from the war, including rifles, machine guns, a mortar and a flamethrower, among other items, courtesy of Dwight Clark, a Vietnam veteran who deals in vintage military equipment and helped set it up. Period uniforms of different branches of service will be displayed. Theres also a re-created front of a Higgins boat landing craft, similar to what troops might have used during the 1950 amphibious landing at Inchon, a key event in the war.

There s also a summary of major battles and a special display on the Chosin Reservoir campaign of late 1950, where many local Marines served, fighting their way through Chinese forces and bitter cold, with interview excerpts from those veterans.

We will also have a veterans theater where you can access excerpts from all our Korean vet interviews, Dawson said. The interviews were compiled over several years as part of the oral history project of the Grouts adjoining Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum.

Were on the hunt for all the photographs of all 567 individuals from Iowa who were killed in Korea, Shackelford said, for a Faces of the Fallen exhibit. The museum currently has 395 of them. Shackelfords looking for additional photos and information on fallen veterans for biographies of each. People with photos, biographical information or who want to know more about the Korea exhibit in geneal may contact the Grout at 234-6357.

Though the exhibit officially opens today, several Korean veterans will be at a 1 p.m. Saturday reception to meet the public and talk about the exhibit.

Reuter will be one of them.

Im glad to talk about it, he said  particularly for those who still cant. I didnt go through any violent action. There werent any after effects. A lot of them wont talk about it to this day.
DES MOINES  President Donald Trump on Friday named two men to serve as U.S. attorneys in Iowas northern and southern judicial districts.

Trump designated Peter E. Deegan to serve as U.S. attorney for Iowas northern district based in Cedar Rapids and Marc Krickbaum to serve as the U.S. attorney for Iowas southern district based in Des Moines. Their nominations for confirmation will be considered by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Deegan currently is an assistant U.S. attorney and the chief of the northern districts criminal division in Iowa and has worked in the Cedar Rapids office for more than 10 years. He also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan from 2004 to 2006.

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the Wayne State University Law School, Deegan has prosecuted a variety of federal offenses with an emphasis on complex white collar and business crime.

Deegan was involved in the 2012-13 prosecution of Peregrine Financial Group owner and CEO Russell R. Wasendorf Sr. of Cedar Falls. Wasendorf received the maximum sentence of 50 years after pleading guilty to one count each of mail fraud, embezzlement of customer funds by a person registered under the Commodity Exchange Act, making false statements to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and making false statements to a futures association registered under the Commodities Exchange Act.

Krickbaum currently is an assistant U.S. attorney in the northern district of Illinois and previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Iowas southern district of Iowa.

Before that, Krickbaum, previously of Des Moines, served as counsel to the deputy attorney general and as a trial attorney in the civil division of the Department of Justice. He was a clerk for Judge Steven M. Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit after graduating from the University of Iowa and receiving his law degree from Harvard Law School.
In the story of Charlie Gard  the seriously ill 11-month-old boy whom British health care is compelled to let die over his parents wishes  there is something important that is missing.

And the thing that is missing, whether it is missing by ignorance, fear or cold design, is sometimes the most important thing.

In the case of Charlie Gard, and the future of American health care, it is certainly the most important thing.

Youve probably heard of Gards rare illness and the British health care bureaucrats who think it best he die. And you also may have heard about his parents battle in the hopes of saving their son, and the latest court hearing where a last-ditch effort was scheduled in the hopes of bringing him to the U.S. for experimental treatment.

If youre a parent, if youve ever spent time praying at a hospital with your child ill, you know about Charlie Gard.

But there is something about the story up to recent days that hasnt been there. And what isnt there also tells a story, one about what is being avoided.

Sometimes the reason for avoiding a thing involves ignorance or fear. And sometimes it is about agendas that threaten political inertia.

But it is this avoidance, this not mentioning, that makes up the negative narrative space around Charlie Gard. And thats where the story is too.

Because whats missing are American reporters, sent out by American editors and network news executives, demanding answers of American Democratic politicians who support single-payer government health care.

It may have been asked, but not nearly enough or loudly enough. And the question is this: If America adopts such a government health care system, could what has happened to Charlie Gard and his parents happen here?

Yet I havent seen microphones in the faces of Democratic proponents of a single-payer health system, like the kind in the United Kingdom or Canada.

Because if national health bureaucrats can do this kind of thing in the United Kingdom, wont American bureaucrats do the same thing here someday?

There is an answer. Theres always an answer, but this one has dropped into the negative space.

Those in favor of government health care might not want to answer it, and journalists in favor of such a system might not want to know. Or they might not want to appear rude.

But the answer is yes.

Conservatives have asked about it, but generally, what is considered to be the progressive mainstream or establishment media is focused elsewhere, on sexy stories about Russians and meetings and President Donald Trump and the legitimacy of the Trump administration.

All news competes for attention. But while the presidential soap opera of the Russians may reinforce our tribal political passions, the Charlie Gard story also reveals something about us.

Because this isnt merely some story about science or a story about dreams of a miracle. There wont likely be a miracle. Little Charlie suffers from a rare genetic illness. Blind and deaf, he endures painful epileptic seizures. His doctors in London insist his illness cant be treated, and he will die when life support is withdrawn. And health care bureaucrats in London want it withdrawn.

But his parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, are fighting to bring him to the U.S. for a chance at experimental medicine. Theyve raised almost $2 million.

Yet British doctors say prolonging Charlies life will only cause him pain. They wont even allow the parents to take their son home to die in their arms at home.

Think of that. The bureaucrats wont even let the child leave government care, where theyve already decided, coldly, rationally, the way bureaucracies decide things, that they will end it.

So the Charlie Gard story is a political story, where a government and its bureaucrats, not the parents, decide whether a baby lives or dies.

Some governments might be seen as progressive, others as conservative, but to the people who pull the levers, one thing is understood.

Government is about force. It always has been about force.

They might be driven by what some call scientific reason, and by others as the end product of cost-benefit analytics. But with a bureaucracy, it always ends up being about the same thing.

Force.

And so what this story has been missing  putting political proponents of single-payer government health care on the spot  is perhaps even more important than ever.

Someday it might be your child whose fate is being decided by others. Someday it might be you.

This is an extremely difficult case. And are there times when human beings should let go, or be allowed to let go, in the hopes of finding a final release from pain and suffering? Of course.

There are limits to medicine and to life span.

But who should make that decision? The government or the parents?

How far would you go to save your childs life? Would you jump into a wild river in the hopes of grabbing her hand? Would you put your body between him and bullets if you could?

Or would you sit quietly, and allow bureaucrats to tell you what must be done?

So you might want to think of Charlie Gard and whats not being asked, whats not being said, and why.
Lost in President Donald Trumps strange dalliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the recent G20 meeting of industrialized nations in Hamburg, Germany, were ominous signs of the U.S. becoming increasingly isolated as a trading partner.

China has proposed a $1 trillion Silk Road to unite 60 nations in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa with roads, high-speed rail, power plants, pipelines, ports and airports and telecommunications, and the European Union and Japan are on the brink of a long-delayed trade deal.

Before what the international media called the G19+1 meeting  with the U.S. as the outlier  the European Union and Japan agreed on the outlines of a free-trade deal languishing since 2012.

Japans interest was due largely to Trumps rejection of the Obama administrations Trans Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation economic agreement among nations in Asia (Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei) and the Americas (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Peru and Chile).

Trump was not alone in denouncing the unsigned TPP in the shortsighted 2016 political campaign. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were wary of labor and environmental concerns, despite provisions far more progressive than the North American Free Trade Agreement and lifting numerous tariffs in Asian markets.

Now those nations are seeking other primary trading partners, and the Chinese are keen to fill the void with a dominant regional partnership.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been focused on bilateral deals and threats of trade wars, along with an aversion to multilateral agreements.

In Hamburg, EU leaders were quick to take shots at the failure of the U.S. to make a voluntary commitment to the Paris climate accord with the underlying message it wont make trade deals any easier.

Wherever there is no consensus that can be achieved, disagreement has to be made clear, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. Unfortunately  and I deplore this  the United States of America left the climate agreement.  I am gratified to note that the other 19 members of the G-20 feel the Paris agreement is irreversible.

I will not concede anything in the direction of those who are pushing against multilateralism, said French President Emmanuel Macron, warning against moving back toward narrow-minded nationalism.

EU nations will not negotiate individually with the U.S., despite Trumps concerns of a trade deficit with Germany.

If he takes measures to protect the U.S. steel industry  primarily against dumping by China, but also by Germany  EU Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker indicated immediate retaliation would be forthcoming against the U.S. whiskey and bourbon industries.

Trump, though, was willing to make a deal  a peculiar one with Putin.

While Europe has been actively countering Russian disinformation  dezinformatsiya or weaponized information  designed to create societal unrest in Western democracies, including the United States  Trump initially indicated a willingness to partner with Putin on cybersecurity.

During a meeting with Putin that lasted more than two hours, Trump tweeted, I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. Ive already given my opinion.....

Despite the unanimous opinion of 17 U.S. intelligence agencies about Russian meddling, Trump had equivocated while in Poland. I think it was Russia, and it could have been other people in other countries. Nobody really knows for sure.

Putin waged his own dezinformatsiya campaign with Trump, stating at a news conference, When possible, I answered his questions in detail. I got the impression that my answers satisfied him.

President Trump vowed to move forward in working constructively with Russia. He tweeted, Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called the proposal not the dumbest idea Ive ever heard, but its pretty close, adding Trump is literally the only person I know of who doesnt believe Russia attacked our election in 2016.

I am sure that Vladimir Putin could be of enormous assistance in that effort since hes doing the hacking, said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Despite the colossal stupidity of sharing cybersecurity secrets with an enemy  giving the fox entry to the henhouse  administration officials tried to justify it.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said, This is like any other strategic alliance, whether were doing military exercises with our allies or anything else. This is about having capabilities to make sure that we both fight cyber together, which I think is a very significant accomplishment for President Trump.

Putin is our ally?

Twelve hours later, Trump came to his senses. The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesnt mean I think it can happen. It cant.

In Hamburg, Trump flunked The Art of the Deal.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 11, 2017 | 09:48 PM | MAYFIELD, KY

A man faces multiple charges after police say shots were fired in Mayfield Friday night.

According to the Mayfield Police Department, officers responded to a shots fired call at the Mayfield Plaza Apartments around 10:30 pm. Witnesses told police that 29-year-old Edward Williams of Mayfield had fired two shots outside the apartment complex.

Officers were told that Williams then entered one of the apartments. When police went to the apartment, they saw Williams place a small dark object into a trash can. Officers looked in the trash can and found a handgun and a loaded magazine.

Williams was arrested after police determined he was a convicted felon. While searching Williams, a small amount of marijuana was found, as well as a 9 mm round matching the ones loaded in the magazines. It was later determined that Williams had been banned from the plaza apartments.

Williams was charged with burglary, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, tampering with physical evidence and possession of marijuana. He was lodged in the Graves County Jail.
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A startup needs to test an idea quickly. For this, an MVP is created. MVP, Minimal Viable Product  a test version of a product or service with a minimum set of functions (up to one or two), which allows you to see the product's value for consumers and the market. MVP is created to test hypotheses and check the viability of the intended product: is it worth developing the project further, what changes should be made? The sooner a startup brings its MVP to market and tests the idea, the better. This article will look at how no-code technology can help founders achieve their business goals.

This article will try to cover everything that a founder needs to know about no-code at the initial stage of creating a startup.

What is no-code?

No-code, zero-code platform is a tool for creating websites, applications, chatbots, and other programs without the need for direct code writing by programmers. No-code is a valuable alternative to traditional development.

No-code is confused with low-code, but there is a difference in these terms. Low-code includes no-code and the ability to "finish code", add parts of code and the functionality.

A user of a no-code platform usually does not need to know layout, programming languages, or hire a team of programmers. The user of the no-code tool creates an application using a visual block constructor, which he fills with the necessary content and functions, and the no-code platform itself does the processing of requests, compiling the application and other "magic." It generates code using AI and/or contains blocks of code pre-written by programmers.

No-code allows the startup founder to create an MVP himself, entrust it to his employee with basic technical literacy and understanding of the project, or hire a no-code developer. Even in the case of hiring a no-code developer, the cost of creating an MVP will be significantly lower than with classical development with programmers. For example, you can read the interview of a startup and no-code developer on our website, who initially worked as a Product Manager and was able to master no-code for his project himself.

Benefits of no-code for a startup founder

There are the following key advantages for a startup founder in using no-code technology:

a large selection of no-code tools, platforms, and their integrations at the moment  already in 2022, there are many tools and platforms for creating an MVP, a larger project, or even a finished product on no-code, but few people still know about them, and others are far from all startups and founders use their potential;

cost  no-code development saves the money by speeding up the development process, not hiring professional programmers or no need to maintain a developer department, monitoring functions and quick bug fixes, avoiding or reducing the growth of technical debt;

speed is the main advantage over classical development  no-code allows you to build a simple application in a weekend, and a more complex one can be built in a month. In this way, you can test an MVP and even several versions of an MVP very quickly;

low entry threshold  to master a no-code platform, you often do not need technical education at all, but only an understanding of a company's business processes or product from the inside. In the case of pro-level no-code platforms, technical education is required, but you can get used to it hundreds of times faster than with any programming language. This makes no-code available to almost everyone who wants to work with technology;

ease of use  no need to write hundreds of code lines  just move the blocks and assign links between them. Work on a project can be entrusted to your employee without communicating with a team of third-party developers. You can speak "in your language" without the need to understand the "inner kitchen" of developers;

flexibility  with the help of no-code, it is easy for a startup founder to add new functionality and new features right during a project or a MVP testing without a significant increase in development costs.

Possible disadvantages of no-code for a startup founder

As often, any property can be, under certain conditions, both a disadvantage and an advantage. In no-code, many of the benefits with the wrong choice of tool can turn into disadvantages:

no-code is not always a budget solution for a project. Sometimes in a no-code development package, you get unnecessary functions and additions (on AppMaster.io you can separately connect the frontend and pay only for the backend or only for those functions that you are using); if you do not understand the needs of your project, then you can make a mistake with the choice of a no-code tool and not be able to implement the necessary functions on it, or it will be too difficult to implement them; often, no-code tools fail to ensure proper data security and contribute to data leakage (but AppMaster.io allows you to host a finished application on any server); no-code tools often do not provide the ability to upload source code or provide uploading in an inconvenient format, which makes it difficult to move to another tool or to your development. You have to choose a no-code tool "once and forever immediately" (AppMaster. io gives you the ability to download the source code. Also, we generate human-readable code and you will not have any difficulties with its transportation); most no-code tools on the market are not suitable for creating a finished product, and there are significant difficulties with scaling the project if the MVP is successful (AppMaster.io is a professional no-code platform and our capabilities allow us to implement and support the finished product and scale it in the future).

Forewarned is forearmed. Choose your no-code tool wisely and take full advantage of your choice.

Types of no-code platforms

Conventionally, all no-code tools can be divided into several types: no-code devices with a low entry threshold (you can create frontend and not very powerful backend on them), integrators that help connect applications and services, and professional no-code platforms (they strive to replace the code completely, provide the ability to create a robust backend and high bandwidth).

The basic principle of operation of your MVP and the choice of a no-code platform depend on such a conditional division into types. For example, if you make a simple application like a diary, you can limit yourself to a no-code tool with a low entry threshold and a beautiful design.

If your application has powerful potential, high bandwidth, multi-user interface, and works with large amounts of data or real-time data, it is better to choose a professional no-code platform like AppMaster.io or Direcual.

If you use several services at once, link them on integrators like Integromat and Zapier.

Adalo

An easy-to-learn designer with a relatively user-friendly interface. The free version is helpful for learning. The free version contains Adalo watermarks and does not allow you to upload your applications to GooglePlayMarket and AppStore. Beginners often choose this no-code platform to create their first applications with simple logic.

Bubble

It will take more time to learn Bubble , but the platform allows you to work with the backend, databases, business processes, and layout. There are many plugins. The free plan allows you to master the tool, and you can start developing at the middle rate. The price increase is due to the rise in the number of users.

Integromat

It is an integrator. Experts talk about it as a simple and affordable platform for linking applications and services. Scenarios can be created personally, or you can use templates. If you need to connect an application with a service not from the Integromat database, fill out the form and connect to its API via HTTP.

Zapier

This is an integrator for linking applications with each other or with other external services. You can transfer data between thousands of applications. There is a script constructor (one event starts a chain of necessary actions).

Directual

The no-code platform positions itself for creating MVP applications (Minimal Viable Product, minimum viable product) and full-fledged applications of finished products. Scenarios are the backbone of the platform. Using scripts, you can automate the backend logic of the application, create and combine workflows. The Directual catalog includes out-of-the-box connectors, HTTP requests, webhooks, database listeners, and integration with popular services.

AppMaster.io

No-code next-generation platform for creating native and web applications on a real backend. Visual drag-and-drop designer, user-friendly business process designer, one-click app publishing to AppMaster Cloud, or integration with any cloud platform. Push notifications, authorization using social networks. Networks, email, and more. Connect applications to hundreds of services or programmatically access them using APIs. The ability to upload source code and documentation in a human-readable format and transfer it to your servers. Documentation auto-generation. Modern and fast language GoLang at the core.

No-code perspectives for startups

No-code development is gradually gaining popularity around the world. There are already more than 500 no-code tools for creating websites and various types of applications.

According to the forecasts of IT world experts, no-code will develop more and more actively and capture parts of the market responsible for medicine, small online business, small business, and all niches where it is possibly necessary to optimize and automate development processes.

The mass shift of businesses and their customers online and to gadgets has increased the demand for the fast and inexpensive creation of mobile applications that would work according to a single quality standard and have a simple, understandable, user-friendly interface.

Conclusion

No-code is visual programming in the form of a constructor without directly writing code. Usually, basic knowledge in development is enough to build applications on no-code.

The logic of no-code constructors is intuitive: the application interface is assembled from blocks, icons, buttons, and text which are connected to the database. Usually, you can choose a suitable template or do everything from scratch. Speed and economy are the main advantages of no-code tools.

No-code is suitable for creating an MVP, testing an idea or new features in a product, saving time for solving standard tasks. PRO level no-code platforms can provide you with a finished product, an application.

If you don't have an account on AppMaster.io yet, join us. After registration, you will be given a free trial period for 14 days, in which all the basic functionality of the platform is available. It will allow you to learn the intricacies of working with a professional-level no-code platform and understand its potential.
Jul 14, 2017 | By Tess

Shandong Linglong Tire, a China-based manufacturer of automotive tires, has teamed up with the Beijing University of Chemical Technology to develop 3D printed tires made from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) rather than rubber. In a recent development, the partners said they had successfully produced and tested a prototype of the innovative additively manufactured tire.

The 3D printed TPU tire, which is the first of its kind in China, offers a few advantages over traditional rubber-based tires, including less heat build-up and consequently lower rolling resistance with TPU treads. Additionally, Shandon Linglong Tire says that TPU is both safe and easy to use and can easily be recycled when tires are worn out or damaged. Rubber tires, as many will know, are extremely difficult to recycle.

Another big bonus of 3D printing tires from TPU is that they are much less expensive to produce and maintain than traditional rubber tires. As the Chinese company expressed, it believes TPU will be the main material for the next generation of green tire.

To make the innovative tire, the joint team of researchers used FDM 3D printing to extrude layer after layer of TPU material. The 3D printed tires design incorporates a hexagonal honeycomb structure, which is one of the strongest infill patterns for a 3D printed object.

Traditional tires are made using a tire mold, which are costly and time consuming to make. 3D printing, said Shandong Linglong Tire, will streamline the entire process, making it not only cheaper, but also faster and overall more efficient. The tire manufactured with polyurethane materials has the features of the simple manufacturing process, safety, endurance, environmental protection, and cycle use of waste tires, said the company.

Having successfully tested their first 3D printed TPU tire, the partners will move on to advancing the tires design and the TPUs composition in order to improve heat and moisture resistance, as well as overall performance. Perhaps someday soon, well actually get to see these 3D printed TPU tires hit the road.

Goodyear's "Eagle 360 Urban" 3D printed tire concept

3D printed tires, while not in use yet (at least not on production vehicles), are becoming an increasingly popular idea for car manufacturers. Both Goodyear and Michelin, two of the top tire manufacturers in the world, have released concept designs for futuristic 3D printed tires. And while these (both pretty experimental) concepts may never become a reality, we definitely agree with Shandong Linglong Tire: there is a future for 3D printed tires.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Jul 14, 2017 | By David

Weve reported before on the increasing use of 3D printing in the world of sailing, as the technology is being implemented more and more to allow the most cutting-edge yacht designs. This trend is set to continue in the years to come, and a recent presentation given by a leading naval architect at the Superyacht Design Symposium suggests that 3D printing technology could be capable of producing an entire yacht by the year 2030.

Photo: Gregory C. Marshall Naval Architect

The annual Superyacht Design Symposium was held in February this year, at the prestigious Kitzbuhel ski resort in Austria. British double Olympic gold medal-winning sailor Shirley Robertson was one of the guest speakers, as was Canadian naval architect Greg Marshall. Marshall outlined the future of 3D printing in yacht-building in his speech, informing attendees of the huge range of advantages the technology has over other manufacturing methods.

According to Marshall, waste reduction is one of the key factors that 3D printing technology brings with it, and it will contribute to the technology disrupting the yacht manufacturing industry in a significant way. Additive manufacturing is changing the playing field, he says. In the very near future, we will be using it to build superior yachts that have significant material reductions and much smaller carbon footprints...

Whereas conventional ship-building methods lead to between 15 and 20 percent of raw materials going to waste, 3D printing technologys streamlining of the manufacturing process will cut this figure down to as little as 2 percent. Not only is this a major saving in terms of outlay for materials, but it will also cut down on labour costs. These savings will allow for improved efficiency, better quality builds and the increased feasibility of more advanced, elaborate designs.

He believes that the yachts of the future will likely be 3D printed from titanium, a material with significant benefits compared to steel, which has been traditionally used for the major ship components. Titanium is much more lightweight than steel, which means that the same amount of power will be capable of achieving much higher boat speeds. It also has a melting point 300 degrees higher than steel, offering hugely improved fire protection. Ship interiors could be 3D printed from titanium and then later covered with wood veneers and stone work. Maintenance of yachts would also be a lot easier with titanium, as it is far less likely to corrode and is a bio-compatible material, which means it can also be used in human prosthetic implants.

Late 2017 should see the completion of an industrial-scale 3D printer for producing large yacht parts, and an even larger one is expected by 2020. Marshall believes that by the mid 20s the yacht industry will be printing entire six-meter (19.6 feet) yacht tenders in one step: We picture by 2030 well probably be fairly close to 3D printing full-scale metal structures on boats and interiors will come after that, he said.

The 3D printing process can build a finished project more or less directly from the initial design stage. This drastic shortening of production time means that a 45-meter yacht, which would previously take between two to three years to finish, could soon be completed in as little as 90 days.

Marshalls predictions are undoubtedly exciting news for potential and existing sailing enthusiasts everywhere, and the implementation of innovative 3D printing technology will ensure that it continues to be plain sailing for the next generation of yacht owners.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

Source: Digital Trends

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Richard wrote at 7/26/2017 5:09:11 PM:One place where yacht designers can already make use of 3D printing is in making models for tank testing. Are they doing that? I dont think so. Years ago, before 3D printing, I made models for tank testing. I am an amateur boat designer just for my own use. Because of the length of time needed for each model, I made only a few. I made them specifically to answer some theoretical questions, not as any particular design to be built. The results from the experiments contradicted the theory Id been taught from professional yacht designers. Using some, not all, of the lessons learned from the model testing, I made a tiny rowboat out of one sheet of plywood and a few boards. I showed the design to some professional designers, and they panned it. It will be slow It will be unstable they asserted. I built it, then took it out in somewhat rough waters. It was surprisingly stable, more stable than many boats many times its size in the same conditions. Under oar power alone, I was easily able to exceed theoretical hull speed, contradicting both theory and the mathematical formulae yacht designers use to calculate boat speed. Yet years later, I see professional yacht designers still making claims based on their theories and mathematical models that my experiments disproved. I expected that with their greater resources and expertise, they long ago would have exceeded my experimental results, but they havent. If there are any professional boat designers reading this, get out your 3D printers, do the tests that I couldnt do, you can make complex models that I could only dream about back then. You can test all sorts of permutations that were beyond my resources back then. Then lets see the results that you come up with.




9AA: Wall tops Parkston for first state football title in 28 years
Image Group LA/ABCColdplay released their Kaleidoscope EP today, and with it, a new song called "Miracles (Someone Special)." The track features a guest appearance from rapper Big Sean. Both "Miracles (Someone Special)" and the Kaleidoscope EP are now available for digital download.

By the way, "Miracles (Someone Special)" is a different song from "Miracles," which Coldplay recorded for the 2014 Angelina Jolie-directed film Unbroken.

The five-track Kaleidoscope also features the previously released "Hypnotised," "All I Can Think About Is You" and "A L I E N S," plus the "Tokyo Remix" of Coldplay's collaboration with EDM duo The Chainsmokers, "Something Just Like This."

Coldplay will launch a North American tour in August.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Elder Conservatorium guitar students to perform in South Korea

Friday, 14 July 2017



Students and staff of the University of Adelaide's Elder Conservatorium of Music will embark on a tour of South Korea starting next week, with a program of concert performances and cultural activities from 17-30 July.



Under the direction of lecturer Oliver Fartach-Naini, the immersive Korean tour will see a group of 10 Elder Conservatorium classical guitar students perform in the concert program Musica Australis.



After leaving Adelaide on Monday 17 July, their first stop will be the third Korean International Guitar Festival in Yangpyeong, near Seoul, where the Adelaide students will perform alongside colleagues from Korea, China and Japan, as well as international festival artists.



Musica Australis features Australian solo and chamber music composed by Richard Charlton, Phillip Houghton, Adelaide's own Anne Cawrse and Ian Seaborn, as well as Elder Conservatorium student compositions by James Rawley and Callum Goodhand, and staff member Stephen Whittington.



Apart from other cultural activities and festival performances, the students' two-week study and performance tour will include a concert in Tongyeong, one of Adelaides partner cities within the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN).



"South Korea is one of the world's largest per-capita markets for classical music, and a major force in contemporary and popular music," Mr Fartach-Naini says.



"This is a unique, in-depth experience that will greatly benefit our students, both in terms of performance and in developing awareness of other cultures and creativity.



"We look forward to proudly representing Adelaide and our State in South Korea," he says.

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Media Release
Inmarsat is partnering with Team Rubicon UK, a military veteran-led disaster response NGO, to enhance its capabilities by providing satellite communications equipment and extra manpower in the form of volunteers.





Team Rubicon was founded by two US Marines in the wake of the Haitian earthquake in January 2010. Seeing the devastation of that natural disaster, the two defied government and aid organisation advice and flew out to Haiti to put their Marine skills to use in the response and recovery efforts.



They quickly realised that military veterans had many skills that could be brought to bear on disaster situations, and subsequently founded Team Rubicon. The organisation now has approximately 45,000 members in the USA, and registered as a charity in the UK in June 2015, where it has recruited more than 1,500 members.



Stuart Lane, Director of Field Operations at Team Rubicon in the UK commented on their work and how Inmarsat will enhance it: We are developing a wide variety of skillsets, and so we can offer a range of emergency response solutions  from the early stages of disaster response, where a lot of the work is the immediate support of communities and assessment and prioritisation of tasks to save and protect lives, to the latter stages of reconstruction.



A key part of disaster response and recovery is organisation and coordinating resources so that actions make the maximum impact. Communications are fundamental to establishing this  many people want to help in a disaster, but when they arent coordinated effectively they can actually hinder emergency response efforts.



As we have discovered in previous deployments, where we have sometimes had problems with connectivity in the field it has adversely affected our ability to establish reliable communications, and therefore to make a difference on the ground as a team.



Inmarsat will help us to overcome this problem by providing satellite phones, Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN), IsatData Pro (IDP) and Global Xpress technologies, which connect to their communications networks, providing a stable and secure connection.



This enables us to coordinate our work internally and reach-back to UK for subject matter expertise and remote support; whilst tying in with other agencies wherever we are in the world.



Inmarsats technology has already proved incredibly useful in the field, improving both our abilities to help co-ordinate relief efforts and to let the world know what is happening in disaster-afflicted areas. We are delighted to be enhancing our relationship with the worlds leading mobile satellite communications provider.







Under the partnership, Inmarsat employees will have the opportunity to train with Team Rubicon to become a Greyshirt, a trained Team Rubicon volunteer. This will lead to the deployment of Inmarsat staff to disaster zones to help, specifically with the use of Inmarsat equipment, but also generally with other important jobs, assisting affected communities.



On average, there is a significant disaster every two years, but at any given time there are countless disasters going on around the world.



This partnership with Inmarsat will help us to act even more decisively to help rebuild countries and save lives, continued Stuart Lane.



Paul Gudonis, President of Inmarsat Enterprise, military veteran and Team Rubicon Greyshirt has led the initiative within Inmarsat. Commenting on the significance of the partnership for Inmarsat he remarked: Inmarsats origins lie with the United Nations, as an NGO established by the International Maritime Organization to establish a satellite communications network for the maritime community and to therefore help people safely traverse the oceans.



This commitment to helping people through technology lies at the heart of who we are, and were really excited to bring this capability to an organisation that is doing fantastic work.



Team Rubicon leverages the invaluable skillsets of military veterans to help people in disaster zones  an incredible service that we are delighted to support.
US President Donald Trump, battling allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians to get him elected, has said he would invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House, but at the right time.

Trump expressed his willingness to invite Putin with reporters travelling with him enroute to Paris yesterday. It came at a time the scandal reached his eldest son after the American media reported that Donald Trump Jr last year met a Russian lawyer who had promised to provide information damaging to Hillary Clinton, Trumps Democratic rival.

According to the reports, Trump Jr met the lawyer at Trump Tower in New York in June. This week, he released emails about the meeting and the US president publicly defended his son for his transparency in releasing the emails.

Trump has denied allegations his campaign had contacted Russians to tilt the 2016 election in his favour, but the US intelligence agencies have differed with that assessment.

Aboard the Air Force One, Trump, when asked by reporters whether he would invite Putin to the White House, said, I dont think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would.

Look, its very easy for me to say absolutely, I wont. Thats the easy thing for me to do, but thats the stupid thing to do. Lets be the smart people not the stupid people, he said.

Trump described Russia as perhaps the second most powerful nuclear country in the world and said that if you dont have dialogue (with them), you have to be fools.

Since assuming office on January 20, the Republican president has appeared inclined to do business with Russia. Trump has previously spoken with Putin by phone, and at the G20 summit in Germany last week, they had their first face- to-face meeting since Trumps election, when he pressed Putin over the election meddling allegations.

Trump twice asked Putin whether Russia tried to hack the election during the meeting and was reportedly appeared satisfied with Putins denial.

Responding to the allegation that Putin favoured him over Clinton in presidential election, Trump said he would directly pose this question to the Russian president when he meets him next time.

The next time Im with Putin, Im going to ask him: who were you really for? Because I cant believe that he would have been for me. Me: strong military, strong borders  but he cares less about the borders  but strong military, tremendous, Trump said.
Condemning the alleged thrashing of a Muslim man in Nagpur district on the suspicion that he was carrying beef, Union minister Ramdas Athawale said that everyone has the right to eat beef.

He also called for severe punishment for violent cow vigilantes.

Everyone has the right to eat beef. Since goat meat is expensive, people eat beef. I condemn the Nagpur incident. It is not right to become a nar-bhakshak (man-eater) in the name of being a gau-rakshak (cow protector), the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment said.

He said cow-vigilantes should not take the law into their hands.

Such violent cow vigilantes should be punished, Athawale said.

A 31-year-old Muslim man, with links to the BJP, was brutally thrashed in public by alleged cow vigilantes on the suspicion that he was carrying beef in Maharashtras Nagpur district on Wednesday.

About explosives found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Athawale said this was a very serious matter.

This incident is similar to attack on Parliament, he said.

There is no conspiracy to kill Yogi (Adityanath), but there should be an investigation into the matter. Its possible terror links should be also probed, he said.

In a major security breach, a powerful plastic explosive was found in the UP Assembly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath informed the House, which unanimously recommended an NIA probe into it.

On NDAs presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, who is scheduled to visit Mumbai tomorrow, Athawale said, He should visit Matoshree and meet (Shiv Sena president) Uddhav Thackeray. Pranab Mukherjee had also visited Matoshree when his candidature was announced (for the post of president).

Sources in the BJP had earlier said Kovind was not scheduled to visit Thackerays residence during his Mumbai visit.
Mumbai University had established an FM radio service by incurring a cost of Rs 23 lakhs, and has a recurring expenses of Rs 12 lakhs per year, and the said service is non-functional as per information provided by the University to RTI Activist Anil Galgali.

Earlier Galgali had filed a query with the Mumbai University, seeking details of FM Radio Service. The Mumbai Universitys Department of Economics Co- Ordinator Neeraj Hatekar informed Galgali that the FM community radio service of the Mumbai University is currently not on air, as new transmitter is being acquired. The old transmitter which has been service for about 11 years needs to be replaced and the appropriate procedure is being followed. Mr Hatekar further informed Galgali that The FM Radio Service was launched at the hands of former President of India, Pratibha Singh Patil on 8th February 2008.

The initial budget allocation for setting up the radio station in 2006 was Rs 25 lakhs out of which Rs 22,80,798 was spent on the cost of installation and equipment. The average annual budget of the radio has been Rs 12 lakhs. In 2003-04, Senate Members Dr Amarjit singh Manhas , Sameer Desai, Prashant Patil, Tushar Jagtap then initiated this proposal before the Vice Chancellor. Galgali has finally commented that be it examinations results declaration or FM radio service, the Mumbai University is proving to be a complete failure in all its functions.
Phaneendra Rampalli was born in a small village in south India. He is employed in the information technology sector and has now made a foray in to movies. According to him there are many people who are juggling with multiple jobs and doing well in their career. He plans to play cameo role in future too. Our Group Editor Vaidehi Taman spoke to him to know more about his passion for movies and how he will maintain a balance between working in IT sector and films.

Tell me something about your journey from IT to cinema?

I was always passionate about theatre during my schooling days. I have completed my Masters Degree in Engineering and Industrial Management from Portland State University. During those days, I was employed with Dell in Hyderabad as one of my friend who works in the industry got impressed with some pictures posted by me in my Orkut account. He asked me to forward those pictures to Bomarillu Bhaskar who was directing the movie Orange. I was auditioned for a bubbly character and thus my journey into movies began.

How do you look at theatre and cinema while working in IT field? Does it add to your status?

I did not pursue a career in mimicry but I used to imitate few voices of celebrities.

While working in the information technology sector, I take every opportunity to engage myself in acting. We had several meetups in California which were focused on short film making and theatre plays. I try to indulge myself during the weekends. It definitely adds value to my resume as I am also pursuing an extra-curricular activity. But I should say that I am no different than anyone as there are many talented people out there who are travelling in two boats and have achieved success.

Tell us about your experience in acting. Have you undergone any training?

My first experience before the camera was with Genelia D Souza in the movie Orange which was shot in Malaysia and Australia. I was very nervous but still won many accolades for my acting during the shoot. I did not receive any formal training but whatever I learnt on stage was from school. I thank my social studies and Telugu teachers at school who encouraged me and noticed my talent that enabled me to become what I am today.

Does your family possess any theatre background?

Yes. My father Sadashiv Rampally has done several stage plays in Ravindra Bharati and many other cultural associations. He has acted in few movies with Suresh Productions like Ganesh, Preminchukundam Ra etc. I am sure that I got these genes from my parents.

Your father is a very renowned mimicry artist. Have you ever thought of pursuing this profession?

I always used to sit in the front row and observe my father while he used to perform. Even though, I did not pursue a career in mimicry but I used to imitate few voices of celebrities. I used to entertain my friends at school and on the movie sets sometimes.

There are many youngsters struggling in the film industry and land up doing nothing. What advice would you like to offer them?

It is all about networking, talent and fate. In my opinion, one should acquire strong education first may it be joining an acting school or getting an engineering degree. Later one can pursue his/her dreams of becoming an actor. I have a best friend who has gained popularity after doing versatile films. He completed his bachelors degree and then worked hard to get into the film industry. Initially, he played cameo roles but he has become an established actor now. So its all about working hard in whatever you do and shine one day.

Tell us something about the movie Ninnu Kori in which you had acted recently.

I heard from a casting director whom I met at a party in San Francisco that the director of the film Ninnu Kori is searching for actors. I made sure that I received a casting call for the project. It all happened very fast that I got selected for a role which is a supporting role for the hero. It was a wonderful experience acting with Tollywoods most famous actors and actresses. We shot in beautiful locations in San Francisco and its surroundings. I learnt a lot with the established actors while I was working with them on the sets. Nivetha Thomas, Nani and Aadhi Pinisetty are playing lead roles in this movie.

How did you get a break in this movie?

As I said, I knew few people who are connected with the movie industry in Bay Area, California.

Where can we see you after few years, as a successful actor or IT professional?

I am not quitting IT Industry for sure. I am currently working as a Scrum Master/Project Management professional at Intel Corporation, Santa Clara. I will take on these cameo roles as they come while I continue to become an expert in my field of work.

What are your strengths?

Communication and people skills are my strength.

What is your weakness?

My weakness is that I tend to trust people very easily.

What message would you like to give to our readers?

Be confident and believe in yourself that you will become successful one day no matter what it takes to achieve that.
I have lost count, how many times I pleaded for at least a limited national service to impart discipline in our youth. Every young person in Israel is well trained and disciplined. Most of our youth are indisciplined, untrained and now have become cow protectors. I had visited Israel many times on ship because our owner was an Israeli American. I had good fortune of visiting Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Palestinian 2 to 3 times. Once I was going to join ship from Haifa. I had caught a cold but I did not want to miss the ship. I went to doctor before going on board and our manager said you will feel better after having few pills. Doctor checked me and asked me to go to X- ray room. He showed me pneumonia patches on my left lung. Before I could say anything within five minutes, I had changed my clothes and was hospitalised and offered medicines. Everything facility was provided to me in the hospital. I stayed for two days and was sent back to Mumbai for recuperating. Just before leaving, I hesitatingly asked for a few capsules for consuming them in Mumbai.Doctors offered me a box of capsules without asking any questions. Thats Israel my friends.

Discipline and hard work makes a nation. No politician will tell you this because you will get angry and not vote for him. What shall we do with so much defence equipment? It is better to seek water resource development authority of foreign nations and irrigate our barren land for promoting agriculture. Israelis and Palestinians must start living in peace and work together . For this, they must come out of the clutches of Hamas.

There is violence and turmoil in Muslim countries due to lack of leadership, neither in India, nor across the world. There are no amicable leaders in Iran, Iraq, Misr etc. Strong and progressive Iran will augur well for the world. Egypt not developing to its full potential. If Suez Canal is transformed then it will pave for development of trade and add to the nations GDP. We had a good time in Alexandria. I have not seen and tasted groundnuts as big and tasty as those present in Alexandria. Rising unemployment, increasing wage disparity, scarcity of water and electricity are the issues faced by India. We must seek assistance of technicians from other countries to improve our work culture.

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
Pakistan military said on Friday that the security forces had foiled an early morning terrorists attack from the Afghan side of the border.

Two suicide bombers, who were among a group of the attackers, were killed by the security forces in Khyber tribal region, which borders Afghanistans eastern Nangarhar province, an army statement said from the Inter-Services Public Relations, the armys media wing.

The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar said it was involved in the attack on a military camp.

Security forces foiled terrorists attack on border post in Khyber Agency, the statement said.

Terrorists including 2 suicide bombers from across the border attempted fire raid and target Misthara post, 2 km northwest of Jarobi on Pak-Afghan Border, the statement said.

Two soldiers got injured in exchange of fire with the terrorists, it said.

Pakistani security officials insist that Pakistani militants, who have escaped as the result of major military operations in tribal regions in recent years, have crossed into Afghanistan and now operate from there.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have nearly 2,600 kilometers common border, mostly porous, and the militants used to take advantage of the absence of an effective border management system.

Pakistan says it has started fencing its border with Afghanistan to stop the cross-border movement of the armed groups.
Three gunmen opened fire at police near Jerusalems holiest site on Friday, wounding three Israelis, two of them critically, before the attackers were killed by security forces, Israeli police said.

The gunmen arrived at the sacred site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, and walked toward one of the Old City gates nearby, police spokeswoman Luba Simri said.

When they saw policemen they shot toward them and then escaped toward one of the mosques in the Temple Mount compound, Simri said. A chase ensued and the three terrorists were killed by police.

She said three firearms were found on their bodies.

Mobile phone video footage aired by Israeli media showed several policemen chasing a man and shooting him down at the site, which is a popular place for foreign tourists to visit. Israeli authorities are still working to identify the attackers, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.

The Israeli ambulance service Magen David Adom said three Israelis were wounded, two critically. Tensions are often high around the marble-and-stone compound that houses the Aqsa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock. It is managed by Jordanian authorities and is adjacent to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are permitted to pray.

Police said Friday prayers for Muslims would not be held at the site following the attack.

Source: Reuters
By John Stone



The British government have announced the addition to the infant vaccine schedule of a Hepatitis B vaccine from August 1, as one component of GSKs controversial hexavalent vaccine Infanrix Hexa which also includes DTaP, polio and HiB. Additional to this a two month old infant will receive rotavirus vaccine, 13 strain pneumococcal, and Meningitis B vaccines. So far, the British Medical Journal have not allowed my electronic response to its news story:

I read with concern the report by Torjesen that the United Kingdom government plan to add a Hepatitis B vaccine to the infant schedule as part of hexavalent vaccine product Infanrix Hexa, manufactured by GSK [1].

Irrespective of considerations such as the policy of the World Health Organisation, or the financial viability of the intervention, eyebrows may be raised at the ethics of the vaccination of many children against a disease from which they are little at risk (as Torjesen's article admits).

In 2015 Puliyel calculated a potential excess of 69 sudden infant deaths from Infanrix Hexa over a two year period based on a confidential pharmacovigilance report submitted by GSK to the regulatory authorities which had been released to the public domain by the Italian Ministry of Justice. His observations are published on PubMed Commons [2].

The recommendation to include this vaccine on the infant schedule was made at the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation meeting of October 2014, chaired then [3] and now by Prof Andrew Pollard [4]. Prof Pollard is Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group which develops vaccines and conducts trials on behalf of industry [5]. Prof Pollard is also a Trustee of the Jenner Vaccine Foundation with Dr Norman Begg, Vice-President and Chief Medical Officer of GSK Biologicals [6] which manufactures Infanrix Hexa. The Jenner Vaccine Foundation is chaired by Dr David Salisbury [6] who as Director of Immunisation, Department of Health, chaired the panel that appointed Prof Pollard as Chair of the JCVI in 2013 [7].

[1] Ingrid Torjesen, 'UK adds hepatitis B to infant vaccination schedule', BMJ 2017; 358 doi: (Published 10 July 2017)

[2] Response to Baldo et al, 'Combined hexavalent diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis-hepatitis B-inactivated poliovirus-Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine; Infanrix hexa: twelve years of experience in Italy', PumMed Commons 2015, January 13, 06.40am
THIS AND THAT: Going back in time to the Battle of Culloden
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FedEx Trade Networks will add a surcharge on shipments from Bangladesh to the European Union (EU) after stricter security standards were introduced.

FedExs forwarding arm said that as a result of the EU adding Bangladesh to its list of high-risk countries shipments will need to go through new screening measures in addition to those already applied.

As a result, the company will apply additional re-screening charges of $0.15 per kg on shipments heading from Bangladesh to EU destinations and there will be an additional one day transit time until further notice.

On June 1, the EU imposed enhanced security requirements for cargo originating from Bangladesh that stipulates all exports from the country must be screened by x-ray machines and also using explosive detection systems  either an explosive detection dog unit (EDD) or an explosive detection system (EDS).

However, at present Dhakas Hazrat Shahjalal airport has neither an EDD or EDS, meaning cargo must be scanned at another destination before it can fly to EU destinations.

Other forwarders have also warned that the new security measures will push up prices and cause delays.

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July 13, 2017

CAIRO  At the first Nile Basin States Summit held June 22 in Entebbe, Uganda, Cairo failed to amend the three clauses it rejects in the Entebbe Agreement. The latter, also known as the Cooperative Framework Agreement, was drafted as part of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and is aimed at regulating use of the river's waters in the 10 countries it flows through. While six of the upstream countries have signed the agreement, Egypt, Sudan and Congo maintain their opposition.

The most important of the three clauses Cairo rejects is the one relating to water security. This one, which addresses the fair use and distribution of Nile water, failed to recognize Egypts historical annual quota from the Nile River, amounting to 55.5 billion cubic meters of water, or Sudan's 18.5 billion cubic meters in accordance with the 1959 Nile Waters Agreement. Egypt must now pin its hopes on other rounds of negotiations between the heads of state as it calls for another summit in Cairo.

Both the Sudanese and the Ethiopian delegations withdrew from preparatory meetings on the water issue held two days before the Nile Basin States Summit.

Cairo is seeking to resume technical projects and other activities in the Nile Basin that were suspended when Egypt froze its membership in the NBI in 2010 after six countries signed the Entebbe Agreement. In addition to not recognizing Egypts water quota, the agreement allows upstream countries to build dams, block or store water from the river without prior notice. Cairo believes that the agreement poses a threat to its water security.

The agreement also stipulates that decisions must be voted upon based on a majority system, while Cairo demands decisions be made by consensus as stipulated in the NBI constitutive act because the numerous upstream countries have many common interests, while the downstream countries will be greatly affected by any decisions that do not take their interests into account.

Al-Monitor interviewed Mona Omar, Egypt's former ambassador to South Africa, Denmark and Rwanda, who is now the director of the African Center at the British University in Egypt and assistant to the former Egyptian foreign minister for African affairs.

The interview includes questions about the future of cooperation between Egypt and the other Nile countries and about the feasibility of holding future meetings of heads of the Nile Basin states. The text of the interview follows:

Al-Monitor: What is your take on the future of cooperation between Egypt and the Nile Basin states following the recent summits failure to reach solutions on the differences over the Entebbe Agreement?

Omar: First of all, I dont agree that the summit was a failure, because it was the first positive step taken in many years. The Nile Basin states presidents met to discuss the issue, and their differences were technical, not political. Their positions differed given their different interests, and no one expected them to reach a consensus at the first meeting, especially considering that the principles that Egypt is clinging to cannot be waived. Cairo insists that the use of the river water be determined in accordance with the needs of each country and its population. It also insists on the principle of prior notice before any project is started in the upper Nile and to a unanimous voting mechanism instead of a majority one.

As for the fate of future cooperation between the Nile Basin states and Egypt in the event of continued differences, the current Egyptian approach is to strengthen relations with all of the Nile Basin states, all the while entrenching the principle of common interests rather than the interest of one party at the expense of another. The meetings held at the sidelines of international forums among leaders of the Nile states and Egypt confirm that there is an ongoing dialogue and that Egypt is on the right track.

Al-Monitor: Do you expect other similar meetings?

Omar: Egypt has offered to host another summit focusing on cooperation in order to achieve joint development projects away from any points of contention.

Al-Monitor: The Egyptian historical quota of the Nile waters is the main point of contention with the upstream countries. To what extent does the water security clause in the Entebbe Agreement fail to assure Cairo regarding its quota?

Omar: This article has two parts, the first of which is about quota sharing. It wouldnt be fair for water quotas to be distributed without regard for the needs of each country and population. The second part calls for prior notification in accordance with international law. Being a downstream country, Egypt has the right to be notified before any project is started on the Upper Nile so that it can assess the potential danger and negative impact that might ensue as far as the flow of water to it is concerned. Egypt suggested that prior notification should not be made in a bilateral way so that Egypt is not accused of undermining the sovereignty of any state. It said that notification should be made collectively through the NBI. Third, Egypt objects to the majority voting mechanism stated in the agreement, and instead calls for unanimous voting because the two downstream states are a minority.

Al-Monitor: What is your take on the Nile document submitted by Egypt during the recent summit of Nile Basin states presidents as an alternative to the Entebbe Agreement?

Omar: I havent looked at the document yet, but I dont think it included general issues that all countries could have agreed on, and Egypt might have once again incorporated controversial points, thus preventing the upstream countries from adopting it.

Al-Monitor: Can Egypt participate in the NBI activities without being part of the Entebbe Agreement, similar to Sudan?

Omar: The agreement and the NBI are two sides of the same coin, and I wonder how a state objecting to a cooperation mechanism can join the entity behind this very mechanism. Frankly, Sudan's position is incomprehensible. By the way, Congo and South Sudan have not yet signed the agreement. There are still upstream countries whose parliaments have not yet ratified the entry into force of the agreement. I think that by doing so, these countries are keeping a leeway that could lead to the return of Egypt.

Al-Monitor: To what extent are the differences on the Entebbe Agreement related to the Renaissance Dam crisis, in light of the current obstacles hindering the finalization of the dams impact study?

Omar: Had the article of prior notice in the agreement been approved, and had the issue of equitable quota been based on the Egyptian request, things would have gone smoothly. The current course of the Renaissance Dam negotiations is stalled, which required Egypt to call for an urgent meeting among water ministers in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.

Al-Monitor: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir did not attend the Nile Basin states summit despite Sudanese media reports of a desire to join the agreement. How do you think Cairo would be affected?

Omar: Sudan's accession to the Entebbe Agreement would weaken [Sudan], being a downstream country, and when Egypt negotiates the principles of respect for historical water rights, it speaks for both downstream states, namely Egypt and Sudan. As for the Renaissance Dam, international reports have shown that it can cause damage and that the first victim would be Sudan. If there are differences between Egypt and the Sudan, then they should be put aside to serve the two countries' interests.
July 13, 2017

Samir al-Mashharawi, the right-hand man of Mohammed Dahlan, Fatah's former leader in the Gaza Strip, arrives in the coastal enclave next week. Dahlans supporters view Mashharawis arrival as the advent of his return to his roots within the framework of the new alliance forged between him and Hamas with Egypts mediation. Just a decade ago, Mashharawi, like Dahlan, was considered Hamas greatest enemy. During the 2007 uprising that brought Hamas to power, its armed wing Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades fired rockets toward Mashharawis house in Gazas Rimal neighborhood. As far as Mashharawi is concerned, the attempt to wipe him out was an act of ingratitude on the part of the man who was to become the movements leader, Ismail Haniyeh.

Years earlier, a wonderful friendship was forged between Mashharawi, who was a hardcore Fatah member, and Haniyeh. When Israel launched a campaign of targeted eliminations against the Hamas leadership and took out its heads  Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his successor, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi  in 2004, Haniyeh found refuge in Mashharawis house. Haniyeh, at the time a personal aide to Rantisi, disguised himself as a woman and fled to Mashharawis house, evading the fearsome guns of the Israeli Apache helicopters.

Three years later, when the armed wing of Hamas tried to assassinate Mashharawi, Haniyeh did not say a word and did not condemn the armed men willing to take out any Fatah member close to Dahlan, even one to whom Haniyeh owed his life.

Much has been written about the surprising alliance formed in recent months between Hamas and its former archenemy. Dahlan, also known as Abu Fadi, is now considered the savior angel of Gazas residents and their Hamas leaders after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas withdrew his support from half his people (the residents of Gaza) in order to punish Hamas.

Last month, Egypt sent a million tons of diesel oil to Gaza to enable the activation of its disabled power plant. A senior Palestinian source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that Abbas people in the West Bank called the director of the power station Abu Nabil and threatened him. They reportedly told him that if he accepts the shipment  the result of the labors of Abbas bitter rival Dahlan  he would make sure that the director was fired. The station head did not give in to the pressure and told the callers that Dahlan was the savior of Gazas 2 million besieged residents, and that he had full approval to accept the fuel from those who were once considered Dahlans biggest enemies, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Those already enjoying the fruit of the Hamas-Dahlan reconciliation are his people residing in Gaza, who for years were afraid to speak up. On the one hand, they did not want to anger Hamas, and on the other they feared Abbas people in Gaza.

Mashharawis impending return to the Strip after a decade is not simply a private visit to see his relatives, whom he left in a panicked rush during the uprising. It is also designed to create a mechanism for saving Gaza from collapse as part of the Egyptian-mediated Dahlan-Hamas deal. Mashharawi was present during all the discussions in Cairo, one of Dahlans people told Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity.

Mashharawi was known in the past as the mediator because he was able to settle disputes between Hamas and Fatah for over a decade from the time the Palestinian Authority was established until the Hamas uprising that kicked Fatah out of power in Gaza. He will now have to learn the lay of the land in order to understand the current balance of power in the Strip, given the split within Hamas and the power struggles between its armed and political wings. He will submit his findings to Dahlan.

Abbas never thought in his worst nightmares that the vacuum he was leaving in Gaza would be filled by Dahlan [whom he accused of trying to oust him] and his friends, a Gaza security source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. But Abu Fadi had no choice but to mobilize to save his people.

Posters and billboards placed recently throughout Gaza, in addition to sprayed graffiti, say, The President (Abbas) murders children. The campaign followed a decision by the PA to stop funding medicine and medical equipment for Gazas hospitals as part of the sanctions imposed by Abbas on the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank also stopped covering the hospitalization costs of severely ill patients requiring hospital treatment in Israel or the West Bank. Meanwhile, following angry public reaction to the deaths of babies and children denied life-saving treatment, the PA has restored its funding for such cases. Dahlans people say, however, that the coverage is more limited than it was before.

The senior Palestinian source said Mashharawi will set up a mechanism that will enable the transfer of severely ill Gaza residents to Egypt for treatment in Cairo or Alexandria hospitals, and, if needed, in the Gulf States. The source said a fund of several million dollars has already been established to cover the costs. In the coming days we will see convoys of ambulances heading toward the Rafah crossing [to Egypt] so that people can get life-saving treatment, he said.

Among all the jobs with which Mashharawi has been tasked, this has top priority, the senior Palestinian source said. Mashharawi has also been tasked with setting up a monitoring mechanism for the activation of the Gaza power station. This mechanism should enable constant contact between Egypt, Hamas and the station operators who are PA employees. These, according to the source, have come in for constant harassment by Abbas people.

In addition to all of the above, Mashharawi will arrange Dahlans visit to Gaza. Although no date has been set, his people estimate that its a matter of several weeks. He will come once it becomes clear to all the residents of the Strip that Abu Fadi  he and no one else  is the only one responsible for the improvement of peoples lives after their president cruelly abandoned them, the Palestinian senior source said.
July 13, 2017

Ambassadors rarely issue public statements condemning their host country. When they do, it's usually after consulting with the top echelons of their foreign ministries, and receiving their blessing. In even rarer cases does a foreign minister instruct his ministry's spokesman to publicly back away from his ambassador's comments. Israel's ambassador in Budapest, Yossi Amrani, was at the center of such a singularly embarrassing experience when he demanded that Hungarian authorities put an end to a political campaign bearing anti-Semitic overtones.

With Israel's foreign minister instructing the ministry's spokesman to back away from Amrani's declaration, Israel's diplomatic envoys around the world learned that from now on they must be careful with what they say in condemning anti-Semitism. From now on, they must understand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also holds the position of foreign minister, reserves accusations of anti-Semitism for attacks against foreign politicians and left-wing activists who dare to oppose the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and act against Israeli settlements on those lands.

It all started June 21, following a speech by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to his ruling Fidesz party. Orban singled out for praise the contributions of "several extraordinary politicians, such as Miklos Horthy" to his country's reconstruction after World War I. Not a single word about Horthy's role in the Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry during World War II. The Jewish community in Hungary and the World Jewish Congress were quick to denounce Orban. A statement issued by the Holocaust Museum in Washington said the praise Orban had lavished on Horthy as a statesman was an attempt to erase the role of the Hungarian regime in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust, and an insult to the memory of the victims.

Amrani's language was more measured. He simply called Orban's comments "worrying" and warned against any attempt to conceal the cooperation of the Horthy regime with the Nazis, the race laws that were passed under his tutelage and the Holocaust of Hungarian Jews. Orban did not retract his remarks. In a press statement he issued after a conversation with Amrani, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said he had told the Israeli diplomat that "Horthy's regime had positive periods, but also extremely negative ones." Szijjarto asked that "historical facts that clearly point to this be respected." As far as he's concerned, cooperation with the murder of half a million Jews was "a negative period" of equal value to Horthy's "positive periods."

Even though the Hungarian minister did not in any way mention Horthy's role in the extermination of Hungary's Jews, the spokesman of Israel's Foreign Ministry was ordered to announce that Israel believes his conversation with Amrani "constitutes an important clarification regarding recognition of the crimes committed by Horthy against Hungary's Jews."

It should be noted that Israeli law imposes a five-year prison term on anyone issuing written or verbal comments denying crimes committed at the time of the Nazis against Jews or against humanity, or lessening their extent with the intention of defending the perpetrators of those crimes or expressing admiration or identification with them.

Even though he did not get backing from Jerusalem, Amrani, a veteran diplomat, insisted on pursuing his fight against the anti-Semitism that is raising its head in Hungary. On July 10, he issued a statement demanding that Hungarian authorities put a stop to a nasty billboard campaign emitting a stench of anti-Semitism being waged by Orban against George Soros, the Jewish billionaire of Hungarian origin and Holocaust survivor, who supports human rights organizations throughout the world. Giant billboard ads and posters everywhere, including in train stations, showed a laughing Soros and beside him the caption "Don't let Soros have the last laugh" as part of a campaign against illegal migration.

The Jewish community, which is still licking its wounds from Orban's party speech, expected the Israeli government this time to join in condemning the campaign reminiscent of a dark past. And, indeed, the statement issued by the Israeli Embassy in Budapest said, "It's our moral responsibility to raise a voice and call on the relevant authorities to exert their power and put an end to this cycle." To everyone's surprise, "the relevant authorities" in Jerusalem (that is, the Foreign Ministry) cleared the Hungarian government of blame and took the opportunity to condemn Soros.

A Foreign Ministry statement dictated by the prime minister's office said, "In no way was the statement meant to delegitimize criticism of George Soros." According to the statement, Soros "continuously undermines Israel's democratically elected governments by funding organizations that defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself."

Despite the backing it received from Jerusalem, the Hungarian government announced July 12 that it would take down the billboard ads. Netanyahu will not get to see the smiling face of his nemesis during his upcoming visit to Budapest on July 18-19.

The small Jewish community in Hungary joins its far larger American sister, which found out the hard way that it cannot rely on the Jewish state in the fight against displays of anti-Semitism that have increased since President Donald Trump came to power in the United States. The explanation for Israel's abandonment of Hungary's Jewish community does not lie in concern for the upcoming summit in Hungary scheduled next week between the leaders of Israel, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. The reason Netanyahu refused to take a stand on the issue is not only his desire to nurture ties with regimes that share his disdain for the left and human rights organizations. Maybe he's a bit uncomfortable about criticizing a Hungarian politician who counts US campaign strategist Arthur Finkelstein among his advisers  the same Finkelstein who ran Netanyahu's election campaign in the past. But the roots of Netanyahu's relationship with diaspora Jewry lie elsewhere; they are planted deep in the home where he was raised, in the ideology espoused by his father.

His revered father, Benzion Netanyahu, declared a nationalist war of extinction against cosmopolitanism. In an article titled "In the Storm of the War," the historian of the Spanish Inquisition era wrote, "It was only the outbreak of anti-Semitism that awakened the Jews from the hibernation cast on them by cosmopolitan ideas." And what is the best way to fight those cosmopolitan ideas, such as human rights, equality and the brotherhood of nations? "The first condition for our total victory is made up of three elements," the elder Netanyahu wrote 80 years ago, and elaborated on them: "Propaganda, propaganda, propaganda."

Netanyahu junior followed his father's approach. While the prime minister is feeding world Jewry with right-wing propaganda, he is belittling the diaspora Jew, taking advantage of anti-Semitic incidents to encourage immigration to Israel. Ahead of Netanyahu's arrival in Paris this weekend, French Jews remember all too well his 2015 speech at the Paris Grand Synagogue. Then, right after the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket attacks, Netanyahu called on French Jews to immigrate to Israel. By doing so, he rejected the legitimacy of vibrant Jewish life outside Israel.
July 14, 2017

President Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, said at a July 13 joint press conference for Israeli and Palestinian representatives that "Water is a precious commodity in the Middle East. The US welcomes the agreement reached by the Palestinian Authority [PA] and the government of Israel, which will allow for the sale of 32 million cubic meters of water from Israel to the [PA]." The deal, which will allow Palestinians to purchase water at reduced rates, was made in the context of the Red Sea-Dead Sea canal project led by Israel and Jordan.

Also participating in the press conference, which took place in Jerusalem's King David Hotel, were Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Tzahi Hanegbi and the head of the Palestinian Water Authority, Mazen Ghonaim. "This is the biggest, most ambitious project ever in our region," said Hanegbi.

It is hard to remember the last time that official representatives of Israel and the Palestinians sat together in such a festive setting to celebrate the turning of a new page in their relationship. "I hope that this is an indication of what is to come," said Greenblatt. Perhaps he was referring to the renewal of negotiations to reach a permanent resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As far as the Palestinians were concerned, it was important to emphasize that this water agreement will not impact any other future political negotiations. They do not want to let Israel claim in any future talks that the issue of water has already been resolved and there is no reason to discuss it further. "This is a regional agreement which has nothing to do with the core issues of any final agreement or the rights of Palestinians to water," said Ghonaim. He went on to say that the 32 million cubic meters of water that the Palestinians will be able to purchase at a reduced rate will be divided between the West Bank (22 million cubic meters) and Gaza (10 million cubic meters). "This will ease the suffering of our people in Gaza in particular," he explained, "since 97% of the water there is unusable."

Israel claims that for the past three years, the Palestinians have refused to be integrated into the Red Sea-Dead Sea canal project, fearing that any understanding on the issue of water will be detrimental to reaching a comprehensive diplomatic agreement. A Palestinian source who spoke with Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity rejected this assertion, stating that Israel's preconditions for the inclusion of the Palestinians in the project made no sense. "All Israel said was that the Palestinians were welcome to participate," he claimed, "but for the past three years, it refused to get into any serious discussion about [their] role in this ambitious project, because of the tense relationship with [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas."

During the Barack Obama administration, US Secretary of State John Kerry worked hard to include the Palestinians in the project, mainly because the donor nations helping to finance it made funding conditional on Palestinian participation. The underlying principle was and remains that their participation will resolve the water crisis in Gaza and the West Bank and at the same time provide Palestinians with hundreds of jobs, immediately easing the unemployment crisis. Greenblatt has done in his short tenure what Kerry couldn't do in all his years in office.

"It is obvious that [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is afraid of Trump," said a senior Palestinian official involved in contacts between the PA and the US administration. The official, speaking to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, went on, "Israel realized that this is not a game and compromised. It was worried that Palestinian participation in the Red Sea-Dead Sea canal project would be considered a case of establishing facts on the ground with long-term diplomatic implications on the PA's role in the Arava region, while the Americans viewed Palestinian participation as being of humanitarian rather than diplomatic significance. It could be used to reach additional agreements and even a breakthrough, as happened during Greenblatt's current visit."

The Palestinians credit Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon for an important role in pushing forward with the Red Sea-Dead Sea canal. His understated activities, say the Palestinians, helped to establish trust between him and Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. Kahlon was also mentioned in the context of the agreement signed July 10 between the Israel Electric Company and the Palestinian Authority to operate a secondary power station in the Jenin region. It will increase the supply of electricity to the West Bank and allow the regular flow of electricity to Palestinian residents of the region after many years of uncertainty. At the signing, Israel was represented by Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, but Abbas' office highlighted Kahlon's contribution to the deal and continues to speak warmly of him.

The Red Sea-Dead Sea canal project is the largest of all the initiatives intended to bring economic stability to the Palestinian Authority. This grand scheme has been a topic of extensive discussion for the last three decades, but only now is it actually taking shape, with work scheduled to begin soon. The initiative promises to not only resolve the regional water crisis but also, among other things, save the Dead Sea from disappearing by allowing water from the Red Sea to flow into it, creating hydroelectric energy as it drops from sea level at the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, the surface of which stands at the lowest land elevation on Earth.

"The Red Sea-Dead Sea canal project is very important to the Palestinian economy, but it is also important to creating a positive new atmosphere which can lead to contacts aimed at reaching a comprehensive diplomatic arrangement," said a senior Palestinian source on condition of anonymity. He added that Greenblatt realizes that ensuring an economic lifeline to the PA through huge projects like the canal project will create an atmosphere of trust between the parties unlike anything seen in the past few years. Other projects and initiatives include foreign aid from the Trump administration that is soon to reach the PA, he claimed. Reducing unemployment and stimulating the economy will prompt the Palestinian public to support a renewal of negotiations with Israel, on the realization that future peace will bear economic benefits and should be given a chance.

Improving the Palestinian economy is also a top priority for the Israeli defense establishment, which sees immense implications for security. For months now, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories has been pressuring the political leadership to take steps in that direction, based on the assumption that Palestinian hardships lead to desperation, and desperation leads to terror.
July 14, 2017

WASHINGTON  A Republican effort to prohibit US aid to the Palestinians until they stop payments to the families of those imprisoned or killed for attacking Israelis is running into opposition from a surprising source: Israel.

Publicly, the Benjamin Netanyahu government supports any effort to stop what it dubs the Palestinian Authority's (PA's) practice of "pay to slay." Privately, however, a number of Israeli officials and pro-Israel advocates fret that a blanket ban on US assistance would undermine Israel's flawed but crucial security partnership with the PA.

Testifying Wednesday at a Senate Foreign Relations hearing about the pending Taylor Force Act, former US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro said he supported the bill in principle but warned that cutting all economic support to the PA could have a destabilizing effect on Israel. He urged lawmakers to give the Donald Trump administration the flexibility to target cuts as it sees fit.

I base my judgment that the assistance is valuable in the analysis thats conveyed to me by the Israeli military leaders Ive worked with who saw that assistance as having a significant stabilizing impact, which is very much in Israeli security interests, Shapiro told Al-Monitor.

The very next day, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Stuart Jones told a House Foreign Affairs panel that the Donald Trump administration also has reservations. The State Department is seeking $215 million in economic assistance for the West Bank and Gaza in its Fiscal Year 2018 Budget request, all of which would be at risk if the bill passes.

It is not clear that the Taylor Force Act, as currently drafted, would help accomplish the objectives that are needed, Jones said. He noted that President Trump had directly raised the issue with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and that the PA had made some progress on the issue.

For the first time in 52 years of the Palestinians prisoner payment program, the Palestinian Authority cut funding to 277 Hamas-affiliated former prisoners, Jones pointed out.

Compounding the complexity of the situation, about $50 million in US assistance to the Palestinians does not flow directly to the PA but instead to Israel, which uses the money in part to pay off Palestinian debts to Israeli service providers such as electricity companies. And Israel is wary of compounding hardships for West Bank Palestinians at a time when Abbas is cutting off aid to his Hamas rivals in Gaza, further stoking unrest in the volatile strip.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington has stopped short of endorsing the bill. An Israeli official told Al-Monitor that Israel welcomes any effort to prevent the Palestinians from engaging in 'pay to slay' and has confidence that the Congress will address this matter in a forthright and direct manner.

The powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has also been conspicuously silent about the bill and did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Al-Monitor. AIPAC's last publicly available lobbying disclosure form, filed more than a month after Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced his bill, indicated the group was not lobbying on the issue as of late March.

J Street, a liberal group that seeks greater rapprochement with the Palestinians, warned the cuts could fuel sympathy for Hamas and other anti-Israel groups.

A reduction in humanitarian aid and basic government services  would only increase deprivation and despair among the most vulnerable in Palestinian society, fermenting further extremism, J Streets chief lobbyist, Dylan Williams, told Al-Monitor. We therefore support current US law, which requires a one-to-one reduction in US assistance for every dollar paid by the PA to those who committed acts of terrorism.

Current law indeed already requires the United States to cut Palestinian aid in parallel with the so-called martyr fund payments, but Republican critics say it doesn't go far enough. The PA is estimated to allocate more than $300 million to the fund every year.

As a result, Graham first introduced his legislation last year and has made steady progress since, culminating with this week's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. The bill is named after Taylor Force, a 28-year-old US Army veteran who died during a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv last year.

The attack took place roughly a mile away from a meeting between former Israeli President Shimon Peres and former Vice President Joe Biden, who was in Israel for an official visit at the time. Police killed the attacker, Bashar Massalha, at the scene. The Israel Defense Forces retaliated by demolishing Massalhas family home in the West Bank, while the PA has been distributing monthly stipends to them since.

Graham's effort remains an entirely Republican effort. Likewise, the House version from Reps. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., and Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., has yet to attract any Democrats.

Efforts are being made, however, to alleviate some of the concerns with the bill and attract bipartisan support. Shapiro, for example, suggested a series of six options to narrow the scope of the bill, including limiting the cuts only to funds that more directly target the PA, such as electricity payments, and redirecting funds to other activities, such as programs promoting people-to-people ties or the West Bank's technology sector. He also recommended setting the annual PA assistance fund aside in an account until the PA changes its stipend laws and including a set date for the cuts to take effect.

The Israelis, Shapiro told Al-Monitor, "seem very much to support the goals of the legislation. They seem not to want to be too proscriptive about exactly what form it takes, recognizing that it may go through some amendments from the original version.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., indicated that Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer is receptive to at least some aid cuts.

To my knowledge in speaking directly with the ambassador," Corker said, Israel supports adding to the pressure on the PA. But the chairman also indicated an openness to making changes to the bill in order to win Democratic support.

We have some additional conversations to take place with Sen. Graham," Corker said, "but I think were getting to a place where were going to have a very effective piece of legislation working with [ranking member Ben] Cardin to get to that place.

However, Corker also suggested that Israel itself should do more to cut off their own funding to the PA over the so-called martyr stipends. He indicated his support for a pending Israeli bill that would do just that, even though the bills future in the Knesset is uncertain.

Theyre cheering us on and theyre going to pass the bill and Im all for it, said Corker. They should be doing more themselves.

Congressional Democrats have also indicated that theyre open to passing a revised version of the Taylor Force Act.

Prior to todays hearing, theres been lots of conversation about how we can make this legislation more effective in reaching our objective of putting maximum pressure on the Palestinian Authority to change its policy, Cardin said. He said a modified version of the bill can enjoy broad, bipartisan consensus support" in the Senate, "and I think were very close to achieving that.

Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Middle East panel, also indicated his willingness to support a revised version of the Taylor Force Act.

There is momentum in Congress and in the administration, said Deutch. The witnesses at yesterdays hearing have offered a number of suggestions of revision to the legislation that would ensure that we maintain Israels security, such as withholding PA debt payments, and setting aside the money as an incentive to retrieve it once changes to the practice are made.
July 13, 2017

Big accomplishments come in incremental steps. At least that is the lesson that Jordan has learned as it has tried to cope with the six-year-old turmoil across its northern border that has brought untold security, economic and humanitarian challenges to the kingdom. That is also how pundits in Jordan are viewing the trilateral deal among the United States, Russia and Jordan to implement a cease-fire in areas of embattled southern Syria, announced in Hamburg July 7 after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Amman deserves some credit for the breakthrough.

Direct talks between the United States and Russia, with Amman's participation, have been taking place in the Jordanian capital since May to reach an understanding to stop the violence in southern Syria, fulfill Jordanian (and Israeli) security concerns and comply with Russian commitments to the Syrian regime  at least in the short run.

The cease-fire went into effect July 9 at noon local time. For the first time in months, perhaps even more, an eerie silence surrounded Daraa and Quneitra on the Golan Heights and the vast, black lava desert of Sweida. 24 hours later, the cease-fire was still holding, despite unconfirmed opposition reports that the regime had bombed rebel areas in Sweida.

Details of the trilateral deal remain vague. None of the parties has divulged any substantial information. London-based Al-Hayat on July 8 quoted an unnamed US source as saying that the Washington-Moscow agreement stipulates that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will remain in power and Iranian actors will be kept far from southern Syria. It also includes security, military and political details on delineating areas of influence and maintaining border security, the paper reported.

It is not clear if the new arrangement in southern Syria will be part of the de-escalation zones that Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed to create at the Astana talks in May. US and Russian officials praised the deal, with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson saying on July 10 that Washington was now prepared to work with Russia to establish no-fly zones in Syria in an effort to bring stability to the war-ravaged country.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced on the same day that Russia will continue cooperating with the United States on de-escalation zones in the south. He added that Moscow, Washington and Amman had agreed to set up a center for monitoring the situation in the south to be based in the Jordanian capital.

Political analyst Oraib al-Rantawi told Al-Monitor that the trilateral deal is separate from the Astana agreement and that this is vital to both Jordan and Israel. Neither country wants Iran and Turkey to be involved in any capacity in the latest arrangement, he said.

In Rantawi's view, the main issues at hand include disengagement between extremist groups and the moderate opposition  there are at least 50 rebel factions in the Southern Front  so regime and opposition firepower can be directed at the likes of Jabhat al-Nusra and the Khalid Ibn al-Walid Army and facilitating the regime's takeover of the Nasib border crossing with Jordan.

In addition, Rantawi thinks the pacification of Daraa will encourage Syrian refugees in Jordan to return. This will entail massive humanitarian aid to be delivered to this area and the completion of reconciliation deals between the regime and local tribes, he added.

While the Damascus government has not commented on the trilateral deal, Jordan believes Russias commitment and its readiness to dispatch military observers to the area will ensure the regimes compliance. The Syrian military had announced on July 3 that it was halting military operations in the south for a few days, but relaunched attacks two days later. The position of rebel groups in the south toward the cease-fire remains uneven, with some rejecting it outright, others expressing reservations but at the same time readiness to observe it.

Political commentator Fahd al-Khitan told Al-Monitor that the cease-fire deal benefits not only Jordan, but the regime as well. Our national security interests have been met without sending a single soldier across the border, he said. Moreover, it ensures Syrias territorial integrity, allows the regime to take over the border crossing, paves the way for the repatriation of refugees and stops further bloodshed.

In Khitans view, Jordanian diplomacy has made a breakthrough in the intractable Syrian crisis. We could say that Amman has provided the platform to bring the US and Russia together on Syria away from the limelight. Without US-Russian cooperation, the Syrian conflict will never be resolved, he said.

For Jordan, the durability of the cease-fire in the south of Syria provides a rare opportunity to expand areas of quiet and include other stricken locations. Jordan remains committed to finding a political solution to the conflict, and the sustainability of the cease-fire along the kingdoms borders may help the negotiations in Geneva.

A new round of indirect talks began July 10 between Syrian government representatives and opposition leaders. UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura said at the talks that a US-Russian-brokered cease-fire in Syria's southern regions would contribute positively to talks between the government and opposition, adding, however, that he was not expecting any breakthroughs but rather some incremental developments."

Retired Gen. Fayez al-Duwairi warned that the deal remains threatened because of Irans possible reaction and its considerable influence in Syria. The biggest gain for Jordan, Israel and the US was in convincing Russia to keep Iran and its militias away from this vital region, Duwairi told Al-Monitor. Now its up to Jordan and the US to control the opposition groups in the south, while Russia has the responsibility of reining in the regime and Iran.
July 14, 2017

AMMAN, Jordan The seventh round of talks between the Syrian regime and the opposition took off in Geneva July 10, as calm prevailed over the battlefronts in southwest Syria. On July 8, a tripartite agreement was reached between the United States, Russia and Jordan in Amman for a cease-fire in Daraa and Quneitra, effective as of July 9.

The two disputing parties  the regime and opposition  discussed the agenda of the previous round, which included four themes: the constitution, political system, elections and counterterrorism. It seems the negotiations are not looking up. Naser al-Hariri, the head of the Syrian opposition delegation to Geneva, said during the conference at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva July 12 that the regime is still refusing the political process. He called on the UN to commit to implementing international resolutions related to the political transition in Syria. Talks are scheduled to conclude July 14.

Sources from the Southern Front expressed their concerns to Al-Monitor that the Syrian regime might not commit long to the cease-fire. But the sources also said the front supports a peace process that complies with international principles and with UN Security Council resolutions 2254 and 2118.

The resolutions state that peace talks in Syria would resume early January 2016 and that the Syrian people are the ones who decide their future. These resolutions also called for forming an interim government and holding elections with UN sponsorship, and demanded an end of attacks on civilians immediately, removing chemical weapons and banning the innovation, production, storage and usage of chemical weapons and destroying them.

Despite participating in the Geneva-7 talks, the Southern Front, which includes 49 factions, announced July 4 its boycott for the fifth round of Astana talks that took place July 5 under Russian-Turkish-Iranian auspices to discuss the security track.

Russia, Turkey and Iran failed during the Astana talks to agree on certain issues like the borders of four de-escalation zones in Syria, senior Russian negotiator Alexander Lavrentyev said during a press conference July 5. The Russian, Turkish and Iranian delegations decided to form a group to demarcate the borders of de-escalation zones in Syria and indicated in a statement that the upcoming sixth round of Astana talks would take place at the end of August.

Al-Monitor conducted a phone interview with the spokesman for the Southern Front, Maj. Issam al-Rayes, who is also a member of the military delegation negotiating in the Astana and Geneva-7 talks. Rayes said, The Southern Front has not yet received an official invitation to attend the sixth round of Astana talks. He kept mum about the themes discussed in Geneva-7 and the oppositions vision, awaiting an official statement to be released after the negotiations conclude.

The text of the interview follows:

Al-Monitor: Is there a commitment from the regime and the Southern Front to the tripartite agreement for a cease-fire in the southwest of Syria?

Rayes: The agreement has so far stood its ground, but there is a state of precarious calm, with some reported violations and machine-gun shots in Daraa on the second day of the cease-fire on July 11. Our office is documenting the violations and we are watching the truce closely. We will issue a report soon about the situation.

Al-Monitor: What prompted the Southern Front to boycott the Astana talks?

Rayes: The Southern Front boycotted the fifth round of Astana talks due to a lack of commitment from the regime forces. Explosive barrels were falling on Daraa before and during the talks. That's why the boycott decision was on point. The participating countries admitted that the talks did not make any progress and did not curb the escalation. [Bashar] al-Assads regime continued to target eastern Ghouta and Daraa and dropped more than 66 explosive barrels on the first day, leaving behind civilian casualties.

Al-Monitor: How will the factions boycott for the Astana talks affect the southern area on the military level? Arent you afraid of pressure to halt support for you?

Rayes: It is not true that we are being pressured and threatened with halting support. This is no longer significant because the fighting and resilience internally do not depend on support. We waged many battles without getting any support. The Southern Front factions never depended on support, but we take advice from some friends because they share the Syrian pain. We also trust the decisions of some countries that are close to the Syrian people, but this does not mean that we are under the mercy of the decisions of certain states. We take decisions locally and we do not fear any halt of support.

Al-Monitor: Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said in June that de-escalation zones have reduced violence in many areas. How can you explain this statement?

Rayes: This is not true. When a cease-fire was being drafted in Astana, Daraa was witnessing an unprecedented attack and ground raid from the regime forces, the Russian forces and the Shiite militias. Violence has not dropped in the Syrian Desert, which is still suffering from raids.

Al-Monitor: Washington revealed in June the Syrian regimes intention to use chemical weapons, and opposition factions said that rebel areas in Daraa were likely to be targeted. How are you benefitting from the international pressure on the regime?

Rayes: The US administration exposed the regimes intention to use chemical weapons in southern Syria, and the regime was threatened with a heavy blow. This is an early warning to save Assad once again, and it seems the use of chemical weapons is a red line for the West  not the killing of innocent people with all sorts of other weapons. The international community is almost legitimizing killing with any weapons except for chemical ones.

Al-Monitor: What is the situation of battles between the regime and opposition, on the one hand, and Khalid ibn al-Walid Army and the opposition, on the other? How did the opposition lose new regions?

Rayes: We did not lose Daraa, and the regimes attempts to advance there have failed. We advanced to al-Manshiya neighborhood in Daraa by 95% in April. The regime could not make any progress on the ground. The field situation is in favor of the Syrian opposition.

Al-Monitor: What are the latest developments on the progress of the battles with Khalid ibn al-Walid Army?

Rayes: The latest military operation against Khalid ibn al-Walid Army  which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State  took place June 25. The Southern Front deterred this army and impeded its control of al-Hayt town near the Jordanian borders. We left them with huge material and human losses. Khalid ibn al-Walid Army still controls al-Shajara, Beit Ara, Kawya, Saham al-Golan, Qusair, Jalin, Adwan, Tasil, Nafaa, Ain Zakar, Tel Joumou and Tell Ashtara in the western Yarmouk basin.
July 13, 2017

Throughout the different stages of their relations with Egypt, Palestinians have always respected and abided by Egypts policies. Even when Palestinian and Egyptian interests are in conflict, the Palestinians, in their various political orientations, are accustomed to addressing Cairo with courtesy.

Recently, however, senior leaders of the Fatah political party, part of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah in the West Bank, disregarded this well-established pattern by issuing a statement packed with accusations and attacks on Cairo.

Mohammad Shtayyeh, a former labor minister and a member of Fatahs Central Committee, said in a July 9 interview on Palestine TV that Fatah is unhappy about Egypt's measures to alleviate the arduous living conditions in the Gaza Strip. Those measures, he said, work against the PAs efforts to increase pressure on the rival Hamas party in Gaza. The PA wants Egypt to coordinate with Ramallah before taking any action in this regard.

On July 3, Maj. Gen. Jibril Rajoub, secretary of Fatahs Central Committee and former commander of the Preventive Security Service in the West Bank, had accused certain unnamed parties in Egypt of acting improperly in Gaza. Hamas had reached understandings June 13 with dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan that focused on alleviating Palestinians' suffering in Gaza by resolving the electricity crisis, opening the Rafah border crossing and resuming the Gaza reconstruction process.

Rajoub demanded that Egypt not allow such discussions to occur with the PA's knowledge.

Hamas broke off violently from the PA and Fatah in 2007, leaving Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip and Fatah with the West Bank. Decadelong tension began rising in April, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sent Cairo his plan to punish Hamas by cutting staff salaries and cutting off electricity.

However, Egypt rejected [the plan], fearing the situation in Gaza would blow up in its face. Abbas was supposed to put an end to his plan but he did not, so Egypt decided to bring [Abbas rival] Dahlan back into the Palestinian arena," Hani al-Masri, head of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies  Masarat, told Al-Monitor.

Egypt and Fatah are at a crossroad; if their paths do not meet, tension will rise and each will go their way until they finally reach estrangement.

Abdallah Abdallah, a member of Fatah's Revolutionary Council, told Al-Monitor the upgrade in Hamas' relations with Egypt is temporary and a measure of convenience. The situation doesn't worry Fatah, according to Abdallah, and Rajoub's and Shtayyeh's accusations were unfortunate anomalies.

Despite some tension, Fatah's relationship with Egypt is strategic. We believe anything that comes from within Fatah and insults Egypt is a mistake that should be corrected. Our intel indicates that the Egyptian government prefers to get closer to Hamas at the expense of Fatah for temporary reasons linked to the security of Sinai. However, the Egyptian political circles will not approach Hamas and exclude Fatah because the Egyptian authorities are well aware of the historical relationship between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood was affiliated with the previous Egyptian regime, and the current Egyptian government considers the Brotherhood to be a terrorist group. Hamas said in May that it would end its association with the Brotherhood, but many  especially Fatah and Israel  doubt that will happen.

Despite Abdallah's comments, the highly unusual public display of animosity between Fatah and Egypt raises questions about the real reason Fatah is so angry at Egypt and why the countries' bilateral channels failed to contain the conflict before it reached the media.

Egypt did not officially comment on the accusations made by Fatah leaders, but its anger was obvious when Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry failed to welcome Abbas at the Cairo airport July 8. Instead, he was received by Egyptian Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker and some security officials. Sisi did meet with Abbas on July 9, but they were unsuccessful in defusing tensions.

Abdel-Qader Yassin, a Palestinian author and political science expert, told Al-Monitor, Rajoub has had a problem with Egypt ever since it denied him entry at Cairo airport back in February without explaining the reasons. It is true that the accusations against Egypt were harmful, and they also impede Abbas attempt to reach an understanding with Cairo and show that he is unable to control some Fatah circles.

In this context, Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif Qanou told Al-Monitor, Rajoub's remarks about Egypt are controversial. They do not represent the Palestinians who see Egypt as a support system for which they have nothing but respect and appreciation. The Palestinians greatly appreciate the Egyptian efforts to help the Palestinian steadfastness and their dream to overcome their crises and break their siege.

On July 8, the head of Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, attended a ceremony held by the Egyptian community in Gaza in a funeral home to honor the 23 Egyptian soldiers who died during an Islamic State attack July 7 in Sinai. Haniyeh's attendance signals Hamas' improved relations with Egypt. There was no ceremony in the West Bank, where Fatah is in charge, to mourn the soldiers.

Imad Mohsen, a spokesman for Fatah's Democratic Reformist Current, led by Dahlan, told Al-Monitor, The Fatah leaders' attacks on Egypt prove that they were provoked by the Egyptian understandings with Hamas and Dahlan. Such attacks do not show any diplomacy and are a clear interference in Egyptian affairs, which contradicts the policy Fatah has long adopted. However, Abbas entourage is convinced that Egypt is moving forward with its arrangements in Gaza. Meanwhile, he is unable to silence some Fatah leaders, as they are competing with one another to succeed him and he can no longer oblige them to stick to a decent discourse worthy of Egypt.

There has been widespread speculation that Sisi intends to see Abbas step down as PA president. Yoni Ben Menachem, a former Israeli intelligence officer, told News 1 on July 3 that Sisi will topple Abbas. He said Sisi is preparing to eliminate Abbas from the political scene and is no longer taking him seriously. This knowledge makes Abbas nervous and may be pushing him to lash out at those surrounding him.

The relationship between Fatah and Egypt has reached the bone-breaking stage, especially with Abbas as head of the movement. Abbas has a personal issue with Egypt because it insists on bringing Dahlan back to Fatah. Perhaps Egypt believes it is now time to turn the page on Abbas once and for all.
July 14, 2017

MOSCOW  No sooner had Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had their first face-to-face encounter, July 7 at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, than a new Russia-themed scandal engulfed Washington. Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who had met with Donald Trump Jr. on June 9, 2016, may not have been sent by the Kremlin, as some Moscow insiders argue. However, the scrutiny of the meeting limits the Trump administration in its dealings with Russia, presumably affecting agreements reached in Hamburg, including on Syria. To understand why, one must take into account a number of contextual and structural factors in Russian foreign policymaking and current US-Russia relations in general.

Asked what Russia made of the allegations of collusion involving the US presidents campaign and his son, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he had learned about the story from TV reports. This morning, when I turned on the TV, all the Western TV channels were discussing that. It is amazing how serious people can blow things out of proportion, he remarked.

Lavrov went on to criticize reporting on the story, stating, If journalists are ready to work only on the basis of unsubstantiated statements and are not prepared to take into account the fact that there is no hard evidence, then I cant do anything.

In Washington, the president was on the defensive, trying to alter the impression that he had been too soft on Putin at their meeting. In an interview with Reuters, Trump claimed that he had been tough with Putin, which some Russian reporters interpreted as an evolution of his previous statements. Commenting on the situation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, The US president was asking clear and direct questions that were of interest to him, and Putin gave him comprehensive and reassuring answers. I dont see any evolution here.

Peskov had mentioned earlier that Putins confidence in Trump would not be affected by potential US backtracking on establishing a joint cybersecurity program with Russia. No one promised anything to one another, and there was no such goal. The positive outcome is that the readiness to work in this direction was stated, Peskov emphasized. A Kremlin insider, however, told Al-Monitor that Washingtons refusal to cooperate on cybersecurity is seen by some Russian decision-makers as a pretext for massive or occasional cyberattacks, as well as a buildup of its own cyber capabilities.

The two accounts actually reflect what has become an interesting pattern in Moscows public reasoning on the United States Russia-related actions and, arguably, broader US foreign policy. The Kremlin is walking a fine line of distinguishing the Trump administration from the rest of the US policymaking establishment, recognizing that the pushback against cooperating with Moscow is sharp, even among various factions in the Trump government and Congress, let alone it natural opponents.

Russia sees the former as pragmatic Make America Great Again nationalists with whom a limited, mutually beneficial agenda can be devised. Moscow views the latter, however, as those who believe America, by its political nature, is second to none. This belief virtually denies any reconciliation, let alone recognition, of Russias own interests and concerns, which are often portrayed as inherently malignant. In turn, Russias perspective is rooted in its own perceptions of US foreign policies and domestic politics.

In the long run, this framing could result in an acute confrontation. Yet at present, the former are seen as potential, even desirable, partners, while the latter are deemed spoilers served by the mainstream media. This picture occasionally leads Russia to expect more of the Trump administration than it can deliver and to fear that the rest of the US establishment is more dangerous than it really is. These are the narrow straits of Americas political waters that Russian policymakers, and others elsewhere, must navigate.

There are signs, however, that Moscow is not willing to build its foreign policy around the potential of a reset with Washington. Even if Trump manages to shake off the immediate criticisms, he is unlikely to be able to implement his ideas on how to better engage with Russia. Despite widespread claims of the opposite in the United States, no one in Moscow expects Trump to be able to lift sanctions, recognize Crimea as part of the Russian Federation or agree to let Russia fully have its way in Ukraine and Syria. In this respect, the agreement on Syria and potential dealings on other issues represent a tiny opportunity to drag the two states back from the abyss of a direct collision.

Dmitry Suslov, a program director at the Valdai International Discussion Club, told Al-Monitor, The Hamburg agreements do not create premises for a quality improvement of US-Russia relations, but Putin and Trump agreed to work on the issues where prospects for a direct military clash are real. In Syria, Moscow and Washington have not yet divided 'zones of responsibility' and continue to operate in one space. Similarly, cyberspace is one area that looks particularly tempting to take advantage of to inflict damage on each other  politically, economically, even militarily.

Suslov added, Given the current circumstances, this kind of cooperation is the maximum possible. In the coming years, US-Russia relations will be focused on ensuring control over the confrontational interaction, not letting the confrontation loose.

Unless one opposes US-Russian cooperation, there is little merit in trying to argue who got the best deal in Hamburg. The agreements are not meant to fix the fundamental problems dividing the two countries, but they might make for some progress on the issues immediately important to them both.

In the meantime, the Kremlin is waiting to see what new kind of relationship develops. The Kremlin insider said, What Trump is facing now in terms of opposition from the media is what we have been facing for decades on the international stage: all those stories, fake investigations, etc. The problem is how to adequately respond to this information warfare and not antagonize the administration.

Indeed, occasionally issues arise that require a strong public reaction from Moscow, but one balanced with its own view of constructing pragmatic and limited cooperation with Washington. Until recently, that issue has been US airstrikes in Syria, but the matter of the seized diplomatic compounds also seems to fall into the category where Russias claims cannot go unsatisfied for a long time.

Lavrov has dodged the subject of what exactly Moscow might be up to stating. We are thinking about particular steps now. I do not believe this should be discussed in public, with all respect for the mass media and your wish to get this information, he said. The most drastic measures on the table now are believed to be an expulsion of as many as 30 US diplomats as well as freezing a warehouse and a US Embassy house in Moscow. Theres plenty of room for speculation about what might follow if these steps are taken, but certainly they would not improve the relationship.

Against this backdrop, it is even more important now than it was a week ago for the joint work of Russians and Americans in Jordan to succeed, and for Washington and Moscow to observe the conditions designed for a southwest Syrian de-escalation zone. If making progress from the top down is not currently an option, trying it the other way might be worth it. In any case, the ultimate risk is more mutual disappointment and further escalation.
July 13, 2017

Turkeys Interior Ministry published a 76-page report this week that purports to document its fight against the Islamic State, part of an apparent effort to counter widespread if unjustified claims that it's doing the opposite: enabling the militants. The documents publication coincided with a series of fresh raids on suspected IS terrorists across the country.

The first section of the report, which is accompanied by an English-language translation, rehashes the origins of the terror outfit and does little to enhance existing literature on the subject. There is also a whiff of spin in some of its references to IS depictions of Turks and their relationship to Islam as heathens and apostates. The report, by Turkeys undeniably authoritarian government, declares, They deem living and voting in a democratic country as infidelity.

But the latter sections of the report provide useful chronology and data on the number of IS attacks in Turkey, as well as the sorts of measures the Turkish authorities are now taking. The very real threat IS poses to the country was most recently and gorily manifested in the January attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul that claimed 39 lives.

It wasnt until March 2015 that Turkish authorities began to properly crack down on IS networks inside Turkey, arresting scores of individuals accused of supporting the terrorist group. The same year, Turkey formally joined the military campaign against IS and last August, Turkish troops intervened in Syria, driving IS out of the areas it controlled along the Turkish border and pushing further south to the city of al-Bab, another IS stronghold. The intervention came at a heavy price, with over 70 Turkish soldiers killed in those operations. In December, two Turkish soldiers held captive by IS were burned alive in retaliation, their gruesome executions captured in a video that was then circulated by the jihadis. The Interior Ministry report makes no mention of the grisly affair.

Selim Koru, a senior analyst at the Ankara-based think tank TEPAV, told Al-Monitor, The government has been taking IS seriously for some time. It has been implementing the same counterterrorism strategy as with the PKK, which is to cast a wide net in surveying and going after the cells aggressively. The PKK is the acronym for the Kurdistan Workers Party, the Kurdish rebel group that has been waging a bloody campaign for self-rule inside Turkey since 1984.

Koru went on, Last year, IS released a wave of videos on Turkey that made its feelings toward the country and its leadership abundantly clear. That made an impression on the government leaders who personally watch these videos.  This probably bumped up IS on the list of priorities.

The Interior Ministry report says 9,350 foreign-trained fighters have been arrested since 2011 and that risk-analysis units to monitor the borders were established in 66 different places in 33 different Turkish cities. In 2016, counterterrorism efforts prevented 22 planned IS attacks from being carried out.

To be sure, Turkey is the country that has suffered most from IS, the report notes. The group has conducted 14 attacks against Turkey, including 10 suicide bomb attacks and three shooting attacks. Some 304 people have lost their lives and 1,338 as a result of IS actions.

But some experts say Turkey largely has itself to blame for this outcome. Turkey has long been accused of leniency if not outright collusion with IS, which grew stronger as a direct result of its lax border policies that let armed rebels of all stripes to go in and out of neighboring Syria in the hope that they would overthrow the countrys President Bashar al-Assad.

The second reason, which continues to resonate, is that the jihadis have targeted the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG). Turkey insists that group poses a threat to its national security, even though it is the United States premier partner in the fight against IS. The YPG has never unilaterally engaged in hostile actions against Turkey. Turkish officials cite its close ties to the PKK as proof of the YPG's culpability.

The deadliest IS operations inside the country targeted pro-PKK Kurds, and the official reaction was a deafening silence. The lack of response fed accusations that Turkey was egging IS on against the Kurds, most notably when the group laid siege to the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani in 2014. In public remarks that provoked riots in the mainly Kurdish southeast region, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan almost seemed to relish its impending fall. But Kobani did not fall. The United States rode to the Kurds' rescue with a wave of lethal airstrikes against the jihadis, planting the seeds of their now flourishing military alliance against IS.

Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who has studied IS networks in Turkey, explained in a report published this week how the US partnership with the Syrian Kurds was birthed: largely thanks to Turkish obduracy in the face of coalition appeals for help. Turkey did not open the Incirlik Air Base to coalition missions against IS until June 2015. In a separate report that came out in October, Stein documented how IS organized and recruited inside Turkey. From 2012 to 2015, he wrote, "Turkish recruiters were relatively open in their activities, attracting recruits from different social backgrounds. They lived in the neighborhoods where they recruited and were well known in Turkeys Salafi community."

Stein agrees that Turkey is now doing a lot more to combat IS. He told Al-Monitor, I think the threat to Turkey has decreased somewhat now that IS has lost control over the border. In combination, the police forces are continuing to carry out raids and did roll up the dangerous network that was behind most of the attacks. Stein cautioned, however, IS still retains assets in Turkey and continues to threaten Turkish targets. He concluded, No security service is perfect and the list of soft targets is long.
July 14, 2017

On July 9, the head of Turkeys main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, completed a 25-day Justice March from Ankara to Istanbul, marking one of the most memorable protests in Turkeys political history. The 420-kilometer (260-mile) trek, meant to denounce the governments crackdown on the opposition and call for a return to democracy, drew comparisons to Gandhis 390-kilometer Salt March, a milestone in Indias independence struggle, with Kilicdaroglus soft-spoken nature and physical resemblance to Gandhi reinforcing the association. More importantly, however, the CHP leaders march set a milestone of its own, bringing together disparate groups from Turkeys fractured opposition, which, many believed, could never happen.

The march culminated with a rally in Istanbuls Maltepe district, with a huge crowd packing the vast meeting area. Many people could not even enter the venue. It was hard to tell what groups the participants represented, as they heeded Kilicdaroglus call to avoid displaying political symbols and brandish only the marchs hallmark Justice banner and the national flag. Only the presence of familiar faces and the statements made to the press demonstrated the diverse political quarters the rally attracted. They included socialist parties and groups that have traditionally sniffed at CHP policies, as well as trade unions and various civic society groups. The Peoples Democratic Party (HDP)  Turkeys main Kurdish political movement and a frequent critic of the CHP on the Kurdish question  was also there. The participants, however, were not limited to the left. Disgruntled co-founders and former lawmakers of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) as well as estranged figures from the Nationalist Action Party, a critic-turned-ally of the AKP, were among the most attention-grabbing faces in the crowd. The CHPs own Kemalist base, which few had imagined would stand side by side with those quarters, was also present in force.

Institutional identities aside, the ordinary Turks flocking to the rally were equally diverse. Among others, Al-Monitor came across women wearing Islamic headscarves and black chadors, a group the AKP has often portrayed as the victim of CHP oppression in the past.

The bulk of the crowd was made up of people over the age of 50, the same group that joined Kilicdaroglu in big numbers during the march. As noted previously in Al-Monitor, they were predominantly people seeking justice for their adult children who were imprisoned or left jobless in the massive purges after the coup attempt. The symbolic face in this group was, no doubt, 65-year-old Veysel Kilic, who never left the CHP leaders side during the trek. Both his attire and remarks to the press revealed a deeply religious person who marched to demand freedom for his son, one of the jailed cadets who had been commandeered to the Bosporus Bridge on the night of the putsch, unaware of what was actually transpiring. Kilic burst into tears as Kilicdaroglu thanked him personally in the poignant speech he made at the rally.

In remarks to Al-Monitor, Kilic expressed deep disappointment with the AKP, the party he used to support, convinced that his son was innocent and unjustly jailed. They just tossed us to the garbage, he said, reflecting a sentiment prevailing among many ordinary Turks affected by the crackdown after the putsch. Then, pointing to the crowd, he said, Those people took us out of the garbage and gave us back our dignity. Even death is no worry to me now.

The rally often resembled a colorful carnival, as some came with pets to highlight animal rights, while others played saxophone and beat drums. Famous Turkish musicians, singing songs for freedom and democracy, further lifted everyones spirits. In the front rows, CHP lawmakers, who are often scorned by the AKP as being elitists detached from the people, sang along and kept time on bare feet  swollen, blue and bloodied from the 25-day march.

The defiant energy at the rally reverberated so strongly that AKP quarters set out to play it down in chorus. The number of participants became the primary focus of their effort, with prominent figures alleging that the rally had attracted less than 100,000. Even the office of the Istanbul governor chimed in with a midnight statement claiming an attendance of 175,000 people, even though President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself had previously described the venue as one that has a capacity of 2 million people. Based on surface area measurements, the independent Topographical Engineers Chamber said that 1.6 million people were present, an estimate seen as the most credible so far.

The reason why the size of the rally became so important lies in the unique character of the crowd it attracted. By bringing together Kemalists, socialists, Kurds, disgruntled conservatives and Islamists, the rally upended a widely held conviction that those groups could never join hands. The rally may have marked the end of Kilicdaroglus march, but it could prove to be the starting point of political alliances to counter the AKP.

Indeed, the rally has galvanized CHP headquarters. Party members are pondering strategies to keep this spontaneous coalition intact and beef it up ahead of the 2019 presidential election. HDP co-chair Serpil Kemalbay has already sent a positive signal, saying that parties could come together around shared principles.

For the AKP, this is certainly an alarming prospect, as the partys 15-year rule owes much to the scattered opposition, among other factors. The government may continue to belittle and shrug off the opposition, but Kilics brief detention the day after the rally seemed to manifest its covert concerns over a potential coalition.

The onus is now on the CHP. A smart political strategy sustaining the Maltepe coalition could give Erdogan a hard time in the 2019 presidential race.
July 12, 2017

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party, wrapped up his 25-day, 270-mile Justice March from Ankara to Istanbul last week and was greeted at a rally attended by more than a million people. Does the enormous support for the anti-authoritarian campaign indicate a turning tide in Turkish politics?

The 25-day period was chosen deliberately to symbolize the prosecutors demand for a 25-year prison term for Enis Berberoglu, one of Kilicdaroglu's fellow members of the Republican Peoples Party (CHP).

Throughout the march, the most controversial issue was the reaction of members of two other opposition parties. One is the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), ultranationalists who have long operated in unison with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Several prominent Gray Wolves  as party members are known by the public  have distanced themselves from the MHP and have been operating as part of the opposition.

The other opposition group is the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), whose co-chairs and several members are currently in jail.

Ironically, what led to the arrest of CHP lawmaker Berberoglu was the vote his own party approved in May 2016 allowing parliamentarians to be stripped of their legal immunity. At the time, Kilicdaroglu and other CHP members explained that they had to vote "yes" to keep from being labeled terrorists alongside the HDP. However, last month several CHP lawmakers publicly acknowledged their mistake. On July 9 at the Justice Rally, without making references to Kurds, Kilicdaroglu said the march helped opposition members cast aside their fears. Is that really the case?

It is crucial to see the complicated interaction of the CHP with Kurdish and ultranationalist factions of the political opposition. The HDP announced its support for the march. On the 19th day of the march, HDP leadership briefly joined the walk and was photographed with Kilicdaroglu under the banner Justice for all.

Reactions to this brief photo op were immense, reflecting the opposition's complex divisions. For example, Sinan Ogan, a former member of the ultranationalist MHP and now an independent member of the opposition, posted a much-debated tweet. Ogan said, Was not Ahmet Turk [an elder HDP member who was let out of prison at the request of MHP leader Devlet Bahceli] released from prison due to his [deteriorating] 'health?' If he is well enough to march, why [did Bahceli] act as a liaison for his release?

Thousands commented. Most were critical of Ogans words and labeled his rhetoric as anti-Kurdish, even racist. Yet, Ogans real jab was at Bahceli, who had asked for Turk to be released. Ogan had criticized Bahceli for encouraging Gray Wolves to attack him and others who were campaigning against the constitutional reforms. In addition, he was perplexed to see Bahceli extending his get-well wishes to Turk but not the Gray Wolves. This tweet should also be seen as a continuation of the internal battle of the ultranationalist movement in Turkey, which is gradually being absorbed into the ranks of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Still, it is also crucial to see that Ogans tweet encouraged pro-government voices against the march. The hashtag #AdaletDedilerPKKCikti means, They said justice, but it turned out to be the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party]. The AKPs virtual troll army used this comment and the photo of Kilicdaroglu with Kurdish leaders to brand the march as corrupted by terrorists. Since the 2013 Gezi Park protests, Erdogan has successfully and meticulously branded all opposing figures as traitors, spies and terrorists.

Dogu Perincek, chairman of the marginal but ultranationalist Patriotic Party, who is known for his denial of the Armenian genocide, harshly criticized Kilicdaroglu for accepting HDP members to the march. Perincek said this alliance is a US scheme and likened it to the addictive and deadly bonzai drug. Alp Altinors, an HDP council member, did not mince words regarding Ogan or Perincek. He told Al-Monitor, For them, the best Kurd is either a dead or enslaved one. But we focus on the march. The quest for justice is a public demand. It cannot be limited to any political party. That is how we approach the matter. We do not dwell on the CHPs past mistakes, and [we] seek justice for all. Altinors added that those who oppose the justice march are aiding Erdogans regime and emphasized that without Kurds, the opposition cannot succeed anytime soon.

Yet this effort to discredit the opposition  an effort that has grown in frequency and ferocity during the past five years  has almost run its course. The march only got stronger after the participation of HDP members. There were parents of military cadets who are still in jail a year after the July 15 coup attempt and family members of those who died. In addition to Islamist groups such as Anti-Capitalist Muslims, even AKP founding members such as Fatma Bostan Unsal participated in the march and supported Kilicdaroglus quest for justice. Families of Gezi protest victims and the 2011 Roboski massacre were also present.

Though Ogan was critical of HDP's Turk marching along with Kilicdaroglu, another former key MHP member, Meral Aksener, publicly announced her support for the Justice March early on. She explained to her followers on Twitter that if the leader of the main opposition party is obliged to march with a sign that reads justice, then everyone needs to pause and think. At the end of the march, Aksener congratulated Kilicdaroglu and reminded the public that Mahatma Gandhis Salt March led to Indian independence.

Yet some senior AKP members crudely ridiculed Akseners support for the march. Parliamentary Speaker Ismail Kahraman, who is known for his Islamist stance, referred to Aksener as Meral Kilicdaroglu at a Ramadan dinner, implying she has become a Kilicdaroglu concubine. (Kahramans words once again remind us that independent-minded women in Turkish politics are no longer acceptable.) Aksener was furious and posted a searing open letter on her Twitter account. Aksener expressed disappointment in her colleague with strong words, saying Kahraman has learned little of Islamic education and values in his 77 years.

The Justice March has made clearer a few observations about Turkish politics.

First, Kurdish support is essential for the opposition to have any realistic chance of standing up against Erdogan and continuing within the legitimate political domain.

Second, younger generations of Kurds and Turks, along with members of various political parties, are becoming disillusioned with the stalled peaceful political process. But the AKPs obsessive political control only allows their voices to be heard when they are fighting against each other.

Third, Kurds, women and other political minorities are viewed as passive, disposable figures whose opposition cannot be tolerated in politics. All of these are worrisome indications of Turkeys potential slide into total dictatorship.

AKP-controlled media outlets ignored the march for as long as they could, then mentioned it only in passing as the so-called justice march. Erdogan, during the recent G-20 meetings in Germany, called HDP Chairman Selahattin Demirtas  sometimes fondly referred to as the "Kurdish Obama"  a terrorist. Erdogans words received little to no attention in respected international media outlets, unlike the imprisoned Demirtas response. It seems the majority of Turks and much of the world are disillusioned by Erdogans gimmick of branding everyone who opposes him terrorists, spies and traitors.
July 14, 2017

As the United States heatedly debates a wall on its border with Mexico, Turkey has been quietly building walls on its borders with Syria, Iran and Iraq.

In November 2014, Al-Monitor examined deficiencies in Turkeys border security system, noting that one reason for the deficiency was  in addition to diverse political reasons  the commitment to a tacit tolerance policy especially on the Syrian border. Moreover, there was the question of the ability to remedy the situation.

However, since August 2016 when Operation Euphrates Shield was launched, Turkey has replaced its tacit tolerance policy with a zero tolerance policy. Ankara hopes the security wall along its border will be the pillar of its border security.

Ankaras first goal is to extend the wall on its approximately 560-mile-long Syria border to its maximum length. The $400 million wall project was launched in September 2016 to prevent terror attacks from Syria, border smuggling and illegal crossings, and to control refugee movements. The first 347-mile phase of the planned 435-mile-long wall that abuts the provinces of Hatay, Sanliurfa, Kilis, Gaziantep, Mardin and Sirnak was completed last week, making it the third longest wall in the world after the Great Wall of China and the nearly 700-mile wall on the US-Mexico border.

The wall is being built by TOKI, Turkeys state-owned construction enterprise. Reinforced concrete blocks are 9 feet high, 6 feet wide, 11 inches thick and weigh some 7 tons each. These concrete blocks are movable. Barbed wires top the blocks, and there are about 120 observation towers in critical locations.

The towers are equipped with land infiltration radars, night vision systems and advanced weapons. There is a ditch immediately in front of the wall and a road behind it for patrolling and to allow quick intervention if needed. Ankara said that with this wall, called an Integrated Border Security System, the countrys border security will be significantly enhanced.

Ankara also reorganized the security forces posted along the border. Seventy-four border outposts on the Syrian border that were previously under a variety of commands have been consolidated under one command. A border special operations battalion that will act as the first responder to mass refugee movement, smuggling and terror actions was established.

Minister of Defense Fikri Isik said that as soon as the wall is completed, there will be a transition to the second phase: We are transforming it to an integrated security system. It will not be made up only by the wall, the road and illumination. They will be backed up by fiber optic sensors, cameras, observation balloons and unmanned aerial vehicles to make it a total integrated system.

According to information Al-Monitor obtained from Ankara command corridors, in October 2017, work will begin on a 93-mile-long wall for the cities of Kars, Igdir and Van, and the 55 miles of Hakkaris border with Iraq. Walls on the Iran and Iraq borders will be to combat terror and prevent smuggling.

According to a security official in the critical town of Kilis, which is close to Syria, the wall has been very useful. It has considerably reduced movements of refugees, smugglers and armed elements.

Moreover, in the past there was incredible bureaucratic confusion of who was in charge. With the wall, authority and identifying responsibility is much better defined but more needs to be done. The wall has also modified the outdated perceptions of Ankara on border security, which in the past used to focus on combating terror. Now there is also concern with massive immigration and smuggling, the official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

The radical change in Turkeys perception of border security is not limited to its military dimensions.

There are also socio-economic implications. A businessman from the southeastern border province of Mardin, who asked to be identified with his initials M.U., told Al-Monitor, The wall could be useful for security, but it has severely hurt the local economy and made contacts between families split in two countries nearly impossible. Because of the wall, young people who used to work in border trade are in a difficult position. The wall has increased youth unemployment. Those youngsters who cant find jobs here leave and migrate to big cities.

The state built the wall, but I think they havent really thought out its social and economic ramifications, another citizen told Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity. In the old days, if our relatives got sick in Syria, we were able to quickly transfer them to Turkey for treatment. Now because of the wall, crossings have practically ceased. This affects the sick people as much as terrorists and smugglers.

Another businessman from Kilis speaking to Al-Monitor referred to the centurieslong tradition of trade between Anatolia and Mesopotamia. He said, My forefathers traded with our relatives in Syria for centuries. Now the state says my modest business with my cousins across the border that hardly feeds us is illegal and erects a wall in front of us. Fine, let the wall stop terrorists and provide security, but it should not deny us our bread.

The Integrated Border Security System will provide coordinated, harmonized border security between the Turkish military and the ministries of Defense, Interior and Customs. Nevertheless, the socio-economic implications of the wall should not be ignored. Currently, our decision-makers appear not to be worried about it. They are probably thinking that security overrides everything else. In the end, the wall is movable and, if necessary, they can dismantle it.
July 14, 2017

WASHINGTON  Turkish officials offered to provide "tens of thousands of troops" to support the US-led fight against the Islamic State (IS) during high-level talks last year regarding potential military cooperation in Syria, Turkey's envoy to the United States said today.

Ambassador Serdar Kilic told Al-Monitor that Turkish officials met with Pentagon commanders in July 2016, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford, about military collaboration in Raqqa and throughout Syria. Kilic made the comments at an embassy press conference marking the first anniversary of last year's failed coup, which Ankara blames on US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Donald Trump administration  like its predecessor  has so far declined to extradite.

"Each and every time we made the [troop] proposal, we received the same arguments, Kilic said, adding that the Pentagon preliminarily asked for 80,000 troops for the Raqqa operation, more than Turkish officials believed was needed. We did not give any troop numbers because we did not get to the planning stage."

Defense Department officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Kilic also chastised the United States for arming and equipping the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have been spearheading the battle to liberate the IS stronghold since it was launched in November 2016. Kurdish fighters make up about 40% of the SDF force, US commanders say, and Turkey strongly opposes the regional Kurdish push for an independent state.

"That was a strategic mistake, Kilic said. The operation to liberate Raqqa could have been done by the US and Turkey.

If youre going to be successful in your fight against a terrorist organization, you should not collaborate with another terrorist organization, Kilic said. Turkey accuses the SDF's main Kurdish element, the People's Protection Units, of being affiliated with Turkey's banned Kurdistan Workers Party, which is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department.

Turkey remains a full-fledged NATO member and enjoys ongoing military dialogues with the United States. Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, said the Defense Department maintains a database organized by the serial numbers of the weapons and vehicles that are being provided to the SDF and has been transparent with Ankara about that assistance, which Turkish officials have insisted should eventually be returned to the United States.

Kilic said Operation Euphrates Shield, in which Ankara supported rebel Free Syrian Army forces against IS and Kurdish fighters in northern Syria near the Turkish border, could have provided a blueprint for a combined military operation. Turkey said it could have mobilized similar groups for the fight against IS in and around Raqqa.

But Ankara's record in mobilizing fighters against IS is up for debate.

Its made a lot of public noise about the local Syrian police it has trained. Its made a lot of noise about the services its seeking to supply. Its made a lot of noise about being a convenient logistical supply line, said Nicholas Heras, a fellow focused on the Middle East at the Center for a New American Security. Turkey depends upon borrowing fighters that are actually in northwestern Syria and melding them into an armed opposition force. But theyre not necessarily the most effective hold force.

Although Operation Euphrates Shield officially ended in March, Turkish military forces still have a presence in northern Syria. Kilic indicated those troops will stay in place for the foreseeable future.

They dont want the soft power of being the conduit for humanitarian assistance, Heras said. Turkey wants to have hard power. Turkey has sought to create a sort of Syrian proxy force that isnt beholden to any location but is really beholden to Turkey.
Keegan's Public House is closer than ever to opening in downtown Huntsville.

The terrace-level Irish restaurant is now filling front and back house positions on 200 Westside Square, Suite 60, near the Madison County Courthouse. It will be Keegan's first location outside of the Atlanta area, where it has four restaurants.

General Manager Britt Crossley said they hope to be open by the end of July.

"We're waiting on equipment, chairs, tables, all the fun stuff," he said. "It's coming in next week, then we'll get everything in place and everyone trained and get open."

Keegan's will offer traditional pub fare, including bangers and mash, fish and chips and Shepherd's pie. Crossley said the menu will be similar to the Keegan's locations in Georgia.

The restaurant, which overlooks Big Spring Park, will seat about 150, feature an outdoor patio and include a full-service bar with Irish and local craft beer. Crossley, a Huntsville bartender for 17 years, said it's time for something different in downtown.

"I always thought Huntsville needed an Irish pub kind of thing, so here we are," he said.

Keegan's is hosting walk-in interviews from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Prospective applicants can also call 256-533-4267 or email brit@keegans.pub for more information.
Out with the old, in with the new.

Parkway Place Mall is installing new kiosks throughout the shopping center, replacing dated brown kiosks from 2002 when the facility opened and from Madison Square Mall. The carts reflect a total capital investment of about $400,000.

Spokeswoman Molly Mitchell said the new white kiosks in the mall's common area show owner CBL & Associates' commitment to Parkway Place, which is seeing increased foot traffic and sales along Memorial Parkway in Huntsville.

"The carts are bright, durable, and efficient," she told AL.com. "This is the type of investment you want to see happening here at Parkway Place Mall."

Mitchell said they are working with movers to demolish the old kiosks, also known as Retail Merchandise Units (RMUs). Of the 18 total carts available, 16 are used for sales tenants and two are for branding opportunities.

Parkway Place hired Retail Reinvention of New York to create graphics for the carts, which can be customized to a tenant's specific needs.

"We have add-on fixtures to adapt to the needs of each individual retailer," Mitchell said. "For example, a shoe shine cart has needs that vary from a sunglass cart, or bath bomb cart. We have fixture inventory for each RMU."

The mall recently made improvements to its parking deck, but still has one more phase of work to do. Mitchell said crews will coat the entire surface of the garage, requiring sections to close for a short period of time to complete the work.

The final phase will not begin until after Labor Day to ensure there is no interference with the back-to-school season, one of the busiest times for the mall.

Gymboree, a popular U.S. mall tenant, said earlier this week it will shutter 350 stores, including seven Gymboree and Crazy 8 locations in Alabama.

Although the Gymboree store at Parkway Place was spared, Mitchell said the mall isn't immune to sudden closures.

"The retail world is ever changing, and this year we experienced companies abruptly closing down their stores," she said. "These closures were unexpected; therefore, replacement tenants were not automatically lined up."

Mitchell said the current occupancy rate is 90 percent, noting there are leases for vacancies already in place. Negotiations are also underway to fill vacant units.

By the first quarter of 2018, Mitchell said they are projecting an occupancy rate of 97 percent, with some stores likely opening in the months before the holidays.

"Right now, Parkway Place is overcoming the national scare of where malls are heading," she said. "North Alabama has a mall to be proud of."
The Food Network has "Iron Chef America."

Birmingham has the Iron City Chef.

And on Saturday, July 22, four chefs from the Birmingham metro area will match their culinary skills in the ninth annual Iron City Chef competition presented by the Vestavia Hills Rotary Club and hosted by Culinary & Hospitality Institute at Jefferson State Community College.

This year's competing chefs are:

Sean Butler, executive chef at Revolve Kitchen & Brew in Hoover.

Brittany Garrigus, pastry chef at Satterfield's Restaurant in Vestavia Hills.

Alan Nelson, executive chef at Nabeel's Cafe & Market in Homewood.

Ben Vaughn, executive chef at Inverness Country Club in Hoover.

As in past years, each chef will prepare an entree and a dessert for about 300 guests, who will get to sample all the dishes and vote for their favorites during the first round of the competition.

Garrigus plans to prepare a crispy braised pork belly with cornbread panzanella for her entree, and Chilton County peach hand pies with vanilla bean ice cream for her dessert.

Nelson will serve a penne pasta with shrimp, feta cheese, sundried tomatoes, basil, cherry tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil and grated Parmigiano Reggiano for his entree, plus a Greek salad, and tiramisu for dessert.

Vaughn will prepare a porchetta with cold smoked carrot puree and mustard seed caviar for his entree, and Chilton County peaches, blue cheese fondant and pecan baklava for dessert.

Butler has not yet revealed his dish.

The two chefs who receive the most votes in the preliminary round will meet in the finals, where, much like the amped-up competitors on the Food Network's "Iron Chef America," they will have a half-hour to create an entree using a mystery ingredient.

Along with Butler, who won the 2014 competition, previous Iron City Chef winners include Jeremy Downey of Bistro V in Vestavia Hills; Haller Magee, formerly of Satterfield's Restaurant and currently the executive chef for The Yard and Moon Shine restaurants in the Elyton Hotel in downtown Birmingham; and three-time champion Thomas Robey, formerly of the Veranda on Highland in Birmingham.

The 2017 Iron City Chef Competition takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Shelby-Hoover Campus of Jefferson State Community College, 4600 Valleydale Road in Hoover. A silent auction begins at 5:30 p.m.

Individual tickets are $55, and are available in advance here. The event typically sells out.

Proceeds from the event benefit the Vestavia Hills math and debate teams, as well as efforts to bring clean water to communities in Zambia.

The sous chef who assists the Iron City Chef winner receives a culinary scholarship to Jefferson State Community College.

For more information about the 2017 Iron City Chef Competition, go here.
The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals has reversed a lower court's ruling that had upheld the suspension without pay of an Irondale police officer after he allegedly beat an inmate at the city jail.

Michael Key had appealed to the appeals court asking for a review on the decisions of both the Jefferson County Personnel Board and the Jefferson County Circuit Court to affirm Irondale's suspension of him for 60 days without pay.

Court records show Key was suspended for his treatment of an inmate in the Irondale City Jail on April 9, 2015.

A statement in court records from Lt. Jason Wiggins, the interim chief of police at the time, said: "It has come to my attention ...you were recorded physically assaulting a prisoner in the Irondale jail. Specifically, you were recorded striking said prisoner repeatedly in the face. It is my understanding...the prisoner was restrained and posed no threat of physical harm to you, other officers, or civilians, it is also my understanding that as a result of your actions the prisoner suffered a broken jaw. You were also recorded using a taser on a restrained subject."

On May 22, 2015, Wiggins notified Key of his 60-day suspension. Days later, Key appealed his suspension to the Jefferson County Personnel Board, which upheld the suspension. One year later, the Jefferson County Circuit Court affirmed that decision-- upholding the suspension, too.

In December 2016, Key filed an appeal to the state Court of Civil Appeals.

Court records show Key believed the testimony of Ronald Kiker, an expert witness on law enforcement who testified at one of Key's hearings, exonerated him from any wrongdoing. Kiker testified the inmate who was beaten was taken into custody after throwing a vase at a judge. The inmate punched the walls in the jail's booking room, flooded his cell with water, urine, and feces, and slung water at officers who restrained him to a chair while cleaning his cell. Kiker also said while being restrained at that point, the inmate defected on the floor and started spitting at officers, telling them he had AIDS, hepatitis C, and tuberculosis.

According to Kiker's testimony, officers were trying to restrain the inmate at that point when he kept spitting. Then, Key hit the inmate three times in the head "in a matter he had been taught as a defensive tactic while another officer stunned the inmate with a Taser weapon."

Later, the inmate "possibly threatened" Key, and Key used a Taser on the inmate until he was compliant.

Kiker said Key's actions "were necessary to control the inmate."

The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals issued their ruling Friday that reversed and remanded the circuit court's ruling.
A Mississippi man was sentenced to federal prison this week for conspiring with his girlfriend to steal more than $1 million from a Birmingham surgical practice.

Anthony T. Michael, of Jackson, Miss., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala to five years and 10 months in prison. Michael, 43, pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiracy, bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft in March.

He was also ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution, Acting U.S. Attorney Robert O. Posey and FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge David W. Archey announced in a press release.

Court documents show Michael conspired with his girlfriend Anntwine Moss, of Bessemer, to steal from Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery of Alabama between 2006 and 2013. Moss, 51, was the office manager for the practice at the time. Moss had authority over payroll, accounting, bookkeeping, and managing budgets at the practice.

Moss was sentenced in May to three years and five months in prison on five counts of wire fraud and four counts of tax evasion by U.S. District Court Judge Karon O. Bowdre. She was ordered to pay $987,375 in restitution as well.

According to court documents, Moss stole from the surgical practice using her position as office manager to write unauthorized checks to herself and to Michael. She also made direct deposits into her personal account and used the company's credit cards for personal purchases for herself and Michael.

She falsified her personal tax returns for several years by failing to report to the IRS the money she stole, records show.

The FBI and IRS investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Xavier O. Carter Sr. prosecuted.
A Memphis-based rapper, who is being called a person of interest in an Arkansas club shooting that injured 28 people, has left Birmingham and is headed to Arkansas.

Jefferson County Jail records show Ricky Hampton, 25, was released at 2:30 a.m. Friday. Hampton, known by his stage name Finese 2Tymes, agreed to be extradited to Arkansas earlier this week, court records show.

Hampton was being held in the Jefferson County Jail on a fugitive from justice warrant, after he was arrested July 2 by the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, ATF, and FBI at the Side Effects club on Second Avenue North. Hampton was headlining a show there that Saturday night.

Hampton was sought on aggravated assault charges out of Forrest City, Arkansas and was also sought after the Saturday morning shooting a the Power Ultra Lounge-- a two-story club not far from the State Capitol. Hampton was headlining that show as well.

Law enforcement began the search for Hampton after the club shooting, and called him a person of interest in the case. Little Rock police have been to Birmingham to interview Hampton, but said on Twitter the case was an open investigation and no additional information could be released at the time.

Authorities have said the Arkansas club was full around 2:30 a.m. when, as an M.C. was speaking onstage during a lull in the music, gunfire erupted. About 30 shots rang out in 10 seconds as people screamed and ducked for cover.

Police said 25 suffered gunshot wounds and three others had unrelated injuries in the shooting. Police believe the gunfire stemmed from a dispute among clubgoers and that several people with guns fired.
It's July. It's Birmingham. It's going to be hot at the Sloss Fest this weekend.

Gates for the Sloss Music & Arts Festival will open at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 15. The music will continue through Sunday night.

But what are the chances of another torrential rainstorm like the one last year that wreaked havoc on the festival's last day?

They're not zero, according to the National Weather Service.

There's no threat of widespread severe weather over the weekend for the Birmingham area, according to forecasters, but that doesn't mean it won't rain.

In fact, rain looks likely. It won't be a washout, but there will be a 60 percent chance of rain during the day on Saturday, with a 30 percent chance on Saturday night.

Similar conditions are forecast for Sunday, with a 50 percent chance of rain during the day and a 30 percent chance on Sunday night.

Expect partly cloudy skies between the showers.

You know what to expect: the typical Alabama summer pop-up showers and storms.

Rain chances will get a boost from a weak cold front that is expected to sag into central Alabama on Saturday afternoon.

The front is expected to slow down even more on Sunday and stall across southern Alabama, so the drier air behind it may not make it into the Birmingham area before the festival wraps up.

Temperatures? They're to be expected -- with highs in the upper 80s to low 90s during the day and lows in the 70s at night.

But combine those with high humidity values and it will feel more like the mid-90s during the afternoon on Saturday and the low 90s on Sunday afternoon.

Click here for the hour-by-hour forecast.
Syrian refugees in Turkey turn to entrepreneurship to help their community as well as contribute to the local economy.

Gaziantep, Turkey  A group of Syrian children already well versed in the language of despair now have a chance to learn a vocabulary of hope at the Excellence Education Centre in Turkeys Gaziantep.

In a bright and colourful classroom, the kids enthusiastically recite some of the Turkish phrases theyll need in their new homeland from a curriculum designed by the centres owner, Asmaa Joha.

When I would look into the eyes of Syrian children, I was feeling afraid, explains Asmaa. I wondered how they would feel when they got older and if I had done my duty and served them well as a teacher.

Joha, an educator and entrepreneur, understands the plight of the students better than most. She worked as a school administrator in Aleppo, Syria before fleeing to Turkey after the war began.

I brought just three things with me, says Asmaa. My personal computer that had education programmes on it, my printer and some paper so that no matter where I found myself in Turkey and so long as there was electricity, I could print out lessons from childrens education curriculum and continue to train and teach them.





Its why she started the learning centre, which offers courses to Syrian children and adults in three languages: Turkish, English and Arabic. When I ask why she offers classes in Arabic to students who already speak the language, she tells me the decision was based on a recent and personal experience.

On Mothers Day, my kids wrote me some letters  some beautiful letters in Arabic, says Asmaa. But I was shocked that they contained some grammatical errors. That made me think I should start some classes in the Arabic language because this is our original language and we shouldnt leave it behind.

Now a year old, Asmaas business is, so far, a success and she has become a role model in her community  an example of how Syrian businesswomen and men are contributing to their local economies.

I want to stress one thing, says Asmaa. Humans, wherever they are, have to work and have to produce.

Every Syrian investment here today creates jobs for at least nine Syrian refugees, explains Rami Sharrack, executive manager of the Syrian Economic Forum, a non-governmental organisation.

We are talking about big opportunities here with the help of Syrian investors or private Syrian businesses in Turkey.

READ MORE: As ISILs caliphate crumbles, its ideology remains

Sharrack says refugees should be seen not as a burden, rather as a group that can produce significant economic growth for themselves and their host communities.

Since 2011, Syrians in Turkey have started more than 6,000 local businesses, according to a new report entitled Another Side to the Story: A Market Assessment of Syrian Businesses in Turkey by US based non-profit organisation Building Markets.

The report goes on to say those businesses have collectively invested more than $300m in Turkey, and that the benefits Syrian entrepreneurs are generating are also critical for local communities affected by the refugee influx, which tend to suffer from long-standing economic problems such as unemployment.

Sharrack, who is based in Gaziantep and helped compile research for the study, says Syrian investors [in Turkey] have created new investment fields and industrial sectors such as plastic carpets and shoes.

READ MORE: Iftar for the homesick  Remembering Ramadan in Raqqa

In Gaziantep, which sits on the border with Syria, youd be hard pressed not to spot the numerous businesses both welcoming and catering to refugees.

Still, plenty of obstacles remain: Turkey, which hosts nearly three million Syrian refugees, only began allowing Syrians to apply for work permits in 2016. So far, only about 15,000 have been issued.

In my opinion, the main problem here is the language barrier, says Moujahed Akil, another Syrian business owner and entrepreneur now based in Gaziantep.

For Syrians, not being able to speak the language is affecting their ability to enter the labour market here in Turkey. But I think those who have the language can enter the market and get a work permit easily.

When Moujahed arrived here, he had great difficulty getting work. After he learned the language, things got easier.

I came up with an idea to create a platform for Syrian refugees to deliver information in Arabic for people living here.

The mobile app he created, 8rbtna, not only helps refugees find jobs, it also became the launching pad for Moujaheds business ambitions. Now the owner of several companies, including a live translation service for Syrians, he wants his success to inspire and empower.

The message Im always trying to deliver in Turkey, says Moujahed, is that Im not only a refugee, and that being a refugee is nothing to be ashamed of.

Its a message of optimism that transcends war, delivered in several languages, and to more and more customers, every day.
The hotel is a relic that bears testament to almost 150 years of local, regional and global events.

Baalbek, Lebanon  For more than 140 years, through two world wars and a civil war lasting 15 years, the Palmyra Hotel in Baalbek has never closed its doors for a single day.

Built in 1874 by an Orthodox Greek businessman from Constantinople who recognised the tourist appeal of Baalbeks spectacular Roman ruins, in its heyday the hotel hosted kings, queens and emperors, as well as writers, artists and world-famous musicians.

The hotel is reminiscent of the Grand Budapest Hotel in Wes Andersons bittersweet comedy.

The turbulent history of the region has seen the Palmyra Hotel transformed into a pale imitation of its former glory, manned by ageing retainers who remember its golden years with nostalgia.

Ahmed Kassab, now in his 70s, has worked at the hotel for more than 60 years.

It is part of me, he says simply, seated in the lobby in an ancient tailcoat. He smiles as he recalls his first day of work, during Eid al-Adha of 1954.

The father of a friend told me to come inside and help in the kitchen, he says. I was so small that they had to bring a wooden box for me to stand on so I could reach the table.

When Kassab finished school, he wanted to become a teacher but the owner begged him to stay on and work at the hotel, where they began throwing dinner parties for hundreds of guests.

I started with two tables, then four, then six, and then eventually they gave me all the tables, he laughs uproariously, wheezing a little. This was my happiest moment.

READ MORE: Hitting the slopes at Lebanons oldest ski resort

At its peak, The Palmyra Hotel had 40 rooms and more than 60 staff, Kassab says wistfully. Today, only 20 of the rooms remain open and the seven staff members sometimes have nothing to do, as days go by without any guests.

Bitterly cold in winter and lacking modern amenities such as mini bars and a swimming pool, the Palmyra no longer caters to high-society guests.

But for history lovers it remains a fascinating place; a relic of Lebanon s colonial past that bears testament to almost 150 years of local, regional and global events, all of which have impacted the hotel in different ways.

In the entrance of the hotel, there is a huge portrait of Germanys last Emperor and King of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm II, standing to attention. The Kaiser stayed at the hotel in 1898 while planning a joint German-Ottoman excavation of Baalbeks archaeological site. His troops later stayed at the Palmyra, which was occupied by Ottoman forces during World War I.

The Declaration du Grand Liban  which established the boundaries of modern-day Lebanon as determined under the French Mandate  was signed at the hotel following World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Reflecting the shifting balance of power in the Middle East, the Palmyra later served as headquarters for British troops during World War II.

Three guestbooks dating back to 1889 shed light on the Palmyras history. In the 1920s, dozens of entries from American tourists attest to the hotels position on the pilgrim trail to Jerusalem. Kings and queens used to stop at the Palmyra while touring Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Holy Land.

It was the first hotel that had a private bathroom and the lady-in-waiting would have the key, says Rima Husseini, who owns the hotel with her husband Ali.

Royals and heads of state to have stayed at the hotel include Charles de Gaulle, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, King Faisal I of Iraq, King Abdullah I of Jordan, the Shah of Iran and the Empress of Abyssinia, among many others.

The challenge was  and still is  never to close the hotel's doors for a day by Rima Husseini, Palmyra hotel owner

Inside the cavernous entrance hall, with its worn tiles and fraying rugs, hang sketches and letters signed by Jean Cocteau, who spent a month in the hotel in 1960.

Other famous guests include local stars such as Fairouz and Sabah, as well as Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Albert Einstein and George Bernard Shaw.

The hotels stream of showbiz visitors began with the founding of the annual Baalbeck International Festival in 1955.

But the 1967 war put an end to the pilgrim trail, and then came Lebanons 1975-1990 Civil War during which the festival was suspended. The guests went with it. When my husband Ali bought the hotel during the [civil] war, the old owner wanted to leave because there had been no festival for over five years, says Husseini.

Ali tried to convince him to stay, because he knew during the war that no one with a sense of preserving such a place would come in. So he took it, just to preserve it.

The challenge was  and still is  never to close the hotels doors for a day.

The civil war now entering its sixth year across the Syrian border, which lies less than 15 miles away, has compounded the hotels troubles.

Today, the Palmyra Hotel no longer hosts kings and queens or stars of the stage, but tourists seeking history, rather than luxury, among the creaking beds, gurgling pipes and ancient furnishings, which include hand-carved mahogany furniture, enormous colourful tapestries and green ostrich-skin lampshades.

With this in mind, the owners purchased a traditional house nearby in 2000, intending to create a more up-market alternative.

Known as LAnnexe, the second venue features five bedrooms, each decorated in a different style.

As of last November, they are being rented out via a boutique hotel company called LHote Libanais. The idea is to offer a more comfortable alternative for guests who find the Palmyras ancient infrastructure off-putting.

Bit by bit weve tried to make it more comfortable but at the same time keep this atmosphere, with everything  even the walls  speaking, says Husseini.

Any outside contractor will want to showcase what he can do. No single person should have the right to transform the hotel, she believes, because the Palmyra has the soul of so many different people.

Instead, Husseini is inviting local designers to come and add a personal touch to a single room or expanse of wall. This is a place that was marked by people, she says. It has stories to tell.
Al Jazeera speaks to the head of the UN peacekeeping mission about plans to bring security to conflict-hit CAR.

Bangui, Central African Republic  Over the past few weeks, hundreds of people have been killed and more than 100,000 others forced to flee their homes in escalating violence in the Central African Republic.

The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the CAR (MINUSCA) has repeatedly come under scrutiny for its inability to protect civilians. Human rights activists claim that the 12,000-strong peacekeeping force hasnt effectively contained the violence by armed groups operating across the country. The mission also continues to face sexual exploitation and abuse accusations.

Al Jazeera spoke to Lieutenant General Balla Keita, force commander of the United Nations MINUSCA, about criticisms that the mission was unable to halt armed groups and failing to protect civilians.

Al Jazeera: Is MINUSCA fulfilling its mandate of protecting citizens in CAR?

General Keita: Walking around, you realise that something has improved. Bangui (the capital) has changed dramatically. Travelling to Bambari, its the same. Kaga-Bandoro, its the same.

We can say there has been progress.

But we all know that in some parts of the country people are really suffering and being killed by armed groups. There is progress in the major parts of the country, particularly the west and parts of the centre, the northeast.

But in the southern part of the centre and the southeast, the situation has deteriorated in the past two months because of the clash between armed groups and the direct attacks on civilians. There is improvement but we still have a lot to worry about.

Al Jazeera: There seems to be a split between a secure Bangui and a more lawless countryside. Would you agree with this portrayal?

General Keita: I wouldnt go that far because Ive just mentioned a few towns. If you go into Bambari, its almost the same feeling as in Bangui. People are working night and day in Bambari now. In Kaga-Bandoro its almost the same. In the Western parts people are going about their day.

The issue is the countryside, and moving from one town to another freely without any concern of security is not possible. You have a lot of armed groups that are not controlled and bandits between the populations and are taking advantage of these security situations and civilians.

Al Jazeera: Why has MINUSCA not been able to halt the activities of armed groups in the country?

General Keita: We have achieved some form of control over them [but] the overall control of the armed groups is going to be very difficult to achieve.

The country is so large and the armed groups are everywhere.

MINUSCA came in to stabilise the situation and bring people together to negotiate.

The mandate was not to come and neutralise the armed groups. It was to protect the civilians and set conditions for a political process.

The government of transition tried to do that and did not achieve it, but we now managed to have elections.

Its now up to President Faustin-Archange Touadera to try and speed up that process. But if one of the groups started attacking the population, with our mandate to protect them, we have to deal directly with that armed group.

IN PICTURES: Tensions between Muslims and Christians rise in CAR

Al Jazeera: How would you react to criticism that you are merely protecting the government rather than civilians?

General Keita: When you look at it you realise it cant make sense.

In Bangui, we are at one fifth of our capabilities, the rest of the capabilities are elsewhere. Bangui is and will remain the centre of gravity of this mission.

This crisis is about taking the power and the power is here in Bangui. We have managed to elect a government so we must protect that government so they can try to run properly.

Al Jazeera: Civilians are still being killed and the government isnt able to protect them. Are we waiting for the government to move ahead and protect the civilians or is it MINUSCA who must do better?

General Keita: No, its our job.

We are not shying away from it. The protection of civilians and the government lies with MINUSCA. We know this; its our responsibility.

We have to secure the government because otherwise, people will take the power.

We can never, ever be so weak in Bangui that the people who want to take the power can do it. They are waiting for that time. by General Balla Keita, force commander

Al Jazeera: There have been major attacks in the last month or so in Bria, around Bambari, Kaga-Bandoro with thousands displaced and hundreds killed. How do you accept these events when they take place?

General Keita: We could have done better. But we also know that its almost impossible for us to achieve what everyone expects us to do.

We cannot be everywhere.

These guys, their modus operandi is to [attack] when they know MINUSCA is not there.

So theyll target the civilians there.

When we get to know they are there we stop it. But some have already been killed or displaced.

That dynamic worries us and the international community. We dont have the capacity to be everywhere so we try to adjust the strategy and align it with the political process.

If they are having clashes you cant go in and neutralise them all. You try to put an end to the fighting because the clash between the armed groups is what harms the civilians.

The fighting in Bria is between the armed groups to control the economic activities and the mining areas and they do it inside the city. So what do we do? Before we can even put an end to the fighting the whole city is displaced.

Al Jazeera: Moving forward, what are your priority areas? Bambari is safer now, but armed groups have captured areas around it.

General Keita: My first priority is to stop the killings wherever it happens.

It is now happening throughout the southeast and its become my main security challenge.

I have to make sure the killings stop there. But while I am doing it I have to keep two things in mind: that Bangui is the centre of gravity. We can never, ever be so weak in Bangui that the people who want to take the power can do it.

They are waiting for that time.

The second thing, Bambari has become the turning point in this mission. We have achieved something and the whole world now is joining us to make Bambari the example for the peace process and the future.

The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Follow @AzadEssa and @FurcoiSorin on Twitter.
A year on, the UAE and Egypts involvement in Turkeys failed coup attempt is more apparent than ever before.

The July 15 coup attempt in Turkey sent shockwaves throughout the world, including Arab countries. Many Arabs, who have witnessed the reversal of the Arab Spring revolutions, staunchly opposed the coup attempt and showed support for the Turkish people and government. However, certain Arab governments and their operatives were openly supportive of the coup plotters and even offered logistical support to FETO, the armed organisation led by the US-based Turkish national Fethullah Gulen that orchestrated the failed coup.

Although the relationship between these Arab governments and Gulen supporters wasnt initially clear, it came to be better appreciated in light of new evidence that has been discovered over the past year.





Egypts government emerged as the most vocal supporter of the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey. In the immediate aftermath of the failed coup, the government of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced that it could consider granting asylum to Fetullah Gulen in case he was compelled to leave the United States. Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities failed to impose restrictions on FETOs activities within their borders and allowed the groups representatives to appear on Egyptian TV channels in order to defend the coup plotters. Moreover, pro-government broadcasters in the country adopted an editorial line that sided with the coup plotters against Turkeys democratically elected government. In an effort to spread the messages of Fetullah Gulen to the Arab world, a television network owned by Mohammed Dahlan, a Palestinian adviser to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), broadcast an interview with the failed coups mastermind.

The UAE was another strong supporter of the coup attempt in Turkey. It has recently been revealed that, unsettled by Ankaras regional policy in recent years, the country took a series of thinly veiled steps to support FETOs attempt to remove Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power.

In June, emails leaked from the personal account of Abu Dhabis ambassador to Washington, Yousef al Otaiba, revealed that the Gulf nation could have played a greater role in last summers failed coup than originally anticipated.

OPINION: Turkish coup, Muslim democracy and Western bad faith

The emails showed that Otaiba was in close contact with senior officials from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a US-based think-tank primarily financed by the pro-Israel businessman Sheldon Adelson. An exchange between the UAE ambassador and John Hannah, a senior counsellor at the foundation, provided valuable insights into Abu Dhabis relationship with the coup plotters in Turkey.

In one of the leaked emails, Hannah, a former deputy national security adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney, sent Otaiba an article claiming that both the UAE and FDD were responsible for the July 15 military coup attempt in Turkey, saying he is honoured to be in the UAEs company.

Turkey's strong economic, military and political ties with Qatar are another reason behind the UAE's hostile attitude towards the Turkish government. by

Hannah previously published an article at ForeignPolicy.com titled How Do You Solve a Problem Like Erdogan? in which he suggested that the Turkish military would turn on Erdogan to save Turkey.

Also, in an article published by Middle East Eye in July last year, British journalist David Hearst claimed that the UAE had set aside significant funds to ensure that the coup attempt in Turkey would be successful. He alleged that Mohammed Dahlan, acting on behalf of the UAE government, delivered money to FETO operatives. Last month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the press that a Muslim country had spent $3bn on efforts to overthrow the Erdogan government, adding weight to the claims that the UAE funded last years coup attempt.

UAEs motives

There are several reasons behind the UAEs desire to topple Turkeys government.

First of all, it is no secret that the UAE has been unhappy with the Turkish governments approach to the Arab Spring revolutions. When protests broke out in several Middle Eastern countries, Ankara expressed solidarity with the pro-democracy forces and openly supported the replacement of Western-controlled authoritarian regimes with democratically elected governments. Believing this pro-democracy message to be detrimental to its own interests, Abu Dhabi took measures against the country.

Another important factor behind AUEs support for the Turkish coup plotters was Turkeys support for the Muslim Brotherhood, a moderate movement that enjoys vast popularity in Egypt and across the Muslim world.

READ MORE: Analysts: Leaks could threaten Emirati diplomacy

Believing that the group poses a challenge to their rule, political elites in Abu Dhabi adopted a staunch anti-Brotherhood policy. In 2013, they supported Sisis military coup which removed Brotherhoods Morsi from power in Egypt and later they took a series of steps to topple the government of Turkey in a similar manner. They also orchestrated  alongside Saudi Arabia  the on-going blockade of Qatar.

Turkish governments attitude toward Iran and Libya was another reason behind the UAEs support for last years failed coup attempt.





In Libya, the Turkish government is supporting the formation of a democratic government while the UAE is backing the military government of Khalifa Haftar and refusing to help the war-torn country move towards democracy. At the same time, Abu Dhabi remains unsettled by Ankaras friendly relations with Tehran at a time when it wishes to isolate the country.

Turkeys strong economic, military and political ties with Qatar are another reason behind the UAEs hostile attitude towards the Turkish government. The strengthening cooperation between Ankara and Doha leaves several Gulf countries  including Saudi Arabia and the UAE  unsettled, because they do not want Turkey to become more influential in the Gulf region. Abu Dhabi and Riyadhs recent call for the immediate shutdown of the Turkish military base in Qatar is an example of this sentiment.

Finally, Turkeys search for a new regional order in the Middle East encourages the UAE to work more closely with regional and global players to isolate Ankara. The UAE has been engaging Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Israel, the United States and others in an effort to mitigate the Turkish influence in the Middle East.

Committed to the goal of promoting democracy, perpetuating peace and spreading development and economic welfare to all societies in the Middle East, Turkey will remain a transformative player in the region. Ironically, the support provided by certain local and global stakeholders to the coup plotters in Turkey not only boosted Turkish President Erdogans popularity, but also led Ankara to reconsider its policy towards said countries. Promoting regional cooperation and urging local players to have more control over the Middle East, the Turkish government should be expected to work more closely with governments that share these goals and to take stronger action against those that disagree.

Ismail Numan Telci is the Deputy Director of the Middle East Institute and an assistant professor at the Department of International Relations at Sakarya University. He is also a foreign policy researcher for SETA.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
On August 1, 1966, after the collapse of last-ditch attempts by Nigerias power brokers to prevent the impending civil war, Lieutenant Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu said only one thing would make the rebels cease fire: that the Republic of Nigeria be split into its component parts; and all southerners in the North be repatriated to the South and that Northerners resident in the South be repatriated to the North.





On May 30, 1967, Oxford-educated Ojukwu declared Biafra an independent state in the southeast of the country. On July 6, 1967, civil war broke out in Nigeria, which claimed more than a million lives in just three years.

Fast-forward to June 2017. Irked by renewed secessionist calls from the same Igbo ethnic group, a coalition of northern groups issued a notice, demanding all Igbo currently residing in any part of Northern Nigeria to relocate within three months and all northerners residing in the East are advised likewise.

Although made 51 years apart, those two statements are strikingly similar. Since the first was followed by a war, there is real reason to worry that the second could prompt another.

Last weeks commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Nigerias civil war should have been an opportunity for Nigerians to remember the ills of war and to vow not to let it happen again. Instead, the voices of secession raged even louder.

Secessionist movement an indictment of past leadership

The resurrection of the clamour for secession five decades since the civil war is simply the result of serial leadership failure in Nigerian politics. When the war ended in 1970, Yakubu Gowon, then head of state, promised to build a nation, great in justice, fair trade, and industry. But he and his successors didnt.

Although there is no evidence of efforts to specifically ignore the plight of the Igbo, generations of corrupt and selfish leaders have entered and vacated office with no real plan to rebuild the East from the ruins of war, neither have they done anything for the insurgency-ravaged North-East. They have been filling their pockets with public funds while ignoring a disenchanted youth and growing anger.

READ MORE: 50 years on  Nigerias Biafra secessionist movement

Now, the Igbo youth is ready to do anything, including sacrificing their lives, to actualise the dream of an independent Biafra. Some 150 of them already died for this cause between August 2015 and August 2016. The series of military crackdowns on pro-Biafra activists was a grave error by the authorities as it has spawned clusters of bellicose Igbo youth who want to avenge their brothers deaths. Anyone who has physically met secessionist leader Nnamdi Kanus apostles, or read their viperous online comments, will admit that quite a number of them are seething with rage that can only be thawed by the highest level of tact from the government.

A referendum on the preferred system of internal governance is crucial, even though recent calls for fiscal federalism have come from politicians who are more interested in cornering the nation's wealth than redistributing it for common good. by

The absence of that kind of tact is arguably the reason for the escalation of the Biafra agitation in the last two years. After all, Kanu, the face of the secessionist movement, was little-known until October 2015 when the Muhammadu Buhari government arrested him and subsequently disobeyed court orders granting him bail.

He was eventually released in April this year, but thanks to that unlawful detention Kanu exchanged his freedom for undeserved martyrdom. Now, what should have been an intelligent campaign for self-determination has been entrusted to a man whose message is primarily driven by emotion and aggression.

Nigerias unity is non-negotiable

The most important question regarding the secession of Biafra is, of course, whether Nigerias unity is negotiable. President Buhari has said it a few times, and his vice  now acting  president, Yemi Osinbajo has reiterated it: Nigerias unity is not negotiable. According to them, secession is not and will never be on the negotiation table.

The superficial argument behind this claim is that the Nigerian Constitution is unequivocal in its exclusion of secession when it states in Section 2(1) that Nigeria is one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign state to be known by the name of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

But Biafra is not a fresh secessionist movement  it is a 50-year-old idea. And, regardless of the grave shortcomings of its current proponent, a 50-year-old movement cannot be dispelled with a wave of the hand or by locking up the proponent or brandishing the Constitution. The Nigerian government must come up with an agreeable, realistic and practical solution to this problem.

In its ninth section, the same constitution provides for dialogue on the possibility of amending Nigerias indissolubility. But for this amendment to come into force, not less than two-thirds majority of state and federal legislators must support the move. So, instead of saying an outright no to Biafra, Buhari and Osinbajo should remind the secessionists of what they must do: lobby the legislature. Everyone knows the success rate is negligible, if not nil, but good luck to them if they succeed.

A referendum on internal governance





Importantly and urgently, Nigeria needs a referendum. There is palpable public frustration with a governance structure that allocates the lion share of the countrys earnings to the federal government while leaving states to scramble for crumbs. A referendum on the preferred system of internal governance is crucial, even though recent calls for fiscal federalism have come from politicians who are more interested in cornering the nations wealth than redistributing it for common good.

Now is the time to take the decision to the public court. Some may criticise direct democracy as the tyranny of the majority, but theres no other option for a Nigerian state where the tyranny of the ruling minority is monumental.

Neither history nor currency is on the side of Biafra. Only two secessionist movements have ever succeeded in Africa: Eritrea from Ethiopia after 30 years of war, and South Sudan from Sudan in 2011 after 22 years of war  the latter still as war-torn as the pre-2011 Sudan. Herein lies the lesson for Biafra agitators: Secession from Nigeria will not solve their problems unless accompanied by conscientious leadership.

Nigeria, meanwhile, must go back 50 years to draw its own lessons: These types of agitations can lead to war. If the south-easterners dont want to stay, let them go. Fragmentation is a million times better than the devastation of war.

Fisayo Soyombo is editor of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR)

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
A shooting attack on the military patrol vehicle in the Shia-majority province also injured another soldier.

A Saudi soldier has been killed and another injured in a shooting attack on their patrol vehicle in the kingdoms eastern province of Qatif.

Saudi Arabias official news agency on Friday quoted the Saudi interior ministry as saying that the attack took place late on Thursday. It gave no further details, but said that authorities were investigating.

In recent months, Qatif, a Shia-majority province, has seen a series of attacks targeting security forces.

Last week, two security personnel were injured when a roadside bomb hit their car in Qatif.

Thursdays attack came days after Saudi Arabia executed four Shias convicted on terrorism charges for attacks on the police and their role in violent protests.

The interior ministry said the four were executed for incidents that took place in Qatif.
Government delegation chief says direct meeting with opposition was not raised with his team at Geneva talks.

The head of Syrian government delegation has said his team has not been asked to meet face to face with the opposition in the seventh round of UN-mediated indirect talks held in the Swiss city of Geneva.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Bashar al-Jaafari, Syrias ambassador to the UN and the delegation chief, said the issue of direct talks was something that has not been raised with us  not directly or indirectly.

We have given sufficient explanations to the special envoy about our vision and the way we see this, Jaafari said on Friday after his final meeting with Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria.





The most important thing is for us to have a national partner and not a client for a foreign agenda, he said alluding to foreign backers of the main opposition, like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as well as smaller opposition factions.

Al Jazeeras Sue Turton, reporting from Geneva, said the Syrian opposition and the Syrian regime were close to actual direct talks, but Jaafari said de Mistura was not even entertaining that idea.

It seems like there was on counterterrorism and how the international community was not doing well when there were coalition strikes on the ground, she said.

We are also hearing that the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) is not really happy as they see these talks a bit of a sham because at no point has the regime sit around the table with them and discuss anything, she said, referring to an umbrella body of the Syrian opposition.

READ MORE: Geneva talks  Syria constitution proposal on hold

A day earlier, de Mistura acknowledged that he was not pushing for the opposition and government delegations to meet directly until they could engage in real talks.

Later on Friday, de Mistura confirmed the next round of talks were scheduled to take place in September.

I intend to reconvene the Syria talks again in September and I hope to at least push them to sit in the same room, he said.

Both the government and the opposition have been quite willing to outline how they are combating UN designated terrorist entities in Syria.

De Mistura also reminded all stakeholders to ensure the fight against terrorism must be accompanied by concrete efforts to protect civilians.

It must not be an opportunity to use any type of prohibited weapons.

READ MORE: Syria talks resume in Geneva after ceasefire deal

He did not expect HNC to unite with two other dissident groupings, the Moscow and Cairo platforms, in time for direct talks with Syrias government during this round.

The Moscow and Cairo platforms each consist a handful of activists and are named after the cities where they first convened, at meetings held with Russias approval and support. They do not control territory on the ground or have strong links with armed groups engaged in the war.

This weeks talks were held as a ceasefire was in effect in southwest Syria. It was brokered by the US, which backs the rebels, as well as Russia, which provides military support to President Bashar al-Assads troops. Jordan was also involved in the partial truce deal.

The UN talks are meant to lead to an agreement on a transition government, a new constitution and new elections in the country that has been ravaged by war since 2011.
Masked men burst into a childrens party and hack to death seven men, four women and two minors in Hidalgo state.

Masked men burst into a childrens party in central Mexico and hacked 11 people to death, authorities and witnesses said Thursday, in the violence-plagued countrys latest mass murder.

Police found the gory scene when they responded to an emergency call received just after midnight in the city of Tizayuca, in the central state of Hidalgo, officials said.

Neighbours said four men burst into a large white tent where a family was hosting a childrens party outside their home.

They stabbed to death seven women, two men and two minors, said state prosecutor Javier Lara.

The murders appear to be a settling of scores, he told a news conference, indicating that the homeowner was involved in organised crime.

READ MORE: Juarez is waiting for you  Violent city tries tourism

He had a criminal record for various crimes, including kidnapping, for which he did time in prison, Lara said.

We can presume this was a settling of scores. Evidence indicates a hit squad was sent to the home to kill [the victims].

Another victim was an employee of the Mexico City public security service, he said.

Four children were found unharmed, public security spokesman David Pichardo told AFP news agency.





One of the children told authorities that masked men wearing police uniforms had arrived during the party and killed all the adults, according to newspaper Excelsior.

Authorities had cordoned off the entire neighbourhood on Thursday morning, and security was tight. Forensic workers could be seen examining the crime scene.

Mexico has seen a surge of deadly violence in recent months, extending to areas that were once considered relatively calm. That includes Hidalgo, which sits just north of the capital, Mexico City.

Murders hit a record high in May, according to the latest official data: 2,186 homicides, an average of 70 a day and the most since the country began keeping track 20 years ago.

The violence is largely fuelled by powerful, ultra-violent drug cartels.

Since Mexico deployed the military to fight drug trafficking in 2006, a wave of bloodshed has left more than 200,000 people dead or missing as rival cartels wage war on each other and the army.

Recently, hitmen have been wiping out entire families  including children  in a sign that the unspoken code of honour that once governed the turf wars and revenge killings of Mexicos cartels is fraying.
Israeli police closed and cancelled Friday noon prayers in the al-Aqsa Mosque and briefly detained Jerusalems top Muslim leader after three Palestinians and two Israeli police officers were killed in a gun battle in the mosque compound.

Sheikh Mohammad Ahmed Hussein, who decried the mosque closure, was taken into custody from the Bab Al-Asbat area (Lions Gate) after leading an open-air prayer nearby.





Israeli police detained my father in a violent manner and took him to an unknown destination, said Omar, the grand muftis son.

Hussein was later released on $2,800 bail.

Al Jazeeras Harry Fawcett, reporting from Jerusalems Old City, said it was the first time in decades that the compound closed for prayers on Friday.

Of course, this has the potential to increase tensions among the about 10,000 Palestinians who normally come here for worship, Fawcett said.

Sheikh Omar Keswani, a religious official at al-Aqsa, decried the closure and cancellation of Friday prayers.

Forbidding the Friday prayer is an unfair procedure, Keswani told Al Jazeera. What happened earlier is now being taken advantage of by the Israeli right to impose a new reality in al-Aqsa Mosque.

Haj Khalil Abu Elsheikh, 77, travelled 100km from Beersheba to attend Friday prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque.

No religion allows this, he told Al Jazeera, referring to praying on the side of the road. No belief accepts this.

Contested shrine

The rare attack from within the contested al-Aqsa compound, revered by both Muslims and Jews, raised new concerns about an escalation of violence.

The ancient marble-and-stone compound  known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif  houses the al-Aqsa Mosque, Islams third-holiest site, and the 7th-century Dome of the Rock. Thousands pray there every Friday.

The Western Wall of the compound, also known as the Wailing Wall, is considered the holiest site in Judaism.

Al Jazeeras Fawcett said the Palestinians reportedly shot at Israeli security forces near the Lions Gate to the Old City.

The three attackers were armed with two machine guns, a pistol and a knife, according to Israeli police, Fawcett reported.

They were then pursued inside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. In the courtyard of the compound, a final gun battle ensued between the gunmen and Israeli security forces.

Following the attack, Israeli police cleared the al-Aqsa Mosque and closed it to the public. They identified the assailants as Israeli Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly tried to allay Muslims fears, saying that the status quo at the Muslim-administered site will be preserved.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas talked to Netanyahu in a rare phone call to discuss the situation in Jerusalem, highlighting the concern about a possible escalation, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Abbas condemned the attack and said he rejects any violence from any party, particularly at holy sites.

Netanyahu has said the compound would be gradually reopened on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Jordans government spokesman Mohammad Al Momani called on Israel to end the closure, which he described to Petra news agency as an attack on the right of Muslims to practise their religious rituals in their holy sites.

Additional reporting by Ibrahim Husseini
Hawaii judge rules grandparents are exempt from Trumps travel ban enforcement on six Muslim-majority countries.

A federal judge in Hawaii has expanded the list of family relationships needed by people seeking new visas from six Muslim-majority countries to avoid President Donald Trumps travel ban.

US District Judge Derrick Watson on Thursday ordered the government not to enforce the ban on grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins of people in the United States.

Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents, US District Judge Derrick Watson said in his ruling.

Indeed grandparents are the epitome of close family members.

READ MORE: Trumps Muslim ban comes into effect

Watson in Honolulu had been asked to narrowly interpret a US Supreme Court ruling that revived parts of Trumps March 6 executive order banning people from those countries for 90 days.

The US Supreme Court last month let the ban on travel from the six countries go forward with a limited scope, saying it could not apply to anyone with a credible bona fide relationship with a US person or entity.

The Trump administration then decided that spouses, parents, children, fiances and siblings would be exempt from the ban, while grandparents and other family members travelling from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen would be barred.

The Trump administration also said that all refugees without a close family tie would be blocked from the country for four months.

Discriminatory ban

Trump said the measure was necessary to prevent attacks. However, opponents including states and refugee advocacy groups, sued to stop it, disputing its security rationale and saying it discriminated against Muslims.

Hawaiis attorney general Douglas Chin asked Watson to issue an injunction allowing grandparents and other family members to travel to the United States.

Hawaii and refugee groups argue that resettlement agencies have a bona fide relationship with the refugees they help, sometimes over the course of years.

The Justice Department said its rules were properly grounded in immigration law.

OPINION: The Muslim ban  Did Trump really win?

In his ruling, Watson said the government had an unduly restrictive reading of what constituted a close family relationship.

Chin, who represents the state as the plaintiff in the case said the court made clear that the U.S. government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit.

Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough, Chin said in a statement.

Watson said the assurance by a resettlement agency to provide basic services to a newly arrived refugee constitutes an adequate connection to the US because it is a sufficiently formal and documented agreement that triggers responsibilities and compensation.

Bona fide does not get any more bona fide than that, Watson said.





Melanie Nezer, vice president of global refugee advocacy group HIAS, said the ruling should mean that refugees can continue to be resettled in the United States, beyond a cap of 50,000 set by the executive order. That limit was reached this week.

We are thrilled that thousands of people will be reunited with their family members, said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project.

More than 24,000 additional refugees should be allowed to travel to the U.S. under Watsons order, she estimated.

The roll-out of the narrowed version of the ban was more subdued than in January, when Trump first signed a more expansive version of the order.

That sparked protests and chaos at airports around the country and the world.
Judge orders Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, be held for up to 18 months while they are investigated for graft.

Perus former president and his wife have been taken into custody after a judge ordered them detained while prosecutors prepare charges against them for alleged money laundering.

Soon after the judge issued his order on Thursday night, Ollanta Humala and Nadine Heredia were driven to the courthouse under a heavy police escort.

Judge Richard Concepcion ordered them held for up to 18 months while they are investigated.

The ruling marked the second time that the judge has mandated jail time for an ex-president since a massive graft scandal in neighbouring Brazil rippled into Peru.

Prosecutor German Juarez cited testimony from former executives of Brazilian builder Odebrecht to accuse the couple of taking $3m in illegal campaign funds during the 2011 presidential election.

READ MORE: The scandal and tragedy of Lulas corruption conviction

Juarez also accused the pair of taking undeclared funds from the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez during a previous, unsuccessful presidential bid.

Heres a president who rose to the presidency and governed us with an electoral campaign built on illicit money. Thats serious because it morally wounds society, Juarez said.

Humala, a former military officer who led Peru from 2011 to 2016, turned himself in with Heredia, the co-founder of his nationalist party, immediately after the ruling. Both denied wrongdoing and called their pre-trial detention unfair.





As they headed to the courthouse, Humala said in a Tweet: This confirms the abuse of power which we will confront in defense of our rights and those of everyone.

Prosecutors filed the petition for the couples detention earlier in the week, arguing they might flee Peru to evade justice.

In February, Judge Concepcion had ordered the arrest of another former Peruvian president, Alejandro Toledo, for related charges. Toledo is in the US fighting attempts by Peruvian authorities to have him deported to answer the charges.

Authorities across Latin America have been moving to charge officials accused of taking some $800m in bribes from Odebrecht. The company acknowledged the bribes when it signed a plea agreement in December with the US Justice Department.

The bribes include some $29m paid in Peru for projects built during the administrations of Toledo, Humala and former President Alan Garcia.

The same scandal has ensnared former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was convicted on Wednesday and sentenced to almost 10 years in jail for taking gifts from another Brazilian builder that along with Odebrecht paid bribes to politicians in exchange for government contracts.

Silva denies the accusation and will remain free while he appeals what he says are politically motivated charges.
Israel shuts down the al-Aqsa compound in occupied East Jerusalem after security forces kill three armed Palestinians.

Two Israeli policemen died after Palestinian gunmen reportedly opened fire near al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalems Old City, before they too were killed in a gunfight.

Israeli police said the three gunmen reached one of the gates near the al-Aqsa compound, opened fire and fled towards al-Aqsa Mosque where they were shot dead by police officers on Friday.





Israeli police later ordered the closure of the compound, saying there would be no prayers at the site on Friday.

Al Jazeeras Harry Fawcett, reporting from Jerusalem, said the Palestinians reportedly shot at Israeli security forces near the Lions Gate to the Old City.

The three attackers were armed with two machine guns, a pistol and a knife, according to Israeli police, Fawcett reported.

They were then pursued inside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. In the courtyard of the compound, a final gun battle ensued between the gunmen and Israeli security forces.

Management of al-Aqsa mosque said the bodies of two Palestinians were inside the courtyard of the compound, Fawcett reported.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone on Friday and condemned the shooting, Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

The president expressed his strong rejection and condemnation of the incident that took place at al-Aqsa mosque, as well as his rejection of any violent incidents from any side, especially in places of worship, Wafa said.

Abbas called on Netanyahu to end the shutdown of the holy site. Netanyahu assured Abbas the long-standing status quo at the compound, which gives Muslims exclusive prayer rights, would be maintained, Wafa said.

Tensions could rise

The ancient, marble-and-stone compound houses the al-Aqsa Mosque, Islams third-holiest site, and the 7th-century Dome of the Rock. Thousands pray there every Friday.

The western wall of the compound, also known as the Wailing Wall, is considered the holiest site in Judaism.

It is the first time in years that the compound closes for prayers on Friday. Of course, this has the potential to increase tensions among the about 10,000 Palestinians who normally come here for worship, Fawcett said.

Following the incident, access to the Old City was restricted.

Dozens of Palestinian residents waited in the sun to be allowed into the Old City.

Um Nidal, who lives in Bab Huta  a neighbourhood in the Muslim quarter  told Al Jazeera that she has been waiting for more than three hours with her child, who is 16 months old.

Ive been waiting here since 11:30am, the police will not let me in and I was pushed away, she said.

Adham Asfour, 30, also said he was unable to return home.

We have no choice but to wait here until they let us through, he told Al Jazeera.

With the mosque closed, hundreds of Palestinians instead held prayers near Damascus Gate.

Police arrested Muhammed Ahmad Hussein, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and citys highest Islamic authority, after he led prayers, said Azzam el Khatib, director of the religious organisation Al Awqaf.

Hussein had earlier decried the mosque closure.

Forbidding the Friday prayer is an unfair procedure, Sheikh Omar Keswani, a religious official at al-Aqsa, told Al Jazeera.

What happened earlier is now being taken advantage of by the Israeli right to impose a new reality in al-Aqsa Mosque, Keswani added.

Haj Khalil Abu Elsheikh, 77, travelled 100km from Beersheba to attend Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

No religion allows this, he told Al Jazeera, referring to praying on the side of the road. No belief accepts this.

In a separate incident on Friday, Israeli forces shot dead an 18-year-old Palestinian during a raid in Dheisheh refugee camp south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces arrested two Palestinians during the raid, sources told Al Jazeera.

Since September 2015, Israeli forces have killed more than 254 Palestinians, Israel claims most of them were attackers.

In that same period, Palestinian attackers have killed 43 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist.

Additional reporting by Ibrahim Husseini
Former President Ollanta Humala and his wife to be held in preventive detention during a corruption investigation.

A judge ordered the arrest of Perus former President Ollanta Humala and his wife on Thursday night as they face money laundering and conspiracy accusations tied to a construction scandal involving Brazilian company Odebrecht.

The preventive detention, which would keep Humala and his wife Nadine Heredia in jail for up to 18 months while they are investigated, came after prosecutors argued the couple could flee Peru to evade justice or could interfere with the nearly three-year investigation.

Shouts of protest could be heard in the courtroom as Judge Richard Concepcion issued his ruling.

Humala and Heredia deny wrongdoing but were on their way to turn themselves into authorities, their lawyers said after the ruling. Theyre not fleeing. They never intended to flee, said defence lawyer Wilfredo Pedraza.

READ MORE: Connecting Iquitos  Building a road through the Amazon

The allegations against Humala stem from testimony by the former head of construction giant Odebrecht, who said he illegally contributed $3m to Humalas 2011 presidential campaign. The couple is also accused of taking undeclared funds from the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez during a previous, unsuccessful presidential bid.

Humala, who finished his term in 2016, never declared the contributions and prosecutors argue he and his wife conspired to hide them for personal gain.

Humala, 55, has insisted he has no intention of fleeing the country and has said he looks forward to defending himself against what he calls baseless charges.





Were staying here, weve even handed over our passports, he said earlier on Thursday during a brief meeting with reporters who had gathered for three days outside his home. In every moment, weve shown our roots and good will. But the prosecutor sees everything we do in the opposite light. I think hes been poisoned.

The same judge previously ordered the arrest of another former Peruvian president, Alejandro Toledo, for related charges. Toledo is in the United States fighting attempts by Peruvian authorities to have him deported to answer the charges.

Authorities across Latin America have been moving to charge officials accused of taking some $800m in bribes from Odebrecht. The company acknowledged the bribes when it signed a plea agreement in December with the US Department of Justice.

The bribes include some $29m paid in Peru for projects built during the administrations of Toledo, Humala and former President Alan Garcia.

The same scandal has ensnared former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was convicted on Wednesday and sentenced to almost 10 years in jail for taking gifts from another Brazilian builder who along with Odebrecht paid bribes to politicians in exchange for government contracts.

He denies the accusation and will remain free while he appeals what he says are politically motivated charges.
Former Philippine President Benigno Aquino is to be charged over a botched anti-terror raid that left 44 elite policemen dead in 2015, a special government prosecutor said on Friday.

In a statement to reporters in Manila, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales said she had ordered the filing of criminal charges against Aquino for his liability in the Mamasapano massacre, in which 44 Special Action Force commandos were killed in a clash with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and a private armed group.

Morales said Aquino will be charged with usurpation of authority under the Revised Penal Code as well as under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Also accused in the case are former Philippine National Police chief Alan Purisima and former Special Forces Director Getulio Napenas, the statement said.





According to Morales, the investigation showed that Aquino was aware that Purisima had been preventively suspended, pending a graft indictment, but still allowed him to take part in planning the Mamasapano raid, reported news website Inquirer.

Certainly a public officer who is under preventive suspension is barred from performing any public functions and from meddling into the affairs of the government, she said.

Morales said it is because of Aquinos influence and permission that Purisima was able to participate in the raids planning despite his preventive suspension.

Napenas and Purisima were also formally charged with usurpation of powers and graft for bypassing the police chain of command in the botched operation.

Morales said that text messages between Aquino and Purisima showed that the suspended police chief played a major role in the botched operation and blamed it on Aquinos complicity and influence.

READ MORE: The battle for Marawi  Confusion and contradictions

In his response, Aquino said he did not directly participate in the planning and execution of the operation. He said he was only briefed on the broad strokes of the plan and there was no need for him to approve it.

His spokeswoman Abigail Valte said Aquino was consulting his lawyers.

The former president, who served from 2010 until 2016, has been credited with restoring a semblance of political and economic stability in the Philippines and signing a peace deal to try to end a decades-long Muslim separatist rebellion.
US secretary of states shuttle diplomacy will bear fruit in time, says Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed.

Qatars foreign minister says it would be unfair to describe US Secretary of State Rex Tillersons shuttle diplomacy to find a solution to the Gulf crisis as a failure, insisting that it cannot be solved in a day.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told reporters in Ankara on Friday that Qatar would continue to work with the US and Kuwait to end the standoff with its four Arab neighbours.

Urging Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to engage in talks, he said Qatar wanted dialogue based on mutual respect for state sovereignty and respect for international law.

The four countries severed ties with Doha on June 5, accusing it of funding terrorism and allying with their rival, Iran  allegations Qatar has repeatedly denied.

READ MORE: Tillerson urges direct talks to solve Qatar-GCC crisis

Tillerson concluded his mediation efforts on Thursday, making no promise of an imminent breakthrough but voicing optimism that Qatar and its neighbours might soon be willing to talk face to face.

Sheikh Mohammed said he believed the Kuwaiti-US mediation would bear fruit in time.

The Qatari foreign minister was in Ankara for talks with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Turkey has called the four Arab states blockade of Qatar unjust, and criticised their demands in order to end the sanctions, which include a requirement for Turkeys military base in Qatar to be closed.

Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara that President Tayyip Erdogan hoped to visit the Gulf soon to discuss efforts to resolve the crisis.

All our efforts are focused on a solution that suits the laws of brotherly relations, he said.
The assailant was arrested immediately after the attack in Hurghada, in which four foreigners were also wounded.

Two German tourists have been killed and four other foreigners were wounded when an assailant stabbed them at an Egyptian Red Sea beach resort, officials said.

Germanys foreign ministry confirmed on Saturday that the two women killed in the attack in Hurghada were German nationals.

Egypts interior ministry said the assailant was arrested immediately on Friday and that a motive was still under investigation.

The attacker had swum from a nearby public beach to access the holiday resort, the ministry said.

A security official said the attacker, a man in his 20s who was dressed in a black T-shirt and blue jeans, wielded a knife and intentionally sought to attack foreigners.

READ MORE: Gunmen kill five Egyptian policemen near Cairo

He shouted in Arabic during the attack: Stay away, I dont want Egyptians.

He stabbed the tourists in the face, neck and feet.

According to AFP news agency, the attack happened at Sunny Days El Palacio hotel.

All of the victims were reported to be women.

An Armenian foreign ministry spokesman said two Armenian women had been wounded in the attack, and the Czech foreign ministry tweeted that one of its nationals had been lightly injured.

Hurghada is one of Egypts most popular beach resorts, especially with Ukrainians and European tourists.

A similar attack took place in Hurghada in January 2016 when two attackers armed with a gun, a knife and a suicide belt landed on the beach of a hotel, wounding two foreign tourists, according to security sources.

Also on Friday, unknown assailants shot dead five policemen south of Cairo, in the latest of a series of attacks targeting the countrys security forces.
Danish contractor Explicit will monitor sulfur emission from ships by sampling exhaust plumes from vessels in waters around Denmark.



The Danish Environmental and Protection Agency has contracted Danish startup company Explicit to monitor sulfur emission from ships, with the monitoring to be conducted from the air, by sampling exhaust plumes from vessels in waters around Denmark.

The operation, according to Explicit, will deploy a new sniffer technology that the company developed for easy-mount on helicopters and, eventually, on drones. The airborne surveillance of the sulfur restrictions in Danish waters is expected to commence later this month.

Explicit says its new Mini Sniffer System is capable of measuring both sulfur and NOX emissions from vessels, and is small enough to be carried on a drone without compromising quality or reliability. However, the company has said that the technology is initially being deployed on a manned helicopter, with the prospect of phasing in drones as a supplement in the future.

Explicit, which is based in Lyngby, Denmark, has also developed a set of advanced algorithms in order to calculate the sulfur content and NOX emissions to reliably determine compliance. The aircraft-mounted tech will be tasked with detecting and deterring violations of the 0.10 percent emissions control area (ECA) restriction on sulfur in bunker fuel, according to the Danish EPA.

Additionally, Explicit said that its looking to branch out and bring its sniffer technology to international markets.
While en route from Singapore to Durban on July 9, the crew of the Ever Diadem crew found 30 distressed seafarers drifting in two lifeboats off the coast of Madagascar.



The officers and crew of ocean carrier Evergreen Lines containership Ever Diadem recently helped rescue 30 seafarers forced to abandon their burning fishing vessel off the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

While en route from Singapore to Durban on July 9, Ever Diadems crew found the distressed seafarers drifting in two lifeboats having abandoned the flaming Hsiang Fuh No. 6, a Taiwan-flagged fishing boat, according an account of the incident from Evergreen Line. Ever Diadem Captain Tai Yen-Tang notified Maritime Rescue Coordination Center, South Africa and ordered his crew to stand by for a rescue operation.

In view of the numbers involved, Capt. Tai also requested the Sbi Antares, a Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier located nearby, join in the rescue mission.

Ever Diadems captain and crew succeeded in rescuing 16 sailors from one of the lifeboats. The Sbi Antares then followed up by saving the other 14 from the other lifeboat. Those rescued included three from Taiwan, seven Filipinos, four from Vietnam and 16 Indonesians.

They remained on board Ever Diadem as the ship continued its voyage to Durban, and Evergreen notified the owner of the fishing boat, requesting that they take responsibility for crew in Durban and arrange their repatriation.

Ever Diadem is one of Evergreen Lines D-type vessels with a capacity of 4,211 TEUs. Shes currently deployed in the carriers Far East  Africa Express (FAX) service, calling at Shanghai, Ningbo, Keelung, Singapore and Durban.

Evergreen Line is the unified common trade name for the five shipping companies of the Evergreen Group: Evergreen Marine Corp. (Taiwan) Ltd., Italia Marittima S.p.A., Evergreen Marine (UK) Ltd., Evergreen Marine (Hong Kong) Ltd. and Evergreen Marine (Singapore) Pte Ltd.
Call it the Seinfeld meeting, because the conversation between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer was a meeting with a nobody about nothing, from which nothing resulted. Yet in the Democratic and media (sorry for the redundancy) alternate universe, it is more worthy of attention than North Korea, ISIS, or jobs and the economy.

In a bit of irony, the lawyer with which Donald Trump Jr. was allegedly colluding, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was allowed to be in this country by the Obama administration and its attorney general, Loretta Lynch. Natalia may have overstayed her visa and at the time of the meeting may have been, dare we say it, an illegal alien. Extreme veting, anyone? As reported by Fox News Politics:

The Obama administration granted the Russian attorney who met with Donald Trump Jr. last June a special type of parole to be in the United States after she initially was denied a visa, Fox News has confirmed  though it remains unclear whether she had permission to be in the country when she attended the Trump Tower session.  Well before the June 9, 2016, meeting, she was denied a visa to enter the U.S. in 2015, according to court filings first reported by the Daily Beast. She was granted a parole to be in the country from October 2015 through early January 2016. However, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York told Fox News on Thursday that their office did not extend that status. She was not granted a second parole by our office, office spokesman James Margolin told Fox News in an email. Her case-related immigration parole ended early in 2016, and it was not renewed by us. She shouldnt have been in the country, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox & Friends on Wednesday. I think the lady Russian lawyer that was there in that meeting, Ive written to [The State Department and Department of Homeland Security] to find out what she was doing in the country when presumably either her visa or parole expired.

Maybe the Obama administration and the Hillary Clinton campaign were colluding with the Russians to let her in and let her stay to try to st up Team Trump? Why was she allowed in the country? Why was she allowed to overstay her welcome or parole/ Media curiosity about the meeting apparently has its limits.

Some, such as Mark Steyn, have approached the meeting with the trivial pursuit it deserves:

Mark Steyn dismissed the notion that Russian President Vladimir Putin was pulling the strings behind the meeting of Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer. "The guy [who Trump Jr.] is colluding with is a washed-up pop music publicist for John Denver in the 1980s," Steyn, a "Rush Limbaugh Show" guest host, said. Steyn said Robert Goldstone, who he said is now a publicist for a pop star in Azerbaijan, would never be someone Putin would confide in to collude with the Trumps.

Others, including the usually-grounded-in-reality Charles Krauthammer, seem to have swallowed this evidence of collusion whole:

Charles Krauthammer said the scandal surrounding Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton was "the first empirical evidence" of the campaign's collusion with Russia.

Collusion to do what exactly? Conspiracy to adopt Russian children? Collusion to get front row tickets at that Azerbaijani pop stars next concert? Opposition research is not a crime and Donald Trump Jr.s meeting was far less interesting than the fake dossier the Democrats used to fuel their Russia, Russia, Russia campaign.

If you want real collusion with a real trail of evidence of people trying to do real things interfering with the 2016 campaign, Dr. Krauthammer, try Hillary Clintons real collusion with the Ukraine to derail and besmirch Team Trump. As Politico reported in a story that went nowhere at the time:

Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clintons allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found. A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation. The Ukrainian efforts had an impact in the race, helping to force Manaforts resignation and advancing the narrative that Trumps campaign was deeply connected to Ukraines foe to the east, Russia. But they were far less concerted or centrally directed than Russias alleged hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails.

Here you have a meeting between a DNC operative in a foreign embassy receiving materials used to defame and derail the Trump campaign. This meeting had real consequences unlike the Trump meeting.

Was anyone interested? Certainly not MSNBCs Brian Williams and Andrea Mitchell, who were puzzled as to what Donald Trump was referring to when he tweeted about Team Hillarys collusion with Ukraine:

On MSNBC Wednesday morning, two of MSNBCs most prominent anchors admitted they had no idea what Trump was referring to, when he tweeted out that the Clinton campaign also sought out information from foreign government officials to help boost her campaign, during the 2016 election. After reading the tweet, Brian Williams asked Andrea Mitchell if she knew what he was talking about. Im hoping you can help me decipher this, he asked. Its hard to figure out what this is about, Andrea Mitchell quizzically responded.

It wouldnt have been so hard if the crack investigative reporters at MSNBC and CNN had followed the facts and the named sources in the Politico report, instead of unnamed sources who produce fake news about Team Trump, which results in stories being retracted and reporters resigning. As MRC/Neswbusters reported:

Trumps tweet was referring to a seven-month old report from Politico, which found that Ukrainian officials worked with the DNC to help do opposition research on Trump in order to help Clintons campaign. This research was also leaked to several American journalists, according to the report. Politico found that a veteran DNC operative, Alexandra Chalupa, sought out information to damage the Trump campaign after media reports speculated Paul Manafort had ties to Russia. She sought out help to do this from the Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. and one of his top aides, with the DNCs encouragement, Politico reported. Chalupa spoke to Politico, which recalled: She [Chalupa] said that, when Trumps unlikely presidential campaign began surging in late 2015, she began focusing more on the research, and expanded it to include Trumps ties to Russia, as well. She occasionally shared her findings with officials from the DNC and Clintons campaign, Chalupa said. The report went into further detail, but the long and short of it explained how Ukrainian officials admitted to working very closely with Chalupa, who then shared this information with the DNC. One official, Andrii Telizhenko told Politico: They were coordinating an investigation with the Hillary team on Paul Manafort with Alexandra Chalupa. Telizhenko recalled that Chalupa told him and Shulyar that, If we can get enough information on Paul [Manafort] or Trumps involvement with Russia, she can get a hearing in Congress by September.

Say what? This is what you really call empirical evidence of collusion with a foreign government, inviting them to interfere in the 2016 election. Yet the media ignores it, Congressional Democrats avert their eyes, and Congressional Republicans, afraid of their own shadow, let Democratic bottom feeders like Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Chuck Schumer beat up on President Trump without any meaningful response or defense.

Where are the Congressional hearings on Hillarys collusion with the Ukraine? Where are the hearings on her making it possible for Russian interests to control 20 percent of our uranium supply in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation? Chicken Kiev, anyone?
July 2017 is the centennial of one of the greatest disasters in modern history: the "July Days," which represented the beginning of a concerted effort by the Bolsheviks to destroy the Provisional Government that had overthrown the tsar. This ended in a junta four months later that left the Russian people with a monstrously evil regime that got worse over time.

The left has tried over the last century to somehow portray Bolshevik Russia as better than Tsarist Russia. Eugene Lyon, a former communist who was appalled by what he saw when he visited the Soviet Union, wrote a book on the fiftieth anniversary of the Bolshevik junta, Workers' Paradise Lost, and in that book Lyons goes through every conceivable comparison between Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. In every way, the tsars were better than the Soviets.

Tsarist Russia had the fastest growing economy in the world in 1913. By 1934, if trends in industrial production had continued, it would have been the greatest industrial power in the world. Tsarist Russia was a food-exporting nation as well as a nation that exported cotton, lumber, gold, and many other minerals.

Science and art flourished under the tsars, just as it atrophied and then decayed under the Bolsheviks. Chemistry, astronomy, psychology, and several other fields of science were advanced by men under the tsars. The 19th-century Russian literary period, which may have never been equaled in human history, was under the tsars.

What about human rights? The right to free legal counsel was granted by the tsars when few other nations bothered with such niceties. Political prisoners to Siberia could live in cabins with their families and, if they wished, simply walked away and reappeared in Moscow.

The great stain on Tsarist Russia was the pogroms against Jews, a real and sad fact, but Jews were incomparably better off under the tsars than under the Soviets. It was the Soviets, not the tsars, who invaded synagogues and made shoes out of Torah scrolls, and it was the Soviets who banned the making of matzo and instruction in Hebrew and having a bris for a newborn boy.

Jews were not permitted to rise above a certain rank in the military, and they were denied all information about the Holocaust. Virtually all Jews who had been Old Bolsheviks were purged and killed. Virulent Soviet anti-Semitism grew more patent as the Soviet Union aged and needed scapegoats.

Worse were the tens of millions who died during the Holodomor and the hundred million or so processed through the hellish Gulag, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn so painstakingly chronicled in The Gulag Archipelago. The Nazis modeled their horrific system of camps and death on what the Soviets had done before them and what the Soviets showed the Nazis in way of instruction in evil.

Even worse was the fact that the Second World War began with aggressive war waged by the Soviet Union in alliance with Nazi Germany and that until June 1941, the Soviets were doing everything in their power to help Nazi Germany win. After the war ended, the Soviets insured that half of Europe was enslaved and that China was left to the tender mercies of Mao, the greatest mass murderer in history.

All this could have been prevented if the Provisional Government of Russia had survived the Bolshevik subversion, a process that began in earnest in July 1917, a century ago. The world today would be a radically different and better place if Kerensky and his government had had a chance to form Russia in the decade following the First World War.

If today we had a truly benevolent, free and democratic Russia and China growing out of the debris of the First World War, then we would have no problem with North Korea, and the civilized world would have a united front against radical Islam. It is highly unlikely that Hitler would have ever come to power, because a free Russia would have joined France and Britain in opposing German re-militarization without crushing the hopes of the German people.

Events have consequences, often far greater and more ominous than we can see at the time. One hundred years ago, a ghastly malignancy was unleashed upon our world, and we are still suffering from that disaster.
ABC/Heidi GutmanThe screening dates for the Green Day-produced documentary Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk have been revealed. The first showing will be held July 25 in Montreal, and the film's tour will conclude September 18 with screenings in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Turn It Around's theatrical run will launch in conjunction with Green Day's upcoming North American summer tour in support of their new album, Revolution Radio. The band's outing begins August 1 in Auburn, Washington, and will conclude September 16 in Los Angeles.

As its title suggests, Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk explores the influential San Francisco area punk scene. The doc is narrated by Iggy Pop, and features commentary from Metallica's Kirk Hammett, Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses, and The Offspring's Noodles, among many more.

For the full list of screening dates, visit EastBayPunk.com.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Hes a cowboy, an American Badass, rock star, and could add the title U.S. Senator to his list of accomplishments if Kid Rock has his way. Yes, thats right, Kid Rock has officially announced he is running for U. S. Senate in Michigan. He wont apologize for the confederate flag on his car, his politics, or support for his President Donald J. Trump  and with that attitude, he may be just the person to take incumbent Senator Debbie Stabenow down.

Hes rugged, has a redneck flair about him, and is new to the political process, but so was President Trump  and thats why Senator Stabenow shouldnt take Kid Rock lightly. He has millions of fans, and because he has been loyal to his home state of Michigan, you can bet he already has a built in base of potential voters. So what do we know about Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert Ritchie?

We know his loyalty is to Michigan and Michigan jobs. His beer brand, American Badass, is made in Detroit, Michigan. He bought Made In Detroit clothing line out of bankruptcy and as he stated in a fiery letter to the Detroit Free Press in response to a reported hatchet job in an article about his company, The goal of MID is to re-instill a sense of Detroit pride, give back to the community, try to create jobs in our home state and maybe one day build our own facility somewhere close to the riverfront in Detroit. He explains that he also has never taken a salary for it, has helped local merchants with this line, donated to local charities, and set up a scholarship fund for Wayne State University through this company.

Lets also not forget about him showing up to a fan with down syndrome 30th Birthday party, or how he makes surprise visits to places like Flints automotive assembly plants and hangs out with the workers. Clearly, this is a man of the people.

According to NBC news, in 2011, he gave $50k to local Detroit schools at a function with the NAACP. Okay, so hes charitable but does that qualify him to oust Sen. Stabenow in an election? Through the Trump phenomenon, we have seen a tidal wave of support by the average American sick and tired of polished PC politicians  and lets face it  if there ever were a poster child for non-politically correct, itd be Kid Rock. He is a self-made businessman who is not only successful in his enterprises, but he uses his wealth and stardom to give back to Michigan. Unless she isnt great at PR, I havent seen Stabenow personally using her own money or business acumen to create jobs or give back to the community. Sure, she might believe in using other peoples money, but after a quick search on Google, there was nothing readily available where she has discussed or shown how much she has personally given out of her own pocket. But, people should be given the benefit of the doubt, so perhaps Senator Stabenow would like to highlight her tax returns, you know, like she has requested of President Trump.

Right now, we dont know a lot about Kid Rocks politics other than by what he has publicly discussed such as being fiscally conservative, his hardcore support for the military, and the Second Amendment. He also visited President Trump in the White House with Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent, and took a picture with them in front of a portrait of Hillary Clinton.

He has lightly touched on social issues with The Guardian where he stated, I am definitely a Republican on fiscal issues and the military, but I lean to the middle on social issues. I am no fan of abortion, but its not up to a man to tell a woman what to do. As an ordained minister I dont look forward to marrying gay people, but Im not opposed to it.

However, if you click on his website, kidrockforsenate.com, there is nothing there other than signing up for a newsletter. No stances on issues, platform etc. We have a lot yet to see of him in this new arena and there is also a primary he will have to win to even square off against the Senator Stabenow, who has held her seat since 2000. Right now there are several contenders being thrown around as potential primary opposition such as Congressman Fred Upton, Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Bob Young, and former Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville. National Republican Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel has also promised aggressive battles to increase Republican wins. Will they embrace Kid Rock as a potential contender or push for someone who has more political experience?

Nobody knows for sure yet, but if I were Senator Stabenow, I wouldnt laugh him off like her party did President Trump, or she might find herself in the private sector come next election.

Jamie A. Hope is an author, screenwriter, national contributor, teacher, mother, wife. and former Ensign for the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps. She is the former chief of staff for Representative John Stahl (R-North Branch) who served as the Chair of the Family and Children Services Committee for the Michigan Legislature. She also served on former Congressman Peter Hoeskstra's Values Coalition Board when he ran for Governor of Michigan in 2010.
The obsession with Donald Trump Jr.s Russian email chain is just the latest example of what the Media/Democrat Party/Establishment Axis does best: engage in misdirection to confuse people about who Americas real enemies are.

Now, since the emails are currently Exhibit A in Trump treason allegations, lets talk about treason. No, we dont have to go back to when Senator Ted Kennedy secretly approached the murderous Soviets and asked for help defeating Ronald Reagan in 1984. Thats too old and too obvious. But try this on for size.

Weve now learned that U.S. soldier Ikaika Erik Kang, just arrested for Islamic State ties, expressed allegiance to the group as early as 2011, which is a bit like a serviceman having expressed support for the Nazis during WWII. Instead of being immediately put in the stockade, however, Barack Obamas military and FBI, the Daily Mail reports, investigated to determine whether he posed a threat, authorities said.

They must have still been wondering in 2013, because thats when they gave Kang back his security clearance after having revoked it the year before.

This clearly was part of the leftist Obama mentality that sought to elevate anything contrary to Americanism. It didnt matter that Kang had already threatened to hurt or kill other service members back in 2011, as the Mail relates it. It doesnt matter that he could have been the next Major Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 at Ford Hood in 2009 after he, too, expressed jihadist sentiments but wasnt stopped. Hey, if you want to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs.

Some will point out that the Lefts enabling of intra-military jihad isnt, technically speaking, treason. Thats true. Neither is what Trump Jr. did, with experts saying it wasnt illegal. But were talking here about treason in spirit, often worse than the illegal variety.

The Trumps also arent inviting aliens into the nation to overwhelm the natives. But thats precisely what the Left has been doing for ages via im/migration, with Obama ratcheting the process up to a fever pitch. He used every trick in the book  granting gratuitous refugee status, ceasing border enforcement, etc.  to ensure that as many non-Americans as possible would occupy America.

Obama did this because, as the Daily Caller reported in 2015, he believes immigration will drown conservatism. Actually, it drowns Americanism.

But the Left knows what its doing. Eighty-five percent of our legal immigrants come from the Third World (also, in part, Ted Kennedys handiwork); 70 to 90 percent of them vote for leftist Democrats upon being naturalized. Obama hailed this, mind you, how becoming a hodgepodge of folks extinguishes Americanism.

No, he wasnt as blunt as overseas soul mate and Social Democrat politician Mona Sahlin, who said, alluding in 2001 to her nations immigration-born changes, [T]he Swedes must be integrated into the new Sweden; the old Sweden is never coming back. But what do you call people who import foreigners for the purposes of disempowering and defeating fellow countrymen? What do you call those who use demographic genocide against their own people? At least, I guess, they arent doing it via email.

In his famous quotation, Roman statesman Marcus Cicero remarked 2000 years ago that the traitor appears not a traitor. This is especially true today because the Left has made treason the norm, birthing something Ill call treasonism. It inverts reality and institutionalizes treason, creating a situation in which

desiring to secure your border and stem a foreign invasion makes you a xenophobe.

complaining about another nations flag flown in your own country gets you fired and branded a hater.

American high-tech workers are replaced with foreigners, whom theyre forced to train.

an illegal alien is called an undocumented worker (much like calling a rapist an undocumented husband).

warning of your nations demographic and cultural genocide makes you a racist.

defending Western civilization, as Trump did in Poland recently, brings accusations of racial and religious paranoia.

Add to this Obamas/the Lefts efforts at

foisting a contraception mandate on Christian entities, a complete betrayal of our traditional understanding of freedom of religion.

forcing private businessmen to cater events (e.g., faux weddings), a complete betrayal of religious freedom, freedom of association and private property rights. (When in American history did we ever compel businessmen to service events they find morally objectionable?)

removing historically present Christian symbols and sentiments from public property while opening the door to Satanism Wicca and Islam , a complete betrayal of our cultural and religious tradition.

using the courts to unconstitutionally overturn the peoples will (e.g., Obergefell marriage opinion), a complete betrayal of our republican government and founding principles.

In fact, its hard to think of anything authentically American the Left doesnt aim to destroy. Say what we will about President Trumps style and ideology, hes not a treasonist. Trump is putting America first.

The Left is trying to put America down.

The Trumps are accused of colluding with an enemy of America.

Our leftists are enemies of America.

These are the things that matter. These are the matters that affect your life and those of your children and grandchildren. This leftist treasonism, if not entirely upended, will destroy our nation. Yet were worried about  and very well may vote next year based on  issues such as a stupid (but legal) email.

Unbelievable.

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Twitter or log on to SelwynDuke.com
This time it wasn't mischief, upstate happenstance, or terror: The system was overloaded, and the infrastructure simplygave way.

It was exactly 40 years ago that New York City experienced its Great Blackout. People in the Upper West Side in that sultry, torpid summer night became a great village reduced to small-town modesties, as people reacted with interpersonal considerations to the evening's unexpected reduction to medieval candles, defunct coolants, softening ice cream, and absent air conditioning.

This past afternoon and evening, transformers underground in my New York City neighborhood and the aligned loci across town burst into flame and were the cause of manhole covers mysteriously erupting on the streets  followed by unstoppable belching of black smoke, acrid even when the wind blew in a direction not one's own.

People gawked in the streets as the hatchet spew hiccupped and hiccupped, fast and rude, seemingly without cause. Or end.

Fire assets arrived, after people not busy photographing the curling smoke with their cellphones called 911.

We were no longer sloppy Democrats and hidden, though assertive, Republicans. Now we were just denizens of the unknowable vicissitudes of life in the tarnished Apple.

Engine company after engine arrived, in the blazing afternoon, one of the hottest days of the year thus far, temps hovering even in the near twilight in the 90s. The firefighters, togged in full blaze gear, were toting axes and stiff leathery, dirty white hoses, useless in the face of a raging electrical fire.

If we sidewalk superintendents were sweltering, how hot must these firefighters be?

The brawny men spooled out yellow crime scene plastic tape around the street sections where the holes continued to billow out their choking gray-black smoke and fumes of PCBs and burning electrical circuitry  subterranean noxiousness in all its uncamouflaged virility.

I hurried across the street as a thin film of splatter tried to rain but failed. I was holding my bike by the handlebars, just coming back from grocery shopping, bearing a huge watermelon in my basket and two bags with paraphernalia from my day's labors downtown.

Hurry up! the men ordered me, worried I might be hit by something coughed up by the heedless upchuck from the depths of the city.

The subway under Broadway stopped running. The smoke below ground was too thick and dangerous for elderly, the young, those with poor vision, or just regular folk...and people shouldn't be exposed to such palpable, cindery toxicity.

I wrestled my impedimenta away, but still, the New Yorkers stood their ground. Here was An Event. We had a ringside view.

Was it terrorism? Was it full frontal disintegration of the city? Recall that the mayor had so grievously and blatantly abandoned us to the vagaries of train derailments and police assassinated by illegal thugs.

Cars were re-routed down my short street and on nearby streets to avoid passing over the malodorous, disrupted intersection at 71st and Broadway in the thick of evening rush hour, 5:14 and ongoing.

There were 700 people in the environs deprived of electricity and air con, lights and the normal creature comforts of our tiny Manhattan, exalted-rent hideaway apartments.

Think of it: 40 years ago to the day, NYC was discomforted again by a fluky incident that lasted many hours, pockmarked in Harlem and other sometime unsavory areas by looting and far from gleeful actors in an opportune moment of inattention by the police and firefighters.

After depositing my groceries, I went to supper across the street, where only one other couple sat and ate quietly. My suppermate was distraught: his entire building was dark, he had no cell phone, his dog had been spirited away by a kind friend to a hotel, lest the boiler explode.

My friend could not even get upstairs  he lived on the 14th floor. (Superstition forbids most NYC buildings from having a 13th floor, so he really lives on the 13th, but all elevator wall-plates go from 12 to 14 without apology.) He felt too hot and weary to climb 12 flights. And his knee hurt.

As we ate comfort food in a neighborhood comfort diner, he calmed down, eased by my having a cell phone with me and by the friendly Dominican waiter and the succulent sandwiches we ordered.

When we emerged, there was no long stitched stream of cars and trucks holding up on the street or that of the eatery or of Amsterdam. The crisis had passed, the people dispersed, the traffic, now 11 p.m., scanty, and the normal city life resumed its usual hectic-stuttery pace.

The friend who had swept his pet into a hotel for the night was reached. We were assured that the power had been restored to his building, the elevators were now functional, his fridge was again humming along without fear of spoilage of all his stored foods.

We went our separate ways, relieved that we had staved off one of those gripping but potentially unnerving New York stultifying evenings when Things Go Wrong unexpectedly.

We had prevailed. The men in heavy coated gear and crimson truck accompaniment had sorted it all out.

Night resumed, 14 July. It wasn't what threaded through most minds, even fleetingly: terrorism.

July 14, 2017 in France: Commemorating Bastille Day 1789.

July 14, 2017 heading into dawn in New York City: Commemorating Relief in New York City with competent public-servant function.
If anyone needed proof that California is over-larded with do-nothing, malevolent bureaucrats, maybe the Judicial Council's Halloween party, which featured racial sensitivity bosses dressed in blackface and turning their cubicles into jail cells, is just that example. Sure enough, it's an agency that oversees racial sensitivity programs for California's court system.

Michael Roosevelt is a 20-year employee at the Judicial Council. Its mission  to advance "the consistent, impartial, independent, and accessible administration of justice". Roosevelt was hired to develop bias education programs for court employees and judges, and he was shocked by photos of a Halloween party at the Judicial Council's Sacramento office last year. Roosevelt told Dan Noyes in an interview, "Here you've got the image of people who work for and support the courts who are dressed in prison garb, darkening their faces, depicting a prison setting where disproportionately those people who are incarcerated are people of color." The pictures posted on the council's intranet show employees who turned their cubicles into prison cells, a guard standing watch, someone wearing dread locks and a Hannibal Lechter [sic] mask in a padded cell, others painting their faces. Roosevelt says it all sends a dangerous message: "Bad people, black people, dark people, people with locks, they are to be feared."

So there we have it: bureaucrats who are supposed to enforce racial sensitivity training, doing their darnedest to perpetrate as many stereotypes as they can on the taxpayer dime and expecting to get away with it. There are 740 of these bureaucrats, and, to say the least, some are pretty judgment-challenged. Is it any wonder the judges, whose job requires that they be impartial, aren't happy about having these charmers supervising their court system?

The judges aren't happy at all, actually. Here is the press release from the Alliance of California Judges, which looked on at this "party" with complete disgust. Via email, here is what the judges had to say about it:

The piece, which aired on the San Francisco ABC affiliate, documents a Halloween party gone terribly wrong, at which AOC staff members in Sacramento engaged in activities that were highly offensive and antithetical to the core mission of the judicial branch. As of last November, the AOC has a workforce of over 740 employees. Apparently, many of them have too much time on their hands and not enough sense and sensitivity to use it wisely. This is the same outfit entrusted with the management of a multi-billion-dollar construction fund. This is the agency that has insisted on overseeing the education of sitting judges. How can the AOC be trusted to administer the largest court system in the world when it cant keep its own staff in check? Why should this matter to every judge? Because for far too long the controversies involving the AOC, and those tasked to supervise them, the Judicial Council, have besmirched our branch.....us. We will not sit back in silence while unelected bureaucrats and handpicked Judicial Council members hide behind our robes.

The Judicial Council is a questionable entity among the state's 343 (at least) agencies in that it was put into place to act as an overlord of the state's constitutionally independent judges, who are elected. They shouldn't even exist, given that judges are expected to be independent of political gamesmanship and sure as heck shouldn't be ordered around like employees, as they are by 740 Judicial Council (now known as the Administrative Office of the Courts) unelected bureaucrats, which is the current state of affairs.

With acts such as this creepy blackface party, the Judicial Council acts like lice on the independence of the judiciary in their supposed role of overseeing the operations and policymaking of the courts, badly managing the courthouse building budget so that a favored few get all the gravy and smaller courthouse operations in places like the Sierras, the Central Valley, and the Cascades get nothing. Their bad decisions also have had the knock-on effect of creating conditions for escape for those charged with violent crimes to commit new mayhem.

Now they've got the racial sensitivity bureaucrats playing black convicts at a party because they couldn't celebrate the Black Panthers. Kid you not.

Where is the layoff axe when it's needed?
Christopher Wray, President Donald Trump's FBI director nominee, seems a perfectly nice man. But nothing he has said during confirmation hearings on July 12 distinguishes him as someone who would reform Barack Hussein Obama's Islamophilic FBI.

President Trump ran on a quixotic set of ideas about aggressively stopping Islamic terror. Like a fly in amber, the standard operating procedures (SOP) governing the Obama Federal Bureau of Investigations guarantee to preserve the same systemic, intractable failures that unleashed mass murderer Omar Mateen and Syed Farook and bride Tashfeen Malik to maim and murder dozens of Americans.

From Wray's comments to the Senate Judiciary Committee, we know how he'll bravely break with President Trump. He's partial to his predecessor, James Comey. To wit, Wray said he sided with Comey in rejecting a domestic surveillance program in 2004, "not because he knew the substance of the dispute," but because of his affection for Comey.

Given his unalloyed loyalty, Wray'll be unlikely to remove from FBI training manuals the fiction about jihad being a peaceful pillar of the Islamic faith.

To get a sense of how the outfit being glorified by the Senate panel operates, consider this: you hire a private firm to protect you, only to discover that, as part of your protection plan, your protectors undergo sensitivity training to desensitize them to potential perpetrators and evildoers, thus giving the latter easy access to you and yours. This "strategy" would endanger your life. The company executing this harebrained scheme, moreover, would be in violation of its contractual obligation to keep you safe. If you came to harm, you'd sue.

But first, fire the fools before they get you killed.

Thanks to the president, we can only hope that firing the director of the FBI will become a new norm. For among his many other "virtues," former FBI director Comey believes that "unless [his] passport is revoked," an American citizen who holds an American passport and who has fought for ISIS  maybe even decapitated a dhimmi or two  "is entitled to come back" to the U.S. We know this because Comey said it on 60 Minutes!

In 2014, he was asked about the status of the fighters America, unwittingly, exports to ISIS Land. This sanctimonious civil servant, traitor to the people who pay for his keep, promised to "track [the fighters] very carefully" after he let them in.

At the time, anchor Megyn Kelly aptly used the word "treason," although she applied it exclusively to ISIS-Americans, when they, at least, were being true to their vampiric god. To whom was Comey being true? Certainly not to the law. In Judge Andrew Napolitano's telling, the federal government's top law enforcement agent didn't know the law (or was willfully ignoring it):

[Comey] forgot there's a statute called providing material assistance to a terrorist organization. So, if he knows that Americans have been fighting with ISIS and he also knows that the secretary of state has declared ISIS a terrorist organization, that is more than enough evidence for him to arrest them upon their re-entry to the U.S. It is crazy to let them back in and wait and see what they do.

That's our crazy Comey. And the new guy, Christopher Wray, loves him just the way he is.

Another swamp creature for whom Wray has "enormous respect" is former FBI director Robert Mueller. "[T]he consummate straight shooter," gushed Wray.

Both the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Arab-American Institute would agree. Thanks to Mueller, Comey's predecessor, these and other special interests were involved in shaping FBI counterterrorism training.

Before Russia (B.R.), when the-now monomaniacal media touched occasionally on an issue of abiding interest to Americans ("murder by Muslim immigrant"), they used milquetoast words. Again, the T-word (being floated for Donald Trump, Jr.) would more appropriately describe how White House and FBI leadership invited Muslim advocacy groups to shape American counterterrorism training.

In Feb. 2012, WIRED magazine published an article titled "FBI Purges Hundreds of Terrorism Documents in Islamophobia" and hashtagged "Islamophobia." The magazine took some credit for urging the FBI to scrub counterterrorism training manuals of what sentient human beings would view as undeniable and dangerous trends and proclivities in Islam and its practitioners. Bragged the author: "The White House ordered a government-wide review of counterterrorism training late last year [2011]. A Pentagon document responding to the order cited [WIRED magazine's series] as an impetus for the effort."

To better know thy enemy, your FBI purged the scholarship of the likes of Robert Spencer and Daniel Pipes from the FBI training library at Quantico.

How did this book-burning go down? Enter Director Mueller. In 2012, wrote WIRED, Mueller, who was succeeded by Comey, undertook to excise the FBI's counterterrorism training program of "anti-Islam materials." Essentially, Mueller saw to it that Islam was porcelainized.

Soon, the agency was redacting or expunging documents perceived to "stereotype" Arabs or Muslims, to sport "factual errors" (such as that Islam is not peace, presumably), to be in "poor taste" (perhaps a less than polite reference to The Prophet), or to be "lacking in precision." (Because the "truth" is that no "authentic" Muslim theologian would ever suggest that decapitation of a non-believer could be considered a mitzvah in Islam.)

Guidelines were published to help our comical FBI "protectors" defend against "anti-Islam documents." You can feel safe. New FBI recruits are brainwashed to believe that Americans who fly Gen. R.E. Lee's Battle Flag are as likely to erupt as Muslims.

It's easy to see how this frightful situation saw Mohammed A. Malik, friend to Orlando mass murderer Omar Mateen, dutifully report Mateen to the FBI, only to be dismissed. (Just another self-hating Muslim. Hug?) Faithful to Mueller's mandate, Director Comey personally vouched for the botched investigation that facilitated slaughter in Orlando.

Both men, role models to the new guy, were clearly Eric Holder loyalists. The attorney general had declared that the FBI harbored "systemic" anti-Islam bias and needed a fix.

One such "fix" entailed ridding the FBI of heroic men like Philip Haney.

Forcibly retired from the Department of Homeland Security, the soft-spoken, demure Haney has since divulged that the Obama administration "nixed the probe into the Southern California jihadists" (Syed Farook, Tashfeen Malik and their network), eliminating a program he, Haney, had developed. The Haney database would've helped connect certain networks  Tablighi Jamaat and the larger Deobandi movement  to domestic terrorism rising. Haney's files were destroyed, and he was subjected to an internal investigation for doing his patriotic duty to protect Americans.

Political correctness run amok is how pundits on Fox News euphemized the FBI's SOP under BHO. Treason seems more like it.

This is the Mueller and Comey FBI. How does President Trump imagine that Christopher Wray, who looks up to the two and swam in the same polluted waters, will fix it?

Ilana Mercer is the author of The Trump Revolution: The Donald's Creative Destruction Deconstructed (June 2016) and Into the Cannibal's Pot: Lessons for America From Post-Apartheid South Africa (2011). Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Gab, and YouTube.
In the wake of the 30th anniversary of the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in summer of 1988 in Iran, the people of Iran and especially families of the victims are still waiting for justice and an international tribune.

In the summer of 1988, the political prisoners were systematically executed in almost two months. In a barbaric two-month purge, prisoners, including teenagers as young as 14, were loaded onto trucks in groups and hanged from cranes.

During the past three decades, the regime blocked all attempts to investigate the extent of the massacre. They even went farther to cover up the crimes by toppling and damaging cemeteries and headstones of martyrdom graves with bulldozers.

In Iran, there is no criminal justice system or government institutions deterring crime or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties. The supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, controls everything. He sets the tone and direction of Iran's domestic and foreign policies. Many of those in the "Death Commission" responsible for the 1988 massacre are still in power, including Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, who is now Iran's justice minister in President Hassan Rouhani's Cabinet, and cleric Ebrahim Raisi, favored candidate of the supreme leader for the 2017 presidential election. Both, defended the massacre of 1988.

"[A] dictatorship that appoints as its justice minister someone who killed 30,000 people is telling you everything you need to know about the core nature of the dictatorship," said Newt Gingrich, 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives, at the Free Iran Rally in Paris on July 1, 2017. "[D]ictatorships like the one in Iran threaten freedom anywhere," according to Gingrich, who called Iran the largest supporter of state terrorism in the world.

The massacre was ordered by the Khomeini decree, called a fatwa, that reads: "[P]olitical prisoners throughout the country who remain steadfast in their backing for the Mojahedin (MEK) are condemned to execution."

The massacre happened 30 years ago to eliminate the main opposition group, the MEK. Despite the continuation of execution, torture, and crackdown during the past three decades, miraculously, the regime has failed. "You will someday be proud to say you were a part of what freed Iran," Gingrich said.

"I want to salute you today for your courage and for your perseverance of the MEK and the NCRI," Said Linda Chavez, chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity and former director of the Office of Public Liaison, at the Paris gathering. "You are the ones who remain committed to freedom and to democracy for Iran and to eradicate the suppression, the terrorism, and the regime's demonizing campaign that has been directed at you. Your perseverance gives up hope that we shall, in the end, defeat the phenomenon of Islamic fundamentalism, whose heart beats in the clerical regime in Iran. I wish you a good meeting, and I wish that your message will be carried throughout the world."

"They have on their hands the blood of so many of your people," said former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, "but they have on their hands the blood of my people, too, who they helped to kill in Iraq and who they've helped to kill for years and who they've held hostage. If they're not a terrorist organization, there is no such thing as a terrorist organization. And we should declare them a terrorist organization so we can cut them off of support around the world." Giuliani wants the Revolutionary Guards to be classed as at terrorist organization.

Despite the dark legacy of Iran's dictator, the "light of liberty can overcome and replace the darkness of the tyrannical Iranian regime," Tom Ridge, the former United States secretary of homeland security, said at the rally. "The light of freedom is kept going by all those who have lost their lives for the cause."

As the Greek philosopher Xenophon put it, "the true test of a movement is whether its followers will adhere to his cause from their own volition, enduring the most arduous hardships without being forced to do so, and remaining steadfast in the moments of greatest peril."

Hassan Mahmoudi is a human rights advocate, specializing in political and economic issues relating to Iran and the Middle East. @hassan_mahmou1
This is an open appeal to our media-besieged and much beleaguered president to exercise the power he possesses as commander in chief of our armed forces to be the ultimate decider, as George W. Bush might have called him, in limiting matters of military insanity. The folly at hand is the reported move by the Defense Department to require all our military services to bend over so far to accommodate transsexuals within the ranks that the leadership of our various services appears to be viewing reality through their nether parts.

According to a sincere young ex-Army captain appearing on Tucker Carlson's show recently, the Army is disseminating directions to commanders on how to deal with issues arising from the presence of transsexuals of both genders in latrines and shower stalls in military barracks. From my own long ago experiences in such environments, I can't really envision any problems in male barracks where a female confusedly thinking she's a male enters a shower with only soap in hand. If forbidden by regulations to comment on the soldier's lack of a male appendage, you can damn well bet that all eyes of her fellow soldiers will be focused on that matter anyway. This applies equally to the transsexual soldier's mammary attributes. If that soldier isn't flat-chested as hell, there's going to be a lot of sidewise glances directed that way.

On the distaff side, things may be a chance more problematic. I can imagine that in the case of a man in a shower room of young female soldiers, it would be only natural for the ladies to be wondering which one among them might be triggering a certain stand-out performance.

Mr. President, our armed forces as they have traditionally existed have long had to contend with hormonal-generated problems, and the last thing they need is a social experimentation program concocted by the Obama administration to add to the complexities of dealing with what nature hands them. You, Sir, have the singular power to stop this nonsense in its tracks by simply countermanding the ridiculous Obama order.

So, Mr. President, please just stop it!
William McGurn, writing in the Wall Street Journal, has floated an interesting idea on how to pressure China into helping curtail North Korea's nuclear and missile program.

Mr. McGurn notes that the Chinese leadership has an unquenchable appetite for sending Chinese children top-tiered American universities like the Ivy League, Stanford, and MIT. Today, some 328,547 Chinese students are attending our colleges and universities. This is yet another vulnerability China has relative to the U.S. And it doesn't stop there. Many of the Chinese elite are actually sending their children to high-quality American K-12 schools. Think of that.

McGurn's suggestion is simply to trade the granting of visas to Chinese students for more cooperation from China in reining in Pyongyang.

Put it this way: if China's ruling elite were forced to chose between supporting North Korea and their children's access to American universities, is it all that hard to see where they might come down? This is especially true if we continue to allow ordinary Chinese citizens with no family connections to the party or government to come here to study.

Such a tactic is not cost-free. American colleges and universities will scream bloody murder. The higher education establishment will be sure to wave the flags of academic freedom and international kumbaya. And it's not that such concerns are unwarranted. But in the context of today, where American cities could soon face the real risk of a nuclear or electromagnetic pulse attack from a crazed North Korean regime, they pale in comparison.

I tend to believe that the howl from the higher education community would be driven more by a desire to protect a lucrative revenue source than by anything else. As for the thought of U.S. national security, that's probably a detriment rather than an imperative in the thinking in elite university circles, which are terminally affected by the disease of multiculturalism

Using student visas as a pressure point on China is not a silver bullet. But it is yet another arrow in our quiver. The big club we have, of course, is trade. China rose as an economic power due to access to U.S. markets, technology transfers (both legal and illegal), and a massive influx of Western capital. Even today, the very stability of Chinese society itself is dependent on China's being allowed to export, even to the point of dumping, into American markets while at the same time putting up barriers to our exports to the Chinese. It is a disgrace that the American establishment has allowed this situation to continue for as long as it has, and it is one of the prime reasons Donald Trump was elected to the presidency.

The beauty of using trade and things like access to our universities as pressure points on China is that it is far less risky than an open military confrontation with North Korea. That would probably devastate Seoul and who knows what else.

It is way past the time to play hardball with the Chinese for their blatant mercantilism and dragging their feet on North Korea. That is part of what putting America first means. It's time to do it.
Have the mainstream media finally caught on to the obvious? Well, at least Mike Allen, and his Axios news site, have, recognizing Trump counterterrorism adviser and administration spokesman Sebastian Gorka for who he is, a rock star, as he puts it, instead of what the media's parrot-meisters, JournoListers, leftists, and echo gallery clowns claim he is. Axios writes:

But to Trump's nationalist base, and the one person who matters inside the White House, he's become a rock star in recent days. Gorka's stock has soared as President Trump has watched him on various cable channels fighting with the hosts and accusing them of being part of the "fake news industrial complex." Before Trump left for Paris yesterday evening, he was asking West Wing staff, "Did you see Gorka? So great, I mean really, truly great." Trump loved, in particular, when Gorka told CNN morning host Alisyn Camerota that more people are interested in cartoons than CNN, and that the network's ratings are lower than "Nick at Nite."

Long the object of calumnies and fake news  the phony Nazi claim is a real favorite of theirs  the reality is that Gorka is probably the most effective spokesman of the Trump administration. He makes appearances on Fox News and other outlets as a spokesman for the White House, takes on the mud flung from some pampered prince of the press, and fires back with lightning-fast wit and a sharp verbal sword to the talking head.

It's great television and a great means of reaching ordinary Americans without the media filter. After seeing performances like this, this, or this, is it any wonder that Gorka is Trump's favorite spokesman? But more to the point, it shows that Gorka is popular on television, reflecting well the Trump position and explaining it out in language ordinary Americans can understand. His performance beat the questions of the mainstream media to other White House spokespeople who must field gotcha questions and speak in sound bites.

It goes to show that the slings and arrows fired at Gorka have been such a loser for the leftists who orchestrate them, notably the Deep State holdovers and Obama dead-enders such as Ben Rhodes, who was responsible for so much of the distracting catcalls and fake news claims. Here's but one example of the moral bankruptcy of Gorka's attackers.

It may signal that the media are recognizing reality on the irrelevance of Ben Rhodes and beginning to look to what Gorka really represents to the people in general.

He was always this way; it was just that the media kept smearing him to advance the Rhodes agenda.

Now that the tables are turned, some of the smarter media  those who care about ratings, that is  are sitting up and taking notice. Gorka really is a rock star. He really does have special talents. He really does delight U.S. voters. It's all good.
The latest whip count on the Senate health insurance reform bill is out, and it doesn't look good for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republicans.

The Hill nose count shows that, in addition to all 47 Democrats in opposition, two Republican senators are unalterably opposed: Rand Paul and Susan Collins. That means that McConnell must round up every single remaining Republican senator to reach 50 votes and count on Vice President Pence to break the tie.

There are 23 fence-sitting Republicans who could go either way. Here are some of them:

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.)  Capito said she does not know if she'll vote to advance the new bill. "We have another meeting this afternoon on the Medicaid cuts," she said Thursday. "I need to really look at it, look at the score, I still have concerns." She has expressed concerns the first bill did not do enough to combat opioid abuse and cut Medicaid too deeply. Capito told Politico during the July Fourth recess that she will kill the repeal bill if it comes down to her. "If I have to be that one person, I will be it." Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.)  Cassidy won headlines when he talked about how the bill needed to pass a "Jimmy Kimmel test" on whether it would prevent children with pre-existing conditions from getting coverage. Cassidy on Thursday said he was not sure if he would vote to advance the revised bill. Cassidy has worked with Collins on alternate legislation.Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.)  Capito said she does not know if she'll vote to advance the new bill. "We have another meeting this afternoon on the Medicaid cuts," she said Thursday. "I need to really look at it, look at the score, I still have concerns." She has expressed concerns the first bill did not do enough to combat opioid abuse and cut Medicaid too deeply. Capito told Politico during the July Fourth recess that she will kill the repeal bill if it comes down to her. "If I have to be that one person, I will be it." Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.)  Corker was undecided on the first bill. Sen. Steve Daines (Mont.)  "I look forward to hearing directly from Montanans on this legislation," Daines said about the first bill. Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa) -- Ernst did not take a position on Senate Republicans' first ObamaCare repeal and replace plan, and said she was polling her constituents to gauge their feelings on the bill. Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.)  Flake is up for reelection in 2018. He said he would "thoroughly read and review it" after the first bill's release. Sen. Cory Gardner (Colo.)  "If we can have opportunities to make the bill better, then by all means let's take every chance and (all the) time we can," he said of the first bill, according to the Denver Post.

I believe most of these votes are very gettable, with two or three conservatives and another two or three moderates who may be leaning against the bill.

This is where President Trump will be able to do the most good. Trump demonstrated some skills in herding House Republicans together to support Obamacare reform. His challenge in the Senate is more serious because his margin for error is so slim. But the president has shown he is willing to lean on reluctant lawmakers to get his agenda passed. Expect the president to start working the phones over the weekend in anticipation of a vote on health care reform next week.
Sicilian town ablaze as wildfires rage on across Italy 1,000 evacuated in Gallura, two arsonists nabbed near Rome

(By Denis Greenan).



(ANSAmed) - Rome, July 14 - A Sicilian town blazed Friday as wildfires raged on across Italy and 1,000 people were evacuated in Sardinia's Gallura area and two arsonists were nabbed near Rome.



A number of homes were evacuated in the town of Sciacca in Sicily after wildfires encroached into the town centre Friday, local sources said. Three blocks of flats housing some 40 families were evacuated.



Cars were also at risk of being engulfed by the flames, the sources said. A number of Canadair water-dumping planes are in action over the area, backing up fire crews and forest rangers. A school was evacuated. Smoke reached the upper floors of buildings.



Homes were also evacuated at Gioia Tauro in Calabria because of a fire at a waste dump.



More than 20 air interventions were requested Friday. In the southern Tuscan Maremma area, a huge fire was burning in the zone of Castiglione della Pescaia, a popular tourist area.



A week ago someone set a fire there that went on to destroy some 160 hectares of Mediterranean brush.



Wildfires were still raging across other parts of southern Italy including on Mt Vesuvius near Naples where the army is helping out fire crews.



Two men died in Calabria while trying to put out the fires Thursday.



Many of the fires are linked to arson and Naples Archbishop Crescenzio Sepe has brought down the wrath of God on "those who kill the environment".



The situation on Vesuvius was said to be improving slightly.



Two arsonists were arrested near Rome Friday.



Civil Protection chief Fabrizio Curcio called for stiffer penalties for arsonists.



Justice Undersecretary Cosimo Maria Ferri said they were already strong but the government was ready to raise them.



About 1,000 people were evacuated because of encroaching fires in the Gallura area of Sardinia Friday.



Some 44 fires were active in the Cosenza area of Calabria but the situation there was said to be improving slightly.



(ANSAmed).




Jerusalem: Hamas and Islamic Jihad hail attack 'Blessed martyrdom operation, determined to resist'

(ANSAmed) - GAZA, JULY 14 - An attack on Friday morning at the Temple Mount-Haram al-Sharif compound in Jerusalem has been hailed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, although the two organizations did not claim responsibility. Abdel Latif Qanou (Hamas) told the press that ''the blessed martyrdom operation highlights the determination of our people to resist brutal occupation'' and that it is a ''natural consequence of a series of crimes'' which he attributed to Israel.



Islamic Jihad in a statement referred to Friday's attack in a wider context as part of ''demonstrations of courage of our people against occupying forces that must now beware to cross a red line''.



Abbas Zaki, of the central committee of al-Fatah, said Israel was morally responsible for the Jerusalem attack. ''There can be no peace or stability in the Middle East until the occupation ends'', he stated.




Jerusalem: police, two Israeli officers killed Hamas, Islamic Jihad hail Temple Mount-Haram al-Sharif attack

(ANSA) - TEL AVIV, JULY 14 - Two Israeli policemen who were injured in an attack on Friday morning at the Temple Mount-Haram al-Sharif compound in Jerusalem have died, Israeli police chief Micky Rosenfeld said.



The two officers killed in the attack by the Lyons' Gate in the Old City Walls, were Druze Israelis identified by police as Hail Sitawi, 30, from the village of Majar, and Camil Shanan, 22, from the village of Horfesh, both in Galilee.



Sitawi and Shanan had been stationed for years in the Old City of Jerusalem.



Hamas and Islamic Jihad hail attack The attack Friday next to a holy site known by Jews as Temple Mount and by Muslims as Noble Sanctuary was hailed by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, which however have not claimed responsibility.



Abdel Latif Qanou (Hamas) told the press that ''the blessed martyrdom operation highlights the determination of our people to resist brutal occupation'' and that it is a ''natural consequence of a series of crimes'' which he attributed to Israel.



Islamic Jihad in a statement referred to Friday's attack in a wider context as part of ''demonstrations of courage by our people against occupying forces that must now beware to cross a red line''.



Abbas Zaki, of the central committee of al-Fatah, said Israel was morally responsible for the Jerusalem attack. ''There can be no peace or stability in the Middle East until the occupation ends'', he stated.(ANSAmed).




Migrants: 1,428 aboard coast guard ship land in Catania 935 in Salerno and 860 in Brindisi

(ANSAmed) - PALERMO, JULY 14 - The 'Diciotti' coast guard vessel arrived in Catania on Friday morning with 1,428 migrants on board, including 100 minors, who were rescued in different operations over the past few days. Disembarking operations are ongoing.



-The Vos Prudence ship of Doctors Without Borders arrived Friday morning in Salerno at 7 am with 935 migrants on board. When disembarking operations, the 21st on the coasts of Salerno, will be completed, migrants will be transferred according to a national hosting plan.



Some 150 will be taken to a hosting center in the Lombardy region, 100 in Campania, as many in Lazio (in the cities of Frosinone, Latina and Viterbo), 80 in Piedmont, 55 in Veneto, 50 in Emilia-Romagna and as many in Abruzzo, Molise, Umbria and Marche. Out of the 935 migrants, 793 are men, 125 women (including seven who are pregnant and one who was in labor and was immediately disembarked with a wounded 30-year-old) and 16 minors, including two newborns.



-A ship with 860 migrants on board rescued in the strait of Sicily landed this morning in Brindisi, where migrants will be identified and given medical assistance. The vessel is the Acquarius of association Sos Mediterranee aboard which baby Cristo was born. The migrants will be divided mostly between Lombardy and Lazio, as well as in Piedmont, Veneto, Tuscany, Puglia, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise and Umbria. (ANSAmed)
Tunisia: interior minister, 80 policemen killed since 2011 Approval of law to protect security officers urgent

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, JULY 14 - A reported 80 Tunisian security officers have been killed in terror and criminal attacks since 2011, including 20 in 2011 alone, Tunisian interior minister Hedi Majdoub told a meeting of Parliament's legislative affairs commission. The minister also said that 2,000 policemen were wounded in terror and criminal attacks, which are on the rise, calling for the urgent approval of legislation to protect security officers.



The interior minister noted that security officers can shoot in self-defense but, referring to recent violence in El Kamour, Tataouine, where teargas and rubber bullets were used to disperse the crowd, he added that no order was ever given to shoot at demonstrators in spite of attacks that could harm the national economy. (ANSAmed)
- ROME - Two female Ukrainian tourists died on Friday after being stabbed along with four friends in a Red Sea resport in Hurghada, Egypt. Local media report that the attacker has been arrested.






(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) - MADRID, JULY 14 - The secretary general of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), Fatallah Sijilmass, told ANSAmed in an interview that stabilizing Libya is a useful tool to deal with the migrant emergency in the central Mediterranean area.



''The central corridor of the Mediterranean, the route that most interests Italy, is under intense migratory pressure. To lighten it, the issue is stabilizing Libya, guaranteeing territorial integrity, cooperating in the construction of peace with the country's government recognized by the international community. And the Union for the Mediterranean is a political tool to consolidate the stability of the Libyan State'', he said.



For Sijilmassi, ''it has never been clearer that the region's challenges require collective and concerted answers in a global strategic vision involving Europe, the Mediterranean region and Africa''.



Asked how he believes the 85,000 arrivals on Italy's coasts in the first six months of the year, up 21% on the same period in 2016, according to Frontex, should be managed, Sijilmassi did not comment on talks between Italy and the EU on a possible change of the Triton mission. Instead, he stressed that ''the discussion is important for a European system to manage migration flows. But it is also key to work in the spirit of the Euromed partnership between the EU and Africa and within the entire map of Ufm member states to respond to common challenges: terrorism, irregular migrations, radicalization or unemployment and the lack of perspectives for our youths''.



Asked what this would imply in terms of actions, he said that ''the solution is in regional cooperation and dialogue and investing in development to make migration flows sustainable.



The framework of reference is the summit in La Valletta in November 2015, which recognized that migrations represent a shared responsibility of the countries of origin, transit and destination and set parameters to be respected. The road map is the one adopted by the foreign ministers of 43 member states at the Second UfM Regional Forum in Barcelona''.



Asked whether it would be possible to replicate with Libya the EU-Turkey agreement, he said that ''for the corridor of the central Mediterranean migrations, the consolidation of the Libyan state is key. We hope that Libya can soon become part of the UfM, where it is present today only as an observer, so that the population can enjoy the benefits of the Euromed association. In the meantime, it is necessary to manage the emergency in the framework of compromises reached by European institutions''.



The UfM secretary general would not comment on whether Italy is being left alone to welcome migration flows that are becoming unsustainable: ''Allow me not to comment on this. But I want to note that, as UfM, we are completely involved in investing energy to promote activities, methodologies, tools, to boost education, employment, development in some areas of North Africa most affected by migrations with the perspective of improving the conditions of everyone. I am thinking about initiatives such as 'Med4Jobs' which integrates projects for the creation of jobs, the development of small and medium-sized companies and the private sector. We hope that we will soon be able to also involve Libya, once transition has been completed, helping it integrate in the partnership. I also wish this as a Moroccan, since it is a Maghreb country with a potential to recuperate an important role in the area''. (ANSAmed)
- ANKARA - On the eve of the anniversary of the failed coup attempt on July 15, the Turkish government announced on Friday its intention to extend the current state of emergency for another three months.

The emergency measure had been brought in after the coup attempt and was about to expire on Wednesday. The extension request will be made official in the National Security Council (MGK), which will be presided over by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and sent on Tuesday to Parliament for approval, according to Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. Under the state of emergency, over 50,000 people have been arrested and 150,000 were suspended from the public administration in Turkey over links with the network under imam-in-exile Fethullah Gulen, allegedly behind the coup attempt.
If youre considering a subscription to the Disney Plus streaming service, you may be wondering how much it costs. The service is available on both
Not at all. It just seems like a lot of back-and-forth talk.

Yes. I'm growing very worried over what might happen.

If it keeps up, I might be a little more concerned.

I think there are much larger things to concern us as a country.

It's hard to tell; I can't take the leader of either country seriously.

Vote

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AJW Group will be supporting Aero Contractors with the upgrade of its MRO services to C check capabilities for Boeing 737 Classic aircraft  300,400 & 500. The enhancement of its MRO capabilities will ensure that maintenance is carried out to a very high standard, thus providing added quality assurance to their customers. In addition to their own fleet, Aero Contractors will be able to extend these services to third party operators both in-country and within region.

Furthermore, AJW Group will also be focusing on the management of Aero Contractors assets to deliver an effective return on investment, disposal of Aero Contractors PW150 engines and to provide support with engine shop visit management.

AJW Capital, the Group's principal investing division responsible for the purchase, sale and lease of large aviation-related capital assets, will facilitate the acquisition of two new Bombardier Q400 aircraft for Aero Contractors.

Christopher Whiteside, President and CEO of AJW Group, said: Our focus on quality is instilled in everything we do, and our decision to work with Aero Contractors is testament to that.

AJW Group is highly regarded for its expertise and excellence across a broad range of MRO services, including repairs and inventory management and we look forward to working in partnership with Aero Contractors going forward.

Capt. Ado Sanusi, CEO of Aero Contractors, said: We are very excited to work with AJW Group on this project and feel that it will have a marked effect on our operations going forward. Having been in the business for 58 years, I am confident we have found the right partner to work with."
DGCA urged US officials to take in to consideration security measures taken for this purpose.

The delegation also asked TSA to coordinate with DGCA on enhancing the implementation of security systems, and the start of implementing procedures of the US Border Clearance at the support terminal.

The delegation invited the US officials to visit Kuwait International Airport in mid-August to be appraised of measures in order to lift the ban on direct flights.
Kyiv is one of Eastern Europes oldest cities and an historic and cultural centre, with stunning architecture and many museums and galleries showcasing the citys centuries-long past. The art collections and architecture of this ancient city are widely-recognised world treasures. One of Eastern Europes undiscovered jewels, this exquisitely beautiful city offers a striking skyline resplendent with glittering turrets, twisting spires and golden domes, and is quickly becoming a popular destination for travellers-in-the-know.

The launch of service to the Ukrainian capital comes as part of the airlines robust expansion in Eastern Europe, with service to Skopje, Republic of Macedonia and Prague, Czech Republic commencing this summer.

Qatar Airways Group chief executive, Akbar Al Baker said: Our new service to Kyiv is part of our expedited expansion plans, which aim at unlocking new destinations to enhance our passengers connectivity to our extensive global network. Passengers from Kyiv will now have the opportunity to travel seamlessly through our award-winning Doha Hub, Hamad International Airport (HIA), to any of our popular destinations in Eastern Europe as well as throughout our rapidly-expanding network. And Qatar Airways passengers will now have the opportunity to experience the exquisite beauty of Kyiv, one of Eastern Europes most stunning cities. We are delighted to be able to unlock this gateway to Eastern Europe.
SANS is managing one of the largest and busiest airspaces in the Middle East, and through this MoU, SANS will develop and analyze a concept of operations for space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) as an additional layer of surveillance. Aireons space-based ADS-B system is completely independent of traditional ground-based services.

The company is responsible for the provision of air navigation services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. SANS is actively investing in airspace modernization concepts and will begin their space-based ADS-B benefits analyses within the coming months. With the AireonSM space-based ADS-B data, SANS anticipates extending real-time air traffic surveillance throughout their entire region, making ADS-B equipped aircraft position information available regardless of terrain or ground infrastructure.

According to SANS Chairman of the Board, Abdullah Alsuweilmy, Deploying space-based ADS-B is an opportunity to optimize air traffic flow, while reducing the current separation minima and providing significant airline benefits. Space-based ADS-B will also help us increase safety for all aviation stakeholders and the flying public.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) 20-Year Air Passenger Forecast, the Middle East will grow strongly and will see an extra 244 million passengers a year on routes to, from and within the region by 2035.

Don Thoma, Aireon CEO said: Aireon is proud to engage in this relationship with an established regional leader like SANS. With Middle East air traffic growing at a significant pace, SANS is actively seeking new ways to improve safety and efficiency. Our operations and engineering teams will diligently work on a concept of operations that provides an analysis of the value and benefits that 100 percent surveillance can bring to their airspace. We look forward to deploying space-based ADS-B in Saudi airspace in the near future.
A new report from the Illinois-based initiative Open the Books provides an eye-opening look into the size of that tab. The study includes virtually every grant the NEA and NEH have made since 2016, and additional details about the endowments activities as far back as 2009. This includes grants to 71 entities with assets over $1 billion, and one grant to a California enterprise that celebrates the work of a Japanese-American artist best known for declaring: I consider Osama bin Laden as one of the people that I admire.
An Introduction to Doing Business in Singapore 2022 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in Singapore, compiled by the professionals at Dezan...
The grouping comprising nearly 8,000 of total 21,137 Air India employees held a general body meeting to deliberate on its strategy.

A union of Air India employees will hold a protest on July 18 against the disinvestment of the national carrier. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: A union of Air India employees will hold a protest on July 18 against the disinvestment of the national carrier.

The grouping comprising nearly 8,000 of the total 21,137 employees of Air India held a general body meeting last week to deliberate on its strategy to oppose privatisation of the debt-laden carrier.

The union will hold a protest on July 18 near Terminal 2 at Indira Gandhi International Airport, according to a press statement issued by Air Corporations Employees' Union (ACEU), which represents Air India's non-technical staff.

Seven unions of Air India had last month joined hands to oppose the Centre's decision to disinvest the carrier and had written to Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapthi Raju, warning him of an "industrial unrest".

The Union Cabinet had last month given its in-principle nod for consideration of disinvestment of Air India. 'Alternative Mechanism' or a group of ministers under the aegis of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is entrusted with working on the modalities of Air India's stake sale.
The agency has made this indictment against Mallya in its charge sheet filed on June 14.

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate has said that liquor baron Vijay Mallya laundered over Rs 1,300 crore through 13 shell companies in US, Ireland, Mauritius and France.

The agency has made this indictment against Mallya in its charge sheet filed on June 14 in the money laundering case involving a loan of about Rs 900 crore from IDBI-KFA bank.

The charge sheet has indicted eight other persons too for their alleged roles in the case. The 57-page charge sheet or prosecution complaint, with voluminous annexures, was filed under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) before a special anti-money laundering court here.

The ED has also said that these shell companies had no actual activities and was fully controlled by Mallya with former employees of UB group being its directors.

The agency said the only purpose of these companies were to either obtain loan or launder money. The agency also said Mallya has huge property in the US in the name of his daughters - Leana and Tanya.

The Enforcement Directorate had registered a criminal case in this deal last year under the PMLA and has attached assets worth over Rs 9,600 crore till now. The total loan sanctioned and disbursed by the IDBI bank to KFA was Rs 860.92 crore.

The ED said its "money trail analysis revealed that out of the total loan of Rs 860.92 crore, sanctioned and disbursed by IDBI, Rs 423 crore has been remitted out of India. The said payments were shown to be made towards aircraft rental leasing and maintenance, servicing and spare parts."

The agency is expected to soon file a supplementary charge sheet in this case. He has been in the UK since March 2016 and was arrested by the Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant on April 18 this year. The Central Bureau of Investigation is also probing into the IDBI loan fraud case.
And the actor made it up to the girl who is now a close friend, by singing for her at the IIFA, New York.

Salman Khan may have ruined Katrina Kaifs birthday many moons ago when he fought with Shah Rukh Khan at a nightspot, leading to a lot of animosity between both the actors and ruining his relationship with Katrina as well. But that was nine years ago.

And the actor made it up to the girl who is now a close friend, by singing for her at the IIFA, New York. Salman began singing Happy Birthday at the IIFA press conference. Sushant Singh Rajput, Kriti Sanon, Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Shahid Kapoor and Anupam Kher who were present on stage along with Katrina joined him on the stage.

Being his cheeky best, Salman then said that the best thing about birthdays is doing this and went on to hug Katrina twice while blowing air kisses to her as well. Salmans action comes ahead of Katrinas birthday on July 16. We are sure he will be a part of the esteemed guest list for the birthday party. Will we see an encore?

 Sanskriti Media
The action-thriller set in Afghanistan is a story about child suicide bombers. Sanjay Dutt will be playing a father to a young child in the film.

Sanjay Dutts upcoming film Torbaaz, touted as one of the big budget films, has been in the news for all the right reasons. The director of the movie, Girish Malik, reveals there will be three leading ladies.

There are three girls in this film. One girl will be playing the role of a parent. We have a few names in our mind for that. We will start approaching them now, Girish said. Then the second character is about a girl who runs a refugee camp, and we are looking at an international actress for that. We are in talks with a few Iranian actresses as well. The third leading girl is a Jordanian actress. We have artists from Afghanistan, Iran, and America, so it will take time, he added.

The action-thriller set in Afghanistan is a story about child suicide bombers. Sanjay Dutt will be playing a father to a young child in the film. While there have been reports that Ankita Lokhande has been approached for the same, he denied all these reports.

I was shocked to read that news. I have never met Ankita, and I dont even know her. I have no idea where this news is coming from. Apparently, according to sources, the makers are keen to cast Chitrangada Singh for one of the prominent roles.
The 'Munna Michael' actor says that he definitely plans to meet Sylvester Stallone to prep for his role.

Tiger Shroff would be hoping the Hindi remake of Sylvester Stallone's 'Rambo' goes on to become a successful franchise.

Mumbai: Tiger Shroff will step into the shoes of Sylvester Stallone for the Indian remake of Rambo, and the actor says it would be cool to have the Hollywood star in the film.

Rambo remake will be directed by Siddharth Anand, who had previously helmed Hrithik Roshan starrer Bang Bang.

Tiger is aware that it is a big role and says he might also meet Stallone for the film.

"'Rambo' remake is one of my most exciting projects lined up. I am very scared and excited. Scared because I have big shoes to fill and excited because it is something up my alley and I really want to go all out for the film. I am definitely planning to meet him (Stallone), that's in the pipeline," Tiger told PTI.

In an Instagram post earlier, Stallone, 70, had written that he was confident that Tiger would do a good job and he will put his heart and soul into it.

When asked if there are plans to rope in Stallone for a guest appearance, Tiger says, "That would be so cool to do. I think the makers definitely have something special planned. But let's see if that is on the cards or not."

The 27-year-old actor is currently busy with promotions of his next, Munna Michael, post which he will start working on the sequel of his hit Baaghi.

While the first film of the franchise was directed by Sabbir Khan, choreographer-filmmaker Ahmed Khan has been roped in to direct the sequel.

"We are definitely scaling up this one ('Baaghi 2'). Ahmed and Sajid (Nadiadwala) sir have done a great job working on the script and the story, got on board great writers and something magical is going to happen with it."

After Baaghi 2, the actor will feature in Karan Johar- backed Student of the Year 2 which he says will go on floors somewhere around October-November this year.
After his two-day police custody concluded on Friday, the court further extended it for a day more.

Mumbai: The Kerala Police has received a boost in the investigation of the abduction and assault of a prominent Malayalam actress, with the Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court extending the police custody of accused Dileep till Saturday 5 pm.

The actor had appeared before the court at 11 am on Friday after the two-day police custody given on Wednesday had come to an end.

Dileep was arrested on 11 July by the Special Investigation Team for conspiring and getting a popular Malayalam actress molested in a bid to blackmail.

He is all set to become the second accused in the high-profile case, behind primary accused Pulsar Suni.

The police had earlier said that they would be recording statements of Dileeps second wife Kavya Madhavan and her mother Shyamala, director Lal and MLA PT Thomas, before the investigation is wrapped up.

Apparently, the actress leaked Dileep's 'affair' with current wife Kavya Madhavan to his then wife Manju Warrier back in 2013.

The police claim that Dileep insisted on Pulsar Suni recording a video to prove that it was not fake or morphed and that the actress should be clearly identifiable with her ring. The offences registered against Dileep are 120 (B) conspiracy, 342 (wrongful confinement), 366 (kidnapping, abducting), 376 (D) gangrape, 411(dishonestly receiving stolen property), 506 (1) criminal intimidation, 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 212 (harbouring offender), 34 of (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and various sections under IT Act, 2008.
New Delhi: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will visit China for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) National Security Agency (NSA) meet later this month.

Doval, who is the Special Representative for the India-China border talks, is expected to visit Beijing on July 26 to attend the meeting of the NSAs.

During his visit, issues like resolving the row at the Dokalam area in Sikkim will be discussed.

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Doklam area near the Bhutan tri-junction for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Indian troops stopped road construction by Chinese soldiers on June 16.

New Delhi on Thursday said India will use diplomatic channels with China to resolve Dokalam standoff and will not compromise on the issue.

"We have diplomatic channels available. We have embassies in both countries. Those channels will continue to be used," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said on Thursday when asked about the nearly month-long stand off in Dokalam.

Dovals visit to China comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany earlier this month.

Addressing the press conference on Thursday, Baglay had refused to give details on the talks between Modi and Xi, and said, "There was a conversation between them. There were a range of issues that was the subject matter of that conversation."
Leaders of prominent parties are present at the meeting where Swaraj and Singh will give a presentation on the Kashmir and China situation.

New Delhi: The all-party meet on the ongoing issue with the Indo-China border and Kashmir unrest began on Friday, at Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh's residence in Delhi.

The meet is being attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley. National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar are also present at the meet.

Meanwhile, criticizing the government All India Congress Committee (AICC) media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala had said, it was 'satisfying to see that the NDA government had finally woken up after three years of briefing the Opposition on issues concerning the nation.

"Congress is assuring full cooperation with the government on issues relating to national security," he added.

We shall ask the government to share full information about the background and situation on the Indo-China border as also on the Bhutan border where the stand-off continues. We shall also ask the government to clarify all implications for our national security and the necessary steps being taken in protecting our national interests and also steps to be taken, Surjewala had said.

Leaders of prominent parties are present at the meeting where Swaraj and Singh will give a brief presentation on the situation along the Sino-Indian border and the Jammu and Kashmir and the government action, The Indian Express reported.
In subsequent decades, Iranians watered down their rhetoric on Kashmir and strengthened ties with New Delhi.

A Kashmiri Muslim villager looks at the debris of one of the damaged houses after a gunbattle at Bahmnoo village 58 km south of Srinagar, Kashmir recently. (Photo: AP)

When the then foreign minister Inder Kumar Gujral was about to undertake an official visit to Iran in 1991, the Iranian government conveyed to New Delhi that the minister was not welcome in Tehran. The Iranian rebuke came in the wake of an Indian military crackdown on pro-independence activists in Kashmir who Tehran considered were waging a legitimate struggle for independence.

Four years later, in 1994, Iranians abstained from a crucial UN vote in Geneva, which saved India from being censured for its human rights record in Kashmir.

In subsequent decades, Iranians watered down their rhetoric on Kashmir and strengthened ties with New Delhi.

This shift partly came after Indias rival in Kashmir, Pakistan virtually overtook Azadi movement and sidelined indigenous pro-independence forces within Kashmir.

Another factor, which perhaps played a more important role in changing the Iranian position vis-a-vis Kashmir, was increased Saudi involvement in the region.

Free hand to Saudis by successive governments in Islamabad led to unchecked growth of Saudi-funded madrasas and institutions, which helped Arabise large sections of Pakistani society thus erasing deep influences of Persian oriented Sufi Islam from the country.

The increased radicalisation manifested itself in wanton bomb blasts at Sufi Dargahs and massacres of Shia- and Sufi-minded populations and subsequent purge of Shias from power centres all with tacit approval of the state. The community felt abandoned by the state of Pakistan they had helped create.

Pakistans choosing of Saudis over their neighbour is one thing Iranians have not forgotten and never reconciled to. Iranians are now striking back with something different and more potent weapon.

Saudis, in their quest for influence in the Muslim lands, have effectively used their money power that is posing existential threat to more tolerant Persian-oriented Sufi Islam in the Muslim lands.

Iranians with a clear edge on this front over Saudis are out to defend and in many cases revive this stream of Islam.

The 1979 revolution which toppled 2,500-year-old monarchial system in the ancient land of Persia was Islamic in nature as the revolution was led by a Shia Islamic jurist.

For the first time following the 661 CE assassination of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth rightly guided caliph for the mainstream Sunni Muslims and the first imam for his followers known as Shia (the party of Ali) a government came into being that claims to be modelled on the pattern set by Ali. Ali for Sufis is Shah-e-Wilayat, king of Sufis.

Shias believe Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, declared Ali his vicegerent (Hadith of Ghadir) but majority decided not to elect him as their first caliph. And when he was finally chosen, 25 years after Prophets demise, intrigues and wars forced him to leave Prophets city Madina to far away Kufa in Iraq. Here again, he was not accepted as caliph by all Muslims. Muawiyah, the powerful governor of Damascus, who was appointed by Alis predecessor Usman bin Affan, rose in revolt.

Ali was assassinated four years later and his rule cut short. Alis successors, 11 imams of Shias, were not only disempowered by the successive Muslim rulers, but 10 of them were done to death one by one. Mahdi, the 12th and the last went in to hiding, and never returned. Shias believe Imam al Mahdi, went into occultation and will one day, reappear with Jesus. But before Mahdi went into hiding, he appointed four deputies to remain connected with his Shia. Shia Marajeh (highest religious authority) subsequently over the centuries came to be regarded as deputies of hidden imam. One among them was Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei.

Ayatollah succeeded in establishing a government following the triumph of 1979 revolution in Iran. The 98 per cent vote he secured for his concept of governance, Wilayat al-Faqih or Rule of the Jurist, was declared by him as religious democracy.

Since for an overwhelming majority of Shia, the Vali-e-Faqih or the supreme leader, acts as deputy of the hidden Imam on earth, his job is now more diverse than the previous Marajeh who had no country to govern.

Islamic Republic under Vali-e-Faqih hence, for many within and outside Iran, is the guardian of the legitimate Muslim interests or the Ummah at large.

This may explain the complex nature of Islamic Republics foreign policy. Iranian officials often are at pains to explain their position on many critical issues, on which the government stance is invariably at odds with that of the supreme leader.

Yet except in case of Palestine, which houses the Al-Aqsa mosque, the first Qibla or the direction towards which Muslims faced during prayers before Grand Mosque of Mecca replaced it, Iranian stance towards rest of the issues facing Muslim world have been largely moderate.

When Ruhollah Khomeinis successor of Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khomeini, raised Kashmir issue recently, many analysts in India, including a former information minister, gave prominence to the timing of the statement hinting that Iranian leaders statement reflected unease in Tehran about growing Indo-US bonhomie and Prime Minister Narendra Modis high-profile visit to Israel.

But Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei has not referred to Kashmir for the first time. He raised Kashmir in 2008, when Indo-Iran relations were at their zenith. What is also noteworthy is Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei this time referred to Kashmir in his Id-al-Fitr sermon and clubbed it with Yemen and Bahrain and not with Palestine.

In both Yemen and Bahrain, Iran is helping majority populations defend Saudi onslaught. While Saudis have launched a full-fledged war on impoverished Yemen, again a centre of tolerant version of Islam and home to first Sufi master Uwais al-Qarani, in Bahrain they are helping their tutelage Al-Khalifa family to crush pro-democracy uprising by the countrys majority population, which subscribes to Shia faith.

Strategically located Kashmir, considered gateway to Muslim world spanning from Kashgar to Marrakesh has been fulcrum of Persian-oriented Sufi Islam. It was Sufi masters Syed Ali from Hamadan and earlier to him another Sufi, Syed Sharafudin alias Bulbul Shah from Aradabil both in todays Iran who introduced Islam to Kashmiris.

And like in Pakistan, Kashmiris too are facing a churning with the rise in ideologies which run counter to the teachings of Syed Ali and Bulbul Shah and innumerable other Sufis whose reverently built tombs dot nook and corner of Kashmir.

Kashmir is not entirely immune to new ideologies, partly influenced by the radical strides of people like Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Alienated and frustrated by the unending conflict with a bleak future stalking them, growing number of youth in Kashmir are finding solace in these radical thoughts. They no longer find peace, unlike their elders, in the Sufi shrines nestled in serene valleys.

They seem to be in a hurry to end their suffering and new ideologies offer them a quick fix solution: Maaro ya marro. They think there is nothing to lose. Its better to die with the hope of going to paradise than live a long life of wretchedness on this earth.

While the state of India has failed to comprehend this phenomenon, as is apparent from the intensifying crisis in Kashmir, Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khameneis statement has been welcomed by those Kashmiris who feel let down by Ummah, which is chiefly led by Saudi Arabia but are at the same time wary of growing radical influences like that of Daesh propelled by Saudi funding.

Ayatollah, however, has been measured in his statement. He has not called for jihad in Kashmir unlike that in the occupied holy land of Palestine. He termed Kashmir a humanitarian catastrophe, which merits a solution as per wishes and aspirations of its people. For that he went a step further by urging Iranian judiciary to pursue the case based on its legal merits.

The writer is editor-in-chief of Kashmir Observer and India editor of Trans Asia News Service. He can be reached at: sajjad.ko@gmail.com
Vijay Mallya was arrested by the Scotland Yard in June on fraud allegations, which led to his extradition process in the British courts.

In the last hearing, the apex court had convicted Mallya for contempt of court and summoned him to personally appear on July 10, 2017. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday demanded the presence of liquor baron Vijay Mallya in connection with a contempt case filed against him, insisting that no proceedings can go ahead without him.

New Attorney General (AG), K K Venugopal, appearing for Centre, told the apex court that extradition proceedings are being conducted in a British court and would most likely end by December 4.

During the hearing, Venugopal told the division bench that extradition proceedings of Mallya has already started, to which Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel asked for submission of a status report.

In the last hearing, the apex court had convicted Mallya for contempt of court and summoned him to personally appear on July 10. Subsequently, the hearing was adjourned till July 14.

The apex court was hearing a plea by a consortium of banks, which moved the apex court after Mallya received loan of USD 40 million from a British firm, Diageo Plc, in February 2016, and allegedly transferred the money to his children, instead of repaying the loans that he owes to the banks.

The absconding businessman was arrested by the Scotland Yard in June on fraud allegations, which triggered his extradition process in the British courts.

However, Mallya was released on bail as he assured the court to abide by all conditions associated with extradition proceedings, including surrendering his passport.

On February 8, India had given a formal extradition request for Mallya through a note verbale (verbal note). India had given a formal extradition request for Mallya as per the extradition treaty between India and UK through a note verbale, a diplomatic communication.

A joint team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also reached London .

In June, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) informed that the 61-year-old's extradition had been stratified by the Secretary of State of the UK government and added that a warrant would soon be released against him.

The UK 's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will argue the case on behalf of the Indian authorities.
Noting that the BJP is used to 'spreading lies for political gains,' Yadav said his party has to 'fight this and counter it'.

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav asked the Yogi Adityanath govt to explain as to how many criminals and land mafias were put behind bars and what action had been initiated against them. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow: Claiming that GST is beneficial only for big traders, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday mocked the BJP, saying it could even resort to using mantras to resolve people's problems without taking any real steps.

"The reality of BJP is coming to the fore. It has made people's life difficult with demonetisation and GST implementation. GST is only for benefit of big traders. It appears that BJP will use 'mantras' to resolve people's problems and not take real steps," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister told party workers in Lucknow.

Noting that the BJP is used to spreading lies for political gains, Yadav said his party has to "fight this and counter it". Accusing the Yogi Adityanath regime of failing on the law-and-order front, Yadav said the state government should explain as to how many criminals and land mafias were put behind bars and what action had been initiated against them.

"The morale of police is down and criminals are ruling the roost. Law and order is out of control," he said. He alleged that welfare schemes launched during his regime were discontinued as they had the word "Samajwadi" appended to their nomenclature.

"The state government is saying that its growth rate is 6 per cent. However, if they ignore Muslims' contribution in development, it will stand at only 2 per cent," Yadav said, asking party workers to start preparations for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
MEA said, the ambassador of India to Iraq, the consul general in Erbil were instructed to keep searching for Indian nationals on priority.

New Delhi: The government on Thursday said it was seriously and sincerely engaged with the Iraqi authorities to trace the 39 Indians, who have been reportedly taken hostage in Mosul in 2014 by the ISIS.

Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh met Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al Jaafari in Baghdad on Thursday and handed over a letter from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

India had welcomed liberation of Mosul which represents a brave victory over forces of evil and destructions represented by Daesh terror group, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay said, adding the government had also mentioned the issue of missing Indians.

He said Singh had met a number of senior Iraqi officials in Erbil on Wednesday evening and requested them to trace the missing Indians. "We remain engaged very sincerely and very seriously at a high level," Baglay said, adding the Iraqi authorities have conveyed to India that they have sensitised their forces about missing Indians.

"India remains steadfast in its support to Iraq in their fight against terrorism," he said. Following announcement of the liberation of Mosul, the government had activated various channels to locate the Indians, Baglay said.

The ambassador of India to Iraq and the consul general in Erbil have been instructed to continue the efforts to locate the Indian nationals on priority, the MEA spokesperson had said on Monday.
Attacking the Delhi govt, the BJP MLA said though CM Arvind Kejriwal claims to be against drugs, the ground reality is different.

New Delhi: BJP MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Thursday alleged that hookah bars in the city were ruining the youth of Delhi by turning them into drug addicts and sought immediate action from the National Green Tribunal against them.

In a statement, the legislator said that he has written to the NGT Chairperson, alleging these hookah bars are ruining the youth of Delhi by turning them into drug addicts.

"Despite launch of a campaign in the country to contain use of tobacco and ban hookah bars, most hookah bars in Delhi are running on restaurant licenses illegally and selling products that are harmful for the youth," the statement stated.

Attacking the Delhi government, Sirsa said though Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claims to be against drugs, the ground reality is different.
Mr Tiwari warned that the BJP would demonstrate outside chief minister Arvind Kejriwals residence and at his public engagements.

New Delhi: The Delhi BJP on Thursday set the AAP government a deadline of four days to notify the newly-drawn municipal zones in the city, claiming the activities of the civic bodies were getting affected in its absence.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said that the Arvind Kejriwal government was deliberately withholding the delimitation of the zones of the three civic bodies to avenge its defeat in the MCD polls.

Mr Tiwari warned that the BJP would demonstrate outside chief minister Arvind Kejriwals residence and at his public engagements if the government continued to stonewall the process.

It is affecting the work of the corporations. We have repeatedly requested the government to clear the proposal. But till date, it is stuck. We have not been able to constitute the statutory committees and other panels of the corporations, added Mr Tiwari.

Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, said that due to the obstinate attitude of the Kejriwal government, the most important standing committees and ward committees of the municipal corporations were not being formed, due to which elected councilors were not getting funds and the entire system of civic bodies had come to a standstill. The monsoon may become intense at any time and after that there will be danger of the outbreak of diseases like Dengue, Chikunguniya and Malaria. Similarly, the administration of Municipal Schools and Hospitals is also paralyzed, added Mr Gupta.

Meanwhile, to strengthen its grip over organisations with the help of experienced leaders, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari on Thursday appointed several such leaders who did not get a position in current team, as heads of new departments and prakalp. The party claimed that the appointments have been made for 19 departments and 10 prakalps as per the new organizational guidelines evolved at national level. Amid these major appointment after civic polls, in which BJP recorded historic mandate, current media in-charge Praveen Shankar Kapoor has been demoted to and made deputy in the same department under Mahesh Verma, a name unknown to the majority of party leaders. Neelkant Bakshi, a trusted aide of Mr Tiwari, has been appointed the head of media relation department.
Mr Sharma informed IT officials that he did not have any such account.

The police is not ruling out insiders role in the Rajarhat branch in helping the accused as they have learnt that a number of fictitious accounts had been created in the branch. (Representational image)

Kolkata: The cyber crime police station of Bidhannagar Commissionerate on Wednesday night arrested the manager of a nationalised bank of Navi Mumbai branch on charges of attempting to convert black money to white by depositing it into the account of another person. Madhusudan Gandhi, the accused, is a resident of Pithapuram in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh and was previously posted as branch manager in the Rajarhat branch of the same bank, where the complainant had an account.

According to sleuths of the Bidhannagar cyber crime police station, Santosh Sharma, the complainant from Dakshindari Road in Laketown, had received information on February 10 from the income tax authority that Rs 7,06,000 was deposited in a bank account, which was connected with the PAN of the complainant. Mr Sharma informed IT officials that he did not have any such account. He soon realised that another person had opened an account in his name and deposited the money and lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police station.

On the basis of the complaint, we learnt that the accused was posted as the branch manager when the complainant had opened the account. He used the photocopy of the pan card to open the account with an intention to keep IT officers in the dark about his black money, deputy commissioner (headquarters) of Bidhannagar Commissionerate Santosh Pandey said.

The police is not ruling out insiders role in the Rajarhat branch in helping the accused as they have learnt that a number of fictitious accounts had been created in the branch. We will interrogate him to find out if any more bank official is involved, an investigating officer said.
'The President's heartfelt condolences go out to Liu Xiaobo's wife, Liu Xia, and his family and friends', said WH Secretary Sean Spicer

Washington: President Donald Trump was"deeply saddened" by the death of prominent Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, the White House said on Friday, describing the Nobel Peace Prize laureate a courageous person who dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy.

Liu, who was China's most prominent human rights and democracy advocate, died on Thursday at age 61 from liver cancer. He had been serving an 11-year prison term for "subversion".

61-year-old Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize while in jail. "President Donald J Trump was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent Chinese political prisoner Liu Xiaobo," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

"The President's heartfelt condolences go out to Liu Xiaobo's wife, Liu Xia, and his family and friends. A poet, scholar, and courageous advocate, Liu Xiaobo dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy and liberty," Spicer said in a statement.

Just a day before Liu's death, the US had called on China to release him from custody so he could see his family and pursue the medical care. Several American Senators expressed their sorrow over Liu's death.

"Today the world lost a hero of liberty and freedom," said Senator Ted Cruz, the Republican Senator from Texas. "Ever since leaving the safety and comfort of America to lead the protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989, Liu sealed his fate as a persistent focus of persecution from the authoritarian PRC (People's Republic of China)," Cruz said.

From 'reeducation through labour' and deprivation of property to unjust imprisonment and physical abuse, Liu bore the brunt of the Communist Party's wrath for daring to challenge their immoral system of political oppression, he added.

Senator John McCain said the death of Liu in a Chinese prison represents an egregious violation of the fundamental human rights for which he spent his life. "Unfortunately, and as Dr Liu would have wanted everyone to remember today, this is only the latest example of Communist China's assault on human rights, democracy, and freedom," he said.

McCain said that the Chinese government's delay in his treatment was the last "barbaric" violation of Liu's human rights. "The news of Liu Xiaobo's death today is beyond tragic for his beloved wife Liu Xia, for his family, and for the millions of supporters of his courageous efforts to champion human rights and democracy in China," said Senator Marco Rubio.

He said the Chinese government must give Liu's remains to his family and grant his wife an exit visa to leave the country. "There should be an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Dr Liu's death, his treatment in detention, the timing of the diagnosis of his late-stage liver cancer, and countless other questions that need to be answered, he said.
Liu was sentenced to 11 years in jail for his strident opposition to the one party rule of the Communist Party of China.

Beijing: In an unprecedented move, the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday removed questions related to Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo from the transcripts of its daily media briefings available on the official website.

The move came hours after the death of the 61-year-old human rights activist who died due to multiple organ failure following a battle with cancer while still in custody.

Asked why the references about Liu were removed, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that the ministry has the right to decide about the content of the transcripts.

"I answered more than 10 questions on the subject on Thursday. When you are covering the press conference did you write the every word I said in your report. We have the right to decide which kind of content can go online," Geng said.

According to the justice bureau of Shenyang city in Liaoning Province, Liu, convicted of subversion of state power in 2009, died of multiple organ failure today.

He was sentenced to 11 years in jail for his strident opposition to the one party rule of the Communist Party of China.

Liu served eight years in jail before he was diagnosed with cancer. He was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize while in jail and was represented by an empty chair at the ceremony in Oslo.
Srivijayan had his death sentence carried out at Singapore's Changi Prison Complex, said the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

Prabagaran Srivijayan was arrested in April 2012 at Woodlands Checkpoint in the main causeway to southern Peninsular Malaysia. (Photo: Facebook)

Singapore: A 29-year-old Indian-origin Malaysian man was executed on Friday in Singapore for drugs smuggling despite calls by the UN and rights groups to halt his capital punishment.

Prabagaran Srivijayan was sentenced to death in 2014 after he was caught with 22.24 grams of diamorphine while trying to enter Singapore.

Srivijayan had his death sentence carried out at Singapore's Changi Prison Complex, said the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

He was arrested in April 2012 at Woodlands Checkpoint in the main causeway to southern Peninsular Malaysia.

Two packets of the drug were recovered from the vehicle he was driving, the CNB said in a statement.

On Thursday, Srivijayan's lawyer, Choo Zheng Xi, on instructions from Srivijayan's family, asked the Singapore apex court to stay his client's death sentence on the grounds that his appeal in Malaysia was pending.

Judges of Appeal Chao Hick Tin, Andrew Phang and Tay Yong Kwang called the attempt to halt Srivijayan's execution because of proceedings in another country "an abuse of process".

"The judiciary of each country is entitled to act in accordance with its Constitution and its laws," The Channel News Asia quoted Judge Chao as saying.

"No judiciary of one country interferes in the judicial process of another country," he said.

Srivijayan had a pending appeal before the Malaysian Court of Appeal to institute proceedings against Singapore in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Amnesty International had raised concerns about the fairness of the trial, including the alleged failure of the authorities "to follow up leads and call on key witnesses that would corroborate his version of events".

The United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR) South East Asia Regional office had called on Singapore to halt the scheduled execution of Prabagaran, and had urged the government to immediately reinstate a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

"Drug-related offences do not fall under the threshold of 'most serious crimes'. Furthermore, under domestic law, the death penalty is not mandatory for drug-related offences," the OHCHR said.

The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death penalty if the amount of diamorphine imported is more than 15 grams. His petition for clemency was unsuccessful.

Srivijayan was accorded full due process under the law, and he was represented by legal counsel throughout the process, the CNB said.

It said that 22.24 grams of diamorphine is equivalent to about 1,853 straws, which is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 265 abusers for a week.

Both Malaysia and Singapore execute murderers and drug traffickers by hanging, a system which dates back to British colonial rule.

Singapore has consistently maintained that the death penalty is an effective deterrent to crime and has rejected calls to abolish capital punishment.
Macron gave Mr Trump a personal tour of Napoleons tomb at the Invalides military complex in central Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hand with his US counterpart Donald Trump as they arrive at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (Photo: AFP)

Paris: US President Donald Trump suggested on Thursday he could change his position on the Paris climate accord in remarks after talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord, he said at a joint news conference with Mr Macron six weeks after announcing that the United States would abandon the 2015 pact, adding, Well see what happens.

Mr Macron said he respected Trumps decision but France remained committed to the accord.

Earlier on Thursday, the 39-year-old French leader said he had a strong disagreement... about the climate deal with Mr Trump, adding, I hope in the end to be able to persuade him.

Mr Trump, whose country is the worlds second biggest producer of greenhouse gases after China, drew widespread criticism when he announced on June 1 that he would quit the pact. Mr Macron rolled out the red carpet to welcome Mr Trump for an overseas trip the White House hopes will offer respite from a growing scandal back home.

The US President is to be Mr Macrons guest of honour during celebrations for Bastille Day on Friday, Frances national day, which will also celebrate the 100th anniversary of US involvement in World War I. Accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, the 71-year-old stepped onto French soil for the first time as President, hoping to leave behind weighty allegations that his family and inner circle colluded with Russia to win the 2016 US election.

The scandal has put his son and top aides in legal jeopardy, cast a pall over his efforts to remake the political agenda and may yet imperil his presidency.

Mr Macron gave Mr Trump a personal tour of Napoleons tomb at the Invalides military complex in central Paris, before the two men headed for talks. But the young and ambitious Macron has taken the lead in trying to build bridges something criticised by some far-left politicians in France.
President Donald Trump watched as various French military units marched by during the Bastille Day parade.

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron attended a Bastille Day military parade alongside his American counterpart Donald Trump.

The parade on Paris's Champs-Elysees commemorated the centenary of the US entering World War I and featured horses, helicopters, planes and troops.

Thousands of French troops marched down the Champs-Elysees to mark the storming of the Bastille military prison in 1789, a turning point in the French Revolution and 150 US soldiers, airmen, sailors, and Marines and aircraft also participated in the parade.

"This is a wonderful national celebration," said Trump during a joint news conference with Macron Thursday, adding, "we look very much forward to it. Spectacular."

"Our two nations are forever joined together by the spirit of revolution and the fight for freedom," he said.

President Donald Trump watched as various French military units marched by during the Bastille Day parade and saluted a combined group of American Army and Navy troops and Marines taking part in the annual event in Paris.

US President Donald Trump touched down in Paris on Thursday to forge a strong relationship with French President Emmanuel Macron.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed US President Donald Trump with military fanfare and then visited historic military complex at Les Invalides, built by King Louis XIV, where he was met with a large French army reception and joined Macron in inspecting the troops.

Trump's two-day sojourn to Paris is relaxing amid a row over allegations that his family colluded with Russia to win US presidential election.

Trump and Macron will discuss counter-terrorism, Iraq, Syria bilateral ties and French anti-jihadi military operations in Africa and then hold a joint press conference, the Guardian reported.

France has been under a state of emergency following ISIS inspired attacks attacks in the capital and other towns.
Earlier on Thursday, French President Macron said he had a strong disagreement about the climate deal with Trump.

President Macron said he respected Trump's decision but France remained committed to the Paris accord. (Photo: AP)

Paris: US President Donald Trump suggested Thursday he could change his position on the Paris climate accord, in remarks after talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

"Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord," he said at a joint news conference with Macron, six weeks after announcing that the United States would abandon the 2015 pact, adding: "We'll see what happens."

Read: US isolated as other G20 members, including India support Paris climate pact

Macron said he "respected" Trump's decision but France remained committed to the accord.

Earlier Thursday, the 39-year-old French leader said he had a "strong disagreement... about the climate" deal, with Trump, adding: "I hope in the end to be able to persuade him."

Read: Donald Trump wants to 'stay engaged' on climate: Rex Tillerson

Trump, whose country is the world's second biggest producer of greenhouse gases after China, drew widespread criticism when he announced, on June 1, that he would quit the pact.
Britain hit out at China for preventing Liu Xiaobo from travelling overseas for treatment.

Shenyang: China lashed out Friday at international criticism after it denied Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo's dying wish to leave the country and faced pressure to set the democracy champion's widow free.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing lodged official protests with the United States, France, Germany and the United Nations human rights office over their "irresponsible remarks" regarding Liu Xiaobo, and he took aim at his Nobel status.

"Conferring the prize to such a person goes against the purposes of this award. It's a blasphemy of the peace prize," he told reporters.

The United States and the European Union paid tribute to Liu Xiaobo as it urged President Xi Jinping's government to let his widow, the poet Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since 2010, leave the country.

Germany voiced regret that Beijing ignored its offer to host Liu while French President Emmanuel Macron remembered him as a "freedom fighter". Britain hit out at China for preventing Liu from travelling overseas for treatment.

The UN human rights commissioner, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said Liu "was jailed for standing up for his beliefs".

While China lodged protests, some of the global reaction to his death was relatively muted, highlighting China's emergence as an economic and diplomatic superpower on the world stage.

US President Donald Trump and Macron offered praise for Xi at a joint press conference in Paris and only voiced sadness for Liu later in statements.

In a sign of China's growing confidence, the state-controlled Global Times newspaper said in an English-language editorial that "the West has bestowed upon Liu a halo, which will not linger".

- 'Grieve in peace' -

A day after Liu's death, attention turned to his widow's fate. Chinese doctors said she was by her husband's side when he lost his battle with liver cancer on Thursday at age 61, more than a month after he was transferred from prison to a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang.

Liu's main doctor said he was able to say goodbye to his 56-year-old wife and in his final moments told her to "live well".

But authorities have restricted her contact with the outside world and her whereabouts were unknown following the death of her husband, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests whose advocacy for democratic reform infuriated the government.

The foreign ministry spokesman said he would "not make prejudgements" about whether Liu Xia could go abroad and that China always handles the entry and departure of its citizens "in accordance with the law".

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson paid tribute to Liu Xiaobo and called on Beijing "to release Liu Xia from house arrest and allow her to depart China, according to her wishes".

The EU urged Beijing to let Liu Xia and her family bury the dead democracy campaigner "at a place and in a manner of their choosing, and to allow them to grieve in peace".

Jared Genser, a US lawyer who represented Liu, said all contact with Liu Xia had been cut off in the past 48 hours.

"I am deeply worried about what's happening with her right now," Genser told CNN, adding that it would be hard for the government to still justify holding her without charges.

"The world really needs to rally and mobilise to make sure she can go wherever she wants and that she can bury her husband wherever she wants," he said.

Liu Xia's parents both died over the last year, and the poet, who was never interested in politics, has suffered from depression, according to friends.

"After the death of Liu Xiaobo, our most important goal is to save Liu Xia from the bitter sea," Hu Jia, a Beijing-based activist, told AFP.

"We will also use public opinion and public opinion pressure to urge the Chinese Communist Party to open the cage door, so Liu Xia can get free" along with her brother, Hu said.

- Censoring emojis -

Liu was jailed in 2008 after co-writing a petition calling for democratic reforms. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "subversion" a year later.

He became the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in custody since German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky in 1938, who had been held by the Nazis.

The Chinese political prisoner was represented by an empty chair at his Nobel prize ceremony in Oslo in 2010.

The government strived over the years to erase any memory of Liu and a search for his death turned up nothing on Baidu, China's Google-like search engine.

China's censors raced to scrub social media networks of emojis of candles and "RIP" tributes following his death.
Harsh comments on the government's no to overseas treatment. Focus now on concerns for his wife, her mental health and calls for her freedom. Twitter creates #FreeLiuXia hashtag.

Rome (AsiaNews) - The death of Liu Xiaobo, who Chinese government kept in custody until the very end, has provoked an avalanche of criticism of the Beijing authorities, also recalling that before Liu, the only other nation to let a Nobel Peace Laureate die in prison was Nazi Germany, in 1938, with Carl von Ossietzky.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, spoke of "heavy responsibility" of the Chinese government for the premature death of the dissident who was denied the possibility of being treated abroad. In a statement he claims that Liu Xiaobo represented "ideas that resonate in millions of people around the world, even in China. These ideas cannot be imprisoned and will never die. "

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said that "Liu Xiaobo was the real incarnation of the democratic and nonviolent ideals that he so earnestly endorsed." "Despite the imprisonment and separation from his wife whom he worshiped and which could have fueled anger and bitterness, Liu Xiaobo said he did not hate those who persecuted him."

The White House called Liu "a political prisoner" and expressed "heartfelt condolences" to the dissident's wife, Liu Xia. International attention has now shifted to her with growing concern for her mental health and the demand for her freedom. Twitter has been created the #FreeLiuXia hashtag.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has asked China to allow the realization of Lius "Chinese dream" by increasing political reforms and recognizing peoples "the natural right to democratic freedom."

Democratic groups in Hong Kong, for their part, have expressed their commitment to continuing non-violent protests.

In Japan, government secretary Yoshihide Suga expressed "sincere condolences for the death of Liu Xiaobo who devoted his life to freedom and democracy." He added that "freedom, human rights and the rule of law are universal values The international community, and we (Japan) believe it is important to be guaranteed in China as well." There have been similar, comments from European governments such as Germany and Great Britain.

The comments of human rights organizations are striking. Sophie Richardson, director of the China Human Rights Watch section, said that "government arrogance, cruelty and insensitivity are upsetting, but Liu's struggle for a rights-democratic and democratic China will live." Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International, stressed that "despite years of persecution, oppression and imprisonment, Liu Xiaobo has continued to fight for his convictions."

There has been no rethinking, of course, by Beijing. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that for Liu "all efforts were made to treat him humanly and according to the law." The news of his death has been practically silenced nationally. The Global Times, an English organ of the Communist Party, writes today that "Liu's last days have been politicized by foreign forces. They used Liu as a tool to strengthen his image and demonize China. They were not really interested in prolonging his life. The West has granted Liu a halo, which will not last. By granting him the Nobel Prize, the West has 'kidnapped' Liu. He "has lived in an era where China has witnessed the fastest growth of its recent history, but has tried to counter Chinese society with the support of the West. This has led to his tragic life. Even if he could have lived longer, he would never reach his political goals that are in conflict with the path of history. "
by Sumon Corraya

Voting took place yesterday in 56 Union Parishad, the countrys smallest administrative units. There are 4,554 in Bangladesh. Once we were forced to flee to India because of persecution by Muslims. Later we realised that to save ourselves as a minority in this country, we had to get involved in politics, said Protestant leader.

Tangail (AsiaNews)  More than 25 Christian Garo ran for Union Parishad (rural councils), and 11 were elected yesterday.

This is an extraordinary outcome, considering that the Christian community of Bangladesh is not very active in politics. In fact, Jewel Areng, and ethnic Garo, is the only MP in the 350-member parliament. He is also the youngest.

Tribal Christians ran in eight parishad in Madhupur, Tangail district, in Mymensingh diocese. All are members of the ruling Awami League.

They are: Tushar Rema, Sanjoy Mankin, Lawrance Nokrek, Ronjit Nokrek, Bikshon Nokrek, Probir Nokrek Chandro Bormon, Binesh Rema, Jhuma Rani Bormon, Farun Nokrek, Tirala Chiran and Archna Norkek. Three of them are women.

Their victory is an important turning point for Bangladesh, an Islamic majority country, with a population of about 160 million.

Despite the urging of Church hierarchies, Christians are generally not involved in politics. But for tribal Garo, things are different.

"We Garo believe that Bangladesh is our country, said Subhro Arang, a Protestant leader, speaking to AsiaNews.

Once we were forced to flee to India because of persecution by Muslims. Later we realised that to save ourselves as a minority in this country, we had to get involved in politics. That is why many Christian Garo take part in political activities. Success in local government elections is the outcome."

The vote took place in 56 Union Parishad, the countrys smallest administrative unit. There are 4,554 of them in Bangladesh.

Legally, each has nine wards and is governed by a president and 12 members, including three seats reserved for women.

"We know politics, said Arang. We are aware that in order to ensure our civil rights we must get involved actively in parties."
The ordinance applies to within 500 meters of the shore. You cannot build within 100 meters. Fines of up to 680 euros for those who break the rules. The leather-making industries in Uttar Pradesh will need to be moved. Ban on setting corpses afloat in river as per Hindus funerary tradition

New Delhi (AsiaNews) - From now on it will no longer be possible to dump waste or human remains in the waters of the Ganges, nor within 500 meters from the shore. The National Environmental Tribunal (NGT), the largest institute on environmental protection in India decided yesterday. Judges, led by President Swatanter Kumar, also established a "non-construction" area within 100 meters from the shore of the river sacred for THE Hindu religion. Anyone who violates these provisions can be fined up to 50,000 rupees (680 euros).

The order of the Court of First Instance aims at the purification of the highly polluted waters of the Ganges. Judges have argued that the riverbed from Haridwar, Uttarakhand State, Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, requires urgent action. Recently, local courts have also intervened on the question of the pollution of the sacred river, which have attempted to protect the waters by defining the Ganges as a "living being". The Supreme Court rejected this interpretation, however.

What worries most is pollution due to industrial discharges, especially those of from the tanning industries. Along the river in Uttar Pradesh there are hundreds of tanneries employing mostly Muslims. The Tribunal ordered government led by Yogi Adityanath, to transfer companies from the Kanpur area to the Unnao industrial area, or wherever they will not damage the ecosystem within a six-month period.

The decision also explicitly hampers the Hindu religious community. Funeral rituals are celebrated on the banks of the Ganges and ashes dissolved in the waters. However, relatives who cannot cremate their dead because of the cost, entrust the corpses of their loved ones to the river. For this, the tribunal has asked the two Indian states to formulate guidelines for the religious activities that take place at the ghats.

The court appointed a monitoring committee, led by the Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, which collects experts and professors in the field of environment. Analysts point out, however, that the decisions of the judiciary are of a binding value, but are often challenged in the High State Courts and in front of the Supreme Court. NGT then does not have security forces to enforce its decisions, but relies on individual states.
The three Palestinian assailants opened fire at 7 am, injuring the three Israeli policemen. The attackers, whose identities are still unknown, were shot dead..

Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Three Palestinians were killed after opening fire on Israeli police this morning, around 7:00 pm, at the Gate of the Lions, near Temple Mount. Three Israelis were injured, two of them seriously, according to Israeli security forces.

According to police spokesperson Luba Simri, the three fired at the police and headed for one of the Mosques. Israeli media videos show several policemen chasing and shooting a man.

Witnesses reported to Ma'an that the three assailants were wounded, and that the Israeli security forces stopped doctors from approaching. Other sources told the agency that the Palestinians arrived on a motorcycle, carrying two semi-automatic weapons a gun and a knife.

The identities of the three assailants are still unknown.

At the moment, access to the Temple Mount has been closed and Friday prayers will not be allowed. The area, considered sacred by both Jews and Muslims, is often a theater of tensions

The incident occurred shortly after the killing of an 18-year-old Palestinian in Bethlehem during a raid on the al-Duheisha refugee camp.

Despite reduced incidents of violence in recent months, tensions from the "intifada of knives", which exploded since October 2015, continue to reap victims: according to AFP sources, at least 277 Palestinians, 42 Israelis and people of different nationalities. The majority of dead are Palestinian assailants (or presumed assailants), often young, who are acting alone.

Israel accuses Palestinian authority of inciting violence, but for Palestinian leaders and personalities, the desperation from occupation is the main cause of the attacks.
Since 28 June, 8,328 Cambodians have returned home. In Thailand, they could be fined up to US$ 3,000 or get five years in prison. Lack of money is the main factor pushing them to remain undocumented. Once home, returnees tend to stay or go back to Thailand without papers.

Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Fearing Thai government sanctions, thousands of undocumented Cambodians have left for home of their own volition or forced in the past few weeks.

Under new labour legislation, approved at the end of June, undocumented foreign workers could be fined up to US$ 3,000 and get up to five years in prison. Employers could be fined up to US$ 23,500 per undocumented worker.

In total, 8,328 migrants have crossed the Thai-Cambodian border since the first spike on 28 June. Many have returned to Cambodia of their own will, but some on the instruction of their employers.

The exodus slowed the past week after the Thai government suspended enforcing fines until the end of the year.

Many Cambodians who seek work in Thailand to support themselves and their families are underage, and are especially at risk of exploitation, abuse and trafficking.

Often, they get their salary in a lump sum once a year, which means they have to borrow money from their employer to buy anything.

Such an arrangement leaves migrants open to a host of problems like disease through poor living and nutrition, trafficking and debt. Minors make up an estimated 10 to 15 per cent of the returning migrants.

Lack of money is the main factor that encourages migrants to remain undocumented, as many of them cannot afford the fees for a passport.

Most migrants take out loans, and this leads them to find work quickly on arrival and often to more debt when migration fails.

According to some NGOs, many of the people who return to Cambodia cannot afford the passport fees and are thus forced to choose between staying in Cambodia or go back to Thailand undocumented at their own risk.

While many returnees say their employers lent them money to come back legally, they add that the amount was either not enough to cover the costs or that they were told by their employers that passport fees would be deducted from their monthly salaries.

A recent announcement by the Labour Ministry clarified that the cost for a normal passport from the Ministry of Interior was 0, and 0 for an expedited one-day passport. In reality, migrants often pay much more.

To get more migrant workers documented, Labour Ministry spokesperson Heng Sour said last week that the Ministry would deliver travel documents in Thailand equivalent to passports beginning the first week of August.

The document, which along with other required paperwork would cost US$ 113, would be valid for five years and would be issued at offices in Thailand.

Those who are completely undocumented, he said, would need to register with the Thai Department of Employment during a two-week window ending on 7 August. They would then go through a verification process with representatives of the Cambodian government.

However, most workers wouldnt be able to apply for the travel book available in Thailand because it requires a family book, an identity card and a birth certificate. Without these documents, most migrants would have no choice but to go back to Cambodia, and do so voluntarily.

Among those who do, many drive to checkpoints on the Thai side and then give themselves up to police, who take them to the Cambodian side of the border. At the same time, arrests and deportations continue apace but are dwarfed by the voluntary exodus.

Following the seeming return to normalcy, it remains to be seen how many undocumented workers will get papers before the end of the year and what will happen to those who are still undocumented when the harsh punishments come into effect in 2018.
The measure, in force for the months of July and August, motivated by fear of terrorist attacks. Pilgrimages, group trips, holidays cancelled, but religious functions will take place without any variation. Armored vehicles and snipers preside over places of worship. Anglican Pastor: We pray "for the security and stability of our country".

Cairo (AsiaNews) - The Coptic and Evangelical Christians in Egypt have suspended some of their activities - including pilgrimages, summer colonies and conferences - for security reasons, fearing new attacks by jihadist groups or Islamist extremist cells. The measure, which will remain in force for the months of July and August, was issued following alerts by the Cairo authorities.

Reverend Andrea Zaki, leader of the local Evangelical Church, reports that "[security] agencies have informed us about the discovery of attack plans" by extremist groups. The measure will not, however, concern the masses and other religious functions that will take place on a regular basis.

Coptic Orthodox Church spokesman Bolus Halim confirmed a similar measure to protect the faithful.

The alert was circulated to representatives of the Churches in Egypt during a meeting that took place in the southern city of Assiut, in the presence of the highest exponents of the army and security. The generals also set up the allocation of armed vehicles and snipers outside the monasteries, during the most important celebrations.

Two of these major events will take place at Assiut, home to a substantial Christian community, and attract millions of faithful from all over the country.

In a letter issued yesterday an Anglican Reverend announced the cancellation of a trip to the tourist resort of Hurghada, on the Red Sea. The Christian leader made the decision "for your safety." "Join in prayer - concludes Mohsen Naeem - for the security and stability of our country."

In recent months, the Egyptian Christian community has been the subject of a series of attacks, the last of which was the assault on a Coptic pilgrim bus on May 26, which killed dozens of people. Since December, almost a hundred members of the religious minority (about 10% of the total population, equal to 90 million inhabitants) have been killed by Islamic fundamentalists. These include the victims of the Palm Sunday attacks on churches, and the those killed in the attack on St. Mark's Coptic cathedral in Abassiya, Cairo, in December. In the hours after the attacks, Daesh [Arabic acronym for the Islamic State] claimed the attacks and threatened new violence against the minority in the country.

The escalation of violence had initially undermined plans for Pope Francis's apostolic journey to Egypt, scheduled for late April. However, the pontiff wanted to respect the initial program by meeting President al-Sisi, the great imam of al-Azhar Ahmad Al-Tayeb, and celebrating a Mass in front of tens of thousands of faithful. (DS)
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How much will water rates increase?

City staff have recommended the City Council consider increasing city water rates by the following:

October 2017: 16 percent

July 2018: 13 percent

July 2019: 7.6 percent

The typical city water bill is $36.20. So for example, it will increase to $50.89 in October.

The City Council will hear public comments on Sept. 6 about these proposed increases and vote on them. Rates would then go into effect Oct. 1.
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
Chesnot/Getty Images(PARIS) -- President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will join French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte as guests of honor at Frances Bastille Day celebrations Friday, which includes a military parade along the Champs-Elysees.



The two presidents are expected to sit together in a reviewing stand at the parade.



So I was asked to go by the President, who I get along with very well ... And he called me, he said, would you come, its Bastille Day -- 100 years since World War 1, said Trump to reporters on Air Force One Thursday. And I said, thats [a] big deal, 100 years since World War I. So were going to go, I think were going to have a great time.



The president and first lady will participate in the annual Bastille Day ceremonies, according to the White Houses official blog. The ceremonies will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of American troops onto French soil during World War 1.



I think it is both a symbol and very important that a president of the United States could be with us tomorrow on the occasion of our national day, and attend a military parade in which the American troops will take part, Macron said during a joint press conference Thursday.



The president and first lady will be joined in the ceremony by nearly 200 American service members, including troops from the U.S. Armys First Infantry Division as well as three heroic U.S. veterans of the Normandy invasion, and French military personnel. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and F-22 will be expected to conduct a flyover with planes from the French Air Force, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. .



Trump will the first U.S. president to have participated in the ceremonies since 1989.



On behalf of the 60,000 service members standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the French to ensure Europe is whole, free and at peace, we are honored to lead the Bastille Day parade and help celebrate the French independence, said Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparotti, commander of U.S. European Command in a statement.



The Trumps and Macrons visited Les Invalides, the site of Napoleon's tomb and a military museum on Thursday before both leaders conducted a joint conference on climate change, Syria, Russia and the long-standing Franco-American relationship. The first lady also visited Hopital Necker-Enfant Malades, a childrens hospital at the beginning of the trip to spend time with young patients.



Both presidents concluded their night with dinner in the Michelin star restaurant, Le Jules Verne, at the Eiffel Tower.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Oregon Coast Drone Rules, Laws: Stay Away from Wildlife or Face Fines

Published 07/13/2017 at 6:44 PM PDT - Updated 07/13/2017 at 7:14 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Newport, Oregon)  The rising popularity of drones equipped with cameras has resulted in a deluge of lovely sights and scenes from photographers and videographers along the Oregon coast, but at least one agency has a warning about their use. It must be done responsibly, say officials at Oregon Coast Aquarium and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Drones are classified as small aircraft by the Federal Aviation Administration, and it has issued numerous regulations about their use. This includes flying below 400 feet as to not interfere with aircraft.

More importantly to the coastline, drone pilots need to steer clear of wildlife. According to Newport's BLM office  which oversees Yaquina Head Outstand Natural Area  drone use is not even allowed there due to the likelihood it would disturb wildlife. Animals may see drones as predators or some kind of threat, causing them to panic and possibly hurt themselves  or certainly cause them undue stress.

In fact, use of drones is not allowed near any offshore rock or any wildlife refuge area. This includes Cape Meares, Cannon Beach's Haystack Rock, Seal Rock and more. The basic idea is any place that has wildlife nesting or resting on it, such as seals, sea lions or bird colonies. These all fall under federal laws regarding unmanned aerial systems, or UAS.

According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife: Launch the UAS more than 100 meters (328 feet) from wildlife. Never approach animals or birds vertically with the UAS.

BLM's site manager at Yaquina Head, Janet Johnson, said that in spite of the best intentions of drone flyers, staff there have seen wildlife heavily disturbed by their presence.

So weve taken a no-tolerance approach to their use, Johnson said.

In June 2014, the National Park Service issued a temporary ban on drones in all of its parks, monuments and historic sites. The ban, while temporary, is in effect indefinitely until a permanent decision regarding drone use is reached. This included any lands within the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge spans the entire coast and encompasses 1,800 offshore rocks, reefs and islands. These landforms provide habitat for a wide variety of marine wildlife, including seabirds, seals and sea lions.

According to Kelly Moroney, Project Leader for the Oregon Coastal Refuge Complex, drones can disturb seabird colonies, which may result in nests being destroyed or abandoned. About one million birds call these places home each year.

One way we can help protect this resource for future generations enjoyment is by reducing human-caused disturbance, Moroney said.

Visitors can enjoy the precious natural resources on the Oregon coast, provided that they respect wildlife first, Moroney said: Boats and aircraft (including drones) are required to stay at least 500 feet away from offshore rocks and islands included within Oregon Islands Refuge. Disturbing seabirds and marine mammals is illegal; violators can be fined hundreds or even thousands of dollars, depending on the location and severity of the disturbance.

In Oregon, most of the entire coastline is essentially part of the state parks system  some 363 miles. Just about of it is managed by Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, and their rules are somewhat different because not all areas are wildlife refuges. Drone use is allowed on most beaches and within other state parks, with some restrictions. Drones cannot approach or disturb wildlife, and they cannot be flown within campgrounds, according to Dylan Anderson, Park Manager for the Beverly Beach Management Unit in Newport.

As an agency, we support any measures that safeguard our natural resources as well as the well-being of our visitors, Anderson said. We understand that visitors can fly their drones responsibly on our beaches, but they must be cognizant of wildlife and the privacy of other visitors. At certain sites that are considered more ecologically sensitive - such as Seal Rock State Wayside, which hosts nesting seabirds during the summer - drone use may be more restricted, and a ranger might be stationed there to enforce the restriction.

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A 26-year-old San Antonian is venturing into uncharted territory for a chance to win big for her family.

Leanne Rae Garcia is in the running to become Jetset Magazine's next cover model. The international competition started out with thousands of women, but only one will be awarded the cover and a cash prize of $100,000.

"Usually, I don't go for stuff like that," Garcia said, who has been modeling commercially for the past five years. "I'm going to do it for my sister and my mom. That's my motivation."

READ ALSO: S.A. woman loses 90 pounds and now leads free fitness class

Last Christmas, Garcia's 28-year-old sister who is a Type 1 diabetic began to experience renal failure. She'll have a double transplant in August - kidney and pancreas.

"Because she is a Type 1 diabetic, she automatically qualifies for a new pancreas," Garcia said, adding her mom is a match for the kidney transplant.

But the surgeries will require her single mother to take time off work and the family could greatly benefit from Garcia winning the prize.

Both her sister and mother reside in South Texas, but the procedures will take place in San Antonio. While her family is here, Garcia said they will be staying in her tiny one bedroom apartment.

RELATED: San Antonio firefighter, Navy vet wins title of 'Sexiest Vegan Next Door'

"If I win this money, I can put them up in a hotel and they can be comfortable," Garcia said.

The model has already beat out thousands of competitors in the last few weeks and is currently in the "Wildcard" round. With five days left to become a finalist, Garcia said, "we are getting to the wire."

The last woman standing will be flown by private jet to the magazine and stay in a luxury hotel for a three-day photo shoot.

Visit Miss Jetset Magazine for more information on the contest and to place your vote.

jthorpe@express-news.net

@jerilynnthorpe
Orange Co. Sheriff's Office

A Orange man charged in a 2015 drunk driving accident that killed two entered a guilty plea for two counts of intoxication manslaughter Thursday.

Travis Collins, 30, appeared before Judge Courtney Arkeen of the 128th District Court, the court confirmed.
Adams, Mass.-based Cataract and Laser Center commemorated 20 years, according to The Berkshire Eagle.

Here are five things to know:

1. Ophthalmologists opened the ASC in 1997.

2. Nine surgeons practice out of the center.

3. The surgery center has 22 employees.

4. In the past 20 years, the ASC has served more than 27,000 patients.

5. Surgeons have performed more than 50,000 surgical and laser procedures.
Watertown, Mass.-based athenahealth, a provider of medical record, revenue cycle, patient engagement, care coordination and population health services, named John "Jack" Kane interim CFO.

Mr. Kane, a member of the athenahealth board and current chair of the board's audit committee, will begin the job July 21. He will take over for current CFO Karl Stubelis, who is stepping down "to pursue other opportunities."

Athenahealth said Mr. Stubelis will support the company through the reporting of their financial results for the second quarter of 2017. The company added it has retained DHR International to help athenahealth find a permanent CFO, and the athenahealth board expects to appoint Tom Szkutak as chair of the board's audit committee, effective when Mr. Kane begins his interim role.

"This CFO transition reflects our commitment to ensuring that athenahealth has world-class leaders to support the company and our increased scale and scope. We intend to focus our CFO search on leaders who bring a record of operating discipline and value-creating capital allocation. I look forward to working closely with the athenahealth board, especially Jack Kane and Tom Szkutak, former CFO of Amazon, to identify the best individual for the role," Jonathan Bush, chairman and CEO of athenahealth, said.

Mr. Bush added, "Jack's knowledge of athenahealth and his experience serving as the CFO of another public healthcare technology company make him well suited to serve as interim CFO during this transition. We are pleased to benefit from his expertise and counsel in this expanded role."

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CMS has released its 2018 Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule, which would cut payments to hospitals under the 340B Drug Pricing Program and authorize Medicare to reimburse for knee replacement surgeries performed in outpatient facilities.

Here are ten things to know about the 2018 proposed rule.

Payment update

1. CMS proposed updating the OPPS rates by 1.75 percent in 2018. The agency arrived at its proposed rate increase through the following updates: a positive 2.9 percent market basket update, a negative 0.4 percentage point update for a productivity adjustment and a negative 0.75 percentage point adjustment for cuts under the ACA.

2. After considering all other policy changes included in the proposed rule, except for the provisions related to 340B drug payments, CMS estimates hospital OPPS payments would increase by 2 percent next year.

Proposed 340B program changes

3. CMS proposed paying hospitals 22.5 percent less than the average sales price for drugs purchased through the 340B program. That's compared to the current payment rate of average sales price plus 6 percent. Under the proposed rule, the current payment would continue for vaccines.

4. Regarding the proposed 340B program changes, CMS said it "seeks comment on implementing this proposal in a manner that will bring down out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare patients and allows providers to best meet their patients' needs."

5. The American Hospital Association issued a statement Thursday, expressing its concerns with the proposed modifications to the 340B program.

"Cutting Medicare payments for hospital services in the 340B program is not based on sound policy. Additionally, this proposed rule punishes hospitals for a policy outside of CMS' jurisdiction. It is unclear why the administration would choose to punitively target 340B safety-net hospitals serving vulnerable patients, including those in rural areas, rather than addressing the real issue: the skyrocketing cost of pharmaceuticals," Tom Nickels, executive vice president of the AHA, said.

Proposed update to inpatient-only list

6. The Medicare inpatient-only list includes procedures that are only paid for under the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System. Each year, CMS reviews the list to determine whether any procedures should be taken off of the list. For 2018, CMS proposed removing total knee arthroplasty from the IPO list. The proposed rule also seeks comment on whether partial and total hip arthroplasty should be removed from the list.

Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program changes

7. For 2018, CMS is proposing removing two measures from the Hospital Quality Reporting Program for the 2020 payment determination and subsequent years. The measures CMS is proposing to remove are:

OP-21: Median time to pain management for long bone fracture

OP-26: Hospital outpatient volume data on selected outpatient surgical procedures

8. For 2019, CMS is proposing removing four measures from the Hospital Quality Reporting Program for the 2021 payment determination and subsequent years. The measures CMS is proposing to remove are:

OP-1: Median time to fibrinolysis

OP-4: Aspirin at arrival

OP-20: Door to diagnostic evaluation by a qualified medical professional

OP-25: Safe surgery checklist use

Possible revisions to laboratory date of service policy

9. CMS said it is considering potential modifications to the laboratory date of service policy. The changes would allow labs to bill Medicare directly for molecular pathology tests and advanced diagnostic laboratory tests excluded from the OPPS packaging policy and ordered less than two weeks following the date of a patient's discharge from the hospital. Under currently policy, if a test is ordered less than two weeks after a patient's discharge date, the hospital must bill Medicare for the test and then pay the lab that performed the test.

Comment period

10. CMS will accept comments on the proposed rule until Sept. 11.

Editor's note: This article was updated July 18.

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Here are nine recent news updates on health IT companies.

Cerner Chairman and CEO Neal Patterson died July 9 after an ongoing battle with soft tissue cancer.

London, U.K.-based DeepMind  Google's artificial intelligence arm  plans to open its first international artificial intelligence research office in Edmonton, Canada.

GE Healthcare and HeartFlow will collaborate to improve care for coronary artery disease patients.

Google launched "People + AI Research," or PAIR, a research initiative to study how people interact with artificial intelligence.

McKesson selected Robin Jacobsohn to serve as head of litigation.

Microsoft will cut thousands of positions as part of a new strategy to shift its sales focus to cloud services rather than the company's traditional server and desktop products.

Nokia said it regrets user problems on its Health Mate app, a Nokia-branded version of a previous Withings app.

Nuance Communications, a voice and language solutions provider, has restored functions to its clients following the global Petya cyberattack, which affected portions of its network.

Royal Philips and the Singapore Institute of Advanced Medicine entered into an agreement to build an oncology research, training and treatment center in Singapore.
La Crosse, Wis.-based Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare is the first of Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic Health System's locations to implement the Verona, Wis.-based Epic EHR, reports La Crosse Tribune.

Mayo-Franciscan's Epic go-live July 8 is part of a $1 billion plan to deploy the EHR at all Mayo sites by the end of 2018, enabling information sharing across all the health system's sites in the nation. More than 51,000 staff members from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arizona and Florida will be trained on the EHR.

The Epic system will replace the three EHRs currently in use at Mayo. The new EHR will provide services related to medical records, billing security, radiology, data centers and "every other facet of operations," Tim Johnson, MD, vice president for Mayo Clinic in the southwest region of Wisconsin, told La Crosse Tribune.

"This is a very big switch for us, going to a single system for the entire Mayo enterprise," Dr. Johnson said.

Mayo Clinic sites in Minnesota will go live in November, followed by the health system's Rochester, Minn., campus in May 2018. The Arizona and Florida campuses will go live in October 2018.

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Senate Republicans released the latest version of their Better Care Reconciliation Act Thursday.

Reactions of nine healthcare leaders to the new draft of the bill are listed below.

American Medical Association President David O. Barbe, MD, said that the new version of the bill did not alleviate his concerns regarding Medicaid funding, though there were slight improvements from previous drafts.

"The additional funding to address the opioid epidemic is a positive step, however, those suffering from substance use disorder have other healthcare needs that are not likely to be addressed if they lose coverage through a rollback of the Medicaid expansion. While stabilizing the individual market is an initial step, more bipartisan collaboration is needed in the months ahead to improve the delivery and financing of healthcare."

American Association of Medical Colleges President and CEO Darrel G. Kirch, MD, said the bill falls "woefully short" of providing Americans with quality health coverage.

"The changes do nothing to address provisions that would cripple Medicaid and put added financial pressure on state budgets and healthcare providers. Additionally, allowing insurers to sell plans without meaningful coverage will hurt those with preexisting conditions and further destabilize insurance markets. Finally, providing time-limited money to help individuals purchase insurance does not give patients the long-term health security they need."

Ibis Reproductive Health Vice President for Development and Public Affairs Britt Wahlin expressed serious concerns about how the bill would affect women's reproductive health.

"The elimination of the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive coverage mandate would be a severe blow to women's autonomy over their own reproductive health and a step in the wrong direction. We should be increasing access to birth control, not limiting it. True access to contraception means affordability: Birth control must be covered by insurance, whether it is prescribed by a doctor or pharmacist or sold over the counter."

Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania President and CEO Andy Carter does not view the new version of the bill is an upgrade from previous drafts.

"More than 1.1 million Pennsylvanians have benefited from coverage and improved health as a result of the Affordable Care Act; this plan jeopardizes these gains and weakens the Medicaid program. This proposal will undermine the health of Pennsylvania patients, hurt our economy and jeopardize healthcare jobs and services. We urge the Senate to reconsider this fundamentally flawed policy and protect Pennsylvania's health and healthcare."

HealthPocket.com Head of Research and Data Kev Coleman raised questions about the benefit requirements for non-ACA insurance benefits.

"Prior to the implementation of the ACA, 'individual and family' private health insurance covered doctor/specialist visits, lab tests, preventive care, hospitalization, emergency care and most included prescription drug coverage. Will these pre-ACA plans return to the market or will states look to new benefit configurations in order to make insurance premiums more affordable?"

Healthcare Association of New York State President Bea Grause expressed extreme opposition to the plan.

"The new version of BCRAis no improvement. It's a race to the bottom on coverage and consumer protections. It fails to meet our basic standard: Any ACA replacement plan should include healthcare coverage that is at least as expansive as under the ACA. The deep Medicaid cuts and restructuring in this bill would undermine the healthcare system and jeopardize access to needed care."

America's Essential Hospitals President and CEO Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH, called the new version of the BCRA "unacceptable."

"Making a bad bill worse, the Senate added measures that would destabilize the private market by creating a two-tiered system that funnels the sick and others most in need of affordable coverage into the highest-cost plans. The bill's attempts to placate critics represent nothing more than token efforts."

Physicians for Reproductive Health Board Chair Willie Parker, MD, believes that the bill will cause "sweeping" harm.

"This latest bill still does nothing that would keep women and their families healthy, like covering all reproductive health services: preventive services, contraception, abortion and maternity care. It will dramatically reduce coverage access for low-income women, people of color, children, the elderly and people with disabilities, virtually placing coverage completely out of their reach. Millions more will end up uninsured. Our nation deserves better than a bill that compromises the people's health."

Tennessee Hospital Association President Craig Becker noted that the bill is slightly improved from its previous versions, but that it is still far from perfect.

"Based on our initial understanding of the revised proposal, THA remains opposed to the BCRA. We maintain this position due to the dramatic long-term cuts and structural changes to federal Medicaid funding and the potential for new disruptions to the individual insurance market because of relaxed benefit requirements for insurers. The bill allows insurers to offer plans with limited benefits, which would undoubtedly throw the insurance marketplace into even greater turmoil and increase premiums for older, sicker Tennesseans."

This compilation is being updated on an ongoing basis.

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FBI agents raided Detroit medical offices Wednesday in relation to a $132 million Medicare fraud case involving kickbacks and the prescription of medically unnecessary painkillers, according to a report from the Detroit Free Press.

Five physicians and two other metro-Detroit residents were indicted for the alleged conspiracy, which prosecutors believe dates back to 2008, according to the report.

The conspiracy ring was allegedly led by Mashiyat Rashid, who owns and operates the Tri-County Network, a portfolio of businesses including Tri-County Physicians, Tri-State Physicians, New Center Medical, National Laboratories, and Aqua Therapy and Pain Management. He was charged for healthcare fraud, conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and defraud the government, and for paying and receiving kickbacks, among other charges, according to the report.

Mr. Rashid allegedly paid Yasser Mozeb to open bank accounts through a marketing business to receive payments from some of the Tri-County Network businesses, according to the report.

Five physicians were also charged as alleged co-conspirators: Spilios Pappas, MD, Abdul Haq, MD, Joseph Betro, DO, Tariq Omar, MD, and Mohammed Zahoor, MD. All of the physicians are listed as Medicare providers with one or several of the Tri-County Network businesses.

Read the full story here.

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New DNA evidence strengthens the link between worldwide outbreaks of nontuberculous mycobacterium and heater-cooler devices manufactured in Germany by the London-based devicemaker LivaNova, according to research published Wednesday in The Lancet Infectious Disease.

Here are seven things to know.

1. In 2015, news broke of open-heart surgery patients in the U.S. and Switzerland contracting NTM infections. Investigators eventually linked the infections to heater-cooler devices, which run on water and are used to heat and cool patients during heart surgery.

2. In October 2016, the CDC said the infections were specifically linked to Stockert 3T heater-cooler devices made by LivaNova, formerly known as Sorin Group Deutschland. CDC investigators believed the devices were contaminated during manufacturing with Mycobacterium chimaera, a species of NTM bacteria found in soil and water. While the bacteria rarely make people ill, open-heart surgery patients can contract difficult to diagnose, slow-growing infections from the bacteria during surgery. The infections can be life-threatening.

3. While Mycobacterium chimaera was previously identified at the LivaNova manufacturing site in Munich, Germany, the new study strengthens the link with DNA evidence.

4. Researchers examined 24 isolates extracted from 21 infected patients in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The team compared the isolates with samples from the LivaNova devices, heater-coolers manufactured by another German company and samples from hospital water sources and other environmental sources.

5. Researchers identified a high degree of similarity between the LivaNova samples and samples taken from infected patients.

6. "Our study closes the missing [evidence] gap," said Dr. Stefan Niemann, a professor with the German Center for Infection Research, in a release cited by Kaiser Health News.

7. LivaNova said the study was too limited to determine an accurate conclusion.

"LivaNova is concerned that the article expresses a level of certainty about a point source tie to the manufacturing process that is not warranted by the data," company spokeswoman Deanna Wilke wrote in an email to Kaiser Health News.

To read KHN's full report, click here.

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Dallas-based CTL Medical signed a partnership agreement with G-21 to market G-21's bone cement, kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty technology.

Here are three takeaways:

1. Each of the cement kits comes in the form of a two component system composed of a liquid and powder. The kits offer providers safety assurance and control of mechanical properties during surgery.

2. CTL Medical President and CEO Daniel Chon said, "We intend to begin immediate distribution of the full line of acrylic-based bone cements for widespread procedures necessary for vertebrae consolidation and stabilization."

3. G-21 is an Italian-based biomaterials company that develops long-term implantable medical devices using raw materials.
Due to a shortage of physicians, the University of California Davis created a program allowing students to graduate medical school in three years instead of four, according to CBS Sacramento.

Here are five takeaways:

1. In California, the minimum physician-to-people ration is 60 patients to every 100,000 people. Sacramento and the Bay area are the only two regions with ration above the minimum.

2. Students work under the supervision of Kaiser Permanente doctors and are exposed to patients early on in their training.

3. Within the first week of the program, students are in the clinic doing histories and working with patients.

4. The program helps solve the physician shortage problem and cuts down the cost of medical school.

5. The increasing population is having a negative affect on access to healthcare, causing medical schools around the country to change their four year programs to three years.
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More than 100 new homes are to be built outside Belfast in a 20m project by one of Northern Ireland's biggest construction firms. Rosemount Homes, part of the Lagan Construction Group, is planning to develop 112 properties in Carryduff.

The company is headed by chief executive Kevin Anthony Lagan.

The development is due to include 36 detached homes, 66 semi-detached and 10 apartments.

Plans also include garages, car parking, open space area and an equipped children's play area.

The scheme is set to be located close to the Ballynahinch Road.

Daniel McConkey, development director, of Rosemount Homes Ltd, told the Belfast Telegraph: "Rosemount Homes, part of Lagan Construction Group, recently submitted a planning application for 112 dwellings at Ballynahinch Road, Carryduff.

"The proposed development will provide a mix of detached, semi-detached and apartments and includes provision for open space, landscaping and an equipped children's play area.

"The application follows a lengthy period of public consultation with the local community by Rosemount Homes.

"If approved, this scheme will provide a quality residential development.

"It will represent a significant investment that will provide jobs for the local community as well as much-needed new housing in a highly desirable location.

"We have experienced a strong demand for new homes in easy commuting distance to Belfast city centre with our other developments in Carrickfergus and Comber."

According to a design statement from planners, the scheme is expected to be worth around 20m, and will create up to 60 jobs during construction. Elsewhere, Rosemount Homes is also developing Ballyhenry Manor in Comber, Co Down, which includes 57 properties.

Construction is under way on the first nine dwellings, which will be finished in September.

Prices for the houses range from just under 153,000 for a three-bed semi-detached to just under 210,000 for a four-bedroomed detached house.

Earlier this year Aaron Russell of estate agent Collier New Homes NI said there was significant interest in the developments.

The firm has also developed a new series of properties in Carrickfergus. Marlborough Manor, based at North Road, is a new development of 12 detached and 12 semi-detached homes with brick Georgian exteriors.

Meanwhile, according to the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Ulster Bank residential market survey, indicators for house enquiries, prices, and expectations had all been positive in June.

The Northern Ireland housing market performed better than expected during the first half of the year, shrugging off political uncertainty and slow economic growth.

And newly agreed sales also increased in June, according to Northern Ireland surveyors, after decreasing in May.

But the rate of properties coming onto the market slowed down during June, according to the survey, suggesting that supply issues are persisting as some people put off moving out of their homes.

The latest Northern Ireland House Price Index from Land and Property Services and Nisra reported a standardised house price for the province of 124,007 for the first quarter of the year.

That was down 0.8% on the previous quarter, but up 4.3% year on year.

Meanwhile, just last month a huge housing development with around 500 homes was given the green light for Co Down.

Planning permission was given for the 70m plans from Lagan Homes to build more than 480 family homes at Millmount Village on the outskirts of Dundonald.

There are already 123 properties built at the site, just off the Comber Road. It's understood the work is due to be completed in the next three to four years.

Planning permission for the reserved matters application was secured by Turley planning consultants.

You can view the new Millmount Village and Millreagh - Dingles home developments in Dundonald and the new Marlborough Manor development in Carrickfergus on propertynews.com.
Deal: Inver imports and stores fuel as well as selling it on to retailers

Cork-based fuel supplier Inver Energy has been sold to UK firm Greenergy. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal includes Inver's UK subsidiary and its 50% share of the company behind the Foynes Oil Terminal, Inver announced yesterday.

The other 50% of the terminal is owned by East Cork Oil Company.

Inver imports and stores fuel as well as selling it on to Irish retailers. Its existing management will remain in place going forward.

"Greenergy's global reach and financial resources will allow Inver to execute our growth strategy across all facets of the business," Inver managing director Chris O'Callaghan said.

"Greenergy and Inver are a close cultural fit, and the two businesses align very well together.

"I look forward to this next step for the business, and while Inver will be part of a multi-national business, we will continue to think 'local'."

The deal is subject to approval from regulators.

Andrew Owens, Greenergy's chief executive, said: "Greenergy and Inver are both customer-focussed, can-do businesses and together we will maintain our focus on safety, operational reliability, low costs and superior customer service.

"By combining Greenergy's global origination skills with Inver's storage facilities, branded retail dealer offer and strong local customer relationships, we aim to accelerate the expansion of Inver's business in Ireland."

Greenergy's customer base includes supermarkets, oil majors, retailers and commercial users.
In 1905, British artillery officer Colonel Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) accepts an invitation from Sir George Goldie (Ian McDiarmid), president of the Royal Geographical Society, to map uncharted territory in Bolivia with the help of tribesmen.

Percy abandons wife Nina (Sienna Miller) to venture into the unknown with Corporal Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson). Son Jack (Tom Holland) is born in his father's absence and Percy returns home with a strong conviction that he has stumbled upon proof of a lost civilisation to astound the academic elite.

A second expedition with wealthy adventurer James Murray (Angus Macfadyen) teeters on the brink of disaster, but Percy pushes forward, terrified of the consequences of failure.

Based on author David Grann's non-fiction bestseller, The Lost City Of Z is a handsome tribute to one man's struggle against himself and Mother Nature.

Hunnam delivers one of the strongest performances of his career, while Miller embodies an endlessly supportive spouse.

But at least 20 minutes of the film could have been tossed to the piranhas that swarm during one terrifying sequence.

Four stars
Belfast Zoo's pair of yellow mongoose can be seen beside the newly renovated reptile and amphibian house.

Yellow mongoose live in burrows which they often share with other small mammals such as ground squirrels and meerkats.

In the wild these mammals can be found in scrub desert and arid grassland throughout Africa.

Belfast Zoo have named the new arrivals Rikki-Tikki and Tavi after the famous short story in Rudyard Kiplings Jungle Book about an adventurous mongoose.

The pair arrived from Bristol Zoo a few months ago and visitors can now spot them in their newly built enclosure.

Belfast Zoo has recently become home to a brother and sister pair of yellow mongoose.

Belfast Zoo has recently become home to a brother and sister pair of yellow mongoose.

Belfast Zoo has said it is "delighted" to welcome a brother and sister pair of yellow mongoose.

The new arrivals - named Rikki-Tikki and Tavi - came from Bristol Zoo a few months ago and visitors can meet the pair at their newly built enclosure at the Cave Hill site.

Senior keeper, Allan Galway, said: They were quite nervous at first but are starting to settle in and explore their surroundings.

Expand Close Belfast Zoo have named the new arrivals Rikki-Tikki and Tavi after the famous short story in Rudyard Kiplings Jungle Book about an adventurous mongoose. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Belfast Zoo have named the new arrivals Rikki-Tikki and Tavi after the famous short story in Rudyard Kiplings Jungle Book about an adventurous mongoose.

"We have named the new arrivals after the famous short story in Rudyard Kiplings Jungle Book about an adventurous mongoose."

In the wild, these mammals can be found in scrub desert and arid grassland throughout Africa including Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Angola.

Expand Close The pair arrived from Bristol Zoo a few months ago and visitors can now spot them in their newly built enclosure. / Facebook

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Whatsapp The pair arrived from Bristol Zoo a few months ago and visitors can now spot them in their newly built enclosure.

Yellow mongoose live in burrows which they often share with other small mammals such as ground squirrels and meerkats.

Zoo manager, Alyn Cairns, said: "This is the first time that we have cared for yellow mongoose at Belfast Zoo. We are excited to learn more about the species and we hope to form a breeding group in the future."

Expand Close Yellow mongoose live in burrows which they often share with other small mammals such as ground squirrels and meerkats. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Yellow mongoose live in burrows which they often share with other small mammals such as ground squirrels and meerkats.

He continued: "When we were developing the new reptile and amphibian house, we identified the opportunity to develop an area beside it for a new mammal species.

"We subsequently decided to build an area for mongoose due to the educational links between these small carnivores that are natural predators to a number of African snakes, even some venomous species."
A court in Derry has heard how four hundred police officers were involved in a ten-month long investigation into the activities of the organised criminal gang.

A detective constable told the Magistrate's Court in Derry Thursday that one of the two men who appeared in court last month along with a woman on drugs and money laundering offences running into hundreds of thousands of pounds was now facing a death threat from a Dissident Republican organisation.

The officer told Deputy District Judge Ted Magill that 400 police officers were involved in a ten-month long investigation into the activities of the organised criminal gang.

He said the police were determined "to dismantle the gang" whose alleged members were arrested following cash and drugs seizures, one of which involved a single cash seizure of 410,000 which was found when the police stopped a lorry in the Waterside area of the city.

The detective constable was objecting to bail being granted for one of the alleged gang members, Mark Kelly, a 41-year-old father of five who has been granted anonymity in relation to his home address only.

The police witness said the evidence against the defendant was surveillance and mobile phone evidence. He described the defendant as a key member of the organised criminal gang and he said a huge financial investigation was continuing into the activities of all of the gang members.

"As part of that investigation we discovered that between 2014 and 2017 just over 300,000 passed through the defendant's bank account but he had only declared 20,000 to H.M.R.C. for the same period", he said.

The officer said he believed that if released on bail the defendant would re-offend and would try to re-construct the criminal gang and its activities.

"I believe his release on bail would also frustrate our continuing investigations into the gang's criminal activities", he said.

The detective constable said there had been a total of five separate cash and drugs seizures, one of which involved the seizure by the police of cocaine valued in excess of 500,000.

"This gang has taken years to build up its customer base. The defendant, because of his activities, has substantial financial clout. He has access to a number of properties abroad and we believe he would present a flight risk if released on bail", he said.

The Deputy District Judge said the 300,000 passing through the defendant's bank account over a period when he declared 20,000 to H.M.R.C. was "a telling statistic".

He refused bail and the defendant was remanded in continuing custody for a video link court appearance on August 10.
The Department for the Economy has accepted disqualification undertakings from the directors of Northern Ireland building company McCann Brothers

The undertakings were received for five years from Liam Hugh McCann (61) and for three years from Paul Gerard McCann (37) both of Tullyvalley Road, Seskinore, Omagh.

The firm went into liquidation in 2012, with estimated total assets available for creditors of 622,202, liabilities to preferential creditors of 15,000, liabilities to unsecured creditors of 5,661,969 and an estimated deficiency as regards creditors of 5,054,767. After taking into account the losses incurred by members of the company the estimated total deficiency was 5,054,769.

The department accepted the disqualification undertaking from Liam Hugh McCann on 23 June 2017 based on the following unfit conduct which solely for the purposes of the disqualification procedure was not disputed:

Causing and permitting the firm to submit a materially inaccurate statement of affairs;

Obtaining a loan from the company in contravention of Article 197 (1) of the Companies Act 2006 of which at least 170,966 remained unpaid at the date of liquidation;

Causing and permitting the company to misuse its accounts with the Bank of Ireland in that he caused and permitted the company to tender cheques and standing orders/direct debits of a large value without due regard to their being honoured upon presentation and also caused and permitted the misuse of banking facilities.

The Department accepted the disqualification undertaking from Paul Gerard McCann on 23 June 2017 based on the following unfit conduct which solely for the purposes of the disqualification procedure was not disputed:

Causing and permitting the Company to misuse its accounts with the Bank of Ireland in that he caused and permitted the company to tender cheques and standing orders/direct debits of a large value without due regard to their being honoured upon presentation and also caused and permitted the misuse of banking facilities.

The Department has accepted eight Disqualification Undertakings and the Court has made one order disqualifying directors in the financial year commencing 1 April 2017.
Northern Ireland has been left out in the cold in talks with the EU's chief Brexit negotiator.

Michel Barnier met with representatives from the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament in Brussels yesterday - but with Stormont still in limbo, Northern Ireland went unrepresented.

Yesterday's meeting was held ahead of a fresh rounds of Brexit negotiations, which will begin next Monday.

Mr Barnier met with Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme, the DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson said that the situation was "most unfortunate to say the least", and that "Northern Ireland needs its voice represented in the Brexit negotiations".

"Sinn Fein is now the only party not prepared to enter the Executive," he said.

"The other parties have indicated they would.

"We're ready to do the business. We want to be there today to represent Northern Ireland and Sinn Fein are blocking that."

Sir Jeffrey called on Secretary of State James Brokenshire to publish his plans on how he intends to deal with the impasse "very soon", but warned: "I think we are heading for a period of direct rule."

Speaking following the collapse of negotiations to re-establish Stormont last week, Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill said that the lack of a voice was a "consequence" of the DUP's deal to prop up the Conservatives at Westminster.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood warned the Stormont Executive must be restored in order to resist the "catastrophe" of Brexit.

"The threat posed to this part of our island cannot be underestimated, we must restore the institutions to resist it. We cannot be left behind, it is our responsibility to prevent this catastrophe," said Mr Eastwood.

"Today the North of Ireland is cut out of formal talks with the head negotiator Michel Barnier due to the absence of a government here.

"While Scotland and Wales meet with the EU lead, we are left without a voice at that table."

He described Brexit as "the most dangerous economic, social and constitutional crisis to face this island since partition".

"We must return a system of sustainable devolution," he added.

"The alternative is that we are dragged into direct rule, where the pro-Brexit Tories and DUP have a free hand on our futures.

"Those of us elected on mandates to fight a hard Brexit must be able to do that."

Speaking after her meeting with Mr Barnier, Ms Sturgeon said that it had been "useful and constructive".

She emphasised her view that the UK should remain within the single market.

"I outlined to Mr Barnier that our priority is to protect Scotland's vital economic interests, and that the Scottish Government will do all that it can to build a consensus against an extreme Brexit outside the single market, which would have potentially catastrophic consequences for jobs, investment and our living standards," she said.

Ms Sturgeon added that the work of her government wasn't about holding separate Scottish negotiations, but rather about trying to have an impact on the UK's negotiations.
The scene where police are investigating the discovery of a man's body in the Shaws Bridge area of South Belfast on Friday afternoon. Picture by Matt Mackey / presseye.com

Police are investigating the discovery of a man's body in the Shaw's Bridge area of south Belfast.

The PSNI have appealed for the help of the public in identifying the man's body which was discovered earlier this afternoon.

It is believed that the man may have gone missing within the last 24 to 48 hours, and people are asked to think about family members, friends and neighbours that they may not have heard from or seen, and to check in with them.

Speaking about the discovery, Sergeant White said: We think this gentleman is from the local area and may have walked to Shaws Bridge.

He is in his late 50s, of average build, 5 8 in height, clean-shaven with short greying hair. He was wearing navy jeans, a long-sleeved, dark grey top and size 10 grey and navy trainers. He also has a bandage on his left, upper arm  which could be for a muscle injury."

The only personal item police found on the man was his house key.

A post-mortem is due to be carried out but the death is not being treated as suspicious at this time.

Anyone with information that could lead to his identification has been asked to contact police on the non-emergency number 101 quoting reference number 522 of 14/7/17.
More than 5,000 people were prosecuted in Northern Ireland last year for not paying a TV licence.

On average 19 evaders are taken to court here every working day, new figures show.

Dodging the 145.50 TV licence fee is a criminal offence and can mean a fine of up to 1,000.

The BBC, which uses licence fee revenue to pay for its radio, television and internet services, contracts a body called TV Licensing to administer the system and bring prosecutions.

Court statistics show 5,017 people were prosecuted here in 2016 - but 1,373 (27%) of these were thrown out.

Women are far more likely to end up in court than men, analysis of the figures shows.

Anti-TV licence campaigner Caroline Levesque-Bartlett accused the BBC of extortion in its pursuit of licence fee dodgers.

"The way TV Licensing has been allowed, unchallenged for the last 71 years, to ask every household who watches live TV to pay for a TV licence, which only funds the BBC, is nothing short of daylight robbery," she said.

"The BBC wants all the privileges of the private company with the benefits of State funding.

"Taking money with the threat of criminal punishment for something you don't want is extortion."

Across the UK some 184,595 people were charged with TV licensing offences in 2016.

In Northern Ireland the number totalled 5,017 - 19 a day based on the five-day working week.

Women accounted for almost three-quarters (72.9%) of the total here.

Some 1,373 prosecutions taken here - more than a quarter - were unsuccessful.

A breakdown of the figures by court division shows Belfast top with 1,512 prosecutions, followed by Londonderry (557).

Next comes Newtownards (395), followed by Lisburn (308) and Newry (273).

Ms Levesque-Bartlett obtained the figures through a series of Freedom of Information requests. She added: "People have been saying the BBC needs to find new ways to fund itself since the 1980s.

"What are we waiting for? The BBC will never give up its ways."

Ms Levesque-Bartlett has created a petition - 'End the BBC Licence Fee' - which has so far been signed by over 225,000 people.

TV Licensing said: "We would always prefer people buy a licence rather than be prosecuted.

"Official statistics refer to 'prosecutions' where cases have been registered at court but the vast majority of first time offenders are not prosecuted, and have their cases withdrawn by TV Licensing, if they buy a licence before a case comes to court.

"TV Licensing cases which are heard in court have high levels of convictions. Evasion is unfair to the majority who pay their licence.

"An independent review of licence fee enforcement said the TV Licensing system is broadly fair and proportionate and found no evidence to suggest enforcement is unfairly targeted at women."

In March 2016 this newspaper reported how 3,500 letters were sent out every working day to Northern Ireland homes threatening them with 1,000 fines unless they bought a TV licence.

Around 2.3 million letters demanding payment were posted in three years.

The mass mail-outs cost the BBC almost 500,000.

This newspaper has also disclosed how relatives of recently deceased pensioners who received a free licence were warned they may be visited by inspectors if they did not respond.

In the 12 months to last April, some 6,093 'deceased residents mailings' were issued - 23 every working day.

Over the last five years, the total topped 28,300.
Tributes have been paid to a 29-year-old Belfast man who died just five weeks after being diagnosed with cancer.

Aaron O'Neill passed away on Monday in the Somerton Road hospice in north Belfast. His brother-in-law Jim Forbes paid tribute to him calling him "the nicest guy you could ever meet".

He said Aaron had felt unwell since February but his stomach pains worsened five weeks ago.

Mr Forbes told the Irish News: "Within 48 hours they told him it was cancer and there was nothing they could do.

"He coped with his illness very well and was talking away right up until the end. He mother was by his bedside, she moved slightly and in that moment he just slipped away. He was born at 5.45am on a Monday and died at 5.45pm on a Monday."

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The young man was an employee of Yellowmoon production company in Holywood. The sound dubbing mixer worked on TV projects including The Fall, Line of Duty and Game of Thrones.

UTV journalist Mark McFadden worked alongside with him.

Taking to Twitter after requiem mass to celebrate his life, the broadcaster described him as being a "privilege to work with".

"Said farewell today to a wonderful human being: Aaron O'Neill. Talented, stylish, funny, kind. A joy to work with, a privilege to know."

He added: "I had the privilege of working with Aaron on several projects. Superb, professional, charming, big-hearted."

Paying tribute Yellowmoon said it was with "great sadness" they mourn the loss of their friend and colleague.

He joined the company in 2012 as a sound assistant after completing a masters degree in Sonic Arts. He was then promoted to Dubbing Mixer and began work on documentary drama and feature films.

In a statement Yellowmoon said: "His warmth, humour, generosity and professionalism made him a favourite with clients and co-workers alike. His easy going nature, always a calming force in the dubbing suite, in times of stress and pressure. He loved cars, clothes and terrible movies.

"He would often profess Noel Gallagher a poet and Michael Bay a visionary genius, all whilst sipping on a Strawberry Daiquiri. His laugh was infectious, his smile always there. He was part of the Yellowmoon family, one of us. Taken too soon. Always missed. May he rest in peace. May the force be with him always."

Yellowmoon founder Greg Darby said: "He had had an instinct for working in sound - and his attention to detail was legendary. In my 25 years of running a production company I have never met a talent like him.

"He was incredibly quick-witted and had a very sharp mind, he could have done anything he wanted to do. He was also a tremendous musician and played the piano. He was an inspiration."
Police said that five linked acid attacks by men on mopeds in London have left several people injured (Sarah Cobbold via AP)

Gang members see acid attacks as a safer form of crime, a campaigner has said, as he called for its possession to be criminalised.

Jaf Shah said carrying the corrosive liquid should carry the same penalty as possessing a knife to help tackle an explosion of attacks in the UK.

The executive director of the Acid Survivors Trust International charity also called on the Government to regulate the sale of concentrated acid.

The measures could include an age restriction or ban on cash sales of the fluid, which can be bought in DIY shops or hardware stores for as little as 7 or 8 a litre.

Speaking after two males on a moped carried out five acid attacks across London in less than 90 minutes, Mr Shah said the number of such incidents recorded in the UK has effectively doubled in the last three years.

In terms of attacks we are seeing a substantial increase, he told the Press Association.

Its not new, it has been happening for over 200 years, and has often been linked to gang-related violence.

But we have seen an explosion in the number of incidents over the last couple of years.

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Mr Shah explained that the reasons behind the spike are complicated, but suggested the clampdown on guns and knives has seen criminals turn to acid as a weapon of choice.

In a way, its almost like a safer crime to commit, especially for gang members perhaps lower down the hierarchy, he said.

There is currently no specific offence for carrying concentrated acid, and he said it should be brought into line with knife crime.

Mr Shah called on the Government to introduce a licensing system, requiring registration with the Home office for the legitimate purchase of concentrated acid, which is used in agriculture, as well as the jewellery and clothing industries.

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He also suggested banning cash sales and introducing an age restriction.

Globally, most acid attack victims are women and girls but in the UK men are more likely to be targets, with recorded numbers in Britain now higher than countries such as Colombia, India and Pakistan.

The UK now has one of the highest numbers of recorded incidents in the world, said Mr Shah,

He said better data collection by police and hospitals would help to identify the causes of the worrying trend while better education is needed to address its underlying causes.
The move will help maintain RAF aircraft such as the Hecules C130J (Andrew Milligan)

A 120 million investment in UK air power will ensure the Armed Forces have the best equipment and training available to keep the country safe, the Defence Secretary has said.

Announcing two new contracts, Sir Michael Fallon said the deals would sustain British jobs and improve training for fast jet pilots.

A deal worth 110 million has been struck with Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group for work on the Hercules C-130J aircraft to ensure it can continue supporting British forces around the world.

The work will extend the aircrafts out-of-service date to 2035 and sustain 330 jobs in Cambridge.

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A 9.5 million contract was also signed with defence technology company QinetiQ to provide Typhoon pilots with the latest cockpit technology to prepare them for front line combat, the Ministry of Defence said.

The technical update will enable crews based at RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Coningsby to link to the Air Battlespace Training Centre at RAF Waddington to undertake 10 weeks of simulated battle training a year.

Speaking at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, Sir Michael said: These contracts demonstrate our commitment to supporting the UKs air power, through maintaining battle proven aircraft and training the next generation of fast jet pilots.

This substantial investment will ensure our Air Force can continue to perform at its very best. Backed by our rising defence budget and 178 billion equipment plan, these contracts will sustain high skilled jobs in Britain and ensure that our Armed Forces have the best equipment and training available to keep the UK safe.
Kate in a less revealing outfit at the Natural History Museum last night

It's the dress that sparked a right royal debate - but the Duchess of Cambridge's decision to take the plunge with a stunning Marchesa gown has got the thumbs-up from Northern Ireland fashionistas.

The Duchess stirred debate when she stepped out on Wednesday night in one of her riskiest outfits to date.

The usually conservative but stylishly-dressed royal attended a state banquet, which was held in honour of the King and Queen of Spain, in a low cut number.

Kate donned a dusty pink/lilac full-length gown, sporting a deep-plunging neckline, created by British-founded brand Marchesa.

Although the dress was balanced out with sheer, long-sleeved lace, incorporating the typical style and sophistication that we have come to associate with the Duchess, Kate once again made a statement with her wardrobe.

Reactions were mixed, with some considering it a fashion faux pas for the future queen.

One Twitter user remarked: "It looks like someone else dressed her - not her style at all."

The outfit was complemented by the Queen's diamond and ruby encrusted Bandeau necklace, which was matched with pearl drop earrings and Princess Diana's tiara, prompting another to tweet: "This opulence in times of austerity is reminiscent of pre-revolutionary France. Anachronistic. Obscene."

However, the dress was given the seal of approval by Belfast's own fashionistas.

Maureen Martin, owner of Martin Model Management, has 35 years' worth of experience in the fashion industry.

She said: "Kate was lovely, I think that she looked fabulous in the dress, the neckline was great on her."

Commenting on the big debate on just how low a royal's neckline should go, Maureen added: "After all, Diana wore a revealing dress to one of her first dinners with Charles.

"How low really depends, but it worked for Kate."

Patricia Grogan, who is managing director of The Cut women's tailoring in Belfast, said: "A low neckline depends on the person who is wearing it. If the bust is too big or too mature it can look vulgar.

She added: "I think Kate is a young woman in great shape. Her dress is racy for a royal, but why not? Modest or modern? Give me modern any day."

Amid the praise from some online, one common theme was that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are renowned for bringing the royals into the 21st century, leading some to question why Kate shouldn't dress like a 21st century woman?

Northern Irish Style blogger Louise Vance said: "My personal opinion is that it was a beautiful gown fit, for a modern princess.

"Yes, it was low, but it was still tastefully designed and appropriate for her age.

"Kate is a modern princess and she should reflect a modern woman, and should be allowed to push boundaries."

Louise added: "At the end of the day, it is down to individual body shape.

"There was nothing vulgar about Kate's cleavage in that dress.

"I know that Kate is a princess and people look up to her, but we have to trust the royals as public figures, to know what kind of image they want to put out there.

"I think that Kate is getting an unfair backlash for a dress which she absolutely rocked."

Kate is not the first royal who has dared to bare some flesh.

Back in 1981, a then 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer wore a plunging black taffeta gown to her first official royal engagement with her fiance Prince Charles.

The gown earned the late princess the nickname Daring Di, promoting her as a royal revolution and she went on to win the hearts of the nation.

According to the fashionistas of Belfast, as long as the neckline is tasteful, and nothing vulgar is on display, then a plunging neckline is more than welcome on modern royals. Katherine Farries is a personal stylist at Victoria Square who has worked on film productions in Northern Ireland.

She said: "I thought that it was very classy and very elegant - had it been strapless, backless and with a slit up the front, then maybe it would have been inappropriate.

"Kate is a fashion icon, a modern woman and a lot of people look up to her; she's also young, and it is important for her to dress her age, and keep up with trends."

"Kate wasn't vulgarly displaying her chest.

"As long as everything else is covered up, I don't see the problem with a low cut dress."
Donald Trump has given some intriguing insights into what he believes the much-anticipated but highly controversial border wall between the US and Mexico could look like.

Trump revealed much of the information in comments made on his flight to Paris to visit French President Emmanuel Macron.

The White House had originally said his comments were off the record, but it later reversed that decision  and so heres what the wall might look like.

It will cover less than half the border

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Although the border between the two countries stretches roughly 2,000 miles, Trump told reporters on Air Force One the US only needs anywhere from 700 to 900 miles of wall.

He said this is due to the presence of natural barriers such as mountains and rivers, like the Rio Grande bordering Texas or the Colorado River on the border of Arizona.

He described the rivers as violent and vicious, although parts of the river in Texas are little more than a trickle of water.

Trumps comments on the size of the wall have been met with some scorn.

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Trump also claimed some areas are so far away that you dont really have people crossing.

There are currently about 650 miles of fencing along the border, so the wall may not be as significant an increase in the length of the border barriers as previously thought.

It might be transparent

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You have to be able to see through it, Trump said.

The reason offered? To avoid border agents being hit by sacks of drugs or other contraband thrown from the other side.

As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you dont see them, Trump said. They hit you on the head with 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of stuff? Its over.

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Drug smugglers have in the past tried to hurl bundles over parts of the border fence using sling shots and catapults.

However, its not clear if anyone has ever been injured by such tactics.

It could have solar panels

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Trump told a rally in Iowa last month the wall could feature solar panels  allowing it to create energy and pay for itself.

By pay for itself he didnt necessarily mean helping the US, though. He joked it would mean Mexico  which he has repeatedly said will fund the build  will have to pay much less money towards the structure.

The Mexican government has rejected the possibility of paying for the wall.

Trump also claimed the panels would make the wall beautiful, praising himself by saying: Pretty good imagination, right?

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Trumps official visit to France continues. On Thursday night he shared a meal with Mr Macron and his wife Brigitte at the Eiffel Tower. Trump will attend the Bastille Day celebrations as a guest of honour on Friday.
Former Peruvian president Ollanta Humala and his wife were taken into custody after a judge ordered them held during an investigation into money laundering and conspiracy accusations.

Soon after the judge issued his order on Thursday night, Mr Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, were driven to the courthouse under a heavy police escort. There was no immediate word on where they would be held.

Prosecutors filed a petition early in the week asking for preventative detention, arguing the couple might flee Peru to evade justice. Judge Richard Concepcion ordered them held for up to 18 months while they are investigated.

The former president has denied the allegations, which arose from testimony by the former head of Odebrecht saying he illegally contributed three million dollars (2.3 million) to Mr Humala's 2011 presidential campaign.

The couple is also accused of taking undeclared funds from the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez during a previous, unsuccessful presidential bid. Humala, who finished his term in 2016, never declared the contributions and prosecutors argue that he and his wife conspired to hide them for personal gain.

Mr Humala and his wife did not attend the hearing, but he has said he looks forward to defending himself.

As the couple headed to the courthouse, Mr Humala said in a Tweet: "This confirms the abuse of power which we will confront in defence of our rights and those of everyone."

Before the ruling, he said there was no need for detention.

"We're staying here, we've even handed over our passports," Mr Humala told reporters who had been gathered outside his home for three days. "In every moment we've shown our roots and good will. But the prosecutor sees everything we do in the opposite light. I think he's been poisoned."

The same judge previously ordered the arrest of another former Peruvian president, Alejandro Toledo, for related charges. Toledo is in the US fighting attempts by Peruvian authorities to have him deported to answer the charges.

Authorities across Latin America have been moving to charge officials accused of taking some 800 million dollars (618 million) in bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

The company acknowledged the bribes when it signed a plea agreement in December with the US Justice Department.

The bribes include some 29 million dollars (22 million) paid in Peru for projects built during the administrations of Mr Toledo, Mr Humala and former president Alan Garcia.

The same scandal has ensnared former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was convicted on Wednesday and sentenced to almost 10 years in jail for taking gifts from another Brazilian builder that along with Odebrecht paid bribes to politicians in exchange for government contracts.

Mr Silva denies the accusation and will remain free while he appeals what he says are politically motivated charges.

AP
'Beautiful'. It's not the word that most people would immediately link with Belfast. If you took one of those word-association tests, a few other Bs might come to mind, like bleak, barbarous, or bombed. Or even Bigotsborough, as the writer James Douglas famously renamed his native city.

But 'Beautiful', with a big capital B, is the word currently emblazoned on billboards all around the city centre, alongside images of Belfast looking uncharacteristically glossy. One giant advertisement shows a night-shot of the Waterfront Hall, its lights shimmering in the Lagan. Another shows Titanic Belfast looking as exotic as an alien spacecraft, the Harland & Wolff cranes lit up dramatically in the background. A third advert features Queen's University, the red-brick Lanyon building glowing proudly in the sunshine beneath a blue, blue sky.

Tourism bosses must be spending vast amounts of cash in telling us all how sexy, gorgeous and all-round fabulous our capital city is. They're selling a fantasy version of the place, presumably reasoning that if they insist that Belfast is beautiful enough times, then eventually people will believe it. But who are they trying to convince, at such great expense?

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Belfast is in the usual apprehensive state of self-imposed semi-lockdown that routinely occurs in the summer. Flags, of both the Union and paramilitary varieties, flap ominously in the unseasonably chilly breeze. It's strangely easy to get around - traffic is reduced to a light trickle - and there are lots of parking spaces, because so many citizens have escaped to warmer, saner, more enlightened places.

There are plenty of tourists, though. More than ever, according to official statistics. Apparently there were 1.5 million overnight trips in 2016 and hotels sold 991,000 rooms. Cruise liners, those vast white floating palaces, are arriving here in record numbers. You can often spot visitors on Sunday mornings, wandering around the deserted city centre, clutching their maps and wondering where they can get a cappuccino.

What on earth do they make of Belfast in July? Imagine their quite natural confusion and the questions they must be asking

Why are the locals erecting gigantic flaming pyres with obscure, expletive-ridden signs on them about the city council and the BBC? Why is a lisping loyalist, who seems to be the self-appointed king of the bonfires, continually on the radio talking about the right to burn stuff? And how does setting fire to things in a council car park suddenly turn it into a "cultural expression area"?

Belfast is a weird, complicated, contested place, and the atmosphere in July - thick with toxic smoke from burning tyres - underscores that uncomfortable fact. It is pointless for tourism chiefs to try and promote it as an idyllic, shimmering destination, or even a capital city like any other, when it is so manifestly the opposite of that.

But neither am I arguing Belfast is a hopeless dump that should be avoided by anyone with a titter of wit. This is no hatchet-job on my native city.

No matter how many trendy coffee shops there are, with staff talking in mid-Atlantic accents and taking orders on iPads rather than notepads, no matter how many fine restaurants where you can nibble on courgette flowers or summer truffles (yum), or bars with numerous varieties of bespoke gin, Belfast will always be its cantankerous and cussed, colourful and contradictory self, where nothing is ever as it initially seems.

And that is why, despite everything, I love the awful place.

I know I'm not the only one. My son has spent the last four years doing an undergraduate degree in Dublin, but in September he's coming home. Why? Well, Dublin is just too normal and civilised, he says. It's true that living in Belfast can give you a taste for crazy.

If I was a visitor arriving here, this is the Belfast I'd want to discover. James Douglas may have called it Bigotsborough, but he also said it was a city with a soul.

"It has the hunger of romance in its heart, for it has lost its own past, and it is groping blindly after its own future," Douglas wrote in 1907, in words that are no less true today. This is who we are: refugees from our hateful history, desperately trying to make sense of our place in the world.

So don't style us as some bland imitation of Leeds or Newcastle or any other provincial city, with all of the strange cracks that make us unique papered over.

Stop pretending we're normal! We're not normal and we're rarely beautiful, and that's what makes this city so endlessly fascinating.
Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 A local Artist records the The 12th of July Parade which takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

An Orangewoman is pictured taking part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Orangemen take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Bands take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Orangewomen take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Orangemen in period costume take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Orangemen take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

A Union flag is seen as Orangemen take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Orangemen take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Bands take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 A local Artist records the The 12th of July Parade which takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Orange Order members march past St Patricks Church in Belfast as part of the 'Twelfth of July' celebrations.

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Orangewomen are pictured taking part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

An woman is pictured as Orangemen take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Orangemen are pictured taking part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 12th july 2017 12th July Orange Order parade takes places in Belfast with lodges from all parts of the city and beyond being led by marching bands from Carlisle Circus in north Belfast to Barnett Demesne in south Belfast. UTV's Paul Clark poses for a pictured on Royal Avenue in Belfast City Centre. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 12th july 2017 12th July Orange Order parade takes places in Belfast with lodges from all parts of the city and beyond being led by marching bands from Carlisle Circus in north Belfast to Barnett Demesne in south Belfast. The parade makes its way through the city centre. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Blake McCord(4) from north Belfast pictured in Royal Avenue in the city centre. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

12th July Orange Order parade takes places in Belfast with lodges from all parts of the city and beyond being led by marching bands from Carlisle Circus in north Belfast to Barnett Demesne in south Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Following what he described as "the most peaceful Twelfth for some years", Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd suggested that this year's Orangefest in Belfast could be a "model for years to come".

The senior PSNI commander would probably baulk from straying into party politics, but it is fair to suggest that the template for inter-communal agreement on display on Orangeism's most sacred day could extend further into the political world.

Because it would seem logical that, if nationalist residents' groups heavily influenced by Sinn Fein, and loyal orders increasingly dominated by the DUP, can reach compromise even over the most contentious parade routes in Northern Ireland, then the two big parties may still find a solution of their own to unlock the deadlock at the Stormont Assembly.

There was, of course, the usual, predictable blood-and-thunder ire directed at Sinn Fein from some of the platforms around the various fields at Twelfth demonstrations.

Harold Henning, the deputy grand master of the Orange Order, speaking at the main demonstration in Co Down, accused republicans of turning off the unionist population from Irish because they had politicised it.

Gerry Adams' party, of course, wants an Act that will only deal with the rights of Irish language speakers in the region.

It would effectively make Irish equal to English in law and possibly require compulsory translations in Government department documents, the health service and legal services.

The Orange Order's stated opposition at the climax of the Ulster marching season certainly underlined the problems the DUP will face if it agrees to Sinn Fein's demands for such an Act.

On one level, it illustrated the grassroots unionist opposition the DUP could encounter over the Act when negotiations to restore power-sharing restart in the autumn.

Mr Henning told Orangemen: "Republicans have driven more people away from ever cultivating a genuine interest in Irish language than they will ever attract to it through their current radical proposals.

"The current demand for an Irish Language Act is simply the next chapter in the republican campaign to rid Northern Ireland of any semblance of British cultural identity."

But note the first sentence here and the line about "cultivating a genuine interest in the Irish language".

It seems to suggest a softer approach to the Irish language and hints that unionists - even Orangemen - would be interested in Gaelic if only the whole issue was decommissioned as a political weapon.

This is not to suggest in any way, though, that Mr Henning was preparing the ground for a more general effusive approach from the unionist community towards Irish as a means to aid the DUP to cede some ground in the talks.

Yet what it does indicate is that the DUP might have some wriggle room for compromise when the negotiations restart once the politicians come back from their holidays.

On Belfast's Crumlin Road, meanwhile, Gerry Kelly looked like a relieved man compared to last year when knots of republican dissidents were baying for his blood over the 2016 compromise deal that one Ardoyne residents' group had worked out with the loyal orders.

This year there was hardly a dissident to be seen and Kelly - emboldened by two successive strong party electoral performances in March and then June - was confident to describe the Twelfth as a "good day", which augured well for the future.

Kelly stressed that the Ardoyne/Crumlin Road model could also be a template to improve community relations, stressing that it was more important for people to come together than politicians.

However, he will know as much as anyone that, where the people go, eventually the politicians must follow.

The "people" - in Kelly's case, the nationalist electorate and general northern Catholic population - were war-weary and turned off by the IRA's violence as the last decade of the 20th century approached.

The Sinn Fein leadership finally responded, the ceasefires were put in place, the compromises of Good Friday 1998 were reached, and the party was richly awarded at the ballot box.

The "people" on either side of the line, it is fair to say, by a large majority, are probably hugely grateful that this was the most peaceful, trouble-free Twelfth maybe for decades.

If the mood out there in terms of the parading issue is for compromise and agreement, then the argument goes that the same will be true for the politics of Stormont.

Of course, there are trip-wires all over the political landscape that could set off explosive rows between the two main parties over the summer.

One constitutional expert on the Good Friday Agreement, ex-UUP leader David Trimble's former legal adviser Dr Austen Morgan, warned in The Guardian that a stand-alone Irish Language Act could be subjected to a serious court challenge.

Ironically, Morgan contended any legal case against the Act would be on the basis that it breaches equality clauses contained within the Belfast Agreement.

Some in the DUP, especially those 'baby barristers' who used to be such thorns in Trimble's side, would be aware of such a possibility and worry if some hardliner might pick up that challenge in the event of a DUP concession on an Irish Language Act.

There are, however, other considerations that must loom large in the minds of political leaders over the summer as they think about the fresh round of talks ahead - such as who is going to control the doling-out of the 1bn-plus aid package that the DUP secured from the Tories to keep Theresa May resident in Downing Street?

Would they not want some of this extra expenditure directed into devolved departments that they could control - if and when the Executive was re-established?

Even while the last round of talks was breaking up in apparent acrimony, there were signals coming out of Sinn Fein that the party was prepared to be more flexible in order to re-establish Stormont.

At a united Ireland conference in Belfast recently, Adams had a new line that was later parroted by other party representatives.

The road to Irish unity would go through Stormont, he told the faithful, because Sinn Fein could demonstrate through good governance to unionists that they would be better off decoupled from Westminster.

Some in the local commentariat have claimed that Sinn Fein's grassroots 'pitchforked' the party leadership into taking a harder line with the DUP, forcing it to eject from the Executive and adopt an increasingly muscular approach to unionism.

This is to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the republican movement - especially the fact that the party is directed on a top-down basis.

Just think, too, about those debates in the early years of the century over policing and that Sinn Fein conference at the Europa Hotel.

There it was mooted that the party should embrace a reformed police force and justice system as the price for entering power-sharing government with unionists.

"No way, Jose," one female delegated shouted from the floor, drawing some applause from those around her.

Yet, look what happened just a few years after that defiant cry from one of the grassroots - Sinn Fein signed up to back the PSNI and the legal system within the very state that the IRA had sought to destroy.

We are currently hearing some similar defiant misgivings about dealing with the DUP.

But you can forgive yourself for being cynical about all of that.

The Sinn Fein leadership - the most important of all the forces within mainstream republicanism - will lead the way in the new talks and won't be 'pitchforked' into anything except a deal with the DUP that puts its ministers' hands on the levers of local power once again.

As Vera Lynn once sang in comforting lyrics about blue birds over the White Cliffs of Dover: "Just you wait and see."

Henry McDonald's debut novel, The Swinging Detective, has just been published by Gibson Square
Journalists form a human chain during a protest in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka, demanding the release of reporter Golam Mostaba Dhruba, who was arrested under article 57 of the Information and Communications Technology Act, June 15, 2017.

Bangladeshi journalists say they are facing an increasingly hostile environment, pointing to at least 25 colleagues who have been arrested this year under a broad provision of the countrys information law that bans content harming the image of the state or religious sentiment.

Journalists, university professors and students demonstrated in the capital Dhaka in recent days calling for Article 57 of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Act to be revoked. The government of the ruling Awami League is using the clause to harass members of the press, they say.

The law criminalizes online expression and revelations that may tarnish the image of the state or an individual, or hurt anybodys religious sentiment or belief. Section 57 of this law is broad in interpretation, creating the scope for its misuse against any journalist, Omar Faruque, secretary general of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, told BenarNews.

The article stipulates punishments of seven to 14 years in prison, and fines of up to 10 million taka (U.S. $123,000), for any person convicted of publishing content deemed as eroding law and order, prejudicing the image of the state or a person, or harming religious beliefs.

This law is against the norms of freedom of expression and should be repealed immediately, Faruque said, adding that questionable editorial content should be investigated by the nations Press Council, not in court.

According to the information we gathered from published reports in media, charges have been brought against at least 25 journalists in the last six months, in different places, under this article, he said.

Not made for journalists

In comments to parliament this week, Bangladeshs information minister denied that the government was targeting journalists under the ICT law.

This law was not made for journalists. It was formulated for digital security and the security of citizens, Minister Hasanul Haq Inu told lawmakers, according to the states news service, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS).

The minister noted that more than 2,800 newspapers and more than 1,800 online news portals were operating freely in Bangladesh at this time.

Only an ignorable number of journalists have been arrested under the article 57 of this law compared with the total number of journalists in the country, the minister said, adding, I dont think this is an anti-human rights law.

Journalists picked up

In recent weeks, however, some local journalists have been arrested and charged under article 57, according to the Federal Union of Journalists.

On July 9, Mohammad Shahjahan, a correspondent in Chandpur district for Prothom Alo, Bangladeshs biggest newspaper, was charged under the article, after publishing a news report that raised questions about the selection of people in the area honored as freedom fighters, who are entitled to receiving money from the government because of their wartime service.

The report alleged that a local MP influenced the selection process in his constituency by excluding his opponents from the list of eligible people. The criminal defamation complaint against Shahjahan under article 57 was brought by supporters of the parliamentarian in question, Rafuqul Islam.

On July 11, Ajmal Haq Helal, a reporter for the daily Shokaler Khobor, posted bail following his arrest during the previous week over his alleged Facebook posting of a news link related to another MP, Rustom Ali Faraji.

Other cases under the ICT Act have been filed over the past several weeks against more journalists including Taufiqul Islam, a senior reporter at the Chittagong bureau of the Daily Samakal; Nazmul Hossain, a journalist with Jamuna Television; Golam Mostaba Dhruba of bdnews24; and Shamsul Alam Swapan, editor of the Bijoy News24.com.

However, A.K.M. Shahidul Haq, the inspector general of Bangladeshi police, told BenarNews that instructions have been issued to police to not to harass journalists unnecessarily, and to investigate these cases very carefully.

Movement to repeal law

The ICT law was enacted in 2006. The first arrests under it were made in April 2013, when four secular bloggers were charged with harming religious sentiment in the predominantly Muslim country, where writers, publishers and intellectuals have also been targeted for murder by Islamic extremists during the past few years.

In 2015, journalist Prabir Sikdar became the first member of the press to be arrested under the law. Bangladeshs government is moving to replace it with an even tougher digital security and anti-cyber crimes bill.

We have had objections against this article 57 from the beginning, and we are demanding the cancellation of this law, Saiful Islam, the senior vice president of the National Press Club and editor of Jugantar, a local daily, told BenarNews, referring to the ICT Act.
Commuters face traffic congestion on Gatot Subroto Street, one of the main thoroughfares in Jakarta, July 11, 2017.

Palangkaraya, by any standards, is not well-known outside Indonesia.

But the city on the island of Borneo is quickly becoming a newsmaker after experts started debating the concept of relocating the nations capital following a government officials statement that President Joko Jokowi Widodo ordered a feasibility study.

Bambang Brodjonegoro, chief of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), told journalists in Jakarta on Tuesday that he had been instructed by the president to conduct a study regarding moving the capital from Jakarta.

Brodjonegoro declined to elaborate but said the president cited a number of reasons for considering the move, including issues related to infrastructure, flooding and congestion.

As the controversy about the possible move swirled in Jakarta, Widodo skirted issuing a direct statement confirming his plans.

I will explain it when the time comes, the Jakarta-based Republika website quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

But on Thursday Widodo broke his silence by issuing a Twitter message.

Discourses about the relocation of the state capital are now still in the analysis phase, Widodo said. Deep calculations are necessary so as to guarantee that the relocation will be really beneficial.

While officials have not confirmed the location of the possible new political and administrative hub, government sources told BenarNews that Palangkaraya, the capital city of Central Kalimantan province in Borneo, would be the top candidate.

None has confirmed Palangkaraya. There are some candidates, Brodjonegoro told BenarNews. Right now our team still analyses the criteria of the area and the land availability.

He said the feasibility study, including budget estimates, is targeted for completion by the end of this year.

Palangkaraya has a population of about 240,000, according to a 2014 census.

It is in Kalimantan, the largest island in Indonesia and since the 1950s government officials have been eyeing it as a frontrunner to become Indonesias future capital, a potential replacement to the congested and flood-prone Jakarta, home to about 30 million people.

Former President Sukarno started the initiative to sever links with Indonesias colonial past by potentially moving the capital out of Jakarta, which was known as Batavia during Dutch rule.

Moving toward debate

But even at the early stage of conducting feasibility studies, the plan has been flooded with opponents.

Nirwono Joga, an observer of city planning with the Jakarta-based Trisakti University, said the relocation would be unnecessary.

It needs a lot of money, he told BenarNews.

Even if the government really has a big budget, it is better to use it for the improvement of Jakarta and the development of other areas to support Jakarta, he said.

Instead of relocating the capital, Joga suggested the government spread out the administrative and business burden borne by Jakarta.

For example, he said, Bandung in West Java can be converted into a technology center, Yogyakarta, can become the center of arts and culture and Surabaya can be transformed into a maritime hub.

That makes more sense, Joga said.

But other analysts offered diverging opinions.

Kalimantan is a right place, said Krishna Nur Pribadi, a city planning analyst from Bandung Institute of Technology.

During a phone interview with BenarNews, Nur Pribadi mentioned the vastness of land available in the island.

With an area of 544,140 sq km (210,093 sq miles) of Indonesias 699,450 square-mile land, Kalimantan is populated by only 14 million people.

He cautioned that Palangkaraya has only 50 sq km developed land of its total area of 2,400 sq km.

He said the government must ensure the relocation would not crash the central governments annual budget, which is expected to encounter a shortfall of about $25 billion this year.

Fadli Zon, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, opposes the relocation idea, according to Kompas.com.

Many infrastructure projects are in risk of being unfinished because of financial difficulties, so concentrate on that first, no need to think about relocating the capital, he said.

But Brodjonegoro said his agency would approach the private sector if the state budget could not support the project.

We are studying it intensively, he said. The burden for Jakarta is already too heavy, not only as a states capital, but also as the center of industry and business services.

The 2016 Jakarta Transportation Board estimated $11.2 billion per year is lost because of traffic congestion in Jakarta.

Confusion

Talk about possible relocation also delivered confusion among Jakarta residents.

So how would my family be? 31-year-old Kiki Sofia told BenarNews on Tuesday.

Sofia, a Ministry of Public Works employee in South Jakarta, owns a house in the suburb of Bekasi, while her husband works for a private company in the capital.

If my office moves, I also have to move, right? she said.

Boy Eka, 31, another government worker, also expressed concern.

I dont know. Lets see, he said.
A Telegram user opens the app of the popular messaging service on his smartphone in Jakarta, July 14, 2017.

Updated at 4:54 p.m. ET on 2017-08-01

Indonesia on Friday blocked the popular encrypted messaging service Telegram, citing concerns that terrorists were using it to spread radical propaganda.

Indonesias Ministry of Communications and Informatics had requested the Internet Service Provider to block 11 domain names used by Telegram after collecting evidence that many channels on the messaging app had been promoting extremist ideologies, said Semuel A. Pangerapan, the ministrys director-general.

Terrorist groups, he said, use Telegram to teach how to assemble bombs, carry out attacks and distribute disturbing images and radical ideas that conflict with Indonesian laws.

This step is taken in an effort to maintain the unity of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, he said in a statement.

Telegram, which had more than 100 million monthly active users last year, is known to be popular among Islamic State (IS) sympathizers, officials said. The Indonesian government also says it has been grappling with a threat from IS using social media to recruit local youths for its violent cause.

The app allows users to send end-to-end encrypted messages, images and videos to thousands of members belonging to one group.

Telegram could not be immediately reached for comment.

As a result of the blocking of domain names, Indonesian users were unable to access the website version of the application on Friday, but the app could still be accessed on smartphones and other portable gadgets.

We burn the barn

The decision to block the application was criticized by journalists and human rights activists, who said the decision might have been hastily implemented to counter radicalism without addressing the root of the problem.

The government should take initial steps before coming up with a drastic decision, especially when dealing with an application considered very useful by many users, social-media activist Enda Nasution said.

There should be a notification to the users and application providers, he told BenarNews. The blocking should be the last step if the warning and other steps have been taken.

Even if Telegram was an app of choice for terrorists, the government should also take advantage of the high-tech platform to spread anti-extremist information, Nasution said.

Intelligence officials can infiltrate the suspicious Telegram groups, he added.

It will make it easier to know their plans, not by blocking it like this, he said.

To counter the spread of radical content, Nasution said, the government can take other steps, including disseminating anti-radical videos on social media, instead of closing down the app.

Blocking Telegram spotlights the governments laziness in containing the spread of radical content, said Iman Nugroho, division head of Indonesias Alliance of Independent Journalists.

It's like trying to kill a rat that ate rice in our barn. We burn the barn, Nugroho told BenarNews.

This is a lazy move, when actually public gets much benefit from this application, he said, emphasizing that millions of Indonesians were active on social media.

Jokowi and his son also use social media, he said, referring to Joko Widodo, the Indonesian president. He even has created a blog video account on YouTube which is disseminated to other social media. So I think blocking is a very lazy act and does not solve the problem."

In June last year, Indonesia rejected a call by a Muslim intellectual to block Google and YouTube within the country due to content perceived as pornographic and violent.

Failure in understanding problems

Ridlwan Habib, a University of Indonesia researcher on terrorism issues, said the Islamic State (IS) could use other high-tech platforms that also offer end-to-end encryption from sender to recipient, which means that even the companies providing the service could not track down their messages.

ISIS has many ways to communicate, through WA (WhatsApp), Line, and other social media applications, Habib said, using the other name of IS. If those apps are blocked, intelligence monitoring would be much more difficult, he told BenarNews.

Intelligence officials in several countries, including in Britain and Australia, have complained that many popular apps have been providing militants a secure way to exchange messages.

Habib, who is also a director at the Jakarta-based think tank Indonesia Terrorism Monitoring, said the minister of information might have been misinformed.

The public might become angry at the government, a condition that would be beneficial for extremists, he said.

Blocking Telegram will not affect IS, Habib said.

They will definitely find a new way, he said.

This update clarifies information in the headline to indicate that the government only blocked Telegram channels.
Flanked by a soldier, a businessman enters his store in Sarimanok district, Marawi City, for the first time since residents fled after fighting broke out, June 30, 2017.

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in favor of President Rodrigo Dutertes declaration of martial law for the southern Philippine island of Mindanao to quell what he called a rebellion by militants linked to the Islamic State.

Eleven justices voted in favor of Proclamation 216, three agreed but said martial law should be confined in the southern city of Marawi where the gunmen have dug in and one disagreed, the court said.

Duterte declared martial law on May 23, giving the military widespread powers, including carrying out warrantless arrests, to defeat Abu Sayyaf Group and Maute gunmen who had laid siege in Marawi backed by foreign fighters. The predominantly Muslim city in the south has been emptied of its 200,000 residents since fighting began six weeks ago.

The edict gave the military police powers in the entire southern region of Mindanao, a development that had alarmed rights activists.

Solicitor General Jose Calida, who argued the governments case at the court, called the ruling a monumental decision.

As the conscience of our nation, the Supreme Court did not sit idly to watch our country get dismembered, he said. In fact, this decision shows the honorable Supreme Court is one with the president in protecting and defending our countrys sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Duterte spokesman Ernesto Abella said the ruling shows the entire government, including the judiciary, now stands together as one against a common enemy.

We ask the public to give their full support and cooperation to local authorities. After all, securing communities is a responsibility that must be shared by everyone, Abella said.

Comparison to Marcos

The ruling puts to rest dissents to the declaration of martial law, including activists and Duterte opponents who claim that 74-year-old leader was preparing to expand coverage beyond Mindanao.

They claimed it was a throwback to the late dictator Ferdinand Marcoss regime, which put the entire country under martial law, leading to widespread abuses, including the killing of thousands of activists during his term. A people power revolution toppled his two-decade rule, sending him into exile to Hawaii in 1986, where he died three years later.

Richard Javad Heydarian, a political science professor at the De La Salle University in Manila, said in the wake of the Marawi attacks, Dutertes defense and military officials succeeded in convincing the high court that martial law was necessary.

The high court was also obviously squeezed in between the two larger and directly elected branches of the government, which openly threatened to ignore any unfavorable ruling, he said. Clearly, the Supreme Court is making decisions not irrespective of broader political atmosphere.

Warning to political opposition

Duterte on Monday rallied the troops fighting in Marawi and thanked them for their relentless effort against the terrorists.

He vowed to remain steadfast and alert as martial law in Mindanao will remain in effect to counter the persistent threat of terrorism and insurgency.

Duterte threatened to arrest any of the high courts 15 justices if they voted against his martial law, and some pundits said that may have factored in Tuesdays voting.

Officials said intense clashes have so far left 85 troops, 39 civilians and 337 gunmen dead, with no immediate end in sight.

Foreign fighters

Lt. Col. Jo-Ar Herrera, military spokesman in Marawi, on Tuesday said troops had recovered the remains of a foreign militant.

A cadaver of a foreign looking individual was also recovered by troops. It is believed that it is one of the reported foreign fighters from Singapore. A total of 11 suspected foreign fighters have been reportedly killed so far, he said.

Among those killed, according to earlier reports, were a Malaysian, two Saudis, two Indonesians, a Yemeni, a Chechen and two other Middle Eastern-looking men.

Herrera said troops have taken control of Marawis Dansalan College, a key accomplishment. The school was host to some high rise structures that served as machine gun nest and snipers vantage positions for the gunmen.

Military officials said about 300 to 500 civilians remain trapped in Marawis highly urbanized commercial district, where the militants are believed holding out.
A Philippine army sniper looks for a target through a hole in a wall somewhere in the southern city of Marawi.

The Philippines will not negotiate with terrorists, a government spokesman said Thursday in denying a report that President Rodrigo Duterte had initially sought a meeting with leaders of an Islamic State-linked group after it occupied the southern city of Marawi.

Agakhan Sharief, a colorful local Muslim leader, was quoted in a report by Reuters on Wednesday as saying that a senior Duterte aide had asked him to use his extensive connections with leaders of the Maute group to open back-channel talks aimed at solving the crisis, which began on May 23.

Let me be clear that the position of the Palace and the President is not to negotiate with terrorists, including these local terrorist groups, which had intended to establish a state within the Philippine state and to remove allegiance to the government of the Philippines and the Chief Executive of the City of Marawi and its residents, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told a press briefing in Manila on Thursday.

During the early days of the siege, according to the report, Duterte wanted to speak with Omarkhayam and Abdullah Maute, two brothers who have backed up Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon in the siege that has now gone on for more than six weeks.

Hapilon is the acknowledged leader of the IS in the country and, apart from the Maute fighters, he is known to have received backing from several Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern fighters.

In late May, however, Duterte declared publicly that he would not sit down with terrorists.

On Thursday, Abella denied the claim made by Sharief, saying we have no verified reports that there were efforts to initiate such actions as Agakhan Sharief claims.

MILF fatwa

Responding to a reporters question about what may have motivated Sharief to make such a claim, Abella said, We dont have any opinions on his intentions or what he intended to do.

What we do stand on is that, as far as verifiable reports, there are none that we can state, he said of Sharief, a respected local Muslim leader known widely as Bin Laden because of his physical similarities to the late leader of al-Qaeda.

The Marawi attack constitutes rebellion, Abella added, saying Maute group and Abu Sayyaf fighters espoused a dangerous ideology that had been rejected by most Muslims in the south, including a former rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The 10,000-strong MILF, which ended its insurgency in 2014 in favor of limited autonomy in the south, has rejected violence instigated by Maute and Abu Sayyaf fighters in Marawi. MILF leaders have issued a fatwa, or edict, condemning extremism in the region.

MILF declared that fatwa against the entry and spread of violent radicalism or extremism on Mindanao, the island that surrounds Marawi. The fatwa is the strongest condemnation yet against the actions of the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups, whose fighters still hold portions of Marawi city.

During the briefing, Abella reported that the death toll on the rebel side had reached 351, eight more than on Wednesday. There were no changes on the figures for the military and civilian deaths, at 85 and 39, respectively.

A devastated section of Marawi appears in the distance through a broken window, July 5, 2017. [Jeoffrey Maitem/BenarNews]

I will eat your liver

On Wednesday, a faction of Abu Sayyaf beheaded two Vietnamese hostages on the nearby island of Basilan, in a move which, military officials said, may have been meant to distract the troops fighting in Marawi. The two were among six Vietnamese crew members of a cargo vessel abducted by the gunmen off Basilan in November.

One of the six, 28-year-old Hoang Vo, was rescued by the army after troops overran an Abu Sayyaf position in last month. Three other Vietnamese are still in captivity, along with several other foreigners held separately in Basilan and in the jungles of nearby Jolo island.

Late on Wednesday, President Duterte reacted angrily to the beheadings, warning that he could be as brutal as the gunmen.

I will eat your liver if you want me to. Give me salt and vinegar and I will eat it in front of you, Duterte said as he showed the public gruesome images of the beheaded hostages and cursed the militants.

A Philippine soldier walks by a gate in a neighborhood where gunmen had scribbled pro-Islamic State graffiti in the southern city of Marawi, July 5, 2017. [Jeoffrey Maitem/BenarNews]
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (wearing gray baseball cap) visits government troops in the village of Maria Christina in Iligan City, about 29 km (18 miles) north of Marawi city, July 7, 2017.

Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes approval rating has soared a year into his six-year term, despite a controversial war on drugs and a siege by Islamic State-linked fighters in the southern city of Marawi, according to an independent poll published Friday.

The survey by respected pollster Social Weather Stations indicated that the net satisfaction rating for Duterte had reached 78 percent, three points higher than the last survey conducted in March.

Only 12 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied and 10 percent were undecided, according to the poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus three percent. The survey was carried out on June 23-26 via face-to-face interviews with some 1,200 adults nationwide.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the survey was a clear indication of the growing confidence in Duterte, who won the presidency last year by an overwhelming vote on a promise to bring change in the graft-ridden bureaucracy and to control the spread of illegal drugs.

Deadly war on drugs

His drug campaign, however, has left 3,171 addicts and small-time dealers dead. More than 10,000 other deaths are still subject for investigation, including those found with cardboard signs that purported they had been summarily executed by pro-government vigilantes.

Rights groups have also given the Duterte administration a failing grade in its first year in power, after Manila earlier rejected a proposed visit by a U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings.

A former policeman who worked with Dutertes anti-crime unit when he was a longtime mayor in the southern city of Davao and a self-confessed member of his alleged death squad have also filed a complaint against him at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

The survey came a month after Duterte declared martial law for the whole of the southern island of Mindanao to quell a rebellion by Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf and Maute militants, who laid siege to Marawi city with the help of fighters from the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The military has so far failed to dislodge the militants more than six weeks after the fighting began on May 23.

Referring to the declaration of martial law in the south, Abella said the new survey reflected the Philippine publics tacit support for the presidents action following the rebellion in Marawi.

This positive acknowledgement of the Filipino people further motivates the administration to work for the restoration of normalcy in Marawi and to start its rehabilitation, as well as bring a comfortable life for all Filipinos, including Muslim Filipinos, Abella said.

A bag holds the body of a Philippine soldier who was killed in fighting in the southern city of Marawi, July 3, 2017. Richel V. Umel/BenarNews]

Situation in Marawi

On Friday, the military said it was slowly advancing in Marawi but that it had yet to clear about 1,000 buildings and establishments in the citys central business district, where an estimated 80 fighters were still holding out. About 300 civilians are also believed trapped in the intense clashes or are held as hostages by the group, officials said.

The death toll from the battles in Marawi has also risen steadily. Since the start of the clashes, 87 soldiers have died, including two who were slain in firefights Thursday, according to government officials. More than 350 militants and 39 civilians have also been killed.

Intelligence operatives have reported that Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, the acknowledged leader of the Islamic State in the Philippines, and his men appear to be fighting on in Marawi, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said Friday.

He said the military had obtained leads on areas where Hapilon is believed to be hiding, but he could not publicly disclose this information.

As to the death of some of the Maute brothers, there is indication that one has died but until such time that the grave on where he was buried is located, we cannot categorically confirm. But for the others, we believe they are alive, Padilla said. This was an apparent reference to unconfirmed reports that Omarkhayam Maute, one of the militant leaders, had been killed.

Padilla said ground forces estimate that there were about 80 fighters still left in Marawi, whose firepower appears to have weakened.

Asked when the military could finally end the war, Padilla said: It would not be that long anymore because in one area, they (the militants) have not been firing back as much.

But, Padilla said, there were other areas in Marawi where the fighting has been intense, indicating that the militants stockpile of weapons could still be there and they may have enough.

Jeoffrey Maitem in Marawi, Philippines, contributed to this story.

Smoke billows from a section of Marawi bombed by Philippine government forces, July 5, 2017. [Jeoffrey Maitem/BenarNews]
Gen. Aksara Kerdpol, chief of the Thai negotiating team in closed-door talks with southern rebels, speaks to reporters at Royal Thai Army headquarters in Bangkok, Aug. 28, 2015.

Thailand and a rebel panel are close to selecting a district to serve as a test-case for a ceasefire crucial to the two-year-old peace process in the Deep South, the chief Thai negotiator told BenarNews on Thursday.

In a rare interview, Gen. Aksara Kerdpol indicated the Thai side was in the final stages of picking one district from a list of five identified by MARA Patani, a panel representing rebel groups in on-going informal peace talks, as the site for a safety zone  the official name for the limited truce.

They already have proposed five areas and we will determine which one is most ready, Aksara said in a phone interview. He spoke one day after returning from a trip to Kuala Lumpur where he said he held person-to-person meetings with the Malaysian negotiations facilitator.

He said he also talked within the past month with members of MARA Patani.

MARA presented its list of districts after a joint technical team of officials from both sides conducted field surveys to identify potential candidates for the safety zone, Aksara said. He declined to reveal the names of the districts on the list.

When we find one that is ready, we will announce it at the soonest, and they [MARA] can just simply endorse it later, Aksara told BenarNews.

BRN resistance to talks

Both sides have touted the safety zone concept as a confidence-building measure and first step needed to take the peace process beyond informal negotiations brokered by Malaysia since 2015. The talks are aimed at ending a decades-old separatist conflict in Thailands Malay-speaking and Muslim-dominated southern border region that has left more than 7,000 people dead since the rebellion re-flared 13 years ago.

But the talks have not stopped the violence.

After the Thai and MARA delegations agreed in late February to a framework for setting up a limited ceasefire, at least 50 people have been killed and 138 others injured in shootings and bombings across the Deep South.

These are believed to have been carried out by hardcore fighters with the most powerful of the southern insurgent groups, Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), who oppose talks with Thailands military-controlled government in their current form.

BRN holds three seats on the MARA Patani panel, but, in a rare statement issued on April 10, BRN appeared to reject the negotiations.

Without naming MARA, BRN spokesman Abdulkarim Khalid said a panel negotiating on behalf of rebel factions lacked a mandate to do so. The BRN demanded a direct role in fresh negotiations witnessed and mediated by impartial members of the international community  an apparent swipe at Malaysia, the broker of the current talks.

In late June, Deputy Defense Minister Udomdej Sitabutr, who is Aksaras boss, told reporters Thailand might ask Malaysia for help in including all parties in the peace process, when he revealed that Thai officials had held discussions on whether or not we have the right dialogue partners.

In Thursdays interview, Aksara said he recently talked with mainstream BRN members who have seats on MARA Patani.

They are there, so I dont know who else was still left, Aksara said, seemingly dismissing speculation about whether the three BRN officials who sit on MARA  Awang Jabat, Sukree Hari and Ahmad Chuwol  truly represent BRN rank-and-file.

We talked throughout Ramadan, at a person-to-person level, technical committee level and full delegation level. Yesterday, I have just met Dato, the facilitator, Aksara said, referring to his meeting this week in Kuala Lumpur with Ahmad Zamzamin Hashim, the Malaysian facilitator of the talks.

Before the interview with Aksara, BenarNews contacted Abu Hafez Al-Hakim, the Malaysia-based spokesman for MARA Patani, who said that another round of talks with the Thai delegation might take place toward the end of July, but no dates had been confirmed.

Bomb disposal officers comb the scene of a car-bombing that injured people at the Big C department store in Pattani town, southern Thailand, May 10, 2017. [Mariyam Ahmad/BenarNews]

Razlan Rashid in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.
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Starting your day with a cup of mushroom coffee can give a much-needed twist to your daily regimen. Many speak of its benefits, and some even prefer it to regular coffee. But given its unique
Wan-Ifra has joined the Coalition for Audience Measurement to support the European Union in its efforts to reform the e-privacy directive. The coalition is composed of global and European associations representing the interests of stakeholders that use audience measurement to help finance news media offers to the public.

In the digital age, our business models require the transparent and secure use of data. An independent press that serves Europes public interest must be able to compete effectively with its global competitors. Audience measurement is an essential tool for the industry, said Gerald Grunberger, chair of Wan-Ifras Member Associations Directors Committee.

Audience measurement is a vital tool for media companies to analyse traffic flows and content performance. The coalition sets out to inform lawmakers about the functions of audience measurement and the value it brings to society. Specifically, without those measurements, media organisations would not be able to prove their comparative value to their partners, and advertisers would be prevented from measuring the effectiveness of their ad placements. If news media companies cannot reliably track the performance of their websites, their capacity to secure revenues to finance their online operations will be seriously hampered.

Distinction between audience measurements

The first statement of the coalition focuses on the distinction between first- and third-party audience measurements, in the current proposal for an e-privacy regulation. The former is the object of an exemption from burdensome user consent obligations the latter is not.

Only a few, mainly US-based, service providers can offer a first-party service, and thus benefit from the exemption, while most service providers and news media instead use trusted third-party suppliers to provide audience measurements on their behalf.

If the text is not changed to extend the exemption to third parties, end users will be faced with incessant requests for consent when visiting news media websites, the accuracy of measurements will be greatly diminished and the value of the websites will be difficult to prove to partners and investors.

The Coalition for Audience Measurement will likely continue its work throughout the negotiations to adopt a new e-privacy regulation. For more information, click here.
WASHINGTON - US authorities slapped 412 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals with fraud charges, many for overprescribing opioids that have stoked an expanding national addiction crisis.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the charges amid what he called "the deadliest drug crisis in our history," with close to 60,000 people killed by overdoses last year.

The charges involve doctors and others accused of operating pill mills that pump heavily addictive opioids like oxycodone into the streets through illegal prescription schemes.

The charges also target people said to have bilked the government-run Medicaid and Medicare health insurance programs for services that were never delivered, including addict rehabilitation programmes, and for prescribing unnecessary drugs to patients in order to overbill the government.

In all, government losses on false billings in the fraud schemes totaled $1.3 billion, the Justice Department said.

"Too many trusted medical professionals like doctors, nurses and pharmacists have chosen to violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients," Sessions said.

"Amazingly, some have made their practices into multimillion-dollar criminal enterprises. They seem oblivious to the disastrous consequences of their greed."

Those charged include 56 medical doctors, six of them part of a Michigan scheme that allegedly prescribed unnecessary opioids to patients and sent $164m in false and fraudulent claims to Medicaid.

One Houston doctor pumped out 2.5m doses of hydrocodone and other drugs illegally as addicts and organised gangs lined up at her pain clinic daily to purchase prescriptions.

And a Palm Beach, Florida rehabilitation facility allegedly charged the government $58m while never providing the billed services to addicts.

Instead, the government said, the facility simply recruited addicts to use their names for billings by providing them gift cards, visits to strip clubs and even drugs.

The barely controlled pumping of hundreds of millions of doses of opioids into US communities during the past decade is blamed for a sharp surge in addiction, with an estimated two million to three million people hooked on prescription painkillers or heroin, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

Last year, overdose deaths surged at least 19% to more than 59,000, according to preliminary estimates.

States and counties around the country are suing both the manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids for fueling the addiction epidemic by ignoring suspect surges in orders that cannot be justified by local patient populations.

The Justice Department fined drug manufacturer Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals $35m for supplying and not reporting suspiciously massive orders of its highly addictive oxycodone in the 2000s.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said that US doctors and hospitals vastly overprescribe painkillers - even if most do so legally -- thereby stoking the surge in addiction. He said action is needed to cut back.

Separately, Janet Yellen, chair of the Federal Reserve, said that widespread addiction, particularly among prime working-age adults, appeared to be behind the persistently high number of dropouts from the labor market, which has left the market relatively tight.

"Unfortunately, this is likely tied to the opioid crisis," she told a Senate committee.

"We've even seen an increase in death rates due to deaths of despair, suicides, drugs," something not seen in other economies, she added.

In the crackdown, 120 of the 412 were charged with opioid-related crimes, while many of the others had links to the crisis through false billing and other fraudulent practices.
As consumer confidence plumbs depths not seen since 1982, Swedish fashion giant H&M is set to open a 4,600m, two-level temple to shopping in Canal Walk in November as part of six more store openings before year-end. That will take it to 17 stores in just two years' operation in SA. Business Day asked H&M South Africa country manager Pr Darj if the retailer is overextending itself.

We're in 60 markets  we are able to turn things around if there is local difficulty. We have been amazed at the reception [in SA]. I think this is  only a short-term situation, this enables us to go on and [secure] stronger sites for the future: we're going to be here many years.

Is there a limit to the number of stores you are likely to open?

It all depends on how the market is growing, but from when we came here and looked at the market three or four years ago we established you are sixth-placed in the world in terms of square metres of shopping malls per inhabitants, which is a fantastic opportunity.

You recently posted sales growth of 32% since opening. Are those sales profitable?

When you open two big stores one year and six stores the next year you don't yet know what is newness or cannibalism. Every month we have new customers that are establishing what H&M is about and it takes a couple of years to reach all the customers. It's more to make sure that we are known, that we have well-run stores and that we are [sticking to] the boundaries that we have set.

Has it been a bit of a learning curve here?

On the positive side, when we launched all the concepts that we have - 25 smaller or bigger concepts within a store - we brought all of them and there's nothing that doesn't work. I was surprised because we always start with the full assortment and then we say, okay, perhaps men is not so strong, but all these things are actually working. It's also supposed to be a red-tape country and tricky to get garments into the country but that has been working very well, better than we thought.

How do SA's textile import duties and a volatile, weak currency affect H&M as a relatively cheap proposition?

At around 45% it is the highest in the world for imports and that we have to live with, we can absorb that. Currencies go up and they go down and in the end we have to make sure that the price perception for the customer is very good. So fashion and quality, at the best price, in a sustainable way is our business model and that has to be the same in SA. If there is a short term [problem] with the currency, then we take it in our books. We can never lean on short-term currency [fluctuations]  then we'll lose the confidence of our customers.

Does it mean SA will be a less profitable destination because you have to absorb more in your margins to account for import duties and the currency?

It looks fine right now. We place the brand on the market at the cost we want to have for customers and then the other things will work as we go along.

Cos and & Other Stories are two higher-end brands in the H&M stable. Will you bring those to SA?

We think it is possible because the fashion interest in [this country] is amazing, but we have to look at consumer confidence. That has to turn up a little bit more because, as it is, [2017] and [2018] look as if it's diminishing, people are very unsure of how much money they have. But, eventually, I can't see any reason why we wouldn't be able to bring those two to our market here.

What are some of the factors that have made H&M such a global success?

Firstly, that we get new deliveries every day to our stores is very important. If you are constantly updating then you will have newness". Our buyers in the office in Sweden are very fashion forward and able to look ahead at what is coming, what is going to be commercial. It started 10, 15 years ago and gradually you grow into this - it doesn't happen overnight.

Any surprises?

We generally have a culture that is about empowering people to take responsibility and to internally recruit [staff] on their attitude, not on their knowledge or education and I'm amazed about all these guys and girls that we've employed, how many we are able to promote into management positions in the stores.

In the V&A in Cape Town on a Saturday we have between 10,000 and 11,000 customers coming in between 9am and 9pm. It's a lot and it's a tough job and still we are able to create a customer service level that is very good for our situation.

Source: Business Day
It has become more important than ever to address the current lack of regulation in the public relations industry, and explore the best options in promoting ethical conduct across the profession. For several years, the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa, Prisa, has been consulting with industry and government stakeholders on Legislated Self-Regulation for the Communication Management Profession. Now, the role of ethics in public relations has come into question in light of the ongoing Bell Pottinger saga, and has once again put regulation high on the agenda.

 Kheng Ho Toh 123RF.com

The King IV Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa sets a strong tone for the role of leadership, ethics, and corporate citizenship (Part 5.1), and stakeholder relationship (Part 5.5). For an industry body like Prisa to be able to enforce its comprehensive code of ethics, there is a need to empower it to investigate formal complaints received around unethical conduct, and enforce suitable remedial action on members.

One of the principles contained within the Prisa code of ethics is the commitment to ethical practices, preservation of public trust, and the pursuit of communication excellence with powerful standards of performance, professionalism, and ethical conduct. The Bell Pottinger allegations highlight how strategic communication management can be used as a force for bad, leading to a breach of public trust. Regulation would give confidence to both practitioners and clients that a formal recourse is available for situations like these.

Regulation goes beyond ethics

Regulation goes beyond ethics, and would likely go a long way in ensuring that corporate South Africa understands that there are standards and levels of professionalism that enable agencies and in-house practitioners to recruit, manage, develop and promote communication professionals according to an established and internationally recognised and benchmarked standard. Regulations would allow industry bodies to play an oversight role. This does not mean those who are not Prisa members cannot practice the profession, however the industry body can only formally investigate its members.

Regulation aside, ethics goes much deeper than this controversial and concerning situation. Ethics is about what we do every day, and what governs our every action. Its about being honest and transparent; communicating accurate information; communicating truthfully; and being materially inclusive. Its about making the right choices and demonstrating that its not enough to just win in business  it matters how you do it.

When we turn our backs on our moral compass, we become moral vacuums. Ethical conduct is the very principle upon which the communication profession is founded. If self-regulation is not sufficient, perhaps empowering an industry-wide governance framework will be to the benefit of all stakeholders.
Weathering highly topical, negative PR can be a nightmarish experience. A glance at any daily newspaper recently will confirm that. Behind the scenes, companies are lining up PR strategists or hiding their heads in the sand, hoping any potentially damaging business practices they have been involved in will blow over quietly.

The bad news is  they probably wont. Not if youve been tarnished with the #GuptaLeaks brush. If your company is somehow implicated in questionable local deals, you can expect to be splashed across newspapers and possibly even featured in cartoons and memes. So how should you prepare to weather such a storm?

Have an in-house discussion

I recommend that you start with open and honest discussions in-house. Dont let management discover via the media that there are questions around your business practices. Bring in your legal team and risk managers to examine every deal that could be questioned, and assess the risk exposure should these deals go public.

Prepare to be transparent with shareholders and the public. Brace yourself for independent investigations. Have a strategy ready to rectify any questionable practices.

Then call in expert communicators. Youll need a holding statement ready in case your name comes up next in the #GuptaLeaks saga. Have a senior spokesman briefed and ready to go public with the company statement whenever the phone rings. Whatever you do, dont try to avoid the media  this story is one that wont go away.

As with most PR nightmares, transparency, communication, and a genuine effort to rectify any wrongs are the most effective way to weather bad publicity.
Who said surveys should be boring? - Elna Pretorius of Columinate

If you thought market research was dry and bland, you've clearly not spoken to Elna Pretorius, cofounder of Columinate, who was responsible for the People's Choice Award paper at Samra 2017. Here's her view on the importance of digital market research in SA.

So far, 2017 has proven itself a stellar year for Columinate market research agency, and were only halfway through. Not only did Multichoice award them their research contract for the next three years, which will see them establish a multi-country digital research panel for Multichoice, but Pretorius herself stood out at Samra for her thought-provoking, insightful and best of all, funny, presentation  certainly one of my favourites. Samra2017: Ensuring market research doesn't go the way of the dinosaur By Leigh Andrews 18 May 2017 On their current scope of work for Multichoice, Pretorius shares, Were over the moon about winning this contract. It was a tough tender process that extended over a year with more than 10 companies bidding. Essentially, we will be building consumer panels for Multichoice across the African continent and here at home to centralise all insights. We are excited to work with the Multichoice team, they are very innovative and, like us, focused on modern insights. Thats important as Africa is increasingly seen as the mobile-first continent, which means we need to be digitally minded in all aspects of business, particularly when it comes to market research. Here, Pretorius lets us in on her highlights of running the full service market research agency for almost a decade. Thats important as Africa is increasingly seen as the mobile-first continent, which means we need to be digitally minded in all aspects of business, particularly when it comes to market research. Here, Pretorius lets us in on her highlights of running the full service market research agency for almost a decade. Let us in on the highlights package of Columinates history over the past ten years. Let us in on the highlights package of Columinates history over the past ten years.

Henk Pretorius and I started Columinate back in 2008. We were young, brave, perhaps a little naive, but we had a dream; we believed digital marketing research is possible in South Africa. Elna Pretorius, cofounder and director of Columinate. Although, internet penetration was fairly low at the time, with only 13% of the population boasting a broadband connection! It also happened to be the year of the recession, so forget any startup help  we were on our own. Nevertheless, with luck, perseverance, a growing internet population and a truly unique value proposition  which offered clients speed at a severe cost reduction from traditional methodologies, unheard of in those days  we managed to grow the business to what it is today: From two employees to over 40; from working from home to owning two beautiful office buildings; from just one client to over 110 today  it has been an amazing journey, where weve had many opportunities to work with wonderful clients on some interesting research projects.

Weve also been fortunate enough to collect several awards along the way, thanks in part to a renewed way of doing things, but also thanks to clients who believe in our vision.

Let us in on that vision. Market research tends to be seen as stuffy and old. Share what makes Columinate a modern market research agency? Let us in on that vision. Market research tends to be seen as stuffy and old. Share what makes Columinate a modern market research agency?

From the outset we had a brand personality that was definitely neither stuffy nor old. We wanted to do things differently, not just by doing it faster, cheaper, better, and all online, but also by making research fun and engaging, both for our clients and our panelists who participate in research. Our philosophy is to take our work seriously, but not to take ourselves too seriously. We take great pride in our corporate identity and how we present our insights  we believe that no pie chart should be boring!

Ultimately, we believe in simplicity: Simplicity in process and simplicity in engaging with research. It seems simplicity is a scarce commodity in the research industry, as most research tends to be unnecessarily complicated. And were modern! All our insights are collected digitally; we were born digital, and we will continue to pioneer in this space.

What can the industry in general do to better educate society on the importance of market research? What can the industry in general do to better educate society on the importance of market research?

We can market ourselves a bit better, and that starts simply: With market researchers taking pride in their career choice and explaining to people how our work impacts society directly.

Helping companies better their products and services has a direct impact on the consumer for the better, in most instances. Having access to more relevant products and better services, all informed by research, makes a huge difference in people's lives. Helping companies achieve this also contributes to the economy and job creation.

Team Columinate.

We can also do our jobs better  who said surveys should be boring? Taking part in research is fun, and it feels like an untapped opportunity at the moment. It doesn't have to be a completely gamified experience, but adding a bit of personality into the process can go a long way. I also think we can do better to make marketing research a career of choice. It is a professional, scientific career and data sciences will continue to be in demand. Exposing students to their options in market research early on will ensure we attract more talent to the industry.

Clearly youre doing that right, having won the hotly-contested Best Presentation at Samra recently. Why is it so important to participate in industry bodies and associations like this? Clearly youre doing that right, having won the hotly-contested Best Presentation at Samra recently. Why is it so important to participate in industry bodies and associations like this?

I try to show my passion for my job and my career. Its important to me to share this interest and this passion with the rest of the industry, just as it is important to support your industry body. Leonie Vorster from Samra is a one-woman show, working exceedingly hard and making a huge difference.

However, she can't do it alone and industries where people have neglected to engage with their professional body have seen the results of external regulation from parties that dont always understand the nuances of one's industry. I feel it is one's duty to not only contribute to the company you work for but also to the industry.

Wise words  its up to each of us to make a difference. Click here to visit the Columinate press office, here for Pretorius MyBiz profile, and here for a reminder of her Samra paper from earlier this year.
South Africa is rated as an attractive destination for investment in renewable energy, but the stand-off between Eskom and the government on the latest round of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) contracts is leading to a loss in confidence amongst international investors.

Photo: Climate Transparency

This is according to a new report by Climate Transparency - an international consortium of researchers and civil society groups from 10 different countries including the University of Cape Town.

South Africa's renewable-energy programme ground to an abrupt halt in 2016 as Eskom refused to sign further power purchase agreements with independent power producers, whose bids were duly approved as part of REIPPPP.

The South African Renewable Energy Council (Sarec) recently stated that large-scale deployment of renewable energy and gas was very likely to dislodge Eskom by 2050, which explained the power utility's foot-dragging to sign the contracts and fully embrace renewable energy technologies.

In June, Parliament heard that it was unlikely that contracts for the supply of renewable energy would be signed before 2018. The Department of Energy told MPs that there were various steps that needed to be completed first before the contracts were signed. This included the finalisation of the updated version of the Integrated Resource Plan, which detailed the "pace and scale of new generation capacity".

Furthermore, the department said, the projects resulted in "a higher cost to Eskom than it could recover through tariffs paid by its customers and thus had an adverse impact on its balance sheet". Moreover, power produced by the independent power producers was no longer needed as there was an oversupply of electricity and lower demand as a result of low GDP growth, the department said.

According to Climate Transparency's [[http://www.climate-transparency.org/g20-climate-performance/g20report2017 Brown to Green Report, which focuses on the Group of 20 (G20) countries and tracks their progress in addressing climate change, given the current unwillingness of Eskom to sign further power purchase agreements, uncertainty among investors remains. The authors of the report note that South Africa's international commitment to reduce emissions is inadequate. The country's coal use is the highest in the G20, and its use of renewable energy is the second-lowest in the grouping.

South Africa is also one of the few G20 countries that has no emissions-performance standards for cars, the report states. Yet, national experts rate the country'd policy performance as high, valuing the sectoral approaches for achieving its national targets, as well as its contribution to the international climate negotiations. The country aims to implement a carbon price, but its start date has been delayed.

Andrew Marquard, a senior researcher in the Energy, Environment and Climate Change research group at UCT's Energy Research Centre, noted that South Africa's greenhouse gas emissions comprised 1.1% of global emissions, but its GDP was only 0.6% of the rest of the globe. Emissions per capita are above the G20 average, whereas its development level (measured by the UN Development Programme's Human Development Index) is below the G20 average, said Marquard.

"This is a combination of the development deficit of apartheid and South Africa's's historical dependence on coal and energy-intensive industry. It is striking that as a percentage of our primary energy supply, SA's coal dependence is the highest in the G20, and we have one of the lowest shares of renewable energy of G20 countries."
The government is looking for new ways to regulate the effects of mining activity on SA's scarce water resources, according to a policy position articulated by Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane.

The policy position paper was published in the Government Gazette.

In it, Mokonyane said "emergency interventions" were under way to deal with acid mine drainage in the Witwatersrand gold fields, where new technologies for testing mine water were being tried out.

This comes as a team including University of Cape Town students has come up with a salt-based method for mine wastewater treatment, which will be rolled out at the Tweefontein colliery in Mpumalanga.

Mokonyane said companies should consider acid mine drainage and other water pollutants not only as a threat, but also as an opportunity for private-public partnerships.

"It is possible to use treated mine water to help alleviate the water shortage in the country. A few flagship projects are in operation that produce quality drinking water from active coal mines through desalination systems, and this water is then fed into municipal networks," the minister said.

The policy document said mining companies should, "in the interest of optimum water resource protection", provide infrastructure and planning for the life cycle of their sites and after mine closures.

The policy paper says poor and vulnerable mining communities must be part of decision-making processes in the mining value chain, particularly in water management.

The Chamber of Mines was studying the paper and Stephinah Mudau, its environmental department head, said the chamber welcomed the policy aimed at tackling challenges related to acid mine drainage.

Source: Business Day
A building's primary purpose may be to keep the weather out, but most do such an effective job of this that they also inadvertently deprive us of contact with two key requirements for our well-being and effectiveness: nature and change.

Dancing sunlight patterns reflected onto an interior ceiling from a wind-disturbed external water surface. Kevin Nute, CC BY-NC-ND

In the 1950s Donald Hebbs Arousal Theory established that people need a degree of changing sensory stimulation in order to remain fully attentive. And 30 years later, landmark research by health care designer Roger Ulrich showed that hospital patients in rooms with views of nature had lower stress levels and recovered more quickly than patients whose rooms looked out at a brick wall.

water light shelf reflecting wind-animated sunlight onto an interior ceiling; the arrow on the right represents air movement. Kevin Nute, CC BY-NC-ND

Unfortunately, many buildings  especially in cities  are not blessed with green surroundings. I am part of a group of architects and psychologists at the University of Oregon that has been examining ways to overcome this problem using an aspect of nature available anywhere: the weather. Think of rippling sunlight reflecting from water onto the underside of a boat, or the dappled shadows from foliage swaying in a breeze. Other examples can be seen at vitalarchitecture.org.

When we brought these kinds of natural movements indoors, we found that they reduced heart rates and were less distracting than similar, artificially generated movement. Early results suggest that seeing live natural movement of this kind in an indoor space may be more beneficial than viewing outdoor nature through a window, and could not only help to keep us calm but also improve our attention.

Water light shelves being tested on a dental clinic waiting room in Eugene, Oregon. Kevin Nute, CC BY-NC-ND

These findings are consistent with the Attention Restoration Theory proposed by University of Michigan psychologists Rachel and Stephen Kaplan. Among other things, their work suggests that familiar natural movement patterns of this kind have the capacity to keep us alert without being distracting.

Beyond green building

Over the last two decades architects and engineers have developed approaches to building design that greatly reduce the impact of buildings on the natural environment (green buildings) and their human occupants (healthy buildings). But these movements focus primarily on new buildings, which benefit only a relatively small number of people compared to the many who could be helped by making existing structures more habitable.

A glazed internal courtyard can bring weather-generated movement into its surrounding indoor spaces. (Click to zoom.) Kevin Nute, CC BY-NC-ND

Moreover, most people  including many of those responsible for ordering the construction and remodeling of buildings  are not aware of these advances. Many key features of green buildings, such as energy and water conservation, for example, are not immediately noticeable, and as a result, these simple but important practices are significantly underused.

Several leading commentators on sustainable design, including Judith Heerwegan and the late Stephen Kellert, have suggested that in order to have any meaningful impact on the daunting environmental problems we now face, green buildings can no longer simply do no harm. Rather, they argue that buildings need to actively demonstrate ways of living in harmony with nature. Our work suggests that bringing the movements of sunlight, wind and rain indoors could make passive energy-saving features in buildings more obvious to the people who order and occupy them, and so greatly increase their usage.

Bringing the weather indoors

Wind-animated foliage shadows projected by the sun onto an interior surface. (Click to zoom.) Kevin Nute, CC BY-NC-ND

Light shelves, for example, are devices that are commonly retrofitted to the windows of existing buildings to reflect daylight deeper into an interior. Former University of Oregon masters degree student Aaron Weiss and I have shown that when a shallow layer of water is added to the top of a light shelf and is disturbed by the wind, the shelf reflects moving sunlight patterns onto the ceiling inside.

In controlled experiments using a windowless room, with a fan and powerful light to represent the wind and sun, we found that this kind of wind-animated light not only lowered occupants heart rates but was also less distracting than similar, artificially generated moving patterns. Importantly, adding wind movement did not reduce the amount of light the shelves transmitted. However, it did make the shelves much more visible to people using the space.

We found the same was true of a range of other key passive energy-saving techniques, including solar heating, shading and natural ventilation. Adding sun, wind or rain-generated movement did not reduce their environmental performance, and in many cases it revealed their operation to those using the building.

The calming effects of natural indoor animation could be particularly helpful in stressful locations, such as hospitals and doctors offices  especially in places where people experience the additional stress of waiting. Aquariums are often used in medical waiting rooms, for example, because they have been found to have a calming effect on patients. The stress reduction can be even greater, however, when indoor movement comes from uncontrolled nature such as the weather.

But how can we invite the movements of the elements indoors without undermining a buildings first task  sheltering us from the weather? There are three simple ways. We can enclose weather-generated movement in glass courtyards; use sunlight to project movement from outdoors onto interior surfaces; or project it onto the outside of translucent materials, such as obscured glass.

No real substitute for live nature

Allowing the sun to project wind-animated shadows onto the exterior of translucent materials, such as obscured glass, can also effectively bring that movement indoors. (Click to zoom.) Kevin Nute, CC BY-NC-ND

There are many kinds of recorded natural phenomena available today. We can watch videos of gently rolling ocean waves, or fall asleep to the recorded sounds of falling rain. There are even sophisticated software programs that can generate these effects digitally. So why go to the trouble of redesigning buildings to bring these effects indoors?

To answer this question, former University of Oregon graduate student Jeffrey Stattler and I projected a digital tree shadow onto the wall of a windowless room and tested whether there was any difference in peoples responses depending on whether the electronic tree moved with live changes in the wind outside, or according to a computer program.

Most people could not tell whether the tree movements were generated by the wind or by computer. But when they believed the movement was wind-generated, their assessments of its beneficial effects were significantly higher in all categories.

The digital tree shadow developed by Jeffrey Stattler can move realistically with live changes in the speed and direction of the wind outside. (Click to zoom.) Kevin Nute, CC BY-NC-ND

In other words, indoor sensory change is likely to have a much greater beneficial effect on us when we think it is natural and live. So unless we are prepared to mislead people, there is no real substitute for using the real thing.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, most people in the United States now spend more than 90 percent of their lives inside buildings. Features that make us more relaxed and productive in those indoor environments, then, could have significant positive effects on a great many lives.

Lighting, heating and cooling those buildings accounts for almost 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption. The same natural indoor animation effects could also help to reduce that figure by increasing public awareness of passive energy-saving in buildings.

In addition to its practical benefits for people and the environment, weather-generated indoor animation also shows us that, while separating us from its extremes, buildings can also reconnect us with nature.
Absa is asking the High Court in Pretoria to review and set aside Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane's remedial action contained in her Bankorp "lifeboat" report.

Public protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane

"We look forward to this case being brought to court. The years of baseless accusations have been unfair and prejudicial to Absa," the bank said in a statement..

"Because the business of the courts is conducted in the open, South Africans will get an opportunity to hear the facts and watch them being interrogated, in order for this matter to be put to rest."

The Treasury is joining Absa in seeking to have Mkhwebane's report set aside. Finance minister Malusi Gigaba said in papers that Mkhwebane had disregarded the evidence placed before her pertaining to the lifeboat.

In her report on the apartheid-era financial assistance extended by the South African Reserve Bank to Bankorp, which was later bought by Absa, Mkhwebane found that the government should recover R1.125bn from Absa for the loan.

But Absa said the report's findings and remedial action were based on "material errors of fact", including that Absa had benefited from the bank's financial support and that such support did not benefit the general public.

"There is no debt owed by Absa." The price paid by Absa to acquire Bankorp had taken into account the Reserve Bank assistance, it said.

Absa would also be challenging the report on the basis that the public protector's process was procedurally flawed and unfair to Absa; the debt had prescribed and was therefore not recoverable; and the public protector had no jurisdiction to investigate the matter.

This comes as earlier this week, Mkhwebane backtracked on a proposal, contained in the same report, to have the Reserve Bank's constitutional mandate changed. Mkhwebane said she would not be opposing a court application by the Bank to have this aspect of her report set aside.
Managing input costs is key to remaining profitable in grain and animal farming - the lower the total input costs, the greater the profits yielded. Senior Agricultural Economist at FNB, Paul Makube answers a few questions on the biggest expenses in animal and grain farming and proposes some cost cutting measures for farmers.

Paul Makube, Senior Agricultural Economist at FNB

What are the biggest expenses in animal and grain farming?

Fertiliser accounts for roughly 22% of the direct variable costs, followed by fuel at +15%, herbicide and pesticides at +11% and seed at +10%. These, of course, will differ according to the commodity being produced, expected yield and whether it is in dry or irrigated land.

In livestock production, the greatest expenditure is in feed and health costs. Feed constitutes 50% to 55% of input costs. Maize constitutes +70% of livestock feed. The profitability of this sector is highly linked to grain production.

What can farmers do better to decrease the expenditure?

Grain farmers have to adopt a sustainable purchasing strategy for fertiliser and herbicides, together these account for over 30% of production costs. About 80% of fertiliser and some herbicides and pesticides are imported and, therefore, subject to fluctuations in the rand/US dollar exchange rate and international prices. If one adds fuel to the mix, it means that the farmer has no influence on prices of closer to 49% of production inputs.

A prudent application of fertiliser/herbicide/pesticides is required  application at the right time, in the correct type and quantities. It also means regular soil tests, practicing conservation agriculture and adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops that in turn help lower the reliance on pesticides and herbicides.

Livestock requires an improvement in feed conversion ratios and a smart grain procurement policy which takes into account the high price volatility.

How does prudent farming impact on efficiency in farming?

Last year saw the worst drought since the 1900s. Grain prices skyrocketed and squeezed margins in the poultry, pork and feedlot industries. We also had an invasion of the Fall armyworm. What helped is that almost 80% of South Africas crops are GMs, minimising the impact on the 2016/17 crop which saw the recent grain and oilseed production estimate coming in at a record high of 18.10m tonnes, up 93% year-on-year (y/y). The maize crop estimate rebounded strongly by 101% y/y to 15.63m tonnes, according to the June 2017 Crop Estimate Committee (CEC) report.

What rule of thumb should be kept to ensure that a farming business is sustainable even in tough times?

Ensure that a sound business and financial plan is developed, implemented and augmented from time to time to address the immediate and new risks.

Like any business, profitability is increased by managing spend better. A noble idea would be to sit with a financial planner who can assist with a range of financial products to address individual and business needs, concludes Makube.
The second annual African Agri Investment Indaba (AAII) - held in November 2017 - will see prominent experts in the African agriculture sector address over 600 key stakeholders.

Nhlanhla Nene, Resident Advisor, Thebe Investment Corporation. South Africa (former Minister of Finance, South Africa) presenting at the 2016 African Agri Investment Indaba

Speakers will discuss real market opportunities across the various African regions, Africa's role in global food security, agriculture at the core of the economic diversification agenda and improving the investment environment for African agriculture.

Delegates will have the opportunity to hear from over 40 world-class agri-experts including:

 Hon. Willy Bett, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Kenya

 Nhlanhla Nene, Resident Advisor, Thebe Investment Corporation. South Africa (former Minister of Finance, South Africa)

 H.E. Erastus Mwencha, Former Secretary-General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and former Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission. Kenya

 Dr. Nigel Chanakira, Chairman and Group Executive, Riskflow Group, Kingdom Financial Holdings Ltd, Success Motivation Institute. Zimbabwe

 Tim Harris, Chief Executive Officer, WESGRO, South Africa

The African agri-sector is fast becoming the panacea of the investment world

As the world looks to Africa as a solution to global food security concerns, the continents agri-sector is fast becoming the panacea of the investment world especially with the recent decline in commodity investment returns. The agriculture sector is yielding exceptionally exciting opportunities and pipelines.

Food security is now being translated into an investable option for investors and financiers. Agriculture has been identified as a long-term opportunity to increase investors allocation to real assets and the agribusiness value chain need to be ready to take advantage of the disruption, says Ben Leyka, executive director, African Agri Council.

The African Agri Investment Indaba (AAII) 2017, taking place from the 20  22 November 2017 at the CTICC in Cape Town, is a key meeting place for investment in Africas agri and agro-processing sectors attracting over 600 international investors, bankers, governments, farmers, project owners. This unique mix of decision makers from across the African agricultural value chain provides a convenient platform for effective deal making.

For more information visit AAII.
With intimidating competition and an ever-evolving economy, it is important to refresh and update skills and knowledge to progress in one's career, which is often achieved through adding tertiary qualifications.

 Rabia Elif Aksoy  123RF.com

While it may seem daunting to study part-time and climb the corporate ladder, most senior students do better than full time students. This is often because they are studying a subject they are passionate about and know how the course will set them apart in a competitive job market.

It is important to consider the tools required to excel as a business leader, many of which could be considered soft skills. While every industry needs specialist skills, adaptability and communication skills set business leaders apart.

No matter what ones profession is, it is important to comprehend and internalise the basics of what makes a business tick. This knowledge will guide one in making sound decisions, while communication skills will ensure that one has the power to motivate and direct a team.

These skills can be honed both in the workplace and while studying. While many leadership qualities are learnt on the job, studying rapidly develops the depth and breadth of ones knowledge. The reality is, while one may feel completely qualified to lead, one does not know what one does not know. A tertiary education exposes one quickly and efficiently to latest information and developments.

While heading the MBA programme at our institution, I have had feedback from students on the impact of the curriculum on their corporate careers. Our students particularly appreciate the finance, economics and our personal leadership module. They also enjoyed and relished the institutions unique unit on creativity and innovation, which creates a mindset that encourages these corporate learners to think differently about business complications and create solutions, says Dr Corne Meintjes, senior lecturer and head of the MBA Programme at Monash South Africa.

In terms of global MBA programmes, South Africa remains at the top of its game, as content is continually reviewed and regulated. While there has been global debate on the relevance of the MBA, it remains a relevant and necessary qualification in the African and South African business context. Recent exploratory research by Dr Millard Arnold, the executive director of the South African Business Schools Association (SABSA) illustrates that Africa still has a shortage of MBA skills, making the degree highly relevant for our continent.

An MBA is the perfect choice for mid or senior managers looking to grow their careers, as well as industry specialists such as doctors, lawyers or even veterinarians who would like knowledge on how to grow a practice. However, an MBA is not the only option; one could also pursue a postgraduate diploma as a starting point. Depending on ones industry, one could also weigh up the merits of attending a university of technology versus a traditional university. If ones job requires practical skills, universities of technology offer excellent training in applied skills, while traditional university education focuses more on in-depth conceptual understanding. Both have their unique benefits.

Ultimately, a tertiary education will always benefit ones career and personal growth. While it may appear a daunting prospect, if one is passionate and driven, one will find the time and support to succeed, concludes Meintjes.
William Merideth from Kentucky achieved notoriety in 2015, when he shot down a drone flying over his property. In defence of his actions, he claimed that the drone was spying on his sunbathing daughter.

After picking up what was left of his machine, David Boggs laid a criminal charge against Merideth, who was arrested for wanton endangerment and criminal mischief. The Bullitt County District Court ultimately dismissed the charges. Judge Rebecca Ward found that Merideth was entitled to shoot down the drone, as it infringed upon his (or his daughters) right to privacy.

Having lost round one, Boggs initiated proceedings to have the decision overturned seeking clarity on whether his conduct constituted trespassing and further sought an order directing Merideth to pay an amount of $1,500 in compensation for his damaged property.

In March 2017, Federal Judge Thomas Russel dismissed Boggs lawsuit due to the Federal Court lacking jurisdiction to hear the matter. The ruling was met with disappointment as the questions of law  regarding the right to privacy, the right to property and trespass in airspace  remained unresolved.

South African legislation

South Africa has already encountered incidents where aggrieved property owners have shot down drones.

In accordance with the South African common law, the owner of immovable property is essentially the owner of the ground beneath and air above such property. Therefore, at common law the delict of trespassing into air space above private property would appear, in theory, to be actionable.

However, s8 of the Civil Aviation Act, No 13 of 2009 (Aviation Act) provides a form of indemnification protecting the operators of aircraft flying over private property at a reasonable height. While this provision was introduced prior to the emergence of drones into South African culture, it is clear that insofar as an aircraft is flying in contravention of the provisions of the Aviation Act (or flying at an unreasonable height), the pilot may very well attract liability for trespassing. That is the theory at least.

The Eighth Amendment to the Civil Aviation Regulations was introduced in 2015 and governs, in Part 101, the operation of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (including drones). There is, however, no reference to any form of indemnification against a claim of trespass (as is found in s8 of the Aviation Act).

While restrictions are placed on the operation of drones (such as the restriction not to fly a drone within lateral distance of 50m of any structure or building without permission of the owner), this does not address the question of trespassing. It is conceivable that a drone can fly in excess of 50m from any structure or building but still be trespassing on anothers property (if flying without permission).

Assuming that flying a drone over a private property may constitute trespassing; can the owner of the property use a firearm to protect his rights? The simple answer is no. In terms of s120(7) of the Firearms Control Act, No 60 of 2000, the discharge of a firearm in any built-up place or public area is a criminal offence. The discharge of a firearm on private property in a manner, which endangers the life, safety, or property of another is also an offence and insofar as a drone is damaged by the use of firearm, civil liability may follow.

CAA complaints

What can property owners do, if they feel that their rights are infringed by the operation of a drone? Well, they may resort to the courts in an attempt to enforce a civil claim against the pilot, based in delict for trespassing or alternatively an invasion of privacy (insofar as the requirements are made). Civil litigation is, however, expensive and time consuming. Advice that is more practical may be to lay a complaint with the South African Civil Aviation Authority, based on a breach of the Aviation Act or Regulations.

The Civil Aviation Authority appears to be taking matters rather seriously and has initiated a number of investigations against drone operators in recent months. Sanctions include fines of up to R50,000 per incident or imprisonment not exceeding 10 years, or both.

However, what if you have no idea who the operator of the drone is? In this case, your legal remedies are extremely limited, insofar as they exist at all.

In an effort to address this problem, we suggest that the regulations be amended in accordance with developments in other jurisdictions, which oblige every drone operator to display a unique identification number on the underside of a drone, which is to be visible from the ground. This will promote further accountability and will provide any aggrieved person with a mechanism to trace the offending owner.

Until this happens, the moment the familiar buzz of a drone is heard one should either cover up or go indoors.
iStock/Thinkstock(JERUSALEM) -- Two Israeli police officers were killed in a shooting in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday, near one of the world's holiest sites.



Authorities said three men armed with guns and knives attacked two Israeli police officers Hail Stawi, 30, and Kaamil Snaan, 22, who were both minority Druze, near Lions' Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, an entrance to the Muslim Quarter.



The assailants then fled into the compound toward one of world's holiest sites, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif and known to Jews as the Temple Mount. Cellphone video taken from the scene shows the assailants being chased down and shot dead by Israeli security forces on the holy grounds.



According to Israeli police, all three assailants were Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin, from the northern city of Um al-Fahm, one of the largest Arab towns in Israel. Israel's internal security service, Shin Bet, identified the men, who are part of the same family, as Mohammed Ahmed Mohammed Jabareen, 29, Mohammed Hamed Abd Al-Latif Jabareen, 19, and Mohammed Ahmed Mafdal Jabareen, 19. None of them had previous security offenses.



The incident occurred just before Friday prayers, usually attended by thousands of Muslims.



The compound was cleared of visitors and locked down immediately following the shooting. Israeli police announced that Friday prayers inside the compound at the al-Aqsa Mosque would be canceled for the first time in more than 25 years.



Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by telephone Friday to condemn the deadly shooting, according to Netanyahu's office.



Abbas also called on the Israeli prime minister to reopen the holy site to Muslim worshipers as soon as possible. Netanyahu assured the Palestinian president that the longstanding status quo at the complex, which gives Muslims exclusive prayer rights to that specific area, would not change and asked Abbas to help restore calm.



An ABC News producer in Jerusalem observed Muslim worshipers conducting Friday prayers outside the Old City gates. Many worshipers said they plan to wait in the area until the compound is reopened.



The U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, said in a statement on social media that he is "shocked and horrified by the despicable attack."



"Terrorism must be condemned by all and defeated," Friedman added.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The seventh edition of the PwC Hotels Outlook: 2017-2021: South Africa - Nigeria - Mauritius - Kenya - Tanzania report highlights the hotel industry as one of the fastest growing sectors and most energetic contributors to the African economy. However, a question must be raised around the education institutions responsible for facilitating its development.

Stephan Stockinger via 123RF

For a doctor to be able to qualify, they undergo years of specialised training in facilitated teaching environments. You wont find a doctor that hasnt learned how to scrub his hands before entering a theatre able to perform successful brain surgery - if you do, youre unlikely to live to be able to tell the tale. By the same token, why should the training and education around the (current) R39b hotel industry be any different?

A few months of educational training is not enough

Ronel Bezuidenhout, managing director of leading South African Hotel School, Capital Hotel School (CHS), expresses concerns around the caliber of candidates graduating from hospitality programmes. Although these courses offer an impressive compendium of necessary certification logos, the reality is that only parts of these certifications are being met through the six-month courses currently on offer to make the school and qualification more attractive to a generation thats become synonymous with instant gratification.

Bezuidenhout believes what will set a student or individual working in hospitality apart, is the quality of their work and service they deliver  whether turning down a bed in a hotel or preparing an a la carte meal in a Michelin Star restaurant. A very passionate Bezuidenhout asks: How can we expect to be offering quality candidates to an industry that is earmarked to be worth an incredible R59b by 2021 when were arming them with an incomplete qualification?

According to the PwC Hotel outlook report, of the 9.3% increase in hotel room revenue over the next five years, over 50% of this growth comes from four and five star establishments  not quite the level that can be adequately fulfilled by a team with a few months of educational training.

CHS has always been meticulous about keeping abreast of industry needs, both locally and internationally, through the partnerships they have established over the years. We keep our ears to the ground as far as what this industry needs and place a large focus on how we can help support those needs as we prepare the generation that will continue to drive the industry forward, says Bezuidenhout. There is no way I would send a candidate into a world where the likes of that responsibility rest on their shoulders, with only half the skill required to make it happen.
While it may be convenient to stay at a large hotel group, it can become impersonal. Travellers are increasingly looking for accommodation that offers an authentic experience of the city while enjoying world-class services. Boutique hotels, such as The Menlyn Boutique Hotel, is the answer for travellers who are looking for customer centricity and a unique personality.

Todays travellers never-ending search for something new and different as well as value for money has inspired the development of boutique hotels. Known for their intimate atmosphere and style, boutique hotels distinguish themselves from larger chain hotels as they are able to offer personalised attention and styled accommodations which play on a theme or idea. Although boutique hotels may be part of a luxury hotel association or owned by a larger management company, each property often contains its own unique style and creative atmosphere which allows it to stand out.

A sense of authenticity

Boutique hotels are ideal for people who are searching for accommodation that is not only on the small side but is situated in the heart of a city. Like designer boutique stores, these hotels are intimate in scale which creates the ambience of being a personal guest in a private home, rather than just a hotel occupant.

Boutique hotels are also often celebrated for their restaurants, which often have local and seasonal menu offerings that add to guests authentic experience. The Menlyn Boutique Hotel, for example, offers a South African five-star fine dining experience. The ever-changing menu includes options for every palate and boasts an interesting selection of wines from around the country.

Personalised services at its best

One of the perks of staying at a boutique hotel is the highly personalised service where staff will know a clients name on the first day of their stay. Some boutique hotels also provide bespoke luxury services such as an extensive pillow menu and custom toiletries. They also offer luxurious spa services which create a very high-quality, individualised experience.

Choosing a boutique hotel over a chain hotel offers a variety of benefits that cant be realised from your typical chain hotel. No matter what your personal preferences when it comes to a hotel, there is likely a boutique hotel to meet your needs, says Quintin Wiehahn, the managing director of WH Leisure Group.
The Toyota Live Drum Beat music concert will be taking place on the 26 August 2017 at new venue, The Carnival City Lawns and new Sun Park in Ekurhuleni.

With a crowd of 5,000 music fans expected to join, tickets are selling fast.

Stars set to light the stage

Opening the 2017 Toyota Live Drum Beat will be Afro-R&B-sould duo, Tumel Moloto and Soul Kulture, a South African Music Award (SAMA) for Best African Adult Album winner. Amanda Black, who took home three SAMAs for Best Newcomer of the Year, Best Female Artist of the Year and Best R&B/Soul/Reggae Album will also be a part of the line-up.

Other stars who are set to light up the stage are AKA, A-Reece, Okmalumkoolkat, Rebirth of Cool, The Muffinz, Shimza, Sands, Shekhinah, Lady Zamar, Kaya FM Rhythm Sessions and the legendary Mafikizolo.

"As we celebrate our 20-year anniversary in the music industry, we are excited to perform on the #ToyotaLive Drum Beat stage this August. We can't wait to share our latest hits Phakathi and Love Potion from our forthcoming album, Mafikizolo20, with our Ekurhuleni fans!" says Theo Kgosinkwe of Mafikizolo.

What fans can expect

Organisers of the 2017 Toyota Live Drum Beat have pulled out all the stops for this years event. Fans can look forward to a chilled day of great music, festive fun and fab food can be enjoyed on the new outdoor venue where the music line-up will perform on two state-of-the-art stages.

Please note: After the successful format from the previous concerts, 2017 Toyota Live Drum Beat will have no seating and no reserved standing.

Make sure you get your early-bird ticket now for just R150 from Computicket.

For more information on the 2017 Toyota Live Drum Beat, visit their new website here, and follow the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.
SA's super-rich doesn't shy away from luxury brands, be they supercars, private jets, watches, alcohol or clothing.

 Muhammad Faiz Zaki via 123RF

The newly released results of a New World Wealth and AfrAsia Bank study show that the country's luxury brand market stood at $2.3bn in 2016.

Although the figures show a drop in revenue from 2015 to 2016 from $2.4bn, SA still tops other African countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, and Angola when it comes to luxury sales.

According to the research, the top-selling luxury car for 2016 in SA was Porsche, followed by Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Maserati, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, and McLaren.

Porsche was also popular in Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, Angola, Mauritius, and Morocco.

Luxury SUVs especially popular

"Luxury SUVs are especially popular with Africa's super-rich. Reasons for their popularity include high road clearance, safety aspects and being useful for holidays," says Suneeta Motala of AfrAsia Bank.

When it comes to exclusive liquor labels, Africa's wealthy, including South Africans, were increasingly buying Johnnie Walker Blue Label, Dom Perignon Champagne, Hennessy Cognac, Glenmorangie Whisky and Moet & Chandon Champagne.

Items commonly found in the closets of the rich range from Rolex and Breitling watches, to Louis Vuitton and Gucci handbags, Christian Louboutin and Jimmi Choo shoes as well as Zegna and Hugo Boss suits.

Private jets

SA's multimillionaires are flying high when it comes to private jet usage: 160 South African multimillionaires own private jets, while 420 multimillionaires use them.

Ninety Nigerians are private-jet owners, and 310 travel in them.

Jeremy Nel, marketing director of luxury marketing group Luxury Brands, says: "The ultra-high-net-worth market moves in rarer air, where personalised products are tailored for clients' individual requirements and they don't really care for any level of labelling to announce their positioning."

"Luxury brands tend to differentiate themselves by either price, quality, timelessness, rareness or celebrity endorsement," Nel says.

These elements resonate with the wealthy who seek "to align themselves with a specific brand that personifies these attributes", he says.

Source: BDpro
The largest consumer exhibition in South Africa, the Rand Show, will return to the Johannesburg Expo Centre (JEC) at Nasrec in 2018 from Friday, 30 March, to Sunday, 8 April.

With a legacy dating back over 123 years, the Rand Show remains South Africas largest, most iconic consumer event, and is a highlight on the annual events calendar that has entertained multiple generations of South African families.

According to the show organisers, Rand Show 2018 will include a series of exciting new features and initiatives that will significantly boost its position in the marketplace, and provide the definitive consumer experience.

The South African consumer landscape is evolving, with tough economic and political conditions having a direct impact on consumer aspirations. However, the Rand Show continues to provide families with a value-packed outing with over 200,000 visitors in attendance annually, says Craig Newman, CEO of the JEC. With that in mind, we need to raise the bar even further and provide the ultimate consumer experience with a multi-faceted event that meets the needs of every member of the family, he says.

Craig Newman, CEO of the JEC

Rand Show 2018 will continue its strategic partnership with Dave Nemeth of Trend Forward, who is considered one of the leading trend analysts and creative influencers in South Africa today.

The organisers of Rand Show in collaboration with Trend Forward have invested a great deal in consumer research over the past year and identified a number of key trends that are vital to the future success of consumer events in South Africa going forward.

Our research shows that consumers are looking for a unique experience, one where they can find the same variety and bespoke offerings that they would at smaller niche events, at a larger consumer show that caters for the needs of every member of the family, says Nemeth. Our exhibitors are looking to gain maximum return on their investment and with immediate access to an audience of 200,000 people across the upper LSMs there is no better platform than the Rand Show, from which to promote your brand, he says.

Dave Nemeth, Trend Forward

Nemeth goes on to say that there has been a noticeable turnaround in the marketplace since 2016, and that these changes have necessitated the need for variations to the Rand Shows overall offering to meet the demands of a very diverse market.

The Rand Show is a large consumer show that revolves around families, their lifestyles and living spaces. Part of the overall experience is taking these families on a journey where they will experience a wide range of individually themed expos that cater to all of their requirements at the cost of just one ticket, which is exceptionally good value for money.

For exhibiting brands, the Rand Show provides a valuable platform from which to build on visibility and credibility. With the right strategy in place, it provides a powerful opportunity to dramatically improve any brands customer base with consumers who specifically visit the show to explore new products and services and are ready to commit to purchases.

The Rand Show organisers will be announcing regular updates on the new initiatives being launched for Rand Show 2018. There is no other consumer event like the Rand Show in South Africa today, and we look forward to taking what is already an impressive event and turning it into the ultimate experience for exhibiting brands and visitors, concluded Newman.




WASHINGTON - CBS News and the BBC on Thursday announced a new editorial and newsgathering partnership that aims to boost their global strength against rivals such as CNN.

The CBS logo outside the CBS Broadcast Center in New York, the US.Image: Reuters/Brendan Mcdermid

The US and British television news giants will share video, editorial content, and other resources in New York, London, Washington and around the world, according to a joint statement.

"There's never been a more important time for smart, courageous coverage of what's happening in the world," said James Harding, the BBC's director of news and current affairs.

"This new partnership between the BBC and CBS News is designed to bring our audiences -- wherever you live, whatever your point of view -- news that is reliable, original and illuminating. Our ambition is to deliver the best in international reporting on television."

The deal brings together two major television news organizations and comes weeks after US-based NBC finalized a deal to take a 25 percent stake in France-based Euronews to boost its global scale.

CBS News president David Rhodes said his organization "is completely committed to original reporting around the world -- a commitment clearly shared by the BBC."

He added, "There's no better partner to strengthen and extend our global coverage than BBC News."

The two groups sharing of content between CBS News and BBC News will begin immediately and that additional newsgathering elements would be rolled out in the coming months.

BBC News claims to be the largest broadcast news operation in the world with more than 2,000 journalists and 48 newsgathering bureaus, according to its website.

CBS News is part of the large CBS television network with offices around the United States and a handful of overseas locations.

This new partnership replaces the BBC's current arrangement with Disney-owned ABC News, according to Harding who called that relationship "long and fruitful."
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Kristina: Weve heard for several years now about the reticence of consumers to pay for digital content  is there still a resistance?

Keith Sibson, VP of Product & Marketing, PostUp: Theres definitely a general sense that content on the Internet should be free, and publishers largely have themselves to blame for this because they ported their paper business models onto the Internet as ad-only. Readers expectations were set at that time, and can be hard to change. However, people are willing to pay for quality  the Economist has always had a subscription fee online  and the difference between high and low quality on the Internet is becoming starker. Surveys show that around 30-40% of US consumers are willing to pay for quality content online.

Kristina: How important is this diversification?

Keith: Programmatic advertising revenues per impression is declining steadily. This is due to the massive oversupply of advertising inventory (space availale on websites for ads to be placed). The oversupply comes from the emergence of literally millions of new digital publishers, e.g. bloggers, all competing for the same reader attention, and crucially the fact that advertisers and agencies are moving their ad spend towards the platforms: Google, Facebook, Snap, etc.

Diversification of revenue is extremely important for quality content producers, because have high cost structures associated with producing content. However, a programmatic ad placed next to a heavily researched article on Middle Eastern politics pays exactly the same as an ad next to a cat video copied from Reddit. As advertising revenues go down and down, only the cat video reposters can survive.

Kristina: How can publishers begin now to diversify their revenue model?

Keith: For quality content producers, the answer is simple, ask people to pay for it. If the content is in demand, and not freely available elsewhere, then people will pay. Done well, introducing a paywall doesnt have to cut off advertising revenue, its possible to get the best of both works by using what we call Personalized Business Models.

Kristina: What are your top three tips, for publishers, to improve the customer experience on their sites?

Keith: 1. Suppress aggressive ads and paywalls for first time site visitors, to give a good first impression

2. Try to nurture your audience into a newsletter program, with an invitation to the inbox you can bring them back over and over

3. Look very carefully at your mobile experience, its the majority of users now, consider using Google AMP if you dont already
Farmers said that the potato market in Shan State may disappear due to the new Military Council agreement to allow potatoes grown in China to be...
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NEW YORK, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Below are experts from the ProfNet network who are available to discuss timely issues in your coverage area.

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Potential Medicaid Cuts Put Savings of Middle-Class Elderly at RiskKelley BentleyElder Law AttorneyRoberts Markel Weinberg Butler Hailey PC, HoustonThe health care bill the U.S. Senate is fine-tuning could have profound effects on elderly people who rely on nursing home care. Says Bentley: "The bill proposes large cuts to federal Medicaid support over several years with reliance on states to decide funding in the future. While many people may assume the program pays solely for health care for the poor, it also fills a gap for long-term care, including at-home and nursing home care for the elderly population. The cost of long-term care in the U.S. can be substantial and a serious drain on an individual's assets. That includes middle-class retirees who sometimes have managed to save substantial assets. Some people simply outlive their savings for long-term care. Older people should take a hard look at their savings long before any health problems. The secret is to start to plan early, before the need arises as there are more options available for the preservation of assets. The goal is not necessarily to preserve assets for future generations, but to ensure that an individual (or married couple) has sufficient assets to cover any future long-term care needs."Contact: Kit Frieden, [email protected]

Could the New Netflix Movie 'To the Bone' Trigger Anorexia or Other Eating Disorders?Dena Cabrera, PsyD, CEDSExecutive Clinical DirectorRosewood Centers for Eating Disorders"Could 'To the Bone' trigger anorexia or other eating disorders in someone struggling with the disease? Yes, of course -- but those in the thick of an eating disorder, or who are not yet working on their recovery, can use this film as 'thinspiration.' In fact, Impressionable men and women are triggered all the time by social media, TV commercials, music videos and print ads that glorify thinness. Just check out a Victoria's Secret ad! I hope that 'To the Bone' communicates a message about the mental and psychiatric devotion of an eating disorder, beyond just TV images."A Certified Eating Disorders Specialist with a wealth of diverse clinical experience, Dr. Cabrera is able to provide expert insight on eating disorders and associated issues, such as body shaming, depression, anxiety, co-occurring disorders, the impact of eating disorders on family and loved ones, and cognitive-behavioral treatment for eating disorders. She has authored numerous articles and publications, and is honored by her academic and clinical peers for contributing vital resources to the field of eating disorders. She most recently co-authored "Mom in the Mirror: Body Image, Beauty and Life After Pregnancy" (Rowman & Littlefield), a first resource of its kind that speaks to moms and those who love them through a personal and compassionate lens that assists in healing from body-image disturbances and eating disorders. Dr. Cabrera is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Academy of Eating Disorders, and the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals. She received her Master of Arts and PsyD in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles. She is based in Arizona.Website: www.rosewoodranch.comContact: Paul Maccabee, [email protected]

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The arrangements for Liu Xiaobo's funeral will respect the wishes of his family and local customs, with relevant authorities providing assistance if the family requests, China News Service reported on Friday.

Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in jail in December 2009 for inciting subversion of State power. He was released on medical parole in June after he was diagnosed with cancer of the liver. He died of multiple organ failure on Thursday at the age of 61.

His wife Liu Xia and several relatives were in attendance when he died, the China News Service report said.

The hospital where he received treatment had done its best to save his life, his main doctor Liu Yunpeng said on Thursday night.

The authorities will protect Liu Xia's legitimate rights and interests as a Chinese citizen, the report stated, adding that as she was still grieving the death of her husband, it would be better to leave her undisturbed to arrange the funeral.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/07/2017 (1946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempted murder for his part in an armed confrontation outside a city business.

But due to the law surrounding publication bans, The Brandon Sun cant share what it is that the offender has admitted in open court to doing.

Mr. Hunter, you are a violent, dangerous man. You have proven that to be the case, over, and over, and over again  Youre going the penitentiary for a long time, Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta told Thomas Leonard Hunter just before he was escorted by sheriffs from the court room. You should view this as an opportunity to rehabilitate yourself.

The 10-year sentence was part of a total sentence of 12 years in prison for the confrontation, possession of guns and drugs at the time of his later arrest, and for taking part in beating a fellow Brandon jail inmate while on remand.

The Sun can provide some background based on court documents and prior court hearings that werent covered by publication bans.

Hunter had attended a business on the 300 block of 10th Street on Sept. 24. Once there, he got in an argument with a man whose wife owned the store.

During the altercation outside the shop, Hunter reportedly had a gun and he pleaded guilty to trying to kill the man at the shop.

The motive has never been proven. According to court documents, early in the investigation, police believed Hunter was angry because the victim had taken a hit out on him. There was also an argument about illegal drug supply. Hunter didnt specifically admit to those motives, however.

While Hunter has pleaded guilty to attempted murder and has been sentenced, The Brandon Sun cant report what it is he specifically admitted to doing during the altercation outside the shop.

Thats because he wasnt initially charged with attempted murder and the evidence that supported that charge only emerged later during a preliminary hearing which is covered by a publication ban.

Typically, a ban on publication imposed during a preliminary hearing would expire when an accused pleads guilty, as Hunter did earlier this week.

However, in this case, Hunter had a joint preliminary hearing with Tsolaye Joseph Okorodudu, who is charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting Hunters companion with a different gun during the same altercation.

During Hunters sentencing on Thursday, Crown attorney Grant Hughes pointed out that the allegations against Okorodudu were part of a separate scuffle during the same general confrontation. Okorodudu is still pending on his charges and the allegations against him are heading to trial, Hughes said.

However, Hunters lawyer, Andrew Synyshyn, told Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta that he believed his own clients actions were still covered by the publication ban that remains in place for Okorodudu.

Judge Hewitt-Michta asked Synyshyn if that was because Okorodudu is still pending on charges and Synyshyn agreed, but the judge didnt make a formal ruling on the bans status regarding Hunter.

Section 539 of the Criminal Code, which addresses publication bans imposed for preliminary hearings, seems to support Synyshyns position but is otherwise vague.

It states that such bans remain in place until in respect of each of the accused, he or she is discharged or the trial ends. In Hunters case, the trial would be at an end when he entered his guilty plea on Monday.

But some quick research into the law suggests that it doesnt specify what should be done with a preliminary hearing ban in cases such as these, where one accused pleads guilty and another remains before the courts.

The Sun is left to conclude that the publication ban prevents the newspaper from printing what Hunter has admitted, even though he did so in open court.

However, the newspaper is consulting its lawyer about the validity of the ban as it applies to Hunters actions.

The details of Hunters part in the confrontation would be free to publish once Okorodudu disposes of his charges. But such a trial would appear to be a multi-day affair, and at this point Court of Queens Bench staff are looking at September 2018 to schedule trials of three to four days.

Hunters other admissions can be published though.

Following the confrontation at the 10th Street store, city police had him under surveillance and pulled him out of a taxi and arrested him on Oct. 3. One of his companions on that occasion had a loaded semi-automatic handgun in her purse, which Hunter has now admitted belonged to him and that he didnt have licence for the gun. During the arrest, police also found 4.8 grams of crystal meth, about $1,000 cash, 1.9 grams of cocaine. Hunter has also admitted the meth was his.

The woman with the purse and another co-accused are still before the courts but, given Hunters admissions, their charges may be dropped. On Feb. 20, Hunter also took part in a beating at the jail during which he and four other men beat an inmate. Hunter hit the victim with a chair, and pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon.

Hunter has a criminal record that Hewitt-Michta noted to include 11 convictions for violence or threats of violence, many of them aggravated assaults.

Hunter was given credit of 425 days remand time to be deducted from his sentence. Offenders rarely serve their full prison terms. Theyre generally eligible to apply for full parole after serving one-third of their sentence.

 ihitchen@brandonsun.com
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 13/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is a double honour for a husband-wife duo from Rossburn who created an elaborate art piece for a former president of the United States.

Reg Kucey explained the couple is being asked to both design artwork befitting of a major world leader and represent Manitoba.

And after hearing compliments from officials with Habitat for Humanity Manitoba, theyre relieved.

Submitted The art piece designed by Reg and Jamie Kucey of Rossburn.

We sort of lived up to their trust.

For more than 20 years, the couple fine-tuned their artistic disciplines  he with antlers, she with wood  and its brought recognition, leading to a commission to design a present for Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, and his wife Rosalynn, the former first lady.

The Carters are set to receive the gift this week, as part of their Winnipeg visit to build Habitat homes through the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project. The couple last wielded hammers and paintbrushes in the city in 1993.

Its not often Reg and Jamie Kucey make art together.

Reg creates carvings made solely of animal antlers, while Jamie uses wood to make furniture or big art pieces.

Though divergent in their art styles, the final product proves they work well together.

The piece consists of 41 layers of elm, ash, spruce and oak laid on top of each other. The protruding layers are comparable to the Tower of Hope at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg  following the pattern as it rises, however convoluted, such as life itself.

Arising from the gaps and cracks, in a chaotic fashion, are antlers of elk and deer. Though the antlers seem to emerge randomly, they meet at a determined centre, the apex.

The artwork, 13 inches high and 18 inches wide, also include pieces of birchbark, sewn together like a pair of wings to symbolize shelter.

Submitted Jamie Kucey, who specializes in woodworking, partnered on a project with her husband Reg that would be gifted to former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.

Other Manitoba mementos include polar bear footprints and 10 conceptual portrayal of swimming beluga whales.

Its abstract enough that it allows you to come up with your own interpretation, Reg said. We hope that it gives enough hints that it can sort of influence the direction that your own imagination would go in.

When I look at it, it says shelter and hope, Jamie added, but thats the background I give to it.

The Manitoba-made structure should be displayed at The Carter Centre in Atlanta, a non-profit established to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering.

The couple came by their artistic talents humbly, beginning, mainly, in the 1990s.

Reg, previously the director of the Brandon Research Centre, was camping when his son suggested an antler would make a good slingshot. Sure enough, it did. Hes self-taught carving since, upgrading his capabilities from slingshots to designing chess pieces and Japanese-influenced sculptures.

At 40, Jamie, an animal health technician and freelance writer, went back to school. She attended Assiniboine Community College in Brandon to take carpentry and woodworking. Always fond of trees, she figured shed follow in her fathers footsteps, once a carpenter, now that she had his tools.

Since then, she built their wood-framed home, and crafted furniture made of Manitoba lumber.

Submitted Reg Kucey, who specializes in making carvings with antlers, partnered on a project with his wife Jamie that would be gifted to former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.

By 2006, they began actively marketing themselves. More of their handmade works are available at inakacustomfurnitureandart.ca.

Retired from their previous jobs, the couple says their respective art projects are part-time passions for them. They work not all the time, but when theyre inspired.

Often separately, but on behalf of the Carter family, this gift, entitled We all believe in home, was the fourth piece the Kuceys collaborated on.

 ifroese@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @ianfroese
EasyJet has applied for a new air operator's certificate (AOC) in Austria to allow it to continue flying in the European Union after Brexit.

The carrier said the accreditation process is "well advanced" and it hopes to receive the AOC "in the near future".

It will allow the company to continue to operate flights across Europe and domestically within Europe after the UK withdraws from the EU.

EasyJet, which currently has airlines based in the UK and Switzerland, will establish a third, easyJet Europe, headquartered in Austria.

A spokeswoman said "nothing will change" from the perspective of passengers, and all the people and planes that will fly for easyJet Europe are already employed and based in the EU27 countries.

The single market for aviation, created in the 1990s, means there are no commercial restrictions for airlines flying within the EU.

UK ministers say maintaining "liberal access" to European aviation markets will be a "top priority" during Brexit negotiations.

EasyJet previously insisted it would not reveal the location of its new AOC until the application was granted, but it made the announcement after it became clear it would emerge as the approval process requires updating its safety systems and processes.

The company is forking out 10 million for the AOC.
Newly released photographs from a Tanzanian wildlife area have shown the rare sight of a leopard cub suckling on a lioness that is believed to have given birth to a litter last month.

The five-year-old lioness lies unperturbed as the small leopard, estimated to be a few weeks old, nurses in the photographs taken by a guest at a lodge in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a United Nations World Heritage site.

"To observe a thing like this is very unusual," said Ingela Jansson, head of the KopeLion conservation group, which seeks to resolve conflict between lions and local residents who hunt the predators to protect their livestock.

The lioness, fitted with a GPS collar so researchers can track her, may have lost her own cubs and was therefore open to feeding the leopard cub, Ms Jansson said. The leopard appeared to have lost contact with its mother, she added.

"Cross-species nursing for wild cats, and other wildlife for that matter, is extremely unique," according to Panthera, a wild cat conservation group based in New York.

There have been cases of adoptions and suckling among wild cats and other animals of the same species, as well as cases of birds feeding chicks of another species whose eggs were inadvertently laid in their nests, according to conservationists.

"It's really mysterious," said Luke Hunter, president and chief conservation officer of Panthera.

He said it was unclear whether the leopard's mother was still around and could retrieve the cub from "lioness day care", which would be the best possible outcome.

He warned that "the natural odds are stacked against this little fellow", which may have since been killed by other lions that recognised it was not one of their own.

Even in normal circumstances, only 40% of lion cubs in the area, part of the Serengeti ecosystem, survive their first year, Mr Hunter said.

Known as Nosikitok, the lioness that fed the leopard was seen with other lions but without cubs of any kind the day after the photographs were taken by Joop van der Linde, a guest at Ndutu Safari Lodge.

Ms Jansson jokingly described the nursing as a case of "confusion at the supermarket" in which the lioness "picked up the wrong kid".

AP
A syndicate from the West of Ireland walked out of National Lottery headquarters instant multi-millionaires today after collecting their spectacular 29m EuroMillions jackpot win.

The group who wish to remain anonymous travelled to Dublin to collect their winnings and a spokesperson for the group has said the win is only starting to sink in.

This has come as a huge shock but we are thrilled. This will certainly make life easier for us all and will secure our futures." they said.

The group realized their win last Saturday when one of the syndicate members checked the EuroMillions numbers. The other syndicate members were then informed.

It has been a roller coaster week with lots of butterflies in our stomachs and lots of different emotions. But we are keeping level heads and we will try to take it all in and we will give it time before we decide what to do with our winnings.

The winning quick pick ticket was purchased from Umesh Kumars Garryduff XL Store on Pound Road, Castlebar, on Friday July 6.

National Lottery Chief Executive, Dermot Griffin, said today he was delighted to hand over the winning cheque to the syndicate.

We always love seeing happy winners come into our winners room here in National Lottery headquarters. It is important these winners take the time and space to let the news sink in. This is an incredible amount of money to win, and we have recommended that the winners get independent financial and legal advice.
Update 4:50pm: Armed Support Units will be in place across the country by the end of the year.

The Garda Commission has said that while Ireland is a very safe place, we have a domestic terrorism threat that has not gone away.

Noirin O'Sullivan was speaking at a Garda training exercise in Dublin's Docklands that simulated a terrorist attack.

The Commissioner says she believes that officers have a quick response time to incidents

"We've had a number of real life events unfortuantely over the last few weeks for example, at the Dart station, we saw an individual on a train prodcued what turned out to be an imitation pistol," she said.

"We are measuring all of the response times and we are very confident that we have the response capability."

Update 3.30pm: The Garda Commissioner says that Ireland is a very safe place but we have to be realistic.

Noirin O'Sullivan was speaking at a garda terrorist training exercise in Dublin's Docklands.

Commissioner O'Sullivan says she is confident that we have the response capability in the event of an attack, but that officers are learning lessons all the time.

She added that there will be armed support units for all of Ireland by the end of the year.

"The armed support unit was introduced in December for the city here. We then gave a commitment that we are going to increase our armed support units all over the country.

"That will be completed by the end of this year. We have increased the numbers here in the city because what we're simulating here today is an international terrorist threat.

"But what we have to remember is that we also a domestic terrorist threat which hasn't gone away"

Earlier:: Specialist Garda units have carried out a simulated anti-terror operation in central Dublin.

The exercise involved attackers targeting people at the Docklands railway station before taking hostages on a train.

The operation was partly designed to measure response times for elite Garda units and involved officers reacting to victims of knife attacks and confronting armed terrorists.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said he hoped the exercise would give the public reassurance.

"While a terrorist attack here may be unlikely, the authorities are in no way complacent in the measures being taken to respond to that threat," he said.

"The exercise today is part of an ongoing process of planning and training that, to a large extent, takes place quietly and behind the scenes. That said, this work goes on relentlessly."

The exercise began with a simulated report of a car crash at Spencer Dock to which local units were dispatched.

The scene they were confronted with included an injured person on the ground and people having been stabbed.

The officers were also told of a report of two attackers - one armed with a gun and one a knife.

The exercise then moved inside the station.
Irish sailors are heading to the Mediterranean this morning on the latest migrant rescue mission.

It comes a day after the Dail approved Ireland's participation in an EU operation to clamp down on human trafficking.

Today's deployment of the LE WB Yeats does not come under Operation Sophia and is solely to save lives.

The Government passed a motion last night by 81 votes to 38 to use the Irish Defence Forces involved in Operation Sophia.

Naval ships in Operation Sophia will be used to stop gangs using vessels for human trafficking and it needs the Government to activate the so-called "triple lock" in order to change the status of the Irish Navy operating in the Mediterranean.

Lieutenant Commander Eric Tymon says it will be tough but they are prepared.

He said: "What we are looking for is what we call PIDs, or platforms in distress. These could take the form of RIBs in which you could have up to 100 migrants or up to wooden vessels where there could be several hundred migrants on board.

"Obvioulsy it's a very complex operation getting these people on board safely on to our ship and onward to a port of safety in Italy."
The Taoiseach has announced that the first meeting of the new Government Security Committee will take place next week.

Leo Varadkar had announced plans to establish the commeittee before elected, with a plan to allow greater Ministerial involvement in managing major security threats.

The announcement comes following the conclusion of a Garda security exercise today in Dublin and Mr Varadkar said the first meeting of the Government Security Committee will review the lessons learned from it.

"Protecting our citizens is of paramount importance to the Government. This involves a significant amount of ongoing work by the Gardai, the Defence Forces and other State agencies," said Mr Varadkar.

"Todays security exercise is part of the ongoing work by these State agencies to practice, develop and assess our capacity to prevent or respond to incidents."

"Their principle focus is on security within Ireland, but they also work with our partners in Europe and further afield. Much of this work happens behind the scenes, but I also recognise that the public need reassurances about our capacity to deal with incidents.

"As well as testing our response capacity, it is even more important that we do all we can to prevent attacks.

"We do this through our law enforcement and intelligence agencies, through international co-operation, through our foreign policy and peacekeeping work, and also through important domestic measures such as promoting integration, education, tolerance and respect here at home."

The Taoiseach also emphasised that there is no change to the threat level here in Ireland, which remains at Moderate.
Update - 11.47am: It is being reported that the man who is injured is aged 40 and is from the Sutton/Bayside area of north Dublin.

Witnesses have reported seeing a gang of men attack him with weapons.
Riot squad teams were deployed over 370 times at Portlaoise maximum security prison last year.

New figures show the Irish Prison Services 'Control and Restraint teams were dispatched 273 times at Mountjoy while, riot teams were called into action 102 times at Cloverhill in 2016.

According to the Prison Officers Association, the numbers indicate the level of risk faced by prison officers in this country on the job every day.

John Cuffe, criminologist and a former senior prison officer outlines when control teams are deployed.

"We call in a control and restraint team when your staff are in danger and other prisoners are in danger," he said.

"It's to quell that disturbance and outbreak of trouble as quickly and as efficiently as possible with the least amount of risk and damage to the people involved."
An American specialist who has offered to treat Charlie Gard is due to examine the terminally-ill baby next week, a judge has heard.

Michio Hirano is scheduled to visit Great Ormond Street Hospital in London on Monday and Tuesday and discuss the case with specialists treating Charlie, Mr Justice Francis was told.

It came after the High Court judge lifted an order which barred journalists from revealing the name of the American specialist.

Mr Justice Francis ruled Dr Hirano, a professor of neurology at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, could be named in media reports.

Charlie's parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates want the judge to rule the 11-month-old, who suffers from a rare genetic condition and has brain damage, should be allowed to undergo a therapy trial overseen by Dr Hirano in New York.

Charlie Gard's parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Picture: Yui Mok/PA Wire

Specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where Charlie is being cared for, say the therapy is experimental and will not help.

They say life support treatment should stop.

Mr Justice Francis had made an order barring journalists from naming Dr Hirano or saying where he was based early this year, shortly after litigation began.

Charlie's parents had said they were worried publicity might put pressure on Dr Hirano.

But journalists have argued naming Dr Hirano will be in the public interest - and he has now said he has no objection to being identified as the doctor involved in the case.

Charlie's parents, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, have already lost battles in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in London.

They have also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights judges to intervene.

The couple say there is new evidence and want Mr Justice Francis, who in April ruled in favour of Great Ormond Street and said Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity, to carry out a fresh analysis of their case.

Mr Justice Francis is considering their claims at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

Dr Hirano gave evidence, via a link from New York, on Thursday.

The judge said he wanted to hear what Dr Hirano believes has changed since he gave his ruling in April.

Dr Hirano said he has clinical data which was not available in April and he still believes the therapy is ''worth trying''.

The doctor estimated a 10% chance of improvement in muscle strength and a ''small but significant'' improvement in brain function.
A dog in the UK has set fire to a kitchen while its owners were out on the school run after jumping up at a cooker.

The family pet switched on two electric hobs after bounding up at the oven's dials at a semi-detached house in Sutton Drive, Stoke-on-Trent.
US president Donald Trump has defended his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer, saying it was standard campaign practice and maintaining "nothing happened" as a result.

The remarks in Paris, made in a joint news conference with French president Emmanuel Macron, came even though Mr Trump's own FBI pick said a day earlier that authorities should be advised of requests to meet with foreign individuals during a campaign.

Donald Trump Jr also said he would rethink his own conduct in agreeing to the meeting in the first place.

"I think from a practical standpoint most people would've taken that meeting. It's called opposition research, or even research into your opponent," Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump Jr released emails this week from 2016 in which he appeared eager to accept information from the Russian government that could have damaged Hillary Clinton's campaign.

The emails were sent ahead of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer that Mr Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner also attended.

Asked about the meeting, Mr Trump said "politics is not the nicest business in the world" and it is standard for candidates to welcome negative information about an opponent.

In this case, he added, "nothing happened from the meeting, zero happened from the meeting".

Mr Trump's support for the encounter stood in contrast to the position of his nominee for FBI director, Christopher Wray.

At his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, he was asked what candidates should do if told a foreign government wants to help by offering damaging information about an opponent.

"Any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation-state or any non-state actor," Mr Wray said, "is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know."

Mr Trump Jr said in a Fox News interview on Tuesday night that "in retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently".

Meanwhile, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said he would call on Mr Trump Jr to testify as part of investigations into Russian meddling in last year's election and subpoena him if necessary.

Senator Chuck Grassley said he wants Mr Trump Jr to testify "pretty soon" and it could be as early as next week.

He said members are not restricted "from asking anything they want to ask".

The Judiciary Committee is one of several congressional panels investigating Russian meddling in the US election, along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

US intelligence agencies have accused the Russian government of meddling through hacking in last year's election to benefit Mr Trump and harm Mrs Clinton.

Authorities are exploring potential coordination between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

The June 9 meeting involved a lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was described to Mr Trump Jr as a "Russian government lawyer" who had incriminating information on Mrs Clinton.

AP
Update 3.15pm: A second teenage boy is in custody after two males on a moped carried out five acid attacks across London in less than 90 minutes.

The teenagers - aged 15 and 16 - were arrested on suspicion of robbery and grievous bodily harm following the assaults, which the Metropolitan Police said appeared to be linked.

Two involved victims having their mopeds stolen, while one victim has been left with "life-changing" injuries after being doused on Thursday night in the east of the capital, the force added.

Police said the 15-year-old was arrested at an address in Stoke Newington on Friday morning, while the 16-year-old was arrested in the early hours of Friday in Kingsbury Road after he was identified near the scene of the offences by local authority CCTV operators.

Both suspects are in custody at a north London police station.

Chief Inspector Ben Clark, from Hackney Borough, said all of the victims were riding mopeds, adding that it is not the case that they were all food delivery riders.

He said: "This is a fast moving investigation and we have made two arrests today.

"However, I would like to ask the public for their help. Each of these offences took place in busy locations and we know there may be witnesses who have not yet contacted us. If you saw something or managed to film or photograph anything that might help us please get in touch.

"These are hideous offences and must have been very frightening for all of the victims.

"I'm aware of rumours circulating that the victims were all food delivery riders set up in advance of the attacks. This is not the case. All victims were riding mopeds at the time of the attacks, but were from a variety of backgrounds.

"Of late we have seen more attacks using corrosive substances in London. I would urge businesses and parents to challenge those who they think may be trying to obtain or carry these substances as this could help prevent serious offences and life-changing injuries being caused."

Update 12pm: Theresa May's spokeswoman said the Prime Minister viewed acid attacks as "horrific".

She told a Westminster briefing: "It is already an offence to carry acid or a corrosive substance with intent to cause harm. And anyone using it can be prosecuted for pretty serious offences including ABH and GBH.

"We are working with the police to see what more we could do.

"The Prime Minister's view is that the use of acid in this way is horrific."

Update 10.45am: A 16-year-old boy is in custody after two males on a moped carried out five acid attacks across London in less than 90 minutes, police said.

The teenager was arrested on suspicion of robbery and grievous bodily harm following the assaults, which the Metropolitan Police said appeared to be linked.

Two involved victims having their mopeds stolen, while one victim has been left with "life-changing" injuries after being doused on Thursday night in the east of the capital, the force added.

Labour MP Stephen Timms, who will lead an adjournment debate on acid attacks in the Commons on Monday, has called for tougher sentences for those found guilty, while Commissioner Cressida Dick revealed the Home Office is working with the Met to see if a change in the law is needed.

She branded acid attacks "completely barbaric", telling LBC: "The acid can cause horrendous injuries; the ones last night involved a series of robberies we believe are linked - I am glad to see we have arrested somebody."

The 16-year-old youth is being held at an east London police station.

One man, who lives in the block of flats overlooking the scene of the attack in Upper Clapton Road and did not want to be named, said: "I saw the road closed for a couple of hours. It looked really scary. I saw the aftermath. I saw the motorbike on the pavement."

Asha Kaur, 26, said it was frightening to think that an attack happened so close to where she lives off the Upper Clapton Road.

The beauty therapist, who got home on Thursday night at 11pm - shortly before the attack - said: "It's just scary because I walk to work and it's just literally outside your doorstep.

"Even with my phone, you've just got to be extra cautious and hide it all away."

Ms Kaur said she has told her 22-year-old brother to be "extra careful".

Update 9am: The Home Office and the Metropolitan Police are working together to see if changes in the law are needed to help tackle acid attacks, the Commissioner has revealed.

Cressida Dick, the country's most senior officer, told LBC that the growing trend of victims being doused with corrosive liquids is concerning.

Speaking in the wake of the latest attack, which saw two men on a moped target five people, Ms Dick branded acid attacks "completely barbaric".

Cressida Dick

"The acid can cause horrendous injuries; the ones last night involved a series of robberies we believe are linked - I am glad to see we have arrested somebody," she told the show.

"And it is not, I don't want people to think this is happening all over London all the time, it is really not, but we are concerned because the numbers appear to be going up.

"We will arrest people, we will enforce the law as we can, and we are working very closely with the Home Office to try to see if there is any changes in the law required."

Earlier: Two men on a moped carried out five acids attacks during a spree across London which lasted less than 90 minutes, police said.

The Metropolitan Police said one victim had been left with "life-changing" injuries after being doused on Thursday night in the east of the capital.

The assaults appeared to be linked and two involved victims having their mopeds stolen, they added.

A male teenager was later said to have been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery and has been taken to an east London police station.

At the start of the rampage, a 32-year-old moped driver had been approached by the pair as he drove towards the Hackney Road junction with Queensbridge Road.

The two male suspects had tossed the noxious substance into his face before one of them jumped on to his vehicle and drove away.

Police said the man had gone to an east London hospital and they were awaiting an update on his injuries.

Little more than 20 minutes later, at around 10.50pm, another victim had been sprayed with searing liquid by the pair on the Upper Street junction with Highbury Corner, Islington.

The victim was taken to hospital in north London.

Then at around 11.05pm, the fast-moving attackers swooped on a man in Shoreditch High Street, tossing the substance in his face.

His injuries were not life-threatening, police said.

Within 15 minutes, they appeared to have struck again, launching their corrosive load at a man on Cazenove Road and causing "life-changing" facial injuries.

The final assault of the night was reported to police at 11.37pm, when another man was confronted as he sat on his moped in traffic on Chatsworth Road.

After again spraying the liquid in a victim's face, the moped was stolen and both attackers fled.

The Met Police said in a statement: "Inquiries are ongoing and officers from Hackney CID are investigating.

"Any witnesses, anyone with information or in possession of footage of these incidents should contact police on 101 or tweet @MetCC. To remain anonymous you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."

The string of assaults comes just days after a man appeared in court accused of throwing acid at an aspiring model and her cousin.

Resham Khan, 21, and Jameel Muhktar, 37, were left with life-changing injuries after the attack on Ms Khan's 21st birthday in Beckton, east London.

John Tomlin appeared at Thames Magistrates' Court on Tuesday charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent.

A mass acid attack has also previously hit the capital this year.

On Easter Monday, acid was sprayed at a crowded east London club night, leaving two revellers partially blinded and others disfigured.

Arthur Collins, the former boyfriend of reality TV star Ferne McCann, was charged in connection with the attack.

Witness Sarah Cobbold looked out from her flat near the Hackney Road attack to see police pouring huge bottles of water over the victim on her doorstep.

The 29-year-old sub-editor had been standing at the same spot just minutes earlier.

She told the Press Association: "It was just outside my flat, the victim was literally stood on my doorstep.

"It was probably about 10.30pm, I saw some reports that it happened at 10.25pm so by 10.30pm there were a couple of police cars and an ambulance there.

"After about 10 minutes I still saw the flashing and went out on my balcony and looked over the roof to see what is going on.

"Police had cordoned off the little area around the pavement and there was just a guy standing on my doorway and they were pouring huge, five-litre bottles of water over his head.

"He was standing, he seemed to be OK. After probably about 10-15 minutes he managed to walk unaided into the ambulance. I hope that means he is OK; the ambulance certainly didn't rush off with sirens."

As she watched, around 25 moped riders arrived - many appearing to be from fast-food delivery companies such as UberEats and Deliveroo.

"I'm guessing maybe they had heard what happened and came down because they can't have all been driving round together," she said.

She added: "I had thought someone must have chucked petrol or acid on him or something because they were covering him in water, but I have never seen that reaction to an attack, I thought maybe there had been an accident.

"I had literally just walked in the house, I was stood where he was 10 minutes earlier.

"I don't think I would have been attacked but it could have been quite easy to have been caught in the crossfire here or at the other locations."

Police cordons had been lifted by the morning, but the street remained strewn with empty plastic bottles, Ms Cobbold said.
A teenager in the UK has been charged with terrorism offences.

The 17-year-old boy, who was arrested in the Redhill area of Surrey on Tuesday, has been charged with three counts of disseminating terrorist publications and one count of preparation of terrorist acts.

Surrey Police said he is to appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday morning.

A 23-year-old man who was also arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of terrorism offences has been released pending further investigation.
Update 10:03pm: Two German female tourists have been stabbed to death while four other foreigners were wounded in an attack at a hotel in an Egypt resort.

The assault in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada came hours after a shooting near famous pyramids outside Cairo killed five policemen.

The motive behind the stabbing was unclear and the Interior Ministry said the attacker was arrested immediately.

A security official said the attacker, a man in his 20s dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans, wielded a knife and targeted foreigners.

"Stay away, I don't want Egyptians," the assailant said in Arabic, according to the official.

Without taking any blame for what appears to be a major security breach, the Interior Ministry said the attacker had got into the hotel by swimming from a nearby beach.

No group claimed responsibility for killing the five police officers but it bore the hallmarks of a smaller Islamic militant group known as Hasm that has been behind similar shootings.

The attacker in Hurghada stabbed the tourists in the face, neck and feet, according to the security official.

Two German tourists died of their wounds while four others were hurt, including citizens of Ukraine and the Czech Republic, the official said.

In Germany, the foreign ministry said it "cannot rule out" that German citizens were among the victims but stressed that it does not have that information.

Man arrested after six tourists injured in stabbing at hotel in Red Sea resort of Hurghada, Egyptian officials say https://t.co/pOtP7CnWvB  BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) July 14, 2017

An emergency doctor at the al-Salam hospital confirmed the wounded tourists were taken there.

Gunmen riding on a motorcycle opened fire on a security vehicle patrolling a Giza village, killing the five policemen, the Interior Ministry and officials said.

The deadly shooting - on the Muslim weekend when traffic is slower - heightened fears of what has become near-weekly attacks by suspected Islamic militants after a blitz attack left 23 troops dead in northern Sinai a week ago.

Egypt has been under a state of emergency for months following a series of church bombings in the spring that killed scores of Christians.

The village of Abusir in Badrashin, where the policemen were killed, is part of Greater Cairo.

The policemen were part of the force tasked to guard the district of Saqqara, one of Egypt's most popular tourist sites.

According to the ministry, the militants sprayed the police vehicle with machine-gun fire and fled the scene after one returned gunfire.

However, a video circulated on social media appears to show the attackers faced no resistance.

It shows them seizing police weapons and radios and setting fire to the bodies after the shooting.

Authorities cordoned off the area and ambulances rushed to the site.

Hasm, or "decisiveness", is a militant group that authorities have linked to the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

It has claimed responsibility for drive-by shootings and attacks that targeted police, military, judges and pro-government figures in the past.

Earlier: The Associated Press are reporting that the two tourists killed by a knife attacker at an Egyptian holiday resort are not Ukrainian, as originally reported, but German.

An Egyptian security official says 2 slain tourists in Red Sea resort were German, not Ukrainian as previously said. https://t.co/YcQOhhgMWR  The Associated Press (@AP) July 14, 2017

Update: Two Ukrainian tourists were killed and four other tourists have been wounded by a knife attacker at an Egyptian holiday resort, Egypts Interior Ministry have confirmed.

It is understood that the attacker had swum from a nearby public beach to access the holiday resort in Hurghada, some 400 km (250 miles) south of Cairo. He has been arrested.

Egypts security forces are fighting an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula and militants have carried out attacks in the past on the tourism industry.

Earlier: Six tourists have been wounded by a man with a knife in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, according to Egypts Interior Ministry.

The ministry said the assailant was arrested immediately after the stabbings on Friday.

It said the initial investigation showed the man got into a hotel by swimming from a nearby beach and attacked the tourists, of various nationalities.

The motive for the attack is not known.

The ministry said the tourists were rushed to a local hospital. It gave no further details and did not provide the nationalities of the victims.

The incident comes after masked gunmen on a motorcycle have opened fire on a security checkpoint in Egypt, killing five policemen near some of the countrys oldest pyramids in Giza, officials said.

The drive-by shooting in the early hours of the morning took place in the village of Abusir in Badrashin, part of Greater Cairo.

The officers were part of the force guarding Saqqara, one of Egypts most popular tourist sites and host to a collection of temples, tombs and funerary complexes.

The attack took place near the famous Step Pyramid of King Djoser - the oldest of Egypts more than 90 pyramids and the forerunner of the more familiar straight-sided versions in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo.

Attackers stole the weapons and radios of the victims and tried to set fire to the bodies but fled after seeing people gathering nearby, witnesses said.

Insurgents have carried out a number of attacks in Egypt since the 2013 military removal of elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

The violence has been concentrated in the northern Sinai peninsula, but attacks have spread in the mainland, including in the capital where suicide bombers have struck churches and security headquarters.

While an Islamic State group affiliate has claimed major attacks, a shadowy group called Hasm, or "Decisiveness" - which the government suspects is linked to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood - has claimed similar drive-by shootings and attacks targeting police, military, judges and pro-government figures.

The Brotherhood won a series of elections in Egypt following the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak, and Mr Morsi, a senior Brotherhood leader, became Egypts first freely elected president the following year.

His brief rule proved divisive, and the military overthrew him in 2013. Authorities outlawed the Brotherhood a few months later, declaring it a terrorist group.

Last Friday, IS claimed a stunning attack on a remote Egyptian army outpost in the Sinai peninsula with a suicide car bomb and heavy machine gun fire, killing at least 23 soldiers.

It was the deadliest attack in the region in two years. On the same day, Hasm claimed the fatal shooting of a policeman as he was heading for Friday prayers.

Over the past few days, the government announced killings of members of Hasm in alleged shootouts with security forces.

In previous incidents, families of the suspects challenged authorities accounts and accused them of illegal detentions, torture and executions.
A woman has been arrested in the UK as part of an investigation into saline bags being tampered with at a hospital.

Cumbria Police said the 24-year-old, from Wigton, had been held on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice and appearing to contaminate goods.

The force has been investigating after saline bags which appeared to have been tampered with were discovered by a member of staff at Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle in January.

A police spokesman said: "Police will continue to work closely with the North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust as inquiries continue into this investigation."

Security measures were stepped up at the hospital following the discovery and a spokesman for North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust said there were no indications that any patients had been adversely affected.

A trust spokeswoman confirmed the woman arrested was a member of staff at the hospital.

She said: "The trust has been working closely with the police since January 2017 when a small number of saline bags appeared to have been tampered with at the Cumberland Infirmary.

"The trust can confirm that a member of staff has been arrested in connection with the incident and we continue to support Cumbria Police with their investigation.

"It is important for the trust to reiterate that there has been no patient harm or adverse effects related to this incident."
We love that the bloke who once used to be "the world's oldest cadet" at The Canberra Times has become an internet sensation.

Yes, we're talking about the ABC's political editor Chris Uhlmann, who we caught up with as he was travelling on the train to Paris for some R and R, after his searing assessment of US President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg went viral . (He was also busy following our own PM with the Aussie press pack through Europe).

Canberra's own internet sensation Chris Uhlmann is joining Channel Nine. Credit:Andrew Meares

We hear the ABC bods reckon his report for Insiders in which he called Trump "isolated and friendless", pushing "fast-forward on the decline of the United States as a global leader", was viewed at least 10 million times on social media.
A former University of Canberra law lecturer was jailed for at least two-and-a-half years on Friday for the rape of one student and indecent acts on others.

A jury found Arthur Marshall Hoyle, 67, guilty earlier this year of raping the student, making advances on two others, and showing another a pornographic PowerPoint slide.

Former University of Canberra academic Arthur Hoyle arrives at the ACT Supreme Court for his trial earlier this year. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong

The offences happened in Hoyle's office in April 2015, after he had invited the students in to discuss allegations of cheating in their essays. The victims were all female and from overseas.

He was found guilty of a total of eight offences, including two of rape, and he was acquitted of a further two acts of indecency.
PM Malcolm Turnbull announced in March a plan to boost capacity at Australia's largest hydro-electric power project by 50 per cent. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Adani project Queensland, where India's Adani Group is planning to develop the $16.5 billion Carmichael coal mine, expects a move to clean energy will completely wipe out its carbon emissions by 2050. Energy policy is a fraught subject with a push by the majority of Australians for more renewable power sources from the Australian majority is clashing with the government's political imperative to keep a lid on soaring power prices. Currently, some 76 per cent of Australia's electricity is drawn from coal-fired power stations which, while a cheap supply source, are at odds with a commitment to lower climate emissions. While in power, Tony Abbott claimed coal was "good for humanity" and his government attacked wind farms for being "ugly". Credit:Jessica Shapiro

South Australia's power outages spurred fears of more widespread blackouts across the nation's electricity market and raised questions as to why one of the world's largest producers of coal and gas is struggling to keep the lights on in a mainland state. The nation's largest and also dirtiest power generator, AGL, says its investment appetite for coal has reversed in the space of just a few years. Chief Scientist Alan Finkel proposed last month that Australia gradually increase its renewable target to 42 per cent by 2030. Credit:Pat Scala Coal doesn't have a long-term future. The writing's on the wall. Elon Musk The economics of building new coal plants don't stack up and increasingly renewables will dominate base-load power, AGL chairman Jeremy Maycock said last week. Australians overwhelmingly want the government to focus on clean energy, according to a June poll by the Sydney-based Lowy Institute.

'Highly improbable' "It's highly improbable that AGL will be constructing new coal-fired power stations because we don't think the economics are likely to favour that," Maycock said in a phone interview. "As the largest generator, we want to play our fair share in the country's emissions reduction targets." Not having any coal-fired power generation in Australia is "an absurdity", says deputy PM Barnaby Joyce. Credit:AP For Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, banging the drum on coal is proving a treacherous task. Turnbull lost his job as Liberal Party leader to Tony Abbott in 2009 due to his support for an emissions trading program that was installed by the opposition Labor government in 2012.

After defeating Labor in 2013, Abbott's Liberal-National coalition dismantled the levy on carbon emissions, claiming it was responsible for higher electricity costs, and cut targets for how much energy Australia aims to draw from wind and solar generation by 2020. 'Good for humanity' While in power, Abbott claimed coal was "good for humanity" and his government attacked wind farms for being "ugly". Since seizing the leadership from his unpopular predecessor almost two years ago, Turnbull has toned down the government's attack on renewables. Turnbull announced in March a plan to boost capacity at Australia's largest hydro-electric power project by 50 per cent in a bid to tackle surging electricity prices and supply constraints. Yet the climate issue continues to create rancour within Turnbull's party. When Chief Scientist Alan Finkel proposed last month that Australia gradually increase its renewable target to 42 per cent by 2030, at least 22 members of his ruling coalition spoke out about it. Renewable energy generation provided 17.3 per cent of Australia's annual electricity generation in 2016, according to an annual report from the industry-led Clean Energy Council.

Abbott, who remains on the government backbench, is now calling for the government to subsidise the building of new coal-fired power plants even as investors shy away from it. Turnbull has refused to rule it out while his deputy Joyce has talked up the potential for the government taking an equity stake in any new plant. For now, the official political line is all energy sources need to be in the mix. Just don't rule out coal. "When it comes to energy sources, ours is a technology-neutral and all-of-the-above approach," Frydenberg said in an emailed response to questions last week. "With a significant amount of base-load generation being phased out over the next 15 years, we need to ensure we are prepared and have enough power to meet future needs." 'An absurdity' Joyce, whose New England electorate in rural NSW is home to a number of coal mines, is typically more blunt. Not having any coal-fired power generation in Australia is "an absurdity", he told Sky on Sunday. Australia exported more coal than any other country in 2015, and has the fourth-largest share of the planet's coal resources, the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science said in December. Still, the existing and perceived political and environmental costs attached to coal are deterring lenders.
The study says some cyclical recovery in the growth of trade is likely but, without further trade liberalisation, a return to the glory days seems unlikely. Credit:Jessica Shapiro The study estimates that about 40 per cent of the slowdown between 2011 and 2015, as compared with the period from 1991 to 2007, is explained by the weak growth of demand in the global economy. In particular, the crisis saw a sharp fall-off in businesses' investment spending on new physical capital  which happens to be import-intensive  but it hasn't recovered all that much in the years since then. The Trans Pacific Partnership, signed in February 2016, has been scuttled by US President Donald Trump. Credit:AP But that leaves roughly 60 per cent of the slowdown explained by deeper, more structural forces, ones that won't just go away if we wait a few more years.

Part of the explanation is that, in the two decades before the crisis, certain factors contributed to making trade growth exceptionally strong, but these factors have now lost their force. We have a lot of ground to make up before much enthusiasm for further globalisation returns. The biggest cause of this exceptional growth in trade was various measures to reduce tariff and non-tariff restrictions on trade. In 1989, and partly at Australia's instigation, the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation partnership between 21 countries was established to promote free trade. The European Union moved to a single market in goods, services, labour and capital in 1992, increasing trade between its members. Because Europe consists of a number of separate countries, it's highly (international) "trade intensive" in a way that America  composed of states rather than countries  or even Australia isn't.

Uruguay round In 1994, the "Uruguay round" of multilateral negotiations  the biggest of the many rounds of reductions in protection organised by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade since World War II  was reached. This round extended membership of the GATT from the developed countries to about 150 developing countries  thus doing much to increase trade between the two groups. It also reached trade agreements covering new areas such as textiles, agriculture, services and intellectual property. And, for good measure, the round turned the GATT into the World Trade Organisation. The North America Free Trade Agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico began in January 1994.

China protection cuts And also hugely important to the growth of trade, China  now the world's second-largest trading nation  joined the WTO, cutting much of its protection as a condition of entry. A second factor promoting the growth of trade in the two decades before the crisis was the widespread development of "global value chains"  value as in "value-added"  under which manufactured goods (cars, for instance) are assembled in one country using parts from many countries. As trade liberalisation measures slowed in about 2000, continued growth in trade was supported by China's rapid emergence into the world economy. By the second half of the noughties, however, these structural sources of growth had waned.

Trade liberalisation in reverse In this century, the WTO's Doha round of multilateral negotiations, launched in November 2001, has ground to a halt. According to the study, this halt in liberalisation explains about a quarter of the slowdown in the growth of trade between 2011 and 2015, compared with 1991 to 2007. Many bilateral and regional trade agreements have been signed since then, but the only really significant agreement, the Trans Pacific Partnership, signed in February 2016, has since been scuttled by US President Donald Trump. Add to this, "creeping protectionism from myriad small measures" in various countries, which has put trade liberalisation into reverse. The spread of global value chains seems to have reached its limit, even declined.

Meanwhile, China's period of export-led growth has ended, with its authorities now aiming for growth led by domestic demand. Where to next? So what happens next, and what should be done? The study says some cyclical recovery in the growth of trade is likely but, without further trade liberalisation, a return to the glory days seems unlikely. "Trade", it reminds us, "and the related expansion of global value chains, boosts [economic] growth through increased productivity, by improving resource allocation, increasing scale and specialisation, encouraging innovation, facilitating knowledge transfer, fostering the expansion of more productive firms and the exit of the least productive ones."
His Fair Work application includes a laundry list of complaints he made against Knight Frank during his time at the group. Mr Whitby's first complaint, according to the claim, was in mid-to-late 2015, when he raised concerns about Knight Frank's "proposed changes to the terms and conditions of his employment and profit share arrangement". Mr Whitby alleges he complained again in February 2016 about being given a directive to provide advisory work "free of charge". At around the same time, Mr Whitby alleges he was bullied and harassed by Knight Frank's head of sales and marketing, Erin van Tuil. Leadership and culture

Later in 2016, Mr Whitby says he complained about the leadership and culture at Knight Frank. He does not specify what concerns he had about the company's culture. By the end of 2016, Mr Whitby again raised concerns about "matters relating to his employment, board decisions, and the business of the respondent [Knight Frank]". Mr Whitby also complained about an investigation into complaints about him and a first warning made against him. By February 2017, the relationship had deteriorated further and Mr Whitby alleges at that time he was bullied and harassed by Mr Ellis and Mr Jeffries. He also alleges Mr Coppel failed to act to resolve his concerns after he made complaints about Mr Ellis and Mr Jeffries. Mr Whitby also alleges he was denied his right to personal/carer's leave.

Knight Frank defence According to Knight Frank, Mr Whitby complained about Mr Jeffries to Mr Templeton at the popular Taylor's Rooftop Bar on Pitt Street in Sydney, just down the road from Knight Frank's offices there. In a short defence responding to Mr Whitby's allegations, Knight Frank said the proposed changes to Mr Whitby's employment conditions and profit share did not proceed but admitted he was asked to provide advisory work free of charge. Knight Frank denies Mr Whitby complained about the culture and leadership of the group. However, it confirms Mr Whitby did make the other complaints but does not comment on those complaints any further.

"The applicant's employment was terminated due to misconduct," Knight Frank alleges in its defence. Mr Whitby's letter of dismissal from Mr Ellis is included in the application. 'Conduct and attitude' In it, Mr Ellis writes: "As discussed, we have formed the view that your conduct and attitude has not been acceptable. "You have been spoken to on a number of occasions since your initial warning and encouraged to focus on improving your working relationships with others. It is evident to us that you have been resistant to that advice and you have not changed your conduct and attitude towards others."
Apprentice spray painter Salvatore Acconcio (left) and his boss Peter Fitzhenry. Credit:Brook Mitchell Mr Acconcio applied for a 457 visa in December last year before his occupation, vehicle spray painter, was removed in April from the federal government's list of occupations open to skilled migration. The change is retrospective and applies to the December application, for which Mr Fitzhenry paid a $6000 fee. Similar trades, including panel beater and painting trades worker, skills Mr Acconcio also performs, remain on the long-term skilled migration list. Australia lost ground in the enterprise category. Credit:AP Mr Acconcio, whose job is in Camperdown and his partner Chirin Brunello, who works for an interior design company that imports products from Italy, both "love Australia" and want to stay.

"This is the first time in my life someone has believed in me and I don't want to lose this job," Mr Acconcio said. Chris F Wright has criticised the system. It's a recipe for category shopping. University of Sydney's Chris F Wright "We want to raise a family here, but now all the dreams are broken. "In Europe there is a crisis and we work a 10-hour day in Italy for less money to survive."

"You are asked to choose between a pay cut and a worse pay cut," says ACTU president Ged Kearney. Credit:Louise Kennerley Mr Acconcio has not been given notice to leave Australia, but his migration agent and lawyer have advised it was "only a matter of time". Ms Brunello said she contacted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's office to plead their case but her partner's occupation was not among those restored to the list under changes in July. Joanna Howe, Associate Professor University of Adelaide Law School said the Australian system was very vague. Immigration law expert Associate Professor Joanna Howe from the University of Adelaide said it was "deeply unfair" for changes to the 457 visa system to apply retrospectively.

She said Mr Acconcio had invested in the migration journey under one set of rules and now had to comply with a new set. "I think that is an issue in terms of fairness in migration policy making," Dr Howe said. Influential business groups and Universities Australia have successfully lobbied for a reversal of changes to the occupations list including the restoration of university lecturers and CEOs. "Your humble mechanic or spray painter doesn't have that kind of advocacy power with the government," Dr Howe said. "It is still beyond the reach of the ordinary Australian to understand how occupations are subtracted or added to the list and whether vested interests and powerful lobby groups are having greater sway than others."

The changes were also inconsistent in their application to nationals from countries such as China, which has a free trade agreement with Australia. "If the spray painter had come from China he would probably be allowed to stay because of the exemption in the FTA that prevents Australia from applying labour market testing to Chinese workers," Dr Howe said. A spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration and Border protection said it could not comment on individual cases but said people who had applied for a 457 visa but are no longer eligible "may apply for another appropriate visa if they wish to extend their stay in Australia". "They will need meet the relevant regulatory criteria for that visa," the spokeswoman said. Employment relations expert, Chris F Wright from the University of Sydney Business School said the Department's response was ambiguous

"It potentially provides employers with an invitation to sponsor workers for occupations that are on the sponsored occupations list but might not neatly match the skills they have or the jobs they are performing," he said. "There are so many occupations on that list that it almost invites employers to pick and choose which occupation to sponsor a worker for, rather than picking the occupation that most accurately reflects their skills and duties. "It's a recipe for category shopping," he said. Dr Wright said there was a lack of transparency in the skilled occupations list in contrast with the UK system which publishes explanations for why occupations were on the list of skilled occupations open to sponsored migration. "A lot of the ambiguity would be resolved if the government moved towards an independent and transparent system for assessing the needs of the labour market and how immigration can best address those needs, such as the Migration Advisory Committee model used in the UK," he said.

"While there were problems with the previous Consolidated Sponsored Occupations List for the 457 visa, there is not much transparency around the criteria and process for which occupations are eligible for the new Temporary Skills Shortage visa categories. "It wouldn't surprise me if there are inconsistencies in the occupations eligible for the new versus old visas since I'm not convinced that the government's reform have helped to improve the alignment between visa allocation and skills shortages." Dr Wright said the abundance of university graduates and the presence of occupations such as accounting on the skilled occupations list "represents a misalignment between our education and training system and our immigration regulations in meeting Australia's skills needs". Employer claims of skills shortages in some industries such as hospitality could potentially be resolved if employees were offered better pay and conditions. "There may be shortages of workers willing to do the jobs at the current pay rates and conditions. But those pay rates might be unreasonably lower than what locals are prepared to work for," Dr Wright said.

The recent resolution of complaints about changes to the migration guidelines affecting CEOs has effectively meant exempting them from changes to the regulations. "Governments over the past 15 years have invested a lot of political capital into border security and maintaining the integrity of immigration regulations. If there is a situation where the government is saying it will resolve a problem by not enforcing the regulations then that seems a recipe for disaster and runs completely against its rhetoric around how it manages immigration," Dr Wright said. Applicants for a subclass 457 visa who are no longer eligible for the program since their nominated occupation has been removed from the list will also be given an opportunity to withdraw their application and get a refund of their visa application charge. Mr Fitzhenry said he had asked about a refund for the $6000 he spent, but was only told "maybe". ACTU President Ged Kearney said the working visa system was "broken".
Prince Harry held an intimate meeting with Dunkirk veterans to hear their experiences from the massive World War II operation.

The meeting took place at Kensington Palace, ahead of the London premiere of Christopher Nolan's long-awaited film, Dunkirk, that chronicles the operation, nicknamed Operation Dynamo.

Prince Harry meets Dunkirk veterans Arthur Taylor and Garth Wright at a reception hosted by the Prince at Kensington Palace ahead of the world premiere of ''Dunkirk" on Thursday. Credit:Eamonn M. McCormack

The soldiers were forced to evacuate the beaches of Dunkirk, France in late May of 1940 when Nazi forces attempted to close in on them. At the time, British prime minister Winston Churchill said the events were "a colossal military disaster" and that "the whole root and core and brain of the British Army" had been in Dunkirk.

Dunkirk veteran George Wagner, 96, was one of the ex-soldiers present for Prince Harry's get-together.
Traffic inbound to the city has cleared following an earlier crash on the Story Bridge.

By about 10am the vehicles involved in the centre-inbound lane crash had been removed.

Traffic built quickly on the Story Bridge following a peak-hour crash. Credit:Robert Rough RNR

An Australian Traffic Network spokesman said traffic was flowing as normal.

EARLIER
A Queensland Uber driver has been remanded in custody after he fronted a Brisbane court over the alleged rape of a teenage girl.

The 37-year-old British man was charged with the rape of a 16-year-old passenger in Brisbane city's south on Friday, July 7, about 8.30pm.

A British man who had been working as an Uber driver has been charged with raping a teenage passenger in Brisbane's south. Credit:Janie Barrett JEM

His lawyer David Svoboda said the father of two had been in Australia for a year and was on a permanent residency visa.

The accused had been working with Uber for the past eight months and was about to move into a recently purchased property with his family on Monday.
Sophie's Law is a step closer to becoming a reality, after the Queensland LNP agreed to look at new legislation.

On August 29, 2014, Sarah Milosevic was 39 weeks' pregnant when her car was hit by a drunk and drugged driver.

Sophie Milosevic. Her parents, Sarah and Peter, have been campaigning for Sophie's Law.

Her unborn baby, Sophie, died before they could get to hospital.

The drunk and drugged driver was fined $950 and received a five-month licence suspension.
LNP state president Gary Spence has accused Labor of being infatuated by issues of "sexuality" and the environment.

Delivering a speech to the LNP state convention in Brisbane on Friday, Mr Spence took aim at the ALP and Donald Trump and discussed how to tackle the issue of voters shirking major political parties.

The LNP state convention would likely shape the tone of the party's election campaign. Credit:Felicity Caldwell

Mr Spence said Labor was increasingly adopting positions that "it has labelled progressive".

"They are now infatuated with environmental issues and have in more recent times been targeting issues of sexuality and the encouragement of illegal entrance and other so-called 'rights' issues," he said.
An internationally renowned town planner, who this week visited Brisbane for the first time in 35 years, has praised the city's growth but warned of future challenges as critical infrastructure became obsolete.

Michael Batty, a Professor of Planning at University College London, said his last tip to Brisbane was in 1982 and, when he returned this month, one of his first impressions was the city's impressive connectivity.

A visiting town planning expert says he was surprised about Brisbane's evolution since his last visit 35 years ago.

"I have a lot of experience in subways and so on, but the guided bus network where they built all the infrastructure that pertains to the buses themselves and the stations, that seems to be pretty good," he said.

"I've got to admit, it's quite impressive.
A homeless man charged with murdering three squatters in a factory fire acknowledges he took petrol to the scene but denies lighting the blaze, his lawyer has told a court.

Darren Clover, 52, is charged with three counts of murder over the fire at an old factory in Footscray on March 1 in which David Griffiths, Tanya Burmeister and her teenage daughter, Zoe, all died.

David Griffiths, Tanya Burmeister and her teenage daughter, Zoe, all died in the fire.

Mr Clover told police he took a container of fuel to the factory but denied lighting the fire, defence counsel Guillaume Bailin told Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday.

Mr Clover's defence team is expected to focus on two men who appeared suspicious when seen near the factory on the day of the fire.
The $80 million back-up system for Melbourne's rail network may have triggered the glitch that brought down the city's train system on Thursday, stranding or delaying an estimated 175,000 passengers.

Housed in the heritage-listed former cable tram engine house on Nicholson Street in Fitzroy, Metro's state-of-the-art Disaster Recovery Site contains hundreds of servers in a secure environment with uninterruptible power and is the last line of defence for Melbourne's rail commuters.

A packed train at Caulfield heads to Dandenong after the outage. Credit:Joe Armao

But it failed at the precise moment it was needed on Thursday, plunging the city into chaos on the cusp of the evening peak.

The commuter chaos was exacerbated by a trespasser who entered one of the City Loop tunnels at Melbourne Central station soon after trains had started to run again.
Warning: Readers might find the content of this story distressing.

She left the nursing home to live with her son and his family. A room to herself, her grandchildren around and her daughter-in-law as carer.

It should have been everything a frail and elderly woman needed.

Instead authorities allege the woman didn't get the care she needed from her son and his wife in their Melbourne home, and that the last year of her life  when she was well into her 80s  constituted a case of severe neglect bordering on elder abuse.

When, in October 2013, ambulance paramedics were alerted that the woman had died they were appalled by the sight of her in a soiled nappy on a rotten mattress, with food scraps strewn around and a stench through the putrid house.
Details of a Mandurah school teacher who secretly filmed students in a primary school toilet as they changed have been heard in court.

The 60-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victims, recorded children using a hidden camera on a pen hanging on a coat in the toilets.

The teacher hid the camera on a pen hanging on a coat in the toilets.

The former teacher of more than 30 years, was convicted in the Perth District Court on Friday of indecently recording or attempting to indecently record more than 20 children under the age of 13.

Parents of some of the children were in court to hear the details of his offending, which occurred in March 2014 and March 2016.
British police arrested two teenagers on Friday after five acid attacks in less than 90 minutes across east London left several people with facial burns, including one with horrific injuries.

Two assailants on a moped pulled up alongside a 32-year-old man in the Hackney area of east London at 9.25pm local time on Thursday and threw acid in his face before one of the pair made off with the victim's moped.

In the next hour-and-a-half, three other men across Hackney and one in the neighbouring borough of Islington had corrosive substances hurled at them, police said.

After one of the robberies in Hackney, a man was left with facial injuries described by police as "life-changing".
Over 1,200 mail-in votes added to Montco totals; Bucks still in limbo

Two of Montgomery County's three commissioners said they did not support disenfranchising more than 1,200 voters because of a handful of rule breakers
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
The Anil Agarwal-led Ltd plans to increase its volumes by 50 per cent across all businesses over the next two-three years as part of the capital expenditure (capex) chalked out by the company.
Axis Bank, Indias third-largest private sector bank, has appointed headhunters to start the search for a new chief executive officer (CEO) to succeed Shikha Sharma, who is set to step down next year, people familiar with the matter said.
Paradip oil refinery of Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) is by far the biggest gainer of state-sponsored financial incentives, among all the newly constructed oil refineries enjoying tax sops given by the respective states of their location.

According to a study done by the Odisha government, which is revisiting tax sops to Paradip oil refinery, the sales tax deferment to the IOCL project by Odisha would block Rs 2,000 crore revenue from the sale of refinery's products for 11 years from the date of project's commissioning in 2016.
After a long-drawn battle with McDonalds, Vikram Bakshi, the joint-venture partner in Connaught Plaza Restaurants, which runs the US food majors restaurant chain in north and east India, has had a major win. On Thursday, the National Company Law Tribunal ordered that he be reinstated as managing director (MD) of the company  a position from which he was ousted in August 2013. In a chat with Surajeet Das Gupta, he says his priority is to resolve food safety issues. Edited excerpts:



Does the judgment vindicate your stand?



With my restoration as MD, justice has prevailed and I feel vindicated. The judgment has proved that might is not always right. My immediate priority is to address and resolve the issues related to food safety and quality.

How will you resolve the issue of reopening of the 50 restaurants in the National Capital Region. Will you sign on the licence papers?



It will be a board decision and the court will appoint an administrator who will be part of the board. My aim will be to re-open the stores as early as possible.

How does the judgment change the scenario?



An administrator will be appointed with all the powers, including that to vote in the meetings of the board of directors so as to ensure that all resolutions are passed in the interests of the company. The administrator has also been given the option of altering the articles of association to prevent any unfair and unjust attempt to oust me. He will decide what is good for the company if we cannot agree. In fact, the administrator has to ensure that I am appointed MD.
US technology giants such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Apple are looking at acquiring Indian start-ups to cream off the high-quality talent available in the country in order to create new-age products or services.
India's largest Private Sector Bank (PSB) on Friday announced its tie-up with Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US Government's Development Finance Institution, and Wells Fargo on an agreement to increase lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India.

Under the agreement, OPIC will provide $75 million in financing and up to $75 million in syndicated financing jointly arranged by Wells Fargo Bank and OPIC to .

Specifically, $50 million of the financing will be used to expand support to women-owned businesses, while another $50 million will be used for financing SME businesses in low-income states.

Dev Jagadesan, OPIC's Acting President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), signed the financing agreement alongside Arun Agrawal, Group President - International Banking, YES Bank, showcasing both the organisations' dedication towards ensuring access to funding for women-owned businesses and SMEs in India.

This is the third transaction between OPIC and and comes close on the heels of last year's $265 million OPIC facility, which YES Bank will use to extend SME financing in India.

YES Bank has also partnered with International Finance Corporation and Women Entrepreneurs Opportunity Facility by drawing a $50 million loan in March 2016 for mobilizing capital for women entrepreneurs.

"This agreement with OPIC further strengthens YES Bank's ability to fund and support the unique needs of SMEs and the entrepreneurial ecosystem; thereby boosting the developmental agenda in low-income states of India. It underscores the potential of YES Bank's business and financial model. This facility will support financing to women entrepreneurs in India for driving future economic growth and job creation," said MD and CEO YES Bank, Rana Kapoor.

"OPIC, YES Bank, and Wells Fargo have a strong history of partnering to support lending to small businesses and I look forward to continuing this partnership to foster economic growth in India by alleviating the financial challenges SMEs commonly face," said OPIC's Acting President and CEO, Dev Jagadesan.

SMEs contribute about 45 percent of industrial output and employ 42 million people in India. An estimated three million women-owned businesses in India employ over eight million people. However, only about a quarter of them are able to get the finance they need to grow and create jobs.

However, the World Bank estimates that viable and addressable demand for SME lending in India debt surpasses supply by $48 billion, a shortfall that holds back the transformative effect a thriving entrepreneur class can have on a developing economy.

This gap is particularly pronounced in India's low-income states and women-owned businesses, where approximately two-thirds of the SME debt gap resides.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
For a cab aggregator, Uber Technologies journey in the past eight years has been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride. From being the most valuable start-up to controversies such as alleged rapes by its drivers, exit of its founder CEO Travis Kalanick over allegations of toxic and sexist work environment, Uber has seen it all. In between, it wrapped up its operations in China and more recently merged its Russian business with the taxi arm of search engine giant Yandex. But Uber India President Amit Jain is optimistic. Shuttling between his offices in Gurugram, near New Delhi, and Silicon Valley, he is trying to make the India operation a silver lining in the companys dark present. Jain spoke to Karan Choudhury on the many issues facing the company. Edited excerpts:
Over the past one year, Hyderabad-based theatre director Akram Feroze has repeated a particular story more times than he can count. Every time he begins narrating this story, he gauges his audience sitting across the table carefully. Feroze might tweak his style, but his story never strays from the truth.
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The Centre today told the Supreme Court that it has blocked 3,522 websites carrying child pornographic content last month and asked the CBSE to consider installation of jammers in schools to block access to such sites.

The government told a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra that installation of jammers in school buses was "not possible" and they were coming out with steps to deal with the menace of in its entirety.

"We are coming out with steps which will deal with the situation in its entirety," Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand told the bench that also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar.

"Jammers in school buses are not possible. Security issue cannot be overriden" raised by the petitioners, Anand said, adding the "government has asked the CBSE to consider whether jammers can be installed in schools to curb access to such websites."



The government said that in June, 3,522 websites hosting child pornographic contents have been blocked.

Anand told the apex court that the government would file a status report on the steps taken by it to stop .

The counsel for the petitioners, who have sought a direction to the Centre to take appropriate steps to curb child pornography, told the apex court that besides installing jammers in schools, the government should also install such equipment in school buses.

The bench, however, told the petitioners that it would not pass any order in the matter today but first peruse the status report to be filed by the government.

It asked the Centre to file the status report in two days and granted liberty to the counsel for the petitioner to file their suggestions so that "there can be a complete mechanism" in this regard.

"You (petitioners) know that we cannot pass any order today. We will go through the status report first and then you can also give suggestions," the bench said.

Later, sources in the know said that through the status report, the Centre would inform the apex court that the Interpol's 'worst of list' on online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is being blocked regularly.

As per the procedure, "CBI as nodal agency of Interpol, shares this list with government and the government orders the blocking of same through select internet service providers (ISPs)," they said.

They said an inter-ministerial committee, set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) for curbing online CSAM, has recommended that till such time a centralised mechanism is built in India to dynamically monitor websites/URLs containing online CSAM, the relevant ISPs should adopt and disable/remove the online CSAM dynamically.

Based on this, MeitY has order the ISPAI (Internet Service Providers Association of India) and DoT (Department of Telecommunication) to disable or remove access to sites by adopting IWF (internet watch foundation) list by July 31 to prevent the distribution and transmission of online CSAM in India.

The sources said that MeitY has communicated to the Home Ministry and Ministry of Women and Child Development and all states and union territories to ensure its compliance and recently, DoT has also issued letters to ISPs regarding this.

As per information received from US-based Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), they are trying to establish their secure link with the Indian law-enforcing agencies.

They also said that the government would apprise the court that the Home Ministry was establishing a Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCWPC) portal which is likely to be ready from October this year.

The MeitY has also requested Ministry of Women and Child Development to develop a mechanism for reporting online child abuse either on its own or in association with other stake holders, they said.

The Centre is also likely to refer to its earlier affidavit which had said there were a number of software tools that could be implemented at the user's end to block obscene and pornographic contents.

"In this regard, DoT has communicated to all ISPs requesting to make suitable arrangement to spread awareness among their subscribers about the use of parental control filters in the end users machines through messages of e-mail invoices, sms, websites etc," the sources said.

Regarding technological suggestions proposed by the petitioners to curb internet pornography, the DoT has constituted a committee to examine its technical feasibility.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Designed as a comic book character and mounted as a musical, "Jagga Jasoos" with its episodic adventure tales is a fiction fantasy that is visually appealing.

The visuals in the film are striking and surreal. The lighting, textures and tone of the frames fluctuate between the darkish, atmospheric hues seen in Harry Potter films and the bright vibrant palettes seen in Disney films.

The narrative begins as an origin story, with Shruti Sengupta (Katrina Kaif) introducing the comics and the character, "Jagga Jasoos" (Ranbir Kapoor) to some kids at an event. She does so in an "interactive and informal" manner. In other words, she acts as the sutradhaar or the story teller giving out first-hand information about Jagga and his antics.

The tale encapsulated in three comic episodes reveal how Jagga, an orphan, was mentored by Badal Bagchi who he fondly called "Tutti Fruti". Badal treated Jagga like his own and it was he who advised him, "Jab seedhi baat seedhi tarah samajh na aaye, toh use ulta kar ke dekho," which simply meant, when you don't understand simple things in a simple manner, then you need to see them from the opposite spectrum. And thence began Jagga's foray into self-styled investigations.

Ranbir Kapoor as Jagga is brilliant. He lives his character on screen, which is sparkling and lively. He is aptly supported by Katrina Kaif as the London returned journalist Shruti Sengupta, who is hunting for leads in her story on the war against global terrorism. She plays the dumb-damsel with loads of bad luck on her side, to perfection. She is effortless in her comic timing and action.

Saswata Chatterjee as Jagga's foster father Badal Bagchi, and a harbinger of "bad luck" is equally brilliant. Saurabh Shukla in a convoluted role chasing Badal is stereotypical and flat.

The plot of the film is sketchy and begins on a shaky note, but the scenes roll out seamlessly in dream-like sequences thanks to the brilliant editing by Akiv Ali and Ajay Sharma. Also, Director Anurag Basu's frame composition shows his mastery over his craft.

The music by Pritam Chakraborty adds to the flavour of the narration. The songs in the film help to take the narrative forward as well as drive home a lesson. Striking among them are, "Sab khana khake, daru peeke, chale gaye," and "Galti se mistake," which is replete with philosophy and life lessons.

The choreography by Shiamak Davar is fresh and invigorating as each song is artistically presented.

Shot across terrains in Manipur, Kolkata and South Africa, Cinematographer S. Ravi Varman's lens captured the locales in their full glory along with the animals of the region.

Overall, with a run time of two hours and forty-five minutes, there are moments when you inadvertently end up snatching forty winks.



Film: Jagga Jasoos; Director: Anurag Basu; Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Saswata Chatterjee, Saurabh Shukla
Even though six of Indias least developed states in Indiaamong nine high focus states in government jargonspent more on education per elementary school student in 2014-2015 when compared to 2011-2012, learning outcomes of students did not improve, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of expenditure data and learning outcomes.
The today barred nurses' organisations from resorting to their proposed indefinite strike from July 17 to press for their demand of higher wages.

Justice P B Suresh Kumar stayed the proposed nurses' strike on a petition which argued that their services fall under the ambit of essential services and sought invocation of the Essential Services Maintenance Act provisions against striking nurses.

Justice Kumar also issued notices to four nurses' organisation and the state government, seeking their stands on the plea.

Functioning of private hospitals in Kerala is likely to be hit with an estimated 80,000 nurses ready to go on indefinite strike from July 17, demanding higher wages.

Private hospital managements have said they would be able to provide only emergency services from Monday in view of the strike call.

The nurses have been on strike for the past few days demanding minimum wages of Rs 20,000 as fixed by the Supreme Court.

The United Nurses Association (UNA) and Indian Nurses Association (INA), spearheading the ongoing stir, have said they would intensify their protest from July 17.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A court here on Friday extended by one more day the police custody of Malayalam actor Dileep, who was arrested in connection with the abduction and molestation of a popular actress.

The court accepted a request by the police and extended the actor's custody till Saturday 5 p.m.

The actor's counsel K Ramkumar told the media outside the court that the bail plea would be taken up on Saturday afternoon.

His counsel was critical of the manner in which the police probe has been going ahead. Ramkumar also asked if the police have enough evidence then why were they searching for an approver.

The police who had questioned Dileep's manager Appunny and also actor-turned-director Nadir Shah, along with Dileep for 13 hours earlier in July, are waiting for Appunny to turn up.

The police was reported to have asked Appunny to turn up but all his phones have been switched off .

On Friday, a huge crowd had gathered in front of the court premises and booed the actor just like they did on the previous days. However, Dileep was seen sporting a smile and he waved to the crowd twice.

From the court, he was driven back to the Aluva Police Club where he has been housed for the past two days.

Dileep was arrested on Monday night, and on Tuesday he was remanded to 14 days judicial custody .

On Wednesday he was produced before the same court here and was remanded to two days police custody.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the police took the superstar to all the places where the probe team believed the "conspiracy" behind the actress' abduction was hatched.

The police had earlier arrested the prime accused Pulsar Suni and his accomplices a week after the incident in February.

The police decided to arrest Dileep based on 19 pieces of evidence that they were able to gather in connection with the abduction of the young actress on February 17 when she was travelling from Thrissur to Kochi by road.

After almost two hours, she was dumped near the house of director-turned-actor Lal, who upon hearing her harrowing experience, informed the police. She was reported to have been molested enroute.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Comedy group, All India Bakchod (AIB) is once again in trouble for their latest joke and this time it is something on PM . The group posted an image of PM Modi's lookalike at a railway station along with a photo of the PM with a Snapchat dog filter, captioned #wanderlust on Twitter. There was instant outrage on this. As a result, AIB deleted its post after being roasted on Twitter.
For some time now, educationists and development sector watchdogs have been questioning why scholastic outcomes remain poor, in spite of the governments inputs into schools and a countrywide rise in school enrolment rates. Why is it that the 2016 ASER report still shows that one out of every four Class VIII students cant read texts meant for Class II? Saajha, a Delhi-based start-up has come up with an innovative programme that could offer at the least, a partial solution  it empowers parents to become more involved in school functioning and creating a better learning environment for their children.
Ships carrying People's Liberation Army naval personnel assigned to the Djibouti Logistics Support Base departed from a naval port in Zhanjiang, South China's Guangdong province, on Tuesday.

The establishment of the overseas support base, the first of its kind for the Chinese military, is the outcome of friendly negotiations between the governments of China and the African nation and accords with the common interests of the peoples of both countries.

The base's operations will help the Chinese navy better perform its escort, peacekeeping and humanitarian aid missions in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia, and help boost local economic and social development.

Since China began participating in United Nations peacekeeping missions in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia under relevant UN resolutions in 2008, it has faced fuel and supply challenges, and Djibouti has extended a helping hand several times.

The establishment of the Djibouti base will resolve this issue, and thus improve the capabilities of Chinese vessels to conduct joint exercises and carry out emergency evacuation and overseas rescue operations, and enable it to better safeguard the safety of international strategic maritime passages with other countries.

Unlike the military base of the United States in Djibouti where more than 4,000 US Marines and F-16 fighters are deployed, China's facility in Djibouti is mainly for logistics and maintenance purposes.

It is China's long-cherished stance that it will not seek military expansionism, and that stance has not changed with the construction of the Djibouti base.

However, it is normal for China to seek to set up logistics bases overseas to fuel its expanding naval presence in the world that is for the purpose of safeguarding its expanded overseas interests and world peace.
Two days after Peoples Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China (CPC) posted a picture of an editorial from 1962, the year it had handed out a humiliating military defeat to New Delhi, and also warned India against encroaching on its territory, New Delhi on Thursday said it will continue to use diplomatic channels to resolve the stand-off between the two militaries in the Dokalam area near Sikkim.
Security Advisor Ajit Doval will visit China for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Security Agency (NSA) meet later this month.

During his visit, issues like counterpart with China and resolving the row at the Doklam area in Sikkim will be discussed.

Earlier in the week, China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Doklam area near the Bhutan tri-junction for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road.

Officials say that, India will look for a solution and will not compromise on the issue.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Employment is the main reason students drop out of online degree courses, our new research shows. This is despite claims that online university programs offer greater flexibility to workers and employers who want to up-skill.
Potentially harmful chemicals that were banned from childrens teething rings and rubber duck toys a decade ago may still be present in high concentrations in your childs favourite meal: macaroni and cheese mixes made with powdered cheese.
Deaths from have risen to new heights in Europe in the past year. The rapid spread of the virus has led to more than 3,300 cases and 35 deaths in Romania, Italy, Germany and Portugal. The most recent death was that of a six-year-old boy in Italy who died on June 22.
Centre has asked Karnataka and 15 other states to complete Aadhaar enrollment of school children by August 31 and submit the data to ensure serving of the mid-day meal to them "in a seamless manner." According to Deccan Herald , this comes as the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry observed that many of these 16 States were lagging far behind in completion of the task, with Nagaland having enrolled just 15 percent of 1,59,449 students to Aadhaar.

In Karnataka, only 70 percent of the total number of students have so far been enrolled to Aaadhar. A total of 49,10,765 students enrolled in the Government schools in the State.

The stipulated date for completing 100% Aadhaar enrollment is August 31, 2017. I earnestly suggest the Aadhaar enrollment campaign be given an added thrust by the Government of Karnataka in a time bound manner, school education department secretary of the HRD Ministry Anil Swarup stated in his letter to Karnataka Chief Secretary Subhash C Khuntia.

As per date with the Ministry, just 23% of the total school students have been enrolled to Aaadhar in Andhra Pradesh, 26% in Uttar Pradesh, 28% Odisha, 42% in Rajasthan, 61% in Madhya Pradesh and 63% in Bihar.

West Bengal Government has not shared any update on the Aadhaar enrollment of school students despite HRD Ministry's repeated requests and reminders, an official said.

Aadhaar enrolment centres at banks

To simplify the process, now, one out of 10 bank branches will have Aadhaar enrolment facility. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has asked private as well as public sector banks to set up Aadhaar enrolment facility in at least one out of 10 branches in the coming weeks, a top official has said.
The central government has formed a panel of experts to suggest how to strengthen the cyber security framework of information technology (IT) support systems operated by the rural development ministry.

The background is concern over reports on 'public disclosure' of sensitive data through various portals and payment gateways,

The panel has had its first meeting. It will also explore methods through which synergy could be had in the various IT applications of the ministry  the latter gets a little over 15 million entries daily on its various IT platforms.

Ensuring cyber security has become all the more necessary after last month's notification for all bank accounts to be seeded with Aadhaar numbers by December 31  else, they'd cease to be operational.

It is estimated that about 50 million who work in the rural jobs guarantee programme, MGNREGS, do not have bank accounts seeded with Aadhaar. To complete the process by December, the ministry has planned camps in villages from now till September.
Export growth slowed in June to 4.39 per cent, even as the country managed to see 10 straight months of rise in outbound trade.
India is poised to topple the United States (US) to become the second largest market for De Beers' Forevermark brand of diamonds this year as the company expects to more than double its sales volume in this country this year.
The Delhi High Court has directed the Centre not to take any coercive steps against lawyers and law firms for not registering or complying with the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) Act or the Delhi Goods and Services Tax (DGST) Act, till a clarification is issued by the appropriate governments.

The bench comprising Justice Muralidhar and Justice Pratibha M Singh also asked the Centre to clarify whether services of lawyers and law firms come under the GST, after concluding that there exists no clarity on whether all legal services would be governed by the reverse charge mechanism. The orders were passed on a petition by J K Mittal, owner of a Delhi-based law firm, seeking the quashing of notifications issued by the Centre and Delhi governments according to which is to be paid by advocates and law firms on all services offered by them, apart from representing clients in courts and tribunals.
The prestigious (DU) has initiated the admission process for the remaining 15,000 seats under the fourth cutoff list released on July 13, 2017 (Thursday) for admission to honours courses such as Economics, English and B.Com being closed at many renowned colleges. After the third cut-off list announced by the (DU), the students applying for various courses were left with not too many options. However, some of the colleges had re-started the admission process for certain academic courses that were closed after the 2nd cut-off list was made public. Following the release of third cut-off list by DU, there sprang up a descending trend as most of the colleges bringing down the minimum required percentages. Admissions to some colleges were still open, on-campus and off-campus. The prestigious Shree Ram College of Commerce was no longer taking admission to B.A. (Hons), Economics and B.Com (Hons) for Open Category applicants. Only five courses of fourteen offered by Lady Shri Ram College were available, though the cut-offs plunged slightly. The fourth cutoff has gone down by up to 5% points in general courses and some colleges are taking the admissions for History, Economics, English and Political Science.
The National Council of Research and Training (NCERT) on July 13 (Thursday) announced the results of B.Sc.B.Ed./B.A.B.Ed./M.Sc.Ed. programs. Common Entrance Examination 2017 on its official website ncert-cee.kar.nic.in. The NCERT CEE 2017 exam conducted held on June 11, 2017 (Sunday) in 35 cities across the country. The exam was held for admissions in various technical streams such as B.sc, B.Ed., B.A. B.Ed., M.Sc., B.Ed., M.Ed. and B.Ed. M.Ed. (Integrated) offered in regional institutes. The students who took the exam can check their score on the official website. The online registration for the CEE 2017 was stared from April 10 to April 15 till 6 pm.
When pressed on the details of her plans for leaving the EU in December 2016, Theresa May didnt offer anything of substance. Her reply was simply that she wanted a red, white and blue Brexit. As we and colleagues show in newly published research, it seems the British public agrees with her  just as long as the red, white and blue shes referring to are that of the Norwegian flag.
China has notified the Pakistan government to expedite the formation of the experts group which would decide setting up of the number and types of special economic zones (SEZs) along the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in the first phase.

During the last meeting of the Pak-China Joint Cooperation Committee (PCJCC) held in Beijing, setting up of nine SEZs had been prioritised. It had been decided that the two countries would set up expert groups to deliberate how to build the priority zones.

Participating in the concluding session of Pakistan-China industrial dialogue on Thursday, head of the Chinese Industrial Experts Group, Li Yuan, asked Pakistan to expedite forming the experts' group, and emphasised on devising long-term cooperation mechanism to select priority sector and synergise policies for SEZs, reports the Dawn.

Yuan informed the Pakistani side that China has already built four special economic zones followed by developing 14 coastal cities, and subsequently, 14 industrial zones were developed. The proposed prioritised SEZs by Pakistan are to be reviewed by expert groups of the two countries for development in the initial phase, he said, adding that these SEZs may follow either Chinese or Pakistani standards to attract investment.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Wanted: a seasoned executive to take the top position at a troubled technology start-up. Must be willing to fix a broken culture, deal with an aggressive predecessor, battle a risky lawsuit and prepare the company for an initial public offering. Self-starters preferred.
ISIS claimed responsibility for two attempted militant attacks in Europe last month. The group's monthly online magazine Rumiyah, issued on Thursday, named Abu Maysun al-Faransi as the man who rammed a car carrying weapons and explosives into a police van as it drove in a convoy down Paris's Champs Elysees on June 19.
Time magazine has featured Jr on the cover of its latest issue with the words "red handed" printed on his face over his alleged plans of meeting a Russian lawyer to obtain "incriminating information" about Hillary Clinton, the media reported.

The cover on the magazine's July 24 issue features an image of Trump Jr., with excerpts from the emails he made public on Tuesday superimposed on the photo, reports CNN.

The emails show that Trump Jr agreed to meet with someone who was a "Russian government attorney" about "very high level and sensitive information" that would "incriminate" the former presidential hopeful.

Time's title: "Red Handed", written by Time editor-at-large David Von Drehle, explores what kind of damage the email story might cause for Trump Jr. and his father's presidency.

President has had a longtime preoccupation with Time covers. He was first featured in the magazine in 1989, and he called it a "very, very great honour" last year when he was named its Person of the Year, CNN reported.

Trump even bragged during a speech at the CIA headquarters in January about his cover count: "I think we have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine."

However, the actual record belongs to former President Richard Nixon, who appeared on the cover 55 times. As of June 28, Trump had been on the cover 14 times, according to Time.

Trump's fascination with the magazine has sometimes manifested itself in strange ways. Last month, The Washington Post reported that a faked Time magazine cover featuring Trump had been framed and hung up in at least five of Trump's clubs.

After the story published, Time asked the Trump Organization to remove the Photoshopped covers.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Trump said on Wednesday that he had confronted President Vladimir V Putin twice about whether Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election, and changed the subject after Putin flatly denied it because, What do you do? End up in a fistfight?
The British government helped to secure a more than 240-million ($310 million) investment from Toyota in its English plant with a letter reassuring the Japanese carmaker over post-Brexit trading arrangements, two sources told Reuters.

Toyota said on March 16 it would install its new car platform at its Burnaston plant. One source, who is familiar with the letter, said that Toyota delayed the decision due by the end of December while it weighed up a number of factors including Brexit.

The business ministry has confirmed the existence of a letter but refused to release it.

The source said the letter was similar to one sent to Japanese carmaker Nissan last year when it decided to build two new models at its northern English plant. The document sparked public and lawmaker concern about secretive deals.

The source, who did not say when the letter was sent, said it contained several reassurances.

"They received a similar set of warm words as Nissan on electric vehicles, commitment to further training and to ensure the competitiveness of the UK automotive industry," the source said.

A Toyota spokesman declined to comment on whether it had received such a letter. He referred to the company's March 16 statement which said the British government was providing funding for training and research and development. Toyota also said at the time that "continued tariff-and-barrier free market access... will be vital for future success."

Britain said in March it would back up the investment from Toyota, which builds roughly 10 per cent of Britain's 1.7 million cars, by spending 21.3 million pounds to support skills and training, research and development and innovation, subject to an independent assessment.

A spokesman at the business ministry declined to provide any comment for this story. Business minister Greg Clark said last year that assurances offered to Nissan were available to other firms.

Reuters made a freedom of information (FOI) request to the business ministry to see documentation relating to the investment decision, which the ministry said included a letter.

In its response, an official at the ministry refused to release the letter and a company briefing note, saying the information was "both highly commercially sensitive" and "would be likely to cause harm to the company's commercial interests if disclosed."

Clark has refused to publish the Nissan letter. He said he will release the information when it is no longer commercially confidential.

Many of the world's biggest car firms are worried about the long-term viability of their British plants and are using their upcoming investment decisions to push for promises to maintain free trade after Britain's exit from the EU, which is due to take place in March 2019.

Redacted emails

Toyota finalised its decision at a meeting between its Europe President and Chief Executive Johan van Zyl and Clark on March 15, the day before the official announcement, a third source, who is close to the company told Reuters.

In response to the FOI request, the business ministry said there were three documents relating to discussions between the firm and top government officials since Clark was appointed in July last year: a letter, a confidential company briefing and an email exchange.

It initially refused to publish all three but after Reuters appealed the decision, the department released a redacted email exchange. Reuters asked for correspondence between the company and Clark, a special advisor, a junior minister and the ministry's automotive team.

The email exchange included three messages which were written after a meeting between Clark and van Zyl. The emails are redacted so that it is not possible to know who received them.

"We picked up from the recent meeting with Greg Clark that Toyota has a significant investment decision coming up before the end of the year, for a new European 'architecture plant'," according to official correspondence dated September 9.

"Dr Zyl noted that uncertainties over future trade arrangements are a worry, and SofS (Secretary of State Clark) sought to reassure on the alignment of company and HMG (Her Majesty's government) goals."

"It would (be) great to understand more about the decision, and if there are any ways in which HMG could help," the email from the official said.

Clark had meetings with Toyota officials in September, November and March, according to an official government log.

Japan's Nissan, Toyota and Honda account for around half of British car output. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with British Prime Minister Theresa May in April and called for a smooth Brexit to allow Japanese firms to continue to operate.

Toyota has yet to say which models it will build in Burnaston over the next decade.
A federal judge in Hawaii has ruled that grandparents and other relatives should be exempt from the enforcement of President Donald Trump's travel ban, which bars people from six Muslim-majority countries, the media reported on Friday.

US District Judge Derrick Watson ruled on Thursday night that the federal government's list of family relatives eligible to bypass the travel ban should be expanded to include grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts and other relatives, reports The Washington Post.

Watson also ordered exemptions for refugees who have been given formal assurance from agencies placing them in the US.

Watson said the government's definition of what constitutes close family "represents the antithesis of common sense".

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," Watson wrote.

"Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The government's definition excludes them. That simply cannot be."

On June 26, the Supreme Court ruled that the government could begin enforcing the travel restrictions, but not on people with "a credible claim of a bona fide relationship" with a person or entity in the US.

The Trump administration then decided to make exceptions for spouses, parents, parents-in-law, children, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, finances and siblings of those already in the country.

However, they barred grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, The Washington Post reported.

The measure was then rolled out on June 29, affecting travellers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

As part of the measure, officials could also block refugees with a formal assurance from a resettlement agency.

Judge Watson, in his ruling, also argued a refugee's assurance from an agency satisfies the Supreme Court's "bona fide" relationship requirement because of the formal, binding nature of the contract.

"Bona fide does not get any more bona fide than that," he added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In Washington DC, a Medicare beneficiary filled prescriptions for 2,330 pills of oxycodone, hydromorphone and morphine in a single month last year  written by just one of the 42 health providers who prescribed the person such drugs.
US President praised French First Lady Brigitte Macron for being in "such good shape" during his first official visit to Paris, the media reported.

"You're in such good shape. She's in such good physical shape. Beautiful," Trump told the French President's wife on Thursday, who was standing next to US First Lady Melania Trump.

Earlier in the day, at the welcome ceremony in Paris, Trump and Brigitte Macron extended their hands to one another, fumbling to make contact for a handshake, before they embraced for a traditional kiss on the cheek. Afterward, they rejoined hands while they continued to talk, reports CNN.



Watch video



Donald thinks he's back at Miss Universe. His comments and hand gestures about Brigitte Macron are weird and gross. pic.twitter.com/MNB0um4cU5  Stephen (@TheAviator1992) July 13, 2017

However, social media immediately reacted with many users denouncing Trump's comments as sexist, reports the Guardian.

"Trump telling France's First Lady 'you're in such good shape' epitomises men toeing the line between compliment and sexual harassment," wrote Twitter user Alex Berg, a freelance video producer and writer who works on feminist and gender issues.

Yes, Donald. Brigitte Macron is in "such great shape." Too bad she's too polite & too dignified to observe that you aren't. #porc #Paris  Ron Asher (@rmasher2) July 13, 2017

Trump was so gross with Macrons wife.



Days since Trump was a national embarrassment: 0.  Toure (@Toure) July 13, 2017

Mr & Mrs Macron, please accept our sincerest apologies for the social ignorance displayed by while he is in your country....USA  J Guzman (@jakibros1) July 13, 2017

Jen Siebel Newsom, a documentary maker and actress, tweeted: "Mr. Trump - Women do not want to hear unsolicited remarks on what you think of their bodies. Its gross, and deeply inappropriate."

The White House declined to comment on the exchange.

On Thursday night, the couples dined together at a gourmet Eiffel Tower restaurant.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX), India's leading commodity exchange, received an overwhelming response from value-chain participants on the first day of the re-launch of chana (pulses) contracts. The contracts registered a turnover of Rs 91 crore with trading volume of 17,380 tonnes. On Friday, its open Interest stood at 6,990 tonnes.



"We are encouraged by the enthusiastic participation from the market. It has been our constant endeavour to provide a strong and perfect hedging tool to the market and we are happy to offer a market-based price discovery and risk mitigation mechanism to the pulse farmers in the country," said Samir Shah, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, NCDEX.
An anonymous letter which according to the acting Speaker of the National Assembly, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, could severely damage Pakistan and China relations was sent to the Pakistani Parliamentarians.

The anonymous letter was delivered to the parliamentarians residing in the Parliament Lodges in which extreme negative propaganda was made about Pakistan and China relations, reports the Express Tribune.

This letter was presented to Abbasi on Thursday by Standing Committee on Information Chairman Captain (retd.) Muhammad Safdar and other members of the committee.

Abbasi termed it as a conspiracy to sabotage the exemplary relations between Pakistan and China directed immediate investigation against the courier service which delivered the letter.

He also asked the Foreign Office to probe the authenticity of the letter besides investigating its source.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on Friday signed 14 agreements, including one between Shipping Corporations of the two countries in the presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and President Maithripala Sirisena.

The signing ceremony was held at the Prime Minister's Office after a bilateral meeting between Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

Both the countries are preparing to sign a joint statement as the first time the relationship between the countries has been brought within a framework,said Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque.

The joint statement with 35 paragraphs is likely to be issued in the evening or on Saturday.

Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque said they have also agreed to sign Free Trade Agreement (FTA) within this year to boost trade cooperation.

MoU on Cooperation in Agriculture,

- MoU between Ceylon Shipping Corporation (CSC) and Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC),

- MoU between Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) and Lakshman Kadiragama Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS) on cooperation in the field of international and strategic studies,

- MoU between University Grant Commissions of the two countries on Cooperation and Collaboration in the field of higher education,

- MoU between Bangladesh Foreign Service Academy (FSA) and Bandaranaike Diplomatic Training Institute (BIDTI),

- MoU between Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh Bank for cooperation in financial sector/services,

- MoU between Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and Board of Investment of Sri Lanka for cooperation on investment matters,

- MoU between Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) and Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI),MoU on cooperation in the fields of Information and Communication Technology,

- MoU on Information and Broadcasting between Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) and Sri Lankan National News Agency Lankapuvath Ltd.,

- MoU on cooperation in the fields of radio, film and television between Bangladesh and Sri LankA,

- MoU on collaboration between Chittagong BGMEA Institute of Fashion and Technology (CBIFT) and Sri Lanka Institute for Apparel and Textiles (SLITA),

- MoU on Economic Cooperation between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Sirisena on Thursday paid tribute to nation's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, and visited the National Memorial at Savar.

Sirisena arrived in Dhaka on a three-day state visit on Thursday strengthening the economic ties between Dhaka and Colombo.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Modi on Friday said that the saffron party is waiting for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to break his silence and ask for state Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav's resignation.

"When even after a three-day ultimatum, Tejashwi is not giving a resignation, he is challenging the right of the Chief Minister. I don't think there can be anything more insulting than this. The BJP is just waiting for the Chief Minister to speak on this matter and ask for Tejashwi Yadav's resignation," he said.

"I don't think Nitish Kumar will maintain silence in this matter. I am sure Nitish Kumar will dismiss Tejashwi Yadav, if he doesn't give his resignation. Still, I cannot guarantee about it," he added.

Meanwhile, dubbing the reports of split between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) as BJP-driven agenda, Tejashwi, earlier in day, laughed off the same, saying people should not be perturbed by such reports of split in the mahagathbandhan.

Taking to his Twitter, Tejashwi wrote he cannot help but laugh at the 'disruptive sources' carrying out an agenda of the BJP.

"Utpaati sutro ke naam se media ka ek varg BJP ka hai jo ek sootriya karyakram chala raha hai uspar zoro se hasi aa rahi hai.

Bhoonja khao, mast raho," Tejashwi tweeted.

Earlier, the JD(U) also denied any rift within the allies, maintaining that the alliance is working successfully.

Earlier last week, the CBI registered a corruption case against Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav; former Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Managing Director P.K. Goyal; and the wife of Lalu's confidante Prem Chand Gupta, Sujata on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

The CBI later questioned Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav.

The case was registered on the allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of Hotels at Ranchi and Puri to a Private Company dealing with Hotels in the year 2006.

The investigative agency also conducted searches at 12 locations across Patna, Delhi, Gurugram and other places.

The RJD supremo, however, refuted the allegations against him and called it a political conspiracy hatched by the BJP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A U.S. Congressional panel started on Thursday hearing a proposal to make civil and military aid to Pakistan conditional to its support to the fight against the Afghan Taliban.

The proposal is a part of the 2018 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations draft bill which was distributed among the members of the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, reports the Dawn.

The draft continues current requirements regarding assistance for Pakistan, but prevents the Secretary of State from giving a full national-interest waiver. The secretary can now only issue a waiver for 85 percent of the funds appropriated under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF).

The bill underlines the U.S. concerns about Pakistan's commitment to combating terrorism in the Pak-Afghan region, saying, "The committee remains concerned with the commitment by Pakistan to U.S. strategic objectives in the region, including combating terrorism".

Some U.S. lawmakers have also pointed out to 'duplicity' of Pakistan which on one hand proclaims to be a friend of Washington and gets billions in aid, but on the other, backs terrorists.

The bill also suggests withholding $33,000,000 of funds until the Secretary of State reports to the Committee that Dr. Shakil Afridi has been released from prison and cleared of all charges related to the assistance he provided to the United States in locating Osama bin Laden.

The Secretary of State is also asked to certify that Pakistan is cooperating with the United States in counter-terrorism efforts against the Haqqani network, the Quetta Shura Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Al Qaeda, and other domestic and foreign terrorist organisations, including taking effective steps to end support for such groups and prevent them from basing and operating in Pakistan and carrying out cross-border attacks into neighbouring countries.

The bill also says that the funds made available under the 'Foreign Military Financing Programme' can only be used to support counter-terrorism and counterinsurgency capabilities in Pakistan. It prevents Pakistan from using this fund to buy F-16 fighter jets, as it did in the past.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The meeting convened by the Centre, where most of the leaders from the Opposition took part, discussed on the security situation of India with regards to the recent stand-off between New Delhi and Beijing at the Sikkim's Doklam border and the terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress Party said on Friday.

Party leader Anand Sharma said the party considers India's security and integrity as paramount and that's why they have urged the Centre to resolve the border stand-off through diplomatic channels.

"The Centre convened all party meeting where we made our stand clear on behalf of Indian Congress. For Congress, security and interest are paramount. We made it clear to the government that only through diplomacy the tensions can be reduced, only then solution can be arrived," Sharma said after the meeting

Another Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, "The discussions were also on the terrorist attack that took place on Amarnath pilgrims. We urged the Centre to open its door for talks and resolve through guns and battles."

Meanwhile, Derek O'brien, who represented the Trinamool Congress (TMC), said, "We asked serious questions. We asked why the government was unprepared and if this (terrorist attack) was their failure. But we didn't get answers we were looking for."

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the government made assurances that the India-China border stand-off would be resolved diplomatically.

The meeting convened by the Centre was jointly headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A brilliant unbeaten century from Craig Ervine helped Zimbabwe reach 344-8 on the opening day of the lone Test against Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Friday.

After winning the toss, the visitors were in a spot of bother on a flat pitch as they lost the top-order cheaply and at one stage were 78-4.

Ervine (151*) however stood solid at one end and had crucial partnerships with Sikander Raza (36) and Malcolm Waller (36) to pull his team out of hot waters.

Towards the end of the day's play, the left-handed batsman stitched solid stands with the lower order to help his team past 300.

His unbeaten partnership with Donald Tiripano (24*) remains the team's best ninth-wicket stand against the hosts in a Test match.

Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath was the pick of the Sri Lankan bowlers as he picked up four wickets for 106 runs in his 30 overs.

Asela Gunaratne scalped two wickets while Lahiru Kumara and Dilruwan Perera picked a wicket each.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An aggresive China did not anticipate India stepping in a strong manner to defend Bhutan's territorial sovereignty during its unilateral move to build a motorable road from Dokala in Doklam area towards the Bhutan Army camp in Zornpelri, according to Ryszard Czarnecki, vice president of the European Parliament.

In an article written for EP Today, Czarnecki has exposed Beijing's lie of assuring the international community that its 'peaceful rise' would not in any way threaten the established order, but instead promote a peaceful international environment.

He clearly states that China has been following a foreign policy that squarely infringes on internationally accepted norms.

Referring specifically to the tri-junction politico-military impasse in Doklam involving China, India and Bhutan, Czarnecki said, "On June 16, China's unilateral move to build a motorable road from Dokala in Doklam area towards the Bhutan Army camp in Zornpelri is an illustration of this policy .. Bhutan's objection to construction activities by China in the disputed Doklam area, conveyed through diplomatic channels, was possibly expected by China. However, what China may not have foreseen was India stepping in to defend Bhutan's territorial sovereignty."



"(The) Chinese action in the Doklam plateau can be seen as a part of the country's recent tendency to unilaterally change the ground situation in areas that are disputed. The most well-reported example has been China's deliberate move to disrupt the status quo in the South China Sea.. by conveniently ignoring the maritime territorial claims of Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines in the region .. expanding its strategic outreach in the area," says the European Parliament vice president.

China, he opines, may have only gambled, anticipated and calculated that Bhutan would not be able to retaliate through force, and believed that the construction of the road would be completed within weeks, giving it a clear strategic advantage.

However, all didn't go as planned. The movement of Indian troops, done in consultation with the Government of Bhutan and with the principal objective to maintain status quo, was probably not anticipated by China.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry and its state-owned media reacted predictably to the Indian action with strong rhetoric, including reminding India of its defeat in the Indo-China war in 1962.

"China's propaganda machinery has gone into an overdrive to implicate India for the border stand-off, conveniently glossing over the fact that China had taken the first step to change the status quo of the tri-junction area that it had committed to maintain under the Agreement on Maintenance of Peace and Tranquillity, signed with India in 1993. China is now insisting that it would not hold any dialogue on the matter till Indian troops withdrew from the area," Czarnecki says in his article.

He concludes by saying that "China needs to realize that its unprecedented economic and military growth must go hand in hand with respect for international rules. Without that, it will be hard to believe in assurances of 'win-win' and 'shared destiny' by the Chinese leadership.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An First Information Report (FIR) was filed against unknown persons on Saturday after explosive materials were found in Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

The case has been registered under Unlawful (Activities) Prevention 2004, and Explosive Substances Act 1908.

Uttar Pradesh's Inspector General of the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS), Aseem Arun has said the discovery of the explosive powder -- Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) - hinted the possibility of a terrorist activity.

"We will scan through the CCTV footage and will do a detailed investigation of the spot today," Aseem Arun said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has called for a investigative Agency (NIA) probe.

"The packet of the explosive was found under the chair of the Opposition's leader. It was 150 gm of PETN. 500 gm of PETN is enough to blow the whole Assembly off. This shows the severity of the situation. I suggest that everybody present in the Assembly should be investigated by the police and that the NIA should investigate into the matter," he said.

"It's unfortunate that the largest Assembly of the country doesn't have a QRT," he added.

Adityanath also said that this incident could be in connivance with a terrorist or militant group and that the security of the state and the country is paramount.

Earlier, 60 grams of suspicious white powder was found in the UP Assembly during an ongoing session, which was later sent to forensic lab for testing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India and Australia have reiterated their support for the multi-stakeholder approach to internet governance.

The two sides, during the second Australia-India Cyber Policy Dialogue held in Canberra on Thursday, reaffirmed their commitment to an open, free, secure, stable, peaceful and accessible cyberspace enabling economic growth and innovation.

The Dialogue was held in a spirit of collaboration, openness and common purpose to strengthen cooperation on cyber issues.

The two countries agreed that the bilateral Cyber Policy Dialogue provided a strong foundation for existing and future cooperation.

The two countries reaffirmed their commitment to the rules-based order and to enhancing their understandings of how these rules applied to state behaviour in cyberspace.

They reaffirmed their commitment to act in accordance with the UNGGE's previous reports and, in particular, the 11 voluntary norms of state behaviour set out in the 2015 report.

Australia and India reaffirmed that responsible behaviour of states in cyberspace is subject to the UN Charter in its entirety and existing international law. They further reaffirmed that such behaviour includes respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The two countries observed that the cumulative reports of the UNGGE have gone a long way to deepening common understandings, not just about how international law and norms apply to cyberspace, but they have also provided important guidance on confidence building measures and capacity building.

This combined framework helps reduce the risk of conflict by creating clear expectations for responsible state behaviour in cyberspace.

Australia and India resolved to work together to deepen common understandings on these important issues, including at the upcoming Global Conference on Cyberspace in New Delhi in November 2017.

The two sides discussed the full range of cyber issues including cyber threat perceptions, respective visions of the future of the internet and cyberspace, updates on domestic cyber governance and policy, developments in regional and international fora and growth of the digital economy.

Further, the two sides also agreed on a Plan of Action, which identified Points of Contacts on various issues of mutual interest in the area of Cyberspace.

The Dialogue was led for Australia by Dr Tobias Feakin, Ambassador for Cyber Affairs, and on the Indian side by Sanjay Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary for Cyber Diplomacy, Ministry of External Affairs.

The Dialogue included, on the Australian side, representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department of Communications and the Arts, and Australian Cyber Security Centre agencies (the Attorney-General's Department, including CERT Australia; the Department of Defence; the Australian Federal Police; and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission). On the Indian side, the Dialogue included India's High Commissioner to Australia, representatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the National Security Council Secretariat.

The two countries agreed to hold the next round of the Dialogue in India in 2018.

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A 57-year-old tourist from New Zealand has been killed by the blast of a plane at an airport in the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten, CNN reported.

The deceased woman, who has not been identified, was hanging onto a fence to watch the plane, the island's police said on social networking site Facebook.

Police said that the jet's blast was so influential that it knocked her down, and later the woman died.

At Princess Juliana International Airport, watching planes land and take off is a famous tourist attraction, as approaching aircraft tend to fly very low above their heads.

Calling it as "extremely dangerous" both airport and local authorities have warned the tourists against getting too close to the planes, CNN reported.

Island authorities said that they have taken needed precautions or safety measures to caution tourists not to get too close to aircrafts.

Since it opened in 1943, tourists have been watching planes take off and land at the airport.

Reportedly, in 2014, two pilots died after crashing into the water shortly after taking off from the airport and in 2012, a woman got injured after being flung into a nearby concrete barrier by a jet blast.

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Italian cosmetic brand KIKO Milano brings to its customers a revolutionary range of Hydra Pro face line - a one of a kind range that moisturises and preserves the skin's ideal moisture levels.

Available at various outlets, the collection is marked by an innovative formula comprising among other ingredients hyaluronic acid, which is responsible for the moisture and Actiglow, which enhances the beauty of the skin and the make-up.

The Hydra Pro face line fuses functionality with glimmer and serves as an invaluable need for women across every skin type.

The line features five distinct products catering to varying skin types and their respective needs. These include Hydra Pro Day, a global moisturising cream suitable for normal to dry skin containing SPF 15; Hydra Pro Matte, a mattifying-cum-moisturising fluid best for normal to combination skin; Hydra Pro Eyes, a deeply moisturising eye serum ideal for reducing bags and dark circles under the eyes for all skin types; Hydra Pro Mask, a comprehensive moisture mask that softens and radiates the skin; and Hydra Pro Glow, a cream that seeks to rejuvenate the skin with long lasting glow.

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Myanmar's Defence Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hliang, who is on an official visit to India, on Friday held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Commander-in-Chief briefed the Prime Minister about bilateral defence and security cooperation. He also condemned the recent terrorist attack on pilgrims of the Amarnath Yatra and expressed condolence for the victims.

On his part, Prime Minister Modi appreciated the close cooperation between the Armed forces of India and Myanmar.

He said that Myanmar is a key pillar of India's "Act East" Policy and expressed his firm commitment to strengthen the bilateral relationship in all areas.

The Prime Minister conveyed his condolences at the loss of lives of Myanmar Armed forces personnel and their families in the air crash of June 7, 2017.

Senior General Hliang is on an extensive eight-day tour of India which kicked off from Gaya last Friday. He also visited Varanasi, Ahmedabad and Vishakhapatnam and will meet several military and civilian leaders.

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NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Friday pitched for more rapid reforms in India's higher education sector.

Speaking during an event to mark the release of the 100th edition of 'Careers360' niche magazine in the higher education domain, Kant said, "We need great reforms in the higher educational sectors. We need to push them rapidly."

Kant said the sector was "over-regulated and over-governed."

"Higher education is over-regulated and we are working in this regard. We are working to create an easy and simple regulatory framework. We need to expand the higher education sector and for that we need good institutions. Over-regulation needs to be completely scrapped. We should be facilitators instead of being inspectors."

He said that India has grown hugely in higher education sector since independence.

"Just look at the dynamism with which it is growing (universities in India), there are over 40, 000 colleges, 12,000 standalone institutions, so we have grown hugely since independence," he said.

Kant highlighted that India has attained substantial progress in the higher education sector citing the gross enrolment ratio of India at the time of independence was just 0.4 and its 25 percent now.

However, he also said that India needs to benchmark them against China as both were at the same level in early 1960's, but today Beijing's enrolment ratio is almost 43 percent.

He added that Chinese's universities are ranked in top 100 and he does not see any reason as to why India should not have same growth trajectory.

Regulatory framework needs to be shaken up so that we have an integrated system. He said the MHRD, NITI Ayog and the UGC have constituted a committee to look into this. "The outcome would be a 'simple structure' that would oversee the domain," he said.

He said that many of the problems relating to the sector stemmed from the fact that education was termed as not-for-profit. He said that transparency would be ushered in once changes were made to the policy framework whereby institutions could make decent profit which could be ploughed back to the sector. "There is no such thing called "not-for-profit" as such. The objective should be to generate profit, which could be re-invested'," he said.

Lamenting the fact that India does not have a single world-class university, the NITI Ayog CEO said, "The Prime Minister himself is taking interest in creating twenty world class universities, ten each in private and public sector." "Outstanding universities need to be promoted and government should act like a catalyst," he said.

Replying to a one-on with Maheshwar Peri, the publisher of Careers360 on making India a study destination for international students, Amithabh Kant said, "India must create an ecosystem, which should be able to a attract vast numbers of students." For this, universities must focus on research and innovation. "This would prevent Indian students from taking admissions in third-grade institutions abroad," he said.

On asked why the GST is harsh on higher education with an 18% tax on Higher education admissions and fee, he said the institutions failed to make a 'Huge noise" on this and promised that the NITI Aayog would look into the matter "within two months".

Mahesh Sarma, Editor-IN-Chief, Careers360, publisher Maheshwar Peri spoke on the occasion. The 100th edition release was preceded and succeeded by panel discussions on burning issued related to higher education.

Shiv Nadar University's Vice Chancellor Prof. Rupamanjari Ghosh, BML Munjal University's Vice Chancellor Prof. B. Satyanarayana, IMT-Ghaziabad Director Dr. Atish Chattopadhyay, IMI Director General Dr. Debashis Chatterjee, Amity University Chancellor Atul Chauhan, among others participated

Asserting that India has also achieved a lot in terms of higher education system, Kant said many government institutions like IITs, IISs, IIMs have set benchmarks of quality and have been functioning for decades with great quality interest and these have been supplemented by initiatives of private sector.

He said the challenge which remains to be addressed is to take such institutions to the level of eminence that is recognized worldwide.

Emphasizing that India was recognized as great center for learning higher education, Kant said private initiatives like Career 360 are playing a very important and significant role.

"They help in increasing citizen awareness, they bring in awareness about higher education institutions which country has, their quality and the information flow. Such institutions like Career 360 bring everything in the knowledge of public and they have to maintain their reputation in the market that is important," he said.

Kant said there are many transformations and changes in the offering for the country which should take India to the next higher level.

"We are looking at for instance providing enhanced autonomy to top performing institutions. This should kick start innovation in courses and this should actually push program delivery and help higher institutions to keep pace with rapidly changing technology changing environment," he said.

Kant said the NITI Aayog has also deliberated about allowing a many multiple accreditation bodies of global standard to operate within a notified framework.

"We are reaching new peaks every year. We have today about 3 hundred million students enrolled in about 1.5 million schools, we have about 8.6 million teachers at the school level 868 universities, we have almost 41000 colleges and for students perspective if ever there was a time on information or the choices or options to do the higher education it was now, when I was there in DU there was no such option available," he said.

Kant further said that there has been huge amount of excellence centre which have come and spread all over especially in close proximity to Delhi.

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Amidst the ongoing rift in the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal (United) grand alliance, the former party stated that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is not 'hungry for power' and added that it will take him five minutes to quit the government.

Speaking to ANI, JDU leader Ajay Alok said, "Nitish Kumar is not someone who will cling on to power at all costs. He is not hungry for power. For him, principles come first. It will take only five minutes for him to quit the government. RJD should refrain from issuing such threats to them."

This statement comes after the opposition parties, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), demanded Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav's resignation. It is speculated that Tejashwi might submit his resignation to quell the tensions escalating between ruling alliance partners.

With Tejashwi embroiled in a corruption case and the rising demand of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for his resignation, a great pressure has mounted upon Nitish Kumar to take a definitive action.

Last week, the CBI registered a corruption case against Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav; former Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Managing Director P.K. Goyal; and the wife of Lalu's confidante Prem Chand Gupta, Sujata on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

The CBI later questioned Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav.

The case was registered on the allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of Hotels at Ranchi and Puri to a private company dealing with hotels in the year 2006.

The investigative agency also conducted searches at 12 locations across Patna, Delhi, Gurugram and other places.

The RJD supremo, however, refuted the allegations against him and called it a political conspiracy hatched by the BJP.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday came out in support of former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary V.K. Sasikala over getting preferences in jail, asserting that punishment of being put in jail on a conviction is itself sufficient and there is no need to humiliate her.

Speaking to ANI, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said, "What kind of VIP treatment has she got? Did she get a kitchen where she can cook for herself? We all know that she has committed a white collar crime and is also a leader of a ruling party in Tamil Nadu. The punishment of being put in Jail on a conviction is itself sufficient and there is no need to humiliate her."

Swamy further stated that there is no danger of her tampering with evidence as she is carrying out her sentence well.

"I think it was a mistake to keep her in Karnataka because of the language difference and local hostility and so on. In my opinion, she should be transferred to the Tamil Nadu Jail so that everyone will be alert there and the government will also be on notice. There is no danger of her tampering with evidence as she is carrying out her sentence well. But at the same time women should be given special consideration. We don't need to sensationalise these things, because this goes on in every jail," Swamy said.

Yesterday, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) ridiculed the reported 'comfort' that Sasikala is getting in jail and said this shows how money can buy comforts in the jail.

A report by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) (Prisons) D. Roopa had asserted that a bribe worth Rs. 2 crore was given to the prison officials by Sasikala in order to avail special facilities in Parappana Agrahara central prison.

Roopa, in a report to Director General (DG), Prisons, H.N. Satyanarayana Rao, had said there are speculations that Sasikala paid bribe to prison officials to get special facilities for herself with rumours also of the DG, Prisons, being a beneficiary himself.

While Rao has categorically denied all the charges, Roopa has maintained her stand and said that she has no issue with an inquiry taking place into it.

The letter, apart from the information about Sasikala, also talks about many other illegal instances inside the prison.

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The Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamna' has slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Government at the Centre and has dubbed the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) ideologue Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as HMV, that is 'His Master's Voice,' which regulates the tenets of the saffron party.

The Shiv Sena further likened RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat with a stature worth of being a President, and opined that his name should have been nominated by the BJP for the post of the President.

"Had the BJP nominated Bhagwat's name, there would have been celebrations all across the country. From building a 'Hindu Rashtra' to suppressing Pakistan, Sangh has played an important role. But the expectation of the people was not fulfilled," the article read.

In a rather sardonic tone, the article said that it is nothing great if the people expect some out-of-the-world act by Prime Minister Modi, as the same would be expected from the President of the nation too.

"Bhagwat has expressed that people should closely study Prime Minister Modi's personality and that he is a harbinger of social change. At a time when Kashmir is burning and there is attack on innocent Amarnath yatra pilgrims, then having such expectations from the Prime Minister means there is some substance in it," the article read.

The article further said that because Sangh claimed that such a Prime Minister is needed who can curb the violence in the Valley and counter Pakistan, and therefore, Prime Minister Modi was elected.

"The Swayamsevaks worked day and night for the same and that is why Indians have great expectations from Prime Minister Modi," it read.

"What is wrong if people expect the Prime Minsiter to be a hero and do wonders? People would expect the same from anybody sitting at the topmost position," it added.

However, in an another attack, the article suggested that the mentality of the people here and the illusion makes people expect something from the position, and not from the person.

"Only Mahatma Gandhi and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray were exceptions to this," the article said.

Coming down to the two things, for which the BJP Government has faced flak, the article said the brunt of demonetisation and the Goods and Service Tax (GST) was bore by the common man the most.

"Our assumption of demonetisation and the GST affecting the common man turned out to be true," it said.

Concluding in an assertive way, the article read that whom will they keep their expectations from if not from the Prime Minister.

"There are expectations from the Prime Minister. If not from him, then from whom? He is BJP's 'his master voice'. We are people's loudspeaker and our voice will echo," it said.

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Director General Press Information Bureau (PIB) Frank Noronha on Thursday said that the meeting with the opposition parties was held to apprise them with the veracity of the terror attack on the Amarnath pilgrims.

Noronha said that all political parties condemned the attack and assured support to the government in the regard.

"Above 19 MPs from different parties were present and those who have not been called today will be called tomorrow at the same time. The endeavour was to apprise the member of the parliament from different parties about the situation on the terrorist attack on Amarnath pilgrims," said Noronha.

"All the political parties without exception condemned the attack severely and expressed support to the government in making all security arrangements," he added.

In an endeavor to build a consensus between Centre and opposition parties on two critical issues - tension in Jammu and Kashmir and border standoff with China at Doklam in Sikkim---a meeting was held at Home Minister Rajnath Singh's residence, where External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj briefed the leaders on the issues.

Leaders of all prominent opposition parties, including the Congress, attended the meeting.

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The Delhi High Court on Friday is likely to issue the order on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Narottam Mishra's plea against the Election Commission of India's (EC) order that had barred him from contesting elections for three years in relation to a paid news case.

Mishra, who was disqualified by the EC for filing wrong accounts of his election-related expenditure, had challenged the order in the High Court.

"Whether I will remain a member or not, that probably has not been mentioned. I also haven't got the order yet. I will go to the high court," Mishra told ANI.

Mishra had been disqualified from contesting for three years. The Election Commission's decision was taken based on a complaint lodged by former Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti in April 2009, alleging that Mishra hadn't filed certain details in his election expenditure during the 2008 assembly elections.

Mishra challenged the notice in the high court bench at Gwalior and managed to get a stay, in the light of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's case proceeding in the top court.

The court, however, vacated the stay order after considering the facts submitted by the complainant's counsel.

Mishra then approached the Supreme Court to stall the EC's proceedings, but the apex court did not grant him any relief.

Last year, the poll panel questioned Mishra in Delhi about the allegations, whereby it was noted that he hadn't revealed his expenditure on paid news.

It should be noted that the EC has the power to disqualify a candidate if he fails to submit a clear and concise account of expenses within the designated time frame.

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An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Islamabad on Friday issued orders to confiscate the properties and assets of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri for repeatedly failing to appear in hearings of terrorism cases registered against them.

The order has been subsequently sent to relevant police stations and revenue boards for implementation.

Earlier in February, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) of Islamabad on Friday issued perpetual warrants of arrest against chief Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri in the case related to an attack on a senior police officer during the 2014 sit-ins.

With the permission of court, the police initiated proceedings under section 87- for the proclamation for person absconding- of the Criminal Procedure Code against Khan and Qadri, as they did not appear before the court in the case.

On Sept 1, 2014 during the sit-ins, Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Asmatullah Janjejo was beaten up by protestors on Constitution Avenue on his first day on the job as SSP Operations of the capital police.

The secretariat police had registered a case against several PTI and PAT workers for their alleged involvement in vandalism and attacking SSP Junejo.

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Commenting on the high-level meeting called on by Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the Congress on Friday said that it was satisfying to know that after three years, the government had finally woken up and had convened a meeting to brief the Opposition on the Indo-China standoff and the current and the emerging issues.

Congress leader Randeep Surjewala, in a press briefing, said that for the past three years, the Congress has repeatedly been demanding that the BJP takes the Opposition into confidence on all issues concerning security.

"We repeated this demand on June 30, as the current Indo-China standoff in Bhutan raised great concerns and serious implications for the security," he said.

"We shall support the government in every endeavour to defend our interest and our borders," Surjewala said.

Surjewala also added that during the ten years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government, the Congress always ensured that the Opposition leaders were briefed on such issues.

He further said that the Congress shall attend the meeting, and shall ask government to share full information about background and situation that exists on Indo-China border and also on Bhutan border where the standoff continues.

He said, "We shall also ask the government to clarify all the implications for the national security and the necessary steps taken to protect our national interests."

He concluded that if need arises, the Congress party leaders shall make an appropriate statement after the meeting.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will jointly brief a meeting today on the ongoing India-China border standoff.

National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval will also be attending the meeting.

The invitation had been sent to all prominent Opposition leaders.

The tensions between China and India have been escalating for the past three weeks over the borer standoff at the Doklam area. The rift arouse after Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road near the area.

Doklam region, called in Bhutan, is known as as Dok La in India which China claims, Donglang region, as its part.

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The Supreme Court on Friday demanded the presence of liquor baron Vijay Mallya in connection with a contempt case filed against him, insisting that no proceedings can go ahead without him.

New Attorney General (AG), K. K. Venugopal, appearing for Centre, told the apex court that extradition proceedings are being conducted in a British court and would most likely end by December 4.

During the hearing, Venugopal told the division bench that extradition proceedings of Mallya has already started, to which Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel asked for submission of a status report.

In the last hearing, the apex court had convicted Mallya for contempt of court and summoned him to personally appear on July 10. Subsequently, the hearing was adjourned till July 14.

The apex court was hearing a plea by a consortium of banks, which moved the apex court after Mallya received loan of USD 40 million from a British firm, Diageo Plc, in February 2016, and allegedly transferred the money to his children, instead of repaying the loans that he owes to the banks.

The absconding businessman was arrested by the Scotland Yard last month on fraud allegations, which triggered his extradition process in the British courts.

However, Mallya was released on bail as he assured the court to abide by all conditions associated with extradition proceedings, including surrendering his passport.

On February 8, India had given a formal extradition request for Mallya through a note verbale (verbal note). India had given a formal extradition request for Mallya as per the extradition treaty between India and UK through a note verbale, a diplomatic communication.

A joint team of the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) and Enforcement Directorate ( ED) had also reached London.

Last month, the Ministry of External Affairs ( MEA) informed that the 61-year-old's extradition had been stratified by the Secretary of State of the U.K. Government and added that a warrant would soon be released against him.

The UK's Crown Prosecution Service ( CPS) will argue the case on behalf of the Indian authorities.

Mallya, whose now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines allegedly owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, had fled India on March 2, 2016.

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The Supreme Court in its interim order on Friday stayed the arrest of Congress MLA Shakuntala Khatik after hearing an application moved by her for anticipatory bail in connection of charges of inciting a mob and other sections to resort to violence.

The Apex Court has also allowed her to vote in the Presidential Election which is on July 17.

On June 13, an FIR was registered against Shakuntala Khatik and another Congress leader Venus Goyal in the Karera Police Station on charges of inciting a mob.

A day before, the Congress' Shivpuri MLA brushed aside the allegation of inciting violence during farmers protest in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh.

"I didn't instigate the workers. Would they have remained silent, had I asked them to do so?" Khatik told ANI.

Khatik further said that she only told the police officers that they shouldn't sit in the police station and go ahead to set it on fire, if they can't ensure women safety.

A video of the Congress MLA had surfaced showing her purportedly inciting party workers and farmers to torch a police station during the farmers protest.

The Congress leader was seen in the video repeatedly inciting people to accompany her to burn down the nearby police station, whereas a police official was seen requesting the MLA to calm down.

Following the video, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded MLA's arrest and cornered the Congress asking party vice-president Rahul Gandhi to apologise for the irresponsible behaviour of his party leader.

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The Supreme Court on Friday is scheduled to pronounce a quantum of sentence against liquor baron and businessman Vijay Mallya in connection with the contempt of court case.

In the last hearing, the apex court had convicted him for contempt of court and summoned him to personally appear on July 10. Subsequently, the hearing was adjourned till July 14.

The apex court was hearing a plea by a consortium of banks, which moved the apex court after Mallya received loan of USD 40 million from a British firm, Diageo Plc, in February 2016, and allegedly transferred the money to his children, instead of repaying the loans that he owes to the banks.

The absconding businessman was arrested by the Scotland Yard last month on fraud allegations, which triggered his extradition process in the British courts.

However, Mallya was released on bail as he assured the court to abide by all conditions associated with extradition proceedings, including surrendering his passport.

On February 8, India had given a formal extradition request for Mallya through a note verbale (verbal note). India had given a formal extradition request for Mallya as per the extradition treaty between India and UK through a note verbale, a diplomatic communication.

A joint team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also reached London.

Last month, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) informed that the 61-year-old's extradition had been stratified by the Secretary of State of the U.K. Government and added that a warrant would soon be released against him.

The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will argue the case on behalf of the Indian authorities.

Mallya, whose now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines allegedly owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, had fled India on March 2, 2016.

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Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Friday accepted the membership conferred to him by the Jodhpur Tourist Guide Association and visited Jodhpur for the same.

Altering the promotional schedule for his upcoming film 'Jab Harry met Sejal', SRK detoured his Jaipur visit and made a stop at Jodhpur to accept the honour.

The 'Raees' actor received a traditional Jodhpuri welcome from the tourist guides with a Rajasthani 'pagdi' as he landed in Jodhpur.

The Jodhpur Guide Association felicitated the Bollywood superstar with a membership and badge as a token to mark the association. The superstar interacted with the guides and discussed the nitty gritty of their job.

Presenting the membership Ratan Singh Rathore, President of Jodhpur Guide Association said, "Our heartfelt gratitude to Shah Rukh Khan for accepting the Honorary Membership of Jodhpur Tourist Guide Association and visiting Jodhpur. We are really very happy and it is an honour for us to host him. It will give a boom to Jodhpur tourism and it will give a boom to Jodhpur guides as well. Our best wishes for Jab Harry met Sejal".

Accepting the honour the King Khan said, "I am thankful to the Jodhpur Guides' Association for inviting and conferring me with an Honorary Membership. I was my desire to visit Jodhpur and it is for the first time that I am playing the role of a Guide in a film. I have tried to imbibe the intricacies of a Guide."

He added, "I hope I have come close to what you all do in real life."

'Jab Harry met Sejal' is directed by Imtiaz Ali. The film that also stars Anushka Sharma is all set to release on August 4.

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A Delhi court on Friday sought damage report of the sealed suite no. 345 from Hotel Leela Palace in the Sunanda Pushkar death case.

Hotel Leela Palace administration had earlier moved an application before the court, seeking permission to open the sealed room number 345.

A court also sought a reply from the Delhi Police on a plea filed by Hotel Leela Palace where Pushkar was found dead in January 2014, seeking to de-seal room 345.

Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma asked the Investigating Officer of the case to file the reply by July 21.

On July 12, the Delhi High Court has adjourned the hearing of the Sunanda Pushkar death case on a plea by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy till July 20.

Swamy on July 6 had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court seeking a court-monitored enquiry into the mysterious death of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar.

During the hearing, the High Court observed that there is delay in the case and asked Swamy as to why he had come at such a later stage.

The High Court also stated that during the time of the case, Tharoor may have been in power, but asks what influence he wields now.

To this, Swamy submitted a statement that said: "I've come after exhausting all other possibilities. Tharoor is still an MP and belongs to the largest Opposition party."

The Delhi High Court has asked the Home Ministry, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the police to file their stand on the current status in the matter.

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead on the night of January 17, 2014.

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In a startling revelation made on the specifications of the proposed border wall between USA and Mexico, United States President Donald Trump said the wall should be made 'transparent' for safety reasons.

"You have to be able to see through it," Trump said, adding that border agents need to know what or who is on the other side of the fence to avoid being "hit by sacks of drugs and other contraband".

"As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don't see them. They hit you on the head with 60 pounds (27 kg) of stuff? It's over," The Guardian quoted Trump as saying.

Additionally, Trump, on his way to Paris, also notified reporters aboard Air Force One that a 2,000 mile stretch is not necessary, proposing that a see-through wall be built, 'anywhere from 700 to 900 miles.'

The existing stretch spanning across approximately 650 miles is fenced, and follows the see-through pattern.

The government issued two notices this year for border wall proposals. The first called for a solid structure of up to 30 ft (9.14 meters) high that couldn't be easily breached. The second bid notice called for other types of walls, including something that could be seen through, reports the Guardian.

Recently, in a meeting held between Trump and his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Hamburg, the former re-iterated that Mexico would 'absolutely' finance the building of the border wall.

The meeting, which was the first between the two leaders since Trump assumed charge of Presidency, was seen as a depiction of insensitivity, while Pena Nieto's silence drew flak from Mexicans.

Putting up a wall along the US-Mexico border was part of Trump's campaign agendas, following which he issued an executive order in January for the beginning of construction.

Earlier, Trump had assured that the cost of building the 'wall' on the southern border with Mexico will come down when he gets involved with its design and negotiations.

He had also expressed his confidence that Mexico will 'eventually' pay for the border wall.

Trump had said in January that he will seek to pay for the wall by imposing a 20 percent tax on imports from Mexico and as part of a larger comprehensive tax reform plan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
French President Emmanuel Macron attended a Bastille Day military parade alongside his American counterpart Donald Trump.

The parade on Paris's Champs-Elysees commemorated the centenary of the U.S. entering War I and featured horses, helicopters, planes and troops.

Thousands of French troops marched down the Champs-Elysees to mark the storming of the Bastille military prison in 1789, a turning point in the French Revolution and 150 U.S. soldiers, airmen, sailors, and Marines and aircraft also participated in the parade.

"This is a wonderful national celebration," said Trump during a joint news conference with Macron Thursday, adding, "we look very much forward to it. Spectacular."

"Our two nations are forever joined together by the spirit of revolution and the fight for freedom," he said.

President Donald Trump watched as various French military units marched by during the Bastille Day parade and saluted a combined group of American Army and Navy troops and Marines taking part in the annual event in Paris.

U.S. President Donald Trump touched down in Paris on Thursday to forge a strong relationship with French President Emmanuel Macron.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump with military fanfare and then visited historic military complex at Les Invalides, built by King Louis XIV, where he was met with a large French army reception and joined Macron in inspecting the troops.

Trump's two-day sojourn to Paris is relaxing amid a row over allegations that his family colluded with Russia to win U.S.presidential election.

Trump and Macron will discuss counter-terrorism, Iraq, Syria bilateral ties and French anti-jihadi military operations in Africa and then hold a joint press conference, the Guardian reported.

France has been under a state of emergency following IS inspired attacks attacks in the capital and other towns.

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Untied States (US) President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Friday discussed Qatar dispute.

In a press release, the White House said that "Trump on Friday spoke from Air Force One with Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and discussed recent diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute with Qatar and underscored the importance of following through on commitments from the Riyadh Summit".

The Anti-Terror Quartet (ATQ) - comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain - cut ties with Qatar over allegations it funds extremist groups and is allying with Iran. Qatar denies this.

Trump also emphasised the need to cut all funding for terrorism and discredit extremist ideology, said the release.

It further added that King Salman also congratulated Trump on the victory over ISIS in Mosul.

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In sync with the title of the song 'Jat Jaguar', Arjun Kapoor and the makers of 'Mubarakan' are all set to explore two cities- Chandigarh and Delhi- to launch the new track from the film.

The song is an introduction to Karan and Charan in the film, showing two worlds - Karan lives in Punjab and Charan who lives in London. While 'Jat' Charan is stuck to the roots, 'Jaguar' Karan showcases a modernised Arjun.

Both Chandigarh and Delhi will witness the 'Half Girlfriend' star in two distinctive avatars. In Delhi, Arjun will be dressed as Karan and in Chandigarh, he will be Charan.

During his Chandigarh visit, Arjun aka Charan will be seen in close contact with the masses. The actor will take to the busy streets to launch the song with the present audience as he feels the song is a massy number that ought to be launched amidst a number of people.

Starring Anil Kapoor, Ileana D'Cruz and Athiya Shetty, 'Mubarakan' is slated to have its worldwide release on July 28.

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A college in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad has issued a notice banning the use of mobile phones by students in the premises as they are getting "distracted."

If a student gets caught using mobile in the college premises, then his/her mobile will be seized, says the order passed by the authorities of the Maharaja Harish Chandra PG College.

"The mobile phone has become a distraction in studies. The students are so involved in the social media and also, the boys are constantly talking to girls on the phone. Therefore, we have banned it to maintain discipline," Principal, Dr. Vishesh Gupta told ANI.

The students, who came to the college for the new session, are also being instructed by the teachers on the restriction of the mobile phones.

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Complaining that 'most of the songs were in Tamil', many 'disappointed' fans of music maestro A.R. Rahman walked out of his recent concert at Wembley's The SSE Arena, U.K.

The Twitterati was divided over the legendary composer choosing to croon Tamil songs over the Bollywood tracks. #ssearena and #wembley started trending on the micro-blogging site soonafter.

Here's what the users are tweeting:

"#ARRahman SINGS a lot of Tamil songs and suddenly all HINDI folks erupt, lol guys that's the same feel when u want ur HINDI all over south."

"Hindis want concert ticket refund coz #ARRahman sang Tamil songs. NonHindi states be refunded for taxes that subsidize Hindi states frm 1947"

"Music has no language and if you can't enjoy #ARRahman just shows how stupid you all are.."

"Hindis demand refund for #ARRahman singing few Tamil songs, imagine our refundable tax forcefully collected by Delhi 4 it's #HindiImposition"

"This is how v feel when Hindi is imposed or Hindi songs r in list in Yuva Dasara Mysuru or Hindi is heard in flight announcement.#ARRahman"

"All hindi bigots who want refund back from #ARRahman got their own medicine back. We pay taxes but hear only Hindi in every aspect of life."

The composer performed in the Netru Indru Nalai concert in London on July 8, which was rocked by the twin terror attacks on June 3 that took place at London Bridge and Borough Market.

The 50-year-old Oscar-winning musician had taken to Facebook to share the news with his fans.

"Friends and music lovers in the UK, looking forward to being amongst you and performing with my entire team," wrote Rahman.

Reportedly, out of all the songs that Rahman crooned, 16 were in Hindi and 12 were in Tamil.

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With effect from 14 July 2017

First Winner Industries announced that Avani Sanghavi has resigned from the post of Company Secretary and Compliance Officer of our company with immediate effect i.e. from 14 July, 2017.

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Sharp rise in import of RBD Palmolein & RBD Palm Sterin

Import of vegetable oils during June 2017 is reported at 1,344,868 tons compared to 1,169,456 tons in June 2016 i.e. up by 15%, as per the data compiled by The Solvent Extractors' Association of India of Vegetable Oils (edible & non-edible) for the month of June 2017. It consists of 1,293,777 tons of edible oils and 51,091 tons of non-edible oils.

The overall import of vegetable oils during first eight months of current oil year 2016-17, Nov.'16 to June '17 is reported at 9,863,572 tons compared to 9,763,043 tons, more or less of the last year.

Currently, Soybean, Rapeseed & Groundnut being sold below MSP and prices have dropped between 20% to 30% of last year level. The current prices is the lowest in the last five years and farmers are totally discouraged to sow the oilseeds and may switch over to Cotton and other cash crops. With a view to ensure farmers do not loose interest in oilseeds cultivation, SEA has strongly suggested to Central Government to raise the import duty on crude oil to 20% and refined oil to 35% with immediate effect.

The stock of edible oils as on 1st July, 2017 at various ports is estimated at 738,000 tons (CPO 270,000 tons, RBD Palmolein 150,000 tons, Degummed Soybean Oil 160,000 tons, Crude Sunflower Oil 140,000 tons and 18,000 tons of Rapeseed (Canola) Oil) and about 1,540,000 tons in pipelines. Total stock at ports and in pipelines increased to 2,278,000 tons from 2,160,000 tons in June, 2017. India's monthly requirement is about 17.50 lakh tons and operate at 30 days stock against which currently holding stock over 22.78 lakh tons equal to 39 days requirements.

During Nov.'16 - June '17, Import of refined oil (RBD Palmolein) has sharply increased to 1,903,056 tons from 1,777,839 tons in the same period of last year, while Import of crude oil decreased to 7,708,902 tons from 7,892,977 tons during the same period of last year.

During Nov.'16 - June '17, Palm Oil import has increased to 5,921,563 tons from 5,605,473 tons during the same period of last year, overall share of palm oil products increased to 62% from 58%, thanks to larger import of RBD Palmolein. Soft Oils import reduced to 3,690,395 tons from 4,064,343 tons last year, however, within soft oils, import of sunflower oil has sharply increased at the cost of soybean oil.

Import of Non-edible oils during Nov..16 - June '17 is reported at 251,614 tons compared to 93,227 tons during the same period last year. P.F.A.D., P.K.F.A.D., C.P.S. & RBD Palm Stearin are the major import of non-edible oils.

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Held on 14 July 2017

Paramount Communications announced that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on 14 July 2017 transacted the following -

Early redemption of 765,000 outstanding 0.00% Non-Convertible Redeemable Preference Shares of face value Rs. 100 per share ('NCRPS') at a price of Rs. 121.25 per NCRPS (including premium) out of fresh issue of equity shares of the Company;

To issue and allot, subject to the approval of the shareholders of the Company, a maximum of upto 20,000,000 equity shares of the Company of face value Rs. 2 each ('Equity Shares') to the existing NCRPS holders.

The issue price for the proposed allotment of Equity Shares will be determined in accordance with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (ICDR) Regulations, 2009.

Notice of 23rd Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held on 17 August 2017.

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Pricol rose 2.43% to Rs 92.65 at 12:30 IST on BSE after the company said it will acquire 100% stake in wiping systems business of Ashok Piramal Group's PMP Auto Components.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 13 July 2017.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 20.33 points, or 0.06% to 32,017.05.

On the BSE, 2.85 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far, compared with average daily volumes of 41,367 shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 95 and a low of Rs 91.10 so far during the day. The stock hit a record high of Rs 115.35 on 10 February 2017. The stock hit a record low of Rs 75.75 on 23 May 2017.

The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 13 July 2017, rising 13.42% compared with 2.83% rise in the Sensex. The scrip had, however, underperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 1.29% as against Sensex's 8.74% rise.

The small-cap company has equity capital of Rs 9.48 crore. Face value per share is Re 1.

Automotive components manufacturer Pricol has signed binding agreements to acquire 100% of the wiping systems business of Ashok Piramal group's PMP Auto Components. The acquisition would be undertaken by Pricol through its wholly-owned subsidiaries. The transaction will be funded by a combination of internal accruals and external debt. The transaction would be earnings per share (EPS) accretive to the shareholders of Pricol and the profitability is expected to further improve upon integration of the business with Pricol.

PMP had acquired this business in 2008 from Magna and is presently running manufacturing facilities in Czech Republic, Mexico and India. The business is supplying wiper motors to global automotive customers including VW, Fiat, John Deere, Skoda, Audi, Seat and has a turnover of around Rs 250 crore currently with a confirmed order book and revenue visibility of more than Rs 450 crore in the financial year ending March 2020.

The acquisition will help Pricol diversify its product offerings and provide access to manufacturing facilities in Europe and North America, where it currently does not have a footprint, helping it cement its status as a global supplier. Additionally, with this acquisition, Pricol will increase its presence with passenger vehicles customers diversifying revenue streams and opening up multiple cross selling opportunities.

Pricol also expects to realize substantial synergies within the first couple of years to further boost the financial performance of the business. Pricol's focus as an auto component supplier and experience in low cost production and sourcing can be leveraged by the target businesses for realizing cost savings in sourcing raw materials and reducing manufacturing overheads. Joint research and development (R&D) is also expected to reduce product development costs.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and the parties to the transaction are bound by standard confidentiality obligations.

Net profit of Pricol declined 14.62% to Rs 5.43 crore on 818.76% surge in net sales to Rs 258.63 crore in Q4 March 2017 over Q4 March 2016.

Pricol offers auto components for motor vehicles, motorcycles and three wheelers.

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Conventionally, the average duration of a government officer's stay in a posting has been around three years. But here is a woman officer who has been transferred 25 times in 13 years, that too without being assigned any reason for her being frequently shifted.

Amita Singh Tomar, the now-harassed woman officer, has no corruption charges against her.

The keen-watchers of the TV quiz show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' (KBC) might recall the way Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan was impressed with her as she went on answering the questions to win Rs 50 lakh in 2011.

Posted as Tehsildar in Biaora in Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh district, Tomar has now been transferred to Sidhi district.

Upset with the decision of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, she tweeted: "This is my 25th transfer in 13 years of my career. Whenever I got transferred, I was sent 500 km away."

Tomar told IANS on Friday that when applications were sought for transfer, she had opted for a transfer to the Gwalior-Chambal division, but she had been transferred to Sidhi instead.

She has now written to senior state officials and even approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi through Twitter to apprise him of her ordeal.

"I won Rs 50 lakh in the TV quiz show 'KaunBanega Crorepati (KBC)' in 2011 and the people then began to recognise me as 'KBC Wali Madam'. But now I am known as 'Transfer Wali Madam' because of constant transfers," she said.

Incidentally, Tomar has hit the headlines in the past as well, for reasons other than her frequent transfers.

During her posting in Raoti in Ratlam district in June 2016, she had written in Facebook: "When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Afghanistan then the people there carrying the Indian national flag in their hands raised slogans of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram'."

In the next lines, the woman officer requested PM Modi to launch a "Rajiv Gandhi Suicide Plan", so that the Congressmen and those following secular ideology could commit suicide after reading such reports.

A controversy had then erupted over her Facebook post, following which she was transferred to Rajgarh district.

--IANS

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Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale on Friday said "everybody has a right to eat beef" and promised action against cow vigilantes who assault and lynch people in the name of cow protection.

Addressing the media, he said in recent months, many people have been beaten, some of whom lost their lives, for suspected possession or transport of beef or meat of other animals.

"Even Prime Minster Narendra Modi has expressed concern over this and warned that such incidents would not be tolerated. Yet, such incidents have not stopped," Athawale said, adding that such incidents will not be tolerated any more and the self-styled cow vigilantes will be dealt with sternly.

"Everybody in the country has a right to eat beef. The gau rakshaks have the right to lodge a police complaint... However, they don't have the authority to take the law in their hands and beat or lynch anybody," said Athavale, who is President of NDA constituent, the Republican Party of India-A.

The minister's statement came days after Maharashtra was rocked by beef-related incidents -- two in Pune and one in Nagpur -- in which four persons were arrested and a former BJP activist brutally assaulted on suspicions of transporting beef by a mob of cow vigilantes respectively.

--IANS

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Popular Australian Greens Party Senator Scott Ludlam on Friday resigned from the Senate after revelation that he has dual citizenship of Australia and New Zealand.

This is in breach of the Australian constitution that demands a person who is a citizen of a foreign power is incapable of being chosen as a senator or member of the House of Representatives in Australia, Xinhua news agency reported.

Ludlam, who was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia when he was nine-year-old, said he had assumed that as he became a naturalised Australian citizen when he was in his "mid-teens", his previous citizenship was not an issue.

"Recently it was brought to my attention that I hold dual citizenship of Australia and New Zealand, I am therefore ineligible to hold elected office in Parliament," Ludlam said.

"I apologise unreservedly for this mistake. This was my error, something I should have checked when I first nominated for pre-selection in 2006. I have no wish to draw out the uncertainty or create a lengthy legal dispute, particularly when the Constitution is so clear."

Ludlam, who is incredibly popular with the younger generation in Australia, particularly millennials, was one of the most active politicians on social media in Australia.

He recently took time away from the Senate in late 2016 to deal with a widely-publicised struggle with depression and anxiety, drawing waves of support form fellow parliamentarians and the general public.

The leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Richard Di Natale, said he was "absolutely devastated" by the announcement.

"Scott's decision to deal with this issue directly and immediately shows his absolute integrity and character," Di Natale said.

"As a colleague, Scott has been an outstanding member of Parliament and of the Greens. He has been a strong representative for the people of WA and the nation on a range of issues from the anti-nukes movement, digital rights, housing and homelessness and so many others. As a friend, one could not ask for anything more."

Asked what he plans to do next, Ludlam said: "I will find some other way of stirring up trouble."

Ludlam served as the co-deputy leader of the party and handled a broad portfolio, including communications, defence, foreign affairs and sustainable cities.

--IANS

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The Bofors scandal may return to haunt the Congress after a parliamentary panel's sub-committee sought re-opening of the case that significantly contributed to the downfall of the Rajiv Gandhi government in the 1989 General Elections.

The sub-committee on Defence attached to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), headed by Biju Janata Dal MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, suggested that the case be reopened.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey is learnt to have pointed out at the meeting of the PAC that if charges relating to Babri Masjid could be revived against some BJP leaders (L.K. Advani and Uma Bharti) through a court process, the same could apply to the Bofors case.

A committee member, who did not wish to be named, told IANS that it was a suggestion from the panel, as it was felt that there were many loopholes in the earlier investigation.

The six-member PAC subcommittee on Defence is looking into non-compliance of certain aspects of the CAG report of 1986 on the deal.

On Thursday, CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma had appeared before the panel, which asked him to put up the case considering systematic failure in the Bofors contract as well as charges of bribery against top political leaders and officials.

"The government at that time wanted the case to be closed. Now it depends on the government and the Supreme Court to restart the investigation... the committee gave a suggestion," the member said.

Asked about reports of files related to the case missing from the Defence Ministry, the member said they were told the files were in the court.

The Congress termed the demand for re-opening the case as politically motivated

"We know that court has settled the issue. Several BJP leaders have used it to further their political interest. An effort is being made to replant it to select (news) channels. It can be agenda of some friends. But the truth does not need any cover and the truth has been probed," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told IANS.

The CBI, which probed the kickback case whose trial ran till 2011 after almost 25 years of the scam-tainted gun deal with the Swedish company, however, said it can launch re-investigation only if the Supreme Court or the central government orders it.

"We need court or government order to re-investigate the case. Can a committee recommend the CBI to start a probe," CBI spokesperson R.K. Gaur told IANS adding that the probe agency was not saying anything more on the issue.

The BJP said it was for the CBI to respond to a proposal or a recommendation from the PAC.

BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said the CBI would respond to the PAC "which is a body of the parliament and not a wing of the government".

"It is the members of the PAC have asked the CBI whether it could be reopened. The BJP doesn't have anything to say further beyond that," Rao told IANS.

CPI's D. Raja said law must take its course on Bofors and the "CBI must do what they have to do".

The alleged corruption in the Bofors gun deal had created a scandal in the middle of Rajiv Gandhi's term as Prime Minister in 1987 and had significantly contributed to the political discourse against his party, which lost the Lok Sabha elections in 1989.

The case was finally closed after a plea by the CBI on March 5, 2011, when a Delhi court ruled that the "hard-earned" tax-payers' money could not be spent "on these type of proceedings which are not going to do any good to them".

The main accused, Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman, who had fled the country in the mid-1990s, died two years after the case was closed and charges against him were dropped. Quattrocchi was said to be close to the Gandhi family.

The case came up again before the Supreme Court in 2016 with the CBI informing it that the then UPA government led by the Congress had denied permission to it to appeal against the Delhi court order.

--IANS

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Accusing police of shielding the "real culprits" in the gang rape and murder of a schoolgirl, residents of a Himachal Pradesh town on Friday blocked a national highway and gheraoed a police station to demand a CBI probe into the case.

Shopkeepers shut shops in Theog town to express solidarity with the victim's family.

The protesters blocked National Highway-5, which links Shimla with upper Shimla district, for several hours. They also gheraoed the police station where Superintendent of Police D.W. Negi was present and broke windowpanes of his official car.

"We demand the case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. We want assurance from the Chief Minister (Virbhadra Singh)," an uncle of the victim told reporters.

He said police remained silent on the gang rape-murder case for 10 days and all of a sudden announced the arrest of five more accused on Thursday.

"We have doubts the real accused are still roaming free," a protestor said.

In a related development, Inspector General of Police Zahur H. Zaidi, heading a Special Investigation Team formed to probe the case, went on leave on Friday.

Over a week after the crime, Director General of Police Somesh Goyal on Thursday said the police had arrested all six accused.

"One accused was arrested yesterday (Wednesday) and five others arrested today (Thursday) in the rape and murder of a girl in Kotkhai (in Shimla district)," he told reporters here.

The accused, aged between 19 and 42, included two Nepalese and two persons from Uttarakhand, mainly farm labourers settled in Kotkhai area where the crime happened.

The 16-year-old girl was offered a lift in a vehicle by the accused on July 4 when she was returning home from school. On the way, the accused raped and murdered her in a nearby forest. Her body was found two days later.

The arrested persons are prime accused Rajinder Singh, who offered her the lift, Ashish Chauhan, Subhash Bisht, Deepak Kumar, Surat Singh and Lokjan.

The police said the prime accused had developed familiarity with the victim as he offered her lift twice earlier.

--IANS

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China on Friday warned Botswana against the scheduled visit of the Dalai Lama, saying it hoped the African country understands Beijing's "concerns" about the Tibetan "separatist".

According to news reports, the Tibetan spiritual leader will attend a three-day human rights conference in Gaborone from August 17. He will also meet Botswana's President.

"The Dalai Lama 14th is a political exile who is engaged in anti-China activities and wants to separate Tibet from China on the pretext of religion," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said here.

"China firmly opposes his contact in any form with officials of any countries. China's position is clear cut. Hope relevant countries and accommodate the concerns and interests of China."

China calls the Dalai Lama a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and accuses him of secessionist activities in Tibet.

In 1959, after a failed uprising in Tibet, the Dalai Lama fled to India and has lived in self-imposed exile since then.

China slams any country which hosts or keeps any contact with the spiritual leader.

It also resorts other measures and tactics to show its anger. In the case of neighbouring Mongolia, it imposed a kind of economic blockade, crippling the economy of the poor country.

Following his April visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as its own, Beijing had retaliated by changing the name of six cities in the northeastern Indian state.

--IANS

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A child rape suspect will face prosecution in China's Henan province more than 20 years after the crime, said the court on Friday.

The suspect, surnamed Liu, was suspected of raping and suffocating an eight-year-old on November 26, 1996 in an abandoned cave in Xinmi city, Xinhua news agency reported.

Police found the body, believed to have been buried by Liu before he fled, but failed to identify the suspect.

In 2013, Liu was matched to the crime by DNA evidence. He was arrested in March 2017.

As the case extended beyond the prosecution period of 20 years, as stipulated by the country's Criminal Law, authorities reported to the court for approval of prosecution.

The prosecution was approved due to Liu's alleged evil conduct.

--IANS

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A Chinese spy ship has been sailing in international waters off the coast of Alaska for several days, having first arrived in the area shortly before the test of a US missile defence system, the media reported.

US Navy Captain Scott Miller, spokesperson for the North American Aerospace Defence Command, told CNN late Thursday the ship is believed to be a "communications" or "intelligence" vessel and confirmed it has been in the area for the last few days.

Miller would not speculate on the reason for the ship being there.

Two US military officials told CNN that the ship is operating approximately 100 miles off the Alaska coast in international waters.

The officials pointed out that the Chinese ship is operating legally and said the US does not have security concerns about the vessel.

US ships also regularly operate in international waters near China.

The officials said it is possible the ship was there to observe the latest successful Terminal High Altitude Area Defecse (THAAD) missile system test off Alaska, but the US has not confirmed it.

China has long protested the US-South Korea decision to deploy THAAD to the Korean peninsula, saying that it could be used to target Chinese missiles.

South Korean and US officials say the system would be used to intercept missiles coming from North Korea.

--IANS

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The Congress on Friday asked the central government to share information on the current India-China standoff in Doklam in Sikkim sector.

The party asked the government to share "full information about the background and situation that exists on India-China as also on the Bhutan border".

The Congress also asked the Narendra Modi-led government to clarify on the steps being taken to protect the national interest.

During the all-party meeting, the Congress demanded that the Modi government take the Opposition into confidence.

"Over the last three years, the Congress has repeatedly demanded the BJP government takes the Opposition into confidence on issues involving national security. We reiterated this demand on June 30 as the current India-China border standoff raised grave concerns and serious implications for national security," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

"The party reiterates that on issues of India's security, the entire country has to act as a unified pole. We shall support the government in every endeavour to defend our national interests," Surjewala said.

He added: "During the 10 years of UPA government, Congress always ensured the Opposition leaders were briefed on every such issue."

"Pursuant to our demand, it is satisfying to note the government has woken up after three years to brief the Opposition parties on the current and emergent issues facing the nation and has convened a meeting," the Congress leader said.

--IANS

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The Kohima bench of the Gauhati High Court on Friday stayed, till July 17, the floor test for the Naga People's Front-led coalition government headed by Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu till.

Governor P.B. Acharya had directed Liezietsu to prove his majority by July 15 after former Chief Minister T.R Zeliang staked claim to form the new government with the support of 41 legislators in the 60-member assembly.

Hearing Liezietsu's writ petition, Justice L.S.Lima said: "Considering the ratio laid down by the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Nabam Rebia and Bamang Felix (supra), this court is of the tentative opinion at this stage that an interim (order) is called for."

The court stayed the governor's order, after Speaker Imtiwapang Aier's counsel N. Longkumer prayed for some time to enable him to receive instruction, and listed the matter for the next hearing on Monday next.

In his petition, Liezietsu argued that the Governor's decision asking him to conduct a floor test on or before July 15 was "ex facie unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary and violative of the basic features of the Constitution".

Contending the by-election to the Northern Angami-I constituency (in which Liezietsu is contesting) is already under process, he said: "It was "imperative and incumbent upon the Governor to call upon the petitioner to prove its majority on the floor of the House only pursuant to the by-elections wherein the petitioner is a candidate."

Liezietsu held that Acharya's decision has "virtually sought to strangulate the will of the Council of Ministers and have used the office of the Governor to suit his political needs".

"The decision of the Governor is completely tainted with arbitrariness, malafide, partisanship and has been taken in an extremely hasty manner on July 13 to pre-empt any staking of claim by the Petitioner. As such, it is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution," he said in his petition.

Earlier, Liezietsu accompanied by his ministers drove down to meet Acharya and briefed him on the state's political situation.

According to a communique from the Chief Minister's Office, the Governor told him "to bring about a reconciliation amongst the legislators".

Kuzholuzo Nienu, the newly-elected Chairman of the ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland's Coordination Committee, emphatically told Acharya that the coalition is intact and that the present crisis is only within the Naga People's Front party.

Meanwhile, the rebel NPF legislators led by Zeliang reached Kohima this afternoon after they were evacuated by boat from a flooded resort in Assam's Kaziranga where they been camping since last week.

Zeliang said that he is prepared for the floor test. He is also confident of getting the support of four BJP legislators.

"I am prepared to get to the government through the democratic means of a floor test, so that the unity within the rank and file of the party is firmly secured," he said.

--IANS

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European Parliament's Chairman of the Delegation for Relations with India Geoffrey Van Orden on Friday condemned the July 10 terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims and called on Pakistan to cooperate with India in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

"This is a most atrocious crime which follows a series of terrorist attacks and other provocations designed to destabilise the political situation in Jammu & Kashmir," he said in a press release.

"We stand resolutely with India in her fight against and hope that those responsible will rapidly be brought to justice. We call upon the government of Pakistan to cooperate in this and to enhance its efforts to suppress terrorists and extremists and develop peaceful relations with India," said Van Orden who is a British Member of the European Parliament.

Seven pilgrims were killed and 19 injured in the attack.

--IANS

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A fire broke out in a city branch of the public sector Syndicate Bank here on Friday, prompting the fire brigade to evacuate residents from a congested south Kolkata multi-storied apartment, police said.

There were no reports of any casualty, and the flames in the Camac Street branch were controlled by five fire tenders.

Disaster management team of the Kolkata police were rushed to the spot.

The extent of damage and the cause of the fire were yet to be ascertained, but a police source said it could have started from the air-conditioning system.

--IANS

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The Haryana government has decided to provide 24-hour power supply to Gurugram district from August 15 onwards, for which a blueprint has already been prepared, an official said on Friday.

Public Works (Buildings and Roads) Minister Rao Narbir, who was visiting villages in Badshahpur Assembly constituency, disclosed this and added that Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar would make an announcement to this effect on the occasion of Independence Day.

He also said that the Gurugram railway station would be modernised and the Dhankot-Gurugram railway station would be upgraded to international level with all modern facilities on the pattern of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

The minister said that the foundation stone of the nearly 5-km-long Badshahpur elevated highway would be laid before August 15. After its construction, commuters would be able to travel from Rajiv Chowk to Sohna in just about 18 minutes.

The minister launched various developmental projects in different villages on Friday, including streets in Khandsa village at a cost of Rs 2.84 crore, roads in Jhanjhrola village at a cost of about Rs 79 lakh, roads, and boundary wall of a cemetery, community centre in Mandkola village at a cost of about Rs 95 lakh, and other development work in Harsaru village at a cost of Rs 1.21 crore.

--IANS

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The Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by a DIG-rank officer to probe the July 10 terror attack on a bus carrying Amarnath Yatra pilgrims in south Kashmir.

"We have constituted the six-member SIT headed by South Kashmir Deputy Inspector General of Police S.P. Pani for speedy investigation in this important case," Inspector General of Police Kashmir Munir Ahmad Khan said.

Other members include Anantnag Senior Superintendent of Police Altaf Ahmad Khan, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, and other officers who will assist in the probe.

Seven pilgrims were killed and 19 injured when their bus heading towards Jammu from Srinagar was attacked by militants at 8.30 p.m. at Batengo in Anantnag district on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway on July 10.

The bus was not registered with the Amaranth Shrine Board and had reportedly violated the travel rules.

Soon after the attack, the Kashmir IGP had said that the Lashkar-e-Taiba was behind the attack.

"Initial investigation reveals it is a group of Lashkar militants headed by Abu Ismail of Pakistan who carried out the attack," the IGP had said.

--IANS

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Police on Wednesday arrested a local Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant in Sopore of north Kashmir.

The militant was held during a routine checking on Baramulla-Handwara road in Sopore area, the police said.

"The militant had joined LeT outfit a few days back when his video went viral on social media in which he was seen giving threats to people of north Kashmir against participation in the municipal and and Panchayat elections.

"The arrested militant has been identified as Amir Sultan War, son of Mohammad Sultan War, a resident of Naidkhai Sumbal in Bandipora district."

--IANS

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Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has convened an all-party meeting on Sunday, a day before Parliament's monsoon session begins.

The meeting with leaders of various parties in the Lok Sabha will take place in Parliament's Library Building, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said.

Mahajan will seek cooperation from all political parties for a smooth functioning of the lower house during the customary meeting ahead of the monsoon session scheduled to end on August 11.

Opposition parties are all set to corner the government over issues related to India's border stand-off with China, the Kashmir situation, farmers' distress and Goods and Services Tax among others.

Both houses of Parliament are unlikely to transact any business on the first day (July 17) on account of the death of two MPs - Vinod Khanna (Lok Sabha) and P. Goverdhan Reddy (Rajya Sabha).

On the same day, voting to elect the new President is scheduled in which 776 MPs are eligible to vote.

Vinod Khanna, who represented Gurdaspur in Punjab, died on April 27. Reddy, the Rajya Sabha member of the Congress from Telangana, died on June 9.

--IANS

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Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and the Army on Friday paid tributes to the two soldiers killed on the Line of Control (LoC) two days ago.

The Chief Minister joined Lt Gen J.S. Sandhu, the Chinar Corps Commander, and all ranks "in paying homage to the martyrs on behalf of a proud nation", a Defence Ministry statement said.

The solemn ceremony took place at the Badami Bagh cantonment.

In a show of solidarity, officials from the state government and other security agencies joined in paying their last respects to Lance Naik Ranjit Singh and Rifleman Satish Bhagat, it said.

The two were killed in Keran sector on July 12 by Pakistani troops. They were provided immediate first aid and evacuated from the post but succumbed to their injuries.

Ranjit Singh, 32, joined the Army in 2003 and hailed from Burn village in Jammu region. He is survived by his wife Neha Devi and two children.

Satish Bhagat, 22, had joined the Army in 2015. He is survived by his parents.

"The mortal remains of the martyrs were flown for last rites to their native places, where they will be laid to rest with full military honours," the statement said.

--IANS

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As Nagaland's political turmoil continues to deepen with Governor P.B. Acharya asking Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu to prove majority in the state assembly, lone MP Neiphiu Rio said people are losing faith in the Naga People's Front (NPF) and want an immediate change.

Rio, a former Chief Minister and NPF member, on Thursday said the current government's working style was the sole reason behind legislators losing trust in Liezietsu and his government.

"Certainly, the working style of the current government is not being liked by the people and legislators in the state. If such a situation arises then there will be need for a change," Rio told IANS.

Asked if people were losing faith in the NPF, Rio said: "Yes, looking at the circumstances, it's clearly visible".

The rebellion within the party erupted when legislators accused Liezietsu of indulging in "nepotism" by appointing his son Khriehu Liezietsu as his advisor with cabinet status and pay.

Of the 47 NPF legislators, 35 have signed a "letter of support" wanting Liezietsu's predecessor T.R. Zeliang to take over as the Chief Minister again.

Liezietsu, who is also the NPF President, was sworn in as the Chief Minister on February 22 after Zeliang's resignation following violent protests by tribal groups who opposed the latter's move of holding civic polls with 33 per cent reservation for women.

Acharya has asked the Chief Minister to prove his majority in the state assembly by July 15.

--IANS

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Following steady progress on fund-raising efforts with several international institutional investors, a certain threshold investment in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund is expected to be reached soon, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was told on Friday during his review meet of NIIF.

The third meeting of the Governing Council of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) was held under the chairmanship of Jaitley where he reviewed the performance and action taken by NIIF in order to attract investment from foreign Sovereign Wealth Funds among others for the infrastructure sector in the country.

"Steady progress on fund-raising efforts with several international institutional investors, following-up on Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) signed by India has been made. A first close of NIIF is expected very soon," the Finance Ministry said here in a statement after the meeting.

First close is closure of a round of financing after all the parties involved are in agreement.

The central government has also committed funds of Rs 20,000 crore to the NIIF.

NIIF is considering investments in third party managed funds focused on clean energy (Green Growth Fund), affordable housing and medium sized infrastructure companies, the statement said.

Strong investment pipeline with investment opportunities is under consideration in the roads, ports, aviation and power sectors, it said.

The NIIF governance structure has been developed with technical assistance from Department for International Development, UK which has been further reviewed and confirmed by Stanford University's Global Project Centre under the MoU with the US Treasury.

A team of twelve staff, including the CEO, is in place for National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited. "Further recruitments of high quality staff through a global search process is underway. Strong international response to hiring efforts and advertisements for recruitment of expert staff has been received," it said.

"The establishment of NIIF's permanent Delhi office is complete and the establishment of its head office in Mumbai is currently under refurbishment. NIIF staff are already operating in a hired space," it added.

--IANS

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A senior Pakistan International Airline (PIA) pilot allegedly compromised air safety by not taking the 24-hour mandatory rest before operating a flight.

Sadiq Rehman, a former Pakistan Air Lines Pilots Association (Palpa) Vice President, did not rest in Lahore before operating the transatlantic flight from there on July 4, exposing hundreds of lives to danger, Dawn quoted PIA spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar as saying.

The PIA had scheduled Rehman to arrive in Lahore on July 2 evening, rest on July 3 and then go ahead (after resting for over 36 hours) to operate the flight to Canada but the pilot did not follow the schedule, the report said on Friday.

Tajwar told Dawn that Rehman arrived in Lahore at 8.45 p.m. on July 3 and operated PK-789 on July 4 at 11.35 a.m. This makes his stay in Lahore for around 15 hours.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held a meeting with senior government functionaries to review the country's current foreign direct investment (FDI) policy.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, among others, attended the meeting which was held at the Prime Minister's residence.

The meeting is understood to have discussed measures to further liberalise the policy, so as to attract more FDI in various sectors.

--IANS

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Oscar winning composer A.R. Rahman got slammed over social media after some of his fans reportedly walked out of his concert at Wembley Stadium because many of the songs he sang were in Tamil.

Rahman performed the concert "Netru, Indru, Naalai"(Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow) at the London event on July 8.

However, according to reports, fans started leaving the concert after Rahman started singing Tamil songs.

"A.R. Rahman concert: Never seen so much disappointment and mass walkouts. Approximately one per cent of songs in Hindi," one fan posted on Twitter.

Another tweeted: "A.R. Rahman very disappointed with the concert tonight (July 8) in Wembley. Waited for a very long time to be disappointed? Not expected from a legend."

"Lovely to see A.R. Rahman, but all the songs are in Tamil! What about your Hindi/Bollywood fans?"

After the reported walkout, a statement was later issued on a Facebook page named "A R Rahman Live - UK" on July 10 saying: "Hi London. Thanks for the tremendous support and response. However, we have been getting few complaints on language bias which is rather unfortunate as this was an Indian show and music doesn't have any barriers."

The Facebook statement, which could not be verified immediately, also sought to put the controversy in perspective. "We have posted the track list performed at The SSE Arena, Wembley to prove that there were 16 full tracks in Hindi, 12 full Tamil tracks and one medley with a mix of Tamil and Hindi."

There were many fans who supported him. "We must demand refund of tax paid to Indian Government as we don't get service in my Langauge #stopHindiImposition #ARRahman," a fan tweeted.

"This is how v feel when Hindi is imposed or Hindi songs r in list in Yuva Dasara Mysuru or Hindi is heard in flight announcement" said another tweet.

Rahman is currently in New York for the 18th edition of the IIFA Weekend and Awards and is yet to directly address the incident.

--IANS

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Oscar-winning composer A R Rahman, who hails from Tamil Nadu, got slammed on social media for performing Tamil songs at the Wembley Stadium. While some were left disappointed, others stood by his songs selection as they believe music has no language barrier.

Rahman's "Netru, Indru, Naalai" (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow) gig at the London event on July 8 didn't hit the right chord with all his fans, especially his Bollywood-song admirers.

According to reports, some left the concert after Rahman started singing Tamil songs.

"A.R. Rahman concert: Never seen so much disappointment and mass walkouts. Approximately one per cent of songs in Hindi," one fan posted on Twitter.

Another tweeted: "A.R. Rahman... very disappointed with the concert tonight (July 8) at Wembley. Waited for a very long time to be disappointed? Not expected from a legend."

"Lovely to see A.R. Rahman, but all the songs are in Tamil! What about your Hindi/Bollywood fans?"

Lovely to see @arrahman but all the songs are in Tamil! What about your Hindi/Bollywood fans? #ARRahman #london  nazia chishty (@Nazoo_Chishty) July 8, 2017

After the reported walkout, a statement was later issued on a Facebook page - A R Rahman Live - UK on July 10, saying: "Hi London. Thanks for the tremendous support and response. However, we have been getting a few complaints on language bias which is rather unfortunate as this was an Indian show and music doesn't have any barriers."

The Facebook statement, which could not be verified immediately, also sought to put the controversy in perspective. "We have posted the track list performed at The SSE Arena, Wembley to prove that there were 16 full tracks in Hindi, 12 full Tamil tracks and one medley with a mix of Tamil and Hindi."

There were some who supported him.

One wrote: "Everyone in the world knew that music doesn't have a language but Hindi wala guys say music in Hindi language. AR Rahman."

Another tweeted: "I think some of these Bollywood kiss a**es forget A.R. Rahman is Tamil and Bollywood did not make him famous, many great Bollywood movies."

Another wrote: "This is how we feel when Hindi is imposed or Hindi songs are in list in Yuva Dasara Mysuru or Hindi is heard in flight announcement."

Rahman is currently in New York for the 18th edition of the IIFA Weekend and Awards and is yet to directly address the incident.



Was total disaster,for someone who made his name in Bollywood(at least on sheer numbers) it was disrespectful from him,even speaking Tamil  Apoorva Dixit (@apoorva_dixit) July 9, 2017

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The Rajasthan government is planning to launch olive tea in August this year, said a minister here on Friday.

The green tea produced using leaves of olive tree will be helpful for heart patients and also help farmers get additional income, said Prabhu Lal Saini, Agriculture Minister of Rajasthan.

Around 5,000 acres of land in Rajasthan has been cultivated with olives with the main purpose of producing oil.

"We have set up a refinery in Lunkaransar in Bikaner and processing of leaves is going on. At present, olives are cultivated in Israel, Spain, Morocco, Brazil and Italy. We have sought their assistance to develop olive green tea. We are planning to launch it in August," Saini told reporters here.

The Rajasthan government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a private company for marketing and selling of the olive tea.

"The company will have to share a part of profit with us," Saini said.

Between 2006-07, olive from Israel was introduced in the state for the first time.

--IANS

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Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will on Friday brief opposition parties on the India-China standoff in Doklam and the situation in Kashmir ahead of Parliament's monsoon session that begins on Monday.

The all-party meeting to take the opposition leaders into confidence on the two issues would be held at the Home Minister's residence.

The decision to address the meeting was taken after the nation was hounded on both sides, by Pakistan and China.

The standoff between India and China in the Doklam Plateau, adjoining the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan, was now a month old, with no end to it yet in sight.

Sources said the government also wanted to discuss the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, which has witnessed a spate of violence following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in July, 2016.

On July 10, militants attacked a bus carrying Amarnath pilgrims, killing seven persons and injuring 19 others in south Kashmir's Khanabal area on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

--IANS

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Over-ruling the government's various contentions, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to set up a team to probe over 90 cases of alleged staged shootouts by security forces in Manipur.

"The Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation will nominate a team and inform us of its composition within two weeks, as also any other requirement," directed a bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit.

"These petitions should also be listed positively in the second week of January 2018 to ensure compliance with our directions for investigation by Central Bureau of Investigation," the court said in its verdict on a plea by the Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association (EEVFAM) seeking a SIT probe into the killing of 1,528 persons by the Manipur Police and security forces since 1978.

However, the Association was only able to collect information in 655 cases.

Rejecting the government's stand that some of these cases are of "considerable vintage and at this point of time it may not be appropriate to re-open the issues for investigation", Justice Lokur, speaking for the bench, ruled: "If a crime has been committed, a crime which involves the death of a person who is possibly innocent, it cannot be over-looked only because of a lapse of time."

"Merely because the State has not taken any action and has allowed time to go by, it cannot take advantage of the delay to scuttle an inquiry," the court said pointing out that it was the state's obligation to itself conduct a "thorough inquiry" soon after each incident took place.

The court also rejected the government's argument that since the next of kin of the deceased have not approached the court, it should not entertain a petition filed by a third party.

"Access to justice is certainly a human right ... Our constitutional jurisprudence does not permit us to shut the door on such persons and our constitutional obligation requires us to give justice and succour to the next of kin of the deceased," it said.

The court also rejected the argument that the report were "biased in favour of the citizens and against the State" on account of local pressures and ground situation.

"If there had been a break-down of the rule of law in the state of Manipur, surely the Government of India was under an obligation to take appropriate steps.

"To suggest that all the inquiries were unfair and motivated is casting very serious aspersions on the independence of the authorities in Manipur at that point of time, which we do not think is at all warranted," it said.

The court also knocked down the argument that as compensation has been paid to next of kin for the "unfortunate deaths", therefore it may be not necessary to proceed further in the matter.

"We cannot agree. Compensation has been awarded to the next of kin for the agony they have suffered and to enable them to immediately tide over their loss and for their rehabilitation," it said, stressing compensation cannot override the law of the land, since then "all heinous crimes would get settled through payment of monetary compensation".

"Our constitutional jurisprudence does not permit this and we certainly cannot encourage or countenance such a view," the court said underlining that compensation could not be a means to escape accountability to law.

The top court, by its July 8 judgment last year, had said that an allegation of excessive force resulting in the death of any person by police or armed forces in Manipur must be thoroughly enquired into, but left open the decision as to which agency would probe the cases.

--IANS

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A Malaysian national, Prabagaran Srivijayan, was executed here on Friday after being sentenced to death in 2014 for importing heroin.

Prabagaran, 29, was hanged to death at the Changi Prison at 6 a.m.

He was arrested in April 2012 at the Woodlands Checkpoint after two packets carrying 22.24 grams of the drug were recovered from a Malaysian-registered vehicle that he was driving, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said.

The Singapore Court of Appeal on Thursday dismissed an eleventh-hour motion to halt his execution, reports Channel News Asia.

The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for death penalty if the amount of heroin imported is more than 15 grams.

--IANS

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Senior ministers Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval held a meeting on Friday ahead of their briefing to opposition leaders on the border stand-off with China and the Kashmir situation.

The meeting held at Home Minister Rajnath Singh's residence here was also attended by BJP President Amit Shah. Rajiv Gauba, who will take over as Home Secretary on August 30, was also present. The meeting lasted for over two hours.

Informed sources said the meeting went over the points to be discussed with the opposition leaders on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of the killing of Amarnath pilgrims and the military stand-off in the Doklam Plateau adjoining the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan.

The opposition is likely to raise the two issues during Parliament's monsoon session that begins on Monday.

--IANS

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Senior union ministers on Friday held a meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, ahead of a meeting with opposition parties on the border stand-off and Kashmir situation.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah were present at the meeting, held at Singh's residence.

Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj will on Friday evening brief opposition parties on the India-China standoff in Doklam and on the situation in Kashmir ahead of Parliament's monsoon session that begins on Monday.

The all-party meeting, to take opposition leaders into confidence on the two key issues, would also be held at the Home Minister's residence.

--IANS

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Ten critically endangered vulture species in the world, including three from India, are set to get the highest degree of protection, according to conservationists.

India, ahead of the international talks in October, has proposed that it would play a leading role in efforts to conserve nature's scavengers, convention organisers said on Friday.

Three of the nine species of vultures in India -- oriental white-backed, slender-billed and long-billed -- are on the brink of extinction.

The Bombay Natural History Society with the assistance of British charity Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is breeding them in captivity.

Ten vulture species, including some critically endangered ones, have been proposed for listing for the highest degree of protection, the United Nations Environment Programme said.

Currently, they are classified as 'Critically Endangered' or 'Endangered' on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of species threatened with extinction.

It said that Iran, at a meeting of the convention's scientific body to decide on the wildlife species to be proposed for listing, recommended the Indian gazelle or chinkara for listing.

The meeting concluded in Bonn on Thursday.

More than 120 countries will gather in Manila in Philippines for the 12th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals or CMS COP12 from October 23-28 to address a range of issues facing the world's endangered wildlife.

A high number of proposals for greater protection under the convention have been tabled for negotiation, including very well-known species such as the chimpanzee, giraffe, leopard, lions and the whale shark.

Countries convening in Manila will also seek to avert a total collapse of vultures in Africa, through a multi-species plan aimed at promoting countries to take urgent action on the ground to conserve these cornerstone species that are critical for providing essential ecosystem services for human health.

Threats such as lead poisoning, underwater noise, unsustainable tourism and renewable energy conflicts with animals will also be at the centre of the intergovernmental negotiations, the UNEP said.

"The particularly high number of animals proposed for protection under the convention is a worrying sign of the decline of international wildlife across the board," an official statement quoting convention Executive Secretary Bradnee Chambers said.

He said urgent action is needed to ensure the survival of these species and CMS COP12 will be a major opportunity for governments collectively to decide how they can cooperate on a way forward.

The Przewalski's horse, a relic from the Ice Age, is the only remaining successor of the wild horse. Fewer than 400 animals live in the wild.

The Gobi bear, cousin of the brown bear and the only bear living in a desert, and the African wild ass, the most endangered equid in the world, may be granted better protection at COP12.

Illegal killing of birds threatens populations between Europe and Africa and an intergovernmental task force working over the last three years has made good progress and the model is proposed to be replicated in Asia, the convention organisers said.

--IANS

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Three gunmen were shot dead and two Israeli civilians injured on Friday during a shootout near a holy site in Jerusalem, the media reported.

The shootout took place outside the hilltop complex known to the Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif.

According to reports by Israeli police, the three assailants, armed with two homemade Carlo submachine guns and a hand gun, shot at several police officers near the Lion's Gate entrance to the site, before running into the compound, reports the Guardian.

"When they saw policemen they shot towards them and then escaped towards one of the mosques in the Temple Mount compound," police spokesman Luba Samri said.

"A chase ensued and the three terrorists were killed by police."

Israeli authorities are still working to identify the attackers, the Guardian quoted police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld as saying.

The site, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, and the seventh-century Dome of the Rock, is also revered by Jews as the site of the historic Temple.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident the area was cleared of visitors and closed, with the police announcing that Friday prayers, usually attended by thousands, would be cancelled.

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Three men have been arrested on the charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in south Delhi in May, police said on Friday.

Police said two accused Iddu Khan and Nizamuddin, who were neighbours of the girl, kidnapped her on May 10 and took her to Etah in Uttar Pradesh. Police had filed a missing person complaint after the girl's father approached it.

Police said Khan and the girl surrendered in a city court on Monday, following which it was revealed that they had married.

"Nizamuddin and Buddu Khan were witness to their 'nikah' on July 7 and had helped Khan in his crime. The girl was got medically examined and was found to be three weeks pregnant," Deputy Commissioner of Police Romil Baaniya said.

The girl refused to go with her parents and was lodged in a shelter home.

The accused were arrested outside the court and sent to judicial custody.

They have been booked under The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, Baaniya said.

The girl's father accused the police of shoddy investigation and said its prompt action could have prevented Khan from forcibly marrying his daughter.

He said police acted only when he approached the court, which ordered the police to raid the suspected hideouts of the accused.

--IANS

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Causing serious hardship to people and leading to a crisis in essentials and food grains, a Tripura tribal party continued its blockade of the state's main national highway and the lone railway track for the fifth day on Friday to push for a separate state.

The blockade continues as a delegation of the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), which has been blocking the National Highway-8, the life line of Tripura, and the state's lone railway line, is in New Delhi to meet Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh and Home Ministry officials and the Union Home Minister.

"Since yesterday (Thursday) two of our leaders are waiting in Delhi to meet Jitendra Singh, Home Ministry officials and the Union Home Minister or Minister of State. Depending on the outcome of the meetings in Delhi, we will either withdraw the blockade or continue with it," IPFT President Narendra Chandra Debbarma told IANS.

On the threat of some IPFT leaders to spread the stir to other parts of the state if talks with the Centre fail, the party chief remained non-committal.

IPFT General Secretary Mevar Kumar Jamatia and the party's youth wing President Dhananjoy Tripura are in New Delhi to meet with central government leaders.

The indefinite blockade has caused a crisis in supply of essentials, food grains, fuel, basic goods and other items in the markets of Tripura.

A senior legal expert Purushottam Roy Barman, secretary of Tripura Human Rights Organisation, said that according to the National Highways Act blockading of National Highways is prohibited and the central government could take appropriate steps to clear any obstructions in the normal plying of vehicles.

The Left Front government in a press note once again urged the IPFT leaders to withdraw the blockade.

"The Left Front government has been opposing the demand for a separate state as the demand is extremely unrealistic. People of Tripura have no support for this demand," the note said.

Debbarma, a tribal leader and former station director of All India Radio, Agartala, said: "Since 2009, we have been agitating for a separate state carved out by upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) areas. The Left Front government in the state and the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government at the Centre did not give importance to our demand."

The IPFT has sought the Governor's intervention and a tri-partite meeting between them, the Centre and state government to resolve the matter.

The politically important TTAADC constitutes two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 sq km area, which has 12,16,465 (mostly tribals) of the state's 37 lakh population residing in it.

TTAADC's Chief Executive Member (CEM) and senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) tribal leader Radha Charan Debbarma said on Friday: "We have been demanding that the Centre give more powers and financial aid to the constitutional body.

"The central government has been considering giving more administrative and constitutional powers to all the tribal autonomous bodies in the northeastern region.

"Separate state demand would not help in development of the tribals and it would also upset the tribal and non-tribal ethnic unity and harmony," Debbarma told the media.

The Left Front government led by Manik Sarkar, which is strongly opposed to both the demand and the stir, has taken unprecedented security measures in and around the Baramura hill ranges, through which the NH-8 and the lone railway line passes.

Most of the political parties, including the ruling CPI-M, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have rejected IPFT's demands saying it is not practical to divide the small state.

--IANS

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US President Donald Trump on Friday attended the annual Bastille Day parade here as the guest of honour

Trump, who arrived in Paris on Thursday along with his wife Melania, watched the parade from the official gallery at the Place de la Concorde where they were greeted by French First Lady Brigitte Macron, reports Efe news.

President Emmanuel Macron arrived at the gallery later, having travelled down the iconic Champs-Elysees avenue in an open-top military jeep accompanied by his Chief of Defence staff, General Pierre de Villiers.

Flanked by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Minister of Defence Florence Parly, the newly elected head of state then stood at attention as the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, was played.

Macron and Trump exchanged words and a handshake -- their meeting, which was organiCed following an invitation from the French leader, was being closely watched by the global media.

Groups of US Army personnel were to take part in the military parade in a gesture that marks the centenary since American troops joined the Allied Powers which included France and the British Empire in their efforts to defeat the belligerents of what became known as the Great War.

Added to this were six US F-16 fighter jets and two F-22s, which staged a fly-over in the path of nine French Air Force Alpha jets.

The parade was due to last two hours and involved 3,720 soldiers, 149 vehicles, 62 motorbikes, 241 mounted soldiers, 63 planes and 29 helicopters.

The Trumps were due to return to Washington shortly after the parade finished.

There was a high security presence across the French capital while the official acts were underway.

Bastille Day celebrations in the southern city of Nice were last year hit by a terror attack that killed 86 people.

--IANS

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Doing yoga for a long time could change the structure of your brain and protect it against cognitive decline in old age, suggests new research.

When the researchers imaged elderly female yoga practitioners' brains, they found that the "yoginis" have greater cortical thickness in the left prefrontal cortex, in brain areas associated with cognitive functions like attention and memory.

As we age, the structure and functionality of our brains change and this often leads to cognitive decline, including impaired attention or memory.

One such change in the brain involves the cerebral cortex becoming thinner, which scientists have shown is correlated with cognitive decline.

So, how can we slow or reverse these changes?

The findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, suggest that the answer could lie in contemplative practices like yoga.

"In the same way as muscles, the brain develops through training," explained one of the researchers, Elisa Kozasa of Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo, Brazil, involved in the study.

"Like any contemplative practice, yoga has a cognitive component in which attention and concentration are important," Kozasa added.

The research team wanted to see if elderly long-term yoga practitioners had any differences in terms of brain structure compared with healthy elderly people who had never practiced yoga.

They recruited a small group of female yoga practitioners (also known as yoginis) who had practiced yoga at least twice a week for a minimum of eight years, although the group had an average of nearly 15 years of yoga practice.

The researchers compared the yoginis with another group of healthy women who had never practiced yoga, meditation or any other contemplative practices, but who were well-matched to the yoginis in terms of their age (all the participants were 60 or over) and levels of physical activity.

The researchers scanned the participants' brains using magnetic resonance imaging to see if there were any differences in brain structure.

"We found greater thickness in the left prefrontal cortex in the yoginis, in brain regions associated with cognitive functions such as attention and memory," Rui Afonso from Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo added.

--IANS

gb/mr

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There was a moment, in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Amarnath yatris in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), when it seemed as if social harmony in India might be in serious trouble. But of course, it was just one more piece of kindling tucked into what is already a raging conflagration.
A majority of the members of a parliamentary committee on Wednesday asked the CBI to move the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court's 2005 order quashing proceedings in the Bofors case, two MPs on the panel said.

CBI Director Alok Verma faced questions from the members of the sub-committee on defence attached to the Public Accounts Committee on why the premier investigating agency did not approach the apex court after the Delhi High Court dismissed proceedings in the case in 2005.

The six-member PAC sub-committee on defence is looking into non-compliance of certain aspects of the CAG report of 1986 on the Bofors howitzer gun deal.

Verma and Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra were among the officials who appeared before the panel headed by BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab.

During the meeting, several members including Mahtab and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said that the CBI should "reopen" the case and file a fresh plea in the apex court, the two members who were present at the meeting said on condition of anonymity.

Both the MPs are from different political parties.

The Bofors scandal relating to alleged payment of kickbacks in the procurement of howitzer artillery guns had triggered a massive political storm and led to the fall of the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1989.

The CBI wanted to approach the Supreme Court in 2005 after the Delhi High Court quashed the Bofors case but it was denied permission by the then UPA government, Dubey said.

In his remarks at the meeting, Mahtab said the sub- committee wanted to pursue the matter with "full vigour" as there were "systemic failures" in the contract signed with Bofors, said one of the two members.

"The case is a clear example of systemic failure and reflection of criminality. Therefore, the panel feels that CBI must seek permission from the government to reopen the case by filing a plea in Supreme Court," Dubey and Mahtab told the meeting.

In a note submitted to the panel, the defence ministry said that after the Delhi High Court quashed the Bofors case in May 2005, the CBI had approached the government for permission to contest the order in the Supreme Court which was denied.

Later, an advocate Ajay Kumar Agrawal moved the apex court challenging the High Court's order.

The CAG report on Bofors is the oldest "pending" report before the PAC. The main function of the PAC is to examine the audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India after it has been laid in Parliament.

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Leading Opposition parties on Friday said they were thoroughly unconvinced by the Narendra Modi government's explanations on the Amarnath terror attack and Doklam stand-off between India and China, and they would raise these issues, particularly the growing unrest in Kashmir, in the Parliament during the upcoming monsoon session that begins on Monday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Democratic Alliance (NDA) is set to announce its vice-presidential candidate by Sunday, while Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi is likely to file his nomination papers on Monday.
Three men have been arrested for their alleged involvement in kidnapping and marrying off a 13 -year-old girl who was later found to be pregnant, police said today.

The incident was reported from southeast Delhi's New Friends Colony.

The girl was allegedly kidnapped on May 10 when she had gone to buy ice cream, they added.

The girl's father, who works as a driver with the Army on a contractual basis, alleged that his daughter was kidnapped by a group of 16-17 men who lived nearby. They immediately went missing after his daughter was kidnapped.

Their landlord had rented out the room without verifying their antecedents, her father told PTI.

For two months, the police conducted several raids in Etah and Hathras in Uttar Pradesh but to no avail. In the meantime, the girl's father approached the Delhi High Court.

"I used to drive to places along with the police but even though we found some clues to my daughter, there was no success in tracing her. The police even cast aspersions on my daughter's character which was quite hurtful, he added.

"I approached the Delhi High Court to direct the police to trace my daughter immediately. The court asked the police to produce my daughter as soon as possible," he said.

During their probe, the police also found one 'nikahnama' which stated that the girl had been married off to someone on July 3.

The police then arrested a man who was one of the witnesses to the wedding.

On July 7, the man whom the girl had been married to, surrendered in the Saket Court along with her. She was medically examined and found to be three weeks pregnant, police said.

However, she did not want to stay with her parents so she has been put up in a shelter home, they added.

Her 'husband' and another witness to the marriage have been arrested and are currently in judicial custody.

Her father said that he spent Rs 47,000 in helping the police trace his girl.

"I spent money on travel, food and fuel while I travelled with the police personnel to Etah and Hathras. I must have spent around Rs 47,000 on travel," he alleged.

Romil Baaniya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) said that an inquiry has been ordered into the father's allegations about being asked to pay for the travel expenses.

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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan said on Thursday that Indian forces have committed 542 cease-fire violations so far this year with 18 killings.

Pakistan and India declared a ceasefire in 2003 along the Line of Control (LoC). However, escalation of tensions along the LoC has been seen since a militant attack on an army center in the Indian-controlled Kashmir on Sept. 18 last year.

The LoC is a de facto border that divides Kashmir into Indian- and Pakistan-controlled parts.

The Indian military blamed the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group for the attack, but Islamabad rejected the charges and suggested an independent investigation.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said the Indian forces are continuously engaged in cease-fire violations along the LoC and the Working Boundary.

India has deliberately escalated tension along the LoC and the Working Boundary in order to try to divert the international community's attention from the grave situation in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the spokesman said at his weekly briefing.

He said on July 8, an Indian cease-fire violation resulted in the death of five civilians including four girls, adding that Pakistani armed forces have given a befitting response to such provocations.

"However, Pakistan has no desire to escalate the situation and we have reacted with maximum restraint," Zakaria said.

He said the Indian "belligerent attitude" is a threat to regional peace and security, and the international community has expressed concern.

"We have consistently maintained that the role of the UNMOGIP (UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan) in line with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions is crucial," he said.

To a question about Indian restrictions on visas to Pakistani nationals who seek medical treatment in India, the spokesman said it is highly regrettable that India has placed such restrictions on visas for patients who are suffering from serious and terminal illnesses.
The end result of a three-year legal struggle to liberalize Spanish ports, the lump sum fine of $3.4 million was significantly less than what was first decreed in 2014.



The European Union Court of Justice (CJEU) is subjecting Spain to a fine of 3 million euros (U.S. $3.4 million) for its delay in deregulating the countrys port industry.

Industrial strike action by dockworkers was planned for June and July in response to Spains vote against liberalization of the sector, but was called off two weeks ago.

CJEU noted that Spain had showed goodwill in cooperating with the European Commission during the investigation, but the country failed to deregulate the goods handling sector in Spanish ports for 29 months after the first EU order.

The EU first urged Spain to deregulate in December of 2014, stating the nation was failing to comply with European stowage rules. The European Commission called for a fine of 134,107.2 euros a day that Spain neglected to deregulate the ports, however, CJEU ultimately ruled to impose a fine of 27,552 euros per day instead.

As the Spanish government passed new legislation regulating port stowage services, which in turn worsened labor conditions for dockworkers, the fine was delayed. The end result is the CJEU announcing a a lump sum fine of three million euros, equivalent to an 108-day delay.

Additionally, the European Commission has decided on Thursday to refer Spain to the CJEU for failure to implement EU rules on whistle-blowers. The 2014 rule on whistle-blowers is in response to infringements of the Market Abuse Regulation and requires nations to protect whistle-blowers and personal data. Spain is one several member states that missed the initial deadline of July 2016 to implement the new rule.
Three assailants opened fire on Israeli police in Jerusalem's Old City today before fleeing to a nearby highly sensitive holy site and being killed by security forces, police said.

A number of people were wounded in the attack, police said. The attackers had fled to the site known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

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Five Egyptian policemen were killed in an attack today on a checkpoint in Giza province, south of the capital, police officials and state television said.

The attack took place near Badrasheen, a town some 20 kilometres from Cairo, where militants have also targeted police in the past.

The killings came as police and the army said they are closing in on militants and jihadists following a spate of attacks in the Nile Valley and the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt has struggled to quell the Islamic State jihadist group based in the Sinai Peninsula and smaller militant groups in the mainland since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and cracked down on his supporters.

IS jihadists killed at least 21 soldiers in restive north Sinai on July 7, the same day as the militant Hasam group claimed responsibility for shooting dead a secret police officer north of Cairo.

The interior ministry said a day later that it had killed 14 alleged IS members in a raid on a training camp in the eastern province of Ismailiya.

Earlier this week, the ministry said police had killed six IS militants in a shootout in southern Egypt.

While smaller groups like Hasam have mostly targeted policemen and government officials, IS has also attacked foreign tourists and Egypt's Coptic Christian minority.

Dozens of Christians have been killed in church bombings and shootings since last December in attacks claimed by IS.

Yesterday, Christian churches said they were suspending some activities such as conferences and religious trips for three weeks over security concerns.

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BJP president Amit Shah today took a jibe at the Congress, saying a party which considered "dynasty" as the quality benchmark for selecting its leader, could never take the country forward.

Addressing a convention of party workers in Delhi, Shah said among all the political parties in the country, only the BJP and the "Communist party" had internal democracy.

To drive home his point, Shah threw a poser to the audience, seeking to know who would occupy the post of the BJP president after him.

As the audience remained quiet, he asked: "Now tell me who will be the next Congress president after Soniaji (Gandhi)?"



Following a pause, when the audience broke into laughter, Shah continued: "That says a lot. If dynasty, instead of merit, is the benchmark in a party, then it can never take the country forward."



Shah said the Congress, formed before the country's Independence, never had any consistent ideology and that whoever wanted freedom joined it.

"That is why Gandhiji wanted it (the Congress) to be disbanded after Independence," he said.

During the course of his speech, he listed the achievements of the BJP government at the Centre, including the decision to demonetise high-value currency notes last year.

"We take decisions that are good for the people. Our aim is not to increase votes, but to develop the country," he said.

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The 12-digit Aadhar number played an important role in uniting a mentally challenged teenager, who was missing from here since past two years, with his family.

Narendra Chandel alias Monu (18) suffers from intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Monu, who had reached Bengaluru, was today reunited with his family, Madhya Pradesh Social Justice Department's joint director BC Jain told PTI.

It was an emotional moment for the family after Monu arrived home after two years this morning from the Karnataka capital where he was living in a shelter home.

"The shelter home recently took Monu and others staying there to a camp for making Aadhar card. During the scan of eyes and thumb, it was found that Monu's Aadhar card has already been made," Jain said.

Based on information registered with the Aadhar card, the organisation contacted the district administration at Indore after which steps were taken to bring him back, said Jain.

Though it is not clear as to how Monu reached Bengaluru, Jain said he possibly reached Bengaluru after boarding a train.

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An Afghan national, awaiting deportation from Delhi, was arrested from Baramulla District of Kashmir as he was on his way towards the Line of Control to exfiltrate to Pakistan, police said today.

Twenty-seven year old Mohammad Dawood was taken into custody at Kralahar in Baramulla yesterday.

"Dawood, who was acquitted in case under various sections of NDPS Act in New Delhi, was to be deported but meanwhile government had decided to appeal against his acquittal.

"His passport lies with the Special Cell of Delhi Police and he was under orders to restrict his movements to Lampur, Narela area of New Delhi," a senior police official said.

Dawood told police that he wanted to return to Afghanistan via Pakistan by crossing the LoC.

"His claim is being verified, " the official said.

Besides Dawood, police also detained two residents of Uri, the border town, and the driver of the vehicle in which they were travelling.

"The local residents claim not to be connected with him. Investigation, however, is going on to ascertain the facts," the official said.

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is getting more active in the Indian subcontinent and by 2017, it boasted several hundred members, with its cells mostly in Afghanistan and its operatives flourishing in Bangladesh, counter-terrorism experts have told the US lawmakers.

"By 2017, al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent boasted several hundred members and had cells in Afghanistan's Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Ghazni, and Nuristan Provinces. Al- Qaida's presence in Afghanistan was almost certainly larger and more expansive than five or even ten years before," said Seth G Jones, a strategic expert.

He was speaking during his Congressional testimony before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence yesterday.

This expansion, Jones said, may have been partly due to Taliban advances in Afghanistan and al-Qaida's relationship with operatives from the Taliban and other groups, such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e Jhangvi.

"Al-Qaida operatives in Bangladesh were particularly active, conducting a range of attacks. In addition, al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent conducted a steady propaganda campaign from its media arm As-Sahab," he said.

However, the group conducted few attacks in Afghanistan or Pakistan and was largely irrelevant in the Taliban-led insurgency, Jones said.

In September 2014, leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had announced the creation of regional affiliate al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent, taking advantage of sanctuaries in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

"A new branch of al-Qaida was established -- Qaida al-Jihad in the Indian subcontinent, seeking to raise the flag of jihad,...And return the Islamic rule across the Indian subcontinent," al-Zawahiri had said.

The group was led by Asim Umar-- an Indian and former member of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami-- a Pakistan-based terrorist group with branches across the Indian subcontinent. Umar was flanked by Abu Zar, his first deputy.

In October 2015, US and Afghan forces targetted a large training camp in Kandahar Province, killing over one hundred operatives linked to al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, Rhodes said.

According to Katherine Zimmerman, research fellow, American Enterprise Institute, the presence in the Indian subcontinent remains weak after Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the launch of a new affiliate in September 2014.

Al-Qaeda divides the Pakistani theatre by ethnic group, he said. The Pashtun are part of its Khorasan theater, which includes Afghanistan and Iran, and the Punjab is under al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), which works through the Indian Punjab and Bangladesh, Zimmerman said.

"A recent surge in propaganda from AQIS leadership may indicate an attempt to revive the group," Zimmerman told the lawmakers.

Zimmerman said al-Qaeda never fully lost its sanctuary in Pakistan and used this base to project forward into Afghanistan again as the US drew down militarily.

"By 2015, al-Qaeda was running large training camps inside Afghanistan. The US began revising its assessments of al-Qaeda's strength in Afghanistan based on the discovery of these training camps," he said.

"The US killed senior al-Qaeda leaders operating in Afghanistan in an October 2016 air strike, their presence a telling indicator that al-Qaeda had returned to the country," he added.

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Activists accused Beijing of crippling Hong Kong's parliament today after four pro- democracy lawmakers were disqualified.

The High Court judgement means the balance of power in the partially elected legislature swings further to the pro- China camp as opponents do not have enough seats to veto bills.

Former Umbrella Movement protest leader Nathan Law was among those barred in a case brought by the semi-autonomous city's Beijing-friendly government after the four changed their oaths of office to reflect frustrations with Chinese authorities.

Beijing issued a special interpretation of Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, in November to insist that oaths be taken in a "sincere and solemn" manner.

The unprecedented intervention was prompted by a string of protests during the swearing in of lawmakers following citywide elections in October.

The High Court said Beijing's ruling was "binding" and that the court's decision to bar the four retrospectively was not politically motivated.

"The word 'solemn' bears the commonly understood meaning of being dignified and formal," the judgement said.

Concerns China is squeezing Hong Kong have sparked calls by some activists for self-determination or even independence for the city, angering Beijing.

The dismissed legislators were not staunchly pro- independence but at least two of them have advocated self- determination for Hong Kong.

They were attending a parliamentary finance committee meeting as the judgement was issued and were asked to leave. The session was abruptly adjourned.

Law's party Demosisto condemned "the manifest interference of the Beijing government to cripple Hong Kong's legislative power".

The 24-year-old was one of the most popular candidates to win a seat, gaining 50,000 votes to make him Hong Kong's youngest ever lawmaker.

He called on protesters to gather Friday night.

"Suppression is not scary," he told reporters.

"The most scary thing is that people get used to it and are not willing to come out, to fight."



Veteran anti-China lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, known as "Long Hair", who was also barred, appeared to choke up as he said: "It's ironic that it's Bastille Day today."



The judgement comes two weeks after Chinese President Xi Jinping warned any challenge to Beijing's control over Hong Kong crossed a "red line" when he visited the city to mark 20 years since it was handed back to China by Britain.

The handover agreement enshrined liberties unseen on the mainland, including freedom of speech and an independent judiciary, but Beijing has been accused of trampling the deal by interfering in a number of areas, from politics to education and media.

Two pro-independence legislators have already been disqualified by the High Court over their oaths after they inserted expletives and draped themselves with "Hong Kong is not China" flags.

The cases against them and the other four lawmakers were initiated under the previous Hong Kong administration, led by unpopular former chief executive Leung Chun-ying.

He was succeeded by Carrie Lam on July 1, who is also seen as a puppet of Beijing by critics.

The oath of office requires lawmakers to repeatedly describe Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region of China.

Law quoted Gandhi before taking his pledge, saying: "You will never imprison my mind", and used intonation to make his oath sound like a question.

The judgement said Law "was objectively expressing a doubt on or disrespect of the status of the People's Republic of China as Hong Kong's legitimate sovereign country".

Long Hair raised a yellow umbrella -- a symbol of the democracy movement -- during his pledge, which the court said did not reflect the "importance and seriousness" of the ceremony.

Former protest leader Lau Siu-lai failed to convey the oath's proper meaning by reading her pledge at a snail's pace, the court said.

Edward Yiu added lines to his oath, saying he would "fight for general universal suffrage", which rendered his pledge invalid according to the judgement.

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The National Green Tribunal has indefinitely adjourned the proceedings relating to the appointments in state pollution control boards (SPCBs) after it was informed that the Supreme Court has ordered maintenance of the existing state in the matter.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar noted the submission made by the various states that the apex court has stayed the proceedings pending before the tribunal.

"The counsel appearing for the parties informed us that the Supreme Court of India has directed for maintenance of status quo and has further stayed the proceedings pending before the tribunal.

"In view of the statement made, we direct that this case be adjourned sine die. Liberty is granted to all the parties to move the tribunal, as and when an order is passed by the Supreme Court of India in future," the bench said.

On June 8, the NGT had barred the chairpersons of ten state pollution control boards (SPCBs) from functioning with immediate effect for not being appointed in consonance with its judgement.

The Maharashtra government was among several parties which had challenged the June 8 NGT order in the Supreme Court barring the heads of 10 state boards from working till the appointments are made in accordance with its judgment.

The states are Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Kerala, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra and Manipur.

The green panel, however, had granted three months to Delhi government and two months to Punjab and Uttar Pradesh for making the appointments to their pollution control boards as per the guidelines issued by it.

The NGT had in August last year asked the state governments to fill the vacancies in the boards as per the guidelines laid down by it and file their reports.

The green panel, which had issued a slew of guidelines for appointments to the posts of Chairman and Member Secretary, had in August said the nominations should be of persons who have "special knowledge, practical experience or qualification in environment protection studies" and not on the ground of their association with state government.

The NGT said the chairman or member secretary should have a fixed term, which should not be extended. Such persons should not hold office in the Board in accordance to their tenure in state government.

The judgement had come on a plea by Uttarakhand resident Rajendra Singh Bhandari, who had challenged the constitution of state pollution control boards on the grounds that people who did not qualify were appointed as chairman, member secretary and members of these boards.

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A fire broke out at a bank on busy Camac street in the southern part of the city today, the police said.

Five fire-tenders fought the fire at a branch of the Syndicate Bank housed in a multi-storey building, the police said. The fire started at around 9.40 am.

The residential building was partially evacuated and a unit of the disaster management team of the Kolkata police went to the spot.

The fire is yet to be fully controlled, a senior police official said.

"The cause of the fire is not yet known. It seems that the blaze started at the central air conditioning system," he said.

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A Hindu outfit today staged a protest near actor Kamal Haasan's residence here, opposing the Tamil version of "Bigg Boss" that is hosted by him.

Hitting out at the actor for participating in the show which allegedly belittled and diminished Indian culture, the protesters belonging to the Hindu Makkal Katchi said "Kamal Haasan should not indulge in such cultural denigration."



They demanded certification for television programmes, similar to censor certification for films, to protect the interests of the general public, children and students.

Certification like "A" (Adults) given for films was necessary for television programmes too since several shows featured content that was not appropriate for children and youngsters, they claimed.

The protesters said they would hold similar protests against Haasan's movies if the actor continued to host the show.

Police pickets were set up in and around Haasan's residence in upscale Alwarpet and barricades were put up to prevent untoward incidents.

Similarly, police personnel in adequate numbers were also deployed in front of Vijay TV's office here in view of the protests.

The Hindu Makkal Katchi had two days ago sought legal action against Haasan and the actors on the reality show being telecast on Vijay TV since June 24.

They had filed a police complaint seeking a ban on the telecast of the show on the Tamil TV channel hosted by Haasan, alleging that it denigrated Tamilian culture.

Reacting to the complaint, Haasan had said there was nothing inappropriate in the show's content.

"I have faith in law... If they want to arrest me, let it happen, law and justice will protect me," the actor had said.

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China faced international calls today to free the widow of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo after global condemnation over the Communist regime's refusal to grant the democracy champion's dying wish to leave the country.

The United States and the European Union urged President Xi Jinping's government to let Liu's widow, the poet Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since 2010, leave the country.

Chinese doctors said she was by her husband's side when he lost his battle with liver cancer yesterday at age 61, more than a month after he was transferred from prison to a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang.

Liu's main doctor said he was able to say goodbye to his wife and in his final moments told her to "live well".

But authorities have restricted her contact with the outside world and her whereabouts were unknown following the death of her husband, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests whose advocacy for democratic reform infuriated the government.

"I call on the Chinese government to release Liu Xia from house arrest and allow her to depart China, according to her wishes," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said.

The EU urged Beijing to let Liu Xia and his family bury him "at a place and in a manner of their choosing, and to allow them to grieve in peace".

Jared Genser, a US lawyer who represented Liu, said all contact with Liu Xia had been cut off in the past 48 hours.

"I am deeply worried about what's happening with her right now," Genser told CNN, adding that it would be hard for the government to justify continuing to hold her without charges.

"The world really needs to rally and mobilise to make sure she can go wherever she wants and that she can bury her husband wherever she wants," he said.

Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang rejected the criticism of China's handling of Liu's death, adding that doctors made "all-out" efforts to treat him.

"China is a country under the rule of law. The handling of Liu Xiaobo's case belongs to China's internal affairs, and foreign countries are in no position to make improper remarks," Geng was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua agency.

The remarks came after British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson hit out at China for preventing Liu from travelling overseas for treatment while Germany voiced regret that Beijing ignored its offer to host Liu Xiaobo.

Liu was jailed in 2008 after co-writing a petition calling for democratic reforms and was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "subversion" a year later.

He became the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in custody since German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky in 1938, who had been held by the Nazis.

The Chinese political prisoner was represented by an empty chair at his Nobel prize ceremony in Oslo in 2010.

The Nobel Committee said Thursday the government "bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death".

But some of the global reaction to his death was muted, highlighting China's emergence as an economic and diplomatic superpower on the world stage.

US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron offered praise for Xi at a press conference Thursday in Paris, avoiding comment on Liu's death.

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China today warned Botswana against hosting Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and facilitate a meeting with its President next month, saying the African nation should "respect" Beijing's core concerns.

The 82-year-old exiled Tibetan leader is due to make a public address at the three-day "Mind and Life Dialogue" conference in Gaborone on August 19 and is set to meet Botswana President Ian Khama.

"The Dalai Lama is in political exile and long engaged in ant-China separatist activities and attempt to separate Xizang (Chinese name for Tibet) from China under the pretext of religion," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang told a media briefing here.

"Chinese side firmly opposes the Dalai Lama engaging in anti-China separatist activities in any capacity or any name. China firmly opposes him keeping any contact with officials of any country," he said.

Apparently referring to Botswana's defiance to invite the Tibetan spiritual leader disregarding the warnings by Beijing, Geng said "hope the relevant country would respect the core interests and concerns of China".

Meanwhile, reports from Gaborone said Botswana is going ahead with the visit of the Dalai Lama next month despite opposition from Beijing. Botswanan officials also said President Khama will meet him.

Last year, South Africa declined to issue visa Dalai Lama following pressure from China.

China has lodged protest with India in April this year over the Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which China considers as part of Tibet.

Chinese troops entered Tibet in October 1950 overcoming the resistance from the Tibetan army and later the Chinese control over the area was formalised in 1951.

The Dalai Lama fled from Tibet in 1959 and lived in India in exile since then.

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China's censors raced today to scrub social media networks of candles, RIP and other tributes to Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo as they seek to silence discussion about the prominent dissident's death.

The 61-year-old democracy activist died yesterday from liver cancer while under heavy police guard at a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang -- but most Chinese remain clueless about his death or even who he was.

A search for of his death on Chinese search engine Baidu turned up no results and China's Twitter-like Weibo blocked the use of his name and initials "LXB".

Even the most obscure homages to Liu on Weibo were removed.

One user who posted "RIP" was advised it had been deleted "because it violated relevant laws and regulations" -- even though the post did not mention the activist by name.

RIP is now among the search terms blocked on Chinese social media networks.

Grieving users who had posted candle emojis on Weibo saw them erased. When accessing Weibo on a personal computer the symbol is no longer among the emoticon options.

On the Weibo mobile app, however, the candle was still available but attempts to post it were blocked and triggered a message saying "content is illegal!".

The Chinese word for "candle" is also barred.

China tightly controls the internet through a censorship system known as the "Great Firewall" and closely monitors social media networks for sensitive content.

Social media sites have been cleaned of comments praising the dissident.

"He is the brave one for this time. The history will remember him whether alive or dead," one user said in a Weibo post that was later deleted.

Another said: "You, who was just freed, made the world different; we, those who are still in prison, salute you."



Even a Chinese language article about German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, the last Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in custody, that had been circulating on the mobile messaging app WeChat can no longer be accessed.

A search for the most commonly used Chinese translation of Ossietzky's name also returned no results on Weibo but it was not blocked on Baidu.

The circumstances recalled the situation in 2010 when Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while serving an 11-year sentence for "subversion" -- online searches for his name and references to his award, including the empty chair that represented him at the Oslo ceremony, were blocked.

Not all online posts were sympathetic to Liu, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests whose advocacy for democratic reform infuriated the government.

The state-run Global Times daily posted on its Weibo account: "The deceased has gone and people are playing a magnificent show pretending to be sad. We are a group of onlookers eating watermelon for one night."



The post has been removed but screenshots of it have been widely shared.

As international media descended on the hospital that had been treating Liu for more than a month, most locals appeared to be oblivious about the political prisoner, whose name is extremely sensitive in the Communist country.

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BJP vice-president Prabhat Jha today accused the opposition Congress of instigating farmers to resort to violence during their agitation in Madhya Pradesh last month.

"The farmers of the state live peacefully. However, the Congress instigated them for violence during their last month's agitation," he told reporters here.

He said the Congress' attempt to project its chief whip in the Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia as the leader of the farmers in the BJP-ruled state is not going to succeed as that title goes to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

"Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the only leader of the farmers in the state. He truly works for their welfare," said Jha, a former chief of the BJP's MP unit.

Condemning this week's attack on the Amarnath pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir, he said it was an assault on the faith of the people and asserted the Modi government will not spare the terrorists involved in the strike that killed seven devotees.

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A court in Bijnor has ordered an FIR against a 30-year-old woman for falsely charging an Imam with raping her last year, after she and all the three witnesses turned hostile.

Additional District Sessions Judge Mumtaz Ali acquitted the former Imam of Bijnor's Jama Masjid, Maulana Anwarul Haq, due to lack of evidence.

According to the prosecution counsel, the court has ordered police to register the case against four people, including the Muzaffarnagar-based woman and her husband, for giving false evidence in court.

The Imam had been booked last August after the woman alleged that he raped her on the pretext of "protecting her from evil spirits".

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A court today extended till tomorrow the police custody of popular Malayalam actor Dileep, arrested in connection with the alleged abduction and assault of a South Indian actress.

The magistrate court in Angamalay granted police custody of the actor till 5 pm tomorrow, partly allowing a prosecution plea, when he was produced on expiry of the two-day custody granted on July 12.

In its application, the prosecution sought police custody for three more days saying it was necessary for carrying out the investigation into the conspiracy in the case.

Police later took the actor, arrested on July 10, to the Aluva Police Club for interrogation.

Initially the court had remanded the actor to 14 days judicial custody.

"The prosecution has nothing to hide. We have all sufficient records and evidences with us. Custody (of the actor) is permitted. We will submit a report about the investigation in the court," Special Prosecutor A Sureshan in the case told reporters.

Counsel for Dileep said the court would consider the actor's bail application tomorrow.

In the past two days, police had taken the actor to various places by police as part of evidence gathering. Earlier, the 48-year-old actor, charged with criminal conspiracy in the sensational case, was brought to the court amid tight security.

Police have claimed that the conspiracy to abduct and assault the actress and film the dastardly act was hatched by Dileep and 'Pulsar' Suni, the prime accused in the case. Dileep's counsel has maintained that the actor had been framed in the case.

Police in its remand report had claimed that Dileep had developed a grudge against the actress for letting his former wife know about his alleged affairs and hatched a conspiracy to take revenge way back in 2013.

The popular actress, who has worked in Tamil and Telugu films, was abducted and allegedly molested inside her car for two hours by the accused, who had forced their way into the vehicle on February 17 and later escaped in a busy area here.

Six persons, including 'Pulsar' Suni, have been arrested in connection with the incident.

After his arrest, on the charge of conspiracy, Dileep has been expelled from various film forums, including the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA), as the industry rallied behind the actress.

Breaking her silence, the actress had yesterday expressed hope that truth would come out in the case.

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The Gujarat High Court today reserved its order for Monday on Essar Steel's plea against the June 13 RBI circular to banks to act under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code against the steel major and eleven other firms with over Rs 5,000 crore of outstanding loans each.

A bench of Justice S G Shah reserved the judgement for July 17 after conclusion of the arguments by the steel major and those of the Reserve Bank of India and the State Bank of India.

The bench had earlier stayed the insolvency proceedings against Essar Steel before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as an interim measure on its plea.

Essar Steel had moved the court against the June 13 RBI circular contending that the order was improper as the firm was in an advanced stage of loan restructuring.

The company argued before the HC that it should not be treated on par with other eleven accounts (firms) which have been closed now, while Essar Steel is still doing well with an annual turnover of Rs 20,000 crore.

The RBI last month had identified 12 accounts (companies) for insolvency proceedings with each of them having over Rs 5,000 crore of outstanding loans, accounting for 25 per cent of the total Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of banks.

During today's hearing, Essar Steel's counsel Mihir Thakore argued that the SBI and other lender banks under the Joint Lenders Forum may not have approached the NCLT for insolvency proceedings, had the RBI not issued the circular.

The company was challenging the RBI's directive, not the SBI's decision. The State Bank was asked by the RBI to file a case before the NCLT against Essar Steel through the circular, advocate Thakore said.

The action was a violation of his client's fundamental right to equality before the law and equal protection of the law under Article 14 of Constitution, he said.

Though the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is in force since December 2016, the lender banks did not opt for insolvency proceedings because they knew it would "jeopardise company's operations" as suppliers may stop supplying material on learning about such action, Thakore said.

RBI counsel Darius Khambata said the steel firm had suppressed facts and misled the court to get a favourable decision.

He argued that though Essar Steel at one point "even agreed to go to NCLT," the company did not mention it in the petition. Had it mentioned it in the petition, the court would have disposed of the case immediately, Khambata said.

"The company was aware about SBI's action. They were also aware that lenders will file for insolvency proceedings ... You can not play games with the court. This court is being misled," the RBI lawyer said.

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Condemning the alleged thrashing of a Muslim man in Nagpur district on the suspicion that he was carrying beef, Union minister Ramdas Athawale today said that everyone has the right to eat beef.

He also called for severe punishment for "violent cow vigilantes".

"Everyone has the right to eat beef. Since goat meat is expensive, people eat beef. I condemn the Nagpur incident. It is not right to become a 'nar-bhakshak' (man-eater) in the name of being a 'gau-rakshak' (cow protector)," the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment told reporters here.

He said cow-vigilantes should not take the law into their hands.

"Such violent cow vigilantes should be punished," Athawale said.

A 31-year-old Muslim man, with links to the BJP, was brutally thrashed in public by alleged cow vigilantes on the suspicion that he was carrying beef in Maharashtra's Nagpur district on Wednesday.

About explosives found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Athawale said this was a "very serious matter".

"This incident is similar to attack on Parliament," he said.

"There is no conspiracy to kill Yogi (Adityanath), but there should be an investigation into the matter. Its possible terror links should be also probed," he said.

In a major security breach, a powerful plastic explosive was found in the UP Assembly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today informed the House, which unanimously recommended an NIA probe into it.

On NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, who is scheduled to visit Mumbai tomorrow, Athawale said, "He should visit 'Matoshree' and meet (Shiv Sena president) Uddhav Thackeray. Pranab Mukherjee had also visited 'Matoshree' when his candidature was announced (for the post of president)."



Sources in the BJP had earlier said Kovind was not scheduled to visit Thackeray's residence during his Mumbai visit.

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Farmers from a village in Marathwada region today filed a police complaint against the India Meteorological Department, accusing it of colluding with seed and pesticide manufacturers and inflating the monsoon forecast figures.

The complaint, filed at the Dindrud police station in Majalgaon tehsil of Beed district, says officials of the Pune and Colaba Met Department "colluded" with the manufacturers and caused loss of lakhs of rupees to farmers, who undertook sowing operations based on the forecast.

Gangabhishan Thaware, 54, a farmer from Anandgaon village in Beed district, who is among the complainants, told PTI that the IMD officials misled farmers saying that there would be ample rain during the kharif season in June.

"Farmers undertook sowing operations, based on the IMD forecast. But after a brief initial spell, there has been no rain and farmers are staring at a bleak future, with the sowing operations having gone waste," Thaware said.

"Farmers in our region completed pre-sowing operations before June, based on the IMD forecast which said there will be ample rains in June-July this year," the farmer said.

"Despite scanty initial rainfall, farmers in our village undertook sowing operations as the IMD forecast a good rainfall. They spent lakhs of rupees on seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and labourers wages. However, there has been no rain since and our sowing operations have gone waste," the farmer said.

According to Thaware, farmers have also written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, seeking his intervention.

"IMD officials and those in concerned seed and fertiliser companies, who colluded with each other and gave an inflated monsoon forecast are responsible for the plight of farmers and should be taken to task," the farmer said.

An official of the police station in Majalgaon said they have received the farmers' complaint and were looking into the matter.

No IMD official was available for comment.

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Google has been ranked as the most influential brand in the country while Patanjali Ayurveda and Reliance Jio figure in the top ten, according to a study by global research firm Ipsos.

Google is followed by Microsoft and Facebook at the second and third places, respectively.

Patanjali and Reliance Jio have been ranked fourth and ninth, respectively, Ipsos said in its report of the most influential brands.

Others in the top ten are SBI (5th), Amazon (6), Samsung (7), Airtel (8) and Flipkart (10).

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Top central ministers and officials today briefed opposition leaders, including from the Congress, Left and SP, on the standoff with China and the situation in Kashmir, officials said.

The briefing by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, comes ahead of the parliament session beginning Monday.

Opposition leaders were told about the prevailing situation along the Sino-Indian border and Jammu and Kashmir and the government action, officials said.

Those who attended the meeting -- considered an effort to build consensus on dealings with India's biggest neighbour and Kashmir -- include Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Tariq Anwar (NCP), Sharad Yadav, K C Tyagi (JD-U) and Derek O'Brien (TMC).

New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Dokalam area of Sikkim.

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Dokalam area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

In Jammu and Kashmir, seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- have been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on China. On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir.

He also alleged that the prime minister's pursuit of short-term political gains from the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost.

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At least five policemen were killed today when unidentified gunmen opened fire on a vehicle of the security forces in Egypt's restive Giza province, the interior ministry said.

Two policemen and three conscripts were killed by the gunmen who attacked the checkpoint in the town of El Badrashein this morning, the latest attack on the security forces.

Security forces cordoned off the targeted area and closed the entrances and exits of the nearby areas to search for the attackers,state-run Mena agency reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Egypt has witnessed many terror attacks since the January 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

The attacks, mainly targeting police and military, increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Hundreds of police and army personnel were killed since then.Last week, 23 army personnel were killed in an attack that targeted army checkpoint in the North Sinai city of Rafah.

The military has launched security campaigns in the North Sinai area. The security forces have arrested suspects and demolished houses that belong to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip.

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The Allahabad High Court today asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a reply on the bail application of one of the accused in the Dadri lynching case.

A single judge bench of Justice Pratyush Kumar asked the state government to file its reply on the bail application of Vishal by July 21, the next date of hearing.

The High Court had in April granted bail to two other accused in the case.

Mohammad Akhlaq (55) was beaten to death and his son Danish was brutally assaulted by a mob that had barged into their house at Bisada village of Gautam Buddh Nagar district in September 2015.

The mob had attacked Akhlaq accusing him and his family of slaughtering a cow's calf and consuming its meat.

The incident had evoked a huge outcry with some Sahitya Akademi award winning authors returning their prizes in protest.

Preliminary tests of the sample of meat collected from Akhlaq's house even suggested that it was mutton though a forensic laboratory at Mathura, where it was sent later, said it was of "cow or its progeny".

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NXT Digital, the newest addition to the Hinduja Group of companies, today announced the successful implementation of NXT's digital delivery platform here.

This opens up door for the existing cable operators, who want to continue to own their networks and have state-of-the- art high technology for digital TV viewing, a senior company official said.

NXT Digital's project in Punjab ensures its viewers get uninterrupted world class viewing experience at economical price in the market, Ashok Mansukhani, MD and CEO of Hinduja Media Group told reporters here.

He also said India is facing challenges in the digitisation journey and every challenge is an opportunity that NXT Digital wants consumers and operators to benefit from.

"With India at the cusp of a digital revolution, NXT Digital promises to deliver the best television viewing experience with world class technology, cost effective payment systems and a smart revenue pre-paid model that will create a new benchmark for success in the digital TV market. NXT digital will also help businesses to the next level with minimum investment and maximum returns," he added.

When asked if that they will be competing with Fastway cable network in Punjab, Mansukhani said, "we don't like to talk about competition in a negative way".

When asked if they see challenges in the Punjab market, he said, "we are confident of our technology, we are confident of our business model. What we feel, there would be challenges not only in terms of existing networks, there would be challenges in terms of new technologies to come".

"We are confident that our service will be in a position to be able to stand up to competition and be able to provide the best quality service at cheapest cost. We are not here to take away somebody's base, but we are here to deepen base," he added.

"Today, we are present across the country. Whether we are in Kargil or whether in Rajasthan desert or Andaman or Nicobar islands, we are always available, our signals are 24x7, so therefore, we do not suffer from rain attenuation unlike the DTH operators," Mansukhani said.

"We also allow operators to carry some local channels, but these have to be encrypted. We ensure that we only carry those channels which are legally sanctioned," he said.

"The Hinduja policy is bring the latest technology to India, in the beginning the cost is not a criteria, it is investment in the future of India's digital cable," he added.

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Objects from the private life of actress Vivien Leigh, who shot to fame with her iconic portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind" (1939), will go under the hammer at Sotheby's September sale here.

Passed down through the actress' family, 'The Vivien Leigh Collection' will include paintings, jewellery, couture, books, furniture, porcelain, and other objets d'art from different aspects of her life -- from the pre-war years in London, to Hollywood and beyond, up to her death in 1967.

"This is our chance to discover the real, and unexpected, Vivien Leigh. We're all guilty of confusing our favourite actresses with the heroines they portray, of blurring Vivien's identity with that of Scarlett O'Hara or Blanche DuBois. But, behind the guise of the most glamorous and talked-about woman of her age we find a fine art collector, patron, even a book worm, who was the intellectual equal of the literati, artists and aesthetes she counted among her coterie.

"Her private collection does not disappoint. Vivien approached the decoration of her homes as if she were designing a set, incorporating influences and inspiration from a life spent on screen and on stage. These houses were an extension of the theatrical space, with medieval Notley Abbey looking positively Shakespearean. Fifty years on from her death, this sale opens the door into Vivien?s private world, allowing us a privileged and fascinating glimpse into a world that otherwise only her closest friends could ever have known," Harry Dalmeny, Sotheby's UK Chairman, said.

The sale will have pieces drawn from the city and country homes that Leigh shared with her husband Laurence Oliver, giving a new perspective on the actress, from her appreciation of art and patronage of Modern British artists, to her passion for books and fondness for entertaining and interior design.

Highlights at the auction will include Leigh's personal copy of the book "Gone with the Wind", that was given to her by the author Margaret Mitchell.

Inscribed by Margaret Mitchell with a hand-written poem: "Life's pattern pricked with a scarlet thread / where once we were with a gray / To remind us all how we played our parts / In the shock of an epic day," the book is estimates at ?5,000 - 7,000.

A silver cigarette box engraved with 'Vivien and Larry Love Myron (Selznick)', gifted to the actress by Selznick, who is said to have secured Leigh with the role of Scarlett O'Hara, will also be up for sale at an estimated price of ?400-600.

The script of 'Gone with the Wind' presented to Leigh by members of the cast, with photographs, circa 1939 is estimated at ?2,500-3,500.

The sale will also have objects of fashion and jewellery including a gold ring inscribed with 'Laurence Olivier Vivien Eternally', is estimated at ?400-600



"We hope people take as much pleasure from this collection as our grandparents, parents and families have done," Leigh's family said.

Set to be held on September 26, the sale, in all, will have approximately 250 lots.

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UN chief Antonio Guterres has reiterated the need for India and Pakistan to find a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue through engagement and dialogue, his spokesperson said.

Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric's remarks came when he was asked if the Secretary-General is paying attention to the situation in the region or "we are just waiting for some sort of big tragedy to occur for the Secretary-General to take attention."



"...We reiterate the need for the parties to find a peaceful solution through engagement and dialogue," Dujarric said at a daily press briefing here yesterday.

He said that "in terms of paying attention, I think the Secretary-General answered in his own words that question during the press conference."



Dujarric was referring to Guterres' first press conference at the world body's headquarters in June when he was asked whether he is engaged in bringing about dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

"Why do you think I met three times the Prime Minister of Pakistan and two times the Prime Minister of India," Guterres had said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Guterres had met in St Petersburg earlier in June on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. During the meeting, Modi had stressed on multilateralism to address global challenges such as terrorism.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the UN chief had met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos in January and in Astana in June on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

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A 29-year-old Indian-origin Malaysian man was executed today in Singapore for drugs smuggling despite calls by the UN and rights groups to halt his capital punishment.

Prabagaran Srivijayan was sentenced to death in 2014 after he was caught with 22.24 grams of diamorphine while trying to enter Singapore.

Srivijayan had his death sentence carried out at Singapore's Changi Prison Complex, said the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

He was arrested in April 2012 at Woodlands Checkpoint in the main causeway to southern Peninsular Malaysia.

Two packets of the drug were recovered from the vehicle he was driving, the CNB said in a statement.

Yesterday, Srivijayan's lawyer, Choo Zheng Xi, on instructions from Srivijayan's family, asked the Singapore apex court to stay his client's death sentence on the grounds that his appeal in Malaysia was pending.

Judges of Appeal Chao Hick Tin, Andrew Phang and Tay Yong Kwang called the attempt to halt Srivijayan's execution because of proceedings in another country "an abuse of process".

"The judiciary of each country is entitled to act in accordance with its Constitution and its laws," The Channel Asia quoted Judge Chao as saying.

"No judiciary of one country interferes in the judicial process of another country," he said.

Srivijayan had a pending appeal before the Malaysian Court of Appeal to institute proceedings against Singapore in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Amnesty International had raised concerns about the fairness of the trial, including the alleged failure of the authorities "to follow up leads and call on key witnesses that would corroborate his version of events".

The United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR) South East Asia Regional office had called on Singapore to halt the scheduled execution of Prabagaran, and had urged the government to immediately reinstate a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

"Drug-related offences do not fall under the threshold of 'most serious crimes'. Furthermore, under domestic law, the death penalty is not mandatory for drug-related offences," the OHCHR said.

The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death penalty if the amount of diamorphine imported is more than 15 grams.

His petition for clemency was unsuccessful.

Srivijayan was accorded full due process under the law, and he was represented by legal counsel throughout the process, the CNB said.

It said that 22.24 grams of diamorphine is equivalent to about 1,853 straws, which is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 265 abusers for a week.

Both Malaysia and Singapore execute murderers and drug traffickers by hanging, a system which dates back to British colonial rule.

Singapore has consistently maintained that the death penalty is an effective deterrent to crime and has rejected calls to abolish capital punishment.

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An Indian-origin student who was killed in a brawl in England in 2011 was punched by a boxer who had breached his bail conditions from a previous offence, a new report revealed today.

Jagdip Randhawa, 19, from south-west London, was punched by boxer Clifton Ty Mitchell during a night out in the city of Leeds on October 12.

After being hit, Randhawa struck his head on a pavement and was taken to hospital.

He died five days later. Mitchell, now 26, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison for the crime in 2012.

The latest report into the killing has found that Mitchell had breached bail conditions for a previous violent offence 24 times in the preceding five months but no action was taken by Derbyshire Police.

"In my opinion, the procedure in place at the time of the incident was fundamentally flawed and was not fit for the control of persons deemed by the court system to require active monitoring," the report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) states.

"This process was in my opinion so flawed that none of the staff operating under it appeared to recognise the ongoing issues with this one individual and see the obvious opportunities missed," it notes.

An initial referral to the IPCC following a complaint by Randhawa's family led to the force carrying out a local investigation.

In March 2015, the IPCC upheld an appeal by the family against that outcome and began its own probe.

"Our family will always be haunted by not knowing what might have happened if Mitchell had been arrested as he should have been," the victim's sister, Majinder Randhawa, told BBC.

"It's important that the IPCC's report highlights the significant failings of Derbyshire Police - but it's devastating to know that Randhawa's death was avoidable.

"We believe that Randhawa would still be here today, if Derbyshire Police had correctly managed Mitchell while he was on bail. It's impossible for us to ever get over that."



Derbyshire's Deputy Chief Constable, Gary Knighton, said: "The IPCC report recognises that following the death of Mr Randhawa, we immediately reviewed the way that the force handled breaches of bail conditions where an individual is required to report to a police station.

"The force now has a more robust system in place to deal with a suspect who has failed to comply with their bail conditions. If someone breaches their bail, an officer is allocated to take action and deal with the breach.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
IT services major Infosys will relocate its Chief Financial Officer M D Ranganath to the US - its largest market - and has also revised his compensation package.

"The company has asked, for business reasons, M D Ranganath, the CFO, to operate from the US," Infosys said in a filing.

It added that based on the recommendation of Nomination and Remuneration Committee, the board of directors has approved a revision to his salary.

Ranganath's salary will comprise a fixed pay of USD 0.69 million (Rs 4.44 crore) and a variable compensation of up to USD 0.56 million (Rs 3.6 crore), effective July 1, 2017.

In addition, in line with the executive compensation policy, he would be eligible for stock incentives as may be decided by the Nomination and Remuneration committee from time to time based on performance.

According to Infosys' annual report, Ranganath received a compensation of Rs 9.24 crore, which included Rs 2.84 crore in fixed pay, Rs 1.80 crore in bonus and incentives and Rs 4.5 crore in performance-based stock incentives in 2016-17.

"Ranga and I work very close. In my early days for 5-6 quarters, Ranga was in the US and we used to work together and we want to get some of that back," Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka said.

He highlighted that the company is aggressively expanding its workforce and setting up new centres in the US, a market that accounted for over 60 per cent of the IT major's USD 2.65 billion revenue in the April-June 2017 quarter.

"... There is a significant transformation happening (in the US) and the nature of this transformation is quite different, so I need Ranga close in the US and that is why he is moving back," Sikka said.

In May, the Bengaluru-based firm had announced its commitment to hire 10,000 locals for its US operations in the next two years as well as setting up four hubs.

The first hub is being set up in Indiana that will hire 2,000 American workers by 2021 and a similar number of jobs will be created at the North Carolina hub.

Of the stated goal of 10,000 people, Infosys has already hired 600.

While many believe that the announcement was made in attempts to woo the Donald Trump administration in the US, Sikka said it has more to do with the changing business environment.

"It is not so much motivated by visa (issues) as it is (by) changing nature of work and nature of services... If you look at the American companies, we are in the throes of massive digital transformation. The kinds of services, the capabilities that businesses need, are all about being close by (to the customer)," he explained.

The US government has been critical of outsourcing firms for "unfairly" taking jobs away from US workers. In the past, it accused Infosys and its larger rival, Tata Consultancy Services, of "unfairly" cornering the lion's share of the H-1B work visas.

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Israeli security forces detained Jerusalem's top Islamic cleric as crowds gathered in the Old City following an attack today near a highly sensitive holy site that killed two police officers, the cleric's son said.

The grand mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the city's highest Islamic authority, had earlier gathered in the Old City with others and condemned the closure of the Al-Aqsa mosque for prayers after the attack.

Israeli police said they had no comment.

Hussein's son Jihad Hussein told AFP his father had been taken to a police station near the Old City.

"Until now, we don't know what is going on with my father," he said.

One of the mufti's bodyguards, Khaled Hamo, said police "entered the crowd and took the mufti."



The incident came after three Arab Israelis opened fire on Israeli police, killing two before fleeing to the ultra- sensitive holy site where they were also shot dead in one of the most serious incidents in the city in recent years.

Security forces locked down the area and the Al-Aqsa mosque was closed to Friday prayers after the attack in a highly unusual move.

Hussein had earlier condemned the closure of the mosque compound for prayers.

"I have very little information about it, but it doesn't mean you should close the mosque for prayers," he told journalists at the Lions Gate entrance to the Old City, near the holy site.

Hussein was detained at the Lions Gate, the bodyguard said.

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From Hungry Ghost to Sweet Polly

Hungry Ghost is opening a fifth coffee shop at 80 Dekalb Avenue in Fort Greene by September. The shop was founded by Murat Uyaroglu, a Turkish immigrant who opened his first shop in 2012 on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and 6th Avenue. He also owns Sweet Polly, a cocktail bar in the new Pacific Park neighborhood in Brooklyn.

From Eater , 7/13/17:(Emphasis added)That's interesting, because Sweet Polly , located at 71 Sixth Avenue more than one block away from the corner of Dean Street and the southernmost construction sites within the irregularly shaped Pacific Park site, generally refers to itself as in Prospect Heights.And the Hungry Ghost around the corner, little more than 100 feet away, says it's in Prospect Heights.There's no new neighborhood, despite the best efforts of Pacific Park developer Greenland Forest City Partners.So how did that Eater mention happen? My bet is that the announcement sent to Eater came not from Hungry Ghost itself but from its new landlord.And the developer and operator of 80 DeKalb (aka DKLB BKLN) is Forest City Ratner (aka Forest City New York), the original Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park developer and now the local face of the joint venture.
The Kerala government today asked private hospital nurses, who are planning an indefinite strike from July 17 demanding higher wages, to give up their agitation.

Health Minister K K Shylaja said here that the government had limitations in dealing with the issues connected to private hospital managements.

The government has already done what it can do, in the initial stage, she said.

The minister's statement comes in the wake of the Kerala High Court restraining nurses' organisations from holding the indefinite stir, based on a petition filed by association of private hospitals.

Marxist veteran V S Achuthanandan and opposition leader in the state assembly Ramesh Chennithala have sought immediate intervention of the government to end the agitation.

While Achuthanandan wanted the government to give directions to hospital managements to hike the wages of nurses as per the Supreme Court guidelines, Chennithala said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should hold talks with nurses' associations and hospital management representatives to end the stalemate.

Functioning of private hospitals in Kerala is likely to be hit with an estimated 80,000 nurses deciding to go on indefinite strike from July 17.

The strike call was given by United Nurses Association and Indian Nurses Association demanding minimum wages of Rs 20,000 as fixed by the Supreme Court.

Private hospital managements have said they would be able to provide only emergency services from Monday in view of the strike call.

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NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will be in Mumbai tomorrow but is not scheduled to meet Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray at his residence, BJP sources said today.

According to Kovind's itinerary, he will reach here at 10 am tomorrow and go to the Garware Club in south Mumbai, where he is scheduled to address a meeting of NDA MPs and legislators in the state.

"After the meeting and lunch, Kovind will proceed to the airport," a BJP leader, who did not wish to be named, said.

Significantly, Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, as presidential candidates of the UPA, had visited the then Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray at his residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra as the party had broken ranks with the NDA in the past two elections for the highest constitutional office.

Uddhav had announced his party's support for Kovind after a meeting of Shiv Sena leaders here last month.

"Kovind is a good candidate, a straight-forward person from a simple family and has the potential to work for the country's benefit," he had said, after dithering for a day following the announcement of Kovind's candidature by the BJP, followed by its endorsement by most other NDA partners.

The Shiv Sena's announcement to support Kovind had come amid severe strains in relations of the party with the BJP over a host of issues.

The party had pitched for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat as its first preference for the top office.

"If India has to be made a 'Hindu Rashtra', Bhagwat will be a good choice for President," Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had said.

After Bhagwat ruled himself out of the race, Shiv Sena suggested agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan's name for the post, saying he will be able to provide solutions to the deepening agrarian crisis in several parts of the country.

BJP president Amit Shah had met Thackeray last month at 'Matoshree' to enlist the party's support for the NDA's presidential candidate. Sena has 18 MPs and 63 MLAs.

The voting for the presidential election is scheduled on July 17 and the counting will take place on July 20, four days before President Pranab Mukherjee's term ends.

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Heino Kuhn held firm as South Africa made a sound start to be 56 for one after a rain- interrupted session at lunch on the first day of the second Test against England at Trent Bridge today.

Kuhn was 34 not out and Hashim Amla 16 not out, having become the fourth South African following Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers to score 8,000 Test runs.

The Proteas, 1-0 down in the four-match series after a 211-run defeat inside four days at Lord's last week, saw their top order go some way to repaying the faith of returning captain Faf du Plessis, who opted to bat first after winning the toss.

Trent Bridge has a reputation for aiding swing bowling and Du Plessis, who did not play at Lord's following the birth of his first child, admitted it had been a "tricky decision" to bat under cloudy skies.

But the 33-year-old Kuhn, out for just one and nine on Test debut at Lord's, seized upon anything over-pitched or loose on a ground where England have not lost a Test in a decade.

He on-drove veteran paceman James Anderson for four and later square cut Ben Stokes for another boundary.

South Africa did lose a wicket, however, when opener Dean Elgar, their stand-in captain at Lord's, pushed out on six to Anderson and was well caught by a diving Liam Dawson at backward point to leave the Proteas 18 for one off nine overs.

Kuhn had a nasty moment when, on 13, he took his eye off a bouncer from fast bowler Mark Wood and was hit on the side of the helmet.

Amla, meanwhile pulled all-rounder Stokes for a four that saw him to 8,000 Test runs.

After rain stopped play for 20 minutes, England wasted an lbw review after replays showed Amla, then on 14, had inside- edged Stokes onto his pad.

South Africa made three changes to their side from Lord's, with Du Plessis returning in place of out-of-form batsman JP Duminy.

Fast bowler Duanne Olivier, playing in his second Test, started instead of Kagiso Rabada, serving a one-match suspension as a result of swearing at Stokes at Lord's.

South Africa also brought in pace-bowling all-rounder Chris Morris for Theunis de Bruyn.

England were unchanged from the side that marked Joe Root's first match as captain with a thumping win in which the new skipper scored 190.

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The pro-Gorkhaland agitators again went on rampage today on the 30th day of the indefinite shutdown in the Darjeeling hills, setting afire an RPF office, a state-run library and a police outpost here amid unabated violence.

The agitators set aflame a Railway Protection Force (RPF) office in Kurseong and a police outpost in Sukhiapokhri in the wee hours today, the police said.

A state-run library in Mirik sub-division too was set ablaze last night by Gorkhaland supporters. The library was reduced to ashes, they said.

The hills witnessed violence despite continued deployment of three columns of the Army in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sonada.

The security forces maintained a close vigil at all police stations, camps and outposts besides the entry and exit routes to prevent attacks by pro-Gorkhaland agitators, the official sources said.

With food supply severely hit due to the indefinite strike, which entered the 30th day today, the GJM and various NGOs of the hills distributed food items among people.

"Until we get Gorkhaland, the shutdown in the hills will continue," a senior GJM leader said.

Barring medicine outlets, all shops, schools, colleges have remained closed with internet services too straying suspended for the 27th day today.

The picturesque hill station had earlier witnessed a 40-day bandh in 1988 and a 44-day shutdown in 2013.

Meanwhile, the Centre today told the Supreme Court that it was deploying four additional companies of CRPF to maintain law and order in Darjeeling and Kalimpong, which have been hit by the agitation for a separate Gorkhaland.

The government told a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra that 11 CRPF companies are already deployed in Darjeeling and Kalimpong and they have decided to send four more companies to ensure the safety of citizens and to maintain law and order there.

Attorney General K K Venugopal told the bench, which also had A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar on it, that the Calcutta High Court today asked the government to deploy four additional companies of CRPF there and they are rushing additional paramilitary forces there.

A Calcutta High Court bench of acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatre and Justice T Chakraborty directed the Centre to provide CRPF battalions in addition to 11 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) already deployed there.

The court also asked the state government to provide additional forces from its own resources to bring back normalcy in the hills.

The Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC) has decided to postpone its fast-unto-death programme from July 15 due to upcoming presidential elections.

"We have decided to postpone the programme of fast-unto- death as presidential elections are nearby. We will take a call on it at our next all-party meeting on July 18," a member of GMCC told PTI.

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Several people were injured in a series of "barbaric" acid attacks by moped riders in east London, police said today.

The Metropolitan Police said the 90-minute spree of five attacks began last night. Two men on a moped carried out the attacks in Hackney, Stoke Newington and Islington area of the city in incidents the Metropolitan Police believe may be "linked".

Officers said they were linking the attacks. A 16-year- old boy and a 15 year-old boy have been arrested on suspicion of robbery and causing grievous bodily harm.

The attacks happened amid rising concern about the number of assaults involving corrosive substances in London.

The first victim had been on a moped when another moped, with two male riders, pulled up alongside him.

The attackers threw a corrosive substance in the victim's face, with one stealing the victim's vehicle and the other making off on the moped they arrived on, the Met Police said.

"The man was taken to an east London hospital. His injuries are not being treated as life threatening or life changing," the police said.

Following this incident, a corrosive substance was reported to have been thrown in the face of another man by two males on a moped in Shoreditch High Street.

The victim was taken to hospital and his injuries are also not believed life threatening or life changing.

Minutes later, police received a call to a robbery in Cazenove Road where a corrosive substance had been thrown.

Officers attended and found a man in his mid-20s suffering from facial injuries. He was taken to an east London hospital.

His injuries are described as "life-changing" and a crime scene remains in place.

A fourth incident was reported to police at Chatsworth Road and a man told police he had been on his moped in traffic when two males on another moped pulled up alongside him and sprayed liquid in his face.

They stole his moped and made off.

The victim made his way to his home address before contacting police.

He was taken to an east London hospital and his injuries are not life threatening and not-life changing Following the incidents in Hackney, officers were made aware of a similar attack reported in Islington earlier in the night.

A man was reported to have had a corrosive substance thrown in his face by two males on a moped in Upper Street junction with Highbury Corner.

He was taken to a north London hospital.

Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick condemned acid attacks as "completely barbaric".

"We are concerned, because the numbers appear to be going up," she said.

Assaults involving acid and corrosive substances have more than doubled in England since 2012, with the number of acid attacks in the capital showing the most dramatic rise in the recent years.

The Met Police's figures show there were 261 acid attacks in 2015, rising to 458 last year.

So far this year, excluding the five latest incidents, the police have recorded 119 such attacks.

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The Maharashtra government today extended its scheme to disburse Rs 10,000 as financial assistance to needy farmers till August 31.

The Devendra Fadnavis government had on June 13 announced Rs 10,000 as interim assistance to farmers for purchase of seeds and fertilizers.

The decision was aimed at pacifying farmers, who were demanding a loan waiver over non-payment of their outstanding loans.

The deadline of the scheme was fixed at July 15.

However, today the state government came out with a GR extending the deadline till August 31.

"The state government has asked farmers to submit bank account details, Aadhar number, land ownership document (7/12 extracts) and an affidavit stating that the information given by the farmer was true and in case it was not correct then the state government can take back the extended benefit.

"Very few farmers approached banks for such help as they found the conditions to be harsh and complicated," said a senior officer from the cooperation department of the state government.

Cooperation minister Subhash Deshmukh told PTI "The cooperation department has not yet received any detailed information on how many farmers have actually received Rs 10,000 as financial assistance.

"The amount is an advance payment of crop loan, which the farmers would get later through routine procedure. As per my estimation not more than 15 lakh farmers would apply for it."



"The farmers having their own irrigation facilities have largely stayed away from this scheme," Deshmukh said.

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A Thane court has sentenced a 35-year-old brick kiln worker from Bhiwandi township here to life imprisonment for killing his co-worker in 2014.

District and Sessions Judge P P Jadhav yesterday convicted Dileep Jadhav for killing his co-worker Ananta alias Antya Sawar (then aged 55) at a brick kiln in Bhiwandi and awarded him life imprisonment.

The court observed that the prosecution successfully proved that the accused had attacked the victim and killed him in May 2014.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Vinit Kulkarni, in his submission, told the court that Dileep Jadhav and Sawar, both from the neighbouring Palghar district's Wada taluka, worked at the brick kiln in Paliwali area of Bhiwandi and used to stay there itself.

The accused used to steal grocery items from the huts of other workers, he said.

On May 1, 2014 a scuffle broke out between the duo when Sawar confronted Jadhav over his alleged stealing habit.

The accused then attacked Sawar with a big stone and later hit him with a crowbar (tool), killing him on the spot, Kulkarni said.

The court relied on the account of eyewitness - Sawar's wife and his another relative - and also examined the brick kiln owner, Chandan Choudhary.

The court then convicted Jadhav under IPC section 302 (murder) and sentence him to life imprisonment.

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Fast food major McDonald's today said it is exploring legal options after the NCLT restored its estranged partner Vikram Bakshi as the Managing Director of Connaught Plaza Restaurants Ltd (CPRL).

Besides, restoring Bakshi as the MD of CRPL, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has also restrained the Illinois- headquartered McDonald's Corporation, the parent company of McDonald's India Pvt Ltd (MIPL), from interfering in the functioning of the joint venture.

"We respect the decision of the NCLT. We are examining the judgement and exploring our legal options in the matter," said MIPL in an official statement.

Any order of NCLT could be challenged before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) within 45 days of the order.

CPRL, a 50:50 joint venture between McDonald's India Pvt Ltd (MIPL) and Bakshi, is the licensee for north and east India regions for the fast food chain.

Commenting on the development, Vikarm Bakshi told PTI: "Our stand has been vindicated and we have got justice after fighting for the right cause. I admire the Indian judiciary which has gone in every account and delivered a judgement on Indian entrepreneurship."



He further added that CRPL would now come back to its growth and operational journey the way it was prior to 2013 and continue to progress.

Bakshi was not re-elected as the MD of CRPL following the objections of MIPL and its parent company. McDonald's had on August 30, 2013 announced that Bakshi's term as MD of CPRL had ended on July 17 following which Bakshi challenged the decision before CLB (the previous body having jurisdiction over company matters).

Consenting to his submissions that McDonald's wanted to oust him after the venture was established in India, the NCLT said: "It is with a view to grab hard labour of Mr Bakshi which has been invested in CPRL that had triggered the non- voting in his favour on the meeting dated August 6, 2013."



"It is also an act against the interests of CRPL and detriment to public interest," it added.

The tribunal also rejected McDonald's submission that as per the clauses of the agreement between them, MIPL may exercise call option, virtually ousting Bakshi from CRPL.

"The position of Managing Director is linked with Mr Bakshi in such a manner that if he loses his status as MD, he may also lose his shareholding by virtue of provision of clauses 26 and 32 of JV agreement," said NCLT.

It further said the argument is "absurd and we reject the same."



In its 134 page order, the company law tribunal has also appointed former Supreme Court judge Justice G S Singhvi to act as administrator in the company with power to vote in the meeting of the board and restrained McDonald's Corporation from interfering into the company's affairs.

"Respondent No 5 (McDonald's Corp) is restrained from interfering with the smooth functioning of CPRL and all its 154 restaurants open in the assigned territory of North/East India," NCLT said.

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At a time when India is battling with shortage of 9 lakh doctors, converting hospitals at major ports into medical colleges can not only cater to healthcare needs of people but also fill the void of specialists, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.

A high-level committee, constituted to study port hospitals and suggest the model of their development, has recommended converting these hospitals into medical colleges or speciality centres on PPP basis, the minister said.

"There is a shortage of nine lakh doctors in the country. To leverage the ports healthcare infrastructure optimally, we have proposed to develop our port hospitals on PPP mode," Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari said after a presentation by the committee.

He said that out-of-the-box thinking is required to utilise limited resources through innovative ways.

The 12-member committee, headed by Chairman of the Academic Committee of the Medical Council of India, Ved Prakash Mishra, has suggested upgrading these hospitals to medical colleges or speciality centres on public-private- partnership mode will not entail any financial liability on the Central government, he said.

Once the government upgrades these port hospitals, not only kins of employees could undertake medical and paramedical courses but quality healthcare would be available to employees and the masses, he said.

The government, after necessary regulatory approvals, is planning to invite tenders for these colleges while infrastructure, land and building will be modernised.

"While cargo operations in major ports are the primary focus area, all aspects of port functioning are now being examined critically to improve asset utilisation for enhancing revenues of the ports, creating jobs and maximising benefit to the people," the minister said.

Gadkari said that if port hospitals can be upgraded under PPP mode and if medical colleges and PG courses can be started in them, it will create educational and employment opportunities for the local youth.

This will make ports the drivers of economic change, enabling equitable and inclusive growth of the local area, he said adding, this will also usher in the era of Smart Ports, Smart Cities and Smart Hospitals.

The committee, which visited port hospitals at Mumbai, Kochi, Chennai, Kolkata and Vishakhapatnam recommended possible alternatives by which port hospitals can be upgraded under PPP mode so that their healthcare facilities are augmented.

The report, submitted by the committee, indicated the feasibility of starting of medical college and post-graduate speciality courses attached to port hospitals.

According to the report, the hospitals at Mumbai Port which has more than 200 beds, can be taken up for this, while hospitals at Kochi, Chennai, Vishakhapatnam and Kolkata ports can be considered for upgradation into tertiary care facilities, with a particular super speciality being assigned to a specific port hospital.

This particular super speciality can cater to all referral



purposes by the other port hospitals.

The Port Trust Hospital, Chennai, could be availed for development of tertiary care facilities in the domain of cardiovascular thoracic surgery, Port Trust Hospital Kochi for nephrology, Port Trust Hospital Kolkata for neurology and neurosurgery and Port Trust Hospital Vishakhapatnam for gastroenterology and surgical gastroenterology respectively, the committee said.

The report has also indicated certain policy changes that need to be brought in with the objective of widening the ambits of PPP mode and teachers eligibility qualification under the relevant regulations.

The committee was constituted in May last year.

India has 12 major ports -- Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Kochi, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia), which handle approximately 61 per cent of the country's total cargo traffic.

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The country's top manganese ore producer MOIL today said it has signed an MoU with the steel ministry to meet production target of 12.50 lakh tonnes and a capex of Rs 205.8 crore in the current fiscal.

"The company has recently signed the MoU with the ministry for the FY 2017-18. The said MoU, includes targets for achievement of various performance parameters which inter alia, includes manganese ore production targets of 12.50 lakh tonnes and capex amount of Rs 205.80 crore for the FY 2017-18, for excellent grading," MOIL said in filing to BSE.

MOIL has been signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with its administrative ministry (Ministry of Steel) for more than last 20 years.

At present, MOIL produces and sells different grades of manganese ore. It operates 10 mines, six located in the Nagpur and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra and four in Balaghat district, Madhya Pradesh.

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On a warm September day in 1952, Shirley Perry boarded the SS United States. The Illinois native, then 22, was traveling to Europe. But as she sipped champagne and sailed past the Statue of Liberty, the realization hit home: Her life as an undercover spy had begun.

So begins Perry's memoir, "After Many Days"  and now, at 88 years old, the former CIA operative will share her story in central New York.

On Sunday, July 16, Perry plans to discuss her book at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Skaneateles. The author moved to the village around three years ago to be closer to her children, Andrea and Robert Perry.

Skaneateles is the latest stop on a long list of places Perry has lived, from Washington, D.C., and Manchester-by-the-Sea to Vienna, Austria, and Munich, Germany.

Born in Illinois in 1929, Perry  then Shirley Hendricks  grew up in an average middle class family. Her father worked as an engineer with Shell Oil Co. and her mother was a schoolteacher. She also had a younger sister who stayed relatively close to home.

For that reason, when Perry announced she was suddenly moving to Europe, her parents were shocked.

"They were a little aghast, but they said, 'You've got a good head on your shoulders, my dear, so be careful and carry on,'" she said, laughing.

In a sense, Perry said, she was just as surprised. An English major, she graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1950, and was searching for a part-time job when she came across a flier on a campus bulletin board.

"I was looking for something that would keep me on campus ... when I spotted this cryptic ad for work with a government agency," Perry said. "It was the best thing that could have happened."

Three months after filling out a 16-page employment application, Perry was notified that she had been hired for a new government agency. It was called the Central Intelligence Agency, and her first assignment was in Vienna.

"They needed bodies in the Soviet Union and there was a new opening in Vienna, which was behind the Iron Curtain," she said. "It was the farthest outpost of any intelligence agency ... and it was the most exciting time of my life."

In Vienna, Perry was tasked with designing a scrapbook for her CIA superiors, and for the next four years, she pasted pictures of approximately 50 Soviets  pictures that were snapped from the back of an old Volkswagen. Perry's job, she said, was to match the people in the pictures with their names and biographical information.

"I made a scrapbook of all the Soviet spies ... from cleaning women to diplomats," she said, smiling. "It was genius! And it was a little bit dangerous, too, which made it more fun than ever."

While in Vienna, Perry also met and married a U.S. soldier. His name was Robert "Bob" Perry and he served with the Counterintelligence Corps of the U.S. Army.

The couple met on Shirley's first train ride into Vienna in 1952, with Shirley locked in a hidden compartment on what they nicknamed "The Mozart." They were engaged in December 1953 and married in a heavily guarded, secret ceremony at a hotel in March 1954.

"Vienna was just crawling with spies ... the French, the British, the Americans and the Soviets," she said. "You didn't speak to anybody on the streets for fear that they might identify you. It was terribly exciting!"

From Vienna, the Perrys were sent to Munich, Germany, where Bob worked as a spy with the Defense Intelligence Agency in the 1960s. Then, in the '70s, the couple took a break from the intelligence community and moved back to Boston. Bob took a job with a bank and Shirley gave birth to their two children, a girl and a boy.

But their time in America was short-lived, as the bank soon sent the family to Luxembourg. It was there that Shirley founded the American School of Luxembourg, which still exists under another name today.

Now retired in Skaneateles, Perry said her book shares many memories from her time as an undercover spy with the CIA. While the memoir is a true account of her time overseas  as well as several years spent in Canada and the U.S.  some of Perry's story remains secret.

"I had to get the CIA's approval ... and of course they would not let me publish a couple things," she said, noting that she also changed a few names to protect people's identities. It took her nearly 10 years to finish.

"I'm very happy to be here in Skaneateles as a retired woman," Perry said, sitting on the front porch of her home. "I've lived quite an extraordinary life all over the world ... but I love it here."
The south west monsoon has covered all parts of Maharashtra bringing good rains and relief to farmers.

The central part of Maharashtra is a major food grains growing area and rainfall in this region has brought relief to farmers as well as the state administration.

"For the first time in July, the south west monsoon has brought rains to all parts of the state. There had been showers since July 1, but of low intensity and scattered. It is good that the entire Maharashtra is now covered," an official of the Indian Meteorological Department said.

"The central parts of the state - comprising north Maharashtra and Marathwada - received showers of medium intensity. It will be helpful for farmers as the state was facing a potential challenge of second round of sowing in the region," he said.

"The second round of sowing means an additional input cost to the already debt-ridden farmers," the official said.

Maharashtra agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar told PTI that sowing on over 66 per cent of the total area has been done during the ongoing Kharif season.

The state administration was a bit worried over the delay in rainfall. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had even issued an advisory for postponing the sowing, he said.

"As of today, the sowing has taken place on more than 66 per cent of agricultural area in the state. We are a bit relieved now," Fundkar said.

A report from Nashik said incessant rains lashed the city and other parts of the district after a dry spell, leading to water logging in low-lying areas.

The water level of Godavari river has risen following heavy downpour since last night in the catchment areas, an official said.

The irrigation department has not released water from the Nashik's Gangapur dam owing to the heavy rains.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Revenue department official of the Madhya Pradesh government has sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after she was recently transferred to Sidhi district from her current posting, which she said is the ninth in her 13 years of service.

Amita Singh Tomar, who was in for winning Rs 50 lakh in the television reality show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' and also for a controversial Facebook post last year, was transferred to Sidhi district, about 800 kms away from her current posting at Biaora in Rajgarh district.

Tomar, posted as a Tehsildar, today said she was shifted across 25 tehsils within different districts during her service so far and that her latest transfer was at the behest of some "influential persons" whose encroachments she had removed.

"I have written to Prime Minister seeking justice. I was transferred on nine occasions and shifted across 25 tehsils during my 13 years of service. I had requested the state government to transfer me to my home district Gwalior," Tomar told PTI over phone.

Tomar said she was feeling "oppressed" due to frequent transfers despite winning commendation for her service.

"I was awarded almost every year for my work. I was also awarded for my work during Simhastha Kumbh Mela. Some officials spent their entire service in 3-4 districts. I have not a single corruption charge on me, and never delayed a file," she said.

Tomar said she was posted in Biaora only in April this year, but was transfered to faraway Sidhi.

"I have also written to chief minister, chief secretary and principal secretary (Revenue) in this regard," she said.

During her posting in Ratlam district in June last year, Tomar's post on FB had triggered a controversy.

"When Prime Minister went to Afghanistan, and then Muslims of that country waved Indias flag and raised slogans of 'Vande Matram' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. Therefore, I request Prime Minister that he should start 'Rajiv Gandhi Aatmhatya Yojna' so that pseudo seculars and those with the Congress ideology can commit suicide by hearing this news," she had purportedly written in the post which she deleted subsequently.

Following the post, she was served a show cause notice for violating the Civil Services Conduct Rules.

When contacted, a senior Revenue department officer said the decision to transfer Tomar was taken as per the rules.

"If she has any grievance, she can approach the senior authorities for redressal," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam today demanded an apology from actor Kamal Haasan for publicly identifying a Malayalam actress who was abducted and sexually assaulted in a moving car in Kerala.

"We are taking suo motu cognisance of the matter and sending him a letter asking him to apologise or retract his statement," Kumaramangalam told PTI.

The actor, speaking to the media on Wednesday, had named the actress while answering a question on the security of women in the film industry.

When it was pointed out that sexual assault victims should not be identified, he said, "It doesn't matter if I have used the name. You have put out her name everywhere. Do not hide the name as there is nothing wrong with it. If you want to call her Draupadi, call her Draupadi. Don't call her 'a female'."



Kumaramangalam said the actor's statement revealed the "patriarchal mindset" among "VIPs, big guys...Whether they are in politics or not in politics".

"It also shows lack of humility in him and that's what we are going to say (in the letter). It is very arrogant to say that somebody else has said it so I will say it too," she said, adding that the letter would be sent soon.

Haasan, is "undoubtedly a brilliant actor, but that doesn't give him the right to say something "so insensitive", said Kumaramangalam.

Section 228 A of the Indian Penal Code bans the disclosure of the identity of victims of certain offences, including sexual assault, barring specified circumstances.

Violation of this can be punished with a fine or imprisonment which may extend to two years.

"He (Kamal Haasan) can't be booked by us but someone else like the victim herself or fans can lodge a protest. The police can do it on their own also. When someone like him who has billions of fans says something like this, it sets a bad precedent," said Kumaramangalam.

The NCW chief also said all that the actor had to do was apologise.

"If he has made a mistake it won't make him small to say that 'I am sorry'. In fact, he doesn't even need to use the word 'sorry' -- he could just say, 'I didn't mean to say it'. People of his stature should have the common sense and humility to understand the sensitivity of such situations," she said.

Kumaramangalam, who conceded that she felt "strongly" about public figures being "insensitive", had issued a notice to actor Salman Khan for "trivialising rape" in a press meet in Mumbai last July.

Haasan's reference was to an actress of Malayalam films who was abducted and raped in February this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will visit Gujarat tomorrow as part of his nation-wide tour to seek support from elected representatives.

Though BJP president Amit Shah and the party's state in- charge Bhupendra Yadav were also scheduled to arrive here along with Kovind, both have cancelled their visit as they have to attend a programme in Delhi, Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani said in a release today.

Instead, Union minister Nitin Gadkari and senior party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya will accompany Kovind, the release said.

On July 8, the state unit of the BJP had announced that Kovind and Shah would visit Gujarat on July 11.

However, the party postponed the visit following the terrorist attack on a bus in Jammu and Kashmir on July 10 in which seven pilgrims from Gujarat and Maharashtra were killed.

As per the release, Kovind will be welcomed at the airport by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, his deputy Nitin Patel, several ministers and senior BJP leaders.

Kovind will then head to Gandhinagar, where he will hold a meeting with BJP MP from Gujarat, state legislators and the party's BJP's core committee members regarding the upcoming presidential election.

Gadkari and Vijayvargiya will also be present during the meeting. All the three would leave for Delhi in the night, the release stated.

The opposition's presidential candidate and former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar had launched her campaign from the Sabarmati Ashram on June 22.

The presidential election is scheduled for July 17 and the counting of votes will take place on July 20.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ramping up pressure on the RJD over the corruption case involving Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, the JD(U) today said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will never compromise on the issue of corruption.

"Nitish Kumar's stand on corruption is well known. He will never compromise on it," JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi said.

Asked what his party expected from the Lalu Prasad-led RJD over the charges against his son Tejashwi, he said the RJD leader should give a detailed explanation over these allegations, something his party made clear following a meeting of its leaders in Patna.

Tyagi also insisted that he never sought Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's intervention to defuse the crisis in the grand alliance and only welcomed such an suggestion reportedly made by a Congress leader in Bihar.

Sonia and Congress deputy and her son Rahul Gandhi had spoken to Kumar following his party's announcement of its support to the opposition's vice presidential candidate.

The Congress, which is a partner in the grand alliance' government in Bihar, insisted that the alliance was intact.

"The grand alliance in Bihar is intact. It is based on principles. The people of Bihar had rejected a coalition which wanted to break the 'Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb' (syncretic culture) of Bihar," Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.

To a question about remarks of some alliance leaders that Sonia should intervene to resolve the crisis, he said functionaries of all the three parties should consult their leaders, including Nitish Kumar, before they speak on the issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After 22 years, Hollywood's most successful trio of Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese is returning to the big screen.

Pesci has officially joined De Niro in Scorsese's Jimmy Hoffa disappearance film "The Irishman", while Al Pacino is in final negotiations to come on board the project, reported Deadline.

Pesci's involvement comes after the actor said no to the film multiple times. He will portray Russell Bufalino, a Mafia boss out of Pennsylvania who has been long suspected of having a hand in the Hoffa's disappearance.

Pesci, De Niro and Scorsese have previously done three films together, including, "Raging Bull", "Goodfellas" and "Casino".

The film begins shooting next month in and around New York and will continue through December.

Harvey Keitel and Bobby Cannavale are also in the talks to join the production.

Hoffa was an American labor union leader and author who served as the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) union from 1958 until 1971. He vanished in July 1975 outside a Detroit restaurant and was declared legally dead in 1982 after never being seen again.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Abdullahi Kojo (name changed) from Ghana has no complaints -- not after a group of doctors in India gave him a new set of genitals.

A year after he was attacked by a stray dog that bit off his testes and scrotum back home in Ghana, Kojo says life is back to normal.

The Ghanaian, on the advice of a doctor in his country, decided to seek help in India and, two operations later, says he is now experiencing a "good sexual life".

As India celebrates National Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Day tomorrow, doctors who conducted two operations on him at Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh here talk about the challenges of such surgery, and how far the country has moved in this area of treatment.

Dr Richie Gupta, senior consultant, department of plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive surgery at the hospital, said reconstructing a body part, particularly genitals, needed the skills of both a surgeon and an artist.

According to her, penile reconstruction surgery is akin to "performing four or five reconstructive surgeries in one sitting", during which a new penis, urethra and scrotum are created.

"Penile reconstruction is one of the most challenging and difficult operations in plastic surgery," she said.

The surgery involves the "tedious art of sculpturing" and "meticulous microsurgical skills" to make the reconstructed part look like a normal penis.

"Hence, it involves the skills of an artist and plastic surgeon specialised in microsurgery," Dr Richie told PTI.

With Sushruta -- believed to have been born in 600 BC and author of an ancient text on medicine and surgery -- hailed as the father of plastic surgery, it was perhaps natural for doctors in Kojo's hometown to suggest treatment in India.

"One of the doctors in my country told me about phalloplasty and said India had good doctors in this speciality. While searching the Internet, I came across the website of a doctor and contacted him," he told PTI.

Doctors said plastic surgery in India is now performed using the latest procedures, with the help of 3D printing, fat and stem cell therapy and many other processes.

For Kojo's operation, the "Radial artery forearm flap, Tube within tube technique" was used, where the genital was recreated with the skin, blood vessels and nerves taken from his forearm.

"The total operation took almost 12 hours. Post surgery, pain lasted for two weeks," the patient said. The surgery cost him about Rs 3.5 lakh.

Six months later, silicone rods were inserted, and Kojo, who was a university student in Ghana when the dog attacked him, is now back home.

One of the major risks involved in such surgeries is scarring of the body part which is used for the flap -- the lifting of tissues -- on the injured site. Patients are given an option of penile reconstruction with a "thigh flap". Most patients go for that, since the grafting leads to multiple scars which are not as visible on the thigh as they are on forearm.

Flap loss and accidental urinary leaks are among the other risks involved, added Dr Rajat Gupta, associate consultant, plastic surgery, at the hospital.

The idea of reconstructing one's genitals may seem impossible, but Kojo urges people not to hesitate to seek help if they face similar problems.

"Loss of my genital was my biggest trauma. I had to see a psychiatrist in Ghana. I never knew that it could be regenerated and I could get back to my previous life. Science and technology have advanced, and we must use them for our benefit," Kojo said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Opposition's presidential nominee Meira Kumar today met Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav separately during her day-long visit to the state capital here.

She met Mayawati at the latter's residence, while the meeting with Yadav took place at the SP headquarters here.

Later, at a press conference, Kumar termed the July 17 presidential election as a "fight to uphold the secular fabric of the country" and urged the MPs and MLAs to listen to their conscience and keep the future of the country in mind while exercising their franchise.

Kumar, who was here to garner the support of opposition parties SP, BSP and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) among others, alleged that the secular ideology of the country was being continuously attacked over the last few years.

"Hence, the opposition has made the presidential poll a fight for ideology to uphold the secular fabric of the country, so that the poor, oppressed and those from the weaker sections feel that their voice is reaching the highest constitutional post," she said.

Stating that there were eight main religions in India, the former Lok Sabha speaker said the citizens of the country should have respect towards the different faiths.

"We and our previous generations have inherited the thinking that all of us should stay in harmony and neither indulge in hatred, nor spread animosity. We should respect all the religions. India is a multi-cultural country and it should be kept intact by tying them in a single thread," she added.

Kumar also said the caste system had "insulted" a large chunk of the country's population to the extent that it had "crippled" them.

"I want to thank the opposition parties for reposing faith in me. The unity of the opposition lies in its ideology," said the 72-year-old former diplomat.

Kumar said her maternal uncle belonged to Kanpur and she always felt happy whenever she came to Uttar Pradesh.

Incidentally, her opponent in the presidential poll, NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind, also hails from Kanpur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rajasthan government today demanded lowering of GST rate on Mehandi/Henna saying they are major agro-products exported from the state and the higher incidence of tax will only impact the sector badly.

The goods and services tax (GST) rate on Mehandi is 5 per cent while that of Henna is 18 per cent.

"Traders have complained about higher GST on Mehandi/Henna. Since they are agri-produts, the tax should be kept lower," Rajasthan Agricutlure Minister Prabhulal Saini told reporters on the sidelines of a Ficci event here.

The state government will soon make a representation to the Union Finance Minister on this issue, he added.

More than 86 per cent of India's total Mehandi output comes from Rajasthan. The state produced 31,500 tonnes of Mehandi last year on 42,000 hectare.

Almost the entire Mehandi the state produces is exported. The state has a special wholesale mandi for trading of Mehandi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A senior pilot of Pakistan's national carrier PIA exposed hundreds of lives to danger by operating a long-haul flight without taking adequate rest, compromising air safety and violating aviation laws, according to a media report.

Sadiq Rehman, former Vice President of the Pakistan Air Lines Pilots Association (PALPA), violated aviation laws by not taking the 24-hour mandatory rest before operating a Toronto-bound flight on July 4, Dawn reported.

Pakistan International Airline (PIA) spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar conceded that the pilot did not take the mandatory rest before operating the long duration flight on July 4, the report said.

The PIA had scheduled Rehman to arrive in Lahore on July 2 evening, rest on July 3 and then go ahead (after resting for over 36 hours) to operate the flight to Canada, it said.

Rehman did not follow the schedule. He stayed in Karachi on July 2 and left for Lahore on July 3 evening along with 30kgs of luggage in two suitcases and then operated the Toronto-bound flight on July 4 morning, without completing the 24-hour mandatory rest.

The sources said that the 24-hour mandatory rest was prescribed by the CAA rules and Air Navigation Order (ANO) before long-haul flights so that the crew could remain fresh during the flight, as an overworked, under-rested and fatigued crew in the cockpit is a sure invitation to a disaster.

Rehman travelled from Karachi aboard PK-306, arriving in Lahore at 8.45pm on July 3. This makes his stay in Lahore for around 15 hours before he operated PK-789 on July 4 at 11.35am, Tajwar said.

In May, a PIA pilot has been accused of risking security by allowing a young Chinese woman into the cockpit during a flight from Tokyo to Beijing, days after another pilot was taken off duty for allegedly sleeping on a London-bound PIA flight.

In January, the PIA allowed seven passengers to travel standing in the aisle all the way to Saudi Arabia, prompting a probe into the serious breach of security regulations by Pakistan's loss-making national carrier.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As smoke fills the air in Flagstaff, I'm thinking of Emery Cowan's timely article in the Daily Sun three weeks ago about fire prevention, which discussed, along with the broader topic, efforts along Forest Road 237. People, especially residents of Kachina Village, should know of the Forest Service's extraordinary response to concerns expressed after the Slide fire about the number of abandoned campfires previously proliferating on 237.

District Ranger Mike Elson, Recreation Staff & Wilderness Officer Brian Poturalski, and Fire Prevention Lead Matt Enbring, along with many Forest Protection and Law Enforcement officers, as well as the Flagstaff District Recreation Staff quickly implemented a plan to concentrate and control camping on 237. With participation from other agencies such as the Coconino County Sherriff's office, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and the Oak Creek Watershed Council, and a number of volunteers such as Jon Aber, Jim Pond, and especially Ron Bauman, the fire danger to Kachina Village is now significantly reduced.

This kind of cooperative effort by multiple government agencies and citizen volunteers is a fine example of what can be accomplished by people working together, and all involved deserve recognition.

To continue to make our community safer, I encourage Kachina residents to become a part of the Firewise effort. Go to firewise.highlandsfire.org and learn what you can do to help protect our wonderful life in the Wildland/Urban interface. Other rural communities should investigate taking part in Firewise as well.

PETER SMITH

Kachina Village
Amid growing rift within the members of the coalition government in Bihar, the JD(U) today mounted pressure on the RJD, asking it to come clean on allegations against party minister Tejashwi Yadav with facts and not to "display arrogance" of having 80 MLAs.

Yadav, the son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, is the deputy chief minister of Bihar and has been named by the CBI as an accued in its probe into land-for-hotels scandal.

"The RJD, which is showing arrogance of 80 MLAs, should no forget that it was reduced to 22 MLAs in 2010 state poll and in the elections in 2015 there number swelled due to the credible face of Nitish Kumar as head of the coalition," state JD(U) chief spokesman Sanjay Singh told PTI.

In the 243-seat Bihar Assembly, the RJD has 80 seats, the JD(U) 71 and the Congress 27. The BJP has 53 MLAs.

"Be within limits and come clean on accusations (against Tejashwi) at the earliest," Singh said, strongly reacting to the 80-MLA remark of Ram Chandra Purve, the Bihar unit chief of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and others.

JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar, in an apparent referrence to Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav, said those against whom accusations have been levelled should explain the source of their property "to silence the opposition".

His colleague Sunil Singh echoed similar views and made it clear that the party would in no case compromise with the "clean image" of Nitish Kumar, saying the JD)U) president and Bihar chief minister is known for his "politics of principles and zero tolerance to corruption".

Meanwhile, a section of media reported that Tejashwi Yadav has made up his mind to tender resignation and the decision to this effect could be announced after the return of RJD president Lalu Prasad tomorrow from Ranchi where he has gone for appearance in a fodder scam related case.

However, the deputy chief minister in a tweet ridiculed these reports.

"Some media in the name of 'utpati (destructive) sources' is running one-point programme of BJP...I feel like laughing at it loudly," he said.

Sources in the Congress here said party president Sonia Gandhi has been playing a peacemaker between the warring Grand Alliance partners by talking to both Nitish Kumar as well Lalu Prasad to find out a mutually acceptable solution to keep the coalition intact.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The "world's first robot lawyer" - which has so far overturned parking tickets worth $10 million in the UK and the US - can now help people tackle legal disputes regarding landlords, credit card fraud and harassment at work free of cost.

The online tool, developed by 20-year-old British student Joshua Browder at Stanford University in the US, has been upgraded to fight legal disputes in 1,000 different areas.

These include fighting landlords over security deposits and house repairs, and helping people report fraud to their credit card agency.

"There's so much exploitation going on where landlords aren't behaving properly. I'm really excited about how it can help people," said Browder.

"I really hope it will help people stand up for their rights for free and instantly," he said.

To get robot advice, users need to type their problem into the 'DoNotPay' website, which directs them to a chat bot that can solve their legal issue.

It can draft letters and offer advice on problems from credit card fraud to airline compensation, 'The Telegraph' reported.

It can also understand complex disputes such as employment rights and offer a range of suggestions.

With problems around parental leave and harassment at work it provides options with different levels of formality. It can send a casual letter, an official one, and file a complaint to the regulator.

The tool can fight parking tickets in just 30 seconds. DoNotPay had negated more than 375,000 tickets worth around USD 10 million in the UK, New York and Seattle.

At present the can solve problems that involve a single document, such as filling out a form or writing a letter.

Browder is now planning to develop the tool so it can handle more complicated processes.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Saudi Arabia today hailed the Iraq government's recapture of Mosul city from Islamic State group jihadists, stressing its solidarity with Baghdad in combating "terrorism" despite their rocky relations.

The kingdom "congratulates the Iraqi government and people for recapturing Mosul city and liberating it from the Daesh terrorist organisation," the foreign ministry said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

The statement carried by SPA state agency stressed that Riyadh "stands by Iraq and its efforts to combat extremism and terrorism in all its form, as well as its financing".

Iraq declared victory in Mosul this week after a nearly nine-month battle that ravaged the city and took a heavy toll on residents and security forces.

Riyadh and Baghdad have made efforts to improve their bumpy relations, with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a Shiite, visiting the predominantly Sunni kingdom last month.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir travelled to Baghdad in February for talks with Abadi, on the first visit of its kind since 2003.

Saudi Arabia has long expressed concern about Shiite Iran's "interference" in the region, including through Iraq's paramilitary Hashed al-Shaabi which has played a major role in fighting IS.

Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran in early 2016 after years of strained relations.

Although Saudi Arabia officially supports the fight against the Sunni jihadists of IS, Iraq and some other countries have argued it needs to do more to help defeat the extremists and their ideology.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to decide within a week whether it would amend the electoral law or rules for allowing Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to vote by postal or e-ballots in the polls here.

A bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud took note of the fact that the Centre and the Election Commission of India (ECI) were agreeable to the report of a panel that NRIs may be allowed to vote.

The poll panel had said the move to allow NRIs to use proxy voting on the lines of defence personnel and e-ballot facility would require changes either in the Representation of People (RP) Act or in the rules made under the Act.

"The only question that arises for consideration now is whether the Union of India (UOI) needs to accept proposals made in the Report dated October, 2014, which have already been accepted, in principle, by way of an amendment of Sections 20 and 20A of the RP Act, 1950, or alternatively, by a mere amendment of the Rules?



"Factually, on the instant aspect of the matter, the UOI had sought time on November 18, 2016. Further time is again being sought. We afford one further opportunity to the UOI to take a final decision, whether the proposals accepted by it need to be implemented by way of an amendment to the provisions of the RP Act or the Rules framed thereunder," the bench said in its order.

Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for the Centre, said the Government, in principle, had agreed with the recommendations made in the report prepared by a 12-member committee led by deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi to explore the feasibility of alternative options for voting by overseas electors.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for one of the petitioners, said that NRIs can be given the right to vote by making changes in the rules only and there was no need to amend the provisions of the RP Act.

The bench has now posted for further hearing on July 21 a batch of petitions filed by Nagender Chindam, who is the chairman of London-based Pravasi Bharat organisation and other NRIs including Shamsheer VP on the issue.

Later, Chindam, in a statement, said, "We are very happy to the results coming through in positive way."



He expressed happiness that the Constitution provides for "the fundamental rights and right to approach Supreme Court to its every citizen".

Earlier, the Centre had said that the draft bill to provide voting rights to NRIs through postal ballots would be further revised before it is tabled in Parliament.

The apex court had said it cannot order the legislature to make or amend a law within a particular time-frame and had granted time to the Centre to effect changes in the statutes to extend voting rights to NRIs through postal or e-ballots.

It was submitted in one of the pleas that in Kerala, 70 per cent of the people were NRIs who should be given this right as they contribute so much to the country.

The PILs have said that 114 countries, including 20 Asian nations, have adopted external voting. It said external voting could be held by setting up polling booths at diplomatic missions or through postal, proxy or electronic voting.

The 12-member committee comprising officials from the EC, Law and External Affairs Ministries had gathered opinion from all sections before submitting a report to the apex court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Four additional companies of CRPF are being sent to maintain law and order in Darjeeling and Kalimpong which have been hit by the agitation for a separate Gorkhaland, the Centre today told the Supreme Court.

The government told a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra that 11 CRPF companies are already deployed in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts and a decision has been taken to send four more companies to ensure the safety of citizens and maintain law and order there.

Attorney General K K Venugopal told the bench, which also comprised A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar, that the Calcutta High Court has today asked the government to deploy four additional companies of CRPF there and they are sending additional paramilitary forces there.

The bench made it clear that the 11 companies which are already deployed there and the four additional companies shall be utilised by the West Bengal government only for the purpose of maintaining law and order in the two districts.

The bench also asked the authorities to ensure smooth movement of traffic and safety and security of passengers travelling in vehicles on the National Highway-10, the sole road link connecting West Bengal's Siliguri with Sikkim.

"Needless to say, the citizens of these areas must understand that sustenance of law and order and living in peace is the hallmark of progressive civilisation and therefore, they shall also see that free flow of life is not in anyway disturbed or affected," the bench said.

The apex court's order came on a petition filed by Sikkim for a direction to ensure safety of vehicles plying on NH 10 which connects the state with the rest of the country.

The Sikkim government has approached the apex court seeking a direction to the Centre and West Bengal that NH 10 be protected and uninterrupted vehicular movement be ensured in the wake of ongoing agitation for separate Gorkhaland.

NH 10, also referred to as lifeline of the hill state, connects it to Siliguri and any blockade or interruption on the highway leads to severe scarcity of goods and stalls passengers' movement.

The plea, filed by Sikkim Chief Secretary A K Srivastav, Lok Sabha MP P D Rai and Rajya Sabha lawmaker Hissey Lachungpa, has sought a direction to the union ministries of Home Affairs, Roads, Transport and Highway and the West Bengal government that the national highway is "kept free" for vehicular movement.

The state government has said the safety of passengers, goods and vehicles should also be ensured besides the uninterrupted traffic on the stretch.

The plea has referred to the incidents of violence on June 8 against Sikkim-bound vehicles on the national highway during the Gorkhaland agitation.

Sikkim-bound vehicles have been targeted during the protests in and around Siliguri from the last week of June.

Sikkim has been alleging that miscreants were not allowing essential commodities and fuel to be loaded in trucks at New Jalpaiguri and Siliguri and even the West Bengal police was not taking any action.

The situation along the national highway in West Bengal has been "worsening" with each passing day, and despite assurances by West Bengal government, incidents of violence and loot of Sikkim-bound vehicles have become a regular affair, officials have said.

According to Sikkim police, 20 trucks ferrying supplies to Sikkim from Siliguri were vandalised and looted and their drivers assaulted. Truck drivers and transporters in Sikkim said they have decided not to ply vehicles if security is not provided.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is holding consultations with the lawmakers of the ruling party to devise a strategy to respond to the opposition's calls for his resignation over the Panama case probe panel's report on money laundering charges against him.

A six-member Joint Investigation Team, probing the Sharif family's offshore assets and alleged corruption, in a 10- volume damning report submitted to the Supreme Court on July 10 recommended that a corruption case should be filed against the prime minister and his sons - Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz - as well as daughter Maryam.

During the meeting with the lawmakers of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN), Sharif would take stock of the prevailing political situation in the country.

Sources close to PMLN said that it would be an important meeting to woo some of the disgruntled backbenchers of the party whose support would be a key for Sharif.

It is the fourth high-level meeting to take place since Monday when JIT submitted the report on money laundering allegations against Sharif.

The JIT in its report said that Sharif's life style and that of his children was beyond the known means of income.

Opposition parties have been demanding his resignation after the submission of the report.

The high-profile graft case is about alleged money laundering by Sharif in 1990s when he twice served as the Prime Minister to purchase assets in London. The assets surfaced when Panama papers last year showed that they were managed through offshore companies owned by Sharif's children.

The case filed by various petitioners - Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan, Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq and Sheikh Rashid Ahmed - sought disqualification of Prime Minister Sharif over his alleged misstatement in his address to the nation on April 5, 2016 and his speech before the National Assembly on May 16, 2016.

The petitioners had claimed that the prime minister lied about the investments made by his children in offshore companies, which led to the acquisition of four apartments in London's upscale Park Lane neighbourhood.

In April, a five-judge Supreme Court bench issued a landmark 540-page split judgement ordering setting up of the JIT comprising officials from different agencies including those from powerful spy agencies the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Military Intelligence.

Sharif is the only Pakistani politician who has the distinction of being the prime minister of the coup-prone country for a record three times.

He had served as the Prime Minister from 1990 to 1993 and from 1997 to 1999. Both of Sharif's first two stints had ended in the third year of his tenure.

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The Jammu and Kashmir Police today constituted a special investigation team (SIT) headed by DIG (South Kashmir) S P Pani to investigate the terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims in Anantnag district on 10 July.

"A six-member special investigation team has been constituted to probe the attack on Amarnath pilgrims at Batengoo in Anantnag on Monday," Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Zone) Muneer Ahmad Khan told PTI.

The SIT, headed by the deputy inspector general (DIG) of South Kashmir, will have Senior Superintendent of Police (Anantnag) Altaf Ahmad Khan and a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) as members, Khan said.

"The SIT has been formed for expeditious and thorough investigation into the case," he added.

Seven Amarnath pilgrims were killed and 21 others injured in a terrorist attack on their bus which was on way from Baltal to Jammu.

The attack drew widespread condemnation from all shades of opinion in the valley, including separatist groups.

Police blamed the Lashkar-e-Taiba for the deadly attack, but the outfit denied any involvement.

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Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar today suggested that the Maharaja Sayajirao University here should start a course in Goods and Services Tax (GST).

"I would request Maharaja Sayajirao University to start a course in GST," Javadekar said, adding that accounting, finance and tax professionals would find such a course beneficial.

The Union minister was speaking at an 'outreach program' on the new tax regime, organised by the Central And Central Excise Department, Vadodara Zone.

"There has been a seamless transition to Goods and Services Tax after it was rolled out on July 1...It is a step in the direction of economic development of the country," Javadekar said.

Bill was approved by the Jammu and Kashmir legislature recently (after other states had already come on board) due to the demand of the trader community in that state, Javadekar noted.

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State-run Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) today said it has entered into an MoU with Cement Corporation of India (CCI) for setting up a 2 million tonne capacity cement plant at a cost of Rs 150 crore.

RINL is the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), while CCI is a PSU under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

According to a press release issued by the steelmaker, the cement plant would be fly ash and blast furnace (BF) slag- based manufacturing unit.

The facility, to be built by both the PSUs under a joint venture at the RINL premises in Visakhapatnam, will be completed in two phases with one million tonne capacity each.

RINL generates a large quantity of BF slag and fly ash, the prime raw materials for cements, it said.

Manoj Misra, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of CCI and P C Mohapatra, Director (Projects), RINL signed the MoU in the presence P Madhusudan, CMD of RINL, it added.

"The JV project will approximately cost Rs 150 crore. RINL is offering around 35 acres of land for the proposed plant in its premises. The project is proposed to be completed in 15 months from the date of placement of order," it said.

Madhusudan hoped CCI would set up the plant with state -of-the-art technology in a pollution-free environment, with professional way and in a time-bound manner.

Misra said CCI is one of the lowest cost producers of cement in the country and joining hands with RINL will be a win-win situation for both the companies.

The plant will help both the PSUs to offer more integrated product solutions to their customers, he added.

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Taiwan's parliament descended into chaos for a second consecutive day today with lawmakers wielding chairs above their heads and throwing water balloons as they brawled over a controversial infrastructure project.

It followed repeated disruption yesterday when rival legislators grabbed each other's throats in angry scuffles during a review of the budget for the project.

The plan is one of President Tsai Ing-wen's signature proposals and includes building light rail lines, flood control measures and green energy facilities.

But the opposition Kuomintang party is against the project, saying it favours cities and counties faithful to Tsai's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and has been devised to secure support for the party ahead of next year's regional elections.

Critics have also questioned the whopping Tw$420 billion (USD 13.8 billion) cost of the project.

Premier Lin Chuan was prevented from delivering his report on the budget yesterday after a water balloon was thrown towards him and he left the chamber, with the session called to a halt.

Lin stood on the sidelines again Friday, unable to start speaking as chaos erupted around him.

Opposition lawmakers raised large padded office chairs above their heads, surrounding the podium and tussling with rival legislators to prevent Lin from presenting the report as more water balloons were thrown.

The session was suspended today morning. One lawmaker feeling unwell after the brawl was sent to the parliament's clinic.

Outside the building, the Kuomintang's acting chairman Lin Jung-tzer led a group of legislators and protesters, chanting, "Send back the budget, defend Taiwan!"



President Tsai has seen her popularity plummet to under 40 per cent from nearly 70 per cent when she took office in May last year as her government attempts to tackle a range of divisive issues from gay marriage to pension and judicial reforms.

Violent protests erupted outside the parliament in April when opponents of pension reforms attacked politicians and scuffled with police, prompting Tsai to call for calm and restraint.

Parliament was also plunged into chaos late last year when opposing lawmakers brawled in the chamber, as labour activists set off smoke bombs outside in protest at proposed holiday cuts.

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Thank you for clarifying exactly who it is our elected GOP representatives actually represent. In the AP story, Donors Tell GOP on June 27, you make it crystal clear why most Americans are so disappointed with their representation in the US Congress. We thought that our votes produced elected officials who respond to the will of the people, yet we repeatedly learn that our wishes are ignored. Polling repeatedly shows Americans favor public goods like good transportation, great public schools, and affordable health care. Instead Congress promises tax cuts to the 1 percent, less regulation of pollution, and sky-high health coverage for sick people.

These days, there is not even a discussion of infrastructure repair or upgrading public school facilities. Public employees, except for representatives and senators, endure insecurity and low pay. Do we really want our TSA guardians disgruntled?

But on Tuesday, we learned clearly and unambiguously who really gets the full attention of our elected officials -- influential donors from the Koch brothers donor retreat showed whos boss. They sternly told those beggars from the Hill that their wallets are shut. No more mega donations until that tax code is written to their wishes, and that nasty nuisance EPA is shuttered.

This is as clear as it can be written. Big donors hold the reins of Congress and they are not embarrassed to show their whip. The little guys can storm congressional offices, march with angry banners, and flood the phone lines, but Texas-based donor Doug Deason told the GOPers his wallet was shut until he got what he wanted: an end to the ACA and tax reform, aka cuts.

Until the American people quit falling for the pious promises of family values and small government, we will get a failing government that will not protect any of us who are not big donors.

HARRIET H. YOUNG

Flagstaff
Shares of TCS fell by nearly 3 per cent today after the company reported a 5.9 per cent decline in consolidated net profit for the April-June quarter.

After a weak opening, the stock of the top IT exporter further lost 2.78 per cent to Rs 2,376.10 on the BSE.

On the NSE, it dropped 2.91 per cent to Rs 2,375.

India's largest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) yesterday reported a 5.9 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 5,945 crore for the April- June quarter, hit by currency volatility.

It had posted a net profit of Rs 6,317 crore in the year-ago period, the Mumbai-based firm said in a BSE filing.

The company, however, posted a marginal increase of 1 per cent in its consolidated revenue at Rs 29,584 crore during the quarter as against Rs 29,305 crore a year earlier.

Compared to the January-March 2017 quarter, its net profit during the period under review fell 10 per cent while revenue slipped 0.2 per cent.

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The Tamil Nadu government will allocate Rs 4.50 lakh for initiatives including setting up of a Tamil library at Gauhati University for the benefit of students pursing Tamil at the varsity, Minister for Tamil Culture, Sevoor S Ramachandran said.

The minister announced in the Assembly that Rs 1.50 lakh will be allocated to set up a library at Gauhati university.

Ramachandran, also minister for language and Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department, said the library will help students pursuing Tamil at the North East Indian varsity to learn Tamil literature.

Also, Rs three lakh will allocated to buy five computers for students of that varsity to learn online Tamil language and literature, he said.

The initative will be taken forward through the Tamil Development Department, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The death toll in the violent clashes between members of Bharwad and Rajput communities in Gujarat's Morbi and Surendranagar districts has risen to two, police said today.

Two persons were also injured in the clashes that took place yesterday.

Internet services have been suspended in both districts for the time being to curb rumour-mongering on social media, as per a government order.

Incidents of arson, stone-pelting and rioting were reported from near Morbi district's Halvad town and in some villages around Surendranagar's Dhrangadhra town yesterday, the police said.

"A man died of a bullet injury last evening in Halvad while another person, who was attacked with a sword at a village near Dhrangadhra, succumbed in the early hours today. Both of them were from the Bharwad community. Few others were also injured," Surendranagar Superintendent of Police Dipak Kumar Meghani told PTI.

"We have formed three teams to nab culprits," he said.

Members of the Rajput community had an altercation with Bharwads while they were going to Dhrangadhra for a condolence meeting of Rajput leader Indrasinh Zala, who was hacked to death last Friday, an official at Morbi police control room said.

"Some Rajputs and Bharwads came face to face near Halvad after some persons hurled stones on the former. The groups clashed when Rajputs from different parts of Morbi district were headed towards Dhrangadhra to attend Zala's 'besna' (condolence meet)," Morbi SP Jaypalsinh Rathod said.

During the clashes in Halvad yesterday, around 30 vehicles were torched. One person from the Bharwad community died in firing during the clash, while two others were seriously injured. One person also died in the adjoining Surendranagar district, he said.

"The situation is under control as a large number of police personnel have been deployed on the Halvad-Dhrangadhra road," the SP said.

Gujarat Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja urged the people from both the communities to remain calm.

"To prevent the spread of rumours, we have suspended Internet services in Morbi and Surendranagar. As many as seven companies of the State Reserve Police have been sent to control the situation," Jadeja said.

"The SPs of Rajkot, Jamnagar and Gandhidham districts along with three Range IGs were also sent to the affected areas," he said.

Zala, a former president of Dhrangadhra municipality, was in jail since 2013 in connection with the murder of a Bharwad community member and was hacked to death a day after he was released on parole.

Since then, the situation in Dhrangadhra has been tense, an official at Surendranagar police control room said.

According to SP Meghani, the violence in Halvad sparked clashes near Dhrangadhra.

"After Halvad, clashes spread to Dhrangadhra. A mob also torched several vehicles and attacked shops at Chuli village in Surendranagar," Meghani said.

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"Spider-Man: Homecoming" stars Tom Holland and Zendaya have reportedly started dating.

The co-stars fell for one another while making the movie, and though they have been trying to keep their romance out of the spotlight, insiders claimed they have been spending a lot of time together, reported E! online.

"They got to know each other while on set. They became friends and started getting romantic a few months ago," a source said.

"They both are such great people. It's cool they got together. Everyone gets along with them. They are very well liked on set. Tom is the most down-to-earth actor."



Holland, 21, previously described the 20-year-old actress as his best friend and praised her for helping him navigate fame.

The pair wouldn't be the first "Spider-Man" co-stars to enjoy an off-screen romance.

Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire embarked on a relationship while shooting "Spider-Man" in 2002, but had split before filming the third installment in 2007.

"The Amazing Spider-Man" co-stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone enjoyed a three-year romance until 2015.

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: Senior Consular officials from the United States and Japan called on Chief Minister K Palaniswami at the Secretariat here today.

The U.S. Embassy, New Delhi, Charge d' Affaires Marykay L Carlson and Acting Consul General David Ballard called on the Chief Minister, a press release said.

Separately, the Ambassador of Japan to India, Kenji Hiramatsu, Minister Political Affairs, Embassy of Japan, New Delhi, Hideki Asari, Japan Consulate in Chennai and Consul General Seiji Baba also called on Palaniswami.

The meetings with the Chief Minister was a "courtesy call", sources said.

The visit of the consular officials representing the two countries comes in the backdrop of the ongoing tri-Nation Malabar Naval Exercise which began on July 10.

In the 21st edition of Naval exercise, as many as 95 air crafts, 16 ships and two submarines from Japan, India and United States are taking part.

After completing the on-shore activities over the last three days, the joint naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal commenced today and would go on till July 17.

The at-sea exercise includes events such as submarine familiarisation, airdefence exercises, medical evacuation drills, surface ware fare exercises, communication exercise and search and rescue operation.

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Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today joined the Army in paying tribute to two soldiers from the state who were killed in Pakistani firing in Keran sector.

Lance Naik Ranjit Singh and Rifleman Satish Bhagat, who were deployed at a forward post in Keran sector in Kupwara, had suffered bullet wounds on Wednesday.

"In a solemn ceremony at Badamibagh Cantonment, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti joined Lt Gen J S Sandhu, Chinar Corps Commander and all ranks, in paying homage to the martyrs on behalf of a proud nation," an army official said.

He said in a show of solidarity, officials from the state government and other security agencies also joined in paying their last respects to the martyrs.

Singh, 32, had joined the Army in 2003 and hailed from village Burn in Jammua dn Kashmir. He is survived by his wife and two children, the official said.

Hailing from Gurhasinghu village in the state, Bhagat was only 22 years old and had donned the uniform in 2015. He is survived by his parents.

"The mortal remains of the martyrs were flown for last rites to their native places, where they would be laid to rest with full military honours," he added.

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US President Donald Trump is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese Noble laureate, the White House has said.

61-year-old Liu, who was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize while in jail and was represented by an empty chair at the ceremony in Oslo, died yesterday due to multiple organ failure following a battle with cancer while still in custody.

"President Donald J Trump was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent Chinese political prisoner Liu Xiaobo," the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

"The President's heartfelt condolences go out to Liu Xiaobo's wife, Liu Xia, and his family and friends.

A poet, scholar, and courageous advocate, Liu Xiaobo dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy and liberty," Spicer said in a statement.

Today the world lost a hero of liberty and freedom, said Senator Ted Cruz, the Republican Senator from Texas.

Liu Xiaobo, a voice for the voiceless and defender of the oppressed in Communist China, passed away. Although the physical cause of his death was cancer, Dr Liu's primary battle was one of the soul, he said.

Ever since leaving the safety and comfort of America to lead the protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989, Liu sealed his fate as a persistent focus of persecution from the authoritarian PRC, Cruz said.

From 'reeducation through labor' and deprivation of property to unjust imprisonment and physical abuse, Liu bore the brunt of the Communist Party's wrath for daring to challenge their immoral system of political oppression in his coauthoring of 'Charter 08', a manifesto of Chinese freedom that reverberates today more than ever, he added.

Senator John McCain said the death of Liu Xiaobo in a Chinese prison represents an egregious violation of the fundamental human rights for which Dr Liu spent his life.

"Unfortunately, and as Dr Liu would have wanted everyone to remember today, this is only the latest example of Communist China's assault on human rights, democracy, and freedom," he said.

A Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was wrongly imprisoned by the Chinese government for nearly a decade, Liu was a champion for human rights throughout his life, McCain said.

From protesting at Tiananmen Square to authoring a human rights manifesto for which he was unjustly jailed, Dr Liu was relentless in his pursuit of a democratic China. As he suffered from late-term liver cancer in prison, the Chinese government's delay in treatment was the last barbaric violation of Dr Liu's human rights, he said.

The of Liu Xiaobo's death today is beyond tragic-for his beloved wife Liu Xia, for his family, and for the millions of supporters of his courageous efforts to champion human rights and democracy in China, said Senator Marco Rubio.

"As we mourn Liu Xiaobo's death and pray for his family, there are urgent matters that require high-level diplomatic attention in the coming days.

"Dr Liu's family must be given his remains and permitted to honor and bury him as they see fit. Liu Xia must immediately be granted an exit visa and permitted to leave China for a country of her choosing," he said.

"There should be an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Dr Liu's death, his treatment in detention, the timing of the diagnosis of his late-stage liver cancer, and countless other questions that need to be answered.

"The Chinese authorities complicit in his unjust imprisonment and death should be immediately sanctioned and their assets frozen under the Global Magnitsky Act," Rubio said.

Congressman Sander Levin said Liu Xiaobo was an inspirations to millions of people around the globe.

"History will remember Liu as a giant who sought to advance the debate on democratic governance, human rights, and rule of law in China, and for the way Chinese authorities mistreated him and other human rights advocates," he said.

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President Donald Trump was "deeply saddened" by the death of prominent Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, the White House said today, describing the Nobel Peace Prize laureate a courageous person who dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy.

Liu, who was China's most prominent human rights and democracy advocate, died yesterday at age 61 from liver cancer. He had been serving an 11-year prison term for "subversion".

61-year-old Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize while in jail.

"President Donald J Trump was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent Chinese political prisoner Liu Xiaobo," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

"The President's heartfelt condolences go out to Liu Xiaobo's wife, Liu Xia, and his family and friends. A poet, scholar, and courageous advocate, Liu Xiaobo dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy and liberty," Spicer said in a statement.

Just a day before Liu's death, the US had called on China to release him from custody so he could see his family and pursue the medical care.

Several American Senators expressed their sorrow over Liu's death.

"Today the world lost a hero of liberty and freedom," said Senator Ted Cruz, the Republican Senator from Texas.

"Ever since leaving the safety and comfort of America to lead the protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989, Liu sealed his fate as a persistent focus of persecution from the authoritarian PRC (People's Republic of China)," Cruz said.

From 'reeducation through labour' and deprivation of property to unjust imprisonment and physical abuse, Liu bore the brunt of the Communist Party's wrath for daring to challenge their immoral system of political oppression, he added.

Senator John McCain said the death of Liu in a Chinese prison represents an egregious violation of the fundamental human rights for which he spent his life.

"Unfortunately, and as Dr Liu would have wanted everyone to remember today, this is only the latest example of Communist China's assault on human rights, democracy, and freedom," he said.

McCain said that the Chinese government's delay in his treatment was the last "barbaric" violation of Liu's human rights.

"The of Liu Xiaobo's death today is beyond tragic- for his beloved wife Liu Xia, for his family, and for the millions of supporters of his courageous efforts to champion human rights and democracy in China," said Senator Marco Rubio.

He said the Chinese government must give Liu's remains to his family and grant his wife an exit visa to leave the country.

"There should be an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Dr Liu's death, his treatment in detention, the timing of the diagnosis of his late-stage liver cancer, and countless other questions that need to be answered, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump today said that he has good a relationship with all G20 leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, as he sought to downplay reports that he was isolated at the last week's summit of the bloc in Germany.

India and 18 other members of the G20 during their summit in the German city of Hamburg last week termed the Paris climate deal as "irreversible" and threw their weight behind the landmark agreement from which Washington has decided to pull out.

Trump responding to questions related to the summit said, "It's a good thing that I have a good relationship with (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping). It's a good thing I have a good relationship with every one of them -- Modi -- you saw that."



He was referring to his instant chemistry with Modi when he visited the White House last month.

"Every single one of them of all 19 -- there's 20 with us. All 19, I have a great relationship with," Trump told reporters on board Air Force One who were travelling with him from Washington DC to Paris.

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The Trump administration wants to give collaboration and cooperation with Russia a chance, and this is the reason why it is considering to return the Russian diplomatic compounds that were seized by the previous Obama government last year, a presidential aide has said.

"Because we, we want to give collaboration, cooperation a chance," Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to Trump told CNN in an interview yesterday.

He was responding to questions about decision of the Trump Administration to return a pair of Russian diplomatic compounds in Maryland and New York that were seized from the Kremlin as retribution for Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

The Obama Administration had taken such a decision, because the compounds were allegedly being used for intelligence-related purposes that might have plausibly connected to the interference campaign by the Russian government.

"The fact is, we may not share the same philosophy, we may not share the same type of statesman view of the world, but the fact is there are some issues of common concern.

"And if we see good faith come out of the Kremlin with regards to things such as a cease-fire, then perhaps there is a chance for what Rex Tillerson wants to see happen, which is an improvement in relations between our two capitals," he said.

The United States, under Trump, he asserted is not looking to create new enemies.

"We're not looking to create new enemies. That's a very dangerous way to look at the world. And the President said, in theory, I would like to have better relations with Russia, because it's is a geopolitical, geostrategic nation," Gorka said in response to a question.

Trump, he said is a pragmatist.

"He's the most successful real estate magnate in New York. He looks at the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. That was the last eight years of disastrous, ideologically- tinged lack of statesmanship out of the White House," he said.

"We look at Russia as a country that we don't have perfect relations with, we don't even have better relations with than other nations, but perhaps they could improve.

"Do we wish to escalate matters with Russia? I don't think that's a good idea," Gorka told CNN.

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Uttar Pradesh Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Sahi today appreciated the important role being played by Nabard in the state in enhancing the credit flow for agriculture and allied sectors as well as other developmental initiatives.

On the occasion of Nabard's Foundation Day, Shahi lauded the initiatives taken for supporting the Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) movement in the state and expressed the state government's resolve to work in tandem with Nabard for taking benefits under long-term irrigation fund for major irrigation projects in the state.

It is likely to benefit farmers in 18.5 lakh hectares of land by assuring availability of irrigation facilities, a Nabard press release said.

The minister also praised the efforts of Nabard in helping communities in getting Geographical Indicator registration for eight traditional handicrafts of Uttar Pradesh.

Nabard chief general manager A K Panda highlighted the major achievements as well as pioneering initiatives of Nabard, which, he said has touched millions of lives in the state.

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A bipartisan group of five top Senators have introduced a legislation which if passed, would ban any entity that does business with North Korea or its enablers, from using the US financial system.

It, among other things, would impose US sanctions on all those participating in North Korean labour trafficking abuses.

The bill if passed by the Congress and signed into law by the US president, would severely impact Chinese businesses.

North Korea, one of the world's worst human rights abusers, is continuing to expand its nuclear and ballistic missile threats against the American homeland and our allies, said Senator Marco Rubio.

"It's high time for the United States to maximise international economic pressure against Kim Jong-Un's regime as well as against the many foreign banks and foreign companies that are enabling it, especially in China," said Rubio, who led in introducing the legislation.

With its latest successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, North Korea has demonstrated intent and capability to hit the US homeland - and as President Trump said, we must never allow this to happen," said Senator Cory Gardner, chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity.

The legislation gives those that currently conduct trade with North Korea a clear choice - either do business with this heinous outlaw regime or do business with the world's leading economic and military power, he said.

Asserting that there is no military solution to the threat of a nuclear North Korea, Senator Edward Markey, ranking member of the Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity, said one must utilise direct negotiations with Pyongyang alongside increased economic sanctions pressure from China to bring the Kim regime to the table and ultimately rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons.

"These negotiations could offer the prospect of engaging North Korea in line with international norms by ending horrific human rights abuses, including labour trafficking," he said.

Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said the bill is a bipartisan effort that represents additional measures required to get the North Korea policy right.

"We seek to impose real consequences for those entities who, even after Kim Jong-Un's defiance and continued flagrant violations of international law, continue to do business and support his vicious regime," he said.

"North Korea must be held accountable for its dangerous and destabilising actions," said Senator Robert Portman.

"Whether it's the regime's illegal nuclear weapons program, its provocative ballisticmissile tests, its human rights abuses against its own people, or its outrageous and unacceptable detention of Americans, it is time to impose meaningful costs on the North Korean government," he said.

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Senior BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha today said whether Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav should resign or not in the wake of CBI FIR is an "internal" matter of the Grand Alliance and hoped that they would sort it out at the earliest in the interest of Bihar.

He, however, said there had many example where a person is continuing in the ministry despite being charge sheeted or their case being at different stage in a court.

"There are many persons cutting across party lines who are continuing as minister despite being charge sheeted or their case being at different stage in a court," Sinha told PTI on arrival at Patna airport.

RJD has been citing example of Union minister Uma Bharti among other charge sheeted in Babri mosque demolition case and continuing in the ministry.

He, however, did not name such ministers and also desisted from naming Tejaswi Yadav.

Asked about face off between Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad over the issue which is threatening to rock the Grand Alliance, Sinha who has friendship with both the leaders said "friendship is personal but in this case (Tejaswi Yadav) I am neither supporting demand for his resignation nor opposing it."



Sinha popularly known as "Bihari Babu" made it clear that "I am not an expert on such political issue and its for them (Nitish and Lalu) to sort out this subject."



"They are matured people and would sort out the issue themselves," he said.

Sinha, BJP BJP MP from Patna Saheb seat, said "I hope and pray that Bihar does not go for a mid-term poll.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court today told the government that it would proceed against beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya, who has been held guilty of contempt, only when he is produced before it.

A bench comprising Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit considered the submissions of Attorney General K K Venugopal that proceedings to extradite Mallya were going on in London and the Centre was taking steps to secure his presence before the apex court.

When Venugopal referred to the status report filed by the government, the bench observed, "we cannot analyse it in his (Mallya) absence. You have to produce him before us. When you will produce him here, we will then proceed".

"As and when you will produce him before us, we will go ahead and will see what is to be done," the bench told the Attorney General.

"The contemnor has failed to appear. The Government of India has taken steps to secure his presence. The extradition proceedings are going on. Let all steps be taken. Matter be put up before us on his (Mallya) production before this court," the bench noted in its order.

The apex court had on May 9 held Mallya, who is in the United Kingdom, guilty of contempt on a plea by the consortium of lender banks led by the State Bank of India for his failure to furnish details of all his Indian and offshore assets.

It had directed Mallya to appear before it on July 10 to argue on the quantum of punishment but he had failed to do so.

The offence of contempt of court entails a maximum imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of upto Rs 2,000 or both.

India had recently asked Britain to ensure early extradition of Mallya, an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The top court's order had come on a plea by the consortium of banks, which had said that Mallya had allegedly transferred USD 40 million received from British firm Diageo to his children in "flagrant violation" of various judicial orders.

The bench had reserved its order on two pleas of the lending banks seeking contempt action and a direction to Mallya to deposit USD 40 million received from offshore firm Diageo respectively.

The banks have alleged that Mallya had concealed facts and diverted the money to his son Siddharth Mallya and daughters Leanna Mallya and Tanya Mallya in "flagrant violation" of the orders passed by the Karnataka High Court.

The bench had also pulled up Mallya for not giving details of the USD 40 million which he had allegedly received from Diageo in February last year, saying it was of the "prima facie view" that proper disclosure as per its earlier order was not made.

The banks had on August 29 last year told the apex court that Mallya had deliberately not made full disclosure of his assets including the USD 40 million he received on February 25 from Diageo.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Adani Enterprises' $4 billion Carmichael coal mine in Australia's north is one of five projects that have been shortlisted for potential government funding, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday.

Adani's proposed Carmichael mine in Queensland state has faced years of delays amid opposition from environment groups who argue it will contribute to global warming and damage the Great Barrier Reef, leading some banks to rule out any role in funding.

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), a federal agency, said on Friday that it has selected five projects out of 124 loan applications for due diligence. It did not name the projects and declined to provide further detail.

However, a source with direct knowledge of the matter, who was not authorised to speak publicly, told that Carmichael was one of those five.

An Adani spokesman in India did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Adani is hoping to receive a concessional loan of around A$900 million ($700 million) from NAIF to help build a 380 km (236 mile) rail link into its controversial Carmichael project located in the remote Galilee Basin.

The 247,000 square-km (95,000 square mile) expanse in the central outback is touted as having the potential to become Australia's largest coal-producing region.

Adani, a business group with interests in power and ports, has said the project would not threaten the reef.

Of the $4 billion required for the first phase, Adani will have to raise about $2.5 billion in debt, the company said in March, adding it had already invested $3.3 billion in the project.

Slides from a presentation made by NAIF chief executive Laurie Walker in Brisbane on Thursday show due diligence is the penultimate stage of the body assessing a loan proposal.

Sydney-listed Genex Power Ltd said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange on Thursday that its solar and pumped hydro project in North Queensland was also in the due diligence phase.

NAIF said the five projects in due diligence were among 50 loan applications that remain under active consideration from the total 124.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Arnab Paul and Sankalp Phartiyal

BENGALURU/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Infosys Ltd, India's No. 2 software services exporter, eked out a slight rise in first-quarter profit, although the outlook for more earnings gains remains cloudy due to higher labour costs and unfavorable currency rates.

India's more than $150 billion software services sector faces headwinds in its biggest market, the United States, as clients hold back technology spending amid concerns about President Donald Trump's review of a visa programme for highly-skilled workers.

Net profit rose 1.4 percent to 34.8 billion rupees ($540 million) in the April-June quarter from a year earlier, just a tad above expectations.

Infosys retained its annual revenue outlook at between 6.5 percent and 8.5 percent growth on a constant currency basis.

But Mumbai brokerage Emkay said in a client note that the company's failure to lift its revenue guidance indicated first-quarter pricing gains were not sustainable and profitability could see a "downtick" in the coming quarter on lower growth, wage hikes and rupee appreciation.

After Trump targeted outsourcing firms, Infosys said in May it plans to hire 10,000 U.S. workers in the next two years - a move that will likely lead to higher labour costs. It is also due to give annual salary increases to employees this month.

"We'll be announcing the compensation hikes and we are also ramping up the U.S. talent model," Finance Chief M.D. Ranganath told reporters.

The rupee has also risen 5.4 percent against the U.S. dollar this year, adding to the woes of outsourcers who bill for the majority of their services in foreign currencies.

But Infosys fared better than bigger rival Tata Consultancy Services which missed analysts' expectations on Thursday with a 6 percent drop in first-quarter profit.

Shares in Infosys, valued at about $35 billion, ended 0.5 percent lower.

Infosys has had a rocky year with some founders and former executives of the company publicly accusing its board of governance lapses and urging it to reward shareholders through a share buyback.

The company plans to return about $2 billion to shareholders this financial year, but has yet to detail the manner of the payout. At end-June, Infosys had a record $6.1 billion cash balance, Ranganath said.

IT outsourcing firms are also facing pressure as traditional businesses such as routine infrastructure maintenance are seeing their margins squeezed as clients demand more work for less money, pushing the sector to develop cloud, data analytics and cyber security services.

Infosys lost one client in its $100 million category during the quarter from the previous quarter, but total active clients rose by a net of 2 to 1,164.

($1 = 64.4550 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Arnab Paul and Sankalp Phartiyal; Additional reporting by Swati Bhat; Writing by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Stephen Coates and Edwina Gibbs)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India's top IT services company Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) is moving to capitalise on growth opportunities in areas such as life sciences and manufacturing, Chief Executive Rajesh Gopinathan said on Friday.

With IT spending in the core banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) segment subdued in the United States - the largest market for India's more than $150 billion software services sector - are looking at different sectors and a wider range of service offerings to drive revenue growth.

Gopinathan said in an interview with Reuters that technology was playing a growing role in not just the manufacturing process itself, but also in products, allowing such as TCS to target non-traditional sectors more than they did in the past.

"When we look at manufacturing, the extent of smart features that go into not just the manufacturing process, but the product itself are steadily increasing," he said.

From smart refrigerators to connected cars, technology now plays a far bigger role in products, with the proliferation of the Internet of Things and embedded tracking devices helping manage logistics and inventory.

TCS posted slightly weaker-than-expected quarterly results late on Thursday, but it reported over 10 percent year-over-year revenue growth from clients in the manufacturing, life sciences and energy sectors.

The three combined currently account for less than 20 percent of TCS's revenue and the BFSI segment accounts for a third.

Gopinathan also said that while TCS would have traditionally focused on servicing the sales and administration functions of such clients, it was now working with those companies even on the final products they market.

"We have a situation where we are under-penetrated in such sectors. On top of that the addressable space in these sectors is rapidly expanding," said Gopinathan. "That's a growth driver and an unfolding opportunity."

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Company Law Tribunal's has reinstated Vikram Bakshi as the CEO of Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt Ltd--the franchise arm of burger major McDonalds in the North and East of the country. It's another twist in the battle between Bakshi and the US firm.

For the uninitiated and for those who have not followed the fight closely enough here is a recap.

Bakshi and McDonalds have been at loggerheads for close to four years now. In August 2013 Bakshi was unceremoniously ousted as the managing director of CPRL--the 22 year old joint venture company where he owns 50 per cent equity. Bakshi swiftly dragged McDonald's to the Company Law Board (CLB) seeking his re-instatement.

After the first few round of hearings, CLB ordered a status quo at CPRL on equity (50:50) negating any possibility of a change in shareholding or of either partners taking full hold of the company by a call option (where a partner bids for the other's equity). While that was seen as a victory for Bakshi, McDonald's unilaterally terminated its 1995 joint venture agreement and sought arbitration in the London Court of International Arbitration.

Bakshi's subsequent appeals to the CLB and Supreme Court for a stay in the arbitration proceedings have all been rejected.

As he resumes his position at the head of the table at CPRL on Friday after four years, it does feel like Bakshi has got a slight upper hand in this long drawn out battle. Prima facie, it seems McDonald's has more to lose.

Over the years, CPRL performance has borne the brunt of the cold war between its two partners. Expansion plans have stalled, attrition is at a high, quality control has gone for a toss and profitability has nosedived. Between 2009 and 2013, the company registered cash profit of Rs 110 crore. In 2014/15 it had a cash loss of Rs 41 crore.

After 27 outlets in 2012, CPRL opened only 14 in 2013 against the target of 35, 9 in 2014 and 3 in 2015. Last year, it opened just one outlet. The score for this year is zero. Instead, only last week CPRL decided to shut down 43 of its 55 outlets in Delhi-NCR.

Bakshi has little to lose if CPRL continues to flounder. It is very evident that he does not wish to be a part of the venture anymore but wants a fair valuation of the stake he owns. Infact, the disagreement over how much his stake would be valued at is one of the more intangible facets of this battle.

In early 2014, Bakshi had offered to buy McDonald's stake in the JV at net asset value of Rs 150 crore. Shrugging the offer aside, the US firm countered with a Rs 48-50 crore offer for Bakshi's stake. The latter in turn insisted on a fair market value and offered to sell his stake initially for Rs 2500 crore and later Rs 1800 crore. These did not elicit a response from McDonald's and subsequently the round of bids and counter-bids also petered out.

The dwindling fortunes of CPRL also undermines the fair valuation of Bakshi's stake in the company. When a company is profitable and growing, equity is valued higher than when it is loss making and shrinking.

But it would appear, Bakshi doesn't care less after the acrimony between the two parties. In the balance, the loss of reputation of McDonald's in India at a time when competitors like Dominos, KFC and Burger King are ultra aggressive seems like a bigger and possibly irreversible damage.




If you have travelled in any form of public transport - metro, local buses, trains - which is crowded, chances are high you may have a complain about fellow travelers that you seriously wish they'd do something about. Yes, body odour.

How many times have you struggled on hot tropical days to stay away from the smell while returning from office, working out at the gym, waiting in queues. It's the kind of small but irksome problem that almost everyone faces. And, it's not just something specific to our country.

In fact, in Japan, you'd be surprised to know, a solution has been put forward, and it comes from the techies.

There's now an app that does something close to a miracle. It tells you if your body is smelling due to perspiration. The app comes with a pocket-sized detector, called Kunkun body, that can be connected to your smartphone via Bluetooth. The app allows people to self test their body for any smell. User can test the app on four areas on the body that are most susceptible - close to the head, behind the ear, armpit and feet.

Daisuke Koda, the lead incubator at Konica Minolta, told British publication The Guardian that body smell is the number one etiquette concern in the workplace. Additionally, no one is able to speak out about this issue, he added.

"We looked for a device to measure body smell, only to find that there was no device at all to tell the different types of smells," Koda told the Guardian.

The device was showcased at a launch event in Tokyo recently. The price of the product is USD 265, which is about Rs 17,000 in Indian currency. But unfortunately for potential customers in India, the company presently has no plans to launch the product outside Japan.




India's trade deficit narrowed more-than-expected to USD 12.96 billion in June as gold imports nearly halved from a month earlier, government data showed on Friday.

Economists in a Reuters poll had predicted that trade deficit would decline to USD 12.5 billion in June compared with a provisional USD 13.84 billion in the previous month.

Gold imports declined to USD 2.45 billion from almost USD 5 billion a month ago.

Merchandise exports for June came in at USD 23.56 billion, up 4.39 percent from a year ago. Goods imports for the month were USD 36.52 billion, up 19.01 percent from a year ago, data from the commerce and industry ministry showed.




Each year, scores of Indians who live abroad for more than 182 days escape the tax net by declaring themselves as 'non-resident'.

According to a report in The Economic Times, income-tax authorities have added a new provision in the tax return form (ITR2) which will require all non-residents to disclose details of their bank accounts outside India.

Earlier, non-resident Indians (NRIs) were allowed to claim funds lying in foreign bank accounts as lawful income earned abroad.

A lot of NRIs file tax return in India to pay tax on the income earned from stocks, rental income, real estate transactions, bank deposits and bonds.

However, NRIs will have to share the account numbers of their overseas bank accounts, name of the banks, countries where the bank offices are located as well as the Swift codes and International Bank Account Numbers (IBAN) with the tax office in India, the report said.

A SWIFT code is an international bank code that identifies particular banks worldwide. It's also known as a Bank Identifier Code (BIC). Banks use SWIFT codes to send money to overseas banks.

The move comes at a time when money parked by Indians in Swiss banks nearly halved to 676 Swiss francs (about Rs 4,500 crore) in 2016 to hit a record low amid a continuing clampdown on the suspected black money stashed behind their famed secrecy walls.


A union of Air India employees will hold a protest on July 18 against the disinvestment of the national carrier.

The grouping comprising nearly 8,000 of the total 21,137 employees of Air India held a general body meeting last week to deliberate on its strategy to oppose privatisation of the debt-laden carrier.

The union will hold a protest on July 18 near Terminal 2 at Indira Gandhi International Airport, according to a press statement issued by Air Corporations Employees' Union (ACEU), which represents Air India's non-technical staff.

Seven unions of Air India had last month joined hands to oppose the Centre's decision to disinvest the carrier and had written to Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapthi Raju, warning him of an "industrial unrest".

The Union Cabinet had last month given its in-principle nod for consideration of disinvestment of Air India.

'Alternative Mechanism' or a group of ministers under the aegis of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is entrusted with working on the modalities of Air India's stake sale.
Country's largest lender State Bank of India plans to raise up to $750 million (Rs 4835 crore) from international lenders to boost lending activities at its branches located outside India.



The bank is likely to opt for five-year loans, which could be priced at 100-125 basis points (bps) above the six-month London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), three sources told The Economic Times.

Also read: SBI cuts deposit rates; PPF to fetch lower interest rate. What should you do?



Currently, the six-month LIBOR stands around 1.46%.

The state-owned bank is rated investment grade in the overseas market, equivalent to the Indian economy's sovereign rating.

The ET report said about 10 bankers are engaged in processing the loan formalities.

An SBI spokesperson said in an email that the lender regularly raises foreign currency funds in order to support the balance sheet growth of its foreign offices.

Also read: State Bank of India slashes charges for transferring funds by up to 75% to lift digital economy



Loans at the bank's foreign offices (excluding Foreign Currency Non-Resident Bank credit) rose 12.60% year-on-year to about Rs 2.80 lakh crore in 2016-17.

The bank has about 50 foreign offices in 34 countries. The offices focus on India-related business.

In June 2017, the bank launched the country's largest qualified institutional placement (QIP) at a floor price of Rs 287.58 per equity share. The bank raised Rs 15,000 crore from domestic and foreign institutional investors

SBI aims to raise $1.5 billion capital in FY18.


Private sector YES Bank has received another round of $150 million funding from US government and Wells Fargo to fund SME lending.

This is the third round of funding as part of arrangement between the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) --US government development finance institution -- and Wells Fargo, with the objective to increase lending to small and medium enterprises in India.

OPIC will provide $75 million in financing to YES Bank and up to $75 million as a syndicated financing from Wells Fargo Bank, a part of financial services provider Wells Fargo and Company.

This is the third transaction between OPIC and YES Bank and comes close on the heels of last year's $265 million OPIC facility, which the bank will use to extend SME financing in India, YES Bank said in regulatory filing.

"Specifically, $50 million of the financing would be used to expand support to women-owned businesses, while another $50 million will be used for financing small and medium enterprises (SME) in low income states," it said.

SMEs contribute about 45 per cent of industrial output and employ 42 million people in the country. It is estimated that 3 million women owned businesses in India employ over 8 million people.

However, only about a quarter of them are able to get the finance they need to grow and create jobs, YES Bank said. "OPIC's facility will help YES Bank expand its SME lending capacity, specifically enabling them to reach both women and entrepreneurs in low income states who have much to contribute to India's economic growth," Dev Jagadesan, OPIC Acting President and CEO said.


Harry Caines contributes a weekly column to CacheValleyDaily.com. Harry is a resident of Logan and an alumnus of Utah State University. He can be reached via email at hacaines@gmail.com. His column is a work of opinion, and does not reflect the views of Cache Valley Daily, the Cache Valley Media Group, or its employees.

There are no famous historic quotes as the lede for this thesis; no metaphorical analogy to past events as a segue to my point; no personal anecdote to tie my biography into what you will read below. Here it is, bold, brash and as honest as I can be:

If you still support President Donald J. Trump and his family of shameless grifters, you are an enemy of the United States of America.

You willfully ignore proof that this maniacal, mentally unhinged narcissist is using his office in collusion with a foreign adversary to further his and his familys avaricious pursuits. You are making a conscious choice to support a man who capitulates to Russia, a country that hasbeyond a reasonable doubtset forth to usurp the American democratic process. You attempt, through the avenue of social networking, to justify your flagrantly un-American stance by making moral equivalency arguments with Hillary Clinton, a woman who has never admitted to, nor can be reasonably accused of ever accepting the help of a foreign adversary to further any cause.

Some of you Trumpkins might try to argue against that salient, unshakeable fact. Trumpkin is a portmanteau of Trump and bumpkin. I use that word to describe his supportersbecause bumpkins are inferior people.

Trumpkins might point to a widely held right-wing conspiracy theory that when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State under Barack Obama that she financially benefitted from. This story originated in a widely discredited book entitled Clinton Cash. After years of investigations by many news outlets, no crime, collusion or financial benefit has been found. Not one thing.

Trump? Oh, we have things that we have found out about this sociopathic charlatan. Since last year we have a burgeoning bundle of evidence that the Orange Lunatic is subservient and submissive to Vladimir Putins oozing masculinity. Trump is Jack Twist to Vlads Ennis Del Mar.

For Trumpkins confused right now, thats a Brokeback Mountain reference.

Yes, Trump and his merry band of bumbling minions were in full collaboration with Russia. The same Russia that illegally invaded the Crimean Peninsula, poisoned and murdered political opponents, rescinded rights granted to the Russian people after the fall of the Soviet Union, sustained the genocidal murderer currently holding on to power in Syria and set out hackers to create chaos in cyberspace as a means to manipulate free and fair elections in many countriesmost notably, the United States.

It happened. It was happening for a long time. And with multiple investigations going on, we will have much proof of this treasonist behavior rolling out for the months to come. For now, we will just have to make due with this weeks story about the most crooked and pathetic presidency in American history.

Donald Trump, Jr., one of Lord Tiny Hands two adult sons, wantonly allowed himself to be courted by a Russian lawyer with strong connections to Putin. The reason for this proposed meeting was that these Russian intermediaries wished to pass along damaging information about Hillary Clinton to help the Trumps secure the 2016 Presidential Election. The younger Trump, whom I refer to as Little Trumpy, released the email correspondence minutes before the New York Times was slated to do that deed for him.

The emails between Little Trumpy and the Russian agents eventually led to his meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower. At the time this meeting took place, Big Don was one floor down in his main office. Also in this meeting were Paul Manafort, who was Trumps campaign manager at the time, and Jared Kushner, Little Trumpys brother-in-law.

Manafort has a lifetime resume of working with the Russians. Currently, he is registered with the United States Justice Department as a foreign agent. And Kushner? He has sex with Trumps daughter Ivankawhich gives him the credentials to fix the Middle East problem and have top security clearance.

This is not a John le Carre novel. This is the world we all currently inhabit. And all Trumpkins can do is claim that no law was brokena claim that may not be truthful as more facts are exposed.

Is that all that matters? Little Trumpy, et al met with a shady group of Russians who were actively attempting to subvert an American election and the indignation is not overwhelming against this openly treasonist activity?

I really think Trumpkins have been fed so many lies when reading Inforwars and Brietbart that they are no more attuned with facts than a North Korean who is immersed in the belief that their omnipotent potentate is a deity.

I might have figured out why Trumpkins steadfastly defend this horrific regime. An Islamic terrorist believes they will receive 72 virgins in Paradise as payment for blowing up innocent people. Perhaps the plethora of middle-age White men that defend these blatant acts espionage think that when they die they will get <a href=http://www.thedailybeast.com/nasa-denies-that-its-running-a-child-slave-colony-on-mars target=_blank>72 of the sex slaves NASA is fostering on its Mars colony.</a>

Face reality, Trump supporters. What you voted for gained you nothing.

Great Father Donald, his daughter that he speaks about in sexual terms, his sleazy son-in-law and Little Trumpy are only in this for the money and the power. They ran an election that played on the worst inclinations and biases of undereducated, bigoted, angry people. Not one Trump would ever sit down in a bar with you. They used the red siren code words necessary to stoke your prejudices. And you bit down on ithard. You were the stooges that needed to be motivated by racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and anti-intellectualism. Once you answered Trumps clarion call, you followed this Cult of Personality all the way towards capitulation towards a country that have been Americas political rivals for a century.

You got duped.

And when future scribes right about this awful time in the history of the world, you will be considered nothing better than a less-interesting, sloven version of Vichy France.
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Zhang Dejiang (L), chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), meets with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in Lisbon, Portugal, July 12, 2017. Zhang paid an official friendly visit to Portugal from Monday to Wednesday. [Photo/Xinhua]

LISBON - Relations between China and Portugal are experiencing an unprecedented high as evidenced by strong bilateral cooperation across various fields in recent years, Zhang Dejiang, China's top legislator, has said.

Zhang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), paid an official friendly visit to Portugal from Monday to Wednesday and met with Portuguese leaders on bilateral ties.

During a meeting with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, he said China and Portugal are good friends and partners which understand, respect, trust and support each other.

Zhang also said he hoped that the two countries could enhance political mutual trust and strategic coordination while accommodating each other's core interests and major concerns.

China attaches great importance to the development of China-European Union (EU) relations, hoping that Portugal, as a major EU member, could continue to play a constructive role in promoting China-EU relations, Zhang added.

The Portuguese president, for his part, said Portugal is willing to work together with China to seize the opportunity and deepen their cooperation.

The president also said Portugal is ready to follow through on the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and implement major bilateral projects in a bid to push the Portugal-China comprehensive strategic partnership to a higher level.

China and Portugal have pledged to deepen cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, which refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Proposed by China in 2013, the initiative aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes.

Mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Portugal has great potential for the initiative, said Zhang while meeting here with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

He noted that Portugal, with its advantageous geographic location, is a strategic partner in the development of the Belt and Road.

Zhang also expressed the hope that Portugal and China could further cooperation under the initiative in order to achieve win-win results.
Lebialem: Partial destruction of Mendji Grand Stand W. Musa

There was massive boycott of the installation ceremony of the newly appointed Senior Divisional Officer for Lebialem division by the entire population who observed a special ghost town Thursday July 13, 2017.

Before the installation of Ungitoh Zachary by South west governor, tracks had been circulating calling for massive boycott, this sent every individual indoor until after the ceremony.

In the morning of Thursday, the people work up to discover that the Grand Stand ear marked for the event had been partially destroyed.

Security forces disclosed the perpetrators used an artisanal bomb to explode the tribune.

This further caused panic among the population who preferred to remain in door.

The governor of the south west region, Bernard Okalia Bilai who came for the exercise said the boycott cannot stop them from executing presidential orders.

While installing the new administrator in front of an almost empty tribune with only one traditional dance group from the North West, Bernard Okalia Bilai urged him to take the issue of insecurity as priority in his road map.

He was installed after that of Manyu, Oum II Augustine who replaced Peter Tie Ndeh.

The governor will later on Friday install the new SDO of Kupe Muanenguba and that of Fako will be next week.

Newly appointed SDOs in the North West include:

Tegni Fidele-Boyo division

Mo Emile Simon-Bui division

Nkwenti Simon Doh-Donga Mantung division

Kamga Charles-Menchum division

Emvoutou Benoit-Ngoketundjia division

New SDOs South West include:

Engama Emmanuel Ledoux- Fako division

Keyantio Augustine-Kupe Muanenguba

Ugitoh Zachary Cheitoh-Lebialem division

Oum II Joseph-Manyu division

Peter Tieh Nde formerly in Manyu division has been transferred in same capacity as SDO of Nyong and Nkelle division in the Centre region.

Handerson Quetong Konge formerly in Kupe Muanenguba has been sent to the Ntem Valley in the South region.

Clement Fon Ndikum has been replaced by Nwafua Lawrence as Secretary General at South West Governors Office, the former goes on retirement.
| BY Ricki Green |

CB Exclusive  DDB Sydney has announced the appointment of Tara Ford (right) as executive creative director.

Ford joins DDB Sydney in this newly created role off the back of amazing growth for the agency, including consolidating McDonalds and winning the Virgin Australia account.

Over the past four years Ford has won a total of 16 Cannes Lions, including a Grand Prix and 11 shortlists across five different campaigns.

Ben Welsh (pictured above left), DDB chief creative officer, said hes thrilled to be working with Ford, who joins from TBWA Melbourne: Ive always wanted to hire Tara and Im really looking forward to her adding firepower to our already very talented team.

Ford has worked in some of the worlds best agencies and networks, creating industry- leading work for brands including Nike, ANZ, PlayStation, Medibank and Nissan.

Her award winning work includes the GAYTM campaign for ANZ Bank, which was named the Best Direct campaign in the World for 2014 by the Big Won and #1 Best of Prin/Outdoor/Design for 2014 by Creativity Online. Overall, she has won more than 200 awards over her career, both for creativity and effectiveness.

Says Welsh: Tara is a fantastic fit for DDBs culture. Our focus is on creating a talented and diverse culture, because we know thats what leads to brilliant creative.

Beyond the work, Ford is a mentor to young creative talent through Cannes See it Be it and Young Lions program, Miami AdSchool and AWARD School. She was Australias representative at this years Cannes Lions on the Promo and Activation jury, and has judged and chaired various award shows including New York Festivals, AWARD Award (Aus), Adfest (Asia), AADC (Aus), Creative Circle (UK) and the Roses Awards (UK).

Says Ford: It has been a wonderful five and a half years at TBWA but Im ready for a new challenge.

I feel incredibly excited and energised to be joining DDB Sydney. Its a phenomenal agency with both amazing clients and talented people, I cant wait to get stuck in.
| BY Ricki Green |

Sydney content marketing agencies Mahlab and Storyation have been recognised internationally at the Content Marketing Institutes 2017 Content Marketing Awards.

Mahlabs Direct Advice for Dads (DAD) project for HBF  a website featuring content created by dads, for dads  has won four key categories at the prestigious awards.

The Content Marketing Awards program is the largest and longest-running international content marketing awards program. Mahlab is a previous CMA winner.

This year, Mahlab and HBF won the Agency/Client Content Marketing Partnership award for DAD as well as winning the awards for:

 Best Overall Editorial  Digital

 Content Marketing Launch of the Year

 Best Content-Driven Website

DAD is also up for the Project of the Year Award, with the winner to be announced at Content Marketing World in Cleveland, Ohio in September.

Mahlab created the digital hub Direct Advice for Dads for HBF. Launched on Fathers Day 2016, the website aims to provide practical information and help for the other parent. Since September, the project has developed a 42,000-strong Facebook audience and site visitation of more than 667,800 sessions. Dads from all around Australia are joining conversations with other dads about approaches to take and what works for them as expecting and new parents.

Says Bobbi Mahlab, managing director, Mahlab: From the start, we were excited and inspired by the DAD project. Its a great example of the purest form of content marketing, creating an audience for HBF with exceptional engagement results. Were so thrilled to see it recognised internationally.

Spotting a gap in the market, HBF set its mission to become the number one resource for new and expecting dads in Australia, HBFs media and communications manager, Andrew Walton said. The overwhelming success of this project to date can be largely attributed to the unique partnership between the Media and Communications team at HBF, and our content marketing agency partner, Mahlab.

Sydney content agency Storyation won an award for the Best Use of Native Advertising in the 2017 Content Marketing Awards.

The award was for work for Tourism New Zealand that targeted the top 10% of the worlds wealthy via a native advertising campaign run on the Robb Report in the US.

Storyation created a multi-media content solution using a group of high-profile US food and wine influencers including Masterchef judge Christina Tosi, and the co-owner of the worlds number one restaurant Eleven Madison Park, Will Guidara.

Storyation was also a finalist in two other major categories in the global awards including Best Content Driven Website for Australia.com and Best New Magazine for Voyage produced by Storyation for travel company APT.
| BY Lynchy |

By Jordan Alexander Davies

Im not super prone to taking a stance, and my intention is not to push an opinion. Im simply looking to guage the temperature on a hypothetical situation Ive been mulling over the last couple days.

There was an article in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday. The headline read: Fat Chance of Being Healthy: Young Aussies only have themselves to blame. It was followed by an infographic featuring a bunch of statistics, which presumedly were intended to reinforce the headline. Heres a sample:

37% of 16- to 24-year olds consume alcohol at levels posing a lifetime risk to health.

11% of 12- to 17-year-olds used illict drugs in the past 12 months.

37% of males and 21% of females aged 16 to 24 are overweight or obese.

16.8% of secondary school students in Australia are attracted to people of the same sex as them or both sexes.

So here, in 2017, we have a publication that  for all intents and purposes  is suggesting same sex attraction and bisexuality is an unhealthy lifestyle choice that negatively affects the health of our youth. A suggestion that Im really not stoked about because I personally do not believe that a boy liking another boy (or any of the other non-heterosexual combinations) is A) a choice, and B) going to give him a fat chance of being healthy.

Pretty irritated about the article and the publication in general, I began to wonder what I would do if I rolled into the office and my ECD said, mate, weve got a new client  youre going to be working on The Daily Telegraph?

Which brings me to my hypothetical situation, and a question for the greater advertising community: could I refuse to work on a client for moral reasons?

Let me establish the parametres of this question: I believe everyones entitled to their opinion. This isnt about refusing to work with/for someone just because their opinion is different to mine. This is about working for a company that is actively and publicly pushing an agenda which I have a massive moral objection to. Not totally dissimilar to Dons contention with Lucky Strike.

With that in mind, I ask again: is it a reasonable request for a creative to ask that they not work on a client they have such a strong objection to?

Ignore the other obvious question of, should I refuse to work on this client? That lends itself to a whole spectrum of variables, which doesnt quite benefit this discussion.

What if I put it to you this way: would it be okay for a homophobic art director to refuse to work on a newspaper which actively and publicly celebrated same-sex relationships?

Note, I said homophobic and not Christian because theres a difference between a moral opposition, and a religious one.

Like I mentioned earlier, Im not hugely prone to taking a stance. Ive worked on heaps of clients that have challenged my morality. I guess the reason I feel differently about this is because it feels like theres a difference between selling a product like a car or credit card, and growing the circulation of a newspaper which spreads an opinion to which I am vehemently opposed.

Or, does that distinction actually destroy the foundation of this argument?

Perhaps the bigger question is, where would you draw the line at working for a client in terms of challenging your morality? And a step further, where do we end personally, and begin professionally?
The party is alive with rumours of a challenge, and factions are organising ahead of the possibility of a third seat up for grabs in Canberra. Members of the right believe the left want Ms Brodtmann's seat in the south, and are keen to open up the number of pre-selectors to break the power the right has in the southern suburbs.
Ms Zankin said other concerns raised on her visit included, that Ms Cox had "disclosed masturbating a disabled child to 'get her to sleep'", that 75 per cent of children in care in Cambodia had parents, that tourists are encouraged to visit orphanages which put children at risk of physical and psychological harm, and that Sunrise Cambodia had "advertised in such a way that degraded children" in contravention of codes issues by the Australia regulator.
"We also want to help support and advertise our local eateries and stores and most of all to come together to grow, to make change and to to give those creators who have trouble putting themselves out there a leg up. We will also be supporting the community as a whole with the proceeds from stallholder fees going to a local charity."
"The only thing that I've got to say is my focus right now is on democratic reform of the NSW division of the Liberal Party," he said.
The problem sparked staunch criticism in court from Ms Walker, who described the case as "a mess" and said the company was at a "significant disadvantage" after it took more than two years to come to trial.
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.
World Pharmacists Day is celebrated on September 25 every year. This day was first incorporated by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Council in Istanbul in 2009. The day was established to encourage and promote the profession pharmacists.

The pharmaceutical sector in India is one of the largest providers of generic drugs globally. When the country is enjoying a top position in the global pharmaceuticals sector, pursuing a career in this industry surely makes a lucrative career opportunity. Every year more than two lakh candidates pass out with a graduation degree in pharmacy sector only to bag a good job in this sector. If you are aiming to become a pharmacist, the below information will surely help you.

Career In Pharmacovigilance: Scope & Job Opportunities

What Pharmacist Do?

Being an integral part of the medical industry, Pharmacists are healthcare professionals who practice in pharmacy, which is the field of health sciences centering safe and effective medication use and provide prescription medications to patients as advised by a physician or specialist in the medical industry.

The Scope Of Pharmacist?

Pharmacists act under health care team which is mainly focused on patient care and hence sometimes he/she guide patients about taking medicines without any adverse effects and which in turn teaches patients about their well-being. Also, they can recommend Physicians when it comes to the matter of proper dosage requirements, synergies involved, and side effects of medications before they are direct it to a patient in any manner.

In India, there are a number of pharmacy degree programs which can help to aid the students, the dream of becoming one; and completing the course like Diploma in Pharmacy (DPharm), B Pharm, MPharm, MS(Pharm) and MTech (Pharm), doctor of pharmacy (PharmD), and doctor of philosophy in pharmacy (Ph.D.) one can make sure they are eligible to fill the different position and the study subjects majorly include actions of drugs, drug uses, therapeutic roles, side effects, potential drug interactions, understanding of the biochemical mechanisms, monitoring parameters and such.

The Role Of The Pharmacist In The Healthcare System?

But also, according to the states, additional training may be required throughout the career to keep the license as the medical industry is dynamic and one needs to learn how to adapt to it regularly as the new model arrives.

According to the qualification, one can get a good amount of salary and the scope will be in endless as it is like the backbone of medical care facilities. If you feel the need to create a healthy world then be the healthcare provider and produce an awareness by means of gained knowledge in the field of medicine. Initiate your learning now with going to Flipkart & Amazon where you can find the materials that help to give you the glimpse of responsibilities of Pharmacist.

Career Opportunities

According to IBEF, India's pharmaceutical sector was valued at US$ 33 billion in 2017 and expected to touch US$55 billion by 2020. This positive growth figure displays how strong the pharmaceutical sector in the country is becoming and there are numerous career opportunities in this sector.

Pharmacists will find a plethora of opportunities in both the private and public sector. They will also find employment in the Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) dispensaries. Many pharmaceutical companies recruit the pharmacists in their departments such as marketing and quality control for the products and research. One can also think about establishing a private drugstore.

Pharmacist Salary

The salary for a pharmacist depends on experience and location. A fresher who has been placed in a private firm will start the career with more than 3 lakh per annum. Candidates who have bagged employment in government or public sector will earn more than 4 lakh per annum besides incentives. The sky is the limit for the pay structure in foreign countries.

Anesthesiology: Scope and Career Opportunities
The Madras High Court cancel a Tamil Nadu government order reserving 85 per cent of MBBS and BDS seats to state board students and only 15 per cent for CBSE and other boards, holding that it amounted to discrimination among equals.

Allowing petitions by some CBSE students challenging June 22, 2017, state government order, Justice K Ravichndrababu held that the impugned reservation was bad in law and violated Art 14 of the Constitution (Equality before law). He also held that the reservation indirectly meddled with the object and process of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and compromised on merits of selection.

The judge directed authorities to prepare a fresh merit list and conduct the counseling for admissions accordingly. He had on July 11, 2017, reserved orders on the petitions by Darnish Kumar, a student represented by his parents, and two others and ordered status quo on the admission process till the adjudication of the matter.

The state government had defended the G.O, saying the policy of the state government was not in favor of NEET, conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

More than 50 per cent of the questions in the NEET was based on the CBSE syllabus and hence there was an inequality in the all-India exam, it had contended.

Assailing the G.O, the petitioners had submitted that the Supreme court had clearly stated that when admission is based on entrance examination NEET, it should make no difference whether the qualifying examination was conducted by the state board or CBSE because no discrimination can be made between the schools affiliated to both the boards.

As per the earlier schedule, the merit list for medical courses was to be published today and the counseling to start on July 17, 2017.

Medical Admissions Open for Gujarat NEET Aspirants: Register Now!
The Austin Police Department has taken 37 Ford Explorers out of service over fears of carbon monoxide leaks plaguing the popular police vehicle.



Speaking to CBS News, Sgt. Zachary LaHood revealed that he almost died due to carbon monoxide leaks in his Ford Explorer police cruiser.

I remember swerving to what I thought was a bus, I was going to go head-in to a bus or a, maybe it was a garbage truck, I think it was a bus. Im lucky to be alive, I believe that. And Im lucky I didnt kill someone else or their family that night, he said.

The alleged problem is said to be much larger than this single instance. It is reported that in the last week, six officers from Austin have been treated for carbon monoxide exposure due to issues with the Explorer.

CBS says that federal regulators are investigating these complaints as well as a further 450 filed for 2011-2017 Explorer models.

Austin isnt the only place to have experienced issues. Californian police officer Brian McDowell slammed into a tree after alleged carbon monoxide exposure driving his Ford Explorer police vehicle. He, as well as at least six others in California, Texas and Louisiana are now suing Ford for the carbon monoxide exposure.

In a statement, Ford said that it has not found any issues with its police vehicles.

We have investigated and not found any carbon monoxide issue resulting from the design of our Police Interceptor Utility Vehicles. We know police modify these vehicles, which can contribute to exhaust-related issues. We have provided instructions to help seal these modifications and are ready to inspect any vehicles with this concern.
Photo: CTV

Thousands of British Columbians are currently evacuated as wildfires rage across the Central Interior.

But thousands more wait anxiously on alert. They could be forced to leave on short notice.

aIn such stressful circumstances, the most important thing to remember is to stay calm, listen to information provided, and stay in touch on mobile devices for updates.

Here's some tips from the provincial government on what to do to prepare for evacuation:

Stay tuned to your local authority's public information channels, as well as Emergency Info BC for updates: http://www.emergencyinfobc.gov.bc.ca/

Have your emergency kit and important documents ready to go, which should include things like insurance and personal papers such as birth certificates. You should also pack:

Several days' clothing.

Medicine/prescriptions.

For your children, comfort items, like a favourite toy or colouring books to help keep them busy.

For your pets, leashes, carriers and pet food.

Consider collecting precious photos and mementoes that can't be replaced.

As well, check in on any family, friends or neighbours who may need a helping hand due to mobility or other issues.

In the event of an evacuation order, you must leave the area immediately.

When an evacuation order is issued:
Photo: heritagewoodshomes.com A teacher at Eagle Mountain Middle School was suspended for hitting a 12-year-old boy.

A Port Moody middle school teacher will serve a 10-day suspension after the school board learned he had been arrested for punching a 12-year-old boy who may have been throwing french fries at his car.

On June 1, 2008, Gentle St. Prix, a learning services teacher at Eagle Mountain Middle School, was driving with his son and a family friend, when someone in the car beside him began throwing french fries at them while stopped at a red light.

St. Prix got out of his car and confronted the people in the car beside him. The 12-year-old boy in the front seat said the person in the back seat threw the deep-fried potatoes, but the back-seat occupant blamed the 12-year-old.

St. Prix got angry and frustrated and punched the person in the front seat. The person in the front seat was a 12-year-old boy, reads the recently-published British Columbia Commissioner for Teacher Regulation consent resolution agreement.

The boy was left with minor bruising on his head.

St. Prix got back in his car and drove off, and the boy's mother called police. St. Prix was later arrested for assault, and admitted to police that he punched the boy.

He was eventually given 10 hours of community service in exchange for having the charge stayed.

In September 2012, a criminal record check found the arrest on St. Prix's record, and the Criminal Records Review Program informed the Teacher Regulation Branch. An investigation into St. Prix by the commissioner for Teacher Regulation didn't begin until February 2015.

The Criminal Records Review Program decided St. Prix did not pose a risk to children as the charge was dated, singular and there was no pattern of behaviour.

Almost two years after the investigation began, in December 2016, the commissioner decided to impose the 10-day suspension on St. Prix, which will be served in December 2017.

During the investigation period, St. Prix denied he was arrested, but he has since admitted to hitting the child and the subsequent arrest.
Photo: Getty Images An agricultural innovation centre located in Summerland is becoming more of a possibility

Plans to develop an agricultural innovation centre in Summerland are moving ahead, thanks to a recent feasibility study that found overwhelming support for the concept.

The idea, which is being pushed by the Summerland Chamber of Commerce, is to create a centre that would help young businesses and entrepreneurs in the agriculture and agri-tech industries launch their products.

More than 90 per cent of the people surveyed thought the agricultural innovation centre was a good idea, and just as many thought Summerland  which sits in the geographical middle of much of the agricultural industry in the region  is the perfect place for it.

For more on the proposed centre, and what it would cost to launch, check out the full story on Castanet's sister business news website, Okanagan Edge.
Photo: Contributed

The AlleyCATS Alliance has just celebrated the completion of its fifth year, taking in their 1,000th cat.

The lucky number 1,000 is a boy named Angelo, named for a small pair of angel wing markings on his shoulders.

Angelo was born to a semi-feral mom and dad, who had shown up in a Penticton neighbourhood. A woman was feeding the little family, according to Theresa Nolet with the charity.

Having recently sold the home, the woman was concerned about the cat's welfare, and contacted AlleyCATS, a registered charity dedicated to providing rescue, rehabilitation and adoption to feral and orphaned cats and kittens throughout the Okanagan Valley.

It took a little time, but AlleyCATS was successful and the family was captured.

While Angelo is young and was easily convinced that living with people was far superior to the nomadic lifestyle of a feral cat, his parents will take a little time to adjust.

The charity refers to them as special needs, as they were handled at one time in their lives, but are very scared and will require patience by anyone considering to adopt them.

Angelo is also available for adoption.

To learn more about supporting the charity, go here.
Relive the famous comeback in Super Bowl LI through the eyes of Peyton Manning.
Madison Erhardt

UPDATE: 4 p.m.

The leader of Canada's military will be in Vernon Friday, but he won't be meeting with the public.

Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan was supposed to have a meet and greet in Vernon Thursday afternoon, but had to cancel.

Sajjan did make stops in the Central and South Okanagan, and he will be in the North Okanagan Friday, but Cpt. Morgan Arnott, Vernon Cadet Training Centre information officer, said the event will be closed to the public.

For 11 years, Sajjan was a member of the Vancouver Police Department gang crime unit. While in the Canadian military, he was deployed to Bosnia, and did three tours of duty in Afghanistan.

Sajjan retired from the military as a lieutenant-colonel and was the first Sikh to command a Canadian army regiment.

ORIGINAL: 2:45 pm.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan was in Lake Country Wednesday evening for a Liberal meet and greet at Ex Nihilo Vineyards.

Sajjan, MP for Vancouver South, didn't take any questions on defence policy or the federal government's commitment of a $14-billion defence spending boost over the next decade. But he did talk about Ottawa's support in B.C.'s ongoing wildfire crisis.

"I'm here in the Okanagan for a family vacation. My wife and I have been at a place in Osoyoos for some time... Most importantly, I'm here because of the tragic fire situation right now. I have put a lot of focus on that," Sajjan said.

Sajjan spent time in Kamloops as well, discussing ongoing support for evacuees and fire crews.

"Being in the region, It has worked out well. I can co-ordinate that direct information with the military about all the resources necessary, and we can continue progress with all wildfires," Sajjan added.

This afternoon Sajjan will attend a similar event in Vernon, at Janda Farms, 6229 Old Kamloops Rd., from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Photo: Todd Preston 100 Mile House fire

Two prolific offenders in Williams Lake are behind bars after allegedly being caught with property stolen from evacuated homes.

Staff Sgt. Annie Linteau announced Thursday that a 27-year-old man and 24-year-old woman were stopped during a routine traffic stop on July 11 in Williams Lake.

During a search of their vehicle, police located a television that is believed to have been taken during a break and enter from an evacuated home in the Wildwood area on July 8.

A search warrant was executed the next day on a residence connected to the pair, and several items believed to be taken from three other locally evacuated homes were recovered.

Linteau says they are facing possible break and enter, and possession of stolen property charges.

We are continuing our efforts to patrol evacuated zones on a 24 hour basis, she said.

In another alleged looting case, Brett Berube, 53, is facing one count of break and enter with intent to commit under the Criminal Code and one count of contravening a state of emergency under the Emergency Program Act.

He was arrested in 100 Mile House on Monday, and made his first court appearance in Kamloops on Tuesday.
A woman caught trying to smuggle nearly half an ounce of meth into the Nebraska State Penitentiary got four years of probation and potential jail time for it Friday.

Lancaster County District Judge Robert Otte told Neosho Porter it was superdangerous behavior that elevates potential problems in "a system that is already overcrowded and overburdened."

Porter's attorney, Sandy Pollack, said Porter was a little naive and had been taken advantage of by her then-boyfriend. But Porter, who had little criminal record before this, had good support and has gotten back on her feet, he said.

Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Matthew Mellor argued that trying to get 13.94 grams into a prison is inherently violent and slightly more serious than most distribution cases because of where they were going and given the already volatile situation in prison.

"Introducing drugs there is just a bad idea," he said.

Porter, 29, apologized and said she understood it was wrong.

"It's not a decision I'd ever decide to do again," she said.

In court records, a Nebraska State Patrol investigator said staff at the Penitentiary had gotten information that an inmate's girlfriend was going to try to smuggle drugs to him during a visit. In recorded phone calls between them they discussed how it would take place.

On Oct. 26, when Porter showed up for a visit, a drug dog was taken around her car while she was inside and indicated the smell of drugs.

A State Patrol investigator told her he believed she was trying to smuggle in drugs and asked her to hand them over. Porter turned over a package to a female officer.

Porter, 29, later pleaded guilty to attempted delivery of methamphetamine.

On Friday, Otte told Porter he sent another defendant to prison for several years in a case that involved less meth a day earlier.

"But I think you're headed in the right direction," he said.

And he gave Porter probation, plus 180 days in jail starting next January unless it's waived.
Communication. The word seems easy. The concept seems simple. Yet, this seems to be one of the largest challenges Kelowna faces.

A few weeks ago, I attended a business-networking event, that is, people attending specifically wanting to meet others. After collecting 38 business cards, I woke up the next day, cracked my knuckles and got to work: I wrote introductory emails, tailored to each conversation I had the night before. Two days after sending the emails, I had only received three replies. A week later, there were no additional replies. An 8% response rate from a group of people interested in networking is concerning and points to a larger issue (communication) in Kelowna.

We all love Kelowna; its a friendly beautiful city with ever growing opportunities. Over the years, I have witnessed so much growth and can see the future potential is massive. As Kelowna evolves, its bringing residents more choice, variety, and services to meet their needs and interest.

However, with growth comes competition for local business. Bigger businesses, younger demographics, and technology have all contributed to consumers expectation for a faster response and customized service. If local businesses want to survive they must become more attentive to customer needs and communication.

In the past, generating repeat business required far less effort as competition was limited. This is no longer the case. Almost every industry has a multitude of options to choose from. Inevitably, customers will choose to spend their money with businesses that are responsive and engage them. Local businesses can no longer rely on their past reputation or word of mouth. Now, its all about establishing customer relationships. The first step to build this relationship is to respond promptly.

Getting back to my business networking experience, by delaying or not replying to customer communication, it sends a clear message that you are not interested in the customer relationship, whether this is the intent or not. When texts, emails, or calls go unanswered, theres a high probability that potential customers will formulate a negative opinion about doing business with you. Therefore, the unintended consequence of inaction or delay not only results in a loss of business but it can negatively impact your image as they will tell others about the perceived lack of interest.

People crave interactivity and clarity. Customer loyalty is won by businesses who engage with their customers. Its become a necessity for businesses to be responsive to customer inquiries. Taking this concept of communication one step further, a reply is simply not enough. By providing a specific action for instance, I will get back to you by x vs  I will get back to you provides clarity. Using words like asap, soon or in a bit can be ambiguous and have different meanings to different people. A reference to asap may be interpreted as a few hours and cause the customer to move onto the competition. If you told someone you would get it touch with them, do it! Earn their trust by re-affirming your intent to assist them in any way you can.

The days of opening your door and people walking in simply because the door is open are closing. The competition will be eager to win over customers by responding to their needs.

This is the new paradigm: Communication or die. Local business must be responsive in order to thrive.

Chris Kotscha
Photo: hikingaddiction.ca The lookout trail on Dilworth Mountain has been closed due to fire danger.

The City of Kelowna has closed the lookout trail at Dilworth Mountain Park due to the risk of fire.

The trail, off Chilcotin Crescent, is adjacent to residential neighbourhoods and currently has an extreme fire hazard rating.

Natural parks, grass and underbrush can easily ignite with dry and hot conditions, said Andrew Hunsberger, urban forestry supervisor with the city. This area has been identified as a potential fire risk in the past, and with the current conditions, we need to take the necessary precautions.

Smoking is prohibited in all City of Kelowna parks and public areas, along with campfires and barbecues.

The trail on Dilworth will be reopened when city staff determine it's safe again.
Photo: Chantelle Deacon Karen Halliday standing in front of the pipe organ, in the sanctuary.

A historic Summerland church, that has been vacant for over two years, is being brought back to life as a community centre.

The 5,300 sq ft church on Butler Street has been purchased by two local women, with intentions to transform it into a wellness centre, art gallery and music venue.

"It came for sale years ago and I fell in love with it then," new co-owner of the church, Karen Halliday said.

Co-owner, Jen Wheaton plans to turn the lower level of the building into a yoga studio, which has been her dream for the building since learning it was for sale.

The structure was first built in 1910, then called the Lakeside Presbyterian Church. The heritage building remains in good condition but the new owners still plan to do minor upgrades, with the main structure remaining intact.

There will be new windows installed, carpet removed, new flooring in the sanctuary and a fresh paint job on the interior and exterior, according to Halliday.

A space for the community to enjoy each other's company is the main object for the building, said Halliday.

"It could be put back into use for the community, as the church was intended for in the first place and people could rent just time or space," she said. "We are restoring it back to its former glory.

The owners aren't sure of an opening date yet, but "sometime in August" they will have a better idea.

"We are looking for artists; we are looking for musicians, we are looking for people who really want to have an art class for kids, for people who would like to hang their art, for people who want to join in with the wellness centre and maybe teach a class," she said.

With a pipe organ from the late 1800's and a sanctuary made for beautiful music, the space will be perfect to have weddings or to just simply bring everyone together, according to Halliday.
Photo: Facebook

A Kelowna icewine has received a perfect 100-point score and a Double Gold Medal at the San Francisco International Wine Competition.

Summerhill Pyramid Winerys 2013 Small Lot Semillon Icewine received the distinction last week, something Stephen Cipes, the winerys founder and proprietor, said was an honour.

This year, the San Francisco International Wine Competition saw 4,200 entries from 31 countries around the world.

Summerhills perfect score comes on the heels of another high honour.

In May, the winery was found to have the best Chardonnay icewine in the world, at the Chardonnay du Monde Competition in France. That competition saw more than 750 entries from 38 countries.

Summerhill Pyramid Winery has been open in Kelowna for more than 25 years, and is Canadas largest certified organic winery.

Winemaker Eric von Krosigk oversees the portfolio of BC VQA wines, and the winery is also home to the Sunset Organic Bistro.
Photo: Contributed

A Vancouver Island man was slapped with a $575 ticket on Thursday  for flicking a cigarette butt out a car window.

Despite a provincial state of emergency as wildfires rage across B.C., RCMP say an officer witnessed the careless act on Veterans Memorial Parkway in suburban Victoria.

Doing so is an offence under the BC Wildfire Act.

The officer told the man that only a day earlier a home was destroyed by wildfire that started along a road in nearby Sooke.

 with files from CTV Vancouver Island
Photo: Contributed

Kelowna is one of the latest cities in B.C. to step up and assist the more than 17,000 people estimated to have been evacuated by wildfires in the central, and southern interior.

Emergency Social Services opened a reception centre in at the Salvation Army on Sutherland Avenue Wednesday, and a local school has opened its doors to evacuees.

More than 70 people registered at the reception centre on the first day alone and as of Thursday afternoon, more than 100 people registered.

People are escaping fires in Princeton, Ashcroft, Williams Lake and 100 Mile House, among other areas.

Officials say even if you do have a place to stay, it's still important to register.

Those without a place to go are being put up in hotels, if they are available, and at a local school's gymnasium.

Several dozen cots have been set up to give people a place to sleep.

School District 23 superintendent Kevin Kaardal says the district was contacted by the ESS about housing evacuees and they immediately said yes.

He says the district makes sure custodians are on staff around the clock and the showers are operational.

The rest, he says, is looked after by Emergency Social Services.

A cold front is expected to arrive over the southern portion of the province Saturday, bringing with it heavier winds.

Officials with ESS in Kelowna say they will be ready if, and when, a new wave of evacuees arrives.
Photo: CTV

A log home manufacturer known for the Timber Kings show on HGTV lost homes under construction, equipment and a workshop in one of the wildfires that has ravaged the Williams Lake area.

Fire swept through a yard owned by Pioneer Log Homes at 150 Mile House, causing millions of dollars in damage.

The company's multimillion-dollar log home mansions are known around the world.

"There was a wall of flames coming," Bryan Reid Sr. told CTV.

"It's a tragedy It's really people's dreams that were sitting there, and we have to rebuild it all."

Another of the company's work yards was spared, thanks in part to a home-rigged sprinkler system.

Pioneer employs 140 people, but has shut down during the fire crisis.

"I don't even know where to start. I don't know how to clean this up," said Reid.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
TV drama met real-life drama on the Vancouver set of Riverdale this week.

The show, which is modern interpretation of the Archie and Jughead comics, saw actor Cole Sprouse clash with a busker who refused to stop performing on Robson Street.

A YouTube video posted Wednesday shows Sprouse, who plays Jughead in the Netflix series, arguing with musician Babe Coal as fans and fellow actors gather around.

"Just in case you guys don't know how this works, this is one of the secrets to film production. We give a location to the city, and some scam artists come out and start playing," the actor says.

"I play here every day. You guys came here to where I perform," Coal interjects. "What you guys are is cheap. You guys are so cheap. And rude. And interfering."

Coal has clashed with authorities over her busking before. She has previously sued the City of Vancouver for requiring busking licences, and filed a lawsuit against the City of North Vancouver over not being allowed to use an amplifier.

Vancouver Police confirm they attended this week's altercation, but no arrests were made.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: The Canadian Press - file photo An Air Canada flight came within 30 metres of hitting a plane on the ground when landing in San Francisco on July 7.

An Air Canada plane with 140 people on board came within 30 metres of crashing onto two of four planes lined up to take off at San Francisco International Airport last week, according to a preliminary report Canadian air safety regulators released Thursday.

The finding provided the first official accounting of how close the Air Canada plane came to causing what could have been one of the worst disasters in commercial aviation history.

Instead of lining up to land on the runway, the pilot of the flight from Toronto mistakenly descended toward a parallel taxiway just to the right of where four other airliners were idling in the darkness. Taxiways are the aviation equivalent of feeder roads that planes use to roll between runways and terminals, and have different lights than runways.

Canada's Transportation Safety Board released a short summary of the July 7 incident, which U.S. authorities are still investigating. The summary said Air Canada Flight 759 had already travelled one-quarter of a mile over the taxiway before aborting the landing.

As the Airbus 320 pulled up sharply it flew 30 metres over the first two jets, about 60 metres above the third and about 90 metres over the fourth, the summary said. It then circled and landed safely.

"This was very close to a catastrophic event," said John Cox, a safety consultant and retired airline pilot.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which is heading the investigation, has not released any information and spokesman Keith Holloway said he could not comment on another agency's data.

Transportation Safety Board of Canada spokesman Chris Krepski said he could not confirm the source of the data in the document, which was released as part of a "daily notification log" of safety incidents that Canadian air operators are obliged to report to regulators.

The most likely source was Air Canada, but company spokeswoman Angela Mah would only say in an email that the airline is "investigating the circumstances and co-operating with authorities." She said because of the investigation, she could provide no more information.

Collisions on the ground are particularly dangerous because planes waiting to take off are loaded with fuel. The deadliest crash in aviation history occurred in 1977 when a KLM Boeing 747 taking off in the Canary Islands plowed into a Pan Am 747 that was waiting to take off; 583 people died in the crash and fires.

"What is so unusual about this one is the airplanes could see each other and they still got this close," Cox said. "These guys really did intend to land on this taxiway."

In audio posted on liveatc.net, which records flight communications, the pilot said he sees "some lights on the runway," apparently alluding to planes on the taxiway.

According to the report released Thursday, the plane at that point was less than a mile from the taxiway. It would have been flying well over 160 kilometres per hour.

"That's awful to let it go that far," said Chris Manno, an American Airlines pilot for 32 years who regularly lands in San Francisco. "Pretty egregious."
OMAHA, Neb.  The mayor of Omaha is forming a Native American advisory board and local police officers will receive training on indigenous culture after a man died in police custody last month.

City officials and leaders in the indigenous community met June 28, more than three weeks after the death of unarmed Native American Zachary Bearheels, 29.

Police said Bearheels died after officers shocked him 12 times with a Taser, punched him and dragged him by his hair. Police alleged they were responding to a call at a convenience store for a disturbance involving a person who was refusing to leave the store.

According to his family, Bearheels had mental illnesses and was lost in Omaha after being kicked off a bus going from South Dakota to Oklahoma. Relatives said they think Bearheels stopped taking his medicine.

Lucas LaRose, a commissioner on the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, said the meeting was scheduled to discuss how Native Americans are treated in Omaha.

"There's this general belief that if you're a person of color in this city, a lot of times your opinion doesn't count," LaRose said. "Having them (city officials) take the time out of their day to really address this issue shows that they're serious. I was encouraged by the fact that they confessed to some errors."

Mayor Jean Stothert will create the advisory board by executive order. In the past, Stothert has created similar boards focused on LGBTQ, veterans and millennial issues.

Police Chief Todd Schmaderer will organize training on Native American culture sensitivity. Rudi Mitchell, another commissioner on the state Indian Affairs Commission, has offered to train officers.

Mitchell said long hair is considered sacred for Native American men, so he and LaRose said it was troubling when they heard an officer used Bearheels' ponytail to drag him across a parking lot.

Schmaderer recommended the city fire Scotty Payne and Ryan McClarty, two of the officers involved in Bearheels' death. Officers Jennifer Strudl and Makyla Mead, who were at the scene before Payne and McClarty arrived, are on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.
Photo: RCMP

Police are seeking the publics help to find a high-risk sex offender who failed to return to a Vancouver residential correctional facility.

A Canada-wide arrest warrant has been issued for Christopher Schafer, 40, is wanted for being unlawfully at large.

Schafer, a federal offender, was released from custody on July 10 and had been living at a residential correctional facility until he failed to return Thursday evening.

He is a high-risk offender with a long criminal history that includes break and enter, sexual offences, uttering threats, robbery, and assaulting a peace officer. He has had his parole revoked on a number of occasions, usually after breaching conditions related to substance abuse.

Schafer is described as aboriginal, five feet eight inches tall, 168 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He has a tattoo of Wanda Lee on his neck.

Anyone who sees Schafer, or has information on his whereabouts, is asked to call 911 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Photo: BC Wildfire Service

UPDATE: 10:20 a.m.

Kevin Skrepnek, chief information officer for the BC Wildfire Service, says the forecast called for sustained winds of 50 kilometres per hour.

"If that forecast comes to fruition, it's going to be a big challenge for us," he said.

About 180 wildfires were burning in central and southern B.C., including three around Williams Lake, where 11,000 people are on standby to leave their homes.

ORIGINAL: 6:25 a.m.

Despite a slight reprieve in weather conditions, crews battling wildfires in central B.C. are now preparing for the worst as officials predict winds to pick up over the weekend.

The Cariboo Fire Centre says although winds remained calm yesterday, there's a chance they will pick up Saturday, fuelling dozens of fires across the Interior.

Environment Canada forecasts a chance of rain for Williams Lake, where 11,000 people are on standby to evacuate, but officials say any showers that develop will not be enough to douse active fires.

A special air quality statement remains in effect for the Interior and eastern parts of the province. Residents are warned to avoid strenuous activity outside and children and seniors are encouraged to stay indoors.

The province declared a state of emergency last week and more than 16,000 people have been evacuated, with thousands more on alert.

The province says evacuees must remain patient and wait for official notice before they can return home, and warns violating orders can detract from firefighting efforts by diverting first responders to take part in avoidable rescues.
Photo: CTV

UPDATE: 11 a.m.

A man has been sentenced to four years in prison for the death of an RCMP officer who was killed when a truck rammed her cruiser near Victoria last year.

Twenty-nine-year-old Kenneth Fenton has also been banned from driving and prohibited from owning a weapon for 10 years in the death of RCMP Const. Sarah Beckett.

Provincial court Judge Ronald Lamperson says no sentence he could impose can bring back Beckett or address the pain her family and friends suffer.

The court heard Fenton's blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit and he was speeding when he ran a red light, slamming into the officer's vehicle.

Beckett, a married mother of two boys, had recently returned from maternity leave when she was killed in Langford, a suburb of Victoria, in April 2016.

ORIGINAL: 6:30 a.m.

A man who killed a mother of two when his truck rammed into her RCMP cruiser while driving drunk and speeding will be sentenced by a court in suburban Victoria today.

The court heard during Kenneth Fenton's sentencing hearing that he had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit when he ran a red light, hitting Const. Sarah Beckett's cruiser broadside.

Fenton pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing death and dangerous driving causing death for the April 2016 crash that killed the 32-year-old officer.

The 29-year-old man told the court at his sentencing hearing last week that he was sorry for his actions and that he would take the officer's place if he could.

Beckett's husband told the court the hardest thing after his wife's death was telling their six-year-old son that mom wasn't coming home.

The Crown has asked for a three-to-five year prison sentence, while his defence lawyer says a three-year sentence would be more appropriate.
Photo: Contributed Secwepemc residents want the pipeline shutdown

Secwepemc residents are asking for an immediate shutdown of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline.

They fear the pipeline poses a serious safety hazard. They also say the increase in fires is evidence of global warming created, in part, by Alberta oil transported by Kinder Morgan.

"We are in a critical state of emergency dealing with the impacts of climate change, said Secwepemc teacher Dawn Morrison, adding this includes catastrophic flooding and fires, as well as social issues such as poverty, increased violence against our women and high rates of death from substance abuse in our communities.

Morrison, founder of the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty, says the health of our families and communities relies heavily on our ability to harvest wild salmon and access clean drinking water, both of which are at risk if the Kinder Morgan pipeline was ruptured or impacted by the fires.

The Secwepemculecw Assembly is demanding a halt on any pipeline proposing to transport crude or diluted bitumen through their traditional territory.

The Assembly got together last month to reaffirm its territorial title and authority saying, We have never provided and will never provide our collective free, prior and informed consent - the minimal international standard - to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Project.

We explicitly and irrevocably refuse its passage through our territory. Investors take note, there is no Secwepemc consent for Kinder Morgan. Kinder Morgan will not pass through Secwepemc Territory.
Photo: CTV A child survived a 17-metre fall from the seventh floor of an apartment building in Richmond, Wednesday.

A small child miraculously survived a 17-metre fall from an apartment building in Richmond, Wednesday.

The girl, believed to be under the age of six, fell from the seventh floor of the Panorama Place building onto a gravel canopy five storeys below.

A family living on the second floor heard the impact and found her lying on the gravel.

"The girl said she needed a Band-Aid, and I said it's OK, you will get a Band-Aid, Stepan Larichev told CTV. Larichev comforted the girl as his mother called 911.

Emergency crews arrived at 3 p.m. and took the child to hospital. Her injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening.

It's unclear how the fall happened. A paper airplane was on the gravel canopy near where the girl fell.

He said he didn't see the girl's parents at all during the incident, which is under investigation.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
If you have just started your journey in an online casino or are looking for a new site to play,...
The governor has signed an executive order aimed at cutting red tape by suspending rulemaking within state agencies, except for critical regulations and those mandated by statute.

The order also requires every state agency to conduct a review of existing and pending regulations and submit a report to the governors office by November 15. Governor Pete Ricketts has appointed a four-member panel to help with the review.

In a news release announcing the move, Ricketts said any regulation determined to be more restrictive than required under state or federal law, or that creates an undue burden on Nebraskans, will be revised or repealed. Knowing that the governor has said he wants to run government like a business, such a move makes sense.

I was almost ready to give him kudos until I asked myself where the idea came from and what is the end game? Ricketts said Nebraskas regulations have 7.5 million words, more than 100,000 of which are restrictive in nature. He said a person reading 300 words a minute for 40 hours a week would need 10 weeks to make it through all of them.

In the news release, Ricketts said that James Broughel, a research fellow for the state and local policy project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, did an initial review. The Mercatus Center is a nonprofit think tank that was founded and funded by Koch Industries. George Mason University was founded in 1972 on a campus just outside Washington, D.C., and is now Virginias largest public research university.

The center has been described by The Washington Post as anti-regulatory. It has engaged in campaigns involving deregulation, especially environmental deregulation. During the George W. Bush administration's campaign to reduce government regulation, the Wall Street Journal reported, "14 of the 23 rules the White House chose for its hit list" to eliminate or modify were Mercatus entries.

Mercatus describes its mission "to generate knowledge and understanding of the institutions that affect the freedom to prosper, and to find sustainable solutions that overcome the barriers preventing individuals from living free, prosperous, and peaceful lives."

Ricketts said the idea of the Nebraska review is to "eliminate harmful and wasteful regulations that are a hindrance to the job creators, ag producers, startups and small businesses that are growing our state. Red tape slows economic growth, the governor stressed. Over the past decade, Nebraskas real gross domestic product has grown at an average of 2 percent a year. At that rate, it will take 35 years for the states economy to double in size, he said.

Koch Industries is an American Multinational corporation based in Wichita, Kansas. It has subsidiaries involved in manufacturing, trading, and investments, including a fertilizer factory near Beatrice and a nitrogen plant at Greenwood. Since 1960, the privately held company said, the value of Koch Industries has grown 4,200-fold, outpacing the Standard & Poor's index by nearly 30 times. Koch is now a key player in the fracking boom that's vaulting the United States past Saudi Arabia as the world's top oil producer. The firm employs about 60,000 people in the United States and another 40,000 in 59 other countries. In 2013-2015, Forbes listed it as the second largest privately held company (after Cargill) in the U.S.

The enormity of the Koch fortune is no mystery. Brothers Charles and David are each worth more than $40 billion. The electoral influence of the Koch brothers is similarly well chronicled. Their political network reportedly helped finance the Tea Party and plays a large role in the financial health of todays Republican Party.

As I often say, none of this activity  as far as I can tell  is illegal. But one has to ask whose ox is getting gored, whose palm is being greased.

Ricketts all Republican advisory task force includes: state Sen. John Murante of Gretna, chairman of the Legislatures Government, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee; Department of Banking and Finance Director Mark Quandahl (a former state senator); Department of Revenue Director Tony Fulton (also a former state senator) and Department of Health and Human Services Chief Operating Officer Bo Botelho.

How about a bi-partisan group to monitor the work of the appointed task force? Checks and balances. I think wed likely all feel better about any outcome.
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Settling the Issue of Iraq's Disputed Territories

Last month, talks led by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) at the presidential residence, Seri Resh, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) led to a decision to hold a referendum this September on Kurdistani independence. Though the obvious assumption would be that only residents of the area seeking independence (i.e., the Kurdistan Region) would be able to vote on a decision to secede from Iraq, this referendum is being presented as a vote in which residents of Iraq's disputed territories will also participate. The disputed territories are areas in Iraq over which both the Iraqi Federal Government (IFGbased in Baghdad) and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRGbased in Erbil) claim administrative rights. Currently, the Kurdistan Region is an autonomous jurisdictional entity that is part of a federal Iraq but which has its own government, armed forces, immigration laws, administrative bureaucracies, and so forth. Prior to any discussion of potential independence for the Kurdistan Region, it should be understood that the disputed territories are parts of the Nineveh, Salah ad-Din, Kirkuk, and Diyala governorates over which the respective governments of Baghdad and Erbil have been locked in conflict since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Even if the KRI was to not seek independence, the status of each disputed territory as a domain of the Federal Government or the Regional Government must be resolved. Kurdistani independence, therefore, involves more than the question of whether the inhabitants of the KRI desire independence; it also requires determining which disputed territories (all of which are outside of the official boundaries of the KRI) would be included in the KRI, and ultimately within the new independent state. For years, the disputed territories have been exploited for their deposits of oil and natural gas, but have often been neglected amid a state of political and administrative limbo between Baghdad and Erbil. Many disputed territories have been under Kurdish military or administrative control following the US invasion of Iraq, even though services and infrastructure in many of these territories continue to be funded through the IFG budget. Now, as Kurdish security forces, Hashd al-Sha'bi, and other ethno-sectarian militias seek to consolidate their territorial gains with the liberation of the remaining Islamic State (IS) enclaves in the disputed territories, it is urgent the IFG and the KRG establish clear jurisdictional boundaries by peaceful meansto not do so could spell their eventual delineation in battle. Therefore, Erbil and Baghdad must revisit Article 140, the transitional provision of the Iraqi Constitution that mandates the normalization, census, and referendum processes that must occur to determine the future status of each disputed territory, individually. This will resolve whether the territories will become part of the KRI or will remain within the IFG's system of governorates. Why the Referendum Does Not Provide a Solution for the Disputed Territories Acting KRG President Barzani has declared that the referendum will be a solution to the ongoing Article 140 dispute. But according to Hemin Hawrami, Senior Advisor to the acting president, the sole question that will be posed to voters in the referendum is: Do you want an independent Kurdistan? No one disputes the fact that the vast majority of Kurds desire independence. One Kurdish researcher framed this observation as follows: Kurdistan does not need a referendum because the history and geography and 100 years of struggle have answered this question for the whole world. The referendum's question, therefore, would seem almost superfluous for the KRI. But while the referendum's proposed question may nevertheless be appropriate to direct at residents of the KRI, it is a premature question for inhabitants of the disputed territories. Whether or not voters want independence is not a relevant inquiry as regards the complex geographic, demographic, and political realities in the disputed territories, where the question that should be posed is: Do you want your district to become a part of the Kurdistan Region? The idea that populations living outside of the Kurdistan Region could participate alongside residents of the KRI in a vote that would establish a basis for the statehood of a region whose future borders are not yet determined is simply confusing for Kurds, Iraqis, and outside observers alike. It is clear that at least two questionsnot onemust be answered by separate groups of Iraqis. Manipulating Patriotism The phrasing of the referendum's question is indicative of ethnic outbidding. By asking voters if they want independence, as opposed to inquiring, for example, as to whether voters approve of a parliamentary motion to declare independence, the KDP is playing a semantics game designed to force voters to deliver a patriotic or unpatriotic response, a tactic to rally broad nationalist support behind the KDP's drive for political dominance while discrediting the domestic opposition by casting doubt on their supporters' kurdayeti. Beyond the realm of mere words, Kurdish authorities have already begun arresting dissenters and shutting down media centers that publish literature that uses inappropriate language in connection with the referendum, as well as harassing and assaulting journalists and writers who have expressed opposition to the referendum. To garner support for the vote, the Kurdish nationalist partiesand the KDP in particularhave been aggressively fueling Kurdish irredentist sentiments and issuing provocative statements, such as KRG PM Nechirvan Barzani's affirmation that the disputed territories are no longer disputed, the acting president's assertion that opposition to the referendum would be met with a bloody war, and a KDP MP's call for the legal prosecution and punishment of the political opposition to the vote. Moreover, the KDP has linked issue of Kurdish statehood with that of Masoud Barzani's continued leadership and his defiance of Parliament's attempts to limit presidential power. The alarming tone of this discourse rose to a crescendo this week when Barzani, before the European Parliament, accused opposition MPs of concocting an attempted coupt d'etat against him in Parliament prior to its dissolution by the KDP, and of being responsible for the deaths of children in the 2015 riots in the Sulaimaniyah Governorate. Furthermore, the language of the referendum announcement itself does not acknowledge that disputed territories are disputed, instead referring to them as Kurdish areas outside of the KRG's administrative area. This language does not recognize the presence of the very populations whose existence is the origin of the disputed territory dilemma: Arabs, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians, Turkoman, certain Yazidis who do not identify as Kurds, and others. In addition to validating aggression against Kurdish domestic opposition, this kind of antagonistic, nationalist campaign will do nothing to assuage the fears and mistrust of minorities and non-Kurdish populations with competing claims to self-determination in the disputed areas. This could ultimately provoke violent reactions with armed sectarian and partisan militias, with their various regional sponsors poised to intervene. Ahead of Referendum, Yazidis Targeted for Supporting Baghdad In the last few years, observers have become increasingly familiar with how intimidation is employed to pressure minority populations of the disputed territories into political submission. Recent punitive measures against Yazidis who favor IFG rather than KRG administration for Shingal (Sinjar in Arabic) are a characteristicand unsurprisingcase in point. A new Human Rights Watch report has this week exposed a tactic that the KDP asaish are using to deter Yazidis from aligning with Baghdad: expelling displaced Yazidi families from the IDP camps in Dohuk and evicting them from the KRI, if a family member joins the Baghdad-supported Hashd al-Sha'bi forces in Shingal. This tactic is unsurprising, as the KDP asaish already expelled (from the same camps in 2015-2016) displaced Yazidi families if a family member joined the PKK-affiliated YBS, a local Yazidi force in Shingal that challenges KDP hegemony. The Yazidis of Shingal are a perfect example of the challenge of Iraq's disputed territories. This population has long stymied KDP attempts to smoothly incorporate Shingal into the KRI. Yazidis are independently-minded, have repeatedly been victimized by external parties vying for control of their areas, and as a result are mixed as to whether they even identify as Kurds. Unlike Yazidis from villages inside the KRI, many Yazidis from Shingal resolutely identify only as Yazidi, maintaining that it is not only their religious affiliation but also their ethnic identity. The vast majority resent Kurdish politics and would prefer a quiet form of local governance. This hasn't stopped the KDP from insisting that Shingal's population wants to be included in the KRI, and they always have an array of token Yazidi mouthpieces ready to authenticate this claim. The displacement of the majority of Shingal's Yazidi population to the KRI during the Yazidi Genocide stirred fears among much of the community that they could be subjected to attempts to be resettled in the KRI rather than helped to return to Shingal and rebuild their lives. A KDP-enforced economic blockade of Shingal (implemented all of 2016 and early 2017) deliberately slowed the returns of Yazidi IDPs to Shingal. One motivation for this measure appears to have been to try to starve the YBS of resources and prevent a larger civilian support base for the YBS from growing in Shingal. Despite this measure to inhibit civilian returns, the KDP did not hesitate to evict families from the camps and return them to Shingal when their family members joined the YBS. Though many families wanted to return and rebuild in areas that had been freed from IS, other families were not yet ready to do so, and this punitive measure placed pressure on families to beg their young people to not join those forces. For about two years, the KDP has branded the PKK affiliates as foreign entities, not acknowledging that their rank and file are comprised of local, Shingali Yazidis. The foreign argument is even less applicable to the Hashd al-Sha'bi: Yazidis are effectively being criminalized for the choice to work with their own federal government. Nevertheless, the asaish's current expulsions follow the same pattern as the earlier YBS evictions: Though Yazidi families ultimately hope to return to a secure Shingal, many are not ready to leave the campsfor economic reasons as well as out of concern regarding the now three-way political standoff in Shingal. Targeting vulnerable families with forced evictions is therefore a powerful political deterrent. Shingal is now divided by three political competitors, each having its own Yazidi militias on the ground: KDP-affiliated Peshmerga, PKK-affiliated YBS, and the Baghdad-affiliated Hashd al-Sha'bi. Two out of these three factions (with their associated civilian supporters) obviously do not favor inclusion into a KDP-dominated KRI. Most of Shingal's Yazidis, therefore, do not oppose Kurdistani independence, but simply view it as none of their concern since they hope to administer Shingal locally and separately from the KRI. This should adequately illustrate how a single-question referendum on Kurdistani independence is entirely incapable of resolving disputed territory issues. Practical Problems with Holding the Referendum in Disputed Territories The proposed date of September 25, 2017 for the referendum initially gave the KRG less than four months to raise and allocate money, resources, and personnel to ensure that residents of the disputed territories would be represented. Facilitating the participation of people from the disputed territories will be extremely difficult, and quite costly, due to high rates of internal displacement. So far, only $6 million have been ear-marked for the referendum and the KRG can expect no financial support from its neighbors and international supporters, virtually all of whom have come out against the referendum. Even Turkey, one of the closest allies of the KDP, has spoken out strongly against the referendum. Additionally, none of the KRG's international partners or the United Nations have thus far expressed a willingness to monitor the referendum. In fact, the United Nations recently issued a statement emphasizing that it has no intention to be engaged in any way or form in monitoring the independence referendum due to its commitments to the territorial integrity of Iraq. Therefore, aside from repeated assurances from Erbil that the process will be fair to ethno-religious minorities in the disputed territories, the KRI has not announced any plan to accommodate them or hold separate referenda on their preferences. Rudaw has recently reported that as of yet, no preparations have been made for the referendum in Kirkuk, the most populated of all disputed territories. Typically, funding for elections would come from the Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq (IHEC), but the Commission's Kirkuk office has denied that it has a budget or a plan for the referendum. Since the referendum was initiated unilaterally, not through mutual discussion with Baghdad, the KRG cannot expect to receive support for the referendum from the IFG. The President of the Kirkuk Provincial Council, Rebwar Talabani, has proposed that Kirkuk prepare on its own for the referendum without relying on funding from the IHEC, but with just another two and a half months to prepare, there has been no consensus in the Provincial Council on how the referendum should be funded, or even regarding the legality of holding the referendum in the province. Holding the vote for the people of Shingal could be even more difficult. Shingal's Yazidis are now divided among the many thousands in the IDP camps of Dohuk; thousands more in IDP camps in Syria and Turkey; tens of thousands of recent migrants to Europe (most of whom would prefer to return to a secure Shingal); others who have migrated to Canada, the US, and Australia; IDPs in camps on Shingal Mountain administered by PKK-affiliated institutions; returnees to damaged/destroyed areas in KDP-administered areas north of Shingal; returnees to Yazidi villages south of Shingal now under the control of Hashd al-Sha'bi. What is the KRG's plan to make sure that all of these people are able to freely and fairly vote in the referendum? In a recent interview with Kirkuk Now, Mahama Khalil (appointed by the KDP to act as unelected mayor of the Shingal District) also said that no preparations had been made to conduct the vote in Shingal. In the interview, he also exhibits a certain confusion as to the proper legal channels through which to conduct the vote and stated defiantly that the PKK and Hashd al-Sha'bi will not be able to disrupt the freedom of Yazidis to vote in the referendum. But the real question should be: What will guarantee that the KDP does not apply pressure on the voters? If the KRG intends to facilitate the Shingali people's free, democratic decision as to the future of their district, things are off to a bad start with their asaish already punishing and intimidating those who express a desire to see Shingal remain under Baghdad's administration. Opposition to the Referendum within the KRI Beyond the anticipated debacle of trying to hold the referendum in the disputed territories, the Kurdish mainland may also temper the success of the referendum. Though the vast majority of Kurds support the principle of Kurdish independence, there is significant anxiety among many in the KRI as to whether this referendum is being pursued in the right way and for the right reasons. Contrary to assertions that this referendum has the backing of a broad political coalition, this has not been the case. The June 7 meeting at Seri Resh that resulted in the decision to hold the referendum did not include Gorran or the Kurdistan Islamic Group. The Gorran-led political opposition regards the referendum as a vote on the legitimacy of the KDP's monopolization of power, Masoud Barzani's unilaterally extended presidency, and the abandonment of parliamentary democracy. Their sense is that the referendum would effectively make the KDP the vanguard of the nationalist movement and discredit the opposition, which insists upon institution-building or at least having working democratic institutions prior to statehood. Together, Gorran and the Kurdistan Islamic Group constitute 25% of Parliament. The Kurdistan Islamic Union has also announced its refusal to back the vote without parliamentary approval. It is also unclear the degree to which the PUK supports the referendum. Despite the participation of PUK Leadership Council members in the Seri Resh conference on June 7th, the issue of holding an independence referendum has divided the PUK. In general, the PUK supports the reactivation of Parliament prior to holding an independence referendum. However, while some have backed the KDP's proposal to reactivate the legislature with the current Speaker, Dr. Yusuf Muhammad, for one session, thirty-four out of fifty-five PUK Leadership Council members support1 not just reactivation, but normalizationi.e. Gorran's argument that Parliament must be reactivated and remain active until the next parliamentary elections (with Dr. Yusuf as Speaker)and oppose the nomination of a PUK delegate to the Referendum Committee prior to Parliament's reactivation. KRG Vice-Prime Minister Qubad Talabani and Kirkuk Governor Najmaddin Karim's attendancein defiance of the wishes of the majority of the Leadership Councilat the Referendum Committee hearings and at the KRG's delegation to the European Parliament this week (to garner support for the referendum) prompted outrage within the PUK politburo. Mahmoud Sangawi, a member of the Leadership Council and General Commander of the Germian Region, lashed out at Talabani and Karim: They are not representatives of the PUK. They represent only themselves. Is the Referendum Actually Binding? While acting President Masoud Barzani has promised that the referendum on independence would be binding, Barzani and others, including KDP executive and former Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, have qualified this by saying that independence will not be declared immediately after the vote, but rather that the vote would give the KRG a mandate to open independence negotiations with Baghdad. In fact, it is doubtful that the KRI would benefit politically or financially from declaring independence. With a budget shortfall of over $25 billion, the KRI has had extreme difficulty paying public salaries and pensions, providing services, and maintaining infrastructure in its administrative areas. A declaration of independence would mean that the KRI would not only be responsible for providing salaries to KRI employees, but also for public servants that are currently paid by the IFG, as well as providing utilities, water, and other services to the disputed territories. The KRI's Ministry of Natural Resources, along with the provinces of Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Salah ad-Din also have production-sharing agreements (PSAs) with the IFG to extract and market Kirkuk crude that provide for significant infrastructure development in the disputed territories, the salaries of KRI civil servants, and healthy dividends for KDP- and PUK-linked production and marketing firms and the KDP-led Ministry of Natural Resources.Moreover, the announcement on the referendum came less than two weeks after the KRG Central Bank announced that it agreed to be taken over by the Iraqi Central Bank and the Iraqi Oil Ministry announced plans to finance the construction of a new oil refinery in Kirkuk to the tune of $5 billion. With all of the above in mind, it seems that participating parties in the Referendum Committee are more interested in gaining leverage against the IFG and their domestic political rivals, and in maximizing the political and financial gains of the KRI's two dominant parties (the KDP and PUK). Whether the KRG actually intends to declare independence or not, the referendum campaign itself could nevertheless stir violent tensions among the various populations and political factions contending for the disputed territories. The referendum's lack of planning, preparation, legal definition, or multilateral participation sets a dangerous precedent and may also be perceived as anticlimactic by many Kurds who have long struggled for independence. The Solution To ensure the stability and security of Iraq and Kurdistan, both the Federal and Regional governments must revisit Article 140 and make a concerted effort to determine once and for all the status of the disputed territories. Of course, implementation will be even more difficult now than it was twelve years ago, mainly because demographic normalization (which must precede the execution of a census and referendum) has been disturbed by population displacements in the wake of the IS invasion. With so much at stake and so many competing territorial claims to evaluate and negotiate, it will be extremely difficult for two governments that doubt each other's good faith to commit to this long and arduous process. Yet, continuing to avoid the Article 140 process, as the pressure continues to build on all sides, will yield severe consequences for both governments as well as for their international allies. Most analysts agree that the international community, particularly the United Nations and the United States, must step up its involvement in order to help stabilize Iraq's post-IS landscape and adopt a framework to address the challenges posed by the jurisdictional conflicts in the disputed territories. Currently, the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI)'s mandate is limited to humanitarian and diplomatic assistance at the request of the Government of Iraq. Furthermore, the mandate's scope is overly-broad, expressing the UN's intention to promote economic and institutional development throughout Iraq, but without any clear focus on addressing the territorial disputes between the KRG and the IFG. Therefore, the UN will need a mandate specifically tailored to the mediation of the Article 140 process that will provide for the necessary resources for resolving territorial and property disputes and completing the normalization (or de-Arabization) process, conducting censuses, and referenda. More than simply revisiting Article 140, the mandate must also address the effects of civil war, population displacements, and genocide that have occurred since the passage of the Iraqi Constitution. It will be necessary to secure KRG and IFG cooperation to reconstruct and provide adequate services to recently liberated cities like Shingal and Jalawla. It should also bring community leaders, regional and federal officials together to respond to the requests of small, territorially concentrated ethnic minorities for local administrative autonomy. Finally, but most importantly, the mandate should include the deployment of armed peacekeepers to prevent the eruption of clashes that could sabotage progress on the diplomatic and humanitarian end. Indeed, research has shown that multi-faceted missions (those that include diplomatic, humanitarian, and security provisions) are more likely to have successful, long-term outcomes than missions with a purely humanitarian or security focus2. Although such a mission will depend on the KRG's withdrawal of the present referendum proposal, independence for the KRI should not be off the table. Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi has even conceded that the Kurds have a right to self-determination, up to and including their own state. However, if the Kurdish parties truly intend to secede from Iraq, the UN and Iraq's international partners should condition their support for the independence process on the KRG's commitment to the peaceful resolution of territorial, energy, and water disputes with the IFG, as well as its observance of the Region's own laws and the authority of its own legally established Regional decision-making bodies. For example, the UN should require that the KRG reactivate its Parliament, hold legislative and presidential elections, and encourage the passage of a motion in Parliament authorizing the formation of a high committee to plan an independence referendum before it agrees to monitor the vote. Likewise, by obtaining guarantees from the international community to support a future independence referendum that is conducted in accordance with the above conditions, Barzani could save face domestically while withdrawing the current referendum. Although UN peacekeeping missions do not have a stellar success rate, this can be partly attributed to the difficulty of the missions that the UN accepts, the lack of willingness on the part of host nations to give the UN the flexibility it needs to succeed, and a lack of cooperation from regional and international partners. While resolving territorial disputes will invariably be a grueling process, a mission to carry out Article 140 can still succeed if domestic, regional, and international partners are committed to it. Of course, a UN peacekeeping mission would be a bitter pill to swallow for both Baghdad and Erbil. It will be costly, it will require a long-term commitment, and parties will have to accept compromises that they may perceive as sub-optimal. Ultimately, the value of peace for both sides will outweigh the value of the benefits that either side would expect to gain from continuing down the current path, which will inevitably lead to armed conflict, whether by design or miscalculation. The diplomatic efforts of Iraq's neighbors and international partners, particularly the US, will be crucial in raising the IFG and KRI's perceived costs of noncompliance (such as threatening a withdrawal of military or financial support from the KRG and/or IFG) and reducing their perceived costs of compromise by offering incentives for both to accept UN conditions. Additionally, US influence will be necessary to secure the resolution from the Security Council to authorize a multi-faceted peacekeeping mission in the disputed territories. Conversely, the UN must obtain guarantees of cooperation from the potential regional spoilers Iran and Turkey, as well as the United States. This will also require mutual assurances and recognition that a peaceful resolution of the Article 140 disputes is the optimal outcome and that all parties will commit their resources to that end. However, with the Iranian-backed Hashd al- Sha'bi making gains along the Syrian border and the mobilization of Turkish armed forces in the KRI (as well as Turkish air strikes against PKK and YBS positions in Shingal), regional actors appear to be on a war footing in Iraq. So is the US. With a weakened Department of State, a newly-empowered Pentagon, and an Ambassador to the UN who recently bragged about cutting the peacekeeping budget by over half a billion dollars, hope of US support for peacemaking in Iraq may prove illusory as well. Notes: 1 The PUK concluded an agreement with Gorran in May of 2016 to, among other things, form a joint Leadership Council and electoral list and prioritize the reactivation of Parliament and the enactment of political and economic reforms. Gorran has since accused the PUK of violating the agreement because it has continued to negotiate political and natural resource agreements secretly with the KDP politburo. 2 "Beyond keeping peace: United Nations effectiveness in the midst of fighting." American political science review 108(4): 737-753. Beardsley, K., et al. (2017). "Resolving civil wars before they start: The UN security council and conflict prevention in self-determination disputes." British journal of political science 47(3): 675-697.

Megan Connelly is a PhD candidate with the Department of Political Science at SUNY University at Buffalo, concentrating in civil war, peace-building, and power-sharing studies with a focus on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Matthew Barber is a PhD student studying Islamic thought and history in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, who has conducted research on the Yazidi minority. He was working in Kurdistan when the Yazidi Genocide began and later led humanitarian and advocacy projects in the country for one year (2015-2016).
Promoter Mark Hedin calls Montana brewers the Band of Brewers because their close-knit connection.

Hedin said he has worked with other industries and found them so competitive. It's refreshing to see the camaraderie that the brewers share.

On Saturday, 34 Montana brewers, which is half of the 68 breweries in Montana, will be in Billings swapping tales of the trade and sampling each others beer at the annual Brews & BBQs festival. It will be held at MetraPark's outdoor park and pond area, Chiesa Plaza, from 1 to 10 p.m.

Brewers will be joined by 12 food trucks, including three barbecue options, as well as Cajun, Asian and Mexican food trucks. Cider will also be available from Last Chance Pub and Cider Mill in Billings.

Now in its seventh year, the festival has grown each year, increasing from 29 breweries in 2016 to 34 this year. At least 80 different beers will be available to sample and many of them are seasonal beers that arent available at any other time of year. Some are brewed just for the festival.

Last year, 5,000 people attended the festival, making it one of the biggest in the state.

The cool thing is we have brewers coming from all over Montana, from Libby to Wibaux and from Polson and Black Eagle, Hedin said.

The festival is a family project for the Hedins, which includes Mark's wife, Rhoda, and sons Beau and Devon.

Billings band Downtime will perform classic rock. The pourers are members of the Breakfast Exchange Club, but many brewers will be on hand to discuss their beer. The keg that gets emptied first wins the Peoples Choice trophy for the brewer.

Admission is free. To sample the beer, you buy a 6-ounce glass and 10 tokens for $20 in advance or $25 at the event. Proceeds will go to the Family Tree, a nonprofit that works to prevent child abuse. Advance tokens and glasses are available at Uberbrew, Computer Village, Guadalajara and Mercedes-Benz.
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After less than an hour of deliberation, a Helena jury found a man guilty of attempted deliberate homicide for a shootout with a cabin owner.

Kaleb Edward Daniels was 23 and wanted by Great Falls authorities when he broke into a home near Wolf Creek in December and ended up exchanging gunfire with the startled homeowner. The jury also found Daniels guilty of felony charges of aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence.

Daniels' defense attorney Steven Scott didn't deny that his client is a criminal and a liar.

"Ladies and gentleman, Kaleb is a burglar, he's not a murderer," Scott told jurors in his closing arguments. "He's a burglar."

Daniels was a wanted probation absconder when authorities apprehended him for these crimes. Scott said his client lied and gave a false name in an attempt to avoid further incriminating himself.

"He didn't want to compound his mounting legal battles," Scott said. "He knows he's in big trouble so he denies his involvement."

The homeowner shot Daniels' accomplice in the leg during the shootout.

Lewis and Clark County Attorney Leo Gallagher countered that Daniels shot at the cabin owner in an attempt get away with his crimes.

Daniels is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 13.

Gallagher asked District Judge Mike McMahon to have Daniels jailed with no bond until his sentencing hearing. The judge obliged. Daniels became upset at the ruling and sighed loudly while shaking his head.

During three days of testimony, jurors viewed more than 190 pieces of evidence. These items included photos of the cabin and shell casings.

The incident began when a husband and wife arrived at their cabin Dec. 28 on the 4000 block of Little Wolf Creek Road to find an unfamiliar sport utility vehicle parked outside and two men inside burgling the residence.

Prosecutors say Daniels pointed a handgun at the homeowner and pulled the trigger, but the gun did not fire. He then reportedly tried to chamber another round.

The homeowner then shot Daniels' accomplice, Jory Russell Strizich, in the leg, authorities said. Strizich, 26, was hospitalized for a gunshot wound to his right shin. Strizich is facing a felony charge of aggravated burglary.

The cabin owner reported shooting Strizich, who was allegedly approaching him in a threatening manner while Daniels attempted to rack his gun. The victim said he fired a warning round into the ground just before shooting again, striking Strizich.

Daniels then fired his gun toward the victim.

The two suspects ran away. Authorities launched a manhunt, including the local SWAT team.

After another armed homeowner called 911 to report Daniels trying to break into a home on Recreation Road. Daniels was apprehended in a snowbank following a short foot chase with officers about three hours after the shooting.
A new plan for evaluating the quality of Montana schools calls for whopping test score improvements compared to past scores, especially for students who typically struggle on tests.

The goals target a provision in the Every Student Succeeds Act that requires schools to administer standardized tests and work toward ambitious and achievable" goals. Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen, who pulled back an earlier plan submitted under previous Superintendent Denise Juneau, rolled out the plan Wednesday.

Early feedback from the Department of Education on other states' plans that have been already submitted has focused on setting a high bar for test scores; a handful of states have had their plans criticized as not being ambitious enough.

Previous feedback was not as public and it was not as strong, said Montana Rural Education Association executive director Dennis Parman, who previously served as OPIs assistant superintendent under previous state Superintendent Denise Juneau.

With the feds  so far  taking a surprising hard line on interpreting a law that was initially hailed for flexibility and local control, it leaves states balancing ambition with attainable goals that will be used to help rank schools. Schools that score poorly aren't punished but are identified for additional support, which could include options like additional training for teachers or bringing in state specialists.

During preview sessions of the ESSA plan, OPI director of special programs Susie Hedalen showed scenarios calling for a 5 percent and 7.5 percent improvement among students scoring non-proficient on exams to scoring proficient. Nevada, which uses the same structure, submitted a plan using the 5 percent improvement figure, which the feds found sufficiently ambitious in initial feedback.

When Hedalen unveiled those scenarios at MREAs general assembly meeting in June, the group suggested a 3 percent threshold instead.

OPI settled on 4 percent  for now. Hedalen and Arntzen both said the goals are achievable during a Wednesday press conference.

Honestly, I think the superintendent and those who are advising her, I think theyre stuck in the middle, Parman said, between ambition and achievability. In the context of whats been going on with other state plans and the department, it looks like theyre willing to fight that fight, and thats encouraging.

State track record

Compared to previous Montana test results, the new goals are lofty; between the 2006-07 and 2012-13 school years, students scoring proficient increased 2.3 percent on statewide math scores and 2.8 percent on reading scores. That test is no longer given; it was officially replaced by Smarter Balanced tests in 2015, which are generally recognized as more rigorous and yielded lower scores.

In the new plan, schools are asked to increase the amount of proficient students statewide by 12.6 percent in math and 10.8 percent in reading by 2022  about a 2 percent increase each year in both subjects.

Thats similar to a goal that Billings trustees set for NWEA MAP testing in 2014. Progress has been hit and miss: in reading and math, three of seven grade levels tested hit goals that track the same students from grade-level to grade-level. Some groups that improved overall had years when they dipped; some groups that didnt hit their overall goals had individual years of progress.

In a series of meetings analyzing test scores and graduation rates during the past school year, several trustees expressed interest in modifying the goals, questioning how realistic they were.

You want to see improvement in the school overall, said Trustee Gordon Klasna, a principal at Lockwoods Eileen Johnson Middle School, which also administers the NWEA tests, in October. To put a set number on it, I hesitate a little bit.

We wanted a target that was lofty, SD2 superintendent Terry Bouck said at a January meeting.

Bouck hadnt had a chance to review the new goals when the plan was released Wednesday.

We will look at whatever growth goal is out there for subgroups, he said. Were going to work our tails off.

At the meetings, several SD2 principals cited the need for more teacher training to improve scores. The district is implementing professional learning communities, teacher planning groups aiming for a more cohesive education strategy, next school year.

But federal aid for teacher training could be in jeopardy. While the U.S. House largely ignored President Donald Trumps proposed education budget, they did keep his $2 billion cuts to Title II, which funds professional development.

Subgroups

ESSA also requires schools to break out test scores by sub-groups, certain groups of students based on factors like race, class and disability status.

Some sub-groups, like students with disabilities and Native American students, typically score lower on standardized tests, so their four percent improvement goal results in a steeper rate of improvement. In math, students with disabilities are asked to improve by 18.5 percent, and Native American students are asked to improve by 17.9 percent, compared to 11.6 percent for white students.

Its unclear in OPIs plan how subgroup and average scores could be combined into a category score, but test score proficiency levels are slated to make up 25 points for elementary schools and 30 points for high schools on a 100-point rubric. Officials are also required to develop a public report card, which includes progress toward subgroup goals. OPI hasnt developed the report card yet; Arntzen said Wednesday she wanted the report card to reflect positive things schools are doing.

The higher expectations for subgroups target long-held achievement gaps, a major focus in ESSA.

ESSA as a synonym, it could be equity across all subgroups, Arntzen said. She and Hedalen said OPI would dedicate resources to helping schools improve scores.

Bouck noted that legislative action to increase education spending is typically hard won in Montana; unfunded mandates are "always a concern," he said.

OPI expects the plan to undergo revision before its submitted to the feds by a Sept. 18 deadline, and officials emphasized that they still want feedback.

Parman said hes been impressed with OPIs responses to ideas so far.

I do believe that the office is genuinely interested in getting public feedback, he said. Its trite to say it, but its a process. Were a long ways from knowing what this is going look like at the end.

We have to be able to make sure that we infuse an element of hope, he said. If those goals are reasonably unattainable, then you lose hope.
MOIESE  Ben Montgomery took a stroll through bee and butterfly heaven the other day.

Along the way, the Lake County district conservationist counted 14 species of flowering plants and grasses that would provide a smorgasbord for bees, butterflies, cows and all sorts of wildlife.

This is amazing, Montgomery said as he searched through the nearly neck-high stand of grass, legumes and forbs on the Foust Farm near Moiese. Just imagine how good of habitat this is for all kinds of wildlife.

The restored wetland is one of the largest examples of a relatively new initiative of the Lake County Conservation District to create new habitat for the insects vital in pollinating fruits and vegetables.

One out of every three bites of food that we take, we can thank a pollinator for it, said Heidi Fleury, the Lake County Conservation Districts conservation coordinator. We know how important they are to preserve.

Its not news that populations of bees have been struggling for survival due to disease, parasites, pesticides and loss of habitat.

For the first time, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency listed a bee species as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The rusty patched bumble bee once occupied the grasslands and prairies of the upper Midwest and Northeast, but loss of habitat has caused that population of bees to crash.

I think that really opened up peoples eyes, Fleury said. We all know there could be pretty big consequences to our ag community to have a bee listed here.

As a result, the conservation district worked closely with the National Resources Conservation Service to come up with a twofold plan to find ways to create more habitat for those insects important to so many people's livelihoods and well-being.

The idea was to find a way to encourage both homeowners with small acreages and farmers with lots of land to grow more flowers that the bees and butterflies need to survive.

They started last year developing a mix of wildflower seeds that small landowners could obtain for free to create small pollinator islands on their property. That idea went over so well that the conservation district has now set aside funds to buy seed every year.

At the same time, Montgomery went to work looking for ways to add flowering legumes and forbs to farmland, to create better habitat for bees and butterflies while adding additional forage for local farmers and ranchers.

If the thick stand of grass peppered with yarrow, cornflower, chicory and flax growing on the Foust Farm was representative of what is possible, Montgomery may have just found the mother lode.

You never expect to see this in a dry land seeding, Montgomery said. Its the best Ive ever seen.

Other Lake County farmers have had success in increasing yield while creating new habitat for pollinators through broadcast planting of clover. Montgomery is also testing other legumes that might be a better fit for ranchers because they dont have the potential of causing bloating in livestock that gorge on clover plants.

Were trying to find the species that have all the good without the bad, he said. Were testing a lot of different plants in order to fine-tune what works best here.

The seeds can be expensive.

The worst thing that could happen is to have someone buy into the program and then see zero flowers come up, Montgomery said. You have to find plants that will be somewhat aggressive and be able to outcompete weeds and hold their own with grasses.

Arnold Foust said he was excited to see whats possible on the 89 acres that he set aside for the trial.

Its exciting to see that this can really work, Foust said.

Foust knows that bees and other pollinators are displaced every year when he cuts his alfalfa crop. Its comforting to know that theyll now have another place to go and thrive that he can eventually use as pasture for his cattle.

Fleury said people are also being successful in creating small pollinator islands on the land around their homes with the seed mix provided free by the conservation district.

To make it work, people need to put some time in preparing a good clean seedbed and, if possible, provide some water early on to give the new seedlings a boost. Once the plants are established, the hope is that most do just fine with the amount of moisture that Mother Nature provides.

The response so far has been wonderful, Fleury said.

About 90 landowners have created 95 plots that range in size from 2,500 square feet to 89 acres on the Foust property.

No one can say for certain just what all of this will mean for the native species of bees and other insects in Lake County, but the idea is one that other conservation districts are watching closely.

Its absolutely being viewed as a pilot program here in the state, Fleury said. Ive already had several other conservation districts ask for the template on what weve done here.

Were looking for a simple, cost effective way to create more habitat for pollinators, she said. People are very busy these days. It has to be something that works and can be done easily.

To learn more about the program, people can call Fleury at 406-676-2811, Ext. 102 or email lakecountycd@ronan.net or visit the districts website at lakecountyconservationdistrict.org/pollinator-initiative/.

People interested in seeing the Foust property can take part in an upcoming pasture walk at 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 29. The tour will also include a look at the Fousts' use of cover crops to improve soil health and feed their livestock.

To learn more about the pasture walk, call Montgomery at 406-676-2841, Ext. 111.
Despite an agreement worked out last year, a group of Montana legislators is reigniting a debate over why state helicopters cant be used to fight federal fires except when lives are threatened.

On Wednesday the Environmental Quality Council  composed of 12 legislators and four members of the public who met by conference call  unanimously approved sending a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Secretary of the Department of the Interior Ryan Zinke stating their displeasure with the federal standards.

Regarding the issue relative to the Department of Agriculture, there appears to be an ongoing refusal on the part of the federal government and the Forest Service to allow our Montana (MT-205) helicopters to be classified as approved aircraft for initial attack on federal lands, the letter stated. The aircraft are safe and effective and are integral to fighting wildfires in Montana. For them to be allowed on all lands in the state except federal land because of a bureaucratic technicality is not logical.

June meeting

The letter was drafted after a few members of the EQC stated their displeasure with the agreement at the groups June 30 meeting.

This is insane what goes on here with federal rules on the state, said Rep. Bradley Hamlett, R-Cascade, at that meeting. This defies gravity  makes no good common sense.

Its a disagreement that seems unlikely to be resolved since the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservations firefighting aviation department and the Forest Service are unwilling to change. The states MT-205 helicopters are modified Vietnam-era Bell UH-1H helicopters with increased power. More power means the copters can carry 324-gallon buckets. Forest Service policy, which has been based on investigations into past helicopter crashes, requires similar sized helicopters to limit their water buckets to 224 gallons.

They wont change and neither will we, John Tubbs, DNRC director, told the panel in June.

This is bananas, said Scott Aspenlieder, one of the EQCs public members. Its beyond crazy and illogical.

Tubbs told the group that the DNRC is satisfied with the agreement and state firefighters are willing to deploy if necessary, even if federal agencies havent requested assistance. Tubbs said the Forest Service is basing its decision on a fleet of what is mostly contract helicopters, owned privately and paid to fight fires.

Eastern fires

The EQCs letter also addressed federal firefighting resources in Eastern Montana, where a drier than normal spring and extensive hot weather have caused almost daily fire starts.

The other issue is relevant to Secretary Zinke and also demands federal attention, the letter stated. We request that the Bureau of Land Management pay particular attention to the wildfire risk this season in eastern Montana. Many people have worked very hard in recent years to address concerns about the greater sage grouse and the bird's habitat. We are concerned that the BLM does not have adequate firefighting resources necessary in eastern Montana to combat a wildfire that could consume valuable sage grouse habitat and wipe out the work the state has done in recent years to protect that habitat. We ask that you bolster firefighting forces in eastern Montana as soon as possible.

My understanding is that weve been doing reasonably well with ordering and getting resources, although they have been coming from a reasonable distance away, said Al Nash, BLM state information officer. Thats not unusual.

The BLM does pre-position crews when fire danger is high. Right now the northern Rockies is at a preparedness level of 3 while the national level is at 4. The bigger the number the greater the number of fires and an increased demand for resources.

Were confident we have what we need for the current fire activity, Nash said.

Burning

The National Interagency Fire Center is forecasting above-normal significant wildfire potential for the eastern half of Montana through September. So far this year Montana has reported six large fires that have burned across 47,500 acres. Of those six, four were being fought out of the BLMs Miles City Field Office. The largest is the 30,000-acre Tongue River Complex, which is composed of the Lee Creek and Witten fires.

The Lee Creek fire is about 3,356 acres and 95 percent contained. Crews will continue to patrol and mop-up the fire perimeter on Wednesday. The Witten fire is 28,684 acres and 55 percent contained. There will be a community meeting to update the public about the fires at the Charging Horse Casino meeting room at 7 p.m. this evening in Lame Deer.

The 11,000-acre July fire burning in the Little Rocky Mountains is the states second-largest fire. On Tuesday the 398 firefighters assigned to the blaze were supported by aircraft and conducted burnout operations to strengthen control lines on the north edge of the fire and to remove unburned fuels in the interior, according to the website InciWeb.

Five fires that ignited Monday about 39 miles northwest of Jordan have been combined into the 3,000-acre Blue Ridge Complex. Twenty-three firefighters successfully conducted a burnout operation Tuesday night along the east flank of the fire, halting the fires progress in that direction, according to InciWeb.
The Dixie Group has purchased all of the yarn manufacturing assets of the former Royalty Carpet Mills Porterville, California yarn plant.

Dixie will lease the Porterville building through a long term arrangement and will begin hiring former associates to manage and operate the yarn plant within the next two weeks.



Officials said, "The output from this yarn plant will allow The Dixie Group to better service our West Coast customers and provide yarn capacity for future growth."
Kate Middleton has been in the limelight ever since it came out that she was romantically involved with Prince William. Through the years, we have seen her handle the crazy amount of attention with grace. But that doesnt mean there havent been controversies.

Sadly, it seems like slip-ups are inevitable when youre famous. Some of these surprising moments happened before she became the Duchess of Cambridge, but many of them occurred after the royal wedding. Here are seven of Kate Middletons most controversial moments over the years.

1. The topless photo scandal

The Duchess of Cambridges privacy was invaded while she was sunbathing topless in 2012. She was on vacation in France with Prince William when the paparazzi took a photo of her using a long lens. The images were later published through French media.

The photos obviously upset the couple. The clandestine way in which these photographs were taken was particularly shocking to us as it breached our privacy, Prince Williams statement read, according to People. My wife and I thought that we could go to France for a few days in a secluded villa owned by a member of my family, and thus enjoy our privacy.

The royal couple requested $1.9 million in damages from Closer magazine and the daily newspaper, La Provence.



2. Kate Middleton and Prince Williams breakup

The couple is now married with two children, but they dated for a long time before they decided to tie the knot. Their courtship had ups and downs, including a breakup in 2007. We were both very young, explained Prince William according to Marie Claire. We were finding ourselves. It was very much trying to find our own way and we were growing up.

3. Her unfortunate wardrobe malfunction

The Duchess doesnt have good luck with the paparazzi. While she was in Australia, her dress was blown up by the wind as she exited a helicopter. Someone took a picture, which reportedly showed Middletons behind and a German publication later published the image, according to Extra.



4. Breaking tradition by not presenting shamrocks to the 1st Battalion Irish Guards

In 2016, it was announced that Middleton wouldnt be presenting shamrocks to the 1st Battalion Irish Guards for St. Patricks Day. Instead, Prince William would fulfill the duty. This was controversial given that the job is usually done by female royals, according to Express.

The Duke is the first ever Royal Colonel of the Irish Guards  the connection is with him, said a spokesperson. There are plenty of examples where female members of the Royal Family havent presented the shamrocks. The statement continued, While the Duchess has accompanied the Duke every year since his appointment in 2012, and will do so again in future, this year she sadly could not make it because she is prioritizing time with her children before next months tour of India and Bhutan.



5. Wearing another cultures clothing for a traditional dinner

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge accidentally wore traditional clothing from the Cook Islands to an official Solomon Islands dinner during their tour through Asia, according to The Huffington Post. The mix up happened when a member of the couples welcoming committee put the Cooks Islands traditional clothing in their room, so they mistakenly wore them.

Clarence House, the London royal residence, later released a statement regarding the mistake.

We saw they werent the same design of the traditional clothes we were told would be gifted. So we checked with the Solomon Islands government to ensure the right ones were worn. We were reassured the clothes were correct, and so the Duke and Duchess wore them to the event. It was not learned until later in the evening that the clothes werent from the islands. But it was understood that the Duke and Duchess intended to wear traditional Solomon Island clothes and this was appreciated. No offence was caused.

6. Her dress choice for the Royal Ascot

Sadly, being a royal doesnt protect you from slut-shaming. Believe it or not, Middletons dress choice for the Royal Ascot horse race was criticized. There were some who believed the Alexander McQueen dress was too short, sheer, and inappropriate, according to Vogue.

7. The Middletons supposedly snubbed Meghan Markle

Now that things are heating up between actress Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, there have been rumors surrounding Markles relationship with the rest of the royal family.

Markle met Middleton and everything reportedly went smoothly, but there were rumors that Markle wasnt invited to Pippa Middletons wedding ceremony. There were reports that Pippa Middleton simply wanted a small ceremony, but some have taken this as a dig at Markle.

Follow Nicole Weaver on Twitter @nikkibernice.

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The atomic part of the hybrid experiment. The atoms are contained in a micro-cell inside the magnetic shield seen in the middle.

If laser light used to measure motion of a vibrating membrane (left) is first transmitted through an atom cloud (center) the measurement sensitivity can be better than standard quantum limits envisioned by Bohr and Heisenberg.

Quantum physics: Scientists at the Niels Bohr Institute by University of Copenhagen have been instrumental in developing a 'hands-on' answer to a challenge intricately linked to a very fundamental principle in physics: Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. The NBI-researchers used laser light to link caesium atoms and a vibrating membrane. The research, the first of its kind, points to sensors capable of measuring movement with unseen precision.

Our lives are packed with sensors gathering all sorts of information - and some of the sensors are integrated in our cell phones which e.g. enables us to measure the distances we cover when we go for a walk - and thereby also calculate how many calories we have burned thanks to the exercise. And this to most people seems rather straight forward.

When measuring atom structures or light emissions at quantum level by means of advanced microscopes or other forms of special equipment, things do, however, get a little more complicated due to a problem which during the 1920's had the full attention of Niels Bohr as well as Werner Heisenberg. And this problem - which has to do with the fact that in-accuracies inevitably taint certain measurements conducted at quantum level - is described in Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

In a Scientific report published in this week's issue of Nature, NBI-researchers - based on a number of experiments - demonstrate that Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle to some degree can be neutralized. This has never been shown before, and the results may spark development of new measuring equipment, new and better sensors.

Professor Eugene Polzik, head of Quantum Optics (QUANTOP) at the Niels Bohr Institute, has been in charge of the research - which has included the construction of a vibrating membrane and an advanced atomic cloud locked up in a minute glass cage.

Light 'kicks' object

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle basically says that you cannot simultaneously know the exact position and the exact speed of an object.

Which has to do with the fact that observations conducted via a microscope operating with laser light inevitably will lead to the object being 'kicked'. This happens because light is a stream of photons which when reflected off the object give it random 'kicks' - and as a result of those kicks the object begins to move in a random way.

This phenomenon is known as Quantum Back Action (QBA) - and these random movements put a limit to the accuracy with which measurements can be carried out at quantum level.

To conduct the experiments at NBI professor Polzik and his team of "young, enthusiastic and very skilled NBI-researchers" used a 'tailor-made' membrane as the object observed at quantum level. The membrane was built by Ph.D. Students Christoffer Mller and Yegishe Tsaturyan, whereas Rodrigo Thomas and Georgios Vasikalis - Ph.D. Student and researcher, respectively - were in charge of the atomic aspects. Furthermore Polzik relied on other NBI-employees, assistant professor Mikhail Balabas, who built the minute glass cage for the atoms, researcher Emil Zeuthen and professor Albert Schliesser who - collaborating with German colleagues - were in charge of the substantial number of mathematical calculations needed before the project was ready for publication in Nature.

The atomic part of the hybrid experiment. The atoms are contained in a micro-cell inside the magnetic shield seen in the middle. Photo: Ola J. Joensen

Over the last decades scientists have tried to find ways of 'fooling' Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. Eugene Polzik and his colleagues came up with the idea of implementing the advanced atomic cloud a few years ago - and the cloud consists of 100 million caesium-atoms locked up in a hermetically closed cage, a glass cell, explains the professor:

"The cell is just 1 centimeter long, 1/3 of a millimeter high and 1/3 of a millimeter wide, and in order to make the atoms work as intended, the inner cell walls have been coated with paraffin. The membrane - whose movements we were following at quantum level - measures 0,5 millimeter, which actually is a considerable size in a quantum perspective".

The idea behind the glass cell is to deliberately send the laser light used to study the membrane-movements on quantum level through the encapsulated atomic cloud BEFORE (Italics!) the light reaches the membrane, explains Eugene Polzik: "This results in the laser light-photons 'kicking' the object - i.e. the membrane - as well as the atomic cloud, and these 'kicks' so to speak cancel out. This means that there is no longer any Quantum Back Action - and therefore no limitations as to how accurately measurements can be carried out at quantum level".

How can this be utilized?

"For instance when developing new and much more advanced types of sensors for various analyses of movements than the types we know today from cell phones, GPS and geological surveys", says professor Eugene Polzik: "Generally speaking sensors operating at quantum level are receiving a lot of attention these days. One example is the Quantum Technologies Flagship, an extensive EU program which also supports this type of research".

The fact that it is indeed possible to 'fool' Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle may also prove significant in relation to better understanding gravitational waves - waves in Space moving at the speed of light.

In September of 2015 the American LIGO-experiment was able to publish the first direct registrations and measurements of gravitational waves stemming from a collision between two very large black holes.

However, the equipment used by LIGO is influenced by Quantum Back Action, and the new research from NBI may prove capable of eliminating that problem, says Eugene Polzik.
A model walks the runway a dress by Alfred Angelo in 2014. On Friday, the wedding dress designer abruptly closed all its stores across the country. (JP Yim / Getty Images)

The fate of wedding gowns bound for the Chicago area is in limbo following news that bridal dress company Alfred Angelo is planning a bankruptcy filing and shuttering shops nationwide.

For many brides with approaching wedding dates, the clock has long run out for ordering their dresses, a process that can take months.

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The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the company is closing shops and has filed for bankruptcy protection. The company did not respond immediately to a request for comment from the Chicago Tribune.

Eva's Bridal pulled all of the Florida-based chain's dresses off the floor of its Oak Lawn shop, owner Ronia Ghusein said Friday.

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"We've gotten a lot of calls from not just our customers ... praying that their gown is not an Alfred Angelo," Ghusein said.

Alfred Angelo has given no indication as to whether ordered gowns will be delivered, Ghusein said. Her shop and others in the Chicago area are scrambling to make sure their customers aren't left without a wedding dress when their big day comes.

"We were as sideswiped by this as the brides," she said. "It just came out of nowhere."

Manufacturers and other Alfred Angelo competitors, such as David's Bridal, are offering discounts on dresses and rush delivery.

The shutdown isn't just sending brides into a panic. Alfred Angelo also designed the often distinctively colored bridesmaid dresses that complete the attire for the wedding party.

Camille Francia, owner of Francia Bridal Fashions in Downers Grove, was fielding calls all day Friday from worried customers, including five bridesmaids who had ordered their dresses for an October wedding.

One of the bridesmaids already received her dress from another retailer, leaving the other four, who ordered from Francia, desperately seeking a color match.

"The color name is mahogany," Francia said. "Now we're trying to outfit four other girls as close to that color as we can, with a different company."

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Accompanied by her mother, one of the dressless bridesmaids came to the store Friday afternoon searching through swatches. They settled on a cranberry-colored dress from another designer.

"It's about the same," said Francia, who is applying the money the bridesmaids paid for the Alfred Angelo orders to the new dresses.

Brideside, a Chicago-based online retailer with a shop in the West Loop, is offering refunds to customers who ordered Alfred Angelo dresses June 30 or after. Brideside also handled Alfred Angelo's online sales. About 1,500 orders were affected, company co-founder Nicole Staple said.

"We've been led to believe that actually none of these orders, even the orders that were en route, will be able to be filled," Staple said. "We feel we need to provide (customers) solutions and answers now."

The shops are hoping for official word on the ordered dresses soon.

"You don't ever want to mess with a woman's wedding gown," Ghusein said.

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amarotti@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @AllyMarotti
ROUNDUP  Ralph Goffena saw the the North Delphia Fire start.

Goffena owns a ranch in the hills east of Roundup and was out Friday morning on his property when a small, powerful thunderstorm moved through the area.

"It started on the prairie," he said. "I saw the lightning bolt and counted it off."

He figured he was 6 miles from the lightning strike when it happened. He and a number of other land owners called it in and, shortly after, Musselshell County crews were on the scene working to keep the blaze from spreading.

By Friday evening, the fire had burned roughly 3,700 acres, according to the Musselshell County Disaster and Emergency Services. DES anticipates fire crews will have it under control by the end of the night.

The fire is burning about 10 miles east of Roundup, just north of Highway 12 East. The county sheriff's department placed a voluntary evacuation order for residents in the area. The hills east of Roundup are dotted with dozens of homes, tucked in between ponderosa pines and grassy fields.

Some homes had the fire come within feet of the property line. But as of Friday evening, no houses had burned. The only structure destroyed by the fire was an old, abandoned ranch house, tucked far back in the hills.

All afternoon helicopters, single-engine airplanes and larger jets dropped water and slurry near property lines and on hot spots. Bureau of Land Management crews showed up in school buses and began carving out fire lines.

Highway 12 East is open to traffic, but officials are asking that motorists stay out of the area if possible.

For most of the morning, Goffena was worried about the $50,000 in baled hay he had sitting out on his land and about his sister and brother-in-law's home, which was across the ridge to the north of Goffena's house and right in the middle of the fire.

Goffena's other sister, Mary MacCatherine, who lives across the drive from Ralph, had been watching the area and the column of smoke that seemed to hover over it most of the morning.

"The last I could see her house was still standing," MacCatherine said.

The Goffena family has been in Roundup since the early 1900s, when the family's patriarch arrived in the area and bought out a number of the homesteaders who had been there. Today his grandchildren live on much of the property.

While Mary was watching the burning ridge in front of her sister's house, her brother George Goffena pulled up in his red Dodge. He'd just come from some of his grazing land, where he'd been trying to carve out a fire line to stop the spreading blaze.

It had been an intense morning for him.

"Just looked like a damn bomb," he said. "I didn't know what to do, so I just left."

Between the advancing fire and the properties owned by Ralph and Mary was a sizable prairie dog colony. Both were hopeful that it would be a big enough fire break to protect their homes.

But Ralph wasn't eager to wait and find out. By 1 p.m. he was driving his green John Deere tractor down the road to the edge of his property where he started carving a fire line.

Just before he headed down the road he got word that his sister and brother-in-law's place had survived the morning's conflagration.

It was welcome news. Noting the danger and the evacuation notice, he said the only way he'd leave was "if they drag me out of here."

For those who have evacuated, the Red Cross is setting up a shelter at the Roundup Community Center.
After plunging during the housing crash, condo prices in downtown high-rises constructed before the crisis have recovered and are slowly reaching new highs.

On average, condos built by 2007 are selling at $433 a square foot compared with $414 in 2008, according to Gail Lissner, vice president of Appraisal Research Counselors. That's a 28 percent gain since the housing crash low of $338 in 2012.

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But the recovery, said Lissner, has been slow and steady without a surge in sales volume. That's a contrast to the pre-crash period when people rushed to buy condos in a manic market.

Lissner has been analyzing sales in 65 large condo buildings throughout Chicago's downtown  an area that includes about 20,000 units in the Gold Coast, River North, Streeterville, the Loop, West Loop and South Loop. Prices climbed modestly from $426 a square foot during the first two quarters of 2016 to $433 during the first half of this year.

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The prices are significantly below newly constructed condos, which have been selling at over $500 a square foot, said Lissner. She noted that since the housing crash there has been little new construction of large condo buildings, although developers are showing increasing interest.

In contrast to the pre-crash building boom of moderately priced condos, new buildings in the downtown area have been designed in recent years for affluent buyers with luxury taste. They typically have offered large three-bedroom units rather than the one- and two-bedroom condos that attracted first-time buyers before the crash.

In an early sign of a broadening market, Lissner noted a recent announcement by LG Development to construct 175 condos in two buildings at 1410 N. Orleans in Old Town. One of the buildings will include 119 one- and two-bedroom condos starting at $290,000.

As the condo market continues to improve, Lissner expects to see more variety in new condo construction, but said downtown land prices and construction costs make it difficult for developers to build units that will sell below $500 a square foot. She expects more condo construction outside of downtown where land is less expensive.

gmarksjarvis@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @gailmarksjarvis
Southeastern Wisconsin is in the running to land a behemoth electronics manufacturing facility that could bring 10,000 jobs, a potential game-changer for the region if the deal goes through.

Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group, a major electronics manufacturer well known for making Apple's iPhones, has announced plans to invest $10 billion to expand U.S. operations, and although it has not announced where or how that money will be spent, Wisconsin officials have let slip that their state is a top contender.

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Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner reached out to Foxconn earlier this year to make his own pitch for the project and the state "will continue to stay in contact as Foxconn works to consider locations and opportunities in the Midwest," according to an emailed statement Friday from governor's spokeswoman Eleni Demertzis.

But Foxconn appears to be zeroing in on a swath of Wisconsin just north of the border, which would still likely benefit Illinois as the company builds its workforce and supply chain.

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"This would be not just a win for the state of Wisconsin, it would send a strong signal to the world that the Midwest as a region is a force to be reckoned with," said Ron Starner, executive vice president at Atlanta-based Conway, a corporate expansion and relocation consultancy that publishes Site Selection Magazine.

Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, had annual revenues last year of $136.38 billion, according to Nikkei Asian Review, a business journal based in Tokyo. More than half its sales come from Apple.

Speculation about Foxconn's plans has been building since Foxconn chairman Terry Gou announced in January that it was considering building a $7 billion U.S. factory to make LCD display panels in partnership with Japan-based Sharp, which Foxconn purchased last year.

Last month Gou said Foxconn's U.S. expansion efforts could total $10 billion and that he would announce investment plans by early August for at least three states and might add at least three other states later, according to the Associated Press.

Exactly which states are under consideration isn't clear. The Associated Press said Gou listed Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin, but the Nikkei Asian Review, did not list Texas and reported that Gou later named North Carolina instead of Illinois.

"Our investment in the U.S. will focus on these states because they are the heart of the country's manufacturing sector," Gou told investors at a company shareholders meeting June 22, according to the AP. He later told reporters that "we are bringing the entire industrial chain back to" the region and the work "may include display making, semiconductor packaging and cloud-related technologies."

The prospect of adding thousands of manufacturing jobs in the Rust Belt has some dreaming of a renaissance for the region.

"It will create a domino effect wherever it goes," said Brad Migdal, senior managing director in the Rosemont office of Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate brokerage.

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Illinois stands to benefit if the plant is just across the Wisconsin border, as O'Hare Airport could get more traffic, workers living in Lake County could make the hourlong commute and small businesses could step up to cater to workers' needs, Migdal said. Most important, he said, is the potential for Foxcomm's suppliers to set up shop in the vicinity.

"The biggest question more than anything is, if they come, who comes with them?" Migdal said.

Mark Denzler, chief operating officer at the Illinois Manufacturers' Association, said while the hope would be for such a plant to land in Illinois, having it nearby also is beneficial.

"You would hope that you would have a number of suppliers that would locate around that facility," he said.

Illinois made its case to Gou in a February letter from Rauner that invited him to visit. The letter, provided by the governor's office, said Illinois ranks fourth in the nation for electronics and computer manufacturing and detailed various other assets: the universities' top engineering programs, low energy costs, transportation infrastructure and innovation hubs for advanced manufacturing. Rauner also promised to cut red tape and potentially offer "corporate tax credits, electricity and sales tax exemptions, workforce grants, infrastructure grants and property tax abatements."

But signs suggest the company is interested in Wisconsin.

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Wisconsin House Speaker Robin Vos and two other state legislators wrote in a July 5 memo that Foxconn "has indicated its desire to locate in southeastern Wisconsin with up to 10,000 jobs."

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, whose district covers southeastern Wisconsin, said July 7 that he met with Foxconn officials at the request of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and was working to find a "good fit" for the factory, according to the Associated Press.

President Donald Trump fueled the Wisconsin speculation mid-June when he said during a trip to Milwaukee that "just backstage we were negotiating with a major, major incredible manufacturer of phones and computers and televisions, and I think they're going to give the governor a very happy surprise."

Michigan also is gunning for a piece of the Foxconn action, with some lawmakers using the prospect of a Foxconn deal to push for a new $200 million tax incentive program. The program, backed by Gov. Rick Snyder and approved Wednesday, allows companies to keep some or all of the income taxes their employees would otherwise pay to the state, provided the company meets certain job creation and worker wage requirements.

Foxconn, for its part, is only confirming that it is "conducting an evaluation of the conditions and potential locations for establishing manufacturing facilities in the U.S." and said it won't announce plans until negotiations are complete and it has gotten approval from its Board.

In announcing plans for a $7 billion display-making plant in January, Gou said Pennsylvania was a leading candidate. The site selection would depend partly on land and power costs and whether states could offer terms that make it cheaper than shipping from China or Japan, Gou said, according to the Associated Press. The status of the Pennsylvania plant  and whether or not it is the same facility that could now be constructed in Wisconsin  is unclear.

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Foxconn's chairman met with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development's Taiwan/China investment office representative this January and expressed a desire to invest further in Pennsylvania, but the meeting did not address any specificproject and there are no updates, according to David Smith, the agency's director of communications.

Foxconn has been known to promise big investments that don't pan out.

The company in 2013 announced it would invest $30 million and hire 500 workers for a new factory in central Pennsylvania, but that investment never happened, Smith said.

What kind of manufacturing jobs Foxconn could create in Wisconsin remains to be seen, but given the significantly lower labor costs at Foxconn's huge assembly plants in China it's likely a U.S. facility would be highly automated and focus on higher-skill jobs, Conway's Starner said.

"I don't think they would even be looking at the U.S. if they weren't for some automation solution," Starner said. "To me it has to be driven by technology and access to a higher skilled workforce, which is exactly what Wisconsin provides in droves."

Wisconsin has several advantages that could have drawn Foxconn's attention, Starner said, including abundant and inexpensive water and electricity and a well-educated, hardworking population. The state's community college and state university systems rank among the best in the country in the minds of corporate business leaders, he said.

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What the state doesn't have is a lot of people, so to fill 10,000 jobs it would have to recruit from a wide swath, which could easily include Illinois, Starner said. More than 5,100 people living in Illinois, most in Lake County, commuted to work in Kenosha County in the southeastern corner of Wisconsin, according to a 2013 report from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. Nearly 22,000 people living in Kenosha County worked in Illinois.

The size and quality of the labor force are typically the most important factors companies consider when they are choosing locations, said Steve Weitzner, president of Silverlode Consulting in Cleveland. They look at demographics, educational institutions and population change patterns to see how the available workforce will evolve over time.

Other factors companies take into account include real estate, transportation access, utility costs and state and local tax burdens  the latter of which puts Illinois at a disadvantage compared to Wisconsin, Weitzner said. But while some companies want the lowest costs they can find, others care more about the quality of the place. Incentive packages can be a factor but they are temporary, he said.

Foxconn employs about 1 million people across China who make and assemble smartphones and other devices for brands like Apple, Samsung, Sony and BlackBerry. Some of its factories have been criticized for low wages that push workers to work hundreds of hours in overtime to make ends meet; in 2010, a series of suicides at an iPhone factory drew negative publicity.

After that the company significantly lifted wages but progress has "gone backward" as competition among Apple suppliers rose, Li Qiang, director of China Labor Watch, said through a translator. The base monthly salary for a worker at a Chinese Foxconn plant is 2,200 Chinese yuan, or about $325, he said.

Qiang said he does not expect such labor conditions in the U.S., where laws are tighter.

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While the prospect of Foxconn's entry to the Midwest is positive, Bob Weissbourd, president of Chicago-based economic development firm RW Ventures, said the big showy get is often not most important to job creation, especially if it comes with the expense of incentives.

"Day to day if you want to grow your economy the best thing you want to do is invest in your existing companies," Weissbourd said.

aelejalderuiz@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @alexiaer
A flag flies outside the studio of Tribune Media Company's WGN television studio on May 8, 2017, in Chicago. Tribune Media Co. agreed to be acquired by Sinclair Broadcast Group. (Scott Olson / Getty Images)

A Tribune Media shareholder has filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to halt the company's sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group.

The shareholder, Sean McEntire, is seeking class-action status in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Chicago on Thursday.

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McEntire accuses Chicago-based Tribune Media of giving stockholders incomplete and misleading information about the deal, including failing to provide portions of the companies' financial projections, the value of another bid for Tribune Media and other details of the process leading to the merger agreement, according to court records.

The deal, valued at $3.9 billion, was announced in May, pending approval from stockholders, the Federal Communications Commission and federal antitrust regulators.

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Sinclair, already the largest station owner in the country, would pick up Tribune Media's 42 television stations, ending local ownership of Chicago's WGN TV and radio stations.

The combined company would own and operate 233 television stations in 108 markets, unless the FCC requires divestitures.

McEntire is asking the court to block Sinclair's purchase until Tribune Media shares the information he claims was withheld, or award damages if the deal goes through before the information is disclosed.

The lawsuit names Tribune Media and members of its board of directors as defendants.

A Tribune Media spokesman declined to comment.

lzumbach@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @laurenzumbach
Brides across the country are being stood up at the store entrance.

Alfred Angelo, a bridal gown chain with more than 60 stores nationwide, as well as partnerships with more than 1,400 retailers, has suddenly closed all of its store locations without any warning, leaving brides-to-be wondering if they'll receive their wedding dress or get a refund.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the company is planning to file for bankruptcy protection, which has led to the closures. The company plans to hire the law firm Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson to handle the issue, according to the Journal.

Many brides-to-be took to social media to vent their thoughts and anger at the company for closing without warning right in the middle of the summer, which is the busiest time of the year for weddings.

"My wedding is in 29 days. I'm glad orange is my wedding color because I'm gonna be married in jail if I can't get my dresses," tweeted Ashley Austin.

The company based in Delray Beach, Florida, and was founded in 1933 by Alfred Angelo and his wife, Edythe Piccione, in Philadelphia. In the 1960s, their children, Vincent and Michele Piccione, began running the company, which they would do for the next 35 years. It was under the children's leadership that the company expanded its retail stores across the country.

Company employees told the Journal that no warning was given about the stores closing until Thursday morning - when they were told the stores would close for good at the end of the work day. Store managers were told to return their keys after closing time.

According to Syracuse.com, brides rushed to the Arnold Angelo store in DeWitt, New York, on Thursday to pick up their dresses or inquire about ones they had ordered, only to be met by puzzled store employees who had just heard the news hours earlier. The employees encouraged customers to call the company's customer service line for help.

The Washington Post called the company's customer service line on Friday and got the answering machine.

Syracuse.com also reported that Alfred Angelo plans to file for liquidation under Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to a letter sent by company lawyers to a "valued partner."

David's Bridal, a competitor of Alfred Angelo, didn't waste any time after hearing the news. In a tweet to worried brides and grooms, David's promised that there was a light at the end of the altar: It's offering discounts to those affected by their rival's store closures.

Alfred Angelo didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
To celebrate National Ice Cream Day, the Museum of Science and Industry is giving out free ice cream at three locations on Sunday. (Museum of Science and Industry)

Normally, fake food holidays are an annoyance  who actually celebrates Mincemeat Day (July 3), Fig Newton Day (January 16), or Tater Tot Day (February 2)? (Full disclosure: It's always Tater Tot Day at my house.)

But it's the middle of summer, and Sunday's National Ice Cream Day doesn't sound all that bad. Especially considering The Museum of Science and Industry is getting in on the action, because science is delicious.

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In partnership with Polonia Catering's Nitro Dessert Station, MSI representatives are making stops around the city to hand out free cups of liquid-nitrogen-blasted ice cream on Sunday, July 16. The stops are at White Sox Family Day at Guaranteed Rate Field, the museum itself and Maggie Daley Park. Each stop will feature a different flavor, available first-come, first-served until supplies run out.

At Guaranteed Rate Field, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., you can snag chocolate cake batter ice cream. At the museum stop, from 1:45 p.m. to 2:45 p.m., chef Graham Elliot will make an appearance in the Smart Park, an area not normally accessible to regular museum guests. Elliot created a custom sweet corn flavor just for the event (museum admission is required to access this ice cream stop). Finally, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., get vanilla bean ice cream at Maggie Daley Park.

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If you'd like to try your hand making ice cream at home with your kids, the museum also shared this handy activity sheet for making ice cream in a zip lock bag.

Ambitious ice-cream lovers can try to hit all three spots to get each flavor. Sounds a whole lot better than chasing down mincemeat.

Find more information at www.msichicago.org/icecream.

jbhernandez@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @joeybear85






The Field Museum's new Base Camp event features live music, cocktails and museum experts in the bar section of the museum's restaurant. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

The Field Museum, on this particular weeknight, was hopping  at least in the section of it that had been transformed into a cocktail lounge decorated with stuffed and mounted birds of prey, a life-size T. rex skull and more.

In what is, during daytime hours, a nondescript seating area for the museum's restaurant, young adults drank cocktails crafted especially for the occasion or Tooth & Claw, one of the museum's signature beers.

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Jon Langford, musician-about-town, strummed hard and sang loud, trying to make himself heard above the din of conversation. "I love a millionaire," he sang, and rather than a reference to such institutions' courtship of wealthy donors, it was the refrain from one of the better songs by his punk band The Mekons.

This Thursday night tableau was, in other words, an atypical scene at the natural history temple on the city's Museum Campus, which was exactly the point.

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"It's cool to be in a museum at night," said Danielle Lukowski, 33, a nurse from Logan Square. "It's a beautiful building to be in, and you've gotta see Sue," a reference, of course, to the museum's celebrated T. rex skeleton perched just a handful of apex predator steps away.

A few miles up Lake Michigan that same night, the Lincoln Park Zoo was similarly transformed for the latest in its popular series of Adults Night Out events. Absent was the free zoo's typical daytime brigade of strollers and their delighted but somewhat boisterous occupants.

Present were, yes, cocktails, plus dancing on the main lawn, plus animal talks in the specific habitats, plus a condom giveaway by a not-for-profit trying to raise awareness for endangered species.

"Wrap with care," said the packaging on one of the prophylactics being dispensed. "Save the polar bear."

Such after-hours events are proliferating across Chicago, threatening to rescue the phrase "night at the museum" from a mediocre film franchise and transform it into a description of something people can actually take part in.

It's a small revolution in the often staid world of museums, a development that seems both obvious and overdue.

Museums complain that it's hard to get local people to visit more than once a year or so  and harder to get locals to come by than tourists. People who'd like to go more often but hold day jobs note that it's awfully hard to get there when, during the work week, the museums mostly keep bankers' hours.

But in recent years the peanut butter and chocolate in this formulation have been coming together to form more and more opportunities for attendance and, often, for the institutions to eke out some extra revenue from their costly facilities.

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The Field's Base Camp events are happening monthly through the summer, each one organized around a natural history theme; the first one, in June, asked $45, a little over what an all-access museum pass would cost, but the museum decided subsequent ones, including the July event where Langford played, would be free.

"My title is adult engagement manager. I'm here to think through how we're reaching out to folks who are adults, who may have come when they were 12 in a school group but don't necessarily realize we have collections that are vital to them," said Noah Cruickshank, who was busy that night greeting visitors at the door, ushering in Langford and the second act, members of the band Devil in a Woodpile, and just generally making sure things went smoothly

"The goal is not just to have a party but to figure out how an event like this can further people's understanding  of this scientific powerhouse in their front yard."

The string trio Hear in Now performs at the Museum of Contemporary Arts weekly jazz dinner event Tuesday on the Terrace on July 4, 2017. (Alexandra Wimley/Chicago Tribune) (Alexandra Wimley/Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

The Museum of Science and Industry did its first ever 21-and-over nighttime public event last summer, and it was a smash success. Before the first MSI After Hours event, organized around the "Brick by Brick" Lego special exhibition there, MSI marketing director Maureen Chen told me the staff were hopeful the allure of such an event would prove out and the museum might establish MSI After Hours as a series.

"We wanted to make sure the timing was right to do something engaging and relevant to the over-21 crowd," she said.

Apparently, it was. Two MSI After Hours events have happened this year, based on the "Extreme Ice" and "Robot Revolution" shows, and two more are planned, for Sept. 8 and Nov. 17.

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Meanwhile, Chicago History Museum launched its own monthly 21-and-over late night program, History Happy Hour, in May and it includes "rotating beverage partners and unique explorations of the museum," said spokeswoman Emily Osborne.

The July 18 event ($15) focuses on the exhibition devoted to the early Chicago fashion designer Mainbocher and tickets include flash tours of "Making Mainbocher," one complimentary drink and museum admission.

Adler Planetarium has been cleaning up with creatively programmed nighttime events. Search "Adler After Dark" and Google will tell you about "Planetary Prom / May 18 / SOLD OUT!" and "Aliens Among Us / June 15 / SOLD OUT!"

The every-third-Thursday events leverage the rise of nerd culture but also people's interest in finding something new to do. "Perfect date night" and "exclusive museum access" are among Adler's marketing phrases. The July 20 event is, it almost goes without saying, already sold out; tickets ($20 advance, $25 at the door) for the Aug. 17 event, themed to the solar eclipse, go on sale July 21.

(It's a tough ticket to score. "We've been wanting to do the Adler thing forever," said Lukowski, the nurse interviewed at the Field event.)

Adler After Dark is one of the more longstanding of the area's nighttime adult museum offerings, along with the Art Institute's Thursday night hours (free to Illinoisans and typically less crowded than other times) and Jazzin' at the Shedd, which includes a live band and takes advantage of the aquarium's amazing views of Chicago on Wednesday evenings.

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Similarly, MCA does Tuesdays on the Terrace, also featuring jazz and dinner. And the museum, trying to better meet its potential patrons where and how they live, in recent weeks changed its regular hours to stay open till 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays.

At Lincoln Park Zoo, nighttime programming has become a key source of revenue.

"All of the events we do help bring money back to the institution and keep us open and free," said Joshua Rupp, director of events.

What he and his peers at other institutions are capitalizing on, he said, "is this growth in young adults, young professionals who want more social activities after hours. We've seen a huge spike in people wanting to do things at unique places."

So the zoo has beer festivals, an upcoming wine festival, regular Wine and Wildlife nighttime events that are sort of mini nature symposia.

When he started Adults Night Out four years ago, Rupp said, "We were thinking, 'Yeah, we'll get a couple of hundred people in, see how it goes. We were thinking it would be a little bit of an older audience. What we saw was just a whole bunch of young professionals, and really our sweet spot is 20s to 30s."

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The first year they did two Adults Night Outs, then four. This year, the zoo is doing six, including one during Zoolights, its winter lights event. And attendance? "1,800 is about our average," Rupp said.

The goal is to "catch you once you're here," he added. Maybe you come for the novelty, but he's found it's an engaged crowd, one that is pretty receptive to the zoo's science and conservation mission.

That's the concept at the Field Museum, too, with the new Base Camp series, a concept that impressed even jaded musician types.

"It's lovely to be in a museum. I feel like I belong," Langford said. "I'm hoping tonight I'll be placed in a glass case."

sajohnson@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @stevenkjohnson

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
The Field Museum, famous for "Sue," the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil, lacks a central identity. In trying to be a "catchall" museum, it loses its kick, stuck somewhere between a comprehensive natural history museum and a childrens museum.

For inquisitive minds, or visitors with youngsters in tow, this isn't too much of an issue. You get an educational trip while also seeing some impressive taxidermy along the way. Additionally, a positive to this is the museum's space. There's lots of it, so visitors have plenty of room to stroll and stop as needed in the nicely spaced Field.

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You will see, though, that there are portions designed purely for children. Take the "What is an Animal?" exhibit for example. There's a broad range of colors on the wall, with diverse specimens lining the inside of the cases: fish, big cats, birds, coral, you name it. It outlines what they are, where they live and how they survive. They give you a grade-school breakdown of biology in this and the adjacent sections.

This is important information, of course, but past a certain age there is nothing here but a refresher of the basics.

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The special exhibit, "Specimens," serves the same sort of role. It simply states how the museum organizes its collections, how they preserve specimens and how they put those on display. Again, an interesting and important concept but a very basic execution.

On the other hand, you have the exhibits that go full-fledged natural history museum. The Gidwitz Hall of Birds stands out as the most complete collection of taxidermied animals. The fowl are stuffed in displays filling the room, with birds as mysterious as owls, fierce as falcons and massive as ostriches. It's overwhelming just how many specimens are in this exhibit  who knew how many different ducks there were and how subtle the differences were between pigeons?

But you can tell these kinds of exhibits don't capture the attention of the younger visitors as well as they could or should. Inside the Reptiles and Amphibians exhibit, a boy turned to his father and said, in dismay, "It'd be cooler if it could move," after pressing his face to the glass of the anaconda display.

There are exhibits that strike the right balance. The Inside Ancient Egypt exhibit has a beautiful display that outlines culture and language while also showing you artifacts from the time.

There are helpful informational stations about the hieroglyphs in front of a full section of sarcophaguses, mummies and other burial findings. The archeological remnants juxtaposed with fake carvings aimed at children doesn't cause a dissonance here, but actually work in unison to tell a more complete story of the life and death of ancient Egyptians.

But, you'll see, some exhibits have not been updated in decades and are heavy-handed. The Africa section, for example, still has videos and reading plaques from no later than the 1990s. And while it is important to learn about village life in Senegal and the royal palace or religion of the area, statistics on the walls come from 1993. If you hold this education important, either as a natural history museum or a learning opportunity for children, it would seem that a quarter century is too long to go without changing anything in an exhibit.

It's really a hit-or-miss museum. The artifacts and fossils found inside can inspire awe, you just have to know where to look (look for dinosaurs, those are usually the best places to find something exciting).

onthetown@chicagotribune.com

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
In 2008, a playwright from the Yale School of Drama named Alexander Woo was charged with writing the fifth episode of a new HBO series. The series was "True Blood" and this was to be a gothic horror-fantasy based on "The Southern Vampire Mysteries" novels by Charlaine Harris, set in the fictional backwater town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, and following the life and loves of a waitress named Sookie Stackhouse.

Alan Ball, who had created and was running the show, starring Anna Paquin as Sookie, was a playwright. At the time, Ball was known for filling his writers room with theater people like Woo, who'd already penned several dramas about Chinese-Americans fighting discrimination in the 19th century. There was a lot of plot in that fifth episode, aptly dubbed "Sparks Fly Out" and set mostly in Merlotte's bar and grill, where Sookie worked. But Woo homed in one particular scene with one particular African-American character: Lafayette Reynolds, the gay, powerful, mystically outre and thoroughly fearless short-order cook.

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Lafayette was played by actor Nelsan Ellis, who died July 8 at the age of 39.

His character was initially conceived as part of just the first season of "True Blood." But Ellis and his fans had other ideas.

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Woo's "Sparks Fly Out" episode would contain the most famous two minutes of the entire trajectory of the show: a precious preservation of Ellis' extraordinary work that has been rewatched time and again in the wake of his death from, his family has said, complications that came from a drug and alcohol addiction that Ellis was feverishly trying to kick.

In that two-minute scene, three of the rural town's more boorish, racist and homophobic residents (Chuck, Wayne and Royce) walk into the bar and order a burger, take a look at who is at the grill and claim that the burger will have AIDS.

Lafayette hears of the hate speech, roars out of his tiny kitchen, burger and fries in hand, and unleashes an eloquent torrent of explosive language about the mighty contributions of gay Americans in service of the weak and the ignorant, before proceeding to knock the open-mouthed trio of yahoos senseless.

"Tip your waitress," Lafayette says as he turns on his heels and returns to the kitchen, bloodied red noses in his wake.

Totally inseparable from Ellis' gifts as an actor, that little vignette is a spectacular piece of writing by Woo, fully matched by Ellis. I'd argue that scene  indeed, Lafayette's character arc  is fully comparable to the scenes featuring Belize, the gay, outre, fearless nurse who functions as the moral conscience of Tony Kushner's masterpiece, "Angels in America."

Comparing a Pulitzer Prize-winning work that many consider to be the best American play of the latter half of the 20th century to the work of a supporting character within the realm of fantasy cable TV, where you never quite know who wrote what, might seem absurd. But Belize and Lafayette were built from the same architecture and Ellis' Lafayette lived large through many seasons of populist television. He was, you might say, the Belize of the people.

Both characters were the anchors of fever dreams populated by flailing souls obsessed with their own mortality, morality and desires, thus becoming unable to take care of their lovers or their communities. And failing to understand their own history.

In his most famous monologue, Belize describes an AIDS-ridden America that feels to him to be "nothing but a bunch of big ideas and stories and people dying," and he rails against a national anthem that pitches the word "free" so high that "nobody could reach it." It is, in many ways, a high-falutin' version of what Lafayette would say on almost every episode of "True Blood."

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Watching Ellis all those years on "True Blood," I often thought that this actor deserved to star in the biggest "Angels" revival on earth.

It never happened.

Nothing that Ellis achieved came easily. Born in Harvey, he spent some early years in Alabama and returned to Illinois to attend Thornridge High School in economically stressed Dolton. From there, Ellis first went to Columbia College in Chicago, then to Illinois State University, where he served in the National Guard on weekends. A college friend, Michael Dice Jr., recently told me that he recalled Ellis working all night at the front desk of an ISU dormitory, desperately trying to pay for school.

Unfulfilled at Illinois State, Ellis decided to audition for Juilliard. He succeeded and scored a scholarship, even as gun violence afflicted his family while he was there. "True Blood" followed hard thereupon, and Ellis also appeared in the movies "The Help" and "The Butler." He became famous, although the roles he was offered never fully matched in his talents.

In 2012, Ellis directed a tiny production of a Katori Hall play in Chicago. The project, which centered on a young, oppressed woman in the Tennessee of the 1930s who dreams of a career singing the blues, allowed Ellis to reunite with high school friends from Thornridge. These six African-American artists had formed a theater company and called themselves The Collective. Ellis came back to help. He did an interview with this newspaper. He was a delight.

The production was remarkable: melancholy, sexual, defiant, truth-telling and bursting with life. Not unlike Belize. Not unlike Lafayette.

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The title of Hall's play, "Hoodoo Love," seemed to fit what Ellis had achieved with "True Blood."

It was staged on the second floor of the Athenaeum Theatre. Very few people saw what Ellis and his friends did; those of us who did were lucky.

Ellis was gone as quickly as he came.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com
This week, an utterly human response from a CEO to his employee who was taking time off to cope with mental health issues took the internet by storm. It prompted thousands of retweets, garnered dozens of headlines and even inspired a call-out from Sheryl Sandberg: "We need more leaders who encourage employees to bring their whole selves to work," wrote the Facebook COO.

For those who missed it, a web developer named Madalyn Parker, who has written that she suffers from anxiety and depression, wrote an email to her colleagues saying she'd be out for a couple of days to "focus on my mental health."

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Her CEO, Ben Congleton, replied by thanking her, saying every time she sends an email like that "I use it as a reminder of the importance of using sick days for mental health" and "you are an example to us all, and help us cut through the stigma." Parker then shared it on social media, where it racked up hundreds of responses. ("OMG. Are they hiring?" asked one user on Twitter.)

There are many reasons Parker's email got such a visceral response. For one, people love reading stories about the generous bosses they wish they had  stories often get shared widely of CEOs who give away their stock, dole out generous across-the-board raises or offer particularly cushy benefits to their workers. Congleton's email was rightfully called a "master class in leadership" for his willingness to recognize his employee's needs and remind her colleagues to do the same.

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"When the CEO responds to your out of the office email about taking sick leave for mental health and reaffirms your decision," Rose tweeted.

"Many people wish they lived in the kind of world that these emails represent," said Mary Killeen, a senior research associate at Syracuse University's Burton Blatt Institute, which focuses on disability research and policy. "People wish they could be open with their supervisor and colleagues about occasionally needing time off, not because they are physically ill, but because they are dealing with a personal issue or an emotional state that makes it impossible, temporarily, to do their work."

Then, there's how well we can all relate to the challenges of taking sick days. Many Americans, of course, don't get sick leave. But those who do  even if they don't worry about the stigma of mental illness  often don't use all their time off, whether because of job insecurity, a crushing workload or an expectation to work even when people should be home in bed.

"People are talking about this a lot in the context of mental health, but perhaps an equally important point is that our culture around work in the U.S. may not be particularly healthy," said David Mandell, director of the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research at the University of Pennsylvania.

Clearly, the response to the email also reveals how many people continue to cope with mental illness in the workplace. One in four people will experience a diagnosable mental illness in their lifetime. And a mountain of research has shown how much of a stigma exists for people grappling with the issue at work.

"I was very impressed and actually surprised by the extent of the viral pickup" of the story, said John Quelch, the dean of the business school at the University of Miami who until recently held joint posts at Harvard's schools of business and public health. "I think it indicates there is an undercurrent of awareness in the population that this is an issue and it has not been addressed in a systematic way by most corporations."

Surveys by the American Psychological Association's Center for Organizational Excellence show that less than half of Americans (44 percent) say they believe the climate in their organization supports well-being, and that nearly 20 percent of employees say the challenges of their jobs were harder to handle in the past month due to mental health issues such as depression or anxiety. For employers, says the center's director, David Ballard, "the costs of untreated mental health issues, the lost productivity, is actually more costly than the treatment side because people are there at work but not functioning to full capacity."

That issue, known as "presenteeism," is one several mental health experts said Parker's email also highlighted when she wrote that "hopefully, I'll be back next week and refreshed and back to 100 percent." Studies have shown that mental health issues such as depression and mental illnesses had the third-highest annual per-employee costs from lost productivity while at work, up there with arthritis, hypertension, allergy, headaches and diabetes.

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Mandell notes that the estimated productivity cost to working while sick is far more than the costs businesses endure when people are out of work. "The stigma associated with mental health that causes people to bring those to work is actually a huge productivity drain," he said.

Yet for many employees, taking sick days when they're needing to deal with mental health illnesses doesn't feel like an option. In some workplaces, they may have to provide a doctor's note, which is much easier to do for a high fever than a panic attack. "Companies are very nervous about opening the Pandora's Box on mental health and support because of unknown quantification of costs," Quelch said. "Given the stigma, the path of least resistance is to not take the sick day."

Still, many were encouraged to see the positive, viral response of Parker's email and her CEO's response. Ron Honberg, senior policy adviser for the National Alliance for Mental Illness, said he recalls the offensive newspaper cartoons and negative, viral response from two decades ago came after it became clear the Americans with Disabilities Act applied to mental health.

Indeed, he says, "mental health day" has emerged as a widely used term that can mean anything from needing a break from exhaustion and stress to dealing with a more serious mental illness. "People will take a day of sick leave due to a very bad cold and we know they're going to recover and it probably isn't going to be a chronic condition, and people take sick leave because they have chronic [physical] conditions," he said. "The same standards should apply to mental health conditions." As long as it's not abused, he thinks the broad application of the term "mental health day" is okay. "'The fact we're using it so commonly, and without even thinking about it, maybe reflects progress."

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Nearly 70,000 people on Medicare's drug plan received "extreme" amounts of narcotic painkillers in 2016 and more than 22,000 others appeared to be "doctor shopping" for drugs, patterns that put both groups "at serious risk of opioid misuse or overdose," a government watchdog reported Thursday.

In all, about half a million people on the drug plan took amounts of the powerful drugs considered too large under standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the Inspector General's office of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. That number excludes people who had cancer or were in hospice, who may require large doses of painkillers.

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The report highlights another aspect of the prescription opioid epidemic that killed more than 15,000 people via overdoses in 2015: potential abuse by older and disabled people who qualify for Medicare Part D, the program's optional prescription drug benefit. In 2016, 43.6 million people were covered. Medicare primarily serves people who are older than 65.

The opioid crisis has been most closely linked to people between the ages of 25 and 44, particularly economically stressed whites and people in rural and small-town America. But the new report shows that older people are far from immune.

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As pressure to rein in use of addictive painkillers has grown along with the epidemic, some older people and patients in chronic pain have pushed back, worrying that they will not be able to obtain the medications they say allow them to function.

In a Washington Post poll published in December, a majority of long-term opioid users said the drugs have dramatically improved their lives by relieving intractable pain, and two-thirds said the relief is well worth the risk of addiction.

The nearly 70,000 extreme users received the equivalent of 240 milligrams of morphine every day for the entire year, Inspector General Daniel Levinson's office reported. The CDC recommends avoiding consumption of more than 90 milligrams per day and says use of the drugs for more than three months substantially raises the risk of dependence. The most common drugs were Tramadol and pills containing hydrocodone or oxycodone.

In the extreme group, 678 people received more than 1,000 milligrams a day for the entire year - a level that might indicate they were selling or otherwise diverting their drugs to others. One person in New Hampshire was prescribed 13 months worth of 80-milligram OxyContin, 13 months of 60-milligram OxyContin, 13 months of 40-milligram OxyContin, 14 months of 30-milligram oxycodone and 13 months of fentanyl patches.

The 22,308 doctor shoppers received more than 120 milligrams of controlled substances daily for at least three months, and used at least four prescribers and four pharmacies in 2016.

"Although beneficiaries may receive opioids from multiple prescribers or pharmacies for legitimate reasons," the report noted, "these patterns raise concern."

The report found sharp differences among states in opioid consumption. In Alabama, 46 percent of Part D beneficiaries had received at least one opioid, and in Mississippi, the figure was 45 percent. At the low end of the scale was Hawaii (21 percent) and New York (22 percent). Overall, 1 in 3 Medicare drug beneficiaries received an opioid last year.

Those drugs were authorized by more than 115,000 prescribers who ordered opioids for at least one person at serious risk of misuse or overdose because of their consumption patterns or doctor shopping, the inspector general concluded. The vast majority did so for just one or two patients, but 198 of them each prescribed drugs for at least 44 beneficiaries receiving extreme amounts of the addictive painkillers.

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One Florida physician ordered the equivalent of 1,239 milligrams daily of oxycodone and fentanyl for a single patient. The doctor's overall prescribing habits cost Medicare Part D $1.6 million.

A third of the 401 prescribers who showed "questionable prescribing patterns" were nurse practitioners or physician assistants.

Every state but Missouri has established databases that prescribers are required or encouraged to check for signs of doctor shopping or abuse before authorizing the drugs. Some authorities believe that these "prescription drug monitoring programs" are helping to curb doctor shopping for painkillers.

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The world's worst press release landed in my inbox the other day.

Competition is stiff for that title but this release, which came with the subject line, "Lifesaving information for Chicago citizens," ran away with the crown.

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After a cheery, "Hi Mary," it began:

"We are only a little over a halfway through with 2017 and Chicago's violence shows no signs of stopping."

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No argument there. Violence is the curse, the tragic flaw, the interminable disease of this great city  a psychological undercurrent even in the many neighborhoods that rarely witness it; and this wasn't the first press release I've ever gotten that takes note of that fact. I routinely get pitches involving violence, some with ideas that sound productive, like programs that work with kids in struggling parts of town.

The world's worst press release wasn't one of those.

"Shootings, sexual assaults and burglaries all happen daily in the city," it went on, "and much more frequently than other cities."

As I read, I could hear the sirens, bombs and helicopters of her imaginary dystopian Chicago  the PR agency is in Arizona  and wondered if she'd graduated from the Donald Trump School of Public Relations.

"It's critical," she continued, "that citizens learn to protect themselves as the violent attacks have been shown to happen anywhere and at any time. Not only could the lifelong beneficial knowledge save your life, but also those around you that may be in danger."

Take your time. Read the above paragraph again. It takes a moment for the  what's the word? b.s.?  to sink in.

But facts rarely get in the way of a product pitch, and this one marched toward its climax:

"Would you be interested in learning basic self-defense moves from (I'm deleting the company name), a global leader in personal self-defense training, to protect yourself against an assailant?"

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At last. The solution we've all been waiting for. A few quick kicks to the jaw of those ubiquitous assailants and Chicago will be Shangri-La.

I'm not going to name the self-defense company she was promoting. If I did, the world's worst press release would have succeeded in getting publicity for its product. Suffice it to say that the company is headquartered in L.A. Its website describes it as the "industry leader in reality based self-defense, fitness, and fighting."

There's an industry involved, that's for sure, but it's not just the self-defense industry. It's the fear industry.

Fear is a hot commodity.

Ask Donald Trump. He sold it to the American voters. He's a titan of the industry, and fearmongering about Chicago is one of his specialties.

The fear industry exists to make us vote a certain way, click on certain stories, buy stuff. In the name of protection, it stokes our fears beyond reason.

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A colleague with a teenage daughter recently received a press release that's a strong runner-up for the title "world's worst."

It came with the subject line "This May be The Most Important Thing You Buy for Your College-Bound Daughter," and warned "With the continual rise of date-rape drugs, empower your daughters with this simple product for her peace of mind (and yours)!"

The product was a "drink system"  the fancy term for container  that lets a young woman take her own drink to the party or bar, thereby thwarting the scoundrel who'd like to slip her a date-rape drug.

In a jaunty tone hardly fitting for the subject of rape  most press releases are jaunty, regardless of topic  it promised that the drink system's "strong seal prevents spilling, leaking and squirting while the straw helps keep teeth clean and lipstick in place."

My colleague, who worries about her daughter in the ways any mother would, was appalled that the company was trying to capitalize on her fears for her daughter's safety "to get me to buy a product that I really don't want or need."

The world is full of danger, more for some people than others, but for most people in most realms it's safer than it used to be.

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The titans of the fear industry and their PR agents don't want us to think that way. They've got products to sell, and they're happy to use real problems to sell fake solutions.

I dream of the day that I get an email with the subject line "Lifesaving information for Chicago citizens" and it's for a real solution to Chicago's troubles. It will be the world's best press release.

mschmich@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @MarySchmich
The Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to consider an appeal by the Kane County State's Attorney's Office in the case of Arthur Manning, who has twice been convicted of a 2008 murder in St. Charles.

In March, the Second District Appellate Court granted 66-year-old Manning a third trial in the killing of Naromi Mannery, who died after being stabbed during a fight with carnival workers at a home on West Main Street.

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Manning has long claimed he stabbed Mannery in self defense, however juries found him guilty of murder in 2009 and 2013. Both subsequent appeals centered on issues with the handling of jurors by now-retired Judge Timothy Sheldon in the first trial and Judge Susan Clancy Boles in the second trial.

In 2011, the appellate court vacated Manning's initial murder conviction and 29-year sentence on grounds that Sheldon failed to instruct jurors about self-defense and second-degree murder during the original trial.

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The second appellate decision found Boles committed an error during the second trial when she declined a defense request to poll each juror about whether they believed mitigating factors existed in the fatal stabbing. Jury instructions in the case required jurors to first determine if prosecutors proved Manning to be guilty of first-degree murder and, if they concurred, to then decide whether mitigating factors were present to convict him of second-degree murder.

Kane County prosecutors sought to appeal the latter Second District decision, but the Supreme Court denied the move May 24. Without elaborating, the Supreme Court issued an order July 12 which reversed the May 24 ruling and allows the state's attorney to go forward with its appeal.

"We appreciate the opportunity for the case to be reviewed. We believe the Supreme Court's decision will provide important guidance for addressing jury questions," Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon said.

Manning remains in Illinois Department of Corrections custody.

Two men  Guy Manning, who is Arthur's brother, and Willie Wimberly  each received eight-year sentences for aggravated battery in connection to the murder. A fourth man was charged with obstruction of justice after police learned he tired to wash Mannery's blood off the sidewalk in front of the home.

Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
For years, Albany Park residents living along the North Branch of the Chicago River have cringed at any heavy rainfall, fearing the river would leave its banks and water would fill their streets and homes.

While Chicago didn't see the rain totals the suburbs did, the city saw 2.33 inches of rain between Wednesday and Thursday morning, enough for city crews to spring into action  ferrying equipment and sandbags to the area as the river swelled to five feet, below flood stage. Residents were happy with the city's response, but some say they won't breathe a sigh of relief until the massive underground stormwater diversion tunnel is completed next spring.

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City officials say the $70 million project is on schedule for completion in May as crews dig a mile-long tunnel below Foster Avenue that will divert surging stormwater east toward the North Shore Channel.

The tunnel, a joint project between the Chicago Department of Transportation and Metropolitan Water and Reclamation District, will reduce the danger of floods that have plagued the neighborhood in recent years.

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Shylo Bisnett, an Albany Park resident who lives a few blocks from the North Branch of the river, said that while she'd been glued to forecasts and wasn't worried about flooding this time around, she was nonetheless pleased to see city crews setting up barricades, making sandbags and posting tow notices to clear streets near the river on Tuesday night.

The mother of two who previously served on a community group that criticized the city's response during past floods said city officials may finally be getting the message.

"They seemed to at least have paid attention this time," Bisnett said. "It's nice to see the city be proactive instead of reactive this time, and I just want them to finish that tunnel project."

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The city's response was all part of a city flooding "action plan" that was created following the April 2013 floods, said Manuel Galvan, a spokesman for Ald. Margaret Laurino, 39th.

Once river levels hit five feet  two feet below flood stage  city departments, including Streets and Sanitation, police, fire and utility companies like ComEd "descend" on Albany Park to ensure a quick response to any residential flooding or safety issues, Galvan said.

Though the National Weather Service had issued a flood advisory for the neighborhood Wednesday through Friday this week, forecasts of lowering floodwaters meant that city crews were already scaling back by Thursday afternoon, according to Galvan and the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communication.

After so many years of fearing floods, Bisnett said she was glad that her neighborhood's concerns were on the city's radar.

"Honestly I was just so happy that (the city) noticed because before, it didn't seem like either OEMC cared or had the resources to devote."

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wlee@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @MidNoirCowboy
A car was damaged late Thursday after shots were fired on the outbound lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway near 43rd Street, according to Illinois State Police.

Just before 11:45 p.m., Illinois State Police received a report of gunshots that were fired on the southbound lanes. A car, carrying three people, was damaged by the gunshots, but no one was injured, troopers said.

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Troopers closed the southbound lanes between Pershing Road and 43rd while they searched for evidence. The lanes reopened about 3 a.m. Friday.

Police did not have information about the shooter or the vehicle the shooter was in as of early Friday.
Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle, seen here on June 15, 2017, announced more than 300 layoffs on July 14, saying each department had to cut 10 percent to make up for a budget shortfall due to the delay of the soda tax. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

More than 300 Cook County employees have been laid off after a proposed county soda tax was indefinitely stalled by a lawsuit, county officials said Friday.

Each county department had to cut 10 percent of its budget to meet the shortfall, according to a statement from County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

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In addition to the layoffs, more than 600 vacant positions will go unfilled, she said.

"I regret that these actions are necessary  and I deeply regret the impact they have on individual employees," wrote Preckwinkle, noting that she proposed the soda tax in part to avoid such significant budget cuts.

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Cutbacks to vital offices in the county's criminal justice system could have a significant impact, authorities said.

The state's attorney's office announced that 17 prosecutors will be laid off, plus 22 other staffers. In addition, non-union staffers, prosecutors included, will be required to take two unpaid furlough days, according to spokeswoman Tandra Simonton.

Simonton declined to comment on the impact of losing nearly 20 prosecutors, but earlier this summer officials told the Chicago Tribune that the office was already understaffed as violence continued to spike at levels unseen in two decades. As a result, the office has made policy shifts, including a plan to stop prosecuting certain traffic offenses altogether.

The public defender's office, which represents indigent clients who cannot afford a private lawyer, laid off 69 employees, the bulk of them lawyers, said Public Defender Amy Campanelli. The effect will be "devastating," she said.

"This will delay trials and the resolution of cases," Campanelli said. "We already suffered cuts last year. I have no excess to spare at all."

Staffing shortages could even lead the public defender's office to stop taking on new clients, said Campanelli, who added that her attorneys' workloads are already above the maximum recommended by experts.

A look at the numbers behind Cook County's new soda tax. How will the tax work and how much will it cost consumers? (Phil Geib / Chicago Tribune) (Phil Geib/Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

If the public defender's office cannot represent a client, the county must appoint private counsel at a far greater cost over the long run, Campanelli said.

"I am a constitutionally mandated office, therefore I have to be funded," she said. "I have to provide legal representation pursuant to the Sixth Amendment. Everybody has a right to counsel, no matter how poor."

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The 300 layoffs do not include cuts yet to come from the sheriff's office.

Those cuts have not yet been finalized, said Cara Smith, chief policy officer, who declined to say how many layoffs are anticipated.

"I can tell you that we're going through every aspect of the office to look for places we can cut," Smith said.

Among other obligations, the sheriff's office runs the Cook County Jail, operates the sheriff's police and provides security at county courthouses.

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"Cuts and adjustments in those divisions will have an impact throughout the criminal justice system," Smith said.

The tax on soda and other sweetened beverages was supposed to go into effect July 1. But a judge issued a temporary restraining order June 30 after the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and several grocers filed a lawsuit against the county Department of Revenue seeking to block the tax as unconstitutional and too vague.

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Circuit Judge Daniel Kubasiak is scheduled to take up the county's motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Friday, but he isn't expected to announce his decision until a week later, according to Frank Shuftan, Preckwinkle's spokesman.

"We can't predict what the judge may or may not do, how long the court case may last, and, as such, have to proceed with the holdback," Shuftan wrote in an email to the Tribune.

Cook County had projected collecting about $67.5 million in revenue from the tax this year and more than $200 million for fiscal year 2018.

mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @crepeau
A judge set bail at $1 million Friday for a man accused of fatally stabbing his older brother "for not being there for his kids,'' prosecutors said.

Tyrone Montalvo, 28, was charged with murder after the Wednesday night stabbing at his home in the 1400 block of North Kildare Avenue in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood, according to police.

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Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil set bail on Friday at $1 million during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

Killed was 32-year-old Alejandro Montalvo, of the 5300 block of West Addison Street, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

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The brothers and several witnesses were hanging out in the basement apartment drinking beer about 8:10 p.m. when the 28-year-old started lecturing his older brother about his parenting skills, according to Assistant State's Attorney Jamie Santini.

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The argument escalated into a fight, and the Montalvos began punching each other, Santini said. As the older brother began to "get the better'' of his younger brother, one of the witnesses intervened and tried to stop the fight, Santini said.

At that point, the younger Montalvo left the home but he returned a few minutes later and began lunging at his brother, plunging a knife into his neck and shoulder five times, according to Santini.

A witness who kept on trying to stop the fight was slashed in the hand.

Alejandro Montalvo was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:26 p.m.

After the stabbing, Tyrone Montalvo tossed the knife on the stairs of the home, got into a vehicle and drove away, but police arrested him after he crashed in the 4500 block of North Cicero Avenue about 9:20 p.m., police and prosecutors said.

An autopsy Thursday determined Alejandro Montalvo died of multiple stab wounds and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner's office.

As police detectives interviewed him after his arrest, Tyrone Montalvo admitted to fighting with his brother and said he had "called him out for not being there for his kids,'' prosecutors said.
A Chicago man was arrested and charged with murder after a fatal shooting in south suburban Sauk Village earlier this month, police said.

Jayvon L. Byrd, 24, of the South Side, was charged and arrested Thursday afternoon with the murder of Jerry L. Thomas, Sauk Village police said.

Thomas, 29, was pronounced dead at 10:25 p.m. July 6 after being shot on 223rd Place west of Clyde Avenue in Sauk Village, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

An autopsy July 7 determined Thomas, of the 1800 block of 224th Street in Sauk Village, died of multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner's office.

At the request of Sauk Village police, the FBI Chicago Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force arrested the 24-year-old on a warrant, the FBI said.

FBI agents said Byrd, of the 1600 block of East 67th Street, was arrested in Chicago and placed into the custody of the Sauk Village Police Department. It was not clear how they linked Byrd to the shooting.


Chicago police investigate the scene at M & M Quick Foods in the North Austin neighborhood on Dec. 30, 2011, where off-duty Officer Clifton Lewis was killed. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

A Cook County jury Thursday convicted the getaway driver in the 2011 slaying of an off-duty Chicago police officer who was working security at a West Side convenience store that had been held up just weeks earlier.

Prosecutors said Edgardo Colon acted as the driver while two accomplices, donning masks and brandishing weapons, charged into the M & M Quick Foods in the 1200 block of North Austin Boulevard.

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Security footage played for jurors showed the robbers fatally shooting Clifton Lewis, 41, as he took cover from behind the counter and returned fire.

The gunmen escaped with money and Lewis' gun.

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Lewis, 41, an eight-year veteran of the force, had just started working the second job after the store had been targeted for a robbery weeks earlier. He had also become engaged just days earlier to his longtime girlfriend.

The jury deliberated about 31/2 hours Thursday before finding Colon guilty of murder, armed robbery and aggravated battery.

The alleged gunmen  Alexander Villa and Tyrone Clay  are still awaiting trial, court records show.

About a week after the shooting, Colon was arrested on a weapons charge, and while in custody, he told police he had information on a murder, police Sgt. Al Perez testified Wednesday.

Edgardo Colon on July 13, 2017, was found guilty of murder, armed robbery and aggravated battery in the 2011 slaying of an off-duty Chicago police officer who was working security at a West Side convenience store. (Cook County sheriff's office)

Colon gave two versions of what happened the night Lewis was killed, said Perez, then a detective. Colon then summoned Perez, asking him for a cigarette, the sergeant testified.

"All of a sudden he starts crying," Perez said on the witness stand. "He said, 'Can I see my girlfriend one more time because I'm going to go to jail for life.'"

That exchange was not captured on video of the interrogation, however. But prosecutors played footage of subsequent interviews with detectives in which Colon admitted to driving Villa and Clay to rob the store.

"I told them I was down, I need the money," Colon was heard telling detectives on the video. "I did not intend for anybody to get hurt.  I never in my life hurt anyone."

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Colon told police the gunmen started "freaking out" on returning to the getaway car and as Colon drove off, the video showed.

"He said, 'Dude was a (expletive) cop,'" Colon said.

Clifton Lewis, an off-duty Chicago police officer who was working security at a West Side convenience store, was slain in a robbery in 2011. (Chicago Police Department)

Prosecutors argued that Colon told police details about the shooting that only someone involved in the crime could have known, including specifics about a gun used by one of the robbers.

"He knew too much," Assistant State's Attorney Andy Varga told jurors in closing arguments Thursday. "He had too many details that were absolutely right."

But Colon's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender LaFonzo Palmer, said Colon could have learned those details secondhand on the street. He emphasized that no physical evidence tied Colon to the slaying.

"No DNA, no prints, no (gunshot residue), no video, nothing  to show that he aided or abetted in any form or fashion," he said.

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Palmer implied that police, under intense pressure in the killing of an off-duty cop, coerced Colon into admitting he drove the car that night.

"You saw his confession," said Palmer said, raising his fingers to simulate quote marks, emphasizing his point that it was anything but. "But what didn't you see? The context of it."

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In her rebuttal, Assistant State's Attorney Nancy Adduci blasted that argument, saying no evidence of coercion was presented at trial.

"It's so easy to blame the police," she said.

Colon gave information that led police to major breaks in the investigation, she said.

"The information he's giving is good, this information is gold, and they're going to treat him like gold," she said. "Nothing bad's happening to him.  Why would police want the wrong person?"

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Colon's supporters sitting in the courtroom gallery audibly scoffed at the remark.

mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @crepeau
A 31-year-old man who was charged in a June shooting that left his cousin's husband dead was denied bail Thursday afternoon when he appeared at a hearing.

Albert D. Robertson, charged with first-degree murder in the death Edward Mason, 41, is one of the gunmen in the fatal shooting, prosecutors said.

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Shortly after 3 a.m. on June 4, Mason, his brother-in-law, his nephew and another person were hanging out and drinking in an alley in the 1800 block of West Maypole Avenue in the Near West Side neighborhood.

When Mason's son saw an argument between the group start, he broke it up and the father and son left. A few minutes later they returned, and the brother-in-law pulled out a gun and approached Mason, according to prosecutors. The brother-in-law then lifted up victim's shirt, exposing his waistband and started to ask him where his gun was.

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However, Mason did not have a weapon, and when the brother-in-law realized it, he shot him in the torso, prosecutors said.

Mason fell to the ground and his brother-in-law continued to fire. Robertson joined in, and shot Mason as well.

Mason was pronounced dead at the scene and an examination at the Cook County medical examiner's office revealed he was shot a total of 14 times in the chest, abdomen, right cheek, left cheek, left forearm, left upper thigh and back, prosecutors said.

Both men then fled the scene in separate cars, prosecutors said.

After the shooting, the brother-in-law texted Mason's son and apologized for killing his father and offered the son money, prosecutors said.

While being interviewed, Robertson told investigators he shot Mason because he was drunk and told investigators the victim's last words were: "D--- cuz, you shot me, cuz!"

The brother-in-law remains on the lam.
CHEYENNE, Wyo.  An inmate at the Laramie County jail who was charged last month with the attempted murder of a fellow inmate has had the charge dismissed.

Circuit Judge Denise Nau ruled Wednesday there was not probable cause to support the charge against Victor Jackson, so she dismissed it.

Nau previously dismissed a count of aiding and abetting attempted murder against Jackson's brother, Duane Jackson.

Victor Jackson is awaiting trial on four counts of sexual assault-threat or, in the alternative, four counts of sexual assault-submission/resist, and a count each of strangulation of a household member and domestic battery-first offense.

Duane is awaiting sentencing for a count of sexual abuse of a minor. He faces a minimum of 25 years and up to 50 years in prison.
A suburban man who was convicted of sexually assaulting an elderly woman after breaking into her home was sentenced Friday to 90 years in prison.

Frank H. Mendez, 53, of Mount Prospect, was convicted by a jury in May of home invasion and aggravated criminal sexual assault stemming from the 2015 attack on a 97-year-old woman at an assisted living community in Arlington Heights.

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In handing down what's effectively a life sentence, Cook County Judge Steven Goebel said Mendez chose the "weakest and most vulnerable" victim and "shocked the moral conscience of the community."

"She was completely defenseless," Goebel told Mendez. "Your actions are reprehensible and despicable, pure evil."

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Goebel sentenced Mendez to 60 years for the home invasion and 30 for the sexual assault. He will have to serve 85 percent of the sentence.

Mendez declined to give a statement during the hearing and used a Spanish interpreter. But before being led away to prison, Mendez stood up, pointed at the judge and said in English, "God will get you."

The hearing was marked by an emotional victim impact statement read by the victim's daughter-in-law. She said her mother-in-law recovered from her physical injuries but was psychologically scarred by the attack and died four months later.

Before she died, the woman was able to testify at a preliminary hearing and said Mendez repeatedly struck her as she struggled with him. Her statements were introduced as evidence at his trial.

"The cruelest part was that she spent the twilight of her life afraid," the daughter-in-law said. "She always thought her attacker would come back and seek revenge."

The incident occurred at the Church Creek Senior Living facility along Central Road. The victim was described as a healthy woman who lived alone in an apartment at the facility.

Prosecutors said Mendez entered the apartment by using a knife to cut out a window screen and that the victim fought back fought during the attack. A security guard knocked on her door when her wrist alert went off and Mendez fled, leaving behind bloody fingerprints and other evidence, prosecutors said.

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At Friday's hearing, Assistant State's Attorney Ed Maloney argued for a lengthy sentence for Mendez, noting that the woman had bruises on her arms, face and shoulders.

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"The defendant is not someone who should be on the streets," Maloney told Goebel. "He certainly is a danger to the community."

Mendez's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Joe Gump, argued that Mendez had only a misdemeanor conviction for public indecency on his criminal record and should be shown leniency. Gump also introduced a mitigation expert who testified that Mendez had problems with alcohol and depression and would not be likely to repeat his offense if he received psychiatric treatment.

"He spiraled into alcoholism and depression," Gump said. "It's not an excuse for his actions, but it is an explanation."

Goebel said the attack appeared to be premeditated and showed planning. He noted that Mendez told police he entered another home earlier on the day of the incident, confronting a woman because he wanted sex. Goebel also said Mendez was arrested near another assisted living facility weeks later when police recognized him from a description.

"This court has no doubt that you knew it was an assisted living facility when you went inside and sexually assaulted and beat up (the victim)," Goebel said. "You have done tremendous damage to the community and the people of the state."

George Houde is a freelance reporter.
A lawsuit filed Thursday accuses a Chicago police officer of shooting a 36-year-old man to death without "just cause or just provocation'' earlier this month in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side.

The suit was filed in federal court by Tamara Locke, sister of Quintec Locke, who was shot during what police said was an armed confrontation in the 2200 block of South Kostner Avenue around 10:45 p.m. July 1. Two weapons were recovered from the scene, an AK-47 and a handgun.

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Earlier, the Cook County medical examiner's office spelled his first name Quentica.

According to the suit, which names the city of Chicago and Officer John Doe as defendants, Officer Doe and his partner responded to the scene with their guns drawn to a report of people shooting weapons and when the officers got there, they confronted Locke.

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The officers "did not take normal precautions or follow the usual practice approaching a suspect,'' according to the suit, and "without just cause or just provocation'' Officer Doe shot Locke "several times.''

The suit contends the use of deadly force was unprovoked and unwarranted and amounted to battery.

"I've not seen a police report that he ever pointed a weapon or fired a weapon at the police,'' said Tamara Locke's attorney Gregory Kulis, who was reached at his office Thursday afternoon.

Additionally, Kulis said he had not yet seen police video of the incident or spoken to anyone who witnessed it.

Locke, who Kulis said lived in the 1500 block of South Drake Avenue, died of multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Locke was pronounced dead at 12:26 a.m. July 2 at Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was taken after the shooting.

Tamara Locke is asking for compensatory damages in excess of $1 million, according to the suit.

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Police on the scene said they were responding to a person-with-a-gun call that was later updated to include information about shots being fired. Officers went down a gangway and encountered a man with a gun in the backyard, according to police, and an officer fired shots.

An AK-47 and a handgun were recovered at the scene, according to Glen Brooks, a community policing director for the Chicago Police Department who spoke at the scene.

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It's not clear whether police recovered casings, but there was a shot-up car nearby, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said at the time. The shooting that prompted neighbors to call police may have stemmed from a feud between families on the block, he said at the time.

The officer who fired shots was an on-duty, uniformed Ogden District officer who was wearing a body camera, according to police officials.

Guglielmi said at the time that he hadn't reviewed the body camera video but that the city's Independent Police Review Authority would be investigating the use of force.

IPRA spokeswoman Mia Sissac said Thursday evening the case remains under investigation.

"The family is just looking for answers and for the truth,'' Kulis said.
Lovely and Mathew Varughese sit by the grave of their son Pravin on July 14, 2017, at Maryhill Catholic Cemetery in Niles. More than three years after the 19-year-old Southern Illinois University student disappeared and was found dead in a wooded area near campus a few days later, authorities announced an indictment of first-degree murder in his death. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Pravin Varughese's family visits his grave in Niles every day, but Friday's pilgrimage was different.

"Yesterday, I was hoping to tell him good news," his mother, Lovely Varughese, said Friday. "Today, I have good news."

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More than three years after the 19-year-old Morton Grove man disappeared while attending Southern Illinois University  only to be found dead in a wooded area near campus a few days later  authorities announced an indictment of first-degree murder in connection with Varughese's death.

Authorities identified the man charged as Gaege Bethune, 22, of Eldorado, a town about 50 miles east of Carbondale in southern Illinois.

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The indictment itself is sealed and online records don't detail the allegations, but Bethune turned himself in Thursday and bail was set at $1 million. He was released on bond around noon Friday, according to officials with Jackson County Jail.

Sgt. Amber Ronketto of the Carbondale Police Department said the investigation is ongoing and her colleagues are collaborating with the Illinois state's attorney's appellate prosecutor's office, which filed the indictment.

SIU officials on Friday declined to comment on the indictment but expressed support for Varughese's family.

"We cannot speak to the external investigation or its outcome, but Pravin and the Varughese family remain in our thoughts," said university spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith.

Bethune's father, Don Bethune, on Friday said the family plans to fight the charges. They have retained former Jackson County State's Attorney Michael Wepsiec in Murphysboro to represent Bethune.

Don Bethune said he posted bond Friday morning for his son, whom he described as a working man and father of a 1-year old daughter with his girlfriend of 10 years.

"That's what you do in life," especially for family, Don Bethune said about paying bond. "Go to work and take care of what you can."

Wepsiec said that "once we try this case in the court of law, not the court of public opinion or the court of Facebook," the public might see a different side of his client than what's recently been portrayed.

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The Jackson County sheriff's office deferred comment to the state's attorney's office. And David Robinson, deputy director of the Fourth District at the Illinois state's attorneys appellate prosecutor's office in Springfield, referred questions to a news release issued by his office Friday morning.

The grand jury indictment, however, was the culmination of a yearslong crusade by Varughese's family and other supporters who were unwilling to accept an initial finding that Varughese died of hypothermia on a cold winter night after having attended a party near campus.

Carbondale police said Varughese's body was found on the eastern side of town in a woody area on Feb. 18, 2014, five days after he was reported missing.

Police had said Varughese ran into the wooded area after getting into a dispute with a "recent acquaintance." Authorities did not publicly explain what the dispute might have entailed, other than to say that Varughese got out of the vehicle on his own and that his body showed no clear signs of trauma.

Carbondale police Chief Jody O'Guinn  who was later fired under circumstances officials described as being unrelated to the Varughese case  told reporters at a news conference the day Varughese was found that he likely had trouble getting out of the woods because of the "difficult terrain and low temperatures."

But a police report by an Illinois State Police officer on the night Varughese died detailed mysterious circumstances around the former track and cross-country runner's disappearance.

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In the report, the trooper describes pulling over to help a driver on Illinois Highway 13 about 12:30 a.m. Feb. 13 near where Varughese's body would eventually be found.

The driver, who had a red spot on his cheek, according to the trooper's report, told a story of seeing a man on the side of the road and offering him a ride. The driver said the man attacked him and ran off into the woods, according to the report.

The report said the driver left after declining help from the trooper, who scanned the woods and then left the scene.

Varughese's family, meanwhile, had been saying there were even more signs that something went awry that night.

His sister told the Tribune in 2014 that phone records showed her brother called a friend at 12:30 a.m., about 90 minutes after he reportedly left the party, and it sounded as though her brother might have been running or arguing with someone.

Also, a Twitter account for Pravin Varughese showed a post at 11:17 p.m. the night of his death that read: "Bloody knuckles ... guess I was in a fight #backdown."

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His family commissioned a private autopsy that determined Varughese had died of blunt-force trauma. Eventually a special prosecutor was brought in, whom Lovely Varughese credits with the case's latest developments.

"We did not stop the noise," she said of her efforts to push for further investigation into her son's death.

The crusade resonated with many people; a memorial service held on the anniversary of Varughese's death drew hundreds of people.

Lovely Varughese said there was "screaming and crying" at her home when the special prosecutor called Thursday with the news.

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"I don't know how to explain it," she said. "It was a day we had waited for for so long. ... We feel like his voice is heard and he's happy today."

Now, she said, she's content to let the legal process move forward.

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"To me, our part is done. Whatever happens now, we leave it up to the law," she said. "(The suspect) needs to take responsibility."

Bethune is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, said Deputy Craig Harju with the Jackson County sheriff's office.

The Associated Press contributed.

gbookwalter@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @GenevieveBook
City emails newly obtained by the Tribune cast light on the scope and offensiveness of racist, sexist and anti-gay slurs by politically connected supervisors at the top levels of the Chicago water department.

An image of a Ku Klux Klan "scarecrow" amid a watermelon field, a picture of a naked woman on a beach and off-color comments about gay people found their way into inboxes between early 2013 and April  a month before an investigation of the emails led to high-ranking officials losing their jobs at the Department of Water Management.

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The emails, among nearly 1,300 provided by the city in response to a request under the Illinois open records law, include more overtly sexist and anti-black messages than those in an earlier, more limited batch obtained by the Tribune that also contained anti-Islamic insults. And the new emails for the first time reveal homophobic statements.

They also show that they were sent and received during a yearslong period without any sign that supervisors, including recently ousted department Commissioner Barrett Murphy, did anything to quash the troubling chatter. And in at least one case, Murphy forwarded an offensive email to another department employee.

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Many of the emails obtained by the Tribune go to the heart of an ongoing investigation by the city's inspector general. The original sender of many of them is former district superintendent Paul Hansen, the son of a onetime alderman whose political connections go back to the administration of former Mayor Richard M. Daley. In one 2015 email not long after the elections for City Council and mayor, Hansen boasts of his ability to "swing elections."

That was sent to Murphy, whose City Hall connections also date back to the Daley years but grew under Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The mayor and Chicago first lady Amy Rule are friends with Murphy and his wife, Lynn Lockwood, the onetime chairman and treasurer of one of Emanuel's political funds. Murphy also received many of the racist, sexist and homophobic emails.

For Emanuel, the scandal raises issues he'd rather put behind him as he starts to gear up to make a bid for a third term in office in the 2019 elections. And it comes with risks of political peril among key groups of voters he has worked hard to cultivate: women, African-Americans and gay people.

Emanuel has tried to restore his reputation in the city's historically vote-rich African-American community, after the 2015 release of a police dashcam video of a white police officer shooting black teen Laquan McDonald 16 times.

The mayor also has toiled to put an end to clout at City Hall. But the political connections of the supervisors involved in the email controversy hark back to the era when Donald Tomczak controlled the water department that became a focus of a 2006 federal corruption trial. Emanuel first ran for Congress during the Tomczak era, and political troops loyal to Tomczak helped the mayor win his first elected office. And Murphy, Hansen and other members of the group show up on a clout list presented at the federal corruption trial held 11 years ago.

Emanuel has taken steps to address the email controversy, starting in May when he appointed Randy Conner, an African-American, to lead the department after the resignations of Murphy, Hansen and Deputy Commissioner William Bresnahan. Attempts to reach all three for comment were unsuccessful.

At the time of their resignations, mayoral spokesman Adam Collins said the mayor acted "quickly and decisively" by asking for Murphy's resignation after learning of what was then an 8-month-old probe into the emails by city Inspector General Joseph Ferguson. That investigation started as a review of emails about gun deals tied to Hansen that ultimately led to the discovery of the offensive emails.

In early June, after those initial resignations, the Tribune obtained emails sent by Hansen that included racially insensitive, anti-Islamic and sexist messages, and the department's newest commissioner announced that all managers and supervisors in his department would be provided with additional training on federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations designed to prevent discrimination in the workplace.

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In late June, Thomas J. Durkin, the general foreman of plumbers, and John "Jack" Lee Jr., a district superintendent, were placed on administrative leave pending disciplinary decisions. They have since resigned, according to a department spokesman. Attempts to reach Durkin and Lee for comment were unsuccessful.

A week after they were placed on leave, a federal lawsuit was filed alleging that African-American employees of the Chicago water department routinely were denied promotions, subjected to racial slurs and sexually harassed because of their race.

In response to questions about the latest emails obtained by the Tribune, Emanuel spokeswoman Shannon Breymaier said the mayor "acted swiftly" to show his intolerance for the behavior and that "the folks implicated have been removed." She said he backs efforts by the new commissioner to step up equal employment opportunity training for department managers and supervisors. "Finally, the move to take immediate action is completely consistent with the mayor's efforts to eliminate clout at City Hall so that city employees are hired based on what they know, not who they know," Breymaier added.

One jarring example of a racist email was forwarded from Hansen to Murphy in July 2014. It was titled "Watermelon Protection" and included an image that depicted a scarecrow, dressed in a white KKK robe and pointed hood, amid a field of watermelons. "I don't understand," Hansen stated in his message to Murphy.

Another racially insensitive email dates back to February 2013, when Hansen was replying to an email that Murphy first forwarded to him. The original message concerned an "urgent request" from ComEd to stop work near an alternate power line serving schools, a fire station and senior citizen homes until the main line was fixed so those facilities wouldn't lose their electricity feed if it were accidentally damaged.

In response, Hansen wrote: "I think the only thing that the line does not feed is the center for the severely challenged negro midgets, you know the place, its where we hired all those laborers from 7 years ago." Murphy then forwarded that message to another department employee.

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Even an August 2015 note from Murphy describing an equation for calculating the circumference of a circle drew a convoluted, racially charged attempt at humor from Hansen.

Hansen's message referred to the sex organs of white and black men, Caitlyn Jenner, Bill Cosby, a Confederate flag, and Dorothy and the Tin Man. Within minutes, Hansen then forwarded the same distasteful message to Durkin, whose response included: "I'll have to get back to you with my answer after I discuss this with the All Powerful OZ."

Hansen also distributed emails with an anti-gay tenor, including a February 2013 reply to Murphy, who in oversized letters noted that the Gay Pride festival and parade would be split over two weekends. It also was sent to Bresnahan.

One minute later, Hansen replied that it meant someone might be absent from work and would need an "inflatable doughnut on the chair" when he returned.

Hansen in October 2015 sent Murphy a link to a YouTube video titled "Redneck Homemade Bikini Contest." The video depicts several scantily clad women on a wooden stage with a male emcee kicking off the contest by saying, "Here she is guys ... let's hear it."

Hansen in March 2014 forwarded to Durkin, Lee and Bresnahan a joke that spares few in its offensiveness. It refers to a "world's shortest essay contest" held for Texas teens that had to include elements of religion, royalty, racism, disability and homosexuality. The "winning" essay read: "My God," cried the Queen, "That one-legged n----- is a queer." Lee later responded, "I'm crying."

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The emails obtained by the Tribune show that as recently as April, Hansen was receiving offensive emails. An April message sent to Hansen referred to "HETEROSEXUAL MALE PRIDE DAY!"

It makes that declaration after showing photographs of steaks grilling, beer taps and a naked woman, and is preceded by this introduction: "To all of my friends who are tired of taking a BACK SEAT to gays, lesbians, homosexuals, trans genders, women soldiers, bra burners, female boy scouts, women libbers, tree huggers, and eco-commie-environ-freaks, the looney left, Greens, social justice warriors and worse of all  those f------ Democrats!"

One email was sent by a deputy human resources commissioner in October 2014 to several water department supervisors, including Murphy, who was first deputy commissioner at the time. It suggested they should take part in "respectful workplace" training on the issues of harassment, discrimination and retaliation.

"Although (the Department of Human Resources) has not made this training mandatory," it states, "there are several reasons that each supervisory employee should receive this training."

The emails also show that Murphy often forwarded to his wife various news summaries, including one in August 2015 in which Emanuel announced city worker health care benefits will cover gender reassignment services. "What the......," Murphy commented.

Murphy's connections to City Hall predate the current mayor. He worked for Daley in multiple capacities, including in the mayor's office, and first started at the water department in 2004, when Tomczak reigned.

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During the 2006 trial of Robert Sorich, Daley's patronage chief, a once-secret clout list with names of politically connected people seeking jobs and their sponsors was entered into evidence. Murphy's name appears on the list as the sponsor for one person seeking a job.

Murphy gained influence under Emanuel, who promoted him to first deputy commissioner in 2011 during the early months of his administration. In April 2016, Emanuel appointed him commissioner of the department  a position that proved relatively short-lived because of the email scandal that surfaced in May.

Hansen, son of former longtime Ald. Bernie Hansen, 44th, also appears on the clout list as someone who sought a promotion.

During the trial of Sorich, prosecutors charged that Daley administration officials handed out jobs, promotions and overtime work to those who campaigned for Daley and his allies. Sorich was convicted for his role in a hiring fraud scheme to rig interviews and falsify documents.

Hansen, in one water department email sent to Murphy in March 2015, boasted of his political prowess in the context of a recently concluded City Council race on the Northwest Side. "I told you I could swing elections," Hansen wrote.

Other water department email senders and recipients who showed up on the clout list include Durkin. The sponsor listed for Durkin was Tomczak, who was sent to prison after pleading guilty in 2005 to commanding a political army of patronage workers and taking almost $400,000 in payoffs from companies that wanted business from the city's corrupt Hired Truck Program.

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Mayor Rahm Emanuel attends the Leaders Sport Performance Summit at Soldier Field on June 27, 2017. On Friday, Emanuel called on Gov. Bruce Rauner to sign the education funding formula change. (Timothy Hiatt / Getty Images)

Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Subscribe here.

Topspin

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is headed overseas with stops in London, Berlin and Milan to promote Chicago as a destination for jobs.

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The trip abroad marks the latest in a series of international trips and events for the mayor, who has been working to bolster his collaboration with international mayors at a time when he's had little cooperation o domestic issues from President Donald Trump's administration.

"Chicago's tech scene has been recognized nationally and internationally and will be the foundation for my trip to Europe, in the sense of cooperation and also agreements we'll be signing, all in the tech space, in three different cities," Emanuel said at a Loop event Thursday, highlighting growing technology companies that plan to add more jobs.

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Emanuel will travel to Berlin first, followed by visits to London and then Milan, places where the mayor's office says Emanuel will "work to increase innovation collaboration between the cities and establish new higher education partnerships." Emanuel plans to meet with Berlin Mayor Michael Muller, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala while in each city, according to City Hall.

The junket is the latest in a long list of events involving international mayors that Emanuel either has hosted or attended.

So far in 2017: In February, Emanuel hosted the mayors of Mexican cities Guadalajara, Juarez City and Mexico City on a visit to Chicago and held a news conference to stress international collaboration in the face of Trump's plans to build a border wall. In March, Emanuel hosted a global mayor's forum on waterways that featured Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and nearly 20 mayors from five continents. In June, the mayor hosted Toronto Mayor John Tory. And weeks later, Tory, Emanuel and Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre held a joint meeting at an economic forum in Montreal. The mayor also met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on that trip.

Last year, Emanuel made a December trip to Mexico City for a summit organized by the C40 group of global cities and a November trip to Rome for the ceremony that elevated then-Archbishop Blase Cupich to cardinal. And last September, Emanuel also hosted Khan in Chicago for a few days, when he highlighted the city's Riverwalk, technology jobs and economic development efforts in struggling neighborhoods.

Among Emanuel's other international junkets: trade trips in 2013 and 2015 to China, a July 2015 visit with Hidalgo in Paris while vacationing and a 2013 trip to Israel where attended a signing ceremony between the University of Chicago and Ben-Gurion University on water research.

Emanuel's office did not respond to a request for details on how long the mayor's latest trip will last and whether it will be paid for by city funds or by World Business Chicago, the quasi-governmental business arm of the city that is partially funded by taxpayer dollars. (Bill Ruthhart)

What's on tap

*Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in Berlin, Germany.

*Gov. Bruce Rauner's public schedule wasn't available.

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From the notebook

*Abortion bill stunt: A bunch of abortion rights groups did a stunt Thursday at the Thompson Center to try to pressure Gov. Rauner into signing HB40, legislation that seeks to expand access to abortion for low-income women and preserve abortion rights in Illinois if Roe v. Wade is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Women dressed to look like the title characters in Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale."

Rauner had promised to veto the bill earlier in the spring session. The governor, who late in his first campaign in 2014 said he had no social agenda, is seeking re-election next year and looking to shore up support among social conservatives, even if a veto might alienate some suburban women swing voters.

One problem for the protesters though: The Democrat-controlled Illinois Senate hasn't sent the governor the bill yet. Sen. Don Harmon of Oak Park put a procedural hold on the measure after it passed May 10.

*The Sunday Spin: On this week's show, Chicago Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson's guests are state Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook; state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills; and Rob Karr, president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. The "Sunday Spin" airs from 7 to 9 a.m. on WGN 720-AM.

*Quick spins: Mayor Emanuel had no comment Thursday on the indictment of his political ally, Teamsters boss John Coli Sr. ... New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had Mayor Emanuel's back on the public transit issue that landed Emanuel on the front-page of a Big Apple tabloid. ... If you ever wanted to see a picture of Emanuel and a giant red wagon, today's your lucky day.

What we're writing

*Peter W. Smith, GOP operative from Lake Forest who sought Clinton's emails from Russian hackers, committed suicide, records show.

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*Democrats pick Steele ally over City Clerk Valencia's husband for Cook County Board seat; keep it in West Side hands.

*Special prosecutor in Laquan McDonald cover-up case moves for new judge.

*Suburban school leaders worried about state education funding.

*Lake Shore Drive proposals would shift beaches, straighten S-curve.

*Sterling Bay looking at $680 million purchase of Prudential Plaza.

What we're reading (Friday summer fun edition)

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*Tribune beer writer subjects respected Chicago craft beer makers to bad macrobrews. Which one was best (or least worst)? The answer may surprise you.

*For the millennials and millennial-at-heart: your guide to the Pitchfork Music Festival.

*Cubs mortgage long-term future for near-term future in Sox trade.

*Lone remaining Bulls' star loves "manny packs."

Follow the money

*Democratic Senate President John Cullerton reported collecting $45,000 from the finishing trades union for his state Senate fund. The same union kicked in another $45,000 to Cullerton's Senate Democratic Victory Fund.

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*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here.

Beyond Chicago



*Trump defends son's meeting with Russian lawyer.

*Trump in Paris  WaPo. Politico. No need for full border wall, president says on Air Force One flight.

*McConnell unveils new Senate health care bill with low-cost plans amid questions of whether this, too, can pass.

*A risky mix: cutting taxes for rich and aid to poor, NYT reports.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner faced news cameras for the first time in over a week Friday, seeking to focus attention on flood-ravaged areas of the state and not his staff shake-up, even as a string of firings and resignations in his office continued.

The governor also pledged that schools across the state will open for the upcoming school year despite his fight with Democrats who control the legislature, which remains unresolved with less than a month to go before the first school aid payment is due.

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It was the first time the governor had taken questions from reporters since July 5, when he unsuccessfully called on lawmakers not to override his veto of a tax hike and spending plan for state government.

The new budget package, which was enacted over Rauner's objections, contains language that won't allow school money to be distributed without approval of a separate bill to change the funding formula for schools. Rauner has threatened to veto that bill, labeling it a "bailout" for Chicago Public Schools, but lawmakers haven't yet sent it to him.

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Still, Rauner said, "schools are going to open."

"We're going to make sure schools get open, and we're going to make sure that it's done on a basis that's fair for taxpayers all across the state and it doesn't benefit only one community at the expense of residents of other communities."

The ratings agency Moody's had a less optimistic take on the situation, citing uncertainty about school funding in a report detailing concerns about the state's financial health, even though it has a full-year budget in place for the first time since 2015.

Any delay in general state aid payments "will further pressure school districts, particularly those with low property tax wealth or high poverty because of their high dependence on state aid," Moody's warned.

Also on Friday, CPS told school principals to expect long-awaited spending plans for the coming academic year next week. Those budgets, district officials said, will assume the school funding legislation takes effect.

Principals will be called into meetings to receive their annual budgets on Thursday, district leaders announced in a letter, then they'll have just a few days to go over those plans with local school councils and return the budgets to the system's central office by July 26.

CPS blamed the governor's office for the rushed timetable.

"This process has been deeply frustrating to us personally and to this entire administration, and we know that the challenges you face with this timeline are daunting," CPS CEO Forrest Claypool and Chief Education Officer Janice Jackson wrote in a Friday letter to principals.

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A district official said on Friday that CPS would use the "funding parameters" contained in the legislation that Rauner has promised to veto to plan the coming year. The legislation is expected to send the district an additional $300 million for its 2018 fiscal year.

"CPS will open school on time and keep school open," CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner said in a statement.

But CPS will also rely on hundreds of millions of dollars of borrowed money to make ends meet, including a $500 million long-term bond deal with high interest costs that closed this week.

Rauner, meanwhile, tried to beat back the notion that he was preoccupied by a major overhaul of his staff.

Since last week's override, the Republican governor has been on a firing spree, replacing senior staff members who worked for him through the two-year budget impasse with policy advocates from a conservative think tank.

The governor dismissed the suggestion that the fired staffers were being blamed for the outcome of the budget stalemate, which some view as a Rauner defeat.

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"I don't know where all this baloney comes from," Rauner said after touring flood damage in Gurnee. "We should focus on what's right for the people of Illinois. We are always trying to recruit and retain the best people in America to serve the people of Illinois. That's all that matters."

Around the same time that Rauner was holding his photo op, several members of his policy team were let go, signaling a continuation of the shakeup that began Monday with the firing of his chief of staff, Richard Goldberg. Several others resigned their positions.

Also moving on is former Rauner Chief of Staff Mike Zolnierowicz, who worked for Rauner's political operation and had been expected to play a key role in the governor's re-election effort. Zolnierowicz took a new position with XPS Inc., a subsidiary of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association that works on shaping public opinion, the organization announced Friday afternoon. Zolnierowicz was an early member of the Rauner inner circle. He worked on the governor's election campaign, directed the transition and served as chief of staff until June 2016.

The new leadership team in the governor's office includes Kristina Rasmussen, Rauner's new chief of staff, who previously ran the conservative Illinois Policy Institute, a Chicago-based think tank that Rauner had donated at least $500,000 to before he became governor. Rauner acted surprised Friday by questions about whether the new staff would change the focus of his administration.

"That's interesting. People, folks, focused on administration, personnel issues," Rauner said. "We are always building and enhancing the best team we can possibly have. I'm incredibly proud."

kgeiger@chicagotribune.com

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jjperez@chicagotribune.com

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Twitter @PerezJr
A man in his 20s stabbed six women, two of them fatally, in attacks at two hotels in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada, Egyptian officials and witnesses said Friday.

Two German women were killed in the attack, the Red Sea Security Directorate said, and the four others were wounded. All six were taken to hospitals, according to the Egyptian Interior Ministry. The conditions of the surviving women were not immediately available.

The Health Ministry deputy in the Red Sea province, Naglaa Shatt, said that the four wounded women included two Armenians, one Czech and a Ukrainian. He said the Czech woman underwent surgery at Salam Hospital, while the three others were treated at Hurghada General Hospital.

A spokesman for Germany's Foreign Office said that it was possible that German nationals were among the victims but that there was no certainty. Germany's Embassy in Cairo is working with Egyptian authorities to gain clarity about the identity of the individuals involved.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this cowardly and spiteful act, which seems to have targeted tourists who just wanted to spend a carefree and relaxing time at the sea," the spokesman said.

Egypt's Interior Ministry said in a statement that the attack occurred about 11 a.m. and that the assailant was taken into custody about noon. The statement said that the man is being questioned and that the ministry has beefed up security in the area to ensure the safety of tourists.

Diaa Elhadidi, 28, witnessed the attack and posted photos from the scene to social media. Elhadidi said on his Facebook page that the attacker is not a terrorist - "nothing but an unemployed lowlife who fought with two German ladies." Elhadidi said that the man stabbed the women with a knife at Zahabia Hotel and that they died instantly. He said the assailant then jumped into the water, swam to the adjoining Sunny Days El Palacio hotel while trying to escape, and wounded the other women before he was caught by El Palacio guards.

Other sources say, however, that the women appeared to be targeted.

One eyewitness told the privately owned Al-Masry Al-Yawm newspaper that the attacker, who was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, was speaking on the phone just before the assault.

"I saw him speak over the phone and heard him say that he will jump in the water, asking the person on the line to pick him up," but as soon as he jumped into the water, police officers followed and caught him, the witness told the newspaper.

The witness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, added that he had an encounter with the suspect and that the man told him to stay away from him because "he does not want Egyptians. They are not the ones wanted."

An Egyptian security official speaking to the Associated Press said the attacker was intentionally looking to attack foreigners and is said to have shouted in Arabic during the attack: "Stay away, I don't want Egyptians."

The attacker's motive is still under investigation, the Interior Ministry said.

The women were stabbed in the face, neck and feet, the security official said.

The Washington Post's Isaac Stanley-Becker in Berlin contributed to this report.
U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., arrives for the confirmation vote for Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 7, 2017. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP)

INDIANAPOLIS  An Indiana senator and longtime critic of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries announced Friday that he's selling his stock in his family's arts and crafts company after The Associated Press reported it manufactures some products in Mexico.

Democrat Joe Donnelly said he hasn't had an active role in the company for 20 years but was taking the action to avoid allowing the issue to become "a distraction from our work to end outsourcing and keep American jobs here instead of shipping them to other countries." His campaign said he made the statement to reporters at an Indiana Black Expo luncheon.

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The AP reported Thursday that Donnelly made at least $15,001 in dividends last year on as much as $50,000 of stock in Stewart Superior Corp., which used Mexican workers to produce dye for ink pads.

Donnelly, considered one of the nation's most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year, was highly critical of Carrier Corp., an air conditioner and furnace maker. He accused it of exploiting $3-an-hour workers when its parent company announced plans last year to cut some 2,000 jobs at two Indiana factories by moving production to Mexico.

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The senator praised then President-elect Donald Trump in November for reaching a deal that saved 800 of the jobs at an Indianapolis factory.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee quickly criticized Donnelly in a statement Friday, alleging he is "hypocritically profiting" from the company's actions. It called on him to donate his sale profits to organizations helping the families of displaced workers.

Donnelly has sponsored a bill, titled the End Outsourcing Act, which aims to make it more difficult to transfer jobs to other countries.

"The real issue we need to focus on, days before 300 Carrier workers in Indianapolis face layoffs, is how we can keep manufacturing here in Indiana," he said in the news release, urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, to bring the bill to the floor next week.

Donnelly, the lone Democrat elected statewide in Republican-dominated Indiana, is facing a tough re-election bid in 2018. Two Republicans in the U.S. House, Luke Messer and Todd Rokita, have signaled an interest in running.

For more than a year, Stewart Superior and its subsidiaries have been shipping thousands of pounds of raw materials to Mexico, where the company has a factory that produces ink pads and other supplies, according to customs records from Panjiva Inc., which tracks American imports and exports. The finished products are then transported back to a company facility in California, the records show.

Stewart Superior, which also has an operation in LaPorte, Indiana, says on its website that the company's Mexican factory "brings economical, cost competitive manufacturing and product development to our valued customers."

Donnelly's brother runs the company, but the senator previously served as a corporate officer and its general counsel before he was first elected to Congress in 2006. He won election to the Senate in 2012.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Thursday that too many students have been treated unfairly as colleges have sought to comply with Obama-era policy on handling sexual assault, but she declined to offer any specifics about how she intends to move forward on one of the more controversial and closely watched issues handled by her agency.

"No student should feel like there isn't a way to seek justice, and no student should feel that the scales are tipped against him or her," she told reporters Thursday afternoon, following what she called an "emotionally draining" series of meetings with college administrators, survivors of assault and students who said they were falsely accused and wrongly disciplined.

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The day after her civil rights chief suggested that 90 percent of assault allegations are the result of drunken and regretted sex rather than rape, DeVos sought to show sensitivity to victims, saying that assault allegations should not be "swept under the rug" and women should not be "dismissed."

But she also said she was deeply concerned about addressing the concerns of the accused. "Their stories are not often shared," she said.

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Advocates for accused students have been pleased to have the ear of the Trump administration, seeing an opening to roll back Obama-era policies that they argue have results in biased campus sexual assault investigations. During the Thursday session devoted to wrongful accusations, about a half-dozen students (including one woman) told their stories, often tearfully, according to Cynthia Garrett, co-president of Families Advocating for Campus Equality, who was in the meeting.

"The secretary was extremely attentive to these students," Garrett said. "We had young men breaking down telling their stories."

But advocates for survivors of sexual assault have been alarmed by what they view as DeVos' outsized interest in hearing from wrongfully accused students, given that only a small fraction of rape reports are found to be false.

Dozens of survivors and their allies gathered outside the Education Department Thursday to urge DeVos not to roll back federal protections for victims of sexual violence, and to decry what they view as the Trump administration's lack of commitment to enforcing federal civil rights law.

On the concrete plaza outside the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters, activists read the stories of survivors from across the country while DeVos held her meetings inside.

"Survivors want to make it very clear that we deserve to be listened to," said Mahroh Jahangiri of the advocacy group Know Your IX, one of the event's organizers.

Education Department officials are weighing whether to keep or reject Obama-era guidance that outlined how schools must meet their obligations under Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination at federally funded institutions. Critics of that guidance, issued in 2011, said it was an executive overreach that set too low a bar for campus administrators to find a student guilty of sexual assault.

It "incentivized these campus panels to err on the side of punishing potentially innocent students," said Christopher Perry of Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), who met with DeVos Thursday.

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Some accused students hope the Trump administration will take a different tack. Joseph Roberts said he was "cautiously optimistic" that federal officials will care about his story: Roberts said he was falsely accused of sexual harassment and suspended three weeks before he was due to graduate from Savannah State University, an experience that left him hopeless and suicidal. The guidance, he said, "definitely needs to be reexamined."

Victims advocates and some lawyers believe that the problem is not with the guidance, but with the way some colleges have interpreted it.

"They went overboard in terms of changing their policies," said Naomi Shatz, a Boston lawyer who represents accused students. Shatz said too many schools don't hold hearings and don't give accused students a chance to see the evidence against them - approaches that are unfair and not dictated by the guidance.

Several college officials who participated in the meeting said they were grateful to be asked about this issue, as they had not been during the Obama administration.

In 2012 the American Council on Education sent a letter to the department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) with a number of questions, asking for clarification of the 2011 directive, said Terry Hartle of ACE. "The letter has never been answered," he said.

"The Obama administration took such an enforcement-centered approach that institutions were reluctant to ask questions of OCR for fear of being flagged for an audit," he said.

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Victims' rights activists argue that the guidance is firmly rooted in existing law and fear that DeVos intends to jettison the guidance. They said remarks this week by Candice Jackson, the acting head of Education's Office for Civil Rights, seemed to confirm that fear.

Speaking to the New York Times, Jackson argued that college investigations have often been unfair to accused students, in part because of undue pressure from the federal government. She claimed that "90 percent" of accusations "fall into the category of 'we were both drunk,' 'we broke up, and six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation because she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right."

Jackson has since apologized for the statement, saying her words "poorly characterized the conversations I've had" with advocates. "As a survivor of rape myself, I would never seek to diminish anyone's experience," she said. "All sexual harassment and sexual assault must be taken seriously - which has always been my position and will always be the position of this Department."

Jackson apologized again to survivors in the meeting Thursday, according to attendees. "It's impossible to take something like that back," said Fatima Goss Graves of the National Women's Law Center, who was in the meeting. But she said the department can show its commitment to protecting students by helping colleges understand how to fairly adjudicate sexual assault allegations, and by conducting a listening tour to hear from survivors around the country.

"We can't expect them to go to Washington, D.C.," Goss Graves said. "The department has to go to them and listen deeply."

DeVos said that while she intends to continue seeking input, she wants to move quickly to make changes.

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Thursday's event was one part of a broader effort to mobilize support for maintaining the 2011 Title IX guidance, which victims' rights advocates greeted as a step toward ensuring disciplinary consequences for students found to have committed assault. In an op-ed published in Teen Vogue this week, 114 sexual assault survivors called on DeVos to keep the guidance in place.

"We cannot imagine a more cruel or misguided policy agenda than one that withdraws protections from vulnerable students - especially coming from the administration of a man who has been repeatedly accused of committing sexual violence himself," they wrote.

In a letter to DeVos on Wednesday, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., urged her to keep the 2011 guidance in place and decried her decision to meet with advocates for the accused, including the National Coalition for Men and Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), which the Southern Poverty Law Center has called misogynistic. "Instead of catering to organizations that want to sweep sexual assaults on college campuses under the rug, the Department of Education should confront this challenge directly by coming to uphold the protections currently in place," Casey wrote.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who spoke at Thursday's event outside the agency headquarters, said she doesn't want to see an innocent person punished "any more than I want to see a guilty person let off the hook." But she said there are still too many victims who are met with blame and retaliation rather than support and protection.

"There continues to be heinous injustice across this country," she said.

The Washington Post's Susan Svrluga contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump's budget would not add to economic growth or eliminate the deficit in coming years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Thursday, casting doubt on a plan the White House has touted as central to achieving the president's domestic agenda.

The CBO projected that the economy would grow at only 1.9 percent under the White House's plan - far below the 3 percent goal the administration continued to outline as recently as Thursday. It also warned that contrary to White House claims that deep cuts to the safety net in the budget would lead to a financial surplus in a decade, the deficit would actually be $720 billion.

The report was one of several big questions that emerged Thursday about whether Trump would be able to deliver on the central promises of his populist agenda for governing.

He had pledged to replace President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act with a better policy that guaranteed "insurance for everybody." But Republican Senate leaders on Thursday were advancing a proposal - its fate uncertain - that would still swell the nation's ranks of the uninsured by tens of millions.

Trump also faced questions about whether he would follow through on repeated promises to stop foreign competitors from "killing our companies and our workers" by dumping steel at ultra-cheap prices onto the global market - and he repeated to reporters traveling on Air Force One during his trip to France that "it'll stop."

Yet he has been promising action for weeks, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross would only tell a meeting of senators on Thursday that he planned to provide options to Trump soon.

Trump's combination of setbacks and delays on key policy initiatives highlight how the president is struggling to advance a populist vision of governing in a Republican Party that historically has not been receptive to such an approach.

With his budget and health care, Trump is falling in line with some of his party's most conservative voices, even if the policies threaten to harm many of the working-class voters who elected him.

On trade - an issue where he could act unilaterally - Trump is facing opposition from companies, foreign allies and numerous White House advisers who say restricting imports could hurt U.S. industry broadly far more than it helps steel companies.

The delay on steel imports follows a decision not to label China a currency manipulator as he advocated during the campaign, and a last-minute decision not to abandon the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he had often maligned.

"He certainly, as a president, has not been able to articulate a coherent agenda that responded to the concerns of the country, or the concerns of the people who elected him. A lot of them were low-income blue-collar whites, and his agenda is not addressing those concerns or those problems," said Peter Wehner, a former speechwriter for Republican president George W. Bush. "House and Senate Republicans weren't in tune with what he was running on either, so that was always going to be a problem."

As it emphasized progress on health care and trade, the White House dismissed the CBO report as flawed because it had earlier misjudged how many people would sign up for the Affordable Care Act.

"It's not surprising that a bureaucracy which underestimated by more than 100 percent Obamacare participation would also underestimate the economic benefits of MAGAnomics," Office of Management and Budget spokesman John Czwartacki said, using a new buzzword for the administration's economic policy that stands for "Make America Great Again"-economics. "They are great people, but are just wrong on this."

The CBO report Thursday creates new complications for Republicans who need to build a coalition of conservatives and moderates to vote for a single budget proposal, the first step for what the GOP hopes will be an ambitious fall of policymaking.

By rejecting the White House's declaration that large-scale spending reductions and unspecified tax cuts will lead to economic growth, the CBO could make it harder for this coalition of GOP lawmakers to band together.

Some key elements of the White House's agenda rely on Congress's ability to pass a budget. Only 50 Republicans are needed in the Senate to approve a tax plan if it is part of an already authorized budget plan, through a process known as reconciliation. If Congress does not pass a budget plan, however, the Senate will need 60 votes to authorize tax cuts - and the GOP has only 52 seats.

The CBO's projections came with a caveat. It said the lack of detail the White House has provided about its plans - primarily its plan to overhaul the tax code - made it difficult for the agency to determine what the economic impact of these ideas would be. The White House has put out only a sparse, one-page blueprint for overhauling the tax code.

"The President's proposals would affect the economy in a variety of ways," the CBO wrote in its assessment. "However, because the details on many of the proposed policies are not available at this time, CBO cannot provide an analysis of all their macroeconomic effects or of the budgetary feedback that would result from those effects."

If the CBO, which is run by a Republican appointee, raises questions about the lack of details in the White House's tax plan now, it could serve as a warning to the White House and other Republicans as they try to design a more comprehensive plan in the coming months that is still expected to rely in large part on the assumption that the economy will grow markedly because of large tax cuts.

Overall, the CBO said the White House's plan would cut government spending by $4.2 trillion over 10 years compared with existing law.

The White House seized on this element of the CBO's assessment.

"This administration is committed to making the necessary investments to restore our military, secure our borders and modernize our infrastructure," OMB spokeswoman Meghan Burris said.

The White House's budget proposal was released in May, to set government spending levels for the year that begins Oct. 1. It essentially makes recommendations to Congress, which is responsible for drawing up the budget and appropriating funds to use. Congress often uses the White House's budget proposal as a set of guidelines.

Trump's allies point to several successes, including reducing regulations and making good on his promises to withdraw from international agreements the he argued subordinated U.S. interests - the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris climate accord.

"He's hit a whole bunch of home runs," said Larry Kudlow, who has advised the president on taxes.

Those initiatives have not required congressional approval. "Within the areas that the president has control over . . . he is doing a magnificent job," said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, who served as the Labor Department's chief economist under President George W. Bush.

Meanwhile, Trump suggested Wednesday once again he is planning to take action to restrain imports of steel into the U.S. market, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that China and other countries were "dumping steel."

"We're like a dumping ground, okay? They're dumping steel and destroying our steel industry. They've been doing it for decades, and I'm stopping it," he said.

When asked if he was considering tariffs, the president replied, "There are two ways - quotas and tariffs. Maybe I'll do both."

Trump's comments came as company executives and foreign leaders eagerly await a decision on two separate investigations that the Trump administration launched in April, into the potential for imports of steel and aluminum to threaten U.S. national security.

If the Trump administration finds that imports are threatening security, it could take broad action to limit shipments through tariffs or quotas - an action that could spark retaliation from trading partners and cause prices to spike throughout the supply chain for the many U.S. industries that use steel.

Ross had said that the report's findings would be available by the end of June. But a decision has been delayed because of pushback from steel-using industries in the United States and members of the administration who fear igniting a trade war.

Meeting with senators on the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, Ross said he would present Trump with a menu of options next week for how he could act, the lawmakers said. Ross suggested different countries could be treated differently under any restrictions, and he singled out Canada, which he said had not dumped an oversupply of steel, unlike other countries, a person in the meeting said.

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., gave Ross a copy of a letter from agricultural groups at the meeting that warned of the potential retaliatory blowback that could occur if the White House cracks down too harshly on steel.

In a letter sent Tuesday, 18 agricultural groups, including the National Pork Producers Council, argued that the restrictions on steel and aluminum could result in other countries retaliating by restricting their products, an outcome that they said would be "disastrous for the global trading system and for U.S. agriculture in particular."
President Donald Trump on Thursday defended his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer, characterizing it as standard campaign practice and maintaining that "nothing happened" as a result of the June 2016 sit-down.

The remarks in Paris during a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron came even though Trump's own FBI pick has said the authorities should be alerted to requests for such meetings during a campaign and even after Donald Trump Jr. said he would rethink his own conduct in agreeing to the gathering in the first place.

"I think from a practical standpoint most people would've taken that meeting. It's called opposition research, or even research into your opponent," Trump said.

Trump Jr. released emails this week from 2016 in which he appeared eager to accept information from the Russian government that could have damaged Hillary Clinton's campaign. The emails were sent ahead of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer that Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also attended.

Asked about the meeting Thursday, Trump said "politics is not the nicest business in the world" and that it's standard for candidates to welcome negative information about an opponent. In this case, he added, "nothing happened from the meeting, zero happened from the meeting."

Trump's comments stood in contrast to the position of his nominee for FBI director, Christopher Wray, who at his confirmation hearing Wednesday was asked what candidates should do if they're told a foreign government wants to help by offering damaging information about an opponent.

"Any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation-state or any non-state actor," Wray said, "is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know."

Trump Jr. himself said in a Fox News interview Tuesday night that "in retrospect I probably would have done things a little differently."

Meanwhile, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said he would call on Trump Jr. to testify as part of an investigation into Russian meddling in last year's election and would subpoena him if necessary. Witnesses who refuse to comply with subpoenas risk being held in contempt.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he wants Trump Jr. to testify "pretty soon," perhaps as early as next week. He wouldn't say what he wants to hear from Trump Jr., but said members aren't restricted "from asking anything they want to ask." The panel's top Democrat, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, had also called on Trump Jr. to testify.

A lawyer for Donald Trump Jr. did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. A spokesman for the Senate Judiciary Committee said the letter hasn't been sent.

The Judiciary Committee is one of several congressional panels investigating Russian meddling in the U.S. election, along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. U.S. intelligence agencies have accused the Russian government of meddling through hacking in last year's election to benefit Trump and harm Clinton, and authorities are exploring potential coordination between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, has also said he'd like to hear from Trump Jr. and said the panel has requested documents from him. But committee chairman, Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, hasn't said whether the secretive committee will call him in. Trump Jr. tweeted Monday that he was "happy to work with the committee to pass on what I know."

It's unclear whether Trump Jr. would be as eager to testify before the Judiciary panel, which generally conducts open hearings. The Senate intelligence committee interviews many of its witnesses behind closed doors, though it has held an unusual number of open hearings as part of the Russia probe.

The June 9 meeting involved a lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was described to Trump Jr. in emails as a "Russian government attorney" who had damaging information on Clinton.

Trump, apparently referencing an article in The Hill newspaper that said the Justice Department had enabled the attorney to be in the country, suggested Thursday "she was here" because of former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

As an attorney, Veselnitskaya was involved in a Justice Department lawsuit against a Russian investment law firm where her access to the U.S. became an issue.

In a January court hearing in New York, an assistant United States attorney said the federal government had bypassed the normal visa process and granted a "type of extraordinary permission" so that her client could be in the U.S. to testify in the case. The government, the lawyer said, "made the further accommodation of allowing his Russian lawyer into the country to assist."

In a statement, Lynch said she had no knowledge of Veselnitskaya's travel. "The State Department issues visas, and the Department of Homeland Security oversees entry to the United States at airports," the statement said.

Also Thursday, the Justice Department released a heavily redacted page from Attorney General Jeff Sessions' security clearance application in response to a government watchdog group's lawsuit.

The application page asks whether Sessions, a senator before joining the Trump administration, or anyone in his immediate family had contact within the past seven years with a foreign government or its representatives. There's a "no" box checked. The rest of the answer is redacted.

The department had already acknowledged that Sessions omitted from his form meetings he had with foreign dignitaries, including the Russian ambassador. A department spokesman said Sessions had been told that routine encounters as part of Sessions' Senate duties didn't have to be included on the form.

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko and Richard Lardner in Washington contributed to this report.
Jean Wright Haider put her time and energy into several Chicago cultural institutions, serving as a member of the Women's Board of Lyric Opera of Chicago and as a member and president of The Guild of the Chicago History Museum.

Haider's Guild presidency, from 2006 to 2008, began as the museum reopened after closing briefly for what museum President Gary Johnson called a reinvention that included a name change from the Chicago Historical Society.

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"She was very much part of the program in making us a very new kind of museum, a welcoming museum and one that reached out in new ways to the community," Johnson said. "She was my partner in that effort."

Haider, 75, died in her Chicago home July 10 of complications from ovarian cancer, according to her husband, Donald Haider.

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Born Jean Wright on Dec. 4, 1941, she grew up in Winnetka. After graduating from North Shore Country Day School there, she went on to get a bachelor's degree in English literature from Smith College in 1964.

A lifelong lover of literature and poetry, she began her career with the now-defunct publisher Harcourt Brace and World Inc. in New York. She also worked for a local magazine there before marrying Haider, now a retired professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, who ran for mayor of Chicago in 1987.

Jean Haider's involvement in the life of Chicago included work on the board of the Chicago Foundation for Education and with cultural institutions including the Chicago History Museum and Lyric Opera, where she was a member of the Women's Board from 1989 to 2007.

"Jean was on the (Lyric) Women's Board with my (late) wife," said Kim Brooker, who said the two had been friends since their school days, a friendship that grew to include both families.

Brooker, who was on the Lyric Board of Directors, said Haider was a great musician with perfect pitch and a beautiful singing voice. "She was a very active board member, knew opera very well and was quite a student of the subject."

Haider's work on the Women's Board included serving as Opening Night chairwoman in 1992, Opera Ball chairwoman in 1996 and Education chairwoman from 2000 to 2002. She was especially passionate about her work on education, according to a Lyric staff member.

Haider's leadership of The Guild of the Chicago History Museum came at a turning point for the museum, Johnson said. "For nine months, we were closed as we rebuilt our exhibition spaces, and we renamed ourselves and we reinvented ourselves," Johnson said. Our grand opening occurred under her presidency."

Former 48th Ward Alderman Marion Volini remembered Haider for her kindness and compassion, and for the many hours she spent with the elderly and those in need.

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"Jean ... brought beauty, music and art into the lives of all who knew her," said Volini, who was alderman of the North Side ward from 1978 to 1987. She added that her friend loved to sing and loved getting others to join her on favorite songs, including 'On the Street Where You Live.'"

Haider was also involved for many years in the work of the Chicago Foundation for Education, according to executive director Maggie Morrison. The organization supports teachers in Chicago Public Schools through grants and professional development opportunities.

Donald Haider said language and literature were constant threads in his wife's life. She was a regular letter writer who resisted the temptation to reduce correspondence to electronic form.

"She was a great believer in longhand original letters," said Haider, adding that she did finally switch to an iPad a couple of years ago, "most reluctantly."

She often put her language and wordsmithing skills to work on her husband's behalf. "I don't think there was any book I wrote, or op-ed piece or journal article that she didn't review or copy edit," he said.

She is also survived by a daughter, Elinor; sons Blake and Paul; six grandchildren; her stepmother, Jean Mayhew Wright; and a half-brother, Theron Wright Jr.

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Visitation will be from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Friday, July 21, followed by a funeral Mass at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, 5545 N. Paulina St., Chicago.

Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., center, before the start of a meeting with House and Senate Leadership in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 6, 2017. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP)

"There's no question but that the president's naivete with regards to Russia, and his faulty judgment about Russia's intentions and objectives, has led to a number of foreign policy challenges that we face. And unfortunately, not having anticipated Russia's intentions, the president wasn't able to shape the kinds of events that may have been able to prevent the kinds of circumstances that you're seeing in the Ukraine, as well as the things that you're seeing in Syria. ... This is not Fantasyland. This is reality where they are a geopolitical adversary."

 Mitt Romney, March 23, 2014, on Barack Obama

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If there has been any defining trait among modern Republicans, it's their ingrained distrust of Russia. For decades, the GOP made a habit of accusing its opponents of being weak-kneed and gullible about Moscow's intentions. If Donald Trump had been elected president as a Democrat, they would be painting him as the most craven appeaser since Neville Chamberlain.

But he was elected as a Republican, which has required some reorientation in the GOP. A lot of Republican voters have simply turned their worldview upside down. One recent poll found that only 1 in 4 thinks Russia should be treated mainly as a threat  with two-thirds preferring warmer ties.

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GOP officeholders, caught in the middle, are generally wary of Trump's policy toward Moscow. By a 98-2 vote, the Republican-controlled Senate passed a bill to tighten the sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, which the president opposes. But the measure has stalled in the House. And most of the party's members of Congress have done their best to downplay or excuse Trump's strange fondness for Vladimir Putin.

That remained true even after the revelation that Donald Trump Jr. met last year with someone he believed was a Russian government lawyer offering "sensitive information" on Hillary Clinton as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."

If this was not collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, it was a conscious attempt at collusion with a hostile government on the part of the candidate's son. No wonder Donald Jr. lied about it until his emails were exposed.

That the Russian failed to produce what she promised doesn't make the meeting any less incriminating for Trump. If you give money to someone you believe is a hit man to kill your spouse, you can't claim innocence when he disappears without doing the job.

But many Republicans who should have been objecting couldn't bring themselves to speak up. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan were practically mute. When asked if the news was cause for concern, Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said, "No."

Only a few longtime Trump critics, notably Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, were vocally disgusted by what they had learned. Many of their colleagues are just hoping Trump and those around him are not obviously guilty of major felonies.

The standard for presidents used to be higher. In 1980, Ronald Reagan accused President Jimmy Carter of "cozying up" to the Soviet Union. In 1992, President George Bush attacked Bill Clinton for traveling to Moscow as a student in 1969. Even after communism collapsed and the pro-American Boris Yeltsin was elected president, Sen. Bob Dole ran in 1996, charging that Clinton "cherishes romantic illusions about the soul of a former adversary."

Romney flayed Obama in 2012 for telling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev he would have "more flexibility" on policies affecting Russia after the election. "I'm not going to wear rose-colored glasses," Romney vowed.

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In the past, the GOP demanded that presidents recognize the threat posed by the Russian government, understand the policies needed to counter it and have the backbone to stand up to any challenge. Trump, by their own criteria, has failed each of these tests.

Obama was vilified as a Russian patsy for actions that don't remotely approach what we know Trump and his circle have done. Today, all but a few congressional Republicans avert their eyes and swallow their tongues. Most of them, however, must be appalled to see the nation's security in the hands of someone so willing to overlook Putin's malicious behavior.

It may not be clear to them that Trump should be impeached. But by now, they have to know he can't be trusted.

Steve Chapman, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/chapman.

Download "Recalculating: Steve Chapman on a New Century" in the free Printers Row app at www.printersrowapp.com.

schapman@chicagotribune.com

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An Ultra-Orthodox Jew prays outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs or the Ibrahimi Mosque, a holy site for Jews and Muslims, in the divided West Bank city of Hebron on June 29, 2017. (Hazem Bader / AFP/Getty Images)

When I discovered this week that I was one of the 160 rabbis officially not to be trusted by the Israeli Orthodox rabbinate, I had an uncanny flashback to a feeling that I had once before.

I was 19, and I had deliberately allowed myself to be "kidnapped" at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. It was a well-known thing to do at the time: If you were an American kid exploring your Judaism and you wanted to get an invite to an ultra-Orthodox home for a Sabbath meal, you simply hung around the Western Wall on a Saturday afternoon until an Orthodox man well-known for his outreach approached and asked if you wanted to join a family for lunch. Like so many American Jewish kids who grew up in largely secular homes, I was in Israel to explore my Jewish identity. I had never personally known Jews who wore the black hats and headscarves. When I saw them walking the Jerusalem streets, speaking Yiddish to one another with large broods of kids in tow, I was reminded of stories my Yiddish-speaking grandparents told me of their vanished childhood worlds in Europe. That Sabbath, I wanted to be kidnapped. I wanted to access to that sweet, haimish world from whence I came.

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The man led me through the magical winding streets of the Old City until we finally arrived at a tiny apartment. There was a large, beautifully set Sabbath table. We arrived late: There were already at least seven other young American kids there, and they had finished eating. The apartment belonged to a young couple. The wife, a stout woman modestly dressed in Orthodox garb, led me to my place at the table and put a bowl of cholent in front of me. Her husband, a thin young man with a long black beard, white shirt and black pants with ritual fringes hanging in front, was already speaking animatedly to the group.

" . . . And so everything in this world depends on the mitzvos we do," he was saying, using the Yiddish pronunciation for the Hebrew word meaning "religious commandments." "There are no exceptions. You do the mitzvos and your life will be well and the world will have peace, and we will bring on - God willing - the messiah. But if the Jewish people aren't doing their mitzvos, this brings on calamity upon our people."

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"Wait a minute," another kid chimed in, "What about the Holocaust? Are you saying the Holocaust . . ."

"I am absolutely saying the Holocaust!" the bearded man interrupted, "Everything you learned about the Holocaust is wrong. The Nazis were nothing but an instrument of Hashem! Hashem brought the Holocaust on the Jewish people, and do you know why? It's because the Jews of Europe fell away from a life of piety. They were abandoning their kashrus, they were desecrating the Sabbath!"

There was a stunned silence when he paused.

He continued: "And don't think it was just the big things. Every mitzvah counts. The Holocaust very well may have been brought on because too many Jews weren't regularly checking the mezuzahs on their doors to make sure they were still kosher!"

I was at a complete loss. I couldn't believe my ears, I couldn't process my outrage at such an assertion. I remained silent for the rest of that lunch, in a daze. The conversation shifted to talk of a yeshiva they wanted us to learn more about, in hopes that we would attend and become just like them. I just wanted to leave. I felt an ocean of difference between who I was and who this ultra-Orthodox man was. This wasn't at all the haimish world I heard of from my grandparents. This was a world of magical thinking, predicated on a fearful worldview that treated everything - even our fellow Jewish people - with the deepest mistrust. I left my bowl of cholent uneaten.

That feeling came back to me this week, when I read about the latest maneuver by the Rabbanut, the official rabbinical authority in the Israeli government. The authority has collected the names of diaspora rabbis - Orthodox as well as non-Orthodox - whose letters attesting to the Jewishness of anyone seeking to immigrate to Israel will be rejected outright. The reason? We can only guess. Any number of reasons could have put me on the list: I am a Conservative rabbi who is outspoken on social justice issues; I call for a progressive interpretation of ancient Jewish laws; I am openly gay; when I believe that Israel's policies are immoral, I say so publicly.

All I know is that when I saw my name there, I wasn't surprised. I remembered that lunch in Jerusalem all those years ago, and I felt nothing but sadness. I'm sad that within my beloved Jewish people, there are worldviews so radically different that the gulf between us often feels unbridgeable.

And because I know that the rabbis on the list with me aren't actually the only rabbis blacklisted. The blacklist really encompasses all rabbis who don't subscribe to the exclusionary worldview of the Rabbanut. Most of all, I feel sad because it is not really just rabbis who are blacklisted: All progressive-minded Jews have been blacklisted. The Rabbanut has shunned all of us who welcome open questioning, diversity, pluralism and many paths to God and to holiness within our people, and in the world.

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I feel sad for all the Jewish people, for the ultra-Orthodox contempt for other Jews who are not like them. I grieve for the way they undermine Jewish unity in the interest of their political power in Israel. This lethal mixture of politics and religion is tearing apart the Jewish world through this list and similar exclusionary tactics - most notably, the recent agreement between ultra-Orthodox Jews and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to revoke an earlier deal that would have officially sanctioned pluralistic prayer services at the Western Wall.

Finally, I feel sad for all the Jewish kids like I once was, for the kids who want nothing more than to enter into the traditional world, to feel its depth and its warmth. Years ago, I found mistrust, rejection and twisted logic. And now the rest of the world is finding it, too, with this despicable list and the Rabbanut's closemindedness.

I still think about that uneaten bowl of cholent, growing ever colder. I pray that the growing rifts between Jews, between Israel and the Diaspora, between all rapidly polarizing groups in this world will heal. Until then, I must speak out against the mistrustful and exclusionary vise-grip that the Rabbanut has over the homeland of all the Jewish people. May all the Jewish people who do not subscribe to fundamentalism join our voices together and demand that Israel release us from that stranglehold. And meanwhile, I will put out a bowl of my own organic, vegetarian cholent on my Sabbath table, and pray that all my Jewish brothers and sisters will join me there, to be embraced for who they are. May that day come soon, before the cholent gets cold.

Washington Post

Gil Steinlauf is the senior rabbinic adviser at Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C. He was the senior rabbi there from 2008 to 2017.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos testifies during a hearing before the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee May 24, 2017, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

We were more than halfway through the semester when a law student stopped by my office. I invited her in. "I don't know how to say this," she hesitated. "This class has brought up so much for me  stuff I never dealt with when it happened, and don't want to think about now." Tears fell down her cheeks. She said she had been raped, and then described her inability to sleep or concentrate on her schoolwork now that she was reminded of the experience.

In those days, I kept a box of tissues on my desk. It wasn't the first time a student disclosed having been sexually assaulted after we covered the subject of rape in my criminal law class, and it wouldn't be the last. Then, as a professor, my job was to be supportive and get my students the help they needed. Now, as a college president, it's my job to ensure that sexual assault on campus is dealt with fairly, directly and expeditiously. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos now can help  or hurt  that effort.

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According to a 2016 Justice Department study, one in five women is sexually assaulted in college. It is one thing to hear or read the statistics about campus sexual assault; it is another to hear about, and see the painful impact of, some of these terrible experiences firsthand. In addition to emotional and physical trauma, sexual assault can have serious academic consequences at the time it occurs, and well afterward.

For decades, the federal civil rights law Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education, has required schools to respond promptly and equitably to campus sexual assault. During President Barack Obama's administration, the Department of Education lit a fire under university leadership to take its responsibilities under Title IX seriously. In a 2011 letter, the department underscored, "Sexual harassment of students, which includes acts of sexual violence, is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX." But opponents of Title IX now want to douse the department's enforcement efforts.

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Thursday, DeVos met with advocates on both sides of the issue to decide how the Trump administration will handle Title IX. It's a discussion already made fraught by the Education Department's acting assistant secretary for civil rights, Candice Jackson, who made the inaccurate and  in her own words  "flippant" assertion Wednesday that, in "90 percent" of campus sexual assault investigations, there's "not even an accusation that these accused students overrode the will of a young woman." Jackson has apologized, but I urge DeVos to consider the facts, and how easily they may be mischaracterized as she moves ahead on this issue.

Opponents of Title IX's application to campus sexual assault argue that campus disciplinary tribunals are kangaroo courts, ill-equipped to adjudicate sexual misconduct. But since the early part of the 19th century, educational institutions have used campus disciplinary tribunals to adjudicate all kinds of misconduct, from plagiarism to rioting.

Colleges and universities have occasionally adjudicated cases even more grievous than rape. In 2013, for example, a fraternity hazing incident in Pennsylvania ended in the death of a pledge by blunt force trauma. The coroner ruled the death a homicide, but the prosecutor did not file charges until two years later. The college, however, pursued disciplinary action against the students involved. Hazing and homicide are both serious crimes, but no one in that case said that the campus was ill-equipped to adjudicate the misconduct. People recognized the obvious: the college needed to protect students from harm.

Opponents argue that campus adjudication undermines the rights of those accused of sexual assault. Libertarian commentator Cathy Young, for example, has described Obama-era Title IX guidance as "marred" by a "polarizing ideology of presumed guilt." Title IX, though, isn't designed to advantage complainants over respondents. The guidance requires equal treatment of both accuser and accused, including prompt notice about procedures and rights for each. The guidance states: "Throughout a school's Title IX investigation, including at any hearing, the parties must have an equal opportunity to present relevant witnesses and other evidence. The complainant and the alleged perpetrator must be afforded similar and timely access to any information." It emphasizes that Title IX requires "adequate, reliable, and impartial investigations of complaints."

Some colleges fail to implement Title IX equitably, either denying victims a safe environment, as Title IX requires, or denying accused students disciplinary fairness, in ways that Title IX does not call for and that the Constitution does not allow. In these cases, accused students are suing colleges and even lodging complaints for gender discrimination under Title IX. And campuses are responding  as they must  when students prevail on either side.

We must strongly protect due process. However, opponents tend to object to campus adjudication of sexual assault, but not campus adjudication of any other serious misconduct. Their single-mindedness suggests a stronger interest in narrowing the definition of sexual assault than in protecting due process.

Opponents of Obama-era guidance argue that the prior administration lowered the standard of proof in campus disciplinary proceedings from "clear and convincing evidence" to "preponderance of the evidence." Not so. Most colleges and universities had no expressly stated standard of proof in their student conduct codes before the guidance, and, of those that did, eight out of 10 schools used the preponderance standard.

Preponderance is the standard of proof that applies throughout our justice system, except when life or liberty is at stake. Since at least 1995, and during multiple presidential administrations, the Department of Education required the preponderance standard. Continuing to require it for campus sexual assault adjudication balances the equities between the parties appropriately.

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Finally, opponents of Title IX argue that criminal courts are just better equipped than campuses, so victims should report their rapes to the police instead. But most allegations of campus sexual assault aren't reported to police. Sexual offenses rank among the least reported of serious crimes, and, once reported, they're frequently not prosecuted.

The campus system offers substantial advantages. Colleges can protect students in ways police cannot. Colleges can offer counseling, move students into different classes or dorms, and provide tutors to help students catch up when incidents jeopardize their academic progress. Schools can promptly discipline those found responsible for misconduct. Greater remedial flexibility on campus ensures students have equal access to education  the point of Title IX.

Title IX's mandate should be unobjectionable: to prohibit discrimination against students based on sex and ensure that they have equal access to education. And at the end of the day, DeVos and I share a responsibility to students. Because sexual assault impedes students' educational opportunities, she should continue to prioritize the vigorous, equitable enforcement of Title IX.

Washington Post

Michelle J. Anderson is the president of Brooklyn College.
Washington  When, over the past fortnight, President Donald Trump's ludicrous suggestion  since walked back  that the United States should form a cybersecurity operation with Russia is not the top story and the continued discombobulation of the GOP hardly makes the top five stories, one grasps the degree to which this presidency is crumbling before our eyes.

Forget achieving its pipe dream of repealing and replacing Obamacare. Never mind the silly insistence from Trump advisers Gary Cohn and H.R. McMaster that the United States really isn't suffering from the worst decline in international prestige and power since the end of the Vietnam War. The pressing issue is now under what circumstances the presidency will collapse and whether  in layman's, if not legal, terms  his family and campaign behaved treacherously in seeking help from a hostile foreign power.

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We are now down to arguing about whether the president's son was independently attempting to collude in secret with Russians or whether his father was in on the scam as well. We know not from leaks but from Donald Trump Jr.'s statements and emails that Rob Goldstone, a manager for pop star Emin Agalarov, arranged for a meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, specifically telling the candidate's son that help from Russia for his father's candidacy was available. In the best-case scenario, the campaign  contrary to repeated representations  had multiple meetings with Russians, including one to provide campaign opposition material to assist a foreign power's foreign policy objectives, the purpose of which the Trump clan initially lied about. That's the most innocuous explanation. Beyond that, as our friends at Lawfare blog put it:

"Trump Jr. claims there was no followup to the meeting on his end, but the question of whether the Russian side took further action following the conversation is also critical. Was this really a one-off meeting that didn't go anywhere, or was it an effort to sound out the people around the candidate to determine their willingness to accept Russian help before taking further steps?

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"There's also the question of the candidate's personal knowledge. The White House has denied that the President knew of the meeting; deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said that Trump had learned of the meeting recently. That said, he was clearly in the building on the relevant day, and the meeting involved two close family members and his campaign chairman and a woman purporting to be bringing news of a foreign government effort to help his campaign. So again, the story as it stands today is consistent with an abortive effort to gather dirt that never went anywhere and of which the President neither knew nor approved-and on which nobody followed up. But it's also consistent with a covert contact that precipitated the first major release of Russian-hacked material stolen from Trump's opponents. It's certainly consistent with individuals willing to publicly lie to cover up their contacts, and only acknowledge such contacts when caught by the media."

And let's not forget that one attendee of that meeting, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, who also attended a meeting to try to set up a secret channel using Russian facilities in order to cut out U.S. intelligence agencies, still works in the West Wing  and oh, by the way, favored the termination of FBI Director James Comey, who was vigorously investigating the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russia.

There is little doubt that if Democrats controlled the House, we would be down the road to impeachment. Nor is there much dispute that the existence of an underlying "crime"  collusion with a foreign power (an effort to obtain something of value from a foreign power)  would make the possible charge of obstruction of justice (oh, that!) even more potent. And it is this unmistakable and irremovable scandal  a web of collusion, lies and coverup  that suggests there is no way to move beyond this, no remedy or resolution that provides the Trump White House with a clean bill of legal and political health.

Republicans' willingness to accept even national betrayal  that's what Trump Jr. was willing to undertake, after all  will disgrace the party and its leaders for years, if not permanently. It is a party no longer capable of defending our national interests and Constitution from foreign enemies.

As an aside, the view of America from across the Atlantic is a brew of dumbfoundedness and disgust, a creeping sense that the world's greatest democracy is in a tailspin led by a malicious crackpot. At least Americans and our European friends can agree on that.

Washington Post

Jennifer Rubin is a Washington Post columnist.

What to read next:

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WASHINGTON  The Russia scandal has entered a new phase and there's no going back.

For six months, the White House claimed that this scandal was nothing more than innuendo about Trump campaign collusion with Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Innuendo for which no concrete evidence had been produced.

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Yes, there were several meetings with Russian officials, some only belatedly disclosed. But that is circumstantial evidence at best. Meetings tell you nothing unless you know what happened in them. We didn't. Some of these were casual encounters in large groups like the famous July 2016 Kislyak-Sessions exchange of pleasantries at the Republican National Convention. Big deal.

I was puzzled. Lots of cover-up, but where was the crime? Not even a third-rate burglary. For six months, smoke without fire. Yes, President Donald Trump himself was acting very defensively, as if he were hiding something. But no one ever produced the something.

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My view was: Collusion? I just don't see it. But I'm open to empirical evidence. Show me.

The evidence is now shown. This is not hearsay, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr. himself. A British go-between writes that there's a Russian government effort to help Trump Sr. win the election, and as part of that effort he proposes a meeting with a "Russian government attorney" possessing damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the Kremlin is willing to share troves of incriminating documents from the Crown Prosecutor. (Error: Britain has a Crown Prosecutor. Russia has a State Prosecutor.)

Donald Jr. emails back. "I love it." Fatal words.

Once you've said "I'm in," it makes no difference that the meeting was a bust, that the intermediary brought no such goods. What matters is what Donald Jr. thought going into the meeting, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, who were copied on the correspondence, invited to the meeting and attended.

"It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame," Donald Jr. told Sean Hannity. A shame? On the contrary, a stroke of luck. Had the lawyer real stuff to deliver, Donald Jr. and the others would be in far deeper legal trouble. It turned out to be incompetent collusion, amateur collusion, comically failed collusion. That does not erase the fact that three top Trump campaign officials were ready to play.

It may turn out that they did later collaborate more fruitfully. We don't know. But even if nothing else is found, the evidence is damning.

It's rather pathetic to hear Trump apologists protesting that it's no big deal because we Americans are always intervening in other people's elections and they in ours. You don't have to go back to the '40s and '50s when the CIA intervened in France and Italy to keep the communists from coming to power. What about the Obama administration's blatant interference to try to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest Israeli election? One might even add the work of groups supported by the U.S. during Russian parliamentary elections  the very origin of Vladimir Putin's deep animus toward Clinton, then secretary of state, whom he accuses of having orchestrated the opposition.

This defense is pathetic for two reasons. First, have the Trumpites not been telling us for six months that no collusion ever happened? And now they say: Sure it happened. So what? Everyone does it.

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What's left of your credibility when you make such a casual about-face?

Second, no, not everyone does it. It's one thing to be open to opposition research dug up in Indiana. But not dirt from Russia, a hostile foreign power that has repeatedly invaded its neighbors (Georgia, Crimea, Eastern Ukraine), that buzzes our planes and ships in international waters, that opposes our every move and objective around the globe. Just last week the Kremlin killed additional United Nations sanctions we were looking to impose on North Korea for its intercontinental ballistic missile test.

There is no statute against helping a foreign hostile power meddle in an American election. What Donald Jr.  and Kushner and Manafort  did may not be criminal. But it is not merely stupid. It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor.

I leave it to the lawyers to adjudicate the legalities of unconsummated collusion. But you don't need a lawyer to see that the Trump defense  collusion as a desperate Democratic fiction designed to explain away a lost election  is now officially dead.

Charles Krauthammer is a Washington Post columnist.

letters@charleskrauthammer.com
By mid-July 1937, the search for Amelia Earhart and her twin-engine Lockheed Electra airplane had come up empty.

The heroic American flyer and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were missing for weeks in the central Pacific. They should have landed at tiny Howland Island in early July and then hopscotched home to Oakland, Calif., thus completing the first round-the-world plane voyage via the equator.

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Where were they?

Earhart knew the 2,250-mile flight from New Guinea to Howland was the trickiest part of the journey; finding that speck of land using celestial and radio navigation would be a race against diminishing fuel. The Itasca, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter, was stationed near Howland to help her home in on the island, but Earhart and the naval vessel failed to connect. Crew aboard the Itasca, in agony, could hear Earhart, but she couldn't hear the ship. "We must be on you but cannot see you  but gas is running low," she reported in one of her final transmissions. "Have been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet."

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You've read to this point, and you're in agony, too, right? Or at least captivated by the mystery of what happened 80 years ago this month to Amelia Earhart, icon of flying and early-20th-century female derring-do. It is a puzzle Earhart obsessives have never stopped trying to solve. Which brings us to two new clues, involving a photograph and four forensic dogs  Marcy, Piper, Kayle and Berkeley.

The aging black-and-white photograph, discovered in the National Archives, shows a busy dock scene at Jaluit Atoll in the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands. There's a slim person with short wavy hair sitting on the dock, facing away from the camera, who looks like Earhart. Nearby is a man who resembles Noonan. The blurred photo, featured on a new History Channel documentary, lent credence to one of many theories: that Earhart and Noonan were captured by the Japanese. Alas, days after the photo was publicized, a Japanesse blogger determined the picture had appeared in a Japanese book published two years before Earhart's fateful flight. So much for that hypothesis.

Among other Earhart theories, one group believes her plane bypassed Howland and landed 350 nautical miles to the south on Gardner Island, now Nikumaroro in Kiribati. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery just made another trip to the island, where numerous clues could prove Earhart and Noonan met their fate, lost and marooned, on Gardner. Last month, the group, which includes the National Geographic Society, arrived at Nikumaroro with four forensic dogs capable of detecting the scent of human bones. Why? A British doctor in 1940 reported finding such bones on the island. Other intriguing detritus turned up, including a U.S.-made jackknife, a zipper pull and a small jar that some speculate contained freckle cream of the type Earhart used. Ooh, feeling chills?

National Geographic reports that the pups detected a spot that may hold traces of human remains. A German laboratory will test soil from the spot for DNA that if you believe in long shots  could put Earhart or Noonan at the site.

Or this could be another clue that leads nowhere. Given that Earhart and Noonan were low on fuel, the most likely location of the Electra is somewhere at the bottom of the Pacific.

Yet all these decades later, the story of Amelia Earhart endures. She was a record-setting pilot, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, whose spirit of adventure ultimately led to her doom. Her body and plane are still missing, but because Earhart's legend survives, she was never truly lost.

Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.

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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks with the media after a series of listening sessions about campus sexual violence, Thursday, July 13, 2017, in Washington. (Alex Brandon / AP)

For decades, many colleges chose to handle most sexual crime allegations on campus rather than reporting them to local police. That often led college women to believe that university officials and campus security officers were more interested in protecting the university's reputation than in helping police and prosecutors aggressively pursue allegations of sexual assault.

In 2011, the Obama administration issued a 19-page "Dear Colleague" letter that urged colleges to more aggressively investigate those allegations and to encourage victims to come forward. The administration warned schools they could forfeit millions in federal funding if they remained lax.

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That federal scrutiny produced results: In May 2014, 55 colleges were under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights for their handling of sexual violence cases. Three years later  that is, as of July 12 there were 344 such cases under investigation at 242 institutions.

Enter new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who has been listening to advocates, rape survivors, college administrators and accused students to decide if the department's "Dear Colleague" guidance should be rescinded or changed.

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Please note: She's just listening. She hasn't said yet whether she'll do anything. But that has stirred rampant speculation that the Trump administration may dilute the 2011 guidelines.

We don't know if colleges are handling campus sex assault cases better than they did before 2011. But whatever DeVos decides, we know this much:

 Sexual assault on campus  or anywhere else  is a terrible crime that ruins lives. It wrecks the lives of victims and often of perpetrators. It haunts people who are accused but innocent. And it traumatizes those who watch an attacker walk free because of a criminal justice system that fails.

 Sexual assault is pervasive, on campus and off. More than 20 percent of female undergrads at an array of colleges said they were victims of sexual assault and misconduct, according to a 2015 survey by the Association of American Universities. Young women who don't attend college actually have a higher chance of being sexually assaulted than their college peers, according to federal figures released in 2014.

It shouldn't matter if the crime takes place in a house, a corporate office or a campus dorm. Investigating it and, when appropriate, prosecuting it and punishing the assailant is a job for civil authorities, not occupants of the house, bosses of the corporation  or personnel on campus.

Why not campus officials and faculty members, some of whom play the roles of judges and jurors? Because many schools lack the resources and expertise of local police to investigate such crimes, let alone to professionally process physical evidence.

Law enforcement officials find sexual assault cases on or off campus challenging. Often these encounters involve alcohol or other drugs and boil down to conflicting he-said she-said accounts of whether sexual contact was consensual. Sometimes victims decline to pursue charges. But those problems are common to many criminal investigations. Civil authorities, who have no agenda to protect a school or to shortchange an alleged victim or perpetrator, still are best suited to mete out justice.

All the more reason for college administrators to swiftly hand allegations of rape and other sex crimes to the people best qualified to deal with them  local cops and prosecutors.

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We hope DeVos makes that a top priority. One option would be this rewrite of the 2011 letter:

Dear Colleague,

Someone reports a campus sexual assault? Call the cops.
Four members of the Mandan High School Future Business Leaders of America chapter, Treyton Barstad, Jordan Kadrmas, Landrey Yantzer and Tyanna Fulliam, attended the FBLA National Leadership Conference June 29-July 2 in Anaheim, Calif. FBLA chapters from the United States, Puerto Rico, China and the U.S. Virgin Islands participated in the conference, where over 12,000 students had the opportunity to test their business skills against other students.

Students have the opportunity to test the business skills theyve learned in the classroom in a variety of individual, team, and chapter events. Students could enter events such as accounting, computer applications, public speaking, job interview, website development or networking concepts. The culmination of the competitive events program is the awards ceremony where winners are recognized for their accomplishments. Students also had the opportunity to attend workshops, regional meetings and elect a new national officer team.
I suggest our politicians make two major changes to the minimum wage system. First, once the minimum (national or state) rate is set, it should be adjusted annually, just like Social Security, etc. If $8.25 is the right number for one year, then how can it be right for the next year after a 2 percent increase in cost of living? Put the minimum wage on a cost of living adjustment that makes sense. This would allow businesses to plan and will eliminate most of the the squawking politicians from having this periodic battle. To throw increases of 40 percent to 75 percent once every decade or so is just dumb.

Second, consider an age-related minimum wage. For example, say the minimum wage is $10 for a 16-year-old, but $12 for an 18-year-old and $14 for a 21-year-old. Certainly the typical 21-year-old is of more value at work than the typical 16-year-old. Pick the age points and the rates and set them. Let the COLA do the rest. First jobs for teens should encourage them to get started in the workplace, but also move forward to achieve and earn more. Businesses should be motivated to hire relatively low-cost teens who are just getting started and then recognize increasing value as they develop.

Sometimes our politicians can't see the forest from the tree stumps they are standing on, squawking that it's time to give a fair wage to working families. But there is little doubt that the way they've handled this over the past 50 years is not working. Time for some change. Time to get the politicians off the tree stumps.

 Rob Madderom, Mokena
I am a second-generation grandson of Polish immigrants on the North Side of Chicago. I went to school, graduated from College, served in Vietnam, earned an MBA, and voted in 90 percent of all elections for which I was eligible, sometimes for the Democrat and sometimes for the Republican.

I have paid all my taxes and have supported numerous charities. I am the commander of my local Veterans of Foreign Wars post, and I am a lifetime member of the Vietnam Veterans of America.

Now I find out that because I did not vote for Hillary Clinton for president and instead voted for President Donald Trump, I am simply a bad citizen. My gosh, I dont know what will become of me now  except that I will join the other bad citizens in the majority of states that put Trump in office in voting for him again in 2020 if the Democrats insist on putting up another candidate in the image of Clinton.

 Ron Grabski, Williams Bay, Wis.
As a veteran, I served to protect and defend the American ideals this country was founded upon  ideals that we havent fully achieved in our country, and perhaps never will. True patriotism is when we continue the struggle toward equality and justice, a struggle that resulted in the creation of this democracy, and continues on in every rally, vigil and protest that happens in our local communities today. We are at our best as a nation when we welcome those who seek refuge and accept those who are different from us. The ideals of religious freedom, inclusion and unity are the ideals that I fought for when I served.

I therefore ask Brannigan to stop her hateful rhetoric against the Muslim community and use her position to instead bring her constituents together, so that healing and learning can happen. Brannigan must understand that divisive rhetoric which aims to divide a group of people based on their religious background leads to divisive policies that are against our ideals and the national security interests of our country. We must stand up and speak out against hate, and remember that our diversity is our countrys greatest strength.

 Arti Walker-Peddakotla, Oak Park
University of Notre Dame graduate Mark Davidson shows his support for President Trump as he walks into the 2017 graduation ceremony at the university in South Bend. (Robert Franklin/AP )

"Elitist," as Time magazine culture critic William A. Henry III observed in his 1994 book "In Defense of Elitism," has begun to rival, if not outstrip, "racist" as the "foremost catchall pejorative of our times."

Henry later passed away, but the malady that he described lingers on. The latest evidence of decline in our regard for the upper crust pops up like cinnamon toast in a new Pew Research Center poll of today's attitudes toward higher education.

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More than half  58 percent  of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in the poll say colleges and universities have had a "negative impact" on the country. Only two years ago that attitude was expressed by only 37 percent of that same group. But that group grew a year ago to 45 percent and by this year became a clear majority.

At the same time, more than 70 percent of Democrats and left-leaning independents remained largely unchanged in their view that colleges and universities have a positive effect on the country.

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What explains this new wave of anti-intellectualism on the right? In some ways, it is nothing new. "The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself," Ralph Waldo Emerson sniffed in 1837. But much of it also is quite new and not entirely limited to the political right. Many, particularly students, on the left also have corrupted the free exchange of ideas that is the life's blood of intellectual growth.

Part of the distemper on the right may be a backlash to news reports of campus unrest that conservative National Review tagged the "year of the shout-down." The shouted-down or otherwise shut out for controversially conservative views included Milo Yiannopoulos at University of California at Berkeley, Charles Murray at Middlebury College, Heather Mac Donald at UCLA and Claremont McKenna College and Ann Coulter at Berkeley.

Indeed, colleges teach the wrong lessons when they allow students to use the heckler's veto to muzzle speech they don't like instead of learning better debate and argumentation skills.

But strains of anti-intellectualism mostly on the right have infected American politics for decades, at least since the 1950s era of anti-communist witch hunts by Wisconsin Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who railed regularly against lefties on campuses and in the federal government.

Coincidentally, his notoriously ruthless lawyer Roy Cohn became a mentor to now-President Donald Trump, whose presidential campaign and crusade against "political correctness" also coincided with the sharp rise of anti-college attitudes among GOP voters  and probably helped fuel it.

Attacking "elites" in colleges, the courts and news media certainly paid off well enough for Trump to win what McCarthy never did, the presidency. Anti-elitism also helps him galvanize members of his seemingly rock-hard political base and tap into their resentments of liberal elites and anyone else they can blame for economic and cultural changes that have left them and their old way of life behind.

But isn't the deep-pocketed, well-connected celebrity Trump an elite too? Sure, but he deflected and reshaped that image by portraying himself as a knowledgeable New York insider who has come to save the rest of us from a system that's been rigged against us. "Nobody knows the system better than me," he famously declared in his Republican National Convention speech, "which is why I alone can fix it."

Sure, a lot of his own voters could hear the malarkey in that pitch. But compared to the other GOP candidates and his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, at least he was expressing what was on their minds. Whether he could deliver or not, his base voters enjoy watching him attack their mutual foes in the fashion of a WWE wrestler, whether the show is rigged or not.

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Yet, the theatrics of media-driven politics overlook the underlying source of modern class grievances: a disruption of upward mobility that has left today's working-class kids of all races who lack schooling beyond high school with fewer opportunities to move up the economic ladder  or even stay employed at well-paying jobs.

When I was growing up, the "elites" of our community were those who commanded the most respect. This usually came through their line of work, whether they were business owners or high-ranking politicians or leading schoolteachers, firefighters, police, artists, clergy or other respectable role models.

But when those who win success for themselves and their families appear to be turning their backs on those left behind, they invite a new level of class warfare that can only divide our polarized political landscape even more.

Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage.

cpage@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @cptime
Illinois State Rep. Steve Andersson, R-Geneva, and Illinois State Rep. David Harris, R-Arlington Heights, answer questions from the media after the Illinois House voted to override Gov. Rauner's veto and pass a budget for the first time in two years during an overtime session at the Illinois State Capitol, Thursday, July 6, 2017, in Springfield, Ill. (Justin L. Fowler / The State Journal-Register)

Family PAC, an anti-tax, socially conservative Illinois coalition, recently sent an action alert to its members urging them to mount a telephone harassment campaign against the 10 Republican state representatives who joined the successful effort to to override Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of the recent state budget deal.

The memo referred to the "perfidy" of the GOP members who OK'd a deal that included personal and corporate income tax hikes.

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"Please call each of the 'sellout' Republicans who made the 'Illinois Train Wreck' possible. Say one word, 'sellout,' and hang up the phone."

Forget that this is a childish response to a legislative vote that didn't go your way, a backward-looking tantrum.

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Forget that the victims of such a prank would likely be office staff members.

The real problem with this campaign, as I see it, is the casual use of the word "sellout." It's a harsh accusation  harsher than "fool," "dupe," "waffler" or even "traitor"  because it assigns a corrupt motivation to those with whom one has what may well be an honest difference of opinion.

"Sellout" forestalls productive or interesting conversation. It says the other person has betrayed his genuine and heartfelt views for personal advantage, that he's not merely insincere but venal, that, as the Online Etymology Dictionary puts it, he has prostituted his ideals.

Where do you go from there?

Not that there isn't corruption, large and small, in politics. But if you're going to go straight to 11, preempt reasoned debate and accuse someone of casting a vote or taking a position for private gain, you'd better have proof.

I happen to believe that the Republicans who voted against their governor and their party leaders cast a difficult vote of conscience, a vote that averted rather than caused a "train wreck" and that's far more likely to work against their self interests with donors and base voters.

So after I read coverage of the action alert on the Capitol Fax blog, I reached out to Paul Caprio, director of Family PAC: "The term implies a corrupt vote, an unwholesome quid pro quo," I wrote in an email. "What personal or political benefit did they sell out for?"

He replied: "It was a sellout of their promises to their own constituents. Most of them ran on a no-new-taxes pledge and also fundamental reform of state government." When I pressed him again on the charge, he added, "By voting for both the budget and tax increases, they betrayed both of these principles to their constituents. 'Sellout' can be used for someone who sells their principles in return for money, but I have not used it in that context."

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Yet there is no other context. Words have meaning, and ugly, splenetic ones like "sellout" can't be rehabilitated for use in a thoughtful discussion. It's either a pointed and devastating accusation or it's mere poison.

It seems that Caprio's members realize this even if he doesn't. By Friday afternoon I was able to speak to personnel in seven of the 10 targeted legislative offices and not one reported having received a "Sellout!" hang-up call.

The passing of a legend  the column item about the death of Carolyn MacLean Swanson is here



Re:Tweets

I'm quite fond of the tweet that won this week's online poll: "If you can't think of a word, say 'I forget the English word for it.' That way people will think you're bilingual instead of an idiot," by @AndrewNadeau0.

But for the second time in a row, my favorite among the 16 finalists finished dead last with the voters. It's an anti-joke by @GrantTanaka that goes, "I like my women like I like other things that are appealing to me: With qualities that I find appealing."

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ericzorn@gmail.com

Twitter @EricZorn
Sugar Grove Corn Boil celebrates its 50th anniversary by going blue.

Sugar Grove Corn Boil will be held July 27-30 at Volunteer Park. This year, the Corn Boil committee has partnered with Giant Steps, an organization that provides support to individuals and families affected by autism, said board president Jackie Link.

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On July 27, the committee will donate $5 to Giant Steps for every carnival unlimited ride wristband sold. The price of the wristband is $25 and is valid from 5-10 p.m.

The Ace Hardware store in Sugar Grove is selling blue lightbulbs for $1.99, she said, and owner Mark Driscoll will donate 99 cents of each sale to Giant Steps' Canopy program, a day program for adults on the autism spectrum. Residents are encouraged to light up their porches with blue lights during Corn Boil, she said.

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Additionally, Link is looking for old photos, flyers, letters or even recollections of Corn Boils past.

"Our theme for the event is sharing the memories and we are looking for people to share their memories with us," she said. "We're going to incorporate those into our Jumbotron presentation to show the community."

People can post pictures and memories to the Corn Boil's Facebook page, she said.

"In 1967, this started as a small community gathering put on by the Young Adults Club," Link said. "The Young Adults Club was comprised of couples under the age of 40. It was about a four-hour event for friends and neighbors to get together. They were trying to raise money for the first street lamp in Sugar Grove."

As the couples aged out, the group re-organized under the Sugar Grove Community Group with the intentions of raising funds for community improvements.

In 1985, a team of volunteers, with donated materials, built the pavilion at Volunteer Park. It was ready in time for that year's Corn Boil.

"Our slogan is 'where friends and family come together to have fun,' and that truly is what we're about," she said. "With the money raised from Corn Boil, we give that back to different organizations within the community. Last year, we gave back $12,200 to 18 local organizations."

There will also be a photo booth at the Corn Boil. For a donation, you and four friends can climb into the booth, take some pictures, upload them to social media and even get a 4-by-6 print, she said.

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While they added a fourth day a few years ago, this year will have more activities than in the past; like more music, more concessions and the fire department's beer tent.

The opening ceremony and parade will be on Friday. Blue bracelets will be sold for $5 and during the ceremony, fest-goers are encouraged to light up their bracelets and raise their arms to the sky, she said.

"We're going to have a drone fly overhead to take some pictures," she said. "Saturday  we're going to have a more inclusive kid zone with different things that kids can do. Saturday and Sunday, we're going to have a corn shucking contest for the first time so we're excited about that.

"It will be children and adults, along with our regular ice cream eating contest. Sunday it will be Christian music Sunday. We're going to have some Christian bands come in and it will be very family-friendly."

There will be plenty for kids, she said, including magician Rob Thompson, princesses and characters from Royal Princess Parties, a balloon toss, tricycle race, games and a carnival.

A classic car show will be from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. There will be bingo every day of the fest.

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Obviously, what makes a corn boil is the boiled corn, right? To that end, they will have a replication of the steam engine that was used to boil the corn.

"Unfortunately, it's a little too dangerous to use nowadays because it gets too hot," she said. "It will be on a truck bed for people to take pictures in front of and see what that's all about."

There will be steel troughs that the corn is boiled in, so the namesake corn will be for sale.

"It's not quite like it was back in 1967 and the '70s," she said. "But we definitely do have the corn."

In addition to corn, there will be vendors like Lee's Concessions, Annabell's Bar-B-Q, Greek Flames Food and Genoa Italian Concessions, she said.

Bands include 60 Carat Rock, Woody James and Whiskey Romance on Friday night. Saturday features Cadillac Groove, Lounge Puppets, Gina Glocksen and Maggie Speaks. Sunday's lineup includes 4th Point, Annie Young Blues Gospel Band, Mass Anthem and Citizen Way.

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A fireworks show will be at dusk on Saturday.

Annie Alleman is a freelance writer at The Beacon-News.

Sugar Grove Corn Boil

When: July 27-30

Where: Volunteer Park, 61 N. Main St., Sugar Grove

Tickets: Free admission
Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin presents books about Aurora and its history to members of the Zhejiang Province delegation from China that spent Friday in the city. (Steve Lord / The Beacon-News )

What has become somewhat of an ongoing dialogue between the city of Aurora and representatives of the Chinese government continued Friday.

Aurora officials brought out the welcome wagon for a delegation of 24 people from the Zhejiang Province of China  a combination of municipal, county and provincial officials that even included security personal and members of the judiciary.

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The city has done this several times in the past for officials from different Chinese provinces. On Friday, the delegation heard from Mayor Richard Irvin, the management team of the city, including Alex Alexandrou, chief management officer, and even got to have some words with Police Chief Kristen Ziman and Fire Chief Gary Krienitz.

Speaking of words, both Ziman and Irvin managed a few Chinese words that brought smiles, chuckles, and applause from the delegation.

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But the biggest applause came for Alexandrou who told the delegation, through an interpreter, that Aurora has a lot of bridges, which could be symbolic of the bridges being built between America and China through such exchanges as Friday's.

Ye Hanbing, the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau director and leader of the delegation, said through an interpreter that the Chinese officials were interested in the workings of Aurora's municipal government, as well as the legal system, human resources and public security.

He said the Zhejiang Province is the most economically developed province in Eastern China, with a population of about 15 million people that includes several municipalities.

Included in the delegation were four mayors, two municipal and two county. The municipal mayors were Chen Lingfang, of the Shengzhou municipal government, and Mei Shimiao, of the Linhai municipal government. The other mayors were Li Yibo, of the Jinyun County People's Government and Ding Zheng, of the Pujiang County People's Government.

Irvin had a surprise for the delegation with two Aurora residents of Chinese descent who spoke to them.

Moon Zia grew up in Shanghai but came to the U.S. in 1987 and has lived in Aurora since 1998. She works with students at the Illinois Math and Science Academy in teaching the tenants of entrepreneurship  how to start a business and make it successful.

"I told (the delegation) Aurora is a city very rich in history and education," she said, after her speech.

She said she "really wants to help" Aurora with its economic development efforts.

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"Whatever I can do to help," she said. "My background is in running a business."

She also serves in an advisory capacity to the Aurora Municipal Airport.

Calvin Shih moved to America from Taiwan in the 1970s to attend Northwestern University in Evanston, majoring in computer science. He never left. He moved to Aurora in 2000, and has a son who is a graduate of IMSA.

"I acknowledged the new mayor and his energy, and how he is reaching out to different people," Shih said.

Shih said he was upfront in his speech that he was from Taiwan, which has long-standing political differences with mainland China, and chuckled when he said they would have known anyway when they heard him speak.

He said the differences are largely political, and not between the people of both jurisdictions, who understand that they are all historically Chinese.

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"The people, they understand," he said.

In addition to hearing from the city's management staff, the delegation heard from Ald. Robert O'Connor, at large, who also served six months as mayor, talk about how the City Council functions, and governance and accountability.

They also heard about the city's economic development machine, Invest Aurora, from Director David Hulseberg.

The group toured the Aurora Police Department and had a discussion about public safety and security afterward, and got to sample one of the city's eateries, the Two Brothers Roundhouse restaurant, for lunch.

As to what the future holds, officials said it could lead to a more formalized Sister City relationship between Aurora and a Chinese municipality.

slord@tribpub.com
East Aurora High School senior Joaquin Oscar Miranda has been named the first place honoree of the Union League Club of Chicago's annual Democracy in Action Award.

He won the award because of his exemplary civic leadership, advocacy and commitment to democratic principles, according to a press release from the club.

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The Union League Club of Chicago presents the Democracy in Action Award annually to Illinois junior and senior high school students who demonstrate exemplary civic leadership. During the Union League Club of Chicago's annual meeting on June 6, Miranda was presented his award.

As the first-place winner, Miranda got a check for $3,000.

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Democracy in Action Award candidates are nominated by teachers or faculty members who have direct knowledge of the students' achievements and character, according to the press release. The club's selection committee reviews the nominations and judges nominees on their civic participation and leadership in the community for such actions as leadership in student government or facilitating civic participation and public service initiatives that emphasize the values of citizenship.

Miranda is described by Nicole Sales, East Aurora High School counselor who nominated him, as "one of those once in a lifetime students," according to the release.

Miranda was cited for his leadership, service to others, academic excellence and positive attitude.

In addition to completing hundreds of hours of community service, Miranda is a member of the Academic Team, Drill Team, Orienteering Team, Physical Fitness Team, and Color Guard Team, where he has served as a leader for four years.

Miranda is ranked number one and serves as the Cadet Captain in the nation's largest NJROTC program at his high school.

"Academically, he has shined in the classroom and ranked in the top 6 percent of his graduating class," Sales said.
Sunday, July 16

 Worship service, 9:30 a.m., followed by ice cream on the lawn, Mandan United Methodist Church, 610 12th St. N.W., Mandan. Freewill offering will go toward the Front Door Project.

 Watermelon Day, 1 to 5 p.m., North Dakota State Railroad Museum, 3102 37th St., N.W. Mandan. Admission is free with donations accepted. Free watermelon to all visitors.

Monday, July 17

 Community Connections Crafternoon for adults with disabilities, 1 p.m., Morton Mandan Public Library, 609 W. Main St., Mandan. Upcycle T-shirts: bring an old T-shirt and make a tank, tote bag or scarf.

 Immunizations, 3-5 p.m., Mandan Custer Health Office, 403 Burlington St. S.E.; call 701-667-3370 for appointment.

Tuesday, July 18

 Foot care and blood pressure for seniors 60 and older, 9-11 a.m., New Salem Pioneer Club, 201 S. Third St., New Salem; call Mark at 843-8030 for appointment.

 Foot care and blood pressure, 12:15 a.m.-1 p.m., Flasher 55 Club, 67 Fifth Ave. E., Flasher; no appointment necessary.

 Mandan City Commission, 5:30 p.m., Mandan City Hall, 205 Second Ave. N.W.

Wednesday, July 19

 Morton County Road Commission, 9 a.m., Morton County Highway Department conference room, 2916 37th St. N.W., Mandan.

Thursday, July 20

 Library book club for adults, 7 p.m., Morton Mandan Public Library, 609 W. Main St., Mandan. This months book: "At the Waters Edge," a novel by Sara Gruen.

Monday, July 24

 Immunizations, 3-5 p.m., Mandan Custer Health Office, 403 Burlington St. S.E.; call 701-667-3370 for appointment.

 Mandan Planning and Zoning, 5:15 p.m., Mandan City Hall, 205 Second Ave. N.W.

 Morton Mandan Public Library Board of Trustees, 5:30 p.m., Morton Mandan Public Library, 609 W. Main St.
Fishermen look at the Fox River in Montgomery Thursday. A flood warning was still in effect Thursday for the river. (Judy Pochel / The Beacon-News )

While parts of northern Illinois have dealt with massive flooding over the past two days, the Aurora area has been spared from the worst of the problem.

That doesn't mean local officials aren't keeping an eye on the Fox River, as well as lakes and ponds in the area.

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A flood warning was still in place Thursday for the Fox River in Montgomery.

Todd Hoppenstedt, director of public works in Montgomery, said despite the warning the village was in good shape Thursday morning.

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The level of the Fox River in Montgomery Thursday morning was 13.63 feet.

"We typically don't get excited until it reaches the 14-foot level," he said.

He said current weather projections look good for the area.

"The next possibility of rain is a 20 percent chance on Sunday, then there is no rain until next Thursday. If that is right, we'll be in good shape," he said.

In Yorkville, the status of the river is especially important this weekend. The city's River Fest is set for 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and noon to 10 p.m. Saturday at Riverfront Park along the Fox River.

Activities will also include the Illinois Whitewater Festival, presented by the Illinois Whitewater Association, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. The kayak festival features competition taking place on the Marge Cline Whitewater Course on the Fox River in Yorkville.

Tim Evans, director of Parks and Recreation for Yorkville, said city officials "are monitoring the river."

"River activities may be modified or postponed due to the height of the river. Overall, the festival will run as scheduled, especially the ground activities, such as bands, food, and performances," he said.

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Officials in St. Charles said they are keeping an eye on the river as well.

"Our Emergency Management and Public Works crews have been monitoring the river levels," said City Administrator Mark Koenen in a press release. "Our police, fire and Public Works departments are ready to respond if they are needed."

Things were worse farther north along the Fox River. Between 6 and 7 inches of rain fell between Tuesday night and Thursday morning in Elgin.

In downtown Elgin, a walk along the banks of the Fox River offered evidence of how much rain had fallen. Bridges leading to Walton Islands were closed as water was partially flooding the ground.

In rural Elgin, Arlene Watermann Thursday afternoon said she and her son have been without electricity and using a generator since late Tuesday night. Watermann said that quite a few utility poles snapped in an area covering more than a mile. Crews were still out making repairs and hoped to be finished by sometime later Thursday, she was told.

With the river so high, East Dundee was making sandbags and sand available for free to residents, with the material available in a vacant lot not far from the police station off Railroad Street.

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In West Dundee, parts of the town's riverwalk were underwater, including the standing area under a gazebo along that path.

That village sent an email to its residents and posted on social media Thursday morning noting that the Fox already had reached a minor flood stage and was expected to crest next Tuesday at about 13.5 feet.

As a precautionary measure, the village was asking for volunteers to meet Thursday at the dead end of Oregon Avenue, next to the river, to help fill sandbags that might be needed to protect businesses and residences in the next few days.

Among those out helping Thursday afternoon were former village president, Larry Keller, and the village's manager Joe Cavallaro.

Cavallaro said the highest the river has crested prior to this prediction was 12.7 feet in April 2013. This was the second time in 10 years West Dundee had readied sandbags, he said.

"The river lever becomes an issue for us when its crest is 10 feet or more," Cavallaro said.

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He added, though, that typically West Dundee only has to worry about flooding at two places along the Fox  near the Village Squire off First Street and where Edwards Avenue ends near the river.

Freelance reporter Linda Girardi and Courier-News reporter Mike Danahey contributed to this story
Aurora's newest alderman had ties to Mayor Richard Irvin's campaign in the year before Irvin appointed him to fill a vacant City Council seat.

Ald. Sherman Jenkins, his wife and his two companies donated thousands of dollars to Irvin's campaign fund, state records show. Jenkins was also paid for work for Irvin's campaign.

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In May, slightly more than a month after Irvin was elected mayor, he announced his selection of Jenkins for alderman at large. The position had previously been Irvin's, and became vacant when Irvin was sworn in as mayor.

Sarah Brune, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said the appointment could create the appearance of a conflict, particularly if it looks like other candidates weren't considered for the post. Such appointments should be based on merit, rather than politics, she said.

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"The person filling an aldermanic seat should be the best person to represent the people living in that district or area," she said. "(Jenkins) may be that person, but when there's what could be perceived as close personal ties, it may create the perception of a conflict."

Irvin and Jenkins both said the campaign contributions and work were not a factor in Jenkins' appointment as alderman.

Between May 2016 and September 2016, Irvin's campaign fund paid Jenkins $2,624 for work listed as "consulting," "campaign  finance fee" and "staff salaries," records show.

Jenkins, his two companies and his wife donated a combined $3,005 to Irvin's campaign between May 2016 and March 2017, according to state records. Jenkins also donated $175 to Irvin's campaign fund in 2003, records show.

"Those were contributions towards his campaign because I believe, as well as my wife, we believed in his campaign," Jenkins said. "And for me, specifically, when he approached me with regards to being involved in his campaign, I liked what he said with regards to the business community and working with the business community."

Irvin touted unanimous approval by City Council members present the night Jenkins was appointed. He highlighted in a written statement Jenkins' background.

"Even the aldermen who openly endorsed other candidates for mayor approved his appointment," Irvin said. "Why? Because with more than two decades of municipal and economic development experience, he has served this community with very tangible, successful results, and he brings that proven track record to the City Council. I wanted Sherman to serve on the council for these very reasons, and these are the same reasons I welcomed his participation on my campaign team."

Jenkins was head of the now-defunct Aurora Economic Development Commission from 1999 until his retirement in 2012, and was assistant director before that. He has also been involved in other community boards and organizations.

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He said his work for Irvin's campaign involved hosting fundraisers with the business community and introducing Irvin to companies and business leaders. He stopped working for the campaign because his book came out and he became busy with tours and presentations, he said.

He now is balancing his projects with the part-time alderman's position, he said.

He acknowledged contributing to Irvin's campaign in 2003, but said he didn't want to make other political contributions while leading the economic development commission because he knew he would have to work with whoever was in office.

Irvin said he did not discuss the proposed appointment with Jenkins until after the April election, and then had to work to convince Jenkins to accept the position.

He called Jenkins "an integral part of my campaign," and said the decision to appoint him was not about his campaign contributions but about his resume.

"There were many stalwart supporters who donated tens of thousands of dollars to my campaign," Irvin said. "Sherman's contributions had absolutely no influence on my decision to recommend him to serve as alderman-at-large."

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Jenkins recalled Irvin first bringing up the appointment about two weeks after the election. He said he thought about the position for about two weeks before accepting the appointment.

"I didn't go into this looking for a position," Jenkins said. "When (Irvin) contacted me after he won the election, it was a total surprise to me when he asked, and I told him I had to think on it."

Ultimately, he thought he could bring his background in business and development to the City Council and wanted to be part of helping Aurora, he said.

sfreishtat@tribpub.com

Twitter @srfreish
Aurora recently received a grant to help with the restoration of a World War I memorial along the New York Street bridge downtown. (Steve Lord / The Beacon-News )

The New York Street bridge in downtown Aurora was a "big concrete wonder" when it was dedicated in 1931, according to the Aurora Historical Society. It stretched clear across the Fox River, with sculptures and plaques placed in memorial to World War I soldiers.

Aurora is now looking to repair some of the memorials that have stood along the bridge for more than 85 years. The city has received a grant from Landmarks Illinois to help restore one of the features, a bronze "Branches of Services" plaque near the center of the bridge.

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The effort coincides with the 100th anniversary of the United States' entrance into World War I in April 1917.

"It is, of course, the 100th anniversary and we do want to, of course, pay tribute to the soldiers who fought and to the community that supported them," said John Russell, a city grant writer and former Beacon-News employee.

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Restoring the plaque is estimated to cost about $50,000, though an exact price tag will be determined when the city receives bids for work on the project, Russell said. The city received $10,000 from the grant, and had planned to put aside about $30,000 in next year's budget, he said.

Aurora will look for additional grants to repair the other features along the bridge, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Russell said.

At either end of the bridge sculptures of hooded, kneeling women represent memory, said John Jaros, executive director of the Aurora Historical Society. In the center of the bridge along the north side, outside of what is now the Hollywood Casino, stands a bronze goddess of victory statue with a carving in its base of a family in peacetime. Across the bridge along the south side is the plaque depicting what were in 1931 the three branches of the military, standing on a limestone base with bronze eagles on either size. The bridge also features a commemoration of John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force during the war.

About 3,600 men and 14 women from Aurora served during World War I, and about 85 died, according to Russell's application.

The bridge was dedicated on a cold, rainy Nov. 11 during an Armistice Day parade, according to the grant application Russell submitted. More than 1,500 residents turned out to the parade, downtown shops closed and local factories allowed workers to take the day off.

Brig. General William "Billy" Mitchell, regarded as the father of the United States Air Force, spoke at the dedication, according to Russell.

Mitchell commanded all American air combat units in France by the end of World War I, and after the war was appointed deputy director of the air service and advocated for air power, according to Russell's application. He also spoke out against higher-ranking officers, the Department of War and the president. He was court-martialed in 1925, and represented during the court-martial by U.S. Rep. Frank Reid of Aurora.

The reinforced concrete bridge, contracted at a cost of $273,326, replaced a big iron bridge that was more than 40 years old when work began to tear it down in 1929, Jaros said.

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"I think everybody thought, 'Wow, when you can build a big long bridge like that, it's a pretty incredible thing,'" Jaros said. "And it was built well and nice looking too."

When the roughly 660-foot bridge was built, Stolp Island hadn't been extended to the north and the bridge stretched across the width of the Fox River, Jaros said. The bridge was originally designed without monuments, but at some point a decision was made to turn it into a memorial and noted Chicago sculptor Emory Seidel was brought in to create at least some of the elements, Jaros said.

The bridge was rebuilt around 1991 to 1992, but the memorial elements are still the originals, Jaros said. A piece of the old bridge, used to cast the rails of the reconstructed bridge, now sits on Aurora Historical Society property.

Aurora officials received a report from a sculpture conservator in March calling the elements along the bridge in need of major repair, according to Russell's application. The report found the bronze sculptures had corroded and the "Branches of Service" plaque, in particular, had become discolored and pitted with visible scratches. The old wax coating turned hazy white, and other issues were identified, Russell cited as among the report's findings.

The report advised cleaning and washing the bronze and the limestone base, applying a new coating of wax and buffing, and other measures, according to Russell.

Work on the plaque is expected to take place in spring 2018, Russell said. Aurora is set to use Landmarks Illinois' World War I Monument Preservation Grant to cover part of the cost of the work.

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The city was one of two recipients of the grant. The other, the Second Indianhead Division Association, is set to use the money to restore the Belleau Wood WWI monument in the Cook County Forest Preserve in Des Plaines.

sfreishtat@tribpub.com

Twitter @srfreish
Willowbrook officials are frustrated by delays in the development at Route 83 and Plainfield Road. (Brooke Eberle / Pioneer Press )

Willowbrook officials are expressing frustration at delays in development of a shopping center on a former Kmart site at Route 83 and Plainfield Road.

Those delays also forced extension of a deadline to spend money from a former tax increment financing district across the street, where the Willowbrook Town Centre was built.

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"Several of our elected officials are frustrated by the project delays," said village administrator Tim Halik. "They actually purchased the property in the spring of 2013 and it has taken them this long to get the project going."

The new development will include a Pete's Fresh Market, Ulta Beauty, Steinmart, a pizza place, a nail salon, a Firehouse Subs and an AT&T store.

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Stephanie Dremonas, the owner of Pete's Fresh Market, said she did not want to comment on a future finish date, but that her team had an internal goal in mind.

Dremonas said that as somebody who lives in Burr Ridge, she will be excited to shop at the new store once it finally opens.

"These things take time sometimesit will be the grocery store choice of the five neighboring towns," Dremonas said.

Dremonas said that the stores have been very understanding of the long construction period.

The new development on the northeast corner of the intersection was not part of the TIF District created to help fund improvements on the southeast corner, where the Willowbrook Town Centre was developed. However, the TIF District did include the site of the former Willowbrook Bowl, which closed in 2016.

The Willowbrook Bowl closed in July 2016. (Brooke Eberle/Pioneer Press )

In a TIF District, property taxes are frozen for a period of time for all taxing bodies, and any increase in taxes collected  the increment  is used to fund improvements. Some of the money collected has been in an escrow account which had a deadline for use of Aug. 1, 2017.

Halik explained that the developer, Harlem Irving Companies, set aside $250,000 for the Willowbrook Bowl site. The bowling alley received $77,000 for upgrades, which included new concrete curbed islands, asphalt paving, pavement striping and landscape improvements.

Halik said that the owner did not want to make any changes to the facade of the building because it will likely be torn down and rebuilt if bought.

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The remaining $173,000 was set aside for a new traffic signal on Plainfield Road east of the Route 83 intersection. It will provide access both to the Willowbrook Town Centre site and the Pete's Fresh Market development. The Village Board approved July 10 extending the escrow deposition agreement to Aug. 1, 2018.

"Unfortunately, we have needed to extend the deadline date on several occasions now, and Harlem Irving has been agreeable to do so, since the shopping center will also benefit from the installation of the traffic signal," Halik said.

He also said that several of the delays that they have been facing are due to working with the Illinois Department of Transportation (for Route 83) and DuPage County Transportation (for Plainfield Road) to accommodate the increase in traffic volume that is expected.

Still, Halik hopes to finish the project soon.

"A representative of the owner has advised us that their target opening is by the end of the year," he said. "Given the extent of required off-site improvements, I would venture a guess that it would be more like early 2018."
When British legend Paul McCartney plays in Tinley Park next week, Colette Reddy will be in the audience. Again.

"My best concert ever was Paul McCartney at Wrigley Field," said Reddy, of Monee. "I went both nights, and to sound check (a mini pre-concert) the second day.

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"It's terribly expensive," she said, "but he engages the group so well. His voice has not diminished, nor his playing. His band is great. He tells beautiful stories. Seeing him outside, especially at Wrigley, was a moment I'm certainly glad I didn't miss."

For her reprise at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre she's bringing all five of her children.

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"I want them to have the experience. Beatles music has gotten me through some really trying times in life," she said.

It has meant so much to her that her youngest son Nolan's middle name is Jude.

In honor of Sir Paul's visit, I asked music fans to tell me about their most memorable live concert experience. With so many highly acclaimed shows throughout history, of course the results are as varied as music itself. Yet, in each response are some resounding truths about what makes a stand-out performance.

Sometimes it's the confluence of historic events or important personal milestones set to the backdrop of fabulous music. Sometimes it's the performer's ability to connect with fans and take them along on a musical journey. Sometimes it's the spectacle of crowd, noise, props and stage antics. And sometimes  perhaps most times  it's simply the way the event leaves you feeling.

A good concert, many say, is one that moves you years, even decades, after the lights have gone down.

Tristan Warwick, owner of Palos Heights Piano, said, "What makes a show special? I guess it's the energy. The energy and the electricity.

"I don't know the right word for it, but it's the energy in the audience, the energy that the artists are conveying in their music. It's absolutely electrifying. There's nothing you can find that reproduces it," he said.

"You can watch shows on whatever media you like or at a movie theater with all the speakers blasting at you and it gets like 99 percent there. But there's just that extra 1 percent that comes from being in that crowd and experiencing it all together," Warwick said.

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He's got a few favorite shows.

"One was a big rock show I went to a few years ago with Radiohead," he said. "I guess another good one was Roger Waters' 'The Wall' a few years ago. It was an amazing show. The theatrics of it all. Props and everything."

Another event that remains dear to him is more esoteric in nature, he said. It was a classical concert he attended about 10 years ago that was put on by one of his teachers at DePaul, where he completed his undergraduate and masters work.

"Eteri Anvjaparidze was one of my piano teachers and one of my main influences. She put on a show for all her students and the public. She played Schuman's 'Carnivale,'" he recalled. "The way she played it, the way the concert was put on, it was one of the most holistic expressions of art and music that I've ever been to."

Kimberly Garrison, of Park Forest, said the performance that left an indelible mark on her memory was Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life" concert in 2015.

She went with a close friend to the Bankers Life Fieldhouse event in Indianapolis with high expectations but the show far surpassed them, she said.

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"Stevie is one of my favorite artists and I knew he would be great, but I wasn't prepared for this musical experience. The excitement of everyone in the venue was palpable and every performer on stage blew us away," she said. "When the concert was over Stevie returned for an encore that lasted nearly an hour.

"I will never forget how great the music was or how I felt when it was over. I would go to see him do the same concert again if he went on tour again," she said.

Before Bill Swinford left for the Army in 1984, he and five of his friends went to see Roger Waters perform with Eric Clapton at the Rosemont Horizon.

"We all drove to the concert in a Volkswagen bus," the Oak Forest resident said.

Once at the venue, the group learned the area they were supposed to sit in had been designated for sound boards.

"We were all bummed out, because they were good seats," he said. "But we weren't bummed out for long. They moved us 18 rows closer to the stage."

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Watching two highly acclaimed musicians perform in seats so close to the stage on the eve of a momentous event in his life, made for a most memorable performance, Swinford said.

"A few weeks later I was on my way to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.," he said.

Elizabeth Lejsek-Collins, of Tinley Park, said her "all time favorite is Aerosmith. I love Steven Tyler. I've been to multiple concerts of theirs. High school through married life."

The band, she said, is "incredible and still going strong."

Other favorite performers, she said, are Kid Rock, who refuses to let his fans pay more than $20 for a show and "will play every single instrument throughout his concert." She also likes the BoDeans.

"Seeing (the BoDeans) in concert was one of our very first dates. Our daughter's first concert was the BoDeans a couple years ago. Although Sammy Llanas is no longer with the band, it was super cool to share our love of the BoDeans with our girls," she said.

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Rosanne Arnold, president of the board of directors for the Southwest Symphony Orchestra, said the best concert she's ever been to featured Peter Gabriel in March of 1977 at Uptown Theatre in Chicago.

"He was fantastic. At the end, he asked the audience 'Do you mind if we redo some songs because we don't know any more?'" the Palos Hills resident said.

"It was really cool when he did that. It seemed so humble," she said.

Another favorite she said was a Rick Springfield show at Chicago Ridge's Ridge Fest one summer.

"He was out in the audience, standing on a chair among all these people," she said. "It was really cool."

Jeff Maharry, of Homewood, has been on both sides of the stage.

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The musician who performs solo and plays with the bands Work in Progress and Falling Stars, said for many years he was one of the sound guys at the rock club The Hideout in Chicago.

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"I have so many great memories that it's hard to pinpoint the one best concert I've seen, but what all great shows have in common is the fact that the band is obviously enjoying themselves, enjoying the music and enjoying being with the crowd," he said. "The band pulls the fans in and it starts to feel like we're all part of it."

Some of his favorite shows at The Hideout include ones featuring Kelly Hogan with Scott Ligon, The White Stripes, Nico Case, The Autumn Defense and "great" local rockers The Blacks, Maharry said.

Gina Wych teaches at Minooka Community High School. She is also the junior-senior general music president of the Illinois Music Education Association.

"A great concert experience comes from music that emotionally connects the audience, performer and even the composer, and gives you an energy/feeling you carry with you long after the performance is over."

And with that we hand the mic to you, rocking reader. Tell us about your best concert experience and we may include it in a follow-up story.

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dvickroy@tribpub.com

Twitter @dvickroy
Former Tinley Park Planning Director Amy Connolly, center, is involved in a lawsuit with the village. (Chicago Tribune )

Tinley Park and the U.S. Justice Department are in another court tussle involving the government's lawsuit against the village stemming from The Reserve apartment development.

Government lawyers, in a recent court filing, allege they're being stonewalled by attorneys for the village in regards to information the Justice Department is seeking related to Tinley Park's lawsuit against its former planning director, Amy Connolly.

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The Justice Department said it wants more details about the factual basis for the allegations made by the village in its complaint against Connolly.

Filed in May, the lawsuit alleges Connolly "acted dishonestly" and was an "unfaithful, disloyal employee." She also "schemed" to alter development rules covering construction in and around Tinley Park's downtown business district, ultimately embroiling the village in two lawsuits concerning the apartment project, one of which was recently resolved.

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Village attorneys, according to the Justice Department filing, have deemed the information the government is seeking as irrelevant to that case, and the Justice Department wants the judge overseeing the case, Sara Ellis, to referee the dispute.

The lawsuit against Connolly is before U.S. District Court Judge Elaine Bucklo, but she has asked, in a motion, that it be heard by Judge Ellis, who is hearing the Justice Department complaint.

For now, Connolly has a motion pending before Bucklo, asking that the village's lawsuit against her be dismissed. Bucklo is expected to rule on the request in mid-September.

The village contended that The Reserve was, per Tinley Park's Legacy Code, required to have street-level commercial space, while the project's developer, Buckeye Community Hope Foundation maintained that its apartment development had been in compliance with village codes at the time the Plan Commission considered the project.

A rendering is seen of The Reserve, an apartment building that had been proposed in Tinley Park and resulted in the village being twice sued over its handling of the project. (Village of Tinley Park)

An amendment to the Legacy Code changed street-level commercial required to street-level commercial permitted  a change since rescinded by the village board  which made it possible for The Reserve to be in compliance with development rules.

Connolly, the village's lawsuit alleges, "intentionally concealed and/or misrepresented the repercussions" of that text amendment change, and had she not "schemed to change the Legacy Code without the Village's knowledge, the Village would not have been sued by Buckeye or the United States."

Connolly, in the motion, argues she is entitled to "legislative immunity," citing case law as putting an ordinance, such as the text amendment, on par with legislation.

She said the village's "extraordinary" lawsuit asks "is a municipal employee answerable in damages to her employer for consequences of a law which was ultimately adopted by the corporate authorities of that employer?"

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Her motion also cites case law as extending legislative immunity beyond those who actually vote on a measure to include "other public officers and employees like Connolly...as long as they are involved in the legislative process."

"Public employees like Connolly should not be subject to any sort of liability for their role in preparing and recommending a legislative act like this," the motion states, referring to the ordinance relaxing the street level commercial requirement.

Tinley Park officials recently approved a $2.45 million settlement of the lawsuit brought by The Reserve's developer, under which the Ohio nonprofit won't pursue plans for the 47-unit building. Tinley Park has a motion pending asking that the Justice Department lawsuit, brought last November, be dismissed.

Connolly was suspended from her job, which she'd held since the fall of 2007, shortly after the Tinley Park Plan Commission tabled a vote on The Reserve. She resigned in May of last year to take the job of city development director in Racine, Wis.

Attorneys involved in the matters did not respond to messages seeking comment.

mnolan@tribpub.com

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LEAGUE CITY, Texas  I was in Texas last month doing some reporting, and I was a bit bemused that its legislature was enmeshed in a budget predicament of its own.

Lawmakers there were pondering whether to dip into the state's $12 billion "rainy day fund" to help balance the state's budget.

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Yeah, you read that right. Texas has $12 billion in emergency savings. Illinois, on the other hand, has $15 billion in unpaid bills.

Texas has no income tax. This month, Illinois lawmakers jacked our income taxes up another 32 percent. A nickel of every dollar we earn will now be confiscated by those rascals in Springfield.

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I might not be so upset by the tax hike if I had any faith that Illinois lawmakers would use the money wisely. But I've covered the Illinois General Assembly for 18 years and I see no indication that our legislators  Republicans and Democrats alike  can exhibit even a modicum of fiscal restraint.

Over the years, I've seen Illinois legislators raise our taxes to address perennial budget crises and inevitably the money eventually is used to just increase spending and delay the state's day of financial reckoning.

That's how the Land of Lincoln became the fiscal basket case of the nation.

The so called "budget" passed by Illinois lawmakers this month doesn't even address the $15 billion in unpaid bills the state has accumulated. Do they think it's just going to magically disappear?

Well, members of the Illinois General Assembly have another word for "magic." It's called "borrowing." Rather than make long-term structural cuts in programs like prisons, earned income tax credits or entitlements, lawmakers have borrowed and left those tough decisions for future General Assemblies to ponder.

That's how Illinois has accumulated more debt than any other state. That's why Moody's Investment Services says Illinois has a quarter of trillion dollars in unfunded pension liabilities.

And that's why I believe it is all but inevitable that Illinois's credit rating will be relegated to "junk" status.

The higher taxes now paid by Illinois residents and businesses will simply exasperate the continued exodus of people and jobs from the Land of Lincoln. And as the tax base diminishes, there will be a push to further increase taxes, continuing the state's death spiral.

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But there is hope for Illinois.

Thirty years ago, I lived in a state that was struggling financially. It was called Texas.

My first job after graduate school was at the Galveston Daily News. I packed up my Ford with all my worldly goods and moved from Springfield to Galveston.

Texas was suffering because oil prices were at historic lows and it had failed to diversify its economy. Folks were even talking about instituting an income tax to help the state balance its budget.

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But when I returned to Galveston County last month to report on a case I covered almost 30 years ago, I returned to a vibrant, robust community. The town of League City only had 20,000 people when I lived near there in 1988. Today, it has more than 100,000  and it's still growing.

The folks I talked to had an unbridled optimism about their state's future. Their schools and universities are first rate and getting better.

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So, how did Texas recover without massive tax increases?

It grew the economy by attracting firms from across the globe. And more importantly, it provided a place where entrepreneurs could start their own business and grow.

The secret to doing this? It remained a right to work state with an attractive labor climate, it kept government spending under control and it said "no" to higher taxes.

Illinois could learn a lot from the Lone Star State.

Scott Reeder, a veteran statehouse journalist, works as a freelance reporter in the Springfield area.
Palos Township Trustee Sharon Brannigan faced backlash at the township board meeting July 10, 2017, where dozens of activists called for her resignation over remarks she made on Facebook about Islam, Muslims and Middle Eastern students. (Zak Koeske / Daily Southtown)

I admire elected officials who demonstrate the political courage to do what they think is right. I respect those who serve with the best interests of their constituents and the greater public good in mind.

In contrast, I abhor the hacks who toe the party line above all else and seem willing to do anything to win at all costs.

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I think we live in an extraordinarily partisan moment in American history. I also believe people have always behaved tribally at times, valuing loyalty above potential damage to longstanding institutions.

Three recent examples at the local, state and national levels help frame my views on the topic: the controversy surrounding a Palos Township trustee, the Illinois budget impasse and new revelations about the campaign to elect President Donald J. Trump.

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For the sake of argument, let's frame discussion of these examples in purely political terms. Let's set aside considerations of ethics, morals, integrity and emotions and focus on how the examples might logistically affect a political party's performance in future elections.

On Monday, more than 100 protesters called for Palos Township Trustee Sharon Brannigan to resign. Brannigan, a Trump supporter who ran unopposed in April's township election, came under fire for a recent Facebook post that suggested area schools were filling with undocumented Middle Eastern students.

Brannigan has since taken down her Facebook page but has not apologized for the comment, the Daily Southtown reported. Activists claim her public posts reveal a history of animus toward Muslims and people of Arab descent.

Terry Heafey, a Palos School District 118 trustee, said during Monday's township board meeting that Brannigan was factually mistaken about her claims regarding the impact of immigrants on local school enrollments.

"Brannigan's efforts to undermine the community's confidence in our residency process without fact or evidence using the lever of bigotry is disgraceful," Heafey said.

Activists said they'll continue demonstrating at township meetings to keep pressure on Brannigan. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Wednesday called for Brannigan to resign from the county's Commission on Women's Issues.

I think the Brannigan controversy is a local example of how real change will only occur when a polarizing political figure becomes a political liability.

Brannigan could continue resisting calls to resign. So long as she has political support, she could weather the storm.

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But continued protests could damage the Palos Township brand. Ongoing coverage of the controversy through traditional and social media could promote the perception that residents of Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Palos Park, Orland Park, Hickory Hills and other communities in the township are willing to tolerate hurtful behavior and attitudes by elected officials.

In the longer term, pressure by consumers might force businesses to leave the communities. Taxes might go up and property values might go down. It might reach a point where it becomes politically necessary to disassociate with the trustee because of her views than to remain silent or supportive of her right to express her opinions.

Similarly, political pressures finally forced enough Republican state lawmakers to defy their party bosses and vote for a budget and tax increase, effectively ending a two-year impasse.

Some Republicans who broke ranks said they made the lesser of two bad choices. Higher education was hit hard by the stalemate. Some turncoats who represent districts with state universities faced mounting pressure from their constituents to help institutions that risked losing accreditation because of the state's financial condition.

Their actions make more sense when viewed through the lens of doing what is best for one's political survival as opposed to what is best for the state. Their votes on the budget and tax hike may still cost them their political careers.

The state GOP could fund candidates to challenge them in primaries. Maybe the well-funded challengers will prevail. Or, the opposite may happen. Voters might stick with the incumbents who represented their interests.

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Since the budget vote, Gov. Bruce Rauner has shaken up his administration and named a new chief of staff who formerly headed the party's propaganda wing, the Illinois Policy Institute.

Apparently the governor was so busy rearranging the deckchairs on his sinking ship that he failed to immediately grasp the extent of a natural disaster in the northern part of his state. After Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had already declared a state of emergency and called in National Guard troops to help flood victims, Rauner faced criticism for too slowly responding to the crisis.

I think Rauner's deep pockets and strategy of blaming Democrats for all the state's ills will work until it doesn't. I expect Republican voters and elected officials will support his tactics until such time as they are proven to be politically ineffective.

I expect as much from elected officials at the national level, too. Donald Trump Jr.'s revelations that he met with a Russian attorney in hopes of getting compromising information to use against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election effectively rendered mute the argument that there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and a foreign adversary.

GOP members of Congress are in a tough spot. Some continue to defend the president. Others dismiss the mounting evidence of the Russian attack on our democracy as politics as usual. Many try to say as little as possible about the topic. The silence is, at times, deafening.

They face a dilemma. If they condemn the president they risk losing the support of the GOP base of voters. If they go along with the party line too ardently, they risk having their words used against them as shoes continue to drop and the president becomes more and more indefensible.

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How low can it go? For some, there is no bottom. Trump could meet with Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series, Sauron from "Lord of the Rings" and Cersei Lannister from "Game of Thrones" to get dirt on his opponents and some supporters will pass it off as nothing more than "opposition research."

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

I think at some point, political costs outweigh the benefits of pandering to the base. Often, there's no way to tell when this will happen until it's too late.

Polls show Trump has historically low approval ratings. Republicans have prevailed in special elections to retain seats vacated by members of Congress appointed to Trump's administration, but Democrats considerably narrowed the margins of victory in each instance.

We may have to wait until next year's elections to discover to what extent political winds may have already shifted. If Trump's dismal performance is shown to be a drag on the electability of Republicans, will the GOP bail on him en masse? Will the same be proven of Rauner? We'll see.

I think Trump, Rauner and Brannigan all share something in common. They've all won elections to public office, but they're all controversial. For now, they all enjoy the support of their party loyalists.

But all are at risk of becoming political pariahs, liabilities, like heavy weights capable of sinking a ship. They may all stay afloat, but their shipmates might also cut off their lifelines at some point to save their own skins.

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tslowik@tronc.com

Twitter @tedslowik
The Pro-Life Action League demonstrated in Orland Park and Crestwood on July 13, 2017. (Ted Slowik / Daily Southtown)

Some local residents joined Pro-Life Action League demonstrators at busy intersections Thursday in the south suburbs.

People held signs showing graphic images of abortion victims. Some activists distributed literature to drivers stopped in traffic.

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Some motorists honked to show support for demonstrators, while a few others shouted insults and profanities. Most drivers, however, showed no reaction.

"That's the world we live in," said demonstrator Ryan Hagen, 37, of Tinley Park. "If it doesn't affect them directly, they just go on their way."

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I spoke with Hagen on a corner of LaGrange Road and 159th Street in Orland Park, the second of three stops that day on the organization's "Chicago Area Face the Truth Tour." The group was in Crestwood earlier Thursday and was scheduled to visit Mokena later in the afternoon.

The tour began July 7 and concludes Saturday. Previous stops have covered northern and western suburbs, as well as downtown Chicago.

A key participant in every tour stop is Joe Scheidler, 89, of Chicago. He's national director of the Pro-Life Action League, an organization he founded in 1980. He served for many years as executive director, a post now held by his son, Eric Scheidler, one of seven children.

I spoke with Joe Scheidler Thursday morning as he sat in a camp chair. He was reading a book  "Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture" by Anthony Esolen  and holding a sign at the corner of Cicero Avenue and Cal-Sag Road in Crestwood.

Sometimes the wind or drafts from passing vehicles blew the sign out of his hand and it fell into the roadway. At one point, a semi tractor-trailer turning right onto southbound Cicero Avenue came within inches of Scheidler's chair.

"The curb helps hold the sign," Scheidler told me. "I like to be right up there so people can read it."

He told me he was working in public relations when the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion. He said one day he saw pictures of aborted fetuses and realized the images held power to change public opinion.

"You never understand abortion until you see it," he told me. "Even if people are against it, they'll remember  Seeing is believing."

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Many people are shocked by the graphic images. In Orland Park, as a stopped van with its windows down waited to turn right onto eastbound 159th Street, I asked a middle-aged couple what they thought of the images.

"I think they're disgusting," the male driver said.

"Very disturbing," said his female passenger.

In addition to observing protests for about two hours Thursday, I also reached out to the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for Women to ask what the group thought about the public demonstrations at busy intersections.

"They're not effective at swaying public opinion. It ends up upsetting a lot of the public," said Michelle Fadeley, vice president of communications for Illinois NOW. "Parents get very upset about their kids being exposed to graphic images without any choice."

I did observe children in cars, minivans and school buses looking at the images as they passed them. Some demonstrators brought children with them, and I saw young children holding signs as traffic breezed past.

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Literature distributed by the Pro-Life Action League included information that addressed, "What if children see these pictures of abortion victims?"

"The images in this display were carefully selected to highlight the humanity of abortion's unborn victims," the pamphlet stated.

"Rather than emphasizing the blood and gore of the abortion procedure, these images focus on particular features of these children  a face, a foot, two hands. They are intended to evoke sympathy with abortion victims."

Scheidler told me participants are displaying images that are less graphic than those used in previous years.

"We changed our signs this year," he said. "We decided to use close-ups of the body. We want people to think about the baby, not be shocked by the horror."

Fadeley cautioned people about the information in pamphlets handed to motorists, saying it is often "factually inaccurate or misleading."

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"People should make sure they do their own research," she said.

The Orland Park event attracted a counter-demonstrator, a young woman who held a hand-made sign that said, "I support every woman's legal right to choose." I asked about her sign, but she declined comment.

"I'm not here for the publicity," she said.

A few minutes later, an Orland Park police officer parked his patrol car nearby and spoke with the woman, who was standing near about a half dozen people participating in the Pro-Life Action League event. He asked that the parties remain separate from one another, then left the scene.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Thursday's demonstrations left me concerned about the safety of the participants. I watched vehicles speeding by demonstrators that included children. I saw vehicles hugging corners and coming within inches of people standing on sidewalks, their vision obscured by the large signs they were holding.

I saw people walking among vehicles stopped at red lights distributing literature. I watched, as lights turned green, people darted across turn lanes to reach sidewalks as vehicles bore down on them.

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Suburban highways are not the most pedestrian-friendly places. LaGrange Road, for example, is 12 lanes wide at 159th Street and the crosswalks are not clearly marked.

Drivers face enough distractions; shocking images increase the risk to public safety, in my opinion.

I respect the demonstrators' right to protest, but I'm concerned about their public demonstrations at busy intersections. I worry about their safety and I'm troubled that passersby  especially children  are exposed to unsettling images.

tslowik@tronc.com

Twitter @tedslowik
A Kane County judge has sentenced a Colorado man to prison for murdering a Bartlett man in West Dundee to avoid paying a drug debt, according to a news release from the Kane County State's Attorney.

Circuit Judge John A. Barsanti on Thursday sentenced Gary M. Bennett, 39, of the 8500 block of East Alameda Avenue, Denver, Colo. and formerly of Millbrook Court in Algonquin, to 50 years' imprisonment in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

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A Kane County jury on March 7 convicted Bennett of first-degree murder and concealing a homicidal death in the Aug. 10, 2014, shooting death of 36-year-old Keith K. Crawford of Bartlett. In addition the jury found that Bennett personally fired the gun that killed Crawford.

According to the release, Kane County prosecutors presented evidence that Crawford frequently supplied cocaine to Bennett, and Bennett owed Crawford money for the drugs. The night of Aug. 10, 2014, Bennett and his friend, co-defendant Joan Sebastian Vado-Bonilla, 29, of West Dundee, drove to a party in unincorporated Dundee Township, where Bennett convinced Crawford to drive with them to a location near Valley View to get money to partially repay Crawford and to buy more cocaine. Crawford sat in the front passenger seat and Bennett sat behind Crawford, with Vado-Bonilla driving. As the car traveled south on Route 31 in West Dundee, Bennett drew a handgun and shot Crawford in the back of the head, killing him. Bennett and Vado-Bonilla put Crawford's body into a garbage bin at an apartment complex on Todd Farm Road in Elgin. Crawford's body was never found.

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The case was unsolved for nearly a year until Vado-Bonilla came forward and agreed to cooperate with investigators, the release said.

Vado-Bonilla pleaded guilty Dec. 11, 2015, to concealment of a homicidal death, a Class 3 felony.

The sentence is 20 years for first-degree murder plus a mandatory 25-year enhancement because Bennett fired the gun that killed Crawford, plus five years for concealing the homicide.

According to Illinois law, Bennett must serve the full murder sentence. He is eligible for day-for-day credit on the concealment sentence. He receives credit for 690 days served in the Kane County jail.

"Mr. Bennett chose greed over Keith Crawford's life. His violence was fueled by his frequent drug use, his ego and his complete lack of respect for human life. Those misplaced priorities mean he most likely will die in prison. I hope Keith Crawford's family feels a sense of justice in this sentence," Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon said.
Stephanie Munro took a huge leap when she decided to leave the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana and enroll at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck.

She had many questions about how this could work for her, a 41-year-old mother returning to school. One of her biggest hang-ups was how she could live on campus and receive insulin medication for her diabetes and other counseling services she received back home at an Indian Health Service facility.

"I just thought, I'm in Browning (Mont.), I have all the resources here," she said. "Just one of my medications is $591, and that's a two-week supply. That's why (I wondered), could I even stay here? Could I even go to school?"

To ensure out-of-state students on Medicaid receive medical assistance, United Tribes recently became a certified third-party biller, so rather than having students go to the nearest IHS facility in Fort Yates for medical care, UTTC can provide it right there on campus and get reimbursed.

United Tribes offers basic care, addiction services, social work services, counseling and domestic violence advocates to students and their families. The problem was the tribal college couldn't get paid for these services they provide, as they weren't approved as a Medicaid facility, according to Stephanie Isaak, director of the college's Wellness Center.

So, Isaak hired Martina Dia, a third-party billing specialist who previously work at the Blackfeet Community Hospital, an IHS facility, as a Medicaid enrollment provider. Dia understood the process about how to get the college enrolled as a third-party biller and immediately went to work getting all eight providers on staff certified.

Isaak said before third-party billing, funding for services provided on campus came out of the college's IHS contract for medical care, which is about $100,000 a year.

"We would have money to provide services, but once it's gone, it's gone," said Isaak, adding that reimbursement through third-party billing is key, so services can be provided to another student.

"We're very excited, as a department," Dia said. "We're more excited that we can provide that service to our students, that's our main goal."

The option to receive services on campus has put Tonia Rides Horse at ease, knowing she can easily get help for her and her kids on campus. Rides Horse, originally from Montana, relocated with her five kids to Bismarck in 2015. She's studying elementary education, and one of the things she liked about the college was the domestic violence services it offers.

"We can utilize the counseling for mental health, especially being domestic violence survivors, there's pretty much constant triggers wherever you turn," said Rides Horse, who visits a domestic violence advocate on campus. "With the facility here, we can walk three minutes, five minutes from our house because we live on campus."
Because of the new Illinois state budget including funding for the MAP grants awarded to low-income students, Elgin Community College will no longer have to support the grants using cash reserves, as it did last school year. (Rafael Guerrero / The Courier-News )

With a new state budget, Elgin Community College no longer has to use its cash reserves to pay for unfunded tuition grants for low-income students.

Last school year, almost 900 ECC students' Monetary Award Program grants were at risk because the state could not pay for them, a result of the two-year budget impasse. The college instead funded them using $807,000 in cash reserves.

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"There were many, many schools that could not do that," said Lynne Baker, the communications director of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. "A lot of community colleges, private nonprofits, were not able to credit student accounts for grants."

The fate of these grants turned when the General Assembly found a way to override Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of new spending and budget adoption bills, thus ensuring a budget.

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In the new state budget, MAP grants are fully funded, granting the Illinois Student Assistance Commission authority to continue its grant program.

"Schools are wanting their funds as quickly as possible, but they're just starting (the disbursement process) right now," said Kim Wagner, ECC's managing director of student financial services.

A MAP grant can be used only for tuition and fees, and the maximum amount that can be awarded is $4,720, according to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

Wagner said it remains uncertain when the state will begin paying schools, such as Elgin Community College, its share of MAP dollars.

"We'll be waiting patiently," she said.

Baker said the commission has submitted the claims for the first term of the 2016-17 school year to State Comptroller Susana Mendoza's office. The new budget retroactively pays for MAP grants from the previous year, which some schools credited, paid for through their reserves or didn't pay.

Baker said the hope is the 2016-17 grants get paid quickly, and that the 2017-18 payments soon follow. No timetable has been set, she said.

When asked if students and institutions should be worried when grant dollars trickle down to the schools, Baker said, "If you are a student who had an estimated MAP award on your financial aid letter for the 2017-18 year, (the grant) will be there for you."

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"We're really happy to be able to say that" for the first time in two years," Baker said.

Under the new budget, Illinois will provide $365 million for MAP grants issued in the 2016-17 school year. For the upcoming school year, the MAP budget increases to $401 million.

At Elgin Community College, Wagner said it's anticipated the number of MAP students to be somewhere between 850 and 900 students, in line with last school year's 898. In the 2015-16 school year, 866 students received MAP dollars, or about $766,000, Wagner said.

raguerrero@tribpub.com
This house on Highland Avenue on Elgins west side had a rainbow-like spectrum painted on its side, but the Church of the Brethren denomination that owns the property had painter Josh Martin paint over it. (Mike Danahey / The Courier-News)

A swath of color across an Elgin Victorian home that created a dispute among neighbors was the result of a miscommunication between a painter and the church organization that owns the home.

The rainbow stripe on one side of the old house in the 900 block of West Highland Avenue in Elgin was recently covered up by the painter after a neighbor contacted the home office of the Church of the Brethren, which owns the house.

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"The rainbow came as a surprise to us," said Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, director of news services for the church. "Our expectation was for more of a classic look for a painted lady."

There was a communications gap among the denomination's staff, according to Brumbaugh-Cayford.

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Brumbaugh-Cayford said the church paid painter Josh Martin to remove the rainbow after receiving correspondence from a neighbor. Brumbaugh-Cayford declined to say what the neighbor said, but that Martin and the neighbor seemed to be in a dispute.

Pastor Katie Shaw Thompson said the Highland Avenue congregation had nothing to do with the decision, which was made by the home office on Elgin's northeast side.

Martin said he painted a rainbow on the Highland Avenue house as part of a planned promotional video, made with a drone, of the home and others he has painted on the block.

Steve Thoren and his wife, Maureen, own the Wing Mansion in the 900 block of West Highland Avenue. He paints his own huge house, but said quite a few residents have used Martin's services.

"(Martin has) been telling people he was going to paint a rainbow on that home for awhile," Thoren said.

Martin is hoping to have signs up next to the homes he has painted on Highland during the 36th annual Historic Elgin House Tour in September, which is featuring the Highland Avenue area.

One of those homes, in the 200 block of Vincent Place, is owned by Marcia Borzeka and her husband, Roy Ochoa. She is happy with the work Martin has done for her.

"He has an awesome eye for color," Borzeka said of Martin's choices of hues of blue, burgundy, salmon and other colors.

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The home won an award from the Chicago Paint and Coatings Association in 2015 for Best Use of Expressive Color, Martin said.

Borzeka will be showing off the paint job and other features of her home as she is a house captain for her own home during the Historic Elgin House Tour.

On the Borzeka home Martin's work included using lighter shades of the house's colors to create a sky-like effect on the top of its porches. He also said he "murdered out" the ornate detailing of the home.

"He outlined in black. It makes everything pop," Borzeka said.

"I loved the rainbow," Borzeka said. "It's kind of boring looking now without it, and only a small number of people didn't seem to like it."

Elgin's Historic Preservation Planner, Christen Sundquist, said the city encourages property owners to avoid loud or harsh colors and bright hues, though they are free to use colors of their choice unless they receive a painting grant from the city.

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"If they were to paint a Queen Anne in historically appropriate colors, it would have a combination of contrasting colors such as tan, red, green or brown for the main body color and darker colors such as dark olive, salmon, red or dark brown for the trim and accents," she said.

Martin said his business, Josh's Painting, has worked on many sites in Elgin, including homes in the first block of North Jackson Street, the 200 block of South State Street, the 400 block of South Liberty Street, the 100 block of Laurel Court and the 400 block of Prairie Street.

mdanahey@tribpub.com
Storm-related damage underneath the road and along a hillside is seen where Prospect Avenue ends at Linden Avenue in Elgin in the Lords Park neighborhood. The footage was shot using a drone purchased by the Elgin Fire Department in December. (City of Elgin)

After storms on-and-off since Tuesday night swamped the Elgin area, crews were still at work Thursday cleaning up, with some city staff using new technology for the first time in the field.

Mid-morning Thursday, Elgin Fire Battalion Chief Rich Carter and Police Officer Kevin Snow, with Fire Chief Dave Schmidt there to observe, were in the Lords Park neighborhood, where Preston Avenue ends at Linden Avenue, flying a drone with camera to survey damage  a washout of the hilly terrain and infrastructure underneath that T-intersection.

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According to Elgin Communications Specialist Molly Center, a 15-inch storm sewer that ran on the south edge of Linden broke overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday during the storms, and the hillside collapsed. As of Thursday morning, that spot was the only road closure remaining in the city, Center said.

"That will be closed for some time while we work on stabilizing the embankment," Center said.

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While the Fire Department purchased drone equipment in December, and some police officers and firefighters are trained to use it, Carter and Snow were making video and taking photographs of the washed out area with it for Water Director Kyla Jacobsen.

"The drone really helps us," Jacobsen said. "We can't really get down there, because it's unstable. This gives us a bird's eye view."

Jacobsen said between 6 and 7 inches of rain fell between Tuesday night and Thursday morning in Elgin. This was the first time in her career she could recall an Elgin street washing out this way.

She said she met with five contractors Thursday morning to discuss possible avenues for making repairs. They will probably use gravel to build up the hill, then fix the storm sewer, Jacobsen said. A structural engineer would have to evaluate the road to decide if it could be repaired or if it will be need to be replaced.

Prior to city staff showing up with the drone, Sally Rhymes who lives in the Lords Park neighborhood, took a look at the damage.

"I've lived in this area for 52 years, and this is the first time I've ever seen anything like this around here," Rhymes said.

Rhymes noted a positive that should come out of the washout. She said that residents had been complaining about how a utility pole at Preston and Linden was leaning. Now, it appears workers will have to right that pole as part of the broader project.

As for other cleanup work taking part in Elgin Thursday, Center said, "Forestry continues to address storm related issues with two crews  one on each side of town taking care of incoming cases. A contractor is assisting with removing hazard trees."

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Center said the forestry crews were out from 12:30 a.m. Wednesday and for most of that day responding to more than 30 calls for service and addressing tree-related damage, the most of which happened south of Chicago Street to the city's southern limits.

Sewer crews had been out from late Tuesday night and worked overnight again Wednesday into Thursday to complete storm-related work.

"Street flooding has subsided, except on Varsity Drive where Poplar Creek is still over the road, but passable," Center said.

Center said that at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, ComEd's outage map noted 51 power outages in Elgin impacting more than 4,100 customers. As of noon Thursday, the map noted just two outages affecting 24 customers in Elgin.

In downtown Elgin, a walk along the banks of the Fox River offered evidence of how much rain had fallen. Bridges leading to Walton Islands were closed as water was partially flooding the ground.

Walton Islands in the Fox River in downtown Elgin were left partially flooded by recent bad storms. (Mike Danahey / The Courier-News)

In rural Elgin, Arlene Watermann Thursday afternoon said she and her son have been without electricity and using a generator since late Tuesday night. Watermann said that quite a few utility poles snapped in an area covering more than a mile. Crews were still out making repairs and hoped to be finished by sometime later Thursday, she was told.

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With the river so high, East Dundee was making sandbags and sand available for free to residents, with the material available in a vacant lot not far from the police station off Railroad Street.

In West Dundee, parts of the town's riverwalk was underwater, including the standing area under a gazebo along that path.

That village sent an email to its residents and posted on social media Thursday morning noting that the Fox already had reached a minor flood stage and was expected to crest next Tuesday at about 13.5 feet.

As a precautionary measure, the village was asking for volunteers to meet Thursday at the dead end of Oregon Avenue, next to the river, to help fill sandbags that might be needed to protect businesses and residences in the next few days.

Among those out helping Thursday afternoon were former village president, Larry Keller, and the village's manager Joe Cavallaro.

Cavallaro said the highest the river has crested prior to this prediction was 12.7 feet in April 2013. This was the second time in 10 years West Dundee had readied sandbags, he said.

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"The river lever becomes an issue for us when its crest is 10 feet or more," Cavallaro said.

He added, though, that typically West Dundee only has to worry about flooding at two places along the Fox  near the Village Squire off First Street and where Edwards Avenue ends near the river.

mdanahey@tribpub.com
Why crime flourishes: Crime flourishes in Chicago because of fear. The fear of law enforcement to prosecute and incarcerate criminals. The legal tools to free criminals are so sharp that practically everyone who has committed a crime should be serving 25 years at this moment.

Scum status: In response to the burglary and criminal damage to property report on Western Avenue in Aurora. Nowadays, where do these scummy people come from? How do you raise a child who has zero compassion and zero regard for anyone at all? How does this happen? The brazen behavior reduces these despicable so called people to scum status. How did these lowlifes get this way?

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North Korea a hostile country: I would like to say, first of all, I think the kid is Mr. Warmbier, who came back in a coma from North Korea. My heart goes out to him and especially his family. I understand. I get it. But you have to understand also that you go into a hostile country like North Korea  which you couldn't pay me to go to  you do one thing, one mistake, this is what they will do with you if you are American. The only way America can do anything about this is start a war. Do you want to start a war over one person? I know I don't want one American to die. But, this was pure stupidity. You can be angry with me but it was pure stupidity. This is a ruthless dictator. He kills his own people. What do you think he will do to someone he hates? Someone who he tries to make nuclear weapons to kill them. Do you get what I'm saying?

Irvin's hires: I am calling about these two people that (Aurora Mayor) Richard Irvin hired. This (Adrienne) Halloway, $132,496 a year and Michael Pegues, $129,646 a year. That's almost $300,000 a year. We don't need them people. He's the mayor, he should do the job. He doesn't need to hire a chief of innovation or chief technology officer. What the heck is that? That's taking a lot of taxpayers' money. If you don't have the need for money now, put it in savings so it can get interest. When you need the money for the city, you have it. Do not pay to these people for positions that are not necessary for Aurora. That is a waste of taxpayer money.

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Leave streets alone: I don't know about the rest of the citizens of Aurora but in my opinion, they ought not to take that money to change the streets. Why did they stop the two way stops? One lane, two lanes. Make up your mind. Take that money you are going to invest in that and do something about controlling the noise level at River's Edge. The neighbors don't want to hear it. If we did, we would buy a ticket.

Copley building an eyesore: Look at the Copley building and all those broken windows. Why? You can see them from blocks around. It's a view that has destroyed the neighborhood and it is too bad what blatant incompetence passes for public service year after year in Aurora.

Code enforcement and 311: Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The city of Elgin now has put Code Enforcement  or they call it now Code Compliance Department  with 311. Again, no one in the last five to seven years has any management experience in code enforcement. Here we go again. We just put it onto 311 to nobody who has any idea of what the heck they are doing.

A brainstorm: The only brainstorm I have is there is much criticism of Trump but he still won the vote. So there.

Terrorist enjoyed life here: The Islamic terrorist from Canada slipped up in his attempt on the Michigan officer's life. He had the traditional terrorist opportunity, the long knife for the back stab, he had the oath right, "God is great." But when they showed his photo he looked out of shape sort of like he enjoyed the infidel lifestyle too long.

Russian investigation: According to the press, all this investigation into Russia's intervention in the 2016 election has proven that none of the intrusion affected the voter count. Obama was still our leader when this happened, before the election. Why the Democrats did not give it the proper attention is partly because of the access Hollywood tape when Trump made some crude remarks about women. The Democrats are experts from hiding materials from taxpayers. Finally, with the investigation it proves Trump won fair and square without help from Russia. Now it is time to accept him as your president.

Weening off services: Illinois is in the midst of its own Great Depression. A half century of hand out service has brought us to this. Weening the public off the services is like weening off drugs. Meanwhile, the infrastructure is falling apart.

Sending wrong message: I would like to say Mississippi is sending the wrong message. To the state of Mission and the rest of the world: legally discriminating against gay people is just wrong. We already have a president with racial overtones who is bringing all of the swamp people out of the swamp. The GOP like to push their religion. They say they are God's people. I don't see it. God loves everyone. This is not the way our country should be running.

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Coffee, newspaper good start to day: The newspaper is very important to me. I have my first cup of coffee and then I go get the newspaper. It is really important to everyone in America. It's information. It's what is going to happen or what is happening. It's news. It's brand new news everyday so it is very important to me.

Alternative history: Just think how better off North American would be if Europeans never arrived here. Native Americans would occupy all this land. There would not have been slavery and people from Mexico and South American would have no reason to come here.

Children and hunger: Once more, I think it's a sign of bad luck for America. You know, God works in mysterious ways. I can't see our American children not eating. I was poor. We didn't eat all the time too. But there was always tomorrow. I don't see tomorrow for them.

Can't fix stupidity: I wonder if (U.S. House Speaker) Paul Ryan, Sen. (Mitch) McConnell and all the Democrats realize that even duct tape can't fix stupidity like they are putting out there. When are they going to wake up? We give $2.3 million to someone's mom and dad because (their son) stole from a store, broke the law and burnt the town down. I can't believe there is so much stupidity in the swamp. Ryan needs to be out of there. McConnell needs to be out there. The Democrats are so far left, they think they are right. Please remind them when you are stuck on stupid, you can't fix stupid. Not even duct tape can fix stupid.

Against God, church: I am calling about your "Church Festival Prompts Tax Talk" story. Do you really mean to tell me after 14 years of doing this, that they never had to get a permit and never had to charge taxes but because someone has a bee in their bonnet, you are going after the church? This is sad. I hope the big guy upstairs is watching you alderman. You are against God and against the church.

Editor's note

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Speak Out is a reader-generated column of opinions. If you see something you disagree with or think is incorrect, call us at 312-222-2460 or email couriernews@tribpub.com. Please include "speak out" in the subject line.
The intersection of Grand Avenue and River Road was covered by water Friday afternoon in River Grove. (Maryann Pisano / Pioneer Press )

Street closures were in effect throughout the weekend and continued Monday in River Grove as flooding from the Des Plaines River caused water to cover several roads in the village.

Days after heavy rains caused significant flooding in parts of Lake County and Wisconsin, parts of the Des Plaines River had reached major flood stage. The Illinois Department of Transportation announced that Grand Avenue was closed between First Avenue and Elm Street

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Also, River Road was closed in both directions, starting at Belmont Avenue.

River Grove Mayor David Guerin said River Grove police were blocking off the streets affected. On Monday, Guerin said he hoped the roads would be open as soon as the flooding goes down.

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Guerin said it was fortunate that there weren't any evacuations.

According to the National Weather Service, the river was at 18.87 feet Monday afternoon near Des Plaines, with major flood stage at 19 feet. At River Forest, the river was at 14.87 feet, which is below flood stage.

Guerin said several residents volunteered to fill sand bags to those who needed it. He said more than 2,000 sand bags were used.

Officials from the public works department and fire department were on the street assisting residents.

"We prepared for the worst, but it didn't get as bad as expected," he said. "People who were familiar with the flooding had their own apparatuses."

Guerin and River Grove Public Works were distributing sand bags to homes.

Frank Faruggia, who resides on River Road, said he did not get any water inside his house. He felt that it was just more of an inconvenience to get around the blocked streets.

"Since River Road was closed, it was pretty quiet," he said.

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Faruggia said he had a "flood party" with his neighbors. He said he had a barbecue and made pasta and relaxed with other residents.

"The water is there, so we have to adapt," he added.

Joe Cunningham, who works for public works, said officials have been picking up branches and have been trying to help with traffic issues.

Flooding is shown on River Road in River Grove. (Maryann Pisano/Pioneer Press )

Also, an event that had been set for Saturday  the River Grove Block Party  was postponed until Aug. 19, Guerin said.

Because of the flooding on River Road, several businesses were closed, such as Subway and Dunkin' Donuts. Guerin said the village has received many calls about the closing of Gene & Jude's.

"We didn't get any water," Gene & Jude's general manager Dan Ciancio said. "We've been closed since River Road is closed. We want our customers to be safe."

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Ciancio said the hot dog stand has been getting a "phone call a minute" about when they will be reopened.

"Wednesday is National Hot Dog Day, so we're hoping to have a grand reopening to welcome people for that," he said Monday.

The Subway restaurant, on Grand and River Road, had been closed for days, according to manager Nirvit Patel.

"It has affected our store a lot," he said. "After the flooding ends, then our customers will be able to come in."

Maryann Pisano is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Two local administrators with strong experience in their fields are joining the Elmwood Park School District 401 administrative team.

Leah Gauthier, the district's new director of curriculum and instruction, and Kari Smith, the new director for student services, were among the administrators whose contracts were approved by the board at the district's June 21 meeting.

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Board members approved the contracts of Gauthier and Smith, along with others at their June 21 meeting. Gauthier will earn $110,000 and Smith $135,000 under the board's action.

Gauthier served previously as director for instructional services for Bensenville School District 2. She spent 14 years in that district, starting as an elementary classroom teacher, and then serving as a math specialist and learning coordinator.

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In her new job, she said she looks forward to "supporting the standards, the curriculum, the principals, the teachers, to ensure they have what they need to be a success."

Another focus will be technology, "how is the technology complementing the curriculum and vice versa."

Smith, who grew up in nearby River Forest, served as director of special services for Lombard School District 44. Her new role is "more along the scope of students with special needs," she said, and also "working with building principals and families as well."

She also will work with students and families who are considered as homeless, a growing issue in the district.

She started out in the Oak Park elementary school district, working as school social worker and helping students in the transition to middle school. She then became a special education coordinator with responsibility over four elementary buildings and one middle school, she said.

Gauthier said one attraction about Elmwood Park is that it is a unit school district, "so you get the opportunity to see growth all the way from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade."

Both expressed support of the district's recent push to address underlying social and emotional issues. Schools realize "you just can't provide the academics. There is so much more that students come to school with," Gauthier said.

Smith said that "it really is about educating the whole child. Illinois has social-emotional learning goals that we need to make sure we're meeting, just like our academic goals."

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Superintendent Nicolas Wade looks forward to their contributions.

"What excites me most about bringing Ms. Gauthier and Ms. Smith on board is that we have two extraordinarily talented and knowledgeable individuals who are going to serve in their respective departments admirably," he said. "Their experiences will help move our district forward and provide the necessary resources and leadership to make it happen."
Residents of the College Trail subdivision in Grayslake  not far from the College of Lake County  are seen Wednesday after a pond overflowed down the street. (Janie Lane)

The College of Lake County experienced "unprecedented" flooding throughout the lower level of its Grayslake campus as a result of the thunderstorms that swept through the area Tuesday night through Wednesday afternoon, a college spokeswoman said.

Most of the water collected in an auditorium, which sits in the campus's lowest point, but also spread through five classrooms, some administrative offices, the downstairs bookstore and the copy center, spokeswoman Anne O'Connell said Thursday.

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Grayslake Mayor Rhett Taylor declared a local state of emergency Wednesday, a move that Lake County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor made for the entire county Thursday.

More than 7 inches of rain drenched Lake County from Tuesday into Wednesday, bringing the Fox and Des Plaines rivers to at or near record highs, according to the state-of-emergency statement issued by the county Thursday.

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Janie Lane, who lives in the College Trail subdivision just west of the College of Lake County, said the pond down the road from the corner of Cambridge Drive and Attenborough Way overflowed on Wednesday, and the streets filled quickly.

"Like most storms, I woke up a few times from the lightning and thunder but did not think much of it until I woke up to get ready for work," she said. "I looked out my window and saw a river in my front yard. I have been living here for 15 years and have never seen anything like this."

Lane added that "the entire neighborhood" was brought together by what she called "a once-in-a-lifetime type of day," from floating on inner-tubes, cruising in paddleboats and kayaks, and pushing cars out of the road.

She said the village of Grayslake was very responsive on Wednesday, putting up construction barricades and going door-to-door to check on residents. Officials were advising everyone to stay out of the water.

"I know the water isn't the cleanest, but for an hour or so this morning it was just too hard to resist," she said of the kids playing in the water using inner tubes, paddle boats and kayaks.

On Thursday, the water receded in three of the four locations hit hardest in Grayslake, Assistant Village Manager Kevin Timony said during the afternoon. The one area that remained flooded was the Hunters Ridge subdivision and the nearby shopping center at Commerce Drive and Center Street.

Many of the affected areas were in older parts of the village where stormwater systems are also older, Timony said. Some were also in lower-lying areas or by bodies of water.

A few Grayslake roads remained closed due to high water, and the village has arranged for special garbage pick-up for flood-damaged items, according to the village's website.

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 82 The home of Marty Evanson sustained extensive damage over the last several days as a result of flooding along West Anchorage Lane in Fox Lake on Thursday, July 20, 2017. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

The Grayslake Heritage Center and Museum also sustained some flood damage, including to the archives that are kept in the basement, Timony said.

Village staff continue to work downstream to loosen debris to try and help the water drain, Timony said.

"We're just glad it's not raining anymore," he said.

The affected areas at CLC were cleared of water by 7 p.m. Wednesday by staff who worked around the clock, O'Connell said.

The priority was to get the two classrooms used for physics classes and that had specialized equipment in the rooms back up and running, she said. Two other classrooms were general-purpose rooms, and the fifth was not in use this summer.

The college moved morning classes in those rooms and canceled all classes that started after 2:30 p.m. Wednesday regardless of location, according to a statement released Wednesday.

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The auditorium, which is not used for classes, was also clear of water, O'Connell said.

"You wouldn't know what it looked like yesterday," she said. "The auditorium looks good. It's dry."

The flooding was caused by oversaturation of the ground, O'Connell said. The ground was so wet that the rain wasn't being absorbed and instead was puddling and then spilling under doors.

The facility's pumps also couldn't keep up with the water that was coming in, she said, adding that officials don't think the flooding was attributable to the construction going on at the campus.

College officials don't expect this level of flooding to happen again but plan to do an assessment to see what can be done differently in the future, O'Connell said.

The college is also in the process of figuring out how much the damage will cost, she said. Anything that was on the floor was damaged though she said they don't expect to have to replace drywall or other building materials.

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A student-run restaurant also located on the lower level will also need a Lake County Health Department inspection before it can reopen, she said.

emcoleman@tribpub.com

Twitter @mekcoleman
Round Lake School District 116 would benefit from proposed state school-funding formula changes because it receives more than half of its revenue from the state and it has a high number of low-income students and English-language learners. (Dan Moran / Lake County News-Sun )

School districts are used to the state being late paying their bills, but the latest showdown over education funding is something completely new, Lake County school district officials said this week.

While the State Legislature overrode Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto to pass a budget two weeks ago, that budget ties education funding to a new funding formula, one that Rauner has threatened to veto.

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The proposed bill, known as Senate Bill 1, lays out a new way to divvy up state education dollars, giving more money to schools with higher numbers of low-income students, English-language learners and those receiving special education services.

Aug. 10 is the date Woodland School District 50 Associate Superintendent and Chief School Business Officer Bob Leonard is watching.

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If a deal isn't reached by then, the 5,500-student district won't receive most, if not all, of the funds it gets from the state, Leonard said. If it's not done by Aug. 30, he's considering education funding "pretty much dead" in Springfield.

About 11 percent of the district's revenue came from the state in budget year 2015-16, and while that number has been falling, the share of its state aid that goes to the charter school in its district has grown, according to state data.

The declining revenue combined with falling enrollment has already led to cuts in staff and other areas, Leonard said.

But for some schools, the budget itself was a big relief.

Stevenson High School District 125, which receives a relatively small percentage of its funds from the state, covers about a quarter of its $3.89 million in transportation costs with state dollars, district spokesman Jim Conrey said in an email this week.

"(T)hat was the area of greatest concern for us had a budget not been passed," he said.

Those dollars do not appear to be affected by the haggling over Senate Bill 1, according to budget documents and an interview with an Illinois State Board of Education official.

District 125 expects to receive a projected $107.1 million in total revenue with an estimated $3.9 million, or about 4 percent, coming from the state, Conrey said.

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The held-up dollars are a much bigger deal for some other districts, like Waukegan School District 60, which drew 55 percent of its funding from the state over the 2015-16 budget year. That amounted to about $112.5 million.

That's the highest percentage of any school district in Lake County, where poorer communities with a smaller property tax base pull in more money from the state and federal government. Meanwhile, districts in some wealthy communities, like Lake Forest, have state money make up less than 3 percent of their revenue, state data shows.

Waukegan District 60 officials have been planning on what to do should its cash reserves run low, said Gwendolyn Polk, the district's associate superintendent of business and financial services.

"We're in pretty good shape," Polk said, adding that the district wasn't going to wait for a crisis to react.

District officials have reached out to a local bank and have received a proposal for a $10 million line of credit that they can tap into in the next 60 days if their reserves run low and they can't otherwise pay their bills, she said.

As of June 30, the 15,800-student district, Lake County's largest, had enough money in its operating funds to last about 70 days without any new funds, district spokesman Nick Alajakis has said. It typically starts to see its first round of property tax dollars toward the end of August.

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Summer, though, is a less expensive time for the district, and the district's first big payroll isn't until Sept. 15, Polk said.

"We just hope that the governor will sign this (Senate Bill 1) soon, because there's a huge impact on school districts," she said, noting that based on preliminary numbers, Waukegan could receive $14 million more in state aid than it did for over the 2015-16 budget year.

Round Lake Community Unit School District 116 is also looking at its options, Chief Financial Officer Bill Johnston said. The district has some invested dollars that it can use and could operate through the end of November without any new money.

Borrowing is something Johnston has thought of as well, but he said he hasn't taken any steps in that direction.

Like Waukegan, District 116 receives more than half of its revenue from the state, and, because of its high number of low-income students and English language learners, would benefit from the proposed funding formula changes.

Preliminary estimates show that District 116 would receive an extra $5 million each year, Johnston said.

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The district received $48.9 million from the state in budget year 2015-16, less than it has in past years, according to state data.

While Polk said Waukegan officials haven't made any decisions about where those potential dollars would go, Round Lake officials have thought about expanding instructional programs and bringing back programs that have been eliminated over the years.

Johnston said District 116 has been "very hesitant" to move forward with anything at this point, though, as no one knows what changes might still be made to the formula, and the estimates were based on old numbers.

Chicago Tribune reporter Diane Rado contributed to this report.

emcoleman@tribpub.com

Twitter @mekcoleman
You're in luck. Today is Pandemonium Day, giving you the perfect excuse to leave the dishes undone and the house a mess. Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door. (You can also get "5 Things You Need to Know Today" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

1. Health care bill

GOP senators' latest attempt at fixing health care is a secret no more. It includes an amendment by Ted Cruz that would let insurers offer cheaper, bare-bones policies. Conservatives like that, but moderates don't, because they fear it would drive up premiums for folks with pre-existing conditions. The bill still includes cuts to Medicaid and keeps two Obamacare-era taxes on rich people. Is this version enough to get Majority Leader Mitch McConnell the 50 votes he needs to pass this thing? We still don't know. Rand Paul said he won't even vote for a motion to debate the bill. Susan Collins says she won't either, until she sees the all-important CBO score, which is due out Monday.

2. President Trump

President Trump is enjoying Bastille Day in Paris, including watching a parade down the Champs-Elysees, but the Russia storm brewing back in Washington churns on. Trump, during a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, defended son Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer, saying most people working on a campaign would have taken that meeting (nope, says former Rep. Steve Israel, who's actually conducted opposition research). Trump also said he didn't know about the meeting until a couple of days ago and that he's open to his son testifying about it.

3. Pennsylvania missing men

What happened to four young men who disappeared in Pennsylvania is a mystery no more. Cosmo Dinardo confessed to involvement in the killings of the men, his attorney said, though he wouldn't say if Dinardo actually killed them. In exchange for the confession, prosecutors say they won't seek the death penalty. Dinardo was already in custody; he'd been charged with stealing and trying to sell one of the men's cars. Dinardo reportedly told police where to find the bodies. The body of one man, Dean Finocchiaro, was found on property owned by Dinardo's parents, buried with other human remains.

4. Travel ban

A federal judge in Hawaii loosened some restrictions on President Trump's travel ban, ruling that grandparents and other close relatives -- like grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins -- should be exempt from the ban. Refugees who have "formal assurance" from resettlement agencies that they can come to the United States also are exempt, the judge ruled. The Supreme Court ruled last month that the Trump administration could employ the travel ban (which temporarily bars people from six mostly Muslim countries from entering the country) against foreign nationals who lack a "bona fide" relationship to a person or entity in the US. The administration can appeal this latest decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court.

5. Overseas attacks

In Jerusalem, two Israeli police officers were killed this morning when three men launched a shooting attack in the Old City. Police killed the attackers. The attack occurred near one of the world's most important religious sites, called the Noble Sanctuary by Muslims and the Temple Mount by Jews.

And in London, police are looking for suspects in a string of acid attacks. At least two suspects rode on mopeds in east London, throwing acid on people, police said. One male teenager has been arrested. The attacks all happened within about an hour of each other. Five men were hospitalized, including one who suffered life-changing facial injuries. Robbery may have been a motive.

NUMBER OF THE DAY

17

That's how many years are left before the Social Security trust fund is tapped out, meaning future retirees (like a certain, unnamed newsletter writer) will only get about three-quarters of their benefits. Congress is being urged to act.

BREAKFAST BROWSE

People are talking about these. Read up. Join in.

Crazy in love

Beyonce is a habitual internet breaker, and early this morning, she broke it again with the first pics of her twins.

Help me

ATMs are supposed to give you money, but sometimes you get a note from the repairman who got stuck inside of it.

Best kid on the block

Donnie Wahlberg's never forgotten his blue-collar roots. That's probably why he left a $2,000 tip for his servers at Waffle House.

They never learn

United's considering a new system where the airline can resell your seat. But wasn't screwing around with seats what got them in trouble in the first place?

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"I think it's really important to know what you don't know and listen to people who do know what you don't know"

Former President George W. Bush, appearing at an event with former President Bill Clinton, stressing the importance of humility in the Oval Office

AND FINALLY ...

No, no, no

Daddy keeps trying to take her maracas, and this adorable little girl is NOT having it. (Click to view)
Part of the mission of the Alive Center in Naperville is to give high school students the opportunity to mentor younger students in a variety of activities, including the arts, science, technology and mathematics. A new sponsor will help fund STEM-related activities. (David Sharos/Naperville Sun )

SAP Fieldglass will take an active role encouraging students to explore STEM fields through the Alive Teen Initiate program in Naperville.

The company signed on as a sponsor for Alive Center programming to urge teens to consider pursuing education and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

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SAP Fieldglass, a software company with corporate headquarters in Chicago and offices in Naperville, provides cloud-based solutions for organizations around the world.

"I am really excited to be able to work with a global company like SAP Fieldglass to further expand our Computer Science club and STEM programs," said Isha Srinivasan, creator of the Computer Science Club and Girls STEM Innovation Camp, in a statement.

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Besides funding for the initiate program, SAP Fieldglass will conduct workshops for teenagers at the center, providing them with information about careers in technology.

Monetary assistance from the company also will benefit Alive teen-led teen-driven clubs, camps, programs and events, such as the recent Alive Art Slam fundraiser.

"Today's youth will be tomorrow's future, and those with strong educations in science, technology and math will have the opportunity to be the innovators, data analysts, scientists and technologists in tomorrow's digital economy," Vish Baliga, chief technology officer at SAP Fieldglass, said in a statement. "It gives us great pleasure to sponsor Alive Center Teen Initiate programs that encourage today's youth to study in these fields."

The Alive Center, located 500 W. Fifth Ave., gives teens the opportunity to learn and then pass that knowledge forward to other teens.

For example, high school students interested in STEM frequently mentor junior high-aged teens to stimulate their interest.

Among the many Alive Teen Initiate programs are the Alive Girl Empowerment Club, Science Exploration, Computer Science Club, the Upcycled Clothing Club, The Merry Tutor, Girls STEM Camp, the Excel Exchange club and a student advisory board.

Teens interested in starting a new Alive Teen Initiate program are encouraged to apply to the group for consideration.
Amazon fulfillment centers, such as the one that opened in Romeoville in June, are making it easy for people to skip going to stores and simply shop online, columnist Bill Mego says. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune )

This Sunday marks the 22nd anniversary of the day Amazon sold its first book. If you're curious, that book was "Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought" by Douglas Hofstadter.

Hofstadter, a professor of cognitive science is probably best known for his book, "Godel, Escher, Bach," which his publisher described as "a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll," whatever that means. I guess 1995 was that kind of year.

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Since then, Amazon has of course become a virtual Gargantua of retail, selling almost anything you can imagine and prompting some to predict traditional brick-and-mortar stores will soon become extinct. Will that happen, and if so what does that mean for Naperville's downtown?

It's easy to see why some folks think walk-in stores are dying because a lot of them give that impression. I've done a lot of manufacturing consulting and, believe me, I understand how important it is to manage inventory, but inventory is a big part of the reason people go to stores.

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If you don't carry any, people won't go. A few years ago, I wanted a bread machine. I read up on them and knew pretty much what I wanted. So I started going to stores in and around Naperville. A few said they sold them, but didn't have any on hand "because people don't buy those any more." They said I could order one and pick it up at the store next week.

One store had one, literally a single bread machine, but it didn't have any of the features I wanted. A couple of stores told me of places in Chicago where I could probably find what I was looking for. So I went home and ordered one from Amazon that does exactly what I wanted.

Another way some of our stores are aiding in their own demise is with service. In a restaurant, the quality of the server is far more important than the quality of the food. I believe service is even more important in a retail store, where information and experience are critical.

Once I was looking for a particular piece of kitchen equipment in one of our local stores. I couldn't find it and neither could the saleswoman. We approached the fellow who apparently knew where everything was. He was just leaning against the wall, but he informed us he still had five minutes on his break. I wish that experience was rare. I ended up using Amazon again.

I don't believe traditional retail will ever die because it can provide so much more than an online store ever can. Amazon isn't even anything new. Owner Jeff Bezos simply picked up the business Sears didn't want any more. You used to order everything from the Sears catalog and it would be delivered either to you or to a pickup center near you. Naperville's was on Washington Street.

Amazon is simply doing the exact same thing with modern tools while Sears'/Kmart's assets were being stripped away by management. No, computers don't kill stores, store owners kill stores. I believe there will always be a demand for the rich shopping experience that retail stores can provide.

But it has to be done right. You have to learn what to carry and how to cultivate the best, most knowledgeable sales people. That can be difficult, but it can be done. Store owners just have to try.

And we all have to remember that Naperville is a brand, including its identifying symbols and amenities, such as the iconic Millennium Carillon, which looks great but sounds lousy. Anybody can enhance that brand and anybody can diminish it. But it's entirely in our hands. Amazon has nothing to do with it.

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bill.mego@sbcglobal.net
A new Naperville Park District survey has found that nearly 80 percent of those questioned gave a high rating to the district overall and found it a good value for the tax money, the district said. (Naperville Park District)

DuPage County unveils new bike trail app

DuPage County has launched a new app to provide navigation tools and information about the county's trail system.

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The DuPage Trails App shows all trail routes in the county and allows users to locate parking lots, rest areas, restrooms, destinations, bike shops or emergency assistance facilities.

It can also link to the county's Citizen Reporter app, which lets users provide information on damage, problems or issues on the trails. The app can be accessed directly at www.dupageco.org/trailmap or through the county's Navigate DuPage app, which is available for iOS and Android devices.

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"This application will make it easier for users to learn about trail features around them," DuPage County Transportation Committee Chairman Don Puchalski said. "And it provides an easy way to report unsafe conditions on the trails."

Edward named 'most wired' hospital for third year

Edward-Elmhurst Health has been named one the nation's Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems for the third consecutive year.

The recognition is based on the 2017 Most Wired survey by the American Hospital Association and Clearwater Compliance, a provider of health care compliance and cyber risk management solutions, the health organization said.

Edward-Elmhurst, which includes Edward Hospital and Linden Oaks Behavioral Health in Naperville, also made the list in 2015 and 2016. Prior to their merger as a health care system, Elmhurst Hospital made the list in 2013 and 2014 and Edward Hospital in 2014.

Among the online services cited were the MyChart patient portal, through which patients can communicate with their doctor, manage appointments, access test results and request prescription renewals, and the use of CardioMEMS and Reveal LINQ, implanted devices that allow physicians to remotely monitor the conditions of patients with heart conditions.

Naperville police holding college safety program

The Naperville Police Department will offer a "Safety for the College Bound Student" program at 7 p.m. July 26 for college freshmen and their parents.

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No registration is required. It will be held at the police department, 1350 Aurora Ave.

The first part of the presentation will focus on information on drugs, alcohol and the law and the second half is about personal safety. The goal is to arm students with knowledge and skills to keep themselves and their property safe, Crime Prevention Specialist Mary Browning said in a news release.

"This is a great opportunity to learn how to be safe while on campus and away from home," Browning said. "We live in a very safe community and because of that our children can develop a false sense of security. This class will help students learn strong crime prevention strategies and also make them aware of some of the dangers of campus life and how to safeguard themselves."

For more information, call Browning at 630-420-6731.

Learn about fireflies during Whalon Lake outing

"Friday Night with the Fireflies" will be held from 7:30 to 9 p.m. July 28 at the Forest Preserve District of Will County's Whalon Lake, located on Royce Road, west of Route 53, in Naperville.

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The event will let participants search the preserve for fireflies and learn how and why they light up the night. The all-ages program is free but registration is required by July 26. Go to ReconnectWithNature.org or call 815-886-1467.

Sewers to be smoke tested in Brookdale, Pebblewood

The city of Naperville will conduct smoke testing at Brookdale, Pebblewood and surrounding subdivisions for four weeks, starting July 17, in order to detect sanitary sewer line defects.

Smoke testing locates openings that allow rainwater runoff to enter and can cause sanitary sewer backups, according to a city news release. Air combined with smoke is forced into the lines so workers can find leaks. Smoke can be seen coming out of the ground where there are defects in the lines. Smoke testing also identifies roof drains, patio drains and footing drains that are connected to the sewer system, the release said.

The smoke is non-toxic, creates no fire hazard, leaves no residue, dissipates quickly and is harmless, the release said. However, those with respiratory issues may wish to not be home while testing is conducted. Notification cards alerting residents to the testing will be distributed immediately prior to the work being done, the release said.

For more information, go to www.naperville.il.us/smoketest.

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Survey shows residents satisfied with park district amenities

Nearly 80 percent of the Naperville Park District residents who participated in a community survey gave the district high esteem ratings and rated it high in value relative to its property tax cost, the district said in a news release.

Ninety-five percent of all respondents to the 2017 Community Interest and Opinion Survey said they'd visited a park in the last year and 92 percent said they'd used the Riverwalk, the release said. On a scale of one to 10, district received a rank of 8.3 for high satisfaction with park facility experiences and 8.4 for upkeep of the parks and facilities.

The numbers were consistent with the findings of the same survey conducted in 2012, the release said. The survey was conducted in April and May by aQuity Research & Insights Inc.

Residents ranked trails as the most used and desired outdoor recreational amenity and rated fitness and walking/jogging tracks as the top indoor facilities.

Survey results can be viewed online at www.napervilleparks.org/community-surveys.
An "eternal flame" burns upon being relighted Thursday morning, after having gone out Wednesday night. The flame is part of Naperville's Dan Shanower 9/11 Memorial along the city's Riverwalk. (Bill Bird / Naperville Sun)

The "eternal" flame that serves as the centerpiece of the Cmdr. Dan Shanower/Sept. 11, 2001 Memorial outside the Naperville Municipal Center went out Wednesday evening ... for perhaps the 400th time since the memorial's dedication 13 years ago.

City Public Works Director Dick Dublinski conceded "eternal" is a bit of a misnomer where the memorial's flame is concerned, as it needs to be relighted on a regular basis.

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"That darn flame goes out on us" every 10 days to two weeks "due to heavy rain and wind and vandalism," Dublinski said.

A surveillance video camera monitors the memorial grounds. That, in turn, keeps city maintenance employees aware of when the flame has gone out, Dublinski said.

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Those workers have been so diligent  and nonchalant  about keeping the flame burning that Dublinski said he didn't know it ever went out until the Naperville Fire Department was called about a gas leak near the municipal center shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday.

"It was news to me, too," Dublinski said of the fact that the flame does not actually burn uninterrupted and in perpetuity.

When he questioned city workers Thursday, they told him, "they thought it was a (non-issue,) because they would notice it had gone out and just relight it," Dublinski said.

Deputy Fire Chief Andy Dina confirmed firefighters did a search of the municipal center campus Wednesday night and determined the gas smell a passerby reported was the result of the flame going out. Firefighters were unable to reignite it, and reported the situation to Dublinski's staff, who had it burning again by 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

Dublinski said he expects to do research into so-called eternal flames to determine if Naperville might be able to acquire a more steadfast model.

"I'm going to start looking into it, to tell you the truth, because I'd like to have an answer for you," he said. "Maybe somebody makes a flame that's (designed) not to go out. I don't know yet."

The memorial is named for Naperville native and U.S. Navy Cmdr. Dan Shanower, who was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the Pentagon, where he worked. More than 3,000 people died in the attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

The flame illuminates a 48-foot-long "Wall of Faces." The wall bears 140 images molded by local artists, representing the people killed in the attacks.

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Also part of the memorial is an 11-foot-tall sculpture that incorporates relics from the attacks, including a steel beam from the World Trade Center and rubble from the Pentagon. The granite in the memorial's base was mined in Pennsylvania, in the area where Flight 93 crashed.

Nearly $300,000 was raised over a two-year period to have the monument built.

wbird@tribpub.com
After three years with Oak Park School District 97, Whittier Elementary School Principal Keshia Warner has announced her resignation.

School officials confirmed Warner's resignation is expected to be accepted by the school board on July 18, with Warner's final day with District 97 expected to be July 14. Warner has offered to assist with the transition in leadership following her departure, officials said.

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"Keshia Warner has been a valued member of our district and community for the past three years," Superintendent Carol Kelley said in a statement. "I thank her for her leadership and service during her time at Whittier Elementary School, and wish her the best in her new endeavor."

Warner accepted a director position with a principal preparation program in Chicago, which necessitated her resignation, officials said.

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According to Kelley, the district will launch an internal search to find an interim principal for Whittier School for the 2017-18 school year.

"If we are unable to find a viable option from within the district, we will expand the scope and parameters of this search until the position is filled," Kelley said. "Our goal is to present our recommended candidate to the board of education during its meeting on Aug. 15."

Should a candidate be approved by board members next month, Kelley said that candidate would immediately assume the position of interim principal.

Regarding a permanent replacement, Kelley said that search would begin in early 2018 with the help of community members.

"Our shared goal will be to find an individual who has the knowledge, skills and experience necessary to not only build upon Whittier's history of success, but also help our students learn, grow and achieve," Kelley said.

Messages left with Warner seeking comment were not immediately returned.

sschering@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @steveschering
A Hammond man with an extensive criminal history was sentenced to five years and six months in prison Friday for stalking.

Steve Sherron, 59, admitted that in August 2016, he harassed the victim and left a sex toy on her front doorstep in Munster. The woman had obtained a non-expiring order of protection in 2014 that barred Sherron from any contact with her.

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The woman's cousin spoke on behalf of the victim during the sentencing hearing because deputy prosecutor Nadia Chivers said the victim felt uncomfortable doing so herself.

The woman said the victim met and married Sherron in the 1980s, and they divorced soon after their child was born. The victim's cousin said Sherron was found in the victim's bushes along with other harassing behavior and that Sherron's conduct has the two women wanting him in prison "so we can rest."

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Chivers noted that both women have felt "real fear" as a result of Sherron's actions. She also cited Sherron's seven misdemeanor convictions for crimes including harassment, intimidation and invasion of privacy, one felony conviction, and his five times on probation.

In 2011, he was convicted in Hammond City Court of failure to report a dead body, a misdemeanor, after authorities found him with his mother's corpse in a vehicle.

Lake Superior Court Magistrate Natalie Bokota assessed Sherron's character as "predatory, disturbing and dangerous" before imposing a sentence near the maximum of six years. Five additional stalking counts, including one punishable by two to 12 years, and five invasion of privacy counts were dismissed.

Ruth Ann Krause is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Police have made a second arrest in a suspected South Haven meth lab operation, a release said.

Around 7 a.m. Thursday, the Porter County Multi-Enforcement Group, assisted by patrol officers with the Porter County Sheriff's Department, arrested Christopher Jetmund, 28, of the 700 block of Eagle Creek in South Haven, on felony charges of manufacturing methamphetamine and maintaining a common nuisance.

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Jetmund was arrested at his residence, according to a news release from Sgt. Jamie Erow, public information officer with the Porter County Sheriff's Department. He was transported to Porter County Jail.

On Tuesday, police arrested Jetmund's brother, Timothy Jetmund, 23, of the same address, on five drug-related charges, including manufacturing methamphetamine. Police allege he was found in possession of the drug when he was arrested at a nearby business.

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Detectives revisited the residence after several citizens submitted tips to the sheriff's tip line.

Police said Christopher Jetmund had returned to the residence and allegedly was using narcotics on the front porch a day after the enforcement group and Indiana State Police processed the residence as a meth lab and arrested Timothy Jetmund, the tips said.

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Indiana's congressional delegation renewed its request for aid to East Chicago residents affected by lead and arsenic contamination.

Sens. Joe Donnelly, D-South Bend, and Todd Young, R-Bloomington, and Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Merrillville, sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services and Center for Disease Control and Prevention to push for continued assistance for East Chicago residents.

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The request is seeking added treatment, prevention efforts and education programs for residents. In addition, the delegation wants to see the federal agencies detail its ability to provide long-term health monitoring and treatment for current and former residents.

"The city and the state of Indiana have been working to provide free blood testing to impacted residents, which has been helpful in identifying residents needing the most immediate treatment and care," the letter said. "Given the lengthy timeframe residents have potentially been subjected to cumulative exposures, however, residents are rightfully concerned about the long-term impacts to their health and well being."

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Donnelly, Young and Visclosky asked the CDC to ensure an updated health study underway by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is done thoroughly, and allow for stakeholder input as the process moves along.

"The residents of the U.S.S. Lead Superfund site deserve to be confident that their homes and their neighborhoods are not harmful to their health," the delegation wrote. "We look forward to continue working with you to give residents that confidence."

clyons@post-trib.com

Twitter @craigalyons
The East Chicago City Council passed a resolution July 10 expressing opposition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's potential to approve of the continued disposal of PCBs, and other toxins, at an open-air facility in the city.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began dredging the Indiana Harbor and Shipping Canal in 2012, where they are removing sediment from the canal, some of which is toxic, and store it in a confined disposal facility at 3500 Indianapolis Blvd. The Corps is applying for a permit to continue disposing of the dredged sediment at the facility in East Chicago.

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Though largely symbolic, the council also passed a resolution opposing the proposed budget reductions to the EPA and the impact on the Great Lakes Restorative Initiative.

Since its inception in 2010, GLRI has invested in more than 3,000 projects to rehabilitate the Great Lakes by combating invasive species and protecting fish and wildlife, cleaning up pollution and contaminated sediment and controlling pollution run-off.

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Amid continued speculation about the future of EPA's Region 5 office in Chicago, East Chicago City Council Attorney Stephen Bower said the resolution is part of the fallout pertaining to the alleged "dismantling" of EPA with the proposed budget cuts.

"For the city of East Chicago, attention and concern for environmental matters are of current concern with the presence of lead and other toxic elements in our soil and water," he said.

East Chicago environmental activist Thomas Frank was among several East Chicago residents that thanked the council for passing the resolutions.

"This is an old industrial city and we have lots of industrial legacies that we are still grappling with," he said. "What we're doing today is drawing a line in the ground saying we're not going to accept this toxic project."

jaanderson@tribpub.com

Twitter @JavonteA
Micah Vincent, chairman of the Distressed Unit Appeal Board, holds up public comment forms on Thursday before Gary Schools Emergency Manager candidates are revealed on July 13, 2017, at Wirt-Emerson High School in Gary. (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune )

Seven firms vying to be the emergency manager of the Gary Community School Corp. pledged Thursday evening to implement plans to improve academics and help the district tackle its massive debt.

Each firm made the case for their selection during a Distressed Unit Appeals Board session at the Wirt-Emerson Visual and Performing Arts High Ability Academy.

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Originally, 13 candidates had applied for the job this summer, said DUAB chairman Micah Vincent. The board met in closed session at Indiana University Northwest in Gary earlier in the day to interview candidates.

It expects to choose a firm to run Gary schools by late July, commissioner Courtney Schaafsma said after the meeting. Gary students will return for the first day of school on Aug. 17.

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Many of the presenting firms touted members with Gary roots or professional ties. Each made 15-minute presentations. No public comments were allowed, although DUAB did accept written notes following the meeting.

Firms presenting their ideas for the district included:

MGT Consulting Group  The Tallahassee, Fla.-based firm would work to start school smoothly and reach out to the Gary community.

Gatekeeper Accounting Services, LLC  Accountant and Gary native Sheleita Miller said she would use her experience to develop a financial plan for the district. She also invited longtime employees and parents to reach out to her personally.

The Robert Bobb Group  A Washington, D.C.-based firm led by Robert Bobb, who was the state-appointed emergency manager for Detroit schools from 2011 to 2014. Its bid is being joined by Indianapolis-based Phalen Leadership Academies that manages the charter for Gary's Thea Bowman Leadership Academy.

The Bronner Group  The Chicago-based firm would select DuPage (Illinois) County Board Member Paul Fichtner as emergency manager. The group pledged to set up plans for finances, staffing, educational services, and busing within 45 days and facilities and a non-education services plan within 60 days.

Its academic leadership would also include Paul Vallas, a former head of Chicago Public Schools, former candidate for Illinois Lt. Governor and former member of the Chicago State University board.

Comer Capital Group  A Jackson, Miss.-based financial consulting firm led by Gary Horace Mann alum Brandon Comer. In March, he helped the district secure a $1.5 million loan  one of several it has taken in recent months to secure the cash to pay employees. His mother previously worked as a teacher in Gary for over three decades.

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Martin, Arrington, Desai & Meyers  A Michigan-based group led by Jack Martin  a former USDOE official and Detroit schools emergency manager. He has worked as the Gary district's state-mandated financial consultant since 2015. Martin and the school board have often been at odds over recommended budget cuts that impacted staff and programs.

Crowe Horwath  a Chicago-based public accounting firm specializing in audits, taxes, risk and performance, according to its website.

The yet-to-be-named emergency manager will have fiscal and academic responsibility over the school district with $110 million of debt and challenged by a 42-percent property tax collection rate and shrinking enrollment base.

This year, the district received the state's only F-rating, but individual elementary schools like Banneker and McCullough have received excellent ratings for several years.

Financial adviser Martin told the audience he did not expect further layoffs or building closures before the next school year. The district was at the point where he would not have to approach DUAB for loans to make payroll, he said.

Last month, the school board voted to layoff 44 teachers. Gary Teachers Union President GlenEva Dunham said after the meeting none so far had been called back to work.

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Dunham said she hoped state-appointed leadership would be responsive and reach out to rank-and-file teachers and employees.

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said before the meeting on Thursday that she would like to see an emergency manager develop a plan for the district's nearly two dozen vacant public schools.

She also praised Purdue University Northwest Chancellor Thomas Keon's appointment to Gary's fiscal management board this week. By law, the volunteer board will provide advice to the prospective emergency manager.

Other members are former legislator Earline Rogers, Calumet Township Trustee Clorius Lay and Lee Ann Kwiatkowski, Indiana State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick's chief of staff.

State Sen. Eddie Melton asks a question to a candidate for Gary Schools Emergency Manager on Thursday, July 13, 2017 at Wirt-Emerson High School in Gary. ( Kyle Telechan/Post-Tribune )

"He understands the importance of education. As someone who sees young people at Purdue, he knows what they need to succeed," Freeman-Wilson said. "He understands how important public schools are in our community."

Last month, a similar vetting process for emergency manager candidates happened in Muncie where Crowe Horwath and Administrator Assistance presented during a public meeting on June 15.

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After closed interviews, DUAB selected Administrator Assistance  a consulting firm of former superintendents, business managers and teachers, including a former Muncie Superintendent  later that month.

Four firms, including the Robert Bobb Group and Crowe Horwath, applied for the Muncie position.

mcolias@post-trib.com

Twitter @meredithcolias
The Merrillville Town Council agreed to begin issuing tickets to every business operating without a business license.

"I'm not sure if we will ticket them every day (they don't have a license). We need to get their attention," Council President Richard Hardaway, D-2nd, said at a council meeting July 11.

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He said the tickets would be a first step, but maybe not the only step.

Hardaway said Merrillville Town Court Judge Gina Jones would probably set the amount owed for the ticket.

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There are several businesses, all mom and pop operations, that should have paid the $100 fee to be licensed by the town, but haven't, Hardaway said. He learned of one particular business that has not gotten a license even after being told to by the building department for several months, he said.

Fellow council members agreed non-compliant owners should be fined.

"Why should some pay and some don't?" asked Clerk-treasurer Eugene Guernsey.

In other matters, Dwayne Williams asked that his petition for a variance to operate a microbrewery at 6507 Broadway be withdrawn. Williams said he had problems with a lease agreement and was looking for another location in Merrillville.

"I will be back," he said.

Williams had received a positive recommendation from the Board of Zoning Appeals for his Cognito Brewery, which was to specialize in Belgian beers.

The council approved a request by Jose Suarez to have dine-in seating in his El Pueblito grocery store, to be located at 6635 Broadway. El Pueblito is moving from 5875 Broadway to a larger building. Suarez also received a positive recommendation from the BZA.

Vickie and Mark Antich were honored by the town council and the American Legion Hammond Victory Post 168 for their work with veterans.

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Karen Caffarini is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
In 2015, Porter County Sheriff David Reynolds, with the assistance of Coroner Chuck Harris, put together "Heroin: Not a Problem, an Epidemic," a video featuring stories from county jail inmates convicted of drug crimes and parents who lost children to heroin overdoses.

As the number of heroin overdose deaths continues to climb in the county, in part because of the introduction of the potent synthetic opiate fentanyl, Reynolds and Harris are at work on another video, with the hope of raising awareness about the need for a solution.

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The first video, they said, was a public service announcement to let the community know about the heroin problem in Porter County. It garnered tens of thousands of views on YouTube and children in grades fifth through 12th grades saw it in schools across the county.

"I think we accomplished that mission," Reynolds said, adding the second video is meant to "challenge the community to do something about it."

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Drug abuse and related crimes are the No. 1 law enforcement problem in the county, he said, and drug abuse has become a generational issue, but it's not law enforcement's responsibility to find a solution.

That, he said, is up to the community, though law enforcement is doing its part.

During the first six months of this year, Porter County has had almost 20 heroin overdoses, Harris said.

"We are at about last year's total for heroin overdoses and we're only halfway through the year," he said. "Obviously we're going to be higher (in total overdoses) than last year. There's no doubt."

Five of those overdoses were cases where heroin was mixed with fentanyl, which Harris said is used in transdermal patches for pain management in the terminally ill. Heroin mixed with fentanyl started showing up in overdoses in Chicago last year and is now moving this way.

"Whatever hits Chicago funnels here," he said. "We are starting to see it."

The new video, which hasn't been named, revisits 15 or so inmates who were in Porter County Jail and included in the last video. Some of them are out and have moved on with their lives and others are still in jail, but Reynolds said all of them are still alive.

Other families impacted by heroin overdoses are included in the new video, Reynolds said, as is Harris and a sheriff's deputy who works on the department's Heroin Overdose Response Team.

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The video, funded with $12,000 raised from "Chefs Around the Table" event in the fall, will again be shown to the county's students in fifth grade and up, Reynolds said.

"I think it's important that we're doing a second video. I hope we have the same impact as the first video," he said.

The video should be complete in the next five to eight weeks, said Jesse Harper, founder, director and producer of JBH Productions, which is producing the second video, as it did the first.

"The overdose death rates have gone up in Porter County since the last video," Harper said, adding one of the goals of the second video is to overcome what he called a "sympathy deficit."

"Sometimes, we can't get people to care," he said.

For Harris, the second video shows there is help available for those who seek it and can move past the stigma of heroin addiction.

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"The first (video) set the goal of letting everyone know this problem is out there. This new video lets people know there is a possibility these people can get help. There is a possibility these people can get their lives back," he said.

"Some of them make it, some of them do not, but help is out there."

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
A motorcyclist died in a three-vehicle crash at a Washington Township intersection Friday, according to the Porter County Sheriff's Department.

Officers responded to a "serious injury" crash at the intersection of Indiana 49 and County Road 500 North involving a motorcycle and two vehicles at 11:18 a.m., according to department spokeswoman Sgt. Jamie Erow.

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A black 2011 Heritage Softail Harley Davidson, driven by Andrew Vloedman, 42, of Crown Point, was slowing for a red light while northbound on Ind. 49 when a blue 2015 Honda Accord, driven by Lawrence Drummond, 58, of Valparaiso hit the motorcycle from behind, a release said.

The motorcycle was pushed into the intersection, striking the rear of a white 2009 GMC Sierra, driven by Jackilyn Sturghill, 23, of Hebron, that was turning north onto Ind. 49, Erow said.

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"Vloedman, who was not wearing a helmet, was thrown from his motorcycle," Erow said. Vloedman was taken to Porter Regional Hospital, where he died, Erow said.

Sturghill and Drummond were not injured, according to Erow.

Valparaiso police, fire and EMS, Porter EMS and Sandberg's Towing assisted at the scene.

The crash caused the northbound lanes of Ind. 49 to be shut down for two hours, Erow said.

rejacobs@post-trib.com

Twitter @ruthyjacobs
An attorney representing opposition groups in three Midwestern states has asked a federal agency to reject an application from Great Lakes Basin Transportation for a proposed freight train line because there is no proof of funding and railroads committed to use the line.

"The application should be rejected for failure to have provided essential evidence," Chicago attorney Thomas McFarland wrote in a filing with the Surface Transportation Board on July 10. The board is considering Great Lakes' application for a 261-mile line from Milton, Wis., into LaPorte County.

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The $2.8 billion project would be privately funded and cut through southern Lake and Porter counties. Opponents of the proposal, including Residents Against the Invasion of Land by Eminent Domain which represents homeowners in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, have raised concerns about loss of farmland, safety woes and drainage problems, among other worries.

Mike Blaszak, attorney for GLBT, said in an email that the company would respond to the filing, but had no comment at this time.

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Great Lakes applied to the federal board in early May, but the application was incomplete and more information, including a list of primary stockholders and a financial balance sheet, was requested.

Additional filings from Great Lakes, which wanted to protect the privacy of its stockholders, revealed that a majority of them are on Great Lakes' board of directors. The primary stockholder is Frank Patton, founder and chairman.

Financial documents showed zero net income for 2016, and that Great Lakes had total investment revenue from stock sales of $401,544. Expenses, including $312,828 for consultants and $66,360 for legal fees, totaled $401,545.

A balance sheet showed total assets of $151, and liabilities for 2016 of $802,000.

McFarland said in his filing that Great Lakes noted it would line up funding and customers once the federal board approved the project.

"That is the exact opposite of the board's process for track construction," McFarland wrote. " (T)here must be evidence at the outset of ability to fully fund a track construction, and of the likelihood that rail carriers and shippers will make use of the rail line. There is no such evidence in GLBT's application."

Two Class 1 railroads have said they will not use the line and the other four that would be served by it have not committed to do so. McFarland notes that Great Lakes states it has not entered into agreements with any railroads for use of the line.

"Thus, as in the matter of financial fitness, there is no evidence whatsoever in the application of a public need or demand for the rail line proposed by GLBT," the filing states.

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The transportation board has yet to respond to Great Lakes' additional filings for its application, or make a decision on the application itself.

Great Lakes officials asked the transportation board to halt an environmental impact statement on the proposal earlier this year until the application was filed. That remains on hold.

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Lindsay Holley of DeMotte, a Subway sandwich artist, and her manager Charlene Babbitt, make sandwiches for a line of customers Friday at the Roselawn restaurant. (Carrie Napoleon / Post-Tribune)

Roselawn, off Interstate 65 and on the Newton County side of the Kankakee River, is a lot like "small town America" in a lot of respects.

There's the North Newton County Chamber of Commerce, a few churches, fast-food restaurants, gas stations, hardware stores, grocery stores and places that sell sunscreen. In the 2016 election, 70 percent of voters cast their ballot for President Donald Trump, according to city-data.com.

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Where things take a hard left, however, is what has happened in the town of 4,000 one summer weekend since 1975.

For example, the local Subway manager said her restaurant ran out of cold cuts Monday, the day before her regular delivery of supplies.

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The reason wasn't a new particularly enticing sale on subs. It was people arriving in town for the annual Nudes-a-Poppin' festival at the Ponderosa Sun Club.

Charlene Babbitt, manager of the Subway just west of the Interstate 65 and Indiana 10 interchange, said this time of year is always busy for the shop with travelers stopping to refuel their cars and bellies before heading back on the highway.

The Nudes-a-Poppin' festival "definitely has an impact" on the business, said Babbitt, who has been working at the store for the past seven years.

"We have more people on staff (this week). We are just busy. It's nonstop. We are going through more veggies, more food," she said.

For more than four decades, the Ponderosa has hosted the club's annual clothing-optional festival.

This year, organizers expect about 6,000 people to descend on Roselawn to participate in the two-day festival Saturday and Sunday or check out the event as visitors. They will be pumping wads of cash into the local economy as they buy gas, groceries, liquor and food from the businesses scattered along Ind. 10, officials said.

"It's not like our area is booming. There's a lot of businesses that have closed over time. I would like to think we do help the businesses that are in this area," said Scarlett Schmitt, who runs Ponderosa Sun Club and the Nudes-A-Poppin' Festival and is also sergeant-at-arms with the North Newton Chamber of Commerce.

Schmitt's family opened the Ponderosa Sun Club in 1965.

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Visitors from as far away as Japan, London and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands  to name a few  will be making the trip this year, Schmitt said. An entire nudist club from Delaware is making the trip to participate in some of the adult-themed contests, she said.

Many visitors camp at Ponderosa or arrive in recreational vehicles, Schmitt said. Others just attend the fest for the day, staying in local hotels and renting Airbnb properties for local homeowners.

"We have a lot of people staying in hotels, eating in different restaurants, going to Jordy and Jax (barbecue restaurant), JJ's Pizza (Shack), CVS and Dollar General," Schmitt said.

Bill Walz, owner of Jordy and Jax, said he has lived in Roselawn for 22 years but did not realize the economic impact the annual festival had on local businesses until he opened the restaurant with his wife four years ago.

"Of course, it's an international event. We do see people from places like Brazil, France and Argentina come in and eat either on their way in or out of town," Walz said. "It does bring a lot of people in."

Walz said local businesses know when the festival is in town and can see the impact.

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"Hopefully we keep seeing better and better crowds every year," Walz said.

Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
President Donald Trump nominated a Schererville attorney Friday to become the next U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana.

Thomas Kirsch, now a partner at Winston and Strawn, LLP., in Chicago is one of the two potential U.S. attorneys nominated by the president, according to an announcement from Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. Kirsch, if confirmed, will fill the vacancy left by former U.S. Attorney David Capp, a long-time federal prosecutor who led the Northern District of Indiana for eight years.

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"Tom has a great legal mind and is a fearless litigator who has shown a willingness to take on powerful interests," said Young, in a statement. "I have no doubt he will continue the laudable work done by David Capp over the last decade."

Kirsch, 43, was unavailable for comment Friday.

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Prior to joining Winston and Strawn, Kirsch was an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Indiana. Kirsch attended Indiana University and Harvard Law School.

"We're always happy to see our local talent rise to the top," said Adam Sedia, president of the Lake County Bar Association and an associate at Hoeppner Wagner and Evans, Merrillville.

Kirsch currently represents Portage Mayor James Snyder, who was indicted in November on public corruption charges, according to court records.

Capp, who worked in the U.S. Attorney's Office for more than 30 years, submitted his resignation in March per the request of the Trump administration, even though he planned to retire in June, according to a press release. In March, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sought resignations for the U.S. attorneys appointed under former President Barack Obama, the Associated Press reported.

Clifford Johnson, a first assistant U.S. attorney, is serving as the interim U.S. Attorney.

The president also nominated Joshua Minkler, of Zionsville, to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana.

clyons@post-trib.com

Twitter @craigalyons
What's Quickly? It's where readers sound off on the issues of the day. Have a quote, question or quip? Call Quickly at 312-222-2426 or email quickly@post-trib.com.

We need to stop saying that people are going to lose their health care if the GOP repeal bill passes. We're not losing it, they are taking it away.

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When Russia sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're bringing crime and they're bringing collusion. And some, I assume want to harm our country.

Peter Smith was found dead after a suspicious suicide one week after spilling the beans to the Wall Street Journal about his work with the Russian interference in our elections. I wonder how many shows Hannity will devote to this death?

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Why was President Trump so willing to talk to the media while he was in Paris, but shuns the media in America?

Jared Kushner updated his security clearance form, because he suddenly remembered more than 100 foreign contacts. It's so unfair to Jared to have to keep updating this form, now up to the 15th time, because the public keeps finding out about another contact. Isn't there a law that says you can't revise your SF86 form this many times?

It's painfully obvious that Todd Young's support of Trumpcare shows that he is more loyal to the Republican party than he is to the tens of thousands of Hoosiers who will lose their health care if the GOP plan becomes law.

Donald Trump's attorney has now verified that there was another person in the meeting. Boy, what a tangled web they weave.

Post Tribune Twice-weekly News updates from Northwest Indiana delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

"From Russia With Love," the 1963 James Bond flick, may soon be re-released with a 2017 update. While President Trump has continued to call the Russian scandal a hoax and witch hunt, I'd like to say, "Looks like we've found some witches, and they have something nasty in their cauldron."

Standard operating procedure for an autocrat when caught; Deny, lie, slander accusers, Then say it was a misunderstanding, Then boast and say "what are you going to do about it?"

Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy, best known for his relentless attack on Hillary Clinton over Benghazi, is now trying to distance himself from Trump's sinking ship. That says a lot.

So now we know a Russian lobbyist, along with Trump's former campaign manager, was also at the meeting with Trump, Jr., to hear dirt on Hillary. The "informers" didn't deliver. It was a come on. The lobbyist, a known Kremlin agent, had been working to reverse U.S. sanctions against Russia. No one reported the meeting to the FBI, but pursued cover up, until the New York Times broke the story. Defenders lauded Trump, Jr. for "transparency." Sure.

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45's boy meets with an illegal alien to contaminate American election. Of course, it must be Obama's fault.

Don Jr. is not a boy, he is a 39 year old man, an executive in an allegedly multi-billion dollar family business. He was part of his father's campaign. Don't dumb him down or offer excuses. He doesn't get a free pass because he lacks a moral compass or is stupid.

Read more at www.post-trib.com/quickly.
What to expect next in the Frisch vs. Boebert CD-3 race

Final results in the race won't be known until Friday, Nov. 18, after clerks in all 27 counties upload final counts. So what happens between now and then?
WARWICK, R.I.  The American health care system has two core problems. Its the worlds most expensive, and it still leaves many people uninsured.

Congressional Republicans have not tried to solve either problem. They have instead offered a plan that cuts spending on the middle class and the poor, funnels the money into a tax cut for the affluent and masquerades as health policy.

One of the great shames of their approach is that a different one is available. Conservative health reform is not an oxymoron. Nor is bipartisan health reform. Its possible to combine conservative and liberal ideas to cover more people while holding down costs.

You can find a real-world case study in Rhode Island.

The state is obviously a small one, but it has a lot in common with the rest of the country. Its poverty rate is similar to the nations, and its opioid crisis is even worse. It has a strongly Democratic metropolitan area (Providence), while Donald Trump won the states western half.

Rhode Islands efforts started almost a decade ago. The governor, a Republican named Don Carcieri, asked the Bush administration for more flexibility with Medicaid in exchange for holding down costs.

It was classic conservatism: reduce federal rules, give states more autonomy and let them keep some of the savings. Yet, unlike the Senate bill, Rhode Islands plan didnt slash Medicaid carelessly. It came with safeguards, like ensuring that everyone eligible for Medicaid would keep coverage.

Carcieri made substantial progress, but costs were still a problem when Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, became governor in 2015. Medicaid accounts for close to one-third of Rhode Islands budget. It crowds out spending on schools, roads and other job-creating investments. Unless she could get Medicaid spending under control, Raimondo told me, she wouldnt be able to do much else.

Her strategy has been based on the most important  and, in a strange way, most promising  fact about American health care: Much of our spending doesnt make us healthier.

We go to the emergency room instead of a primary-care doctor. We choose invasive procedures over simpler, more effective ones. We house elderly people in nursing homes instead of offering more pleasant home care.

Raimondos administration has used the flexibility that Carcieri won  as well as Obamacare provisions  to move away from the high-cost approach. I want to pay to get you healthier, she said, not pay to have something done to you.

I recently tagged along on a nurses home visit to a 74-year-old woman here named Annie Hall. Hall is a widow who suffers from Parkinsons and other conditions.

She likes living where she does: not in a nursing home or hospital, but in the apartment in a wooded area, just off Interstate 95, that she and her husband shared for years.

Not so long ago, Hall would have been moved to a nursing home anyway, because that was the default. Today, she is able to stay home, thanks to the nurses from Integra Community Care Network, paid partly by Medicaid, who visit her every week and check up by phone. Hall calls the nurses my family.

The shift toward home-based care is one reason cost growth has fallen here. In Medicaid, spending per enrollee dropped 6.5 percent last year and is now starting to save the state serious money.

Unfortunately, the Senate bill would cause the progress here to unravel, state officials told me. They would lose so much Medicaid funding that they would have to cut back on care and deny insurance to people.

A handful of Republican senators are all thats keeping such damage from happening. I hope they understand they are not only protecting vulnerable Americans. They are also defending truly conservative ideas.
Somewhere over the Atlantic, as Air Force One was hurtling toward Poland, President Donald Trump opened the door and threw out America's values. In Warsaw, he delivered a speech a parakeet could have swiftly mastered  "That's trouble, that's tough," he called the 1939 dual invasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union. He then moved on to Hamburg to issue his first presidential pardon, this one to Vladimir Putin for interfering in the election, and finally departed Europe having left America's moral and political leadership behind. Maybe he'll send for it.

The Wall Street Journal called the president's Warsaw address "Trump's Defining Speech" because of its "affirmative defense of the Western tradition." Like much of the conservative press, the Journal cited his statement that "The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive." But the speech was neither defining nor persuasive. Instead, it was Trump once again mounting an imaginary horse and sallying forth to slay the Muslim hordes. This time he conflated Warsaw 2017 with Vienna 1529, when the advancing Muslim Ottomans were turned back.

As Trump was speaking in Warsaw, Mosul in Iraq was being liberated from Islamic State control. It is probably true that the terrorist movement will resurface somewhere else, but for the moment Baghdad is safe  Warsaw and Mar-a-Lago, too. The West whose steadfastness Trump questions has done just fine against an enemy that is both pernicious and well-nigh invisible. A visit to any airport the number of identifiable and armed security personnel  suggests we are not being complacent.

The danger that Poland faces, as a matter of fact, comes not from radical Islam or non-radical Muslims seeking safe harbor in Europe, but from a government that is drifting toward repression. The Law and Justice Party has attempted or succeeded in limiting press freedom and curtailing the authority of the judiciary. Poland, too, has a past, and it is not simply the altogether glorious one of resistance to German occupation. Yet it is one marred by authoritarianism and ethnic intolerance.

If Trump were really intent on maintaining Western values, he would have called upon the governing Law and Justice Party to respect the very essence of Western tradition, particularly freedom of the press. Instead, he joined with Polish President Andrzej Duda in a smirky reference to fake news. As Trump had done in Saudi Arabia, where he not only did not discern a challenge to Western values  Sharia law, women forbidden to drive, absolute monarchy and the occasional beheading, notwithstanding  he embraced the kingdom and deputized it as the leader of the anti-terrorist posse. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, no fool he, even approvingly noticed the lack of anti-monarchy demonstrators.

American presidents have had to make accommodations. During the Cold War, Washington did business with Fascist Spain. In the aftermath of World War II, the U.S. welcomed German rocket scientists such as Wernher von Braun, overlooking their Nazi Party membership and complicity in the use of slave labor. The excuse in these cases was the need to combat the Soviet Union.

Trump has no such excuse. The so-called radical Islamic challenge to the West is hardly in the same league. Whatever threat it poses, to Trump it is more of a useful trope, a justification for a presidency that was launched in pique and gets emotionally rebooted with frequent references to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In the Weimar Wing of the Republican Party, these two justify the political and financial support of a man they have to know has the talent, if not the will, to ruin everything he touches.

Trump's failure to assert authentic Western values in Warsaw was followed by his capitulation to Vladimir Putin in Hamburg.

The baggage that Trump took to Europe, the legacies of previous American presidents, was nowhere to be found upon his return. He even seemed to acquiesce in Russian interference in the election. "Time to move forward," he tweeted  precisely, one hopes, what congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller are doing. This fish rots from the head.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem described the U.S. border with Mexico as a war zone last year when she sent dozens of state National Guard troops there. Noem said theyd be on the front lines of stopping drug smugglers and human traffickers. But newly released records from the National Guard show that in their two-month deployment, the South Dakota troops didnt seize any drugs and sometimes went days without encountering any migrants at all. Noem justified the deployment and a widely criticized private donation to fund as a state emergency because of drugs making their way across the southern border to South Dakota. But the records cast doubt on whether the deployment was effective in addressing that.
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China's Ministry of Culture has rolled out a plan to encourage artistic creativity during 2016-2020.

The plan, for the 13th Five-Year Plan period, aims to create 100 classic artworks and 150 art exhibitions by 2020.

It will also step up support by funding 4,000 art projects and cultivating 1,000 playwrights, directors, musicians, critics and other artistic talents.

Guided by socialist core values, the plan focuses on creating artworks themed on the Chinese Dream, according to the ministry.

"The plan has concrete measures to develop traditional culture by training art performers and strengthening guidance over art creation," said Qi Shuyu, an expert on Chinese cultural reform from the Chinese Academy of Governance.

According to a government blueprint made public in May 2017, China plans to encourage cultural prosperity in remote and poor regions by building more public cultural facilities, increasing access to radio and TV programs and offering subsidies for grassroots cultural workers.
As the rapid buildup of local government debt makes headlines, Chinese authorities are not shying away from the challenges they face.

On Wednesday, in its latest move to standardize local government debt issues, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced a program that allows local governments to issue special bonds to support the construction of toll roads.

Similar to a program on land reserve bonds rolled out in June, the toll road bonds program offers local governments a low-cost financing alternative after the country banned them from borrowing through local government financing vehicles (LGFV), an off-budget financing channel.

"This is a more standardized and transparent financing option that will help prevent and defuse debt risks in the transport industry," said the MOF in a statement.

"Besides lowering financing costs and keeping the debt level within a proper range, the special bonds will also break down huge investments into pieces, attracting smaller private investors," said Wang Yangong, a senior engineer with the Transport Planning and Research Institute at the Ministry of Transport.

China's local government debt soared during an investment and construction binge following the global financial crisis in 2008. Well aware of the risks, authorities have rolled out a string of measures to reduce the local debt burden.

The MOF dubbed the special bonds program an instance of "opening the front door," allowing local governments to issue debts through proper channels. At the same time, authorities are "blocking the back door," ramping up efforts to correct irregularities on local debt issues such as financing through fake public-private partnerships (PPP).

Latest checks by the National Audit Office (NAO) have found that debt balances that local governments have committed to repay with public funds in selected provinces, cities and counties have climbed 87 percent compared to the level in mid-2013, but the overall risk is controllable, according to a report delivered last month by Hu Zejun, head of the NAO.

"It's inevitable to have risks associated with debt issues. From an international perspective, the rise in debt levels is well below the warning line," said Jiang Jianghua, head of the audit research institute under the NAO.

According to Jiang, the NAO has been conducting inspections on local governments, reporting irregularities in local debt issuance as soon as violations were found.

So far, the NAO has found some cases involving fake PPP programs, illegal borrowing through LGFVs, and other violations.

"Increasing transparency is the best way to contain risks in local government debts. The biggest risk is opacity," Jiang said.

Realizing the danger that hidden debt could bring, China has drawn a clear line between local government debt and the liabilities of LGFVs.

According to the new budget law that took effect in 2015, local governments are no longer obligated to pay off the debts owed by these financing companies.

In the absence of government guarantees, investors now have to weigh the risks carefully before putting money into LGFVs.

"Since 2015, many projects financed by these channels have generated considerable cash flows. Now, LGFVs will rarely accept projects that do not generate cash flows at all," said Zhao Quanhou, director of the financial research center at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences under the MOF.

To further reduce the level of outstanding debt, China initiated a debt-for-bond swap program in 2015, allowing local governments to exchange higher-cost loans with lower-cost bonds, saving them interest costs while also giving lenders higher liquidity on their receivables.

According to data from the MOF, by the end of 2016, local government debt balance totaled 15.32 trillion yuan (about 2.3 trillion U.S. dollars) while the central government debt balance reached 12.01 trillion yuan. The total government debt account for about 36.7 percent of the country's GDP, well below the warning level by international standards.

Still, authorities should further step up efforts to rectify local debt irregularities while local officials should be held accountable for related violations, Jiang said.

While such measures can "block the back door" for illegal debt issuance, the permanent cure to contain the debt risks will be reallocation of governmental responsibilities, moving some of the liabilities of local governments to higher-level authorities, Zhao said.

For example, a county-level government will no longer take on all the responsibility of investing in public projects if the provincial or even central government is able to invest, effectively reducing the debt burden it bears, Zhao said.
Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai on Thursday urged Washington to revive negotiations over the bilateral investment treaty (BIT) concerning the world's two largest economies.

After 33 rounds of negotiations over the past 5 years, the BIT talks between China and the U.S. have been shelved by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.

"Reaching a high-level bilateral investment treaty was an important outcome of previous economic and trade dialogues between China and the U.S. If concluded, this agreement would take care of many pressing concerns of the business communities of both countries," said Cui.

Cui made the remarks when speaking at a luncheon jointly held by the China General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC) and the U.S. National Governors Association in Providence, capital of the northeastern U.S. state of Rhode Island.

"Today, every state and almost every congressional district has Chinese investments. These investments have brought a total of 141,000 jobs to the U.S., and most of them in manufacturing. Chinese investment is making positive contributions to the local economy, employment and tax revenues," Cui said.

The cumulative value of U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) in China reached over 240 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2016, while the cumulative Chinese FDI in the U.S. totaled 110 billion dollars, according to a report jointly released by the Rhodium Group and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR) in May.

In 2016, Chinese companies invested a record 46 billion dollars in the United States, tripling the amount seen in 2015 and a tenfold increase compared to just five years ago, the report said.

"In order for more investment programs to succeed, there is a clear need to make sure the federal-level policy tools, like CFIUS (the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States), will play a facilitating rather than obstructing role," Cui said.

With regard to the trade balance issue between the two countries, Cui said, "There could be deficit or surplus at any given time. But it is not about who wins or who loses. In the long run, everyone will win from a burgeoning economy."

China and the Untied States will hold the first round of their Comprehensive Economic Dialogue next week in Washington, D.C. This is one of the four major dialogue mechanisms the two sides reached in April.

"We are looking forward to the mutually-beneficial outcomes of this dialogue. We hope the dialogue will be a meaningful exchange and help to build an even stronger basis for our economic and trade relations, as we deal with the uncertainties of the global economy," said the Chinese ambassador.

Cui meanwhile voiced his confidence about the future development of China-U.S. relations.

"I am confident that, with the solid basis we have built in the past 46 years, with the political wisdom of our leaders, and with the joint efforts of people from different sectors, cities, states and provinces, China and the U.S. will be able to build a long-term partnership of win-win cooperation for our shared future," he said.
China will continue to intensify international exchanges and cooperation in drug supervision to promote the domestic application of new medicines developed overseas to meet demand, China's top drug regulator said on Thursday.

The drug authorities will also encourage the domestic pharmaceutical industry to improve its capacity and competitiveness to promote the international visibility of Chinese medical and pharmaceutical products, Wu Zhen, vice-minister of the China Food and Drug Administration, said at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Meeting on Drug Regulatory Collaboration in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.

On June 19, the administration announced it joined the International Council on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use, which focuses on guidelines for worldwide pharmaceutical development.

"Joining the council means the Chinese drug regulatory authorities, pharmaceutical industry and research and development institutes will gradually adopt internationally accepted standards and guidelines, actively participate in the formulation of international rules and promote quicker domestic application of new drugs developed in other countries," Wu said.

China is the second-largest market for pharmaceutical products in the world. Annual revenues of the pharmaceutical industry in China exceed 2.5 trillion yuan ($368.6 billion), and annual exports of pharmaceutical products exceed 13.5 billion yuan, Wu said.

"China has great pharmaceutical production capacity, so it can provide support to the health of the people in BRICS nations and other countries," he said.

BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The administration has adopted a series of reform measures on the review and approval of new drugs to accelerate approvals and meet the needs of domestic patients in recent years, Wu said.

The authorities will encourage medical institutions to give priority to new drugs that have proved effective and are reasonably priced, and support the inclusion of such new drugs in the list of drugs whose cost can be reimbursed by basic medical insurance programs, according to a draft regulation released by the administration in May.

Certain types of drugs and medical equipment already in use in other countries, such as those for curing rare diseases, can also gain priority approval for sale in the domestic market, the draft said.

As of the end of June, the administration had established routine work relations with drug regulatory authorities in 66 countries, and signed 42 agreements for bilateral cooperation with 28 countries and regions, said Yuan Lin, chief of the administration's international cooperation department.
Several people have been detained in connection with the death of a 3-year-old on a school bus in north China, police said Friday.

The accident happened Thursday in Tang'erli Township of Bazhou City, Hebei Province. According to police, the girl was left on the shuttle bus after it reached a local kindergarten on Thursday morning. Kindergarten staff did not find her on the bus until 3:30 p.m. She died after medical efforts failed.

The kindergarten was later found to be operating without a license. It has been closed, and police have detained several people, including the person in charge of the kindergarten, the driver and a teacher. Five local officials have been suspended from their posts and are under investigation.

The Hebei provincial department of education has issued an emergency circular, demanding private kindergartens to strengthen management over school buses.
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British Prime Minister Theresa May admitted for the first time on Thursday that she shed a tear when she learned she had lost her overall majority in last month's general election.

Prime Minister Theresa May attends a press conference at the end of a two-day EU Summit in Brussels, Belgium, June 23, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

May went into the June 8 snap election in a bid to boost her party in the House of Commons, but instead her Conservative Party only won 318 seats, eight short of the number need to command even a one-set majority.

When an exit poll was published as soon as the voting stations closed at 10 p.m. local time, the reality dawned on May that things had not turned out according to plan.

She said in an interview with BBC radio that she did not listen herself to the result of the poll, saying she had a "little bit of a superstition about things like that".

Instead her husband, Philip May, tuned in to watch the announcement on television.

"It came as a complete shock when Philip told me," said May in the interview. As well as losing her Commons majority the result led to calls for rival party leaders for her to stand down as prime minister, while some members of her own party also said she should leave 10 Downing Street.

Commenting on the moment she heard the exit poll result May said: "It took a few minutes for it to sink in. We didn't see that result coming. My husband gave me a hug."

She said she had felt devastated by the result, adding: "I knew the campaign was not going perfectly."

May said she did not think of resigning, saying she felt she had a responsibility to continue, adding it had been devastating to see some of her colleagues losing their seats.

She said she felt she had a responsibility to the country, saying the Conservatives "were the only party that could govern."

The prime minister said she knew her election campaign had not been perfect, but all the indications were that she would increase her Commons majority.

May started the campaign six weeks before voting day, holding a 20 point lead over her main rival, Jeremy Corbyn's Labor Party.

The result of the exit poll, which turned out to be accurate, caused gasps of shock around the country, with the impact of the result still continuing as May negotiates Britain's exit from the European Union.

May was forced to do a deal costing a billion pounds with the small Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (DUP) to ensure their 10 MPs prop up the Conservative government on key votes in parliament.

Asked if she could guarantee having the numbers to get Brexit through the Commons, May said the first thing was to get a good Brexit deal. She added the DUP deal means they will support her Brexit legislation, but she hoped MPs from all political parties will back the Brexit.

The interview marked the day, a year ago, May walked into 10 Downing Street after succeeding David Cameron as prime minister. He quit when the result of the EU referendum showed that the leave side had won.
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China on Friday expressed protest to the United States for imposing unilateral sanctions on foreign enterprises outside the framework of the UN Security Council.

"China has fully and completely implemented relevant UN resolutions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang, adding that China opposes so-called "long-arm jurisdiction" by any country in accordance with their domestic law.

Geng made the remarks in response to a Reuters report, which quoted two U.S. officials as saying the Trump administration will impose new sanctions on small Chinese banks and other firms doing business with Pyongyang within weeks.

"I do not know if the report was true, nor if the U.S. officials were authorized to make such comments," Geng said at a routine press briefing.

He said China has made unremitting efforts in solving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, participated in consultations on UN Security Council draft resolutions on the DPRK, and supported the approval of relevant resolutions.

Geng urged parties concerned to meet each other halfway and make joint efforts to bring the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue back to the correct track of peaceful settlement.

"What China has implemented is resolutions of the UN Security Council, rather than any country's domestic laws," he added.
A group representing pharmacy benefit managers is challenging two new North Dakota laws that it says would increase prescription drug costs.

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Associations lawsuit, filed Tuesday, July 11, in U.S. District Court in North Dakota centers on two pieces of legislation state lawmakers passed this year: Senate Bill 2258 and Senate Bill 2301. The group, based in Washington, D.C., argues the legislation will increase drug costs and risk patient safety by restricting health plans ability to reward drugstores that are willing to meet performance metrics that increase generic dispensing, improve adherence and reduce inappropriate drug use.

The two bills were signed by Gov. Doug Burgum in early April and go into effect Aug. 1. The association is asking a federal judge to declare that both bills are preempted by federal law and Medicare Part D, and to prevent their implementation.

Pharmacy benefit managers, known as PBMs, act as middlemen between insurance companies and pharmacists, Sen. Nicole Poolman, R-Bismarck, told fellow lawmakers in February. But while insurance companies and pharmacists are heavily regulated, PBMs have little to no regulation or transparency, she said.

Senate Bill 2301 defines speciality drugs, increases price transparency and requires PBMs to establish firewalls between administrative functions and the mail-order pharmacies they own, Poolman said.

We recognize the important role PBMs can play in saving money for the insurance companies, but the bill before you ensures they dont do it at the expense of the consumer or your local pharmacist, she said.

The Senate passed Senate Bill 2301 unanimously while the House approved it with only nine dissenting votes. Senate Bill 2258, which addresses fees charged by PBMs and other issues, passed by an almost identical margin.

The lawsuit names State Health Officer Mylynn Tufte as a defendant, along with leaders of the North Dakota Board of Pharmacy and Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem. A spokeswoman for the attorney generals office declined to comment Thursday.

State officials hadnt filed a response in court as of Thursday morning, and no hearings have been scheduled.
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China has strongly urged the U.S. Department of Justice to provide a fair and just trial in the case of the kidnapping of a Chinese scholar, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Friday.

Zhang Yingying, 26, visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), went missing on June 9.

Geng's remarks came after a statement released by U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois, which said "law enforcement investigating Zhang's disappearance believe Zhang is deceased."

"This determination is based on facts presented in court, court documents, and other facts uncovered during the ongoing investigation," said the statement.

The Chinese government is deeply shocked by the tragedy, Geng said at a routine press briefing.

Stressing that updates on the case will be closely monitored, Geng expressed deepest sympathy to Zhang's family.

The Chinese government highly values the safety and legitimate rights of Chinese citizens overseas, Geng said, noting that the Foreign Ministry, Chinese embassy and consulates in the United States will maintain close communication with U.S. authorities, and will assist in the coordination of the search and investigation into the case.

Brendt Christensen, who was enrolled as a PhD candidate in experimental condensed matter physics by UIUC, was arrested on June 30 and has been indicted with kidnapping Zhang.

Urging the United States to bring the alleged murderer to justice, Geng noted the Chinese government will continue to provide assistance to Zhang's family in the United States.
In a written ruling on Friday, the Court of First Instance of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region disqualified four opposition members of the Legislative Council (LegCo) on the ground that they deliberately messed up their oaths of office at the swearing-in ceremony last October and therefore violated Article 104 of the Basic Law and Section 21 of Hong Kong's Oaths and Declarations Ordinance.

The ruling concluded court deliberations over a judicial review filed by Leung Chun-ying, then Hong Kong chief executive, and the Department of Justice challenging the legitimacy of the four wayward politicians' LegCo membership.

It is a ruling Hong Kong residents had been waiting for since the High Court began hearing the case and yet another proof the rule of law in the SAR is still sound and effective.

The four  Leung Kwok-hung, Lau Siu-lai, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Yiu Chung-yim  now join former lawmakers-elect Sixtus Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai Ching, who were disqualified for the same reason late last year. They all changed the text of the oath of office and/or put on acts of mockery to show they reject the whole idea of taking the oath according to the Basic Law, which is mandatory for all legislators-elect. And the failure to do so means disqualification from LegCo.

The two cases show that certain political figures have no respect for the rule of law and hold a particular grudge against the Basic Law because it is a law of the People's Republic of China, the sovereign state Hong Kong is a part of.

The latest court decision deems Leung, Lau, Law and Yiu disqualified from office the day they messed up with their oaths of office last October, which means they have no right to participate in LegCo business any longer.

However, all four of them, with the support of their fellow legislators, refused to leave the conference room when the chairman of the LegCo finance committee, which was in session at that time, told them to leave after hearing the news about the court ruling. As a result the chairman had to adjourn the meeting till Saturday. That some so-called lawmakers are hell-bent on defying court rulings shows their true color. And one could imagine how much respect these now-disqualified lawmakers have for the legal system.

Apart from the six disqualified legislators, some other LegCo members, too, didn't take the oath of office according to relevant laws. Several others are suspect and may have to face justice in the near future. Some of them had indulged in equally deplorable acts on a previous occasion and got away with it. The court ruling shows no one can violate the law and expect to escape justice.
A passenger uses in-flight Wi-Fi service. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A global aerospace company is planning to roll out high-speed in-flight Wi-Fi in China during the next few years.

Honeywell Aerospace, which is based in the United States, is the exclusive provider of the latest satellite communications hardware for the Inmarsat system.

The company is already in early talks with China's leading airlines about the upgrade.

The Wi-Fi operates on the KA band, and the internet speed of such Wi-Fi will be 10 to 100 times faster than the current choices.

Most in-flight Wi-Fi operates on the KU band, which makes it susceptible to instability and lost connections during a flight, especially when the airplane is flying over oceans.

Andy Gill, senior director of business and aviation in Asia Pacific at Honeywell Aerospace, said the upgraded cabin connectivity offers global broadband access, providing the same internet speed and reliability that passengers can get at home or in the office.

"Passengers will be able to watch YouTube videos during a flight, and have access to real-time TV, TV on demand, high-speed broadband internet, video conferencing, emails and other applications," he said.

Gill added that some airlines, including Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Vietnam Airlines, already are using high-speed Wi-Fi.

He said the company is in discussions with Air China and Hainan Airlines, which are expected to test the Wi-Fi first before putting it intouse on commercial flights in China.

In addition, the Chinese authority has not yet approved the use of such Wi-Fi in the market.

According to a report by Inmarsat, a London-based leading provider of global satellite communication services, about 90 percent of passengers surveyed in the Asia Pacific region said the availability of onboard connectivity would influence their choice of airlines.

The demand for in-flight Wi-Fi is increasing among passengers in the Asia-Pacific region.

The report also found that Chinese passengers are highly likely to use in-flight Wi-Fi, as the nation has the highest take-up of all the tested Asia-Pacific markets. Such demand is driven by their motivation to use communication services such as WeChat, and this indicates significant business opportunities for airlines to use high-speed Wi-Fi to attract more customers.

Meanwhile, Honeywell has launched a suite of connected services onboard, including a weather information service that gives pilots real-time weather data on the flight path, and fuel-efficient software, which monitors and analyzes data and enables pilots to have access to the most fuel-efficient flight paths.
China and the United States have no interest in a so-called trade war, said experts on Thursday, pointing to significant progress in the implementation of the China-US 100-day action plan, particularly in agricultural, energy and high-end manufacturing products trade.

Their comments came after the Chinese government last month lifted a 13-year ban to allow certain categories of US beef to be imported into China. They will also jointly announce the conditions on imports of US chicken products to China before next Monday, another part of the China-US 100-day action plan.

Sino-US bilateral trade amounted to $219.26 billion between January and May this year, up 14.1 percent year-on-year, while China imported $63.17 billion of US goods such as crude oil, soybeans, machinery and transportation tools, jumping 21.4 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Commerce.

Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the Beijing-based Center for International Economic Exchanges, said China will increase its agriculture imports from the US.

"The US certainly doesn't want a trade war with China as its airplane, automobile and machinery manufacturers, agriculture businesses and many other sectors have multi-billion dollar exports to China every year," he said.

The two countries have been making progress in resolving trade conflicts, and the goal of the China-US 100-day action plan is to overcome the obstacles to bilateral investment and trade.

Energy companies and researchers from the two sides on Tuesday launched a forum to discuss how clean energy such as ethanol fuel technology from the US can tackle environmental problems, especially in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

"I can clearly tell you a trade war will not take place this year," said Wei, who was previously China's vice-commerce minister. "But we will also stay alert for the possibility next year. The best way is to enhance communication."

"China is the US' biggest trade partner, as the US is to China. They have a complicated relationship in issues like climate change, trade and finance," said Sang Baichuan, director of the Institute of International Business at the University of International Business and Economics.

He said healthy competition will benefit consumers and help employment. Infrastructure investment is the best way to stimulate the economy of both sides, as most of their imports are complementary.

Compared to politicians and scholars in Washington DC, US business leaders prefer a smooth bilateral relationship.

Bruce Blakeman, vice-president of corporate affairs for Cargill Inc in the Asia-Pacific region, said the beef trade demonstrates how the US and China can solve trade issues in an efficient and effective manner.

"We understand from the Meat Exporters Association in the US that there have been about 1,000 inquiries from Chinese meat processors and distributors about buying US beef, since the trade agreement was announced," said Blakeman.

"It shows there is great demand for US beef from Chinese consumers. It's also great news for US beef producers and processors."

China is currently the world's fastest growing market for beef consumption. Its beef imports mainly come from Australia, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. China's domestic beef market has a 10 percent demand gap that needs to be filled by imports.

However, disagreements in bilateral trade still exist. The US Department of Commerce on Wednesday announced its final ruling on the third-time countervailing administration investigation on Chinese photovoltaic products. Chinese manufacturers will face a countervailing duty rate of between 17.14 percent and 18.3 percent.

Contact the writers at zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn
Paul Bonicelli, director of programs and education at the Acton Institute, published an article on French President Emmanuel Macron controversial response to the question: Why isnt there a Marshall Plan for Africa? at the recent G20 summit. Though Macron rightly rejected the comparison between the needs of Africa and post-war Europe, he failed by making a cultural argument about the amount of children born to African women.

Bonicelli comments:

Much of Africa has never enjoyed home-grown democratic institutions launched from a culture that can build and sustain them as well as the free market and entrepreneurial activity necessary to growth that distributes wealth among the creators of it. Macron was also right to list other problems like failed states; trafficking in persons, drugs, and arms; and Islamist terrorism.

Macron began to get into trouble when meandering into a cultural explanation with these words: The challenge of Africa, it is totally different [from post-war Europe], it is much deeper, it is civilizational, today (emphasis mine). Thus the French president dangerously began to make a cultural argument. Forgetting that he was not closeted in the Elysee Palace with his admiring subordinates, he said a successful demographic transition when countries still have seven to eight children per woman  you can decide to spend billions of euros, you will not stabilize anything. In making this cultural reference, Macron offended the Left and the Right, but for different reasons.
A worker directs the unloading of containers in Qingdao Port, Shandong province. [Photo by Yu Fangping/For China Daily]

China's foreign trade prospects are set to remain upbeat during the upcoming six months, after expanding at the fastest pace since the second half of 2011.

The General Administration of Customs said on Thursday that China's foreign trade was 13.14 trillion yuan ($1.94 trillion) from January to June, an year-on-year increase of 19.6 percent.

Exports amounted to 7.21 trillion yuan during the same period, up by 15 percent, while imports increased by 25.7 percent to 5.93 trillion yuan, leading to a 1.28 trillion yuan trade surplus, down 17.7 percent year-on-year, it said.

"The brisk growth was bolstered by a lower comparison basis, government support and healing global demand," GAC spokesman Huang Songping told a media briefing.

Considering a higher comparison basis, uncertainties in the global environment and deep-seated problems in the domestic economy, Huang emphasized a tough stance on foreign trade in the second half of this year.

"With China's trade structure optimized, and its quality and benefits improved, it's believed the economic prospects will remain good, whereas unstable and uncertain factors will still affect the foreign trade environment, and some deep-seated problems and difficulties will continue to exist in the long term," he said.

Tu Xinquan, a professor of foreign trade at the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said China's overall foreign trade remained sound and steady.

"The trade volume has expanded and witnessed positive changes since the second half of last year, buffering the economy from a slowdown amid headwinds at home and abroad," said Tu.

"Trade prospects are expected to remain stable during the next six months, thanks to the current macroeconomic stimulus, structural reforms and economic recovery in the US and European countries."

Against the backdrop of global economic recovery, international market demand growth has boosted China's export volume by 8.9 percent, while the continuous optimization of the foreign commodities trade structure also led to the increase, which is in line with the stabilizing and positive trend since 2016, said Huang.

Rising external demand has led to an increase in exports during the past six months, while the increasing import volume and price of major bulk commodities including iron ore, crude oil and natural gas also contributed to the boost, according to the administration.

During the first six months, imports of iron ore, crude oil, soybean and natural gas hit 539 million tons, 212 million tons, 44.81 million tons and 31.09 million metric tons, which increased 9.3 percent, 13.8 percent, 14.2 percent and 15.9 percent respectively.

Imports of crude oil and copper reached 15.03 million tons and 2.23 million tons, a respective increase of 2.8 percent and 18.4 percent, and China's import prices have witnessed an overall growth of 12.7 percent, said the administration.

Huang said the rising import-and-export proportion of private businesses will ensure trade prospects remain stable during the next six months.

Imports and exports of private enterprises grew by 20.6 percent to 5.02 trillion yuan, accounting for 38.2 percent of the total national figure, 0.3 percent higher than in the previous year.

Exports by private businesses increased 17.8 percent to 3.37 trillion yuan, 46.7 percent of the total export value, according to the administration.

While imports and exports to traditional markets witnessed a full recovery, those to economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative have also registered growth.

In the past six months, China's trade with the European Union, the United States and ASEAN members increased by 17.4 percent, 21.3 percent and 21.9 percent respectively, altogether accounting for 41.4 percent of China's total import and export value.

Over the same period, imports and exports to Russia, Pakistan, Poland and Kazakhstan increased by 33.1 percent, 14.5 percent, 24.6 percent and 46.8 percent respectively, according to figures from the administration.
A worker inspects the nose cone of the second Boeing 737 Max airplane being built in Renton, Washington. [Photo/Agencies]

Boeing Co aims to deliver its first single-aisle B737 MAX 10 aircraft by 2020.

The narrow-body plane is mainly built at the company's Seattle-based factories.

But up to 100 of the single-aisle B737 MAX series aircraft are expected to be rolled out from its Chinese factory in Zhoushan to local customers.

The Boeing plant in Zhejiang province will be the company's first overseas completion and delivery center.

Construction work at the factory started in early May, and it should be operational and delivering aircraft by the end of 2018.

"With 199 seats, the B737 MAX 10 extends the competitive advantage of the B737 MAX family," said Darren Hulst, managing director of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes Northeast Asia.

Last month, the fuel-efficient jet was launched at the Paris Air Show and is capable of flying 370.4 kilometers farther than previous B737 models.

Within two years, Boeing will halt the production of earlier versions and shift to manufacturing the B737 MAX series.

"Airlines need aircraft that have more seats and lower seat-mile costs," Hulst said.

"The B737 MAX 10 will help Chinese airlines meet the demand of crowded markets during peak frequencies and tourism seasons," he added.

More than 360 new B737 10 aircraft have been ordered from Boeing with over 60 of them coming from Chinese customers, including Xiamen Airlines, Donghai Airlines, China Development Bank Leasing and Tibet Financial Leasing.

The aircraft manufacturer has also predicted that 29,530 single-aisle aircraft will be needed globally in the next 20 years, with China accounting for more than 5,000 narrow-body planes.

"The single-aisle segment market will experience the fastest growth, fueled by the increase of budget airlines and the growing demand of emerging markets," Hulst said.

Boeing's major global rival Airbus SAS will start assembling the A320neo at its assembly plant in Tianjin later this month. Deliveries are penciled in for September.

The European aviation giant stole a march on its key competitor by opening an assembly line in Tianjin in 2008, Lin Zhijie, an aviation industry analyst, pointed out.

This has helped Airbus lift its market share in China to about 50 percent.

"Boeing hopes to make more efforts in China by establishing its first overseas completion and delivery center in Zhoushan, and seize the huge market potential here," said Lin, who is also a columnist at Carnoc.com, one of China's largest civil aviation websites.
Beijing's approval, allowing local governments to issue toll road special bonds, was welcomed by analysts on Thursday, who said it would help fund major road network construction in the central and western regions and lower liquidity risks.

Their remarks followed the issuing of guidelines on the toll road special bonds on Wednesday by the ministries of finance and transport, which said provincial-level governments could issue the paper within the central government's approved annual quotas.

Funding from the bond issuance must be used to build government-operated toll roads.

"It is important for local governments to issue toll road special bonds, as it is a main financial channel for them to construct toll roads and guarantee that China's road network goal is successfully achieved," said Zhao Quanhou from the Ministry of Finance's Research Institute for Fiscal Science.

National road network plans have targeted expressways, a major type of toll road, running 118,000 kilometers by 2030. The country's expressways covered 99,200 kilometers by the end of 2016, accounting for 84 percent of the goal, with the remaining work mostly to be done in central and western regions.

Zhao said with their smaller populations and road traffic, it is more difficult for central and western regions to raise funds and construct toll roads, so the special bonds could be a vital new financing channel.

"With more industries transferring to these regions, I'm confident in their economic development and the investment returns from toll roads there in the medium and long-term," Zhao said.

Zhao said the risks for the special bonds were low as local governments can use the income stream from the road tolls, as well as earnings from other sources including roadside advertising, to pay down debt. Additionally, there was strong financial support from the central government.

JZ Securities economist Deng Haiqing said the initiative could regulate local government debt risks in the transport sector.

"Toll road special bonds issued by local governments can have lower financing costs and longer maturing terms than bank loans, which largely decrease the liquidity risk of local governments," said Deng.

Toll roads stacked up a debt pile of 4.86 trillion yuan ($717 billion) at the end of 2016, with more than 80 percent of their annual income last year going to pay off debt and interest.

Local governments in China used to rely on bank loans to construct toll roads, but now that funding route has been blocked.

Zhao added that issuing toll road special bonds was part of a wider move to have standardized management of local government special bonds.

China's newly revised Budget Law stipulates that local government can issue bondsgeneral bonds and special bondsthrough a national quota-based mechanism, but more detailed management should be improved.

Analysts said the guidelines on toll road special bonds on Wednesdayand another guideline on land reserve special bonds announced in Junewere the latest moves toward standardized management of local government special bonds.

Xinhua contributed to this story.
BEIJING  Singapore investment firm Temasek Holdings will increase investment in China's new economic sectors as the company is optimistic about China's ongoing economic transition, a senior official of the company told Xinhua.

"Our long-term bullish view on China's economic development remains intact," Wu Yibing, Temasek's joint head of China, said Thursday, calling China a market of "absolute importance" for Temasek outside Singapore.

By the end of March, up to 25 percent, or nearly $50 billion of Temasek's global investment portfolio has flown into the Chinese market, according to the company's latest report.

The amount is the second highest among all investment destinations only after Singapore, and higher than the combined volume of the company's investment in Europe and the United States.

"China's economy is going through a major transition, which has brought about a number of very attractive sectors including high-tech, non-banking finance, life science and consumption," said Wu.

Investment into these industries has witnessed better performance than the overall investment portfolio, as they have directly benefited from China's economic transition, as well as global technological innovation and a large and growing middle class, he said.

Over the past financial year ending on March 31, Temasek has invested in a number of Chinese companies such as the country's leading online travel agency Ctrip, Alibaba-affiliated local service platform Koubei and ZTO Express, one of the top five Chinese couriers.
A worker monitors container operation at Zhoushan port in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. [Photo/China Daily]

Editor's note:

With China's economic data of June released at the end of last month and throughout July one after the other in these days, the shape of the economy in the first half of the year has been under the spotlight.

A glimpse of how various media outlets look at the June figures has been listed below:

"Chinese trade growth accelerated for a second month in June in a positive sign for global demand and the country's own economy."

-China's export, import growth accelerate in June

AP, July 13

"China's overseas shipments rose from a year earlier, as global demand held up and trade tensions with the US were kept in check amid ongoing talks. At home, resilient demand led to a rise in imports."

-China June Trade Data Buoyed by Robust Demand at Home and Abroad

Bloomberg, July 13

"The Caixin China manufacturing purchasing manufacturers' index (PMI) for June beat expectations, offering another signal that the world's second-largest economy continues to defy expectations for a slowdown."

-Caixin PMI for June comes in at three-month high, beating forecast

CNBC, July 2

"Activity levels across China's manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors accelerated unexpectedly in June, ending a strong first half of the year for the world's second largest economy."

-China's economy continued to produce the goods in June

Business Insider Australia, June 30
Actors perform in song and dance drama Colorful Western Region. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China's well-funded Belt and Road Initiative has rolled out with thousands of Chinese enterprises going all out in the vast, new market created by participating countries and beyond. The vast overseas market will become a giant pool of capital, with trillions of dollars of overseas investment and financing in the coming years, experts projected.

Chinese investments overseas have been growing at a double-digit rate over the past 10 years. By 2016, some 30,000 Chinese companies have marched overseas, with a total investment of $1.2 trillion, including outward foreign direct investment at $183.2 billion. In five years, that figure is expected to rise to $750 billion, revealed Zhou Xiaofei, a director at National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

Zhou made the remarks at the "Chinese Firms Going Abroad 50 Forum," organized by the Counselors' Office of the State Council. The forum was contracted to the Center for China and Globalization (CCG).

Zhou also pointed out that private companies make up some 60 percent of the Chinese companies in the foreign market, though many are inexperienced newcomers compared to their overseas counterparts.

"The NDRC has streamlined the application process to facilitate Chinese companies' overseas investment. Most investments only require a record on file, with no lengthy verification procedure," Zhou said. "The NDRC will continue to encourage Chinese companies to go overseas and negotiate and cooperate with participating countries along the B&R to bring down the cost of cooperation. Efforts will also be made to improve overseas security and to lower operational risks."

Zhang Xingfu, a deputy head of a department responsible for outward investment and economic cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, told the forum that more than 70 percent of the Chinese companies overseas are profiting. By 2016, a total of 77 projects have taken shape in 36 countries and regions with total investment of $24.19 billion. These Chinese-led projects will add more than $70 billion in value and create over 212,000 jobs.

"China will continue to outshine others at a time when the developed countries are expected to remain mired in economic stagnation," said Justin Yifu Lin, former World Bank chief economist, at the forum, adding that China's economy will remain robust and serve as the world's economic engine.

Behind the growing prosperity are a number of Chinese financial institutions that have been providing constant support to the companies.

According to Sun Ping, vice president of the Export-Import Bank of China, the bank has supported a total of 1,279 Belt and Road projects, with the loan balance exceeding 671.4 billion yuan, up 18.28 percent.

Meanwhile, the total investment of projects supported by the Silk Road Fund has topped $80 billion, said the fund's executive vice president Ding Guorong. "We should be aware that the financing demand in the Belt and Road construction is huge. The demand cannot be met by the fund or any single Chinese financial institution," Ding noted, adding that the Silk Road Fund has established cooperative ties with a dozen international financial institutions on possible bilateral or multilateral cooperation opportunities.
Yang Peizhong, owner of Xinyi Family Farm, picks grapes in Xiantao, Central China's Hubei province, July 7, 2017. [Photo by Yang Yang/chinadaily.com.cn]

Xiantao city, Central China's Hubei province, is leveraging on this region's richness in selenium, one of the 14 essential trace elements that is good for human health, to promote agritourism, or agricultural tourism.

Yang Peizhong, a fruit planter in Chenchang county in Xiantao city, has benefited from the central government's policy to encourage new types of operators in the agricultural market and the development of Se-enriched industry since 2014.

"Thanks to the government policy, I had the opportunity to register Xinyi Family Farm in September 2014 and started to operate agricultural tourism. Because the fruits and vegetables growing in Xiantao are rich in selenium, which is good for people's health, the number of visitors who come to our family farm increases very fast."

In the past the farm has sold all their fruits and vegetables to supermarkets, sales people or customers. Now about one-third are picked by tourists. The market price of grapes is about 10 yuan per jin (half a kg) but the price can be as high as 20 yuan per jin on the farm. By operating Xinyi Family Farm, Yang has gained considerable economic profits.

However, it is not just about money but also mindset, according to Tian Xijiao, Yang Peizhong's wife.

"I used to be a merchant and couldn't accept becoming a farmer at the very beginning, but after learning [about clean] technology, I found planting green vegetables are of a lot of fun. Now I consider it my career."

Urban citizens come to the family farm to enjoy fresh air and a green environment while picking grapes.

Yang added they also have a lot of government support in getting loans, fertilizer, advanced technology and building agricultural infrastructure.

Xinyi is not the only family farm that benefits from selenium richness in Xiantao. A Er Di, another organic ecological leisure agriculture base, also promotes local economic development.
Editor notes: A group of people have turned their passions into enterprises. Although running their own business isn't easy, they still enjoy their work.

Shen Xiaoke checks vegetables at one of his farms in Beijing's Shunyi district, June 9, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

Before Shen Xiaoke started growing organic vegetables in Beijing's suburbs, he worked at an advertising company.

Shen started to pay attention to ecological agriculture after visiting an expo on climate in Hangzhou.

Then when tragedy hit his friend, he decided to work on healthy food. His friend's 3-year-old child had been diagnosed with advanced liver cancer. Consuming food containing heavy metals is one of the causes of this cancer.

"I want more people to eat healthy vegetables at acceptable prices," Shen said.
KUALA LUMPUR - The positive momentum of Malaysia's trade may continue in the second half as China's domestic demand remains firm, said economists.

Stronger import growth in China will help Malaysia's export growth maintain an upward trajectory in the second half, said MIDF Research, a local consulting firm in a report on Friday.

China's imports from Malaysia in June increased by 10.2 percent year-on-year.

"The bilateral trade outlook between China and Malaysia remains positive for the second half and for 2018," IHS Markit's Asia Pacific's chief economist Rajiv Biswas told Xinhua.

Rajiv said strong upturn in global electronics demand is giving a boost to bilateral trade between China and Malaysia, which attributes a large portion of its exports to electrical and electronic products.

Rajiv highlighted the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the upcoming new Apple iPhone as the key drivers to spur stronger demand for electronics exports.

Structural factors, such as the adoption of automation and higher penetration of electronic components in automobiles, has also helped boost global demand for electronics and linked Malaysia with China's electronics manufacturing supply chain, he said.

"Overall strong growth in Chinese domestic demand is also bolstering Chinese imports of Malaysian industrial raw materials, notably petroleum products, chemicals and rubber products," He added.

On June 7, Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry said Malaysian export to China in May increased by 51.5 percent to 10.73 billion ringgit ($2.50 billion), the highest year-on-year growth since February 2010.
The Genocide in the Ottoman Empire

Dr. Steven Leonard Jacobs holds the Aaron Aronov Endowed Chair of Judaic Studies and is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa. An ordained rabbi, Professor Jacobs is a specialist on the Holocaust and Genocide, Biblical Studies, Jewish-Jewish Christian Relations, and is one of the foremost authorities on Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959), who coined the term "genocide" and devoted his life to the enactment of an international law on the punishment and prevention of genocide.

Among his numerous publications, Prof. Jacobs is the author of the chapter entitled, "Lemkin on Three Genocides: Comparing His Writings on the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Genocides," in the recently published book, Genocide in the Ottoman Empire: Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks 1913-1923, edited by George N. Shirinian (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2017, published in association with The Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center and The Zoryan Institute). George N. Shirinian: Your unique contribution to this new book is a comparative study of the writings of Raphael Lemkin on Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Genocides. Who was Raphael Lemkin, and why is what he wrote important? Dr. Steven Leonard Jacobs: Lemkin (1900-1959) was a Polish Jewish lawyer who immigrated to the United States after the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. His initial concerns during his teenage years with the gross inhumanity of groups of people in power to groups having little or none led him to a concern with international criminal law. After arriving in the US, he taught law at both Duke University and Yale University before joining the US Board of Economic Advisors in Washington, DC, and would later serve as an advisor to Justice post-WWII International Military Tribunal at Nuremburg, Germany, dealing with Nazi war criminals. He would devote the remaining thirteen years of his life to seeking the ultimately-successful ratification of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by the United Nations in December 1948. His coinage of the word "genocide" appeared in his magnum opus Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1944), specifically Chapter 9 (pgs. 79-94). It is somewhat ironic that this small chapter in this massive volume of almost 650 pages became his life's work. His voluminous writings, and even a television appearance, on the subject of genocide brought the concept of mega-group murder to the attention of the world community of scholars, intellectuals, and the wider public, and began a debate about its various permutations and configurations which continues to this day. All this affirms him as the "Father of Genocide Studies," an outgrowth and expansion of the field of Holocaust Studies. GS: Lemkin wrote at a time when the study of the Ottoman destruction of the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks was in its infancy. What sources did he use? Did he say anything that historians today find useful? SLJ: In addition to his 1944 text, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, Lemkin also intended to publish a three-volume History of Genocide (Antiquity, Middle Ages, Modern Times), as well as a monograph, Introduction to the Study of Genocide. Neither was completed nor published. In 2012, it was my good fortune to edit, introduce, and bring to publication both sets of texts, even though incomplete, in one volume, titled Lemkin on Genocide (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books). As to his use of sources, it is important to keep in mind that Lemkin was a master of many languages--Polish, Russian, French, German, Hebrew, Yiddish (and others!)--and was thus able to draw upon numerous publications in those languages which addressed the thirteen genocides included. Most of the sixty-three genocides reflected in his Outline were never addressed. An in depth examination of more than 20,000 pages of his archives only barely hints at these other texts. Lemkin left a substantial, untitled, 120-page monograph on the Armenian Genocide, along with a six-page summary, and the monograph has been published (Raphael Lemkin's Dossier on the Armenian Genocide, Glendale, CA: Center for Armenian Remembrance, 2008). I have written several articles about Lemkin and the Armenian Genocide. As regards the Assyrian Genocide, not one but two chapters--Chapter 2 ("Assyrian Invasions") of Volume I, and Chapter 2 ("Assyrians in Iraq") of Volume III--are included among his papers. The latter constitutes a forty-two-page chapter in Lemkin on Genocide. Most interesting of all, however, with regard to the Greek Genocide, five chapters are presented in the outline, more than any other case. These are titled, "Genocide in Ancient Greece", "Genocide against the Greeks," "Greeks under Franks, "Greeks in Exile from Turkish Occupation," and "Genocide by the Greeks against the Turks." Unfortunately, none of these is found among his papers. Instead, what we do have are a large text of so-called "Background" of fifty-seven pages and a later edited and slightly smaller version (fifty-five pages) entitled "Greeks in the Ottoman Empire," the title of which is not listed in the outline. Three additional chapters in Volume III--"Bulgaria under the Turks," "Genocide by the Janissaries," and "Smyrna"--would have proven most helpful regarding his thinking about both the Ottoman Empire and the post-Ottoman Kemalist regime. But, alas, they, too, are not found among his papers, and, in all likelihood, were never written. One chapter that does exist is on the massacre of Greeks in Chios during the Greek War of Independence. It constitutes six pages in Lemkin on Genocide. I have also written separately on Lemkin and the Genocide of the Greeks. To historians today, not only are his bibliographies of value in visiting the various genocides he examined, but his historical summaries, comments and critiques regarding victims, perpetrators, and bystanders enlarge the work beyond simply that of reporting the past. Moreover, Lemkin broadened his concerns to include the arenas of morality, ethics, and practical and political responsibilities, with which we continually wrestle today. GS: Your new article deals with Lemkin's writings on three cases of genocide. What benefits are there, generally, to taking a comparative approach? SLJ: In principle, comparative work begins with an open mind: bringing together two or more seemingly disparate cases, events, or people and looking not only for similarities but differences as well, and then expanding the search to include other scenarios as well. What can, ideally, result is a broadened perspective and understanding regarding those items under examination, and, further, their possible applicability as additional case studies are brought into the conversation. It is important to keep in mind that comparison is not the only tool that scholars bring to the table. Vetting historical documents, knowledge of specific languages and how they were understood at the time of their use, interviewing witnesses to contemporary events (and vetting the accuracy of their memories) are also used to ascertain the most accurate and complete pictures of those things under investigation. All tools used by various disciplines in the "human sciences" (history, literature, psychology, sociology, religious & Judaic studies, etc.) have, over the generations, proven their value in examining the past, and even going so far as to proving their applicability to both the present and the future. GS: In this specific case of Raphael Lemkin, what has a comparative approach revealed? SLJ: Strictly speaking, Lemkin was not a comparativist. He was of that "first" generation of historians, writers, and thinkers who saw as his task to "get the word out," that is to say, present the evidence of those cases of genocide that were of importance to him--together with his own commentaries--and then let others expand the cases and draw further conclusions. His "mission," if you will, was to get the world--at least the Western world--to view group murder in a whole new way, based on the reality that genocide has, historically, always been part of the human journey. His objective was to make others realize that it was not only the present moment (World War II and the Nazi murder of the Jews and its initial aftermath) that were genocidal, but, throughout human history, human power groups have engaged in genocide against non-power groups for a whole host of reasons (political, social, religious, economic, etc.).In doing so, Lemkin opened the door to this "darker side" of human history, and for that he is to be applauded. Additionally, it must also be noted that Lemkin was not a classically-trained historian, but, rather, a lawyer who saw his stage as that of international law. Scholar that he was, he filtered his work through the lens of its practical applicability, understanding law and its prosecutorial opportunities as the appropriate arena where past crimes could be evaluated, current perpetrators could be punished, and, ideally, future cases of genocide could be prevented. GS: Lemkin is famous for coining the word "genocide" and providing the first comprehensive definition of it. Did he doubt that the term applies equally to the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks? SLJ: Most assuredly he understood these three cases as genocide. Today, there are three sources of denial that they are genocide. One originates with the inheritor of the perpetrator Ottoman state, which seeks to evade any responsibility for past crimes, and those who support it for political or economic reasons. The second originates from what sociologists call "the competition of victims." This refers to the tendency of some victim groups to want to make their genocide seem more important by denying status to others. The third originates with some genocide scholars, who are so caught up in narrowly defining what genocide is, that they lose sight of the impact on the survivors and their descendants. It is part of the work of scholars to define and categorize the events they/we study, and to expand and/or contract these same definitions, further refining similarities and differences, as they/we apply them to specific case studies. In the process, however, we must never lose sight of our humanity. GS: Is there any reason for anyone today to doubt that the term applies equally to the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks? SLJ: Not at all. My contribution to Genocide in the Ottoman Empire was to examine in depth, perhaps for the first time, Lemkin's writings on these three genocides--Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek--what he wrote, what he saw as their similarities and differences, and fault not only the Turks but the Germans and British, as well, as uneven partners in these crimes. Certainly, Lemkin saw parallels between genocide in the Ottoman Empire and that in Nazi Germany.
Alex Cruz, chairman and chief executive officer at British Airways. [Photo/Agencies]

Alex Cruz has a passion for aviation that borders on obsession.

When asked if there was a place in China that particularly impressed him, the 51-year-old chief executive officer of British Airways replied: "Beijing Airport."

It was not a flippant remark.

"Beijing Airport is unbelievable," he went on. "The size of it, the way that it works and the way it is organized. It's very busy, but it works really well."

Cruz's love affair with aviation goes back a long way.

After graduating from the Cox School of Business in Dallas, he worked for various airlines before he founded low-cost Spanish carrier Clickair in 2006. Three years later, it merged with Vueling and Cruz became CEO.

Then in 2016, he took over at Britain's flag carrier and pledged to make it an even better airline.

"The opportunity of coming to British Airways was the perfect evolution," he said.

BA merged with the Spanish carrier Iberia in 2011, creating the International Airlines Group. IAG is now the third-largest airline company in Europe and the sixth largest in the world, based on revenue.

With a fleet of more than 270 aircraft, BA deals with about 37 million passengers a year and employs 40,000 staff, according to the company's website. Smart technology is at the heart of the business and it will help the carrier become more agile.

"Technology is an absolute commitment of British Airways to improve the passengers' experience directly, and we are constantly evaluating new technologies," Cruz said.

In a far-reaching interview, he talks about BA's strategy in China, modernizing the airline's fleet and his love of gadgets.

Why did BA launch a code-sharing program with China Eastern?

What we value the most is the information that we can share about each other's market. We can tell them about the evolution of the sector in the United Kingdom and how we see political events shaping up during the coming months and years ahead.

China Eastern can share their views on the Chinese market, not just about Beijing or Shanghai, but beyond those regions. That information is very useful.

What are the airline's plans for routes in China?

We find ourselves with a very stable Beijing operation, a growing Shanghai business with 10 flights per week, and two flights a day in Hong Kong.

Our commitment to China continues. The Chinese team at British Airways is the biggest one for a single market outside the UK. We are going to look for opportunities, and we will hold discussions with airports and cities across China. I hope this will translate into new routes.

Why should Chinese customers choose BA instead of other airlines when flying to Europe?

Last year, we made a commitment to invest $500 million in our products. The new catering, soft furnishings in the cabin and new business class seats will make us the leading airline between Europe and China.

The biggest feature we have invested in is super-fast Wi-Fi. British Airways will be the first airline to have this when it's installed by 2019. You will be able to sit in your seat and continue your WeChat conversations . . . continue shopping . . . continue everything.

What are your plans for BA?

A lot of people ask if I'm going to turn British Airways into a low-cost carrier. My reply is always the same: "Absolutely not." What I am trying to do is to bring my experience of smaller operations into play. A low-cost carrier has to survive a very competitive environment, just like British Airways. In the end, we will need to be much more agile.

What has been BA's market performance in China compared to the rest of the world?

We are satisfied with our routes in China and we will continue to look for growth. We have had more discussions with the government about improving our slot times. Also, in Shanghai we have gone from seven flights to 10 flights a week. Overall, our presence in Asia is not huge.

Are you satisfied with the bookings for first class and business class on your routes in China?

We have seen during the past two or three years a small decline in passengers from the financial services sector in premium travel. But it has been compensated by an increase in premium leisure travelers.

This would be non-business travelers, who want to have a premium experience and will pay for it by buying business class tickets. This is quite an interesting market for us in China.

What business opportunities do you think will be thrown up by the Belt and Road Initiative?

Every meeting that we have here with businesses, administrators, regulators and politicians center around tremendous opportunities. It is all about growth in the economy, as well as investment. So, we are reassured that the initiative is helping to support and promote aviation. This is an initiative that will help open borders and benefit people.

What is the future for British Airways in the next five to 10 years?

I believe there are great opportunities out there for British Airways in the next five to 10 years. We will have new aircraft and we will continue to develop in China. I believe it will be a great period for the airline . . . really amazing.

How has globalization benefited your business?

We have managed the threat and taken advantage of the opportunities. We had to make the unfortunate, but necessary, decision to pull out of Chengdu (in Sichuan province). Because of our global reach, we have been able to deploy those four flights a week to another destination.

Since we live in a globalized world, some regions and countries will do better than others. We have to work around this, and use London as the center to redeploy assets and adjust to the different situations.

Is there a particular place in China that has impressed you?

I really liked Tian'anmen Square. I had the opportunity to go into the main building (The Great Hall of the People). It was fantastic. It was very impressive. Also, Beijing Airport is unbelievable. Incredibly impressive.

What are your hobbies?

My number one "hobby" is my family. I am married and I have four children. For 10 years, I was commuting, so I didn't see them very much. For the last year, we have all been living in the same city. That is why it's my huge "hobby."

I also love technology and play with gadgets. I want to understand what technology is doing to our lives. I tend to adopt technologies that will affect the world we live in for years to come.
Hu Zhengrong, president of the Communication University of China, attends the 16th China Internet Conference on July 11 in Beijing. [Photo by Tian Ameng/chinadaily.com.cn]

Increasing investment in and quantities of online videos, and developing the professional competence of video producers, is of urgent importance, said a media expert on July 11 at an internet conference.

Hu Zhengrong, president of the Communication University of China, made the remarks at the 16th China Internet Conference.

"Videos and live-streaming are undoubtedly the future of media as people enjoy seeing real scenes and pictures and words alone are incomplete," said Hu, "From the perspective of consumers and users, videos are preferable."

The video industry should follow the "survival of the fittest" principle in the competitive market under certain regulations, said Hu.

He said the problem with the industry is too much disordered content.

The hardware and service providers need an industrial regulation, without which the industry cannot grow healthily, according to Hu.

Technologically, everyone can be a live-streamer in the 5G era with mobile phones or other devices. However, whether one can become a competent content producer or not is never only a technological issue.

Not everyone can do the high-quality live-streaming because it needs professionalism, explained Hu.

When asked about the new methods of media reporting, such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, Hu said that AI can help to match the match the supply of content with the demand of media consumers and thus increase effectiveness while lowering costs.

The Internet has a huge impact on media, said Hu, adding that people should have a more open, cross-sectoral and interconnected perspective towards it.
Primary school students take a Chinese class in a tent in Tashkurgan Tajik autonomous county, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region last month. ZOU HONG/CHINA DAILY

Construction teams rush to finish new, safer dwellings for displaced residents before temperatures plunge

Although it is the middle of summer, Baygenmu Hanjar is already being awakened by the cold at least once a night as the temperature begins to fall on the Pamir Plateau in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Baygenmu, 68, has been living in a disaster relief tent since her house in the village of Waerxidie collapsed on May 11 during a magnitude-5.5 earthquake that rocked Tashkurgan Tajik autonomous county in Kashar prefecture, the home of people from the Tajik ethnic group.

The temblor struck at 5:58 am, when most people were asleep. Eight people died and 31 were injured, according to the local government. More than 4,750 houses were destroyed, and about 80 percent of the county's population of more than 33,000 has been affected.

About 800 livestock perished, and the county government estimates that the direct economic loss amounts to 800 million yuan ($118 million). Last year, the county, officially designated as poverty-stricken, generated GDP of just 670 million yuan.

"Winter will come soon on the Pamir Plateau. It has already started snowing in the mountainous areas," Baygenmu said as she leaned on the wooden door frame of her old house in Waerxidie, near Tashkurgan, the county seat. The door frame is the only visible sign of the stone-and-mud house that took the family years to build. Even the low stone wall that is traditional around Tajik dwellings has disappeared.

At a June 6 meeting to discuss reconstruction projects for Tashkurgan, the Xinjiang government pledged to build new, earthquake-resistant houses for all the families that lost their homes, and to ensure that they can move in by the end of August, before the harshest cold starts to arrive.

Sitting at an altitude of 3,090 meters, Tashkurgan, close to China's borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, is also known as "the town of stones". Large and small stones are scattered across the nearby Gobi Desert and buried in the grassland. The locals have been using the stones, which they believe can actually grow, to build houses for thousands of years.

The county landmark is the remains of a Puli Kingdom fortress, initially built with the stones during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220). The ruins, which stand on a small hill, escaped damage in the earthquake.

Baygenmu's tent is situated in a temporary settlement for Waerxidie residents, established the day after the quake. Although no one from the village was badly injured, 14 families lost their homes and are now living in the tent village. It's one of 12 such sites across Tashkurgan, all equipped with kitchens and medical centers.

Baygenmu said that it was lucky her family was staying away from home when the quake struck: "Thankfully, I spent the night at a relative's house not far away. The house shook so badly that I was very frightened. However, there wasn't a single crack in the walls because it's one of those earthquake-resistant houses."
Regulators, pharmaceutical companies, researchers will adopt global standards

China will continue to intensify international exchanges and cooperation in drug supervision to promote the domestic application of new medicines developed overseas to meet demand, China's top drug regulator said on Thursday.

The drug authorities will also encourage the domestic pharmaceutical industry to improve its capacity and competitiveness to promote the international visibility of Chinese medical and pharmaceutical products, Wu Zhen, vice-minister of the China Food and Drug Administration, said at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Meeting on Drug Regulatory Collaboration in Zhengzhou, Henan province.

On June 19, the administration announced it joined the International Council on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use, which focuses on guidelines for worldwide pharmaceutical development.

"Joining the council means the Chinese drug regulatory authorities, pharmaceutical industry and research and development institutes will gradually adopt internationally accepted standards and guidelines, actively participate in the formulation of international rules and promote quicker domestic application of new drugs developed in other countries," Wu said.

China is the second-largest market for pharmaceutical products in the world. Annual revenues of the pharmaceutical industry in China exceed 2.5 trillion yuan ($368.6 billion), and annual exports of pharmaceutical products exceed 13.5 billion yuan, Wu said.

"China has great pharmaceutical production capacity, so it can provide support to the health of the people in BRICS nations and other countries," he said.

BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The administration has adopted a series of reform measures on the review and approval of new drugs to accelerate approvals and meet the needs of domestic patients in recent years, Wu said.

The authorities will encourage medical institutions to give priority to new drugs that have proved effective and are reasonably priced, and support the inclusion of such new drugs in the list of drugs whose cost can be reimbursed by basic medical insurance programs, according to a draft regulation released by the administration in May.

Certain types of drugs and medical equipment already in use in other countries, such as those for curing rare diseases, can also gain priority approval for sale in the domestic market, the draft said.

As of the end of June, the administration had established routine work relations with drug regulatory authorities in 66 countries, and signed 42 agreements for bilateral cooperation with 28 countries and regions, said Yuan Lin, chief of the administration's international cooperation department.
Coins and notes were thrown into a display at the Leifeng relic site by visitors seeking blessings. LIN YUNLONG / FOR CHINA DAILY

Travelers' misunderstandings about throwing coins and notes onto historical relics for blessings has nearly ruined the 1,000-year-old Leifeng Pagoda in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, according to a local newspaper.

The administrative unit of the Leifeng Pagoda scenic spot has been under pressure to protect the historical and cultural site. Piles of coins and notes virtually buried the relic, Qianjiang Evening News reported.

The reporter wrote that during a half-hour visit, "nearly half of all travelers threw money for wishesmainly middle-aged women, children and young couples".

The Leifeng Pagoda, located in the West Lake scenic area, was originally built in AD 977. It has fallen and been rebuilt several times. Most recently, it collapsed in 1924 but wasn't rebuilt until 78 years later, in 2002.

The repair project unearthed an underground shrine, and the pagoda was built above it. Relics are now fenced within glass walls.

But the 2-meter-high walls didn't prevent the relics from becoming the objects of visitors' enthusiasm for blessings. People continued throwing money, and coins and paper notes blanketed the relics.

"We clean the site twice a month, and more frequently in peak season, so that visitors can enjoy viewing the relics instead of a money hill," said an administrative staff member, who noted that it all adds to the workload at the site.

According to the administration, more than 20,000 yuan ($3,000) is collected every year at the site. The money is used for maintenance of the relics, the newspaper reported.

Zhong Xiangping, vice-president of the Hangzhou Historical and Cultural Association, was quoted as saying some Chinese folklore holds that people throwing coins in specific spots can receive blessings and peace. Believers fear missing any chance at a blessing, so they toss coins or notes just about anywhere after finding that some previous visitors had done the same thing.

Last month, an 80-year-old woman boarding an aircraft at Shanghai Pudong International Airport even threw some coins into the engine as a blessing for a safe flight. The flight was delayed for five hours while the engine was checked.

In Zhong's view, unlike the Trevi Fountain in Italy, Leifeng Pagoda is just a historic relic. "It has no function for blessings," Zhong said.

Throwing money also hinders relic protection efforts.

"The administrative organizations should do more to regulate visitors' behavior," Xinhua News Agency said in an earlier editorial opinion.

A staff member at the pagoda told the newspaper that notices posted on the glass wall tell people not to throw money.

"Patrolling staff members have also tried to dissuade people from doing that. People just ignored them. We hope the public will give us ideas to cut down on the problem."
Surrounded by towering mountains, Xiazhuang village sits in the bottom of valley at an altitude of 1,600 meters in Wushan county, Southwest China's Chongqing municipality. The "sinkhole village" had long struggled against poverty until one day 398 villagers decided to carve out a mountain road on their own. In 2013, after six years, a winding road was completed, offering the villagers a new life. Local products such as watermelons, walnuts and tobacco discovered new customers outside the village thanks to the road. The road also opened a new path for the young: 23 got admitted to colleges after the road was built. [Photo/Xinhua]
Tang Wei stands beside his boat, which he used to carry more than 300 people to safety during a flood last month in Nanping village, Ningxiang city, Hunan province.[WEN XINZHENG/CHINA DAILY]

A 34-year-old man who saved more than 300 people from rising floodwaters is a hero in his hometown.

In Nanping village, Hunan province, Tang Wei is now a widely known name, and he's receiving a lot of praise. For many, he was literally a lifesaver.

Heavy rains from late June to early July caused flooding along several tributaries of the middle and lower Yangtze River. The level of the Xiangjiang River in Changsha, Hunan province, stood above 38.3 meters at 11:42 am on June 30, well past the warning level of 36 meters, according to the Hunan Hydrological Bureau.

The rain triggered flash floods, damaged mountain roads and saturated the ground, raising the risk of landslides. Fifty kilometers northwest of Changsha, Nanping found itself in the center of the flood zone.

Early in the morning on July 1, Tang was busy working at a home-decoration company when he received a call from his mother, who was shouting for help. He rushed home to find water at the doorstep.

Fortunately, his family had already been transferred to safety. But instead of retrieving valuable property in the house, Tang turned to save other residents.

Situated in a low part of a mountainous area, Nanping experiences flooding almost every year. In 2013, Tang spent 10,000 yuan ($1,470) to buy a boat for emergencies. A few days ago, he used it to save more than 300 people.

Tang Guobin, 70, whose family of four were all saved by Tang Wei, has seen many flood seasons.

"I've never seen such heavy flooding in my whole life. Floods do happen, but in most cases it doesn't pose a threat to our lives or property," he said.

Days before, the local government had sent alerts, but most residents didn't think flooding would be heavy and many remained at home.

Zhao Jianhua, 54, stayed home with his wife until there was no escape. They were saved by Tang Wei 30 minutes before their house collapsed.

"We were standing on a narrow wooden board on the roof and were shaking with fear and cold. If Tang hadn't been there, it might have been our last day," Zhao said.

From 9 am on July 1 until 4 am the next day, Tang and three of his friends worked to rescue peoplefrom infants to the elderlywho were trapped by the flood. While hundreds were rescued, Tang's own house was soaked, including appliances and a motorbike that had cost him a year's salary.

In the 18 hours of rescue and relief work, Tang ate only a few cookies and drank a little water. Residents said he has put the interests of others above his own since he joined the Communist Party of China in 2011.

Speaking of his actions during the flood, Tang was modest: "I grew up here. Our village is small. We look at each other as family members. To save them is just an instinct that needs no explanation."
A document issued during World War II was a significant legal basis for China to have retrieved its territory, including Taiwan, after the war, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Thursday.

"The Cairo Declaration provided an important basis in international law for China to recover, after World War II, its territory, which had been robbed and stolen by Japanese militarism, including Taiwan and its affiliated islands," Geng said in a daily news conference in Beijing.

Commenting on reports that authorities in Taiwan will remove content related to the declaration from the new high school curriculum, Geng said the declaration is "universally acknowledged" and is "a major outcome gained in the World Anti-Fascist War".

In 1943, China, the United States and Britain issued the declaration, which said China's territory taken by Japan, including Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, should be returned to China.

The Potsdam Proclamation, a document signed two years later to urge Japan to surrender, said the declaration's terms "shall be carried out".

Geng said that the declaration established an important foundation for postwar international order. It is significant both historically and in reality, he said.

Geng emphasized that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and that the integrity of China's sovereignty and territory is not allowed to be segmented.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on Wednesday that the historical facts and the legal ground for Taiwan's status as an inalienable part of China are "unassailable" and that any attempts to change such a status will "end in vain".
Pan Linhe, 51, had worked so much during recent floods that he couldn't even see his wife.

Pan, who was head of the civil affairs office of Longshui in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was found dead in his car on July 5 after working without a break for several days after severe rainfall struck Quanzhou county.

He was supposed to join his wife in handling the funeral of his brother-in-law, but he was unable to keep his word.

Li Chunlin, Pan's wifemother of a son and a 4-month-old daughterdescribed the news of her husband's death as a bolt from the blue. She was often unable to contact him, she said, calling him a workaholic.

"He is into calligraphy and writing, so he often stayed up to handle lots of documents, going beyond his duty. But he was happy to serve people, so he never cared about the heavy work," Li said.

Tang Rengang, a colleague on Pan's team, recalled that when they rushed to Jintian village, where grain fields were heavily damaged by floodwaters, Pan felt such pity for the residents that he visited them door-to-door to address their needs.

"He had little time to rest. In the daytime we moved residents to safety in case of a house collapse. At night we had to record the losses," Tang said.

Before he walked to his car for a break on July 4, Pan was handing out relief goods to disabled residents who suffered losses in the disaster. He also served as the chairman of the local branch of the China Disabled Persons' Federation.

According to Tang Hong, deputy head of publicity for Quanzhou, Pan was a diligent official who was always close to the people.

The local government said on Monday that the excessive work and fatigue was no doubt the main cause of Pan's sudden death by heart attack, and he would be treated as a hero.

A new round of rainstorms have battered 25 counties in Guangxi since Monday. Twenty rivers in the region have seen floods surpass warning levels, according to the regional hydrology and water resources bureau. As of 5 pm on Wednesday, two people had died and 83,600 people had been affected by floods.
Teacher's mistake could hurt student's chances

By Zhu Lixin in Hefei | China Daily | Updated: 2017-07-14 09:22

Education authorities have pledged to help a student in eastern China who fears he could miss out on enrollment at a top high school because of an error by a teacher during the application process.

Zhang Chaoyang, 16, had hoped to enroll at Huoshan High School, one of the best in Anhui province, after scoring 700 out of 820 in the unified high school entrance exams in mid-June.

His dream appeared to be dashed when it was discovered that a teacher had changed his application without parental permission, thereby reducing his chances of securing a spot at the school.

Anhui students take a standard exam but rural students can apply only to high schools in their county or district. Top scorers overall make up 20 percent of Huoshan High School's intake, while the best performers at each middle school are accepted based on a quota, known as direct enrollment.

The system is designed to give students from less-developed areas equal access to a good education. However, students must choose one or both recruitment options on their applications.

"We told our son to apply for both options," said Zhang Decai, Chaoyang's father.

But he said that when his son was completing the application on a computer at the private Wenfeng Middle School, a teacher named Mao, who was guiding the applicants, said Chaoyang's test score was high enough to qualify on that track alone. The teacher "deleted the direct enrollment option without our permission", the father said.

With the benchmark for top scorers in this year's exam expected to be 716, the deletion means Zhang Chaoyang could miss out on both opportunities to attend the school.

In an interview with an Anhui TV station, Mao acknowledged his mistake and said he had thought the student's score would be enough to put him among the exam's best performers overall.

Shao Wenxi, director of student recruitment at the Huoshan county education bureau, told China Daily that his office will do its best to convince authorities to change the student's application so he can get into Huoshan High School.

The final enrollment lists will be released in the last week of July.

Local authorities said Wenfeng Middle School and the teacher will be punished, potentially with the loss of performance bonuses and a temporary block on promotions.

zhulixin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/14/2017 page5)
Jiang Tao shares his story about maintaining an account called Real-Time War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression on Sina Weibo at Shanghai Jiaotong University in 2014.CHINA DAILY

Social media account delves deep into the lives of soldiers and ordinary people who fought against Japanese invasion

Jiang Tao, 40, thinks that the best way to commemorate China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) is to recount the war as it happened day by day.

On July 7, 2012, the history lover and internet entrepreneur opened an account on Sina Weibo entitled Kangzhanzhibo, or Real-Time War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

He uses the account to document what happened each day from July 7, 1937, when Japanese troops attacked Lugou Bridge, also known as the Marco Polo Bridge, on the outskirts of Beijing, triggering the start of Japan's full-scale invasion.

By day, Jiang runs a business in Shanghai, but around the clock, 1.41 million people follow his Weibo account. He posts several times a day on events recorded by Chinese newspapers from 1937 to 1945.

"Let us go back to the days and nights 80 years ago to share the humiliation, despair, glory and dreams of our predecessors," Jiang wrote on the first day.

Inspired by Twitter account RealTimeWWII, Jiang documents the eight-year war through news, photos and cartoons from online library archives. Two partners who are military enthusiasts post information on weapons used at the time.

The team posts news from behind and on the Chinese front line.

They posted Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek's speech calling for perseverance in resistance, as well as a communist general's diary revealing the reasons for a military defeat.

"To better remember history, younger generations should have a comprehensive understanding of the war," Jiang said.

"We also focus on the ordinary people who stood up to fight against the Japanese invasion."

One report from Nov 18, 1937, records how an Australian court ruled in favor of 36 Chinese sailors after a local shipping company sued them because they refused to transport Japanese weapons.

Ten days earlier, 158 Chinese sailors working in the Netherlands quit their jobs for the same reason and returned to China to join the war.

Jiang posted the news reports about overseas sailors with pictures under the headline "Patriotism is Innocent".

"Compared with forces on the front line, overseas Chinese sailors had very little media coverage and public attention, but they made a huge contribution in supporting their motherland during the war at the risk of losing their jobs or even their freedom," Jiang said. "They should be remembered."

One netizen who has followed the Weibo account since 2012 said Jiang's efforts are an example of perseverance, which was also key to the final victory.

"I started following five years ago to honor people who fought in the war. I did not expect the account to gather so many supporters and followers," the netizen said.

Jiang's perseverance has paid off. It took him two years to get 300,000 followers, and five years to reach 1.41 million.

He organizes offline events, such as inviting veterans to speak at universities, and said the posts will continue until 2020, ending on Aug 15 - the date Japan's surrender was announced.

"I feel a responsibility to pass on the stories of those who made great contributions during the war," he said.

Xinhua
A Chinese university has designed a computer algorithm to identify students in need of financial help, reports Xinhua Insight.

Dubbed as "invisible aid", the program analyzes how often students access the college canteen and how much they spend.

Students who have more than 60 meals and spend less than 200 yuan (about $29.5) per month, will get 160-yuan (about $23.1) subsidy per month, without the need to apply for the subsidy.

The system was initiated by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2004, as a way of "supporting impoverished students in a more dignified manner", said Dong Yu, Dean of the Student Affairs Office at USTC.

It's estimated that forty thousand students have already benefited from the program, involving a total of 6,000,000 yuan (about US$884,291).

The practice has been well received, although some expressed fears that the system could be abused by people taking advantage of possible loopholes in the sampling and analysis process.

Dong responded to those concerns by saying that the USTC has improved its big data gathering, and that online background checks, along with student feedback are collected by USTC, helping to finalize the list of student recipients.

The USTC data base of "students in need" is updated every semester, Dong said.
China and India should enhance multilayered cooperation and have "more candid exchanges of views" to forge a healthy and orderly bilateral relationship, according to top scholars from both countries.

As the world is undergoing profound changes, Beijing and New Delhi must rely on a more peaceful international environment and closer bilateral ties to achieve their dreams of building prosperous nations, experts said during the Fudan University-Indian Foundation Dialogue on Sino-India Relations in Shanghai on Wednesday.

Researchers from nearly 20 institutions, including India's Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, and the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, urged the two parties to seek common interests, explore opportunities for co-development and guide domestic rhetoric in a positive manner.

Following an opening speech by Wu Xinbo, executive dean of Fudan University's Institute of International Studies, scholars held in-depth discussions on topics including Sino-Indian cooperation on regional matters, economic relations and cooperation on multilateral mechanisms.

The symposium  the fourth of its kind since 2014  has grown into a critical channel for effective informal diplomacy between the two countries.
An area of Tianhe Park, known as the "blind date corner", is bustling with fathers and mothers looking for matches for their children in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, March 25, 2017. Parents put up printed or handwritten personal information about their single sons and daughters on branches in a bid to attract partners for them. [Photo/VCG]

A price list for Chinese blind dates that has been widely circulated on the net has triggered heated discussion with users dubbing the list a "chain of scorn in marriage".

The list is a common guideline for parents who go to "blind date parks" in Beijing looking for matches for their single children.

The parks display profiles about single men and women detailing their household registration, income, property, education and other hard constraints.

A ranking system has evolved to divide singles as top, high class, standard, low, simple and no consideration. To be grouped in the top echelon, a man should be worth at least 5.6 million yuan, have a Beijing hukou (registered residence), own a house in Beijings key regions like Dongcheng, Xicheng or Haidian districts, own a good car and earn more than 50,000 yuan a month, have a master's or doctorate, or have studied abroad.

For a woman to be classed as top, she must be beautiful, have a Beijing hukou, own a house in Dongcheng, Xicheng or Haidian districts, have a good car, earn more than 20,000 yuan and have a bachelor's or master's degree.

A Beijing hukou is the key benchmark in the marriage market, more popular than a doctor's degree. Those without a Beijing hukou languish at the bottom of the "chain of scorn".

People whose Chinese Zodiac sign is a sheep also suffer as in Chinese folklore, the sheep indicates a lifetime of bad luck.

A girl with a Beijing hukou, a house in Beijing, and a diploma from a prestigious school is often turned down because of her Chinese Zodiac sign.

Thousands of web users responded with an avalanche of complaints and sneer.

One comment reads: "What's wrong with being born in the year of sheep, they don't eat the grass at your house."

Another writes: "I went to Zhongshan Park last month, it is just like a population trading market."

One single woman writes: "I don't want to get married, it's a twisted social situation."

"Choosing a partner without setting requirements equals behaving like a hoodlum," Shen Bin, a social commentator said. "A marriage between families of equal social rank is reasonable. For men and women whose conditions are suitable, their feeling can be more pure, and the path of marriage goes more smoothly. The public should not demonize matching with requirements."

Beijing News commented that the "blind date price list" merely showcases social scars. It dose not just display the current marital values, but also the stark, brutal truth about social mobility, regional discrimination and sexism. The list is like a menu, dividing people into various grades and ranks. It is more like a battle of class with certain groups of people trying to consolidate the fort of ranks with marriage.

The People's Daily commented that the foundation of all marriages is love.
Chinese military planes flying over the Miyako Strait is a routine exercise and no cause for alarm or speculation, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

Chinese military planes legally passed the strait between Japan's Miyako and Okinawa Islands, said Ren Guoqiang, the ministry's spokesman, adding that the Chinese military will organize similar far-sea exercises according to regional situations and mission needs in the future.

Such activities should cause neither alarm nor too much speculation, and relevant parties should "get used to it," Ren said.

Japan's Defense Ministry said six Chinese bombers flew past the Miyako Straits on Thursday. Miyako Strait is a strategic entryway into the Western Pacific that has been regularly used by the Chinese military for routine far-sea drills.

In April, Chinese naval ships passed through the strait en route for a regular far-sea drill.

In early March, Japan scrambled fighter jets after 13 Chinese naval aircraft were spotted flying through the strait.
BEIJING - The Chinese Ministry of National Defense on Friday dismissed concerns over reports of military aircraft passing through the Miyako Strait in the Western Pacific, saying they were "routine exercises."

"It is legitimate for Chinese military planes to fly through the strait, and more similar training will be conducted on the high seas as needed," said Ren Guoqiang, spokesperson for the ministry.

"The parties concerned don't need to overact and make a great fuss about it. They will feel better after getting used to such drills," Ren said.
BEIJING -- Sun Xiaofang, a math teacher working for a training school in Beijing, clearly remembers her middle school biology class.

Her teacher glossed over the basic anatomical and physiological differences between men and women in a textbook in less than 20 minutes, telling the students to "read it by yourselves after class".

"Girls flipped over those pages while blushing, and all the boys kept silent," Sun, 25, said. "The atmosphere in the classroom was so embarrassing, and hilarious."

The 20-minute lesson was the entire formal sex education she received, an all too familiar experience for young Chinese, with talking directly about sex often difficult for parents.

"It is too late for students to receive sex education after they enter adolescence," said Pan Suiming, director of the Institute of Sexuality and Gender at the Renmin University of China.

SEX WOES

Talking about sex remains a taboo in Chinese culture. Some experts consider the lack of proper sex education, particularly in schools, as one of the factors leading to serious health consequences in China, such as the growing numbers of HIV infections and staggeringly high abortion rates.

Zhang Yinjun, director of the AIDS Prevention Education Project for Chinese Youth, told Xinhua that Chinese adolescents now have the fastest-growing numbers of HIV infections. And over 90 percent of infections come through sexual transmission.

From January to September 2016, there were 96,000 new HIV infections, with 24.4 percent in the 20-29 age group, according to China's National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention.

The core measure in promoting AIDS prevention for Chinese youth is to implement proper sex education, Zhang said.

Teenage pregnancies and premarital abortions are also rising. The National Health and Family Planning Commission reported in 2015 that approximately 13 million abortions are performed annually in China.

Today, an increasing number of Chinese adolescents are engaging in premarital sex, in many cases with only vague knowledge of safe sex.

"As the result of secretive sex education in China, most unmarried Chinese adolescents know little about the consequences of premarital sex," said Chinese sexologist Li Yinhe.

CHANGES ON THE HORIZON

China is making strides to break the sex education silence. The Ministry of Education issued a guideline on Monday suggesting higher education institutions set up public courses on health education to teach students about sex and reproductive health.

"Compared to older generations in China, teenagers and their parents have more access to sexual knowledge," said Li, also a fellow with the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"Sex, Reproduction and Health of the Human" has been a popular selective course at Peking University for 20 years. It focuses on cultivating healthy altitudes toward sex and respect to life, and is well received by students.

"Sex education, as a required course in our life, concerns everyone's health and future, and it should be part of compulsory education," said professor Yao Jinxian, who teaches the course.

In recent years, there have been stronger voices calling for better sex education in China. Liu Wenli, a professor from Beijing Normal University, has been running a WeChat public account called "Love and Life" since 2014, offering a free subscription service on sex education information.

"Sex education is conducive to fostering young people's abilities in making resolutions, communicating and reducing risk in problems related to sex," Liu said.

By reading articles published on the account, subscribers can find answers to questions from "how to explain periods to your children" to "what if your kids touch their reproductive organs frequently?"

Liu and her team have also been popularizing their "Cherish Life" sex education textbooks for Chinese children. Each month, the team visits kindergartens and primary schools in Beijing to observe lessons and give instructions to teachers.

"Awareness of sexuality has been heightened to some extent, but it is still not enough," Liu said.

Sun Xiaofang is about to give birth soon, and she thinks about the future sex education of her child. "It will definitely be better than I had," she said.
Japan should "get used to" the Chinese military's legal passage through the Miyako Strait, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

Six Chinese bombers flew through the strait between Japan's Miyako and Okinawa islands on Thursday, according to Japan's Ministry of Defense. However, the Chinese planes did not violate Japan's airspace, it added.

The Chinese military planes were conducting a routine exercise and passed through the strait legally, said Ren Guoqiang, a spokesman for China's Defense Ministry.

The Chinese military will organize similar exercises far out at sea according to the regional situation and mission needs in the future, he added. Such activities should cause neither alarm nor too much speculation, and relevant parties should "get used to it," said Ren.

Japan's constant hyping of Chinese military activities is to fan the so-called Chinese threat and pave the way to amend its Constitution to legitimize its self-defense forces, experts said.

Miyako Strait is a strategic entryway into the western Pacific that has been regularly used by the Chinese military for drills far out at sea.

In April, Chinese naval ships passed through the strait for such a regular drill. In early March, Japan scrambled fighter jets after a total of 13 Chinese naval aircraft were spotted flying through the strait.

China's Air Force first flew over the strait in May 2015, but naval fleets have been transiting through the strait since 2009.

Lyu Yaodong, a researcher of Japanese foreign policy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Japan often prided itself as the powerhouse in Asia in the 20th century, but this status has been challenged by China's rise.

"As a result, Japan will try everything to contain China's geopolitical influence, from the East China Sea to the South China Sea," he said. "Japan paints China's growing military strength as a looming threat so that its government can amend the constitution and legitimize its self-defense forces."

Major General Zhu Chenghu, a professor at the People's Liberation Army National Defense University, said Japan and the United States often use the so-called Chinese threat to justify their military presence in the region.

"The Miyako Strait is an international waterway and any military can pass through it legally," he said. "It is unfair to scrutinize the Chinese military for its passage. The Chinese military should pass it more often, so it will become normal and nobody will fuss over it anymore."
BEIJING -- China maintained a tough crackdown on human trafficking in 2016, according to the Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

Over the past year, China has cracked 184 cases in joint anti-trafficking operations with Vietnam, with 290 suspects arrested and 207 Vietnamese women and one child rescued, the MPS said.

According to the MPS, China has signed inter-governmental anti-trafficking agreements with Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. A total of eight anti-trafficking liaison offices have been established along borders with these countries.

In a campaign against the trafficking of hearing-impaired people, police in 13 provincial regions arrested 464 suspects and saved 98 victims between November 2015 and October 2016, the MPS said.

A total of 1,274 missing children have been found over the past year following the launch of an app in May 2016.

The app helps to ensure efficient sharing of information with the public by sending push notifications about missing children, including photos and descriptions. The app also encourages witnesses to report the whereabouts of these children, the MPS said.

In order to let information reach more people, the MPS app has formed a cooperative partnership with mainstream new media and mobile applications, including Taobao, Baidu and QQ.

During the period, 110 billion items of information about 1,317 missing children were sent, according to the MPS.

The MPS released a notice in February that announced it would solve 153 cases of child trafficking in 2017.

A MPS official said police authorities nationwide will continue carrying out the action plan for fighting human trafficking (2013-2020) publicized in 2013.
BILOXI, Mississippi -- Mississippi Press staff writer/columnist Warren Kulo was honored with three awards during the annual Mississippi Press Association Better Newspaper Contest awards banquet last Saturday afternoon.

The Mississippi Press Association was founded 151 years ago and is the nation's fourth-oldest newspaper association. The banquet was held during the annual joint Mississippi Press Association/Louisiana Press Association convention at the Golden Nugget Casino in Biloxi.

Kulo was honored with a second place award in the Best Photo/Story Combination category for his coverage of last year's Ocean Springs Elks Mardi Gras Parade. Kulo also earned a third place in the Best Feature Story category for his profile of local musician Lisa Mills; and a third place in the Best Spot News category for his report on the arrest of the Ocean Springs mayor's husband.

Kulo has earned roughly 70 awards during his career, which began in 1987 at the Columbus Commercial-Dispatch.

Awards were also handed out for General Excellence, which newspapers earn by amassing points in the individual categories. General Excellence winners were:

Division A:

Division B:

Division C:

Division D:

Division E:

Division F:

The 2016 Better Newspaper Contest was judged by volunteers from the Kentucky Press Association. Fifty-one newspapers submitted a total of 2,089 entries into this year's editorial contest. Awards for advertising excellence will be handed out in January during MPA's Mid-Winter Conference.
Xi, Trump set date for dialogue at G20 Summit in Hamburg

Senior Chinese and US government officials will meet in Washington next week for the first round of a comprehensive dialogue on economic and trade issues.

The first round of the Comprehensive Economic Dialogue will come 10 days after President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.

The dialogue will be co-chaired by Vice-Premier Wang Yang, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang announced on Tuesday.

In Hamburg, Xi and Trump agreed to hold the economic dialogue on July 19.

They also decided to hold the first round of law enforcement and cybersecurity dialogue, and social and people-to-people and cultural dialogues in the near future.

Xi told Trump that the 100-Day Action Plan on China-US Economic Cooperation has made important progress, and both sides are discussing carrying out a one-year cooperation plan.

"The results so far in the 100-day program to improve trade and investment appear to have been more constructive than many critics argued, and it is possible there will be further progress at the CED on July 19," said Douglas Paal, vice-president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In Beijing on Wednesday, Geng said the two sides have vigorously advanced the 100-Day action plan since the first meeting between Xi and Trump in Florida in April.

"In early May, China and the US reaped a series of early harvests. To my knowledge, at present, the two sides are conducting consultation on the follow-up outcomes of the 100-Day Action Plan with the expectation for more practical outcomes," he said.

Results-oriented ties

The US side has consistently emphasized results-oriented relationship. Cui Tiankai, Chinese ambassador to the us, has said that Beijing does not oppose the notion.

"But do we have a clear and shared understanding of what it is really about? What should we do together to achieve positive results in the interests of our long-term relations?" he said in a speech to the seventh US-China Civil Strategic Dialogue in Washington on Tuesday.

"Are we fully aware of the risk of losing sight of the overall direction if we overemphasize specific results on specific issues?"

While some in the Trump administration have criticized China's high tariff barriers, a report by Peterson Institute for International Economics last month shows that China does not have the highest tariffs among big countries.

It says that while China's weighted average applied tariff rate is 3.4 percent, higher than the 1.6 percent for the US, Germany, Italy and the UK, it is lower compared with India's 6.3 percent and Brazil's 8.3 percent.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 07/14/2017 page11)
East China's Shandong province is playing a pivotal role in implementing the country's Belt and Road Initiative.

The province is targeting the marine economy, industrial upgrade, transport facilities, energy and resources, said Liang Wenyue, deputy director, regional integration promotion office under the Shandong Development and Reform Commission.

The province aims to become the nation's modern logistics hub and a center for marine economic cooperation, international industrial upgrades and human exchange as well as a regional cooperation center along the Belt and Road routes.

To this end, the province has established a leading group to coordinate involvement in the B&R Initiative and issued a series of government policies to strengthen customs services, quality supervision, inspection and quarantine.

Nine cities in the province have implemented B&R action plans.

Since the initiative was announced three years ago, the province has seen its international trade with countries involved in the B&R surge significantly.

In 2016, foreign trade with those countries reached 413.4 billion yuan ($60.7 billion), up 8.4 percent, and accounted for 26.7 percent of the province's overall foreign trade.

Eight industrial parks have been set up along the B&R routes, including four national-level trade cooperation zones in Pakistan, Hungary and Russia.

The province's investment in B&R projects reached 29.42 billion yuan, accounting for 16.7 percent of the province's total foreign investment.

Turnover of contracted projects hit 42.59 billion yuan, up 45 percent year-on-year.

Qingdao-based Haier Group invested in and built household electrical appliance manufacturing enterprises in Pakistan.

Jining-based Ruyi joined hands with State-owned Huaneng Group to build a coal-fired power station in Sahiwal, Pakistan, a highlight along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Some breakthroughs have also been made in establishing transport connections, Liang said.

To date, 279 trains transited between Europe and Asia and rail freight handled by railways reached 299,000 tons last year, up 162.8 percent and 128.8 percent year-on-year, respectively.

To date, 31 container trains combining ocean and railway transportation have been set up in the province.

The Qingdao B&R cross-border container inter-model transport project has been incorporated into China's first batch of 16 inter-model transportation demonstration projects.

The province aims to make further headway in B&R construction, Liang said.

It is committed to building the East Asia Marine Platform, which has become a key part of the "10 plus 3" marine cooperation network covering ASEAN members and three countries including China, Japan and South Korea.

In terms of cultural cooperation, Shandong has cooperated with 47 cities in 23 countries, and established friendly cooperative relations with 31 cities in 14 countries.

It has supported overseas Confucius Institutes and 28 Confucius classrooms, boosting the culture of Confucius - who was born in Shandong - worldwide.

Global presence

Local companies in Shandong have taken the lead in China in their forays into the B&R markets.

One of China's top heavy vehicle manufacturers, Sinotruk, has vowed to keep forging new paths into the international market along the Belt and Road routes, according to a senior spokesperson at the company.

The comments were made by Li Gonghai to reporters from South, Southeast and Central Asia during a fact-finding trip and a tour of the manufacturer's headquarters and production line in Jinan, capital city of Shandong province, on July 4.

Li said that Sinotruk is making great strides into overseas markets, particularly in the emerging economies of Central Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America.

In Central Asia alone, since 2011, the company has sold more than 8,000 heavy duty trucks in Kazakhstan, exported some 2,000 vehicles to Uzbekistan, and more than 3,000 of its HOWO heavy trucks are currently used in Turkmenistan.

Apart from vehicle sales and exports to Central Asia, Sinotruk also wants to develop local assembly lines in the region, particularly in Kazakhstan. The company is currently working to establish the assembly lines, with a memorandum of understanding signed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Bakhytzhan Sagintayev during a visit to the oil-rich nation in December 2014.

Another B&R pioneer in Shandong is the Jinan-based Linuo Group, which has become the world's leading solar energy group.

Tubes produced by the group account for 65 percent of the country's total and 90 percent of its photovoltaic products have been exported overseas.

Its exports hit 800 million yuan in 2016 to more than 100 countries and regions.

Zhang Beiwen, the company's vice-president, indicated that China, the United States and India are the major consumers of solar energy, while Southeast Asian countries are sufficient in solar energy.

"Linuo's product presence in B&R countries is facing challenges from their national governments failing to support solar energy. To help boost their solar energy and reduce traditional power use, we expect overseas countries to issue more preferential policies to boost the market."

Owen Fishwick and Yang Min contributed to the story.

(China Daily 07/14/2017 page12)
Expo 2017 Astana to house special exhibit dedicated to eastern Chinese economic powerhouse, its growing commercial advantages and resources

Shandong province will participate in the Expo 2017 Astana from Sept 6 to 8 and stage a Shandong Week to display the province's innovations in the energy sector, as well as share its experience in energy utilization and technological development to enhance cooperation with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

The news was announced during a press conference held for a special press tour by Asian media organizations by the head of the information office of the publicity department in Shandong's capital city of Jinan on July 3.

Expo 2017 Astana, with a theme of "Energy of the Future", kicked off on June 10 and will end on Sept 10. There are 115 countries and 20 international organizations participating in the event.

Shandong province will take full advantage of the expo platform to boost economic and trade cooperation, as well as to promote business negotiations and cultural exchanges, said Ma Guangwei, deputy director, Legal Affair Department, Shandong branch of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

According to an implementation plan released by the province, Shandong Week will be mainly composed of three parts: activities, exhibitions and performances.

The event is expected to hold more than 10 major activities and several supporting activities in Astana and Almaty, including a promotional fair for B&R cooperation, the "All Products in Shandong" activity, the Shandong Tourism Cooperation Conference and the International Construction Materials and Kazbuild Exhibition.

In addition, Shandong Week will highlight the characteristics of Shandong's most promising cities. The last two days of Shandong Week will be designated Qingdao Day and Dongying Day, to showcase Qingdao's functions as a hub city and Dongying's rising reputation as an oilfield city.

Major cities in Shandong, including Jinan, Weihai, Dezhou, Liaocheng and Binzhou, will take part in a commodities expo. Dezhou, Liaocheng and Binzhou will hold investment seminars with Kazakhstan's investors.

Exhibitions of two of Shandong's major brands - Hoping Shandong, for local leading products, and Friendly Shandong for local sceneries - will be displayed during the event, according to Ma.

As a warm-up activity for Shandong Week, the province held a special event for media organizations from South, Southeast and Central Asia to visit Shandong from June 3 to 8.

During the week-long event, journalists and reporters were shown some of Shandong's most promising businesses involved in solar power, wind power, oil equipment manufacturing, wine making and heavy-truck production and assembly in three Shandong cities - Jinan, Dongying and Yantai - allowing the visitors to learn more about the industrial and economic development of Shandong.

Contact the writers at yangcheng@chinadaily.com.cn and yangmin@chinadaily.com.cn

Reporters from Asian media outlets capture a fascinating moment of Lyuju Opera, a traditional opera style thriving in Dongying, Shandong province.Ma Xiaoqian / For China Daily

(China Daily 07/14/2017 page12)
A poster for the film Twenty Two. [Photo/mtime.com]

The first documentary film on the subject of Chinese victims of Japanese wartime sex slavery has been approved by the Chinese authorities and will hit local theaters in August.

Twenty Two, directed by Guo Ke, records the daily life of 22 surviving sex slavery victims and their memories of what happened in World War II. The director said at a special screening in Beijing on July 7 that he hoped more people would come to understand the dark history behind Japan's "comfort women" (military prostitution).

The film encountered a series of difficulties during production, including the withdrawal of investors. Chinese actress Zhang Xinyi personally provided 1 million yuan ($147,460) to help finish the project.

The producers organized advanced screenings in 38 cities in China for audiences totaling some 30,000 people, including those who helped fund and promote the project. The director said without their help, the documentary film would not have been possible.

The film has much footage of the normal life of the sex slavery victims, the director noting that he wanted to present their real lives, rather than editing to make it inflammatory.

By June 2017, 13 of 22 sex slavery victims in the film have passed away, so that only nine remain. "I don't want to tell you through this film about what relationship China and Japan should have," Guo said, "I just want you to know them, to know the real history. Thinking of them as your own family members, you will understand why the film is made like this."

The longstanding disputes between Japan and neighboring China and South Korea over the "comfort women" issue have largely hindered development of ties and the issue has become a touchstone of how Japan is facing up to its wartime history.

A leaflet handed to audiences by the organizers of the film screening reads "From 1932 to 1945, at least 200,000 Chinese women were forced to become comfort women."

"We face the pain," the leaflet continued, "and we remember."

Numerous historical materials prove the suffering of sex slaves at the hands of the Japanese military more than 70 years ago, including a series of videos and documents released in August by China's State Archives Administration, serving as new evidence of the outrageous crimes. Experts from China and the South Korea revealed a list of 210 "comfort women" from the Second World War in early July 2017. The South Korean government also wants to build a museum in memory of wartime sex slavery victims in the future.

Chinese and South Korean victims have been demanding a sincere apology, repentance and compensation from the Japanese government. However, the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has yet to sincerely apologize for the wartime crimes.

Twenty Two will be widely released in China on Aug 14, earmarked as an international memorial day for the wartime sex slaves.
African wood carving of a lion and its cub. [Photo/VCG]

African wood carving enjoys an international reputation of having a bold, passionate and unadorned style. The art of wood carving in China's Zhejiang province, boasting two registrations for the National Intangible Cultural Heritage, also occupies an important position in the artistic realm around the globe.

This summer, nine national-level wood carving artists from Congo, Djibouti, Gabon and the Central African Republic visited Zhejiang province to approach Chinese wood carving for the very first time.

From June 23 to July 13, they attended lectures, seminars and museum tours to learn the techniques of traditional Chinese wood carving. On Thursday, the last day of their training, 50 artwork pieces created by the artists were exhibited, showcasing the productive dialogue between African and Chinese art.

"What strikes me most about Chinese wood carving is its expression for love and peace," Mankindura Victor Dilouzej, an artist from Cango, said. "Like a flame, it fills my heart with inspiration."

"I sincerely hope every artist who comes to China can help to build the future of China-Africa cultural exchange," Ma Yunfei, an official in the Africa division of the Ministry of Culture, said. "Let our communication go on like a long flowing stream."
Spanish fashion brand Massimo Dutti, in collaboration with Tmall Super Brand Day, presents its Limited Edition Women & Men collections on July 13 in Shanghai. This is the first time the brand has organized a catwalk show in an Asian country and has chosen this dynamic, cutting-edge city where tradition and modernity exist side by side. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
India must end standoff for its own good 2017-07-14 07:19:41 China Daily Ma Jiali Admittedly, New Delhi's strategic thinking is undergoing drastic changes, and how it will readjust its diplomatic stance also hinges on its non-aligned commitment, public opinion at home and China-US relations.

The dispatching of Chinese troops to a logistics support base in Djibouti on Tuesday, the first of its kind for the People's Liberation Army, to take up international missions such as peacekeeping and humanitarian aid, has been misinterpreted by some Western media outlets as China's efforts to strengthen its presence in the Indian Ocean and therefore challenge India's influence in the region.

The misinterpretation coincides with US Navy commander William D Byrne Jr's remark that the Malabar Naval Exercise-2017 by the United States, Japan and India in the Bay of Bengal, which began on Monday, is aimed at achieving deeper military ties between the three nations and "sending a strategic message to China".

China and India, both important players in many multilateral forums including BRICS and climate change talks, have of late witnessed growing mutual distrust because of the ongoing military standoff between their armies in the Sikkim section of their border. Even after three weeks, the standoff in China's Donglang area continues. And a diplomatic solution is not possible unless India withdraws its trespassing troops from the area, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang emphasized on Monday. The Indian troops that illegally entered Donglang are reportedly maintaining "a line of supplies" to dig in for "a long haul".

In the two decades before 2015, China and India had managed to keep their border disputes and trade imbalances at controllable levels while maintaining open dialogue. The change occurred when the Indian economy and relevant reforms started picking up after Narendra Modi was sworn in as India's prime minister three years ago. The ensuing decent growth7.6 percent between 2014 and 2015 and above 6.5 percent last yearfueled nationalist sentiments among many Indians leading to New Delhi's assertiveness in dealing with countries it has disputes with.

The border dispute between China and India started catching the headlines after 2012, since when more Indian troops and heavy weapons as well as sporadic frictions have been noted near the Line of Actual Control. Apart from accusing Chinese troops of trespassing, which Beijing has time and again denied citing sound evidence, New Delhi allowed the 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual Tibetan leader who supports "Tibetan independence", to visit Southern Tibet, a historical Chinese territory that has been occupied by India.

Rather than pursuing further progress in border negotiations with China, India made far-fetched connections between the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the India-Pakistan dispute over the sovereignty of Kashmir. In essence, the economic corridor is an extension of China's westbound development initiative that has nothing to do with India's sovereign integrity or core interests.

China's peacekeeping missions near Somali waters and in the Indian Ocean, which are on the rise in the face of increasing security threats, are also a thorn in India's flesh. For years New Delhi has considered the Indian Ocean its backyard, which is why it overacts to Chinese presence in those waters. To counter the so-called China threat and expand its strategic reach in the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Navy has deepened its cooperation with its US and Japanese counterparts through multiple joint drills.

Admittedly, New Delhi's strategic thinking is undergoing drastic changes, and how it will readjust its diplomatic stance also hinges on its non-aligned commitment, public opinion at home and China-US relations.

However, it should be noted that China still values its rising South Asian neighbor as a diplomatic priority, and hopes to reduce strategic misjudgments and border frictions through talks. Some powers are exploiting India for their own benefits by trying to drive a wedge between the two biggest developing countries. It is time for India to show its sincerity in resolving the ongoing standoff for the sake of peace and its own development.

The author is a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. The article is an excerpt from his speech at a recent seminar hosted by Pangoal Institution, a Beijing-based think tank.
US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lay wreaths at the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii on December 27, 2016. [Agencies]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Pearl Harbor to lay a wreath and the Japanese made it very clear that he was not there to apologize for the attack on the US in 1941. Actually, he does not need to apologize as the Americans believe the Japanese are honorable warriors living by the samurai code of honor, not sneaky attacks. This is what the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshida Suga said, The visit to Pearl Harbor was to console the souls of the war dead, not to apologize.

What was the purpose of the visit to Hawaii, where they attacked with all their might and killed so many Americans, if Abe refused to apologize? Was to claim that Japan did nothing wrong, that theres nothing to apologize for? OK, got the message.

We must never repeat the horrors of war again. This is the solemn vow we, the people of Japan, have taken, said Abe. No more wars, no more atrocities! Then why did Abe and his cabinet tore away the pacifist Constitution that forbade Japan to go to war unless attacked? Why is Japan so eager to engage in wars abroad, to support wars overseas, including fighting alongside the US?

Hard to believe someone talking about peace and no war when the same person not only tore away the pacifist Constitution, but also remilitarizes his armed forces with bigger defense budget and happily sends the soldiers to theaters of war all over the world.

Is Abe a liar or an honorable man who can be trusted not to conduct wars? The refusal to apologize to the victims of the sneaky attack on Pearl Harbor speaks volumes about what is inside Abes head and what he stands for. He does not see it necessary to visit the war memorials of all the countries that Japan invaded during the Japanese invasion of Asia and Southeast Asia except Pearl Harbor, all because US President Barack Obama had to visit the memorial site in Hiroshima first. Abe has never visited the memorial sites in Koreas and China, two countries that suffered the most from the invading Japanese Imperial army. But he has on many occasions visited the Yasukuni Shrine that honors the war criminals of Japan.

What does all this say of Abe and of the Japanese people? Can anyone trust Abe and his gang not to start war again?

The author is a political observer from Singapore.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and don't represent views of China Daily website.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures as he addresses the nation from the historic Red Fort during Independence Day celebrations in Delhi, India, August 15, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

The dispatching of Chinese troops to a logistics support base in Djibouti on Tuesday, the first of its kind for the People's Liberation Army, to take up international missions such as peacekeeping and humanitarian aid, has been misinterpreted by some Western media outlets as China's efforts to strengthen its presence in the Indian Ocean and therefore challenge India's influence in the region.

The misinterpretation coincides with US Navy commander William D Byrne Jr's remark that the Malabar Naval Exercise-2017 by the United States, Japan and India in the Bay of Bengal, which began on Monday, is aimed at achieving deeper military ties between the three nations and "sending a strategic message to China".

China and India, both important players in many multilateral forums including BRICS and climate change talks, have of late witnessed growing mutual distrust because of the ongoing military standoff between their armies in the Sikkim section of their border. Even after three weeks, the standoff in China's Donglang area continues. And a diplomatic solution is not possible unless India withdraws its trespassing troops from the area, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang emphasized on Monday. The Indian troops that illegally entered Donglang are reportedly maintaining "a line of supplies" to dig in for "a long haul".

In the two decades before 2015, China and India had managed to keep their border disputes and trade imbalances at controllable levels while maintaining open dialogue. The change occurred when the Indian economy and relevant reforms started picking up after Narendra Modi was sworn in as India's prime minister three years ago. The ensuing decent growth7.6 percent between 2014 and 2015 and above 6.5 percent last yearfueled nationalist sentiments among many Indians leading to New Delhi's assertiveness in dealing with countries it has disputes with.

The border dispute between China and India started catching the headlines after 2012, since when more Indian troops and heavy weapons as well as sporadic frictions have been noted near the Line of Actual Control. Apart from accusing Chinese troops of trespassing, which Beijing has time and again denied citing sound evidence, New Delhi allowed the 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual Tibetan leader who supports "Tibetan independence", to visit Southern Tibet, a historical Chinese territory that has been occupied by India.

Rather than pursuing further progress in border negotiations with China, India made far-fetched connections between the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the India-Pakistan dispute over the sovereignty of Kashmir. In essence, the economic corridor is an extension of China's westbound development initiative that has nothing to do with India's sovereign integrity or core interests.

China's peacekeeping missions near Somali waters and in the Indian Ocean, which are on the rise in the face of increasing security threats, are also a thorn in India's flesh. For years New Delhi has considered the Indian Ocean its backyard, which is why it overacts to Chinese presence in those waters. To counter the so-called China threat and expand its strategic reach in the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Navy has deepened its cooperation with its US and Japanese counterparts through multiple joint drills.

Admittedly, New Delhi's strategic thinking is undergoing drastic changes, and how it will readjust its diplomatic stance also hinges on its non-aligned commitment, public opinion at home and China-US relations.

However, it should be noted that China still values its rising South Asian neighbor as a diplomatic priority, and hopes to reduce strategic misjudgments and border frictions through talks. Some powers are exploiting India for their own benefits by trying to drive a wedge between the two biggest developing countries. It is time for India to show its sincerity in resolving the ongoing standoff for the sake of peace and its own development.

The author is a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. The article is an excerpt from his speech at a recent seminar hosted by Pangoal Institution, a Beijing-based think tank.
CAI MENG/CHINA DAILY

US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the Paris climate change agreement last month. His move generated a lot of heat in political, diplomatic and media circlesand most of the reactions were extremely critical. Trump's international isolation was obvious then and became almost physically evident at the just-concluded G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

The Paris Agreement is not binding; in other words, it contains commitments on emission cuts and, mostly on the part of developed nations, funding for developing or less developed countries meant to facilitate access to green technologies, which should be undertaken on a voluntary basis.

Besides, the Paris Agreement does not fully honor the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which enshrined two important principles in global climate negotiations: historic responsibility (and related to it the idea of emission space for developing and less developed countries) and the idea that developed countries had to undertake binding obligations.

After years of post-Copenhagen negotiations, the international community agreed to junk these fundamental principles to get the United States on board. And Trump has made a mockery of that compromise.

Several propositions follow logically. The first is that the targets envisaged under the Paris climate deal cannot be met without the active participation of the US.

Some US states, like California, and some US corporations have promised to formulate targets and meet them; some will enter into separate agreements with relevant (perhaps UN-mandated) authorities to pursue this end. These states and corporations could also contribute to the corpus intended to help poorer countries to follow a cleaner growth track. Still, without the participation of the US in its entirety, the Paris targets cannot be met.

No amount of effort by other countries to take up the slack will be enough if Trump does not reconsider his ill-considered decision. And the G20 summit provided enough evidence that Trump has no intention of backing down. This evidence came in connection to the question on the use of fossil fuels, which are largely responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases. The US, however, has said it would work with other countries toward cleaner and more efficient use of these fuels, without committing any time frame for phasing them out. And this is just one of the many promises made by the US which it cannot be expected to honor.

Some of the more optimistic observers have noted that even though Trump has decided to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement, the procedures specified in the deal will make it impossible for the US to exit before late 2020, by which time the next US presidential elections will have been held.

But what Trump can do and, in fact, has already started doing is ignore the Paris Agreement, because the commitments made under it are voluntary and, therefore, not binding. The US can ratchet up its use of fossil fuels in an attempt to re-industrialize its so-called rust belt (whether or not that is a plausible strategy), it can step up prospecting for oil or shale and it can emit as much greenhouse gases as it wants, while nominally still being a part of the Paris Agreement.

So apart from increased emissions, we should not be surprised if the US' contributions under the Paris Agreement falls to zero or very close to itthat's what Trump has promised and has been indicated by the general budgetary drift, which includes drastic cuts in foreign aid and allotments to the office of the secretary of state.

All of this adds up to the inescapable fact that any concerted global action against climate change must be designed and undertaken factoring out the US at least for the next four years or so. This conjuncture, then, affords us a very real opportunity to ask a very important question: With the US, unfortunately, out of the way, should the international community, led by China and India, revisit the basic principles underlying the Kyoto Protocolcommon but differentiated responsibilities, historic liabilities, binding obligations?

The author is a senior journalist and independent researcher based in India.
Even if Anthony had a year to analyze and dissect each piece...(he couldn't tell if it would)... stand the harsh light of public exposure.

WUWT insider Willis Eschenbach tells you all you need to know about Anthony Watts and his blog, WattsUpWithThat (WUWT). As part of his scathing commentary , Wondering Willis accuses Anthony Watts of being clueless about the blog articles he posts. To paraphrase: Click here to read more.
CAI MENG/CHINA DAILY

Like many in China, I have long felt the US news media is biased in its coverage of China. Much of this, in my view, is due to an individual writer's lack of knowledge about China, his or her political bias, or the agenda of his news organization.

As a journalist, I understand the watchdog role of the press. Yet that is totally different from biased reporting.

Americans might see such a problem when they look at the news media's treatment of US President Donald Trump. It is true that Trump has made plenty of controversial or outrageous comments since he started his presidential race, but the US news media's excessive bias against Trump is obvious.

A report in May by the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy analyzed news coverage of Trump's first 100 days in office. It found that 80 percent of the coverage was negative, while only 20 percent was positive. This compared with the 41 percent negative coverage Barack Obama received; and the 57 percent George W. Bush received and the 60 percent for Bill Clinton.

Trump might be the first US president to face the news media head on, calling them disseminators of fake news and dishonest, something that a US president and politician would rarely do given the outsized power of news media today in influencing votes and public opinion.

However, it is clear the US news media is not almighty because Trump won the 2016 election despite a hostile media environment and a predicted landslide for Hillary Clinton, with most major polls concluding a Clinton victory was a foregone conclusion.

A report by senior media writer Jack Shafter and data reporter Tucker Doherty of Politico in May is telling. Some 72 percent of all internet publishing or newspaper employees work in a country where Clinton won. "By this measure, of course, Clinton was the national media's candidate," they wrote.

It is no secret that high ratings are also one of the drivers for the enthusiasm displayed by many US news outlets, especially the cable networks, for biased and sensational reports.

Watching and reading news about China in the US news media gives many Chinese the same feeling of bias. China rarely gets credit for anything, especially when it comes to relations with the US. The narrative is: China is always wrong. China is evil.

I cannot help laughing when watching the superficial and one-sided analysis by some talking heads on US TV networks, especially by someone who has predicted China's collapse multiple times. I wonder why some respected China experts, both in China and the US, are never or rarely invited to talk on TV. Is that because they are too rational and not sensational enough to help TV ratings?

As a Chinese national, I feel the need to go back home from time to time to catch up with the fast changes there. That is also the thinking of many China hands in the US I talked to. It is forgivable that those who have not lived in China or even visited China keep pretending they know all the problems and solutions in China.

The US news media are facing a crisis of low public confidence. A Gallup poll in June revealed that only 27 percent of respondents had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in newspapers, 24 percent said they had high confidence in TV news; and 16 percent said they had high confidence in news on the internet.

If news media are all about public trust, then US news media have failed miserably.

The author is deputy editor of China Daily USA.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
People react at the end of the bond hearing for Brendt Christensen outside of the US Courthouse on July 3, 2017 in Urbana, Illinois. [Photo/VCG]

A US federal grand jury indicted Brendt Christensen on a count of kidnapping on Wednesday in connection with the disappearance of Zhang Yingying, a 26-year-old Chinese research student at the University of Illinois, and who was last seen at its Urbana-Champaign campus on June 9.

Christensen will now formally enter a plea to the charge at an arraignment scheduled for July 20.

The penalty for kidnapping is up to life in prison if convicted. And for many in China, it is an open and shut case.

Surveillance video shows Zhang, who was on her way to sign a lease for an apartment, climbing into a vehicle that investigators later identified as Christensen's car.

A search of the car found the passenger's side had been thoroughly cleaned.

And a search of Christensen's cellphone found he had visited a website that included threads on "perfect abduction fantasy" and "planning a kidnapping".

However, an indictment is merely an accusation.

Although people may have decided in their own minds that Christensen is guilty based on the reports they have avidly been following, he has not confessed to any crime nor has he been proven guilty in a court of law. That means, as the US Attorney's Office in Urbana reminded people, the law must presume him innocent.

Since the one-page indictment on Wednesday did not offer any new details beyond what the FBI and prosecutors had already revealed in an affidavit and court hearings, the whereabouts of Zhang, and whether she is alive or not, remain unknown.

However, a criminal complaint filed before Christensen was arrested on June 30, shows that although there have been many reported sightings of Zhang, law enforcement officials believe she is dead.

The uncertainty surrounding her fate, and people's clinging to the hope that she will still be found alive and well, has provoked an outpouring of anger among her compatriots directed at the investigators, who have been unable to determine what happened to Zhang after she got into Christensen's car.

It is to be hoped the investigation can be pursued until the mystery is solved, not only for the peace of mind of her parents, but also to show the law seeks justice for the victims of crimes who are not US citizens.

Zhang, from Nanping in East China's Fujian province, came to the university in late April as part of a one-year research appointment in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences.

Meanwhile, since the United States is home to the largest number of Chinese students studying abroadabout 330,000 last year, according to the US Student and Exchange Visitor Programyet many of them are naive to the possible dangers they may encounter.

Zhang's case should prompt the authorities in both countries to enhance Chinese students' safety awareness when they go to study overseas.
ON MONDAY, the Ministry of Environmental Protection summoned the governors of Siping and Gongzhuling in Northeast China's Jilin province, Hengshui in North China's Hebei province, Zibo in Shandong province, Xingyang in Henan province and Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, and the High-Tech District of Changzhi in North China's Shanxi province for explanations for the worsening condition of the local environment and their poor handling of air pollution. Southern Metropolis Daily comments:

Since the ministry started the governor-inquiry practice in 2014, the heads of at least 15 city and county governments have been called to the ministry to explain their poor performance in protecting the local environment and ecology.

The inquiry mechanism serves as a warning to local governments that they must do more to fulfill their responsibilities in environmental conservation.

But, as the past three years have shown, this has not been enough to curb environmental degradation and pollution.

If the inquiry system remains toothless and continues to lack legally binding powers to effect change, it is predictable that more local governors will make their way to the ministry to listen to suggestions on how to improve their work.

Few of the local governors heed the warnings or advice because the ministry almost has no say in their promotion or punishment, even if its administrative level is higher than that of the city and county authorities.

In other words, although the central authorities have given environmental protection equal importance to economic growth, it is way down the to-do list of the top local officials.

The central authorities need to reform the Environmental Protection Ministry's governor-inquiry mechanism. Being summoned to the ministry should be regarded as a stain on an officials' record and be taken into account when they are considered for promotion.

In the long run, the ministry must establish a performance evaluation system to assess the efforts of local officials to protect the environment and curb pollution.
Napa Lake in countryside Shangri La, Yunnan province, in June. The area is a top destination for migratory birds. [Photo by Shi Wenzhi/China Daily]

Local and foreign settlers seek to raise remote town's profile, Satarupa Bhattacharjya reports in Shangri La, Yunnan province.

In Lost Horizon, the late British author James Hilton described "Shangri-La" as a mysterious valley in the Himalayan region where the 1933 novel's main character, Hugh Conway, a diplomat from his country, hopes to find peace from the conflicts of the world.

In a later media interview, Hilton said he imagined the place based on research at a museum library.

"A full moon rose, touching each peak in succession like some celestial lamplighter, until the long horizon glittered against a blue-black sky," he wrote in the book.

In the last decade, the ancient town of Zhongdian in Southwest China's Yunnan province was renamed Shangri La. Located at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters above sea level, it is called Gyalthang, or the "valley of the blue moon" in Tibetan. Shangri La is the seat of the local government of the Diqing Tibet autonomous prefecture.

According to one theory, Zhongdian was renamed because it bears a strong resemblance to Hilton's fictional land, while another suggests it was done to boost tourism.

Nevertheless, this town in Yunnan's northwestwith its old wooden houses, quiet alleys, surrounding mountains, a large lake and mastiffs and yaksis charming.

And, some residents, both local and foreign settlers, are working to raise the remote town's profile, as China Daily's recent interviews indicate.

The larger county's population of 170,000 is mostly made up of Tibetans. Members of the Lisu ethnic group, among others, also live here.

Dakpa Kelden, a 47-year-old Tibetan entrepreneur and art patron, returned to the town in 1987 from India where he was born. The town's airport was built in the 1990s, when foreign tourists started to first arrive from Malaysia.
Two Chinese tourists were killed and 24 others injured after a bus carrying 32 Chinese tourists overturned on Thailand's Phuket Island at 11:30 pm local time on Monday, according to China's consular office in Phuket.

A man rushes to help rescue the injured in a bus accident in Patong, Phuket, Thailand, July 10, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

As Thai local media reported, a 10-year-old boy died on the spot and 25 others were injured, but one of them died later.

The accident happened on the way back to their hotel after the Chinese tourists enjoyed a trip to a spa, according to local police.

The bus driver said that the bus's brakes didn't work when the bus was driving down a ramp, which caused the driver to lose control as the vehicle crashed into motorcycles, cars, auto repair shops and houses along the road.

Police brought the bus driver to the police station as part of the investigation and inspected the bus to clarify the cause of the accident.

On June 29, a bus carrying 33 Chinese tourists was in a crash with a motorcycle on the same section of road. The accident left the motorcycle's driver, a Thai woman, dead and injured 24 Chinese tourists. That accident was due to brake failure.
The Philippines said Wednesday it believes the ongoing dispute in the South China Sea should be resolved in a manner consistent with 'the spirit of good neighborly relations'.

"The Philippines is further encouraged by the Agreement on a Framework on the Code of Conduct on the South China Sea that will help us move towards negotiating an effective Code of Conduct," the Philippine Foreign Ministry said in a "Statement on the first anniversary of the arbitral tribunal award".

July 12 marked the first anniversary of the Arbitral Tribunal of The Hague's ruling on the South China Sea dispute in a case against China that was unilaterally initiated by the Philippines under the administration of former president Benigno Aquino III.

China has reiterated that the ruling was illegal and said it will not accept any proposition or action based on the decision.

"Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alan Peter S. Cayetano reiterates that the Duterte Administration is committed to its strategy to strengthen old allies and engage new partner nations," the statement said.

"The Philippines shall remain an enemy to none and a friend to all in its pursuit of economic and political benefits for the country, including the long-term security and stability in the region," it said.
China's imports from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have seen a drastic drop in the past four months and it "has strictly abided" by United Nations Security Council resolutions, a customs official said.

Huang Songping, spokesman of General Administration of Customs, said on Thursday at a Beijing news conference that China's total imports from the DPRK amounted to $880 million in the first six months of this year, a year-on-year drop of 13.2 percent.

In March the year-on-year decrease was 36.5 percent, and in June it was 28.9 percent, Huang said.

UN Security Council Resolution 2270, approved in March 2016, included a ban on all exports of materials like coal, iron and iron ore from the DPRK.

As part of China's moves to honor resolutions that target Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, China suspended coal imports from its northeastern neighbor starting Feb 19, the Ministry of Commerce confirmed later in the same month.

China imported only 2.67 million metric tons of coal from the DPRK in the first half of this year, a year-on-year drop of 74.5 percent, Huang noted.

All coal imports from the DPRK happened before Feb 18, and "this is a sign of China's implementing the UNSC resolutions", Huang said.

US President Donald Trump claimed in a tweet this month that China-DPRK trade in the first quarter "grew almost 40 percent". But Huang said the total trade figure in the first six months was $2.55 billion, an increase of 10.5 percent.

China's exports to the DPRK increased by 29.1 percent in the same period, but Huang said that was mainly driven by traditional labor-intensive commodities such as textiles, which are outside the embargo lists.

That increase "cannot be used as evidence questioning China's seriousness in fulfilling UNSC resolutions", Huang said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Chinese exports of iron to the DPRK for civilian purposes do not relate to the sanctions targeting Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, and China will continue implementing the resolutions "in an all-out manner".
LONDON - London underground staff have been given new announcement protocols Thursday to change the traditional way of greeting people "ladies and gentleman" to the gender neutral "hello everyone".

Transport for London (TfL) said the move was to ensure all passengers felt welcome on London Underground services. The revised phrasing will be applied to all new pre-recorded announcements made across the capital's transport network.

Mark Evers, director of customer strategy at TfL, said: "We want everyone to feel welcome on our transport network. We have reviewed the language that we use in announcements and elsewhere and will make sure that it is fully inclusive, reflecting the great diversity of London."

A spokeswoman for TfL told Xinhua: "We have made a commitment to move from gender-specific phrases like 'ladies and gentlemen' to a gender-neutral alternative such as 'good morning/good afternoon everyone'.

"We have briefed our staff on this, though from time to time, well-meaning staff may still use the term 'ladies and gentlemen'. If this happens frequently, we will issue reminders to staff."

Revised phrasing will be applied to new pre-recorded announcements as part of the regular cycle of updating them.

"Equality and inclusion are at the heart of TfL's customer service and we will continue to ensure our staff receive appropriate training," the spokeswoman added.

The change has been supported by London mayor Sadiq Khan, who said he has wanted TfL to speak in a "more neutral way".

Khan said: "TfL serves a vibrant, diverse and multicultural city, and provision of an inclusive transport service is at the heart of TfL's purpose. Some customers may not relate to or feel comfortable with the way that certain station announcements were made."

As one of the world's busiest transportation systems, London Underground carries about 1.3 billion passengers every year.
French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump react in the courtyard after a joint news conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, July 13, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

PARIS - US President Donald Trump on Thursday hinted a possible change in his position over the Paris climate accord from which he withdrew weeks ago.

"Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord, let's see what happens," said Trump.

"We will talk about that over the coming period of time and if it happens, that will be wonderful, and if it doesn't, that'll be okay too," he added.

At a joint press meeting with his visiting American counterpart, French President Emmanuel Macron said "on climate, we know our disagreements. I respect the decision of President Trump, but I remain attached to the Paris Agreement."

Speaking about the disagreements, Macron said, "we have expressed them and shared them several times and I think it is important to be able to continue to see how to move forward on this subject."

"Does this have to hamper, prevent the discussions we have on all the other subjects? Definitely not, in no case," Macron said.

This afternoon, at a joint press meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the French president expressed his surprise following mounting criticism over Donald Trump's participation in the Bastille Day parade on July 14, saying Washington remained Paris's "strategic ally", despite "strong disagreement" over climate change.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks with reporters about the Senate health care bill on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, July 13, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

July 13 - Senate Republican leaders released an updated version of their healthcare bill on Thursday that would dismantle Obamacare after an attempt to bring an earlier version of the legislation to a vote fell apart amid an intraparty revolt.

The new version of the bill did little to assuage concerns of moderate Republicans, who worried that its deep cuts to Medicaid would harm their most vulnerable residents. Two Republican senators said they would not even vote to open debate on the bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can only afford to lose two of his party's 52 Republicans, with Vice President Mike Pence ready to cast a tie-breaking vote.

The Senate added a number of changes to the bill in an attempt to win more support. Here are the main provisions of the new version of the bill:

SKIMPIER INSURANCE PLANS

The bill contains an amendment from conservative Republican Senator Ted Cruz that would allow insurers to sell stripped-down, low-cost insurance plans that do not comply with Obamacare's requirement that insurers cover a set of 10 essential health benefits. Those benefits include maternity and newborn care, mental health services and addiction treatment, outpatient care, hospitalization, emergency room visits and prescription drugs.

Insurers are strongly opposed to the amendment, which they say would raise insurance premiums for sick people, destabilize the individual insurance market and undermine protections for those with pre-existing medical conditions.

Senior Republican Senate aides said the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) would assess a version of the legislation with the amendment, and one without it.
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Chinese tourists take pictures near the Big Ben clock tower in London, Britain June 29, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

The number of Chinese visitors to Britain soared in the first quarter of 2017.

According to VisitBritain, the official tourism body, a record 54,000 tourists from China visited in the first three months, a rise of 27 percent on the same period last year.

Britain also remains attractive to shoppers, with Chinese tourists spending a record 91 million pounds($117 million), also a rise of 27 percent.

Patricia Yates, a director at VisitBritain, said: "It is very encouraging to see such strong growth from some of our largest and most valuable markets... as well as markets that are important for our future, such as China."

And it looks as if many more Chinese visitors are planning to spend their summer in Britain. The latest data from travel consultancy Forward Keys shows flight bookings from China to the UK are 35 percent ahead of where they were last year for the July-to-September period.

Yates said: "With forward-bookings for international arrivals tracking ahead for the coming months, we are anticipating a strong summer holiday season as we promote the message of value and welcome globally, showing people why they should book a holiday to Britain right now."

Shopping is thought to be one of the biggest draws, with tourists taking advantage of a weak pound in the aftermath of the UK's decision to leave the European Union.

According to the UK tourism body, Chinese tourists spend longer and travel more widely in Britain than other international visitors. China moved into Britain's top 10 most valuable inbound markets for the first time in 2015.

Overall, VisitBritain said 8.3 million foreign holidaymakers visited the UK between January and March, a rise of 10 percent, with overall spending up by 16 percent to 4.4 billion pounds.

The number of visitors from the United States, the UK's most valuable visitor market, grew by 16 percent, to 641,000. And there was also a record number of tourists from Australia and strong growth among the number of tourists from France.

Tourism is worth 127 billion pounds annually to the UK economy and is a driver of job-creation and economic growth.
Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Chang Wanquan (L) shakes hands with Angolan Vice-President Manuel Domingos Vicente in Luanda, Angola, on July 13, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

LUANDA - Angolan Vice-President Manuel Domingos Vicente said his country thanks China for its support of Angola's rebuilding and economic development.

Vicente made the remarks while meeting with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Chang Wanquan, in Luanda on Thursday.

The vice president said the two countries enjoy a firm foundation for bilateral friendly cooperation, which is important to maintaining global peace and stability.

He said Angola highly values the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China, and stands ready to coordinate development with China under the initiative so as realize common development and benefit the two peoples.

For his part, Chang said his visit aims to materialize the important consensus reached by the leaders of both countries, to consolidate pragmatic cooperation in all fields including defense and security, and bring bilateral ties to a new level.
WASHINGTON - Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of US President Donald Trump, who was embroiled in controversy for meeting a Russian lawyer, would be called on to testify before Congress, said the US Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said he intended to send a letter to Trump Jr., summoning him for questioning, US media outlet CNN said, and Trump Jr. may be called upon as early as next week.

Anyone asked to testify before the Senate should comply, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday.

Trump Jr. on Tuesday released full email records leading up to a meeting with a Russian lawyer with suspected ties to the Russian government last June, fueling speculation that Trump's campaign had colluded with the Russian government during last year's presidential campaign.

According to the emails, Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting after being told by a publicist that the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, possessed damaging information on Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton.

In a recent interview, Veselnitskaya denied having discussed Hillary-related issues with Trump Jr. during the meeting. She also denied ties to the Russian government.
Li Xianghong on his self-built plane. [Photo from Li Xianghong's Sina Weibo account]

Recalling his maiden flight on a self-built plane in 2014, Li Xianghong said the feeling is hard to describe in words.

Three years later, the 46-year-old Boeing engineer made his first international flight from Seattle to Canada on the same aircraft in early July after flying safely for over 300 hours.

Li's affection for flying dates back to his childhood in Zhuzhou, central China's Hunan province, when his father was a bomber pilot. Visiting his father's army and watching him in the sky was one of the most memorable moments of his happy childhood, sowing a love for flying deep in the little boy's heart.

But his father objected when Li decided to apply for pilot school after graduating from high school due to age and safety concerns. He wanted his son to learn plane construction and design.

The career life of a pilot is very short but a plane engineer could still work into his 60s even 70s, according to Li's father Li Yougen.

Respecting his father's will, Li entered the applied mechanics department of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He went to America for further study in 1995 and became an engineer at Boeing Company after graduation.

However, he never forgot about his aspiration to fly. In 2007, he got a private pilot license.

"I planned to build a plane myself considering I had to rent one every time I wanted to fly," he said.

After over one year of preparations and study, Li kicked off his DIY project in his garage in April 2011 and completed the seemingly impossible mission on May 27, 2014, after spending 1,900 hours and $90,000.

"Security remains the key issue of the building process. Any minor component problem could lead to accident in the air and pose threat to human life," he said.
YONGIN  One of South Korea's hottest YouTube stars is a 70-year-old grandmother whose cool, undaunted style and hilarity are a breath of fresh air in a social media universe that exalts youth and perfect looks.

Park Makrye's videos are all about showing off her wrinkles and her elderly life in the raw. Young South Koreans find her so funny and adorable that big companies like Samsung Electronics and Lotte are banking on her popularity.

Despite her new life as a celebrity, she still gets up before dawn to run her diner.

Serving kimchi while clad in a dotted pink top and short skirt with a kitchen hygiene hat on her head, Park isn't exactly the most stylish beauty icon.

Yet, South Koreans love watching her give make-up tutorials, reunite with an old friend or try pasta for the first time in her life in her "Grandma's Diary" YouTube videos"She's real. She's not fake," said Lee Injae, a 31-year-old living in Seoul. "It's refreshing to see the world through the eyes of a grandmother."Before YouTube, Park says, her life was "dead like rotten bean sprouts.""We used to think, 'Since I'm over 70, my life is over,'" Park said in an interview with The Associated Press, sitting in the living room that she turns into her YouTube studio by taping a broad piece of paper on the wall.

"But as I started doing this, I realized life starts at 71 years old," she said, adding an extra year as is the custom in Korea and many other Asian countries.

Park's stardom defies the conventional expectations of the elderly in South Korea, often portrayed in mass media as suffering from poverty or as angry patriots protesting for conservative values. South Korea has the highest elderly poverty rate among developed countries. The country has been struggling to provide better social safety nets or jobs to the elderly populations even when fewer young generations support their aging parents as they are getting less and less attached to the Confucian traditions of revering the aged.

Encouraged by a granddaughter to start making videos as a way to stave off dementia, Park is living it up. She's posed for a women's monthly magazine spread, hosted a home shopping show for retail giant Lotte and will be appearing next week as a model in a YouTube commercial for Samsung's TV.

Her fans travel from across the country to eat at her diner where one can get filled with a rice and vegetable meal for just $5 in a remote part of Yongin, a city 34 kilometers (21 miles) south of Seoul with no easy public transport access.

Kim Yura, Park's 27-year-old granddaughter, stopped working as an acting instructor to travel with her grandmother after a doctor told the family she had a high risk of getting Alzheimer's disease like her three elder sisters. Kim took her grandmother to Australia, as a treat after more than 40 years of raising children and running a restaurant.

A video of the grandmother-granddaughter duo visiting Cairns, Australia in January shows Park describing her first time diving in the ocean and her sprinting to a swimming pool like a kid. It was a big hit among young South Koreans: less than six months later, Park has about 400,000 followers on YouTube and Instagram.

Since then, everything has "flipped like a pancake," Park quips.

"I learned then that my grandmother was just like us. She likes to travel, eat tasty food and take pretty photos," said Kim, who films and edits the videos.

"I'm her fan too. She is such a cool person."Her fans love Park's unfiltered comments in her local dialect, such as a remark about Korean soap operas  "those things get pregnant days and nights."Park's unabashed willingness to share her story and emotions, and her lack of shame over her poor education, appeal to young South Koreans.

"The reason she is so popular is that she talks candidly without pretension about things that women feel uncomfortable about," said Lee Taek Gwang, a professor of culture studies at Kyunghee University. "She talks about topics that we don't dare to talk about, especially on women's issues."About cosmetic companies' promises to make women younger and prettier, Park scoffs, "You just have to be born again."Offering make-up tips to help people look a decade younger, she warns teenage viewers, "You guys shouldn't do this or you'll look like infants."On YouTube and Instagram Park and her granddaughter document adventures such as kayaking on the Han River in Seoul and doing a magazine shoot. The duo recently went to Japan's Tottori prefecture.

Park, whose father refused to send her to school because she was a girl, is having the time of her life.

As a teenager, she cut firewood in the mountains, walking hours to haul it home. A neighbor gave her brief lessons in reading and writing. She does not know how to spell most words.

"My mom and dad didn't teach me even though we were not poor because they wanted to put me to work," she said. "As I do YouTube now, I feel sorry that I haven't been educated."Still, nothing deters Park from writing, even if her Instagram posts are almost illegible and need "interpretation," she laughs.

Her fans have dubbed her unique way of expressing herself, with no spaces between words and respellings like "shampangyi" for champagne, as the "Makrye font." They compete to guess what they mean.

Even though Park's family was relatively well off, she was left on her own when her husband ran up debts and abandoned her and their three young children. She woke up every morning at four to run a restaurant, returning after nine at night. She repaid the debts and raised the kids on her own at a time when many single mothers were forced to put their babies up for adoption and received little to no government assistance.

All three children finished high school, and Kim, her granddaughter, was the first in the family to attend college.

Asked how long she would run her diner, Park replies in a second.

"Until I die."

AP
SAN FRANCISCO  A curious monkey with a toothy grin and a knack for pressing a camera button was back in the spotlight Wednesday as a federal appeals court heard arguments on whether an animal can hold a copyright to selfie photos.

A 45-minute hearing before a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco attracted crowds of law students and curious citizens who often burst into laughter. The federal judges also chuckled at times at the novelty of the case, which involves a monkey in another country that is unaware over the fuss.

Andrew Dhuey, attorney for British nature photographer David Slater, said "monkey see, monkey sue" is not good law under any federal act.

Naruto is a free-living crested macaque who snapped perfectly framed selfies in 2011 that would make even the Kardashians proud.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued Slater and the San Francisco-based self-publishing company Blurb, which published a book called "Wildlife Personalities" that includes the monkey selfies, for copyright infringement. It sought a court order in 2015 allowing it to administer all proceeds from the photos taken in a wildlife reserve in Sulawesi, Indonesia to benefit the monkey.

Slater says the British copyright for the photos obtained by his company, Wildlife Personalities Ltd., should be honored.

PETA attorney David Schwarz argued that Naruto was accustomed to cameras and took the selfies when he saw himself in the reflection of the lens.

A federal judge ruled against PETA and the monkey last year, saying he lacked the right to sue because there was no indication that Congress intended to extend copyright protection to animals.

Throughout Wednesday's hearing, Schwarz pushed back, arguing that the case came down to one simple fact: photographs can be copyrighted and Naruto is the author.

"We have to look at the word 'authorship' in the broadest sense," he said.

The judges grilled him on why PETA has status to represent Naruto and said that "having genuine care for the animal" isn't enough to establish "next friend" relationship, which is required to represent the monkey in court.

The judges did not issue a ruling Wednesday.

Angela Dunning, an attorney for Blurb, wondered at the possibilitiers if they do not prevail.

"Where does it end? If a monkey can sue for copyright infringement, what else can a monkey do?" she said after the hearing.

PETA's general counsel Jeff Kerr said after the hearing that the group plans to use money from the photos to protect monkey habitats and help people study the monkeys.

"PETA is clearly representing Naruto's best interests," he said.

Dhuey said the legal antics were more of a publicity stunt by PETA than a lawsuit. He quipped after the hearing that Naruto made a tactical mistake by not appearing in court.

"It's like he doesn't even care," he said before walking away from cameras.

Associated Press
China hopes Germany and the EU will avoid sending confusing and negative signals when introducing new regulations after Germany tightened foreign takeover rules in key sectors, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday.

Germany's Cabinet agreed on Wednesday to tighten scrutiny on company takeovers in strategic industries by buyers outside the EU, becoming the first European Union country to tighten its rules on foreign corporate takeovers.

The new regulations will allow the German government to block takeovers if there is a risk of critical technology being lost overseas. The rules will take effect shortly with no need for parliamentary approval in a bid to protect critical infrastructure, including power grids and hospitals, Reuters reported.

"China is concerned about related moves of Germany and the EU. We hope they are careful and avoid being influenced by the trend of protectionism, and avoid sending confusing and negative signals to the outside," Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a daily news conference in Beijing.

In recent years, China's trade and business links with Germany and the EU have achieved positive results, "which is obvious to all", he said. They have brought real benefits to the companies and people of both sides, as well as boosting economic development, Geng said.

"Under the current global situation," he said, "China is willing to work with Germany and the EU to promote trade liberalization and investment facilitation based on the principle of mutual benefit and common development."

At the same time, Reuters cited sources saying that several German companies in talks with potential buyers from China are still pushing ahead with negotiations, undeterred by the new rules.

Four German firms that sell to vehicle manufacturersFFT, Eisenmann, ZF Body Controls and Eissmann Automotiveare talking to potential Chinese buyers but do not expect government interference, the report said on Thursday.
MP U Kyaw Aung Lwin read a statement that said the countrys illegal timber trade was a large-scale problem that is rife with corruption.Village administrators and township-level officials often face pressure to offer protection to illegal traders, the MP said.

Between the years 2002 to 2017, one deputy administrator and eight people have been killed and 42 have been injured in Myanmar during investigations into illegal timber trading, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation.

Illegal logging is a significant problem in Myanmar, with poor governance, weak law enforcement and conflict hindering efforts to address the problem, the report said.
The US is still viewed around the world as the top political power, but perceptions of China's leadership are growing rapidly, especially in African states with heavy Chinese investment, and in Russia.

A Pew poll in 38 nations shows that, around the world, the leaders of both China and the USA are viewed with strong disfavor (Putin is also strongly disliked; Merkel enjoys high ratings, having outsourced her human rights abuses to Greece). The US is viewed as more politically free and respecting of human rights than China. Generally, young adults view China as more powerful than their older counterparts.





In Asia/Pacific, the views on China are polarizing  Vietnam, Indonesia and South Korea are all hemorrhaging confidence in China, while Australians are more bullish on China than ever.



The view of the Chinese government as a violator of civil liberties does not hold across all regions, however. More than half in the Middle East (55%) and sub-Saharan Africa (53%) say that China does respect the personal freedoms of its people, a stark difference from the views of those in the West. China's reputation for defending the rights of its citizens is particularly strong in sub-Saharan Africa. In all but South Africa, half or more say that Beijing respects the personal freedoms of its people. And in South Africa, a plurality (46%) agrees. Within its own region, assessments of China's record vary. A majority of Indonesians (56%) and roughly half in the Philippines (52%) say that China respects the personal freedoms of its people. Meanwhile, Japanese (85%), Australians (81%) and South Koreans (77%) are as negative as publics in Europe and North America in views of the Chinese government's protection of individual rights. While views on this question have remained relatively consistent across most countries, opinions in the Philippines, Jordan and Russia have shifted in recent years. Views of China as a protector of personal freedoms have risen among Filipinos since 2014. In addition, for the first time since the question was initially asked in 2008, majorities in Russia (56%) and Jordan (55%), where Xi has made efforts to improve bilateral relations, say that the Chinese government respects the personal freedoms of its people.



Globally, More Name U.S. Than China as World's Leading Economic Power

[Richard Wike, Jacob Poushter, Laura Silver and Caldwell Bishop/Pew]
I had the privilege or reading a pre-release version of "God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church." Here are 20 quotes from the book, which you should pick up.
Judicial Watch: Trump Administration Air Travel Costs $3.58 Million Trips Include Travel by Melania Trump and Vice President Pence



Obama Family Travel Cost Taxpayers at Least $100,104,459



Contact: Jill Farrell, Judicial Watch, 202-646-5172



WASHINGTON, July 14, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch announced today that it obtained records from the U.S. Department of the Air Force in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and a lawsuit for Trump administration travel records.



The new records show new expenses totaling $2,301,527.02.



As a result of Judicial Watch's lawsuit, the following records were produced: Melania Trump flew to Mar-a-Lago between February 3-6 on a C-37B military jet at an operating cost of $10,075 per hour for six hours. The total comes to $60,450.



Vice President Pence flew Air Force Two 5.58 hours to Houston for the Super Bowl between February 3-6 at an operating cost of $15,994 per hour, for a total of $89,246.52.



Melania Trump flew from New York to Washington DC on February 10 to join her husband on Air Force One for the trip to Mar-a-Lago. She departed on February 12 for New York on a C-37A jet for a weekend total of 7.09 hours at $10,075 per hour, bringing the cost to $71,431.75.



President Trump flew Air Force One 5.7 hours to Mar-a-Lago between February 17-21 at an operating cost of $142,380 per hour, for a total of $811,566.



Melania Trump flew from New York to Mar-a-Lago between February 17-21. One leg she flew 5.63 hours on a C-37B military jet at an operating cost of $10,075 per hour for a total of $56,722.25 and on the other leg she flew 5.57 hours on a C-40B jet at $5,450 per hour for a total of $30,356.50. The grand total is $87,078.75.



President Trump flew 4.1 hours on Air Force One to Mar-a-Lago between March 17-19 at $142,380 per hour, for a total of $583,758. In response to a Judicial Watch FOIA request, the Air Force produced the following record: President Trump entertained Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago between February 10-13 where they played a round of golf. They flew Air Force One 4.2 hours at $142,380 per hour for a total of $597,996. Judicial Watch previously released documents showing travel expenses of $1,281,420.



Judicial Watch also closely followed the Obama family travel costs throughout his presidency. In response to a June 19, 2014, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Judicial Watch recently received documents from the Secret Service related to Michelle Obama's March 2014 trip to China. The total Secret Service expenses adds up to $389,931.71: $288,662.07 in hotels



$72,701.14 in car rentals



$5,020.52 in cell phone charges



$4,282.65 in rental reproduction equipment



$393.52 in printers and toners



$1,010.63 in cell phone rentals



$199.17 in supplies



$11,266.38 in overtime/per diem pay



$1,265.13 in miscellaneous services by another government agency



$5,130.50 in Air/Rail Added to the previously released flight costs from the Air Force ($362,523.53) the total for the trip comes to $752,455.24...



MORE: www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-trump-administration-air-travel-costs-3-58-million/

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home World Sweden cuts off foreign aid to groups that do not provide information about abortion

The Swedish government has announced that it is withdrawing foreign aid from groups that comply with the Mexico Policy, which demands that non-government organizations funded by the U.S. do not provide information about abortion.

Sweden was one of the several countries that sharply criticized the decision to reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which restricts U.S. funding for international healthcare providers that promote or perform abortions.

The policy, dubbed by abortion proponents as a "gag rule," was created in 1984 by former President Ronald Reagan, but it was rescinded under the administration of Bill Clinton. It was restored under the administration of George W. Bush but rescinded again under former President Barack Obama. The policy was reinstated and strengthened by President Donald Trump within days of taking office in January.

On Tuesday, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) stated that it would freeze sexual and reproductive health aid to organizations that adhere to the rule.

"This is about women's own right to decide when, and if, they want to have children and how many children they want. Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are a prerequisite for being able to attend school and being active on the labour market," SIDA Director-General Carin JAmtin said in a statement, as reported by The Local.

A spokesperson said that it is too early to tell how many will be affected by the decision, but the agency has launched a review of its partner organizations and the aid they receive.

"We are now starting a review of which of our organizations receive SRHR support and where they stand in relation to the Mexico City Policy. Only then will we know. The only ones we know of today that have such support and have agreed to the MCP is Save the Children," said Press Officer Fredrik Sperling.

JAmtin clarified that development aid for things like food and water will not be affected by the decision, but there was a risk that it could affect Sweden's aid to programs related to malaria and HIV prevention.

SIDA announced that it will provide an additional aid of 170 million kronor ($20.17 million) to groups that are still working in the areas of sexual health, contraception, abortion and maternity care.

JAmtin said that similar talks with the Netherlands, Canada, Luxembourg, the U.K., and other Nordic countries have taken place, and she is hoping that other nations would follow Sweden's lead.
home World Yemeni foreign minister confirms abducted Indian priest is still alive

Yemen's foreign minister has told Indian officials that the priest who was kidnapped in the Yemeni port city of Aden is still alive, and there are continuing efforts to find him.

During his visit to New Delhi, Abdulmalik Abduljalil Al-Mekhlafi, Yemen's Minister of Foreign Affairs, reassured his Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj, that the Salesian priest, Father Tom Uzhunnalil, is still alive and that the Yemen government has been making all efforts to secure his release.

UCA News reported that Swaraj had stressed the Indian governments concern for the safety of Uzhunnalil and reiterated the request for "continued assistance from the Yemeni authorities in securing his safe and early release."

Al-Mekhlafi, who also serves as the deputy prime minister, assured the Yemeni government's cooperation regarding the matter.

Uzhunnalil was kidnapped by suspected Islamic militants at a home for elderly people in the port city of Aden in March 2016. At least 16 people, including four nuns, were killed during the assault at the home managed by the Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity.

In a video posted on a Yemeni news portal in May this year, the priest stated that his abductors are treating him well "to the extent they are able." However, he said that his health condition is "deteriorating quickly" and that he requires hospitalization "as early as possible."

The priest noted that his abductors had already contacted the Indian government and the Catholic bishop in Abu Dhabi with their demands, but he said that the response was "not encouraging."

"My dear family people, do what you can to help me be released. Please, please do what you can to help to get me released. May God bless you for that," he said, according to The News Minute.

Uzhunnalil, who belongs to Salesians of Don Bosco's Bangalore province, had been working as a missionary under Bishop Paul Hinder, the Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia.

Meanwhile, church officials have claimed that they have not received any demands for ransom in the last year and that they are unaware of the motive and identity of the kidnappers.

Yemen has been virtually under siege since 2015, when a coalition of Arab nations, led by Saudi Arabia, attacked Shia Houthi rebels who were said to be responsible for toppling the government of President Ad Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Swaraj thanked the Yemeni government for its cooperation in evacuating Indian nationals and other foreigners from the country in 2015. The operation, which was India's second-largest evacuation mission in recent times, had led to the rescue of more than 6,000 Indians from Yemen.
Houston has some of the most affordable rents among large cities, but the price of an average two-bedroom still may be out of reach for many.

It takes an annual income of almost $47,000 to afford a two-bedroom apartment priced at $1,088, according to a report by financial website SmartAsset. The numbers are based on how much you'd need to earn so that your rent is no more than 28 percent of your income.
The Houston Police Department is looking for a man who arrived from Jordan to Houston in late May, and has not been seen since.

Alsaaideh Khaled, 46, was last seen May 31, the day he arrived in the United States from Jordan, according to HPD spokeswoman Jodi Silva.
Dave Rossman/For the Chronicle

KPFT (90.1 FM) is no stranger to turmoil: Since its founding in 1970, the left-leaning Houston radio station has been bombed by the Ku Klux Klan, shot at, and has struggled to raise operating funds from its listeners. On Friday, the station boiled over yet again.

After less than three months on the job, Obidike Kamau, the station's interim general manager, was fired Friday morning by the acting head of Pacifica, the national foundation that owns KPFT, sparking a protest march by Houston staffers, board members and volunteers.
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Dr. Peter Hotez, Baylor College of Medicine's outspoken infectious disease expert, went on HBO's Vice News this week and warned  once again  that Texas risks a significant measles outbreak if it doesn't do away with a state law that gives parents blanket freedom to exempt their children from vaccinations.

Hotez, the founding dean of Baylor's School of Tropical Medicine, has been sounding that alarm for months, but in the seven-minute Vice segment, he conceded his warnings aren't likely to change anything in Austin.

"The only thing that's going to stop this runaway train right now is a large measles outbreak," Hotez said.

RELATED: Zika virus gives Dr. Peter Hotez a global audience

Vaccine exemptions have been on the rise in Texas for many years, fueled in part by unsubstantiated fears that vaccines can cause autism or other side effects that some parents believe are worse than the diseases vaccines are designed to prevent. In 2003, about 2,000 Texas schoolchildren had exemptions allowing them to opt-out of vaccinations for non-medical reasons.

Today the number is nearly 45,000.

A number of Texas lawmakers consider the decision on whether to vaccinate a civil rights issue. Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Deer Park Republican and member of the state's House's Freedom Caucus, told Vice News he believes that, "in the hierarchy of rights," individual liberty is more important than safety.

READ ALSO: Mumps cases reported at University of Texas at Austin

"For me, personally, it has nothing to do with the science or debating the science of vaccines," said Cain, who said his own kids have been vaccinated and that he grew up getting the flu shot every year. "But it was at my own choosing."

Hotez doesn't buy the liberty argument:

"What about the civil liberties of a young mother or young parents?" he said. "If I'm a young mother of a young baby under the age of 12 (months), because we don't vaccinate kids until 12 to 15 months for measles, I'd be terrified.

"If you're a parent," Hotez continues, "you're required by law to strap your child in a seatbelt in a car, right? That's not a parental choice. If you own a gun and a lot of people in Texas own guns, you're required to lock that gun if you have a child at home. And it's the same for vaccines."

___

For more medical news, follow Mike Hixenbaugh on Twitter.
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The U.S. rig count stalled this week as a small increase in oil drilling rigs was offset by an decline in natural gas rigs.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported Friday that drillers added two oil rigs and remove two gas rigs.
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Several Houston restaurants landed in hot water with inspectors this week after roaches, fruit flies and other bugs were discovered in and around their kitchen and dining areas.

At Lucky House (10123 Hammerly) one inspector found weavers in bulk bags of rice, sugar, MSG, tempura batter mix, potato starch and bread crumbs. Approximately 555 pounds of food were discarded.

SQUEAKY CLEAN:Houston restaurants with no health code violations (March - June)

The highest scoring restaurant on this week's report was Al's Pizza House (757 W Little York). The establishment earned 46 demerits for several infractions including not using effective measures to eliminate cockroaches on the premises. The restaurant was temporarily closed following the inspection, but the closure was lifted by an inspector two days later.

Moldy raspberries in the bar cooler at Seasons 52 (842 Sam Houston Pkwy N. Ste. 100) were deemed not safe for human consumption. Inspectors also noted a large number of fruit flies in the pantry.

Finally, two live German cockroaches were spotted under a buffet line by an inspector at the West University location of Candelari's Pizzeria (2617 W Holcombe Blvd., Ste. A).

Before you head out for your next meal, be sure to click through our slideshow above for the list of restaurants with violations (July 3-11).

During health inspections, inspectors distribute violations that carry a weight between 1 and 25, increasing in severity. The term "demerit" is used by city health inspectors to describe the weighted value assigned to each violation. The Houston Chronicle obtained the results of routine health inspections throughout the city and tallied each restaurant's demerits for a comprehensive list of violations. To view inspection reports online or learn more about food inspections, visit the health department website.
As much as she has loved cooking and serving her own brand of Cajun fare to a loyal Houston following, restaurateur Lisa Carnley is ready to stuff her last po'boy.

The EaDo businesswoman, whose bright smile, fierce work ethic, and honest food has endeared her to many in the downtown restaurant scene, has decided to step away from her Cajun Stop, the po'boy shop at 2130 Jefferson that last year branched to a second location at 24230 Kuykendahl in Spring.

Carnley announced Friday she is selling the Cajun Stop restaurants to concentrate on her real estate business.

But there's really a bigger reason governing her decision: her family. In December 2015 Carnley married Steven Benoit, a Houston oil and gas man. Seven weeks ago she gave birth to a baby boy, Beau. She also is mother to 11-year-old son Dylan, a familiar presence during the nearly nine years Carnley's worked at the downtown restaurant.

"He used to sleep under the counter," she said of Dylan, who many Cajun Stop fans know and have watched grow up.

About three years ago Carnley decided to renew her interest in real estate as an agent specializing in commercial and residential properties. She currently works for Texas United Realty. Her success in that field, she said, prompted her to consider easing out of the restaurant business.

But when her new baby came, she became decisive. "With Beau, I really feel like I can't miss out on raising him."

So today she is ready to sell the two Cajun Stop restaurants, which she has set up as franchise opportunities. She is ready to part with the two properties, the brand trademarks, and her recipes so that a new investor can grow the Cajun Stop as a business. She also owns the name, trademark, and recipes for the Tamale Pot, which she acquired when she bought the business in Spring that she turned into a second Cajun Stop.

Carnley's success in Houston is one of the many local tales of starting over in a post-Katrina world. The Vietnamese-American, who was raised throughout the Gulf region, including Biloxi, Miss., and Houma, La., was living and working in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina wiped her out. After spending time in Mississippi and Florida after the tragedy, she found herself in Houston in 2009, ready to start over. She found that opportunity in a partnership in a local po'boy shop that she eventually took over and rechristened the Cajun Stop with a grand opening on Dec. 12, 2012 (a good luck day, she said, of 12-12-12). The restaurant is known for its authentic Louisiana Cajun fare of po'boys, gumbo, fried seafood platters, red beans and rice, crawfish etouffee, and boiled crawfish. And good times  many courtesy of the vivacious owner who has since become known beyond EaDo from her participation in fundraisers and food competitions.

Good luck may have helped her re-charge her restaurant, but it was hard work that kept it going. "Over the years I have made very single mistake I could make as a business owner," she said. "But I learned from it. I'm glad I made those mistakes. I'm glad I took that road."

The decision to sell her business wasn't made lightly, she said. She will miss her employees and the regular customers who helped keep her in business, she said. And she promises that until whatever deal comes through, she will continue to spend as much time as possible at both stores.

She does not rule out doing an occasional pop-up in the future, or even organizing and cooking for special events.

But, she said, the time has come to put her family first and concentrate on a new business directive. In the restaurant business she said her focus was on making diners happy; she wants to do that with real estate clients too.

"I feed on happy people," she said. "My goal now is to have a happy family."

The Cajun Stop, 2130 Jefferson, 713-222-8333; Cajun Stop Spring, 24230 Kuykendahl, Spring, 832-559-7952; cajunstop.com
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A former teacher was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing a student at a Heights elementary school in Houston.

The teacher, Miguel Angel Yepez, 41, was convicted of indecency with a child after a trial that ended Thursday, prosecutors said.

"The jury spoke loud and clear," Assistant District Attorney Ashley Guice said. "This is a horribly sad example of betrayal by someone entrusted with protecting our children."

READ ALSO: Ex-substitute teacher allegedly had sex with student multiple times

Yepez was charged in December 2013 with the crime, 2 years after the abuse began.

During the 2011-2012 school year. Yepez, who was the then-8-year-old girl's teacher, groped her at her desk in her second-grade class at Harvard Elementary School.

During the trial, the student's mother said she had asked Yepez to watch over her daughter, who was struggling as the family went through a divorce.

READ ALSO: School employee pleads not guilty to rape, sodomy

She felt she served her daughter to Yepez on a "silver platter," she said through tears, according to a news release from the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

Yepez started working at Harvard Elementary in August 1999, said HISD spokeswoman Lila Hollin in an email.

He was still a teacher at the school in October 2013, when law enforcement alerted Houston ISD that he was being investigated. That month, he was moved to an off-campus position, Hollin said.

In December 2014, he stopped working for the Houston ISD.

Another former Harvard Elementary student spoke during the trial, as part of a provision in child abuse cases that allows the jury to hear testimony that demonstrates, among other things, the accused's state of mind and consistency in his or her character or relationship with children, said JoAnne Musick, chief of sex crimes for the district attorney's office.

That former student, now an adult, said Yepez groped her in 2002 while she was attending Harvard Elementary.

READ ALSO: Alvin ISD worker accused of improper relationship with student

Yepez was not her teacher. He was a family friend. In the 2002 case, the suspected abuse happened away from campus, at the apartment where her family lived, according to court records.

She was initially afraid to tell anyone, the woman said in court.

Yepez was charged in 2015 with indecency with a child in connection with the 2002 incident, but the case was dismissed after Thursday's conviction.

Yepez did not appear to have been convicted of any other crimes in Harris County.

"Though this took time, justice has been served," Musick said. "Those who violate the most sacred trust of our community -- caring for our children -- will be prosecuted and punished accordingly."
courtesy photo

Summer Creek High Principal Nolan Correa has been promoted to Humble ISD associate superintendent for support services, according to an announcement from Terry Kraemer, assistant superintendent for high schools, to parents and staff on Wednesday, July 12.

Correa will be responsible at Humble Independent School District for building and opening new schools, maintaining and updating established campuses, operating the 42 school cafeterias and providing the school bus transportation services for the 42,000 students within the district.
On Thursday night a sold-out event at the Saint Arnold brewery north of downtown kicked off the weekend early with a celebration of French fries and beer.

National French Fry Day is observed on July 13 and Saint Arnold capitalized on the deep-fried occasion by serving up hand-cut fries from the brewery's kitchen with an assortment of toppings for party-goers to adorn them with.
Houston Community College trustee Dave Wilson called for his colleague Chris Oliver's resignation on Friday, one week after federal prosecutors said Oliver pled guilty to taking bribes connected to HCC contracting work.

"I know you will do the right thing," Wilson said in a letter to Oliver, copying his fellow trustees. "Your resignation would be an honorable last duty to the citizens of District IX."
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A Magnolia mother died in the hospital Friday after a boating crash on Lake Conroe killed her husband and injured their 10-year-old daughter.

A family friend said doctors took Sara Clark, 38, who was rushed to the hospital after the crash, off of life support sometime Friday. Her husband, Jason Clark, 39, died on scene after the family's boat was struck by another boat on the south side of the lake.

The crash happened around 9:30 p.m. near the Diamondhead community off Texas 105 near April Sound. An angler participating in a fishing tournament was heading ashore to weigh his catch when he crashed into the family in the dark of night.

The impact caused the angler's boat to overturn and sink, launching that boat's operator and a male passenger into the water. While those two suffered minor injuries, the Clark family endured a loss not many can even imagine.

Jason Clark was pronounced dead on scene while Sara Clark and the couple's 10-year-old daughter, Reilee, were both rushed to the hospital. Reilee was released from the hospital in stable condition hours after the crash, although Sara was hospitalized in critical condition. She died around 4 p.m. Friday.

The couple also has an 18-year-old son, Alex.

Amanda Carter, who has known the family for years, asked for the community's support.

"Please pray for Alex and Reilee during this difficult time that God will guide them both in the right direction," Carter stated in a Facebook post. "My heart is absolutely broken."

Anyone wishing to help the family financially can donate at www.youcaring.com/jasonandsaraclarkandfamily-875501. More than 400 donors have already raised close to $30,000 as of press time Friday.
Why you shouldnt try to escape America to avoid the coming collapse (and subsequent chaos)

With the signs of economic collapse, political turmoil and social chaos becoming more apparent to almost everyone, many people are asking, Should I leave my home country and try to escape to some other nation?

As someone who has lived in Taiwan and Ecuador  and traveled throughout much of the world  my answer is now no. You cant escape the global chaos thats coming, and its far more important to live in a place where you fit in and arent considered the foreigner.

This is different from what I believed a decade ago. What Ive realized since then is that the globalist agenda knows no bounds and has infiltrated every nation on the planet. Youre far better off, in my view, to stay in a place where you have an infrastructure of social contacts and where you dont stick out as the foreigner.

Cities will become death traps

Its also important to get out of the cities, which Ive called death traps. The cities will be the front lines of social chaos once the government food stamp program (SNAP) is unable to provide free food for almost 50 million people. Some cities will likely be abandoned by law enforcement and allowed to descend into chaos. These cities may include Baltimore, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, St. Louis, Miami and Detroit.

You are far safer in rural California (or rural Oregon, rural Idaho, rural Kentucky or rural Ohio) than in any foreign country where you are easily recognizable as the foreigner, in my opinion.

After living in many places around the world, Ive chosen Texas as my country. In Texas, I can grow food, own some land, defend myself with firearms, pay lower taxes, run a business with relatively little government interference and afford the cost of living. If youre considering Texas, my only warning is dont come to Texas unless you believe in liberty. Big Government socialists are not welcome in Texas, so if thats your political belief system, please stay in Collapsifornia. If you dont own guns and gold, in other words, you probably wont fit in. If you hate God, America, the Constitution and the Founding Fathers, you arent compatible with Texas culture anyway.

Watch my video to learn more  note the firearm I always wear on my hip  and stay informed about accelerating collapse conditions at Collapse.news and Bugout.news.
A former Alvin ISD employee accused of an inappropriate relationship with a student was jailed this week on felony charges.

Alejandro Martinez was working for the Brazoria County district's maintenance department when school officials got a tip about an untoward relationship with a high school senior, according to Alvin ISD.

The school launched an investigation and Martinez was indicted, though he'd already resigned at the start of the investigation. On Wednesday, he was jailed in Brazoria County, according to court records.

Story continues below ...

He's facing two counts of an improper relationship between an educator and a student. His bail was set at $25,000.

The day after Martinez's arrest, the district issued a statement soundly condemning the erstwhile employee.

"Any time an employee of Alvin ISD violates the trust placed in them by our community, regardless of whether the interaction occurred at our schools or elsewhere, we will assist law enforcement in prosecuting to the full extent of the law," said Superintendent Buck Gilcrease.

"We hold our employees that work in our auxiliary departments to the same standards we set for teachers and administrators and expect their actions to reflect that they are entrusted with supporting the education of our students."
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Texas' Republican senators formally recommended Ryan Patrick - a former state district judge and son of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick - as their choice for the U.S. attorney's post in the Southern District of Texas, according to a source familiar with the process.

The recommendation sets in motion a nomination process - including White House vetting - that could take months before President Donald Trump decides whether to formally nominate him for the job.

Ultimately, Patrick would need approval of the U.S. Senate before taking charge of the Houston region, a plum position that oversees the busiest criminal docket in the nation.

Patrick declined to comment Friday about the latest development.

The Chronicle reported Thursday that the former judge had been chosen by Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, according to an internal email sent by Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez in Houston.

Martinez sent the email Thursday to staff in the 43 counties that make up the sprawling Southern District of Texas. Martinez said he would not comment on the email, which he said was not intended for public distribution.

Patrick, 38, confirmed Thursday that he traveled to Washington, D.C. several weeks ago to interview for the position with the two senators.

The Southern District of Texas stretches from the Louisiana border through Houston, Galveston, and Corpus Christi to the Mexican border in Laredo. The district sees a massive influx of immigration, drug and human trafficking cases and oversees expansive Medicare fraud and white-collar investigations.

The U.S. attorney's post has been vacant since March, when Ken Magidson was asked to resign by the Trump administration along with 45 other U.S. attorneys appointed by President Barack Obama.

Officials with Cruz and Cornyn have likewise declined to comment.

Ryan Patrick, a popular judge who has impeccable Republican credentials, has been in private practice since he lost a 2016 bid to retain his position as state district judge for the 177th court in Harris County. Democrats swept all the judgeships on the ballot in November, pushing out Patrick and a number of other Republicans.

A graduate of South Texas College of Law in Houston, Ryan Patrick worked six years as a Harris County assistant district attorney before being appointed in 2012 to the state district court seat in Harris County by Gov. Rick Perry, who now serves in Trump's cabinet.

Patrick's father has been an ardent supporter of Trump, calling the president's victory "the most historic presidential election in the history of this nation."
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It's been two years since Sandra Bland died in Waller County jail after a controversial traffic stop near Prairie View A&M University.

Her death  which came three days after the controversial arrest  became a flashpoint in a nationwide debate over law enforcement's use of force and sent shockwaves through Waller County and across the Lone Star State.

In the weeks that followed, Waller County came under incredible scrutiny. Her death sparked protests in and around Houston, and Bland became an icon of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Texas Department of Public Safety sidelined and ultimately fired Trooper Brian Encinia, who initiated the stop and arrested Bland after the two got into a heated argument over whether or not she should put out a cigarette. The interaction between the two  caught on Encinia's dashcam - unleashed a torrent of criticism of DPS.

Encinia was later charged with perjury. The charge was dismissed in June.

State jail regulators said Waller County jailers had missed obvious warning signs that Bland was a danger to herself  particularly after she had disclosed a prior suicide attempt  and failed to properly observe Bland, who hanged herself with a ligature made from a plastic trashbag. Bland's death also led to more scrutiny of how the state cares for its inmates and deaths in Texas jails.

The state launched a probe into the death and into Waller County jail. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards changed screening practices in jails across the state to try to prevent similar deaths in the future.

Bland's family sued Waller County, eventually settling for $1.9 million.

State legislators filed bills this past legislative session, seeking to strengthen protections for mentally ill inmates. An early version of the bill also tried to reduce racial profiling during traffic stops, but provisions aimed at law enforcement reforms were watered down and the bill lawmakers ultimately signed focused on diverting people with mental health and substance abuse issues from jail to treatment and requires outside police agencies to investigate jail deaths.

Bland's family criticized lawmakers decision not to pursue reforms aimed at reducing racial profiling during traffic stops.

Her mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, recently moved to Waller County and said she wants to build affordable student housing for students at Prairie View A&M University.

The Chronicle was the first outlet to report on the story, starting with Waller County's announcement of her death. Read the Chronicle's coverage of Bland's death in the two years since she was found in her jail cell:

Authorities investigate apparent suicide at Waller County Jail: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Authorities-investigate-apparent-suicide-at-6385033.php

Trooper who pulled over Bland placed on administrative duty: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Waller-County-law-enforcement-under-scrutiny-as-6390814.php

Bland told jailers of previous suicide attempt: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Bland-told-jailers-of-previous-suicide-attempt-6400692.php

Dash cam in Bland case shows escalating confrontation: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Dash-cam-in-Bland-case-shows-escalating-6398428.php

After Bland's death, lawmakers to address jail standards, police interactions: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/After-Bland-s-death-lawmakers-to-address-jail-6404710.php

Bland's image goes far beyond dash-cam video: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Bland-s-image-goes-far-beyond-dash-cam-video-6405874.php

Inmates find variety of methods, tools to end their lives: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Inmates-find-variety-of-methods-tools-to-end-6413669.php

Jailer testifies he falsified jail log in Sandra Bland case, lawyer says: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/Jailer-testifies-he-falsified-jail-log-in-Sandra-8402120.php

Sandra Bland's mother says lawsuit settlement is 'victory for moms': http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Sandra-Bland-s-mother-says-lawsuit-settlement-is-9226234.php

Sandra Bland wrongful death case resolved: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/Sandra-Bland-wrongful-death-case-resolved-10482435.php

Nearly 7,000 died in Texas police custody in the last decade: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/More-than-1-900-died-in-Texas-custody-before-8467323.php

Sandra Bland Act clears Texas Senate on unanimous vote: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/texas/article/Sandra-Bland-Act-clears-Texas-Senate-on-unanimous-11140553.php

............

St. John Barned-Smith covers public safety and major breaking news for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Send tips to st.john.smith@chron.com.
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The Houston Community College system's board of trustees decided Thursday to reprimand a 21-year veteran of the elected board who has pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge.

The board's eight other members decried Christopher W. Oliver's acceptance of unlawful payments as "reprehensible." They voted unanimously to formally censure Oliver, strip him of his vice chair role, freeze his spending account and remove him from all committees, including the audit committee he had chaired.

Oliver had "admitted he accepted bribes in exchange for the promise of official actions related to his duties as a member of the HCC board of trustees," according to a U.S. Justice Department news release sent Friday, the same day his prosecution was made public. "He accepted cash payments in exchange for promising to use his position to help (a company) secure contracts with HCC."

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'VICTIM' IS NOW CITY OFFICIAL: Houston's public works director ensnared in HCC bribery case, made payments to indicted trustee

Oliver pleaded guilty to accepting cash payments in exchange for helping a company get HCC contracts, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement released Friday, the same day a judge unsealed the case records. He will face up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 at an Aug. 28 sentencing.

Trustee Robert Glaser said the board acted as quickly as possible.

"We didn't leave anything on the table," he added.

"It affects us all," said trustee Adriana Tamez. "This totally takes away from the great things that are going on. ... There's no excuse."

Another trustee questioned whether the group could have done more.

"Trustee Oliver's actions were no surprise," Dave Wilson said, citing previous reports that raised concerns. "This board should have taken action before now."

The board had limited options. The group's governing document states that the board can only "reprimand or censure" members who have violated ethics rules, not remove them from office.

HCC ethics regulations state that trustees, who do not receive a public salary, cannot "accept or solicit any gift, favor or service that might tend to influence him/her in the performance of official duties."

Oliver accepted $77,143 in unlawful payments from Karun Sreerema - then an HCC contractor, now Houston's director of public works - between December 2010 and August 2013, according to federal court records related to an extortion charge that was dropped as part of Oliver's plea agreement.

Sreerema, who was identified as a victim of Oliver and has not been charged with a crime, was placed on paid leave Wednesday by Mayor Sylvester Turner, who said he was not aware of the allegations when he appointed Sreerama in March.

READ MORE: Public Works director who made unlawful payments takes leave

The board's bylaws lay out the group's options in ethics situations: "If the Board finds a violation of this Ethics Code, it can reprimand or censure the Board member, the only sanctions available under Texas law."

In general, elected officials cannot be removed by their colleagues. The underlying principle is that voters alone get to choose their representatives.

The HCC board's legal counsel said Oliver still holds his position.

"The Board does not have the authority to remove a Board member from elected office," the Bracewell law firm said in a statement emailed by HCC spokesman Todd Duplantis. "That process is governed by Texas law."

The board's counsel, Bracewell partner Jarvis Hollingsworth, told the Chronicle in 2010 that censure is the harshest punishment available to the board. Elected trustees only can be removed by state district judges, he said.

The other eight trustees also could vote to remove Oliver from committees. He sits on the Governance and Strategic Planning groups and chairs the Audit Committee, according to board meeting minutes.

Former trustee Yolanda Navarro Flores lost her committee memberships in 2010, the Chronicle reported at the time. Her censure included a one-year prohibition on running for board officer positions and a hold on her board expense account.

The last option, of course, is to do nothing.

"Because his current term expires in December, one option for the board is to do nothing and let him slip away quietly," Abraham Benavides, chair of the University of North Texas' public administration department, said in an email. "However, this does not seem like the course of action the board will take."

But all of that would be irrelevant if Oliver were to resign, which Benavides said most officials do when they plead guilty to a job-related felony.

The professor argued that would be the best choice, saying that Oliver's bribery conviction "is a classic case of violating the public trust and tarnishing the name of good men and women who spend hours and hours volunteering their time for a good cause."

The victims are not just the taxpayers, he added, but a "loss of trust in our systems."

Oliver's defense attorney in the federal criminal case did not address questions about Oliver's plans for Thursday's meeting, or whether he plans to resign.

"Mr. Oliver has nothing to add regarding these matters," the attorney, federal public defender Philip Gallagher, wrote in an email.

Oliver has been on the board for 21 years. He served stints as board chair, according to his HCC biography page.

He most recently won another six-year term in November 2011, when Harris County election records show he defeated challenger Wendell A. Robbins with 61.9 percent of the 9,562 votes cast in the race for District 9 trustee, whose southwest Houston district extends from the Alief area to Sunnyside.

Oliver was under an ethical cloud as early as May 2011, the Chronicle reported at the time. A yearlong investigation that led to another trustee's censure "also found troubling behavior by trustee Chris Oliver."

Oliver ran unsuccessfully for a Houston City Council at-large position in 2015; in an eight-way race, he got 11.4 percent of the vote, according to election records.

His current term expires Dec. 31. The election for that position will happen Nov. 7 of this year. Candidates can file for a place on the ballot from July 22 until Aug. 21, according to the HCC board's website.

It appears Oliver will not be eligible to run again because his guilty plea leaves him with a felony conviction. People with final felony convictions are not eligible to run unless they are "pardoned or otherwise released from the resulting disabilities," according to an HCC document based on the Texas Election Code.

Check back for updates on this developing story.
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SAN ANTONIO - This was more than just one candidate's campaign kickoff event.

When Gov. Greg Abbott took to the microphone here with his wife and daughter by his side, it served as a symbolic flag drop for the 2018 election cycle in which the Republican Party in Texas -- long dominant in state politics -- faces unique divisions, uncertain effects from President Donald Trump's ascension and a Democratic Party convinced that 2018 will be their year to finally loosen the GOP's stranglehold.

Abbott used his nearly 24-minute speech at Sunset Station in downtown to declare what most have known since February.

"To keep Texas the the very best state in the United States, I'm running for re-election," Abbott told more than 300 supporters.

The next election is almost 16 months away, but political experts say the demands of raising money and building up name recognition in a state as big as Texas force candidates to get moving earlier and earlier.

While Abbott already is sitting on more than $30 million for his re-election and has plenty of name identification, his early declaration helps build momentum and forestall challengers -- from either Democrats or Republicans, said University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus.

"Everyone is fighting for the same media space," Rottinghaus said.

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Abbott's announcement comes just as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and his likely 2018 Democratic rival Beto O'Rourke were holding dueling political events around the state, and campaign fundraising for state and federal offices are hitting a fever pitch as candidates trying to show they have momentum heading into 2018.

For candidates who have a real shot at winning next year, this is the time campaigns really have to be dialing for dollars and beginning to build a network, Rottinghaus said.

"It can seem like the campaign season never ends," he said of Americans still trying to recover from last year's presidential elections.

Abbott doesn't even have a clear Democratic challenger yet. Still, there he was in San Antonio, warning his supporters that Democrats are on the march and believe they can make inroads in Texas despite nearly 25 years of GOP dominance.

THAT VETO STAMP: There's history behind Greg Abbott's 'veto' stamp

"Liberals think that they have found a cracks in our armor," Abbott said.

He pointed to Democrat gains in both Harris and Bexar counties as proof. He won both counties easily in his first campaign for governor in 2014. But in 2016, he noted that Hillary Clinton won both and that Democrats also dominated countywide elections in Harris County.

"My friends, let me tell you, liberals are trying to mess with Texas," Abbott said.

To be sure, Democrats have a big challenge ahead of them in 2018 even as President Donald Trump struggles with low public approval ratings that many Republican fear will hurt the GOP at the ballot box in 2018. Democrats haven't had anyone in the governor's mansion since Ann Richards left in 1995. They haven't won any statewide election in Texas since 1994.

Still they think they have an opening to exploit.

"After 2016, Texas is a single-digit state and more Democrats are fired up than ever before," said Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa. "The Texas Republican establishment is crumbling."

But Abbott's acknowledgement of potential "cracks" comes at a time GOP leaders in Texas have struggled to get on the same page. Nowhere has that been more apparent than in the Texas Legislature where House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have continued to jab at one another over what priorities the party should be focused on.

After the legislative session ended with many key GOP priorities not passing, Abbott ordered lawmakers back to Austin starting Tuesday to again try to reach agreement on everything from transgender bathroom policies, to property tax reform to school funding issues.

At one point, many speculated Patrick might try to challenge Abbott. But over the last several months, Abbott has been shifting more aggressively to the right and leaving Patrick with less political space to challenge Abbott, Rottinghaus said.

Patrick has said he's not running against Abbott, but it has neither stopped speculation or Abbott's rightward march. He said at one point people saw Abbott and his judicial background as one that could find middle ground between the legislative leaders. But of late, Rottinghaus said it's clear Abbott is following the momentum of the GOP to the right.

In his campaign announcement, Abbott highlighted conservative hallmarks: vowing to defend gun rights, opposing abortion and continuing to battle sanctuary city policies.

"We finally have banned sanctuary cities," Abbott said to rousing applause.

In picking San Antonio to make his announcement on Friday, the 59 year old attorney was choosing a time and place steeped with symbolism.

Four years ago to the day, Abbott, the former state attorney general, first announced he would run for governor. And the city has big personal meaning for him, given his wife Cecilia is from San Antonio and they were married in the Alamo City in 1981.

On Saturday, Abbott heads to McAllen for more campaign events.
July 12, 2017

TEHRAN, Iran  Iran is among the top wheat consumers in the world. Consumption per capita in the country is estimated at 167.6 kilograms (369 pounds) per year, almost three times the global average of some 67 kilograms (148 pounds). At the same time, Iran is one of the driest countries in the world, with an average rainfall of only 250 mm (10 inches) a year, causing huge water shortages across the country. This has turned the supply of wheat to meet domestic needs into one of the main concerns of successive governments, forcing reliance on imports at major costs.

A review of imports shows that Iran over the past 15 years spent some $12.6 billion on buying more than 42 million tons of wheat. Meanwhile, the country has simultaneously sought to attain self-sufficiency, which on occasion has led to success in either reducing or almost halting imports. However, these achievements were not sustainable, mainly due to mismanagement and climate conditions.

In 2004, under the presidency of Reformist Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005), Iran marked self-sufficiency in wheat production for the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Khatami administration also formulated a 10-year plan that outlined initial steps to reduce imports, and envisioned strategies aimed at sustaining production in times of drought. The plan, however, was put aside under the administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013) and the country once again became reliant on imports to meet domestic needs, buying over 25.7 million tons of wheat during his two terms in power.

But things began to change when President Hassan Rouhani took office in August 2013. His government has been taking a series of measures over the past four years to not only reduce imports significantly, but also to boost production to a level that has enabled Iran to achieve self-sufficiency once again. With a record high output of 14 million tons last year, Iran has become an exporter of the strategic product; in June, the country sold wheat abroad for the first time in years.

The first cargo weighing 35,000 tons of wheat has been shipped to Oman, Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, the head of the Federation of Iranian Food Industry Association, was quoted as saying June 11 by local media, expressing optimism that the country could engage in exports at a high level to Persian Gulf littoral states. According to Mortazavi, wheat export capacity in the current Iranian year (ending March 20, 2018) stands at 2 million tons, which shows that there is no need to import wheat, and Iran can turn into a major exporter of wheat and flour through proper planning.

As a first step toward self-sufficiency, Rouhani appointed Mohammad Hojjati as his minister of agriculture. Hojjati, who held the same position under Khatami, had overseen the achievement in 2004.

The first full year of Rouhanis first term saw imports of a record high volume of more than 7.2 million tons of wheat at a cost of $2.379 billion. Still, the among paid was lower than the $2.58 billion spent on importing 6.7 million tons of wheat the previous year, under Ahmadinejad. Money spent on imports gradually declined in subsequent years and reached its lowest level, $367 million, in the last Iranian calendar year, which ended March 20, 2017.

Under Rouhani, multiple steps have been taken to increase production and reduce imports. These include a guaranteed price for the purchase of agricultural products, increases in purchase prices, the reduction of cultivated land and the allocation of funds to help supply seeds, fertilizers and pesticides to farmers. Measures have also been taken to help producers develop their irrigation systems and update their machinery. Moreover, the authorities have conducted training courses for farmers, employing 8,000 experts to supervise agricultural activities along with an expansion of cooperation with institutes such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. In addition, new types of seeds that are more resistant to drought are being used.

Some experts believe another important measure was the establishment of the National Foundation of Wheat Farmers Empowerment. The foundation was formed in the Iranian calendar year 2015-16 with the aim of boosting wheat production. It announced in December 2015 a five-year plan aimed at attaining sustainable annual production of 13 million tons, without the need for additional water resources and increasing areas under cultivation.

Ali Khan-Mohammadi, the executive secretary of the foundation, told Al-Monitor, To achieve sustainability in wheat production, we need to create infrastructure and it must be sustainable as well. Making production dependent on climate conditions will not result in sustainability. Everything, including machinery and cultivation methods, must be moved toward sustainability.

Khan-Mohammadi, who is also the managing director of the National Association of Agriculture Elites, said, Other bodies whose activities are related to agriculture must direct their activities in line with the goals set by the Ministry of Agriculture to help achieve sustainability in domestic wheat production.

Under Rouhani, the agriculture sector has played an important role in economic growth. Official figures show that the sectors share of gross domestic product has increased to 12-13%, up from 9-10% in the years up to 2013.

Many experts believe that due to its strategic importance for food security and also the role of agriculture in the Iranian economy, the sector will continue to be among the main focal points of Rouhanis second-term Cabinet. This is particularly the case since it could play a vital role in the presidents promise to create more jobs as well as the implementation of the resistance economy, which Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has repeatedly insisted on. Based on plans previously announced by government officials, Iran not only plans to maintain its current self-sufficiency in wheat production, but also seeks in the coming years to achieve the same status for other important products such as rice, corn, barley, sugar, cotton, palm oil and several types of beans.
News / National

by Staff reporter

THERE was calm at Nyanyadzi High School in Chimanimani District yesterday after parents besieged the school on Monday baying for the blood of a female teacher accused of initiating 400 pupils into the dark world of Satanism.Manicaland Provincial Education Director, Mr Edward Shumba, confirmed that it was business as usual at the school."I am told that the situation returned to normal at the school, with pupils going ahead with their midyear examinations. It is now business as usual," he said."I am not sure about all the things surrounding the case because the team that we dispatched on the ground is still there and we are only expecting them this evening," added Mr Shumba.Enraged demonstrators demanded the immediate ouster of a female teacher who allegedly initiated 400 students and three teachers into Satanism.The demonstrators numbered over 1 000 and chanted revolutionary songs, while barricading roads leading to the school and baying for the teacher's blood.Riot police had to be called in to calm the situation.This followed a testimony by a Form Three pupil at the school alleging initiation into Satanism by the teacher.The pupil also accused several other teachers at the school and from the nearby schools of being gang members of the occult world.Nyanyadzi High School, which has Form One up to Form Six classes, has 1 380 students.
News / National

by Staff reporter

A MBERENGWA woman gave away her 14-year-old daughter to pay a debt to a traditional healer who cleansed her homestead.Thandiwe Shoko's daughter became Mazivise Musikavanhu (30)'s reward but when the 14-year-old fell pregnant the deal crumbled.The teenager's pregnancy raised eyebrows in the community and she opened up on how her mother and Musikavanhu reached an agreement to have her sleep with the traditional healer.The matter was reported to the police leading to the two's arrest.Appearing before magistrate Shepherd Mjanja facing a charge of sex with a minor, it was revealed that Musikavanhu accepted the 14-year-old as payment for services rendered. Between April and June while staying at the same homestead he had sex with the minor, leading to her falling pregnant.Upon interrogation by community members she opened up. In court Musikavanhu was not asked to plead but the investigating officer opposed bail on grounds that the accused person was likely to abscond court since he was planning to move to Mozambique just before he got arrested and he also had a big influence on the victim because at one he time tried to hide her from police officers.Therefore, Musikavanhu was remanded in custody to 18 July.
News / National

by Staff reporter

As the conflict between Tourism and Hospitality Industry minister Walter Mzembi and Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive officer Karikoga Kaseke escalates, the ZTA boss said yesterday he is seeking legal opinion whether to refer their dispute to the courts.This comes after Kaseke sparked censure from the minister after unilaterally attempting to rename the Harare International Carnival  funded by the State to the tune of $400 000  Big Time Carnival, after securing a sponsor, South Africa-based Bigtime Strategic Group.Mzembi has said the Harare International Carnival was a Cabinet-approved brand that cannot be changed unilaterally by Kaseke.Mzembi has also raised alarm that ZTA has no sponsorship agreement or Board approval to engage Bigtime Strategic Group, which recently pulled the plug on a sponsorship package for Miss Tourism Zimbabwe  run by Mzembi's wife Barbara.Bigtime Strategic Group has instead moved its sponsorship to Miss Zimbabwe.During a press conference in Bulawayo on Tuesday, Mzembi said the ZTA had overstepped its mandate by renaming the carnival after an unsanctioned sponsor.ZTA spokesperson Sugar Chagonda told the Daily News on Wednesday that they had since reverted to the original name after pressure was brought to bear by the minister.Kaseke told the Daily News yesterday that he was seeking legal opinion in the wake of relentless attacks from the minister."I have consulted my lawyers and I will give you a full response after they have given me guidance. I have sought legal counsel," said Kaseke."I spoke to minister (Mzembi) on Friday and immediately told my team working on the carnival to do as the minister had said. The following day in the carnival launch statement read by Tourism deputy minister Anastancia Ndhlovu, we reverted to Harare International Carnival."So why is he publicly rubbishing his chief executive officer when he has done nothing wrong? I am doing my level best to make our government get the best out of the carnival."The ZTA boss said Mzembi's outbursts had baffled him, alleging it was the minister who negotiated with Bigtime Strategic Group to sponsor the carnival."It was deputy minister Ndhlovu who phoned me advising me that they had found a sponsorlater on the minister told me that (Bigtime boss Justice) Maphosa had agreed to sponsor the carnival at the Rainbow Towers. He was in the company of Maphosa."We thanked the minister a lot because we had been battling to secure sponsorship for the carnival. I even joked that ZTA was now benefiting from the minister's great friend because Maphosa also sponsored Miss Tourism Zimbabwe"So what has suddenly gone wrong? We are surprised by the hullabaloo. We should actually be celebrating as ZTA and the Tourism ministry because have found such a committed sponsor and partner in these tough economic conditions," Kaseke said.While expressing gratitude to the Finance ministry for allocating $400 000 for the carnival, Kaseke was quick to point out that it fell far short of the annual event's budget."That is why we should celebrate the coming on board of Bigtime because the company will spend not less than $800 000 which will go towards a public address system, a stage, paying five foreign artistes who will all be African, three local artistes, a VVIP tent among other things," he said.Kaseke added that a sponsorship agreement between ZTA and Bigtime which Mzembi has insisted on was ready for signing.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

An alleged to be heartless Zanu PF stalwart in Kadoma reportedly evicted his tenant during the night after he defected to the Joice Mujuru led National People's Party.Zimbabwe Peace Project reported that landlord Peter Chuma, a Zanu PF supporter, evicted Barron Dimuka from an apartment he rents in Kadoma Central around midnight because he defected to National Peoples Party."Chuma is said to have come to this decision when he was having a Zanu PF Rimuka executive meeting early that day. Dimuka's property was forcefully removed at night by Zanu PF youths led by Chuma. The property was damaged as the hired youths recklessly removed it," ZPP said.ZPP said some villagers in the area were also forced to buy Zanu PF membership cards."Marvelous Gondo and Evelyn Mhike, who stay in ward 5 of Rimuka, Kadoma Central, were among the people that were allegedly forced to buy old Zanu PF membership cards for $1. During this process, people were forced to provide their identity numbers, phone numbers and full names," said ZPP."The ruling party supporters that are selling old membership cards were led by Lydia Maphosa, Zanu PF ward 3 chairperson. Gondo and Mhike said that upon paying for the cards they were told that they no longer have to worry about their personal safety, they were also told that they would soon receive new cards."
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While more than 100 protesters chanted, "Justice for John" outside Houston's criminal courthouse, the sheriff's deputy and her husband who are charged with murder in the May death of John Hernandez at a local Denny's quietly slipped in and out of a courtroom upstairs.

Harris County Deputy Chauna Thompson - who is on leave pending the investigation - and her husband Terry Thompson appeared in state District Judge Kelli Johnson's court Friday morning for a routine status update on the criminal case against them.

Outside the 20-story downtown courthouse, protesters raucously chanted for justice while dozens of police officers, including mounted officers in riot gear, looked on.

BACKGROUND: Deputy's husband has criminal history, anger problems

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"As we promised from the beginning, we're going to be here for the entire process," said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of the advocacy group FIEL Houston. "We're going to keep pressure on the courts so John's name is not forgotten."

Hernandez died from severe injuries after a May fight outside a Denny's restaurant in northwest Harris County.

Terry and Chauna Thompson were both arrested and charged with Hernandez's death shortly after a video showing the married couple restraining him about 11:40 p.m. May 28 in the Denny's parking lot.

The video appeared to show Terry placing a struggling, gasping Hernandez in a chokehold.

The sheriff's office was accused of giving the couple preferential treatment after it was revealed that Chauna Thompson was a deputy.

After family and public outcry, the sheriff's office enlisted the help of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Texas Department of Public Safety to investigate the case. The pair was indicted earlier this month.

Attorneys for the Thompson family say Hernandez threw the first punch in an altercation outside the restaurant.

Since their arrest, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez announced that his office would investigative the other deputies who responded to the Denny's that night.

"This started out as a quiet case that no one was paying attention to," Susana Santana, Hernandez's cousin, said Thursday as she prepared for Friday's protests. "We just want to make it continue to get the awareness it needs so that this doesn't happen again."

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Drivers headed to Louisiana for a weekend at the casino can bet on a slower exit from Houston.

Crews will close eastbound lanes of Interstate 10 at 9 p.m. Friday so workers can rebuild the overpass at Gellhorn, just inside Loop 610, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. The lanes will reopen by 5 a.m. Monday.
Houston police have arrested two suspects and seek a third charged in the fatal early morning February shooting of a man in the 8900 block of Gulf Freeway.

Police charged Milton Carlos Segura, 35, with murder and Eleazar Leon, 26, and Priscilla Ashley Castellano, 27, both with tampering with evidence. According to the Houston Police Department Segura is in the custody of federal authorities in Louisiana, and Leon remains in the Harris County jail.
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This week fans of chic Louis Vuitton and the Supreme streetwear brand began camping out days before a reported limited release at The Galleria.

Though details about the supposed release were sketchy at best, a line of devotees began appearing outside days ago in the hopes of scoring an item or two, mainly to turn over on the secondary market.

PREVIOUS: What's up with line of shoppers outside Galleria?

A quick search of the Vuitton website, though, showed no record of a limited release in Houston. That didn't seem to stop anyone, though.

On Friday morning KPRC-TV reported that police were going to let the stragglers left outside into the store to see that they aren't missing out on anything but air conditioning.

As previously reported by Chron.com, inside the brand was unveiling its Tambour Horizon watch, its first fully-connected timepiece. The smartwatch watch has a "My Flight" feature that keeps up with flight times, terminal and gate information, reports of delays and much more. Its "City Guide" function provides the not-to-be-missed sights of seven of the most visited cities in the world.

Now Playing: The Louis Vuitton x Supreme Collection is bringing out all the LV fans. Angeli Kakade (@angelikakade) has the scoop. Video: JW Player

According to Footwear News, Supreme and Louis Vuitton's collaboration, which was released in June, includes apparel, footwear, leather goods and accessories. A highlight of this collaboration is a red Louis Vuitton bag with the "Supreme" logo.

The runway-meet-streetwear collaboration has held pop-up stores in cities like London, Sydney, Paris and Seoul. Earlier this month, a popup in Los Angeles was closed due to a disorderly crowd.

But Houston was not on the list of popup cities. A rumor on Instagram began to spread like wildfire, unsubstantiated.

GET TO SHOPPING: Newest Galleria wing opens for shopping

KHOU-TV reported late Thursday that there was still a group of people waiting outside the Galleria just in case the whole thing was a ruse. Many people were still in line hoping that things changed.

GQ reported that the collection release hasn't been canceled, but it likely wasn't happening on Friday, wherever it was supposed to happen.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Former Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa - who has admitted to be struggling to make ends meet following his dramatic exit from Zanu-PF and government about three years ago - is desperate to meet with President Robert Mugabe.In seeking an audience with Mugabe, the country's first black Speaker of the National Assembly does not wish to discuss his personal circumstances, but the Zanu-PF leader's legacy.Mutasa told the Daily News yesterday that he, along with other like-minded opposition leaders, want to impress on Mugabe that by not being a good steward of the country's economy, he has caused untold suffering among the generality of the population.He said Mugabe should realise that his continued stay in power was detrimental not only to the country but his legacy as well.Ever since he was stampeded to leave government in 2014, Mutasa claims to have attempted on several occasions to book an appointment with the Zanu-PF leader, without success.Before his fallout with former vice president Joice Mujuru, he tried to enlist the services of a cleric seen as very close to Mugabe - Father Fidelis Mukonori of the Roman Catholic Church - whom they wanted to help them talk to the president and "let him see sense, to see that he is destroying his own legacy and that he should not do that".At the time, Mutasa was the convener of the National Electoral Reform Agenda (Nera) - a grouping of 19 opposition parties pressing for electoral reforms before the 2018 harmonised polls.After breaking ranks with Mujuru last year, Mutasa could not continue to pursue his discussions with Mukonori, because Nera began to sideline their faction of the Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) party, in favour of Mujuru's National People's Party.He is not giving up though.Now that he is no longer the convener at Nera, the ZPF elder has been tasked by his party to consult with other opposition parties in the hope of engaging Mugabe."We still want to meet him so I will soon call him once we have had discussions with other opposition parties so that we engage him on what we think should be done to get the country working again; to come up with a new vision that is in line with what we fought for because, clearly, this is not what we went to war for," Mutasa told the Daily News.Mutasa worked with Mugabe at the height of the liberation struggle, and both were part of the team that negotiated for peace at Lancaster House.Upon the attainment of independence in 1980, Mutasa became the first black Speaker of the National Assembly. He was to work in Mugabe's Cabinet in years that followed until 2014 when he was given his marching orders for hobnobbing with Mujuru, who was also fired from Zanu-PF and government for allegedly plotting to topple Mugabe.During his time in government, Mutasa was known for being one of Mugabe's staunchest backers, whose only crime became his support for Mujuru to succeed the ageing Zanu-PF leader.While Mutasa has now turned into one of Mugabe's fiercest critics, his condemnation is often dismissed as sour grapes.Mutasa, however, claims to have had his Damascene moment and wants to be part of efforts to create a better future for Zimbabweans through turning a new leaf on how they are governed.Zimbabwe is currently going through its worst economic crisis in decades with poverty and unemployment spiralling out of control.Mutasa regrets that he could not drive the negotiations with Mukonori to their logical conclusions following the split within ZPF."During the period that Nera was involving us, I went to see Father Mukonori because you know that he is very close to the president and we wanted him to help us to talk to the president and let him see sense, to see that he is destroying his own legacy and that he should not do that," he said."The conversation around that was going on very well until there were changes in Nera and someone else took over from me as convener. We then stopped but it's something that people in this country must understand, that you cannot fight a person in power, you can only persuade him to see your point of view and let them use whatever you will have told him as if it is his own idea".Leaked WikiLeaks cables cite Mukonori's ties with Mugabe and other senior Zanu-PF figures as going back to the liberation struggle in the 1970s.He is said to have been involved in brokering an end to the Zanu-Zapu conflict in Matabeleland in the early 1980s and was involved in putting together the Unity Accord in 1987.He reportedly has served as a Mugabe emissary on other occasions.When he was the convener of Nera, Mutasa torched a storm when he made a phone call to Mugabe, requesting to see him.This only came to light after Mugabe had revealed during his address to war collaborators in the capital on his arrival from Morocco that his former State Security minister had called him and that he suspected Mutasa had something big to say."He asked over my health and that of my family and I in turn asked over his health and that of his family. I also asked over the health of his mother in-law who I heard was not feeling well," Mugabe revealed."I asked if it was all he wanted and he said yes, it's all but I am not stupid. I know there was something he was looking for".Mutasa later explained that Nera leaders, including MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai, had tasked him to make the call to Mugabe to discuss the need for electoral reforms.The former Zanu-PF secretary for administration said Nera leaders also wanted to meet State security chiefs, who were critical in the administration of polls as they normally campaign for Zanu-PF.
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A Houston man recently took a note out of the Joker's playbook, and failed.

On June 6, 26-year-old Christopher Fuentes threatened employees during an attempted robbery at a dry cleaning store near 15200 Southwest Freeway, according to the Sugar Land Police Department.

At the time, witnesses told police Fuentes was "wearing light colored paint around his face" and looked like the "Joker," Batman's arch nemesis.

BUSTED: Montgomery police find nearly a pound and a half of Xanax at traffic stop

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Police said Fuentes was arrested one month later on July 5 after a resident contacted authorities and reported a man driving down the street "dressed like the Joker."

Sugar Land police believe Fuentes is a suspect in a similar robbery that occurred the same day of his arrest.

Click through above to see armed robberies caught on surveillance in the Houston area.
A U.S. congressman from Texas says President Donald Trump's children shouldn't be in the White House.

U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, whose district includes College Station, Waco and other parts of Central Texas., told radio station KBTX, "I'm going out on a limb here, but I would say that I think it would be in the president's best interest if he removed all of his children from the White House."
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It sounds like an amazing opportunity - to be able to snag a job doing what you love in one of the most beautiful places on the planet, but according to reports, it's something the state of Hawaii is having trouble getting qualified people to do.

Right now there is a teacher shortage in the state of Hawaii and the prospect of working there is enough for some people to throw everything into storage on the mainland and hop on a flight with a resume.

FIRST DATE TRIP: Tinder kick-starts delayed date by sending couple to Hawaii

One recent report by KITV-TV in Honolulu stated there are up to 1,600 openings that need to be filled by the beginning of the next school year. Public school teachers in Hawaii make a median annual salary of $56,000, according to that outlet, although starting pay is much less. Still, people are motivated to make a move.

Out-of-state teacher recruitment events are routinely held in places like Nevada. There has been a teacher shortage for two decades according to some reports. Hawaii has a population of nearly 1.5 million but it only has a single, statewide school district.

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"We have to be in a constant recruiting mode. It's just like any large organization, but then we have one hundred plus private schools, we have 30 plus charter schools. We have a lot of school classrooms to fill," George Carroll, Campus College Chair for University of Phoenix College of Education told the outlet in May.

But according to one official, when these stories make the rounds it actually hinders hiring.

"We are taking this recruitment very seriously, so when we get calls that are based on a story or a blog about 'You'll get paid just to move to Hawaii,' that really is not something that we want to attract," Hawaii Department of Education spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz told the Huffington Post.

WELL SORTA: Hawai'i wants teachers, is offering 'financial incentives' to relocate

You can check out the department's job portal here, including details on the open positions.

Some of these hopefuls might not even have teaching certifications to even work in Hawaii. Officials have to weed these people out, and during that process some qualified people might get hired elsewhere. Emergency hires are one thing that the state would like to cut down on.

Hawaii's general fund also provides the money for the school district, which can lead to chronic underfunding. Teachers like to be paid competitively for their work and that's something that the state can't always deliver on with shortfalls. Hawaii pays its teachers the least of any state, according to WalletHub.

"We are not looking for people who want to travel to Hawaii," Dela Cruz added. "We are serious about looking for qualified teachers for the positions."

So if you are in fact qualified, think long and hard about working in paradise. It's probably not all you might expect.
News / National

by Simbarashe Sithole

A 33-Year-Old Mvurwi man cheated death in the wee hours of yesterday after instant justice had been allegedly meted on him following a minor who screamed for help as he allegedly tried to break into a room she was sleeping in.Sources who spoke to Bulwayo24.com allege Edson Magudura tried to knock down a bedroom-hut door where a minor was sleeping."The suspect was caught yesterday night after he tried to knock down a girl's bedroom door."The girl screamed for help there by working up everyone, Magudura tried to flee but he was caught after few meters," said the source.Magudura was thoroughly beaten by the mob; he sustained a swollen mouth, head and legs before being driven to the Mvurwi police station.Meanwhile, in an interview with Bulawayo24.com the accused denied the allegations saying he was coming from church and he was mistakenly bashed for a crime he did not commit."I was coming from church when I passed in that yard, surprisingly I heard a girl screaming and people coming out - I tried to runaway but I stopped because I was innocent."The mob attacked me only to leave me when I was gasping, I am not an alcoholic hence I would not do such a thing," sobbed Magudura in pain.He had to be ferried in a wheelbarrow to Mvurwi hospital which is next door the station since the station does not a vehicle
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.
News / Press Release

by PDP

Together Another Zimbabwe is Possible

Zimbabwe is staggering under a sea of poverty, a majority of Zimbabweans are living on less than dollar a day and 95% is not in formal employment.Companies are closing en masse since 2013; thousands of workers lost their jobs during this period. The economy is in continuous decline, calling it a recession is now an insult to the real definition of the word which applies to at least two successive quarters in decline. The Zimbabwean economy has gone for more than 16 quarters with the economy in comatose.A crippling liquidity crunch has also ensued worsening the situation of the poor working people of Zimbabwe.Social service delivery has turned a pipe dream, the new normal is about painkillers running out at government hospitals, outpatient departments are now a horror movie, thousands are dying of curable diseases, Doctors going on what is now routine job actions with nurses threating to follow suit.A local governance disaster has been brewing for quite some time, running water has been turned into gold which only King Midas the Greek's touch can provide. Refuse collection has long been abandoned especially in high density suburbs.The memory of the last typhoid and Cholera outbreaks are still fresh, 16th Century diseases only found in a highly mismanaged and impoverished country.The People's Democratic Party is of the view that these and other problems are an indicator of a nation calling for leadership.The IMF Article IV report's report published on the 15th of May 2017 was a clear vote of no confidence on both Mugabe and Chinamasa. Who without doubt have failed to respond to the challenges the nation is facing.It is ironic that in this sea of poverty Mugabe's sons are feasting in the middle of a famine, spending tax payer's money like confetti.They are living a life which is out of this planet. A life of debotuary, dingy partying and fight for women. Having such a life on tax payer's money is criminal.The People's Democratic Party is on record saying the First family is a bunch from hell, the recent article in the Zimbabwe Independent which highlights the luxury of Mugabe's sons on account of Zimbabwean taxes supports our claim. The two spoilt brats are living in apartments of more than 74 000 Rand a month forget the one they lived in Dubai.Grace Mugabe has since annexed a dam to her bloody empire, evicted hundreds of families who are now homeless on top of spending more than a million on a diamond ring, Mugabe flies in a hotel on every foreign trip he takes and he does fly in those luxury jets often. In February he spent millions of dollars on a birthday where he and his henchmen ate 93 kilograms of black forest cake in the midst of starving villagers.Our concern is that Mugabe cannot govern, if you cannot control your family, forget controlling the state and the citizens. Mugabe must just resign, having him around is a risk to the country degenerating into chaos.
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Some Media Channels are airing the news which reveals the names of Film Celebrities who are addicted to drugs and have got the notices of Excise Department. This list is creating a big storm in the Telugu film industry and social media. Ravi Teja, Charmi, Mumaith Khan, Tarun, Navdeep, Tanish, Nandu, Art Director Chinna, Sam K Naidu, Subbaraju and Puri Jagannadh are said to have received the notices and were asked to appear before the department on 19th of this month.

A few Drug Peddlers in Hyderabad were arrested recently and they are said to be supplying drugs to rich customers ranging from school children to film celebrities. After the arrests, the peddlers have revealed the names of the customers which is leading to such notices. It has to be seen if this only stops with the interrogation or leads to arrests. Officials say Drugs usage has reached dangerous levels in the industry and needs to be stopped immediately or else it would send wrong signals to the society. The question is if the department will not yield to any pressures.Ravi Teja, Charmi, Mumaith Khan, Tarun, Navdeep, Tanish, Nandu, Art Director Chinna, Sam K Naidu, Subbaraju and Puri Jagannadh are said to have received the notices and were asked to appear before the department on 19th of this month.

A few Drug Peddlers in Hyderabad were arrested recently and they are said to be supplying drugs to rich customers ranging from school children to film celebrities. After the arrests, the peddlers have revealed the names of the customers which is leading to such notices. It has to be seen if this only stops with the interrogation or leads to arrests. Officials say Drugs usage has reached dangerous levels in the industry and needs to be stopped immediately or else it would send wrong signals to the society. The question is if the department will not yield to any pressures.
A Texas doctor wrote unnecessary prescriptions for powerful drugs that contributed to the overdose deaths of at least seven people over a four-year period, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Howard Gregg Diamond, 56, was arrested Tuesday on charges that include conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and healthcare fraud.

Prosecutors contend that Diamond began issuing prescriptions in 2010 that had no legitimate medical purpose. The prescriptions were for drugs such as fentanyl, hydrocodone and morphine, according to the indictment.

Authorities say the overdose deaths occurred in the Texas cities of Abilene, McKinney and Sulphur Springs, and in the Oklahoma cities of Ardmore, Hugo, Idabel and Yukon.

In each case, the seven people died within a month of filling the prescription provided by Diamond, the indictment states. One person filled a prescription for methadone in May 2013 and was dead two days later.

In another instance, a woman only identified in the indictment by the initials T.H. filled a prescription in July 2014 for alprazolam, morphine, oxycodone and zolpidem. She died 10 days after receiving the drugs.

Diamond, who is based in Sherman, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of Dallas, pleaded not guilty to the charges on Tuesday. He is due in court again on Friday for a detention hearing. He is in federal custody and could not be reached for comment. His public defender, Denise Benson, didnt immediately reply to a message Wednesday seeking comment.

The indictment alleges that Diamond conspired with others to distribute the drugs but there was no indication whether additional arrests will be made. Prosecutors declined to comment on the investigation beyond what they said in a Wednesday news release.

Diamond also is accused of defrauding Medicare of tens of thousands of dollars by filing false claims and through other means.

Prosecutors say theyll seek to have Diamonds medical license revoked.

Online records kept by the Texas Medical Board show that Diamonds medical license was issued in 1988. He appears to have specialized in spinal injuries and rehabilitation.

The board in 2015 required Diamond to submit to a remedial plan after finding he failed to maintain adequate medical records documenting his care and treatment of chronic pain patients. Records indicate the plan concluded when he completed its requirements a year later.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A Houston attorney disbarred for his involvement in an auto insurance fraud scheme, has filed an appeal with the Texas Supreme Court in order to reinstate his license. He cited other cases where attorneys had committed far worse crimes and received a suspension in lieu of disbarment.

Ikechukwu Nweze, pled guilty to engaging in organized criminal activity and insurance fraud last year, according to a press release issued by the Texas Department of Insurance.

As part of his plea agreement, Nweze was placed on community supervision for four years and ordered to surrender his law license.

The attorney was part of criminal organization, according to the insurance agency, that set up fake auto accidents and medical bills.

Jesse McClure, special assistant district attorney for Harris County, is one of several prosecutors TDI has imbedded at D.A. offices around the state. He said the investigation began in 2013, after a tip from an informant. Undercover officers with DPS and Houston Police met with a Nweze associate who organized the fake car crash.

It was elaborate, McClure said. The level of complexity in this criminal endeavor went beyond the typical staged accident scheme. They had co-conspirators at a local health clinic generating fake medical bills.

Nweze was trying to collect around $56,000 in medical costs from the insurance company for just this one staged accident.

The owner of the health clinic involved, Patrick Osuagwu, pled guilty in February to insurance fraud associated with the case. After the fake accident, Osuagwu encouraged the undercover officers to fill out forms saying that they had received chiropractic treatment, when in fact they had received no medical care.

In May 2017, the Board of Disciplinary Appeals signed a judgment of disbarment against Nweze.
News / Regional

by Stephen Jakes

The divisions emerged in the lowers structures of the opposition political parties mooting a grand coalition to challenge President Robert Mugabe are worrying the MDC-T in Insiza.Through a statement on Facebook the MDC-T Insiza said after listening to MDC-T leader MOrgan Tsvangirai, MDC leader Welshman Ncube, the National People's Party leader Joice Mujuru, and the majority of Opposition Leaders, it really sounds as if they don't have a problem with who is going to lead a United Coalition for the coming elections."They are all prepared to step aside for whoever they will deem 'the most appropriate candidate'. That is Leadership right there. HOWEVER....It turns out that the Lower Level Structures of these parties are the ones who are against a united coalition! They are worried about positions! Imagine! And it looks like their efforts are bearing fruit hey. Because right now the coalition is not gaining traction," said the MDC-T Insiza."And its now very likely that it will not happen in good time, or not at all.Really now? Positions?? What are Zimbabweans like kanti? How can you fight over something that you haven't even got yet.... and you might not even get anyway!."the party said can somebody tell all these fools that If there is no United Coalition going into the next elections, they might as well stay at home and stop making noise with funny rallies, wasting time and resources."Only a United Zimbabwe will kick out Mugabe and his Zanu PF. That's a fact. Whoever doesn't agree with this deserves all the 38 + 5 more years of Zanu PF,.... and Mugabe, ....and Saviour Kasukwerere, ...and Jonathan Moyo, ...and Amai, Grace Mugabe ...and all the suffering, indignity, hopelessness,...the poverty and death, the torture and pain they bring upon you all day every day," said the party structure!
A Billings, Montana, man charged with vehicular homicide while under the influence of marijuana is challenging the state standard at which a person is considered to be under the influence.

Public defender Gregory Paskell says the THC blood level set by the state is arbitrary, and hes asking that the charge against Kent Roderick Jensen be dismissed.

Jensen, 20, is charged in the March 2016 death of motorcyclist Jashua Fry, The Billings Gazette reports. Court records say Jensen pulled out onto a road without seeing the motorcycle, causing the fatal crash.

Jensens blood contained 19 nanograms per milliliter of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, court records said. State law says a person is under the influence with a blood level of 5 ng/mL of THC.

Paskell cited studies that have concluded its difficult to standardize the amount of THC that creates impairment because it varies from person to person.

There is no science to back up the 5 ng/mL level as a level that indicates impairment in a sizable enough portion of users to make it a standard for everyone, Paskell wrote.

Deputy Yellowstone County Attorney Victoria Callender said the Legislature, which makes policy decisions, set the legal limit based on research and that the case should move forward.

Montana is one of 18 states with marijuana-specific impaired driving laws, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. A dozen states have zero tolerance for marijuana or its metabolites.

Colorado, Montana and Washingtons driving limits of 5 ng/mL are the highest among the six states that list legal limits. Colorado allows defendants to argue they were not impaired at that level, but Montana and Washington laws are similar to blood alcohol limits, which drivers cannot challenge.

District Judge Gregory Todd heard arguments on June 2 and then received written briefs. He has not ruled in the case. Jensens trial is scheduled for late August.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
AKRON, Ohio - The Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition has issued an urgent request for supporters' help in appealing to U.S. Congress members, to keep its federal funding.

The canalway fears the National Heritage Area, which includes the Ohio & Erie Canal, the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad and parts of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, will suffer major budget cuts under President Trump. Losing funding, the canalway says, could jeopardize the goal of completing the Towpath Trail by 2020.

The canalway, which encompasses the canal's route along the Cuyahoga River for more than 100 miles, wants people who value the Towpath Trail and the national heritage area to write letters expressing support and requesting

On Thursday the canalway issued an emergency statement that reads:

The impact on the Towpath Trail and Ohio & Erie Canalway National Heritage Area would be devastating since it would eliminate funding for the continued development, enhancement and maintenance of the Towpath Trail and Connector Trails, the restoration of historic buildings, conservation of natural areas and presentation of environmental programs. Quite simply, it puts at risk our goal of completing the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail by 2020.

The group's goal is to collect 1,000 letters and deliver them to Washington D.C. by July 31. You can copy and personalize a sample letter here.

You can send your own letters directly. Letter writers are urged to contact Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, as well as area legislators. Addresses are available here.

Summit County

Stark County

Tuscarawas County

Cuyahoga County

Send a copy of the letter to the coalition office via email. For more information, contact Dan Rice at drice@ohioeriecanal.org or Sara Hart at sahart@ohioeriecanal.org.

Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.
AKRON, Ohio -- Two people, including a 16-year-old girl, died Friday after an SUV ran a red light and crashed into an Akron fire truck, police said.

Eight people, including three firefighters, were injured in the crash that happened at 3:45 p.m. on Rhodes Avenue at West Exchange Street, police said.

The three firefighters suffered minor injuries, a police spokesman said.

The 16-year-old girl and the second person, whose age and gender have not been released, suffered fatal injuries in the crash, police said. The Summit County Medical Examiner's Office will release the identities of the two people who were killed once their families have been notified.

Witnesses said a fire truck was driving on Rhodes Avenue when an SUV ran a red light on West Exchange Street, police said. The SUV struck the fire truck before it crashed into a utility pole, police said.

The fire truck was in service but not responding to an emergency at the time, police said.

No other details were immediately available.

Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan and Fire Chief Clarence Tucker said the crash was "tragic" and an investigation was launched to determine the cause of the fatal collision in a joint statement issued Friday afternoon. Read the statement below:

"We are deeply saddened by this truly tragic incident. Our condolences, thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of the victims and all individuals involved, including the three members of our Fire Department.

The City is conducting a full investigation into the events surrounding this accident and will provide additional information to the public as it is known. We encourage residents to await accurate information from the authorities regarding the circumstances surrounding the incident, and to join us in lifting up those affected in their thoughts and prayers." The Akron Police Department's Traffic Crash Reconstruction Unit is on scene to complete

To comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments section.
Burglary, Emory Drive: Prescription Vicodin, an opioid used for pain management, and $185 in cash were reported stolen at about 10:45 p.m. July 2 from a house. The victim said he had locked the house before leaving but there were no signs of a break-in.

Disorderly conduct, Parkman Boulevard: A Brook Park man, 56, was arrested at about 5:45 p.m. June 29 after police found him intoxicated, and unable to care for himself, near a Dumpster outside Brookview Elementary School, 14100 Parkman. The man had been walking to his house, which is near the school.

Grand theft auto, West 150th Street: An unlocked 2015 Chevrolet Malibu was stolen between 11 p.m. June 30 and 7:30 a.m. July 1 from a driveway.

Theft, Brookpark Road: A homemade cross was reported stolen at about 4:30 p.m. June 29 from a grave in Holy Cross Cemetery, 14609 Brookpark.

Operating a vehicle under the influence, Holland Road: An Akron man, 29, was arrested at about 9:50 p.m. June 30 after police saw him driving recklessly.

The man had pulled his car into the driveway of residents he didn't know. He was passed out behind the steering wheel. The engine was running, the car was in drive and the man's foot was on the brake.

When police knocked on the car window, the man woke up and lifted his foot off the brake. The car rolled forward and hit the homeowners' car. The man then shifted into park. Police found marijuana and a marijuana grinder in the man's car.

Vandalism, Brookpark Road: Thirty-six windows and glass doors in Travelodge Brook Park, 16161 Brookpark Road, were reported cracked at about 4:45 p.m. June 26. The hotel's owner said that "various projectiles" - small pieces of metal - were used to damage the windows and doors, starting in March.

Operating a vehicle under the influence, Henry Ford Boulevard: A Lakewood man, 28, was arrested at about 9:10 p.m. July 2 after police caught him driving 51 mph in a 35-mph zone on Henry Ford. The man had been drinking. He had an open container of Twisted Tea in his vehicle.

Operating a vehicle under the influence, Smith Road: A Cleveland man, 62, was arrested at about 5:15 p.m. July 1 after police saw his car weaving on Smith near Dollar General. The man was drunk.

Theft, West 130th Street: A catalytic converter was stolen June 23 or June 24 from a moving van parked outside Life Storage, 4976 West 130th.

Body found, Fry Road: A Brook Park man, 22, was found dead in his home at about 4:15 a.m. July 3. Police believe the man had overdosed on drugs but the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's office has not yet determined a cause of death.

To comment on this story, please visit the crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cuyahoga County has signed on to the Compact of Mayors, the world's largest cooperative effort among local government leaders to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, track progress, and prepare for the impacts of climate change.

The effort, which began a year ago, includes 658 cities worldwide, representing 6.82 percent of the total global population. Cleveland is one of 140 American cities to join.

The county took the action Friday, weeks after President Donald Trump's decision to leave the Paris Agreement.

Under former President Barack Obama, the United States had agreed to reduce emissions to 26-28 percent of 2005 levels by 2025 -- about 1.6 billion tons.

The county said that German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke for many around the world when she said at the recent international G20 Summit that "Unfortunately -- and I deplore this -- the United States of America left the climate agreement."

The decision has led local governments across the United States and the world are join together to commit themselves to to measure, target, reduce and adapt to the problems caused by greenhouse gas emissions, the county said.

"President Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement is harmful to the health of the planet and to the health of Cuyahoga County and its residents. We must do all we can to protect the health of the citizens of our county, both today and into the future," County Executive Armond Budish said in a statement. ".We will do our part to adhere to and even exceed the targets set by the Paris Accords. We will develop a Climate Change Action Plan in accordance with standards set up by the Compact of Mayors."

Over the next six months, the county will measure in detail the greenhouse gases that come out of the county "and work with partner agencies and governments including the City of Cleveland to set greenhouse gas reduction goals, strategies to achieve the goals and ways for our local region to deal with the issues that Climate Change presents to us," Mike Foley, director of the county's Department of Sustainability, said in a statement.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The long-rumored takeover of the historic Agora Theatre and Ballroom by concert giant AEG Presents is now a fact.

Shawn Trell, chief operating officer of the California-based company, and Chris Zitterbart, who has run the concert venue as owner and chief concert buyer since moving his operations from Peabody's in 2013, confirmed the change in exclusive separate interviews with The Plain Dealer.

The deal was finalized on Friday, July 14, and will be marked with a press conference at the theater at 5000 Euclid Ave. Friday morning.

Zitterbart will remain with the facility, which has a theater capacity of 2,100 and a ballroom capacity of 600, as an employee of AEG, which is adding the Agora to the more than 60 venues it owns or operates nationwide.

"It's going to be a partnership,'' said Zitterbart, who owned Peabody's for eight years before a takeover of its old site by Cleveland State University forced the partnership with the Agora. "A lot of my day-to-day will be similar to what I've been doing for 12 years now. I will be booking events along with AEG.''

Neither Trell nor Zitterbart would reveal the financial terms of the deal, but plans are to renovate the historic theater originally run by Agora founder Henry LoConti Sr. - including upgrades of the building itself as well as its HVAC and acoustic design, sound and lighting systems.

Shawn Trell, the Ohio-born chief operating officer of concert giant AEG Presents, said the company will spend "seven figures'' in upgrades and renovations to the Agora Theatre after it takes over operation of the venerable concert hall on Friday, July 14.

However, Trell did say that AEG plans repairs and renovations that will reach into the "seven figures'' in upgrading the venerable structure, which began life in 1913 as the Metropolitan Theatre opera house and also served for a period as a home for vaudeville and burlesque.

"The really exciting piece of this is going through a lot of discussion about what is best for the fan experience and what is best for the artist experience as well,'' said Zitterbart. "We are working on timing and that now, but the idea is to keep the classic Agora feel, but also to modernize it.''

Cleveland music scene experts and fans have long speculated about an AEG role in the city, and it turns out it's something that's been in the works for a long time.

"A while back, when Hank and I were working together, he set up a meeting to introduce me to the key players at AEG,'' said Zitterbart. "This has been several years of getting to know each other.''

"We've looked at the Agora a couple of times over the past decade,'' Trell confirmed in a separate interview. "It just never seemed the right time at the right moment.

"There was a moment in time where the work [that needed to be done] was even more substantial than it is now,'' he said. "Some of that has been undertaken, and Chris oversaw a bit of that.''

Of course, the biggest impact will be the influx of AEG, the world's second-largest concert promoter, into a city alongside Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter.

"We're excited about joining a market where we've not had a presence to date,'' said Trell, a native of Columbus who is intimately familiar with the legacy begun by LoConti in 1966, which included a Columbus Agora. "We view it as an important market.''

"Hank [was] a guy who was revered in the industry,'' said Trell. "His passing'' - LoConti died almost exactly four years ago after a battle with lymphoma - "was very said.

"We're not looking to do anything to detract from the history or the legacy of the venue,'' said Trell.

Trell and Zitterbart both pointed out that the power of AEG means an opportunity to tap new and better bands for the venue. Almost like LoConti's storied "Agora Circuit,'' where artists and bands played Agoras in various cities during the institution's heyday, AEG can use its multiple venues as a sort of circuit as well, making it easier to book artists for entire tours at AEG clubs and theaters.

Live Nation's presence in Cleveland - the concert promoter whose local history began with Jules and Mike Belkin, who were friendly rivals with LoConti - isn't really a concern for Trell, he said. That's even though Live Nation owns the House of Blues and books all the non-classical events at Blossom

Music Center as well as shows at such venues as Quicken Loans Arena and more.

"We go head to head with Live Nation wherever we're doing business,'' said Trell, who noted that AEG also has presented shows by artists such as Taylor Swift at The Q. "They're the largest concert promoter in the world, and we're the second-largest. We do 10,000 shows on an annual basis.

"I don't look at what I do as COO" of AEG as "concerning myself with the competition,'' he said. "It's about executing the right opportunities.''

Those "opportunities'' will include expanding the scope of the Agora's use, meaning the club will be used not just for concerts featuring music of all genres - from rock to country to hip-hop and more - but other functions as well.

The current schedule for the Agora remains unchanged by the takeover, said Zitterbart, and neither he nor Trell would put a timetable on just when any renovations would take place.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Fans heading to Billy Joel's ballpark concert at Progressive Field on Friday will have less to worry about than those who attended the U2 concert at FirstEnergy Stadium earlier this month.

The list of restrictions for Progressive Field is much shorter than FirstEnergy Stadium. Still, here's what you should know before heading to Friday night's show:

When does it start?

Doors open at 6 p.m. The actual show is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. with Andrew McMahon and the Wilderness as the opening act.

Can you still buy tickets?

Yes. As of Thursday, there were pretty good seats available HERE.

Will it rain?

No. The weather looks beautiful with temperature in the 70s.

Here's what you CAN bring inside...

banners

bottled water

cellphones

certified service animals

small juice boxes

food items

small bags (such as purses)

soft-sided coolers

strollers

umbrellas

In terms of food and bottled water, Progressive Field allows one bottle of water per person that is 20 ounces or less and factory sealed. The same goes for single serving juice boxes.

Here's what you CAN'T bring...

skateboards, roller blades, roller skates, scooters

alcoholic beverages and illegal drugs

large bags exceeding 16x16x8 inches

butterfly nets

cans, glasses or bottles

chewing tobacco

electronic cigarettes

firearms or weapons

pets

poles or sticks

hard-sided coolers

laser pointers

To check out the full list of permitted and restricted items, along with details on fan code of conduct and security measures click HERE.

For those with Field Tickets

You must obtain a wrist band from the guest services tables near left or right field the day of the show to come and go from the field.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - In honor of Billy Joel's show at Progressive Field tonight, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is bringing back one of the Piano Man's most popular artifacts.

The museum has put Joel's 1977 Harley Davidson XLCR Cafe Racer back on display. The bike has been in and out of the museum over the years.

Joel is an avid motorcycle fan and owns numerous bikes. He also opened 20th Century Cycles, a motorcycle gallery in Oyster Bay housing more than 75 bikes customized to give them a vintage aesthetic.

Joel's 1977 XLCR is important to his history. He crashed the bike in 1982 while riding in Long Island. The accident severely injured Joel's hands, halting production on his eighth studio album 'The Nylon Curtain."

Joel was able to recover. But the remnants of the bike now reside in the Rock Hall for a limited time.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A convicted sex offender who shared photographs of a nude 7-year-old boy that were flagged by Google has been sentenced to more than 14 years in prison.

Robert Arias, 54, of Broadview Heights, pleaded guilty last month to 16 counts of possessing child pornography, three counts of producing it, and one count of possessing criminal tools.

Cuyahoga County Judge Timothy McCormack on Wednesday sentenced Arias to 14 years and nine months in prison.

McCormack also ordered Arias to register as a sex offender every six months for 25 years after his release.

Arias was identified in February. Google sent a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who in turn went to the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, that someone had uploaded a photograph of a nude child to a Google service, according to court records.

Investigators tracked the IP address of the computer that shared the photograph to Arias' Seneca Boulevard apartment. During an April 14 search of the apartment they found hundreds of files of child pornography, including the picture flagged by Google, on cellphones, mobile devices and a laptop, records say.

Children in the photographs that Arias possessed ranged in age from 2 years old to 9 years old, prosecutors said. The 7-year-old boy whom he photographed was well-known to him, according to prosecutors.

Arias was sentenced to four years in prison in 2006 after he pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.

He was also convicted last year of failing to register a new address.

Arias will be on parole for five years after his release from prison.

To comment on this story, please visit Thursday's crime and courts comments section.
AKRON, Ohio -- The Akron Women's Medical Group abortion clinic and an affiliated facility in Cleveland have closed, leaving Ohio with eight abortion clinics -- half the number in 2011.

The physician who owns both facilities, Gerald Grossman, could not be reached.

Anti-abortion volunteers who routinely staked out the Akron clinic had noticed temporary shutdowns before at the East Market Street facility, but this summer's closure was different. For Right to Life of Northeast Ohio executive director Diane Leipold, the permanent shutdown is cause for celebration.

"We are very happy that they've closed, but we're keeping our radar up," Leipold said. "As much as we want this clinic to close, we want people to make better choices and use the other alternatives available."

Northeast Ohio women can still obtain abortions at facilities in Bedford, Cleveland and Cuyahoga Falls, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland said. Columbus also has abortion providers.

There's an issue in Cuyahoga Falls, too. The medical license of the doctor who owns and operates the Northeast Ohio Women's Center there, David Burkons, was suspended by the State Medical Board of Ohio this week. Ohio Right to Life said the board suspended Burkons' license for six months after an investigation revealed he signed blank prescriptions.

Because Burkons has also performed abortions in other clinics, Ohio Right to Life executive director Devin Scribner predicted "the suspension of this license is sure to rock Ohio's abortion industry for at least the next six months."

In an interview, Burkons confirmed his license has been suspended, but said it was due to a few minor paperwork violations, none of which resulted in his prescriptions being used for "pill mills." Burkons said he was able to get other doctors to cover his abortion clinic work.

He said the Akron and Cleveland clinics closed because the doctor who operated them "had to retire for health reasons, and they don't have a replacement for him."

"Abortion is under attack in Ohio, but my particular situation of being off for six months will not have any effect at all," said Burkons. "I made arrangements to make sure that it doesn't."

Copeland said the Ohio Department of Health has targeted abortion clinics for shut-down under anti-abortion Gov. John Kasich by subjecting them to requirements that don't apply to other medical facilities.

For example, the state is currently trying to shutter clinics in Dayton and Toledo that couldn't meet a new requirement that they have transfer agreements with nearby hospitals after Ohio's anti-abortion legislature blocked the hospitals from contracting with them.

"This is ridiculous because in the very rare instance that a patient has an emergency and needs to be transferred, the hospital is required under federal law to treat that patient," said Copeland. "The idea that this is somehow a patient safety issue is absurd. That's the thing that' s been upsetting. You have clinics that are providing safe, quality care and they are being shut down over administrative traps that have nothing to do with patient safety."

Ohio Right to Life sent its supporters an ecstatic email about the latest closures, attributing the reduced number of clinics to 19 new "pro-life" state laws, and grassroots efforts by its affiliates.

"The last thing Ohio needs right now (or ever) is more abortion clinics," the organization said. "In 2015, 20,976 abortions were reported to the Ohio Department of Health. That's 25 percent lower than 2010. We've made progress, but we still have a long way to go to reach our goal: Zero."
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 9-year-old girl was shot as she and two other children ran away from the gunfire that erupted in Thursday afternoon in Cleveland, witnesses said.

The shooting injured the girl and two others. A 37-year-old woman was also struck in the leg and a 33-year-old man was shot in the arm about 3 p.m. inside the courtyard of an apartment complex on East 30th Street and Central Avenue, Cleveland police said.

No arrests have been made.

All three people were taken to MetroHealth Hospital for treatment. Police did not give their names or their current conditions.

Witnesses described the scene as one of chaos with people running and thundering sounds of gunfire.

Antoine Hopes Jr., said he was sitting with the girl and another boy on a bench when a man with a mask and long dreadlocks started shooting. He ran away to his apartment a few yards away from where shooting happened, he said.

"She got shot when she ran away," Antoine, 10, said as he stood from a second floor balcony. "I ran in the house."

Antoine said the girl was trying to run into her apartment's hallway just a few feet away from where they were sitting. Investigators were seen putting a pink piece of clothing in a large brown bag near the apartment's entrance.

Antoine said he heard about 11 shots. Several numbered yellow police markers were placed by the bench where he and the two other children were sitting.

Antoine's mother, Sandy Thompkins, said the man shot is a friend of hers and was sitting on the porch when he was hurt.

"He [shooter] was wearing all black and a mask," she said. "Bullets were flying everywhere. Nobody could see his face."

Thompkins, 29, said a bullet went through her apartment window and pierced a hole into her son's bedroom wall. No one in the apartment was hurt, she said.

Several Cleveland and Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority officers were at the scene for hours collecting evidence and questioning onlookers who watched from the balconies. Others funneled out of their homes and watched from the yellow caution tape marking the crime scene.

Officers were beginning to leave the scene about 5 p.m.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Thursday's crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 47-year-old man was robbed and shot after he bumped into a young gunman while walking in the city's Tremont neighborhood.

The shooting happened about 9 p.m. Thursday on Abbey Road and West 14th Street. No arrests have been made in the case.

The man told police he accidentally bumped into a boy, who witnesses said appeared to be in his mid-teens, police reports say.

The man told the robber "excuse me" and the robber immediately pulled out a gun, police reports say.

The robber told the man: "No excuse. Give me your money," according to police reports.

The man said he initially thought the robber had a pellet gun, but the robber kept saying he was serious, police reports say.

The man took $120 out of his pocket and dropped it on the ground, police reports say. The robber grabbed the cash and immediately shot the man in the left calf, police reports say.

The man was taken to MetroHealth for treatment. The robber ran off after the shooting, police reports say.

Witnesses told police they saw the robber running down the rock-covered slope on Abbey Avenue near the Interstate-90 overpass. He stopped in the bike trail and was "messing with" two bags he was carrying while stripping off his shirt, police reports say.

He then ran east on Abbey Avenue, according to police reports.

Investigators searched that area and found a stolen handgun believed to be used in the shooting, police reports say.

The gun was stolen July 7 from the center console of an unlocked car parked on East 169th Street, north of Villaview Road in the city's North Collinwood neighborhood, police reports say.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments section.
A Teenage Nepali Girl Died In A Menstruation Ritual

A teenage girl in Nepal, Tulasi Shahi, died after being bitten by a snake, twice in her head and once on her leg, while she was banished to a cowshed during a menstruation ritual, writes the New York Times. Shahi, 18, was taking part in Chhaupadi - which translates to untouchable being- still a common practice in rural areas, though banned in 2005, in which women, believed to be unclean during menstruation, are sequestered for the duration for their periods. Chhaupadi is not just relegated to menstruation, but also for women during the following weeks after childbirth.

After she was bit, Shahis family brought her to a Hindu shaman who performed rituals for several hours before declaring she needed a doctor. Once at the local health clinic, she was unable to be treated, as they did not have the antivenom. After several hours of fighting the venom in her system, Shahi died during transport to a hospital. Sadly, Shahi is not the first to die while practicing Chhaupadi.

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During Chhaupadi, girls are even prohibited to go to school, drink milk or eat milk products, and are given only limited access to water taps and wells. They are forbidden from touching other people, cattle, and crops, out of fear that a god or goddess may be angered and destroy livestock and crops. It seems like most deities are only angered by women.

Though death is the ultimate price of Chhapaudi, those forced to practice it have suffered physically in other ways. The UN reports that the practice is also linked to several diseases, such as diarrhea, pneumonia, and respiratory issues. And of course, the practice is also linked to psychological illness. Research from Action Works Nepal reports that that 77% of girls and women felt humiliated during their periods, and two-thirds reported feeling lonely and scared when staying in cowsheds.

The level of dehumanization is inconceivable. To be banished from your home, by the will of your own family, forced to live in the same quarters as animals, with limited access to food and water where you can possibly face an attack from either wildlife, or worse, men, and potentially face death, would leave one feeling a bit more than humiliated, lonely, and scared.

These types of discussions are difficult, as it is important to maintain cultural beliefs and traditions, however, said beliefs and traditions are dangerous when they are inherently violent against women. The notion that menstruation is essentially impure, and therefore requires strict restrictions dictating where girls and women can and cannot go and what they can and cannot eat or do, is violence. This type of misogyny cannot be excused or ignored.

Many Nepali women are fighting to end the practice.

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There are so many organizations working on this issue, Radha Paudel, a Nepali women's rights activist focusing on menstrual health, told the New York Times. Our president is a woman, the speaker is a woman, and our chief justice was a woman. But girls are dying in the shed, and they have to live like animals. Its shameful.

Top photo: Nepali "menstruation hut," screenshot via CNN

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Bry'onna Mention is a digital editor at BUST and a wavvy womanist who is always ready to square up against misogynoir and respectability. She can usually be found running through the burbs with her fro. Catch her on the internet at @radsadblackbry or bryonna@bust.com.
Science fiction author Melinda Snodgrass of Santa Fe celebrates the release of the second book in her space opera series.

SANTA FE AUTHOR CELEBRATES 2ND SPACE OPERA NOVEL SATURDAY, JULY 15, AT PAGE ONE BOOKS

Science Fiction author Melinda Snodgrass of Santa Fe will be at Page One Books 4:00 pm Saturday, July 15, to celebrate the release of the second book in her space opera series, "In Evil Times: Imperials 2."

Her second Imperials effort is described as such: "Scholarship student Thracius 'Tracy' Belmanor and Princess Mercedes de Arango have graduated from the High Ground and become officers in the Orden de la Estrella. Stung by Mercedes choice of Beauregard 'Boho' Cullen as her consort, Tracy is glad that they are posted on battleships light years apart, but soon finds that without her protection he is nothing but a target. Meanwhile, Mercedes posting has its own challenges, not least her unfaithful husband. Both young officers find themselves part of forced assimilations of settlers on Hidden Worlds, which lead them to doubt the intentions of the Solar League. And when Tracy witnesses an horrific event that threatens the fragile human and alien peace, Mercedes must decide where her loyalties truly lie..."

Snodgrass has been assistant editor on the "Wild Cards" mosaic superhero anthology series since its beginning in the 1980s, worked two years as story editor on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (and wrote the script for the popular episode "The Measure of a Man"), has written screenplays for several TV series, and is the author of "The Edge" science fiction series. Currently, she is shepherding the effort to turn "Wild Cards" into a TV series or theatrical film. As Phillipa Bornikova, she has produced two novels so far in the award-winning "Linnet Ellery" urban fantasy series. She splits her time between homes in Santa Fe and Los Angeles.

Page One Books is located at 5850 Eubank Blvd NE, Suite B-41, in Albuquerque's Mountain Run Shopping Center (southeast corner of Eubank and Juan Tabo). The Snodgrass event is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 294-2026 or visit www.page1book.com.

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Melinda Snodgrass website: http://melindasnodgrass.com
"Despite the mild expression of my wishes, ... I am constantly referred to as 'Mrs. Putnam' when the Times mentions me in its columns," Earhart wrote . "However, it is for many reasons more convenient for both of us to be simply 'Amelia Earhart.'"

The note may be 85 years old, but the lesson is timeless: Always ask for what you want.

In June 1932, Amelia Earhart tried to get The New York Times to stop calling her by her husband's last name  and succeeded. The Times resurfaced her letter to the paper's then publisher Thursday in its "Looking Back" section.

The day she wrote the letter, a headline in the paper had referred to her as "Mrs. Putnam," the surname of her husband, George P. Putnam, according to the story. But by July, the paper was using "Miss Earhart."

Many successful business leaders have talked about the importance of simply asking, because as the saying goes, "you miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take."

Steve Jobs learned the lesson as a 12-year-old, when he picked up the phone and called the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, William Hewlett. Jobs asked for spare parts so that he could build a frequency counter, he tells the Silicon Valley Historical Association in 1994 in an interview.

"He lived in Palo Alto, his number was still in the phone book," said Jobs.

Hewlett answered the call, and gave him a job that summer.

"Most people never pick up the phone and call," said Jobs. "Most people never ask, and that is what separates sometimes the people who do things from the people who just dream about them. You've got to act."

Billionaire and Virgin founder Richard Branson ranks asking for help as one of his top five pieces of advice for young entrepreneurs.

"I reached out to people who possessed the skills I lacked and asked them for help," he writes on his blog.

And 26-year-old self-made millionaire and founder of mobile advertising firm Kiip, Brian Wong, tells CNBC asking doesn't have much of a downside. Even if you get a no, you're simply back to where you started, he says. But if you get a yes, "Your life just changed! It's amazing how much asking can bring to you ... it's phenomenal."

Says Wong: It's "the magic wand for business and even in life."

Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook.

Don't miss: Warren Buffett uses this simple psychological trick to be persuasive and so can you, says influence expert
With over thousands of job applicants a year, it comes as no surprise that competition is stiff for open positions at Facebook.

In fact, one former employee went through 17 rounds of interviews before finally securing the role.

How can job seekers stand out when applying to the illustrious social media network?

Lori Goler, Facebook's vice president of people, discusses the company's hiring process with job site Glassdoor.

First, she suggests people learn about Facebook's company culture. "Most people have done a lot of research before they come" in for an interview, she tells Glassdoor.

She also recommends taking the time to thoroughly read call transcripts and earnings articles for up-to-date insight on what's most important to Facebook. That way, you can speak eloquently about CEO Mark Zuckerberg's vision for the company during job interviews.

Facebook has had the same mission statement since its inception: Make the world more connected. Zuckerberg even wrote a manifesto in February, in which he expressed his vision for a global and connected world.

"Facebook stands for bringing us closer together and building a global community," he writes in the statement. "The most important thing we at Facebook can do is develop the social infrastructure to give people the power to build a global community that works for all of us."

Zuckerberg emphasizes hiring people who support this shared vision for the company, he tells Fast Company. He adds that doing so has allowed Facebook "to take on more and more products and things that we can try to solve for the world."

Adhering to this overarching vision has given the company the license to tackle new products like virtual reality headsets and less tangible issues like dealing with hate speech.
Maybe you saw the signs of impending unemployment; maybe the pink slip caught you unawares. Whatever the sequence of events, you now find yourself laid off and without immediate job prospects on the horizon. Before you panic, consider: You are in excellent company. One-fifth of American workers lost their jobs right after the recession, according to a Rutgers University survey. In fact, getting laid off is so common now, it's a little absurd that there's any stigma left at all. More from PayScale:

Does your salary history really matter?

5 cover letter mistakes that are ruining your job search

5 layoff signs you shouldn't ignore Unfortunately, it is still easier to get a job when you have a job. But that doesn't mean that you can't find a job that's a good fit for you  and sooner, rather than later. This is how to get your job search off on the right foot.

Take a break

At Harvard Business Review, Rebecca Knight interviews Priscilla Claman, president of Career Strategies, and John Lees, author of How to Get a Job You Love, to get their advice on how to rebound after a layoff. They agree: The first step is to take (a little) time off. Knight writes: In the immediate aftermath of a job loss, give yourself time to decompress by "taking a vacation of sorts," suggests Claman. "You don't need to go to Aruba, but take a break," even if it's just for a weekend or a few days, she says. Your goal is get out of your own head with a fun and "active hiatus." Go hiking. Go camping. Go kayaking. "The first phase is recovery," says Lees. Don't make any big decisions in those first few days and don't rush into the job market the day after you've received the news. You need time to process what happened and "how you feel about it." That doesn't mean delaying your job search for months  it just means taking some time to get your thoughts together and begin your hunt with a clear head.

Write your story

It's inevitable: At some point during the interview process, a hiring manager will ask you why you left your previous employer. When they do, you want to be prepared to answer in a way that puts the best spin on the situation (while still being honest, of course). At Job-Hunt.org, Beth Colley recommends keeping these three rules in mind when you answer: Keep your answer brief. Keep your answer positive. Share something you learned through the process. Lees offers this sample script: "My former company went through an extensive restructuring. I've been given an opportunity to rethink my career, and what I am looking for now is XYZ." See? Quick, to the point, positive  and forward-looking.

Polish your social media presence

"It's estimated that almost every hiring manager (93 percent, to be exact) peruse the social media profiles of job candidates that they're interested in," writes Jennifer Parris at FlexJobs. "How are yours looking? You should spend a few hours going through all of your accounts and make them private, to start. "Eliminate anything (posts, pics, etc.) that don't paint you in the most professional light possible, and consider starting new profiles that represent you as an expert in your industry. That way, potential employers will find tweets from you that showcase your knowledge about current industry info, not you engaged in a political Twitter war." Parris also stresses the necessity of getting your LinkedIn profile up-to-date as soon as possible.

Bloomberg | Getty Images

Network, network, network

Up to 85 percent of open jobs are filled through networking. You're much more likely to find your next dream job through a friend or former coworker than you are from a job board. Especially when you're entering a job search after a layoff, it can help to have someone who will vouch for your skills and abilities. Hiring managers would almost always prefer to find candidates through referrals than through their corporate job portal or an external job-search site.

Not making any progress? Consider a career counselor
Song Yuntao, a lead scientist on the country's largest fusion energy project, told the official Science and Technology Daily on Thursday that they expected to double the burn time of man-made sun every 16 to 17 months.

Significant progress could be made on artificial sun technology by 2023  and it could be used to generate clean energy for China in 50 to 60 years, a senior government nuclear scientist says.

A view of China's nuclear fusion device in the Hefei Institute of Physical Science in Anhui, China, in 2007.

Earlier this month, scientists on the project kept extremely hot plasma at a temperature three times that of the sun's core for more than 100 seconds during an experiment at their Hefei research facility. It was almost double the record set by the team last year.

They're aiming to sustain the burn for more than 1,000 seconds  using a ring-shaped device known as a tokamak  at which point the scientists expect the plasma to produce a self-sustainable nuclear chain reaction, an important step for power generation.

That milestone would be less than six years away, based on Song's estimate. "We hope to go into business in 50 to 60 years," he told the newspaper.

At the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak facility in Anhui province, the chain reaction that takes place in the sun to provide life-giving energy is simulated using plasma  two hydrogen atoms merge into one helium and in the process release a large amount of energy. This extremely hot gas  whose temperature can reach up to 10 times that of the sun's core  is contained by a strong magnetic field to prevent it from coming into direct contact with the inner wall of the reaction chamber. The tokamak fusion device was invented by Soviet physicists in the 1950s.

More from the South China Morning Post:

China one step closer to harnessing clean, limitless energy from nuclear fusion

Scientists used abacuses to develop China's first nuclear submarine

Hong Kong, China most at risk of financial crisis, bank warns

The development of fusion technology  particularly the idea of applying it to nuclear reactors to generate clean energy  has been held back by the difficulty of containing the reaction so that heat is released in a slow and controllable way.

But Song said the Chinese scientists were a step ahead, in part because they could mass-produce some of the world's most advanced superconducting wires that can create a strong magnetic field using a lot less power than others.

Hundreds of tonnes of these wires  which are as fine as hair  are rolled out in Chinese factories every year at a cost of 30,000 yuan (US$4,400) per individual wire.

He said the country could start building "within a few years" a large-scale fusion plant to assess whether it was feasible to generate power.
The economy expanded at 0.4 percent in the April-June period from the previous three months on an annualized and seasonally adjusted basis, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said on Friday in a statement. As revisions to first quarter data showed, the economy contracted by 1.9 percent in January-March, weakening more than the earlier estimate of a 1.3 percent contraction.

Singapore's economy grew in the second quarter, narrowly dodging a recession thanks mainly to robust growth in its electronics and precision engineering industries due to strong global demand for semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

The April-June quarter-on-quarter growth was lower than a Reuters poll's median forecast of 1.1 percent, but analysts said it was still in line with their overall growth forecast for the city-state.

Gross domestic product grew 2.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, unchanged from a revised first quarter growth figure, and below the median forecast of 2.8 percent growth.

"It is softer than expected, mainly due to construction being rather weak... but the Q2 story is consistent with what we anticipated, but in a more nuanced way, which is a slight easing in manufacturing, and an offset from services," Vishnu Varathan, economist at Mizuho Bank, said.

Singapore has been among a number of export-reliant Asian economies to benefit from a general uptick in global demand since late last year, enjoying strong sales of its tech products.

It looks to be that way, analysts say, thanks to new products to be launched by Apple.

Analysts have voiced concern about the sustainability of Singapore's growth, as it is dependent on electronics, but growth in services may offset any moderation.

"Going forward we may see the growth story broadening to services," said OCBC analyst, Selena Ling.

Data released last month had pointed to a recovery, as manufacturing output in May grew from a year earlier for a tenth successive month.

Economists surveyed by Singapore's central bank last month raised their 2017 Singapore growth forecasts, upgrading their views on manufacturing and bank lending.

A majority of analysts believe that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will keep monetary policy steady when it holds its next policy meeting in October.
As the 11 remaining Trans-Pacific Partnership countries continue talks without Washington this week, certain member states now need convincing to stay on board with the massive trade deal. No longer the world's largest trade pact after President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. earlier this year, the TPP remains alive  for now. Its surviving participants have agreed to forge ahead without Washington with the goal of completing preparatory work for a treaty by November, as agreed upon in May.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe next to a map of the original Trans-Pacific Partnership participating countries. TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA / AFP / Getty Images

However, internal divisions are a key obstacle as some participants look to rework existing provisions in light of Washington's absence. "On the one hand, you have Japan, Australia and New Zealand who would like to push ahead with the agreement as is, just with some only technical modifications to allow it to come into force," Andrew Staples, Southeast Asia director at Economist Corporate Network, told CNBC on Friday. "But countries such as Malaysia and Vietnam, on the other hand, are questioning whether a deal makes sense without getting access to the U.S. market." Before Washington pulled out from the TPP, Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi were seen as the pact's top beneficiaries amid expected rises in foreign direct investment inflows and exports. Vietnam's garment industry and Malaysian electronics, in particular, were seen strengthening from the removal of tariffs in the U.S. and other major importers. To advance in the U.S. market, both Southeast Asian governments originally agreed to sweeping changes in their business environments, particularly regarding transparency, government movement of data as well as environmental and labor standards, Staples explained. But now that broadened U.S. access is off the table, both nations are re-considering their commitments, he continued. "Malaysia, in particular, has said they would like to re-open negotiations on contentious issues, such as drug development data."

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Former U.S. vice president Al Gore has launched the Australian state of Victoria's Renewable Energy Action Plan, as it sought to boost its green credentials.

In a statement on Thursday, the government of Victoria said the plan was backed by 146 million Australian dollars ($113.3 million) in funding in order to deliver "more renewable, affordable and reliable energy for Victoria."

Gore spoke to the media in Melbourne, where he rode a tram with Victoria's minister for energy, environment and climate change, Lily D'Ambrosio.

"This is the largest tram network in the entire world, and is now going to be running entirely on solar energy," Al Gore said. "That's fantastic, and I predict that it will become a symbol of the renewable energy revolution worldwide."

Victoria's Renewable Energy Action Plan also includes 25 million Australian dollars to deploy grid scale battery storage facilities, as well as 15.8 million Australian dollars for smart software system, solar and battery storage micro grid initiatives.

"This funding represents the most significant government investment in renewable energy in Victoria's history," D'Ambrosio said. "The Renewable Energy Action Plan will help us deliver affordable, sustainable and reliable energy for Victoria," she went on to state.

Authorities in Victoria have set themselves renewable energy generation targets of 25 percent by 2020 and 40 percent by 2025.
However, knowing what the company wants in new employees can help you get hired for a coveted position.

In fact, Amazon is one of the most sought-after employers in the U.S., according to LinkedIn's list of the top companies of 2017 . The company receives thousands of applications for each open position.

But even with the hiring frenzy, scoring a position at the company is no easy feat.

From its humble beginnings as an online bookstore to its recent purchase of Whole Foods , Amazon dominates the retail landscape.

Merriam Park, Amazon's director of university recruiting, spoke about how to land a job at Amazon in an interview with Cosmopolitan.

Her first insight: The company culture is laser-focused on customers, and that's a trait they look for in new hires.

"It's understanding that about us and researching how it manifests itself in how we operate," says Park. "Everything we do makes a difference in added value to our customers."

That's something CEO Jeff Bezos points out himself. "Many companies describe themselves as customer-focused, but few walk the walk," he says. "Most big technology companies are competitor focused. They see what others are doing, and then work to fast follow."

By listening to customers, Amazon is able to give them what they actually want, says Bezos. An example of this is Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud service platform designed to solve a simple problem for customers: not having enough storage space.

Bezos says that "90 to 95 percent of what we build in AWS is driven by what customers tell us they want." The service now has a valuation of $160 billion.

Amazon also looks to hire people who are able to solve complex issues. Park tells Cosmo that in interviews with the company, applicants should "focus on a problem and how to solve it" to show that they can deliver results.

"I encourage candidates to give examples that show how they can follow an inquiry and get to the root cause of something," Park says. "Give an example of going above and beyond serving their customers' needs."

See also:

Facebook's HR chief reveals how to get a job at the social media giant

CNBC managing editor reveals the 11 most common job interview mistakes

The ultimate guide to getting a job in your 20s
But lately, many Rand devotees have been running into trouble. Travis Kalanick's abrupt departure as chief executive of Uber, the Internet-based ride-hailing service he built into a private corporation worth $50 billion or more, is the latest Icarus-like plunge of a prominent executive identified with Rand.

In business, Rand's influence has been especially pronounced in Silicon Valley, where her overarching philosophy that "man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself," as she described it in a 1964 Playboy interview, has an obvious appeal for self-made entrepreneurs. Last year Vanity Fair anointed her the most influential figure in the technology industry, surpassing Steve Jobs .

As Ray Dalio , the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund, put it in a recent essay, "her books pretty well capture the mind-set" of the Trump administration. "This new administration hates weak, unproductive, socialist people and policies," he wrote, "and it admires strong, can-do profit makers."

President Trump named Rand his favorite writer and "The Fountainhead" his favorite novel. Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson has cited "Atlas Shrugged" as a favorite work, and the C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, said the book "really had an impact on me."

Few, if any, literary philosophers have had as much influence on American business and politics as Ayn Rand, especially now that Donald J. Trump occupies the White House.

The hedge fund manager Edward S. Lampert, who some say has applied Rand's Objectivist principles to the management of Sears and Kmart, has driven those venerable retailers close to bankruptcy.

Andrew F. Puzder, Mr. Trump's first nominee for secretary of labor, is described by friends as an avid Ayn Rand reader. He's also chief executive of CKE Restaurants, which runs the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. fast-food chains and whose private equity owner, Roark Capital Group, is named for the architect-hero of "The Fountainhead." Mr. Puzder had to withdraw his nomination after allegations that his restaurant companies mistreated workers and promulgated sexist advertising.

The Whole Foods founder and chief executive John Mackey, an ardent libertarian and admirer of Rand, last month had to cede control of the troubled upscale grocery company to Amazon and Jeff Bezos (who, while often likened to a fictional Rand hero, has not mentioned her books when asked about his favorites).

And then there's the scandal-engulfed Trump administration, where devotion to Rand's teaching has done little to advance the president's legislative agenda.

Though people close to Mr. Kalanick told me this week that he has distanced himself from many of Rand's precepts while undergoing an intense period of personal reassessment, they all acknowledged that she'd had a profound influence on his development. Few companies have been as closely identified with Rand's philosophy as Uber.

Uber disrupted a complacent, highly regulated and often corrupt taxi industry on a global scale, an achievement Rand's heroes Howard Roark and Dagny Taggart would surely have admired. Many of her ideas were embedded in Uber's code of values. Mr. Kalanick used the original cover art for "The Fountainhead" as his Twitter avatar until 2013 (when he exchanged it for an image of Alexander Hamilton, and then, in May, for one of himself).

But Mr. Kalanick was urged to step down as chief executive by the Uber board and Uber's major investors over less heroic issues: that Uber fostered a workplace culture that tolerated sexual harassment and discrimination; that it ignored legal constraints, poaching intellectual property from Google's self-driving car endeavor and using technology to evade law enforcement; and that it failed to hire a chief operating officer or build an effective management team. (Mr. Kalanick remains on the board.)

"Rand's entrepreneur is the Promethean hero of capitalism," said Lawrence E. Cahoone, professor of philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross, whose lecture on Rand is part of his Great Courses series, "The Modern Political Tradition." "But she never really explores how a dynamic entrepreneur actually runs a business."

"She was a script and fiction writer," he continued. "She was motivated by an intense hatred of communism, and she put those things together very effectively. She can be very inspirational, especially to entrepreneurs. But she was by no means an economist. I don't think her work can be used as a business manual."

Representatives of Uber and Mr. Kalanick declined to comment.

Rand's defenders insist that the problems for Mr. Kalanick and others influenced by Rand aren't that they embraced her philosophy, but rather that they didn't go far enough.

Yaron Brook, executive chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute and a former finance professor at Santa Clara University, who teaches seminars on business leadership and ethics from an Objectivist perspective, said, "Few business people have actually read her essays and philosophy and studied her in depth." Mr. Brook said that while Mr. Kalanick "was obviously talented and energetic and a visionary, he took superficial inspiration from her ideas and used her philosophy to justify his obnoxiousness."

He emphasized that Rand would never have tolerated sexual harassment or any kind of mistreatment of employees. Rand "had enormous respect for people who worked hard and did a good job, whether a secretary or a railroad worker," he said. "Her heroes ran businesses with employees who were very loyal because they were treated fairly. Of course, some people had to be fired. But she makes a big deal out of the virtue of justice, which applies in business as well as politics."

And even though "she'd celebrate what Travis did with the taxi industry, showing the world how all those regulations made no sense, she also believed there are rules of justice that do make sense and she supported," he said. "You can't just run over all the regulations you don't happen to like."

Mr. Brook complained that Rand's critics are quick to point to her followers' failures, but rarely mention their successes. He cited the example of John A. Allison IV, the much-admired former head of BB&T Corporation, a regional bank in the Southeast that he built into one of the nation's largest before he stepped down in 2008. Mr. Allison handed out copies of "Atlas Shrugged" to senior executives and is a major donor to the Ayn Rand Institute. He incorporated many of Rand's teachings into his 2014 book, "The Leadership Crisis and the Free Market Cure."

"John is a gentleman and he actually studied Rand's works in depth," Mr. Brook said. "He couldn't be more different from Travis."

Mr. Allison has called for abolishing the Federal Reserve, while acknowledging that so drastic a step is unlikely. He has met with Mr. Trump at the White House and has been widely mentioned as a potential successor to Janet L. Yellen as Fed chief.

Despite Rand's pervasive influence and continuing popularity on college campuses, relatively few people embrace her version of extreme libertarianism. Former President Barack Obama, in a 2012 Rolling Stone interview, criticized her "narrow vision" and described her work "as one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we'd pick up."

She's also dismissed by most serious academics. "Mention Ayn Rand to a group of academic philosophers and you'll get laughed out of the room," Mr. Cahoone said. "But I think there's something to be said for Rand. She takes Nietzschean individualism to an extreme, but she's undeniably inspirational."

As the mysterious character John Galt proclaims near the end of "Atlas Shrugged": "Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours."

But Rand has little to say about making the transition from this kind of heroic entrepreneurial vision to a mature corporation with many stakeholders, a problem many company founders have confronted and struggled with, whether or not they've read or been influenced by her. "She never really had to manage anything," Mr. Cahoone said. "She was surrounded by people who saw her as a cult figure. She didn't have employees, she had worshipers."

For his part, Mr. Kalanick is said to have turned this summer from Rand to what is considered one of the greatest dramatic works in the English language, Shakespeare's "Henry V"  a play in which the young, reckless and wayward Prince Hal matures into one of England's most revered and beloved monarchs.
Markets could start to question the long-term sustainability of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic program  known as 'Abenomics'  if his approval rating continues to decline, a market researcher has warned.

"In terms of all that good news we're hearing from Japan, the most interesting story out of Japan at the moment is the collapse of approval rating of Prime Minister Abe," Derek Halpenny, market researcher at the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, told CNBC on Friday. "And the most recent approval rating data we got today, we saw the biggest collapse in the cabinet approval rating since Prime Minister Abe came into power in 2012."

Japan's third longest serving post-war prime minister was hit by poor approval ratings on Friday, shedding fresh doubt over the success of his administration's economic reforms.

The approval rating for Abe's government sunk to 29.9 percent, sliding below 30 percent for the first time. And his disapproval rating rising to 48.6 percent, according to a poll for the Jiji news agency.

A poll for the Asahi newspaper earlier this week revealed that only 33 percent of the Japanese public approved of the prime minister, while 47 percent disapproved.

These were the worst approval figures since Mr Abe's re-election in 2012.
The winning group of China's Hopu Investment Management, Hillhouse Capital Group, Vanke Group and Bank of China Group Investment was supported by GLP Chief Executive Ming Mei in its bid, which trumped an offer by a Warburg Pincus-led consortium  the only other short-listed bidder.

The seven-month auction for Asia's biggest warehouse operator was marred by complaints from some potential bidders about a lack of transparency and the perceived advantages of the Chinese consortium through their business ties.

Singapore's Global Logistic Properties (GLP) agreed to be acquired by a Chinese private equity consortium backed by senior GLP executives for about S$16 billion ($11.6 billion), choosing it over a rival bid in Asia's largest private equity buyout.

Warehouse operator GLP counts online retailers such as Amazon as its clients.

GLP formed a committee of independent directors and said it had taken measures to alleviate potential conflicts of interest. It said on Friday that it chose the Chinese consortium because it had more deal certainty and "limited conditionality", reducing the "execution risk".

"After an extensive evaluation of all final proposals received, the Special Committee decided on the proposed scheme, which we believe is compelling and value-enhancing for all shareholders," Seek Ngee Huat, chairman of GLP's board, said in a joint statement with the winning consortium.

The acquisition is not conditional on getting antitrust approvals or a green light from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), among others.

Singapore wealth fund GIC, which owns 37 percent of GLP, said it supports the transaction.

Last year, GIC nudged GLP to start a strategic review of its business. GLP then hired JPMorgan as its financial adviser and Allen & Gledhill as its legal adviser.

GLP's shares have since soared nearly 50 percent to their highest levels in more than three years.

The Chinese group is offering S$3.38 in cash per share, representing 81 percent premium over its 12-month volume weighted average price and a 25 percent premium over its last full trading day before the announcement.

The proposed acquisition will be done by way of a scheme of arrangement and the Chinese group plans to delist and take the Singapore-listed firm private.

Citigroup , Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley acted as lead joint financial advisers for the consortium and are providing the financial resources confirmation related to the purchase. DBS Bank and China International Capital Corporation also advised the consortium.
CEO told CNBC he won't be changing his title after the telecom giant completes its $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner .

Stephenson wrote in an email to "Squawk Box" host Joe Kernen that a Bloomberg article saying he will become executive chairman after the combination is "full of speculation."

"I will not be changing my title," Stephenson added. "I'll still be CEO."

On Friday, a Bloomberg report said Stephenson would become executive chairman after the merger with Time Warner. The report also said Stephenson would oversee a pair of CEOs who would independently manage the combined company's telecommunications and media businesses.

Stephenson did not address any other aspect of the report with CNBC.

However, sources told CNBC's David Faber that Bloomberg's reporting is largely accurate about the leadership structure, but perhaps didn't get the titles right.

The Wall Street Journal also reports that AT&T plans to separate its telecom operations from its media assets after the deal closes.

AT&T executive John Stankey will be in charge on the media side, while the telecom side will be run by John Donovan, another AT&T veteran, according to the Journal and Bloomberg.

Multiple sources told Faber that current Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes will be moving on within a year of the merger's closing.

Bewkes told CNBC in October 2016, when the move was first announced, he planned to stay at the new company for one or two years.

The deal, which has been under regulatory review, is expected to close before year-end, and perhaps as soon as mid-September, people close to the deal told Faber.

In February, Stephenson told CNBC the "one-track" Justice Department review should not delay the original timetable for closing the deal.

Donald Trump, while on the presidential campaign trail last year, vowed to block the deal. Time Warner owns CNN, which Trump frequently criticizes as "fake news."

But as president, Trump's position is unclear.

 Reporting by CNBC's Joe Kernen and David Faber.
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U.S. bank regulation is not being rolled back to match pre-financial crisis standards despite Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Janet Yellen saying on Thursday that she agreed with some proposed amendments to legislation, says a sector analyst. "We're not going back to what things looked like in 2007 and 2008, that's absolutely not going to be the case. But it is going to be slightly better," Chris Wheeler, U.S. banks analyst at Atlantic Equities, told CNBC's Squawk Box on Friday. Yellen's comments followed her review of an initial paper from Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin regarding proposed changes to key regulatory items for banks such as the Volcker Rule (which lays down guidelines for speculative investing on the part of banks) and minimum leverage ratios. The changes are not about returning to the days of proprietary trading, according to Wheeler, but rather more about reducing burdensome reporting requirements. "By doing that, the banks are going to be able to hold bigger inventories and that's actually good for the market - which is part of the whole story here about obviously getting the banks to service the broader economy," affirmed the banking analyst.

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Traders are keenly waiting for the second quarter earnings of three of the U.S.'s four largest banks to be released later this morning as JPMorgan Chase , Citigroup and Wells Fargo kick off the earnings season. Following a wave of earnings forecast downgrades in recent weeks, the companies have done a fine job of expectations management, particularly with regards to their fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) businesses. These divisions traditionally experience a slow second quarter but this year face additional headwinds in the form of continued extremely low volatility and tough comparables given the Brexit-induced spike in trading volumes in the final day of the same period last year. Loan volumes, especially on the commercial side, are also likely to be sluggish as would-be borrowers stand on the sidelines, waiting for more clarity from the Trump administration regarding its pledges to bring thorough changes to areas such as tax reform and healthcare. The lack of clarity is also hitting dealmaking and therefore the banks' mergers and acquisition (M&A) advisory businesses, says Wheeler. According to Wheeler, companies are asking "what is the new administration really going to do because we have things we'd like to invest in but we'd like to wait to get a bit more certainty about what the outlook is in terms of taxation and other measures taken by the administration to boost the economy."

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Nonetheless, banks have done a remarkable effort of shoring up their capital balances and while record shareholder distributions have been announced, the companies will still maintain very robust financial profiles following the payments. Importantly, the jump in bond yields seen so far this year which should be carried further by the recent swing towards more hawkish rhetoric from central banks is set to be critically helpful in boosting banking profitability going forward. "These banks have about 30 percent of their deposits in non-interest bearing deposits and that actually means you get quite a kicker to your net interest margins as you start to see rates go up," asserted Wheeler.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images
in the nation's military infrastructure and wants Congress to take action to generate savings.

A file photo of US Marine Corps during the US-JAPAN military exercise outside the USMC base in Pendleton, California. Joe Klamar | AFP | Getty Images

An effort by the Trump administration to get a new round of military base closures faces an uphill battle after the House rejected it last week. But behind the scenes, there's an effort by two key members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that would still allow for base closures. "This is one the few political third-rail items because lawmakers are essentially voting for a process that would allow bases and installations to potentially in their districts and states to be closed or downsized," said Roman Schweizer, a defense analyst at Cowen. No doubt, base closings are a politically unpopular idea for members of Congress, with some analysts likening it to a "hot potato" because of the general uneasiness of lawmakers to support something could result in job losses and economic hardship back home. "We cannot afford for parochial interests to get in the way of what is the best interests of our troops," Rep. Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington, said in comments last week in support of the study of new base closures.

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Earlier this year, Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, Republican of Arizona, called member hesitation to revisit base closings "cowardice" because he believes it provides money being wasted that could go to more pressing defense needs. A Pentagon study from 2016 warned there is "significant excess capacity" in the nation's military infrastructure and urged Congress to take action to generate savings. Overall, it estimates there is 22 percent excess basing capacity across the Department of Defense, with the Army and Air Force having the most and the Navy the least, based on projected force levels in 2019.

In its fiscal 2018 budget request, the Trump administration asked Congress to authorize what's known as a Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, round, which would formally study the possible closing or realignment of military facilities. In some cases, BRAC process could lead to the expansion of military facilities. The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, legislation which sets forth the Pentagon's budget and major programs for the next fiscal year, passed the House last Friday but contains a provision blocking funding for a new BRAC round. A measure sponsored by California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock to strike the language from the final NDAA failed last week. "When we squander billions of dollars keeping obsolete military bases open in order to satisfy congressional constituencies, we directly rob our military forces of the resources that we're constantly reminded that they desperately need," McClintock said last week on the House floor in arguments in favor of his pro-BRAC legislation. While the House's version of the NDAA doesn't include funding for a new BRAC round, there's still a chance the Senate might allow it. The full Senate still has to vote on the NDAA, which cleared the Senate Armed Services Committee last month and also would bar funding for reducing bases. Yet McCain has a draft proposal that would open the door to another BRAC and possible base closures. Rhode Island Democrat Sen. Jack Reed, ranking member of the committee, also signed on to the McCain effort, but it's unclear whether there's broad support in the chamber for another round of base closures. Pentagon officials have said a new BRAC round, once completed, could capture savings of approximately $20 billion over 10 years. "The bottom line is that Congress refusing to allow a BRAC is forcing the military to spend money that it doesn't want to spend and doesn't need to spend," said Christopher Preble, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington think-tank. Preble said a new BRAC round wouldn't mean denying the military land it might need in the future, but said it's about "rationalizing what properties they have and what they need." When including all five of the previous BRAC rounds since the 1980s, there have been annual savings estimated at more than $12 billion  and nearly $5 billion alone from the last one in 2005.

An F-35A Lightning II U.S. Air Force | Tech. Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III | Airman Magazine

Money savings from a new round of BRAC would be enough to buy 22 F-18 Hornet fighter jets or four Virginia-class submarines, according to McClintock. It also could buy another large batch of F-35 stealth fighters. "BRAC reduces fixed costs they would have with infrastructure," said Frederico Bartels, policy analyst for defense budgeting at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank. "That is the only way at getting at those fixed costs because there are a long of congressional limitations placed on what DoD can do with its physical infrastructure." Heritage Foundation supports a new round of BRAC to "right-size" the DOD infrastructure, saying it would allow the Pentagon to do "a rigorous and transparent review of its current and future infrastructure needs, including closing bases and facilities as appropriate." Even so, the conservative think tank also believes "some excess infrastructure may be worth keeping, as a hedge against future needs." Some of the opposition for another round of base closures comes from lawmakers who say the costs of consolidation are too high and that local communities depend on these bases for their livelihood. Mandy Smithberger, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Project on Government Oversight, said the federal government usually helps communities adjust to base closures. She also said a U.S. Government Accountability Office study found that communities closed under the last BRAC round in 2005 actually did better under the Great Recession than average communities across the country. "There are ways to have soft landings," said Smithberger. However, there are others who suggest a new round of BRAC should wait until President Donald Trump completes his plans to expand the military, including his stated goal to add more troops. Also, some congressional critics of the BRAC program maintain that the 2005 consolidation ended up having savings below original expectations. The 2005 BRAC was advertised originally by the Pentagon of having an implementation cost of about $21 billion, but that number grew to about $35.1 billion, largely reflecting cost overruns from construction costs. It impacted 24 facilities nationally and resulted in the relocation of around 125,000 people, including troops, their families and civilian employees. Even though the last BRAC round did turn out to be perhaps more expensive than expected, proponents of the process say it wasn't entirely a base closure program but was a realignment of large facilities. There also were several projects related to support the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, including training and operations support. Cato's Preble said resistance in Congress to another BRAC comes from a misconception that when a military base closes it always means bad news for local communities and that they can't bounce back. "There's' a lot of resistance on Capitol Hill, unfortunately. There's a belief that when a base closes it has a devastating impact on the surrounding communities. And my research shows that that's not actually the case." Added Preble: "In most cases, the surrounding community finds a way to redirect those resources to more productive ends and they end up  sometimes quite quickly  with a much more diverse economic base. They have a stronger workforce, better pay, and are less dependent on a single source." As an example, he said when Philadelphia's Naval Shipyard closed in the 1990s it was "a grim time and people were pretty pessimistic." But he said the area bounced back and today is "just unbelievable" with a business building commercial ships and private businesses and retail establishments. He also cited the success following the closure of Naval Air Station Brunswick in Maine, part of the 2005 BRAC round. The facility was turned over to civilian use and attracted new companies and development, adding significant property tax revenue for local communities and new jobs. Likewise, Austin's Bergstrom Air Force Base, located seven miles outside downtown, was closed and later converted to a commercial airport serving the growing community. "The Austin airport is now a huge, modern airport that Austin was desperate to build for a long, long time," said Preble. "The closure of the Air Force base, in many respects, solved a critical problem for the city."

WATCH: US military plans to order 2,400 F-35s
A Chinese spy ship has been spotted off the Alaskan coast, with U.S. officials saying they believe it was there to observe a recent missile defense test, CNN reported Friday.

U.S. Navy Captain Scott Miller, a spokesperson for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, confirmed the presence of the ship and said it is believed to be a "communications" or "intelligence" vessel, according to the report.

The ship was operating legally in international waters and did not pose security concerns, but it is rare for China for operate such a vessel in that area, the report said.

The U.S. has no way of confirming the ship's intent, but its arrival in "the last few days" coincided with a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system test off Alaska, reported CNN. The U.S. said on Tuesday that the test was successful.

China has long protested the decision to deploy THAAD to the Korean peninsula, saying it could be used to target Chinese missiles. But South Korean and U.S. officials say the system would exist only to intercept missiles launched by North Korea.

Read the full CNN report here.
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:

JPMorgan Chase  The bank reported second quarter earnings of $1.82 per share, beating estimates of $1.58 a share. Revenue also came in above forecasts. The bank's results were helped by lending, although trading results were lower.

Wells Fargo  Wells Fargo reported quarterly profit of $1.07 per share for the second quarter, although that did include a four-cent-a-share tax benefit. The consensus estimate was $1.01 per share. Wells did see revenue fall below Street forecasts, however.

Citigroup  Citi beat estimates by seven cents a share, with quarterly profit of $1.28 per share. Revenue also came in above Street forecasts. Citi did see a drop in trading revenue during the quarter, which contributed to lower profit compared to a year ago.

Wal-Mart  The retailer's stock was upgraded to "buy" from "neutral" at Goldman Sachs, which also added Wal-Mart to its "Conviction Buy" list. Goldman said the company was well-positioned to succeed in the evolving world of mass market retail and to weather competition from Amazon.com .

Boeing  Boeing was upgraded to "overweight" from "neutral" at JPMorgan Chase, which thinks the stock is poised to benefit further from positive aerospace industry fundamentals even after its recent run-up.

Fiat Chrysler  The automaker issued a worldwide recall for 1.33 million vehicles. The recall involves two separate campaigns, one for potential fire risks, the other for airbag issues which may result in accidental deployment.

Gap  JPMorgan Chase added the clothing retailer's stock to its "Focus List," following a meeting with company management. The firm said Gap's free cash flow, dividend yield, and current valuation is "too hard to ignore" despite a challenging retail environment.

Snap  Cowen downgraded the Snapchat parent to "market perform" from "outperform," given the competitive environment in the digital advertising area.

CyberArk Software  The cybersecurity software company cut its current-quarter earnings and revenue forecast, due primarily to its performance in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, where certain anticipated deals did not close.

Mylan  A Food and Drug Administration panel recommended approval of Mylan's Trastuzumab, a biosimilar version of the Genentech/Roche cancer drug Herceptin.

PNC Financial  The bank earned $2.10 per share for the second quarter, eight cents a share above estimates. Revenue beat forecasts, as well. PNC's results were boosted by higher interest income.

Arconic  The engineered metals supplier facing a shareholder lawsuit over the deadly fire at London's Grenfell Tower. A shareholder has sued, accusing the company of defrauding shareholders by allegedly failing to disclose the use of flammable panels. Arconic declined to comment on the suit.

AT&T  Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson will become executive chairman after the company completes its acquisition of Time Warner , according to a Bloomberg report. Two CEOs will reportedly be independent managers of the company's telecommunications and media businesses.

AstraZeneca  The shares are on watch for a second day, on continued uncertainty over the future of Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot. That follows media reports that Soriot would be leaving the drugmaker to take the CEO role at Teva Pharmaceutical .

Anthem  Anthem filed a lawsuit against drugmaker Insys Therapeutics , with the health insurer charging that Insys paid kickbacks to doctors and made false statements to anthem to receive reimbursements for its opioid drug Subsys.

Monsanto  Monsanto's pesticide dicamba faces new restrictions in Tennessee, which has become the fourth state to limit use of the weed killer. Farmers have been upset over the damage it causes to crops such as soybeans when it drifts to crops other than the ones it was designed to treat.

Honda  The automaker is unveiling its next-generation Accord, with the unveiling scheduled to take place in Detroit today. That comes as rival Toyota gets set to introduce its all-new Camry  a major competitor to the accord  later this month.
European stock markets closed mixed Friday as investors digested earnings reports from Wall Street banks and monitored developments from a meeting between the French and U.S. presidents.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended the day slightly higher, with sectors in mixed territory. Friday marked the official start of U.S. earning season, which drove major European bourses down from a positive morning to close in the red. The FTSE was unchanged for the week, while the German Dax and the French CAC were up by around a percent.

Wall Street moved higher following the release of data from major banks Citigroup , JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo . The three banks beat market expectations, however, the banking sector in Europe slumped on the news.

Also down Friday was the construction and materials sector. Swedish construction group Skanska moved close to the bottom of the European benchmark, down 6.15 percent, after announcing it is writing down the value of projects in the U.S. and the U.K.

The health care firm AstraZeneca continued its fall Friday after registering losses on Thursday on uncertainty regarding its CEO. Some media reports indicated that he could be leaving the firm and joining another drug maker. However, Norwegian insurer Gjensidige was ultimately the worst-performer on the European benchmark, closing down 6.8 percent after reporting second-quarter earnings that were below forecast.

On the other end, basic resources were among the top gainers. The sector closed up 1.23 percent, with Anglo American near the top of the European benchmark.
Prime Minister Theresa May and opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn during the State Opening of Parliament on June 21, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. Stefan Wermuth | WPA Pool | Getty Image

Despite weathering a nasty political storm in recent months, U.K. leader Theresa May and her weakened government still has many market participants on edge, with the potential for another election still a distinct possibility. According to Joan Hoey, the Economist Intelligence Unit's regional director for Europe, there is "considerable risk of the (U.K.'s) government collapsing." May's slender 13-seat majority, forged only through a compromising, expensive deal with the Democratic Unionist Party, could well "disappear quickly as a result of by-elections that will occur," Hoey explained. The U.K. prime minister marked one year since she took the country's helm Thursday, while left-leaning opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn visited Brussels to meet with major European players in Brexit negotiations. Adding to the jostle for power between the two politicians, a YouGov poll released last Friday denoted Corbyn with an eight point-lead over his rival May, rubbing salt into the wound of her loss of a government majority in last month's General Election. The shifting fortunes of the Labour and Conservative leaders have left voters  and investors  wondering when the U.K. will hold its next vote.

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Despite the uncertainty, May underlined her resolve to lead the country in a speech Wednesday, saying that: "My commitment to change in Britain is undimmed  The determination I have to get to grips with the challenges posed by a changing world never more sure." For some, the potential for a new election rests on party sentiment. Alex Greer, research and communications officer at thinktank Open Europe, told CNBC via telephone that "the only way this will come about is through political will." The future of the U.K. government is all about the prospect of a Conservative rebellion, he added. Another vote depends on whether Conservative Brexiteers and Remainers opt for either "forming a coherent majority or digging heels in over a matter of principle," Greer said. Meanwhile, following Corbyn's trip to Brussels, shadow Brexit minister Keir Starmer tweeted that "constructive discussions" had taken place. "Corbyn is trying to show that he's a prime minister in waiting," Hoey said. Despite a surge in momentum following an unexpectedly positive General Election result, Hoey warned that Corbyn is still "walking a tightrope within his own party," due to varying degrees of pro-EU sentiment.

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Credit Suisse shared with clients the firm's strategic updates to biotechnology stock picks in its second-quarter earnings preview. "We have reviewed our models and made several updates into the quarter," wrote Credit Suisse analyst Alethia Young. "On a macro level, the most common questions we get on the space are when we think M & A will begin to pick up. Drug pricing reform also remains a topic of focus." Here are three companies that Credit Suisse discussed along with their price targets. 1) Vertex (VRTX) The analyst notes that the recent price increase in cystic fibrosis drug Orkambi may imply that guidance may be conservative. Credit Suisse's 12-month Vertex price target is $125, representing five percent downside from Thursday's close. Key risks to the outperform rating include clinical setbacks or competition in the cystic fibrosis space. "A big swing factor for 2017 earnings will be if an agreement with France on Orkambi is reached," noted Young. Vertex secured a reimbursement deal for its best-selling drug in Italy earlier this week. "For full year EPS we are forecasting $1.73 slightly above consensus of $1.64 and we do not include the potential lump sum payment from France." 2) Regeneron (REGN) Credit Suisse projects sales of Regeneron's eczema drug Dupixent to beat expectations both in the first quarter as well as for the full year. Young highlighted the firm's 12-month price target of $485, representing four percent downside from Thursday's close. Key risks to the outperform rating include lower than expected drug sales or clinical setbacks. "We expect Dupixent to be the focus of the quarter and will be listening closely for commentary on how the launch is going." "Our 2Q sales estimate of $29M is based on assuming that an average of 3,900 patients are on Dupixent during the quarter, and we forecast there will be 20,000 patients on Dupixent exiting the year in the U.S. dose at the outset." 3) Incyte (INCY) The research analysts modeled a beat on Incyte's top line earnings from strong sales of myelofibrosis drug Jakafi. Credit Suisse's 12-month price target for Incyte is $152, representing 14 percent upside from Thursday's close. Key risks to the outperform rating include commercial setbacks for Jakafi and greater-than-expected competition in the immuno-oncology space. "On the bottom line we are forecasting EPS of $0.18 slightly above consensus of $0.16. We think Jakafi volumes will continue to grow and we model growth of 10% QoQ or 32% YoY, helped as well through the list price increase. Specifically, we model Jakafi sales of $276M above consensus of $262M."

A technician prepares a flow cell slide for loading onto a genetic sequencing machine at a Regeneron Pharmaceuticals laboratory at the biotechnology company's headquarters in Tarrytown, New York Mike Segar | Reuters
A recent CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey shows that small-business owners under 35 are more likely to identify themselves as independents than as Republicans or Democrats. Andrew Harrer | Getty Images

(President Donald Trump signs an executive order to decrease regulations while surrounded by small-business leaders in the Oval Office of the White House.) The first-ever CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey found that small-business owners in all regions of the country are more optimistic than they were pessimistic on the economy and the future of their businesses. But the survey also uncovered that President Donald Trump is causing regional rifts in an entrepreneur's level of bullishness. The poll, conducted April 17-28, surveyed 2,030 self-identified small business owners nationwide. Most striking is the very close correlation between the level of confidence and the level of approval of Trump. According to the survey, Trump enjoys a 76 percent approval rating among small-business owners in the South Atlantic region, and that region had the highest confidence level (64). He also has the same approval rating in North West Central Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota although the confidence level is lower at 63. In the least confident region, the Pacific, Trump has a 48 percent approval rating. Here's more on how the eight U.S. census regions differ in their views, and in their demographics, in order of the least confident to most confident. (Note: The East South Central region, which includes the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee, is not included, because there was a statistically insignificant total of fewer than 100 responses from that region.)

Region: Pacific

A supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a sign during his campaign rally at the Orange County Fair and Event Center, April 28, 2016, in Costa Mesa, California. David McNew | Getty Images

States: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington Confidence index (0100 scale): 53 Trump approval/disapproval: 48%/49% Respondents in the Pacific region reported the lowest confidence index score of all the regions, but at 53 the region's small business owners are still slightly more optimistic than it is pessimistic. Pacific small-business owners were more likely than any other region to report current business conditions as "bad" (15 percent) and expect revenue to decrease (17 percent). They are also more likely to expect changes in tax policy, trade policy and immigration policy to have a negative effect on their businesses compared to other regions. Demographically, the region has the smallest percentage of white respondents (57 percent) and the highest percentage of those reporting "other" as their race or ethnicity (18 percent). Pacific small-business owners are 8 percent black, 8 percent Hispanic and 9 percent Asian.

Region: Middle Atlantic

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stops at Geno's Steaks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 22, 2016. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

States: New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania Confidence index (0100 scale): 56 Trump approval/disapproval: 46%/54% This is the most polarized region when it comes to how business owners feel about Trump. Thirty-two percent strongly approve of the way he is handling his job, while 39 percent strongly disapprove. Respondents in this region were much less likely to have a moderated view of the president. Twenty-nine percent of the Middle Atlantic group think changes in trade policy will have a negative effect on their businesses over the next 12 months, which is more than any other region except the Pacific region (also at 29 percent). Mid-Atlantic small-business owners are also much more likely to have a web page for their business compared to other regions. Sixty-six percent of this group say they have a web page.

Region: New England

In 2011, a sign outside a hair salon welcomes Donald Trump on April 27, 2011 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Getty Images

States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont Confidence index (0100 scale): 59 Trump approval/disapproval: 50%/50% Small-business owners were most likely to say they "Strongly Disapprove" of the job Trump is doing as president (40 percent). Not surprising, since the president won only one of the region's 33 electoral votes last November. Despite that, 48 percent of respondents say business conditions are "good," and 37 percent expect to increase headcount in the next 12 months (more than any other region.) This was the only region with more owners (25 percent) saying customer demand was the most critical issue facing their business (for all other regions, "Taxes" was the most popular choice). They're also more likely than other regions to say terrorism or foreign policy matter most to them right now. Demographically, only 28 percent of New England small-business owners to respond to the survey are women, which is fewer than any other region. Twenty-three percent of respondents have a post-graduate degree, more than any other region. (A sign in front of a hair salon in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, welcomes Trump during campaign.)

Region: West South Central

Then Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump waves to photographers during his trip to the border in Laredo, Texas on July 23, 2015. Getty Images

States: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas Confidence index (0100 scale): 61 Trump approval/disapproval: 63%/26% Small-business owners in this region are most likely to say business conditions are "good" (48 percent). Sixty-two percent expect revenue to increase, which is more than any other region except the South Atlantic (64 percent). Small-business owners in this region are more likely to say education is the issue that matters most to them right now. That's interesting, because 9 percent of the respondents in this region never finished high school and only 39 percent have a college degree (compare that to 51 percent of New England small-business owners). The West South Central region also has the highest percentage of Hispanic respondents (20 percent). (Trump visits the Texas-Mexico border.)

Region: Mountain

Candidate Donald Trump speaks at the 2016 Western Conservative Summit at the Colorado Convention Center on July 1, 2016 in Denver. Getty Images

States: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming Confidence index (0100 scale): 61 Trump approval/disapproval: 60%/40% The Mountain region was the only region with a majority of respondents saying health care is the issue that matters most to them right now. For all other regions, "jobs and economy" was the most popular response. The region also had the highest number of respondents (14 percent) saying immigration is the most important issue. Twenty-nine percent say changes to immigration policy will have a positive effect on their business, which is second highest among all the regions.

Region: East North Central

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to guests at a campaign rally on December 21, 2015 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Getty Images

States: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin Confidence index (0100 scale): 63 Trump approval/disapproval: 65%/35% Small-business owners in the region that arguably won Trump the presidency still have a high opinion of his early efforts, with 39 percent strongly approving of his performance. Taxes are very important to this region, and most appear to think the new administration will deliver better tax policy. Fifty-four percent of respondents in this region say that changes in tax policy over the next 12 months will have a positive impact on their businesses. Thirty-one percent of respondents in this region also say taxes are the most critical issue facing their business. They're also optimistic about other elements of the Trump agenda, with 31 percent saying changes in immigration policy over the next 12 months will have a positive effect on their businesses (more than any other region), and 41 percent saying changes in regulation will have a positive effect. Forty-six percent of East North Central small-business owners have at least a college degree, making this region's small-business owners the second-best educated, behind New England.

Region: West North Central

A Trump sign in Dexter, Iowa. Getty Images

States: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota Confidence index (0100 scale): 63 Trump approval/disapproval: 76%/24% More small-business owners strongly approve of Trump in this region (45 percent) than in any other region. Perhaps it's because they believe the administration will deliver on its promise to pass new health-care legislation. Respondents in this region are more likely than all other regions to say "cost of employee health care" is the most critical issue facing their business. Forty-nine percent of respondents expect changes in government regulations to have a positive effect on their businesses, also more than any other region. Eighty-nine percent of respondents in this region are white, making it the least diverse region in the country for small-business owners.

Region: South Atlantic

President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at the AeroMod International hangar at Orlando Melbourne International Airport on February 18, 2017. Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase CEO expressed frustration at the U.S. federal government during the company's earnings conference call Friday.

"It's almost an embarrassment being an American citizen traveling around the world and listening to the stupid s--- we have to deal with in this country," Dimon said in response to an analyst question.

"Since the Great Recession, which is now 8 years old, we've been growing at 1.5 to 2 percent in spite of stupidity and political gridlock, because the American business sector is powerful and strong," he said. "What I'm saying is it would be much stronger growth had we made intelligent decisions and were there not gridlock."

The executive of the U.S. banking giant cited travels to countries such as France, Argentina, Israel and Ireland. The U.S. has become "one of the most bureaucratic, confusing, litigious societies on the planet" and "it's hurting the average American that we don't have these right policies," he said.

Earlier Friday, JPMorgan Chase reported earnings that handily beat Wall Street estimates. However, the bank lowered its forecast for lending revenue.

Dimon also blasted the press in a separate conference call Friday for focusing on the bank's quarterly results and missing the bigger picture.

Shares briefly fell more than 1.5 percent.

Despite the Republican majority in Congress, Washington has been caught in gridlock over a new health care bill, which is seen as a precursor to passing new legislation on tax reform. The Senate this week cut short its August recess by two weeks in order to deal with the debate.

In response to a separate question, Dimon said government regulation on banks was preventing economic growth, by keeping certain home buyers and small startups from getting funding.

"The counterfactual would have been that a trillion dollars or 2 trillion would have been lent out had these rules been changed five years ago," he said. "There's a false notion that all this stuff didn't hold back the economy. Yes, it did."

Here's most of the full rant:
The percentage of American full-time minimum-wage workers who can afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment in any U.S. state without being what the government calls "burdened" is so vanishingly small  less than one percent  that it rounds down to zero. That's the conclusion of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a lobbying group that pushes for more low-income housing and also reports that no full-time minimum-wage worker can afford a two-bedroom apartment in any U.S. state. Researchers define "afford" by people's ability to pay 30 percent of their income or less on the cost of housing, which may include their mortgage, insurance and taxes. Those who are severely cost-burdened must use 50 percent or more of their income just to cover housing. The cost of housing has risen so significantly that even a one-bedroom is out of reach everywhere except in 12 counties located in rural Washington, Arizona and Oregon, reports Laura Bliss for CityLab.

Bliss notes that "more than 76 percent of renter households reside in a county or metro area where it takes more than 60 hours per week of full-time, minimum-wage work to reasonably afford even a one-bedroom unit. In California, the nation's most populous state, it would take 92 hours. In Virginia, it would take 109." The federal minimum wage is $7.25. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "minimum wage workers tend to be young" and unmarried and often live with parents or otherwise share housing. BLS also reported in 2016 that they make up a small percentage of the overall labor force: "2.2 million workers with wages at or below the federal minimum made up 2.7 percent of all hourly paid workers." Columnist Tim Worstall at Forbes contends that minimum-wage workers have arguably never been able to afford housing. "If we want housing to be cheaper we should build more of it," he writes.
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Shoppers are increasingly shunning the center of grocery stores and hugging the perimeter as they trade packaged food for fresh food. That's bad news for an industry that's already struggling. For years, nutritionists have been urging Americans to swap out processed foods for fresh options like fruits and vegetables. People now seem to be listening, and deflation among fresh food products has made eating healthier a more affordable option. Consumers' quest for fresh is compounded by competition from private-label brands, demands to lower prices and Amazon's impending purchase of Whole Foods  which is seen accelerating both price pressure and the shift to fresher food. The result? Packaged food sales have declined, and earnings have disappointed. Some companies have cut jobs and shuttered factories. Wall Street has not been forgiving. The S&P 500 has increased nearly 14 percent over the last 12 months, while packaged foods and meats companies in the index are down more than 11 percent over the same time period. Kellogg , General Mills , Campbell Soup and J.M. Smucker all hit 52-week lows Tuesday.



Despite mounting pressure, legacy brands are not giving up. They recognize the challenges the industry faces, but some companies may not be able to overcome them easily.

'The old way of business is changing'

The same ingredients that helped propel big brands to the top two decades ago are helping erode trust in them today. Brands are scrambling to scrub their products of fat, sugar and other unwanted ingredients, while convincing consumers they still deserve a spot in their shopping carts.



Packaged food companies have dealt with health trends before. They have survived carb-free, transfat, low-fat and low-calorie movements. This time may be different.



This time, shoppers don't have a defined enemy. They want natural, clean food. It's a broad desire, and it's one that challenges what packaged food is at its core.



Companies can tweak their recipes to make them more desirable to health-conscious consumers, but they can only do so much before the product is unrecognizable.

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Even with changes in the center aisle, some shoppers are trying to avoid processed foods altogether and are sticking to the perimeter of the stores, where they typically find bakery, deli, seafood, produce and meat products.



"Overall, there's just a lot of uncertainty in the industry and the old way of business is changing, and the old way was going on for so many years," said Richard Bode, principal consultant at Cadent Consulting and a former marketer at Kraft.



Nielsen data suggest companies that offer more fresh food are growing faster than those who don't. Fresher stores experienced a 4 percent growth in sales last year, compared with 1 percent for other stores.



"There just continues to be growth and interest in fresh that curtails a lot with consumer preference and thought around health- and wellness-type products, organic, natural and clean-label," said Meagan Nelson, client director at Nielsen Fresh.

Even when shoppers do venture down the aisles in the center of grocery stores, they may grab private-label products instead of the name-brand ones. Many shoppers overcame their aversion to store brands during the recession, said Yosi Heber, founder and president of Oxford Hill Partners and a former marketing executive at Kraft and Dannon. Once they took the risk, they liked what they tasted.



Some companies have fared better than others in the changing industry. The ones that Wall Street likes best right now are those that have the potential to merge with or acquire others.

'A big part of the story'

Analysts agree that merging with and acquiring companies is the best strategy packaged food producers have to turn around sluggish sales. They want to see companies ditch brands that aren't working and grab ones that are.



Nestle announced last month it would explore selling its U.S. confectionery business, which includes brands like Butterfinger and Baby Ruth. Despite Nestle's history with candy, it makes more sense for the company to invest in growing categories like water, said Heber.



Investors salivated at the prospect of a Kraft Heinz takeover of Unilever earlier this year. Shares of Kraft Heinz spiked only to fall again when its bid failed. Unilever shares have climbed ever since. "(Mergers and acquisitions are) a big part of the story, particularly because it's easy to underestimate the influence these large packaged food companies within the grocery store  even if some of their products are a little bit out of step with where their target consumers seem to be settling," said Zain Akbari, an analyst at Morningstar.



Wall Street expects Kraft Heinz to pursue another acquisition, most likely Mondelez , the snack company and Oreo producer that was spun off from Kraft in 2012. Mondelez CEO Irene Rosenfeld sidestepped questions about the possibility in an interview with the Chicago Tribune this week. She said Kraft Heinz is likely to buy something, but that Mondelez's focus would remain on growing its business. Wall Street considers both Kraft Heinz and Mondelez moderate buys. RBC Capital's David Palmer recommends buying Kraft Heinz because it has "unapologetically cut and innovated its way" to growing its margin to 29 percent within three years.



"By most if not all metrics we as stock analysts observe, we believe Kraft-Heinz is unequivocally 'the best" today,"' Palmer wrote in a note in May.



Pinnacle Foods is another Wall Street favorite. The company discussed a possible merger with Conagra earlier this year. Talks ended last month, with sources saying the two companies did not plan to revisit them. Rumors are still bubbling about the possibility, and Pinnacle is considered a strong buy.



Aside from the merger speculation, Pinnacle has been successful in shopping around for healthier brands. In 2009, the company picked up Birds Eye Foods, which offers frozen vegetables and meals. In 2015, it acquired Boulder Brands, whose portfolio includes healthier lines such as Evol and Earth Balance. Neither acquisition was in the fresh realm, but both aligned with shoppers' desire for products with a healthier image. In 2016, Pinnacle's health and wellness portfolio represented 55 percent of the company's sales, according to its annual report. Investors have rewarded Pinnacle; its stock has risen 22 percent over the past year.



The strategy is not isolated to Pinnacle. Kellogg acquired natural food producer Kashi in 2000. General Mills bought organic food company Annie's in 2014. Unilever purchased fancy ketchup maker Sir Kensington this year.



Acquisitions like these may have broader implications on companies than simply profit.

"For someone that's been at a big company for say, 20 years, has a certain way of doing things that almost becomes a sixth sense," Bode said. "When they see a smaller brand that's very creative and moves very fast, of course they're going pick up some of that."

'It isn't too late'

Big food is facing a reality that numerous other industries have already experienced: business as usual simply isn't enough to succeed anymore. Legacy brands are still selling. But they're not growing, and that's a problem. "It isn't too late, but they really need to get the ball rolling because what's happening is instead of growing at 5 to 10 percent, many of them are flat or are declining 1 percent. And that's not acceptable to shareholders," Heber, the consultant and former food exec, said. General Mills is one company that some on Wall Street have lost confidence in. The company's sales dropped 11 percent between fiscal 2015 and 2017, as key categories began to struggle. Chobani's Greek yogurt growth decimated General Mills' Yoplait sales. Since 2015, General Mills' yogurt sales are down 24 percent, according to an SEC filing. General Mills rolled out its own Greek yogurt, but it didn't gain much traction.

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United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. FRANK VOUDY, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. SHERIFF OF BROWARD COUNTY FLORIDA, Defendant - Appellee. No. 16-12059 Decided: July 13, 2017

Before MARCUS, JILL PRYOR, and SILER,* Circuit Judges.

Appellant Frank Voudy, a white deputy in the Broward County Sheriff's Office, appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment to Sheriff Scott Israel on Voudy's claim that the Sheriff discriminated against him on the basis of race when the Sheriff failed to promote him to Sergeant. The district court determined that Voudy failed to make out a prima facie case of discrimination. Because Voudy did in fact make out a prima facie case of discrimination and the Sheriff failed to articulate a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for Voudy's non-promotion, we reverse the district court's judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

Frank Voudy is a white officer in the Broward County Sheriff's Office (BSO). Voudy has been a Deputy Sheriff since 1997 and has been eligible for a promotion to Sergeant since 2002 but has never been promoted. In 2012, Voudy took the Sergeant's Exam, which consisted of a multiple-choice test, a structural interview, and an oral presentation. The scores of each segment were added together and each eligible individual taking the exam was ranked based on his or her total score. Voudy ranked 20th of the 56 individuals eligible for promotion to Sergeant. Thirty promotions were made based on the 2012 eligibility list. Of those, 23 were white, three were Hispanic, three were black, and one was multi-racial. Voudy was the second highest ranked officer who was not ultimately promoted.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between BSO and the Police Benevolent Association governed the promotion process. The CBA required that five out of every six Sergeant openings be filled from the then-existing top five scores on the Sergeant's exam. This was called the Rule of Five. For Rule of Five picks, every time a new Sergeant was selected, the next highest person on the eligibility list moved into the top five. It is therefore possible that a candidate may be passed over continuously even though he or she scored very highly on the Sergeant's Exam. The sixth position is filled at the Sheriff's discretion without regard for the Rule of Five.

Colonel John Dale oversaw the 2012-2014 promotion process at BSO. He explained that the committee determining promotions followed the Rule of Five and that for every sixth pick, Sheriff Israel ultimately made the final choice from the entire list of eligible officers, as opposed to the top five scorers remaining on the list. Dale testified that for the sixth pick, BSO looked at it as a flat list without regard for ranking. He explained that for the sixth pick, BSO considers each officer's file and the comments of his or her supervisors. BSO also considers each officer's training record, which to BSO indicates that the employee is interested in developing his or her skill set, as well as the officer's last three performance evaluations, attendance, and disciplinary history. Dale further testified that in making promotion decisions, BSO neither had an indication of each officer's race or ethnic background nor looked at photographs.

Two black officers ranked lower than Voudy based on their total scores on the Sergeant's ExamJeremiah Cooper and Berthill Thomaswere promoted over him as sixth picks by the Sheriff. They were ranked 47th and 50th, respectively. Although Voudy scored better than Cooper and Thomas on the Sergeant's Exam and had substantially more law-enforcement experience, Cooper and Thomas had better qualifications than Voudy with regard to some of BSO's considerations. Nonetheless, Dale could not recall the reasons why Thomas and Cooper were promoted over Voudy, explaining that it is difficult to remember why any individual promotion decision was made because so many promotionsto Sergeant, but also to Captain, Major, and Lieutenantare determined around the same time.

Voudy had a more extensive disciplinary history than either Cooper or Thomas. Internal Affairs had lodged three cases against Voudy in his time on the force, two in 2000 and one in 2004. Each resulted in a written reprimand. By contrast, Thomas had been disciplined twice in his time on the force, both times resulting in counseling and training. Cooper had been disciplined once, resulting in counseling.

Moreover, unlike Voudy, Cooper and Thomas had specialized training certifications. Thomas had cross-certification in Law Enforcement and Detention/Corrections and successfully completed a Police Motorcycle Operator Course. Cooper was certified as a Field Training Officer after extensive coursework and also completed several months of training in the District Criminal Investigations Unit.

Thomas also had more positive performance evaluations than Voudy. Voudy's 2010-2013 performance evaluations showed an approximately even mix of Exceeds Expectations ratings and Meets Expectations ratings. By contrast, in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, Thomas received Exceeds Expectations ratings for 8 of 10 categories, and in 2010-2011 he received Exceeds Expectations in all 10 categories. Cooper's last three performance evaluations were on par with Voudy's. Neither Cooper's nor Thomas's performance evaluations contained negative comments from their supervisors, but Voudy's 2011-2012 performance evaluation noted that he could increase his initiative and work output in the area of FI cards and arrests, and his 2012-2013 evaluation provided that Voudy's pro-activity is not high as it pertains to arrests and traffic enforcement. Voudy Performance Evaluations, Doc. 21-16 at 3, 5.

Voudy filed suit against the Sheriff alleging that Cooper and Thomas were selected over him because of race, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C.  2000e-2(a)(1), and the Florida Civil Rights Act (FCRA), Fla. Stat.  760.10 et seq. The district court granted summary judgment to the Sheriff, concluding that Voudy failed to establish a prima facie case of discrimination. Voudy now appeals.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

This court reviews a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo, applying the same legal standards used by the district court. Galvez v. Bruce, 552 F.3d 1238, 1241 (11th Cir. 2008). We view the evidence and all factual inferences arising from the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. See id. Summary judgment is appropriate when there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). Mere speculation is insufficient to create a genuine dispute of material fact. See Cordoba v. Dillard's, Inc., 419 F.3d 1169, 1181 (11th Cir. 2005).

III. DISCUSSION

Because Voudy has provided no direct evidence of discrimination, we assess his Title VII claim under the burden shifting framework outlined in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973). Under the McDonnell Douglas framework, a plaintiff first must show an inference of discriminatory intent, and thus carries the initial burden of establishing a prima facie case of discrimination. Brooks v. Cty. Comm'n of Jefferson Cty., Ala., 446 F.3d 1160, 1162 (11th Cir. 2006). The plaintiff's successful assertion of a prima facie case creates a rebuttable presumption that the employer unlawfully discriminated against h[im]. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Second, if the plaintiff successfully demonstrates a prima facie case, the burden then shifts to the employer to produce evidence that its action was taken for a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason. Id. [O]nce the employer meets its burden of production by proffering a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason, thereby rebutting the presumption of discrimination, [ ] [our] inquiry proceeds to a new level of specificity, in which the plaintiff must show that the proffered reason really is a pretext for unlawful discrimination. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).

The district court determined that Voudy failed at the first stagethat is, it ruled that Voudy failed to make out a prima facie case of discrimination. In doing so, however, the district court applied the incorrect legal standard. The district court required Voudy to show that (1) he was a member of a protected class, (2) he was qualified and applied for the promotion, (3) he was rejected despite his qualifications, and (4) other equally or less qualified employees outside of the protected class were promoted. D. Ct. Op., Doc. 33 at 4. It then concluded that Voudy failed to make out a prima facie case because he failed to show that he was equally or more qualified than Cooper or Thomas.

This was error. In Walker v. Mortham, 158 F.3d 1177, 1186 (11th Cir. 1998), we addressed conflicting panel opinions concerning the elements of a prima facie case in failure to promote cases. While a number of our decisions employed the standard used by the district court in this caserequiring plaintiffs to show, at the prima facie case stage, that other equally or less qualified employees were promoted over themother cases required plaintiffs to show only that the position was filled with a person outside the plaintiff's protected class. Id. We determined that both our prior precedent rule and an independent assessment of which standard best comported with Supreme Court precedent required only that a plaintiff show that the position was filled by someone outside his protected class. Id. at 1193. At least at the prima facie case stage, a plaintiff need not show that the candidate who received the promotion was equally or less qualified than the plaintiff.

Consequently, to make out a prima facie case, Voudy was required to show that: (1) he was a member of a protected class; (2) he sought and was qualified for a promotion; (3) despite his qualifications he was rejected; and (4) after his rejection, his employer either continued to attempt to fill the positions or in fact filled the positions with persons outside of his protected class. Id. at 1186. Voudy has established each of these elements. By virtue of performing sufficiently well on the Sergeant's Exam, Voudy was eligible for promotion and therefore was at least minimally qualified for the position he sought. Voudy, who is white, was nonetheless rejected as a sixth pick in favor of Thomas and Cooper, who are black. Consequently, the district court erred in finding that Voudy failed to make out a prima facie case of discrimination.

Voudy having made a prima facie case, the burden then shifted to the Sheriff to produce evidence that its action was taken for a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason. Brooks, 446 F.3d at 1162. The defendant need not persuade the court that it was actually motivated by the proffered reason, but need only present evidence raising a genuine issue of fact as to whether it discriminated against the plaintiff. Alvarez v. Royal Atl. Developers, Inc., 610 F.3d 1253, 1265 (11th Cir. 2010). However, the defendant's response must frame the factual issue with sufficient clarity so that the plaintiff will have a full and fair opportunity to demonstrate pretext. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). The defendant may not satisfy its burden by presenting a hypothetical reason for the employment decision in question. Walker, 158 F.3d at 1184.

Although the Sheriff's burden is exceedingly light, Vessels v. Atlanta Indep. Sch. Sys., 408 F.3d 763, 770 (11th Cir. 2005) (internal quotation marks omitted), we conclude that he failed to adequately articulate a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for promoting Thomas and Cooper over Voudy. No BSO employee has identified any reason why Thomas and Cooper were promoted or Voudy was not promoted. Dale was unable to recall anything about why Voudy was not promoted:

Q. Okay.  [C]an you state as to whether or not Deputy Cooper was more qualified for this position than Deputy Voudy?

A. I don't recall the conversation on the list oryou know, I'll be honest with you, I only recognize probably a handful of names off the list. So in a side-by-side comparison, again, it's considered to be a flat list. The contract allows the Sheriff to pick basically anyone he wants. 

Q. Well, in this particular case can you give me any parameters as to the factors indicate influencing the command staff decision that Deputy Cooper was chosen over Deputy Voudy?

A. We've had many of these conversations. Again, the names don't mean a lot to me because I don't know many of them individually. We'll typically pick multiple sergeants in one list along with lieutenants, and then we'll have other meetings on, you know, captains and majors, so I don't recall the individual conversation as to when we were discussing Mr. Voudy or Mr. Cooper.

Dale Dep., Doc. 22-2 at 14, 19. Nor was Colonel Alvin Pollock, another decision maker, able to identify a reason that Thomas and Cooper were promoted over Voudy:

Q. Okay.  [C]an you, sitting here today, can you give me any reason as to why Deputy Voudy was not promoted as part of the promotion selection process?

A. No, I could not, sir.

Pollock Dep., Doc. 22-3 at 17.

Instead, Dale testified to various criteria that BSO considered when determining promotions, including: education, training, assignments and certifications, disciplinary history, ranking on the Sergeant's Exam, performance evaluations, law-enforcement experience, and attendance. But neither Dale nor any other witness explained how these criteria were weighted or which ones were a factor in the decision to promote Thomas and Cooper over Voudy. It appears from the record that some of the criteria militated in favor of promoting Voudy over Thomas and Cooper. For example, Voudy ranked higher than both Thomas and Cooper on the Sergeant's Exam and Voudy had 11 more years of experience in BSO's Department of Law Enforcement than Cooper. But other criteriatraining, certifications, disciplinary history, and performance evaluationsappear to cut against Voudy in comparison to Thomas and/or Cooper. For other considerations that Dale identified, such as education and attendance, we simply have no evidence or insufficient evidence in the record. Without any evidence indicating how the identified criteria were weighed or considered in Voudy's case, we can do no more than speculate as to why Thomas and Cooper were promoted while Voudy was not.

It is not enough for the employer to say that general categories provide a backdrop for its decision-making process, but not tell us which categories were relied upon in this particular case. [A]bstract terms as to what might have motivated the decision-maker are insufficient to meet the defendant's burden of articulation. Walker, 158 F.3d at 1181 n.8; see also Increase Minority Participation by Affirmative Change Today of Nw. Fla., Inc. v. Firestone, 893 F.2d 1189, 1193-94 (11th Cir. 1990) (rejecting the notion that evidence showing dissimilarities in two applicants' records suffices to meet a defendant's burden of articulation). In the absence of any statement from the employer or its decision makers explaining the reasons for its decision, we cannot hypothesize the employer's reasons and then use that speculation to find that the employer carried its burden of articulating a clear and reasonably specific non-discriminatory basis for its actions. Vessels, 408 F.3d at 770 (internal quotation marks omitted).

Because Voudy established a prima facie case of discrimination and the Sheriff failed to rebut it by articulating a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for Voudy's non-promotion, the district court erred in granting summary judgment to the Sheriff.

IV. CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons, we reverse the district court's grant of summary judgment to the defendant and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

REVERSED AND REMANDED.

FOOTNOTES

. We note that the ranking allowed for ties between two officersfor example, there were two officers ranked seventh, with another officer ranked eighth. So Voudy's ranking of 20th does not mean that there were only 19 officers ranked higher than he was. The precise number of officers with a higher rank than Voudy, Cooper, or Thomas is immaterial to Voudy's claim, however: there is no doubt that Voudy was ranked substantially higher than Cooper or Thomas.

. Citations to Doc. __ refer to numbered docket entries in the district court record in this case.

. Voudy also raised age discrimination claims against the Sheriff under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and FCRA. The district court granted summary judgment to the Sheriff on these claims. Voudy does not appeal that decision.

. We evaluate Voudy's FCRA claim under the same standards as his Title VII claim. See Alvarez v. Royal Atl. Developers, Inc., 610 F.3d 1253, 1271 (11th Cir. 2010).

. We recognize that a number of our decisions continued to apply the incorrect prima facie case test even after Walker. Nonetheless, Walker's thorough assessment of the appropriate standard is controlling.

PER CURIAM:
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Manila appears to be testing its relationship with Beijing as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte considers resuming energy exploration in the tension-laden South China Sea. , located in the international waterway, has been suspended since 2014. That came after Manila launched an international arbitration case against Beijing over the latter's territorial expansion in the South China Sea  an issue that has sparked numerous Philippine protests against the mainland and weighed on bilateral ties. But activity in the Reed Bank could recommence before year-end, Ismael Ocampo, a director at the Philippines' Department of Energy's Resource Development Bureau, said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. An underwater mountain off the Philippine coast, the feature is believed to hold significant oil and gas deposits.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte prior to their bilateral meeting during the Belt and Road Forum, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China May 15, 2017. Etienne Oliveau | Pool | Reuters

Over 20 oil, gas and coal blocks in the Reed Bank as well as areas around Palawan and the Sulu Sea could be be offered in a corporate bidding round set for December, Ocampo said. A year ago, to access offshore oil and gas fields in its 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone that includes the Reed Bank, but Beijing refused to recognize the ruling. Since then, Duterte has stalled on enforcing the court decision, opting to instead improve existing ties with the North Asian giant in order to secure mainland investments. Earlier this year, the Philippine leader claimed Chinese President Xi Jinping had warned of war should Manila attempt drilling in the South China Sea's contentious waters. However, Wednesday's news indicated Duterte may be changing his mind on the matter. The new development points to a few potential scenarios, according to Eufracia Taylor, Asia analyst at risk advisory firm Verisk Maplecroft.
French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Donald Trump attend the traditional Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, France, July 14, 2017.

PARIS  President Trump is guest of honor at the opulent Bastille Day celebrations in the French capital on Friday, the second day of his first trip to the country as U.S. leader and a year after a deadly terror attack in the southern city of Nice killed 86 people and wounded hundreds.

This year's ornate Bastille Day  France's Fourth of July  military parade on the capital's famous Champs-Elysees avenue includes U.S. soldiers marching with their French counterparts to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the United States' entry into World War I.

"This is a wonderful national celebration," Trump said in a news conference Thursday. "We look very much forward to it. Spectacular."

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Bastille Day in Nice, France: More anguish than celebration

There is heightened security around the Champs-Elysees and the nearby Place de la Concorde after the area was repeatedly targeted by Islamist extremists. Last month, an attacker died when he rammed his explosives-laden car into a police convoy on the Champs-Elysees.

After the Paris parade Macron will travel to Nice, where an Islamist terrorist plowed a truck into a crowd on the Promenade des Anglais after a Bastille Day fireworks display a year ago.

France's interior ministry said more than 130,000 security personnel and emergency service workers will protect people around the country during the celebrations, a national holiday in France.

Trump, 71, arrived in Paris on Thursday amid colorful pageantry for a two-day visit, and held meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, 39, met with U.S. embassy staff and U.S. service members and dined at the Eiffel Tower.

"Great evening with President @EmmanuelMacron & Mrs. Macron. Went to Eiffel Tower for dinner. Relationship with France stronger than ever," Trump tweeted with a photo of the two leaders and their wives at the famous Paris landmark early Friday.

@realDonaldTrump Great evening with President @EmmanuelMacron & Mrs. Macron. Went to Eiffel Tower for dinner. Relationship with France stronger than ever.

Trump pledged Thursday that the United States would work to protect the environment, despite withdrawing from the Paris Climate Change Agreement that was signed by nearly 200 nations.

"Our fates are tied together more so than ever," Trump said at a news conference following a meeting with Macron, one of his harshest critics for backing out of the Paris accord on June 1.

Macron said while the leaders have a "number of disagreements" on the threat of global warming, he respected Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of the agreement.

Macron said Thursday that he and Trump would work on a "joint roadmap" to fight terrorism and post-war initiatives for Syria.

Trump also defended his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer whom he believed had incriminating information on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election. "Most people would have taken that meeting," Trump said.

"It's called opposition research," Trump added. "Politics is not the nicest business in the world."

When asked about negative comments Trump previously made that "Paris no longer looks like Paris" in light of an influx of migrants and a spate of terrorist attacks, the U.S. president changed his tune.

You have a tough president. I really have a feeling you will have a peaceful and beautiful Paris," Trump said. "And I'm coming back."

"You are always welcome," Macron replied.

Bastille Day marks the storming of the Bastille fortress that held political prisoners in 1789, which led to the French Revolution.

Bhatti reported from Paris, Onyanga-Omara reported from London

Contributing: David Jackson in Washington
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told reporters Thursday that he'll be voting to advance Republicans' health care bill, the end of a months-long odyssey in which he made varying and seemingly contradictory objections to the emerging plan.

On Capitol Hill, Johnson has gained a reputation for his sometimes confusing complaints about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Better Care Reconciliation Act, Republicans' vehicle to repeal and replace Obamacare.

However, he sounded on Thursday like he's now firmly in McConnell's corner  suggesting that Republicans have at least one fewer defection to worry about as they look to get to 50 votes to pass their bill.

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"What we wound up with  [in] my judgment  is continuous improvement. If I vote yes, I think I'll be able to convey that and certainly explain to my supporters why I did it and how it will help the folks of Wisconsin," Johnson said.

His sudden embrace of the bill is difficult to reconcile with his previously strident criticisms of the GOP's Obamacare repeal effort. In March, for instance, Johnson panned the House version of the bill for its dramatic cuts to its subsidies for low-income people on the exchanges. (The new version of the bill released Thursday still reduces that financial assistance compared with Obamacare.)

More recently, Johnson went on the radio and seemingly tore into Republicans' congressional leadership for advancing the bill on a partisan basis. (The new version of the bill is unanimously opposed by Democrats and includes zero bipartisan input.)

Similarly, he has condemned the speed with which McConnell has tried rushing through the bill, saying he won't vote for something unless he can "make sure that my constituents have enough time to provide input." He said that it was "a little offensive" that McConnell wanted to "jam this through" so quickly. Johnson said he will vote to advance the bill next week, just days after its release, and told reporters he didn't need to wait for a score from the Congressional Budget Office before a vote.

Most recently, Johnson began attacking the bill from the opposite end of the ideological spectrum, aligning himself with conservatives like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) who say it doesn't go far enough to repeal Obamacare. In a New York Times op-ed, Johnson said:

Our priority should be to bring relief, and better, less expensive care, to millions of working men and women. Unfortunately, the Senate Republican alternative, unveiled last week, doesn't appear to come close to addressing their plight. Like Obamacare, it relies too heavily on government spending, and ignores the role that the private sector can and should play.

To be sure, Senate conservatives were glad to see that the new bill would again allow insurers to discriminate based on preexisting conditions. And Johnson did acknowledge that McConnell's bill wasn't his ideal solution, saying he wanted "something that worked a whole lot better," though he didn't specify exactly what that would be.

"From my standpoint, I would have fully repealed Obamacare and fully replaced it with something that worked a whole lot better," he said. "That's not where we're at right now."

But it may be still hard to square Johnson's months-long public criticisms of the bill with his apparent plan to vote for it. Asked what he supports in the bill, the senator pointed in part to the bill's cuts to Medicaid. These cuts would in fact save Medicaid patients in the long term, Johnson said, by protecting the long-term solvency of the Medicaid program. The CBO has estimated that the original bill would cost tens of millions of people their insurance, but Johnson argued that by ending Obamacare's Medicaid expansions, the bill would wind up doing more to save Medicaid for patients.

"One of the things that I think is really mistaken in some of the fearmongering out there is that people who get Medicaid in Wisconsin are afraid they're going to lose it. What puts their Medicaid at risk is Medicaid expansion," Johnson said.
Martin Shkreli, former chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, center, leaves a federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., on Monday, July 10, 2017.

Aselage said that afterward, "He went on the warpath, as I would describe it, to harm the company and damage the reputations of the people in the company."

He said Shkreli vowed to subject Aselage, who became chief executive after he was forced out , to "an unremitting wave of litigation."

"It was what I would consider a very threatening conversation," Aselage testified at Shkreli's securities fraud trial, where he also described a disturbing series of "red flags" that led to Shkreli being ousted.

Shkreli said "I had never dealt with anyone like him," testified Retrophin CEO Stephen Aselage in Brooklyn, New York, federal court. Shkreli warned him, "My family and I would suffer as a result of my actions," said Aselage, as he described an October 2014 phone call with Shkreli after he was booted from the company.

A scorned Martin Shkreli "went on the warpath" after being ousted as CEO by the board of the drug company he had founded, and threatened his successor, that current chief executive testified Friday.

A drawing of Steven Aselage, CEO Retrophin at the trial of Martin Shkreli in Brooklyn, New York.

Shkreli also told Retrophin investors he planned to produce a generic drug equivalent for one of Retrophin's products, which could harm company revenue, Aselage said.

"The defendant and three of his friends broke into the offices," Aselage said, and then downloaded files from Retrophin's computer servers.

Before being ousted, Aselage said, Shkreli had told Retrophin's board that he wanted a unit within the company to be allowed to operate effectively as a hedge fund trading biopharmaceutical stocks  despite concerns of the board.

"The analogy he gave us was he was a mother lion and he was training his cubs to kill," Aselage said.

Shkreli, 34, is accused of looting Retrophin of tens of thousands of shares of stock as well as cash to give to investors in two hedge funds he previously ran. Prosecutors charge that he defrauded those investors at the funds, whose financial performance was poor at the time he was issuing glowing financial statements.

Under cross examination, Aselage said of Shkreli, "Intellectually he may have the brightest intellect of anyone I've ever run into."

But Aselage went on to say, "There's also a lot of self-aggrandizing ... a lot of ego that comes out of Mr. Shkreli and some insensitivity with how he deals with other people."

"If he likes somebody, he has great people skills, or if he wants to use somebody," Aselage said.

"In day-to-day interactions with other people, he doesn't seem to see other people as important if they don't fit into the scheme of what he wants to do."

Shkreli's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, asked Aselage why he made positive comments about Shkreli in a Retrophin press release at the same time he supposedly believed Shkreli was acting inappropriately at the company.

Aselage said, "Mr. Shkreli was doing a lot of good things."

"While he was doing some very good things, he was doing some very bad things, that were the tip of the iceberg of what we knew," Aselage said. "What he did well doesn't make him less accountable for what he didn't do well."

In his testimony, Aselage detailed a series of events that led Retrophin members to consider having Shkreli step down as CEO in 2014, and move into another role at the company that would better suit his talents.

'"The ongoing assessment was that while Martin brought a lot of good ideas to the company, he wasn't actually managing the company, and management needed to be brought to the company for it to survive," Aselage said.

"We wanted to put him in business strategy or business development, something where he could still use his interest and his intellect, but not be responsible for running the company," Aselage said.

He said Retrophin's board had learned that Shkreli had used company funds to hire private investigators to dig up information on individuals, and some board members had "significant concerns about this ongoing use of Twitter" to talk about Retrophin.

Shkreli's tweets "tended to be immature and not particularly relevant and not particularly appropriate for the CEO of a publicly traded company," Aselage said.

In one case, he said, Shkreli tweeted while the stock market was open that he was having "the best day of his life," which worried Aselage and other directors that Shkreli's followers would believe he was telegraphing nonpublic information about Retrophin stock.
College can be expensive. In fact, Americans are currently paying off an approximate $1.4 trillion in student loan debt.

But now there's an opportunity to skip an expensive four years and still go to grad school at one of the nation's most competitive universities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Students can do so through the MITx MicroMasters, which has no degree requirements  not undergraduate or even high school  for students to sign up, according to Boston news site WBUR. There is also no GRE requirement.

Here's how it works: Prospective students enroll in a set of required online courses and then take one or more proctored exams at a testing facility. Those who pass the courses and the test earn a MicroMasters credential from MITx.

Passing students in the MicroMasters Data, Economics and Development (DED) policy program are then eligible to apply for a master's program on campus at MIT. According to the MITx site, students can also use the credentials to apply to master's programs at several other other universities.

If accepted at MIT, students enter a "blended" master's program that combines the work they completed online with an additional semester on campus.
Uber's rival in Southeast Asia could be getting a huge influx of money from some powerful investors.

SoftBank is considering investing in Singapore-based ride-hailing company Grab, according to outlets like The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. Grab could be raising between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, various reports have estimated.

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing may also be involved in the deal, some reports said. has also been floated as a potential backer in the past, although the Chinese e-commerce company declined to comment, citing policy against discussing specific investments. Other companies did not immediately respond to a request to confirm their involvement in the deal.

The new investment could create a more powerful rival to Uber in Asia, where the company has already struggled to build a base. Uber sold its Chinese operations to Didi Chuxing last year in exchange for a stake in the combined company.

Grab operates in 55 cities across seven countries. According to Reuters, the firm raised $750 million in a funding round in September, valuing it at more than $3 billion. SoftBank has led a number of Grab's previous funding rounds, according to Crunchbase data.

Meanwhile, Uber's president of business in the Asia-Pacific region, Eric Alexander, was dismissed earlier this year amid a scandal surrounding the alleged mishandling of a rape investigation. Uber has also been busy brokering the merger of its Russian business with a local company.

And SoftBank is no small foe  CEO Masayoshi Son has an expansive vision for investing in technology across the world, and has ties to Apple .

Grab's expansion would add another obstacle in the otherwise challenging market of Southeast Asia. Alan Jiang, who once managed Uber's Southeast Asia operations, wrote last month that the business environment in the region is "extremely fragmented."

"If you want to go big, you need to go international quickly," Jiang wrote in a Tech in Asia blog post. "This means understanding multiple cultures and languages, localizing the product, navigating unique political environments, connecting with local business contacts, recruiting for a local team, etc."

For more on the fundraising, see the reports at Bloomberg.com and WSJ.com

 Reuters contributed to this report.
When Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya met with members of then-candidate Donald Trump's campaign team, she brought a guest  a former Soviet counterintelligence officer.

The man at the June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort is a Russian-born American lobbyist who also served in the Soviet military, NBC News reported. The lobbyist, Rinat Akhmetshin, has been reported to have ties with Russian intelligence, though he denies the connections.

Some U.S. officials suspect otherwise, NBC said.

Akhmetshin told The Associated Press the meeting was "not substantive" and he "actually expected more serious" discussion. The AP reported that Akhmetshin said the younger Trump asked Veselnitskaya for "evidence of illicit money flowing to the Democratic National Committee, but Veselnitskaya said she didn't have that information." Akhmetshin added that Trump Jr. lost interest after that, the AP reported, and "they couldn't wait for the meeting to end."

"I never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest," he told AP.

Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting after being offered compromising material on then-candidate Hillary Clinton, according to emails he released this week. Veselnitskaya told NBC News she had at least one other guest with her in the meeting, but declined to say who he was.

The revelation adds a new layer to the meeting, which has drawn the attention of congressional and possibly federal investigators. Congressional committees and a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department are looking into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin.

Trump Jr.'s lawyer, Alan Futerfas, told NBC that two other people came to the meeting with Veselnitskaya, one who was described as a translator and one described as a "friend of Emin's and maybe as a friend of Natalia's." Emin Agalarov is a Russian pop singer whose billionaire father, Aras, is a friend of President Trump.

Futerfas told NBC he spoke with the "friend," but it is not clear if that person is the same one who U.S. officials suspect could have ties to Russian intelligence. The person Futerfas spoke to told the lawyer that he was not working for the Russian government, according to NBC.

In the emails released this week by the younger Trump, Emin Agalarov's agent, Rob Goldstone, said the Agalarovs were involved in setting up Trump Jr.'s meeting with Veselnitskaya.

On Fox News' "Hannity" this week, before NBC News' Friday report, Trump Jr. was asked, "as far as you know, as far as this incident is concerned, this is all of it?"

"This is everything. This is everything," Trump Jr. responded.

The emails showed that Trump Jr. accepted the meeting after he was offered "high level and sensitive information" that would "incriminate" Clinton as part of "Russia and its government's support" for his father's campaign. In messages from Goldstone to Trump Jr., Veselnitskaya was characterized as a "Russian government attorney," though she has denied connections to the Kremlin.

"If it's what you say I love it," Trump Jr. said in response to the offer about Clinton, according to the email exchange.
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. EDDIE GRIFFIN, Defendant-Appellant. No. 17-10015 Decided: July 13, 2017

Before ROSENBAUM, JULIE CARNES, and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

Based on a written plea agreement, Eddie Griffin pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robberies and one count of Hobbs Act robbery, all in violation of 18 U.S.C.  1951(a), and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  924(c). In exchange for his guilty plea, the government agreed to dismiss the remaining counts charged in the indictment, to recommend a sentence reduction for acceptance of responsibility, and to recommend a total sentence between 180 and 262 months of imprisonment. That range included the mandatory consecutive term of 7 years of imprisonment for the  924(c) brandishing count.

Griffin's plea agreement contains a waiver of his appellate rights. In the waiver, Griffin agreed to waive[ ] all rights conferred by Sections 3742 and 1291 to appeal any sentence imposed  or to appeal the manner in which the sentence was imposed, unless the sentence exceeded the statutory maximum or was the result of an upward departure or an upward variance from the guideline range established by the court at sentencing. Griffin would also be released from the waiver if the government appealed his sentence. By signing the agreement, Griffin acknowledged that he had discussed the appeal waiver with his attorney.

During Griffin's plea colloquy, the district court summarized the terms of the plea agreement, including the appeal waiver. Asked if there was anything about those terms and conditions or any other term and condition of the plea agreement that he did not understand, Griffin responded, No, Your Honor. Later, the court confirmed that Griffin understood that his appeal rights were limited to those set forth in the plea agreement. Ultimately, the district court found that Griffin's plea was knowing and voluntary and so accepted his guilty plea.

At sentencing, the district court determined that Griffin was a career offender under the United States Sentencing Guidelines. See U.S.S.G.  4B1.1. As a result of that status, Griffin's guideline range for the Hobbs Act offenses increased to 262 to 327 months of imprisonment from 37 to 46 months of imprisonment. See U.S.S.G.  4B1.1(c). The brandishing offense required an additional, consecutive term of at least 84 months of imprisonment. Griffin asked for a total sentence of 180 months, while the government sought the maximum total sentence it could ask for under the plea agreement: 262 months. The district court, varying below the guideline range, sentenced Griffin to a total term of 216 months of imprisonment, consisting of 132-month concurrent terms as to the Hobbs Act offenses and a consecutive term of 84 months as to the brandishing offense.

Griffin filed this appeal, arguing that the 216-month total sentence of imprisonment is greater than necessary to serve the purposes of sentencing. The government has moved to dismiss the appeal on the basis of the sentence appeal waiver in Griffin's plea agreement. In response to the government's motion to dismiss, Griffin contends that the appeal waiver is unenforceable because the transcript of the plea colloquy shows that Griffin did not understand the full significance of the waiver.

We review the validity of a sentence appeal waiver de novo. United States v. Johnson, 541 F.3d 1064, 1066 (11th Cir. 2008). An appeal waiver will be enforced according to its terms so long as it was made knowingly and voluntarily. United States v. Bascomb, 451 F.3d 1292, 1294 (11th Cir. 2006); United States v. Bushert, 997 F.2d 1343, 135051 (11th Cir. 1993). To establish that the waiver was made knowingly and voluntarily, the government must show either that: (1) the district court specifically questioned the defendant about the waiver during the plea colloquy; or (2) the record makes clear that the defendant otherwise understood the full significance of the waiver. Bushert, 997 F.2d at 1351.

Here, we grant the government's motion to dismiss because Griffin knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to appeal his sentence. During the plea colloquy, the court specifically questioned Griffin about the sentence appeal waiver. The court read the language of the appeal waiver almost verbatim and correctly explained the terms of the waiver, including the waiver's two exceptions and the one instance in which Griffin would be released from the waiver provision. Griffin indicated that there was nothing about the terms of the waiver that he did not understand. He also indicated that he understood that the only appeal rights he had were those set forth in his plea agreement, which Griffin had acknowledged discussing with his attorney by signing the agreement. So, in sum, the court specifically questioned Griffin about the waiver during the plea colloquy, and other aspects of the record, including the plea agreement itself, show that he understood that he was giving up his right to appeal his sentence. See id.

Griffin's arguments against the validity of the waiver are unavailing. While Griffin initially expressed some confusion about the maximum sentence he could receive, he ultimately indicated after a discussion with the court that he understood the potential penalties. And at no point did he express confusion about the terms of the appeal waiver.

In addition, although Griffin may not have been specifically informed at the plea colloquy that he would be barred from challenging his career-offender status, the plea agreement itself raised the possibility that Griffin would be determined a career offender, and Griffin knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to challenge the guideline range as established by the court at sentencing. Because appeal waivers are entered into before sentencing and before the preparation of the presentence investigation report, there is always a chance that a defendant will not have fully anticipated a precise issue he may be barred from raising. But that uncertainty does not render the terms to which he agreed any less knowing or voluntary. And even a vigorous dispute about an issue during the sentencing proceedings does not preserve that issue for appeal when the terms of the appeal waiver do not except it from the waiver. Bascomb, 451 F.3d at 1296; see United States v. Grinard-Henry, 399 F.3d 1294, 1296 (11th Cir. 2005) (waiver of the right to appeal includes waiver of the right to appeal difficult or debatable legal issues or even blatant error).

Because the appeal waiver in Griffin's plea agreement is enforceable and his current challenge to the substantive reasonableness of his sentence does not fall-within one of the waiver's exceptions, we GRANT the government's motion to dismiss on the basis of the appeal waiver.

DISMISSED.

PER CURIAM:
Shares in US-listed steel companies rose sharply late on Thursday after Donald Trump accused China of dumping cheap steel in the American market and was considering imposing both tariffs and quotas on imports.

The rally was part of a longer-run increase for the industry, which has been awaiting a US Department of Commerce report that is expected to find underpriced imports poses a national security threat.

On Air Force One en route to Paris for a presidential visit, Mr Trump told reporters China and other countries were "dumping steel [in the US] and destroying our steel industry", adding: "They've been doing it for decades and I'm stopping it. It'll stop.

"There are two ways: quotas and tariffs. Maybe I'll do both. We're like a dumping ground, OK?"

The comments by Mr Trump were initially off the record and not reported by journalists travelling with the president, who was on his way to Paris to attend Bastille Day festivities. However, the White House later changed the ground rules and released a transcript of his remarks, sparking the steel rally. AK Steel , a Pittsburgh-based producer, closed 7.1 per cent higher, while US Steel , the largest domestically based US steel producer, rose 3.8 per cent. Nucor , the largest mini-mill steelmaker, gained 2.7 per cent, ArcelorMittal was up 2.1 per cent and Steel Dynamics jumped 2.3 per cent.

Nonetheless, share prices in the sector remain off their peaks from earlier in the year, as investors' optimism over the Trump administration's policy agenda has faded. The commerce department steel report was due at the end of June, and investors have grown concerned Mr Trump may not move forward with his threat of tariffs.

On Thursday, Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, told members of the Senate Finance Committee that he would present Mr Trump with the options for potential action as early as next week.

Several agricultural lobby groups have signed a joint letter to Mr Ross, claiming any restrictions on steel or aluminium imports could lead to other countries retaliating by restricting imports of agricultural products from the US.

"If the . . . investigations on steel and aluminium result in new trade barriers, the aftermath could be disastrous for the global trading system and for US agriculture in particular," the letter read.

Mr Trump was asked on the flight whether he would use trade as a bargaining chip with China over its relationship with North Korea.

"The biggest strength we have are these horrendous trade deals, like with China," he said. "That's our strength. But we're going to fix them. But in terms of North Korea, our strength is trade."

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A First Amendment group has filed suit against President Donald Trump on behalf of seven people who were recently blocked by the president's Twitter account, @RealDonaldTrump.

The Knight First Amendment Institute's argument is pretty simple: The president's Twitter is a public forum, and Trump is squashing his critics' free speech rights by blocking them on the basis of their political views.

There is no legal or constitutional precedent for a commander-in-chief who uses Twitter as a freewheeling venue to escalate feuds and block those who disagree with or mock him. (Full disclosure: I have also been blocked by President Trump, though I'm not involved with this lawsuit.)

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"The idea that a public official could block citizens from hearing their official speech just because they don't agree with what that person thinks is contrary to basic ideas of the First Amendment," Katie Fallow, a senior fellow at the Knight Institute, told Newsweek in June. "It's analogous to the public participation component of a town hall. Allowing people to get up and speak and discuss the issues with each other is such an important part of civic discourse. To block certain speakers just because they're critical is dangerous and unconstitutional."

The organization sent a letter to the president in early June demanding that he unblock several users and setting the legal basis for a potential suit. The White House didn't respond to that letter, according to a spokesperson for the Knight Institute, so the group formally filed suit in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday.

It's not clear whether the president's personal Twitter account will legally be considered a public forum, though White House officials have said that the president's tweets should be regarded as "official statements."

When asked about the lawsuit by email, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders replied from her iPhone: "We don't comment on ongoing litigation." I asked if the president would unblock Twitter users who were blocked for expressing their political views. Sanders didn't reply.

The seven plaintiffs who have joined the Knight Institute's lawsuit are all American Twitter users who were blocked by @RealDonaldTrump. Most of them are verified users with a substantial number of Twitter followers. The list includes Brandon Neely, a police officer in Texas, Philip Cohen, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and Joseph Papp, a former cyclist-turned-anti-doping advocate from Pittsburghwho was a registered Republican for 10 years.

"This is, for me, not about just Donald Trump," Papp, 42, tells Newsweek. "I think he's a detestable, vile man and a terrible leader, [but] the potential for this to set a precedent that affects government all the way down at the local level is way more of a motivating factor than just trying to stick it to the president."

@joepabike: a @POTUS so mentally weak & intolerant of dissent he blocks US citizens critical of his policies from even reading his latest pronouncements

Papp was blocked in early June after calling Trump a "#fakeleader" and criticizing the president's speech about withdrawing from the Paris climate accord. He believes he was targeted because he frequently responded to Trump's tweets. "I was really effective at replying to him and getting those replies noticed not just on Twitter, but by media off the site," Papp says. "I'm sure that contributed to their decision. The first wave of people who were blocked were all people who were regularly quoted outside of Twitter."

Papp is joined as a plaintiff by Eugene Gu, a surgeon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Gu became politically active on Twitter after his research in fetal surgerywhich involves human fetal tissuebecame a tense congressional issue.

"Then President Trump blocked me," Gu writes in a statement provided to the Knight Institute. "It felt like I was being silenced and suppressed. Now I have extremely limited access to the public forum where I once could be heard. I feel cut off and as though I'm being treated like an outsider in my own country."

Comics creator Joe Harris was also blocked by Trump, but says he never heard back when he asked to join the lawsuit. "It's one thing for a private citizen to block as they wish," Harris says, "but I've been blocked for literally exercising my First Amendment right to petition the government."

If the lawsuit is successfulwhich is a big "if"the seven plaintiffs will be able to read and reply to the president's tweets as they wish. Until then, they'll have to express dissent the old-fashioned way: by printing out their angry tweets and mailing them to the White House.
On the Right and in Republican circles, there are staunch Trump supporters, as well as reluctant ones (including moi) who voted for Trump reasoning that the only practical alternative was Hillary (not an alternative). The former are all in, seemingly no matter what Trump does; the latter support him when he pushes conservative policies but are not invested in him, politically or personally. Trump-Russia brings the divide into sharp relief.

This is the sort of banter that went on all day Tuesday, following revelation of the devastating e-mail exchange between Donald Trump Jr. and Rob Goldstone. Plainly, both sides of the political aisle are badly misinformed about the Constitution's take on executive misconduct. When the president's behavior is at issue, it is the Constitution, not the criminal law, that is paramount.

"Are you kidding? It could be a campaign-finance-law violation. After all, opposition research is a 'thing of value.' There could be a conspiracy to defraud the United States by impeding the legitimate functions of the Federal Election Commission. Plus, Trump said his campaign had nothing to do with Russia. He lied to the public." "Lying to the public is not a crime."

The tepid-on-Trump camp is aghast at revelations of the extent and nature of the Trump clan's ties to a murderous anti-American regime  and, speaking only for myself, humbled by analysts who were more troubled by the circumstantial evidence in the absence of smoking guns. Trump fans, to the contrary, are doing the full Clinton: doubling down on the absurd insistence that Trump-Russia is a big ol' "nothingburger."

"Look at the U.S. penal code," they scoff, defying outraged Americans to identify a single criminal-law violation that has been established. There is no crime, they maintain, in colluding with the Russian government to collect and broadcast damaging information about an opposition American candidate.

On the Left, meanwhile, are the legal beagles. They are busily squirreling through the law books and straining their creative brains to come up with an offense  some novel prosecution theory under which the Trump-Russia facts can be pigeonholed into a campaign-law violation, a computer-fraud crime, or maybe even misprision of a felony (i.e., a failure to report one).

One side is mulishly determined not to see outrageous misconduct. The other side is inadvertently trivializing it.

But the question is not whether collusion is a crime. It is whether collusion is a high crime or misdemeanor.



When I wrote Faithless Execution, my 2014 book about impeachment, I well understood that there was no prospect of impeaching President Obama. Indeed, I argued in the book that it would be not merely foolish but counterproductive to commence impeachment proceedings against a president as to whom there was no political prospect of removal from office. A failed impeachment effort would be like a license to mutilate. It would tell the president who escaped unscathed that he was invulnerable  it would actually encourage more misconduct.

But there was still, I believed, a need for such a book. The wayward public debate after disclosure of the Trump Jr. e-mails proves the point. Not enough of us who are informing the public are informed ourselves about how our constitutional system is supposed to work.

Nothing caused the Framers greater anxiety than the new office they were creating, the presidency of the United States. They were rightly convinced of the need in a dangerous world for an energetic executive able to act swiftly and decisively in times of crisis. But, being close students of human nature, they were equally worried that the enormous powers attendant to the office could be abused, that they could fall into the hands of an unfit incumbent, or that they could come under the influence of foreign powers.

They thus gave Congress a dispositive check: the power of impeachment and removal. Impeachment, not criminal prosecution, is our Constitution's response to egregious executive malfeasance.



Thus, the critical part: The standard for impeachment, the commission of "high crimes and misdemeanors," is not concerned with criminal offenses found in the penal statute books and suitable for courtroom prosecution. It relates instead to the president's high fiduciary duty to the American people and allegiance to our system of government.

Alexander Hamilton put it best in Federalist No. 65. Impeachable offenses are those

Which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or in other words from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated political, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself.

The bickering over collusion "crimes" misses the point. If an unfit person holds the presidency, the danger to our society is that he will abuse the power that he wields. The imperative is to remove him from office. Whether, in addition to that, his misconduct also happens to violate penal statutes and be ripe for criminal prosecution is a side issue. It is a subordinate legal question, whereas fitness for the presidency is a core political issue. That is why it is rightly observed that impeachment is a political remedy, not a legal one.



We are a good distance from being able to assess whether President Trump should be impeached. It is specious, though, to suggest that this is not a question worthy of exploration, or that its answer hinges on whether collusion with Russia amounts to a criminal-law violation.

Our aspiration for presidential fitness is something more than "nothing he has done is indictable." Abuses of trust go to the core of self-determining, republican governance. It is fatuous to fret over whether they also amount to, say, campaign-finance infractions  even "major" offenses in that category, such as the 2008 Obama campaign's acceptance of nearly $2 million in illegal contributions, are so trivial in the greater scheme of things that they are commonly settled by the payment of an administrative fine.

All politicians practice a certain economy with the truth, but flat-out lying to the American people on a significant matter is a major abuse of trust. And forfending collusion with a foreign sovereign was an imperative for the Framers.

That is why, for example, the Constitution requires that the president be a "natural born citizen." The presidency is the only federal office for which naturalized citizens are not qualified. That is not because we think them any less fit for the obligations of citizenship; it is because the Framers believed the presidency and its commander-in-chief powers had to be fortified against the potential of foreign intrigue.



The principal duty of the president is to safeguard the nation against foreign threats to our security and system of government. If a president instead has put them at greater risk, if he has conducted himself in such a way as to raise the specter of blackmail by a foreign power, it is always appropriate to question his fitness for the nation's highest office.



We are closer to the beginning than to the end of the Trump-Russia drama. The Framers wisely made removal from office hard to do, which is why impeachment is so very rare. Even though it takes only one "high crime and misdemeanor" to warrant impeachment, you could have a hundred of them and a president still would not be removed unless there was a strong political consensus for doing so.

The requirement of a two-thirds supermajority Senate vote in impeachment cases ensures this. No president will be removed from office absent misconduct sufficiently grave that support for impeachment cuts across our deep partisan and ideological divides. Remember: It is a political remedy, not a legal one. It is an easy thing to condemn President Trump's canoodling with Putin's regime. It will be more difficult to weigh it against other political dalliances with anti-American regimes that we have tolerated. There was no move to impeach President Obama over the Iran deal and all the chicanery attendant to it. Democrats had no qualms about nominating Hillary Clinton despite the Clinton Foundation's shameful acceptance of millions in foreign funding and her consequent green-lighting, as secretary of state, of Russia's acquisition of major American uranium reserves.



The investigation of Trump's relationship with Russia will continue. We need to get to the bottom of exactly what it was, exactly what was wrong about it, and how that impropriety affects his ability credibly to carry out his duties  informed by precedents we seem to have established for executive relations with foreign sovereigns.



The conclusions to be drawn about the president, however, will have little or nothing to do with whether prosecutable crimes have been committed. The questions are those that arise from "the misconduct of public men": abuse of trust and fitness for office.

Commentary by Andrew McCarthy, a senior policy fellow at the National Review Institute and a contributing editor at the National Review. Follow him on Twitter @AndrewCMcCarthy.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.

2017 National Review. Used with permission.
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President Donald Trump held the door open to a reversal of his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord on Thursday, but did not say what he would need in return to persuade him to do so. Trump, who has made few friends in Europe with his rejection of the 2015 Paris agreement and his "America First" trade stance, met with French President Emmanuel Macron as both leaders sought common ground to reset an awkward relationship. "Something could happen with respect to the Paris accords, let's see what happens," Trump told a news conference. "If it happens, that will be wonderful, and if it doesn't, that'll be OK too." Trump has said the Paris accord is soft on leading polluters like China and India, putting U.S. industry at risk.

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"I respect the wish to preserve jobs, I think that's compatible with the Paris accord," Macron said at the joint conference. "There is no sudden and unexpected change today, otherwise we would have announced it, but there is the shared intention to continue discussing these issues," the French president added. Trump and Macron's relationship got off to a bumpy start, but both have an incentive to improve relations - Macron hopes to elevate France's role in global affairs, and Trump, seemingly isolated among world leaders, needs a friend overseas. Trump came to France beset by allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, with emails released on Tuesday suggesting his eldest son welcomed an offer of Russian help against his father's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Weeks after Macron hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Palace of Versailles, Trump will bask in the trappings of the Bastille Day military parade on Friday and commemorations of the entry 100 years ago of U.S. troops into World War One. Macron welcomed Trump with a warm handshake and smiles, a contrast to the clenched-jaw greeting they shared at their first encounter in May. "Emmanuel, nice to see you. This is so beautiful," the U.S. president told Macron as they met at the Hotel des Invalides where Napoleon Bonaparte and other French war heroes are buried.

Syria Cooperation

For the 39-year-old Macron, France's youngest leader since Napoleon two centuries ago, the visit is a chance to use soft diplomacy to win Trump's confidence and set about influencing U.S. foreign policy, which European leaders say lacks direction. Macron views it as counter-productive to isolate the United States on the world stage, and said he and Trump had asked diplomats to draw up in the coming weeks a concrete initiative aimed at preparing the future of Syria. "On the Iraq-Syria situation, we have agreed to continue working together, in particular on the building of a roadmap for the post-war period," Macron said. Trump said work was underway to negotiate a ceasefire in a second region of Syria. On Friday, Trump will be guest of honor at France's July 14 celebrations, a year after a Tunisian man loyal to Islamic State ploughed a truck through revelers on a seafront promenade in Nice, killing more than 80.

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Twitter has been "on top of" product and monetization improvements, and the stock market is starting to take notice, Steve Ballmer told CNBC on Friday.

"Twitter is a very good asset," said Ballmer, a major investor in the social media company.

"So improving the products some and improving and making the monetization better, I think the company has been on top of both of those things," the billionaire former Microsoft CEO said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "The market understands that. And it is now getting somewhat reflected in the stock price."

After a swoon starting in mid-May, Twitter shares have soared nearly 16 percent since June 16, based on Thursday's close. So far this year, Twitter is up 18.5 percent.

But since its November 2013 initial public offering, Twitter stock has dropped more than 50 percent.

Twitter can't take its foot off the gas, Ballmer said. "They still have their work cut out for them. And their path could be way up, relatively sort of gently up or something else."

Ballmer, also the owner of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers, described his investments. "I am an investor in Microsoft, index funds, Twitter, and then a few private things that fit in the context of sports."
Visa is hoping to extend its "war on cash" agenda to businesses in the U.K. after announcing new incentives for U.S. businesses to go cashless.

The payment technology company revealed on Wednesday that it was launching a "cashless challenge" which would see 50 U.S. businesses receive $10,000 each to help them convert to a cashless payment model.

It is now aiming to roll the model out to the U.K., though is yet to set a timeframe for the launch, a Visa spokesperson confirmed to CNBC Friday.

Under the scheme, businesses in the U.S. are invited to submit plans outlining what going cashless might mean for them, their employees and their customers.

Recipients of the award will then be required to use the lump sum to upgrade their point-of-sale systems so they are completely cashless. Any remaining money can be put towards marketing, the company said.

"We're declaring a war on cash," Andy Gerlt, a spokesman for Visa, said in the announcement Wednesday.

"We hope to offer a similar challenge to those merchants who are interested in other countries, including the U.K.," a spokesperson told CNBC in a separate email Friday.

"At this time, we do not have a firm plan on when such an initiative would be available in the U.K."

The proposed $500,000 investment in the U.S. should provide a boon for Visa, the world's largest processor of credit and debit cards: it takes a fee from every payment that runs through the network.

This is one of the reasons many businesses are reluctant to make the transition, or choose to offset the cost to customers by having a minimum spend for card transactions. In the U.K. alone it is estimated that British retailers spent over 1 billion ($1.29 billion) to accept card payments last year, according to research released Wednesday by the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

The EU recently introduced regulation to help businesses, particularly small- to medium-sized ones to cope with this burden. New caps on the fees for handling credit and debit card transactions saved U.K. retailers 500 million last year, according to the BRC.

However, it argues more can be done by card companies to reduce transaction fees, beyond helping with the initial start-up costs.

"It is ultimately the customer that decides how they wish to pay and BRC research shows that customers continue to use cash for more than 40 per cent of transactions in the UK," a spokesperson for the BRC told CNBC via email.

"At the same time, cash accounts for only 11 per cent of retailers' costs associated with accepting payments, compared to 73 per cent for card payments, therefore card companies can better serve retailers and their customers by providing a more cost-efficient service."

It is estimated that, as of this year, more than half of all customer transactions in the U.K. were made via card payments, spurred in part by the growing popularity of new technologies including contactless payment and Apple Pay.

But the Bank of England's chief cashier, Victoria Cleland, has warned against businesses isolating those customers who continue to prefer notes and coins. In a speech delivered last month on the future of cash, Cleland pointed to the 2.7 million people in the U.K.  almost 5 percent  who rely almost solely on cash for their day-to-day payments and insisted that businesses ensure "financial inclusion."

"While reliance on cash is less significant than in the past, it is still crucial to everyday life and I encourage the cash industry to continue to innovate, to evolve, and to keep cash relevant and fit for purpose," Cleland said in a speech on the future of cash.

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U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Friday as traders digested corporate earnings and key economic data.

Dow futures traded 7 points lower, while S&P and Nasdaq futures rose 0.5 points and rose 11 points, respectively.

PNC Financial Services earnings also topped analysts' expectations. Wells Fargo , meanwhile, posted mixed results, with sales disappointing and earnings beating estimates.

JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup posted better-than-expected results, but also posted a decline in trading revenue.

In economic news, retail sales dropped 0.2 percent last month. Economists polled by Reuters expected an increase of 0.1 percent. The Consumer Price Index, meanwhile, remained unchanged in June; economists expected a 0.2 percent increase.

Investorsalso looked to Paris where President Donald Trump visited French President Emmanuel Macron for Bastille Day celebrations.

In a joint news conference in Paris Thursday, Trump indicated that "something could happen" to alter his decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. The comments come as U.S. senior Democrat Nancy Pelosi called on Thursday for an independent body to investigate what she described as "cold, hard evidence" that the Trump family played a role alongside Russia in influencing last year's presidential election.

Trump has separately suggested that he would host Russian President Vladimir Putin at the White House  though he said now would not be an appropriate time.

In Europe, the pan-European index was around 0.1 percent higher on Friday. In Asia, equities rose for the fifth straight session following the Fed's dovish comments to Congress. The Shanghai Composite in China closed 0.13 percent higher, while the Nikkei in Japan closed 0.09 percent higher.

In oil markets, Brent crude traded at around $48.95 a barrel on Friday, up 1.09 percent, while U.S. crude was around $46.63 a barrel, up 1.19 percent.
As the bank continues to rebuild its image, Wells Fargo CFO John Shrewsberry insisted Friday that the institution has taken aggressive steps and has held its leaders accountable for the fake accounts scandal.

Shrewsberry's remarks came the same day the bank reported earnings that disappointed Wall Street  and a day after Sen. Elizabeth Warren ripped into Wells Fargo during a committee hearing, repeating her demand to Fed Chair Janet Yellen that the board members involved in the episode should be tossed from office.

In an interview on CNBC's "Closing Bell," Shrewsberry did not address that demand specifically, but said Warren's comments neglected a lot of the work Wells Fargo has done.

"There's work on culture with employees, there's a lot of executive accountability that has been taken into account," he said. "The board conducted a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of the root causes why things happened the way they did and what should be done about it, and there's still work under way."

The bank in September 2016 agreed to pay a $185 million fine related to charges that employees created some two million accounts for customers without their knowledge. The workers did so to meet aggressive sales quotas the bank had to enroll customers in multiple programs.

Since then, former CEO John Stumpf has left the bank and a handful of other executives have departed as well. The bank recently announced another settlement, this time of $142 million to take care of a class-action lawsuit.

However, the bank's shares have underperformed and Warren and others continue to call for more accountability.

"There's a lot of work going on," Shrewsberry said. "She didn't refer to any of that, which is fine. But we're talking about it with our customers, with our stakeholders including our investors and etc., and things are working."

The bank earned $1.07 a share in the second quarter, ahead of analyst estimates of $1.01. However, the bottom line got a four-cent boost from a sale of Wells Fargo's insurance unit, and revenue missed expectations, sending shares down as much as 2 percent at one point Friday before ending the day off 1.1 percent.

Shrewsberry nevertheless saw the quarter as positive.

"Overall, actually it was really quite solid," he said. "We're improving things. We're building a better bank."
President Donald Trump's voter-fraud commission is receiving further backlash, now in the form of public feedback.

Led by Vice President Mike Pence, the White House commission published a 112-page document of comments received from June 29 through July 11, including personal email addresses, phone numbers and even home addresses. The vast majority of the comments are from harsh critics of the commission.

One of the commission's first actions, after Trump created it by executive order, was to request extensive personal information from state governments about its voters. In response, 45 states mounted a bipartisan rebellion against the commission, citing privacy concerns and partisan motivations.

"The request is simply too broad and includes sensitive information of Arkansas voters," Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement.

"There's not enough bourbon here in Kentucky to make this request seem sensible," Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Grimes, a Democrat, said.

Allowing members of the public to submit comments has proven little fruit, as voters join their state representatives in pushing back. Many expressed disgust in their emails.

"America the Beautiful doesn't need you or your ilk," Patrick Scroggin wrote.

"I am a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. He would never condone such un-American behavior," Jerold Coburn said.

And others found the commission's purpose dubious at best, as Scott D. Morrow wrote: "I'm more likely to get hit by lightening [sic] than for someone to vote illegally in Colorado."

The White House notes the possibility it will release commenters' contact information in a disclaimer on its blog.

"Please note that the Commission may post such written comments publicly on our website, including names and contact information that are submitted," the website said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. CHATTANOOGA-HAMILTON COUNTY HOSPITAL AUTHORITY, d.b.a. Erlanger Health System, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. WALKER COUNTY, GEORGIA, Defendant - Appellant. No. 16-15656 Decided: July 13, 2017

Before TJOFLAT, WILSON, and WILLIAM PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

Erlanger Health System sued Walker County for breach of contract, and the district court granted summary judgment to Erlanger on the claim. Walker County appeals that ruling. After careful consideration of the record and the parties' briefs, we affirm.

I

Erlanger, a public hospital authority in Tennessee, agreed to loan up to $20 million to a hospital authority in Georgia. The Georgia hospital authority planned to use the loan to fund a medical center which provides services in three Georgia counties: Walker, Dade, and Catoosa. To facilitate the loan, the Georgia hospital authority, Walker County, Dade County, and Catoosa County entered into an intergovernmental agreement (the Agreement). The Agreement provides Erlanger security for the loan; the Agreement states, in the event of an uncured default by the [Georgia hospital a]uthority under the [loan], Walker agrees to pay to the [a]uthority or its assigns an amount equal to one-half (1/2) of the principal of and interest then due and payable on the [loan].

A few years later, the Georgia hospital authority defaulted on the loan and assigned to Erlanger its right under the Agreement to receive payment from Walker County. But Walker County refused to pay, prompting Erlanger to sue Walker County in district court for breach of the Agreement.

The district court, in a 63-page order, granted summary judgment to Erlanger on its breach-of-contract claim. It concluded that the Agreement is a valid contract under Georgia law and that Walker County is liable to Erlanger under the Agreement for $8,705,000 plus interest.

II

Walker County, in challenging the district court's grant of summary judgment to Erlanger, raises two arguments. First, it asserts that, under the Intergovernmental Contracts Clause of the Georgia Constitution, the Agreement is void. Second, Walker County claims that it is entitled to sovereign immunity. Both arguments fail.

A

Under the Georgia Constitution's Intergovernmental Contracts Clause, all parties to an intergovernmental agreement must be Georgia governmental entities. See Ga. Const. Art. IX,  III, Para. I(a); State v. Blasingame, 91 S.E.2d 341, 34344 (Ga. 1956). According to Walker County, this requirement voids the Agreement because the Agreement affords contractual benefits to Erlanger, which is not a Georgia governmental entity. However, the Intergovernmental Contracts Clause prohibits only intergovernmental agreements that have a non-governmental entity as a party; it does not prohibit agreements between governmental entities that confer benefits to third parties. See Cottrell v. Atlanta Dev. Auth., 770 S.E.2d 616, 62425 (Ga. 2015) (rejecting a claim that an intergovernmental agreement between two Georgia governmental entities was void because it require[d one of the entities] to reimburse  a private company). And Erlanger, as Walker County concedes, is not a party to the Agreement. Erlanger is merely a third party who, by way of an assignment clause in the Agreement, has a right to receive payments that Walker County promised to the Georgia hospital authority. The Agreement is valid under Georgia law.

B

In Georgia, sovereign immunity is  waived as to any action  for the breach of any written contract, Ga. Const. Art. I,  II, Para. IX(c), and this is an action for the breach of a written contract (the Agreement). Even so, Walker County asserts that it is entitled to sovereign immunity. The sovereign-immunity waiver for written contracts, Walker County contends, does not apply here because Erlanger is not a party to the Agreement. We disagree. [B]y entering into the [Agreement], [Walker County] waived the defense of sovereign immunity for any breach of the [Agreement] for which it could be held liable, including for breaches alleged by third parties. See State Dep't of Corrs. v. Developers Sur. & Indemn. Co., 763 S.E.2d 868, 871 (Ga. 2014); Youngblood v. Gwinnett Rockdale Newton Cmty. Serv. Bd., 545 S.E.2d 875, 878 (Ga. 2001) (To the extent [that written agreements exist] conferring a benefit upon [the plaintiff] as an intended beneficiary, the [governmental entity's] sovereign immunity is waived.).

III

The district court did not err in granting summary judgment to Erlanger on its breach-of-contract claim. The Agreement is valid, and Walker County is not entitled to sovereign immunity.

AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

. As a threshold matter, our court has jurisdiction to review Walker County's appeal, and the district court properly exercised subject-matter jurisdiction over this action. Shortly after Walker County filed its appeal, our court asked the parties to submit statements on whether we have appellate jurisdiction and on whether diversity jurisdiction exists. Based on the record and the parties' statements, we answer both questions in the affirmative.

PER CURIAM:
Akhmetshin registered last year as a lobbyist for the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation, which calls itself "a non-governmental organization established in Washington, D.C., to help restart American adoption of Russian children," according to its website. He was paid $10,000 in the second quarter of 2016 to lobby on "foreign adoption reinstatement" on behalf of the foundation, congressional records say.

His lobbying activity caught the attention of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a letter this week to Trump administration officials asking how Veselnitskaya was able to enter the United States, Grassley wrote that, "in March of this year, the committee began investigating the Justice Department's response" to a formal complaint that "alleged that a group of unregistered foreign agents worked in the U.S. on behalf of Russian interests to undermine the Magnitsky Act and the Global Magnitsky Act."

That complaint was filed last year by Hermitage Capital Management CEO William Browder, who is scheduled to testify on Wednesday before Grassley and the Judiciary Committee. The panel is looking at Justice Department enforcement of a law requiring that agents acting in the interests of a foreign government disclose those relationships.

In April, Grassley sent a separate letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly asking for more information on Akhmetshin. Grassley said the lobbyist "has been accused of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Russian interests and apparently has ties to Russian intelligence."

The Russians who met with Trump Jr. were hoping to discuss the Magnitsky Act, which drew bipartisan support in Congress and was signed by President Barack Obama in late 2012. The law was named for Russian accountant Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow prison in 2009 after investigating fraud involving Russian tax officials.



In 2012, at the urging of Browder, Magnitsky's former employer, Washington passed the law, which froze the U.S. assets of Russian officials said to have been involved in the accountant's detention. Moscow then barred Americans from adopting Russian children.

In a civil lawsuit filed in 2013, U.S. prosecutors alleged that Magnitsky had uncovered an elaborate money laundering scheme involving some proceeds of a $230 million Russian tax refund fraud plot. In May, prosecutors settled the case for $6 million. In the settlement agreement, they said that none of the defendants had a role in the death of Magnitsky.

Browder's complaint to the Justice Department alleges that Akhmetshin is among the lobbyists who took part in the Human Rights Accountability foundation's efforts to undermine the Magnitsky Act. Browder contended that several individuals did so in the interest of the Russian state without following the proper filing requirements of the Lobbying Disclosure Act and Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires that lobbyists acting in the interests of a foreign government must disclose that relationship with that government. CNBC could find no record of Akhmetshin having registered as a foreign agent.

In Akhmetshin's case, Browder's complaint partly cites a Daily Beast report about events that took place last year after the Senate's passage of the "global" Magnitsky bill, which aimed to extend the sanctions framework worldwide. The report reads:

According to a U.S. congressional staffer, former California Rep. Ron Dellums and someone named Rinat Akhmetshin showed up Tuesday without an appointment.

"They said they were lobbying on behalf of a Russian company called Prevezon and asked us to delay the Global Magnitsky Act or at least remove Magnitsky from the name," the staffer said. "Mr. Dellums said it was a shame that this bill has made it so Russian orphans cannot be adopted by Americans."

Veselnitskaya, the lawyer at the meeting with Trump Jr., has previously represented Prevezon.

Browder told CNBC on Friday that the effort to undermine the Magnitsky Act "is a highly resourced project that goes right up to the top of the Russian government for a major issue that Putin wants to have resolved."
Plenty of collectors will find value in a lower graded rarity. Paul Gilkes highlighted this theory in Coin World, and it was our top post of the week.

Its that time of the week again, as we catch up on what happened in the numismatic world this week.

Coin World is looking back at its five most-read stories of the week.

Click the links to read the stories. Here they are, in reverse order:

5. Historic Argyll coin cabinet from 19th century returns home to Scotland: Known as the Argyll Cabinet, one fantastic example of coin cabinetry has now found its way home to Scotland.

4. New book by collector-journalist explores world of silver bullion coins: A new book explores the world of silver bullion coins from 18 countries since 1982.

3. Two coins mark Princess of Wales 20th death anniversary: Downies has created two Proof silver coins, issued in the name of Tokelau, to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

2. Texas latest to seek repatriation of gold held in vaults outside state: Texas is the latest government entity to begin efforts to repatriate physical gold held elsewhere, much as various nations are doing.

1. Collectors still interested in classic U.S. rarities in lower grades: Classic U.S. numismatic rarities dont necessarily need to be in high Mint State grades to generate interest from collectors.

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The San Jose is said to have exploded before it sank during a June 1708 engagement between England and Spain off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia.

A 1700 gold 8-escudo coin from Lima, Peru, is of the style of coins expected to be found on the San Jose.

Cannons at the wreckage site confirm that a recently discovered shipwreck is that of the San Jose, according to Colombian government officials.

Work to recover what experts call potentially the most valuable shipwreck ever continues in Colombia. Colombias president, Juan Manuel Santos Calderon, announced July 5 that the national government has been in cooperation with salvage specialists to recover the San Jose.

Work to recover what experts call potentially the most valuable shipwreck ever continues in Colombia.

Colombias president, Juan Manuel Santos Calderon, announced July 5 that the national government has been in cooperation with salvage specialists to recover the San Jose, which sank June 8, 1708, in 800 feet of water off the island of Baru near Cartagena, the nations capital.

Current recovery efforts require a public-private partnership, in a mission that is scientifically minded, the president said.

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The San Jose was part of the fleet of King Philip V, who fought the English during the War of Spanish Succession. A reported 600 people died in the shipwreck, which happened when British ships under the command of Adm. Charles Wager attacked the three warships leading the 17-ship fleet. The San Jose sinking was the only success attributed to the British in the event, historically named Wagers Action.

The British were able to board another warship, the Santa Cruz, but little treasure was found. The other warship, the San Joaquin, successfully evaded capture, and it and the other 14 ships reached the safety of Cartagenas ports.

The Colombian Navy and others located the wreck on Nov. 27, 2015, a find that the nations president disclosed on Dec. 5, 2015. (This wreck should not be confused with a 1631 wreck, off of Florida, of a ship of the same name.)

The Colombian find is one of the biggest findings and identification of underwater heritage, if not the greatest, some say, in the history of mankind, President Santos said in a translation of a press announcement from 2015.

Billion dollar find?

The ship was loaded with treasures of silver, gold and possibly emeralds that would be worth at least $1 billion today, Santos said.

According to Daniel Frank Sedwick, president of the coin firm of the same name, the San Jose really would be among the most important Spanish wrecks of all time, filled with gold and silver cobs and ingots from Peru and Colombia.

Sedwicks firm specializes in shipwreck coins, and his auction catalogs include a list of famed wrecks in which coins were recovered. Notably missing are any wrecks in Colombian waters.

We examine an unusual example of machine doubling: Another column in the July 24 Coin World examines a VAM marriage that deserves better.

If this recent discovery is the San Jose wreck, it carried at least 5 million to 7 million pesos in gold and silver coins, according to Sedwicks book The Practical Book of Cobs.

Modern rumors suggest that 116 chests of emeralds were also on board the ship.

The San Jose is potentially the richest single-ship recovery of all time, Sedwick wrote in his book.

Recovering treasure

During the July 5 announcement, Santos said the nation had identified an investor partner that would follow the terms and conditions of recovery, would respect the historical and cultural patrimony and that would develop the technology necessary for the rescue of this shipwreck, giving that technology to the government for future use.

A public hearing was scheduled for July 14 in Cartagena, where the terms of the agreement were to be disclosed to an audience including the public (but this was after Coin Worlds press deadline).

The contractor will assume all the risks in the wreck recovery, according to a translation of the announcement.

President Santos said that the individual who initiated the recovery is an underwater archaeologist with a passion for shipwrecks and more than 40 years in the field.

He found a document from Cartagena and its surroundings prepared by a Spanish spy in the service of the English, a few years after the collapse [sinking] of [the] San Jose, Santos said in the announcement.

Upon receiving the tip from the archaeologist, Santos invited the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (under the aegis of the national Ministry of Culture) to begin an investigation, bringing archaeologists, historians, engineers, Marines and oceanographers, from Colombia and all across the world.

Three-quarters of the galleon remains in the seabed where it sank, according to Santos announcement.

So far, sonar images revealed bronze cannons, arms, ceramics and other artifacts in the wreckage.

Treasure on display

The wreck and its contents will help tell the world about the economic, social and cultural history of its time, Santos said. The questions we make about navigation, about world trade, about the costs of colonialism, will find a response after this investigation.

Colombias Ministry of Culture will control a museum housing the artifacts found in the wreck, the museum to be funded by the investors.

President Santos added that Here in Cartagena will live forever the history of the galleon San Jose, of what happened and what will happen. It will be enjoyed by Colombians and all tourists, scholars, students and lovers of what was once just a legend.
German police have made arrests in the brazen heist of a giant gold Canadian coin of the type shown here. The $1 million coin (worth nearly four times that in gold) was stolen March 27 in Berlin.

Police in Germany have arrested individuals in connection with one of the most brazen and famous recent coin heists in the world.

Law enforcement officials in Berlin detained four suspects in the March 2017 theft of the 100-kilogram gold Canadian coin with a face value of $1 million from the Bode Museum in Germanys capital.

The 2007 coin was minted from 100 kilograms of .99999 fine gold, one of six made by the Royal Canadian Mint.

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A Coin World correspondent from Germany, who is a numismatic journalist there, has confirmed that 13 suspects were targeted in raids in Berlins Neukoelln district. The raids were announced July 12.

All four suspects detained are under the age of 21, and according to multiple European news reports, are from a large Arab family with connections to organized crime.

On March 27, three people walked along the train tracks near Berlins Hackescher Markt and Friedrichstrasse light rail stations, propped a ladder against the wall of the Bode Museum and climbed into the building. Once inside, the thieves smashed through the bulletproof cabinet and retraced their steps back out of the museum, using a wheelbarrow to cart the giant coin 100 meters down the tracks, across a bridge to a nearby park, according to The Guardian.

Was it an inside job?

The theft appears to have occurred around 3:30 a.m. local time. Only one security guard was in the museum at the time of the break-in, according to Coin Worlds correspondent Sebastian Wieschowski.

He is also under investigation because he presented different stories on what actually happened, Wieschowski reported.

We examine an unusual example of machine doubling: Another column in the July 24 Coin World examines a VAM marriage that deserves better.

This was at least the criminals second effort to break into the museum, Wieschowski said, after a failed attempt on March 21.

Police acknowledge there is little to no hope of finding the coin intact, and that it likely was melted and the gold sold.

The $1 million coin measured 53 centimeters across and 3 centimeters thick and contained 220 pounds  3,215 troy ounces  of gold. The gold has a current market value of about $3.9 million U.S. (the coins were each worth about $2.2 million U.S., when issued in 2007.

The $1 million coins depict the Susanna Blunt effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse and a Stan Witten design of three maple leaves on the reverse.

The Bode Museum houses more than 500,000 numismatic items, with some 4,000 items on display at any given time. The gold coin was the only target in the heist.
A rare pattern silver medal for the First Opium War in 1842 realized more than three times its high estimate during a June 22 auction in Hong Kong.

After British soldiers fought in the campaign known as the First Opium War, an early effort to honor them in medallic form was quickly squashed.

A pattern for the silver Queen Victoria military decoration for those engaged in battle was rejected for its design, showing a vanquished dragon (indicating the Chinese). A rare example of this pattern medal realized $26,290 U.S. (including the 19.5 percent buyers fee) during Heritage Auctions June 22 and 23 auction in Hong Kong. The medal had an estimate of $4,000 to $8,000.

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Famed engraver William Wyon designed the medal, which shows a youthful portrait of Queen Victoria on the obverse and the British lion with paws atop a suppressed Chinese dragon on the reverse. A legend translating to They demanded peace by force of arms appears on the reverse.

We examine an usual example of machine doubling: Another column in the July 24 Coin World examines a VAM marriage that deserves better.

The design was rejected because its illustration might unnecessarily harm the mending of relationships, according to Heritage.

The Treaty of Nanking, signed in 1842 and giving Hong Kong to the British, marked an end to the First Opium War (1839 to 1842), which was waged between the United Kingdom and China. Although the war was broadly a result of wide-ranging imbalances in trade between the two nations, it was the dispute over the British importation of opium from India that ultimately gave the war its popular name.

The Gem Uncirculated medal measures 37 millimeters in diameter and weighs 29.01 grams.

Only a few examples of the medal are known to exist, the auction firm reports; another example sold in a July 2010 Dix Noonan Webb auction having a suspension ribbon attached. This piece, never having been suspended, is a die match to the example in the Royal Mint Museum, reports Heritage.
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. YUNIOR LOPEZ-PINEDA, Petitioner, v. U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. No. 16-12031 Decided: July 13, 2017

Before ED CARNES, Chief Judge, MARCUS and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

In June 2012 the Department of Homeland Security charged Yunior Lopez-Pineda, a citizen of Guatemala, with being removable under 8 U.S.C.  1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I), as an immigrant who, at the time of his application for admission, was not in possession of a valid entry or travel document. Through counsel, Lopez-Pineda filed an application for withholding of removal and for protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In November 2014 an Immigration Judge denied his applications for relief and ordered him removed to Guatemala. The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed the IJ's order and denied Lopez-Pineda's motion to remand. Lopez-Pineda now petitions for review of the BIA's decision.

I.

Lopez-Pineda contends that the BIA's conclusion that he was not eligible for withholding of removal was not supported by substantial evidence. He argues that the BIA failed to consider that he is subject to persecution because he belongs to a particular social group comprised of young indigenous business entrepreneurs.

In a petition for review of a BIA decision, we review conclusions of law de novo and factual determinations under the substantial evidence test. Gonzalez v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 820 F.3d 399, 403 (11th Cir. 2016). Under the highly deferential substantial evidence test, we view the record evidence in the light most favorable to the [BIA's] decision and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of that decision. Adefemi v. Ashcroft, 386 F.3d 1022, 102627 (11th Cir. 2004) (en banc). We must affirm the BIA's decision if it is supported by reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence on the record considered as a whole. D-Muhumed v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 388 F.3d 814, 818 (11th Cir. 2004) (quotation marks omitted); see Mendoza v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 327 F.3d 1283, 1287 (11th Cir. 2003) (To reverse the [BIA's] fact findings, we must find that the record not only supports reversal, but compels it.). In this case, we review only the BIA's decision because the BIA did not expressly adopt the IJ's opinion or reasoning. Zhang v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 572 F.3d 1316, 1319 (11th Cir. 2009).

To qualify for withholding of removal, a petitioner must establish that his life or freedom would be threatened in his country because of his race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. 8 U.S.C.  1231(b)(3)(A); see Rodriguez v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 735 F.3d 1302, 1308 (11th Cir. 2013) (The applicant must demonstrate that he would more likely than not be persecuted upon being returned to his country of origin.). A petitioner may satisfy his burden of proof by showing either (1) past persecution in his country based on a protected ground, in which case a rebuttable presumption is created that his life or freedom would be threatened if he returned to his country; or (2) a future threat to his life or freedom on a protected ground in his country. Delgado v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 487 F.3d 855, 861 (11th Cir. 2007) (quotation marks omitted).

Persecution is an extreme concept that requires more than a few isolated incidents of verbal harassment or intimidation, unaccompanied by any physical punishment, infliction of harm, or significant deprivation of liberty. Shi v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 707 F.3d 1231, 1235 (11th Cir. 2013). In determining whether an alien has suffered past persecution, the factfinder must consider the cumulative effect of the alleged acts. Delgado, 487 F.3d at 861. The statute governing withholding of removal protects not only against persecution by government forces, but also against persecution by non-governmental groups that the government cannot control. Ruiz v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 440 F.3d 1247, 1257 (11th Cir. 2006). However, evidence that is consistent with acts of private violence or shows that the petitioner has been the victim of criminal activity does not, on its own, constitute evidence of persecution based on a statutorily protected ground. Id. at 1258.

Even assuming that a particular social group of indigenous entrepreneurs exists and Lopez-Pineda falls within that group, the record does not compel the conclusion that he suffered past persecution based on a protected ground. Mendoza, 327 F.3d at 1287. The evidence shows that three or four gang members approached Lopez-Pineda on five different occasions and demanded money from him. They never physically attacked him or used any weapons against him, but he could see that they had knives. He gave them money the first two times but had no money to give them when they approached him the other three times. After the last encounter, the gang members threatened to kill him if he didn't pay them within 24 hours. Lopez-Pineda fled Guatemala three weeks later. The gang members did not harass or attack his family before or after he fled the country.

The gang members' actions, considered cumulatively, do not amount to persecution based on a protected ground. According to Lopez-Pineda's own testimony, the gang members confronted him because they knew he ran a successful business and had a significant amount of money on him so that he could buy repair parts  not because he was a member of an indigenous entrepreneur group. Evidence that one is a victim of criminal activity is not evidence of persecution based on a statutorily protected ground. Ruiz, 440 F.3d at 1258. The BIA considered whether Lopez-Pineda was a member of a particular social group and concluded that, even if he were, the evidence showed the central reason the criminal street gang targeted [him] was due to its criminal intent to extort him of the money he earned from his business repairing and installing electronics. As a result, although the evidence shows that gang members held up Lopez-Pineda, substantial evidence supports the BIA's determination that he had not suffered past persecution based on protected ground. See Rodriguez, 735 F.3d at 1308.

Because Lopez-Pineda did not show past persecution, it was still his burden to show a future threat to his life or freedom on a protected ground in his country. Delgado, 487 F.3d at 861. An applicant who has not shown past persecution cannot demonstrate that his or her life or freedom would be threatened if the [IJ] finds that the applicant could avoid a future threat to his or her life or freedom by relocating to another part of the proposed country of removal and, under all the circumstances, it would be reasonable to expect the applicant to do so. 8 C.F.R.  208.16(b)(2). It is the petitioner's burden to show that it would not be reasonable for him  to relocate within the particular country. Id.  208.16(b)(3)(i).

Substantial evidence supports the BIA's determination that Lopez-Pineda could relocate within Guatemala to avoid any potential future threat to his life or freedom. The record shows that Lopez-Pineda completed his bachelor's degree in electronic engineering and electricity, was an honor roll student, and successfully owned and operated an electronic repair workshop out of his home. He is young, healthy, educated, and hardworking. See id.  208.16(b)(3) (listing factors to consider in determining the reasonableness of relocations).

Although Lopez-Pineda submitted articles suggesting that discrimination against indigenous people exists across Guatemala, that evidence is not enough to show a future threat to his life or freedom because he is an indigenous entrepreneur. Lopez-Pineda never identified the ethnicities of the gang members who accosted him or provided evidence that his status as an indigenous entrepreneur played a role in the gang members' motivation. Instead, the evidence showed that they targeted him because he had money, and there is no evidence suggesting that he would face a future threat to his life or freedom in other parts of Guatemala from those or other gang members. As a result, Lopez-Pineda did not demonstrate that he more likely than not would be persecuted on a protected ground if forced to return to Guatemala. Mendoza, 327 F.3d at 1287. Substantial evidence supports the BIA's denial of withholding of removal.

II.

Lopez-Pineda also contends that that the BIA abused its discretion in denying his motion to remand because he provided new evidence that was material and would likely change the outcome of his case.

[I]f a motion to remand seeks to introduce evidence that has not previously been presented, it is generally treated as a motion to reopen  Najjar v. Ashcroft, 257 F.3d 1262, 1301 (11th Cir. 2001). We review for abuse of discretion the denial of a motion to reopen. Zhang, 572 F.3d at 1319. The moving party bears a heavy burden, and our review is limited to determining whether the BIA exercised its discretion in an arbitrary or capricious manner. Id.

A motion to reopen must state the new facts that will be proven at a hearing to be held if the motion is granted and shall be supported by affidavits or other evidentiary material. 8 C.F.R.  1003.2(c)(1). A motion to reopen proceedings shall not be granted unless it appears to the [BIA] that evidence sought to be offered is material and was not available and could not have been discovered or presented at the former hearing. Id. The alien must show that the new evidence offered would likely change the result in the case. Ali v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 443 F.3d 804, 813 (11th Cir. 2006) (quotation marks omitted).

As the movant, Lopez-Pineda bore the heavy burden of proving that the BIA abused its discretion in denying his motion to reopen. Lopez-Pineda points to a report and four articles that he submitted to the BIA documenting the history of the[p]ersecution of indigenous people in Guatemala. Except for one article, all of the documents predate the IJ's decision, and Lopez-Pineda does not explain how that evidence was not available and could not have been discovered or presented at the former hearing. See 8 C.F.R.  1003.2(c)(1). The article dated after the IJ's decision discusses the arrest of an indigenous activist who was denouncing human rights violations and defending the natural resources of [indigenous] communities. But Lopez-Pineda fails to connect that arrest to the likelihood that he would be persecuted if he returns to Guatemala. Because Lopez-Pineda did not offer any new evidence likely [to] change the result in [his] case, Ali, 443 F.3d at 813, the BIA did not abuse its discretion in denying his motion to reopen.

PETITION DENIED.

FOOTNOTES

. Because he filed his application more than one year after arriving in the United States, Lopez-Pineda conceded that he was not eligible for asylum. See 8 C.F.R.  208.4(a).

. In his brief to this Court, Lopez-Pineda made only passing references to the denial of his claim for protection under the CAT. As a result, he has abandoned that claim, and we do not consider it. See Sapuppo v. Allstate Floridian Ins. Co., 739 F.3d 678, 681 (11th Cir. 2014) ([A]n appellant abandons a claim when he either makes only passing references to it or raises it in a perfunctory manner without supporting arguments and authority.).

PER CURIAM:
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. VERSIAH TAYLOR, Defendant-Appellant. No. 16-16926 Decided: July 13, 2017

Before ED CARNES, Chief Judge, HULL, and JULIE CARNES, Circuit Judges.

Versiah Taylor was charged with one count of conspiracy to file false income tax returns in violation of 18 U.S.C.  286, fifteen counts of filing false tax returns in violation of 18 U.S.C.  287, fifteen counts of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C.  1343, and fourteen counts of aggravated identity theft in violation of 18 U.S.C.  1028A(a)(1). Taylor proceeded to a jury trial, where the evidence showed, among other things, that a red laptop discovered in Taylor's office had been used to file the fraudulent tax returns at issue. A jury found Taylor guilty of all of the charged counts, and the district court sentenced him to 264 months imprisonment. He appealed that conviction and sentence, and we affirmed. United States v. Taylor, 652 F. App'x 902 (11th Cir. 2016) (unpublished).

Taylor then filed a Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33 motion for a new trial based on Terrance Goodman's affidavit, which Taylor contended offered newly discovered evidence. According to that affidavit: Goodman saw Marc Logan using a red laptop to visit TurboTax's website in September 2011. A few months later Goodman saw Logan give that same red laptop, as well as some folders and files, to a friend named Danky. Logan and Danky talked about Taylor and whether he had returned from an out-of-town trip, and then Danky took the laptop and the files into Taylor's office and left them there. Even though Logan told Goodman that he was only borrowing the laptop, Goodman had seen [Logan] working on that red laptop several different times in 2011 and 2012.

In his Rule 33 motion Taylor argued that the affidavit showed that Logan had used the red laptop to submit the false tax returns and had committed the crimes for which the jury found Taylor guilty. The district court, without holding an evidentiary hearing, denied Taylor's Rule 33 motion. Taylor then filed a motion for reconsideration and for appointment of counsel as to his Rule 33 motion, and the district court denied that motion as well. Taylor now appeals the district court's denial of his Rule 33 motion as well as its denial of his request for appointment of counsel.

We review for an abuse of discretion the district court's denial of a Rule 33 motion for a new trial and for an evidentiary hearing. See United States v. Sweat, 555 F.3d 1364, 1367 (11th Cir. 2009). We also review for an abuse of discretion the district court's decision not to appoint counsel. See United States v. Berger, 375 F.3d 1223, 1226 (11th Cir. 2004).

Under Rule 33 a new trial is warranted based on newly discovered evidence only if the defendant shows that:

(1) the evidence was discovered after trial, (2) the failure of the defendant to discover the evidence was not due to a lack of due diligence, (3) the evidence is not merely cumulative or impeaching, (4) the evidence is material to issues before the court, and (5) the evidence is such that a new trial would probably produce a different result.

United States v. Jernigan, 341 F.3d 1273, 1287 (11th Cir. 2003) (quotation marks omitted). The failure to satisfy any one of these elements is fatal to a motion for a new trial. United States v. Thompson, 422 F.3d 1285, 1294 (11th Cir. 2005) (quotation marks omitted).

For purposes of a Rule 33 motion, a defendant cannot demonstrate due diligence if he was aware both of the existence of the person having newly discovered evidence and that the person had some possible connection to the investigation or commission of the crimes charged, yet failed to interview that person. See id. at 129495 (holding that the defendant had not demonstrated due diligence because he was aware of her existence and of her involvement in drugs before his trial [for drug conspiracy] began and [t]he only reasons [he] offer[ed] for the failure to interview [the person with the newly discovered evidence] before his trial was that she lived in North Carolina and that no one knew that she had information relevant to his case).

While Taylor contends that he did not know that Goodman had exculpatory information before or during the trial, he could have discovered that evidence before or during his trial had he exercised due diligence. The record shows that Taylor was aware (1) of Goodman's existence, (2) that Goodman had been involved in other tax fraud investigations, and (3) that Goodman had been interviewed during the investigation of the crimes for which Taylor was tried. For example, at trial Special Agent Christopher Pekerol testified that he had interviewed Goodman during the investigation of the tax fraud for which Taylor was being tried because Goodman had in the past been investigated for tax fraud. And government witness Joshca Hall testified that she had seen Goodman hanging around Taylor's office. Because Taylor's only reason for failing to interview Goodman before or during the trial was that he did not know that Goodman had relevant information, and because he knew Goodman and knew that Goodman had been interviewed during the investigation of the crimes for which he was charged, he failed to demonstrate due diligence. For that reason, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying his motion for a new trial.

Taylor also contends that the district court abused its discretion by ruling on his Rule 33 motion without holding an evidentiary hearing. An evidentiary hearing on a Rule 33 motion is not required where the record contains all of the evidence needed to rule on that motion. See United States v. Scrushy, 721 F.3d 1288, 1305 n.30 (11th Cir. 2013). The record in Taylor's case made clear that the newly discovered evidence in Goodman's affidavit could, with due diligence, have been discovered before or during the trial. As a result, there was no need for an evidentiary hearing and the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying Taylor's request for one.

As for the district court's denial of Taylor's motion for appointment of counsel, the issue raised in Taylor's Rule 33 motion was not complex enough to require the assistance of counsel because it was clear from the record that the evidence could have been discovered with due diligence. See Berger, 375 F.3d at 122627 (holding that no Sixth Amendment right to counsel exists for a defendant filing a post-conviction, post-appeal Rule 33 motion and that, in deciding whether to appoint counsel, the district court should consider the complexity of the issue presented in that Rule 33 motion). For that reason, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Taylor's request for appointed counsel.

AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

. Taylor has filed in this Court an unopposed motion to submit his reply brief out of time. That motion is GRANTED. To the extent Taylor contends in that reply brief that he is also appealing the district court's denial of his motion for reconsideration, he did not raise that issue in his initial brief and we do not address issues raised for the first time in a reply brief. See United States v. Levy, 379 F.3d 1241, 1244 (11th Cir. 2004).

. The district court denied Taylor's Rule 33 motion based on its finding that Goodman's testimony would have been inadmissible at trial and could not have produced a different result. We may, however, affirm the district court's judgment on any ground that appears in the record, whether or not that ground was relied upon or even considered by the [district court]. Thomasv. Cooper Lighting, 506 F.3d 1361, 1364 (11th Cir. 2007).

. Currently pending before this Court are (1) Taylor's motion to supplement the record and (2) the government's motion to file out of time a response to Taylor's motion to supplement the record. In his motion to supplement the record, Taylor contends that several portions of the trial transcripts have been deleted, and he describes the types of evidence and testimony that were deleted. Taylor's description shows that the omitted portions of the transcripts are not relevant for purposes of his Rule 33 motion. As a result, Taylor's motion to supplement the record is DENIED, and the government's motion to file its response out of time is DENIED AS MOOT.

PER CURIAM:
Lewis Baston is author of Reggie: The Life of Reginald Maudling and several books about British general elections. He is a consultant on politics, elections and constituencies.

The general election of June 2017 was the second in a row in which there were a handful of constituencies that went against the national swing between the Conservative and Labour parties.

While Labour made 28 gains from the Conservatives, the Tories struck back in six constituencies, including the by-election seat of Copeland. The account was more even in 2015, when Labours ten gains were offset by eight losses to the Conservatives.

This cross-traffic has been fairly unusual in recent elections; elections where more than one or two seats flip in the wrong direction tend to involve both small national swings and a political context where different regions or types of constituency react in very different ways, both of which applied in the last couple of elections but not for any other election since 1987.

These wandering sheep, which stray away from the track indicated by the sheepdogs of uniform national swing, are always interesting to me, more so than the dutiful bellwethers.

The outstanding Conservative gain from Labour in 2017 came in Mansfield, an achievement that has perhaps not been recognised enough because of the context of so many expected Conservative gains failing to materialise and the big swings to Labour in some of its targets.

It was also historic, in that it had never had a Conservative MP as such before and Labour had represented the seat since 1923  even in the 1931 landslide when the party was down to 46 seats nationally. Mansfields local communities still reflect some of the divisions from the 1926 and 1984 miners strikes. Its new Tory MP Ben Bradley celebrated its mining and working class history in his maiden speech:

Coalmining was the centre of local communities throughout much of the 20th century, not just for work but for all kinds of other support. It is a heritage of which people are rightly proud, and I shall be supporting calls for the creation of a new museum in the town centre to protect that heritage and ensure that future generations know and understand it.

Although Mansfield was the leader, most of the other constituencies that went from Labour to Conservative in 2017 bear a family resemblance. North East Derbyshire, Stoke-on-Trent South, and Copeland are also ex-mining areas composed of tough little working class towns; Walsall North is similar, although its heritage is heavy industry rather than coal.

In all of these the Labour majority had worn thin in the 1987 election, suggesting that as well as movements triggered by the EU referendum and the changing culture of the main parties, there have been some longer-term shifts in these seats, as in once similar seats where the dramatic Tory gain came much earlier, in 1970 (Bosworth, Cannock, Belper/South Derbyshire) or 1983 (Sherwood).

Mansfield is the most counter-trend seat changing hands since 1964  among Labour seats it was 49th most vulnerable to a pro-Tory swing from 2015, while most seats that have gone the wrong way have involved overturning rather smaller majorities. The previous big outliers have been Battersea (Tory target number 42 in 1987) and Smethwick, a rather notorious win against the trend in target seat number 82 in 1964.

For some reason, the Conservatives seem better than Labour at gaining seats despite national headwinds, managing this in significant numbers in 1987, 2015 and 2017. Oddly enough, the general elections of 1959 and 1983, rather than any less dramatic reverse,s saw the best Labour counter-cyclical pick-ups, with localised swings in depressed industrial seats in the former and inner city seats  plus Gwyneth Dunwoodys personal support in Crewe  in the latter.

Broadening the analysis of the outlying constituency gains and losses, what about the other end of the scale, the seats that have overdone the national swing?

The table below lists the far ends of the spectrum in gains and losses in the two-party marginals. There are some patterns in there. In some elections Scotland has gone its own way, either swinging contrary to England (1979, 1992) or going in the same direction but much more enthusiastically (1987).

The West Midlands was the cockpit of the bigger electoral swings of the 1959-79 era, when its politics was whipsawed by racial tension, stop-go economics, industrial unrest, and the strong following for Enoch Powell in the region. London has contributed a lot in recent elections, reflecting its regional distinctiveness and rapid social changes.

There are some seats that regularly produce extreme swings. The seat based on Cannock is extraordinarily volatile, having produced the best Conservative results in two elections with gains in 1970 (against Jennie Lee) and in 2010, but sometimes reverting strongly to Labour as in 1974 and 1992.

Its emphatic Tory swing in 2010 has been followed by two more, making Cannock Chase safer for the Conservatives, on the face of it, than Wycombe or Rushcliffe.

The other big swing seat that stands out is Stockton South, including its predecessors Teesside, Thornaby, and Middlesbrough West. It is the most middle-class and owner-occupied seat in the former county of Cleveland, full of swing voters in newly-built estates.

The electoral history of the area is full of reversals on swings of well over the national average in both directions, starting with a long-shot Tory gain in 1951 and continuing this year with a surprise win for Labour. While it has gone with the national winner in most elections, it cannot claim to be typical  but anyone interested in what determines general elections has to take notice of what makes Stockton South tick.

Combining the extreme results in the seats that are contested between Labour and the Conservatives gives a measure of the spread of gains and losses around the national mid-point. In each election, which is the most ambitious seat, furthest down the target list, that each of the two big parties wins?

In elections with one-way traffic the best result achieved by the losing party is to hold a marginal seat that might have fallen on the national average or the swing to be found in seats with similar or larger majorities, as with Gisela Stuarts hold in Birmingham Edgbaston in 2010. In elections with two-way traffic between Labour and Conservative, one can compare seats that change hands in each direction, as in 2017 where Mansfield was the most ambitious Conservative gain and Kensington the furthest-out Labour gain.

The range is therefore a rough indicator of how variegated the results are overall. How, then, does 2017 measure up? The gap between Mansfield and Kensington, when you rank all the Conservative and Labour seats by one partys lead over the other, is 146 seats.

If the Conservatives had held and won every seat up to Mansfield, they would have gained 49 from Labour and enjoy a three-figure majority. If Labour had held and won every seat down to Kensington, Labour would have won an overall majority of around twenty.

The 2017 dispersal was the largest since 1983, hinting that something interesting was going on with electoral behaviour (and the 1983 figure might not be completely reliable, as we depend on notional estimates for elections that follow boundary changes).

The most wild and woolly set of constituency results was in 1964, when the dispersal between the best Conservative gain (Smethwick) and the best Labour gain (Middlesbrough West) was 235 constituencies, a fantastic landslide either way if constituencies had marched in lockstep. In contrast to 2017, most other elections that have taken place after a short parliament have had fairly tightly-bunched results, as in October 1974 and 1966.

Taking yet another angle on electoral change, the extent to which the parties electoral coalitions were defined by the Thatcher and Blair landslides on each side is interesting. In the Tory upswing of 1979 and 1983 they gained 30 seats that they had not since at least 1935, of which 16 were still Conservative in the 2017 election. In Labours upswing from 1987 to 1997 they gained 43 fresh seats, of which 21 voted Labour in 2017.

The Conservatives gains in 2001, 2005, and 2010 involved remarkably little new territory, with only a by-election fuelled gain in Crewe and Nantwich breaking new ground (and even then, if the boundary change estimates are right, they would have won the seat on those boundaries had it existed in 1979). But each of the last two elections has involved Conservative breakthroughs (Morley and Outwood and Gower in 2015, five of the six in 2017). Labour won unprecedented victories in four seats in 2017, similar to 1987 and 1992 in this respect.

The 2017 election was startling. One can feel the tectonic plates moving, but if history is a guide there is more change yet to come.
On July 16, 2015 Chattanooga was under attack by a terrorist who took the lives of five American Hero's. GySgt. Thomas Sullivan, SSgt. David Wyatt, Lcpl. Skip Wells, Sgt. Carson Holmquist, & PO2 Randall Smith. The TN Chapter 2 Thundercreek members and Wreaths Across America are hosting the 2nd Annual Nooga Strong Memorial Ride on Saturday, July 15, in memorial of Chattanooga's Fallen Five Heros.



Registration for this event will begin at 8 a.m. at Harley Davidson, 7720 Lee Hwy. Registration ends at 10:30 a.m. and kickstands up/kickoff will take place promptly at 11 a.m.

Riders will cross town and will arrive at the National Cemetery, 1200 Bailey Ave. at noon. There will be a presentation of colors, short ceremony, and flyover of T-38s. Following this, there will be a Celebration of Life party at the Harley Davidson Store, 7720 Lee Hwy.

Everyone is invited. All proceeds will go to Wreaths Across America.
Like learning the truth about Santa Claus, or where babies come from (pelican sweatshops, duh), finding out what went on behind the scenes of famous movies can sometimes be gruesome. For instance, it turns out there weren't any giant monsters on the set of Pacific Rim, and Tom Cruise died a total of zero times during the making of Edge Of Tomorrow.

But then, every once in a while, you run across a "making of" document that actually surpasses their subject matter -- in hilarity, if nothing else.
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
A fundraiser was held on Tuesday to help raise money for a fly fishing trip in Montana for Colton Malone. Colton is the son of City employee, Ryan Malone.

Colton is 20 years old and was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer in December 2015. This June, he was informed the cancer returned and invaded his lymphatic system as well as his heart. Colton is an avid fisher and always wanted to fly fish out west. Ryans co-workers wanted to help make this wish become a reality.



Approximately $2,000 was raised during the benefit. Many local businesses including: Billy Haney Meat Company, Cleveland/Bradley Keep America Beautiful, Cookes Food Store Flowers Bakery, Food City, Hardees, Mrs. Winners, Old Fort Restaurant, Piggly Wiggly, and Save-A-LOT food stores donated the food, beverages and/or materials needed for the fundraiser.

"We would like to give a special thanks to the City Public Works staff for organizing this event," officials said.
Data center News

Some Cisco UCS Servers May Lose Data If Power Is Cut Off

Joseph F. Kovar

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Cisco is warning customers that certain UCS servers were shipped with incorrectly-configured hard drives that could result in a loss of data should the servers lose power.

Cisco, in a field notice updated earlier this week and first reported by The Register, also provided detailed instructions for customers and partners to reconfigure the hard drives to prevent that data loss from occurring.

The issue affects the Cisco UCS C220-M3, C220-M4L, C240-M3, C240-M4L, and UCSC-C3X60 servers.

[Related: NetApp, Cisco Integrate SolidFire All-Flash Storage With UCS Servers In New FlexPod SF]

The problem stems from five models of SAS, 7,200-RPM large form factors drives in 1-TB, 2-TB, and 4-TB that were shipped in the Cisco UCS servers with their hard drive write cache enabled. Normally, they are shipped with that write cache disabled. "If drive write cache is enabled during a power loss it can result in loss of data," Cisco wrote in its field notice.

Cisco in the field notice said the issue has been solved on the Cisco side, but that the affected drives will have to be re-configured in the field.

"Cisco ships all of their hard drives from manufacturing with drive write cache disabled. During a quality audit, select units were found to have the drive write cache enabled. The issue has been remediated in the manufacturing process. Users of potentially affected devices are recommended to change the drive cache configuration," Cisco wrote. Cisco also included instructions how to re-configure the impacted hard drives to disable the write cache.

The drives all have Cisco model numbers. However, in the workaround suggested by Cisco, there are a couple of references to Seagate. One reference, in test details, is to the Seagate ST300MM0006, a 300-GB SAS drive with a 10,000-RPM speed. Cisco also refers to Seagate in a CDETS (Cisco Defect and Enhancement Tracking System) note.

Neither Cisco nor Seagate has confirmed that Seagate made the drives that were improperly configured. Neither commented have yet commented on whether the improper configuration was caused by the drive manufacturer or Cisco.

A Seagate spokesperson told CRN via email that the company was looking into the issue.

"Cisco is committed to avoiding issues in our products and handling them professionally when they arise," Cisco wrote in an email to CRN. "Our top priority is making sure customers are aware of an issue when it exists and what they can do to mitigate its potential impact on their network. To ensure our products continue to operate as intended in customer environments, Cisco issues Field Notices to notify customers about potential issues that require an upgrade, workaround, or other action."

The Cisco UCS C220 and Cisco UCS C240 are very common platforms, and the drives are very common drives, said John Woodall, vice president of engineering at Integrated Archive Systems, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based solution provider and Cisco channel partner.

The drives referenced in the field notice are more focused on capacity, and not performance, and the write cache might be turned on when used with applications where there is no concerns about losing data, Woodall told CRN. "But the write cache shouldn't be turned on at the factory," he said.

There is a huge installed base of those servers, so it's uncertain how much impact the improperly configured hard drives might have, Woodall said.

"It sounds like Cisco found a bug and took care of it," he said. "For someone impacted by it, they may not have a pleasant day. They may lose data and have to restore it. But things go bump in the night, and [stuff] happens. Vendors have issues like this all the time."

If this is indeed an issue that only recently happened and Cisco just caught it in an audit, the impact might be limited, but if this has been going on for some time, the impact could be much wider, Woodall said.

For customers, this is a wake-up call to the importance of ensuring their data is protected, Woodall said.

"Customers should have their data protected and ensure the level of risk from loss of data is acceptable," he said. "If not, this must be addressed by the customer. This doesn't let Cisco off the hook. If you find an issue, you test it and fix it. But if it happens again, it becomes a real issue."

For partners, it's important to proactively reach out to customers who have purchased servers that are potentially impacted by the issue, Woodall said. Most customer have competent technical personnel who can download the new code, test it, and deploy it, and can reach out to partners for help if needed, he said.

"Patches and patch management are common, and are typically handled by customers unless they are under a managed services contract," he said.
The Week Ending July 14

Topping this week's roundup of companies that came to win is Microsoft, which made some channel-friendly moves at its Inspire partner conference this week, including launching an online marketplace for ISV partner applications.

Also making the list are Intel, for its new Xeon line of processors aimed at boosting its competitive stance in the server arena; security vendors Gemalto and EventTracker, for launching new channel partner programs; Symantec, for its planned acquisition of a mobile security software developer; and Cisco, for its acquisition of a cloud security software developer.

Not everyone in the IT industry made smart moves this week, of course. For a rundown of companies that were unfortunate, unsuccessful or just didn't make good decisions, check out this week's Five Companies That Had A Rough Week roundup.
11/10/2022

NOTICE: The Hamilton County Registers Office did not publish this data. All information in the Registers Office is public information as set out in T.C.A. 10-7-503. For questions regarding ... more
Big data, as its proponents have been saying for nearly a decade now, can bring big benefits: advertisements focused on what you actually want to buy, smart cars that can help you avoid collisions or call for an ambulance if you happen to get in one anyway, wearable or implantable devices that can monitor your health and notify your doctor if something is going wrong.

It can also lead to big privacy problems. By now it is glaringly obvious that when people generate thousands of data points every day  where they go, who they communicate with, what they read and write, what they buy, what they eat, what they watch, how much they exercise, how much they sleep and more  they are vulnerable to exposure in ways unimaginable a generation ago.

It is just as obvious that such detailed information, in the hands of marketers, financial institutions, employers and government, can affect everything from relationships to getting a job, and from qualifying for a loan to even getting on a plane. While there have been multiple expressions of concern from privacy advocates and government, there has been little action to improve privacy protections in the online, always connected world.

It was more than five years ago that the Obama administration published a blueprint for what it termed a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights (CPBR), in February 2012. That document declared that, the consumer privacy data framework in the U.S. is, in fact, strong  (but it) lacks two elements: A clear statement of basic privacy principles that apply to the commercial world, and a sustained commitment of all stakeholders to address consumer data privacy issues as they arise from advances in technologies and business models.

Three years later, in February 2015, that blueprint became proposed legislation by the same name, but it was immediately attacked, both by industry groups, who says it would impose burdensome regulations, and by privacy advocates, who says it was riddled with loopholes. It never made it to a vote.

The CPBR declaration that the, consumer privacy data framework in the U.S. is, in fact, strong  ironically came about a year before revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that the U.S. government was, in fact, spying on its citizens.

Beyond that, government hasnt been able to agree on other privacy initiatives. The so-called broadband privacy rules issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) just before the 2016 election, which would have limited data collection by Internet service providers (ISPs), were repealed by Congress in March, before they took effect.

Susan Grant, director of consumer protection and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), called it a terrible setback, and says it would allow ISPs, to spy on their customers and sell their data without consent. Others, however, have argued that putting limits on ISPs would still leave other online giants like Google free to collect and sell the data they collect, and consumers would see few, if any, benefits.

Given all that, it should be no surprise that experts say privacy risks are even more intense, and the challenges to protect privacy have become even more complicated. Organizations like the CFA, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), along with individual advocates like Rebecca Herold, CEO of The Privacy Professor, have enumerated multiple ways that big data analytics, and resulting automated decision-making, can invade the personal privacy of individuals. They include:

1. Discrimination

EPIC declared more than three years ago, in comments to the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy that, The use of predictive analytics by the public and private sector  can now be used by the government and companies to make determinations about our ability to fly, to obtain a job, a clearance or a credit card. The use of our associations in predictive analytics to make decisions that have a negative impact on individuals directly inhibits freedom of association.

Since then, things have gotten worse, privacy advocates say. While discrimination is illegal, automated decision-making makes it more difficult to prove. Big data algorithms have matured significantly over the past several years, along with the increasing flood of data from the nascent internet of things, and the ability to analyze these data using variants of artificial intelligence." says Edward McNicholas, global co-leader of the Privacy, Data Security, and Information Law Practice at Sidley Austin LLP. But despite this technological growth, the legal protections have not advanced materially.

I think the discussion around big data has moved beyond mere accusations of discrimination to larger concerns about automated decision-making, says Joseph Jerome, policy counsel at the CDT, who noted that it has been used, to direct calls at call service centers, evaluate and fire teachers, and even predict recidivism.

Herold has been saying for years that big data analytics can make discrimination essentially automated, and therefore more difficult to detect or prove. She says that is true, in more ways than ever today. Big data analytics coupled with internet of things (IoT) data will be  and has already been  able to identify health problems and genetic details of individuals that those individuals didnt even know themselves, she says.

McNicholas believes, the most significant risk is that it is used to conceal discrimination based on illicit criteria, and to justify the disparate impact of decisions on vulnerable populations.

2. An embarrassment of breaches

By now, after catastrophic data breaches at multiple retailers like Target and Home Depot, restaurant chains like P.F. Changs, online marketplaces like eBay, the federal Office of Personnel Management that exposed the personal information of 22 million current and former federal employees, universities, and online services giants like Yahoo, public awareness about credit card fraud and identity theft is probably at an all-time high.

Unfortunately, the risks remain just as high, especially given the reality that billions of IoT devices in everything from household appliances to cars, remain rampantly insecure, as encryption and security guru Bruce Schneier, CTO at IBM Resilient, frequently observes in his personal blog.

[Related: The 15 biggest security breaches of the 21st century]

3. Goodbye anonymity

It is increasingly difficult to do much of anything in modern life, without having your identity associated with it, Herold says. She says even de-identified data does not necessarily remove privacy risks. The standards used even just a year or two ago are no longer sufficient. Organizations that want to anonymize data to then use it for other purposes are going to find it increasingly difficult. It will soon become almost impossible to effectively anonymize data in a way that the associated individuals cannot be re-identified, she says.

Besides being vulnerable to breaches, IoT device are a massive data collection engine of users most personal information. Individuals are paying for smart devices, and the manufacturers can change their privacy terms at a moment's notice, Jerome says. It's one thing to tell a user to stop using a web service; it's another to tell them to unplug their smart TV or disconnect their connected car.

4. Government exemptions

According to EPIC, Americans are in more government databases than ever, including that of the FBI, which collects personally identifiable information (PII) including name, any aliases, race, sex, date and place of birth, Social Security number, passport and drivers license numbers, address, telephone numbers, photographs, fingerprints, financial information like bank accounts, and employment and business information.

Yet, incredibly, the agency has exempted itself from Privacy Act (of 1974) requirements that the FBI maintain only, accurate, relevant, timely and complete personal records, along with other safeguards of that information required by the Privacy Act, EPIC says. The NSA also opened a storage facility in Bluffdale, Utah, in 2014 that is reportedly capable of storing 12 zettabytes of data  a single zettabyte is the amount of information it would take 750 billion DVDs to store.

While there have been assurances, including from former President Obama, that government is not listening to your phone calls or reading your emails, that obviously ducks the question of whether government is storing them.

5. Your data gets brokered

Numerous companies collect and sell consumer data that are used to profile individuals, without much control or limits. There was the famous case of companies beginning to market products to a pregnant woman before she had told others in her family, thanks to automated decision-making. The same can be true of things like sexual orientation or an illness like cancer.

Since 2014, data brokers have been having a field day in selling all the data they can scoop up from anywhere they can find it on the internet. And there are few  none explicit that I know of  legal protections for involved individuals, Herold says. This practice is going to increase, unfettered, until privacy laws restricting such use are enacted. There is also little or no accountability or even guarantees that the information is accurate.

Where do we go from here?

Those are not the only risks, and there is no way to eliminate them. But there are ways to limit them. One, according to Jerome, is to use big data analytics for good  to expose problems. In many respects, big data is helping us make better, fairer decisions, he says, noting that it can be, a powerful tool to empower users and to fight discrimination. More data can be used to show where something is being done in a discriminatory way. Traditionally, one of the biggest problems in uncovering discrimination is a lack of data, he says.

There is general agreement among advocates that Congress needs to pass a version of the CPBR, which called for consumer rights to include:

Individual control over what personal data companies collect from them and how they use it.

Transparency, or easily understandable and accessible information about privacy and security practices.

The collection, use and disclosure of personal data to be done in ways that are consistent with the context in which consumers provide the data.

Security and responsible handling of personal data.

Access to their personal data in usable formats, with the power to correct errors.

Reasonable limits on the personal data that companies collect and retain.

McNicholas says that transparency should include an overhaul of privacy policies, which are so dense and filled with legalese that almost nobody reads them. Telling consumers to read privacy policies and exercise opt-out rights seems to be a solution better suited to last century, he says. Consumer privacy must shift to consumer-centric, where consumers have real control over their information."

Jerome agrees. I certainly don't think we can expect consumers to read privacy policies. That's madness. What we should expect are better and more controls. It's a good thing that users can review and delete their Echo recordings. It's great that Twitter allows users to toggle all sorts of personalization and see who has targeted them, he says. But ultimately, if individuals aren't given more options over collection and sharing, we're going to have serious issues about our personal autonomy.

Given the contentious atmosphere in Congress, there is little chance of something resembling the CPBR being passed anytime soon. That doesnt mean consumers are defenseless, however. What can they do?

Jerome says even if users dont read an entire policy, they should, still take a moment before clicking OK to consider why and with whom they're sharing their information. A recent study suggested that individuals would give up sensitive information about themselves in exchange for homemade cookies.

Herold offers several other individual measures to lower your privacy risks:

Quit sharing so much on social media. If you only have a few people you want to see photos or videos, then send directly to them instead of posting where many can access them, she says.

Dont provide information to businesses or other organizations that are not necessary for the purposes for which youre doing business with them. Unless they really need your address and phone number, dont give it to them.

Use an anonymous browser, like Hotspot Shield or Tor (The Onion Router) when visiting sites that might yield information that could cause people to draw inaccurate conclusions about you.

Ask others not to share information online about you without your knowledge. It may feel awkward, but you need to do it, she says, adding that the hard truth is that consumers need to protect themselves because nobody else will be doing it for them.

Regarding legislation, she says she has not heard about any other drafts of the CPBR in the works, and I quite frankly do not expect to see anything in the next four years that will improve consumer privacy; Indeed, I expect to see government protections deteriorate. I hope I am wrong, she says.
The short answer to the question posed in the headline is 'everyone': Every small business, midsized company, enterprise, and organization is fair game, especially in light of the recent WannaCry and Petya attacks (though the latter was an atypical ransomware example).

The long answer is more complicated. Your vulnerability to a ransomware attack can depend upon how attractive your data is to criminal hackers, how critical it is that you respond quickly to a ransom demand, how vulnerable your security is, and how vigorously you keep employees trained about phishing emails, among other factors.

There are a wide variety of ransomware types, but one thing is certain, says Morey Haber, vice president of technology for BeyondTrust, which offers a privileged access management platform. No vertical, government, or organization is immune to its effects. Unfortunately, some are more susceptible to successful attacks, based on the type of technologies they deploy, their age, cost for replacement, identity governance and privilege maturity, and overall cyber security hygiene implementations regulated by government or third-party compliance initiatives.

With some security experts decrying ransomware as the epidemic of our time, its never been more important to protect your organization. Heres a look at who the usual ransomware targets are today and are likely to be in the near future, why theyre targets, and best practices for protecting your data.

Who are todays top ransomware targets?

Education

Academic organizations, especially colleges and universities, have been among the top ransomware targets. In fact, a fall 2016 ransomware study from BitSight Insights placed educational institutions as the no. 1 target, with at least one in 10 experiencing a ransomware attack.

Smaller IT teams, budgetary constraints, and a high rate of network file sharing are among the reasons educational organizations are so vulnerable, according to the BitSight Insights report. Plus, with access to social security numbers, medical records, intellectual property, research, and financial data of faculty, staff, and students, these institutions are a prime target for cyberattacks, the report noted.

University College London is a recent example. In June 2017, a major ransomware attack brought down its shared drives and student management system, The Guardian reported.

Government

Government agencies are another prime target, ranking no. 2 on BitSight Insights list. The occurrence of ransomware in this sector more than tripled from fall 2015 to fall 2016, according to BitSight Insights.

A recent example occurred in September 2016, when a new ransomware threat, Marsjoke, targeted state and local government agencies, according to Kaspersky Labs Threat Post blog.

Some government agencies may be targeted because the services they offer, such as police protection, are time-sensitive and crucial, notes Alexander Volynkin, senior research scientist, CERT Division, for Carnegie Mellon Universitys Software Engineering Institute. Because such agencies often need to respond quickly, they have a greater sense of urgency in recovering their data and thus may be more willing to pay the ransom under duress.

In the past year, there have been numerous examples of police department ransomware attacks. One such case involved a Texas police department, where a ransomware attack caused the department to lose eight years of dataincluding body camera video and some in-house surveillance video.

Healthcare, energy/utilities, retail, finance

Healthcare organizations ranked no. 3 on BitSight Insights top list of ransomware targets. Hospitals, in particular, may pay the ransom because their patient data is critical in life-or-death situations, the report noted. One such example was the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, which paid a $17,000 ransom in 2016 to hackers who had locked some of the hospitals critical data.

The sectors rounding out the BitSight Insights list include, in descending order, energy and utilities (no. 4); retail (no. 5); and finance (no. 6).

HR departments

Were also seeing more ransomware attacks targeting enterprise human resource departments, Volynkin adds. Criminal hackers pose as job applicants, hoping that HR professionals will open emails and attachments from unknown senderswhich will then spread the ransomware.

Mobile devices and Macs

Ransomware isnt just a PC threat. A Kaspersky Lab Malware Report released in May 2017 found that 218,625 mobile ransomware files were detected in the first quarter of 2017 vs. 61,832 in the previous quarter, as Newsweek reported.

Ransomware doesnt exclusively target Windows computers, either. Security firm Fortinet recently discovered a ransomware-as-a-service targeting Macs.

Emerging ransomware targets and threats

At a high level, any organization that has critical data, and where team members need to make quick decisions, will remain prime ransomware targets, Volynkin says.

The sensitivity of an enterprises data will also be a factor. For example, along with the sectors cited in the BitSight Insights report, you can expect to see law firms among targeted businesses in the near future, Volynkin adds. Legal firms have client data thats highly sensitive, he notes, and typically have the resources to pay a ransom.

The next phase of ransomware, Volynkin notes, will not be just about holding data hostage; it will be about threating to publish data online if the enterprise that owns it doesnt pay the ransom, he explains. In that scenario, law firmsand many other types of organizationsare attractive targets.

If someone breaks into a law firms system, steals their sensitive client data and threatens to post it online, that law firm will have hard decisions to make, Volynkin says.

Criminal hackers might block your ability to access your data, then put the data up for sale online to the highest bidder, adds Shaun Murphy, founder of message and file security firm Sndr. Celebrities could be subject to such tactics, as well as organizations with sensitive data and lots of competitorssome of which might be willing to pay to get access to your data.

How to minimize the ransomware threat

As much as possible, keep current database backups stored on air-gapped storage, where the backed-up data resides on a device with no network connection, Volynkin recommends.

Phishing emails continue to be one of the most common ransomware attack vectors, Volynkin notes. As a result, its important to keep email filtering rules updated at all times and to provide ongoing employee education. Teach team members how to identify suspicious email and links.

[ Related: 7 elements of a successful security awareness program ]

Be cautious about admin credentials, too. Eventually someone will click on a link in a phishing email and (the malware) will make it into your system, Volynkin says. If the person (clicking the link) has wide open access to your network, like admin credentials, the ransomware will have an easier time accessing important files.

As always, use layered security with regular security software patches, vulnerability management, system hardening, and always-updated endpoint protection suites, adds Avivah Litan, a VP Distinguished Analyst at Gartner focused on cyber security.

Be clear on the security measures and technologies in place at any cloud services your organization uses, suggests Murphy. Every day we hear about some massive security breach, and there are many more you dont hear about, he says. If you or your business puts everything in the cloud, you might feel safe from a local attack like ransomware. But think again. Whats protecting your companys data on these services? Is it a user name and password or something more? What about the employees at these cloud companies, since they have physical access to the servers? What could they do to your data?

In the event of a ransomware attack, having strong security and well-protected backups can help you avoid the worst-case scenariospaying the ransom, which only encourages more ransomware attacks, or losing big chunks of data.

Related video: Ransomware marketplaces and the future of malware
Brian A. Pounds / Brian A. Pounds

A former Bridgeport attorney will serve a 30-month prison sentence, after his conviction on charges of helping an Easton man scam area homeowners.

Odenton, Md. resident Bradford Barneys, 51, handled legal work at his Bridgeport office on behalf of Timothy W. Burke, at the time an Easton resident who preyed on homeowners facing foreclosure. According to the office of U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly, Burke promised to buy those homes and pay off the mortgages and taxes, but did not make the promised payments while renting out the homes to other tenants.
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BETHEL  Eight families were left homeless and several businesses displaced when fire ripped through one of the towns most historic buildings early Thursday  fire so intense that it took 100 firefighters and more than three hours to put it out.

Ten adults and five children living in upstairs apartments in the building at 178 Greenwood Avenue escaped with the help of three police officers, who crawled on hands and knees through billowing smoke to make sure everyone got out safely.

The fire started around 1 a.m. and moved quickly through the 177-year-old structure, said Bethel Volunteer Fire Chief Scott Murphy, explaining that outdated construction methods in the older building left voids in the walls that helped the fire move quickly from apartment to apartment.

Firefighters were ripping down the ceilings and the walls to get to the fire, mostly with their hands, Murphy said.

Police Capt. Stephen Pugner said Officer Lynn Morris was sitting in her police car around the corner when the call came in about the fire. She arrived within seconds and, joined quickly by two other officers, ran inside the burning building to begin evacuating residents.

One officer, Matt Dirago, crawled on his hands and knees through a smoke-filled apartment in the back of the building, screaming for anyone trapped inside, Pugner said. When he found a disabled man who was unable to escape on his own, Dirago called for help from Morris and Officer William Holland, who carried the man from the building.

The man suffered smoke inhalation and was sent to Bridgeport Hospital. One firefighter suffered minor injuries, officials said.

Pugner said police normally leave it to the fire department to evacuate residents, but in this case they had to act fast.

The only time we go into a burning building like that is to save a life, Pugner said.

None of the officers was injured.

They were in a good state, Pugner said. They got in and out quick enough where they did not get any smoke inhalation.

First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker said new smoke alarms installed in the building in recent months likely saved some lives, adding that one resident awakened by an alarm made the initial call to 911. He added that the fire, which appeared to have started in the apartment occupied by the disabled man, did not appear to have been intentionally set.

Murphy said the fire was going strong when firefighters arrived. They went to work first on a second-floor apartment, but the flames moved quickly through the building, which also houses the Doherty Petri School of Dance and other businesses on the first floor.

We attacked the apartment where the fire started, but it had already vented through the front window and worked its way into the eaves, Murphy said. We had to keep chasing the fire.

Thanks to a brick wall at the buildings western end, the fire did not spread to the adjacent Opera House building. But apartments in the adjoining building on the eastern side were damaged by smoke and water.

Everyone did a great job last night holding the fire to that one building, Murphy said.

More than two dozen fire trucks from departments throughout the region responded to the call, and at one point firefighters were pouring 800 gallons of water a minute onto the flames, Murphy said.

Medics from Danbury Hospital set up a triage center across the street in the Bethel Public Library for firefighters and evacuated residents. Murphy said firefighters rotated in and out of the triage center for 20-minute breaks to get water and have their vital signs checked before returning to fight the fire.

It was a difficult fire that really took a physical toll on the firefighters, Murphy said.

Local and state fire marshals were just beginning their investigations Thursday morning.

Were gonna start (our) photographs, start documenting the interior of the building and looking for the origin and cause of the fire, said Bethel Fire Marshall Tom Galliford.

The Red Cross is putting up some of the displaced families in nearby hotels and providing clothing, food and comfort kits, said chief communications officer Stefanie Arcangelo.

Keegan Finlayson, who lives in second-floor apartment in an adjoining building, said he awoke to the smell of smoke and saw flashing lights outside. He grabbed his wife, four children and two dogs and ran downstairs and out the front door.

Flames were shooting out of the building next door, he said.

We felt the intense heat on our backs," he said. We didnt realize that the worst of the fire was toward the front.

Finlayson, whose family had stayed in a motel after fleeing the fire, returned to the building Thursday afternoon to recover some belongings from his apartment. The flames did not reach the apartment, but there was significant damage from water and smoke, he said.

Several businesses on the first floor of the main building suffered water and smoke damage.

Among the businesses is the Doherty Petri dance school. Founded in 1991 by Karen and Lisa Petri, the school has become one of the pre-eminent Irish dance schools in the world, with more than 140 dancers. On Thursday, the school moved classes to its Long Island location.

Also on the ground level is the Giggling Pig Art and Party Studio, which appeared to have been gutted by the blaze.

The owner of the Giggling Pig, an art space for children, already arranged to reopen Friday in new quarters across the street.

I was standing there at 3 a.m. watching the fire when I saw a For Lease sign across the street, so I left a message, said Hannah Perry. We talked this morning and I signed the lease. We are working on the space right now and should be open (Friday) morning.

Although the studios materials and equipment were destroyed, Perry said, she has additional stock at another location in Shelton that.

Knickerbocker credited the work by the Bethel Volunteer Fire Company, the Stony Hill Volunteer Fire Department and other firefighters for limiting the damage to the one building.

If if wasnt for all their hard work, the whole block could have been lost, Knickerbocker said.

Jay Lawrence, who was just about to open a new restaurant in the Opera House, said he just received his certificate of occupancy Wednesday.

We just finished all the construction work a few days ago and got the all-clear to use the building yesterday, he said. Thank God we didnt get any damage. Just a little bit of cleaning, but other than that were in good shape.

Lawrence, who also owns Pippas in Danbury, said he still hopes to open soon.

Heather Hansen-ONeill, president of the Bethel Chamber of Commerce, said the towns annual Summer Fest, planned for Greenwood Avenue on Saturday, will move forward despite the fire.

The fire marshal has assured me that he will do everything he can to make the area safe for the festival, she said.

Reporters Dirk Perrefort, Julia Perkins, Cedar Attanasio and Jim Shay contributed to this report.
On Point announces Rory Feek as the keynote speaker for On Point Clevelands Annual Fundraising Dinner: One Extraordinary Evening on Thursday, Sept. 21. The doors of First Baptist Cleveland will open at 6 p.m., with festivities beginning at 6:30 p.m. All proceeds from the event will be used for On Point Cleveland programming.

Rory Feek is a father, blogger, author, and one of Nashvilles premiere songwriters. Rorys blog, ThisLifeILive.com, follows the love story of him and his late wife, Joey, and her battle with cancer which has been an inspiration to over 2.3 million Facebook followers through the vignettes of unwavering faith and hope. His memoir, This Life I Live: One Mans Extraordinary, Ordinary Life and the Woman Who Changed It Forever, is one of the top selling books across the US. As a recording artist, Rory and his wife, Joey, were the Grammy-winning country music duo Joey+Rory and have sold nearly a million records. Rory currently lives with their three-year-old daughter, Indiana, outside of Nashville near their family-owned diner, Marcy Jos Mealhouse.

On Point is a youth development organization established in 1991 to partner with schools and communities to cultivate strengths in youth and guide them on their path to thrive. The annual Cleveland Dinner will bring together community members to celebrate and benefit the 12,000 students On Point serves annually. Sponsorships are available at Liveonpoint.org. Tables of eight will sell for $500 with individual dinner tickets offered at $75 each.

For additional information, please call the On Point office at 899-9188, or email Phyllis Maynor, at Phyllis@liveonpoint.org or Tamara Yelton at Tamara@liveonpoint.org.




NORWALK  A Waterbury man is facing numerous charges after his refusal to leave the South Norwalk Train Station escalated into death threats against a transit employee, police said.

Police said that Raymond Hardy, 34, was loitering around the South Norwalk Train Station when a Metro-North employee asked him to leave the premises.
SEYMOUR - A 40-year-old man on a bicycle sustained potentially life-threatening injuries Wednesday after being hit by a car on Squantuck Road, police said.

Police responded to the accident around 11 a.m. and found that the man had been hit from behind by a car. He was treated at the scene for his injuries, then taken via Seymour Ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, according to a release from Seymour police.
The Boynton Lions Club of Ringgold and the Ringgold Convention and Visitors Bureau hosted Patriotic Summer Fun at the Ringo Theater on Tuesday at the Ringgold Depot showing The Monuments Men.

Attendees and event partners: Blackwell Automotive, Boynton United Methodist Church, Hamilton Glass Co. of Dalton, J&J Trophies and Signs, Norman and Ronda Lansford, Dennis Mason Construction, Ryan Stinson Music, and Weeks and Peters Insurance helped the organization raise $869 for Lions Club projects, including vision.

The club meets the second Tuesday of each month at Boynton United Methodist Church fellowship hall at 6:30 p.m.
Atlantic Capital Bank, NA, announces the addition of Ashley Osborne to the Private Client Services team in Chattanooga.

Ms. Osborne serves as vice president and private banker. She joins a team of banking professionals who assist high net worth families and individual clients with private banking, wealth management, investments, and trust services.



We are committed to providing our clients with the best service, top quality advice, ideas, and products, said Bart Rolen, executive vice president, Private Client Services.

Ashley is very talented and has a proven track record for providing excellent client service. She will be a tremendous asset to our Private Client Services team as we continue to expand to serve more individuals and families in need of specialized financial services in the region.Ms. Osborne joins Atlantic Capital from Regions Bank where she spent nearly five years of her career in sales, relationship management, and retail banking. She began her banking career at SunTrust as a personal banker and Financial Services representative.I am delighted to join Atlantic Capitals premier wealth management team, said Ms. Osborne. I look forward to collaborating with a first rate private banking team to provide access to truly innovative specialized financial opportunities for clients.She holds a B.S. in accounting and business management from Tennessee Wesleyan University and is completing her master of business administration at Lincoln Memorial University. Ms. Osborne is active in the community and has served in leadership roles with a number of non-profit organizations. She was a member of the Young Bucks Association in Atlanta, and has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in Knoxville, Childrens Hospital of East Tennessee, and Young Achievers.
Pa. Dems could flip the House of Reps. Here's what that might mean
A new grocery delivery service is coming to the Chattanooga area, saying it is offering more store options - plus an entire year free with no strings attached.

Starting July 20, Instacart will be launching delivery service in the Chattanooga area and bringing groceries to the doorsteps of residents same-day, in as little as an hour.

Additionally, Instacart is offering customers a free one-year subscription of Instacart Express (offer expires Aug. 3).

Officials said Instacart offers:

More store options, including Costco, Publix, Whole Foods Market and Petco

Users can choose to order without a membership (but how can you pass up a free year membership!)

Deliveries can be scheduled up to 7 days in advance.

Instacart is already available in more than 80 markets throughout the U.S.

The Chattanooga delivery area will cover over 125,000 residents and will also be providing more than 100+ new jobs.

Areas of service include Chattanooga, Red Bank, Soddy Daisy, Lakesite, Ooltewah, East Brainerd, Tyner, Middle Valley, Falling Water, Metro Park, Alpine Heights, East Ridge, Signal Mountain, Lone Oak, Fairmount, Walden, Harrison, Ridgeside and Summer Haven.
New Member inductee Craig Miller with Robin Boyer (pinning Craig) as his sponsor. Todd Gaither at podium in background. New President Todd Gaither, right, presenting immediate Past President, Stan Russell, with an appreciation gift Kevin Beirne, Rotary Foundation Director and club member, presented Alan Johnston, club member, with a Paul Harris Fellow + 4 pin. Alan surpassed a $1,000 contribution to the Rotary Foundation five times. Previous Next

The Rotary Club of Chattanooga Hamilton Place celebrated several events this week.

Todd Gaither assumed his role as the new president for the 2017/2018 Rotary Year.

Stan Russell was the 2014/2015 HP Club President. Last year, the President Elect was unable to fulfill his term and Stan stepped up to serve as the 2016/2017 HP Club President and was recognized for his two years of dedicated 'service above self' as club president.
Some of my online abusers claim that I use any excuse to berate Diane Abbott. What? I have mentioned the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington four tiny times in more than two years.

Admittedly, not always approvingly, but very far from abusively. And very far from obsessively, very far from being part of a hate campaign, very far from being the output of the bilious, nasty and vindictive bitch my army of online non-Jan-fans often accuse me of being.

Theresa May has ordered an independent inquiry into online intimidation of MPs

So what? You cant expect everyone to like what you do, say or think. And like many who inch gingerly into the public arena, I am used to seeing my own warped reflection staring back at me from social media sites. Who is she, this despicable, horrible witch who is supposed to delight in misery and hate?

Yet any antipathy directed towards newspaper columnists is dwarfed by the trolls current target of choice  politicians. This week, Theresa May ordered an independent inquiry into the horrifying online intimidation of MPs. The Prime Minister pledges to stamp out the abuse and shocking threats that targeted Conservative MPs have had to endure.

To prove invective comes from both sides of the divide, my friend Miss Abbott detailed some of the slings and arrows she has had to withstand; a daily torrent of swill that roars into her office via the hate trident of Facebook, Twitter and email.

Her electronic postbag includes rape threats and death threats, plus myriad racist and sexist comments about her appearance.

While there is no doubt there has been a spike in cyber threats, the bullying and harassment faced by candidates and MPs during the election is not new.

Dianne Abbott's daily electronic postbag includes rape threats and death threats

In 1987, Diane Abbott became the first black female MP elected to the House of Commons, and one can only imagine the inventive ways in which certain unsavoury sections of society reacted to her appointment.

Diane has suffered more than most, yet she says the nastiness was different back then. Three decades ago, your average malcontent was obliged to make an effort. They had to write a letter, put it in an envelope, affix a stamp and walk to a post box.

Now they press a button and you read vile abuse that 30 years ago people would have been afraid to even write down, she said.

And that is the problem. Enabled by the liberation of anonymity, every disgruntled loser with a laptop can give voice to their darkest intolerances. The concealment and facelessness that social networking fosters has given an outlet to a new kind of casual barbarism.

Originally, this was the domain of the mindless troll, often misfits in grubby vests trying to tap their misery away by hurting others. That is why it is so very disturbing that political activists on the Left (and it is mostly the Left) now use the internet as a tool to abuse, to spread anti-Semitism and intimidate by general thuggishness  much of it directed by Corbynites against Tories and Labour moderates alike.

I suspect many of the bespectacled, bearded, spotty young men behind these accounts grew up sending revolting, anonymous messages to girls who wouldnt go out with them, and this is the logical progression of their personalities and careers.

On the one hand, the internet is empowering; a gateway to knowledge, independence, freedom of choice and information.

On the other hand it is a shadowy, sinister place which disinhibits those with a grudge and encourages them to wound. It also gives a false feeling of power, which can create havoc.

Enabled by the liberation of anonymity, every disgruntled loser with a laptop can give voice to their darkest intolerances

Out in the real world, teenagers have killed themselves over malicious online campaigns; bullied to death by unseen cowards. Commemoration pages on Facebook for the deceased are often hijacked by trolls leaving mocking messages. These are then read with dismay by the recently bereaved seeking comfort from the condolences of friends and relatives. The wanton cruelty leaves you gasping.

Social networks may be wonderful for democracy, but for every person with something valid to say, there are dozens who just want to hurl abuse and hurt.

Now politicians are the targets, they have woken up to the fact that its time for all this vicious nonsense to be stopped. Companies such as Twitter and Facebook have to become more accountable as laws and policing slowly catch up with the technology.

Of course, not everyone online is anonymous  but I dont see why those who maliciously wound the innocent or harass their political enemies should be given the continued freedom to do so.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the nastiest of them all? I know one thing for sure  its not me.

Hearsay trumps truth in our X Factor world

Public discussion on controversial issues has degenerated from reasoned debate into an emotional swamp.

Its like some nightmarish version of The X Factor, with all involved convinced of their cause and righteousness. In this morass, truth is the first casualty and facts ignored, replaced by misrepresentation and hearsay.

Both the tragedy of Grenfell Tower and the ongoing heartbreak of Charlie Gard have become characterised by hysteria and resentment against authorities who are trying to help, to dispense dispassionate judgment, to do the right thing.

The heartbreak of Charlie Gard has been characterised by hysteria and resentment against authorities

Charlie Gards parents shout at judges and accuse doctors of lying, despite a lack of evidence and rationality in their stance.

In court yesterday, Chris Gard and Connie Yates again stormed out of the proceedings. I thought this was supposed to be independent, shouted Mr Gard. I fully accept the heartbreak and misery of his position, but to respond like this when his desires are thwarted does no one any favours.

Gee up Joanna! In her latest show Joanna is determined to charm everyone she meets Who doesnt love Joanna Lumley, storming into her 70s like a gorgeous chiffony foal; still charming of manner, deep of voice and gloriously platinum of hair? However, I do have my doubts about her latest travel show, Joanna Lumleys India. Our Jo (above) has returned to the land of her birth, in an exploration of this vibrant and unique country. To be honest, she has little of Alan Whickers attention to detail. She sees only the good, has a penchant for elegant tomfoolery and is determined to charm everyone she meets. We learn that her Great-Uncle Ivor was the last British editor of The Times Of India, but would he be impressed with her efforts? This is indescribable, she says of one magnificent sight. I simply cannot describe this, she says of another. Joanna, darling, you must at least try. That is what you are there for. Advertisement

The Grenfell Tower fire was appalling. The cause still has to be established and to do so, a public inquiry was set up under a retired senior judge, Sir Martin Moore-Bick. He is an expert in complex technical contracts. But the Justice4Grenfell group dont want him. Too posh and too white. They dont want informed and clinical. They want grief counsellors and collusion. They want their suspicions confirmed. Including their belief that residents were murdered, the number of victims is being wilfully misrepresented, and survivors are being victimised by evil Tories with a callous disregard for the working classes.

Everyone is angry, upset, raw and grieving. Yet victims do not have the right to dictate events, simply by the mere fact of being victims. It is time for everyone to take stock and calm down. Please.

Look out, Royal Crawler alert!

Victoria Beckham might not know how to stitch a hem, she sure knows how to pull a string

A princess birthday party for your darling little girl? How utterly divine! And while that would be utterly marvellous, there is one incy-wincy challenge. How can the UKs number one yummy-mummy out-yummy the other yum-mums?

Sound a blast on the official Ye Olde Royal Crawler trumpet! For while Victoria Beckham might not necessarily know how to stitch a hem, she sure knows how to pull a string.

Harper Beckhams sixth birthday was held in Buckingham Palace  beat that, kids!

Harper Beckhams sixth birthday was held in Buckingham Palace  beat that, kids!

That nasty business with David roaring and swearing because he still has not been knighted? It all seems to have been forgotten. The tea party was hosted by Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York, which seems to suggest the Palace has a very forgiving approach to black sheep in the fold.

Proud dad posted a photo of Harper at the Palace on the family social media accounts (right). A hopeless breach of protocol, but what is the point of royal connections if you cant brag about them?

Can I just say something? The new series of Poldark may have had more than its fair share of wonderful moments  and I include Dr Dwight Enys in his uniform among them  but something is wrong. And I know what it is  the broadcast dates.

Poldark is always an autumnal, Sunday night treat; something to watch while snuggled up on the sofa in cosy socks, nursing a hot drink. As the Cornish waves crashed against the Cornish cliffs, the rain would beat on our own windows in chilly symmetry.

It feels wrong to be watching it in the height of a summer heatwave. Taint right, taint proper, taint decent!

Lover comes in all shapes and sizes

Adored the extract of Hunter Daviess second volume of memoirs, which was published in the Mail earlier this week.

A Life In The Day focuses on the Beatles biographers life in London during the Swinging Sixties, when he was editor of The Sunday Times magazine.

It also chronicles his enduring love for his wife, the writer Margaret Forster, who died last year.

Around the same time he was encouraging Jilly Cooper and that golden generation of columnists to write explicit features about their racy sex lives, he was going home to Margaret every night.

When they did have sex it was always, he reveals, with the lights off. And he never told her that he loved her while they were married. Well, maybe once.

During their life together, the only compliment Hunter ever gave Margaret was that she looked neat and clean.

Yet love and romance come in all shapes and sizes  and theirs was deep and strong, and endured until the end.
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Enjoying our brilliant new game? Then have a crack at our third  and penultimate  treasure hunt, which starts today.

One lucky reader will win 25,000 in gold bars  all you have to do is solve a series of simple clues or riddles, the answers to which are linked to Britains glorious heritage.

And, best of all, you can do it from the comfort of your armchair, because the clues are printed each day in the Daily Mail. This weeks hunt begins over the page with a clue hidden in an ar twork of Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeares birthplace.

Scroll down for puzzle

It's the third week of your chance to win 25,000 worth of gold bars by solving a tricky new riddle

A series of riddles will then be printed from Monday to Friday in the paper. Crack each riddle and write the answers in the grid provided in the paper. Once youve solved the last clue on Friday, the first letters of each of the six answers will give you an anagram of a British town or city.

If you think youve got the correct solution, then call, text or email and leave your answer and your personal details. To be eligible to win, you must have kept four Daily Mail front pages from Saturday 15 July to Friday 21 July. One winner will be drawn at random, and if its you well call you between noon and 2pm on the Saturday.

SPOT THE CLUES TO A LONDON LANDMARK  YOU COULD WIN 25,000

This sumptuous re-creation of historic Stratford-upon-Avon launches the third of our four Great British treasure hunts. Hidden within it is the first of six clues that will ultimately reveal the answer to this weeks hunt, which could win you a treasure trove containing 25,000 in gold bars.

This sumptuous re-creation of historic Stratford-upon-Avon launches the third of our four Great British treasure hunts

Actors in period dress mingle with tourists in Shakespeares home town, where one of his plays is being staged inside the theatre. Look closely and see if you can spot two visual clues that make up the name of a famous London landmark. This riddle is an essential guide round the picture...

DECIPHER THESE CLUES Age has not withered the star of the big show An alluring beauty whose life ended in woe Add whats in the womans hand by the chapel For a London landmark with a twin in the Big Apple Advertisement

Once you think youve got it, write the answer down in the space provided. Then, starting on Monday and all next week in the Daily Mail, well print five more riddles, the answers to which are steeped in Britains heritage. They could be market towns, landmarks, cities or lakes.

Write each answer in the grid provided in the paper next week and when youve got all six on Friday, unscramble the initial letters of each answer to spell out the name of a six-letter British seaside town.

Call the hotlines when they open on Friday and leave your answer and your personal details  if youve won, well call you between 12 noon and 2pm on Saturday 22 July. To be eligible to win, you must have retained four Daily Mail front pages between Saturday 15 July and Friday 21 July. Happy hunting!
An Australian mother, who went through the agony of cradling her baby boy in her arms as he died, has spoken of her joy after giving birth to twin girls eight months later.

Melissa Lovf's son Mikey was born with a severe heart condition and when he was four months old, she was told he had just weeks to live.

Tragically he passed away in October last year in his mother's arms with 'love wrapped around him'.

Eight months later, Melissa gave birth to twin baby girls - something she told Daily Mail Australia 'was definitely Mikey's gift'.

Melissa Lovf's son Mikey was born with a severe heart condition and when he was four months old, she was told he had just weeks to live (they are pictured together before he died)

Eight months later, Melissa gave birth to twin baby girls - something she told Daily Mail Australia 'was definitely Mikey's gift'

' We are pleased to announce the birth of our two daughters at 7:57 and 7:58am this day. Bonnie & Stevie Lovf weighing 2.315 & 2.555kgs respectively, Melissa's partner, Chad, announced on Facebook on 29 June.

'Both are beautiful and healthy, and their mummy is recovering magnificently. I'm super proud of you mummy x.'

As the baby girls remained in hospital after their birth, their mother said Mikey was 'watching over them' in the form of his beloved lion teddy bear.

As the baby girls remained in hospital after their birth, their mother said Mikey was 'watching over them' in the form of his beloved lion teddy bear

Bonnie and Stevie Lovf were born weighing 2.3 and 2.5 kilos respectively, Melissa's partner, Chad, announced on Facebook on 29 June

'We miss you so very much Mikey... I wish so much you were here with your sisters xx,' Melissa wrote later on Facebook.

'We miss you so very much Mikey... I wish so much you were here with your sisters xx,' she wrote later on Facebook.

Before he died, Melissa had been raising money to help Mikey enjoy his last few weeks as much as he could.

She first knew something was wrong when she went to her 12 week pregnancy scan and was told her unborn baby had a heart problem.

Melissa Lovf's little boy Mikey (pictured) passed away after battling severe heart problems

Before he died, Melissa had been raising money to help Mikey enjoy his last few weeks as much as he could

As her pregnancy progressed she discovered it was severe.

Soon after Mikey's birth, doctors picked up another complication affecting his veins - a condition called TAPVD (Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Drainage).

At just 36 hours old, the baby boy underwent open heart surgery.

More surgeries followed, but tragically Melissa and Chad were finally told nothing further could be done.

'The news broke us. Our little boy Mikey, who was so full of life and just starting to show his personality, was out of options,' Melissa said of learning her baby wouldn't make it

'There was nothing else that could be done for Mikey, except to make him comfortable. The guide they gave is a few months at most,' Melissa previously told Mamamia.

'The news broke us. Our little boy Mikey, who was so full of life and just starting to show his personality, was out of options.'

She went on: 'I do not regret having Mikey, as whilst he had a chance at a good-quality life, we fought for it.'
Top chef Miguel Maestre has selected his five favourite burgers in Australia, and luckily his choices spread across almost all six states.

At the top of the Sydney-based chef's list is actually a Tasmanian, found at The Quartermasters restaurant in Hobart.

The unique burger is actually a rump steak, and each one has been cooked for two days in a 'sous-vide water bath', Miguel explained on Channel 10's The Living Room.

Top chef Miguel Maestre has selected his five favourite burgers in Australia, and at the top this rump fillet burger from The Quartermasters in Hobart

The unique burger is actually a rump steak, and each one has been cooked for two days in a 'sous-vide water bath', Miguel explained on Channel 10's The Living Room

The cooking method, in which the steak is vacum-sealed in a plastic pouch, ensures that the burger maintains its incredible flavour and tenderness, he added.

Miguel headed to Victoria for the second burger on his list, found at Easey's Burgers in Melbourne.

It's called the Melbourne Madness, and it's not for the faint of heart.

The burger comes back with a double beef patty and double American cheddar, as well as bacon, jalapenos, and pickles.

On top of all that is a double fried beer battered dim sum, as well as a double fried potato cake.

It's a whopper of influences and flavours that Miguel said is akin to owner Jimmy Hurlston's 'ruthless' burger preferences.

The second burger on Miguel's list is Melbourne Madness, which comes with a double beef patty and double American cheddar

On top of all that is a double fried beer battered dim sum, as well as a double fried potato cake

Rounding out the top three on Miguel's list is a different beast, literally.

The Croc Burger Special can be found at the Humpty Doo Hotel near Darwin in the Northern Territory, where visitors can truly get a taste of the Outback.

It was created by head chef Lynette Duke, and comes with deep-fried crocodile tail fillet pieces that some on TripAdvisor reports 'tastes like chicken'.

The Croc Burger is seasoned with saltbush and served on a brioche bun alongside beer battered fries.

Taking the fourth spot on Miguel's list is a burger influenced by both American and Japanese culture.

The Gojima Cheesburger, found at Gojima in Sydney, is an American-style burger in between two rice buns.

The Croc Burger Special, found at the Humpty Doo Hotel near Darwin, is third on the list

The Gojima Cheesburger, found at Gojima in Sydney, is an American-style burger in between two rice buns. It takes the fourth spot on Miguel's list

Created by Japanese chef Chase Kojima, the buns have been made from carmelised sushi rice that are wrapped in what he calls the 'best nori seaweed in the world'.

They feature an extra kick of flavour thanks to a spread of housemade umami butter, with a beef patty, pickles, white onions and lettuce in between.

It wouldn't be an Australian list without some fish, and landing the fifth and final spot is the Smoked Barramundi Burger found at the Laternfish in Port Douglas.

Miguel revealed that the barramundi used in each burger is locally caught, before being cooked with fresh herbs, garlics and onion on a stovetop smoker.

It is served on a brioche bun alongside smoked chilli mayo and charred pineapple salsa.

Watch The Living Room's 'Hot List' episode tonight on Channel 10 at 7.30pm
When Catherine Cervasio found herself pregnant and surprisingly made redundant at work, she said she felt as though 'my world had fallen apart'.

However, rather than panic and drift into meltdown, the Melbourne-based mother-of-two devised a business idea while she was expecting her first son in 1994.

'As someone who is passionate about health and wellness, I was shocked to find that there were no natural skin products anywhere for babies,' Ms Cervasio told Daily Mail Australia.

Mere months later, she launched Aromababy - an all-natural skincare line made in Australia which is now beloved by Crown Princess Mary and Miranda Kerr.

Catherine Cervasio (pictured) was pregnant and surprisingly made redundant in 1994 when she came up with her idea for her all-natural skincare line for babies

Mere months later, she launched Aromababy - an all-natural skincare line made in Australia which is now beloved by Crown Princess Mary (pictured) and Miranda Kerr

The first step for the mum-of-two for her business was doing her research - 'When I started looking around, I found out that some of the ingredients used in conventional products were triggering allergies and eczema,' Ms Cervasio said

So how did a busy, out-of-work mum do it?

According to Ms Cervasio, first of all she needed to do her research.

'When I started looking around, I found out that some of the ingredients used in conventional products were triggering allergies and eczema,' Ms Cervasio said.

'Mothers are bombarded with marketing so often, but every product is filled with irritants like sulphates and parabens. My job was to find natural preservatives.'

'Mothers are bombarded with marketing so often, but every product is filled with irritants like sulphates and parabens. My job was to find natural preservatives,' Ms Cervasio (pictured centre with Jackie and Lillian Frank) said

The mother-of-two spent a year formulating ingredients (pictured) and visiting various laboratories

She launched Aromababy with the help of Myer, who she got on board quickly as a stockist (pictured: some Aromababy products)

After she spent a year formulating ingredients and visiting various laboratories, Ms Cervasio launched Aromababy with the help of Myer, who she got on board as a stockist:

'Because the cost of manufacturing my product was quite high initially, I went to Myer nearly straight away,' she said.

'I remember putting some pictures together and going to pitch to them and them saying I must have worked in marketing.

'I felt so proud because I have zero background in marketing - I left school at 15!'.

The businesswoman has received letters from countless celebrities who are fans of her brand - she even has fans in royalty (pictured: a letter from Princess Mary)

Today, Aromababy is sold in hundreds of stores across the Asia Pacific, parts of Europe and the United Arab Emirates (pictured with Gary Mehigan of Masterchef)

Today, Aromababy is sold in hundreds of stores across the Asia Pacific, parts of Europe and the United Arab Emirates.

It is also loved by the likes of Crown Princess Mary, Jamie Oliver and Miranda Kerr, many of whom the mother-of-two has received letters from in praise.

'It's been tough at points- there are always ups and downs with business - but what keeps me going is the real stories of mothers who have used the products and found them to help with allergies and nappy rash,' Ms Cervasio said.

'There have been times when I've thought that I didn't have the relentless tenacity to be at the helm of a business. But 20 years later, I'm still here.'

'It's been tough at times - there are always ups and downs with business - but what keeps me going is the real stories of mothers who have used the products,' Ms Cervasio said

'There have been times when I've thought that I didn't have the relentless tenacity to be at the helm of a business. But 20 years later, I'm still here,' she said (pictured: Aromababy products)

Speaking about her advice for other businesswomen, Ms Cervasio had one piece of golden wisdom - 'Follow your heart,' she said. 'My business was built from the heart,' she said

Speaking about her advice for other businesswomen, Ms Cervasio had one piece of golden wisdom:

'Follow your heart,' she said. 'My business was built from the heart and that's been key.

'Also feel your way and take it a day at a time. When I look at how far I've come over 20 years, I know it's all worth it.'

To find out more about Aromababy, you can visit the website here.
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The Spanish royals have been waved off by the Queen on the final morning of their three-day state visit.

After bidding their hosts farewell at Buckingham Palace, Queen Letizia and King Felipe VI travelled to the Francis Crick Institute, a research centre in central London, to meet members of the Spanish scientific community working in the UK.

Letizia ensured she went out with a bang this morning in her most stylish ensemble yet, pairing a high-waisted dusky pink skirt with a white wrap shirt and towering heels.

The Spanish royals spent their final evening at a show-stopping banquet at Guildhall with royals including Princess Anne after joining Prince Harry on a visit to Westminster Abbey yesterday.

After their visit to the Francis Crick Insitute on Friday, the couple travelled to their final pit stop, Oxford's Weston Library, where dozens of local schoolchildren gathered outside, waving Spanish flags and holding up a giant sign reading Bienvenidos! (Welcome).

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh wave of Spain's Felipe and Letizia marking the end of their three-day state visit to the UK - the first from a Spanish monarch in 31 years. The couple will spend their final day in London and Oxford

Letizia kicked off her final day at Buckingham Palace in style, wearing an elegant pleated skirt with a white wrap blouse and a pair of LODI burgundy suede ankle strap pumps - accessorising with an on-trend raffia clutch bag

Stylish Letizia has won plaudits for her show-stopping outfits this week, despite paring back her normally racy look in favour of more conservative styles. She has turned to her go-to designer Felipe Varela for her more formal ensembles

In a speech over lunch at the nearby Divinity School afterwards, Felipe, 49, praised the university's work in promoting 'the free exchange of ideas' and the 'circulation of talent'.

This week's visit has been seen as an important step in securing relations with Spain as the UK leaves the EU; the last incoming state visit by a Spanish king - Felipe's father Juan Carlos I - was 31 years ago in 1986.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia's trip was postponed twice - firstly because of a political crisis in Spain in March 2016, and then again when the rescheduled date clashed with June's snap general election.

On Wednesday, the couple were formally greeted by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on Horse Guards Parade on what will be Philip's last state visit before he retires from public duties in the autumn.

Security was tight for the show-stopping carriage procession, marking the start of the first state visit to take place since the recent terror attacks in Manchester and London.

The couple - parents to 11-year-old Leonor, Princess of Asturias and 10-year-old Infanta Sofia of Spain - then enjoyed a private lunch with the royal family at Buckingham Palace.

The royals have played host to their Spanish neighbours this week, treating them to not one but two lavish state banquets as well as a show-stopping Ceremonial Welcome on Wednesday. The entire state visit comprised some 1,000 troops

During a speech at Wednesday's banquet, the Queen said that a state visit 'can provide an opportunity for great personal happiness', noting: 'So it was, more than a century ago, when your great-grandfather, King Alfonso the Thirteenth, met his future wife, Princess Victoria Eugenie, the grand-daughter of our Queen Victoria, in this very ballroom'

During the lunchtime reception, Felipe VI became what is known as a 'Stranger Knight' or 'Extra Knight Companion' of the prestigious Order of the Garter.

Buckingham Palace said the last foreign royal to be invested as a Knight of the Garter was King Harald V of Norway in 2001. The decision demonstrates the cordial nature of the royals' relations with their Spanish counterparts.

On Wednesday afternoon the Spanish couple, who wed in Madrid 2004, viewed the Palace's Royal Collection before meeting the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall for tea at nearby Clarence House.

The royal couple later met Prince Harry and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge when they were feted with the grand state banquet in the ballroom at Buckingham Palace.

The Mall was decked out in Spanish flags ahead of the visit and gun salutes were fired from Green Park and the Tower of London to welcome the King and Queen of Spain.

Prince Andrew, Duke of York plays host to the Spanish royals on the final day of their UK visit at the Francis Crick Institute. The couple will later travel to to Oxford before flying back to Madrid this evening

No pomp and ceremony here! The Duke of York greets Letizia with a kiss on both cheeks - a far cry from the formalities of last night's state banquet which saw Andrew's sister, Princess Anne, perform a deep curtsy when meeting the royals

The Duke shared a joke with Letizia outside the research centre before heading inside. Once there, they will meet members of the Spanish scientific community working in the UK before heading to their final pit stop, Oxford University

Hola! The couple greet research scientists during their visit to the Francis Crick Institute in central London

Elegant: Royal watchers remarked that Letizia's white wrap top bore similarities to a ballet dancer's wrap top

The stunning royal added a sweeping A-line skirt, which nipped in her tiny waist while giving her look a feminine edge. They later headed to Weston Library, where they were shown a copy of a Ptolemy, with the Coat of Arms of the Catholic Kings

Onto Oxford: Dozens of local schoolchildren gathered outside the library today, waving Spanish flags and holding up a giant sign reading 'Bienvenidos!' (Welcome!) as the royals prepared to fly back home to their two daughters

Inside the library, they will be greeted by Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of Oxford University. The royals will view an exhibition of Spanish treasures from the Oxford University archive before proceeding to the Divinity School for lunch

Spot the royal! Letizia and Felipe pose for a photograph with pupils of Tyndale Community School. Next, they will proceed to the Divinity School for lunch at which the King will give a speech

Youngsters from Tyndale Community School fool around outside the Weston Library as the await the royals' arrival. According to the Spanish royals' official website, they were shown a manuscript of the Codex Mendoza inside the library, chronicled by Antonio Mendoza, Viceroy of Mexico between 1535 and 1550, which includes the history of the lords of Tenochtitlan

On Wednesday afternoon, the King and Queen visited the Palace of Westminster, where they were welcomed by the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Speaker. The King delivered an address in the Royal Gallery to Parliamentarians and other guests, followed by the royal banquet where they dined with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

William and Harry have a shared history with the Spanish King. As youngsters, they holidayed with Felipe, his father King Juan Carlos and their family in Mallorca several times throughout the 1980s. Felipe and Letizia were also guests at the Duke and Duchess's wedding in 2011.

The Cambridges are already viewed as the Royal family's unofficial Brexit ambassadors, and are setting off on another diplomacy tour next week - heading to Germany and Poland for five days with their children Prince George and Princess Charlotte in tow.

The last supper: Felipe and Letizia sit for lunch at the Divinity School, Oxford, their penultimate pit stop before flying home. Earlier, they visited a nearby Conservation Workshop and an exhibition of works by local primary school pupils

In a speech, King Felipe gave a short speech in which he emphasised that the concept of knowledge and progress 'is and should be open and available to society'

Addressing the crowds, Felipe added: 'Concepts such as transnational scientific collaboration and the free exchange of ideas, as well as mobility and the free circulation of talent, are in the very essence of the University, and are also the basis of modern knowledge management'

The ancient building of the Divinity School provided the perfect backdrop for Felipe and Letizia's final lunch before heading back to Spain. The royals are no doubt looking forward to being reunited with their daughters, Princesses Leonor and Sofia

This week's visit has been seen as an important step in securing relations with Spain as the UK leaves the EU ; the last incoming state visit by a Spanish king - Felipe's father Juan Carlos I - was 31 years ago in 1986

Royal welcome: The Mall was decked out in Spanish flags ahead of the royals' arrival this week, and gun salutes were fired from Green Park and the Tower of London to welcome the King and Queen of Spain

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visit Exeter College, Oxford, as they prepare to head back to Spain tonight. Letizia donned a Topshop skirt which is currently just 30 in the sale in a clear nod to the British high street
The Georgia Department of Labor will help Lake Winnepesaukah recruit more than 50 part-time workers for the amusement park in Rossville. The park will be open through October.

The recruitment will be held on Thursday, July 27, from 2-6 p.m. at the park located at 1730 Lakeview Dr.

The company is recruiting ride and game operators along with food service workers.

All applicants must be at least 16 years old and be able to work weekends.

Salaries depend on the job and experience.

For more information about the jobs, or to apply online, visit employgeorgia.com to create an account and upload, or prepare, a resume. Having an Employ Georgia account expedites the interview process.

For more information about the recruitment, contact the GDOLs Dalton Career Center at (706) 272-2301. The career center, located at 1406 Chattanooga Ave., is open to serve the public Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Applicants are encouraged to dress appropriately to improve their opportunities for employment.

Visit dol.georgia.gov to learn more about career opportunities, Employ Georgia and other GDOL services for job seekers and employers, and to connect with us on social media.


A woman who suffered five heart-breaking early miscarriages, has spoken movingly of the bittersweet moment when she was told she was two months pregnant with a baby girl, but she also had cervical cancer.

Learning she was both pregnant and had cancer within a fortnight of each other, Amy Cupit, 33, from Nottingham was given two devastating choices.

Doctors at Nottingham City Hospital gave her the agonising options of either terminating her pregnancy and having surgery to remove the grade one, type one tumour, or continuing to carry her baby, but being induced early  the risk being that the tumour would grow and become more aggressive.

'Both were rubbish choices,' said Amy, of Nottingham. 'When my husband, Mike, and I learnt what I had we couldn't believe it. We'd never managed to carry a baby so far and then we were being told I had cancer.'

After a cone biopsy during early pregnancy, Amy was able to carry her baby to 39 weeks and gave birth to a healthy daughter, Ruby.

Amy Cupit, 33, from Nottingham with her daughter Ruby and son Tommie after completing this year's Race For Life following her battle with cervical cancer

Amy after giving birth to her daughter Ruby, by caesarean section, on 18 July 2012

The couple were at their wits' end until the hospital's 'miracle doctor', consultant gynaecological surgeon and oncologist Jafaru Abu, spoke to colleagues in Australia. They suggested he performed a cone biopsy  when a cone-shaped wedge of tissue is removed from high up in the cervix - later in the pregnancy and attempted, while her baby was still in the womb, to slice out the tumour.

Amy, a tenancy support officer, agreed and the nail-biting surgery took place under general anaesthetic at Nottingham City Hospital, when she was three months pregnant.

Amazingly, Mr Abu managed to fully remove the tumour and at 39 weeks, Ruby was born by caesarean, weighing a healthy 5lb 13oz.

'We were delighted,' said Amy, speaking out to raise awareness of her condition and to encourage other women to have smear tests. 'She was our miracle.'

Amy running the Race For Life last year. The mother-of-two is now fit and healthy after beating cervical cancer

Amy and Mike, with their dogs (left to right) Chelsea and Logan, in Wales, in 2007 - two years before they go married

Amy and HMRC worker Mike, now 34, who married in 2009 when she was 26, started trying for a baby within a year of tying the knot.

'For the first year we didn't bother trying,' she explained. 'But then we started and fell pregnant quickly.'

Sadly, she miscarried at around six weeks and her GP suggested they try again, after her next menstrual cycle.

Again, she fell pregnant easily  but the same thing happened another five times.

Mike with Ruby and Tommie at the Race For Life this year. The couple adopted their son after Amy had to undergo a hysterectomy

'It sounds disgusting, but I got used to going to the loo and seeing blood,' said Amy. 'I began to expect it. It was heart-breaking.'

Despite repeated visits to her GP, medics could not pinpoint why she kept miscarrying before six weeks.

Then, in autumn 2011, she fell pregnant with Ruby.

'Around the same time, I went to my GP for a routine smear test,' she explained. 'At the time of the test in October, 2011, I didn't know I was pregnant.'

About a week later, she was surprised to discover the smear had detected abnormal cells. A colposcopy  a more detailed smear  was ordered, which she had at Nottingham City Hospital.

Amy after giving birth to her daughter Ruby, by caesarean section, on 18 July 2012, with husband Mike

The test revealed a small tumour on her cervix, which proved to be cancerous. It was at its least aggressive stage, but had the potential to grow.

'I knew something was wrong when more and more doctors kept coming in,' she explained. 'Then, around a week later, I was told it was cancer.'

And, approximately a week after that, she discovered she was eight weeks pregnant - the longest she had managed.

She explained: 'I'd had a hormone injection after my previous miscarriage. I can't recall what hormone, but maybe that's why this pregnancy was more viable.

Ruby and Tommie congratulate their mother with a hug after the Race For Life (left). Amy with her daughter Ruby, when she was about 12-months-old, on holiday in Wales, in 2013 (right)

'I couldn't believe I was finally pregnant and potentially fighting for my life at the same time.'

Following her surgery at three months pregnant, Amy took things slowly. But, at 39 weeks, while doctors were attempting to induce her, she faced further difficulties, when she was told she'd experienced cervix stenosis - when a woman's cervix fuses.

This prevented her from having a natural delivery and, on 18 June, 2012, she had a caesarean section.

Amy was cancer free and Ruby, arrived healthy and happy.

Amy and Mike, at a friend's wedding, in 2007. The couple started trying for a baby a year after their own wedding

But just two weeks later, the new mum started to feel ill.

'A GP said it was probably nothing, but I contacted Mr Abu and he said to come in straight away,' she explained.

Alarmingly, her fused cervix had caused her womb to fill with blood and pus.

Forced to have an emergency hysterectomy, this now meant she would not have any more children naturally.

So, in March 2016, they adopted a little boy, Tommie, now two.

The mother-of-two is passionate about supporting Cancer Research and wants to encourage all women to keep up with their smear tests

The happy couple on holiday in Brazil in 2006, before Amy was diagnosed with cancer

Now, healthy and happy, she plans to go to Nottingham Trent University to study social work in September this year.

She is in remission from cancer.

She said: 'The experience of being diagnosed with cancer and overcoming many obstacles has made me and my family really appreciate life.

'I don't take things for granted and feel lucky that my cancer was caught early enough for successful treatment.

'My only wish is that all women eligible for a cervical smear should take up the invitation. My story might have been very different if I hadn't.'

Amy is supporting Cancer Research UK's Race for Life in partnership with Tesco. Run, walk or jog in one of more than 300 nationwide events this summer. Every pound will help beat cancer. Sign up right now at raceforlife.org
As the birthday girl, Princess Victoria of Sweden might have expected to be the centre of attention.

But the mother-of-two, who turns 40 today, was overshadowed by her playful niece Princess Leonore as the royal family gathered to kick off the festivities in Stockholm.

Three-year-old Leonore, the daughter of Victoria's sister Princess Madeleine, 35, was photographed scampering around the courtyard outside the Royal Palace after the family attended a Te Deum Thanksgiving service at the Royal Chapel.

Birthday girl: Princess Victoria with husband Daniel and their children Estelle and Oscar

Wait for me! Princess Leonora, three, the daughter of Princess Madeleine, pictured, and Princess Victoria's niece, was photographed skipping across the courtyard at the palace

Delighted: Sticking her tongue out, the playful toddler ran towards her waiting mother

Time for a rest: Leonore, who wore a white dress with dusty pink detailing, crouches down

Family portrait (l-r) Princess Madeleine, her husband Christopher O'Neill, Queen Silvia, Prince Daniel, Princess Estelle (in front), Crown Princess Victoria (with Prince Oscar in arms), King Carl Gustaf, Princess Sofia, Prince Carl Philip (with Prince Alexander in arms)

Sticking her tongue out in glee, the toddler ran towards her mother, Princess Madeleine, before crouching down at her feet.

Leonore was also spotted horse-playing with her younger brother, Prince Nicolas, two, as the royal family gathered for a reception to mark the milestone.

The young princess looked lovely in an off-white dress with dusty rose detailing, which her parents teamed with a pair of patent buckle shoes.

Cuddle: Princess Estelle leans in for a hug from her mother, birthday girl Princess Victoria

Best behaviour: Estelle waves alongside her mother as they make their way in a horse-drawn carriage

Well-wishers: Crowds lined the streets to see the royal family as they left the Royal Palace

Procession: Princess Victoria's family is escorted from the Royal Palace to the Royal Stables

Meanwhile Victoria's own daughter, Princess Estelle, five, and son, Prince Oscar, one, remained on their best behaviour as they posed for photographs with their parents.

Estelle was also seen waving to well-wishers as the family took a horse drawn carriage from the Royal Palace to the Royal Stables through the streets of the city.

The birthday girl looked radiant in a white fit-and-flare dress, which was covered in butterflies embroidered and appliqued in shades of pink and gold.

Thanksgiving service: Princess Estelle, Prince Daniel, Princess Victoria and Prince Oscar

Hands-on: Princess Madeleine and Chris O'Neill carry their children through the chapel

Playtime! Princess Leonore and her brother Princess Nicolas play at the royal reception today

She finished the look with white heeled pumps and a nude clutch bag.

The service was also attended by her brother, Prince Carl Philip, 38, his pregnant wife Princess Sofia, 32, and their one-year-old son, Prince Alexander.

Princess Sofia looked sensational in a knee-length blush pink and black dress, which she teamed with a white-and-black hat with a bow.

Picture-perfect family: Princess Victoria attended the service with her husband Prince Daniel and their children, Princess Estelle, five, and one-year-old Prince Oscar

Mummy's girl: Princess Estelle wore butterfly hair pins to match her mother's pretty pink dress

In keeping with the royal family's pastel theme, Princess Madeleine opted for a floaty powder blue floral frock, with a matching hat and heeled pumps.

Her husband, Christopher O'Neill, looked dashing in a blue suit while their son Nicolas wore a blue vest and shorts in a very similar shade to his cousin Oscar's outfit.

Meanwhile Queen Silvia, 73, donned a teal skirt suit and matching hat as she arrived for the service with her husband, King Carl Gustaf, 71.

Quick change! Victoria later swapped her embellished frock for the Swedish National dress

All smiles: She wore the traditional dress as her birthday celebrations continued at Borgholm

Beaming: Victoria certainly looked to be in high spirits, flashing a wide smile

Family day: She was again accompanied by daughter Estelle and husband Daniel

Pretty in pastels: Estelle covered up her printed dress with a peach coat

Princess Victoria looked in excellent spirits as she posed for photographs on the steps with her children, who were both dressed in pastel ensembles for the occasion.

Princess Estelle wore a white dress in a similar style to her mother's and a pair of pink buckled ballet shoes. She braided hair was accessorised with her very own butterfly pins.

Prince Oscar, who was carried in his father's arms, looked adorable in white shorts and a powder blue and white sailor-style top.

Family affair: Victoria's husband Prince Daniel carried their son Prince Oscar into the Royal Palace, left. Her pregnant sister-in-law Princess Sofia looked radiant in pale pink and black

Perfectly co-ordinated: Princess Victoria, her husband and children all made a special effort

Family affair: Queen Silvia, 73, donned a teal skirt suit and matching hat as she arrived for the service with her husband, King Carl Gustaf, 71

Prince Carl Philip, 38, his pregnant wife Princess Sofia, 32, and their son Prince Alexander
A mother has sparked an online debate about gender stereotypes - after posting a picture of her son with his nails painted blue.

Zoe Crocker, 31, from Plymouth, explained that her four-year-old son Dilan-James asked to have his nails done, after seeing her paint his sister's.

She said she got overwhelming support online - with many mothers telling stories about how their own children liked to challenge gender stereotypes.

With even the male Love Island contestants sporting nail polish, it certainly seems to be a gender neutral adornment these days.

However, Zoe admitted that the response has not been completely positive, explaining that some have described wearing nail polish as a 'girl thing'.

Sharing the photograph on the Plymouth Gossip Girls group, Zoe wrote: 'How many of you ladies would let your little boys wear nail varnish?

'I was doing my little girl's and my four-year-old son came over and asked to have his done so I done them blue - his favourite colour.

Zoe Crocker, 31, from Plymouth, sparked an online debate about whether boys should wear nail polish - after posting a picture of her four-year-old son Dilan-James (pictured left) with blue nails (right )

'His nursery teachers loved them and didn't say it was a girl thing but some family members have. I've had to say that it's not wrong as it's my little boy's choice etc. Is it wrong that I painted them?'

Other mothers were quick to react, with Roxanne Thorne writing: 'If your daughter can have her nails painted then why not your son? It's not going to do him any harm.'

Elise Driver added: 'I don't see the problem to be honest, seriously why are our kids growing up in such a sexist world?'

Posting a picture of her son wearing a frock, Laura Roberts wrote: 'My son... in a dress. If he wanted his nails painted then yes I would do it.'

Sharing the photograph on Facebook, Zoe wrote: 'How many of you ladies would let your little boys wear nail varnish?

Other mothers described how their sons liked to challenge traditional gender stereotypes.

Speaking about her son, Kelly Redford wrote: 'Yesterday he had pink lip gloss on. I couldn't believe how well he put it on to be honest. He looked great!'

Sharing a picture of her son wearing mascara and lipstick, Danielle Elizabeth commented: 'My three-year-old also loves make up'.

Zoe said she was delighted with the positive comments she had received about Dilan-James wearing nail polish.

'I was overwhelmed with how many people had commented saying their little boys wore nail varnish,' she said.

She said she got an overwhelmingly positive response online - with many mothers telling stories about how their own children liked to challenge gender stereotypes

'I didn't think that many parents would let them wear it seeing as it's seen as only female wear.

'I didn't think I would get such amazing and positive comments about it all. I suffer with anxiety and I didn't really want to put it on my son in case I had negative comments while out and about.

'But when Dilan-James asked me to paint his nails while I was doing his sister's I thought why not?

'That's when I asked for people's opinions and got an amazing response. It has definitely put my anxiety at ease and I won't stop Dilan-James playing with his sisters toys or stop him from wearing nail varnish either.'

Plymouth Gossip Girls group creator Gillian Nair said: 'Honestly I am actually really amazed by the women in the group every day.

'There are of course disagreements over many things, especially when it comes to parenting, as we are all different and all have different parenting styles and techniques but for everyone to be so open minded about things like this is really awesome.'
Tiffany Trump's family may be feeling a bit stressed in the U.S. while dealing with yet another Russia scandal, but President Trump's youngest daughter is living it up in Capri, Italy with her mother Marla Maples.

The 23-year-old has been traveling throughout Europe for the past three weeks, and on Monday she arrived on the island of Capri where she met up with mom, who undoubtedly missed her only child while she was away.

Marla, 53, took to Instagram on Thursday evening to share a photo of her and Tiffany wearing similar looking white dresses as they smiled alongside model Nour B. Rizk and her little brother.

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Mother-daughter vacation! Tiffany Trump and her mom Marla Maples donned matching white while posing for a photo in Capri with model Nour B. Rizk and her little brother

'Sea doo... happiness: The morning after their dinner, Marla shared a photo of herself swimming in the sea

Sightseeing: Marla, 53, also snapped photos of their trip to the ancient ruins of Pompeii on Thursday afternoon

'Sweet moments with these angels in #Capri #motherdaughter#sisterbrother Such joy and kindness and I must say... #wisebeyondyears,' she captioned the image, which sees the group posed in front of an outdoor pool.

Marla looked youthful in a Roman toga-inspired one-shoulder strap dress, while Tiffany opted for a modern white frock featuring a mock neck, studded detailing around her waist, and a slit.

Both mother and daughter opted to leave their long blond hair down in loose waves, and while Marla paired her look with strappy gold heels, Tiffany stuck to classic nude pumps and a small box-handbag that she carried.

Meanwhile, Nour looked every bit the model in a high-low black top that showed off a sliver of her stomach and a high-waisted white skirt featuring a patch of embroidery.

Stunning: 'From Napoli ... a view of the volcano of Pompeii,' Marla captioned this photo, which she shared on Instagram Stories

However, her little brother was clearly the star of the show, as Marla and Tiffany both affectionately posed with their arms around him.

In the comments section of the post, Carlos Amezcua told Marla that they 'all look lovely' with his little brother.

'Is he not the most precious and wise soul ever!! We miss you,' she responded.

Earlier this summer, Marla was staying in the Hamptons with former Real Housewife of New York City Jill Zarin, and the reality star also made sure to check in with her pal.

'Are you having best time sister???' she asked.

Marla returned to Instagram on Friday to share a photo of herself in the Mediterranean sea, writing: 'Sea doo... happiness.'

Fun in the sun! Tiffany put her tanned legs on display in a short white romper while enjoying some time on the 130ft charter yacht Mirage IV on Monday

Living the life: Tiffany and Marla were pictured enjoying breakfast on the yacht Tuesday

On Thursday, before their dinner, Marla and Tiffany had a day filled with sightseeing, as they traveled to Naples to visit the ruins of the ancient-Roman town of Pompeii.

Marla is also enjoying all the Italian delicacies she is eating, and she couldn't resist sharing a photo of one of her delicious - and vegan-friendly - appetizers on Wednesday.

'This... is heaven. Any ideas what this colorful appetizer we had for lunch is?' she asked her followers. 'It's a #Vegan Lebanese dish with a fresh #Capri #tomato and more.... white sauce is of Toum a mixture of lemon, olive oil and garlic. The red spice is #Summac.'

Tiffany is due to attend law school at Georgetown University this fall, and she appears to be enjoying ever second of the summer before returning to school in just a matter of weeks.

Jokes all round: A make-up-free Tiffany was seen kicking back in a white towel robe, while sharing a few laughs with her mother and their two male friends

Snap! Tiffany took a picture at one point, while the rest of the group laughed at something Marla was pointing at

Busy morning? While Tiffany was busy relaxing on board, her mother appeared to have headed out for an early workout and was seen returning to the yacht with a bottle of water

Trump's only child with his second ex-wife Marla was pictured living the high life in Italy while on a 130ft Mirage IV charter yacht with her mother.

Flaunting tanned legs in a short white romper, which she paired with a silver evil eye chain belt, Tiffany was the epitome of summer chic.

She looked happy and relaxed as she wandered around the boat barefoot, pausing to share a joke with friends, snap some pictures - and even pose for an impromptu photo shoot.

There is plenty of room on the Mirage IV charter yacht, which the mother-daughter duo seemed to be calling home at the start of the week.

Italian getaway: Tiffany was photographed strolling through the streets of Capri on Sunday

The Princess boat can house up to 10 guests in its five cabins, and also comes complete with a crew of eight, meaning Tiffany and Marla's every wish was catered for during their stay.

Although it is not known whether Tiffany and her mother have rented the yacht personally - or indeed been lent the vessel - the duo were pictured enjoying a relaxing morning on-board on Tuesday.

While make-up-free Tiffany kicked back in a white towel robe, her mother relaxed in some workout gear.

The pair were joined by two male friends as they sat down at a table at the back of the charter yacht in the harbor of Capri.

Tiffany looked incredibly relaxed and happy as the group of four laughed and smiled, before she paused to snap some pictures on her phone.

Summer ready: Tiffany kept cool in an off-the-shoulder mini-dress while enjoying the humid island weather

Romantic getaway: Before arriving on the island, Tiffany had been traveling around Europe with her boyfriend Ross Mechanic, who did not go to Italy with her

The first daughter's stay in Capri comes after a busy few weeks of jet-setting with her boyfriend Ross - who did not appear to have joined his girlfriend for the latest leg of her European trip.

The duo was last seen together in Hungary, Budapest, last weekend, with Ross sharing a cute snap of the couple posing in the city center on his Instagram account on last Saturday.

But as of Sunday, it appeared as though the vacation had come to an end for Ross. Tiffany was instead being joined by her mother Marla for a mom-daughter trip to Capri, where the youngest Trump daughter was seen enjoying an evening stroll with her mother, taking in the sights and sounds of the Italian island.

Tiffany donned a black and white mini-dress featuring ruffles and a see-through cut-out to beat the heat.

Look of love: Tiffany and Ross most recently visited Budapest, Hungary, together

Seeing sights: Late last month, Tiffany was in Germany, having fun as a tourist in Berlin

But despite the island's high humidity, she opted to wear her long blond hair down and loose around her shoulders.

Tiffany accessorized her look with flat T-strap sandals and a black handbag, which she carried in her hand, looking as happy and relaxed as you would expect from someone who has enjoyed several weeks on vacation.

For Tiffany, the fun-filled vacation started back in June, when she traveled to Berlin, Germany, with Ross, clearly eager to take in as much culture as possible before returning to her studies at the end of the summer.

The European vacation was likely a last hurrah for the couple, who may once again be facing a long-distance relationship, and they are clearly eager to take advantage of every last minute they have to spend together.

The couple has already enjoyed a beachside getaway in the Hamptons, before embarking on their European trip in Germany, where the two were pictured walking through the streets of Berlin in late June.
President Donald Trump's eldest daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump has repeatedly stated that she will not be following in his political footsteps, but his three-year-old grandson may be on his way to becoming a White House press secretary.

While Ivanka, 35, and her husband Jared Kushner, 36, were hobnobbing with the tech and media elite at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Idaho on Thursday, the busy mom took a moment to share a precious throwback picture of her three-year-old son Joseph standing at the podium in the press briefing room at the White House.

'#TBT to Joseph's first Press Briefing,' she captioned the Instagram image, which sees Joseph standing on a chair behind the podium as if he was about to answer a reporter's question.

Future Sean Spicer? Ivanka Trump shared an adorable throwback photo of her three-year-old son Joseph posed at the podium at the press briefing room at the White House on Thursday

Following in his footsteps? Joseph could one day take over Sean Spicer's current position as White House press secretary

Mogul meeting: Ivanka, 35, and her husband Jared Kushner, 36, are currently in Sun Valley, Idaho, with their children while attending the annual Allen & Company conference

Heading in: Ivanka looked relaxed in a denim jacket with her hair pulled back in a loose bun

The little boy is wearing a short-sleeve white button-up shirt and navy shorts in the photo, which appears to have been taken in June when the Kushner-family took over the James Brady Press Briefing Room.

Although Joseph's throwback photo sees Joseph by himself, he was actually joined by his five-year-old sister Arabella, his dad's sister Dara, and her four children.

The group of cousins were photographed posing and playing at the podium just a mere 30 minutes after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had far-less enjoyable briefing.

Dara's visit to Washington, D.C. was the family's first since her brother Jared had moved from New York City in January, and they kids clearly had an amazing time.

Arabella, Joseph, and one-year-old Theodore are currently in Idaho with their parents, but they are presumably only networking with the other kids at the lodge.

Throwback: Ivanka's picture of Joseph at the podium in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House appears to have been taken in June

Kushner cousins: The little boy played at the podium during a visit from her father's sister Dara (pictured covering Joseph's mouth) and her four children

On Friday, Ivanka and Jared were photographed among the assortment of billionaires, titans, and moguls who turned the walkways at the famed Sun Valley Lodge into their very own catwalks as they headed off to breakfast and the session of the day.

Donning a denim jacket over a white tank and a long floral skirt, the first daughter looked relaxed with her hair pulled back in a loose bun to show off her hoop earrings.

Meanwhile, Jared kept to his preppy staples, sporting a tan sweater over a a blue collar shirt.

Ivanka turned on the charm Thursday morning in Sun Valley as she hobnobbed with her new friends at the Allen & Company conference.

Having a blast: Joseph was also joined by his five-year-old sister Arabella, who is pictured standing behind him, eager to get her turn at the mic

Make new friends: Ivanka and close friend of President Barack Obama, Warren Buffet, are pictured at the Allen & Company conference on Thursday

She could be seen in between sessions spending some time outside on the campus of the Sun Valley Inn, where she stood just a few feet away from billionaire Warren Buffet.

A small group of attendees circled Ivanka's orbit for a few minutes, with Ivanka casually holding court in a pair of skinny jeans and crisp white blouse.

She spent the better part of the break between sessions, however, with her husband, who seemed to be avoiding the press and photographers by hiding behind a statue on the campus.

Ivanka could be seen walking over to Jared while he looked to be having a stern conversation, and at one point leaned in and whispered something to her spouse and co-worker while he was still on the phone.

Beautiful day: Ivanka had a big smile on her face as she chatted with other attendees

No tea, no shade: The 35-year-old casually held court in a pair of skinny jeans and crisp white blouse with suede mules

The break would have been the first time the pair would have been allowed to use their devices since the start of the session, which means they could have been getting news out of Paris, where President Trump is currently meeting with French leader Emmanuel Macron.

Whatever Ivanka said, she made a point to make sure that her fellow attendees at the meet-up would not hear her, and that no video camera or photographed would capture what she was saying to Jared.

An effort was also made on Thursday morning in Washington DC to revoke Jared's security clearance, introduced by Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida during a House Appropriations Committee markup session.

Man with a plan: Jared avoided the cameras by hiding behind a statue in between the sessions

Talks turn stern: He appeared to be upset or angry at one point during the call as he spoke with his wife

How to lose friends and influence no one: The two removed themselves from the other attendees while Jared spoke on the phone

That effort was voted down by the Republicans in attendance.

Earlier in the day, Ivanka and Jared headed out for some breakfast in Sun Valley on Thursday morning before their first day at the Allen & Company conference.

The pair was seen heading into the mess hall with Home Depot founder Ken Langone and his wife Elaine, who escorted the pair around the grounds ahead of their first session of the day.

Langone even managed to make the normally reserved Jared light up with joy when he reached over at one point and patted the White House adviser on the back.

Rosebud: Ivanka at one point whispered something to Jared as he spoke on the phone

Sharing secrets: Ivanka seemed to be making a concerted effort to have no one photograph or hear what she had to say

That move elicited an immediate laugh from the real estate scion that was captured by a Bloomberg cameraman, who was lucky enough to happen upon the group as they made their way though a back entrance to avoid the press.

Once inside, Ivanka got to reunite with her old family friend Rupert Murdoch, who was spotted for the first time on campus early that morning with his son Lachlan.

Rupert was not joined however by his supermodel wife Jerry Hall, with the Texas beauty opting to once again again skip out on the event this year.

Jared and Ivanka are the godparents to Rupert's two daughters with ex-wife Wendi Deng, Grace and Chloe.

Ivanka was also one of five people on a board tasked with overseeing the $300 million trusts of Grace and Chloe, a position she stepped down from in December soon after her father won the election.
A stray kitten has become an internet star after it was rescued by a hunky firefighter  and then went on to become the fire station's therapy cat.

Flame, a ginger tabby, was malnourished and bedraggled when he wandered into Belmont Fire Department in Greenville, South Carolina in search of food.

Instead of sending the tiny animal back onto the streets, station engineer Jordan Lide, 26, took the little kitty in, fed it fried chicken, and nursed it back to health.

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Hot kitty! Two years ago, Belmont Fire Department station engineer Jordan Lide, 26, discovered an orange tabby on the department's grounds

All dressed up: The cat, which he named Flame, was scared and seemed underfed

Ready to save the day! Jordan and the other firefighters from Greenville, South Carolina took him in

Jordan rescued Flame when he crept into the five-acre yard surrounding the station around two years ago.

'We get some strays coming around, but most of the time they run off when they see us,' he said.

'We were decompressing in the evening when we heard a meow and I looked out into the grass and Flame was there,' he went on. 'He was really young and skinny and looked like he had barely eaten. He was timid and scared so I spent some time trying to gain his trust.'

Jordan did finally manage to earn the trust of the kitten, who was just weeks old at the time, and from then on he was 'super friendly'  but still in need of some help.

'He looked as though he hadn't eaten so we raided the kitchen and found some fried chicken. He instantly ate every little piece,' said Jordan. 'The next morning we came out and he was still there. He was there every day after that.'

All grown up: They nursed him back to health and adopted him as a pet

Chillin': Flame now has a popular Instagram account where the firefighters post pictures of him dressed in his own uniform

Therapy cat: The cat hangs around the station and comforts the firefighters when they are stressed

On the lookout! He has become somewhat of a local celebrity, and fans stop by to say hello

Two years later, Flame, is a key member of the team, helping them unwind after mammoth 24-hour shifts.

'Flame is the most relaxed cat ever. He gravitates towards the guys,' said Jordan. 'When we go out he is right there in the bay, waiting. He helps everyone de-stress.'

Cute photos show the mischievous moggy sleeping in, on, and beneath the fire engines. Sometimes he is dressed in uniform, and he is often seen playing with the firefighters.

He even waits for them in the bay when they're called out to emergencies and offers them cuddles on their return.

'We get back and sit down to catch our breath and he comes and before you know it you are petting him and holding him and playing with him,' said Jordan.

One of the guys: He's been described as a 'relaxed' cat who helps the firefighters chill after long shifts

'We get back and sit down to catch our breath and he comes and before you know it you are petting him and holding him and playing with him,' said Jordan

Team effort: There are nine full-time fighters and 50 volunteers at the station, who all care for the cat

Taken care of: They paid for his vaccinations and vet care, bought him a collar, and even got him his very own bed and scratching post

Pet love: Jordan said Flame has become part of the family

'We are working long, stressful shifts and it is nice to take your mind off things,' he went on. 'All the guys here really take part in taking care of him. It gets your mind off the stresses of the job.'

The nine full-time firefighters and 50 plus volunteers all chip in to care for the station mascot  even the department chief.

The team saved up to pay for his vaccinations and vet care, bought him a collar, and even got him his very own bed and scratching post, which sit in a corner of the staff room.

'He is very much part of the family,' Jordan said.
Stevia, a common sugar alternative, could be a potential cure for Lyme disease following ongoing clinical trials.

Lyme disease is one of the fastest-growing infections in the Western world caused by a tick bite.

Its long-term effects can be crippling if it's not caught and treated quickly, and cause a string of symptoms including fatigue, headaches and a high body temperature.

But now, a professor who has battled with the illness for 15 years, believes to have found a solution.

Dr Eva Sapi, an academic and researcher at the University of New Haven, conducted tests on the sweetener, and found that it combats the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

The sugary substance has proven much more effective in killing the bacteria than antibiotics.

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Stevia, a common sugar alternative, could be a potential cure for Lyme disease following ongoing clinical trials

Her research was first published in the European Journal of Microbiology and Immunology in 2015, and she and researchers have still found that this is the best treatment.

And now, Dr Sapi explained, there are ongoing clinical trials to test if the sugar-substitute could be the cure.

The trials are being conducted in Hyde Park, New York, by Dr Richard Horowitz, a doctor specializing in Lyme disease and curing patients with the illness.

WHAT IS LYME DISEASE? Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria that is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected black-legged ticks. The most common symptoms of the disease are fever, headache, fatigue and a skin rash called erythema migrans. The disease can typically be treated by several weeks of oral antibiotics. But if left untreated, the infection can spread to the joints, heart and nervous symptoms and be deadly. Lyme disease is diagnosed through the symptoms, physical findings - such as rash - and the likelihood of exposure to infected ticks. To prevent Lyme disease, it is recommended that people use insect repellent, remove ticks promptly, apply pesticides and reduce tick habitat. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE INFECTED? During the first three to 30 days of infection, these symptoms may occur: Fever

Chills

Headache

Fatigue

Muscle and joint aches

Swollen lymph nodes

Erythema migrans (EM) rash The rash occurs in approximately 80 per cent of infected people. It can expand to up to 12 inches (30 cm), eventually clearing and giving off the appearance of a target or a 'bull's-eye'. Later symptoms of Lyme disease include: Severe headaches and neck stiffness

Additional EM rashes

Arthritis with joint pain and swelling

Facial or Bell's Plasy

Heart palpitations

Problems with short-term memory

Nerve pain Source: CDC Advertisement

'They're going well as far as I'm aware. I got an email from one of Dr Horowitz' patients, who said it appears to be working,' Dr Sapi told Daily Mail Online.

Her interest in a cure for Lyme disease began when she was diagnosed with the illness in 2002.

'It was just after I'd gotten my first full time position teaching and doing research at the University of New Haven, and I started experiencing dizziness, nausea and fatigue,' Dr Sapi said. 'I even started having memory issues and some problems talking.'

After months of tests, she was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease.

'I thought doctors were giving up on me. I didn't have any of the physical signs, just the neurological signs. So they finally did an MRI and saw holes, they said it looked like I had Lyme brain,' Dr Sapi explained.

'It was scary to learn that there has been a lot of research but there are no known cures for the disease.'

Dr Sapi is now in remission, and said she was cured by a number of things, including a compound anti-microbiotic medicine, infrared sauna use, and a lifestyle change.

Once she regained her strength, she said she immediately went to work to research different cures for Lyme disease.

'I worked with two students to take the Stevia plant extract and see if it worked to fight Lyme disease,' she said.

Dr Sapi explained that they decided to look at Stevia after another researcher found that sugar was working to 'wake up' dormant bacteria, called persisters.

These persisters, she discovered through her research, are protected by a biofilm, which allows it to lay dormant and keeps antibiotics from killing it.

'They are called sleepers and persisters, because no combinations of antibiotics were working, and there was no way to wake them up so they could be killed,' she said.

In her research, Dr Sapi found that a specific extract of Stevia is effective in killing the Lyme disease causing agent Borrelia burgdorferi, in addition to preventing biofilm formation.

'Then we did some research, and found out it's been used in Japan for centuries as a microbiotic agent,' Dr Sapi said.

'And every time we've tested it so far it's worked, we just need to see the results from the chemical trials.'

Dr Richard Horowitz, who is conducting the clinical trials, said the discovery and continuing research is 'exciting.'

'People have been searching for a long time for a cure to Lyme, so it's exciting for there to be a new avenue in something that could end up being a worldwide epidemic in just a few years,' he told Daily Mail Online.

Lyme disease has gotten a lot of attention internationally in recent years as supermodel Bella Hadid and her mother Yolanda have spoken up about their personal battles

'My research is looking at a pool of 200 people with the disease, and based on what we've seen so far all symptoms seem to have significantly improved in the patients,' he explained.

Lyme disease has received a lot of attention internationally in recent years as supermodel Bella Hadid has spoken up about her personal battle.

The 20-year-old was diagnosed with the ailment in 2012 and forced her to give up her dream of being an Olympic equestrian. Bella's mother, Yolanda, and younger brother Anwar have both also been diagnosed with Lyme.
These shocking images depict the plight of a 12-year-old girl who is slowly being transformed into a tree.

Known only as Muktamoni, the Bangladeshi girl's upper body has been ravaged by 'tree-man' disease, local reports suggest.

Left in unbearable pain, the right side of her chest stretching down to her hand has turned completely brown - resembling that of bark.

Known only as Muktamoni, the Bangladeshi girl's upper body has been ravaged by 'tree-man' disease, local reports suggest

Her right hand, which is infested with parasites, also appears to be growing uncontrollably, curling up and making it impossible for her to use.

Spread throughout

But bizarrely, the other side of her chest is unaffected, despite doctors saying the disease has spread through her entire body.

Currently Muktamoni is at Dhaka Medical College Hospital receiving help, her father Ibrahim Hossain told reporters.

It is unsure whether the girl actually has epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV) or not, the strange condition dubbed 'tree-man disease'.

If she was found to be affected, figures suggest it would make her just one of half a dozen sufferers in the world.

The condition

EV is a rare and inherited skin disorder which creates wart-like lesions and reddish-brown pigmented plaques anywhere on the body.

Left in unbearable pain, the right side of her chest stretching down to her hand has turned completely brown - resembling that of bark.

But bizarrely, the other side of her chest is unaffected, despite doctors saying the disease has spread through her entire body

In order to inherit the disease two abnormal EV genes, one from each parent, must be present, medical literature states.

No serious treatment against the condition, which is triggered by HPV, has been found, yet several treatments have been suggested.

WHAT IS EV? EV is a rare and inherited skin disorder which creates wart-like lesions anywhere on the body. The condition is caused by infection with HPV and can create widespread skin eruptions, including wart-like lesions and reddish-brown pigmented plaques. In order to inherit the disease two abnormal EV genes, one from each parent, must be present. No serious treatment against EV has been found, yet several treatments have been suggested. Advertisement

Bark-like warts

Muktamoni's story comes after MailOnline reported in January about a man dubbed the 'tree-man', also from Bangladesh.

Abul Bajander had bark-like warts on his body, but underwent treatment that doctors hoped would cure him of his condition.

At the time, the 27-year-old was believed to be one of only four people in the world to be diagnosed with the rare genetic condition.

Tell-tale growths

In the same month, the tale of a 10-year-old Bangladeshi girl believed to be suffering from the same affliction was told.

Sahana Khatun has the tell-tale gnarled growths sprouting from her chin, ear and nose, but doctors were unable to confirm the disease.

Other notable cases include a Romanian man named Ion Toader who was diagnosed with the condition in March 2007, and the Dede Koswara, from Indonesia.
Pioneering new 'eco-friendly underpants' promise to banish dreaded summer bum-chafing in runners forever.

Irritable cheeks plague thousands of avid joggers, with the unpleasant sensation in their posterior often triggered by nylon rubbing.

But Finnish designers claim their new range of boxer shorts made from recycled material are a cure - both the pain and the world's oceans.

The Other Danish Guy has unveiled its 30 underwear designed for those men with an active lifestyle - with a female range coming soon.

Produced using fishing nets and other goods salvaged during dives, the firm behind the invention says it's helping clean-up the world's seas.

It offers a 100 per cent guarantee that it won't cause any irritable cheeks, often brought on by exercising and playing sports.

Finnish designers claim their new range of boxer shorts made from recycled material are a cure to bum chafing - both to irritable cheeks and the world's oceans.

The Other Danish Guy has unveiled its 30 underwear designed for those men with an active lifestyle - a common trigger of chafing

Most importantly, it says the material used is much softer and more comfortable against the skin than traditional nylon.

Recycled material

The Other Danish Guy's founder Tommi Lahde said: 'For us, using recycled nylon yarn made from ocean garbage was a two-fold decision.

'We want to change the world for the better, and we also discovered this type of nylon is actually much softer and more comfortable against the skin.

'The fabric we use isn't cheap because of its origin; recycled materials cost more than traditionally-made ones.'

Soft material

He added: 'But it is the softest and most breathable material of its type on the market.'

The secret is the 'SmoothShell' material used - a revolutionary, fast-drying fabric which has an 'outstandingly soft touch'.

Produced using fishing nets and other salvaged during dives, the firm behind the invention says its helping clean-up the world's seas

It offers a 100 per cent guarantee that it won't cause any irritable cheeks, often brought on by exercising and playing sports

HOW DID THE IDEA COME ABOUT? Mr Lahde said the idea came after he shared a hotel room with a close friend who was suffering from extreme bum chafing. He added: 'He'd just got off a long haul flight and then went for a run, and because he was wearing ill-fitting pants that didn't wick away his sweat, his bum was red raw and bleeding. 'I had to watch the delightful scenes as he massaged soothing lotion into his downstairs areas before my very eyes. 'And we knew then that we could design a product to put an end to such nightmare scenarios.' Advertisement

Fishing nets salvaged from the ocean floor and other industrial plastic waste is collected through a worldwide initiative.

How are they made?

A process called depolymerisation, outsourced to an Italian firm, then turns the items into yarn.

This special yarn is then woven into the material used in the firm's Ocean Discovery range of underwear.

A successful crowdfunding campaign helped raise more than double the 15,415 ($20,000) the firm intended to.

Following the success on Indiegogo, it plans to start shipping the innovative boxers worldwide later this month. It also hopes to design a range for women using the new technique in the foreseeable future.

Chafing buttocks

Chafing of the buttocks or the bottom crevice is a common affliction for runners and cyclists.

It's either caused by skin rubbing on clothing, or skin rubbing on other areas of skin, and it's exacerbated by excess moisture from sweating or during hot weather.

The Other Danish Guy's co-founder Matti Pesonen said: 'Most runners will happily talk about nipple rub.

'But bum chafing is much more of a taboo subject - even though it happens a lot more than people might admit.
Evie Mueller never showed any symptoms of life-threatening illness.

But when she was two years old at an Easter egg hunt in March 2015, her mother Taylor lifted her onto her hip, and felt a lump in her abdomen.

It was small - so small that nurses dismissed her, saying she must be constipated.

Unconvinced, Taylor took Evie to the emergency room in Cedar Falls, Iowa. A scan revealed a tumor the size of two softballs, about eight inches, under her ribs.

It was stage 4 hepatoblastoma, a rare liver cancer.

In the two years since, little Evie has endured six rounds of chemotherapy and even made it into remission.

However, this year, the tumor came back and swelled drastically in just a few months. It meant she needed a multiple organ transplant and would not be eligible for chemotherapy.

Speaking to Daily Mail Online, Taylor describes the agony of watching her child battle a life-threatening disease, tinged with joy at finding a donor to offer her a life-saving pancreas, small bowel and liver before it was too late.

Evie Mueller, from Iowa, was 2 when she was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2015

In the two years since her diagnosis, Evie has endured six rounds of chemotherapy and even made it into remission. But this year the tumor returned, even more aggressive. Pictured: Evie (left) preparing for her transplant, and (right) recovering in hospital with her mom Taylor

'It's terrifying,' Taylor, 27, said.

'She has been through so much, she will be prepared for anything after this.'

Hepatoblastoma affects fewer than one million children, and tends to be diagnosed in children under the age of three.

Symptoms include swollen tummy, intense tummy pain, back pain, itchy skin, yellow eyes, yellow skin, pale lips, loss of appetite, weight loss, and nausea.

Evie didn't have any of that.

'She was a normal child, we had just been on vacation in Florida and everything was fine. She wasn't in pain or anything. But when I felt that lump, I knew something wasn't right.'

A scan at their local hospital showed a tumor that was likely growing since she was a baby. But until March 2015, it was tucked under her ribs.

The pressure from the eight-inch diameter tumor had crushed her portal vein, which conveys blood to the liver from the spleen, stomach, pancreas, and intestines - essentially turning it to mush.

Due to the complex tangle of vessels in that region, doctors said they could not operate.

Evie started on four grueling rounds of chemotherapy, followed by surgery to remove the tumor, then another two chemotherapy bouts. It meant she could not see any of her friends or do any activities.

Evie started on four grueling rounds of chemotherapy, followed by surgery to remove the tumor, then another two chemotherapy bouts. It meant she could not see any of her friends

Taylor said Evie was often confused about why she, unlike other kids, suffered so much

But after her operation, doctors were astounded by her progress. They said the cancer was completely gone, and Evie was declared in remission in October 2016.

Then, in one of her monthly check-ups in February 2017, her blood test showed astronomically high levels of AFP, a marker of liver cancer.

Distraught, Taylor took her for a scan, but it showed nothing. They went to a special cancer center in Texas, and again it showed nothing. Experts said it was likely too small to spot, and they had to wait for it to grow.

'It was horrible... terrifying,' Taylor said. 'All you can do is sit and wait and this poison, this evil, is growing inside your child. And we had to wait for it to grow to take action. You just think about it everyday, hoping it had grown enough.'

Eventually, they spotted it on a scan on May 26; it had returned - this time even more aggressive.

Doctors said she would need a liver transplant. That meant she could not do chemotherapy. And since she would need a new portal vein, it had to be a deceased donor, which is not easily or predictable to come by.

Within weeks, her condition had deteriorated. A scan on June 28 showed the tumor had more than tripled in size already, and was encroaching on her small bowel and pancreas. She would need not just a liver transplant but also a small bowel and pancreas donation - and that, doctors warned, would be hard to come by.

They said Evie did not have five weeks to wait for a call on the transplant list.

'I was just crying in the office, I didn't know what to do. Evie didn't really understand, she looked at me and said, "mommy don't cry".'

'She has been through so much, she will be prepared for anything after this,' Taylor said

Evie was in the process of being taken off the transplant list to try chemotherapy as a last ditch attempt to save her life when doctors received a call saying there was a donor on July 3

Returning home, they decided to go the chemotherapy route. Evie was to be taken off the transplant list.

On Monday morning, July 3, they were in the doctor's office, waiting five hours for a specific cocktail of chemotherapy drugs to be mixed.

'Just as we were being called in, I got a call from the hospital saying they had a donor. I literally dropped everything in my hands - clothes and food. I was like... "what did you just say?". I was in total shock - I couldn't even cry or smile.'

The doctor on the phone told Taylor that they were in the process of removing Evie when a donor became available.

The donor, initially, had only been screened for a liver, so the hospital - Nebraska Medicine, four hours from Iowa - spent the morning checking whether they could also obtain a small bowel and pancreas. They could.

Taylor, her boyfriend and Evie drove the four hours to Nebraska, followed by Evie's father, her grandparents on both sides, and all of Taylors brothers and sisters.

They arrived at midnight, Evie was taken into the pre-operation room at 8am on Tuesday July 4, and at 9am she was in the operating theater. The operation took 10 hours.

'Nobody was in the hospital because of the holiday so it was basically just our family - all of us were there.

'I was so nervous, I was sat outside, they were giving us hourly updates. But we hadn't been expecting the triple transplant - I hadn't had any time to research the risks and stuff. It was a lot to take in,' Taylor said.

Taylor, pictured sleeping in the hospital next to Evie. She was there during the transplant with her boyfriend, Evie's father, Evie's grandparents on both sides, and all of Taylors siblings

As soon as Evie came out, Taylor said, she looked better.

'I was amazed! She looked amazing, she had good coloring... just so much healthier,' Taylor said.

'She was still out at that point but I was so happy.

'When she came round it was quite upsetting. She was very scared. She was moving her mouth trying to say "mommy, mommy, mommy" but nothing came out because she had a ventilator tube in. She just looked so scared and it was horrible, as a parent, to be sitting there watching that. I was just trying to tell her everything was ok and she would be ok.'

In the 10 days since, Evie has been recovering slowly, with a few bumps along the way. She needed another operation to drain fluid from her abdomen as it was putting so much pressure on her muscles that they were tearing. Now doctors are monitoring fluid levels in her lungs and around her heart, which means her fluid intake has to be strictly limited.

However, scans show she is not rejecting the organs - a positive sign more than a week after the operation.

'I'm just so grateful, I can't believe this was all possible. Now we're just taking each day at a time. But Evie has been so strong. I can't believe it.'
After breaking the world record for speed swimming the Rhine River from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea in 2014, Dr. Andreas Fath, professor of Medical and Life Sciences at Furtwangen University in Germany, is preparing for another endurance challenge on the Tennessee River.

Dubbed TenneSwim, Dr. Faths second swim for science will see him swim the entire waterway from late July through August. Dr. Fath will conduct daily analyses along his route to determine how water quality in the Tennessee River compares to the Rhine. This project will be the most extensive interdisciplinary water quality survey ever conducted of North Americas most biologically diverse river.

Water pollution is not only a result of the industrial use of water but also a result of unconscious consumer behavior, Dr. Fath says. TenneSwim and the outcome will make people aware of their influence. Small changes in their behavior will have a big, positive effect on water quality.

At 652 miles, the Tennessee River is 112 miles shorter than the Rhine, but its significantly slower current will pose an even greater challenge for Dr. Fath. If completed as planned, his swim will break another world record.

TenneSwim begins July 27 at Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville and is organized in partnership with the University of the South, the Tennessee Aquarium, The Nature Conservancy, the University of Georgia River Basin Center, Ijams Nature Center, the River Discovery Center of Paducah, Tennessee State Parks, and the Tennessee Valley Authority .

The Tennessee River and its many tributaries are home to more than 230 fishes, more than 100 freshwater mussels, and more than 70 crayfishes. Its watershed also contains more than 150 turtle and more than 50 salamander species, including the giant Hellbender Salamander. Many communities rely on the Tennessee River for drinking water, including Knoxville, Chattanooga and Huntsville.

In 2014, Dr. Fath and his team of scientists analyzed the Rhine for more than 600 substances and found that concentrations of persistent pollutants increased as they moved downstream. We found the great blockbusters in the Rhine, Dr. Fath says, from artificial sweeteners to residues of dishwasher tabs. This means many substances we consume or use in our everyday lives survive wastewater treatment and end up in waterways.

During TenneSwim, Dr. Fath and his team will sample for common water quality indicators such as temperature, nitrates and phosphates, as well as for pharmaceuticals, hormones, pesticides, bacteria, and heavy metals.

Dr. Fath already has one prediction of what hell find in the American river.

The use of lawn fertilizers is much more common in the United States than in Germany, Dr. Fath explains. That is why I expect significantly higher concentrations of phosphate in the Tennessee River.

During TenneSwim, Fath will use a technique he pioneered to detect microplastics suspended in the water. These plastic fragments, less than 5 mm in size, are either manufactured at this size or created when larger plastic items break down into smaller pieces. Their small size enables microplastic to enter the food chain at the lowest levels. Microplastic has been found in the digestive tracts of both freshwater and marine animals.

In 2014, Dr. Fath and his team found large quantities of microplastics in the Rhine. Dr. Fath estimates that, every year, the Rhine carries eight tons of plastic all the way to the North Sea  on its surface alone. Literally, this is only the tip of the iceberg, he says. Actual microplastics pollution in the Rhine is most likely many times higher.

This leaves many wondering what levels of contaminants and microplastics Dr. Fath will discover in the Tennessee River.

TenneSwim is presented with financial support from The Lyndhurst Foundation , Riverview Foundation, PerkinElmer , Sweetwater Brewing Company and a host of German sponsors.


Abbey Parkes, 20, was found to have died from blood clots on her lungs that were partly caused by the pill

The contraceptive pill may have contributed to the deaths of 550 women since 1963, officials have said.

The figures were revealed after legal secretary Abbey Parkes, 20, was found to have died of blood clots on her lungs that were partly caused by the Pill.

Experts stress that the links between the Pill and the deaths, mostly from blood clots, were only recorded as suspicions rather than as scientific proof.

They add that while there is a known risk of clotting, it is very small given that 3.5million women in the UK take the Pill.

The medication, made up of progestogen and oestrogen, is generally extremely safe, they said.

There were 553 deaths with suspected links to the Pill reported between 1963 and July this year  averaging more than ten a year, according to the Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Some of the largest numbers of deaths were when the Pill was introduced and doses were higher.

There were 21 deaths each year in 1970 and 1977. The number also reached double figures in 2011 with 11 deaths and in 2014 with 13.

The MHRA data also lists 27,000 serious adverse reactions against hormones in the Pill.

The adverse reactions would have affected between 9,000 and 13,000 women.

An inquest found that Miss Parkes died last August because of the Pill and a rare underlying condition that made her blood more susceptible to clotting.

Her mother Amanda Parkes, 43, said there was not enough information about the dangers of the Pill.

She advocated more testing so that women can check if they are at risk of potentially deadly side effects.

Experts stress that the links between the Pill and the deaths, mostly from blood clots, were only recorded as suspicions rather than as scientific proof (file picture)

A post mortem discovered she had a rare clotting disorder Factor V Leiden. Abbey Parkes with her brother Liam at his prom in 2013

Mrs Parkes, of Stone, Staffordshire, said that her daughters condition, Factor V Leiden, was not known.

She said: I dont want my daughter to die in vain. Even if women ask for tests for Factor V, they are not given them unless you have a close blood relative who has it. More needs to be done to prevent cases like this.

There should have been some sort of warning about the dangers and the possibility that you might have the genes for Factor V.

Jane Bass, of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and a senior pharmacist specialising in womens services, said: Its known that these drugs can increase your risk of having a blood clot but given the number of women who take them and the years over which they have been collected, it is very low risk.

'In general they are extremely safe. I wouldnt want any woman to stop taking their contraception because they are worried.

If they do, there is the risk of unplanned pregnancy.

Improvements have been made over the years, from reducing dose levels which were high in the early years, to changing the patient information leaflets, which make the risks very clear.

Abbey Parkes with her boyfriend Liam Grocott. Paramedics were called to the property on August 26 last year, where the legal secretary died

Abbey (pictured with her brother Liam in 2015) first started taking the pill when she was 14, because her hormones were all over the place when she first started having her period

Mrs Bass said it was important to report adverse effects or concerns about the Pill to a doctor.

She added: Women having symptoms of shortness of breath, unexplained chest pain ... should remind any healthcare professionals they see that they are using a hormonal contraceptive and therefore may be at slightly greater risk of blood clots than the general population.

Medical evidence at a 2016 inquest in Blackburn after the death of teenager Sophie Murray said that of every 10,000 women taking the combined Pill, six on average would develop blood clots as opposed to two in 10,000 women not taking the Pill.

In many of those cases, the condition would not prove fatal and could be treated.

An MHRA spokesman said the figures linking the Pill to deaths may be higher as they were recorded under a voluntary scheme.

But the body added that not all reported side effects have resulted from use of those hormones in the Pill as they are also used to treat certain cancers.
As India was bringing in 2017, its forces were still smarting from the loss of 87 troops in fighting terrorists including the Uri massacre that saw 20 soldiers killed.

Under these circumstances, Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought in Gen Bipin Rawat as Army chief, a specialist in counter-terror operations to handle the fast-deteriorating situation in Kashmir.

The move has, for some, paid rich dividends with security personnel having eliminated 100 terrorists in operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the Line of Control.

People carry the body of Sajad Ahmad Gilkar, who according to local media was killed in a gun battle with Indian security forces

In his initial meetings, Rawat told his commanders to go on a relentless offensive against terrorists and make it difficult for them to sustain operations in the Valley, a senior Army source said.

There is, according to sources, increased coordination among security forces, including the Army, paramilitary troops and Jammu and Kashmir Police and this has led to the elimination of terrorists, a major general rank officer told Mail Today.

'The credit-taking game in the Valley is not there any more as everybody is working together in close coordination and operations are also conducted in the same manner,' an Army intelligence officer deployed in the Valley said.

From left to right LeT commander Bashir Lashkari, LeT commander Junaid Mattoo, Hizbul commander Sabzar Bhat - all KIA this year

Army sources said June was the month when the troops, mainly the counter-terrorist Rashtriya Rifles, were successful in killing 30 terrorists in encounters in both the hinterlands and the Line of Control.

The Indian Army claimed to have neutralised 42 terrorists in the first four months of 2017, but the operations gained momentum with the onset of summer as terrorists made more attempts to infiltrate and carry out attacks.

'In May, 17 terrorists were eliminated, while in June, 30 of them were killed.

'This month, till July 11, we have been able to eliminate 11 terrorists, thus taking the overall figure to 100,' an Army source said.

The officer said that the numbers are likely to go up soon as the security forces have launched a massive manhunt to find the perpetrators of this week's attack on Amarnath pilgrims.

New Army Chief General Bipin Rawat during the guard of honour at South Block in New Delhi

The officers also credited the smart deployment of troops on the Line of Control (LoC) for the increased kill count of terrorists as the Army headquarters moved a battalion of Rashtriya Rifles in the Baramulla sector to plug the gaps and redeployment of troops in the backwoods as well.

Sources believe that the aggressive approach has also helped thwart several alleged attempts by the Pakistan army to send in infiltrators.

One of the Amarnath pilgrims, injured in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir

An Army source told Mail Today: 'In the 25 Division area itself, several attempts by the Pakistani forces to carry out Border Action Team (BAT) operations have been foiled as the Army headquarters gave the freedom to units on the LoC to launch pre-emptive strikes on the enemy positions trying to push terrorists into India'.

Despite a ceasefire still in place, the Army headquarters have also been given orders to carry out punitive assaults on Pakistani positions including the use of heavy calibre guns of old tanks deployed on forward positions in an innovative manner to send across a stern message.

'The leadership has now taken the battle to the other side of the LoC as they are also being made accountable and punished for their mischief against India,' a source said.

The morale of the troops and officers has also gone up considerably as the leadership has backed them fully in operations, which was evident in the Major Leetul Gogoi 'human shield' episode.

Despite many commentators claiming that Gogoi's actions amounted to a 'war crime', the Indian army has backed the officer and rewarded him for showing his 'presence of mind' in tying a civilian (an alleged stone pelter) in front of an Army vehicle as a human shield against stone-pelters. However, the force also does not accept his method as a standard procedure for others to emulate.
The two-day camp of BJP president Amit Shah in Delhi could well see the launch of the party's 'Mission Delhi' to end BJP's 20-years of exile in the national Capital.

With nearly 16 meetings scheduled over two days, the BJP president will threadbare analyze the causes of BJP's successive defeats in Delhi since 1993.

At the same time, he will check BJP's preparedness for polls and chalk out strategies for the same, a senior BJP leader said.

BJP National President Amit Shah has big plans for Delhi

On Friday, the Delhi BJP leadership will give a detailed presentation on the existing political equations, caste combinations and demographic divide in Delhi.

Well placed sources said BJP's passive approach in nearly 15 assembly constituencies, which it has never won, has been cited as a key reason behind party's defeat.

This includes the debacle in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections, where BJP candidates lost to Congress by huge margins.

The party has though managed to retain power in MCDs but lost all assembly elections since 1998.

'A comprehensive report on caste equations, slum dwellers and demographic division of Delhi's voters has been prepared.

We will examine the cause of defeat as well as future strategy to strengthen party in the national Capital,' a senior leader said.

The BJP finding says party's inability to win 15 assembly seats has made the biggest difference.

Of these, five seats in Walled City are Muslim-dominated while five others are reserved seats.

The party's failure to win these seats over the past two decades has been the primary reason for its failure in grabbing power in the national Capital.

Similarly, the BJP has been unable to project a prominent Muslim or Dalit face in these constituencies.

Dalit votes had essentially helped the Aam Aadmi Party win 28 seats in the 2013 Assembly polls, and prevent BJP from getting majority despite emerging as the single largest party.

Dalit votes had essentially helped the Aam Aadmi Party win 28 seats in the 2013 polls

However, sources said delimitation of assembly seats in Delhi in 2008 by Sheila Dikshit government also made these seats invincible for the BJP.

The party may also consider restructuring of assembly segments or even increasing the number of assembly seats to overcome the crisis.

The party has prepared a detail presentation categorising each booths and assembly under three categories - A, B and C. 'A' category booths or assembly segments include those where party has never lost elections.

'B' category has those seats where BJP gave tough fight and 'C' are those were party has never won.

The state unit has also prepared comprehensive report on voting patterns in slums, unauthorised colonies and areas dominated by migrant voters particularly the poorvanchalis.

During the meetings with various office bearers, Shah will also examine the recent Vistarak program undertaken by the BJP to assess the ground reality and add new members to the party.
Police on Thursday detained more than a dozen people a day after a riot-like situation in Noida's upmarket Mahagun Moderne housing society over a dispute between a family and a domestic help.

Sources said 13 suspects were taken into custody for questioning while about 50 more are on the police radar.

The family and friends of the maid went on a rampage at the apartment complex in Sector-78 after she was reportedly found unconscious within the premises.

Protest against the alleged beating up of a domestic help by one of the residents

Zohra Bibi lodged a complaint saying her employers had abused her, beaten her, locked her up and were withholding her salary.

Heavy police force was deployed at the society following the incident. However, the employers have rejected the woman's charges and accused her of theft.

The residents were worried on Thursday as no domestic helps showed up for work. 'There is a little inconvenience caused by their absence,' said a local, who did not wish to be named.

'Though I would personally prefer it if they don't come instead of coming and becoming a threat to everyone,' the local said.

Residents said the maid was neither beaten nor abducted. She was caught stealing Rs 17,000 from the family.

'Almost 200 people were inside the society, all with the intention of creating a ruckus,' said Arpit Arora, a resident of Mahagun Moderne.

'Kids couldn't go to school and many people couldn't leave for their workplace as the gates were blocked.'

According to locals, members of the affected family were hidden in a washroom by guards.

Private security verify visitors at the Mahagun Moderne apartment complex in Noida

The family that lives in a ground-floor flat is disturbed and terrified, especially because it has a young child.

Residents say though the guards did an excellent job of keeping them safe, the situation would not have escalated so much if they had proper weapons. 'It was a security failure.

If there are around 2,700 families in a society, the guards should be provided with weapons,' said Arpit.

While rumours are abuzz on the maid being a 'Bangladeshi', cops have refused to say anything on the matter.

'The police came into our houses at night while we were sleeping and took into custody all the men, irrespective of their age. We don't even work in the society and we are not guilty of cresting any ruckus anywhere,' said the wife of a man who was detained.

'We came in the morning but they were not allowing us to go in. Now it is afternoon and we are still waiting for our turn to come to show his ID,' said the wife of another such person. Most of the maids working in the area, including Zohra, live in Noida's Barola village.

Mail Today tried to speak to some people there but they remained tight-lipped.
A new 'baby' Jaguar, designed with women and younger drivers in mind, leapt into the record books at its star-studded launch this week.

The 150mph E-Pace compact SUV entered Guinness World Records with a death-defying corkscrew-style stunt, mirroring one in the Roger Moore 007 film The Man With The Golden Gun.

Priced from 28,500, the car was nicknamed 'Cub' by engineers and designers, and it carries some 'cub and mother' motifs on the windscreen.

Star-quality:: Actress Sienna Miller poses with the new Jaguar E-Pace small family SUV, launched at a star-studded event

It will be built in Austria and China  making it the first Jaguar to be manufactured outside Britain, which Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) insists remains 'the heart and soul' of the company, employing 42,000 people.

The E-Pace is central to JLR's aim to capture a far more diverse range of driver, who might previously never have considered the brand. Its big brother, the F-Pace, is expected to capitalise on the boom for family SUVs.

The first deliveries of the EPace are expected in time for Christmas, and there is a first-edition model, costing 50,710.

The E-Pace compact SUV entered Guinness World Records with a death-defying corkscrew-style stunt, mirroring one in the Roger Moore 007 film The Man With The Golden Gun

Jaguar's new E-Pace performed a record-breaking barrel roll jump to mark its launch tonight, although the car maker expects it to appeal to safety-conscious families

Actress Sienna Miller posed alongside the car with guests, including model David Gandy, at the launch party at the ExCeL centre, London.

JLR UK boss Jeremy Hicks told me 80 per cent of sales will be poached from rivals as Jaguar guns for BMW's X3 and X2, Audi's Q3 and Mercedes-Benz's GLC. He added: 'The gender and age balance is shifting and will shift even further with this car.'

This five-seater has no less than 40 litres of interior storage binnacles and cubby holes. Keeping the children quiet is made easier via a 4G wifi hotspot for up to eight devices.

Jaguar Land Rover UK managing director Jeremy Hicks hopes 80% of sales of the new E-Pace will be poached from rivals.

Three diesel and two petrol engines are available, linked to nine-speed automatic and six-speed manual gearboxes.

The most powerful E-Pace will go from rest to 60mph in less than six seconds, with a top speed restricted to 151mph.

Executive express: Audi takes the wraps of its new flagship A8 saloon in Barcelona

Next-generation Audi A8 revealed

Audi has taken the wraps off its new high-tech flagship A8 saloon ahead of its official launch at the Frankfurt motor show in September.

Priced from 70,000 and promising self-driving aids that allow it to start, accelerate, steer and brake on any road where there's a central barrier, it is one of seven new Audis in the pipeline for launch in the coming months.

Return of the John Lennon Roller Head-turner: John Lennon's iconic Rolls-Royce Phantom V will be on show in London next week John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls-Royce Phantom V is heading back to Britain to mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Most of artwork on the car, pictured, is credited to The Fool, an artists' collective. Makeover: Originally the Rolls-Royce Phantom V was in Valentine Black but that wasn't bright enough for the Beatle It is one of seven historic Phantoms belonging to influential figures  including dance legend Fred Astaire, world land and water speed record-breaker Sir Malcolm Campbell and World War II hero Field Marshal Montgomery  being brought together to celebrate the launch in Mayfair on Thursday, July 27, of the new eighth-generation Phantom.

Crit'Air restrictions tightened in France

Diesel drivers to France beware. The controversial anti-pollution scheme Crit'Air, introduced in Paris in January, has been tightened since July 1.

It now bans from the city on weekdays any diesel vehicle first registered before 2001.

The system requires all motorists, including foreigners entering Paris and other major cities, to display one of six colour-coded stickers defining how polluting their car is, or face a fine of 60.

stickers cost 3.60, through the official website, though drivers need to be on their guard for rogue sites charging up to 30 for a badge.

Click here for information.
Brexit was always going to be complex and a political minefield. But we should never forget how dysfunctional the European Union and the eurozone is as a political and economic construct.

A recent visit to Athens was a shocking first-hand reminder of the hardship imposed on Greece by its richer neighbours.

The city is blighted by boarded up shops and graffiti.

Top consultants at the major hospitals are on the breadline, uncollected rat-infested rubbish is piled up on the streets and the economy has shrunk by more than 25 per cent since the euro crisis struck in 2010.

Real austerity: A pedestrian walks by a mural in Athens. The city is blighted by boarded up shops and graffiti as a result of the hardship imposed on Greece by its richer neighbours

Meanwhile in Hungary (not part of the single currency), the ruling Fidesz party of Viktor Orban risks looking like the wartime Nazi party Arrow Cross, with its public vilification of a Hungarian-born refugee from the Shoah, George Soros, one of Europe's most generous philanthropists.

The biggest myth is that somehow Emmanuel Macron has, at a stroke, changed the prospects for the eurozone.

If anyone believes this they might do well to read an analysis for Bank of America by former IMF economist Athanasios Vamvakidis.

He shows that since the formation of the eurozone, divergence among the 19 members 'seems to have become the norm'.

The paper argues that high debt levels on the periphery of the currency bloc will become worse without the return of growth.

Since the euro crisis, Brussels and Frankfurt have come up with a number of schemes to support the poorest members, including EU structural funds, the European Stability Mechanism and quantitative easing by the European Central Bank.

Most of these measures are a short-term response to a crisis. What is really needed are regular transfers of resources of the kind made in the US through the federal government.

The EU's biggest benefit, the monthly splurge of 60billion (52.6billion) of money printing, will come to an end soon.

The author doubts that Germany or Italy, which make transfers from richer regions of their own countries to poorer parts, will be willing to make the same commitments to other eurozone nations on a more regular basis.

But even in ideal conditions, if such transfers do take place the eurozone would still be at risk of break-up because of a lack of economic convergence.

This could mean that future populist leaders will at some point decide to drop out of the single currency.

It could be argued that as Britain has never been a member of the eurozone, none of this is relevant.

What cannot be forgotten is that the eurozone dominates the EU, making up 19 of the 28 member countries.

Qualified majority voting leaves nations outside the currency area with very little decision-making power.

It is time Remain supporters let reality in and recognise that the EU is far from being the wonderful organisation that they like to think.

Easy does it

Open Britain campaigner Ben Bradshaw MP was quick off the mark to claim that EasyJet's decision to set up a European operation in Austria is another example of 'British companies being forced to move jobs out of Britain because of the Government's disastrous plan for hard Brexit'.

If Bradshaw and his acolytes had taken the time to check with Dame Carolyn McCall at the airline, they would have learned that no jobs are being moved from the UK to Austria and the carrier is simply making sure it has an air operator certificate to run the 30 per cent of its flights that are intra-Europe.

Moreover, it is irrelevant to EasyJet as to whether the Government negotiates an air agreement with Brussels since it is effectively owned in Europe anyway  its controlling shareholder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, with 33.7 per cent of the equity, is Cypriot and inside the single market.

The surprise from EasyJet is that it has chosen Austria as its European hub rather than Germany.

This is largely because the Austrian regulatory regime is deemed to be the most progressive and closest to Britain's own Civil Aviation Authority. Open Britain needs to get on top of the facts.

No smoke...

After another drop in AstraZeneca's share price, a polite email from Pascal Soriot says the rumour of his departure to Israel's Teva 'is unfortunate indeed'.

'Time will bring clarity to the situation,' he assures me.

As the sixth largest enterprise in the FTSE 100, the uncertainty casts a pall for all investors, including those who hold Astra through passive index funds.
With increasing numbers of smokers turning to vaping in recent years, investment experts believe that the burgeoning e-cigarette industry is far from smoke and mirrors.

This month marks the ten-year anniversary of the smoking ban in the UK, an event which was widely expected to be a massive blow to Britain's tobacco companies.

Indeed, with an increased focus on ethical investing and declining numbers of smokers, tobacco firms fell out of vogue for some time.

Although many international tobacco firms still focus on emerging economies, where the habit is less in decline, most are now beginning to throw some serious weight behind alternatives to traditional cigarettes.

This month marks the ten-year anniversary of the smoking ban in the UK, an event which was widely expected to be a massive blow to Britain's tobacco companies.

It comes as little surprise that firms want exposure to the area: sales of vaping products are expected to exceed 2billion by 2020 after surging 50 per cent last year to reach 1billion.

The boss of Philip Morris International, the world's largest international tobacco firm, even said last month he believes its heated tobacco products can make Britain completely smoke-free in the near future.

Aside from shifting their focus from a dying industry to a growing one, the newest generation of e-cigarettes use 'heat not burn' technology that means these smokeless products are not exposed to the high taxes slapped on traditional tobacco products.

As Steve Clayton, fund manager at Hargreaves Lansdown, puts it: 'Persuading smokers to switch from cigarettes to these newer generation products could lead to large profits.'

The two biggest tobacco companies in the UK are British American Tobacco (BAT) and Imperial Brands, which are both listed on the FTSE 100.

Both businesses have outperformed the wider market since the smoking ban. However, it was not until the rise of e-cigarettes that their performance really began to pick up.

BAT owns popular vaping brands Vype, Chic Group and Ten Motives, and in 2015 increased spending on alternative tobacco products by a significant 25 per cent. Its products are currently in 12 markets, and it plans to double that this year with a goal of doubling them again in 2018.

Adrian Lowcock, investment director at Architas, sees BAT as a strong investment: 'It is very efficient and has decades of experience marketing to customers alongside well established distribution networks.

Sales of vaping products are expected to exceed 2bn by 2020 after surging 50 per cent last year to reach 1bn

'Add in the fact that it is highly cash generative, which means it has the cash and resources to invest in developing its own products or to buy out others.'

Imperial Brands, meanwhile, owns e-cigarette brand Blu, which is available in the USA, UK, Italy and France.

It claims Blu will eventually be able to provide customers with as good a smoke as their normal cigarette, or even better.

Charles Huggins, a fund manager at Hargreaves Lansdown, believes the firm's experience means there is merit behind its ambitions. 'Imperial has the technological know-how and patents to exploit this opportunity and Blu will be the brand they will focus on,' he said.

Those who prefer to leave stock-picking to the experts will be happy to know that many professional fund managers are also keen tobacco investors, and they can also provide easy exposure to firms outside the UK.

Perhaps the best example is the UK's most famous fund manager, Neil Woodford. According to Woodford Investment Management, over three years the top three stocks in his Equity Income fund have been BAT, Reynolds American and Imperial Brands.

The Fidelity Global Dividend fund, managed by Dan Roberts, invests in BAT, while the Newton Global Income fund, managed by Nick Clay, owns Reynolds and Philip Morris International.

And finally, those who are still averse to investing in tobacco  e-cigarette or not  may also want to consider a growing group of funds which prohibit investments in the sector on ethical grounds.

These include the AXA Framlington UK Select Opportunities, the Edentree Amity UK fund and the Standard Life Investments UK Ethical fund.
Two British FTSE giants have announced plans to establish bases on the Continent to ensure business continues unhindered after Brexit.

EasyJet has applied for an air operators certificate (AOC) in Austria that will allow it to continue flying in the European Union after Britain leaves.

Barclays, meanwhile, confirmed plans to expand its Dublin operations as part of its contingency plans.

Flight plan: EasyJet has applied for an air operators certificate (AOC) in Austria that will allow it to continue flying in the European Union after Britain leaves

It is understood that the lenders current Dublin office could be bolstered by up to 150 staff, potentially doubling the size of its presence in the city.

The bank confirmed yesterday it plans to use Barclays Bank Ireland as its EU hub to mitigate any potential disruption to business after Brexit.

EasyJet, which has airlines based in the UK and Switzerland, will establish a third, EasyJet Europe, based in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

It said it chose Austria because of its rigorous approach to safety and ability to take on a large number of aircraft.

A spokesman added: We think it is important the aviation market remains as open and competitive as possible [after Brexit].

A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May told a Westminster briefing yesterday the matter is a commercial decision for the no-frills airline.

She said: In any deal that we want to strike with the European Union, we want to make sure that its a good deal for everyone, including businesses that operate here.
John Lewis is sending its staff to drama school in a bid to boost their confidence.

Recruits at the High Street department chain's new Oxford shop will learn vocal techniques, stage presence and confidence in order to impress customers.

The theatrically trained staff will 'meet and greet' shoppers at the doors, and will give advice and help direct customers to the right areas of the store. Others will act as a concierges, helping customers.

It is thought that if the experiment is successful, the firm could roll it out across the country as it unveils revamped shops.

Acting up: John Lewis boss Paula Nickolds is sending its staff to drama school in a bid to boost their confidence

The move is the brainchild of recently appointed boss Paula Nickolds, 44, as the 152-year-old chain prepares to open in Oxford later this year, its 49th location.

Peter Cross, customer experience director at the department store, said: 'Retail and the role of shops has changed significantly. Retailers have talked about the power of 'retail theatre' for many years.'

He said the Oxford store 'will recognise the power of our partners [staff] as the key players on the stage of this new shop, so their training will include the tools and techniques of the theatre to ensure every customer interaction is as magical as possible'.

As part of Nickolds's strategy to improve sales, she is also planning to ramp up so-called experiences  offering services such as bikini waxes.

John Lewis has also introduced opticians, travel agents, spas and extra restaurants in some of its stores. Now Nickolds has announced further moves to woo customers.

John Lewis will overhaul its furniture department to attract 'generation rent'. It will start selling so-called flexible furniture which can double up as two items  for example kitchen tables that transform into desks.

TITAN WITH 11BN SALES John Lewis began in 1864 in Oxford Street, London

Its Never Knowingly Undersold slogan was first used in an advert in 1925

It has sales of 11billion a year  but 40 per cent are at Christmas

Its first Christmas advert was in 2007. The 2016 Man On The Moon advert has been watched 26m times on YouTube

It employs 87,000 staff who are called partners as they share in the profits

The diagonal green stripes on its bags were created in 1990 and are supposed to reflect the facade of its Leeds store

And in a bid to keep luxury shoppers happy, it will work with the Victoria & Albert Museum in London to produce high-end designer goods.

Launching the ranges, Nickolds told how 'the lipstick effect' of women making spontaneous purchases has propped up sales at the department store, despite a consumer slowdown.

She spoke of her tough first few months at the helm as she was faced with shoppers whose budgets had been squeezed and didn't want to splash out on expensive items.

But she said sales in categories where shoppers would make spontaneous purchases had risen, with beauty and womenswear climbing 7 per cent and 4.4 per cent respectively.

She said: 'We believe those numbers to be significantly ahead of the market. Perhaps it's the lipstick effect, as we might have called it back in the recession.'

The lipstick effect is based on the theory that when facing economic uncertainty consumers will be more willing to buy less costly luxury goods.

Instead of buying expensive furniture or white goods for the home, for example, people will buy expensive lipstick. After the 9/11 terror attacks in New York, retailer Estee Lauder noted that sales of its lipstick had soared.

Sales at John Lewis rose 1.2 per cent in the 23 weeks to July 8 which, stripping out new stores, equates to a 0.5 per cent sales fall, according to analysts.

However, John Lewis makes more than 40 per cent of its yearly profit in the five weeks before Christmas.

Nickolds, who joined the department store as a graduate trainee 23 years ago, said: 'The first half of the year is a dress rehearsal so there's still all to play for.
Next Fed boss? Gary Cohn, pictured with President Trump

FED CHIEF Former Goldman Sachs banker Gary Cohn, who is leading the hunt for the next US Federal Reserve chairman, could be about to recommend himself for the role.

Sources in the White House and US Treasury said the director of the National Economic Council would get the job 'if he wants it'.

CHIEFS QUIT The chief executive and finance director of DX Group have quit the troubled parcels firm just a week after the police dropped a probe into the company following an unspecified allegation.

Chief executive Petar Cvetkovic and finance director Daljit Basi leave the firm as part of company-wide strategic review.

FLIGHT FEARS Airline Norwegian, which is promising to launch budget transatlantic flights, has hit turbulence after yesterday posting a 92million loss.

TOY RIGHTS Toymaker Character Group has had its licence renewed to sell toys related to pre-schoolers' TV favourite Teletubbies until 2020.

BOARD ROLE Spread-betting firm CMC Markets has appointed finance veteran Sarah Ing to its board as a non-executive director.

EARNINGS RISE Wall Street bank JP Morgan Chase has announced a 13 per cent rise in second-quarter profits to $7billion (5.4billion).

PROFITS UP US bank Citigroup saw profits and earnings grow in the second quarter of the year. Revenues hit $17.9billion (14.7billion), up 2 per cent on the previous quarter.

LOAN WOE New car loans fell 45 per cent at US lender Wells Fargo because of tough new rules. However, profits rose for the first time in almost two years.

PARCEL PAIN Analysts at Liberum have predicted that Royal Mail is on course to lose more of the parcels market.
The Theta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Delta inducted four Lee University sociology honor students during its spring 2017 honor society banquet.

This years inductees are Megan Balut of Maryville, Mi.; Michaela Gaither of Cleveland; Brandi Joann Kilpatrick of Ten Mile, Tn.; and Mykah Smith of Nassau, Bahamas.

Dr. Dale McConkey, associate professor of sociology at Berry College and director of its Wesley Center, served as the guest speaker at the event. Parents and friends of the honorees were present as Dr. Ollie Lee, co-founder of Lees AKD chapter, presented the award certificates. Lees Drs. Karen Mundy-Judkins, Arlie Tagayuna, and Ben Judkins were also present.

Chairperson of AKD Rebecca Hooper, of Nashville, Tennessee, was the recipient of this years sociology award. The Lee chapter of AKD received a 2016-17 commendation from the national honor society for its contribution to the society.

AKD is an affiliate of the American Sociological Association and maintains high standards for scholarship and research. It seeks to acknowledge and promote excellence in scholarship in the study of sociology, the research of social problems, and such other social and intellectual activities as will lead to improvement in the human condition.

For more information about Lees chapter of AKD, contact Dr. Karen Mundy-Judkins, chapter sponsor and AKD fellow, at kmundy@leeuniversity.edu.




Dark clouds hung over the UK job market yesterday after recruitment firm Hays revealed a sharp decline in hiring activity.

Despite record overall fee growth of 15 per cent for the quarter ended June 30, Hays said UK recruitment activity fell 5 per cent over the period, topping off a mixed week for British recruiters.

Ironically, it comes in a week where the country is near record-low unemployment.

With Hays reporting 25 per cent growth in Asia Pacific and 24 per cent growth across Europe and the rest of the world, the UK was the only part of its business in decline.

Slump: Despite record overall fee growth of 15% for the quarter ended June 30, Hays said UK recruitment activity fell 5% over the period, topping off a mixed week for British recruiters

Digging deeper, the firm saw public sector hiring fall a considerable 17 per cent, while fees from London hiring fell 9 per cent, driven by a drop in demand for jobs in accountancy and finance.

Hays was careful not to mention Brexit specifically in its explanation for the fall, instead citing fewer trading days, tough market conditions and changes to the law.

UK aside, Hays expects full-year profits to be marginally ahead of market expectations, which come in at around 210million.

Furthermore, chief executive Alistair Cox said the firm's 'excellent cash position' has led it to consider a dividend hike, which prompted analysts at RBC to give the stock a 'sector perform' rating.

'This looks a sensible place to be for those looking for staffing exposure,' they said in a note. Shares rose 0.1 per cent, or 0.1p, to 167.6p.

Hays's damning outlook for the UK echoes rival Page Group, which earlier this week reported a 4.5 per cent decline in UK hiring activity over the last quarter and a 2.3 per cent decline over the first half of the year.

But unlike Hays, Page Group was quick to specifically pinpoint Brexit as a headwind for its UK operations.

STOCK WATCH - OSIRIUM Investors cheered cyber-security company Osirium after it secured its first distribution for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The firm, which makes software to protect IT systems, signed an agreement with Ectacom Gmbh which it hopes will build its presence in the region. Osirium has already announced partnerships in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia Pacific in a bid to sell its products around the world. Yesterday shares rose 3 per cent, or 3p, to 101.5p.

'There remain a number of uncertainties as we continue through 2017, including the impact of Brexit negotiations and political uncertainty in the UK,' said chief executive Steve Ingham.

Shares yesterday fell 0.7 per cent, or 3.3p, to 475.1p.

That being said, fellow recruiter Robert Walters was notably nonchalant about the UK in its update on Wednesday, reporting a 13 per cent year-on-year rise in profits across the region over the last quarter. Its shares were down 1.1 per cent, or 5.25p, at 459.75p yesterday.

The FTSE 100 closed in the red yesterday, although it still managed to narrowly clock a weekly gain. It fell 0.5 per cent, or 35.1 points, to 7378.4, but rose 0.2 per cent over the week.

Acacia Mining has agreed higher royalty payments on its revenues in Tanzania, despite an ongoing row with the country's government.

In what RBC analysts called 'a show of good faith', Acacia will now have to pay a 6 per cent surcharge to the government on all its gold from its three mines in the country, up from 4 per cent.

It will also pay a 1 per cent clearing fee on exports.

The FTSE 250 company has been at loggerheads with Tanzania's government since March, when it banned the export of gold concentrate.

It also accuses Acacia of failing to declare tens of billions of dollars worth of revenues and tax payments. Shares rose 1.4 per cent, or 3.9p, to 285.8p.

Shares in Dixons Carphone were off slightly after the firm sold its Spanish assets for around 48million.

Despite the firm promising to reinvest the money made from the sale back into its business  which is currently beating forecasts  investors were nonplussed, and shares fell 1.7 per cent, or 4.5p, to 260p.

Stamp and coin collecting firm Stanley Gibbons suffered after announcing that the 2.4million sale of parts of its interiors business would be delayed due to funding issues.

Shares in the firm fell 3.8 per cent, or 0.38p, to 9.62p.
The taxpayer suffered a loss of almost 2billion from the Governments sale of its shares in Royal Bank of Scotland in 2015, the public finances watchdog claimed today.

The National Audit Office report into the controversial sale of a 5.4 per cent stake in the bank found that overall losses totalled 1.9billion. But the NAO concluded that the sale was well planned and organised and represented value for money.

It added that there was no impact on the sale price despite details of the sale being leaked into the market around an hour before the official announcement.

Hefty loss: The taxpayer suffered a loss of almost 2billion from the Governments sale of its shares in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in 2015, according to the National Audit Office

The sale came under heavy criticism at the time after the Government offloaded its first tranche of shares in RBS at a 52-week low.

There was also speculation over leaked information after shares plunged eight per cent in the three days before the sale as hedge funds bet against the bank.

The report comes just days after RBS agreed a 4.2bn settlement in the US over claims it mis-sold toxic mortgage bonds in the run-up to the financial crisis.

The payment relates to the mis-selling of bundles of risky home loans to investors between 2005 and 2007 as the once-safe British bank expanded overseas.

It marked one of two major long-awaited settlements with US regulators, which need to be cleared before the Government can begin selling down the remainder of its 72 per cent stake in the bank.

Original estimates put the losses from the 2015 share sale at 1.1bn on the price paid under the RBSs initial 45.5bn bailout at the height of the financial crisis.

But the NAO said that, taking into account costs of financing the rescue, losses on the stake sale soared to 1.9bn.

Despite this, the watchdog said that UK Financial Investments (UKFI) - the body charged with managing the Governments stakes in banks - handled the sale well.

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: The sale was consistent with HM Treasury's overarching objective to not be a permanent investor in UK financial institutions, and UKFI's objective to execute a strategy for disposing of investments in an orderly and active way.

It was executed as skilfully as could reasonably be expected, and on the basis of the preparation, process and proceeds of the transaction, UKFI achieved value for money.

US settlement: The NAO report comes just days after RBS agreed a 4.2bn settlement in the US over claims it mis-sold toxic mortgage bonds in the run-up to the financial crisis

UKFI was grilled by MPs on the Treasury Select Committee in 2015 over the sale, with worries over a leak.

The NAO said that UKFI found evidence of a leak just before the sale, which did not affect the taxpayer negatively, adding that short-selling ahead of the sale was not out of the ordinary.

The Government has since fully sold its stake in Lloyds Banking Group, but is likely to be holding on to its stake in RBS for some time.

There is growing acceptance that the taxpayer will suffer a big loss on the shareholding, with Chancellor Philip Hammond in April admitting to MPs that we have to live in the real world.

He said: Our policy remains to return the bank to private hands as soon as we can achieve fair value for the shares, recognising that fair value could well be below what the previous government paid for them.

RBS is yet to start talks with the Department of Justice over a settlement on mortgage-bond mis-selling in the US, while it is also waiting for a European Union decision on a plan to avoid selling its 300 Williams & Glyn branches.

RBS shares were down 0.2 per cent at 256.4p in early trading today.
Barack Obama is making his comeback.

The forty-fourth president headlined a key Democratic fundraiser Thursday night, in one of his first major appearances for the party since Donald Trump succeeded him in January.

The event was a fundraiser for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, and was attended by former Attorney General Eric Holder and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. It was held at a private home in Washington, DC and was closed to the press.

The event aimed to raise money to fund the coming electoral battles next year in a bid to control the redistricting effort that is scheduled to take place after the 2020 census.

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Barack Obama headlined a key Democratic fundraiser in Washington DC on Thursday. He's pictured above in Germ any in May

How districts are drawn - and redrawn - has a big impact on the political landscape, making the process extremely important to the fortunes of American political parties.

The 435 congressional districts that elect lawmakers to the US House of Representatives are redrawn every 10 years following the national census.

Local legislatures, and not the federal government or the US Congress, redraw these boundaries.

Republicans currently control the legislatures in 32 of the nation's 50 states.

'Restoring fairness to our democracy by advocating for fairer, more inclusive district maps around the country is a priority for president Obama,' his spokesman Kevin Lewis said in a statement.

The NDRC was created this January, and is headed by Obama-era US attorney general Eric Holder.

Republicans have held a House majority since the 2010 elections.

Obama, 55, has kept a relatively low political profile since leaving the White House on January 20.

After three months of vacation, he attended a conference in Chicago in April to discuss his youth-oriented foundation.

Beyond a few press statements or tweets on topics like health care or immigration, he has avoided directly commenting on the performance of his Republican successor Trump - unlike Trump's 2016 election rival Hillary Clinton, who regularly offers criticism.
A second Australian Border Force boss has allegedly quit his job after becoming embroiled in a relationship scandal.

Capability Division Assistant Commissioner Peter Docwra was reportedly on leave before tendering his resignation, The Courier Mail reported.

Reports of an inquiry into Mr Docwra emerged just days after Border Force boss Roman Quaedvlieg's relationship with a young staffer was revealed.

Capability Division Assistant Commissioner Peter Docwra has resigned from his job, as it is alleged an investigation is taking place into his personal conduct

The 52-year-old was also under investigation, regarding his relationship with a female staffer in her 20's who works at Sydney Airport and a promotion she received.

Mr Quaedvlieg allegedly helped secure the young woman a job at Sydney Airport.

He has vehemently denied the allegations, and claimed his relationship with the woman did not start until she had secured employment.

Mr Quaedvlieg took leave while the relationship was investigated.

He remains on leave and the investigation into the relationship continues, though the Border Force boss denies any wrongdoing.

It comes just after Border Force boss Roman Quaedvlieg was revealed to have gone on leave following claims of an inappropriate relationship with a junior staffer

Meanwhile, the Courier Mail reports the investigation into Mr Docwra's alleged relationship with a female staffer will also continue, despite his resignation on Thursday.

Mr Docwra's Linkedin profile revealed he previously worked as Chief Information Officer at Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Mr Docwra was also a commissioned officer in the Army Reserves.

The Department of Immigration and Border Security told Daily Mail Australia Mr Docwra is no longer an employee of the Australian Border Force.

They would not comment or confirm whether any matter is, or is not, under investigation.
Transport ministers were urged to scrap the High Speed Rail project (HS2). Backbenchers on both sides have spotted that the little-loved, wildly expensive HS2 could be a juicy target for cost-saving.

It may have been approved by the last Parliament but are we not now living in a different age? Imagine the billions unleashed if HS2 were scrapped. The Government could suddenly cork all sorts of agitations. The Chancellor would have some legroom. Theresa May could look radical.

Think of the cheers from all those families whose homes and graveyards and woodlands are about to be wrecked by HS2  all for trains for business executives. Which party can present itself as the friend of the populus and put a stop to this multi- billion pound scheme? Bureaucrats would hate having to change their mind, but is it not now a good look to be a party that stands up to bureaucrats and private sector contractors?

Imagine the billions unleashed if HS2 were scrapped. Theresa May could look radical

At Transport Questions yesterday, the Tories Esther McVey, plus Labours Dennis Skinner and John Spellar, put up queries about HS2.

In the House of Lords in recent weeks, Tory Lord Framlingham (who as Michael Lord was a Deputy Commons Speaker) has been making repeated pleas for the HS2 decision to be reconsidered. It has not made him popular with the Establishment. Good for him.

Lord Framlingham reckons HS2 could end up costing at least 100billion. By way of comparison, the Royal Navys new aircraft carrier cost 3billion. Lord Framlingham recently told the Lords 17 public relations firms are being employed to sell the ridiculous scheme to the public. One is being paid vast sums of public money to brainwash primary school children. The lobbyists are in clover.

So are various lawyers and consultants and some of the big engineering firms. The usual suspects. Should the Tory Party not seize the chance to stand up to these vested interests?

An artist's impression of an HS2 station. Tory Lord Framlingham reckons HS2 could end up costing at least 100billion

Mr Spellar (Warley) wanted a reassessment of this increasingly troubled scheme. Miss McVey (Tatton) wanted Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to meet her constituents to allay their fears about the looming environmental horrors of the railway.

M R Skinner asked Mr Grayling to get real and spend the HS2 billions instead on various transport projects around the country. Mr Grayling, a methodical engine, chugged along the usual ministerial line about how HS2 would bring capacity improvement and journey improvement to the great cities of the North. Mr Skinner threw out a hand in disgust, rather as Dick Emerys Honky Tonks character used to do. Although ministers will adhere to the argument that HS2 is a vital investment for the Tories Northern Powerhouse, they would quietly love to have the gushing billions that HS2 is going to consume for countless years.

Yesterdays Transport Questions saw demands for more state spending on trains in South Wales and Cheshire, the roads in mid-Sussex, cycle paths in Taunton, the A27 between Lancing and Worthing, the Tyne and Wear Metro, Bradfords rail connections, by-passes in Shipley and Eastleigh, and much else.

All these demands could be granted in an instant were HS2 binned. With George Osborne (who loved HS2) no longer around to cause trouble in the Commons, there are few ministers completely in love with the scheme.

When he was chancellor George Osborne argued that HS2 was a vital investment for the Tories Northern Powerhouse

In other developments, the Transport ministerial team has an unlikely new duo: the squat John Hayes, who is as verbose as Basil Brush, and the tall, languid Jesse Norman.

Mr Hayes almost bounces to the despatch box. Etonian Mr Norman approaches it with unhurried aplomb, having first unfolded his legs like a giraffe rising from its morning press-ups.

At one point yesterday, these two  they have something of Laurel and Hardy to them  got in a muddle.

Mr Norman was supposed to answer a question but he took so long to reach the box, an ever-eager Mr Hayes thought it was HIS turn, so leapt into the gap. Merry chaos.

Id love to see those two on a tandem.
An Uber driver has been charged with raping a teenage girl who was his passenger.

Police allege the 37-year-old man raped the girl in Brisbane's south about 8.30pm on July 7.

The Aspley man is appearing in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday, charged with one count of rape.

Police allege a 37-year-old Uber driver raped his teenage female passenger about 8.30pm on July 7 in Brisbane's south (stock image)

Police say the matter is unrelated to a similar offence last week, where a 47-year-old Uber driver was charged with raping a woman multiple times, also in Brisbane.

But detectives believe there could be other victims who have been assaulted in similar circumstances.

They are appealing for them to report the matter to police.
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Bill and Hillary Clinton's nephew Tyler is starting to make a name for himself in the fashion world.

The 23-year-old model cuddled up to Clara McGregor, the daughter of actor Ewan McGregor, in a preppy fall photo shoot.

The pair posed for Town & Country to preview some of the fall clothing designs that will be rolled out by brands including Prada, Brooks Brothers, Officine, Calvin Klein, and Ralph Lauren.

Clara McGregor, 21, has already carved out a career on the runway, having signed with Wilhelmina models in December 2016.

And while fashion is calling, Ewan McGregor's eldest daughter appears to be intent on following in her father's footsteps.

Clinton, on the other hand, looks like he is staying far away from the family business.

Tyler Clinton (right), the 23-year-old nephew of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, posed with Clara McGregor (left), the daughter of actor Ewan McGregor in a series of fashion photos

The pair posed for Town & Country to preview some of the fall clothing designs that will be rolled out by recognizable brand names including Prada, Brooks Brothers, Officine, Calvin Klein, and Ralph Lauren among others

Clara McGregor, 21, has already carved out a career on the runway, having signed with Wilhelmina models in December 2016

And while fashion is calling, Ewan McGregor's eldest daughter appears to be intent on following in her father's footsteps

'Its cliched, but my dad always encourages me to do things Im passionate about,' says McGregor. 'I think hes really excited for me'

She is enrolled at New York University, where she is pursuing a BA in cinema studies

She is enrolled at New York University, where she is pursuing a BA in cinema studies.

'My major is an academic approach,' she says.

'I take acting classes outside of school, but I wanted to study film and learn as much as I could.'

Clara says her father, he of Trainspotting and Star Wars fame, has been her biggest cheerleader.

Clara says her father Ewan, he of Trainspotting and Star Wars fame, has been her biggest cheerleader

Five-foot-11 Tyler (right) made headlines last summer when he hugged with aunt Hillary (left) on the stage at the end of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia

McGregor told the magazine: 'Its cliched, but my dad always encourages me to do things Im passionate about. I think hes really excited for me.'

Tyler Clinton is the son of Bill Clinton's brother, Roger.

Tyler's mugshot following an arrest in 2015 surfaced earlier this year. He was accused of hitting another man over the head with a beer bottle in California

It was reported this past April that Tyler had moved to New York where he had been signed by IMG Models.

He also just graduated Loyola Marymount University.

Five-foot-11 Tyler made headlines last summer when he hugged with aunt Hillary on the stage at the end of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Several outlets wrote stories seeking to identify the handsome young man, and it was eventually revealed that he was Bill and Hill's close relative.

After going viral, some of Tyler's modeling photos started circulating the internet.

Adina Doria, who shot the pictures, told ET that Tyler was 'incredibly professional, very well-mannered and a truly genuine person.'

'He really deserves this attention,' she said. 'I am both humbled and honored to have received such an incredible response from fans around the world.'

Earlier this year, Tyler's mugshot surfaced following a 2015 run-in with the law.

Tyler got his mugshot taken two years ago, after he allegedly hit another man over the head with a beer bottle in a bar fight in Fullerton, California

It's unclear if he was still underage at the time.

He was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, but the Orange County District Attorney's Office decided not to pursue charges for an unknown reason.
The man accused of punching heart surgeon Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann at a Melbourne hospital is due to face court for the first time since the medical professional died.

Mill Park man Joseph Esmaili, 22, was arrested over the May 30 attack and was originally charged with intentionally causing injury.

Mr Pritzwald-Stegmann, a cardiothoracic surgeon and beloved father-of-two, died almost four weeks after the attack at the hospital where he worked.

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Joseph Esmaili, 22, (pictured) is accused of punching a surgeon at a hospital will face court Friday for the first time after the doctor's death

Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann (pictured with one of his twin daughters) died four weeks after he was punched in the head outside a hospital for alledgedly telling Esmaili to stop smoking

The heart surgeon, 41, (pictured) was punched in full view of CCTV cameras at Box Hill Hospital entrance in May

The 41-year-old husband and dad to twin girls was hit in full view of CCTV cameras at the Box Hill Hospital entrance after he allegedly asked someone to stop smoking.

Mr Pritzwald-Stegmann was rushed to the trauma centre at The Alfred where he eventually died.

His distraught family said they were devastated, while the medical community mourned the loss of an admired surgeon.

Esmaili is due to face Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday for an application.

Esmaili (pictured centre) will face court Friday for allegedly king hitting the heart surgeon
One of the world's most powerful banks has relaxed its dress code in a bid to lure hip young tech workers.

The 148-year old Goldman Sachs, which has offices in New York and London, has told technology staff they are free to dress casually  but could consider smartening up in front of clients.

The giant bank is battling hip Silicon Valley firms and hedge funds for the talent it needs to boost its digital capabilities.

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We can be hipster too: The giant bank is battling hip Silicon Valley firms and hedge funds for the talent it needs to boost its digital capabilities (file pic)

It is famous in the City for its strict dress code - which specifically bans items such as shorts.

Top software developers and engineers can take their pick of roles at newer firms offering workplace perks, better hours and a more relaxed, personal management style than typically exist in the City.

So now to woo staff, even the most traditional organisations are having to change their rules.

Chief information officer Elisha Wiesel has now sent a memo to Goldman's technology and engineering staff saying their departments are adopting a 'year-round casual dress code'.

He added: 'Please exercise judgement in determining when to adapt to business attire as circumstances dictate, particularly if you have a client meeting.'

About a quarter of Goldman's 33,000 employees are engineers helping make trading more efficient and build new businesses such as its consumer lending platform.

The bank is pushing to keep hold of them amid increasingly stiff competition.

Down with the kids: The 148-year old Goldman Sachs, which has offices in New York and London, has told technology staff they are free to dress casually (file pic)

Mr Wiesel, Goldman's highest ranking technology executive, reportedly told workers he hoped the plan 'would enhance the work environment and experience of our people'

He did not specify whether hoodies or sneakers were appropriate.

But a worker told the Financial Times 'totally casual' clothing was now allowed for the departments around the world.

It is believed the policy has been in place for around three weeks, while bankers still have to stick to a stricter dress code, including no shorts.

Most of the bank's other employees also have to stick to a professional business dress code unless told otherwise by their manager.

Last year rival JP Morgan Chase told its 237,420 workers its dress code was business casual, with chief executive Jamie Dimon reportedly going tieless to a meeting with staff.

'This reflects the way how we work is changing,' the company reportedly said in a memo. Barclays also started to allow casual Fridays in 2013. But some workers fear it sends out the wrong message.

In May law firm CMS also loosened its dress code as part of its mega-merger with Olswang and Nabarro. Lawyers can now turn up to work in trainers and a t-shirt.

Goldman Sachs did not respond to a request for comment last night.
Romola Garai has hit out at parents who share pictures of their children on social media

Fashion designer Stella McCartney is said to be furious that her friends the Beckhams posted a photograph online of her six-year-old daughter attending a childrens party at Buckingham Palace.

Actress Romola Garai has gone even further and called on parents to be prosecuted for sharing pictures of their offspring on social media websites such as Facebook and YouTube.

Garai, who has starred in films such as Atonement and TV dramas including The Hour and Daniel Deronda, claims: The privacy of children is invaded on a catastrophic scale.

I think well look back at this period as utterly perverse. It should be illegal to post pictures of children without their permission.

Romola, 34, who has two children with her husband, the actor Sam Hoare, adds: If you have a private channel to share things among friends, thats one thing. But I cant imagine that this generation of children wont turn round in 20 years and say: I didnt want to be naked in a picture seen by millions of people I dont know. Privacy is very valuable.

Celebrities such as the Beckhams, TV chef Gordon Ramsay and socialite Tamara Ecclestone, regularly share pictures of their children online.

Yesterday, McCartney was reported to be livid that David Beckham had posted a photo online of her daughter, Reiley, at a birthday party held, controversially, at the Palace. The snap, which also featured the Beckhams daughter, Harper, and four more of her friends alongside Princess Eugenie, could be seen by Beckhams 38.6 million followers.

Actors are encouraged to win fans online, but Romola is having none of it. I dont do any social media, she declares. Something in me is a bit repulsed by it.

Im aware it sounds holier than thou, but I find the idea of drawing peoples attention to awards youve won really weird.

Harper Beckham pictured outside Buckingham Palace

Stella McCartney was reported to be livid that David Beckham had posted a photo online of her daughter, Reiley, at a birthday party

Nick Clegg has not been deputy prime minister since 2015 and was booted out as an MP last month, but he still managed to wangle a special invitation for him and his wife to the state banquet at Buckingham Palace for King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain.

The invitation will be especially pleasing for the former Lib Dem leaders Spanish spouse, as she was listed in the Court Circular as Mrs Miriam Gonzalez Durantez.

Earlier this year, she publicly shamed the organisers of International Womens Day for having the temerity to send her a letter addressed to Mrs Clegg.

Nick Clegg and his wife Miriam Durantez will be attending the state banquet at Buckingham Palace

Lily who's your chap kissing?

Matt Smith (left) and John Benjamin Hickey seen on location is Central Park in New York City filming 'Mapplethorpe'

Matt Smith is accustomed to canoodling with beautiful Cinderella star Lily James, 28, his girlfriend of three years  so lets hope that shes not the jealous type.

For the former Doctor Who actor, 34, has been pictured locking lips with a man in New York.

But it was strictly business, as Matt is on set of his new film, Mapplethorpe, in which he stars as the gay Seventies snapper Robert Mapplethorpe.

His on-screen lover, pictured above in a beige jacket, is played by John Benjamin Hickey, 54, whose own real-life partner, TV producer Jeffrey Richman, might have more reason to worry at the sight of him kissing a much younger man.
ArtsBuild is currently accepting applications for its Community Cultural Connections grants program. Since 2012 ArtsBuild has awarded 100 small grants through the CCC program to make the arts more accessible to traditionally underserved populations in Hamilton County.

Any organization in Hamilton County may apply for a CCC grant, even those without 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. Funded grants will provide arts experiences to diverse audiences, broaden the types of arts offerings supported by the community, use arts and culture to strengthen community unity, and demonstrate the positive impact of the arts.

The maximum amount of a grant award is $2,000, and applicants must provide matching funding and/or in-kind donated services for the grant project. Community Cultural Connections grants are awarded year-round, as long as funds are available.

"Through the Community Cultural Connections program, ArtsBuild is able to fund many smaller arts and cultural projects that have big impacts on the people they serve," said Rodney Van Valkenburg, ArtsBuild's director of Grants and Initiatives. "These projects connect Chattanooga residents from diverse backgrounds to enjoy quality arts experiences that might not otherwise happen."

For more information about the CCC grants, contact Rodney Van Valkenburg at 756-2787 or rodney@artsbuild.com.
Hundreds of people are trapped in ski resorts on New Zealand's North Island after wild storms and heavy snowfall.

About 500 people are snowed inside Skotel Alpine Resort and Chateau Tongariro on Mt Ruapehu in the Tongariro National Park, reported the NZ Herald.

Skotel Alpine Resort general manager Rebecca Dalgarno, who is at Whakapapa Village, told stuff.co.nz they were 'just trying to survive'.

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Hundreds of people are trapped in ski resorts on New Zealand's North Island after wild storms and heavy snowfall. Pictured is the

Ms Dalgarno said they were 'trying to get through the day. Taking it hour by hour'.

'It's horrendous weather. Absolutely nuts up here.' She said they had landlines and power but a surge overnight had 'fried' their Eftpos and internet.

She said guests had been pretty good, and they understood there was nothing that could be done about it, but some were worried about international flights they are meant to be catching in the coming days.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts marketing manager Matt McIvor said there were also people stuck in other ski club lodges on the mountain but said they are well equipped for the isolation.

Horizons Regional Council emergency operation centre controller Craig Grant told the NZ Herald pallets of food were being transported for the people from Turangi.

About 500 people are snowed inside Skotel Alpine Resort and Chateau Tongariro on Mt Ruapehu in the Tongariro National Park

Snow bar: One guest took this photo of drinks being cooled in the large amounts of snow piled up against a lodge on Mt Ruapehu

Road maintenance contractors reportedly escorted a truck with food to Chateau Tongariro on Friday morning.

Mr Grant has urged people in the region to check on friends, families, neighbours and animals and to share their resources with each other wherever possible.

He warned that rural communities would be feeling particularly isolated.

There is also concern about the amount of water in areas affected by heavy snow, once the snow melts.

'There will continue to be a great deal of water around, and for now we can't say how the snow will contribute to this once it starts melting. Our duty teams will be in place over the weekend,' Mr Grant said.

Skotel Alpine Resort general manager Rebecca Dalgarno, who is at Whakapapa Village, told stuff.co.nz they were 'just trying to survive'

Ms Dalgarno said guests had been pretty good but some were worried about international flights they are meant to be catching on Friday and Saturday

Pictured are locals snowboarding through the centre of the town of Ohakune near Mt Ruapehu

Mr Grant said the Moutoa floodgates were opened at 3.40am on Friday morning as a result of high levels in the Manawatu River and were likely to stay open until Sunday morning.

He said the Makino gates were expected to open later on Friday to accomodate rising water levels in the area.

'Both the Makino Stream and the Mangaone Stream levels are currently on the decline, however these will rise again later today.'

Grant expected the rising levels to stay within their channels today.

Power is still out to more than 10,000 households throughout the Wairarapa, Manawatu and Ruapehu including the townships of Waiouru, Ohakune, Taihape, Raetihi and Marton, reported Radio NZ.

Drivers are advised to travel with caution and check the NZTA website, as State Highway 56 at the Opiki spillway is closed along with many others in the region.
Mika and Joe have revealed they will have a New England wedding when they tie the knot next spring, but they told a Harvard audience there isn't much chance Donald Trump scores an invite.

Scarborough, 54, and Brzezinski, 50, spoke at Harvard's Kennedy School Institute of Politics on Wednesday night after being named visiting fellows at the prestigious school.

During the speech, which lasted almost an hour, it was Scarborough who spilled the beans on the MSNBC duo's upcoming nuptials.

'Can we give the location?' he asked first, teasing both the audience and his fiancee, who quickly replied: 'No, no!'

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Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough spoke about their upcoming wedding, feuding with Donald Trump, and more, during an interview at Harvard on Wednesday night

Mika and Joe got engaged earlier this year during a European vacation. Joe said Wednesday night they plan to get married next Spring in Nantucket

But the former Republican representative then offered up some details about when and where the ceremony will take place.

'Nantucket in the spring,' he said.

'But we don't know because we gotta make sure that our kids are OK with it.'

During the on-stage interview, which was conducted by David Rubenstein, both cable news stars spoke about their high-profile falling out with the president in recent months.

MSNBC 'Morning Joe' hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are interviewed by philanthropist and financier David Rubenstein during a Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics event

Scarborough spilled the beans on their upcoming wedding plans, before talking about Donald Trump

Rubenstein probed the duo about its relationship with Trump, asking: 'Do you still call him Donald?'

Mika replied quickly: 'Well, now I call him nothing. Because we don't talk. Things have kind of devolved.'

Scarborough then spoke about the relationship with Trump in the early stages of his candidacy, painting a clear picture about the fallout.

'I gave him advice several times, the first time, I said "Donald, umm, you should probably apologize for that thing you said about Mexicans",' the host said, referencing one of Trump's most infamous remarks.

Trump has regularly attacked the hosts, calling Joe 'psycho' and Mika 'dumb as a rock'

'I gave him advice several times, the first time, I said "Donald, umm, you should probably apologize for that thing you said about Mexicans",' the host told the crowd Wednesday night

When asked what she calls the president, Mika said: 'Well, now I call him nothing. Because we don't talk. Things have kind of devolved'

The MSNBC hosts are pictured on stage during the interview event at Harvard on Wednesday

'I said you should apologize for that he ignored me, the next week I think he insulted John McCain I called him up and said you can't say that and finally after about the fourth phone call he said, "Thank you for your advice Joe, I just don't apologize".

'Still though, we can say we thought he was going to win, but we never thought he was ever going to be president.'

He continued: 'But the big change (in our relationship) really came the second he got into the White House the best way to tell it to you is I actually had called I think it was Sean Spicer or Reince Priebus, it was during the day he was about to be inaugurated, and Sean Spicer had put up pictures of the crowd-sizes.

Brzezinski has been one of Trump's favorite targets on Twitter, with the president frequently attacking the host

Joe and Mika have had a busy week, after they appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night

'And I called up Reince and I said, "Reince, I know this is your first day in office, but I just want you to know if you hold a press conference the first day of your administration lying about crowd-sizes, we're going to absolutely kill you on the show the next day, that is the most reckless, irresponsible, childish thing."

'You could tell they were already in a panic, that he was screaming he wanted to have this press conference so about three or four hours later I get a phone call at home and the operator says "it's the president of the United States", and I thought "cool, Barack Obama's calling me at home" but after talking to (Trump) for about two minutes I was like "OK, he's gone".'

Joe and Mika have sparred with Trump repeatedly during the president's time in office. Trump has regularly bashed them on Twitter, calling Scarborough 'psycho' and Brzezinski 'dumb as a rock'.

The MSNBC hosts got engaged earlier this year during a European vacation.
An Airbnb host who cancelled a reservation in California because the guest was 'Asian' has agreed to pay a $5,000 fine and attend a college course in Asian-American studies.

Dyne Suh booked the home as part of her ski trip with her fiance and friends in Big Bear a month in advance.

As they approached the area in a snow storm, she messaged her host, Tami Barker, about the previously agreed upon extra guests.

Barker suddenly cancelled Suh's reservation telling the 25-year-old law student 'I wouldn't rent to you if you were the last person on Earth.'

Officials with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing handed Suh a fine and said she would attend the course.

Barker also agreed to personally apologize to Suh and perform community service at a civil rights organization.

Dyne Suh (above) booked the home a month in advance and says she had asked for the additional guests and was approved, until they got to the area of the home

Suh argues the agreement for the extra guests was already accepted, then Barker shot back 'I wouldn't rent to u if u were the last person on earth... One word says it all. Asian'

Suh has been living in America since she was three-years-old and is a citizen

Suh, who has been living in America since she was three-years-old and is a citizen, said she received the remarks after she asked the host if she could add her two puppies and two friends to the reservation.

The Airbnb host then reportedly added: 'One word says it all Asian. Want something for nothing.'

It was a busy President's Day weekend, so the group was left stranded without accommodations as a result.

Suh said the woman initially agreed via text to the new arrangement.

But right before the group arrived, things took a turn for the worse.

The aggressive messages start with the homeowner Tami Barker saying Suh is 'insanely high' and calling her a 'con artist'

According to the screenshots, the now-banned host said: 'If you think four people and two dogs ate [sic] getting a room fir [sic] $50 a night on Big Bear mountain during the busiest weekend of the year  You are insanely high.'

Suh said she countered back with saying that she had proof the host agreed and that she would report her to the company and have her removed.

The host allegedly messaged back and said: 'Go ahead. Its why we have Trump.'

The host added she would 'not allow this country to be told what to do by foreigners.'

Suh, who posted an emotional video about the incident on YouTube, has said she'd agreed to pay $250 per night to rent the home and later asked Barker if two other friends could also stay at the house, which Barker agreed to.

Suh sent Barker screenshots of text messages where she agreed to the additional guests, yet Barker cancelled the reservation.

'And I will not allow this country to be told what to do by foreigners' the home owner Tami Barker told Suh

'It's why we have trump [sic]' the home owner Tami Barker told Suh

Barker's attorney, Edward Lee, said his client was 'regretful for her impetuous actions and comments' and is pleased to have resolved the matter.

Suh said in a statement posted on Facebook that she glad the settlement included Barker's agreement to attend an Asian-American studies course and hoped the settlement would encourage others to report discrimination.

'I hope that more victims of discrimination will feel encouraged to come forward with their own stories,' Suh wrote. 'Your pain is not insignificant and you are not alone.'
John Downey (pictured) was given the taxpayer-funded sum to defend himself over the atrocity which killed four soldiers

The prime suspect in the IRA Hyde Park bombing was handed 50,000 legal aid, it emerged last night.

Families of soldiers killed in the 1982 attack are furious after learning that John Downey was given the taxpayer-funded sum to defend himself over the atrocity which killed four soldiers.

Mark Tipper, brother of victim Simon Tipper, told The Sun: What has Britain become when terror suspects are backed by the state but victims arent?

Lord Tebbit, who was injured in the IRA Brighton bombing in 1984, said: It does seem to me a grotesque misapplication of the rules of natural justice that the families should be treated in that way.

The case against Downey, 65, collapsed in February 2014 after it emerged police had wrongly told him he would never face criminal charges over the attack on July 20, 1982.

The Hyde Park Justice campaign is looking to raise 110,000 by August to bring a civil case or it will fail under procedural rules.

The Legal Aid Agency has refused their bid for 50,000, despite handing the amount to Downey for his defence.

It gave 18,705.47 to solicitors Birnberg Peirce Ltd, run by human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce, and Downeys two barristers got 20,089 and 12,966.79.

Last night Matthew Jury, of McCue & Partners, which represents the families, said: They feel the Government cares more about the man suspected of murdering their loved ones.

Bodies of horses lie in the road after the Hyde Park blast, in whcih four British soldiers also died

Downey has been accused of murdering four soldiers and injuring 31 in the nail bomb blast  one of the terror groups most notorious mainland atrocities.

The attack killed four members of the Royal Household Cavalry on their way to a Changing of the Guard ceremony. Seven horses also died but another, Sefton, survived and became a national hero.

LEGAL AID IN BRITAIN Anyone subject to a crown court trial is eligible for legal aid, subject to a strict means test. It takes into account income, family circumstances and essential living costs. An individual is eligible for legal aid if that individuals gross annual income does not exceed 12,475, or where their gross annual income is greater than 12,475 and disposable annual income is less than 37,500. Advertisement

A nail bomb containing 25lbs of explosives was hidden in a blue Morris Marina car and detonated by remote control as the troopers rode past.

Lance Corporal Jeffery Young, 19, was killed alongside Squadron Quartermaster Corporal Roy Bright, 36, Lieutenant Anthony Daly, 23, and Trooper Simon Tipper, 19.

Downey, from Donegal, was due to stand trial at the Old Bailey in February 2014. But the convicted IRA terrorist was told he would not face prosecution because he mistakenly received a comfort letter - dubbed a get out of jail free card  sent to 187 on-the-run paramilitary suspects saying they were not wanted by police.

The letters were issued after a secret deal between members of Tony Blairs government and IRA leaders under the Good Friday Agreement of 1999. The existence of the letters only emerged when Downeys trial collapsed.

Lady Justice Hallett, who carried out an inquiry after a blunder became public, described the sending of the letters as a catastrophic error.
Special Forces troops could travel through space to get to war zones in future, the head of the American air force suggested yesterday.

Chief of Staff General David Goldfein raised the prospect of elite troops travelling on a mothership to anywhere in the planet within an hour.

Speaking at an air power conference in London, he said the military needed to 'jump on' industry plans when it came to innovative technology.

He referred to Sir Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic, which plans to make intercontinental space travel a reality.

Speaking at an air power conference, David Goldfein said the military needed to 'jump on' industry plans when it came to innovative technology such as Virgin Galactic (file pic)

The entrepreneur has announced plans to launch people into space in 2018, with the first test flights beginning this year.

He is convinced that eventually the costs of space flights will come down and the fuel savings on intercontinental flights using a low Earth orbit will make travel from one place to another commercially viable.

Explaining Sir Richard's development, General Goldfein said: 'Sir Richard Branson has developed Virgin Galactic.

'He has determined that the most rocket fuel costs are from the surface of 50,000 feet because that is where the air is the thickest.

'But if you can actually get a mothership to take you to 50,000 feet and launch you from there then it is quiet cost effective.

'His business model is to take seven passengers into low earth orbit for a ride.' He questioned what these developments means for the militaries across the world.

Spaced out: The entrepreneur has announced plans to launch people into space in 2018, with the first test flights beginning this year (file pic)

He said: 'The question for us is what does that mean if I take seven special operators, put them on this and then can get to any place on the planet in less than an hour?

'What does that do to us and what does that do for us in terms of all of the scenarios that we think our way through?

'This is the technology that commercial industry is now going for. With all of the challenges that we have talked about there is such opportunity for us if we can just jump on it and grab it.'

Also speaking at the conference, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said young people needed to be reminded of the stories of Britain's 'great inventors and imagineers'.

He said: 'A job in air power is a chance to truly change the world.'
A swimming pool in western Sydney is excluding men at certain times four days per week to cater for Muslim women.

From next week, the Blue Water Swim School at Condell Park is closing the pool to men for an hour at a time on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday afternoons and Tuesday night.

This is so a group, Aquatic Flex, can run women's only lessons, which have been promoted on the Facebook page of a hardline Sunni Muslim group that advises Islamic girls to avoid having non-Muslim friends.

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The Blue Water Swim School at Condell Park in Sydney is for women only during afternoons

Aerobics group Aquatic Flex has promoted women's-only lessons on a Muslim Facebook page

Blue Water Swim School owner Simon Rodwell said Aquatic Flex had hired his pool to hold classes for women in the area with a high Muslim population.

'It's for women who want to be without any men there and, okay, a high proportion of them could be Muslim,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Friday.

'In western Sydney, there are a lot of Muslims here in this area, for sure.'

Instructor Fatme Taha said most of her clients were Muslim women who preferred to be segregated from men.

'For our community, for sure, yes, they don't like to get mixed with men,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'Segregated, yes, especially in the water because coming out of the water the lady feels revealed and the clothes gets tight on her and she feels uncomfortable so they prefer not to have men watching what they do.'

Images of women in hijab swimming costumes have been posted on the Facebook page of the hardline Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association.

They show the women in black holding foam pool noodles as part of an aqua therapy session to help deal with back pain, which is running for the next 10 weeks.

The pool at Condell Park in Sydney is closed to men for an hour at a time in the afternoon

The Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association has advertised the swimming lessons on Facebook

The ASWJ's Facebook page has promoted the women's only lessons as having no men or closed-circuit TV cameras.

'Sisters, a fantastic opportunity to get fit and healthy,' it said.

Fatme Taha's husband Fady said a woman from his wife's swimming group was likely to have placed the message up on the ASWJ Facebook page.

A fundamentalist male sheikh from the ASWJ, Mohamad Doarn, in April told girls at a youth night they would go to hell if they befriended non-Muslims.

The Auburn Ruth Everuss Aquatic Centre's retractable curtains around pools for women's only session caused public outrage

In May, the council-run Auburn Ruth Everuss Aquatic Centre installed a retractable curtain around one of its three pools so women could swim privately during two set time slots on Wednesdays, infuriating many western Sydney residents who said it was like 'segregation'.

However Simon Rodwell, who runs his privately-operated pool in an industrial area of Condell Park with his wife Narelle, said there wasn't a backlash about the early afternoon women's-only sessions resuming next week.

'This is a private operation here. They're using it at times when we wouldn't be using it anyway,' he said.

The council pool at Auburn had curtains installed so women could swim without men seeing them
A 20-month-old baby has suffered serious facial injuries after being attacked by an unattended medium size dog.

The baby's mother had her child sitting in a pram before loading it into the car when her son was bitten Thursday.

New Zealand authorities are searching for a brown dog with white on its face that attacked the baby boy at about 5.30pm Atawhai Crescent, Nelson, near a supermarket.

A 20-month-old baby was attacked by a strange dog in Nelson (pictured) New Zealand

The baby boy (not pictured) suffered serious facial injuries when the dog jumped into his pram

Nelson City Council Dog Control manager Brent Edwards told local media the dog jumped into the pram and put it's mouth over the child's face.

The boy suffered two puncture wounds, one on the eyelid and another on the side of the little boy's head.

'On one hand the child was very lucky, certainly the injuries could have been a whole lot worse,' Mr Edwards said.

Nelson City Council said the child was treated by emergency services for facial injuries and was taken to Nelson Hospital.

'The dog may present a danger to others in the community so any information that can help locate it is very important,' the council posted to Facebook.

Several Facebook users commented on the council's post saying they had noticed more dogs off lead in the area recently.

The boy was taken to Nelson Hospital (pictured) for facial injuries including wounds to eyelid

The young boy was sitting in the pram near a supermarket (pictured) with his mother when the medium size brown dog attacked

'My worst fear. Lots of dogs unleashed at the Isel Park lately too I've noticed. We have had to leave several times as felt unsafe with my wee boy walking around,' one user commented.

'We regularly have roaming dogs here. It's really frustrating,' another posted.

The dog ran off through construction on a nearby bridge and the owner or the dog has not been found.

Anyone who has any information should call Nelson City Council Dog Control 03 546 0381.
Dame Glynis Breakwell earns almost 500,000 in pay and perks as vice-chancellor of the University of Bath

The highest-paid university boss in England was yesterday accused of 'setting an example of greed' as it emerged that dozens of her staff earn more than 100,000 a year.

Dame Glynis Breakwell, who earns almost 500,000 in pay and perks as vice-chancellor of the University of Bath, has 66 senior colleagues on six-figure salaries  with 13 of these earning more than 150,000 a year.

Together, these salaries total 8.7million a year  the university's annual budget is 283million.

This is despite Bath being relatively small, with only 13,310 full-time students last year  around a third of the number at Manchester, the largest British university, which had 34,565.

Bath is not in the elite Russell Group of research-led universities and is not listed in the top ten of last year's Complete University Guide rankings. It only became a university in 1966 and can trace its roots back to a technical school established in Bristol in 1856.

The enormous pay packets were revealed by Lord Adonis during a debate on public sector pay in the House of Lords yesterday.

The former Labour education minister said: 'The highly paid should set an example  particularly at a time of pay restraint. The only example the vice-chancellor of the University of Bath is setting for her staff is one of greed.'

He said Bath was a 'mid-ranking university' and has 'barely a fifth of the income of Cambridge'.

This year, Dame Glynis earned 451,000  an 11 per cent rise on last year, when she earned 406,000. This is despite a 1.1 per cent cap on pay for non-managerial staff across the higher education sector, Lord Adonis said.

'On top of this, Glynis Breakwell earns 27,000 from non-executive directorships, which she apparently has time to undertake alongside being a full-time vice-chancellor,' he added.

Bath is not in the elite Russell Group of research-led universities and is not listed in the top ten of last year's Complete University Guide rankings

'She also has a large house in the historic centre of Bath, a benefit in kind worth 20,000 a year.

'Put all of that together, and Glynis Breakwell is paid almost exactly half a million pounds, more than three times the Prime Minister's salary.'

He called for the Government and the funding body HEFCE to intervene to cut vice-chancellors' pay  the average is 275,000.

A recent study by the University and College Union found that 22 universities pay more than 100 staff over 100,000.

All but one of these was in the Russell Group. Oxford pays 451 staff three figure salaries, while at UCL the figure is 444 and at Cambridge it is 409.

Last month, universities minister Jo Johnson called for institutions to curb the constant 'ratcheting up' of senior staff salaries. Bath was rated 'gold'  the top standard  in recent government rankings on teaching quality.

A spokesman for the university said: 'The salary and conditions of service of our vice-chancellor are comparable with that of long-standing vice-chancellors in other successful universities.

'The increase reported in the 2015-16 accounts reflects her excellent track record and the confidence placed in her leadership of the senior team and the wider university community.'
Fans of Bali prison escapee Shaun Davidson have been quick to point out he may have given away his exact location.

A recent post on the Facebook page of Matthew Rageone Ridler - purported to be that of Davidson - was accompanied by photos where you could clearly make out the names of surrounding buildings.

'Looking at this amazing musical creation,' the post said alongside four photos of a water display.

A Facebook post on the page of Matthew Rageone Ridler, purported to be that of Bali prison escapee Shaun Davidson, showed four photos of 'this amazing musical creation'

His Facebook followers wasted no time in pointing out what city the photos had been taken in

Shaun Davidson (pictured) escaped from Bali's notorious Kerobokan prison on June 19

His legion on Facebook followers wasted no time in pointing out where the photos were taken and how easy it would be for authorities to track him down.

'You do realise there are names on the building in the background!! Dude that's easy to pinpoint your location,' one wrote.

'I'm from Adelaide and can tell that's Dubai.'

Dubai is the latest holiday destination the 33-year-old has claimed to have visited after declaring he was in both Amsterdam and Germany since his escape.

Facebook posts from the page of Matthew Rageone Ridler, claiming that he is in Dubai

Davidson (pictured) was due to be released in August after serving a one-year prison sentence for using another person's passport

Davidson escaped Bali's Kerobokan prison through a tiny tunnel burrowed underneath the jail walls

Captured prisoners who dug their way out of Kerobokan jail with Shaun Davidson last month reenacted their escape for authorities on Thursday (pictured)

'I'm a real life action movie star, nah I'm just normal b, there ain't no way a penitentiary is every holding me from Oz to Bali, Amsterdam to Germany, you better believe it when I say my life is no lie. I'm sipping on this cocktail on the beaches of Dubai [sic],' he previously wrote online.

The Perth-born bandit escaped the notorious Kerobokan prison in Bali along with three others on June 19 through a tiny tunnel burrowed underneath the jail walls.

Davidson was serving a one-year prison sentence for using another person's passport. He was due to be released in August.

He was also wanted in Perth, charged with four offences including possessing methamphetamine and cannabis for sale or supply.

Two of the men who escaped alongside Davidson reenacted their escape for authorities on Thursday.
The First Lady of style: Malania Trump with Brigitte Macron yesterday

Famous for naming a tower after himself, it was only right that Donald Trump should pay homage to the master. So it was that, last night, he came to admire the handiwork of Gustave Eiffel.

The Eiffel Tower may be a Meccano set compared to the gold elevators of New Yorks Trump Tower, but the view is rather more impressive.

Having flown to Paris ahead of todays Bastille Day parade, the American President and his wife, Melania, had been invited to dinner by the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte. And where better to take visiting tourists than the panoramic, Michelin-starred Jules Verne restaurant, half way up the citys best-known landmark?

This famously pricey beauty spot (where the basic five-course set menu costs 170 a head and includes dishes by celebrated French chef Alain Ducasse, including pan-seared raspberry and apricot ice cream) had lost some of its ambience thanks to the presence of half the snipers in France on the surrounding rooftops.

But the world capital of romance seemed to be working its magic on Mr Trump. Earlier, he clasped the hand of 64-year-old Mme Macron after the formal state welcome and cooed: Youre in such good shape. Who says chivalry is dead?

The dinner rounded off a day of political hardball for the two leaders  and traditional sightseeing for the two First Ladies.

Touring the Cathedral of Notre Dame before a boat trip down the Seine, dressed in a long, red, close-fitting Christian Dior ensemble avec sunglasses, Mrs Trump, 47, found herself compared to a previous US First Lady who had embraced the sights of Paris in much the same way. Jackie Kennedy also happened to be the last Catholic US First Lady, too. Une vraie Jackie O, declared several websites. Praise indeed.

In contrast to the hysterical Left-wing abuse that followed Britains invitation to the Trumps this year, most of France wants the worlds most powerful couple to feel welcome in Paris. The latest opinion poll suggests 60 per cent support President Macrons 11th-hour decision to invite Mr Trump, 71, ostensibly to attend todays Bastille Day celebrations. Protests are decidedly muted.

Anti-Trump demonstrators had set up camp in the Place de la Republique and proclaimed it a No Trump Zone, which was fine given that he had no plans to go there anyway. There had been talk of a possible demonstration when Mr Trump went to pay his respects at the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte  a gesture which could be interpreted in a number of ways  but French police ensured he was undisturbed.

Given the latest scandal at home over his sons links to murky Russians, Mr Trump seemed delighted to be out of the house. Before last nights dinner, he held a press conference at the Elysee Palace where he swatted aside questions about Donald Trump Junior, calling him a wonderful young man (at 39, the boy is actually the same age as President Macron). The whole Russian thing, he said, was just a media hoo-ha.

Haute cuisine: The Trumps and Macrons dining 377ft up the Eiffel Tower

Reminded of his not-so-long-ago remarks that Paris was a terrorist-filled basket case, he replied: Its going to be fine because youve got a great leader. Youre going to have a beautiful and peaceful Paris. Im coming back!

Both presidents made much of the historic ties between their nations. President Trumps repeated references to France as our oldest ally will have irked Foreign Office mandarins who used to enjoy hearing that remark reserved for Britain.

Instead, the US leader saluted a magnificent people with some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, joined to the US by a spirit of revolution and the fight for freedom.

The old US insult about cheese-eating surrender monkeys can be consigned to la poubelle.

Meanwhile, just when the UK needs all the bilateral help it can get, our most important ally has been deterred from paying a state visit to Britain thanks to a campaign of puerile Left-wing insults and threats of violence. At this rate, we will soon find ourselves at the back of former President Obamas famous queue after all.

You're in such good shape... What the Donald said to Brigitte Clumsy: Mr Trump took a hands-on approach with Mrs Macron, grabbing her hand only letting go reluctantly. He later told her, 'You're in such good shape beautiful' Advertisement

With only a couple of journalists from each nation permitted to ask questions, it was a pretty sterile press conference (no wonder Mr Trump finds France so agreeable; it would have been much feistier in London).

When a French reporter did ask Mr Trump if he was prepared to rethink his rejection of the Paris climate accord, he shrugged and said something could happen, adding: If it happens, that will be wonderful and if it doesnt, that will be OK, too. Mr Macron said he had no wish to interfere in the politics of another nation. What a good answer that is! purred Mr Trump.

His French accent needs a little work. He repeatedly seemed under the impression that M Macron was from Scotland, calling him Mr McRon, and expressed his pride at seeing the Stars and Stripes alongside the French Try colour.

But it would be no surprise if Mr Trump does indeed choose to come back for another inspection of Napoleons tomb and the rest long before he takes in Big Ben and Stonehenge.
Rees Skillern Cancer Institute at CHI Memorial received 80 blankets that will be given to men and women receiving treatment for all types of cancer. Kelly Subaru and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Societys Tennessee chapter donated the blankets as part of a promotion between Subaru and the LLS, Where Love Meets Hope.

"People undergoing cancer treatment often get cold during their treatment sessions, explains Kim Shank, RN, oncology clinical services director at CHI Memorial. We are so thankful for the Subaru Cares Program in helping us provide comfort and warmth to our cancer patients through these blankets.

We are honored to be involved with Subaru Loves to Care and hope this small gesture will assist our community cancer patients find some comfort as they walk through their journey, says Wimberly Taylor of Kelly Subaru.

Nationally, Subaru of America and LLS are donating more than 38,000 blankets spreading hope, love and warmth to all cancer patient, as well as donating arts and crafts kits for children battling cancer or whose parents are battling cancer. Kelly Subaru was one of nearly 400 Subaru dealers that participated. The LLS is the worlds largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancers.




French President Emmanuel Macron's great-grandfather was British World War One hero.

Shopkeeper George William Robertson, from Bristol, received a medal for fighting in the Battle of the Somme, where Macron's ancestors originated from.

After the Armistice in 1918, he stayed in France and married a local, Suzanne Julia Amelie Leblond.

Mr Robertson worked for her parents' hotel in Amiens and had three daughters - Simone, Jacqueline and Odette.

He left the family shortly after Jacqueline - Macron's grandmother - was born in 1922, and divorced Suzanne six years later.

French President Emmanuel Macron's great-grandfather was British World War One hero George William Robertson, who received a medal for fighting in Battle of the Somme

Mr Robertson moved to Paris to work for American perfume brand Elizabeth Arden, but was unable to settle down in the French capital.

He then returned to Britain, this time east London, where he met widow Elizabeth Luckin and married in 1936, aged 48.

Mr Robertson cut all of his ties with his secret family in France and Macron only learned of his British bloodline very recently.

His wife Brigitte, 64, told the Daily Mirror: 'We are sent many Macron genealogies and this is one we are very keen to find out more about.'

Mr Robertson ran a grocer's in Forest Gate, while living with Elizabeth's daughter, Vera, from her first marriage, Vera's husband, Michael, and later their daughters Janet and Marilyn.

Janet Tinning, 71, from Sussex, told the publication how she cherished George as her own grandad, calling him 'Pop'.

She said: 'This has been a complete bolt from the blue. I had no idea Pop had children in France. It is obviously a shock for my sister Marilyn and I to be told he is Emmanuel Macron's great-grandfather.

'My memories of him are all good; he was a very attentive, loving and gentle man. I have a fond memory of hiding under his long shop coat and him looking after me. So it is very strange to think that he left behind his daughters in France.'

French President Emmanuel Macron winks at President Donald Trump during a joint news conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris yesterday
A teenage father who complained he couldn't find work after covering half of his face with a tattoo reading 'DEVAST8' has been inundated with job offers after his post went viral.

Mark Cropp, 19, had been drinking home brew alcohol behind bars in New Zealand's Christchurch when he went under the needle last year.

But after serving his two-year sentence for armed robbery, Cropp has found the ink to be a stain on his job prospects in the free world.

Until his recent post - since then he has had his inbox stuffed with job offers.

Scaffolding boss Jediz Arena told the teenager to 'f**k the haters' before offering him an opportunity on his team.

'Start tamoro (tomorrow) with us,' Mr Arena said.

Mark Cropp covered half of his face with a tattoo reading 'DEVAST8' while drinking homebrew alcohol in jail

'Meet at my yard 6.30am, you just need steel cap boots, hard hat, hi vis, big kai and water,' he wrote.

A woman then offered to give him the gear he needed to start a new job.

'If you need any of the above, let me know. We are located in Papakura and can provide you with the mentioned items to get you started,' she said.

The former inmate penned his original post on an Auckland job Facebook page.

'Hey im keen as to work but have one thing that is stoping me and thats my tattoo on my face [sic],' he wrote.

'Keen as on job or work place that will take me on [sic].'

'Check your messages there are 3 definite offers for work, scaffolding, concrete cutting and another 1, you got your foot in the door..GO HARD & GOOD LUCK [sic],' wrote one woman just hours after the post appeared.

'I'll take you on m8...one condition.You must stick to your end of the bargain,' another said.

'(I) need a good labourer! Tatts welcome,' said another boss.

'Good luck finding a job with this tattoo bro.... But if your really keen get your security license bro and I'll hire you,' wrote another.

Mr Arena, who was the first to offer Cropp a job on the original post, believed he had secured a new worker by Thursday evening.

'I just spoke to him he's sorting out his site safe passport and signing up with me and my scaffolding gang,' he wrote.

The teenage father (pictured with his partner) has taken to social media this week in the hope of finding a job

'Never judge a book by its cover. doesn't matter if there black or white pages, everybody deserve a second chance in life to prove to the 1z that fort we were going no were in life [sic],' he wrote.

Cropp's mother Kelly Doyle appeared to be proud of her son's effort to find work - so he could support his partner and daughter.

'I'm so proud to call u my son. You've come along way and now want a fresh start and to make a better life for yourself your daughter and fiancee.. Take every opportunity that is given to u and show everybody that doubted u that u can do it.. Never give up on your dreams my son,' she wrote.

Mr Cropp previously told the NZ Herald prospective employers were reluctant to give him a chance because of the ink.

'One employment place said to me: 'I wouldn't employ you with that on you face, I wouldn't even take a second look at you',' he said.

'I've had other people that just shrugged and laughed at me.

Cropp said that prospective employers are reluctant to give him a chance because of his distinctive ink

'I was over people judging for my facial tattoo... that's why I made the decision to put that photo on Facebook, to turn around and say 'I am just a normal human being, you do not have to judge me because of the way I look'.'

Cropp was locked up in 2015 after he pulled a knife on a tourist who backed out of a fake marijuana sale.

In a bizarre twist, he landed in the same cell as his brother, who persuaded him to get the ink to stop other inmates giving him trouble.

Cropp was behind bars in Otago Correction Facility when he went under the needle last year

The tattoo was meant to be a 'little one along the jawline,' but the pair got carried away after drinking home brew made from fermented apples, sugar and bread.

'Before I knew it I had this on my face... It was swollen like a bloody pumpkin,' Cropp told the publication.

He maintains 'DEVAST8' is his nickname and not gang-related.

Cropp's plea for work has been met with an outpouring of praise and suggestions on Facebook, but it remains to be seen if that translates to a full-time job.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Cropp for comment.
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Startling new photographs have been released showing previously unseen damage to the USS Fitzgerald.

The destroyer collided with a cargo ship off Japan's Izu Peninsula on June 17, causing the death of seven sailors.

The new pictures, which were released by the Seventh Fleet based in Yokosuka, were taken while the ship was docked and sailors were inspecting the damage. For the first time, damage down to the hull below the waterline is clearly visible.

A huge hole could be seen in the hull of the ship, which was being patched up and repaired by metal plating and large steel bars being used to secure the plates.

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New photographs released by the Navy show the damage caused to the USS Fitzgerald in its deadly collision with a cargo ship last month

The USS Fitzgerald is seen in this photograph taken on July 11 in Yokosuka, Japan, as it sits in a dry dock at the naval base

Officials are seen on July 11, 2017, in Yokosuka, Japan, inspecting the damage done to the USS Fitzgerald while it is in a dry dock

The new photos emerged after CNN reported five of the seven soldiers killed in the accident were almost instantly 'incapacitated', and died quickly as a result. However, the other two likely lived much longer and attempted to escape the flooding, but an official told the network 'the ship somehow lost communication' with the duo.

The Navy announced last month it was investigating the crash involving the destroyer and the ACX Crystal. The Crystal slammed into the side of the US destroyer off the Japanese coast while much of the rest of the crew were asleep.

The cargo ship's bow, which protrudes underneath the water, punctured the steel armor of the ship, opening a hole into the quarters where more than 100 sailors slept.

Emergency hatches were closed on the compromised berthing compartments to stop the ship from sinking.

Pictures taken earlier this week and released by the US Navy gave a fresh look at some of the damage done in the collision last month

The USS Fitzgerald is seen in a dock in Yokosuka, Japan, before it was moved to a dry dock so the damage done in last month's crash could be examined

In this handout provided by the US Navy, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) sits in Dry Dock 4 at Fleet Activities (FLEACT) Yokosuka

In the aftermath of the accident, David Dykhoff - a retired Navy captain - said: 'The mentality is that you're going to fight any catastrophes, any casualties, where they occur and preserve the rest of the ship.

'And I guarantee that anybody would do everything they could.'

However Stanley Rehm, the uncle of Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm Jr - one of the seven men lost in the crash - claims his nephew had to be sacrificed to save the rest of the crew.

Gary Rehm, 37, rescued more than a dozen of his colleagues as the waters flooded in, and had gone down again to search for more when the hatch was shut on him, Stanley told Fox 8 Cleveland last month.

This picture shows the guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald off the Shimoda coast after it collided with a massive cargo ship

The red line shows the route of the Crystal on June 17; at 1:30am it struck the Fitzgerald before continuing eastward. It then made a U-turn and returned to the area near the collision at around 2:25am

The Japanese Coast Guard said the collision occurred at 1:30am - and then it sailed on for seven miles before returning to the Fitzgerald at 2:25am, at which point they reported the incident. The 50-minute discrepancy caused confusion on Monday

The damage to the Crystal can be seen in these new photographs - but the real danger to the Fitzgerald was located beneath the waterline, where the Crystal's bulbous bow is located. The ships crashed just off the coast of Japan

Seven men died aboard the Fitzgerald (pictured) when it was struck on June 17; it's possible that some of them were trapped alive as their crewmates closed hatches to stem flooding

The collision led to severe damage on the Fitzgerald (pictured on June 17) both above and below the waterline. The Crystal was built in South Korea and registered in Japan, but its crew and captain are all from the Philippines

'His dad told me that he saved 20,' Stanley said. 'He went back down to where the other ones were at to save them.

'The ship was flooding so fast they had to close the hatch to save the ship,' Stanley said. 'They had to sacrifice the few to save the many. Guess he died a hero.'

The Fitzgerald's captain, Bryce Benson, was asleep when the collision occurred at 1:30am, but survived the horrific incident.

He was airlifted to hospital after the accident, and was reportedly in stable condition on Saturday. In total three sailors were injured; all have since been released from a Navy hospital.

The seven who died are: Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19; Carlos Victor Ganzon Sibayan, 23; Xavier Alex Martin, 24; Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25; Rehm Jr, 37; Ngoc T Truong Huynh, 25; and Noe Hernandez, 26.
Two former staffers have been charged with leaking naked photos and videos of a Virgin Islands' delegate and her husband online.

Juan McCullum, who was general counsel for the Delegate, Stacey Plaskett, was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of cyber-stalking for stealing nude photos and videos of Plaskett and her husband and leaking them online.

McCullum previously appeared on the VH1 reality-dating show 'I Love New York' under the name 'Pretty' and in 2015 was named the fifth hottest person in politics by The Hill.

Plaskett, although not mentioned in the indictment, last year addressed that images of her and her husband Jonathan Buckney-Small were hacked and released.

McCullum, 35, and the second staffer indicted, Dorene Browne-Louis, worked for the Plaskett during that time frame.

Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett (left) had nude video and images of her and her husband Jonathan Buckney-Small (pictured right) stolen by one of her staffers and then leaked online

Juan McCullum (pictured) former general counsel for Delegate Stacey Plaskett, was indicted for cyber stalking after stealing personal images of hers and disseminating them online

Browne-Louis, 45 of Maryland, was indicted on two counts of obstruction of justice according to the US District Attorney's office in DC.

Plaskett is in her second term in the non-voting position. A spokesman declined immediate comment.

According the unsealed indictment released Thursday, McCullum offered to help Plaskett repair a malfunctioning iPhone by taking it to a local Apple store in May of 2016.

Plaskett gave McCullum the password to the phone in order to get it repaired, and the phone contained nude images and video of Plaskett and her husband, the document says.

McCullum was not given permission to take, copy or distribute information from the phone, the document says.

In early July 2016, after McCullum left Plaskett's office, he created an email account with a fictitious name and sent at least 10 emails to politicians, members of the media and others in which he attached one or more of the nude images or video, the document alleges.

He also allegedly created a Facebook account and posted several of the nude images and videos and 'friended' people Plaskett knew, including politicians competing with her in a primary election.

McCullum was featured on the VH1 reality show 'I Love New York' in 2007. In an episode he is seen getting into an altercation with the leading lady New York, who says 'He is a woman trapped in a man's body.' He also gets into a physical altercation with crew members.

Juan McCullum (center) appeared on the VH1 reality show I Love New York, under the name 'Pretty,' in the scene pictured above he gets into an altercation with crew members

When Plaskett originally addressed the leak, she said it was hacking job done by her political foes.

'Private photographs shared between my husband and me, as well as a private playful video of our family, including one of our children, were illegally obtained and disseminated via the internet. To say my family and I are greatly upset would be a tremendous understatement,' Plaskett added.

'As a mother I am outraged that one of my children was exploited in such a way. The theft and dissemination of these images via the internet is a shockingly disgusting invasion of my family's and my privacy - not to mention criminal acts in violation of both territorial and federal law.'

'The theft and distribution of these personal images via the internet marks a new low in Virgin Islands politics. I am shocked and deeply saddened that someone would stoop to such a level as to invade my marriage and the love of my family in an attempt to besmirch me politically,' Plaskett said at the time of the images being leaked online.

Plaskett's aides at the time said they had contacted the FBI and U.S. Capitol Police to report the computer hack.

Browne-Louis, 45, for her part, is not accused of distributing the images, but she allegedly made false and misleading statements to law enforcement officers during an investigation of the images' distribution, telling officers that she did not know that McCullum was involved in the images' distribution.

She also allegedly provided false, incomplete and misleading testimony before a federal grand jury. Her false and misleading statements allegedly included that she did not know that McCullum 'wanted to seek revenge' against Plaskett.

The court document did not make clear why McCullum might be seeking revenge.

Plaskett's aides said they had contacted the FBI and US Capitol Police to report the computer hack at the time.

'Our office is currently working with the Capitol Police and the FBI and I can confirm that an active investigation is underway to find out who committed this crime and anyone else who may have been involved,' said Jerome Murray, Plaskett's chief of staff after the images were distributed online in.

Plaskett is a lawyer and former congressional staffer who won her seat in Nov. 2014.

Plaskett was born in Brooklyn to parents from St. Croix in the Virigin Islands. In addition to her work for the House Ethics Committee, Plaskett served in the Justice Department and Bronx district attorney's office.
Peter W Smith, 81, was found dead in a hotel room last May just days after he spoke to the Wall Street Journal about trying to get Hillary Clinton's email. It has now been revealed his death was a suicide

A Republican operative committed suicide just ten days after telling a Wall Street Journal reporter that he was trying to obtain Hillary Clinton's missing emails from Russian hackers, it has been revealed.

Peter W Smith, 81, spoke to the Wall Street Journal in May last year, and he died about 10 days later on May 14. The Journal's lead reporter on the story said they had no reason to believe foul play was a factor, and it was most likely Smith died of natural causes.

But now, the Chicago Tribune has obtained detailed documents - including a suicide note - explaining how the 81-year-old took his own life in a hotel room just across from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

In his note, Smith wrote 'NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER' was involved in his death, and said he took his own life because of a 'RECENT BAD TURN IN HEALTH SINCE JANUARY, 2017' and because he 'LIFE INSURANCE OF $5 MILLION (was) EXPIRING'.

The 81-year-old also told a man at the Aspen Suites, where he was staying and found dead, 'tomorrow is my last day', according to a police report.

A former employee of Smith's told the Tribune the 81-year-old had gone to the Mayo Clinic to be treated for a heart condition. The hotel he was staying in at the time of his death was predominantly used by patients at the nearby clinic.

Smith took his own life in a hotel room at the Aspen Suites (pictured) just across from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota

A former employee of Smith's said the 81-year-old had recently checked into the clinic for treatment for a heart condition. Pictured is the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota

Police records relating to Smith's demise listed his official cause of death as: 'asphyxiation due to displacement of oxygen in confined space with helium'.

The Tribune reports a worker with Rochester Cremation Services, the funeral home that responded to the hotel, told the newspaper they remember seeing a tank of some sort in the room and that the cause of death was relatively common.

'When I got there and saw the tank, I thought, "I've seen this before," and was able to put two and two together,' the employee told the Tribune under the condition of anonymity.

Police reports confirmed tanks of helium were found in the room, as well as receipts for a nearby Walmart where Smith purchased 'Helium Jumbo'. Investigators still do not believe foul play was involved, according to the Tribune.

The new details emerged after Smith's piece in the Journal stated he was convinced emails missing from Clinton's server were in the hands of hackers.

In his interview earlier this year, Smith implied he had been working with disgraced former General Mike Flynn

Hillary Clinton speaks to guests at the American Library Association's (ALA) annual conference on June 27, 2017 in Chicago

He also implied he was working with Mike Flynn, the disgraced former General Trump made his national security adviser before he was forced to resign.

The newspaper said it was not clear whether Flynn played any role in Smith's attempts to find Clinton's emails.

The Journal said Flynn did not respond to requests, the White House declined comment, and the campaign said Smith never worked for it and that any such action undertaken by Flynn, if true, was not on its behalf.

Smith also told the Journal he believed hackers had Hillary's missing emails, and his team of sleuths had made contact with five groups - including two from Russia - that claimed to have them in their possession.

Smith was born Feb. 23, 1936, in Portland, Maine. Prior to attempting to uncover 'dirt' on Hillary, he also spent more than 45 years searching for incriminating evidence against Bill Clinton.

For confidential support call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255
UberEats and Deliveroo drivers were specifically targeted for their mopeds in a spate of horrific acid attacks across east London, with police arresting two teenagers aged 15 and 16 over the incident.

One rider was attacked and robbed while another man was heard 'screaming in agony' after suffering catastrophic injuries when doused with flesh-burning liquid.

Another victim who also had his moped stolen was filmed having litres of water poured over his face by police to wash acid from his eyes by the side of the road in Hackney.

The two-man gang went on a rampage across east London as they sprayed five men between 10.25pm and 11.37pm in Stoke Newington, Hackney and Islington.

One of the drivers was confirmed to work for Deliveroo, while another was a father-of-one UberEats driver who said he was 'saved by his moped helmet'.

A 15-year-old boy was arrested at an address in Stoke Newington on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery, after a 16-year-old was detained earlier this morning.

Jabed Hussain says he was lucky not to be more seriously injured after he was the first victim of a gang who sprayed acid in the faces of delivery drivers on mopeds last night

Map: This graphic illustrates where the shocking acid attacks took place last night - one suspect has been held and the other is on the run

Jabed Hussain suffered burns to his lip when he a corrosive liquid was squirted through his helmet at traffic lights before robbers snatched his 'pride and joy' moped.

The father-of-one is understood to have been the first of five victims sprayed with acid by two attackers who rode around Hackney last night.

Mr Hussain, 32, says he considers himself lucky after seeing the other victims nursing more serious injuries when he was treated in Whitechapel's Royal London Hospital.

Mr Hussain said:' The delivery driver of four years said: 'I was lucky because I was wearing a helmet which is totally burnt as was the hoodie I was wearing, the colours are completely different, like it has been exposed to fire.

'I had just finished work and was going home, I was stuck in traffic. Then suddenly I felt water on my face and I looked up and there were two boys on a bike.

'My face was burning but nobody opened their windows, I was screaming for help and as the liquid on my face was drying it was getting more and more burnt. I opened my helmet, I didn't know what to do, but I knew I needed water.

'One lady asked me what happened and I said that someone had put acid on my face.

'I said I need water on my face, it is burning, she went and got water from Co-Op and others got water too.

He was later rushed to hospital, where he saw other victims with worse injuries.

Two men on a moped carried out five acid attacks in a 72-minute period in London on Thursday night, leaving one victim with life-changing injuries on Hackney Road junction with Queensbridge Road (pictured). Other delivery drivers rushed to the scene after the attack

Call for knife-style crackdown Acid attacks should be treated in the same way as knife crime, say campaigners. Under current laws, a knife attacker can face attempted murder charges, whereas an acid attack would be classified as grievous bodily harm. It is also illegal to sell a knife of any kind to anyone under 18 or carry one in public without good reason. However, while attacking someone with a corrosive substance is illegal, it is not against the law to carry it. This means that it is increasingly the weapon of choice for many criminals, as caustic fluid can be bought for as little as 7 a litre, and there is no age restriction on its purchase. Jaf Shah, executive director of the Acid Survivors Trust, called for carrying acid in public to have the same penalty as possessing a knife. He added: In a way, [an acid attack] is almost like a safer crime to commit, especially for gang members perhaps lower down the hierarchy. Advertisement

He added: 'One man I walked past at the Royal London Hospital had the left hand side of his face all burned.

'When my daughter saw my face last night she was screaming and crying, she recognised me but she was looking at me in a different way.'

He spoke as police arrested a second suspect over the 72-minute spree across east London last night.

Witnesses said one attacker riding pillion would jump off and steal the victim's scooter with the other thief speeding away on the moped they arrived on.

Some of the victims were food delivery drivers and one Deliveroo employee has revealed 40 of his colleagues in east London are now refusing to work after dark.

He said groups of up to 12 youths are stealing their motorcycles when they visit housing estates and some drivers are now even carrying weapons to fight them off.

This morning, Scotland Yard said today that a 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery. The arrest of the 15-year-old was announced this afternoon.

Police officers were seen pouring bottle after bottle of water over a victim, understood to be Mr Hussain, in a video that appeared on Twitter from Hackney Road

Chief Inspector Ben Clark, from Hackney Borough police, said: 'Each of these offences took place in busy locations and we know there may be witnesses who have not yet contacted us.

'If you saw something or managed to film or photograph anything that might help us please get in touch.

'These are hideous offences and must have been very frightening for all of the victims.

'I'm aware of rumours circulating that the victims were all food delivery riders set up in advance of the attacks. This is not the case.

'All victims were riding mopeds at the time of the attacks, but were from a variety of backgrounds.

'Of late we have seen more attacks using corrosive substances in London. I would urge businesses and parents to challenge those who they think may be trying to obtain or carry these substances as this could help prevent serious offences and life changing injuries being caused.'

Victim Mr Hussain said he saw others with worse injuries, including one with 'the left hand side of his face all burned'

One of the victims was a Deliveroo rider, a spokesman for the company confirmed today.

'These are truly shocking attacks and we are working with the authorities to help bring the perpetrators to justice,' the spokesman added.

'We are in touch with the rider and will be providing him with support.

Treat acid the same as knives, says MP Tougher and more consistent sentences are needed for those found guilty of acid attacks, a former minister has said. Stephen Timms (pictured) called for carrying acid to be made an offence and suggested licensing the purchase of sulphuric acid as he urged a change in sentencing guidelines. The Labour MP, who will lead an adjournment debate on acid attacks in the Commons on Monday, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think that the sentences for attacks of this kind should be reviewed - the guidelines for sentencing. 'I think we should have tougher and also more consistent sentences for those who are found guilty of carrying out these attacks.' Mr Timms said carrying a bottle of sulphuric acid without justification should be treated as an offence, like carrying a knife, and said there was a case to re-examine when it is appropriate to use stop and search powers. He said: 'I think that carrying acid should in itself be an offence, in the same way that carrying a knife wouldn't have been an offence some years ago. 'I think there's been a pretty effective change - I think the same change should be made for acid.' Mr Timms also called for sulphuric acid to be re-categorised so that a licence is required to buy the chemical, telling the programme: 'Sulphuric acid is already covered by the Explosives Precursor Regulations introduced last year, but it's in a kind of lower category in those regulations. 'I think it should be raised to the higher category, which would mean you'd have to have a licence in order to buy it.' Home Office Minister Sarah Newton said the Government was working on the three points raised by Mr Timms. Ms Newton told the same programme: 'I and my colleagues in the Home Office have been increasingly concerned about the escalation of incidents, especially in London, so we have been working with the Metropolitan Police and community policing on this for some months now.' She added: 'We are going through each and every one of those to make sure if there is more we can do, yes we will take more action.' Mr Timms' calls for tougher sentencing come after two males on a moped carried out five acid attacks across London in less than 90 minutes, according to police. Figures show a sharp rise in both over recent years. Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told LBC: 'Acid attacks are completely barbaric. I think, until recently, we haven't seent this at all, incredibly infrequent in the UK. It's something that has been used in other countries... I've known it in some Caribbean countries, I think it has been used in South America. 'I don't want people to think this is happening all over London all of the time, it's not. But we are concerned but it seems to be going up. We will arrest people, we will enforce the law. 'We are working with the Home Office to see if there can be any changes in the law.' Theresa May denounced the acid attacks as 'horrific'. A Downing Street spokesman said: 'It is already an offence to carry acid or a corrosive substance with intent to cause harm and anyone using it can be prosecuted for pretty serious offences including ABH and GBH. 'There was a meeting at the Home Office on July 4 and we are continuing to work with the police, health professionals and retailers to do more. 'The Prime Minister believes the use of acid in this way is horrific and we want to work with stakeholders to see what more can be done. 'It is clearly an extremely serious issue, which is why we are carrying out work to see what more we can do.' Advertisement

'We have been in touch with all riders who were working in these areas at the time of last night's attacks to check whether they were a victim of these horrific crimes and to gather further information that might help the police with their inquiries.'

The shocking incidents come after a spate of acid attacks across Britain, including one on a 21-year-old model who was left with horrific burns to her face.

Experts say acid is becoming the weapon of choice for many criminals because it is not illegal to carry and can be bought freely from any hardware store.

Assaults using acid have more than doubled in England since 2012 - up from 183 five years ago to 504 in the year to March 2017. The majority have been in east London.

There were more than 1,800 reports of acid used in murders, robberies and rapes since 2010.

Last year acid was used in 454 crimes, up from 261 the previous year, with almost a third of the attacks carried out in the borough of Newham in east London, the figures show.

The problem has got so bad for Deliveroo drivers in east London that many are refusing to work past 9.30pm.

One worker revealed he was surrounded by up to 12 youths who threatened to attack him unless he handed over his moped.

He told the Hackney Gazette that 40 out of 50 staff will not work night shifts.

He said last week: 'In the past month physical attacks with knives have started. Drivers are being held at knifepoint, mostly in Shoreditch or Hackney Central.

'You can be riding along and they chase you on another moped.

'We're seeing groups of boys on three or four mopeds, with people on the back, running drivers off the road and taking their mopeds.

'On Queensbridge Road last week a driver was stopped at the lights and 10 boys on bikes said: 'Get off your bike.'

Revealing the anger among drivers he said: 'They are talking about forming packs of drivers to go back and get justice themselves. Drivers don't want to carry weapons but I know some that will.'

Last night the most serious incident has left a man with 'life-changing injuries' in Cazenove Road, Stoke Newington.

Local baker Samuel Leibowitz, 49, said he rushed to the scene to find the victim 'screaming in agony' and surrounded by 50 to 60 people who had flooded out of their houses.

He said: 'I got a call from a friend of mine saying there was an attack. I came running down the road and I saw a gentleman leaning on the wall with a cloth over his face.

'He was screaming in agony. There were people shouting and swearing. He was in a lot of pain'.

Samuel said he believes the victim was in his mid-20s.

He added: 'I could not see his face as he was holding the cloth and he was in a lot of pain. There were lots of people around him.

'People said he was attacked. I thought he must have been attacked with a knife or something but I saw the cloth and there were lots of people around him, so I didn't actually approach him.

'I realised there was no blood so I thought there must have been another acid attack.'

Last night police were called to the first attack at junction of Hackney Road and Queensbridge Road in Hackney at about 10.25pm.

The 32-year-old victim was sprayed in the face by the scooter gang after they pulled alongside him.

One of the riders then took his moped and his accomplice followed behind on the scooter they arrived on.

Witness Sarah Cobbold looked out from her flat near the Hackney Road attack to see police pouring huge bottles of water over the victim on her doorstep.

She said: 'It was just outside my flat, the victim was literally stood on my doorstep.

'Police had cordoned off the little area around the pavement and there was just a guy standing on my doorway and they were pouring huge, five-litre bottles of water over his head'.

A specialist NHS unit help one of the victims on the side of the road in Upper Clapton at just before midnight

Roads were closed around and buses stopped and evacuated after the thugs struck last night

As she watched, around 25 moped riders arrived - many appearing to be from fast-food delivery companies such as UberEats and Deliveroo.

She said: 'I'm guessing maybe they had heard what happened and came down because they can't have all been driving round together'.

'I had thought someone must have chucked petrol or acid on him or something because they were covering him in water, but I have never seen that reaction to an attack, I thought maybe there had been an accident.

Little more than 20 minutes later, at around 10.50pm, another victim had been sprayed with searing liquid by the pair at the Upper Street junction with Highbury Corner, Islington.

The victim was taken to hospital in north London.

Then at around 11.05pm, the fast-moving attackers swooped on a man in Shoreditch High Street, tossing a substance in his face.

His injuries were not life-threatening, police said.

Quick thinking pub staff poured vinegar over him.

Horrified eyewitnesses said the victim, believed to be in his 40s, had stopped at traffic lights when another moped with a pillion passenger stopped less than a metre in front of him.

The scene after two men on a moped carried out five acids attacks during a spree across the capital which lasted less than 90 minutes

Staff at the Drunken Monkey on Shoreditch High Street saw the pillion passenger turn around and spray an ammonia-like liquid in his face.

The brave delivery man fought back to prevent the thugs stealing his scooter despite being sprayed with the liquid.

He was the third of five people to be attacked in just 72 minutes by the moped thugs on Thursday night.

The eyewitness, who asked not to be named, said: 'One guy was on a moped at traffic lights when another moped stopped in front of him, and the passenger turned around and sprayed liquid at him.

Aspiring model Resham Khan, 21, suffered 'life-changing' injuries in the acid attack

'He had his visor down which helped him.

'The guy on the moped sat there in shock and then a kid pushed him off and tried to nick his bike.

'But he went back over to them and pushed the kid off and then both took off on their moped.

'They didn't manage to nick his bike. They rode off. They were just kids, about 17 or 18 years old.

'We got him into here and poured vinegar on his face while a friend of mine went to get his bike.

'I think it was ammonia they sprayed, I could smell it. When the police got here they poured litres and litres of water on his face'.

Within 15 minutes, they appeared to have struck again, launching their corrosive load at a man in Cazenove Road and causing 'life-changing' facial injuries.

The final assault of the night was reported to police at 11.37pm, when another man was confronted as he sat on his moped in traffic in Chatsworth Road.

After again spraying a liquid in a victim's face, the moped was stolen and both attackers fled.

Miss Khan has said she wants to ensure 'no one ever goes through the living nightmare I have endured' after being left with horrific face and neck injuries after the incident

Miss Khan's cousin Jameel Muhktar also suffered 'life-changing' burns in the attack on June 21. John Tomlin has been charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent

A woman who lives in flats off Upper Clapton Road, who did not want to be named, said she heard shouting coming from outside.

'I just saw blue flashing lights and heard a load of shouting,' she said, adding that she heard someone shout 'Oi, what do you think you're doing'?'

She said: 'I just thought it was a fight broke out because it was the time people would have been coming home from the pub.

'There was so much shouting going on. I looked out my window in case it was a woman being mugged or attacked.'

Hazardous area response units were sent by the ambulance service to four of the scenes, while the victim of the Chatsworth Road attack took himself to hospital.

The Met Police said in a statement: 'Inquiries are ongoing and officers from Hackney CID are investigating.

'All five incidents are being treated as linked at this time.

'A male, in his teens has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery. He is currently in custody at an east London police station.

'Enquiries are ongoing and officers from Hackney CID are investigating'.

Sophie Hall (pictured, left, as she set off for the club) was taken to a specialist burns hospital in Essex after acid was sprayed at a crowded east London club on Easter Monday

The string of assaults comes just days after a man appeared in court accused of throwing acid at an aspiring model and her cousin.

Resham Khan, 21, and Jameel Muhktar, 37, were left with life-changing injuries after the attack on Ms Khan's 21st birthday in Beckton, east London.

John Tomlin appeared at Thames Magistrates' Court on Tuesday charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent.

A mass acid attack has also previously hit the capital this year.

On Easter Monday, acid was sprayed at a crowded east London club night, leaving two revellers partially blinded and others disfigured.

Arthur Collins, the former boyfriend of reality TV star Ferne McCann, was charged in connection with the attack.

Anyone with information or in possession of footage of the incidents is urged to contact police on 101 or tweet @MetCC. Alternatively, they can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
An Oregon highway looked like a scene out of a science-fiction film after a truck filled with eels overturned on Thursday, leaving a slippery layer of goo in its wake.

Salvatore J. Tragale was unable to stop a truck filled with 13 containers of hagfish, or 'slime eels' when he approached traffic, which had backed up due to construction on Highway 101.

The containers spilled onto the road near Otter Rock, sparking a chain reaction that led to a five-car pileup, although no one was seriously hurt.

An Oregon highway looked like the scene out of a science-fiction film after a truck filled with eels overturned on Thursday

Salvatore J. Tragale was unable to stop a truck filled with 13 containers of hagfish, or 'slime eels' when he approached traffic

The containers spilled onto the road near Otter Rock, sparking a chain reaction that led to a five-car pileup

Horrific photographs show at least one car in a swamp of slime, with the goo dramatically dripping down the trunk and the highway had to be partially shut down and cleaned up

Tragale was driving a truck filled with 7,500-pounds of hagfish destined for Korea, where the animals are enjoyed as food.

Hagfish often produce slime when they are agitated since it helps them escape predators, and a whole lot of it ended up on Highway 101 on Thursday.

Horrific photographs show at least one car in a swamp of slime, with the goo dramatically dripping down the trunk.

Witness Erin Butler spoke of her confusion in the aftermath and told KMOV: 'They were writhing and slimy, and it was unbelievable, just unbelievable. It was disgusting.'

The Oregon State Police jokingly tweeted, 'Cleanup on aisle 101', adding: 'In this heat... what is this going to start smelling like in the next few days?'

Authorities urged drivers to avoid the area. One lane of Highway 101 was shut down, and deputies from the Lincoln County Sherriff's Office were on hand with the state's Department of Transportation.

Witness Erin Butler spoke of her confusion in the aftermath and told KMOV: 'They were writhing and slimy, and it was unbelievable, just unbelievable'

The Oregon State Police joked 'Cleanup on aisle 101' on Twitter, adding: 'In this heat... what is this going to start smelling like in the next few days?'
Media commentator Mark Latham has blasted the university he graduated from for teaching its students that Sharia law is compatible with Australia's legal system.

The former Labor leader says the University of Sydney's elite law school's course on Sharia law undermined the separation of religion and state.

'The system's gone mad and you want to have a close look at the imbeciles doing this kind of thing in an Australian law school,' he told the Sunrise program.

'It's ridiculous to break that code. There's no place for Australian law to have Sharia law as part of it.'

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Media commentator Mark Latham said the Sharia law course was an example of madness

Sydney University's 'Muslim Minorities And The Law' course uses a textbook which promotes the idea that 'sharia and common law are not inherently incompatible.' Dr Ghena Krayem co-wrote the book and helps teach the course

The university's 'Muslim Minorities And The Law' course uses a textbook which promotes the idea that 'Sharia and common law are not inherently incompatible'.

'They are both 'law' in the sense they represent and communicate a set of 'norms' that operate at both individual and a community level,' the book reads.

Dr Salim Farrar and Dr Ghena Krayem, who authored the book and teach the course, also call for research into whether polygamous marriage should be recognised under mainstream law.

'Whilst some have argued that there may be reasons for changing marriage laws to include polygamous marriages... there have not been any proposals for any legislative amendment proposed by the Muslim communities in our Common Law jurisdictions,' the book reads.

'However, there is no doubt that this is an area that needs to be researched, particularly given the fact that anecdotal evidence suggests that this is an increasing practice in Muslim communities.'

Salim Farrar (pictured) co-wrote a book which is teaching students that elements of sharia law could be incorporated into the mainstream legal system

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett (left) said the law course was 'absolute madness'

Mr Latham, who appeared in his weekly Seven Network segment with former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, said no religion in Australia deserved special treatment.

'We don't make laws according to a certain religion because you don't want to stir up religion tension,' he said.

'We should have a secular society where we make laws for the entire public interest rather than according to the interest of a public religion.'

Mr Kennett said other migrant groups from the Italians, to the Greeks, Vietnamese and Chinese didn't ask for special laws to suit them.

'This is madness, absolute madness and you've got to ask yourself why do these universities believe that they should be teaching in these sorts of areas when you have such a desperate need for qualified people in this country,' he said.

'It's just stupid.'

Sharia and Common Law are 'both 'law' in the sense they represent and communicate a set of 'norms' that operate at both individual and a community level,' the book reads (stock image of Sydney University)

The university book also claims that courts and judges 'have clearly communicated their denunciation of 'traditional' or conservative Muslim values when sentencing, dispensing exemplary sentences and announcing aggravating factors'.

In terms of the law, the authors suggest 'that 'accommodation' is not enough and that, as liberal democratic societies, we should move towards a notion of 'recognition'.'

The book also states a husband has the 'exclusive' right to divorce his wife and that sharia law has no minimum age for marriage.

'The shari'ah determines capacity [for marriage] by physical maturity, proximity of blood ties, sanity, voluntariness and various other gender-specific conditions,' it reads.

'There is no minimum age for a contract of marriage, but it should not be consummated if that would cause harm to the putative spouse.

The authors also write that a husband has the 'exclusive' right to divorce his wife and that sharia law has no minimum age for marriage (stock image)

'While this does raise the issue of child marriage, Hussian notes that has little practical significance.'

Dr Farrar is an Associate Professor the University of Sydney, whose research and teaching interests are in Islamic Law, Criminal Justice and Human Rights.

'Dr Ghena Krayem is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, the University of Sydney, teaching and researching in the areas of constitutional and public law, legal ethics, dispute resolution, the application of sharia in Australia,' Dr Krayem's profile reads.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Dr Farrar and Dr Krayem for comment.
Police believe they have found human remains during a search of a property linked to fugitive Donald Eugene Webb (above) - who is believed to have killed police chief Greg Adams in 1980

A notorious mobster accused of murdering a police chief in 1980 could have been hiding in a secret room for a decade during a massive nationwide manhunt.

Police have found human remains that could belong to gangster fugitive Donald Eugene Webb in the backyard of his ex-wife's home, where the hideaway was believed to have been located.

The FBI and state police from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania made the discovery while digging behind the property in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, on Thursday.

It comes 37 years after Webb allegedly shot Saxonburg Police Chief Greg Adams during a traffic stop and then went on the run.

Webb was a career criminal with links to the mob living in New Bedford, Massachusetts, at the time.

He disappeared after the shooting.

His rental car was found more than two weeks later at a motel in Warwick, Rhode Island.

The gangster's whereabouts have been a mystery every since. But last month Adams' family filed a lawsuit claiming Webb's ex-wife was harboring the criminal in her home.

Kristen Setera, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Boston division, said authorities were at the home to search for evidence 'as part of our ongoing efforts to locate longtime fugitive Donald Eugene Webb.'

Police believe Webb (left) shot Saxonburg Police Chief Greg Adams (right) during a traffic stop 37 years ago in Pennsylvania

Authorities search the backyard at the home of Lillian Webb, wife of fugitive Donald Eugene Webb, in Dartmouth on Thursday

Officials are seen walking onto the property during Thursday's search. Police believe they have found human remains in the yard

After the believed-to-be remains were found, she said: 'until positive identification has been made, no further comment will be made at this time'.

The FBI has offered $100,000 for information leading to Webb's capture or his remains. Webb would be in his 80s now, if he is still alive, WJAR reports.

Last month, the widow of the slain police chief sued Webb's wife, saying investigators had recently found a hidden room in her Massachusetts home where Webb may have hidden from authorities a decade or more after the shooting.

The filing named Webb's wife, Lillian, and her son, Stanley.

Adams' widow Mary Ann Jones (the couple pictured above with their two kids) is now suing the wife and son of Webb for wrongful death over the killing

Investigators believe Webb was trying to case a jewelry store in 1980 when Adams pulled him over (the chief's cruiser above)

Police at the time released these images as they desperately attempted to find the suspected killer

The filing signaled an intention to file a detailed complaint on behalf of Mary Ann Jones, 64, Adams' widow, and their two sons on grounds of wrongful death-murder and two civil conspiracy claims - accessory after the fact and hindering apprehension of a murderer.

Jones said FBI agents told her that Webb may have hidden out in the home in short stints in the 1990s. A cane was found in the room.

Investigators believe Adams shot Webb in the leg before he sped away from the deadly traffic stop December 4, 1980.

In the years since, he has been known as: Donald Eugene Perkins, Donald Eugene Pierce, John S. Portas, Stanley John Portas, Bev Webb, Eugene Bevlin Webb, Eugene Donald Webb, and Stanley Webb.
There is traffic chaos on one of Sydney's major roads after six vehicles were involved in a horror crash.

Emergency services were called to the scene on the M7 motorway, in the city's west, shortly after 1.30pm on Friday.

Four trucks collided with two cars, closing southbound lanes near the Wallgrove Road off-ramp at Eastern Creek.

Southbound lanes of Sydney's M7 motorway were closed after a horror crash on Friday afternoon

Emergency services at the scene of the serious crash in the city's west, which occurred just after 1.30pm

A man and a woman who were trapped in their Mitsubishi Pajero were rushed to Westmead Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

No one else involved in the accident were injured.

Motorists travelling home in the evening peak have been warned of road closures and long delays.

'The westbound off-ramp from M4 to M7 is also closed and motorists wishing to travel south from M4 should use the Cumberland Highway off-ramp instead, and can join the M7 at The Horsley Drive,' Live Traffic NSW said.

Northbound motorists are facing queues of close to 15km long, while there is a queue-length of 5.5km for southbound drivers.

The accident has also impacted on the M4 motorway, with westbound drivers facing a 9km-long queue and there is also a 5km-long queue on the Great Western Highway.
Here is the Chattanooga Chamber calendar of events for July 18-20:

TUESDAY, JULY 18



Ribbon Cutting for Courtyard Chattanooga at Hamilton Place

Courtyard Chattanooga at Hamilton Place

11:00-11:30 a.m.

Join the Chattanooga Chamber for a ribbon cutting at Courtyard Chattanooga at Hamilton Place



Red Bank Council Meeting

Red Bank Community Center

12:00-1:00 p.m.

Meetings cost $10.

.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WEDNESDAY, JULY 19Ooltewah/Collegedale Council MeetingCollegedale City Hall9:15-10:30 a.m.Speaker: Bradley Webber, Chattanooga Web DesignNo meeting cost.Hixson Council MeetingNorth River Civic Center:11:45-1:00 p.m.Program: State of the SchoolsMeetings cost $10.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .THURSDAY, JULY 20North Hamilton County Council MeetingBudweiser11:45-1:00 p.m.Speaker: Andre DuvallMeetings cost $10.Business After Hours Sponsored COS Business Products & InteriorsCOS Business Products & Interiors: 5:00-7:00 p.m.Business After Hours brings an average of 100 business people together for networking and refreshments.Business After Hours in July is sponsored by COS Business Products & Interiors.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Entrepreneurship Alliance EventsMONDAY, JULY 17QuickBooks Online: Course 1- Basics & Set Up ($125)1:00 pm - 4:00 pmSpeaker: Lynn Talbott, MBA, President of HRBiz and Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisorINCuator: 100 Cherokee Blvd, Parking across the streetAre you new to QuickBooks Online? Join us for an overview of how it works and learn best practices for bookkeeping. Active clients of the TSBDC are eligible to receive a reduced rate for QuickBooks set up. Contact your counselor to learn more. You can have any QBO product level: Quick Start, QBO Essentials or QBO Plus for this class. Space is limited. Bring your laptop and questions. (Laptops will be provided upon request.)Register: https://clients.tsbdc.org/workshop.aspx?ekey=30360216. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WEDNESDAY, JULY 19Social Media 101- Complimentary3:30 pm - 5:00 pmSpeaker: Lisa Brown, owner of 3E SocialINCuator: 100 Cherokee Blvd, Parking across the streetTSBDC is partnering with 3E Social to deliver a seminar & discussion on how to utilize social media for your business. A brief overview of various social media platforms, their respective audiences and posting best practices on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and more.Register: https://clients.tsbdc.org/workshop.aspx?ekey=30360232. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .THURSDAY, JULY 20Create a Facebook Business Page11:00-12:00 p.m.535 Chestnut Street, Suite 161, Chattanooga, TN 37402Emily Pilkington with BrightBridge Women's Business CenterWhen you leave class, you will have a Facebook business page created. Training will cover the basics of a creating a Facebook business page. Required: laptop computer and personal Facebook page (if you need a laptop let us know at least 3 days in advance) No charge. To reserve your seat visit: https://www.brightbridgewbc.org/event/createFB7-20/. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .UPCOMING EVENTS2017 Chattanooga Chamber Annual MeetingChattanooga Convention CenterWednesday, August 23, 201711:30 AM to 1:00 PMThe Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce presents their Annual Meeting. This luncheon event will take place from 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. at the Chattanooga Convention Center on Wednesday, August 23, 2017.
A woman who used crowdfunding page GoFundMe to help pay her rent in Sydney's expensive beach-side suburb of Bondi has been mocked on live television.

Lauren Hellner, 40, was so far behind in her rent she was given an eviction notice - leading her to ask for handouts from strangers.

A week after posting her plea for help online - and raising $2700 - host Kylie Gillies laughed as the woman explained her story and told others to try using the service 'because it works'.

'I have a handbag I have my eye on,' Gillies said.

Morning Show host Kylie Gillies (right) joked about using crowdfunding site GoFundMe to buy a new designer bag after interviewing a Sydney woman who used it to pay her rent

Lauren Hellner (pictured) who sparked a social media storm after posting to GoFundMe asking for help paying rent on her Bondi flat

The hosts also questioned the woman as to why she continued to live in Bondi - a notoriously expensive suburb - if she couldn't afford her rent

The 40-year-old actor arrived at the studio with her Italian greyhound Indiana and Gilles quickly questioned her decision to ask for rental assistance.

'You live in Bondi which is one of the country's most expensive suburbs, how did you get into this situation of asking strangers to pay your rent?' Gillies asked.

'I fell into rent arrears, I have lived in the area my whole life..' Ms Hellner replied.

'So when you say fell into rent arrears means you didn't pay your rent,' Gillies clarified.

The Bondi local, who ended up raising $2,500 after paying the page's fees, agreed.

'You know you are looking for work and you are struggling to study full time and everything so I fell behind,' she said.

Ms Hellner (left and right) a medical administrator and part time actor who lives in Bondi who is also studying, appealed for help after her landlord gave her an eviction notice

Success! As of lunchtime last Saturday, she had raised $2,585 of her goal (pictured)

Larry Emdur chimed in as Ms Hellner explained how excited she was when she received her first donation - after being told to start the fund by a friend.

'Did any of your friends who were trying to help you out suggest maybe, because you are living in like what is the highest rental area in Australia... did any one say maybe move?'

But the actor appeared prepared for the question claiming Bondi's notoriously tough rental market 'wasn't that bad'.

'Look I had a look at the other rents in Maroubra, in Randwick in Kensington, Kingsford, Dee Why, Penrith  and they are the same for a one bedroom or a studio,' she said.

Emdur smiled at the playful greyhound as she said it was 'in her best interest' to stay put.

He then asked if she was working.

'I am trying to get work in film and television,' she said.

Ms Hellner spoke with Daily Mail Australia shortly after starting the campaign and it appears she still has no regrets - confirming with the hosts she would do the same thing again.

She admitted she never thought her post would cause such a stir and when she received the notice, she reacted in a state of panic.

'I am equal part embarrassed and ashamed that I have asked people for help when I am not completely desolate.

'And I do have a nice lifestyle that I have created for myself,' she said.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Ms Hellner admitted she never thought her post would cause such a stir and when she received the notice, she reacted in a state of panic

She said she didn't expect her real estate agent to be so harsh. 'We had an agreement that I was paying it (the rent) off at a certain rate. I thought I was below $1,500 in my arrear payments. But apparently I wasn't'

'When I started the GoFundMe page I panicked, I got scared and I scrambled for any help. And the online community support, has been amazing. It has blown me away,' she said.

'I didnt expect my real estate agent to be so harsh with me. We had an agreement that I was paying it (the rent) off at a certain rate. I thought I was below $1,500 in my arrear payments. But apparently I wasn't.'

'That is why I panickedI got the email from the real estate agent saying I have two weeks to get out. I went home, cried to Centrelink and there was nothing they could do. My payments were cancelled.'

Describing it as 'a learning curve' she said: 'I need to get on top of my finances, which clearly I am not very good at. But just the fact that so many people have reached out and help is giving me the opportunity to do that.'

Ms Hellner (pictured in her Bondi flat) said she got the eviction notice saying she had two weeks to get out and she went home, cried to Centrelink and there was nothing they could do

She claims Centrelink told her that her Austudy payments would be cancelled as she had reached the maximum time allowed for undergraduate study

Ms Hellner has lived in her Bondi flat for the past five years with her cat and dogs while she is studying towards getting into a post graduate medical degreee

She said she was overwhelmed from many generous strangers reaching out to offer a helping hand in a time of need.

Since the post, Ms Hellner has been offered a potential job at a local cafe and will also be starting soon at a restaurant to help pay off her rent.

'A lovely girl responded on the Bondi Local Loop page and said come to the cafe I work at and I will speak to my boss and start on Sunday. It is amazing,' she said.

'I was blown away by this response. That has just been part of the positive responses that have just completely humbled me. I am just amazed that people actually care.

'I didnt think when I started the GoFundMe that I would have any response at all. I didnt think anyone would pay any attention to it. So the fact this has happened is astounding.'

Describing it as 'a learning curve' Ms Hellner said: 'I need to get on top of my finances, which clearly I am not very good at'

She said she was overwhelmed from many generous strangers reaching out to offer a helping hand in a time of need

Since the post, Ms Hellner has been offered a potential job at a local cafe and will also be starting soon at a restaurant to help pay off her rent

Ms Hellner said: 'A lovely girl responded on the Bondi Local Loop page and said come to the cafe I work at and I will speak to my boss and start on Sunday. It is amazing'
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has given an insight into his dealings with US President Donald Trump - and it involves a steel box.

Mr Turnbull was speaking about Mr Trump after he returned to Australia from the G20 Leaders summit in Germany.

'All of my dealings with him have been very frank, very informal. He's a businessman,' Mr Turnbull told Sunrise on Friday.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (right) chatting to US President Donald Trump at the recent G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany

Mr Turnbull (right with Mr Trump) said he finds it 'very easy to deal with' the US President

'We had a very good discussion in his SCIF (secure communications information facility).'

Mr Turnbull described the room as being like a large steel broom cupboard, akin to Maxwell Smart's Cone of Silence in the American television series Get Smart.

'It is like a small, steel room and we had a very informal meeting with the president, myself, President Macron of France, (British prime minister) Theresa May, (Finance Minister) Mathias Cormann,' he said.

'We went through a whole range of issues, some trade issues.'

Mr Turnbull said while he might not always agree with President Trump, he was easy to deal with because you know where you stand.

Mr Turnbull is pictured here with UK Prime Minister Theresa May at the G20 summit. Mr Turnbull said he met with Ms May, French President Emmanuel Macron and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann in 'a small, steel room' with US President Donald Trump
The criminal solicitor that defended Brett Peter Cowan has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for fraud and falsifying records.

Tim Meehan received hundreds of thousands in cash payments from clients over four years in order to avoid his tax, bankruptcy and reporting obligations.

The 41-year-old confessed to the Crime and Corruption Commission a month after he was sacked from his job at a Brisbane law firm in August 2016.

Lawyer who defended Brett Peter Cowan Tim Meehan (pictured) to serve 5.5 years jail time

He also alleged two other people at the firm, known to the court as S1 and S2, were involved in the scheme that is believed to have netted more than $600,000.

But the Brisbane Supreme Court heard the actual sum of money could never be known because of the lack of official records.

Many of the estimated figures involved are from Mr Meehan's recollection and are believed to have been the proceeds of crime.

In handing down the sentence on Friday, Justice Roslyn Atkinson said Mr Meehan's conduct had brought the legal profession into disrepute.

Mr Meehan confessed to his crimes at the Brisbane court after he was expelled from his job

'It serves to feed public perception that lawyers are greedy and self-serving,' Justice Atkinson said.

Justice Atkinson noted 'to his credit' Mr Meehan had alerted investigators to the scheme, which they would not have known about unless he had come forward.

S1 and S2 have denied the allegations against them.

Mr Meehan will be eligible for parole in December 2018.

Outside court, defence solicitor Kristy Bell said Mr Meehan made no excuse for his behaviour.

'He takes full responsibility for his role in the offending,' Ms Bell said.

Queensland Law Society president Christine Smyth said Meehan's criminal behaviour had left an 'indelible stain' on the legal profession.

'In cooperating (he) has demonstrated that, at least in part, he appreciates the damage he has caused the community's faith in the justice system,' Mr Smyth said.

Mr Meehan had previously served as a solicitor who represented Daniel Morcombe's killer Mr Cowan.

Mr Morcombe went missing from a bus stop near his home on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland in 2003.

Mr Cowan was convicted for Morcombe's murder in 2014 and is currently serving a life sentence for it.




A mother-of-three was flung to her death after ignoring safety warnings and standing yards from a plane taking off from a Caribbean beach.

Gayleen McEwan had joined hundreds of other tourists at Sint Maarten to watch planes taking off at the beach-side Juliana International Airport on Wednesday.

Ms McEwan, 57, was holding onto the fence when she was blown from her feet before hitting her head on the rocks and suffering fatal injuries.

Her sister-in-law, Janice McEwan, told the Sydney Morning Herald the family was 'in shock' over the death.

New Zealand woman Gayleen McEwan (pictured right with daughter Kelly) has been identified as the woman who died in Sint Marteen after being blown over by a jet

The mother-of-three (left with daughter Natarsha) was holding onto the fence when she was blown from her feet before hitting her head on the rocks and suffering fatal injuries

'She was having a fantastic holiday,' she said.

'That's what makes it harder, she was having a good time on holiday and then this happens.'

Ms McEwan's daughter Natarsha said the family were too raw with grief to speak about her death.

Its just too soon to be talking about her. We havent even managed to come together as a family yet, said the dietician in Blenheim, New Zealand, where her parents lived.

Mrs McEwan reportedly owned the Blenheim Palms Motel with husband Phill, and in 2009 the couple opened a motel in Dunedin after investing 'several million dollars' on construction.

She and Phill were on holiday with two New Zealand friends when the tragedy occurred.

One of Mrs McEwans travelling companions has told of her sorrow that the group defied warning signs to experience the thrill of feeling the blast of a jet taking off just yards away.

The unnamed woman, also a New Zealander, told Saint Maartens director of tourism they had overwhelmed by the airplanes massive thrust.

'They expressed their regret about the fact that they ignored warnings and participated in this activity,' Rolando Brison told One News in New Zealand.

Ms McEwan (left), 57, had been holidaying with her husband Phill (pictured second left with children) and two friends.

A woman has been killed after she fell and hit her head when the force of a jet flying overhead blew her from her feet at a world famous beach (pictured) in Sint Maarten, the Caribbean

'I think some people might not be aware of the power that engines have. Wealthy businesswoman Mrs McEwan, her husband Phill and their two friends, walked past several stark signs at Maho Beach warning tourists they risked injury and death if they got in the path of the jets arriving and departing Princess Juliana International Airport.

'But, like dozens of other tourists every day, they could not resist the experience and tried to hang to a metal chain link fence as a passenger aircraft took off around 6pm on Wednesday.

'Locals say the take-offs are considerably more risky for the thrillseekers than landings. Mrs McEwan was hurled off off her feet and hit her head.

Ms McEwan's sister-in-law said the 57-year-old had been having a 'fantastic' holiday when disaster struck

Mr Brison said Mrs McEwan's husband and friends were 'totally distraught' by her death.

The family lived in a AU$1.5million former luxury lodge on 30 acres, complete with a swimming pool overlooking vineyards on the outskirts of Blenheim, the centre of New Zealands sauvignon blanc region, where they had owned a succession of motels.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia: 'The New Zealand High Commission in Bridgetown, Barbados, is in contact with next of kin and is providing consular assistance.

'Due to privacy considerations we are unable to provide any further information.'

Tourists visiting the picturesque beach regularly climb up onto rocks to watch planes come into land, despite signs specifically warning against the danger.

Ms McEwan is believed to have been with her family when a Boeing 737 took off for Trinidad at about 6pm, tossing her back onto the concrete.

The woman suffered serious injuries after hitting her head on the concrete and was rushed to Sint Maarten Medical Center, where she died shortly afterwards.

Several police patrols and paramedics had rushed to help the woman.

Pictured: A man desperately attempts to revive the woman with CPR after she was blasted by the jet engine

In a statement, Sint Maarten police warned: 'The landing and taking off of all types and size of aircrafts at the international airport of Sint Maarten is well known world wide as major tourist attraction.

'Many tourists come to the island to experience the thrills of the landing of approaching aircraft's flying low above their heads and the holding on to the airport fence and standing in the jet blast of large aircraft's taking off. Doing this is however extremely dangerous.'

It went on: 'The airport authorities and other local authorities have taken all necessary measures such as the placing of signs to warn the general public not to stand in the path of the jet blast of a departing aircraft because of the danger involved.

'The local authorities are urging the general public and mainly visitors to the island to adhere to the warning signs that are placed at that location to avoid serious injuries which can ultimately lead to the loss of life.'

Rolando Brison, head of tourism for the island of Sint Maarten, said he had spoken with the family of the woman, the NZ Herald reports.

'Yes, the family did confirm that [she was a New Zealander] to me,' Mr Brison said.

'I met with the family of the deceased this evening and while they recognised that what they did was wrong, through the clearly visible danger signs, they regret that the risk they took turned out in the worst possible way.'

Tourists visiting the picturesque beach regularly climb up onto rocks to watch planes come into land

The woman, 57, reportedly held on to a fence to gain a better vantage point, but was blown from her feet, before hitting her head on the rocks and suffering fatal injuries

'At this time I only wish to express my deepest sympathy to the family and loved ones while we continue to investigate what transpired just hours ago.'

Aviation expert Peter Clark said it is considerably more dangerous standing behind a plane taking off than one that is landing.

In 2012, a young woman was serious injured after she was blown against a concrete barrier by the blast of an arriving plane at the site.

Police on the Dutch territory make daily visits to the beach, which is popular with planespotters from around the world, to warn tourists of the dangers.

In 2012, a young woman was serious injured after she was blown against a concrete barrier by the blast of an arriving plane

Footage shows the woman being thrown into the air at the famed tourist spot

Police spokesman Ricardo Henson said dozens had been injured in recent years by the jet blasts, but Wednesday's tragedy was the first death.

He added: 'Many people come just for the thrill of this main attraction  and unfortunately this time someone lost their life. It's very dangerous. It goes on all day, every day.'

A YouTube video from 2012 shows several people holding on to the fence as a nearby plane begins its take-off.

The footage then shows a woman being tossed away by the blast and crashing on a concrete ledge several yards behind the fence.

The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last night that it was following up 'reports that a New Zealand citizen has passed away in Sint Maarten'.

In 2009 Mrs McEwan and her husband opened the Dunedin Palms Motel in Dunedin after spending 'several million dollars' on building it.

They had owned and operated the Blenheim Palms Motel previously.

She told the Otago Daily Times in 2009 that there was a 'definite need for more upmarket accommodation in Dunedin'.
Greens senator Scott Ludlam is leaving federal parliament after finding out he was improperly elected more than a decade ago.

The party's co-deputy leader said it was recently brought to his attention that he holds dual citizenship of Australia and New Zealand.

Under section 44 of the constitution, that makes him ineligible to hold elected office.

Greens senator Scott Ludlam is leaving federal parliament effectively immediately after finding out he was improperly elected more than a decade ago (stock image)

Senator Ludlam made the announcement on Friday during a press conference

Senator Ludlam labelled it a 'ridiculous oversight'.

'I apologise unreservedly for this mistake,' he said in a statement on Friday.

'This was my error, something I should have checked when I first nominated for preselection in 2006.'

Instead of going through protracted legal proceedings, he is resigning as a senator for Western Australia and co-deputy leader of the Australian Greens.

Senator Ludlam was born in Palmerston North in New Zealand and left the country with his family when he was three.

He settled in Australia not long before his ninth birthday, before being naturalised when he was in his mid-teens.

'(I) assumed that was the end of my New Zealand citizenship.'

'It is entirely my responsibility - it wasn't the way I was hoping to go out.'

The party's co-deputy leader announced on Friday that it was recently brought to his attention that he holds dual citizenship of Australia and New Zealand (stock image)

The senator released an official statement revealing he is 'devastated'

Senator Ludlam took to Twitter after his announcement to apologize once again.

'Hey everyone. I'm sorry about this, but it's a thing. I'll really miss it, but there are other ways to make trouble. Love and thanks.'

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said he was devastated at the news, but Senator Ludlam's decision to deal with the issue directly and immediately showed his integrity and character.

'Scott has been an outstanding member of the parliament and of the Greens,' he said in a statement.

'He has been a strong representative for the people of WA and the nation on a range of issues.'

He lauded Senator Ludlam's intelligence on issues from digital rights to homelessness.

'He will continue to be a champion of the Greens movement and a dear friend.'

The Senate is expected to refer the matter to the Court of Disputed Returns, which the Greens think will call for a countback of votes from the 2016 election.

Senator Ludlam is the fourth senator to leave the upper house this parliamentary term

Senator Ludlam took to Twitter after his announcement to apologize once again (pictured)

University student Jordan Steele-John, 21, has been touted the frontrunner to take the vacant seat.

Mr Steele-John, who has cerebral palsy, had to give up his British citizenship to run for parliament back in 2013.

Senator Ludlam is the fourth senator to leave the upper house this parliamentary term.

Bob Day and Rod Culleton were both ruled ineligible for constitutional reasons, while Liberal senator Chris Back resigned.

In October, Mr Day resigned as a Family First senator for South Australia after it emerged the former company directors building company had gone bust, making him a bankrupt and therefore ineligible to be in parliament.

Mr Day's Home Australia group of companies has been placed into liquidation, halting construction on 207 new homes in SA, Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and NSW.

He also had a commercial interest in his Adelaide electorate office, breaching Section 44 (5) of the constitution, which bans federal members of parliament from having a financial contract with the Commonwealth.

In January, the High Court ruled that former One Nation senator for Western Australia Rod Culletons election to parliament was invalid because he had been charged with stealing a $7.50 truck key.
A woman in the middle of selling off her house was barred from closing the deal after a family of strangers turned up saying it was their rightful home.

Dena Everman returned to the house in Marietta, Georgia, on June 25, for what she thought would be the last time before she was due to close the sale the next day.

But Everman found Tamera Pritchett, her fiance, and two children had moved in after they responded to a fake Craigslist ad from someone claiming to be the owner.

The predicament lasted for nearly three weeks before Everman contacted the district attorney, who deemed it criminal trespassing.

Dena Everman returned to the house in Marietta, Georgia, on June 25, for what she thought would be the last time before she was due to close the sale the next day

Dena Everman (left) found Tamera Pritchett (right), her fiance, and two children had moved in after they responded to a fake Craigslist ad from someone claiming to be the owner

Video by WSB-TV

Everman said she was shocked when she drove up to her home and found a car parked in the driveway.

She had never met Pritchett and her family, but they had moved in two weeks before without her permission.

Pritchett said the home was listed on Craigslist, and she signed e-documents and wired thousands of dollars to a scammer who turned over keys to the home.

She insisted she and her family were not squatters, telling 11Alive: 'We're not just trying to stay in your home and hold you up on your sale.

'But at the same time, we just spent $3,000 - that's not something we can just pull out and immediately move somewhere else, you know.'

Everman called the police, but they were unable to help, since they did not consider it a case of 'breaking-and-entering'.

Under Georgia law, the homeowner must first file an eviction notice. And in Cobb County, mediation between the two parties is mandatory, according to attorney Brian Douglas, who spoke to 11Alive.

Everman called the police, but they were unable to help. After her husband contacted the district attorney, Pritchett and her family packed their bags after nearly five weeks

'I'm extremely frustrated right that someone that has no legal right to be in my home is staying in my home and I'm the one that has to prove that they don't belong there,' Everman said.

On Friday, Everman triumphed in removing the family, and took to Facebook to share that they left within eight hours of her husband contacting the district attorney, who deemed it criminal trespassing.

It remains unclear if any charges will be filed against them.
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The much-anticipated Star Wars-themed land model has been unveiled - and it's as extravagant as you think.

The land parks' models were revealed at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California on Thursday.

In the exhibition, Disney's chairman showed the very intricate world of grassland, miniature people-like figures, and detailed buildings.

'To say we are excited for the Star Wars-themed lands to open in 2019 is an understatement,' chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Bob Chapek said.

The much-awaited land park models were revealed at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California on Thursday

Disney's chairman revealed an alternative world of grassland, miniature people-like figures, and detailed buildings

Chairman Bob Chapek said: 'To say we are excited for the Star Wars-themed lands to open in 2019 is an understatement'

'All along, we have said this will be game-changing, and through the model we can begin to see how truly epic these immersive new worlds will be.'

Star Wars fans will be able to take the controls of the Millennium Falcon on a customized secret mission and can experience the battle between First Order and the Resistance.

The project is already underway at the Anaheim Park and in Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida but it will not be ready and open to the public until 2019.

The 14-acre Star Wars-themed park in Florida will be the largest themed expansion in the park's history.

Disney officials say the new land park will be 'somewhere on the Outer Rim  on the edge of the Unknown Regions.'

Fans have already showed their appreciation and excitement for this new reveal on the official Star Wars Twitter page.

One commenter even said: 'Let me live there please, I'll pay rent.'

Another wrote: 'There might be a tear of happiness shed when we visit this beauty.'

Disney has promised that Star Wars fans can experience the battle between First Order and the Resistance

The project is already under development at the Anaheim Park and in Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida
A man accused of punching a now-dead Melbourne heart surgeon has failed to appear in court.

Joseph Esmaili, 22, from Mill Park, did not appear in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday when his matter was listed for application.

He faces four charges of intentionally and recklessly causing serious injury to cardiothoracic surgeon Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman, the father of twin girls, who died four weeks after he was punched outside the Box Hill Hospital on May 30.

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Joseph Esmaili (pictured) who is accused of punching a now-dead Melbourne heart surgeon did not appear in court on Friday when his matter was listed

It is alleged Esmaili punched Mr Pritzwald-Stegmann, 41, at the hospital's entrance after he asked someone to stop smoking.

The alleged attack occurred in full view of CCTV cameras.

Mr Pritzwald-Stegmann was rushed to the trauma centre at The Alfred Hospital, where he died nearly four weeks later.

His family earlier released a statement saying they were devastated by his death, while the medical community expressed grief over the loss of a respected colleague.

Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann (pictured with one of his twin daughters) died four weeks after he was punched in the head outside a hospital for alledgedly telling Esmaili to stop smoking

Mr Prizwald-Stegmann's death has ignited calls for better security to protect medical workers from violence.

The calls included comments from Australian Medical Association Victoria president Lorraine Baker, who said his death was avoidable.

Mr Pritzwald-Stegmann also worked for other Melbourne hospitals including the Austin, the Northern, Warringal Private and Epworth Eastern.

Esmaili, who is in custody, did not apply for bail on Friday.

In June, his lawyer told the court Esmaili was suffering from a number of 'psychiatric illnesses' for which he had been prescribed medication, and was also suffering drug withdrawal symptoms.

He will face a committal mention on October 2.

The heart surgeon, 41, (pictured) was punched in full view of CCTV cameras at Box Hill Hospital entrance in May. His death has ignited calls for better security to protect medical workers from violence

Esmaili (pictured centre) will now face a committal mention on October 2
Rottweilers who mauled a toddler in the Blue Mountains last week have been put down.

Avah Gibbs, 3, was in the backyard of a home in Hazelbrook when the two dogs, owned by Cameron Farrugia, attacked her on July 6.

She was taken to The Children's Hospital at Westmead with severe facial injuries that required stitches. She has since returned home.

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Two rottweilers who mauled Avah Gibbs (pictured), three, at a NSW home last week were seized by the Blue Mountains City Council rangers and put down on Friday

Avah was in the backyard of a home in Hazelbrook when the two dogs, owned by Cameron Farrugia (pictured), attacked her on July 6

A toddler was rushed to hospital after she was viciously attacked by two dogs (pictured)

The two Rottweilers were seized by Blue Mountains City Council rangers after the attack and impounded at an RSPCA shelter in Katoomba.

After considering 'the seriousness of the attack and limited prospects for the dogs' rehabilitation' the animals were euthanised on Friday morning, the council said in a statement.

The council had received reports of similar-looking dogs roaming the streets and attacking another dog in the weeks prior to the attack, but no action was taken at the time due to a lack of evidence.

'This incident was heartbreaking,' Blue Mountains City Council Mayor Mark Greenhill said in a statement on Friday.

'My thoughts and prayers remain with little Avah and her family. I wish her the best possible recovery.'

Three-year-old Avah Gibbs (pictured) was mauled by the animals

Police officers arrive at the scene where two dogs attacked a young girl
A man accused of murdering three squatters by setting fire to an old Melbourne factory is expected to deny the charges and point the finger at two others.

Darren Patrick Clover appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday, charged with murdering David Griffiths, 39, Tanya Burmeister, 32, and Zoe Burmeister, 15, on March 1 this year.

His lawyer said the 52-year-old acknowledged he took a fuel can to the old Footscray factory in Ballarat Road, but denied lighting the fatal fire.

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Darren Patrick Clover (pictured) appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday, charged with murdering three squatters in Footscray, Melbourne

Two of three people killed in a fire at a factory in Melbourne were mother and daughter: Tanya Burmeister (left) and Zoe Elizabeth Burmeister (right)

The three killed were squatting in the former Kinnears rope factory on Ballarat Road in Footscray (pictured) on Wednesday when Darren Patrick Clover allegedly set it on fire

It is expected his legal team will argue two other people were seen in a dark burgundy car 'acting suspiciously'.

Clover has been charged with three counts each of murder and arson causing death, plus one count of damaging property by arson.

Earlier this year, Clover did not appear in court and chose to stay in the cells after being diagnosed with depression.

On Friday, he did not apply for bail and will face a three-day committal hearing from February 1 next year.

Clover did not apply for bail and will face a three day committal hearing in February next year for allegedly setting fire to the factory (pictured)
From pulling a knife on a tourist to provide for his pregnant girlfriend to getting drunk in prison and having a massive tattoo inked on his face, the troubled life of an unemployed teenage father has been revealed.

Mark Cropp took to Facebook to lament that the massive face tattoo saying DEVAST8 was preventing him from finding work after his release from prison.

The 19-year-old, from Oamaru, urged people not to judge a book by its cover after finding it difficult to land a job after serving two years behind bars for armed robbery.

But according to the New Zealand Herald, he has twice refused free corrections services to have the ink removed.

Mark Cropp covered half of his face with a tattoo reading 'DEVAST8' while drinking homebrew alcohol in jail

It has also emerged that Mr Cropp has had a difficult upbringing that led him to crime.

Part of the reason why I am who I am is that I grew up without my parents, I grew up with drugs and alcohol around, and became a criminal, he told the Herald.

He was in state care from the age of six and kicked out of school at 11, the Herald reports.

At 17 and about to become a father, he pulled a knife on a tourist who backed out of a marijuana deal when he figured out Mr Cropp didnt have any.

While he served time, his girlfriend gave birth and the baby was later taken into state care.

Now a free man again, he wants to get a job, care for his girlfriend and get their child back.

The teenage father (pictured with his partner) has taken to social media this week in the hope of finding a job

But he came across a road block  no-one wants to give a man with a face tattoo a job.

He got it in prison in a bid to escape bullying from other inmates.

The plan had been for a small one, but drunk on home-brewed alcohol, he and his cellmate  his own brother - got carried away and it ended up covering the lower half of his face with his street name.

Reluctant to give up the job hunt, he took to an Auckland Facebook group with his plight  and was inundated with job offers.

'Hey im keen as to work but have one thing that is stoping me and thats my tattoo on my face [sic],' he wrote.

'Keen as on job or work place that will take me on [sic].'

Scaffolding boss Jediz Arena told the teenager to 'f**k the haters' before offering him an opportunity on his team.

'Start tamoro (tomorrow) with us,' Mr Arena said.

'Meet at my yard 6.30am, you just need steel cap boots, hard hat, hi vis, big kai and water,' he wrote.

A woman then offered to give him the gear he needed to start a new job.

'If you need any of the above, let me know. We are located in Papakura and can provide you with the mentioned items to get you started,' she said.

Cropp said that prospective employers are reluctant to give him a chance because of his distinctive ink

'Check your messages there are 3 definite offers for work, scaffolding, concrete cutting and another 1, you got your foot in the door..GO HARD & GOOD LUCK [sic],' wrote one woman just hours after the post appeared.

'I'll take you on m8...one condition.You must stick to your end of the bargain,' another said.

'(I) need a good labourer! Tatts welcome,' said another boss.

'Good luck finding a job with this tattoo bro.... But if your really keen get your security license bro and I'll hire you,' wrote another.

Mr Arena, who was the first to offer Cropp a job on the original post, believed he had secured a new worker by Thursday evening.

Cropp was behind bars in Otago Correction Facility when he went under the needle last year

'I just spoke to him he's sorting out his site safe passport and signing up with me and my scaffolding gang,' he wrote.

'Never judge a book by its cover. doesn't matter if there black or white pages, everybody deserve a second chance in life to prove to the 1z that fort we were going no were in life [sic],' he wrote.

Mr Cropp's mother Kelly Doyle said she was proud of her son's effort to find work - so he could support his partner and daughter.

'I'm so proud to call u my son. You've come along way and now want a fresh start and to make a better life for yourself your daughter and fiancee.. Take every opportunity that is given to u and show everybody that doubted u that u can do it.. Never give up on your dreams my son,' she wrote.

Mr Cropp previously told the NZ Herald prospective employers were reluctant to give him a chance because of the ink.

'One employment place said to me: 'I wouldn't employ you with that on you face, I wouldn't even take a second look at you',' he said.

'I've had other people that just shrugged and laughed at me.

'I was over people judging for my facial tattoo... that's why I made the decision to put that photo on Facebook, to turn around and say 'I am just a normal human being, you do not have to judge me because of the way I look'.'
A Labor senator born in Iran has accused One Nation leader Pauline Hanson of calling him a 'c***'.

Sam Dastyari has posted a Facebook video describing the firebrand senator's colourful description of him without mentioning the Queenslander by name.

'It wasn't I who used that word. It was a word directed at me by a particular, redheaded Australian senator who doesn't like halal snack packs,' he said.

'You can deduce who that is for yourself.'

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Labor Senator Sam Dastyari (centre) accused Pauline Hanson (left) of using an expletive

Pauline Hanson wagged her finger on election night when Sam Dastyari invited her to have a halal snack pack with him during a live broadcast on the Seven Network

While Senator Hanson isn't the only redheaded Australian woman in federal parliament, she clashed with Senator Dastyari on election night when he jokingly asked her if she would like to join him for a halal snack pack.

Pauline Hanson clearly wasn't interested.

'It's not happening. Not interested in halal thank you. Not interested in it. I don't believe in halal certifications,' Ms Hanson said, waggling her finger in the air during a live Seven Network broadcast.

Senator Dastyari has confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that he clashed with the One Nation leader again in February when they made a video together in a Parliament House courtyard.

However, Senator Hanson's office denied she had used that language.

'The Senator did not use that word. Anyone who knows the Senator knows she does not use that language, not even to describe Sam Dastyari,' a spokesman said.

Pauline Hanson and Sam Dastyari made a Facebook video together in February

Senator Sam Dastyari has confirmed he clashed with Pauline Hanson back in February

Senator Dastyari alleges Senator Hanson used the c-bomb on him when he challenged her on her recent comments describing Russian President Vladimir Putin as a strong leader.

'You have great sources,' he told Daily Mail Australia from Iran on Friday.

He had posted the video to promote his new book 'One Halal Of A Story' published by Melbourne University Press, and joked about some legal advice he had received when referring to the One Nation leader.

Senator Dastyari has asked Senator Hanson why she supported President Putin, considering Russia's alleged involvement in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.

That aviation disaster over the Ukraine killed 38 Australians.

'What you said about Russia was so offensive what you said about supporting Vladimir Putin,' he said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Pauline Hanson's office.

The duo had another clash in late July when the One Nation leader asked Senator Dastyari, who fled Iran as a boy, if he was a Muslim.

The Labor senator, who is an atheist, was challenging Senator Hanson's call to ban Muslim migration, leading to some tense television.

She had asked if he was 'sworn in under the Koran?'.

'I was born in an Islamic nation and by being born' Mr Dastyari said.

Senator Hanson replied: 'So you're a Muslim?'

Pauline Hanson stared at Sam Dastyari in July and asked him if he was a Muslim
A young British backpacker drowned in Cambodia after he was dragged underwater while using an inflatable rubber ring.

Steven Griffiths, 21, from Somerset, was last seen desperately waving his arms for help as he struggled in water in the Kampot district of southern Cambodia.

The non-swimmer had jumped into the river with friends, moments before he found himself losing a battle to survive.

Steven Griffiths, 21, from Somerset, drowned in Cambodia after he was dragged underwater while using an inflatable rubber ring

Mr Griffiths (left, with a friend) was last seen desperately waving his arms for help as he struggled in water in the Kampot district of southern Cambodia.

Mr Griffiths, who had been travelling Asia as a barman, is understood to have slipped through the rubber ring and was pulled under the surface.

Onlookers said they saw his hands sticking out of the water before he was swept away by the river, outside the High Tide guesthouse.

Mr Griffiths' father, also called Steve, said he was 'broken beyond words'.

The father-of-three said: 'Steven had a young brother and younger sister who absolutely adored him. They're distraught, I'm distraught, his friends and work colleagues are. Everyone who knew him is devastated.

'How is someone supposed to come to terms with this? My son has just died, he was only 21. I can't even process what has happened.

'We had lost contact for a number of years after me and his mother separated. But he came back into my life and we were close, like any father and son.

'He couldn't swim. What on earth he was doing in a river I don't know. Even on holiday in Tenerife he would only go in the shallow end.

Mr Griffiths had been travelling Asia for a number of months as a barman

'Who the hell let him go in the water? What was he doing in that situation and why did nobody stop him? These are answers we'll never know. Right now I can't accept that he just drowned like that, as he couldn't even swim.'

Friend Rowan Steele, who had been travelling with Mr Griffiths, told police he had used the inflatable rings a number of times before.

A source at the hotel said it had been raining at the time and recent downpours had swelled the fast-flowing river and made the current stronger.

They said: 'Steven had been here for about two weeks.

'That morning he was happy, floating with the inflatable air bags. He had just been drinking a coffee at breakfast.

'Out of nowhere he sank into the water and just his hands were waving for help. Two staff jumped in to help but unfortunately it was too late. The flow of the water was strong. Steven was washed away in the vast water surface.'

Inflatable black tubes are popular among tourists in South East Asia who use them to float in rivers.

The hotel had a number of them available for guests to use and a small bamboo raft attached by a rope that guests could sit on.

Police arrived a short time later and recovered the body some 10 metres from the guesthouse.

Mr Griffiths was hauled ashore and covered in a white sheet as locals said prayers and lit candles and incense sticks.

Friends and family are heartbroken by Mr Griffiths' death, with his father Steven saying he was he was 'broken beyond words'

Officers later identified the traveller with his passport and other documents.

A Kompat Police Station statement said: 'The incident was reported at 9.40am on 13 July 2017. The foreign male Steven Griffiths, male, born on June 11, 1996, British, drowned at Kampot river at the guest house named High Tide. Security forces searched for the victim.

'The victim had come to stay for two weeks. We have identified his passport number.

'The Office of Immigration has contacted the British Embassy to take the body to be returned to take home to the victim's family.'

Colleague Rit Caem from the CoCo Boutique Resort on Koh Rong said: 'It happened in the morning where he lived in Kampot City. He moved there recently.

'We just had the news today and we're really sad. Steven was a great guy.

'He had been working here for about three months. Everybody knew him. We don't have any more details yet about how it happened.'

A Foreign & Commonwealth Office spokesperson said: 'We are offering assistance to the family of a British man who has died in Cambodia, and are in contact with the Cambodian authorities.'
The lawyer for a decorated U.S. Army sergeant who was pictured kissing the ISIS flag' claimed yesterday that FBI agents exploited the soldier who suffers from mental illness in a 'sting' operation leading to his arrest.

Ikaika Erik Kang, 34, was charged in Hawaii with trying to provide material support to Islamic State extremists.

Questions about his state of mind and the possibility of entrapment were raised by defense lawyer Birney Bervar in remarks to reporters after his client was ordered to remain in jail without bond.

This image, taken from FBI video shows Army Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang holds an Islamic State group flag after allegedly pledging allegiance to the group at a house in Honolulu on July 8

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield in Honolulu ruled after a brief hearing that Kang, 34, posed a flight risk and a danger to the public if released pending further proceedings.

The defense did not object to his continued incarceration.

But Kang's court-appointed attorney Bervar said after the ruling that he told his client: 'You're going to stay in for now, and we're going to get you evaluated and see what's going on.'

He said he believed Kang was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or some other mental problem that the Army failed to address properly after Kang returned from deployments to Iraq in 2011 and Afghanistan in 2014.

According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit, Kang was reprimanded several times dating back to 2011 for threatening fellow service members and expressing extremist views while on duty.

The Army referred the matter to the FBI in 2016.

Kang soon became the target of what the FBI described in its affidavit as an elaborate sting operation employing several undercover agents and other 'confidential human sources' who posed as Islamic State operatives and sympathizers.

In this combination of two images taken from FBI video, Kang kisses an Islamic State group flag, left, then puts the flag to his forhead, right, after allegedly pledging allegiance to ISIS

'It looks to me like they've exploited his mental illness and thrown gasoline on the fire of his mental illness to get him to commit a crime that they could arrest him for,' Bervar said.

Asked if he was suggesting a case of entrapment, Bervar said: 'It sounds pretty close to that, doesn't it?'

Bervar said he would seek a 'full mental health evaluation' for his client.

Ikaika Erik Kang, 34, continued to serve in the Army for years after expressing support for ISIS

'Kang's military training, weapons abilities and personal combat skills, coupled with his strong stated desire to kill people in the name of Islamic State, makes him one of the more dangerous criminal defendants to have been charged in this judicial district,' prosecutors wrote in a motion asking that he be held without bail.

The government, in support of its motion to keep Kang detained without bond, entered several photographs said to show Kang demonstrating military combat tactics.

Two other images purport to show him kissing and then holding to his forehead a folded flag of Islamic State, also known as ISIS, the militant organization that had seized large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.

He is shown in a third photo holding up an unfurled ISIS flag.

Kang, an air traffic control specialist with extensive military training in hand-to-hand combat, was arrested by the FBI on Saturday following a year-long undercover investigation.

The FBI said he swore allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, made training videos for the extremist group and purchased a drone aircraft intended to help ISIS fighters in the Middle East evade enemy tanks in battle.

Kang is also accused of trying to furnish ISIS with classified and other sensitive military documents that would have assisted the group in its combat tactics.

A dog barks in the front yard of a home in Waimanalo, Hawaii, where neighbors say Ikaika Kang grew up. Those who know him said they're shocked to hear about terrorism charges

A former Army bunkmate said that Kang believed the moon landing was faked, questioned the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and thought the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were an inside job coordinated by the U.S. government.

Kang and Dustin Lyles, a medically retired soldier, bunked together for a month in 2013 during military training. The two were friends for several years before Lyle left the Army and the two lost touch.

Lyles told The Associated Press that Kang's arrest came as a shock and that he never heard Kang express support for the enemy. They shared sleeping quarters, ate together and practiced mixed martial arts.

Former soldier Dustin Lyles, a medically retired soldier, said Kang's arrest came as a shock and that he never heard Kang express support for the enemy while they were army bunkmates

'If I had known that then ... I wouldn't even have talked to him after that,' Lyles said.

Lyles said he and Kang debated about conspiracies, including that 9/11 was staged by the U.S. to spark wars in the Middle East.

Kang aspired to become a pro MMA fighter, Lyles said. Kang completed a course to become a tactical combat instructor to soldiers, according to an FBI complaint filed in court.

With help from a Veterans Administration loan, Kang purchased a condo in May 2016 in a tidy suburban complex about a 20-minute drive to Schofield Barracks, according to property records.

Dee Asuncion, the real estate agent who helped him with his condo purchase, told The Associated Press that there was one conversation that seemed strange to her. He talked about having respect for the ideology of Islamic terrorist groups.

She also said the two were driving around together looking at properties and began talking about road rage. '(Kang) goes, 'One time I followed this guy from the east side down to the west side,'' she recalled. 'I told him, 'Don't do stuff like that. Just let it go.''

Kang's father Clifford has since said his son, who was was deployed to Iraq in 2011 and Afghanistan in 2013, may have been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder

Kang's father, Clifford Kang, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser his son's promotion to sergeant first class came in the last six months, and told the newspaper he was proud of his son for serving and his position as an air traffic controller.

But the father was worried about the stress of the job.

'I kept on telling him, 'Being an air traffic controller (is) too stressful. You can always change ... and they will understand.' And he said, 'I can handle.''

He also said that he was concerned that his son may have suffered from PTSD.

It is alleged that Kang pledged allegiance to ISIS as early as 2011, authorities have said.

Kang, who reportedly won the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, continued to serve in the Army for years after expressing support for ISIS as the military and the FBI investigated to determine whether he posed a threat, authorities said.

Ikaika Erik Kang was with the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks in Honolulu

Clifford Kang said he became concerned after his son's return from Afghanistan - and that he had become 'withdrawn'.

He also said his son started studying the Islamic faith a couple of years ago during one of his deployments.

Sergeant First Class Kang was taken into custody over the weekend after declaring his loyalty to the terrorist group and admission that he wanted to 'kill a bunch of people', according to authorities.

Kang is on record making pro-Islamic State comments and threatening to hurt or kill other service members back in 2011, according to an FBI affidavit filed Monday in federal court.

The Army revoked his security clearance in 2012 but gave it back to him the following year.

Kang is being held on terrorism charges after the FBI claims he tried to get secret military documents to ISIS. Pictured: The exterior of the condo complex in Hawaii where he lived

Kang is on record making pro-Islamic State comments and threatening to hurt or kill other service members back in 2011. Pictured: Red evidence tape covers part of the door leading to his condo

Last year, the Army called the FBI when it 'appeared that Kang was becoming radicalized', the affidavit said.

Retired Army judge and prosecutor Colonel Gregory Gross said he was perplexed that the Army allowed Kang to remain a soldier even after his favorable comments toward the Islamic State group.

But Gross said the Army may have decided Kang was just mouthing off and was not a threat.

The senior Kang however was shocked to hear about his son's connection to ISIS.

'Nobody told me anything. This is the first time I heard about' it, said Clifford Kang when reached by telephone by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Monday. 'I'm kind of stunned to tell you the truth.'

'I never heard of him being with ISIS,' Kang said

The FBI said Kang was the subject of a year-long, joint investigation by the FBI and the US Army.

Kang told an undercover federal agent Saturday that he wanted to kill 'a bunch of people'.

The soldier was with the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks in Honolulu, but released no other details.

FBI spokesman Arnold Laanui said that SWAT team special agents arrested Ikaika Kang on Saturday.

According to the criminal complaint, Kang swore allegiance to ISIS.

The FBI said it believes Kang worked as a lone actor and was not associated with others who present a threat to Hawaii.
This is the shocking moment Italian rescue crews pulled screaming migrant children from the Mediterranean.

Go-Pro footage from the Italian Coastguard shows crews racing across the sea towards a crowded boat as around five children cry out for help in the water.

Shouts of 'No, no, no! Stay calm!' can be heard from the coastguard when more migrants jump over the side of the boat in a desperate attempt to reach the crews.

Go-Pro footage from the Italian Coastguard shows crews racing towards a crowded boat with around five children crying out for help in the water.

The rescue workers are seen throwing life buoys to the children before pulling them over the side of the boat.

One little girl in a large life jacket screams as she tries to reach the hands of two rescuers, who subsequently manage to drag her onto boat.

Around 4,100 migrants were plucked from the sea on Wednesday, according to Rome daily Il Messaggero, with the Roman Coastguard coordinating a total of 20 rescue operations.

The migrants were found on board 12 inflatable rafts, two barges and five smaller vessels.

Shouts of 'No, no, no! Stay calm!' can be heard from the Coastguard as more migrants jump over the side of the boat in a desperate attempt to reach the crews

The rescuers are seen throwing life buoys to the children before pulling them over the side of the boat

One little girl in a large life jacket (pictured) screams as she tries to reach the hands of two rescuers who manage to drag her onto boat

According to Frontex, the EU's Border and Coast Guard Agency, a total of 24,800 migrants arrived on Italy's shores via the Mediterranean in June, an increase of eight percent compared with May.

And a total of 85,000 arrived in the first six months of 2017 - an increase of 21 percent compared with the same period last year.

On Thursday, Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti proposed a pact with Libya to combat human trafficking, during a visit to Tripoli to meet mayors of affected cities.

'We will make a pact to liberate our lands from traffickers,' Minniti told 13 mayors from south Libya, urging them to mobilise against people smugglers.

Libya is struggling to control its long borders with Sudan, Chad and Niger.

Cities in south Libya have become the first stops for many illegal immigrants' in their journeys to Europe.

On July 6, EU interior ministers pledged to back an urgent European Commission plan to help crisis-hit Italy, which has been overwhelmed by a wave of migrants arriving by sea from North Africa.

African migrants stand on the deck of the Italian rescue ship Vos Prudence run by NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) as it arrives in the early morning of July 14

African migrants on the deck of Vos Prudence. According to Frontex, the EU's Border and Coast Guard Agency, a total of 24,800 migrants arrived on Italy's shores via the Mediterranean in June, showing an increase of eight percent compared with May

'We have a moral duty to eliminate this traffic that has caused deaths... and extraordinary and unacceptable pressure on my country,' Minniti said.

Fayez al-Sarraj, leader of the internationally backed Government of National Unity, said: 'Libya will do its best to relieve the pressure on the Italian coast', according to a tweet by Rome's embassy to Tripoli, the only Western diplomatic mission to have reopened in the Libyan capital.

Minniti also visited Tripoli in May to hand over four patrol boats repaired in Italy.

The situation has worsened since the fall of Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with smugglers exploiting the chaos to increase the flow of illegal migrants to Italy just 300 kilometres away.

Italy has been urging its EU partners to make a 'concrete contribution' to dealing with the crisis both in terms of trying to limit departures from Libya and also taking in some of those who survive the perilous journey.

Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned last week that Italy did not have 'unlimited' capacity to keep taking in people, having already accepted around 85,000 of the 100,000 people who have arrived this year.

Migrants with a child disembarking from Vos Prudence on Friday morning

A Nigerian woman sings a song of thanks giving prior to disembarking from the Italian rescue ship Vos Prudence
Three Israeli Arab gunmen have been shot dead by security forces after opening fire near Jerusalem's holiest site.

The attackers killed two Israeli police and wounded one more after opening fire near Lion's Gate, one of the entrances to the walled Old City, on Friday morning.

The men then fled to the holy site known in Judaism as Temple Mount where they were filmed being shot dead by Israeli security forces.

One video shows Israeli police surrounding a man who is laid out on the floor before he jumps up and launches a fresh assault.

Three Israeli Arab gunmen were shot dead at the holy site known in Judaism as Temple Mount on Friday, as video emerged showing one of the men playing dead (left) before jumping up (right) in order to continue his attack

Video shows the man running at officers who surround him (left image, far right aiming a kick at officers) before being cut down in a hail of gunfire (right image, on the floor.) Three Israeli police were wounded in the attack, two of them critically

He is shot several times before dropping to the floor, where he is peppered with bullets.

The man filming the video can be heard shouting Allah Akbar - God is greatest - before the footage cuts out.

Two rifles, a hand gun and a knife were found on the bodies of the attackers.

Police are probing how the assailants were able to approach the Old City with weapons. Heavy security is in place in the area, particularly on Fridays, and young Palestinian men are frequently stopped and checked by police.

Three gunmen were shot dead at the site known in Judaism as Temple Mount on Friday morning after opening fire on Israeli police

While knife attacks inside Jerusalem's Old City are not uncommon, gun attacks - particularly at the city's holiest site - are unusual and likely to inflame regional tensions

A wounded Israeli policeman is taken to an ambulance after the attack on Friday morning

It was the latest bloodshed in a wave of attacks that erupted in 2015, in part over the Jerusalem holy site.

In that time, Palestinian attackers have killed 43 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist in stabbings, shootings and attacks using cars to ram into troops or civilians.

During that period, Israeli forces have killed more than 254 Palestinians, most of them said by Israel to be attackers while others were killed in clashes.

Clashes between Palestinians and Israelis, particularly in the Old City, are not uncommon, though typically involve knives rather than guns.

Police opening fire at the site - the holiest in Judaism and third-holiest in Islam, after Mecca and Medina - is highly unusual and likely to significantly heighten tensions.

The holy site was closed after the attack and will remain closed for Muslim prayers through Friday, which is only the third time that has happened since Israel's capture of east Jerusalem since 1967

The site houses the Dome of the Rock (right) and the Aqsa Mosque, and is located adjacent to the Western Wall (left), the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray

Police said the site was cleared of people after the attack and will be closed for prayers Friday - the highlight of the Muslim religious week.

It typically draws tens of thousands of worshippers who flock to the compound from Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

It marked only the third time since Israel's capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war that authorities ordered the Muslim-administered compound closed, said Ikrema Sabri, a prayer leader at the holy site.

Tensions are often high around the marble-and-stone compound that houses the Aqsa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock.

It is managed by Jordanian authorities and is adjacent to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are permitted to pray.
Police have thwarted five terror attacks in the last three months, some of which were minutes from being carried out, it was revealed today.

Britain has experienced a year of repeated atrocities, starting with Westminster Bridge, before the Manchester suicide bombing, the knife attacks on London Bridge and the van ramming in Finsbury Park.

But Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick revealed it could have been much worse, with five other attacks disrupted by police.

Cressida Dick revealed police have thwarted five terror attacks in the last three months

She told LBC radio: 'We have thwarted a very large number of plots over the last few years.

'Just in the last few weeks, five, and overall its well into the teens in the last couple years, where we know people were intent on attack and that's been stopped.'

She later clarified that five attacks had been stopped in the last 'three to four months'.

She said some of them were 'very close to attacks, very close', some of them just 'minutes away'.

She added: 'In addition, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of arrests of people who are radicalised, and are either spreading hatred or supporting terrorism, or want to carry out a terrorist attack.

'We have had a huge number of successful operations, together with the intelligence agencies and we work very closely with them and with colleagues overseas.'

Britain was rocked by a terror attack on Parliament in March, which killed five people

Then 22 people - including children - were slaughtered by a suicide bomber in Manchester

Speaking during a radio phone-in, she told Londoners a government review will examine how to tackle the extremism behind the attacks.

She added: 'I've worked for the last 17 years in terrorism trying to fight violent extremism in all its forms and it comes in many forms, as we saw in the Finsbury Park attack, we do see different forms of terrorism.

'We are undoubtedly seeing recently examples of people who've carried out attacks or who are violent extremists who are home-grown or who may have travelled or been influenced by someone overseas but who are living in our communities and that's a problem for all of us.'

She said the anti-terror hotline is getting more information than ever before from the Muslim community.

'But we clearly need a lot more, because what has happened in the last few months alone is horrific,' she added.

She urged schools and other authorities to pass on any information on suspicious individuals to police.

Eight were killed by three marauding attackers on London Bridge and in Borough Market

A man was killed when an attacker drove a hired van into a crowd near Finsbury Park Mosque

Five people, including police officer Keith Palmer, died in March after extremist Khalid Massood drove a car along the pavements of Westminster Bridge, before running into the grounds of Parliament with a knife.

In May, suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a home-made device in a lobby of a Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, slaughtering 22 people.

Eight people were murdered by three jihadis who drove a van across London Bridge before attacking people with knives in Borough Market.

A man from south Wales then drove a van into a crowd near Finsbury Park Mosque last month, killing one.

Ms Dick's comments come after warnings that terrorists have singled out a England vs Scotland women's football match due to take place in the Netherlands next Wednesday as a possible target.

The army was drafted in to protect famous landmarks following the Manchester attacks

As terror group ISIS loses its grip on areas it once controlled in Syria and Iraq, it is urging followers abroad to carry out lone wolf or low-tech attacks.

In May this year, around 1,000 heavily-armed soldiers were deployed outside the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and other UK landmarks after warnings a terror attack was 'imminent'. The level was later reduced to 'severe'.

Figures show there were 304 terror-related arrests in the 12 months up to March this year, the highest number since 9/11.
The NYPD has arrested three suspects who are accused of sexually assaulting and robbing a 50-year-old mother-of-two after she left a prayer service in Queens.

Three out of the four suspects are being questioned by detectives at the 112th precinct.

The victim, who was forced to strip naked and perform sexual acts on the perpetrators, is being asked to identify the men in a line up.

The NYPD arrested three men in connection with the sexual assault in Queens New York and brought them on a 'perp walk' captured by a DailyMail.com photographer, Those detained include Julisses Ginel, pictured, who is aged just 19

The men allegedly pounced on the woman after she left a church in Queens, New York. Those arrested also included Justin Williams, 17

Brandon Walker, 20, was also arrested on suspicion of robbing and assaulting the woman

Three men have been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a woman leaving the Celestial Church of Christ in Jamaica, Quens on Tuesday night

The 50-year-old woman had just left church when she was approached by two young men on 150th Street who robbed her and ordered her to strip before calling in another two friends

Police said the victim left the Celestial Church of Christ in Jamaica, Queens shortly before 11pm on Tuesday when she was attacked.

A fourth man is still being hunted by police.

So far officers have managed to secure CCTV footage showing the victim walking along the street with four men on the other side of the road.

The men robbed the woman following the sexual assault.

The victim returned to the Celestial Church of Christ where Pastor Kehinde Oyetunde alerted the police.

He told CBS2: 'She was crying. She was scared, she was crying. She was just crying like a baby, we couldnt control her

The men allegedly led her at gunpoint back down the block to 150th Street and Beaver Road where they attacked her behind a garbage truck demanding her wallet.

'They tell me, "you don't have money so take off your clothes!"' the victim told The New York Daily News. 'I said, "What? In the middle of the street?"'

They two men called over three other guys nearby to join them before they forced her to strip naked in the street and demanded she perform oral sex on them.

'She was crying and her face was full of rubbish,' the woman's pastor, Kehinde Oyetunde (pictured), said

She claims she tried to scare them away by saying she was HIV-positive - which she is not - but that didn't even frighten them. In fact, one of the men, who she described as short, went off to buy a condom.

'They said, "if you don't do that, I'll shoot you,"' the victim recounted to the Daily News. 'So I did what I had to do.'

She says one of the attackers called her a 'stupid African woman' and slapped her.

After the attack and the group of men fled, the woman ran back to the church, half-naked and crying to her pastor, Kehinde Oyetunde said.

'She was crying and her face was full of rubbish,' Oyetunde said.

'She had her clothes in her hands. She said that they pulled a gun on her and took her stuff, then wanted to sleep with her.

'She lied and told them she was an HIV patient and to please leave her alone.'

Her pastor picked her up from the hospital where she sought treatment and brought her home. She returned to work the following day but was still shaken.

'This is horrible,' the pastor added. 'She is a very kind woman. She's been with my church for 10 years.'

The victim, who lives in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, said she is nervous about returning to the Queens church she has attended four days a week for the past decade.

'I'm very worried,' she said. 'I don't know if I can go back there.

'There are just mean, hooligan guys who wanted to rob and sleep with somebody,' the victim said of her attackers.

'If they just wanted money, they should have left. But they wanted more.'

NYPD officers were able to recover at least one condom nearby the scene and are processing it for DNA, the Daily News reported.

They are also testing the woman's sweater for potential evidence.

Police said all five men are in their 20s and they do not believe the victim knew her attackers.
A hilarious video shows a suspect in police custody stuck between a cell wall and the ceiling in a botched escape attempt.

The man, in a police cell after allegedly trying to steal a bicycle, had made a hole in the ceiling so he could slip over the metal grille wall that formed one side of his cell.

But he evidently underestimated how much space he would need, and is seen trapped between the metal grille wall and the dented ceiling.

Police officers couldn't help but film the moment and laugh at the suspected bike thief

Firefighters had to be called to free the man from his uncomfortable position in the police station in the city of Santa Fe, in the north-eastern Argentine province of the same name.

While they waited for firefighters to arrive with cutting equipment, police officers grabbed the opportunity to film the criminal's discomfort.

It took firefighters an hour to free the man, who had apparently planned to escape wearing just his underpants.

The video shot used cops was shared online and seen 10,000 times.

'Lily Elizabeth H' commented, bizarrely given the prisoner's slim frame: 'He's very fat...he needs a push!'

'Michael Medrano' added: 'Here in Peru, they would not try to escape, because they always set them free.'

The prisoner has been transferred to another police station. The cost of the damage he caused was not reported.
Theresa May and Amber Rudd both broke government rules by handing big pay packages to senior figures on the child sex abuse inquiry.

The Home Office has been fined more than 366,000 by the Treasury after the chair and panel for the probe were handed six-figure packages without authorisation.

Theresa May set up the inquiry in 2014 in response to allegations of child sex abuse at institutions ranging from the BBC to children's homes, but it has been beset by trouble from the start.

Mrs May was responsible for breaking the rules when as Home Secretary she set the daily rates for panel members at a generous 565 a day.

And Mrs Rudd breached them again in August last year when she appointed Professor Alexis Jay as chair on a 220,000 package.

Theresa May (pictured right at the Spectator summer party last night) and Amber Rudd (pictured left launching the government's drugs strategy yesterday) both breached Treasury rules on setting pay

Under austerity restrictions introduced by the coalition, any remuneration at a level of 142,500 or higher has to be signed off by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

As a result the Treasury imposed an 'exemplary' fine of more than 366,000 to make clear its displeasure.

The fine also relates to the pay of the inquiry's three panel members - one of whom, Drusilla Sharpling, received a basic salary of 152,424 in 2015-6.

After two abortive attempts to appoint chairs, Mrs May drafted in Dame Lowell Goddard in February 2015 - but the New Zealand judge resigned 18 months later after a disastrous tenure and contested allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

The scale of Dame Lowell's pay and benefits had caused fury, and she was reportedly given an 80,000 pay-off when she quit last August.

The Home Office's latest accounts suggested that the fine related to Mrs May's failure to follow rules when she appointed the judge to the key post.

However, the department later clarified the document and said the breaches related to the pay of the panel and Prof Jay.

The accounts state: 'The Home Office paid an exemplary fine of 366,900 after securing retrospective approval from the Chief Secretary of the Treasury in relation to breaching the control process in negotiating the salaries of the Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) as well as each of the four panel members of the IICSA, in financial year 2015-16.'

A Government spokesman said: 'The Treasury has the power to consider fines for departments who breach agreed spending control processes, including those relating to senior salary approval.

'The Home Office paid an exemplary fine of 366,900 after securing retrospective approval from he Treasury in relation to breaching the control process in negotiating the salaries of the Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse as well as each of the four panel members.

'This fine relates to the appointment of Professor Alexis Jay as IICSA Chair in August 2016 and the panel members' salary pay that was agreed by the Home Office for 2015/16.

'The Home Office have since reviewed appointment procedures to prevent further such breaches.'

Former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie told MailOnline the pay packages were a 'debacle' and 'flew in the face of the most basic checks of the Treasury's rules'.

Professor Alexis Jay took over from Dame Lowell in August 2016. Her remuneration was set without following rules about getting clearance from the Treasury

Mrs May drafted in Dame Lowell Goddard (pictured in Novermber 2015) to head the troubled inquiry in February 2015 - but she resigned 18 months later after a disastrous tenure

The pay and benefits packages were not authorised by Treasury, as demanded by government rules. The initial breach on pay for the panel happened when George Osborne (pictured) was Chancellor

'We need an explanation from the Prime Minister about why this was allowed to happen,' he added.

Dame Lowell was awarded a salary by the Home Office of 360,000, plus a generous expenses package.

That gave her a further 110,000 annual rental allowance, 12,000 for utility bills, and a car and driver for official business.

She was also entitled to four business-class return flights to New Zealand for her and her husband, plus two return economy flights for her children  with annual costs estimated at 55,000.

Dame Lowell was the third inquiry head to quit.

Amber Rudd told the Home Affairs Select Committee at the time that she believed Dame Lowell left because the New Zealand judge 'found it too lonely; she was a long way from home'.

But there were allegations that she had made racist comments and been rude to junior staff.

The judge dismissed the claims as 'false' and 'malicious' and said she had faced; 'widening personal attacks on me and my competence'.
Passengers at a Chinese airport witnessed a near-miss drama this week when a plane rolled out of its parking dock after a worker removed its wheel chocks by mistake.

A video taken by an onlooker shows the worker was forced to chase after the rolling A320 airbus on the tarmac.

The worker managed to stop the aircraft shortly afterwards.

An airport worker noticed the airbus was rolling after removing its wheel chocks by accident

The man dashed to the plane at an airport in northern China and placed the wheel chocks back

According to The Beijing News, the incident took place on July 12 at the Hohhot Baita International Airport in Inner Mongolia.

The plane belonged to Loong Air, a Chinese domestic airline, and had landed in the airport not long ago after travelling from Tangshan, Hebei Province.

It's understood that all passengers and crew members had exited the aircraft when the incident happened.

An airport worker, whose named has not been revealed, noticed that the doors of the plane were closed and the air stairs had been retracted.

He mistakenly thought the plane was ready to take off. Therefore, he took away the wheel chocks.

Video shows the man dashing towards the aircraft, which was rolling backwards, as soon as he realised his mistakes.

Dramatic footage shows the airport worker running towards the plane and puts the wheel chocks back (left). He even attempted to push the landing gear with his bear hands (right)

Wheel chocks are used to prevent accidents in case of failure in the braking system (file photo)

He quickly placed a wheel chock behind the front wheel and attempted to push the landing gear.

The plane was tugged back to its original position later.

The airport confirmed in a statement that there were no passengers and crew members on board at the time of the incident.

The incident had not caused any disturbance to the operation of the airport, and the air traffic remained unaffected, according to the statement.

The incident occurred at Hohhot Baita International Airport (file photo above) on July 12

The airbus involved belonged to Loong Air, a Chinese domestic airline company (file photo)

Wheel chock is placed under the wheels of a parked plane to prevent accidents from happening in case of a failure in the braking system.

After the wheel chocks are removed, the plane is usually ready to get tugged for a take-off.

Chinese media are suggesting that the pilot had not put the parking brakes on before leaving the plane.

However, the claims have not been confirmed by the airport or the airline.

MailOnline has contacted Loong Air. The airline refused to give any comments.
President Donald Trump readied himself to return to Washington, where the GOP's health care reform effort was still in turmoil, this morning.

The commander in chief, who was in the French capital for the country's Bastille Day celebration, said Vice President Mike Pence was 'working hard' on a reform bill and pushing GOP senators to 'come through as they have promised' and 'do what is right for the people.'

'Republicans Senators are working hard to get their failed ObamaCare replacement approved. I will be at my desk, pen in hand!' he said in a set of tweets just before he joined France's president and first lady at a military parade.

Donald Trump was busy tweeting about the replacement to the Afforadable Health Care Act this morning on his way to a Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, France

Trump launched his latest Twitter tirade before on the ride from his lodging to the event

Trump, pictured, sat with French President Emmanuel Macron, left, his wife Brigitte, and First Lady Melania Trump in a reviewing stand

Senate Republicans are awash with ideas on how to repeal and replace Obamacare, a promise they've made to constituents for the last seven years, but still can't seem to settle on a fix.

On Thursday, just before a new version of the existing Senate health care bill came out, CNN reported that Sens. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, were unveiling their own plan to replace Obamacare.

'We're going to support Mitch's effort with his new plan, but we wanted an alternative and we're going to see which one can get 50 votes, we're not undercutting Mitch, he's not undercutting us,' Graham explained during an interview on the network, referring to the efforts of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to get a health care bill passed.

Trump did not weigh in on the effort, specifically, in his tweets on Friday. He said more generally that it was 'important' that senators 'get healthcare plan approved.'

'After 7yrs of O'Care disaster, must happen!' he said. 'After all of these years of suffering thru ObamaCare, Republican Senators must come through as they have promised!'

The timing of the tweets coincided with the president's four-minute motorcade ride from the US ambassador's residence, where he slept last night during his short stay in Paris, and the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Elysees.

Trump's first tweet thanked the French president and his wife for their hospitality.

'Great evening with President @EmmanuelMacron & Mrs. Macron. Went to Eiffel Tower for dinner. Relationship with France stronger than ever,' he said in a caption of a photo he posted of the four of them at dinner last night in the Eiffel Tower.

Then came four tweets about health care reform. The tweeting stopped then Trump reached Place de la Concorde.

The president and first lady were welcomed by Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron.

President Macron arrived minutes later after being delivered via an open-air, military vehicle and with a group of troops.

The day also commemorated the 100th anniversary of the entry of the US to the Great War

Macron invited Trump to be the guest of honor at Friday's celebration, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I in addition to the Storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution.

Trump is on his way back to the United States now, following the conclusion of the military parade. He did not stay for an evening fireworks display at the Eiffel Tower.

He'll spend the weekend at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, then go back to the White House.

Congress was supposed to go into recess in two weeks. The health care debacle will keep them in Washington for at least two weeks more.

The House has already passed a bill but lawmakers in the president's party in the US Senate have not reached an agreement that has enough votes to pass.

Yesterday, the Washington Examiner revealed components of a new draft of the Senate bill, called the Better Care Reconciliation Act.

The draft leaves many of the Obamacare taxes in place, including on high-income earners, while allowing Americans to buy less expensive plans, which offer fewer medical services.

Graham and Cassidy's proposal also keeps many of the federal taxes in place, but then ships the money off to the states.

'It'll be up to the governors, they have a better handle on it than any bureaucrat in Washington,' Graham argued Thursday, during an appearance on CNN.

No matter, what plan Republicans eventually settle on there is no room for error.

They must have 50 of their 52 members vote yes, as no Democrats are going to play ball.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said Thursday morning on Fox & Friends that he wouldn't vote for the Better Care Reconciliation Act, even in its revised form.

'Actually I don't know if this is better than Obamacare,' he complained.

He was especially wary of what he called a '$200 billion fund to bailout insurance companies.'

The Examiner reported that an additional $70 billion would be added to the bill's budget that would go toward states that they could use to reduce insurance premiums.

President Macron is positioning himself as the indispensable intermediary between Europe and Donald Trump.

The initial draft had allocated $112 billion for this purpose.

Paul suggested insurance companies would gain most of these funds.

'Insurance companies don't need taxpayer money,' Paul argued. 'I think it's a crazy idea and I just can't support more big government.'

'I promised people I would repeal Obamacare, this bill doesn't repeal it,' Paul said.

Sen. John Cornyn, a GOP leader from Texas, suggested on Fox & Friends shortly after that his colleague's 'no' vote was a 'yes' vote for the last president's health care law.

'But, unfortunately, the practicality is we have to pas a bill and if you vote no on this bill, it's essentially a vote for Obamacare, because that's what we're going to be left with,' Cornyn said.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is also expected to vote no on the Senate bill, which McConnell said Tuesday he expected a vote on next week.

Trump is on his way back to the United States now, following the conclusion of the military parade. He'll spend the weekend at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, then go back to the White House

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is another holdout. Her state has unusually high medical costs because much of Alaska is remote, and it relies heavily on Medicaid, which the Republican bill would cut.

One of the provisions of the new proposed health care bill is a deal to hand Alaska $2 billion in federal money to secure its senator's support.

Democrats resorted to a similar tactic when they were pushing President Barack Obama's 2010 health care bill through the Senate. At one point it set aside extra money for Nebraska to win support from one of its senators, Ben Nelson.

That arrangement became known as the Cornhusker Kickback, and it was widely criticized and eventually removed.

Trump has not been as hands on with the Senate GOP's bill as he was the House's. His travels to Europe for summits have kept him occupied over the last several weeks.

His trip to France for Bastille Day was the last time he was scheduled to be away this calendar year, although he's told a handful of foreign leaders he'd like to come to their countries on foreign trips.

Macron has said he will have a climate change summit in France in December to celebrate the anniversary of the Paris accord.

The French president made a point of detailing both the long history of ties between France and America as he hosted Trump for a Bastille Day visit, where he made an effort to steer the discussion away from their differences on climate change.
Danielle Di Fiore's move from Australia to London took a tragic turn when her pet parrot Kakota died shortly after arrival.

The 21-year-old paid Qantas $2510 to transport her two birds, Elvis and Kakota, and has been fighting for months to get answers about Kakota's death.

Kakota, a two-year-old Indian ringneck parrot, was 'barely alive' when the plane landed at Heathrow Airport, and died a short time later.

Danielle Di Fiore (pictured) says that Qantas killed her two-year-old pet parrot Kakota (pictured, right)

On arrival in London the bird (pictured) was wet, cold, and lying on the floor of the crate, which was soaked with water.

According to the arrival report the parrot (pictured) was still alive but in a 'very poor condition'

A heartbroken Ms Di Fiore has now turned to social media in an attempt to raise funds for legal action against the airline.

Not only did the young woman pay over $2,500 for the airfare, she also forked out over $80 for quarantine paperwork and vet checks, and over $1600 on legal fees so far.

'I made calls after calls to Qantas and emails for investigations to find out why there was so much water, why was it so cold in the hold?' she wrote on her GoFundMe page.

'And why was [sic] there issues with handling Qantas or Skypets will not take responsibility when my baby has died a slow painful neglectful death?'

An arrival report from the Heathrow Animal Reception Centre notes that Kakota was in a 'poor condition' on arrival, and 'wet and rather cold.'

Danielle Di Fiore (pictured) says her birds are like her children and they help her with anxiety

The death of Kakota (pictured) has sent her into a 'major depression' and she has been battling with Qantas and Skypets for months

It also mentioned that a dog transported on the same flight was also extremely cold, and that the bottom of its cage was only 8 degrees celsius.

The report stated that Kakota was 'lying on the floor of the container' and diagnosed with 'possible hypothermia.'

It noted the parrot's perch was too large in diameter, the bottom of the crate was 'sodden' as no absorbent bedding had been provided, the sides of the container has water stains, suggesting handling issues, and the water pots were overfilled.

Kakota's furious owner has been looking for answers since the death occurred on March 10.

The arrival report (pictured) noted that there were a number of problems with Kakota's container

She says that Kakota was 'more like my child' than a pet.

'[Kakota] was my best friend she did everything with me showers, making dinner, watching TV, keeping me company when I was scared we were inseparable from each other and needed each other as I suffer severe anxiety,' she said.

Ms Di Fiore says she spent six months preparing for the trip and is now suffering from 'major depression.'

Skypets spokeswoman Sue Rogers denied her company was responsible for the pet parrot's death, but says Ms Di Fiore is not entitled to a refund, News.com.au reported.

After leaving the airport Kakota starting having seizures and then died on the way to get treated. The arrival report (pictured) noted that the bird had 'possible hypothermia'

'There is nothing that we did in that job that was negligent, the crate met our standards and we are not responsible for the loading on the aircraft, the airline is,' she said.

'If you are looking to blame people, then why not blame the ground handling staff at Dubai airport.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Qantas for comment, but in a previous statement they said they would be contacting the dead bird's owner.

'We understand that the death of Kakota the parrot has been distressing for Danielle,' a spokesman said.

M Di Fiore, however, still intends to take legal action.

'I have enough evidence to take Qantas for animal negligence so this never happens again,' she claimed as she appealed for funds.

'I just need help to take down this multi billion dollar company that I paid a service for that neglectfully transported my baby which resulted in death.'

So far Ms Di Fiore has raised 130 of her 3,000 goal.
David Davis, pictured heading into No 10 yesterday, hinted that Britain will still pay money to the EU after Brexit

David David has hinted for the first time that Britain will still pay money to the European Union after Brexit.

In a statement slipped out yesterday, the Brexit Secretary said the UK has 'obligations' to fulfil that would 'survive the UK's withdrawal'.

The comments will enrage Brexiteers who say the UK must not pay huge amounts into Brussels' coffers after we leave the bloc.

And it is being interpreted in Brussels as a slap down of Boris Johnson who earlier this week said the EU can 'go whistle' for their demands for a hefty divorce bill.

In the written parliamentary statement, Mr Davis outlined Britain's position on any financial settlement.

He said: 'On the financial settlement, as set out in the Prime Ministers letter to President Tusk, the Government has been clear that we will work with the EU to determine a fair settlement of the UKs rights and obligations as a departing member state, in accordance with the law and in the spirit of our continuing partnership.

'The Government recognises that the UK has obligations to the EU, and the EU obligations to the UK, that will survive the UKs withdrawaland that these need to be resolved. '

Mr Davis is set to meet the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier on Monday for a second round of crunch Brexit talks.

While at home, the government is facing the prospect of many months of guerrilla warfare in the Parliament by MPs determined to oppose plans for our withdrawal.

Labour, Nicola Sturgeon and the Welsh government last night threatened to band together to derail the Repeal Bill that ends the EUs power over Britain.

Ministers yesterday published legislation to repeal the European Communities Act, which enshrines the supremacy of EU law  and the European courts.

It will smooth the path to Brexit by transferring thousands of EU regulations into British law, preventing legal uncertainty.

But Labours Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer warned that his party would try to block the legislation when MPs vote in September as it will not bring a controversial human-rights charter into UK law.
Building regulations could be radically overhauled in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, it emerged last night.

The government is planning a complete review of rules on housing blocks after the blaze which killed at least 80 residents of a west London estate.

The fire led to testing of cladding on high-rise buildings around the country, with the alarming results that around 200 have combustible materials attached to them.

The Grenfell Tower blaze has led to widespread fears over the state of Britain's fire regulations

There are now fears in Whitehall that building regulations have a number of weaknesses that have allowed flammable materials to be used, BBC's Newsnight reported.

Confusion exists over whether rules apply to every part of the cladding, or just the insulation which is installed beneath it.

Others believe the tests carried out on materials are not rigorous enough, with some materials being passed through so-called 'desktop studies' which don't involve any actual testing.

Safety bodies are among more than 1,000 signatories to an open letter calling on Prime Minister Theresa May to rethink the drive to cut so-called red tape under the Conservatives.

Cladding strapped to the outside of the building is thought to have helped the fire spread

A debate in the House of Lords yesterday, led by Labour peer Baroness Andrews, culminated in an agreement that safety industry representatives should meet ministers.

Baroness Andrews told peers at Westminster: 'This fatal obsession with deregulation in all forms across Whitehall has been pursued with no regards for consequences other than the benefits to business.'

Meanwhile, the human cost of the tragedy continued to stack up, as two more of at least 80 people who are believed to have perished in the June 14 blaze were officially named.

The family of Yahya Hashim, 13, paid tribute to the 'kind, polite, loving, generous, thankful and pure-hearted' boy who is believed to have died with his parents Nura Jamal and Hashim Kidir.

Materials have since been removed from blocks around the UK after hundreds failed new tests

Relatives of 82-year-old grandfather Ali Jafari said he 'was loved and will be greatly missed by his family and the wider community'.

It also emerged that a young survivor of the Grenfell Tower fire was treated for cyanide poisoning, amid fears it may have been released by the burning of insulation or plastics during the fire.
This is the dramatic moment a family has to scramble to a stranded dolphins aide after it washes up onshore.

On Levara Beach in Grenada, as Aly Monsef and his family enjoy a holiday abroad, suddenly a lonesome dolphin finds itself in a state of real distress as it washes up on the beach.

First on the scene are Aly's children who attempt to haul the hindered mammal back into the water to little avail, as the dolphin continues to ferociously flail its fins in a blind panic.

Aly drags the dolphin back into the waters

The father had to calm it down before being able to take it back to its natural habitat

Stepping in, their determined dad takes a firm grip on the animal's tail and begins dragging it to deeper water, attempting to turn it around to face back out to sea.

Thankfully, Aly is able to calm the animated dolphin down and before long he's back out surfing the waves once more.

Aly, from Perthshire, Scotland, said: 'We had been watching the dolphin for some time playing along the shoreline and riding the waves.

'But the dolphin must've pushed it too far, as suddenly he was flailing around in the sand.

'Young male dolphins often get kicked out of their pod, and this was a young male so it may explain why it was completely alone.

'As a family, ambassadors for the preservation of marine life, so this encounter was particularly special for us.

The dolphin was back among the waves thanks to the Monsef's handwork

'I was so glad I was able to help this poor little dolphin, and see him swim off happy and healthy, playing again.

'We returned to the beach a few days later, to find more dolphins playing there.

'We just hope this dolphin has learned how to swim in the ocean instead of swimming out of it.'
The incredible archives of RAF hero Sir Kenneth Cross are up for auction at 10,000

The incredible war-time archive of an RAF hero who survived a shipwreck in the freezing conditions of the North Sea has gone up for sale.

Sir Kenneth Cross was part of a squadron in charge of protecting HMS Glorious when the battle cruiser was attacked by the German navy, off the Norwegian coast in 1940.

The attack caused catastrophic casualties with just 40 people surviving out of the 1,559 crew on board the ship and its two escorts.

Miraculously, Hurricane pilot Sir Kenneth managed to find a lifeboat and endured 70 hours of freezing conditions until he and five others, were picked up by a Norwegian fishing vessel.

Reflecting on the harrowing ordeal, he wrote: 'Men would slide into the well, we would pick them up and push them over the side. Again and again.

'Most of the deaths took place in the first few hours, due rather more to people giving up hope than wounds or lack of clothing.'

Sir Kenneth went on to fight the Nazis in Scandinavia, North Africa and western Europe and was awarded a haul of medals for his dedicated service.

Collectors can now enjoy a 'unique' insight into the war hero's life and losses as his war-time archive is put up for auction.

Pictured: Sir Kenneth addresses his squadron months before their air craft carrier HMS Glorious was attacked in the North Sea, during 1940

Left, Sir Kenneth's impressive medal haul which includes a Distinguished Flying Cross, right the pilot with his wife Brenda

The collection includes the pocket diary he kept while shipwrecked, his set of 15 medals and a poignant photograph of him with his Squadron - taken months before the HMS Glorious sunk.

His archive is being sold by London auctioneers Spink and Son and is expected to fetch 10,000 at auction.

Sir Kenneth was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in October 1911.

He excelled at rugby at school and went on to play for Harlequins before the outbreak of the Second World War.

He joined the RAF in 1936 as a Flight Lieutenant attached to Cambridge University Air Squadron.

Pictured: The water stained war diary of Sir Kenneth, opened at the entries he wrote while shipwrecked in the North Sea

Pictured: A smiling Sir Kenneth (front and centre) poses with his 46 Squadron

In October 1939 the talented young pilot was put in command of 46 Squadron.

The squadron had been ordered to join HMS Glorious in support of the Norwegian campaign, after the Germans invaded the Scandinavian country in April 1940.

On June 7 he was flying his Hurricane when he attacked four Heinkel bombers.

Returning fire, one of the German gunners hit the windscreen of his plane but in a stroke of good fortune the bullet missed the airman's head.

Sir Kenneth survived the assault because he had failed to put on his harness and was crouched forward over the controls at that moment.

After the sortie, he returned to HMS Glorious and at 4.30am the next day the ship came under attack by two German battleships. It was sunk just over an hour later.

After abandoning ship, he swam towards a lifeboat and was joined by nearly 40 other men.

Pictured, Sir Kenneth (far right) during his service in North Africa during the Second World War

Pictured: Aircraft carrier HMS Glorious, which was sunk alongside its two escort ships in 1940

The freezing survivors attached a shirt to an oar for a sail and mast in the hope of sailing towards a shipping lane.

In his pocket diary he noted three separate sightings of passing aircraft but the men were unable to get their attention.

Describing the moment the group were rescued by a small Norwegian fishing boat, he wrote: 'Gradually she got larger and then came the ecstatic moment when she was so near that we knew she must have seen us.

'We all started shouting our heads off and waving anything we could lay our hands on.'

The survivors were taken to a hospital in the Faroe Islands where they were treated for frost bite.

Sir Kenneth went on to become wing commander of 252 Wing, overseeing the air defence of the western desert in North Africa in 1941.

He then became air commodore and oversaw training at the headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force in March 1944 in preparation for the invasion of western Europe.

After the war Sir Kenneth served as Air Chief Marshal in the RAF and was one of its most decorated officers. Pictured, at home in south west London six years before his death in 2003

After the war he served as Air Chief Marshal in the RAF and was one of its most decorated officers.

He married wife Brenda in 1945 and they had two sons and a daughter.

His incredible medal group consists of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, K.C.B, the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E, the Distinguished Service Order, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the 1939-45 Star, Air Crew Europe Star, Africa Star, Italy Star, War Medal 1939-45,

Coronation Medal 1953, the French Legion of Honour, the Norway, War Cross 1941, The Netherlands, Order of Orange Nassau and the United States of America, Legion of Merit.

David Erskine Hill, of Spink and Son, said: 'One uses the word unique all too often but in this case it is entirely appropriate.

'Kenneth Cross was a survivor and a very gallant one at that.

'The loss of the Glorious was very contentious as questions were later asked as to whether the captain could have saved the ship.

'It was a horrendous loss of life in the most horrific conditions and Cross lost pretty much all his Squadron in it.

'The photograph in the sale shows him sat front and centre with his men next to him. Just three months after it was taken all of the men apart from him and one other were killed.

'The diary was there with him in the lifeboat. Although it is not in-depth it still brings some immediacy to the situation.'

The sale takes place in London on July 26.
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Tiny, fluffy and playful, few of us could resist these cute little bears.

A Chinese breeding centre last week welcomed a pair of twin baby pandas after their mother became pregnant through natural mating.

The pair of cubs, a male and female, were born on July 8 at the Shenshuping Panda Base, Sichuan Province, to eight-year-old Lin Bing.

Welcome to the world: The pair of twin cubs, a male and female, were born at the Shenshuping Panda Base in China

Unbearably cute: They were born seven hours apart on July 8, the first one at 8:17am and the second one at 3:08pm

Say hello! The cubs are currently being kept in incubators and carefully looked after by carers at the panda base

FUN FACTS ABOUT PANDA CUBS Most panda cubs are born in the months of June, July and August. A panda cub typically weighs 90-130 gram (3.1-4.6 ounces) when it is born. It is fed with breast milk from its mother. It starts to eat solid food, such as bamboo, when it reaches one year old. It doesn't open its eyes until it's six to eight weeks old, and is not mobile until three months old. Source: Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, People's Daily, San Diego Zoo Advertisement

The adorable bears are yet to be named, but they have been the absolute stars of the centre.

They were born seven hours apart, the first one at 8:17am and the second one at 3:08pm, according to Xinhua News Agency.

A video has been released by Chengdu.cn showing the moment when the cubs popped out from their mother.

Video also shows that Lin Bing immediately picked them up with her mouth and nursed them with her mouth.

The elder sister weighs 170 grams (6 ounces) and the younger brother weighs 159 grams (5.6 ounces).

Their mother Lin Bing is the offspring of Lin Hui and Chuang Chuang, which are on loan to the Chiang Mai Zoo in Thailand.

Lin Bing became pregnant in the spring after 'dating' and mating naturally with two male pandas, Yuan Yuan and Wu Gang, from the Bifengxia Panda Reserve in Ya'an, said Xinhua.

She was sent to the Shenshuping Panda Base on March 7 to prepare for the labour.

This was the second time Lin Bing had become a mother.

In 2015, the Thai-born panda gave birth for the first time to a pair of female twins.

Lin Bing nursed one of the cubs with her mouth after it was born. Lin Bing is the offspring of two pandas living in Thailand

A video shows how the cubs popped out from Lin Bing (left) and how the mother picked them up and nursed them (right)

Panda cubs don't open their eyes until they are six to eight weeks old, and they are not mobile until three months old

Because female pandas are only in heat for three to five days a year, most panda cubs are born in the space of a few weeks, usually during June, July and August.

The twins' birth was quickly accompanied by the arrival of another baby panda, but this time at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu.

Jing Jing, the panda named after a Beijing Olympic mascot, gave birth to a male cub at 12:33pm on Monday.

Heart-warming pictures show the baby panda being kept in an incubator on July 13. Three days after it had been born, the cub weighed 189 grams (6.7 ounces). The cub is in a healthy condition.

Jing Jing, the panda named after a Beijing Olympic mascot, gave birth to a male cub (pictured) at 12:33pm on Monday

Heart-warming pictures show the baby panda being kept in an incubator on July 13, three days after it was born

An athletic cub: The baby panda's mother, Jing Jing, was named after one of the five mascots of the 2008 Beijing Olympics

This was Jing Jing's second delivery after giving birth to male twins.

Born in August 2005, Jing Jing was named after one of the five mascots of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, although the mascot design was based on her older sister Mao Mao.

Jing Jing is from an 'Olympic family'.

Her father Cobi was born on the same day as the opening ceremony of the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, and was named after the mascot, a Catalan sheepdog, by Juan Antonio Samaranch, former president of the International Olympic Committee.

Her mother Ya Ya was born the day of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Asian Games in 1990.

Most panda cubs are born in June, July and August. A panda cub typically weighs 90-130 gram (3.1-4.6 ounces) when it is born
EasyJet has announced it will be setting up a European headquarters in Austria as well as a new airline to continue flying across the Continent after Brexit.

The airline has applied for a new air operator's certificate to set up a third base in Vienna.

Bosses say this is to ensure flights will be able to run across Europe and domestically within countries after the UK officially leaves the EU.

EasyJet has announced it will be setting up a European headquarters in Austria as well as a new airline to continue flying across the Continent after Brexit

Current rules state airlines operating inside the European Union must be majority owned by EU nationals.

EasyJet says it is confident it will remain majority EU owned after Brexit as founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and his family - who hold Cypriot passports - have 33 per cent of shares.

The UK headquarters, based in Luton, will be unaffected by the change, according to a spokesman.

A spokesman said 'nothing will change' from the perspective of passengers, and all the people and planes that will fly for EasyJet Europe are already employed and based in the EU27 countries.

The single market for aviation, created in the 1990s, means there are no commercial restrictions for airlines flying within the EU.

Current rules state airlines operating inside the European Union must be majority owned by EU nationals. EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou - a Cypriot national - owns a 33 per cent in the company

UK ministers say maintaining 'liberal access' to European aviation markets will be a 'top priority' during Brexit negotiations.

EasyJet previously insisted it would not reveal the location of its new AOC until the application was granted, but it made the announcement after it became clear it would emerge as the approval process requires updating its safety systems and processes.

The company is forking out 10 million for the AOC.

Around 30 per cent of EasyJet passengers are flying on routes between and within the EU27, not touching the UK.

EasyJet says it is confident it will remain majority EU owned. Pictured bove, Sir Stelios in 1995 shortly after the airline was set up

Under the new structure, the three EasyJet airlines will be owned by EasyJet plc, which will be EU-owned and controlled, listed on the London Stock Exchange and based in the UK.

But the measures will not protect the company if an agreement cannot be reached to enable flights between the UK and the EU to continue.

An EasyJet spokesman said: 'Given the importance of aviation to all the economies of Europe as an enabler of trade, tourism and travel, we think it is important that the aviation market remains as open and competitive as possible.

'EasyJet will continue to push for the EU and UK to reach an aviation agreement which at a minimum will enable flights between the UK and EU.

'We have had positive discussions with the UK and European Governments and the EU on this, and it is a position which is supported by other major European airlines.'

The establishment of EasyJet Europe will create a number of new jobs in Austria but no jobs will move from the UK.
A grandmother lost all her money in a new internet banking scam, it was revealed today.

The elderly victim from Manchester, who has not been named, received a debit card reader in the post followed by a call from someone pretending to be from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The fraudster asked her if she needed it and when she declined he told her that he just needed her card details and other personal data to disable it.

Her bank account, which also contained savings for her grandchild, was emptied later that day.

A grandmother has lost her money in a new internet banking scam using this card reader sent to her out of the blue

The elderly victim from Manchester, who has not been named, received a debit card reader in the post with an official-looking letter (pictured)

The reader came with an official looking letter from RBS, which convinced the retired victim it was genuine.

The victim's friend Patricia Barry has shared photographs of the card reader on Facebook.

Her post, which has been shared more than 50,000 times, urges people to be careful of the targeted scam.

Soon after receivibg the reader there was a phone call from someone pretending to be from the Royal Bank of Scotland who said they needed her bank details

She wrote: 'One of my ladies received this digital card reader in the post two weeks ago from The Royal Bank of Scotland with the enclosed letter. She left it to one side as being elderly she wasn't interested in it.

'Two days ago she had a phone call from the bank asking if she received it. She said she had but was taking it back to the bank as she didn't want it, the 'very nice man' told her she didn't have to do that he can cancel it for her and told her to put her card and number in to do this.

'The next day she went to the bank for a statement and yes you can guess so every penny had been took out of her account including savings for her granddaughters.

'She was devastated and the worst of it is SHE felt foolish and ashamed. I reassured her these scammers are very good at it. Luckily she got her money back but apparently this is a new digital system coming out now so please make your contacts aware of this as it looks very genuine.'

The Royal Bank of Scotland appears to have refunded the cash but warned customers to be wary of the scam and said they would never call and ask for personal details like account details, card details or codes.

And the bank said they only send card readers to people who request them.

The spokesman urged anyone who thinks they have been targeted to contact their fraud department immediately.

She said: 'The Royal Bank of Scotland uses a digital banking card reader to authorise transactions leaving your account via your digital banking. If you get a phone call saying it's your bank, the police, or another company you trust and they ask for card reader codes, end the call immediately.

'Your bank will never ask for third party reader codes over the phone and you should not disclose these to any third party under any circumstances.

'If you receive a card reader in the post that you've not requested, report it to us immediately.'
It's fair to say that negotiations over a controversial infrastructure shakeup in Taiwan are not going so well.

For the second day in a row a mass brawl broke out in parliament as tempers boiled over.

MPs abandoned rational debate in favour of wielding chairs above their heads, and even began flinging water balloons at each other.

Scroll down for video

Ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Cheng Yun-peng (centre left) and Wu Ping-jui (centre right, obscured by chair) brandish chairs while facing demonstrating main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) legislators

Parliament Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (top centre, in tie) is shielded by ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators from a water balloon attack

It happened just 24 hours after two politicians came to blows and tried to strangle each other in dramatic fashion on live TV.

Premier Lin Chuan was prevented from delivering his report on the budget yesterday after a water balloon was thrown towards him and he left the chamber, with the session called to a halt.

Lin stood on the sidelines again today, unable to start speaking as chaos erupted around him.

Opposition lawmakers raised large padded office chairs above their heads, surrounding the podium and tussling with rival legislators to prevent Lin from presenting the report as more water balloons were thrown.

DPP) legislators brawl with opposition KMT and People First Party (PFP) legislators in Parliament for the second day in a row

A pair of water balloons thrown by opposition lawmakers fly towards Parliament Speaker Su Jia-chyuan

The session was promptly suspended.

One lawmaker was sent to the parliament's clinic after falling ill during the brawl.

Outside the building, the Kuomintang's acting chairman Lin Jung-tzer led a group of legislators and protesters, chanting, "Send back the budget, defend Taiwan!"

Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen, has put forward proposals for light rail lines, flood control measures and green energy facilities across the island.

One lawmaker was sent to the parliament's clinic after falling ill during the brawl, and the session was promptly suspended

It was the second time a parliamentary session discussing infrastructure reform has descended into chaos in two days

But the opposition Kuomintang party is against the project, saying it favours cities and counties faithful to Tsai's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and has been devised to secure support for the party ahead of next year's regional elections.

Yesterday DPP lawmaker Chiu Yi-ying, 46, clashed with KMT MP Hsu Shu-hua, 41.

The two women scuffled and Chiu was even slapped across the face, leaving President of the Legislative Yuan, Su Chia-chyuan, repeatedly calling for calm and order.

Critics have also questioned the whopping 420 billion TWD (10.7 billion) cost of the project.

Politicians and officials weighed in to try and separate the rivals as tensions boiled over during yesterday's session

Chiu Yi-ying (right) was slapped during the brawl with opposition Hsu Shu-hua in the Taiwanese parliament

President Tsai has seen her popularity plummet to under 40 percent from nearly 70 percent when she took office in May last year as her government attempts to tackle a range of divisive issues from gay marriage to pension and judicial reforms.

Violent protests erupted outside the parliament in April when opponents of pension reforms attacked politicians and scuffled with police, prompting Tsai to call for calm and restraint.

Parliament was also plunged into chaos late last year when opposing lawmakers brawled in the chamber, as labour activists set off smoke bombs outside in protest at proposed holiday cuts.
Following an article published on MailOnline on 4 March 2017, headlined Time to cool off! Happy (and hunky) Prince Harry enjoys a dip in the ocean as he and Meghan relax on the beach in Jamaica after his wingmans sun-drenched wedding, HRH Prince Henry of Wales complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that MailOnline breached Clause 2 (Privacy) of the Editors Code of Practice. IPSO upheld the complaint and has required MailOnline to publish this decision as a remedy to the breach.

The article reported that the complainant had recently attended a friends wedding in Jamaica. It was accompanied by photographs of the complainant wearing swimming shorts on a beach, at a beachside bar and in the sea.

The complainant said that these images had been taken in circumstances in which he had a reasonable expectation of privacy, and while he was engaged in private activities unconnected to his public role. The photographs showed him wearing swimwear on a private beach; he had been unaware that he was being photographed; and he had not consented the images publication. The complainant considered that no public interest was served by the article.

MailOnline said that it had been provided with credible information that the complainant had been on a public beach at the time the photographs were taken, and it had published them in good faith. While it regretted that it had been misinformed, it did not consider that the photographs had revealed intrinsically private information. It also noted that they had been published widely in the US and in one UK magazine.

The Committee found that the complainant had been photographed in circumstances in which he had a reasonable expectation of privacy. He had not consented to the images publication, and MailOnline had not sought to justify their publication in the public interest. Publishing photographs of the complainant engaged in private activities, without his knowledge and consent, represented a significant and unjustified intrusion in breach of Clause 2. The Committee upheld the complaint.

The complainant also raised concerns under Clause 1 (Accuracy) but this was not upheld.
Pupils are being 'brainwashed' in Britain's classrooms to believe that Tories are 'evil', a high profile teacher has claimed.

Calvin Robinson played a major role in the Department of Education's 'I Chose to Teach campaign, appearing on posters, adverts and online.

But the IT teacher has now come out said pupils were being 'indoctrinated to a left wing mentality' and encouraged to see the Conservative party as 'evil'.

Left: Calvin Robinson during the Department of Education's 'I chose to teach' campaign and right, with former education secretary, Michael Gove

Mr Robinson is head of computer science at St Marys and St Johns Church of England School in Hendon, north west London.

Writing on the Conservatives for Liberty website, he said that schools were training kids 'into a lefty way of thinking'.

He wrote: 'Our young people are being indoctrinated to a left-wing mentality from a very young age.

'Pretty much throughout their entire educational career, young people are being trained into a lefty way of thinking.

'I've seen this first hand on too many occasions and it leaves me constantly concerned.

Mr Robinson said pupils were being brainwashed into supporting the Labour Party. Pictured, the teacher during the DoE campaign

'Some of the behaviour I've seen from teachers is outright disgusting - a very evident bias not only in their teaching practices, but in the way they present their arguments.

'I'm not talking about the obvious party political biases of 'Labour = Good, Tory = Evil', although that does happen, but most teachers take a less obvious approach along the lines of tolerance being a good thing, so long as you agree with their way of thinking.'
Theresa May was last night under growing pressure to sack a Government adviser who caused fury by comparing Brexit to the appeasement of Hitler.

Labour peer Lord Adonis, who is chairman of the national infrastructure commission, yesterday refused to apologise for claiming the countrys decision to leave the EU could be as bad as Britains foreign policy in the 1930s.

Tories called on the Prime Minister to get rid of the Remain-supporting former transport secretary, but Downing Street said that while Mrs May disagreed with his comments, he would cling on to his job.

The Prime Ministers spokesman said: He is not a member of the Government. He is not a Conservative peer.

'His job is to provide independent advice to Government on infrastructure. That doesnt have anything to do with the views he expressed on Brexit.

Lord Adonis has sparked fury after he compared the decision to leave the EU with the appeasement of Hitler during the 1930s

A spokeswoman for the PM (pictured at the Spectator summer party) told a Westminster briefing that although Mrs May disagreed with Lord Adonis he would not be sacked

She completely disagrees with those views. His views on Brexit have no bearing on the position that he holds.'

The PMs spokesman dismissed the suggestion that Mrs May should sack him in the same way she fired Lord Heseltine from several advisory roles, including as a national infrastructure commissioner, after he led a revolt in the Lords against the Governments Brexit agenda in March.

She said that was different because Lord Heseltine was a Tory peer.

Labour said Lord Adonis, who quietly re-took the party whip last month after becoming a crossbencher two years ago, would receive a ticking off for his comments.

A party spokesman said: He will be reminded of his responsibilities as a Labour peer.

Lord Adonis had insisted that Britain must retain membership of the single market and customs union after Brexit.

The Labour peer said quitting the Brussels club will turn out to be as big a mistake as not standing up to the Nazis as hey rose to power in Germany

He told The House magazine: My language is usually pretty subdued in politics but anyone with a historical sense  and Im a historian  recognises leaving the economic institutions of the EU, which have guided our destiny as a trading nation for half a century, is a very big step and the importance cant be over-emphasised.

'To my mind, its as big a step that were taking as a country as decolonisation in the 1950s and 60s and appeasement in the 1930s.

We got it right on decolonisation, we got it wrong on appeasement and I think were in serious danger of getting it wrong in the way that we leave the EU.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: He should be removed from any advisory role to government. He doesnt really believe in democracy  just like Hitler.

Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman added: The comments made by Lord Adonis are simply disgusting and nutty, and he must be dismissed immediately.

Prime ministers Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain appeased Nazi Germany in the 1930s by standing by when Hitler marched into the neutral Rhineland and agreeing to the partition of Czechoslovakia.
Donald Trump Jr faced damaging new claims on Friday that he lied about his meeting with a Russian lawyer, as an ex-Soviet intelligence officer revealed he was there too and claimed a trove of claims about Democrats and 'bad money' was handed over.

Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin - who U.S. intelligence think may still be a spy - told the Associated Press that he was part of the Trump Tower meeting with Don Jr.

Don Jr brought Jared Kushner, his brother-in-law who is now one of President Donald Trump's , and Paul Manafort, then the campaign chairman.

But on Friday Akhmetshin and other sources revealed stunning new details about the meeting which put Don Jr on the ropes.

Akmetshin's disclosure of being there blew apart Don Jr's claim on Tuesday to have told 'everything' there was to say about the meeting - because the president's son had only admitted to the presence of Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin (background in glasses) was working with Natalia Veselnitskaya on an effort to kill the Global Magnitsky Act around the same time as the Trump Tower meet-up. He confirmed to the AP he attended the controversial get-together

Donald Trump Jr met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya last June, after being promised by an intermediary dirt on Hillary Clinton, courtesy of the Kremlin

NBC News reported Friday morning that Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian attorney who met with Donald Trump Jr and campaign aides, was accompanied by a man with ties to Russian intelligence, something the individual has denied

PR executive Rob Goldstone emailed Donald Trump Jr to set the controversial meeting up. He confirmed to the Associated Press that he participated in the gathering. Next to be revealed to be there was interpreter Anatoli Samochornov (right)

Off course: Donald Trump returned to the U.S. and went to the U.S. Women's Open Championship at his Bedminster golf course on Friday, while his administration faced crisis

Grip and grin: Jared Kushner was at the meeting too. His presence kicked off the whole affair because he disclosed it in his security clearance forms

Then Akhmetshin, a former Soviet military intelligence officer, piled on the pressure with a bombshell claim that Veselnitskaya had brought a plastic folder full of printed documents which contained claims of the Democratic National Committee receiving dirty Russian money.

That directly contradicted Don Jr's account that no information had been received from the visiting Russians.

Don Jr was uncharacteristically silent on twitter as disclosure followed disclosure.

In contrast his brother-in-law Jared Kushner was grinning and relaxed as he and his wife Ivanka mingled with media moguls at Sun Valley in Idaho.

Democrats are beginning to seize on the claims with Bernie Sanders telling an Associated Press reporter: 'These are very, very, very serious allegations.'

He added that there should not be a rush to judgment.

The most damage of the day was done to Don Jr's credibility.

As well as the disclosure that documents were left, the list of who was in the meeting grew, with portly British PR Rob Goldstone admitting to the Associated Press that he was in the room, and a New York Times reporter revealing on MSNBC that there was also an interpreter present.

Anatoli Samochornov, a U.S. citizen who has worked for Veselnitskaya for some time was with him, reporter Ken Vogel said.

There could have been even more people there as CNN reported that there was an associate of pop star Emin present. Emin is the son of Aras Agalarov, the billionaire friend of Vladimir Putin and CNN said a representative of the Agalarov family was there.

Trump Jr never noted the presence of any individuals outside the campaign's senior officials - Kushner and Manafort - and the lawyer, Veselnitskaya.

Gets around: A few days after the meeting in Trump Tower Natalia Veselntiskaya headed to Washington, where she sat in on a House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting, almost directly behind former Obama Moscow ambassador Michael McFaul - who stated publicly this week that he does not know her

During the meeting, Akhmetshin said Veselnitskaya brought along a plastic folder with printed out documents that detailed illicit funds flowing to the Democratic National Committee.

'This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money,' Akhmetshin recalled the attorney saying, according to comments he made to the AP.

Akhmetshin went on saying Donald Trump Jr asked Veselnitskaya if she had all the proof in the information she was delivering.

She replied that the Trump campaign would have to do some digging itself.

After that, Akhmetshin told the AP, Donald Trump lost interest. 'They couldnt wait for the meeting to end,' the Russian-American lobbyist said.

Akhmetshin said he didn't know if the Russian government was the source of the documents, nor did he remember if Veselnitskaya handed them over to an individual or simply left them in the room, according to the statements he made to the AP.

NBC, which initially withheld Akhmetshin's name, described the lobbyist as holding dual American and Russian citizenship, having emigrated to the US after serving in the Soviet military.

After Akhmetshin was IDed, news organizations confirmed that there were a number of other individuals sitting in on the meeting, including PR executive Ron Goldstone, who previously said he wasn't in the room.

Additionally, CNN reported that a representative of the Agalarov family, a pop star central to the narrative, was there, as well as a translator.

The translator's existence was confirmed by both Akhmetshin and Donald Trump Jr's lawyer, Alan Futerfas.

Futerfas, told NBC News that two other people accompanied Veselnitskaya to the meeting  a translator and a 'friend of Emin [Agalarov]'s and maybe as a friend of Natalia [Veselnitskaya].'

Emin Agalarov is a pop star friend of the Trumps who asked his PR person, Ron Goldstone to reach out to Donald Trump Jr, according to emails Trump's son produced, offering information about Hillary Clinton from the Russians.

Futerfas said he has talked to the 'friend' who attended the meeting.

'He is a U.S. citizen,' Donald Trump Jr's lawyer told NBC. 'He told me specifically he was not working with the Russian government, and in fact laughed when I asked him that question.'

The individual Futerfas described is likely Akhmetshin, though CNN reported later on Friday that a representative of the Agalarov family was also in the room, as the reported meeting's size doubled since Friday morning, from four to at least eight participants.

Last weekend, when the meeting first became public, Donald Trump Jr changed his story several times, as more information was released by the New York Times.

On Saturday, he told the Times the meeting had been about Russian adoption, on Sunday he added that Veselnitskaya had come armed with dirt on the Democrats.

'After pleasantries were exchanged the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton,' the eldest Trump son said.

'Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense.

Gang's back together: Rob Goldstone (left) now says he was at the meeting with Don Jr. He had met Trump at Muss Universe in 2013 when he, his client Emin (center) and the future president dined together.

And here's my dad the Putin pal: Emin is the son of Aras Agalarov, an oligarch who 'brings solutions not problems' to Putin.

'No details or supporting information was provided or even offered,' he continued. 'It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.

'She then changed subjects and began discussing the adoption of Russian children and mentioned the Magnitsky Act,' Donald Trump Jr said in a statement.

On Fox News Channel's Hannity on Tuesday, before NBC's Friday report, Trump Jr was asked, 'as far as you know, as far as this incident is concerned, this is all of it?'

'This is everything. This is everything,' the eldest Trump son said, never mentioning that there were additional individuals in the room.

But it was not just Don Jr whose account shifted  Akhmetshin lied too.

Akhmetshin, who was in Moscow this week, spoke to DailyMail.com on Monday.

He claimed then that he did not attend the meeting and was unaware of it.

'I cannot talk about this stuff because I really have no f***ing connection to this stuff,' said Akhmetshin. 'Its not my s**t, why should I even talk about it?'

'I dont even know who set it up, some fat guy who was a music producer or something,' he added.

Goldstone was also reportedly in the room, according to CNN.

The PR executive had checked into Trump Tower that day on social media, but previously said he wasn't sitting in on the meeting.

On Friday, Goldstone confirmed to the AP that he was in the meeting.

Akhmetshin also defended Don Jr., saying the presidents son 'can talk to whoever the f*** he wants.'

Akhmetshin took a more pleasant tone with the AP on Friday, telling the wire service the meeting was not substantive and he 'actually expected [a] more serious' conversation.

'I never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest,' the lobbyist told the AP.

Before Akhmetshin confirmed his participation, he was an obvious person to have been sitting in on the meeting.

Veselnitskaya was working at the time for Denis Katsyv, the owner of Prevezon, who was accused of running a massive money-laundering operation.

At exactly the same time as she was meeting Trump and Kushner, Katsyv also had a lobbying operation under way in Washington run by two men: Akhmetshin and Robert Arakelian.

Akhmetshin holds both Russian and American citizenship and has been accused in New York state court of being a former Soviet military intelligence officer.

Those documents, expanded on by the Daily Beast, accuse Akhmetshin of hacking two computer systems to steal information from a mining company as part of an alleged 'black-ops smear campaign,' the publication wrote.

The allegations were later withdrawn, the Daily Beast said.

Akhmetshin told Radio Free Europe that he had not worked for Soviet military intelligence.

Akhmetshin worked with Fusion GPS, the shadowy 'research' firm responsible for producing the unverified Trump dossier, of allegations against Donald Trump  including that he paid prostitutes to urinate on a bed in Moscow because President Obama had once stayed in the same hotel room  in an effort to kill the Global Magnitsky Act.

Those efforts put him on the radar of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who wrote a letter in late March to the Justice Department asking why Akhmetshin, and Fusion GPS, hadn't been registered as foreign lobbyists.

Akhmetshin and Arakelian run a group called the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation, which first registered to lobby last April.

They spent nearly $200,000 on lobbying last year.

It says in its disclosure forms that it focuses on 'foreign adoption issues,' a term that has become shorthand for opponents of the Magnitsky Act.

The Magnitsky Act is a suite of financial sanctions targeting Russian officials and businesses that was passed by congress in 2012. The law is named after dissident lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died after injuries he sustained in Russian prison in 2009.

In response to the sanctions, the Russian government banned Americans from adopting children from the country.

Critics of the Magnitsky Act imply that Russia would end the adoption ban in exchange for concessions on the Magnitsky law.

They have also raised questions about Sergei Magnitskys death, suggesting he was not abused in prison and that he was financially corrupt despite claiming to be a government whistleblower.

Akhmetshin continues to lobby against the act and in May met Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher in Berlin, in a hotel lobby.

Rohrabacher told CNN that Akhmetshin had an 'ulterior motive' and when the Congressman was asked if he thought the Russian-American could still be connected to his native countrys security services said: 'I would certainly not rule that out.'

William Browder, the CEO of Hermitage Capital and the head of the Global Magnitsky Justice campaign, suspected Akhmetshin was the unnamed individual in the meeting.

'Curious NBC doesn't name the "Former Intelligence Officer." The only known associate of Veselnitskaya who fits that profile is Akhmetshin,' he tweeted Friday morning before Akhmetshin confirmed his presence.

On Friday, the Russian government denied any involvement or knowledge of the meeting, according to the AP.

'We don't know anything about this person,' said Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, of Akhmetshin.

NBC's Keir Simmons spoke with Veselnitskaya earlier this week and she said she had no ties to the Kremlin despite Goldstone, the PR executive writing to Donald Trump Jr, describing her as a 'Russian government lawyer.'

In those emails, which Donald Trump Jr released via Twitter on Tuesday, Goldstone told the president's namesake that the crown prosecutor of Russia wanted to hand over 'official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary [Clinton] and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.'

'This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its governments support for Mr Trump,' Goldstone went on.

NBC News reported Friday morning that Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian attorney who met with Donald Trump Jr and campaign aides, was accompanied by a man with ties to Russian intelligence, something the individual has denied

Donald Trump Jr replied positively to the message, saying, 'if it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer,' referring to a time later in the campaign cycle where it would be more politically-damaging to Clinton.

The two then went on to set up the meeting with Veselnitskaya and this unnamed individual NBC News has learned about.

The network said representatives for Kushner and Manafort declined to comment.

Donald Trump Jr's lawyer also didn't respond to their multiple requests for comment.

The eldest Trump son went on Sean Hannity's show earlier this week and told viewers that he 'would have done things a little differently' in retrospect.

President Trump, at a press conference Thursday with President Emmanuel Macron on France, gave a long-winded defense of his son after an American reporter asked him a question about the week's biggest news story, which has rattled the White House over Russia ties yet again.

'As far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful, young, man, he took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer,' Trump began.

'It was a short meeting. It was a meeting that went very, very quickly, very fast,' Trump continued, noting that of the other two people in the room 'one of them left almost immediately'  the president said of Kushner, though didn't name his name  and the other  Manafort, which Trump also didn't mention  'was not really focused on the meeting.'

Trump tried to classify the encounter as politics-as-usual.

'I think from a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting, it's called opposition research or research into your opponent,' Trump said. 'I've had many people, I've only been in politics for two years, but I've had many people call up and say, "oh gee, we have information on this factor or this person or, frankly, Hillary," that's very standard in politics.'

'Politics is not the nicest business in the world, but it's very standard,' the president added.

He said Donald Trump Jr listened at the meeting but 'nothing happened ... zero happened.'

'And honestly I think the press made a very big deal over something really a lot of people would do,' the president also said.

Trump also tried placing some blame on the previous administration by pointing to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, as the Obama Justice Department, according to reporting from the Hill, had made a special exception to allow Veselnitskaya in the country, as she was the attorney for the Prevezon case, a money-laundering case involving a Russian real estate firm.

'Somebody said that her visa or her passport to come into the country was approved by Attorney General Lynch, now maybe that's wrong but I just heard that a little while ago,' Trump said. 'So she was here because of Lynch.'

He then summarized what he hoped the press would view as the takeaway and moved on to the next question.

'So, again, I have a son who's a great young man, he's a fine person,' Trump said.

'Took a meeting with a lawyer from Russia, it lasted for a very short period and nothing came from the meeting,' he added. 'And I think it's a meeting most people in politics probably would have taken.'

The Russia story has dogged Trump as he hoped a trip to Paris to attend the country's Bastille Day festivities would switch the focus to international diplomacy instead.

Now, Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are calling for Kushner's security clearance to be yanked.

'His security clearance must be revoked immediately,' Pelosi demanded at a Capitol Hill press conference Friday morning.

She also called out House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for not condemning Donald Trump Jr's actions.

On Tuesday, McConnell deferred to the Senate committees that are currently investigating the Russia matter.

On Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he was writing a letter to Donald Trump Jr to bring him before the Senate panel as early as next week.

Grassley had already requested that Manafort appear.

Back in the House, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, also investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election, said Akhmetshins participation in the Trump Tower get-together 'adds another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting,' stated Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

The omission of Akhmetshins name by Donald Trump Jr, Schiff added, 'paints a portrait of consistent dissembling and deceit.'

Of the trio of Trump associates who were at the meeting, Kushner is the only one with a government gig now.

Donald Trump Jr, along with his younger brother Eric, took over the Trump Organization when President Trump entered the White House.

Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign in August of 2016, replaced by Steve Bannon, now the White House Chief Strategist, and Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, who served as the president's final campaign manager.
William S. Goldman (pictured), 38, died after crashing his single-engine Cirrus SR22 plane on Thursday, just before 1pm in Sonoma, California

The grandson of a prominent Jewish philanthropist and Levi Strauss heiress died Thursday after crashing his private plane in California.

William S. Goldman, who went by Bill, crashed his single-engine Cirrus SR22 plane shortly after taking off from the Sonoma Skypark airport around 12:45pm.

The University of San Francisco assistant professor had his two grade-school kids on board, George and Marie, as well as their Italian nanny, Valeria Anselmi, in the five-seater plane when it went down just 1,000 feet from the airport.

Goldman was pronounced dead at the scene while his three passengers were rushed to the hospital for serious injuries.

'All three of the injuries were severe to critical,' Assistant Schell-Vista Fire Chief Mike Mulas said, according to the Press Democrat.

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The University of San Francisco professor was flying with his two children and their Italian nanny on board, who were all seriously injured

Witnesses say they heard the plane struggle in the air just moments after take off

The plane is equipped with an emergency parachute, but it couldn't save the plane since it was still so low off the ground. Above, a look at the crash scene, just 1,000 feet from the airport

He said that a half-dozen civilians arrived at the scene before emergency personnel, and they helped rescue the passengers from the wreckage. All the while, they tried to shield them from Goldman's body.

'It was just a tragic situation, tragic thing,' he said.

The children were taken by helicopter to Children's Hospital in Oakland while their nanny, who is from Milan, was taken to Queen of the Valley Hospital by ambulance.

No update has been given on their conditions.

The children's mother, San Francisco attorney Serra Falk Goldman, was not in the plane at the time.

Goldman was flying the kids and their nanny to San Jose.

Gina Isi was on her lunch break and watching planes take off and land at the airport when the accident happened at 12:46pm.

Goldman is the grandson of the late Jewish philanthropist Richard Goldman, and his wife Rhoda, who is the great-grandniece of Levi Strauss, inventor of jeans. He's pictured above with his wife and their two kids

Goldman's son is pictured above being rushed form the scene in a helicopter

'It was just at the beginning of its ascent, when I heard it - like it was going to stall,' she said. 'It sounded like it choked a little bit, so I was like, "Holy cow!" and then it seemed like it was going to recover, like I heard more revving, and then it just died.'

She said she saw the plane disappear behind a grove of trees and then a pop, which she believes was the plane's parachute. She says she didn't hear it crash.

Robert Castillo also witnessed the crash, while having lunch at a friend's house nearby.

'We heard the plane take off. It sputtered,' Castillo told ABC 7 San Francisco. 'Didn't sound right.'

A woman who was having lunch near the airport said she heard a 'pop' just after take off

Another man who heard the crash says he rushed to the scene after because he heard a heavy fuel smell and feared the plane would explode with passengers trapped inside

Above, an investigators looks over the crash scene on Thursday

After the crash, Castillo said there was a heavy fuel smell and he was concerned that the plane would explode, so he went to the scene to see if there were any survivors.

He says he helped pull a woman and two children from the wreckage. The little girl was unconscious, he said.

Another witness, Scott Peterson, works near the airport and hear 'a big bang' when the plane went down.

'One of our guys said when the parachute came down, it pointed the nose straight down,' Peterson said.

Bill was the grandson of the late Jewish philanthropist Richard Goldman, and his wife Rhoda, who was the great-grandneice of Levi Strauss, the man who patented denim blue jeans.

In the couple's lifetime, they put their name on numerous philanthropic causes in the area, including the Goldman Environmental Prize, which honors grassroots environmentalists. Each winner receives $150,000. It is often referred to as the 'Green Nobel'. The foundation gave out $700,000 to more than 2,500 grantees before it closed in 2012, after 60 years.

Bill continued his grandparents' tradition of philanthropy by serving on the board of directors for the New Israel Fund, which supports civil rights and democracy in Israel. He was also on the board for the Walter and Elise Haas Fund that's dedicated to economic security, education, Jewish life and the arts in the San Francisco Bay area.

In his downtime, Bill enjoyed listening to choral music and photography, as well as volunteering for Angel Flight West, an organization with provides transportation to critically ill patients and their families.

He grew up in Washington, DC, the son of Richard Goldman and Susan Sachs Goldman.

He attended Sidwell Friends School before going to to Yale for his undergraduate degree and UC Berkeley for his master's and doctorate.

He has taught international studies at USF since 2012.

The school's president released a statement on Thursday saying he was 'devastated' to hear about Goldman's death, calling him 'an accomplished scholar, a beloved and generous teacher, and a valued member of our community.

In his downtime, he enjoyed listening to choral music and photography, as well as volunteering for Angel Flight West, an organization with provides transportation to critically ill patients and their families.
The Vatican's third most powerful figure will receive no special treatment when he appears in court to face multiple historical sex charges.

There have been fears for the safety of Australia's most powerful Catholic at his court appearance on July 26, as sexual abuse survivors are expected to attend.

Melbourne Magistrates Court appears unconcerned, and stated that Cardinal George Pell's trial will be 'business as usual.'

Court officials have confirmed that Cardinal George Pell (pictured) will receive no special treatment during his trial

Cardinal Pell will appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court (pictured) on July 26 to face multiple historical sex charges

Court spokeswoman Clare Hogarth-Angus said: 'This may change nearer the time, however currently there are no special plans in place, the Herald Sun reported.

The lack of special treatment also means that the former Archbishop of Sydney and Melbourne will be rubbing shoulders with hardened criminals as he lines up in court.

The potential exposure to bikies and murderers, along with the expected presence of sexual abuse survivors at the trial, has worried the Catholic Church and they hold grave concerns for the top cleric's safety.

Cardinal Pell has hired top lawyer Robert Richter (pictured, right), QC, famous for representing underworld figure Mick Gatto

Cardinal Pell (pictured, centre) as he arrived in Sydney earlier this week on a flight from Singapore

The news comes as Cardinal Pell prepares to travel to Melbourne, where a media frenzy awaits.

Cardinal Pell will be represented by one of Australia's top lawyers, 71-year-old Robert Richter, QC, who made a name for himself defending underworld figure Mick Gatto.

Richter has been described as the 'Rolls-Royce of criminal defence lawyers,' and is believed to be in line to make up to $11,000 a day defending Pell.

Richter made a name for himself representing high-profile defendant such as Mick Gatto

Cardinal Pell (pictured, centre) has denied the charges against him, saying he is looking forward to his day in court

Cardinal Pell is back in Australia after being charged with multiple historical sex offenses.

He has vehemently denied the allegations, saying that he is looking forward to his day in court.

'I'm innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me,' he said in a press conference.

'Court proceedings now offer me an opportunity to clear my name and then return here back to Rome to work.'
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If you have ever dreamed of selling up and escaping modern life for an island of your own, then this could be your chance.

The Scottish isle of Ulva in the Inner Hebrides is going up for sale for the first time in 70 years. The 4.25million price tag covers the entire 4,583 acre piece of land which comes with a manor house, church, restaurant and eight more properties. And there are no fears of overcrowding with a population of just 16.

Its dramatic landscape has a history of winning over the hearts of visitors and residents alike, inspiring the great Sir Walter Scott to pen his famous poem Lord Of The Isles in 1815. He wasn't alone in falling for its charm with children's author Beatrix Potter and Victorian explorer Dr Livingstone also drawing inspiration from the landscape.

Stunning: If you have ever dreamed of owning your own island then this is your chance to become Lord of your own isle on the piece of incredible landscape which inspired poet Sir Walter Scott

The Scottish literary star was so enamored by Ulva - the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides - that he penned the famous Lord Of The Isles poem

The sale includes a seven-bedroom house, a church, a restaurant and tea room, and eight other properties. There are also farm buildings to support the agricultural and livestock operation

Ulva House, the main property, was built in 1950 and is Grade B listed. The other residential properties on the island include traditional bothies, a former manse and a sporting lodge

The sale includes a seven-bedroom house, a church, a restaurant and tea room, and eight other properties. There are also farm buildings to support the agricultural and livestock operation.

Settlement on the island dates back as far as 5,600 BC and it has links with Clan MacQuarrie. Major General Lachlan MacQuarrie, known as the 'Father of Australia', was born on Ulva in 1810 and often referenced his island upbringing in his writings.

Over the years the island has attracted several famous names including the famous missionary and explorer Dr David Livingstone and biographer James Boswell.

Beatrix Potter regularly visited after her cousin Caroline married the Laird of Ulva and dedicated two of her books to Caroline's son 'Francis William of Ulva'. The island was also the inspiration for Sir Walter Scott's poem The Lord of the Isles.

Ulva lies off the western coast of the Isle of Mull and has a mild climate moderated by the Gulf Stream.

It is known for its-awe-inspiring scenery with views overlooking the coastlines of the Treshnish Isles, Dutchman's Cap and Mull's breathtaking headlands and mountains.

There is a restaurant/tea shop but no supermarket, post office, bank or GP, with islanders travelling to Mull for most of their amenities. Above Ulva House

Ulva is known for its-awe-inspiring scenery with views overlooking the coastlines of the Treshnish Isles, Dutchman's Cap and Mull's breathtaking headlands and mountains

Sir Walter Scott was so enamored by Ulva - the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides - that he penned the famous Lord Of The Isles poem.

The island is a haven for wildlife and is home to 123 different bird species, including the white-tailed sea eagle. Minke whales, porpoises and dolphins are among the sealife that can be spotted around Ulva

The island is a haven for wildlife and is home to 123 different bird species, including the white-tailed sea eagle. Minke whales, porpoises and dolphins are among the sealife that can be spotted around Ulva.

Ulva House, the main property, was built in 1950 and is Grade B listed. The other residential properties on the island include traditional bothies, a former manse and a sporting lodge.

Ulva Church no longer holds regular services as the last resident minister left in 1929, but occasional services such as family weddings and christenings are still held there.

There is a restaurant/tea shop but no supermarket, post office, bank or GP, with islanders travelling to Mull for most of their amenities.

Ulva House, the main property, was built in 1950 and is Grade B listed. The other residential properties on the island include traditional bothies, a former manse and a sporting lodge

Great opportunity: Tom Stewart-Moore from Knight Frank said: 'The island is truly spectacular. It feels like a world away from normal life yet it has all you need - mains electricity, phone lines, internet - and the mainland is very accessible'

Rare: The estate agent said it was unusual the whole island for sale and said it would likely appeal to those who 'like privacy'

Tom Stewart-Moore from Knight Frank said: 'The island is truly spectacular. It feels like a world away from normal life yet it has all you need - mains electricity, phone lines, internet - and the mainland is very accessible.

'It's located off the Isle of Mull, which is a well-known holiday destination, and it's a fairly idyllic one-minute crossing to Ulva.

'There's a road that leads from the pier to the main house and there are nine other properties, including holiday cottages set in amongst the woodland overlooking the water, which are mostly accessible by quadbikes on tracks.

'The other quick way to get around the island is by boat. For someone interested in the sea or sailing it's absolute paradise.

'There is an abundance of wildlife, fantastic native woodlands. The owner puts out lobster pots, sources oysters and amazing mushrooms grow on the island.

'There's also a resident population of 400 deer for anyone keen on deer stalking and it's steeped in history as well.

'It's unusual in that it is the whole island for sale. It will appeal to those that like complete privacy, lifestyle buyers, or those interested in it as a business.

'For those that love the sea the thought of being able to move around the island and land on one of the many sandy beaches is ideal.

'There's definitely a bit of a romance side of wanting to own your own island, for those that have the wherewithall.

'It's a very unique opportunity to get something of this stature.'
Katie Piper has described the 'life sentence' she was given when she was scarred for life in an acid attack, as she pleads for tougher sentencing laws.

In a moving open letter Ms Piper, 33, talked about the nine years it has taken her to get used to her scars and the hundreds of operations she has needed to live a normal life.

Her letter, published in the medical journal Scars, Burns & Healing, comes after a gang of moped thieves sprayed acid in the faces of up to five takeaway delivery men during a 72 minute crime spree across east London last night.

In a moving open letter Ms Piper talked about the nine years it has taken her to get get used to her scars and the hundreds of operations she has needed. Ms Piper is pictured left today and right in 2009, a year after the attack

The campaigner (pictured with husband James Sutton) is now arguing for longer prison sentences for people who use acid in attacks

In March 2008, when she was 24 years old, Danny Lynch, a man she had been dating, arranged for an accomplice to throw sulphuric acid the aspiring model's face.

The attack left Ms Piper partially blinded, with severe and permanent scarring to her face, chest, neck, arm and hands.

She said she 'couldnt recognise' herself and, after waking from a coma, 'wanted to commit suicide'.

Since undergoing more than 250 operations, Ms Piper has built a career as a TV personality and has appeared in a series of documentaries

In her open letter Ms Piper, who is pregant, talked about how fearful survivors are that their attackers will only serve short sentences

Ms Piper appeared in documentary 'My Beautiful Friends', which followed her progress after the horrific acid attack and set up a charity to help others living with disfigurement

'Since the attack I have undergone over 250 operations to improve my physical functioning', said Ms Piper.

'As well as hours of psychological therapy to help me to deal with the trauma of the attack and to accept my new face. I will continue to need operations and therapy for life.'

The pregnant campaigner is now arguing for longer prison sentences for people who use acid in attacks.

In March 2008, Danny Lynch, a man she had been dating, arranged for an accomplice to throw sulphuric acid in Ms Piper's face. The attack left Ms Piper (pictured left and right) partially blinded, with severe and permanent scarring to her face, chest, neck, arm and hands

Ms Piper (pictured left before the attack) has set up a charity to help hundreds of burn victims

She said: 'At present, it is all too easy for someone to buy a corrosive substance and throw it, sometimes from a distance, at another person.

'It is vital that we do everything we can to halt these types of attack.

'The current legislation does not always recognise the severity of the offence and, therefore, the sentencing does not reflect the severity of the crime in some cases.

'Tougher sentencing would surely act as a deterrent to further attacks.'

Since undergoing more than 250 operations, Ms Piper has built a career as a TV personality and has appeared in a series of documentaries.

In her open letter, Ms Piper (pictured shortly after the attack) talks about how she contemplated suicide and how fearful survivors are

She has since found love with James Sutton, who she married in 2015 and with whom she has a daughter, Belle Elizabeth.

Ms Piper, has set up a charity to help hundreds of burn victims. Helped by Simon Cowell as well as the doctor who gave her her face back, the Katie Piper Foundation offers medical treatment and support.

In her open letter she talked about how fearful survivors are that their attackers will only serve short sentences.

She said: 'Survivors of such attacks often have to live with the immediate fear that their attackers may still be at large, and in the longer termeven if the attackers are caught and sentencedmay be released to potentially live alongside them after serving a minimum term.

'I meet many inspiring individuals who have worked hard to rebuild their lives after an attack; however, it can be hard to stay motivated when the justice system does not always reflect the severity of these crimes.'
A knife-wielding intruder trying to rape a woman in her home had half of his tongue bitten off after trying to kiss her, police have revealed.

The 23-year-old sex beast got the shock of his life when his 38-year-old victim fought back and sunk her teeth deeply into his tongue.

A South African Police Service spokesman said the attempted rapist fled covered in blood screaming and leaving a piece of his tongue on the bed.

The terrifying attack happened in the village of Reitz, which is in the Free State in South Africa

Officers who attended the scene at the village of Reitz near Bethlehem in the Free State went to the local hospital where they found the wanted man.

He was covered in blood and was awaiting surgery on his damaged tongue.

Police spokesman Zweli Mohobeleli said: 'The man attacked her with a knife but she fought back and grabbed his tongue with her teeth and bit hard.

'She bit so hard that a piece of his tongue came off and he ran away leaving it behind and cops arrested him at the hospital where he had gone to.

'We collected forensic evidence from the clothes and handed the piece of tongue to the family of the suspect and he will appear before a court very soon'.

The suspect was remanded in custody by Reitz Magistrates Court on a charge of attempted rape.
Three men have been indicted on murder charges by a grand jury over the death of two teens who were found slain inside a car the night before they were set to graduate high school.

Jose Canales-Yanez, 25, Edgar Garcia-Goana, 24, and Roger Garcia, 19, were indicted on murder, robbery and weapons charges on Thursday in Maryland's Montgomery County Circuit Court.

The three men were arrested last month over the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Shadi Najjar and 18-year-old Artem Ziberov.

Jose Canales-Yanez, 25, Edgar Garcia-Goana, 24, and Roger Garcia, 19, were indicted on murder charges in Maryland on Thursday over the shooting death of two high school seniors

Authorities say the Northwest High School seniors drove to a location on June 5 expecting to meet someone who wanted to buy a commencement ticket.

Instead, the three men allegedly fired more than 30 rounds at them.

Police found the two teens riddled with bullets inside the parked Honda Civic and they were pronounced dead at the scene.

Najjar had been shot four times and Ziberov 10 times.

Montgomery County Police Chief J Thomas Manger said the killings may have been a revenge attack after investigators learned that Najjar was rumored to have committed a robbery in late 2016.

They linked the rumor to a report filed by Canales-Yanez's then-girlfriend, who told police on December 4 that the passenger in a blue Honda Civic had grabbed her iPad and dragged her about 50 feet with the car.

The three men were arrested last month over the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Shadi Najjar and 18-year-old Artem Ziberov (above) on June 5. They were killed on the eve of their graduation from Northwest High School

Shadi Najjar was shot four times, while his friend Artem was shot 10 times. Police say they had driven to a location expecting to meet someone who wanted to buy a commencement ticket when they were shot dead

It is unknown if there was a motive for the killing of Ziberov, or if his death was incidental to the killing of Najjar.

Manger said that just before Najjar died, he texted someone saying he was going to sell the graduation ticket to Roger Garcia, who is also a Northwest High School student.

'We're certainly working on the strong possibility that this was a ruse to get the two victims to that location,' Manger said last month.

Friends and family of the two honor roll teens were devastated by the news of their deaths.

The graduation ceremony went ahead at Northwest High the day after the two teens were found dead. Principal Jimmy D'Andrea held a moment of silence at the beginning of the ceremony for the slain students.

'When I spoke to Artem's mother this morning, while extremely upset, her words to me were "I hope everyone has a great celebration today",' D'Andrea said as the students struggled to compose themselves.
Police investigating the macabre death of a Liverpool man whose trussed-up corpse was washed up on a beach in Spain three years ago have arrested four people for money laundering.

They say the criminal organisation also had links with the murder and kidnapping of Francis Brennan, 25, from Anfield, who died from a severe head wound and was found with his hands tied in a bag bound with duct tape on the seashore in Alicante.

The arrests were made in Spain and the UK as part of the third phase of an operation code-named 'Brennan'.

The body of Francis Brennan, 25, (pictured) from Anfield, Liverpool, was washed up on 'Zenia' beach of Orihuela-Costa, Alicante, in 2014

Two of the arrests were made in Liverpool and the other two in Alicante. The nationalities of the suspects have not been specified.

A joint task force of the Spanish Civil Guard and British security officers were involved in raids on five homes, two of them in Liverpool where money was seized, together with jewellery, 60 kilos of drugs for mixing and a mound of documents.

The other three raids were carried out in Spain, with police finding 30,000, (40,000), several valuable jewels, two vehicles and a latest generation frequency inhibitor amongst other items.

Accounts and properties of this criminal group to the value of two million euros have also been blocked.

The body of Francis Brennan is found inside heavily-taped plastic bags on Zenia beach in Orihuela Costa

A spokesman for the Civil Guard said this morning: 'The operation carried out in the last three years following a joint investigation has culminated in the dismantling of a criminal organisation operating in the United Kingdom and in the Spanish Levante, which is dedicated to money laundering from criminal activities and responsible for the kidnapping and murder in 2014 In Javea (Alicante) of a British citizen.'

Francis Brennan was kidnapped by three fake Spanish police in January 2014 who bundled him into a car. It is believed he was tortured before his death.

His body was found two months later on the 'Zenia' beach of Orihuela-Costa (Alicante).

Brennan had been on the run in Spain in a bid to avoid going to prison for a stabbing at a Swedish House Mafia concert in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, in July 2013.

Both his girlfriend at the time and his parents had urged him to return home.

The first arrest in connection with his brutal death came six months later.

'In December 2014, the joint investigation team of the Civil Guard and British Security Corps detained in a private airport of the United Kingdom, aboard a light aircraft coming from Holland, the British citizen Paul Scott, with a false Belgian passport as the alleged mastermind of the murder,' said the Civil Guard spokesman.

'The investigating officers determined that the causes of Brennan's death were motivated by a possible debt related to the drug trafficking that the deceased had contracted with the detainee.'

Paul Graham Monk, who had been one of the ten most wanted people in the United Kingdom, was located in Javea (Alicante), where he was hiding in his four-bedroom villa. Pictured: Paul Monk is arrested and his villa raided in Alicante in April 2015

Paul Monk is arrested and his villa is raided in Alicante

Paul Monk (pictured) is arrested at his villa is raided in Alicante

'Both were moving in a criminal world and Paul Scott was wanted for the fulfillment of a sentence of life imprisonment for smuggling more than 40 tons of cocaine into the UK.'

The second arrest took place in Spain four months later.

'In April 2015 the Civil Guard and agents of the National Crime Agency arrested Paul Graham Monk in Javea, 54, of English nationality, allegedly involved in the abduction and murder, as well as activities related to drug trafficking and money laundering.'

Paul Graham Monk, who had been one of the ten most wanted people in the United Kingdom, was located in Javea (Alicante), where he was hiding in his four-bedroom villa. The Civil Guard kept watch on the house before making the arrest just as Monk was directing workmen who were laying a marble patio around his swimming pool.

Police found 125,000 euros in cash hidden in a pot, a simulated pistol with silencer, forged Slovenian passport and a lot of documentation which led them to continue their 'Brennan' investigation.

Monk, originally from Romford, has recently been sentenced in the UK to 18 years in prison for drug trafficking for shipping cocaine to the United Kingdom worth 31 million pounds.

Paul Scott was jailed in January 2015 for 14 years for conspiring to import cocaine.

Spanish police say throughout the whole operation, co-operation with the British authorities, including in Merseyside, was fundamental.

Paul Monk (bottom row, second from left) on the Operation Capture wanted posters
A foreign exchange student who married her host claims that her husband brainwashed her into helping him sexually molest her own sister.

Marta San Jose, 21, alleges her much older husband Dale Leary, 50, manipulated and brainwashed the former Spanish exchange student into sexually abusing her 14-year-old sister.

San Jose's defense lawyer made these claims in a Miami court and asked for the case to be dropped against his client on Thursday.

Police claim San Jose helped Leary lure her younger sister from Spain so he could have her perform sexual acts on him and take inappropriate photos of the girl.

Leary was found dead in a car in the backyard of his home in Cutler Bay on July 4, just days after he was released from prison on house arrest.

Marta San Jose, 21, claims her husband Dale Leary, 50, brainwashed her in to helping him sexually molest her own sister, 14. San Jose was also a victim of Leary's, her lawyers claimed in a Miami court on Thursday

Leary divorced his wife and married Marta San Jose, then 18, (above) in 2014. They met when she stayed at their home as a Spanish foreign exchange student in 2012

San Jose's lawyers argued that the young woman was also a victim of Leary's, saying: 'She came at the age of 16, alone in this country, and was manipulated at such a young age by this man.

'A girl who never even had a boyfriend before. This man took advantage of her, brainwashed her and manipulated her. She should not be a defendant.'

Police said Leary killed himself by running a hose into the interior of his car, the Miami Herald reported.

Police also found Leary's ex-wife Claudia Leary in the car with him when they responded to a 911 call by a concerned friend.

The woman was rushed to hospital and is expected to survive, according to Miami Dade Detective Argemis Colome.

Leary had divorced his wife Claudia and married Marta San Jose, then aged 18, in 2014.

He met his second wife when she had stayed at their home as a 16-year-old Spanish foreign exchange student in 2012.

San Jose's parents and younger sister in Spain did not know their pair had married.

Video courtesy of WSVN

Leary (left) was found dead in a car in the backyard of his home in Cutler Bay on July 4. His death came after he was charged in the sexual abuse case of San Jose's younger sister

Police also found Leary's ex-wife Claudia Leary in the car with him when they responded to a 911 call. She was taken to hospital but he was pronounced dead at the scene

Police found a hose near the car in Leary's backyard (above) on July 4 but have not yet confirmed the cause of death

Leary and San Jose, now 21, were arrested after they allegedly sexually assaulted her 14-year-old sister when she came to visit them in Florida.

San Jose's parents had sent the 14-year-old girl over to accompany San Jose back home to Spain, according to police.

Police said San Jose manipulated her sister into believing that she may have been molested as a child.

'Marta persuaded her sister to allow Dale to conduct a vaginal examination, claiming that Dale would be able to determine if she had been sexually assaulted,' arrest records state.

'The victim agreed to the examination and Dale digitally penetrated her vagina.'

Leary had been granted bail following a court appearance on the sex assault charges, but was being held under strict house arrest before he killed himself

Leary also allegedly made both sisters perform oral sex on him multiple times.

The victim also told police Leary made her remove her clothes and wear high heels while he took photos of her.

Leary and San Jose both pleaded not guilty in June on charges including lewd and lascivious behavior on a child, sexual performance with a child and contributing to the delinquency of a child.

San Jose is still in jail and her lawyer, Jorge Viera, had said he was preparing to break the news of her husband's death to her.

Leary had been granted bail following a court appearance, but was being held under strict house arrest.
Charlie Gard's parents exploded with frustration in the High Court today after Great Ormond Street said they should be excluded from a make-or-break meeting with his doctors.

Dr Michio Hirano, the US doctor who wants to save him, has agreed to fly to the UK and examine the baby on Monday - and will then meet his British medics to discuss whether he is brain damaged on Tuesday.

But Katie Gollop QC said Great Ormond Street thought it would be better if Charlie's parents were excluded because clinicians may not be able to 'speak freely' with them there.

Charlie's father Chris Gard then shouted out 'he's our son' and Connie Yates started to shake her head angrily.

Their legal team then argued Miss Yates knows as much as the experts on Charlie's condition and Mr Justice Francis agreed she should attend Tuesday's meeting.

However, after further discussions this afternoon the High Court agreed that Charlie's mother could attend the meeting with medical experts discussing her son's condition - as long as she understood she would need to remain quiet for parts of it.

And the parents' lawyer was accused of putting a 'spanner in the works' after objecting that a social worker should chair the meeting.

Charlie Gard's parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today to again beg a judge to save him = and became angry at suggestion they should be excluded from a meeting about their son's future

Dr Michio Hirano, who is a world expert on the nucleoside treatment being denied to Charlie, from the Columbia University Medical Center in New York will arrive in London this weekend

Connie Yates and Chris Gard listen as the American doctor offering to treat their son says he could have a 50/50 chance of showing improvement

The judge also revealed he would then make a final decision on the 11-month-old's fate on Tuesday July 25 after hearing Dr Hirano's views on Charlie's condition and what happened at the meeting.

Dr Hirano, who is a world expert on the nucleoside treatment being denied to Charlie, is from the Columbia University Medical Center in New York and will arrive in London over the weekend.

US Harvard-educated doctor who may be Charlie's last hope The American doctor who specializes in conditions like the one making Charlie Gard can be named. Dr Michio Hirano of Columbia University Medical Center in New York is an expert on nucleoside treatment he says could help the little boy. Hirano's research focuses on mitochondrial diseases and genetic myopathies and he has treated others with conditions similar to Charlie's. Six-year-old Art Estopinan has virtually the same genetic condition and is fighting it with the pioneering drugs therapy that is being denied to Charlie. His father Art Sr said that he trusts Dr Hirano 'with his life'. Dr Hirano received his BA degree from Harvard College and M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. At the Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), he did his neurology residency training and a post-doctoral fellowship in neuromuscular genetics. He is the son of a head of neuropathology and a Japanese teacher and he married a fellow neurologist at the Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Their wedding was reported in the New York Times. Advertisement

Yesterday Mr Justice Francis handed the family an extraordinary lifeline after inviting him to Great Ormond Street.

But the hospital revealed today that Charlie's medical team first invited Dr Hirano to see him in January but he has not taken up their offer.

Great Ormond Street's QC Katie Gollop also said it might be better is Charlie's parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates are excluded from Dr Hirano's meeting with clinicians on Monday because they may not be able to 'speak freely' with them there.

The 11-month-old suffers from a rare genetic condition but his parents say claims by his doctors that he is irreparably brain damaged are false.

The judge said he wanted the experts to have an open discussion about Charlie's brain damage on Tuesday, after Dr Hirano examines him.

Katie Gollop QC said that the parents found the whole process deeply upsetting, and suggested it would be better to leave the experts to their discussions alone.

But Mr Armstrong said Miss Yates had become quite an expert in the condition. He said: 'She would say, " I'm the mother, this is my child, I know more or less as much about these matters as the professionals. I may wish to comment. I wish to observe and make sure there are no false factual premises advance".'

Mr Armstrong said just Miss Yates could attend, leaving Mr Gard outside. He said: 'Connie Yates has demonstrated a degree of knowledge and research that commands respect.

'She knows almost as much as anyone in the UK about this particular condition. In meeting after meeting, she has demonstrated a far greater commands of the technical Issues than I have.

'In my submission, she should be entitled to attend.'

The judge said it was his 'strong belief' she should not. But Mr Armstrong persisted that it would be unfair for her to be excluded but the Great Ormond Street doctors - with their 'incredibly entrenched view' of Charlie's fate - allowed in.

He said: 'It would be an inequality of arms.'

Me Armstrong said Tuesday's meeting 'may be the most critical meeting that this case has had'.

Connie Yates will be able to attend the crunch meeting about her son's future - but Great Ormond Street were not so sure about the idea

Charlie was thrown an extraordinary lifeline yesterday as an American doctor offering to treat him was invited to London by the judge

Members of 'Charlie's Army' chanted support for the parents while taxi, bus and lorry drivers responded to their request to 'please beep for Charlie'

Mr Justice Francis had made an order barring journalists from naming Dr Hirano or saying where he was based early this year, shortly after litigation began.

Charlie's parents had said they were worried publicity might put pressure on Dr Hirano.

But journalists argued naming Dr Hirano will be in the public interest - and he has now said he has no objection to being identified as the doctor involved in the case.

The judge lifted the order today.

Before the start of the latest hearing, the family of Charlie condemned as 'abhorrent' any threats of violence that might have been made against doctors or judges.

Charlie's parents call for abuse of GOSH staff to stop immediately Charlie Gard's parents have called for calm after it emerged Great Ormond Street doctors have received death threats over their son's case. Yesterday  as campaigners outside chanted 'Medicine not murder'  the judge hit out at the intimidation of doctors who were 'doing their best'. Today the family's spokesman said Connie Yates and Chris Gard condemned the threats. GOSH said death threats and abuse had been posted on social media, along with threats to physically damage the world-renowned hospital. Mr Justice Francis said staff 'have been subjected to the most vile abuse'. He warned: 'How they can think that can help the parents' case is absolutely beyond me, and if it comes to the attention of me or any other judge it will be dealt with as severely as the legal system permits.' Advertisement

Speaking on behalf of 'the entire family and their supporters', spokesman Alasdair Seton-Marsden said their attention had been drawn to 'certain threats' against the judiciary, barristers representing Great Ormond Street, and against doctors and nurses at the hospital.

He said: 'We absolutely abhor any suggestion of any threats or intimidation against members of the judiciary, legal profession or medical profession.'

He suggested anyone wanting to help the family should peacefully demonstrate, donate to their fund or sign their petition, adding: 'We absolutely abhor violence.'

Katie Gollop QC, for the hospital, said they were seeking further imaging.

She said: 'They do think there may be some benefit in further imaging. Firstly an MRI scan would allow a comparison of the size of brain to be done, and it would allow us to measure the brain in a way one hopes may be less open to erroneous interpretation.

'We don't want to upset the parents in any way and if that imaging they don't want, we are certainly in their hands. We have reached a stage where we do really need to make sure the best evidence is provided to court.'

She told the court she had asked the family's lawyer if they were prepared for the new imaging.

She added: 'Other patients have to be worked around this.'

Mr Justice Francis said: 'There are very many sick children in this hospital. I would hope that Mr Gard and Miss Yates will agree to whatever form of imaging will help resolve this issue.

'They need to know today because they have got many sick children who are critically. He isn't the only patient there.'

He told the family to indicate to the hospital later today whether they agreed to further scans.

Yesterday Mr Justice Francis, who is deciding Charlie's fate, asked the neurologist to come and assess the baby for himself.

It was the first significant sign the judge may be thinking again about his ruling that Charlie must be left to die.

The 11-month-old's mother Connie Yates, 31, sobbed as she left the High Court. She and Charlie's father Chris Gard, 32, had stormed out of the hearing at one point after insisting that their son was 'not in pain and not suffering'.

The judge had warned the parents that only dramatic new evidence would persuade him to change his mind.

During three hours of examination via a video link from the US, Dr Hirano offered greatly improved estimates for the boy's survival, telling the court that there was between a 10 and 56 per cent chance of 'meaningful improvement'.

The judge then said: 'If I adjourned for a few days, would you come to London?' The doctor replied: 'I would love to do that.'

Victoria Butler-Cole, a barrister for Charlie's court-appointed guardian, questioned how the doctor could have improved the estimates for the baby's survival.

The doctor agreed it was a 'bad sign' if Charlie's head was not growing, but said his optimism was based on new data and looking 'more thoughtfully' at previous research.

Charlie's forlorn father went for a cigarette outside yesterday after he became overwhelmed in the court room and stormed out with Charlie's mother Miss Yates

Charlie Gard (pictured with his parents) 'is being held captive by the British state'

Charlie, who has a rare genetic condition, has survived two plans to withdraw his life support.

His parents, of Bedfont, south-west London, thought they had reached the end of the road last week, after four courts ruled in favour of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) doctors who said Charlie was brain-damaged beyond hope, and that it was kinder to let him die.

But Pope Francis and Donald Trump electrified the public campaign to 'save Charlie' with supportive tweets.

The court heard yesterday that White House staff contacted the American doctor shortly before he made his claims about Charlie. He then spoke with GOSH on July 4.

Two days later, a letter was sent by the doctor and six other experts in Charlie's condition, mitochondrial disease, to the hospital.

It led to GOSH asking the High Court to reconsider the claimed 'new evidence'. Mr Justice Francis warned he was 'absolutely not re-running the case'.

But it looks set to stretch into another week.

The proposed therapy is a drug called nucleosides. It has been used to treat several patients with a strain of the disease that affects muscles.

But it has never been tried on the strain that also affects the brain  the type Charlie has.

The US doctor said that since the last High Court hearing in March, tests on mice with a similar disease showed they lived longer and had improved brain function.

He added: 'We cannot fix or cure his disease  but I'm confident we can improve cognitive function.' He said Charlie's apparent brain damage could actually be a muscle problem causing brain 'dysfunction', which the drug might fix.

The doctor said there was a 10 to 56 per cent chance of the therapy improving Charlie's weak muscles, and put the chances of improved brain function at 'significantly above zero per cent'.

Previously the court ruled there was no evidence the drug could cross the 'blood brain barrier'. But the US doctor put the chance at between 50 and 90 per cent.

Katie Gollop QC, for GOSH, said the hospital had 'no objection' to the doctor coming to Britain.

THE HIGH COURT JUDGE WHO WILL DECIDE CHARLIE'S FATE Mr Justice Francis  set to hear Charlie Gard's case today  is one of the most junior High Court judges Once described as 'the smoothest family law silk at the Bar', Mr Justice Francis  set to hear Charlie Gard's case today  is one of the most junior High Court judges. He was appointed to the court's family division and awarded a knighthood last year. Educated at Radley College, an independent boys' boarding school in Oxfordshire, he went on to study at Downing College, Cambridge. The judge, who is married with three children, was called to the Bar in 1981 and in more than 30 years as a barrister he specialised in divorces of the wealthy. In 1999 he was appointed a recorder, or part-time judge, and he achieved the rank of Queen's Counsel in 2002. In 2011 he was made a deputy High Court judge. The 59-year-old lists his hobbies in Who's Who as 'sailing, theatre and wine', and is a member of the Royal Solent Yacht Club. In 2014 the Bar Awards named him 'Family Silk' of the year while Chambers and Partners, which ranks lawyers, said he had 'terrific attention to detail and is deadly in cross-examination', and 'doesn't miss anything'. The Legal 500, another legal rating service, has described Mr Justice Francis as 'the smoothest family law silk at the Bar', adding: 'He is extremely knowledgeable and a great advocate.' Advertisement

The evidence that might save Charlie Gard: Sick boy's parents reveal the eight 'myths' they plan to debunk in the crucial High Court battle that will decide their son's fate

Charlie Gard's parents have set out to debunk eight 'myths' hampering his cause after they were challenged by the High Court to provide 'dramatic' new evidence to justify why the desperately ill 11-month-old should have experimental new treatment.

They tackled head-on claims he is in pain and they were prolonging his suffering, with doctors seeking to remove him from life support.

Connie Yates and Chris Gard also took issue with the diagnosis of brain damage and insisted the drug therapy they want to try does have a chance of working.

They clashed with lawyers acting on behalf of Great Ormond Street Hospital at the High Court hearing earlier this week over whether there was new evidence they could submit over Charlie's condition.

Now the parents have issued their answers to 'eight myths' around their son so that 'people are able to talk about Charlie's case from a position of up to date news'.

His parents have gone to the High Court, pictured in Monday, to try to convince a judge to allow them to pursue an experimental new drug treatment

The couple have been supported by President Trump and Pope Francis via dramatic tweets backing the family's stance, but Mr Justice Francis said he would not be 'swayed by Tweets' and would rule on 'clear evidence'.

Doctors claim Charlie's body has grown but his head has not, a fact which is disputed by Charlie's parents Chris and Connie Yates, who have been given 48 hours to provide circumference measurements proving otherwise.

A family spokesman said: 'Crucially, there is a growing body of medical opinion saying that, far from this being a futile case, there is an up to 10 per cent chance for baby Charlie to respond positively to this treatment, and by logical extension, for his quality of life to improve.'

Throughout the case, the hospital has argued there is no hope for Charlie. Even if his mitochondrial depletion syndrome could be treated, doctors say, nothing can reverse his brain damage.

Here, ahead of today's High Court battle to decide Charlie's fate, the Mail presents the opposing claims.

Myth 1 - 'Charlie is in pain and suffering'

Parents say: There is no clear medical evidence Charlie is in pain. What we do know is that he has been stable throughout, his heartbeat is normal, which is a recognised sign there is no significant pain.

Hospital says: Charlie's artificial ventilator, and a suction process used to clear his airway, 'are all capable of causing pain'.

A nurse said it was 'impossible to know'. A doctor said Charlie 'is likely' to have the conscious experience of 'significant' suffering, but be unable to express his reaction to pain.

Analysis: No one can be certain either way.

Myth 2 - 'Parents are unnecessarily prolonging his pain and suffering'

Parents say: Proposed treatment is non-invasive, administered via his milk. Parents are working to improve his life.

They are only proposing a three-month trial period, after which it would be clear to see if he responds.

What does increase possible suffering is the legal limbo, while authorities refuse treatment while they fight Charlie's parents through the courts.

Hospital says: Medics think it is 'desperately unfair to Charlie' to keep treating him 'week after week, knowing that every step they take for Charlie is against his welfare'.

Analysis: All agree limbo is bad for Charlie, but blame each other.

Myth 3 - 'His quality of life will not, and cannot, improve'

Parents say: If the treatment works - and there is a one-in-ten chance - then his quality of life will be improved significantly.

Hospital says: Cause is 'futile'. There is no treatment which can improve his current situation.

Charlie is deteriorating, he cannot get better, he cannot understand anything or develop.

Even the US doctor offering the therapy told the court: 'I agree that it is very unlikely that he will improve with that therapy. It is unlikely.'

Analysis: Treatment has never been tested on Charlie's rare strain of the disease, so neither side can be 100 per cent certain.

Connie and Chris, pictured last Saturday at Great Orond Street, who delivered a petition of more than 350,000 signatures to Downing Street last weekend, also take issue with Charlie's brain damage diagnosis

Myth 4 - 'Charlie is catastrophically/irreversibly brain damaged'

Parents say: This has not been proven nor is it the conclusion of the brain scans. Charlie is not brain dead.

The doctors willing to treat him would not have accepted to treat him if he were brain dead.

If the proposed treatment works as expected, the result will be to assist the repair of damaged cells.

Charlie will not be a vegetable, he will be able to move, to respond and to interact. Charlie's [brain damage] is not severe, nor irreversible.

Hospital says: Brain scans were done prior to a 17-day bout of brain seizures in January.

Charlie now has 'severe and irreversible structural brain damage' which no drug can repair.

He is not completely brain dead but 'persistently encephalopathic'  showing no signs of normal brain functions such as responsiveness, interaction or crying.

Analysis: Unclear what supports parents' conviction experimental therapy will repair brain cell damage. Their own American doctor told court it was 'unlikely' to.

The family are also being supported by controversial US reverend Patrick Mahoney (pictured on Monda_ who has flown in from Washington DC to help their campaign

Supporters have chanted Charlie's name via megaphone outside the court and have called for him to undergo the new treatment

Myth 5 - 'Charlie is blind and he cannot open his eyes'

Parents say: Charlie opens his eyes on a daily basis. He had his eyes open the whole time his parents were permitted to take him to the hospital roof for a picnic in June.

Hospital says: He is 'not consistently able to open his eyes enough to be able to see'. A doctor added: 'He's blind, he's deaf, he can't breathe.'

Analysis: Parents spend the most time with Charlie. Hard to disagree with what they say they see.

Myth 6 - 'Charlie, and his parents, are blocking a badly-needed hospital bed'

Parents say: Intensive care unit has at least two available beds on a daily basis. Children are not being refused access because he is there.

The couple, pictured , also dispute claims they would not be able to care for their son if his life continues

Charlie's parents do not even want him there. It is hospital preventing the freeing up of his bed.

Hospital says: Case is not about money or resources, but about what is right for Charlie.

Analysis: Whatever the court's verdict, bed is likely to become available soon.

Myth 7 - 'Charlie's parents won't be able to care, or cope'

Parents say: Charlie's mother is a qualified, experienced carer, and she is best placed to care for her son.

His parents are devoted, and have given up their lives to fight for Charlie, they are fully able to cope, and have done so admirably.

Hospital says: Parents are indeed 'utterly devoted', but no one can rescue Charlie from irreversible brain damage.

Analysis: All sides have praised parents' incredible determination to save their son.

Myth 8 - 'The treatment is just experimental'

Parents say: Treatment is supported by five researchers and two treating doctors. There is a growing body of medical support. Just because it has never been tried does not mean it would not work.

Hospital says: There is no evidence therapy could repair brain damage.

Analysis: Parents are talking about fixing the disease. Hospital is saying no point trying if he's brain damaged.
An ex-con Good Samaritan left a bus on the way to a job interview to help rescue a man who had rolled his car on the street.

Aaron Tucker was on a bus from Bridgeport, Connecticut to Norwalk for a job interview when he spotted the overturned car in Westport.

Tucker, 32, asked the bus driver to stop so he could help the driver who was trapped in his smoldering car.

Aaron Tucker, pictured, jumped off the bus when he saw the car on its roof in Westport

Tucker, 32, had recently been released from jail on a firearms charge and was on his way to a job interview when he pulled the victim from the car, pictured, which rolled onto its roof

After pulling the victim from the car, Tucker took off his shirt and used it as a tourniquet to stem the man's bleeding.

As a result of his actions, he missed the job interview for a bus boy position at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Stamford.

A GoFundMe account has been set up for Tucker's benefit as a result of his efforts to save a stranger despite needing to get to a job interview. In less than 15 hours, people have donated more than $6,000 to the father-of-one.

Tucker said he wanted a job so he could provide for is son, Aaron Jr, who is living in with her mother.

According to the GoFundMe page: 'Aaron got off the bus and with the help of three employees of Vautrin Auto Services, rescued the injured man. Aaron went so far as to take the new shirt off his back and wrap it around the injured man's head.

'Aaron, despite not having a father in his life as a child, is dedicated to his son, and wants to make a good life for Aaron Jr and his mother. His voice shines when he talks about his Mickey Mouse loving son.

According to the New York Daily News 'I got up around 5 oclock in the morning because I was so excited for the interview.

'I looked up and saw a car flipped over right in front of the bus, so I ran to try to jump out of the bus. I saw a lot of smoke coming from the car and I just jumped off the bus and ran to the car.'

After saving the man, Tucker explained he did not regret missing the interview.

He added: 'It didnt go through my head, because a job can come and go, but a life is only one time. The only thing running through my head is that person in the car could pass away and I could help him.'

Tucker, who is currently living in a half-way house having served half of a 22-month sentence for a weapons charge, has since received several job offers.

According to the Westport News Fire Chief Robert Yost praised Tucker and two other civilians who helped in the rescue.

He said: 'Thats really reassuring that people are still willing to step in and help out a fellow citizen.'
The ex-girlfriend of a billionaire shipping magnate claims he cheated her out of a $240 million settlement after she helped him make his fortune.

Filmmaker Angela Ismailos said she was 'instrumental' in turning ex-boyfriend George Economou into a shipping magnate after they met in 1994.

When they started dating, Mr Economou 'was a struggling ship owner with five old vessels co-owned by a bank,' according to Ms Ismailos' Manhattan Supreme Court action.

Filmmaker Angela Ismailos said she was 'instrumental' in turning ex-boyfriend George Economou into a shipping magnate after they met in 1994

But he then moved into her $1.8 million Park Avenue home and over the next 20 years, Ismailos 'was instrumental in Economou's rise to becoming a billionaire shipowner,' her legal action states.

Happier days: The ex-couple pictured at the 'Great Directors' film premiere, New York in 2010

Angela Ismailos said she shared her apartment in 525-park-avenue (pictured) with with her ex-boyfriend George Economou

They never married, but Mr Economou signed agreements in 2012 promising Ms Ismailos a 50 percent stake in assets, according to court papers submitted in the suit.

The billionaire allegedly refused to pay when their relationship broke-up in 2015.

Last year, he allegedly put pressure on her to waive her rights to the money if he helped her save her Park Avenue home from foreclosure with a $200,000 payment.

But she says the foreclosure deal should be void because it was 'signed under duress.'

Economou and his representatives did not respond to the New York Post's requests for comment.
A former University of Canberra law lecturer who was jailed for at least two and a half years for rape on Friday has been told in court he abused his position of trust.

Arthur Marshall Hoyle was found guilty of eight offences earlier this year, that included two charges of rape, making advances on two other students and showing another porn on a slideshow.

During his sentence hearing at the ACT Supreme Court, Justice Elkaim dismissed the 67-year-old's defense's claims that his actions had been because of worsening brain damage.

Former University of Canberra law lecturer Arthur Hoyle (pictured) was jailed for at least two and a half years for rape on Friday

A doctor had told the court that Hoyle had dementia and brain disease impacted his ability to control himself in social settings, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The judge however did not believe that his actions were 'in any way a product of any brain damage or disease' citing that conclusion was inconsistent with other aspects of his general wellbeing throughout that time.

He said his brain condition did not have a part in his moral responsibilities and noted that throughout the trial that had not been his main defense, as he had denied the events took place at all.

During his sentence hearing at the ACT Supreme Court (pictured) Justice Elkaim dismissed the 67-year-old's defense's claims that his actions had been because of worsening brain damage

'The jury was of the view that the offender had taken advantage of the students' vulnerability ... seeking to obtain sexual gratification from them,' Justice Elkaim said.

The court was also addressed by a longstanding colleague of Hoyle's who expressed his surprise at his crimes following a 21-year-long career at the university.

'If I looked at the 22 years that I've known him, this in my view would be a complete aberration,' Hoyle's former head of school at the university said.

Despite this and claims from his daughter that he had been a present and loving father, he was sentenced to four years jail with a non-parole period of two years and six months.

Hoyle will be able to apply for parole in October 2019.
North Korea may be hoarding more fuel for nuclear bombs than previously thought according to alarming satellite images of the country's main nuclear site.

Secret thermal pictures reveal masses of plutonium that could be used by Kim Jong Un to fuel deadly attacks with his weapons arsenal.

Washington-based North Korean monitor 38 North analysed satellite images of the radiochemical laboratory at the Yongbyon nuclear plant from September until the end of June.

The think tank said images of the building's uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon could also indicate attempts by the country to increase its stock of that substance which is another source of bomb fuel.

A satellite image of the radiochemical laboratory at the Yongbyon nuclear plant in North Korea

Washington-based North Korean monitor 38 North analysed satellite images of the radiochemical laboratory at the Yongbyon nuclear plant from September until the end of June

North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and last week tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts said could hit all of Alaska and parts of the US Pacific Northwest.

Experts at 38 North estimated in April that the country could have as many as 20 nuclear bombs and could produce one more each month.

North Korea manufactures atomic bombs using uranium and plutonium and has tested at least five of the nuclear weapons.

Officials and experts say it could test a sixth at any time despite US-led international efforts to curb its program.

Kim Jong-Un was pictured in May smiling while observing a ballistic missile test

North Korea manufactures atomic bombs using uranium and plutonium and has tested at least five of the nuclear weapons

Military vehicles are pictured taking part in a parade marking the 105th anniversary of North Korea's founding father Kim Il Sung in April this year

Pyongyang said its test in January 2016 was of a hydrogen bomb, something experts have treated with skepticism.

There were signs too of at least short-term activity at North Korea's Experimental Light Water Reactor that could be cause for concern, 38 North said.

The images of the radiochemical laboratory showed there had been at least two reprocessing cycles not previously known aimed at producing 'an undetermined amount of plutonium that can further increase North Koreas nuclear weapons stockpile'.

That could cause worries for US officials who see Pyongyang as one of the world's top security threats.

US officials who see Pyongyang as one of the world's top security threats

Officials and experts say North Korea could test a sixth missile at any time despite US-led international efforts to curb its program

It was unclear if the thermal activity detected at the uranium plant was the result of centrifuge operations or maintenance.

38 North said the thermal patterns at the plant's isotope/tritium production facility suggested it was not operational in creating the substance - which is essential to create hydrogen weapons.

A report by US-based nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker published last September estimated North Korea had stockpiles of as many as 119 pounds of plutonium - enough for six to eight bombs.
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This is the moment criminals were beaten with a bamboo cane for violating sharia law in Aceh - Indonesia's only province which adheres to sharia law.

At least one woman and two men were brought to the stage in a town somewhere in Pidie Regency to receive their sentence which was carried out by a hooded figure.

Crowds could be seen gathered in the square to watch, with young boys among those witnessing the beating.

It is not known what these people did to earn their punishment, though beating is usually handed down for behavioural crimes - such as gay sex, sex outside marriage, or drinking alcohol.

While application varies across parts of the Muslim world that do practice sharia, typically the beatings are carried out in public, using a cane no wider than a finger, and with force that is not intended to leave a permanent mark.

This is the moment an Indonesian woman was beaten in public for violating sharia law in Aceh Province - the only place in the world's most populous Muslim nation to practice the punishment system

Crowds gathered to watch as the woman received her punishment, which was administered by a robed figure. Her precise crime is not known, but flagellation is usually carried out for behavioural crimes, such as drinking alcohol

Medical staff (left) are typically on hand as the sentence is carried out. The beatings are usually carried out with a cane no wider than a finger and with force not great enough to leave permanent scars

Children were among those who gathered in the town, located somewhere in Pidie Regency, to watch as the sentence was carried out on Friday. Others stood in the front row as the people were beaten

Sharia loosely translated means 'the way' and represents a set of rules governing all aspects of life for Muslims. It is the fourth section, criminal punishment, which is most controversial - both in Islam and in wider society (pictured, a woman is beaten)

Women are generally allowed to kneel during the beating, and the man carrying out the whipping sometimes puts a Koran under his arm to limit the strength of the blows

The woman is comforted by religious police who were on hand to watch the punishment carried out. Medical staff are also typically present to tend to wounds and provide reassurance

Two men were also marched out in front of the waiting crowds for their punishment wearing green tunics tied at the waist with a black ribbon

The children sat front and centre during this man's beating, though it is not known what crime he had committed

Flagellation is one of the more minor punishments under sharia, with amputations, beheadings and stonings proscribed for more serious offences such as blasphemy and adultery
Jimmy Carter is out of the hospital after being treated for dehydration in Canada, a spokeswoman said Friday.

Representatives for the 39th President and Habitat for Humanity said on Thursday that the 92-year-old became dehydrated while volunteering at a home-building project in Winnipeg and was taken to the hospital for rehydration as a precaution.

Carter spokeswoman Deanna Congileo says he was discharged from St. Boniface General Hospital on Friday morning and then attended a devotional to begin the last day of a Habitat for Humanity home-building project.

Jimmy Carter was released from the hospital Friday morning, a day after becoming dehydrated while working on a Habitat for Humanity construction site in Winnipeg, Canada. He's pictured on Friday after returning to Habitat for Humanity

The president appeared to be in good spirits after his brief stay in the hospital

The former president pictured above drinking a sports drink on the construction site on Thursday, with his wife Rosalyn in the background

'He and Mrs. Carter extend their appreciation for the many well-wishes he received worldwide,' Congileo said in a statement.

Carter had joined Habitat as the organization builds 150 homes for people in need in Canada to celebrate the country's 150th anniversary.

The former president and his wife, Rosalynn, were in Edmonton, where Habitat is building 75 homes, from Monday to Wednesday before coming to Winnipeg, where the couple joined hundreds of volunteers working on 25 homes in the St. James community, said Rowena Sara, a spokeswoman for the organization.

Carter had been working for about 90 minutes Thursday morning when he went to sit down in a chair, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. He appeared to wobble, so Secret Service agents led him to his motorcade. He was treated by paramedics who took him away in an ambulance, without using lights or siren, the newspaper said.

'He and Mrs. Carter extend their appreciation for the many well-wishes he received worldwide,' the statement said

The Carters are prominent backers of the Atlanta-based building charity. This week's project building houses in several Canadian communities is the 34th time the Carters have pitched in on Habitat projects, lending a hand and their name to promote the work.

Carter was diagnosed with melanoma that spread to his brain in 2015 but announced in March of the following year that he no longer needed treatment. Carter continued to volunteer for Habitat while being treated for cancer, working alongside volunteers at a home in Memphis, Tennessee, in November 2015.
Cop Accused Of Brutality Also Reportedly Owned Racist Websites

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 14, 2017 7:00PM



Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images

As the City of Chicago wrestles with monumental payouts due to police misconduct, and the Chicago Police Department tries to battle accusations of entrenched racism, the case of Chicago cop George Granias looks like another black eye in both regards.

Granias, who is being sued for beating a black woman while she was in custody, also owned a website called n**gaguns.com, a lawsuit states, according to CBS Chicago. The Daily Beast dug deeper and found that murdertech.com, necroarmy.com, patquinnsucks.com, and n**gadown.com were all registered to Granias' name and address, also.

Patassa Johnson was arrested in 2014 as she drove home from work, accused of drunk driving. At the station, Granias allegedly beat Johnson while she was handcuffed. Johnson said she was not drunk (the charge was dropped); and Johnson's lawyer reportedly said the beating required medical treatment.

The Daily Beast also reported that multiple complaints had been lodged against Granias during his career:



"While representing Johnson, [attorney Brendan] Shiller learned that Granias had three marks on his disciplinary record. Three of these blemishescalled sustained complaint registersare rare on Chicagos police force."

The city looks to settle the resultant lawsuit for $185,000. The discovery of Granias' websites "led City Hall to settle," according to CBS. The websites are reportedly being investigated by Chicago police.
Newly arrived Romanian immigrants are defecating in the streets and publicly decapitating chickens since moving to a Pennsylvania borough less than two months ago, residents complained during a packed town hall meeting on Thursday.

Members of the Californian Borough community in Washington County said they are repulsed by the behavior of their new neighbors, with over 600 residents signing a petition demanding that they alter their lifestyle.

'What I've seen is men and children - never usually the women - the men and the children dropping their pants in the middle of the street, defecating, pulling their pants up and going on their way,' one man told Pittsburgh's Action 4 News.

Romanian immigrants are defecating in the street and cutting off the heads of chickens in public, say outraged residents of one Pennsylvania town

Borough leaders, who posited that residents were just experiencing 'culture shock', said that the federal government is responsible for relocating the eastern Europeans to their town.

According to borough administrator Dr. Richard Martin, they are part of a program called Alternative to Detention set up by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).

Part of the program is to give local residents orientation 'about who these folks (the Romanian immigrants) are, why they're here,' said Martin.

'Basically, we need to come together as a community and work through the issues,' he added.

More than 600 have signed a petition demanding they alter their behavior

A federal government program is responsible for relocating the immigrants

Not all resident of Californian Borough agreed that the newly transposed Romanian population was creating a problem.

'I think they are a bunch of bigots and racists in this community, Larry Papini told the local broadcaster after the meeting.

According to The Department of Homeland Security, which presides over ICE, the Alternative to Detention program has been effective because participants are less likely to 'abscond', adding that it encourages 'participants to comply with immigration proceedings.'

It remains unclear if the Romanian immigrants are in the US illegally. No one from the Romanian community in California Borough has of yet spoken out about the claims.
China told Japan on Friday to 'get used to it' after it flew six warplanes over the Miyako Strait between two southern Japanese islands in a military exercise.

Japan's defense ministry issued a statement late on Thursday describing the flyover by the formation of Xian H-6 bombers earlier that day as 'unusual', while noting that there had been no violation of Japanese airspace.

The Chinese navy and air force have in recent months carried out a series of exercises in the Western Pacific, as they hone their ability to operate far from their home shores.

Japan's defense ministry issued a statement late on Thursday describing the flyover by the formation of Xian H-6 bombers earlier that day as 'unusual' Pictured: file photo of an H-6 bomber

The Chinese defense ministry said it was 'legal and proper' for its military aircraft to operate in the airspace and that it would continue to organize regular training exercises according to 'mission requirements'.

'The relevant side should not make a fuss about nothing or over-interpret, it will be fine once they get used to it,' the ministry said in a statement.

The Miyako Strait is between Japan's islands of Miyako and Okinawa, to the northeast of self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday the Chinese bombers flew just outside its air defense identification zone and that it had 'closely followed' the movements.
California Representative Dana Rohrabacher says on a congressional fact-finding trip to Moscow he got a pitch similar to the one that has embroiled Donald Trump Jr. in controversy.

Rohrabacher, who has a considerably more pro-Russia tilt than many of his colleagues, says government officials provided him with a packet of information running down the U.S. Magnitsky Act during his April 2016 trip.

The packet was delivered by the chief prosecutor in Moscow, and was an effort to counter the law, which slapped sanctions on Russia and is named for the man who uncovered an alleged fraud and died in a Russian prison.

Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from California, says he was provided a packet of information on a fact-finding trip to Moscow. There are parallels between the efforts to get information to him and a meeting Donald Trump Jr. had with a Russian lawyer

Rohrabacher says he has had contact with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnetskaya, who attended the June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. where dirt on Hillary Clinton was dangled in advance.

While in Russia, 'I had a meeting with some people, government officials, and they were saying, 'Would you be willing to accept material on the Magnitsky case from the prosecutors in Moscow? 'And I said, 'Sure, I'd be willing to look at it,' Rohrabacher told The Hill newspaper.

As the article described it, Rohrabacher had been promised derogatory information important to America.

UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 7: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, leaves the House Republican Conference meeting in the Capitol on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015

'At the end of the meeting simply as I was walking out, they said this gentleman has some documents for you. And he handed them to me. And that was as far as my meeting with the prosecutors went,' he continued. 'We got the information, we looked at it and we asked various people about the issue.'

He passed on the information to fellow members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee as well as to the Treasury Department, which handles issues pertaining to international sanctions.

Rohrabacher didn't just file the information away. He circulated a summary of the document making the pro-Kremlin case to lawmakers.

He said he got lobbied on the Magnitsky issue at a dinner also attended by Veselnetskaya.

Donald Trump Jr (left) has become the central figure of the firestorm surrounding Russian meddling in the 2016 election, as he failed to reveal a meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya (right), a Russian attorney, until earlier this week

Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya speaks ABC's 'Good Morning America' about meeting with Donald Trump Jr. in footage aired Wednesday

Sergei Magnitsky died while in prison in Russia after exposing an alleged fraud

The document said there was 'not a jot of truth' to the official Magnitsky story in the U.S. The document said the 2012 law 'caused the most severe damage to the US-Russian relations in recent years'  but also hinted at hopes for improvement.

'Changing attitudes to the Magnitsky story in the Congress, obtaining reliable knowledge about real events and personal motives of those behind the lobbying of this destructive Act, taking into account the pre-election political situation may change the current climate in the interstate relations,' it said. 'Such a situation could have a very favorable response from the Russian side.'

Rohrabacher chairs a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats  a portfolio that includes the tense relationship with Russia.

Rohrabacher said he was lobbied by former California Democratic Rep. Ron Dellums on Magnitsky-related issues

He also was under consideration to be Trump's secretary of state, he said last year.

'I have been told that I am under consideration to join President Trump's team as Secretary of State. While my present intention, of course, is to continue to fight for liberty and freedom as a member of the House of Representatives, as a strong supporter of President-Elect Trump's vision for America, it would be a privilege and an honor to serve as his Secretary of State,' he said at the time.

The pitch to Rohrabacher indicates that the president's eldest son was far from alone in being courted by forces seeking to roll back sanctions.

Trump Jr says his June 2016 meeting began with a pitch about dirt on Clinton, but then quickly moved to issues of suspended the Moscow-imposed ban on U.S. adoption of Russian children, an issue linked to U.S. sanctions.

He says the material mentioned by Veselnetskaya made 'no sense.'
A man who murdered his girlfriend and ripped out her intestines after she screamed her estranged husband's name during sex has pleaded guilty to escape the death penalty.

Fidel Lopez, 26, pleaded guilty to murder and sexual battery charges in exchange for a life sentence on Thursday in Florida's Broward County Court.

He brutally murdered and molested 31-year-old Maria Nemeth at his Florida apartment in 2015 after flying into a rage when she called out her ex-partner's name during a drunken sexual encounter.

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Fidel Lopez, 26, (left) pleaded guilty on Thursday to brutally murdering his 31-year-old girlfriend Maria Nemeth (right) at his Florida apartment in 2015

Lopez offered to plead guilty to the charges last month in the hope of securing a 50-year jail sentence, but prosecutors rejected the offer, NBC Miami reports.

They settled on the life sentence on Thursday. He will not be officially sentenced until August 3.

Lopez had called police to his apartment on the night of September 20, 2015 claiming that his girlfriend was having trouble breathing.

He initially told investigators that the couple had been having rough sex when Nemeth went into the bathroom, vomited and collapsed.

Officers responding to the apartment said they found Lopez crying in the bathroom next to Nemeth's body, which had been disemboweled.

They said they noticed a large amount of blood on the floor inside a closet, more blood spattered in the bathroom and damage to the walls and doors.

A police report from the time noted there was also 'several chunks of bloody tissue' on the floor inside the closet.

Lopez pleaded guilty to murder and sexual battery charges in exchange for a life sentence on Thursday in Florida's Broward County Court

Lopez murdered and molested Maria Nemeth after flying into a rage when she called out her ex-partner's name during a drunken sexual encounter

Lopez called 911 to report his girlfriend wasn't breathing. Police arrived to find a large amount of blood on the floor inside a closet (above) and noticed 'several chunks of bloody tissue'

Detectives initially thought Nemeth may have tried to perform an abortion on herself before they quickly pieced together the grisly crime.

Prosecutor Shari Tate told the court during his hearings that in addition to pulling out Nemeth's intestines, Lopez also molested the victim by putting a hair straightener and beer bottles in her vagina.

Nemeth was pronounced dead at the scene less than 30 minutes after Lopez's initial call to police.

During Lopez's interrogation, he initially told police they were having rough sex in the closet and she had urged him to use the beer bottles as sex toys.

But he later admitted that he became a 'monster' when Nemeth twice said her ex-husband's name during sex.

'She changed my name,' he told detectives.

'She called me the name of the other f**king guy - and she said it twice and she was wrong and she was confusing me with him.'

During Lopez's interrogation, he eventually admitted he became a 'monster' when Nemeth twice said her ex-husband's name while they were having sex

Police released grisly crime scene footage last year that showed blood spattered on the walls and doors inside Lopez's apartment

A graphic complaint affidavit from the time stated that Lopez left the inebriated woman in the closet and started smashing things around the apartment - including a sliding glass door

Police found blood spattered in the closet and bathroom (above) when they responded to Lopez's 911 called on the night of September 20, 2015

An extremely graphic complaint affidavit from the time stated that Lopez left the inebriated woman in the closet as he started smashing things around the apartment - including a sliding glass door and punching holes in the walls.

After his outburst, Lopez returned to the closet where his girlfriend was lying unconscious and proceeded to insert objects into her vagina.

He also admitted to pulling 'internal tissue' from Nemeth's body while she was passed out, according to the affidavit.

Afterward, Lopez carried her naked body into the bathroom and attempted to revive her by splashing water in her face, but the woman did not wake up.

He then washed the blood off his hands and went out onto the porch outside their apartment to smoke a cigarette.

When Lopez went back inside to try to clean up the crime scene and hide Nemeth's intestines, he realized she was no longer breathing and called 911.
Theresa May and David Davis were left cringing last night when a Romanian journalist used a champagne-fuelled summer party to pester them over Brexit.

The Prime Minister was enjoying a night off from No10 by unwinding with a drink at the Spectator magazine's party - where top Tory politicians rub shoulders with senior journalists.

The annual party is one of the highlights of the political social calendar and most of the Cabinet descended on the bash, which was held near St James' Park in London.

But the PM's enjoyment quickly turned to embarrassment when she was confronted by journalist Nimrod Kamer about her plans for EU citizens.

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Theresa May looked awkward as she was confronted by a Romanian journalist over Brexit at the Spectator summer party yesterday

Brexit Secretary David Davis was enjoying a glass of champagne when he was confronted by the columnist over how much money Britain will have to cough up in a Brexit divorce bill

He asked the PM for a 'quick picture' before filming himself criticising her for making him and other EU passport-holders fear for their future in Britain.

And he later cornered the Brexit Secretary as he was enjoying a glass of fizz and challenged him over how many billions of pounds the UK will pay to Brussels in a divorce bill.

Spotting Mrs May in the corner enjoying a flute of champagne with the magazine's editor Fraser Nelson, Mr Kamer, an art columnist for GQ magazine, swooped in.

After grabbing the PM's attention by asking for a selfie with her, he said: I'm a Romanian passport holder, Im about to get deported

Mrs May, who last month set out plans to protect the rights of EU nationals living in Britain after Brexit, smiled awkwardly as she insisted he would not be deported.

Theresa May enjoyed a drink at the swanky summer bash, where top Tory politicians hobnob with journalists

David Davis shared a hug with Boris Johnson's sister, the journalist and pundit Rachel Johnson, at the annual champagne-fueled bash

Boris Johnson, pictured with his sister Rachel, was among the many Cabinet ministers who were enjoying a glass of champagne at the Spectator Party

Gavin Barwell, the former Tory MP and newly appointed chief of staff, accompanied the PM to the bash

She said: No youre not, youve got citizens rights. we have got a citizens rights paper.

As Mr Kamer protested that her offer is not as good as the current EU rules, Mrs May continued: It's very similar, very similar. The key difference is the European Court of Justice.

Despite the PM's protestations the columnist says he is 'still worried' about his future.

In the exchange, which he filmed and posted on Twitter, he adds: It could be much more substantive - the offer to Romanians. I write for GQ Im a journalist, I paid stamp duty, I bought a flat, and Im Israeli as well.

I think Israelis actually have a better chance

Mrs May is eventually rescued from the awkward encounter the Spectator editor who tries to reassure the journalist that everything 'will be fine' before ushering him away.

Universities minister Jo Johnson - another of the Johnson clan - was spotted enjoying a joke with another guest at the party, which is one of the highlights of the political social calendar

The BBC's Andrew Marr took time off from grilling politicians on his weekly politics show to enjoy a friendly chat with them instead

Historian David Starkey was among the great and the good who rubbed shoulders at the soiree

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg was one of the many high-flying journalists who enjoyed a night off from covering the various crises engulfing Westminster to attend the party

But not put off, Mr Kamer then wanders off and corners Mr Davis over his negotiations.

The flamboyantly dressed journalist deploys the same tactic to get the Cabinet minister's attention by asking for a 'quick picture' before taking a selfie with Mr Davis.

He then lays into the minister over how much money Britain will pay to Brussels in a divorce bill.

Mr Kamer said: 'Im waiting for the final figure - 60billion could pass maybe?He then adds: 40bn may pass for the UK

Looking bemused, Mr Davis sips his champagne and says: 40bn? Thats a lot of money.

In another swipe, the journalist then says the money pay for the NHS instead.

The party is one of the highlights of the social calendar for MPs and journalists who cover politics, and invitations are hotly sought-after.

And after what has been one of the most tumultuous years in politics in living memory, there was much political gossip to swap over cocktails.

Much of the Tory Cabinet were at the party, with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, his younger brother the universities minister Jo Johnson, and their sister the journalist Rachel Johnson, all in attendance.

While Sky News' Kay Burley, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg and Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis were among the many top political reporters who had gathered for the party.

Sky News presenter Kay Burley enjoyed a cocktail at the party, which was thrown at the magazine's offices near St James' Park in Westminster

The PM posed for photos with Spectator CEO Andrew Neil and his wife Susan Nilsson (left) and the magazine's editor Fraser Nelson and his wife (right) at the party

BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis took a night off from the current affairs show to enjoy a drink in the sunshine at the party, whose guest list read as a 'who's who' of Westminster
A knife attacker appears to have exclusively targeted female tourists during a deadly rampage before hotel staff pinned him down and wheeled him away in a luggage cart.

Two German women were killed and four more tourists injured during the knife attack at a beach in Egypt.

The attack happened on Friday at a Red Sea resort in Hurghada, as police said the assailant swam from a nearby beach before stabbing people.

The attacker reportedly shouted: 'Stay away, I don't want Egyptians.'

Security and medical sources had earlier reported the two women killed were Ukrainians, but Major General Mohamed El-Hamzawi, security manager of Red Sea province, said victims have been identified as Germans.

All six victims are women, Egyptian authorities said.

It is not yet confirmed what nationalities the four wounded women are, with one report stating that three were from Serbia and one from Poland, while another said two Czech women had been injured.

Workers and security personnel detain the man who stabbed two German tourists to death and wounded four others

Two German tourists have died and four of other foreign nationalities have been wounded after a knife attack at the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, in Egypt (pictured, a victim)

Police detained the suspect at the scene, saying he swam to the resort from a neighbouring beach before launching his attack (pictured, the alleged suspect detained in what appears to be a luggage cart)

Some of those in hospital are in critical condition, according to an Egyptian spokesman (pictured, a bloodied victim on a sofa in a nearby hotel)

The attacker was detained at the scene as an extraordinary image shows what appear to be hotel staff holding him down in the bottom of a luggage cart.

Authorities have not released a motive for his attack, but ISIS does operate within Egypt and has targeted tourists in the past.

Three foreign tourists were stabbed at the same resort in January 2016 by two suspected ISIS militants.

On that occasion the assailants - armed with a gun, a knife and a suicide belt - landed on the beach of a hotel in Hurghada by boat before attacking.

An Islamic State group bombing of a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from a south Sinai resort in 2015 killed all 224 people on board and decimated the country's tourism sector.

Russia suspended all flights to Egypt in response and has yet to resume them.

IS has been waging a deadly insurgency based in the north of the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.

Hurghada is a popular Egyptian holiday resort, renowned for its scuba diving. The Red Sea is a popular tourist destination for Britons, eastern Europeans and Russians.

The attack came hours after five policemen were shot to death Giza when suspected Islamic militants opened fire on their vehicle early in the morning.

The attacker was held down by workers and security officials after the rampage

Egyptian Ahmed Abdullah, Governor the Red Sea, visits injured tourist women in hospital

All six victims were rushed to hospital where the two Germans were pronounced dead. Some of the wounded are in a critical condition (scene pictured)

Hurghada is a popular holiday destination for eastern Europeans, Russians and Britons and is known for its scuba diving

An Interior Ministry statement as saying the gunmen attacked the checkpoint Friday in the Badrashin area in Giza, part of Greater Cairo.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Insurgents have carried out a number of attacks in Egypt since the 2013 military ouster of an elected Islamist president.

The violence has been concentrated in the northern Sinai Peninsula, but there have also been several attacks on the mainland, including in the capital.

The shadowy group Hasm, believed to be affiliated to the banned Muslim Brotherhood, has claimed responsibility for similar attacks.

Five police were shot dead in Giza earlier on Friday after suspected Islamic militants opened fire at a checkpoint outside the city
A suspect has been charged with modern slavery following the disappearance of two teenage Vietnamese girls who remain missing.

Thi Luong Phan, 15, and Tram Le, 14, were last seen getting into a taxi near York Minster, North Yorkshire at 12.30pm on Sunday.

The teenagers had been taken into care by the local authority when they disappeared.

Pictured: Thi Pan (left), 15, and Tram Le (right), 14, were last seen getting into a taxi near York Minster, North Yorkshire, at about 12.30pm on Sunday

A man has now been charged with two counts of modern slavery after he was arrested in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The two girls arrived in the UK earlier this year.

Officers believe the two 5ft 2ins girls left the city of their own accord shortly after the sighting and remain 'missing'.

North Yorkshire Police Chief Inspector Allan Wescott said: 'There have been a number of developments in this case which has seen one man arrested on suspicious of modern slavery offences.

'Whilst this is a positive step towards finding the two girls we are still trying to locate their whereabouts as quickly, and as safely, as possible.

'The last sighting of the girls was on Sunday evening and as each day goes by our concern for the two girl's welfare grows.

'We would like to thank everyone who has shared our appeal or who has provided information to support the investigation so far.

'Please be assured we are doing everything we can to bring these two girls home safely.'

Tram Le was last seen wearing a blue and white top and black trousers and Thi Phan was wearing jeans and a baggy shirt.

Police are asking members of the public who have information regarding the girls' whereabouts should call them on 101, quoting reference number 12170120099.

The public is also asked to call 999 if they have any immediate sightings of them.
A college administrator has been charged following a hit and run accident that injured an inexperienced cyclist.

Tyler Noe and friend Greg Goodman were riding on a popular recreational route in central Tennessee when a Volvo, said to be driven by Marshall Grant Neely III, smashed into Noe.

Dramatic helmet-camera footage from Goodman, 48, captured the moment of impact between Noe and the SUV driven by Neely, an employee at the University School of Nashville.

Impact: Marshall Grant Neely III rams Tyler Noe

Fall: Noe falls to the ground after being stuck

Marshall Grant Neely III has been charged with three misdemeanors and one felony

Last Saturday Neely was arrested and charged with three misdemeanors and one felony.

Charges include a felony of reckless endangerment, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to immediately notify of an accident and failure to render aid.

Authorities identified Neely as the driver of a black Volvo that struck cyclist Tyler Noe of Nolensville on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Williamson County.

In an interview with the Tennessean Neely claimed that he didn't know he hit a cyclist and would have stopped had he had known.

Neely said: 'I did not see the man. There were bicyclist all other the place. I thought somebody had thrown his bike at me.

'The police came and they asked me what happened and I said ''I don't know. There was a guy there and I remember he was standing there.''

'I said maybe he threw his bike at me. Obviously the video shows otherwise.'

Despite the horrific collision Noe, 23, got to his feet moments after he was felled and brushed himself down.

Pain: Noe wasn't breaking the law by riding on the lane

Brave: Despite the shocking footage Noe will make a full recovery from his knocks

The footage also shows Neely, 58, speeding off from the scene as Noe hits the ground.

Goodman, who is also from Nolensville, shared the footage with investigators. It helped authorities, including U.S. Park Rangers and Williamson County Sheriff's deputies make the arrest.

Goodman, who says he was taking Noe one of his first bike rides as an adult, knew they were allowed to ride in the lane on the Natchez Trace Parkway.

Noe escaped from the incident without any serious injuries with Goodman admitting that he looks 'he looks awful, but he is going to be OK.'

Neely was placed on a leave of absence Sunday while the school investigates what happened, said school spokeswoman Juanita Traughber in a statement.
Aurimas Butkys (pictured) went on-the-run after escaping from officers in Boston, Lincolnshire

Red-faced detectives are hunting a fugitive after he managed to escape from a police station by scaling an eight-foot fence while wearing handcuffs.

Aurimas Butkys went on-the-run after fleeing from officers when he was taken to Boston police station in Lincolnshire at about 5pm Thursday.

The 25-year-old Lithuanian was arrested on a European extradition warrant after allegedly attacking a family member in his home country.

Police said he assaulted an officer as he was being removed from a vehicle at the station, and made his escape.

Tweeting about the escape, Chief Superintendent Paul Timmins said: 'An officer was assaulted, suspect handcuffed and jumped an 8 foot fence.We are doing everything to relocate the offender quickly.'

Lincolnshire Police bosses have admitted the blunder was 'embarrassing' for the force and said they still do not know the suspect's whereabouts.

Superintendent Phil Vickers said: 'The gentleman had been arrested on a European arrest warrant yesterday afternoon in Spalding.

'He was handcuffed to the front which would be a fairly normal position under these circumstances. The risk that we had assessed at that time was that he wasn't a risk to the officers.

'He was brought into Boston police station and as he was being removed from the vehicle he has made good his escape.

'At the end of the day he was placed in what would be the lowest form of restraint for us.

'In each case officers have to make an assessment to what is the proportionate use of force against someone that's been arrested and in this case we got it wrong.

'The most important message here is that we are satisfied that he isn't a risk to the wider public.

'We are satisfied that there isn't a risk to anyone but clearly we want to get him back into custody where he should be.

'If any members of the public see him and whether he is still wearing those handcuffs or not we are keen to catch up with him.

The 25-year-old Lithuanian was arrested on a European extradition warrant after allegedly attacking a family member in his home country and taken to Boston Police Station

'Handcuffs do limit your movement and your opportunities but in his case he has been quite fortunate.

'It may be that he has managed to remove the handcuffs by now but it's not a case where we are concerned for public safety but if anybody sees him then call us and we will go and pick him up.'

A helicopter and police officers with dogs were dispatched to assist in the search for Butkys, who is described as being white and of slim build.

He was reportedly last seen in Tower Street, Boston wearing a dark t-shirt and brown shorts.

Supt Int Vickers added: 'Last night we had a small geographic area that we could search and that's why we used the local officers, the dogs, and the helicopter.

'In Lincolnshire we make thousands of arrests every year and on occasion we don't get it right. He has taken an opportunity there in front of him.

'As the operational lead for policing in Boston, the buck stops with me. It isn't as simple as blaming the officers escorting him.

'I will review how this happened and look at what action is required to prevent it happening again.'
Three men who completely undermined the immigration system by sneaking Afghan asylum seekers into Britain using their relatives passports have been jailed for a total of 19 years.

Daljit Kapoor, 41, his cousin Harmit Kapoor, 42, and Davinder Chawla, 44, provided passports belonging to British Sikhs to lookalikes who donned turbans themselves to get through passport control.

Border Officials had difficulties distinguishing between the illegal immigrants and the real Sikh passport holders, who are allowed to wear turbans and beards in their passport photos.

Daljit Kapoor (left), 41, his cousin Harmit Kapoor (right), 42, provided passports belonging to British Sikhs to immigrants trying to get into Britain

Davinder Chawla, 44, was also convicted of the crime. The gang were paid more than 9,000 for each family they got into the UK

The gang were paid more than 9,000 for each family they got into the UK, smuggling nearly 70 people into the country in the 620,000 scam.

They travelled to France and hand over stolen or genuine passports to waiting immigrants and then collected them once they were safely on British soil.

The gang were caught when airline staff noticed the passports handed over at the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport did not match up the people carrying them.

The trio were trying to get 11 passengers to Luton Airport using British and fake Norwegian passports on an EasyJet flight.

More than 20 tearful relatives filled the public gallery at Inner London Crown Court as the gang were sentenced.

One sobbing woman slapped her head repeatedly as the trio were jailed.

Judge Nigel Seed QC said there is great dissatisfaction with legal immigration into the UK, let alone illegal immigration, making this a very serious offence.

He told them: The whole system of immigration is completely undermined.

It was a large scale operation and was for financial gain.

I do not consider there was any humanitarian concern - you were all acting with financial motive.

Judge Seed QC acknowledged that Harmit was a lesser cog in the wheel compared with the other two conspirators.

Prosecutor Alexandra Felix described the conspiracy as a cynical money-making enterprise which allowed Afghan immigrants to enter the UK masquerading as genuine passport-holders.

Passports were used multiple times to transport 69 people to the UK, 59 of whom failed to apply for asylum and whose whereabouts are unknown, the court heard.

Financial records show thousands of pounds were credited to Chawlas accounts between 2009 and 2014, said Miss Felix.

Davinder Chawla (left) and Daljit Kapoor (right) pictured at an earlier hearing. They travelled to France and hand over stolen or genuine passports to waiting immigrants and then collected them once they were safely on British soil

On one trip back to London Heathrow, the court was told how a family of five asylum seekers were abandoned by the gang in Terminal 1 before they claimed asylum with authorities.

The trio admitted conspiring to help asylum seekers get into the country illegally, but Harmit Kapoor and Chawla disputed the level of involvement they had in the plot.

Harmit admitted booking flights between June 8 and June 21, 2014, for the asylum seekers to get to Britain, and claimed his role was limited to providing passports to the alleged asylum-seekers.

Father-of-three Chawla, who admitted hiring a vehicle to facilitate their entry into the country when he drove to Paris, said he desperately needed the money and was just carrying out Daljits instructions.

More than 20 tearful relatives filled the public gallery at Inner London Crown Court as the gang were sentenced

Daljit claimed he did not benefit from the conspiracy to the extent that the prosecution contended.

Harmit and Chawlas basis of plea was rejected by Judge Nigel Seed QC, who described their accounts as wholly unreliable, but agreed to sentence Daljit on the basis that he was involved in facilitating illegal immigration rather than the proceeds he made.

Daljit Kapoor, of Hounslow, was jailed for seven years.

Harmit Kapoor, also of Hounslow, was handed a four-and-a-half year sentence.

Chawla, of Isleworth, who is also a member of the same extended family, will serve seven-and-a-half years behind bars.

All admitted conspiring to help asylum seekers get into the country illegally.

A timetable of confiscation is yet to be set.
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New Hampshire State Rep. Eric Schleien, R-Hudson is charged with sexually and physically assaulting a teen girl in 2016

A state lawmaker has been charged with sexually and physically assaulting a 16-year-old girl last year under the guise of discussing her interest in politics.

Republican state Rep. Eric Schleien, of Hudson, New Hampshire has been charged with one misdemeanor count of sexual assault and two misdemeanor counts of simple assault, Rockingham County Attorney Patricia Conway said Friday. Schleiein's attorney said he vehemently denies the allegations.

According to police documents, Schleien approached the teen at an Exeter cafe on July 20, 2016, and struck up a conversation after he noticed a political sticker on her laptop.

She told police that they exchanged phone numbers after he suggested he could introduce her to other politicians and help her network and that she agreed to meet him two days later.

Schleien, 29, drove the girl to Portsmouth, she said, but instead of discussing politics, he scared her with sexually explicit talk, sucked on her fingers and groped her inner thigh.

The girl told police Schleien described a list of sexual things he wanted to do to her, including 'rape' her mouth, and asked her to go to his apartment.

After she declined, she said, Schleien asked her where she liked to be kissed, and she answered her hand 'because it was the farthest part away from her body.'

When they got in his car, Schleien locked the doors, grabbed her hand and started kissing and sucking on her fingers, she told police.

'She stated that his grip on her hand was firm and she could not pull away,' police wrote.

'She was afraid to say anything because she was afraid that he would become mad and would do something worse or not take her home.'

Police say Schleien's attorney provided a statement in which the lawmaker denied any unwanted sexual contact and said the teen told him, 'I feel very safe around you.'

In a statement Friday, his attorney, Seth Hipple, said, 'It is important to note that these charges are misdemeanors and do not allege that there was any sort of violence or threats. Mr. Schleien has pleaded not guilty, is cooperating with the process, and expects to be fully vindicated.'

Schleien has been accused of sexually and physically assaulting a 16-year-old girl last year under the guise of discussing her interest in politics

Text messages reviewed by police show the girl told a friend during the meeting that she was uncomfortable and scared.

The girl reported it to police the next day. In January, police requested an arrest warrant, which was issued in February. Schleien was arrested and charged in April and is scheduled to be arraigned August 2.

Conway declined to comment on why she announced the charges Friday.

Schleien is in his second term representing Pelham and Hudson. The state Democratic Party called for Schleien to resign. Republican House Speaker Shawn Jasper called the accusations disturbing but cautioned against a rush to judgment while the criminal case is pending.

In May, former state Rep. Kyle Tasker, 31, was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of drug possession and trying to lure a 14-year-old girl over Facebook into a sexual encounter.

The Nottingham Republican resigned in March 2016, a week after his arrest.
A bride-to-be who called off her $30,000 Indiana wedding with a week to go is now hosting a dinner for 170 homeless people at what would have been her reception.

Sarah Cummins was due to marry her fiance Logan Araujo on Saturday at the Ritz Charles reception venue in Carmel, just north of Indianapolis.

They cancelled the wedding last week but found they were unable to refund the cost of the reception dinner for their 170 guests, the Indy Star reports.

Sarah Cummins, 25, was due to marry her fiance Logan Araujo in Carmel, Indiana on Saturday but called off the $30,000 wedding a week ago

The Purdue University grad student decided to donate the reception to several homeless shelters in Indiana and invited them to dinner at the venue on Saturday night.

She has not revealed the reasons behind the cancelled wedding but the couple had been planning their nuptials for two years.

'It was really devastating. I called everyone, canceled, apologized, cried, called vendors, cried some more, and then I started feeling really sick about just throwing away all the food I ordered for the reception,' Cummins told the IndyStar.

The staff at the Ritz Charles are rearranging the seating plans to get rid of the bridal table but Cummins and her mother will still arrange centerpieces for the new guests.

'We're doing all the same stuff, just arranging the tables differently, so there's no head table for the bridal party, no cake table or gift table,' she said.

The Purdue University grad student decided to donate the reception to several homeless shelters in Indiana and invited them to dinner at the venue

Cummins, pictured left with her ex-fiance Logan Araujo, will leave for her Dominican Republic honeymoon on Sunday with her mother

Cummins is now hosting a dinner for the homeless at the Ritz Charles in Carmel in lieu of her wedding reception on Saturday night

Cummins said the menu will still feature wedding cake, as well as bourbon-glazed meatballs, goat cheese and roasted garlic bruschetta and chicken breast with artichokes and Chardonnay cream sauce.

She is arranging for buses to pick up people from the shelters and them to the venue.

'I will at least have some kind of happy memory to pull from,' she said. 'I wanted to make sure it would be the perfect wedding.'

Her ex-fiance told the outlet he was devastated about the cancellation of the wedding and the recent death of his mother.

'I'm happy through my grief and also Sarah's that she was able to make a selfless and very thoughtful decision in such a hard time,' he said.

Araujo added than he wanted his late mother to be remembered at the dinner.

Cummins said she is taking her mother on what should have been her honeymoon. They leave for the Dominican Republic on Sunday.

Araujo told the IndyStar he was devastated about the cancellation of the wedding and the recent death of his mother
A furious mother has hit out at a school who told children wearing Bradley Lowery tribute shirts to go home and change.

Parents have erupted in anger after pupils at a South Yorkshire school were sent home - for wearing shirts as a tribute to tragic youngster Bradley Lowery on the day of his funeral.

A total of 32 pupils at Rawmarsh Community School were told to go home and change after turning up to lessons with messages written on their school shirts in support of the young Sunderland fan whose funeral took place in his home town in the north east this morning.

A furious mother has hit out at a school who told children wearing Bradley Lowery tribute shirts (pictured) to go home and change

But the school has defended itself after an angry Facebook post slamming the decision went viral and said that pupils are being encouraged to take part in a fund-raising drive for Bradley's family later in the year and were actually sent home for vandalising their uniforms.

Mother Jay Haywood Crean posted several photos of a group of pupils on social media sporting the shirts for Bradley and wrote: 'Rawmarsh Comprehensive, I hope ur proud of yourselves.

'Sent around 40 children home from school for writing Bradley Lowery RIP on their tops and trying to raise money for the family.

Parents have erupted in anger after pupils at a South Yorkshire school were sent home - for wearing shirts as a tribute to tragic youngster Bradley Lowery on the day of his funeral

'This school's a joke. Share away. I've been to school - no-one will comment on this - I've hung my daughter's shirt on the school railings.'

The post quickly went viral, being shared more than 800 times.

But headteacher Helen O'Brien has responded to the accusations and said that no pupils had been excluded and were told to go home and get changed or cover the messages with school jumpers.

She said: 'As a school we are deeply saddened by the passing of Bradley Lowery, a little boy who was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma and battled with it for a number of years.

'A small minority of students - 32 in total out of a possible 930 pupils - did arrive at school today with messages written on their school shirts.

A total of 32 pupils at Rawmarsh Community School (pictured) were told to go home and change

'These students were either sent home to change or asked to cover their shirt with their school jumper in accordance with the school uniform policy. We did not exclude anyone for not wearing their uniform today.'

She added: 'We have decided to raise funds for the Bradley Lowery Foundation in his memory in early October, when we hold our annual sponsored walk for charity.

'This year all the proceeds from this walk will go to this charity. Every year we have a nominated charity, which is chosen by the student council. Last year we raised 4712.36, so we are hopeful of raising a similar amount this year.

'We understand some schools have chosen to have a non-uniform day today in Bradley's memory and to raise funds. We have instead decided to do the sponsored walk as our collective fund raising event. This gives parents and pupils plenty of notice and is likely to raise more money and awareness for the Foundation.

'We apologise if this has caused any confusion with parents or pupils and we certainly have no intention of this causing any distress towards the Foundation or indeed Bradley's family.'
Sean Killian (pictured) thought he had been chatting to an underage girl on Whatsapp but had actually been duped by Dark Justice

A pervert who travelled almost 200 miles to share a hotel room with a 13-year-old girl has been snared by paedophile hunters.

Sean Killian thought he had been chatting to an underage girl on Whatsapp but had actually been duped by Dark Justice, an anonymous group that trawls the internet to expose men looking for underage sex.

When the middle-aged father turned up in Gateshead to meet a schoolgirl for sex, members of Dark Justice were waiting, with the police in tow.

Newcastle Crown Court heard Killian had befriended the fake profile just months after he was spared jail in Wolverhampton last April for having sex chat with someone he thought was another child, but turned out to be an undercover police officer.

The 46-year-old was being supervised in the community but the court heard he was 'saying the right things but doing the exact opposite'.

During online conversations with the fake 13-year-old, Killian said he wanted to 'treat her like a Princess'.

The court heard that the conversations were highly sexual and he had asked for photographs of her in a school uniform and sent her 12 pictures and videos of his penis.

During online conversations with the fake 13-year-old, Killian (left) said he wanted to 'treat her like a Princess'. He also sent photos of underwear he said he would like to see her wearing (right)

He also sent photos of underwear he said he would like to see her wearing.

In December last year, Killian booked a hotel in Gateshead for himself and the child to stay in, then travelled almost 200 miles to meet her.

Prosecutor Kevin Wardlaw told the court: 'He travelled 192 miles from Walsall to Gateshead to meet the girl.

'On his arrival, the police had been made aware of this and the defendant was arrested.'

Killian, of Walsall, admitted breach of a sexual harm prevention order, attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and attempting to meet a child.

Judge Amanda Rippon sentenced him to two years behind bars and said he must sign the sex offender register for ten years.

The court heard that the conversations (pictured) were highly sexual

She said: 'You travelled to meet her. You booked a hotel room in Gateshead, which was 192 miles from where you lived.

'You travelled that distance in order to meet a girl. You had booked a room with a double bed and communicated that to her.

'You told her you would bring underwear for her to wear. When you arrived at the hotel the police were waiting for you and you were arrested.

'I am entirely satisfied your intention was to meet a child and have sexual activity with that child.

'You believed you were chatting to a child, you did not know you were not.'

Stuart Graham, defending, said Killian appreciated that he 'needed help' and is remorseful for his behaviour.

Mr Graham added: 'He has lost contact with his children, lost friends, lost most of his family, lost a good job.

'His future is particularly bleak.'
An endearing video has emerged of an orangutan touching a pregnant woman's baby bump much to her amusement.

The footage, captured in a zoo in Bali, Indonesia shows the ape continuously stroking a woman called Jessica's stomach during a feeding session.

'My daughter Jessica was on holidays in Bali whilst pregnant and visited Bali Zoo for a feeding session with the orangutans,' her father later wrote online.

The footage, captured in a zoo in Bali, Indonesia shows the ape continuously touching a woman called Jessica's belly

'One of the orangutans seemed to understand she was pregnant and was curious and wanting to touch her stomach,' he added.

There have been a number of similar incidents recorded involving orangutans and pregnant women.

The behaviour is attributed to the fact the species of ape has the most intense maternal relationship out of all non-human mammals, acting as a companion to their offspring for the first eight years of its life.

Earlier this year expectant mother Morgain Cole Abbott, from Ipswich, Suffolk, was visiting Colchester Zoo in Essex when primate Rajang leaned forward to kiss her stomach.

She said the encounter - which was filmed by her partner Liam - was an 'amazing moment' and reduced her to tears.
As legal costs of the sprawling Russia probes mount, there is now talk in President Trump's circle of turning to the Republican National Committee to have donors shoulder some of the costs.

President Trump now has three attorneys on his legal team as they field inquiries from House and Senate Intelligence Committee inquiries into campaign contacts with Russia. Special Counsel Robert Mueller also has a team of crack investigators probing Russia as well as issues related to potential obstruction of justice.

With fees mounting, people close to Trump have begun a 'robust' debate about potentially bring the RNC in to assist, the Washington Post reported.

There is resistance within the organization to having the RNC, which is funded by donors, to pay for Trump's Russia-related legal defense.

Sprawling Russia probes have prompted discussion of whether President Trump should have the Republican Party or a legal defense fund shoulder mounting legal costs

If Trump did go that route, contributors to the RNC for purposes for his defense would be disclosed in period filing. Individuals can gie $33,400 to a party committee each year, and $100,200 to a category that includes total giving including legal proceedings.

Another option is to have the president open up a legal defense fund, something President Bill Clinton did during the events surrounding his ultimate impeachment.

For these funds, there are no hard rules relating to who can contribute, maximum contributions, or disclosure.

'It is very poorly defined when it comes to the executive branch,' Craig Holman of Public Citizen told DailyMail.com.

He said the use of campaign funds for legal defense would require the advance approval of the Federal Election Commission. 'This isnt something that would really be controversial on a partisan basis,' he said, since defense against Russia inquiries would be related to the official duties of an executive branch official.

US President Donald Trump gestures during the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on July 14, 2017. His legal fees continue to rise amid Russia probes

Jay Sekulow is one of three lawyers helping President Trump fend off Russia probes

One option is to have the Republican National Committee help shoulder the burden. Former RNC chair White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is pictured walking to Marine One as he departs the White House

Attorney Marc Kasowitz is one of three lawyers representing the president

The president is being represented by real estate lawyer Marc Kasowitz, his partner Michael Bowe, and Jay Sekulow.

Others caught up in the probes have lawyered-up. Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is being represented by high-powered attorneys Jamie Gorelick and Abbe Lowell. Yahoo News reported there were questions among Kushner's lawyers about whether he needed to disclose to the feds a meeting that included a Kremlin-linked lawyer and Donald Trump Jr.

The president's son is being represented by criminal defense lawyer Alan Futerfas.

The White House didn't respond to a request for comment about who was paying for the president's legal representation, nor did a spokesman for his lawyer or the RNC.

Jamie Gorelick is one of two lawyers representing Jared Kushner

Jared Kuschner attorney Abbe Lowel seens in a June 16, 2012 photo

One idea from those close to Trump is to have the Republican National Committee pay legal fees funded by donations

The president, a billionaire, could avoid disclosure issues or potential conflicts regarding individual or corporate donors entirely by paying his own legal fees.

Other White House officials might not be able to swing it.

Press aides to the president have repeatedly dodged questions about Russia and referred them to his outside attorneys. One concern is that middle class aides might have to hire expensive counter to protect themselves if they get called in to testify.

'Thats the other problem is that some of these staffers cant afford lawyers. Youre talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, how is [deputy press secretary] Lindsay Walters going to pay for that? How could [press secretary Sean] Spicer pay for that? an outside adviser told Politico.
Sick: Elvis Sidaway (pictured), a 53-year-old paint mixer, raped one woman and sexually assaulted five others over four months

A sex attacker who targeted lone young women while wearing a gorilla mask has been jailed for 21 years.

Elvis Sidaway, a 53-year-old paint mixer, raped one woman and sexually assaulted five others in a four-month reign of terror between November 2016 and January this year.

The predator targeted lone students as they walked home from nights out in Birmingham, a court heard.

He threatened them with a knife or other weapons while wearing a gorilla or 'Yoda' mask before committing the sick sex offences.

Two female students reported being attacked by a suspect wearing a gorilla mask last November - with one of the women managing to pull the face covering off.

Sidaway was arrested after his blue Peugeot 207 was spotted in Selly Oak in the early hours of February 4. He matched the description given by victims and a search of his car revealed condoms and a black firelighter.

At his address in Edgbaston, Birmingham, officers also found a craft knife, black gloves and another firelighter.

The court heard how because of his previous convictions, Sidaway was forensically aware and never left any clues.

His "attack kit" consisted of a black hoodie, condoms, a gas fire lighter, glasses to disguise himself and some Viagra-type pills.

During the trial, he denied attacking women to gain sexual pleasure but carried out the attacks "to gain company".

Sidaway admitted he visited a regular "lady of the night" and paid her for sex and was also an avid user of phone sex chat lines.

Sidaway, from Edgbaston, was arrested in February after a series of assaults in the Selly Oak, Quinton and Edgbaston areas of Birmingham.

Sidaway, from Birmingham, threatened his victims with a knife or other weapons while wearing this gorilla mask (pictured) or a 'Yoda' mask before committing the sick sex offences

A jury at Birmingham Crown Court today found Sidaway guilty of rape and three counts of possessing a knife. He will also stay on the Sex Offender Register for life.

He had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to five counts of sexual assault by touching after an inquiry into offences committed between November last year and January 2017.

During the trial, the court heard how he would mainly prey on students from the University of Birmingham.

Simon Philips, prosecuting, said the first attack happened on November 20 last year when a student was sexually assaulted in Selly Oak.

A man wearing a gorilla mask pushed her up against a van and threatened her with a knife, but she managed to push him off and run away.

Four days later in the same area another student was attacked by a man in a gorilla mask - this time holding a gas fire lighter as a weapon.

Mr Philips said the student managed to pull the mask off, causing the attacker to panic and run away.

In the third attack on November 26 another female student was sexually assaulted in Selly Oak by a man wearing a mask.

The attacker forced the woman to kiss him and after the assault apologised to her.

The next attack happened on December 8 when a student was orally raped by a man wearing a black hoodie and brandishing a knife.

On January 13 this year a student was sexually assaulted by a man wearing a black hoodie and threatened with a gas fire lighter.

Sent down: A jury at Birmingham Crown Court (pictured) found Sidaway guilty of rape and three counts of possessing a knife. He will also stay on the Sex Offender Register for life

This attack was stopped from escalating when a member of the public intervened causing the man to run off.

The sixth and final attack happened on January 29 in Quinton, when a student walking alone was asked the time by a man, who then sexually assaulted her.

After the hearing, Detective Sergeant Laura Harrison, from West Midlands Police's Public Protection Unit, said: 'I am pleased with the sentencing today. Sidaway caused a whole community to question their safety.

'I hope this will reassure his victims and the wider student population that a dangerous man is no longer a threat to them.

'We worked in close partnership with the university and the local authority to ensure everyone was aware of the attacks and what we were doing to catch the offender, whilst making sure safety messages were being shared.

'We have since set up a stronger network of information sharing so that we can understand how best to communicate with the student population and work with them to keep them safe.'

A spokesman for The University of Birmingham said: 'The University of Birmingham would like to thank West Midlands Police for its work in this case. The University works very closely with West Midlands Police to keep our staff and students safe both on and off campus.

'Student and staff safety is of paramount importance to the University and we regularly review our wide range of safety measures and initiatives in consultation with the Police and other authorities.'

Judge Nicholas Webb imposed an extended sentence of 27 years on Sidaway - made up of 21 years in custody and a further six on licence.

Sentencing, he said: 'You carried out a campaign of sex attacks on young women in Selly Oak, Quinton and Edgbaston.

'I have no doubt it would have continued because when you were arrested at 4am in February you were dressed in what you told us was your "attack kit".

'You cruised the dark streets looking for young, solitary women making their way home. You ambushed your victims - either from behind, or jumping out in front of them.

'These attacks had a dreadful effect on the victims - some have had their studies disrupted, they have trouble sleeping, some have difficulty forming relationships with men.

'The effects will last for years and in one case, a career as a doctor is now in doubt.

'I have no doubt you will continue to be a very dangerous sex offender as you cannot accept what you have done.'

Jonathan Kelleher, Senior Crown Prosecutor at West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service, said afterwards: 'Elvis Sidaway is a dangerous sexual predator who targeted vulnerable lone females on their way home in the early hours of the morning.

'The defendant took steps to avoid detection and identification, however, after an extensive investigation and working alongside the police, we were able to build a strong case, compelling him to plead guilty to five sexual assaults and convicting him after trial of further serious offences.

'I would like to take this opportunity to thank the victims who supported the prosecution of this dangerous defendant and helped to bring him to justice.'
Amazon paid Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond 35.8million to make The Grand Tour, it has been revealed.

The figures emerged after the publishing of the accounts for the trio's firm Chump Holdings Limited, formed when they left the BBC's Top Gear.

They made a profit of almost 7million and paid 1.7million in corporation tax.

It means the trio were paid more than 2million per instalment of the 13-episode online series, while the company's 28 staff were paid 3.3million in total, around 118,000 each on average.

(From left) James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond were paid 35.8million to make The Grand Tour, their accounts have revealed

Figures for the trio's firm Chump Holdings show they were paid more than 2million per installment of the 13-episode first series

The trio signed a three-year deal with the web giants after leaving Top Gear following Clarkson's sacking by the BBC due to a row with a producer.

He was followed out the door by May and Hammond, who signed up with Amazon after receiving a string of offers to make similar car-based shows from other broadcasters.

The accounts, which cover the period October 2015 to the end of December 2016 and are signed by James May, said: 'The Group's profit for the financial period was 6.7 million.

'The profit was driven by television programming produced during the period ended 31 December 2016.

'The directors are keen to continue focusing on quality programming whilst ensuring that the company's overheads are kept stable.'

The show was a major hook to get people to sign up for Amazon's streaming service Amazon Prime, which costs 79 a year.

But it has not been without its fair share of controversy, with presenter Richard Hammond twice involved in accidents during filming for the second series, including a horror crash in Switzerland after which he was airlifted to hospital.

The 47-year-old flipped a 2million electric supercar which then burst into flames - although Hammond miraculously made it out alive with just a fractured knee.

The filming of the second series has not been without controversy, with Richard Hammond escaping a horror crash in Switzerland, pictured, with just a fractured ankle

The trio also caused outrage in Yorkshire after their filming, pictured, closed off parts of a village that left residents facing a 10-mile detour

His Grand Tour colleagues May and Clarkson were 'staggered' he survived because there was 'nothing left' of the vehicle.

Pictures from the scene showed the Rimac Concept One car in flames alongside a road in St. Gallen before the blaze was extinguished by firefighters.

Grand Tour producer Amazon later released images showing the burnt-out wreckage of the car laying upside down on a hill.

The crash is reported to have happened on a road that was closed for the Bergrennen Hemberg race.

Previously Hammond - who sustained brain injuries after a 288mph rocket car accident in 2006 for Top Gear - had banged his head after falling from a motorbike while filming in a 'remote' part of Mozambique in March.

Hammond, pictured, and colleagues signed with Amazon after leaving the BBC following Jeremy Clarkson's sacking

Clarkson, pictured, was fire after a fracas with a producer which led to an investigation

He did not suffer any serious injuries although Clarkson described his co-star as being 'quite badly hurt' and it is believed he was knocked unconscious.

Meanwhile the trio angered drivers in Yorkshire in May after causing a 10-mile detour to be arranged when filming caused part of a village to be closed off.

Residents in Farnley Tyas, near Huddersfield, said the delays caused chaos when they forced to find alternative routes home while the presenters drove a black Toyota Hilax fitted with a jet engine and made to look like a boat.

The show was also slammed after a tongue-in-cheek skit showing 'a better way for immigrants of getting into Britain' by being 'smuggled in the boot of an Audi TT'.
China has reportedly conducted a series of combat exercises on its aircraft carrier Lianing near the Taiwan Strait.

The drill on July 13 was staged under 'complicated aviation and marine conditions' and was aimed to help soldiers sharpen skills and gather experience, reported Guancha.cn, citing China National Radio.

A separate report on Sohu claimed that Chinese military had managed to realise mid-air refuelling between its J-15 fighter jets, carried by The Liaoning; and the new feature would almost double the fighting capability of the warship.

Chinese media reported that the People's Liberation Army conducted a drill on The Liaoning. Pictured, the warship operates during a training at western Pacific Ocean on December, 2016

The drill is said to take place on July 13 near the Taiwan under 'complicated conditions'. Pictured, J-15 fighter jets are on The Liaoning during a training on June 26, 2017

J-15 fighter jets practised taking off, landing and intercepting during the combat exercises. Pictured, a J-15 fighter jet takes off from The Liaoning during a training on July 1, 2017

The drill is said to have included the take-off, landing and intercept exercises of J-15 fighter jets, according to China National Radio.

Several Chinese publications, including People's Daily Online, have released dramatic footage showing J-15 aircraft carrying out taking off and flying exercises.

The video was originally produced by China Central Television Station shows and is believed to be shot earlier this week when the aircraft carrier The Liaoning visited Hong Kong.

The footage revealed that Chinese military authority had fit an extra fuel tank on its J-15 jets, according to a report on Chinese news site Sohu today.

Chinese news site Sohu claimed that The Liaoning's fighting capacity had nearly doubled. Pictured, The Liaoning (right) arrives in Hong Kong waters on July 7, 2017

The report also said the J-15 jets can now carry out mid-air refuelling with an extra fuel tank. Pictured, The Liaoning operates during a training at western Pacific Ocean on December, 2016

The report claimed that the extra fuel tank indicated that China had managed to realise mid-air refuelling between J-15 jets, something the People's Liberation Army had not been able to do in the past.

'China has made a break through in the technology formerly monoplised by foreign countries. The Liaoning aircraft carrier's fighting power has nearly doubled,' the author wrote.

The Liaoning sailed into Taiwan's territory on the morning of July 12, the fourth time it had happened in recent months.

Beijing is determined to reassert its control over the island, which China claims as a breakaway province awaiting reunification.

The warship entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone after departing Hong Kong one day before.

The Liaoning, China's first aircraft carrier, entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone on July 12. It is pictured leaving Hong Kong on July 11

The warship sailed in Taiwanese waters on its way back from Hong Kong, and is being monitored by defence officials in Taiwan

A former Ukrainian warship, The Liaoning, has featured in events marking the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.

Taiwan's defence ministry claimed the breach was no cause for alarm, but said it was monitoring the situation.

The Soviet-built Liaoning, China's first aircraft carrier, can carry 36 aircraft, including 24 Shenyang J-15 fighter jets and 12 helicopters, according to Chinese media.

Earlier this month Taiwan scrambled jets to shadow the carrier as it made its way to Hong Kong

Earlier this week the US was forced to apologise after President Donald Trump mistakenly referred to Chinese president Xi as leader of the 'Republic of China'

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan, which China considers a wayward province, under its control.

The flashpoint comes after the US was forced to admit a gaffe in remarks made by President Donald Trump before a meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping.

China said on Monday that the US had apologised after Beijing officially protested a White House statement that mistakenly described Xi as the president of the 'Republic of China'.

Xi is president of the People's Republic of China, while the Republic of China is the official name for Taiwan.

The US President was heavily criticised in China in the early days of his presidency for accepting a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen (pictured)

The error was made in an official readout of US President Trump's remarks before a bilateral meeting with Xi during last weekend's G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

The US President was heavily criticised in China in the early days of his presidency for accepting a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

He later backed down on abandoning the 'One China' policy, which maintains there is only one China which Taiwan is part of.

Last month, the US administration further provoked the ire of Beijing when it approved $1.3 billion worth of arms sales to the self-ruling island.

America remains Taiwan's most powerful ally, despite having no official relations with capital Taipei for decades.

The warship, The Liaoning, entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone early this morning, having departed Hong Kong yesterday

'The US side has expressed that they are sorry for this technical error and they have made a correction,' Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said of the gaffe during a regular press briefing.

Tensions over Taiwan mark yet another drawback for Sino-US relations, which have turned tense as Trump has stepped up pressure on the Asian powerhouse to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme.

In the last month, Washington has angered Beijing by imposing sanctions on a Chinese bank accused of laundering North Korean cash, voicing concern about freedom in semi-autonomous Hong Kong and sailing close to a disputed island in the South China Sea.
Nick Clegg last night admitted his own family voted for Jeremy Corbyn in the election in part of a surge of Labour support which saw him lose his own seat.

The former Lib Dem leader said his own nieces and nephews count themselves as Corbynistas.

But Mr Clegg, who lost his Sheffield Hallam seat to Labour on June 8, said young voters who have enthusiastically thrown their support behind the Labour leader will become disillusioned.

According to The Sun, he said: 'It's on a completely false prospectus. But I had members of my own family, my nieces and nephews who stridently voted for Corbyn.

Nick Clegg delivers a speech on election night after losing his Sheffield seat to Labour. He admitted his own nieces and nephews, won over by Corbyn, voted for Labour as

'When I pointed out to them he's a Eurosceptic, they said, "oh, it'll be fine" and carried on waving their flags at Glastonbury.'

Young people overwhelmingly voted for Labour in the snap election after Mr Corbyn promised to scrap the 9,000 a year university tuition fees.

And he was greeted like a superstar when he went to Glastonbury last month, where he addressed thousands of festival goers from the Pyramid stage in a triumphalist display.

But Mr Clegg said Corbymania will not last as young voters will cotton on to the Labour leader's views on Brexit.

Mr Corbyn has been accused of facing both ways on our exit - trying to woo eurosceptics in working class communities and remain-backing students.

The former Lib Dem leader said he lost his seat because Tory voters who usually back him had grown sick of him and Labour capitalised.

He said that 'they obviously didn't like my views on Brexit.'

The Lib Dems are determined to try to block Brexit and campaigned in the election on the promise that they would give Britain another referendum on the issue.

But the party only picked up 12 seats in the election as voters refused to endorse their efforts to derail Brexit.

Mr Clegg did not rule out a return to Parliament, but said he thought it would be unlikely.

Jeremy Corbyn, pictured at Glatsonbury where he received a superstar welcome from thousands in the crowds who chanted his name

Thousands of young festival goers went to hear Corbyn speak at Glastonbury last month. The Labour leader won the support of the youth after promising to scrap the 9,000 a year university tuition fees, but Clegg said they will become disillusioned with him over Brexit

And he also attacked his one-time close friend David Cameron over the campaign to stay in the EU.

He said the former Tory PM did not listen to his pleas to run a more emotional campaign.

Mr Clegg said he'd had a feeling that the vote was going to be lost and emailed his former Coalition partner to tell him to change his strategy.

He said: 'Every single person I spoke to was saying, "to hell with it, we're not going to vote to stay".

Nick Clegg, pictured with David Cameron in 2010 when the pair struck a deal to enter into Coalition together. Mr Clegg criticised his former Coalition partner for not putting enough emotion into the campaign to stay in the European Union

'I said to him, look, this really doesn't feel right. I said you need to instil greater emotion into the case for staying in the European Union.

'He politely replied, no, we're going to carry on with the economic risk message. The rest is history.'

Mr Clegg quit as Lib Dem leader after they lost nearly all their seats in the 2015 election.

And the just two years later the party is facing a fresh leadership vote after Tim Farron quit saying he could not reconcile his political faith with being leader of the party.

Former business secretary Sir Vince cable is the only Lib Dem MP to have announced he is standing and he is expected to be crowned later this year.
The Old Ronny's Space In Logan Square Will Serve Up 'Borderlands'-Style Food As Lonesome Rose

By Stephen Gossett in Food on Jul 14, 2017 8:00PM



Google Maps / After Ronny's, but before it went blue.

We finally got some info on Friday about what to expect from the restaurant due to take over the old Ronny's space, in the eternally evolving Logan Square neighborhood.

The space at 2101 N. California Ave., which formerly housed the late, lamented concert dive Ronny's, will be known as Lonesome Rose. Operated by restaurateurs Land & Sea Dept. (Lost Lake, the nearby Parsons Chicken & Fish, among many others), it'll feature "a borderlands' concept focusing on the rich cultural histories of the regional states of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States," a spokeswoman told Chicagoist in a statement via email.

Land & Sea Dept. took over the Ronny's property more than four years ago. The revamp since that time has been slow but steady, as seen in a new deep-blue facade and rooftop patio.

The exact opening date isn't firmed, though the spokeswoman told Chicagoist that they expect to open sometime later this year. But you can actually get a preview this weekend at Pitchfork Music Festival. Food from the concept will be available as part of the new Pitchfork +PLUS upsell package, which ranges between $195 to 365. Which definitely feels like some kind of strange closed loop, since Ronny's was where we used to see so many local and national sweaty indie rock performances back in the day. That one Marnie Stern show was a particular standout. As the neighborhood turns...

Hat tip to Eater, who first reported the story.
Millennials might be heading out on the highway and looking for adventure, but they're not doing it on motorcycles and that's really hurting America's most iconic bike brand, according to a new report.

Investment management and research firm Alliance Bernstein downgraded Harley-Davidson's rating from 'outperform' to plain 'market perform' in a note it sent to investors on Wednesday.

The downgrade was due to the fact that the firm's survey predicted flat growth in motorcycle sales among millennials  18-to-35 year olds. Millennials, aka Gen Y, became the largest living generation in the US after surpassing baby boomers in 2016.

Research shows sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles are falling due to a generational gap. Popular among baby boomers, who recalled when the bikes were featured in movies like 'Easy Rider' (above), new research shows millennials aren't interested in motorcycles

Research firm Alliance Bernstein downgraded Harley-Davidson's rating from 'outperform' to plain 'market perform,' after research showed decreased millennials interest in motorcycles

Harley-Davidson is hoping new models, like 2017's Street Rod, will appeal to millennials

Alliance Bernstein analyst David Beckel said in the report, obtained by CNBC, that data showed millennials just weren't developing a passion for motorcycle riding the way previous generations have done.

Beckel added that, 'Gen Y's are aging into the important "pre-family" cohort of riders and Boomers are increasingly handing over their keys to the smaller Gen X population.'

The 'pre-family' age group was defined as age 25 to 35 and is Harley's target demographic.

Alliance Bernstein also lowered its previous 12-month Harley price target from $62 down to $55, reports Barron's, which added that the stock is down 12.6 per cent since 2017 started.

Harley-Davidson bike sales in 2016 were down 1.6 per cent overall, compared to its 2015 figures, while the company's US sales fell 3.9 per cent, according to Business Insider. A significant drop, since Harley sales represent about about half of the American big bike market.

Harley-Davidson bikes have a long history of appearing in Hollywood films, including the 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day' and the 'Captain America' franchise

Alliance Bernstein estimated that bike 'rider growth has declined from a 3-5 per cent annual growth pace pre-financial crisis to close to 0 percent today,' Beckel said, adding that the firm expects that 'rider growth will dip into negative territory in 2017 and stay in negative territory for at least the next five years.'

This, despite the firm's original optimism that Harley-Davidson would receive a bump following President Trump's election, which came with promises of infrastructure spending and middle-class or corporate tax cuts.

Analysts suspect that one of the reasons why millennials are slow or reluctant to buy into motorcycles is that the generation was heavily impacted by the recession period they grew up during.

Describing that recession period as a 'very significant psychological scar' that 'severely negatively impacted' one out of five US households at the time, Morgan Stanley analyst Kimberly Greenberger told Business Insider that, 'If you think about the children in that house and how the length and depth of that recession really impacted people, I think you have an entire generation with permanently changed spending habits.'

Celebrities including Tricia Helfer (left) and Katee Sackhoff are Harley-Davidson fans

Charlie Hunnam developed a passion for Harleys while playing a biker on 'Sons of Anarchy'

Greenberger backed up sentiments expressed in 2015, when Harley-Davidson's market share began to slide and the almost 115-year-old company announced that it was cutting jobs and dialing back production.

'Unless you ride a motorcycle or scooter in a city as your transportation, motorcycles are a splurge millennials cant afford and have no interest in  especially Harley-Davidson, which seems like a old white-guy brand,' Michelle Krebs, an analyst for Kelley Blue Book told The Guardian in 2015.

In an effort to appeal to the younger demographic and encourage them to take another look at Harley-Davidson bikes now, the company revealed earlier this year that it aimed to launch 100 new models within the next 10 years.

The reasoning behind the volume of new bikes, Harley-Davidson's CEO Matt Levatich told The Street, is 'the impact these bikes have and how they make a difference for an existing rider or inspire a potential rider.'

Levatich pointed to one model in particular, the Street Rod, which retails for $8,700 and was released in the first quarter of 2017, as being a bike that is 'more inspiring to the urban population around the world, and people that are looking to enter the sport.'

Harley-Davidson was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1903. Over the years, it's built tremendous brand loyalty, counting celebrities including P!nk, Kid Rock, Brad Pitt, Pamela Anderson, Katee Sackhoff, George Clooney, Charlie Hunnam and Tricia Helfer among its fans.

Harleys have also been featured in many iconic, Hollywood films over the years, including 'Easy Rider,' 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day,' 'Rocky III,' 'Pulp Fiction' and the 'Captain America' franchise.
A woman has been dumped by her husband after they spent 20 years trying to have a baby, when she finally became pregnant as a pensioner aged 60.

The husband changed his mind when he heard the baby screaming in the maternity ward - and told his wife that he was too old to put up with the crying.

Serif Nokic, 68, decided to leave her on the day the baby arrived in Novi Pazar, in western Serbia's Raska District.

Atifa Ljajic (left) and her partner Serif Nokic have spent 20 years trying to conceive

He told his partner, Atifa Ljajic, that newborn daughter Alina would keep him up at night with her crying.

When asked about abandoning new mum Atifa, Serif said: 'She got what she wanted, now she is happy.'

Serif claims that living with a baby at his age would be too damaging to his health.

Atifa also has health problems, including high blood pressure, but says she is ready to raise her daughter alone.

Serif said: 'Above all, I am a sick man, I am 68, I am a diabetic and I have a weak heart.

'It is not easy not to sleep all night and to hear a baby's cry.'

Atifa was considered a high-risk pregnancy and was in hospital for the three months leading up to giving birth.

Serif claimed that living with a baby at his age would be bad for his health

Serif claimed that he had gone along with the idea even though he had opposed the pregnancy at first.

But as Atifa held Alina in her arms for the first time, Serif decided he did not want to be with his new family.

Little Alina will not even have his last name as he refused to have her registered as his daughter.

The couple are thought to have used an anonymous sperm donor.

Serif, 68, (left) decided to leave his wife on the day she gave birth to Alina

Atifa, who worked in a textile factory, says she will raise her baby by herself even though she has little money.

She is a cousin of Rasim Ljajic, the Minister of Trade and Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, but says she has no relatives who can help her.

Atifa said: 'Whatever happens, whether Serif stays or leaves, I will fight to raise Alina the best way I can and to put her on the right way. I will live only for her.

'I know that it will not be easy but I still believe there are good people who will want to help me.'

Atifa, who works in a textile factory, says that she will 'fight to raise Alina in the best way I can'

As her 60th birthday neared, Atifa had almost given up hope of having children, when doctors told her she was finally expecting a baby following fertility treatment.

Atifa fulfilled her lifelong dream when she successfully gave birth to the healthy baby girl.

She added: 'I knew it would be a big risk at my age, but my only wish in my life was that I have a child, and it happened to me.

'I was not afraid of my life at all, God gave me courage. I have never felt better.'
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This is the incredible moment two RAF Red Arrows missed each other by inches during a daring aerial show.

The crowd held its breath as the two planes flew towards each other at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire today, positioning themselves so precisely that they sped past each other unscathed - but only just.

A photographer captured the incredibly proximity of the two aircraft in the skies at the annual show this afternoon.

The daring display formed a part of the four hours of flying routines on the opening day of the Air Tattoo.

Visitors to this weekend's show will be treated to thrilling flying displays as well as various show planes including fast jets, giant transporters and historic aircraft.

The US Air Force Thunderbirds, who are celebrating their 70th anniversary this year, teamed up to do a flypast with the Red Arrows.

The American demonstration team flew all the way to the UK especially to take part in the show.

The Air Tattoo is staged in support of the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust, a charity set up in 2005 to support the wider RAF family. This year's event runs from today until Sunday.

Near miss kiss: The crowd held its breath as the two planes flew towards each other at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire today, positioning themselves so precisely that they sped past each other unscathed - but only just. A photographer captured the incredibly proximity of the two aircraft in the skies at the annual show this afternoon

Plane spectacular: The daring display formed a part of the four hours of flying routines on the opening day of the Air Tattoo

Teaming up: The US Air Force Thunderbirds, who are celebrating their 70th anniversary this year, did a flypast with the Red Arrows (pictured). The American demonstration team flew all the way to the UK especially to take part in the show

Perfection: Visitors to this weekend's show will be treated to thrilling flying displays as well as various show planes including fast jets, giant transporters and historic aircraft. Pictured: The Red Arrows soaring over the crowds

Jet-tastic: Visitors to this weekend's show will be treated to thrilling flying displays as well as various show planes including fast jets, giant transporters and historic aircraft. Pictured: A solitary Arrow pilot spirals through the air ahead of colleagues

Dazzling: A quad of Arrows dart through the skies of Gloucestershire with a splash of red and blue colouring

Brooding: Rain clouds threatened to dampen spirits during the display today but the Arrows kept everyone on a high

Take a look: The Air Tattoo is staged in support of a charity set up in 2005 to support the wider RAF family. This year's event runs from today until Sunday. Pictured: Tattoo vistors look inside the bomb bay of a Boeing B-52H Stratofortress

Pictured: Two military personnel walk under the wing of a Boeing B-52H Stratofortress

Really wild: 'Deuces Wild', the name of a Boeing B-52H Stratofortress, is seen on one of its landing gears

It's all plane sailing: Armed police will be patrolling the annual show at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire this weekend
Radioactive water used to cool the crippled Fukushima plant is to be released into the Pacific Ocean, according to new plans.

The 'decision has already been made' to release the radioactive material said the new chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, the owner of the plant, on Thursday.

Currently around 770,000 tonnes of contaminated water is stored in 580 tanks at the plant and authorities are running out of space.

Radioactive water used to cool the crippled Fukushima plant (pictured) is to be released into the Pacific Ocean, according to new plans

Environmentalists are concerned because the water still contains tritium, a radioactive isotope that cannot be filtered out with present technology.

WHAT IS TRITIUM? Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen, with a 12.3 year half-life. It is used in fusion reactors and neutron generators. It is also used as wrist watches and gun sights, due to its ability to make phosphor materials glow in the dark. The researchers believe the tritium was spread around the globe by nuclear testing carried out in the 1950s. Advertisement

'I'm very sorry that Tepco has been prolonging making a decision,' said the new chairman Takashi Kawamura.

'We could have decided much earlier, and that is Tepco's responsibility.'

The decision has worried local fishermen who fear their livelihood is at risk because the radioactive material will increase public concerns about the safety of their catches.

Tepco wants to release the tritium-laced water, common practice at normally operating nuclear plants, but the company is struggling to win approval from local fisherman.

Missteps and leaks have dogged the efforts to contain water, slowing down the decades-long decommissioning process and causing public alarm, while experts have raised concerns that tank failures could lead to an accidental release.

Currently around 770,000 tonnes of contaminated water is stored in 580 tanks at the plant (pictured) and authorities are running out of space

'This accident happened more than six years ago and the authorities should have been able to devise a way to remove the tritium instead of simply announcing that they are going to dump it into the ocean', said Aileen Mioko-Smith, an anti-nuclear campaigner with Kyoto-based Green Action Japan.

'They say that it will be safe because the ocean is large so it will be diluted, but that sets a precedent that can be copied, essentially permitting anyone to dump nuclear waste into our seas', she told The Telegraph.

Kawamura added that he would push a government task force overseeing the cleanup to give a clear timetable on when a decision could be made on tritium.

Tepco is also under pressure from the central and local governments to decommission all four reactors at Fukushima Daini, 6 miles (10 kms) to the south of the wrecked plant.

'One of the sticking points is that it's taking time for an economic check of all plants,' Kawamura said, referring to studies on whether the plants would be economic once the cost of beefing up safety was taken into account.

The 'decision has already been made' to release the radioactive material said the new chairman (pictured) of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, the owner of the plant, on Thursday

Daini is expected to close given widespread public opposition to nuclear power in the area, but Tepco is aiming to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in the country's west.

Kawamura said he would cooperate with a review of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant's safety by the local prefecture, which could delay any restart until at least 2020.

A massive undersea earthquake on March 11, 2011 sent a huge tsunami barrelling into Japan's northeast coast leaving more than 18,000 people dead or missing.

Three reactors were sent into meltdown at the Fukushima plant in the worst such accident since Chernobyl in 1986.


The Russian government has threatened to retaliate against the United States months after dozens of Russian officials were expelled from the US and two of its properties were shuttered.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it was prepared to toss out American officials from the country and close down a number of US properties in retaliation if two of its recreational compounds in the United States were not reopened.

In December 2016, former President Barack Obama ordered 35 Russian officials to leave the United States and shut down two Russian owned estates that the American security establishment believed were used as a spy base for the Kremlin.

Russia on Friday threatened to retaliate against the US seven months after former President Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian officials from America (stock photo)

Obama shut down two Russian Federation estates that US officials believed were used as spy bases for the Kremlin

Following the order, Russian President Vladamir Putin said he would not retaliate, leading then President-elect Donald Trump to praise the Russian leader in a tweet.

'Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart!' Trump wrote on Twitter from Florida on December 29.

The Washington Post later reported that the Obama administration struggled to find ways to retaliate against Moscow after the US discovered that Putin was directly involved in a cyber campaign to disrupt and discredit the US presidential race over two years ago.

President Trump and Putin last week discussed the two diplomatic compounds but did not reach an agreement.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Friday that Moscow 'will have to take reciprocal measures' if the issue is not resolved.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and US Undersecretary of State Tom Shannon are scheduled to meet on Monday for much-anticipated talks that Moscow abruptly canceled last month in response to new Ukraine-related sanctions announced by the Trump administration.

Russia is hoping that Shannon will have 'detailed suggestions on how to resolve the situation' with the Russian property in the US, Zakharova said.

The State Department wants a deal that could include restarting US adoptions of Russian children.

It also has to deal with concerns at home - the FBI and some US intelligence professionals fear giving back the sites would aid Russian spy efforts.
Benjamin Stimson, 41, pictured, is the only UK citizen to have been prosecuted for assisting the anti-government militia in Ukraine

An unemployed Briton who joined pro-Russian militia forces fighting against Ukrainian government soldiers has been jailed for five years and four months for a terrorism offence.

Benjamin Stimson, 41, who went to the conflict zone in the Donbass region, is the only UK citizen to have been prosecuted for assisting the anti-government militia in Ukraine.

He reinvented himself as a self styled 'soldier of the new Russia' after he studied pro-Communist propaganda about the Ukraine conflict on the internet when his business crumbled.

While in the country, he gave an interview in which he claimed he was 'a working class man with no work' whose last job was on a zero hours contract.

He said he could not live in Britain any more and was prepared to kill someone if his life was threatened on the front line in what he said he would class as 'an act of war'.

Stimson also posted on Facebook a photograph of himself holding an AK-47, said it was 'simple n' easy' and summed up Donbass as 'vodka, women and guns'.

But Manchester Crown Court heard that Stimson, formerly of Oldham, Greater Manchester, did not actually engage in any fighting during his four months in eastern Ukraine in 2015 and had intended to perform humanitarian work by driving ambulances.

Sentencing him, the Honorary Recorder of Manchester David Stockdale QC said: 'You ultimately did no physical harm to anyone but you assisted the militia by your presence and your involvement, and you will have given a lead to others.

'I accept you do not hold extremist views and you have expressed your regret for your actions.

Stimson, pictured left and right, said he could not live in Britain any more and was prepared to kill someone if his life was threatened on the front line in what he said he would class as 'an act of war'

'It is clear to me that your intention of going there was not to fight but to escape your life in the United Kingdom, perhaps to find adventure and to possibly carry out humanitarian work.

'There is no evidence at all that you at any stage used any violence upon anyone. There is no evidence that you actually engaged in combat.

'On the contrary there is evidence that your presentation as a fighting man was in large part an exaggeration on your own part or even the product of fantasy.'

Stimson pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a single charge of assisting others in committing terrorism acts. He was jailed for five years and four months.

The Crown did not proceed with an additional count of engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorism.

Stimson will be considered for parole at the halfway point of his sentence and on his eventual release will have to serve an extra 12 months on licence.

Stimson, pictured, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a single charge of assisting others in committing terrorism acts

Barnaby Jamieson, prosecuting, said Russia had taken steps to annex the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014 and Donbass became a focal point of the resulting conflict and endured major unrest at the hands of Russian separatists.

He said: 'From the perspective of the Putin government, the conflict was about creating 'Novorussia', or New Russia - and expanding Russian territory to include the entire Ukraine.'

Stimson carried out 'extensive' research on the conflict in the summer of 2015 and among internet search entries later found on his computer were: 'Volunteer to fight in Donbass', 'Britons fighting in Donbass', and 'UK law on fighting overseas'.

The defendant showed a particular interest in 'the Army of Novorussia' and later successfully applied for a Russian visa, said Mr Jamieson.

Stimson flew from Manchester to Moscow via Brussels on August 8, 2015 and was transported to Donbass on his arrival through a contact he established before his journey.

Less than a week later the defendant was complaining of stomach pains and had to spend a week in a military hospital, the court was told.

Manchester Crown Court, pictured, heard that Stimson did not actually engage in any fighting during his four months in eastern Ukraine in 2015 (stock photo)

In mid-October 2015, he gave an interview to BBC correspondent Tom Burridge in which his face was shielded from the camera.

Mr Jamieson said: 'The defendant suggested that after watching reports in the media about far-right groups in Ukraine, he was inspired to join the rebels.

'He also complained of his lack of employment prospects back home.

'He went on to say "well I just see this as a more Western imperialist aggression towards Russia, to people who are not necessarily playing the Western game.

'"I have come here as a working class man with no work. Last job I had was in December last year, zero hour contracts.

'"You can't live in Britain anymore now. No housing, so I voted with me feet".'

Stimson denied he was 'meddling' in the conflict and said he was not a terrorist - unlike 'these jihadists that go out to Syria'.

The defendant returned to the UK on November 23 2015 and was arrested at Manchester Airport on suspicion of terrorism offences.

In his luggage was found various items of military clothing including some which displayed the would-be flag of Novorussia, the court was told.

Mr Jamieson said: 'The defendant accepts by his plea that by serving as an armed militiaman in an irregular force opposing the Ukrainian army he was assisting others with the intention of committing acts of terrorism.

'Taking up arms for a cause that was either political or ideological brings the defendant within the broadly drawn terrorism legislation.

'The law does not distinguish between one political/religious/ideological cause or another.'

Richard Thomas, defending, pointed out there was a cease fire at the time his client was in the war zone but the defendant accepted he would have fought alongside his comrades if they had come under attack from the Ukraine government forces.

He said: 'He accepts that he put himself in a position where he could have provided assistance to the militia.'

Mr Thomas said Stimson's involvement with the militia only began in early September 2015 after his recuperation at a barracks following his discharge from the military hospital.

Within a few days of serving on the frontline he indicated a desire to leave but did not make the arrangements until early November, said the barrister.

Mr Thomas added: 'He remains sympathetic to the plight of the local people but he saw the reality of the militia and what it was with the involvement of oligarchs and power and profit, and he left.

'The defendant does not hold extremist views. In his Facebook contact with a Frenchman who had also been in the Donbass region, on his return he described himself as pro-democracy and a socialist.'

Stimson had a number of previous convictions for 'low level' offences such as criminal damage, theft and drugs possession.

A report from a forensic psychiatrist highlighed his 'troubled background', a dependency on drugs and alcohol and his suffering from depressive disorders.

Mr Thomas said Stimson was seeking help in custody for his addiction problems.

Following sentence, the defendant's father, Martin Stimson, condemned the sentence as 'very severe'.

He said: 'It's plain, and the court accepted, that Ben went out there for humanitarian reasons to drive an ambulance.

'And the court also accepted that Ben is no danger to society, so I'm reeling from that. It's very stiff.

'Initially we thought he was going to work on a farm to get a new life so it was a surprise that he was there in that part of the world.'

Detective Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson, head of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, said: 'Stimson went over to the Ukraine with the intention of joining militia groups fighting against the Ukrainian government and the images of him holding a rifle and wearing military clothing are deeply concerning.

'This case demonstrates the complex work the counter terrorism unit does to stop those who commit acts of terrorism, whether that is at home or abroad.

'He has been jailed for the role he played in a violent conflict and I hope his conviction will send a message to all those who are even considering joining conflicts.'
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Some 2,200 oil wrestlers began fighting bouts at a stadium in the northwestern Turkish city of Edirne today, competing to win a golden belt in a contest dating back to the 14th Century.

Organisers said a record number of wrestlers were taking part in the annual Kirkpinar tournament, in which participants don leather trousers and pour olive oil over their bodies before competing in a grassy field.

Among those challenging for the golden belt and a winner's prize of 50,000 lira ($14,000) was Umit Kinali, 32, a bodyguard from Bodrum in southwest Turkey.

'My grandfather was an oil wrestler and I want to continue our family tradition,' said Kinali. 'Wrestling is fun,' he added, before competing in a bout.

Sixty wrestlers will fight their way through qualifying to compete on Sunday in the final of the 656th edition of the annual contest in Edirne, near the border with Greece and Bulgaria.

The stands in the 25,000-seated Sarayici stadium were sparsely filled on Friday, but were expected to be full on the final day of a contest which the festival's official website describes as the world's longest continuously held sporting event, launched in 1357.

Wrestlers' divisions are not set by weight alone, as is the way the sport is categorised in other countries. Pairs are chosen by judges who consider size, age and track record - which means that people can often end up battling opponents of with completely different physiques.

Oil wrestling is the national sport of Turkey and is also practiced in parts of northern Greece.

Going for gold: Some 2,200 oil wrestlers began fighting bouts at a stadium in the northwestern Turkish city of Edirne today, competing to win a golden belt in a contest dating back to the 14th Century

Oliing up: Organisers said a record number of wrestlers were taking part in the annual Kirkpinar tournament, in which participants don leather trousers and pour olive oil over their bodies before competing in a grassy field

Crunch time: This is the bizarre sport of oil wrestling, which dates back thousands of years to the city of Babylon but is still practiced in northern Greece and is the national sport of Turkey.

Luck of the drawer: Unlike boxing, divisions in oil wrestling do not take into account weight, age and track record - meaning there is often little similarity in physiques between the competitors. Here a 17st wrestler takes on his 6st opponent

Job done: The heavier participant easily came out on top in his bout with a somewhat scrawny opponent

Definite winner: Berke Horuz wins his bout against a motionless Caner Garip

Free reign: The wrestlers are allowed to roam around as the fight takes them, and are typically followed by a referee

Aiming high: Young wrestlers look on as others compete against each other during the 656th annual Kirkpinar festival

Ambitious: Sixty wrestlers will fight their way through qualifying to compete on Sunday in the final of the 656th edition of the annual contest in Edirne, near the border with Greece and Bulgaria

Cooling off: Men oil themselves up before trying to place each other in a hold. Because they are greased up, the easiest way to do this is by getting your hand down their trousers. This wrestler took a moment to cool off under a fountain in today's heat

Worth the wait: The stands in the 25,000-seated Sarayici stadium were sparsely filled today but are expected to be full on the final day of the contest, described as the world's longest continuously held sporting event, launched in 1357

Grappling youths: Two sets of oily young hopefuls fought side by side in the sun today under the eyes of a referee

Challenging for the belt and a winner's prize of 50,000 lira ($14,000) was Umit Kinali (pictured), 32, a bodyguard from Bodrum in southwest Turkey. He said: 'My grandfather was an oil wrestler and I want to continue our family tradition'

Fair and square: A young wrestler consoles his opponent after their match. Fights take place simultaneously in a large field, and unlike most combat sports there is no set field or arena

Looking on: The stands in the 25,000-seated Sarayici stadium were sparsely filled but are expected to be full on the final day

Berke Horuz wins: There are few official rules in the sport, which relies largely on an unspoken code of conduct

Metal studs across the back of the kisbet trousers are used to denote the fighter's gym, or since professional training operations are rare, more commonly features the name of their hometown

Competitions are typically held once per year, in summer, and draw crowds in their thousands to watch

Psyching themselves up: Teen wrestlers rest before their match

Traditional Zurna players perform at the festivities in the city in northwestern Turkey

Resting up: A youngster takes some time out as he waits for his next bout

Oil wrestling is believed to be the closest to ancient Greek wrestling in style. It mainly differs because of the kisbet, which is thought to have been first used as a modesty covering for Muslim competitiors in Turkey. The Greeks would have competed naked, as they did in all sports

Unlike Greco-Roman wrestling, which relies heavily on technical ability, oil wrestling is more a test of endurance

Fun in the sun: Spectators follow wrestling matches during the 656th annual Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Festival in Edirne, Turkey

A teen wrestler shows off his core and upper body strength as his companion washes oil off his body in between bouts

Slippery: An oil-covered group of youths wait for their next fixtures to be announced. The men usually oil one-another as a sign of respect before games

The sport is believed to have developed as a method of training specialist troops in the Ottoman army, before being adopted by the wider public

Traditionally the competition could last for several days, as the men fought for hours to best one-another. Today it all takes place in a single day with the matches limited to a maximum of 40 minutes
The funerals of two Grenfell victims aged 77 years apart were both held in London earlier today.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan joined family and friends in paying respects to Isaac Paulos, five, one of the tragedy's youngest victims, at St Philip's Church, in Battersea, west London.

Later in the day mourners gathered at the Hussaini Islamic Mission, in Isleworth, for the funeral of 82-year-old grandfather Ali Jafari.

The funerals of Grenfell victims Ali Jafari, left, and Isaac Paulos were held on Friday

Both victims were killed, along with at least 80 others, when a blaze erupted at their block of flats in North Kensington last month.

Little Isaac lived on the 18th floor with parents Genet Shawo and Paulos Petakle, and three-year-old brother, Lukas.

He reportedly became separated from his family in the panic and was found dead on the 13th floor.

A family friend, Abenet Amenshoa, paid tribute to Isaac at the service, describing him as 'a smart and generous little boy' who loved playing with his friends.

Mr Amenshoa's five-year-old daughter wrote a letter for the funeral which read: 'Isaac can still play in heaven with the other children. He is also with the angels.'

The BBC reported that a tribute from his uncle, Alem Tekle, read: 'I have you in my heart. Today and every day.'

Attending the Janazah ceremony at the Hussaini Islamic Mission after Friday prayers, mourners including Mr Jafari's sons carried out his coffin chanting prayers in Arabic.

More than 100 members of the local community were present at the service after the grandfather was formally identified on Thursday.

Mr Jafari's sons, Hamid Al Jafari and Bashar Al Jafari, were visibly upset and consoled by members of their family and friends as the coffin was driven away to Borough Cemetery in Twickenham in a private ambulance.

Mourners gather around Mr Jafari's coffin before he is laid to rest

Mourners look on as brothers Bashir (right) and Hamid Jafari are comforted after they carried the coffin of their father Mr Ali Jafari from the Hussaini Islamic Mission after funeral prayers

Family members and mourners carry the coffin of Mr Ali Jafari from the Hussaini Islamic Mission following funeral prayers

Before the service, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement: 'Mr Ali Jafari, aged 82, died after being caught up in the fire at Grenfell Tower. Mr Jafari is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren.'

In the days following the fire Hamid Al Jafari said his father had lost contact with his mother and sister, who lived with him in Grenfell Tower.

According to the Telegraph, Mr Jafari said: 'He was with my mother and sister in the lift and she said the lift stopped on the 10th floor and he said there was too much smoke and he couldn't breathe and he got out of the lift, and then the doors shut and it didn't stop again till the ground floor.'
Daniel Rak, 31, was charged in June 2016 with first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated domestic battery for allegedly killing his dad, Jeffrey Rak, 58

A man from Illinois is about to go on trial accused of fatally beating and killing his father after prosecutors say he walked into a bathroom as his sons girlfriend was in the bath.

Daniel Rak, 31, from Burlington was charged in June 2016 with first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated domestic battery for allegedly killing his dad, Jeffrey Rak, 58.

Rak became enraged and allegedly struck his father in the face after he walked into a bathroom as Daniels girlfriend, who was also living at the home, took a bath.

Emergency responders were called to the house where the Rak's lived to find dad, Jeffrey, unresponsive, with bruising and swelling to his face and head.

It was later found that the cause of his death was blunt head trauma.

Daniel Rak, has pleaded not guilty and remains in Kane County Jail on $950,000 bond.

His attorney plans to defend Rak by suggesting that his father, Jeffrey, was an alcoholic who would often have seizures and who died from a seizure and fall rather than being attacked by his son.

Rak became enraged and allegedly struck his father in the face after he walked into a bathroom as Daniels girlfriend, was taking a bath. He has pleaded not guilty

According to the New York Post Kane County Public Defender Kelli Childress has tried to dismiss the charges against Rak.

Jury selection will start on Monday in the case is expected to begin Monday. If convicted, Rak faces between 20 and 60 years in prison.

Jeffrey Raks death is an example of the most tragic result of domestic violence, McMahon said in a statement last year. Domestic violence is at the root of far more deaths than most people realize.
It is the scandal which has electrified Washington, New York, and Russia, overshadowed the president's visit to France - and painted his eldest son as at very least a fool and at worst a knave.

The disclosure that Donald Trump Jr met a Russian lawyer after being offered incriminating information about Hillary Clinton is the most scandalous - and possibly most dangerous - yet to hit the White House.

But what is still unknown is who leaked the fact of the meeting and, even worse, the explosive emails between the president's son and the portly British Svengali who offered the dirt on Hillary.

So who started plunged a knife into Don Jr by starting Spygateski - and who has means, motive, AND opportunity?

WAS IT JARED KUSHNER?

Family affair: The president's son-in-law is getting less flack for the Russia meeting than Don Jr - so could that mean he got it out there himself? He was grinning and relaxed at the Sun Valley, Idaho, get-together for billionaires. And family feuding is the Kushner way

THE MEANS: HE WAS SENT THE MEETING EMAIL

To be able to leak the fact of the meeting and the emails means firstly knowing about the meeting, and secondly having the emails.

Jared Kushner had both: he was at the meeting, and he was copied in on the emails setting it up.

What would point more powerfully towards the president's son-in-law is the timing of this.

The reason the meeting came onto any radars at all was because of Kushner's security clearance process.

Details of that were revealed Friday by Yahoo News - with the crucial detail that it was Kushner's lawyers who discovered the emails.

Although it is unclear exactly when they found them, Kushner updated his security disclosure form on June 21 as a result of the emails.

It emerged Friday that his legal team had told Trump's personal lawyer and the attorney for the Trump Organization three weeks ago about the existence of the emails.

That means he had been reminded recently of their existence and had them at hand.

THE MOTIVE: THE BEST DEFENSE IS ATTACK

Donald Trump Jr is family - so what on earth would make Jared Kushner leak the most damaging information yet to hit the White House?

The most plausible explanation is that the White House is a kill or be killed environment and that Jared's camp were calculating that the meeting would emerge in some form anyway - so better to get the focus on Donald Jr than on Kushner.

There is no doubt that if that was the intention, it has succeeded.

The very first headline, in the New York Times on Saturday 8 July, concentrated on Donald Trump Jr, setting the tone for a week of coverage.

He's taking dthe heat: Don Jr went on Hannity to explain himself; sources claim an operation in the West Win is protecting Jared

It was Don Jr, not Kushner, who featured in headlines and on Chyrons, and it was Don Jr who changed his explanation repeatedly, went on Fox News's Hannity show on Tuesday to claim he had told 'everything' only for the list of attendees to grow to include a Soviet spy by Friday.

And there are now claims of an operation to 'protect Jared' inside the White House.

'Who do you have to protect, You have to protect the guy who filled out the form saying I never took this meeting,' said an unnamed source.

The downside to the theory that it is Kushner is that the Trump family have in the past always been utterly united.

But Kushner's family is different: when Charles Kushner, Jared's father was under investigation for making illegal campaign contributions, his own brother-in-law co-operated with federal investigators.

In revenge, Charles Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and sent a tape of the encounter to Esther, the man's wife - and Charles's sister - to stop her testifying in an intra-family civil suit. Charles went to prison for witness tampering.

Meanwhile Charles and Jared's uncle Murray are entirely estranged thanks to a 'Cain and Abel' feud which saw them donate to political rivals.

If there are two lessons for Jared, it's that loyalty inside family counts for nothing and that striking first is the best plan - and if that is true, it is now Don Jr paying the price.

THE OPPORTUNITY: IMMACULATE MEDIA CONNECTIONS

The recipients of the leaks so far have been the New York Times, the Washington Post, and NBC. Kushner is hardly short of links to all three.

Kushner, a former newspaper owner, has rarely spoken on camera but he is known to speak to journalists individually and to obsess about his press coverage to the extent that he has his own spokesman, Josh Raffel.

That spokesman had worked in the past for the immaculately connected Hiltzik PR agency in New York.

Jared is thought to have his own contacts among journalists and the extent of his obsession was hinted at by Politico on Friday: he was so irritated at television coverage he wanted two White House staffers devoted to complaining about the contents of cable news channels' kyrons.

So could he have crafted a deal with the New York Times, Washington Post and NBC to make sure they were nice to him?

ANALYSIS

Probably frontrunner for the leaks candidate; no smoking gun yet - but a grand deal with the media seems a conpsiracy theory too far.

WAS IT THE RUSSIANS?

Rich new cast of characters: Rob Goldstone (left) set up the meeting and Rinat Akhmetshin (right) was there. Could their ultimate bosses - probably the Kremlin - be behind the leak?

THE MEANS: OLIGARCH'S SON'S AIDE SET UP MEETINGS

The email trail started by Rob Goldstone would have been in the portly British PR's records - and he is employed by a would-be Russian pop star with deep ties to Putin.

All a Russian operative had to do was hand over first the fact of the meeting and then the emails, which were dripped out, with the New York Times disclosing the existence of the meeting on Saturday, and finally saying it had the emails on Tuesday, which prompted Don Jr to tweet them anyway.

Plenty of Russians knew about the meeting. Among them, we learned Friday, Rinat Akhmetshin.

THE MOTIVE

One motive for the Russians could be unhappiness at progress with the Trump administration.

Although Trump has sounded friendlier and met Putin, in reality sanctions are still in place and could get tougher thanks to laws being pushed by Republican Russia hawks.

The Russians may see this as a black op designed to get the White House to do its bidding - although if that is the case, it might have gone about it the wrong way.

The other possibility is that Russian interventions in foreign adversaries' affairs are often designed with one end: chaos.

In the chaos, Russia's interests are advanced, goes the theory.

That explanation has been offered for the alleged hacking of the 2016 election, with the view being that Putin did not want Trump to win so much as to discredit Hillary Clinton when she got into office.

Now with Trump in the White House, he is trying for the same, paralyzing the administration with this leak, and the possibility of more to come.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The way in which the story emerged raises some eyebrows.

For a group of shadowy figures, the Russians at the meeting have been surprisingly loquacious.

Indeed it only took from Saturday until Tuesday for NBC News to be sitting down exclusively with Natalia Veselnitskaya in their Moscow bureau.

One eyebrow-raising point is that their correspondent Keir Simmons must have been issued a visa to get into Moscow - and if he did not have a pre-existing one, they usually take days to be processed.

A second eyebrow might be raised by the way NBC News reported the presence of an 'unnamed man' on Friday morning, who was quickly revealed to be Rinat Akhmetshin.

Giving a source anonymity is standard journalistic practice to be able to get access to a story.

So could the lobbyist - who was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to get legal measures the Russians hate overturned - have been NBC's source?

ANALYSIS

Russians like causing chaos but this would seem to make it more, not less, likely that they get hit by sanctions.

WAS IT THE FBI?

Served cold? James Comey's old agency might have been passed the means to epicly shiv its enemies- the Trumps and Jared Kushner, who pushed for him to be fired

THE MEANS: THEY INTERVIEWED JARED LATE IN JUNE

The FBI were told the fact that Kushner met the Russians on June 21 when he updated his SF-86 security clearance form to disclose that and many other meetings.

it is unclear whether he would have had to provide supporting documentation to them for the newly-disclosed meetings when updating the form.

But until Friday it had not been appreciated that this was followed on June 23 by the FBI interviewing Kushner.

That raises the significant possibility that the FBI were given - or demanded - the emails which revealed the meeting, putting in their hands the explosive information they contained.

THE MOTIVE: REVENGE STRIKE - OR CLEVER DETECTIVE WORK

The FBI has just been through the shattering firing of its director, James Comey, because of the Russia probe.

And the man who pushed for it inside the White House was Jared Kushner.

The role was first reported in May by the New York Times, which disclosed that others argued against sacking him

Comey was widely-reported to be popular inside the FBI and if agents were presented with a smoking gun which discredits not just Trump but Kushner particularly, then it would have been a powerful incentive to leak.

That went well: Jared argued to fire Comey, Bannon argued against - now Jared is the one being questioned by the Feds

But there could be a less personal and more professional explanation too: that the FBI decided to plant a strategic leak to flush out more details.

While they knew about the meeting once they got Kushner's form, they still didn't know a lot about it.

Thanks to the tsunami of revelations which have followed the disclosure, FBI agents now have a rich seam of people to investigate - and a lie to hold over Don Jr's head.

While failing to tell the truth to Sean Hannity is not a federal offense, Don Jr might be a more pliant and talkative witness now that the meeting is known.

And Russians who would be unlikely to co-operate with the FBI have given damaging evidence in public.

So could the FBI have advanced Robert Mueller's probe into alleged Trump-Russian collusion with a single explosive leak?

It is a highly-risky tactic for an agency already reeling from the Clinton server investigation, and the sacking of James Comey. But if it works, it would be worth it.

THE OPPORTUNITY: AGENCY HAS LEAKED BEFORE

Deep Throat was the deputy FBI director and James Comey told the Senate that he leaked as soon as he was out of office, so the FBI isn't exactly new to leaking.

The Times, Post and NBC all have reporters with deep connections to law enforcement.

What is simpler than an old-fashioned document drop? One intriguing point is that after Don Jr published his emails, the New York Times did not publish their versions - which might have some more features on them to identify how they emerged; Don Jr's of course were simply printed from his inbox, scanned and tweeted.

The problem with blaming the FBI of course is that it is usually more interested in prosecuting in the law courts than in the court of public opinion.

ANALYSIS

Revenge is a dish best served cold - and the FBI may have in its ranks someone who remembers the words of Jim Malone to Eliot Ness in the Untouchables: 'He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.'

A strategic leak in the highest-profile investigation the agency has had since the Clinton probe seems like a huge risk for the FBI - but on the other hand, if it discovered evidence of collusion, it would be the biggest win in its history.

WHO ELSE COULD IT BE?

Et tu dad? Could Trump himself have thrown his own son - who he called a 'good kid' under the bus?

Trump's White House is more like Game of Thrones than the West Wing.

The feuding camps are now lined up so that Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus are on the opposite side from Jared Kushner - at least for now.

All of them speak to reporters on and off the record regularly.

High-powered team: Trump's personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz is there to protect one man: the president

Outside are legal teams who have had access to the information.

One is representing President Trump alone. He could have decided to throw his son under the bus because so far this scandal does not implicate him directly.

Or one of his legal team could have made that calculation on his behalf - or equally the legal team could itself be compromised by a malicious leaker.

Also around inside the White House are long-time officials who may be honest whistleblowers or smear merchants - depending on the view of the person describing them.

Obama holdovers always get a mention when the White House is trying to find the source of leaks.

And there is the 'deep state' outside the White House, the shadowy spy community which the Trump camp claim is trying to bring them down.

And finally there is the possibility of a completely different figure - perhaps even the 400lb hacker in his mom's basement who Trump suggested might have hacked the DNC.

ANALYSIS

This story gets crazier by the day, so why not?
A scene from Peony Pavilion.[Photo/Xinhua]

Melodies and tunes centuries old from ancient China resounded at the foot of the Athens Acropolis, a citadel of ancient Greece, Wednesday evening, giving the audience a marvelous night of the meeting of two great civilizations traversing both the distance and time.

As part of celebrations for the China-Greece Cultural Exchanges and Culture Industry Cooperation Year, a troupe from China's Suzhou Kun Opera Theatre of East China's Jiangsu province presented the opera, one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, at the foot of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The exquisite performance of six scenes from the Peony Pavilion, a play written by playwright Tang Xianzu in the Ming Dynasty in the 16th century was staged at the impressive Roman-era Herod Atticus Theater in the context of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, the most prestigious annual cultural festival in Greece since 1955.

A total of 36 performers, musicians and technical crew staged the impeccable performance of the classic masterpiece of Kun Opera, one of the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera with over 600 years of history.

Despite the long history, the powerful plot of the extraordinary tale of love between two young people, the beautiful melodies, the elegant costumes, and the grace and skills of the performers fall no short of enthralling the audience today.

"We are so happy that on the occasion of the Year of Greece-China friendship we watch this performance. Since I come from the theater field, as a director, I feel that the affinity between the two civilizations in theater is so intense... I think it is precious for us, people involved in theater, to watch such performances," Vangelis Theodoropoulos, artistic director of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, told Xinhua following the performance.

"I think the Greek audience has a very good understanding of opera in general and I think they comprehend our Kun opera. Kun opera is a masterpiece of UNESCO intangible cultural heritage," the director Cai Shaohua told Xinhua, shortly before the show.

"I think that opera is a very good art form for communication and exchanges between different cultures and different peoples. This time apart from the performance we are going to the Athens School of Fine Arts to do a workshop and we are looking forward to exchange ideas with students, with professors and with the general public," Cai said.

According to the director, to present a beautiful Chinese love story in a beautiful Chinese opera before the audience, the troupe has been fully prepared.

This is not the first time for the Suzhou Kun Opera Theatre to perform in Athens. In 2008, they performed in three nights in the Megaron Concert Hall and also won a big success.

Angeliki Pagoni, a Greek teacher who is also staging theater shows for children, watched Wednesday's performance with her daughter. She was impressed by the artistic techniques and told Xinhua she will attempt to use them in her future shows.

"It is the first time I am watching a Chinese cultural performance. I came out of curiosity, because my daughter is fond of Chinese culture. She took the initiative to buy the tickets and I came along," she said.

"It is great getting acquainted with the culture and the art techniques of different peoples. It is so enriching," she added, underlining the significance of further enhancing cultural exchanges between peoples.
It is late May 1940 and the British Expeditionary Force is in retreat, pinned against the Channel coast.

They had sailed for France almost nine months before, anticipating Hitlers Blitzkrieg that finally came on May 10 when Germany invaded Belgium and Holland.

Now, Lord Gort, head of the BEF, has decided to evacuate his troops  and Churchills generals are praying for a miracle.

As an epic new film, Dunkirk, opens in cinemas, author JONATHAN MAYO reveals in electrifying detail how the heroic mass evacuation unfolded...

One British officer, Captain Jack Churchill (pictured), brought a bow and arrow with him to France

Monday, May 27, 1940

1am: Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay has been put in charge of the evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo. The War Cabinet has given him two days to evacuate 45,000 men, most of them from the BEF.

From his underground headquarters in Dover, Ramsay is writing to his wife Mag, who sends him daily supplies of gingerbread and asparagus. I have on at the moment one of the most difficult and hazardous operations ever conceived I hardly dare think about it or what the day is going to bring.

5am: Luftwaffe bomber formations appear in the dawn skies over Dunkirk. Calais was captured yesterday, so Dunkirk to the north-east is now their primary target.

Its harbour is soon ablaze and the glow from the fires can be seen in England. Burning oil storage tanks send a column of black smoke into the sky. The troops find cover where they can  one lance corporal hides in a wooden Tate & Lyle crate. Dunkirk smells of spent high explosive and burning oil.

Inland, German planes are dropping leaflets that read British soldiers! Put down your arms! A map on the leaflet, showing where the British Army is trapped on the French coast, gives hope to many soldiers who hadnt believed the stories about an escape route via Dunkirk. Some are using the leaflets as toilet paper.

9am: Thousands of soldiers are descending to the gently sloping beaches of the seaside resorts to the east of Dunkirk.

Some are drinking in abandoned cafes, others are sunbathing or swimming, but most have joined a series of queues a quarter of a mile long that snake from the sea up to the dunes, waiting patiently for a small boat to take them out to a larger vessel. Those at the front are standing up to their necks in the water.

The BEF is a regular army, so discipline is generally good, but there is some disorder.

Captain Anthony Rhodes of the Royal Engineers sees a soldier running towards the head of a queue where a naval officer is loading a boat. The officer points his gun at the man. Go back to the place youve come from or Ill shoot! he shouts. The soldier walks slowly away.

It is late May 1940 and the British Expeditionary Force is in retreat, pinned against the Channel coast (File photo)

10am: Vice-Admiral Ramsay knows that ferries and fast destroyers are vital for a swift and successful evacuation, but that he also needs a fleet of small ships to ferry troops from the Dunkirk beaches to the destroyers.

By a stroke of luck, a Small Vessels Pool has already been created. On May 14, the government had placed advertisements in newspapers and made announcements on the BBC asking for boats from 30ft to 100ft in length to work as auxiliary vessels in harbours. These boats are now being mobilised.

In the London Pool, lifeboats are being taken off liners; along the coast, the crews of trawlers, barges and tugboats are being contacted.

Although RNLI crews doubt their lifeboats are suitable for bringing men off beaches, the Admiralty takes them anyway. Among the vessels requisitioned by the Navy is the 26ft motor yacht Chalmondesleigh, which is owned by the comedian Tommy Trinder and named after the imaginary friend he mentions in his act. It took the signwriter three days to complete, Tommy used to joke.

At the Tough Brothers boatyard on the Thames, the phone rings. Douglas Tough answers  its an admiral from the Small Vessels Pool who wants to know if he will round up craft in his area to rescue the BEF. Douglas has a dozen in the boatyard that would be ideal, and knows he can find more.

11am: At the village of L Epinette, 20 miles from Dunkirk, 80 men from the 2nd Manchesters are trying to hold back the German advance. One of their officers, Captain Jack Churchill, brought a bow and arrow with him to France. Now is his chance to use it. Taking up position in a granary loft, Jack spots a German unit sheltering behind a building and lets fly an arrow, hitting an infantryman in the chest and killing him.

As an epic new film, Dunkirk, opens in cinemas, author JONATHAN MAYO reveals in electrifying detail how the heroic mass evacuation unfolded. Pictured, a still from the upcoming movie

6pm: In the town of Wormhoudt, 17 miles from Dunkirk, 80 British soldiers, most from the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, are being herded into a barn by the SS Adolf Hitler Regiment. Overrun and out of ammunition, the British had surrendered.

With all the men inside the barn, the SS throw in hand grenades and fire their machine guns. Two British soldiers leap on top of the grenades to save their comrades, but in vain. Only six men survive.

Douglas Tough has spent the day in his boatyard preparing vessels for a voyage across the Channel and has gone up and down the Thames looking for volunteers to join the armada. If he spots a suitable boat, but cant find the owner, he takes it anyway. Some boats make several Channel crossings before their owners even realise they are missing.

10.30pm: Too few men are being rescued from the beaches. Captain William Tennant RN, who has been given command of the operation on shore, has been in Dunkirk for just a few hours when he spots a solution.

Although Dunkirks five miles of quays have been wrecked, two long piers, or moles, stretching into the harbour mouth are unharmed. They are wide enough for three men to walk abreast and will make jetties. Tennant signals to HMS Wolfhound to come alongside the East Mole and take on 1,000 men.

Tuesday

4am: After 18 days of fighting, Belgium surrenders to the Nazis. In Churchills words, the ceasefire adds appreciably to the grievous peril of British troops at Dunkirk.

5.07am: In Dover, Vice-Admiral Ramsay receives a signal from the destroyer HMS Wakeful: Plenty troops, few boats. The number of queues on the beaches is increasing.

On board the paddle steamer Medway Queen, First Lieutenant John Graves is amazed by the lines of men stretching from the dunes into the sea, looking like human piers. Officers wade about, offering words of encouragement.

Medway Queen lowers her lifeboats to bring men aboard. Below decks, cook Thomas Russell has been told by the ships captain to prepare sandwiches and hot drinks for several hundred men who will no doubt feel somewhat peckish.

8.30am: Captain Anthony Rhodes, who yesterday on the beach saw a naval officer draw his gun, has arrived safely in England and is on a train bound for Waterloo Station in London.

They had sailed for France almost nine months before, anticipating Hitlers Blitzkrieg that finally came on May 10 when Germany invaded Belgium and Holland. Pictured, a still from the upcoming movie

The train is full of bedraggled soldiers as well as pinstriped commuters. To Rhodess surprise, the gentleman sitting next to him puts two half-crowns in his hand.

11.30am: In the middle of the daily War Cabinet meeting, Winston Churchill is handed a note from Naval Intelligence that contains bad news for the troops at Dunkirk  the terms of the Belgian armistice.

Belgian troop movements forbidden  troops to line up on the side of roads and await orders, showing white flags  German troops to be allowed to proceed to coast.

But there is some good news for the War Cabinet  11,400 troops landed back in Britain overnight and 2,500 more are on their way.

Noon: The little ships start to arrive off the coast of France.

Pleasure yachts, cabin cruisers, cockleboats and motor launches, crewed by solicitors, farmers, journalists, a cinema manager.

They have all signed the papers that make them subject to Navy discipline and promise them a one-off payment of 3.

Their role is to get as close to shore as possible, pick up the men from the queues in the sea, then transfer them to waiting destroyers, ferries and minesweepers.

Some steam launches are making their first ever sea voyage. Among them is the Marchioness, that will survive coming under fire at Dunkirk, but 49 years later  crowded with bithday party revellers on the Thames  will be hit by the dredger Bowbelle, with the loss of 51 lives.

The Mole running out into Dunkirk harbour is working well  11 destroyers have picked up troops this morning. But the men on the beaches have built their own pier, made from army trucks that they have driven into the sea. Duckboards have been placed on top for the soldiers to walk on.

6pm: Twenty-five government ministers arrive at Admiralty House for a meeting with Churchill (he is living in a flat there until the previous Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, leaves Downing Street). Churchill tells them about the Dunkirk evacuation and that although Paris will soon fall, he will not enter negotiations with That Man [Hitler]: If this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when each one of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground.

The ministers roar their approval.

10pm: The paddle steamer Medway Queen has made her second trip of the day to France and is leaving Dunkirk laden with soldiers. First Lieutenant John Graves watches with alarm as sparks start to fly from the ships funnel in the gathering darkness, making her an easy target for Nazi bombers.

He helps organise a bucket chain along the deck and up ladders to the top of the funnel.

The tallest sailor on board is pouring the water down the funnel and into the engine room  much to the annoyance of the engine rooms crew.

Now, Lord Gort, head of the BEF, has decided to evacuate his troops  and Churchills generals are praying for a miracle. Pictured, a still from the upcoming movie

Sergeant Frank Hurrell of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps has queued all day with a wounded leg to escape France, and now he is on a ship pulling out of Dunkirk harbour.

Suddenly there is a German Stuka dive-bomb attack and Frank is blown into the water, losing both his walking stick and his rifle. He manages to swim slowly to a beach. He limps his way to the back of a queue.

In Dover, Vice-Admiral Ramsay is pleased  17,804 men were brought out today. It is clear that Operation Dynamo is going so well, it will exceed the War Cabinets target of 45,000 men and should continue beyond its planned two days.

Wednesday

8am: The Germans are now only five miles from Dunkirk, but low cloud and pouring rain mean there will be a welcome respite from attacks by the Luftwaffe, for a while at least.

2.45pm: The weather has cleared and the Luftwaffe seizes the opportunity for a massive Stuka attack. To avoid the blasts on the beaches, men are curled up in foxholes they have dug in the sand with their bare hands.

Some have hidden there for many days. Luftwaffe corporal Hans Mahnert looks down from his Stuka dive-bomber at the armada of ships in the Channel and it reminds him of a painting hed seen of the Battle of Trafalgar.

The destroyers loading troops on the East Mole pier are the bombers main target. HMS Jaguar is hit and forced to return to Dover, listing heavily.

HMS Grenade is set on fire after being struck by two bombs; as the soldiers and sailors scramble onto the Mole to escape, they are machine-gunned by a fighter plane. Able Seaman P. Cavanagh is pushed to the ground by a man behind him, who then covers him with his body. As the plane disappears, Cavanagh asks him to get off, but there is no reply. He has been killed.

Some troops rush back along the East Mole towards the town, desperate to escape the bombs and gunfire. Two Royal Navy commanders stand in their way and draw their revolvers.

One says quietly: We have come to take you back to the U.K. I have six shots here and Im not a bad shot. The lieutenant behind me is an even better one. So that makes 12 of you. Now get down into those bloody ships!

7pm: The Red Funnel paddle steamer Gracie Fields, famous for her speed on the daily run between Southampton and the Isle of Wight, is carrying 750 exhausted men. Although shes fast, she cant outrun a German bomber  her engine room takes a direct hit.

Pictured, LaPanne near Dunkirk after the British retreat and mass evacuation in 1940

With her rudder jammed, the steamer begins to circle. Smaller vessels manage to get alongside and bring the troops on board. One strong gunner from the Royal Artillery carries men across on his shoulders one at a time.

A few days later, the writer J.B. Priestley, who lives on the Isle of Wight and travelled on the Gracie Fields many times, will pay tribute to her on the BBC: This little steamer, like all her brave and battered sisters, is immortal. Our great-grandchildren may learn how the little holiday steamers made an excursion to hell and came back glorious.

8.15pm: The captain of HMS Vimy is sending a message to Vice-Admiral Ramsay: Request continuous fighter action in the air. If these conditions are not complied with, a scandal, repetition scandal, reflecting on the present British Cabinet for ever, will pass to history. The message is swiftly passed on to Downing Street.

The soldiers at Dunkirk feel the RAF has abandoned them. In fact RAF pilots are flying hundreds of sorties to protect the troops, but many of them are farther south to ambush German bombers on their way to Dunkirk. The daily losses of aircraft are higher than in the Battle of Britain a few weeks later.

9pm: This has been a disastrous day for the Royal Navy three destroyers have been sunk and six badly damaged in the harbour and in the Channel. The Admiralty tells Vice-Admiral Ramsay that all modern destroyers must be withdrawn from the Dunkirk evacuation  they are just too valuable.

10pm: Churchill is making his eighth visit of the day to the Admiralty War Room to check on the evacuations progress. The officer in charge, Captain Richard Pim, asks him for four days leave to travel to France to help the evacuation. God bless you, Churchill replies. I wish I were going with you myself.

Harry Styles (left) stars in the upcoming film about the heroic Dunkirk evacuation

Thursday

2am: The hospital ship Isle of Guernsey, a Southern Railway steamer, is slowly pulling away from the East Mole in Dunkirk harbour. She has been converted to carry 250 wounded men, but has nearly 1,000 filling every available space  some are even in the lifeboats. Shell-shock cases are below decks, sedated and under guard.

Suddenly, the steamer shudders to a halt  the Isle of Guernsey has hit a sandbank.

All on board are terrified because, despite being painted with Red Cross markings, many hospital ships have been attacked and sunk in the past few days.

The Isle of Guernsey is a sitting duck. All the crew can do is wait for the rising tide to carry them off. After a nervous hour-long wait, she floats free.

6am: Captain NDG James of the 68th Field Battery wakes up in a sand trench on the beach. James can hear French voices, so he peers over the edge and sees a burial party a few feet away. He discovers he isnt in a trench  hes in a newly dug grave, so he scrambles out and walks away.

7am: The Army informs Vice-Admiral Ramsay that the perimeter created by British and French troops to keep the Germans back from Dunkirk cannot be held for long.

Soldiers are fleeing on bicycles and horses  one soldier is even using a pair of rollerskates.

Royal Engineer Leonard Howard, 21, is trudging towards Dunkirk with a sergeant-major who has tears running down his face. I never thought Id see the British Army like this, he says.

As the ruthless German forces advance relentlessly and the Luftwaffes planes fill the skies, the fate of that Army balances on a knife-edge.
She is the writer behind Call The Midwife, one of the most beloved TV series of modern times.

He is part of the McGann acting dynasty. When they met, there was a magnetic attraction which has never waned.

But as Stephen McGann (who plays Call The Midwifes Dr Patrick Turner) reveals in this first extract from his moving memoir, serialised in the Mail next week, they were tested to the extreme by an illness that nearly cost Heidi Thomas her life when their son was weeks old.

Stephen McGann, left, has revealed in his memoirs that a serious illness that affected his wife Heidi Thomas inspired her to create Call The Midwife

Love at first sight? I didnt believe in it. I found it rather a trite idea  a self-confirming justification for a love that two people build by endeavour.

But love at first sight is exactly what happened to me when I first met Heidi Thomas. So what do I know?

Its 1986. Im 23. A young actor. Im living in a council flat in East London and Im auditioning every day.

One morning, I get a call about a play called Shamrocks And Crocodiles. Im due to meet the writer and director in Liverpool, so I take the train from Euston and settle down to read the script.

Its the story of a family torn apart by the death of a father, and its brilliant. Searing, intelligent and thoughtful.

I turn to the front of the script to read the name of the author. Heidi Thomas. Ive never heard of her.

The themes are far too mature and deftly crafted for her to be a young writer, so my guess is shes a mature woman  a mother returning to work after raising children, or a wizened academic on a second career.

Im met at the theatre stage door by the director and taken into a small room. As I enter, Heidi Thomas rises to greet me.

Im speechless. Shes young  early 20s like me, but with a complexion and elfin figure that makes her look like a teenager.

Shes a Liverpool native, yet sounds like the head-girl of an Edwardian convent school. This woman  this girl  wrote that beautiful, brutal, black-humoured script?

We discuss the play. Heidi starts to speak, her high-toned staccato sprinkling the room like birdsong.

I see her qualities right away  and my heart is soon banging so loudly in my ribs that I fear shell hear it.

I have to get that job. I have to see her again. Has she felt it, too?

She has. When I leave the theatre, she races out into the nearby city square to find me. In her head  she told me later  a single word repeated itself over and over: Found. Found. Found.

Heidi, pictured with their son Dominic after giving birth in 1996, was struck down with a gangrenous small intestine which nearly killed her

Stephen, who plays Dr Patrick Turner on Call The Midwife, left with Laura Main as Sister Shelagh, said his wife's ordeal was a 'waking nightmare'

I got the job; and in the following weeks, Heidi and I fell irredeemably in love. Wed stay in the rehearsal room during lunch breaks and wed talk and talk.

We knew that we loved each other, but we both had partners.

What we had was something else, something requiring a different kind of bonding.

The play was a great success. It concluded, and we wrote to each other for a while.

Being young and stupid, I convinced myself that the momentous things I felt for her must be a recurring feature of life. We lost touch.

Two years went by. Then, we met again. I was filming a comedy series in Liverpool and when I walked into a bar one evening, she was sitting there. My heart thumped in my chest.

We exchanged pleasantries. She told me she was soon to fly to the Soviet Union on a journalistic assignment. She looked lovely. She was also newly single.

My heart was banging against my ribs like a Victorian schoolmaster thwacking a ruler on a slow boys head.

Tell her, you fool! Tell her how you feel! Say something! This is important.

What did I do? I started an argument. A silly, petty argument about nothing. My only excuse is that the romantic tension was so intense it required an outlet.

I watched her eyes brim with tears as we bickered, and I could feel the headmasters ruler thwacking me harder. I was screaming at myself to stop, but couldnt.

We parted frostily, and I returned to my hotel room, shell-shocked. I closed the door.

At that precise moment the truth became clear. Heidi was the love of my life. My anchor. Id never find anyone else like her. And Id just blown it.

Stephen, pictured with Laura Main on Call The Midwife, married Heidi in 1990 and they had their son Dominic six years later

I slept fitfully, and rose early to work. When I came back to my hotel the following evening, there was a book of love poetry by Brian Patten pushed under my door, and a card inserted at this poem:

Doubt shall not make an end of you

nor closing eyes lose your shape

when the retinas light fades;

what dawns inside me will light you.

My heart stopped. Enough was enough. I needed to find this woman and ask her to be my wife. And this time I needed to be something other than a complete idiot.

Shed left her number on the card, so I rang her mothers house in Liverpool straight away.

Can I speak to Heidi please?

Shes gone to the USSR.

Already? Have you got a number for her?

Shes in Siberia. Behind the Iron Curtain. Its not like ringing the council.

Heidi returned several weeks later  and within two years we were married. It was 1990, we were both 27, and we abandoned city living for rural Essex.

Heidi was now a TV scriptwriter  well-paid work that helped smooth the all-or-nothing nature of my acting career. We wanted children, but five years on, the pregnancy hadnt materialised.

It turned out Heidi had an ovarian cyst which had rendered her infertile  the result of long-term endometriosis [an incurable condition in which tissue normally found in the womb lining develops abnormally elsewhere].

The specialist was hopeful. If the cyst was surgically removed, we might have a short window of opportunity for conception.

We wasted no time. Heidi was admitted to hospital in late October 1995. After her operation, shed maybe have six months in which to conceive, said the specialist. The clock was ticking.

That January, Heidi brandished a positive pregnancy test. We tried not to get too excited, but we allowed ourselves to imagine the house echoing with new cries.

Sadly, it wasnt to be. After six weeks, the pregnancy terminated naturally. We cried tears for that unformed little vessel of our hopes.

Now at least we knew that conception was possible. But the fertility window had shrunk to only a couple more months, so we had to be organised and resolute. At that point, our plans went west, in more ways than one.

Heidi, pictured, survived after emergency surgery and said the experience 'stopped her being so afraid'

Stephen, pictured with Laura Main on the show, has been on Call The Midwife since the first series

I landed a job in a touring version of the cowboy musical Calamity Jane, playing Wild Bill Hickok.

We were in no financial position for me to turn it down, so we carefully planned our baby attempts for those weeks when Id be playing in the South-East  close enough to commute from home.

When the curtain came down, Id whizz back in my car to continue my nights work.

Members of the cast, aware of my efforts, encouraged my hurried exit with cries of Break a leg! and Yee hah!

Once again, we were successful. As the weeks rolled by, things felt better. More secure.

Each week was a new milestone, bringing us closer to the time that we knew the baby would be safe.

On December 29, Heidi went into labour. At the hospital, three hours went by. Then the foetal heart monitor began to show the babys heart rate dropping abnormally.

I saw the medics exchange concerned professional looks. The baby was becoming stressed.

Time stood still. Then a single adult voice was heard  professional relief devoid of emotion. Its out.

I caught a blurred glimpse of blue-coloured flesh  like a little dolphin  as the staff huddled around the newborn and carried it off to clear its throat of mucus.

Seconds went by. Then at last I heard the baby cry. Not a full cry. More of a slow, bruised groan.

The midwife carried the little groaning thing over to me. I saw its face for the first time.

Red and bruised from the forceps, grimacing with pain. A boy. I had a son. Dominic.

Heidi had to be whisked away, so I was surprised to find myself alone in a recovery room with him.

I sat really close and lightly stroked his battered face. Every ten seconds or so, hed make a sad groan.

Sitting there felt . . . strange. That bundle of bruises and fingers looking up at me seemed so unfamiliar. Who was he? Who, now, was I?

Over the next few weeks, Heidi and I got to know our beautiful son. It looked as though Dominic would be our only child.

The window of fertility had closed as quickly as it had opened. But we felt blessed.

By the end of February, it was time to buy Dominic his first proper pair of shoes.

So one bright Saturday afternoon, we drove to Cambridge and purchased a lovely pair of blue lace-ups.

Afterwards, Heidi and I strolled around the shops with Dom in his buggy, enjoying the perfection of the moment. A family in frozen time. Happiness like the delicate filigree on a dragonflys wing.

His memoirs also reveal the difficulty he and Heidi had conceiving and giving birth to their son

Fewer than 72 hours from this perfect moment, Heidi would be close to death. She felt the first stirrings of pain that Saturday.

Then she began to retch, over and over. She thought she had eaten something that disagreed with her.

By Sunday, she was moaning with pain. That afternoon, a locum doctor came to the house, examined Heidi, said it was food poisoning and gave her a Valium tablet and two paracetamol.

It was a serious misdiagnosis  from an overworked locum whod drawn hasty conclusions.

By Sunday evening, the pains had been replaced by fever and Heidi was vomiting bile. She was drifting in and out of consciousness.

We didnt know it, but the reason the pain had stopped was that her intestine was dying off  because her small bowel was constricted and turning gangrenous.

That, in turn, was killing the nerves that cause pain. But it was also the beginning of sepsis, as gangrene began to infect her blood.

Heidi was slowly starting to die. It was now 24 hours since wed seen the doctor, yet I still didnt call him again. Why not? Was I a complete idiot?

Maybe. All I can say is that when youre in such a situation, the wildly unlikely nightmare is hard to imagine and harder to embrace.

I had no experience to draw on, and I was still young enough to believe such tragedies are things that happen to other people.

Yet there was another element, too  something that would prove almost catastrophic.

Heidi is incredibly stoical in the face of illness, something she combines with a very strong dislike of excessive fuss.

Though profoundly ill and feverish, she was still insisting that she didnt want to bother the locum again.

She stayed in bed all day. At around midnight, I took a good look at her and noticed her lips had turned blue.

Call The Midwife, pictured, has become one of the most popular programmes on the BBC

But she kept saying: Ill be fine. I just want to sleep . . .

Then she went off to be sick again, and came back crawling on her hands and knees.

She didnt even have the energy to climb into bed. That was the moment the veil lifted. The moment I finally did something. The moment that probably saved Heidis life.

I telephoned the locum. A different one answered. Look, exactly how ill is she? he said.

I said nothing, but simply held out the receiver towards our nearby bedroom. At that moment, my wife was giving out a chilling scream of pain.

I put the receiver back to my ear. There was a stunned silence on the other end.

Ill be over right away, he said.

The doctor came and immediately called an ambulance. If youre lucky, its a burst appendix, he said ominously.

We got to A&E at around one or two in the morning. The registrar was woken from his sleep  just one hour after his last mammoth shift had ended.

We need to open you up to find out whats going on, he said.

At about 4am, as we reached the doors to the operating theatre, the registrar produced the necessary consent form for Heidi to sign. But she had seen something that made her hesitate.

I dont want a colostomy, she said.

Heidi . . .

I wont sign. She was resolute.

Sometimes its the price of life, Im afraid, said the registrar.

No. I wont do it, said Heidi.

How about if I put this . . . said the registrar. He drew a little symbol on the form. This means that we can open you up and . . . proceed as necessary.

And then it was time. My girl. My life. Id first met her through the doors of a theatre. Would I leave her the same way?

I watched her disappear among the scrubs and harsh lights.

Heidi, pictured, has also written for Cranford and Upstairs, Downstairs for the BBC

Some of Stephen and Heidi's real life experiences were reflected in his character and on-screen wife Shelagh's trouble having a baby on Call The Midwife

Go home  shell be out soon, said the senior houseman. If its longer than a couple of hours, it means . . . something else.

When the telephone finally rang, it was 11am. Seven hours later.

At the hospital, the senior houseman appeared with the nurse. Lets find somewhere where we can talk, he said. They led me down the corridor to find a room where we could be alone.

The nurse tried the first room, but it was occupied. Then another  that too was full. We continued along the corridor, the ghastly farce of it stretched out.

Eventually we came to a stockroom that was piled high with cardboard boxes.

The doctor and I perched on the cardboard boxes. There was a pause. I sat  ears ringing  waiting for the inevitable, terrible, life-changing words.

Well . . . said the doctor. First, I just want to say that your wife is a very, very brave and strong woman. Quite extraordinary.

Is. He said is. Present tense. Hope like frail filigree. Is she . . . OK? I whispered.

The doctor looked exhausted. The surgery had been complex, he said. When we opened her up, we discovered that her small bowel had become constricted and was blocked by earlier scar tissue. A large section of it had become gangrenous.

But . . . is she OK?

The doctor nodded kindly. Shes recovering in a special-care ward, but shes still extremely ill. She has peritonitis [inflammation of the abdomen walls] and severe septic shock.

She was close to death. The operation was a success, but theres a real risk of further infection. Shes not out of trouble yet.

He must have seen my eyes brimming. Leaning in, he smiled and said: Shes strong, your wife. Stronger than any of us expected.

Has she got a colostomy? I asked. I couldnt give a damn if she did or didnt. I just wanted to tell her first, if necessary.

His smile grew wider. No. We managed to avoid it. I expect shell be pleased with us for that.

Heidi looked desperately frail  pale as death. It was difficult to see her beneath the mass of tubes and machines crowded in and around her body.

She was heavily sedated: shed be there with me one moment, and then drift off the next.

The memory of her look of joy and surprise when she first saw me sitting by her bed still breaks my heart.

In those first days, our son was being cared for by relatives. I sat and watched Heidis face for hours and hours. Fragile and brave and beautiful.

I felt a love for her that still astonishes me with its force. She was everything to me  and I could feel it as a physical thing.

I couldnt live without her. It was no longer a romantic notion, but a material fact. I didnt want to.

The cast of Call The Midwife pictured at the TV Choice Awards in 2015

The show has run for six series and has also produced five Christmas specials

One day rolled by. Then another. She held on. On the third day, the nurses took her for a shower.

They put me in a wheelchair to take me there, and then they placed me on a plastic chair under the shower head, Heidi told me.

I could barely move without assistance. It was two women in their early 20s, and that was the moment I realised what real nursing was about, as opposed to medicine.

Her eyes filled with tears at the memory.

They said: Were going to do this together, Heidi, because itll make it quicker for you, as you cant be out of bed for long . . .

And they gently washed me. Just to feel that water on my head and shoulders  the gentleness with which they did it. It was just incredible.

That gentle act of care in her darkest time was something Heidi never forgot. Years later, she wrote a hugely successful TV series that had exactly this kind of nursing care at its heart.

If the burning love and compassion for medical practitioners in the writing of Call The Midwife has any true birthplace, it was in that shower room.

She continued to improve. Then suddenly she started to feel unwell. Her temperature spiked. Her attention span started to fade.

The nurses began to hurry about, and the doctor was called. I could see their frowns. I could tell what they meant.

No. Not now. Not after all this. The danger had always been there. Relapse. Reinfection. Failed repair. Now it was real.

Heidi was distressed. I held her hand tightly as the nurse wheeled her away for a scan. I watched the doors close behind her again.

I rushed into the nearby toilet and found a vacant cubicle. I sat on the seat. I started to sob  great gasping sobs twisting my face and smearing my sleeve.

I cried like a baby  on and on and on. I wailed. I will never, never feel so helpless as I did at that moment. Never so alone as in that place. Id lost her. My beautiful, brilliant, better self.

I started to pray  dredging up old Catholic prayers from my childhood  all those years of comfortable agnosticism thrown aside in my desperation and despair.

I begged whoever was listening for mercy. I offered any bargain for her returning health; any price I could pay, I would. Just please, please dont make this happen. Not to her. Not now. Not after all this.

Eventually, I bathed my red eyes in the sink and went outside to wait.

The nurse sat with me. She was so gentle. Calmly running through the hopes. Ill never be able to repay the simplicity of her kindness.

When the test results came back, they proved inconclusive. The relapse was a bit of a mystery really  so frightening at the time, but ultimately it marked the turning-point. The storm before the calm.

Stephen is one of the McGann acting dynasty and is pictured with his brother Paul, left

That night, Heidi had a peculiar dream. I was walking through a beautiful estuary  but instead of being a single channel of water, there were little springs coming up through the sand, she recalled. Beautiful little fountains of life bubbling up all about.

In the middle of the estuary was an upturned boat, its hull in the air. As I walked past this boat, I remember thinking: I havent got to sail on that. It was like a Ship of Death.

I carried on, walking away from the boat, through the beautiful estuary.

The next day, Heidi had improved so much that she was able to move into a general ward.

It would be another two weeks before she left the hospital, 20lb lighter than when she came in.

By summer, she was told it was safe to go on holiday. We booked a trip to Crete, and I was able to watch the miracle of my wife playing in the water with my little son.

It wasnt an estuary, but it was just as good. And the laughter of our 14-month-old child bubbled up like fountains of life.

Nineteen years on, I ask Heidi how she thinks the experience changed her. Shes silent for a moment.

The simplest thing I can say is that it stops you being so afraid, she says.

When youve dealt with something completely terrifying and come out the other side, you can reflect on it and think: Well . . . I came back.

Sometimes all you need to know about life is that there can be another chapter.

And me?

I still feel shock and a rush of raw gratitude. And Im grateful that a part of me will always be sobbing in that toilet cubicle  stripped of all distraction, understanding clearly what was most important.

Every day is beautiful and fragile. Every day has the possibility for love.

Adapted from Flesh And Blood: A History Of My Family In Seven Maladies, by Stephen McGann, published by Simon & Schuster on July 27 at 20.  Stephen McGann 2017.

To buy a copy for 14 (valid to July 22, 2017) call 0844 571 0640 or visit mailbookshop.co.uk. P&P is free on orders over 15.
Natasha Boggs, 24 (pictured), was arrested on Friday and charged in the death of two girls she hit and killed with her car over Memorial Day weekend

Authorities say an Ohio woman was texting on her phone when she struck and killed two 14-year-old girls with her car, and critically injured a 15-year-old boy.

Twenty-four-year-old New Franklin resident Natasha Boggs was arrested and jailed Friday.

She's charged with voluntary manslaughter, vehicular homicide, driving while texting, tampering with records and other offenses.

Boggs is accused of hitting three teens in Coventry Township on May 28, killing Taylor Galloway, of Akron, and Amber Thoma, of Coventry Township. A 15-year-old boy was also injured. Another friend who was walking with them was uninjured.

Authorities say the teens were walking on the right side of the road around 4:45pm when Boggs' 1999 Ford Escort drifted over the white 'fog line' and struck the teens.

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Police say Boggs was texting and driving when she drifted and hit Amber Thoma (left) and Taylor Galloway (right) walking on the side of the road. Both were 14 yeras old

Amber's 15-year-old brother was also hurt in the accident, but survived his injuries

As for the tampering with records charges, Summit County Sheriff's Inspector Bill Holland told CantonRep.com, 'It was found there were things done on her cellphone after the accident.'

Galloway was pronounced dead at the scene. Thoma was taken to Akron General Medical Center, where she later died from her injuries, with her brother, Christian, by her side.

Speaking to the station WKYC of his late sister at a candlelight vigil that was held for the two girls, Christian described his beloved sibling as outgoing and beautiful.

The 15-year-old boy who was walking with Thoma and Galloway was transported to Akron's General Hospital in a critical condition, according to the sheriff's statement.

Another boy who was walking with the group escaped the accident unharmed.

A makeshift memorial was set up on the side of the road after the deadly accident in May

Some 200 people attended a candlelight vigil that was held in Thoma and Galloway's honor

A neighbor told WEWS-TV that local teenagers headed to a store or park nearby often walk in the roadway along that stretch because it doesn't have sidewalks.

Meanwhile, loved ones have launched GoFundMe campaigns for Thoma and Galloway to help raise money for their funerals.

'Anyone who got a chance to know Amber couldn't help but to fall in love with her,' wrote a Thoma family friend in the description of the fundraiser. 'Our hearts are all heavy grieving the loss of our beautiful brown-eyed-girl.'

Both Thoma and Galloway were eighth-graders and were set to graduate from Coventry Middle School with the rest of their class two days later.

Boggs' first court appearance has not yet been scheduled.
'Thousands' of British brides may not receive their wedding dresses in time for their big day after a huge American supplier declared bankruptcy.

Florida-based company Alfred Angelo made the abrupt announcement before closing down its US stores as well as its UK and Australian branches this morning.

The firm supplies thousands of dresses a year into the UK market, sources said, meaning women in the UK who had paid deposits and placed orders at local shops that were set to be fulfilled by the US company are likely to face disappointment.

In a statement Alfred Angelo UK said it was announcing the news with 'an extremely heavy heart'.

Brides are upset and angry after they found that the Alfred Angelo bridal chain closed

A spokesperson said: 'As a team we have unfortunately found out this devastating news with no prior notice and are just as shocked and saddened as I know you all are too.

'Together with all of you, the UK division was a vibrant and successful business, really going from strength to strength so the news from the US head office has inevitably hit us all hard and for that I am truly very sorry.

'We are all no longer employees of Alfred Angelo with immediate effect.'

The news comes just one week after Alfred Angelo announced that it's UK division was a finalist for Best Bridal wear Manufacturer in the Bridal Buyer Awards 2017.

One retailer told MailOnline that 'thousands' of customers could be affected and that suppliers were having trouble contacting Alfred Angelo's head office.

She added: 'Bridal shops are working hard to find a solution.'

A Facebook group called 'Alfred Angelo Retailers' has been set up to help businesses fulfill orders from stock between them with nearly 120 members having joined already.

Stockists are also advised to contact the British Bridal Suppliers Association (BBSA) for advice on how to proceed.

In a statement Alfred Angelo UK said it was announcing the news with 'an extremely heavy heart'

In a statement published on the Bridal Buyer website, the BBSA said: 'Retailers should try to remain calm whilst clarity is established on what they may have in place to deal with any outstanding orders.

'Rest assured that all BBSA members will work with retailers.'

In the US Alfred Angelo appears to be closing all or most of its stores, of which there are more than 60 nationwide.

Police have even received 911 calls over the closure of Alfred Angelo Bridal.

News4SA reported that employees were seen packing dresses into the night to try to honor all orders in San Antonio. Staff there said they would stay all night to ship dresses to brides who had already ordered.

One staff member, who claimed to be a manager, said there was a conference call yesterday morning with corporate and the company told them they tried to remain open, but they were going to have to declare bankruptcy.

Employees at the company's headquarters office in Delray Beach, Florida all left suddenly, carrying boxes, plants and other personal belongings, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Brides-to-be across San Diego desperate to get their dresses after the national chain Alfred Angelo Bridal, unexpectedly shut down. pic.twitter.com/J0LE5iM564  Kimberly Hunt (@10NewsHunt) July 14, 2017

People have taken to social media to vent their frustrations at the company while offering sympathy to Alfred Angelo employees and customers

Brides-to-be across the country were seen making their way to pick up their gowns only to find their stores were closed.

Some are now being told they have to call a lawyer if they want their dress in time for their wedding day.

People have taken to social media to vent their frustrations at the company while offering sympathy to Alfred Angelo employees and customers.

One user wrote: 'Feeling awful for every single Alfred Angelo employee. Losing your job and dealing with hundreds of p****d off brides.'

Another said: 'How dare Alfred Angelo ruin so many brides lives today!'

One user advised customers: 'Don't take it out on the sales associates who are literally finding out now they are losing their jobs.'

Rumours began circulating yesterday saying that the company was going out of business.

Alfred Angelo Bridal hired Stearns, Weaver Miller law firm in Miami to represent them.

But Clerks for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida said this morning that nothing had been filed yet by the company.

The companys website declares that he will never forget the way you looked, conjuring romantic images of happy, loved-up grooms and their beautiful partners.

But grooms-to-be may now conjure a very different, angry image when they think of Alfred Angelo.

The company offers affordable luxury in bridal and special occasion wear for women, men and children and was stocked in more than 1,400 retailers in the U.S. and worldwide.

Media outlets in Massachusetts, Florida and Pennsylvania were all reporting the chain's stores are closing today.

In Dewitt, staff told New York Upstate that the shop would close permanently, but they were not told why.
The former Russian intelligence officer who met with Don Jr. last June was once accused of hacking into a mining company's computer to steal hundreds of damaging documents in an elaborate corporate espionage scheme.

Rinat Akhmetshin, who attended the Trump Tower meeting with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, was accused of breaking into the computer system for a Swiss company called International Mineral Resources on behalf of a rival corporation and leaking the information to the press in 2015.

Akhmetshin is described as a 'former Soviet military counterintelligence officer' in the court documents filed by IMR, which claim he 'hacked into two IMR's computer systems and stole IMR's sensitive and confidential materials.'

The company claimed Akhmetshin 'hacked into the computer systems of IMR and its officers and associates, stole confidential, personal and otherwise sensitive information, and then disseminated that information.'

Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin (circled) was accused of hacking Swiss company International Mineral Resources's computer system on behalf of a rival corporation

Akhmetshin, a long-time lobbyist in Washington, had been retained by a company called EuroChem at the time. The European fertilizer manufacturer was suing IMR in a 660million euro fraud case.

The mining company said it launched its own investigation after discovering its sensitive internal documents were in the hands of EuroChem and various media outlets.

IMR claimed it uncovered the hacking plot after it hired a private eye to trail Akhmetshin and eavesdrop on his meetings. They allege the ex-Russian spook openly bragged about organizing the hacking during a conversation at a London cafe.

IMR also says one of its undercover investigators was given a thumb drive by Akhmetshin that contained stolen documents from the company.

IMR claimed in court documents that Akhmetshin has also been linked to 'numerous journalists which appears to be a reference to Glenn Simpson (left) a former Wall Street Journal reporter who founded Fusion GPS, the research firm that released the infamous 'dirty dossier' on Trump

Akhmetshin was never charged or convicted in the alleged hacking operation.

He vehemently denied the claims in court and said he did not have the skills to hack into the company's system. He also said he was entrapped into making comments about the hacking at the London cafe by someone who tried to get him to boast about the matter.

'It is not possible that I was overheard saying that I was turning over documents that I had hacked from an IMR or ENRC computer, because I have never done so, nor do I have the skills to do so,' he argued.

According to his defense, the conversation 'had all the earmarks of a contrivance intended to induce a boasting statement of capabilities of Mr Akhmetshin.'

IMR claimed in court documents that Akhmetshin has also been linked to 'numerous journalists,' including a 'writer for the Wall Street Journal' and 'a publisher of Main Justice.'

The line appears to be a reference to Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who founded Fusion GPS, the research firm that released the infamous 'dirty dossier' on Donald Trump, and to Simpson's wife, who was the founder and publisher of Main Justice before selling the website last year.

Simpson's co-founders included other Wall Street Journal alumni including Peter Fritsch (left) and Thomas Catan (right)

Simpson's co-founders included other Wall Street Journal alumni including Peter Fritsch and Thomas Catan.

Akhmetshin worked alongside Simpson on a lobbying campaign against a U.S. law sanctioning Russia last year, which was launched by Russian businessman Denis Katsyv. Russian attorney Veselntiskaya, who was Katsyv's lawyer, was also involved in the Washington lobbying effort.

Around the same time last June, Simpson's firm hired a former British spy to investigate Trump's ties to Russia on behalf of an unknown Fusion GPS client.

The ex-British spy compiled his findings in a dossier, including the shocking allegation that Trump hired prostitutes in Moscow to urinate on a hotel bed once slept in by President Obama.

Donald Trump Jr met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya last June, after being promised by an intermediary dirt on Hillary Clinton, courtesy of the Kremlin

Moreover, the report claimed that Putin officials had obtained videotape of the spectacle which they could use to blackmail Trump.

That sensational claim and others in the report have not been corroborated.

The timing of Akhmetshin's work with Simpson and Fusion GPS has prompted questions from congress.

Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been probing whether Simpson and Akhmetshin should have registered as foreign agents for their work related to Katsyv.

Grassley has also asked Simpson to turn over documents about Fusion GPS's work on the dossier, including information about the firm's unknown client. Fusion GPS has so far declined to provide the information.

Russia-linked hacking has become a growing political concern since the presidential election.

U.S. agencies say the Putin government launched hacking operations against the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign in an effort to undermine Clinton and influence the election.

Just a few days after Akhmetshin and Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya met with Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort at Trump Tower last summer, the DNC publicly announced that it had been hacked and blamed the operation on the Russian government. Thousands of internal DNC emails were later leaked to WikiLeaks.

Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian attorney who met with Donald Trump Jr and campaign aides, was accompanied by Akhmetshin - which he previously denied

The meeting was scheduled by a mutual associate of Veselnitskaya and Don Jr., who claimed the Russian lawyer wanted to discuss anti-Clinton documents that the Russian government supposedly wanted to give Trump to help his campaign.

However, Don Jr. claimed the promised dirt on Clinton never materialized and Veselnitskaya spent the meeting talking about a Russian adoption issue she was lobbying on for her businessman boss Katsyv.

Akhmetshin, who was in Moscow this week, told the DailyMail.com on Monday that he did not attend the meeting with Don Jr. and was not aware of it.

'I cannot talk about this stuff because I really have no f****ing connection to this stuff,' he said. 'It's not my s**t, why should I even talk about it?'

However, he acknowledged to the AP on Friday that he did attend the meeting after NBC News first reported the news this morning.
President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron are no strangers to the awkward handshake.

But their most recent embrace in Paris on Friday - which lasted a whopping 30 seconds - has been branded the 'most bizarre' yet between the two world leaders.

Body language expert Patti Wood told DailyMail.com that Macron had the upper hand as the pair said au revoir at the conclusion of the US leader's visit to France.

She also described Trump's awkward embrace with France's First Lady on Thursday as 'violent and rough'.

'It's incredibly different, too bizarre for a greeting between two world leaders,' Wood told DailyMail.com.

The epic 30 second handshake battle between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday was a clear power struggle, a body language expert says

'One thing was the length of time the two men held hands - time communicates dramatically. I believe it lasted 30 seconds, they just didn't let go. That was a power struggle.'

Wood believes Trump had the lower hand right from the start and tried to grip on to maintain he still had power.

'It started with Macron holding his hand palm down. That handshake he offered put Trump immediately in a palm-up, submissive handshake,' she said.

'It made Trump submissive and he lost the power.

'Macron would not let go. He had made the decision ahead of time not to let Trump win the handshake - he kept gripping hard.'

The pair shook hands as Trump departed a military parade during the Bastille Day celebration. They continued awkwardly clasping hands as they walked along the parade route.

At one point, Trump patted Macron's hand and they jerked their hands back and forth in an arm wrestling motion.

Trump was trying to show he still had power by taking Macron's wife's hand midway through their embrace, according to the body language expert

The pair shook hands as Trump departed a military parade during the Bastille Day celebration. They continued awkwardly clasping hands as they walked along the parade route

Macron bids farewell to Trump with a very firm hand shake as Melania watches on after the traditional Bastille Day parade in Paris on Friday

Wood said both leaders have shown in the past they typically pull the other person during a handshake.

'(Trump) likes to pull the person towards them so the hands are right in front of his chest, right over his heart. In this case Macron was attempting to do that and succeeded several times,' she said.

Trump then shook hands with Macron's wife, Brigitte, as he bizarrely continued to shake hands with the French president.

Wood says Trump's behavior was all part of the power struggle.

'Trump did things to not let go, but also to show power,' she said.

'In the bid to regain power, Trump created a bizarre ring-around-the rosy dance with Macron and Brigitte.

'He patted the president's arm, he reached for the wife - that whole interaction was very hard. He took her outside arm and gripped her so tightly. That was just odd.'

Trump held Brigitte in a death grip on Thursday when she greeted him. The body expert described Trump's awkward embrace with her as somewhat 'violent and rough'

Trump kissed Mme Macron Parisian-style, once on each cheek, before taking both her hands for a prolonged grip, in which he appeared to jerk her left arm towards him

She said Trump's actions implied he was trying to show Macron 'that I control your woman'.

'It was a strange, bizarre interaction,' Wood added.

It followed the awkward lingering embrace between the French First Lady and Trump as she and her husband welcomed him and Melania to Paris on Thursday.

Trump kissed Mme Macron Parisian-style, once on each cheek, before taking both her hands for a prolonged grip, in which he appeared to jerk her left arm towards him as she appeared to be struggling to get him to let go.

'He did that bizarre thing where he jerked her hand up and up - it was violent and oddly rough,' Wood said.

Trump and Macron have a history of handshake battles.

At a NATO summit in Brussels in May, the two world leaders locked hands for so long that their knuckles started turning white.

Macron later called that handshake a 'moment of truth' to show he's not a pushover.
Our political class dropped everything else to campaign in the run-up to the EU referendum  the most important vote in this country for generations.

How curious, therefore, to discover that Jeremy Corbyn temporarily withdrew from the campaign trail, just seven weeks before polling day, to conduct a lobbying campaign that had nothing to do with Europe.

On May 3, 2016, Corbyn hosted an event in Westminster in support of the somewhat obscure cause of democratic reform in Western Papua New Guinea.

Among those present was Benny Wenda, a tribal elder sporting a feathered head-dress and who has for years been calling for his native province to be granted independence from Indonesia.

Then Corbyn gave a speech, insisting that human rights in Papua New Guinea would be central to our partys policies in the future. He said this little-known political struggle was now fundamentally what were all about.

Seamus Milne, left, pictured with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in January

Sure, Western Papuan independence seemed a worthy cause. But at a time when Britain faced such a big political decision, many Labour colleagues felt Corbyn should have been putting his shoulder behind the Remain campaign rather than fretting about a territory 8,600 miles away.

So how do we explain Corbyns sudden interest in South Pacific politics?

One possible answer lies in the identity of two key organisers of this gathering.

One, who can be seen tapping away on his mobile phone in video footage of proceedings, was Corbyns all-powerful 59-year-old spin doctor, Seumas Milne.

The other, who was standing directly behind the Labour leader was Mr Wendas lawyer, a glamorous 36-year-old called Jennifer Robinson.

Fast-forward 14 months, and the relationship between Milne and Robinson is suddenly the talk of Londons political class.

For this week, photographs were published in newspapers which show the pair enjoying a clinch on the terrace of the fashionable Courthouse Hotel in Shoreditch, East London.

Taken by a member of the public, they show Milne (a married father-of-two) and Robinson (single, and best known as WikiLeaks fugitive Julian Assanges lawyer) locked together in a clammy embrace.

They were very hands-on, full-on heavy petting, said the photographer. There was a lot of hugging, stroking, kissing and intimate talking going on. The photo with her head nestled into him  that was them mid-snog.

The frisky duo are said to have shared pink cocktails (the house special is called Confessions on the Roof and includes passion syrup) before sloping off into the hotel, where rooms cost 300 a night.

What happened next is anyones guess. Robinson has yet to speak publicly, while Milne, challenged outside the 2 million house he shares with Italian-born wife Cristina Montanari, 60, and their two children in Richmond, south-west London, said, I dont think so, when asked for a comment.

Meanwhile, friends of the Marxist- sympathising former Guardian journalist have ungallantly claimed that he was not a willing participant in any sexual indiscretion.

I know the pictures tell a different story, but there is nothing going on, one told the Daily Telegraph. I dont think its a quick snog. There may have been a bit of nuzzling on her part. But if you look at Seumass face, you can see hes not a willing participant.

The so-called friend did not explain why, if Milne was being forced into intimate relations against his will, several photos show him tenderly wrapping his arms around Robinsons neck.

Jennifer Robinson pictured in a clinch last week with Milne

Nor has any explanation yet been forthcoming over the subsequent emergence of a second image showing Milne and Robinson socialising together outside normal working hours.

This time, they were dining at Ciao Bella, a dimly-lit Italian restaurant in Bloomsbury, at 9.29pm on a Friday night in March.

In fact, the relationship between Robinson and Seamus Milne (nicknamed Shameless by the satirical magazine Private Eye) has been the subject of feverish speculation in Labour circles for more than a year.

Indeed, it was thanks to such sources in that circle that the media were able to identify the Australian in the pictures. She had been a bridesmaid at actor George Clooneys wedding to her fellow lawyer Amal Alamuddin in Venice.

We were working from a short-list of three women whose inter-actions with Milne have sparked gossip, says one of them. Theyre all blonde. Thats one reason it took 24 hours to identify her.

So far, so grubby. Yet the shenanigans that occurred at the Courthouse Hotel are not merely the subject of sexual intrigue. They also raise worrying political questions.

For, as Papua New Guinean campaigner Benny Wenda might attest, Milnes relationship with Robinson was about business as well as pleasure.

Some might argue that recent times have seen Doughty Street Chambers, where the glamorous barrister plies her trade, become a sort of de facto legal extension of the Corbyn machine.

Others might observe that, in return, Milnes boss has become the Left-wing law chambers most prominent political supporter.

As an example of this mutually beneficial relationship, there was the High Court case last month, where Doughty Street Chambers successfully took the Government to court, persuading a judge to rule its benefit cap on lone parents with small children was unlawful.

The case, on which Robinson provided support and assistance, represented a notable victory for the Labour leader. Indeed, Corbyn smugly called it a further demonstration of the failure of the Conservatives austerity agenda.

Completing the incestuous circle, Robinson then used her Twitter feed to share Corbyns comment with her 26,000 followers  a move her close friend Seumas Milne will have doubtless applauded.

Another example of this cosy nexus was an earlier High Court case when her chambers helped Corbyn see off an effort by centrist Labour activists to stop his name being on the ballot paper for the party leadership election.

Robinson, who had said it would be a democratic and legal scandal if Corbyn was disqualified from the vote, again gleefully tweeted the result.

The relationship between Robinson and Seamus Milne has been the subject of feverish speculation in Labour circles for more than a year

As so often, in the back-scratching world of politics, the relationship between Robinsons legal chambers and Team Corbyn appears to run both ways. For I can reveal that earlier this year, Milne hired a young woman called Georgina Robertson to join Labours communications team. The party apparently now pays her to work in digital rebuttal.

She just happens to be the twentysomething daughter of Geoffrey Robertson QC, founder of Doughty Street Chambers and a man Jennifer Robinson has often described as her mentor.

Its all very comfy, although we must, of course, presume that Her Majestys Opposition hands out jobs entirely on merit.

Meanwhile, Georgina Robertson, whose mother is the Australian writer and risque humourist Kathy Lette, previously worked as a volunteer at WikiLeaks and her parents offered their home as a refuge for Assange. This was after WikiLeaks publication in 2010 of U.S. diplomatic cables which, in an age of mounting global terrorism, caused huge damage to Western security agencies.

This brings us neatly onto what recent events tell us about relations between Team Corbyn and Julian Assange.

Milne (like his boss) is a longstanding supporter of the Wiki-Leaks founder, who has spent more than five years fleeing from justice, holed-up at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. Milne is said to have first met Jennifer Robinson in 2012, having written in The Guardian about Swedish prosecutors efforts to extradite Assange to face investigation for alleged rape.

Milne wrote: The virulence of British media hostility towards the WikiLeaks founder is now unrelenting.

Separately, U.S. lawmakers called for Assange to be charged with espionage in America.

According to Ecuadorean embassy sources, Milne has visited Assange again in the past 16 months. He has also, as we now know, spent time with Assanges lawyer, fellow Australian Miss Robinson.

Given the allegations made against WikiLeaks about its close relationship with Putins Kremlin (denied by Assange), its leaks have been a very useful propaganda tool for Moscow against Washington. For the truth is that WikiLeaks has always had powerful links with the Russia state  from its key involvement with the rogue U.S. intelligence worker Edward Snowden to Assange being paid to appear on Russian state TV.

This is undoubtedly a link that Britains security forces will take very seriously.

The relationship between Milne and Robinson is suddenly the talk of Londons political class

It may help explain why, during the election, Whitehall sources speculated that Milnes links to Russia, meant he would fail security vetting should Corbyn become PM.

As ever, in a rollicking political scandal, there are further wheels within wheels.

For instance, two other founders of Robinsons Doughty Street Chambers were human rights lawyer and Labour peer Helena Kennedy QC and Sir Keir Starmer, now Labour Shadow Brexit Secretary.

Miss Robinson is nothing if not impeccably connected. The daughter of a racehorse trainer, who was a teenage showgirl in her home town of Berry, New South Wales, she came to the UK just over a decade ago after winning a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Balliol College, Oxford  a hotbed of Left-wing academics and Milnes alma mater.

After a short stint at City law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, she joined Doughty Street Chambers, representing Assange in 2010 and subsequently becoming a heroine of the liberal establishment.

In a 2012 interview  ironic given recent revelations about her smooching with a married man  she described herself as having family values.

It also emerged she had engaged with Hacked Off, the Left-wing anti-newspaper group which campaigns, among other things, for the Press to be state- regulated. Today, Miss Robinson is on the board of Article 19, which campaigns for free speech, yet, seemingly contradictorily, counts Hacked Off director and former Lib Dem MP Evan Harris among its trustees.

Shes also a director of the Trust for The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), alongside the busybody, popular Press- hating Sir David Bell.

Milne (like his boss) is a longstanding supporter of the Wiki-Leaks founder Julian Assange

He is founder of the Media Standards Trust, which is at the centre of a well- connected network of liberal establishment and which spawned Hacked Off, and he has campaigned for more than a decade for stricter controls on the popular Press.

In a shameful episode, a report by the Left-wing BIJ  followed up by BBC2s Newsnight  led to Tory peer Lord McAlpine falsely smeared as a paedophile. The close friend of Margaret Thatcher died within a year and many blamed the wrong and hurtful allegations for hastening his death.

Indeed, it is intriguing that Sir Keir Starmer, before becoming a Labour MP and after leaving Robinsons Doughty Street Chambers, was Director of Public Prosecutions when the Crown Prosecution Service took to court 24 national newspaper reporters over payments to police and public officials by journalists.

Nine police officers were convicted, but none of the journalists  jurors deciding that the information the reporters paid for was in the public interest.

To this day, Sir Keir hasnt apologised for what has been called a witch-hunt.

Miss Robinson is an eager supporter of Corbyn, and her tweets at times read like an exercise in Soviet-style propaganda. Last month, she used Twitter to spread the fake news that Labour won the election. Yesterday, her spokesman said: Any suggestion she has used personal relationships to further professional ends is false.

As for Milne, for years, in the great tradition of wealthy ex-public school Marxists, hes urged the proletariat to do as he says rather than as he does.

Hes the youngest son of Alasdair Milne, a Leftish BBC director-general forced to quit after upsetting the Thatcher government by allowing an interview to be screened with former IRA commander Martin McGuinness (a longstanding chum of Corbyn).

Milne Snr was described by his BBC successor John Birt as an arrogant public school toff presiding over an unmanaged out-of-control institution.

Robinson with Julian Assange

For years, he was the only former director-general not to have been knighted, and his sons subsequent journalistic career was once described as one long act of revenge.

Raised in a six-bedroom home in Londons Holland Park (on his fathers death in 2013, he inherited a third of the 3 million estate), Seumas was educated at Winchester College, where fees are now 38,000 a year, and became politicised at an early age. In 1974, he stood as a Maoist Party candidate in mock school elections (championing the Communist dictator Mao Tse-tung, who killed up to 70 million citizens). After Oxford, he joined the Communist Partys journal Straight Left before moving to The Economist in 1981.

He joined The Guardian in 1984, earning a reputation over the ensuing decades as one of the most influential  and controversial  figures on the Marxist Left.

Writing supportively about Stalins Russia (it encompassed genuine idealism and commitment) and Communist East Germany (a country of full employment, social equality, cheap housing, transport and culture), he called Iraqis who helped the U.S. rebuild their country quislings.

He described the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby by Islamist extremists as not terrorism in the normal sense, and made headlines in 2014, just after Russia invaded Ukraine, by shaking Putins hand at a conference. Milne also went on the pro-Kremlin RT TV channel, to say that Britain was fundamentally misleading by suggesting Russia was the aggressor against Ukraine.

Despite his hard-Left principles, Milne doesnt always practise what he preaches. Shortly after marrying advertising director Cristina, he bought a rambling Victorian family home near the Thames in Richmond, paying cash for the property, now worth around 2 million. He educated his son and daughter at the nearby Tiffin grammar schools, among the highest-performing state establishments in the UK (his daughter got a place at Oxford and his son went to Cambridge). Milnes Labour Party is, of course, implacably opposed to grammars. Adding to the hypocrisy, his wife works as a tutor helping children of wealthy locals pass the 11-plus.

In his youth, Milne, a natty dresser with snappy suits and Armani ties, had a reputation as a ladies man and was a regular at Soho celebrity hangout the Groucho Club.

Recent years have seen him forge a close friendship with Katharine Viner, now editor of The Guardian  lobbying night and day, in the words of one colleague, for her to get the job in a tightly contested election involving the votes of the papers staff.

When Corbyn appointed Milne, it was met with widespread disbelief

It was Viner who allowed Milne, in a highly irregular move, to take a sabbatical from his role as columnist and associate editor to work as Corbyns chief spin-doctor in 2015.

Many thought this seriously compromised the newspapers perceived political independence. It also left Milne with a cosy job and pension to fall back on should Corbyns Labour leadership falter.

The arrangement ended only in January but, significantly, Viners Guardian was one of very few national newspapers to back Corbyn in Junes General Election.

When Corbyn appointed Milne, it was met with widespread disbelief. Suzanne Moore, a Guardian writer, tweeted bye bye Labour, calling Milne c**t central and adding: I f*****g hate these public school Leftists.

Lord (Peter) Mandelson told the BBC Milne was completely unsuited to such a job. And former MP Tom Harris called him a hate figure for the Right of the Labour Party and pretty much everyone else to the Right of that.

There was but one voice of dissent. On Twitter, a Left-wing lawyer declared: This is brilliant news. Congrats Seumas Milne!

Her name? Jennifer Robinson.
Nevada pot providers were sent a lifeline from state regulators on Thursday after they acted to expand rules on who is allowed to transport marijuana from cultivation facilities to retail dispensaries.

In a unanimous vote, the Nevada Tax Commission moved to pass regulations that would quickly resolve supply problems two weeks after the state began allowing the sale of recreational marijuana.

On July 1, Nevada officially joined four other states  Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington  in allowing its residents to legally enjoy the use of the drug.

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Officials in Nevada voted unanimously to pass regulations expanding who could transport marijuana within the state

Voted into law last November, it quickly ran into problems when it went into effect because no one in the state had yet attained a license to transport it.

Language in the legislation stipulated that for the first 18 months only liquor wholesalers were allowed to apply for distribution permits  a nod to the powerful alcohol industry, which is worried about new competition from pot.

When sales began, few had applied for licenses and none had been awarded. Retail shops  all of which were already selling marijuana for medical use  had to rely on their existing stocks, which soon started to run low.

'Were trying to do the right thing,' said chairman of the tax commission, Jim DeVolld, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Nevada became the latest state after Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington to allow its residents to legally enjoy recreational marijuana

Language in the law, however, said that for 18 months only wholesale liquor vendors could transport marijuana

DeVolld said that it was critical to pass the emergency regulations, adding that the burgeoning legal marijuana industry in the country was important to Nevada's economy.

State officials in Nevada anticipate $100 million boost in the budget through tax revenues from marijuana sales.

Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, who didnt support the ballot measure, signed off on the emergency regulation this week.

As of Thursday, of the nearly 70 liquor wholesalers in the state, seven had applied for transportation licences. One was approved Wednesday and another Thursday.
Two Brazilian nursery workers have been arrested and charged with suspected child abuse after footage emerged showing shocking levels of mistreatment of infants.

The women, named as Rita de Cassia Fogaca and Jacira Nunes, are alleged to have physically assaulted and aggressively manhandled toddlers at the Municipal Infant Jesus day centre in Itatinga, south east Brazil.

They are also accused of encouraging older children to 'sexually' abuse younger ones.

Distressing scenes show infants, aged between two and four years old, being slapped around the head, having their hair pulled and being punched.

Mattresses being thrown at them by the suspects, and a little girl being grabbed and forcibly kissed by an older boy as the creche workers look on.

The footage, leaked on social networks last week, immediately caused uproar as outraged parents rushed to withdraw their children from the nursery and accused the local authority of putting their children at risk.

As part of their investigations, detectives have been analysing a bulk of recordings dating back over the last few months to discover how long the violence has been happening.

The CCTV footage captured the two carers treating the toddlers brutally

According to some parents the abuse may have be going on for at least two months.

One distraught mother who declined to be named said: 'I blame myself for not being alert to the dangers.

'I noticed my daughter's behaviour changed about a couple months ago, she began to misbehave a lot more, especially when I told her off.

'She said something about being beaten by one of the workers but it seemed so hard to believe because the women came across as kind and loving and I thought my child was making it up.

They can be seen pulling hair, pushing and punching the children, who ranged from two to four

'I can't forgive myself now for not listening and for not believing my child when she appealed to me for help.'

Dozens of shocked parents said they could not watch the scenes as it 'hurt too much' to look at the unchecked cruelty.

They reported that many children have been traumatised by the 'appalling treatment'.

Joao Moraes de Oliveira, a former education director revealed an inquiry into suspected child abuse by the accused was mounted last year but came to nothing due to lack of evidence.

It was after this that cameras were installed in the creche. The facility serves around 70 infants.

Here a carer can be seen pulling a toddler's hair. Many of the children have been traumatised by the 'appalling treatment'

Nursery workers Rita de Cassia Fogaca and Jacira Nunes have denied any wrongdoing

Clips show a child being hit repeatedly by one of the suspects. Other scenes capture the day care worker throwing mattresses at the toddlers, just missing them and pulling a child's hair.

The sequence goes on to reveal disturbing images of an apparently older boy forcefully grabbing and kissing a younger girl several times, while the two-accused watch.

Even though the little girl tries to push the boy away the adult, who the child appears to have run to for help, seems unconcerned by the abuse as the boy returns to repeat his actions several times.

The shocking video has outraged parents in the southern Brazilian city

Both women, remanded in custody, have denied any wrong doing.

They are due to answer the allegations later this month as cops continue to gather more evidence and take statements from parents and question the children involved.

Social services have stepped in and are providing psychological counselling for the traumatised youngsters.
Each night, RoRo the orang-utan spends half an hour before bedtime building a nest out of blankets and branches in a hammock so she and her toddler Mimi can snuggle up in each others arms to sleep.

During the day in the nursery at their ape rescue centre, if Mimi, nearly two, so much as has a tuft of her bright orange fur tugged too hard by a playmate, RoRo is there to break up the spat and give her a hug.

Yet this touching relationship is all the more remarkable because RoRo is not the apes natural mother.

When she was born at Moscow Zoo in August 2015, Mimi was rejected by her birth mother, Lichana, because as an ape born and bred in captivity, she had never learned the parenting skills she needed.

I'm apeing you: Mimi (pictured with RoRo) is learning from her adoptive parent

Primate expert Dr Alison Cronin, director of Monkey World, Dorset, which has Europes only creche for orphaned orang-utans, says: They have the longest childhoods of any animal except humans and are dependent on their mothers until about age seven.

Like so many orang-utans abandoned by their mothers, when Mimis didnt pick her up after birth, she had to be taken away for her own safety and fed and raised by her human keepers.

The keepers would carry her to a window where she would see the rest of the orang-utans. But unless another female could be found to look after her, there was a risk that Mimi would abandon any baby she would go on to have in adulthood.

Thankfully, Dr Cronin had an ape in Dorset whom she thought would be the perfect carer  29-year-old RoRo. Her name means tender in Chinese.

Despite seeing her own mother killed by poachers before she was sold as a pet and rescued aged seven, Dr Cronin felt RoRos natural love for babies would make her the ideal replacement mummy: RoRo is like a nursery teacher, keeping an eye on the little ones.

Her instincts proved right. As soon as they met, RoRo seemed to know what to do to make the insecure orphan feel at home.

Mimi was rejected by her birth mother when she was born at Moscow Zoo in 2015

Dr Cronin says: The day after Mimi arrived from Moscow in May, we opened the door to her new bedroom to let RoRo in.

The babies are easily intimidated. RoRo seemed to instinctively know that if she grabbed hold of her, that would be construed as pushy. Instead, she came in and made eye contact with Mimi.

She took one of the blankets used as bedding and climbed into one of the hammocks with it. RoRo put it over her head as if to play hide-and-seek.

For Mimi, who hadnt been with her own kind since she was tiny, it was as if a light was switched on. She left the toy hedgehog she had been clutching for security, followed RoRo onto the hammock and started to play.

Now she follows her around like a mini-me. If Mimi even squeaks, RoRo is there to help. At night, they curl up in their nest like a big ball of orange fur.

Finding a foster mum to give the love she needed was the end of Mimis heart-breaking journey. Orang-utan mothers raise their children alone in the rainforest canopy in Indonesia or Malaysia, as males leave after mating.

The infants cling onto their mothers fur, never letting go for the first 18 months. The mothers teach them how to climb, make nests in tree branches and gather fruit and plants for food.

RoRos natural love for babies make her the ideal replacement mummy

But their habitat has been threatened by the expansion of palm oil plantations. The vegetable oil is used for everything from ice-cream to cosmetics.

They also face poachers, who often sell the babies illegally as pets on the black market after shooting the adult females. Even when they are rescued, the heartbreak does not end.

Dr Cronin says: If female orang-utans are hand-reared by humans, they often grow up not being good parents as they dont have the right role models.

So it was for Mimi. The morning after Mimis mother gave birth, the keeper found her on the floor, flailing her limbs and crying out. Her mother was nowhere near.

Two attempts to help Lichana bond with Mimi failed and the keepers had to care for her.

Once it was clear her mother would not take her back, Moscow Zoo asked Dr Cronin if she could take her. It took a lot of time, due to the paperwork and permissions we needed to get Mimi brought to the UK, she says.

By the time she was 18 months old, she had developed a bit of an attitude because she had been treated like a little princess.

She had no competition. The keepers gave her soft toys. As far as she was concerned, everything was about her.

Two attempts to help Lichana bond with Mimi failed and the keepers had to care for her

The mothers teach infants how to climb, make nests in tree branches and gather fruit and plants for food

It meant that in the run-up to bringing Mimi to Britain, the team had to win her over so she would stay in her carry-on box on the four-hour flight. Dr Cronin said: Her behaviour was like that of a human toddler.

Mimi was happy to take things from us, like a bottle. But if we touched her toys, shed be like: How dare you? and would rush at us with her teeth showing.

Even at 18 months, she had teeth like a pony, so if you got a bite, youd know about it. While she may have been only 8kg, she was strong. She was beautiful, but you couldnt call her sweet.

After four days of getting to know Dr Cronin, Mimi was lured into a travel box with her favourite treat, raisins. She slept so peacefully in her free seat provided by British Airways that other passengers had no idea she was there.

Now Mimi has a ready-made family at Monkey World, which has 15 orang-utans, the largest group outside Asia.

Dr Cronin says: After she met RoRo, Mimi didnt go back to the ground to hang out with the humans as she did before. In the wild, they would barely come to the ground at all.

Everything seemed to fit into place. She was out of sorts before and a bit grumpy. But now she has a family, life seems to make sense for her. Now Mimi is strong enough to climb the ropes, she has joined the other orphans in the creche. It is fitted with hammocks, climbing frames and firemans hoses to encourage the toddlers to climb, as they would in the rainforest.

One of her playmates is Rieke, a two-year-old female who was rejected by her own mother at Zoo Berlin for the same reasons as Mimi. Another is Bula Mata, a male of the same age, who arrived after his mother died of unknown causes at Budapest Zoo.

Now Mimi has a ready-made family at Monkey World, which has 15 orang-utans, the largest group outside Asia

Estimates indicate there may be less than 50,000 Bornean orang-utans on the island of Borneo, the only place they are found in the wild

The toddlers wrestle, climb on each other and play with toys, such as milk cartons filled with Marmite or Cheerios. To keep their brains active, they have to use their ingenuity to get the goodies out with sticks or their tongues.

But as happy as the toddlers are, the outlook for orang-utans is uncertain, says Dr Cronin. Estimates indicate there may be less than 50,000 Bornean orang-utans on the island of Borneo, the only place they are found in the wild.

There are fewer Sumatran orang-utans on the island of Sumatra  around 15,000. And the fact that rescue centres on both islands are overflowing with orphans means apes raised in the UK are unlikely to get the chance to go back to the wild.

Dr Cronin says: Humans have cut down rainforests so there is nowhere left for them to go. Orang-utans live in a unique social system.

The males need large territories, or they will fight. So its not possible to squeeze them into smaller patches of forest.

We can find the best ways for them to live with each other closely, as in the wild, and break the circle of abandonment that raising them in captivity can create.

Indeed, one of the rescue centres other orphans, Joly, a 12-year-old female who was adopted by RoRo, has gone to a zoo in Spain to start her own family.

Dr Cronin is hopeful that she has the parenting skills she needs, thanks to the fact that she was able to grow up with older female orang-utans in the creche: We can bring Mimi up safely so she can live a more normal life with her kind. Here, we give orphaned orang-utans a family back.
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People do exercise at a gym. [File Photo]

China plans to slow the growing rate of obesity among its citizens, especially students, according to a national nutrition plan released Thursday.

The national nutrition plan for 2017 to 2030, was published by the general office of the State Council, China's cabinet, to improve the country's health condition.

It paid special attention to various at risk groups, including students, patients, pregnant women, infants, and the elderly.

According to the plan, the growing rate of obesity among Chinese students needs to slowed down by 2020, and to be under "effective" control by 2030, and the rate of overweight and obese Chinese needs to drop significantly by 2030.

Thirty percent of Chinese adults are overweight, and 11.9 percent are obese, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in May.

Among Chinese children aged six to 17, 9.6 percent are overweight and 6.4 percent are obese.

The plan urged the schools nationwide to structure meal plans based on the age of students and the school's location, and to launch an educational campaign on nutrition to students.

It also called for schools to add more sport activities into the curriculum.

Other than the state of obesity in developed area of the country, the plan highlighted the need to take care of malnourished people as well.

It required local governments and schools in poorer areas to improve the nutritional content of meal plans and monitor food safety more strictly.

Local authorities in underdeveloped areas should strengthen the supervision and prevention of foodborne illnesses, according to the plan.

It also proposed the combination of traditional Chinese medicine with Western nutrition and physical training to better serve the people.
A top intelligence official at the State Department who is considered one of the government's foremost experts on Russia has been hacked, it was reported on Friday.

The breach was announced Tuesday in a group email that was sent by a hacker who goes by the name 'Johnnie Walker', according to Foreign Policy.

The hacker claims to have obtained a large trove of emails from the private Gmail account of the State Department officer.

'The US State Department officer's email has been hacked,' according to the email sent by Johnnie Walker.

The hacked material is said to include exchanges between the officer and 'CIA officers and other intelligence agencies, mainstream media, NGOs, and international funds' that would 'give you evidence of who is responsible for agenda formation in many countries worldwide, especially where the situation is insecure.'

A top intelligence official at the State Department who is considered one of the government's foremost experts on Russia has been hacked, it was reported on Friday

The officer who fell victim to the hack is a senior member of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

The identity of the officer is known to Foreign Policy, but the web site has declined to name him after the State Department cited security risks.

The department neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the emails.

'The Department of State is well aware that malicious actors often target email accounts of government and business leaders across the United States. As a matter of policy, we do not discuss specific attempts or incidents,' a State Department spokesman said.

The officer's extensive knowledge and background relating to Russia makes him a prime target, according to one person who corresponded with him in one of the hacked emails.

'He's probably the top intelligence guy in the entire US government on Russia,' the person said.

'He knows more than anybody about what's going on there.'

The FBI is pursuing at least three separate probes relating to alleged Russian hacking of the US presidential elections, according to five current and former government officials with direct knowledge of the situation.

The FBI's Pittsburgh field office, which runs many cyber security investigations, is trying to identify the people behind breaches of the Democratic National Committee's computer systems, the officials said.

Those breaches, in 2015 and the first half of 2016, exposed the internal communications of party officials as the Democratic nominating convention got underway and helped undermine support for Hillary Clinton.

The Pittsburgh case has progressed furthest, but Justice Department officials in Washington believe there is not enough clear evidence yet for an indictment.

Meanwhile the bureaus San Francisco office is trying to identify the people who called themselves 'Guccifer 2' and posted emails stolen from Clinton campaign manager John Podestas account, the sources said.

Those emails contained details about fundraising by the Clinton Foundation and other topics.

Beyond the two FBI field offices, FBI counterintelligence agents based in Washington are pursuing leads from informants and foreign communications intercepts.

This counterintelligence inquiry includes but is not limited to examination of financial transactions by Russian individuals and companies who are believed to have links to Trump associates.

The transactions under scrutiny involve investments by Russians in overseas entities that appear to have been undertaken through middlemen and front companies, two people briefed on the probe said.

The people who spoke to Reuters also corroborated reports that Americans with ties to Trump or his campaign had repeated contacts with current and former Russian intelligence officers before the November election.

Those alleged contacts are among the topics of the FBI counterintelligence investigation.
Scientists have discovered that a mysterious object thought to be a large Jupiter analog is actually two low-mass objects  and, instead of orbiting a star, they orbit each other.

New observations with the Keck II telescope in Hawaii revealed two distinct objects, each of which is neither massive enough to be a star, nor small enough to be considered a planet.

Instead, these objects exist in the fuzzy region between planets and stars, and are now thought to make up the lowest-mass binary found yet.

Scientists have discovered that a mysterious object thought to be a large Jupiter analog is actually two low-mass objects  and, instead of orbiting a star, they orbit each other. They are now thought to make up the lowest-mass binary found yet

WHAT IS A BROWN DWARF? Brown dwarfs are objects that are not massive enough to sustain hydrogen fusion reactions in their cores, unlike main-sequence stars. They have a mass of between the heaviest gas giants and the lightest stars, with an upper limit around 75 to 80 Jupiter masses. Brown dwarfs heavier than about 13 Jupiter masses are thought to fuse deuterium, or heavy hydrogen, and those above 65 fuse lithium as well. The defining differences between very low-mass brown dwarfs and gas giants are still debated between scientists. Some think it is based on formation while others think it is based on the physics of the interior. Part of the debate also concerns whether 'brown dwarfs' must, by definition, have experienced fusion at some point in their history. Advertisement

Researchers spotted the surprise binary system when following up on a previously detected object thought to be a low-gravity L7 dwarf dubbed 2MASS J111932541137466, according to Nova, a blog from the American Astronomical Society.

Using one of the powerful telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory, the researchers found that there was not one, but two objects lurking out in that space.

The binary is thought to be part of a young star group known as the TW Hydrae Association.

This also implies that the binary is roughly 10 million years old, according to AAS Nova.

According to the researchers, each of the objects in the binary system is just about 3.7 Jupiter masses.

The researchers say theyre planetary-mass objects of equal flux.

Even individually, these objects are among the lowest-mass free-floating brown dwarfs, the researchers say.

Brown dwarfs are too large to be considered a planet, but not massive enough to sustain hydrogen fusion at the core.

Theyre sometimes referred to as failed stars, and are typically found within 1500 light years of the sun.

Using one of the powerful telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory, the researchers found that there was not one, but two objects lurking out in that space

The binary is thought to be part of a young star group known as the TW Hydrae Association. This also implies that the binary is roughly 10 million years old, according to AAS Nova

A recent study, however, suggests that they may also be abundant in star clusters throughout the galaxy.

The new effort led by researchers from University of Lisbon and University of St Andrews, builds upon an earlier investigation of brown dwarfs launched in 2006.

Then, the team observed five nearby star clusters, including NGC 1333  a star-forming region 1000 light years away, in the constellation Perseus.

Through the Substellar Objects in Nearby Young Clusters (SONYC) survey, the researchers found NGC 1333 had a much higher proportion of brown dwarfs than previously suspected, with about half as many brown dwarfs as stars.

The positions of 2MASS J111932541137466A and B are pictured in the graph above, on a color-magnitude diagram for ultracool dwarfs

In a follow-up study in 2016, the researchers looked even further, examining a distant cluster called RCW 38, in the constellation Vela.

Here, there is a higher density of more massive stars, and is said to have conditions unlike many other clusters.

The researchers used the NACO adaptive optics camera on the European Southern Observatorys Very Large Telescope to observe the distant cluster, situated 5500 light years away, for a total of 3 hours.

And, they discovered that RCW 38, too, has about half as many brown dwarfs as it has stars.

Based on this new understanding, the researchers estimate there is a minimum of 25 billion to 100 billion brown dwarfs in the Milky Way.
NASA's spaceflight boss have admitted the space agency does not have the budget for manned mission to Mars.

During a meeting of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics on Wednesday, NASA's chief of human spaceflight William H. Gerstenmaier revealed the agency was unable to put a date on missions due to the lack of funding.

The embarrassing admission comes days after Vice President Mike Pence vowed to usher in a 'new era' of American leadership in space, with a return to the Moon and explorers on Mars.

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THe SLS 'megarocket' NASA hopes will one day take man to Mars. However, during a meeting of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics on Wednesday, NASA's chief of human spaceflight William H. Gerstenmaier revealed the agency was unable to put a date on missions due to the lack of funding.

'I can't put a date on humans on Mars, and the reason really is that at the budget levels we described, this roughly 2 percent increase, we don't have the surface systems available for Mars,' said NASA's William H. Gerstenmaier, responding to a question about when NASA will send humans to the surface of Mars.

'The entry, descent and landing is a huge challenge for us for Mars,' he said.

'We think an unfuelled mars asset vehicle would weigh around 20 tons, that's a 20 fold increase on a rover.'

NASA's chief of human spaceflight William H. Gerstenmaier made the comments during a meeting of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (pictured)

Gerstenmaier also hinted the agency may instead look at returning to the moon instead, and spoke of 'fiscal realism'.

'If we find out there's water on the Moon, and we want to do more extensive operations on the Moon to go explore that, we have the ability with Deep Space Gateway to support an extensive Moon surface program,' he said, according to ars.

'If we want to stay focused more toward Mars we can keep that.'

Vice President Mike Pence was recently named to head a government advisory body called the National Space Council, said the group would hold its first meeting 'before the summer is out.'

He also recently toured NASA's Kennedy Space Center to see progress in constructing a NASA spaceship destined for deep space and privately built capsules designed to send astronauts to low-Earth orbit in the coming years.

Vice President Mike Pence, center, is flanked by NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, left, and Patrick Forrester, NASA Chief astronaut as they walk out of crew headquarters at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Floridaearlier this month.

Mike Pence's recent visit to NASA went viral after he was pictured touching a part clearly marked 'do not touch' with Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida. The man with his back turned is Bob Cabana, director of the Kennedy Space Center

'Our nation will return to the Moon, and we will put American boots on the face of Mars,' Pence told the cheering crowd of about 800 NASA employees, space experts and private contractors, but gave no specifics.

'We did win the race to the Moon,' he added, recalling the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s which sent men - one of whom, Buzz Aldrin, sat in the audience - to the surface of the Moon.

The admission comes after last month NASA confirmed it will not be sending astronauts to space for Orion's EM-1 mission, the space agency revealed today, following a months-long feasibility study.

NASA's top staff was given instructions earlier this year to assess the possibility of sending humans to space with the first flight of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, which was initially slated to launch, uncrewed, in 2018.

While the study found it 'technically feasible to put crew on EM-1,' the agency has decided instead to move forward with their baseline plans for the mission, NASA said during a press teleconference.

In addition, NASA confirmed that the EM-1 mission will be pushed back to 2019 following a number of challenges, including funding and scheduling.

THE EM-1 MISSION Nasa's Orion, stacked on a Space Launch System rocket capable of lifting 70 metric tons will launch from a newly refurbished Kennedy Space Center in November 2018. The uncrewed Orion will travel into Distant Retrograde Orbit, breaking the distance record reached by the most remote Apollo spacecraft, and then 30,000 miles farther out (275,000 total miles). The mission will last 22 days and was originally designed to test system readiness for future crewed operations. Advertisement

In the teleconference, Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot and Associate Administrator of NASA's Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate Bill Gerstenmaier discussed the decision following the feasibility study.

The researchers reviewed issues already being considered for an uncrewed EM-1, including the craft's heat shield, as well as those planned for EM-2 that would need to be accelerated, such as the life support system, and the onboard software.

Based on the findings, NASA and the White House decided that 'the baseline plan that we had was best,' which would mean 'leaving EM-1 uncrewed,' Lightfoot said.

According to Lightfoot, NASA wanted to ensure the addition of the EM-1 crew would not 'disrupt that flow' of their baseline plan, 'because we are in this for the long haul.'

The study concluded that, technically, adding a crew to EM-1 is possible, but it also 'shined a little light on what we needed to do when we look forward,' Lightfoot said.

With the risks and limitations considered, NASA and the administration ultimately decided that an 'uncrewed mission will make EM-2 safer.'

'We're considering additional ground testing of the heat shield prior to EM-1 as well as the possibility of advancing the ascent abort test for the Orion launch abort system based on findings from the study,' Gerstenmaier said.

'Conducting these tests in advance of EM-1 would provide additional data that will advance our systems knowledge faster and possibly improve the robustness of the overall plan for sending humans into deep space.'

While the program has run into a number of production problems, these are 'pretty typical,' Gerstenmaier explained.

NASA also revealed a look at some of the progress on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is said to be the 'world's most powerful rocket.' Manufacturing on the liquid hydrogen tank structural qualification test article (pictured) is now complete

And, on top of the expected challenges, the tornado that ripped through New Orleans and NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in February 'really set us back in a big way,' Gerstemnaier said.

But, he says, 'we'll recover from that and move forward.'

While they have yet to select a specific date, NASA now says the EM-1 mission will launch in 2019.

NASA's top staff was given instructions to assess the feasibility of sending humans to space with the first flight of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft

'We are grateful for the near-term flexibility offered by the FY 2017 Consolidated Appropriations Act, and we are confident that we remain technically capable of launching crew on EM-1,' the agency revealed in a status report today, leading up to the conference.

'However, after evaluating cost, risk, and technical factors in a project of this magnitude, it is difficult to accommodate changes needed for a crewed EM-1 mission at this time.'

NASA also revealed a look at some of the progress on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is said to be the 'world's most powerful rocket.'

Manufacturing on the liquid hydrogen tank structural qualification test article is now complete, and it will soon be sent to the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center for additional testing.

SLS's liquid oxygen fuel tank will be fitted with two domes, two rings, and two barrels.

According to NASA, work is almost complete on the intertank that will be used for the first flight.

SLS's liquid oxygen fuel tank will be fitted with two domes, two rings, and two barrels. A liquid oxygen tank being manufactured for weld confidence testing is pictured

According to NASA, work is almost complete on the intertank that will be used for the first flight

This feature sits between the core stage liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen tanks, and 'is the only piece of the core stage that is made by bolting pieces together, rather than welding.'

It's also the thickest core stage structure, as the solid rocket boosters will be attached to it, subjecting it to powerful forces.

It was first revealed last month that, despite working toward a November 2018 goal, NASA's first launch of the Space Launch System megarocket would likely be pushed back to 2019.

A report from the US Government Accountability Office found that the SLS rocket, the Orion capsule, and the Exploration Ground Systems are all facing challenges that likely can't be solved with the time and money currently available to the program.

While President Trump has expressed plans to prioritize manned missions to deep space, NASA officials have agreed with the report's conclusion that the launch date for the EM-1 mission  the uncrewed precursor to human exploration  is 'likely unachievable.'

Despite working toward a November 2018 goal, NASA's first launch of the Space Launch System megarocket will likely be pushed back to 2019

In a letter to the GAO, NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Bill Gerstenmaier said that, despite some things cited in the report that are 'no longer concerns,' new problems have also arisen.

Because of this, he says 'the overall conclusions are valid,' and notes that the space agency is now rethinking the launch date.

'Programs in this phase of development are extremely dynamic with critical path for development switching between elements,' Gerstenmaier wrote.

'Issues that appear initially to have major schedule impacts can sometimes be mitigated with no impact, and new problems that will drive schedule.

'We agree with the GAO that maintaining a November 2018 launch readiness date is not in the best interest of the program, and we are in the process of establishing a new target in 2019.'

The report found several major issues that could delay the launch date.

The Orion program's European Service Module, for example, is late.

The SLS program was disrupted by a tornado, which ripped through New Orleans, and the Michoud Assembly Facility, this past February.

And, the report notes that the program had to stop welding on the core stage after identifying low weld strengths.

Along with this, the EGS program is considering conducting complex hardware installation and testing.

In preparation for a crewed mission, the Orion team is also working to shave the crew module's barrel down to a lighter weight. The barrel arrived at Ingersoll Machine Tools in Rockford, Illinois weighing roughly 12,000 pounds  and they'll trim it to just 880lbs

With low cost reserves and a tight schedule, the report says the 2018 launch date is unrealistic.

'While the Orion, SLS, and EGS programs are working toward a target EM-1 launch readiness date of November 2018, the threats to each program's schedule continue to mount, and the schedule reserve of each program is either very limited or non-existent,' the report concluded.

'In addition, as the target EM-1 launch readiness date nears  now less than two years away  the flexibility of the schedule to allow for replanning is likewise reduced.'

In February, NASA's top staff was given instructions to assess the feasibility of sending humans to space with the first flight of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.

To better understand how environmental factors will tie in before and during lift-off, the space agency has conducted subsonic wind tunnel tests using a 6-foot model of the megarocket, revealing how cross and ground wind will affect different parts
Incredible images show a baby leopard feeding from a wild lioness in the Serengeti in Tanzania.

Most lionesses would kill a baby leopard as they are direct competition in the food chain, but this attentive mother has taken in this tiny spotted cub.

Wildlife experts say this particular inter-species suckling has never been seen before.

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Most lionesses would kill a baby leopard as they are direct competition in the food chain but this attentive mother has taken this tiny spotted cub (pictured)

'TRULY UNIQUE' Nosikitok was found with the little cub bnear her den where her own cubs were hidden in Ndutu Safari Lodge in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Her cubs and the new arrival are around the same age - two to three weeks old. Most lionesses would kill a baby leopard as they are direct competition in the food chain but this attentive mother has taken this tiny spotted cub. Wildlife experts say this inter-species suckling has never been seen before. Advertisement

Mother Nosikitok was found with the little cub around a kilometre from her den where her own cubs were hidden in Ndutu Safari Lodge in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

As well as nursing her adopted baby, five-year-old mother Nosikitok had three small cubs of her own to feed who were born around June 28.

Like this adorable leopard cub they were around two to three weeks old, but Ndutu Safari Lodge manager Ainslie Wilson told MailOnline she believes her cubs have since died.

'Up until that time her behaviour was indicating that she had cubs and the cubs had been seen in previous days', she said.

'Since the incident she's been ranging far and wide and hasn't been staying near to the den area.'

'This suggests her cubs have died although there's no way to be sure', she said.

It is unclear where the baby leopard's mother is and if Nosikitok will take the vulnerable youngster on full-time, according to the BBC.

'It is possible that she came into contact with this leopard cub and adopted it before her maternal hormones switched off', Dr Sarah Durant, of the Zoological Society of London told MailOnline.

Nosikitok was found with the little cub around a kilometre from her den where her own cubs were hidden in Ndutu Safari Lodge in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area

As well as nursing her adopted baby, five-year-old mother Nosikitok has three small cubs of her own to feed who were born around the 27 - 28 June

'Lions are known to suckle each others cubs, however they are also known to kill adults and cubs of other big cat species'.

Dr Durant said this was 'likely to be an extremely rare event'.

'It's not something that I'm aware has ever happened before between large cats like this,' Dr Luke Hunter, President and Chief Conservation Officer for global cat conservation organisation Panthera said.

WHY DO ANIMALS 'ADOPT'? Animals adopting young from another species is rare but not unheard of. For example in 2013 a deformed bottlenose dolphin was 'adopted' by sperm whales. And in 2014 a young abandoned common dolphin was adopted by a female bottlenose dolphin in New Zealand. More recently a pair of bald eagles decided to raise a young red-tailed hawk - which would naturally be their enemy. It's not clear exactly why these animals choose to do this but experts believe it might be something to do with hormone levels. After giving birth mothers have high levels of oxytocin - the bonding hormone - which is so strong it can make them redirect their attention to young who are not related to them. This phenomenon is called 'misplaced reproductive function', according to biologist George C Williams. Advertisement

'We know there are cases where lionesses will adopt other lion cubs... But this is unprecedented.

'I know of no other case - between any large cat, for that matter - where the species has adopted or nursed the cub of another species.'

Dr Hunter described lionesses as 'formidable mums' who are both very fierce and protective.

The photos were taken on Tuesday by a guest at the lodge Joop Van Der Linde.

Her cubs and the new arrival are around the same age - two to three weeks old. It is unclear where the baby leopard's mother is and if Nosikitok will take the youngster on full-time

Dr Hunter described lionesses as 'formidable mums' who are both very fierce and protective. The photos were taken on Tuesday by a guest at the lodge Joop Van Der Linde

Experts say it would be best if the leopard found its way back to its own mother as Nosikitok's pride might not be as welcoming to the new arrival

Because Nosikitok had recently given birth to her own cubs Dr Hunter said she would be 'absolutely awash with maternal hormones and that instinct to take care of her own babies'.

'This incredible act of motherly love simply wouldn't have happened if she wasn't suckling her own babies', he said.

Experts say it would be best if the leopard found its way back to its own mother as Nosikitok's pride might not be as welcoming to the new arrival.

'It's a unique thing, it will be fascinating to see how it unfolds', said Dr Hunter.

Because Nosikitok had recently given birth to her own cubs Dr Hunter said she would be 'absolutely awash with maternal hormones and that instinct to take care of her own babies'

It's not clear exactly why these animals choose to do this but experts believe it might be something to do with hormone levels
With Andy Murray crashing out of Wimbledon and rocky Brexit negotiations on the horizon, it may seem like there is not much to celebrate.

But things might be looking up as today is the happiest day of the year for people in the UK, according to a leading psychologist.

Dr Cliff Arnall said July 14 is the cheeriest day on the calendar thanks to a combination of good weather, long daylight hours and the start of the holidays.

Dr Cliff Arnall said July 14 is the cheeriest day on the calendar thanks to a combination of good weather, long daylight hours and the start of the holidays (stock image)

Dr Arnall, a former lecturer from Cardiff University who now advises the NHS on happiness and well-being, has created a simple formula to find the day when cheeriness reaches its peak.

He has discovered that July 14 is when well-being reaches its peak in the UK, as the end of the working week meets with warmer weather and more daylight hours.

He added that many children are close to starting their school summer holidays, which also raises levels of happiness for families.

And teenagers who had gruelling exams in May and June have now began their well-deserved break, he added.

'The start of the school holidays has a positive effect on the household,' Dr Arnall told the Telegraph.

'Family stress can be significantly reduced as the usual hassle of getting children ready for school then joining the rush hour school traffic stops during the holiday period.

Many children are now close to starting their school summer holidays, which raises levels of happiness for families (stock image)

DR ARNALL'S FEEL-GOOD FORMULA: K + C + P + (A5 x W)  Eo K + C + P + (A5 x W)  Eo K = Kindness  giving, sharing, helping others out including our friends and family and people we dont know. Kindness is one of the very best ways of feeling good.

C = Calmness  household stress is low due to schools breaking up and spending more time with family. Also children are excited to be on holiday and arent bored yet. Calmer people laugh more, sleep better and eat healthier food.

P = Planning  outings, trips at home and abroad, looking forward to breaks and time off, organising picnics, BBQs, beaches, extended periods of time with family and friends.

A5 (or 5A) - this factor is made up of five separate but related factors:

A1 Authenticity  knowing what makes you tick, being happy with who you are

A2 Appreciation  being consciously aware of the good things we have in life

A3 Acceptance  accepting life in all its twists and turns, stressful situations pass

A4 Affection  regularly showing genuine affection to people close to you

A5 Achievement  successfully completing things that are important, big or small

W = Warmth  this time of year is characterised by warm sunny dry days, physical warmth leads to psychological feelings of wellbeing and freedom especially when combined with spending time outside. Wearing fewer layers makes us feel lighter.

Eo (or EO) = Emotional obstacles  people feel at their best when they have reduced anxiety to low manageable levels, removed most of their self-doubt and feelings of not being good enough. Removing emotional obstacles leads to greater confidence, more control and happier more satisfying days. Advertisement

'This reduction in traffic congestion also benefits people without children, or whose children have grown up, as the roads are clearer and car trips are more relaxed.'

Previous research has suggested that happiness peaks on a Friday, with levels of the stress hormone cortisol falling throughout the day as the weekend approaches.

Dr Arnall considered a range of factors in his formula including emotional connectedness, levels of kindness, honesty and fun.

The mathematical formula for happiness can be summed up as 'K + C + P + (A5 x W)  Eo'.

In this formula, 'K' stands for kindness, 'C' for calmness, 'P' for planning (of events), 'A5' for achievement, 'W' for warmth and 'Eo' for emotional obstacles.

A combination of kindness, calmness, planned events and achievement, which is dependent on the weather, minus any emotional obstacles, tells us what the happiest day of the year will be.

The expert, who is based in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, is also behind the Blue Monday formula for the most depressing day of the year in January.

He has recently updated his happiness formula to exclude levels of financial wealth after many studies have shown that money doesn't correspond with happiness.

'The world today is a very different place to 2005,' said Dr Arnall.

'We are now in a time where massive sociopolitical national and international changes force us to examine where we are heading.

'The formula addresses the core human fundamental issues head on to help people build and maintain their happiness and well-being in spite of a very uncertain world.'

The new formula was developed by Dr Arnall and Jurys Inn, which has developed a Stay Happy Guide available in hotels.
The three 'norths' are due to combine over Britain this month for the first time in history, and will stay over the country for the next three-and-a-half years. What this means is that true north, magnetic north and grid north will all line up, according to national mapping service Ordnance Survey. True north is the direction along the surface of the Earth that ends at the North Pole, while magnetic north points where the planet's magnetic field goes downwards. Grid north is the direction of the grid lines on maps, that usually point towards or near the North Pole. The three norths will make landfall at the village of Langton Matravers just west of Swanage in early November, before slowly travelling up the country. Dr Susan Macmillan, of the British Geological Survey, said: 'This is a once in a lifetime occurrence. Due to the unpredictability of the magnetic field on long timescales it's not possible to say when the alignment of the three norths will happen again.'
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NASA astronauts training for a possible mission to Mars have been practicing water maneuvers in a mock-up Orion space capsule in the Gulf of Mexico.

Several astronauts trained Thursday in the open water, about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) from Galveston, Texas.

During the crew egress testing, a joint team from the Orion and Ground Systems Development and Operations programs, along with assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard, Navy and Air Force, evaluated how the crew will get out of the capsule with assistance and by themselves.

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NASA astronaut Victor Glover signals back up to astronaut Daniel Burbank that he is OK after jumping into the Gulf of Mexico from the Orion capsule the astronauts are using to practice an emergency egress situation during recovery testing about four miles off of Galveston Island, Texas. The testing is the first time since the Apollo program that NASA has practiced such egress techniques from a capsule in open water.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NASA is developing multiple methods to get the crew out of the spacecraft on the day they return home, which gives recovery personnel and mission controllers flexibility to account for the crew's health, weather and the condition of the recovery personnel and equipment in the area in real-time. Orion is designed to sustain a crew that has splashed down in the ocean for up to 24 hours. It will be equipped with such a raft and a few additional emergency supplies such as water, tools and signaling mirrors, should the crew ever be in a situation where a team of recovery personnel is not immediately available to assist them Advertisement

The astronauts wore bright orange training uniforms as they trained for a possible water landing, jumping into the water, using flotation devices and deploying a life raft.

Coast Guard and other NASA and military safety personnel were positioned nearby.

'Astronauts returning to Earth in Orion will have spent many days in space, and we want to make sure the last part of their journey goes smoothly no matter what kind of conditions they land in,' said Tom Walker, rescue and recovery lead for Orion at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

'Our testing in the Gulf of Mexico gives us an opportunity to practice and evaluate our plans and hardware for how to get crew out of Orion as safely and efficiently as possible.'

NASA is developing multiple methods to get the crew out of the spacecraft on the day they return home, which gives recovery personnel and mission controllers flexibility to account for the crew's health, weather and the condition of the recovery personnel and equipment in the area in real-time.

Orion is designed to sustain a crew that has splashed down in the ocean for up to 24 hours.

When the capsule and its crew return from deep space missions, during one recovery method, small boats of Navy personnel will arrive soon after landing.

In this Thursday, July 13, 2017 photo, NASA astronaut Victor Glover jumps into the Gulf of Mexico while practicing an emergency egress situation aboard the Orion capsule they are using for recovery testing about four miles off of Galveston Island, Texas. The testing is the first time since the Apollo program that NASA has practiced such egress techniques from a capsule in open water. (Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle via AP)

They will assist the crew as they exit through the side hatch of the capsule and onto rafts, and take them and the capsule back to an awaiting Naval ship.

Crew members must also be prepared to get out of the spacecraft's if conditions aren't as favorable.

ORION VS APOLLO - A GIANT CAPSULE UPGRADE View of United States Navy frogmen from USS Yorktown standing on an inflatable surrounding the Apollo 8 Command Module capsule containing NASA astronauts, Commander Frank Borman, Lunar Module pilot William Anders and Command Module pilot James Lovell prior to opening the hatch following splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on 27th December 1968. The Apollo 8 spaceflight blasted off from Kennedy Space center in Florida on 21st December 1968. Orion is 16.5 feet (5 meters) in diameter and 10.8 feet (3.3 meters) high It will weigh about 31,000 pounds (14,000 kg) empty and have a habitable volume of 692 cubic feet (11 cubic meters). By comparison, Apollo's Command Module had a diameter of 12.8 feet (3.9 meters) and a height of 11.4 feet (3.47 meters). Its total weight was 12,787 pounds (5,800 kg) and its crew cabin volume was 218 cubic feet (6.17 cubic meters). A little-known fact of the Apollo, Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz missions is that, upon splashdown, the space capsules rolled upside down in the ocean during about half of the landings. Astronauts hung safely, face-down, in their seat harnesses as round, balloon-like devices called righting spheres were inflated to roll the capsules back over. The spheres, part of the spacecraft's uprighting system, were attached at the top portion of the capsules. The compressor-inflated balloons were designed to flip the capsules upright in the event of either landing upside down, or rolling over after landing in the sea. Obviously, designers expected such events, as this system was installed on all the command modules. Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin standing by a boiler plate Apollo capsule on the deck of the NASA vessel Retriever during water egress training in the Gulf of Mexico. The new Orion capsule is far larger than Apollo Upon returning to earth, the spacecraft parachuted to a splashdown upright on the broad heat-shielded base, lowered gently by three huge 'chutes. But, in rougher seas, or if the wind caught the parachutes as they floated to the surface, the capsules rolled or were dragged over. When that happened, the command module pilot would flip a switch to deploy the righting spheres and start compressor fans to inflate them. Advertisement

If the capsule were to land off course and recovery teams were not expected to arrive quickly, or water intrudes into the crew module before they arrive, astronauts must be prepared to get out of the spacecraft alone.

NASA also is evaluating how well crew members can get out of the spacecraft within three minutes and into a raft by themselves, without the assistance of recovery personnel.

On human missions, Orion will be equipped with such a raft and a few additional emergency supplies such as water, tools and signaling mirrors, should the crew ever be in a situation where a team of recovery personnel is not immediately available to assist them.

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke jumps into a life raft from an Orion capsule the astronauts are using for a recovery test about four miles off of Galveston Island, Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. The testing is the first time since the Apollo program that NASA has practiced such egress techniques from a capsule in open water.

In this Thursday, July 13, 2017 photo, with assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard and support staff, NASA Astronauts Daniel Burbank, Stanley Love, Mike Fincke and Victor Glover practice egress techniques from NASA's new Orion capsule about four miles off of Galveston Island, Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico. The testing is the first time since the Apollo program that NASA has practiced such egress techniques from a capsule in open water.

Astronauts and engineering test subjects wore Orion Crew Survival System spacesuits, modified versions of NASA's orange Advanced Crew Escape suits in development for use during Orion launch and entry, making the testing as true to mission scenarios as possible.

The testing builds upon the development and execution of recovery procedures practiced in the Neutral Buoyancy lab at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, a 6.2 million-gallon pool that is used for astronaut training and provided a calm environment for initial testing.

Engineers expect to conduct additional future crew egress testing in open water.

The Orion spacecraft is being prepared at Johnson Space Center in nearby Houston.

It is intended for flight with NASA's new SLS or Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket the agency says it has ever built.
With just two months to go before Apple is expected to reveal its next smartphone, claims the firm is experiencing problems that could result in a delay are mounting.

In the latest warning, Bank of America Merrill Lynch lowered its estimates for Apple's iPhone shipments by 11 million for the year, and suggest it could be delayed by a month.

'Our conversations with the Supply Chain suggest that the iPhone 8 will ship 3-4 weeks delayed given technological issues which Apple and its suppliers are working through,' analysts Wamsi Mohan and Stefano Pascale said in a report Wednesday, citing a recent trip to Asia, according to CNBC.

New claims suggest that Apple is working 'feverishly' to fix software problems with its wireless charging and 3D face recognition systems. Pictured is an idea of what the iPhone 8 may look like

IPHONE 8 RUMOURS Several rumors have been circulating about the iPhone 8, and suggest the next device may have: - Dual-lens 3D camera - Augmented reality capabilities - Curved glass casing - Wireless charging - 5 inch (12.7 centimeter) and 5.8 inch (14.7 centimeter) model, will have a wraparound OLED screen - Aluminum back will be replaced with two reinforced glass panes and a metal frame in the middle - Facial recognition - 128GB will cost $999 - 256GB will cost $1,099 Advertisement

The analysts said problems with finger print and 3-D sensors were to blame for the delay.

The BofAML analysts cut their expectations for September quarter shipments of iPhones by 11 million and the December quarter by 6 million.

For fiscal year 2017, the analysts expect 11 million fewer shipments for 2017, down to 208.1 million.

Recent reports say Apple is working 'feverishly' to fix software problems with its wireless charging and 3D face recognition systems.

If these issues aren't resolved, the flagship iPhone could even launch with these major features disabled, according to some sources.

A report by Fast Company explains that a 'a source with knowledge of the situation' has claimed that engineers and designers at Apple are working with a 'sense of panic in the air.'

The report states: 'The company has been working feverishly to fix software problems in its hotly anticipated 10th-anniversary iPhone that could ultimately cause production and delivery delays, the source says.

'If the software problems aren't resolved quickly, the new flagship iPhone could even launch with major features disabled.'

In particular, Apple is said to be facing problems developing its wireless charging system and the report suggests that the iPhone 8 could even ship without this feature enabled.

Apple is also having issues with its front-facing 3D facial recognition system, according to the report.

The issues in both systems are said to not be hardware related, but instead lie with the software pairing with iOS.

This suggests that the features could be added after launch via a software update.

Several reports have speculated about the iPhone 8's Touch ID system, and where this will be located.

The latest social media leak comes from the Chinese social media website Weibo, which shows a photo claiming to show the glass panel back of the iPhone 8 - with no evidence of a cutout for a Touch ID sensor on the back, as rumors in April suggested

THE TOUCH ID FINGERPRINT SENSOR Rumors have circulated in recent weeks that Apple was struggling to decide where to put the sensor - under the front screen with an 'invisible' sensor, or even on the rear. There were also rumors earlier this month that Apple plans to replace its Touch ID sensor with a facial recognition system. Now it appears a third option may be on the table - abandoning an ID senor entirely. Advertisement

The Fast Company report suggests that it is 'plausible' that Apple is still deciding where to put the Touch ID, but that 'in all likelihood' will be embedded under the OLED display.

And yesterday, MacRumors claimed that Apple is hoping to place the Touch ID sensor underneath the glass screen, but that it is struggling to do so.

Apple has until August to either place orders for chips for Touch ID sensors, abandon the sensor all together, or significantly delay the release of the iPhone 8, according to the reports.

The Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the current iPhone 7 model allows users to unlock their phone by placing their finger on the home button.

But rumours have circulated in recent weeks that Apple was struggling to decide where to put this sensor on the new iPhone 8 - under the front screen with an 'invisible' sensor, or even on the rear.

The new rumor comes days after an analyst suggested that Apple could abandon its Touch ID fingerprint recognition system entirely in favour of a new facial recognition system. Pictured is an image of what the iPhone 8 could look like

There were also rumors earlier this month that Apple plans to replace its Touch ID sensor with a facial recognition system.

Now it appears a third option may be on the table - abandoning an ID sensor entirely.

According to a report published by the investment publication Barron's, Apple has 'just a couple of weeks' to solve the matter of placing a fingerprint sensor under the glass of the next iPhone - or its earnings estimates are at risk.

The report reads: 'We believe it would typically take 12 weeks from placement of fingerprint IC orders to full volume production of iPhones.

'Consequently, if Apple is able to solve its fingerprint problems and place orders for fingerprint ICs before August, it would likely be able to reach volume production in late October or early November.

Pictured is an alleged iPhone 8 leak from the Chinese social media website Weibo, which claims to show photos of the iPhone 8's front and back panel

'We believe this remains Apple's preferred path, and expect it would be acceptable to both consumers and investors.

'It is entirely unclear if Apple will be able to fix the problem in this time frame.'

According to Andy Hargreaves, a KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst who co-authored the report, it's likely that Apple may incorporate a facial recognition system instead, but this 'would not be good, as it might effectively shut out the new phone from things like Apple Pay.'

'We believe Apple's facial recognition solution should work from many angles and in low-light environments', wrote Hargreaves.

'However, it would not work without clear line of sight to the user's face.

'Even if this encompassed just five per cent of login scenarios, it would mean that several times a day the new iPhone would perform worse at an elemental feature than older iPhones, which would risk pushback from consumers.'

Pictured is an alleged iPhone 8 leak from the Chinese social media website Weibo, which claims to show photos of the iPhone 8's front and back panels

In addition, leaks of what the iPhone 8 may look like continue to be shared on social media.

The latest social media leak comes from the Chinese social media website Weibo, which shows a photo claiming to show the glass panel back of the iPhone 8 - with no evidence of a cutout for a Touch ID sensor on the back, as rumors in April suggested.

'Further, we do not believe facial recognition would be initially qualified as an acceptable verification method for Apple Pay.

'While Apple could achieve this over time, the likelihood for an initial lack of Apple Pay could adversely affect demand.'

It's expected that Apple may unveil three iPhone models in September: Two LCD phones with standard 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens, with the front face resembling the current iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, and the third being an OLED version.

However, the launch date of the OLED version may trail that of LCD models.
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NASAs New Horizons spacecraft is now more than 3.5 billion miles away from Earth, as it continues its journey beyond Pluto to an icy target in the outer reaches of the solar system.

Throughout the years, the craft has collected countless observations of the tiny planet and its moons, offering a remarkable look at the landscape of these distant worlds.

Now, the space agency has released breathtaking flyover videos using the New Horizons data and digital elevation models, revealing a close-up look at everything from ominous craters of Plutos Cthulhu Macula, to the bizarre moated mountains on its largest moon, Charon.

In recognition of the two-year anniversary of New Horizons' Pluto flyby, NASA also revealed a stunning set of global elevation maps, showing the complex terrain of Pluto and Charon.

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Throughout the years, the craft has collected countless observations of the tiny planet and its moons, offering a remarkable look at the landscape of these distant worlds. In recognition of the two-year anniversary of New Horizons' Pluto flyby, NASA also revealed a stunning set of global elevation maps, showing the complex terrain of Pluto and Charon

The complexity of the Pluto system  from its geology to its satellite system to its atmosphere  has been beyond our wildest imagination, said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute.

Everywhere we turn are new mysteries.

These new maps from the landmark exploration of Pluto by NASAs New Horizons mission in 2015 will help unravel these mysteries and are for everyone to enjoy.

In two stunning flyover videos, NASA compiles the New Horizons data into first-person perspectives of Pluto and Charon.

The video of Pluto begins with views of the highlands beside a massive nitrogen ice plain known as Sputnik Planitia.

Beyond the western border of that area, an expanse of craters speckles the dark terrain of Cthulhu Macula.

Then, a mountain range appears to the right.

The remarkable footage also shows views of the Voyager Terra highlands, and the deep pits of Pioneer Terra.

Then, it concludes in a region known as Tartarus Dorsa.

NASAs New Horizons spacecraft is now more than 3.5 billion miles away from Earth, as it continues its journey beyond Pluto to an icy target in the outer reaches of the solar system

In the second video, the data shows a look across Plutos largest moon, Charon.

It begins where New Horizons made its closest approach, and continues on to explore the Serenity Chasma.

Then, it goes north for views of the Dorothy Gale crater and Mordor Macuka, the dark polar hood.

NEW HORIZONS' NEXT MISSION The spacecraft that gave us the first close-up views of Pluto now has a much smaller object in its sights. New Horizons is now track to fly past a recently discovered, less than 30-mile-wide object out on the solar system frontier. The close encounter with what's known as 2014 MU69 would occur in 2019. It orbits nearly 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto. Nasa and the New Horizons team chose 2014 MU69 in August as New Horizons' next potential target, thus the nickname PT-1. Like Pluto, MU69 orbits the sun in the frozen, twilight zone known as the Kuiper Belt. MU69 is thought to be 10 times larger and 1,000 times more massive than average comets, including the one being orbited right now by Europe's Rosetta spacecraft. On the other end, MU69 is barely 1 percent the size of Pluto and perhaps one-ten-thousandth the mass of the dwarf planet. So the new target is a good middle ground, according to scientists. The spacecraft was recently approved for its extended mission, allowing it to continue on its path toward the object deeper in the Kuiper Belt. Its expected that New Horizons will make its approach to the ancient object on January 1, 2019. Advertisement

The video of Pluto begins with views of the highlands beside a massive nitrogen ice plain known as Sputnik Planitia. Beyond the western border of that area, an expanse of craters speckles the dark terrain of Cthulhu Macula

The video then turns toward the south, to show a landscape known as Oz Terra.

It ends with a look at the flat plains of Vulcan Planum, and the Clarke Montes mountains.

New Horizons officially completed its Pluto mission this past October, after sending back the last bit of data from its 2015 flyby.

Given the staggering distance, at more than 3 billion miles away, it took over five hours for the image to reach Earth.

The video uses New Horizons data and digital elevation models. The remarkable footage shows views of the Voyager Terra highlands, and the deep pits of Pioneer Terra. Then, it concludes in a region known as Tartarus Dorsa

New Horizons officially completed its Pluto mission this past October, after sending back the last bit of data from its 2015 flyby

The craft is now on its way to another target further out in the solar system, which it is expected to reach in 2019.

Last year, NASA scientists discussed the importance of the New Horizons data, ahead of the influx if its last observations.

New Horizons not only completed the era of first reconnaissance of the planets, the mission has intrigued and inspired, Nasas Director of Planetary Science Jim Green said at the time.

Who knew that Pluto would have a heart? Even today, New Horizons captures our imagination, rekindles our curiosity, and reminds us of whats possible.

The video then turns toward the south, to show a landscape known as Oz Terra. It ends with a look at the flat plains of Vulcan Planum, and the Clarke Montes mountains
It could be the plot of a post-apocalyptic science fiction film  a tech firm is set to release 20 million bacteria-filled mosquitoes in the heart of California.

But, the experts spearheading the effort say it could finally provide a way to take on the deadliest animal in the world, preventing mosquito-borne illnesses and ultimately saving lives.

Unlike other modern approaches to eradicate bad bugs, the technique launched today by Verilys Debug project doesnt rely on genetic engineering; instead, it uses a naturally occurring bacteria that causes them to produce dud eggs.

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A tech firm is set to release 20 million bacteria-filled mosquitos in the heart of California. The technique launched today by Verilys Debug project uses a naturally occurring bacteria that causes them to produce dud eggs

HOW TECH FIRMS WILL TAKE ON MOSQUITOES Smart traps - Roughly the size of large birdhouses, these smart traps use robotics, infrared sensors, machine learning and cloud computing to help health officials keep tabs on potential disease carriers. Genetic modifications - Oxitec, an Oxford-based division of Germantown, Maryland-based Intrexon Corp, is creating male mosquitoes genetically modified to be sterile. Automatic sorting - A new technique for sorting male and female mosquito larvae may lead to the use of sterile males. MosquitoMate's labs in Lexington, immature mosquitoes are forced through a sieve-like mechanism that separates smaller males from females. Advertisement

Debug Fresno will be the largest field study in the United States yet to employ this control method, which effectively renders the bad bugs sterile.

The effort is led by Verily Life Sciences, an offshoot of Googles parent company Alphabet Inc, in collaboration with MosquitoMate and Fresno Countys Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District.

The so-called good bugs are infected with the naturally-occurring bacteria called Wolbachia to target the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito.

This species is known to carry an array of potentially deadly diseases such as Zika, dengue, and chikungunya.

When released across Fresno to mate with the wild populations, these sterile males and wild females will not be able to successfully breed.

You separate the males, because male mosquitoes cant bite, according to a video explaining the project.

Then when you release those males into the wild, they find bad bugs to mate with.

But, their eggs dont hatch because of the bacteria in the good bug.

'So the next generation gets smaller, and smaller, and smaller, until all of the bugs are practically gone.

Mosquitoes are the deadliest animal in the world, making millions of people sick each year, and costing hundreds of thousands of lives.

The project launched on July 14, and will take place over 20 weeks in two 300-acre neighbourhoods.

HOW IT WILL WORK The so-called good bugs are infected with the naturally-occurring bacteria called Wolbachia to target the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito. This species is known to carry an array of potentially deadly diseases such as Zika, dengue, and chikungunya. When released across Fresno to mate with the wild populations, these sterile males and wild females will not be able to successfully breed. Instead, the 'bad bugs' that mate with the 'good bugs' will produce eggs that cannot hatch. This means each generation will subsequently be smaller than the one before it, until 'all of the bugs are practically gone.' Advertisement

The team will keep track of population density and egg hatching among the species, and compare it with the numbers from two control neighbourhoods.

They expect to see a steep decline, in the targeted areas.

Verily isnt the only company hoping to use modern techniques to tackle the pests.

Several firms are hoping to use robotics and artificial intelligence to aid their efforts, in hopes to stop the spread of deadly diseases around the world.

The so-called good bugs are infected with the naturally-occurring bacteria called Wolbachia to target the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito (pictured)

This species is known to carry an array of potentially deadly diseases such as Zika, dengue, and chikungunya

Microsoft is testing a smart trap in Texas that can isolate and capture Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, according to Reuters.

Its hoped that this will ultimately allow entomologists to study them first-hand, to develop better methods to predict outbreaks.

Following the 2015 Zika epidemic in Brazil, instances of the infection have finally dropped down to smaller numbers.

But, the mosquitoes that transmit the virus have become more prevalent throughout the Americas, including much of the southern US.
The G20 Summit 2017 is held in Hamburg, Germany. [File photo]

Bridging the gap between developed and developing countries, the G20 Group encompasses 85 percent of the world economy. Elevated to a summit level after the 2008 global financial crisis, it has become a platform for diverse voices to be heard on global economic governance.

Significantly larger than the G8, this years theme was Shaping an inter-connected worldand the conference closed with commitments to fight protectionism, limit unfair trade practices and focus on opening markets and a non-discriminatory approaches.

Calling on G20 member countries to champion an open world economy and a multilateral trade regime, Chinese President Xi Jinping was of the view that global growth remained unsteady despite signs of recovery.

Emphasizing the role of innovation and development in boosting global growth, President Xi proposed increased cooperation in the digital economy, a new industrial revolution and the joint development of new technologies and industries. Discouraging protectionism, he went on to say, We must remain committed to openness and mutual benefit for all so as to increase the size of the global economic pie.

Endorsing sustainable development, he said, "Another source of growth derives from making greater efforts to address the issue of development and implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and such efforts will both benefit developing countries and generate business and investment opportunities for developed countries. In other words, this will be a win-win game for all. Contributing to more than 30 percent of global growth in recent years, China has been a major stabilizer and driver of the world economy.

Over the years, the G20 has broadened its agenda and climate change, development policy, labor markets and employment policy, digital technology and even counter-terrorism have come under its present ambit as opposed to its previous sole focus on global economic growth, international trade and financial market regulation.

Held in Germany this year, it was an ideal opportunity for Angela Merkel to put forward her vision for global development. Primarily, Germanys goal was to safeguard free trade as its trade surplus has crossed more than 8 percent of its GDP in this age of born-again protectionism as introduced by President Trump.

For this purpose, Germanys best ally turned out to be China as both powers see eye to eye on the climate deal as well as free trade, a cost sharing arrangement involving China on the climate deal was particularly on the agenda as the developed world was on the back-foot regarding this issue since the U.S. withdrew from the agreement. Germany also wanted to influence meaningful decisions on issues like migration and refugee flows as well as counter-terrorism on a global level.

Differing from the U.S. on major issues would have been unthinkable in the past, but Germany took a determined stance and lobbied for support; the power balance had never been as multi-polar as it was this year. Significantly, the G20 summit was the largest multilateral diplomatic event after the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing and towards the closing of the proceedings, China and Germany could be perceived as being on the same page as promoters of multi-polarity.

U.S. influence was greatly diminished and a far cry from its unquestioned global leadership of the past. Lately, the U.S. America First policy was a symbolic return to protectionism. Walking out of the climate change deal isolated President Trump. Understandably, it became an uphill task for German negotiators to deliver a final summit statement giving the impression of unity as the main participants did not reach consensus on some issues.

Heralding in multi-polarity, this G20 Summit ended on a ponderous note with member countries wondering whether they should continue to look to the U.S. for global leadership or branch out.

Finally, the U.S., China, Russia and Germany dominated the summit proceedings and led the way. Increasingly erratic, this new power balance was aptly defined by Angela Merkel when she mentioned a period of unrest in the world and the need to make things somewhat quieter. Firmly, Merkel is of the view that, anyone who believes that the problems of this world can be solved with isolationism and protectionism is making a terrible error.

Citing an example, the signing of a free trade deal between Japan and the EU is a sign that the free trading world will work around the restrictions but not embrace protectionism any more.

The author is a geopolitical analyst at think tank Katehon, Pakistan.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
Rio, Cape Town, Sydney.

They're all thrilling ocean-side cities  just like Auckland, in fact. But where New Zealand's largest urban centre picks up points is that it's far more manageable than any of the above.

Things are looking up: The 328-metre Sky Tower, above the fashionable Ponsonby district

You can walk everywhere; it's safe; the food is reliably good; the Maori culture thrives; and hundreds of little islands await in what amounts to a spectacular archipelago.

WHEN TO GO: Famously, in the City of the Sails, you can experience all four seasons in one day, but best to go in New Zealand's summer (Dec-March) when sea breezes make the temperatures comfortable.

The Live Well Festival in October also comes highly recommended. Weave your way around the array of exhibitions, graze through the healthy food stalls, and listen and learn from the country's top lifestyle, wellness and nutrition speakers (livewellfestival.co.nz).

TAKE IT EASY: More than 1.6 million people live here, but it seldom feels like it. By the standards of many cities of the same size, the pace is remarkably relaxed.

At weekends, along the pier in the Wynyard Quarter, people do stuff: tango dance classes, paddling, reading in pop-up libraries, practise gymnastics. There are also children's playgrounds, exhibitions and cleverly designed restaurants occupying old industrial buildings.

CULTURE HUB: Auckland Art Gallery (aucklandartgallery.com), just off Wellesley Street, is fascinating, not least because its striking glass and wood atrium has been grafted on to the 1887 French chateau frame.

The Auckland War Memorial Museum (aucklandmuseum.com), in the central district of Grafton, is renowned for its collection of Maori and Pacific treasures and as a memorial to those who died for their country.

TOP SHOP: Queen Street and some of the small alleyways off it offer a good choice in the centre of town, as does Britomart, occupying several blocks of heritage buildings.

Boutique central is now the fashionable Ponsonby district. Prices for merino wool and cashmere are steep, but you can't fault the quality.

The same cannot always be said for jade, with souvenir shops passing duds off as the real deal.

For New Zealand's famous paua shells head for Tessuti (tessuti.co.nz) and for lovely sweaters the weight of feathers try twenty-seven names (twentysevennames.co.nz).

LEAP OF FAITH: The 328m Sky Tower is the tallest man-made structure in the southern hemisphere  but with this one, you can jump off it and live to tell the tale.

City summit: The top of the Sky Tower features a revolving restaurant and a viewing platform

A lift takes just under 40 seconds to get you to the 220m-high viewing platform. You can walk around the outside of it without or a balcony but in a harness. Or plunge downwards at 53 miles an hour for 11 seconds, by base jumping on a wire.

But if you'd rather not, there's a revolving restaurant offering 'high tea in orbit'. Or for a full culinary experience, book a table at The Sugar Club, Peter Gordon's fusion extravaganza, where the waiters take longer to explain the dishes than it does to eat them.

WHERE TO STAY: Not cheap (from 213 for a double), but the Skycity Grand Hotel is in a buzzy spot almost opposite the Sky Tower and casino (skycityauckland.co.nz). Great views if you bag a room high up.

Otherwise, try the Scenic Hotel, from 109 per night, on Queen Street (scenichotel group.co.nz).

FOOD AND DRINK: Spoilt for choice. But an outdoor table at Soul (soulbar.co.nz) on the waterfront will do nicely. Make sure you order some Bluff oysters  they're big and creamy and come from the southernmost waters in the world.

And drinks into the early hours at The Golden Dawn (goldendawn.co.nz) must be on your agenda.

Natural resource: Just 45 minutes away by boat, Waiheke attracts Aucklanders on day trips

DAYS OUT: Catch a 45-minute ferry to enchanting  and well-healed  Waiheke Island, where you can go zip-wiring, kayaking, wine-tasting or just hang out on one the island's 97 beaches, most of which are sandy.

Action stations: You can kayak off Waiheke

Lunch at Tantalus (tantalus.co. nz), a new winery where the Canadian owners have worked wonders to make a destination restaurant in lush surroundings.

WHAT ELSE? The Maoris were here some 800 years ago and it's well worth experiencing the Auckland Maori Tour & Cultural Performance.

Explore Tamaki Makaurau with its volcanoes and the amazing West Coast, be guided around the Auckland Museum and see the Cultural Performance, including the famous Haka war dance, which the British & Irish Lions will encounter on Saturday.
Summer's hit single, Despacito, isn't just shattering music industry records - it's also sending travellers flocking to the island of Puerto Rico.

In fact, ever since the song debuted on April 17, web searches for the Caribbean destination have gone up more than 45 per cent.

From its centuries old fortresses to its colourful Spanish-style streets, it should come as no surprise the region is having a major moment.

Tourism spike: The hit song Despacito has led to increased tourist interest in Puerto Rico (pictured)

The Despactio Remix, which features Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber, is nothing short of a global hit.

And listeners do appear to be taking note of one of the song's most memorable lines: 'How they do it down in Puerto Rico.'

It probably doesn't hurt that the track's music video - which has been viewed over two billion times since it made its debut in January - showcases some of the most beautiful locations the island has to offer.

In fact, according to local reports, tour operators in Puerto Rico are now including some of the areas featured, such as Old San Juan's Club La Factoria, as part of their tours.

Hometown heroes: Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee were both born on the Caribbean island

Beautiful beaches: Tourist searches about the country have increased by more than 45 per cent

Of course, this isn't the first time pop culture has influenced travel trends.

Game of Thrones fans have been known to explore filming locations everywhere from Northern Ireland to Spain, while New Zealand tapped into the tourism power of the Lord of the Rings franchise long ago.

Still, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, who were both born in Puerto Rico, are understandably thrilled by all the positive attention their beautiful homestead is getting.

'Puerto Rico is the true protagonist of this song and this video,' Fonsi wrote on Instagram after learning of the increase in tourism.

'What a joy it is to read this in international media.'

Cool colours: Despacito's music video showcases some of the most beautiful places in San Juan (pictured)

Commenting on the uptick in tourism Isabelle Pinson, vice president EMEA at Hotels.com brand said: Puerto Rico has long been a vacation destination but to many travelers it is still pretty unknown.

'We know popular culture has a strong influence on our travel decisions and as Puerto Rico is the home of singers Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, and gets a big shout out in their hit song, it seems to be encouraging more people to explore this great destination.
Advertisement

Driving through Europe is a delight for many reasons.

But it's not without its trials, what with the disparity between the rules in various countries.

In France for example, it's a legal requirement to carry a breathalyser with you in your car.

And in the Republic of Ireland, honking your horn between the hours of 11.30pm and 7am is banned.

National speed limits vary too. For example in Italy the speed limit on motorways in 80mph on a dry day, but it's 68mph in wet weather.

This new infographic, courtesy of CityBase Apartments, presents all you need to know before you set off for a road trip around Europe.
Following chaos at Palma airport earlier in the week, police are warning travellers to prepare for even more delays at border control this weekend.

From today, 622,000 passengers are expected to pass through one of Spain's busiest airports.

And with a lack of staff at passport control booths, the Professional Police Union (SPP) are warning that matters could get worse over the next 48 hours.

Airport chaos in Palma, Majorca, is expected to continue throughout the weekend, warns the Spanish Professional Police Union (SPP)

Long queues are causing flight delays and uncomfortable waiting conditions. Understandably, passengers are taking to social media to air their grievances

In the last few days, furious Brits have taken to Twitter to vent their frustrations, with some declaring the situation 'hell' and describing 'screaming' travellers.

The SPP has blamed the over-burdened passport control situation on airlines and tour operators, asking the Spanish Airport Authority (AENA) to more 'rationally' stagger flight times.

Currently, most flights scheduled to Britain leave in the early morning hours and later in the evening.

'The extremely intense concentration of flights is beneficial to the airlines, the tour operators and AENA in order to generate profits and reduce costs,' a statement issued by the police union reads.

'Thousands of British tourists who arrive at the airport are forced through a narrow passage barely three metres wide, properly known as the microwave.'

The arrival and departure bottleneck has been forcing tourists to queue for hours in non-air conditioned areas, leading to missed flights and delays.

From today, 622,000 passengers are expected to pass through one of Spain's busiest airports

One tourist described the situation on Wednesday, with people angrily yelling at border police

Longer wait times can also be attributed to new stricter European Union border crossing controls for non-European Union and Schengen residents, which were introduced in May

The SPP has blamed the chaotic passport control situation on airlines and tour operators

This is also effecting those waiting in Britain to fly out to Majorca on the return trip.

Longer wait times can, at least in part, also be attributed to new stricter European Union border crossing controls for non-European Union and Schengen residents, including Britons, which were introduced in May.

Flights are also susceptible to delays in the peak summer months when Spanish airspace gets especially busy.

However, Spanish Airport Authority AENA and the Spanish Interior Ministry, announced yesterday that immediate actions are being put into place to tackle the passport control backlog.

Spanish airport authority AENA and the Spanish Interior Ministry, announced yesterday that immediate actions are being put into place to tackle the passport control backlog

With such long passport control wait times, some passengers are missing their flights

Currently, it's taking, on average, at least 30 minutes to clear passport control at Palma airport, but at peak times, especially in the early morning hours, it can take much longer.

And these disgruntled passengers have not hesitated to take to social media to air their grievances.

In a statement issued Thursday, AENA said that an agreement had been reached with the National Police to work together, reports the Majorca Daily Bulletin.

According to the statement, three steps are being taken to help facilitate a flow of passengers this weekend, beginning with adding ten extra staff to help handle passports.

The airport will also be installing 20 more automatic scanners to deal with the larger volume of travellers, and more physical passport control booths will be added.

In addition to the long queues, other passengers are also noting the lack of working lifts

According to the statement issued by AENA, the airport will add 10 extra staff this weekend to help facilitate the flow of passengers

On Wednesday, July 12, many Brits missed flights home from Palma airport in Majorca due to the 'chaotic situation', local media reported.

Palma is Spain's third busiest airport with 5.3 million Brits passing through last year and record numbers expected this summer.

The airlines, represented by the Association of Airlines and the Association of Spanish Air Transport companies, told interior minister Juan Ignacio Zoido: 'The situation may get worse if measures are not taken, given the number of passengers expected over the coming summer.'

Current passport controls are causing 'delays and even missed connections, with consequential damage to passengers and airlines, who have been obliged to leave passengers behind on a daily basis so as not to affect their punctuality in too negative a manner,' the airlines said.

Current passport controls are causing delays and even missed connections at the aiport (pictured), with consequential damage to passengers and airlines

AENA, the Spanish airports authority, recognised that there had been 'problems in passport control' over the weekend but said: 'It's a delicate question which is complicated to solve.'

An ANEA spokesman told local newspaper Ultima Hora: 'More reinforcements are needed because without them it will be difficult to solve the problem when there are several flights heading to the United Kingdom and the frontier controls must be carried out.'

British tour operators have blamed the Spanish government for failing to provide sufficient numbers of police at the airport.

Budget carriers EasyJet and Jet2 are among the airlines flying from Palma airport.

The Spanish police union SUP said: 'We have to make an official complaint because it was previously known that this problem would occur.

'In order to make the frontier controls work properly we need another 20 police officers.'

Similar problems occurred at the airport over Easter - with queues so bad some passengers fainted in the heat.

Madrid's representative in the Balearic islands, Maria Salom, said strict new frontier controls have slowed up passport controls.

Some 26m passengers passed through Palma airport last year - making it Spain's third busiest behind Barajas airport in Madrid and El Prat airport in Barcelona.
She claimed coming out as a Republican was harder than coming out as trans.

Caitlyn Jenner has revealed she was snubbed by an LGBT camp for kids because of her political views.

Appearing as a guest panelist on The View on Thursday, the 67-year-old was responding to a question from Whoopi Goldberg about whether she had ever been 'un-invited'.

Jenner-ous: Caitlyn Jenner showed off her ample bust in a low cut top as she left ABC studios Thursday after taping The View

'They said, "Would you like to come to this thing?" and I said, "Sure, I would love to." There was a fee involved, they had some corporation that was going to put the fee in there and this and that,' she explained.

But after her Republican political views were revealed on her reality show I Am Cait, Jenner says she was called by the camp and told she was no longer welcome.

'They called up and said: "We're dis-inviting you",' she recalled.

Caitlyn called the head of the camp to discuss the snub and when she offered to return her fee for the sake of the kids at the camp, he changed his mind on letting her appear for the speaking engagement.

Out and proud: Jenner made her way to an awaiting SUV with a purse and a garment bag

Though she remained tight-lipped about her famous family during the episode, she did talk politics and her work as an activist.

Goldberg asked Caitlyn if Donald Trump ever took her up on her offer to sit and talk about trans issues and Jenner revealed that he hadn't.

However, Jenner said she has sat down with other members of the administration who she could not name.

Snubbed: On The View, she revealed an LGBT camp uninvited her from a speaking engagement after she revealed she is a Republican

Change of heart: After speaking with the unnamed camp's owner, and returning her fee, Caitlyn was invited back to speak with the children

'It was harder coming out as a Republican than it was coming out as trans in the current environment,' she quipped about the icy reception she got from the LGBTQ community upon her political admission.

Recently, Caitlyn took part in a live stream on YouTube hosted by Katy Perry with eight other influential political commentators where her conservative views were also questioned.

'I'm not the type of person who wants to sit on a street corner with a protest sign,' the reality star said of her choice to privately visit with influential people in the administration as opposed to joining public rallies.

For her TV date in New York the reality star showcased her figure in a tight, low-cut black top that she paired with a red skirt and black heels.

Tight lipped: Her feud with ex-wife Kris Jenner was not brought up on Thursday's show
The Bachelorette's Davey Lloyd shared a nude snap under the guise of men's rights on Friday.

The reality star flashed his tattooed posterior as he bemoaned the end of his European holiday.

As he stood screaming at the mountains of Slovenia, the partially-tanned personality explained in the caption: 'If girls can post naked photos why can't blokes?'

'If girls can post naked photos why can't blokes?' The Bachelorette's Davey Lloyd shared a nude snap under the guise of men's rights Friday, seen screaming at the Slovenian mountains

Davey was seen with his back to the camera and his arms and legs outstretched.

His Instagram followers were exposed to an indecipherable tattoo on his left cheek, while the line of trees in front of him copped the full brunt of his comprised state.

The reality star's bundle of clothes and flip-flops were piled-up behind a rock in the shocking snap.

In the comments, one fan observed: 'Hehehehe your Aussie tan lines go well in Europe!!'

'Your Aussie tan lines go well in Europe!!': Fans in the comments commented on the reality star's tan lines in the comments

Davey has spent the last month touring across Europe, with destinations including Malta, Croatia, Italy and the United Kingdom.

In Croatia, he was seen posing with a red wine in his hand, and a flower behind his ear.

During his short stay in Venice, the personality attempted to tuck-in to an entire margherita pizza.

Eurotrip! Davey has spent the last month touring across Europe, with destinations including Malta, Croatia, Italy and the United Kingdom

Hungry! During his short stay in Venice, the personality attempted to tuck-in to an entire margherita pizza

Prior to his trip, he was spending a lot of time with fellow Bachelorette star Sasha Mielczarek, who didn't join him on his European journey of self-discovery.

The pair struck up a friendship on the set of the Channel 10 dating show.

Sasha ultimately reigned supreme, winning the affection of brunette beauty Sam Frost.

Last December, Sasha and Sam silenced growing rumours by confirming they'd split after 18-months.
She's the model who has endeared herself to fans with her humility and warmth.

Now Bridget Malcolm has shared some down-to-earth advice for parents of new and aspiring models on her blog.

Published on Thursday the 25-year-old, who started her career when she was just a teenager, also thanked her own parents for doing a 'great job of protecting me' in the piece.

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Newsflash, models are thin! Bridget Malcolm shares advice for parents of aspiring young models and stresses that 'good body image starts at home'

'As a parent you have to be smart, use your instinct with people and keep involved as much as is acceptable,' she advised.

The Victoria's Secret model stressed how 'good body image starts at home'.

'Newsflash - models are thin! Eating disorders run rampant in this industry. Luckily the trend towards fitter girls is real,' she said.

Grateful: The 25-year-old, who started her career when she was just a teenager, also thanked her own parents for doing a 'great job of protecting me' in the piece

'Newsflash - models are thin! Eating disorders run rampant in this industry. Luckily the trend towards fitter girls is real,' she said

In the post, which is separated into nine bulletpoints, Bridget talks about weight control: 'If she gets told to lose weight, then work with her in a healthy way to teach her about eating well,' she added.

She encouraged parents to research potential agencies and to be present, but not overbearing, on photoshoots.

'Everyone here is doing a job, and nobody wants a stage mum/dad. Do check in with your daughter at suitable times, to make sure everything is okay,' she stated.

'Everyone here is doing a job, and nobody wants a stage mum/dad. Do check in with your daughter at suitable times, to make sure everything is okay,' she stated

Saying that the 'industry can suck,' she also stressed that it was vital for any young aspiring model to have a 'good mother agent'.

The David Jones ambassador described a mother agent as someone who 'basically takes care of the model when the parents cant be around'.

'Make sure your daughter has someone like this in her team; it is the most important factor in ensuring her safety,' she advised.
She's the bubbly blonde who made a last ditch effort to salvage her romance with boyfriend on Seven Year Switch.

And it seems things are going swimmingly for Kaitlyn Isham and Mark Pisani, with the pair putting on a very flirtatious display as they attended the film premiere We Need To Talk in Melbourne on Thursday.

The pair were spotted giggling in the audience while Mark seductively fed popcorn to his girlfriend by hand.

Getting cosy: Kaitlyn Isham and Mark Pisani, put on a very flirtatious display as they attended the film premiere We Need To Talk in Melbourne on Thursday

With her head cocked and her mouth wide open, former adult webcam model flirtatiously accepted her beau's offering.

Not everyone appeared to enjoy watching the couple's very brazen interactions, with one man even throwing the pair a disproving expression as he attempted to enjoy his ice-cream cone.

Earlier in the night, Kaitlyn and Mark were spotted arm-in-arm on the red carpet.

Open wide! The pair were spotted giggling in the audience while Mark seductively fed popcorn to his girlfriend by hand

Cringe! Not everyone appeared to enjoy watching the couple's very brazen interactions, with one man even throwing the pair a disproving expression as he attempted to enjoy his ice-cream cone

Two peas in a pod: Earlier in the night, Kaitlyn and Mark were spotted arm-in-arm on the red carpet

Kaitlin, who played the role of producer for We Need To Talk, showcased her legs in a tight-fitting mini dress with sheer bell sleeves for the swanky occasion.

Donning a dramatic makeup look, she completed her look with a silver charm bracelet and a pair of black kitten heels.

Meanwhile, Mark looked sharp in his electric blue slimline suit and white collared shirt.

Legging it! Kaitlin, who played the role of producer for We Need To Talk, showcased her legs in a tight-fitting mini dress with sheer bell sleeves for the swanky occasion

Chic: Meanwhile, Mark looked sharp in his electric blue slimline suit and white collared shirt

At one stage, the duo decided to showcase their collaborate skills behind the keys of a nearby piano.

With Kaitlin on the bass notes and Mark taking the treble, the couple giggled their way through the impromptu recital.

It comes after she was spotted trying on diamond engagement rings on her wedding finger at the end of June.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia shortly after, she all-but confirmed she was engaged, replying only in a series of cryptic emojis.

After originally responding for comment using an 'embarrassed monkey' emoji, the Florida native then appeared to confirm the happy news by adding both an 'engagement ring' and 'happy bride' icon.

In harmony: At one stage, the duo decided to showcase their collaborate skills behind the keys of a nearby piano
She dressed to impress while gracing the red carpet in Sydney this week.

But a radiant Lily James looked a lot more casual when she touched down in Melbourne on Friday.

The 28-year-old Baby Driver star went makeup free for her flight to the city and wore a cute pair of black overalls and chunky Converse.

Keeping it casual! Lily James arrives in Melbourne makeup free and wearing overalls on Friday

The English rose teamed her attire with a simple white T-shirt and a long, stylish grey coat to keep off the chill.

Sweeping her brunette tresses away from her face in a messy bun, she showed off her flawless complexion; having ditched her trademark red carpet glamour.

Keeping a touch of Hollywood about her, the actress accessorised with a pair of large, chic black sunglasses.

On Wednesday, Lily put in a striking appearance at the Sydney premiere of her new movie Baby Driver in a figure-hugging, plunging white dress.

Cute couple: Lily's co-star Ansel Elgort arrived in Melbourne with his 21-year-old girlfriend Violetta Komyshan

Meanwhile, Lily's co-star Ansel Elgort arrived in Melbourne with his 21-year-old girlfriend Violetta Komyshan.

The American star, 23, looked happy after his flight as he smiled while walking hand-in-hand with his ladylove.

The Fault In Our Stars actor was also dressed casually in navy jogger-style pants, a black T-shirt and blue bomber jacket.

Red carept stunner: Lily put in a striking appearance at the Sydney premiere of her new movie Baby Driver in a figure-hugging, plunging white dress

His girlfriend Violetta opted for a grunge-inspired look of ripped denim jeans and shiny boots.

Carrying a white designer bag in her arms with cut-out detailing, she kept the cold out with a khaki-coloured bomber.

The couple, who have been together for four years, arrived in Australia together on Tuesday.

Dressed to impress: She went all-out for her red carpet appearance

Lily and Ansel are Down Under to promote their new movie Baby Driver.

An action-comedy written and directed by Edgar Wright, it follows Baby (Ansel Elgort), a getaway driver who works for criminal kingpin Doc, played by Kevin Spacey.

Lily stars as Debora, a waitress and Baby's girlfriend.
The first look at Gary Oldman as British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill was revealed Thursday with the first official trailer for Darkest Hour.

The actor, 59, is unrecognizable as the portly politician with his balding pate and round spectacles.

Oldman is joined in the historical drama by a stellar cast that includes Krisitn Scott Thomas as Clementine Churchill, Stephen Dillane as Viscount Halifax, the foreign secretary, and Lily James as Churchill's personal secretary Elizabeth Nel.

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Making history: Gary Oldman stars as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. The first trailer for the Universal Pictures release dropped online Thursday

Famous leader: Churchill became prime minister in 1940, eight months after the start of the Second World War. He is pictured left in 1945; Oldman as Churchill is shown right

The Joe Wright directed feature tells the story of how the British establishment reluctantly invited Churchill to replace Neville Chamberlain after he was weakened politically by the ongoing aggression of Adolf Hitler and the failure of his Munich Agreement.

On the day Churchill took office, Germany invaded Belgium, the Netherlands and France and shortly thereafter the British Expeditionary Force was backed into a corner on the beaches of Dunkirk.

With his foreign secretary Lord Halifax and his generals warning of catastrophe and urging him to seek peace talks with Hitler, Church gives a rousing and impassioned speech to the House Of Commons, committing Britain to ongoing war with Germany and saying Britain will never surrender.

His support: Kristin Scott Thomas stars as Churchill's devoted and long-suffering wife Clementine, left. The real Clemmy is shown right in 1961

Former PM: Neville Chamberlain, right, stepped down as prime minister, ceding the role to Churchill, after being politically weakened by Adolf Hitler's ongoing aggression after the Munich Agreement. He's played on screen by veteran British actor Ronald Pickup

Stepped aside: Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax, right in 1939, was the popular choice to replace Chamberlain but he personally believed Churchill would be the better wartime prime minister. He is played on film by Stephen Dillane, left

Helper: Elizabeth Nel, right, was Churchill's personal secretary. She is played by Lily James, left

The movie opens with Chamberlain explaining: 'It is now time to pick my successor and there is only one man that the opposition will accept.'

There is then a riposte from one of his cabinet when it's clear that that 'one man' is Churchill.

'He stands for one thing and on thing only - himself.'

The movie opens with Churchill being called to No. 10 Downing Street as Chamberlain, who is stepping down, explains there is only one man who can replace him as prime minister

The action turns to Buckingham Palace where King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) isn't convinced, asking: 'Why have I been forced to send for Churchill? His record is a catastrophe'

Churchill, meanwhile, is getting support from his wife Clementine, who suggests that his 'true qualities' are about to be revealed to the world

Churchill is then seen arriving at the palace

The king invites him to become prime minister and lead the country during wartime

The action then turns to Buckingham Palace where King George VI is also clearly reluctant, asking: 'Why have I been forced to send for Churchill? His record is a catastrophe.'

Churchill, meanwhile, is getting support from his wife Clementine, who suggests that his 'true qualities' are about to be revealed to the world.

Churchill is then seen arriving at the palace where the king invites him to become prime minister.

He immediately faces his first big crisis - Dunkirk.

On the day Churchill became prime minister, Hitler invaded Belgium, the Netherlands and France

The British Expeditionary Force is backed into a corner on the beaches of norther France, at Dunkirk

His generals tell him the Germans have surround 60 French and British divisions and the collapse of western Europe could happen 'within the next few days'

Nel, looking at a map of the northern French coastline, asks how long the British army has if a rescue effort is not mounted. 'Maybe two days,' Churchill tells her

His generals tell him the Germans have surround 60 French and British divisions.

'We are looking at the collapse of western Europe within the next few days,' Churchill is warned.

Looking at a map of the northern French coastline when the British army is trapped, Churchill's personal secretary Nel asks: 'How long have they got if we don't rescue them?'

'Maybe two days,' the prime minister tells her. 'We would need a miracle to get our men out.

He says it would take 'a miracle' to get the hundreds of thousands of troops home from Dunkirk

Churchill gets his 'miracle' as a flotilla of small boats joins Navy vessels to rescue the trapped soldiers and bring them safely home to Britain

The marriage between Winston and Clementine provides a foil to the politics of war and he leans on her encouragement

She reminds him of his qualities - his lack of vanity and his sense of humor

The marriage between Winston and Clementine provides a foil to the politics of war and shows how much he leaned on her.

'You have the full weight of the world on your shoulders,' Clemmy suggests sympathetically as he wrestles with his next steps.

Halifax, who served as foreign secretary under Chamberlain and remained in office under Churchill, fears the worst.

'We're facing certain defeat on land, the annihilation of our army and imminent invasion,' he tells Churchill.

'We must negotiate peace talks,' Halifax urges.

During a tense meeting of the War Cabinet, Churchill rails: 'When will the lesson be learned! You cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth!'

At a meeting of the War Cabinet, Halifax states that Britain is 'facing the annihilation of our army and imminent invasion'

'We must negotiate peace talks,' Halifax urges

Churchill is not prepared to do what his predecessor Chamberlain did and appease the enemy

'When will the lesson be learned! You cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth!' he shouts

With Nel's assistance, he drafts what will become his most famous speech as he prepares to commit Britain to the fight against Hitler

He heads to the House Of Commons to address Members Of Parliament

His mind made up, he is then seen addressing the House Of Commons where he tells the Members Of Parliament: 'We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering.'

His famous speech goes on: 'We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be.'

'We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills,' he says as MPs cheer.

'We shall never surrender, for without victory, there can be no survival!'

Darkest Hour is slated to open in the U.S. on November 22 and in the UK on January 12, making it a contender for the Academy Awards.

'We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering,' Churchill tells MPs. 'We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be'

'We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills,' he says as MPs cheer

Nel sits in the pubic gallery to listen to Churchill's rousing speech
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Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Liu Yunshan met Thursday with Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose, pledging to further promote pragmatic cooperation between the two countries.

Liu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, arrived in Bucharest on Wednesday for an official good-will visit to Romania.

At the meeting, Liu first extended his congratulations to Tudose on taking office as the new Romanian prime minster, saying China highly values relations with Romania and treats it as a traditionally friendly country and partner.

China-Romania relations have witnessed a considerable development in recent years as the two sides have frequented high-level visits, cemented political mutual trust and enhanced substantial cooperation in such fields as trade and energy, said Liu.

China's economic growth will help provide greater market demand for the benefit of Romania, an important country along the Belt and Road, said Liu, urging the two sides to grasp the opportunity of jointly building the Belt and Road and promote their cooperation on areas like trade, energy, finance, culture, education and tourism.

Liu also called on the two countries to further deepen party-to-party exchanges, hoping China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) Political Parties Dialogue, to be held Friday in Bucharest, could consolidate political and social foundation for China-Romania as well as China-CEECs relations.

Tudose expressed his satisfaction with the sound development of bilateral ties, saying it is Romania's political decision to support and take part in the Belt and Road Initiative, which offers an opportunity for mutually-beneficial cooperation between Romania and China.

The two sides should speed up the implementation of large projects on fields like energy and infrastructure and make them achieve outcomes as soon as possible, said Tudose.
The Death Of Louis XIV

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The lighting is exquisite, a long twilight dream of flickering candles against dark, richly oppressive drapery and gilded baroque ornaments.

Once, in a long silent moment, a guttering flame throws the golden reflection of a fragment of jelly on a silver spoon onto the thinning lip and sharp nose of the dying king.

He is not up to jelly now. Earlier, when he managed a spoonful of soup and a biscuit, women of the court stood in a row applauding, relieved.

The decline of Louis XIV decline is both compassionate and claustrophobic

We have been in the royal bedroom for more than an hour, and before that we saw him only in daylight once, outdoors in a wheeled chair.

In an early scene, already recumbent and weary, he could raise himself a little and soften his heavy, features to smiles of affection for his graceful greyhounds, as they fussed and licked the sacred face of this Sun King, 72 years a monarch, a legendary symbol of old France. Since that brief, happy moment his decline has kept us both rapt and trapped, compassionate and claustrophobic.

Catalan director Albert Serras work is an arthouse film based on the memoirs of grandees who witnessed Louis XIVs death from gangrene in 1715. In exquisitely framed shots, we share that last fortnight amid courtiers and doctors with their anxious murmurs and  for this was an absolute monarch  their understandable fears of dismissal and the Bastille.

Catalan director Albert Serras work is an arthouse film based on the memoirs of grandees

It is sparse in dialogue, heavy in mood, deliberately avoiding dramatics and sentiment unless it should rise in the viewer. It does sometimes; you are forced to reflect on the way that no matter how much glory or wealth we acquire, our body will one day betray us.

You reflect, too, on medicine and how it grew: one of the few moments of levity comes when the serious regular doctors bring in a Spanish quack with an elixir made of bulls sperm, frog fat and brain juice distilled by the English.

The remarkable Jean-Pierre Leaud, as Louis, hardly moves yet radiates a vast dignity of pain, despite an extraordinary curled white wig so massively exaggerated it looks as if he has a full-grown sheep stapled to each ear.

Watching the film it is hard not to reflect on medicine and how it grew since the 18th century

In contrast with the gangrenous rotting leg, the pomp of court is always there. The rosary in the kings hand glitters, the wine he can barely swallow arrives in crystal goblets.

The stillness and tension of the court is echoed in the faces of Patrick dAssumcao as the doctor and Marc Susini as the faithful valet. After the kings death, even as they follow instructions to remove his heart to be sent to the Jesuits, there is dignity in the contemplation of death.

And in the doctors final: We will do better next time.
He was among acting royalty on Thursday night for the premiere of Dunkirk, in which he bagged his first major role.

But later in the evening, Harry Styles proved that he hadn't forgotten his roots when he shunned the film's leading stars at the afterparty to be with pals for Bleach London's make-up range launch party.

The One Direction star, 23, mingled with his hair stylist Lou Teasdale, whose twin sister owns the Bleach brand, as he attended the relaxed event.

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Star studded: On Thursday he attended the premiere of Dunkirk, in which he bagged his first major role

Dressed in a sharp grey suit and crisp white shirt to reveal a glimpse of his chain, he opted to stay in the same ensemble from his premiere.

Meanwhile Lou looked chic in a semi-sheer black blouse and skin-tight trousers with a gold statement zip.

His appearance came after he joked to reporters on the Dunkirk red carpet that he may soon be retiring from acting, earlier in the evening.

Party time: The One Direction star, 23, mingled with his hair stylist Lou Teasdale as he attended the relaxed event

Speaking to reporters at the world premiere in Leicester Square, he said of his role: 'I'm thinking, what am I doing?

'I feel very lucky to be a part of Dunkirk I'd do this one again but it may be one and done I'd do this one again.'

He continued: 'I really enjoyed this. I've peaked too soon! There's nowhere to go.'

Keeping him Style-d: Dressed in a sharp grey suit and crisp white shirt to reveal a glimpse of his chain, he opted to stay in the same ensemble from his premiere

Harry, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy - as well as Prince Harry- led the extremely dapper arrivals at the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square on Thursday for the historical action drama which tells the story of soldiers being evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk during the Second War War.

Harry, who rocketed to fame in the 2010 X Factor, has won early praise for his role of Alex in Dunkirk

Harry plays the role of Alex, a British soldier, in the historical drama alongside newcomer Fionn Whitehead and Tom Hardy and has claimed he was in 'awe' of Noaln when he initially walked out on set during Dunkirk's production.

In awe: Speaking to reporters at the world premiere in Leicester Square, he said of his role: 'I'm thinking, what am I doing?'

Harry said: 'Being a fan of Chris and being on set with him, it's hard not to be in awe of him just in the way that he works.

'You feel lucky that you get to watch someone like that work and someone so passionate of what they're doing I feel is always a privilege to be around people like that.'

While Dunkirk could be seen as Harry's big break into the film industry, he admits he 'hasn't thought too much' about crossing over and pursuing a career in acting.

Over the last few months, Harry has been pursuing his own solo career when it comes to music and enjoyed chart success with his debut single Sign Of The Times.

'I really enjoyed this. I've peaked too soon! There's nowhere to go,' he joked
Decoding Disaster (BBC4)

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Horizon: Dippy And The Whale (BBC2)

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A lone figure walks at the waters edge on a windswept Celtic beach, her hair whipped by the salty breeze as she gazes longingly out to sea. Why, this must be wild-spirited Demelza with her heart breaking for Capn Ross.

Sadly not. The camera swoops on Professor Danielle George of Manchester University, wondering how shes going to cobble together an hour of old documentary clips about volcanoes and tsunamis, and somehow make it new and interesting.

Try as she might, she couldnt. Decoding Disaster: A Timewatch Guide (BBC 4) was so badly constructed, it might as well have been patched together with glue and sticky-back plastic. Youd never guess that Prof Georges PhD is in electrical engineering.

Decoding Disaster (BBC 4) was so badly constructed, it might as well have been patched together with glue and sticky-back plastic (pictured: Professor Danielle George)

Lumps of ancient film were spliced into one long, rambling, waffly mess. We had half an hour about Atlantis and Pompeii, then some stuff on the Black Death, and finally a segment on flooding around the Bristol Channel.

The theme seemed to be that science, even when it doesnt have the faintest idea what its talking about, is really wonderful.

We heard one scientist on a forgotten history show from 1984 explaining that the 14th-century plague was probably anthrax, and another in 2004 declaring it to be a strain of ebola.

Generations of Mediterranean archaeologists couldnt work out where Atlantis was, but that didnt stop them making vague guesses on camera.

Since each programme proved the previous one wrong, you would suspect that none of the experts wanted to be reminded of their mistakes.

There were rare moments of interest. A young Magnus Magnusson popped up on the unspoilt Greek isle of Santorini in 1972, talking about the Minoan civilisation, with an open-necked shirt, blond hair and a golden tan. Goodness knows why he ditched that job for the gloom of the Mastermind studio.

For a demonstration of how to string together a boxload of half-fossilised bits and reinvent them as something fascinating, you need the Natural History Museum.

Hangover cure of the night Caitriona Balfe as the time-travelling nurse Claire was learning the 18th-century folk remedies of the Highlands in Outlander (More4). The chief one she needed was: White willow bark eases a whisky headache. Plink-plink, fizz... Advertisement

For the past six months the great entrance hall has been closed while the famous diplodocus skeleton was dismantled, and we had a sneak preview of the new exhibit in Horizon: Dippy And The Whale (BBC 2).

The bones of a 100-year-old blue whale have been assembled, not in a flatly rigid pose like a cod on a fishmongers slab, but in a dramatic dive  lunging out of the rafters and down towards the visitors as if to gobble them up. It promises to be an extraordinary artwork, never mind a museum exhibit, and David Attenboroughs narration gave a vivid sense of how much planning has gone into the display. Visitors will get their first sight of it today at 10am.

As a casual aside, the show conveyed what Timewatch had tried so hard to do and failed: how scientific attitudes change over the decades. When the whale was beached on the west coast of Ireland in 1891, no one gave a thought to its value as an exhibit... except for one astute entrepreneur, who paid 111 for the carcass as dog food, but cleverly sold it for 250 to the museum as an educational object.

Forty years later, the skeleton was reassembled by workmen who wedged the bones into place with wooden splints and wads of newspaper.

Colourful details like this made the story fascinating. What TV professors so often fail to understand is that its no good telling us how fabulous science is. Show us  and trust the facts to do the rest.
Actor Justine Mitchell is impressively subsumed by Clems febrile neurosis, but the colour of the acting lies beyond her

Bodies (Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre)

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Many women will relate to the heroine of Vivienne Franzmanns play about surrogacy.

The frustration at not being able to bear your own children must be tough. But to really win our sympathy, Franzmanns play needs a bigger, fatter personality at its centre, someone whos more conflicted.

What we get is an earnest, volatile, obsessive TV producer whos emotionally stifled and eaten with envy. No one wants themselves to be seen like that, and even if that is whats going on inside, they will often project something more fun-loving.

I certainly found my sympathies wavering in the story of middle-class Clem, who has a Russian womans egg fertilised by her husband and planted in the uterus of a poor Indian woman for 20,000.

Even so, Franzmanns play does occasionally scratch the surface of serious moral, social and psychological issues. It also shuttles boldly in space and time between gestation in India and interaction with an imaginary teenage daughter in London. The elephant in the theatre, however, is why not go for adoption?

Jude Christians tidy production is smartly presented on Gabriella Slades set design which looks like an IKEA plywood show home. Intermittent film projections and having the Indian surrogate painting the walls of a new nursery only serve to upstage the action elsewhere.

Actor Justine Mitchell is impressively subsumed by Clems febrile neurosis, but the colour of the acting lies beyond her. Philip Goldacre is vivid as Clems disabled father muttering occasional scorn and Lorna Brown is beautifully insouciant as his wryly amused Nigerian carer.

Otherwise Franzmanns characters are not allowed to mount a serious challenge to Clems enervating fertility fantasy.
After splitting with The Bachelor co-star Tiffany Scanlon, Megan Marx is moving on and appears to be having a very good time in her new home of Bali.

The 28-year-old was seen on Instagram eating what appeared to be Magic Mushrooms with a female acquaintance called Nicole this week.

The pair, who shared a beach date on Wednesday, sat at a table holding the likely psychedelic fungus, before eating the spores whole.

Magic? Megan Marx was seen eating what appears to be Magic Mushrooms with her friend Nicole in Bali on Wednesday, before letting her hair down for a wild night

Megan, who was putting on a busty display in a plunging blue top, nodded her head along to background music as she chewed on the substance.

In the next clip shared to her Instagram story, a handsome male friend in a floral shirt was seen eating a much larger mushroom.

'That is a big boy!' The Bachelor star could be heard saying in the background.

Busting out: The Bachelor star, 28, who was putting on a busty display in a plunging blue top, nodded her head along to background music as she chewed on the substance

'That is a big boy!': In the next clip shared to her Instagram story, a handsome male friend in a floral shirt was seen eating a much larger mushroom

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Megan for comment.

Shortly after, a wild night ensued, with the reality star sharing footage of her dancing seductively with a feather duster.

Minutes later, she danced freely next to two handsome males, mimicking air guitar strums as she flashed glimpses of her midriff.

Wild! Shortly after, a wild night ensued, seen on her Instagram story dancing freely next the handsome male

As the night wore on, Megan took to Instagram once again to announce 'last drinks' in a video, dancing suggestively with Nicole.

She ended her night at a crowded Bali bar with her new acquaintances, before sharing an intimate close dance with her floral-shirted pal.

Nicole also joined Megan on a flirty beach date on Wednesday, with the bikini-clad women seen relaxing while sitting close together on a beach towel.

'Last drinks': As the night wore on, Megan took to Instagram once again to announce 'last drinks' in a video, dancing suggestively with Nicole

Close encounters! She ended her night at a crowded Bali bar with her new acquaintances, before sharing an intimate, close dance with her floral-shirted pal

We're getting up to mischief tonight!' Megan could be heard saying as the pair soaked up the sun.

The reality star rose to fame on The Bachelor, maintaining public attention after embarking on a short-lived same-sex romance with co-star Tiffany Scanlon.

After succumbing to the pressure of a public relationship, they announced their mutual decision to split in March.

Beach babes! Nicole also joined Megan on a beach date on Wednesday, with the bikini-clad women seen relaxing while sitting close together on a beach towel

Mischief! We're getting up to mischief tonight!' Megan could be heard saying in one clip
They're near-inseparable bosom buddies who love nothing more than expressing their admiration for each other in endless social media posts.

And on Thursday, a relaxed Natasha Oakley and Devin Brugman flaunted their famous figures in snaps shared from their 'mini vacation' at Hollywood's luxurious Beverly Hills Hotel.

In one photo, Devin, 27, looked blissful as her extreme cleavage spilled over from a retro black and white striped bikini.

Glam getaway: Relaxed Natasha Oakley and Devin Brugman flaunted their famous figures as they shared snaps from their 'mini vacation'

Looking every bit the classic Hollywood movie star with dangerous curves, the beauty lounged on a pale pink pool chair.

She captioned the image: 'This is my "I'm surrounded by palm trees and everything pink" smile.'

Tash, 26, likewise channelled the hotel's old Tinseltown vibe with a snap of her striking a classic pose on a white cane chair.

The braless model showed off her tanned legs and a hint of cleavage in a flowing, pink and white striped dress, she had a quilted black Chanel bag at her side.

Old school: The braless model showed off her tanned legs and a hint of cleavage in a flowing, pink and white striped dress, she had a quilted black Chanel bag at her side.

Nice digs: The pair are staying at Hollywood's luxurious Beverly Hills Hotel

She captioned the image: 'Checking in to The Beverly Hills Hotel with my family for a mini vacation whilst I'm home and getting extra special treatment as an #AmexPlatinum Card Member. Room upgrade and spa credit yes please!'

In June, the women took their friendship to the next level, flaunting not only matching swimwear, but matching tattoos too, in an Instagram snap shared from their Italian getaway.

In June, the women took their friendship to the next level, flaunting not only matching swimwear, but matching tattoos too, in an Instagram snap shared from their Italian getaway

I heart you: The stunning bikini models posed hand in hand to show off their identical love heart tattoos

The stunning bikini models posed hand in hand to show off their identical love heart tattoos.

The pair, who share the massively successful bikini blog, A Bikini A Day, stood poolside at Belmond Grand Hotel Timeo for the shot.

In her caption, Natasha offered an explanation for the match-up, 'If you came all the way to Italy to see me then we might as well match...,' she said.
It's the hit television show where children showcase illuminate the stage with their special talents.

But Channel Seven has delayed the debut of the Australian version of Little Big Shots, hosted by actor and comedian Shane Jacobson.

The show was set to premiere on Sunday, but due to the success of Australian Ninja Warrior which airs in a competing time slot on Channel Nine, it has now been pegged as 'starting soon'.

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'There are no prizes, just the most amazing kids': Channel Seven delays the debut of Little Big Shots Australia but teases series with new trailer

'We want to screen Little Big Shots to the biggest audience possible and attempting to split the family audience with Ninja does not feel like a smart play,' Channel Seven program chief Angus Ross recently told news.com.au.

Little Big Shots Australia is a local remake of the popular US show, which is hosted by Steve Harvey.

Following a variety show format, it sees children perform for an audience.

Created by Harvey and Ellen DeGeneres, the show was inspired by the bright young talent featured on her daytime talk show.

'We want to screen Little Big Shots to the biggest audience possible,' Channel Seven program chief Angus Ross recently told news.com.au

Tiny talents: A remake of the popular US version hosted by Steve Harvey, Little Big Shots sees children show off their skills in a variety show filmed in front of an audience

In a new trailer for the series, which features talent from around the world, a boy is seen using both his hands and feet to solve three Rubik's Cubes simultaneously.

The clip does not reveal if he is successful in his feat but the audience appears captivated by it.

'The sheer complexity of this is just mind-blowing,' declares Shane as he looks on.

'The sheer complexity of this is just mind-blowing,' declares Shane as he watches a boy is use both his hands and feet to solve three Rubik's Cubes simultaneously

'This is not a competition,' the husky host announces at the beginning of the first episode, set to debut in coming weeks

'This is not a competition,' the husky host announces at the beginning of the first episode, set to debut in coming weeks.

'No prizes, just the most amazing kids and every single one of them is a little big shot,' he continues.

In one scene Shane asks a particularly confident young man: 'What do you love about lawn bowls?' to which he responds, 'I love to smash all the oldies!'

'No prizes, just the most amazing kids and every single one of them is a little big shot,' Shane says about the show
Quentin Tarantino is reported to be deciding between Jennifer Lawrence and Margot Robbie for the role of murdered actress Sharon Tate in a movie about the 1969 Manson Family murders.

But Sharon's sister Debra Tate, 64, says she's clear in her own mind which of the accomplished actresses should get the gig, and it's not Oscar winner JLaw.

'She's not pretty enough to play Sharon,' Debra told TMZ Thursday. 'My pick would be Margot simply because of her physical beauty and even the way she carries herself is similar to Sharon.'

Quentin Tarantino is reported to be deciding between Jennifer Lawrence and Margot Robbie for the role of murdered actress Sharon Tate, pictured

All about looks: Jennifer Lawrence, left, 'is not pretty enough' to play slain actress Sharon Tate, right, in an upcoming Quentin Tarantino movie, according to Sharon's sister Debra Tate

Sibling seal of approval: Debra told TMZ she would prefer Margot Robbie, who is also reported to be under consideration 'because of her physical beauty'

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news Tuesday that Tarantino is prepping a film about Charles Manson and the brutal slaying of Sharon and four others at a Benedict Canyon home in Los Angeles on August 8, 1969.

The killing of the pretty blonde actress, who was married to director Roman Polanski and eight months pregnant with their son, is infamous even among the Manson Family string of murders.

Debra also told TMZ she has some concerns about the Kill Bill filmmaker's plans to make a film about the killings, particularly how he might portray her late sister on screen.

'I would like to sit down and have a chat with him. He needs, in my opinion, to portray her as she was and not sensationalize,' Debra said.

She also pointed out that she retains the rights to Sharon's intellectual licensing.

Wary of sensationalism: Debra, 64, who owns retains the rights to Sharon's intellectual licensing, expressed concerns over the way Tarantino might portray her late sister on screen

New project: The Kill Bill filmmaker is said to be putting the finishing touches to his script about the Manson Family murders which he also plans to direct

The project, according to The Hollywood Reporter Tuesday, is currently being shopped around town by Tarantino who is finishing up the script.

The trade said he was eyeing Silver Linings Playbook and The Hunger Games star Lawrence and also Brad Pitt, who worked with him on Inglorious Basterds, for leading roles in the movie.

Later, Deadline.com claimed that he was also thinking of casting Australian actress Robbie.

Infamous crime: Sharon, who was married to Roman Polanski, was eight months pregnant when she was brutally murdered at her home in August 1969 by followers of Charles Manson

Cult leader: Manson, pictured after his arrest in December 1969, ordered the killings which were carried out with guns and knives. He has been behind bars in California since 1971

If it pans out, the movie will be the first time Tarantino has tackled a story based on true events.

Manson and several of his followers were tried and convicted in 1971 for the murders they committed in 1969. They included Tate and four others at the house on Cielo Drive and the killing two days later in their home on Waverly Drive of Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary.

Manson and several members of his 'Family' remain behind bars in state prison in California.

His go to guy: Tarantino is said to have approached Brad Pitt to star in the movie; the two worked together on the filmmaker's 2009 Oscar nominated movie Inglourious Basterds




The happiest place on Earth is in Chris Zylka's arms... on his left forearm, to be exact.

Paris Hilton's boyfriend surprised her on Thursday by getting a huge tattoo of her name in Disney font.

The 36-year-old heiress gushed with pride after revealing the inking on Snapchat.

Disneyland, Paris: Paris Hilton's boyfriend surprised her on Thursday by getting a huge tattoo of her name in Disney font

'My love just came home and surprised me with a Paris tattoo, in Disney font... I love you.'

A friend of the Leftovers actor told DailyMail.com he chose the Disney font because 'she is his most magical place on Earth.'

The couple have been practically inseparable since striking up their whirlwind romance around Valentine's weekend.

They are currently shacked up together in Ibiza for two months, where Paris is resident DJ at Amnesia, her fifth year at the club.

Permanent: The 36-year-old heiress gushed with pride after revealing the inking on Snapchat

'Chris is absolutely crazy about Paris,' the source said. 'He thinks she is the most beautiful, intelligent, fun and interesting person he's ever met in his life.

'They are so in love, they haven't spent a single night apart. Everyone on the island is calling them the queen and king of Ibiza!'

'All Paris' friends are so happy for her... everyone can see what an incredible man he is to her. So loyal, sweet and loving with her.

In love: The couple have been practically inseparable since striking up their whirlwind romance around Valentine's weekend

At work: They are currently shacked up together in Ibiza for two months, where Paris is resident DJ at Amnesia, her fifth year at the club

'She tells everyone she's finally met her perfect match, and that he is even more beautiful on the inside than he is on the out,' the insider added. 'This is true love.'

Paris told the LLNYC mag: 'One of the things I love most about him is how talented and creative he is

Besides his blossoming acting career, Chris, 32, is also a talented photographer, and has been shooting Paris for almost all of her professional shots since getting together; including the cover of the current issue of LLNYC magazine.

Paris told the mag: 'One of the things I love most about him is how talented and creative he is.

'We love making art together, doing photo shoots and making music. I loved having my man behind the camera, you can see it in my smile in my photos.'

As exclusively revealed by DailyMail.com last week, Paris's little sister Nicky is expecting her second child with husband James Rothschild  and Paris herself mentions her own future children definitively in the interview.

Discussing an upcoming documentary on social media she is producing, the Simple Life star declared: 'When I have a daughter one day, I dont want her to be so obsessed with social media....I just think there are way more important things in life.

She explained that she was concerned about online bullying - something she has faced before - but knows how to deal with it: ignore them.

'Its obviously very miserable, lonely bored people who do that. So who cares what they think? Theyre losers.'
She's the blonde bikini model known for her gym-honed physique and beaming smile.

And on Friday Natalie Roser, 27, braved the plunging Australian winter temperatures by stripping down to skimpy lingerie for a photo shoot.

The busty bombshell revealed a generous glimpse of cleavage in a barely-there leotard in a snap she shared to her popular Instagram account.

'Everyone is over enjoying the European summer!' Natalie Roser was prepared to brave the Australian winter for the sake of a lingerie photo shoot this Friday

The model finished off her decolletage-baring ensemble by draping a fluffy, taupe-coloured jumper around her back.

'Everyone is over enjoying the European summer and I'm just back here in Australia pretending I'm there too #TravelEnvy,' she wrote in the caption.

The snap comes days after the swimwear enthusiast spoke to Daily Mail Australia about the short amount of time it took her to find a new boyfriend after she split with ex-fiance Dan Adair.

Sunny: The blonde bikini model known for her gym-honed physique and beaming smile

That was quick! Natalie recently confirmed she first met boyfriend Harley Bonner (right) just a few weeks after calling off her wedding to ex-fiance Dan Adair

During the interview, Natalie confirmed that she had met her new boyfriend, Neighbours star Harley Bonner, just a few weeks after calling off the wedding she was planning with Dan.

The wedding was scheduled to take place on October 22nd 2016 but was postponed shortly before the big day.

At the time, a spokesperson for the couple said the couple had delayed their nuptials due to their reception venue closing down and that it hadn't been moved: 'Due to a third person in the relationship...'

New flame:Natalie announced her romance with Harley earlier this year, despite never having publicly confirmed her split from personal trainer Dan

Natalie announced her romance with Harley earlier this year, despite never having publicly confirmed her split from personal trainer Dan.

The Los Angeles-based bikini model revealed the new couple met last November during a promotional trip.

'We met on a work trip... We went to New Zealand and he was on the trip and I was on the trip and we became really good friends,' she said.

'We became really good friends': The Los Angeles-based bikini model revealed the new couple met last November during a promotional trip

What happened? Natalie and Dan Adair (left) had been scheduled to marry on October 22nd 2016, but postponed the wedding shortly before the special day. Pictured in February 2014
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The first batch of emergency humanitarian aids provided by the Chinese government arrived in Yemen's southern port city of Aden on Thursday.

The Chinese humanitarian aid was received by Yemeni government officials at Aden's seaport.

The Chinese government has announced a grant of 150 million yuan (22.5 million U.S. dollars) as relief assistance to Yemen, in addition to 5 million yuan (750,000 U.S. dollars) for the UN World Food Programme and 2 million yuan (300,000 U.S. dollars) for the World Health Organization, in an effort to contain spread of the cholera epidemic sweeping across the war-torn country.

The arrival of Chinese humanitarian aid in Aden reflects the strong historical relations between the governments of China and Yemen.

The Chinese government has pledged to continue its support for the Yemeni people and remain in coordination with the Yemeni government and the United Nations in delivering humanitarian assistance to the needy in Yemen.

The conflict in Yemen has continued for more than two years and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the country, which has left more than 10,000 people killed, including 1,500 children, over 35,000 injured, and about 3 million displaced.

It is now the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, where two thirds of the population, or nearly 19 million, need assistance and more than 7 million are suffering from hunger.

There have been 313,000 cholera cases and 1,706 deaths across Yemen's 22 provinces since the outbreak began in March.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Backstrom actor Thomas Dekker has come out as gay and he also revealed that he married his husband in April.

The 29-year-old actor shared the information with Twitter followers on Thursday.

He explained that he felt compelled to come out, after his sexuality was brought into the limelight last week.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Backstrom actor Thomas Dekker has come out as gay and he also revealed that he married his husband in April (pictured Feb)

Dekker - who also played Zach on Heroes - explained that people had joined the dots after a comment made at Outfest - believed to be by Heroes writer Bryan Fuller.

He wrote on Twitter: 'My sexual orientation once again came into question this week when a prominent gay man used an awards acceptance speech to "out" me. While he did not mention me by name, the explicit details of his reference made it easy for the public and media to connect the dots.'

He continued: 'While it is an odd situation, I thank him because it presents a prime opportunity for me to publicly say that I am indeed a man who proudly loves other men. In fact, this April, I married my husband and I could not be happier.'

Posted: He shared this letter to fans on Twitter on Thursday

Heroes writer Bryan Fuller, who went on to create Pushing Daisies and American Gods, made a comment during an acceptance speech at the Outfest event last week.

He told the audience about a gay actor on Heroes whose management allegedly did not want him to play gay on the show, which pointed fans to Thomas.

Thomas wrote: 'I have never lied to the press about the fluidity of my sexuality but this man claiming that I came out is not true. Because I have not "officially" until this moment. I simply refuse to be robbed of the glorious by that belongs to me. To say the words myself. "Im gay". Those words are a badge of honor that no one can steal.'

He added: 'Sexuality and who you love is a deeply personal and complicated thing. For some of us, it takes time to cultivate, discover and conclude. It is not something anyone should ever be ashamed of and certainly not something anyone should be rushed into.

'I agree with many who believe it is an important responsibility for LGBTQ persons with a platform to come out. It has the power to change minds, challenge beliefs and make others feel understood and supported. It can strengthen the progression of our community and help disarm those who discriminate against us. It is a brave, powerful and important thing to do but it is also a deeply personal decision. One that should only be made when you are ready.

Speaking up: Thomas - seen at a Hallow'een party last October - said he had to speak up after being nearly-outed by someone in the industry

'If we are to stand strong in the gay community, our mission should be support, not exclusion; love, not shame. I choose not to look back on the past with a regretful heart but rather focus on the future with a hopeful one. A future where myself and all others can feel free to express their true selves with honor and dignity.

'I embrace you, any of you, with open arms, kindness, faith and patience. For all of you who have supported me, before and now, I thank you from the bottom of my fledgling heart.Be proud of who you are. No matter how long it takes.'

Previously, Dekker had told Out Magazine: 'Ive only really had relationships with women, but I'm certainly not closed to it [gay relationships]. If there are possibilities of being able to do anything in life, why would you say you would never take any up?

'In the later chunk of my teen years I was so all over the place with sex. It was terrible. I never really had a real relationship at all. During puberty, it's all about sex, and it's all about figuring yourself out. I think I overdid it when I was younger.'
Channel Nine's AFL AFL Footy Show spent the last two weeks lagging in the ratings race, while it's Channel Seven rival program The Front Bar took the lead.

But it seems that The AFL Footy Show could be winning audience favour again, with the program enticing 184,000 Melbourne viewers on Thursday, compared to The Front Bar's 148,000.

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On top: The AFL Footy Show could be winning audience favour again, with the program enticing 184,000 Melbourne viewers on Thursday, compared to The Front Bar's 148,000

Both shows air at the popular 8.30pm time-slot.

Over the previous two weeks, The Front Bar - hosted by Mick Molloy, Andrew Maher and Ryan Fitzgerald - had averaged 189,000 Melbourne viewers compared to The Footy Show's 153,000.

The Front Bar, which began life as a weekly web series, had performed strongly against The Footy Show ever since its Seven pitted it against the Footy Show in April.

Tit for tat: It was a case of reversal of fortune for the popular Channel Nine show after it had lagged behind The Front Bar (pictured) over the previous two weeks

The Footy Show is hosted by Sam Newman, Rebecca Maddern and Craig Hutchison.

Controversial Footy Show host Sam Newman was recently forced to apologise for making 'unacceptable' comment in relation to transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner.

Sam, no stranger to controversy referred to Caitlyn as an 'it', adding: 'Oh well, what is she? Is it a he or a she?'

Sorry: Controversial Footy Show host Sam Newman was recently forced to apologise for making 'unacceptable' comment in relation to transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner

Elsewhere, Channel Ten proved to be the big winner of prime time on Thursday with MasterChef leading the charge with and average of 895,000 metropolitan viewers.

Not having to compete with any rival reality shows paid off for the cooking show with its next closest rival being the fly-on-the-wall police docu-series RBT, which enticed 639,000 viewers to switch to Channel Nine.

Channel Seven could only manage a meagre 542,000 for its 'funny video' compilation show Toddlers make You Laugh Out Loud.

The ABCs 7.30 trailed behind on 484,000 viewers while SBS were at the bottom of the list with their documentary series great British Railway Journeys managing 310,000 viewers.
She was in Sydney on Thursday selecting models for the forthcoming David Jones Spring Summer Fashion Show.

And Jesinta Franklin (nee Campbell) was on the hunt again on Friday at Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria for a second casting call.

The former Miss Universe Australia cut a chic figure at the model search, wearing a stylish bronze blouse.

Another day, another casting: Jesinta Campbell cuts a chic figure in a silk bronzed blouse at David Jones model call in Melbourne

The 25-year-old looked every bit the model David Jones ambassador, wearing a fashion-forward blouse with quirky buttoned sleeves.

Jesinta paired the top with high-waisted black pants and matching dark nail polish on her fingernails.

She finished off her look with pointed suede black boots, wearing her brunette locks out in light tousled waves.

You beauty: She finished off her look with pointed suede black boots, wearing her brunette locks out in light tousled waves

Chic: The 25-year-old looked every bit the model David Jones ambassador, wearing a fashion-forward blouse with quirky buttoned sleeves

Bling: The wife of Sydney Swans player Buddy Franklin also made sure to accessorise with her diamond engagement rings

The wife of Sydney Swans player Buddy Franklin also made sure to accessorise with her diamond engagement rings.

After posing for photos outside the casting call's venue, Jesinta headed inside to help select models for the forthcoming David Jones fashion show.

Appearing on Today Extra on Thursday before the model search in Sydney, Jesinta revealed successful applicants must have a summer glow.

Stylish: Jesinta paired the top with high-waisted black pants and matching dark nail polish on her fingernails

Working it: After posing for photos outside the casting call's venue, Jesinta headed inside to help select models for the forthcoming David Jones fashion show

Tan required: Appearing on Today Extra on Thursday before the model search in Sydney, Jesinta revealed successful applicants would have a summer glow

'I hope the models have whacked some spray tan on': Jesinta quipped she would like to see prospective models bronzed up

'The Spring/Summer - it really is all about a little but more skin compared to Autumn/Winter so we are going to see a lot of activewear on the runway and also a lot of swimwear,' she said.

'I hope the models have whacked some spray tan on.

'It's in the middle of winter and it's a little bit cold so looking forward to seeing lots of healthy bodies here today.'

Working hard: Jesinta wore a serious expression as she surveyed the models in front of here

'Looking forward to seeing lots of healthy bodies here today': Jesinta added that she wanted to see an array of diverse builds

Nice to meet you: Jesinta met several of the lucky contenders for the prestigious gig

Jesinta has also claimed that her landing the David Jones ambassador gig was a sign the industry was becoming more accepting of diverse figures.

'I'm not a typical size six, heroin chic model, I have never been,' Jesinta told the Sydney Morning Herald this week.

She added: 'So that fact I'm now getting to walk in these shows is reflection that the industry is starting to embrace a diverse range of body sizes.'

'I'm not a typical size six, heroin chic model': Jesinta recently reflected on her own career with the department store

Changing standards: Jesinta has also claimed that her landing the David Jones ambassador gig was a sign the industry was becoming more accepting of diverse figures

Strutting their stuff: Model hopefuls walked the runway as Jesinta watched on
Roxy Jacenko shared behind the scenes clips from her new cleaning product commercial on Friday, after her recent vandalism nightmare.

Hours after she scrubbed away the ink-injected eggs pelted at her Paddington office overnight, she took to Instagram to promote her upcoming cleaning commercial.

'Safe to say I'm a solid ambassador for a cleaning product company after today!!' the 37-year-old captioned the behind the scenes footage, shot at her Bondi home.

Business as usual: Roxy Jacenko shared behind the scenes clips from her new cleaning product commercial on Friday, after her recent vandalism nightmare

The Sweaty Betty PR founder was seen getting her flawless makeup touched-up for the ENJO Australia ad she shot on Wednesday.

After, she flaunted her '45kg' frame in skin-tight activewear, posing with one of the 'natural and chemical free' company's $99 floor cloths.

Roxy then peered over an editor's computer at the recently snapped photos, making sure she approved of the images.

'Solid ambassador for a cleaning product company after today': Hours after she scrubbed away the ink-injected eggs pelted at her Paddington office overnight, she took to Instagram to share behind the scenes footage from the shoot

Her children Pixie, five and Hunter, three even made a quick cameo, with the socialite's daughter seen scribbling in a book at the dinner table.

Little Hunter played on his ipad, smiling and waving when he noticed the cameras on him.

The footage cut back to Roxy, who had slipped into an olive gown as she demonstrated the products working on one of her leather handbags.

Wardrobe change! After posing with a $99 floor cloth in skin-tight activewear, she slipped into an olive gown as she demonstrated the products working on one of her leather handbags.

Flawless! The 37-year-old sat on a couch soon after, flashing a smile while cleaning her glasses with another of the brand's upmarket cloths

The PR queen sat on a couch soon after, flashing a smile while cleaning her glasses with another of the brand's upmarket cloths.

To close-out the clip, she posed alongside the company CEO Barb de Corti, makeup artist Max May and cameraman Richard Freeman.

Proving her quick-thinking prowess, Roxy chose to time the release of the behind the scenes video to release on the same day she cleaned her vandalised office building.

Thanking the crew! To close-out the clip, she posed alongside the company CEO Barb de Corti, makeup artist Max May (R)and cameraman Richard Freeman (L)

She arrived at work on Friday to discover that the Paddington business had been pelted with ink-injected eggs overnight.

Photos of the building, which underwent a $1.4m face lift inside and out before Roxy moved in, show red and blue inks splattered down its white facade.

She was pictured getting her hands dirty and cleaning the exterior of the building on Friday, but opted to use Ajax brand cleaning spray and generic cloths.

Nice thinking! Proving her quick-thinking prowess, Roxy chose to time the release of the behind the scenes video to release on the same day she cleaned her vandalised office building
She's a former Miss Universe Australia model who lends her face to several campaigns.

And on Friday, Tegan Martin showed just why as she attended the Lancome Advanced Genifique Sensitive product launch.

At the event, held at Sydney's exclusive Catalina's restaurant in Rose Bay, the 24-year-old sported a showstopping mini dress.

Legs eleven... out of 10! Former Miss Universe Australia Tegan Martin is leggy in a figure-hugging mini dress at Lancome Sydney launch

Tegan wore a figure-hugging striped frock that featured a pretty colour palette of pink, blue and white.

The dress, from Australian fashion designer By Johnny, featured a feminine frill at the upper thigh, showcasing Tegan's long and lean legs.

The stunner kept her look streamlined with nude strappy heels.

Twinning: Looking dapper international modelling twins Jordan (left) and Zac (right) both suited up in coordinating outfits

Tegan kept her blonde locks out and straight and sported minimal makeup.

Also attending the event were the 25-year-old Stenmark twins.

Looking dapper, Jordan and Zac both suited up in coordinating outfits.

Changing it up: Sporting similar jackets, Jordan chose beige chinos whilst his brother Zac wore navy

Brothers: Continuing their twin telepathy, neither boys opted for socks and each accessoriesed with a pair of sunglasses

Sporting similar jackets, Jordan chose beige chinos whilst his brother Zac wore navy.

Continuing their twin telepathy, neither boys opted for socks and each accessoriesed with a pair of sunglasses.

The blueeyed hunks stuck to their signature hairstyles, with Jordan donning a shorter cut than his brother.

Bold: Real Housewives of Sydney star Krissy Marsh made a dazzling entrance in a red pantsuit

Real Housewives of Sydney star Krissy Marsh made a dazzling entrance in red.

The 45-year-old mother-of-three was spotted in a Carla Zampatti pantsuit for the cosmetics luncheon.

Dressing comfortably, Krissy's jacket featured a single closure and the designer pants saw a flattering flare.

Beauty: Dressing comfortably, Krissy's jacket featured a single closure and the designer pants saw a flattering flare

Keeping the focus on her bold outfit, Krissy opted for nude heeled pumps.

The reality star also kept her accessories minimal with a gold watch and dainty hooped earrings.

Her brunette locks were perfectly straightened and effortlessly placed behind her ears.

Dazzling: The reality star also kept her accessories minimal with a gold watch and dainty hooped earrings

Trend setter: Other attendees were also spotted following the flared trend in both denim and khaki coloured variations

Krissy also donned a luminous face with perfectly sculpted eyebrows and completed her look with a nude lip.

And it seemed as though the Real Housewives star wasn't the only one sporting loose pants.

Other attendees were also spotted following the flared trend in both denim and khaki coloured variations.

Skin was also another frequent spotting at the cosmetics launch, with both midriffs and shoulders on show.

Other guests included Keira Rumble, Brooke Testoni and Elouise Morris.

Denim on denim: Bold colours and unusual cuts were a common trend for the luncheon

Baring all: Skin was also another frequent spotting at the cosmetics launch, with both midriffs and shoulders on show
She's the former Bachelor star who has never been shy about flaunting her form on social media.

And Kirrallee 'Kiki' Morris did not disappoint when she shared a pouty and busty selfie to Instagram on Friday.

The brunette stunner shared a photo that showed her playing with her newly coiffured hair as she offered the camera a sultry pout.

On the mend! The Bachelor's Kirralee 'Kiki' Morris flaunts her cleavage in a pouty selfie after having her wisdom teeth pulled out

Wearing a sleeveless navy top, Kiki gave fans a generous view of her ample cleavage.

Posing with her head playfully cocked to one side, Kiki's lips were puckered into a pout that further accentuated her cheekbones as she ran a hand through her locks.

Kiki's purpose for posting was to gush about her new 'do', which she treated herself to after getting her wisdom teeth extracted on Tuesday.

Treat: Kiki's purpose for posting was to gush about her new 'do', which she treated herself to after getting her wisdom teeth extracted on Tuesday

'A change is as good as a holiday,' she captioned the post.

'I've been feel really icky after getting my wisdom teeth out on Tuesday and I needed something to perk me up. A quick visit to @kandcsurryhills and I feel like a new person!!! Now back in my pjs in recovery mode feeling revamped.'

Kiki's fans were quick to gush over the reality star's new 'do' with the likes of: 'You pretty,'suits you so much,' and 'stunning.'

Meanwhile, the 29-year-old took to her Instagram story recently to share a video that showed her getting what looked to be a non surgical 'butt lift.'

Bootylicious: Meanwhile, the 29-year-old took to her Instagram story recently to share a video that showed her getting what looked to be a non surgical 'butt lift'

The video showed Kiki, lying on a beautician's table.

A liberal amount of gel was applied as the beautician massaged the substance into Kiki's derriere with a 'wand'.

'This is the key to a beauty of a booty,' the reality star captioned the video.
She's the body-confident Australia's Next Top Model known for flaunting her figure in bikinis.

But on Friday Simone Holtznagel played princess for a day in a series of stunning wedding dresses for a lavish bridal shoot.

The 23-year-old shared several photos on her Instagram, taken on the Fox Studio lot in Los Angeles, and explained she was on a wedding themed photo shoot.

Lovely! On Friday Simone Holtznagel played princess for a day in a series of stunning wedding dresses for a lavish bridal shoot

The studio lot was decked out to look like a slightly retro version of New York.

In one image, the beauty is posed coyly in an elaborate frock as she looks back at the camera, holding her layered tulle skirting in her hands.

The wedding dress featured an incredibly jewel-encrusted sleeve that matched a similar embellished accessory in the model's hair.

The model captioned the image: 'Ei, awesome job! Very creative!'

Queen for a day! Simone modeled a series of glittering frocks

Yes! The blonde rocked a jewel-heavy look including drop diamond earrings and a tiara. She captioned the sparkling image, 'Yaaaaas queen' by adding a queen emoji

Trickery? The studio lot was decked out to look like a slightly retro version of New York

She then appeared to explain the shoot was for the Model Citizen app, blog and magazine, and ended with a Kate Spade quote that read: 'Playing dress up begins at age 5 and never really ends'.

The blonde then modeled a series of luxury bridal looks, including a jewel-heavy look including drop diamond earrings and a tiara.

She captioned the sparkling image, 'Yaaaaas queen' by adding a queen emoji.

Rows and rows! Simone had a bevvy of delicious gowns to chose from for the shoot

So glam! Yet another photo featured the beauty standing on a set of stairs leading to a doorway, her long bridal train cascading behind her

Racy! One racy picture featured Simone's ample bust nicely filling out a lace and rhinestone creation with a low-cut V-neck design

Yet another photo featured the beauty standing on a set of stairs leading to a doorway, her long bridal train cascading behind her.

One racy picture featured Simone's ample bust nicely filling out a lace and rhinestone creation with a low-cut V-neck design.

Simone rose to fame in the 2011 season of Australia's Next Top Model. She eventually placed third behind Montana Cox and Liz Braithwaite.

Since then, she has featured on the cover of Playboy's 'College Issue' and appeared in campaigns for Guess and Bras N Things.
She's the Australian supermodel passionate about leading a healthy lifestyle.

And Miranda Kerr looked positively luminous attending the SuperFood event for Sephora at Smogshoppe in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The 34-year-old recently partnered with the giant cosmetics chain to sell her cruelty-free skincare product line, Kora Organics.

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Glowing: Miranda Kerr looked luminous attending the SuperFood event for Sephora at Smogshoppe in Los Angeles on Thursday

The businesswoman cut a demure figure in a 1940s style Monique Lhuillier dress that emphasised her slender frame.

She paired the knee-length frock, which featured a pattern of birds sitting atop tree branches, with strappy silver heels.

The brunette beauty wore her hair slicked back in low bun with a middle part.

Chic: The budding businesswoman cut a demure figure in a 1940s style Monique Lhuillier dress that emphasised her slender frame

Demure: She paired the knee-length frock, which featured a pattern of birds sitting atop tree branches, with strappy silver heels

The Gunnedah-raised knockout was gracious with fans and spent an ample amount of time taking selfies with supporters.

The mother of one recently wed billionaire Evan Spiegel, 27, in May.

The couple tied the knot at a ceremony in Brentwood following a nearly year long engagement.

Friendly: The Gunnedah-raised knockout was gracious with fans and spent an ample amount of time taking selfies with supporters

Happy snaps: She snapped away with a fan's smartphone
Olivia Munn stepped out for dinner Thursday night in Los Angeles showing off her legs in a pair of skimpy tailored shorts.

The Newsroom star also bared her midriff as she added a sleeveless black halter top with plunging neckline that flaunted her cleavage.

The actress, 37, looked stunning as she headed out for the evening after returning from Vancouver, Canada, where she'd taken part in a table read for the History Channel drama Six.

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Lovely look: Olivia Munn stepped out for dinner Thursday night in Los Angeles showing off her legs in a pair of skimpy tailored shorts

Munn's silky shorts featured a sash tied at the front.

She accessorized with a black choker, a silver chain and a gold pendant necklace.

The pretty actress added black sandals with red heels that revealed her dark red pedicure.

Dared to bare: The Newsroom star, 37, also bared her midriff as she added a sleeveless black halter top with plunging neckline that flaunted her cleavage

Stylish: The pretty actress added black sandals with red heels that revealed her dark red pedicure

Out for the evening: Munn's silky shorts featured a sash tied at the front. She accessorized with a black choker, a silver chain and a gold pendant necklace

Munn is set to star in Six, a drama about the U.S. Navy SEALS.

She is joining the series as Gina, a CIA operative who eventually becomes a high-level officer after starting as a shooter.

Earlier this month, she celebrated her 37th birthday on Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean with a group of friends.
He made eyes water as Augustus Waters in The Fault In Our Stars.

And Ansel Elgort proved he wasn't afraid of a little water as he stopped for a smooch with girlfriend Violetta Komyshan on Monday.

The 23-year-old and his high school sweetheart enjoyed the romantic moment atop New Zealand's QT Museum Wellington hotel.

Under my umbrella! Ansel Elgort shared a smooch with his girlfriend Violetta Komyshan on a rainy QT Museum Wellington hotel rooftop in New Zealand on Monday

Despite his 6'4" frame, his long-time love manage to look him in the eye, with some strategic positioning.

The duo huddled under a QT umbrella, while designer boutique hotel's harbor provided a picturesque backdrop for the cute snap.

The pair dressed casual for their day-time date, with the Baby Driver star rocking jeans and white flat soles with a navy bomber jacket.

His 21-year-old squeeze meanwhile looked cute in long black stockings and a short wine skirt, paired with a denim jacket and a black beanie.

Sweethearts: The couple, who started dating while in high school in 2012, attended the Los Angeles premiere of Baby Driver last month

The teen idol was in the NZ capital for a Q&A session at the Embassy Theatre on his latest hit movie, alongside director Edgar Wright.

The comedy action film, which co-stars Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Eiza Gonzalez, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx and Jon Bernthal, currently has a 96 per cent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Ansel stars as Baby, a young getaway driver who is coerced into working for a kingpin.

The couple, who started dating while in high school in 2012, attended the Los Angeles premiere of Baby Driver last month.

They split in August of 2014 because of his hectic schedule but rekindled their romance five months later.
 Flash

Senate Republicans of the U.S. Congress on Thursday unveiled a new healthcare bill that they hope can fulfill their long-time goal to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The bill is a 2.0 version of Senate Republicans' effort to draft up a substitute for the ACA, also known as Obamacare, after their initial bid in June failed to garner enough support among Republican senators.

With the revised bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hopes to find a middle ground where at least 50 Republican Senators can unite, and push the piece of legislation through the Senate in the one month left before Congress' August recess.

The hope was imperiled, however, when two Republican senators voiced skepticism soon after McConnell rolled out the bill.

Susan Collins, senator from Maine, tweeted: "Still deep cuts to Medicaid in Senate bill. Will vote no on MTP," using the abbreviation for "motion to proceed".

Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy did not reject the bill but instead came up with their own version of a healthcare bill.

Senate Republicans are under mounting pressure from both voters and the White House to produce a piece of legislation that is sufficient to replace Obamacare, a major election promise for many senators and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump recently tweeted that he "cannot imagine that Congress would dare to leave Washington without a beautiful new healthcare bill fully approved and ready to go!"

To allow more time for a new healthcare bill, McConnell postponed recess to the third week of August, two weeks later than originally planned.

The House passed its version of a healthcare bill in early May, after which the bill entered the Senate for discussion.

Senate Republicans unveiled its first revised draft in June but were forced to rework the bill after failing to secure enough support among Republicans.
The Today host was spotted behind the wheel of a luxury $295,000 AMG Benz Coupe on Thursday.

And a day later, Karl Stefanovic, 42, met with a salesman to take a $162,500 Mercedes C63s AMG for a test spin in Sydney.

The TV personality cut a casual figure as the helpful assistants at the dealership assisted him with his vehicle inquiry.

Shopping around? Today host Karl Stefanovic takes $162,500 Mercedes C63s AMG for a test drive on Friday after being spotted in luxury $295,000 2016 AMG Benz Coupe 24 hours earlier

Karl is usually spotted cruising around town in his white Mercedes, but has been spotted in three newer vehicles over the past week.

He is believed to have test driven the Mercedes C63s AMG on Friday, which was slightly cheaper than Thursday's AMG Benz Coup.

Popping in for a quick lap around the block, Karl was seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, bright orange sneakers and patterned workout shorts.

Living in the fast lane? He is believed to have been test driving the Mercedes C63s AMG on Friday, which was slightly cheaper than Thursday's AMG Benz Coup

Service with a smile: A businessman in a black suit handed Karl the keys to the sleek silver Mercedes and appeared to point out the car's mechanics as he sat in the driver's seat

In the driver seat! The luxury car enthusiast appeared comfortable within the silver vehicle as he gripped the steering wheel with a grin

Karl, a father of three, appeared interested in the vehicle as he spoke to two separate sales assistants while looking at the car.

Placing his hands on his hips, he kept a friendly chat with a man with glasses before another man took over.

The luxury vehicle was moved outside, so it could be taken for a test drive.

Cruising: He was seen cruising down the suburban streets

Weighing up his options? Karl, a father of three, appeared interested in the vehicle as he spoke to two separate sales assistants while looking at the car

A businessman in a black suit handed Karl the keys to the sleek silver Mercedes and appeared to point out the car's mechanics as he sat in the driver's seat.

Carefully checking out each feature of the potential new purchase, he also examined the boot space.

Obviously building a good rapport with the man, Karl was seen sharing a laugh with the attendant.

At one point, the suited man was seen holding paperwork as they stood close to the vehicle.

Daily Mail has reached out to Karl's representatives for comment.

Pit stop: Popping in for a quick lap around the block, Karl was seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, bright orange sneakers and patterned workout shorts

Sleek! The luxury vehicle was moved outside to allow for Karl to take it for a spin

Serious: Karl is usually seen as the fun-loving host of Nine's Today Show

Discussion: Placing his hands on his hips, he kept a friendly chat with a man with glasses before another man took over

Karl is currently dating model Jasmine Yarbrough, 33, having made his first public appearance by her side at Fashion Week earlier this year.

The Channel Nine reporter is believed to have met Jasmine during a yacht party in December.

In September last year, Karl split from his wife Cassandra Thorburn, 44, after 21 years of marriage.

Dressed down: The TV personality cut a casual figure as the helpful assistants at the dealership assisted him with his vehicle inquiry

In high spirits: Obviously building a good rapport with the man, Karl was seen sharing a laugh with the attendant

Making a deal? At one point, the suited man was seen holding paperwork as they stood close to the vehicle

The couple share three children, Jackson, River, and Ava - had been married for 21 years before their split.

Earlier this month, Karl jetted to Queensland with Jasmine to celebrate her father's birthday.

Meanwhile, Cassandra spent the recent school holiday period in Thailand with her and Karl's children.

In October last year, he was also pictured driving a Mercedes-AMG C 63 S, which costs under $155,000.

Chatting things over? Daily Mail Australia have reached out to Karl's representatives for comment

Split: In September last year, Karl split from his wife Cassandra Thorburn, 44, after 21 years of marriage
Her sister Kim was recently wrapped up in a storm of controversy after dressing her daughter North in what looked like a corset.

But Kourtney Kardashian seemed unaffected by the family scandal as she enjoyed a sun-soaked trip to get ice-cream with her children in Nantucket on Thursday.

The reality star rocked a summery white crop top and frayed shorts as she spent some fun-filled quality time with Mason, seven, and five-year-old Penelope.

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Family time: Kourtney Kardashian enjoyed a sun-soaked trip to get ice-cream with Penelope, five, in Nantucket on Thursday

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star showcased her enviably toned and tanned frame in the ab-flashing top.

Opting for comfort in her footwear, the mother-of-three added a pair of white lace-up sneakers to the look and a mini crossbody bag.

Clearly relishing the family time, Kourtney perched on a bench as she fed Mason and Penelope some ice-cream - although two-year-old Reign was absent from the outing.

Open wide! The reality star rocked a summery white crop top and frayed shorts as she spent some quality time with Mason, seven, and five-year-old Penelope

Opting for comfort in her footwear: The mother-of-three added a pair of white lace-up sneakers to the look and a mini crossbody bag

Kourtney's outing comes as her younger sister Kim was caught up in controversy after dressing her daughter North in a 'corset dress'.

Shocked users had earlier questioned why the reality star and her husband Kanye let their four-year-old daughter step out in the accessory.

North can be seen in photos taken earlier this week walking on the street in New York in what looked like a corset on top of a peach-colored dress.

Kim hit back at critics on Wednesday night, saying the dress just looks like a corset and 'she would never' put her daughter in one.

Kim showed off the dress in a short video she posted on Twitter Wednesday night, explaining it's 'just fabric'

Kim hit back at her haters Wednesday night, posting a video explaining the dress was just fabric

'This dress that I did not design, I actually bought, is not a corset its just fabric on the front,' she said in a video.

'So, I think its really cute, I bought it from a designer and its just fabric people, its not a real corset.

She also tweeted: 'I would never put my daughter in a corset! Relax it's a dress I bought that is fabric that laces up and looks like a corset!'

In North's case, social media users were outraged that Kim and Kanye could let their four-year-old daughter step out of the house wearing such an adult garment.

Backlash: As photos of North wearing the corset began circulating on Instagram, some users slammed the outfit in concerned comments

Comments: Someone wondered how people could decide to dress 'babies' in corsets, while some called the accessory 'ridiculous' on a little girl

As photos of North wearing the corset began circulating on Instagram, some users slammed the outfit in concerned comments.

'This is a mess', one person wrote next to the pictures. 'Why is this baby wearing a corset?'

Someone else worried that the outfit might attract sexual predators, while some called the accessory 'ridiculous' on a little girl.

Meanwhile, Kourtney has been busy documenting her Nantucket trip with proud snaps of her three children.

'True love': Kourtney Kardashian, 38, shared two photos of her children from the Nantucket vacation. In one of the images the siren is seen on a boat as she wraps her arms around daughter Penelope and smothers her with kisses

'Eternal love': She also shared this snap of herself kissing her youngest son Reign

In the first photo, Kourtney is seen giving five-year-old Penelope sweet kisses while the two hang out on a boat during their vacation, captioning the image: 'True love.'

The sexy mom is wearing a sweatshirt to keep herself warm on the cool water, while Penelope is staying safe in a life jacket.

The second photo Kourtney posted features her son Reign, two, as he gives his mom a sweet kiss during lunch, this time she captured it: 'eternal love.'

Unconditional love: In the second image her son Mason looks at the camera as he gets a kiss from a girl who looks to be his little sister

Proud mom: Kourtney loves spending time with her three kids and posting pictures with them on her social media accounts

The little boy looks content to be by his mom's side and happily gives her a quick peck on the lips.

Meanwhile, Kourtney - who is dating 24-year-old Algerian model and former boxer Younes Bendjima - was spotted enjoying the holiday with her ex Scott Disick.

The pair had not been seen together for two months, but the exes were spotted getting along just fine on Tuesday with the pain from their last fight far behind them.

The stars were side-by-side during a private lunch in a back room at upscale seafood restaurant CRU with their children during their family vacation.
Nicole Kidman is known for her unique sense of style on the red carpet.

And costume designer Stacey Battat, who worked on the actress' latest film The Beguiled, recently revealed why the 50-year-old is the 'ideal person to dress.'

The New York based designer told The Daily Telegraph this week that Nicole: 'really is the ideal person to dress because she's so long and so tall and has an incredible body for clothes.'

'She's the ideal person to dress!' Stacey Battat, the costume designer for Nicole Kidman's latest film The Beguiled, has called the 50-year-old actress the 'ideal person to dress'

'She's such a beautiful, tall, statuesque woman. She looks great in everything. She was a real trooper, she was happy to wear corsets,' she added.

Aside from enjoying her first time working with Nicole, Stacey also revealed the Australian star made an inspired costuming suggestion for a particular scene in the civil war-themed film.

'She said to me, 'oh you know what would be great? If we were all in white dresses, like a witch's coven'. And I said, you're right! We did that. And it really looks so amazing to have them all in white.'

Fashion favourite! Nicole Kidman (pictured), who is known for her unique sense red carpet style, stars in The Beguiled directed by Sofia Coppola

Film star: 'She's such a beautiful, tall statuesque woman. She looks great in everything. She was a real trooper, she was happy to wear corsets,' Stacey added (movie still pictured)

In character: The New York based costume designer also revealed the Australian made an inspired costuming suggestion for a particular scene in the Civil War themed film (movie still pictured)

Nicole has long been a fashion favourite on the red carpet of awards shows and film premieres.

She recently turned heads at the Cannes Film Festival, where she made appearances for four different projects; The Beguiled, Top of the Lake: China Girl, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and How to Talk to Girls at Parties.

Earlier this year, she turned heads in a sequined gown by Gucci, with parakeet detailing on the shoulders.

Fashionista: Stacey revealed Nicole suggested that she and her co-stars should wear white dresses for a scene to look 'like a witch's coven' (Nicole at the premiere of The Beguiled)

Unique choice: Earlier this year, she turned heads in a sequined gown by Gucci, with parakeet detailing on the shoulders at the 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards

The dress was met with mixed reviews by fans on social media, some of whom described it 'like a Mardi Gras float'.

Meanwhile, Vogue praised the Moulin Rogue! star for her 'bold sensibility', 'fearless' look for the award show.

The blonde beauty's personal stylist Julia von Boehm told the New York Times Nicole does not play it safe with fashion on the red carpet.

'We don't need to create a replica for her  she even fits into the couture  which means I don't have to limit myself to just the celebrity pieces a designer offers,' she added.
Her daughter has perhaps the most instantly recognisable booty in the world.

And Kris Jenner, 61, showed the apple didn't fall from the tree with Kim Kardashian as she showcased her exceptional figure climbing aboard a boat in Nice, France on Thursday.

The self-styled 'momager' and matriarch of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, looked phenomenal as she rocked an ebony bikini and sheer lace cover up.

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Wow factor: Kris Jenner, 61, showed the apple didn't fall from the tree with Kim Kardashian as she showcased her exceptional figure climbing aboard a boat in Nice, France on Thursday

The daring outfit showcased the ageless mother of six's pert bust and envy-inducing midriff, as well as her toned legs.

As she clambered aboard the boat she also revealed a bootylicious behind to rival Kim's derriere.

Keeping with the chic feel of the French Riviera, she added an elegant panama hat and Jackie O style shades.

The polished look was complemented by oversize diamond studs, a slick of baby pink lipgloss and a multi-coloured Chanel bag.

Like mother, like daughter: As Kris clambered aboard the boat she also revealed a bootylicious behind to rival daughter Kim's derriere (right)

For comfort, she slipped on black studded sandals.

The star is holidaying with toyboy boyfriend Corey Gamble, 33, and friends.

The European holiday was a welcome break from son Rob's legal woes after he became embroiled in a 'revenge porn' case with his ex Blac Chyna.

Reports suggest Kris has been doing her best to remain calm and relaxed following her son's debacle.

Work it out: The star looked impossibly chic as she reclined on the boat ahead of a day of relaxation

The 30-year-old sock designer was faced with a restraining order earlier this week after he took to social media to post explicit photos of his former fiance - with whom he has eight-month-old daughter Dream - who later accused him of being physically violent toward her.

And although Kris is used to putting an end to the drama surrounding the famous family, she's reportedly focusing her energy on her granddaughter's 'well-being'.

A source told Us Weekly magazine: 'If this happened a year ago she'd freak out. She's trying to remain calm. She just wants to make sure Dream is OK. Now that Dream is in the picture, her primary concern is Dream and Dream's well-being.'

The high life: Kris was spotted on Instagram, standing on the back of her yacht in a night out dress

Doppelgangers: Kris and Kim are known for their close bond and strikingly similar looks

Rob - who starred alongside 29-year-old Chyna in their reality series 'Rob & Chyna' - was ordered by a judge on Monday to stay 100 yards away from his ex-fiancee, but has been allowed to continue co-parenting their daughter.

And Chyna - who also has four-year-old son King Cairo with her former partner Tyga - recently claimed she had no intention of stopping the 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' star from seeing his daughter, and hopes they can find 'common ground' to successfully co-parent their tot.

She said: 'I would never try to take Dream from her dad. Hopefully, me and Rob can learn to have common ground and be the best co-parents as we can be.'

Long time love: The star is holidaying with toyboy boyfriend Corey Gamble, 33, (above) and friends

The news comes after Lisa Bloom, the lawyer for the 'Rob & Chyna' star, said despite the allegations of violence, the beauty doesn't believe her former flame poses a threat to their daughter, and is not worried about co-parenting with him.

Lisa said: 'Chyna is not concerned about Dream being around Rob. She has said he's a good father, there are nannies around when the baby is with him and she hasn't had any reason to be concerned.

'We did not ask for the baby to be part of the restraining order ... We just want him to stay away from her and to stop cyberbullying her.'
She went from a reality star to swimwear designer.

And Kimberley Garner proved to be her own best advert as she slipped into a lavender thong bikini for a day out at Pampelonne beach in St Tropez.

Strolling across the sand on Thursday, the 27-year-old former Made In Chelsea star turned heads as she made her way onto a speed boat with friends.

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Pretty in purple:Kimberley Garner proved to be her own best advert as she slipped into a lavender thong bikini for a day out at Pampelonne beach in St Tropez.

Thong cut in design, the bikini offered a look at her enviably peachy posterior and tanned and toned pins.

The bralet style top showed off her perky bust and impeccably taut stomach, with the lilac colour complementing her golden complexion.

Wearing her honey hued locks loose and tousled, the blonde bombshell went make-up free to show off her natural beauty.

All eyes on her: Strolling across the sand on Thursday, the 27-year-old former Made In Chelsea star turned heads as she made her way onto a speed boat with friends

Legs eleven! Thong cut in design, the bikini offered a look at her enviably peachy posterior and tanned and toned pins

Chest a glimpse: The bralet style top showed off her perky bust and impeccably taut stomach, with the lilac colour complementing her golden complexion

The swimwear designer revealed last month that she is single after calling time on a long-term relationship.

She told MailOnline: 'I ended the relationship recently. It was a really wonderful three years and we are still good friends today.'

The swimwear designer revealed last month that she is single after calling time on a long-term relationship.

She told MailOnline: 'I ended the relationship recently. It was a really wonderful three years and we are still good friends today.'

Blonde bombshell! Wearing her honey hued locks loose and tousled, the blonde bombshell went make-up free to show off her natural beauty

Squat it like it's hot! Kimberley showed off her posterior as she rested on the side of the boat

Up she goes: The star made her way onto a speedboat to cruise around the coast

Looking good: Kimberley's pals watched on as she cruised along

The socialite has been notoriously tight-lipped about the identity of her previous long-term boyfriend, who was often seen with her in west London.

Speaking to The Sun during her appearance at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, she said: 'It was a great relationship. Id love to meet someone with a great personality  its all about the personality for me.'

Kimberley joined Made In Chelsea in March 2012 before departing the following November, as she featured in some extremely tumultuous storylines.

She dated Richard Dinan on the show, with the businessman whisking Kimberley off on romantic dates and later a holiday to Italy.

Fun in the sun: Kimberley looked sensational as she prepared to dive overboard

All together now: Kimberley seemed in great spirits as she chatted away with friends

Hug it out: Newly-single Kimberley was joined by a host of handsome men on the boat
Much-loved dating show Blind Date has made a comeback to our screens following a a fourteen year hiatus.

Its reboot has seen Paul O'Grady take the reins, replacing former host Cilla Back, and Melanie Sykes has joined him as the show's voice-over.

Along with a new presenting line-up, Blind Date is now welcoming same sex couples onto the show - a move that has been praised by former I'm A Celebrity star Mel, 46, with her insisting it has been 'long overdue'.

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'It's long overdue': Melanie Sykes, 46, has shown her support for show bosses decision to include same sex couples on the revamped version of Blind Date

Mel had appeared on ITV's Lorraine on Friday morning to discuss Blind Date and her involvement with the show.

While its format is staying true to its traditional set up, the dating series has been modernised by Channel 5 in an attempt to make it 'young and sexy' and now includes same sex couples among its contestants.

Praising the move by show bosses, Mel told host Lorraine Kelly: '[Blind Date] is so fun and quite racy and the host is gay, so it makes sense... it's long overdue.'

Blind Date sees one singleton quiz three potential suitors on the show while they are hidden behind a screen. Based on the answers they receive, they then choose one contestant to head on all-expenses paid holiday with them.

Breaking boundaries: The Channel 5 dating reboot made the change in a bid to modernise the show and make it 'young and sexy' - something Mel claims was 'long overdue' and 'makes sense'

Full of praise: Mel was also seen complimenting Blind Date's new host Paul O'Grady, as she said: 'He is so good at it... he's so brilliant and so perfect at it'

Comedian Paul is now fronting the series and has been praised by viewers for his cheeky presenting style, following Blind Date's return last month.

They deemed him the 'perfect choice' to replace his long-term pal Cilla, who passed away following an accidental fall at her home in Spain in 2015.

Paul had paid tribute to Cilla during the first episode of Blind Date's new series in June, as he said: 'It's been 14 years since Blind Date was last on our screens and it was presented of course by the late, great, and my friend, Cilla Black. Let's hear it for her!

'The woman who gave me two heart attacks and broke my nose in a Jacuzzi. Oh god, I don't half miss her, but it doesn't seem like 14 years, does it?'

Hit: Paul has been praised by viewers for his role on Blind Date, thanks to his cheeky presenting style - he has replaced the late Cilla Black who passed away in 2015

'Let's hear it for Cilla': Paul had paid tribute to Cilla during the first episode of Blind Date's new series in June - admitting he misses his long-term pal - she had hosted the show for 18 years

It seems Paul has stepped into Cilla's shoes well, with Mel complimenting her co-star for his efforts.

She said during her live interview: 'Paul is so good at it. My voice-over is live into the studio, so I get to watch him and he's so brilliant and so perfect at it.'

Although, she did admit that her involvement with the show was something of a last minute addition.

'It's really weird to think Paul's name had been with it for such a long time and I got a call the weekend before they started filming,' she explained. 'I think they hadn't really thought about it.'

Last minute: Mel went on to add that her addition to the lineup wasn't made until very late on as she had only got a call about becoming the show's voice-over the 'weekend before' filming began

She said: 'I got a call the weekend before they started filming. I think they hadn't really thought about it!'

Speaking about the show, Mel added: 'It's innocent and I know we get a little bit cheeky at times, but we all remember [Blind Date] first time round.

'It's such an iconic show, I grew up with it. You'd get ready to go out on a Saturday night and I'd watch it with my hair in rollers and paint my nails.

'It's not been changed at all, it's the way it was before... it really just works.'

Mel's appearance on Lorraine comes after she recently spoke of her own experience of dating and ruled out ever using apps to find romance such as Tinder.

The TV star insisted it was 'so much better to meet someone naturally' during a chat with Chris Evans on BBC Radio 2 recently.

'Obviousy, I've never been on it': Mel's appearance on Lorraine comes after she recently spoke of her own experience of dating and ruled out ever using dating apps such as Tinder

She claimed: 'It would be ridiculous if I was to go on Tinder, I'd be asking for trouble.

'I don't know anything about it other than if you don't like the look of someone you get rid of them... I don't understand it - obviously I've never been on it.'

Melanie has two children, Roman, 15, and Valentino Luca, 12, from her first marriage to actor Daniel Caltagirone. The former couple were married in 2001 but the couple split up in 2008 and divorced the following year.

Mel went onto marry Jack Cockings, 29, in 2013 but after less than one year of marriage she filed for divorce.
The glamorous Real Housewives Of Melbourne star isn't shy about showing off her enviable physique in skin-baring ensembles.

And Janet Roach, 58, happily exposed her back in a figure-flaunting frock on Friday night to display her dragon tattoo.

The wealthy reality star, who was attending the Miss World Australia 2016 National Final in Melbourne, posed up a storm in the glitzy gown on the red carpet.

Real Housewives star Janet Roach, 58, proudly flaunts dragon back tattoo in glamorous beaded gown at Miss World Australia event in Melbourne on Friday night

The bubbly blonde previously revealed she got inked with her first and only tattoo when she was 54.

She proudly showcased the black artwork, which is a tribute to her younger son Jake, who was seriously injured in a fire at a house party in 2012.

'It's a dragon because my son was in a fire and he was very, very scarred all over and we had been dealing with that,' Janet said at the time.

The property manager looked confident in the beaded, sleeveless gown, which also highlighted her slim waist and sculptured arms.

'It's a dragon because my son was in a fire and he was very, very scarred all over': Janet proudly showcased the black artwork at the event, which is a tribute to her younger son Jake, who was seriously injured in a fire at a house party in 2012

In high spirits: The property manager looked confident in the beaded, sleeveless gown, which also highlighted her slim waist and sculptured arms

Janet accessorised her designer look with a gold cuff bangle and a beaded necklace.

Her signature platinum blonde hair was styled sleek and straight just above her shoulders.

Janet opted for a natural makeup look, including a bronze glow, a metallic smokey eye and lashings of mascara.

Blonde beauty! Janet opted for a natural make-up look, including a bronze glow, a metallic smokey eye and lashings of mascara

Fitness guru Ashy Bines, 27, also attended the event in a glitzy number, showcasing her gym-honed form in a silver backless gown.

The Gold Coast mother's tanned appearance was highlighted in contrast to the $1,180 silver sequin frock from Studio Minc.

Ashy pulled back her long luscious blonde locks into a low ponytail, as she opted for a nude lip, bronzer and dark pink eyeshadow.

Glam! Fitness guru Ashy Bines, 27, also attended the event in a glitzy number, showcasing her gym-honed form in a silver backless gown

Stunning! Ashy pulled back her long luscious blonde locks into a low ponytail, as she opted for a nude lip, bronzer and dark pink eyeshadow

Food, lifestyle and wellness coach Andi Lew, who mentors Miss Universe Australia contestants, gave a busty display in a khaki gown that put her ample assets on show.

Striking a powerful pose with her hands on her hips, her dress' strategic cut-outs showed off her taut stomach and assets.

Last year she told Daily Mail Australia she encouraged hopefuls to embrace 'beauty and confidence that comes from within', while insisting they fuel their bodies with wholefoods and live an active lifestyle.

Andi accessorised with a spotted box clutch, silver cuffs and hoop earrings.

Peek-a-boob! Food, lifestyle and wellness coach Andi Lew, who mentors Miss Universe Australia contestants, gave a busty display in a khaki gown that put her ample assets on show

Fit and fab! Striking a powerful pose with her hands on her hips, Andi's dress' strategic cut-outs showed off her taut stomach and assets

Big night ahead! Comedian Dave Hughes was in attendance, wearing black trousers and a navy velevet suit jacket, as one of this year's judges on the prestigious panel

All smiles: Dave happily posed with mentor Andi and reality star Janet before the evening commenced

Comedian Dave Hughes was in attendance as one of this year's judges on the prestigious panel.

He wore black trousers, a white button-up T-shirt with black tie and blue navy suit jacket.

Dave happily posed with mentor Andi and reality star Janet before the evening commenced.

Stealing the show? Former Real Housewives of Melbourne star Pettifleur Berenger shocked fans when she debuted a new hairstyle at the red carpet event

Former Real Housewives of Melbourne star Pettifleur Berenger shocked fans when she debuted a new hairstyle at the red carpet event.

The brunette appeared to wear a peroxide blonde pixie-style cut wig, revealing the new look to her fans on Instagram hours earlier.

Pettifleur wore a high-neck black gown, accessorizing with a faux fur shawl, large hoop earrings and a clutch.

The Switch The B**ch author wore a nude lipstick her on her pout and used dark shades of eyeshadow on her lids.

Fans complimented the former reality star's wig online, writing: 'Love love love the hair!', 'Wow! Wonderful!' and 'It suits you Pettifleur.'

Rocking the little black dress! Pettifleur wore a high-neck black gown, accessorizing with a faux fur shawl, large hoop earrings and a clutch

'It suits you Pettifleur': Her 34.9k followers on Instagram commented words of praise for her new blonde wig look
She's been quietly supporting her Hollywood star beau at the Ischia Global Film and Music Festival over the past few days.

And Nicole Kempel, 37, once again pulled out all the stops as she put on a glamorous display alongside actor boyfriend Antonio Banderas, 56, for a very glitzy party on the Italian island on Thursday night.

The glamorous banker stunned in a tiny blue playsuit which flaunted her amazing pins as she joined the Spanish actor at a fancy dinner.

Leggy display: Antonio Banderas, 56, escorted his glamorous girlfriend Nicole Kempel, 37, to a glitzy dinner at the Ischia Film Festival in Italy on Thursday

Nicole looked absolutely sensational in her thigh-grazing navy ensemble, which was embellished with four gold buttons across the lower half.

The super short and cheeky hemline displayed the beauty's incredibly long legs to the max, and she added an extra bit of height with sky-scraper sandal platforms.

On the upper half, the racy short-sleeved playsuit featured a slashed open neckline allowing a glimpse of her white lacy bra underneath.

Handsome couple: The pair posed for photos at the AMBI Media Group Dinner, with Nicole turning heads in a thigh-skimming navy blue playsuit with plunging neckline

Sharing a private joke: Mask of Zorro star Antonio appeared to be sharing a joke with Nicole as they walked down a flight of stone steps into the venue

Nicole carried a pretty chain shoulder bag, and jazzed up the look with a string of blue and gold bracelets, and an oversized circular necklace, which drew attention to her plunging neckline.

She kept her glossy blonde locks loose, styling her tresses in shiny waves across her shoulders.

On the make-up front, the beauty opted for a simple look, teaming her flawless base with a dash of grey eyeshadow and glossy pink pout.

Well-deserved! Antonio enjoyed a large glass of red wine at the dinner, following a busy week of promoting his new movie Black Butterfly

Antonio looked proud as he escorted Nicole into the bash on his arm, leaning over to whisper something to her as they descended a flight of stone steps towards the venue.

The Mask of Zorro actor was dapper in grey striped trousers and a smart blue open necked polo shirt, teamed with a well-cut navy blue blazer and comfortable black trainers.

Looking as smitten as always, the pair let their hair down at the bash, with Antonio enjoying a large glass of wine while Nicole stood proudly beside him.

All aboard! Glam US TV star and producer La La Anthony joined in the sun, donning a sailor's cap while brandishing a trophy

Daring! The TV star wore a see-through black dress that clung to her curves; she was seen holding one of the film festival's statues as she took to the stage

Adding extra glamour to proceedings was US TV star La La Anthony, who appeared to be in a playful mood as she donned a sailor's cap and smiled for the cameras.

She wore a figure-hugging black mesh dress that clung to her curves, and kept her super long hair loose and style in curls.

The brunette beauty was a guest of honour at the illustrious festival.

Smile for the camera! La La took centre stage in a group photo thanks to her sailor's hat; the producer beamed while cosying up to her companions

Strike a pose! Antonio and Nicole join singer Lola Ponce, actor Aaron Diaz, producer Lady Monika Bacardi and producer Andrea Iervolino for a group photo

Helping hand: actor Aaron Diaz assisted producer Lady Monika Bacardi in navigating a set of stairs (left), before she posed alongside singer Lola Ponce inside

Meanwhile, Hollywood couple Antonio and Nicole were joined by a slew of friends inside, including Antonio's Black Butterfly producers Lady Monika Bacardi and Andrea Iervolino, who launched the AMBI Group which was holding the dinner.

Lady Monika looked very glamorous in a vibrant thigh-skimming yellow frock adorned with a unique glittering pink pattern, teamed with open-toed silver ankle strap heels.

She was seen arriving alongside actor Aaron Diaz, dressed to impress in an all-white ensemble, who took her arm as she navigated a flight of stone steps in her sky-high shoes.

Hollywood power players: Producers Andrea (second left) and Monika (third left) pose alongside singer Lola and her husband, actor Aaron, outside the dinner

Do the tango! Aaron took Monika for a spin on the dance floor (left) while producer Avi Lerner and Darina Padlova (right) joined the celebrations

Having a good night? Andrea, Aaron and Monika looked in high spirits as they struck a pose on the dance floor

Andrea, meanwhile, was super smart in his dapper black suit and open-necked white shirt.

Also joining in the fun was Aaron's pop star wife Lola Ponce, who looked gorgeous i in a pretty black frock that fell to her thigh and was embellished with white star patterns.

She performed at the glam dinner alongside pianist Agostino Penna,

Belting out a tune: pop star Lola was joined by pianist Agostino Penna to perform at the star-studded dinner in Italy

Starry night: the Argentinian singer looked beautiful in her black frock embellished with white star patterns
She recently returned from a sun-soaked getaway to Mallorca.

And Ferne McCann proved she truly got into the holiday spirit as she danced around in a skimpy white bikini at the edge of an idyllic infinity pool.

Playfully captioning the Instagram video 'clearly loving life here', the former TOWIE star, 26, blew kisses to the camera and pranced about in her sizzling swimwear.

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Making a splash: Ferne McCann proved she truly got into the holiday spirit as she danced around in a skimpy white bikini at the edge of an idyllic infinity pool

Ferne - who is expecting her first child with ex Arthur Collins - looked every inch the beach babe in the two-piece.

Injecting a dose of colour to her beach attire, the Celebs Go Dating star wrapped a tie-dye coral sarong around her waist and wore a matching headband.

Showcasing the striking scenery - which boasted an azure-blue sea and minimalist pool - the brunette beauty walked to the edge of the water and threw some shapes.

Looking good: Playfully captioning the Instagram video 'clearly loving life here', the former TOWIE star, 26, blew kisses to the camera and pranced about in her sizzling swimwear

Making waves: Ferne - who is expecting her first child with ex Arthur Collins - looked every inch the beach babe in the two-piece

Clearly relishing the thought of motherhood, Ferne has been showing off her blossoming baby bump in a series of holiday snaps from Mallorca.

Posing in a red printed bikini, she wrote: 'Missing Majorca. Take me back to living in my bikini for a week however I'm back & feeling revived.

'This holiday was the perfect time to bond with my bump & relax', she captioned the snap.

She added: 'My bump is coming along nicely...baby is fluttering away, these moments make me so haps'.

Beach babe: Injecting a dose of colour to her beach attire, the Celebs Go Dating star wrapped a tie-dye coral sarong around her waist and wore a matching headband

What a sea-ne: The brunette beauty walked to the edge of the water and threw some shapes

Wind beneath my wings: The mother-to-be lifted up the sides of her sarong in a dramatic pose

Ferne had first announced her pregnancy in April, earlier this year, and revealed she is expecting her first child with ex-boyfriend Arthur Collins in November.

Her announcement had been bittersweet, however, as Ferne confirmed her pregnancy under stressful circumstances, as Arthur found himself wanted by police in connection with the acid attack that had occurred in London nightspot Mangle earlier the same month.

Arthur was arrested and charged with 14 counts of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm and one count of throwing corrosive fluid on a person with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Vibrant: Ferne McCann, 26, continued showcase her blossoming bump as she slipped into a vibrant orange bikini while she soaked up the sun on Wednesday during her Mallorca getaway

Red-hot! Ferne continued to share a glimpse into her life, as she shared a sun-soaked snap from her Mallorca getaway on Tuesday

Just days before, while revealing she was 'initially shocked' by her pregnancy, Ferne admitted she was 'devastated' by the events that had unfolded with her former flame but has vowed to do the best for her baby.

Speaking to OK! magazine, she divulged: 'Initially I was devastated. What I had planned and was getting excited about had disappeared in a matter of moments.

'It was so hard to deal with what happened, but then I realised it was not about me but about my child. Ill do my best for my baby.

'So happy': Ferne, 26, gushed that her growing bump is 'coming along nicely' in a bikini selfie she shared to Instagram on Monday

Admitting it had been a harrowing time for her, Ferne explained that her hormones had added to her emotional state, as she said: 'There are times I feel emotional.

'Not in a negative way, like I'm feeling really sad, but my hormones are all over the place. But I never feel lonely as I have my baby.

'I thoroughly intend to bring up my baby as a single mum like many other women have done in the past. And I will do my best for this baby as a single mum.'
No-one could ever accuse her of playing it safe when it comes to style.

And for Bella Thorne, it was a case of expect the unexpected as she made another bold sartorial statement at rapper Vic Mensa's The Autobiography showcase in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The 19-year-old looked like she had taken inspiration from the country and western music genre rather than hip hop, as she donned a stetson and cowboy boots for the album launch.

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Easy cowgirl! Bella Thorneshe made another bold sartorial statement in a stetson and cowboy boots at rapper Vic Mensa's The Autobiography showcase in Los Angeles on Thursday

The Disney star's flame red locks could be seen peeking out of the black and white hat as she worked and pouted up a storm for the camera.

Keeping with the country theme, the wannabe cowgirl slipped on a white neckerchief over a black sweater and assortment of silver chains.

The sweater revealed a glimpse of the My Own Worst Enemy star's toned midriff while hugging her pert bust.

Showcasing her lean legs she wore ripped skintight denim jeans with a vibrant orange belt around the middle.

Country girl: The Disney star's flame red locks could be seen peeking out of the black and white hat as she worked and pouted up a storm for the camera

Glam trio: The Famous In Love actress looked happy and confident as she flashed a beaming smile and struck a pose with some glamorous pals

The cowboy boots had a pointy toe and were emblazoned with red and white over a black back drop.

Keeping the focus on the outfit, the star enhanced her sparkling peepers with lashings of mascara and strong brows, while adding a peachy coat to her plump pout and working her septum piercing.

She accessorised with a clutch of sparkling rings and a scarlet manicure.

Sparkling: Bella looked radiant as she smiled for the cameras and coyly tucked her hair behind her ear

Work it out: Bella is known for experimenting with a variety of bold new looks

Kooky: The star has won legions of fans for her playful personality and stunning looks

The Famous In Love actress looked happy and confident as she flashed a beaming smile and struck a pose with some glamorous pals.

Meanwhile, Bella's on-off squeeze Scott Disick reunited with ex Kourtney Kardashian as they took their three children to Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.

It's the first time the duo have been seen together in two months.

Bella and Scott were first linked in June when he took her to Catch in West Hollywood and she was also seen at his Calabasas residence in her social media postings.
She has spent the last few weeks topping up her tan on the White Isle.

But Georgia Toffolo is now back on home soil and marked her return to the UK with a day at the races as she attended day two of Newmarket Festival on Friday.

The reality star certainly dressed to impress for the occasion and stunned in a gorgeous floral patterned midi dress that sheathed her slender frame.

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Stunning: Georgia 'Toff' Toffolo cut an elegant figure in a chic floral patterned midi-dress as she attended day two of the Newmarket Festival on Friday

Georgia - who is also know simply as Toff on Made In Chelsea - cut an elegant figure in her classy design that sat just below the knee and stole a look at her bust, thanks to its plunging neckline.

It nipped in at the waist to emphasise her svelte physique and boasted pretty button detailing along the front, as well as tie-up detailing, before billowing out into a floaty skirt that boasted a daring thigh-high split.

She teamed her frock with a pair of rounded nude heels and toted her day's essentials in a stylish pastel pink handbag she slung over one shoulder.

Dazzling display: Her frock teased a look at her assets, thanks to its plunging neckline, and boasted a daring thigh-high split down the centre of its floaty skirt

And smile: She was spotted on the arm of actor Jack Bryant who cut a smart yet casual figure in a pair of stone-hued chinos, a pale blue shirt and complementing blazer

Sporting a glamorous make-up look, Georgia finished off her ensemble with her blonde locks perfectly blow-dried.

They fell into a side parting and fell past her shoulder in a voluminous style.

She was spotted on the arm of actor Jack Bryant who cut a smart yet casual figure in a pair of stone-hued chinos, a pale blue shirt and complementing blazer.

He was seen wrapping his arm around Georgia's waist, as the pair cuddled up together for photographers at the horse-racing event sponsored by Moet & Chandon.

Cosy: He was seen wrapping his arm around Georgia's waist, as the pair cuddled up together for photographers at the horse-racing event sponsored by Moet & Chandon

Also in attendance had been TV presenter Gethin Jones, 39, and his new girlfriend Katja Zwara.

While he was clad in a tailored navy two-piece suit and tie, Katja stunned in a printed mini dress that came complete with a thigh-grazing hemline, along with a busty scooped neckline.

Katja wore a pair of black barely-there heels on her feet and wore her locks in soft glamorous curls and appeared in high spirits as she posed alongside her new beau.

They are currently in the throes of a brand new romance, first confirming their relationship in May earlier this year. Gethin has previously dated Katherine Jenkins and former TOWIE star Lucy Mecklenburgh

Smitten: Also in attendance had been TV presenter Gethin Jones, 39, and his new girlfriend Katja Zwara

Besotted:Katja and Gethin are currently in the throes of a brand new romance, first confirming their relationship in May earlier this year

Meanwhile, Georgia's fun-filled outing at the three day horse-racing festival comes after she has spent the last few weeks overseas in Ibiza.

She had joined a bevy of her co-stars, including Olivia Bentley, Sam Thompson, Tiffany Watson and Alex Mytton, as they filmed a 'rough and ready' spin-off series for reality show Made In Chelsea.

And it sounds like the spin-off will make for entertaining viewing, with sources claiming prior to filming that producers would be taking a step back and letting the cast let their hair down.

An insider told The Sun in April: 'Made In Chelsea is going to get rough and ready this summer. Expect lots of drunk reality stars and big nights out.

'Producers have decided to take things down a notch and let the cast properly enjoy themselves.'
Kim Kardashian posed for a photo with 'Cash me outside' girl Danielle Bregoli on Thursday - even after the 14-year-old dissed the whole Kardashian family earlier this year.

The troubled teen - who rose to fame after using her now infamous catchphrase on an episode of Dr. Phil - was dining at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills while Kim was there.

Someone who knew them both introduced them and they took a picture together, reports TMZ.

Danielle Bregoli ('Cash Me Outside' girl) got a photo with Kim Kardashian while at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills on Thursday

Kim, 36, was apparently denying photos with other patrons, but made an exception for Bregoli.

The young girl was naturally apprehensive but apparently Kim was super polite and obliging.

Bregoli shared the snap on Instagram writing 'See, I can play nice too'.

TMZ later updated that Kim didn't know who Bregoli was and that she was introduced to her as a fan, so was unaware that she'd ranted about beating up the Kardashian family earlier this year.

Back in February Bregoli dissed Kylie Jenner, 19, before taking aim at the whole Kardashian clan.

Bregoli, 14, dissed Kim's sister Kylie Jenner in an interview earlier this year saying 'How do you go from lips the size of a twig and a body that looks like a f***ing paperclip and now you look like hourglass?'

TMZ later updated that Kim didn't know who Bregoli was and so was unaware that she'd ranted about beating up the Kardashian family earlier this year. Kim is pictured in NYC this week

'How do you go from lips the size of a twig and a body that looks like a f***ing paperclip and now you look like hourglass?' the mouthy Florida native said of Kylie on a radio show on February 17.

A few days later when she was asked at LAX if she was afraid Kylie might come after her, Bregoli told TMZ 'Who she gonna come back at? B***h, I ain't scared of her,' before threatening 'I'll whip every Kardashian ass there is.'

Since shooting to stardom, the 14-year-old girl moved to Hollywood with her mother and is reportedly shooting a reality television show.

'I'll whip every Kardashian ass there is,' the troubled teen told reporters at LAX in Febraury

She appeared in court last month for charges related to incidents that took place before her Dr. Phil appearance in the fall went viral.

Bregoli pleaded guilty to charges that included filing a false police report, grand theft auto and possession of marijuana in a Florida court.

She could also face charges for a battery incident in Lake Worth, Florida that happened earlier this year.

The troubled girl and her mother also got kicked off of a Spirit Airlines flight after a confrontation with another woman in recent months.
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He sent shock waves across the internet when pictures emerged of him kissing Chloe Green on a yacht in Turkey last month.

And following the news that Jeremy Meeks has filed for legal separation from his wife of eight years Melissa Meeks, he was spotted spotted sneaking into a hotel with British heiress Chloe Green on Friday.

The American felon turned model, 33, was seen canoodling with the British Topshop heiress, 26, as they enjoyed a PDA-filled paddle in an LA hotel pool- the same day heart-broken wife Melissa was celebrating her birthday.

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Together again: Following the news that Jeremy Meeks has filed for legal separation from his wife of eight years Melissa Meeks, he was spotted spotted sneaking into a hotel with British heiress Chloe Green on Friday

Appearing equally besotted, the pair floated around the pool in a passionate embrace, staring lovingly into each other's eyes.

Looking deep in conversation, the duo giggled together, before letting his manager Jim Jordan take a loved-up picture of the duo.

And continuing their impassioned display, Chloe even attempted the famous Dirty Dancing lift in the pool.

Whipping out her best ensemble to impress her new man, Chloe opted for a white crop top bikini ensemble, sweeping her hair back to reveal her diamond studs.

Just lounging: The American felon turned model, 33, was seen canoodling with the British Topshop heiress, 26, as they enjoyed a PDA-filled paddle in an LA hotel pool- the same day heart-broken wife Melissa was celebrating her birthday

Recreating Dirty Dancing? Chloe put on an excited display as she leapt out of the pool in an effort to recreate the classic lift

Poolside fun: Chloe opted for a white crop top bikini ensemble, sweeping her hair back to reveal her diamond studs as a besotted Jeremy called out to her from the pool

Meanwhile Jeremy kept in casual in swimming trunks and white t-shirt, calling out to her as she enjoyed a beverage from the sun lounger.

And clearly keen not to be apart for too long, he soon joined her in the secluded corner, as they continued their passionate display.

As Jeremy enjoyed a cigarette and played on his phone, Chloe snuggled up to her new beau, keen to stay the centre of attention.

Enamoured: The duo couldn't get enough of each other as they canoodled in the pool, kissing passionately

Giggling: The pair couldn't keep their eyes of each other as they giggled together

Drying off: Following their passionate display, the duo hopped out of the pool to dry off, enjoying their plush surroundings

And she soon got her way, as he lay down and placed his arm around her, with Chloe quickly reciprocating the move.

Earlier in the day they were spotted cutting a low profile as they entered the LA hotel.

Dressed in a black vest, striking Jeremy was hard to miss as he was joined by Chloe dressed in denim hot pants and a lilac blouse at the plush hotel's reception.

And as the duo appeared to celebrate their new union, Jeremy's wife Melissa took to Instagram to share defiant pictures as she celebrated her birthday.

Invite only: The duo were joined by a small group of exclusive friends

Luxury living: Jeremy enjoyed a dip in the rooftop pool as the rest of the group enjoyed drinks by the pool

Their number one fan: The couple ensured his manager Jim Jordan took a picture of their intimate moment

Sharing a selfie as she pouted at the camera, she bravely captioned the snap: 'Birthday wishes', adding a middle finger emoji in defiance.

She then uploaded an emotional meme, with the words: 'Better to be slapped with the truth then kissed with a lie'.

On Thursday Jeremy filed for legal separation from mother-of-three Melissa, who he shares her youngest son with.

He was married to the 38-year-old nurse, who stayed with him throughout his stint in prison, for eight years.

The move came after she filed for divorce, after confronting him outside their Stockton home when he arrived back from his break in Turkey, where the controversial pictures of him cavorting on the $145,000-a-week yacht emerged.

Distracted: As Jeremy enjoyed a cigarette and played on his phone, Chloe snuggled up to her new beau, keen to stay the centre of attention

Holding on: And she soon got her way, as he lay down and placed his arm around her, with Chloe quickly reciprocating the mov

Sharing him with his phone: Chloe appeared slightly unimpressed that his attention was averted

The couple's legal separation documents say they will share custody of their children.

A legal separation is different from a divorce in a number of ways: The former couple can still claim some tax benefits and share healthcare. The former couple will still have to separate their assets.

In documents filed on Tuesday, Meeks said that he has not yet 'determined the full nature and extent of his separate property assets and/or liabilities'.

Can't get enough: The duo appeared in their own love-struck world, floating around the pool arm-in-arm

Relaxed: Jeremy appeared to be in good spirits as he enjoyed the rooftop gathering

Clearly keen not to be apart for too long, he soon joined her in the secluded corner, as they continued their passionate display

He added, however, that earnings and acquisitions made after the separation began would be considered separate property.

She later told the Mail of her devastation, admitting that her husband had been seduced by the glamour of his newfound modelling career.

I know it takes two to tango but she knew he was married. To me, thats unforgivable. My whole world has been torn apart by this. What do I tell our children? My heart is broken.

Quiet display: Earlier in the day they were spotted cutting a low profile as they entered the LA hotel

Casual: Jeremy was joined by Chloe dressed in denim hot pants and a lilac blouse at the plush hotel's reception

Relaxed attire: Dressed in a black vest, striking Jeremy was hard to miss as he made his way into the hotel

Why so serious: Chloe put on a poker face as she entered the venue

What sort of woman would do something like this to another woman? My marriage wasnt perfect but I thought it could be saved, until this happened.

Of course Im angry at her. What she did is unforgivable. And Im angry at him too. What they did destroyed my entire world.

Did either of them think about the children and how this will affect them? Theyre the innocent victims in this. And so am I.

Describing the moment she learned about her husband's affair, she added: Some random person I dont know sent a direct message with the photograph of my husband kissing that woman.

I went into shock. I felt nauseated. It was like a bomb had gone off and my whole world had been blown apart.

Id never heard of Chloe Green. I thought Jeremy was working.

'Better to be slapped with the truth then kissed with a lie': As the duo appeared to celebrate their new union, Jeremy's wife Melissa took to Instagram to share defiant pictures as she celebrated her birthday

Controversial: The married father sent shock waves across the internet when pictures emerged of him kissing Chloe Green on a yacht in Turkey last month

Following the furore, Jeremy returned to California to be reunited with his family.

Melissa says the first contact she had with her husband was when he landed in Los Angeles last Monday.

However he didn't appear too welcome, with wife Melissa retreating to her sister's residence for Fourth Of July celebrations.

And Melissa revealed he had texted her from the airport to ask if he could pick up their two sons, his biological child Jeremy Jr, seven, and Robert, 11, Melissas son from a previous relationship. She also has a daughter, 16-year-old Ellie, and says both stepchildren consider Meeks a father figure.

Chloe was last seen cutting a low profile as she enjoyed another sunny break with her billionaire father Sir Phillip Green, 65, in St Tropez, France on Saturday.

Family man: Jeremy has been with wife and mother-of-three Melissa for eight years, and the couple are parents to her youngest son Jeremy Junior, 7

Did either of them think about the children and how this will affect them? Theyre the innocent victims in this. And so am I. Melissa recently broke her silence over the furore, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail

First contact after the snaps: Melissa revealed he had texted her from the airport to ask if he could pick up their two sons, his biological child Jeremy Jr, seven, and Robert, 11, Melissas son from a previous relationship. She also has a daughter, 16-year-old Ellie, and says both stepchildren consider Meeks a father figure

Chloe has been staying out of the spotlight ever since she was forced to delete her Instagram account after enraged social media fans slammed her over pictures showing her kissing married Jeremy.

And Chloe isn't the only one who has been in the spotlight of late.

Controversial British retail tycoon Sir Philip Green, who owns Topshop and is worth an estimated $5.1 billion, has been hitting headlines frequently over the last year.

BHS went bust last spring and her father got the blame for the 571 million hole in the firms pensions pot.

However, Sir Philip agreed to pay 363 million into the pension fund in February this year.

At the beginning of July Jeremy sent the internet into overdrive when he was pictured kissing Topshop heiress Chloe Green on a luxury yacht in Turkey.

The father-of-one model faced furious backlash from fans, who accused him of disrespecting his eight-year-relationship with wife and mother-of-three Melissa Meeks, who he shares her youngest son with.

Life of luxury: Meeks continued to send tongues wagging after pictures emerged of him kissing British Topshop heiress Chloe Green on a yacht in Turkey at the beginning of the month

Meeks and Chloe, who is heir to her father Sir Philip's billions, were pictured sharing an intimate kiss over the weekend and snuggling up together as they waited to be taken back to their 112,000-a-week yacht in Bodrum, Turkey.

Their tender embrace was watched over by an entourage which had joined them on their luxury charter for a week of fun in the sun.

It came as Melissa broke her social media silence and as his legions of fans turned on him for dumping her.

On Monday, two days after the pictures emerged, Meeks's manager posted a photo of him and his client, who has 1.2million Instagram followers in Dusseldorf, Germany.

'Just the beginning': Chloe took to Instagram on Saturday, sharing a a photo with Meeks and his manager, before deleting her account due to the backlash

But fans turned on them with one user writing: 'Shame on you,' in apparent reference to the photos.

Meeks' wife, Melissa, a mother of three who has a son with the convict, appeared to respond to her husband's alleged infidelity with a sultry Instagram post of her own on Sunday.

She added: 'It's just me against the world baby,' with the hashtag 'Still I rise'.

Ignoring the revelation that her husband was cheating on her, Melissa made a point of not mentioning his adultery and instead opted to caption the picture with two hashtags - Queens are Born in July and It's My Birthday Month.

Chloe has since deleted her Instagram account shortly after posting a picture of her and Meeks together with the caption: 'Just the beginning...We appreciate all the love and the hate.'

From prison to the catwalk: Jeremy made his modelling debut modelling for Phillip Plein during New York Fashion Week in February

Meeks too has edited his account, deleting all photographs of him and Melissa, which has not gone down with the fans who fell in love with his good looks after his California mugshot went viral in 2014.

Meanwhile Chloe's father Sir Philip said he is 'not getting involved' in his daughter's holiday romance.

The tycoon refused to be drawn when asked about it, telling the Telegraph: 'With respect, I am not getting involved in it.'

Chloe is thought to have met Jeremy when he attended at an array of star-studded events during the Cannes Film Festival last month.

Modelling for Phillip Plein, Jeremy was seen mingling with the likes of Paris Hilton and Nicki Minaj during the glitzy fest.

From in the can to in Cannes! Jeremy mingled with heiress Paris Hilton during the Cannes Film Festival in May

Rubbing shoulders with the A listers: He as spotted enjoying dinner with rapper Nicki Minaj

Meeks, whose looks have earned him a huge fan base, 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.

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.

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'.
Prince's longtime lawyer L. Londell McMillan (C), seen outside the Carver County District Court in Chaska, Minnesota, in May 2017

A judge on Thursday rescinded Universal Music's $31 million deal for unreleased work of late pop icon Prince after the world's largest label group said it was misled by his estate.

The voiding of the deal -- which is highly unusual for such a high-profile contract -- is the latest drama over Prince's catalog since the "Purple Rain" star died suddenly without a will in April 2016.

A judge in Minnesota steered clear of deciding the merits of the dispute but said that Prince's estate could ill-afford the lengthy court battle that could transpire if the Universal contract went forward.

"This court believes that the estate must proceed in a cautious manner to preserve the assets of the estate," said Kevin Eide, a judge in Carver County where Prince died at his secluded Paisley Park studio-estate.

While voiding a contract may not sound like a cautious move, "the court believes that the other option of long and potentially expensive litigation while tying up the music rights owned by the estate makes the other option more treacherous," he said in a written ruling.

Universal had announced in February that it had secured rights to Prince's catalog starting in the mid-1990s -- when he bitterly exited rival label Warner -- as well as unspecified recordings from earlier during Prince's commercial peak.

Comerica Bank and Trust, which administers the estate, conceded that Universal may have bought recordings that overlapped with Warner's assets and had agreed in May to rescind the deal.

But the judge heard objections from L. Londell McMillan, who negotiated the deal when he was an adviser to the estate and still enjoys support of three of Prince's six siblings -- recognized in May as his rightful heirs.

McMillan, who was Prince's longtime lawyer and earned a commission from the deal, said that Universal had carefully reviewed the contract and that it remained enforceable.
Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo (pictured on cards) was sentenced in 2009 for 'subversion'

The world hailed Chinese Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo as a brave fighter for human rights after his death from cancer.

Liu, a government critic and thorn in the side of the authorities for decades, died in custody, having been sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for "subversion".

His death brought criticism for Chinese authorities who refused international pleas to let him receive treatment abroad.

- Nobel committee -

"We find it deeply disturbing that Liu Xiaobo was not transferred to a facility where he could receive adequate medical treatment before he became terminally ill," Berit Reiss-Andersen, who chairs the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said in a statement.

"The Chinese government bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death."

- United States -

US President Donald Trump initially refrained from commenting on Liu's death and avoided criticising Beijing at a joint press conference in Paris with French leader Emmanuel Macron.

He instead used the occasion to praise China's leader Xi Jinping as a friend and patriot.

Several hours later, the White House released a statement about Liu.

"President Donald J. Trump was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent Chinese political prisoner Liu Xiaobo," it said.

"The president's heartfelt condolences go out to Liu Xiaobo's wife, Liu Xia, and his family and friends. A poet, scholar, and courageous advocate, Liu Xiaobo dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy and liberty."

Earlier, Trump's Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had praised Liu and called for his widow, the poet Liu Xia, to be released from house arrest.

And the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, called Liu "a true champion for freedom and an inspiration to those longing for democracy around the world."

- Germany -

"I mourn Liu Xiaobo, the courageous fighter for human rights and freedom of expression," German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted on her behalf.

"His family has my deep sympathies."

Germany had said it was prepared to welcome Liu for medical treatment after he was transferred from prison to hospital.

- United Nations -

"The human rights movement in China and across the world has lost a principled champion who devoted his life to defending and promoting human rights, peacefully and consistently, and who was jailed for standing up for his beliefs," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said in a statement.

"Liu Xiaobo was the true embodiment of the democratic, non-violent ideals he so ardently advocated."

- European Union -

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and EU president Donald Tusk said in a joint statement that they had learned of Liu's death "with deep sadness".

"We appeal to the Chinese authorities to allow his wife, Ms Liu Xia and his family to bury Liu Xiaobo at a place and in a manner of their choosing, and to allow them to grieve in peace," Juncker and Tusk said.

"We call on the authorities to remove all restrictions on the movement and communications of his family members."

- France -

Like Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron also initially avoided discussing Liu's death, focusing instead on his "extremely fruitful and positive" contacts with Xi.

The French leader later remembered Liu in a tweet, praising him as "a freedom fighter" and saying his thoughts were with his family.

- Britain -

British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson hit out at China for preventing Liu from seeking cancer treatment abroad.

"Liu Xiaobo should have been allowed to choose his own medical treatment overseas, which the Chinese authorities repeatedly denied him," Johnson said in a statement.

- Chinese dissidents -

Chen Guangcheng, one of China's best-known activists who fled to the United States in 2012, said Liu was "deliberately killed" by the country's rulers and urged the international community to maintain pressure on Beijing.

"We need to see his death as not a natural, normal death," Chen told AFP in a telephone interview from Washington.

"He was killed by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), deliberately killed by them."

Chen said China had refused to allow Liu to travel abroad for treatment because they "were likely to discover what was really wrong with him and would probably reveal that they had been harming him with medication or some such things."

"As a vocal outspoken Nobel prize winner, he would likely speak out about what has happened to him, and that's another thing that the Chinese Communist Party did not want to have happen," Chen added.

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A Republican congressman from Texas is calling on President Donald Trump to remove his family members from the White House.

Rep. Bill Flores says that the recent revelations about meetings which took place between Russian nationals and Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr, and his son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner during the 2016 campaign have become a distraction.

'I'm going out on a limb here, but I would say that I think it would be in the President's best interest if he removed all of his children from the White House,' Flores told KBTX-TV.

He said that this applies 'not only [to] Donald Trump [Jr], but Ivanka and Jared Kushner.'

Flores said he views the meeting as problematic, particularly in light of fresh revelations that the sit-down was attended by individuals with links to Russian intelligence services.

Rep. Bill Flores, a Republican congressman from Texas, is calling on President Donald Trump to remove his family members from the White House

Flores says that the recent revelations about meetings which took place between Russian nationals and Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr, and his son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner (seen above with his wife, Ivanka Trump) during the 2016 campaign have become a distraction

Don Jr (left) has been in the media spotlight over his notorious Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya (right), who had promised dirt on Hillary Clinton

'I do find issues with the meeting. It's a meeting that should not have taken place,' said Flores.

'I think he thought he was looking out for his father's best interest.'

Trump's eldest son Don Jr may be in the media spotlight over his notorious Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton.

But the latest revelation in the burgeoning scandal has added to the pressure on another family member who was at the meeting and is already in the crosshairs of investigators - Kushner, the president's influential son-in-law.

Democrats are up in arms, demanding that the 36-year-old Kushner - a senior adviser to the president with an office in the White House - be stripped of his security clearance.

Flores said he views the meeting as problematic, particularly in light of fresh revelations that the sit-down was attended by individuals with links to Russian intelligence services. President Trump is seen above during a joint news conference in Paris on Thursday

'There doesn't seem to be any ethical standard in the White House,' Democratic House minority leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted on Thursday.

'Jared Kushner's security clearance must be immediately revoked.'

While Donald Jr has no role in his father's administration - he is helping run his corporate empire - Kushner is one of Trump's closest advisors.

The Harvard graduate is also the progeny of a powerful New York real estate family, and has long been in Trump's inner circle.

It was actually an omission on a government security clearance application filed by Kushner that led to the revelation of the meeting between himself, Donald Jr, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and the Russian lawyer.

NBC News reported on Friday that the meeting was also attended by a lobbyist believed to have been a Soviet counter-intelligence officer.

The revelation also led Donald Jr to release an email chain about the planning of that meeting - which is now being cited as the most serious evidence yet of alleged collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia.

In the June 2016 emails, Donald Jr eagerly agrees to a meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer who is said to possess incriminating information about Clinton and invites Kushner and Manafort to come along.

Kushner's various dealings with Russian figures are under scrutiny, including a meeting with Moscow's now-outgoing ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak

Kushner, filing a security clearance document known as an SF-86, initially neglected to mention that he attended the meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya - as well as contacts he had with several other Russians, including Moscow's ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.

The meeting with Veselnitskaya came to light only after Kushner filed an amended SF-86 form.

Veselnitskaya confirmed to CNN and MSNBC that Kushner attended the meeting but said he was there for only 'seven to 10 minutes' and she had never intended to hand over damaging information about Clinton anyway.

But even before revelations of the Veselnitskaya meeting came to light, Kushner's other dealings with Russian officials have been facing scrutiny.

According to The Washington Post, Kushner - at a December 2016 meeting with Kislyak - raised the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications link between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin.

That same month, Kushner also met with Sergey Gorkov, chief of Vnesheconombank and a former member of Russian intelligence.

The bank, a key arm of the Russian government, is under tough US sanctions.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller is the special counsel examining whether Trump's campaign team colluded with Russia to help tilt the presidential race in favor of the billionaire tycoon

The Post reported last month that Kushner's finances and business dealings were being examined as part of the probe led by special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller into whether the Trump campaign teamed with Russia to help tilt the presidential race in favor of the billionaire tycoon.

And this week, the McClatchy newspaper group reported that congressional and Justice Department investigators were looking into whether the Trump campaign helped Russian cyber operatives bombard key voting districts with 'fake news' about Clinton.

Kushner was in charge of the Trump campaign's digital operations.

He now plays a major role in shaping foreign policy.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a massive effort to swing the election to Trump, including hacking and leaking embarrassing emails from Democrats.

Trump has vehemently denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia and repeatedly claimed to be the victim of a 'witch hunt' by the media and sore loser Democrats.

Kushner is expected to discuss his Russian contacts at some point with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is leading one of the several probes into Russian election interference.

But ahead of that testimony - and with unanswered questions mounting around him - opposition Democrats are demanding action now.

'It is unclear why Mr. Kushner continues to have access to classified information while these allegations are being investigated,' said a letter from nearly 20 members of the House Oversight Committee sent to the White House last month.
Barack Obama speaks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in 2013, ahead of the signing of the nuclear agreement, a key part of the former US president's legacy

Signed with pomp and fanfare on July 14, 2015, the Iranian nuclear agreement was heralded as a triumph for American diplomacy and international cooperation on nonproliferation.

Two years later, it has few friends in the Trump administration or in Tehran.

When it was signed in Vienna, President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry, claimed the pact -- commonly known as JCPOA, for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action -- as an undeniable success.

Their Iranian counterparts, President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, were equally ebullient.

2015 Iran nuclear deal

The pact was also signed by China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany, lending it additional weight.

In force since January 16, 2016, the JCPOA provides for international monitoring of Tehran's nuclear program to ensure its purely peaceful, civilian use.

In exchange, Tehran was promised the gradual lifting of the international sanctions that have strangled the Iranian economy for years.

But during his presidential campaign, billionaire Republican Donald Trump made the accord a favorite target. In campaign speech after campaign speech, he pronounced it "the worst deal ever," and he vowed, if elected, to "rip it up."

As president, however, Trump has not carried out his threat.

In May, the Trump administration even decided to pursue the Obama policy of easing some sanctions at least while completing a JCPOA review to decide -- in principle by Monday -- whether to continue lifting sanctions.

- Obama legacy at stake -

After vowing to drop out of the Paris climate agreement and questioning the Obama-era opening to Cuba, Trump would be dealing a terrible blow to his predecessor's legacy if he decided to abandon the JCPOA.

The former real estate mogul has already staked out contrary positions to Obama in the Middle East, tightening US ties to Saudi Arabia's Sunni leaders while calling for the "isolation" of their Shiite rivals in Iran.

Washington accuses Tehran of posing a regional "threat" that "destabilizes" Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, either directly or through its "terrorist" proxies.

The Republican-controlled US Senate passed a bill in June to impose new sanctions on Tehran for its "support for international terrorism." Meantime, the State Department, which since 1984 has declared Iran a "state sponsor of terror," continues to punish Tehran for its ballistic missile program.

The JCPOA nonetheless still has its fervent supporters in Washington.

- 'An existential threat' -

The accord "removed an existential threat to the United States and our allies and partners," said a statement from Diplomacy Works, a pressure group founded by John Kerry and some former advisers.

The lobbying group added, "We encourage the administration to recertify Iran's compliance -- which they must do in order to reissue sanctions waivers due Monday."

As Jonathan Finer, a former Kerry chief of staff, told AFP, "The nuclear agreement is working... It would be hard to understand why the administration would want to generate a crisis" by tearing up the accord.

In a letter to Trump, 38 retired US generals and admirals stressed that the agreement had "successfully blocked Iran's paths to a nuclear weapon."

"Iran dismantled two-thirds of its centrifuges, gave up 98 percent of its stockpile of sensitive uranium and poured concrete into the core of its heavy-water reactor," the retired officers wrote.

In fact, the UN nuclear monitoring authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), praised Iran last month for respecting its commitments.

Europeans are deeply concerned, however, about the path Trump might take.

"What we are telling the Americans is that the JCPOA is not perfect but (is) much better than other options," a senior European official told reporters, speaking on grounds of anonymity.

"Losing the JCPOA would be a mistake."

The retired officers warned against "aggressive posturing that could pave the way to war" with Iran, something that seemed a possibility in the early 2000s.

- Dashed hopes in Iran -

In Tehran, too, the euphoria of July 2015 has given way to disillusion.

Even if the desire for closer ties with the West remains strong among many Iranians -- as shown by the re-election in May of the moderate Rouhani -- the much-anticipated economic fruits of the nuclear deal have been slow to materialize.

The continuing American sanctions frighten bankers and scare away international corporations.

While the French oil company Total did recently sign a $4.8 billion gas deal with Iran, foreign direct investment in the country topped out last year at $3.4 billion, a very long way from the $50 billion that Rouhani once promised.

And that provides grist for ultraconservative factions in Iran hostile to America.

As the holy month of Ramadan was ending in June, and just before a speech by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the official poet of the Islamic Republic proclaimed:

"Too much excitement over the JCPOA was a mistake,

Relying on Uncle Sam was a mistake,

O friends, we made a pact with a thief."
Rapper DMX, real name Earl Simmons, has turned himselfinto authorities on federal charges of tax evasion, allegedly owing $1.7 million in taxes

Rapper DMX turned himself in to authorities on federal charges of tax fraud, according to New York prosecutors.

The recording artist, whose real name is Earl Simmons, allegedly engaged in a multi-year scheme to hide millions of dollars in income from authorities and owes $1.7 million in taxes.

Acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon Kim said the performer took in millions from his performances, television shows and songs -- including the 2003 hit "X Gon' Give it to Ya" -- but evaded paying taxes on his earnings by "avoiding personal bank accounts, setting up accounts in other's names and paying personal expenses largely in cash."

"Celebrity rapper or not, all Americans must pay their taxes," Kim said in a statement. "We will pursue those who deliberately and criminally evade this basic obligation of citizenship."

Following his arrest the 46-year-old -- known for his deep, rough voice and often dark or violent lyrics -- is due to appear Friday in Manhattan federal court.

A native of Yonkers, New York, he was charged with 14 counts and could face more than 40 years in prison.

DMX, who gained fame in the early nineties, has a colorful criminal history. He has been arrested over offenses including drug possession, reckless driving, animal cruelty and failing to pay child support.
2015 Iran nuclear deal

The landmark nuclear deal signed two years ago on July 14, 2015 by Iran and major world powers led to a partial lifting of international sanctions on Tehran.

Struck in Vienna by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) plus Germany, the deal established controls to prevent Tehran from developing an atom bomb.

The UN atomic agency said as recently as June 2 that Tehran is sticking to the terms of the deal, having neither enriched uranium to prohibited levels, nor built up illegal stocks of low-enriched uranium or heavy water.

- Nuclear downsizing -

The objective of the accord is bring to a minimum of one year, for at least 10 years, the "breakout time", or the time Iran needs to produce enough fissile material to make an atom bomb. It is also meant to ensure that any moves to do so will be easily detectable.

Under the deal, Tehran agreed to slash the number of uranium centrifuges, which can enrich uranium for nuclear fuel as well as for nuclear weapons, from more than 19,000 to 5,060, maintaining this level for 10 years.

All enrichment takes place at the Natanz facility. The Fordo site, containing an additional 1,044 centrifuges, is no longer allowed under the accord to enrich uranium.

Iran's pre-deal stockpile of 12 tonnes of low-enriched uranium -- enough for several nuclear weapons if further enriched -- is under the deal reduced to 300 kilogrammes (660 pounds), a ceiling that will last for 15 years.

Only enrichment to low purities is allowed, also for 15 years.

Iran's Arak reactor is also to be redesigned so that it does not produce weapons-grade plutonium, the alternative to highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.

Tehran will not build another heavy water reactor for 15 years.

- Controlling the deal -

A so-called Additional Protocol is applied, allowing for closer inspections, including potentially of military bases.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also employs high-tech surveillance equipment and has access to facilities such as uranium mines and centrifuge workshops for periods of up to 25 years.

- Sanctions -

The accord, adopted by the UN Security Council on July 20, 2015, came into force on January 16, 2016, opening the way for a partial lifting of international sanctions on Iran.

UN embargos on conventional arms and on ballistic missiles have been maintained up to 2020 and 2023 respectively.

Many international sanctions have since been lifted, opening the door for foreign investors. In early July, French group Total, heading an international consortium, signed $4.8-billion deal with Iran.

However, Washington has imposed new measures targeting Iran's ballistic missile programme and activities in the region.
Internet firms such as Telegram that use data encryption to guarantee user confidentiality cannot currently be compelled to hand over messages to Australian police

Social media giants like Facebook and WhatsApp will be compelled to share encrypted messages of suspected terrorists and other criminals with Australian police under new laws unveiled Friday.

It comes after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull warned encrypted messages were increasingly being used by terrorists, drug traffickers and paedophile rings, calling for legislation to be modernised to allow police to do their jobs.

"We need to ensure that the internet is not used as a dark place for bad people to hide their criminal activities from the law," he said, adding that the tech giants must "face up to their responsibility".

"They can't just wash their hands of it and say it's got nothing to do with them."

Australian authorities can currently obtain information from telecommunications companies, but not internet firms that use data encryption to guarantee user confidentiality.

Encryption essentially involves complex algorithms scrambling data to make it indecipherable until unlocked by its owner or when it reaches its destination.

"Because of this end-to-end encryption, all of that information, all of that data, that communication is effectively dark to the reach of the law," said Turnbull.

"And that's not acceptable. We are a society, a democracy, under the rule of law, and the law must prevail online as well as offline."

The laws will be introduced into parliament by the end of the year.

Attorney-General George Brandis said the legislation would be similar to Britain's Investigatory Powers Act, which imposes an obligation on companies to cooperate with investigations.

They would provide Australian intelligence and law enforcement authorities with coercive powers as a "last resort" if tech companies did not voluntarily help, said Brandis.

"It is vitally important that the development of technology does not leave the law behind," he said.

However, Silicon Valley tech companies have so far refused to bend to similar legal requests.

Facebook said it already had a system in place to help police and intelligence officials in Australia.

"We appreciate the important work law enforcement does, and we understand their need to carry out investigations. That's why we already have a protocol in place to respond to requests where we can," a spokesperson said.

"At the same time, weakening encrypted systems for them would mean weakening it for everyone."

Apple told AFP it had no comment on the new legislation.

British Home Secretary Amber Rudd will travel to the United States shortly to discuss the issue further with her American counterpart and tech companies, said Turnbull.

The US government last year locked horns in a legal battle with Apple, seeking to compel the iPhone maker to help decrypt a device used by one of the attackers in the San Bernardino shooting rampage.

Authorities eventually dropped the case after finding a way to break into the iPhone without Apple's help.

Turnbull admitted it may be difficult to enforce the laws if firms do not comply, but said it was important to "recognise the challenge and call on those companies to provide the assistance".
Raids have become common in parts of Kenya in recent months by pastoralists invading private land, raiding homes and driving livestock into farms.

Footsteps came first, then unfamiliar voices, the smell of cow dung and the kicking in of the front door.

Suddenly awake, John Mbogo wrapped his 11-year-old daughter Tabitha in his arms and rolled under the bed. His wife, Anne, crawled next to them, eyes wide.

Torchlight fell on the now empty beds and they saw naked legs smeared in manure, a "shuka" blanket rolled at the waist and the muzzle of a gun.

"There was nothing I could do but hide," said John, recounting the June invasion by armed herders, dressed for battle, at their small family compound in Kamwenje, a mostly ethnic Kikuyu settlement in Laikipia, high on the eastern rim of Kenya's Rift Valley.

John Mbogo, his wife and daughter hid under the bed during a June invasion by armed herders at their small family compound in Laikipia, high on the eastern rim of Kenya's Rift Valley.

Such raids have become common in recent months in the counties of Laikipia and neighbouring Baringo, with pastoralists invading private land, raiding homes, burning property and driving livestock into farms.

But where the government blames bandits, victims see political intrigue.

Kenyans vote in a general election on August 8. The unrest echoes the politically motivated ethnic violence that has prefaced almost every election since multiparty politics was introduced a quarter of a century ago.

Since voting in Kenya tends to follow ethnic lines, evicting different tribes so that another can dominate a constituency is a pragmatic political strategy.

"They want to drive us away so that they can take over our land," says John, who has farmed a vivid green field of maize in Kamwenje since 1997.

His family's clothes, food and possessions were stolen during the attack, but others have suffered worse: neighbours have been raped and shot. Some have already fled.

- 'Politics is fuel of chaos' -

Victims of the raids believe politics is the motive, not pasture, as Kenya gears up for an August 8 general election.

The raiders come from the Pokot tribe, pastoralists for whom cows are at the heart of social life. Cattle raids serve as a test of manhood as well as a way to get rich and gain enough cows to pay for a wife.

The easy availability of illegal weapons means that cattle raiding has grown more violent, while poor rains and large herds prompt pastoralists to roam further in search of adequate pasture.

But the spike in attacks ahead of elections and their brutality has locals convinced that grazing is not the main motive.

"This is not about pasture. This is politics," says Paul Njoroge, a 53-year-old father of four, farmer, paralegal and Kikuyu community leader.

"The motive is to evict the farmers and own everything. Politics is the fuel of this chaos."

Njoroge has lived and farmed on a ridge above Kamwenje since 1983. Currently, he sleeps alone at night, his family, like others, has become what he calls "day scholars": working the farm by day but staying with neighbours at night where they feel safer, a few miles further from the county boundary.

Residents say that barely a night goes by without gunfire, an ambush or a home invasion.

On worn sheets of folded notepaper Njoroge keeps a running tally of murders, rapes and thefts. So far, Njoroge said, more than 40 families have chosen to leave and he wonders how much longer the rest of them will hold out.

The future Njoroge fears can be found 28 kilometres (17 miles) due west and 1,000 metres below Kamwenje, deep in the belly of the Rift Valley, in Eldume, a forlorn settlement of hundreds of stretched tarp tents.

More than 700 people have settled in Eldume in tarp tents after fleeing a deadly attack on their nearby village in mid-March.

The more than 700 people living here are the surviving ethnic Ilchamus population of the nearby village of Mukutani.

- 'Slaughtered like goats' -

They fled after an attack by the Pokot in mid-March in which nine of their people died -- a revenge raid of extraordinary cruelty that terrorised the whole community into abandoning their homes.

Queen Siambui, 22, lost her younger sister, Janet, who was murdered as she sheltered with her daughters, five-year-old Nasinya and three-year-old Vicki. Siambui wept as she recounted the attack: Janet was shot in the chest and then she and her children had their throats slit.

"They slaughtered the women and children like goats," said Benjamin Lecher, the 45-year-old chief of the Mukutani Ilchamus.

"We left Mukutani because of the attacks by the Pokot community," he said, sipping tea outside his rough tent as the morning's heat cranked up.

"We have been evicted and they have occupied our land."

Voting in Kenya tends to follow ethnic lines so evicting different tribes so that another can dominate a constituency is a pragmatic political strategy.

Tit-for-tat cattle raids are common between the Ilchamus and Pokot. Young men known as "morans" are regularly killed in skirmishes, but the deliberate murder of women and children, Lecher said, was different.

"It has become a tribal thing, it's not banditry. This is not cattle rustling," Lecher said. "Politics is fuelling this issue, these people are expanding their territory by evicting others."

In an act of violent gerrymandering, the displacement means Lecher and his people may be unable to vote in August.

Yet the Pokot and their politicians -- some of whom hold senior posts in Baringo county, dominated by the ruling party -- are not exempt from violence, though widely blamed for it.

A belated government security operation has, they say, disproportionately targeted the Pokot, while at least three prominent Pokot politicians have been killed in recent months.

Their murders, like the crimes in Kamwenje and Mukutani, are unsolved.
Pupils of the Ecole Polytechnique, promotion X2016, cross their sowrds as they wait for the start of the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, on July 14, 2017

French President Emmanuel Macron will attend a Bastille Day military parade on Friday alongside his American counterpart Donald Trump, before marking the first anniversary of a deadly terror attack in Nice.

The parade on Paris's Champs-Elysees will commemorate the centenary of the US entering WWI and will feature horses, helicopters, planes and troops.

"This is a wonderful national celebration," said Trump during a joint news conference with Macron Thursday, adding, "we look very much forward to it. Spectacular."

"Our two nations are forever joined together by the spirit of revolution and the fight for freedom," he added.

Macron will give a short speech at the start of the parade to evoke the spirit of a national holiday even though it coincides with the Nice assault's anniversary, his office said.

Bastille Day military parade in Paris

France has been under a state of emergency since November 2015, when 130 people were slaughtered in a wave of coordinated violence across Paris, with French lawmakers voting last week to extend it for the sixth time.

More than 130,000 security and emergency service workers have been deployed to protect revellers during this year's Bastille Day celebrations, according to figures from France's Interior Ministry.

Terror attacks in France have killed 239 people in eight attacks since January 2015, with Interior Minister Gerard Collomb saying seven terror plots have been foiled since the start of this year.

In Nice, on July 14 last year, a truck ploughed through a crowd on the Promenade des Anglais after a Bastille Day fireworks display, killing 86 people and injuring hundreds more.

Macron will fly to the southern French city once the Paris military parade is over.

It his first Bastille Day celebration as president.
Recreational marijuana use is illegal in Australia but laws were passed last year permitting medical use, with a dozen licences since issued for a range of uses including cultivation and manufacturing

At a secret location in Australia's southeast, Peter Crock delicately tends to a two-month-old cannabis cutting.

Barely knee high, it is one of about 50 government-sanctioned "mother plants" to be cloned for future generations of crops for the country's fledgling medicinal marijuana industry.

"I think we'll see Australia punch above its weight, both in agriculture research as well as medical technology," says Crock, the chief executive of Cann Group Limited, the firm granted Australia's first commercial grower's licence.

"As different conditions come online we are going to see the market grow rapidly."

Following Canada, Israel, and more than half the US states, who through varying approaches have legalised medicinal marijuana, Australia has signalled its intention for a homegrown industry.

But a patchwork of regulations that guard access for many desperate patients, and a lack of confidence among doctors in prescribing the drug, are acting as impediments.

While recreational marijuana use remains illegal in Australia laws passed last year permit medical use, with a dozen licences since issued, ranging from cultivation and research to manufacturing.

At least 10 sector-related firms have listed on Australia's stock exchange, while tens of millions of dollars has been pledged for clinical trials investigating treatment for conditions including epilepsy and relief for the terminally ill.

Driven by a growing recognition of treatment for chronic pain, arthritis and migraines, the global market is estimated to reach US$55.8 billion by 2025 with the US, Canada and Israel leading the way, US-based analyst Grand View Research says.

- 'Conservative government' -

But unlike those markets, which have liberal patient-access, Australia has a "very conservative government" that wants a regulatory framework in place up front, says Adam Miller, founder of medical cannabis start-up BuddingTech.

"They're doing things by the book so that when they have the evidence required to satisfy not only Australia's but other countries' governments, and medical bodies, they will be able to export those products to those countries," he added.

Five-year-old Arielle Harding, who had her first epileptic seizure at 15 months, now shows few signs of her condition after her parents started giving her small doses of a non-psychoactive marijuana derivative

Last year, researchers at the University of Sydney estimated a legal domestic medical market would initially be worth more than Aus$100 million (US$75 million) a year.

Miller, who was drawn to the industry after researching alternatives for his seriously-ill mother, says unlocking the local market requires easing patient access and educating doctors.

But not at the expense of the pharmaceutical industry's integrity.

"Any new products that are going to be distributed to a large number of patients need to go through the same mechanism that any other drug would go through, and cannabis is no different," he says.

Doctors acknowledge the plant's potential in palliative care, epilepsy and spasticity but remain guarded in its broader use, citing limited scientific proof.

"Its been around since pre-history and if it was the panacea for a whole range of medical conditions it was claimed to be by some advocates, then we would have been using it for a long period of time," says Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon.

- 'Pretty angry pretty quickly' -

But for many, change is too slow.

Arielle Harding had her first epileptic seizure at 15-months-old. Suffering from about 100 a day, treatment with traditional drugs made things worse.

Her desperate parents recently tried small doses of Cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-psychoactive marijuana derivative in liquid form and Arielle, now five, shows few signs of her condition.

"At first we were just overjoyed that that had happened but you also find that you get pretty angry pretty quickly, when you realise that we could have had this three years ago and what a difference that would that have made," her father Tim recalls.

The legal CBD oil he purchases is not an elixir, but like thousands seeking cannabis treatment in Australia, Harding says he is unable to explore the drug further for fear of breaking complicated laws.

A 2015 Roy Morgan poll found more than 90 percent of Australians support legalising marijuana for the seriously ill, but advocates say it struggles for recognition because of its "demonised" past.

"It is really important to realise that you can get the medicinal benefits from cannabinoids without necessarily being intoxicated," says Iain McGregor, academic director at the University of Sydney's cannabis research hub.

"We can actually pull apart the intoxicating recreational effects from the therapeutic effects, and again that allows doctors to prescribe with more confidence if it is a non-intoxicating cannabinoid."

As attitudes change, encouraging more research, McGregor is optimistic about the plant's potential "to produce incredible therapeutics for a whole range of diseases that are currently very difficult to treat".
When saxophonist Chen Shen-ching was jailed during Taiwan's "White Terror" political purges, it was music that helped him hold on to his sanity.

When saxophonist Chen Shen-ching was jailed during Taiwan's "White Terror" political purges, it was music that helped him hold on to his sanity.

Banned from taking his instrument into prison he scrawled songs on scraps of paper and memorised them during his 12 years behind bars.

As the island prepares to mark 30 years since martial law was lifted and it began its journey to become a vibrant democracy, Chen is one of a number of creative Taiwanese who want to ensure those dark days are never forgotten.

Now 75, he continues to sing his prison songs at political rallies and human rights events.

"I hope people will listen, sing them and want to learn more about White Terror history," Chen told AFP.

As Taiwan commemorates the 30th anniversary of lifting martial law this July 15, 2017, victims recalled their plights during decades of political purges known as the "White Terror" when Taiwan was under martial law between 1949 and 1987.

At 32, with a promising musical career and a young family, Chen was given a life sentence for sedition after joining a group advocating Taiwan independence -- taboo under nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek.

His father died soon after he was arrested and he penned a tribute song to help him through his grief.

"I taught others to sing it and we often cried," Chen said.

"For a musician, playing a sad song helps release emotions."

He composed 20 songs in jail reflecting inmates' homesickness and mental anguish.

Chen was freed in 1986 as part of a prison amnesty and slowly managed to rebuild his life in southern Taiwan.

He still wants the self-ruling island to split from China and often performs at pro-independence rallies.

Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory and has said it would respond with force if it ever announced a formal breakaway.

Chen is glad he never wavered from his beliefs.

"I did what I did for my ideals," he says.

"So, I have no regrets."

- Blood and horror -

Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the civil war to Communist forces on the mainland, but saw himself and his authoritarian government as the legitimate rulers of the whole of China.

Taiwan artist and former political prisoner Chen Wu-jen was jailed aged 20 for sedition after scribbling anti-government phrases on the back of an aptitude test for new military conscripts as he was about to start his compulsory service.

Under his rule, political opponents were killed and imprisoned, there was no free press and songs deemed vulgar or pro-Communist were banned.

Official records state around 140,000 people were tried by military courts with as many as 8,000 executed during the 38-year crackdown. Many believe the actual numbers are higher.

Chen Wu-jen was jailed aged 20 for sedition after scribbling anti-government phrases on the back of an aptitude test for new military conscripts as he was about to start his compulsory service.

Released after two years, he took up art teaching but only painted portraits and landscapes for fear of being imprisoned again.

After martial law was lifted by Chiang's son, Chiang Ching-kuo, on July 15 1987, he was able to truly express himself for the first time.

Since then, almost all his creations revolve around the White Terror.

"I regret what I did," Chen, 68, told AFP at his studio in southern Tainan.

"But as an artist I feel lucky because this experience has given me a profound subject to work on."

Official records state around 140,000 people were tried by military courts during the "White Terror" when Taiwan was under martial law between 1949 and 1987 with as many as 8,000 executed during the 38-year crackdown.

His sculpture series "The Verdicts" is a collection of large skulls made from wood, pasted with photocopied sentencing documents. Clawing hands stretch out from the skulls while feet trample them.

Paintings depict a woman screaming in front of a train, another suffering a miscarriage and being dragged by her hair through a pool of blood.

He lends his works to exhibitions but does not sell them -- currently some are on display in a former dissidents' prison on remote outlying Green Island, which has been converted to a human rights centre.

"I think artists' depictions of a historical event leave a deeper impression on people than historians' narratives," said Chen.

"I hope my works will have some impact."

- Young generation -

President Tsai Ing-wen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has organised a music festival featuring young bands performing previously banned songs as part of this weekend's commemorations of the end of martial law.

There will also be an exhibition of banned books, magazines and albums.

The DPP has its roots in the political movement that opposed Chiang and former rebels have become top officials and lawmakers.

President Tsai Ing-wen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has organised a music festival featuring young bands performing previously banned songs as part of this weekend's commemorations of the end of martial law.

The young musicians singing at the festival were mostly born after 1987, but say they want to play a part in keeping history alive.

Bassist and songwriter Mickey Yu, 32, of hip-hop band Community Service says his grandfather was beaten during White Terror interrogations, although never convicted.

His group will sing their own political compositions as well as previously banned song "Hometown at Dusk" -- popular with those who were blacklisted and forced to live overseas during the purges.

"History definitely cannot be forgotten," said Yu.

"It should be a lesson for all."
Asylum seekers trying to reach Australia are turned back to Indonesia under the conservative government's tough stance

An Afghan man who reportedly made millions of dollars smuggling asylum-seekers to Australia by boat has been extradited from Indonesia and charged with 10 offences, Australian police said Friday.

Ahmad Zia Alizadah, who was flown from Jakarta to Perth on Thursday, is accused of charging 263 asylum-seekers between US$4,000 to US$10,000 each for the perilous boat trips, The Australian newspaper reported.

Although such extraditions remain rare, they are part of the conservative government's tough policy on asylum-seekers, which includes turning back boats or sending those apprehended to isolated Pacific Island camps.

Alizadah, 35, was extradited and charged with 10 offences for allegedly organising four such journeys from Indonesia to Australia between 2009-2010.

"People-smuggling is a crime with global dimensions that can only be tackled through hard work and cooperation with our international partners," the Australian government said in a statement.

Under the current policy, boatpeople are held indefinitely at the centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island while their refugee applications are processed, and are blocked from resettling in Australia.

Since the measures were adopted, Australia has marked more than 1,000 days since the last asylum-seeker vessel reached its shores. Such arrivals were almost a daily occurrence under the previous Labor administration.

Canberra, which insists the measures are necessary to prevent deaths at sea, has faced widespread criticism by refugee advocates and medical professionals over the Pacific camps' conditions.

The Manus camp is set to close by October after a PNG Supreme Court ruling declared that holding people there was unconstitutional and illegal, with the detainees relocated to third countries such as the United States and Cambodia, or resettled elsewhere in PNG.

The harsh policy also stoked tensions with Jakarta, amid allegations two years ago that an Australian official paid the captain and crew of a boat carrying asylum-seekers thousands of dollars to turn back.

Under the previous Labor government, at least 1,200 people died trying to reach Australia by boat between 2008 and 2013. Almost 850 vessels carrying 51,798 asylum-seekers arrived in Australia between those dates, according to figures complied by the Australian parliament.
Opposition lawmakers raised large padded office chairs above their heads, surrounding the podium and tussling with rival legislators

Taiwan's parliament descended into chaos for a second consecutive day Friday with lawmakers wielding chairs above their heads and throwing water balloons as they brawled over a controversial infrastructure project.

It followed repeated disruption on Thursday when rival legislators grabbed each other's throats in angry scuffles during a review of the budget for the project.

The plan is one of President Tsai Ing-wen's signature proposals and includes building light rail lines, flood control measures and green energy facilities.

But the opposition Kuomintang party is against the project, saying it favours cities and counties faithful to Tsai's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and has been devised to secure support for the party ahead of next year's regional elections.

Premier Lin Chuan was prevented from delivering his report on the budget after a water balloon was thrown towards him

Critics have also questioned the whopping Tw$420 billion ($13.8 billion) cost of the project.

Premier Lin Chuan was prevented from delivering his report on the budget Thursday after a water balloon was thrown towards him and he left the chamber, with the session called to a halt.

Lin stood on the sidelines again Friday, unable to start speaking as chaos erupted around him.

Opposition lawmakers raised large padded office chairs above their heads, surrounding the podium and tussling with rival legislators to prevent Lin from presenting the report as more water balloons were thrown.

Friday's brawl followed repeated disruption on Thursday when rival legislators grabbed each other's throats in angry scuffles during a review of the budget for the project

The session was suspended Friday morning.

One lawmaker feeling unwell after the brawl was sent to the parliament's clinic.

Outside the building, the Kuomintang's acting chairman Lin Jung-tzer led a group of legislators and protesters, chanting, "Send back the budget, defend Taiwan!"

President Tsai has seen her popularity plummet to under 40 percent from nearly 70 percent when she took office in May last year as her government attempts to tackle a range of divisive issues from gay marriage to pension and judicial reforms.

Rival legislators grabbed each other's throats in angry scuffles during a review of the budget for the project on Thursday

Violent protests erupted outside the parliament in April when opponents of pension reforms attacked politicians and scuffled with police, prompting Tsai to call for calm and restraint.

Parliament was also plunged into chaos late last year when opposing lawmakers brawled in the chamber, as labour activists set off smoke bombs outside in protest at proposed holiday cuts.
Trafficking certain volumes of illegal drugs into Singapore carries a mandatory death penalty unless certain conditions are met for the sentence to be commuted

Singapore on Friday executed a Malaysian drug trafficker despite a plea for clemency from the United Nations and concerns expressed by rights groups over alleged flaws in his trial.

Prabagaran Srivijayan was arrested in 2012 after 22.24 grams (0.8 ounces) of heroin was found in the car he was driving when it was stopped at a checkpoint going to Singapore.

He was sentenced to death two years later after being convicted of drug-trafficking. Trafficking certain volumes of illegal drugs into Singapore carries a mandatory death penalty unless certain conditions are met for the sentence to be commuted.

The 29-year-old was executed in prison on Friday, the city-state's Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement. Executions in Singapore are carried out by hanging.

The bureau said the amount of drugs he was caught with "is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 265 abusers for a week".

He had maintained his innocence and had launched appeals in both Singapore and his home country, including a bid in Malaysia's Court of Appeal to get the neighbouring city-state referred to the Hague-based International Court of Justice.

His appeals in Singapore, including a last-ditch court challenge Thursday and an appeal to the president, were all rejected.

The United Nations had opposed the planned execution, with the UN rights body's Southeast Asia office this week urging Singapore not to proceed while the Malaysian appeal was still pending.

Amnesty International had raised concerns about the fairness of the trial, including the alleged failure of the authorities "to follow up leads and call on key witnesses that would corroborate his version of events".

But following the execution, the narcotics bureau said that Srivijayan was "accorded full due process under the law, and he was represented by legal counsel throughout the process".

Singapore has consistently maintained that the death penalty is an effective deterrent to crime and has rejected calls to abolish capital punishment.

Malaysia also uses capital punishment, executing murderers and drug traffickers by hanging. They system, like that in Singapore, dates back to British colonial rule.
A federal judge in Hawaii has ordered Homeland Security and the State Department not to enforce the travel ban on "grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins" of persons in the US

A US federal judge weakened the terms of the Trump administration's controversial travel ban on visitors from six majority-Muslim countries, dealing another legal setback to the government.

Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii ruled Thursday that grandparents and some other relatives of people in the United States should be exempt from the clampdown, saying the terms of the ban as enforced defied common sense.

His decision was hailed as a victory by opponents of the ban, who say it singles out Muslims in violation of the US constitution.

The administration of President Donald Trump insists the restrictions are necessary to keep out terrorists.

- 'Narrowly defined list' -

The US Supreme Court had allowed part of the ban to go into effect on June 29, putting an end, at least temporarily, to five months of politically charged skirmishes in the lower courts.

Specifically, the court allowed a 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and a 120-day ban on refugees, with exceptions for people with "close family relationships" in the United States.

The Trump administration defined that to be parents, spouses, children, sons- and daughters-in-law, siblings and step- and half-siblings.

The US Supreme Court allowed part of the US travel ban to go into effect on June 29, putting an end, at least temporarily, to five months of legal skirmishes

But Watson found that "the government's narrowly defined list finds no support in the careful language of the Supreme Court or even in the immigration statutes on which the Government relies.

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," he wrote.

"Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The government's definition excludes them. That simply cannot be."

Watson ordered Homeland Security and the State Department not to enforce the ban on "grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins of persons in the United States."

The judge also ruled that refugees who had assurances of a placement by a resettlement agency in the United States should also be exempt.

Such an assurance "meets each of the Supreme Court's touchstones: it is formal, it is a documented contract, it is binding, it triggers responsibilities and obligations, including compensation, it is issued specific to an individual refugee only when that refugee has been approved for entry by the Department of Homeland Security, and it is issued in the ordinary course, and historically has been for decades," Watson wrote.

"Bona fide does not get any more bona fide than that."

Volunteer lawyers from various organizations sit at a table offering free legal advice to travellers at the International Arrivals section at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California on June 30, 2017

Douglas Chin, attorney general for the state of Hawaii, which filed the lawsuit against the Trump administration, welcomed the ruling.

"The federal court today makes clear that the US Government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit," said Chin.

"Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough. Courts have found that this Executive Order has no basis in stopping terrorism and is just a pretext for illegal and unconstitutional discrimination."

The Departments of Homeland Security, State and Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment early Friday.

Under the version of the travel ban allowed to go forward by the Supreme Court, citizens from the six targeted countries with "bona fide" ties to the United States -- such as a job or acceptance to a university -- are permitted entry.

The high court will review the overall case in October, after both bans on travelers and refugees have largely run their course.

While the ban itself did not single out Muslims, judges in lower courts had cited Trump's repeated statements during last year's presidential race that he intended to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

His original measure, issued by executive order in January, set off chaos and protests at airports and was almost immediately blocked by the courts.
Taiwan newspapers report the death Liu Xiaobo: a leading exile says the world "failed to save" the Nobel peace laureate

Exiled Tiananmen Square student protest leader Wu'er Kaixi said on Friday the world had "failed to save" Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, who he described as his mentor.

Wu'er is one of the best-known figures from the pro-democracy movement which took over the square in Beijing in 1989, prompting a bloody crackdown in which at least several hundreds are believed to have died.

He fled China and now lives in Taiwan, but said he had managed to stay in touch with Liu via Skype before his imprisonment.

Wu'er said Liu was a key adviser to him during the student movement before Chinese authorities sent in tanks to crush the peaceful protests.

Wu'er Kaixi is one of the best-known figures from the pro-democracy movement which took over Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989, prompting a bloody crackdown

"The world has failed to save one of the most conscientious and genuine Chinese," said Wu'er, speaking of Liu who was a professor of Chinese literature at the university where he was studying at the time.

"You can say we tolerated and indulged the Chinese government to kill him," he told AFP in Taipei.

Liu -- who was detained in 2008 after calling for democratic reforms and sentenced to 11 years in prison -- died in custody aged 61 on Thursday in a heavily guarded hospital, where he was transferred from prison to treat late-stage liver cancer.

Wu'er called on world leaders to put pressure on the Chinese government to release Liu's wife Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since 2010.

Liu had been one of the main reasons why the movement had remained peaceful and non-violent, he added.

"I'm his little prodigy. He was my mentor," he said.

Wu'er said the last time he saw Liu was in 1992 because he was barred from returning to the mainland while Liu could not leave.

"His relations with me was really close. We were like family," he added.
The bloodbath, infamously known as the "Mamasapano Massacre", helped to turn public opinion against Benigno Aquino, pictured, who later unsuccessfully campaigned to prevent the election of Rodrigo Duterte as his successor

Former Philippine president Benigno Aquino is to be charged over a botched anti-terror raid that left 44 elite policemen dead in 2015, a special government prosecutor said Friday.

Aquino, who ended his six-year term last year, was indicted for usurping authority and allowing a suspended police chief, Alan Purisima, to run the fatal January 2015 commando raid, the government Ombudsman said.

"Purisima would not have been placed in such a position... were it not for the complicity and influence of President Aquino," Ombudsman Conchita Morales said in a statement.

Supporters of Aquino's successor, President Rodrigo Duterte, had also filed a complaint of "reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide," against Aquino but Morales dismissed this.

Aquino, who could face several years in prison if convicted, is studying the Ombudsman's order so as to file a motion for reconsideration, a statement from his aide said.

"An initial reading shows that there may have been a misappreciation of some facts surrounding the incident, leading to some erroneous conclusions," the Aquino statement added.

The police commandos were dispatched on an anti-terror mission to the rural, southern town of Mamasapano and killed Malaysian suspect Zulkifli Abdhir, who was on the US government's most wanted list.

The policemen were later ambushed by Muslim militants and other gunmen, leaving 44 officers dead in an incident that shook the nation.

As a result of the carnage, the Philippine Congress refused to pass a Muslim self-rule bill that would have crowned Aquino's efforts to bring lasting peace to the rebellion-torn Mindanao region, home to the Catholic nation's large Islamic minority.

Morales alleged Aquino had violated the law by assigning leadership of the mission to an official who was serving out a suspension at the time over allegations of corruption.

The bloodbath, infamously known as the "Mamasapano Massacre", helped to turn public opinion against Aquino, who later unsuccessfully campaigned to prevent the election of Duterte as his successor.

Duterte has frequently raised the Mamasapano incident as proof of Aquino's alleged misdeeds.

Reacting to the Ombudsman's announcement, Duterte's spokesman Ernesto Abella said that he hailed the "heroic sacrifice" of the slain police commandos.

"It is his - and the nation's - hope to finally bring justice to the victims and families of the Fallen 44 and put closure to the issue as part of the healing process," Abella added of the current president.

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Indonesian authorities have detained an alleged wildlife trafficker and seized nine protected slow lorises, like the one shown being rescued in Aceh in 2015, and a wreathed hornbill

Indonesian authorities have detained an alleged wildlife trafficker and seized nine protected slow lorises and a wreathed hornbill, an official said Friday.

The threatened species had been smuggled from Java and Sumatra, a vast, jungle-covered island home to many rare animals.

Officials seized the suspect in the city of Kediri, East Java province Thursday after receiving numerous reports and monitoring various social media accounts where animal smugglers often sell their prey.

"We have caught one suspect, the seller aged 23. We've been monitoring this for a long time," Beny Bastiawan, a senior official at the environment and forestry ministry told AFP.

The suspect planned to sell the animals for 200,000 rupiah ($15) each in the local market but officials estimated they would have been worth 2 million rupiah if sold in China, Bastiawan added.

The 10 endangered animals are now under the surveillance of vets at the environment and forestry ministry.

Under Indonesian law, a person caught selling protected animals faces a maximum of five years in jail and a 100 million rupiah ($7,500) fine.

The slow loris, a small primate known for its big eyes and grey fur, is closely related to the lemur and found across Southeast Asia.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature categorises the lorises in Sumatra as vulnerable while the wreathed hornbill is listed as a threatened species.
Civilians walk along a heavily-damaged street in west Mosul on July 13, 2017, after the Iraqi government's announcement of the "liberation" of the embattled city from Islamic State group jihadists

Abdelrazaq Salman has lost everything but clings onto one last hope: finding the bodies of his family members killed when his home was bombed in Mosul's war-devastated Old City in northern Iraq.

"I had a little supermarket. I had worked hard from the age of 10 to build my house," the Iraqi Kurd in his 40s said, seated on a rubble-strewn pavement in front of storefronts riddled with bullets.

"Now there's nothing left except piles of stones."

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Monday declared second city Mosul fully retaken from the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group after a months-long operation.

But it is still near-impossible to access the Old City in central Mosul, where sweeping and demining operations continue.

Residents driven out by the fighting, which was at its fiercest in the Old City's warren of narrow streets, are trying to cross the roadblocks and return.

Salman wants to recover the bodies of five of his relatives, including his 90-year-old father, his mother, 70, and his 22-year-old younger brother.

"They got two bodies out, we're looking for the others," he said. Access to the public is forbidden but a friend who works for the municipality is inside.

"A rocket fell on my neighbour, he and his family are dead. The same with another neighbour. A friend lost his mother," Salman said.

- Deathly silence -

When he spoke of his three-year-old son, whom he has been taking to a psychologist, he burst into tears:

"He became aggressive. He has seen dead people. When his big sister asks him for something and he disagrees, he hits her with whatever he finds to hand," he said.

"I'm afraid that all these children will become criminals when they grow up."

(FILES) A picture taken on July 9, 2017, shows a general view of the destruction in Mosul's Old City

A deathly silence hangs over the surrounding streets, occasionally torn by the roar of armoured vehicles rumbling at full throttle in and out of the Old City.

A convoy of Shiite-dominated paramilitary units known as the Hashed al-Shaabi was seen exiting the neighbourhood, playing military music through large speakers.

Salman together with his wife and six children have moved in with relatives in Dohok, near the Turkish border in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"At first, I hoped to come back, but now I don't think so," he said. "Why would I? For beautiful memories, or to witness all these misery?"

He was interrupted by Qassem Jassem, a former chef who had come over from east Mosul with his two uncles in the hopes of entering the Old City.

As he fled the district with his brother in May, he lost his four nephews. "We were running. An IS sniper shot them," he said in a flat voice.

-'No future in Iraq'-

He and his family still hope they will be able to move back to the Old City, which lies in the western sector.

But 700,000 civilians have been displaced by the battle for Mosul, and the United Nations says some neighbourhoods including the city's historic heart have been "almost totally destroyed".

A member of the Iraqi security forces patrols a street in west Mosul on July 13, 2017, days after the government's announcement of the "liberation" of the embattled city from Islamic State (IS) group jihadists

"Our houses have been destroyed, but we want to stay there," said Ali Mohsen, one of Jassem's uncles.

"We're paying rent, and it's expensive. How long will we stay in exile?" the father of three children asked. "Physically, we're over there, but our entire soul is here."

Another resident, Ahmad, said he had tried his luck at entering the Old City to recover the bodies of relatives -- without success.

A week ago, when his two sisters were preparing to flee the neighbourhood at the height of the battle, their building was hit in an air strike.

"We lost one of my sisters, her husband and their son," he said.

The 26-year-old, who joined the Hashed al-Shaabi to fight IS, wore a tight-fitting black t-shirt and had gel in his closely-cropped hair.

"There's no future for us in Iraq," he said. "Especially for the young."
Libyan recruits march during military training at a centre in Gharyan, south of the capital Tripoli, on July 11, 2017

Under a blazing sun at a military centre in western Libya, dozens of young recruits learn to march in formation, as authorities train the country's first regular force since its 2011 revolution.

Another makeshift camp has been set up nearby to train future soldiers. On the menu: jumping, climbing, crawling and scaling ropes.

"This basic training marks our passage from civilian life to military life," said Issam Abu Ghnima, a member of the first class of a soon-to-be-formed Presidential Guard.

The 28-year-old, who has two wives, says he lost two children during the NATO-backed uprising that ousted longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

He decided to join the Presidential Guard "to get rid of the militias that have destroyed this country".

"We want to move on to a new stage: building the state. I think the Presidential Guard is a very good project for starting to build institutions," he said.

Successive transitional authorities over the past six years have been unable to form a regular army or police force, or even to re-establish security in a country controlled by hundreds of militias.

The challenge was underlined again this week as forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed government repelled an attack by rival militias east of Tripoli after three days of clashes.

In the past few months, the Government of National Accord has been working hard to form the new force, which will be tasked with protecting government officials, public institutions and diplomatic missions.

"The international community wants to help us, but in the presence of the militias, it has not found institutions it can rely on," Guard's spokesman Colonel Adnan al-Turki said.

He was talking in front of 200 soldiers gathered at a hall in the training centre in Gharian, 85 kilometres (50 miles) south of Tripoli.

To motivate them, he promised "good wages and bonuses", as well as training abroad.

- 'Instill ABC of military discipline' -

The Presidential Guard, set to form the core of the future Libyan army and police, is to eventually comprise seven brigades.

Colonel Salah al-Triki said the first contingent of 600 soldiers and officers are being trained at centres in Gharian, Tripoli and the western city of Misrata.

A Libyan recruit takes part in military training at a centre in Gharyan, western Libya

After three months of basic training, they choose a speciality according to their skills: special forces, telecommunications, the mechanics' brigade and so on.

The Guard already has 500 operational fighters, recruited from armed groups, whose task is to protect Tripoli's international airport, said General Mohammad Shtiba.

The GNA recently ousted rival militias to regain control of the airport, which was destroyed by fighting in 2014.

"We are now trying to integrate the fighters individually in just three months of training, essentially to instill the ABC of military discipline," Shtiba said.

"Most of them have completed their military service and are well seasoned in combat."

Since 2011, transitional authorities have tried repeatedly to integrate the militias into regular forces controlled by the state.

Thousands of fighters have been trained both inside Libya and abroad.

But many militiamen switch allegiance depending on the interest of the day, often ending up rejoining armed groups formed on the basis of regional, tribal or religious affiliations.

"We will not make the same mistakes," Shtiba said, without going into specifics.
Israeli security forces scuffle with Palestinians outside Damascus Gate, a main entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, on July 14, 2017, as they attempt to enter the area, following a shooting

Two Israeli police officers shot when Arab assailants opened fire in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday have died from their wounds, authorities said.

Police confirmed the deaths, with the three Arab Israeli attackers also shot dead by security forces after fleeing to an ultra-sensitive holy site in Jerusalem's Old City.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the two officers died in hospital.

The incident was among the most serious in Jerusalem in recent years and threatened to raise Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

Arab Israelis are descendants of Palestinians who remained on their land following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

They largely identify with the Palestinian cause.

The three assailants were killed at the site known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, the location of regular clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police, but where gunfire rarely occurs.

The site includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

The Al-Aqsa mosque was closed for Friday prayers after the attack by Israeli authorities in a highly unusual move.
Thai troops searched Wat Dhammakaya temple earlier this year to arrest the controversial former abbot who is accused of money-laundering and remains at large

Thailand's Buddhist monks could soon be issued "smart ID cards" flagging any drug or criminal records, in the latest move by the junta to restore the tarnished image of the men in orange robes.

The kingdom has around 300,000 monks, who are held in high regard as keepers of the national religion.

But in recent months the clergy has been plagued by a series of high-profile scandals ranging from sex and drugs to murders taking place at temples.

The junta, which took power in 2014, wants to reorganise Thai Buddhism with misbehaving monks first in their crosshairs.

"Monks across the country already hold the paper-based cards but the information is out-of-date, which makes it hard to verify their background," Ormsin Chivapruck, an official at the Office of the Prime Minister, told reporters on Thursday.

Digitalised smart cards would enable up-to-date tracking with the monk's monastic history recorded alongside any criminal offence or report of drug use, he added.

The move is "to prevent fake monks using religion, or suspected wrong-doers from hiding their illegal acts behind orange robes," he added.

Details will be discussed next week at a meeting of the Supreme Sangha Council, the body governing the national faith.

But rollout of smart cards may be complicated as all Thai men are expected by social convention to ordain for at least a few weeks.

Critics say the rigid hierarchy of the Supreme Sangha Council makes it unable to counter corruption or embrace change.

The government has already forced more than 46,000 temples to submit their financial accounts, amid claims of widespread irregularities.

The most famous monk scandal played out earlier this year as troops searched the temple of the mega-rich Dhammakaya sect on the outskirts of Bangkok, to arrest the controversial former abbot who is accused of money-laundering.

The abbot remains at large.
(FILES) Egyptian police stand guard outside a hospital in Cairo suburb of Shubra on May 26, 2017, following an attack in which 28 Coptic pilgirms were gunned down

Assailants killed five Egyptian policemen in a shooting south of Cairo on Friday, in the latest of a series of attacks targeting the country's security forces, the interior ministry said.

The ministry said three gunmen opened fire on a police car and then fled, killing a non-commissioned officer, three conscripts and a police employee.

The attack took place near Badrasheen, a town some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Cairo, where militants have also targeted police in the past.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The killings came as police and the army said they are closing in on militants and jihadists following a spate of deadly attacks in the Nile Valley and the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt has struggled to quell the Islamic State jihadist group based in the Sinai Peninsula and smaller militant groups in the mainland since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and cracked down on his supporters.

IS jihadists killed at least 21 soldiers in restive north Sinai on July 7, the same day as the militant Hasam group claimed responsibility for shooting dead an officer with Egypt's secret police in an attack north of Cairo.

The interior ministry said a day later that it had killed 14 alleged IS members in a raid on a training camp in the eastern province of Ismailiya.

Earlier this week, the ministry said police had killed six IS militants in a shootout in southern Egypt.

While smaller groups like Hasam have mostly targeted policemen and government officials, IS has also attacked foreign tourists and Egypt's Coptic Christian minority.

Dozens of Christians have been killed in church bombings and shootings since last December in attacks claimed by IS.

Two church bombings in April prompted the government to declare emergency law, which expands the police's powers of arrests and can lead to expedited trials.

On Thursday, Christian churches said they were suspending some activities such as conferences and religious trips for three weeks over security concerns.

In Sinai, jihadists who pledged allegiance to IS in November 2014 have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.

They are believed to be led by jihadist Bedouin who inhabit the sparsely populated peninsula that has popular tourist beach resorts in the south.

But police say groups like Hasam and Lewaa al-Thawra, which has claimed several attacks near Cairo, are linked to Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement that was blacklisted as a terrorist group after his overthrow.

The Brotherhood says it eschews violence, but the group -- once the largest Islamist grassroots organisation in the region -- has splintered since Morsi's ouster with competing factions.

The group was decimated in a crackdown following his overthrow, with hundreds of supporters killed in clashes with police and thousands detained.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had called for the reinstatement of Superindendent Marvin Marcos, who was linked to the killing of a jailed mayor, reiterating he would not allow any policeman to be jailed for carrying out his orders

Legislators and human rights advocates angrily denounced the Philippine government on Friday for reinstating 19 policemen linked to the killing of a jailed town mayor.

The critics said it would further heighten the "culture of impunity" in the country where law-enforcers have long been accused of killing people without fear of punishment.

But President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman Ernesto Abella on Friday defended the reinstatement of Superintendent Marvin Marcos and 18 of his men, saying they were only following the rule of law.

"He (Marcos) was simply suspended. Basically that was the process: he was suspended, he served his suspension and he is back on active duty," Abella told reporters.

Justice Department investigators said the men under Marcos shot dead town mayor Rolando Espinosa and cellmate Raul Yap during a night-time raid on the jail in November last year.

Marcos and his men are facing charges of homicide but were allowed out on bail. After serving a mandatory suspension period, they returned to police duties.

Espinosa, mayor of the central town of Albuera, had previously surrendered to the police after Duterte accused him of involvement in illegal drugs.

Earlier this week, Duterte had called for the reinstatement of Marcos, reiterating he would not allow any policeman to be jailed for carrying out his orders, such as in his bloody war on drugs.

Senator Grace Poe joined the chorus of critics of the reinstatement, saying "such reinstatement may just encourage a culture of impunity among the ranks."

Fellow Senator Richard Gordon, said: "it is very, very wrong on the part of the president because he should not interfere in the justice system."

"Mr. President, these men are not your fellow uniformed servicemen," he said in a television interview.

Human Rights Watch criticised the reinstatement as well, saying: "the kid-gloves handling of the officers is emblematic of the wider impunity enjoyed by those responsible for the killing of more than 7,000 people in Duterte's murderous 'war on drugs'."

Duterte, who took office a year ago, has been widely criticised for his brutal anti-drug campaign where he has openly called for the killing of drug suspects.

Police say at least 3,200 people were slain in their anti-drug operations but rights groups charge that thousands more have been killed by vigilante groups.
Iraqis who fled the fighting in Mosul have sought refuge at the Salamya camp for internally displaced people

More than a million people were displaced from Mosul by the battle in the Iraqi city against the Islamic State group, but nearly 200,000 have returned home, the UN said Friday.

Out of nearly 1.05 million people who fled the fighting after the offensive against IS began last October, 825,000 remain displaced, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement.

The city on the Tigris river in northern Iraq had an estimated population of two million in 2014.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Monday declared Mosul fully retaken from the jihadist group after a Western-backed operation.

But it is still near-impossible to access the Old City, where sweeping and demining operations continue.

IOM's chief of mission in Iraq, Thomas Lothar Weiss, said the new displacement figures underscored "the enormous crisis" in the area.
Malian army forces patrol east of Timbuktu

The Malian army said Friday it had killed a top jihadist commander operating in the country's troubled central region, following heavy fighting in the north against jihadists and among armed groups this week.

Bekaye Sangare, a senior figure in the Macina Brigades, a group that joined a powerful jihadist alliance formed in March, was killed in the town of Mougna by Mali's National Guard, a military source told AFP.

Sangare was behind "several attacks in the area against police and customs checkpoints," the same source said, specifically along the porous border with Burkina Faso on July 8 and 9.

Sangare's death follows the killing of a dozen jihadists this week by joint Malian-French forces in the troubled north, while an attack by Islamists on Malian soldiers dead left three troops dead and five more still missing.

The French army said in a statement Thursday that fighting "took out several terrorists in the Gao-Ansongo region," between July 10 and July 12, requiring helicopter and drone cover.

Elsewhere, non-jihadist armed groups faced off in the region of Kidal on Tuesday, violating a ceasefire as they battled for control around the Anefis area, which they have fought over for two years.

Mali's north is controlled in parts by armed groups loyal to Bamako and in others by former rebels who want greater autonomy for the region, while the state is absent from much of the territory.

Head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country Mahamat Saleh Annadif noted that the clashes between the Gatia pro-government group and the former rebels of the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA) took place as a committee aimed at enforcing a peace accord was in session.

Both sides signed a 2015 peace deal aimed at curbing violence in Mali's north, but both have repeatedly violated a ceasefire.

Several of the peace deal's key planks have yet to be fully implemented, while jihadists continue to roam the north and centre of the country, despite being ousted from key northern towns by an ongoing French-led military intervention in 2013.

Meanwhile, former rebels still control the city of Kidal.
The Qatar crisis has put Turkey in a delicate position since the country is its main ally in the Gulf but Ankara does not want to antagonise key regional power Saudi Arabia

Turkey and Qatar on Friday insisted Ankara would keep a new military base in the emirate, rejecting demands from other Gulf countries for the facility to be closed.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain last month cut diplomatic ties with Qatar over what they allege is Doha's support for extremist groups and ties to Riyadh's regional rival, Iran.

They then issued 13 wide-ranging demands to lift a blockade placed on Qatar, including the closure of the Turkish military base in the emirate.

"No country has the right to raise the issue of the Turkish base or the military cooperation between Qatar and Turkey as long as this cooperation respects international law," Qatar Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told reporters in Ankara.

Speaking after meeting al-Thani, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the demands to close the base "go against the two countries' sovereignty.

"A third country has no right to say something to Qatar or Turkey. Everyone must respect this," he added.

Cavusoglu added that until now, there had been "no objections" over the base, Turkey's first military facility in the Gulf region.

The crisis has put Turkey in a delicate position since Qatar is its main ally in the Gulf but Ankara does not want to antagonise key regional power Saudi Arabia.

Shortly after the crisis unfolded, Ankara fast-tracked the deployment of troops at the base as part of a bilateral defence deal agreed in late 2014.

Turkey now has 150 troops at the base, Hurriyet daily reported on Wednesday, up from 80 first sent after the parliament approved the deployment.

Cavusoglu also pointed to the lack of objections to the presence in Qatar of the largest American airbase in the Middle East, seen as crucial to the US-led campaign against the Islamic State group.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will visit the key players in the crisis -- including Saudi Arabia and Qatar -- in the next weeks.

The Qatari top diplomat, who will meet Erdogan later, said Doha was being subjected to an "unjust siege" imposed "without any reason".
Ben Emmerson, United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, speaks during a press conference in Colombo on July 14, 2017

Sri Lanka has failed to deliver on its international commitments to prosecute government troops and Tamil rebels for atrocities committed during its ethnic war, a UN expert said Friday.

Ben Emmerson said Colombo's efforts at transitional justice were at a "virtual standstill" eight years after the end of its ethnic war which had claimed over 100,000 lives.

"None of the measures so far adopted to fulfil Sri Lanka's transitional justice commitments are adequate to ensure real progress," Emmerson told reporters in Colombo during an official visit to assess progress.

"There is little evidence that perpetrators of war crimes committed by members of the Sri Lankan armed forces are being brought to justice," said Emmerson, a UN special rapporteur on human rights.

Sri Lanka narrowly avoided sanctions when a new government came to power in January 2015 promising investigations into war-time atrocities, which the previous regime refused to even acknowledge.

The new administration of President Maithripala Sirisena secured more time from the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to deliver justice, ensure reconciliation and prevent the island slipping back to ethnic strife.

But Emmerson said "retrograde elements" within the armed forces and the coalition government were stalling and expressed fears of a return to ethnic conflict.

"My plea to the government and the people of Sri Lanka is... not to allow the process to be diverted by retrograde elements in the security establishment and their allies in government," he said.

Sri Lankan forces were accused of killing up to 40,000 Tamil civilians during the final months of the war while defeating separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas who fought for independence.

International rights groups have called the prosecution of both the military as well as the Tigers, who were known for their trademark suicide bombings and child soldiers.

"The government has thus far done almost nothing to hold to account those members of the armed forces and security services who committed gross human rights violations during and since the conflict," he said.

Emmerson also called for the repeal of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

He said 12 suspects had been held under the PTA without trial for over 10 years, and another 70 had been held for over five years.
African migrants stand on the deck of an Italian rescue ship as it arrives in the port of Salerno carrying 935 migrants, including 16 children and 7 pregnant women rescued from the Mediterranean sea on Friday

With a flood of migrants arriving on Italy's shores, a bitter debate has erupted over whether children born on Italian soil to foreign parents should have citizenship rights at birth.

According to a poll published Thursday in the Messaggero daily, the idea of "ius soli" is losing support among Italians, even though such a path to citizenship exists in many other EU countries.

The Latin term "ius soli" refers to rights linked to the land (where you are born) as opposed to "ius sanguinis", where rights are based on blood ties.

Children currently must have at least one Italian parent to enjoy citizenship rights. Those who do not can apply when they turn 18 but rules on time spent out of the country mean some are rejected.

Back in October 41 percent of people polled said they were in favour of "ius soli", but now that number has dropped to 32.3 percent.

Italy's high-profile battle with Europe over who should deal with the hundreds of thousands of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean and brought ashore since 2014 has sparked a backlash over a proposed bill and even fisticuffs in parliament.

After 15 years of debate, the draft law establishing "ius soli" was adopted by Italy's lower house in 2015. Two years later, after a series of amendments, it is now being debated in the upper house with the support of the centre-left.

The draft law also provides for nationality via "ius culturae" for children not born in Italy who have spent at least five years in the country's education system.

Italy's anti-immigrant Northern League has slammed the proposal as a "cultural mistake". Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, founder of the centre-right Forza Italia, said it would send the wrong signal to those already attracted to Italy's shores.

"Making it known that it's easier to become Italian will create false hopes in Africa and increase migratory pressures," he warned.

Over 86,000 migrants have arrived so far this year, up over 10 percent compared with the same period in 2016.

- 800,000 new nationals -

The adoption of "ius soli" would bestow Italian nationality on around 800,000 children immediately, and another 60,000 newborns a year, according to the Italian Institute of Statistics (Istat).

"The children born in Italy are Italians and it is the duty of a civilized country to welcome them," Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said earlier this week. The proposed bill is also passionately supported by his predecessor Matteo Renzi.

Gentiloni has brushed aside attempts by critics to link the issue of citizen rights to that of national security, saying "the way to reduce risk is not through exclusion but dialogue and inclusion".

But with unemployment towering at 11 percent -- well above the average in the eurozone -- and soaring to 37 percent among young people, the age-old narrative of foreigners stealing locals' jobs has reared its head.

That fear has not been eased by new figures this week showing 4.5 million Italians are living in absolute poverty.

According to Il Messaggero, those polled in Thursday's survey said it would be better to postpone the debate on citizenship rights until after the general election in spring next year.

Italy in 2016 bestowed the highest number of citizenships in Europe at 205,000, up from just 63,000 in 2012.

Adopting "ius soli" would bring Italy into line with the majority of its European neighbours -- from Belgium and Britain to France and Portugal -- where the law already applies in various forms.
Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia shown in October 22, 2002. Liu Xia was put under house arrest after her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize and their supporters often say she is guilty of nothing but the 'crime' of being Liu Xiaobo's wife

When her democracy activist husband was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, Liu Xia was elated.

"I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I don't know what to say," the Chinese poet and painter told AFP over the telephone that October.

She thanked "all those people that have supported Liu Xiaobo" and "strongly asked" the Chinese government to release the dissident, who died a year ago of liver cancer while on medical parole from an 11-year sentence for "subversion".

Nearly eight years ago, neither Liu nor her husband's supporters foresaw the repercussions the award would have on her: a writer and artist who never considered herself a political person. She unflinchingly supported Liu Xiaobo but never actively participated in his campaigns.

Shortly after the Nobel announcement, Liu, 57, was placed under effective house arrest, where she remained under heavy surveillance and control until her stunning release on Tuesday.

Close friends have said Liu Xia has limited access to the outside world, and was only occasionally permitted to leave her Beijing apartment to visit her parents or her husband at his prison in the northeastern province of Liaoning

Close friends said she had limited access to the outside world, and was only occasionally permitted to leave her Beijing apartment to visit her parents or her husband at his prison in the northeastern province of Liaoning.

At a private funeral before his cremation, a grieving Liu Xia and relatives stood in front of her husband's body, and she "fixed her eyes on him a long time, mumbling to say farewell", Shenyang city official Zhang Qingyang told reporters.

Following Liu Xiaobo's release on medical parole last June, the dissident requested permission to receive treatment abroad -- an unfulfilled wish that friends believed was for Liu Xia's sake.

"If he doesn't get out now," Ye Du, another dissident and close family friend, told AFP at the time, "then he has no way to obtain freedom for his beloved wife."

The primary doctor responsible for Liu Xiaobo's treatment said at a press conference late Thursday that in the activist's final moments, he told his wife to "live well".

But for almost a year that wish has remained out of reach, as she has remained under house arrest in her residential compound in Beijing, where friends said she was losing her will to live.

"They should add a line to the constitution: 'Loving Liu Xiaobo is a serious crime -- it's a life sentence'", she told one close friend in an emotional phone call last month.

- 'At the edge' -

"I didn't have a chance/ to say a word before you became/ a character in the news,/ everyone looking up to you/ as I was worn down/ at the edge of the crowd," Liu Xia once wrote in a poem to her husband.

It was a shared love of literature that brought the two intellectuals together in the 1980s.

She was an effervescent young poet, painter and photographer; he a public intellectual.

"She was not part of our group of dissidents," Hu Jia, a Beijing-based activist and friend of Liu Xiaobo, told AFP.

"When I visited Xiaobo, she wouldn't get involved with our political discussions. She just came out once in a while to share a laugh."

The couple's supporters often say that Liu Xia, who has never been formally charged, is guilty of nothing but the "crime" of being Liu Xiaobo's wife.

"I want to marry that enemy of the state!" she said shortly before the pair wed in 1996 during Liu Xiaobo's stay at a labour camp, according to a biography of the dissident by Yu Jie.

In turn, Liu Xiaobo lamented the political web in which Liu Xia had become entangled.

"My love for you," he said in his final public statement, "is so full of remorse and regret that it at times makes me stagger under its weight."

At the start of her house arrest, Liu Xia posted regular wry updates on Twitter for her concerned friends.

"It's me, dummy Liu, no need to worry," read her last tweet on October 18, 2010.

Sometimes the posts would sink into melancholy: "Why do we have to live this kind of life?" she wrote on June 16, 2010.

Virtually all of her friends' attempts to visit her were stymied by the guards that stood sentry outside her apartment at all times.

Through the years of detention, Liu has suffered from depression and a heart condition and both of her parents died.

On a rainy night in the summer of 2012, Hu stood outside Liu's apartment and aimed a laser pointer at the window of her study.

Liu looked out, but didn't see him.

"She was just standing there alone, smoking a cigarette," Hu said. "She looked so lonely."

"(Now) our most important goal is to save Liu Xia from the bitter sea."
US President Donald Trump acknowledges spectators as he arrives at the 72nd US Women's Open Golf Championship at Trump National in Bedminister, New Jersey, July 14, 2017

The US Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to block a federal judge's ruling that exempted grandparents of people living in the United States from President Donald Trump's travel ban.

In a filing on Friday, the Trump administration asked the nine Supreme Court justices to overturn Thursday's decision by a federal judge in Hawaii that placed limits on the measure temporarily barring refugees and other travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries.

Trump's March 6 executive order bars visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, and refugees for 120 days. The administration insists it is necessary to keep violent extremists out of the country.

After a series of judicial roadblocks in the lower courts, the administration scored a partial victory in June, when the Supreme Court ruled that it could proceed with the ban, though people with a "bona fide relationship" to a US person or entity were exempt.

The ruling, which capped months of legal wrangling, left unclear the question of just who had such a "credible claim."

The Trump administration provided a list defining the category as including parents, spouses, children, sons- and daughters-in-law, siblings and step- or half-siblings.

But federal Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii ruled that the administration's criteria unfairly excluded grandparents and grandchildren, expanding the list of "bona fide" relatives to include them, along with brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins of people in the United States.

John Wider carries a welcome sign for Muslim travelers at Los Angeles International Airport on June 29, the day President Donald Trump's partial ban on visitors and immigrants from six mostly Muslim countries came into effect.

Watson's "interpretation empties the (Supreme) Court's decision of meaning, as it encompasses not just 'close' family members, but virtually all family members," Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall said in the administration's filing.

However, arguing -- before a panel of justices aged 49 to 84 -- that grandparents and grandchildren are not "close" relatives may be an uphill battle.

And it was unclear how quickly the Supreme Court -- now in summer recess but able to act on emergency motions -- might respond, and when or if the expanded terms set by the Hawaii judge might take effect. If they do, thousands of potential travelers could be affected.

- 'Antithesis of common sense' -

In his ruling, Watson said the government's distinction of what constitutes "close" family was "the antithesis of common sense."

The judge also ruled that the government could not exclude refugees who have assurances of a placement by a resettlement agency in the United States.

But the Justice Department said in its filing with the Supreme Court that Watson's decision as concerns refugees would render the related portion of the high court's decision "effectively meaningless."

The original ban, announced days after Trump became president on January 20, was successfully challenged in lower courts on the grounds that it overstepped Trump's presidential authority and discriminated against Muslims in violation of the US constitution. A revised version also did not pass legal muster.

Judges in lower courts had cited Trump's repeated statements during the presidential campaign that he intended to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

Oral arguments are due to take place after the court returns for a new session in October over whether the ban violates the US Constitution.
South Africans Willem Oosthuizen (L) and Theo Martins Jackson (R) arrive at The Middleburg Magistrate Court on November 16, 2016 during the first hearing of assault charges after an online video emerged showing them pushing a black man into a coffin

Two white South African farmers accused of pushing a black labourer into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive were granted bail on Friday.

The assault was captured on video apparently filmed on a mobile phone by one of the alleged assailants, causing widespread outrage after it was posted on the internet.

Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Martins Jackson who have been charged with assault and kidnapping, were granted bail of 1,000 rand ($76) by Middelburg Magistrate's Court.

Their trial has been set to start on July 31.

The two men were arrested in November after the 20-second video of the attack on a farm in northeastern South Africa appeared online.

It shows one of the assailants shoving the alleged victim Victor Mlotshwa, 27, into a wooden coffin and trying to force down the lid.

They are also accused of threatening to put a snake in the coffin.

In court documents, the defendants said they were not racist, and that they wanted to "give a lesson" to Mlotshwa for walking on private property.

South Africa remains beset by deep-rooted inequality 22 years after the end of white-minority rule, and cases of racism have erupted regularly on social media in recent years.

"Of course we are disappointed that these two guys were given bail today," said a spokeswoman for the ruling ANC party outside the court.

"We are here to ensure justice is served... The issue for racism in South Africa is still rife. We expect the justice system to address this," she said.
"You kill a leader of one of these groups and it sets them back," Pentagon chief Jim Mattis told reporters

US forces have killed the head of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan branch, the Pentagon said Friday, marking the third time in a year the franchise has lost its leader.

Abu Sayed was killed in a July 11 strike in Afghanistan's northeastern province of Kunar on the headquarters of IS-Khorasan Province (IS-K), which also killed additional jihadists, the Pentagon said in a statement.

"You kill a leader of one of these groups and it sets them back," Pentagon chief Jim Mattis told reporters.

"It's obviously a victory on our side in terms of setting them back. It's the right direction."

First emerging in 2015, IS-K overran large parts of Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, near the Pakistan border, but their part in the Afghan conflict had been largely overshadowed by the operations against the Taliban.

Afghan and US forces had killed Abu Sayed's two predecessors atop the group's Afghan branch -- Hafiz Saeed in July 2016 and Abdul Hasib in late April of this year, the Pentagon said.

Hasib and other top militant commanders were killed in a joint raid by US Army Rangers and Afghan special forces.

At the time, the US military had said Hasib's death would "help reach our goal of destroying them in 2017."

"We will continue until they are annihilated. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan," said General John Nicholson, who leads US Forces-Afghanistan.

Pentagon officials say the group now numbers fewer than 1,000 in Afghanistan.

The compound used by Hasib in Nangarhar province was not far from the spot where on April 13, the US military dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat, hitting IS positions.

The deployment of the so-called Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB) killed at least 95 jihadists, according to the Afghan defense ministry, but fighting in the area has continued.
CHICAGO (AP) - Police officers will take the lead in responding to disturbances at Chicago's two airports and the word "police" will be removed from the uniforms of non-police security officers, the aviation department announced Wednesday, responding to an April incident in which security officers dragged a passenger from a packed United Airlines flight.

The city's Department of Aviation released a report outlining the changes it will make to how the airports are policed. Cellphone video showing Kentucky physician David Dao being pulled off the plane at O'Hare International Airport showed that at least one security officer had the word "police" on his uniform. That will change under the new rules, which will also replace the word with new decals on security officers' vehicles.

"We are confident that these actions are necessary to guide our department forward, while improving clarity for the aviation security officers," Commissioner Ginger Evans said in a news release.

FILE - In this March 22, 2016, file photo, a Chicago Police K-9 officer and his dog walk through a terminal at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The Chicago Department of Aviation announced Wednesday, July 12, 2017, a new directive designating Chicago Police officers as the lead on all disturbance calls at the airports, in addition to those on aircrafts. This new directive comes after the CDA's review of the Aviation Security Division after a United passenger was forcibly removed by Aviation Security officers in April. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford, File)

Aviation department spokeswoman Lauren Huffman said the day-to-day duties of the unarmed security officers at O'Hare and Midway International Airport won't change much. They will continue to monitor access to secure and restrict areas at the airports, handle traffic control and support city police officers and fire fighters.

Video of Dao being pulled from the United flight while awaiting a trip home to Kentucky became a public relations nightmare for the airline and the aviation department, sending them scrambling to contain the damage. Dao was forcibly removed because he refused to give up his seat on the fully-book flight to extra airline personnel. His lawyer said he suffered a concussion, broken nose and lost teeth.

While the airline reached a financial settlement with Dao before he had even filed a lawsuit, the aviation department fired its head of security.

But a tense City Council hearing revealed confusion about the role of the security officers. Evans, for example, said aviation officers had been told months before the Dao incident to remove the word "police" from their clothing and replace it with "security," but that no one followed through. And a deputy commissioner said aviation officers were under instructions not to board planes unless there was an imminent threat.

While other cities have sworn, armed airport police officers, in Chicago, the airports are staffed by 200 armed city police officers and 300 unarmed aviation officers.

Evans told the Chicago Tribune that in preparing the report, she consulted with an Israeli airport security organization and reviewed the procedures at other U.S. airports.

In the news release, the department said it was taking action to "clarify" the role of the security officers taking steps to "improve consistency in roles, training and coordinated functions" of the aviation security officers."
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - For an elite band of U.S. Marines known as the Raiders, the fiery military plane crash this week in Mississippi represents a second devastating blow during training in less than three years. Six Marines and a Navy corpsman from a Raider unit died Monday on their way to training exercises, linking them in tragedy with seven members of the same North Carolina-based command who died in a March 2015 helicopter crash off Florida.

The present incarnation of the Marine Raiders was formed in 2006 amid the global war on terror - making it the newest of the military's counterterrorism forces that also include the Army's Special Forces and Navy SEALs. The group was officially named the Marine Raiders in 2015 to link its heritage to World War II commando units made famous in movies.

The Raiders' command now has about 2,700 troops, including those in intelligence and support roles, according to spokesman Maj. Nick Mannweiler.

The United States flag flies at half-staff over the state Capitol in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, July 12, 2017, following the death of six Marines and a Navy sailor from Camp Lejeune, who were among the 16 service members killed Monday when their plane crashed in a field in rural Mississippi. The plane was a KC-130T, a tanker from Marine Aerial Refueling and Transport Squadron 452, a Marine Forces Reserve unit based in Fort Stewart, N.Y. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Tragedy also struck the close-knit command in March 2015 when seven of its Marines died with four soldiers in a helicopter crash during training off Florida. Mannweiler said he knows of no other significant training losses in the decade-long existence of the Marine Special Operations Command, or MARSOC. At least 31 members of MARSOC have died in combat, Mannweiler said.

The Marines killed this week were headed to Yuma, Arizona, with guns, ammunition, radios and body armor to participate in training for an eventual deployment somewhere in the Middle East. Mannweiler said such pre-deployment training in the desert would have likely ranged from urban combat to language skills.

Mannweiler said the Raiders' flight aboard a Marine Corps Reserve airplane wasn't an unusual arrangement because the command doesn't have its own planes.

"Marine Corps aircraft are always our personal preference," Mannweiler said in an interview. "We'll catch a ride however it makes the most sense."

Mannweiler said the crash in Mississippi will be felt acutely in the tight-knit group of Marine Raiders and their families.

"This is a closed-loop community," he said. "The loss of seven Marines from a battalion literally impacts the entire organization."

The Raider name was made famous by World War II Marine units that carried out risky amphibious and guerrilla operations that were dramatized in books and movies such as "Gung Ho!" in 1943 and "Marine Raiders" in 1944.

The original Marine Raiders were organized in response to President Franklin Roosevelt's desire to have a commando-style force that could conduct amphibious raids and operate behind enemy lines. Raider leaders studied unconventional warfare tactics and were credited with beating larger Japanese forces on difficult terrain in the Pacific. Their name wasn't used in an official capacity by the Marine Corps for decades after World War II.

When the Raider name was re-adopted in 2015, the Marine Corps said the moniker offered its elite personnel special shorthand similar to Army Green Berets or Navy SEALs. Marines in MARSOC must pass a selection process that includes grueling swims and hikes, as well as specialized combat training.

While the training has some similarities to special units in the Army and Navy, retired Navy officer Dick Couch wrote in a 2015 book that members of MARSOC are known for their marksmanship and maturity, when compared with other branches' elite. In "Always Faithful, Always Forward," Couch wrote that he was "in awe" of how the Marines Corps needed so little time to develop an effective training program to make its "brotherhood within a brotherhood" ready for combat.

"They're an excellent addition to the special operations mix," Couch said in a phone interview Wednesday. "I'm sorry to see they lost some people. They're in a risky business. It can happen in training or in combat."

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Follow Drew at www.twitter.com/jonldrew
ST. ALBANS, Vt. (AP) - A trial has started for a former Vermont lawmaker accused of trying to extract sexual favors from a woman in exchange for rent.

After two and a half days of jury selection the trial for Republican former Sen. Norm McAllister began Wednesday afternoon.

McAllister has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and prohibited acts and maintains he's innocent.

FILE - This Dec. 16, 2015 file photo shows former Sen. Norm McAllister, R-Franklin, awaiting the start of the Vermont Senate's Rules Committee meeting in Montpelier, Vt. Jury selection is continuing in the second trial of the former Vermont lawmaker accused of trying to extract sexual favors from a woman in exchange for rent. (AP Photo/Dave Gram)

The 65-year-old McAllister is from Highgate Springs. He agreed to plead guilty to charges on the eve of his second trial in January. The next day he asked to withdraw the plea, saying he'd been pushed into it by his attorneys.

Charges were dismissed against McAllister in a sexual assault trial involving a different accuser who lied last year.

McAllister's colleagues voted to suspend him after his arrest.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California Gov. Jerry Brown is racing to persuade lawmakers to extend his state's signature program to confront climate change.

The cap-and-trade program has been closely watched around the world as a market-based way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it expires in 2020.

It has implications far beyond the borders of the most populous U.S. state, which eagerly pushes the boundaries on environmental regulations and is looking to create a framework for climate policies that other states, provinces and countries can adopt.

Gov. Jerry Brown is racing to convince state lawmakers to extend California's cap-and-trade program which puts a price on carbon emitted by polluters, including oil refineries like the Valero Benicia Refinery seen Wednesday, July 12, 2017, in Benicia, Calif. The program has been closely watched around the world as a market-based way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it expires in 2020. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

The state Assembly and Senate are scheduled to take up the legislation Monday.

Here's a look at how the cap-and-trade policy works, what it means for California residents and others, and why it's fired up critics on all sides.

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WHAT IS CAP AND TRADE?

Cap and trade is one of several policies that California uses to drive down carbon emissions.

California places an upper limit on the state's carbon emissions and ratchets it down each year. That's the cap part.

The state gives away or auctions permits to emit one ton of carbon, which are known as allowances and can be bought and sold. That's the trade part.

The program was devised as a "market based" solution to global warming, putting a price on carbon to create an incentive for polluters to reduce their emissions and save money.

As the number of available allowances declines, the price for each one is expected to rise, increasing the cost of pollution over time. At the most recent auction in May, allowances sold for $13.80.

California has linked its carbon auctions with the Canadian province Quebec and is in the process of linking with Ontario.

Companies can also meet a portion of their obligation by paying for "offsets" to mitigate carbon, such as forestation projects.

Auctioning allowances has raised billions of dollars for programs that address climate change, like electric-vehicle incentives and mass transit development. It's also a key funding source for a planned high-speed train between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR CONSUMERS?

The program raises costs for businesses that emit carbon, including oil companies and factories. Some of those costs are passed on to consumers.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office estimated last year that the cap-and-trade has increased gasoline prices by about 11 cents per gallon and diesel prices by 13 cents.

Some consumers have benefited from incentives that pay for subsidized housing or help people buy zero-emission vehicles and weatherize their homes.

Cap-and-trade proponents say it's an economically flexible way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

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WHY IS IT AN ISSUE RIGHT NOW?

California's current cap-and-trade program is authorized under a 2006 law signed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the authority expires in 2020.

Brown, a Democrat who has stoked a global reputation as a climate leader, badly wants lawmakers to extend the program before he leaves office following next year's election. He and top legislative Democrats said Monday they'd reached a deal to extend the program with modifications.

Some observers say the vote will get politically tougher as the election nears. Vulnerable lawmakers could become more wary of taking a vote that could be blamed for higher gas prices.

An immediate extension would also benefit Brown as he touts what he calls California's climate leadership. He met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in June, plans to attend a global climate summit in Germany in November and has announced a global climate conference next year in San Francisco.

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WHAT ARE BUSINESSES SAYING?

Large business interests, including oil companies, and some Republicans have embraced cap and trade as the least costly way to reduce emissions. Without the ability to continue polluting - for a fee - they worry the state will force them to upgrade older equipment or make other expensive changes to their operations.

California lawmakers last year approved an ambitious goal to reduce carbon emissions 40 percent below their 1990 level by 2030 and gave the California Air Resources Board broad authority to achieve the goal.

The National Federation of Independent Business, which represents smaller firms, is opposed, warning about higher costs for business owners.

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WHAT ARE ENVIRONMENTALISTS SAYING?

Large national environmental groups support the bill, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Defense Fund and billionaire Tom Steyer's NextGen Climate.

But local environmentalists, particularly environmental justice groups that work in neighborhoods around pollution sources like oil refineries and ports, have blasted the proposal.

Environmental justice advocates have long been skeptical of cap and trade, which they say saddles low-income neighborhoods with toxic air. They've pushed alternative legislation that would impose a much higher price on carbon and eliminate offsets and free allowances.

In an effort to assuage their concerns, Brown and legislative leaders have agreed to pass a separate bill that would require aggressive monitoring of air quality, stiffer fines and newer equipment at some of the dirtiest sources of pollution.

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WHAT ARE THE PROSPECTS?

The bill requires a two-thirds vote in the Assembly and Senate - a high bar. Brown and the bill's other advocates have worked aggressively this week to line up votes but seemed to be struggling to secure them. Votes that had been expected on Thursday were pushed back to Monday.

Some lawmakers are leery of supporting the bill just three months after they voted to raise gas taxes to pay for road repairs.

The stacks from the Valero Benicia Refinery are seen as a pedestrian walks in a nearby neighborhood, Wednesday, July 12, 2017, in Benicia, Calif. California Gov. Jerry Brown is racing to convince state lawmakers to extend California's cap-and-trade program which puts a price on carbon emitted by polluters, including oil refineries. The program has been closely watched around the world as a market-based way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it expires in 2020. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

A truck drives into the Valero Benicia Refinery, Wednesday, July 12, 2017, in Benicia, Calif. California Gov. Jerry Brown is racing to convince lawmakers to extend the state's cap-and-trade program which puts a price on carbon emitted by polluters, including oil refineries. The program has been closely watched around the world as a market-based way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it expires in 2020. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
PARIS (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump's visit to Paris:

Despite their sharp differences on a global climate agreement, President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') have set aside their differences and enjoyed a gourmet meal.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump enjoyed a private dinner high above Paris Thursday evening as they ended their first day in France. The Trumps, Macron and his wife, Brigitte, dined at the Eiffel Tower's Jules Verne restaurant.

From left to right : Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, Emmanuel Macron, U.S. President Donald Trump and First lady Melania Trump pose at the Jules Verne restaurant before a private dinner at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, Thursday, July 13, 2107. (Yves Herman/Pool Photo via AP)

The meal capped off a day that included a tour of one of Paris's most famous sights, meetings and a joint press conference.

Trump will be honored on Friday during Bastille Day celebrations.

11:51 p.m.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump enjoyed a private dinner high above Paris Thursday evening as they ended their first day in France.

The Trumps, French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') and his wife, Brigitte, dined at the Eiffel Tower's Jules Verne restaurant on a meal prepared by Alain Ducasse.

The dinner began with a selection of pate and included Dover sole served with spinach and Hollandaise and filet of beef, souffled potatoes and truffle sauce.

Guests were also offered a strawberry dessert with sorbet and a hot chocolate souffle with chocolate ice cream.

The meal capped off a day that included a tour of one of Paris's most famous sights, meetings and a joint press conference.

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9:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump is calling his Paris visit "very nice."

He is making the remark in response to a reporter's question about the trip, as he sits down to dinner near the top of the Eiffel Tower. Trump and first lady Melania Trump are seated with French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') and his wife at a table near a window.

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9:40 p.m.

President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') and the two first ladies have arrived at the Eiffel Tower for their dinner.

They'll dine at the Jules Verne restaurant, accessible only by private elevator. This is the last event of the evening. On Friday, the two leaders will participate in the French National Day Parade in celebration of Bastille Day.

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9:30 p.m.

President Donald Trump says the U.S. needs "anywhere from 700 to 900 miles" of see-through wall along the Mexican border.

Trump told reporters during his flight to Paris that the U.S. won't need a wall all along the roughly 2,000 mile border because of "natural barriers," including mountains and rivers. The winding Rio Grande defines the border in most of Texas while the Colorado River marks the boundary along 24 miles in Arizona. Trump describes the rivers as "violent and vicious" though in parts of Texas the river is little more than a trickle of water.

There's already about 650 miles of fences and barriers at the border that Trump says need to be replaced or fixed.

He also says the fence needs to be see-through, in part to help avoid injuries from sacks of drugs being tossed over the barrier.

The White House had originally said Trump's comments were off the record, but reversed course Thursday.

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8:01 p.m.

The Eiffel Tower's Jules Verne restaurant, where French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife will host President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, is accessible only by private elevator and is 120 meters above ground.

Macron said during a joint press conference Thursday that the meal would be a "dinner among friends."

The restaurant by famed chef Alain Ducasse offers traditional French food and an all-French wine list. At 115 meters (378 feet) high on the tower's middle deck, the windowed restaurant offers panoramic views of Paris.

The tower closed early Thursday afternoon ahead of the presidential visit.

The French presidency has not provided the dinner menu, but blue lobster and caviar are among the standard fare.

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7:30 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') says it remains important to maintain contact with Vladimir Putin, despite major differences with the Russian leader.

The response came after he and U.S. President Donald Trump were asked about Russian interference in last year's U.S. presidential election.

Macron says France and Russia do not have the same relationship as the one France shares with the United States. But he says France and Russia needed to continue direct communications. Macron recently hosted Putin in France.

But Macron underlined the closeness of U.S.-French ties, saying intelligence cooperation was strong and that the governments shared a common "red line" in Syria against chemical weapons attacks.

Macron says dinner with Trump later Thursday at the Eiffel Tower would be "a dinner among friends."

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7:20 p.m.

President Donald Trump is declining to repeat his criticism of Paris, which he frequently attributed to a friend named Jim.

The president has said previously that Jim used to visit Paris frequently but doesn't anymore because of the threat from Islamic terrorism. Trump often indicated he agreed with that assessment.

Trump was asked during a news conference Thursday in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') whether he still shares those views.

Trump instead said that Paris "is going to be just fine" mostly because France now has "a great" and "tough" president. Trump then joked to Macron that Macron better not him look bad.

The White House has declined to provide Jim's last name or offer proof that he exists.

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7:15 p.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump is addressing the controversy over his eldest son's meeting with a Russian attorney during last year's presidential campaign.

Trump says "most people would have taken that meeting," contradicting his incoming FBI director's testimony that Donald Trump Jr. should have instead alerted authorities.

The president is reiterating that his son is a "wonderful young man."

Trump is continuing to downplay the issue, saying that "nothing happened" as a result of the meeting.

The president says the Russian national involved wasn't a government lawyer. However, the emails Donald Trump Jr. received pitched her as one.

Trump says the woman is a private attorney who has "roamed the hallways" of the U.S. Congress.

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7:10 p.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump is continuing to leave open the possibility that he'll reconsider his decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement. But he says if it doesn't happen, "that will be OK too."

Trump says during a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') in Paris that "something could happen with respect to the Paris accord." Trump says "we'll see what happens."

Macron and other European leaders had urged Trump to live up to the U.S.'s commitment under the global effort to combat climate change. But Trump broke with allies to leave the deal.

Macron is acknowledging his differences with Trump over the issue. But Macron says the two countries share "major common goals" and that the disagreement shouldn't have an impact on other areas.

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7:05 p.m.

President Donald Trump is saluting the United States' "unbreakable" bond with France.

Trump says the two nations have "occasional disagreements" but that doesn't disrupt a friendship that dates to the American Revolution.

Trump says at a news conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron that a lot of people forget that France helped "us secure our independence."

Trump also saluted France's commitment to fighting terrorism and reducing bureaucracy, a goal he shares.

The American president also touched upon one of those areas of disagreement: climate change. Trump says the United State was committed to protecting the environment despite his recent decision to withdraw from a global agreement to combat climate change.

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6:55 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN'), standing alongside U.S. President Donald Trump, says they have agreed to work toward a post-war roadmap for Syria and are largely in agreement in terms of security and stability in the Mideast.

Macron acknowledged sharp differences with Trump when it comes to the Paris climate agreement. But Macron said he and Trump were able to discuss how best to combat "a global threat with enemies who are trying to destabilize us."

The two spent several hours together Thursday in some of Paris' most opulent settings, with a visit at the golden-domed Invalides (ahn-vah-leed) monument followed by a meeting at the presidential palace.

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6:21 p.m.

President Donald Trump was captured complimenting the French president's wife's appearance in video posted by the French government's Facebook account.

The footage shows Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') and their wives chatting after their tour of the museums at Les Invalides (lehz ahn-vah-leed).

Trump at one point turns to Brigitte Macron and tells her: "You're in such good shape."

He repeats the observation to the French president before turning back to the French first lady, and remarking: "Beautiful."

Brigitte Macron was her husband's former high school teacher and their relationship has drawn international attention because of their age difference. Feminist have denounced the comments as sexist, noting that the Macrons' age difference is identical to that of Donald and Melania Trump.

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4:57 p.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump has arrived at Elysee Palace for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron and Trump arrived at the French presidential palace after Macron led Trump on a tour of the nearby Les Invalides (lehz ahn-vah-leed) monument. Napoleon's tomb is located there.

Trump gave Macron a lift in The Beast, the nickname for Trump's imposing, armored limousine. The leaders shook hands again and posed for the cameras before going inside to begin their talks.

Macron met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel before meeting with Trump Thursday. During a joint appearance, both leaders took note of their policy differences with Trump. But they said it's important to keep communicating with the U.S. leader.

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4:52 p.m.

U.S. first lady Melania Trump in red and her French counterpart Brigitte Macron in white cut a striking contrast on a visit to Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

The two first ladies were met by Notre Dame Rector Patrick Chauvet inside the stone walls in front of the famed North Rose window Thursday afternoon, following a visit to the Invalides (ahn-vah-leed) monument and the final resting place of Napoleon.

The organ began playing as the two presidential spouses met and greeted church officials. They had a warm rapport with Macron putting her arm around Trump at one moment before visiting the cathedral.

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4:12 p.m.

The French presidential Facebook account is broadcasting live from inside the Invalides (ahn-vah-leed) monument, next to Napoleon's tomb.

The Elysee account showed U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') and their wives standing outside the famed French leader's tomb, with Macron serving as tourist guide.

The live feed shows Macron gesturing at the sculpted walls and describing what they're seeing to the Trumps in English, which he speaks fluently.

Thursday's tour will be followed by meetings and a joint press conference by the two men, who got off to a tense start when they were first introduced in May.

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3:52 p.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') are meeting at the Invalides (ahn-vah-leed) monument for a tour of the golden-domed building housing some of France's greatest war heroes, including Napoleon Bonaparte and the Supreme Allied Commander in World War I.

The national anthems of both countries played as the men stood at attention before reviewing troops at a formal welcome ceremony for Trump.

The two presidents will hold a bilateral meeting later in the day after touring the grandiose military edifice.

Thursday's ceremony precedes the Bastille Day military parade. Trump will be the parade's guest of honor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I. U.S. troops will open the parade Friday as is traditional for the guest of honor.

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3 p.m.

President Donald Trump is honoring American World War II veterans during a ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Paris.

The president is noting in a video clip posted to his Twitter account that the bonds between the U.S. and France were "forged in the fires of war."

Trump was joined at the outdoor event by three American veterans of the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944. The president is calling them "real heroes" who "fought for freedom in its hour of need."

Trump is meeting later this afternoon with French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') and holding a joint news conference.

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11:00 a.m.

Reporters covering President Donald Trump's trip to Paris are getting off to a rather chaotic start after a segment of his motorcade was separated from him.

The president arrived early Thursday morning and was whisked away from Paris Orly Airport to the U.S. ambassador's residence in central Paris.

The streets were closed off to traffic while Trump's motorcade drove past, but the cars on the tail end of his entourage took a wrong turn, drove into oncoming traffic and barely dodged a few pedestrians.

The traveling press corps was among the lost cars and was not able to document Trump's arrival at the ambassador's residence.

The White House would not immediately respond to a request for confirmation that Trump had arrived, though journalists were eventually brought to the residence to wait for the president's meetings to conclude.

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9:40 a.m.

First lady Melania Trump has arrived at France's biggest pediatric hospital on her first engagement in the two-day French visit.

The sprawling Necker Hospital is one of Paris' oldest and was founded in 1778. American artist Keith Haring gave a large, multicolored totem sculpture to the hospital in 1987, called "The Tower."

Melania Trump is touring the hospital shortly after her arrival in France with President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One.

The first lady was greeted by senior Paris medical officials during the tour and later met with some of the hospital's young patients.

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8:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump will be meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') as part of his visit to France for Bastille Day celebrations in Paris.

Trump arrived in Paris on Thursday morning, and was traveling to the U.S. Ambassador's residence and then attending a luncheon with U.S. military leaders. He's also expected to tour the museums at Les Invalides (lehz ahn-vah-leed) with Macron and then holding meetings with the French leader.

Trump and Macron are expected to discuss possible solutions to the crisis in Syria and counterterrorism.

The two leaders will appear later in the day for a joint news conference. Trump will be attending the Bastille Day celebrations on Friday before returning to the United States.

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8:40 a.m.

President Donald Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN'), are looking to set aside differences on trade and climate change and find common ground as they meet ahead of Bastille Day celebrations in Paris.

Trump arrived in the French capital Thursday morning, hours before he meets with Macron to tackle potential solutions to the crisis in Syria and broader counterterrorism strategies.

Trump's decision last month to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord sparked outrage across Europe and anti-Trump protests are planned while he is in Paris.

The leaders plan to hold a news conference after their talks. Trump may face tough questions about emails revealing that his eldest son welcomed the prospect of receiving Russian government support in last year's presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton.

French chef Alain Ducasse, left, gestures as, Brigitte Macron, right, French President Emmanuel Macron, 2nd right, U.S. President Donald Trump and First lady Melania Trump, 2nd left, gather at the Jules Verne restaurant before a private dinner at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, Thursday, July 13, 2107. (Yves Herman/Pool Photo via AP)

President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron shake hands at the conclusion of a joint news conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Thursday, July 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

U.S President Donald Trump, left, speaks during a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Thursday, July 13, 2017. President Donald Trump is saluting the United States' "unbreakable" bond with France. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, talks to U.S President Donald Trump while leaving Les Invalides museum in Paris, Thursday, July 13 2017 as part of Trump's visit to France for Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. (Ian Langsdon, Pool via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron, center left, welcomes US President Donald Trump before their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Thursday, July 13, 2017. Trump will be the parade's guest of honor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I. U.S. troops will open the parade Friday as is traditional for the guest of honor. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, welcomes U.S President Donald Trump before their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Thursday, July 13, 2017. Trump will be the parade's guest of honor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I. U.S. troops will open the parade Friday as is traditional for the guest of honor. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, welcomes US President Donald Trump before their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Thursday, July 13, 2017. Trump will be the parade's guest of honor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I. U.S. troops will open the parade Friday as is traditional for the guest of honor. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and his wife Brigitte Macron with David Guillet, director of the Army Museum, tour Napoleon Bonaparte's Tomb at Les Invalides in Paris, Thursday, July 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, Pool)

French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump listen to the national anthems during an official welcoming ceremony in the courtyard of the Invalides in Paris, Thursday, July 13, 2017. Trump is in Paris for a high profile two-day visit during which he will be the guest of honour of his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the annual Bastille Day parade. (AP Photo / Matthieu Alexandre)

U.S President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania arrive at Orly airport, south of Paris, Thursday July 13, 2017. Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, are looking to set aside differences on trade and climate change and find common ground as they meet ahead of Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

First Lady Melania Trump talks to children as she visits the Necker hospital, France's biggest pediatric hospital in Paris, Thursday July 13, 2017. Melania Trump is touring the hospital shortly after her arrival in France with President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

First Lady Melania Trump talks to children as she visits the Necker hospital, France's biggest pediatric hospital in Paris, Thursday July 13, 2017. Melania Trump is touring the hospital shortly after her arrival in France with President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania arrive on Air Force One at Orly Airport in Paris, Thursday, July 13, 2017. The president and first lady will attend the Bastille Day parade on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris Friday, July 14. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One, Wednesday, July 12, 2017, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to Paris. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

U.S President Donald Trump and FirstLady Melania arrive at Orly airport, south of Paris, Thursday July 13, 2017. Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, are looking to set aside differences on trade and climate change and find common ground as they meet ahead of Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

U.S President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania arrive at Orly airport, south of Paris, Thursday July 13, 2017. Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, are looking to set aside differences on trade and climate change and find common ground as they meet ahead of Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel and the Palestinians said Thursday they reached a water-sharing deal to bring relief to parched Palestinian communities, a modest but promising breakthrough announced during the latest visit by the U.S. Mideast envoy.

Jason Greenblatt, who helped mediate the water deal as part of the Trump administration's efforts to revive the moribund peace process, expressed hope that it would lead to more progress on other, far more contentious issues.

"Water is a precious commodity in the Middle East. The United States welcomes the agreement reached by the Palestinian Authority and the government of Israel," he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt, center, Israeli Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi, left, and the head of the Palestinian Water Authority, Mazen Ghoneim give a news conference about a water-sharing agreement, in Jerusalem, Thursday, July 13, 2017. Greenblatt announced Thursday that Israel and the Palestinians reached a water agreement linked to a massive planned Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline project. (Ronen Zvulun/Pool, via AP)

He said Israel would sell up to 33 million cubic meters (8.7 billion gallons) of water to the Palestinians annually at a reduced rate. The water is a fraction of Palestinian needs, but will bring some relief to areas suffering from chronic shortages, especially during the hot summer. A third of the water will be delivered to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Israel, the Palestinians and Jordan are discussing a number of potential water projects, including the construction of a desalination plant in Aqaba, Jordan, to serve residents of both sides of the border.

Greenblatt declined to comment on the administration's efforts to get peace talks back on track, but all sides expressed hope that the water deal could serve as a jumping off point for further agreements.

"All of us in this room proved last night that water can serve as a means for reconciliation, for prosperity, for cooperation, rather than be a cause for tension and dispute," Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said. "When you focus on the issues and not about history or background or personal emotions or other disturbing elements, the common denominator is much bigger than what separates us."

Mazen Ghuneim, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, said the agreement would help meet Palestinian needs but did not have any bearing on final status negotiations. The two sides remain bitterly divided over the thorniest issues in the conflict, including borders, security, Jewish settlements and Jerusalem.

President Donald Trump has tasked Greenblatt with kick-starting long-moribund peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Greenblatt met with Israeli officials in Jerusalem on Wednesday and is set to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday.

Israeli and Palestinian officials signed an agreement Monday to provide additional electricity to Palestinian residents of the northern West Bank. Greenblatt touted both agreements as "an example of the parties working together to make a mutually beneficial deal."

Gidon Bromberg, co-director of EcoPeace, an Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian environmental organization, applauded Greenblatt's success "in identifying that water is a low-hanging fruit issue and that moving forward on water issues has an important contribution to the welfare" of people on the ground.

The announcement of the water deal came hours after Israel's Cabinet froze a plan endorsed by the Defense Ministry to expand the West Bank's most densely populated Palestinian city by ceding military control over a parcel of land, a proposal that has outraged Jewish settler leaders.

Thursday's announcement followed a preliminary agreement signed by Israel, the Palestinians and Jordan in 2013 to build a pipeline to channel water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea and help address water scarcity in the region.

The plan calls for the construction of a 180-kilometer (111-mile) channel, along with hydroelectric and desalination plants in Jordan, with joint Israeli-Jordanian administration and financing. One proposal involves feeding brine from the desalination plant into the Dead Sea in a bid to replenish its receding waters, though environmentalists question the feasibility of such a move.

Hanegbi said that project is expected to be completed in four to five years.

U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt, center, Israeli Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi, left, and the head of the Palestinian Water Authority, Mazen Ghoneim give a news conference about a water-sharing agreement, in Jerusalem, Thursday, July 13, 2017. Greenblatt announced Thursday that Israel and the Palestinians reached a water agreement linked to a massive planned Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline project. (Ronen Zvulun/Pool, via AP)
LONDON (AP) - There's no divorce without paperwork.

Just over a year after Britons voted to leave the European Union, the U.K. government on Thursday unveiled the first piece of legislation to make it a reality - a 62-page bill that anti-Brexit politicians are already vowing to block.

The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill aims to convert some 12,000 EU laws and regulations into U.K. statute on the day the U.K. leaves the bloc. That is scheduled to be in March 2019.

FILE -In this Monday June 19, 2017 file photo, British Secretary of State for Exiting the EU David Davis listens to opening remarks during his arrival at EU headquarters in Brussels. U.K. and European Union negotiators should be able to move from talks about Britain's divorce terms to negotiating future relations before the end of the year, the top U.K. Brexit official said Tuesday, July 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)

All those rules can then be kept, amended or scrapped by Britain's Parliament, fulfilling the promise of anti-EU campaigners to "take back control" from Brussels to London.

But opponents of Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative government fear the legislation gives officials powers to change laws without sufficient scrutiny by lawmakers. They worry the government could water down environmental standards, employment regulations or other measures brought to Britain via EU law since it joined the bloc in 1973.

The divorce is the easy part. Leaving the EU takes up just a single line in the bill, repealing the European Communities Act through which Britain entered the bloc.

The bulk of the bill describes how all EU laws will be converted into British statute. The government says that will ensure continuity - law on the day after Brexit will be the same as on the day before.

Brexit Secretary David Davis said the legislation will allow Britain to leave the EU with "maximum certainty, continuity and control."

But, contentiously, it gives the government powers to fix "deficiencies" in EU law by what's known as statutory instruments, which can be used without the parliamentary scrutiny usually needed to make or amend legislation.

The powers are temporary, expiring two years after Brexit day. Even so, Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon branded the bill a "naked power grab."

The bill is not expected to face debate in Parliament until the fall, and May's minority government - weakened after a battering in last month's general election - faces a fight.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said getting the bill passed would be "hell" and predicted the government faced "a parliamentary version of guerrilla warfare."
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Europe's pre-eminent human rights organization on Thursday called Poland's vote to change regulations governing a top legal body a "major setback for judicial independence," highlighting widespread international criticism.

Nils Muiznieks, the human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, said that Poland had neglected "compelling contrary advice" before the legislature went ahead with approving the rule. It will see members the National Council of the Judiciary picked by parliament, which is dominated by the conservative Law and Justice party. Previously they were elected by judges.

The council's tasks include enforcing ethical guidelines for judges and reviewing judicial candidates. The opposition says the changes violate the constitution and bring judges under political influence.

"The politicians will now have the sole power to choose judges. The reform gives the politicians power over the judges," said Barbara Dolniak of the opposition Modern party.

At the same time, the opposition also voiced outrage at a draft law proposed late Wednesday by the ruling party concerning the Supreme Court. In a surprise move, it calls for the current members of the top court to retire, except for those who have the backing of the justice minister.

"This is a kind of an accumulation of power and it changes the system of power in Poland," said judge Michal Laskowski, spokesman for the Supreme Court.

Poland is already under criticism from the European Union, which says its policies threaten the rule of law.

The new rules on the National Council had already been criticized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other international and national legal institutions.

The Polish government defended the new rules on the National Council, saying it meant an "end to a corporation system, a system where the third power (the judiciary) was outside any control."

They mean that the Poles will have influence over the choice of judges through their lawmakers, said Deputy Justice Marcin Warchol.

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Casert reported from Brussels
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The Latest on developments with the Afghan girls robotic team (all times local):

3:30 p .m.

The six members of Afghanistan's all-girls robotics team have arrived at Kabul airport from their home in Herat in western Afghanistan.

FILE- In this Thursday, July 6, 2017, file photo, teenagers from the Afghanistan Robotic House, a private training institute, practice at the Better Idea Organization center, in Herat, Afghanistan. U.S. President Donald Trump intervened to allow the group of Afghan girls into the country to participate in a robotics competition. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the president's intervention Wednesday, July 12, 2017. The six female students from Afghanistan had hoped to participate in an international robotics competition this month, but their visa applications to enter the U.S. were denied twice. (AP Photos/Ahmad Seir, File)

All six girls packed into a small taxicab to head to the U.S. Embassy with their passports in hand to get their documentation for entry into the U.S.

Their manager, Alireza Mehraban, piled their luggage and himself into a second taxicab, while at the airport workers and passengers wondered at the media attention the girls were receiving, unaware of their identities.

Fifteen year-old Lida Azizi, one of the team members, was excited at the prospect of traveling to the competition.

"I am very happy. This is such an important trip for us," she said.

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2:30 p.m.

The third time's the charm for war-torn Afghanistan's all girls team who have been applying for entry into the U.S. to compete in an international robotics competition in Washington D.C.

The girls will receive "parole" status allowing them into the country after being told President Donald Trump personally intervened to reverse a decision by the U.S. State Department to deny them visas, says team manager Alireza Mehraban.

Mehraban says: "It's a happy moment for our team."

The grils will now be able to participate in next week's international competition along with entrants from 157 countries, which also includes Syrian refugees.

"It's important for Afghan women to be able to share their ideas," said Mehraban.

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1 p.m.

A group of girls from Afghanistan are finally getting their wish of coming to the United States for a robotics competition.

The girls' applications for U.S. visas had been denied twice, but the White House says President Donald Trump intervened and they will be allowed in to participate in the competition.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed details of the reversal Wednesday, ending a saga that had sparked international backlash. The decision by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services means the six girls from the war-torn country will be allowed in, along with their chaperone, so they can participate in the competition.
MILAN (AP) - Tourists at a resort in Sicily faced wildfires that turned their day at the beach into an emergency evacuation by sea, with many fleeing the flames in just their bathing suits and flip flops.

Wildfires fueled by heat and winds have been blazing across much of southern Italy, forcing the evacuation of some 800 tourists from the Calampiso resort in Vito Lo Capo near Trapani, Sicily.

About 20 people had to leave an island off Puglia and some 50 families were whisked away from Mount Vesuvius south of Naples.

Woodland fires burn near a tourist resort where, according to firefighter reports, some several hundred tourists have been evacuated by land and sea, in the Sicilian town of San Vito lo Capo, southern Italy, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. Wildfires have been raging for days and Italian firefighters said Wednesday they were responding to 887 fires throughout Italy, 628 of which regarded vegetation and woodlands. (Italian Firefighters Vigili del Fuoco via AP)

Authorities say the number of blazes - 125 are active in Sicily alone - suggest some are tied to arson and Italy's environment minister did not rule out Mafia involvement in the blazes in an interview in the Corriere della Sera.

Gian Luca Galletti was quoted by Corriere as saying that there were too many fires on Mount Vesuvius for them to be spontaneous, joining voices who say the Mafia appears to be behind many of the blazes.

"I don't have proof, but it does not seem to be an isolated action or chance. Three ignition points are too many to be the result of carelessness or combustion," Galletti said.

Danilo Giannese, one of the evacuees in Sicily, said he and his wife went swimming as usual early Wednesday along with many other guests.

"The situation was a little surreal. We went to swim like every other day. From the early morning, we saw flames and smoke, but it didn't appear to be worrying and no one said to leave," he told SKY TG24 on Thursday.

But around noon, the wind shifted and resort guests were told to immediately move their cars to safer ground. They were told to gather on the beach for evacuation because the road to a nearby town was no longer safe.

"There was a lot of tension, especially among the elderly and children, many of whom were crying," he said. "Thankfully the operation was conducted in an orderly fashion."

Stella Belliotti said she and her 7-year-old daughter were evacuated wearing just their bathing suits and flip flops, each holding pieces of cloth in their mouths against the smoke.

The vacationers were taken to a nearby town by fishing boats and dinghies.

"To see the resort surrounded by flames from the boat was terrible," Belliotti was quoted by Corriere as saying. "Now we just want to forget it."

On Mount Vesuvius, south of Naples, firefighters were working to prevent three blazes from joining up. The news agency ANSA said 20 people were evacuated by sea Wednesday from one of the Tremiti islands off Puglia. The army, meanwhile, has been dispatched to the Vesuvius area to help with prevention and reassure residents.

In this Wednesday, July 12, 2017 photo, tourists sit at a resort cafe as smoke is seen in the background, before being evacuated by sea after a wild fire approached the resort, in the Sicilian area of San Vito Lo Capo, near Trapani, southern Italy. Wildfires fueled by heat and winds have been blazing across much of southern Italy, encroaching on the Amalfi coast and elsewhere. (Ferruccio Donato via AP).

In this Wednesday, July 12, 2017 photo, boats stay at sea with evacuated tourists after after a wild fire broke out near their resort in the Sicilian area of San Vito Lo Capo, near Trapani, southern Italy. Wildfires fueled by heat and winds have been blazing across much of southern Italy, encroaching on the Amalfi coast and elsewhere. (Ferruccio Donato via AP).

In this Wednesday, July 12, 2017 photo, boats with evacuated tourists from a beach stay at sea after a wild fire broke out near their resort in the Sicilian area of San Vito Lo Capo, near Trapani, southern Italy. Wildfires fueled by heat and winds have been blazing across much of southern Italy, encroaching on the Amalfi coast and elsewhere. (Ferruccio Donato via AP).

In this Wednesday, July 12, 2017 photo, tourists on a beach are evacuated with boats after a wild fire broke out near their resort in the Sicilian area of San Vito Lo Capo, near Trapani, southern Italy. Wildfires fueled by heat and winds have been blazing across much of southern Italy, encroaching on the Amalfi coast and elsewhere. (Ferruccio Donato via AP).

In this Wednesday, July 12, 2017 photo, tourists on a boat turn around to look at a wild fire after being evacuated from their resort in the Sicilian area of San Vito Lo Capo, near Trapani, southern Italy. Wildfires fueled by heat and winds have been blazing across much of southern Italy, encroaching on the Amalfi coast and elsewhere. (Ferruccio Donato via AP).

Smoke rises from wild fires burning on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius volcano as the Castel dell'Ovo castle in seen in the foreground, in Naples, Italy, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. Firefighters are battling wildfires throughout southern Italy, including along the slopes of the volcano Mount Vesuvius near Naples. Wildfires have been raging for days, and Italy's civil protection agency on Tuesday said it was responding with helicopters to 18 blazes, including four in Campania, the region which includes Naples, and two each in Sicily and Basilicata. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)

Smoke rises from wild fires burning on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius volcano as the Castel dell'Ovo castle in seen in the foreground, in Naples, Italy, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. Firefighters are battling wildfires throughout southern Italy, including along the slopes of the volcano Mount Vesuvius near Naples. Wildfires have been raging for days, and Italy's civil protection agency on Tuesday said it was responding with helicopters to 18 blazes, including four in Campania, the region which includes Naples, and two each in Sicily and Basilicata. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)

Smoke rises from wild fires burning on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius volcano as the Castel dell'Ovo castle in seen in the foreground, in Naples, Italy, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. Firefighters are battling wildfires throughout southern Italy, including along the slopes of the volcano Mount Vesuvius near Naples. Wildfires have been raging for days, and Italy's civil protection agency on Tuesday said it was responding with helicopters to 18 blazes, including four in Campania, the region which includes Naples, and two each in Sicily and Basilicata. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)
JERUSALEM (AP) - The Latest on developments concerning Israel and the Palestinians (all times local):

1:30 p.m.

Gaza's power distribution company says supplies to the territory's 2 million residents have dropped to unprecedented lows, with blackouts lasting for more than 24 hours.

While the Palestinian enclave needs at least 400 megawatts of power a day, only 70 are available since Gaza's power plant shut down late Wednesday.

Diesel fuel from neighboring Egypt had kept the station running at half capacity since June 21, but deliveries were interrupted after a deadly attack on Egyptian soldiers last week near the border.

Israel, the main provider of power to Gaza, has cut shipments at the request of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian leader is trying to put pressure on Gaza's Hamas rulers. The militant group seized control of Gaza from Abbas' forces a decade ago.

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12:20 p.m.

President Donald Trump's Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt announces that Israel and the Palestinians have reached a water agreement linked to a massive planned Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline project.

Greenblatt said at a press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday that the U.S.-mediated deal gives the parched Palestinian territories 32 million cubic meters (42 million cubic yards) of water per year. Israel will start to provide the West Bank and Gaza Strip with the water the immediate future at a reduced rate. That water will eventually be supplied by a desalination plant linked to Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline.

The pipeline project is expected to be completed in four or five years.

The U.S., Israeli and Palestinian negotiators hope the deal could be a platform for future negotiations.

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10:05 a.m.

Israel's cabinet has frozen a plan to expand the West Bank's most densely populated Palestinian city by ceding military control over a parcel of land, a proposed concession that has outraged settler leaders.

A spokesman from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Wednesday that the government will deliberate the issue of Palestinian development in Israeli military controlled areas of the West Bank later this month. Until then, the proposal to grant a part of Area C to allow the expansion of the city of Qalqiliya will be on hold.

Last year, Netanyahu's government quietly passed the eagerly awaited plan to allow the Palestinian city to double its size by expanding into off-limits land in Area C. Since then, settler leaders have railed against the move, calling it a "reward for terror."
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AP) - Abdullah Korkmaz worked as a teacher and elementary school principal in Turkey for 18 years before he was caught up, like more than 100,000 other public sector workers, in the expansive crackdown on civil servants that followed an attempted military coup a year ago.

Barred from his profession as a result of the purge the government says is targeting terrorists, the 48-year-old veteran educator now struggles to make ends meet. Private employers are reluctant to hire people on the government's blacklist, so Korkmaz opened a small restaurant serving a spicy raw meatball delicacy at a in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

"You wake up early every morning to turn the heating on, you paint the school's walls, you replace the windows even though you are not given a budget, and then you get expelled," Korkmaz told The Associated Press in his restaurant.

FILE - In this Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016 file photo, thousands of people hold placards that read, among others: "We will not surrender!" as they stage an anti-government rally, condemning the arrests of opposition journalists, academics and politicians, in Istanbul. Turkey was roiled by the July 15, 2016 attempted coup against Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, followed by a state of emergency, mass arrests and a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants including teachers. (AP Photo/Halit Onur Sandal, File)

The failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan killed some 250 people and injured 2,000 on July 15, 2016. But the unsuccessful takeover also upended Turkish society and institutions, as well as the lives of and livelihoods of individual Turks who have been linked directly or indirectly.

In the weeks and months since, about 150,000 people have been detained, one-third of them formally arrested. Some were soldiers who took part in the failed insurrection. Others were accused of links to Fetullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric who the government says was the coup's mastermind.

In addition, about 3 percent of the country's public sector workforce, including teachers, university professors and civil servants, has been dismissed. Many have had their passports confiscated, preventing them from seeking employment abroad.

Those caught up in the crackdown also include people who had accounts with a bank affiliated with Gulen, parents who sent their kids to schools run by the movement, and people who downloaded a secret messaging app allegedly used by coup plotters to communicate.

Human rights groups say the post-coup consequences have been applied unjustly and arbitrarily. Critics allege that many dismissals are politically motivated, with the opposition alleging that dismissed judges and prosecutors are being replaced by people linked to Erdogan's ruling party.

Korkmaz was sacked on Oct. 29. He found out from his wife, whose friend spotted his name in one of the government decrees that list the people who have been summarily fired from their jobs. Few people ensnared by the coup have been willing to talk. Korkmaz himself is worried that people may not frequent his restaurant when they find out that he was dismissed.

Korkmaz says he has no links to Gulen's movement, though he is a member of a left-leaning teachers union that called for a school boycott by parents and teachers in 2015 to protest what the union said were government policies aimed at "Islamizing" the national school curriculum. He said he did not participate in the boycott and still assumes the government will reinstate him and apologize.

"There is absolutely no reason for my dismissal," Korkmaz said. "If I am guilty of anything, then I should be prosecuted or imprisoned."

Defending the crackdown, government officials say the threat from the Gulen movement has not abated. They stress the severity of the attempted coup, when rogue military officers commandeered helicopters, jets and tanks to attack parliament and other state buildings and moved to seize control of TV stations.

Erdogan narrowly escaped an attack on a hotel on the Mediterranean coast where he was vacationing at the time.

"Can you expect us to ignore the coup?" Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said in an interview. "No state can ever show tolerance to people in its midst that were involved in terrorism and tried to destroy its government."

Nevertheless, Kaynak added, the government is taking steps to address possible injustices, including creating a commission to review complaints and appeals from people dismissed from public jobs.

Human rights groups question whether the commission, whose members would be selected by the government, would have the independence needed to give aggrieved Turks a fair hearing.

Emboldened by an April referendum that approved constitutional changes to increase the powers of his office, Erdogan has vowed to show the coup-plotters no mercy and to maintain the state of emergency that allows the government to rule through decrees until peace is restored.

Government opponents say the post-coup purge has wreaked havoc on Turkish society. Hundreds of news outlets have been closed, while at least 159 journalists are in in jail, according to the Journalists Union of Turkey. Human rights groups have reported beatings and other forms of prisoner abuse. The government says torture and mistreatment is not tolerated and the reports are swiftly investigated.

At least 36 people who were either dismissed or arrested for alleged links to Gulen have committed suicide - seven of them in prisons and one person in a detention center, according to a report by the main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP. Eighteen of them were police officers.

On Sunday, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, completed a 25-day walk from Ankara to Istanbul demanding justice for a party colleague who was sentenced to 25 years in prison on spying charges and others he said have suffered injustices in the crackdown. Tens of thousands marched alongside him.

Derya Keskin Demirer, 48, was dismissed from her position as an assistant professor of labor sociology at northern Turkey's University of Kocaeli in September. The firing came after Demiter joined more than 1,000 academics in signing a petition calling for an end of Turkey's long-running conflict with Kurdish rebels.

Her husband, also an academic, lost his job, too. Now unemployed, she receives some financial aid from a labor union and tries to spend less.

"We (expected) some kind of reaction, but not this much," she said.

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Wieting reported from Kocaeli, Turkey. Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Mucahit Ceylan in Diyarbakir, and Neyran Elden in Istanbul contributed.

FILE - In this Sunday, July 9, 2017 file photo, supporters of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party, hold a huge Turkish flag in Istanbul, as they gather for a rally following their 425-kilometer (265-mile) 'March for Justice' from capital Ankara to Istanbul. Turkey was roiled by the July 15, 2016 attempted coup against Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, followed by a state of emergency, mass arrests and a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants including teachers. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

In this Wednesday, July 5, 2017 photo, Derya Keskin Demirer, a 48-year-old assistant professor of labor sociology, who was dismissed from her position at the University of Kocaeli, northwest Turkey, in September, after joining more than 1,000 academics who signed a petition calling for an end of the long-running conflict with Kurdish rebels, talks to The Associated Press, in Izmit, Turkey. Along with her husband, also an academic, lost their jobs during a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants, following the July 16, 2016 failed coup. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

FILE - In this Sunday, July 9, 2017 file photo, supporters of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party, hold Turkish flags in Istanbul, as they gather for a rally following their 425-kilometer (265-mile) 'March for Justice' from capital Ankara to Istanbul. Turkey was roiled by the July 15, 2016 attempted coup against Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, followed by a state of emergency, mass arrests and a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants including teachers. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

In this Thursday, June 29, 2017 photo, Abdullah Korkmaz, who worked in education for 18 years, as a teacher and elementary school principal before he was dismissed, prepares traditional spicy raw meatball delicacy at his restaurant, in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir. Barred from his profession during a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants, following the July 16, 2016 failed coup, the 48-year-old now struggles to make ends meet "There is absolutely no reason for my dismissal," he told The Associated Press, "If I am guilty of anything, then I should be prosecuted or imprisoned." (AP Photo/Ilyas Akengin)

FILE - In this Thursday, July 6, 2017 file photo, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey. Turkey was roiled by the July 15, 2016 attempted coup against Erdogan, followed by a state of emergency, mass arrests and a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants including teachers. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File)

In this Monday, July 10, 2017 photo, backdropped by the 15 July Martyrs' Bridge, formerly known as Bosphorus Bridge and renamed to honour the victims of the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt, a bride poses for photographs from on the Asian side of Istanbul. Turkey was roiled by the July 15, 2016 attempted coup against Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, followed by a state of emergency, mass arrests and a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants including teachers. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

In this Wednesday, July 5, 2017 photo, Derya Keskin Demirer, left, a 48-year-old assistant professor of labor sociology, who was dismissed from her position at the University of Kocaeli, northwest Turkey, in September, after joining more than 1,000 academics who signed a petition calling for an end of the long-running conflict with Kurdish rebels, holds a meeting with other dismissed academics, in Izmit, Turkey. Along with her husband, also an academic, lost their jobs during a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants, following the July 16, 2016 failed coup. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

FILE - In this Friday, July 15, 2016 file photo, tanks move into position as people attempt to stop them, in Ankara, Turkey, during the failed coup attempt. Turkey was roiled by the July 15, 2016 attempted coup against Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, followed by a state of emergency, mass arrests and a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants including teachers. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File)

In this Thursday, June 29, 2017 photo, Abdullah Korkmaz, who worked in education for 18 years, as a teacher and elementary school principal before he was dismissed, talks to The Associated Press at his restaurant serving traditional spicy raw meatball delicacy in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir. Barred from his profession during a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants, following the July 16, 2016 failed coup, the 48-year-old now struggles to make ends meet, "There is absolutely no reason for my dismissal," he said. "If I am guilty of anything, then I should be prosecuted or imprisoned." (AP Photo/Ilyas Akengin)

FILE - In this Friday, July 7, 2017 file photo, thousands of people follow Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party, on his 425-kilometer (265-mile) "March for Justice", in the outskirts of Istanbul. Turkey was roiled by the July 15, 2016 attempted coup against Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, followed by a state of emergency, mass arrests and a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants including teachers. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, July 5, 2017 file photo, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak talks to The Associated Press, in Ankara, Turkey. "No state can ever show tolerance to people in its midst that were involved in terrorism and tried to destroy its government", he said. Turkey was roiled by the July 15, 2016 attempted coup against Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, followed by a state of emergency, mass arrests and a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants including teachers. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, July 17, 2016 file photo, people chant slogans under a giant national flag as they arrive to attend funerals of the victims killed during the July 15, 2016 failed military coup in Ankara, Turkey. Turkey was roiled by the July 15, 2016 attempted coup against Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, followed by a state of emergency, mass arrests and a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants including teachers. (AP Photo/Ali Unal, File)

In this Wednesday, July 5, 2017 photo, Derya Keskin Demirer, left, a 48-year-old assistant professor of labor sociology, who was dismissed from her position at the University of Kocaeli, northwest Turkey, in September, after joining more than 1,000 academics who signed a petition calling for an end of the long-running conflict with Kurdish rebels, holds a meeting with other dismissed academics, in Izmit, Turkey. Along with her husband, also an academic, lost their jobs during a wide-scale crackdown on civil servants, following the July 16, 2016 failed coup. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
PARIS (AP) - France's anti-terrorism prosecutor ordered an urgent court hearing Thursday to try to stop the sale of the latest edition of the picture magazine Paris Match showing gruesome photos of the terror attack in Nice a year ago that killed 86 people.

Victims' organizations denounced the photos as the Riviera city of Nice prepares for the Bastille Day fete and commemoration of those killed July 14, 2016, when a 19-ton truck barreled into celebrating crowds.

Stephan Gicquel, who heads the leading victims' association Fenvac, said on BFM-TV that a favorable ruling would be a "strong signal to show ... there are limits," adding that "we don't need these shock pictures to understand the horror of terrorism."

FILE - In this Monday July 18, 2016 file photo, people look at flowers placed on the Promenade des Anglais at the scene of a truck attack. France's anti-terrorism prosecutor has taken the picture magazine Paris Match to court in an urgent effort to stop sales of its latest edition showing gruesome photos of the terror attack in Nice a year ago that killed 86 people. The prosecutor's office said a hearing was set for later in the day to get the publication dated Thursday July 13, 2017 withdrawn from newsstands. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File)

The magazine's executive director, Olivier Royant, said he would defend "tooth and nail" what he said was "the right of citizens, first among them the victims, to know exactly what happened" on the day of the fatal attack.

He said the report, with photos, was a way for his publication "to pay homage to victims ... so that society does not forget," adding that the right of the media to inform is a foundation of democracy.
BOSTON (AP) - A Massachusetts man who authorities say threatened to assassinate President Barack Obama, bomb police stations and burn down a mosque has pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of ammunition.

Joseph Gargiulo, of Holliston, was arrested last August when an FBI raid of his home turned up assault rifle parts, ammunition, incendiary materials and handwritten notes threatening violence against Muslims. Gargiulo was prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition because his wife had been granted a restraining order against him.

Friends and relatives told investigators about the threats, but Gargiulo was not criminally charged with making them. His lawyer at the time denied that his client had made threats.

Gargiulo faces 10 years in prison at sentencing Oct. 12.

He told a judge when pleading guilty Wednesday that he is "more clear-headed now."
SHENYANG, China (AP) - Imprisoned for all the seven years since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo never renounced the pursuit of human rights in China, insisting on living a life of "honesty, responsibility and dignity." China's most prominent political prisoner died Thursday of liver cancer at 61.

His death - at a hospital in the country's northeast, where he'd been transferred after being diagnosed - triggered an outpouring of dismay among his friends and supporters, who lauded his courage and determination.

"There are only two words to describe how we feel right now: grief and fury," family friend and activist Wu Yangwei, better known by his penname Ye Du, said by phone. "The only way we can grieve for Xiaobo and bring his soul some comfort is to work even harder to try to keep his influence alive."

In this image taken from July 24, 2008, video footage by AP Video, Liu Xiaobo speaks during an interview at a park in Beijing, China. The judicial bureau in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang says jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has died of multiple organ failure Thursday, July 13, 2017, at age 61. (AP Video via AP)

The 1989 pro-democracy protests centered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, by Liu's account, were the "major turning point" of his life. Liu had been a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York but returned early to China in May 1989 to join the movement that was sweeping the country and which the Communist Party regarded as a grave challenge to its authority.

When the government sent troops and tanks into Beijing to quash the protests on the night of June 3-4, Liu persuaded some students to leave the square rather than face down the army. The military crackdown killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of people and heralded a more repressive era.

Liu became one of hundreds of Chinese imprisoned for crimes linked to the demonstrations. It was only the first of four imprisonments.

His final prison sentence was for co-authoring "Charter 08," a document circulated in 2008 that called for more freedom of expression, human rights and an independent judiciary.

"What I demanded of myself was this: Whether as a person or as a writer, I would lead a life of honesty, responsibility, and dignity," Liu wrote in "I Have No Enemies: My Final Statement," which he was prevented from reading aloud at his sentencing in 2009. He was sent to prison for 11 years on charges of inciting subversion by advocating sweeping political reforms and greater human rights in his country.

A year later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian committee lauded Liu's "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."

The award enraged China's government, which condemned it as a political farce. Within days, Liu's wife, the artist and poet Liu Xia, was put under house arrest, despite not being convicted of any crime. China also punished Norway, even though its government has no say over the independent Nobel panel's decisions. China suspended a bilateral trade deal and restricted imports of Norwegian salmon, and relations only resumed in 2017.

Dozens of Liu's supporters were prevented from leaving the country to accept the award on his behalf. Instead, Liu's absence at the prize-giving ceremony in Oslo, Norway, was marked by an empty chair. Another empty chair was for Liu Xia.

On Thursday, the Nobel Committee said Beijing bore a heavy responsibility for Liu's death. But it also leveled harsh criticism at the "free world" for its "hesitant, belated reactions" to his serious illness and imprisonment.

"It is a sad and disturbing fact that the representatives of the free world, who themselves hold democracy and human rights in high regard, are less willing to stand up for those rights for the benefit of others," said the organization's chairwoman, Berit Reiss-Andersen.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Liu Xiaobo was a "courageous fighter for civil rights and freedom of opinion." U.S. Senator John McCain lauded Liu as "a champion for human rights" whose death was "an egregious violation of fundamental human rights." U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, urged Beijing to release Liu's wife from house arrest and allow her to leave the country if she wishes.

Liu was born on Dec. 28, 1955, in the northeastern city of Changchun, the son of a language and literature professor who was a committed party member. The middle child in a family of five boys, he was among the first to attend Jilin University when college entrance examinations resumed after the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

After spending nearly two years in detention following the Tiananmen crackdown, Liu was detained for the second time in 1995 after drafting a plea for political reform. Later that year, he was detained a third time after co-drafting "Opinion on Some Major Issues Concerning our Country Today." That resulted in a three-year sentence to a labor camp, during which time he married Liu Xia.

The couple's friends and supporters described the dissident and his soft-spoken wife as being deeply in love. In the same statement Liu had prepared for his trial, he addressed his wife.

"Your love is the sunlight that leaps over high walls and penetrates the iron bars of my prison window, stroking every inch of my skin, warming every cell of my body, allowing me to always keep peace, openness, and brightness in my heart, and filling every minute of my time in prison with meaning," he said.

"But my love is solid and sharp, capable of piercing through any obstacle. Even if I were crushed into powder, I would still use my ashes to embrace you."

Yu Jie, a longtime friend and a biographer, said Liu frequently gathered a small group of friends for frequent dinners at his favorite local Sichuan hot-pot restaurant, where he regaled younger intellectuals on literature and philosophy before returning home to write until dawn, as was his habit.

"No one was as active as he was, and no one had so much social interaction with the young people," Yu said. "He was a bridge for generations of thinkers."

Liu was only the second Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in prison, a fact pointed to by human rights groups as an indication of the Chinese Communist Party's increasingly hard line against its critics. The first, Carl von Ossietzky, died from tuberculosis in Germany in 1938 while serving a sentence for opposing Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.

"Hitler was wild and strong and thought he was right - but history proved he was wrong in imprisoning a Nobel Peace Prize winner," said Mo Shaoping, an old friend and Liu's former lawyer. "The authorities consider Liu Xiaobo guilty, but history will prove he is not."

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Bodeen and Wong reported from Beijing. Associated Press researcher Fu Ting and reporter Gerry Shih contributed to this report from Beijing.

___

Online:

Liu Xiaobo's "I have no enemies" speech: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2010/xiaobo-lecture.html

FILE - In this April 2008 file photo shows Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo as he poses for a photographer in China. The judicial bureau in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang says jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has died of multiple organ failure Thursday, July 13, 2017, at age 61. (AP Photo/Kyodo News, File)

In this recent undated handout photo, Chinese dissident and Nobel Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, left, is attended to by his wife Liu Xia in a hospital in China. The judicial bureau in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang says jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has died of multiple organ failure Thursday, July 13, 2017, at age 61. (Photo via AP, File)

In this image taken from June 3, 2008, video footage by AP Video, Liu Xiaobo speaks during an interview before his detention in Beijing, China.The judicial bureau in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang says jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has died of multiple organ failure Thursday, July 13, 2017, at age 61. (AP Video via AP)

In this image taken from June 3, 2008, video footage by AP Video, Liu Xiaobo speaks during an interview before his detention in Beijing, China. The judicial bureau in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang says jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has died of multiple organ failure Thursday, July 13, 2017, at age 61. (AP Video via AP)

In this image taken from June 3, 2008, video footage by AP Video, Liu Xiaobo speaks during an interview before his detention in Beijing, China. The judicial bureau in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang says jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has died of multiple organ failure Thursday, July 13, 2017, at age 61. (AP Video via AP)

In this image taken from June 3, 2008, video footage by AP Video, Liu Xiaobo speaks during an interview before his detention in Beijing, China. The judicial bureau in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang says jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has died of multiple organ failure Thursday, July 13, 2017, at age 61. (AP Video via AP)
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico's federal transportation agency has fired its local representative for not responding immediately to warnings of problems before a sinkhole opened in a major highway and caused the deaths of two men.

Federal Transportation Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Esparza also says in a Thursday statement that he has instructed his agency's legal department to pursue legal action against those responsible.

Early Wednesday, a sinkhole spanning two lanes on the recently redone highway connecting Mexico City and the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco opened near Cuernavaca. The victims' car drove into it and landed upside down.

Rescue workers use heavy equipment to rescue a vehicle that drove into a sinkhole that opened up on a highway in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. A father and son were killed when the deep sinkhole swallowed their car on Wednesday morning. Civil protection rescuers reached the rubble-covered Volkswagen Jetta lying on its roof at the bottom of the hole in the afternoon, after working for more than eight hours on the closed section of road. (AP Photo/Tony Rivera)

Ruiz Esparza acknowledged on Radio Formula that the department's Morelos state office received a letter July 3 from residents warning that a drain was overwhelmed and a highway wall was about to collapse.

Rescue workers carry the body of one of those killed when a vehicle drove into a sinkhole that opened up on a highway in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. A father and son were killed when the deep sinkhole swallowed their car on Wednesday morning. Civil protection rescuers reached the rubble-covered Volkswagen Jetta lying on its roof at the bottom of the hole in the afternoon, after working for more than eight hours on the closed section of road. (AP Photo/Tony Rivera)

Workers are lowered by a crane as they work to rescue a vehicle that drove into a sinkhole that opened up on a highway in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Wednesday, July 12, 2017. A father and son were killed when the deep sinkhole swallowed their car on Wednesday morning. Civil protection rescuers reached the rubble-covered Volkswagen Jetta lying on its roof at the bottom of the hole in the afternoon, after working for more than eight hours on the closed section of road. (AP Photo/Tony Rivera)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - A Venezuelan police officer who stole a helicopter and fired on two government buildings appeared in public for the first time Thursday night, showing up at an anti-government demonstration in Caracas.

Except in videos uploaded to the internet, Oscar Perez hadn't been seen since he shocked the nation June 27 by using a stolen helicopter to fire grenades and gunshots at the supreme court and interior ministry buildings. The government called it a "terrorist attack."

Perez spoke briefly to journalists at the Thursday night vigil to honor the more than 90 people killed during three months of anti-government protests. He then hopped on the back of a motorcycle and sped off.

In several videos, Perez has declared that he belongs to an uprising of members of the security forces who are fed up with socialist President Nicolas Maduro. Even though he had vowed to appear at an opposition rally, many people believed he had fled Venezuela following a nationwide manhunt.
Attackers wielding knives burst into a child's birthday party in central Mexico, stabbing and slashing 11 people to death, including two minors.

Hidalgo state prosecutor Javier Ramiro Lara Salinas said at a news conference Thursday that the preliminary investigation suggested the attack in a house near Tizayuca, just north of Mexico City, was a 'settling of scores'.

Among the victims was a man whose ID identified him as a Mexico City police officer.

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A police officer patrols outside of a house where eleven people were found dead at Villa de los Milagros residential park, in the city of Tizayuca in Mexican state of Hidalgo, Mexico

A boy looks towards a camera outside of a house where eleven people, including two children, were found dead at a child's birthday party

A police officer cordons off the crime scene. Officers discovered 11 bodies - seven of them female and four male. Two of the deceased were minors

Lara said the home's owner had served time on a kidnapping charge in Mexico State and he indicated the homeowner was involved in organized crime.

Authorities received a 911 call after midnight Thursday alerting them to the killings.

Officers discovered 11 bodies - seven of them female and four male. Two of the deceased were minors, state authorities said.

They had initially said the victims were seven men and four women. Four minors survived the attack without injuries.

One child told officers that masked men in police uniforms had burst into the tent where the party was happening and killed all the adults.

None of the victims was shot. All were killed by knives or other cutting weapons.

The area had largely been spared the violence affecting other parts of Mexico.

Forensic investigators work outside of the house where eleven people were found dead. Hidalgo state prosecutor Javier Ramiro Lara Salinas said the preliminary investigation suggested the attack was a 'settling of scores'

Police found the gory scene when they responded to an emergency call received just after midnight on Thursday. Forensic personnel work at the scene
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - An Iraqi man who fled to the U.S. during the Gulf War and trained tens of thousands of American soldiers is facing deportation orders that could lead to his death in his homeland, his supporters say.

Kadhim Al-bumohammed, 64, decided to seek refuge Thursday inside a New Mexico church. He announced through his attorney that he would defy a federal immigration order to appear for a hearing where he was expected to be detained for deportation over a domestic-violence conviction in California.

"After consulting with his family, and with other members of the faith community, (Al-bumohammed) has chosen to seek sanctuary with the faith community," Rebecca Kitson, his lawyer, said to a cheering crowd outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Albuquerque.

FILE - In this June 26, 2017 file photo Kadhim Al-bumohammed, center, an Iraqi refugee in the U.S., listens to speakers at an Albuquerque, N.M., rally in his honor. Al-bumohammed an Iraqi Muslim refugee who trained U.S. troops going to Iraq and is now facing deportation is seeking sanctuary inside an Albuquerque church. Al-bumohammed decided to skip his immigration hearing Thursday, July 13, where he was expected to be detained. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras, File)

Immigration officials typically don't make deportation arrests in churches and other "sensitive areas" such as schools and churches.

In a statement, ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said Al-bumohammed was convicted in San Diego, California, in 1996 of a assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest in 1994.

Al-bumohammed also was convicted of domestic violence in Merced County, California, in 1997, which made him eligible for deportation under U.S. law, Rusnok said.

"(Al-bumohammed) has been on an order of supervision with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since about 2010," Rusnok said. "Since he did not appear for a scheduled July 13 ICE appointment, he is currently an ICE fugitive."

Kitson said there is no evidence that Al-bumohammed assaulted an officer and that case is one of mistaken identity. "Nowhere is that in his file in the lower courts. It is not mentioned," Kitson said. "I find it interesting that it is coming up now."

Al-bumohammed, who arrived as a refugee in 1994, worked as a linguist contractor with all four branches of the U.S. military from 2004 to 2009 in Fort Irwin, California. Al-bumohammed trained tens of thousands of soldiers in his five years and earned more than 15 medals for his service, Kitson said.

He fled following the first U.S. war with Iraq with Saddam Hussein still in power because he feared persecution for assisting U.S.-led coalition forces.

Supporters say the father of four U.S. children will face death if he's deported because of his connection to the U.S. military.

His case has drawn support from religious leaders, immigrant advocates and U.S. military veterans who have attended rallies and events on his behalf.

Monique Salhab, an Albuquerque resident who served in Iraq from 2005 to 2006 and in 2008 to 2009 with the U.S. Army Military Police, was one of many veterans to express dismay as Al-bumohammed's possible deportation.

"How can our country repay loyal service like this?" Salhab asked.

Al-bumohammed is one of the 1,400 Iraqis under deportation orders in the U.S. Some, like Al-bumohammed, have faced the orders for years because they committed crimes. His conviction involved his ex-wife and he later won full custody of his children.

A federal judge this week halted the deportation of Iraqi nationals like Al-bumohammed, including many Christians fearing persecution, while courts review the orders to remove them from the U.S.

But his lawyer said immigration authorities could have still detained Al-bumohammed and placed him at a facility in El Paso, Texas, while the class-action lawsuit made it through the court system.

Kitson said she would inform federal immigration authorities of his whereabouts but not disclose it publicly. Al-bumohammed, who faces a number of health problems, sought refuge because he has "lost faith" in the ability of the U.S. government to protect him, she said.

In a letter to acting ICE director Thomas Homan, Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester pleaded that Al-bumohammed be allowed to stay in the U.S. based on his service with the military and his health problems.

"Due to his service with the US military, leading Cultural and Linguistics training with his wife, deportation to Iraq puts him at great risk of torture and even death," Wester wrote.

His daughter, Courtney Al-bumohammed, 17, said that for now she was happy that her father wouldn't be detained and leave her family.

"I just want him to be a dad," she said. "I'm going to visit him often."

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Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras

Demonstrators rally in support of Iraqi refugee Kadhim Al-bumohammed outside of Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Albuquerque on Thursday, July 13, 2017. Al-bumohammed opted to skip his scheduled federal immigration hearing Thursday where he was expected to be detained, and instead said he is seeking sanctuary at an Albuquerque church. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras)

Demonstrators rally in support of Iraqi refugee Kadhim Al-bumohammed outside of Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Albuquerque on Thursday, July 13, 2017. Al-bumohammed opted to skip his scheduled federal immigration hearing Thursday where he was expected to be detained, and instead said he is seeking sanctuary at an Albuquerque church. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras)
CHICAGO (AP) - A former private equity adviser and Republican operative who died soon after telling The Wall Street Journal he tried during the 2016 presidential election campaign to obtain Hillary Clinton's missing emails from Russian hackers killed himself, according to a state death record obtained by the Chicago Tribune.

The Tribune (http://trib.in/2uWYgMD ) said it obtained the record from Olmsted County, Minnesota, saying that Peter W. Smith, 81, took his own life in a hotel near the Mayo Clinic on Sunday, May 14. He was found with a bag over his head with a source of helium attached. A note from Smith found by police said that he was taking his own life because of bad health and his life insurance was expiring, the Tribune reported.

The report prompted speculation on social media that Smith's death was connected to the investigation. However, nothing in the Tribune story suggests a connection.

Smith's death came about 10 days after the Journal said that he granted the newspaper an interview. The Journal reported that Smith said in the interview that he was convinced that emails missing from Clinton's server were in the hands of Russian hackers and that he had worked with a team to acquire them. Smith said he was working independently and President Donald Trump's campaign said Smith never worked for it.

Smith told the Journal he was unsure of the authenticity of emails hackers eventually did send to him and he told them to pass them to WikiLeaks, the same outfit that published the emails taken from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee.

In emails Smith sent to potential recruits for his project, which the Journal said it reviewed, Smith referenced former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn several times.

According to the record of Smith's death obtained by the Tribune, an autopsy was conducted on Smith's body but the Medical Examiner's Office declined to give the newspaper a copy of the report.

Smith had lived in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest. One of Smith's former employees told the Tribune that he thought Smith had gone to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to be treated for a heart condition.
TEPEACA, Mexico (AP) - The police officers gripped their assault rifles tightly as they stared at the men filling plastic tanks and loading them onto a dozen pickup trucks in a cornfield in central Mexico. Even though a crime was being committed in front of them, the officers said it was too dangerous to move in.

They had to wait until the army arrived to advance because the suspects were better-armed than they were and an earlier attempt to arrest them had been repelled by gunfire, officials said.

"In the morning there were 40 trucks loading," said Francisco, a security employee with the state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, who asked that his last name not be used for safety reasons. "We saw them loading, we went in, and they started shooting at us. The criminals had an armored car."

In this July 11, 2017 photo, Pemex security employees inspect an illegal tap into a state-owned pipeline in the middle of a cornfield in San Bartolome Hueyapan, Tepeaca, Mexico. Stealing gasoline has become an industrial-scale operation, involving a string of villages and hamlets along pipeline routes across the country. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

The suspects weren't cartel traffickers loading a drug shipment, but gasoline thieves tapping a state-owned pipeline - a form of organized crime that is growing in Mexico and has led to a series of deadly encounters.

Fuel theft in Mexico used to be a few villagers drilling holes in pipelines and carrying away the gasoline in jugs. But the heavy arms and violence seen in Tuesday's confrontation in Puebla state reflect its growth into a billion-dollar business that supplies not just the people selling gas on the sides of highways - called "huachicoleros" - but factories and gasoline station chains.

It has become an industrial-scale operation, involving a string of villages and hamlets along pipeline routes, not just in Puebla, but in Guanajuato, Veracruz, Tamaulipas and other Mexican states. The government says more than 6,000 illegal pipeline taps were found in 2016 and officials have been detecting an average of about 20 taps a day this year. It estimates fuel theft costs Mexico about $1 billion a year.

"Of all the fuel that is stolen, only 10 percent is sold to the public" by roadside vendors, said Jesus Morales, the top police official in Puebla state. "The other 90 percent goes to big business groups, to gas stations, factories."

The fuel theft gangs often have the support of corrupt local officials and the residents of towns that rely on the income from pipeline tapping. Two mayors have been arrested for involvement in the trade.

As the stakes have risen, fuel theft has become a blood industry.

In early July, nine people were killed, including five men whose bodies were burned, in a dispute between fuel thieves in the town of Huehuetlan in Puebla state. Morales said the killings involved a gang of distributors trying to collect from local vendors who were unable to meet their sales quotas because of police raids.

"They committed this barbarous act as a gesture of anger," said Morales, who claimed that vendors have recently raised the price of stolen fuel to near that of legitimate gasoline - it used to be half as much - because their supplies are being cut off.

As the police officers waited near the cornfield in Puebla, they saw a huge column of smoke rise into the sky after a clandestine warehouse of stolen fuel went up in flames about two miles down the road.

Authorities couldn't go into the area to fight the blaze because they risked a confrontation with villagers.

"They don't even let the fire department enter," Assistant Public Safety Secretary Jose Tlachi said. "They usually try to put the fires out themselves."

The thieves left the cornfield after they had apparently loaded all the stolen fuel they needed onto their pickup trucks.

Francisco, the Pemex security employee, and his six-member squad then moved in. The illegal tap drilled into the pipeline would be covered over, but Francisco predicted the thieves would come back and uncover it, or just drill a similar one nearby.

"This happens every day. Every day they steal at all hours of the day," he said.

A former soldier carrying an AR-15 and extra clips who was patrolling the pipeline for Pemex said the police officers had earlier been attacked by three armored trucks, explaining their reluctance to confront the thieves a second time.

"You can tell they are armored by the weight of the vehicles. They are better-armed than we are," he said.

The battle against the fuel thieves has left a strange "huachicolero" landscape east of Mexico City. Fields are littered with leaking illegal taps, abandoned fuel tanks and Mad Max-style vehicles whose interiors have been ripped out to hold thousand-liter tanks. Fires from stolen fuel are common.

The vehicles the gangs use are usually stolen and abandoned after a few trips. Over 1,700 of such vehicles have been seized in the last two months.

Arrests are rarely made because when police move in the thieves run and abandon the trucks. Other tactics to avoid capture include pushing half-full fuel tanks off the back of fleeing trucks, parking vehicles cross-wise on dirt roads or even using chains of women and children as human shields.

And the gangs have come up with a new tactic, police say. After a gang-installed camera caught a scene of a soldier apparently executing a fuel thief in June sparking outrage, they now have a cellphone or video recorder rolling every time police, soldiers or security personnel approach.

"They film us, always, but they never film what they are doing," Francisco said.

In this July 11, 2017 photo, smoke rises from a warehouse storing stolen fuel near Tepeaca, Puebla state, Mexico. Authorities couldn't enter the area to fight the blaze because they risked a confrontation with local villagers. "They usually try to put the fires out themselves," said Assistant Public Safety Secretary Jose Tlachi. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

In this July 11, 2017 photo, gasoline thieves wait in line to steal gas from an illegal tap into a state-owned pipeline, in the middle of a cornfield in San Bartolome Hueyapan, Tepeaca, Mexico. Fuel theft in Mexico used to be a few villagers drilling holes in pipelines and carrying away the gasoline in jugs. It has grown into a billion-dollar business that supplies not just the people selling gas on the sides of highways, but factories and gasoline station chains. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

In this July 11, 2017 photo, state police seize an abandoned truck that was used to carry stolen gasoline in plastic tanks, near an illegal tap into a state-owned pipeline in the middle of a cornfield in San Bartolome Hueyapan, Tepeaca, Mexico. The vehicles gas thieve gangs use are usually stolen and abandoned after a few trips. Over 1,700 of such vehicles have been seized in the last two months. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

This July 11, 2017 photo shows an illegal tap into a state-owned pipeline created by fuel thieves in the middle of a cornfield in San Bartolome Hueyapan, Tepeaca, Mexico. The government says that more than 6,000 illegal pipeline taps were found in 2016 and officials have been detecting an average of about 20 taps a day this year. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

In this July 11, 2017 photo, seized trucks carrying tanks full of stolen gasoline are driven by police and military to a safe place near Tepeaca, Mexico. Fuel theft gangs often have the support of corrupt local officials and the residents of towns that rely on the income from pipeline tapping. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

In this July 11, 2017 photo, yellow poles carrying the Spanish message "Don't excavate," placed by Mexico's state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), mark an underground pipe system near Tepeaca, Mexico. Gasoline thieves tapping state-owned pipelines have become a violent form of organized crime that is growing in Mexico and has led to a series of deadly encounters. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

In this July 11, 2017 photo, state police drive past a column of smoke rising from a burning warehouse of stolen fuel, as they wait for armed fuel thieves to leave a cornfield near Tepeaca, Puebla state, Mexico. A former soldier who was patrolling the pipeline for Pemex said the police officers had earlier been attacked by three armored trucks, explaining their reluctance to confront the thieves a second time. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

In this July 11, 2017 photo, a Pemex security employee stands by a truck abandoned by fuel thieves in the middle of a cornfield near an illegal tap into a state-owned pipeline in San Bartolome Hueyapan, Tepeaca, Mexico. The battle against fuel thieves has left fields littered with leaking illegal taps, abandoned fuel tanks and vehicles whose interiors have been ripped out to hold thousand-liter tanks. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

In this July 11, 2017 photo, a Pemex security employee walks through a corn field where an illegal tap into a state-owned pipeline was spotted in San Bartolome Hueyapan, Tepeaca, Mexico. Arrests of fuel thieves are rarely made because when police move in thieves run and abandon the trucks. Other tactics to avoid capture include pushing half-full fuel tanks off the back of fleeing trucks, parking vehicles cross-wise on dirt roads or even using chains of women and children as human shields. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

In this July 11, 2017 photo, puddles of gasoline fill a road in the middle of a cornfield, left behind by fuel thieves in San Bartolome Hueyapan, Tepeaca, Mexico. "Of all the fuel that is stolen, only 10 percent is sold to the public" on the sides of roads, said Jesus Morales, the top police official in Puebla state. "The other 90 percent goes to big business groups, to gas stations, factories." (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A mother found dead in her SUV alongside the bodies of her two children had shot and killed another woman hours earlier at the South Carolina apartments where her estranged husband lived, authorities said.

Jessica Edens was involved in a custody dispute over one of the children with her husband and complained to an officer who came to her Easley home the day before the shootings that he had an affair for the past year, according to a police report.

The other women killed had reported harassing text messages and phone calls from Edens in the weeks before the shooting, Greenville Police Chief Ken Miller said Friday.

Meredith Rahme, 28, was shot in her car around 5 p.m. Thursday by Edens in downtown Greenville, Miller said at a news conference. He added that the 36-year-old shooter's 9-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter were in the back of her SUV at the time.

Two hours later, deputies found the SUV locked and running with Edens and the two children inside, each dead from a single shot to the head or neck about 7 miles (11 kilometers) away in Easley, Pickens County Chief Deputy Creed Hashe said. A .40-caliber handgun was found inside the SUV, but Hashe and the coroner have not said who fired the shots. A similar gun was used to kill Rahme, authorities said.

Rahme had called police twice less than three weeks ago to ask how she could deal with harassing text messages, phone calls and online postings from Edens, Miller said.

Edens' estranged husband had called Easley police on Wednesday to ask them to check on their daughter shortly after he received a disturbing text message from Edens and the two had been in court to discuss custody of the 5-year-old girl, authorities said.

The officer who went to the home found the family planning to eat popcorn and watch a movie. One of the children was speaking to the husband, according to the police report.

The officer asked Edens if there was any chance she could get back with her husband and she said instead she was going to expose his yearlong affair in court, the police report said.

Rahme worked with Edens' husband, Miller said. He refused to give any other details about their relationship.

Miller said authorities had no indication Edens was planning violence before the shooting.

"There is some indication that about the time of the custody decision that she had some sense of inflicting violence either on the children or on herself or both. But that wasn't discovered until after she was discovered last night," Miller said.

Greenville investigators are trying to determine if Edens was waiting on Rahme or followed her into the parking garage under the apartments. Rahme was found dead in the driver's seat of her car, authorities said.

Miller said the tragedy of the shooting touched several families.

"It is important to remember there are fathers who have lost children to this senseless violence and our heart goes out to them," Miller said.

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Follow Jeffrey Collins at http://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP . See his work at https://apnews.com/search/jeffrey%20collins

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This story has corrected the name of the Greenville Police chief to Ken Miller
SHENYANG, China (AP) - China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished.

The government of the city of Shenyang in northeastern China, where Liu had been treated for advanced liver cancer, said in a briefing that the cremation took place early Saturday morning in a ceremony attended by family, including his wife.

Liu died Thursday from multiple organ failure that followed a battle with liver cancer while serving an 11-year sentence for incitement to subvert state power. He was 61.

ADDS IDS - In this photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, Liu Xia, center, wife of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner and Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, holds a portrait of him during his funeral at a funeral parlor in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. The photo shows, from left to right, Liu Hui, younger brother of Liu Xia, Liu Xia and Liu Xiaoxuan, younger brother of Liu Xiaobo holding his cremated remains. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

The briefing, at which officials also provided images of the funeral, was the latest in a tightly orchestrated Chinese government propaganda campaign seemingly aimed at countering criticism that Beijing has failed to handle Liu's case in a humanitarian way. A video about Liu's hospital treatment released on the website of the city's judicial bureau Friday appeared aimed at the same objective.

The wife and other family members of China's best-known political prisoner have been closely guarded by authorities and remain largely out of contact with the outside world even after Liu's death. Governments around the world have urged China to free Liu Xia from the strict house arrest she has lived under for years even though she has not been convicted of any crime.

The handout images showed Liu's wife, who wore dark sunglasses, being comforted by her brother in a funeral parlor as they stood in a row with Liu's older and younger siblings and their wives. Liu's body lay in an open casket in the center of the room, surrounded by an arrangement of potted white flowers.

A black banner strung on the wall said "Mr. Liu Xiaobo's funeral" in white Chinese characters. It was positioned above a framed picture of Liu. A press release issued by the government said the ceremony was held at 6:30 a.m. to the music of Mozart's Requiem and that the body was cremated shortly afterward.

The government also said the couple's friends attended the ceremony, a claim that was disputed by people who have long been close to Liu. In the handout images, none among a group of people standing by the casket were identifiable as any of Liu's friends, said Mo Zhixu, a dissident writer who is friends with Liu.

"Not a single one of his real friends were there," Mo said by phone, adding that he thought the well-built young men with buzz cuts in the photos resembled security agents who kept track of Liu's wife. "This is just a big performance."

"This regime has long been acting without humanity, that's why they denied him even a minute of freedom even until his death. I have nothing to say other than that I'm extremely infuriated," Mo said.

In Shenyang, a spokesman for the city's information office said at the briefing that authorities were looking out for Liu Xia's interests and insisted that she is free.

"As far as I know, Liu Xia has freedom. But she just lost her relative and is in deep sorrow," spokesman Zhang Qingyang said. "After Liu Xiaobo's death, let Liu Xia tend to his affairs and try to keep her away from external interference."

Liu was only the second Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in prison, a fact pointed to by human rights groups as an indication of the Chinese Communist Party's increasingly hard line against its critics. The first, Carl von Ossietzky, died from tuberculosis in Germany in 1938 while serving a sentence for opposing Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.

Tributes have rolled in from around the world to mourn Liu, but there is little mention of him in China's heavily-censored state media and social networking platforms. One notable exception is a newspaper published by the ruling Communist Party which on Saturday said the West was "deifying" Liu, a man the paper described as a criminal who was "paranoid, naive and arrogant."

"Liu's memorial tablet cannot find a place in China's cultural temple," the Global Times newspaper said in an editorial. "Deification of Liu by the West will be eventually overshadowed by China's denial of him."

The newspaper's editorial marked a rare mention of Liu in the Chinese-language media, possibly indicating a desire to guide popular opinion amid widespread reporting of his death in the overseas press and on social media platforms such as Twitter that are blocked in China.

While Liu did have considerable renown abroad - official censorship made him virtually a non-person at home - the party frequently uses the specter of Western manipulation to demonize its critics.

Liu rose to prominence during the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and became one of hundreds of Chinese imprisoned for crimes linked to the demonstrations after they were crushed by the military. It was the first of four imprisonments.

His last was for co-authoring "Charter 08," a document circulated in 2008 that called for an end to one-party rule.

He was in prison when he was awarded the Nobel in 2010, which Beijing condemned as an affront to its political and legal systems.

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Wong reported from Beijing.

In this photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, Liu Xia, wife of Liu Xiaobo and her brother Liu Hui, left stand next to the casket of the late Nobel Peace Prize winner and Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo during his funeral at a funeral parlor in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

ADDS A DROPPED WORD IN FIRST SENTENCE - In this photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, people attend the funeral of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner and Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo at a funeral parlor in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

ADDS IDS - In this photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, relatives stand next to the casket of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner and Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo during his funeral at a funeral parlor in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. The photo shows from left, unknown woman, unknown woman, Liu Xiaoxuan, younger brother of Liu Xiaobo, Liu Xiaoguang, older brother of Liu Xiaobo, Liu Hui, younger brother of Liu Xia, and Liu Xia. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

A photo showing Liu Xia, center, holding a photo of the late Liu Xiaobo as Liu Xiaoxuan, Liu Xiaobo's younger brother, right, holds his cremated remains in a black box near Liu Xia's brother Liu Hui, left, during a ceremony, is displayed at a government press conference held in a hotel in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A photo showing from right Liu Xia, her brother Liu Hui, Liu Xiaobo's elder brother Liu Xiaoguang and younger brother Liu Xiaoxuan attend a ceremony for the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo at a funeral home is shown at a government press conference held at a hotel in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

ADDS IDS - In this photo provided by the Shenyang Municipal Information Office, Liu Xia, center, wife of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner and Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, holds a portrait of him during his funeral at a funeral parlor in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Saturday, July 15, 2017. The photo shows, from left to right, Liu Hui, younger brother of Liu Xia, Liu Xia and Liu Xiaoxuan, younger brother of Liu Xiaobo holding his cremated remains. (Shenyang Municipal Information Office via AP)

An exile Tibetan carries a placard featuring photos of late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Xiaobo Liu, China's most famous political prisoner, during a candlelit vigil to mourn Liu's death, in Dharmsala, India, Friday, July 14, 2017. Liu died Thursday of liver cancer at 61. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

An exile Tibetan participates in a candlelit vigil to mourn the death of late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Xiaobo Liu, China's most famous political prisoner, in Dharmsala, India, Friday, July 14, 2017. Liu died Thursday of liver cancer at 61. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

An exile Tibetan carries a portrait of late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Xiaobo Liu, China's most famous political prisoner, as she joins others during a candlelit vigil to mourn Liu's death, in Dharmsala, India, Friday, July 14, 2017. Liu died Thursday of liver cancer at 61. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

A computer screen shows an image of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo during a ceremony to mourn late Liu, China's most famous political prisoner, at Democracy Square in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, July 14, 2017. Liu died Thursday of liver cancer at 61. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

Supporters hold slogans reading ''Mourning Liu Xiaobo 1955-2017'' during a ceremony to mourn late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu, China's most famous political prisoner, at Democracy Square in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, July 14, 2017. Liu died Thursday of liver cancer at 61. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

A bouquet of flowers is placed on a chair that reads: ''Mourning Liu Xiaobo'' in front of his image during a ceremony to mourn late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu, China's most famous political prisoner, at Democracy Square in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, July 14, 2017. Liu died Thursday of liver cancer at 61. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

A plainclothes Chinese security guard attempts to stop a photographer from taking photos of an apartment building where Liu Xia, the wife of Chinese dissident and Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, had been living under house arrest in Beijing, Friday, July 14, 2017. Imprisoned for all the seven years since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo never renounced the pursuit of human rights in China, insisting on living a life of "honesty, responsibility and dignity." China's most prominent political prisoner died Thursday of liver cancer at 61. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A plainclothes Chinese security guard attempts to stop a photographer from taking photos of an apartment building where Liu Xia, the wife of Chinese dissident and Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, has been living under house arrest in Beijing, Friday, July 14, 2017. Friends of Liu Xiaobo's family say that efforts to persuade Beijing to allow the couple to leave China were motivated not so much to seek treatment for the terminally ill political prisoner but to facilitate an escape from China for his severely depressed wife, Liu Xia. Liu's death on Thursday, July 13 has now returned his wife's fate back to the fore, with foreign officials calling for Beijing to release her from house arrest and let her leave the country as she wishes. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

FILE - In this June 9, 2013, file photo, a relative comforts Liu Xia, left, wife of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, while she cries outside Huairou Detention Center where her brother Liu Hui was jailed in Huairou district, on the outskirts of Beijing. Friends of Liu Xiaobo's family say that efforts to persuade Beijing to allow the couple to leave China were motivated not so much to seek treatment for the terminally ill political prisoner but to facilitate an escape from China for his severely depressed wife, Liu Xia. Liu's death on Thursday, July 13, 2017 has now returned his wife's fate back to the fore, with foreign officials calling for Beijing to release her from house arrest and let her leave the country as she wishes. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)

FILE - In this June 27, 2017, file photo, protesters display portraits of jailed Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo and his detained wife Liu Xia during a demonstration outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong. Friends of Liu Xiaobo's family say that efforts to persuade Beijing to allow the couple to leave China were motivated not so much to seek treatment for the terminally ill political prisoner but to facilitate an escape from China for his severely depressed wife, Liu Xia. Liu's death on Thursday, July 13, 2017 has now returned his wife's fate back to the fore, with foreign officials calling for Beijing to release her from house arrest and let her leave the country as she wishes. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

Coils of barbed wire top a fence next to an apartment building where Liu Xia, the wife of Chinese dissident and Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, had been living under house arrest in Beijing, Friday, July 14, 2017. Imprisoned for all the seven years since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo never renounced the pursuit of human rights in China, insisting on living a life of "honesty, responsibility and dignity." China's most prominent political prisoner died Thursday of liver cancer at 61. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Security guards stand at the gates of an apartment complex where Liu Xia, the wife of Chinese dissident and Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, had been living under house arrest in Beijing, Friday, July 14, 2017. Imprisoned for all the seven years since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo never renounced the pursuit of human rights in China, insisting on living a life of "honesty, responsibility and dignity." China's most prominent political prisoner died Thursday of liver cancer at 61. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A portrait of jailed Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo is displayed for mourning during a demonstration outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, Thursday, July 13, 2017. Officials say China's most prominent political prisoner, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, has died. He was 61. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

People walk by an image of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo shown on a large screen as a TV news reports Liu's death in Tokyo, Friday, July 14, 2017. World leaders and human rights advocates expressed sorrow and anger over the death of Liu, who died Thursday, July 13 in police custody while being treated for advanced liver cancer in prison. The words on the screen, top, "Liu Xiaobo passed away. " (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Participants hold photos of Liu Xiaobo, right, and his wife Liu Xia during a vigil honoring Liu Xiaobo's legacy and to protest continued human rights abuses in China, Thursday, July 13, 2017, in New York. China's most prominent political prisoner died Thursday of liver cancer at 61. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Liu Yunpeng, director of Oncology Department of the The First Hospital of China Medical University talks about the treatment of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo prior to his death in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Thursday, July 13, 2017. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, China's most prominent political prisoner, died Thursday at a hospital in the country's northeast following a battle with liver cancer, officials said. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A rosary hangs over the portrait of the late Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo is displayed outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A portrait of late Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo is displayed outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Patrick Brousseau from Canada dressing in traditional Scottish attire mourns late Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A portrait of the late Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo is displayed outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A banner displaying a sketch of late Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo and his detained wife Liu Xia is displayed outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, Saturday, July 15, 2017. China cremated the body of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer amid international criticism of Beijing for not letting him travel abroad as he had wished. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - The deputy leader of an Australian political party announced Friday that he was ending his nine-year career in Parliament because he had discovered he had technically never been a senator.

Scott Ludlam, the 47-year-old deputy leader of the minor Greens party, said he was "personally devastated" to learn that he was a citizen of New Zealand as well as Australia, which made him ineligible for the Senate job he has held since July 2008.

The constitution states that a "citizen of a foreign power" is not eligible to be elected to the Australian Parliament.

In this March 16, 2015, photo provided by the Australian Greens MPs, Scott Ludlum, right, deputy leader of the Greens party, stands with Adam Bandt during a Parliament House press conference. Ludlum announced he is ending his nine-year career in Parliament because he has discovered he has technically never been a senator. Ludlam said on Friday, July 14, 2017, he was "personally devastated" to learn that he is a citizen of New Zealand as well as Australia, which makes him ineligible for the Senate job he has held since July 2008. (Greens MPs via AP)

While lawmakers have discovered they were technically ineligible after elections in the past, Ludlam said nine years later seemed to be a record.

"I apologize unreservedly for this," Ludlam told reporters. "This is an oversight that was avoidable and it's something I should have fixed up in 2006 when I first nominated."

Born in in Palmerston North in New Zealand, Ludlam moved to Perth, Australia, when was 3 years old. He became an Australian as a teenager and said he hadn't realized that New Zealand citizenship "might be something that sticks to you in that way."

He was elected to the Senate three times after stating in nomination forms on each occasion that he was not a dual citizen.

He joked: "I can at least vote in the New Zealand elections in September."

The government could demand Ludlam repay millions of dollars in salary and expenses that he has claimed since 2008.

"I'm hoping common sense prevails," Ludlam said. "If I'd known all along this was the case and I'd just been sprung, maybe they would have a case, but this is as much of a surprise to me as it was to anybody else."
WASHINGTON (AP) - Members of two Senate committees investigating Russia's meddling in the presidential election say they want more from Donald Trump Jr.

President Donald Trump's son released emails earlier this week in which he appeared eager to accept information from the Russian government that could have damaged Hillary Clinton's campaign.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Iowa's Chuck Grassley, says he will call on Trump Jr. to testify as part of the committee's investigation.

President Donald Trump pauses during a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Thursday, July 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, Virginia's Mark Warner, says the panel is seeking documents from the president's son.

The president himself says "nothing happened" as a result of the June 2016 sit-down involving his son. Trump says the meeting was nothing more than standard campaign practice.

President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron participate in a joint news conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Thursday, July 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a news conference about opioid addiction, Thursday, July 13, 2017, at the Justice Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
WASHINGTON (AP) - One of the provisions in the latest version of the Senate Republicans' health care bill appears to benefit only the state of Alaska. And to the tune of $2 billion in federal money.

Among the Republican holdouts needed to pass the bill is one of Alaska's senators, Lisa Murkowski. Her state has unusually high medical costs because much of Alaska is remote, and it relies heavily on Medicaid, which the Republican bill would cut.

Democrats resorted to a similar tactic when they were pushing President Barack Obama's 2010 health care bill through the Senate. At one point it set aside extra money for Nebraska to win support from one of its senators, Ben Nelson.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. leaves the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 13, 2017, after announcing the revised version of the Republican health care bill. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

That arrangement became known as the Cornhusker Kickback, and it was widely criticized and eventually removed.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) - Albanian police say they have seized at least 15 metric tons (16.5 tons) of marijuana hidden in a southwestern village.

Police spokesman Gentian Mullai says that some 150 officers had found the drugs Friday in three houses in Llakatund, 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the capital, Tirana. Police also seized about 700 kilograms (1,500 pounds) in a separate operation at another village in the Kavaja district, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Tirana.

Recent operations are part of a nationwide campaign police hold daily drug seizures.

A statement said the nine people arrested in Llakatund included two police officers and the head of the commune.

Police seized five AK-47 assault rifles, four vehicles and other equipment, chemical elements, hashish oil and tools used to process the drug in the form of chocolates and pack them.

Police said they found 270 cannabis plants at one police officer's house.

This year, authorities have made major seizures of cannabis stored in remote areas, along the coast or on speedboats to be illegally smuggled to neighboring Greece and nearby Italy. Last year, authorities destroyed 2.5 million cannabis plants and seized several tons in anti-smuggling efforts.

Authorities under Prime Minister Edi Rama's governing have strongly cracked down on local cannabis production and drug trafficking in the last four years, pledging to delete Albania from the list of cannabis-producing countries by the end of this year.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia's intellectual property agency has given preliminary approval to two Donald Trump trademarks a bit more than two years after the applications were filed.

Though the timing was in line with the agency's guidelines for how long such approvals should take, the clearance of Trump trademarks by foreign governments has caused concern in the U.S. over potential conflicts of interest for the president.

The database of the Directorate-General of Intellectual Property shows the "Trump" and "Trump International" trademarks will become eligible to be officially registered if no one files an objection during a three month window.

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 22, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting on women in healthcare in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. Indonesia's intellectual property agency has given preliminary approval to two Donald Trump trademarks. The agency's database shows the "Trump" and "Trump International" trademarks will become eligible to be officially registered if no one files an objection during a three month window. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

It took a little more than two years for the marks to reach the final stages, about the same time as previously registered Trump marks in Indonesia.

Trump's decision to retain ownership of his global branding empire while president has sparked lawsuits and criticism in the U.S. over perceived conflicts of interest. One lawsuit filed in June by nearly 200 Democrats in Congress alleges violations of a constitutional prohibition against accepting gifts from foreign governments. Trademarks are at the heart of these complaints because they are granted by foreign states and can be immensely valuable.

In Indonesia, the Trump Organization will operate two luxury resorts being built by billionaire Hary Tanoesoedibjo, who is banned from leaving the country while being investigated for allegedly threatening a prosecutor.

Trump and his daughter Ivanka, who is a White House adviser and has a fashion and lifestyle business, together have six other trademarks pending approval in Indonesia.

The Trump Organization has been particularly active with its trademarks in China, where as of June it had at least 125 marks formally or provisionally approved. Nine got preliminary approval in June after earlier being either wholly or partly rejected, with the swiftness of the appeals process surprising intellectual property experts.

The two Indonesian marks nearing final approval cover a broad range of possible businesses.

The Trump mark includes education, provision of conference facilities, model management, and online gambling. The Trump International mark, which is in an announcement period prior to the objection period, mainly covers services related to hotels and real estate.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkey is commemorating the first anniversary of the quashed military coup that sought to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a series of events honoring some 250 people who were killed on July 15, 2016, while trying to stop the insurrection.

The coup attempt was the greatest challenge to the rule of Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003, first as prime minister and later as president. After crushing the attempted takeover, Erdogan went on to win a referendum in April that will considerably extend the powers of his office - a move that has raised fear among opponents who say he has become increasingly authoritarian.

The rebellion unfolded on a Friday evening when a group of military officers commandeered warplanes, helicopters and tanks to attack key government buildings in the capital, including parliament and the presidential palace complex. They held Istanbul's main bridge and square, attacked some government buildings and tried to overtake television stations. They also tried to capture or kill the president, who was vacationing at a Mediterranean resort at the time.

FILE - In this early Saturday, July 16, 2016 file photo, tanks, part of the forces that attempted a coup, move into position as people attempt to stop them, in Ankara, Turkey. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a series of events honoring some 250 people, who were killed across Turkey while trying to oppose coup-plotters. (AP Photo/File)

Heeding a call by Erdogan broadcast on CNN-Turk through a video app, thousands of people took to the streets to stop the tanks and soldiers. Police and officers loyal to the government put down the coup, which did not have support in the military's top echelons, within hours.

More than 2,000 people were injured in the streets, in addition to the 250 people who died and now are hailed as "martyrs" of the coup. The dead include 53 special operations police who were killed in an attack on their headquarters in Ankara. Some 30 coup plotters are also believed to have died during their failed attempt.

Tarkan Ecebalin and his 27-year-old son, Tolga, were among the hundreds of people who took Erdogan's call to heart and rushed to out to protect the Istanbul mayor's office. A gunshot struck the younger man just below the eye and he died from the injury.

Ecebalin has turned their home in an impoverished neighbor into a museum honoring his son, saying those who were killed trying to fend off the coup-plotters should not be forgotten.

"Dad," Tarkan recalled his son telling him before he died. "This is something else. If our elders told us to take to the streets, maybe God will destine us martyrdom."

Erdogan is set to unveil a large monument for the "martyrs" opposite his palace in Ankara and another near Istanbul's former Bosporus Bridge, which has been renamed as the "July 15 Martyrs Bridge" to honor the people who died resisting the coup.

He also is scheduled to deliver a speech in parliament at 02:32 am on Sunday - the exact moment the assembly was attacked a year ago.

The government has blamed the coup on the influential movement led by U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who ran a network of schools, dormitories, media outlets and universities. Gulen's followers are accused of infiltrating state institutions over decades to carry out the insurgency.

Erdogan once described the coup as a "gift from God" that had allowed the government to purge the military and public institutions of the Gulenists who once were allied with his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party.

A prolonged state of emergency that has remained in place since the coup attempt allows the government to rule through decrees and without the initial approval from lawmakers. Over the last year, more than 50,000 people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the insurgency more than 100,000 others have been fired from civil service jobs.

While the crackdown initially targeted Gulenists, it has ensnared other government critics, including Kurdish and other opposition lawmakers, journalists and activists.

"No state can work with those who don't show it loyalty," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said this week, justifying the wide-spread purge. "Our struggle (against Gulen's movement) will continue with determination. "

Gulen, who has been in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has condemned the coup attempt and denied he was involved, although he acknowledged that some supporters might have participated in the uprising.

Turkey has repeatedly pressed the United States to extradite the cleric, so far without succeed.

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Ayse Wieting in Istanbul contributed.

FILE - In this early Saturday, July 16, 2016 file photo, a Turkish police officer, right, confronts a Turkish army officer, left, that participated in the attempted coup, after he was apprehended by civilians and handed over, in central Istanbul's Taksim square. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a series of events honoring some 250 people, who were killed across Turkey while trying to oppose coup-plotters. (AP Photo/Selcuk Samiloglu, File)

FILE - In this early Saturday, July 16, 2016 file photo, a man stands in front of a tank, part of the forces that attempted a coup, at the entrance to Istanbul's Ataturk airport. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a series of events honoring some 250 people, who were killed across Turkey while trying to oppose coup-plotters. (Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP, File)

FILE - In this early Saturday, July 16, 2016 file photo, Turkish soldiers, part of the forces attempting a coup, arrested by police sit on a police bus in central Istanbul's Taksim square. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a series of events honoring some 250 people, who were killed across Turkey while trying to oppose coup-plotters. (AP Photo/Selcuk Samiloglu, File)

FILE - In this early Saturday, July 16, 2016 file photo, smoke from fires caused by forces' attempting a coup bombardment, billows from an area near the Presidential Palace, front right, in Ankara, Turkey. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a series of events honoring some 250 people, who were killed across Turkey while trying to oppose coup-plotters. (AP Photo/Ali Unal, File)

FILE - In this Saturday, July 16, 2016 file photo, people celebrate as Turkish police officers, loyal to the government, stand atop tanks abandoned by Turkish army officers attempting a coup, backdropped by Istanbul's iconic Bosporus Bridge. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a series of events honoring some 250 people, who were killed across Turkey while trying to oppose coup-plotters. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, July 17, 2016 file photo, relatives mourn over the Turkish flag-draped coffin of their loved one, during a funeral for people killed July 15, while protesting the attempted coup against Turkey's government, in Istanbul. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a series of events honoring some 250 people, who were killed across Turkey while trying to oppose coup-plotters. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, July 17, 2016 file photo, a relative mourns over the coffin of her loved one, during a funeral for people killed July 15, while protesting the attempted coup against Turkey's government, in Istanbul. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a series of events honoring some 250 people, who were killed across Turkey while trying to oppose coup-plotters. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, July 17, 2016 file photo, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends the funeral of Mustafa Cambaz, Erol and Abdullah Olcak, killed on July 15, while protesting against the attempted coup against Turkey's government, in Istanbul. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Erdogan, with a series of events honoring some 250 people, who were killed across Turkey while trying to oppose coup-plotters. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)

FILE - In this July 2016 file photo, Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen speaks to members of the media at his compound, in Saylorsburg, Pa. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The government has blamed the coup of the influential movement led by U.S.-based Gulen, who runs a network of schools, dormitories, media outlets, universities, and whose followers are accused of infiltrating state institutions. (AP Photo/Chris Post, File)

FILE - In this Monday, May 22, 2017 file photo, Turkish paramilitary police and army officers escort the alleged instigators of the July 15, 2016 failed military coup before their trial at a courthouse in the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey. A total of 221 people, including 27 generals, went on trial, facing life prison sentences, at a courthouse, built especially to try suspects of the failed coup. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The government has blamed the coup of the influential movement led by U.S.-based Gulen, who runs a network of schools, dormitories, media outlets, universities, and whose followers are accused of infiltrating state institutions. (Depo Photos via AP)

In this Thursday, July 6, 2017 photo, a man walks past graves of victims that were killed during the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt, at a special section in a cemetery in Istanbul. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a series of events honoring some 250 people, who were killed across Turkey while trying to oppose coup-plotters. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

In this Monday, July 10, 2017 photo, workers put the finishing touches at a memorial to honour the victims of the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt, ahead of its upcoming inauguration on the one-year anniversary, in Istanbul. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a series of events honoring some 250 people, who were killed across Turkey while trying to oppose coup-plotters. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

In this Monday, July 3, 2017 photo, people fish in the Bosporus, next to a poster with photos of victims that were killed during the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt, in Istanbul. Turkey commemorates the first anniversary of the July 15 failed military attempt to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a series of events honoring some 250 people, who were killed across Turkey while trying to oppose coup-plotters. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Trump, administration press Republicans to back health bill

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump and other administration officials lobbied Republicans Friday from both sides of the Atlantic to keep the Senate GOP's reworked health care bill from crashing, with the president saying wavering senators "must come through."

But the measure, culminating the GOP's seven years of pledging to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law, encountered turbulence from two influential Republican governors and the nation's largest doctors' group. That complicated Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's task of preventing even a single additional GOP senator from rejecting the legislation, which would kill it.

"After all of these years of suffering thru ObamaCare, Republican Senators must come through as they have promised!" the president tweeted before departing Paris, where he attended Bastille Day ceremonies.

McConnell, R-Ky., refashioned the legislation to attract GOP votes, two weeks after retreating on an initial version that would have died for lack of Republican support. The new package added language letting insurers sell discount-priced policies with minimal coverage aimed at winning over conservatives, and revised funding formulas that would mean federal money for states including Louisiana and Alaska - home to four GOP senators.

Fifty of the 52 Republican senators must back the bill in an initial vote McConnell plans for next week or, facing solid Democratic opposition, it will lose. GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Kentucky's Rand Paul have said they'll vote "no," leaving McConnell no wiggle room.

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Russian-American lobbyist joined Trump's son's meeting, too

WASHINGTON (AP) - A prominent Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer attended a meeting with President Donald Trump's son, son-in-law and campaign chairman last year, the lobbyist said Friday, adding a new wrinkle to the Trump team's evolving explanations about the June 2016 session.

Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his involvement to The Associated Press in an interview. He had not been previously identified as a participant in the meeting at Trump Tower in New York, which was billed as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republican's White House campaign.

The meeting has heightened questions about whether Trump's associates coordinated with Russia to meddle in the presidential election - to help him and thwart Hillary Clinton - and whether they've been forthcoming about their foreign contacts. Federal and congressional investigators are probing possible connections between the campaign and Moscow.

Akhmetshin has been reported to have ties to Russian intelligence, a characterization he dismisses as a "smear campaign." He's a well-known Washington presence, lobbying for Russian interests trying to undermine the allegations of a lawyer who died in a Russian prison and is the namesake of a U.S. sanctions law.

Akhmetshin told the AP he served in the Soviet military in a unit that was part of counterintelligence but he was never formally trained as a spy.

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Russian-American at Trump Jr. meeting is ex-military officer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Russian-American lobbyist who attended a meeting at Trump Tower last year is a former military officer who has attracted congressional scrutiny over his political activities and has been shadowed by allegations of connections to Russian intelligence.

Rinat Akhmetshin, who denies these allegations, confirmed his participation in the June 2016 meeting to The Associated Press on Friday.

Akhmetshin is known for having lobbied to weaken a U.S. law levying sanctions on Russians and his name has also surfaced in lawsuits, including one involving the hacking of a company's computer systems.

Emails released this week by Donald Trump Jr. show the president's oldest son agreed to the meeting with the idea that he would receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton from someone described to him as a "Russian government attorney." Akhmetshin began working with that attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, in 2015, after a public relations person he declined to name introduced them.

The Russian government has denied any involvement or knowledge of the meeting. Asked Friday about Akhmetshin, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters: "We don't know anything about this person."

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Pop star, lobbyist: The cast of Trump Russia connections

MOSCOW (AP) - A billionaire real estate mogul, his pop singer son and a music promoter. A property lawyer, Russia's prosecutor general and a Russian-American lobbyist.

These unlikely figures have come to the fore as revelations that Donald Trump's presidential campaign sought potentially damaging information in June 2016 from Russia about his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

In emails sent shortly after Trump secured the GOP nomination, music publicist Rob Goldstone offered to connect Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. The emails show Goldstone telling Trump that singer Emin Agalarov and his father, Moscow-based real estate developer Aras Agalarov, had "helped along" the Russian government's support for Donald Trump.

Goldstone also mentioned that a Russian prosecutor offered to provide the information on Clinton to the campaign. Goldstone mentioned Russia's "crown prosecutor," but may have been referring to Russia's top justice official, Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, the equivalent of the U.S. attorney general.

A look at some of those involved in the email exchange and the meeting at Trump Tower that followed:

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Senator selling stock after AP ties company to Mexican labor

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - An Indiana senator and longtime critic of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries announced Friday that he's selling his stock in his family's arts and crafts company after The Associated Press reported it manufactures some products in Mexico.

Democrat Joe Donnelly said he hasn't had an active role in the company for 20 years but was taking the action to avoid allowing the issue to become "a distraction from our work to end outsourcing and keep American jobs here instead of shipping them to other countries." His campaign said he made the statement to reporters at an Indiana Black Expo luncheon.

The AP reported Thursday that Donnelly made at least $15,001 in dividends last year on as much as $50,000 of stock in Stewart Superior Corp., which used Mexican workers to produce dye for ink pads.

Donnelly, considered one of the nation's most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year, was highly critical of Carrier Corp., an air conditioner and furnace maker. He accused it of exploiting $3-an-hour workers when its parent company announced plans last year to cut some 2,000 jobs at two Indiana factories by moving production to Mexico.

The senator praised then President-elect Donald Trump in November for reaching a deal that saved 800 of the jobs at an Indianapolis factory.

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Winners and losers complicate GOP's path on health care bill

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans' latest health care plan would create winners and losers among Americans up and down the income ladder, and across age groups.

It would give consumers more responsibility for their insurance choices, a goal long held by conservatives who argue that's key to a true health care market. Younger adults and healthy people in the solid middle class may find more agreeable options. But low-income people may not be able to afford coverage, along with older and sicker adults.

And there are potential unintended consequences for people with employer-provided insurance, currently about 170 million Americans. Allowing individuals to pay premiums from tax-sheltered accounts may create incentives for employers to stop offering coverage, say some independent analysts.

The legislation would put limits on federal spending for Medicaid, a partnership program with states to cover low-income people, the disabled and nursing home residents. The drawback is that state officials could eventually face no-win choices, such as having to pick between paying for coverage for low-wage working mothers and support services for elderly people trying to stay out of nursing homes.

As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., steers toward debate and votes next week, here is a look at some of the latest changes and major issues:

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How hot is too hot aboard an airliner? The law doesn't say

DENVER (AP) - Every day, tens of thousands of U.S. airline passengers settle into their seats, lower the window shades and reach up to twist the air vents without the benefit of something that might do even more to keep them cool: a rule setting temperature limits inside the cabin.

Airlines have their own guidelines - some allowing the mercury to hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) - and federal regulations cover air flow and, more generally, passenger safety and comfort.

But nowhere do authorities say how hot is too hot when a plane is sitting on the ground - a fact illustrated this summer when a mother holding her beet-red infant had to plead to be let off a broiling regional jet stuck on the tarmac at Denver International Airport.

Emily France said she and her 4-month-old son, Owen, sweltered aboard the 50-seat "oven with wings" for more than an hour June 22 before it returned to the gate and passengers were allowed off briefly.

When they re-boarded the United Airlines flight to El Paso, Texas, the cabin felt even warmer, France said. With the flight delayed again, she stripped off Owen's clothing and applied ice bags brought by flight attendants, but his condition deteriorated.

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Liberation from militants leaves devastation in Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - There was a smell of death in Mosul's Old City when Ayman Hashem came back this week to see what happened to his home. His neighborhood was unrecognizable.

"All that's left is rubble and the bodies of families trapped underneath," the 23-year-old said. He flipped through photos on his phone, showing picture after picture of wreckage. His own house was "cut in half," he said. He had to cover his nose with his tee-shirt because of the smell of buried, rotting bodies.

Iraq's U.S.-backed forces wrested Mosul from the Islamic State group at the cost of enormous destruction. The nearly 9-month fight culminated with a crescendo of devastation - the blasting of the historic Old City to root out the deeply dug-in militants.

Nearly a third of the Old City - more than 5,000 buildings - was damaged or destroyed in the final three weeks of bombardment up to July 8, according to a survey by U.N. Habitat using satellite imagery. Across the city, 10,000 buildings were damaged over the course of the war, the large majority in western Mosul, the scene of the most intense artillery, airstrikes and fighting during the past five months. The survey only covers damage visible in satellite photos, meaning the real number is likely higher.

The population, once numbering 3 million, is battered and exhausted, with hundreds of thousands displaced. Without a swift campaign to rebuild Mosul, aid and rights groups warn the current humanitarian crisis will balloon and resentment will likely give way to extremism, undermining the victory.

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Police reveal grisly confession in 4 Pennsylvania slayings

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A pot dealer gave police a grisly account of killing four men on his family's Pennsylvania farm, saying he crushed one of them with a backhoe after shooting him and tried to set three of the bodies on fire in the same metal bin, according to court documents filed Friday.

Twenty-year-old Cosmo DiNardo, who graduated from a Catholic prep school two years ago, said he killed a former schoolmate when he arrived with $800 to buy $8,000 worth of pot. He said he shot another man in the back as he tried to run away. And he pinned one of the deaths on a cousin charged Friday in the case, although the cousin told police that DiNardo shot all four of the victims.

The only motive disclosed by investigators was that DiNardo said he wanted to set the victims up when they came to the farm to buy marijuana. One man vanished July 5 and the others two days later.

Three of the slain men were buried at the farm in an oil tank that had been converted into a cooker. The FBI found them Wednesday after four days of methodical hand-digging and sifting in a spot on the 90-acre farm that dogs had sniffed out.

Authorities might never have found the fourth body unless they worked with DiNardo, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said.

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Travel ruling paves way for more refugees, but appeal awaits

WASHINGTON (AP) - A court decision on President Donald Trump's travel ban has reopened a window for tens of thousands of refugees to enter the United States, and the government is looking to quickly close it.

The administration said Friday that it would appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal judge in Hawaii ordered it to allow in refugees formally working with a resettlement agency in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson also vastly expanded the list of U.S. family relationships that refugees and visitors from six Muslim-majority countries can use to get into the country, including grandparents and grandchildren.

The ruling Thursday was the latest twist in a long, tangled legal fight that will culminate with arguments before the nation's high court in October.

It could help more than 24,000 refugees who had already been vetted and approved by the United States but would have been barred by the 120-day freeze on refugee admissions, said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, a resettlement agency.
GENEVA (AP) - U.N. officials say more than 52,000 Venezuelans have applied for asylum this year, nearly twice the number in all of 2016, and are urging all sides to renounce violence amid a political crisis.

The U.N. refugee agency says the United States is the top destination for Venezuelan asylum-seekers, with 18,300 requests, followed by 12,960 in Brazil and 11,735 in Argentina.

UNHCR said the overall figures "represent only a fraction of the total number" of people who may need international protection. It estimates that many of the 300,000 Venezuelans in neighboring Colombia may not register as asylum-seekers and "opt to remain in an irregular situation."

Separately Friday, the U.N. human rights office noted figures from the Venezuelan Attorney General's office indicating 92 people have died in connection with protests since April 1.
GURNEE, Ill. (AP) - Illinois officials said Friday some 6,800 buildings have been affected by "unprecedented" flooding north of Chicago, and the damage is expected to worsen this weekend as water flows down rivers into the state from Wisconsin.

"Folks think 'Well it's not raining anymore. Things are just fine, they're getting better.' Well they're not," Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said following a tour of the area. "This is dangerous, and the danger has not gone away."

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner later issued a state disaster proclamation for Lake, McHenry and Kane counties.

Floodwaters continued to impact Gurnee, Ill. on Thursday, July 13, 2017 as seen in this drone photo. Officials said Lake County Emergency Operations Center is actively monitoring river levels and weather forecasts, and coordinating with local jurisdictions to ensure resources are getting to where they need to go. (Mark Welsh/Daily Herald via AP)

Rauner said the proclamation will ensure the state continues to provide whatever assistance is needed now and in the coming days as the affected counties begin recovery efforts.

The governor also directed the Illinois Emergency Management Agency to activate the State Emergency Operations Center as needed to coordinate any requests for assistance from flood-impacted communities.

The National Weather Service says the Des Plaines River and Fox River could crest on Saturday. Rauner said that could prompt local officials to evacuate some neighborhoods and communities.

Heavy rainfall that hit the Midwest on Wednesday knocked out power to thousands and closed roadways. Power outages caused by flooding forced the evacuation Wednesday of Lake Forest Hospital in suburban Chicago. Power was restored that night, but Northwestern Medicine says the hospital remains closed Friday while damaged infrastructure is restored.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker declared a state of emergency in Kenosha, Racine, and Walworth counties on Thursday, and the National Guard was helping local officials go door-to-door to check on people.

Lake County, Illinois, issued a disaster declaration, and Rauner said Friday his office is assessing whether a state declaration is needed.

Of the roughly 6,800 buildings that have been affected, about 2,100 are submerged - many along the Chain O'Lakes, Lake County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor said. Officials predict there could be 5,800 submerged structures before the waters recede, he said.

Lawlor said the flooding is expected to be worse than the damage in 2013, the last time the area was hit, because rains "came down right on top of us."

"This is an unprecedented flood," he said.

Illinois Emergency Management Agency Director James Joseph said rivers could crest at record levels. Joseph said the agency is working with local officials in Lake, McHenry, Kane, Cook and parts of DuPage counties.

Floodwaters continued to impact Gurnee, Ill. on Thursday, July 13, 2017 as seen in this drone photo. Officials said Lake County Emergency Operations Center is actively monitoring river levels and weather forecasts, and coordinating with local jurisdictions to ensure resources are getting to where they need to go. (Mark Welsh/Daily Herald via AP)

Floodwaters continued to impact Gurnee, Ill. on Thursday, July 13, 2017 as seen in this drone photo. Officials said Lake County Emergency Operations Center is actively monitoring river levels and weather forecasts, and coordinating with local jurisdictions to ensure resources are getting to where they need to go. (Mark Welsh/Daily Herald via AP)

Sandbags are in place Thursday, July 13, 2017 at the businesses along Old Grand Avenue in Gurnee, Il. Flood waters from the Des Plaines river continue to rise to near record levels.(Paul Valade/Daily Herald via AP)

Jorge Morales and his son Ariel, try to clear drains in front of his home in Mundelein, Ill., Wednesday morning, July 12, 2017. Flooding hit the Chicago suburb as storms moved through the area. (Paul Valade/Daily Herald via AP)
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) - The medical charity Doctors Without Borders is condemning the latest attack on one of its clinics in South Sudan.

The aid group also known by its French acronym MSF says the armed robbery by several men in Pibor injured two team members early Thursday and forced some staffers to relocate. Some workers were threatened with guns, and office equipment was stolen.

A separate statement by the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan says peacekeepers early Thursday rescued more than a dozen aid workers in Pibor who came under "heavy fire from unknown gunmen." The statement says about 40 attackers were involved and the aid workers were evacuated from the compound unharmed.

Aid workers have faced widespread insecurity amid South Sudan's civil war, which is well into its fourth year.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Officials in South Africa say three lions that escaped from the country's biggest wildlife park have been shot and killed.

The national parks service said Friday that a farmer near Kruger National Park killed one lion and wounded another after a cow carcass was found on his farm. It says park staff in a helicopter located the remaining lions and decided to kill them rather than dart and return them to the park as originally hoped.

Officials say the uninjured lion had to be killed partly because lions that eat cattle develop a taste for livestock and could pose a bigger threat to humans.

TimesLIVE, a news website, quotes parks spokeswoman Janine Raftopoulos as saying three lions had escaped Sunday, not four as previously thought.
NOTTINGHAM, England (AP) - South Africa came through two difficult periods to reach 309-6 against England at stumps on Day 1 of the second test on Friday, suggesting the Proteas' gamble to bat first in difficult conditions may have paid off.

South Africa was 66-2 and 235-6 before fighting its way back both times and edging the opening day on a Trent Bridge pitch where runs may be hard to come by.

First, a 113-run partnership between Hashim Amla (78) and Quinton de Kock (68) took the Proteas out of early trouble and to 179-2 at tea.

South Africa's Hashim Amla, right, sees his drive stopped by England's Alastair Cook, bottom left, during day one of the second cricket Test match between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England Friday July 14, 2017. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

Stuart Broad (3-47) and Ben Stokes (2-77) combined to take four wickets early in the final session for England but South Africa came back again with an unbroken 74-run stand between bowlers Vernon Philander (54 not out) and Chris Morris.

Returning South Africa captain Faf du Plessis trusted his batting lineup on a cloudy morning at Trent Bridge, choosing to bat first in a calculated gamble.

England got what it wanted after skipper Joe Root said he would have bowled anyway, yet despite having the South Africans on the ropes early in the final session, when De Kock fell first ball after tea, the home team couldn't force home its advantage.

England's seamers have had big recent success at Trent Bridge, including bowling Australia out for 60 in less than 20 overs in the Ashes two years ago, and James Anderson and Broad both have their career-best figures at the ground.

That made Du Plessis' decision to bat first a debatable one, and South Africa had to negotiate an abundance of swing from England's quick bowlers throughout the day - and also a 20-minute rain delay just before lunch.

Anderson removed opener Dean Elgar (6) early via a sharp diving catch at backward point by Liam Dawson. Heino Kuhn weathered an early storm, when he got hit on the helmet, but Broad bowled him for 34 with a delivery that seamed back a long way.

Amla became the fourth South African past 8,000 tests runs. Alongside him De Kock, promoted up to No. 4, played his attacking game, hitting eight fours and scoring quickly to take the Proteas to a position of control after two sessions.

England's persistence paid off in a 15-over spell after tea, beginning when De Kock tried to play expansively to the first ball of the session from Broad and edged to Alastair Cook at first slip.

Amla, Du Plessis and Temba Bavuma followed, with Broad and Stokes swinging the ball both ways in a period of complete dominance for England.

Philander and Morris swung the momentum back South Africa's way in the last hour, though, with Philander collecting 36 of his 54 runs in boundaries.

England leads the four-test series after a convincing 211-run win at Lord's in the first game.

England's Mark Wood, left, looks on as South Africa's Hashim Amla scores runs during day one of the second cricket Test match between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England Friday July 14, 2017. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

South Africa's Hashim Amla plays a shot during day one of the second cricket Test match between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England Friday July 14, 2017. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

England's Stuart Broad, left, celebrates dismissing South Africa's Hashim Amla during day one of the second cricket Test match between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England Friday July 14, 2017. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

South Africa's Quinton de Kock plays a shot during day one of the second cricket Test match between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England Friday July 14, 2017. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

South Africa's Hashim Amla plays a shot during day one of the second cricket Test match between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England Friday July 14, 2017. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

South Africa's Heino Kuhn attempts to avoid a delivery off England's Stuart Broad during day one of the second cricket Test match between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England Friday July 14, 2017. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

South Africa's Heino Kuhn avoids a delivery during day one of the second cricket Test match between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England Friday July 14, 2017. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

England's James Anderson celebrates taking the wicket of South Africa's Dean Elgar during day one of the second cricket Test match between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England Friday July 14, 2017. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

England's James Anderson bowls against South Africa during day one of the second cricket Test match between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England Friday July 14, 2017. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
LONDON (AP) - An American doctor who specializes in conditions such as that affecting Charlie Gard will travel to Britain next week to assess the critically ill baby.

High Court Judge Nicholas Francis said Friday he is "open-minded about the evidence" to come after the visit of Dr. Michio Hirano of Columbia University.

Hirano's research focuses on mitochondrial diseases and genetic myopathies and he has treated others with conditions similar to that involving the 11-month-old.

The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, right, arrive at the High Court in London, Friday, July 14, 2017. The parents of the 11-month old, who has a rare genetic condition and brain damage, returned to court Friday hoping for a fresh analysis of their wish to take baby Charlie to the United States for medical treatment. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Gard's parents have been locked in a legal battle with Britain's most famous children's hospital over whether trying an experimental treatment is in Charlie's best interest. The case attracted international attention after President Donald Trump and Pope Francis weighed in.

They have been fighting to take him to the United States for treatment. But after much legal wrangling, Hirano is now coming to them.

Hirano will assess Charlie, meet with his current immediate care team and other specialists, including a doctor from the Vatican children's hospital. Charlie's mother, Connie Yates, fought to attend and was given permission.

"We'll have to wait and see the evidence," Judge Francis said. He promised to rule by July 25.

Charlie suffers from mitochondrial depletion syndrome, a rare genetic disease that has left him brain-damaged and unable to breathe unaided.

Specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital have fought the parents' bid for treatment because they don't think it will help and may cause him pain. The hospital says Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity.

A succession of courts has backed the hospital, but the case returned to the High Court Thursday after claims of new evidence and the high-profile interventions

Hirano, who testified in the case via video-link in the case on Thursday, said it was worth trying treatment that has only recently emerged.

Hirano's name only appeared in public on Friday, as a court order had previously blocked its mention.

The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, with a toy monkey in his jacket pocket, arrive at the High Court in London, Friday, July 14, 2017. The parents of the 11-month old, who has a rare genetic condition and brain damage, returned to court Friday hoping for a fresh analysis of their wish to take baby Charlie to the United States for medical treatment. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard, Connie Yates and Chris Gard arrive at the High Court in London, Friday, July 14, 2017. The parents of the 11-month old, who has a rare genetic condition and brain damage, returned to court Friday hoping for a fresh analysis of their wish to take baby Charlie to the United States for medical treatment. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, right, arrive at the High Court in London, Friday, July 14, 2017. The parents of the 11-month old, who has a rare genetic condition and brain damage, returned to court Friday hoping for a fresh analysis of their wish to take baby Charlie to the United States for medical treatment. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard, Connie Yates, center left, and Chris Gard, center right, look to cross the street as they arrive at the High Court in London, Friday, July 14, 2017. The parents of the 11-month old, who has a rare genetic condition and brain damage, returned to court Friday hoping for a fresh analysis of their wish to take baby Charlie to the United States for medical treatment. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard, Connie Yates and Chris Gard arrive at the High Court in London, Friday, July 14, 2017. The parents of the 11-month old, who has a rare genetic condition and brain damage, returned to court Friday hoping for a fresh analysis of their wish to take baby Charlie to the United States for medical treatment. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard, Connie Yates and Chris Gard arrive at the High Court in London, Friday, July 14, 2017. The parents of the 11-month old, who has a rare genetic condition and brain damage, returned to court Friday hoping for a fresh analysis of their wish to take the critically ill child to the United States for medical treatment. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard, Connie Yates and Chris Gard arrive at the High Court in London, Friday, July 14, 2017. The parents of the 11-month old, who has a rare genetic condition and brain damage, returned to court Friday hoping for a fresh analysis of their wish to take the critically ill child to the United States for medical treatment. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
IRVINE, Scotland (AP) - It started with a shout of "FORE LEFT!" and ended with a putt from about 7 feet that didn't come close to finding the cup.

Rory McIlroy is making an earlier-than-planned journey south to Royal Birkdale for next week's British Open after missing the cut by two strokes at the Scottish Open following a 1-under 71 in his second round on Friday. He was 10 shots off the lead after two days that exposed the current frailties in his wedge play and putting.

It was the world No. 4's third missed cut in his last four events - he also failed to make the weekend at the U.S. Open and last week's Irish Open - and the latest low point in an injury-affected 2017 for the four-time major winner.

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays his second shot to the 8th hole during day two of the Scottish Open at Dundonald Links, Troon, Scotland, Friday, July 14, 2017. Rory McIlroy is making an earlier-than-planned journey to Royal Birkdale for next week's British Open after missing the cut at the Scottish Open following a 1-under 71 in his second round on Friday. He was 10 shots off the lead after two days that exposed the current frailties in his wedge play and putting. (Mark Runnacles/PA via AP)

"I'm just waiting for something," McIlroy said. "Waiting for something, some sort of spark. Just something to go right, and the last couple of weeks haven't been like that. Just got to keep plugging away and hopefully it turns around next week.

"I would have loved to have played more rounds going into not just the Open but the rest of the year. But I'm sort of trying to learn as I go along."

With little wind protecting Dundonald Links, McIlroy encountered benign conditions in his bid to make up for an opening-round 74 in the British Open warmup but still came up short.

The Northern Irishman pulled his tee shot on No. 1 into a gorse bush, only to get a free drop - because the ball was ruled to have been embedded - and get up and down from a greenside bunker. He tapped in for birdie on Nos. 3 and 5, both par fives, and got into red figures for the first time this week with a close-range birdie at No. 7.

However, he needed two shots to get out of a greenside bunker on No. 13, eventually making double-bogey there for the second straight day, and went down the par-5 18th knowing he needed at least a birdie. McIlroy pulled his approach from 220 yards into the light rough, chipped to 7 feet, but his birdie putt back didn't break and missed by some distance.

"It was a terrible putt," said McIlroy, who has been working hard on his putting.

Of his seven birdies this week, five of them came on par fives.

McIlroy said he would be heading to Birkdale early to get in some practice rounds on one of the hardest courses on the Open rotation.

"I'd be much more worried if I went out there and shot a couple of 76s and I'm nowhere near trying to make the cut or whatever," McIlroy said. "The difference between shooting 1-under par and 4- or 5-under par isn't that much of a difference.

"I feel like I'm more than capable of going down there and shooting a couple of even pars or shooting something in the 60s and getting myself into contention."

Padraig Harrington (68), Callum Shinkwin (68) and Alexander Knappe (65) shared the lead, with Ian Poulter and Andrew Dodt a shot back after 69s. Rickie Fowler, playing in McIlroy's group, shot 70 and was two strokes off the lead.

Other players to miss the cut, which was at 1 under, were defending champion Alex Noren, Americans Patrick Reed and Jason Dufner, and former No. 1 Martin Kaymer.

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Steve Douglas is at www.twitter.com/sdouglas80
TOKYO (AP) - Japan star Shinji Kagawa has extended his contract with Borussia Dortmund by two years until June 2020.

Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc says "Shinji feels a very strong connection to this club, the city and our fans."

The 28-year-old Kagawa, now in his second stint at Dortmund after two seasons at Manchester United, has scored 36 goals and set up 33 in 127 Bundesliga games for the side.

FILE - In this Wednesday, April 12, 2017 file photo, Dortmund's Shinji Kagawa celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Champions League quarterfinal first leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and AS Monaco in Dortmund, Germany. Japan star Shinji Kagawa has extended his contract with Borussia Dortmund contract by two years until June 2020. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)

The attacking midfielder won league titles with Dortmund in 2011 and 2012, and the German Cup in 2012 and 2017.

He has netted 28 times in 87 appearances for Japan.

Dortmund announced his contract extension Friday after landing in Tokyo for its summer tour.
A federal jury has awarded $7million in damages to the family of a woman killed by two police officers in Madison, Wisconsin, on Thursday, saying the officers used unreasonable force.

The civil lawsuit was brought by relatives of 26-year-old Ashley DiPiazza, who was shot to death in 2014 while holed up at her apartment with a gun.

Dane County prosecutors previously cleared the officers, Justin Bailey and Gary Pihlaja, of any criminal liability during the incident in which they shot DiPiazza 11 times.

A federal jury awarded Ashley DiPiazza's family $7million in damages after she was shot 11 times by two Madison, Wisconsin police officers while she was holding a gun to her head

A federal jury found that Wisconsin police officers Justin Bailey (left) and Gary Pihlaja used unreasonable force when trying to subdue DiPiazza while she held a gun to her own head

During the trial, DiPiazza's family said that the officers shot her even though she threatened no one but herself. Their lawsuit claimed that the police had violated DiPiazza's constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizures when they killed her, reports the Wisconsin State Journal.

In 2014, police were called to DiPiazza's apartment when her boyfriend claimed that they had had a heated, 'relationship-ending' argument and that DiPiazza was drinking and in possession of his gun.

When the officers arrived, DiPiazza came out of her bedroom with the gun pointed at her own head. After attempting to talk DiPiazza down for 30 minutes with the help of a negotiator, Bailey and Pihlaja  each of whom had limited cover  fatally shot her.

The officers testified that they shot DiPiazza when she emerged from a bedroom with a gun to her head and ignored their commands to drop the weapon.

Ultimately, the jury decided that the officers had used unreasonable force when trying to subdue DiPiazza and declared that her family should receive $4million in compensatory damages, with an additional $3million in punitive damages.

DiPiazza's father, Joe (pictured with her mother, Tami), said that the jury 'ruled loud and clear for justice' for their daughter the verdict was read

Unlike during criminal trials, the DiPiazza family only had to convince the jury that their claims were probably true, instead of having to offer proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, that they were true.

'The jury ruled loud and clear for justice for Ashley DiPiazza,' said DiPiazza's father, Joe, following the verdict.

In contrast, Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, told the State Journal that the verdict actually send 'a message that officers have to wait to be fired upon or have a gun directed at them before taking action to protect themselves,' which flies in the face of their training.

Palmer added that the verdict 'sends a disconcerting message to officers because this will lead to second-guessing that puts officers at risk.'

In addition to being cleared of criminal liability by the state, both Bailey and Gary Pihlaja were cleared by an internal Madison police review that stated that neither officer violated departmental policy during the shooting incident.
CAIRO (AP) - Saudi Arabia's official news agency says attackers have killed a border guard soldier and wounded another in Qatif, an eastern province heavily populated by the kingdom's minority Shiites.

SPA says the attack took place late on Thursday.

Friday's report identified the slain soldier as Mohammed Hazai. It gave no further details but said that authorities are investigating.

The attack came days after Saudi Arabia executed four Shiites convicted on terrorism charges for attacks on the police and their role in violent protests.

The Interior Ministry said the four were executed for incidents that took place in Qatif, home to the town of al-Awamiya, where there has been a surge in violence since May between Shiite militants and security forces who are demolishing the town's historic center.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump and the investigation into his campaign's potential ties to Russia (all times local):

7:15 p.m.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee says he'd like Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer Rinat Akhmetshin to testify before his panel.

FILE In this file photo taken on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013, Vice President of Crocus Group Emin Agalarov, left, Miss Universe 2013 Gabriela Isler, from Venezuela, center, and pageant owner Donald Trump, of the United States attend the final of the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, Russia. A billionaire real estate mogul, his pop singer son Emin Agalarov, a music promoter, a property lawyer and Russia's prosecutor general are unlikely figures who surfaced in emails released by Donald Trump Jr. as his father's presidential campaign sought potentially damaging information in 2016 from Russia about his opponent, Hillary Clinton. (Irina Bujor/Kommersant Photo via AP, file) RUSSIA OUT

California congressman Adam Schiff made the comments after The Associated Press reported that Akhmetshin attended a meeting with President Donald Trump's son, son-in-law and campaign chairman last year.

Emails that Trump Jr. released earlier this week indicate that a Russian lawyer also attended the meeting and was there to pass along damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

The Intelligence panel is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign and possible links to Trump's campaign.

Schiff says shifting explanations by Trump Jr. about the meeting are "a deeply worrying trend."

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7:12 p.m.

A lawyer for former Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo says he is in talks with the Senate Intelligence Committee to possibly testify or turn over documents as part of its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Caputo testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Friday. He told lawmakers that he heard no talk of Russia during his time on the campaign.

Lawyer Dennis Vacco says he's negotiating with the Senate panel over a "broad and expansive" email request.

Caputo says he hasn't received requests from the Justice Department's special counsel, who is also investigating the meddling. But he says he'll answer if they call and adds: "I'll do whatever it takes to clear up this Russian collusion delusion. I'm happy to participate in any investigation."

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6:30 p.m.

A former Trump campaign official says he has told the House Intelligence Committee that he "never heard the word Russia" during his time on President Donald Trump's campaign.

The closed session is part of the panel's investigation into Russian interference in the election and possible connections to Trump's campaign.

Michael Caputo says he testified voluntarily in an effort to clear his name. He says he and his wife have received death threats since he's been connected with the investigation.

Caputo served as a Trump adviser and oversaw the New York state campaign. He lived years ago in Russia, and worked for the Russian-owned Gazprom Media after returning to the United States.

Caputo says he was never asked about his time in the country while on the campaign.

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5:24 p.m.

One of Jared Kushner's lawyers says she's stepping aside from Russia-related investigations and turning over that portfolio to criminal defense attorney Abbe Lowell.

Jamie Gorelick said Friday that she remains part of the legal team of President Donald Trump's son-in-law, and will continue to help Lowell. She says while she'll be helping Kushner on questions of ethics compliance and the security clearance process, Lowell will be handling Russia investigations.

Congressional committees and Special Counsel Robert Mueller are investigating potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Mueller previously work at the same law firm as Gorelick and took three partners with him to join his team.

Once that happened, Gorelick says she advised Kushner to get independent legal advice on whether he wanted to stay with her and her team.

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12:05 p.m.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence committee says reports that a second Russian person was in a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. last summer "adds another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting."

Rep. Adam Schiff of California says Trump Jr.'s shifting explanations "paint a portrait of consistent dissembling and deceit."

A Russian-American lobbyist says he attended the June 2016 meeting with President Donald Trump's son. The detail marks another shift in the account of the meeting, which was described as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republican's White House campaign. Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his participation to The Associated Press on Friday.

Akhmetshin has been reported to have ties to Russian intelligence agencies, though he denies ever working as an intelligence agent.

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9:50 a.m.

House Democrats are renewing calls for a vote on an independent commission to investigate Russia's election meddling and ties to the Trump administration.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California also says that presidential adviser Jared Kushner's security clearance should be revoked.

Pelosi and other top House Democrats spoke at a news conference Friday insisting they would try to force votes on the issue on the House floor - although their ability to do so is limited.

Pelosi said that "House Democrats are not going to let the Republicans off the hook for their complicity, ... They have become enablers of the violations of our Constitution, the attack on the integrity of our elections."

She added that "House Republicans will have to answer for their actions."

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9:40 a.m.

A Russian-American lobbyist says he attended a June 2016 meeting with President Donald Trump's son that was billed as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republican campaign.

Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his participation to The Associated Press Friday. His disclosure marks another shift in the account of the meeting.

Donald Trump Jr. did not disclose Akhmetshin's presence in statements and emails he released on the meeting earlier this week.

Emails posted by Trump Jr. show that he was told by an associate that the meeting was part of a Russian government effort to help Donald Trump in the election. The associate who helped arrange the meeting told Trump Jr. that the lawyer had damaging information about Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and current White House senior adviser, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting.

---

9 a.m.

President Donald Trump's campaign data and digital director says he will speak with the House intelligence committee later this month as part of its Russia probe.

Brad Parscale says in a statement to The Associated Press he's "unaware of any Russian involvement" in the data and digital operations of Trump's campaign. He says he will appear voluntarily before the panel.

Rep. Adam Schiff is the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee. Schiff says lawmakers are reviewing whether the campaign worked with Russians in any way, including distributing "fake news."

Parscale says the campaign "used the exact same digital marketing strategies that are used every day by corporate America."

Trump's campaign paid Parscale's firm more than $90 million to advertise on social media, analyze data and perform other functions.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Poland's most powerful politician insisted Friday that "radical changes" are necessary to heal the nation's judiciary and vowed to push ahead despite vehement protests from Poland's opposition and European bodies.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the ruling populist Law and Justice party, was referring at a news conference to new regulations that give lawmakers power over the body which chooses judges and to a draft law that would empower the justice minister to appoint or dismiss Supreme Court justices.

Earlier, the party had put its loyalists on another top court, the Constitutional Tribunal, and took control of state-owned media.

Head of the ruling Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczynski speaks during a press conference, defending his party's proposals for changes in the judiciary system, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, July 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

The opposition and some European politicians say these moves snuffed out judicial independence and violated democracy and the rule of law.

Under the euroskeptic party, Poland already is subject to a European Union procedure reviewing the government's dedication to European values.

Kaczynski, a lawyer, contended that the judiciary sector has not been reformed since communist times, lacks moral principles, is inefficient and needs younger personnel.

"You cannot change that without far-reaching moves, without radical changes," Kaczynski said. "What we need to do, we will do."

He insisted the changes were in the public interest and fulfilled the party's election campaign promises. Law and Justice won the 2015 elections and controls the parliament. It enjoys steady support of above 30 percent of voters. Critics say that is chiefly due to the party's generous program of social benefits to the poorest.

The head of the Supreme Court, Malgorzata Gersdorf, who was member of the anti-communist Solidarity movement in the 1980s, has protested the proposed changes as going in the wrong direction and has defended the "highest level of professionalism" of the judges.

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This story has been corrected to say Kaczynski spoke of "radical changes" not "radical actions."

Head of the ruling Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczynski speaks during a press conference, defending his party's proposals for changes in the judiciary system, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, July 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - A rapper arrested in Alabama after a shooting that injured more than two dozen people in Arkansas was being returned there Friday to face charges in another shooting.

Court and jail records showed Ricky Hampton signed papers agreeing to return to Arkansas. He was removed from the county jail in Birmingham, Alabama, at 2:30 a.m. Friday, and was booked in a jail in Forrest City, Arkansas, hours later.

Also known as Finese 2Tymes, the 25-year-old performer from Memphis, Tennessee, was arrested in Birmingham on July 2 at a rap show held one day after the shooting in Arkansas.

Records show Hampton was charged with aggravated assault, illegal gun possession, attempted battery, making terroristic threats and criminal mischief in a shooting that occurred days before the Little Rock shooting.

Federal authorities said Hampton screamed at someone he believed was blocking his way on June 25 as Hampton was leaving a concert in Forrest City, Arkansas. He allegedly opened fire at a car, striking someone in the neck.

The gunfire days later at Little Rock's Power Ultra Lounge left 28 people hurt while Hampton was performing.

Little Rock police have made no arrests in the nightclub shootings, but they previously described Hampton as a "person of interest" in the case.

Hampton also faces a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with the Forrest City shooting.

Court records in Alabama show Hampton did not have a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. He declined to comment on the Little Rock shooting Friday to reporters as he was being transported to the St. Francis County jail in Forrest City.

The Little Rock nightclub has since been shut down during a review of possible violations of its liquor license.

Arrested by federal officers in Birmingham at a club where he was headlining a rap show the day after the Arkansas shooting, Hampton was traveling in a Mercedes-Benz where two pistols and an assault rifle were found, authorities said.

Someone writing on Hampton's Facebook page posted a message Thursday saying the performer would make a live appearance from his cell, but no video was posted. The message was deleted a few hours after Hampton was transferred from the Birmingham jail.
BERLIN (AP) - A German lawmaker says Turkey is blocking a planned visit next week by parliamentarians to German soldiers stationed at a NATO airbase.

Wolfgang Hellmich, the chairman of parliament's defense committee, told news agency dpa Friday that the German Foreign Ministry informed lawmakers that Ankara had asked for a delay in the visit, citing the state of the two countries' bilateral relations.

The visit by lawmakers to the base in Konya was planned for Monday. NATO AWACS surveillance planes are based there, and part of their crew is German.

Germany decided in June to move reconnaissance and refueling aircraft stationed at Turkey's Incirlik base, helping the international campaign against the Islamic State group, to Jordan after Ankara refused to let lawmakers visit German air crews there.
DETROIT (AP) - Michigan's largest county is creating a special unit to look at possible wrongful convictions, primarily in murder cases.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said the move isn't in response to any rash of bad cases in the Detroit area, and she predicts the "overwhelming majority" of convictions will stand.

"No prosecutor wants to be a party to knowingly convicting or keeping someone in prison that is either factually not guilty or a case we can't sustain," Worthy told The Associated Press this week. "We should not be afraid to have a unit like this."

FILE - In this April 20, 2015, file photo, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy speaks during an interview in Detroit. Worthy, the prosecutor in Michigan's largest county, is creating a special unit to look at possible wrongful convictions. Worthy says it's not in response to any rash of bad cases, but that no prosecutor wants to keep an innocent person in prison. Worthy tells The Associated Press that an earlier conviction integrity unit was disbanded in 2013 because of a lack of money. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

An earlier "conviction integrity unit" was disbanded in 2013 because of a lack of money. Since then, cases presented by lawyers for the convicted have been assigned to staff members, who already are busy handling appeals.

There lately have been some astonishing reversals. In June, a Detroit man who spent 40 years in prison was released after prosecutors agreed that hair evidence in a 1976 homicide was flawed. A few weeks earlier, another Detroit man in prison for 25 years was released when tests showed his mother's gun couldn't be linked to a 1992 slaying.

Worthy is hiring four lawyers, including one who will lead the unit, and two investigators. They will review petitions from prisoners as well as cases presented by lawyers who step forward with claims of new evidence.

"We are not always going to agree," Worthy said.

David Moran, head of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school, said he welcomes the news.

"I'm hoping there will be real independence within the unit so the pressure will be on them to get it right and not to protect the reputation of their colleagues," he said.

Moran said prosecutors sometimes have waited for judges to order them to reopen cases instead of working closely with attorneys to quickly get at the truth.

Worthy said collaboration will be important; it's even in the job posting for the head of the new unit.

"We want to be able to turn around these cases a little bit faster," she said. "We want investigators that are fully focused. ... Investigators may have to go out all over Michigan, or across this country, interview people and try to put these cases back together."

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Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwhiteap
Two prominent African-American pastors have filed suit against Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association, claiming soda manufacturers knowingly deceived customers about the health risks of sugar-sweetened beverages.

They say soda marketing has made it more difficult to protect the health of their largely black, D.C.-based parishioners.

The Washington Post reports the complaint was filed Thursday in D.C. Superior Court on behalf of Praxis Project, a public health group, and the pastors.

They are: William Lamar, the senior pastor at D.C.'s historic Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church; and Delman Coates, the pastor at Maryland's Mount Ennon Baptist Church.

Two prominent African-American pastors are suing Coca-Cola say soda marketing has made it more difficult to protect the health of their largely black, D.C.-based parishioners

The lawsuit alleges that Coca-Cola and the ABA ran an intentional campaign to confuse consumers about the causes of obesity. In a statement, Coca-Cola dismissed the pastors' charges and the merits of the earlier lawsuit, which was filed and then withdrawn in California by the same legal team.

'The allegations here are likewise legally and factually meritless, and we will vigorously defend against them,' the statement said. 'The Coca-Cola Company understands that we have a role to play in helping people reduce their sugar consumption.'

The ABA also called the allegations in the lawsuit 'unfounded.'

The pastors see things differently. Lamar said he is tired of presiding over funerals for parishioners who died of heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

Coates said he has seen members of his congregation give their infants bottles filled with sugary drinks and that it has 'become really clear to me that we're losing more people to the sweets than to the streets.'

'There's a great deal of misinformation in our communities, and I think that's largely a function of these deceptive marketing campaigns,' Coates said.
FOIX, France (AP) - After two hard days of intense racing in the Pyrenees, Tour de France riders who needed a break will be disappointed.

The stage on Saturday does not take place in altitude but features a difficult finale hard enough to make legs suffer. The silver lining to that is riders won't be forced to eat sheep intestines, the local specialty in the Aveyron district.

Here's a sporting, gastronomic and cultural guide to the 181-5 kilometer (113-mile) stage from Blagnac to Rodez:

Spectators watch the riders arrive for the start of the thirteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 101 kilometers (62.8 miles) with start in Saint-Girons and finish in Foix, France, Sunday, July 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

BAGUETTE AND BUTTER: After two climbs in the final 60 kilometers, the punchy finish is likely to favor breakaway riders who can climb over short distance.

The finish line is atop the Cote de Saint-Pierre, a 570-meter sharp ascent with an average gradient of 9.6 percent.

The peloton will start the day in Blagnac, home of aircraft maker Airbus. Rodez is famous for its museum dedicated to painter Pierre Soulages.

PLAT DU JOUR: If you can swallow your fear, you can swallow Tripoux, too. Made of sheep or veal's stomach and stuffed with ham, garlic, parsley and veal tripe, this local delicacy is eaten all day long ... and everywhere: A mountain-climber from Rodez once celebrated his trek to one of the Himalayas' peaks by treating himself with a box of tripoux at the summit.

Once the sheep's stomach has been cut in stripes and the stuffing rolled up inside, tripoux are cooked in veal stock aromatized with wine.

HISTORY: The home of French and European aeronautical industry, Blagnac was the site of the first Concorde flight in 1969. Three years later, the first Airbus took off from the same hub in the outskirts of Toulouse.

CULTURE: Pierre Soulages, Rodez's most famous painter, has a museum dedicated to his work in his hometown. Soulages is mainly known for his black abstract paintings. The artist and his wife have made a donation of about 500 paintings displayed in the permanent exhibition.

VIN DU JOUR: Entraygues Le Fel. This appellation for red, white and rose wines cultivated on rocky soils and terraces is made along the banks of the Lot river, north of Rodez. The whites are ideal during summer with their floral and stony mineral flavors.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Two months ago I was lying on a bed in hospital, I could not walk." - Stage 13 winner Warren Barguil, who suffered a slight fracture to his pelvis in April during the Tour de Romandie.

STAT OF THE DAY: 6.8 - in kilograms, the minimum weight of a Tour de France bike.

DESSERT: Close to a genoise sponge cake with powder sugar on top, the massepain aveyronnais is best enjoyed with a custard cream. It's a classic in the area and locals pass the recipe from one generation to another.

NEXT ORDER: Stage 15 on Sunday from Laissac-Severac L'Eglise to Le Puy-en-Velay in Massif Central is a spectacular 189.5-kilometer (118-mile) ride through Aubrac on a rolling terrain with constant up and downs. Four climbs are on the riders' menu and the rest day on Monday will be very much welcomed.

Britain's Luke Rowe, right, and Vasil Kiryenka of Belarus, both teammates of Britain's Chris Froome, wait to go on the podium prior to the thirteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 101 kilometers (62.8 miles) with start in Saint-Girons and finish in Foix, France, Sunday, July 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
QUANTICO, Va. (AP) - A commanding officer at Parris Island who was fired after allegations of misconduct in the aftermath of a recruit's death faces a court-martial.

The U.S. Marine Corps' Training and Education Command said in a statement Thursday that Lt. Col. Joshua Kissoon will be arraigned at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. Kissoon is accused of failure to obey a lawful general order, making a false statement and conduct unbecoming an officer.

The Naval Criminal Investigation Service has said 20-year-old Raheel Siddiqui of Taylor, Michigan, died in 2016 after falling nearly 40 feet in a stairwell at the installation.

Kissoon was in charge of Siddiqui's battalion and was relieved of command. Officials have said Kissoon was not fired because of the Muslim recruit's death but the reason hasn't been made public.
BARTON, Md. (AP) - Days before young man's naked body was found in a Maryland state forest, and his girlfriend was found nearby, he opened a "transfer on death" account listing the woman as the beneficiary.

Court records describe the account and other details of the death in January of Alexander Stevens, which was ruled a homicide and remains unsolved.

Now, civil court records indicate police are investigating the attempted monetary transfer in connection with the death of the 24-year-old Frostburg man. In March, authorities ruled Stevens' death a homicide from "sharp force injuries to the neck," according to a Maryland State Police statement.

The Cumberland Times-News reports that a judge granted the request of Stevens' father to stop the transfer of more than $188,000. An attorney for Jay Stevens wrote that his son was "not of sound mind or capacity" when he opened the account. The document also says the "activity" of his son and girlfriend the night of his death had been planned for two weeks, with both of them "focused irrationally on this event."

Police said Stevens' girlfriend told officers they hiked to an overlook in the Savage River State Forest on the night of Jan. 3, and both fell off a cliff.

The woman said she thought Stevens was dead after the 33-foot fall, and left him below the cliff before breaking into a home where she called 911, according to transcripts of Garrett County emergency communications. She was taken to a hospital with a broken shoulder and a possible broken back.

The next day, Stevens' body was found on a logging road. The newspaper reported that in addition to his broken bones, his throat had been cut deeply, more than once.

As part of a state's attorney's request for any mental health records the woman may have, a state police investigator testified in May that she changed her account over the course of three interviews. A circuit court judge found no records that could legally be disclosed to investigators.

The Associated Press is not identifying the woman because she is not charged with any crime. Her attorney, Stephen Tully, declined to discuss any details, but said his client is going through a traumatic experience. "This is a difficult time," he said.

Court records state Jay Stevens told police that his son had been acting differently for several years.

"He'd grown his hair longer . was reading about religions, thinking about his place in society," Jay Stevens said. "I never, never, ever, ever thought that he was suicidal . I know my son . He had all these plans to do things."

In a phone interview last week with the Times-News, Jay Stevens said his son had built up his account by investing money he was given over time, including a large sum from a great-aunt who had no children.

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Information from: Cumberland (Md.) Times-News, http://www.times-news.com/timesnew.html
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - The Latest on the National Governors Association meeting in Rhode Island (all times local):

3:30 p.m.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has told American governors that barriers to trade between the two countries do not help working families, but kill growth.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, meets with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds at a National Governor's Association (NGA) special session "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" in Providence, R.I., on Friday, July 14, 2017. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Trudeau spoke Friday at a meeting in Rhode Island of the National Governors Association.

During his address, Trudeau said the North American Free Trade Agreement should be "modernized," as it has been in the past, and says he's confident the deal's renegotiation will be done to the benefit of all countries.

He called Canada America's "biggest best customer" and said it buys more from the U.S. than China, Japan and the United Kingdom combined.

More than 75 percent of Canada's exports and 98 percent of its oil exports go to the U.S.

Earlier in the day, he met privately with several governors.

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2:05 p.m.

Vice President Mike Pence has told governors of more than two dozen states that President Donald Trump believes the revised health care bill before the U.S. Senate is the "right bill at the right time to begin the end of Obamacare."

Pence spoke Friday at a National Governors Association meeting in Rhode Island. He says he and Trump look forward to the Senate taking up the bill as soon as next week. He urged governors to support it.

Several Democratic governors said earlier Friday that they oppose the bill. Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval also said he's told Pence he's concerned about the bill's cuts to Medicaid.

Pence is introducing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and says the Trump administration is looking forward to renegotiating NAFTA in a way that will equally benefit the U.S. and Canada.

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11 a.m.

Vice President Mike Pence will address U.S. governors in Rhode Island, and some of them say they'll be looking to speak with him about the latest Republican health care overhaul.

Pence and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are scheduled to speak at the National Governors Association meeting in Providence on Friday.

Some Democratic governors publicly criticized the revised health care bill, which was released Thursday.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock says Republicans in Congress are "still trying to put lipstick on a pig, but guess what? It's still a pig."

Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo says she plans to voice strong opposition to Pence.

Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval says he's already told Pence he's concerned about protecting people newly eligible for Medicaid. He plans to reiterate those concerns.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, meets with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds at a National Governor's Association (NGA) special session "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" in Providence, R.I., on Friday, July 14, 2017. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, meets with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Puerto Rico's New Progressive Party Gov. Ricardo Rossello addresses a Democratic Governors joint news conference during the National Governor's Association meeting to highlight the damaging impact they contend the pending Senate health care bill would have on their states at the second day of the NGA meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Delaware Democratic Gov. John Carney addresses a Democratic Governors joint news conference during the National Governor's Association meeting to highlight the damaging impact they contend the pending Senate healthcare bill would have on their states at the second day of the NGA meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, left to right, Louisiana Gov, John Edwards, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and Puerto Rico New Progressive Party Gov. Ricardo Rossello look on. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, meets with Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, speaks with Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, meets with Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, meets with Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Montana Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock addresses a Democratic Governors joint news conference during the National Governor's Association meeting to highlight the damaging impact they contend the pending Senate health care bill would have on their states at the second day of the NGA meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy looks on. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Delaware Democratic Gov. John Carney addresses a Democratic Governors joint news conference during the National Governor's Association meeting to highlight the damaging impact they contend the pending Senate health care bill would have on their states at the second day of the NGA meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock looks on. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo responds to a reporter's question as she addresses a Democratic Governors joint news conference during the National Governor's Association meeting to highlight the damaging impact they contend the pending Senate health care bill would have on their states at the second day of the NGA meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo smiles as she addresses a Democratic Governors joint news conference during the National Governor's Association meeting to highlight the damaging impact they contend the pending Senate health care bill would have on their states at the second day of the NGA meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, meets with Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, meets with Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, speaks with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, speaks with Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, speaks with Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, meets with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, left, chats with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, meets with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

Connecticut Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy addresses a Democratic Governors joint news conference during the National Governor's Association meeting to highlight the damaging impact they contend the pending Senate healthcare bill would have on their states at the second day of the NGA meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper addresses a Democratic Governors joint news conference during the National Governor's Association meeting to highlight the damaging impact they contend the pending Senate health care bill would have on their states at the second day of the NGA meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, left, and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock look on. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, speaks with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during a special session called "Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy" at the second day of the National Governors Association meeting Friday, July 14, 2017, in Providence, R.I. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) - An Iowa museum has opened a new Korean War exhibit that honors the state's veterans.

The Grout Museum District in Waterloo opened "The Cold War Ablaze: Iowans in the Korean War" exhibit on Friday, The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (http://bit.ly/2taw6jX ) reported.

The exhibit includes some historic background on the war, but focuses more on the individual experiences of Iowa's soldiers, sailors, Marines and Air Force personnel.

Paul Reuter served on the destroyer USS Robinson. Reuter was on the committee of Korean War veterans who helped with the exhibit.

"It's information for the general public, to realize what people went through," he said. "I went through it, was able to do my part for the country. And it brings back memories."

Eddie Cahill served on the USS Montrose, an attack transport troop carrier. He said the exhibit is "wonderful."

"When we came home it was a forgotten war," he said. "It really brings it to life."

The display includes a large map of Korea that's surrounded by a timeline of the war with the military dog tags of the state's nearly 570 veterans killed placed in order of the time they fell.

"We're hoping people can point out where they were serving," said Erin Dawson, Grout exhibits curator.

The museum is also looking for photographs of all the Iowa veterans killed in the war for a "Faces of the Fallen" exhibit, said Christopher Shackelford, historical content and program developer. The museum has photos of nearly 400 soldiers.

Dawson said many of the items featured in the exhibit, including military uniforms and weapons, have been donated or loaned by Iowa's veterans.

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Information from: Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, http://www.wcfcourier.com
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) - The Latest on the investigation into the killings of four Pennsylvania men (all times local):

1:10 a.m.

A marijuana dealer says in court documents he killed four men on his family's Pennsylvania farm, shooting one of them and crushing him with a backhoe and trying to set three of the bodies on fire in a metal bin.

This undated photo provided by the Bucks County District Attorney's Office in Doylestown, Pa., shows Sean Kratz of Philadelphia. Kratz was charged Friday, July 14, 2017, with 20 counts, including three counts of criminal homicide in the Friday, July 7, 2017, killings of three Pennsylvania men. Cosmo DiNardo, an admitted drug dealer with a history of mental illness was also charged in the July 5, 2017, killing of a fourth man. (Bucks County District Attorney's Office via AP)

Cosmo DiNardo confessed Thursday and says in court papers filed Friday he wanted to set the victims up when they went to the farm to buy marijuana from him.

His cousin also is charged in the killings of the men, who included a Maryland college student.

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3:50 p.m.

Two cousins facing homicide charges in the disappearances of four missing Pennsylvania men will be held without bail.

A judge ruled Friday that 20-year-old Cosmo DiNardo and 20-year-old Sean Kratz will be jailed separately after prosecutors argued the men were dangers to society.

DiNardo's lawyer said his client confessed to the murders in exchange for prosecutors agreeing to not seek the death penalty. He is charged in the deaths of all four men.

Prosecutors are still weighing whether to pursue capital punishment against Kratz, who is charged with three counts of homicide.

A criminal complaint alleges the defendants brought the victims to the farm ostensibly to buy marijuana from DiNardo.

All four victims were shot and at least three set afire.

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2:20 p.m.

Authorities say they have identified the remains of four young men who were killed on a Pennsylvania farm and found buried there in two separate pits.

A county prosecutor said Friday that the bodies of Tom Meo, Dean Finocchiaro and Mark Sturgis were found buried 12 feet deep in one common grave in Solebury. The remains of Jimi Taro Patrick were recovered from a separate location on the farm.

All four vanished a week ago.

Twenty-year-old Cosmo DiNardo is charged in all four killings, which took place on a farm owned by his parents. His cousin Sean Kratz is charged in the killing of the three men found in the same grave.

A criminal complaint alleges the defendants brought the victims to the farm ostensibly to buy marijuana from DiNardo.

All four were shot and least three set afire. Police say DiNardo ran over Meo with a backhoe after running out of ammunition shooting at him.

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1:10 p.m.

A man who confessed to killing four Pennsylvania men who disappeared last week has been charged with four counts of homicide. And a second man has been accused of participating in three of the slayings.

Prosecutors filed the charges Friday against Cosmo DiNardo and Sean Kratz.

DiNardo's lawyer admitted Thursday his client's role in the four slayings. Kratz was arrested later the same day in Philadelphia.

DiNardo faces four criminal homicide counts and Kratz three. They both face multiple counts of conspiracy, robbery and abuse of corpse.

All four victims are believed buried on a farm property in Solebury, Pennsylvania, owned by DiNardo's family.

DiNardo's lawyer says his client is remorseful and led investigators to the men's remains.

Sean Kratz's mom, Vanessa, declined to comment on arrest of her son.

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1:30 a.m.

A person with firsthand knowledge of a drug dealer's confession to killing four young Pennsylvania men says the man killed them after he felt cheated or threatened during three drug transactions and then burned their bodies.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the case against 20-year-old Cosmo DiNardo.

The details were provided after one of DiNardo's lawyers said Thursday that DiNardo had confessed to killing the men and had told investigators where their bodies were. The lawyer says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation.

The Bucks County District Attorney's Office had no response to the lawyer's comments Thursday night. Authorities are expected to release additional information Friday morning.

This undated photo provided by the Bucks County District Attorney's Office in Doylestown, Pa., shows Cosmo DiNardo, of Bensalem, Pa., an admitted drug dealer with a history of mental illness who was charged Friday, July 14, 2017, with the killings of four Pennsylvania men who vanished a week ago. A second suspect was also arrested and charged in three of the deaths. (Bucks County District Attorney's Office via AP)

A law enforcement official escorts Cosmo DiNardo to a vehicle Thursday, July 13, 2017, in Doylestown, Pa. Lawyer Paul Lang, a defense attorney for DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Defense lawyers Paul Lang, left, and Michael Parlow walk from the Bucks County Courthouse in, Doylestown, Pa., Thursday, July 13, 2017. Lang, a defense attorney for Cosmo DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
LA CROSSE  Xcel Energy customers in Wisconsin should soon see a refund on their electricity bills, though they still face possible rate increase in the coming year.

Wisconsin regulators on Thursday ordered the utility to refund about $9.4 million in excess revenues collected in 2016 through a one-time bill credit to be delivered later this year.

Xcel says the over-collection resulted primarily because demand did not meet projections that failed to predict the slump in frac sand mining and declining residential electricity use. Natural gas prices were also 6 percent below forecast, according to the companys filing.

In a break with past practice, the Public Service Commission adopted a proposal by Commissioner Mike Huebsch of West Salem to calculate a different refund rate for each customer class rather than a flat rate.

The exact amount of the credit has yet to be determined, but the PSC estimates it would be about 1.446 cents per kilowatt hour for residential customers based on the customers usage in the month of the refund. That works out to roughly $11.

The PSC authorizes investor-owned utilities to collect a set amount of money for the fuel required to generate a kilowatt-hour of electricity. If the amount collected exceeds the actual fuel costs by more than 2 percent, state law requires the utility to refund that money with interest. Likewise, if actual costs exceed forecasts, utilities are allowed to pass along a surcharge to customers.

The Citizens Utility Board, a non-profit group representing ratepayer interests, and the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group both supported the one-time summer refund.

Xcel has asked the PSC to approve a $24.7 million increase in electric revenues in 2018, and an additional $12 million in natural gas.

If approved, the company estimates that will translate into roughly $6 per month more on the average residential electric bill and $5.30 more on the average monthly gas bill.

The PSC will consider that request this fall. The schedule includes a public hearing in La Crosse, though no date has been set.

Xcel serves about 257,000 electricity and 112,000 natural gas customers in Wisconsin. According to PSC data, the average residential electricity bill is about $100 per month, third highest among the states largest investor-owned utilities, which range from about $95.50 to $117.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on the sentencing of a former nursing student for killing seven people at a Northern California vocational college (all times local):

12:05 p.m.

The attorney for a former nursing student who has been sentenced to life in prison for killing seven people at a Northern California vocational school says his client is "very, very sorry."

FILE - In this April 30, 2012 file photo, One Goh appears in an Alameda County courtroom in Oakland, Calif. Goh a disgruntled former nursing student who pleaded no contest to killing seven people at a Northern California vocational college five years ago will spend the rest of his life in prison following his sentencing Friday, July 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Public Defender David Klaus says One Goh told him he hopes that his sentence will bring "some degree of closure" to all those who were impacted by the 2012 shooting rampage at Oikos University in Oakland.

An Alameda County Superior Court judge on Friday gave Goh seven life sentences without the possibility of parole.

In May, Goh pleaded no contest to killing the seven and injuring three others during the April 2, 2012, shooting rampage. He had been eligible for the death penalty before his plea deal.

Goh shot a receptionist and six students and wounded three others.

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11:40 a.m.

A disgruntled former nursing student has been sentenced to life in prison for killing seven people at a Northern California vocational college in 2012.

KTVU reports (http://bit.ly/2uncNDF ) that an Alameda County Superior Court judge on Friday gave One Goh seven life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Goh had been eligible for the death penalty before his plea deal. In May, he pleaded no contest to killing the seven and injuring three others during an April 2, 2012, rampage at Oikos University in Oakland.

Goh walked onto the campus with a .45-caliber handgun. He took a receptionist to a classroom where he fatally shot her and six students and wounded three others.

He later surrendered to grocery store employees.

His lawyer, David Klaus, didn't return a call for comment Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Russian-American lobbyist who attended a meeting at Trump Tower last year is a former military officer long shadowed by allegations of connections to Russian intelligence.

Rinat Akhmetshin dismisses these allegations as a "smear campaign."

He says that before the fall of the Soviet Union he served in a military unit that was part of counterintelligence but that he was never formally trained as a spy.

In this photo provided by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Rinat Akhmetshin is photographed at the Newseum in Washington, June 13, 2016 after a documentary screening. Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee says reports that a second Russian person was in a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. last summer "adds another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting." Akhmetshin confirmed his participation to The Associated Press on Friday, July 14, 2017. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty via AP)

On Friday, he confirmed to The Associated Press his participation in the June 2016 meeting, which involved Donald Trump's oldest son, his son-in-law and the campaign chairman at the time.

Akhmetshin is known for having lobbied to weaken a U.S. law levying sanctions on Russians and has attracted congressional scrutiny over his political activities.
LAND O' LAKES, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on a sinkhole that swallowed a home in Florida (all times local):

4:15 p.m.

Officials say a third home is threatened by a growing sinkhole in Florida.

Debris is strewn about from a partially collapsed home in Land O' Lakes, Fla. on Friday, July 14, 2017.A sinkhole that started out the size of a small swimming pool and continued to grow has swallowed a home in Florida and severely damaged another. (Alessandra da Pra/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

The sinkhole that opened up Friday morning in Land O' Lakes quickly swallowed one home and consumed about 80 percent of another. By Friday afternoon, Pasco County public safety official Kevin Guthrie said, the sinkhole threatened to damage a third home as it continued to grow slowly.

Guthrie said the sinkhole stretched up to 250 feet (76 meters) across and 50 feet (15 meters) deep.

Sheriff Chris Nocco said that within roughly 30 feet of the sinkhole, the ground was soft underfoot and felt like it was moving.

Eleven homes have been evacuated, including the two destroyed homes. Property appraiser records show sinkholes previously were stabilized at both properties.

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12:50 p.m.

A property appraiser says the ground where a sinkhole has swallowed a Florida home was stabilized in 2014.

A previous sinkhole at the same Land O'Lakes home and an adjacent property was identified in 2012. Pasco County Property Appraiser Gary Joiner said stabilization, with a process called grouting, was completed in 2014.

Joiner says dozens of pipes were driven up to 60 feet (18 meters) down into ground beneath the properties, then pumped full of concrete to stabilize the soil.

The home was sold in July 2015.

County officials say a hole that opened under the home Friday morning quickly grew to over 200 feet (60 meters) wide and 50 feet (15 meters) deep. No injuries were reported, but a boat also was swallowed by the sinkhole.

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12:20 p.m.

A Florida home has been swallowed up by the ground in an area where a previous sinkhole had happened.

Officials in Pasco County say the hole was the size of a small swimming pool when crews arrived Friday morning, but it quickly grew to over 200 feet (60 meters) wide and 50 feet (15 meters) deep. By 9:30 a.m., the home had fallen into the sinkhole.

Kevin Guthrie of the county's emergency management office told reporters the residents weren't home but firefighters rescued their dogs and removed some of their belongings.

He says it was "frightening" to watch the home disappear into the hole.

Property records note a sinkhole confirmed in 2012 as "stabilized." The home was sold in 2015.

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11:40 a.m.

A sinkhole that started out the size of a small swimming pool and continued to grow has swallowed a home in Florida and severely damaged another.

Pasco County Fire Chief Shawn Whited said during a news conference that crews were called to the home north of Tampa about 7:30 a.m. Friday after someone noticed a depression had formed under a boat parked outside a house. Within minutes, he says, "the hole opened up."

Whited says the residents had left for work, but firefighters rescued two dogs and retrieved some of the home's belongings. By 8:30 a.m., part of the house collapsed. An hour later, the sinkhole had swallowed most of the home and a portion of the one next door.

County building officials have deemed about 10 homes unsafe and say more may be affected.

The Tampa Bay Times reports Duke Energy has cut power to about 100 homes in the neighborhood.

Debris is strewn about from a partially collapsed home in Land O' Lakes, Fla. on Friday, July 14, 2017.A sinkhole that started out the size of a small swimming pool and continued to grow has swallowed a home in Florida and severely damaged another. (Alessandra da Pra/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A Virginia man who told an undercover FBI agent about his desire to join the Islamic State overseas or attack a military recruiting center in the United States has been sentenced to a decade in prison.

The Washington Post reports Yusuf Wehelie was sentenced Friday. Wehelie's actual crime was possession of firearms by a felon. The 26-year-old from Burke, Virginia, was paid $300 to deliver weapons from one undercover FBI agent to another. Wehelie's attorney argued that he posed no real threat and never made plans to commit a terrorist attack.

Wehelie gained attention several years ago along with his brother, Yahya Wehelie. Both traveled to Yemen, which caught authorities' attention. Yusuf Wehelie was allowed to return to the U.S., but not before being interrogated for several days in Egypt.

___

Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon says that U.S. forces killed the head of the Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan in an airstrike in Kunar province earlier this week.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says that killing Abu Sayed is significant because the loss of leadership sets insurgent groups back for days or weeks.

IS in Afghanistan is known as the Islamic State-Khorasan group. The U.S. and Afghan forces launched an offensive against the IS group in early March, as the militants were gaining a foothold in eastern Afghanistan.

Mattis tells Pentagon reporters that taking out a leader creates disarray in the ranks. He declines to provide any additional details on the strike.

A chief Pentagon spokesperson, Dana White, says that Abu Sayed was killed on Tuesday along with other members of the group.
PHOENIX (AP) - An Arizona woman has been sentenced to 8  years in prison for plotting a terrorist attack.

State prosecutors say 50-year-old Michelle Bastian of Florence also was sentenced Friday to lifetime probation after she serves her prison term.

Last month, Bastian pleaded guilty to terrorism and conspiracy to commit misconduct involving weapons.

Bastian was accused last year of providing her imprisoned husband with al-Qaida and Islamic State magazines and instructions for making an improvised explosive device for his use in an Arizona prison.

The articles made it past prison security because she disguised them as legal papers.

Authorities allege Thomas Bastian was plotting to kill a warden at the Lewis prison complex in Buckeye.

He has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial. He's already serving a life term for murder.
Liverpools pursuit of RB Leipzig midfielder Naby Keita has been dealt a blow after the Bundesliga side effectively warned off the Reds.

Jurgen Klopps long-held interest in the Guinea international is well known and has led to much speculation about the 22-year-olds future.

However, all summer Leipzig have been steadfast in their stance that he will not be sold and Press Association Sport understands they have contacted the Merseysiders to re-emphasise this.

Jurgen Klopp is facing resistance in his pursuit of Naby Keita

That would leave Keita, who returned for pre-season training on Thursday, having to agitate for a move just one year after joining from sister club Red Bull Salzburg.

Klopp insists he is not nervous about their transfer business - or lack of it  with only Roma winger Mohamed Salah and 19-year-old striker Dominic Solanke, a free transfer from Chelsea, so far recruited.

We cannot buy players because other teams buy players. We do our business as good as we can do it and we are convinced about the way we are going, he said after the 4-0 win over Tranmere in their opening pre-season friendly.

Liverpool were forced to publicly withdraw their interest in Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk after being accused of tapping up the centre-back by the south-coast club.

Asked whether they could revive their interest in him, Klopp said: Am I allowed to talk about this? I am not.

Pretty much everything I could say would be a mistake - and not because it is an open case or something.

You or your colleagues wrote everything about this a few weeks ago. I was in Iceland when someone told me it was all in the newspapers.

Nothing happened since then. All good so far, so I cant say anything about this.

On the field, captain Jordan Henderson made his first appearance since February, when a foot problem sidelined him for the rest of the campaign, with a 45-minute outing at Prenton Park.

It was nice to be back on the pitch and being in front of a crowd with the kit on, he told liverpoolfc.com.

Ive been looking forward to this for a long time now, all summer really, so its good to finally be out on the pitch and playing with the lads.
US president Donald Trump has been filmed commenting on the appearance of the French presidents wife as he toured a Paris landmark.

Video footage posted on the French governments official Facebook page showed Mr Trump, Emmanuel Macron and their wives chatting after a tour of the museums at Les Invalides.

As they were saying goodbye, Mr Trump turned to Brigitte Macron and gestured towards her body.

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, his wife Brigitte welcome the Trumps to Paris (Ian Langsdon/AP)

You know, youre in such good shape, he said, before repeating the observation to her husband. Beautiful, he added.

Mrs Macron was once her husbands high school teacher and their relationship has drawn international attention because of the significant age difference.

But feminists and Mr Macron have denounced that attention as sexist, arguing that nobody would blink if he were the older spouse.

Their age difference is identical to that of Donald and Melania Trump, who were spending two days in Paris in celebration of Bastille Day.

Mr Trump has drawn criticism in the past for comments said to objectify and demean women, including the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women.

In that he boasted: When youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
Chris Froome repeatedly said this years Tour de France would be his biggest challenge yet and after 12 stages it appears he may be right.

The three-time Tour winner lost the yellow jersey to Fabio Aru on Thursday as he looked well short of the form which brought him overall victories in 2013, 2015, and 2016.

But while Froome predicted a close fight for yellow, he will not have expected it to be Aru who took the jersey from him.

"Congratulations to Romain Bardet for winning the stage and Fabio Aru for taking the yellow jersey. The race is on now." - @chrisfroome pic.twitter.com/mA46Q18mBO  INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) July 13, 2017

Froome was looking to the likes of Richie Porte and Nairo Quintana to put up the strongest fight this summer, but Porte crashed out last week while Quintana is paying the price for contesting the Giro dItalia, and has faded badly.

Instead Froome finds himself locked in a battle with Aru, Romain Bardet and his former team-mate Rigoberto Uran  with less than a minute separating the top four.

Aru was not even supposed to be here this summer, having been lined up to ride the Giro until suffering a knee injury, but his third place on Thursday saw him move to the top of the general classification by six seconds.

Chris Froome, followed by Italy's Fabio Aru (Bernard Papon/AP)

After winning Thursdays stage, Bardet is 25 seconds off yellow as he bids to become the first Frenchman to win the Tour since Bernard Hinault in 1985.

Up until stage 12 to Peyragudes, Froome had ridden an almost textbook Tour as Sky held the yellow jersey from the opening day and looked to make the most of their strength in depth. But when Aru and then Bardet attacked in the finale on Thursday, Froome could not respond.

"It was a tough day for me in the final metres and my team-mates had done such an amazing job," he said.

"But I didnt have the legs to finish it off, its as simple as that. No excuses. I just didnt have the legs on the final kick."

 Check out just how steep that final climb was today through @VelonCC's #TDF2017 stage 12 @GoPro highlights  pic.twitter.com/3s4y90WxBj  INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) July 13, 2017

Should Froome have been suffering an off-day rather than something more serious, there is plenty of opportunity for the situation to be recovered, starting with the expected Bastille Day fireworks of Fridays stage from Saint-Girons to Foix.

Just 101 kilometres in length, the stage should be a fight for position from the drop of the flag to the finish line, and Sky may yet be grateful they do not need to protect yellow along the way.

That job will instead fall to an Astana squad weakened by a stage 11 crash which saw key domestique Dario Cataldo abandon and their second-strongest rider, Jakob Fuglsang, suffer fractures in both his elbow and hand  injuries which took a clear toll on Thursday.

With the time trial in Marseille to come at the end of the third week, Froomes rivals know they need to take significant time out of him  perhaps as much as 90 seconds  before then or risk losing yellow at the final hurdle.

Unless Froome is really struggling, that remains a tall order with only one summit finish remaining in the race.

"I can only say congratulations to Romain Bardet for winning the stage and to Fabio Aru for taking the yellow jersey," Froome said.

"The race is certainly on now."
Former Peruvian president Ollanta Humala and his wife were taken into custody after a judge ordered them held during an investigation into money laundering and conspiracy accusations.

Soon after the judge issued his order on Thursday night, Mr Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, were driven to the courthouse under a heavy police escort. There was no immediate word on where they would be held.

Prosecutors filed a petition early in the week asking for preventative detention, arguing the couple might flee Peru to evade justice. Judge Richard Concepcion ordered them held for up to 18 months while they are investigated.

Mr Humala and his wife

The former president has denied the allegations, which arose from testimony by the former head of Odebrecht saying he illegally contributed three million dollars (2.3 million) to Mr Humalas 2011 presidential campaign.

The couple is also accused of taking undeclared funds from the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez during a previous, unsuccessful presidential bid. Humala, who finished his term in 2016, never declared the contributions and prosecutors argue that he and his wife conspired to hide them for personal gain.

Mr Humala and his wife did not attend the hearing, but he has said he looks forward to defending himself.

Journalists wait outside of the home of former President Ollanta Humala in Lima (Martin Mejia/AP)

As the couple headed to the courthouse, Mr Humala said in a Tweet: This confirms the abuse of power which we will confront in defence of our rights and those of everyone.

Before the ruling, he said there was no need for detention.

Were staying here, weve even handed over our passports, Mr Humala told reporters who had been gathered outside his home for three days. In every moment weve shown our roots and good will. But the prosecutor sees everything we do in the opposite light. I think hes been poisoned.

A woman protests against former president Ollanta Humala, outside the courtroom (Martin Mejia/AP)

The same judge previously ordered the arrest of another former Peruvian president, Alejandro Toledo, for related charges. Toledo is in the US fighting attempts by Peruvian authorities to have him deported to answer the charges.

Authorities across Latin America have been moving to charge officials accused of taking some 800 million dollars (618 million) in bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. The company acknowledged the bribes when it signed a plea agreement in December with the US Justice Department.

The bribes include some 29 million dollars (22 million) paid in Peru for projects built during the administrations of Mr Toledo, Mr Humala and former president Alan Garcia.
WASHINGTON  That quaking beneath your feet is from shock waves in Washington where tipping points are merging with other tipping points to create the Mother of All Tipping Points.

Not only did Donald Trump Jr. meet with a Russian attorney who, he was told, had damaging information about Hillary Clinton, but there are emails indicating that he knew in advance that the opposition research was part of the Kremlins effort to help Donald Trump become president.

It thats not collusion, it seems at least collusioney, a newly minted term surely destined to erase all memory of Mondays exhaustively used nothing-burger.

Smoking guns dont need to be nearly this hot to capture Washingtons attention, but these latest revelations should be enough to make every American take a deep breath. Whether Trump Jr. is merely stupid is yet to be determined, but he wasnt alone in that meeting. Joining him were his brother-in-law Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, then Trump Sr.s campaign manager, who is known to have had business dealings in Russia for a number of years.

The New York Times broke the story over the weekend, reporting that three (unnamed) individuals had corroborated the existence of the damning emails, which clearly establish intent to something. Tuesday afternoon, Trump Jr. released the email thread between him and some guy  named Rob Goldstone  a music publicist who knew some guy who knew Donald Trump vis-a-vis the Trump-owned Miss Universe contest. Got that?

Goldstone arranged the meeting, which took place in Trump Tower in June 2016  just before the Republican primary season had ended  to talk about dirt on the presumptive nominees general-election opponent. After Goldstone said that the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, had information that would incriminate Clinton, Trump Jr. replied that hed love it. Who wouldnt? Youre the namesake son of the man on track to become the Republican nominee and possibly president  and Russia wants to help him win? Hell da!

The fact that the alleged opposition research was part of Russias war on Clinton, as indicated in one of the emails, would have raised flags for most people  no, make that for all but these people. Im confident that, if the nice Ace Hardware man who recently helped me select a mailbox were to receive such an email, hed contact the FBI as soon as possible.

Which, obviously, is what Junior, Manafort and Kushner should have done.

Thus, we can presume that all three knew better than to attend such a meeting. After all, it could well have been a trap  and Im not sure it wasnt. But to the inexperienced minds of Kushner and Trump Jr., the calculation may have been as simple (and feeble) as: Why not? Defeating Clinton was in the national interest, wasnt it? And the Trumps have (or had) no pique with Russia.

Trump Jr.s claim that he didnt tell his father about the meeting rather strains credulity, dont you think? Ditto Veselnitskayas claim that she has never worked for the Kremlin and has no idea what all the fuss is about. She was here to lobby against American legislation that her client finds objectionable.

In an exclusive interview Tuesday with NBC News, Veselnitskaya said she never had any damaging or sensitive information about Hillary Clinton. It was never my intention to have that. Asked where Trump Jr. could have gotten that idea, she responded, It is quite possible that maybe they were longing for such an information. They wanted it so badly that they could only hear the thought that they wanted.

So, apparently, the future of the Trump presidency is in the hands of Goldstone. He set up the meeting; he brought Trump Jr. into a damning email exchange; he promised dirt. Wait, who is this guy again?

Well, thats a very good question. Hes an intermediary for Veselnitskaya, who either (a) works for the Kremlin and possibly even Vladimir Putin; or (b) is just a lawyer/lobbyist interested in U.S. policy. Wouldnt we like to know? Also possible is that President Trump knew all along about the meeting, which may be why he acts like a cocker spaniel at a Doberman rally whenever the name Putin comes up. What did Veselnitskaya really come to say? For whom?

More shock waves are doubtless coming. Meanwhile, we know for certain: When a Russian lawyer meets privately with the future presidents son, his son-in-law and his campaign manager on a third-party promise of Clinton-disabling intel, its hard to say the Trump campaign had nothing to do with Russia. For now: Collusioney.
Celtic or Linfield have been drawn against Dundalk or Rosenborg in the third qualifying round of the Champions League.

Brendan Rodgers Hoops take on Belfast side Linfield in the first leg of their second-round clash at Windsor Park on Friday night.

The winners of that tie will face whoever comes through the two-legged meeting between Irish side Dundalk or Norwegian outfit Rosenborg.

Celtic take on Irish League side Linfield in Belfast tonight

Either #CelticFC or Linfield FC will play Dundalk or Rosenborg in the #UCL Third qualifying round.https://t.co/5C0kJclIJZ  Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 14, 2017

That tie is currently poised at 1-1 with the second leg to be played in Trondheim on Wednesday.

Celtic beat Astana of Kazakhstan 3-2 on aggregate at the third-round stage last season.

They qualified for the group stage after squeezing past Hapoel Beer Sheva of Israel 5-4 on aggregate in the play-off round.

But Celtic went on to finish bottom, without winning a game, in Group C which also included Barcelona, Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach.
Everton will face either Ruzomberok of Slovakia or Norwegian side Brann in their Europa League third qualifying round tie.

The Toffees finished seventh last season in the Premier League and were Englands top seeds in Fridays draw in Nyon, with Manchester United having secured a place in the Champions League after winning the Europa League final against Ajax last season.

 | We'll face MFK Ruzomberok or SK Brann in the #UEL third qualifying round.



First tie will be at Goodison: https://t.co/xy1FJqTqlb pic.twitter.com/CBcrPrFo2n  Everton (@Everton) July 14, 2017

Bran currently hold a slender 1-0 lead from the first leg of their second qualifying round tie, which was played on Thursday night in Slovakia. The second leg will be on July 20.

Everton will face either Ruzomberok or Brann in Europa League third round qualifying

Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen will meet either Apollon Limassol of Cyprus or Moldovan outfit Zaria Balti, if they can get past NK Siroki Brijeg.

The Bosnians secured a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the second-qualifying round tie with the Dons at Pittodrie on Thursday.
Gang members see acid attacks as a safer form of crime, a campaigner has said, as he called for its possession to be criminalised.

Jaf Shah said carrying the corrosive liquid should carry the same penalty as possessing a knife to help tackle an explosion of attacks in the UK.

The executive director of the Acid Survivors Trust International charity also called on the Government to regulate the sale of concentrated acid.

Acid attack scene

The measures could include an age restriction or ban on cash sales of the fluid, which can be bought in DIY shops or hardware stores for as little as 7 or 8 a litre.

Speaking after two males on a moped carried out five acid attacks across London in less than 90 minutes, Mr Shah said the number of such incidents recorded in the UK has effectively doubled in the last three years.

In terms of attacks we are seeing a substantial increase, he told the Press Association.

Its not new, it has been happening for over 200 years, and has often been linked to gang-related violence.

But we have seen an explosion in the number of incidents over the last couple of years.

Absolutely horrified by news of a spate of acid attacks last night. A heinous crime. The perpetrators must feel the full force of the law.  David Lammy (@DavidLammy) July 14, 2017

Mr Shah explained that the reasons behind the spike are complicated, but suggested the clampdown on guns and knives has seen criminals turn to acid as a weapon of choice.

In a way, its almost like a safer crime to commit, especially for gang members perhaps lower down the hierarchy, he said.

There is currently no specific offence for carrying concentrated acid, and he said it should be brought into line with knife crime.

Mr Shah called on the Government to introduce a licensing system, requiring registration with the Home office for the legitimate purchase of concentrated acid, which is used in agriculture, as well as the jewellery and clothing industries.

Appeal following acid attacks in east London https://t.co/HrJG11q7im pic.twitter.com/cb1ib7kLX8  Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) July 14, 2017

He also suggested banning cash sales and introducing an age restriction.

Globally, most acid attack victims are women and girls but in the UK men are more likely to be targets, with recorded numbers in Britain now higher than countries such as Colombia, India and Pakistan.

The UK now has one of the highest numbers of recorded incidents in the world, said Mr Shah,

He said better data collection by police and hospitals would help to identify the causes of the worrying trend while better education is needed to address its underlying causes.
Gerard Deulofeu has officially completed his move back to Barcelona from Everton.

The 23-year-old forward passed a medical on Friday morning before signing a two-year contract tying him to the Spanish giants until June 30, 2019.

Barca last month activated the buy-back clause in Deulofeus contract with Everton to bring him back to the Nou Camp, where he came up through the youth ranks before moving to England in a permanent deal in 2015.

It has reportedly cost Barca 10.5million to re-sign the Spain Under-21 captain, who spent last season on loan at AC Milan.

Barca said on their website: Deulofeu formalises return to Barcelona. The 23-year-old forward was at the clubs offices on Friday morning to sign the deal that brings him back to the team after four seasons with Everton, Sevilla, and AC Milan.

Before heading to the clubs offices to sign the deal along with club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, Deulofeu underwent a pre-season physical at the teams training centre with the rest of Barcas internationals.

Deulofeu spent 10 seasons in Barcas youth academy before joining Everton on loan in 2013. He spent the following season on loan with Sevilla before returning to Everton in a permanent deal for 4.3m in 2015.

Gerard Deulofeu spent 10 seasons at Barcelona before initially joining Everton on loan in 2013

Deulofeu, who is currently recovering from a thigh problem, said on www.fcbarcelona.es: Im very happy to have returned home and cant wait to start this project.

Ive always wanted to be here. Ive had to work away from Barca, because its not easy to get into the first team, but Ive come here with a lot of desire.

Ive changed a lot, Ive had different experiences and I think Ive improved as a person and a player. Im a different player and Im going to try and help the team.

I know that competition is high, but I will work hard every day and Im going to try and learn from the best to help the team to win titles.
Celtic took the first step towards the Champions League with a comfortable 2-0 win over part-time Linfield at Windsor Park.

The Parkhead club had refused their ticket allocation for the first leg of the second qualifying round clash in Belfast due to safety fears.

However, there were around 300 Hoops fans in the Kop stand, set aside for them in a half-full stadium, to see attacker Scott Sinclair head Brendan Rodgers side ahead in the 17th minute before midfielder Tom Rogic made it 2-0 five minutes later.

FULL-TIME: Linfield 0-2 #CelticFC



Brendan Rodgers' men take a two-goal lead and a clean sheet into the second leg at Paradise. #UCL pic.twitter.com/ABaB52j7q5  Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 14, 2017

It was a canter in the second half for the Glasgow club against the Northern Irish champions but there was some missiles thrown by home fans in the south stand at Celtic corners which blighted the night.

Yet the Scottish champions will surely finish the tie off next Wednesday night with the winners of the Dundalk versus Rosenborg clash waiting in the next round.

New signing Republic of Ireland winger Jonny Hayes started on the bench as stopper Erik Sviatchenko replaced the injured Dedryck Boyata.

Linfield, managed by former Rangers striker David Healy, had the experienced ex-Gers keeper Roy Carroll in goal and his contribution was notable.

The 39-year-old had to make a save from a Stuart Armstrong drive in the first minute as the visitors took immediate control.

The Northern Irish champions were happy to concede possession and defend deep in their own half, which made it difficult for the Hoops, but they got the breakthrough following a Leigh Griffiths corner from the left.

Defender Jozo Simunovic got his head on to it, but the ball drifted wide to winger James Forrest, who lobbed it back into the six-yard box, where Sinclair nodded past Carroll.

17 - @Scotty_Sinclair opens his account for the 2017/18 season, heading the Celts ahead in Belfast! [0-1]  Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 14, 2017

Rogics goal also came from a Griffiths corner, this time a low drive which the Australia international smartly dispatched from eight yards out.

The home side had to come out of their blue shell and Mark Haughey got on the end of Chris Casements cross from the right, but the defender slashed the ball over from 10 yards.

Carroll twice denied Sinclair with fine saves before Mikael Lustig rolled a shot past the far post from eight yards when he ought to have hit the target.

Griffiths had the ball in the net seconds after the restart only for the assistants flag to rule it out before Linfield defender Matthew Clarke was carried from the field on a stretcher and replaced by Jordan Stewart after he blocked a Forrest effort inside the home sides penalty area.

A bottle was thrown at Leigh Griffiths (Liam McBurney/PA)

In the 64th minute there was some controversy, not to say bemusement, when Spanish referee Alejandro Hernandez booked Griffiths for presumably taking too long to take a corner, his task made difficult by the series of objects being thrown at him by Linfield fans.

The Scotland striker was soon withdrawn by Rodgers, with Moussa Dembele coming on, with Hayes replacing Forrest to make his debut and he too had missiles launched at him when took over corner-kick duties.

In an increasingly scrappy match Rogic missed the target with a drive and Carroll thwarted further attempts from Armstrong, Dembele and Lustig twice.
Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron put what looked like an unexpected bromance on display as the US president visited Paris for the Bastille Day military parade and celebration.

Mr Trump spent a large portion of his day and a half in the French capital in the embrace of the French president, who went to extraordinary lengths to impress him.

He turned a day of national pride into a celebration of American patriotism and friendship between the two countries. This years Bastille Day event coincided with the 100th anniversary of the US entry into the First World War.

Mr Macron, in closing the parade, publicly thanked the US for coming to Frances aid during the war, saying nothing will ever separate us.

The presence at my side of the president of the United States, Mr Donald Trump, and of his wife, is the sign of a friendship across the ages, he said.

At one point, Mr Trump declined an invitation to repeat his past criticism of Paris. He said the citys future is bright because France has a great and tough leader.

Mr Trump and Mr Macron exchanged many handshakes during the course of his first visit to France as president, perhaps none more telling than after the parade.

There were many handshakes (Michel Euler/AP)

As the US president prepared to head home, the leaders clasped hands and held on to each other as they walked.

Mr Trump at one point pulled the smaller Mr Macron off balance and held fast as they approached their wives. Even then, Mr Trump held on to Mr Macron as he shook hands with his wife, Brigitte.

They appeared to have moved beyond a tense introduction in May, when a white-knuckle handshake that Mr Macron later said was meant to show he is no pushover was widely interpreted as a sign of fraught relations to come.

Mr Trumps brand of America First politics had unsettled some European allies. But the body language in Paris this week suggested their relationship has moved to a new level.

Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump at the Bastille Day military Parade

Both seemed to minimise differences in order to focus on areas where they can work together, such as the crisis in Syria and Middle East security.

Mr Trump returned the kindness of Mr Macron in a statement released as Air Force One flew back to the US. America and France will never be defeated or divided, he said.

He added that it was his high honour to commemorate, on French soil, Frances most historic day and the 100th anniversary of the entry of the United States into the First World War.

The presidents and their wives went for a meal (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Despite major differences between the two leaders on such issues as climate change and trade, Mr Macron nonetheless carved out time to lead Mr Trump on a tour of the Les Invalides monument.

Mr Trump gave Mr Macron a lift to the French presidential palace in his armoured Cadillac limousine known as The Beast for their talks and a joint news conference.

They capped Thursday with a double dinner date with their wives at the famed Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower.
By Kylie MacLellan

LONDON, July 13 (Reuters) - Britain's planned exit from the European Union is creating uncertainty for businesses and Brexit negotiations should seek to reduce this as well as minimising future trade barriers, Spain's King Felipe said on Thursday.

The British government, seeking to highlight confidence in the British economy, said Spanish firms had committed millions of pounds of investment to Britain to coincide with a three-day state visit by King Felipe and Queen Letizia.

Addressing business leaders in London, Felipe hailed the close ties between Britain and Spain.

But he said: "We cannot deny that the scenario originated by the UK decision to leave the EU has generated uncertainty and doubts for our companies ... We must make sure the current negotiations reduce this uncertainty to the minimum.

"It is extremely important that the future framework of our relations establishes the conditions for a close economic relationship trying to minimise future obstacles and barriers."

Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis told the event that Spain wanted a Britain that continued to be "bound together" with the rest of Europe.

Bilateral trade between the two countries was worth 40 billion pounds ($51.68 billion) in 2015 and more than 400 Spanish companies are registered in Britain, the British government said.

INVESTMENT

Investments announced on Thursday included Spanish manufacturer CAF committing 30 million pounds ($39 million) to build trains and trams at a new factory in Wales, creating 300 jobs, and Spanish infrastructure company Sacyr unveiling plans for a new office in London.

Spanish Trade Minister Maria Luisa Poncela said: "Our common goal should be to achieve strong and collaborative relations with the United Kingdom while trying to avoid any unnecessary damage to our trade and investment flows."

The pomp-laden state visit, which included a banquet hosted by Queen Elizabeth on Wednesday, aims to cement ties that have been strained by questions over the post-Brexit status of Gibraltar, a British territory on the southern tip of Spain.

The future of Gibraltar, captured by Britain in 1704, and its 30,000 inhabitants will be a major point of contention in the Brexit talks. The EU has offered Spain a right of veto over the territory's post-Brexit relationship with the bloc.

During an address to the British parliament on Wednesday, Felipe said he was confident Spain and Britain could work towards an acceptable arrangement over Gibraltar.

Prime Minister Theresa May's spokeswoman said the issue of Gibraltar did not come up during a bilateral meeting between the British leader and Felipe on Thursday.

"Spain are well aware of our position on Gibraltar," she told reporters. "We don't see eye to eye on this issue ... The sovereignty of Gibraltar is not up for discussion."

The pair did discuss EU citizens' rights post-Brexit, however. On Wednesday, Felipe urged the British and Spanish governments to work to ensure the Brexit agreement provided sufficient assurance and certainty for such citizens.

The EU and Britain have yet to agree on guarantees for EU citizens living in the UK and British expats living in other EU countries. More than 300,000 Britons live in Spain and more than 130,000 Spaniards live in Britain.

"(May) said we have made it a priority in the negotiations to guarantee the status of Spanish and other EU citizens living in the UK as part of a reciprocal deal," the spokeswoman said. ($1 = 0.7741 pounds) (Editing by Guy Faulconbridge/Mark Heinrich)
DUBAI, July 14 (Reuters) - There will be no quick end to the row between Qatar and the four states boycotting it including the United Arab Emirates, the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs wrote on his official Twitter account on Friday.

"We are headed for a long estrangement ... we are very far from a political solution involving a change in Qatar's course, and in light of that nothing will change and we have to look for a different format of relations," Anwar al-Gargash said. (Reporting By Noah Browning; Editing by Sandra Maler)
LIMA, July 13 (Reuters) - Ecuador has suspended construction of a flood-prevention wall along its southern border with Peru, the two countries said on Thursday, after Lima protested against the project by recalling its ambassador to Quito earlier this week.

Peru thanked Ecuador for the gesture on Thursday, which came after the neighboring countries' foreign affairs ministers met in Lima. It said on Twitter they would talk later this month about the short section of wall besides a canal that divides the two countries. Peru's ambassador to Ecuador will also return to Quito, the ministry added.

Ecuador's foreign affairs ministry confirmed the suspension of work on the wall near the town of Huaquillas, which is part of a $4.4 billion urban planning project started by the government of Ecuador's former President Rafael Correa.

The diplomatic row marked a rough start to bilateral relations under Peruvian centrist President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and Ecuador's socialist President Lenin Moreno, both of whom took office in the past year.

In the 1990s, territorial disputes led to a three-year war between the two countries that share a 1,529-kilometer (950-mile) border.

Peru has said that construction of the concrete wall violates the countries' 1998 peace treaty because it comes too close to a canal in populated areas near the Zarumilla River along their shared border.

Ecuador has said the wall would help control flooding that affects border towns every year, but Peru says it could disrupt the flow of water in the canal and raise flood risks for Peruvians.

The two countries are prone to severe flooding when the El Nino weather pattern warms sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific. Earlier this year, heavy rains from a local El Nino phenomenon killed more than 150 people in Peru.

Correa, who backed Lenin in this year's tight presidential election, criticized Ecuador's move to suspend work on the wall and said Peru should focus on preventing flooding on its side of the border. "What shameful appeasement!" Correa said on Twitter.

(Reporting by Mitra Taj in Lima and Alexandria Valencia in Quito; Editing by Andrew Hay)
By Mitra Taj and Teresa Cespedes

LIMA, July 13 (Reuters) - Peru's former President Ollanta Humala and his wife turned themselves in to authorities late on Thursday after a judge ordered them to spend up to 18 months in jail while prosecutors prepare charges against them for alleged money laundering.

The ruling by Judge Richard Concepcion, which triggered jeers from the couple's supporters during a public hearing that stretched over two days, marked the second time he has mandated jail time for an ex-president since a massive graft scandal in neighboring Brazil rippled into Peru.

Prosecutor German Juarez cited testimony from former executives of Brazilian builder Odebrecht - at the center of the graft scandal - to accuse Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, of taking $3 million that allegedly stems from corruption.

Juarez also accused the couple of taking illegally-obtained cash from late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"Here's a president who rose to the presidency and governed us with an electoral campaign built on illicit money. Thats serious because it morally wounds society," Juarez said.

Humala, a mild-mannered former military officer who governed Peru from 2011 to 2016, turned himself in with Heredia, the co-founder of his nationalist party, immediately after the ruling. Both denied wrongdoing and called their pre-trial detention unfair.

"This confirms abuse of power, which we will face in defense of our rights and the rights of all," Humala said on social network Twitter, as television showed images of the couple walking into a building of holding cells, escorted by police.

The ruling came a day after former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for graft and dealt a further blow to the left in Latin America. Unlike Humala, Lula will remain free on appeal.

Humala recast himself as a more moderate leftist like Lula to win the 2011 election, following an unsuccessful 2006 presidential bid as an ally of Chavez.

He ended his five-year term with low approval ratings last year, despite backing private investment and starting social programs for the poor.

Humala's downfall jolted Peru's political system, though he is not expected to run for office again. Rightwing groups celebrated his downfall, while leftists urged prosecutors to investigate Odebrecht's links to conservative politicians.

Centrist ex-president Alejandro Toledo, believed to be in the United States, refused to turn himself in this year, after Concepcion ordered him jailed before a trial over allegations of having taken a $20-million bribe from Odebrecht.

Toledo and Humala rose to power on the support of those who once believed they would counter the graft and autocratic rule of the 1990-2000 government of then president Alberto Fujimori.

President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has said he might pardon the rightwing Fujimori, who is now serving a 25-year sentence for human rights violations and corruption, in a quest for better ties with Fujimori's supporters in Congress. (Reporting by Mitra Taj, Teresa Cespedes and Reuters TV; Editing by Paul Tait and Clarence Fernandez)
By Aditya Kalra, Paritosh Bansal, Duff Wilson and Tom Lasseter

NEW DELHI/LAUSANNE, Switzerland July 13 (Reuters) - A group of cigarette company executives stood in the lobby of a drab convention center near New Delhi last November. They were waiting for credentials to enter the World Health Organization's global tobacco treaty conference, one designed to curb smoking and combat the influence of the cigarette industry.

Treaty officials didn't want them there. But still, among those lined up hoping to get in were executives from Japan Tobacco International and British American Tobacco Plc.

There was a big name missing from the group: Philip Morris International Inc. A Philip Morris representative later told Reuters its employees didn't turn up because the company knew it wasn't welcome.

In fact, executives from the largest publicly traded tobacco firm had flown in from around the world to New Delhi for the anti-tobacco meeting. Unknown to treaty organizers, they were staying at a hotel an hour from the convention center, working from an operations room there. Philip Morris International would soon be holding secret meetings with delegates from the government of Vietnam and other treaty members.

The object of these clandestine activities: the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, or FCTC, a treaty aimed at reducing smoking globally. Reuters has found that Philip Morris International is running a secretive campaign to block or weaken treaty provisions that save millions of lives by curbing tobacco use.

In an internal document, the company says it supported the enactment of the treaty. But Philip Morris has come to view it as a "regulatory runaway train" driven by "anti-tobacco extremists" - a description contained in the document, a 2014 PowerPoint presentation.

Confidential company documents and interviews with current and former Philip Morris employees reveal an offensive that stretches from the Americas to Africa to Asia, from hardscrabble tobacco fields to the halls of political power, in what may be one of the broadest corporate lobbying efforts in existence.

Details of those plans are laid bare in a cache of Philip Morris documents reviewed by Reuters, one of the largest tobacco industry leaks ever. Reuters is publishing a selection of those papers in a searchable repository, The Philip Morris Files. (http://reut.rs/2sT51xF)

Dating from 2009 to 2016, the thousands of pages include emails between executives, PowerPoint presentations, planning papers, policy toolkits, national lobbying plans and market analyses. Taken as a whole, they present a company that has focused its vast global resources on bringing to heel the world's tobacco control treaty.

TARGETING THE TREATY

Philip Morris works to subvert the treaty on multiple levels. It targets the FCTC conferences where delegates gather to decide on anti-smoking guidelines. It also lobbies at the country level, where the makeup of FCTC delegations is determined and treaty decisions are turned into legislation.

The documents, combined with reporting in 14 countries from Brazil to Uganda to Vietnam, reveal that a goal of Philip Morris is to increase the number of delegates at the treaty conventions who are not from health ministries or involved in public health. That's happening: A Reuters analysis of delegates to the FCTC's biennial conference shows a rise since the first convention in 2006 in the number of officials from ministries like trade, finance and agriculture for whom tobacco revenues can be a higher priority than health concerns.

Philip Morris International says there is nothing improper about its executives engaging with government officials. "As a company in a highly regulated industry, speaking with governments is part of our everyday business," Tony Snyder, vice president of communications, said in a statement in response to Reuters' findings. "The fact that Reuters has seen internal emails discussing our engagement with governments does not make those interactions inappropriate."

In a series of interviews in Europe and Asia, Philip Morris executive Andrew Cave said company employees are under strict instructions to obey both the company's own conduct policies and local law in the countries where they operate. Cave, a director of corporate affairs, said that while Philip Morris disagrees with some aspects of the FCTC treaty and consults with delegates offsite during its conferences, ultimately the delegations "make their own decisions."

"We're respectful of the fact that this is their week and their event," said Cave in an interview in New Delhi, as the parties to the treaty met last November. Asked in an earlier interview whether Philip Morris conducts a formal campaign targeting the treaty's biennial conferences, Cave gave a flat "no."

HEALTH IMPACT

When the FCTC delegates gather, lives hang in the balance. Decisions taken at the conferences over the past decade, including a ban on smoking in public places, are saving millions of lives, according to researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Between 2007 and 2014, more than 53 million people in 88 countries stopped smoking because those nations imposed stringent anti-smoking measures recommended by the WHO, according to their December 2016 study. Because of the treaty, an estimated 22 million smoking-related deaths will be averted, the researchers found.

According to the WHO, though, tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death - and by 2030 will be responsible for eight million deaths a year, up from six million now.

There was jubilation among anti-smoking advocates when the treaty was adopted in 2003. The treaty, which took effect in 2005, made it possible to push for measures that once seemed radical, such as smoke-free bars. About 90 percent of all nations eventually joined. A big holdout is the United States, which signed the treaty but has yet to ratify it.

Since the FCTC came into force, it has persuaded dozens of nations to boost taxes on tobacco products, pass laws banning smoking in public places and increase the size of health warnings on cigarette packs. Treaty members gather every two years to consider new provisions or strengthen old ones at a meeting called the Conference of the Parties, or COP, which first convened in 2006 in Geneva.

But an FCTC report shows that implementation of important sections of the treaty is stalling. There has been no further progress in the implementation of 7 out of 16 "substantive" treaty articles since 2014, according to a report by the FCTC Secretariat in June last year.

A key reason: "The tobacco industry continues to be the most important barrier in implementation of the Convention."

'MORE POWERFUL THAN EVER'

Indeed, the tobacco industry has weathered the tighter regulation. There has been only a slight 1.9 percent decline in global cigarette sales since the treaty took effect in 2005, and more people smoked daily in 2015 than a decade earlier, studies show. The Thomson Reuters Global Tobacco Index, which tracks tobacco stocks, has risen more than 100 percent in the past decade, largely due to price increases.

"Some people think that with tobacco, you've won the battle," said former Finnish Health Minister Pekka Puska, who chaired an FCTC committee last year. "No way," he said. "The tobacco industry is more powerful than ever."

With 600 corporate affairs executives, according to a November 2015 internal email, Philip Morris has one of the world's biggest corporate lobbying arms. That army, and $7 billion-plus in annual net profit, gives Philip Morris the resources to overwhelm the FCTC.

The treaty is overseen by 19 staff at a Secretariat office hosted by the WHO in Geneva. The Secretariat spends on average less than $6 million a year. Even when buttressed by anti-smoking groups, the Secretariat is outgunned. Its budget for this year and last year for supporting the treaty clause on combating tobacco company influence is less than $460,000.

Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, head of the FCTC treaty Secretariat, is the person tasked with preventing the industry from neutering the agreement.

In two interviews at her Geneva office, da Costa e Silva, a medical doctor who holds a PhD in public health and has a dyed pink streak in her hair, explained why the FCTC banned attendance by any member of the public at the 2014 biennial conference in Moscow. The ban came in response to efforts by tobacco executives to use public badges to get inside the venue, she said, adding that industry representatives then started borrowing badges from delegates they knew to gain entry.

"It's a real war," said da Costa e Silva.

But she had only a partial picture of the forces ranged against her. She wasn't aware of the fact that Philip Morris had a large team operating throughout the convention in Moscow, or the details of its activities in New Delhi last November.

"This is so disgusting. These are the forces against which we have to work," da Costa e Silva said in May after being told about the Philip Morris documents. "I think they want to implode the treaty."

TOBACCO OUTRAGE

The idea of a global tobacco treaty had been discussed among health advocates since at least 1979, when a WHO committee suggested the possibility. Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former prime minister of Norway who became director-general of the WHO in 1998, made it happen.

She was aided by outrage over documents that surfaced as part of the landmark 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, in which the four largest U.S. tobacco companies agreed to pay more than $200 billion to 46 U.S. states. The internal communications showed that tobacco executives lied for years about their knowledge of the deadly nature of cigarettes.

A 1989 document revealed one company's plan to fight threats to the industry. "WHO's impact and influence is indisputable," the document said. It went on to contemplate "countermeasures designed to contain/neutralize/re-orient the WHO."

That company was Philip Morris.

In 2008, Altria Group Inc split up its Philip Morris business. Philip Morris USA, which remains a subsidiary of Altria, sells Marlboro and other brands in the United States. Philip Morris International was spun off, and handles business abroad. Since the split, Philip Morris International shares have more than doubled and Altria's have more than tripled.

Philip Morris International's operational headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland, down the street from a patch of Gallo-Roman ruins, in a sleek building with a cafeteria, gym and a patio facing Lake Geneva. From there, the company is working to hobble the treaty.

Internal company communications reveal the scope of Philip Morris' operation during the 2014 FCTC treaty meeting in Moscow. The company set up a "Coordinating Room" that could seat 42 people, according to the 2014 PowerPoint presentation, titled "Corporate affairs approach and issues."

Leading the operation was executive Chris Koddermann. Formerly a lawyer and lobbyist in Canada, Koddermann joined Philip Morris in 2010. He is now a director of regulatory affairs in Lausanne. The PowerPoint describes the ideal corporate affairs executive as someone who is able to "play the political game." Koddermann previously worked for federal and provincial cabinet ministers in Canada, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Reached on his cell phone in March, Koddermann said he wouldn't be able to meet and that any questions should be directed to Philip Morris International.

CONGRATULATORY EMAIL

At the end of the Moscow meeting, on Oct. 18, 2014, Koddermann sent an email congratulating a 33-person Philip Morris team on their success in diluting or blocking measures intended to strengthen tobacco controls and reduce cigarette sales. The gains he touted at the end of the week-long conference were the culmination of a two-year effort, his email said.

The documents shed light on one key objective in Philip Morris' FCTC campaign: Keep tobacco within the ambit of international trade deals, so that the company has a way to mount legal campaigns against tobacco regulations.

In Moscow, one proposal initially called for carving out tobacco from trade pacts. International trade treaties often include provisions, such as the protection of trademarks, that Philip Morris has used to challenge anti-smoking measures. If tobacco were taken out of the treaties, as suggested by the proposal, Philip Morris could be deprived of many such legal arguments.

An early draft asked parties to support efforts to exclude tobacco from trade pacts and to prevent the industry from "abusing" trade and investment rules. In the end, the proposal was watered down. The final decision only reminded parties of "the possibility to take into account their public health objectives in their negotiation of trade and investment agreements." There was no mention of excluding tobacco.

Koddermann, in his email to colleagues on the last day of the conference, declared victory, describing the change as "a tremendous outcome." Overall, the company achieved its "trade related campaign objectives," including "avoiding a declaration of health over trade" and "avoiding the recognition of the FCTC as an international standard," he wrote.

The win was significant. A former Philip Morris employee said the company has routinely used trade treaties to challenge tobacco control laws. The aim, he said, was "to scare governments away from doing regulatory changes." Even though the tobacco industry has lost a series of major legal battles, its suits have served to discourage the implementation of regulations that curb smoking. Those delays can yield years of unimpeded sales.

As the Philip Morris PowerPoint presentation from 2014 put it: "Roadblocks are as important as solutions."

'WATERED DOWN'

One roadblock was a campaign to stop the 2011 introduction of rules in Australia banning logos and distinctive coloring on cigarette packs. The company's litigation and arbitration against the measure ultimately were dismissed - but not before five countries filed complaints against Australia on the same subject at the World Trade Organization. The global trade body has yet to announce a decision in the matter.

The attempt to undo Australia's regulations has had a chilling effect elsewhere. It slowed the introduction of plain-packaging rules in New Zealand. Citing the risk that tobacco companies may "mount legal challenges," the government announced in 2013 that it was postponing the move and waiting to "see what happens with Australia's legal cases." The legislation is now scheduled to go into effect next year.

In his Moscow conference email, Koddermann also expressed pleasure at the fate of a proposal on farmers. Initial language would have recommended that countries restrict support for tobacco growers. The proposal was "significantly watered down," he wrote. "This is a very positive result."

Gustavo Bosio, at the time a manager for international trade, chimed in a few days after the conference in an email: "These excellent results are a direct consequence of the remarkable efforts of all PMI regions and markets during the past two years and throughout the intense week in Moscow."

Philip Morris isn't alone in seeking to weaken the treaty. Ahead of the 2012 FCTC conference, in Seoul, four cigarette giants - Philip Morris, British American Tobacco (BAT), Japan Tobacco International and Imperial Brands Plc - formed an "informal industry Working Group" to oppose various proposals on tobacco taxation, according to an internal BAT document reviewed by Reuters.

The 45-page paper, whose existence hasn't been previously reported, noted that the group would coordinate "to the extent that these issues do not raise any anti-competitive concerns." The paper outlined a global campaign planned by BAT to counter the FCTC, which was "increasingly going beyond" its mandate. And it listed objectives, including a bid to block discussions around the introduction of a minimum 70 percent tax on tobacco.

BAT declined to answer questions about the industry working group. Both Imperial and Japan Tobacco International said they didn't want to comment on a document from a competitor. Japan Tobacco International said its tax experts met with counterparts from other tobacco companies to discuss treaty guidelines on taxation ahead of the 2012 conference. Philip Morris did not comment on the document.

WOOING DELEGATES

The Philip Morris emails and documents don't explicitly detail how the company pulled off the victories in Moscow. But they provide insight into the importance it places on wooing delegates.

The FCTC traditionally makes decisions by consensus, and so influencing a single national delegation can have an outsized impact. The treaty has a key clause meant to keep the industry from unduly influencing delegations. Article 5.3, as it's known, says nations should protect their public health policies from tobacco interests. Guidelines that accompany Article 5.3 recommend that countries interact with the industry only when "strictly necessary."

But the article - a single sentence - contains a loophole Philip Morris has exploited. The sentence ends with the words "in accordance with national law," opening the door to arguments by pro-tobacco forces that any lobbying that's legal in a certain country is permissible when interacting with that country's representatives. They also argue that a sentence in a related document, the guidelines for Article 5.3, allows for such interactions to take place as long as they are conducted transparently.

One of the company's targets has been Vietnam.

The day the Moscow meeting ended, Koddermann received an email from his colleague Nguyen Thanh Ky, a leading corporate affairs executive for Vietnam. Ky said he had a "debrief lunch" with the Vietnamese delegation and had a good outcome to report: The delegation was in favor of "moderate and reasonable measures" to be implemented over a "practical timeline," he wrote. He did not specify which measures they discussed.

The Vietnamese delegation spoke up often during the Moscow meeting. A review of notes compiled by tobacco-control groups accredited as observers showed Vietnam's interjections frequently mirrored Philip Morris' positions on tobacco-control regulations. Just like the tobacco giant, the Vietnamese said a higher tax on cigarettes would lead to more illicit sales. Like Philip Morris, they said the FCTC should stay out of trade disputes. And like Philip Morris, they opposed proposals to set uniform parameters for the legal liability of tobacco companies.

The FCTC guidelines on taxation did ultimately include a WHO recommendation for a minimum tax of 70 percent - something Philip Morris opposed. But the proposal to give the treaty more sway over trade disputes was weakened, and measures to strengthen the legal liability of cigarette companies were delayed.

Vietnam's foreign ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters.

SECRET RENDEZVOUS

As soon as the conference ended, the documents show, Philip Morris turned to the next one: the 2016 meeting in India.

The 2014 PowerPoint presentation outlined the need to identify ways to gather intelligence during the Delhi conference. In a separate 2015 planning document, the company talks about the arrangement of farmer protests in the run-up to the meeting. Such protests did take place - including one in front of WHO offices in New Delhi. Reuters couldn't determine whether Philip Morris was behind those demonstrations.

While other major tobacco companies also sent people to Delhi in November, Philip Morris was distinguished by its stealth. Executives from the company did not sign in with their tobacco industry colleagues at the FCTC convention center and stayed at a hotel about an hour's drive away.

The anonymity and distance helped Philip Morris approach delegates covertly. On the second day of the conference, a white Toyota van pulled away from the front of the Hyatt Regency hotel - where Philip Morris had its operations room - and headed for the FCTC treaty venue. The van was carrying Ky, its corporate affairs executive from Vietnam.

Ky's driver talked his way past police at the barricade outside the conference center, where FCTC-issued credentials were checked, explaining that he was driving "VIPs," the driver later told Reuters.

A few minutes later, a man in a dark suit walked out of the conference center, passed the van and stopped at a street corner. The van did a U-turn, and a Reuters reporter saw the man in the suit quickly climb in. He was a senior member of Vietnam's delegation to the FCTC conference: Nguyen Vinh Quoc, a Vietnamese government official.

The driver, Kishore Kumar, said in an interview that he dropped the two men off at a local hotel. Kumar said that on several other occasions that week, he took Ky to pick up people from the Hotel Formule1, a budget lodging where Vietnam's delegation was staying during the conference.

Ky and Quoc did not respond to requests for comment.

Asked by Reuters about the interaction between Ky and the Vietnam representatives, Philip Morris executive Andrew Cave thumped on the table in a bar at the hotel where company representatives were staying. Reuters should focus, he said, on efforts by the industry to develop so-called reduced-risk products - those that deliver nicotine without the burning of tobacco and which the company says reduce harm.

When pressed about the meetings with Vietnam, Cave thumped the table again: "I'm angry that you're focusing on that, rather than the real issues that matter to real people."

In a subsequent email, Cave said: "Representatives from Philip Morris International met with delegates from Vietnam" during the Delhi conference "to discuss policy issues and this complied fully with PMI's internal procedures and the laws and regulations of Vietnam."

Delegates, Cave said in separate interviews, are reluctant to meet openly with Philip Morris because they are afraid of being "named and shamed" by anti-smoking groups.

'SLAVERY ENDED A LONG TIME AGO'

Some delegates questioned the extent to which Philip Morris shaped the decisions made at the Moscow conference, saying attendees genuinely disagreed on certain issues. Nuntavarn Vichit-Vadakan, a Thai delegate, oversaw many discussions as the chair of an FCTC committee at the Moscow conference. She said delegates differed over the regulation of e-cigarettes, for instance, and any lobbying the company carried out would not have determined the outcome.

The Philip Morris documents leave questions unanswered. In some cases, the documents show the company hatching plans to change an anti-smoking regulation or to monitor activists, but don't always make clear to what extent or how the plans were executed, if at all. The 2014 PowerPoint presentation called for "achieving scrutiny" of tobacco control advocates and said a "global project team" had been established for this purpose. It did not list what means would be used.

In some instances, Philip Morris' lobbying plainly failed. In July 2015, the Ugandan parliament passed sweeping new anti-tobacco laws inspired by the treaty. All that was needed was President Yoweri Museveni's signature, and the small African nation would become a leader on the continent in implementing a strict interpretation of the FCTC.

Philip Morris sent an executive, a younger white man, to tell the septuagenarian president, who long ago had helped topple dictator Idi Amin, why the tobacco act was a bad idea. Sheila Ndyanabangi, Uganda's lead health official for tobacco issues who was present at the meeting, described the executive's approach as lecturing the statesman.

"He said, 'Ugandan tobacco will be too expensive' and 'it will not be competitive,'" Ndyanabangi said. Her account was confirmed by a senior Ugandan government official who was also present.

Museveni stared for a moment at the Philip Morris executive and a representative from a major tobacco buyer who'd come with him. The president then declared: "Slavery ended a long time ago." There was a long silence in the room, recalled Ndyanabangi. Museveni said Uganda didn't need tobacco, and the meeting was over. The president signed the bill that September.

Museveni's office did not respond to requests for comment.

CHANGING THE DELEGATIONS

Over time, however, the industry's lobbying has slowed the treaty's progress. At the biennial conferences, the discussions have changed. In Moscow, for instance, there was a strong focus on trade and taxes. "You could see from the floor that interventions were very, very, very much focusing on the trade aspects, many times even putting trade over health," the FCTC's da Costa e Silva said in an interview last year.

The composition of FCTC delegations sent by governments has changed to include more members who aren't involved in health policy. That's in line with what Philip Morris and other tobacco companies want: Philip Morris, as well as British American Tobacco, has sought to move the balance of the membership away from public health officials and toward ministries like finance and trade. Such agencies, said the former Philip Morris executive, benefit from tobacco tax revenues and attach less weight to health concerns.

"The health department would just want tobacco to be banned, while for the finance ministry it's more like how can we leverage or get as much money as we can," he said.

The object of Philip Morris' efforts, according to the 2014 PowerPoint on corporate affairs, is to "move tobacco issues away" from health ministries and demonstrate there are broader public interests at play - that "it's not about tobacco."

Cave, the Philip Morris corporate affairs executive, confirmed the company tries to persuade governments to change the composition of delegations. Health officials, he said, aren't equipped to handle the intricacies of issues such as taxation.

"You're looking at illicit trade, you're looking at tax regimes, you're looking at international law," he said. "Now each of these areas, it's logical, if you want to really tackle the trade and tobacco smuggling, illicit trade, who would you go to? You wouldn't go to the health ministry."

Reuters analyzed the rosters of the almost 3,500 accredited delegation members who have attended the seven FCTC conferences since 2006. The analysis found that there were more than six health delegates for every finance-related delegate in 2006. In Delhi last year, that ratio had fallen to just over three health delegates for every finance delegate. The number of delegates from finance, agriculture and trade fields has risen from a few dozen in 2006 to more than 100 in recent years.

Vietnam's delegation, for example, has changed markedly. At the first FCTC conference in 2006, none of its four delegates were from finance or trade ministries. By 2014, in Moscow, there were 13 delegates, with at least four from finance-related ministries, including the chief delegate. Vietnam's foreign ministry did not respond to questions about the delegation.

Da Costa e Silva isn't opposed to having delegates from trade ministries, but she says their primary focus needs to be on health. And she was concerned by the makeup of the Vietnamese delegation. In a letter to the Vietnamese prime minister in late 2015, she asked that tobacco industry employees be excluded from the delegation. If they weren't, she wrote, Vietnam might be "unable to play a full part in discussions."

In 2016, Vietnam brought 11 delegates to the conference, of whom six were from health agencies, including the chief representative.

Some tobacco-control activists who attended the Delhi meeting in November say it was the worst so far in terms of passing new anti-smoking provisions.

Matthew Myers, who heads the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said multiple countries came prepared to consciously block action. He said he heard delegates making arguments "I havent heard in 25 years."

A Nigerian delegate, for instance, asked to remove a reference to "the tobacco epidemic" from a draft proposal on liability for tobacco-related harm, according to notes taken by anti-smoking groups.

Asked for comment, Christiana Ukoli, head of the delegation in Delhi, said the "Nigerian delegation strongly dissociates itself from statement."

The Delhi conference ended as it began, with treaty Secretariat officials not knowing where Philip Morris had been or what it had done. The company had flown in a team of executives, used a squad of identical vans to ferry officials in New Delhi, and then left town without a trace.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra, Paritosh Bansal, Duff Wilson and Tom Lasseter. Additional reporting by Joe Brock in Johannesburg, Ami Miyazaki in Tokyo, Mai Nguyen, My Pham and Minh B. Ho in Hanoi, Elias Biryabarema in Kampala, Enrico Dela Cruz in Manila, Stephen Eisenhammer and Anthony Boadle in Brasilia, Alexis Akwagyiram and Ulf Laessing in Lagos, and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru. Edited by Peter Hirschberg.)
Grandparents and other relatives should not be barred from entering the United States under President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban involving six Muslim-majority countries, a U.S. judge ruled on Thursday.

The order, by U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu, dealt a fresh courtroom defeat for Trump as the Republican president seeks to toughen U.S. immigration policy.

The state of Hawaii had asked Watson to narrowly interpret a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that revived parts of Trump's March 6 executive order banning people from the six countries for 90 days.

Watson on Thursday declined to put on hold his ruling exempting grandparents and other relatives from the ban.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson (above in March 2017) in Honolulu has said grandparents and other relatives should not be barred from entering the United States under President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban involving six Muslim-majority countries

Watson harshly criticized the government's definition of close family relations as 'the antithesis of common sense,' in his ruling.

'Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents. Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members,' he wrote.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. Neal Katyal, an attorney for the state of Hawaii, called the ruling a 'sweeping victory' on social network Twitter.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month let the ban on travel from the six countries go forward with a limited scope, saying it could not apply to anyone with a credible 'bona fide relationship' with a U.S. person or entity.

The order dealt a fresh courtroom defeat for Trump as the Republican president seeks to toughen U.S. immigration policy. The president is pictured with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday)

The Trump administration then decided that spouses, parents, children, fiances and siblings would be exempt from the ban, while grandparents and other family members traveling from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen would be barred.

Watson (above) harshly criticized the government's definition of close family relations as 'the antithesis of common sense,' in his ruling

The Trump administration also said that all refugees without a close family tie would be blocked from the country for four months.

Trump said the measure was necessary to prevent attacks. However, the state of Hawaii sued to stop it, disputing its security rationale and saying it discriminated against Muslims.

Hawaii's attorney general Douglas Chin asked Watson to issue an injunction allowing grandparents and other family members to travel to the United States. Hawaii and refugee groups argue that resettlement agencies have a 'bona fide' relationship with the refugees they help, sometimes over the course of years.

The Justice Department said its rules were properly grounded in immigration law.

The roll-out of the narrowed version of the ban was more subdued than in January, when Trump first signed a more expansive version of the order. That sparked protests and chaos at airports around the country and the world.
By Stanley White

TOKYO, July 14 (Reuters) - Any fresh government spending on Japan's agriculture sector should be for finding ways to cut its production and shipping costs rather than on subsidies for farmers, Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Friday.

His comments came after Japan and the European Union signed a free-trade pact that has displeased some parts of Japan's agriculture sector.

Aso told reporters it was too early to offer details on the size of any additional spending on the farm sector or how it would be funded.

But the minister said he wasn't interested in simply handing out subsidies to farmers who are too weak to compete with an expected increase in dairy and lumber imports from the EU once the trade pact takes effect.

Aso's comments show the government is likely to turn a deaf ear to any requests for a huge spending increase, and suggest Japan will put more emphasis on improving logistics in the agriculture sector.

"I don't want backward-looking policies based on the assumption that we will lose out to increased competition," he said. "I want forward-looking polices that will help us win at the export game."

Japan and the EU agreed early this month to create the world's biggest open economic area and signal resistance to what both sides characterised as a shift to protectionism by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Under the pact, Japan will phase out tariffs as high as 29 percent on European hard cheese over 15 years. In return, the EU will eliminate tariffs of up to 10 percent on Japanese cars over seven years.

Some in Japan's agriculture sector argue that their high costs for fresh milk put them at a disadvantage relative to European cheese makers. (Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
By Gergely Szakacs

CANTAVIR, Serbia, July 14 (Reuters) - Antal Kracsun was about to convert a barn next to his house into a pigsty to make ends meet, when a Hungarian government grant gave his small welding business in northern Serbia a shot in the arm.

The 800,000-Serbian dinar ($7,600) grant under Prime Minister Viktor Orban's cross-border stimulus programme, for poorer, ethnic Hungarian regions in central Europe, enabled Kracsun to buy expensive welding machinery which would otherwise have been beyond his means.

More than one million ethnic Hungarians live in neighbouring Serbia, Romania, Ukraine and elsewhere, descendants of Hungarians who found themselves outside their homeland when the country's borders were redrawn at the end of World War One.

With a parliamentary election in April 2018 drawing closer, 54-year-old Orban is expanding his political arsenal to include ethnic Hungarians like Kracsun through grants and heavily-subsidised loans to small businesses.

As a first step, Orban gave these ethnic Hungarians citizenship after a 2010 landslide, followed by voting rights. That helped Orban eke out a two-thirds parliamentary majority at the last election in 2014 as such voters overwhelmingly backed him.

"Our workload has doubled," thanks to the new machinery purchased after receiving the grant, Kracsun said in the shade of his rudimentary workshop.

"We have not had such an opportunity in this country or this region so far," Kracsun said, adding that he intended to support Orban's ruling right-wing Fidesz party next April because of the measures he was taking to support voters outside Hungary.

"They take care of us. It is a good feeling. We have always felt Hungarian, regardless of the border."

That sentiment was widespread in Vojvodina, a northern region in Serbia and home to about a 200,000-strong Hungarian community. Most of the ethnic Hungarians Reuters interviewed for this story and who were grant recipients plan to vote for Orban next year.

TEMPLATE FOR ROMANIA

Latest opinion polls show Orban's Fidesz party is a clear favourite to retain power in 2018. Political analysts said ethnic Hungarian voters could help Orban regain the two-thirds majority he has since lost.

"It is in the government's interest to have these sympathetic voters turn up at the election in the largest possible numbers," said Attila Tibor Nagy, an analyst at the Centre for Fair Political Analysis think-tank.

A two-thirds parliamentary majority enabled Orban to rewrite the constitution and pass major laws without support from other parties.

The government in Budapest estimates ethnic Hungarian votes could sway two out of 199 seats in parliament. Of an 8.25 million-strong electorate, nearly 290,000 ethnic Hungarians are registered to vote, their ranks having increased since the last election.

Orban's three-year, 50-billion-forint ($185 million) stimulus plan in Vojvodina could also be a template for a bigger programme in fellow European Union member Romania, home to the region's largest ethnic Hungarian community.

Once a grant has been successfully applied for, it is disbursed through a local foundation linked to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, which says the main goals of the scheme are to support local families and small businesses and to help ethnic Hungarians stay where they are.

"PEOPLE DECIDE"

Hundreds of thousands of Hungarians have moved to western Europe in search of higher-paid jobs over the past years and the latest census figures showed a fall in the number of ethnic Hungarians living in Serbia as well.

"This programme is obviously part of the broader strategic concept launched seven years ago and I think this will continue," Deputy Secretary of State Peter Kiss-Parciu said.

"I am sure this will motivate people to take a more active role in the matters of the Hungarian community," Kiss-Parciu said, when asked whether the funds could be a boon for Orban at the election, adding:

"As to how people vote, that is for them to decide."

Sitting on Hungary's southern border, Vojvodina is among Serbia's more developed regions, but even so, living standards languish below those in a neighbouring poor region of Hungary.

Vojvodina, through which the Danube river flows, is the breadbasket of Serbia providing much of its grain and makes up about one quarter of its territory. The capital Novi Sad was heavily bombed in 1999 when NATO intervened to halt killing of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by Serb forces.

Daniel Ferencz, a beekeeper in the town of Backo Petrovo Selo, surrounded by lush forests and dazzling sunflower fields, received a grant of about 860,000 Serbian dinars, which he used to buy swarms of bees, 50 hives and a honey-bottling machine.

Ferencz, 34, said the financial support convinced him he could make a living at home instead of moving elsewhere.

"It is an uplifting feeling," he said near a colourful row of hives. "It is good to be a Hungarian here because no one else has ever provided similar support."

For others, like Nikoletta Futo, 22, and her husband, who have a three-year-old daughter and triplet sons turning two in November, the 1.2-million-dinar grant also made the difference between staying and leaving the area.

Using the grant and some savings, they were able to buy a bigger house on the outskirts of Kanjiza, just across the Hungarian border in Serbia.

"We used to live in a smaller house with two rooms, but the six of us had to share a single room there," said Futo, with her daughter, Nora, sitting on her lap.

LOW INTEREST RATES

In the next phase of the programme, Hungarian OTP Bank's tiny Serbian unit will provide loans to Hungarian small businesses for projects worth over half a million euros each in agriculture and industry.

Nearly three dozen such projects are being assessed, Kiss-Parciu said, adding government subsidies will allow companies to borrow at 1-2 percent interest, far below the Serbian base rate, which at 4 percent is the highest in the region.

Deputy Chief Executive Laszlo Wolf told Reuters that OTP was looking to boost its low market share in Serbia and Romania, possibly through acquisitions. OTP declined further comment on its Serbian expansion plans.

Officials in Belgrade were not available to comment about the grants and loans for this story but have not criticised Orban's stimulus plan. Then Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, who is now president, said at a joint government meeting in November relations between Serbia and Hungary have never been better.

But not everyone is so happy.

Hungary's Socialists, trailing far behind in the polls, say Orban is using Hungarians across the border as political tools, also criticising his stimulus programme for what they see as a lack of transparency.

And, early last month, Serbian tabloid Kurir, a Vucic critic, ran a headline reading: "Orban takes over Vojvodina." (Writing by Gergely Szakacs; Additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Peter Millership)
By Dan Levine and Mica Rosenberg

July 13 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's temporary ban on travelers from six Muslim-majority countries cannot stop grandparents and other relatives of United States citizens from entering the country, a U.S. judge said on Thursday.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu also opens the door for more refugees and deals Trump a fresh courtroom defeat in a long back-and-forth over an executive order that has gone all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The state of Hawaii had asked Watson to narrowly interpret a Supreme Court ruling that revived parts of Trump's March 6 executive order banning travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, as well as refugees for 120 days.

The Supreme Court last month said the ban could take effect, but that anyone from the six countries with a "bona fide relationship" to a U.S. person or entity could not be barred.

The Trump administration then interpreted that opinion to allow spouses, parents, children, fiances and siblings into the country, but barred grandparents and other family members, in a measure Trump called necessary to prevent attacks.

Watson harshly criticized the government's definition of close family relations as "the antithesis of common sense" in a ruling that changes the way the ban can now be implemented.

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents. Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members," he wrote.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Trump's order is a pretext for illegal discrimination, Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin said in a statement.

"Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough," Chin said.

Chin had asked Watson for an injunction allowing grandparents and other family members to travel to the United States. Hawaii and refugee groups also had argued that resettlement agencies have a "bona fide" relationship with the refugees they help, sometimes over the course of years.

The Justice Department said its rules were properly grounded in immigration law.

Watson said the assurance by a resettlement agency to provide basic services to a newly arrived refugee constitutes an adequate connection to the U.S. because it is a sufficiently formal and documented agreement that triggers responsibilities and compensation.

"'Bona fide' does not get any more 'bona fide' than that," Watson said.

Melanie Nezer, vice president of global refugee advocacy group HIAS, said the ruling should mean that refugees can continue to be resettled in the United States, beyond a cap of 50,000 set by the executive order. That limit was reached this week.

"We are thrilled that thousands of people will be reunited with their family members," said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project.

More than 24,000 additional refugees should be allowed to travel to the U.S. under Watson's order, she estimated.

Watson did not grant everything the state of Hawaii sought, however. He rejected a request to categorically exempt all Iraqis refugee applicants who believe they are at risk due to their work for the U.S. government since March, 2003, as interpreters and translators, for instance.

Watson also refused a blanket exemption for those eligible to apply to a refugee program aimed at protecting certain children at risk in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

The roll-out of the narrowed version of the ban was more subdued than in January, when Trump first signed a more expansive version of his order. That sparked protests and chaos at airports around the country and the world. (Reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco and Mica Rosenberg in New York; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
By Stephen Kalin

MOSUL, July 14 (Reuters) - Iraqi forces still faced pockets of resistance from Islamic State in Mosul's Old City on Friday, four days after the prime minister declared victory.

Iraqi army helicopters flew overhead and explosions could be heard, residents said, while videos of alleged revenge attacks against people detained during the retaking of Mosul underlined future security challenges.

"Three mortars landed on our district," a resident of Faysaliya, in east Mosul, just across the Tigris river, said by telephone.

A few hundred Islamic State fighters swept into Mosul three years ago and imposed a reign of terror after the Iraqi army collapsed.

Iraq's victory in Mosul marked the biggest defeat for Islamic State, which is under siege in the Syrian city of Raqqa, its operational base.

Even though the group's caliphate is crumbling, it is expected to revert to an insurgency and keep carrying out attacks in the West and Middle East.

Securing long-term peace in Iraq will not be easy.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi faces the challenge of preventing revenge killings that could create more instability, along with sectarian tensions and ethnic strife that have dogged Iraq since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch said it had used satellite imagery to verify that a video published on Facebook on Tuesday, showing armed men in military uniforms beating a detainee before throwing him from a height and then shooting at him, had been filmed in west Mosul.

The footage shows the men shooting at the body of another man already lying at the bottom of the perch. Reuters could not independently verify the footage.

Iraq's joint operations command, said that the allegations were being looked at closely and if any violations were found, those responsible would be held accountable. It also said that the videos could have been fabricated.

Three other videos posted this week by the same account appear to show members of various Iraqi security forces beating men wearing ordinary clothes. Reuters could not independently verify the footage. (Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Jon Boyle)
ISTANBUL, July 14 (Reuters) - Turkey's justice ministry said on Friday that the European Court of Human Rights had rejected half of the nearly 25,000 appeals submitted by Turkish citizens affected by the purge following last year's failed coup.

There was no immediate comment from the European court.

More than 50,000 people have been detained and 150,000 have been suspended in a crackdown following the failed military coup against President Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey blames a U.S.-based Muslim cleric and his network of followers for the failed coup.

In a statement, the ministry cited an ECHR ruling which rejected an appeal by a Turkish civil servant who was dismissed after the coup, saying he should have taken his case to a Turkish commission set up to adjudicate on appeals.

The ECHR had rejected 12,600 cases out of a total of 24,600 cases submitted to it. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By Thomas Escritt

BERLIN, July 14 (Reuters) - Turkey has refused German lawmakers permission to visit soldiers serving at an air base near the city of Konya, marking a new escalation in tensions between the two NATO allies.

Turkey's earlier refusal to let lawmakers visit German soldiers serving at Incirlik air base led to Berlin relocating those troops to Jordan. In Konya, German airmen contribute to a NATO air surveillance mission.

"We regret Turkey's request to delay the journey of a parliamentary delegation," a German foreign ministry official said on Friday. "We are in intensive talks with all parties, including NATO, to set a new date as soon as possible."

Germany's armed forces are under parliamentary control, for reasons rooted in its modern history, and Berlin says the lawmakers must have access to its soldiers. Germany relocated its troops from Incirlik after repeated attempts to gain lawmaker access.

In May Turkey authorised a visit to Konya, but then revoked its permission due to increased bilateral tensions, said Rainer Arnold, defence spokesperson for the Social Democrats (SPD), the junior party in Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing coalition.

The two countries are at odds over a host of issues, including Berlin's refusal to extradite asylum seekers Ankara accuses of involvement in last year's failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while Berlin is demanding the release of an imprisoned Turkish-German journalist.

Merkel's criticisms of Ankara have been muted, partly because she needs its cooperation in upholding a deal whereby Turkey prevents migrants and refugees, many fleeing Syria's civil war, from leaving its shores for the European Union.

With a German parliamentary election due in September, relations with Turkey are an especially sensitive issue, exposing her to criticism from other parties that hope to unseat her.

"If parliament can't visit, the German army cannot remain in Konya," said Thomas Oppermann, a senior SPD lawmaker in a statement. "The government must quickly find a solution." (Reporting By Thomas Escritt; Editing by Michelle Martin and Gareth Jones)
By Jonathan Stempel

July 14 (Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court said a North Carolina county violated the U.S. Constitution by letting elected officials open meetings with Christian prayer and asking audience members to participate.

Friday's 10-5 decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia overturned a ruling by a three-judge panel of the same court that upheld the practice. The case is likely headed to the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court.

Three residents had challenged the Rowan County Board of Commissioners' practice of opening meetings with prayers composed by members, and asking those in attendance to stand and pray together.

Ninety-seven percent of 143 prayers in a recent 5-1/2-year period were Christian.

Writing for Friday's majority, Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson said it was not "inherently unconstitutional" for lawmakers to deliver invocations, but Rowan County violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause by focusing on a single, preferred faith.

"The prayer practice served to identify the government with Christianity and risked conveying to citizens of minority faiths a message of exclusion," wrote Wilkinson.

"Indeed, if elected representatives invite their constituents to participate in prayers invoking a single faith for meeting upon meeting, year after year, it is difficult to imagine constitutional limits to sectarian prayer practice."

Wilkinson distinguished prior Supreme Court decisions letting Nebraska's legislature and the upstate New York town of Greece open sessions with prayer led by clergy, rather than elected officials.

Circuit Judge Paul Niemeyer dissented, saying the majority effectively sought "to outlaw most prayer given in governmental assemblies, even though such prayer has always been an important part of the fabric of our democracy and civic life."

In a separate dissent, Circuit Judge G. Steven Agee said the majority's approach lets lawmakers "offer only a generic prayer to a generic god."

Rowan County is about 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Charlotte.

"Wilkinson's opinion should be the last word," Chris Brook, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the three residents, said in an interview. "No one should fear being discriminated against because they don't participate in prayer."

Greg Edds, the Rowan County board chairman, said in an email: "While the decision is certainly disappointing, it is not surprising. (We) will be reviewing it over the next several weeks with our legal team to decide where we go from here."

Wilkinson, considered a conservative, as well as Niemeyer and Agee are appointees of Republican presidents.

The appeals court last month ruled against President Donald Trump's revised travel ban. Moving it rightward is a priority for many conservatives.

The case is Lund et al v. Rowan County, North Carolina, 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 15-1591. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Friday filed a civil complaint seeking to recover about $144 million in assets obtained through paying bribes to a former Nigerian oil minister, the department said in a statement.

The complaint said that from 2011 to 2015 two Nigerian businessmen conspired with others to pay bribes to the minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who steered lucrative oil contracts to companies owned by them. The proceeds were laundered in and through the United States, and were used to purchase assets including a $50 million Manhattan condominium and an $80 million yacht, it said.

Alison-Madueke was charged with money laundering in Nigeria, the country's financial crimes agency said in April. She previously denied to Reuters any wrongdoing when questioned about missing public funds and corruption allegations. (Reporting by Washington Newsroom; Editing by Eric Beech)
Zahira College Colombo, the premier Muslim educational institution in Sri Lanka with a current student population of over 5000, is gearing itself to launch a colourful and fun-filled walk on Saturday, the 29th of July, 2017 at the college premises, 7.30am onwards.

This mega event is being meticulously planned by the OBA, with the collaboration of all affiliated groups under one umbrella to foster a sense of camaraderie among all participants to walk hand in hand and exhibit an unflinching loyalty to their Alma Mater. It is noteworthy to observe that, all affiliated groups numbering over 30 bodies, have extended their unstinted support and cooperation to make this epic event a truly memorable one.

The organizing committee has printed T-Shirts, Caps, Souvenirs, and Shawls for the ladies, as memorabilia for the Walk. The proposed parade will proceed from the College entrance, through T.B.Jayah Mawatha, Lipton Circle, Horton Place, Borella junction and finally to Borella  Maradana road, before returning to the College premises. Zahira Walk 2017 will cover a distance of nearly 6 km. The story of Zahira is the triumph of the human mind over all obstacles. When the circumstances were hostile for Muslim students to pursue English education during the colonial era, three visionaries by the names of M.C. Siddi Lebbe, A.M. Wappiche Marikar, and I.L.M. Abdul Aziz came forward and founded Al Madrasathul Zahira in 1892. As a testimony of the predecessors far-sighted vision and the missionary zeal, today Zahira is in her prime and has become the Radiating Centre of Islamic Thought and Activity in Sri Lanka.

What better way to commemorate its achievements in the sphere of education and other co-curricular activities, especially in the field of sports, than orchestrating the Zahira Walk 2017 to showcase its dynamism and perseverance in pursuit of excellence.
Going by the occasional statements made by President Maithripala Sirisena about the so-called anti-corruption drive of the Government one would definitely wonder as to what his real stand was on the allegations of high profile corruption against the leaders of the previous government led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He might be seen as blowing hot and cold on the issue.



Citing a corruption case in which former Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa had also been accused, he dropped a bombshell in October last year at a meeting at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI) alleging that his own governments anti-corruption mechanism had been politicised.

Then he was in turn accused by his own supporters for discouraging, through his statement the State institutions that had been assigned to probe the corruption charges involving huge amounts of money.

But last week he accused his partner in Governance, the United National Party (UNP) that allegations of high profile corruption against the leaders of the last regime, including the Rajapaksa family were being gradually swept under the carpet.



Following his outburst on alleged politicisation of the anti-corruption mechanism on October 12 last year he had to face a barrage of criticism by the civil society organisations that helped him come to power at the last Presidential election.



In a damage control process he and his Cabinet Spokesman Minister Rajitha Senaratne interpreted his SLFI speech as a protest against the Governments lethargy in bringing to book the sharks that had plundered the public wealth.



But in reality what happened was the Director General of the Bribery Commission Dilrukshi Wikremesingha had to resign following his verbal attack on her performance and the institutions that were targeted by him in his speech  the Bribery Commission, the CID and the FCID - were rarely or less frequently in the news after that, with powerful or famous people being questioned or any other action being taken against them. Since the Police Department including the CID and the FCID function under Law and Order Minister Sagala Rathnayake and the Director General of the Bribery Commission, who stepped down was said to have been originally recommended to the post by the UNP leadership Presidents outburst was an indirect indictment against his own partner in Governance, the UNP.

Was the President hoodwinked by his own Government?

The high profile probes against former rulers are not moving ahead

Dropped a bombshell in October that his own Governments anti-corruption mechanism had been politicised.

UNP, JVP, JHU and the Maithri faction of SLFP accused leaders of the former Government of plundering billions of rupees from public coffers.

If the Government failed to deliver in its investigations against former leaders..it would be tantamount to a witch-hunt.

The public confidence on such actions would be further eroded.

On the other hand the President seems to be now in a Catch-22 situation.

Usually the people who had thus far been hoodwinked by politicians during elections.

A matter of complaining by the President himself about a corrupt anti-corruption drive of his own Government.



However, this time the President was blunt in accusing the UNP for shielding Rajapaksas.

When the issue of extending the term of the Anti-Corruption Committee Secretariat (ACCS) came up at last weeks Cabinet meeting the President had stated that there had been no cases against former President Mahinda Rajapaksa or his family, as those in the UNP had brought pressure on the investigators periodically to slow down or not to proceed.



He had alleged that even the ones probed and actions against the members of the Rajapaksa family had been watered-down.



The President had also come out with how these happenings affected him personally. While lamenting that it was only persons who had been identified with him were being dealt with, he had told to the UNP leaders face that they had an understanding with Rajapaksas people.

He did not mince his words when he said that if Rajapaksa came back to power none of the UNPers was going to be touched.



Questioning the relevant Ministers as to why there was no action on the high profile cases he had told that if the Attorney Generals Department and the Police were given to him he would catch all the culprits within three months.



In spite of all the repercussions of his outburst in October, his clarification of it was on a par with the essence of his last weeks expression of heartbreak, Why the high profile cases against the former rulers are not moving ahead.



In fact this was a question the ordinary people who had voted this Government into power had been asking from the beginning.



The answer given by the Ministers including the Cabinet Spokesman Minister Senaratne during the first year of the current Government was that under a Government of Good Governance the authorities could not bundle up the suspects without following the proper procedures, as happened during the Rajapaksa regime.



However, the President seems to have had his own doubts about the situation from the beginning as he also had once towards the end of his first year in office told the media that even he did not understand the delay in action against corrupt people in the previous regime.



The leaders of the UNP, JVP, JHU and the Maithri faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) accused the leaders of the former Government, especially the Rajapaksa family of plundering billions of rupees from the public coffers.



They alleged that the Rajapaksa family had helicopters worth millions, horses and castles in other countries and Swiss Bank accounts. It was told in 2015 that members of Rajapaksa family had bank accounts in Dubai where millions of dollars had been stashed.



The then Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera said in March 2015 that the Government was getting the backing of four foreign nations to trace USD 18 billion allegedly siphoned off by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family during their decade in power.



The Opposition parties during the Rajapaksa tenure alleged that more than Rs. Seven Billion is to be spent on each kilometre on the highway from Kadawatha to Kerawalapitiya, whereas the only about Rs. Three Billion had been spent on similar expressways in other countries.



However, the same people who had been accused of these corrupt practices are now ironically ridiculing the Government questioning where those billions stashed in foreign bank accounts, castles, helicopters etc were.



They are correct.

The Government has not so far been able to file a single case involving billions of rupees against any leader of the former regime except for the one against Chanuka Ratwatte.



Nor do the people now believe that any such case would be filed in the future either. Besides, a certain Minister of the Government that vowed to eradicate corruption had vowed that he would not allow former Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa to be arrested under any circumstances.

In fairness to the leader of the former regime, if the Government failed to deliver in its so-called investigations, the high profile corruption charges against the former leaders would be tantamount to them being defamed and the actions against them would be a witch-hunt.



And the public confidence on such actions would be further eroded. On the other hand the President seems to be now in a Catch-22 situation.



If the President, after having alleged that the investigations had been influenced by the UNP takes over the Attorney Generals Department and the Police under him and catches all the culprits within three months, as he had told the Cabinet, it would also be seen as those institutions having been influenced by him.



Usually it has been the millions of people in the country who had thus far been hoodwinked by the promises given by the politicians during elections.



Nonetheless, if the remarks made by the President on the failure of the anti-corruption drive of his own Government were to be taken for granted, interestingly it is a matter of complaining by the President himself about a corrupt anti-corruption drive of his own Government.



In other words, a leader of the State has also been hoodwinked for the first time in the history by election promises.
By William Booth and Hazem Balousha

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is pursuing a high-risk campaign in the Gaza Strip to squeeze his own people so hard that they might force the Islamist militant movement Hamas to surrender control of the isolated coastal enclave.



The 82-year-old leaders Palestinian Authority, which runs the West Bank but has only limited sway in Gaza, has slashed salaries for its employees in the seaside territory, withheld permissions for medical patients to leave and, in its most dramatic step, cut payments for the electricity provided to Gaza by Israel.



Israel fears Hamas might lash out with rocket fire, and the World Bank worries the strip could collapse. The United Nations on Tuesday declared that a decade of Hamas rule, Palestinian infighting and crippling blockades by Israel and Egypt have made life for people in Gaza more and more wretched each day.



But Abbas has said he is prepared to go even further, threatening to impose sanctions against Hamas and freeze funds for its leaders according to an interview he gave to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

Washington Post,

July 12 2017

GAZA CITY
The 20th Annual Meeting of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering will be held in Colombo during July 17-21, 2017 with the participation of about 450 local and foreign delegates from 41 member countries and several international observer organisations.



This event will be graced by President Maithripala Sirisena as the chief guest.

The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, more commonly known as the APG, was founded in Bangkok, Thailand in 1997, initially by 13 countries including Sri Lanka. The APG is the regional body tasked with the monitoring of the effective implementation and enforcement of internationally accepted standards against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, in particular, the 40 Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) within member countries. Currently, the APG has a varied membership consisting of small economies in the Pacific to the largest economies in the world such as the United States, China, Japan and India. In addition to its permanent member countries, this years APG Annual Meeting will be attended by a number of international and regional observers such as the FATF, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.



The APG, as the largest FATF-styled Regional Body (FSRB) in the world, plays a pivotal role in the ever-changing global landscape of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT). In the context of the revamped version of 40 Recommendations adopted by the FATF in 2012, the APG, through its Mutual Evaluations of member countries, assesses AML/CFT compliance vis-a-vis, a wide range of preventive measures, institutional requirements, enforcement and prosecution issues, sectoral controls and obligations to achieve mutual legal assistance and international cooperation to freeze and confiscate criminal proceeds. Apart from Mutual Evaluations, the APG also supports its members by providing technical assistance and training in particular and typologies research to better inform APG members and the public regarding Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing trends, methods, risks and vulnerabilities.



The APG also assists its members to establish national coordination mechanisms to better utilise resources to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.



The 20th Annual Meeting will be useful for member countries to strengthen international cooperation, review AML/CFT compliance levels and adopt actions to address AML/CFT weaknesses. The Annual Meeting will be especially significant to Sri Lanka, as Sri Lanka becomes the APG Co-chair for the years 2016-2018 while the country can further show its commitment to implement actions to achieve international AML/CFT standards.
The mafia type GMOA leadership declared a week ago they would go on an indefinite strike, if Prof. Carlo Fonseka was not re-appointed as Chairman of the SLMC.



They opposed any other appointment, including that of Prof. Colvin Gunaratne. They want the people to believe it is only they who know whats right and whats best and have the undisputed right to decide on everything thats health.



The octogenarian that Prof. Carlo Fonseka is, he had told the GMOA leadership he couldnt be a guiding force in the SLMC anymore with his feeble health. That sanity in him, made him reject the decision of the GMOA on his re-appointment. The GMOA leadership thus lost their battle to hold its grip tight over the SLMC as expected.

They then opted for a Waterloo. Flanked by the Joint Opposition, the JVP, the FSP and memberless TU leaders, the GMOA leadership told media if SAITM was not abolished, the Government would be toppled.



Finally the Rajapaksa in them spoke openly.



The GMOA has now forgotten they opposed the appointment of Prof. Carlo Fonseka in 2012 January, on the basis that the SLMC should be devoid of politics. Then Additional Secretary of the GMOA Dr. Upul Gunasekera told media, they therefore wanted Prof. Lalitha Mendis re-appointed. He also told media the GMOA had sought a meeting with President Rajapaksa to sort out the issue.

Unfortunately for the GMOA leadership, that was not Kurahan for Rajapaksa. They thereafter meekly accepted Prof. Carlo Fonseka.



Thirteen years later they met on the same political track after Rajapaksa was defeated in 2015 January and in August Parliamentary elections. Thereafter Prof. Carlo Fonseka saddled himself firm, on the donkey the GMOA brought on the track. That is the only reason the GMOA now wants Prof Carlo Fonseka for.



The GMOA believes unlike with Rajapaksa they now bray for, they can threaten this Government to have their decision implemented.



The appointment of Prof. Colvin Gunaratne as Chairman, SLMC can be stopped by declaring an indefinite work stoppage.

There is a marked difference though. Prof Colvin Gunaratna has proved he could not be influenced or coerced in anyway, to abandon his principled positions. That is precisely what the GMOA cannot live with



What is less in Prof. Colvin Gunaratna that Prof. Carlo Fonseka has?

There is a marked difference though. Prof Colvin Gunaratna has proved he could not be influenced or coerced in anyway, to abandon his principled positions. That is precisely what the GMOA cannot live with.



This society is to be blamed for allowing this GMOA leaderships underworld behaviour. They live that way by driving home the message the medical doctors are indispensable and the people tend to believe it.



The implied message is that the entire health sector would grind to a halt without them. But that is not the truth.



On their own they simply cannot manage even a hospital ward. The Out Patients can be handled even with Assistant Medical Officers (AMOs).



The truth is, it is without other supplementary staff like nurses, medical laboratory technicians, radiologists, pharmacists and also the attendants that a hospital cannot be managed.

It is also a fact, these auxiliary staff can on their own, easily manage a hospital ward without a medical doctor and they have been doing so, every time these doctors go on wildcat strikes.

Finally the Rajapaksa in them spoke openly.

Time to look at AMOs and RMOs?

Message is the entire health sector would grind to a halt without them. But that is not the truth.

On their own they simply cannot manage even a hospital ward.

The Out Patients can be handled even with Assistant Medical Officers (AMOs).

It is without other supplementary staff -like nurses, medical laboratory technicians, radiologists, and attendants -that a hospital cannot be managed.

It is also a fact, these auxiliary staff can on their own, easily manage a hospital ward without a medical doctor

A vast number of MBBS doctors dont specialise

There are 18,345 registered medical doctors in Government service but only 1,739 specialists cover 49 specialist areas.

In some specialisations like Paediatrics and Neurology there are only five in the public service, including GMOA boss Dr. Padeniya. Only four Thoracic Surgeons, 12 Neuro Surgeons, 19 Genito-Urinary Surgeons for the whole island.



Role and competence of medical doctors are heavily amplified. That was aptly described by Medical Consultant and academic, Gynaecologist Dr. Pradeep de Silva in the Lankadeepa of July 4, 2017.

I would quote him here for the benefit of English readers, who may have missed his well articulated, informed explanations contradicting all what the GMOA says about medical doctors.



The MBBS doctor can be compared to a seasoned ball of clay. Thats not rough. If one wishes, a flower pot can be moulded out of it, or even a plate. It means, he or she with a good quality MBBS degree and with capability, can be trained and guided to perform many things at many levels.

That is the first argument. But that is not what the GMOA is saying. What they say is, an MBBS degree holder can perform anything. That is wrong. For example, we can train an MBBS doctor as an Anaesthetist. S/he can then anaesthetise. But cannot perform surgery, wrote Dr. de Silva.



A vast number of MBBS doctors dont specialise and thus remain clay balls. While there are 18,345 registered medical doctors in Government service, there are only 1,739 specialist doctors that cover 49 specialist areas. In some specialisations like Paediatric Neurology there are only five in public service, including GMOA boss Dr. Padeniya.



Only four Thoracic Surgeons, 12 Neuro Surgeons, 19 Genito Urinary Surgeons for the whole island.

There are many such specialist areas with less than a dozen Consultants for the entire island.

Of those 18,345 medical doctors, more than 3,000 are reported idling for years without completing their post graduate degrees, for which they have been released from service.



Added are those thousands who sit as health administrators, numbers the Health Ministry officials (Medical Doctors themselves) dont provide even on RTI requests. It is these medical doctors in administration the GMOA uses for its strength in intimidating Governments.



The present and the past prove society doesnt have to produce these MBBS clay balls at a heavy cost, when their worth is nothing more than that of AMOs. Or that of Administrative Officers in Government Departments.



Sri Lankas high quality health standard was also not achieved with MBBS doctors. In 1869 the British colonial Governor Hercules Robinson introduced the AMO Service for which the head of the Civil Medical Department, Dr. W.R. Kynsey helped establish the Colombo Medical School in 1870.

A research paper for the Journal of Inter-professional Care titled The Assistant Medical Officer in Sri Lanka; Mid level health worker in decline by Dr. Vijitha de Silva of the Medical Faculty of Ruhuna University, Dr. Mahinda Liyanage of Kadugannawa District Hospital with two academics from the Department of Community and Family Medicine, Duke University Medical Centre, Durham, NC, USA, published in May 2013 says:



This AMO training program consisted of one year at the medical college followed by six months of clinical training. The curriculum included structure and function of the body (anatomy and physiology), nutrition, biochemistry, pharmacology and pharmacy, microbiology, parasitology, pathology, community medicine, medicine, surgery, paediatrics, gynaecology and obstetrics.

For almost 150 years, the services of AMOs were an integral part of Sri Lankas health sector. Throughout this period, most of the government central dispensaries and maternity homes (Approximately 380) distributed across the island were run by AMOs and RMOs. In addition some rural and peripheral hospitals were managed by them.

For 150 years the AMOs provided this care in remote areas and were the practitioners, who staffed the outlying hospitals and Out Patient clinics until in 1995 the Chandrika Kumaratunge Government abandoned AMO training

The paper also says, it was since 1960 the medical graduates (MBBS) outnumbered AMOs in service.

And then, a WHO report (Public Health Success in Sri Lanka) published in 2016 says:

A highly trained workforce including Public Health Inspectors, midwives and local volunteers ran social mobilisation campaigns to ensure the success of the mass drug administration (MDA) campaigns in endemic areas.



All undisputed proof, we achieved our quality health standard in eliminating epidemics purely on committed work of the Public Health Sector with trained staff and not with medical doctors, who dont ever sign an attendance register but collect overtime for hospital work and appear more in private practise and channel services.



It is also the national education system that helped develop a very literate society, which contributed for improved health indicators by 1960.



And this literate society was educated on health and hygiene, was provided with drinking water and sanitation facilities, all outside hospital work.

A highly trained workforce including Public Health Inspectors, midwives and local volunteers ran social mobilisation campaigns to ensure the success of the mass drug administration (MDA) campaigns in endemic areas.



The AMO model was no unique concept. It was what China developed as Barefoot doctors. In Spain they were practicante and adopted in their colonies too. By 1960 it was further developed as Physician Assistants in the USA, Canada, UK and Australia. The logic is, instead of incurring a heavy cost in producing MBBS degree holders to take care of primary health, the same can be achieved and efficiently too by AMOs at a much lower cost.



The research paper quoted earlier establishes the fact:

For 150 years the AMOs provided this care in remote areas and were the practitioners, who staffed the outlying hospitals and Out Patient clinics until in 1995 the Chandrika Kumaratunge Government abandoned AMO training.



It is with such elimination and restriction of supportive medical staff the MBBS doctors through their GMOA have come to monopolise the health sector with no added benefits, but a burden to society.

This monopolising has robbed them of professional ethics and morals too and the society is left with a plethora of medical practitioners who are awfully selfish, greedy and arrogantly dumb.

It is therefore time, to raise two major issues that require answers for posterity.

It is with such elimination and restriction of supportive medical staff the MBBS doctors through their GMOA have come to monopolise the health sector with no added benefits, but a burden to society.

One is that of the SLMC. Policy making is the responsibility of the Government and it is for that a Government is elected. The SLMC is a regulatory body and has to be efficiently limited to that. Therefore the Health Minister should



(01) Immediately appoint Prof. Gunaratne its Chairman with a mandate and a firm decision to re-design the SLMC with necessary amendments to the Act, which is now almost redundant.

(02) Immediately establish a Medical Education Commission with other professionals and disciplines included to study the entirety of medical education including MBBS degree and to propose a rational, cost effective model for the future.



Wish the Minister will have that much far-sightedness for the sake of the people and the people would realise they have lived enough with these Tinsel Kings in medicine.
A picture taken this week shows a general view of the destruction in Mosuls Old City. AFP

Iraqs victory over ISIS in Mosul is not the end of the road for the most ruthless terror group. Neither does it herald the beginning of a peaceful era in the land trod by prophets and peacemakers.

The troubles are far from over, with little or no effort being made to address their root causes. In all likelihood, the next powder keg is Kurdistan.

In many other regions of the world, periods of war follow periods of peace, but not so in the Middle East, birthplace of the worlds three main religions. Its soil has, perhaps, absorbed more blood than rainwater for the past several millennia. Are the people incapable of living in peace? Or, is war a way of life in the region? Nay, the people are the disposables in the political power games their rulers play in collusion with the West.



Be it the creation of Israel in 1947, the present ISIS terrorism or, the war on impoverished Yemen, the troubles have their origins in decisions made in London and Washington, and of late, in Riyadh and Tel Aviv.



Who created ISIS or the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria? ISIS is a dangerous byproduct of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. The blunders the West and the regions arrogant rulers made created the breeding grounds for radicalism. Muslim youth are radicalised easily because they are angry. They are angry because, all they see around them is institutionalised injustice, for which they hold their corrupt rulers and the West responsible.



Global aid agency Mercy Corp, in a 2015 research report, said that more than poverty and unemployment, its the experience of injustice, discrimination and marginalisation, coupled with exposure to corruption, humiliation and violence, that triggered the decision for many to join radical groups. It is dignity, not dollars, the angry youth are after.

But the angry youth often become easy prey to manipulative mullahs, who, in turn, are handled by the big powers through their intelligence agencies. Terror leaders cite Quranic verses out of context and sayings falsely attributed to Prophet Muhammad to make terrorism alluring to the youth. Terrorism, if handled diligently, is an instrument used by certain big powers to achieve national interest goals. In hindsight, the origin of ISIS and the role it played in political events of the region appear that the group was part of a grand project aimed at Balkanising the region, beginning with a regime change in Syria. The divide-and-rule principle at play.



ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is now confirmed dead, came into the scene from nowhere. He was taken to an American-run prison in Iraq as a civilian detainee and allowed to make contacts with hardcore Islamists held there. This happened while the Arab Spring was sweeping the region in 2011.



Once released, he revived the Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) which had become defunct after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.



Baghdadis popularity rose among Iraqs Sunnis, after he successfully led a jailbreak in 2011 in Iraq, and freed some 3,000 Sunnis arrested on charges of terrorism. Adding credence to the claims that ISIS works for foreign powers, the freed Sunni prisoners were moved to Syria. A Hillary Clinton email published by WikiLeaks last year, had this to say:  we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.



It is worthwhile to mention here that the Taliban which captured power in Afghanistan in 1996, was created by Pakistans Inter-Service Intelligence and supported by the Americans, the Saudis and the Emiratis.



The astonishing military success ISIS made in Syria, helped the group grow in confidence. It became a runaway terrorist outfit that took only money and weapons from its handlers, but not orders. It even severed all links with al-Qaedas leadership and fought al-Qaedas Syrian franchise Jabhat al Nusra.

While its handlers pondered how to deal with it, the terror group captured large parts of Iraqs Sunni areas, including key cities such as Tikrit, Ramadi, Fallujah and Mosul. These victories made angry Sunni youths worldwide see ISIS as the promised liberator mentioned in the Prophets sayings. Across the globe, terror groups operating with Islamic labels pledged allegiance to ISIS.



With ISIS influence spread across the world, it is too early to say the demise of Baghdadi and the defeat in Mosul will sound the death knell for ISIS. As long as institutionalised injustice remains, terror groups will not face a shortage of recruits. It is in this context that the Iraqi government needs to redouble its efforts to woo its Sunni population. They are angry.



The Iraqi governments victory became possible only after a brutal siege was laid to Mosul. There is virtually, not a single building that is standing, following nine-months of relentless airstrikes and artillery fire by Iraqi and US forces. The scenes of destruction can perhaps be comparable only to the kind of devastation the Allies brought upon Tokyo during World War II.



Now that the ISIS is virtually dead in Iraq and breathing its last in Syria, whats next? Certainly, it is not peace. More conflicts are likely. Already, fears have been expressed about a military confrontation between the Kurds and Turkey. Even Iraq and Iran may be dragged into this conflict. The Kurds played a key role as a US ally in the defeat of ISIS in both Syria and Iraq. They are now set for major political manoeuvres. A referendum will be held on September 25 in the autonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq, to decide whether to go as a separate State. The outcome is a likely flashpoint in Iraq.

In Syria, the US is building a base in the Kurdish area, to be used as a backup facility, if Turkey decides to close down the NATO base in Incirlik. Already, Germany has begun withdrawing its troops from this base. A permanent NATO base in Syria is possible only if a Syrian Kurdish State emerges. Syria and its ally Russia will not agree to this. But the US has its own plans.



Despite US President Donald Trumps boast about hands-on governance, the State Dept and the Pentagon do what they think is right. The Syrian ceasefire worked out last year by Russia and the Obama administration was scuttled by the Pentagon mandarins who were not happy about the truce.

Turkey, which is fighting its own Kurdish separatist insurrection, will not accept, without a fight, the emergence of independent Kurdish States on its borders. The two new Kurdish States, backed by the US and Israel, will also be a major security poser for Iran, a country with a minority Kurdish population.



Needless to say, the developments portend more bloodshed in a region where disputes are seldom settled peacefully.
There have been several encounters between the rebel groups and security forces in Manipur. In July last year, the Supreme Court had ruled that all incidents involving suspected use of excessive and retaliatory force by the army must be investigated.(Reuters/HT file photo)

The Supreme Court ordered on Friday a federal investigation into 62 alleged extra-judicial killings by security forces in Manipur, overruling objections by the government and the army in a landmark decision likely to be hailed by human rights activists.



The court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to set up special teams for the probe and asked the agencys director to respond within two weeks. The army  which is accused in 28 of the 62 cases  wanted an internal probe.



In July last year, the top court had ruled that all incidents involving suspected use of excessive and retaliatory force by the army in Manipur must be investigated. The decision had come on a petition that alleged 1,528 extra-judicial killings by the army and other security forces during 2010-12

in Manipur.



The army and paramilitary personnel cannot use excessive or retaliatory force even in areas where the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) had been notified, the

order said.

(Hindustan Times), July 14, 2017
Being located approximately 5,400 kilometres away from Sri Lanka, Israel has shown an increasing attention on Sri Lanka over the recent years as a unique tropical destination in the Indian Ocean with great surfing locations similar to Miami beach (USA) and Jaws, Maui-Hawaii.

Israeli and Sri Lankan officials and a highly skilled chef from Kingsbury Hotel, Sri Lanka, at the culinary event

Giving consideration to the importance of showcasing the exquisite Sri Lankan cuisine in Israel, Sri Lanka Tourism organised an authentic Sri Lankan culinary festival and tourism promotion with the collaborative partnership of the Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel- Israel, and Kingsbury Hotel Colombo. The Sri Lankan food festival took place from 7 to 18 May. This was the very first event of its kind (Culinary tourism) to be organised in Israel by

Sri Lanka Tourism.

The Sri Lankan food festival was kicked off with a grand opening ceremony on 7 May 2017 with the countrys top media houses, food bloggers and elite diplomats who were invited for this ceremony to explore what is truly Sri Lankan. The event took place for 12 days and highly skilled chefs from the Kingsbury Hotel, Colombo contributed their valuable service for this food festival by creating true Sri Lankan culinary dishes for the Israeli food lovers. During this food festival, Kingsbury hotels culinary team collaborated with the Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel to create various Sri Lankan cuisines from traditional to street food to offer greater culinary exposure on destination Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan cuisine prepared for serving at Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel

With this culinary tourism promotion activity, Sri Lanka Tourism in collaboration with Sri Lanka mission in Israel expected to offer new tourism products for Israeli travellers based on their consumer behaviour where it will create a greater impact on the decision making process when Israelis select their holiday destinations for

upcoming holidays.

Overall this food festival created greater awareness among the public about destination Sri Lanka and further encouraged Israels outbound travel agents to promote Sri Lanka within their potential clientele.

According to Fly East CEO Yariv Fisher currently, most young Israelis are excited to travel to destinations like Sri Lanka. Fly East is one of the leading outbound travel operator companies in Israel which is responsible for over 50 percent of Israeli tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka. Young and middle aged Israel families traveling to Sri Lanka have grown dramatically, since Sri Lanka is considered as a peaceful country with a large number of natural wonders to excite their children and create a memorable holiday experience full of fun and adventure. Currently, Turkish Airlines are providing flight services to Sri Lanka via Istanbul and Maldives, and is expected to have a direct flight service within

both countries.

During the event all the distinguished invitees were welcomed by the Sri Lankan Ambassador P. Selvaraj and explained about the central features of Sri Lankan cuisine, Sri Lankas ancient historical roots, rich cultural values, multi-religious influences and many other aspects which make Sri Lanka amazing, unique and a satisfying holiday destination. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Public Relations Junior Manager Chaminda Munasinghe also addressed the invitees by highlighting the importance of culinary tourism promotion to attract more Israeli travellers to Sri Lanka during upcoming seasons and conveyed Sri Lanka Tourisms gratitude for the management of Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel, and Sri Lanka Mission in Tel Aviv, Israel, for creating such a great opportunity for Sri Lanka. Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel Executive Manager Patrick Mudalige gave his fullest support together with his team by organising all the ground arrangements for the

Sri Lankan delegation.

With a population of only eight million in the State of Israel, approximately 12 million international departures are made every year by locals. Most Israelis make one or more international travel per year mostly on leisure or business purposes.

The urban population of Tel Aviv, is approximately 411,800, which is also the financial hub of the country and is further considered to be the third largest economy of the Middle Eastern region after Abu Dhabi and Kuwait. It has one of the highest living standards in the world and considered to be the 25th most important financial centre in the globe. With a high income, the majority of the population carry higher possibilities of traveling abroad on their holidays.
An apparel industry spokesperson this week slammed the new Inland Revenue Bill, which will put 90 percent of Sri Lankas exporters under the higher 28 percent income tax bracket, continuing to call for support for an industry that has matured.



The present draft has a 14 percent tax concession compared to 12.5 percent and talks about solely functioning exporters, whereas in this country, exporters have total market access, Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) Secretary General Tuli Cooray said.



Speaking at the seminar titled: GSP Plus: How Real Is It? organized by the Young Professionals Association of the United National Party, Cooray said that approximately 90 percent of Sri Lankas exporters will transition to the full income tax bracket if the bill is passed without amendment. All our agreements with the Board of Investment are to export 80 percent of our production, he said. Cooray further said that the removal of deemed exports from subsidized income taxes in the proposed law will also hurt the generation of foreign exchange.

We find that fiscal measures being taken are in fact reversing certain competitive measures that were there, and we will not be able to compete on that basis, he added.



The new Inland Revenue Bill is said to have been formulated with the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which some say is a replica of the tax laws in Ghana, which the IMF helped draft recently.



The World Bank and credit rating agencies recently hailed the new Inland Revenue Bill as an improvement over the current legislation, for broad basing and simplifying tax collection, and changing the tax concessions to a refund scheme based on realized investments, instead of providing concessions on promises to invest.



Cooray said that exporters have made their representations to the government, and that they are confident of the current exporter base also getting concessionary income tax rates under amendments to the proposed bill.



Bringing the current exporters under the full tax bracket would be positive for the government finances, which are required to reach a 3.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) budget deficit by 2020, amidst mounting evidence that the budget deficit target for 2017 may not be met.



Even Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy had last year expressed concern over major foreign exchange earning sectors such as apparel, tourism and IT not paying taxes at the 28 percent rate. Successive Sri Lankan governments have had a habit of protecting industries, which do not have a competitive advantage, and not removing support for industries that have taken off.



Both policy measures reduce the space for support that can be extended to fledgling industries that could become significant foreign exchange earners in the future. (CW)
Aries (Mesha):



Loss of wealth, mental unrest and disputes with relatives are among the ill effects likely to be caused by Sun entering your 4th House on July 16 in addition to digestive troubles and temptations held out by Mars already in this House. However, help and goodwill of kinsmen, happy family reunions and success in studies are assured by Mercury in transit in the same House. Venus in your 2nd House may bring you an increased income as well as enjoyments and pleasures.



Taurus (Vrushabha):



Sun about to move into your 3rd House assures good health, increased power and influence and happiness from brothers in addition enhanced wealth and influence held out by Mars already in the same House. Mercury already in your 3rd House should put you on the alert to possible troubles either from the law enforcement agencies or from enemies. Lagnadhipati Venus in your Lagna signifies a time of great joy and happiness ahead.



Gemini (Mithuna):



A drop in your income, eye trouble, and domestic problems are among ill effects Sun is expected to produce when it enters your 2nd House on July 16. Meanwhile, you are likely to get embroiled in disputes and face attempts to bring you into disrepute and intrigues by enemies due to the adverse influence of Mars already in that House. Saturn now in your 6th House is quite auspicious for you. You are assured of increased wealth and improved health as a result. Venus in your 12th House as its lord will fortify you with acumen, a pragmatic outlook and a bent for righteous living.



Cancer (Kataka):



Sun entering your 1st House can affect your general health by causing an excess in Pitta (bile). Meanwhile, though Mars in your 1st House makes you energetic, could cause blood-related disease. Meanwhile, adverse influence of Mercury already in your 1st House could undermine your integrity and morale and leave you a victim to deception and misguidance by others. Venus in your 11th House is a redeeming feature for it can bring you wealth, comforts and pleasures.



Leo (Sinha):



Poor health, disrepute and possible involvement in disputes and clashes are among the grim prospects raised by Sun entering your 12th House. Meanwhile, heavy expenses, eye disease and mental worries are held outly Mars already in this House. Meanwhile, troubles from enemies, disease, and marital problems are possibilities indicated due to the adverse effects of Mercury already in the same House. However, favourable effects such as comforts and luxuries, happiness and fulfillment are on the cards thanks to Venus Swakshetra in the 10th House.



Virgo (Kanya):



Sun moving into your 11th House heralds a very favourable time for you as it holds out satisfaction from your career, patronage from VIPs in addition to enhanced returns from business and other economic activity signified by Mars already in this House. Meanwhile, comforts, wealth and pleasures are held out by Mercury already posited in the same House. Favourable Venus in your 9th House and a friendly Saturn in your 3rd House together assure higher status, general prosperity, gainful distant or foreign travel in addition to increased power and influence, sound health and comfortable conveyances.



Libra (Thula):



Sun -Mars  Mercury combination in the 10th House brings fame, gainful foreign travel and brightens the career prospects of natives running favourable Dasas. Mercury already in the 10th House spells doom for your enemies and rivals and will bring wealth to you. Lagnadhipati Venus in your 8th House may bring you living comforts, pleasures and enjoyments. Saturn now in the 2nd House being the Yogakaraka may produce beneficial effects such as increased wealth and happiness in the family.



Scorpio (Vrushika):



Sun -Mars combination in the 9th House though favourable for religious and spiritual activity could cause loss of wealth, status and humiliation. You have to be braced for setbacks and disappointments resulting from unforeseen impediments. Marital happiness and bright matrimonial prospects are held out by Venus in the 8th House. You have come again under Ashtamaya Shani Erashtaka with retrograde Saturn entering your Lagna again.



Sagittarius (Dhanu):



Sun in the 8th House could cause blood-related disease in addition to loss of wealth, assaults on honour and even emergency surgical treatment indicated by Mars already in this House. However, Venus in your 6th House assures you of good health and success in contests and competitions among other benefits. You are temporarily relieved of the direct impact of Jamma Shani Erashtaka as Saturn has moved into your 12th House.



Capricorn (Makara):



Sun  Mars combination in the 7th House holds out a brief unfavourable spell marred by ill health, an unhappy married life, loss of wealth and disputes with partners. Disharmony and dissention in the family are likely due to Mercury already in the same 7th House. However, Increased wealth and the delightful company of friends are assured by a redeeming Venus in your 5th House. Lagnadhipati Saturn in your 11th House assures you of a sound financial position and enhanced comforts



Aquarius (Kumbha):



Sun  Mars combination in the 6th House holds out good health, increased wealth, power and influence, success in contests and competitions and a whip hand over enemies and rivals. Mercury already in the 6th House can bring you fame and popularity. Enhanced power and new friends, mental peace, happiness in the family and success in educational pursuits are assured by Venus in your 4th House.



Pisces (Meena):



Poor health and monetary problems will begin troubling you due to the adverse influence of Sun and Mars in your 5th House. Events that could mar your marital happiness are also a possibility. Venus in your 3rd House will make you more powerful and influential. You are likely to feel a strong inclination to take to a simple and austere lifestyle due to the influence of Saturn in the 9th House. Jupiter continuing transit in the 7th House assures you of a comfortable living.
Filmmaker of New Suicide Movie Explains Why '13 Reasons Why' Death-Scene is 'A Horrible Mistake' Contact: Jen Thompson, 800-437-1893, jthompson@livingwaters.com



LOS ANGELES, July 14, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- The wildly popular Netflix program called "13 Reasons Why" has started a massive controversy. It not only details why the main character took her own life, garnering sympathy, but it shows her committing suicide. She doesn't jump off a bridge, leaving what happened to her to the imagination. Rather, she sits in a bathtub fully clothed, takes a razor blade, and slits her wrists lengthwise.



Ray Comfort, whose movies have been seen by millions, said, "I forced myself to watch the scene, and even though I know it's only acting, with special effects, I found it horrific. It brought me to tears."



The controversy is over whether this scene will deter young people from committing suicide or will stir up copycat suicides because the character seen taking her life is a celebrity in their eyes.



Comfort added, "I believe it was a horrible mistake. This is because I greatly value my life, and the thought of taking a razor blade and cutting three-inch slits in my wrists sends me into a shudder of horror. I had a similar feeling as I interviewed a suicidal girl for our new movie, 'EXIT: The Appeal of Suicide.' She said that she wanted to end her life, and explained to me that very few are able to kill themselves by overdosing with pills, because of complications. She then described why other means of suicide were very difficult. We left that part of the interview out of the film for fear of giving ideas to vulnerable people."



Comfort then explained that when he asked her if it was scary to be continually contemplating suicide, she said, "You get used to it."



"And there is my concern with the death scene in '13 Reasons Why.' It seems that the series producers didn't take into account the thousands of young people known as 'cutters.' These people regularly cut their skin and draw blood, and in doing so repeatedly, they get used to it. It loses its intuitive horror. Studies show that 40 percent of cutters have thought of suicide. In essence, many cutters may be actually rehearsing their own deaths. Someone slitting their wrists is not as horrific to them as it would be to you and me. Couple that mentality with a celebrity hero who slits her wrists and you have potential copycats."



The parents of two teenage girls in San Francisco, who committed suicide in separate incidents, are blaming their deaths on "13 Reasons Why." Both girls had viewed the series two days before they took their lives.



Newsweek said, "Decades of research prove that a startling range of emotions and behaviors can be contagiousfrom moodiness to yawning. Young people are especially susceptible; they obsess over fads and fashion trends and copy illicit behaviors from peers, such as smoking, drinking or speeding. Or suicide." www.newsweek.com/2016/10/28/teen-suicide-contagious-colorado-springs-511365.html



The award-winning producer also said, "Although 'EXIT' includes clips of two suicide jumpers leaping from the Golden Gate Bridge, we have left their hitting the icy waters of the San Francisco Bay to the imagination. There are big differences between the two films. The people shown in 'EXIT' are not actors; nor are they celebrities. And most importantly, the film offers the solution to the tragic problem of suicide. It doesn't leave viewers hopeless in the face of the horror of death, as '13 Reasons Why' does. 'EXIT' gives people a reason to live, and explains that we all have great worth because we are made in the image of God."



The film's trailer and other details can be seen on www.theEXITmovie.com. It will be freely released on YouTube mid-August.



For interviews contact: Jen Thompson jthompson@livingwaters.com 800-437-1893



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Taiwan, (daily Mail), 13 July 2017 -

Two MPs got into a shocking brawl on live television as tensions over a Parliamentary debate boiled over.



The pair exchanged slaps and tried to strangle each other during a session to discuss the islands plans for infrastructure reform.



The fracas broke out while opposing MPs from the Kuomintang (KMT) party chanted protests against President Tsai Ing-wens plan.



Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Chiu Yi-ying, 46, walked up to the group of MPs and began arguing.



KMT MP Hsu Shu-hua, 41, responded in kind.



The two women scuffled and Chiu was even slapped across the face, leaving President of the Legislative Yuan, Su Chia-chyuan, repeatedly calling for calm and order.Everyone is watching, Su can be heard saying.



The KMT protest was prompted by claims the 420 billion TWD (10.7 billion) reform favoured cities and counties loyal to the ruling DPP.
Despite the long miles that modern medicine has crossed since Hypocrates, there are many aspects of medicine that still remain in the shadows, unknown to the general public. Consultants from over 40 Medical Specialities will join hands with the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medicine and National Chamber of Commerece in presenting the Medical Exhibition Mahajana Suwa Dhana to bring to light the medical mysteries hitherto unknown to the majority of the citizens In the country.

This is the first time that the organization is reaching out to the public because it usually focuses on the education of doctors



Mahajana Suwa Dhana medical exhibition has been organized in commemoration with the 50th anniversary of the Ceylon College of Physicians. Having commenced on July 14 at the BMICH, the exhibition will continue until July 16, with the primary intention of educating the public on the latest developments of medicine and enabling them to lead healthy lives through awareness of medical issues. Dr. Chandimani Udugodage, Consultant Respiratory physician, speaking on behalf of the organizers said, CCP is where all the consultants from various sub specialties meet. This is the first time that the organization is reaching out to the public because it usually focuses on the education of doctors. Therefore this will be a wonderful opportunity for the public to garner medical knowledge from the top specialists in the field itself. Mahajana Suwa Dhana is a first where medical expertise from all medical fields, medical specialist associations and medical faculties all over the country meet under one roof to organize such an exhibition .



There are over a 100 stalls which will cover all areas that revolve around the topic of health with regard to common medical conditions, screening, diagnosis, treatments and prevention. Diabetes, heart attacks, asthma, blood pressure and dengue are some of the common maladies discussed at the exhibition. The general public has the opportunity to actively participate and clarify their doubts by attending this exhibition which will be conducted by consultant physicians.

The general public has the opportunity to actively participate and clarify their doubts by attending this exhibition which will be conducted by consultant physicians



The exhibition includes certain areas dedicated to various fields of medicine. From the latest technological developments in medicine such as holograms and 3D virtual imaging are available to the public. The public can update their knowledge on sports, which aims to raise awareness on remaining fit and doing practical sessions on exercises, and sections dedicated to toxicology which will help educate inquisitive minds from poisonous plants and snakes to forensic medicine. Also discussed with be topics like sexual health, alcohol, smoking and its rehabilitation programmes. Free health checkups related to blood sugar, cholesterol, hearing and vision will be offered to the public.
The government has decided to set up a new Secretariat to investigate financial crimes, informed sources said yesterday.

Sources close to the Prime Minister's office said a Bill to this effect will be presented to Parliament soon. The new Secretariat is expected to match with international standards.

This development comes in the wake of the Anti-corruption Secretariat becoming defunct from July this year. (By Yohan Perera)
REUTERS: The Sri Lankan rupee fell yesterday due to thin importer demand for the greenback, while dealers said dollar buying by the Central Bank prevented appreciation of the local currency.

The spot rupee was trading at 153.70/75 per dollar 0618 GMT, slightly weaker from Thursdays close of 153.65/70.

There is some off-market importer demand. We do not see much importer demand because it is an off season. The rupee would have slightly appreciated if not for the Central Banks dollar buying, said a currency dealer, asking not to be named.

Central Bank officials were not immediately available

for comments.

But on Wednesday, Deputy Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe told Reuters that the Central Bank has completely stopped defending the rupee unlike in the past.

Weerasinghe in an interview with Reuters said the Central Bank has only been buying dollars since February, and not sold any at all.

He said the central bank does not see any pressure on the rupee and the currency is determined through market-driven demand and supply. Weerasinghe added if the monetary authority does not intervene and buy, probably the rupee will appreciate and the central bank is buying and preventing certain appreciation.

The market has priced in further depreciation due to the Central Banks no-intervention policy, dealers said.

The rupee has been under pressure since early this year after the Central Bank stopped providing support for the currency at a time when the island nation faces a balance of payments crunch. It has fallen around 2.6 percent so far this year. The spot rupee resumed trading on June 19 for the first time since May 5, when the Central Bank fixed its reference rate at 152.50. Dealers said they expected seasonal demand for dollars to pick up from August. The Central Bank is compelled to buy dollars from the market to meet the reserve target set by the International Monetary Fund under a US$1.5 billion, three-year loan programme. As of 0646 GMT, Sri Lankan shares were up 0.4 percent at 6,761.95, their highest since Jan 8, 2016. Turnover was Rs.989.8 million (US$6.44 million).
Reuters: Sri Lankan shares posted their lowest close in nearly one week in low trading yesterday as local investors booked profits while foreign players bought into risky assets, limiting the decline.

The Colombo stock index ended 0.11 percent weaker at 6,738.42, declining for the third straight session.



Local retail profit-taking brought the market down, said Hussain Gani, deputy CEO of Softlogic Stockbrokers.



The market could see a rising trend if yields on fixed-income securities fall as expected by the Central Bank, said analysts.



The Central Bank expects a further fall in T-bill yields due to less pressure from government borrowing and a proposed new auction system, Deputy Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said on Wednesday.

Foreign investors were net buyers of shares worth Rs.166.3 million (US$1.08 million), extending the year-to-date net foreign inflow to Rs.23 billion worth of equities this year.

The days turnover was Rs.489.4 million, compared with this years daily average of Rs.906.6 million.

New foreign investors have been buying Sri Lankan shares since the Pakistani bourse was upgraded as an emerging market from a frontier one, said analysts.



Brokers said domestic investors have been waiting for clarity on the proposed inland revenue legislation, which some companies expect would result in higher costs of production.



The IMF, which has long urged Sri Lanka to boost tax revenue through modernisation and simplification of its fiscal system, has urged the government to submit to parliament a new Inland Revenue Act. Shares of conglomerate John Keells Holdings Plc closed 0.1 percent lower, Trans Asia Hotels Plc fell 5.5 percent and Commercial bank of Ceylon Plc, the countrys biggest listed lender, ended 0.3 percent weaker.
What does Patali know about politics that Harini doesnt know?

Sri Lanka is going through great pains to get its economy in order after the
Industry and Commerce Minister meets Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan Dr. Sarfraz Ahmad Khan Sipra (centre) on June 22 for rice talks at the ministry

The four-man Lankan team of officials that flew to Pakistan and Myanmar to select rice tranche, returned to Colombo yesterday.



It was reported that no less than 55000 MT rice has been made available to Sri Lanka immediately by both Pakistan and Myanmar.



Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen, whose team of officials took off on July 7 to Pakistan and Myanmar, praised the teams success. After this successful tour, it is clear that there will be no more rice shortages in the domestic markets-or even any likelihood of it. Some elements in the market are trying to create an artificial shortage, Minister

Bathiudeen said.



According to an official who returned, Pakistan has agreed to supply 25000 MT immediately. No final price has been quoted yet but once the final price is agreed, will be shipped from Pakistan in early August. Pakistan is also ready to supply some more rice quantity by September.



Myanmar is ready to supply another 30000 MT immediately and its final price too, is yet to be agreed.

Previously on June 22, Minister Bathiudeen met Ambassador Designate of Thailand to Sri Lanka Chulamanee Chartsuwan, Ambassador of Indonesia to Sri Lanka Gusti Ngurah Ardiyasa and Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan Dr. Sarfraz Ahmad Khan Sipra at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to call for government-to-government rice supplies to Sri Lanka. All the ambassadors present pledged immediate support to Sri Lankas efforts to procure the needed rice tranche.
It goes back to the French revolution of 1789. At the Revolutionary Convention the most radical of the insurgents decided to seat themselves on the left side. Why not on the other side, the right side, the place of rectitude, where law and the higher rights resided, when mans best hand could be raised in righteous honour? wrote Melvin Lasky in what was then Britains most influential intellectual monthly, Encounter. Anyway they went left, and mans political passions have never been the same since.

When Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister, broke with Chancellor Gerhard Schroder in the early days of the last Social Democratic government, he explained it was because my heart beats on the left. The right could never say that, even the liberal-inclined, ex-prime minister of the UK, David Cameron. When Humpty-Dumpty insisted on his own master-meanings he reassured Alice, When I make a word do a lot of work like that, I always pay it extra.

Idealism is the reactionary philosophy of the bourgeoisie, as opposed to revolutionary materialism. Chomsky mentioned, his research had been financed by Office of Naval Research



British Leftists sometimes stretch their minds to work out if Prospect, todays most influential monthly, is left or right. I tell them that it is hard to tell most of the time which is how an intellectual magazine should be. They shouldnt be asking the question.



Perhaps if they and the rest of us want to study the ambiguities and contradictions of intellectual leftists they should be informed that once upon a time  a hundred and seventy years ago  there was a writer, a philosopher, who spent most of his time in the British Museum and who moved his family from down-at-heel Soho to elegant Primrose Hill. He wanted his maturing daughters to have the chance of meeting a better class of men. His wife too was pleased because she could now invite ladies to tea. A suitor of one his daughters was given the door as he seemed unstable with his revolutionary opinions. He wrote soon after that he thought the historical process had already started to undermine bourgeois society.



One of the most important disciples of the above lived in 1916 as an emigre in Zurich. According to acquaintances he lived an exemplary bourgeois life. Each morning he would clean his room in the fastidious Swiss way. In the evening, his writing finished, he refused to listen to classical music, which he enjoyed, because it might excite his emotions. He would complain about the noisy behaviour of fellow emigres who lived down the hall, especially one who constantly smoked and spent much of his time going to the cinema, which our bourgeois character refused to do. In fact friends called them the cineastes and the non-cineastes, and some of the sly among them sometimes translated this as the Semites and anti-Semites.

British Leftists sometimes stretch their minds to work out if Prospect, todays most influential monthly, is left or right. I tell them that it is hard to tell most of the time which is how an intellectual magazine should be. They shouldnt be asking the question.



Our three characters were all ardent leftists, the first Karl Marx, the second V.I. Lenin and the third Julius Martov (the Menshevik leader).



Whos left? Whos right? Mao Zedong thought he had solved the problem by unmasking in the Communist Party what he called capitalist-roaders. They were people like fellow Long Marchers and apparent backbones of the party, Liu Shao Chi, the head of state, Lin Pao, the minister of defence, Deng Xiaoping, at that time a convinced Marxist, but later a capitalist convert, who became the supreme boss of China, and the Shanghai Four.



How does one describe the political leanings of Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India or the former President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf or President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria? Or, reaching backwards a couple of decades, southern Democrats in the U.S. Senate, Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt, Sri Lankas Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike (the first woman Prime Minister to be elected in the world) or, come to that, Charles de Gaulle?



We can add the new French president, Emmanuel Macron, who has shown that one can sweep to power without any left/right affiliation, and Barack Obama, who was left in his books and later as president was a sometimes confusing and ambiguous mixture of left and right in foreign policy.

Thinkers can also have their problems of identity. As Daniel Bell once pointed out, Noam Chomsky has been hoisted by the Marxist petard.

We can add the new French president, Emmanuel Macron, who has shown that one can sweep to power without any left/right affiliation



Some years ago he was accused by a Canadian Maoist revolutionary periodical of being an agent of American imperialism. It stood to reason. Chomskys theories that language capacities are innate, and that mankind generates rules through the properties of mind, were characterised, quite correctly, as philosophical idealism.



As every Marxist knows, idealism is the reactionary philosophy of the bourgeoisie, as opposed to revolutionary materialism. More than that Chomsky had mentioned, in the publication of his early work, that his research had been financed by the Office of Naval Research. Why should the American military finance such research if it did not realize that idealistic philosophy would serve to confuse the masses?



Whos left? Whats right?

(For 17 years the writer was a foreign affairs columnist and commentator for the International Herald Tribune and over 20 years a contributor to Encounter and Prospect magazines.)
With modern technologys marvels giving the people, mainly the youth, the privilege of having a virtual university in their pockets or hand bags, the United Nations World Youth Skills Day today has vital significance for the youth and the world.

This years theme is Skills for All. In a statement, the UN says young people are almost three times more likely to be unemployed than adults and regularly exposed to lower quality of jobs, greater labour market inequalities and longer and more insecure school-to-work transitions.



In addition, young women are more likely to be underemployed and under-paid. Therefore they undertake part-time jobs or work under temporary contracts.



That is why education and training are key determinants of success in the labour market. Unfortunately, existing systems are failing to address the learning needs of many young people and surveys of learning outcomes and skills show that a large number of youth have low levels of achievement in basic literacy and numeracy, the UN says.



Skills and jobs for youth feature prominently in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and SDG target 4.4 calls for a substantial increase in the number of youth and adults, who have relevant skills, the UN adds.



According to a recent International Labour Organization (ILO) publication, 73.4 million young people were estimated to be unemployed in 2015 (13.1% youth unemployment rate), and this figure is expected to increase in most regions this year.



According to the World Skills web site, all youth should have the opportunity to discover and develop their talents. Through skills individuals, communities, and countries can create a more prosperous future. It says that skills should be available to everyone and calls on youth to share with it a skills story that demonstrates how skills have launched careers, and how they build character, confidence and success.



In a statement to mark the first World Youth Skills Day, the UN climate change newsroom says the youth skills should be developed to empower them for action in areas relating to climate change and development.



The World Youth Skills Day celebration coincides with a crucial year in which the world will set the agenda for decades to come - by concluding a new universal climate agreement in December in Paris and with the adoption of new Sustainable Development Goals in September in New York. Fittingly, this years theme is Youth skills for work and life in the post-2015 agenda.



The UN says, climate change is both an enormous challenge and an incredible opportunity for young people. If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and climate change impacts continue to worsen, future generations will be forced to shoulder the biggest share of the burden.



Empowering major groups like young people to take climate action is one of the mandates agreed by governments meeting under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Action for Climate Empowerment is the focus of so-called Article 6 of the Convention that seeks to reduce the impacts of climate change by enabling society to be a part of the solution.



United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres says:



Securing a promising future for you and for generations to come will require action by every individual - to move the world as a whole towards the future we want. We all have our own path to walk and each of us, each of you, has the power to be an agent of change. So choose the climate change solution that is right for you in your community, in your situation.



In Sri Lanka, the Government has set up several vocational training centres in Colombo and the other districts to train our youth in modern technology and other skills.



The battle against climate change and world poverty alleviation need to be among the focal points of the vocational training, because it is the youth who will benefit most if effective measures are taken against climate change and for structural changes to bring about a more equitable distribution of the worlds wealth and resources.
The ongoing India-China standoff is moving towards its second month, with both sides digging in and preparing for the long haul. The national security advisor is scheduled to visit China in the last week of July for a BRICS meeting. It is to be seen if any solution would emerge during his visit. The present standoff is possibly the longest in the region till date, yet shows no signs of abating.

The rhetoric from the Chinese side seems to be blowing hot and cold at regular intervals, seeking to enhance pressure on India to back down. Diplomacy would be the ultimate answer and both sides would seek a face-saving withdrawal, without altering the status quo.

There are reports about China downsizing its army to enhance levels of other forces. This is to support Chinese expansionism. China has begun moving troops to its new naval base of Djibouti, where it would soon deploy a part of its Indian Ocean fleet.

This is Chinas first overseas military base and a threat to the region. It is also likely to commence military deployment in Gwadar in Pakistan once the port nears completion.

It has the port on lease for a 40-year period. Further, recent inputs about China paint a different picture about the country and its existing relations with the international community.

Presently, China is on a collision course with the US, as it is being accused of not reigning in North Korea. The Chinese claim that it alone is not responsible for North Korea developing nuclear weapons, is cutting no ice.

The rhetoric from the Chinese side seems to be blowing hot and cold at regular intervals.

The bonhomie, which was witnessed when the Chinese president visited the US, seems to have evaporated into thin air. The US has regularly targetted China for a variety of reasons, including human trafficking, thus would seek to apply sanctions on it. To add fuel to fire, the US announced its decision to sell weapons to Taiwan, further infuriating China.

China has also threatened to go to war with the Philippines if the latter seeks to implement the arbitration judgment on the South China Sea (SCS), which was in its favour from the International Court of Arbitration. Vietnam has begun challenging Chinese hegemony by seeking Indian partnership in oil exploration in the disputed SCS.

Chinese claims in the SCS has angered Japan, which has enhanced military cooperation with India. South Korea is also incensed with Chinese support to its northern neighbours.

Chinas insistence on its control over the SCS and its resources has most of its neighbours angry. In fact, China appears to be creating more enemies than friends in recent times.

Its unfair loan policy, where it grants loans on high rate of interest and subsequently when nations fail to repay, seeks controlling rights over strategic interests has smaller nations worried.

Sri Lanka and Myanmar have already faced Chinese pressures and claims. Others whom China approaches offering loans and assistance are wary and unsure. However, choices are limited, as India cannot match Chinese financial capabilities.

Its sole ally is Pakistan, mainly because of the "my-enemys-enemy-is-my-friend" policy.

Russia and China are presently cooperating, because the US has enhanced distance from both. Once the world order begins to change, Russia may move away, since in international relations, there are no permanent friends or enemies (just national interests and Russias interests lie with the West).

Its actions in the Doklam plateau was aimed at pressurising Bhutan to switch sides from India to China. It felt the entire exercise would be a cake walk, as Bhutan would only protest, but not act. It would offer financial aid or other packages to assuage fears.

The involvement of India in the process came as a jolt from the blue, hence their state-controlled media reacted with vigour, even claiming India was creating conditions for a conflict. The mature handling by the Indian government, ignoring the rhetoric, while simultaneously continuing its defensive actions was the best method of conveying its displeasure without voicing it.

China is no longer a friend to any nation, its reliability as an ally reduces by the day. Nations which had come under forced Chinese influence at one time are moving away. Even North Korea, a known ally, is known to have refused Chinese overtures for dialogue on its nuclear issues. The present Chinese approach of bulldozing its way has left it with more enemies than friends, who are compelled to silence due to Chinese might. At the first opportunity, they would flex muscles.

Hence, India supporting Bhutan in countering China's bullying actions is justified. Strong nations must support their smaller and weaker friends, before they are sucked into the Chinese fold.
Contact: Jill Farrell, Judicial Watch, 202-646-5172



WASHINGTON, July 14, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch today released 448 pages of documents from the U.S. Department of State revealing new incidents of Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, providing special State Department treatment to major donors to the Clinton Foundation and political campaigns.



The heavily redacted documents from Abedin's non-government account include an email from Hillary Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, to Abedin revealing that he acted as a go between for a Clinton Foundation donor, Richard Park. And they reveal Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band instructing Abedin to "show love" to Clinton donor Andrew Liveris.



The documents included six Clinton email exchanges not previously turned over to the State Department, bringing the known total to date to at least 439 emails that were not part of the 55,000 pages of emails that Clinton turned over to the State Department, and further contradicting a statement by Clinton that, "as far as she knew," all of her government emails had been turned over to the State Department.



The documents are in response to a court order from a May 5, 2015, lawsuit filed against the State Department (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00684)) for: "All emails of official State Department business received or sent by former Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin from January 1, 2009 through February 1, 2013 using a non-'state.gov' email address."



A number of emails show the free flow of information and requests for favors between Clinton's State Department and the Clinton Foundation.



In July 2009, in reference to the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Clinton Global Initiative head Doug Band told Abedin that she "Need[s] to show love" to Andrew Liveris, the CEO of Dow Chemical. Band also asked for Liveris to be introduced to Hillary, "and have her mention both me and wjc." Dow gave between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative. Band also pushes for Clinton to do a favor for Karlheinz Koegel, a major Clinton Foundation contributor, who wanted Hillary Clinton to give the "honor speech" for his media prize to "Merkel."



The emails reveal that on June 19, 2009, Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, passed a long a letter for Hillary Clinton for Clinton donor Richard Park. Park donated $100,000 to Bill Clinton as far back as 1993 and is listed by the Clinton Foundation as a $100,000 to $250,000 donor.



The Washington Examiner reported:

In March 2012, Bill Clinton received an invitation to speak at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea.... Richard Park's friendship with Tony Rodham earned him a direct line to Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state. In January 2013, the Korean businessman sent Rodham an email and asked him to "forward this to your sister."
Many decades have passed since the US adopted and maintained a policy of strategic patience against North Koreas military provocations. The brazenness with which North Korea threatens the US and its allies and the way the US administration and the powerful media have been consistently choosing to ignore those threats as mere provocations is not only mindboggling but nonsensical, and which can have devastating consequences for the West.

When US president Donald Trump and his administration declared that the time of strategic patience with North Korea was over, it was widely anticipated that a strong response was forthcoming against North Korea if it conducted any new missile or nuclear tests.

North Korea took the new US administration head on by conducting successfully a test of nuclear capable ICBM. And, furthermore, the North Korean state media declared the successful ICBM tests conducted on July 4 as a gift to US on its independence day, to denigrate the only superpower in the world.

The US and its allies as usual did tough talk and no action. That sort of timid response was not expected at a time when experts believe that North Korea is now in possession of powerful technology that could decimate US cities.

What remains even more puzzling is the fact that despite the huge threat posed by the North Korean ICBM tests, no great media attention was generated in the otherwise overzealous US and pro-western media.

It has been an amazing journey for the North Korean missile and nuclear weapons programme when analysed through the prism of media coverage. Firstly, the western media had been consistently playing down and questioning the notion that North Korea even possessed the technological capabilities to conduct nuclear tests. And, when that assumption was proven wrong, the western media began questioning North Koreas capabilities of developing ICBMs that could put US cities in imminent danger of nuclear weapons attack.

Finally, when North Korea conducted a successful ICBM test, the same media outlets are now trying to befool Americans and the world in believing that North Korea may never be able to produce tactical nuclear weapons that can be delivered through ICBMs.

The US falsely accused Saddam Hussein of possession of weapons of mass destruction. Photo: Reuters

That begs a question - why are the US and pro-west media in no hurry to sound the war bugle against North Korea when the situation demands even greater urgency? Compare the North Korean situation with that of Iraq.

After the US falsely accused Saddam Hussein of possession of weapons of mass destruction, the US and the western media, both print and electronic, ran stories after stories to make Americans and Europeans believe that Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction and that he was one of the greatest devils who must be confronted militarily to preserve western civilisation.

The western media and on-payroll experts reasoned callously against showing strategic patience with Hussein, putting Iraq and the wider Middle East on the irreversible path of death and destruction with no obvious benefits for the US, the West and the World.

A similar story was replicated with Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, etc. despite the vast devastation caused by the wests two decades of war on radical Islam and Islamic terrorism - individual cases of violence committed by disgruntled and petty criminals in the name of Islam continue to attract prominent coverage in the western media.

And, in the process big news events such as coming out of North Korean belligerent nuke capable ICBMs tests and Chinas assertive foreign policy objectives and the magnitude of threat that these events pose to the western civilisation remain sharply attenuated.

The inherent media bias can be gauged by the fact that if instead of North Korea it was Iran or Pakistan threatening to nuke the US with ICBMs, would the response of the US and its allies be that of strategic patience? Needless to say, the response of the US and its allies including that of the western media would have been totally implosive!

That begs explanation. Why did the western media exaggerate threat perceptions emanating from individual Muslim terrorists and Muslim countries that have no practical means of unsettling the west as opposed to North Korea or China that can practically decimate western civilisation?

The answer is the following: It has been more than two decades since the US and pro-west media strategically and according to a well chafed out media policy began raising the red-herring of Islam being incompatible with the west, which is a blatant lie given the fact that almost all of Muslim majority countries of this day are allied with the west.

Nevertheless, that policy gained greater traction with individual incidents of violence committed by petty criminals in the US and other western capitals. Constant media bashing of Islamic terrorists and greater coverage of violence committed by individual Muslims finally helped focus public opinion on Muslims and Islam, albeit negatively.

The vicious anti-Muslim media campaign helped the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment and right-wing nationalism in the US, Europe and beyond in India, Myanmar, etc. Powerful pro-west media has invested huge resources in building an anti-Islam media empire and a vast public base that follow anti-Muslim news.

And, North Korea and Chinas aggressive policies in the Pacific and beyond remain a diversion to that investment. Needless to say, North Korea today poses a grave danger to western civilisation but focusing media attention on that threat will take the focus away from Muslim affairs and that would be a great setback for the vast anti-Muslim media empire. So, the media will never allow that to happen.
The dastardly terrorist attack on Amarnath pilgrims is a rude reminder if one was needed, of our adversaries opportunistically fuelling a vicious cycle of religio-political violence in the country. Fortunately, the maturity of Indias pluralistic and multicultural society has, once again, been amply reflected in the aftermath of this premeditated attack.

There is a noteworthy absence of any flare-up elsewhere in the country. And the yatra continues with pilgrims determined to rebuff those who want us to be cowed down or react with meaningless violence. The absence of any overt reaction, violent or otherwise, to repeated instigations by terrorists should not be seen as testimony to all being well.

Each such jihadi attack, as also those by the lumpen elements posing as gau rakshaks, creates an additional knot of resentment, anger, and vengeance in the psyche of ordinary folks in the affected communities. This simmering cauldron of social tensions, now palpable, erupts occasionally and has the potential to explode with horrific results.

More significantly, it creates the broad base of "social consent" that is currently so evident across the country. It seems to have numbed our sensitivities. Consequently, there is no outcry either when an Ayub is shot in cold blood for being confused with a Hindu, or a Junaid is lynched to death for merely exerting his rights to a seat in a commuter train.

Cowardice

It is not cowardice that stops the common person, of whichever community, from rising up against this lunatic violence. Their passivity  even implicit support  is most likely a consequence of the majority in each community identifying with the fringe and seeing them as representing their perceived just cause.

This breeds the culture of implicit consent, which not only accepts but perhaps connives with jiahdis or Hindutva troublemakers. The key issue, therefore, is not to compare various forms of vigilantism or extremism and passively count rising human costs. The task at hand is to drain out the oxygen from the ever-expanding trend of silent consent for extremist violence. Not addressing this challenge head on will have disastrous consequences.

The apathy or connivance of past governments in combating this menace is evident. It started in 1988-89 with the ethnic cleansing in Kashmir, followed by the destruction of the Babri mosque in 1992. Since then religio-political violence has taken a life of its own, duly instigated by external forces, especially the ISI, which clearly sees it as a potent weapon against us. Domestically, political leaders across the entire spectrum have been culpable in this unfolding human tragedy. Primarily due to the number of years it has been in power, the Congress must bear the brunt of not nipping this poisonous flower in the bud.

The cynical use of opportunistic secularism or sweet-coated communalism for wresting and retaining political office has made a mockery of our assertions for safeguarding human welfare and indeed Indias national interests. This horrible, cynical trend has to be reversed and conclusively eliminated from our midst. Indias future as a nation state and indeed as a civilised society with its unique blend of multiple ethnicities and vibrant cultures critically depends on successfully reversing this.

We have to spread awareness of the dire existential threat to our independence after centuries of servitude. The danger is real and becoming increasingly imminent.

Terrorism

What can be done? First, we must realise that this battle against religio-political terrorism and vigilantism cannot be successfully fought by governments alone. We have to all become involved. The role of civil society is critical in draining this malevolent pool of rising albeit covert communalism. Yes, there are entrant population segments, which are perhaps not sufficiently exposed to alternate cultures or value systems.

They cannot, however, be simply dismissed by the elite as marauding hordes baying for "others" blood. Similarly, the "new Indians" cannot get away by hurling the slur of "Macaulay putram" on every liberal asserting constitutionally guaranteed individual rights. The RSS and Deoband have to be brought into the mainstream of the public discourse, where the creeping breakdown must now be urgently reversed.

Second, and paradoxically, governments, especially in states, have an even more critical role in the immediate context and time. Theirs is the solemn duty to protect human lives and establish the rule of law and maintain order in their jurisdictions. At the very least they must enforce states monopoly of violence and disarm and incarcerate those who take the law into their own hands. Extremist ideology of all hues and its violent manifestations must be put down with the heaviest of hands. This is the necessary existential condition for our society.

Rhetoric

Third, our political leaders across the spectrum have to ratchet down their rhetoric and calm the waters. Those who persistently demand that PM Narendra Modi be more strident or persistent even after his repeated and tough public criticism of Hindutva vigilantism, sound completely dishonest and hypocritical because they dont condemn the Owasis and Bannerjees of the world and do not support the right of Kashmiri Pandits to return to their native lands.

Finally, we must recognise that our society is under attack from external mal-influences. Therefore, it becomes even more important that we maintain a vigil to deny them the breeding ground for sowing communal hatred. Indians of all races, religions and value systems have voluntarily opted to live and become prosperous together.

Indias success in maintaining a multi-faith society and a robust democracy, while achieving economic progress, is appreciated by our friends and envied by our adversaries. This is a unique attainment. We have to recognise our historical achievement and be prepared to pay the price for maintaining that exalted position in the full glare of the global community.
Have you found any horse thieves?

Thats what Donna Mays aunt wants to know when the two meet. Its a good-humored way of tweaking May about her passion for genealogy, but shes also genuinely interested in her nieces latest discoveries.

Its a sure bet May is the one to know about colorful characters in the family tree. Shes spent years rounding up information from sources that run from ship passenger lists to obituaries, newspaper articles to land records, and census data to, yes, courthouse documents.

Most of us, if were fortunate, can remember a couple of generations of family dating back to parents, grandparents, and possibly great grandparents. Beyond that, though, we have to rely on something other than living memory to know more distant relatives. Genealogy is one way to get acquainted.

Knowing our forebears in such a way gives us a better understanding of who we are. Many of us are curious about our ancestors were and from what near or distant countries they hailed. And lets be honest, its fun to wonder, Could I be related to someone who was famous or influential?

As a teenager, Charlottesville resident May became fascinated by the hand-typed pages detailing relatives birth dates, marriage dates, and other vital records that her grandmother received from a cousin. Visits to family cemeteries with her parents fueled her interest in family history. It really ignited when May returned to her native Virginia after years away and saw an ad for class in beginning genealogy. She promptly signed up. From the minute the instructor started talking, I was hooked, she recalls. That was 25 years ago, and her passion has yet to wane.

Unearthing the family tree has become a hobby for many Americans who want to know their roots, both for their own information and to pass along a history and sense of pride to the next generation. It has also become big business. The rise of the genealogical industry has been driven by the tremendous power of the Internet and enhanced by shows such as Finding Your Roots, the PBS series whose premise was using genealogical research and genetics to uncover the family history of celebrity guests.

When Donna May began her research, the Internet was not yet a thing, much less all the genealogical programs and sites that exist today. I was flipping through microfilm, she remembers. Now she can do in five minutes what used to take weeks or months. But, May notes, Contrary to popular believe, you cant find everything on the Internet. A lot, but not everything.

So she sometimes travels to do research. Plus, she loves the special feeling that holding an original document provides. The most fun for May is finding something unexpected. I found out that Im related to a good friend of mine. And I learned that the minister who married my mothers great-grandparents was my fathers great-great-grandfather.

When it comes to treasured family lore, genealogical research can sometimes be a buzzkill. In Mays case, however, investigation proved one story true. My great-great-grandmother was in her teens during the Civil War and was babysitting at a house near one of the skirmishes. Her leg was pierced by cannonball fragments and had to be amputated. It was Union soldiers who patched up the southerner up. She survived and went on to marry, bear eight children, and lived to be 96, recounts May.

Over the years May has tracked most branches of her family back to the 1700s. If you want to delve into your own genealogy, local resources and the Internet can pave the way.

It will help if you have a plan before you start investigating. Make a list of family names; of birth, marriage, or death records; and of military service when available. Ask family members about what relatives they remember and add them to your list if they arent already on there. Hunt for old photos or inscribed books or bibles. Maybe someone in the family kept a stack of love letters or newspaper clippings. The more information you have to start with, the better. Then find a way to organize it so you can keep track of things and review or share it easily at a later date.

The University of Virginia Library provides a guide entitled Help for Beginning Genealogists on its website (http://genealogy.library.virginia.edu/help-for-beginning-genealogists/). It includes suggestions on how to begin a search, along with the basic resources with which to get started. Some of these resources are free, such as genealogical sites FamilySearch.org, a service by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Cyndis List (www.cyndislist.com).

The Jefferson Madison Regional Library (JMRL) subscribes to two genealogical databases. One is HeritageQuest, which you can access at home using your library card. Users can access Ancestry.com, probably the largest online resourceand one highly recommended by Mayfrom either a library computer or through the librarys wireless connection. Learn more at www.jmrl.org or visit any of the JMRL branches.

A good place for families with a known history in this area is the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society. The Society's research library, administered by a librarian on the staff of the JMRL, contains over 2,000 books and bound periodicals, as well as manuscripts, maps, pamphlets, newspapers, and vertical files relating to the history of our community.

The Central Virginia Genealogical Association is another local resource. The organization has an online presence and also holds monthly meetings in Charlottesville. Visit www.cvga.avenue.org for information.

Keep an eye out, too, for genealogy workshops hosted by JMRL, the Senior Center, and regional historical societies.

The National Archives has a genealogy section on its website (www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/start-research) that is packed with advice on getting started and links to tutorials, research tools, and other resources. You can search through the Archives census, military, immigration, and land records and access videos from genealogy workshops.

If you find that your family tree is branching out in a particular direction, there are sites that are more tailored. EllisIsland.org offers a list of passengers from every ship that entered the port of New York between 1892 and 1924. Manifests include place of last residence, occupation, and family members in the United States. AfriGeneas.com is a site devoted to African American genealogy, in particular to researching African Ancestry in the Americas. JewishGen.org includes thousands of databases, tools, and more to help those with Jewish ancestry. And if you are searching cemeteries, more than 60 million grave records and millions of photos are available on Findagrave.com.

Uncovering all of this information can be fascinating, but youll want to make sure you avoid some common mistakes. Dont rely on other peoples research without verifying it. There is no way of knowing how people come up with their information and you may find yourself going down the wrong path or coming to a dead end. Definitely take a look at the census while youre searching, but dont rely solely on that information when youre trying to find a certain person. And as much as wed all love to believe that Uncle Joes bedtime stories are true  well, trust but verify. It may turn out that theres even more to the story!

Discovering your genealogy can be a fun and fairly inexpensive hobby, as well as a way to engage with family members of different ages. If technology isnt your thing, enlist a nephew or granddaughter to conduct searches while you do the legwork of visiting the vital records office or old cemeteries.

Once you put the work into finding out all about your family background, youll likely want to share the information with loved ones. There are several easy ways to do this. Create a CD and include photos, video, and scanned documents and send it to your relativesthe ones you know and the ones you may have discovered are still around. Make a presentation at your next family reunion or holiday gathering. Consider starting a Pinterest board (www.pinterest.com) that your family can follow, where you can share old family photos, maps, historical documents, and more.

The process of going looking for something is like detective work. And the answer to one question leads you to another question, laughs May. The find is whats fun.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine went too far when he said, echoing a former Bush administration ethics lawyer, that revelations about a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin, raise the possibility of treason.

But consider this: The best that can be said in defense of the younger Trumps behavior is that it was profoundly stupid and reckless.

Trump Jr.s own emails show that he agreed to the meeting in the hopes of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton from a Russian government attorney who had sensitive information that was part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump  that is, presidential candidate Trump.

Whether this violates any particular statute is a question best left to lawyers. But it clearly violates the boundaries of acceptable behavior, even in the gladiatorial combat of presidential politics. (And no, the fact that allies of Hillary Clinton reportedly coordinated with Ukrainian operatives does not make what Trump did OK.)

Whats more, the meeting fits into a disturbing broader context that includes Russias hacking of U.S. political and electoral systems in an apparent effort to affect the election.

The context also includes President Trumps insistence that revelations about such activity are fake news. And it includes these elements as well:

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was obliged to resign for lying about his contacts with Russian officials.

Trumps first campaign manager, Paul Manafort, had to resign because of his work for pro-Russian forces in Ukraine.

As a senator and an adviser to the Trump campaign, Jeff Sessions met with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak, but did not disclose the meeting during his confirmation hearings.

Donald Trump Jr. failed to disclose the meeting with the Russian lawyer, as did Trump Sr.s son-in-law, Jared Kushner (who, along with Manafort, was present).

Trump Jr. has repeatedly lied about meeting with Russian actors  first claiming he had no such meeting, then admitting he did but claiming he did not discuss government policies, then admitting he did discuss government policies but claiming the discussion concerned the Magnitsky Act, and finally, this week, conceding the real reason for the meeting.

Administration officials from Mike Pence to campaign manager and counselor Kellyanne Conway emphatically denied any contact between the campaign and Russians who might be trying to meddle in the election.

So far, none of this looks like a joint Russian-Trump operation to rig the election. It looks more like a Russian attempt to meddle in an election on behalf of useful idiots who repeatedly cozied up to an adversary of the United States out of their own narrow self-interest. Thats not treason  but it is certainly despicable. And no amount of rationalization or deflection by the Trump administrations rapidly shrinking core of defenders can explain it away.

Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Supreme Court of Virginia has upheld a state law that allows natural gas companies to enter private property without landowner permission to survey the route of a potential pipeline, but also required the companies to notify landowners of specific dates when crews will enter their properties.

The two decisions, both written by Justice William C. Mims, represent the high court's first judgments on a 2004 law that has become a flash point in the bitter battles between property owners and the developers of two natural gas pipelines proposed across hundreds of miles of Virginia.

Both cases involve disputes arising from the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a $5 billion project proposed by Richmond-based Dominion Energy and other two big energy companies in the Southeast. It would carry natural gas from the shale fields of West Virginia through the heart of Virginia to markets along the southeastern coast and eastern North Carolina.

"Were pleased the Virginia Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of Virginias survey law and reaffirmed our right to perform these surveys," Dominion spokesman Aaron Ruby said in a statement that called the decision consistent with other federal and state court rulings on the state statute.

"Were hopeful todays ruling will settle this issue and allow us to continue working cooperatively with landowners to develop infrastructure in a way that minimizes impacts to the environment and their properties," Ruby said

The court dismissed arguments posed by lawyers for Hazel F. Palmer, a Lynchburg widow who owns property in the pipeline's path in Augusta County, that the law does not apply to companies that aren't licensed and regulated as public service companies in Virginia.

However, the court did not consider an argument by Henry E. Howell III, Palmer's main attorney, that the statute violated a provision of the Constitution of Virginia that "prohibits foreign public service companies from utilizing its entry-for-survey power."

The court said Howell had waived the issue because he did not raise it at the trial court level or in his client's opening brief, as the court's rules require.

"This matters a lot," observed L. Steven Emmert, a Virginia Beach lawyer and appellate court expert in an online analysis of the two opinions.

Had the argument been properly raised under court rules and had Palmer prevailed, "then ACP cant employ Virginias statutes," Emmert said. "That might prevent the company from building the pipeline at all, unless (it) forms a subsidiary company here in Virginia."

Howell said Thursday he expects to ask the court for a rehearing on the issue, which is being addressed in three additional survey cases filed by landowners in Nelson County.

The court ruling also rejects Palmer's claim that the statute violates a provision of the state Constitution that was adopted in 2012 to protect property rights from the government exercise of eminent domain powers.

"While the amendment also explicitly states that the right to ''private property is 'fundamental,' nowhere does the amended language purport to modify existing property rights," writes Mims, a former delegate and state senator who completed Bob McDonnell's term as attorney general when McDonnell stepped down in 2009 to run for governor.

As a senator, Mims voted for Senate Bill 663, the legislation adopted in 2004 that became the right-of-survey statute in state code.

Mims also noted that Palmer's lawyers did not argue that entering the property without landowner permission represented an unconstitutional taking, as did plaintiffs in Nelson County in a case that a judge decided in favor of the statute.

"Today, every state has codified the common law privilege of a body exercising eminent domain authority to conduct preliminary surveys without trespass liability," he writes. "Virginia statutory law has done so for 235 years."

In the second case, the court said the Atlantic Coast Pipeline had violated the provisions of the statute by not giving specific dates of entry to four Buckingham County property owners - Charles and Linda Chaffins, Michael Huntley, and Beverly McQuary. Instead, the company provided a date "on or after" which its crews would enter the properties.

Dominion subsequently provided a second notice with a specific range of dates for entry and surveyed the properties in coordination with the landowners, but the company continued to insist to the court that its original notice was valid under the law.

Mims said the pipeline company's "contention that there is no longer a controversy is incorrect."

"The additional notices in no way repudiate the original notices, and ACP has refused to concede the original notices were flawed," he writes. "Accordingly, this case is not moot because there is an actual, ongoing controversy regarding ACP's right under the original notices to enter landowners' property for the purposes set forth" in the statute.

The opinion reverses the decision of a Buckingham Circuit Court judge and sends the case back "for further proceedings consistent with this opinion."

Ruby said the company respects the court ruling and said the it had "proactively addressed this issue by revising our notices to include specific dates of entry before surveying these properties."

"Going forward, well continue our companys policy of providing landowners with specific dates of entry prior to surveying," he said.

The Buckingham landowners argued successfully that the company policy was not adequate under the law. Ruby said the company would submit revised notices to the Buckingham court.

"Now the court has settled the law, and our policy is consistent with the law," he said.
Essar Steel was still very far from completing its loan restructuring process, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lawyer said.

Ahmedabad: The RBI today told the Gujarat High Court that Essar Steel was not singled out for insolvency proceedings and all big defaulters with over Rs 5,000 crore of outstanding loans are being subjected to the process with an aim of resolving the bad loan problem plaguing the Indian banking system.

Arguing before Justice S G Shah, the central bank's counsel Darius Khambatta also said that the non-performing assets (NPAs) of Essar Steel rose from Rs 31,671 crore on March 31, 2016 to Rs 32,864 crore on March 31 this year.

Essar Steel was still very far from completing its loan restructuring process, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lawyer said. Khambatta also defended the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), saying it was not a draconian process. Time-bound resolution under the IBC also protects the interests of the company, he said.

The RBI lawyer's argument will continue tomorrow, even as Justice Shah said that his earlier order staying the proceedings against Essar Steel at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) will continue.

In its submission, Essar said "We fully respect the spirit of the IBC and NCLT process of resolving the issue of the NPAs in a sort time bound manner. Our limited point is that the company is operating well (at over 80 per cent capacity) and servicing substantial interests."

It said any immediate reference to NCLT at this stage could cause a disruption in the company's operations and all it is requesting is a "short time bound period of 6 months to try and resolve the restructuring which is under discussions with the lenders for several months".

"If, for whatever reason, this does not materialise, the company will get referred to NCLT in normal course and the process will continue. A similar opportunity has been given to many others under clause (IV) of the RBI press release of June 13, 2017," it said, adding

"This request does not in anyway cause prejudice to anyone and possibly, will help preserve value". The Gujarat High Court on July 7 had restrained the NCLT from conducting any further proceeding against Essar Steel till today under the IBC.

Essar Steel had contended that the RBI's direction to the banks to initiate action against it under the IBC was improper as its was in advanced stage of restructuring.

On a plea by the Essar Steel, the bench had on July 4 sought the RBI's reply as to why only certain cases including that of Essar Steel should be accorded priority by the NCLT.

The company submitted it should have been given an opportunity to present its case before it was placed in the list of 12 accounts (firms) to be referred to NCLT under the provisions of IBC.

An RBI circular last month asked the banks to initiate action against Essar Steel and eleven other firms with over Rs 5,000 crore of outstanding loans each under the IBC.

Essar Steel challenged it before the Gujarat High Court, saying that the directive was improper as the firm was already in an advanced stage of loan restructuring. It should not be treated on par with the other 11 accounts because these accounts are now closed while Essar Steel is doing well with annual turnover of Rs 20,000 crore, the company said.

Essar Steel was referred to the NCLT despite the fact that it was in an advanced stage of finalising a restructuring proposal in accordance with earlier RBI circulars, it argued.

It wanted to be treated under the second category mentioned in the RBI's June 13 circular where NPA accounts under Rs 5,000 crore are to be given six months to finalise loan restructuring plans, the company said.
Jacqueline and Salman share a light moment during a promotional event for their 2014-released 'Kick'. It was the duo's first film together, which went to become a massive hit.

Mumbai: After Tubelight debacle, superstar Salman Khan seems to have moved on and is now gearing up for choreographer-turned-director Remo DSouzas dance film and he has made a big announcement related to it.

Ever since news of Salman playing the lead role in Remos film surfaced, his fans went berserk at the thought of seeing him exhibit his dancing skills on silver screen.

And then, there were speculations as to who is going to be his leading lady in the film. While Remo chose to stay mum about it, Bhai, talking to a popular daily, revealed the name of his on screen partner for this flick. He said, Yes, Remos film will have Jacqueline and me. Shes a superbly talented dancer and she will do a brilliant job.

Salman will be playing the role of a single parent in the film who takes to dancing to fulfil his daughters wish. My character, in the film, is a widower, who has a nine-year-old daughter. He has promised his dead wife that he will fulfill every wish made by his daughter. She wants him to participate in a dance competition and enrols his name for it. For the competition, he has to learn to dance. Jackie trains me to do that. Bas dance film karna baaki tha, ab woh bhi kar liya, revealed the Bajrangi Bhaijaan actor.

Jacqueline is currently busy shooting for David Dhawans sequel to his 1997 blockbuster Judwaa, Judwaa 2 along with Taapsee Pannu and Varun Dhawan. Salman, on the other hand, is in New York City attending an awards show.

The actress will soon be seen in A Gentleman opposite Sidharth Malhotra and Bhai will be seen with former lover Katrina Kaif in Tiger Zinda Hai.
Mumbai: After a long break, India's global star Priyanka Chopra is back in Mumbai to spend quality time with her family on her birthday, which is in July 18, and took out some time to hold a press conference for her second Marathi production 'Kaay Re Raascala'.

During the media interaction, PC spoke at length about the aims and objectives of her production house Purple Pebble Pictures that she co-founded with her mother Dr. Madhu Chopra. Reminiscing her own struggling days in Bollywood, Priyanka said, "We established Purple Pebble to promote new talents and give them the opportunities that they deserve. Despite being Miss World, it was extremely difficult for me to make a place in Bollywood. We really want to take chances with new talents and open the doors for them, be it musicians, directors, script writers, actors."

Adding to what PeeCee said about personal struggles and embracing fresh talents looking for that one opportunity to prove their mettle as creative personas, her mother, Dr. Chopra, said, "Our mandate at Purple Pebble Pictures was to give approachable place for new talents. We firmly believe in encouraging new talent... When she (Priyanka Chopra) came to Mumbai, she found it really difficult, even though she came as Miss World."

Priyanka, who recently shot for two Hollywood films-- A Kid Like Jake and Isn't It Romantic-- said that she is in 'conversation' regarding new projects, both for her next Bollywood film and the stories that she is going to be producing. She will reveal the names once "they green light them."

The superstar's hit TV series 'Quantico' season 3 will be aired soon.
Mumbai: Katrina Kaif tasted her first Bollywood success opposite Salman Khan and she said meeting the superstar was the most memorable moment of her life. The 33-year-old actress made her film debut with Kaizad Gustads 2003 movie Boom, which was a failure. Her first hit was 2005 Salman-starrer Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya? directed by David Dhawan.

When asked what was the most naughty or memorable thing she did at the age of 18, Katrina replied, "I was 18 when I met Salman and that is the most memorable thing."

To which Salman jokingly added, "There is nothing naughty that I did. And there is nothing memorable that I have done."

Salman and his former girlfriend, Katrina, will be performing at the 18th edition of The International Indian film Academy (IIFA) Awards here.

When posed the same question, actress Alia Bhatt said, she was giving her exams and was also doing workshops for her debut film 'Student of the Year' at the age of 18. The 24-year-old actress said she was both nervous and excited about her debut performance at IIFA.

"I have not been part of the IIFA so far and I thinks everything happens for a reason. It had to be in New York and it had to be when I was nominated for two of my films  'Dear Zindagi' and 'Udta Punjab'. It is special. I am excited, enthusiastic and nervous." Katrina quickly added, "I hope Alia wins both the trophies and gives one in charity."

Both Katrina and Salman will be performing at the award show this year.
Sushant Singh Rajput has been nominated for Best Actor and he'll also be performing at the award function this year.

Mumbai: Sushant Singh Rajputs Bollywood journey has not been one like beds of roses; nothing was prepared on a platter and given to him. The actor carved the path on his own and attained the glory, hes cherishing currently. From a television actor to being a Bollywood star, his voyage has been incredible!

Sushant is currently in New York, attending one of the most prestigious award functions of Bollywood with Salman Khan, Kriti Sanon, Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif, Varun Dhawan, Shahid Kapoor and many other glitteratis.

While everyone were sharing their memories related to this extravaganza occasion, Sushant too narrated his association with it and it touched our hearts. His career graph can very well be identified with his speech at the award functions press meet in NYC.

Once a background dancer and now nominated under the Best Actor category, time changes and how! Sushant while speaking about it got tad emotional.

He said, Me and IIFA (International Indian Film Academy Awards) go back a long way. Back in 2006, I was a background dancer performing at IIFA. In 2013, when I made my debut (Kai Po Che), I got a chance to perform, and in 2017, Im nominated as Best Actor. My mother would say that your life is a story that you tell

While he spoke, Anupam Kher, Salman, Katrina and his contemporaries Varun, Alia applauded for him.

This year too, the actor is performing with Kriti Sanon at the award function.

A story, which will inspire many!
Mumbai: Under attack from all quarters for bleeping certain phrases in the documentary on eminent economist Amartya Sen, CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani on Thursday said the board was just doing its job.

The chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) told a TV channel that if the makers have any grievance regarding the orders, they are free to appeal to the higher authorities such as FCAT (Film Certification Appellate Tribunal).

"This is our job... Whatever the director or producer is saying, ask him to go to the tribunal or the advisory committee," Nihalani said.

Infamous for its regressive attitude, the CBFC ordered director Suman Ghosh to bleep phrases such as "cow", "Hindu India", "Hindutva view of India" and "Gujarat" from the documentary, 'The Argumentative Indian'.

Ghosh has refused to adhere to the cuts suggested by the board, saying he would be unable to do that.

Sen, on his part, has declined to be drawn into a discussion on the issue.

"It is a documentary film on me. I have not made it. I have nothing to say on it. You ask Suman Ghosh about it," he said, adding, "If the authorities have any objection, they can discuss it."

Rajinder Sachar, former president of People Union For Civil Liberties has slammed the board, calling it "ignoramus and constitutionally impermissible".

"Disgrace abounding, ignoramus and constitutionally impermissible is the instant reaction to the totally unacceptable suggestion of the CBFC. This action has made a laughing stock of India's claimed open society," the statement read.

Also, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh supported the censor board's decision and said being a Nobel laureate doesn't give "anybody the licence to say whatever he wants."

Annoyed by the CBFC's recent commands, actor Kabir Bedi took to Twitter where he wrote that the authority is maligning India's reputation in the world by issuing such diktats.

"Censor Board has no idea how much it is damaging India's image with their stupid demands. Pahlaj Nihalani is a disaster. @PMOIndia," wrote Bedi.
Chennai: A Hindu outfit today staged a protest near actor Kamal Haasan's residence here, opposing the Tamil version of 'Bigg Boss' that is hosted by him.

Hitting out at the actor for participating in the show which allegedly belittled and diminished Indian culture, the protesters belonging to the Hindu Makkal Katchi said "Kamal Haasan should not indulge in such cultural denigration."

They demanded certification for television programmes, similar to censor certification for films, to protect the interests of the general public, children and students.

Certification like "A" (Adults) given for films was necessary for television programmes too since several shows featured content that was not appropriate for children and youngsters, they claimed.

The protesters said they would hold similar protests against Haasan's movies if the actor continued to host the show.

Police pickets were set up in and around Haasan's residence in upscale Alwarpet and barricades were put up to prevent untoward incidents.

Similarly, police personnel in adequate numbers were also deployed in front of Vijay TV's office here in view of the protests.

The Hindu Makkal Katchi had two days ago sought legal action against Haasan and the actors on the reality show being telecast on Vijay TV since June 24.

They had filed a police complaint seeking a ban on the telecast of the show on the Tamil TV channel hosted by Haasan, alleging that it denigrated Tamilian culture.

Reacting to the complaint, Haasan had said there was nothing inappropriate in the show's content.

"I have faith in law... if they want to arrest me, let it happen, law and justice will protect me," the actor had said.
Dileep is all set to become second accused in the high-profile case.

Mumbai: In a lightning quick turn of events, disgraced Malayalam actor Dileep is all set to be produced at the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Angamaly on Friday in relation to his bail plea.

With his 48-hour custody attaining closure, the actor was produced at the court at 11 AM.

The actor stands accused of conspiring and getting the Malayalam actress allegedly molested in a bid to blackmail. Dileep is all set to become second accused in the high-profile case, behind primary accused Pulsar Suni.

The police had earlier said that they would be recording statements of Dileeps second wife Kavya Madhavan and her mother Shyamala, director Lal and MLA PT Thomas, before the investigation is wrapped up.

Apparently, the actress leaked Dileep's 'affair' with current wife Kavya Madhavan to his then wife Manju Warrier back in 2013.

The police claim that Dileep insisted on Pulsar Suni recording a video to prove that it was not fake or morphed and that the actress should be clearly identifiable with her ring. The offences registered against Dileep are 120 (B) conspiracy, 342 (wrongful confinement), 366 (kidnapping, abducting), 376 (D) gangrape, 411(dishonestly receiving stolen property), 506 (1) criminal intimidation, 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 212 (harbouring offender), 34 of (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and various sections under IT Act, 2008.

The police in its report claimed that they had collected witness statements as well as material objects to prove that Dileep had conspired with Pulsar Suni, the main accused in the case, from March 26, 2013 at various locations in Kerala till the event occurred. Suni deviated from his depositions and informed the police that he had conspired with Dileep and planned to capture the videos of the actress and a fee was fixed for the same.

The duo first met at Abad Plaza hotel in Kochi in 2013 during the rehearsal of an event organised by AMMA. They met in room number 410 and decided to capture the video, which Dileep insisted should be original. During the rehearsal, Dileep shouted at the actress. In another instance, Dileep and Suni met at Thrissur during the shoot of Georgettan's Pooram, a movie acted by Dileep. They discussed the plot behind a caravan, the police said. The cops revealed that Dileep was arrested at Carnival Guest House at Athani at 6 p.m. on Monday.
Dileep's troubles in the case don't seem to be ending anytime soon.

Mumbai: The Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court has extended the police custody of Dileep till Saturday 5 pm in the abduction and assault case of a Malayalam actress.

The actor had appeared before the court at 11 am on Friday after the two-day police custody given on Wednesday had come to an end.

Dileep was arrested on 11 July by the Special Investigation Team for conspiring and getting a popular Malayalam actress molested in a bid to blackmail.

He is all set to become the second accused in the high-profile case, behind primary accused Pulsar Suni.

The police had earlier said that they would be recording statements of Dileeps second wife Kavya Madhavan and her mother Shyamala, director Lal and MLA PT Thomas, before the investigation is wrapped up.

Apparently, the actress leaked Dileep's 'affair' with current wife Kavya Madhavan to his then wife Manju Warrier back in 2013.

The police claim that Dileep insisted on Pulsar Suni recording a video to prove that it was not fake or morphed and that the actress should be clearly identifiable with her ring. The offences registered against Dileep are 120 (B) conspiracy, 342 (wrongful confinement), 366 (kidnapping, abducting), 376 (D) gangrape, 411(dishonestly receiving stolen property), 506 (1) criminal intimidation, 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 212 (harbouring offender), 34 of (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and various sections under IT Act, 2008.
Chennai: The Union health ministry, in its attempt to curb the mosquito-borne infections, launched its district-wise National Strategic Plan on Wednesday. The plan aims at eliminating the infectious diseases by avoiding the transmission of infectious diseases transmitted by mosquitoes by 2030.

As per the new strategic plan, elimination of mosquito-borne diseases by controlling mosquito breeding will be carried out. The spread of diseases will be eliminated by early diagnosis and treatment at the district level so that the local transmission can be stopped completely.

After the launch of a national framework against mosquito-borne diseases, the health ministry is now focusing on district level plan, to lay more responsibility on the shoulder of the states in eliminating these diseases. The plan focuses especially on controlling malaria, as India reports around two million cases of malaria every year.

The state health department is all set to implement the district-level plan along with the village level plan already in existence in the state. Tamil Nadu has put in place a very strong interdepartmental coordination effort with a focus on cost management and case management of mosquito-borne diseases, says health secretary J. Radhakrishnan.

He added that the government is working along with the local bodies on eliminating mosquito breeding, more importantly, on awareness drives to sensitise on the causes and control of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, malaria and other diseases. The district-level plan will help to aware the urban population also on such issues.

As per the corporation health department officials, the new strategic plan is defined to target several issues related to infectious diseases district-wise on an annual basis. The district wise plan will help in easy monitoring of the situation from the ground level regularly.

The surveillance of the diseases, early detection and prevention of outbreak of these diseases are primary steps that will be taken, along with the awareness campaigns that are held regularly. The government is also ensuring spray of repellents on a regular basis to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes, said an official from the health education department.
Bengaluru: A day after Deputy Inspector General of Prisons D. Roopa, accused her immediate superior, the Director General of Police and Inspector General of Prisons H.N. Sathyanarayan Rao with providing V Sasikala with a private kitchen and other facilities at the Bengaluru Central Prison at Parapana Agrahara in exchange for a bribe of Rs 2 crore, Mr Rao hit back.

Scoffing at the fact that the IPS officer of 2000 batch did not have the facts as she had not even visited the women's wing of the prison when she was there last Monday, he dismissed her report as full of ill founded and baseless allegations."

With Chief Minister Siddaramaiah promising a probe into the serious allegations, the AIADMK leaders lawyer Ashokan also described the report as "baseless allegations to damage Ms Sasikala's image."

"It is nothing but damaging the image of Ms. Sasikala. Prison officials are unnecessarily targeting Ms. Sasikala when in fact it's an internal fight between top prison officials." he told Deccan Chronicle.

D. Roopa, on Wednesday submitted a report to Mr. Rao stating that former Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalitha's aide Sasikala who is currently lodged in the city jail, has been allegedly provided with a kitchen and other facilities, and that there were rumours that Mr. Rao could be one of the beneficiaries.

Jail fight of a different kind!

The fight between the two top heads of the prison department is not unheard of, according to prison sources. Transferred to the prison department in January, DIG Roopa Moudgil was on a long leave and reported to work reluctantly just 20 days ago, on June 23. Even after this, she was irregular to work and finally her not attending the CMs review meet on Monday, forced the DGP Sathyanarayan Rao to issue notices to her. Focusing more on writing columns to newspapers and posting photos on Facebook rather than work had allegedly upset the DGP. Following her allegations, the DGP is likely to initiate disciplinary action against the woman officer.

In Sasis kitchen, top cops cooked

Mr. Rao said that the DIG had not even visited the women prisoners enclosure in the Bengaluru Central Prison at Parapana Agrahara even once, calling into question her blatantly wild allegations. She has not visited the womens enclosure in the prison. How can she make such blatant public allegations that Sasikala (AIADMK interim president and convict in the DA case) has been allowed a private kitchen and is being given VIP treatment inside the prison in exchange of Rs 2 crore bribe? There are no VIPs inside the prison and we have not given preferential treatment to anyone including Sasikala, said the prison chief.

He added that while DIG Roopa has made sweeping allegations of corruption against him and other prison officers, she has not provided any evidence to back her claim. Why didnt she furnish any evidence for her allegations? I will submit her report along with my reply to the government soon, added Mr. Rao, who has a little more than a fortnight before he hangs up his boots on July 31 when he superannuates.

Mr. Rao also inferred that the DIG may have submitted the report against him in retaliation for being asked, by him to concentrate on her work and not seek media attention. He had also sent her a memo for skipping the CMs review meeting on July 10, and choosing to visit the prison on that day, weeks after she was assigned the post.

The report has also alleged that the multi crore counterfeit stamp paper convict Abdul Kareem Telgi has some under trial prisoners in attendance, who take care of his personal chores like massage and washing of clothes. Though Telgi, on medical grounds has been granted permission from the court orders to have assistance in the prison Roopas objection was that under-trial prisoners are not allowed to mix with convicts. Telgi reportedly pays the under-trial prisoners some remuneration for their services, which helps them with their legal fee and bail, said an official source. In the report, the DIG also brings up the drug abuse among prisoners, enclosing the medical certificate of 18 out of 25 prisoners, who tested positive for narcotic drug abuse. Top sources said that Roopa, during her official visit to the Central prison on July 10, reportedly saw a prison doctor being assaulted by a prisoner to whom he had given a certificate of medical fitness. The prisoner was angry with the doctor because the medical certificate would have jeopardized his bail.

He was about to attack the doctor, when another psychiatric patient (and prisoner) came to the doctors rescue. Roopa had brought these incidents and the presence of a shop inside the prison, which allegedly sells SIM cards and cigarettes to the prisoners to the notice of her boss, the officer added. Other sources who claimed condition of anonymity say that the DIG was upset with the fact that her role in the prison department was not defined and that instead of reporting to the DGP, she was asked to report to the Additional Inspector General of Prisons, who is a non IPS officer.
Thiruvananthapuram: A group of women journalists representing Network of Women in Media, India, (NWMI) has submitted a representation to the government, asking it to bring out a comprehensive guideline on the reporting of sexual crimes. The context in which the womens group approached the Chief Minister was an insensitive report on the sexual assault on an actor. The report had explicit details on the nature of the alleged crime, which according to the representation was a brutal violation of the privacy of the survivor and thus the violation of article 21, right to life.

NWMIs Saritha Verma said that these are existing guidelines, and the plea was only to re-emphasize those. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that he would examine the plea and respond accordingly. The representation submitted to Mr Vijayan listed following guidelines pertaining to reporting such crimes  IPC 228A, which prescribes punishment to anyone who reveals the identity of a rape survivor; Code of Practice for Journalists issued by the Editors Guild of India, which asks utmost care should be taken so that the report itself does not become a punishment; News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) which urged media to not show details which could retruamatise the survivors
Bengaluru: Following the allegations of corruption and irregularities at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has ordered a high level probe into the case.

DIG (Prisons) D. Roopa Moudgil had on Wednesday written to the DGP and IGP of Prisons H.N. Sathyanarayana Rao, bringing to his notice the alleged irregularities in the prison. Surprisingly, she had accused him of interference in her work since she took charge on June 23 and had also alleged that AIADMK leader Sasikala was getting special privileges in the jail including a special kitchen. Further, she alleged that there were rumours that Rs 2 crore was paid for this and unfortunately the allegation is against you (Mr. Rao) and had requested to carry out a probe into the matter. As her allegations snowballed into a controversy embarrassing the police and prison departments, the CM reportedly discussed with senior police officers and ordered for a high-level inquiry into the case. However, it is not yet decided on which agency or who will be entrusted with the investigation.

We have taken serious cognisance of the allegation of irregularities in Bengaluru Central Prison & ordered a high level inquiry. Request all to await the outcome of this inquiry. Strict action will be taken against any person found guilty of wrongdoing, Siddaramaiah tweeted on Thursday.

File not approved yet, says official

However the Chief Minister is yet to approve the file on inquiry in the corruption and drug abuse charges in the Bengaluru Central prison.

He is on tour and the inquiry will be instituted only after he gives his approval to the file, said an officer. The inquiry will most likely be headed by the Additional Chief Secretary, Home because the allegations are against a DGP rank officer, he added.
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palanisamy on Friday said 12 people were being interrogated in connection with the attack on a police station in Chennai.

No one was injured and no damage had been caused in Thursday's attack on the Teynampet police station, he informed the state Assembly after the opposition raised the issue. Two bike-borne men had hurled a lit kerosene-filled bottle at the station in the early hours, resulting in a fire, he said.

"A policeman on duty immediately put out the fire. There was no injury to anybody. There was no damage too." After scrutinising CCTV visuals, 12 people have been brought under the investigation net. The police is carrying out intensive enquiries with one of them since his appearance matched with that of a miscreant spotted in the video, the chief minister said.

A case has been registered and special teams have been formed to crack the case, he said, adding that all efforts were on to nab the culprits.

Palanisamy also responded to the DMK's contention that CCTV cameras in the police station were not functioning properly, saying a total of 10 cameras were installed there, but dust had settled on them.

"Therefore, the images (captured by the cameras) were not clear. However, all steps will be taken to nab the culprits," he said.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice T. Rajani was dealing with an appeal by the T-NGOs association challenging an order of the single judge. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday advised the AP Non-Gazetted Officers Association and the Bhagyanagar Telangana Non-Gazetted Officers Association to settle the dispute with regard to their share in the AP NGO Bhavan at Gunfoundry.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice T. Rajani was dealing with an appeal by the T-NGOs association challenging an order of the single judge.

Earlier, a single judge suspended operation of proceedings issued by the TS government by allotting some portion in APNGO Home at Gunfoundry to the T-NGOs association.
The Centre told the Supreme Court that around 3,500 websites hosting child pornographic content have been blocked. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: The government told the Supreme Court on Friday that it has asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to consider whether jammers can be installed in schools to curb access to websites having child pornographic content.

The Centre told the Supreme Court that it was taking steps to deal with the issue of child pornography in its entirety and around 3,500 websites hosting such content have been blocked last month.

The apex court was hearing a petition which has sought direction to the Centre to take appropriate steps to curb the menace of child pornography across the country.

The government told a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra that it has asked the CBSE to consider installation of jammers in schools to block access to child pornographic content.

Additional solicitor general Pinky Anand told the bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and MM Shantanagoudar that it was not possible to install jammers in school buses.

Jammers in school buses are not possible, Anand said, adding, the government has asked the CBSE to consider whether jammers can be installed in schools to curb access to such websites.

We are coming out with steps which will deal with the situation in its entirety, she told the bench.

The government told the court that it would file a status report on the steps taken by it to curb child pornography. The court asked the Centre to file a status report within two days.
Women invited to luncheon

COLUMBUS -- The Columbus Christian Womens Connection invites all area women to attend a luncheon at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Federated Fellowship Hall, 2704 15th St.

A program will be given on better ways to use GPS, and music will be provided by Shannon Buzynski. Guest speaker Pam Wilson will share her story of stained-glass windows, and knowing what is inside is what counts.

Cost is $10 with reservations due by Monday. For more information or to reserve a seat, call 402-564-2065 or 402-564-4036.

Mother-daughter retreat planned

SCHUYLER -- Bloom: Because Loving Ourselves and Others Matters, is a retreat scheduled for July 22-23 for mothers and daughters ages 11-14 at St. Benedict Center, with Deb Waskowiak and team.

The retreat provides opportunities for deepening the communication that is essential for growth into mature womanhood. Sessions will help connect faith, relationships and healthy loving in ways that are rooted in gospel teaching and relevant today. This fun weekend includes outdoor activities, weather permitting. The retreat beings at 9 a.m. July 22 and ends at noon July 23.

Register by calling 402-352-8819 or visiting www.christthekingpriory.com.

Garage, bake sale at church

COLUMBUS  Federated Church, 2704 15th St., will hold its annual garage and bake sale 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

There will be five rooms filled with toys, books, games, furniture, clothing, household items, baked goods and other miscellaneous items.

Fill a bag for $5 after 2 p.m.

Childrens choir in Osceola

OSCEOLA -- The African Childrens Choir will perform at 9 and 10:30 a.m. Aug. 6 at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 531 S. Polk St., in Osceola.

There are no tickets required for the performance, but donations will be accepted.

Over the years, the group has toured internationally, performing for presidents and heads of state. The African Children's Choir is a nonprofit humanitarian and relief organization dedicated to helping Africa's most-vulnerable children.

For more information, call 402-747-5411.

Prayer retreat at St. Benedict

SCHUYLER -- Commissioned: A Prayerful Response to the New Evangelization is a one-day retreat from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. July 22 at St. Benedict Center, with Fr. Jeffrey P. Lorig, director of pastoral services for the Archdiocese of Omaha.

There will be time for study, reflection, sharing and prayer. Program fee is $30, and lunch is available at the center for $10.50.

For more information or to register, visit www.christthekingpriory.com.

Father-son retreat scheduled

SCHUYLER -- Fathers and Sons-Together Forever is a retreat for fathers and their sons ages 1115 scheduled for July 29-30 at St. Benedict Center, with Edward DeSimone, Fr. Jeff Mollner and team.

The retreat provides opportunities for open communication and mutual learning between fathers and their adolescent sons, along with Mass and a traditional blessing of the sons. The weekend includes a dodge ball competition, water balloon toss and hayrack ride, weather permitting. The retreat begins at 8:30 a.m. July 29 and ends at noon July 30.

For more information or to register, call 402-352-8819 or visit www.christthekingpriory.com.
New Delhi: The Centre, on Friday, held an all-party meet to discuss the Sikkim standoff and attack at Amarnath, where it told the Opposition that China has "breached and encroached" territory at the disputed Doklam area.

According to Hindustan Times reports, AIADMK parliamentarian A Navaneethakrishnan, who attended the meeting, said, Foreign secretary S Jaishankar briefed the party members present about the Chinese territorial breach.

"We are satisfied with the government's response," he added.

Speaking to the media after the meet, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said, "EAM & Foreign Secretary gave detailed information on border issues, especially on Doklam. Everybody promised to support government."

Congress leader Anand Sharma said, "National security-priority of INC, advised them to tackle situation diplomatically, rising above politics for national interest."

The meet was attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley. National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar were also present at the meet.

Meanwhile, criticizing the government All India Congress Committee (AICC) media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala had said, it was 'satisfying to see that the NDA government had finally woken up after three years of briefing the Opposition on issues concerning the nation.

"Congress is assuring full cooperation with the government on issues relating to national security," he added.

Leaders of prominent parties were present at the meeting where Swaraj and Singh gave a brief presentation on the situation along the Sino-Indian border and the Jammu and Kashmir and the government action, The Indian Express reported.
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Roopa Ganguly, while commenting on the ongoing violence in West Bengal, on Friday dared those flattering Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Congress to send their wives and daughters to Bengal to live for 15 days and survive without getting raped.

Ganguly said if they are able to survive in West Bengal for 15 days without getting raped, then she would take back her statement.

"I dare all the parties, the ones who keep flattering the West Bengal Government and the Congress, to send their daughters, sisters-in-law, wives to Bengal, without taking any hospitality from Mamata Banerjee. If they are able to survive there for 15 days without getting raped, then tell me," Ganguly said.

#WATCH TMC supporters from outside WB should send their women thr,challenge they will be raped within 15 days: BJP MP Rupa Ganguly (13.7.17) pic.twitter.com/SOWs1xBO46  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

Commenting further on the West Bengal violence, Ganguly said democracy has died in the state.

"No Government official does his work. If one does not have sources, he cannot get his work done," she said.

West Bengal has recently witnessed chaos and violence, with demands of a separate Gorkhaland giving rise to Darjeeling unrest and the Basirhat violence where communal clashes broke over a social media post.
Army continues to patrol Darjeeling as the shutdown enters its 30th Day on Friday. (Photo: File | PTI)

Darjeeling (WB): A Railway Protection Force (RPF) office, a police outpost and a state-run library were set on fire in the Darjeeling hills as the indefinite strike demanding a separate state entered its 30th day on Friday, police said.

As unrest simmered, internet services remained suspended for the 27th day.

The RPF office in Kurseong and a police outpost in Sukhiapokhri were set afire in the early hours of the morning on Friday while the state-run library in Mirik sub-division was reduced to ashes by pro-Gorkhaland supporters on Thursday night, a police official said.

The Army continues to be deployed in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sonada.

The Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC) decided to postpone its fast-unto-death programme from July 15 due to the upcoming presidential elections.

"We have decided to postpone the programme of fast-unto-death as presidential elections are nearby. We'll take a call on it at our next all-party meeting on July 18," a GMCC member said.

The 30-member GMCC represents all hill based parties, including the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) and the Jana Andolan Party (JAP).
During National Security Advisor Ajit Dovals visit, issues like resolving the row at the Dokalam area in Sikkim will be discussed. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will visit China for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) National Security Agency (NSA) meet later this month.

Doval, who is the Special Representative for the India-China border talks, is expected to visit Beijing on July 26 to attend the meeting of the NSAs.

During his visit, issues like resolving the row at the Dokalam area in Sikkim will be discussed.

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Doklam area near the Bhutan tri-junction for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Indian troops stopped road construction by Chinese soldiers on June 16.

New Delhi on Thursday said India will use diplomatic channels with China to resolve Dokalam standoff and will not compromise on the issue.

"We have diplomatic channels available. We have embassies in both countries. Those channels will continue to be used," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said on Thursday when asked about the nearly month-long stand off in Dokalam.

Dovals visit to China comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany earlier this month.

Addressing the press conference on Thursday, Baglay had refused to give details on the talks between Modi and Xi, and said, "There was a conversation between them. There were a range of issues that was the subject matter of that conversation."
Former CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said it is important for the govt to keep in mind that the main party in the Doklam plateau dispute is Bhutan. (Photo: Deccan Chronicle/Representational Image)

New Delhi: The CPI(M) on Wednesday stressed on the need for a fresh round of dialogue between India and China covering all strategic issues concerning the two countries to ease tension, following the standoff in Doklam area.

The CPI(M) said extraneous factors must not be allowed to interfere in the quest for better bilateral ties. It alleged that the differences between India and China have aggravated after the Modi government came to power and blamed the Centre's strategic alliance with the US for the divergence.

Former CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said it is important for the government to keep in mind that the main party in the Doklam plateau dispute is Bhutan and added "it is better" that India takes the lead in negotiating issues with China and supports Thimphu.

"What is required is a new round of dialogue between the two countries which will cover all strategic issues which are of concern to them. "Extraneous factors must not be allowed to interfere in the quest for better relations between the two neighbours in Asia," Karat said in the editorial of the forthcoming issue of CPI(M)'s mouthpiece 'People's Democracy'.

Regarding the standoff over Doklam, he said Bhutan has been negotiating with China directly on its border issues since 1984. Hence, he said, it is better that India lets Bhutan take the lead in negotiating with China on the Doklam Plateau and other disputed territories.

"It is also important to keep in mind that Bhutan is the main party in the dispute. Bhutan is not a 'protectorate' of India," Karat said. The Marxist leader said the "present border fracas" has assumed "greater salience" given the growing number of issues on which the two countries have differences, which he added, have "aggravated" after the Modi-led government was formed in 2014.

The prime factor contributing to this divergence is India's strategic alliance with the US. India has joined the US in its strategic designs in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean region which is aimed at containing China. India has openly sided with the US positions on the South China Sea; India has opposed the Belt and Road Initiative," Karat said.

Stating that the NDA government has "increased" profile of the Dalai Lama, the CPI(M) said the spiritual leader's visit to Arunachal Pradesh along with a Union minister and his recent unfurling of Tibetan flag of the provisional government in Ladakh are "serious irritants" for China. Karat said India has been seeking to join the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) on a priority basis and considers China as the "stumbling block" for this goal. Nor China has obliged in the efforts to get Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and Pathankot attack mastermind Masood Azhar on the terrorist list notified by the United Nations, he added.

"The erosion of trust and mutual confidence has contributed to the present tensions related to Doklam. The Modi government must realise that there is no alternative to settling the recurring disagreements on the border except through negotiations which have a time-tested framework," Karat said.
Hyderabad: Swapping of employees between TS and AP is all set to begin soon, with Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday approving mutual transfer of employees between the two states.

Employees who were posted in different places as part of bifurcation of staff between the two states by Kamalnathan committee have been seeking mutual transfers on spouse grounds etc.

The governments of both the states are under pressure from employees associations to take up mutual transfer of employees. The demand is even more from working couples who have been given postings in different states.

However, TS employees associations are demanding the TS government to scrutinise the nativity of working couples thoroughly before giving postings in Hyderabad.

TS employees express fears that AP-native staff seeking transfer to TS on spouse grounds may secure postings in the Secretariat in Hyderabad.

The TS government should ensure that either the husband or the wife who is working in AP now should be the native of Telangana to get posting in Hyderabad on spouse grounds, said A. Padma Chary, president, Telangana Udyogula Sangham.

Employees from both the states will be allowed to apply for mutual transfer. If an employee working in TS Secretariat in Hyderabad wants posting in AP Secretariat in Amaravati, he will given posting only if an employee from Amaravati opts for Hyderabad. Mutual transfers will be taken up based on vacancies that arise due to transfers sought by employees.

Employees associations want mutual transfers to be expedited as staff has been suffering for over three years due to delay.

Though its more than three years since AP was bifurcated, the issues pertaining to bifurcation of staff are yet to be sorted out in both the states.

Recently, the AP government sent back 24 AP-native section officers to TS Secretariat, after they were relieved by TS government following their allotment to AP. This triggered protests from TS employees who are emanding TS government to send back these 24 officers to AP again.
Bengaluru: Hailing from Davanagare, DIG D. Roopa Moudgil is an IPS officer of 2000 batch. She is the first Kannadiga woman officer to get posted in her own state after she secured 43rd rank in the UPSC exams and passed out of her training with 5th rank.

She was in news in 2004, when she was Dharwad SP and led the all-woman police team that arrested former CM of Madhya Pradesh Uma Bharti in connection with a 10-year-old criminal case of hoisting the national flag at the sensitive Idgah Maidan in Hubballi on August 15, 1994.

She has also served as SP of Yadagiri and Gadag districts. While she was DIG of CAR, Bengaluru, she had withdrawn many vehicles that were unnecessarily allotted to senior officers and politicians. She had withdrawn orderlies from the houses of police officers. She is married to Munish Moudgil, an IAS officer of 1998 batch.

Very recently, she had engaged in a war of words with Pratap Simha, the Mysuru-Kodagu MP, after he had tweeted a news story about honest IPS officers of the state going on central deputation. "Politicisation of the bureaucracy does not help the system and society in the long run, she had replied to his post.
The nurses have been on strike since the past few days demanding minimum wages of Rs 20,000 as fixed by the Supreme Court. (Photo: YouTube screengrab)

Thiruvananthapuram: Functioning of private hospitals in Kerala is likely to be affected with an estimated 80,000 nurses on Thursday deciding to go on indefinite strike from July 17 demanding higher wages.

The private hospital managements said they would be able to provide only emergency services from Monday in view of the protest call.

The United Nurses Association (UNA) and Indian Nurses Association, spearheading the ongoing agitation, said they would intensify their protest from July 17.

Satyagraha protests would be staged at the district headquarters and from July 21, they would shift the focus to secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, a release from the associations said.

The nurses have been on strike since the past few days demanding minimum wages of Rs 20,000 as fixed by the Supreme Court.

Stating that 80,000 nurses would join the 'total' strike, UNA president Jasmine Shah said they would not buckle 'under pressure' from private hospitals.

Various associations of private hospitals held meetings here and in Kochi to take stock of the situation.

"The functioning of the hospitals will be affected. We can provide only limited services not involving nurses. There will be limited outpatient services. ICUs will not accept new patients," said M I Shadulla of Private Hospitals Association of Private Hospitals of India (Kerala) chapter.

Speaking to reporters here after an emergency meeting of the association, he said only emergency surgeries would be undertaken.

With the state being gripped by viral and dengue fever, the situation could turn alarming.

"We can function only partially. We have already shut emergency rooms as all of them are full," Shadulla, Chairman of KIMS Hospital, said.

Describing the situation as 'unprecedented', he claimed the 56 per cent hike demanded by nurses was 'very steep' and would be 'a burden' on mid-size hospitals.

While maintaining that they were 'sympathetic' to the cause of nurses, he said the hike would also make health care cost go up, burdening the patients.

Shah said nurses with graduation were taken as trainees in private hospitals and were paid only Rs 6,500 per month.

The protesters are demanding that all the qualified nurses should get Rs 20,000 as minimum salary.By merging the DA with basic pay and declaring a new basic salary of Rs 17,200 is 'injustice', they said.

This would mean that a qualified nurse would not get more than Rs 20,000, association sources said.
The Supreme Court was hearing a PIL seeking probe and compensation in the alleged 1,528 extra-judicial killings in Manipur from 2000 to 2012. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed a probe by the CBI into the alleged extra-judicial killings by the Army, the Assam Rifles and the Manipur Police in the insurgency-hit state.

A bench of Justices MB Lokur and UU Lalit asked the CBI director to appoint a team of officers to conduct the probe into the alleged killings.

The court was hearing a PIL seeking probe and compensation in the alleged 1,528 extra-judicial killings in Manipur from 2000 to 2012 by security forces and police.

On April 20, the Army had told the apex court that it cannot be subjected to FIRs for carrying out anti-militancy operations in insurgency-prone areas like Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur, while alleging local bias in judicial inquiries conducted against it in these regions, which have tarnished its image.

"In every military operation, the Army cannot be disbelieved. Every judicial inquiry cannot be against the Army. The alleged extra-judicial killing cases in Manipur are not cases of massacre, rather these are cases of military operations," the Centre had told the court.

The bench had also pulled up the Manipur government for not taking action on such alleged fake encounters by armed forces and asked was it "not supposed to do anything".

The Army had told the court that the judicial probes conducted into alleged extra-judicial killing charges were "biased" and slanted against them due to local factors.

It had alleged that the district judges, who were locals, had conducted the judicial inquiries into the alleged killings and local factors came in the way of the probe reports which went against the armed forces.

The court was earlier told that there were 265 cases of deaths which have to be examined and there were various reports of the commission of inquiry in which serious allegations have been levelled against armed forces personnel.

The apex court had earlier asked the Centre to segregate the cases related to the armed forces from the list of 265 incidents of extra-judicial killings in Manipur.

The Centre had said that out of the 282 cases, which were referred to it for verification, 70 matters were found to be related to the Army and Assam Rifles, while the rest concerned the state police.

In July last year, the apex court had directed a thorough probe into the alleged fake encounter killings in Manipur saying the use of "excessive or retaliatory force" by the armed forces or police was not permissible in 'disturbed areas' under the controversial Armed Force Special Powers Act.
Lucknow: After explosives was found in Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Thursday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called for a strong security system, stating that the incident could be a terror conspiracy.

He also demanded a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the incident.

Strong security system must be established as this could be a terror conspiracy. Security guidelines must be issued and everyone must follow them, Adityanath said at a high-level meeting on Friday.

60 grams of suspicious white powder was found under the seat of Samajwadi Party MLA Manoj Pandey during an ongoing session on Thursday, according to reports. It later sent to forensic lab for testing.

During the meeting, Adityanath said the white powder was Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) explosives and sought an action against those involved.

Everyone needs to be cautious related to security matters. Police verification needs to be done for workers in assembly," Adityanath said in the Assembly on Thursday.

PETN explosives were found, action must be taken against those involved, he added.

Aditynath also urged the officials to not compromise on the security of the state and the nation, more so considering the current situation of the country.

He also apprised the members about the new security arrangements, including ban on use of mobile phones in the Assembly.
Square-dancing at local VFW

COLUMBUS -- Harolds Squares Square Dance Club of Columbus will have salad night at its dance from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Sunday at the VFW Hall.

The caller/cuer for the dance will be Mary Channer-Paul from Fullerton. Salads will be served after the dance. Spectators are welcome to stop by and see what square-dancing is all about. There will be no lessons before the dance.

For more information, contact Bob or Rayetta Williams at 402-564-5502.

Auditions open for 'Aladdin'

COLUMBUS -- Auditions for the Missoula Children's Theatre production of "Aladdin" will be held 10 a.m. Monday at Federated Church, 2704 15th St.

Use the southwest doors into the building, and plan to arrive between 9:30-10 a.m. The performance will be held July 22 at Central Community College's Performing Arts Center. Practices will be held daily from July 1722, times to be arranged. There is a participation fee of $45, which includes two tickets for the July 22 performance.

For more information, call 402-563-1016 or visit www.discoverthearts.com.

Man charged in kidnapping

BEATRICE (AP)  Police say a missing 14-year-old Beatrice girl is back home and a 24-year-old North Dakota man has been charged with kidnapping.

The girl was reported missing Monday and investigators determined she had been enticed to leave by Nichollas Johnson, whom she had met in an online gaming site.

Police and FBI agents found the girl Wednesday night in Fargo, North Dakota. Police say Johnson was arrested at a separate location in Fargo. He's charged with kidnapping in a Nebraska arrest warrant. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

Johnson is being held in North Dakota awaiting extradition to Nebraska. It was not clear Thursday whether he had an attorney.

Mayor wants police training

OMAHA (AP)  The mayor of Omaha is forming a Native American advisory board and local police officers will receive training on indigenous culture after a man died in police custody last month.

City officials and leaders in the indigenous community met June 28, more than three weeks after the death of unarmed Native American Zachary Bearheels, 29.

Police said Bearheels died after officers shocked him 12 times with a Taser, punched him and dragged him by his hair. Police alleged they were responding to a call at a convenience store for a disturbance involving a person who was refusing to leave the store.

According to his family, Bearheels had mental illnesses and was lost in Omaha after being kicked off an interstate bus going from South Dakota to Oklahoma. Relatives said they think Bearheels stopped taking his medicine.

Lucas LaRose, a commissioner on the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, said the meeting was scheduled to discuss how Native Americans are treated in Omaha.
Mangaluru: The war of words between leaders of BJP and the ruling Congress hit a new low with state unit president B S Yeddyurappa accusing Congress general secretary incharge of Karnataka K C Venugopal, of resorting to politics of vendetta to crack down on BJP workers as well as members of RSS, and dividing communities through discord as his party does in Kerala.

Addressing a rally here, the former chief minister said: After K C Venugopal took over as Karnataka in-charge of Congress, he along with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah seem to believe that the Congress could win elections by creating confusion, murders and splitting communities. Ministers U T Khader and Ramanath Rai are also working with them and responsible for this (communal tension in the coastal region). He cautioned Mr Venugopal that tactics employed in Kerala would not work in Karnataka.

Mr Yeddyurappa, who visited the residence of slain RSS worker Sharath Kumar Madivala and offered condolences to his kin, alleged that the law and order situation had deteriorated after the Congress was voted to power in 2013 with the murder of more than 24 RSS and BJP workers. The real culprits are not arrested and punished. The assailants get protection. KFD is behind these," he alleged adding that officers of NIA would be able to unearth the truth in these cases.

He said, On July 17, BJP MPs from the state will visit Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and brief him about the developments here. If necessary, we will also speak to the PM. We want to hold a massive rally in Mangaluru after the monsoon and invite Rajnath Singh to the event. We want to demand that the case (Sharaths murder) be handed over to NIA, while cautioning officials not to harass innocent people by booking cases. Cases have been booked against those who were participating in the procession. Police officials visit the house and harass family members. We will not tolerate this. It is human rights violation. If this continues, I will sit in Sathyagraha here by taking leave from parliament session, he added.

He said BJP leaders and workers would take to the streets if police register a case against RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat and arrest him. The state government will be responsible if there is any law and order problem, he added.

BJP eying all 13 seats in coast

The state BJP plans to make the most of law and order problems in Bantwal and neighbouring areas to revive its fortunes in the run-up to next years elections to the Legislative Assembly, and win all 13 seats in the coastal region.

For several decades, the coastal region has been a bastion of the BJP, but the party lost its grip during Assembly polls in 2013, winning only two out of 13 seats against 11 of Congress, and one independent. With these 11 Congress legislators spending several crores of rupees on development schemes in their respective constituencies, local BJP leaders have a tough task on hand to regain control over the region. Recent clashes and tension in the region, however, could be a god-send for the BJP to resume control over coastal districts, according to sources in the state unit of BJP.

Sources said soon, top leaders of the state unit would announce a state-wide agitation against the state government for death of BJP and RSS workers during the last four years. The leaders would also organize a mega protest rally in Bengaluru as state unit president president B.S.Yeddyurappa has instructed party general secretaries to organize one in Bengaluru, sources added.

With no major corruption related issues against the state government, the leaders have decided to focus on Bantwal unrest and killing of RSS worker Sharath Madivala to nail the state government for its failure to maintain the law and order, sources added.
Adding fuel to the fire is BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa, who warned that any attempt to arrest RSS veteran Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, whom Congress accuses of masterminding the violence, would be met with a strong response.

MangaluruBengaluru: There are no signs of peace returning to strife torn Dakshina Kannada district especially Bantwal anytime soon with the opposition BJP boycotting a peace meeting chaired by district in-charge minister Ramanath Rai on Thursday.

The district has been on the boil ever since the murder of an SDPI activist a month ago, followed by the killing of RSS sympathiser, Sharath Madivala and incidents of stone-pelting during Sharath's funeral procession.

Adding fuel to the fire is BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa, who warned that any attempt to arrest RSS veteran Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, whom Congress accuses of masterminding the violence, would be met with a strong response. "The state will burn, the government will be responsible for the collapse of law and order," he said.

The war of words hit a new low with BSY accusing Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, KC Venugopal, of resorting to "dividing communities through discord as his party does in Kerala".

The violence coming ahead of the Assembly polls, now barely 10 months away, could polarise voters in the coastal districts on religious lines.

BSY however dismissed allegations his party was playing the communal card to consolidate the Hindu vote, saying, "We are confident of winning 150 of the 224 seats on the basis of our popularity, achievements of Modi and highlighting failures of Siddaramaiah government."
The firm already has a dedicated team that looks over smartphones battery-design, inspection and production. (Representational image)

Samsung does not want to risk experimenting with smartphone batteries anymore  all thanks to the Note 7 fiasco. A new set of reports suggest that the South-Korean tech giant is apparently hiring battery experts from US and Europe to help reduce risks of batteries.

According to the Korean website, The Investor, Samsung is seeking for battery engineers from US and Europe and several candidates have even been interviewed regarding the same matter. The company is particularly interested in engineers with a masters or doctorate degree in battery science, as well as people with expertise in battery materials and cell development, a Softpedia report read.

It appears like Samsung wants to be on the safe side as far as its smartphones batteries are concerned. The firm already has a dedicated team that looks over smartphones battery-design, inspection and production. However, the firm now wants to appoint other experts to conduct a series of tests, including X-ray inspections and random sampling after receiving batteries from its suppliers.

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Samsung has promised to the world that the Note Fan Edition will not share the same fate as its elder brother while retaining all of its charms.

The Samsung Galaxy Note Fan Edition is one of the most hyped devices in the world of smartphones, partly because it is carrying the mantle of the defamed Galaxy Note 7 and partly because it comes for a lot less money than the original one. Samsung has promised to the world that the Note Fan Edition will not share the same fate as its elder brother while retaining all of its charms. And that has been confirmed by iFixit.

A teardown conducted by iFixit shows the Note fan Editions innards to be identical to the Note 7. However, there are two subtle differences with the new kid, the first of it being the battery obviously. The Note Fan Edition carries a smaller 3200mAh battery which Samsung claims is safe. The battery is nine percent smaller, offering 12.32Wh of charge to the original Note 7s 13.48Wh battery. It is 2.3grams lighter as well, meaning that its not a high-density battery.

Apart from the battery, the Note Fan Edition also has a revamped antenna bands. This could be due to the reason that the phone is meant primarily for the South Korean market and has to comply with local carrier bands.

Rest assured, the Note Fan Edition carries all the good bits of the Note 7, including that brilliant 1440 x 2560 pixels 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with curved edges to the sides, the S Pen tucked inside the IP68 water and dust proof body, a 2.4GHz octa-core Exynos 8890 chipset accompanied by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It also has the commendable 12 MP f/1.7 26mm PDAF with OIS rear camera and Samsungs new chatty assistant  Bixby. The smartphone is already reportedly sold out, showing the Note 7s massive popularity despite the battery issue.

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Seth Jones was speaking during his Congressional testimony before US' House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence on Thursday. (Photo: Youtube)

Washington: Al Qaeda is getting more active in the Indian subcontinent and by 2017, it boasted several hundred members, with its cells mostly in Afghanistan and its operatives flourishing in Bangladesh, counter-terrorism experts have told the US lawmakers.

"By 2017, Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent boasted several hundred members and had cells in Afghanistan's Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Ghazni, and Nuristan Provinces. Al Qaeda's presence in Afghanistan was almost certainly larger and more expansive than five or even ten years ago," said Seth G Jones, a strategic expert.

He was speaking during his Congressional testimony before US' House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence yesterday.

This expansion, Mr Jones said, may have been partly due to Taliban advances in Afghanistan and Al Qaeda's relationship with operatives from the Taliban and other groups, such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e Jhangvi. "Al Qaeda operatives in Bangladesh were particularly active, conducting a range of attacks. In addition, Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent conducted a steady propaganda campaign from its media arm As-Sahab," he said.

In September 2014, Al Qaeda terrorist leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had announced the creation of regional affiliate Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, taking advantage of sanctuaries in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. "A new branch of Al Qaeda was established -- Qaeda al-Jihad in the Indian subcontinent, seeking to raise the flag of jihad,...and return the Islamic rule across the Indian subcontinent," al-Zawahiri had said.

The group was led by Asim Umar -- a former member of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami -- a Pakistan-based terrorist group with branches across the Indian subcontinent. Umar was flanked by Abu Zar, his first deputy.

In October 2015, US and Afghan forces targetted a large training camp in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province, killing over one hundred operatives linked to Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, Mr Rhodes said.

According to Katherine Zimmerman, research fellow, American Enterprise Institute, the Al Qaeda presence in the Indian subcontinent remains weak after Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the launch of a new affiliate in September 2014.

Al Qaeda divides the Pakistani theatre by ethnic group, she said. The Pashtun are part of its Khorasan theater, which includes Afghanistan and Iran, and Punjab is under Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), Ms Zimmerman said.

"A recent surge in propaganda from AQIS leadership may indicate an attempt to revive the group," Ms Zimmerman told the lawmakers.

Ms Zimmerman said Al Qaeda never fully lost its sanctuary in Pakistan and used the country as a base to project forward into Afghanistan again as the US drew down militarily.

"By 2015, Al Qaeda was running large training camps inside Afghanistan. The US began revising its assessments of Al Qaeda's strength in Afghanistan based on the discovery of these training camps," she said.

"The US killed senior Al Qaeda leaders operating in Afghanistan in an October 2016 air strike, their presence a telling indicator that Al Qaeda had returned to the country," she added.
Beijing: In an unprecedented move, the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday removed questions related to Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo from the transcripts of its daily media briefings available on the official website.

The move came hours after the death of the 61-year-old human rights activist who died due to multiple organ failure following a battle with cancer while still in custody.

Asked why the references about Liu were removed, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that the ministry has the right to decide about the content of the transcripts.

"I answered more than 10 questions on the subject on Thursday. When you are covering the press conference did you write the every word I said in your report. We have the right to decide which kind of content can go online," Geng said.

According to the justice bureau of Shenyang city in Liaoning Province, Liu, convicted of subversion of state power in 2009, died of multiple organ failure today.

He was sentenced to 11 years in jail for his strident opposition to the one party rule of the Communist Party of China.

Liu served eight years in jail before he was diagnosed with cancer. He was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize while in jail and was represented by an empty chair at the ceremony in Oslo.
The Chinese navy and air force have in recent months carried out a series of exercises in the Western Pacific. (Photo: Representational/File)

Beijing: China told Japan on Friday to "get used to it" after it flew six warplanes over the Miyako Strait between two southern Japanese islands in a military exercise.

Japan's defence ministry issued a statement late on Thursday describing the flyover by the formation of Xian H-6 bombers earlier that day as "unusual", while noting that there had been no violation of Japanese airspace.

The Chinese navy and air force have in recent months carried out a series of exercises in the Western Pacific, as they hone their ability to operate far from their home shores.

The Chinese defence ministry said it was "legal and proper" for its military aircraft to operate in the airspace and that it would continue to organise regular training exercises according to "mission requirements".

"The relevant side should not make a fuss about nothing or over-interpret, it will be fine once they get used to it," the ministry said in a statement.

The Miyako Strait is between Japan's islands of Miyako and Okinawa, to the northeast of self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday the Chinese bombers flew just outside its air defence identification zone and that it had "closely followed" the movements.
Participants, one wearing a Tibetan flag, hold photos of Liu Xiaobo during a vigil honoring Xiaobo's legacy and to protest continued human rights abuses in China. (Photo: AP)

Beijing: A newspaper published by China's ruling Communist Party is dismissing late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo as a political pawn of the West whose legacy will fade.

The rare mention of Liu in Chinese-language media comes as international tributes flow in for the political prisoner. He died Thursday of liver cancer.

The Global Times said in Friday's editorial that Liu lived a "tragic life" because he sought to confront Chinese mainstream society with outside support.

Liu, a prolific essayist and literary critic, was serving an 11-year sentence for incitement to subversion. He was in prison when he was awarded the 2010 Nobel for advocating democratic reforms and human rights in China.

World leaders have praised Liu and called on China to release his widow, Liu Xia, from house arrest.
Hamburg: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday arrived in the German city Hamburg to attend the G20 Summit, after wrapping up his historic three-day visit to Israel. He will attend the summit hosted by Germany on July 7-8. The theme of the summit this year is 'Shaping an Inter-connected World'.

PM @narendramodi reaches Hamburg for the G20 Summit. Key multilateral and bilateral engagements will take place through the Summit. pic.twitter.com/2L5NYuV5lR  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 6, 2017

"PM @narendramodi reaches Hamburg for the G20 Summit. Key multilateral and bilateral engagements will take place through the summit," the Prime Minister's Office tweeted.

On the sidelines of the summit, Modi is to participate in a meeting of leaders of the BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - grouping on Friday. He is also set to hold bilateral meetings with some of the world leaders in the summit.

The G20, founded in 1999, comprises a mix of the world's largest and emerging economies, representing about two-thirds of the world's population, 85 per cent of global gross domestic product and over 75 per cent of global trade. The members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US, and the European Union.
Unfortunately, the US stand remains against the Paris pact but all other members have shown strong support on climate change, Merkel, the German Chancellor, said. (Photo: AP)

Hamburg: India on Saturday joined 18 other G20 members to strongly support the fight against global warming by terming the Paris climate deal as "irreversible", leaving the US, which walked out of the pact, isolated.

The two-day G20 Summit saw the Indian side making "significant contributions" on resolve to counter terrorism and boost global trade and investment.

The Summit, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with top world leaders including host Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump, was however came under the shadow of unprecedented violent protests in this German port city where thousands of anti-capitalism protesters clashed with police and turned this harbour town into a fortress.

Unfortunately, the US stand remains against the Paris pact but all other members have shown strong support on climate change, Merkel, the German Chancellor, said.

She said the communique clearly mentioned the US dissent and the position of all other members. "Obviously it could not be a fully common position," Merkel told reporters.

"All G20 members except the US agree that the Paris agreement is irreversible," she said.

Trump in June announced that the US will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, saying the deal agreed by more than 190 nations unfairly benefited countries like India and China.

Trump's decision had drawn sharp criticism from international leaders, business groups and green activists.

The objective of the Paris Agreement is to prevent an increase in global average temperature.

The Agreement was adopted on December 12, 2015, by 195 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, replacing its predecessor Kyoto Protocol.

It was finally ratified on November 4, 2016.

In the G20 communique, the leaders said they remained committed to fighting corruption, including through international cooperation and technical assistance.

They also resolved to advance effective implementation of international standards on beneficial ownership in domestic and cross border context.

The leaders also called for completion of the IMF quota reforms and a new quota formula by 2019.

They acknowledged that the malicious use of information and communications technologies can endanger financial stability.

The leaders said that digitalisation offered opportunity for creating new jobs but there was a need to impart necessary skills for the future of work.

They also called for the removal of market distorting subsidies and sought global cooperation to tackle excess capacity in industrial sectors.

The leaders recognised that legitimate trade defence instruments and will promote favourable environment for trade and investment.

They also committed to keep markets open and focus on reciprocity, non-discrimination, fight protectionism and unfair trade practices.

The grouping agreed to meet next in Argentina in 2018, followed by Japan in 2019 and in Saudi Arabia in 2020.
CLARKSON  When motorists drive over a sizable hill north of Highway 91 into Clarkson, a number of familiar Midwest sights greet them.

The community swimming pool tempts passersby looking to cool off in the summer heat. Townspeople make their way down sidewalks while going about their business. And friendly neighborhoods roll toward downtown to the town square.

That's where the Clarkson Historical Museum stands to remind Colfax County residents of their roots. The museum will celebrate its 50th anniversary in August.

Museum President Ruth Waters said most of the items displayed inside the 118-year-old building came from area residents' homes.

Every now and then someone will ask me if I can take one of their grandfathers shirts or a traditional Czech dress to put in the museum, Waters said. We try hard to make sure each clothing item has the original picture of the owner wearing it so that our visitors can see just what the article looked like in real time.

The building was built in 1899 by Czech immigrants Adolph and Josefa Bukacek and used as a furniture business and mortuary. Original features from the mortuary are still present today, such as an embalming sink and special ceiling fan to accommodate the practice.

In 1928, the Bukaceks sold the building to their daughter and son-in-law, Anna and Charles Novotny. By 1960, the furniture business was discontinued, the mortuary was sold and the building was repurposed as a museum.

The property was willed to a nonprofit organization seven years later. Since 1967, the Clarkson Historical Museum has thrived on monetary contributions, local volunteers and the community coming together to donate historical and cultural items for exhibits.

Waters said the museum's exhibits are visual, rather than requiring visitors to "read everything about anything." Each room is dedicated to a specific era or subject. One room solely showcases 1950s kitchens and appliances and cleaning tools used at that time.

In addition to a full room of wedding dresses dating back to 1872, the museum has a farm room to share with the public a 400-piece toy tractor display donated by the daughter of a local farmer who passed away.

When the building was still owned by the Bukaceks, four upstairs apartments were rented out to doctors, dentists and other individuals. The apartments were renovated to provide more exhibit space.

Museum Vice President Nancy Doernemann and Waters used the original freight elevator to move more artifacts upstairs.

When Charles Novotny first bought this building, he used it mainly for fixing musical instruments, Waters said. He had a knack for it. He also liked electronics and electrical works like light bulbs and really any kind of lighting fixtures.

The upstairs west wing is dedicated to music and technological advancements through the 50 years of the museums existence.

There are two notable Clarkson residents honored at the museum.

Frank J. Richtig was a blacksmith and cutler who made a name for himself by designing a special knife. Richtig experimented with aluminum alloys and eventually produced a knife that could cut through steel. He gave demonstrations when one of his knives was used to slice through a steel bar. A few of these steel bars are displayed in the museum.

Richtig gained so much attention for his knives that he was featured in "Ripleys Believe It or Not!" in 1936.

Another local resident featured in the museum is Frank Powolny, who was born in Austria and immigrated to Clarkson when he was 13 years old. He went on to become a Hollywood photographer and photographed Marilyn Monroe shortly before her death.

His most famous photograph, however, is displayed in the decorated military room of the museum. This picture is of Betty Grable wearing a bathing suit and glancing coyly over her shoulder toward the camera. The photograph became famous during World War II.

On select Sundays, the Clarkson Historical Museum holds open houses for the public. It is also open during Czech Days, when the museum gets its most visitors.

The museum will celebrate its 50th anniversary on Aug. 13 and Waters hopes to see a lot of guests that day.

We will be offering refreshments, tours and just time to sit and reminisce, she said.
Trump denies allegations of collusion, but the recent publication of his son's emails show Donald Jr did solicit dirt on Hillary Clinton from a Russian contact. (Photo: AP)

Paris: US President Donald Trump is willing to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House, but not yet, according to official remarks released on Thursday.

During a conversation aboard Air Force One flying into Paris, Trump said he was willing to engage the Russian leader despite controversy over the country's involvement in the 2016 US election.

Asked whether he would invite Putin, Trump said he would "at the right time. I don't think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would."

Trump argued that shunning Vladimir Putin would be the easy thing to do, but it would not be smart, according to the comments released by the White House.

Trump has been embroiled in a scandal over his campaign's ties with Russia -- which US intelligence agencies say tried to tip the 2016 US election in his favour.

Trump denies allegations of collusion, but the recent publication of his son's emails show Donald Jr did solicit dirt on Hillary Clinton from a Russian contact.

"Look, it's very easy for me to say absolutely, I won't. That's the easy thing for me to do, but that's the stupid thing to do," Trump said.

"Let's be the smart people not the stupid people. The easiest thing for me to tell you is that I would never invite him. We will never ever talk to Russia. That all of my friends in Congress will say, oh he's so wonderful, he's so wonderful.

"If you don't have dialogue, you have to be fools. Fools." During a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, Trump said that a ceasefire in Syria -- which he agreed with Putin last week -- was evidence that engagement works.

He added that a second ceasefire in another region of Syria was also under consideration.
Berit Reiss-Andersen wrote in an email that the Chinese government bore heavy responsibility for Xiaobo's death. (Photo: AP)

Oslo: The Chinese government bears a heavy responsibility for the death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, the leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prize, said on Thursday.

We find it deeply disturbing that Liu Xiaobo was not transferred to a facility where he could receive adequate medical treatment before he became terminally ill, said Berit Reiss-Andersen.

The Chinese Government bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death, she told Reuters in an emailed statement.
London: Five linked acid attacks in quick succession by men on mopeds in London left several people injured, British police said Friday the latest in a spate of such crimes that have alarmed residents and politicians.

The Metropolitan Police force said the 90-minute spree began late Thursday. Two men on a moped tossed a noxious substance into the face of a 32-year-old moped driver, then jumped on his vehicle and drove away.

The pattern was repeated across a swath of east London. At least one victim, a man in his 20s, was left with life-changing injuries, police said.

A 16-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of robbery and grievous bodily harm, and police appealed to the public for more information.

The assaults come after a spate of high-profile attacks, including one in which a man is accused of throwing acid at an aspiring model and her cousin as they sat in their car. A 25-year-old man has been charged in that case.

London police say the number of reported attacks with corrosive liquids rose from 261 in 2015 to 454 in 2016. Some appear related to gang activity or the theft of cars and motorbikes.

In April, acid was sprayed at a crowded east London club night, leaving two revelers partially blinded and others disfigured. A man has been charged and is awaiting trial.

The spike in attacks has prompted some lawmakers to call for restrictions on the sale and carrying of corrosive liquids such as sulfuric acid.

London police chief Cressida Dick said officers were concerned by the increase in the "completely barbaric" attacks.

"We will arrest people, we will enforce the law as we can, and we are working very closely with the (government) to try to see if there is any changes in the law required," she said.
President Macron said he respected Trump's decision but France remained committed to the Paris accord. (Photo: AP)

Paris: US President Donald Trump suggested Thursday he could change his position on the Paris climate accord, in remarks after talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

"Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord," he said at a joint news conference with Macron, six weeks after announcing that the United States would abandon the 2015 pact, adding: "We'll see what happens."

Macron said he "respected" Trump's decision but France remained committed to the Paris accord.

Earlier Thursday, the 39-year-old French leader said he had a "strong disagreement... about the climate" deal, with Trump, adding: "I hope in the end to be able to persuade him."

Trump, whose country is the world's second biggest producer of greenhouse gases after China, drew widespread criticism when he announced, on June 1, that he would quit the pact.
Narendra Modi addressed the Indian community at an event in Israel's Tel Aviv. (Photo: AFP)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a namesake in Israel -- a young town that seeks to emerge as the "City of the Future".

Modi'in Maccabim Re'ut is a modern city, located in central Israel, about 35 km south-east of the capital, Tel Aviv.

"It is a young city which is growing very fast with a youthful population," says Rabbi Akiva, who has been living in India for six years now.

He said he had visited Modi'in a few years before he moved to India.

"Though the city's nomenclature has no connection with Modi, the coincidence is amusing," he said.

In a lighter vein, Rabbi Akiva said the "in" in the name of the town could stand for India.

The rabbi also said Israelis were "happy" about PM Modi's visit to their country, the first by an Indian Prime Minister.

PM Modi wrapped up his three-day visit to Israel ob Thursday. Modi'in was not on his itinerary, with the prime minister visiting Tel Aviv and Haifa.

According to the official website of Modi'in, the cornerstone of which was laid in 1993, it is the "City of the Future".

"The city was named after the ancient city of Modi'in, the home of the Hashmonaim, the dynasty that personified the glorious heritage and heroism of Israel," it says.
In Pakistan and neighboring India, deadly floods occur regularly during the monsoon season. (Photo: Representational/ File)

Islamabad: Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority says at least 70 people have been killed in rain-related incidents in various parts of Pakistan in the past three weeks.

It a statement, the agency said Friday that 90 people were also injured since June 26 when rains started lashing the country.

In Pakistan and neighboring India, deadly floods occur regularly during the monsoon season, which runs from June through September.

The disaster management authority said it has transported food, tents and other relief supplies to affected areas.

Flash flooding triggered by the rains damaged a bridge in the eastern Punjab province and landslides disrupted normal traffic in the north. This week's rains flooded some streets in an upscale area of Islamabad.

However, most rivers in Pakistan are still flowing at normal levels.
Shenyang: China lashed out Friday at international criticism after it denied Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo's dying wish to leave the country and faced pressure to set the democracy champion's widow free.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing lodged official protests with the United States, France, Germany and the United Nations human rights office over their "irresponsible remarks" regarding Liu Xiaobo, and he took aim at his Nobel status.

"Conferring the prize to such a person goes against the purposes of this award. It's a blasphemy of the peace prize," he told reporters.

The United States and the European Union paid tribute to Liu Xiaobo as it urged President Xi Jinping's government to let his widow, the poet Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since 2010, leave the country.

Germany voiced regret that Beijing ignored its offer to host Liu while French President Emmanuel Macron remembered him as a "freedom fighter". Britain hit out at China for preventing Liu from travelling overseas for treatment.

The UN human rights commissioner, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said Liu "was jailed for standing up for his beliefs".

While China lodged protests, some of the global reaction to his death was relatively muted, highlighting China's emergence as an economic and diplomatic superpower on the world stage.

US President Donald Trump and Macron offered praise for Xi at a joint press conference in Paris and only voiced sadness for Liu later in statements.

In a sign of China's growing confidence, the state-controlled Global Times newspaper said in an English-language editorial that "the West has bestowed upon Liu a halo, which will not linger".

- 'Grieve in peace' -

A day after Liu's death, attention turned to his widow's fate. Chinese doctors said she was by her husband's side when he lost his battle with liver cancer on Thursday at age 61, more than a month after he was transferred from prison to a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang.

Liu's main doctor said he was able to say goodbye to his 56-year-old wife and in his final moments told her to "live well".

But authorities have restricted her contact with the outside world and her whereabouts were unknown following the death of her husband, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests whose advocacy for democratic reform infuriated the government.

The foreign ministry spokesman said he would "not make prejudgements" about whether Liu Xia could go abroad and that China always handles the entry and departure of its citizens "in accordance with the law".

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson paid tribute to Liu Xiaobo and called on Beijing "to release Liu Xia from house arrest and allow her to depart China, according to her wishes".

The EU urged Beijing to let Liu Xia and her family bury the dead democracy campaigner "at a place and in a manner of their choosing, and to allow them to grieve in peace".

Jared Genser, a US lawyer who represented Liu, said all contact with Liu Xia had been cut off in the past 48 hours.

"I am deeply worried about what's happening with her right now," Genser told CNN, adding that it would be hard for the government to still justify holding her without charges.

"The world really needs to rally and mobilise to make sure she can go wherever she wants and that she can bury her husband wherever she wants," he said.

Liu Xia's parents both died over the last year, and the poet, who was never interested in politics, has suffered from depression, according to friends.

"After the death of Liu Xiaobo, our most important goal is to save Liu Xia from the bitter sea," Hu Jia, a Beijing-based activist, told AFP.

"We will also use public opinion and public opinion pressure to urge the Chinese Communist Party to open the cage door, so Liu Xia can get free" along with her brother, Hu said.

- Censoring emojis -

Liu was jailed in 2008 after co-writing a petition calling for democratic reforms. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "subversion" a year later.

He became the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in custody since German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky in 1938, who had been held by the Nazis.

The Chinese political prisoner was represented by an empty chair at his Nobel prize ceremony in Oslo in 2010.

The government strived over the years to erase any memory of Liu and a search for his death turned up nothing on Baidu, China's Google-like search engine.

China's censors raced to scrub social media networks of emojis of candles and "RIP" tributes following his death.
At his weekly press briefing here, Zakaria claimed that Indian forces have committed 542 ceasefire violations in 2017 so far resulting in the death of 18 people. (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: Pakistan on Thursday accused India of committing 542 ceasefire violations so far in 2017 resulting in the death of 18 people and said the "belligerent attitude" of its neighbour is a threat to regional peace and security.

Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria also said that Pakistan shares international community's "growing concern over the deteriorating situation along the Line of Control (LoC)."

At his weekly press briefing here, he claimed that Indian forces have committed 542 ceasefire violations in 2017 so far resulting in the death of 18 people.

"The Indian belligerent attitude is a threat to regional peace and security, and international community including the UNSG has expressed concern," he said.

"Pakistan has consistently maintained that the Jammu & Kashmir dispute can be resolved only through realisation of the right of self-determination through a fair, free and transparent plebiscite under the auspices of the UN in accordance with the UNSC resolutions," he added.

Pakistan believes in resolving all issues through dialogue, he said, pointing out that the UN chief, the US President, the Chinese leadership and others have offered to play a role in resolving the Kashmir issue.

Responding to a question, he said it was reprehensible that there has been no progress on the Samjhauta Express terrorist attack case in which 42 Pakistanis lost their lives despite the passage of 10 years and repeated requests from Pakistan.


State Human Rights Commission had given a notice to Anandpal Singh's family and the government to cremate the body within 24 hours. Earlier One person was killed and 30 people, including more than 20 policemen, were injured in Nagaur district of Rajasthan at the condolence meeting for slain gangster Anandpal Singh. The rally organised by Rajput community turned violent on Wednesday evening and pelted stones at a police team.





Obeying the State Human Right's Commission's notice, slain gangster Anandpal Singh's body was cremated in his native village Sanvrad, three weeks after he was gunned down in an encounter last month. Cremation took place under heavy police cover.

Swati Vashishtha Retweeted Swati VashishtState Human Rights Commission had given a notice to Anandpal Singh's family and the govt to cremate the body within 24 hrsdirections for cremation his body within 24 hours. Earlier One person was killed and 30 people, including more than 20 policemen, were injured in Nagaur district of Rajasthan at the condolence meeting for slain gangster Anandpal Singh. The rally organised by Rajput community turned violent on Wednesday evening and pelted stones at a police team.

According to the police sources around 30 people including 20 policemen have been injured after a mob attacked the police. They also set ablaze the vehicle in which Nagaur superintendent of police Paris Deshmukh was travelling. The rally was organised by various Rajput outfits to pay tribute to slain gangster Anandpal Singh and for demanding a CBI probe into his death.





As per police source's Lalchand Sharma a civilian and resident of Haryana died in the clashes. Also, Mahendra Singh, a resident of Jodhpur, who is critically injured has been admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital.





Additional director general of police (law and order) NRK Reddy confirmed, "Police had to resort to tear gas shells after the police vehicle was attacked by the mob. Superintendent Police Paras Deshmukh also got injured." A woman probationary IPS officer, Monika Sen, and the gunman of the SP went missing during the clashes but were found later. Around 50,000 protestors also snatched also snatched the arms from the policeman. "They snatched two weapons from the gunman of Nagaur SP. Three weapons are also missing including an AK 47 and two pistols", Reddy confirmed.





Nagaur has been tense since last month and internet services are also suspended. On Tuesday night also four Rajasthan Roadways buses were set on fire in Kuchaman city of Nagaur district.





Anandpal, a gangster was killed last month by the police in Malasar village in Churu. Since June 24, Nagaur district (his hometown) has been tense after gangster Anandpal Singh was killed in a police encounter. He was on the run since September 2015 after escaping from police custody.





The Rajput community is demanding a CBI inquiry into the encounter and permission for Anandpal Singh's brothers, who are in judicial custody, to attend the funeral. His body is yet to cremate the body and is kept in a deep freezer at his house where elaborate security arrangement was made.
Mayor Padmavathi has said that a decision would be taken on Monday to end the ongoing deadlock between the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and P D Sathischandra of Prakasam Trust over the lease and rentals of K H Kala Soudha, auditorium which has been shut for the past five months.



She said this during her visit to the auditorium on Thursday. The Mayor, after listening to the grievances of the artistes and the Trust, hinted at reducing the rentals of the 300-seater auditorium.



The auditorium has remained unused since February owing to a tiff between the Palike and the Trust, and the steep increase of rent.



We encourage the theatre activities. Not all theatre troupes can afford the rent of Rs 40,000. The hike may prove too much for the new troupes. The best way to deal with the issue is to bring down the rent to Rs 25,000 or so, a win-win situation for both theatre troupes and the auditorium, said the mayor.



The five-year lease, awarded to P D Sathishchandra, to maintain the auditorium terminated in 2014. Later, the Palike floated the tender for maintaining auditorium four times. Since there was no bidder, our request for extension was granted. The extension ended in February and we are barred from applying for the fresh tender, said Sathishchandra.



A group of artistes rushed to the auditorium after they learnt of Mayors visit. They apprised the Mayor of their inability to pay such huge rent as most of the time, the plays will either be for free or with a nominal ticket price, he said.



The artistes have started a social media campaign with #SaveKalaSoudha and have been receiving huge support from the fraternity. Talking about the campaign, Sathischandra said: We are ready to negotiate the rent with BBMP officials. But we will not stop our campaign until we receive justice. A final decision will be taken on Monday at a meeting to be chaired by the Mayor. Basavanagudi MLA Ravi Subramanya, senior artistes like T N Seetharam, Sihi Kahi Chandru and others are expected to attend the meeting.
COLUMBUS  It didn't take long for a 33-year-old Columbus man to reach a deal with the prosecution after passing fake cash at local businesses.

Dustin Geier pleaded no contest to two counts of attempted first-degree forgery Thursday in Platte County Court after reaching a quick negotiated plea with the county attorneys office. In exchange for his pleas, two other forgery charges were dismissed.

The prosecution contended Geier, who was arrested June 19, bought the phony cash from the online marketplace AlphaBay, which shipped the bogus $20 bills to him from Alexandria, Virginia.

Judge Frank Skorupa scheduled Geier for sentencing Aug. 9.

The charges are Class I misdemeanors, each carrying a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Geier was initially facing four first-degree forgery charges, with each Class III felony punishable by up to four years in prison, two years of post-release supervision and a $25,000 fine.

Geier was accused of using the fake money at A&W/Long John Silver's, Hy-Vee Gas and The UPS Store in Columbus in May and June.

The suspect was recorded leaving the Hy-Vee Gas parking lot in a maroon Ford Taurus and identified from the vehicles license plate registration information.

An employee at A&W/Long John Silver's identified Geier as the man who passed fake money there using a photograph developed from the incident at Hy-Vee Gas, according to court documents.

A $20 bill used at The UPS Store was also determined to be counterfeit.

The UPS Store employee who received the bill said it did not feel right when she took it from the suspect, Columbus Police Investigator Heath Haynes wrote in his probable cause arrest statement. The employee said she only received four $20 bills that day and was able to go back through her receipts and identify the defendant, the investigator wrote.

During an interview with Geier after his arrest, Haynes reported the defendant said he bought 10 counterfeit $20 bills for approximately $70 on AlphaBay.
A day after DIG Prisons (Administration) D Roopa submitted a report on corruption in the Bengaluru Central Prison at Parappana Agrahara, DGP (Prisons) H N Sathyanarayana Rao on Thursday termed her an amateur and unaware of prison rules.



The brewing discontent between the two came to the fore when Roopa, in a report, pointed at irregularities in the prison and rumours about exchange of Rs 2 crore with prison authorities to provide special services to AIADMK leader V K Sasikala, a convict in a disproportionate assets case.



It is a little over two weeks since she was posted to the department and she still has to learn and understand the prison manual and how the department functions, he said at a media conference on Thursday.



Suspecting a conspiracy against him, Rao assumed that the ugly spat with her could be because he sent two memos to her recently. The first memo advised her not to post photographs or videos shot inside the prison on social media networking sites and the second memo was for not attending the chief ministers review meeting held on Saturday (July 10).



Rao said Roopas report was sent to his office after office hours on Wednesday. He also told reporters that Roopa had leaked sensitive information to the media even before bringing it to the notice of her seniors.



Rao got his hands on the report only on Thursday morning and said she had written the report based on rumours and there are no new revelations by her in the report. We are contemplating taking legal action against the officer, Rao added, giving a point-by-point rebuttal to Roopas report.



Nothing new in report



The DIGs report had a mention of two separate incidents of assault on a doctor and a nurse at the jail hospital. Rao clarified that a doctor was assaulted by a prisoner on June 26 at the jail hospital over a trivial issue and the police are investigating the case. The case of a nurse being manhandled by a prisoner has not come to our knowledge and if it does, we will take action, Rao added.



Drug menace



Over allegations that 18 prisoners tested positive for drugs, Rao said a good number of undertrials who get admitted are drug addicts. Due to their addiction, there are constant attempts to smuggle drugs into the prison, which has been curbed to a large extent. Smugglers are caught and booked, he said.



No massages for Telgi



On allegations that fake stamp paper kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi having an undertrial attendant and getting massages from undertrial prisoners, Rao said that due to his ailments, the court allowed him to have an attender.



According to the prison manual, well behaved convicts can be used for such services. And on allegations that prisoners maintain medical records at the jail hospital, Rao said that according to the jail manual, convicts with a record of good conduct can be used for such services.



No special treatment



On allegations about special treatment for Sasikala and corruption charges against him, Rao said: Forget taking bribes, we dont allow visitations even if MPs, ministers or MLAs from Tamil Nadu use their influence and call us to facilitate visiting her. Allegations of bribes are based on a rumour in her report. Let her come up with evidence and I am ready for any probe, Rao said.



Allegations of Sasikala having a cook or aide and a kitchen in her cell are untrue, he said. She is lodged at the ordinary womans barrack on the first floor and she consumes jail food which is specially packed for her from the jail kitchen to prevent anyone attempting to poison it, Rao added.



DIG prisons stand



Meanwhile, Roopa said she did not want to discuss anything about the report as it would violate the Official Secrets Act. I have written my findings to the DG himself and DG-IGP with a copy to the Home Secretary and ACB. Let the government look into my report and hold an enquiry to find out who is right and who is wrong, Roopa said.




China is fast catching up as a global economic power, while the public perception around the world is that the US still remains at the top, according to a new survey in 38 countries.



A median of 42 per centsay the US is the world's leading economy, while 32 per cent name China, Pew Research Center said in its latest survey results released yesterday.



Across all of the countries surveyed in Latin America, as well as most in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, people tend to believe that the US is the top economy.



"And by a 51 per cent-35 per cent margin, Americans name their own country rather than China," it said.

But in seven of the 10 European Union nations in the study, China is considered the leading economic power.



It is tied with the US for the top spot in Italy.



A plurality in Russia also holds this view, Pew said.



Notably, China leads the US by a two-to-one margin in Australia  a longtime US ally, but also a country whose top trading partner, by far, is China, Pew said.



Releasing results of the survey, Pew said over the past year, perceptions of relative US economic power have declined in many of America's key trading partners and allies.



The trend can be seen in several European countries, where views about the economic balance of power have fluctuated in recent years, it said.



Pew said following the onset of the financial crisis nearly a decade ago, Europeans increasingly named China, rather than the US, as the world's leading economic power.



"But in recent years, as the American economy slowly recovered, the pendulum began to swing back in the direction of the US," it said.



This year, however, the pattern has reversed itself again, and in countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain, China is once more seen as occupying the top spot.



"But these shifts are not limited to Europe; perceptions have also changed significantly in countries such as Canada, Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines," Pew concluded.



However, both the leaders of China and the United States are perceived negatively globally, Pew said.

While Xi is less known globally than Trump, Pew said a median of 53 per cent say they do not have confidence in Chinese President to do the right thing in world affairs.



Still, a much greater share (74 per cent) express little or no confidence in Trump.



The Russian President Vladimir Putin also receives slightly more negative assessments than Xi (59 per cent have no confidence).



German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the only world leader included on the survey who receives positive marks on balance  42 per cent have confidence in the long-serving leader, and just 31 per cent say they do not.



In India along with Indonesia, and Vietnam there is a significant drop in public perception of China, Pew said.



In South Korea, China's favourably has fallen 27 points since spring 2015 and now hovers near historic lows, Pew said.



According to Pew, in only five countries do more than half express confidence in Xi.



Three  Tanzania, Nigeria and Senegal  are in sub- Saharan Africa.



The Chinese president also gets high ratings in Russia and the Philippines, it said.
Andhra Pradesh government plans to decommissioned aircraft carrier Viraat into a dedicated tourist attraction.



This became evident when the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority (APTA) published a tender notification in a newspaper inviting bids to appoint consultants for preparation of a techno economic feasibility report and detailed cost estimates for refurbishment and conversion of Viraat into a dedicated tourist attraction.



According to the announcement, the last date of submission of bid is 26 July, 2017. Viraat is currently docked in the Mumbai harbour after her retirement for service of the Indian Navy. INS Viraat was decommissioned on 6 March, 2017 after nearly four decades of service.



INS Viraat was the centerpiece of Indian Navys Carrier Battle Group, which is a mutually-supportive and well balanced offensive array of maritime combatants, capable of multiple and varied missions spanning the entire spectrum of conflict from stable peace to all-out war.



Her keel was laid in 1944 and she was launched on February 16, 1953. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy on November 18, 1959 as HMS Hermes. On May 12, 1987, she was commissioned under the White Ensign of the Indian Navy  and since then she had been serving the Indian interests. As HMS Hermes, she was the flagship of the South Atlantic Task Force during the beginning of Falklands War in 1982  and during the conflict, her aircraft operated round the clocks and units from the ship destroyed a large number of enemy aircraft in the air and on the ground. By the time she returned home, she had completed 108 days of unbroken sea service and traveled more than 35,000 miles  a sort of record by itself. As a matter of fact, Prince Charles, the heir to British throne, also served on board Hermes. After the Falklands War, the ship was placed as a reserve and it was in April 1986 that India, in the quest of second aircraft carrier , signed an agreement with United Kingdom to acquire it. The ship underwent a year-long dry docking for essential repairs and modifications like the 12-degree launching ramp, popularly called, ski-jump. She underwent several refits in India and a mid-life upgrade.



Viraat displaced nearly 28,500 tonnes and is capable of operating Sea Harrier jump jets, a Short Take off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) fighter aircraftn and virtually all types of naval helicopters. The 12- degree ramp on the bows is the most striking visual feature of the ship and it helps to improve the safety factor as well as the radius of operation/payload carrying capacity of Sea Harrier. The ship is equipped with Close in Weapon System for self defence. The Computer Aided Action Information System (CAAIS) gives the command a complete picture of the tactical scenario based on information fed to the computer from all onboard sensors. This enables rapid decision making as reaction times, at sea, are minimal and makes possible the destruction of hostile platforms before they can threaten her.




The Supreme Court today directed a probe by the CBI into the alleged extra-judicial killings by the Army, the Assam Rifles and the Manipur Police in the insurgency-hit state.



A bench of Justices M B Lokur and U U Lalit asked the CBI director to appoint a team of officers to conduct the probe into the alleged killings.



The court was hearing a PIL seeking probe and compensation in the alleged 1,528 extra-judicial killings in Manipur from 2000 to 2012 by security forces and police.



On April 20, the Army had told the apex court that it cannot be subjected to FIRs for carrying out anti-militancy operations in insurgency-prone areas like Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur, while alleging local bias in judicial inquiries conducted against it in these regions, which have tarnished its image.



"In every military operation, the Army cannot be disbelieved. Every judicial inquiry cannot be against the Army. The alleged extra-judicial killing cases in Manipur are not cases of massacre, rather these are cases of military operations," the Centre had told the court.



The bench had also pulled up the Manipur government for not taking action on such alleged fake encounters by armed forces and asked was it "not supposed to do anything".



The Army had told the court that the judicial probes conducted into alleged extra-judicial killing charges were "biased" and slanted against them due to local factors.



It had alleged that the district judges, who were locals, had conducted the judicial inquiries into the alleged killings and local factors came in the way of the probe reports which went against the armed forces.



The court was earlier told that there were 265 cases of deaths which have to be examined and there were various reports of the commission of inquiry in which serious allegations have been levelled against armed forces personnel.



The apex court had earlier asked the Centre to segregate the cases related to the armed forces from the list of 265 incidents of extra-judicial killings in Manipur.



The Centre had said that out of the 282 cases, which were referred to it for verification, 70 matters were found to be related to the Army and Assam Rifles, while the rest concerned the state police.



In July last year, the apex court had directed a thorough probe into the alleged fake encounter killings in Manipur saying the use of "excessive or retaliatory force" by the armed forces or police was not permissible in 'disturbed areas' under the controversial Armed Force Special Powers Act.
A stroll along a canal turned into tragedy for two teenage girls as they were swept away in the water while trying to retrieve a phone they were clicking selfies with.



"The girl, whose mobile phone fell, entered the Sathiali canal at Kahnuwan in Gurdaspur district to retrieve it, but got carried away due to the swift current. The other one jumped to save her, but she too got swept away," Guraspur SSP, Bhupinderjit Singh Virk said over the phone.



Kahnuwan SHO Harjit Singh said the two have been identified as Nisha (18) and Lovepreet (17).



"Both hailed from Sathiali village and are students. Divers have been pressed into service to trace the girls. We have also sought help from Army divers. The incident occurred at about 7 am today, but so far the two have not been traced," the SHO said.



He said a 14-year-old girl who was accompanying them informed the family members of the other two about the incident after which police was informed.
The Supreme Court on Friday refrained from passing sentence against industrialist Vijay Mallya in the contempt case as the Union government could not produce him, citing extradition proceedings in the United Kingdom.



A bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and U U Lalit said, as and when he is produced, we would sentence him. The court noted that Mallya had failed to turn up before it.

Attorney General K K Venugopal submitted that the Union government has taken steps to ensure his presence. Extradition proceedings are on in London and are likely to be over by December, he said.

The court deferred the matter indefinitely saying, the matter to be put up as and when contemnor (Mallya) is produced.

The court had earlier fixed Friday as the date for pronouncement of quantum of sentence against Mallya. On July 10, the last of hearing, the Union government had avoided the hearing as no counsel was present.

On May 9, the bench had held Mallya guilty of contempt of court. It had directed personal appearance of Mallya, who has been hiding in the United Kingdom. Mallya is accused by the banks of defaulting on repayment of Rs 9400 crore loan to Kingfisher Airlines.

The court found him guilty for not fully disclosing assets as per direction of April 26, last. The banks claimed he transferred 40 million USD to his children's accounts and violated the injunction issued by the Karnataka HC's order of November 13, 2013 against transferring his properties and money.
Samajwadi Party (SP) members today expressed shock over the recovery of an explosive material from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.



"It is astonishing. How is it possible? Explosives reaching inside the House is a serious matter," said SP legislator Shailendra Yadav.



Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chowhdury (SP) said the matter was serious and the security of the House should be taken care of.



"All of us are with the government in this matter. Those behind this incident should be exposed," he added.



While some members like Nitin Agarwal (SP) got to know about the development through media reports, others were seen updating their fellow legislators about it.



The House was later updated about the recovery of the explosive by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and a probe into the incident by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was recommended unanimously.



A packet containing about 150 gms of a white powder was found by the cleaning staff in the Assembly on July 12. The packet was found lying close to the chair of the Leader of Opposition.



The chief minister today told the House that forensic tests confirmed that the white powder was PETN (Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate), a dangerous plastic explosive preferred by militants as the colourless crystals easily surpass security checks.
Fast food major McDonald's today said it is exploring legal options after the NCLT restored its estranged partner Vikram Bakshi as the Managing Director of Connaught Plaza Restaurants Ltd (CPRL).



Besides, restoring Bakshi as the MD of CRPL, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has also restrained the Illinois- headquartered McDonald's Corporation, the parent company of McDonald's India Pvt Ltd (MIPL), from interfering in the functioning of the joint venture.



"We respect the decision of the NCLT. We are examining the judgement and exploring our legal options in the matter," said MIPL in an official statement.



Any order of NCLT could be challenged before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) within 45 days of the order.



CPRL, a 50:50 joint venture between McDonald's India Pvt Ltd (MIPL) and Bakshi, is the licensee for north and east India regions for the fast food chain.



Commenting on the development, Vikarm Bakshi told PTI: "Our stand has been vindicated and we have got justice after fighting for the right cause. I admire the Indian judiciary which has gone in every account and delivered a judgement on Indian entrepreneurship."



He further added that CRPL would now come back to its growth and operational journey the way it was prior to 2013 and continue to progress.



Bakshi was not re-elected as the MD of CRPL following the objections of MIPL and its parent company. McDonald's had on August 30, 2013 announced that Bakshi's term as MD of CPRL had ended on July 17 following which Bakshi challenged the decision before CLB (the previous body having jurisdiction over company matters).



Consenting to his submissions that McDonald's wanted to oust him after the venture was established in India, the NCLT said: "It is with a view to grab hard labour of Mr Bakshi which has been invested in CPRL that had triggered the non- voting in his favour on the meeting dated August 6, 2013."



"It is also an act against the interests of CRPL and detriment to public interest," it added.

The tribunal also rejected McDonald's submission that as per the clauses of the agreement between them, MIPL may exercise call option, virtually ousting Bakshi from CRPL.



"The position of Managing Director is linked with Mr Bakshi in such a manner that if he loses his status as MD, he may also lose his shareholding by virtue of provision of clauses 26 and 32 of JV agreement," said NCLT.

It further said the argument is "absurd and we reject the same."



In its 134 page order, the company law tribunal has also appointed former Supreme Court judge Justice G S Singhvi to act as administrator in the company with power to vote in the meeting of the board and restrained McDonald's Corporation from interfering into the company's affairs.



"Respondent No 5 (McDonald's Corp) is restrained from interfering with the smooth functioning of CPRL and all its 154 restaurants open in the assigned territory of North/East India," NCLT said.
A top police officer, who came out with a controversial report on alleged special treatment in jail to AIADMK (Amma) leader V K Sasikala, has been served a notice by the state government asking her to explain why she reported the issue to the media.



"It is absolutely against the rulebook," Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, expressing open displeasure over public comments by Deputy Inspector of General (Prisons) D Roopa on her report, which has also brought her superior and other prison officials under a cloud of bribery allegations.



Siddaramaiah said she could have approached any of her superiors about her charges against senior officials.

"It is inappropriate on her part to share details with media," Siddaramaiah told reporters in Mysuru.



He said the allegations before the mainstream and social media has brought embarrassment to the police department.

Roopa has been asked to give a reply to the notice served on her, the chief minister said.



He also said a probe has been ordered into the charges levelled by Roopa against DGP (Prisons) Sathyanarayana Rao.

A retired officer has been appointed to look into bribery allegations, he said.



In her report submitted to her superior Rao, Roopa had alleged that there was "talk" that a sum of Rs 2 crore had exchanged hands to provide preferential treatment to Sasikala and even said there were allegations against him as well.



Rao, however, has rubbished Roopa's charge against him, terming it "absolutely false, baseless and wild". He said he would take legal recourse against his junior.



He has said no special treatment was being given to Sasikala. In her four-page report after visiting the central prison on July 10, Roopa had said a special kitchen was functioning in the jail here for Sasikala, a convict in a corruption case, in violation of the rules.



Sasikala has been lodged at the Parappana Agrahara central jail here since her conviction in February in a disproportionate assets case along with her two relatives, V N Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, all serving a four-year jail term.



Taking "serious cognisance" of the allegations of irregularities in the central prison, Siddaramaiah yesterday ordered the probe and warned of "strict action" based on the inquiry report, if anyone was found involved in wrong-doing.


Its not a major issue as is being made out. All you have to do is to explain your source of income and say how you amassed such large amounts of property. If you (Tejashwi) have done no wrong, then give a befitting reply to your opponents through a point-by-point rebuttal. The matter will end there, said JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar here on Friday.



Amid speculation that Nitish Kumar was not ready to budge from his stand that a person charged with corruption cannot continue in his Cabinet, a section of the media claimed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi reportedly played peacemaker and talked to the Bihar chief minister as well as Lalu.



But a top AICC functionary told DH that Sonia had called up Nitish two days ago to thank him for extending support to the Opposition vice-presidential candidate, Gopalkrishna Gandhi.



Besides, she urged Nitish to remain united with the Opposition during the ensuing monsoon session of Parliament so that the Narendra Modi government can be cornered on several sensitive issues. There was not much deliberation about the Bihar imbroglio, the senior Congress leader said.



The leader, however, added that since Sonia wants the grand alliance to remain intact in the state, Bihar Congress president Ashok Choudhary met Nitish here on Friday and discussed how to overcome the deadlock with the RJD.



Meanwhile, Lalu, who appeared in a fodder scam case earlier in the day in Ranchi, returned to Patna in the evening. He held a meeting with party leaders and later told mediapersons that Sonia had not spoken to him on Friday.



He also said Tejashwi would not quit just because an FIR was filed against him. Choudhary, who met Lalu on his return from Ranchi, said we will resolve the issue.



The JD(U) on Friday asked RJD chief Lalu Prasad to explain the source of income of his son and Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, and how he has been charged with amassing huge wealth.This is seen as an indication that the strained relations between the two alliance partners in Bihar  RJD and JD(U)  hangs by a thread.
FULLERTON  Former Nance County Economic Development Director Mary Baldridge said theres a lot of turnover in her profession, but she views that as a good thing.

I think its because its important for fresh ideas to be infused in these organizations, she said. You need someone who can think outside the box. You need someone who is a go-getter. You need someone who is energized and creative.

That's why shes happy to pass the baton to Allen Chlopek, a Fullerton High School alumnus who graduated in May with a degree in geography from the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

I think I did what I signed up to do and now its time for someone younger, someone with new ideas, Baldridge said. Someone whos ready to dive in and see what he or she can do."

Baldridge was working in the county courthouse, part time as a zoning administrator and part time in the county attorneys office, when the board of supervisors formed the Nance County Development Agency at the end of 2010.

She previously worked in California as an editor and event planner for a tech publishing company. Baldridge applied for the Nance County economic development director position thinking her skill sets could help establish the agency.

Although I didnt have direct exposure in economic development, I felt I had the tools to help the county launch a program, she said. Just coming at it from a solid organizational point of view and being able to rally people together toward a common cause.

Like many rural areas, Nance County faces an aging population, scarcity in health care and shortage of affordable housing.

In the early stages of the organizations development, planning sessions revealed Nance County is mainly a "bedroom community" for people who commute to jobs mainly in Columbus, Albion, Central City and Grand Island.

So for us to expend resources trying to draw large corporate investments to our community is a waste of time, Baldridge said.

Instead, the organization focused on developing housing and improving quality of life to attract people who enjoy small-town life.

During her tenure, Baldridge developed relationships with economic development organizations in the communities of Fullerton and Genoa, as well as Loup and Nebraska public power districts.

Nance County also worked with the Nebraska Office of Rural Healths matching grant program to bring young health care professionals to the area. That's how Fullerton was able to retain its local pharmacy, Reiner Pharmacy, when the previous pharmacist decided to retire.

Business transition planning is a big deal in small communities, Baldridge said. With an aging population, were worried that as existing business owners age out its challenging to find someone willing and able to do that job.

Working with Fullerton and Genoa, a program was initiated allowing the economic development agency to buy dilapidated properties, demolish them and give the lots away to people who agree to build new homes that fit certain specifications.

One of the biggest challenges with workforce housing is finding the funding and developers who are willing to take on rural projects.

Investors are looking to get the biggest bang for their buck. Theyre looking for programs that are going to create lots of jobs and help hundreds of people, said Baldridge. In rural America we need programs that help dozens of people. The return on investment just isnt that significant.

This years Legislature approved a Workforce Housing Fund that Baldridge called a big win for rural communities, but she regretted that LB496, which would have expanded tax-increment financing to workforce housing projects in rural communities, did not pass.

Chlopek, who started his new position Monday, said hes definitely focused on the housing shortage. In addition to workforce housing, he'd like to see more apartments or duplexes developed to attract younger people.

When youre starting out graduated from college, youre not considering buying a house from the get-go, he said.

With more affordable housing and a younger population, there would be more small business opportunities and the chance of turning the tide against a shrinking population.

I think we just have to show the quality of life for the cost here, Chlopek said. Especially where some of those manufacturing jobs are not the highest-paying jobs, but theyre good jobs. You could afford a bigger house with a nicer yard.

Chlopek knows he has plenty of work ahead of him.

Housing, population and attracting businesses; I think that Ill be working on that for the next 10, 20 years, he said.
Police arrested a youth, who had threatened to blow up the state assembly, from Uttar Pradesh's Deoria district, about 325 kilometres from here. Police sources said that the youth, identified as Farhan, was arrested from Rampur Karkhana area in the district on Thursday. Farhan had called the cops and threatened that he would blow up the state assembly on August 15. Sources said that the anti-terrorist squad sleuths had reached Deoria to question Farhan. Police officials said that it was not clear if the threat had any connection with discovery of plastic explosive in the assembly.
Security forces and Jammu and Kashmir Police have killed 102 terrorists till now this year, making it the highest number of killings in the January-July period in seven years, a police official said today.



The security forces also have prepared a hit-list of several other terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen.



The slain terrorists included Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Bashir Lashkari who was involved in the killing of six policemen in south Kashmir and top Hizbul Mujahideen militant Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, he noted.



The security forces and police are going after terrorists as part of the operation "hunt down" and on the basis of a "hit-list" of terrorists, said the official who refused to be identified.



The killing of 102 terrorists till July 12 makes it the highest number in the past seven years, the official said.



Earlier in 2010, the highest number of 156 militants were killed between January and July that year. Last year, 77 terrorists were killed during this period, 51 each were killed in 2015 and 2014, respectively, 43 in 2013, 37 in 2012 and 61 in 2011, according to the police data.



The hunt for terrorists of various outfits has been intensified under an operational strategy, the official said.



The counter-terrorist grid continues to maintain dominance and deny any space to terrorists, the official said, adding synergised hard intelligence-based joint operations involving the J&K police and central paramilitary forces have been the hallmark of these operations.



While the forces have already eliminated those involved the killing of seven cops and lynching of Dy SP, a massive hunt is underway for LeT commander Abu Ismail who has emerged as the mastermind of the deadly attack on Amarnath pilgrims.



Sabzar Bhat, who was a close associate of the slain poster boy Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, was killed along with an associate in an encounter in Tral in South Kashmir on May 28.



On July one this year, Lashkari and another LeT militant Azad Malik were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Anantnag's Brenti village in South Kashmir.



Bashir Lashkari was involved in the killing of six policemen in the districts Acchabal area on June 16, according to the police.



On July 12, top Hizb terrorist Sajad Gilkar was among three militants killed by security forces in Budgam district of central Kashmir.



According to the police, Gilkar had played a key role in the lynching of DySP Mohammad Ayub Pandith near Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area of Srinagar on June 22.



Most of the encounters have taken place in south Kashmir's Pulwama, Shopian and Anantnag districts while others have taken place in Bandipora and Kupwara in north Kashmir and Budgam in central Kashmir, the official pointed out.



In June, the Army had released a "hit-list" of 12 top militants in Jammu and Kashmir who it aims to "go after".



The hit-list carries the names and pictures of the militants along with the areas they are active in and the strikes carried out by them.



The hit-list includes LeT's so-called 'divisional commander' Abu Dujana alias Hafiz, its Kulgam 'district commander' Junaid Ahmad Matoo alias Kandroo, Anantnag 'district commander' Bashir Wani alias Lashkar, Pulwama 'district commander' Showkat Tak alias Huzaifa, Shopian 'commander' Wasim Ahmed alias Osama and Zeenat-ul-Islam alias Alkama (LET), according to the police.



Abu Hamas, Jaish-e-Mohammad's so-called 'divisional commander and a Pakistani national, is also in the hit-list.



From the Hizbul Mujahideen, the list includes its 'divisional commander' Zakir Rashid Bhatt alias Musa, Shopian 'district commander' Saddam Paddar alias Zaid, Pulwama 'district commander' Reyaz Ahmed Naikoo alias Zubair, Badgam 'district commander' Mohd Yasin Ittoo alias Mansoon and Kulgam 'district commander' Altaf Ahmed Dar alias Kachroo.
The Centre today told the Supreme Court that it has blocked 3,522 websites carrying child pornographic content last month and asked the CBSE to consider installation of jammers in schools to block access to such sites.



The government told a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra that installation of jammers in school buses was "not possible" and they were coming out with steps to deal with the menace of child pornography in its entirety.



"We are coming out with steps which will deal with the situation in its entirety," Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand told the bench that also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar.



"Jammers in school buses are not possible. Security issue cannot be overriden" raised by the petitioners, Anand said, adding the "government has asked the CBSE to consider whether jammers can be installed in schools to curb access to such websites."



The government said that in June, 3,522 websites hosting child pornographic contents have been blocked.



Anand told the apex court that the government would file a status report on the steps taken by it to stop child pornography.



The counsel for the petitioners, who have sought a direction to the Centre to take appropriate steps to curb child pornography, told the apex court that besides installing jammers in schools, the government should also install such equipment in school buses.



The bench, however, told the petitioners that it would not pass any order in the matter today but first peruse the status report to be filed by the government.



It asked the Centre to file the status report in two days and granted liberty to the counsel for the petitioner to file their suggestions so that "there can be a complete mechanism" in this regard.



"You (petitioners) know that we cannot pass any order today. We will go through the status report first and then you can also give suggestions," the bench said.



Later, sources in the know said that through the status report, the Centre would inform the apex court that the Interpol's 'worst of list' on online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is being blocked regularly.



As per the procedure, "CBI as national nodal agency of Interpol, shares this list with government and the government orders the blocking of same through select internet service providers (ISPs)," they said.



They said an inter-ministerial committee, set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) for curbing online CSAM, has recommended that till such time a centralised mechanism is built in India to dynamically monitor websites/URLs containing online CSAM, the relevant ISPs should adopt and disable/remove the online CSAM dynamically.



Based on this, MeitY has order the ISPAI (Internet Service Providers Association of India) and DoT (Department of Telecommunication) to disable or remove access to child pornography sites by adopting IWF (internet watch foundation) list by July 31 to prevent the distribution and transmission of online CSAM in India.



The sources said that MeitY has communicated to the Home Ministry and Ministry of Women and Child Development and all states and union territories to ensure its compliance and recently, DoT has also issued letters to ISPs regarding this.



As per information received from US-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), they are trying to establish their secure link with the Indian law-enforcing agencies.



They also said that the government would apprise the court that the Home Ministry was establishing a Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCWPC) portal which is likely to be ready from October this year.



The MeitY has also requested Ministry of Women and Child Development to develop a mechanism for reporting online child abuse either on its own or in association with other stake holders, they said.



The Centre is also likely to refer to its earlier affidavit which had said there were a number of software tools that could be implemented at the user's end to block obscene and pornographic contents.



"In this regard, DoT has communicated to all ISPs requesting to make suitable arrangement to spread awareness among their subscribers about the use of parental control filters in the end users machines through messages of e-mail invoices, sms, websites etc," the sources said.



Regarding technological suggestions proposed by the petitioners to curb internet pornography, the DoT has constituted a committee to examine its technical feasibility.
The government has extended the deadline for listed PSUs to achieve the minimum 25% public shareholding norm by a year to August 2018, a finance ministry order said.



The deadline has been extended to avoid bunching of share sale offers from state-owned firms and the government gets to decide on the opportune time to divest stake in any PSU, including the blue chip ones.



A top official in the ministry said that the government is very clear that the stake sales should not happen at unfavourable prices and at a time when there is a possibility of rival public offers from PSUs crowding each other out.



The finance ministry, in a notification last week, has further amended the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules, 1957, to give to Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) four years from September 2014 to meet the minimum public float requirement. Market regulator Sebi had mandated a minimum 25% public float for all listed companies.



This was extended to state-owned firms who were initially given three years to meet the norm.



The three-year deadline as notified by the Ministry in September 2014, was due to end on August 21, 2017. There are six PSUs  Hudco, Coal India, Hindustan Copper, SJVNL, MMTC, Neyveli Lignite, which are yet to reach the minimum 25% public shareholding requirement stipulated by market regulator Sebi in mid 2014.
The Ministry of Powers new hydro power policy, aimed to boost the green energy generation as well as revive some of the stalled hydel power projects, is likely to come up for approval in the Union Cabinet this month.



The Ministry of Power had finalised the policy and sent to the Ministry of Finance for vetting before placing it for Cabinet approval, an official in the Ministry of Power told DH.



There are two main features in the new policy  first is granting renewable energy status to all hydro power projects regardless of size, and second is to provide Rs 16,709 crore support to revive stalled 40 hydel projects.



At present, small hydro projects of up to 25 MW capacities are considered as renewable energy and such projects are eligible for various incentives by the government in terms of taxation, duties and also cheaper credit. Projects beyond this capacity are not in this category and hence not entitled to the benefits.



The granting of renewable energy status to all hydro projects regardless of its size, would enable India to achieve clean power capacity of 225 GW by 2022, said the official.



If we give various benefits to developers of big hydro projects on the line of renewable energy like solar or wind energy, the hydel power tariff will also come down and it would become more competitive in the market on the line of wind energy or solar, said the official.



Currently, the hydro sector has around 42,000 MW installed capacity and there is a plan to add another 30,000 MW to 35,000 MW in the next 12 to 13 years. To expedite the capacity addition, the government may give some incentives to the developers, said the official, adding that the government is working on it.



The proposal also says that a Hydro Power Fund would be created under the Power Ministry for providing funds to the projects under the policy.



Besides, under Hydro Purchase Obligation (HPO) for hydro projects of over 25 MW capacity, the discoms would be mandated to buy a proportion of power from these plants.




IGP (Kashmir) Muneer Khan, while confirming Ahmads arrest, said the SIT is probing as who provided the militants logistic and local support. The policeman, a resident of Chakoura, Pulwama, found to have links with militants, is being questioned. He is cooperating with us and is spilling the beans, he told reporters.



MLA Mir confirmed that his driver has been arrested for investigation in a militancy related case. The six-member SIT is headed by DIG (South Kashmir) S P Pani and includes SSP (Anantnag) Altaf Khan, a

DSP-rank officer and some others.



Seven pilgrims were killed and 19 injured after their bus was attacked by militants on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway near Anantnag on Monday evening.



Following the attack, Muneer had said LeT militants, headed by Abu Ismail of Pakistan, had carried out the attack.



Reports also suggested that the attack was meant to avenge the killing of LeT district commander Bashir Lashkari who, according to the police, was responsible for an assault on a police party in Achabal area of Anantnag last month.





The Special Investigation Team, probing the recent terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims, has arrested a policeman for his suspected role in the incident. A ruling PDP legislator is also being questioned in connection with the case.Touseef Ahmad, from the security wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, who had been deputed as driver to Wachi MLA Aijaz Mir seven months ago, was picked up by the police on Thursday, sources told DH.Ahmad was arrested based on a phone intercept. The policeman had made a call to a militant handler and on the basis of that clue, he is being questioned by the SIT, a source said.According to sources, more than 20 people have been questioned so far in the case. Some of them were released after questioning, while a few others are still in police custody. The SIT is investigating as to who provided the lead to militants about the movement of the yatra bus that was attacked, the source said.
The Opposition parties on Friday had tough questions for the government on its handling of the China and Kashmir episodes, but said they did not get all the answers they wanted.



The parties from the Congress to the CPM to the Trinamool Congress sought to know why such incidents are witnessed now, while NDA ally, the Shiv Sena, questioned the Narendra Modi government for not being aggressing in dealing with China.



During the three-hour meeting attended by Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Home Secretary-designate Rajiv Gauba gave presentations on the China stand-off and Kashmir issues, respectively. AIADMK leader A Navaneethakrishnan said the foreign secretary admitted that China has encroached the Doklam territory of Bhutan.



However, a source said that former defence minister and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav cautioned the government on trusting China. Mulayam and Sharad Pawar, who was also a defence minister, will meet Jaitley soon to share their experiences.



Referring to China, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said national interest was paramount, but the government needs to engage China in negotiations.



The government, for its part, said they are for negotiations and using diplomatic channels to resolve the issue. However, Yechury suggested that New Delhi was irritating China through its recent moves to appease the US.



There were questions on the conversations between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, but a senior Opposition leader said there were no convincing answers. There were no answers, Yechury told DH after the meeting.



On the Amarnath attack, a source said Yechury asked why no action was taken despite intelligence inputs. He also said it was very unusual that nobody took responsibility for the attack as usually terrorists want to claim credit to further their plans. We are not satisfied with their explanations on Amarnath, TMC MP Derek OBrien said.


LINCOLN  Gov. Pete Ricketts on Thursday created a new international trade council to help drive development of trade opportunities for Nebraska in an expanding global market.

The council will "bring together business, agriculture and education groups to work together to expand overseas trade opportunities and develop new international partnerships," the governor's office said.

"We want to raise our profile and do better in international markets," Ricketts said in a morning news conference.

Ricketts unveiled the new undertaking in advance of his second annual Governor's Summit on Economic Development.

The council will help "coordinate and leverage all our resources" in driving expanded trade, he said.

Increased trade "fits the Grow Nebraska vision" that has been a driving theme of his governorship, Ricketts said.

A couple dozen members of the new council gathered with the governor to launch the new undertaking. The council will meet annually and "stay in touch" quarterly, Ricketts said.

The governor said he will continue to lead trade missions overseas, following in the footsteps of previous trips to Europe and Asia that have paid off in terms of foreign investment and expansion in the state.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Ronnie Green hailed creation of the trade council as "a great move forward" for Nebraska.

Education and research "help develop economic powerhouses for the state," Green added. "The key to the future is innovation."

Barry Kennedy, president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Nebraska exported $6 billion in manufacturing products last year.

Increased trade creates more jobs and spurs economic growth for the state, he said.

Ricketts pointed to the recent trade agreement that opened the Chinese market to U.S. beef. Nebraska was the first state to take advantage of that opportunity.

With a growing middle class in China, the governor said, $200 million in annual beef sales looms as a possibility.

"Trade is critical to the well-being of Nebraska agriculture and will continue to grow in its importance into the future," Nebraska Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson said.

"Today, Nebraska farm and ranch families rely on international trade for 30 percent of their overall income."
India will withdraw its soldiers from Doklam Plateau of Bhutan only if China does the same to restore status quo, the government told Opposition leaders here on Friday.



The government, however, said it would continue its diplomatic efforts to resolve the face-off with China. The Opposition parties conveyed strong support to the governments approach of dealing with the situation through diplomatic channels. They also underlined the need for national unity.



New Delhi conveyed to Beijing that Chinese Peoples Liberation Army must drop its plan to build a road in Doklam Plateau and withdraw its personnel from the area, sources quoted senior ministers who briefed the Opposition leaders.



Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh took the Opposition leaders into confidence on the current India-China military face-off in western Bhutan.

They also briefed the Opposition leaders about the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of the recent terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims.



The MPs attending the meeting condemned the attack. Sources quoted the ministers telling the Opposition leaders that senior diplomats of India and China were in regular contact and discussing ways to end the face-off. New Delhi has been insisting on restoration of the status quo that existed in India-China-Bhutan tri-junction boundary point before June 16, Jaitley, Singh and Swaraj conveyed to the Opposition leaders.



Importance of India and China remaining engaged through diplomacy was underlined. There was widespread appreciation of the Astana understanding between India and China that differences between them should not become disputes, Gopal Baglay, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said.



He was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Astana in early June.



National security has always been a priority for the Congress. We advised them (the government) to deal with the situation diplomatically. We are rising above politics in national interest, Anand Sharma of the Congress told mediapersons after the meeting.



We asked serious questions. Why was the government unprepared & if this was their failure? We didn't get answers we were looking for, Derek O'Brien of the Trinamool Congress said.



Apart from Sharma and O'Brien, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Sitaram Yechury (CPM), Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP), Tariq Anwar (Nationalist Congress Party), Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi (Janata Dal - United) were among the 19 parliamentarians who attended the meeting at the residence of the Home Minister.



The government invited the leaders of the Opposition parties and some allies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to the briefing ahead of Parliament's monsoon session commencing on Monday.



China's PLA soldiers and construction personnel came to Doklam Plateau along the disputed Sino-Bhutan boundary on June 16 and started building a motorable road, brushing aside protests by Royal Bhutanese Army personnel deployed in a nearby camp. Indian Army personnel from Doka La camp went to the spot on June 18 and stopped the PLA personnel from constructing the road.



Indian Army intervened as the road would have posed a serious security risk to Siliguri Corridor  the link between north-eastern states of India and the rest of the country.






Some Del Mar residents are calling for the city to reinstate Patrick Vergne, the citys popular chief lifeguard and director of community services, who was placed on paid administrative leave at the end of March amid a personnel investigation involving his department.

Residents have circulated a petition calling for Vergnes reinstatement, which had been signed by about 200 people as of Monday, July 10. About a dozen residents also spoke out in support of Vergne at Mondays City Council meeting. Vergne has worked for Del Mar for about 40 years, according to his attorney, Del Mar resident Dan Crabtree.

He is the perfect example of what a public servant should be, Vince Askey told the council.

Maggie McCracken, a physician, said she has known Vergne since both were on the cross-country team at Torrey Pines High School.

She said she has observed Del Mars chief lifeguard during several emergencies at the beach. Pat is amazingly calm and professional as well as kind. That quality is so important.

Del Mar resident Robin Crabtree reminded the council that citizens are at the top of the citys organizational chart.

We are screaming, we are saying enough is enough, she said. Get our head lifeguard back into that tower.

In a statement released Friday, July 7 by Mayor Terry Sinnott, the city said the investigation was prompted by two complaints to the citys Human Resources Department. Crabtree and City Manager Scott Huth said the complaints were made by employees of the Community Services Department.

City officials decided to hire an outside attorney, Debra Reilly of Encinitas, to investigate the complaints. Sinnotts statement said that more than 20 witnesses have been interviewed in the course of the investigation along with the review of hundreds of pages of data. A final report on the investigation is expected by the end of the month. Huth estimated the investigation will cost $20,000 to $30,000.

Sinnotts statement said city officials are not directly involved in the investigation, and that the city has avoided commenting publicly about the case to protect the confidentiality of all parties, including those who made the complaints, those who face allegations and witnesses.

The statement does not disclose the specifics of the allegations or the scope of the investigation.

Dan Crabtree said he has been frustrated by the citys unwillingness to tell him what wrongdoing, if any, Vergne is accused of committing, or even allow him to see the actual complaints. But he said he has sat through six hours of questioning of Vergne by the investigator, and that some of the questions were about financial transactions such as credit card purchases.

Crabtree said he and many other Del Mar residents believe Vergne should be immediately reinstated to his job, which includes oversight of city parking enforcement, park rangers and issuance of permits for use of city recreational facilities, such as the Powerhouse Community Center.

Im 100 percent convinced hes done absolutely nothing wrong. He has done nothing that I would consider to be wrong or questionable, Crabtree said.

Vergne began working for the city as a student lifeguard when he was a teenager, and has been chief lifeguard for about 17 years.

Hes probably the most loved person in all of Del Mar, Crabtree said, referring to the ranks of city employees. He doesnt just take this as a job. For Pat, its a passion. He loves the city and he loves his job.

He should be back on the job. Its ridiculous that hes not, Crabtree said.

Crabtree also said that he and other residents believe the actions against Vergne stem from a personal vendetta against the lifeguard chief by City Manager Scott Huth.

Huth refuted the allegation, noting that, as city manager, he has the authority to dismiss department heads such as Vergne because they are at-will employees.

I can unilaterally send them down the road. I havent done that. I dont have any personal bad blood with any of the employees involved with the circumstances we are looking at, Huth said.

Crabtree also took issue with the decision to hire an outside investigator, contending the investigation could have been handled in-house.

But Huth said due to the magnitude of the allegations in the complaints, it was felt an outside investigator would have both the expertise and impartiality to conduct the inquiry.

My responsibility to the community and the city is to make sure we investigate allegations that are brought forward and we do it in a responsible, thorough and legal manner, Huth said.

The attorney hired by the city can look at the allegations and evidence with independent eyes, Huth said. To me its a positive that we did it in that manner, he said.

As to the calls for Vergnes immediate reinstatement, Huth said, I understand people would like to see him back at work.

Huth said, however, that would be premature since the investigator hasnt finished her report on the inquiry.

We still want to have that investigation finished, then see the results of the investigation and be able to move forward. Im not speculating how thats going to come out. Im going to read the report and take it from there, Huth said.
Charles Koll and crew may be taking DIY too much to heart.

In the mad rush to get Viewpoint Brewing Company ready for its soft opening next week, Koll has been found welding the guardrails out front. Sister-in-law Meghan Koll has taken on the interior design. His father carved the beer taps. Mom pitched in with decorative flourishes. Executive chef Gunnar Planters dad helped do the doors.

Its been a two-year labor of love to reimagine the aging warehouse on San Dieguito Lagoon and reshape it into Del Mars first-ever brewery.

Everything you see here we did ourselves or we brought in friends, said head brewer Moe Katomski. Everything.

For nearly four decades, the warehouse in the non-descript industrial park at the intersection of Jimmy Durante Boulevard and San Dieguito Drive was home to the beloved pottery studio Eucalyptus Stoneware, run by John Laver, known worldwide for its iconic bread baskets. Laver begrudgingly shut down at the end of 2014, and within a matter of months, Koll and his father  who lives a few hundred yards away  snatched up the For Rent sign they saw one day as they drove by.

To be honest, he saw way more in it than I did at the time, Koll said.

Over two-plus years, Koll slogged through the City of Del Mars exacting review process and a procedural challenge from former mayor Al Corti, who lives a stones throw away. Koll brought in Planter to run the kitchen and Katowski to run the brewhouse and, with all hands in, they transformed the 4,500 square feet of industrial space into the San Diego regions first cuisine-forward brewery.

I was lucky because I grew up here and a lot of the neighbors know me and had my beers and have always supported me in this endeavor, Koll said. It kind of feels like I cheated a little bit because I had so much community support.

It may be their first time taking the helm, but to call them first-timers would be a disservice to their lengthy culinary pedigrees. The trio combined has decades of experience in the kitchens of some of the areas most venerated eateries  Mille Fleurs, The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, Prepkitchen and the University Club among them.

Now the trio find themselves cozied up to the south bank of the San Dieguito Lagoon and Wildlife Bird Reserve, where a stretch of the Coast-to-Crest trail winds up against the 2,000-square-foot patio filled with communal tables, fire-pit booths, custom swings and space to play bocce, cornhole and the like.

But the Viewpoint moniker is not about the panoramic vista that opens onto the lagoon once the retracting garage doors roll up.

The idea of Viewpoint is that its about perspective, were constantly playing with themes and design elements that make you look twice, Koll said. How you see things is always going to be different than the person next to you; the same is true for flavor and food and beer.

Standing in the dining room as they hustle through preparations for the horseracing season at the fairgrounds next door, what jumps out are the flourishes of thoughtful detail. The Viewpoint logo, when flipped upside-down, reads with squinted eyes as good beer. Custom-made planters hang from the high ceilings, made by Laver himself. Vintage Skee-ball machines were brought in from the East Coast. Tables were carved from local Torrey pine. A wall of lockers will house a Mug Club with custom-engraved name tags. A special spot on the menu has been set aside for their Buy a Bird a Beer campaign to benefit the San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy.

With collaboration the name of their game, ingredients in Planters culinary offerings will coincide with the beer flowing out of Katomskis 15-barrel brewhouse, set to include a Mandarina Pale Ale, a Red Rye IPA that won warm reception at last months Summer Solstice event, and a single-malt, single-hop French Saison.

Once Viewpoint settles in, the in-house collaboration will only deepen.

Were going to do some very cool stuff with the chefs in the back where theyre going to recommend the spices I brew with, Katomski said. Were talking not just about pairing the food but actually putting some of those ingredients into the beer.

Little surprise, then, that the DIY ethic has carried over into Planters kitchen. Hes dehydrating the limes and making the salt for the chicken dry rub. Ditto for their house-made hot wing sauce. Even the ketchup and mayonnaise will be made on site.

Its pub fare but its sophisticated, he said. It has some class to it.

But if theres one dish that encapsulates Viewpoint, its the bao bun pretzels, which are already catching buzz from San Diegos food and beer bloggers.

Is it the German classic that Planter learned from Chef Martin Woesle at Mille Fleurs? Or is it the Asian staple inspired by Casey Thompson  she of Top Chef fame  while he was at The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe?

Yes to both.

It really does personify what we are, Planter said.

Learn more at www.viewpointbrewing.com.
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The voice of a Derby-born actress is probably more familiar than her face but she is now better known in person to hundreds of people who gathered at Derby Arena to receive their degrees yesterday.

Among them was Patricia Greene who for 60 years has been the voice of Jill Archer in the long-running Radio 4 programme The Archers  and she holds the world record for playing the same character longest in a soap opera.

Ms Greene, known to her friends as Paddy, was born in Allenton in 1931, and spent much of her early life in Chester Green. She attended Parkfield Cedars School.

After working as a ward orderly at the Derbyshire Children's Hospital and in the sheet metal factory of Hawk Industries, she went to the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London in 1951.

(Image: Victoria Wilcox)

Ms Greene joined The Archers this week in 1957 as Jill Patterson. She has also appeared in Casualty and Doctors - both in 2000.

She was given her honorary degree by the University of Derby for her services to the arts over the years.

Ms Greene said: "I do feel quite overwhelmed. It is a great honour. I wasn't the brightest pupil in the world as I failed Latin twice.

"I am truly grateful and I shall remember this day until the end really.

"As regards people knowing my voice more than my face, I think that is such a comfort.You see, on the radio it doesn't matter what you wear, you don't have to have Botox, nothing matters it's just the voice."

Ms Green's award was one of five honorary degrees handed out over three days of ceremonies, which ended yesterday afternoon, during which almost 3,000 people graduated from the university in five ceremonies.

The university broke with its traditional January graduation ceremonies last year and moved them to July ensuring better weather and also that people would receive their awards much sooner after achieving them.

(Image: Victoria Wilcox)

The other honorary degree recipients were musician Geoff Wright, Bob Betts, managing director of Smith of Derby, Sue James, former chief executive of the NHS Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust and Paul Stein, who was instrumental in the formation of Derby's Institute for Innovation in Sustainable Engineering.

Professor Kathryn Mitchell, university vice-chancellor, said: "All of these notable figures have made an exceptional impact on their industry or city."

Present at the ceremonies, for some or all of them, was university chancellor the Duke of Devonshire, Derbyshire High Sheriff Annie Hall, Mayor of Derby councillor John Whitby and an array of specially-invited guests with connections to the university.
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Local leaders adopt three opinions on the energy package as the key tool to revamp growth and fight global warming

The members of the European Committee of the Regions have adopted a set of legislative and policy recommendations on the energy package, presented by the European Commission in November 2016. The Clean Energy for All Europeans package is the main instrument to move forward Europes sustainable energy transition. It covers energy efficiency, renewable energy, the design of the electricity market, security of electricity supply and governance rules for the Energy Union in addition to Ecodesign and a strategy for connected and automated mobility.

Local leaders have taken clear positions on four specific elements of the energy package: governance, energy efficiency, renewables and electricity markets.

Bruno Hranic (HR/EPP), Mayor of the Croatian city of Vidovec, is the rapporteur of the opinion on the Energy Union Governance and Clean Energy . Hranic said: The Energy Union needs a multi-level governance to be efficient. The concept of multi-level governance should be part of a separate chapter on the European Commission proposals to Member States. The Energy Union can only succeed if Member States formally consider in their planning and reporting the commitments, achievements and know-how of cities and regions. The European Commission should be required to include one of our members in the Energy Union Committee. Cities and regions support the establishment of a Multilevel Energy Dialogue Platform, a permanent cooperation structure between Member States and local and regional authorities and including businesses, investors and other relevant stakeholders. Local leaders want Members States to present short, medium and long-term energy and climate policy scenarios along with cost-benefit analysis.

Members adopted an opinion on energy efficiency and buildings by rapporteur Michiel Rijsberman (NL/ALDE), Member of Flevoland Province Council . Rijsberman declared: We support an energy efficiency target of 40% by 2030 because its good for the economy and because it will reduce Europes CO2 emissions by 40%. Energy efficiency can also contribute to creating three million extra jobs for Europeans. Cities and regions regret that energy audits of companies are not included in the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and propose to modify the EED demands for individual metering and billing for heating as these are not always cost efficient and technical feasible. The CoR considers access to funding crucial for the result of the energy package and calls on the European Commission to earmark structural funds resources after 2020 for clean energy for all Europeans.

Daiva Matoniene (LT/ECR) , Member of Siauliai City Council and former minister of environment of Lithuania is the rapporteur of the adopted opinion on  renewable energy and the internal energy market in electricity . Matoniene said: "We need to be ambitious when it comes to increasing our use of clean energy sources but we need to do so in a localist way, meaning by enabling regions and cities to adapt measures to their specificities and not putting them into a legislative straightjacket. We need to remember that Member States have different capacities when it comes to renewable energy and we need to be ambitious, but also realistic and cost-efficient. Overall we welcome the European Commissions "Clean Energy for All Europeans" package but as local and regional authorities we would like to see more to be done in terms of ensuring greater electricity market integration. I personally also believe that the Commission should pay more attention to the development of new environmentally-friendly and energy efficient technologies, in line with the technological neutrality principle.

Contact: David Crous | david.crous@cor.europa.eu | +32 (0) 470 881 037
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A man has been charged after a woman was allegedly injured at a Derby cemetery.

Officers from Derbyshire police want to hear from witnesses following the incident, which happened while the woman was visiting the Nottingham Road cemetery, in Chaddesden, on the morning of Friday, June 23.

In a statement, police said it was alleged a man grabbed the woman by the neck, who then sustained minor injuries.

Police said Jonathon Harlow, 43, of Bemrose Road, Allenton, has been charged with assault.

Witnesses or anyone with information should call DC Pete Matthewman on 101, quoting reference number 17000288633.

Alternatively, people can message him online by visiting the Contact Us section of Derbyshire Constabularys website. People with information can also call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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A man made his way up a stretch on the A38 on Thursday night - on his mobility scooter.

Derbyshire police told the Derby Telegraph they guided the driver off the carriageway on the major road after receiving "numerous calls" from members of the public.

He was spotted between the Little Eaton roundabout and the turn-off for Coxbench. The Derbyshire Roads Policing Unit later tweeted that the man had first driven a normal motor vehicle but had run out of fuel. He then travelled north on the A38 "to get some".

Maintenance worker Simon Macdonald, 49, of Horsley Woodhouse, was returning from work in Swadlincote when he passed the man on his mobility scooter traveling north on the A38 at Coxbench.

He said: I couldnt believe what I was seeing. There was a man wearing a woolly hat travelling incredibly slow in the left lane on one of those mobility scooters.

(Image: Google Maps)

"It a wonder someone didnt hit him as its a busy road. Hes lucky to be alive. I quickly used my hands-free and called the police. They said they already knew about it as there had been loads of calls and they were on their way.

Calls to police were received at around 8pm this evening. A Derbyshire police spokesman said: "We've received numerous calls about a gentleman driving north on the A38 on a mobility scooter. We got officers to him very quickly."

It is not the first time mobility scooter drivers have been seen on Derby's busiest roads in recent times.

In March, we reported how a motorist shared dash-cam footage of a man driving a scooter on the city's inner-ring road.

Another incident later in the month saw how a scooter driver was holding up traffic on Derby's inner road near Pentagon Island, which almost caused a major crash.
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Derby County defender Andre Wisdom will play "wherever" he is asked to by manager Gary Rowett.

Wisdom signed for the Rams from Liverpool , having spent last season on loan with Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg.

During that spell with Salzburg, Wisdom played as a centre-back, opposed to when he was on loan at Derby County in 2013-14 and he featured at right-back.

"Everybody who knows me knows if I get the opportunity to play, I will play wherever," Wisdom said.

But where would you like to see Wisdom play?

poll loading Where should Andre Wisdom start for Derby County? 0+ VOTES SO FAR Right-back Centre-back As part of a back three

Do you think his strengths would be best utilised at right-back, as in his previous stint in the East Midlands, or is he more centre-back material?

Alternatively, could you see him fitting into a back three  if Rowett opts for a 3-5-2 formation?
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Andre Wisdom offers Rams boss Gary Rowett defensive options.

It is likely that Wisdom will be used mainly as a right back but he can play at centre back, as he did during a loan spell with Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg last season.

The player, who signed for Derby County from Liverpool after a successful loan spell in 2013-14, does not have a preference.

"Everybody who knows me knows if I get the opportunity to play, I will play wherever," Wisdom said.

(Image: Andy Clarke)

"I played a lot at centre back in Austria and I played a few games at right back in the Europa League."

Wisdom, who said he was already feeling at home at Derby, added: "I don't mind what position I am asked to play."

Wisdom made 38 consecutive starts at right back during his loan spell at Derby.
By Malia Wollan

18 July 2017

(The New York Times)  It was a freakishly warm evening last October when a maintenance worker first discovered the water  torrents of it, rushing into the entrance tunnel of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a storage facility dug some 400 feet into the side of a mountain on a Norwegian island near the North Pole. A storm was dumping rain at a time of year when the temperature was usually well below freezing; because the water had short-circuited the electrical system, the electric pumps on site were useless. This subterranean safe house holds more than 5,000 species of essential food crops, including hundreds of thousands of varieties of wheat and rice. It was supposed to be an impenetrable, modern-day Noahs ark for plants, a life raft against climate change and catastrophe. Local firefighters helped pump out the tunnel until the temperature dropped and the water froze. Townspeople from the village at the mountains base then brought their own shovels and axes and broke apart the ice sheet by hand.

A few Norwegian radio stations and newspapers reported the incident at the time, but it received little international attention until May, when it was becoming clear that President Trump was likely to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement. Suddenly the tidings from Svalbard were everywhere, in multiple languages, with headlines like Worlds Doomsday Seed Vault Has Been Breached by Climate Change. It didnt matter that the flood happened seven months earlier, or that the seeds remained safe and dry. We had just lived through the third consecutive year of the highest global temperatures on record and the lowest levels of Arctic ice; vast swaths of permafrost were melting; scientists had recently announced that some 60 percent of primate species were threatened with extinction. All these facts felt like signposts to an increasingly hopeless future for the planet. And now, here was a mini-fable suggesting that our attempts to preserve even mere traces of the bounty around us might fall apart, too.

The seed vault is perhaps the best-known project in a growing global campaign to cache endangered phenomena for safekeeping. Fortunately  the leak snafu notwithstanding  scientists, governments and even private companies have become quite good over the last decade at these efforts to bank nature. The San Diego Zoos Frozen Zoo cryogenically preserves living cell cultures, sperm, eggs and embryos for some 1,000 species in liquid nitrogen. Inside the National Ice Core Laboratory, in Lakewood, Colo., a massive freezer contains roughly 62,000 feets worth of rods of ice from rapidly melting glaciers and ice sheets in Antarctica, Greenland and North America. The Smithsonians National Zoo in Washington maintains the worlds largest collection of frozen exotic-animal milk, from mammals large (orcas) and small (critically endangered fruit bats), in order to help researchers figure out how to nourish the most vulnerable members of any species: babies. An international project called Amphibian Ark engages in ex situ conservation by relocating amphibians, the most endangered class of animal, indoors for safekeeping and sperm collection.

It seems to be a human impulse to collect things just as theyre vanishing. During the Renaissance, wealthy merchants and aristocrats exhibited their personal compendiums of mastodon bones, fossils and all manner of dried, pickled and stuffed creatures in what were called cabinets of curiosity. Some anthropologists believe their discipline emerged when Europeans began to experience a sort of nostalgia for the native populations they had wiped out with their diseases and guns. That feeling sent them scurrying off to gather up ethnographies, dying languages and sometimes even living subjects. Zisis Kozlakidis, the president of the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories, an organization that represents some 1,300 biobanks containing specimens like viruses and the reproductive cells of clouded leopards, told me a collecting rush is underway, which he likened to an international space race. There is, he said, a very intense feeling that were losing biodiversity quicker than we can understand it. []

But the world, as always, is changing  and now were fomenting and accelerating that process in ways we dont fully understand. The banks themselves are vulnerable to that change. All manner of things can go wrong: power outages, faulty backup generators, fires, floods, earthquakes, contamination, liquid-nitrogen shortages, war, theft, neglect. In early April, a freezer failure at a University of Alberta cold-storage facility allowed some 590 feet of ice cores to melt, turning tens of thousands of years of frozen clues about the earths climate into puddles that one glaciologist, surveying the sad aftermath, likened to a swimming-pool changing room. The associated data that indicates whats in these vaults  the genomes, the origin stories  could be hacked, corrupted, lost or just formatted in such a way as to be inscrutable to those who might try to decipher it later. These are the kind of anxieties that Oliver Ryder, a director at the San Diego Zoos Global Institute for Conservation Research, turns over in his mind in the middle of the night. It is not, Is something bad going to happen? he told me. Over time, bad things will happen. They always do. []
13 July 2017 (Climate Feedback)  Sixteen scientists analyzed the article and estimated its overall scientific credibility to be low. A majority of reviewers tagged the article as: Alarmist, Imprecise/Unclear, Misleading. [cf. The Uninhabitable Earth, Annotated Edition]New York Magazine published an article by David Wallace-Wells detailing the potential impacts of climate change if no action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Much of the article explores worst case scenarios of change in the climate system and the resulting impacts on human populations.Scientists reviewed the article to determine whether the descriptions of those scenarios accurately reflect the state of scientific knowledge. The New York Magazine article has triggered a number of responses debating the merits of the decision to focus on worst case scenarios, but our review simply addresses the scientific accuracy of the article.The reviewers found that some statements in this complex article do misrepresent research on the topic, and some others lack the necessary context to be clearly understood by the reader. Many other explanations in the article are correct, but readers are likely left with an overall conclusion that is exaggerated compared to our best scientific understanding.Michael Mann, Professor of Meteorology, PennState University:The article paints an overly bleak picture by overstating some of the science. It exaggerates for example, the near-term threat of climate feedbacks involving the release of frozen methane (the science on this is much more nuanced and doesnt support the notion of a game-changing, planet-melting methane bomb. It is unclear that much of this frozen methane can be readily mobilized by projected warming).Also, I was struck by erroneous statements like this one referencing satellite data showing the globe warming, since 1998, more than twice as fast as scientists had thought.Thats just not true. The study in question simply showed that one particular satellite temperature dataset that had tended to show less warming that the other datasets, has now been brought in line with the other temperature data after some problems with that dataset were dealt with.Ironically, I am a co-author of a recent article in the journal Nature Geoscience (see e.g. this piece), using that very same new, corrected, satellite dataset, that shows that past climate model simulations slightly over-predicted the actual warming during the first decade of the 21st century, likely because of a mis-specification of natural factors like solar variations and volcanic eruptions. Once these are accounted for, the models and observations are pretty much in linethe warming of the globe is pretty much progressing AS models predicted which is bad enough.The evidence that climate change is a serious problem that we must contend with now, is overwhelming on its own. There is no need to overstate the evidence, particularly when it feeds a paralyzing narrative of doom and hopelessness. [Read more]
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Clean buses in Europe currently account for 10-12% of the entire public transport fleet (around 20,000 out of 200,000 public buses). To speed up their deployment, the CoR joined forces with the European Commission to increase the participation of regions and cities in the Clean Bus Deployment Initiative, which brings together local authorities, manufacturers and transport operators to roll-out clean mobility principles on the ground. During its plenary session in Brussels, local representatives signed a declaration committing them to contribute to increasing the number of clean buses by at least 2000 by the end of 2019 and increase the share of clean buses in bus fleets to 25% by 2025. Such an upgrade alone would trigger investment for over 1 billion Euros.

During the launch, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, the CoRs' President-elect, said, " This initiative shows that delivering low-emission transport, greening our economies and protecting our environment starts in our regions and cities. It is another step towards ending the unacceptable levels of air pollution damaging our health and lowering our carbon emissions showing that the EU is upholding our global climate promises set out in Paris ".

Commissioner Bulc remarked, " Cities and regions play an important role in our efforts to reduce emissions from transport. With today's declaration on the deployment of clean buses, cities and regions together with manufacturers of clean technology commit to increase the share of clean public transport in urban areas. This is good for the health of our citizens and the quality of life in our cities and regions. It also helps our industry to compete in a growing market for clean transport solutions. I welcome the commitments undertaken and I am confident that many more cities and regions as well as companies will join the initiative we are starting today. "

The CoR also adopted its opinion led by Jozsef Ribanyi (HU/EPP), Vice-President of the County Council of Tolna Megye, during this plenary session where regions and cities representatives assessed the delivery of the EU's strategy on low-emission mobility launched a year ago by the European Commission. " The investment on low emission fleets should be accompanied by the streamlining of the links between the energy sector and the transport system " pointed out rapporteur Ribanyi, also referring to the concrete experience of his community : "In the city of Paks, in my region, thanks to the ELENA programme and the EIB funds, electric vehicles of the public transport system will be charged using the surplus capacity of night time operating hours of the only nuclear power plant of Hungary ".

Increasing the efficiency of transport systems is a key objective for local leaders, who shared their concerns with Commissioner Bulc. In order to address the lack of interoperability of data, services and technical solutions, they called for EU-wide standards. Local leaders also warned that there was a serious lack of coordination and cooperation among relevant actors which was hindering integrated pricing and ticketing for multimodal transport solutions. The CoR called for new rules at EU level to make mandatory the sharing of timetables and travel information. As for the use of low emission energy for transport, local and regional leaders stress that the ideal low-emission alternative energy should be produced, stored and consumed locally. They also call for prioritising and subsidising non-food biofuels, whilst phasing out food-based biofuels  which have environmental side effects.

In order to boost the delivery of the low emission mobility strategy, the European Commission is promoting innovative financial tools, blending resources from the Connecting Europe Facility and bank guarantees for private investors provided by the European Fund For Strategic Investment A 1bn Euros call based on this scheme was launched in February this year.

Note for editors: funding tools

The key funding tool for regions and cities planning to invest on low emission mobility is offered by EU cohesion policy. The European Structural and Investment Funds make 70 billion Euros available for transport, of which 39 billion for supporting the move towards low-emission mobility (12 billion specifically for low-carbon and sustainable urban mobility). EU research programme Horizon2020 invests 6.4 billion Euros on low-carbon mobility projects. The EIB is supporting the shift towards greened public transport with specific products and the European Fund for Strategic Investment is also contributing to this goal.

For more information

European Clean Bus Deployment Initiative



Contact:

Tel. +32 2 282 2461
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SME access to public procurement, the Single Market and finance, SME-friendly VAT and taxation rules and striking a better balance between SME needs and labour, consumer and environmental protection are critical factors behind SME success in Europe. The "smart regulation for SMEs" opinion of the European Committee of the Regions' (CoR) rapporteur Christian Buchmann was adopted during the CoR plenary session on 12 July.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the main engines for growth and jobs in Europe, creating two out of three jobs and generating more than half of Europe's economic production. Nevertheless regulation doesn't always take into account the SME-specific circumstances, thus hampering local economic growth and innovation.

"Red tape reveals itself as high administrative burden, incoherent requirements and overlapping or contradictory rules  and they have a much greater impact on SMEs than on larger firms. Also compliance in taxation, reporting and information obligations, labour protection or other fields affect SMEs disproportionally. Therefore an SME-friendly regulatory environment is an essential precondition for establishing and developing successful businesses and generating more jobs and growth in Europe", said rapporteur Christian Buchmann (AT/EPP), Member of the Styrian Parliament.

The CoR proposal represents a medium-term approach that is more ambitious than current EU efforts to reduce red tape, for example the Better Regulation Agenda or the Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT). The opinion emphasises the importance of further reducing obstacles to SMEs in public procurement contracts  a particularly important issue for regions and cities  and simplifying and harmonising tax rules, which are seen as the most burdensome area by a majority of European SMEs.

The CoR also urges action to make it easier for SMEs to tap into the EU's long-term regional-development instruments, like the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), and highlights how a wide variety of national rules continue to prevent SMEs from profiting from the Single Market in services. It specifically calls for local and regional authorities to be given a role in the impact-assessment boards that scrutinise proposals from the European Commission.

" We need a coherent, visible and updated European SME policy, mainstreaming the "Think Small First" principle across all government levels and policies. The Small Business Act (SBA) should be revised and strengthened and cities and regions should have a stronger role in its revision and implementation. Instead of focusing on reducing regulations, we must stress creating a simple, clear and consistent regulatory environment for the SMEs  and here cities and regions play a key role ", stated rapporteur Buchmann .

Already since 2011 the CoR promotes the implementation of the Small Business Act (SBA) at regional and local level through its European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) award . The award is given each year to EU regions and cities that have the most promising, outstanding and innovative entrepreneurial policy strategies in Europe. It is an opportunity for local and regional actors to demonstrate how SMEs and entrepreneurs can increase the resilience of their economy.

Background:

The concept of smart regulation means delivering EU policies and laws that bring the greatest possible benefits to businesses, citizens and public bodies in the most effective way. It is a way of working to ensure that political decisions are prepared in an open, transparent manner, informed by the best available evidence and backed by the comprehensive involvement of stakeholders. Instruments include impact assessment, simplification, reduction of administrative burden and the full and correct implementation of existing legislation.

Contact:

Carmen Schmidle

Tel. +32 (0)2 282 2366

carmen.schmidle@cor.europa.eu
Who Will Be Aamirs Lady In Thugs Of Hindostan?
One usually associates social media with friends, family, random cat videos and a playground of stuff to trifle with. For many, places like Facebook (Yes, we call them places because of the sheer amount of time people spend inside them), Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and more are nothing but excuses to boondoggle. Whatever might be the nature of social media, community building and friendships were always at the very core of its foundation, and while most would consider it safe enough to devote countless hours of their lives on these platforms, there are many for whom this so called safe haven has proven to be a deadly end.

Take for instance 11-month old Natalie Triratana, a baby girl from Thailand who was murdered by her own father on Facebook Live this April. Natalies father, a 20-year-old man named Wuttisan Wongtala, hung this little child and broadcasted her murder live on the worlds largest social networking platform. He then turned around and killed himself. It took more than 24 hours and 370,000 views, before Facebook removed those few gruesome minutes of footage. In its defence, Facebook did condemn the murder and called it appalling.

Wuttisan with his baby daughter

Baby Natalies vicious killing is not a standalone incident. Another fatal episode in April 2017, saw the murder of 19 year old Serena McKay from Canada, as she was beaten to death by two other high school girls who were reportedly on drugs. McKay was hit repeatedly and left for dead, and her entire ordeal was broadcasted live on Facebook. The disturbing video was even shared multiple times before Facebook finally took it down.

Serena McKay

Events like these are only on the rise, and beg to ask the question if social media is the driver behind these heinous acts. Public humiliation, some sort of sick gratification and buried voyeuristic inclinations, are just some of the many growth drivers for social media equivalent of snuff films like these. Tools that allow users to broadcast live, unchecked and unsupervised, have only added to the spate of such public slayings.

"The allure of fame, and the excitement of the attention, it's almost like it's intoxicating," N.G. Berrill, Executive Director of the New York Center for Neuropsychology and Forensic Behavioral Science told the Daily News. "Teenagers are notoriously bad at estimating risks, they're much more concerned about showing off to their peers," Pamela Rutledge, Director of the Media Psychology Research Center in California explained to The News. "It's the reaction that makes them feel powerful, more than the act," she added.

Social networks are increasingly giving people the power to broadcast live to a huge worldwide audience. While the internet is a medium where one is free to express themselves openly, is this much freedom unhealthy for the greater good of the society? There is a reason why some level of sanity still exists in television broadcasts. While most would argue that news channels of today have complete and utter disregard for the various forms of brutality they display, it is still rare when one gets to watch a human being murdered live on air. Its a simple question of how much access is too much access? Does social media need broadcast rules?

Murder isnt the only crime spotted on social media these days. Live suicides are also becoming commonplace on popular social networks. James M. Jeffrey, a 49 year old man from Alabama, shot himself dead in the middle of a live broadcast, again on Facebook, again in April 2017 (just a few days after the hanging of the 11-month old child). The suicide was viewed more than 1,000 times in the two-hour long life of the video on the platform. Just a few days before Jeffrey took a gun to his head, Steve Stephens from Cleveland shot his 74 year old grandfather in cold blood and the live video of the killing was circulated numerous times even after Facebook took it down a little over three hours from the time it was posted.

Snapchat too has witnessed its share of sexual assault films, murder selfies, and criminal confessions. Twitters video streaming app Periscope is also no stranger to a number of graphic crimes including live suicides and rapes as the world sits and watches in dismay.

What are social media companies doing to avoid this?

The recent rise in social media related crimes is a strong indicator of the fact that not enough is being done to curb this worrying trend. In May 2017, after facing a lot of heat for the numerous barbaric acts of violence, Facebook announced its plans of hiring 3,000 people to monitor videos and posts for content involving criminal acts. Its not like the 2 billion strong social network already didnt have a content moderation team in place. In fact, 4500 people are already assigned with the task of sifting through Facebook to find and eliminate such troublesome media. Twitter has a portal to report self harm and guidelines for law enforcement to deal with user-related issues that arise on the microblogging platform. Snapchat, too, has a law enforcement guide which directs officers to contact the company in case of an emergency, including an imminent death threat, but only from 9AM to 5PM on non-holiday working day. Snaps latest law enforcement guidelines were last updated in October 2016. Making matters worse, Snapchat recently introduced a new feature called Snap Map which lets users track each other's locations. While the app asks for a users permission to share this information, it updates the users whereabout each time one logs into the app, putting the not-so-tech-savvy users privacy in jeopardy.

Is there a cure?

Even though social media companies do their part in keeping eye balls away from violent content, and there is no conclusive scientific evidence to pinpoint social networks as the cause of the rapid increase in such incidents, are a few thousand moderators and some weak safety guidelines enough to stop such incidents from happening altogether? Is the very social nature of these platforms to blame for bringing out the sadistic bragging instinct that lives inside almost every human being? Would we be watching live murders and suicides ever so often if television worked with the same free-for-all philosophy that social media follows? If this doesnt beg a serious thought to where social media and its burgeoning population is headed, what does? And, we havent even gotten to cases of cyberbullying and user intimidation yet.

Let us know your thoughts on the subject in our comments section below.
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FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP)  A process for developing a new plan for downtown Fairbanks is being created.

Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Karl Kassel is assembling a working group of 10 people to consult on the plan.





. . .
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As part of a national portfolio sale, TPG Real Estate has sold three local warehouse/distribution properties to Ivanhoe Cambridge of Montreal. Both companies used LLCs in the three deals, which were worth a combined $42.8 million.

Brokers weren't announced.





. . .
TCS to shut Lucknow office, shift operations to Noida

Information technology major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has decided to close its office in Lucknow and shift operations to Noida, near capital New Delhi 33 after it set up an office in the Uttar Pradesh capital.

The company said it will shift most of its projects to Noida by December and redeploy its nearly 2,000 Lucknow employees, which include a1,000 women,

While the company said no jobs will be affected, apprehensive employees have asked the prime minister and state chief minister to intervene and have launched social media campaign against decision

There was no formal communication to the employees from the company, but the decision to close operations from the Lucknow office was communicated orally to team leaders.

''Vice-president Tez Bhatla visited the Lucknow office on Wednesday and informed team managers. That was the only formal communication,'' said a senior employee of the company.

Reports sad TCS failed to renegotiate a lease agreement of its present office at Awadh Park in the Gomti Nagar area of Lucknow, which could have prompted the company to move out.

''The 10-year lease expired in May but it was extended for another 11 months. The company could not agree to the new rent. The builder asked for much higher than the market rate,'' the report quoting a source said.

Employees say while they were aware of the lease problems at the present site, they were assured that there would be no shifting out of the city. Obviously, not all are ready to shift out of the city while some apprehend loss of job.

The employees have written to state chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union minister for information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, requesting them to intervene. They have also launched a social media campaign such as #savetcslucknow# and #savetcsplease#.

''We have asked the PM and the CM to intervene. We don't know about the company's strategy, but if the decision is avoidable it should be taken back. We do not agree with this sudden decision. At a time when we talk of Digital India, the company is not thinking about its employees who have given all their years to it,'' said a TCS employee.

TCS said it was ''only consolidating its UP operations in Noida and there will be no job loss as a consequence,'' rather avoiding to specify reasons why it was not able to function out of Lucknow.

''There have been false rumours and reports being circulated in the media about the company's operations in Lucknow. TCS is working to ensure that employees get opportunities in Noida and other centres across India,'' the company said in a statement.

TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan, while Speaking at a function to announce the company's quarterly results in Mumbai, TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinath also clarified that ''there will be no layoffs.''

''We are committed to grow our business in UP and are consolidating operations in Noida,'' he said.

The TCS decision is seen a setback for the state government that has plans to turn Lucknow into northern India's IT hub.

The government announced recently its industry policy to attract investment in UP and allocated Rs40 crore in its annual budget for software education.

Officials of Shalimar group, owners of the building, meanwhile, confirmed that the lease term is ending in May next year. TCS hopes to shift out most operations by December this year.
Kojin Karatani once argued that the notion of contemporary Japan was incubated through the debates, the trials, the errors and the critical responses accompanying the emergence of modern Japanese literature.

For Karatani the availability of post-feudal Japan arose first in a potent laboratory of fiction alongside all of writings institutions and yet this was no objection to the concept of modern Japans ability to frame and show ways of being in another kind of modernity. Botswana, a microeconomy in the southern African region did not inaugurate its modernity through an adventure in literature but instead through an engagement with architectural and urban planning modernity which served as much as any film, novel or cultural movement as the laboratory and container in which to explore and realize a future condition.

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Gaborone, Botswana. Pedestrian mall between Parliament and the City Hall. photo www.images.co.bw



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Gaborone, Botswana. Entry into the Gaborone Main Mall. photo www.images.co.bw



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Gaborone, Botswana. The High Court under construction. photo www.images.co.bw



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Gaborone, Botswana. Parliament. photo www.images.co.bw



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Gaborone, Botswana. Botswana Savings Bank. photo www.images.co.bw



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Gaborone, Botswana. Sir Seretse Khama International Airport. photo www.images.co.bw



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Gaborone, Botswana. SADC Secretariat building. photo www.images.co.bw



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Gaborone, Botswana. Department of Taxes and Attorney General's Chambers Building. photo www.images.co.bw



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Gaborone, Botswana. Ministry of Health. photo www.images.co.bw



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Gaborone, Botswana. Botswana Development Corporation, Fairscape Precinct. photo www.images.co.bw



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Like Botswana, Japan has been able to engage with modernity and modernization on its own terms, to select from it what it needed and to avoid being overwhelmed by its unintended consequences. The art of achieving this relation to modernity is extremely rare: twentieth century Germany pursued modernity in German terms in a way that led to the dead-end of national socialism, American modernity came upon that country through nineteenth century mass migration and the sudden concentration of capital in a few influential hands, throughout the twentieth century the artistic and experiential meaning of American modernity struggled to catch up to where the economy and the society had already gone.

Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana, is a laboratory of conscientious design but like any other laboratory it may be locked and taken leave of voluntarily. Unique among contemporary urbanizations, Gaborone is not the primary home to the people who live, work and conduct business in it. Despite its successful concentration of the nations key institutions, markets and projects, it is a place where a certain relation to modernity, at the level of the State, the Market and the Nation, is meticulously and successfully enacted. But because the traditional culture and agricultural economy was never uprooted most citizens have their home outside the city in a well-provisioned network of advanced towns and villages. This circumstance has been carefully preserved and allows Botswana the privilege and opportunity, perhaps unique in the world, to advance uncompromisingly with one foot firmly in tradition and the other expertly within modernity. For this society the urban-rural, town-countryside dialectic does not exist.
The Donegal Democrat has been informed of the following deaths:

- Mary Gibson, Kilgort, St. Johnston

- Maureen Brennan, Roscaoin, Rathmullan

- Maurice Bonar, Douglas, Cork / Convoy

- Margaret Elizabeth Colton (nee Carlin), Castleknock, Dublin / Castlefin

- Connell OGara, Carrick Lower

- Nan Doran, St Bodans, Culdaff

- Bobby Frizell, Augheygault, Drumkeen

Mary Gibson, Kilgort, St. Johnston

The death has taken place of Mary Gibson, Kilgort, St. Johnston.

Reposing at her late residence. Removal from there at 1.30pm on Saturday for funeral Mass in St Baithin's Church, St. Johnston at 2pm. Burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery.

Maureen Brennan, Roscaoin, Rathmullan

The death has taken place of Maureen Brennan, Roscaoin, Rathmullan.

Reposing at her late residence from 6pm today. Funeral Mass in St Joseph's Church, Rathmullan at 12.30pm, on Sunday, followed by burial afterwards in Rathmullan Cemetery.

Family time please, from 11pm until 11am and also on the morning of the funeral. Family flowers only. Donations, if desired, to the Donegal Hospice.

Maurice Bonar, Douglas, Cork / Convoy

The death has taken place, peacefully, at Cork University Hospital, of Maurice Bonar, Douglas Cork/Convoy.

Lying in repose at the Temple Hill Funeral Home, Boreenmanna Road of Jerh OConnor Ltd. Reposing from 3pm on Saturday, followed by Rosary and Removal at 5pm to the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Ballinlough.

Requiem Mass at 12 noon on Monday. Funeral afterwards to the Island Crematorium, Ringaskiddy. House private please.

Margaret Elizabeth (Madge) Colton (nee Carlin), Castleknock, Dublin/Castlefin

The death has taken place in the loving care of the staff at Connolly Hospital of Margaret Elizabeth (Madge) Colton (nee Carlin), Castleknock, Dublin / Castlefin.

Reposing at Cunninghams Funeral Home, Church Ave., Blanchardstown on Friday evening, July 14th, between 5pm and 7pm. with removal on Saturday morning, July 15th, to St. Brigids Church, Blanchardstown, arriving for Requiem Mass at 10am followed by removal to St. Marys Church, Castlefinn, arriving at approx. 6pm.

Funeral on Sunday morning, July 16th, after 11am Mass followed by burial in adjoining cemetery.

Connell OGara, Carrick Lower

The death has occurred at St. James Hospital, Dublin of Connell OGara, late of Carrick Lower.

Remains leaving Corrigan's Funeral Home, 5 Lower Camden Street, Dublin at 2pm on Friday, 14th July, to arrive at his late residence for 7pm.

Removal on Sunday morning to St Columba's Church, Carrick, for funeral Mass at 11am with burial immediately afterwards in the adjoining cemetery.

Family flowers only please. Donations if desired to the cardiology unit, Letterkenny University Hospital, and these can be made through Curran's Funeral Services or any family member.

Nan Doran, St Bodans, Culdaff

The death has taken place at Carndonagh Community Hospital of Nan Doran, late of St Bodans, Culdaff.

Removal from the hospital Thursday, 13th July, at 3pm, going to her son Teddys residence at 85 Cara Bay, Culdaff.

Funeral from there tomorrow, Saturday morning, July 14th, at 10:30 for 11am requiem Mass in St Marys Church, Bocan, followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery.

Family flowers only or donations if desired to the Hospice Ward, Carndonagh Community Hospital c/o any family member, or Liam Collins, Funeral Directors, Culdaff.

Bobby Frizell, Augheygault, Drumkeen

The death has taken place at Letterkenny University Hospital of Bobby Frizell, late of Augheygault, Drumkeen.

His remains will be reposing at his son Roberts residence at Mondooey, Manorcunningham from 8.30pm, Thursday, July 13th.

Funeral on Saturday at 1pm for service at Convoy Presbyterian Church at 2pm with burial afterwards in the adjoining graveyard.

Family time from 11pm till 11am. Family flowers only, donations if desired to Convoy Presbyterian Church Repair Fund, c/o Ernie Gibson Funeral Director, Convoy.

If you wish to have a death notice included here, email us at editorial@donegaldemocrat.com. Please include a telephone number for verification.
The Jimmy Buffett aspect notwithstanding, the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board did the right thing by reversing a ban on the sale of pitchers of margaritas and similar alcoholic mixtures.

Alabamas image is embattled enough by the antics of politicians without drawing attention to the irony of an ill-conceived ban on the centerpiece of a hit by one of our states most famous sons.

The ban by the regulatory agency was fueled by the idea that the frozen concoction that helps Buffetts antagonist hang on doesnt always deliver the same amount of alcohol in every glass when served from a pitcher. The alcohol can apparently separate, making some glasses stronger than others, a circumstance that doesnt happen with beer, for instance.

In reality, a group of people sharing a pitcher would most likely keep the concoction well stirred as they wet their whistles while having cheeseburgers in paradise lest no one get short-changed.

The regulatory board changed its position after a sit-down with representatives of the Alabama Beverage Licensees Association. An outcry on social media had no influence, ABC Board spokesman Dean Argo said. The industry group chalked the matter up to a training issue.

Regardless, the reversal marks a welcome departure of a bit of unnecessary drink management in Margaritaville.

Now if only some regulatory agency could do something about those who pour from the coffee pot before the brewing cycle is finished 
Candidates seeking Dothan City Commission seats and the mayors office got the opportunity Thursday evening to present their views on a wide range of issues, from affordable housing to economic strategy to business recruitment.

The Dothan Mens Civic Club held a forum at the downtown library, which was attended by 11 of the 12 candidates running in challenged races in the Aug. 1 municipal election. Amos Newsome did not attend due to a funeral out of state.

Several of the candidates grew up in Dothan, attended local public schools, and are raising families. A few relocated to Dothan from elsewhere and quickly got involved in the community. Some shared very similar views on how to accomplish specific goals. After two hours of questions and answers, the audience learned a little more about where each stands on issues important to them and their community.

Here are some of the issues that were addressed and how the candidates responded:

Issue addressed to mayoral candidates Ruth Page-Nelson and Mark Saliba  Is having Lyle Sumek help the city commission establish a strategic plan each year productive and working?

Nelson  She said she has attended some of those strategic planning meetings and there are good suggestions for inclusion and diversity, but she doesnt believe the community is being involved and there is no monitoring afterward to make sure the plan is being followed. What we need is to open our minds to the changes by inviting all of our community out to determine what is needed, she said. We need to continue our strategic planning, but we need other consultants.

Saliba  He said he hasnt been a part of the process, but he thinks it is important to have somebody come in and do a strategic plan and he believes he can add a fresh perspective to the process. Weve got a lot of really smart people in our community, Saliba said. There are so many people in our community that could add a lot to that process.

Issue addressed to District 1 candidates Kevin Dorsey, Larry Donnell Johnson, Anthony Keith, and Larry E. Matthews  What kind of strategy would they employee to address the economic drought in their district?

Dorsey  As the incumbent commissioner, Dorsey said there are several businesses that are in the works in District 1 that cant be announced yet, along with the $3 million investment being made in Windmill Station on Headland Avenue. Theres some great things that are coming in District 1, he said. It takes time to do anything.

Matthews  He said he wants to work with the commission, the mayor, and the chamber of commerce to provide training to people so they can get jobs when they become available. We need some economic development to where we can bring jobs, he said. We need people in our community to be able to get jobs.

Johnson  He said District 1 has two major housing projects, young people getting killed in the streets, and it is up to city leaders to address that. These young men need jobs, they need affordable housing, he said. At the end of the day, its up to us to be a voice for the people.

Keith  He said he would start going to economic summits and talk to businesses that are looking for places to locate. He said the closing of Kmart along Reeves Street is an opportunity to go after another business to locate there and provide jobs. Weve got not only space, weve got people willing to work, he said.

Issue addressed to District 2 candidates Janasky Fleming, Vincent Owens, and Jemmie Watford Jr.  How would you assist in recruiting businesses to come to your district?

Watford  He said he is currently working with an individual who is in process of relocating two multimillion dollar businesses back to Dothan. He said you have to reach out and establish your business network and travel abroad to see what other businesses are doing and what it would take to get them to come to Dothan. You have to go to summits, you have to lure other businesses here, he said.

Fleming  He said you have to partner with the school system to train students for industries that may come to town. We need to help these people find the jobs that can help support our city, he said. I want to go and find big business.

Owens  He also said there is a need to prepare a strong workforce trained through the school system and for visionary leaders who can see beyond how things used to be. We need to definitely train, he said. We must welcome diversity so we can be that kind of city businesses are looking at.

Issue addressed to District 4 candidates John Ferguson and Critt Snellgrove  What does Dothan have to be proud of and ashamed of?

Snellgrove  The friendly people we have here in Dothan, he said. I think that is something we are very proud of in Dothan. He said problems with traffic is something hed be ashamed of, but he believes there is room for improvement by working with the Alabama Department of Transporation.

Ferguson  He said he is proud that there are passionate, animated discussions among city commissioners and with the county commission. Im not ashamed of anything about my hometown he said, though he is not satisfied with traffic in Dothan and realizes the issue still needs work.

Candidates were also randomly asked about other issues, such as what to do when property isnt maintained, their thoughts on new Dothan Utilities policies dealing with cutoffs and connection fees, whether an increased minimum wage should be established in Dothan, and their assessments of race relations in Dothan.

The candidates will face off in Dothans municipal election on Aug. 1. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. If necessary for any of the individual races, a runoff election will be held Sept. 12.

Incumbents in District 3 (Albert Kirkland), District 5 (Beth Kenward) and District 6 (David Crutchfield) did not face any opposition.
Despite being in the online job market for just one-tenth the time of SEEK, Found has begun nipping at the heels of the incumbent platform.

Established by Andrew Joyce and Peter Marchiori in April 2015, the Sydney-based start-up has attracted a total of $4.5 million in funding for its mobile platform, most recently closing a $2 million round at the end of June. When it comes to traction, however, the proof (as they say) is in the pudding  having launched in February, last year, Founds job app has been downloaded 350,000 times by job-seekers, resulting in approximately 280,000 sign-ups.

According to Joyce, the app has resonated with job seekers because it addresses inefficiencies in the online job market.

Pre-Found, none of the platforms had committed to mobile to the degree that we have, he told Dynamic Business. Although an increasing number of job seekers prefer mobile over desktop, platforms are still requiring their users to, at some stage, complete a process that isnt supported by mobile  for example, uploading a resume, completing pages of forms or using a site which doesnt work with a mobile browser. We never ask a candidate do something that cant be done on a mobile, within our app.

Additionally, other platforms lack even a basic awareness of who you are as a candidate, including your history, location or experience. Consequently, when it comes to building a profile, discovering and applying for relevant jobs, and tracking progress with employers, job seekers have had to do all the work themselves, whereas we help them with every step of the process  and they are never required to answer the same questions more than once.

On the other side of the equation, Joyce said Found is able to massively speed up the recruitment process for employers.

Gone are the days of having to place a job ad and  over the application period  manually sift through CVs from any and all candidates, regardless of how suited they are for the role, he said. Although the local market is dominated by Seek, based on a number of conversations weve had with business owners and HR professionals, many feel theyre being held hostage (job ads can be over $300 for a single posting) and are desperately looking for alternatives. We let employers search our database of 280,000 candidates and proactively connect with the best candidates or, alternatively, place ads targeting the demographics theyre most looking to hire, meaning the candidates are of a higher-quality and a better fit for the role.

The co-founders Uber experience

Found is the second venture Joyce and Marchiori have established together since 2013. According to Joyce, their partnership has endured because they have extremely complementary interests and skillsets. He added, I believe this is critical for any founding team. Although we share the same vision for Found, we work in (and on) very different parts of the business on a daily basis. Peter is focused on developing and building the best possible offering, while I look after sales and marketing, fundraising and customer support.

With Rifirb  Joyces first startup with Marchiori, founded in August 2013  the duo supported Uber with their rollout across Australia, Asia and the Middle East.

Uber had yet to introduce their BYO phone policy; instead, they were providing drivers with dedicated iPhones, locked-down to only run their driver app, Joyce explained. Rifirb sourced and refurbished pre-owned devices, provisioned them with Uber software, and supplied them (along with car kits, chargers, etc) to Ubers local offices. Plus, we took care of the break-fix side of things. We began assisting Uber in Sydney, where they had only two employees, but ended up working with them further abroad  as far north as Japan, and as far west as the Middle East.

Although Rifirb scaled rapidly off the back of Ubers roll-out, turning over $25m in its first year of operation, Joyce said it wasnt a business he and Marchiori believed had legs beyond this specific opportunity. They made the decision to wind-down Rifirb in July 2015, and focus on growing Found, due to  Joyce explained  the challenges associated with a) being an inventory-intense business (i.e. lots of money tied-up with rapidly depreciating assets) and b) the rapid evolution of mobile devices (i.e. older models were relatively easy to service, repaid and refurbishwhereas with the new ones, there was a significant risk of complete device failure).

Adapting to next-gen candidates

To give a sense of Founds success to date, Joyce pointed to a recent article on SEEK in The Australian, which revealed the market leader processes nearly 1.5 million mobile applications per month. He said the fact that Found is already processing 300,000 applications monthly, just goes to show that if youre able to focus obsessively on your target market and build a better mousetrap, success will come.

He continued, Our target market  jobseekers aged 16 to 35  use technology in a fundamentally different way to previous generations  and their expectations of the experience that a platform should deliver are much higher than in the past. We dont believe that other platforms (or the employers who use them) have kept up. Over time, itll be key for businesses of all shapes and sizes to adapt their hiring to the current generation (if they want to be able to attract the best staff).

Speaking more generally, if a start-up is to achieve success, it must have 1) a great product that solves a big problem, 2) sales and marketing operations, which effectively build awareness, generate demand and create customers, and 3) access to capital to support the business until it is self-sustaining.

We have a great team who continue to deliver on the first two points, and are exceptionally lucky to be receiving assistance with the third from our very supportive group of investors, which includes advisory board members such as Tim Reed (CEO of MYOB) and Stevan Premutico (Founder of Dimmi). Having a group of people who you can trust to provide useful input on high-level strategic decisions is absolutely critical  especially when they have war stories to prove it.

Whats next? Watch this space

Joyce said he and Peter are at an exciting point in Founds growth trajectory, having gained traction with major employers and recruiters, including Randstad, the Australian Defence Force, David Jones, Hyatt and Hilton plus loads of smaller businesses.

Additionally, were starting to build real brand-awareness in the job-seeker space, he said. We now have almost 10% of Australias under-20s workforce signed up, with a total of 280,000 candidates. For us, its all about continuing to develop our product and grow the marketplace. Whether that means taking Found overseas or branching intoall I can say is watch this space!
The NSW Government has pumped $35 million into the creation of a startup and innovation hub, which will occupy 17,000 square metres, across 11 floors, on York Street in Sydneys CBD.

In a joint statement, Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Small Business Minister John Barilaro said the Sydney Startup Hub will be the largest startup hub in the southern hemisphere, with space for 2,500 residents plus a regional landing pad to cater for entrepreneurs outside the metropolitan area.

They announced that four startup support bodies  Stone and Chalk, Fishburners, Tank Stream Labs and The Studio  would serve as the hubs anchor tenants.

The Sydney Startup Hub is being funded by Jobs for NSW, with the aim being to generate up to 6,500 new jobs across regional and metro NSW. Based in the Transport House and Railway House buildings above Wynyard station, it is expected to open in late 2017 or early 2018.

Here are some of the reactions from within the local startup ecosystem

Mandeep Sodhi, CEO of fintech startup HashChing

This is a welcome step forward for Sydney, and will be instrumental in establishing the city as a desirable destination for launching new startups. One thing that many startups struggle with is finding a good space to work that doesnt break the bank. The subsidised rates that will be available in the Sydney Startup Hub will certainly help with attracting the best and brightest new businesses, with the knock-on effect of creating more job opportunities. With a massive ecosystem of accelerators, startups and VCs all in one space, this new hub will enable Sydney to better compete on a global scale when it comes to attracting and retaining entrepreneurial talent.

Karen Lawson, CEO of Corporate Startup Accelerator Slingshot

Australia is becoming a hotbed for the startup community. Amidst the political and economic uncertainty in the US and Europe, we have a unique opportunity to provide a strong base for startup and scaleup businesses. We welcome this initiative by the NSW government  its a key element to build economic growth and reverse the trends of Australias declining pace in an ever-growing startup global market.

However, accessible co-working facilities are only one piece of the puzzle. For us to truly compete on an international scale, we need to look at the whole ecosystem beyond just startups. Successful hubs need open-networks, access to capital, knowledge transfer and customers to scale. This is where connections to Australias established corporates, through accelerator programs like the ones we are running with Qantas, Seek, Hudson and LION, can really help them scale not just nationally but globally.

Danielle Szetho, CEO of FinTech Australia

[The Sydney Startup Hub] will go a long way toward helping to grow Australias startup ecosystem. It is particularly exciting to see that two of our members, Stone & Chalk fintech hub and Tank Stream Labs, have been confirmed as tenants in this important new facility. Having a space that promotes collaboration and connectivity both within the startup community, and outward toward greater NSW and the Asia-Pacific region will ensure we have a vibrant and dynamic ecosystem with a forward-looking international perspective.

Jonathan Lui, co-founder of Airtasker

I think its a great initiative from the government and definitely a step in the right direction. Innovation occurs in all industries and the associated support networks will come from both the private and public sectors. There is no silver bullet to innovation, but this will open up more opportunities for Australians to create new businesses I think this is both a support framework but also an education framework, to help further the innovation agenda and encourage Australians to think about solving problems with a commercial outcome. Ideally with more businesses being created, there will be more opportunity and jobs created. However, dont expect innovation to happen overnight, as its an ongoing commitment and this is a great initiative.

If you look at the impact of technology its clear that it is changing our lives and that these changes are only going to happen faster and in bigger ways. Its important that we embrace these changes and this will keep us on the world stage such that we can attract more investment, creating more opportunities, knowledge and jobs, to keep the cycle growing over time. Over the past years weve seen the ecosystem develop well in terms of talent, investment capital and mainstream media coverage. Adding the government into the mix can only help to strengthen the ecosystem and lead to more opportunities.

Dean McEvoy, CEO of Tech Sydney

Its great to see the NSW Government listening to the startup industry around the importance of building density. The significant investment [in the hubs creation] is one of the greatest contributions government could make to fostering a strong startup ecosystem. There is clear evidence within Australia and overseas around the multiplier effect this investment can have on economic outcomes and jobs growth.

A global Harvard review around digital technology performance, released this week, shows that whilst Australia enjoys a high state of digital advancement we are in the stall out category and now showing signs of slowing momentum. The creation of more high-density innovation hubs are crucial to getting our digital technology performance where it should be within the State and more broadly across Australia.

The Sydney Startup Hub will help us to attract and support startup talent and will also provide a central space where visiting experts can focus their time. In this fast moving industry the knowledge of how to successfully build a high growth technology company has a very short shelf life, so the only way you can accelerate the learning of these founders is to put them close to other founders at a similar stage. This will be a place where the smartest and the brightest can learn from each other.

We are keen to see the Sydney Startup Hub open quickly, particularly given there have been a number of stalled attempts to create this sort of space in the past. Sydney has some great community spaces for startups but they are currently overflowing.

Alex Gruszka, Head of Data and Insights at StartupAUS

This is a bold and exciting initiative from Jobs For NSW. StartupAUS has consistently called for innovation districts as a key component in any startup ecosystem, and the Sydney Startup Hub represents the biggest investment toward that goal in NSW history. Now the work is ahead of us to make sure its thriving with activity from Aussie startups.

Julius Wei, co-founder of wealth management firm BMY Group

We definitely welcome this move by the NSW Government. As a manager of an Australian startup tech fund, who also advises and works with various other startup companies, we think this is the right way to go.

Particularly when you start looking at investment from overseas, for example China, Chinese capital and institutions are encouraged by the government to seek overseas investment into technologies rather than properties. So, having a hub that is backed by a state government in Australia is a strong reassurance to those investors, showing that government support to Australian startups and technologies.

Going forward, there might even be opportunities to co-host these sorts of hubs, which could be supported by two countries to leverage and combine the resources and advantages from both of those regions.

See also: Previously, the government wouldnt have engaged SMEs in this way: Jobs for NSW CEO
I was at Qualcomm last week, listening to an economist talk about Apples complaints that Qualcomm had charged Apple too much for access to patents. What I thought was fascinating was that Apple had folks focused on the 5 percent that Qualcomm had charged it instead of on the massive profit that Apple made on each phone.

The price of the iPhone 8 is rumored to be well over US$1,000  but it could cost well under $500 to build. (Check out this WSJ video on how you can build a decent smartphone for less than $70 in China.)

All other smartphone prices seem to be trending down, while Apples appear to be trending up. This near-magical behavior is an example of expert manipulation, and in a world of fake news, its suddenly a more interesting topic to cover. (It also suggests that Apples level of control over its customer base could be an anti-customer, if not an antitrust, problem.)

Oh, and thats on top of the issues that may prevent the iPhone from being shipped in the first place.

Ill use Apple as an example to illustrate the art of manipulation and misdirection  although its hardly the only one that engages in it. Ill close with my product of the week: a new router from Symantec that may be the perfect thing for securing your home in a hostile world.

Art Appreciation

Theres an art to manipulation and misdirection. I first became aware of this skill in college while doing my undergraduate work. One of the modules in a class I took on manpower management was on manipulators  people who were good at getting people to do things for them, changing minds, and generally, well, manipulating others.

There was a test for measuring this skill, and the scoring range was 1-20. Anyone who scored more than 12 had a high inherent ability to manipulate, according to the test. One poor guy scored 15 and everyone in the class made fun of him. However, there was another student who scored 17, and no one even noticed. He was the one who focused the rest of us on the guy who scored 15  and he didnt even know he was doing it.

People with this skill often end up in marketing where their ability is valued and utilized. If you are observant, however, youll see the same skill applied by friends, family and coworkers  both to accomplish their unique goals and often just to mess with people. Surprisingly, the person doing it often doesnt even seem aware of the behavior.

The Talented Steve Jobs

The most powerful natural manipulator Ive ever seen was Steve Jobs (much of what Im talking about is covered in the book iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business). Jobs changed a lot in skill level from when he first helped found Apple to his return to the company. At first, he seemed to be unaware he was doing it. Sometime between when he was fired from the company and his comeback, he became an expert.

Before he left, there were stories of all the drama that seemed to go on around him, which often is one of the indicators of a manipulator operating on autopilot. They tend to enjoy getting people worked up and often havent yet realized that to be effective they need to be very subtle. Jobs wasnt, and eventually he overreached and got himself fired.

When he came back, though, he seemed able to get what he wanted without as much drama. Things just seemed to fall into place magically, and his skills at marketing blossomed.

For example, Apples product line sucked at the time, and prior to coming back to the company, Jobs had been outspoken about that. After getting the job, he immediately reversed himself and praised the products, becoming their greatest advocate.

Throughout his time, he successfully prevented strong challengers for the iPod from HP and Dell, and disparaged the Microsoft Zune so successfully  characterizing as stupid unique compelling advantages like video playback (which the iPod back then didnt have)  that the iPod largely remained unchallenged by anything but the iPhone.

Even with the iPhone, he caught the market flatfooted. The first iPhone was basically an iPod with poor phone features, but Jobs convinced massive numbers of people they had to have it long before it was really a competitive product. He achieved that through a combination of brilliant placement, advertising, and a very nice  but largely cosmetic  design.

While Jobs is no longer at Apple  and I really dont see anyone there with his kind of manipulative genius  the firm clearly is still operating like it can control hearts and minds. However, without a hit since the iPad, it should be becoming clear to most that post-Jobs Apple doesnt have the capability that Steve Jobs Apple had in spades.

Apple vs. Qualcomm

While the Apple vs. Qualcomm fight seems to be about pricing, it is potentially much more than that for Apple. This is largely because most people still see Apple the way it was and not the way it is. Otherwise, its market valuation would have fallen sharply.

I saw this when Steve Ballmer ran Microsoft. It held value for a long time, but when Steve tried to buy Yahoo  something that appeared to most to be incredibly stupid  the market suddenly realized that Steves Microsoft and Bills Microsoft were very different  and even though Microsofts financial performance was stable for the most part, its valuation fell like a rock.

To hold, Tim Cook cant have a moment like Steve Ballmer did at Microsoft, when people suddenly open their eyes and realize that Apple doesnt seem capable of producing hits  or worse, when Apples only differentiator is that it is far more expensive than the rest. To be clear, that was pretty close to what Apple almost became before Steve Jobs came back and saved the firm.

This lawsuit with Qualcomm is forcing a lot of folks to look at Apples falling quality, to start looking at the problems with their Apple devices as less unique and more endemic of that falling quality, and to start seeing Apple as having shifted too sharply from being focused on creating magic for customers to being far too focused on increasing margins.

At the very least, its forcing people to realize that Apple is shifting from using the best technology in its very high-priced products to trying to cover up that the devices arent very competitive anymore in either capability or price.

Like the Apple Watch, the new HomePod appears to be just a different expensive spin on an existing market  unique only because of its high price and connection to Apples ecosystem. Even in Apple accounts, the Amazon Echo is surveying as the more popular product  and outside of Apple accounts, the HomePod almost falls beneath consideration.

In short, the products clearly art showcasing that Apple has weakened significantly, but the disclosures from the Qualcomm lawsuit could become the trigger that finally gets people to look at the company differently  much like Yahoo did for Microsoft.

Wrapping Up: Trump

Its hard to write anything about manipulation and misdirection without mentioning our president, who seems also to be a natural at it. However, unlike old Jobs, he seems to do a lot of it without focus or purpose, which is why so many of the problems President Trump is dealing with seem to be self-created. It is this contrast between the older Jobs and President Trump I want to leave you with.

Manipulators can be incredibly powerful tools or they can be self-destructing disasters depending on their focus and maturity. Young Steve Jobs was the latter, old Steve Jobs the former, and he clearly made Apple great again. President Trump has the core capability, but he currently lacks the maturing experience that, ironically, I think Jobs got as a result of being fired from Apple.

Apple either needs to recreate the capability it lost when Jobs died, or stop tempting fate by taking risks that will cause people to see the company differently. As Steve Ballmer discovered, once the market corrects, the eventual outcome is not a great one for the career of the CEO or the image of the firm.

One final thought: At some point, manipulators need to realize that without good goals theyll end badly, and the rest of us have to decide if were OK with being manipulated. In this age of fake news from all sides, Im wondering how many of us have made an unfortunate decision in this regard, by accident.

We live in a very hostile world, and back at CES I saw one product that I thought addressed best the kind of threats we now face as homeowners or owners of small businesses. Symantec announced a high-performance router, the Norton Core Router, that not only provided distributed wireless networking but also incorporated a comprehensive security solution.

NortonCore Router

Using a combination of Qualcomms advanced wireless networking technology and Symantecs antimalware resources, you could have one product and a subscription that, on paper, should keep your home or small business not only well connected with the highest speed 4X4 MU-MIMO technology  providing speeds that rival what you can get with wired connections  but also better protected, ensuring your connected devices arent infected by viruses or otherwise used against you. The system just became available for preorder at a $30-off price of $249.

It isnt even bad looking, with a design that could allow you to put it in a far more visible and advantageous networking position than in a cabinet or in a closet (if your wiring allows it). We need more comprehensive solutions like this if we are going to protect our ever-more-connected homes from an ever-more-hostile world. As a result, the Norton Core Router is my product of the week.
Amazon has hailed its third-annual Prime Day promotion as its single biggest global shopping event ever. The sales event, held earlier this week, reached US$1 billion in sales, according to some analyst estimates, surpassing year-ago sales by 60 percent and beating the companys prior Black Friday and Cyber Monday records.

More members joined Prime on this years Prime Day than on any other single day in the companys history, Amazon said, although it did not release any figures to back up that claim.

However, tens of millions of the companys estimated 85 million Prime members made a purchase on the site on Prime Day  50 percent more than a year ago, according to the company.

First and foremost, Prime Day is a retention and acquisition tool for [Amazons] valuable Prime program, in addition to being their biggest opportunity to sell their own products to customers, Clarus Commerce CEO Tom Caporaso told the E-Commerce Times.

Smart Speaker, Smart Sales

Amazon struck the jackpot with record sales of its Echo Dot mass market smart speaker  which sold better than any other product on offer from all manufacturers and across all categories  after it slashed its already low price from $49.99 to $34.99. Amazon sold seven times more Echo Dot devices on this Prime Day than on Prime Day 2016, it said.

Prime Day also marked the biggest single sales day for Amazon devices ever, with record sales of Echo smart speakers, Fire tablets and Kindle devices.

The discounted Element 55-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV  Amazon Fire Edition, was the top selling television set in Amazon history, the company said, setting the record after only four hours.

Tens of millions of customers made purchases on the Amazon app  more than double the total who used it on last years Prime Day.

Amazon sold 3.5 million toys on Prime Day.

Amazons Prime Day performance demonstrated the companys ability to continue growing the customer ranks of its key Prime membership program, which offers users free two-day shipping, plus access to its increasingly important music, book and video libraries.

The promotion of additional subscription-based services only furthers the membership push, whilst also upselling existing Prime members not using these services, noted Rob Nowell, senior marketing officer at BrandView.

Third-Party Celebration

Amazon reported huge sales from its third-party sellers, including small business and entrepreneurs, which indicates Amazon may be moving more toward becoming an online sales facilitator and less of a direct e-commerce seller, Nowell told the E-Commerce Times.

Sales for Furbo Dog Camera, one participating seller, shot up by 500 times on Prime Day, with top sellers in four categories, including pet supplies and home monitoring equipment, the company reported.

Site Sustains

Amazons website performed well, in terms of keeping up with order demand, according to Catchpoint, a firm that monitors Web performance.

Aside from a minor glitch in the first hour, Amazon had very fast load times despite the heavy traffic of Prime Day, Catchpoint CEO Mehdi Daoudi told the E-Commerce Times. This is especially notable because their sites were heavy with many product images, yet they still loaded faster than the competition.

Amazons site loaded in 2.3 seconds on computer desktop sites, compared with 4.73 seconds for rival Walmart, according to Catchpoint. On mobile apps, Amazon loaded in 1.14 seconds, compared with 5.56 seconds for Walmart.

Still, Amazon cannot take its success for granted, BrandViews Nowell warned, as rival retailers are pushing back. eBay, for example, has promised to match or offer lower prices on 50,000 items from a number of top retailers.
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Ceva Phylaxia inaugurates state-of-the-art vaccine plant





Ceva Sante Animale held the inauguration ceremony of its new European vaccine production facility at its Budapest Campus this month.

A further 3,900 square metres of space, containing more than 100 pieces of new equipment, were added to the existing campus at a cost of 25 million euros (7.8 billion forint), creating 60 new jobs.

Dr. Marc Prikazsky, Ceva's Chairman and CEO, Thierry Le Flohic, Director of Ceva's Biology Unit, Dr. Istvan Nagy, Parliamentary State Secretary and Deputy Minister, Ministry of Agriculture, and Arnaud Zerkovitz, Director of the Commercial Office of the French Embassy, addressed the event.

Ceva Phylaxia has a long history in Hungary, having been present for more than 100 years. Today, the campus lies at the centre of a global vaccine network with Budapest being the single largest R&D and production centre. Over 95% of current production is exported to countries around the world.

"We are very proud of Hungary's long, innovative tradition in the research and production of veterinary vaccines. Many of the scientists associated with Ceva Phylaxia such as, Marek and Aujeszky have had their names immortalised as commonly-found production animal diseases, and today, more than ever, innovation must have impact. Since 2000, we have gained over 2,000 new global marketing authorisations, resulting in a 20-times increase in production on the site. In turn, this has created over 300 new positions," said Thierry le Flohic. "Although we take pride in our history, we are investing in Hungary for the future. Our teams here have demonstrated their ability to turn innovation into exponential growth."

The newly developed robotised production lines are said to use the latest technology. Antigen production capacity has doubled, and two separate laboratories dedicated to inactivated antigen production have also been added.

Ceva Phylaxia's recent growth has largely been driven by the production of poultry vaccines but at the end of 2016, Ceva acquired a number of key swine vaccines, Circovac being the best known. The company will relocate production of these vaccines to the new facility over the next two years, bringing swine production back to the centre of a plant that in 1912, began as the Phylaxia Serum Producing Company, producing the first vaccine against classical swine fever. Part of the new production facility will also be dedicated to producing new technology vaccines used in poultry hatcheries. These vaccines use a virus strain named named after Jozsef Marek, a veterinary scientist who worked at Phylaxia, ensuring that his innovation will continue to have impact through the vaccine that will be produced in the new facility and used by poultry producers throughout the world.

"Innovation is more than ever before the key to success. But in an increasingly competitive world, with customers constantly asking for improved efficacy and quality, innovation is also more and more complex and expensive to deliver. As a result, individual scientists or even campuses like Budapest are unlikely to succeed alone.

Our team here has delivered exceptional results but as part of a global network that brings together skills from the USA, Canada, Japan, China and Brazil. I am very proud of what they have all achieved, together," said Dr. Marc Prikazsky, Chairman and CEO of Ceva.
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School seeks permission for play area canopy

One of the Island's primary schools is seeking planning permission to build a canopy in its playground.

Scoill Vallajeelt in Douglas wants to construct an external canopy to its reception class outdoor play area.

The canopy would be situated at the front of the building, next to the school's two reception classrooms.
Queen's baton to visit Isle of Man in September



The relay got underway earlier this year when the Queen presented the baton to Australian cyclist Anna Mears

The Queen's Baton will visit the Isle of Man in September ahead of next year's Commonwealth Games in Australia.

The Commonwealth Games Association has announced that the baton's tour will include the Island on September 2nd and 3rd.

Isle of Man CGA President Basil Bielich and Chief Minister Howard Quayle will welcome the baton, before it heads to the NSC.

There will also be a chance for the public to see the relay at Laxey Wheel, Douglas Promenade, Tynwald Hill and Snaefell, as well as a number of other locations.

The baton tours the nations of the Commonwealth ahead of each Games, finishing in the host nation.

Full details of the Manx route can be found on the Isle of Man Commonwealth Games Association's website.
In 1999, Shon Hopwoods life changed forever.

As the judges gavel fell, the then-22-year-old was sentenced to more than a decade in federal prison for his role in five bank robberies.

Last month, Hopwood became a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

The intervening years are an exceptional story of redemption and rehabilitation rarely seen in a criminal justice system in which more than 75 percent of released inmates are rearrested, according the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

I had resources that other people did not, Hopwood said. It wasnt just all me. People tend to view my story as pick yourself up by the bootstraps, but its really the opposite of that. I had a former solicitor general of the United States as my mentor when I came out of prison. Most people dont have that. I had a smart and beautiful woman who drove me around to job interviews for three weeks after I got out of prison. Nobody in the halfway house of 80 some guys had that.

Candidly, and despite his accomplishments, Hopwood said most of the people he was in prison with would likely have similar success if they had been afforded the same opportunities.

As he said, most are not.

Other people gave me an opportunity for a second chance when there wasnt a lot in it for them. That made the difference in my story, he said.

While in prison, Hopwood taught himself the law, filed multiple cases accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court and litigated cases on the federal level.

Despite this, Hopwoods first job out of prison was washing cars at a dealership, an opportunity that didnt come without challenges.

It was 2008. It was the height of the recession. No one was finding work, let alone the guy who spent nearly 10 years in federal prison, Hopwood said. I had never been on the internet, had never seen an iPad, had never seen an iPhone or iPod, so I was really hamstrung by that and a lot of other things.

I was in the halfway house and they told me couldnt leave to have a weekend visit with my family until after I found a job, he said. I couldnt get a job until I got a bank account. The problem is when I went to get a bank account, the credit agencies had me listed as deceased.

Hopwood later got a job in the legal field and was accepted into law school.

After completing law school, Hopwood  now more than a decade out from his conviction  had to undergo a six-and-a-half hour review by the Washington state judiciary to determine if he would be eligible to sit for the bar exam and become a lawyer given his criminal record.

Hopwood passed the bar, received a clerkship with a federal judge in Washington, D.C., and later got his teaching job at Georgetown Law.

By nearly every measure, Hopwood is the embodiment of what society hopes for people being released from incarceration.

That hasnt stopped his conviction from following him, now nearly 20 years later.

We were denied as recently as two years ago an apartment in Virginia, Hopwood said. I said, you know, Im going to be a lawyer. Im a law clerk. Im going to be working for a federal judge in D.C. The response was well, I dont really know what a law clerk is but it doesnt matter because if you have a felony, we will not rent an apartment to you, period.

Hopwood said one of the keys to successful reintegration is providing inmates with skills and training that will help them find jobs when they are released.

You cant just warehouse people for a decade and expect them to get out and navigate this, Hopwood said. It starts from the moment they enter prison, providing them with job skills and training.

Hopwood said he had friends who went through a welding program and a machinist program while in prison. All of his friends who went through those programs were able to get jobs upon release.

A recent Manhattan Institute study found access to immediate employment for nonviolent offenders reduced recidivism rates by nearly 20 percent.

Only about 5 percent of people in North Carolina placed in jobs following release from prison were rearrested, compared to a more than 40 percent recidivism rate for the state as a whole.

The reason (for the high recidivism rates) is if you cant find a place to live and you cant find a job, its very hard not to go back to selling drugs or whatever it was that got you sent to prison, Hopwood said. Its just really hard for people to do that when you are frozen out of prison and you have no computer skills.

We want people to succeed when they come back out of prison, Hopwood said. If they succeed, they arent going to commit new crimes, and thats what everybody wants. And two, if they succeed, taxpayers are not having to pay to keep them incarcerated and to prosecute them.

On average, every inmate at Cumberland County Prison costs roughly $67 a dayor nearly $25,000 a yearto incarcerate. This does not include costs to prosecute or provide a public defender.

Pennsylvania is the only state where there is no state funding assistance for indigent defense.

The Vera Institute calculated the costs to prosecute someone and put them in prison for one year, and its about $55,000 when you factor in all the costs, Hopwood said. Its the biggest social welfare program in the United States, but people just dont think of it that way.

Roughly 95 percent of all state prison inmates  where the overwhelming majority of prisoners are held  are released at some point, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

When you take people and you incarcerate them for years and provide them with little or no jobs skills or training for the day they are released, Hopwood said. We give them minimal amount of resources, kick people out into the world and expect a miracle. When it doesnt happen we say they were evil to begin with. Most of the people I saw in prison had the capacity to change. They just didnt have the resources to do it.
The Carlisle Police Department has completed an on-site assessment by the Pennsylvania law Enforcement Accreditation Program of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, marking the final step in the accreditation process.

The Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission will meet Tuesday to make the accreditation official. Accreditation is valid for three years, and the Carlisle Police Department has been accredited since 2011.

Carlisle Police Department is one of just over 100 police departments in the state of Pennsylvania to receive this accreditation. According to PLEACs website, accreditation can have many benefits for municipal police departments such as reducing risks of lawsuits, decreasing liability in insurance expenses, improving services provided to the community, and extending public accountability with local government and officials.

The Carlisle Police Department is honored to be one of the relatively few departments to become accredited through the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Accreditation program. Our success in this program is entirely based on the officers, our civilian staffs hard work, and the support of the Carlisle Borough elected officials, Carlisle Police Chief Taro Landis said.
Written by ACM

*Hamburg/G20 Summit/Angelo Marcopolo/- An Exceptional, Unprecedented Day of Total Transports Blackout, as far as the 2017 "G20" Summit in Hamburg (Germany) is concerned, looks ...Ideal in order to Dream for its exact Opposite:



=> I.e. the creation of a Global Railway Network, particularly on this Occasion of the Next, 2018 "G20" Summit, scheduled, for the 1st Time in History, at a Latin-American Country, and even Argentina : ...Twice "at the Other Side of the World" !



Indeed, a Very High Speed (TTGV in the Original in French) Train, already Able to reach about 600-700 km/h, exists since many years (f.ex. since 2007 in France), as "Eurofora" witnessed, f.ex. in an Exhibition organized in Strasbourg as Early as back on 2007-2008, along the Franco-German Rhine River's borders, on the occasion of the Official Opening of the 1st Paris - Strasbourg "TGV", an "Only" 350+ km/h High Speed Train.



And, since Today, Hamburg's Total (Public and Private) Transport Blackout, unexpectedly imposed, without any previous warning, (and even with a Misleading Official Info for "G20" Summit Journalists, which had "strongly advised" to use "Only Public Transports" in order to come and go around the International Media Center, while they finaly proved to be Unusable), Obliged us to ...Walk, (even overNight or during a torrid Heatwave, and with Heavy Luggage, withOut Time to Sleep, but with a Leg suffering from Pains, and using Crunches : i.e. too Slowly, and withOut a Detailed Map of the City), for More than 1 Hour, just to move ...between an Hotel and the IMC, almost the Same Time needed with a TTGV/VHSP to go ...from Paris to Berlin (!), ...Dream for a Better Future, was the only way Not to Think about the dire current situation...



Thus, World-Famous Science-Fiction Writer Jules Verne, from France, with a Landmark short but imaginative Novel about a Future City well Linked to Local, Regional, National and Global Networks of Innovative High Speed Transports on the Ground, (Airplanes, Rockets, Spacecrafts and UFOs excluded), was, in the present circumstances, a pretty Handy Inspiration...



But the Best Symbol of our Times was, surprisingly, ...Right Here : I.e. at this, exceptionaly Immobilized Hamburg City itself !



Simply because Hamburg (with its Neighbour City of Druisburg) already is a Trans-Continental, Eur-Asian Terminal Hub for EU - China Railway Transports, officialy inaugurated just a few years ago : Since 2013, on the occasion of the 1st Visit to Europe by the current Chinese President Xi Jiping.



Already, this can go, Directly, as far as to Link EU's Hamburg/Druisburg (i.e., practicaly from the Northern Sea/Atlantic Ocean), up to China's Shanghai, and/or Russia's Vladivostok (i.e. almost at the Pacific Ocean), - passing though 2 Different Roadmaps : via Russia-Kazakstan, or all the way via Russia's Siberian area - which is quite a bit...



"Eurofora"s co-Founder had already conceived and suggested, a Long Time ago, to the French Authorities, the Creation of a PanEuropean, "Madrid - Paris - Berlin - Moscow", High Speed Speed Train (TGV) Network, as Early as Since 2004, on the occasion of an Official Inauguration at Strasbourg's Euro-Fair, soon followed by a landmark, Historic "Quadrilateral" Summit, bringing Together, precisely, Spanish, French, German and Russian Top Leaders, (i.e., by a coincidence: exactly as we had suggested), at Elysee Palace in Paris, organized by the Experienced former Long-Time President Jacques Chirac on March 2005.



+ Later-on Chirac's Government even went as far as to Establish a Joint Branch Company between France's "Alsthom" (the Builder of Famous "TGV") and its Russian counterpart, which, obviously, went exactly in the Same Direction of that EU - Russia Cooperation on High Speed Train Networks that we had initialy suggested.



(It was almost, during he same period of time, as, mutatis-mutandis, also for the Idea - initialy provocative, but afterwards effectively realized - to use Russian "Soyouz" Rockets in order to Launch Satellites at French Gyuanne's "Kurur" Space-Port, which, meanwhile, became also EU's Space Launching area : Our Initial Publication, elsewhere at the Web, had been simply Titled, with a Short, but substantial Headline : - "Soyuz at Kuru ?!").



But, if, Nowadays, you can already Go by Train from Spain all the way up to China's Shanghai and/or Russia's Vladivostok, (Comp. Supra), then, what could and should Follow, (from the point of view of the Above-mentioned "Dream" on the eventual Creation of a Global Railway Network : GRN, Comp. Supra), is quite Obvious :



=> It's enough to Cross over the Bering Straight, between Russia (Siberia) and USA (Alasca), from one side -f.ex. by Building a Bridge, as between Denmark and Sweden, or Crimea and mainland Russia, etc, either an UnderGround Tunnel, as between France and the UK, etc. - and over Gibraltar Rock, between Spain and Morocco, att the Other side, (much More Easy).



Then, the Way is theoretically Open in order to Advance, sooner of later, (naturaly using, at least at the Beginning, also the PreExisting Local Rail Networks), towards Johannesburg, in South Africa, and up to ...Patagonia, in Argentina, i.e. at the 2 Opposite Ends of that Huge Land area which is Formed by the 3 Biggest Continents of the World : African, European and American.



Australia and all Other Parts of the World, could, naturaly, be Linked into the main "Backbone" of such a possible Global Railway Network (GRN) by various transversal Lines, mostly vertical or diagonal, but also horizontal, according to needs and possibilities.



If and When such a Dream might succeed to be realized, then, it would, obviously, be Simple and Easy to just jump into a Train at Hamburg (Germany), and afterwards get out at ...Buenos-Aires (Argentina), Linking directly the 2 "G20" Summits' Host Countries of 2017 and 2018 (Comp. Supra).



From a "Timing" point of view, already, the EU - China TransContinental Railway Network, which exists since Recently (Comp. Supra), reportedly takes about 6 Days to fully cross, from one End to another, (through Kazakstan). A Longer, entirely Trans-Siberian Railway link, (i.e. more Simple to cross, and Arriving up to Vladivostok, Shanghai, etc), already existing too, reportedly needs 8 Days now.



=> So that a Fully Global Railway Network (GRN), as the one Evoked by the Frontline Heading's simplified Design on a World's Map, the we published Supra, should, apparently, take, approximatively, something between 21 and 30 Days (Less than a Month) to cross Entirely, according to the average Low Speed Train links used in that pre-existing example.

Naturaly, a more or less High Speed Train (TGV) Network, theoretically possible to Build progressively, may Shorten these Timeframes Down to approximatively something around 12 or 23 Days (for a Full Trip, all along the Longest line). And a "Very High Speed" Train (TTGV) link (Comp. Supra), might arrive to do the same in, approximatively, about 9 or 15 Days, all for all : i.e. allmost Similar to Today's, already Existing Hamburg/Druisburg - Shanghai Railway link, (Comp. Supra), but then, it would be Really "Global", accross the whole World !



Why do that, when much Faster Airplanes exist, able to cross such Distances in 1,5 Day, instead of 1,5 Week ?



- First, simply Because most Merchandises, for Imports and Exports, (particularly Global), notoriously canNot be Transported by an Airplane, and clearly Need a Ground-based, Solid, Big and Spacy Train Network.

Otherwise, Ship transport may take Much Longer : F.ex., reportedly 10 or 14 Days by Train, compared to "up to 45 Days" by Ship, from Hamburg to Shanghai.





- Second, because with the Recently Growing, Deadly Islamist Terrorist Attacks cowardly Targetting Innocent Civilian People, an Airplane is much more Difficult to Secure, Saveguard and/or, particularly Rescue, than a Train, (where, f.ex., adequately prepared and Efficient Interventions may either prevent or, especialy, alleviate, at least partialy Save, and/or Restore a Normal Situation).



- Thirdly, because People would be Thrilled to become Able to Travel from one End, to another End of the Earth, while also fully Crossing through the 4 Biggest Continents of the World, ...without having to even get out from their Seat, Table, Family/Group Compartment, and/or Wagon/Bed at all ! And, this, while they Can always See and/or Discover, from their Windows (and/or even by, eventually, Seizing the Opportunities offered by several Stops, as well as Other, Transversal InterLinks) the Beauties and/or Original Characteristics of Every Country, every City or Landscape crossed... Something practicaly Impossible with an Airplane.



As for the Timeframe, No Problem : F.ex., do you want to Waste all your Summer Holidays Limited only in 1, more or less Dull Spot alone, or do you Prefer, instead, to get a Chance to Discover ...30 or 40 New Countries accross the 4 Biggest Continents of the World, (during that Same Time of 1 - 1,5 Month, i.e. in just 1 Summer) ?



All accross such a Long and Flexible Line, People can Imagine, Offer and Organize a very Large and Variable Spectrum f.ex. of Different Touristic "packages", (going from "Super Luxe" to "Business" or "Family", up to Groups, Couples or Individual Travellers, "Night" Travels, Partial or Full Crossings, various Possibilities of Inter-Connections, etc), of All Kinds of Utilisations and Prices, that a more or less Long Series of Train Wagons with several Parts each, can much More Easily allow, that 1 Airplane alone...



- Fourthly, because almost all Airplanes provoke Big Noises and Air Pollution, as well as Climate CO2 Degradation, while, on the Contrary, Railways (particularly Electric and/or Electro-Magnetic, etc), are much more Environment and Climate-Friendly.



+ Last, but not Least : Fifthly, an eventual Future "GRN" will Not Only Add plenty of New Possibilities, partly Cited Above, but it will Also Accelerate, considerably, the Functionning of the Already Existing Railway Networds : By Offering a well and simply Organized General "Backbone" Architecture, more or less, progressively Speeded up by Stimulating the Addition and Accumulation (accross 1 Strategic, Trans-Continental Line) of "TGV", "ICE", "Thalys", and various Other "High Speed Trains", and/or even "TTGV" or "Very High Speed Trains", etc., naturaly, it will Also Shorten the Time needed in order to reach various Other Destinations, served Partly by Transversal InterSections or Links, and Partly by the Main Line of such a "GRN", all around a Wider Area.



>>> After all, "G20" Summits weren't they Created, back then on 2008, in order to Boost Economic Growth, by International Cooperation and Innovation ?



A whole Decade Later, from 2008 to 2017/2018, it's Time to present (or, at least : Start Dreaming of) a brand New and concrete, really "Global" Project, undeniably able to do just that...



And, precisely, the current "Hamburg - Buenos Aires"/"Germany - Argentina" Symbolic and Practical "2017-2018" Coincidence, is obviously Timely for such a "GRN" Project, as a simple Look at the Map easily shows.



(../..)



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------





Now, the Time has come, our Clock Warns : Back to Grassroots Realities...



- Let's get those Crutches, grab that Heavy Bag, wear a Hat against the Heatwave's "burning" Sunlight, and Start again to Slowly and Painfuly Walk, Walk, and Walk, bit by bit, Slaloming Carefuly Between Groups of "Demonstrators" and/or Closed Lines of Policemen, Barricades, Road Blockades, Broken Glass, etc., often Inevitably Stopping to take a Breath and/or Ease the Sufferings of a Horrible Pain at one Leg, Wipe the Drops of Sweat in an Exceptionaly Hot Atmosphere, so that our Eyes can clearly Look Ahead, all along the 1,5 or 2 Km never finishing, Long Avenues, may be more, (and the 1,5 or 2 Hours, in such Exceptional Conditions : Comp. Supra) which Separate our Hamburg's Hotel (not far away from "Ibis") from the "G20"'s International Media Center, (where even a Supplementary "Zig-Zag" has to be made by Journalists, since the Local Police decided to fully Close all the final Road, and even Add an ...Artificial, Metalic "Bridge", with 2 Long but Narrow and slipery Staircases, in order to simply ...Cross that Street !), Wait again at a Quew, Repeat a, (sometimes Too Long or even uselessly Blocked), Time Consuming "Security Check", Walk along +250 m. or More, until to Find, at last, a Long Mecanic Chair (since Nobody Knows if and where might be any Lift at all, inside a 500-600 m. Long Building with 3 Floors !), just to Rush, Urgently, to Find where might be that Mysterious "Briefing Room", where 2 Exceptionaly Important Press Points might, eventualy, be still taking place, ...Only to Discover that, Unfortunately, ...Both had Finished, just a Few Minutes ago !



Never seen Before, in More than 23 Years of well active Experience in European/PanEuropean/International Press work, including a Big Number of Summits, also in Germany and elsewhere in Europe and the World (+9/1993-2017) !



After all that, we can always ..."Dream" at least.



- No ?



Ah, that Book of Jules Verne (comp. supra) ! What it has to do with this "G20" in Hamburg ?
- Infosys received awards towards Best CEO, Best CFO and Best Investor Relations at the 2017 All-Asia Executive Team rankings by Institutional Investor magazine in the Technology/IT Services and Software sector - Infosys positioned as a Leader in NelsonHall Vendor Evaluation & Assessment Tool (NEAT) on Digital Transformation Services - Infosys inducted into the Winner's Circle in the HfS Blueprint Guide: Industry 4.0 Services - Infosys positioned as a Leader in Everest Group's IT Outsourcing in Capital Markets PEAK Matrix Assessment 2017 - Infosys positioned as a Leader in Everest Group's IT Outsourcing in Global Banking PEAK Matrix Assessment 2017 - Infosys positioned as a Leader in Everest Group's Independent Testing Services - PEAK Matrix Assessment 2017 - Infosys inducted into the Winner's Circle in the HfS Utility Operations 2017 Blueprint Report - Infosys recognized for accelerating growth, business development, and for excellence in collaboration of license sales and increasing pipeline growth at the Pega Partner Awards - MongoDB recognized Infosys as its partner of the year in fourth annual MongoDB Innovation Awards - Infosys Public Services appraised at CMMI(R) Maturity Level 5 - Infosys Finacle, jointly with its clients won four awards for banking technology excellence by The Asian Banker - Infosys Pune became the Largest Campus in the World to Earn LEED Platinum Certification from US Green Building Council

BEYOND BUSINESS

In India, Infosys Foundation relentlessly pursued its mission of creating a more equitable society by scaling community-driven initiatives and fostering programs aimed at uplifting the underserved. Some of the key initiatives of the quarter included upgradation and renovation of the existing pediatric ward building at Capital Hospital in Odisha, and construction of a major operation theatre complex at Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bangalore. The Foundation also invested in the construction of 4-lane road works of Kotekar-Pathuru road near our Mangalore SEZ campus in the interest of public safety, and partnered with Visakha Jilla Nava Nirmana Samithi for distribution and channelization of water through a gravity technique to rural drought-hit villages of Andhra Pradesh.

Infosys Foundation USA hosted its third annual thought leadership conference, CrossRoads [enlace ], in San Francisco. This one of a kind event in Computer Science and Maker education, featured 20+ panels with 155 participants from 133 organizations from academia, policy-making, and non-profits. The Foundation also announced the 25 winners [http://www.infymakers.com/winners.html ] of the 2017 Infy Maker Awards in a blog [enlace ] written by NASA astronaut Alvin Drew. The Foundation renewed its grant to Carnegie Mellon University to continue support of the CREATE Lab community robotics and social innovation programs at elementary schools in Georgia and Utah. Infosys Foundation USA extended its WhyIMake [http://www.whyimake.org ] Maker education awareness campaign by releasing new episodes showcasing famous Makers, actor Nick Offerman and NASA astronaut Don Pettit, to TV networks and broadcasters across the US, resulting in 3,150 nationwide airings reaching over 28 million views.

About Infosys Ltd.

Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve these effectively. Our team of 198,000+ innovators, across the globe, is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience, across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake.

Visit www.infosys.com [http://www.infosys.com ] to see how Infosys can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements mentioned in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. These filings are available at www.sec.gov [enlace ]. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.

Infosys Limited and subsidiaries

Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as of

(Dollars in millions except equity share data)

(CONTINUA)
I'm from canada and I lived in Wiltshire for 2 years under the youth mobility visa which expired at the beginning of 2016. I've come back to stay for 6 months without a visa and got a stamp in my passport at Gatwick that says "leave to remain for 6 months" buuut my boyfriend and I just went to amsterdam for 2 nights and when we came back into bristol I got another stamp in my passport that says "leave to remain for 6 months" again??? they did ask me a million questions and made me prove that I have a flight home in August (which would be at the end of the original 6 months). So, does anyone have any experience with this or know whether or not that actually allows me another 6 months or will it be a drama next time i come back?



thaaaank you!!
Update:



Today I went to the police station, I explained them everything and they told me to go back to the place I had my car parked, park it in the same position and call the police.



So I did that, call them, they came and they wrote me a paper all in arabic and told me to go tomorrow to the police station with that paper and pay 100aed (they couldn't explain me what for even that I asked several times)..



I dont know if this is a normal procedure, if I can use the hand writed paper they gve me to report in the car rental company..



Any advice will be welcomed



Regards


Expat job seekers are shunning the UK and the United States and looking instead to Australia, Canada and Asia, new figures suggest.It is political and economic uncertainty in the US and UK that is producing a shift away from these countries on the part of expat job seekers, according to a new report form US based global jobs listing company Indeed.The data shows that in the four months to the end of April 2017, there has been a 30% increase in the overall number of overseas job seekers looking for roles in Australia compared with the same period last year.The analysis also suggests that in some highly skilled professions there is stronger interest from overseas compared to local search interest in the Australian market.In Australia the biggest increase has come from people in India with a rise of 55% in searches, while interest from Japan is up 48%, for the United Arab Emirates it is up 26% and from South Africa there has been a rise of 22%.Conversely, there has been a 10% increase in the number of overseas jobs searches from Australia, with job seekers looking less at the US and UK, and more at Canada and Asia, including Japan, Korea, China and Singapore.The company has also released its latest list of best 50 companies in the world to work for and it is topped by customer relationship management software firm Salesforce, followed by Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue Airways.Global giants Facebook come in fourth and Google fifth. Other global brands include Nike and Apple in joint eighth, the Walt Disney Company in tenth, Costco 12th, Johnson & Johnson at 14, Starbucks at 20, Estee Lauder 21, Microsoft 22, American Airlines 30, Mastercard 33, Monsanto 36, Avon 46 and American Express at 50.Companies with disruptive business models and progressive company cultures will continue to attract and retain top talent. While compensation and job security are always top of mind for employees, we are seeing strong company culture and sense of community becoming just as much of a priority, said Indeed senior vice president Paul DArcyWhile there is a range of industries featured on the list, including tech, finance, healthcare, consumer products, retail, and airlines, there are similarities seen throughout reviews written by employees that stand out.We are seeing people describe these exemplary workplaces as inspiring and engaging by maintaining excellent company culture, ensuring quality leadership, and offering competitive pay and benefits. Employees also praise the companies on this list for being mission driven organisations that are leaders in their respective industries, he added.
A television favorite is returning to Carlisle for the Chrysler Nationals show at the Carlisle Fairgrounds this weekend.

Tom Wopat, known by many as Luke Duke from the classic television program Dukes of Hazzard, will be at the show Friday and Saturday. The General Lee will also be on display. The Chrysler Nationals event runs Friday through Sunday.

Wopats appearance is made possible in part by Cooters Place of Luray, Va. The business features a gift shop with a variety of Dukes apparel, food and snacks as well as historically significant Dukes memorabilia, cars and displays, and is owned by Ben Jones, who played Cooter on the show.

Wopat will be available for multiple autograph sessions at Cooters Place, which will be on the midway at the show. The first autograph will be free with an item brought to the event, and additional merchandise, photos, music and more will be available for sale.

Carlisle Events is also launching a new show in conjunction with the Chrysler Nationals. The Carlisle Hurst Nationals will be held at the Carlisle Expo Center and will feature about 350 vehicles. The event will include seminars and appearances by Hurst-related celebrity guests and engineers.

The Carlisle Hurst Nationals marks the first time that all Hurst-prepared vehicles will evenly share the spotlight. AMC, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors vehicles that were modified by Hurst will receive equal treatment at this first-ever show.

The Chrysler Nationals will also feature a showcase of pink cars, the Dodge Viper, and the new 800-plus horsepower Demon in addition to a survivor display of cars that are at least 25 years old and all original.
Two Austin psychologists and at least one Houston doctor were among 115 doctors, nurses and other practitioners who were charged as part of a nationwide crackdown on medical fraud that bilked the federal government out of $1.3 billion, Justice Department officials said Thursday.

More than 35 Texans were charged in the crackdown, which federal law enforcement officials said was largest health care fraud enforcement action in the agencys history. Almost a third of the 412 people charged were accused of prescribing and distributing opiods and other dangerous narcotics. Roughly 50 doctors and other health care providers billed Medicare, Medicaid and a federal program for the military for drugs that were never purchased and treatments that werent necessary or werent performed, according to prosecutors. Providers also paid cash kickbacks in return for beneficiary information that was then falsely billed, federal prosecutors said.

Some of the doctors wrote more prescriptions for controlled substances in a single month than entire hospitals were writing in that time, the acting director of the FBI, Andrew G. McCabe, said at a news conference where the prosecutions were announced.

One American dies of a drug overdose every 11 minutes and more than 2 million Americans are ensnared in addiction to prescription painkillers, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at the news conference. We will continue to find, arrest, prosecute, convict and incarcerate fraudsters and drug dealers wherever they are.

Opioid abuse and deaths from overdoses are at epidemic levels in the U.S., according to a report released Thursday by the HHSs Office of Inspector General, which investigates waste, fraud and abuse in government health programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. Hydrocodone and oxycodone are among the most commonly abused prescription drugs. Some 59,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, many due to abuse of prescription drugs. Sessions has made cracking down on drug crime a priority.

I know we overuse certain words in the lexicon like unprecedented and historic and unique, said Chuck Rosenberg, acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. But this is an epidemic.

More than $108 million of the fraudulent billings came from Texas; 26 people were charged in the Southern District of Texas while the U.S. Attorneys offices in northern, western and eastern districts of the state charged an additional nine people, prosecutors said.

In Texas, Austin psychologists William Joseph Dubin, 72, and his son David Fox Dubin, 32, were indicted on seven counts of health care fraud, six counts of aggravated identity theft and five counts of paying illegal kickbacks, among other charges, according to an indictment.

Shane Faithful, the owner of Gulfton Community Health Center in Houston, and Gazelle Craig, a physician at the clinic, were both charged with three counts of unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances and one count of conspiracy to do so, according to an indictment. Gulfton was purportedly the highest prescribing hydrocodone clinic in Houston, handling 60 to 70 patients a day who were issued medically unnecessary prescriptions for hydrocodone in exchange for approximately $300 cash per visit, according to the Justice Department.

Craig also needlessly prescribed Carisoprodol, a muscle relaxer often taken with an opiod to enhance the high, according to the indictment.

They seem oblivious to the disastrous consequences of their greed. Their actions not only enrich themselves often at the expense of taxpayers but also feed addictions and cause addictions to start, Sessions said.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The Dubins, who own Psychological A.R.T.S. in Austin, allegedly billed approximately $300,000 in illegal charges to the Texas Medicaid program and the Texas Vocational Rehabilitation Services program from 2011 to 2015. They were released on personal recognizance bonds Wednesday, according to Daryl Fields, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Texas.

Glen Elwood McKenzie, Jr., of Cedar Park, Texas, was also charged with the Dubins. He faces one count of conspiracy to violate the federal anti-kickback law and five counts of receiving illegal kickbacks.

According to the indictment, McKenzie helped recruit patients from an emergency shelter for children and youth where he was president of the board of directors and other similar shelters to Pscyhological A.R.T.S.

The Dubins then allegedly directed students, interns and unsupervised associates to perform evaluations on the patients. The Dubins billed, or caused someone else to bill, Medicaid as if they themselves had done the evaluations, resulting in a larger payout from the program. McKenzie allegedly received 10 percent of those payments as a kickback.

If convicted, the Dubins each face more than 100 years in prison.

The New York Times and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.

jpound@express-news.net
Trump campaign digital adviser Brad Parscale has voluntarily agreed to an interview with the U.S. House Intelligence Committee as a part of its ongoing investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, he announced Friday on Twitter.

Parscale, who co-owns a San Antonio firm that does web design and digital marketing and served as President Donald Trumps digital director last year, said the presidential campaign used the same online marketing strategies as corporate America and that he wasnt aware of any Russian involvement in the digital and data operations.

I have accepted a request from the House Intelligence Committee to meet with them for a voluntary interview, and I look forward to sharing with them everything I know, Parscale said in a statement he posted to Twitter.

Parscale is still very much a part of the presidents orbit, currently serving as the digital, social and media adviser for the 2020 presidential campaign and the nonprofit supporting Trumps agenda called America First Policies. His firm, Giles-Parscale, has already received more than $1.5 million from the campaign in the first quarter of this year, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission data.

McClatchy reported earlier this week that investigators on the House and Senate Intelligence committees and the Justice Department are looking into whether Parscale's digital operation, overseen by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, helped guide Russia's sophisticated voter targeting and fake news attacks on Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Investigators are looking specifically at whether the campaign showed Russian cyber operatives key voting jurisdictions where they saw support for Clinton was unexpectedly weak, according to McClatchy, which cited several people familiar with the parallel inquiries.

Donald Trump Jr., President Trumps oldest son, released emails via Twitter Tuesday that confirmed he met last year with a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin that held the promise of providing damaging information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The subject of the email chain was Russia - Clinton - private and confidential.

President Trump confirmed that the meeting took place and downplayed the issue at a joint news conference Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron at Elysee Palace in Paris.

My son is a wonderful young man, he took a meeting with a Russian lawyer  not a government lawyer, a Russian lawyer. It was a short meeting, it was a meeting that went very very quickly, very fast, he said, adding that most people would have taken that meeting. Its called opposition research.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that U.S. intelligence officials had overheard conversations regarding meetings outside the U.S. with Russian government officials and Trump business associates or advisers beginning as early as spring 2015  before the campaign started.

Parscale has repeatedly rejected the idea that the campaigns digital operation colluded with Russia. He denied in May that his work on the campaign was intertwined in any way, shape or form with alleged Russian operatives to use social media to influence the election.

Absolutely not, Parscale said on Fox NewsThe Story with Martha MacCallum at the time. He emphasized that the Trump campaign got the data it used here in America.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

In the United States, we actually have access to some of the best data, and the data we used on this campaign directly came from the Republican National Committee, and what they did after the 2012 election to build a data set like never seen before, Parscale said. We didnt need data, we didnt need it from anyone else, it was right here in the United States of America, and the best data is right here.

sehlinger@express-news.net
Are yall ready for an old-fashioned troll storm  Its about that time, Andrew Anglin, founder of neo-Nazi propaganda site DailyStormer.com, wrote in a Dec. 16 article that included the phone number, address and links to the social media profiles of a Montana real estate agent, and her family, friends and colleagues, according to a lawsuit filed April 18.

What followed, according to the complaint filed by the agent, Tanya Gersh, was an onslaught of anti-Semitic, hateful, harassing communications  including death threats, some directed at her 12-year-old son.

One Twitter user going by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the name of an anti-Semitic German emperor, tagged Ms. Gershs son in a tweet that read, psst kid, theres a free Xbox One inside this oven, according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Montana.

Anglin unleashed an army of internet trolls on Gersh, according to the lawsuit. He told readers she was pressuring the mother of white supremacist Richard Spencer to sell a property that Sherry Spencer owned in Whitefish, Montana, according to the lawsuit and a blog post by Spencer.

My case is a First Amendment case, Im going to give a First Amendment defense, Anglin said in an email.

Celebrities, politicians and even everyday people such as Gersh are increasingly falling victim to an internet trolls  online masters of mayhem and chaos, as a new study describes them  who try to create conflict and disruption online with harassing words or other bad behavior.

The new study by researchers Evita March and Natalie Sest at Federation University in Australia found that trolls, who use the anonymity of the internet to harass strangers online, are master manipulators of both cyber-settings and their victims emotions who share some of the same personality traits as psychopaths.

Psychopathy is part of whats called The Dark Tetrad of personality traits  ones with characteristics such as social manipulation, the drive for ruthless self-advancement and a lack of empathy. The researchers evaluated more than 400 people who took an online survey for some of these traits. Internet trolls scored high on trait psychopathy, as well as everyday sadism.

March and Sest identified a key distinction with online trolls. They tend to score higher in cognitive empathy but lower in affective empathy. So they can recognize and understand their victims emotions but arent able to identify with them.

That dangerous combination means your troll knows exactly what will hurt you, but doesnt feel your pain, March said.

They can understand that cognitive empathy part, like this has the potential to hurt somebody, but they lack the ability to emotionally share that experience, and due to high psychopathy, they also lack the ability to feel guilty about it, or take personal responsibility, said March, who has a Ph.D. in psychology.

Trolls tend to score high on trait psychopathy, research that includes this new study has shown.

Psychopathy actually also has two different types, primary and secondary, March said.

Primary psychopathy is associated with a lack of empathy or lack of guilt, she said.

Secondary psychopathy is more associated with impulsive and reckless behavior, said March, who plans to explore whether trolls more often display high primary or high secondary trait psychopathy.

I think establishing the difference between that in trolling will give us further information about whether this is just a reckless behavior or if it is an intentionally cruel behavior, where people who troll actually do lack that ability to even have expressed empathy, or affective empathy, for their victims, she said.

Twitter has taken steps in recent months to combat online abuse by identifying trolls, banning them for bad behavior, and prohibiting them from creating new accounts. The company banned Milo Yiannopoulos, an editor of the right-wing site Breitbart News, for participating in or inciting targeted abuse of individuals last year.

His account was reportedly suspended after he harassed Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones in tweets, which appears to have incited more hateful speech against the actress on Twitter as trolls taunted her with racial slurs and comparisons to the slain Cincinnati Zoo gorilla Harambe.

The Saturday Night Live comedian temporarily disabled her Twitter account last year over the incident.

Twitter trolls have taken a toll on other celebrities, too. Robin Williams daughter Zelda shut down her Twitter and Instagram accounts after users started sending her Photoshopped images of her dead fathers body.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other sites are under increased pressure to curb hate speech online, and now face fines in Europe if they fail to take action against terrorist propaganda or other violent content.

Marchs other research has found that that trolls are high on negative social behavior, meaning they feel reinforced when they cause mayhem or disruption in a social environment, she said.

So, for example, some people feel good when they have pro-social behavior, so when they help somebody, I helped a little old lady cross the road and I feel good about myself, whereas negative, or atypical social rewards are where you feel good about yourself because youve actually disrupted the social environment. And we found trolls were higher on that trait, she said of her previously published work.

This new study is part of a larger effort to map out the personality profile of an internet troll.

The traits that have been pretty established with internet trolls is they are more likely to be men, and theyre more likely to be higher on everyday sadism, so they enjoy causing physical and psychological harm, and theyre more likely to be higher on psychopathy, March said. The new area we explored with our particular study was the difference between empathies.

A few more than 400 people took an online survey for the study, which evaluated them for certain personality traits and a propensity to troll. The section on trolling, for example, asked them to respond to statements such as although some people think my posts/comments are offensive, I think they are funny.

Low affective empathy, the study notes, is likely a crucial aspect to trolling  if trolls empathised with their victim, perhaps they would be more likely to reduce or refrain from engaging in the behaviour.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Not all questions have been answered by this study, March said.

What were hoping to do, I guess, is really complete the profile of your typical internet troll, March said. And once we complete that profile we can actually start working on education, and prevention for people who do troll.

March also pointed out that trolls and so-called cyberbullies dont share the same personality traits, even though they both engage in violent or negative behavior online.

What we do know is that the internet troll is different from the internet cyberbully, she said. For example, the internet troll commonly has no deficits in their self-esteem, whereas the cyberbullies have been pretty consistently shown to have lower self-esteem. So we know that they are different, but we are trying to find out how theyre different.

Though some people might think of internet trolls and cyberbullies as synonymous, March said, its common for the cyberbully to know his or her victims in real life, whereas the troll usually is not personally acquainted with his or her target and is more focused generally on creating mayhem.

Meanwhile, the Southern Poverty Law Center is helping Gersh, the Montana real estate agent, who wasnt available for comment, in her fight. Gersh denies Anglins claim that she was trying to extort money from Spencer, according to the lawsuit.

sehlinger@express-news.net

Twitter: @samehlinger
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Gov. Greg Abbott, saying he has kept the promises he made when he launched his first campaign for governor here, returned to the Alamo City on Friday to ask voters to give him four more years so he can take on the liberals trying to make Texas inroads.

To keep Texas the very best state in the United States, Im running for reelection, Abbott told an enthusiastic crowd at The Depot in Sunset Station. Im willing to take on liberals, Im willing to take on Washington, D.C., and Im counting on you to have my back.

Vocal protesters among the crowd were led out of the hall before the governor spoke, introduced by his daughter, Audrey. One heckler briefly interrupted his speech, but was drowned out by supporters chanting Abbotts name.

Abbott said he wants to build on a first term that included tax reductions, education initiatives, an expansion of gun rights, restrictions on abortion and an emphasis on border security.

He touted the controversy-stirring sanctuary cities bill he signed into law this year, and he invoked the memory of slain San Antonio Police Officer Miguel Moreno in citing new police protections.

Abbott talked about his ties to San Antonio, where his wife grew up and where his brother, who served in the Navy, has retired.

Its great to be back in a town where I once waited on tables. Its great to be back in a town where I married my wonderful wife. And it is great to be back in a town where I launched my first campaign for governor, where we went on to win by 20 percentage points, Abbott said.

Among a small group of protesters across the street before the event started was George de la Garza, a retired architect holding a sign that said, No Sanctuary 4 Abbott.

He doesnt look out for the disenfranchised, for the minorities and the poor, said de la Garza, of San Antonio. We have to say, San Antonio is not a sanctuary for you.

Protester Rebecca Flores, 74, also referred to the sanctuary cities law, which includes a provision to ensure law officers can ask people who are detained about their immigration status.

I'm worried that the color of my skin will prompt police officers to ask me about my papers, she said, adding that the law will divide our community and it won't keep us safe. Even today, (immigrants) are staying away from clinics ... They're hiring people to go to the grocery stores just to buy groceries for them. We are creating a divided community where people are afraid to know who's living near.

Abbott supporters also were passionate.

Hes been a good leader, pointing the state in the right direction, said Ford Bible, 73, of San Antonio.

Gerardo Jerry Garcia, 45, of San Antonio, said Abbott has great ideas  about making the state strong economically while serving a diverse population and said he shares the governors Catholic faith.

I will say that I invite all my fellow Hispanics and Catholics to support someone who's done great things for this state, he said.

Earlier in the day, Abbott toured the Boeing global services and support site, one of the largest military aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities in the world.

Forrest Milburn contributed to this report

pfikac@express-news.net

Twitter: @pfikac
Courtesy Photo / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Immigration officials Thursday deported a Salvadoran man whod been arrested in South Texas and who is wanted in his home country on charges that he took part in the killing of a federal prosecutor.

Border Patrol agents apprehended Carlos Vidal Navarro Montecinos, 22, in 2015 near Mission, according to a news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Navarro was ordered deported the next year, but his appeal of the removal order wasnt decided until June, according to ICE. The agency would not say why the case took so long or if hed claimed asylum.
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A well-known immigration expert speaking in San Antonio on Thursday borrowed from the presidents campaign platform and a recent release from a Broadway star to illustrate the polar opposites of the U.S. immigration debate.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, said immigration is too often presented as a political issue with two sides, America First, a slogan with a controversial history championed by President Donald Trump, and Immigrants get the job done, a reference to the recent release Immigrants (We Get the Job Done) by musician and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The people who get lost in the debate are those who want to live in an America that puts Americans First, but also want to live in America that is welcoming and inclusive, said Noorani, who spoke at the Plaza Club on Thursday. He was invited by the World Affairs Council of San Antonio and the Mexican Consulate General in San Antonio.

Noorani is the author of There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration, released this year. He said he interviewed 60 people across the country, mostly faith, law enforcement and business leaders, for the book.

What I found was, for the majority of Americans, the immigration debate is not about politics and policy, its about culture, Noorani said

There is a fear among many Americans that immigration will change their way of life and change the culture of the U.S. Noorani, who advocates for comprehensive immigration reform that would provide a pathway to citizenship for those here illegally who meet certain criteria and a reform of the legal immigration system, said its perilous for immigration activists to not take their opponents concerns seriously.

By reaching out to them through religious, business and law enforcement leaders  traditional conservative allies who tend to oppose draconian immigration laws  those pushing for immigration reform can win over skeptics, he said.

I firmly believe that the majority of Americans, they respect or they love the Jose or Mohammad that they know, but they still have questions about the Jose or the Mohammad that they dont know, he said.

jbuch@express-news.net

Twitter: @jlbuch
On his first trip as mayor, Ron Nirenberg is in Virginia Beach for Sister Cities International board meetings, along with the groups annual conference.

Hes currently chairman-elect of the Sister Cities board and will ascend to chairman next year, in the midst of San Antonios Tricentennial celebration.

The relationships between San Antonio and its international counterparts go far beyond ceremonial exchanges of trinkets and the signing of sister-cities proclamations. Nirenberg, who has been involved with the sister-cities organization since shortly after he was elected to the council in 2013, is poised to parlay his work with the organization into an effort to boost the citys economic development.

The majority of our GDP growth over the past eight to 10 years has been the result of foreign direct investment and export-import activity of local businesses expanding their markets overseas, having distribution and supply lines with partners across the border and so forth, he said. So the global economy has benefited local San Antonio businesses and local San Antonio families in an extraordinary way. Sister Cities is the network on which many of these partnerships are born.

As experts steeped in international affairs will tell you, economic partnership doesnt just happen, he said. Its created after years of building relationships through cultural exchange, through education exchange, through artistic partnerships, which eventually lead to an opportunity for countries through private-sector businesses to do work together.

San Antonios first sister city is Monterrey, Mexico  a relationship that predates the creation of Sister Cities International. Since then, the Alamo City has forged sister-city and friendship-city relationships with a dozen others in India, Japan, China, Taiwan and Spain. Tel Aviv, Israel and Darmstadt, Germany, are both friendship cities.

Ramiro Cavazos, president and CEO of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said Nirenberg has shown a commitment to international economic development.

I am very pleased that we have a mayor who has a global perspective that will be beneficial to growing San Antonios economy internationally, he said. Weve already seen proof in this short time that hes been in office that he understands the important role that San Antonio can play to help our businesses grow.

Cavazos  who noted that Nirenbergs wife, Erika Prosper, is the chambers 2018 chair-elect  said the mayor has sent a strong message from San Antonio about its plans, pointing to the new councils first action: passing a resolution in support of the Paris climate accord.

Its clear that signing onto the Paris climate agreement is very strong symbolism that he sends to everyone, not just those in Austin and Washington, but to other countries about our desire to be part of the global solutions for the challenges that we have, he said.

Nirenberg is slated to lead a delegation of local business leaders to Israel in October in a joint trade mission between the Hispanic chamber and the Jewish Federation of San Antonio.

Nirenberg is expected to then go to Darmstadt.

jbaugh@express-news.net

Twitter: @jbaugh
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Civil rights groups challenging the states 2013 political boundaries rested their case Thursday after a state representative testified that her GOP colleagues discriminated against minority lawmakers by not allowing them to submit substantial changes to the redistricting maps.

Asked by lawyers for the NAACP if minority members of the House were allowed to have meaningful input into the congressional maps during the 2013 special session, District 110 state Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas, said leaders of the Legislatures redistricting committee wouldnt allow amendments.

No we were not able to, said Rose, who is African-American.

Asked if there was discrimination, she replied: I believe there was discrimination.

Rose was the last plaintiff witness in a redistricting trial here as minority groups try to convince a three-judge panel  Judges Orlando Garcia and Xavier Rodriguez, both of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, and Judge Jerry E. Smith of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals  that the GOP-controlled Legislature implemented the 2013 maps with intent to discriminate by race.

The plaintiffs argue that the 2013 maps should be invalidated because they include portions of the 2011 maps that the same panel found this spring to be in violation of the Voting Rights Act or the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because they were drawn with discriminatory intent and diluted the minority vote.

But attorneys for the state argue theres no evidence that Texas legislators intentionally discriminated, and that lawmakers cant be held liable for any racial discrimination in the 2013 maps because they were ordered by the court ahead of the 2012 primaries.

After slight tweaks, the Legislature adopted the courts interim maps and made them permanent in 2013.

In seeking answers, two of the judges also wondered if only minority lawmakers were shut out from making changes to the 2013 maps.

Smith asked Rose if nonminority Democrats also were limited in making amendments. Rose said she could not recall.

Rodriguez asked if Rose knew if nonminority members attempted to submit substantive amendments.

Rose replied, I believe so, but I just cant pinpoint as to what member it was.

Texas had been on a list of states that required the federal governments approval to change their election laws to ensure they were complying with the 1965 Voting Rights Act aimed at protecting minorities. In 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the federal oversight requirement.

If the panel rules the current Texas maps discriminate, the state once again would be forced back into federal oversight when it wants to redraw political boundaries.

Throughout the trial, lawyers for the state tried to poke holes in the plaintiffs case.

They challenged studies and testimony of the plaintiffs witnesses who alleged the state intentionally discriminated by cramming minorities into districts or splitting them up so they were outnumbered, in a manner that would help GOP candidates gain seats or keep them.

The states lawyers continuously asked witnesses for proof the Legislature intended to discriminate in drawing the maps.

For example, Harvard government Professor Stephen Ansolabehere, who testified about the negative effects the 2013 maps had on minority voting, was asked if he knew what factors the Legislature considered for those maps, or the 2011 maps that were invalidated by a federal court.

Ansolabehere said he did not.

University of Houston political science Professor Richard Murray said the courts already had proven it when it invalidated the 2011 maps.

The (2013 redistricting) legislation is a continuation of the 2011 map, Murray testified. It wasnt a new map. It was just a modification of the (2011) map.

The state begins its case today, and is expected to call three witnesses, including the chairman of the 2013 redistricting committee, Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo.

The states last witness, U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, may testify Saturday.

On March 10, the judicial panel ruled the Legislature knowingly discriminated in 2011 when it drew three of the states 36 congressional districts: District 23, represented by Hurd; District 27, held by Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi; and District 35, represented by Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin.

gcontreras@express-news.net

Twitter: @gmaninfedland
A state liquor store will be built on the Capital City Mall property as part of an ongoing diversification effort, according to a news release from the malls owners.

Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, a holding company that owns malls across the state, announced Wednesday that Fine Wine & Good Spirits will join Dicks Sporting Goods in the new retail strip that will replace the former Sears building at the Lower Allen Township site.

Fine Wine and Good Spirits is the retail sales arm of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, the states alcoholic beverage authority.

The incorporation of a premium liquor outlet is part of the PREITs overall remerchandising of the Capital City Mall asset, the company said in its release.

Earlier this year, Sears closed its anchor store at the Capital City Mall. PREIT subsequently demolished the former Sears building and began construction on a new pad of retail stores, to include a smaller Sears Appliance and Mattress center, as well as a Dicks Sporting Goods.

PREIT also announced in May that it had finalized a lease with Dave & Busters for a restaurant/arcade franchise to be located at Capital City Mall.

We are pleased to announce another step toward our goal of having all of our department store inventory leased by year end, Joseph Coradino, PREITs CEO, said in a release. The demand for these former department store spaces from an array of retailers demonstrates the high-quality, market dominant characteristics of PREITs portfolio, which will allow us to continue to enhance our properties and drive strong financial returns from our redevelopment program.

PREIT, a publicly traded company, has taken a hit to its stock value in the recent retail slump, which has seen a string of department store closings and continuing devaluation of malls and other traditional retail properties nationwide.

PREITs stock was peaking at over $25 per share in August and September of last year, but then started a slide downward to a low of $10.33 in May.

The companys announcement of a new strategy, seeking experiential tenants such as Dave & Busters, has seen a recovery of stock price over the last two months to $11.63 as of Thursday night.

The Fine Wine & Good Spirits and Dicks spaces are expected to be finished in the fall, while the Dave & Busters space is expected in 2018.
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San Antonio teen Jada Young will travel to Washington on Saturday as a member of the 2017-18 Girl Up teen adviser class for a United Nations Foundation summit to promote equality for girls around the world.

Jada will fly to the nations capital with her mother, Janet, for a weeklong conference that also promotes support for refugee girls.

The summit really strives to empower, educate and embolden the potential of every girl that attends, Jada said, so that other girls can go back to where theyre from and empower other girls in their states.

Girl Up, the U.N. Foundations adolescent girl campaign, encourages girls to take action in their communities around the globe where life is hard for girls. According to Girl Up, in the past seven classes, 117 teen advisers raised close to $500,000 and contributed more than 7,000 hours of service. The foundation said donations go to U.N. organizations and partnering agencies to help improve adolescent girls lives.

One of the summits goals is to support House Resolution 2408, the Protecting Girls Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act. The bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, and Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., would ensure displaced children have access to educational services and that the educational needs of girls and women are implemented in foreign assistance initiatives.

The conference also will include mentor training, community building training, core leadership training and advocacy training. Girl Up, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, has taken part in U.S. foreign policy milestones that include preventing early and forced marriage and improved birth registrations for all children.

Jada, one of 21 girls representing four countries and 14 different states, is a member of the eighth class of teen advisers.

Her advocacy training began through the Youth Advocacy Council of Healthy Futures of Texas. She also attended Advocacy Day at the Capitol in Austin and met with state representatives to talk about teens and womens health issues.

A sophomore at Keystone School, Jada said she learned about Girl Up in March, while reviewing summer abroad programs. She was taken by the message of the Girl Up WiSci STEAM Camp that promoted education in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, prompting her to start a local Girl Up chapter under the arm of the San Antonio Junior Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.

Jada donated her 15th birthday money gifts to Girl Up and, along with friends, raised $1,500 in a week. After the summit ends, her advocacy efforts will keep going after she returns to San Antonio with plans to volunteer at the Bexar County Juvenile Court.

When she isnt delving into math, science or robotics competitions, she taps into her artistic side, where she dabbles in acting, singing, spoken word performances and writing poetry.

Glimpses of her future in criminal justice law can be seen on brochure pages of prospective universities that hang on the wall of a space she calls College Corner. Trophies and awards from competitive swimming meets shes taken part in since she was 6 gleam beneath and beside the higher education wall art.

Jadas mother is a board member of Healthy Futures of Texas, which focuses on prevention of teen pregnancies in Texas. She said she raised her daughter to speak on behalf of those who dont have a voice and to reach out to other youths.

When youve been blessed in life and you see that these kids have so much opportunity, you just try to teach them they need to give back, Janet Young said. We need to show them whats possible but then understand they are tremendously blessed. She has a voice and I want to see her use it for good.

vtdavis@express-news.net
AUSTIN  Ahead of a special legislative session defined by hot-button measures, House Speaker Joe Straus on Friday sharpened his message against divisive social issues and said top leaders instead should focus on challenges such as reversing Texas slide in a new business ranking.

The San Antonio Republican, who has stood firm against a far-reaching bathroom bill, said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News that his chamber will look at all the issues put forth by Gov. Greg Abbott for lawmakers consideration, which are championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

But he said his focus, and that of other House members, remains on core issues such as school finance.

My position is very well known. And let me say this very clearly: I know how to govern without being an extremist, Straus said. I know how to govern, trying to bring people together to focus on issues that really matter to all Texans, and I think thats where our focus ought to be in the special session. Its where our focus should be in any regular session as well.

The bathroom proposal would keep transgender people from using multi-occupancy restrooms of the gender with which they identify in government buildings, or at least in public schools.

Straus, along with advocates for transgender people and business groups, has voiced concern about the possible economic effect of boycotts because the bill is viewed as discriminatory. He also has expressed a worry that it could hurt transgender people.

I see no good reason to promote a divisive bathroom bill when it does nothing but harm to the economy, and some very vulnerable people could be harmed, Straus said.

His comments came just ahead of the special session, which begins Tuesday, and a day after Patrick lambasted Straus. Patrick blamed the speaker for squelching Senate-backed issues such as the bathroom bill in the regular session, and he slammed the speakers school finance plan, calling it a Ponzi scheme.

Straus, who has been a thorn in the side of Abbott and Patrick on red-meat issues, said he considered it actually encouraging that Patrick was talking about school finance. Straus has said that issue is more worthy of attention than most of those on the special-session agenda.

On Friday, when Abbott was showcasing his record as he announced for re-election in San Antonio, Straus made his point about the need to focus on core issues by citing CNBCs annual ranking of Americas Top States for Business. In it, Texas fell from No. 1 to No. 4. The No. 1 state was Washington. Its governor and both senators are Democrats.

While No. 4 is not a terrible place to be, I dont like the direction. And I think that our Texas political leadership ought to be focused on making Texas No. 1 and reverse that slide, Straus said.

The CNBC study also ranked Texas as No. 34 in education and No. 37 in quality of life, partly because Texas doesnt have statewide protections against discrimination.

Abbott, asked about the ranking on a stop at Boeing Co.s global services site, blamed the troubled oil industry.

In that story, what CNBC noted is that Texas was the best state of all states for the past decade. They made clear that Texas had the No. 1 workforce in America, the No. 1 infrastructure system in America. And CNBC pointed out that the reason why Texas suffered this time was because of the downturn in oil, Abbott said.

Listen, oil got cut in half, and Texas is still an energy state, he said. The reason why Im here is because this is an example of my efforts to ensure that we are expanding jobs in areas that have nothing whatsoever to do with energy so that when oil prices do take a tumble in the future, we wont suffer this type of setback.

pfikac@express-news.net

Staff Writer Rye Druzin contributed to this report.
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President Donald Trump once again downsized his expectations for his big, beautiful wall, telling reporters that the barrier along the border with Mexico could be less than half the 2,000 miles he originally touted.

Some of the presidents other comments about the wall raised eyebrows, including doubling down on the promise to put solar panels atop it and warning that it needs to provide visibility through the barrier because of smugglers who throw large sacks of drugs over.

Trumps wall was a key and controversial campaign promise, but hes gone back and forth on whether it would need to stretch from coast to coast.

On Wednesday, he told reporters on Air Force One while en route to Paris that the border would only need 700 to 900 miles of physical barrier, excerpts published in various media outlets indicate.

Trumps comments initially were made off the record, but the White House on Thursday released a transcript of some of his comments after the president asked a reporter why she hadnt reported on what hed said the night before.

And remember this, its a 2,000-mile border, but you dont need 2,000 miles of wall because you have a lot of natural barriers, Trump said, according to excerpts released to the traveling press and posted online. You have mountains. You have some rivers that are violent and vicious. You have some areas that are so far away that you dont really have people crossing.

There are about 650 miles of existing border fencing, most of it in Arizona, California and New Mexico, that was completed in 2010. Trump referenced that as well.

You know, weve already started the wall because were fixing large portions of wall right now, he said. Were taking wall that was good but its in very bad shape, and were making it new.

Adding solar panels to the border wall, which would cost billions of dollars to construct, would increase the cost by hundreds of millions of dollars to billions of dollars, the San Antonio Express-News reported last month.

In an apparent reference to incidents in Arizona in which smugglers used catapults to launch loads of drugs over the border fence, Trump said: As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you dont see them  they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? Its over. As crazy as that sounds, you need transparency through that wall.

Hidalgo County Constables Sgt. Dan Broyles, who works in a precinct that includes a stretch of the Rio Grande, said its important U.S. law enforcement can see through the fence.

It always makes you feel better when you can see whos on the other side of the fence waiting for you, Broyles said.

Chris Cabrera, deputy spokesman for the union representing Border Patrol agents and vice president of the local in the Rio Grande Valley, agreed that agents need to see through the wall.

He also repeated the National Border Patrol Councils position that a borderlong fence is not needed.

Id like to see some type of barrier like what we have in the Rio Grande Valley, Cabrera said. The bollard fencing combined with camera systems and sensors works well. But in some areas, like Big Bend, putting up a fence would be redundant. Areas that are prone to flooding dont make sense either. It really depends on the area.

The wall remains unfunded, although the House Appropriations Committee this week passed a homeland security budget funding $1.6 billion for border barriers. The first segments likely will be built in the Rio Grande Valley and look like the existing border fence  14-foot upright steel beams  or the existing levee wall system  concrete shores with shorter fencing on top.

Thursday wasnt the first time a member of the Trump administration suggested the campaign promise of building a coast-to-coast wall wouldnt become reality.

In April, during testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said his department was conducting a study about where to build physical barriers.

I will say this, that its unlikely that we will build a wall or physical barrier from sea to shining sea but it is very likely, Im committed to putting it where the men and women (of the Border Patrol) say we should put it. Kelly said.

During last years presidential campaign, Trump himself told MSNBC that only about 1,000 miles of wall are needed because we have natural barriers.

Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber, a vocal opponent of the wall, Thursday agreed with the president that there are existing natural barriers that preclude the need for construction.

To me that fence was a waste of money, Schmerber said, referring to a short section of fencing that runs through downtown Eagle Pass. We already have a natural barrier. The river.

However, Schmerber, who spent 26 years in the Border Patrol, scoffed at Trumps concerns about catapults.

I dont think the dopers are going to be stupid enough to be throwing the dope over the big wall and not knowing where its going to land on the other side and whos going to get it, he said. It doesnt make sense.

jbuch@express-news.net

Twitter: @jlbuch
In the summer of 1975, the U.S. Senate was considering whether to place Texas under the restrictive supervision of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The move would have required this state to get preclearance from the Justice Department or a D.C. federal court before implementing any changes in its voting laws.

Then-Gov. Dolph Briscoe bitterly resented the idea, and made it known in a letter he sent to all 100 members of the Senate. Briscoe called the proposal totally unnecessary and said it reflects unfairly on the people of Texas.

In making his case that Texas had no problems with voting rights, Briscoe pointed to historic progress by the state: creating a system of postcard registration, providing bilingual election material in all counties with a Latino population of at least 5 percent and reducing precinct sizes to shorten drive times for voters.

Conspicuously absent in Briscoes letter was any reference to redistricting. Thats because no honest defense existed.

Then, as now, redistricting was the mechanism by which this states political leaders scientifically diminished the impact of minority voters for partisan purposes. In Briscoes day, his fellow Democrats  who exerted near-absolute control of this states politics  were the main offenders. Nowadays, with Republicans in a dominant position, its the GOP.

That brings us to this weeks federal redistricting trial in San Antonio. There are two issues at play:

1. Should the three-judge panel throw out the states existing congressional and Texas House maps?

2. Should the courts return Texas to the preclearance purgatory it was sentenced to in 1975 (and which it escaped with a 2013 Supreme Court decision which threw out the old formulas for applying Section 5)?

The second question explains the upside-down nature of this trial.

The Texas attorney generals office, which once fought to prevent the courts from redrawing this states 2011 redistricting plan, is now defending those court-drawn maps. The various plaintiffs, who urged the courts to step in six years ago, are now trying to throw out those court-drawn plans.

State attorneys embraced the court maps (essentially rubber-stamped by the Legislature in 2013) because they knew that the more prolonged the legal process became, the greater the risk that preclearance could reemerge.

Plaintiffs have argued this week that the court-drawn maps were always meant to be temporary and did not sufficiently address the racial gerrymandering of the 2011 plans. Four months ago, the San Antonio-based judicial panel essentially agreed, stating that the 2013 plans are heavily derived from the 2011 plans.

As this weeks proceedings have rolled on  with endless references to VAPs (voting age populations), ecological inference and opportunity districts  much of the testimony has zeroed in on U.S. District 23.

The plaintiffs argue that while District 23 is supposed to be a Latino opportunity district, it isnt performing as such. They point to the fact that this sprawling district  which extends from San Antonio to El Paso  is represented by Will Hurd, an African-American Republican, even though voter analyses have shown that Pete Gallego, his Democratic opponent in the last two elections, was the candidate of choice for Latinos.

District 23 is a fascinating case study when it comes to the sophisticated ways that gerrymandering can work these days. The plaintiffs have argued, persuasively, that GOP lawmakers substituted low-turnout Latino precincts for high-turnout ones, in an attempt to dilute the impact of Latino voters in the district.

A map proposed by the Mexican American Legislative Caucus would address that issue by taking the Bexar County portion of the district  whose shape currently resembles the profile of Ms. Pacman  and replacing North Side precincts with some in the south and central parts of the county.

District 23, however, is not an ideal case study when it comes to explaining election results. Hurd is a uniquely engaging politician and has campaigned with more energy than Gallego. This trial has revealed that overall turnout in District 23 grew 15.3 percent from 2012 to 2016, while Latino turnout in the district grew at a faster rate, by 20.7 percent. Nonetheless, Gallego, the preferred Latino choice, lost in 2016.

An attorney representing the state responded by asking, Is it possible that Will Hurd just might have been a better candidate?

Its the kind of question that no redistricting trial can answer.

ggarcia@express-news.net

Twitter: @gilgamesh470
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At this stage theres no point in changing because until the amalgamation has taken place from a departmental level and they seem to be able to work in an efficient manner, why would you comply to any change at all, he said.
Because of the many issues we are facing today  toxicity problems, deficiency problems, soil issues, climate conditions  we need plants which are tolerant to these issues and one of the best ways to cope with these issues is through the use of genetics and breeding.
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Billie Lourd has penned a touching letter in honour of her late mother Carrie Fisher winning a Disney Legends Award.

Carrie Fisher and Billie Lourd

The late 'Star Wars' actress - who passed away in December 2016 after suffering from cardiac arrest aged 60 - was awarded the highest honor The Walt Disney Company can bestow on an individual during the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California on Friday (14.07.17).

And although her 24-year-old daughter Billie couldn't be there to accept the award on her mother's behalf, she wrote a touching letter which was read out by Disney chairman Bob Iger.

The letter read: "As far back as I can remember, my mom and I have been Disney fanatics. I was so obsessed with Ariel that I wanted to change my name. We went to Disneyland so much that I now realise she might have even loved it more than I did.

"Becoming part of the Disney family was truly an amazing moment for her. She secretly always wanted to be a Disney princess, so getting to be a Disney princess and a Disney legend would have been her ultimate dream.

"I wish I could be there to accept this award on her behalf, but unfortunately, I am currently working on 'American Horror Story'. I am beyond grateful to Mr. Iger and everyone at Disney for this incredible honour. Thank you again, and may the force be with you always."

Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that the 'Scream Queens' actress has been named the sole beneficiary of Carrie's estate.

According to court documents, Billie is set to inherit several bank accounts, a 2016 Tesla S, full ownership of several LLCs and a life insurance policy.

Personal items including jewellery, artwork and collectables will now belong to Billie, and she will also gain the rights to her mother's public image and likeness, as well as her intellectual property rights including ongoing proceeds from Carrie's books, specials, trademarks and copyrights.
Priyanka Chopra was seen on the sets of her third Hollywood film Isnt It Romantic with Adam Devine dressed in a ruffled pink frock.
Karl Mayer, a world leader in the production of warp knitting and warp preparation machines, is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2017. The company hosted an in-house show at its headquarters in Obertshausen, Germany, on July 6, 2017. The event gave an insight into Karl Mayers production technology and likely textile developments of the future.The celebration brought together customers from all over the world. More than 750 guests came from 50 countries. Karl Mayer was presenting itself to the visitors as a company, which is ideally placed to face the future.

Karl Mayer, a world leader in the production of warp knitting and warp preparation machines, is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2017. The company hosted an in-house show at its headquarters in Obertshausen, Germany, on July 6, 2017. The event gave an insight into Karl Mayer's production technology and likely textile developments of the future.#

During a guided tour, they were shown the completely renovated component production department, an assembly hall, which was only opened at the end of last year, and the modern development centre.Over the last five years, Karl Mayer has invested extensively in improving the competitiveness of its high-tech locations in Germany, Italy, and Japan, and has spent a total of 60 million. The money was invested in new plant, modernising the production facilities, and new IT systems.In the development centre, the guests were treated to a unique, multimedia innovation show. The impressive, in-house show clearly demonstrated what could be achieved for its customers through team spirit, passion, a high level of expertise, and an understanding of the market.The in-house show was demonstrating nine partially revamped and newly developed machines from Karl Mayers warp knitting, technical textiles, and warp preparation business units, as well as new textile developments having the potential to generate new business. The visitors were extremely impressed by the show. (GK)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Aishwarya Rai & Abhishek Bachchan

Ever since Amitabh Bachchan had tweeted, "Not coming to Toronto IIFA. IIFA says my services are not required," the entire Bachchan parivaar has boycotted IIFA awards.

On the top of that, Aishwarya has also her own personal reason to skip IIFA i.e., Salman Khan. It's obvious that she don't want to indulge herself into unwanted attention.

Recommended Video Salman Khan REASON BEHIND Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan NOT attending IIFA ? | FilmiBeat

Shahrukh Khan

Thanks to Shahrukh Khan's upcoming film, Jab Harry Met Sejal and the shooting schedule of Aanand L Rai's next, SRK will be the another celeb, who will not be seen at IIFA this year.

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Recently, Kareena was quoted as saying that she gets scared when she's away from her baby Taimur Ali Khan. Reportedly, the actress is currently focusing on Taimur and prepping for her next film, Veere Di Wedding.

Priyanka Chopra

Yesterday, Priyanka landed in Mumbai which evidently means that she won't be attending the awards this year.

Ranbir Kapoor

Like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, we hear even Ranbir will skip IIFA 2017 despite being in New York, as he will be giving his entire time to the left schedule of the Dutt biopic.

Aamir Khan

Actor Aamir Khan, who is famous for NOT attending any kind of award function, will also not be in attendance at IIFA 2017.

Akshay Kumar

Another Superstar, who doesn't believe much in awards is Akshay Kumar, and it's quite obvious that Mr Kumar will rather be busy shooting his film 'Gold' in UK than attending IIFA 2017.

Kangana Ranaut!

She's the lady Aamir Khan of the industry, when it comes to attending an awards gala.
Prateik Babbar To Play Tiger's Nemesis

Yes, you heard that right! The makers of Baaghi 2 have roped in Prateik Babbar to play the main antagonist in Baaghi 2.

Prateik To Be Relaunched In Bollywood By Sajid Nadiadwala

The actor will be re-launched by producer Sajid Nadiadwala in the Ahmed Khan directed Baaghi sequel as the young negative lead.

He Is Tiger's Childhood Friend

Not many people know that Prateik Babbar is Tiger Shroff's childhood friend. A source close to the development was quoted as saying, "It is an important role and Prateik suits the character perfectly. He was signed recently and is extremely excited because Tiger is a childhood friend and this is the first time they will be sharing screen space together."

Prateik's Filmography

The actor made his debut in Bollywood with Aamir Khan's romcom Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, featuring Imran Khan and Genelia D'Souza in lead roles. This was followed by films like Dhobi Ghat, Aarakshan, My Friend Pinto, Umrika and Issaq, before disappearing into the blue.

Baaghi 2 To Go On Floors With A Song

Reportedly, Tiger-Disha's Baaghi 2 will go on floors in August with a song, which also happens to be one of the opening sequences.

It Will Be Quite Natural To Be On Screen With Disha Patani

Tiger Shroff would be sharing screen space with his alleged lady love Disha Patani for the first time. The actor was quoted as saying to Mumbai Mirror, "I am very excited. I have known her since even before Baaghi. We get along really well, personally, we share a great camaraderie. I think it will be quite fun and natural to be on screen with her."
Karisma Kapoor

Karisma Kapoor has blast in Europe and is seen sporting a super cool black bikini.

Just For Fun

Karisma Kapoor is seen having some fun! So cool right?

Europe Trip

She really enjoyed her European trip to the fullest.

Calm & Cool

This has to be the calmest picture ever! What say, folks?

Boat Ride

Karisma Kapoor is surely enjoying her boat ride.

London Calling

Karisma Kapoor poses in front of the iconic red telephone booth in London.

Nostalgia!

While having so much fun, of course anyone would feel nostalgic.

The Sun & River

The sun, river and Karisma all in one picture! It's just perfect.

Wine & Dine

Karisma Kapoor wines and dines like a Queen.

Strolling!

She even walked the streets of London like a commoner.

That Car!

The lovely Karisma Kapoor says hello from her fancy car!
Salmans Romantic Gesture For Katrina

When it was Salman's chance to talk to media, he consulted Anupam Kher about the "date" of the IIFA Awards was. Given his quick wit, Salman then added, "I am very bad with dates... The only date I remember is Katrina's birthday."

Recommended Video Salman Khan KISSES Katrina Kaif at IIFA 2017 Press Conference in New York | FilmiBeat

Salman Kisses Katrina

He paused and added that it is Katrina's birthday on July 16. He then started singing "Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday dear Katrina", before moving forward to give her a side hug and a peck on the cheek.

Awww!

"Katrina Kaif, who will celebrate her birthday in the Big Apple, smiled away."

Katrinas Romantic One-liner For Salman

Later, at a limited media gathering, when Katrina was asked a memorable thing she did when she was 18, she said, "I met Salman."

Whats Salmans Plan For Kats Bday?

When Salman was asked what he is planning to do for Katrina's birthday, then Katrina said: "It's not a national event"

Salmans Funny Reply On Kats Bday

Salman then promptly quipped: "India mein toh chhutti hai... Ab US mein bhi ho jaayega (It's a holiday in India, and it might happen in US too)."

Too Much Talent In One Picture

Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Anupam Kher, Kriti Sanon, Sushant Singh Rajput and Varun Dhawan too were on the stage and were talking about their IIFA experience one by one.

Kat-Alia Look Adorbs

The BFFs, Katrina and Alia are looking damn cute in this picture. Don't we just love their bonding?

The Shaandaar Jodi

The Shaandaar co-stars Alia Bhatt and Shahid Kapoor were seen having a gala time during IIFA press conference.

How Gorgeous!

Let's take a moment to appreciate how gorgeous did Katrina Kaif look at the IIFA press conference.
Plot

A young lad Mohan (Suraj Bisht) from 'Garhwal' relocates to Delhi to become a model. He lands straight into a modelling competition where boys clad in undies are being asked lowbrow questions on why they should win the title. When Mohan calls his smile his biggest asset, the team of judges including the social butterfly Sonal Modi (Raveena Tandon) ridicules and rejects him.

Call it luck or so, Mohan chances upon Sonal's visiting card and gets in touch with her. She invites him home and slips into a lacy nightgown ultimately seducing him. Once the act is done, she slips a stack of cash into his hands and rechristens him as Afzar, her toyboy whom she introduces as her trainer to the world.

In a parallel track, a coffee shop waitress named Raina (Arpita Chatterjee) lives a double life and has a dark secret. Her boss, Neil (Areesz Ganddi) is a homosexual man who is ghosted. (Areesz Ganddi). Her neighbour is a French national named Benoit (Simon Frenay) who is unable to erase a tragedy from his past.

Shab revolves around how the stories of these characters intersect with each other and leave a major impact on their lives.

Direction

Onir's Shab features a three part narrative with the titles- Monsoon, Autumn and Winter each talking about the changes in moods of the characters' relationships. While the idea may seem great on paper, it doesn't translate effectively on the big screen. The narratives run haywire throwing you into a fit of confusion at several junctures.

Performances

Raveena Tandon and Ashish Bist deliver what the script demands but fail to touch your hearts. Arpita Chatterjee is spontaneous but once again it's the writing which lets her down. Simon Frenay and Areesz Ganddi put up a good show. Sanjay Suri's cameo adds no value to the film.

Technical Aspects

Even at the run-time of 108 minutes, Shabh seems a lazy paced film. Irene Dhar Malik and Onir's editing looks a bit wobbly at places when it comes to narration.

Music

O Saathi by Arijit Singh is a melodious composition. The rest of the songs too make a good listen but fail to make its way onto your lips.

Verdict

Shab falters when it comes to execution and leaves you unsatiated with lots of questions lingering in your mind. Definitely not one of Onir's remarkable films! Giving it a miss won't make a difference.
Kannada cinemas have never been taken seriously by multiplexes in Karnataka. Films of our state have constantly been shown disregard and brushed aside when it comes to films of other languages. This causes the producers and film makers to suffer, resulting in lesser number of films from Sandalwood.

Why this injustice? Why should Kannada films suffer over other movies, right here in our land? Why are nobody bothered about getting a solution to that problem? There is no point in asking multiplexes since they have been constantly shrugging the whole scenario as if nothing has happened.

Why are we talking about this? Well, again, a few Kannada cinemas have been kicked out of multiplexes to make way for movies of other languages. These two Kannada films are the last week releases, Hombanna and Katha Vichitra.

Despite getting good responses from the audience, multiplexes in Bengaluru are having second thoughts of letting these films continue for one more week. Most of them have kicked these two films out of all their screens after just one week.

The film teams of Hombanna and Katha Vichitra have approached the multiplex owners and have had conversations with them regarding this matter. The outcome of the meeting? Nothing. Multiplex owners have refused to budge.

Want to know another saddening situation? Both the films were family entertainers, yet, were refused to be given prime time slots for the display in multiplexes. Firstly, they give just one week's time for small time Kannada movies. Secondly, they do not give prime time slots, even if it is just for a week.

Last week, seven movies were released simultaneously. Most of the movies in those seven might have been kicked out of the multiplexes by now. With attitude like this from multiplexes, Kannada films have nowhere to go and nothing to depend on. We wish this sorts out soon enough so that nobody has to undergo losses.
In the summer of 1967, the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand held a series of informal meetings in the beach resort of Bang Saen, near Bangkok.

Southeast Asia was in the midst of a great transformation, still dealing with the political and territorial consequences the retreat of colonial powers following World War Two. Indonesia and Malaysia had ended a series of border skirmishes only a year earlier. The Vietnam War was at its height.

Against this backdrop, there was an apparent sense of urgency. Thanat Khoman, Thailands foreign minister at the time, suggested a regional grouping, just the latest attempt by the Southeast Asian countries to join forces. But this time, it worked. On August 8, 1967, the five countries agreed to create the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, now widely known as the Asean.

The five foreign ministers who signed the agreement each delivered a speech, singing the praises of an idea whose time appeared to have come. Sinnathamby Rajaratnam, Singapores foreign minister, perhaps said it best.

We must now think at two levels, he said. We must think not only of our national interests but posit them against regional interests; that is a new way of thinking about our problems.

From those humble beginnings, Asean has grown dramatically. The regional bloc has grown to 10 countries and has issued joint proposals on banking, capital markets, free trade, food safety, and a multitude of other areas.

For all this, there is a fear that progress has stalled.

Click for full view

Whats the difference?

The differences between Southeast Asian countries are stark. Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines are poor but growing fast, boasting large populations that give them real potential. Brunei and Singapore are the exact opposite.

There are Muslim countries, Buddhist countries and, in the case of the Philippines, a largely Christian country. There are also different languages, different legal systems, and vastly different political arrangements. Most of the countries in the region are democracies, but Brunei is a sultanate, Vietnam is a one-party state, and one man, Hun Sen, has dominated Cambodia for decades.

Carlos 'Sonny' Dominguez, the Philippines finance minister, thinks that a lot of the differences between these countries  including differences in their economies  can be traced to their colonial histories. In Southeast Asia, only Thailand has never been under the yoke of a colonial master.

We are now throwing off those artificial barriers that were imposed by the colonisers here, he told FinanceAsia. Its really amazing that were moving as far as we are given the differences weve had.

But quite how far the Asean has moved is open to debate. The Asean Economic Community (AEC)  one of three pillars of the organisation, alongside security and socio-cultural links  was put in place by the end of 2015. Tariffs on goods have been slashed or eliminated in much of the region. Infrastructure projects have been mooted to make travel between Asean countries easier.

These are all positive steps but they do not appear to have made much difference to trade. Intra-Asean exports made up around 25.8% of all exports from the region in 2015, according to the organisations most recent data. That is not a marked improvement on the 22.76% share of intra-regional exports recorded in 2000.

The change in the share of imports is even less impressive  it was 21% in 2000 and 21.8% in 2015.

So while the regions economies have together certainly grown since 2000, they do not appear to have grown closer together.

There is a good chance that these intra-regional trade figures will improve in the years to come. After ostensibly hitting its 2015 targets, the AEC is into its next phase, which should pull down some of the barriers to trade in services. But it is clear that the Asean has not been on an inexorable path towards greater economic integration.

The Aseans aborted free trade agreement with the European Union is a good example of the lack of unity among Asean nations. After failing to strike a region-wide free trade agreement in 2007-09, the EU instead settled on signing free trade agreements with individual countries. It has now signed a free trade agreement with Singapore, finalised negotiations with Vietnam, and is in discussions with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

The AEC is still in its very early stages, Linda Yueh, adjunct professor of economics at London Business School, said on the sidelines of Maybanks Invest Asean Event in Kuala Lumpur. The Asean has not yet got enough of an integrated approach, and its still going to be some years before the region has the institutional framework to be able to speak with one voice.

The inability to speak as one has taken on greater urgency over the last decade, as China has risen from an emerging economy to a global superpower. Although the bloc has signed a free trade agreement with China, the Asean has been unable to take a common line on the South China Sea, despite the Chinese encroachment that threatens their interests to varying degrees.

Chinas Belt and Road Initiative, potentially a boon for the region, is being negotiated on a country-by-country basis.

Lim Hong Hin, deputy secretary general of the Asean for the AEC, points out that intra-regional trade is the largest trade source for the bloc as a whole. He pointed to the work done putting common frameworks in place, in particular those of the AEC.

Asean as an organisation has also contributed to ... economic progress by way of providing market certainty through agreed rules and cooperation frameworks, and by providing a collective vision and directions for the regions economy in going forward, he told FinanceAsia.

The bloc can certainly not be accused of a lack of ambition when it comes to pushing greater Asean integration. But a look at the progress so far in the financial and capital markets shows what has held it back  and just how much work is still to be done.

Dont bank on it

The bloc has pulled off several serious-sounding deals covering banks and capital markets. But the problems facing these agreements highlight one of the main issues holding back Asean integration.

Banking regulations are notoriously complex and the task of bringing them together in countries that speak different languages and have vastly different legal systems is even more so.

But one Asean initiative at the very least represents a big step forward.

The Asean Banking Integration Framework (ABIF), approved in December 2014, was a critical milestone, according to a March 2015 statement from the regions finance ministers and central bankers. The move was part of a broader Asean Financial Integration Framework, which seeks a widespread integration of financial and capital markets in the region.

Underpinning the ABIF is the notion of qualified Asean banks, or QABs. In theory, these domestic champions could win the right to expand throughout Asean, creating outposts in markets across the region. But a cursory look at the details shows how unambitious the plan really is.

QABs are not being given pan-Asean banking licenses. Instead, the whole notion of a qualified Asean bank relies on bilateral agreements between different national regulators and focuses only on specific institutions.

By 2020, each Asean country should have signed, or be near to signing, at least one bilateral QAB agreement. The timeline is two years tighter for the regions five-biggest banking markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

This is how business is often done in the Asean. Region-wide proposals become suggestions for bilateral links. Regulators tiptoe around competing interests in the region, ensuring that arguments are kept to a minimum but also hindering progress.

Indonesia and Malaysia have already signed an agreement, Malaysia and the Philippines have concluded negotiations, and several other bilateral negotiations are currently taking place, said the Aseans Lim. But the bilateral nature of these deals is part of the reason that bank analysts remain sceptical about how much difference the QAB scheme will make to a region that is dominated by domestic banks each eager to protect their turf.

The QAB scheme has not been as effective as hoped, said Ben You Ang, a bank analyst at CreditSights in Singapore. There is going to be some incremental increase in lending but there are a lot of problems too. Theres no central authority and every country has their own priorities and regulations which will hinder progress.

The incentives for QABs are also vague at this point, although the Asean could help by offering greater clarity. Boon-Hiong Chan, Deutsche Banks head of market advocacy in Asia Pacific, says the organisation is likely to give more details on what specific advantages QAB status offers, although he said it was hard to predict a timeline.

If Im an Asean bank applying for QAB status, what does the license give me? he asked. Do I have the ability to open more ATMs than if I was a foreign bank applying normally? Can my ATMs latch onto the national ATM structure? Were still waiting for details at this point.

Banking integration is not the only area where the best-laid plans in the Asean region have failed to make a lasting difference. The Asean has also put in serious work to try to better integrate capital markets in Southeast Asia  an effort that has yielded few tangible benefits.

In the second part of this feature next week we look at why the Asean Capital Markets Forum has failed to take off, and why Asean has failed to product international corporate titans.
PARK HILLS  Dr. Don VanHerck has been on Mineral Area Colleges board of trustees since 1974  nine years after the college formed from the roots of its predecessor, Flat River Junior College, which was established in 1922.

In light of his many years of service to the college, on Thursday the board presented its longest-serving member a plaque in his honor and announced that the conference room connected to both the theater lobby and the presidents office will now be known as the VanHerck Board Room.

His circle of friends at the college is as wide as his tenure has been long, MAC President Dr. Steve Kurtz said. Its not been uncommon to see Dr. VanHerck visiting staff and faculty on campus between board meetings, attending several of the community colleges many events and activities throughout the year. Weve really appreciated his active leadership.

The Subdistrict #5 trustee was first elected to the board in 1974. He brought with him a wealth of vocational and technical education knowledge, having been UniTec Career Centers director from 1973 to 1997. When many years ago he was given the Missouri Community College Association Award of Distinction, however he confessed that he wasnt always destined for a life in education.

Growing up in Bismarck, VanHerck said in a 2013 interview, he hadnt given education much thought for the future until his mother approached him with $60 in her hand, along with a request that he enroll in Flat River Junior College, the precursor of Mineral Area College.

A reluctant student at first, Dr. VanHerck soon became friends with some of his junior college instructors who, he said, gave him the impression that they believed he could do great things. I didnt set the world on fire in my classes, he said. But they gave me confidence and seemed to think they saw something in me that could succeed.

After graduating in 1956 and working several years for the Missouri Division of Employment Security he realized that if he wanted to have a family and earn enough to support them, he would need to continue his education. He learned the joys of academic competition at Murray State University where he earned an A average in his studies to secure a Bachelors Degree in Education and was invited to pursue his masters degree studies while teaching classes for Murray State.

Enjoying his education, Dr. VanHerck progressed toward his doctorate, eschewing a full scholarship to Texas A&M to work for and attend a favorite Murray professors alma mater  the University of Missouri-Columbia. There, he met up with an old friend from his hometown of Bismarck, Dixie A. Kohn, who was also pursuing his studies while working for the university.

Both men eventually entered careers in education, which led to them working together once again when Dr. Kohn was hired as MACs president. At that time, Dr. VanHerck was just concluding his first decade on the colleges board of trustees.

For almost 40 years, VanHerck has served in every officer capacity on the board of trustees. Some of the highlights of his tenure have included pioneering the addition of the Central Methodist University 2+2 plan, the construction of several additional buildings on campus, and the expansion of outreach centers in Perryville, Winona, Fredericktown and Potosi.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Genworth Financial Inc. (GNW) and China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co., Ltd. said that they have withdrawn and re-filed their joint voluntary notice with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States or CFIUS a second time to provide CFIUS more time to review and discuss the proposed transaction between Genworth and Oceanwide contemplated under the merger agreement entered into by the parties on October 21, 2016.



CFIUS' acceptance of the joint voluntary notice will commence a new 30-day review period, which may be followed by an additional 45-day investigation period. Additional information about the CFIUS review process can be found in the definitive proxy statement filed by Genworth with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 25, 2017.



Genworth and Oceanwide continue to actively engage in discussions with CFIUS; however, there can be no assurances that CFIUS will ultimately agree to clear the transaction.



In addition to CFIUS clearance, the closing of the proposed transaction remains subject to other conditions, including the receipt of required regulatory approvals in the U.S., China, and other international jurisdictions.



Genworth also announced that it recently received approval from the Delaware Department of Insurance and the Virginia Bureau of Insurance for the remaining internal reinsurance and recapture transactions required, under the merger agreement, as a condition to the purchase by a Genworth holding company of Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company from Genworth Life Insurance Company. These transactions have been completed with a July 1, 2017, effective date.



Although Genworth and Oceanwide continue to be actively engaged with the relevant regulators regarding the pending applications, it now appears that the timing of the regulatory reviews will likely delay the completion of the transaction to later than the originally targeted time frame of the middle of 2017.



Genworth and Oceanwide are discussing an extension of the August 31, 2017.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Integration with Zoho, Third-Party Apps Accelerates Document Signing

Zoho today announced the launch of Zoho Sign, a digital signature app for businesses, and the company's next big step in the digital transaction management market. With Zoho Sign, businesses can sign and send legally binding contracts from anywhere, using a simple signing process.

"Digital signature is a popular utility, and its value goes up significantly when it is contextually integrated with business applications," said Raju Vegesna, chief evangelist of Zoho. "At Zoho, we offer the broadest business applications in the market, and Zoho Sign fits right into the mix making digital signature contextual and seamless."

Available in web and mobile versions, Zoho Sign integrates with other Zoho services such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Writer, providing users with the signing functionality required to complete their approvals and agreements. Further, users can also import documents from third-party apps such as Gmail, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, and OneDrive to sign documents on the go.

Zoho Sign supports multi-party and individual signatures. For individual signatures, the user may sign and send a document or send a blank document for the recipient to sign and return. Zoho Sign covers a broad range of use cases, from sales orders and special deal terms to partner agreements, contracts, invoice processing and more. With robust signing features, bank-level security, and compliance with ESIGN, UETA, and eIDAS, Zoho Sign provides a modern, user-friendly, digital signature solution for large enterprises, SMBs, and individuals alike.

PRICING AVAILABILITY

Zoho Sign is currently available as web, iOS, and Android apps with a simple, straightforward pricing structure and ad-free interface. The standard edition comes at $10/user/month (25 documents) and the professional edition comes at $15/user/month (unlimited document signing). A free edition is also available for the users. For more info, please visit www.zoho.com/sign.

Additional Zoho Resources

Zoho Sign Website: www.zoho.com/sign

Zoho News Releases: http://blogs.zoho.com

Zoho Videos: www.youtube.com/zoho

Zoho Blogs: www.blogs.zoho.com

Zoho on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/zoho

Zoho on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/zoho

About Zoho

Zoho is the operating system for business a single cloud platform with all the necessary applications to run a business. Acquire and manage customers using Zoho's marketing, sales and customer support applications-Campaigns, CRM and Desk-hen empower employees to create, store and distribute content on the cloud with Zoho's productivity and collaboration apps-Office, Mail and Docs. Additionally, businesses can run their own operations on Zoho's finance and human resources applications, including Books, People, and Recruit.

More than 20 million users across hundreds of thousands of companies around the world rely on Zoho to run their businesses every day, including Zoho itself. Organizations can choose to run the entire Zoho suite or just a single application.

Zoho applications are available directly through zoho.com, or through an ecosystem of hundreds of worldwide Zoho partners.

Zoho is a division of Zoho Corp., a privately-held and consistently profitable company, with more than 4,000 employees. Zoho is headquartered in Pleasanton, CA with international headquarters in Chennai, India and offices in Austin, London, Yokohama, and Beijing. For more information, please visit https://www.zoho.com.

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Contacts:

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Mason Hering, 512-785-6754

pr@zohocorp.com
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PUNE, India, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Glass Mat Market by Mat Type (Chopped Strand, Continuous Filament), Binder Type (Emulsion, Powder), End-Use Industry (Construction & Infrastructure, Automotive & Transportation, Industrial & Chemical, Marine), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022", published by MarketsandMarkets', the Glass Mat Market is estimated to grow from USD 931.5 Million in 2016 to USD 1,238.5 Million by 2022, at a CAGR of 4.83% between 2017 and 2022.

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Browse 77 Market Data Tables and 46 Figures spread through 147 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Glass Mat Market - Global Forecast to 2022"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/glass-mat-market-32320559.html



Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

The glass mat market is driven by the increasing demand from industrial & chemical, construction & infrastructure, and automotive sectors, especially in the developing regions. The demand for glass mat is also rising for manufacturing of wind energy blades, as these materials are economical and provide high performance. The rapid growth in the wind energy market, wind turbine blade manufacturing, and the emergence of China and other Asian countries as major wind energy producers are boosting the consumption of glass mats, subsequently driving the glass mat market at a significant pace.

Speak to Analyst @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalyst.asp?id=32320559

Chopped strand mat segment comprises a major share of the glass mat market, in terms of both value and volume.

Chopped strand mats are used in various hand lay-up and closed mold applications to mold various types of composites products. This mat type is compatible with polyester and vinyl ester resin systems. The major application sectors for chopped glass mats include recreational, marine, transportation, industrial, and construction. The length of chopped strand mat varies depending on properties and application requirements.

Construction & infrastructure is the largest application segment of the glass mat market, in terms of both value and volume.

Glass mat composites find high usage in the many applications in the construction & infrastructure industry, since they offer several advantages over traditional materials such as light weight, tensile strength, corrosion resistance, better surface finish, and easy processing. Glass mat are also finding applications in bathroom fixtures, translucent architectural paneling, industrial building sky lights, and swimming pools.

Asia Pacific accounts for a major share of the glass mat market.

Asia Pacific accounts for the largest share of the glass mat market owing to the high demand from construction & infrastructure, industrial & chemical, and automotive & transportation sectors. Growth of the wind energy industry in this region has also increased the demand for glass mat. The increased focus of India and China on producing electricity through renewable sources and increasing wind installations in China, Japan, India, and other developing countries will drive the glass mat composites market in the region. In addition, the consumer goods sector also drives the market, especially, in China, India, and other developing countries.

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Some of the key global players of the Glass Mat Market are Owen Corning (US), Jushi Group Co., Ltd. (China), Binani Industries Ltd (India), China Beihai Fiberglass (China), and Nippon Electric Glass (Japan), among others. These players have adopted various organic and inorganic developmental strategies in the past five years to maintain their position in the glass mat market.

Browse Related Reports:

Composites Market by Type (Carbon Fiber Composites, Glass Fiber Composites and Others), Resin Type (Thermoplastic Composites and Thermosetting Composites), Manufacturing Process, Application and by Region - Global Trends and Forecasts to 2021

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/composite-market-200051282.html

GFRP Composites Market by Resin Type (Polyester, Vinyl Ester, Polyurethane), Process (Manual Process, Compression Molding, Continuous Process, Injection Molding), Application (Wind Energy, Transportation, Marine, Pipe & Tanks) - Global Forecast to 2026

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/glass-fiber-reinforced-plastic-composites-market-142751329.html

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AUSTIN, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 07/14/17 -- Recognized as America's Most Trusted Horseman, John Lyons, a well-respected and highly esteemed horse clinician, has partnered with HandsOn Gloves to endorse and sell the product at exhibitions and clinics across the nation.

Using HandsOn grooming and bathing gloves is as natural as petting with the extra benefit of providing unique bonding experiences between pets and their owners without a chucky tool in between. Its patented design includes unique nodules that can be used wet or dry to increase the circulation and overall grooming health of the animal.

"HandsOn Gloves replaces the need for traditional grooming tools and are great for shedding, bathing, and grooming our horses," said Lyons. "Another great characteristic is that they are easy on my wrists. Because they are gloves, there is no more gripping, holding or dropping conventional grooming tools."

With his global training career and expertise as a clinician that has spanned for more than 25 years, Lyons embodies the HandsOn Gloves spirit, which believes that family and animals always comes first and is committed to sharing superior products with others who ride, train, ranch, workout doors, compete at all levels and simply love spending time with their pets.

"John has a vast wealth of knowledge and expertise in the equine world and has the upmost experience in the field," said Jay Michaelson, CEO of HandsOn Gloves. "We are humbled that an esteemed clinician recognizes HandsOn as a quality product that can help his animals."

Brandi Lyons, John Lyon's daughter who also carries a trusted name in the horse industry, first introduced her father to HandsOn Gloves hoping he would find good use for them around the ranch. Her success and popularity around those in the horse community is based on the simple and practiced philosophy her father pioneered decades ago: love and respect the riders first.

HandsOn Gloves recently won two highly sought-after awards in the pet industry from SuperZoo, a national pet tradeshow and was named a pet industry all-star by Pet Business Magazine.

The award-winning product was originally created by Michaelson and his team to replace the curry comb, and can be used on a variety of animals such as dogs, cats, livestock and more.

For more information about HandsOn Gloves or to purchase the product, visit www.handsongloves.com.

About HandsOn Gloves

HandsOn Gloves takes an innovative approach to providing the highest-quality in grooming products to the world's top trainers, athletes and the everyday animal lover. Used wet or dry, HandsOn offers a unique bonding experience to a community that believes family and animals come first. The grooming gloves provide the utmost in professional excellence while allowing pet owners hands to stay clean and give their animal(s) extra tender loving care.

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ALBANY, New York, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Some of the key players in theglobal passenger service system (PSS) marketare Sirena-Travel JSCS, Radixx International, Inc., Hitit Computer Services A.S., Intelisys Aviation Systems Inc., Bravo Passenger Solutions Pte Ltd., Unisys Corp., Hexaware Technologies Ltd., Travelport Worldwide Ltd., SITA NV, Sabre Corp., IBS Software Services Pvt. Ltd., Information Systems Associates FZE, Amadeus IT Group SA, Travel Technology Interactive, Mercator Ltd., Travelsky Technology Ltd., and KIU System Solutions.

As per a report by Transparency Market Research, the global passenger service system (PSS) market will likely expand at a robust 11.8% CAGR between 2016 and 2024 to become worth US$ 11.523 bn by 2024 from US$4.315 bn in 2015.

Small and Medium Operators Propel Airline Reservation System

Depending upon the various services offered, the global passenger service system (PSS) market can be segmented into airline inventory system, internet booking system, airline reservation system, airport management consulting, loyalty system, departure control system, ancillary services, and customer care system. Among them, the airline reservation system segment accounted for maximum share of 27.8% in 2015. Mainly driving the growth in this segment is the high uptake among medium and small airline operators.

Geographically, the key segments of the global passenger service system (PSS) market are North America, South America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific, of them, is slated to expand its share at a healthy clip and contribute to the market substantially, in the forecast period. As per the TMR report, the market is Asia Pacific will likely rise at a CAGR of 13.0% between 2016 and 2024.

Get PDF Sample for this Research Report @http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=22676

Growing Number of Airline Operators Drive Market

Passenger Service System (PSS) is a clutch of solutions that enables efficient management of an airline front-end operation by managing passenger related activities. It is basically a communication system that offers services to passengers such as loyalty, customer care, online booking, reservation, and check-in and check-out status in real-time. "Increasing spending capacity of the middle-class population and the rise in number of airline operators is slated to provide a fillip to the demand for passenger service system in the coming years. Passenger service system helps airline operators to quickly monetize their offering and further generate revenue from non-core assets," explains the lead analyst of the report.

At present, numerous passenger service system (PSS) providers are offering non-core PSS solution such as ancillary service, loyalty system and customer care system in response to demand from airline operators. In addition, some PSS providers are also providing airport management consulting solution to satisfy demand for smart airport offering.

"Market is at an interesting cusp where players are coming up with new platforms and new technologies to facilitate better services to customers," adds the lead analyst of the TMR report. The demand for better PSS solutions such as home tagging for luggage, presence of augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence for customer service are expected to contribute to the growth of PSS solution over the forecast period. Growing penetration of the internet is another major factor boosting the global passenger service system (PSS) market.

Get more information from Research Report Press Release:http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/passenger-service-system-market.htm

This review is based on the findings of a TMR report, titled, "Passenger Service System (PSS) Market (Service - Airline Reservation System, Airline Inventory System, Departure Control System, Internet Booking System, Loyalty System, Customer Care System, Airport Management Consulting, and Ancillary Services) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024."

For the study, the Passenger Service System (PSS) Market has been segmented as follows:

Global Passenger Service System (PSS) Market, by Service

Airline Reservation System

Airline Inventory System

Departure Control System

Internet Booking System

Loyalty System

Customer Care System

Airport Management Consulting

Ancillary Services

Global Passenger Service System Market, by Geography

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Middle East and Africa

and South America

Top Research Report by TMR:

Workflow Automation and Optimization Software Market: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/business-workflow-automation-optimization-software-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/business-workflow-automation-optimization-software-market.html Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) Market: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/software-defined-perimeter-market.html

About Us

Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company,providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experiencedteam of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.

Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMR's syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
The Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) and RTU Riga Business School (RBS) are pleased to announce the formation of a strategic training partnership to support Latvian AML professionals preparing for the Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) qualification, widely regarded as a global gold standard in the area of anti-money laundering certifications and recognized internationally by financial institutions, governments, regulators and standard setters. This training partnership aims to offer international AML/CTF best practice education to professionals working in AML and financial crime prevention and detection in Latvia.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170824005669/en/

The inaugural CAMS Preparation training courses run jointly by RBS and ACAMS will be held on October 17 and 18, 2017 with the first course graduates expected to take the examination locally in Riga in November. In support of this strategic partnership, RBS also plans to offer a program of specialized seminars and conferences designed to help professionals in the Latvian financial services sector expand their anti-financial crime knowledge and maintain their CAMS certification through continuing professional education.

"We are delighted to include RBS in ACAMS' network of international training partners, and look forward to working closely with RBS to deliver this important initiative to strengthen professionals' anti-money laundering knowledge through CAMS certification in Latvia," said Mrs. Angela Salter, ACAMS Head of Europe.

Speaking on behalf of RBS, Mr. Janis Grevins commented, "By becoming one of the world's financial and FinTech centers, the requirement for RBS to be able to offer training on products and services that are not only innovative but also comply with internationally accepted principles is growing. That is why co-operation between state and industry regulatory bodies and educators with internationally recognized training providers such as ACAMS is commendable. And RTU Riga Business School has also fulfilled the accreditation requirements for providing CISI (Chartered Institute for Securities Investment) training in Latvia."

Sanda Liepina, Chairman of the Management Board of the Association of Latvian Commercial Banks, welcomes ACAMS/RBS strategic partnership as this will further facilitate the international integration of AML training programs and the educational preparation of high quality specialists in Latvia. "The Latvian banking industry is actively working to strengthen its AML/CFT compliance function and has already undertaken significant steps to implement enhanced standards. One of the key pillars here is a regular training of personnel to improve the professional competency and awareness of the latest global trends among the specialists of various levels," added Liepina.

About Adtalem Global Education

The purpose of Adtalem Global Education is to empower students to achieve their goals, find success, and make inspiring contributions to our global community. Adtalem Global Education Inc. (NYSE: ATGE; member S&P MidCap 400 Index) is a leading global education provider and the parent organization of Adtalem Educacional do Brasil, American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, Becker Professional Education, Carrington College, Chamberlain University, DeVry University and its Keller Graduate School of Management, Ross University School of Medicine and Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine. For more information, please visit adtalem.com.

About the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS)

ACAMS is a member of Adtalem Global Education (NYSE: ATGE), a global education provider headquartered in the United States. The organization's purpose is to empower students to achieve their goals, find success and make inspiring contributions to our global community. ACAMS is the largest international membership organization dedicated to enhancing the knowledge and skills of anti-money laundering (AML) and financial crime professionals from a wide range of industries, with extensive resources designed to develop and sharpen the skills required for superior job performance and career advancement. Its CAMS certification is the most widely recognized AML certification among compliance professionals worldwide. Visit acams.org for more information.

About RTU Riga Business School (RBS)

RTU Riga Business School is the premier business school in Latvia, which has been providing international standard of education to professionals for over 25 years. The School provides high quality Professional and Executive MBA programs as well as a Bachelor of Business Administration program. RBS is also the accredited training partner of CFA Institute and The Chartered Institute for Securities Investment.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170824005669/en/

Contacts:

Adtalem Global Education

Media Contact:

Ernie Gibble

ernie.gibble@adtalem.com

630-353-9920

or

Adtalem Global Education

Investor Contact:

Joan Walter

joan.walter@adtalem.com

630-353-3800

or

Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS)

Angela Salter, Head of Europe

asalter@acams.org

+44 20 3755 7401
NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 07/28/17 -- NetworkNewsWire ("NNW"), a multifaceted financial news and publishing company, today announces the publication of an editorial featuring Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (CSE: LXX) (OTCQB: LXRP), a client of NNW that develops and out-licenses its proprietary technology for improved taste, rapidity, and delivery of bioactive compounds, including cannabinoids.

The publication, entitled, "Biotech Players Lead the Growth Charge in the Legal Cannabis Market," discusses five companies that are targeting areas of unmet medical need through cannabis-based therapies.

To view the full publication, visit: https://www.networknewswire.com/biotech-players-lead-growth-charge-legal-cannabis-market/

"Food bioscience company Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (OTCQB: LXRP) (CSE: LXX), for instance, enjoys a unique position in this sub-sector. As the only publicly traded company with a cannabis-based intellectual portfolio that includes NSAIDs, nicotine and vitamins, Lexaria has multiple patents pending in over 40 countries, and it recently received its first patents in the U.S. and Australia relating to edible forms of cannabinoids (http://nnw.fm/e8LvY).

"Lexaria Energy products also utilize the company's patented infusion technology to deliver federally legal hemp oil ingredients inside nutritious and tasty formulations that are free of the bitter taste typically associated with hemp. Products in this line include the Lexaria Energy Bar, a hemp oil-infused protein bar. Other nutritious products are in development for the Lexaria Energy line, with a focus on ensuring responsible production techniques and gluten-free formulations."

About Lexaria

Lexaria Bioscience Corp. has developed and out-licenses its disruptive technology that promotes healthier ingestion methods, lower overall dosing and higher effectiveness of lipophilic active molecules. Lexaria has multiple patents pending in over 40 countries around the world and was granted its first patents in the USA and in Australia related to edible forms of cannabinoids. Lexaria's technology provides increases in intestinal absorption rates; more rapid delivery to the bloodstream; and important taste-masking benefits, for orally administered bioactive molecules including cannabinoids, vitamins, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), nicotine and other molecules. For more information, visit www.lexariabioscience.com.

About NetworkNewsWire

NetworkNewsWire (NNW) is an information service that provides (1) access to our news aggregation and syndication servers, (2) NetworkNewsBreaks that summarize corporate news and information, (3) enhanced press release services, (4) social media distribution and optimization services, and (5) a full array of corporate communication solutions. As a multifaceted financial news and content distribution company with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, NNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. NNW has an ever-growing distribution network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets across the country. By cutting through the overload of information in today's market, NNW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. NNW is where news, content and information converge.

For more information please visit https://www.NetworkNewsWire.com

Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the NetworkNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by NNW, wherever published or re-published: http://NNW.fm/Disclaimer

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the company's SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

NNW Contact:



NetworkNewsWire (NNW)

New York, New York

www.NetworkNewsWire.com

212.418.1217 Office

Email Contact




WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Consumer prices in the U.S. came in unchanged in the month of June, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Friday. The Labor Department said its consumer price index was flat in June after edging down by 0.1 percent in May. Economists had expected consumer prices to inch up by 0.1 percent. Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer prices crept up by 0.1 percent for the third consecutive month. Core prices had been expected to rise by 0.2 percent. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
DEAR HARRIETTE: I want to go back to school and get my bachelor's degree. I think it will help me to earn more money in my field. When I tell my family and friends about my dream, they laugh at me and don't seem to take me seriously.

All of the adults in my life went to traditional universities and got degrees back when they were younger. I am a 30-year-old woman, and I am thinking of getting an online degree so that I can go to school and keep working at the same time. They claim that these types of degrees are not real and are a waste of time. How can I get them to be supportive of my dream? -- Degree, Columbus, Ohio

DEAR DEGREE: Stay focused on your goals, and do your best not to let your family's questions dissuade you. Do research on each of the schools you are considering. Find out who some of the prominent graduates are as well as what fields they enter upon graduation. Check to see if the school is accredited, how long it has been operational and what types of classes are offered. Many schools offer online classes these days, even Ivy League schools. Find what works for you, and then tell your family after you are enrolled and on your way.

DEAR HARRIETTE: I thought by now that the political debates about the United States presidency would have waned. I tire of turning on the news and seeing report after report about what one side believes or the other.

I won't lie. I am a Democrat, and I did not support the current president. But every other time it seemed like people got past their personal views and at least sort of tried to support whoever was in office. I feel like there are plenty of things that I don't like that are happening right now, but spewing hate doesn't seem like the way to effect change.

Whenever I suggest to my friends that we say a prayer for the president or something else positive, they scoff at me and call me Pollyanna. I disagree. I was taught that the way to make things better is to be positive. What do you think? -- Neutral, Des Moines, Iowa

DEAR NEUTRAL: One of the greatest lessons I have learned is that love is the great healer. Through strength and love, people can support right action. Yes, collective prayer can be powerful. Praying for the good of the people and of the Earth is smart. That is not enough, though. You must take action, too. Know what you believe, and do your research. Figure out what policies you support and those that you oppose. Make your voice known. Get in there and express your opinions in one way or another -- through respectful letter-writing to the president, your members of Congress and your community. Become politically active as you cultivate a loving, respectful spirit. Make yourself the change you want to see in this world. Help to hold all elected officials accountable for their actions.

DEAR HARRIETTE: I have been working freelance for the past 10 years or so, and it has been a rocky road. Sometimes I've had great contracts. Other times, not so much. This year has been especially tough, and I am broke. Really broke. I have credit card debt, and I feel like my whole world is collapsing on me. What I have done is not good, I'm sure. I have stopped answering the phones, and I see my credit score plummeting. I don't know what to do. I am looking for work, but without some projects, I do not have the money to pay my bills. -- Up Against the Wall, Pittsburgh

DEAR UP AGAINST THE WALL: As hard as it may seem right now, the best thing for you to do is to be upfront with your creditors. Contact each one directly, and explain your situation. Ask for leniency. Promise to pay them something the moment income begins to flow again. Ask if they would be willing to suspend late fees and negative reporting to the credit card bureaus for a couple of months while you search for work. Since the credit card company's job is to recoup its money, it will likely try to work with you. Getting some (or ideally, all) of its money back over time is its goal. Generally, if you approach the company with a positive attitude, you will get some kind of support.

Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 10/05/17 -- Emerita Resources Corp. ("Emerita" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: EMO) has received conditional approval from the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") to complete the acquisition of the Salobro zinc project (the "Salobro Project") located in Minas Gerais State, Brazil (the "Transaction"). Please see Emerita's press release issued on July 14, 2017 for further details regarding the Transaction.

Final acceptance by the TSXV is conditional upon the Company satisfying the TSXV that the Company will, on closing of the Transaction, have the financial resources to: (i) close the transaction, (ii) fund its property payment obligations for a minimum of six months, (iii) fund the first stage of any recommended work program, and (iv) fund six months of general and administrative expenses. As part of the TSXV approval process, the Company commissioned an independent NI 43-101 compliant Technical Report which will be filed on SEDAR promptly after the closing of the Transaction.

About the Salobro Project

The Salobro Project is located in Minas Gerais State, Brazil in an area well serviced with infrastructure including a zinc smelter, paved roads, rail, water and power. The mineralization is hosted in the Archean to Paleoproterozoic Riacho dos Machados group, of metasedimentary rocks. The mineralization is stratabound with sphalerite and galena as the ore minerals. The metasedimentary sequence comprises carbonates, banded iron formations and banded cherts, suggesting either a Mississippi Valley Type or Sedex depositional environment for the sulphide accumulations. The thickest intercept to date is 13.92 meters grading 10.39% zinc and 2.13% lead.

A summary of the historical resource estimate can be found on the Company's website in a report entitled "Mineralizacoes De Zinco E Chumbo Do Deposito Salobro, Porteirinha (Mg) (2006)". According to this report, the Salobro Project deposit is estimated to contain 8.3 million tonnes grading 7.12% zinc and lead. A "qualified person", as defined in National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"), has not done sufficient work on behalf of Emerita to classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource and Emerita is not treating the historical estimate as a current mineral resource or mineral reserve. Further work must be completed in order to demonstrate whether a reasonable expectation for commercial extraction exists. The mineral resource estimate is a historical estimate and should not be relied upon.

The deposit remains open for further expansion. The initial work program will focus on a combination of completing QA/QC work on the existing drill core to produce an NI 43-101 compliant resource as well as step out drilling to expand the resource. The results of the initial work program are expected to provide the necessary data for completing the initial economic evaluation of the Salobro Project deposit.

About Emerita Resources Corp.

Emerita is a natural resource company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in Europe, with a primary focus on exploring in Spain and Brazil. The Company's corporate office and technical teams are based in Sevilla, Spain and Belo Horizonte, Brazil with an administrative office in Toronto, Canada.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding the Salobro Project, the Company's ability to complete a financing, final approval of the Transaction by the TSXV, and the Company's future plans. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Emerita, as the case may be, to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; the actual results of current exploration activities; risks associated with operation in foreign jurisdictions; ability to successfully integrate purchased properties or mining rights awarded; foreign operations risks; and other risks inherent in the mining industry. Although Emerita has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Emerita does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Contacts:

Emerita Resources Corp.

Joaquin Merino

+34 (628) 1754 66 (Spain)



Emerita Resources Corp.

Helia Bento

+1 416 309 4293 (Toronto)

info@emeritaresources.com






WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A group of Democratic Senators who represented the United States at the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference have called on President Donald Trump to reconsider and reverse his decision to withdraw from the historic deal.



The letter was timed at the President's tour of France.



'As you prepare to celebrate Bastille Day and the United States World War I Centennial with President Emmanuel Macron, we write to remind you of how significant the Paris Climate Agreement is to our country and the world and to urge you to strongly reconsider and reverse your decision to withdraw from the accord,' ten Senators who represented the United States at the 21st Conference of Parties in 2015, said in a letter sent to Trump Thursday.



Ben Cardin, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sheldon Whitehouse, Tom Udall, Jeanne Shaheen, Jeff Merkley, Al Franken, Chris Coons, Brian Schatz, Ed Markey, and Cory Booker were the signatories to the letter.



The senators pointed out that more than 900 U.S. businesses, including 20 Fortune 500 companies, are in favor of keeping the U.S. in the Paris Agreement. American businesses need the U.S. government at the negotiating table to represent their interests. The Agreement is in fact a good deal for America, according to the Senators, who expressed willingness to work with the Trump administration on advancing the country's important economic and environmental goals.



Meanwhile, Trump told reporters in Paris that he briefly discussed the Paris climate accord with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.



Trump decided to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement arguing that it is harmful to the interests of the country. However, the decision isolated the US from the international community in the fight against Climate Change.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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CHELVERTON SMALL COMPANIES ZDP PLC

ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2017

The full Annual Report and Accounts can be accessed via the Investment Manager's website at www.chelvertonam.com or by contacting the Company Secretary on telephone 01245 398960.

This Report and Accounts should be read in conjunction with the Report and Accounts of Chelverton Small Companies Dividend Trust PLC ("SCDT").

Strategic Report

The Strategic Report has been prepared in accordance with Section 414A of the Companies Act 2006 (the "Act"). Its purpose is to inform members of the Company and help them understand how the Directors have performed their duty under Section 172 of the Act to promote the success of the Company.

Chairman's Statement

My report on the Group's activities for the year ended 30 April 2017 is contained within the Annual Report of SCDT. A copy of the full SCDT Annual Report can be found on the Investment Manager's website, www.chelvertonam.com or is available for inspection at the National Storage Mechanism ("NSM") which is situated at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/nsm.

Lord Lamont of Lerwick

Chairman

14 July 2017

Investment Manager's Report

For details of the Group's activities, development and performance during the year to 30 April 2017 shareholders should refer to the Annual Report of SCDT, which can be found on the Investment Manager's website, www.chelvertonam.com or is available for inspection at the NSM, which is situated at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/nsm.

David Horner

Chelverton Asset Management Limited

14 July 2017

Other Statutory Information

Company Activities, Strategy & Business Model

Chelverton Small Companies ZDP PLC ("SCZ" or the "Company") was incorporated on 13 July 2012 as a wholly owned subsidiary of SCDT, together referred to as the "Group". SCZ was especially formed for the issuing of Zero Dividend Preference ("ZDP") shares. It raised 8,500,000 before expenses on 28August 2012 by a placing of 8,500,000 ZDP shares, which are listed on the UK Official List and admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange.

On 1 August 2016, SCZ changed its name from Small Companies ZDP PLC.

On the 24 March 2017 1,146,150 was raised before expenses by placing an additional 849,000 ZDP shares, which are listed on the UK Official List and admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange.

Pursuant to a loan agreement between SCZ and SCDT, SCZ has lent the proceeds of these placings to SCDT. The loan is non-interest bearing and is repayable three business days before the ZDP share redemption date of 8 January 2018, or if required by SCZ, at any time prior to that date in order to repay the ZDP share entitlement. The funds are to be managed in accordance with the investment policy of SCDT.

SCZ investment objective & policy

The objective of SCZ is to provide the final capital entitlement of the ZDP shares to the holders of the ZDP shares at the redemption date of 8 January 2018. The proceeds of the placing of the ZDP shares have been lent to SCDT under a loan agreement and the funds are managed in accordance with the investment policy of SCDT.

SCZ has a capital structure comprising unlisted Ordinary shares and ZDP shares listed on the Official List and traded on the London Stock Exchange by way of a standard listing. SCZ is a wholly owned subsidiary of SCDT which is a closed-ended investment company. On 28 August 2012, SCZ placed 8,500,000 ZDP shares at 100p per share and this raised a net total of 8.3 million. The expenses of the placing were borne by SCDT. On 24 March 2017, SCZ placed an additional 849,000 ZDP shares at 135p per share and this raised a net total of 1.1 million. The expenses of the placing were borne by SCDT.

A contribution agreement between SCDT and SCZ has also been made whereby SCDT will undertake to contribute such funds as would ensure that SCZ will have in aggregate sufficient assets on 8 January 2018 to satisfy the final capital entitlement of the ZDP shares of 136.70p per share, being 12,780,083 in total. This assumes that the parent company and the Company have sufficient assets as at 8 January 2018 to repay the ZDP shares. To this extent the Company is reliant upon the investment performance of the parent company and subject to the principal risks as set out in the Annual Report of SCDT.

To protect the interests of ZDP shareholders, the loan agreement contains a restriction on the Group incurring any other borrowings (other than short-term indebtedness in the normal course of business, such as when settling share transactions) except where such borrowings are for the purpose of paying the final capital entitlement due to holders of ZDP shares.

Based on the value of the Group's assets as at 30 April 2017 they would have to fall at a rate of 29.5% per annum for the Company to be unable to meet the full capital repayment entitlements of the ZDP shares on the scheduled repayment date of 8 January 2018.

The proceeds of the ZDP issue are being invested by SCDT in accordance with the investment objective and policy of SCDT, which is as follows (as extracted from the Annual Report of SCDT):

The Company's assets comprise investments in equities in order to achieve its investment objectives. It is the aim of the Company to provide both income and capital growth predominantly through investment in mid and smaller capitalised UK companies admitted to the Official List of the UK Listing Authority and traded on the London Stock Exchange Main Market or traded on AIM.

The Company will not invest in preference shares, loan stock or notes, convertible securities or fixed interest securities or any similar securities convertible into shares; nor will it invest in the securities or other investment trusts or in unquoted companies.

There is no set limit on the Company's gearing.

Performance

The Board reviews performance by reference to a number of key performance indicators ("KPIs") and considers that the most relevant KPI is that which communicates the financial performance and strength of the Company as a whole being:

Total return per ZDP share

This is set out below:

2017 2016 Revenue Capital Total Revenue Capital Total '000 '000 '000 '000 '000 '000 Return per ZDP share - 7.37p 7.37p - 7.02p 7.02p

Further KPIs for the parent company can be found in SCDT's Annual Report.

Principal Risks and Uncertainties Facing the Company

Due to the Company's dependence on SCDT to repay the loan and provide a contribution to meet the capital entitlement of the ZDP shareholders other risks faced by the Company are considered to be the same as for SCDT and these are defined in note 24 of SCDT's Annual Report.

Employees, Environmental, Human Rights and Community Issues

The Board recognises the requirement under Section 414C of the Act to detail information about employees, human rights and community issues, including information about any policies it had in relation to these matters and the effectiveness of these policies. The Company has no employees and the Board is comprised entirely of non-executive Directors. Day-to-day management of the Company and SCDT is delegated to the Investment Manager (details of the respective management agreements are set out in the Director's Report of SCDT's Annual Report). The Company itself has no environmental, human rights or community policies. However in carrying out its activities in relationships with suppliers, by way of SCDT, the Company aims to conduct itself responsibly, ethically and fairly.

Current and Future Developments

The current and future developments of the Company can be reviewed as part of the Group's activities for the year ended 30 April 2017 by reference to the Annual Report and financial statements of SCDT.

Dividends

The Directors do not recommend the payment of a final dividend in respect of the year ended 30 April 2017.

Gender Diversity

The Board of Directors of the Company comprised four male Directors during the year to 30 April 2017. While the Board recognises the benefit of diversity the key criteria for the appointment of new directors will be the appropriate skills and experience in the interest of shareholder value. The Directors are satisfied that the Board currently contains members with an appropriate breadth of skills and experience. No new appointments to the Board have been made or are contemplated at present.

On behalf of the Board

Lord Lamont of Lerwick

14 July 2017

Board of Directors

The Directors are:

The Rt Hon. Lord Lamont of Lerwick* (Chairman), was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1990 and 1993. Prior to his appointment, Lord Lamont was Chief Secretary to the Treasury between 1989 and 1990. Following his retirement from acting as a Member of Parliament in 1997, he has held numerous positions as a director of various organisations and funds including, NM Rothschild and Sons Limited. He is an adviser to BC Partners and Stanhope Capital.

Lord Lamont was appointed to the Board of SCZ on 27 July 2012 and has been a director of the parent company, SCDT since 2006.

David Harris* is chief executive of InvaTrust Consultancy Limited. The company specialises in marketing issues relating to the investment and financial services industry. He writes regular articles for the national and trade press on investment matters. From 1995 to 1999 he was a director of the AIC with specific responsibility for training and education of independent financial advisers. He is a non-executive director of the Character Group PLC, Aseana Properties Limited, F&C Managed Portfolio Trust PLC and Manchester and London Investment Trust PLC.

Mr Harris was appointed to the Board of SCZ on 27 July 2012 and has been a director of the parent company, SCDT since 2000.

William van Heesewijk began his career with Lloyds Bank International in 1981, working for both the merchant banking and investment management arms. He has been involved in the investment trust industry since 1987 in various capacities. During his tenure with Fidelity Investments International, Gartmore Investment Management PLC and BFS Investments PLC; he managed several launches of onshore and offshore investment funds, including a number of roll-overs and reconstructions involving complex capital structures and across several geographic regions. His roles involved business development, project management, sales and marketing. He is Business Development Director of Chelverton Asset Management Limited. He is a member of the Association of Investment Companies Managers Forum.

Mr van Heesewijk was appointed to the Board of SCZ on 13 July 2012 and has been a director of the parent company, SCDT since 2005.

Howard Myles* was a partner in Ernst & Young from 2001 to 2007 and was responsible for the Investment Funds Corporate Advisory team. He was previously with UBS Warburg from 1987 to 2001. Mr Myles began his career in stockbroking in 1971 as an equity salesman and in 1975 joined Touche Ross & Co where he qualified as a chartered accountant. In 1978 he joined W Greenwell & Co in the corporate broking team and in 1987 moved to SG Warburg Securities, where he was involved in a wide range of commercial and industrial transactions in addition to leading Warburg's corporate finance function for investment funds. He is now a non-executive director of Lazard World Trust Fund, Aberdeen Private Equity Fund Limited, Baker Steel Resources Trust Limited, JPMorgan Brazil Investment Trust PLC and BBGI SICAV S.A.

Mr Myles was appointed to the Board of SCZ on 13 July 2012 and has been a director of the parent company, SCDT since 2011. He is Audit Committee Chairman of SCDT.

* Independent of the Investment Manager

Investment Manager, Secretary and Registrar

Investment Manager: Chelverton Asset Management Limited ('Chelverton')

Chelverton was formed in 1998 by David Horner, who has considerable experience of analysing investments and working with smaller companies. Chelverton is largely owned by its employees.

Chelverton is a specialist fund manager focused on UK mid and small companies and has a successful track record. At 31 May 2017, Chelverton had total funds under management of approximately 650 million including two investment trust companies and two OEICs. The fund management team comprises David Horner, David Taylor and James Baker.

Chelverton is authorised and regulated by the FCA.

Administrator and Corporate Secretary: Maitland Administration Services Limited

Maitland Administration Services Limited provides company secretarial and administrative services for the Group. The Maitland group provides administration and regulatory oversight solutions for a wide range of investment companies.

Registrar: Share Registrars Limited

Share Registrars Limited is a CREST registrar established in 2004. The Company provides registration services to over 220 client companies.

Directors' Report

The Directors present their Report and the financial statements of the Company for the year ended 30April 2017. The Company's registered number is 08142169.

Directors

Directors who served during the year ended 30 April 2017, all of whom are non-executive were as follows:

Lord Lamont

D Harris

W van Heesewijk

H Myles

Biographical details of the Directors are given on page 6.

Under the Company's Articles of Association, Directors are required to retire at the first Annual General Meeting ("AGM") following their appointment, and thereafter at three-yearly intervals.

The forthcoming Annual General Meeting ("AGM") will be SCZ's fifth AGM. In accordance with the Articles of Association all Directors stood for re-election at the first AGM in 2013 and at the AGM held in 2016. Therefore, in accordance with the Articles of Association, Mr van Heesewijk will be the only director required to stand for re-election at the 2017 AGM due to his non-independence by virtue of his employment by Chelverton.

None of the Directors nor any persons connected with them had a material interest in any of the Company's transactions, arrangements or agreements during the period, except Mr van Heesewijk who by virtue of his employment with Chelverton is interested in the Investment Management Agreement with the parent company. None of the Directors has or has had any interest in any transaction which is or was unusual in its nature or conditions or significant to the business of the Company, and which was effected by the Company during the current financial period.

There have been no loans or guarantees from the Company to any Director at any time during the year or thereafter.

The Company's Articles of Association provide the Directors of the Company, subject to the provisions of UK legislation, with an indemnity in respect of liabilities which they may sustain or incur in connection with their appointment. Save for this, there are no qualifying third party indemnities in place.

Formal performance evaluation of the Directors and the Board has been carried out and the Board considers that all of the Directors contribute effectively and have the skills and experience relevant to the future leadership and direction of the Company.

The rules concerning the appointment and replacement of Directors are contained in the Company's Articles of Association.

Corporate Governance

A formal statement on Corporate Governance is set out on pages 9 and 10 below.

Share Capital

At the year-end and at the date of this report, the issued share capital of the Company comprised of 50,000 Ordinary shares and 9,349,000 ZDP shares.

50,000 Ordinary shares of 1, each partly paid as to 25p (and each of which have been issued to SCDT), represent 0.53% of the total share capital. Holders of Ordinary shares are entitled to receive notice of, attend and vote at General Meetings of the Company. Ordinary shares of the Company are not admitted to trading on a regulated market.

8,500,000 ZDP shares of 1 each were issued on 28 August 2012, pursuant to the placing ZDP shares represent 99.42% of the total share capital. 849,000 additional ZDP shares for a total consideration of 1.35 each were issued on 24 March 2017.

Holders of ZDP shares are entitled to receive notice of, attend and vote at those General Meetings where ZDP shareholders are entitled to vote. They are not entitled to attend or vote at any General Meeting of the Company unless the business includes any resolution to vary, modify or abrogate any of the special rights attached to the ZDP shares.

Shareholders' funds and market capitalisation

At 30 April 2017 the Company had a market capitalisation of 12,714,640 (2016: 10,837,500) and total net assets amounted to 13,000 (2016: 13,000).

ISA status

The ZDP shares are eligible for inclusion in ISAs.

Management agreements

The Group's assets are managed by Chelverton under an agreement ('the Investment Management Agreement') dated 30 April 2006 (effective from 1 December 2005) with the parent company. A periodic fee is payable quarterly in arrears at an annual rate of 1% of the value of the gross assets under management of the Group.

These fees are met entirely by the parent company.

The Investment Management Agreement may be terminated by twelve months' written notice. There are no additional arrangements in place for compensation beyond the notice period.

Under another agreement ('the Administration Agreement') dated 1 January 2015, company secretarial services and the general administration of the Group are undertaken by Maitland Administration Services Limited. Their fee is subject to review at intervals of not less than three years. The Administration Agreement may be terminated by six months' written notice.

Management fee

The management fee for the Group is charged to and paid in full by SCDT.

Company Information

The Company's capital structure and voting rights are summarised on pages 8 and 9.

SCZ is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SCDT.

The rules concerning the appointment and replacement of Directors are covered by Article 22 of the Company's Articles of Association.

There are no restrictions concerning the transfer of securities in the Company; no special rights with regard to control attached to securities; no agreements between holders of securities regarding their transfer known to the Company; and no agreements which the Company is party to that might affect its control following a successful takeover bid.

There are no agreements between the Company and its Directors that provide compensation for loss of office or as a result of a takeover.

Viability Statement

The Board reviews the performance and progress of the Company over various time periods and uses these assessments, regular updates from the Investment Manager and a continuing programme of monitoring risk, to assess the future viability of the Company. The Directors consider that a period until the maturity of the ZDPs on 8 January 2018 is the most appropriate time horizon to consider the Company's viability and after careful analysis, the Directors believe that the Company is viable over this time period.

The Board has reviewed the viability statement of SCDT and has assessed that SCDT has the necessary financial strength to fulfil the obligations to SCZ under the loan agreement. SCDT has a liquid investment portfolio invested predominantly in readily realisable smaller capitalised.

The Directors have a reasonable expectation that the Company will be able to continue in operation and meet its liabilities as they fall due over the period of the assessment.

Going concern

The Company has adopted the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements consistent with the parent company. The parent company has adequate financial resources to ensure SCZ will have in aggregate sufficient assets to satisfy the accrued capital entitlement and future capital entitlement of the ZDP shares.

Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The Company has no greenhouse gas emissions to report from its operations, nor does it have any responsibility for any other emission-producing sources under the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors' Report) Regulations 2013.

Statement on Corporate Governance

The Company is committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance and the Directors are accountable to shareholders for the governance of the Company's affairs.

As set out in the Prospectus dated 1 August 2012, SCZ, as a company with a standard listing, is not required to comply with the UK Corporate Governance Code and does not intend to do so. In the Directors' opinion, the interests of SCZ and SCZ shareholders are adequately covered by the governance procedures applicable to SCDT. For example SCDT's Audit Committee considers the financial reporting procedures and oversees the internal control and risk management systems for the Group as a whole and the Directors see no benefit in convening a separate Audit Committee for SCZ.

Auditor

The Auditor, Hazlewoods LLP, has indicated their willingness to continue in office until such time as the audit tender process for the 2018 audit is completed, and a resolution proposing their re-appointment and authorising the Directors to determine their remuneration for the ensuing year will be submitted at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting on 7 September 2017.

The Directors who were in office on the date of approval of these financial statements have confirmed, as far as they are each aware, that there is no relevant audit information of which the Auditors are unaware. Each of the Directors have confirmed that they have taken all the steps that they ought to have taken as Directors in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that it has been communicated to the Auditor. The Directors consider that the accounts taken as a whole are fair, balanced and understandable.

Annual General Meeting

A formal Notice convening the second Annual General Meeting to be held on 7 September 2017 can be found on page 26.

On behalf of the Board

Lord Lamont of Lerwick

Chairman

14 July 2017

Directors' Remuneration Report

The Board has prepared this report, in accordance with the requirements of Schedule 8 to the Large and Medium-sized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) (Amendments) Regulations 2013. Ordinary resolutions for the approval of this report and the Directors' Remuneration Policy shall be put to shareholders at the forthcoming AGM.

The law requires the Group's Auditor, Hazlewoods LLP, to audit certain disclosures provided. Where disclosures have been audited, they are indicated as such. The Auditor's opinion is included in their report on pages 14 to 16.

Report from the Company Chairman

As set out in the Directors' Report, the Company has a standard listing and is not required to comply with the UK Corporate Governance Code and does not intend to do so. The Board of the SCDT considers the Directors' remuneration for the Group as a whole.

Directors' Remuneration Policy

The Remuneration Policy for the Company is that no fees are payable to the Directors in connection with their duties to SCZ. An Ordinary resolution was put to shareholders to approve this Policy at the AGM held on 17 September 2014. It is intended that in accordance with the regulations, an ordinary resolution to approve the Directors' remuneration policy will be put to shareholders at least once every three years. Accordingly, a resolution to approve the Remuneration Policy will be considered at the AGM on 7 September 2017.

Directors are also not eligible for bonuses, pension benefits, share options, long-term incentive schemes or other benefits, as the Board does not consider such arrangements or benefits necessary or appropriate.

The Directors do receive fees relating to their duties to the parent company, SCDT. This policy will continue for future years and is set out in full in the Directors' Remuneration Report of SCDT.

Directors' service contracts

None of the Directors has a contract of service with the Company or the parent company, nor has there been any contract or arrangement between the Company and any Director at any time during the period. The terms of their appointment provide that a Director shall retire and be subject to re-election at the first AGM after their appointment, and at least every three years after that. A Director's appointment can be terminated in accordance with the Articles and without compensation.

Directors' emoluments for the year (audited)

No fees are payable to the Directors regarding their duties to SCZ.

Directors' beneficial and family interests (audited)

30 April 2017

ZDP shares 30 April 2016

ZDP shares Lord Lamont 10,000 10,000 D Harris Nil Nil H Myles Nil Nil W van Heesewijk Nil Nil

The Directors' interests in the shares of the parent company are shown in the Annual Report of SCDT.

Your Company's performance

The objective of SCZ is to provide the accrued capital entitlement to the ZDP shareholders. The Company has lent all of its assets to SCDT and therefore the performance of the Company is best reflected by looking at the performance of SCDT. The Directors' remuneration report within the Annual Report of SCDT contains a graph comparing the total return (assuming all dividends are reinvested) to SCDT Ordinary shareholders, compared to the total shareholder return of the MSCI UK Small Cap Index. A copy of SCDT's Annual Report can be found on the Investment Manager's website www.chelvertonam.com or is available for inspection at the NSM, which is situated at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/nsmhttp:///.

The graph below compares the return to ZDP shareholders with the MSCI UK Small Cap Index. The MSCI UK Small Cap Index has been selected as it is considered to represent a broad equity market index against which the performance of the SCDT's assets may be adequately assessed.

Click here for graph.

There has been no demonstration of relative importance of spend on pay for the Company as no remuneration is payable to Directors.

Approval

The Directors' Remuneration Report was approved by the Board on 14 July 2017.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Lord Lamont of Lerwick

Chairman

14 July 2017

Statement of Directors' Responsibilities

in respect of the Annual Report and the financial statements

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations. The Directors have elected to prepare financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ('IFRSs') as adopted by the European Union ("EU"). Company law requires the Directors to prepare such financial statements in accordance with IFRSs and the Companies Act 2006.

Under company law the Directors must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they present fairly the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of the Company for that period.

In preparing the Company's financial statements, the Directors are required to:

select suitable accounting policies in accordance with International Accounting Standard ("IAS") 8: 'Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors' and then apply them consistently;

present information, including accounting policies, in a manner that provides relevant, reliable, comparable and understandable information;

provide additional disclosures when compliance with specific requirements in IFRSs is insufficient to enable users to understand the impact of particular transactions, other events and conditions on the Company's financial position and financial performance;

state that the Company has complied with IFRSs, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.

The Directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Company's transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and enable them to ensure that the Company's financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006 and Article 4 of the IAS Regulation. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The Directors are responsible for ensuring that the Directors' Report and other information included in the Annual Report is prepared in accordance with applicable company law. They are also responsible for ensuring that the Annual Report includes information required by the Listing Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority.

The Directors are responsible for the integrity of the information relating to the Company on the Investment Manager's website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements differs from legislation in other jurisdictions.

The Directors confirm that, to the best of their knowledge and belief:

the financial statements, prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the EU, give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit of the Company;

the Annual Report includes a fair review of the development and performance of the Company, together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties faced; and

the Annual Report is fair, balanced and understandable and provides the information necessary for shareholders to assess the Company's performance, business model and strategy.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Lord Lamont of Lerwick

Chairman

14 July 2017

Independent Auditor's Report

to the members of Chelverton Small Companies ZDP PLC

We have audited the financial statements of the Company for the year ended 30 April 2017 which comprise the Statement of Comprehensive Income, the Balance Sheet and the related notes. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and IFRSs as adopted by the EU.

This report is made solely to the Company's members, as a body, in accordance with chapter 3 of part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an audit report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Company and the Company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report or for the opinions we have formed.

Respective responsibilities of Directors and Auditor

As explained more fully in the Statement of Directors' Responsibilities set out on page 13, the Directors are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view. Our responsibility is to audit and express an opinion on the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland). Those standards required us to comply with the Auditing Practices Board's ('APB's') Ethical Standards for Auditors.

Scope of the audit of the financial statements

An audit involves obtaining evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements sufficient to give reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement, whether caused by fraud or error. This includes an assessment of: whether the accounting policies are appropriate to the Company's circumstances and have been consistently applied and adequately disclosed; the reasonableness of significant accounting estimates made by the Directors; and the overall presentation of the financial statements. In addition, we read all the financial and non-financial information in the Strategic Report and the Directors' Report to identify material inconsistencies with the audited financial statements and to identify any information that is apparently materially incorrect based on, or materially inconsistent with the knowledge acquired by us in the course of performing the audit. If we become aware of any apparent material misstatements or inconsistencies we consider the implications for our report.

Opinion on financial statements

In our opinion the financial statements:

give a true and fair view of the state of the Company's affairs as at 30 April 2016 and of its net return and comprehensive income for the year then ended;

and of its net return and comprehensive income for the year then ended; have been properly prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the EU;

have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and Article 4 of the IAS regulations.

Our assessment of risks of material misstatement

Without modifying our opinion, we highlight the following matter that is, in our judgement, likely to be most important to users' understanding of our audit. Our audit procedures relating to this matter were designed in the context of our audit of the financial statements as a whole, and not to express an opinion on individual transactions, balances or disclosures.

Management override of financial controls

The Company operates a system of financial controls to mitigate its vulnerability to fraud and its financial statements to material error and is reliant upon the efficacy of these controls to ensure that its financial statements present a true and fair view. The financial statements contain a number of significant accounting estimates that require an element of judgement on behalf of management and that are, therefore, potentially open to manipulation. Our audit work included, but was not restricted to, a review of all significant management estimates and detailed consideration of all material judgements applied during the completion of the financial statements. We also reviewed material journal entries processed by management during the period. The Company's principal accounting policies are included in note 2.

Our application of materiality

We apply the concept of materiality in planning and performing our audit, in evaluating the effect of any identified misstatements and in forming our opinion. For the purpose of determining whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement, we define materiality as the magnitude of a misstatement or an omission from the financial statements or related disclosures that would make it probable that the judgement of a reasonable person, relying on the information would have been changed or influenced by the misstatement of omission. We also determine a level of performance materiality which we use to determine the extent of testing needed to reduce to an appropriately low level the probability that the aggregate of uncorrected and undetected misstatements exceeds materiality for the financial statements as a whole.

We established materiality for the financial statements as a whole to be 123,000, which is 1% of the value of the Company's total assets. For income and expenditure items we determined that misstatements of lesser amounts than materiality for the financial statements as a whole would make it probable that the judgement of a reasonable person, relying on the information would have been changed or influenced by the misstatement or omission. Accordingly, we established materiality for revenue items within the income statement to be 31,000.

An overview of the scope of our audit

Our audit approach was based on a thorough understanding of the Company's business and is risk-based. The maintenance of the Company's accounting records is outsourced to third-party service providers. Accordingly, our audit work is focused on obtaining an understanding of, and evaluating, internal controls at the Company and the third-party service providers. We undertook substantive testing on significant transactions, balances and disclosures, the extent of which was based on various factors such as our overall assessment of the control environment, the effectiveness of controls over individual systems and the management of specific risks.

Opinion on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion:

the part of the Directors' remuneration report to be audited has been properly prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 2006;

the information given in the Strategic Report and the Directors' Report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

the Strategic Report and Directors' Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

In the light of our knowledge and understanding of the Group and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Strategic Report and the Directors' Report.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

We have nothing to report in respect of the following:

Under the ISAs (UK and Ireland), we are required to report to you if, in our opinion, information in the Strategic Report and the Directors' Report is:

materially inconsistent with the information in the audited financial statements; or

apparently materially incorrect based on, or materially inconsistent with, our knowledge of the Company acquired in the course of performing our audit; or

is otherwise misleading.

In particular, we are required to consider whether we have identified any inconsistencies between our knowledge acquired during the audit and the Directors' Statement that they consider the Annual Report is fair, balanced and understandable and whether the Annual Report appropriately discloses those matters that we communicated to the Audit Committee which we consider should be disclosed.

Under the Companies Act 2006 we are required to report to you if, in our opinion:

adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

the financial statements and the part of the Directors' remuneration report to be audited are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

certain disclosures of directors' remuneration specified by law are not made; or

we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Under the Listing Rules we are required to review:

the Directors' statement, set out on page 10 in relation to going concern;

Scott Lawrence (Senior Statutory Auditor),

For and on behalf of Hazlewoods LLP, Statutory Auditor

Cheltenham

14 July 2017

Statement of Comprehensive Income

for the year ended 30 April 2017

2017 2016 Revenue Capital Total Revenue Capital Total Note '000 '000 '000 '000 '000 '000 Income - - - - - -

Provision for contribution from SCDT regarding the capital entitlement of the ZDP shares -

633 633 -

597 597 Return before finance costs and taxation - 633 633 - 597 597 Appropriations in respect of ZDP shares - (633) (633) - (597) (597)

Net return after finance costs and before taxation

- - -

- - - Taxation on ordinary activities 2 - - - - - - Net return after taxation - - - - - - Return per ZDP share 4 - 7.37p 7.37p - 7.02p 7.02p

The total column of this statement is the Statement of Comprehensive Income of the Company, prepared in accordance with IFRSs, as adopted by the EU. All revenue and capital return columns in the above statement derive from continuing operations. No operations were acquired or discontinued during the year. All of the net return for the period is attributable to the shareholders of the company. The supplementary revenue and capital columns are presented for information purposes as recommended by the Statement of Recommended Practice issued by the AIC.

Balance Sheet

as at 30 April 2017

Note 2017 2016 '000 '000 Non-current assets Loans and receivables 5 12,308 10,529 Current assets Trade and other receivables 6 13 13 Total assets 12,321 10,542 Current liabilities ZDP shares 8 (12,308) (10,529) Net assets 13 13 Represented by: Share capital 7 13 13 Equity shareholders' funds 13 13

These financial statements were approved by the Board of Chelverton Small Companies ZDP PLC and authorised for issue on 14 July 2017 and were signed on behalf of the Company by:

Lord Lamont of Lerwick,

Chairman

14 July 2017

Company Registered No: 08142169

Notes to the Financial Statements

as at 30 April 2017

1. General information

SCZ is a company incorporated and registered in England and Wales on 13 July 2012 with limited liability under the Companies Act 2006. All of its Ordinary shares are held by SCDT. It is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority or any commission.

The financial information of the Company for the year ended 30 April 2017 and the year ended 30April 2016 has also been consolidated into the results of SCDT.

2. Accounting policies

Basis of preparation

The financial statements of the Company have been prepared in conformity with IFRSs issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (as adopted by the EU), and Interpretations issued by the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee, and applicable requirements of UK company law, and reflect the following policies which have been adopted and applied consistently.

The accounting policies adopted in the preparation of the financial statements are consistent with those of the previous financial year. There were no IFRS standards or IFRIC interpretations adopted for the first time in these financial statements that had a material impact on these financial statements.

At the date of authorisation of the financial statements, the following Standards which have not been applied in these financial statements were in issue but were not yet effective:

 IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures - Amendments requiring disclosures about the initial application of IFRS 9 (effective 1 January 2015 or otherwise when IFRS 9 is first applied)

 IFRS 9 Financial Instruments - Classification and measurement of financial assets (effective 1 January 2018)

 IFRS 9 Financial Instruments - Classification and measurement of financial liabilities and de-recognition requirements from IAS 39 Financial Instruments Recognition and Measurement (effective 1 January 2018)

The Directors do not expect that the adoption of the Standards listed above will have a material impact on the financial statements of the Company in future periods.

Convention

The financial statements are presented in Sterling, rounded to the nearest '000. The financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis. Where presentational guidance set out in the Statement of Recommended Practice regarding the Financial Statements of Investment Trust Companies and Venture Capital Trusts ('SORP'), issued by the AIC in January 2009, is consistent with the requirements of IFRSs, the Directors have sought to prepare the financial statements on a consistent basis compliant with the recommendations of the SORP.

Segmental reporting

The Company does not engage in any business activities from which it can earn revenues and therefore segmental reporting does not apply.

Loans and receivables

The Company holds a non-interest bearing secured loan in SCDT. Under IAS 39 'Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement' the loan is carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method. Amortised cost represents the initial cost of the loan plus a proportion of the expected surplus on redemption. The expected surplus on redemption is allocated to capital at a constant rate over the life of the loan.

Expenses

All operating expenses of the Company are borne by SCDT.

ZDP shares

ZDP shares issued by the Company are treated as a liability under IAS 32 'Financial Instruments: Disclosure and Presentation', and are shown in the Balance Sheet at their redemption value at the Balance Sheet date. The appropriations in respect of the ZDP shares necessary to increase the Company's liabilities to the redemption values are allocated to capital in the Statement of Comprehensive Income. This treatment reflects the Board's long-term expectations that the entitlements of the ZDP shareholders will be satisfied out of gains arising on SCDT investments held primarily for capital growth.

Cash flow statement

The Company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SCDT and the cash flows of the Company are included in the consolidated cash flow statement of the parent undertaking. There were no cash flows during the year ended 30 April 2017 or 30 April 2016 therefore no cash flow statement is presented within the financial statements. In the year ended 30 April 2017, the receipt of loan funding from the issue of ZDP shares was received directly by SCDT.

Taxation

There is no charge to UK income taxation as the Company does not have any income. There are no deferred tax assets in respect of unrelieved excess expenses as all expenses are borne by SCDT.

3. Directors' remuneration/Management fee

The Directors and Manager are remunerated by SCDT and the amounts in respect of their services as Directors and Manager of SCZ are not separately identifiable.

4. Return per share

ZDP shares

The capital return per ZDP share is based on appropriations of 633,000 (2016: 597,000) and on 8,586,063 (2016: 8,500,000) ZDP shares, being the weighted average number of ZDP shares in issue during the year.

5. Loans and receivables

The Company has entered into a loan agreement with SCDT whereby the Company lent SCDT the gross proceeds of 8,500,000 raised from the placing on 28 August 2012 of 8,500,000 ZDP shares at 100p. The loan is non-interest bearing and is secured on SCDT's total assets by a floating charge debenture entered into between the Company and SCDT. The loan is repayable three business days prior to the ZDP share redemption date of 8 January 2018 or, if required by the Company at any time prior to that date in order to repay the ZDP share entitlement.

On 24 March 2017, the company lent SCDT the gross proceeds of 1,146,150 raised from the additional placing of 849,000 ZDP shares at 135p each. The loan is non-interest bearing and is secured on SCDT's total assets by a floating charge debenture entered into between the Company and SCDT. The loan is repayable three business days prior to the ZDP share redemption date of 8 January 2018 or, if required by the Company at any time prior to that date in order to repay the ZDP share entitlement.

A contribution agreement between the Company and SCDT has also been entered into whereby SCDT will undertake to contribute such funds as would ensure that the Company will have in aggregate sufficient assets on 8 January 2018 to satisfy the final capital entitlement of the ZDP shares.

2017 2016 '000 '000 Loan opening book value 10,529 9,932 Issue of 849,000 ZDP shares 24 March 2017 1,146 - Amount receivable from SCDT under the contribution agreement 633 597

Loans and receivables 12,308 10,529

6. Trade and other receivables

2017 2016 '000 '000 Intercompany account 13 13

7. Share capital

Allotted, issued:

2017 2017 2016 2016 Number of shares '000 Number of shares '000 Ordinary shares of 100p each - issued and partly paid as to 25p each

50,000

12,500

50,000

12,500 ZDP shares of 100p each 8,500,000 8,500,000 8,500,000 8,500,000 ZDP shares of 135p each 849,000 1,146,150 - -

The Company was incorporated on 13 July 2012 with 50,000 ordinary shares in issue partly paid as to 25p each. All of the ordinary shares are held by SCDT.

On 28 August 2012, 8,500,000 ZDP shares were issued at 100p each. The share issue costs were borne by SCDT.

On 24 March 2017, 849,000 additional ZDP shares were issued at 135p each. The share costs were borne by SCDT.

As to dividends

Ordinary shares are entitled to any revenue profits which the Company may determine to distribute as dividends in respect of any financial period. It is not expected that any such dividends will be declared.

The holders of ZDP shares are not entitled to dividends or other distributions out of the revenue or any other profits of the Company.

As to capital on a winding up

On a winding up, and after payment of SCZ's liabilities in full, holders of ZDP shares are entitled to a payment of an amount equal to 100p per share, increased daily from 28 August 2012 at such compound rate as will give an entitlement to 136.70p for each ZDP share at 8 January 2018, 12,780,083 in total.

Following payment of the capital entitlement to the ZDP shareholders, Ordinary shareholders are entitled to any surplus assets of the Company.

As to voting

Holders of Ordinary shares are entitled to receive notice of, attend and vote at General Meetings of the Company.

Holders of ZDP shares are entitled to receive notice of, attend and vote at those general meetings where ZDP shareholders are entitled to vote. They are not entitled to attend or vote at any general meeting of the Company unless the business includes any resolution to vary, modify or abrogate any of the special rights attached to the ZDP shares.

Commitment to contribute to the capital entitlement of the ZDP shares

The Company has entered a contribution agreement with its parent company, SCDT, pursuant to which SCDT will undertake to contribute such funds as would ensure that SCZ will have in aggregate sufficient assets on 8 January 2018 to satisfy the final capital entitlement of the ZDP shares or, if required by the Company, the accrued capital entitlement at any time prior to that date. This assumes that SCDT has sufficient assets to repay the capital entitlement of the ZDP shares. As at 30 April 2017, the Group had total assets less current liabilities available for repayment of the ZDP shares of 54,031,154 (2016: 45,606,258). The value of the Group's assets would have to fall at a rate of 29.3% (2016: 30.0%) per annum for it to be unable to meet the full capital repayment entitlement of the ZDP shares on the scheduled repayment date of 8 January 2018.

Duration

The Articles of Association provide that the Directors shall convene a general meeting of the Company to be held on 8 January 2018 or, if that is not a business day, on the immediately following business day, at which a special resolution will be proposed requiring the Company to be wound up unless the Directors shall have previously been released from their obligations to do so by a special resolution of the Company (such special resolution having been sanctioned by any necessary class approval). If no variation of such date is approved and the Company is not wound up on such date, any holder of more than 1,000 ZDP shares shall have the right to requisition a general meeting of the Company to consider a resolution to wind it up.

At the general meeting, those shareholders present, in person or by proxy or by duly authorised representative who vote in favour of the resolution to wind up the Company will collectively have such total number of votes on a poll as is one more than the number of votes which are required to be cast for the resolution to be carried. The vote will be taken on a poll.

8. Net asset value per share

The net asset value per ZDP share and the net assets attributable to the ZDP shareholders are as follows:

Net asset value per share

Net assets attributable Net asset value per share

Net assets attributable 2017 2017 2016 2016 pence '000 pence '000 ZDP shares 131.65 12,308 123.87 10,529

9. Ultimate parent undertaking

The Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of SCDT which is registered in England and Wales under company number 03749536.

10. Related party transactions

The funds lent to SCDT are managed by Chelverton, a company in which Mr van Heesewijk, a Director of the Company, has an interest. The Investment Manager is remunerated by SCDT and the amounts in respect of its services as Investment Manager of SCZ are not separately identifiable.

11. Financial instruments

Investment objective and investment policy

The objective of SCZ is to provide the final capital entitlement of the ZDP shares to the holders of the ZDP shares at the redemption date of 8 January 2018.

The Company will fulfil its investment objective through the contribution agreement it has with SCDT, as detailed in note 5 and 7. The contribution from SCDT will provide the capital entitlement of the ZDP shareholders. The principal risk the Company faces is therefore, that SCDT would not have sufficient assets to repay the loan and to make a contribution to fulfil the amount of the capital entitlement due to the ZDP shareholders. Covenants are in place between SCDT and the Company that ensure that SCDT will not undertake certain actions in relation to both itself and the Company.

Due to the Company's dependence on SCDT to repay the loan and provide a contribution to meet the capital entitlement of the ZDP shareholders other risks faced by the Company are considered to be the same as for SCDT and these are defined in note 24 of SCDT's Annual Report.

SCDT has considerable financial resources and therefore the Directors believe that the Company is well placed to manage its business risks and also believe that SCDT will have sufficient resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.

Directors and Advisers

Directors

Lord Lamont of Lerwick (Chairman) David Harris William van Heesewijk Howard Myles

Principal Group Advisers

Investment Manager Secretary and Registered Office Chelverton Asset Management Limited Maitland Administration Services Limited 12b George Street Springfield Lodge Bath BA1 2EH Colchester Road, Chelmsford Tel: 01225 483030 Essex CM2 5PW Tel: 01245 398950 Registrar and Transfer Office for the ZDP shares Auditor Share Registrars Limited Hazlewoods LLP Suite E, First Floor Windsor House 9 Lion and Lamb Yard Bayshill Road Farnham Cheltenham GL50 3AT Surrey GU9 7LL Tel: 01252 821390 www.shareregistrars.uk.com

Shareholder Information

Sources of further information

The Company's ZDP shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The Company's ZDP NAV is released to the London Stock Exchange on a weekly basis and published monthly via the AIC.

Information about the Company and SCDT can be obtained on the Manager's website: www.chelvertonam.com. Any enquiries can also be emailed to cam@chelvertonam.com.

Share registrar enquiries

The register for the ZDP shares is maintained by Share Registrars Limited. In the event of queries regarding your holding, please contact the Registrar on 01252 821390. Changes of name and/or address must be notified in writing to the Registrar.

Chelverton Small Companies ZDP PLC

Notice of Annual General Meeting

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Company will take place at 11.30am (or as soon thereafter as the Annual General Meeting of the parent company, Chelverton Small Companies Dividend Trust PLC has concluded) on Thursday, 7September 2017 at the offices of Chelverton Asset Management, 3rd Floor, 20 Ironmonger Lane, London, EC2V 8EP for the following purposes:

Ordinary Business: Ordinary Resolutions

1. To receive the Report of the Directors and the audited financial statements for the period ended 30 April 2017.

2. To receive and approve the Directors' remuneration report for the period ended 30April 2017.

3. To re-elect Mr van Heesewijk as a Director.

4. To re-appoint Hazlewoods LLP as Auditor and to authorise the Directors to determine their remuneration.

Special Business

To consider, and if thought fit to pass the following Resolution which will be proposed as an Ordinary Resolution

5. To receive and approve the Directors' Remuneration Policy as set out in the Directors' Remuneration Report.

6. THAT the Directors be and are hereby generally and unconditionally authorised pursuant to Section 551 of the Companies Act 2006 ('the Act') to exercise all the powers of the Company to allot shares and to grant rights to subscribe for, or to convert any security into, shares in the Company ('the Rights') up to an aggregate nominal value equal to 3,166,333, being one-third of the issued ZDP share capital as at 30 April 2017, during the period commencing on the date of the passing of this resolution and expiring (unless previously renewed, varied or revoked by the Company in general meeting) at the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held in 2017, or fifteen months from the passing of this resolution, whichever is earlier (the 'Period of Authority').

The Directors may, at any time prior to the expiry of the Period of Authority, make offers or agreements which would or might require shares to be allotted and/or Rights to be granted after the expiry of the Period of Authority and the Directors may allot shares or grant Rights in pursuance of such offers or agreements as if the authority had not expired.

By order of the Board



Registered office: Maitland Administration Services Ltd Springfield Lodge Secretary Colchester Road,

Chelmsford 14 July 2017 Essex CM2 5PW

Explanatory Notes to the Notice of Annual General Meeting

1. The holders of the Ordinary shares have the right to receive notice, attend, speak and vote at the Annual General Meeting. Holders of ZDP shares have the right to receive notice of general meetings of the Company but do not have any right to attend, speak and vote at any general meeting of the Company unless the business of the meeting includes any resolution to vary, modify or abrogate any of the special rights attached to ZDP shares.

2. A member entitled to attend, vote and speak at this meeting may appoint one or more persons as his/her proxy to attend, speak and vote on his/her behalf at the meeting. A proxy need not be a member of the Company. If multiple proxies are appointed they must not be appointed in respect of the same shares. To be effective, the enclosed form of proxy, together with any power of attorney or other authority under which it is signed or a certified copy thereof, should be lodged at the office of the Company Secretary, Maitland Administration Services Limited, Springfield Lodge, Colchester Road, Chelmsford, CM2 5PW not later than 48 hours before the time of the meeting. The appointment of a proxy will not prevent a member from attending the meeting and voting and speaking in person if he/she so wishes. A member present in person or by proxy shall have one vote on a show of hands and on a poll shall have one vote for every Ordinary share of which he/she is the holder.

3. A person to whom this notice is sent who is a person nominated under Section 146 of the Companies Act 2006 to enjoy information rights (a "Nominated Person") may, under an agreement between him/her and the shareholder by whom he/she was nominated, have a right to be appointed (or to have someone else appointed) as a proxy for the Annual General Meeting. If a Nominated Person has no such proxy appointment or does not wish to exercise it, he/she may, under any such agreement, have a right to give instructions to the shareholder as to the exercise of voting rights. The statements of the rights of members in relation to the appointment of proxies in Note 2 above do not apply to a Nominated Person. The rights described in that Note can only be exercised by registered members of the Company.

4. As at July 2017 (being the last business day prior to the publication of this notice) the Company's issued voting share capital and total voting rights amounted to 50,000 Ordinary shares of 100p partly paid as to 25p each, all of which are held by the parent company. In addition, there are 9,349,000 ZDP shares of 100p each in issue with no voting rights attached.

5. The Company specifies that only those Ordinary shareholders registered on the Register of Members of the Company as at 11.30am on 5 September 2017 (or in the event that the meeting is adjourned, only those shareholders registered on the Register of Member of the Company as at 11.30am on the day which is 48 hours prior to the adjourned meeting) shall be entitled to attend in person or by proxy and vote at the Annual General Meeting in respect of the number of shares registered in their name at that time. Changes to entries on the Register of Members after that time shall be disregarded in determining the rights of any person to attend or vote at the meeting.

6. Any question relevant to the business of the Annual General Meeting may be asked at the meeting by anyone permitted to speak at the meeting. You may alternatively submit your question in advance by letter addressed to the Company Secretary at the registered office.

7. In accordance with Section 319A of the Companies Act 2006, the Company must cause any question relating to the business being dealt with at the meeting put by a member attending the meeting to be answered. No such answer need be given if:

a. to do so would:

i. Interfere unduly with the preparation for the meeting, or

ii. involve the disclosure of confidential information;

b. the answer has already been given on a website in the form of an answer to a question; or

c. it is undesirable in the interests of the Company or the good order of the meeting that the question be answered.

8. Shareholders should note that it is possible that, pursuant to requests made by shareholders of the Company under section 527 of the Companies Act 2006, the Company may be required to publish on a website a statement setting out any matter relating to: (i) the audit of the Company's accounts (including the auditor's report and the conduct of the audit) that are to be laid before the Annual General Meeting; or (ii) any circumstances connected with an auditor of the Company ceasing to hold office since the previous meeting at which annual accounts and reports were laid in accordance with section 437 of the Companies Act 2006. The Company may not require the shareholders requesting any such website publication to pay its expenses in complying with sections 527 or 528 of the Companies Act 2006. Where the Company is required to place a statement on a website under section 527 of the Companies Act 2006, it must forward the statement to the Company's auditor not later than the time when it makes the statement available on the website. The business which may be dealt with at the Annual General Meeting includes any statement that the Company has been required under section 527 of the Companies Act 2006 to publish on a website.

9. A person authorised by a corporation is entitled to exercise (on behalf of the corporation) the same powers as the corporation could exercise if it were an individual member of the Company (provided, in the case of multiple corporate representatives of the same corporate shareholder, they are appointed in respect of different shares owned by the corporate shareholder or, if they are appointed in respect of those same shares, they vote those shares in the same way). To be able to attend and vote at the meeting, corporate representatives will be required to produce prior to their entry to the meeting evidence satisfactory to the Company of their appointment. Corporate shareholders can also appoint one or more proxies in accordance with Note 2. On a vote on a resolution on a show of hands, each authorised person has the same voting rights to which the corporation would be entitled. On a vote on a resolution on a poll, if more than one authorised person purports to exercise a power in respect of the same shares:

a. if they purport to exercise the power in the same was as each other, the power is treated as exercised in that way;

b. if they do not purport to exercise the power in the same way as each other, the power is treated as not exercised.

10. Members satisfying the thresholds in Section 338 of the Companies Act 2006 may require the Company to give, to members of the Company entitled to receive notice of the Annual General Meeting, notice of a resolution which those members intend to move (and which may properly be moved) at the Annual General Meeting. A resolution may properly be moved at the Annual General Meeting unless (i) it would, if passed, be ineffective (whether by reason of any inconsistency with any enactment or the Company's constitution or otherwise); (ii) it is defamatory of any person; or (iii) it is frivolous or vexatious. A request made pursuant to this right may be in hard copy or electronic form, must identify the resolution of which notice is to be given, must be authenticated by the person(s) making it and must be received by the Company not later than six weeks before the date of the Annual General Meeting.

11. Members satisfying the thresholds in Section 338A of the Companies Act 2006 may request the Company to include in the business to be dealt with at the Annual General Meeting any matter (other than a proposed resolution) which may properly be included in the business at the Annual General Meeting. A matter may properly be included in the business at the Annual General Meeting unless (i) it is defamatory of any person or (ii) it is frivolous or vexatious. A request made pursuant to this right may be in hard copy or electronic form, must identify grounds for the request, must be authenticated by the person(s) making it and must be received by the Company not later than six weeks before the date of the Annual General Meeting.
FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Identity of the person whose positions/dealings are being disclosed: Magnetar Financial (UK) LLP (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):

The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient N/A (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree Tesco Plc (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: N/A (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken: July 13, 2017 (f) Has the discloser previously disclosed, or are they today disclosing, under the Code in respect of any other party to this offer? Yes - Booker Group Plc

2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security: 5p ordinary

ISIN: GB0008847096 Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: (2) Derivatives (other than options): 324,880 0.00% 19,868,380 0.24% (3) Options and agreements to purchase/sell:

TOTAL: 324,880 0.00% 19,868,380 0.24%

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open derivative or option positions, or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other executive options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale Number of securities Price per unit

(b) Derivatives transactions (other than options)

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. CFD Nature of dealing

e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit Ordinary shares Swap Increasing a short position 114,064 1.7289 Ordinary shares Swap Increasing a short position 252,556 1.7291 Ordinary shares Swap Increasing a long position 5 1.73 Ordinary shares Swap Increasing a long position 62 1.7275 Ordinary shares Swap Increasing a long position 7 1.731 Ordinary shares Swap Decreasing a long position 31,617 1.7286 Ordinary shares Swap Decreasing a long position 32 1.7297 Ordinary shares Swap Decreasing a long position 16 1.7285 Ordinary shares Swap Decreasing a long position 5 1.73 Ordinary shares Swap Decreasing a long position 7 1.7295 Ordinary shares Swap Decreasing a long position 38,494 1.7303 Ordinary shares Swap Decreasing a long position 38 1.7295 Ordinary shares Swap Decreasing a long position 38 1.7305 Ordinary shares Swap Decreasing a long position 5 1.731

(c) Options transactions in respect of existing securities

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type

e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercising

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. call option Number of securities Exercise price per unit

(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing

e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"

None

(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none" None

(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? No

Date of disclosure: July 14, 2017 Contact name: Cassie Peterson Telephone number: 847-905-4692

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service and must also be emailed to the Takeover Panel at monitoring@disclosure.org.uk. The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's dealing disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - HICL Infrastructure Company Ltd (HICL.L) said that portfolio continues to perform in line with expectations with no material issues affecting investment performance. The company re-affirmed dividend guidance of a target 7.85 pence for the financial year to 31 March 2018 and a target 8.05 pence for the financial year to 31 March 2019. This reflects its continued confidence in the future cash flow generation from the portfolio and the overall performance of the Company. Ian Russell, Chairman of HICL Infrastructure Company Limited, said, 'The Company has made steady progress, with portfolio performance and cash generation in line with expectations since the financial year end....The Company's principal objective is to deliver long-term, stable returns to shareholders and to preserve the capital value of the portfolio, with the potential for capital growth over the long term.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
CARLSBAD, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/14/17 -- V Group, Inc. (OTC PINK: VGID) would like to thank the shareholders, vendors and partners for a successful first half of 2017 and The Company is looking forward to a fruitful remainder of the year and beyond.

V Group, Inc. has been diligently working with its incubation partner, Leaf of Faith, to bring the Patience CBD drinks to market. We are proud to announce that July has been the Company's most successful month to date.

The first week of the month, July 7th and 8th, saw Patience CBD featured in Las Vegas at two industry promotional events; Comedy Sesh and Cromicon. Due to the exposure the Company received, Patience CBD is now on the shelves in certain dispensaries in Southern California and Nevada.

July 14th, 15th and 16th Patience CBD will be creating exposure at two famous San Diego events. Leaf of Faith will be handing out samples of Patience CBD at both the Pride Festival and at the world famous Comicon.

The first week of July, Patience CBD will be featured at Hemp Fest in the San Francisco Bay area. This festival is one of the industry's largest events and attendance is expected to be over 40,000 participants.

The goal of the Company is to get the product as much exposure as possible by getting the product in as many hands as possible to create as much demand as possible. Patience is poised to quickly be the leader in this rapidly growing industry.

Leaf of Faith is currently developing the Company's web site. Please follow Medical Mike Boris on social media including Facebook and Instagram for more updates.

V group, Inc. is on track to successfully spin off Leaf of Faith into its own public entity toward the end of 2017. The Company believes this is the surest way to ensure shareholder value.

V Group, Inc.

Contact: info@anddrinks.com

Website: www.anddrinks.com

Phone: (760) 613-8828




UK MORTGAGES LIMITED

(a closed-ended investment company incorporated in Guernsey with registration number 60440 )

Final Net Asset Value

FUND NAME NAV ISIN NAV DATE UK Mortgages Limited 0.8889 GG00BXDZMK63 31st May 2017

UKML RNS: Commentary accompanying UK Mortgages Limited May 2017 NAV

The UKML NAV per share was calculated for May month end at 88.89 pence per share.

The increase in the NAV was driven mostly by a small movement in the fair value of the swap, whilst all three portfolios continue to perform in line with expectations.

As reported in the latest factsheet, the Oat Hill No.1 transaction has recently settled, and the PM team continue to progress discussions on potential new opportunities.

Enquiries:

Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited

Andrew Bonham 44 (0)1481 745302

Date: 14 July 2017


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The long-running NBC comedy sketch series 'Saturday Night Live' and the HBO sci-fi thriller 'Westworld' have dominated the nominations for the 69th annual Prime time Emmy Award.



In the nominations announced by Anna Chlumsky and Shemar Moore Thursday, both received 22 each.



A specialty this year is that five new shows - This Is Us, Westworld, The Handmaid's Tale, The Crown and Stranger Things - were nominated for best drama.



They will battle with 'Better Call Saul' and 'House of Cards'for outstanding drama series.



'Westworld' ruled the acting categories, with Anthony Hopkins nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Evan Rachel Wood nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in Drama, Jeffrey Wright nominated for Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and Thandie Newton nominated in the supporting actress category.



Three stars of Saturday Night Live - Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Vanessa Bayer - were nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, while Alec Baldwin received nomination for best supporting actor in a comedy for his impression of President Donald Trump in SNL.



'SNL' is now the most Emmy nominated series of all time with a total of 231 over the seven decades-old history of the show.



Two shows with very different political themes scored multiple nominations for Emmy Awards. HBO's satirical comedy 'Veep' earned 17 nominations including in best Comedy Series, best comedy actress, best supporting comedy actor, and comedy actress.



The newcomer Hulu dystopian drama 'The Handmaid's Tale' earned 13 nominations in the drama series, writing, and directing categories, as well as lead actress for Elisabeth Moss, supporting actress for Ann Dowd and Samira Wiley, and guest actress for Alexis Bledel.



The 69th Annual Emmy Awards will honor the best in U.S. prime time television programming from June 1, 2016 until May 31, 2017, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.



The ceremony will be held on September 17 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
BEIJING, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Along with Intel's release of its latest generation of Xeon scalable processor family, Inspur officially announced its new generation of M5 series server platforms, providing the next generation of information technology that propels businesses to reach their unique business goals faster.

The new M5 series family, designed based on different deployment and application scenarios, includes 4 major product groups (General Purpose, Enterprise, Application Optimized and Converged Architecture Series), 35 products, for cloud computing, big data, AI to provide customers with excellent and robust computing performance as well as reliable and efficient business protection.

General Purpose Series Servers and Enterprise Series Servers are designed to meet the requirements of demanding business applications. Besides, enhanced RASUM (Reliability, Availability, Serviceability, Usability and Manageability) features are integrated to provide ERP, CRM and other traditional enterprise applications with strong, reliable and flexible supportive platforms.

Inspur's new M5 Application Optimized Series Server meets the needs for computing-intensive applications and data-rich applications. In this group, some servers are designed for cloud data centers. And some are designed to manage big data, deep learning and other emerging data-rich applications. All these servers provide physical storage capacity and heterogeneous computing power far better than general products. For example, the NF5288M5, a purpose-built deep learning server, offers superb performance for extreme AI computing and HPC mission.

Converged Architecture Product Series is the next generation data center modular solution. The physical indicators, including product performance density, storage density and energy efficiency, as well as the scalability of computing, storage, I/O and other various resources are far superior to traditional servers.

Flexibility, intelligence and openness are key considerations in Inspur's product design. New M5 series family is equipped with multi-dimensional automatic management solution, and supports OpenBMC and Redfish, the two standard management API interfaces. Inspur also participates in all Open Data Center Projects, which include OCP, OCS, ODCC, Open19.

Inspur is a leading data center product and solution manufacturer. According to IDC&Gartner 2017Q1 research, Inspur server ranked No.1 in China and Top 5 worldwide. In the field of AI, Inspur can provide leading heterogeneous accelerating computing platform and end to end AI total solutions, and it has been widely-used in smart-voice, smart-image and other applications by companies such as Baidu, Ailibaba, Tencent, iFlytek and Face++.
Country

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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 14, 2017 / The following statement is being issued by Levi & Korsinsky, LLP:

To: All persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired securities of Eco Science Solutions, Inc. ("Eco Science Solutions") (OTC PINK: ESSI) between May 1, 2017 and May 19, 2017 . You are hereby notified that a securities class action lawsuit has been commenced in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. To get more information, go to: http://www.zlk.com/pslra-sb/eco-science-solutions-inc?wire=1, or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at jlevi@levikorsinsky.com or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972. There is no cost or obligation to you.

The complaint alleges that, throughout the class period, Defendants issued materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) the Company's plan for strategic acquisitions lacked veracity; and (ii) as a result, Defendants' statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. On May 19, 2017, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued an order of suspension of trading, halting trading of the Company's securities.

If you suffered a loss in Eco Science Solutions, you have until July 24, 2017 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.

Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, California, Connecticut, and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise and experience representing investors in securities litigation and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

CONTACT:

Levi & Korsinsky, LLP

Joseph E. Levi, Esq.

30 Broad Street - 24th Floor

New York, NY 10004

Tel: (212) 363-7500

Toll-Free: (877) 363-5972

Fax: (212) 363-7171

www.zlk.com

SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
Dominion Diamond Corporation (TSX: DDC, NYSE: DDC) (the "Company" or "Dominion") today commented on recent media rumours related to the Company's review of strategic alternatives.

On March 27, 2017, Dominion announced that its Board of Directors had formed a Special Committee (the "Special Committee") to explore, review, and evaluate a range of potential strategic alternatives focused on maximizing shareholder value. The Special Committee, working together with the Company's management team and advisors, is considering alternatives that could include the sale of the Company. As previously disclosed, interested parties, including Washington Corporations, have executed confidentiality agreements with the Company.

The Company has not made any decisions related to strategic alternatives at this time and there can be no assurance that the exploration of strategic alternatives will result in any transaction or change in strategy.

About Dominion Diamond Corporation

Dominion Diamond Corporation is a Canadian mining company and one of the world's largest producers and suppliers of premium rough diamond assortments to the global market. The Company operates the Ekati Diamond Mine, in which it owns a controlling interest, and owns 40% of the Diavik Diamond Mine, both of which are located in the low political risk environment of the Northwest Territories in Canada. It also has world-class sorting and selling operations in Canada, Belgium and India.

For more information, please visit www.ddcorp.ca

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170714005563/en/

Contacts:

Dominion Diamond Corporation

Investors:

Jacqueline Allison, 416-205-4371

Vice President, Investor Relations

jacqueline.allison@ddcorp.ca

or

Canadian Media:

DFH Public Affairs

Ian Hamilton, 416-206-0118 x222

or

US Media:

Gagnier Communications

Dan Gagnier, 646-569-5897
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 28, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Zoompass Holdings, Inc. ("Zoompass" or the "Company") (OTC PINK: ZPAS) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, District of New Jersey, and docketed under 17-cv-03831, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Zoompass securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Zoompass securities between April 24, 2017 and May 24, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until July 31, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Zoompass Holdings, Inc. develops a mobile money platform that enables brands to transform their financial interactions with customers. The company also offers mobile money solutions that include international and domestic money transfers, contractor payments, direct payroll deposit, merchant payments, and bill payments.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Zoompass unlawfully engaged in a scheme to promote the Company's stock; (ii) discovery of the foregoing conduct would subject the Company to heightened regulatory scrutiny and potential criminal sanctions; and (iii) that as a result of the foregoing, Zoompass' public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On May 9, 2017 Zoompass disclosed that it had been "made aware of and requested by the OTC Markets Group, Inc. to comment on recent trading and potential promotional activity."

On May 25, 2017, Seeking Alpha published an article alleging that Zoompass had erroneously denied its involvement with a scheme designed to promote Zoompass' stock; and that Zoompass had purposely kept hidden the fact that the Company's CEO was involved in a pump-and-dump scheme.

On this news, shares of Zoompass fell $0.70 or over 23% to close at $2.25 per share on May 25, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the Dean of the Class Action Bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
gel-e Inc., a College Park, Md.-based clinical-stage medical device company, raised $3.1m in financing.

Th round was led by early-stage investment funds and life science investors.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its initial U.S. FDA regulatory clearance for the management of bleeding wounds, including vascular access sites (Vascular gel-e) to a broader hemostatic product line for the treatment of external wounds and to establish cGMP manufacturing of active ingredient.

Led by Larry Tiffany (Chairman of the Board), Matthew Dowling, Ph.D. (Founder and Chief Scientific Officer), Rich Vincent (Chief Financial Officer), Elsa Abruzzo (Head of Regulatory), and Kevin Smith (Executive Vice President of Business Development), gel-e develops a broad range of hemostatic and wound treatment products, including bandages for the treatment of routine cuts and scrapes, foams and putties for traumatic and military injuries, and surgical gels and powders.

Prior to this financing, the company was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation (through the SBIR), the United States Army Research Lab, Maryland Industrial Partnerships, and the Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO).

FinSMEs

14/07/2017
Vroom, a New York, Dallas and Houston-based online auto retailer, raised $76m in Series F funding.

Backers included certain funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, L Catterton, General Catalyst Partners and PICO Venture Partners.

The company has raised $295m in total equity funding since inception.

Led by CEO Paul J. Hennessy, Vroom is a national online auto retailer offering thousands of low-mileage, reconditioned vehicles with free delivery to customers doors nationwide. The company, which also operates the Texas Direct Auto brand, which brings the entire car-buying process online, from financing to purchase. Its private-seller acquisition model allows customers to get a cash offer for their vehicle in minutes.

FinSMEs

14/07/2017
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Thursday directed for placing on the record before it an RBI directive to a consortium of 22 lenders to initiate insolvency proceedings against Essar Steel following its high Non-Performing Assets (NPAs).

Hearing the 4 July petition filed by the major steelmaker to seek quashing of insolvency proceedings, a single bench of Justice S.G. Shah expressed its surprise that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directive to a consortium of lenders led by the State Bank of India and Standard Chartered Bank had not been placed on court record neither by the petitioner nor the respondents.

It is this directive that is under challenge by Essar Steel, which has claimed in the court, among other things, that it was kept in the dark while the central bank asked the lenders to initiate the insolvency proceedings when the company was in a restructuring mode.

The company also alleged that it is being singled out for action among all 12 major accounts identified as NPAs totalling Rs 7,50,000 crore.

Essar Steel had a debt of Rs 45,655 crore, of which Rs 31,671 crore had turned NPAs for banks by 31 March, 2016. This increased to Rs 32,864 crore by 31 March this year.

The RBI, meanwhile, has disputed the company's claims.

The central bank's counsel Darius Khambata told the High Court that it was crystal clear from the minutes of the meeting between the company and its lenders that it was "far from reaching any restructuring settlement".

Also, he contended, Essar Steel was quite aware of insolvency proceedings against it at the National Company Law Tribunal.

As for the company's allegation that it was being singled out, the RBI counsel said the insolvency proceedings would actually help the company and added that the objective of the proceedings at the NCLT was to recover "maximum value in a minimum time-bound manner".

"The IBC (The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code) is not for winding up a company but to resolve and restructurea to avoid winding up," Khambata said.

The RBI counsel said the list of 12 large NPAs against which the RBI had advised banks to initiate insolvency proceedings had been drawn to prevent the loss of public money.

"The NCLT follows a time-bound, structured process, under statutory provisions. Its purpose is to maximise the value of assets and put it back into the system."

The hearing in the case will continue on Friday.
Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy was famous for his saying about the challenges of companies reinventing themselves, likening it to "changing the wheels of an aircraft midflight." Infosys turned 36 last week, but the founder's saying seemed more relevant than ever before in the shifting sands of technology. The word "new" occurred time and again during its CXOs talking to TV channels soon after first quarter results that beat market expectations: New services, new software, new technologies, new growth areas.

The telling quote came from CEO Vishal Sikka, and I agree with him. "This is not about visas. This is about innovation and the changing goalposts." He is proud of a home-built autonomous vehicle he rode for the results show, but mercifully, Infosys itself is not exactly driverless.

Coming a day after industry leader Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) results that disappointed markets, doubts linger on the IT industry, especially from the point of view of hiring that has boosted skilled employment in the country. For those looking for deep insights on that front, the message is clear. Infosys is shifting from a "Hire more to profit more" to "Slog smart to profit more." The smart part of it applies to both engaging with new technologies (think artificial intelligence, software automation), and boosting operational efficiency.

Infosys's headcount is down, revenue per employee up and wage hikes have been effected, suggesting that the IT army is being encouraged to work harder while management keeps an eye on old jobs being irrelevant while looking at new opportunities to drive future growth. TCS has also seen a shrinkage in headcount, though hiring continues.

Typically, you do not go for speed when you are looking to change lanes or turning a corner. That seems to be the case with Infosys, but it seems to be doing a painful reinvention in style for two reasons. It has enough cash reserves and elbow room to press the clutch and change gears. The planned Rs 13,000-crore handout to investors in the form of buybacks and dividends is on the one hand an admission of the fact that they no longer have easy growth-oriented ploughback opportunities, but on the other hand handouts keep markets happy. I would have personally liked Infosys to throw some of those funds into emerging technology startups through its already existing venture arm but let's face it, that is an investment job, not an IT service.

The challenges in the US stemming from President Donald Trump's squeeze in H1B visas may be good for facile headline writers, but the real challenge is in the way new startups are disrupting companies that have in the past paid fat dollars to TCS and Infosys. The emerging challenge lies in partnering the disrupting companies than the ones that are being disrupted.

TCS chief executive Rajesh Gopinathan mentioned how the company was seeing new "bottom of the pyramid" customers from new entrants into the banking and financial services industry. Emerging companies specialising in the use of financial technologies like blockchain can help crack new customer segments, though the way it is done in the age of cloud computing may be dramatically different from the old-world project-to-project outsourcing.

Similarly, Infosys chief operating officer Pravin Rao spoke of green energy as an area where his company was eyeing new customers.

These areas are not like the sitting ducks of the 1990s when Indian companies played the simple game of wage differentials between the US and India. But the end of a honeymoon does not mean the marriage is over. Far from it. There are two special challenges both companies have faced: a stronger rupee and boardroom tussles. Sikka seems to have put his tensions behind by saying that he is sure that promoters including Murthy have the best interests of the company in mind when they criticise. Now that former TCS chief N. Chandrasekharan heads the entire Tata group, it may ease growth pains for that company as well.

But, having said that, TCS has been underperforming for 11 quarters in a row and it seems it has more difficulty in structural change than Infosys. I am tempted to suggest that TCS has been innovative in global reach with a wider footprint, while Infosys seems better placed on new technologies, thanks to Sikka. TCS seems to be stepping on the gas with a new internal group to court future technologies. Er, could they not have done it at least a year earlier?

A key point is that operating margins are steady at Infosys while slipping at TCS. A company with stronger old-world management as distinct from a geek-led Infosys should have been the one to do it. TCS definitely owes the world a better explanation , though the strong rupee is the main culprit. Given that TCS is nearly twice as large as Infosys in headcount, maybe it is a heavier bird in flight problems.

(The author is a senior journalist. He tweets as @madversity)
New Delhi: In waging an all-out war on black money, the Modi government may actually be wrestling with the wrong enemy. Shouldnt the government instead use its energies in creating more and meaningful employment? Remember, the war on black money necessarily means destruction of the parallel economy, which in turn signifies dismantling of the informal sector. This informal sector, which is anyway a euphemism for tax evasion, accounts for about 80 percent of employment opportunities in the country according to the governments own NSSO survey. While we happily digitise the economy and take stern measures to expand the tax base, joblessness is also expanding parallelly.

In a note to clients, Saurabh Mukherjea of Ambit Capital has said the government now needs to switch its focus to the ongoing employment crisis  which has been created by a mix of technological change (increased automation taking away jobs in the formal sector) and formalisation of the economy. A single minded focus on flogging the black economy will be tantamount to targeting the wrong enemy. Instead, policy measures which encourage investments in machinery need to be replaced by measures which encourage recruitment.

Mukherjea has supported his contention thus:

1) Tax evasion is the key to survival for SMEs in India since this country has high indirect tax rates and cost of capital is also higher for these small units compared to the organised sector.

2) Tax evasion gives these companies a 10-30 percent advantage in revenues compared to the organised sector. The big organised players not only have access to cheaper capital, they are also increasingly getting automated thereby reducing the need for labour. So the onus of providing jobs to a majority of nearly a million Indians entering the job market each month rests with the tax evading SMEs

3) Skilling is an integral part of job creation. Though this government has been talking of stiff targets under the Skill India mission, Mukherjea calls it a failure and says the government has already abandoned the goal of skilling 500 million people by 2022.

So should the government stop its war on black money and allow small establishments to continue evading taxes?

Rituparna Chakraborty Executive VP and Co-Founder of Teamlease, a leading recruiter for the organised sector, says There is no debate on whether SMEs are essential or not. Question is whether someone is formal or informal. There is no correlation between being small and being informal. That is why we are seeking labour reforms to encourage entrepreneurship and create more formal jobs.

Meanwhile, job creation has been and continues to be the single biggest headache of this government. As per data from the Labour Bureau, in the nine months till December 2016, only 2.31 lakh new jobs were created across eight labour intensive sectors. This averages to 0.26 lakh new jobs a month, not even a 1000 jobs a day, or just about 840 new jobs on an average each day of the nine months under review. And 1.32 lakh new jobs were added in the October-December period of 2016, far more than the 32,000 added in the immediate previous quarter and 77,000 in the April-June quarter of 2016.

As per the Bureaus previous surveys, no new jobs were created but there was actually a decline of 20,000 jobs in the December quarter of 2015. The September quarter of the same year had added 1.34 lakh new jobs across the same eight sectors and was still the slowest quarter in the previous six years (barring 2012 where quarter wise data was not available). So total number of new jobs created across the eight sectors between January-December 2015 stood at just 1.35 lakh, making this the slowest pace of new jobs being created since 2009.

This piece in Mint talks of restlessness in India about lack of jobs and also says public perception about job creation is worse than what it was during the second term of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. A similar study conducted in 2013 found 29 percent people saying that employment opportunities had increased in the last couple of years. Between 2013 and 2017, that proportion has declined six percentage points to 23 percent.

So is public anger justified? Arvind Panagariya, the vice-chairman of NITI Aayog, has been pointing to erroneous and inadequate jobs data to say that the jobless growth charge against the Modi government is incorrect. He is leading the efforts to harmonise and expand efforts to generate reliable employment data starting this fiscal. Panagariya has also said that inadequate jobs was not the problem, quality of jobs instead should be the governments focus.

Regardless of how the government couches the dismal jobs scenario, black money crackdowns havent helped. Sluggish growth in jobs was already a pain when the government went ahead with sudden demonetisation in November last year, wiping out substantial portions of currency in circulation from the market. This dealt a body blow to employment, specifically in the informal sector. According to CMIE, about 1.5 million jobs were lost during January-April 2017, the period usually examined to assess the loss of jobs due to demonetisation. The estimated total employment during the period was 405 million compared to 406.5 million during the preceding four months, September-December 2017.

CEO Mahesh Vyas said in a post on CMIE that in January-April 2016, We estimated the employed force at 401 million then. This grew to 403 million during May-August 2016 and then to 406.5 million in September-December 2016. Then, it fell to 405 million. This is the total employment in the country - including organised and unorganised sectors and agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.

Take the BPO/ITEA sector, which has seen significant job cuts in recent months. The Monster Employment Index India has said in a statement today that although total online recruitment was up 11 percent year-on-year in June, the BPO/ITES sector saw a 7 percent year-on-year decline, the first negative growth since April 2014. The decline in demand was reflected on all other parameters as well; down six percent (month-on-month), down nine percent (three-month) and down eight percent (six-month).

A concerted effort by the government as well as industry in focusing on creation of more jobs, better paying jobs and upskilling is perhaps the only way forward.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday considered the Centre's submission that proceedings to extradite embattled businessman Vijay Mallya are going on in London and said the contempt case against him would move further only when he is produced before it.

A bench comprising Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit took note of the fresh status report, referred by Attorney General KK Venugopal that efforts to bring Mallya back were on.

The apex court, which was to pronounce quantum of the sentence on Friday against Mallya, who has already been convicted for its contempt, said proceedings can't move further unless the businessman is produced before him.

Earlier, Mallya had failed to make a personal appearance before the top court despite being directed to do so.

The apex court had on 9 May held Mallya, who is presently in the United Kingdom, guilty of contempt on a plea by the consortium of lender banks, led by the State Bank of India, for his failure to furnish details of all his Indian as well as offshore assets.

It had directed Mallya to appear before it today to argue on the quantum of punishment.

The offence of contempt of court entails a maximum imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of upto Rs 2,000 or both.

India had recently asked Britain to ensure early extradition of Mallya, who is an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The apex court's order had come on a plea by the consortium of banks, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), which had said that Mallya had allegedly transferred $40 million received from British firm Diageo to his children in "flagrant violation" of various judicial orders.

The bench had reserved its order on two pleas of lending banks seeking contempt action and a direction to Mallya to deposit $40 million received from offshore firm Diageo respectively.

The banks have alleged that Mallya had concealed facts and diverted the money to his son Siddharth Mallya and daughters Leanna Mallya and Tanya Mallya in "flagrant violation" of the orders passed by the Karnataka High Court.

The bench had also pulled up Mallya for not giving details of the $40 million which he had allegedly received from Diageo in February 2016, saying it was of the "prima facie view" that proper disclosure as per its earlier order was not made.

The banks had on 29 August, 2016 told the Supreme Court that Mallya had deliberately not made full disclosure of his assets including the $40 million he received on 25 February from Diageo.
Mumbai: Tata Sons, the holding company of salt-to-software Tata Group, on Thursday said it has appointed Aarthi Subramanian as the group's Chief Digital Officer.

Subramanian, who is currently the Executive Director at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will report to Chairman of Tata Sons N Chandrasekaran and will take up her new role in August this year.

She brings with her over 26 years of experience in the global technology sector. Starting her career with TCS, she has worked in diverse roles in India, Sweden, the US and Canada, Tata Sons said in a statement.

Commenting on the appointment, Tata Sons Executive Chairman N Chandrasekaran said: "As the Group Chief Digital Officer, she will play a key role in driving digital adoption across group companies as well as the groups digital initiatives."

He further said Subramanian has a great track record of leading large teams to achieve excellence in customer service delivery.

Subramanian is a graduate of Computer Science from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal, and holds a Masters degree in Engineering Management from University of Kansas, USA.

"The Tata group is a unique institution with great strengths and it will be my endeavour to help the group capture many new economic opportunities that are emerging from the Digital Economy," Subramanian said.
"Theres nothing to miss (in India)," said Vijay Mallya, former liquor king, boss of the grounded airline, Kingfisher and a man in forced exile for defaulting some Rs 9,000 crore to Indian banks, to Reuters.

Most members of his immediate family is in the UK or other foreign countries, said the 61-year-old to the agency at the British Grand Prix. "All my immediate family is either in England or the US. Nobody in India at all. As far as my step-siblings are concerned, they are all UK citizens. So theres nothing family-wise to miss." But, the Enforcement Directorate seems to be missing him lot and also the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the courts and a group of hapless banks who carelessly lent some Rs 7,000 crore to Kingfisher believing in his personal assurance and accepting unbelievably ridiculous collaterals such as Kingfisher brand and trademarks.

The ED has found, according to reports, Rs 1,300 crore through 13 shell companies in US, Ireland, Mauritius and France. The agency has made this indictment against Mallya in its charge sheet filed on 14 June in the money laundering case involving a loan of about Rs 900 crore from IDBI-KFA bank. The charge sheet has indicted eight other persons too for their alleged roles in the case. The noose is tightening; the investigative agencies are doing everything possible to strengthen the case against him before the next full hearing on Indias extradition request comes up before a UK court on 4 December. The charges the ED has raised, if it can be proved, certainly strengthens the case against the businessman who left India in March 2016.

The government seems to be better prepared for the 4 December hearing. It has asked the investigative agencies to gather strong evidences against the elusive Kingfisher boss. The ED findings must be seen in this context. If extradited, Mallya will be lodged in a high-security cell in Barrack number 12 at the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai, the government has conveyed to the UK Crown Prosecution Services, according to this Hindu report.

The 4 December hearing is a now-or-never situation for the Indian government as it is the side that has failed to make its case and have a thin chance to go for an appeal. Mallya has had an upper hand in the battle so far. Despite the tremendous pressure from Indian investigative agencies, banks and courts, the billionaire hasnt made any significant repayment to banks. In fact, Mallya has openly challenged them by responded to the media last month that You can keep dreaming about a billion pounds; you cannot prove anything without facts.

He is right; the facts are what counts before the court of law and presenting the evidence will be the biggest challenge before the investigators. Remember, it wasnt just Mallya but even the UK courts too that mocked Indian investigators for their slow response. "Are Indians normally very prompt in their responses? They have taken six months so far and we haven't got any further forward in the past six weeks," Chief Magistrate at Westminster magistrates' court Emma Arbuthnot was quoted as saying in the reports. The absence of sufficient evidence from the Indian side would give Mallya an easy win. That would send a wrong signal to the world of crony promoters who have taken the banking system for a ride.

As this author said in an earlier piece, the December hearing is the only major chance for India to nail the elusive industrialist. But even then the question remains: Will the banks get their money back. The value of money at stake is growing every passing day with accumulated interest amount on the principal. Even if, say, India wins the extradition case in the December hearing, it will take at least a few months to a year to complete the proceedings. By the time India will have a decisive victory over Mallya and even if the country manages to bring him back and the courts send him to jail, recovery of the money will take a long time. Remember, banks have so far not managed to sell even Kingfisher House  a prime real estate property right in the middle of Mumbai even after fifth auction. Also, lenders have settled for a much lower value while auctioning the Goa Kingfisher Villa compared to the market price.

The notion of banks making any recovery by auctioning the brand and trademarks of Kingfisher Airline is laughable. Only an entrepreneur in self-destruction mode would want to go for a brand that has been in the media for all the wrong reasons. Banks now expect to recover only a fraction of the amount from Mallya, at the end of the long fight. They will miss the billionaire most for a long time to come.
Irrfan Khan and director Anup Singh have previously worked together to create critically acclaimed films such as Qissa, which released in 2015, and The Song of Scorpions, which will premiere this August at the Locarno Film Fest. The duo will collaborate for a third time on a script that the director recently finished writing, said Singh to Mumbai Mirror.

Speaking about The Song of Scorpions, Singh said that the lead actor needed to be both fragile and ruthless, as the character he plays is passionately in love. "After his electric performance in my last film Qissa, I knew Irrfan was the only actor who would be able to live the heightened emotions of this character with authenticity, intelligence and flair and give us all a new and stunning insight into love," he explained.

Despite shooting the film in 2016, the director said that it is still not ready, as the team is still giving it finishing touches. He intends to showcase it at a few more film festivals before releasing it in India. Irrfan Khan previously called Singh an extremely talented director and a greater visual artist.

In The Song of Scorpions, Irrfan Khan shares screen space with Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani. The film tells the story of how Khan, a camel trader, falls in love with a tribal woman, Farahani, in Jaisalmer. It also features Waheeda Rehman in a cameo role. It was the transgressive relationship portrayed in the film and its setting in a small town that drew Khan to the script.

Qissa saw Khan playing a Sikh Punjabi disgruntled because his wife Tisca Chopra is unable to bear a son . It was set against the backdrop of Partition, and described as a thought-provoking film.

Irrfan Khan was last seen in Hindi Medium, a socially relevant film about the bias towards English, where he starred opposite Saba Qamar. His upcoming project is Puzzle, a Hollywood film which is female-centric.
Saif Ali Khan has unveiled the teaser of his upcoming film, Akshat Verma's Kaalakaandi. While the teaser transports us to a familiar dark world, Saif is at his unfamiliar best.

Saif's look from the film which is quirky to say the least. Saif is seen sporting a crisp white shirt but it is the accessories that lend quirk to the picture.

He is wearing three accessories - hairbands of a myriad range of colours, a yellow shrug and bruises on his eyes. While his expression is grim, his getup is comic. This contrast is what makes his look immensely fascinating.

This look makes the viewers revisit Saif's look from Raj and DK's 2013 zombie comedy Go Goa Gone. In that film, Saif played a zombie hunter, who had a loaded gun by his side at all times.

But his blonde hairstyle made his character come across as rather caricaturish. Since Verma is the writer of the 2011 film Delhi Belly, known for its toilet humour, Saif is all set for a quirky collaboration with Verma in Kaalakandi.

Kaalakaandi also stars Sobhita Dhulipala, Akshay Oberoi, Amrya Dastur and Kunaal Roy Kapur. It is produced by Rohit Khattar and Ashi Dua's Cinestaan Film Company Pvt Ltd. It is slated to release on 8 September.
As we inch closer to the IIFA awards 2017, we at Firstpost sat down for a discussion about the prestigious awards.

In the 30 minute long chat, Vikram Thapa and Swetha Ramakrishnan discuss how IIFA is especially relevant this year since we've seen a global level excitement for hindi films, with the success of Baahubali: The Conclusion and Dangal.

What's also important is that this year, no Pakistani actors have been nominated at the IIFA awards. While Filmfare nominated Fawad Khan and Ali Zafar in their categories, it seems like IIFA was being extra cautious of the Pakistani artistes ban.

It's also Katrina Kaif's birthday on 16th August, which makes it double the fun for her as she's in New York for her birthday and also sees a release this week with Jagga Jasoos.

Watch our IIFA discussion for more insight on the 2 day extravaganza.
Los Angeles: Shows Westworld and Saturday Night Live have bagged the maximum nominations in the 69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

The nominations were announced on Thursday, where HBO's Westworld and NBC's Saturday Night Live tied for the most nominations for the 2017 Emmy Awards, both earning 22 each, reports CNN.com.

Five new shows have made their way into the Best Drama category, including This Is Us, Westworld, The Handmaid's Tale, The Crown and Stranger Things. They will be competing with Better Call Saul and House of Cards.

Atlanta, Black-ish, Master of None, Modern Family, Silicon Valley, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Veep are contending in the comedy category.

Two shows with very different political themes scored multiple nominations for Emmy Awards. HBO's satirical comedy Veep earned 17 nominations and the newcomer drama The Handmaid's Tale earned 11.

The favourite show from last year, Game of Thrones, isn't eligible for the Emmys this year because of its mid-July premiere date.

Stephen Colbert, host of CBS' Late Show, will host the Emmy Awards live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, 17 September.
Hollywood director Guy Ritchie was reportedly having a tough time getting the casting of his upcoming Aladdin film right. However, it seems like the director's search for an actor, who has middle-eastern looks and can sing, as well, has ended. Indian actor Siddharth Gupta has reportedly been signed to play Aladdin, as per Hindustan Times.

Gupta had made his Bollywood debut with 'Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi', opposite Simran Kaur Mundi. The film failed to make an impression on the audiences. However, Aladdin could be a huge game-changer for the actor.

The same HT report suggests that the actor has already signed a non-disclosure agreement with the makers and they are content to have found someone that is fresh and equally adventurous.

There is no official confirmation from neither the director nor Disney yet. As far as the female lead is concerned, Tara Sutaria and Sasha Agha are reportedly being considered to play Aladdin love interest, Jasmine.

Ritchie had earlier expressed that he wants to cast authentic Indian actors for the film. He had even roped in Mumbai based casting director Tess Joseph. Joseph is credited with doing casting for films like Life of Pi, The Namesake and Lion, and has earned a reputation for casting appropriate Indian actors for Indian parts in Hollywood films.
Last Friday saw a mega-clash at the box-office with Mom, Guest Iin London, Ninnu Kori and Spider-Man: Homecoming releasing together in the Indian subcontinent. Spider-Man emerged a clear while the rest died down gradually. With another Friday, we have a new set of films hitting the screens. Here's a low-down on what to watch out for this weekend:

Film: Jagga Jasoos

What it's about: It is about a teenage detective (played by Kapoor) who is in search of his missing father. He meets Shruti, a journalist (played by Katrina Kaif) during his journey and from there on, the story only gets more adventurous.

Who's in it: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Sayani Gupta, Adah Sharma

What may work for it: The film's posters so far have been the quirkiest Bollywood has seen. The duo is seen stuck in strange situations, doing unexpected things - riding ostriches, rowing a canoe and dancing in the middle of a bustling Moroccan market. A lot of curiosity surrounds this Disney film. Kapoor and Kaif's on-screen camaraderie might work its magic, too.

Film: War for the Planet of the Apes

What it's about: In the third installment of Planet of Apes series, the apes are at war with humans again despite Caesar giving them the space to peacefully coexist. However, some apes join the human army in a revengeful move. What ensues is a vicious attack and Caesar's eventual vindictive journey.

Who's in it: Andy Serkis as Caesar, Steve Zahn as "Bad Ape", Karin Konoval as Maurice, Terry Notary as Rocket and Ty Olsson as Red among others.

What may work for it: The fact that Planet of Apes is one of those rare series that actually set the bar higher with each installment. The film has a grand villain and an equally grand hero who are at odds. This series is a full-on Caesar show and one might find him to, ironically, be the most human.

Film: Shab

What it's about: The film is about different people from different backgrounds who have contrasting aspirations. Circumstances force these people to come to terms with some harsh realities and also accept their past.

Who's in it: Ashish Bisht, Raveena Tandon, Sanjay Suri, Arpita Chatterjee

What may work for it: In all honesty, the film looks like just another mediocre Bollywood film with a cliched plot, trying hard to come off as 'different'. However, if you are a Raveena Tandon fan or want to give these newcomers a chance, you could watch it.
It was earlier reported that Jayan Cherian's Malayalam film Ka Bodyscapes was denied by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) at the same time around they denied the same to Alankrita Shrivasatva's Liptsick Under My Burkha.

Now that Lipstick Under My Burkha is gearing up for a release on 21 July, Ka Bodyscapes is still struggling in its battle against the CBFC.

Mumbai Mirror reports that Kerala High Court has directed the CBFC to review the film and suggest changes or modifications instead of banning it in its entirety.

The same report quotes Cherian as saying, "A single bench of the High Court held that the movie has to be watched as a whole instead of refusing to give a certificate based on certain clips and parts. The judge also permitted the Board to modify or delete certain scenes if they find it objectionable but ruled against banning it altogether.

The same report states that the CBFC chose to appeal to the Revising Committee to review the film instead. After the Revising Committee denied certification, a contempt of court case was filed against the CBFC for not adhering to the court order.

However, the court gave an opportunity to the CBFC to purge the contempt by facilitating a screening of the film by the entire Board within a month. On 11 July, the CBFC requested a two month extension in doing so owing to lack of funding to arrange the screening and the cost of bringing all the board members together.
Last year, Priyanka Chopra was appointed as the Brand Ambassador for Assam tourism. Now, when the state has been struck with floods, her silence has perturbed many, including actor Mahika Sharma who has appeared in television shows and Hindi and Assamese cinema.

ABP Live reports that Sharma expressed her disappointment in Chopra and criticised her for not even pushing out a word concerning the people of Assam.

The same report quotes her as saying, "Im very upset with her (Chopra). Because she owns some power to help the poor who are victims of Assam floods. She didnt even show any emotions for the state even on the social networking site. This is what not only me but anyone from Assam would be upset. I dont wish she takes my word personally but understand me and Assam peoples emotions and excitement from her being associated with the state."

While Chopra has been busy shooting for her second Hollywood film, Silas Howard's A Kid Like Jake, in the USA, she has returned to India to celebrate her birthday with friends and family. Chopra has been vocal about multiple issues in the recent past, including the lack of diversity in Oscars and women empowerment in Africa. Her fans hope that she will voice her concern for Assam soon.
One Night. A Rolls Royce. Three Suspects. One Police Officer - This is what Shamanthakamani is all about.

If you havent guessed it by now, the title refers to a Rolls Royce, worth Rs 5 crores, which is stolen after a party in a hotel. The news turns into a major embarrassment for the cops and it forces a police officer to go on a wild goose chase to find out where the car is. While the premise sounds thrilling, the film doesnt quite live up to its promise almost till the final act.

In the end, writer and director Sriram Aditya, manages to manoeuvre the star-driven vehicle into a safe space, which is probably its biggest achievement apart from brining together the star cast.

Right in the beginning, we are told that the Rolls Royce has been stolen and Krishna (Sudheer Babu), whose family owns the car, rushes to the police station to register a complaint. The news spreads like wild fire. Ranjith Kumar (Nara Rohit) summons three suspects - a mechanic (played by Rajendra Prasad), Shiva (Sundeep Kishan), and a happy-go-lucky guy (Aadi) . The rest of the story is about Ranjith trying to find out who the culprit is.

Throughout the first half, all I kept wondering was - When the premise of a story is this promising, what can possibly go wrong? A possible explanation lies in the very tone of the film itself. The film fits perfectly into a thriller genre; however, its treated more like a comedy. There are quite a few laughs, thanks to Raghu Karumanchi, who plays the role of a constable, and also, partly from Satyam Rajesh.

This treatment doesnt allow us to take the fate of the four characters seriously and to make things even more tough for us to emotionally invest in each of the characters, the narrative jumps from one character to another, rather quickly, while trying to establish the characters. Yes, we do empathise with Krishna (Sudheer Babu) because for him, the car holds a sentimental value. But the same isnt true for others in the plot. As a result, we hardly empathise with the fate of these characters who never seem to be that desperate or shrewd enough to commit the crime.

The plot comes together in the final act of the film when, all of a sudden, Sriram Aditya takes a complete U-turn to let the story reach a logical conclusion. Theres every reason to argue that the writers took a convenient route to spring a last minute surprise. The problem with this twist in the tale is that theres hardly a hint of it till the very end. It might seem like a surprising choice, but it comes across more like an afterthought.

What actually works in the favour of the film are the performances from all its lead actors. Sudheer Babu is pretty earnest in his role as a rich guy, whos constantly sidelined by his father. Then, theres Sundeep Kishan, who shines in his character as a small-town guy wanting to make it big in the city by hook or crook. Aadi has a meaty role as a hyper-active youngster, whose relationship with a rich girl is under threat. Rajendra Prasad and Indraja pull off their roles with ease. Nara Rohit is perfect as a hot-headed cop.

Sriram Adityas debut film Bhale Manchi Roju soared high, thanks to its zany style and treatment.

While Shamanthakamani could have been in a similar space, it lacks both the style and a solid storytelling that can do justice to its theme.

We will never know if this is due to the task of having to balance the arc of all the characters or having to make the film more accessible to everyone. Whatever it might be, Shamanthakamani left me with mixed feelings. Its a cool idea and it definitely deserved a better film.
While the Amarnath terror attack has been condemned by everyone in Jammu and Kashmir, it is the Hindus in the Valley who are starting to question their safety.

On 10 July, militants targeted a bus ferrying Amarnath Yatra pilgrims in south Kashmirs Anantnag district, killing seven and injuring 19 people. This is the biggest attack on the annual pilgrimage since 2000, when 21 people were killed in a grenade attack by militants.

"Nobody will tell you, but the fact is that the attack on yatris has left the Hindu community shattered and apprehensive about their safety, 62-year-old Bansi Lal, a Kashmiri Hindu, told 101Reporters.

His family stayed back in Kashmir when many from his community was forced to flee the Valley amid grave hostility in 1990. A father of two sons and a daughter, he said he cannot stop his children from moving out of Kashmir as he fears anything can happen anytime. Sitting in his ancestral home in central Kashmir's Ganderbal district, he said he wants to live here and die here like his ancestors, but asked how he would calm the frayed nerves of his children now that the militant ideology was gaining acceptance.

It looks like the era of bloodshed has returned to Kashmir. Earlier, the demand was political and now it has turned religious. Killing in the name of religion has begun with a gruesome attack on pilgrims in Anantnag, the former government officer said.

It all began on 15 March, when a former commander of militant outfit Hizbul-Mujahideen, Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Musa, released a video. In a message that went viral on social media, he exhorted the Muslims to fight for the implementation of Sharia law and Islams supremacy.

I see that many people in Kashmir are engaged in a war of nationalism, which is forbidden in Islam. It should be exclusively for Islam so that Sharia law is established here, Zakir was heard saying in the video. Musa became the face of militant forces after former commander Burhan Wani was killed on 8 July last year.

The militants later issued an open appeal to the stone-pelters, asking them not to raise the slogan of "Shariyat ya Shahadat" in Pakistans favour anymore. The slogan is the hallmark of global militant groups that reject the idea of nation states and fight to establish an Islamic caliphate.

Threat perception

The mass exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits in January 1990 was preceded by similar virulent campaigns that had turned many Kashmiri Muslims against their Hindu brethren. While the current atmosphere is nowhere close to the hostility of January 1990, Hindus in the Valley perceive some threat nevertheless.

Anil Raina, 35, a Kashmiri Pandit living in old city of Srinagar, told 101Reporters that his family has never faced any danger from the local Muslim populace. However, the way things are changing in Kashmir is incorrigible. Lagta hai alag hi daur aa gaya hai Kashmir mein. (Seems like a new era has dawned in Kashmir).

An accountant with a private firm, he said that he vividly remembers how how his relatives, cousins and friends had to leave Kashmir in 1990 when he was just seven years old. His family, however, stayed behind as their neighbours assured them about their safety. But now, he said he would keenly watch the situation and would decide if he should bid adieu to Kashmir and move to some other place.

Sanjay Tickoo, a local Kashmiri Pandit leader who heads the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti, said the current circumstances in Kashmir were worrisome for the Pandits living there. He said the attack on pilgrims was a security lapse and such an attack could happen anywhere again.

"Who would guarantee my safety if I am attacked inside my house? My neighbours wouldnt come for my rescue and I too wouldnt come for theirs. Ye Kashmir hai, mere bhai (This is Kashmir, my brother.)

Tickoo said that over 57 Hindu families have left Kashmir since 2008, the year that saw the worst-ever civil unrest since 1990, when separatists called for an agitation against the Amarnath land transfer. He said that was when the Pandits living in the Valley started fearing for their lives and safety and the process of moving out of Kashmir began soon after.

Ashwani Chrungoo, another Pandit leader who heads an organisation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, Panun Kashmir (Our Kashmir), argued for the need to provide security to the Pandits living in the volatile Kashmir Valley. According to him, there are about 808 families of Pandits in Kashmir and their population is about 3,400.

Providing security to the Pandits living in the Valley should be an utmost priority of the government. You cannot leave these trapped people at the mercy of the current situation, when Pakistan is waging a new proxy war in Kashmir, he said. He added that the attack on the pilgrims was a clear message given by the militants and Pakistan that they do not want the pilgrimage to take place in Kashmir. Who knows what their next move could be!

A senior official posted in states home department, requesting anonymity, said the government has already been mulling on providing a security cover to the Pandits living in the Valley. According to him, there are about 1,500 Pandits who work in various government departments and havent resumed work since the 2016 unrest broke out. They are citing security reasons and the home department is already working on their plea. We will act in accordance with the ground situation, the official said.

For the separatists, however, Pandits living in the Valley are very much part of the society. They said that the Pandits should at no cost feel isolated or threatened in any way.

Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front spokesperson MH Altaf said that Pandits are the rightful owners of the land just like the Kashmiri Muslims and that there is no reason for the community to feel scared.

There are many Sikhs living in the Valley, they do business in open markets. Pandits in the same way are as much Kashmiris as are the Muslims of the region, he said.
As India resolves to dissolve the Sikkim sector border standoff with Beijing through diplomatic channels, all eyes are on National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's likely visit to China for BRICS NSAs' meeting on 27 and 28 July.

If the NSA does end up visiting Beijing, it will be a crucial trip and a probable step to resolve the almost-month-old border dispute. However, at a time when China remains unyielding in the face of the current crisis, Doval's traditional tough stance against Beijing raises doubts over whether any meaningful progress can be expected from his visit.

Doval, who was famously characterised as 'the hawkish Doval' by former RAW chief AS Dulat, is known for his hardliner stance in negotiating border disputes with China.

His rare public interactions, since he assumed office of NSA, have revealed that Doval prefers depending on military solutions over ceding ground in compromises. When India's traditional policy in handling border disputes with its neighbours has propagated a defensive approach, it was Doval who pitched the concept of defensive-offensive and offensive foreign policy.

It was under Doval's leadership that India carried out surgical strikes against Pakistan, and it was the current NSA who remarked that 'India would not compromise on its territorial interests and sovereignty,' when asked about his views on negotiations with China.

An article in Asia Times in 2016 commented on the said statement of Doval: "He (Doval) said at the Munich Security Conference in New Delhi in October 2014 that 'India would not compromise on its territorial interests', when the very purpose of the meetings of the Special Representatives of the two countries is to seek a compromise on the dispute."

The impact of Doval's policy views, which clearly pervades Modi government's foreign policy, has been markedly different from his predecessors so much that his ideas on China, Pakistan and India's territorial disputes are now commonly referred to as the Doval doctrine. Firstpost looked at his selective public remarks  mostly made during his Nani Palkiwala Memorial Lecture, 2014 and the Lalit Doshi Memorial Lecture, 2015  to help decode his views on China in context of the current border row.

Answering a question about tackling China's growing might, Doval conceded that China's military is much more stronger than India, even as the former Intelligence Bureau director hailed India's missile technology. He said that it was tough for India to match China's might in the next fifty years, but he advocated ramping up missile technology to target China's economic installations, which he said were the Dragon's only vulnerable spot.

These remarks were made during a public interaction on 27 August, 2010, as shown in this YouTube video, however, Firstpost could not independently verify the source's veracity. Doval's past comments on China's 'bottomless territorial hunger' assumes importance in these times, as the NSA's visit to Beijing in the coming week could be a make-or-break situation on India-China border stalemate.

The NSA's past comments become crucial also because China is slowly increasing its naval presence in Indian Ocean region and has carried out military exercises in Tibet, even as the border standoff in Sikkim is going on.

Another report in The Times of India, quoted Doval's remarks at the Munich Security Conference in 2014. Doval had said that even though relationship with China are "very important", India must not compromise on issues of sovereignty. "I would like to develop our relations to such an extent till the time our territorial and integral sovereignty ... we would not able to compromise on it," Doval said.

Doval's remarks gain significance at a time China is ramping up the anti-India rhetoric, in what it views as an unprecedented dispute with New Delhi. India and China are locked in a standoff in the Doklam area in Sikkim sector near the Bhutan tri-junction for over three weeks after the Chinese army attempted to build a road in the disputed narrow stretch of land. China has made it clear that back channel negotiations will only bear fruit after India withdraws its troop.

It will be interesting to see whether Doval sticks to his hardliner approach towards Beijing at a time when China too shows no inclination to compromise. The Asian Times article had compared Doval's approach to his predecessors. The article stated, that while Narendra Modi under Doval's influence has stuck to requesting China to 'reconsider' its received positions on existing disputes with India, Doval's predecessor Brajesh Mishra had clocked considerable progress in Sino-India ties and had been hopeful of reaching positive results.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will on Friday brief Opposition parties on the India-China standoff in Doka La and the situation in Kashmir ahead of the Parliament's monsoon session, that begins on Monday.

The all-party meeting to take the Opposition leaders into confidence on the two issues would be held at the home minister's residence.

The decision to address the meeting was taken after the nation was hounded on both sides, by Pakistan and China.

The standoff between India and China in the Doka La Plateau, adjoining the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan, is now a month old, with no end to it in sight yet.

Sources said the government also wanted to discuss the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, which has witnessed a spate of violence following the death of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in July, 2016.

On 10 July, militants attacked a bus carrying Amarnath pilgrims, killing seven persons and injuring 19 others in south Kashmir's Khanabal area on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

On Tuesday, Rajnath had held a meeting in New Delhi following the terror attack and had hailed the people of the Valley for their unequivocal condemnation of the killings.

The meeting was attended by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Intelligence Bureau Director Rajiv Jain, Research and Analysis Wing chief Anil Dhasmana, officials of paramilitary forces and the home ministry.

Rajnath had directed the officials to ensure foolproof security for the pilgrims, informed sources said. He also asked the authorities to ensure proper treatment of the injured.
New Delhi: The Congress said on Friday that it would attend a briefing of Opposition parties by the government on the stand-off with China and the Kashmir situation, and asked the Narendra Modi dispensation to "share full information" on the issues.

AICC media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala took a jibe at the government, saying it was "satisfying" to see that the NDA government had "finally woken up" after three years to brief the Opposition on the issues concerning the nation.

He said the Congress would fully "cooperate" with the government on issues relating to national security.

"We shall ask the government to share full information about the background and situation on the India-China border as also on the Bhutan border where the stand-off continues.

"We shall also ask the government to clarify all implications for our national security and the necessary steps being taken in protecting our national interests and also steps to be taken," Surjewala told reporters.

Criticising the Modi government, he said the previous Congress-led UPA regime had always kept the Opposition in the loop on such critical issues.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will brief the leaders of opposition parties on the stand-off with China.

Leaders of prominent Opposition parties have been invited to the meeting where the two senior ministers will give a detailed presentation on the situation along the India-China border and Jammu and Kashmir and the government action, sources said.

Ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, beginning Monday, the government is apparently seeking to build a consensus to deal with its biggest neighbour as well as on the Kashmir issue.

Surjewala said that efforts should be made to strengthen the India-Bhutan Friendship Treaty.

Responding to a question, he said the Congress hoped that the government would brief the Opposition on the Amarnath attack as well.

He alleged that the present situation in Kashmir was the result of the "immaturity and failure" of the PDP-BJP government in the state and the Centre.

"Unfortunately, the prime minister and the BJP government think they have all the answers. They have not taken the Opposition into confidence on the issue. We hope they take us into confidence," he added.
Jammu: Undeterred by the terror attack on a bus carrying pilgrims, the thirteenth batch comprising 3,791 pilgrims left Jammu for the twin base camps of the 3,880-metre high cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas this morning.

Escorted by the CRPF and police, the batch consisting of 3,023 males, 721 females plus 47 sadhus and sadhvis, left in a convoy of 150 vehicles for Baltal and Pahalgam base-camps this morning, officials said. Despite the terror attack on a bus on Monday, in which seven pilgrims were killed and 32 injured, the yatris vowed to undertake the journey to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva at the shrine.

Their enthusiasm evident in the loud chants of 'Bam Bam Bhole'. "We donot fear. We will face all challenges whatever they may be to pay obeisance at Amarnath. We will better die enroute the cave shrine than return to our homes without performing the yatra", Satish Chander, a pilgrim from Andhra Pradesh, said.

Like him other pilgrims also vowed to return only after performing the yatra. Since the beginning of the pilgrimage this year, 1,56,618 yatris have had the 'darshan' at the cave shrine. The yatra from Jammu was suspended due to law and order situation in the Kashmir valley on 8 July but resumed on 9 July.

A total of 39,025 pilgrims have left Jammu for Amarnath in 12 batches since the yatra began from Jammu on 28 June. The annual yatra began this year amid a terror threat, with intelligence reports warning of probable attack which prompted the authorities to mobilise the "highest level" of security, including satellite tracking system.

This year, the yatra will be eight days shorter as compared to 48 days that it took last year and would conclude on Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan) on 7 August.

Situated in a narrow gorge at the farther end of the Lidder valley, the Amarnath shrine stands at 3,888 metres, 46 km from Pahalgam and 14 kilometres from Baltal.
New Delhi: The CPM stressed on the need for a fresh round of dialogue between India and China covering all strategic issues concerning the two countries to ease tension, following the standoff in Doka La area.

The CPM said "extraneous" factors must not be allowed to interfere in the quest for better bilateral ties. It alleged that differences between India and China have "aggravated" after the Modi government came to power and blamed the Centre's strategic alliance with the US for the "divergence".

Former CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said it is important for the government to keep in mind that the main party in the Doka La plateau dispute is Bhutan and added "it is better" that India takes the lead in negotiating with China on the issue and supports Thimphu.

"What is required is a new round of dialogue between the two countries which will cover all strategic issues which are of concern to them. Extraneous factors must not be allowed to interfere in the quest for better relations between the two neighbours in Asia," Karat said in the editorial of the forthcoming issue of CPM mouthpiece People's Democracy.

Regarding the standoff over Doka La, he said Bhutan has been negotiating with China directly on its border issues since 1984. Hence, he said, it is better that India lets Bhutan take the lead in negotiating with China on the Doka La Plateau and other disputed territories. "It is also important to keep in mind that Bhutan is the main party in the dispute. Bhutan is not a 'protectorate' of India," Karat said.

The Marxist leader said the "present border fracas" has assumed "greater salience" given the growing number of issues on which the two countries have differences, which he added, have "aggravated" after the Modi-led government was formed in 2014.

"The prime factor contributing to this divergence is India's strategic alliance with the US. India has joined the US in its strategic designs in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean region which is aimed at containing China. India has openly sided with the US positions on the South China Sea; India has opposed the Belt and Road Initiative," Karat said.

Stating that the NDA government has "increased" profile of the Dalai Lama, the CPM said the spiritual leader's visit to Arunachal Pradesh along with a Union minister and his recent unfurling of Tibetan flag of the provisional government in Ladakh are "serious irritants" for China.

Karat said India has been seeking to join the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) on a priority basis and considers China as the "stumbling block" for this goal. Nor China has obliged in the efforts to get Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and Pathankot attack mastermind Masood Azhar on the terrorist list notified by the United Nations, he added.

"The erosion of trust and mutual confidence has contributed to the present tensions related to Doka La. The Modi government must realise that there is no alternative to settling the recurring disagreements on the border except through negotiations which have a time-tested framework," Karat said.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed the plea of disqualified Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra to vote in the presidential polls on Monday. A specially constituted single-judge bench of Justice Indermeet Kaur also upheld Mishra's disqualification for three years over paid news charges.

The high court had on Thursday reserved its judgement after after hearing day-long arguments on behalf of Mishra, the Election Commission of India and Congress leader Rajendra Bharti on whose complaint the poll panel had disqualified the BJP leader.

The Supreme Court had transferred the matter to the high court to be decided expeditiously before the 17 July presidential election.

Pursuant to the apex court's decision, the high court had constituted the special single-judge bench to hear Mishra's plea challenging the ECI's 23 June order disqualifying him. The poll panel had held him guilty of filing wrong accounts of poll expenses relating to articles and advertorials in the media during the 2008 Assembly polls.

While transferring the matter to the high court, the apex court had said that the right to vote in the presidential poll can only be determined after the challenge raised to the order passed by the Election Commission on 23 June is suitably addressed by the High Court, finally or through an interim order as the High Court may consider appropriate.

Mishra had moved the apex court challenging a Madhya Pradesh High Court order refusing an urgent hearing to his interim prayer to allow him to vote in the presidential poll.

While disqualifying Mishra from contesting elections for three years following a complaint against him, the poll panel had used some strong words against paid news, calling it a "cancerous menace" that is assuming "alarming proportions" in the electoral landscape.

His election from the Datia Assembly constituency also stands void. Mishra, who won from Datia Assembly constituency, is the minister for water resources and public relations and the chief spokesperson of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. Bharti, the main complainant in the case, had first sent a complaint to the EC about eight years back in 2009. The poll panel order had said that all the 42 news items that had appeared in five Hindi dailies were "extremely biased in favour of" Mishra. It had said that its findings had also strengthened the conclusion that he had "knowingly participated or took advantage of the expenditure on such advertisements" that had appeared as news in the publication.
New Delhi: Delhi police on Friday filed a chargesheet against AIADMK deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran's aide Sukesh Chandrashekar in a bribe case.

The chargesheet was filed before link Special Judge Manoj Jain, who listed the matter for hearing on 17 July.

Chandrashekar was arrested on 16 April and is in judicial custody.

However, Delhi Police has not chargesheeted Dinakaran yet, but it informed the court that a supplementary chargesheet will be filed against the other accused.

Dinakaran, accused of trying to bribe Election Commission officials to get the 'two leaves' poll symbol for a party faction led by his aunt VK Sasikala, was arrested on 25 April but granted bail on 1 June.

Mallikarjuna, a long-time friend of Dinakaran, and 'hawala' operator from Delhi Naresh Jain were the others accused in the case.
New Delhi: In a first, a forensic test was conducted on an EVM on the orders of a high court to check whether it can be tampered with and the lab gave its clearance saying there is no evidence of manipulation in the machine.

According to a senior Election Commission functionary, who did not wish to be quoted, it is for the first time an EVM underwent such a test.

EVMs had replaced the ballot paper nearly 20 years ago.

In May, the Bombay High Court had ordered examination of the EVMs from the Parvatti constituency in Pune. The order was issued to rule out tampering during elections to Maharashtra legislative assembly in 2014.

The court had asked the central forensic science laboratory (CFSL), Hyderabad to examine the EVMs and opine as to whether they could have been remotely accessed. It also asked the lab to find out whether there was any additional memory chip with other data that could be activated to alter results of an election.

One control unit, one ballot unit and two batteries were sent to the lab. An EVM comprises a control unit and a ballot unit.

As per the report received from the lab, the machine is a stand alone, non-networked, one-time programmable unit, which is neither computer controlled externally nor could be connected internally or to any network.

"Hence, it is opined that no evidence of tampering, altering or any other manipulation could be detected," the report said.

The report was made public after being submitted to the high court.

After the declaration of assembly poll results of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand, some parties had raised concerns over the credibility of EVMs used by the EC and had alleged tampering of the machines during the elections.

In April, 13 parties had met the Commission and had urged it to revert to the old ballot paper system. After an all-

party meet on the issue, the poll panel had organised a challenge to tamper with its EVMs. But no political party took part in the 3 June challenge.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has called for a high-level meeting after a major accident was averted in the state Assembly on Wednesday. In what could have been a major security threat, a packet of explosives was discovered from the Assembly premises on 12 July, which were later confirmed to be a powerful explosive Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), India Today reported.

Lucknow (UP): 60 grams of suspicious white powder found in UP assembly during ongoing session yesterday, sent to forensic lab for testing  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 14, 2017

ANI reported that security officials were seen reviewing the Assembly complex after Wednesday's incident.

#Lucknow: Security personnel have reached Uttar Pradesh assembly, after suspicious white powder was found yesterday. pic.twitter.com/bCeFIN1mL4  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 14, 2017

On Friday, the chief minister informed the House soon after the proceedings started that a white powder was found wrapped in a paper close to the seat of the Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Choudhry. The explosive was found by the cleaning staff.

After the powder was sent for FSL examination, it was found to be a dangerous plastic explosive PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate), he said. The dog squad failed to detect the explosive. Terming it as a conspiracy, he said the NIA should probe the matter.

Stressing that there should be no compromise on security, the chief minister said joint efforts were needed to ensure this.

It is a "dangerous tendency that the security of the assembly has been breached when the House is in session," he said.

"So far the government was worried about security outside the assembly now this has become a more serious matter," he said.

He appealed to Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit to ensure police verification of the assembly staff because security of over 500 MLAs and MLCs was at stake.

However, the Opposition was quick to take the opportunity to criticise the government. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that he has never seen a government fail so soon after coming to power, adding that the state's law and order ituation was clearly in shambles.

Have never seen a govt failing this soon.If explosives can be found under seat of LoP, you can imagine condition of law&order in UP: GN Azad pic.twitter.com/tHUzVA8B0Q  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 14, 2017

Improved law and order situation and end of the so called 'goonda raj' was one of the key poll planks used by the BJP ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

The discovery of explosives at the heart of the state's capital, in a high security comes at a time when Uttar Pradesh is on high alert in view of the Kanwar Yatra.

According to Times Now Adityanath has taken the matter seriously, and has called the meeting to review security arrangements in the state. The explosive used in the packet is one of the most powerful explosives and is very difficult to detect. Unlike the commonly used explosives like, RDX or locally developed explosives using fertilizers, PETN, is a major ingredient of Semtex and belongs to the same chemical family as nitroglycerin.

A report in The Guardian states that PETN has increasingly become the explosive of choice for terrorist organisations across the world "because its colourless crystals are hard to detect in a sealed container."

Deoria (UP): A student arrested by police for giving threats over phone to blow up the UP assembly on August 15, mobile phone seized. pic.twitter.com/mFT2bdtrte  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 14, 2017

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, the Uttar Pradesh police had on Wednesday arrested a student in Deoria, on Thursday, after he threatened to plant a bomb in the state Assembly complex on 15 August. The arrested student has reportedly confessed to issuing the threat and the local police is investigating the matter further.

With inputs from PTI
As the border standoff between India and China in Doka La, Sikkim continues, reports said that National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval is likely to visit Beijing for the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) NSAs meeting scheduled to take place on 27 and 28 July.

If the NSA does end up visiting Beijing, it will be a crucial trip and a probable step to resolve the almost-month-old border dispute. The Indian Express also reported that the meeting will be hosted by Doval's counterpart and Chinese state councillor Yang Jiechi. Both Doval and Jiechi are special representatives designated by their respective governments to discuss border issues.

India on Thursday had maintained that the current border standoff in Doklam would be resolved diplomatically, similar to how all its disputes with Beijing in the past had been solved using diplomatic channels.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said diplomatic channels were "available" to the two countries that would continue to be used.

He had referred to a "conversation" between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg last week "where they spoke on a range of issues".

"As far as the Doklam issue is concerned, you know we have diplomatic channels. Embassies are there in both the countries and those channels will continue to be used," Baglay had said in his weekly media briefing.

India and China are locked in a standoff in the Doklam area in Sikkim sector near the Bhutan tri-junction for over three weeks after the Chinese army attempted to build a road in the disputed narrow stretch of land.

Doklam is the Indian name for the region which China refers to as Donglong.

Asked about the provocative statements from China and the Chinese media over the border issue, the spokesperson had said that the government had "clearly laid out" its position and approach to deal with the matter.

"We have referred to how the two governments have been engaged in the last few years in addressing this issue, the boundary matter and the tri-junction. We have also mentioned understandings between the two countries," he had said.

Baglay had referred to Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar's speech in Singapore earlier this week when he had said that India and China have handled their border issues in the past and there was no reason why they would not be able to deal with it this time.

"He (Jaishankar) referred to the understanding between the two leaders (Modi and Xi) which essentially underlines the approach we are following in this regard. So, we are very much seized of the matter, we are very much sure of the approach that is being taken and that is where it stands," the spokesperson had said.

On Wednesday, Chinese foreign office spokesman Geng Shuang had dismissed Jaishankar's remarks, saying the "trespass" by the Indian troops in Doklam was different from the "frictions in the undefined sections of the boundary" between India and China.

Asked if Modi and Xi particularly talked about the Doklam issue, Baglay had refused a direct reply, saying, "I would leave it to your imagination and common sense to summarise what can be covered in the range of issues."

With inputs from PTI
Kolkata: Constant cultural and religious exchanges between India and the US would showcase the two countries' common commitment towards democratic ideals, religious tolerance and diversity in a world where harmony is not the common order, said a senior US diplomat.

"We know that harmony is not the common order of the world. So we would have to constantly keep practicing the nuances of it and exchange of ideals between the two great countries would give the rest of the world a strong message about our common commitment towards tolerance and harmony," US Consul General in Kolkata Craig Hall said.

Hall was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a photo exhibition titled Keeping Faith: Indian Religious Traditions in the United States.

He said news about intolerance or communal crimes was not the true reflection of the entire society in "huge and diverse nations" like India and the US.

"In such huge and diverse countries like India and the US, you would see a bad news about intolerance or communal crimes every other day but that is not the true reflection of the entire society." he said.

The photo exhibit includes snaps of various communities celebrating their religious and cultural festivals in the US.

There are photographs of Jains in northern California celebrating Mahapuja (elaborate worship rituals), Hindus in New England rejoicing during the inauguration of the area's first Hindu temple, Sikhs gathering to soak in the spirit of the harvesting festival in Los Angeles, students at Harvard University playing Holi and Muslims preparing themselves for prayer at the Islamic Centre in Boston.

Claiming that the US has always encouraged such inter-religion exchanges with a nation like India, Hall said the photographs portray the assimilation of Indian religion and culture in the American society and influence the two nations to walk the path of religious coherence for a better world.

"These images contain the essence of India and America's pluralism and diversity. It also portrays the contribution of the Indian-Americans to the American experience through religion and the influence of Indian culture to the American society," Hall said.

"The more our two countries practice and share our ideas, the more we can work together to fight the vices of intolerance, anti-Semitism and bigotry in the world," he added.
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by a DIG-rank officer to probe the 10 July terror attack on a bus carrying Amarnath Yatra pilgrims in south Kashmir.

"We have constituted the six-member SIT headed by South Kashmir deputy inspector general of police SP Pani for speedy investigation in this important case," inspector general of police (Kashmir) Munir Ahmad Khan said.

Other members include, Anantnag senior superintendent of police Altaf Ahmad Khan, a deputy superintendent of police, and other officers who will assist in the probe.

Seven pilgrims were killed and 19 injured when their bus heading towards Jammu from Srinagar was attacked by militants at 8.30 pm at Batengo in Anantnag district on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway on 10 July.

The bus was not registered with the Amaranth Shrine Board and had reportedly violated the travel rules.

Soon after the attack, the Kashmir IGP had said that the Lashkar-e-Taiba was behind the attack.

"Initial investigation reveals it is a group of Lashkar militants headed by Abu Ismail of Pakistan, who carried out the attack," the IGP had said.
Chennai: Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi on Thursday asked why Chief Minister V Narayanasamy did not make any recommendations for nominating MLAs to the Union territory Assembly and asserted that the Centre only exercised its powers to do so.

"Did the chief minister for a whole one year make any recommendations? He did not," she told reporters at Chennai airport.

Defending nomination of three legislators, which intensified the spat between her and Narayanasamy, Bedi said she did not receive any names for nominating them as MLAs from the chief minister.

She said the "central government exercised its power to nominate upto three MLAs".

V Saminathan, president of BJP's Puducherry unit, KG Shankar, its treasurer, and S Selvaganapathy, an educationist, were nominated to the Puducherry assembly by the Centre last week.

They were later inducted as members of the House by Bedi.

Asked about the Congress' allegation that she exceeded her mandate, she shot back saying, "They just have to read the law again, as a Lt Governor, how I can go beyond law, I follow law, and I am bound by law."

On claims that some were delayed, she asked, "Please tell me which file. Come to my office and show me file. My office works very expeditiously. Examination of a file is not delaying of file."

She wondered how she can be targeted for doing her duty and functioning as per law.

On 7 July, Chief Minister Narayanasamy had urged the Centre to withdraw its order nominating three MLAs to the Union territory Assembly, saying it was in violation of constitutional provisions and democratic norms.
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday joined the army in paying tribute to two soldiers from the state who were killed in Pakistani firing in Keran sector.

Lance Naik Ranjit Singh and Rifleman Satish Bhagat, who were deployed at a forward post in Keran sector in Kupwara, had suffered bullet wounds on Wednesday.

"In a solemn ceremony at Badamibagh Cantonment, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti joined Lieutenant-General JS Sandhu, Chinar Corps Commander and all ranks, in paying homage to the martyrs on behalf of a proud nation," an army official said.

He said in a show of solidarity, officials from the state government and other security agencies also joined in paying their last respects to the martyrs.

Singh, 32, had joined the army in 2003 and hailed from village Burn in Jammu and Kashmir. He is survived by his wife and two children, the official said.

Hailing from Gurhasinghu village in the state, Bhagat was only 22 years old and had donned the uniform in 2015. He is survived by his parents.

"The mortal remains of the martyrs were flown for last rites to their native places, where they would be laid to rest with full military honours," he added.
Srinagar: Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant, Abu Ismail, who the police believes carried out the attack on Amarnath Yatra pilgrims earlier this week that left seven people dead, has been found to be involved in a number of militant attacks including a recent one close to the Indian Army headquarter in Srinagar that left an assistant sub inspector of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and a constable dead and three soldiers injured.

The attack near the army headquarter was carried out by Ismail on a patrol party of CRPF personnel near the Delhi Public School (DPS), which culminated with the killing of two militants as they remained holed up inside school complex for hours on the eve of Eid.

According to police officials three others including a Pakistani LeT militant had accompanied Ismail during the attack on Amarnath pilgrims. The Police has, however, in a press statement, said that the attack was actually carried out on a patrol party and that the "militants may not have had the Amarnath yatris as a target in their mind".

LeT has also denied involvement in the Amarnath Yatra attack. Condemning the attack on Amarnath pilgrims, LeT had termed it reprehensible and un-Islamic".

Abdullah Ghaznavi, spokesman of LeT has said, Islam does not allow violence against any faith. We strongly condemn such acts."

Ghaznavi also accused the Government of India (GoI) of "orchestrating the attack," saying, "India wants to sabotage the freedom struggle of Kashmiris, therefore, it uses such attacks to fulfill its nefarious agenda."

The police statement added that militants had initially attacked a police party at Batengo in Anantnag and as the firing was retaliated the tourist bus was hit by bullets that lead to the death of seven people.

Director General of Police, SP Vaid, said that the investigation in the Amarnath Yatra attack has revealed that it was carried out by the LeT militants. He said that the police has constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to carry out the investigation in the case.

Top police officials said that Ismail, is active in South Kashmir for nearly a year and was involved in the militant attack at a DPS building as well as the attacks on forces on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.

Ismail and three other (LeT) militants carried out the Amarnath attack. They came out from an alley and attacked the police personnel, before the Amarnath pilgrims were caught in the attack," said a senior police official.

Police officials added that the LeT has different operational commanders in the areas of south, central and north Kashmir. The militant activity has picked up in the south Kashmir as a number of youth have joined militancy after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani in 2016.

A top police official also said that Abu Ismail has replaced Abu Dujana as LeTs south Kashmir chief. Dujana has joined the militant group lead by former Hizbul Mujahideen commander Zakir Musa. The former commander of Hizbul Mujahideen recently broke away from the militant outfit after Syed Salahuddin, chief of United Jihad Council (UJC) and supreme commander, dissociated from Musa's statement threatening to behead the Hurriyat leaders for seeking to establish a secular independent state. Musa has vowed to fight for the creation of an Islamic state in Kashmir. Police officials said that Dujana may have joined Musa's group after the call by latter to fight for establishing Islamic rule in the state.

Earlier, police had also detained six people of Batengoo and had questioned them questioned about their involvement in the attack. However, a police official said, the members of the family were let off as "their involvement in the attack couldn't be ascertained".

Ismail is also believed to be involved in the attack on army convoy near Qazigund on Jammu-Srinagar national highway last month, in which two army men were killed and four others injured. Police officials have also informed that Ismail was involved in bank robberies in south Kashmir. However, local people blamed the government forces for the bank robberies and militants have also denied hand saying that they were "not short of money".
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Srinagar: A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist was on Friday arrested from north Kashmir's Bandipora district and arms and ammunition recovered from his possession, police said in Srinagar.

The newly-recruited LeT militant has been identified as Shahbaz Rasool Mir, a resident of nearby Hajin.

Mir was nabbed during a search operation in an orchard area in Markundal village in Sumbal area of the district, a police official said.

A Chinese pistol, a pistol magazine, four pistol rounds, a hand grenade, a knife and other items were recovered from his possession, the official said, adding a case has been registered.
Mumbai: Farmers from a village in Marathwada region Friday filed a police complaint against the India Meteorological Department (IMD), accusing it of colluding with seed and pesticide manufacturers and inflating the monsoon forecast figures.

The complaint, filed at the Dindrud police station in Majalgaon tehsil of Beed district, says officials of the Pune and Colaba Met Department "colluded" with the manufacturers and caused loss of lakhs of rupees to farmers, who undertook sowing operations based on the forecast.

Gangabhishan Thaware, 54, a farmer from Anandgaon village in Beed district, who is among the complainants, told PTI that the IMD officials misled farmers saying that there would be ample rain during the kharif season in June.

"Farmers undertook sowing operations, based on the IMD forecast. But after a brief initial spell, there has been no rain and farmers are staring at a bleak future, with the sowing operations having gone waste," Thaware said. "Farmers in our region completed pre-sowing operations before June, based on the IMD forecast which said there will be ample rains in June-July this year," the farmer said.

"Despite scanty initial rainfall, farmers in our village undertook sowing operations as the IMD forecast a good rainfall. They spent lakhs of rupees on seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and labourers wages. However, there has been no rain since and our sowing operations have gone waste," the farmer said.

According to Thaware, farmers have also written to Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, seeking his intervention.

"IMD officials and those in concerned seed and fertiliser companies, who colluded with each other and gave an inflated monsoon forecast are responsible for the plight of farmers and should be taken to task," the farmer said.

An official of the police station in Majalgaon said they have received the farmers' complaint and were looking into the matter. No IMD official was available for comment.
Mumbai: The south west monsoon has covered all parts of Maharashtra, bringing good rains and relief to farmers.

The central part of Maharashtra is a major food grains growing area and rainfall in this region has brought relief to farmers as well as the state administration.

"For the first time in July, the south west monsoon has brought rains to all parts of the state. There had been showers since July 1, but of low intensity and scattered. It is good that the entire Maharashtra is now covered," an official of the Indian Meteorological Department said.

"The central parts of the state - comprising north Maharashtra and Marathwada - received showers of medium intensity. It will be helpful for farmers as the state was facing a potential challenge of second round of sowing in the region," he said.

"The second round of sowing means an additional input cost to the already debt-ridden farmers," the official said.

Maharashtra agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar told PTI that sowing on over 66 percent of the total area has been done during the ongoing Kharif season.

The state administration was a bit worried over the delay in rainfall. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had even issued an advisory for postponing the sowing, he said.

"As of today, the sowing has taken place on more than 66 percent of agricultural area in the state. We are a bit relieved now," Fundkar said.

A report from Nashik said incessant rains lashed the city and other parts of the district after a dry spell, leading to water logging in low-lying areas.

The water level of Godavari river has risen following heavy downpour since last night in the catchment areas, an official said.

The irrigation department has not released water from the Nashik's Gangapur dam owing to the heavy rains.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted three weeks time to Tamil Nadu to file a rejoinder in support of its plea alleging that the neighbouring state of Kerala was not allowing it to maintain the Mullaperiyar Dam.

A bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud allowed the plea of Tamil Nadu and posted the matter for further hearing after two months.

Tamil Nadu, in its plea on 4 May, had sought execution of the apex court judgement in the case, saying it has been held that it will have a right to maintain the dam while its security would be taken care of by the Kerala police.

Tamil Nadu has alleged that its officials were not being allowed to perform the maintenance of the dam.

Kerala, in its reply to the execution petition, had denied all allegations of Tamil Nadu and said that the plea was "liable to be dismissed".

Kerala claimed that the right of access was not being denied but only regulated in the area as the security of the dam has been entrusted with it by virtue of the apex court order.

Earlier, the apex court had rapped the Tamil Nadu government for seeking deployment of CISF for ensuring safety and security of the Mullaperiyar Dam, saying there cannot be a "perennial 'amrit dhara' kind of litigation", forcing the state to withdraw it.

In its 7 May, 2014 verdict, the Supreme Court had held that the 120-year-old Mullaperiyar Dam was safe and had allowed Tamil Nadu to raise the water level to 142 feet and ultimately to 152 feet after completion of strengthening measures on the dam.

Kerala had later moved the apex court for clarification on its verdict and contended that the water storage should not be increased to 142 feet until all the 13 spillover gates of the dam were operational.

The apex court had earlier too dismissed Kerala's plea to review its 2014 verdict, saying there was no reason to interfere with the judgement of the Constitution Bench.

Mullaperiyar Dam is a masonry dam and was constructed pursuant to the Periyar Lake Lease Agreement of October 29, 1886 across the Periyar river. The construction continued for about eight years and was completed in 1895.

The dam is situated in Idukki district of Kerala and is owned and operated by the Tamil Nadu government. The length of the main dam is 1200 feet and top of the dam is 155 feet.
Thiruvananthapuram: Former chief minister Oommen Chandy on Friday urged External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to urgently intervene to bring the body of Father Martin Xavier, who was found dead on 20 June in Scotland, to Kerala as early as possible.

In a letter to Swaraj, the senior congress leader said post-mortem and other formalities had been completed a week ago and the reason for not releasing the mortal remains was not clear.

Despite having the body for 23 days, the reason for not completing examination of the body examination was not clear, Chandy said in a release.

Urgent steps should be taken to get the body released to the next of kin, he added.

Father Martin of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI), belonging to Pulinkunnu in Alappuzha, was found dead at Edinburgh in Scotland where he was doing PhD and working at a church.

His body was found on a beach two days after he was reported missing.
While the confidence in public institutions and governments has fallen globally, India is seeing a rise in the trust in the government, an international study has suggested.

With over 200 indicators of good governance, Government at a Glance report for 2017, which offers a detailed analysis of public service performance data and comparisons, has stated that the trust in government indicator has seen a significant downfall. The study released by released by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) adds that confidence in public institutions is low, and the perception that public policies favour select interest groups has increased sharply. India, however, has defied this trend along with Indonesia and Lithuania.

This report reveals that, on an average, only 42 percent citizens have confidence in their respective governments, which is down from 45 percent in 2007.

On the other hand, according to Indian Express report which quoted the study, India sees 73 percent Indians trusting the current government, one of the highest among the OECD nations, indicating that citizens approve of the leadership and believe that the government will react proactively to new demands. It is only below Indonesia and Switzerland in terms of this measure.

It is not surprising to see countries like the United States, Greece, Brazil and United Kingdom rank in the lower half of this measure, considering the political turmoil being witnessed by these nations.

In order to understand why this is an important indicator, the research defines the importance of high 'trust in government' figures:

"Trust in government leads to greater compliance with regulations and the tax system, facilitates social and political consensus, enhances the acceptance of policies that call for short-term sacrifices by citizens, and mobilises citizen engagement to enable open and inclusive governance processes."

Whether it is demonetisation, GST, Swachh Bharat or Make in India; it is clear that Modi did factor in 'trust in government' while implementing these reforms. Considering how the report specifically warns governments of being wary of eexclusion, where a growing share of citizens use digital channels to interact with government, there are still persistent gaps in the level of uptake by education level, living area and age. The Modi administration seems to be covering this base with its Digital India initiatives.

Regarding the research, Government at a Glance 2017 provides data on public administrations in 34 OECD countries. Where possible, it also reports data for Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Lithuania, the Russian Federation, and South Africa. This data is updated twice a year as new data is released.

Besides the trust in government indicator, the report's findings also state that fiscal stabilisation continues, yet debt levels remain high and government investment has decreased. Another positive revelation is that public spending on healthcare and social protection have increased worldwide. However, women are still underrepresented in government leadership positions.

Another interesting indicator was how open government initiatives  where principles of transparency and participation were being fostered  are gaining momentum, thus increasing government accountability. While India was not included in this measurement, it would be interesting to see where India would stand in accountability in comparison to rest of the nations across the world.

Read the full report here:
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is holding consultations with the lawmakers of the ruling party to devise a strategy to respond to the opposition's calls for his resignation over the Panama case probe panel's report on money laundering charges against him.

A six-member Joint Investigation Team, probing the Sharif family's offshore assets and alleged corruption, in a 10-volume damning report submitted to the Supreme Court on 10 July recommended that a corruption case should be filed against the prime minister and his sons  Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz  as well as daughter Maryam.

During the meeting with the lawmakers of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN), Sharif would take stock of the prevailing political situation in the country.

Sources close to PMLN said that it would be an important meeting to woo some of the disgruntled backbenchers of the party whose support would be a key for Sharif.

It is the fourth high-level meeting to take place since Monday when JIT submitted the report on money laundering allegations against Sharif. The JIT in its report said that Sharifs life style and that of his children was beyond the known means of income. Opposition parties have been demanding his resignation after the submission of the report.

The high-profile graft case is about alleged money laundering by Sharif in 1990s when he twice served as the Prime Minister to purchase assets in London. The assets surfaced when Panama papers last year showed that they were managed through offshore companies owned by Sharif's children. The case filed by various petitioners  Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan, Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq and Sheikh Rashid Ahmed  sought disqualification of Prime Minister Sharif over his alleged misstatement in his address to the nation on April 5, 2016 and his speech before the National Assembly on 16 May, 2016.

The petitioners had claimed that the prime minister lied about the investments made by his children in offshore companies, which led to the acquisition of four apartments in Londons upscale Park Lane neighbourhood.

In April, a five-judge Supreme Court bench issued a landmark 540-page split judgement ordering setting up of the JIT comprising officials from different agencies including those from powerful spy agencies the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Military Intelligence.

Sharif is the only Pakistani politician who has the distinction of being the prime minister of the coup-prone country for a record three times. He had served as the Prime Minister from 1990 to 1993 and from 1997 to 1999. Both of Sharif's first two stints had ended in the third year of his tenure.
Bengaluru: A top police officer, who came out with a controversial report on alleged special treatment in jail to AIADMK (Amma) leader VK Sasikala, has been served a notice by the state government asking her to explain why she reported the issue to the media.

"It is absolutely against the rulebook," Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, expressing open displeasure over public comments by Deputy Inspector of General (Prisons) D Roopa on her report, which has also brought her superior and other prison officials under a cloud of bribery allegations.

Siddaramaiah said she could have approached any of her superiors about her charges against senior officials.

"It is inappropriate on her part to share details with media," Siddaramaiah told reporters in Mysuru.

He said the allegations before the mainstream and social media has brought embarrassment to the police department.

Roopa has been asked to give a reply to the notice served on her, the chief minister said.

He also said a probe has been ordered into the charges levelled by Roopa against DGP (Prisons) Sathyanarayana Rao.

A retired officer has been appointed to look into bribery allegations, he said.

In her report submitted to her superior Rao, Roopa had alleged that there was "talk" that a sum of Rs 2 crore had exchanged hands to provide preferential treatment to Sasikala and even said there were allegations against him as well.

Rao, however, has rubbished Roopa's charge against him, terming it "absolutely false, baseless and wild". He said he would take legal recourse against his junior.

He has said no special treatment was being given to Sasikala.

In her four-page report after visiting the central prison on 10 July, Roopa had said a special kitchen was functioning in the jail here for Sasikala, a convict in a corruption case, in violation of the rules.

Sasikala has been lodged at the Parappana Agrahara central jail in Bengaluru since her conviction in February in a disproportionate assets case along with her two relatives, VN Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, all serving a four-year jail term.

Taking "serious cognisance" of the allegations of irregularities in the central prison, Siddaramaiah on Thursday ordered the probe and warned of "strict action" based on the inquiry report, if anyone was found involved in wrong-doing.
New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has convened an all-party meeting on Sunday, a day before Parliament's monsoon session begins.

The meeting with leaders of various parties in the Lok Sabha will take place in Parliament's Library Building, the Lok Sabha secretariat said.

Mahajan will seek cooperation from all political parties for a smooth functioning of the lower house during the customary meeting ahead of the monsoon session scheduled to end on 10 August.

Opposition parties are all set to corner the government over issues related to India's border stand-off with China, the Kashmir situation, farmers' distress and Goods and Services Tax among others.

Both houses of Parliament are unlikely to transact any business on the first day (17 July) on account of the death of two MPs  Vinod Khanna (Lok Sabha) and P Goverdhan Reddy (Rajya Sabha).

On the same day, voting to elect the new President is scheduled in which 776 MPs are eligible to vote.

Vinod Khanna, who represented Gurdaspur in Punjab, died on 27 April. Reddy, the Rajya Sabha member of the Congress from Telangana, died on 9 June.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed a probe by the CBI into the alleged extra-judicial killings by the army, the Assam Rifles and the Manipur Police in the insurgency-hit state.

A bench of Justices MB Lokur and UU Lalit asked the CBI director to appoint a team of officers to conduct the probe into the alleged killings.

The court was hearing a PIL seeking probe and compensation in the alleged 1,528 extra-judicial killings in Manipur from 2000 to 2012 by security forces and police.

On 20 April, the army had told the apex court that it cannot be subjected to FIRs for carrying out anti-militancy operations in insurgency-prone areas like Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur, while alleging local bias in judicial inquiries conducted against it in these regions, which have tarnished its image.

"In every military operation, the army cannot be disbelieved. Every judicial inquiry cannot be against the Army. The alleged extra-judicial killing cases in Manipur are not cases of massacre, rather these are cases of military operations," the Centre had told the court.

The bench had also pulled up the Manipur government for not taking action on such alleged fake encounters by armed forces and asked was it "not supposed to do anything".

The Army had told the court that the judicial probes conducted into alleged extra-judicial killing charges were "biased" and slanted against them due to local factors.

It had alleged that the district judges, who were locals, had conducted the judicial inquiries into the alleged killings and local factors came in the way of the probe reports which went against the armed forces.

The court was earlier told that there were 265 cases of deaths which have to be examined and there were various reports of the commission of inquiry in which serious allegations have been levelled against armed forces personnel.

The apex court had earlier asked the Centre to segregate the cases related to the armed forces from the list of 265 incidents of extra-judicial killings in Manipur.

The Centre had said that out of the 282 cases, which were referred to it for verification, 70 matters were found to be related to the Army and Assam Rifles, while the rest concerned the state police.

In July last year, the apex court had directed a thorough probe into the alleged fake encounter killings in Manipur saying the use of "excessive or retaliatory force" by the armed forces or police was not permissible in 'disturbed areas' under the controversial Armed Force Special Powers Act.
Thanjavur: One person has been arrested on the charge of assaulting and verbally abusing a Dalit boy and his father and a search was on for three others in this connection, police said on Friday.

S Inbarasan was arrested based on a complaint by K Sankar of Sathanur village in the district that the four had abused him and his son using their caste name and also assaulted them.

A case had been registered under various IPC sections, including 294 (B) (obscene acts and song), 352 (criminal assault), and under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the four.

According to the complaint, the nine-year old boy was allegedly seen urinating near his school in the village on 10 July. Inbarasan and his associates allegedly called him by his caste name and also assaulted him.

After the boy informed his father, the latter had questioned the four, after which they abused him also and assaulted him, police said.
Agartala: Causing serious hardship to people and leading to a crisis in essentials and food grains, a Tripura tribal party continued its blockade of the state's main national highway and the lone railway track for the fifth day on Friday to push for a separate state.

The blockade continues as a delegation of the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), which has been blocking the National Highway-8, the life line of Tripura, and the state's lone railway line, is in New Delhi to meet Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh and Home Ministry officials and the Union Home Minister.

"Since yesterday (Thursday) two of our leaders are waiting in Delhi to meet Jitendra Singh, Home Ministry officials and the Union Home Minister or Minister of State. Depending on the outcome of the meetings in Delhi, we will either withdraw the blockade or continue with it," IPFT President Narendra Chandra Debbarma told IANS.

On the threat of some IPFT leaders to spread the stir to other parts of the state if talks with the Centre fail, the party chief remained non-committal.

IPFT General Secretary Mevar Kumar Jamatia and the party's youth wing President Dhananjoy Tripura are in New Delhi to meet with central government leaders.

The indefinite blockade has caused a crisis in supply of essentials, food grains, fuel, basic goods and other items in the markets of Tripura.

A senior legal expert Purushottam Roy Barman, secretary of Tripura Human Rights Organisation, said that according to the National Highways Act blockading of National Highways is prohibited and the central government could take appropriate steps to clear any obstructions in the normal plying of vehicles.

The Left Front government in a press note once again urged the IPFT leaders to withdraw the blockade.

"The Left Front government has been opposing the demand for a separate state as the demand is extremely unrealistic. People of Tripura have no support for this demand," the note said.

Debbarma, a tribal leader and former station director of All India Radio, Agartala, said: "Since 2009, we have been agitating for a separate state carved out by upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) areas. The Left Front government in the state and the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government at the Centre did not give importance to our demand."

The IPFT has sought the Governor's intervention and a tri-partite meeting between them, the Centre and state government to resolve the matter.

The politically important TTAADC constitutes two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 sq km area, which has 12,16,465 (mostly tribals) of the state's 37 lakh population residing in it.

TTAADC's Chief Executive Member (CEM) and senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) tribal leader Radha Charan Debbarma said on Friday: "We have been demanding that the Centre give more powers and financial aid to the constitutional body.

"The central government has been considering giving more administrative and constitutional powers to all the tribal autonomous bodies in the northeastern region.

"Separate state demand would not help in development of the tribals and it would also upset the tribal and non-tribal ethnic unity and harmony," Debbarma told the media.

The Left Front government led by Manik Sarkar, which is strongly opposed to both the demand and the stir, has taken unprecedented security measures in and around the Baramura hill ranges, through which the NH-8 and the lone railway line passes.

Most of the political parties, including the ruling CPM, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have rejected IPFT's demands saying it is not practical to divide the small state.
United Nations: UN chief Antonio Guterres has reiterated the need for India and Pakistan to find a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue through engagement and dialogue, his spokesperson said. Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric's remarks came when he was asked if the Secretary-General is paying attention to the situation in the region or "we are just waiting for some sort of big tragedy to occur for the Secretary-General to take attention."

"...we reiterate the need for the parties to find a peaceful solution through engagement and dialogue," Dujarric said at a daily press briefing on Thursday. He said that "in terms of paying attention, I think the Secretary-General answered in his own words that question during the press conference." Dujarric was referring to Guterres' first press conference at the world body's headquarters in June when he was asked whether he is engaged in bringing about dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

"Why do you think I met three times with the Prime Minister of Pakistan and two times with the Prime Minister of India," Guterres said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Guterres had met in St Petersburg earlier in June on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. During the meeting, Modi had stressed on multilateralism to address global challenges such as terrorism.

Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the UN chief had met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos in January and in Astana in June on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit.
Deoria: One person has been arrested here for allegedly threatening to blow up the Uttar Pradesh assembly on 15 August, police said on Friday.

Farhan Ahmed was arrested on Thursday and his mobile phone seized. "He had taken the SIM by furnishing a fake address," Additional Superintendent of Police Chiranjeevi Sinha said.

Ahmed, 20, was arrested near a barrage under Tarkulwan police station area, he said.

He is being interrogated by local police officials and intelligence officials from Delhi, Sinha added.

Ahmed had allegedly told the ADG (Law and Order) on his mobile phone that he would blow the UP legislature building on Independence Day.

Deoria is 325 km from state capital Lucknow and the district is a part of Gorakhpur division, the native place of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Ahmed is a resident of Kawlachhapar village under police station Rampur Karkhana.

In a major security breach, a dangerous plastic explosive was found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, which on Friday unanimously recommended an NIA probe.
Being a probashi much before the word became part of political terminology, living in parts of north India that perennially resonated with aftermaths of communal riots, I was somewhat relieved that West Bengal was a secular utopia of sorts. Though it got unfortunately left behind when Baba made a career move after I entered school, I believed it remained my cultural home.

In the 80s, riots broke out in one city or another across north India, and as cub reporters we witnessed religion playing a decisive part in Indian politics, West Bengal was beset with other issues. These included land reforms on the positive side and flight of capital as a downer.

On the occasional visit to relatives, endless woes were listed, traffic was abominably slow  further held up by protests galore, there were no jobs, distant cousins were still recuperating from aftershocks of incarceration during years of Left-wing turbulence in the state, constant power shortage which introduced Indians to the device called inverters and so on.

Yet, I heaved a sigh of relief that though average Bengalis got at the throat of one another for little reason during adda sessions every evening, no one battled with the other on matters of religious identity. Reading of history and the remarkable turnaround from the communal ugliness  dating from the late 1930s to the worst tragedies of Muslim League's direct action in August 1946, and the carnage in Nokhali later that year which left its footprint for a decade and half after Independence  was indeed a matter to be proud of, not just for Bengalis, but also for all Indians.

When still young, the first record player arrived home and dad soon began procuring 33, 45 and 78 rpm records. To a child, these records provided the first glimpse into the existence of Bengali Muslims. Till then, the only Bengalis I knew were relatives and family friends, all Hindus. I understand now that this stemmed from the reality that though accounting for 27 percent of the state's population, they crowded the bottom of the socio-economic ladder and were thus missing from the milieu I grew up in.

In time, I shared my awareness with wide-eyed classmates about Kazi Nazrul Islam and proudly played a few Nazrul songs at home and demonstrated how they were different from Rabindra Sangeet but not of the kind of divergence which we saw among contrasting communities in our small campus town in the Hindi heartland.

If a state with such a violent communal past could actually move over it, there was hope for the emergence of a modern nation, one where religious identity was not the principal basis for social and political identity. So, why is it that this pride has now disappeared, and who is responsible? Furthermore, when did this slide down the gorge begin?

For the past several weeks, we have been witness to another round of acrimonious exchanges across press conferences, public speeches and on the streets, where either warring Hindus and Muslims clashed or the Trinamool Congress cadre fought pitched battles in the hinterland.

Everybody has an opinion on whether Mamata Banaerjee is politically appeasing minorities to solidify her support base, or if the BJP is trying to milk latent Hindu communalism, dormant for almost half a century. But there are very few who are willing to end this game of mutual retribution for the sake of the future of the state.

Instead of discussing recent riots in the Basirhat-Baduria strip of North 24 Parganas or even tracing communal clashes in places that have been trouble spots in recent years, it is more worthwhile to understand causes that led West Bengal to put more than half a century of communal conflict behind it in the mid 1960s. It is also important to understand why a state that did not follow several other "communal" regions of the country into sectarian decay in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid's demolition, is now increasingly appearing to have slipped back to the pre-1965 era, when inter-communal suspicion and conflict was fairly common.

Partition of Bengal, though based on religion, subsumed religious identity in post-independence politics, indicative in the electoral demise of Hindu parties whose two stalwarts  Syama Prasad Mookerjee and NC Chatterjee  won Lok Sabha elections in 1952. Thereafter, neither Jana Sangh nor Hindu Mahasbha performed creditably till 2014.

On the other side, partition left Muslims in West Bengal politically orphaned after the natural shift of Muslim League to East Pakistan. Consequently, both Hindu and Muslims found  and sought  spaces in politics, not on the basis of religious identities but on basis of other tags.

The emergence of communist parties and the sheer dominance of the Left Front from 1978 ensured that people were workers, peasants and other professionals first and representatives of their community only thereafter. The CPM may have kept religious identity in mind at the time of selecting candidates for elections but this consideration did not become paramount, like in other states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Till the time the Left Front ran a government with a modicum of success that met aspirations of people, its cadre were able to ensure successive victories. The cookie began crumbing when the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government began messing up on several fronts, though many would say that the rot set in earlier. But once non-sectarian politics began facing challenge, both Mamata Banerjee and BJP began playing identity politics with gusto.

While the communists had kept Islamists at bay, TMC was guided by no such mantra. She may not be the Bengali or female version of 'Mullah Mulayam' or Akhilesh Yadav or even Lalu Yadav, yet Mamata Banerjee definitely made more of a public gesture of wooing Muslims than CPM leaders.

Naturally, the BJP too reciprocated, though TMC leaders contend that their strategy was reactive to counter BJP mobilisation on the basis of Hindutva. It's a bit like the chicken and egg situation varying from district to district, town to town  the sum total is that West Bengal is today polarised on communally lines.

While communist parties are the only forces ideologically oriented to shepherd the state back to the times when identity politics was not paramount, the Left suffers from organisational deficiency and lack of political ingenuity. With competitive grandstanding being order of the day, repeat episodes of the recent variety are more likely than ever before, especially in the run-up to 2019. Not happy augury for all, probashi or bashinde.
Chandigarh: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday took a serious note of the Punjab government appointing the chairman of the state Human Rights Commission without taking the principal opposition party into confidence.

Condemning the step taken by the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government, AAP MLA and state co-president of the party Aman Arora said it smacked of not only autocracy but also the complete disregard of the ruling regime towards the law of the land and democratic system as enshrined in the Constitution.

The state government had recently, after the resignation of Leader of Opposition in the Assembly HS Phoolka, appointed Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari as the Punjab Human Rights Commission (PHRC) chairman.

Phoolka had put in his papers, so that he could represent the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in court.

Arora said it had clearly been laid out in the Protection of Human Rights Act that the chairman and members of the commission had to be appointed by the governor, on the basis of the recommendation by a committee comprising the chief minister, speaker of the Assembly, minister of home affairs and leader of the opposition.

"This is the same Congress government which has been crying foul and accusing the (erstwhile) SAD-BJP government of muzzling the opposition's voice for the last 10 years in Punjab," he added.

The AAP leader said it appeared as if the government was "looking for an opportunity to appoint its hand-picked favourites" from the moment it learnt about Phoolka's resignation.

He said Phoolka submitted his resignation letter to the Assembly Speaker on Tuesday.

"At 5 pm on the same day, the government called the meeting to appoint the PHRC chairman," Arora said and added that it could not be a coincidence.

"What was the tearing hurry to appoint the chairman when the chief minister, speaker and the home affairs department  all belonged to the Congress? In fact, the consent of the opposition would only have strengthened the sanctity of the appointment," he said.

Arora said he even wrote to the state home affairs and justice departments on Wednesday, urging them to put the appointment on hold as the AAP was still in the process of appointing the new leader of the opposition.

"I even requested the Congress government that in absence of the LoP, it should either allow our deputy leader in the Assembly or any other legislator to appear on his behalf at the meeting. However, the home department simply chose to remain incommunicative," he said.
New Delhi: The government on Friday told opposition leaders that China is constructing roads near the international border hampering the country's strategic interests and NSA Ajit Doval will put forward New Delhi's position before his Chinese counterparts later this month, officials said.

The opposition leaders were briefed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar ahead of the Parliament session beginning Monday.

#WATCH Media briefing post opposition parties' meet jointly held by EAM & HM in Delhi https://t.co/5qtOWPwz9j  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

Officials said Doval and Jaishankar made a detailed presentation before the opposition leaders, including those from the Congress, the Left, the NCP and the TMC, saying Indian Army is in a stand-off with the People's Liberation Army of China in the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction.

The top ministers told the opposition leaders that Doval will be visiting China on 26-27 July and will put forward before Chinese interlocutors India's position, they said.

The importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy was underlined at a briefing by senior Union ministers to political parties on the situation in Doka la, the External Affairs Ministry said.

Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma told reporters after the meeting that their party has raised some doubts before the government's policy but made it clear that "nation is first  be it China or Kashmir."

All opposition parties assured govt that when it comes to territorial integrity of the country we should all stand united: GN Azad, Congress pic.twitter.com/mtzk87qnX1  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

"There is too much of tension (with China) and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament," both the leaders said.

Sharma said that Congress made its view clear that national security was the priority and advised the government to rise above politics and tackle the situation diplomatically.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said his party raised "some serious questions" and claimed that government had no answer to his question on preparedeness for such incidents.

Asked serious questions. Why was govt unprepared & if this was their failure? We didn't get answers we were looking for: Derek O'Brien, TMC pic.twitter.com/3RsqsWUJ70  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

Opposition leaders were also briefed about the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the government action in the wake of the killing of seven Amarnath pilgrims by terrorists last Monday.

The briefing on Kashmir was made by union home secretary-designate Rajiv Gauba.

Government chief spokesperson Frank Noronha said the basic purpose of the meeting was to apprise MPs from different parties about the situation along Sino-Indian border and on the terrorist attack on Amarnath Yatris.

The MPs were briefed that 2.2 lakh pilgrims visited Amarnath last year while so far 1.86 lakh have already visited the cave shrine in Jammu and Kashmir.

NDA ally Shiv Sena leader Anandrao Adsul said the government need to be more aggressive in dealing with China.

"I thought the government will speak on these lines, but it did not," he said.

CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the government conveyed about the efforts being carried out to resolve the dispute with China.

Union minister Ramvilas Paswan, who is an alliance in the NDA government, said the external affairs minister and foreign secretary gave a detailed information on border issue, especially in Doka la.

"Everybody promised support to the government," he said.

Others who attended the meeting  considered an effort to build consensus on dealings with India's biggest neighbour and Kashmir  included Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar (NCP) and Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi (JD-U).

New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Dokalam area of Sikkim.

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Doka la area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Four districts of the state  Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag  are on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on 8 July 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the 9 April bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on China. On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir.

He also alleged that the prime minister's pursuit of short-term political gains through the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost.
Kolkata: West Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to immediately intervene in order to resolve the unrest in the Darjeeling hills.

"As an elected representative of people from West Bengal, I feel urgency to draw your attention and involvement towards an immediate and peaceful solution in the hill district of Darjeeling," Chowdhury said in the letter to Modi.

An RPF office, a police outpost and a state-run library were set on fire in Darjeeling hills as the indefinite strike demanding a separate state entered its 30th day on Friday.

"Given the geo-strategic sensitivity of the area, the Union and state governments and local leaders together should explore an amicable solution so as to restore peace and normalcy in the hills," the letter said.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's resignation on Wednesday lays bare the spectre of corruption looming large in the form of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members.

While Nitish's decision comes as a shock, recent reports of Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad facing an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for amassing benami properties had not come as a shock to many in the state, who have long suffered the goonda raj that prevailed in Bihar when RJD was in power.

Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, and Tejashwi have all been named as accused in a CBI case in connection with transfer of three acres of prime land in Patna to the family by two businessmen, allegedly in return for licences to run two IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri, back when Lalu was railway minister.

Let's not forget that despite being a major player in the "mahagathbandhan", Lalu does not rule Bihar anymore. His alliance partner JDU gave Tejashwi four days to "come out with facts in public against the accusations".

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was elected on a plank of good governance and zero toleration towards corruption. But with more and more corruption charges cropping up against Lalu, and Nitish still remaining silent on the issue, Sushashan Babu's reputation is under threat.

Since Nitish took over as chief minister, the face of Bihar has changed for the better. He has been able to tame the jungle raj and bring about development in the state.

Lalu ruled over a kingdom where even journalists were murdered in full public view and corruption was rampant. In fact, the Yadav clan and corruption are synonymous with each other. You cannot think about one without invoking the other. Not just Lalu and Tejashwi, but also Rabri Devi and Lalu's daughter Misa Bharti are being investigated.

Tejashwi has been facing a backlash because his security guards thrashed media persons when they tried to question the deputy chief minister. As this Firstpost article mentioned, the incident was only a reminder of the dark days of the Lalu-Rabri rule.

"The RJD has always been feared by the people in Bihar, which is precisely why Lalu and his clan were discarded in 2005 (Assembly elections), 2009 (General), 2010 (Assembly)  when Rabri lost elections from both the constituencies she contested  and 2014 (General)," the article said.

The fact that Tejashwi and his men had no concern of the law and casually justified the beatings again prove that remnants of jungle raj still remain in Bihar.

A report in Catch News stated that the rise of Lalu saw an enormous rise in criminal activities in the state. It is also alleged that the most notorious criminal activities were organised and carried out by his brothers-in-law Sadhu and Subhash Yadav. Lalu is even thought to have used muscle power to remain in politics.

One of his most trusted men was Mohammad Shahabuddin, who was sent to jail after being accused in the murder of Rajiv Raushan. Raushan was a witness in the brutal murder of his two brothers, Girish Raj and Satish Raj, at Shahabuddin's native village in Siwan district on 16 August, 2004. Shahabuddin was convicted on charges of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping and murder. Lalu has time and again expressed his support for Shahabuddin and even accused the BJP of creating a controversy around the matter.

The Catch News report also said that a lot of political murders were reported under the Lalu-Rabri regime and kidnapping was the only industry that flourished in those years.

'Rangdari Tax' also became mandatory for people to pay under the Lalu regime. As India Today explained, it is a tax that one is entitled to collect for just being a rangdar (local terror). The daily turnover of the rangdars was thought to be around Rs 10 lakh. Needless to say, they worked in collusion with Lalu and Rabri, both of whom had their turn on the chief minister's throne. The police also turned a blind eye to the crime after getting their cut, the report said.

Nitish's liquor ban also seems to have dealt a major blow to one of the Lalu regime's most popular liquor, Ranthi Express. It was a brand of country liquor, brewed locally by people with huge political connections. As Ajay Singh explained in this Firstpost article, "The brew was so strong that one would metaphorically 'drop dead' after consuming just one pouch of the liquor."

Nitish is trying to undo the anarchic system run by Lalu in the state, and despite being in an alliance with RJD, he has surprisingly been able to achieve a lot.

As Daily-o pointed out, crime under Nitish has declined across most categories, including murder and rape. The average number of cognisable crimes per month has declined to 15,089 during November-December 2015.

Bihar's GDP (gross domestic product) as a percentage of India's GDP has been steadily increasing since Nitish became the chief minister, as Livemint points out. Bihar's per capita income has also increased under Nitish. The life expectancy of the people of Bihar is also higher than the all-India average.

Nitish's emergence as chief minister marked a "definite deviation from a political order which promoted social acrimony at the expense of people's welfare and development," wrote Ajay Singh for Firstpost. Nitish also resurrected people's confidence in the government. The state witnessed construction of a record number of bridges and highways in those five years, which also saw the state's growth rate surpassing even Gujarat.

With the Lalu family repeatedly reminding the nation of the bleak days of their rule, it has become increasingly difficult for Nitish to continue with his development agenda. He seems to be moving away from his present alliance partner to his former partner, the BJP. Nitish was the only Opposition leader to endorse NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind. This shift might be an indication of his intention to distance himself from the tainted family and keep the trust of the people alive. Will he actually sever ties and move camps though? We may know that sooner than believed earlier.
Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India, America chose Donald Trump, Britain voted for Brexit  when the world was tilting rightward, the choice of a saffron-clad monk as the chief minister of India's most populous state still managed to create ripples worldwide.

Yogi Adityanath, the BJP's pick for chief minister managed to surprise many Modi supporters, let alone India's liberals. The five-time MP from Gorakhpur was known to be a powerful orator, and perhaps a strict administrator known to have little regard for power or its influence. He even commanded control over a small army of right-wing youths called the Hindu Yuva Vahini. He was even counted as one of many loose cannons in the rank and file of the BJP, only to be used to polarise popular sentiment.

However, never was he taken seriously enough, at least by the elite circles in New Delhi, to be considered a probable to head India's politically most important state. Therefore, when Adityanath was made the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, it was only expected that his tenure will be subjected to intense media scrutiny. Turns out, that not only has the Indian media been gushing over the political developments in the Hindi-heartland, but even foreign media has taken note of the saffron rule.

An article published in The New York Times on 12 July, notes that the "Hindu warrior-priest," who until three years ago was considered "too extreme to be minister of state for textiles," was now easily normalised, even mainstreamed. The article still bears an astounded, rather amused tenor, four months since Adityanath has been in office as it quotes some of the controversial bizarre statements in a nation touted to be a secular democracy.

"Adityanath (pronounced Ah-DIT-ya-nath) was an astonishing choice by Narendra Modi, Indias prime minister, who came into office three years ago promising to usher India into a new age of development and economic growth, and playing down any far-right Hindu agenda," the article reads.

The article recounts some of the most appalling things Adityanath had said in his nascent years in politics, which includes calling Muslims a crop of two-legged animals that has to be stopped, and a cry to transform India into a Hindu nation. As it notes that Adityanath is striding towards mainstreaming his image, the article argues that his followers, still anti-Muslim at heart, do not all agree.

Another article in BBC, published in March, describes Adityanath saffron-robed Hindu priest who is "loved and hated" in equal measure. The article first details the "love" Adityanath enjoys in the state, describing the mob thronging his rallies, waiting to catch a glimpse of the priest-turned-politician. However, in the latter half, the article pertinently notes that his rise to power has alarmed many in India (read Muslims and liberals).

"At one point, he shared a stage with a supporter who said that when Yogi Adityanath came to power, Muslims would no longer have the right to vote and that supporters would rape dead Muslim women," the article states.

The Guardian, in its 12 March article, too does not mince words as it lampoons Adityanath. "Mr Adityanath is a Hindu priest who, while elected five times from his temples town, has been shown repeatedly to be contemptuous of democratic norms," is how it introduces the "stridently anti-Muslim extremist."

"He has been accused of attempted murder, criminal intimidation and rioting. He says young Muslim men had launched a love jihad to entrap and convert Hindu women. Mother Teresa, he claimed, wanted to Christianise India. He backs a Donald Trump-style travel ban to stop terrorists coming to India," the article adds on to his list of identifiers.

The Washington Post, on 22 March, assessed Adityanath's anti-romeo squad with a critical-eye and freshness that is often missing in local newspapers. "Adityanath, a saffron robed priest who is also a five-term member of Parliament, had promised the squads as a public safety measure during a heated state election campaign, but some compared them to moral policing. Adityanath has long railed against something he calls love jihad, his term for Muslim men converting Hindu women by luring them into marriage."

Another article in the daily says this about him: "Meet the militant monk spreading Islamophobia in India."

"Adityanath is a controversial and deeply divisive figure for his militant, misogynistic and anti-Muslim rhetoric. He has been a vociferous supporter of a campaign called Love Jihad, ostensibly to stop Muslim youths from marrying Hindu women, claiming, without evidence backing this up, that the intention was to convert them to Islam. His supporters have called for digging up Muslim women from their graves and raping them," the article reads.

The article even draws parallels between Modi and Adityanath.

"The similarities between Modi and Adityanath are also pretty striking. Both of them are deeply polarizing figures in Indian politics. Modis alleged involvement in riots in the western Indian state of Gujarat in 2002  although no court of law ever indicted him  had made him a pariah in national politics as well as within his own party. Adityanath, too, is reportedly unpopular within the party. And yet, the masses seem to love both because both Modi and Adityanath have been able to position themselves as custodians of the two most engaging symbols of Hinduism  the cow and the Ayodhya temple."

The world media is closely tracking Adityanath's tenure as Uttar Pradesh chief minister not without a reason. For one, as many believe, he is poised to succeed Modi with the masochistic rhetoric and age on his side. Secondly, his position as the chief minister of India's most populous (read electorally most crucial) state, is usually seen as a springboard for substantial national-level political roles. If India's Uttar Pradesh were a country, it would be the fifth largest in the world, a BBC podcast observes.

If mainstreaming of Adityanath, as The New York Times article put it, is indeed a phenomenon, then it is unfurling right now in front of our eyes as we witness a paradigm shift in Indian politics. Whether or not his image is sanitised enough for him to become "BJP's future" is something only time will tell. But the career-making media attention that he receives will surely have far-fetching impact on him and Indian politics, whether for the good or worse!
Kohima: Nagaland Governor PB Acharya on Thursday asked Chief Minister Dr Shurhozuelie Lieziesu once again to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly positively on or before 15 July, a directive the state cabinet has turned down earlier in the day.

In a letter addressed to the chief minister late on Thursday night, the governor said that Lieziesu did not deny the claims of TR Zeliang that he enjoys the support of 44 MLAs in a house of 59.

Acharya said it was not an 'internal matter' of the ruling Naga People's Front (NPF) as claimed by the chief minister, but whether he enjoys the support of the majority of the House or not.

He also said that from the materials available to him, it prima facie appears that the chief minister as lost support of the majority of the Assembly and therefore, again requested him to call an emergency session of the assembly to prove his majority on the floor of the House.

While turning down the governor's directive earlier in the day, the state cabinet said the by-poll to Northern Angami-I seat has already been notified and the model code of conduct is in force. The chief minister has also filed his nomination paper.

So, the cabinet said, "It would not be legally proper for the cabinet to advise, and for the governor to summon the assembly during this election period."

On this, the Governor said as far as the bye-election was concerned, it was for only one constituency and so it should not come in the way of recommending summoning of a special session of the assembly.
New Delhi: Top central ministers and officials on Friday briefed opposition leaders, including from the Congress, Left and SP, on the standoff with China and the situation in Kashmir, officials said.

The briefing by home minister Rajnath Singh, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, defence minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, comes ahead of the parliament session beginning on Monday.

Opposition leaders were told about the prevailing situation along the India-China border, Jammu and Kashmir and the government action, officials said.

Those who attended the meeting  considered an effort to build consensus on dealings with India's biggest neighbour and on Kashmir  include Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) Sitaram Yechury (CPM), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Tariq Anwar (NCP), Sharad Yadav, KC Tyagi (JD-U) and Derek O'Brien (TMC).

New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Doka La area of Sikkim.

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Doka La area for the past three weeks after a Chinese army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

In Jammu and Kashmir, seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Four districts of the state  Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag  have been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on 8 July, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the 9 April bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on China. On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir.

He also alleged that the prime minister's pursuit of short-term political gains from the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost.
After the cracks that have emerged in Bihar's grand alliance, it seems Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is deliberating on a scheme of telling all its ministers, including Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, to resign from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's cabinet while continuing to support him from the outside.

Lalu's camp believes that it will keep the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) at bay and at the same time, the RJD can continue to enjoy powers from outside. This power play seems to be of utmost priority for the RJD in the current turbulent period when its party chief and his family members are embroiled in a number of corruption cases.

Taken aback by JD(U)'s mounting pressure, RJD is trying to save the ruling alliance by accusing the BJP of conspiring against the mahagathbandhan. Sensing that Nitish's praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi might usher in a political realignment, the RJD leaders have started warning the chief minister against going with the BJP.

But what transpired on Friday suggests that the JD(U) is in no mood to provide any reprieve to its embattled ally.

As demanded by the BJP, JD(U) asked Lalu to make public the source of properties owned by him and his family members. For the first time in the ongoing tussle between RJD and JD(U), the latter has referred to a BJP demand and enhanced its ambit by including all the members of the Lalu family.

JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar said, " Lalu and his family must come clean. They should give a point by point explanation of allegations against them, as has been demanded by the Opposition (BJP)."

Just days after Nitish reiterated his zero tolerance policy against corruption and asked those facing CBI investigation to come clean, his party has been pressing the RJD to take a call. JD(U)'s demands have been rejected by both Lalu and Tejashwi.

JD(U), it seems, is running out of time as a prolonged tussle will harm Nitish even more than it will affect Lalu. Interestingly, the Congress is trying to save the grand alliance. The party can persuade Lalu to tell his son Tejashwi to resign but the pragmatic Nitish has hinted more than enough that he wants to get rid of the RJD.

Tejashwi is only a pawn now. Nitish knows that taking RJD along, in any form, would harm his image of Mr Clean. Apparently, this is the reason JD(U) has changed strategy and decided to attack not only the deputy chief minister but other members of the Lalu family as well.

CBI has named Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi as accused in the case related to transfer of three acres of prime land in Patna in lieu of awarding contract of IRCTC run hotels to a private company.
New Delhi: The issue with China and the growing unrest in Kashmir will be raised in the Parliament session beginning next week by opposition parties, who were on Friday briefed by the government about the situation on both the fronts.

Emerging from the meeting, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma told reporters that their party has raised some doubts before the government but made it clear that "nation is first - be it China or Kashmir".

"There is too much of tension and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament," both the leaders said.

Sharma said that the Congress made its view clear that national security was the priority and advised the government to rise above politics and tackle the situation diplomatically.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said that his party raised "some serious questions" and claimed that the government had no answer to his question on preparedness for such incidents.

The opposition leaders were briefed by home minister Rajnath Singh, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, defence minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, ahead of the Parliament session beginning on Monday.

The opposition leaders were told about the prevailing situation along the India-China border, in Jammu and Kashmir and the government's action.

Others who attended the meeting  considered an effort to build consensus on dealings with India's biggest neighbour and on Kashmir  included Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) Sitaram Yechury (CPM), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Tariq Anwar (NCP) and Sharad Yadav and KC Tyagi (JD-U).

New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Doka La area of Sikkim.

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the area for the past three weeks after a Chinese army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

CPM General Secretary Yechury said that the government conveyed to the participants about the efforts being carried out to resolve the dispute.

Union minister Paswan said the external affairs minister and foreign secretary gave a detailed information on border issue especially in Doka La.

"Everybody promised support to the government," he said.

On Jammu and Kashmir, government's chief spokesman Frank Noronha said the basic purpose of the meeting was to apprise the MPs from different parties of the situation following the attack on Amarnath yatris on 10 July.

The MPs were informed that 2.2 lakh pilgrims had visited the cave shrine in2016 and this year 1.86 lakh pilgrims have already visited till Friday. The yatra will continue till 7 August.

Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Four districts of the state  Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag  are on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on 8 July, 2016.

Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on China. On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir.

He also alleged that the prime minister's pursuit of short-term political gains through the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost.
The Indian National Congress has launched a full offensive against the policies of the BJP-led Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh following the current monsoon, which seems to have failed to extinguish the farmers rage. The shooting of unarmed farmers in June demanding a fair price caused unrest within the ruling party in the state too with Bhartiya Kisan Sangh openly speaking against Chouhan. To know more about the crisis Firstpost writer Indra Shekhar Singh travelled to Bhopal to meet the Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh.

Son of former union minister Arjun Singh, Ajay has written to prime minister Narendra Modi demanding a fair treatment of farmers. He is yet to receive a reply, but Singh believes that Chouhans reign on MP may have began to wane. Edited excerpts of the interview:

Could you comment on current farmers crisis in Madhya Pradesh?

Basically, the farmers are feeling cheated because of two reasons one is that you (the BJP) gave them great hope, and then let them down badly. The basic issue here is the minimum support price (MSP), which (the BJP government) cannot guarantee. The farmers need a fair MSP that is in tune with the cost of production. The input cost in the recent years has gone up but the procurement price (the rate at which the govt buys produce from markers) does not factor this change. Secondly, farmers have to face lots of problems once they have the produce. What does a farmer do with his produce after harvest? There is hardly any government support and corruption is eating rural Madhya Pradesh too. So, the farmer, in a desperate situation goes to the trader and he feels totally cheated there also, for he needs the money after harvest for many reasons. He may need the money for events like marriage in the family, illnesses, or for preparing to sow for the next season. He has no other recourse in times like this. This is a widespread discontent of farmers all over India. This is not a problem in Madhya Pradesh. It has been a failure of the government to support Indian farmers.

Would you say this is a failure of the agriculture system that we have adopted?

Basically, the system is going towards a total failure. If you were to actually take control in the interest of the Indian farmers  and not so much on importing oilseeds, pulses, etc  you would be giving the farmers a really good backing by ensuring fair MSP for all crops. But this is not happening. Today, we are selling (ourselves) out to few MNCs and countries, which is totally unfair.

The Chouhan government has alleged that Congress engineered the farmers crisis? How true is this?

I fail to understand this as Congress was nowhere to be seen in the first five days of the agitation. Why didnt they make the allegation on the second or the third day? Why did they make the allegation only after unarmed farmers were killed. Their (Chouhan government) first reaction was anti-social elements caused this, the second was that Congress is behind this, the third one that they have recently come up with is that it was the opium lobby. Now, one fails to understand as to is really behind this. The allegation is that Chouhans inept handling of the state is behind this.

You have an image of a tough leader, and now once again as the Leader of Opposition, how are you going to engineer the Congress machinery to support farmers in Madhya Pradesh?

See, out of power, you can only provide a sense of feeling and solidarity that we are with them. If the farmers have faith with us and vote for a change. Then hopefully, well be able to restructure the system in such a way that farmers that were let down or cheated, get empowered and are able to stand up on their feet.

Recently, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia started a satyagraha? What is it all about?

See its a counter to the chief ministers fast. When he (Chouhan) realised within 12 hours that the actual farmers are not coming to meet him for the redressal of their grievances then the situation was manipulated, and party workers came as farmers. He realised that the fast cannot be prolonged. So, at night it was engineered that the slain farmers relatives be called to Bhopal overnight and they were given some amount of money. The poor chaps had no option but to say, Please get up from your fast. So, basically it (Chouhans fast) was a marketing gimmick, a PR stunt, which he (Chouhan) is very good at doing.

Madhya Pradesh has been rocked by a number of scandals including Vyapam. What does this tell you about the Chouhan government?

Let me tell everyone that the Vyapam scam came much later. The scams began first with the dumper scam. Actually, he should have gone with the first year of his tenure. He started a scheme through which you can buy a dumper without paying any money  which is unheard of. So, it started from there. The story of Chouhan started from a dumper and will end in a dumper. Chouhan has been associated with Vyapam, the shooting, the Daliya scam, and the Rio Tinto Diamond scam. I can give you a list, if you want, of the scams that have marred the present chief minister and the government.

How is Congress now preparing to take on BJP in the upcoming elections? Do we have a face that will lead the Congress in the elections?

Madhya Pradesh is a large state and every area has different issues that need to be addressed. Whether you have the farmers issue in Malwa, or the drought and water scarcity in Bundelkhand or the labour issues  all issues need a holistic solution and we are preparing to tackle all of them. But a major part of our campaign will be to expose how BJP has failed to address these issues in the last fifteen years in power. There is also a feeling of over-exposure of Chouhan. Corruption was not a major issue earlier, but today it is central to the Madhya Pradesh election. People are very concerned about the state of affairs in Madhya Pradesh right from the village level to the top. And Chouhans face has lost its lustre.

As for a leader in the upcoming elections, it is entirely the prerogative of the central high command and party. If they decide like they did in Punjab, that they need a face, we will rally behind that candidate, otherwise we are together fighting for our party and our ideals to bring justice to the people of Madhya Pradesh.
Patna: Senior BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha on Friday said whether Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav should resign or not in the wake of CBI FIR is an "internal" matter of the Grand Alliance and hoped that they would sort it out at the earliest in the interest of Bihar.

He, however, said there were many examples where a person is continuing in the ministry despite being charge sheeted or their case being at a different stage in a court.

"There are many persons cutting across party lines who are continuing as a minister despite being charge sheeted or their case being at a different stage in a court," Sinha told PTI on arrival at Patna airport.

RJD has been citing the example of Union minister Uma Bharti among other charge sheeted in Babri mosque demolition case and continuing in the ministry.

He, however, did not name such ministers and also desisted from naming Tejashwi Yadav.

Asked about face off between Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad over the issue which is threatening to rock the grand alliance, Sinha who has a friendship with both the leaders said: "friendship is personal but in this case (Tejashwi Yadav) I am neither supporting demand for his resignation nor opposing it."

Sinha popularly known as "Bihari Babu" made it clear that "I am not an expert on such political issue and it is for them (Nitish and Lalu) to sort out this subject."

"They are matured people and would sort out the issue themselves," he said.

Sinha, BJP Member of Parliament from Patna Saheb seat, said "I hope and pray that Bihar does not go for a mid-term poll."
New Delhi: Attacking the Yogi Adityanath government over the recovery of an explosive material in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the Congress on Friday asked how can it protect people when it cannot ensure the safety of the state legislature.

It said Adityanath should not shrug off the state's responsibility to investigate the matter by recommending an NIA probe into it.

"Adityanath should not shrug off his responsibility ... Is the political leadership of UP, including the chief minister, finding itself helpless that it cannot protect the state assembly?" AICC media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala asked.

"If a government cannot protect the state's assembly, how it will protect its people? Adityanath should probe the matter. This is condemnable," he said.

Referring to Adityanath's suggestion that mobile phones should not allowed inside the assembly premises, Surjewala said the chief minister was trying to divert attention by engaging in symbolism.

Earlier on Friday, Adityanath informed the House that a powerful plastic explosive was found in the assembly and recommended an NIA probe into it.

The chief minister said the cleaning staff on Wednesday found a white powder wrapped in a paper close to the seat of Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Choudhry.

A forensic report confirmed it was pentaerythritol tetranitrate, he said.

The dog squad had failed to detect the explosive.
Paris: France's Bastille Day parade on Friday coupled traditional displays of military might with a look at wars past and present  and a nod to the US role in both.

French president Emmanuel Macron invited Donald Trump as the guest of honour for the celebration to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the US entry into World War I. The two men sat side by side with their wives, speaking animatedly as American and French warplanes roared above the Champs-Elysees.

Two hours before the parade Friday, the famed Champs-Elysees avenue was emptied as was the Place de la Concorde with its golden-tipped obelisk. The wide boulevard has been targeted repeatedly by Islamic extremists, most recently last month when a man crashed his car into a convoy of gendarmes.

Five of the 145 US troops marching in Friday's parade wore period World War I uniforms; Trump saluted the detachment as it passed.

Also in the parade were French soldiers taking part in the mission against the Islamic State group. France and the United States are among a coalition of nations fighting the extremist organisation.

Trump was expected to return to the US after the parade and Macron heads to the southern city of Nice, where last year an extremist plowed a truck into the holiday crowd, killing dozens.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack and others in France, including one just last month on the Champs-Elysees that left only the attacker dead.
Shenyang: China lashed out Friday at international criticism after it denied Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo's dying wish to leave the country and faced pressure to set the democracy champion's widow free.

Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing lodged official protests with the United States, France, Germany and the United Nations human rights office over their "irresponsible remarks" regarding Liu Xiaobo, and he took aim at his Nobel status.

"Conferring the prize to such a person goes against the purposes of this award. It's a blasphemy of the peace prize," he told reporters. The United States and the European Union paid tribute to Liu Xiaobo as it urged President Xi Jinping's government to let his widow, the poet Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since 2010, leave the country.

The United States and the European Union paid tribute to Liu Xiaobo as it urged President Xi Jinping's government to let his widow, the poet Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since 2010, leave the country.

Germany voiced regret that Beijing ignored its offer to host Liu while French President Emmanuel Macron remembered him as a "freedom fighter". Britain hit out at China for preventing Liu from travelling overseas for treatment.

The UN human rights commissioner, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said Liu "was jailed for standing up for his beliefs".

While China lodged protests, some of the global reaction to his death was relatively muted, highlighting China's emergence as an economic and diplomatic superpower on the world stage.

US President Donald Trump and Macron offered praise for Xi at a joint press conference in Paris and only voiced sadness for Liu later in statements.

In a sign of China's growing confidence, the state-controlled Global Times newspaper said in an English-language editorial that "the West has bestowed upon Liu a halo, which will not linger".

Grieve in peace

A day after Liu's death, attention turned to his widow's fate.

Chinese doctors said she was by her husband's side when he lost his battle with liver cancer on Thursday at age 61, more than a month after he was transferred from prison to a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang.

Liu's main doctor said he was able to say goodbye to his 56-year-old wife and in his final moments told her to "live well".

But authorities have restricted her contact with the outside world and her whereabouts were unknown following the death of her husband, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests whose advocacy for democratic reform infuriated the government.

The foreign ministry spokesman said he would "not make prejudgements" about whether Liu Xia could go abroad and that China always handles the entry and departure of its citizens "in accordance with the law".

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson paid tribute to Liu Xiaobo and called on Beijing "to release Liu Xia from house arrest and allow her to depart China, according to her wishes".

The EU urged Beijing to let Liu Xia and her family bury the dead democracy campaigner "at a place and in a manner of their choosing, and to allow them to grieve in peace".

Jared Genser, a US lawyer who represented Liu, said all contact with Liu Xia had been cut off in the past 48 hours.

"I am deeply worried about what's happening with her right now," Genser told CNN, adding that it would be hard for the government to still justify holding her without charges.

"The world really needs to rally and mobilise to make sure she can go wherever she wants and that she can bury her husband wherever she wants," he said.

Liu Xia's parents both died over the last year, and the poet, who was never interested in politics, has suffered from depression, according to friends.

"After the death of Liu Xiaobo, our most important goal is to save Liu Xia from the bitter sea," Hu Jia, a Beijing-based activist, told AFP.

"We will also use public opinion and public opinion pressure to urge the Chinese Communist Party to open the cage door, so Liu Xia can get free" along with her brother, Hu said.

Censoring emojis

Liu was jailed in 2008 after co-writing a petition calling for democratic reforms. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "subversion" a year later.

He became the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in custody since German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky in 1938, who had been held by the Nazis.

The Chinese political prisoner was represented by an empty chair at his Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo in 2010.

The government strived over the years to erase any memory of Liu and a search for his death turned up nothing on Baidu, China's Google-like search engine.

China's censors raced to scrub social media networks of emojis of candles and "RIP" tributes following his death.
Beijing: China on Friday said it had lodged diplomatic protests with several countries, including the US, for making what it called "irresponsible statements" on the case of late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.

Liu passed away on Thursday at a Chinese hospital due to liver cancer, reports Efe news.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said China has lodged protests with the US, France and Germany as well as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein to express Beijing's discontent.

After having been granted medical parole, the 61-year-old activist and writer died on Thursday night in the First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, while his family's request for seeking treatment abroad had been rejected.

After two decades of fighting for democracy, Liu was arrested in 2008 and sentenced on 25 December, 2009 to 11 years in prison on subversion charges after co-drafting the Charter O8  a political manifesto calling for democratic reforms in China.

In 2010, Liu received the Nobel Peace Prize for his activism in favour of democracy in China. He also played a significant role in the Tiananmen protests of June 1989 which ended in bloodshed when they were quashed by troops.
Blog Hinangai

While there is much discussion in Guam about the economic benefits of increasing the islands military presence, the damages/dangers that they represent are rarely mentioned. This blog, a supplement to the Peace and Justice for Guam Petition, is meant to counter that by providing information about the US military in Guam, with the hopes of steering policy away from a dangerous unilateralist course to more sustainable notions of regional development and a strengthening international solidarity.
As tributes to China's Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo flood international media, those in China are refraining from giving prominence to the influential dissident.

While Xiabo's death made headlines globally, Chinese media curtailed its coverage significantly, releasing only brief reports in their English editions. Meanwhile, Chinese censors scrubbed social media networks of candles, RIP and other tributes to the laureate.

Communist Party's mouthpiece Global Times, reporting statements from the bureau of justice of Shenyang, announced on Thursday night that 'the cancer patient Liu Xiaobo has died from organ failure, despite emergency efforts.'

Xiaobo, who had been serving an 11-year prison term for subversion, died in a hospital on Thursday after losing his long battle with terminal cancer.

The 61-year-old had played a significant role in the Tiananmen Square student protests of June 1989, which ended in bloodshed when they were quashed by government troops.

Searches for Liu's Chinese name and his English initials LXB were also censored on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter.

On the other hand, thousands of Chinese have taken to social media to express themselves despite attempts from the government to censor and mute reactions.

Many used vague expressions such as "someone died today", or posted Christian allegories of suffering that did not directly mention Liu. Others cited the thunder and lightning storms that rolled through Beijing on Thursday night as a sign of heavenly disquiet.

Meantime, Xiaobo's death in custody lashed the Chinese media with a wave of criticism over its treatment of but has rejected the criticisms.

Beijing rejected international criticism for not allowing its most prominent critic to be treated abroad for liver cancer and claimed that the case is an internal affair and other countries were "in no position to make improper remarks".

Meanwhile, Nobel Committee called Xiaobo's death "premature" and said the Chinese refusal to allow him to travel was "deeply disturbing," the Communist Party's mouthpiece, Global Times has called Liu "a victim led astray" by the West.

China had even scoffed at his Nobel Peace Prize (he was the first Chinese person still living in the country to receive a Nobel award of any kind) in 2010. Chinese authorities had gotten furious and send out a disclaimer to Norway, stating that the decision would hurt relations between the two countries.

"Liu Xiaobo is a criminal who has been sentenced by Chinese judicial departments for violating Chinese law," the Chinese foreign ministry had said in a statement.

Xinhua and CCTV only issued a brief on their English site stating Liu Xiaobo, "convicted of subversion of state power," has died. However, the paper defended China, stating that the country was focused on the treatment of Xiaobo's and some western forces were attempting to steer the issue in a political direction by hyping the treatment as a "human rights" issue.

The world leaders, however, are praising Liu and called on China to release his widow, Liu Xia, from house arrest.
Paris: The presidents of the United States and France praised their Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at a press conference Thursday, avoiding criticism of Beijing over Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo's death.

Rather than comment on the Chinese writer and dissident  who died of cancer while under guard in hospital  as they took questions from reporters in Paris, Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron released warm tributes later.

However during the press event, Trump described Xi as a friend and patriot.

"He's a friend of mine. I have great respect for him," Trump said.

"We've gotten to know each other very well. A great leader. He's a very talented man. I think he's a very good man. He loves China. I can tell you. He loves China."

That praise was echoed by Macron, who described as "extremely fruitful and positive" his first contacts with Xi.

The French leader later remembered Liu in a tweet, praising him as "a freedom fighter" and saying his thoughts were with his family.

Several hours later, the White House also released a statement.

"President Donald J. Trump was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent Chinese political prisoner Liu Xiaobo," it said.

"The president's heartfelt condolences go out to Liu Xiaobo's wife, Liu Xia, and his family and friends. A poet, scholar, and courageous advocate, Liu Xiaobo dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy and liberty."

Earlier, Trump's Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had praised Liu and called for his wife to be released.

"Liu dedicated his life to the betterment of his country and humankind, and to the pursuit of justice and liberty," Tillerson said in a statement.

"I call on the Chinese government to release Liu Xia from house arrest and allow her to depart China, according to her wishes."

And the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, called Liu "a true champion for freedom and an inspiration to those longing for democracy around the world."
US president Donald Trump praised French first lady Brigitte Macron for being in "such good shape" on Thursday during his state visit to France, according to a video on the French government's Facebook page.

Trump, 71, who has come under fire for his comments about women's appearances, and his wife, Melania, 47, met with French President Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte, 64, at Hotel des Invalides, where Napoleon Bonaparte and other French war heroes are buried.

After a tour, Trump turned to the French first lady, gestured toward her and said: "You're in such good shape."

After repeating the comment to the president, Trump turned back to Brigitte Macron and said: "Beautiful." Her response was unclear.

Social media immediately reacted to the video with many users denouncing Trump's comments as sexist.

"#Trump telling France's First Lady 'you're in such good shape' epitomizes men toeing the line between compliment & sexual harassment," wrote Twitter user Alex Berg (@AlexfromPhilly), a freelance video producer and writer who works on feminist and gender issues.

Jen Siebel Newsom, a documentary maker and actress, (@JenSiebelNewsom) said on Twitter: "Mr. Trump - Women do not want to hear unsolicited remarks on what you think of their bodies. Its gross, and deeply inappropriate (sic)."

The White House declined to comment on the exchange. The couples dined together at a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower on Thursday night.

Brigitte Macron was once the 39-year-old French president's high school teacher. He is the country's youngest leader since Napoleon two centuries ago.

Trump has been denounced for comments deemed sexist, including criticising the looks of former presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Carly Fiorina, comedian Rosie O'Donnell, media figure Ariana Huffington and models Kim Kardashian and Heidi Klum. His presidential campaign was rocked in October by the release of a 2005 Access Hollywood tape in which he talked about grabbing women by the crotch.

Trump recently attacked MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski on Twitter, calling her low I.Q. Crazy Mika and saying she was "bleeding badly from a facelift" at a gathering at his Florida resort around New Year's.
Paris: President Donald Trump's visit to Paris on Thursday will take him to a city he has repeatedly derided  and at the side of a French leader best known to Americans as the earnest young man with the endless handshake.

"Paris isn't Paris any longer," Trump declared in February, implying the city had been ruined by jihadi attacks. "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," he said just last month as he announced the US would leave the Paris climate agreement.

But Trump isn't the only politician who can use Paris to make a symbolic point.

When Trump arrives in the French capital, it will be as French President Emmanuel Macron's guest of honour, with a private tour of Napoleon's tomb, dinner at the Eiffel Tower and, to top off the Paris tourist trifecta, a seat at the tribune as American troops open the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Elysees.

He departed the White House on Wednesday evening, joined by his wife, first lady Melania Trump, and top aides, including chief of staff Reince Priebus and National Security Adviser HR McMaster.

The visit follows revelations this week that Trump's eldest son appeared to welcome Russian help in the US election. He'll likely face questions about that at a news conference with Macron.

It was Macron, who at 39 is modern France's youngest president, whose handshake with Trump left both men with white knuckles and clenched jaws. Macron later described it as "a moment of truth" between them.

Still, Macron extended an invitation to Trump to join the national day celebrations, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the US entry into World War I. And the meetings on Thursday have been billed by both governments as a time to deepen the ties that bind the US and France.

"What our two countries share is stronger (than our differences), given our peoples and our histories and our values as well. So yes, there is a disagreement, like I said to President Trump, and then I said it publicly, because there is nothing to hide. That being said, it does not prevent us from cooperating in many fields," Macron said Saturday.

Thursday's talks are expected to center on fighting terrorism and defence policy, two areas where French-American cooperation has traditionally been strong.

There is little downside for Macron.

"It's important to establish a relationship that is functional, for both Macron and Trump, to know where the other stands, so they can speak to each other, to facilitate trans-Atlantic relations," said Yannick Mireur, a political scientist who follows US politics.

The greater risk is for Trump, said Thomas Gomart, director of the French Institute for International Relations.

"There is a Russian sword of Damocles over Trump's head and it's been there since he took office. At the same time, Emmanuel Macron during his campaign and at his first meeting with Vladimir Putin was critical of Russian interference," Gomart said.

In emails made public this week, an intermediary told Donald Trump Jr. that a Russian attorney had negative information about Democrat Hillary Clinton that was part of the Russian government's efforts to help Trump in the election campaign. "I love it," the then-candidate's son responded.

The revelations raise new questions about whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Moscow during the election, a charge the president has denied for months. And it points those questions more directly at the inner circle of Trump's own family.

Macron supports intervention against Syria's government in response to its use of chemical weapons and could prove an important ally as the Trump administration seeks to increase pressure against Damascus. But in doing so, they'll need to tackle the issue of Russia's support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, something Trump has only passively acknowledged.

The visit will also gauge whether Trump and Macron can find consensus on any of the critical issues on which they openly disagree. After Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, Macron, a staunch advocate of research to combat global warming, urged "all responsible citizens," including American scientists and researchers, to bring their fight against climate change to France.

Macron became France's youngest president when he won a runoff against far-right opponent Marine Le Pen in April. Despite no political experience, he pulled together an overwhelming legislative majority in France's parliament and recent polls show him with strong public popularity.

For Trump, whose approval ratings at home and abroad have sunk since he took office, experts say leveraging Macron's popularity could improve his administration's image among European allies.

In Germany, Trump severely criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel during his election campaign, claiming she was "ruining" Germany by allowing in hundreds of thousands of refugees. Since then, however, the two leaders have had several conversations, both in person and on the phone, and developed a working relationship.

Still, there are many points of contention, including the decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement. Merkel also suggested Europe needs to take on more responsibilities itself because it can no longer rely on the US

"Macron doesn't have the same constraints as Angela Merkel, who is entering an election campaign in which her opponents would love to make it a campaign about Donald Trump," said Jeffrey Rathke, deputy director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Merkel, as it happens, will also be meeting Macron on Thursday  both she and Trump will converge on the French presidential palace within hours of each other. But Merkel will be gone before they can cross paths.
PARIS: President Donald Trump's visit to Paris on Thursday will take him to a city he has repeatedly derided  and at the side of a French leader best known to Americans as the earnest young man with the endless handshake.

"Paris isn't Paris any longer", Trump declared in February, implying the city had been ruined by jihadi attacks. "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris", he said last month when he announced US departure from the Paris climate agreement.

You know what? It's going to be just fine, because you have a great president. You have somebody that's going to run this country right, Trump said in response to a reporters question about his past rhetoric regarding Paris.

But Trump isn't the only politician who can use Paris to make a symbolic point.

When Trump arrived in the French capital, he will be French president Emmanuel Macron's guest of honor, with a private tour of Napoleon's tomb, dinner at the Eiffel Tower and, to top off the Paris tourist trifecta, a seat at the tribune as American troops open the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Elysees.

He departed White House on Wednesday evening, joined by his wife, first lady Melania Trump, and top aides, including chief of staff Reince Priebus and National Security Adviser HR McMaster.

The visit follows revelations this week that Trump's eldest son appeared to welcome Russian help in the US election. He'll likely face questions about that at a news conference with Macron.

It was Macron, who at 39 is modern France's youngest president, whose handshake with Trump left both men with white knuckles and clenched jaws. Macron later described it as "a moment of truth" between them.

Still, Macron extended an invitation to Trump to join the national day celebrations, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the US entry into World War I. And the meetings on Thursday have been billed by both governments as a time to deepen the ties that bind the U.S. and France.

"What our two countries share is stronger (than our differences), given our peoples and our histories and our values as well. So yes, there is a disagreement, like I said to President Trump, and then I said it publicly, because there is nothing to hide. That being said, it does not prevent us from cooperating in many fields", Macron said Saturday.

Thursday's talks are expected to center on fighting terrorism and defense policy, two areas where French-American cooperation has traditionally been strong.

The visit will also gauge whether Trump and Macron can find consensus on any of the critical issues on which they openly disagree. After Trump withdrew the US from the Paris climate accord, Macron, a staunch advocate of research to combat global warming, urged "all responsible citizens", including American scientists and researchers, to bring their fight against climate change to France.

Macron became France's youngest president when he won a runoff against far-right opponent Marine Le Pen in April. Despite no political experience, he pulled together an overwhelming legislative majority in France's parliament and recent polls show him with strong public popularity.
Paris: US President Donald Trump is willing to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House, but not yet, according to official remarks released on Thursday.

During a conversation aboard Air Force One flying into Paris, Trump said he was willing to engage the Russian leader despite controversy over the country's involvement in the 2016 US election.

Asked whether he would invite Putin, Trump said he would "at the right time. I don't think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would."

Trump argued that shunning Putin would be the easy thing to do, but it would not be smart, according to the comments released by the White House.

Trump has been embroiled in a scandal over his campaign's ties with Russia -- which US intelligence agencies say tried to tip the 2016 US election in his favour.

Trump denies allegations of collusion, but the recent publication of his son's emails show Donald Jr did solicit dirt on Hillary Clinton from a Russian contact.

"Look, it's very easy for me to say absolutely, I won't. That's the easy thing for me to do, but that's the stupid thing to do," Trump said.

"Let's be the smart people not the stupid people. The easiest thing for me to tell you is that I would never invite him.

We will never ever talk to Russia. That all of my friends in Congress will say, oh he's so wonderful, he's so wonderful.

"If you don't have dialogue, you have to be fools. Fools."

During a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron today, Trump said that a ceasefire in Syria -- which he agreed with Putin last week -- was evidence that engagement works.

He added that a second ceasefire in another region of Syria was also under consideration.
Washington: US President Donald Trump, battling allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians to get him elected, has said he would invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House, but "at the right time". Trump expressed his willingness to invite Putin with reporters travelling with him enroute to Paris on Thursday.

It came at a time the scandal reached his eldest son after the American media reported that Donald Trump Jr last year met a Russian lawyer who had promised to provide information damaging to Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic rival. According to the reports, Trump Jr met the lawyer at Trump Tower in New York in June. This week, he released emails about the meeting and the US president publicly defended his son for his "transparency" in releasing the emails.

Trump has denied allegations his campaign had contacted Russians to tilt the 2016 election in his favour, but the US intelligence agencies have differed with that assessment.

Aboard the Air Force One, Trump, when asked by reporters whether he would invite Putin to the White House, said, "I don't think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would." "Look, it's very easy for me to say absolutely, I won't. That's the easy thing for me to do, but that's the stupid thing to do. Let's be the smart people not the stupid people," he said.

Trump described Russia as "perhaps the second most powerful nuclear country in the world" and said that if "you don't have dialogue (with them), you have to be fools."

Since assuming office on 20 January, the Republican president has appeared inclined to do business with Russia. Trump has previously spoken with Putin by phone, and at the G20 summit in Germany last week, they had their first face-to-face meeting since Trump's election, when he pressed Putin over the election meddling allegations.

Trump twice asked Putin whether Russia tried to hack the election during the meeting and was reportedly appeared satisfied with Putin's denial.

On Thursday, Trump said he wants to make great deals with Russia and added that these deals would affect Moscow. "Why does that affect Russia? Because Russia makes its money through selling of oil, and we've got underneath us more oil than anybody, and nobody knew it until five years ago. And I want to use it," he said.

"I don't want that taken away by the Paris Accord. I don't want them to say all of that wealth that the United States has under its feet, but that China doesn't have and that other countries don't have, we can't use," he said. Responding to the allegation that Putin favoured him over Clinton in presidential election, Trump said he would directly pose this question to the Russian president when he meets him next time.

"The next time I'm with Putin, I'm going to ask him: who were you really for? Because I can't believe that he would have been for me. Me: strong military, strong borders - but he cares less about the borders - but strong military, tremendous," Trump said.

Trump said that during his meeting with Putin he did ask him if he hacked the US elections. "I said to him, 'were you involved with the meddling in the election'?

He said, 'absolutely not. I was not involved'. He was very strong on it. I then said to him again, in a totally different way, 'were you involved with the meddling'. He said, 'I was not - absolutely not'".

The US president, though, reiterated that other countries too could have been involved with the hacking of the polls. "I'm not saying it wasn't Russia. What I'm saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is. China is very good at this. I hate to say it, North Korea is very good at this. Look what they did to Sony Studios. They were the ones that did the whole deal to Sony," he said.
The world hailed Chinese Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo as a brave fighter for human rights after his death from cancer.

Liu, a government critic and thorn in the side of the authorities for decades, died in custody, having been sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for "subversion". His death brought criticism for Chinese authorities who refused international pleas to let him receive treatment abroad.

Nobel committee

"We find it deeply disturbing that Liu Xiaobo was not transferred to a facility where he could receive adequate medical treatment before he became terminally ill," Berit Reiss-Andersen, who chairs the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said in a statement. "The Chinese government bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death."

United States

US President Donald Trump initially refrained from commenting on Liu's death and avoided criticising Beijing at a joint press conference in Paris with French leader Emmanuel Macron. He instead used the occasion to praise China's leader Xi Jinping as a friend and patriot.

Several hours later, the White House released a statement about Liu. "President Donald J. Trump was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent Chinese political prisoner Liu Xiaobo," it said.

"The president's heartfelt condolences go out to Liu Xiaobo's wife, Liu Xia, and his family and friends. A poet, scholar, and courageous advocate, Liu Xiaobo dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy and liberty." Earlier, Trump's Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had praised Liu and called for his widow, the poet Liu Xia, to be released from house arrest. And the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, called Liu "a true champion for freedom and an inspiration to those longing for democracy around the world."

Germany

"I mourn Liu Xiaobo, the courageous fighter for human rights and freedom of expression," German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted on her behalf. "His family has my deep sympathies." Germany had said it was prepared to welcome Liu for medical treatment after he was transferred from prison to hospital.

United Nations

"The human rights movement in China and across the world has lost a principled champion who devoted his life to defending and promoting human rights, peacefully and consistently, and who was jailed for standing up for his beliefs," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said in a statement. "Liu Xiaobo was the true embodiment of the democratic, non-violent ideals he so ardently advocated."

European Union

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and EU president Donald Tusk said in a joint statement that they had learned of Liu's death "with deep sadness". "We appeal to the Chinese authorities to allow his wife, Ms Liu Xia and his family to bury Liu Xiaobo at a place and in a manner of their choosing, and to allow them to grieve in peace," Juncker and Tusk said. "We call on the authorities to remove all restrictions on the movement and communications of his family members."

France

Like Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron also initially avoided discussing Liu's death, focusing instead on his "extremely fruitful and positive" contacts with Xi. The French leader later remembered Liu in a tweet, praising him as "a freedom fighter" and saying his thoughts were with his family.

Britain

British foreign minister Boris Johnson hit out at China for preventing Liu from seeking cancer treatment abroad. "Liu Xiaobo should have been allowed to choose his own medical treatment overseas, which the Chinese authorities repeatedly denied him," Johnson said in a statement.

Chinese dissidents

Chen Guangcheng, one of China's best-known activists who fled to the United States in 2012, said Liu was "deliberately killed" by the country's rulers and urged the international community to maintain pressure on Beijing.

"We need to see his death as not a natural, normal death," Chen told AFP in a telephone interview from Washington. "He was killed by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), deliberately killed by them." Chen said China had refused to allow Liu to travel abroad for treatment because they "were likely to discover what was really wrong with him and would probably reveal that they had been harming him with medication or some such things."

"As a vocal outspoken Nobel prize winner, he would likely speak out about what has happened to him, and that's another thing that the Chinese Communist Party did not want to have happen," Chen added.
Dubai: The United Arab Emirates' (UAE) State Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash on Friday said the Qatar crisis, which pits the Arab quartet and Qatar, would not end soon.

Gargash, who regularly comments on the Qatar crisis to his 437,000 followers on Twitter, said the Arab bloc, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain, and Qatar were "heading into the long estrangement", Xinhua news agency reported.

Because the quartet was "a long way from political solution linked to Qatar to change its orientation", he said it would mean that "we have to find a different pattern of relationship".

The Arab bloc cut ties with Qatar on 5 June, accusing it of supporting "extremism and terrorism," an allegation which Qatar denied.

The bloc also issued a land, sea and air embargo on Qatari planes and ships.

On a possible exclusion of Qatar from the six member states forming Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the UAE minister pointed out that "Although we may lose the confused and awkward neighbour ... we gain clarity and transparency."

The GCC members Kuwait and Oman have not cut ties with Qatar. Kuwait has been playing the role as a regional mediator since the rift erupted which marks the worst crisis in the GCC history since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson left Qatar with no breakthrough reported in resolving the month-long dispute.
Washington: Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Friday he cannot confirm whether or not Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, after reports from Syria that the jihadist leader had been killed.

"If we knew, we would tell you  right now, I can't confirm or deny it," Mattis said. "Our approach is we assume he's alive until it's proven otherwise, and right now I can't prove it otherwise."

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a longtime conflict monitor, said earlier this week it had heard from senior Islamic State leaders in Syria's Deir Ezzor province that Baghdadi was dead.

There was no official confirmation or denial of the news on IS-run social media outlets.
Japan will be holding talks on a Pacific Rim trade initiative rejected by U.S. President Donald Trump beginning Wednesday in the mountain resort town of Hakone, west of Tokyo.

The three-day meeting with other envoys to the Trans-Pacific Partnership follows a breakthrough on an agreement with the European Union last week that was seen as a repudiation of the U.S. moves to pull back from such trade deals.

Last week, Japan named a new chief negotiator for talks among the remaining 11 members seeking to salvage the TPP after Trump pulled out of the pact soon after taking office.

The TPP members hope to make progress before an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam in November.

Other countries participating are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
China's Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo died on Thursday aged 61 after losing a battle with cancer, authorities said, more than a month after he was transferred to a hospital from prison. Liu was the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel Peace Prize and one of only three people to have won it while detained by their own government. At the December 2010 Nobel ceremony in Oslo, his statement titled "I Have No Enemies: My Final Statement" was read by an actress, with an empty chair representing the imprisoned activist, who was also known for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests. Read the complete statement below:

In the course of my life, for more than half a century, June 1989 was the major turning point. Up to that point, I was a member of the first class to enter university when college entrance examinations were reinstated following the Cultural Revolution (Class of '77). From BA to MA and on to PhD, my academic career was all smooth sailing. Upon receiving my degrees, I stayed on to teach at Beijing Normal University. As a teacher, I was well received by the students. At the same time, I was a public intellectual, writing articles and books that created quite a stir during the 1980s, frequently receiving invitations to give talks around the country, and going abroad as a visiting scholar upon invitation from Europe and America. What I demanded of myself was this: whether as a person or as a writer, I would lead a life of honesty, responsibility, and dignity. After that, because I had returned from the U.S. to take part in the 1989 Movement, I was thrown into prison for "the crime of counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement." I also lost my beloved lectern and could no longer publish essays or give talks in China. Merely for publishing different political views and taking part in a peaceful democracy movement, a teacher lost his lectern, a writer lost his right to publish, and a public intellectual lost the opportunity to give talks publicly. This is a tragedy, both for me personally and for a China that has already seen thirty years of Reform and Opening Up.

When I think about it, my most dramatic experiences after June Fourth have been, surprisingly, associated with courts: My two opportunities to address the public have both been provided by trial sessions at the Beijing Municipal Intermediate People's Court, once in January 1991, and again today. Although the crimes I have been charged with on the two occasions are different in name, their real substance is basically the same - both are speech crimes.

Twenty years have passed, but the ghosts of June Fourth have not yet been laid to rest. Upon release from Qincheng Prison in 1991, I, who had been led onto the path of political dissent by the psychological chains of June Fourth, lost the right to speak publicly in my own country and could only speak through the foreign media. Because of this, I was subjected to yearround monitoring, kept under residential surveillance (May 1995 to January 1996) and sent to ReeducationThroughLabor (October 1996 to October 1999). And now I have been once again shoved into the dock by the enemy mentality of the regime. But I still want to say to this regime, which is depriving me of my freedom, that I stand by the convictions I expressed in my "June Second Hunger Strike Declaration" twenty years ago  I have no enemies and no hatred. None of the police who monitored, arrested, and interrogated me, none of the prosecutors who indicted me, and none of the judges who judged me are my enemies. Although there is no way I can accept your monitoring, arrests, indictments, and verdicts, I respect your professions and your integrity, including those of the two prosecutors, Zhang Rongge and Pan Xueqing, who are now bringing charges against me on behalf of the prosecution. During interrogation on December 3, I could sense your respect and your good faith.

Hatred can rot away at a person's intelligence and conscience. Enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation, incite cruel mortal struggles, destroy a society's tolerance and humanity, and hinder a nation's progress toward freedom and democracy. That is why I hope to be able to transcend my personal experiences as I look upon our nation's development and social change, to counter the regime's hostility with utmost goodwill, and to dispel hatred with love.

Everyone knows that it was Reform and Opening Up that brought about our country's development and social change. In my view, Reform and Opening Up began with the abandonment of the "using class struggle as guiding principle" government policy of the Mao era and, in its place, a commitment to economic development and social harmony. The process of abandoning the "philosophy of struggle" was also a process of gradual weakening of the enemy mentality and elimination of the psychology of hatred, and a process of squeezing out the "wolf's milk" that had seeped into human nature. It was this process that provided a relaxed climate, at home and abroad, for Reform and Opening Up, gentle and humane grounds for restoring mutual affection among people and peaceful coexistence among those with different interests and values, thereby providing encouragement in keeping with humanity for the bursting forth of creativity and the restoration of compassion among our countrymen. One could say that relinquishing the "antiimperialist and antirevisionist" stance in foreign relations and "class struggle" at home has been the basic premise that has enabled Reform and Opening Up to continue to this very day. The market trend in the economy, the diversification of culture, and the gradual shift in social order toward the rule of law have all benefitted from the weakening of the enemy mentality." Even in the political arena, where progress is slowest, the weakening of the enemy mentality has led to an evergrowing tolerance for social pluralism on the part of the regime and substantial decrease in the force of persecution of political dissidents, and the official designation of the 1989 Movement has also been changed from "turmoil and riot" to "political disturbance." The weakening of the enemy mentality has paved the way for the regime to gradually accept the universality of human rights. In [1997 and] 1998 the Chinese government made a commitment to sign two major United Nations international human rights covenants, signaling China's acceptance of universal human rights standards. In 2004, the National People's Congress (NPC) amended the Constitution, writing into the Constitution for the first time that "the state respects and guarantees human rights," signaling that human rights have already become one of the fundamental principles of China's rule of law. At the same time, the current regime puts forth the ideas of putting people first" and "Creating a harmonious society," signaling progress in the CPC's concept of rule.

I have also been able to feel this progress on the macro level through my own personal experience since my arrest.

Although I continue to maintain that I am innocent and that the charges against me are unconstitutional, during the one plus year since I have lost my freedom, I have been locked up at two different locations and gone through four pretrial police interrogators, three prosecutors, and two judges, but in handling my case, they have not been disrespectful, overstepped time limitations, or tried to force a confession. Their manner has been moderate and reasonable; moreover, they have often shown goodwill. On June 23, I was moved from a location where I was kept under residential surveillance to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau's No. 1 Detention Center, known as "Beikan." During my six months at Beikan, I saw improvements in prison management.

In 1996, I spent time at the old Beikan (located at Banbuqiao). Compared to the old Beikan of more than a decade ago, the present Beikan is a huge improvement, both in terms of the "hardware"  the facilities  and the "software"  the management. In particular, the humane management pioneered by the new Beikan, based on respect for the rights an integrity of detainees, has brought flexible management to bear on every aspect of the behavior of the correctional staff, and has found expression in the "comforting broadcasts," Repentance magazine, and music before meals, on waking and at bedtime. This style of management allows detainees to experience a sense of dignity and warmth, and stirs their consciousness in maintaining prison order and opposing the bullies among inmates. Not only has it provided a humane living environment for detainees, it has also greatly improved the environment for their litigation to take place and their state of mind. I've had close contact with correctional officer Liu Zheng, who has been in charge of me in my cell, and his respect and care for detainees could be seen in every detail of his work, permeating his every word and deed, and giving one a warm feeling. It was perhaps my good fortune to have gotten to know this sincere, honest, conscientious, and kind correctional officer during my time at Beikan.

It is precisely because of such convictions and personal experience that I firmly believe that China's political progress will not stop, and I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future free China. For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become.a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme. I also hope that this sort of progress can be reflected in this trial as I await the impartial ruling of the collegial bench  a ruling that will withstand the test of history.

If I may be permitted to say so, the most fortunate experience of these past twenty years has been the selfless love I have received from my wife, Liu Xia. She could not be present as an observer in court today, but I still want to say to you, my dear, that I firmly believe your love for me will remain the same as it has always been. Throughout all these years that I have lived without freedom, our love was full of bitterness imposed by outside circumstances, but as I savor its aftertaste, it remains boundless. I am serving my sentence in a tangible prison, while you wait in the intangible prison of the heart. Your love is the sunlight that leaps over high walls and penetrates the iron bars of my prison window, stroking every inch of my skin, warming every cell of my body, allowing me to always keep peace, openness, and brightness in my heart, and filling every minute of my time in prison with meaning. My love for you, on the other hand, is so full of remorse and regret that it at times makes me stagger under its weight. I am an insensate stone in the wilderness, whipped by fierce wind and torrential rain, so cold that no one dares touch me. But my love is solid and sharp, capable of piercing through any obstacle. Even if I were crushed into powder, I would still use my ashes to embrace you.

My dear, with your love I can calmly face my impending trial, having no regrets about the choices I've made and optimistically awaiting tomorrow. I look forward to [the day] when my country is a land with freedom of expression, where the speech of every citizen will be treated equally well; where different values, ideas, beliefs, and political views ... can both compete with each other and peacefully coexist; where both majority and minority views will be equally guaranteed, and where the political views that differ from those currently in power, in particular, will be fully respected and protected; where all political views will spread out under the sun for people to choose from, where every citizen can state political views without fear, and where no one can under any circumstances suffer political persecution for voicing divergent political views. I hope that I will be the last victim of China's endless literary inquisitions and that from now on no one will be incriminated because of speech.

Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth.

In order to exercise the right to freedom of speech conferred by the Constitution, one should fulfill the social responsibility of a Chinese citizen. There is nothing criminal in anything I have done. [But] if charges are brought against me because of this, I have no complaints.

Thank you, everyone.

The entire text has been taken exactly as posted by the official website of the Nobel Prize and has not been edited by Firstpost.
Paris: In a flame-red skirt suit, US first lady Melania Trump cut a striking contrast with her French counterpart Brigitte Macron in white during a Thursday visit to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

But the women had one thing in common: French fashion.

The American first lady, a Roman Catholic, requested a tour of the famed cathedral as part of her two-day trip to the French capital in which she took her own path from her husband, President Donald Trump, and garnered praise for her spot-on wardrobe diplomacy.

Trump's demure wool attire with a cinched waist came from the age-old Parisian fashion house Christian Dior and riffed on its signature Bar Jacket. The first lady and her French-born stylist Herve Pierre picked it to celebrate Dior 70th anniversary this year.

It wowed French media who compared the 47-year-old to former US first lady Jackie Kennedy.

Some visitors inside the 850-year-old building were impressed. "It's good she wore a French designer like Dior. It is like diplomacy and a statement that she loves France," said Annalise Breton, a 23-year-old student.

Others were indifferent.

"We knew she was coming. She's all right. If we see her, we see her. We're mostly here to see the church," said Kaitlyn Mundackal, 17, visiting from New York. The first lady, though not as high-profile as some of her predecessors, has taken on a fairly prominent role on her husband's three international trips.

Macron  wife of French President Emmanuel Macron  also showed off one of France's greatest exports by wearing a white mini dress designed by Louis Vuitton.

"We came to look at the church, and didn't expect to see this! They both look beautiful in red and white. A contrast is good," said Daria Bliznets, 28 ,from Moscow.

The two first ladies were met by Notre Dame Rector Patrick Chauvet inside the stone walls in front of the famed North Rose window Thursday afternoon, following a visit to the Invalides (ahn-vah-leed) monument and the final resting place of Napoleon.

Trump lit a candle and said a prayer after being shown the lofty chapels, organ and golden Crown of Thorns.

Chauvet instructed the two women on the site's storied past.

"I showed them how the cathedral was at the heart of French history and Paris. I told them that all the greatest moments  happy or sad  were celebrated here," Chauvet told The Associated Press.

"There is a novel by Victor Hugo that takes place here called 'Notre Dame de Paris'," Macron then said to Trump at one point with the help of a translator.

The two are thought to have a friendly relationship, and Macron frequently touched her back during the tour.

They first met in May when their husbands attended an international summit in Brussels and crossed paths again at a follow-up gathering in Hamburg, Germany. On several occasions they have been photographed chatting together.

Trump's day has been peppered with literary moments. Trump started the day on her own at a children's hospital. At Necker Hospital, she visited a ward decorated with images from "The Little Prince," an iconic French novel written and illustrated by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. She spoke in French to six children patients switching to a translator to ask how long they expected to stay.

One of the children, a 14-year-old girl named Ysatis, was in a wheelchair and said she expected to leave the hospital Monday for a month of rehabilitation.

"You look very good, very strong ... Soon you'll be walking and running," Trump told her. Ysatis later told The Associated Press she appreciated the visit.

"It was very pleasant and really good. She's beautiful and gorgeous," Ysatis said.

Martin Hirsch, director of Paris' public hospital system, presented the first lady with a copy of "The Little Prince."

"I will keep it, practice my French. It's beautiful," she said.

She has also visited children's hospitals in Italy and Israel.

Melania and Donald Trump have an 11-year-old son, the first boy in the White House since John F Kennedy Jr more than 50 years ago.

After Notre Dame, Trump accompanied Macron on tour the Seine River. President Trump is in Paris for meetings with Macron before he joins in the Bastille Day celebration on Friday.
Peshawar: Pakistani security forces on Friday killed a suicide bomber while another blew himself up during an attempted attack on a paramilitary camp in the country's northwest tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Security officials said the two militants, wearing suicide vests, opened fire at the Frontier Corps' Jarobi Camp in Khyber Agency, and tried to enter through the main gate, Geo TV reported.

One of the bombers was killed in retaliatory firing by the security forces while the other blew himself up, injuring two soldiers, it said.

The injured soldiers have been airlifted to Peshawar for treatment. The report said the Frontier Corps targeted suspected militant hideouts across the border in retaliatory fire.

In a statement, the Pakistan Army said the suicide bombers came from across the border and attempted to attack the Misthara Post near on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Colombo: Sri Lanka has failed to deliver on its international commitments to prosecute government troops and Tamil rebels for atrocities committed during its ethnic war, a UN expert said Friday.

Ben Emmerson said Colombo's efforts at transitional justice were at a "virtual standstill" eight years after the end of its ethnic war which had claimed over 1,00,000 lives.

"None of the measures so far adopted to fulfil Sri Lanka's transitional justice commitments are adequate to ensure real progress," Emmerson told reporters in Colombo during an official visit to assess progress.

"There is little evidence that perpetrators of war crimes committed by members of the Sri Lankan armed forces are being brought to justice," said Emmerson, a UN special rapporteur on human rights.

Sri Lanka narrowly avoided sanctions when a new government came to power in January 2015 promising investigations into war-time atrocities, which the previous regime refused to even acknowledge.

The new administration of President Maithripala Sirisena secured more time from the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to deliver justice, ensure reconciliation and prevent the island slipping back to ethnic strife.

But Emmerson said "retrograde elements" within the armed forces and the coalition government were stalling and expressed fears of a return to ethnic conflict.

"My plea to the government and the people of Sri Lanka is... not to allow the process to be diverted by retrograde elements in the security establishment and their allies in government," he said.

Sri Lankan forces were accused of killing up to 40,000 Tamil civilians during the final months of the war while defeating separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas who fought for independence.

International rights groups have called the prosecution of both the military as well as the Tigers, who were known for their trademark suicide bombings and child soldiers.

"The government has thus far done almost nothing to hold to account those members of the armed forces and security services who committed gross human rights violations during and since the conflict," he said.

Emmerson also called for the repeal of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

He said 12 suspects had been held under the PTA without trial for over 10 years, and another 70 had been held for over five years.
Washington: The Trump administration wants to give collaboration and cooperation with Russia a chance, and this is the reason why it is considering to return the Russian diplomatic compounds that were seized by the previous Obama government last year, a presidential aide has said.

"Because we, we want to give collaboration, cooperation a chance," Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to Trump told CNN in an interview on Thursday.

He was responding to questions about decision of the Trump Administration to return a pair of Russian diplomatic compounds in Maryland and New York that were seized from the Kremlin as retribution for Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

The Obama administration had taken such a decision, because the compounds were allegedly being used for intelligence-related purposes that might have plausibly

connected to the interference campaign by the Russian government.

"The fact is, we may not share the same philosophy, we may not share the same type of statesman view of the world, but the fact is there are some issues of common concern.

"And if we see good faith come out of the Kremlin with regards to things such as a cease-fire, then perhaps there is a chance for what Rex Tillerson wants to see happen, which is an improvement in relations between our two capitals," he said.

The United States, under Trump, he asserted is not looking to create new enemies.

"We're not looking to create new enemies. That's a very dangerous way to look at the world. And the President said, in theory, I would like to have better relations with Russia, because it's is a geopolitical, geostrategic nation," Gorka said in response to a question.

Trump, he said is a pragmatist.

"He's the most successful real estate magnate in New York. He looks at the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. That was the last eight years of disastrous, ideologically-tinged lack of statesmanship out of the White House," he said.

"We look at Russia as a country that we don't have perfect relations with, we don't even have better relations with than other nations, but perhaps they could improve.

"Do we wish to escalate matters with Russia? I don't think that's a good idea," Gorka told CNN.
A United Nations (UN) committee has recommended to the Sri Lankan government that the military end its involvement in commercial and civilian activities and provide legal protection against forced evictions of thousands of people reportedly carried out by it.

The UN Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UNCESCR) has asked the Sri Lankan government to take measures to map private and public land under the control of the military and ensure its restitution, and also to end military involvement in commercial and other civilian activities.

The Committee is concerned that the Urban Regeneration Programme by the Urban Development Authority since 2010 has led to forced evictions and relocation of around 5500 families in Colombo, reportedly involving the military, without due process or compensation, the UNCESCR report says in its review of Sri Lanka in June.

Sri Lanka, along with Pakistan and four other countries, was reviewed by the UN committee between 29 May and 23 June in Geneva. It was Sri Lankas fifth such periodic review.

CESCR is a body of 18 independent experts that monitors the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by state parties and usually meets twice a year in Geneva.

The first challenge comes from the Sri Lankan military, which works in tandem with commercial enterprises that have an interest in acquiring and profiting from land in the north and east of the country, says a report by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka to the UN as part of the review exercise.

The capital of the Northern Province is Jaffna, dominated by Tamils where most of the civil war was played out.

Since the end of the civil war, the military has used various laws to bring land under their control and away from the local Tamil population. The Land Acquisition Act allows the government of Sri Lanka to seize lands that will be used for public purposes  the law has a blurry definition of public purpose.

These vast tracts of land are often turned into high security zones (HSZs), and access to the land is limited to military personnel. In other cases, the land is seized and developed or sold to private businesses for development, the Human Rights Commission further adds.

The committee is concerned that although significant areas of land have been released since 2015, the military still controls substantial areas of private and public land in the north and east of the country and continues to engage in commercial activities, including farming, tourism, setting up of coffee shops and hotels, the UN has said.

While welcoming the National Plan of Action for the Social Development of the Plantation Community, the UN said that the so-called Plantation Tamils suffer from direct and indirect discrimination with regard to all the Covenant rights, including high levels of poverty, poor working conditions, inadequate housing conditions, lack of access to health care, lack of quality education and high drop-out rates, child labour, and a lack of citizenship or identity documents.

The Tamil and Muslim communities in the Northern and Eastern Provinces are still affected by the conflict between the government and LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) despite the end of the war, especially the communities whose traditional villages are still occupied (by the military in the eastern and northern provinces), says a joint report of Human Rights Office Kandy, Fraciskans International, National Fisheries Solidarity Organisation to the UN also as part of the review exercise.

Resettled people in the north are living amidst military camps and have not been provided adequate facilities and reparations for up to a quarter century of military occupation and use of their lands and houses, says the report.

There are about 100 families that left for India due to war and displacement but are waiting to return home, it says.

Fishermen are facing increasing competition from both Indian trawling boats from the Tamil Nadu region and Sinhalese fishermen from the south of Sri Lanka because of the risk of damage to their nets by mechanised Indian boats, and from the practice of sea cucumber diving.

The UN is also concerned about severe poverty and rising inequality levels near urban areas, in the north and the east, the estate sector and Moneragala.

Additionally, sex trafficking in brothels continues to represent a severe problem  boys are more likely than girls to be forced into prostitution in coastal areas for child sex tourism, particularly in the south and south-west, the joint NGO report says.

The UN also recommends that the government take immediate steps to ensure effective implementation of the Official Languages Law and National Trilingual Policy, including through a sufficient number of Tamil-speaking public officials and interpreters in every government institution, including at the provincial level, as well as the allocation of adequate financial resources for its implementation.

While recognising current efforts of the government to strengthen the judiciary, the UN committee is concerned that several decades of armed conflict have eroded the independence, impartiality and competence of the judiciary.
Washington: President Donald Trump told reporters aboard the Air Force One that the conditions are not in place for a thorough overhaul of the US immigration system.

"What I'd like to do is a comprehensive immigration plan. But our country and political forces are not ready yet... There are two sides of a story. It's always tough," he said in what was originally supposed to be an off-the-record session with journalists accompanying him on a visit to France.

The White House subsequently authorised media outlets to report the President's comments later on Thursday, reports Efe news.

His statement on immigration reform came in response to a question about the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, established by predecessor Barack Obama to shield hundreds of thousands of undocumented youths from deportation.

Trump said he has not made a decision over the DACA, while emphasising that he  and not his subordinates  would make the final determination.

"It's a decision that I make and it's a decision that's very very hard to make. I really understand the situation now," he said.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security said that DACA would remain in effect for the time being, though Texas and a number of other states have threatened to sue the federal government if the program is not ended by 5 September.

On the related matter of his plan for a wall on the US-Mexican border, Trump said that his remarks about installing solar panels on the structure had not been in jest.

"We have major companies looking at that. Look, there's no better place for solar than the Mexico border  the southern border. And there is a very good chance we can do a solar wall, which would actually look good," he said.

The president said the wall needs to be transparent for the safety of people on the US side.

"And I'll give you an example. As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don't see them  they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It's over. As crazy as that sounds, you need transparency through that wall," Trump said.

He also suggested that the barrier would not have to extend the entire length of the 2,000-mile border.

"Remember this, it's a 2,000-mile border, but you don't need 2,000 miles of a wall because you have a lot of natural barriers. You have mountains. You have some rivers that are violent and vicious. You have some areas that are so far away that you don't really have people crossing. So you don't need that. But you'll need anywhere from 700 to 900 miles," he added.
The U.S. has begun a series of what has been described as the most complex war games with Asian allies India and Japan. All three are engaged in regional power struggles with rival nations.

The maritime drills, known this year as "Malabar 2017," kicked off Monday in India's Chennai and the Bay of Bengal, and mark the first time the three forces have deployed carriers to participate in regional military maneuvers. In addition to focusing on anti-submarine warfare, the U.S., India and Japan will engage in training on land involving "professional and expert exchanges" in various types of warfare and special operations. This is the second year that Japan officially joins the annual exercises, which come amid growing tensions between India and China, the latter of which has also challenged the interests of the U.S. and Japan in the Asia-Pacific and grown closer to India's greatest foe, Pakistan, an estranged U.S. ally. The Navy said the trilateral drills would strengthen naval bonds between the U.S., India and Japan.

"Indian, Japanese and U.S. maritime forces have a common understanding and knowledge of a shared working environment at sea. Each iteration of this exercise helps to advance the level of understanding between our Sailors, and we hope to be able to continue this process over time," the Navy said in a statement

"As members of Indo-Asia-Pacific nations, our maritime forces are natural partners, and we look forward to continuing to strengthen our bonds and personal relationships."



NOBUHIRO KUBO/REUTERS

The U.S., India and Japan are involving some of their most powerful naval assets in Malabar 2o17, including the U.S.'s supercarrier Nimitz, India's Russian-built, modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier Vikramaditya and Japan's helicopter carrier Izumo, according to the Diplomat . In addition to sending the world's largest aircraft carrier, the U.S. deployed the remainder of the vessel's designated strike group, including a guided-missile cruiser and three destroyers, a Los Angeles-class attack submarine and a land-based P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. Japan was also sending two guided-missile destroyers, and India sent a number of different ships and aircraft, according to United Press International . Between the three countries, at least 17 warships and submarines were reportedly being dispatched for the drills, which were scheduled to conclude next week.

The drills, described by U.K.-based intelligence group IHS Jane as the most complex of their kind , come amid a series of growing international rivalries in Asia that involve the U.S., India and Japan as well as rival powers Pakistan and China. Since gaining independence from India in 1947, Pakistan has fought four wars with India, and the two nuclear-armed states remain hostile over terrorism accusations and the disputed region of Kashmir that lies on their mutual, restive border. Last month, India became involved in another territorial dispute, this time with China, after the latter's military accused Indian troops of crossing a boundary along China's far western region of Tibet. India argued that China's construction of roads too close to the border threatened the national security of neighboring Bhutan, an ally of India.

While China courts Pakistan, it continues to assert vast territorial claims in the South China Sea and East China Sea, where the U.S. sent warplanes Thursday to challenge China's self-proclaimed Air Defense Identification Zone. The move came right after U.S. aircraft trained with Japanese fighters over the East China Sea, which hosts a series of islands claimed by China, Japan and South Korea.

As officials from his administration toured U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, President Donald Trump approached Chinese President Xi Jinping in an attempt to get his support in dealing with North Korea, which has been continually sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear and ballistic weapons programs. North Korea argues its nuclear arsenal is necessary to protect it from hostile powers such as the U.S. and, after Trump criticized China last month for not doing enough, North Korea announced Tuesday it had successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), further stoking the regional crisis.

While tensions brew in Central Asia and the Western Pacific, however, China's Foreign Ministry said Friday that it had no objection to the Malabar 2017 exercises, which spokesperson Geng Shuang referred to as part of "the development of normal relations and cooperation between countries."

"We hope such relations and cooperation are not targeted at a third party and are conducive to regional peace and stability," he added.
Xiaomi Redmi 5, successor of last years Redmi 4 has surfaced in renders that also reveals the specifications and price. Similar to the Redmi 4, the Redmi 5 is also said to come in two different versions with Snapdragon 625 or 630 Mobile Platform. It is expected to come wiht an improved 16-megapixel rear camera, run Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) based MIUI 9, but is said to come with a slightly smaller 3680mAh battery compared to 4000mAh battery.

The phone is also said to come support for fast charging with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0. The phone has a unibody metal design and there is a fingerprint sensor on the back.

Xiaomi Redmi 5 rumored specifications

5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD 2.5D curved glass display

2.2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU / 2.2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 630 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 508 GPU

3GB LPDDR3 RAM with 16GB / 32GB storage (eMMC 5.1) / 4GB RAM with 32GB / 64GB storage (eMMC 5.1), expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD

MIUI 9 based on Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)

Hybrid Dual SIM (micro + nano/microSD)

16MP rear camera with PDAF, dual-tone LED Flash

5MP front-facing camera

Fingerprint sensor, Infrared sensor

4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz / 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS

3680mAh (minimum) battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0

The Xiaomi Redmi 5 is rumored to start at 859 yuan (US$ 126 / Rs. 8160 approx.) for the 3GB RAM with 16GB storage Snapdragon 625 version and the 32GB storage version of it is said to cost 1039 yuan (US$ 153 / Rs. 9875 approx.). The Snapdragon 630 version with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage, 4GB RAM with 32GB storage and 4GB RAM with 64GB storage are said to be priced at 1099 yuan (US$ 162 / Rs. 10,445 approx.), 1199 yuan (US$ 177 / Rs. 11,395 approx.) and 1299 yuan (US$ 191 / Rs. 12,345 approx.), respectively. It is expected sometime in late Q3 or early Q4 2017.

Source
Sabcat said: Had Clinton not destroyed thousands of emails maybe she wouldn't have looked so bloody guilty.



I believe you are using the term "fix" a bit liberally here.



The dems literally got caught rigging the primaries, but hey...you guys sill campaigned heavily in favor of the guilty party.



The republican candidates kid was possibly looking for dirt on his fathers opponent.





Huh..?





You have a lot of anger struggling inside of you. Click to expand...

He's not the only one, the internet is loaded with Hillary voters with the same, and many are truly unhinged.IDK if a source is right, but there could be something brewing that will decimate both parties for dealings with Russia. Trump may be the bearer of that information, he may be the one who truly will drain the swamp. Meanwhile, the Dims, and RINO's are still plotting a soft coup.
National bridal chain Alfred Angelo announced unexpectedly Thursday that it will be shuttering its locations, leaving many orders unfinished.

The retailer closed its doors without warning and has released no official statement regarding the shutdown.

The bridal retailer operates more than 60 locations across the U.S. and its dresses are sold at more than 1,400 wholesale stores worldwide.

In Indianapolis one Alfred Angelo location left a note on its doors to customers.

We are devastated and loved working with you all. It was our pleasure to be a part of your lives and your weddings. We are so sorry. We knew NOTHING.

The note also told customers that they would be in contact as soon as they could about their orders.

More from FOX Business... Top wedding trends of the season

At many of the retail locations information for a law firm was handed out to customers to contact.

One customer, Katie Mooney, found her dream dress at the store in August of 2016 for her September 2017 wedding, ordering it that day and paid in full. Last week, she met with her seamstress at the shop who assured her the dress would be ready for pickup next week.

It was so perfect, and special- it was from the 2017 line and I was the first one to even try it on. The truck had just came that day and my sales person thought of me and ran and got it, Mooney told FOX Business.

Mooney found out about the store closure from a friend last night, but at the time thought that it was only the Florida store.

My friend sent me a link last night about the Florida closing, but it didnt seem really serious or that we would be affected, Mooney said. She sent me another message this morning, Did you get your dress? with fingers crossed. Even then I sent her a reply stating I was going on Monday to finally get it- she goes Are you sure? And then I see Twitter, still not wanting to believe, I googled. And then cried.

Alfred Angelo is a longtime bridal retailer, founded in 1933, operating out of its corporate headquarters in Delray Beach, Florida. The chain will reportedly file for bankruptcy in the latest closure vexing the retail industry.

The retail industry has been hit particularly hard in the last year, with bankruptcies plaguing businesses. According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, all U.S. employers have announced a total of 195,895 job cuts so far this year.

Of these total U.S. job cuts across all industries, retailers continue to announce the most job cuts with 55,910 through May, but the sector added 8,100 jobs in June.

Alfred Angelo did not respond to FOX Business request for comment at the time of publication.
Since getting spun off from Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) in late 2016, Yum China (NYSE: YUMC) stock has returned over 30%. Though it is already China's biggest restaurant group, the company looks like it has more room to run.

The Yum China advantage

After years of struggling to grow its Chinese business, Yum! Brands decided to spin it off into a separate entity. Yum China, which owns sole rights to KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell in the world's most populous country, has been doing much better all on its own thus far.

The argument for the spinoff was that allowing the business the freedom to operate all on its own would unlock value for shareholders. Management now has the latitude to make decisions tailored specifically to the Chinese market -- things like customizing the menu to local tastes, better marketing to Chinese consumers, and flexible decision-making without the extra oversight from Yum! Brands' sprawling global enterprise.

So far, so good. In the first two quarters of 2017, Yum China's operating profit has increased 34% through tighter control over costs, and comparable-restaurant sales were up 3% during the last quarter.

The decision to separate Yum China hasn't gone unnoticed by competitors. While not a full spinoff like Yum! Brands, McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) sold 80% of its Chinese business to franchisees in a similar bid to promote growth and improve decision-making in the big Chinese market.

Going where the people are

China's middle class is quickly approaching 50% of the population, and the race to capture that market share is heating up. KFC and Pizza Hut are the current leaders, with over 7,600 locations (compared to McDonald's 2,600-plus). The burger chain plans on building another 1,000 to play catch-up. How does such a big enterprise like Yum China grow and stave off the competition?

Expanding delivery services has been identified by management as the key. While the Chinese consumer's insatiable appetite for fast food parallels the American consumer's, the way that food is consumed is a little different. Over half of China's population lives in densely populated cities and more are moving in by the millions every year. Because of tight living quarters, not everyone has their own car. So while the average American might grab a quick meal at the drive-thru, getting food delivered is far more important in China.

In response, Yum China announced back in May the purchase of a controlling interest in Daojia, a leader in online delivery of high-end food orders. As of the last quarter, 13% of sales were delivery and 4,900 locations offered delivery services. Management sees both numbers increasing in the years to come.

To buy or not to buy

Though second-quarter results were in line with expectations, Wall Street was apparently hoping for more, and the stock dropped over 10%. However, for the balance of 2017, management sees operating profits continuing to rise by double digits and total new restaurants totaling as many as 600.

With even more of China's population moving to the city and the middle class getting its hands on more discretionary money, fast food has more runway ahead of it. Yum China has lots of future potential and management's outlook remains positive. Investors who believe the Chinese consumer will eat more fast food in the years ahead should consider Yum China.

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Oil prices edged higher in volatile trading on Friday as signs of strengthening demand was offset by still-high global stocks and concerns about economic growth.

Benchmark Brent and U.S. WTI crude oil contracts were on track for weekly gains, but fluctuated between intraday gains to losses amid conflicting signals on the supply/demand picture.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil, were up 48 cents at $48.90 per barrel at 1338 GMT, after trading as much as 64 cents higher and 27 cents lower.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $46.58 per barrel, up 50 cents, after trading between 64 cents higher 28 cents lower earlier in the day.

"It's been a jumpy Friday in the oil market," said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy with Saxo Bank, adding that the volatility was "primarily driven by traders covering what up until recently was an extended short position."

Prices spiked earlier in the day following a force majeure declaration on exports of Nigeria's Bonny Light crude, but sank into negative territory after data showed U.S. retail sales unexpectedly fell in June, casting doubt on demand in the world's largest oil consumer.

Both contracts were roughly 5 percent above the week's lows, aided by reports of accelerating demand growth from the International Energy Agency (IEA), crude oil import growth in China and falling crude stocks in the United States.

China's crude oil imports over the first six months of 2017 were 13.8 percent above the same period in 2016, customs data showed. Asian traders are selling oil products out of tanks amid soaring demand, while the EIA reported the largest drop in U.S. crude oil inventories in the week to last week in 10 months.

Analysts at Commerzbank said a reduction in the developed world's oil stocks was likely to continue "so long OPEC does not significantly increase its output any further."

Still, oil stocks remained comfortably above the five-year average, and prices are more than 16 percent below their 2017 highs, despite an extension to March 2018 of output cuts of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) coordinated by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

OPEC's rebalancing effort has been stymied in part by rising output from Libya and Nigeria, which are exempt from the cuts, but June compliance among other members also fell to just 78 percent, according to the IEA.

"It's not too long before the market starts looking at the supply situation ... which is anything but encouraging," PVM Oil Associates analyst Tamas Varga said.

(By Libby George; Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein and Aaron Sheldrick in Singapore, editing by Jason Neely and David Evans)
Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), the nations largest mortgage provider, said Friday it booked stronger profits in the second quarter despite weaker returns from its home lending business.

The bank reported a 4.5% increase in quarterly earnings to $5.81 billion, up from $5.56 billion in the year-ago period. Per-share earnings climbed to $1.07 from $1.01. The bottom line beat Wall Streets forecast for flat earnings.

Revenue ticked higher to $22.17 billion, although analysts were looking for slightly better results of $22.47 billion.

Wells Fargos mortgage banking income slipped 19% year-over-year to $1.1 billion. Residential mortgage originations totaled $56 billion, up from $44 billion in the first quarter.

Total average loans hit $957 billion, a 1% gain. Wells Fargo recorded a provision expense of $555 million, a decline of 48%. Banks set aside less cash when they anticipate fewer delinquent loans.

Wells Fargo is the subject of federal and state investigations over allegations that the bank opened up to 2.1 million fake accounts. The company has already paid a $185 million fine, and earlier this week, it settled a class-action lawsuit for $142 million.

Shares were down 2.1% at $54.42 in recent trading.
That meeting took place on June 9th of last year....but it is unclear now not only why AG Lynch would have given her an extraordinary waiver of U.S. immigration laws, but how the Russian attorney could have been in the country five months after the so called immigration parole waiver expired.

The Senate Judiciary Committee now investigating Lynch's efforts to protect Hillary Clinton and the role of not only AG Lynch, but the fired FBI director as well.

There is much to learn about the collusion between the Russian attorney and the Obama administration, but the political motivations of the Obama DOJ are readily recognized...it's all about politics.....in fact... Of the more than $400 thousand in donations to Clinton and Trump during the election from DOJ employees... 97% went to Hillary Clinton.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller isn't even looking at the obvious misdeed of the Obama Justice Department itself..., and it is clear the Washington swamp will never be drained unless we the people demand the truth, and yes, justice.
Even as President Donald Trump celebrated Bastille Day in France with President Emmanuel Macron Friday, he had health care on his mind, urging Republican senators via Twitter to get on board with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells (R-Ky.) newly released proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

So impt Rep Senators, under leadership of @SenateMajLdr McConnell get healthcare plan approved. After 7yrs of O'Care disaster, must happen!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2017

However, the bill, introduced Thursday, was breathing on life support by Friday after 2 GOP senators  Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine)  immediately rejected it. Complicating the effort, Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich called the revised measure "still unacceptable," largely because of its cuts to Medicaid, the same concern that's been voiced by Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, one of the other holdouts.

McConnell released the measure Thursday, a plan that caps seven years of his party's promises to obliterate Obama's 2010 law.

Also under pressure, indirectly, was Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) who opposed McConnell's initial bill last month, also citing its Medicaid reductions. Heller, who faces a tough re-election next year, has stood arm-in-arm with his state's popular GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval in opposing cuts to that program for the poor, disabled and nursing home patients.

In an interview Friday, Sandoval said his initial understanding of the new bill was that it "really doesn't change the dynamic" about the Medicaid cuts, and "that's a big concern for me."

Sandoval said he expected to meet privately with Vice President Mike Pence and Health Secretary Tom Price at governors' meetings he is attending in Providence, Rhode Island, and had already heard from both men. Republicans consider winning over Sandoval a key to gaining Heller's vote.

The nation's largest doctors' group dealt another blow Friday, saying the plan falls short on coverage and access, particularly for low-income people on Medicaid. The American Medical Association said Medicaid cuts and "inadequate subsidies" will lead to "millions of Americans losing health insurance coverage."

The AMA said GOP leaders took a "positive step" by adding $45 billion for treatment to help victims of the opioid epidemic. But it pointed out that people dealing with addiction also need regular health insurance, and that many would lose it if Republicans succeed in rolling back Medicaid financing.

McConnell's reworked bill aims to win conservatives' support by letting insurers sell low-cost, skimpy policies. At the same time, he seeks to placate hesitant moderates by adding billions to combat opioid abuse and help consumers with skyrocketing insurance costs.

Moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told reporters she had informed McConnell she would be voting against beginning debate on the bill, citing in part cuts in the Medicaid health program for the poor and disabled. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has repeatedly complained that McConnell's efforts don't amount to a full-blown repeal of Obama's law, also announced he was a "no."

McConnell could cancel next week's vote if he's short of support, something he did last month when his original legislation was headed toward defeat. He and other GOP leaders are urging senators to at least vote in favor of opening debate, which would open the measure up to amendments.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hondas top-selling family car is completely redone for 2018 and promises greater efficiency and comfort, though some long-time customers might notice something big missing.

That would be the Accords 3.5-liter V-6 engine, a powerful choice on upper trim levels that snarls and delivers snappy acceleration. In its place is a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine making 252 horsepower and paired with a Honda-designed 10-speed automatic, the first of its kind in a front-wheel drive car. Honda claims the new engines greater torque, the transmissions improved gearing, and a stiffer chassis  thats up to 176 pounds lighter  will translate to impressive performance, although were going to miss that sweet six.

2017 HONDA CIVIC TYPE-R SETS NURBURGRING LAP RECORD

Lesser Accord models use a 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with 192 horsepower that handily outguns the former 2.4-liter naturally-aspirated engine. This engine is paired with a continuously variable transmission or, on Sport trims, Hondas slick-shifting six-speed manual. Its rare to see a family sedan offer a row-your-own gearbox. The coupe, however, will not return for 2018.

Inside, the 2018 Accord expands its already spacious legroom by 2.5 inches and increases trunk space by one cubic foot to 16.7. The body itself has a two-inch longer wheelbase but hardly changes in length. Its also slightly wider and lower, and the drivers seating position drops an inch for a sportier feel. Overall, the new Accord looks much like the previous Accord, but with a larger, more upright grille and optional LED headlights, its a bit more aggressive than before.

THE WEEK IN PICTURES

Honda has tech covered, too. In-car 4G LTE Wi-Fi, wireless updates for the infotainment system, telematics services such as stolen vehicle tracking, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, larger screens, and a head-up display are all available. The Honda Sensing suite of driver assists, which include automatic braking and lane departure warning, is standard on every Accord. Physical comforts like cooled front seats and an adaptive suspension will be welcome on those longer rides.

Pricing and fuel economy estimates  including specifications for the hybrid model  will be released closer to the Accords launch later in the year.
Georgia-based news anchor Laura Warren is speaking out after a viewer declared in a voicemail she was disgusting on the TV at 20 weeks pregnant.

When you hear something versus see something on social media, it just kind of hits you a little harder, the WRDW anchor told TheWrap.com on Thursday. And her voice, just the contempt she seems to have for me, like how disgusted she was, like she was being forced to see something so horrific, it was hard for many of us to listen to. We get into this little bubble where were, like, OK its 2017, people have come a long way, and we have come so far  then something like this happens.

On July 3rd, Warren checked her voicemail in hopes of receiving a good story tip. Instead, a disgruntled female viewer chimed in on her weight.

Please go to Target and buy some decent maternity clothes so you dont walk around looking like you got a watermelon strapped under your too tight outfits, said the woman. Targets got a great line of maternity clothes in case youve never heard of such a thing. Youre getting to where youre being disgusting on the TV.

Warren, whos adapting to her changing pregnancy figure, said the message left her feeling insecure. She published a blog post on July 4th with the voicemail in hopes that it will educate readers on how bullying can impact anyone.

And right now, we are living in a culture tolerating, often even encouraging bullies, Warren wrote. Politicians, angry Democrats and Republicans, anonymous keyboard warriors, social media bulliesHow do we teach our kids to be kind when adults all around them can say such cruel things? It worries me. Right now, I can protect this sweet little boy. But, I wont always be able to. I certainly dont want him to dwell on the negative things insecure people are bound to say about him.

Warren added shes no longer letting the voicemail hurt her feelings. Instead, shes feeling determined now more than ever to be kind  and hopes her fans will do the same.

Im going to say as many nice things as I can to as many people as I can, and Im going to do it in a dress that fits these beautiful new curves with my watermelon stomach showing," she said.
How long would you wait for a discounted doughnut?

To celebrate its 80th anniversary, Krispy Kreme is selling a dozen doughnuts for 80 cents once a customer buys the first dozen at regular price.

Its a deal so huge that it crippled traffic in Charleston, S.C., for hours on Friday.

One commuter told WCSC-TV the drive to Krispy Kreme was longer than the actual wait  and she spent two hours in line.

Another commuter said that she waited in the drive-thru line for over an hour but was stuck on the nearby highway for an additional hour.

Police had to redirect Charleston traffic around the Krispy Kreme, WCSC reported.

And as the afternoon stretched on, traffic was still snarled around the doughnut chain, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.

SHAQUILLE ONEAL EXPANDING KRISPY KREME EMPIRE, LAUNCHING SHAQUILLE OMEALS

"Everybody is getting to work late because of this," commuter Jere Young told the Post and Courier. "They literally should just line up orange cones all the way down 526 and have a designated doughnut lane for whenever they run specials."

"I just can see the stress of people stuck in a line that don't want a doughnut," Young said.

A spokesperson for the Charleston police department said Krispy Kreme requested help with traffic control, and officers are expected to be outside the doughnut shop until midnight.

OFFICER WHO MISTOOK DOUGHNUT GLAZE FOR DRUGS DISCIPLINED

Krispy Kreme paid for the assistance, the Post and Courier reported. A WCSC reporter said she saw boxes of doughnuts in the police cars.

But it looks like it wasnt just Charlestons traffic the doughnut company spoiled; the Burbank Police in California tweeted Friday morning that the promotion was causing traffic delays.
The family of a New York man is speaking out a month after his death to warn about Powassan virus, a potentially deadly tick-borne illness that has had health officials in Maine on the lookout. Charles Smith, of Gansevoort, New York, had found the tick under the skin of his elbow on April 28, WNYT reported.

The avid fisherman, who had survived a heart attack that robbed him of his sight in one eye and the amputation of both his right leg and part of his left foot, wasnt concerned about the tick.

POWASSAN VIRUS: POTENTIALLY FATAL TICK DISEASE THAT CAN BE TRANSMITTED IN MINUTES REPORTED IN MAINE

He said its nothing to worry about, no bulls eye its an atypical tick bite because it didnt measure 5 centimeters, Stephanie Smith, his daughter, told WNYT.

But 10 days later, Smith started suffering from a fever and the chills. Test results at Glens Falls Hospitals came back negative for Lyme, and he was diagnosed with an enlarged kidney. During an operation to insert a stent, Smith became paralyzed from the neck down, WNYT reported.

Subsequent testing revealed Powassan virus, but it took more than a month after Smiths death for the New York State Department of Health to confirm the case.

In Maine, health officials confirmed two new cases of the virus this year, bringing the states total count since 2000 to nine. The virus differs from Lyme in that it can be transferred from tick to human in a matter of minutes, with symptoms also striking more severely. The virus can quickly reach a patients brain, leaving them susceptible to long-term neurological damage.

EXACTLY WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET A TICK BITE

He was pretty much gone, the bus was being driven but we didnt know where the bus driver was, Stephanie told WNYT.

In 10-15 percent of cases, the virus proves fatal.

If you catch Lyme early, antibiotics can eradicate it, Dr. Kent Holtorf, a Lyme disease expert and medical director of Holtorf Medical Group, previously told Fox News. But with a virus, you have much less options to do anything about it.

Patients who are most likely to be symptomatic are those who are immunosuppressed or who have previously contracted illnesses like West Nile, Dengue or Lyme.
After eight years of failing policies and executive overreach by the Obama Administration, the American people entrusted Republicans with unified control of the House, Senate, and White House. We promised our constituents that we would work quickly to restore constitutional order and take much-needed steps to revitalize our economy.

Republicans made a hard commitment to the American people  we would fully repeal ObamaCare, implement pro-growth tax reform, balance the federal budget, and much more. We have begun clearing the overreach of the Obama administration by enacting significant reforms to the Veterans Administration, repealing Dodd-Frank, and passing vital regulatory reform. Yet we are now more than six months into the 115th Congress and President Trumps administration, and have not made enough progress towards achieving our primary goals.

If we do not pass these pieces of legislation this year, our agenda will be in serious jeopardy. As Congress heads into an election year, it becomes increasingly more difficult to pass pieces of legislation that make the sweeping reforms we promised. Besides these big-ticket items, there are several additional items Congress must consider this year. These include reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, the Childrens Health Insurance Program, the National Flood Insurance Program, and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We must also work to ensure that the VA Choice program has the funding it needs to care for our nations heroes.

That is why I have worked diligently to urge that the House cancel the August congressional recess to inspire us to remain focused on achieving our agenda. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enact these transformative policies, so Congress should respond in a once-in-a-generation manner.

The annual August recess is a luxury, and most members of Congress look forward to being in their respective districts for an extended time. I was looking forward to meeting with my constituents, spending time with my family, going to my church, and recharging my batteries in the Arizona sunshine before a return to the D.C. swamp. Yet, with so much to do, and little time to address the long list of pressing issues on our docket, we cannot afford the luxury of going home this year.

I applaud Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells announcement that the U.S. Senate will cut short its August recess by postponing the start by two weeks.

No one should be under the illusion that completion of our agenda will be easy to accomplish, but we should work in good faith to remain true to our constituents. They expect us to work diligently and will be justifiably upset if we recess for four to five weeks instead of moving our agenda forward. Since the start of the 115th Congress, we have achieved some notable accomplishments that have been called singles and doubles. Only by working through August can we hit home runs and restore the trust of our constituents.

In my short time in Congress, I have heard a lot of talk about the plans we have for the United States of America. We have talked enough about our agenda; now, we must enact these vital policies and assure the American people that we are capable of finishing the work we started.

The people who founded this country were willing to sacrifice their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to fight for the truth that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. The least we can do to carry on the Founders torch of liberty is to sacrifice the month of August to keep our promises and give our children the opportunity to experience a more-free and prosperous America. I am committed to staying in session as long as it takes to accomplish our goals.
France shares a dubious distinction with my own home country of Italy. Both were among the first to send business delegations and enter into new trade agreements with the Islamic Republic of Iran following the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)  what President Donald Trump is famous for describing as the worst deal ever negotiated.

In a joint press conference with his French counterpart, President Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on Thursday, President Trump said, Today we face new threats from rogue regimes like North Korea, Iran and Syria, and the governments that finance and support them.

It is yet unclear what exactly the two presidents may have discussed when it comes to Iran, but one can hope they will present a united front standing against the regime going forward.

High on the list of measures to halt Iran's destructive behavior is an idea already floated by President Trump in his first weeks in office - designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization and cutting off its access to American dollars.

Macron, like Trump, took over for a predecessor who played a role in the nuclear negotiations and the associated, conciliatory policies toward the Islamic Republic.

The question is whether France will continue to look the other way on Iranian misbehavior while pushing French business toward the unstable Iranian market? Or will President Macron reintroduce the extensive demands and high level of scrutiny that had guided French negotiations before the JCPOA was implemented?

The French government has a particular responsibility to address the issues of Iranian misbehavior that have been shunted to the side.

The French energy company Total SA announced this month that it would be helping Iran to develop a prominent off-shore gas field. This announcement was eagerly embraced by the mullahs in Tehran, who suggested that it would lead the way to more Western investments in the Islamic Republic, even if Iran continues to push the boundaries of the JCPOA while taking no steps to diminish the threat of terrorist-linked money laundering. In fact, Tehran seems committed to taking full advantage of the new conditions created by the nuclear deal, but without changing a single thing about its malign influence on the region or the world.

France, of course, had a prominent hand in creating those new conditions, as one of the six parties that helped negotiate the JCPOA opposite Iran. To its credit, the French negotiating team developed a solid reputation for putting the highest demands upon the Islamic Republic. Nevertheless, the world ended up with a rather tepid deal, which offered Iran tens of billions of dollars worth of sanctions relief in exchange for fairly modest and completely reversible restrictions on the Iranian nuclear program. Meanwhile, peripheral issues remained entirely ignored, such as Irans ballistic missile development and contact with terrorist organizations and rogue states.

Interestingly, President Macrons meeting with President Trump takes place almost exactly two years after the nuclear negotiations were concluded. And if Iran was a major topic of discussion, this meeting has the potential to be very significant.

The fact is that the nuclear deal only addressed one issue having to do with the Islamic Republic. The globally significant issues coming out of that country are manifold, and some of them have the potential for much more immediate and broad-ranging impact.

Whereas the nuclear deal succeeds in pushing the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon several years into the future, there are other things that could be done right now to quickly halt Irans destructive behavior.

High on the list of such measures is an idea that was already floated by President Trump in his first weeks in office, when he suggested designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization and cutting off its access to American dollars to the greatest extent possible.

Whether President Trump broached the subject with Macron remains to be seen, but the French president should certainly take it upon himself to make a commitment to confronting Irans sponsorship of global terrorism. The IRGC is the main driving force behind that, and it is also perhaps the source of the most severe crackdowns on Iranian activism and civil society.

In this sense, an international blacklist of the IRGC could serve not only to shrink Irans influence on nearby areas like Syria and Yemen but also to greatly diminish the power of the clerical regime at home, thereby improving the prospects for regime change driven by the overwhelmingly pro-Western and democratic Iranian people.

The French capital was the site of a major international rally for Iranian regime change just two weeks before Thursday's meeting with President Trump. The opposition coalition known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran held its annual gathering in Paris on July 1, with attendance from tens of thousands of Iranian expatriates and hundreds of political supporters spanning Europe, the Americas, and much of the world.

NCRI President Maryam Rajavi used the opportunity to call attention to the thousands of protest actions that had taken place in Iran over the past year in defiance of the omnipresent risk of suppression and torture. The popular demand for regime change that was on display in the 2009 uprising is still bubbling beneath the surface of Iranian society, waiting for the conditions to be right for its reemergence. By blacklisting the IRGC, the international community can help to create those conditions and improve the prospects for an Iranian government based on Mrs. Rajavis progressive 10-point plan.

Western voices should be focused on promoting the kind of future for Iran that will make it both a stable and a moral investment. President Macron and President Trump can take the lead in this, and if their talks in Paris demonstrate progress, other Western leaders will definitely take note, as well as the disenchanted Iranian people.
When a partisan member of the bureaucratic swamp resigns, thats something to cheer about. And huzzahs were certainly in order last week when the nations top ethics officer, Walter Shaub, announced that he is resigning, effective July 19.

Barack Obama appointed Shaub to head the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) back in 2013. Its a five-year appointment, so Shaubs resignation merely ends his reign six months early.

Shaub has already lined up a new gig. He is headed to the Campaign Legal Center, a partisan, Soros-funded advocacy group that has been working for years to restrict your First Amendment right to speak and engage in political activity. That tells you a lot about Shaubs politics and why his resignation is cause for celebration.

His old sinecure, the Office of Government Ethics, was established by the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. Its function is to oversee the ethics rules governing federal employees, including the public disclosure process that requires high-level civil servants to disclose their financial holdings. Given the enormous effect that charges of unethical conduct can have, it is critical that this agency have a head who is ethical, highly professional, and unwilling to use his power in a partisan manner.

Shaub fell far short of that mark. After Donald Trump became president, he directed his staff to use the official OGE twitter account to send out a series of mocking tweets about the president. The tweets were designed to pressure Mr. Trump into jettisoning all of his business interestsdespite the fact that no federal law or ethics rule requires divestment.

Unsurprisingly, the OGE under Shaub has treated many of President Trumps nominees and potential nominees shabbily, too. Clearly, the agency is doing everything it can to slow down the clearance process.

One tweet promised that OGE would sing your praises if you divested. It is not OGEs job to praise or criticize anyone. Its sole job is to determine what ethics rules apply to government employees and to advise them accordingly. As its website says, its mission is prevention; it does not adjudicate complaints or prosecute ethics violations.

The head of OGE is not a superhero. He doesnt have the power to impose drastic requirements, such as complete divestiture, that have never been authorized by Congress.

It was unethical of Shaub to publicly air his erroneous opinion that the president and his transition team needed to jettison their business holdings. No ethics agency can operate if those it is meant to advise have no assurance that their requests for guidance will be kept confidential.

Not only was Shaub unapologetic about abusing his authority in an attempt to publicly embarrass the president into complying with a nonexistent ethics requirement, he went so far as to criticize the president for declining to release his tax returns. Again, there is no federal law requiring such disclosure. As the head of an agency charged with implementing existing ethics law, Shaub had no business publicly commenting on the presidents decision.

Unsurprisingly, the OGE under Shaub has treated many of President Trumps nominees and potential nominees shabbily, too.

Several individuals going through the approval process with OGE have told me that the agency has been raising bogus ethics and conflict of interest claims when no conflict exists and no federal ethics law or regulation supports the claims and demands being made by OGE. Clearly, the agency is doing everything it can to slow down the clearance process.

Fittingly, Shaub may have committed an actual ethics violation in terminating his employment: 5 CFR 2635.702(c) specifically prohibits government officials from endorsing any product, service or enterpriseincluding nonprofit organizationsand persons with whom the employee has or seeks employment. Shaub submitted his resignation letter on July 6 with an effective date of July 19. Yet on July 6, his future employer published a press release prominently mentioning Shaubs current and future titles and quoting him as looking forward to improving the OGEs program through his work at the Campaign Legal Center.

Shaubs post-election actions at OGE abused his authority and contributed to the noxious political environment that infests the nations capital. He severely damaged the reputation of the Office of Government Ethics as an unbiased, objective agency that helps government employees comply with federal ethics rules no matter what political party they support.

Now he is shipping off to an advocacy organization that wants to curtail the First Amendment rights of candidates and the general public to speak and work in the political arena. Good riddance.
Alliance Defending Freedom is demanding a retraction and apology from ABC News after reporters smeared one of the nations most respected religious liberty law firms as a hate group.

Click here for a free subscription to Todds newsletter: a must-read for Conservatives!

ABC News reporters Pete Madden and Erin Galloway wrote a scathing report on a speech Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered behind closed doors at the Summit on Religious Liberty at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, California.

Jeff Sessions addresses anti-LGBT hate group, but DOJ wont release his remarks, read the explosive headline.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered a speech to an alleged hate group at an event closed to reporters on Tuesday night, but the Department of Justice is refusing to reveal what he said, read the lead paragraph of the Madden-Galloway hit piece.

To continue reading at ToddStarnes.com click here.
The Chicago carnage continues unabated. More than 100 people were shot and 15 killed over the Fourth of July weekend alone. Year-to-date statistics for Chicago paint a grim picture with 2,000 people shot and 346 killed  a deadly pace thats a step ahead of 2016s grisly toll.

To help respond to the daily wail of sirens, one focus should be on enhancing penalties for repeat gun offenders and ensuring local judges enforce the law. At least, thats what Superintendent of Police Eddie Johnson thinks.

He blames much of the violence on a broken criminal justice system that imposes weak sentences for gun offenders. Repeat gun offenders are, Johnson said, recycled through the criminal justice system with a severe lack of accountability for the crimes that they commit. They are released back to the streets so quickly that they see no reason to change their behavior, and the cycle of violence just continues in our city.

When discussing Chicagos soaring shooting and murder rates, the focus too often drifts to disproportionate policing and disparate rates of citizen/police contact based on race. Too many ignore the plain realities of policing in broken urban areas, swaths of economic and educational deprivation that feed despair, gang recruitment, and intra-racial violence that serve as a powerful magnet for police engagement. With so many in the community and mainstream media ready to assume the fraudulent mass incarceration mantra, the truths of black on black crime is lost in the finger-pointing.

Political cowardice and ignorance often leads the charge backward, which is unfortunately also the direction of the citys spiking homicide and violent crime rate  moving quickly toward the horrific numbers of the early 1990s.

While Chicagos population is about one third black, in 2016 80 percent of shooting victims were black, as were a large majority of shooting offenders. Simply stated, black on black crime is the driver for disproportionate police engagement in the community, the driver for disproportionate friction with the community, and the driver for disproportionate black arrest and incarceration rates.

Beyond disproportionate criminality, multiple factors work in deadly combination in Chicago, as they have for decades. Political cowardice and ignorance often leads the charge backward, which is unfortunately also the direction of the citys spiking homicide and violent crime rate  moving quickly toward the horrific numbers of the early 1990s.

While social scientists, politicians, pundits and others look for the drivers that make Chicago so volatile and deadly, Superintendent Johnson has begun calling one out  the endless cycle of violent gun offenders finding their way far too quickly out of police handcuffs and back onto the streets.

The superintendent is right. Despite anecdotal accounts of police misconduct, reality demonstrates that there are complex, often interrelated issues that feed downward spirals like that facing Chicago today. Among those issues is deterrence  the right combination of swiftness and surety of punishment that will keep some citizens from committing criminal offenses.

Superintendent Johnson points to unduly short pre-sentence detention and post-conviction sentences as a factor that undermines the deterrent value violent gun offenders badly need and future victims of gun violence are desperate for.

Republican leader of the Illinois House Jim Durkin, a former prosecutor, believes increasing the sentences for repeat gun offenders is one way to reduce shootings in Chicago. His proposed sentencing guidelines would require judges to sentence repeat gun offenders to 7-14 years behind bars instead of the present range of 3-14 years. Judges would be required to justify any deviation from the guidelines. The move would be consistent with new federal policies announced recently by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who told prosecutors to work closely with federal, state, local and tribal authorities to target the most violent offenders in each district.

Representative Christian Mitchell, an African American representing three Chicago neighborhoods, and many African American members of the Illinois House initially opposed the legislation believing it would disproportionally affect minorities. While that may be true, they fail to see the bigger picture  that violent crime in neighborhoods they serve disproportionately affects all minority community members.

Some politicians, including those in Illinois, are beginning to understand the reality that violent criminals need to be locked up in order for the law-abiding to live peacefully.

Progress in Chicago can be hard to come by, but in a recent compromise, the Illinois legislature found common ground with an Offender Initiative Program amendment to Rep. Durkins legislation.

The program allows non-violent offenders without prior felony convictions to be placed on probation and go to school, find a job, make full restitution to the victim. Signed into law by the governor on June 23rd, the law gives first time non-violent offenders a second chance and recognizes that the community is safer when gun offenders are held accountable.

Illinois, and Chicago in particular, should monitor the success of the legislation and judges compliance with its terms. Deterrence and recidivism rates are critical to assessing the value of holding violent criminals accountable while showing mercy to the deserving.
Oregon State University is poised to launch the construction of a next-generation maritime research vessel with $122 million in funding from the National Science Foundation, the university announced on Thursday. It is the largest grant in OSU history.

The 193-foot ship represents a new class of oceangoing laboratory designed under OSU supervision for the U.S. Academic Research Fleet. It is the first of three approved by Congress for research in coastal waters of the continental United States and Alaska. Authorization of funding for the next two ships could swell the NSF grant to the university to as much as $365 million.

Its basically a large vote of confidence in OSU from the federal government, said Roberta Marinelli, dean of the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. It speaks well of our oceanography experts and their ability to conduct research in the national interest.

OSU will operate the new ship, using it to conduct research missions up and down the West Coast. The NSF will select operators for the other two vessels for use off the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.

Oregon State was chosen in 2013 by the federal science agency to lead the initial design phase for the new generation of research vessels. Gulf Island Shipyards of Louisiana was chosen to build the new fleet. The first ship should be delivered to OSU for testing in 2020 and could be certified for operation by the fall of 2021. The others are projected to follow at one-year intervals.

Oregon State University is extremely proud to lead this effort to create the next generation of regional oceangoing research vessels funded by NSF, OSU President Ed Ray said. Our exceptional marine science programs are uniquely positioned to advance knowledge of the oceans and to seek solutions to the threats facing healthy coastal communities  and, more broadly, global ecological well-being  through their teaching and research.

With berths for 16 scientists and 13 crew members, the new class of research vessels will have a range of 7,000 nautical miles, a cruising speed of 11.5 knots and the ability to stay out at sea for at least three weeks at a time.

The ships will have high-bandwidth satellite communications for streaming data and video to facilities on shore and will be equipped to conduct a wide range of scientific activities, from creating detailed maps of the ocean floor to detecting harmful algal blooms, characterizing changing ocean chemistry and measuring the interactions between the sea and the atmosphere.

Many of the ships that are roughly the same class of capability were built more than 30 years ago, Marinelli said. There is a simple need to modernize the research fleet.

The regional-class ships, she added, will enable scientists to gain important insights into a host of pressing problems, from ocean acidification and declining fisheries to the threat of devastating offshore earthquakes, at a time when the nations complement of academic research vessels is declining.

They add critical capability to a dwindling fleet, Marinelli said.

The 184-foot R/V Wecoma was OSUs primary research vessel from 1975 until 2012, when it was taken out of service. The university now uses the R/V Oceanus, the Wecomas sister ship. That vessel, which was acquired from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, will be retired after the new one comes on line in 2021.

No name has been chosen yet for the new ship, but Marinelli said a committee is being formed to evaluate the possibilities.

That wont be for awhile, she added. We have at least a year before we have to think about that.

Thursdays $122 million funding announcement eclipsed the previous record set last December, when OSU announced a U.S. Department of Energy grant worth up to $40 million to create a wave energy research facility in Newport. That grant has since been scaled down somewhat and now appears likely to top out at no more than $35 million, according to university officials.

That would put it just ahead of a 2012 grant of $34.6 million to OSUs Ocean Observatories Initiative from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership and a 2006 award of $34.4 million for the Aquaculture and Fisheries Collaborative Research Support Program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
On Wednesday, I wrote about President Trumps remarkable address to the Polish people in Warsaw on July 6 that he made before attending the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.

Today, Id like to discuss the hysterical, absurd, and truly looney response that many in the media had to it.

Throughout his speech, President Trump did a wonderful job highlighting the strong, enduring relationships the United States has with Poland and our NATO allies, the tremendous importance of maintaining these relationships, and the need to band together to defeat ISIS and other enemies of Western civilization.

To any normal American, the speech was likely reminiscent of President Ronald Reagans address to the British Parliament in 1982 or speeches made by Sir Winston Churchill and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the World War II era.

While it is not surprising that the media attacked President Trumps Warsaw speech  they were committed to doing that regardless of what he said  the offensive against Western civilization is simply baffling.

But the leftwing media saw something entirely different.

One article in The Atlantic described the speech as racial and religious paranoia, saying to be considered Western, a country must be largely Christian (preferably Protestant or Catholic) and largely white. Then, I suppose to support its faulty thesis, the article wrongly suggests that theres some confusion about whether Latin American countries are a part of Western civilization  saying while they are mostly Christian, by U.S. standards, theyre not clearly white.

This is a perfect example of the writer creating a false definition, then projecting it upon Latin America. He ignores that modern Latin American civilization was developed by settlers from Western Europe and that the leader of the Catholic Church (a cornerstone of Western culture) is from Argentina. This is either profoundly ignorant or delusional.

A story for Vox Media called the speech an alt-right manifesto because Trump urged NATO allies to fight like the Poles  for family, for freedom, for country, and for God. Those seem like pretty normal American values to me. After all, its the Declaration of Independence that states Americans hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. It makes me wonder if these words penned by Thomas Jefferson would be considered alt-right, by Voxs definition.

A writer at Slate claimed Trumps only definable ideology was white American chauvinism and said the speech in Warsaw, fit comfortably into a long history of white nationalist rhetoric. Really? The editors at Slate must have missed when the President said that above all, we value the dignity of every human life, protect the rights of every person, and share the hope of every soul to live in freedom.

The truth is, the media is so frenzied in its disdain for the president, it is operating in a distorted version of reality. As I explain in my #1 New York Times best-selling book, "Understanding Trump," members of the media cannot accept that the American people chose Donald Trump to represent them, so they have turned to a false world of facts in an effort to wage war on the White House. They might find it useful, however, to consider what President Reagan said to the British Parliament in 1982: self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.

While it is not surprising that the media attacked President Trumps Warsaw speech  they were committed to doing that regardless of what he said  the offensive against Western civilization is simply baffling.

Western civilization grew out of centuries of spiritual and intellectual thought going back to Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome. It has produced foundational documents such as the Magna Carta  part of the bedrock for our concept that all people are equal under the law.

To suggest that Western civilization is racist or intolerant, is to deny the fabric by which our modern society has evolved  particularly in the United States. The effects of Western civilization on the world have amounted to a continual pattern of technological advancement, the creation of free markets, healthy competition, enforcement of the rule of law, and the promotion of freedom of thought.

This last hallmark points to the most absurd aspect of the media railing against Western civilization: Without it, there is no free press.
Editor's note: The following column originally appeared in the Washington Examiner.

Politics is war. The objective is to win and take down the opponent. In an industry that does not operate in the black and white, it is often the grey territory in which campaigns work to achieve their goal.

In the middle of this fast-paced environment, the reality is that most people would have taken the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian attorney whose meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and other senior Trump campaign staff has set Washington on edge.

The worst is that many of the people expressing righteous indignation have no reason to be self-righteous. Robby Mook, the former campaign manager for Hillary Clinton, is the worst offender. Soaking up the opportunity to get television time, Mook has been everywhere criticizing the Trump team. But he worked for a woman who might be president today, but for her complete lack of a moral compass.

Robby Mook, the former campaign manager for Hillary Clinton, is the worst offender. Mook has been everywhere criticizing the Trump team. But he worked for a woman who might be president today, but for her complete lack of a moral compass.

Clinton's scandals  her use of a private email server to thwart transparency laws, her deletion of tens of thousands of emails, the sale of access to her office to Clinton Foundation donors  these things are well known. Perhaps it's less well known, as the International Business Times reported, that arms sales to countries that donated to the Clinton Foundation increased by 143 percent.

More to the point, as Politico reported, the Ukrainian government tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by disseminating documents implicating Paul Manafort in corruption. They also reportedly helped Clinton's allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisors. Is it wrong to seek foreign governments' help in digging up dirt on an opponent, or isn't it?

The Obama administration likewise has no high horse to sit on. Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch is facing bipartisan inquiries about allegations she interfered in the Hillary Clinton email probe. President Barack Obama's IRS targeted conservative groups that had words like "tea" and "patriot" in their names, possibly in order to interfere in grassroots election organizing. We were also lied to about things like the Iran deal, and the payment of $1.7 billion in cash to that nation's terrorism-sponsoring regime.

Susan Rice, a former Obama national security adviser, will face congressional inquiry over the monitoring and unmasking of Trump team members in foreign survellance. And, of course, a congressional investigation found that Obama's State Department paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer grants to an Israeli group that used the money to try and oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The media are also full of it. The New York Times executive editor said during a visit to Harvard last September that he would risk jail time to publish President Trump's tax returns.

To be clear, none of this is okay. This isn't an effort to justify Donald Jr.'s decisions. But politics is a dirty industry. Many of the people criticizing him have spent plenty of time playing in the mud. They could at least wipe themselves off before handing down hypocritical moral judgments on others.
North Koreas July 4 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit American soil has renewed talk of military intervention, with the notion of a surgical strike on Pyongyangs nuclear arsenal once again gaining resonance. But an effective limited military strike with minimal collateral damage and no escalation simply wont work.

Despite recent statements by top Trump administration officials, there are no neat or efficient military solutions to the mounting threat posed by the regime of Kim Jong Un. A major stumbling block is that North Korea appears to have dozens of military bases with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and we likely dont know the precise locations of all of them.

A further significant complication is that nearly all of the North Korean bases are at least partly underground and have multiple entrances. Fully neutralizing their weaponry could take weeks of missile and air attacks by the U.S. and South Korea. Some of the facilities may be so deeply submerged that only nuclear force would destroy them.

Even if only one base is struck, the consequences could be catastrophic. North Korea has threatened large-scale retaliation for a single attack and South Korea would bear the brunt of its fury. North Korea has pointed thousands of artillery tubes and rocket launchers at South Korea and has vowed to turn the urbanized areas within rangewith more than 20 million residents, including tens of thousands of U.S. citizensinto a sea of fire. With its chemical weapons, used with deadly efficiency on Kims half-brother Kim Jong-Nam in February, the North could wreak unimaginable death and suffering on its enemies.

The scenario only worsens from there. If North Korea executes even a modest retaliation on South Korea, Seoul would be impelled to fire back, probably escalating the conflict into a major, protracted war that would involve much of the U.S. military. North Korea would likely lose, but not before it inflicts immense damage.

The only thing the Kim regime values so highly is its own survival. The U.S. and South Korea could seek to prod Kim toward nuclear disarmament through intensified information operations targeting the North Korean public, particularly dissatisfied elites.

As U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis recently warned, North Korean retaliation would spur probably the worst kind of fighting in most peoples lifetimes. Such a war is unlikely to end decisively and cleanly. It would probably transition to an insurgency that could exceed the U.S. experience in Iraq.

If the U.S. opts for a military response to North Koreas mounting aggressions, war would appear inevitable. So far, no American president has been willing to risk that outcome. President Trump, however, has conveyed his dissatisfaction with avoiding military options, tweeting recently that the era of strategic patience with the North Korea regime has failed. What steps he may be willing to make are unclear, but two days after Kims July 4 fireworks Trump said he was considering some pretty severe things.

Left alone, North Korea will probably expand its nuclear force of 10 to 50 weapons today to 100 to 200 in the next decade or so. Simultaneously, North Koreas ICBM development apparently seeks to decouple U.S. security interests from those of its regional allies, South Korea and Japan. If the North succeeds, at some point it could issue South Korea an ultimatum to surrender, or else. The North may see such an approach as its best option for unifying Korea under North Korean control. The U.S. and South Korea should view such a prospect as a disaster, one which can be avoided only by reining in the North Korean nuclear weapon program now. Time is not on our side.

Convincing North Korea not to pursue such developments requires a U.S./South Korean approach in which the costs imposed exceed the benefits that Kim seeks (the essence of deterrence). The only thing the Kim regime values so highly is its own survival. The U.S. and South Korea could seek to prod Kim toward nuclear disarmament through intensified information operations targeting the North Korean public, particularly dissatisfied elites.

From my RAND research, based in part on extensive interviews with senior North Korean defectors, I have reason to hope that the impetus for such change could come from within if prompted and supported by U.S. and South Korean information operations.

Among North Koreas elite classhigh-ranking diplomats, military officers, scientists and wealthy entrepreneursmany would reportedly like to see Kim gone. These influential Northerners view Kim as a weak and ineffective leader, and those who are already capitalists regard him as a hindrance in their drive for Western-style economic rewards. My discussions with the defectors strongly suggest that many elites believe Kims regime will probably collapse in the coming years. Given the right assurances through a robust information campaign, the North Korean elites might be emboldened to pursue regime change.

Defeating decades of North Korean indoctrination is itself a formidable challenge. After seven decades of North-South strife, war could still come. But a growing hunger for change among North Korean elites presents an opening that should not be overlooked. Their changing attitudes could help hasten Kims tumble from power and pave the way for a more agreeable government to form. The alternatives are staggeringly grim.
Officer Miosotis Familia, a mother of three and 12-year veteran of the New York Police Department, was ambushed and killed as she sat in her command vehicle last week. Familia never saw the assailant coming when he fired a shot through the passenger-side window striking her in the head. She was assassinated in an unprovoked attack, James ONeill, the city police commissioner said.

On Tuesday, a sea of blue uniforms mourned Officer Familia's senseless death in a ceremony at the World Changers Church in the Bronx. Officers from across the country traveled to the service, including representatives from at least 85 police departments. Quivering as he spoke, Commissioner ONeill highlighted how Familia worked tirelessly to make the community a better and safer place for everyone.

Unfortunately, Officer Familias death is part of a disturbing spike in cop killings that continues today.

There have been 68 line-of-duty deaths so far this year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Federal law already considers the murder of federal law enforcement officers an aggravating factor for capital punishment determinations. This bill extends the list of aggravating factors to include state and local police officers, firefighters, or other first responders.

The U.S. House passed my Thin Blue Line Act, H.R. 115, earlier this year making the murder or attempted murder of a police officer, firefighter or other first responder an aggravating factor in death penalty determinations. The Senate needs to get the bill to the presidents desk as quickly as possible.

Ambush-style killings of law enforcement officers last year skyrocketed 167 percent compared to 2015, according to the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO). These attacks on our brave men and women in blue include the multiple murders of five officers in Dallas and three officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The Thin Blue Line Act is supported by key national police advocacy groups, including NAPO and the National Fraternal Order of Police. They are understandably also concerned about the rising rate of attacks on police and agree that the growing violence toward police has to stop.

My bill sends a strong message that the heinous targeting of police officers or first responders will not be tolerated.

I strongly believe that our communities owe a great debt to law enforcement and first responders. No first responders should be targeted solely because of the uniform they wear.

The Thin Blue Line Act applies whether the first responder is murdered on duty or targeted simply for being a firefighter, police officer or emergency medical technician. The bill specifically applies to crimes that fall under federal jurisdiction.

Federal law already considers the murder of federal law enforcement officers an aggravating factor for capital punishment determinations. This bill extends the list of aggravating factors to include state and local police officers, firefighters, or other first responders when a jury is considering the death penalty in a federal case.

Each year, I host congressional awards for first responders in southwest Florida to recognize the outstanding contributions to our communities made by these dedicated public servants. Honoring these men and women is among the highlights of my year. These are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters who put their lives on the line to help their neighbors.

Our first responders dont hide or waver in their commitment to public safety. Like Familia, these individuals run toward danger and take swift action to make our towns, communities and cities a safer place for kids to grow and families to prosper. These men and women in uniform make our lives safer and were lucky to have them.

Now we need to have their back.
On July 7, 2017, UNESCOs World Heritage Committee declared the Old City of Hebron a Palestinian World Heritage Site, a controversial one-sided move which comes on the heels of UNESCOs divisively anti-Israel history in the sphere of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

This includes numerous condemnations against Israel on any given year, such as UNESCOs outrageous resolution on Jerusalem of October 2016, omitting any Jewish connection to the city. And now Hebron  the cradle of Jewish history, home to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the final resting place of the Jewish forefathers.

The crown jewel of this anti-Israel slant was UNESCOs decision to admit Palestine as a Member State to the organization in 2011. This, in spite of the fact that it is not, as of yet, a State under any definition of accepted international law. This move defied U.S. policy and mandated the cutoff of U.S. funding to the organization under federal legislation.

Israel was, understandably, appalled by this display of complete and utter disregard to its heritage on the world stage. Israeli officials, from Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government to members of the opposition, were unanimous in condemning UNESCOs resolutions in the harshest of terms, as meant to undermine the core notion of Israel as a Jewish State, hence taking aim at places like Jerusalem  Israels capital and the beating heart of the Jewish people  and now, Hebron, with its rich, thousands of years old Jewish history. All of this, of course, feeding into the false narrative of Israel as a colonial occupier of the land.

UNESCOs resolutions will have no real immediate impact on the ground, whether in Jerusalem or in Hebron. However, this severe state of affairs at UNESCO poses a double peril: one to the prospects of an Israeli-Palestinian peace, and another  even greater danger - to the international community as a whole and its ability to deliver for humanity.

First, in the Israeli-Palestinian realm. It is no secret that the Israeli public has grown wary of the international community: Israelis have been disappointed time and time again to witness their gestures of good will dissipate into thin air, while condemnations continue unabated. Whether it was Hezbollahs unprovoked attacks against Israel in 2006, resulting in the Second Lebanon War (after a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000) or Hamas persistent missile attacks from Gaza (after Israel fully withdrew from Gaza and parts of the West Bank in 2005), the world seemed to utterly ignore Israelis profound desires for peace and their need to defend themselves, hammering at Israel incessantly.

No wonder UNESCOs move came as no surprise  as a disappointment, yes  but no surprise to many Israelis, who have sadly grown accustomed to this kind of beating.

UNESCOs resolutions only serve to further Israeli suspicion of the international community, feed into the narrative of the entire world is against us and foster the deep lack of trust Israel has of global institutions. On the ground in Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Israelis and Palestinians will wake up to the same reality, only with another dose of suspicion and alienation, the exact opposite of what the region and its people need.

But it does not end here. UNESCOs behavior is an ominous sign for the international community as a whole, shining a dark light at its lack of ability to treat global crises in a serious manner.

This sad state of affairs raises a profound question, which goes far beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. UNESCO - the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - is a specialized agency of the United Nations, based in Paris, whose mission statement is, among other things, to coordinate international cooperation, strengthens the ties between nations and societies and to build peace in the minds of men and women.

What happens when an international agency, funded by member states dues (taxpayer funds) not only strays away from its original vocation, but violates it altogether? What happens when it betrays its mission? There is no doubt that what happened at UNESCO does not strengthen ties between Israelis and Palestinians, they actually undermine them.

What consequences should there be if public funds are abused for the purpose of political shenanigans, at a time when the world direly needs strong and vibrant international organs, active where they need to be? If international institutions are doomed for futility, if they lose their very raison d'etre, then whats the point of having them?

ISIS is destroying world heritage en masse, targeting various places of worship in areas under its control, including ancient historical artifacts from Iraq to Libya. Many remember the destruction at the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra as one of the most famous examples of these barbaric acts.

And while all of this is happening, UNESCO, whose vocation is preserving World Heritage, is busy with the smoke-screen of Israels Jewish identity, abused by the Palestinians and their accomplices, while taking away attention from where it is highly needed. This is a most significant question the international community will need to address sooner or later, as the challenges of wealth distribution are increasing and peoples global needs on the rise. We simply cannot  and should not  afford this.

There is no doubt that hopes for peace between Israel and the Palestinians have garnered one more defeat, and the peace process dealt another blow. Once the dust of cheering and accolades in the halls of UNESCO settles, one reality remains: Israel and the Palestinians grow farther apart, and international institutions lose their relevance by the day.

UNESCO is more than just Israels problem. Its the worlds.
The United Nations calls itself a world body. It offers splendid tours of its New York headquarters, for $22, to visitors and tourists who come from every country around the globe. Every country, that is, except Taiwan, whose citizens are not welcome.

Thats because since 1971, the United Nations has recognized the Peoples Republic of China as the only legitimate government of China, and views Taiwan as part of China.

A sign outside the expensively renovated U.N. Secretariat tower in Manhattan says, All visitors to the United Nations 18 years and older require government-issued photo identification issued by a Member State or an Observer State of the United Nations to enter UN Headquarters. To make clear the signs intent, and at whom it is aimed, the U.N. displays a facsimile of a Mainland travel permit for Taiwan Residents.

You may be Chinese, but unless youre in favor with communist China, you arent getting into the U.N.

These discriminatory policies are serious violations against the fundamental human rights of the people of Taiwan, erode the principles of equality, and contradict the charter of the United Nations, says Brian Su, the deputy director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York. Hes been posted in the United States since 2015, the year that the doors of the world body were slammed shut to his countrymen.

By contrast, Palestinians living in Israel are not required to show Israeli-issued documents. Thats because Palestine, like the Vatican, is an observer state at the U.N. and has its own ID documents.

Even member states of questionable character are treated better than Taiwan. The few very lucky North Koreans who might find themselves in New York can use their countrys passport to enter the U.N. So can Iranians, Venezuelans and Syrians, whose governments arent exactly devoted to world peace.

Ever heard of a Taiwanese terrorist? Me either. But a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Liu Xiaobo, died this month after eight years in a mainland Chinese prison.

One of the first congratulatory phone calls President Trump got after winning the 2016 election was from Taiwans president Tsai Ing-wen. Diplomats and the media freaked out -- as they continue to do at anything the president does or says -- at Trumps disdain for tradition. Like the U.N., the United States cut its official relations with Taiwan to placate Beijing, and views Taiwan as a part of China. But Taiwanese are welcome in America with their own passports.

The United States pays about 22 percent of the U.N.s budget. China, with an economy roughly equal to Americas, pays about eight percent. Demanding that that gap be eliminated would be one good move for Trump to take. Restoring Taiwans dignity at the so-called world body would be another.
Conflicting reports emerged Thursday about whether the co-founder of the opposition research firm behind the infamous "dossier" allegedly detailing President Trump's ties to Russia would testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee next week.

Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who helped found Fusion GPS in 2010, was asked to appear at a scheduled July 19 hearing about the role of foreign lobbying in last year's presidential election.

However, Politico, citing two sources, reported that Simpson did not plan to testify. The report added that it was not immediately clear whether the committee planned to compel Simpson to testify. By contrast, The Washington Times reported Thursday that Simpson would testify before the panel.

During the campaign, Fusion GPS contracted former MI-6 agent Christopher Steele to build a report on Trump's financial and social connections in Russia. The dossier included a number of sordid allegations about Trump's sexual proclivities, which the president has repeatedly denied.

On Wednesday, Fox News reported that Fusion GPS had ties to Russian efforts to undermine U.S. sanctions that were led by attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya. Veselnitskaya was at the center of a political storm earlier this week after Donald Trump Jr. made public emails indicating that he had taken a meeting with Veselnitskaya on the promise of receiving damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Investment manager Bill Browder has alleged that Simpson was retained by Veselnitskaya's client, Prevezon Holdings, as part of an effort to repeal the Magnitsky Act, named for Sergei Magnitsky  an attorney who was beaten to death in a Moscow prison after accusing Russian authorities of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars through tax refunds and then laundering the money through New York banks.

Browder, a former Magnitsky client, told Fox News that Simpson was "using all of his media contacts to get a smear campaign going against Magnitsky and myself. He also seems to be able to get articles stopped. Simpson has unusual influence because he was often a big source to these reporters on other stories.

Browder has also claimed that "Veselnitskaya probably tried 12 different angles to get to Trump and also to Clinton for that matter" and said she had "every possible incentive to get to both sides since her goal was to get the Magnitsky Act repealed, and apparently not to influence the U.S. election."

In a statement, Fusion said it had nothing to do with the Trump Jr. meeting.

Fusion GPS learned about this meeting from news reports and had no prior knowledge of it. Any claim that Fusion GPS arranged or facilitated this meeting in any way is absolutely false, the statement read.
Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday he believes its possible President Trump could name as many as four justices to the Supreme Court during his presidency.

We could have four Supreme Court picks on Trumps watch, Graham said Thursday in Washington at a private event sponsored by a political action committee for young conservatives. Do you understand how big that is for yall?

Graham, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, referenced Trumps choice of Justice Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Antonin Scalia. He then singled out Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 84, and Anthony Kennedy, 80, as people who could possibly step down.

He didnt name a fourth justice whom he thinks could leave the court, but he suggested some of the older conservative justices could step down.

I would say this: if in this four year period we could replace some of our older conservatives with younger conservatives, particularly Justice Kennedy, hes a wonderful man, then youve changed the course of the Court for a very, very long time, Graham said.

The South Carolina senator made the comments in Washington during an event at Hill Country Barbeque for Maverick PAC, a group that bills itself as the leading conservative young professionals PAC in the country. Vice President Mike Pence is set to give the keynote speech at the groups Mavericks Conference on Saturday night.

Graham, who said he recently spoke to senior White House adviser Steve Bannon about health care, acknowledged the second iteration of the bill is meeting a lot of resistance.

Earlier Thursday, Republicans released a draft of a revised health care bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell needs 51 votes to start debate on the bill in the Senate.

Graham said he doubts McConnell has the votes. Maybe they can pick up one or two more votes, but were about three short, Graham said.

He added: It would be a disaster for us as a party, after eight years of bitching and moaning about ObamaCare, to not even have a debate in the Senate about how to replace it.
President Trump's personal attorney Marc Kasowitz threatened a stranger in a series of profanity-laden emails Wednesday obtained by ProPublica.

In emails obtained by the publication, the man had sent Kasowitz an email with the subject line "Resign Now" after watching MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," which had featured a segment about the lawyer Trump retained to represent him in matters related to the ongoing Russia probe.

Kasowitz replied with series of messages sent in a roughly 30 minute period, with one reading Im on you now. You are f--king with me now Lets see who you are Watch your back , b--ch," according to the news outlet.

Kasowitz spokesman Mike Sitrick said in a statement, "Mr. Kasowitz, who is tied up with client matters, said he intends to apologize to the writer of the email referenced in today's ProPublica story. While no excuse, the email came at the end of a very long day that at 10 pm was not yet over."

Sitrick also included a statement from Kasowitz that read, "The person sending that email is entitled to his opinion and I should not have responded in that inappropriate matter. I intend to send him an email stating just that. This one of those times where one wishes he could reverse the clock but of course I can't."

There has reportedly been unhappiness in the White House in recent weeks involving Trump's legal team, which is led by Kasowitz.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more from ProPublica.
The U.S. Secret Service said Thursday it is investigating comments about President Donald Trump made by a Democratic state lawmaker from Maine in a video posted this week on Facebook.

Responding to a Fox News inquiry regarding remarks by state Rep. Scott Hamann, a Secret Service spokesman replied, The Secret Service is aware of the comments in question and are investigating the matter.

Allegations of any threat, inappropriate interest or unusual behavior directed towards a Secret Service protectee receives the highest priority of all our investigations.

No further details about the investigation were available, the spokesman said.

For security reasons, we cannot discuss specifically nor in general terms the means and method of how we perform our protective responsibilities, the spokesman said in a statement.

On Wednesday, after Maine Republicans posted Hamanns rant on their Twitter page, Hamann said he regretted what he described as his aggressively sarcastic and inappropriate comments about Trump.

Hamann had referred to Trump as a half-term president, at most, especially if I ever get within 10 feet. Some critics interpreted the comments as a threat of violence against the president.

Following the backlash, the lawmaker said he shouldn't have used such language and claimed he was mainly trying to make a point about the state of political discourse in the U.S.

In the same post, Hamann also described Trump as a joke and a rapist, and used a crude anatomical term.

One Facebook user, who did not respond to Fox News request for comment, replied incredulously to the implicit threat.

Scott Hamann you plan to kill the President? the user wrote.

Hamann also took a swipe at the presidents supporters, saying, I just can't deal with you ignorant people anymore.

Meanwhile, Hamann praised President Barack Obama, saying he ran quite possibly the classiest 2 term presidency in US history.

The Facebook posts have since been deleted, but screen grabs were forwarded to conservative talk radio host Keith Hanson, who hosts both First Look and The Keith Hanson Show on Fox News affiliate radio stations WNTK and WUVR in New Hampshire and Vermont.

Hanson shared the images with Fox News, as well as Hamann's bosses at the statewide hunger relief organization, Good Shepard Food Bank, where Hamann serves as a program director.

Maine Republican Party Chairman Demi Kouzounas posted Hamann's rant to the Maine GOP Twitter page.

The Maine State House Majority Office then released Hamanns apology statement.

While the tone of the post was born out of frustration with the vile language currently surrounding politics, I should not have responded with the same language, Hamman said in a statement. This is not language I typically use, it does not reflect my personal values, and while misguided, it was intended to make a visceral point about the developing political discourse in America.

Hamann has not responded to Fox News request for comment.

Fox News Brooke Singman and the Associated Press contributed to this report
The giant "Honey" sign that gives Honey Sign Drive its name was looking a little ragged, so neighbor Ellis Stutzman decided to do something about it.

He called a pair of contractor brothers, Cecil and Leslie Powell, and asked if they would take care of the sign, which marks the road's intersection with Highway 20 about five miles west of Lebanon.

"I called Cecil and said, you fix that sign and I'll pay for it," said Stutzman, who lives just opposite the sign off Bohlken Drive. "But it got expensive."

So Stutzman checked with other neighbors: Would they be willing to chip in a little to get the iconic landmark back to its sturdy self?

They would. And not only did they contribute, they told others. And Stutzman, who's now a little more than halfway to the $1,500 total to fix the sign, said he's fine if anyone in the county wants to help.

Stutzman didn't know the current property owner, Dawsen Koos, who bought the 27.8-acre parcel that contains the sign a few years ago. But once Koos learned of the project from the Democrat-Herald, he said he'd like to help, too.

"I went to school on Tennessee Road, Tennessee School; used to drive by it almost every day as a kid. I always loved that sign there," Koos said. It's always definitely been a great community thing.

Contributions can be made to the "Honey Sign" project via Stutzman, by mailing to P.O. Box 2422, Lebanon, OR, 97355, or emailing him at stutzmanellis@gmail.com. Foress Sign & Manufacturing of Albany is doing the work.

If anything is received above the $1,500 total, it will be donated to the Boys & Girls Club of the Greater Santiam, Stutzman said.

"This has gotten a life of its own," Stutzman said. "I didn't even think about other people being involved or interested in it. So many people have pretty deep feelings for the 'Honey' sign. It's just been fun."

The "Honey" sign hasn't actually pointed the way to any real honey since roughly World War II, but it's been a landmark for Lebanon-area residents for close to a century.

The road itself became a county road in 1911, according to the Linn County Road Department, but those early papers bear no name. It intersects with Tennessee Road Southeast a half-mile to the east and may simply have carried over that moniker, said Darrin Lane, county roadmaster.

The road was widened from 40 feet to 50 feet in 1921, however, and the first "Honey" sign appeared that same year, according to a Democrat-Herald history piece. It isn't clear when  or whether  official paperwork was signed, but the road has been "Honey Sign Drive" ever since, on signs, maps and official Linn County documents.

Ernest Lebrecht Glaser kept the bees that gave the road its sign and its name. His granddaughter, Mary Clodfelter, told the Democrat-Herald the family's story in 1993.

Glaser and his family came by ship to the United States in 1881 from Breslau, Germany, an area that later became part of western Poland. He landed in Baltimore, Maryland, with his wife, Luisa, and 1-year-old daughter, Bertha.

The Glasers settled first in Iowa and had three more children, Henry, Ida and Herman. Their next move was to western Kansas, where Elizabeth, William and Amelia joined the family. E.L. Glaser became a citizen during that eight-year stay in Kansas.

The family fell on hard times while in Kansas, according to Clodfelter's story. Drought and hailstones took turns devastating the crops. At one point, the family had only a few crusts of bread to eat, and those went to the children.

A neighbor family, the Gropps, saved the Glasers from starvation by paying for their passage on a cattle train headed to Roseburg. The Glasers stayed there about six months, then settled on 258 acres in the Sand Ridge area west of Peterson Butte west of Lebanon. E.L. raised wheat to pay off the farm and was the first person in the area, according to the family story, to begin keeping bees.

The growing family soon added Fred, John, Martha, Marie (who died at age 5 of typhoid fever), Frank and Hazel (Mary Clodfelter's mother). They moved to a farm north of Lebanon in 1921. That's when the honey business took off.

At one time, Clodfelter told the Democrat-Herald, the family had as many as 100 stands of bees and was one of the most successful honey producers in Oregon. E.L. put up the "Honey" sign to make it easier for customers to track him down.

Over the years, E.L. divided some of his bee stands among his sons. John was known for delivering bottled honey to dozens of stores between Chehalis, Washington, and southern Oregon. E.L. himself, with the help of his daughter Amelia, continued to produce honey on the property until 1945.

The "Honey" sign outlived both the business and Glaser himself, who died in 1951 at the age of 93.

Its most recent incarnation was made of sturdy plywood and painted with bright red letters, but time has left it fading, peeling and chipped.

Through the Powells, who are working with Foress Signs, Stutzman has ordered a new sign. The plan is to have it look the same, he said, but be made of marine-grade plywood to better withstand time's sandpaper.

"I realize now I should have done a GoFundMe (the fundraising website) or something," Stutzman said. "I did it the old-fashioned way: I went from house to house."

Stutzman's project also drew attention from Albany blogger Hasso Hering, former editor of the Democrat-Herald, and that has also brought in contributions, he said.

"Everyone just thinks it's great," Stutzman said. "People are just delighted to be a part of it."
Some congressional Democrats are deflated after a visit from Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly this week.

Kelly met privately with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, to alert them that the Trump Administration may stand by and let legal challenges defeat the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program that permits people brought to the states illegally as children stay on temporary visas.

Since March, 770,477 people had been granted temporary status through DACA waivers.

I was encouraged that Secretary Kelly said he personally supports the DACA policy, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) told Fox News. But, you know, also discouraged that he couldnt say the administration would defend it or not.

The program would need to be defended in court if the Trump administration doesnt rescind it fully by September 5. Thats because officials in 10 states are threatening to file suit challenging the constitutionality of DACA, which was created by an executive order signed by President Obama.

Some Republicans say they look forward to the litigation.

Hats off to the state Attorneys General that have brought this, Rep Steve King (R-IA) told FOX News.

But ire across the aisle is now directed at Secretary Kelly.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) slammed Kelly as the most unknowledgable member of the cabinet that Ive ever met in my 25 years here, and accused Kelly of trying to make a fool out of us by trying to say, oh its the courts.

The sentiment doesnt quite square with Kellys own public appearances on Capitol Hill this summer.

A month ago, he told lawmakers that to make temporary status permanent for young people brought here illegally, they should turn President Obamas executive order into legislation.

Im not going to let you off the hook, Kelly told Congress. Youve got to solve this problem.

Kellys boss, President Donald Trump, told reporters aboard Air Force One this week that he doesnt know what will happen with DACA.

Its a decision that I make, and its a decision thats very, very hard to make, Trump said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders claims that an ongoing FBI probe of his wife is based on partisan politics dont square with the fact that it began under President Obama and appears to closely track Democratic opposition research revealed in the hacked emails of the Hillary Clinton campaign.

The FBI and U.S. Attorney in Vermont are investigating Jane OMeara Sanders for her role in a failed 2010, $10 million college land deal that she orchestrated during her seven-year stint as president of Burlington College in Vermont.

According to a series of 2015 emails to and from Clintons campaign manager, John Podesta, leaked to and published on Wikileaks, the Clinton team wrote an extensive political opposition memo entitled Sanders Top Hits-Thematics. The memo details Mrs. Sanders role in the colleges financial failure, and parallels the ongoing FBI investigation, now before a grand jury, into the scandal. Other email correspondence shows the Clinton team believed scandals surrounding the college and Jane Sanders provided an opportunity to knock the Vermont senators reputation and chances to win the Democratic primary election.

I think our first question is how are we going to defeat Sanders.  he's not who he says he is -- gun votes, DSCC money, Jane. There may be other options too but these seem to be the strongest attacks to consider. How we undermine Sanders candidacy is our threshold question, a Clinton campaign official wrote in the fall 2015.

Attaching to an email the hits piece with potentially damaging information about Mrs. Sanders, another official wrote: We have a meeting scheduled on Thursday to discuss next steps on Bernie Sanders  we'd like for everyone to come having reviewed the material and ready to discuss which hits and themes we want to deploy.

The so called hits piece also included a passage headed OMeara Sanders brokered a risky and potentially fraudulent purchase that nearly bankrupted the college.

After several years as the president of Burlington College, Jane OMeara Sanders resigned amid speculation that she conflicted with the board and [didnt] bring in enough money for the school. Critics later tied her to the schools financial trouble after she brokered a deal to borrow $10 million to buy land for the college, Clintons team summed up in a political opposition memo. Members of the lending agency expressed concern over the colleges ability to repay the loan, and one suggested that if OMeara Sanders was not involved, the loan would not have been approved.

The opposition research also highlighted numerous media reports, summarizing related scandals, including the fact that Mrs. Sanders took a $200,000 golden parachute when she left the college and, before that, arranged a deal where Burlington College paid her daughters company, The Vermont Woodworking School, $55,000, as part of a craftsman decree.

The trigger for the ongoing investigation into Jane Sanders came in January 2016 when a lawyer representing a Roman Catholic parishioner in the Burlington diocese filed a complaint with federal authorities about the land deal. The legal complaint of the attorney, who was the Vermont state chairman for the Trump campaign, stated that the deal led to a $2 million loss for the diocese.

According to attorney Brady Toensings complaint, to secure the $10 million, Jane Sanders obtained a $6.5 million loan from the Peoples United Bank to buy tax-exempt bonds issued by a state agency, and a $3.65 million second mortgage from the diocese. Sanders reportedly told college trustees and bank lenders that the college had raised $2.4 million to repay the loan, but trustees learned that many of the donors listed in Mrs. Sanders materials hadnt agreed to those amounts.

As a result of the debt and lower-than-projected student enrollment, Burlington College shut down in May 2016.

Since the complaint was filed in January 2016, people and entities involved with the college loan were asked to provide information for the ongoing federal grand jury probe.

The public harm in this case is substantial because the diocese offers a significant amount of help to the communitys poor and needy, Toensing said.

Sen. Sanders has alleged that Toensing was motivated to file the complaint because of his ties to Trump. But Toensing told Fox News that is simply wrong. He didnt take on the role of Vermont state chairman for the Trump campaign until the summer of 2016, well after the federal grand jury investigation of Mrs. Sanders began.

This investigation was started under President Obama's Justice Department, Toensing said. The senator's claims are a common, but lame diversion for politicians faced with a grand jury investigation. He should focus on answering the allegations, which are solidly based on analysis of facts from documents obtained through public records requests and evidence gathered by investigative reporters.

Ms. Sanders and her husband have built political careers pontificating against corporate corruption and claiming to want to help the needy. The Diocese, however, actually helps the needy through vital direct services, Toensing wrote. The loss of $2 million as a result of Ms. Sanders's apparent misconduct will materially detract from this charitable work and cause significant harm to vulnerable Vermonters.

Kraig LaPorte, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorneys office in Vermont, said We are not offering any comment in relation to this investigation at this time. A spokesperson for the FBI also would not comment.
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that a North Carolina countys practice of opening commissioners meetings with Christian prayers  and inviting the audience to join in  is unconstitutional.

The 45-page opinion by the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. sets up a possible showdown on the issue at the U.S. Supreme Court in coming months.

The appeals court ruled 10-5 in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of non-Christian residents who claimed they felt excluded by the prayer.

This ruling is a great victory for the rights of all residents to participate in their local government without fearing discrimination or being forced to join in prayers that go against their beliefs, Chris Brook, ACLU of North Carolina Legal Director, said in a statement. We are very pleased that the full Fourth Circuit has upheld a bedrock principle of the First Amendment: that government should not be in the business of promoting one set of religious beliefs over others.

The Supreme Court has already ruled that its appropriate in limited circumstance for local clergy to deliver predominantly Christian prayers and town meetings.

But in the Rowan County, North Carolina case, the prayers were given by elected-commissioners themselves. The court also weighed in on whether their invitation for the audience to join them in prayer was a coercive act.

"The prayer practice served to identify the government with Christianity and risked conveying to citizens of minority faiths a message of exclusion," Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote in the majority opinion that was joined by nine other judges.

Judge Paul Niemeyer wrote in a dissent that the majority opinion "actively undermines the appropriate role of prayer in American civil life."

"In finding Rowan County's prayer practice unconstitutional, essentially because the prayers were sectarian, the majority's opinion strikes at the very trunk of religion, seeking to outlaw most prayer given in government assemblies, even though such prayer has been an important part of the fabric of our democracy and civic life," he wrote. Four other judges also dissented including Judge Steven Agee.

There is no indication of discrimination in this record. None, he wrote. Nor is there any suggestion that the Board has or would bar any commissioner from offering a prayer faithful to the commissioners own traditions, regardless of his or her faith.

"There is no indication of discrimination in this record. None."  Judge Steven Agee

The full 4th Circuit heard the case in March after a divided three-judge panel earlier said Rowan County commissioners had a constitutional right to open meetings with prayers as long as they don't pressure observers to participate.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of non-Christians who say the prayers made them feel excluded and sent the message that the board favored a particular religion. The ACLU noted that Rowan County commissioners directed the public to participate, with phrases such as "please pray with me," and used language that could be seen as proselytizing, like "I pray that the citizens of Rowan County will love you, Lord."

Attorneys for Rowan County argued that commissioners don't force anyone to participate, noting that people can leave the room or stay seated during the prayer. Since the district court's decision deeming the prayers unconstitutional, the commission has invited a volunteer chaplain to lead prayer.

In 2014, the Supreme Court gave limited approval to public prayers at an upstate New York town's board meetings, citing the country's history of religious acknowledgment in the legislature.

The 5-4 ruling came in yet another contentious case over the intersection of faith and the civic arena. It was confined to the specific circumstances and at the time offered few bright-line rules on how other communities should offer civic prayers without violating the Constitution.

Two local women sued officials in Greece, New York, objecting to invocations at monthly public sessions on government property. The invocations, according to the plaintiffs, have been overwhelmingly Christian in nature over the years.

"The town of Greece does not violate the First Amendment by opening its meetings with prayer that comports with our tradition," Justice Anthony Kennedy said, "and does not coerce participation by nonadherents."

The Supreme Court traditionally begins its public session as it has for decades: with the marshal invoking a traditional statement that ends, "God save the United States and this honorable court."

The conservative majority offered varying interpretations of when such "ceremonial" prayers would be permissible. Kennedy, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, focused on the specifics of the Greece case and did not offer a broad expansion of legislative prayer.

Fridays ruling is Lund v. Rowan County (15-1591).

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The House on Friday rejected a controversial proposal that would have required the Secretary of Defense to conduct a study of Islamic religious doctrines, concepts or schools of thought that could be used to radicalize or recruit Islamic terrorists.

The amendment offered by Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., was defeated by a vote of 208-217. There were 27 Republicans who crossed the aisle to vote against the measure.

The amendment would have required Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to conduct two concurrent strategic assessments of the use of violent or unorthodox Islamic religious doctrine to support extremist or terrorist messaging and justification" within a year.

The assessments would be used to identify the role Islamic religious doctrines play in radicalization and terrorist recruitment and how they are incorporated into extremist or terrorist messaging.

During Thursday nights debate, Franks tried to counter allegations his idea was bigoted and anti-Muslim.

He told his fellow members that there is no desire in my heart whatsoever to single out or denigrate one religion, but, he noted, even countries in the Muslim world are examining the roots of Islamic extremism. He further added that the primary victims of terrorists are Muslims themselves.

Supporters say the studies are important to develop a coherent strategy to defeat radicalized groups from Nigerias Boko Haram to Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines.

Opponents, primarily on the Democratic side, charged it was blatantly targeted toward Muslims and constitutionally questionable.

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., argued it was not an effort to study terrorism but to restrict the free exercise of Muslim religious expression.

Nobody is saying you cant study terrorism, Ellison, a Muslim, said Thursday evening on the House floor. You can study what motivates people to commit acts of terrorism. And we should. But we dont, not equally. The fact is, this amendment singled out one religious group. Its wrong and it should be voted down.

The ACLU argued in a letter distributed before the vote that Congress has no role in assessing religious beliefs or practices and determining their validity, significance, or function and that the First Amendment protects against such abuse of governmental authority.

Opponents also questioned who would lead the study.

Franks amendment called for the formation of a team of government experts who possess the appropriate background and expertise and another group with similar qualifications to be drawn from outside government.

[President Trumps] rhetoric has contributed to the growing movement of hate in our country, and I have no doubt that some of the most notorious racist, anti-Muslim voices will be a part of the non-government assessment demanded by this amendment, the Minnesotan said in a statement.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim activist group, weighed in, questioning whether the Trump administration was capable of selecting unbiased government representatives.

The prospect of Trump asking one of his notoriously Islamophobic advisors like Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller or Sebastian Gorka to provide such expertise or to identify contributors to this assessment should frighten all Americans, said CAIR Director of Government Affairs Robert McCaw in statement opposing the amendment.
The Russian attorney whose campaign-season meeting with Donald Trump Jr. has caused headaches for the White House was cleared to enter the U.S. at the time of the visit by the Obama State Department, officials confirmed to Fox News late Thursday.

A brief timeline released overnight helps to resolve questions over how Natalia Veselnitskaya even had legal permission to be in the U.S. And it also shows multiple Obama agencies were involved on multiple occasions in granting access to the lawyer after she was initially denied a visa.

According to the timeline released by the Department of Homeland Security, the Obama Justice and Homeland Security departments granted her a special type of parole to be in the U.S. from September 2015 through February 2016 to work on a court case in New York. After that expired, according to DHS, the State Department issued her a B1/B2 non-immigrant visa in June 2016, according to DHS, just in time for her meeting with Trump Jr., Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

That newly revealed meeting has revived congressional scrutiny of the campaigns alleged coordination with Russia, since an intermediary told Trump Jr. the lawyer could have dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of the Russian governments bid to help his dad.

While Trump Jr. has since said, in hindsight, he would have done things differently, his father on Thursday took a more defiant tone and seemed to blame the Obama administration for letting the lawyer into the country.

Her unusual entry into the U.S. has sparked a furious round of finger-pointing among federal agencies, and the buck appears to stop at the State Department, with assistance from both DOJ and DHS.

But the timeline released overnight at least clarifies how she had approval to be in the U.S., if not why.

Ms. Veselnitskaya was subsequently paroled into the U.S. several times between 2015 and 2016, ending in February 2016. In June 2016, she was issued a B1/B2 nonimmigrant visa by the U.S. Department of State, a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Thursday night.

DHS officials also said that it was their agency in concurrence with the U.S. Attorney's Office of Southern District of New York which paroled Veselnitskaya into the U.S. Fox News confirmed through court documents that Veselnitskaya initially applied for a visa to enter the United States, but was denied.

Preet Bharara was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York at the time the parole was granted.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION LET RUSSIAN LAWYER WHO MET TRUMP JR. INTO US AFTER VISA BLOCK

Veselnitskaya was issued a Significant Public Benefit Parole document on Sept. 25, 2015, according to DHS, which expired on Jan. 7, 2016. Veselnitskaya requested an extension to continue her work on the case, but the Southern District of New Yorks attorneys office denied her request.

She was not granted a second parole by our office, SDNY spokesman James Margolin told Fox news in an email. Her case-related immigration parole ended early in 2016, and it was not renewed by us.

The U.S. attorneys office told Fox News on Thursday that Veselnitskaya was indeed granted initial parole by their office, but did not know who, specifically, issued the piece of paper.

Somebody said that her visa or passport to come into the country was approved by Attorney General Lynch, now maybe thats wrong, I just heard that a little while ago[that] she was here because of Lynch, Trump said at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday in Paris.

Prior to DHS pointing fingers at the Department of State, a State spokesperson told Fox News that they had no further information to provide. The State Department told Fox News Wednesday that the Department is prohibited by the Immigration and Nationality Act from discussing individual visa cases, and told Fox News that all visa applications are adjudicated on a case-by-case basis.

The State Department did not respond to Fox News request to confirm that they issued Veselnitskaya a B1/B2 non-immigrant visa, or comment on Veselnitskayas current immigration status.

It is unclear as to why Veselnitskaya was denied a visa initially by the Obama State Department, and then granted one in later months.

Acting Chief of Media Relations for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Gillian Christensen told Fox News on Thursday that a range of DHS agencies would typically deal with parole requests, but USCIS was not involved in this particular case.

The type of parole Veselnitskaya was granted is given sparingly and in extraordinary circumstances, including urgent humanitarian reasons, such as medical or family emergency. Broadly speaking, Christensen told Fox News that parole may be requested for a person who believes his or her presence in the United States will be a significant public benefit, and cited participation in a civil court case as an example.

Parole allows an individual to enter the United States and remain for a temporary period corresponding to the reason parole was approved, Christensen told Fox News. Parole is not generally authorized for more than one year.

Veselnitskaya was working as an attorney for a Cyprus-based real estate holdings company called Prevezon, run by Denis Katsyv, son of Pyotr Katsyv, one of Russian President Vladimir Putins closest advisers, and was given unlimited resources by the Kremlin-connected group to run a campaign to get the Magnitsky Act repealed, Fox News reported Wednesday. The Magnitsky Act enacts sanctions on certain Russian officials as a punishment for human rights violations.
As the White House fights back another Russia-related distraction, Vice President Mike Pence is striking a delicate balance between distancing himself from the upheaval and standing by the president.

Meanwhile, the former Indiana governor is stoking speculation about his future plans as he ramps up political activities and courts party donors, including keynoting a conference of young Republicans this weekend in Washington.

All this while some Democrats are now backing efforts to remove President Trump from office  an unlikely outcome because of Republican majorities in Congress but one that would put Pence in the nation's highest office.

On Friday, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said Democrats need more evidence but said she will not close that door on trying to impeach Trump.

Her comments follow revelations about Donald Trump Jr.s meeting this week with a Russian lawyer, which have emboldened the presidents critics who argue it shows evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

In an attempt to further distance the vice president from Russia controversies, Pences aides were quick to emphasize that the vice president had not even joined the campaign at the time of Trump Jr.s meeting.

The vice president was not aware of the meeting, Pence press secretary Marc Lotter said. He is not focused on stories about the campaign, particularly stories about the time before he joined the ticket."

The meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya occurred June 9, 2016. Pence was announced as Trumps running mate more than a month later on July 16.

Lotter emphasized this week to the New York Times that Pence had no meetings with anyone associated with the Russian government during the campaign or transition.

Despite the drama, Pence himself is keeping up appearances as an enthusiastic partner to Trump, using his Twitter account to demonstrate loyalty to the president as the Trump Jr. email controversy dominates headlines.

Many Media & Dems will try to stop us but now more than ever we owe the American people to continue to deliver what @POTUS & I campaigned on, Pence tweeted on Wednesday.

In another tweet, the vice president tweeted an image that said: Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, we are in the midst of a great national renewal.

As he sought to distance the vice president from the controversy involving Trump Jr., Pences spokesman also went out his way to express Pences allegiance to Trump.

The vice president is working every day to advance the president's agenda, which is what the American people sent us here to do, Lotter said.

On Wednesday, two liberal Democratic congressmen introduced an article of impeachment that accused Trump of obstruction of justice over his firing of former FBI Director James Comey. They argued the president was improperly trying to shut down the bureaus investigation into any ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia during the presidential race.

The House is highly unlikely to move on the measure, as it takes a majority of House members to pass an article of impeachment. Even if the GOP-led House were to pass impeachment articles, the GOP-controlled Senate would then vote to acquit or convict.

But as he promoted his effort, one of the sponsors, California Rep. Brad Sherman, acknowledged the prospect of Pence assuming the presidency.

I served with Mike Pence in Congress for twelve years and I disagree with him on just about everything, Sherman said. I never dreamed I would author a measure that would put him in the White House.

As his political future is speculated upon, Pence will deliver a speech Saturday night at an event sponsored by Maverick PAC. The group is made up of young Republicans who are active in fundraising and work in a variety of industries, including oil and gas, banking, food and beverage, communications, technology and politics.

His appearance follows other recent instances of invigorating his political activity. The New York Times reported that Pence has recently been courting donors, corporate executives and conservative leaders during private gatherings at his residence at the Naval Observatory.

And in May, Pence filed paperwork to start his own leadership PAC, called the Great America Committee, which he can use to funnel money to GOP congressional campaigns. An adviser said at the time that the PAC was being set up to support Trump's legislative agenda.

Fox News Serafin Gomez and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.


Lawmakers in Nevada are taking drastic measures to ensure that Silver states supply of legal pot doesnt go up in smoke.

While a boom in sales of marijuana during the first two weeks of legalization may seem like high times for dope distributors, there is concern that the demand may soon cause shortages at dispensaries.

In an effort to prevent any shortages, the Nevada Tax Commission voted 7-0 Thursday on new rules aimed at allowing medical marijuana dispensaries to apply for distribution licenses for recreational marijuana.

The new ruling gives the commission the authority to determine there is a distribution shortage.

Since recreational sales began on July 1, dispensaries stocked up on recreational marijuana but became increasingly in short supply.

Gov. Brian Sandoval signed emergency regulations that kept sales going until the tax commission vote was held. The Nevada Department of Taxation was worried that the new industry would essentially come to a halt if these new rules were not passed.

When businesses operate we get the tax revenue and thats what the state wants. So far there are only two recreational weed distributors statewide that are licensed, said Deonne Contine, the director of Nevada Department of Taxation said during Thursdays hearing.

Brandon Wiegand, Director of Operations at the Source Dispensary, says the ruling gives them a path whereas before we were stuck in neutral. He adds, a state of emergency was called because tax revenue was at risk that the state needs and is relying on and it puts the public at risk. Weve legalized sales, we've given them the mechanism to purchase legally, but now that mechanism is going away, that could mean business could go back to the black market.

Roughly $5 million worth of recreational pot was sold during the first week of sales, according to Riana Durrette, executive director for the Nevada Dispensary Association. Those initial totals are expected to net the state about $1 million in taxes. Expectations are that they will level off, but Durrette is confident that Governor Sandovals $35 million tax revenue projection at years end will hold up.

Critics of the legalization rollout cited these exact regulations concerns before the July 1st deadline. Questions swirled over why state officials would only spend six months on implementation and not a full year.

Before the passage of this initiative, the Department of Taxation had had no background, no experience at all with marijuana administration. We are alone in this very shortened process, said James Hartman is President of Nevadans for Responsible Drug Policy.
At the two-year anniversary of the signing of the Iran nuclear agreement, the Trump administration has hinted it will again certify that Iran is in compliance.

A senior State Department official noted the Trump administration is examining the United States entire policy toward Iran and that the administration, during its review, will adhere to the JCPOA [Iran nuclear agreement] and will ensure that Iran is held strictly accountable to its requirements.

Congress requires the administration certify every 90 days whether Iran is in compliance. Monday is the second of these 90-day deadlines during the Trump administration.

IRAN ILLEGALLY SEEKING WEAPONS TECH FROM GERMAN FIRMS, ACCORDING TO REPORT

The U.S., for the first time during the Trump presidency, certified in April that Iran was in compliance. Though in his letter informing House Speaker Paul Ryan of his decision, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also announced his department will evaluate whether suspension of sanctions related to Iran pursuant to the JCPOA is vital to the national security interests of the United States."

For Mondays deadline, the State Department deferred to that policy review.

We have said, and the administration has said, that at least until that review has been completed that we will adhere to the JCPOA, said Heather Nauert, the State Department spokesperson. That has not changed. Well ensure that Iran is held strictly accountable to its requirements.

The administration has offered no timeline on announcing its Iran policy. Though four Republican senators said there is no reason to wait to declare Iran is failing to adhere to the agreement.

FRANCE AND US MUST UNITE IN STANDING UP TO IRAN

We believe that a change in that policy is long overdue, wrote Senators Macro Rubio (R-FL), Tom Cotton (R-AR), David Perdue (R-GA), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) in a letter to Secretary Tillerson. As we near the end of another 90-day review period, U.S. interests would be best served by a sober accounting of Irans JCPOA violations as well as the regimes aggressive and destabilizing behavior.

President Trump, during the presidential campaign, called the Iran nuclear agreement the worst deal ever and promised to rip it up.

For opponents like the president, there are challenges in backing out of the deal as Iran has already received many of the benefits. In exchange for Iran agreeing to controls over, and temporarily surrendering portions of, its nuclear program, the United States and its western allies have already reversed Iran sanctions and unfrozen tens of billions of dollars in Iranian assets. Iran now has those unfrozen assets and reintroducing international sanctions could be difficult.

The Trump administration has announced additional sanctions against Iranians for, as administration officials cite, their support to Irans ballistic missile program and providing material support to various terrorist groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas. Those sanctions are unrelated to the Iran deal.

Since the Obama administration agreed to the Iran deal, the U.S. has viewed Iran sanctions in two categories: those connected to, and lifted under, the nuclear agreement and those levied for Irans other provocative behavior. Secretary Tillerson said the Trump administration, in its examination, is considering all of Irans provocative behavior to guide its future policy toward it.
A 20-million mosquito horde is set to be unleashed in California.

But dont worry, they dont bite.

The massive bug campaign being launched Friday in Fresno by Alphabet Inc.s Verily Life Sciences is a part of a bid to cut the West Coast states mosquito population  and possibly some of the diseases they carry as well.

The company is infecting male mosquitoes with a bacteria that creates non-hatching dead eggs when they mate with wild females, hoping enough of them pair together to result in a population decline, Bloomberg reports.

"If we can show that this technique can work, Im confident we can make it a sustainable business because the burden of these mosquitoes is enormous," said Verily engineering chief Linus Upson.

ZIKA FIGHT: BACTERIA-LADEN MOSQUITOES UNLEASHED IN FLORIDA TO COMBAT VIRUS

The male mosquitoes dont bite and the Wolbachia bacteria is harmless to humans. The target is Aedes aegypti, a breed of the bug that transmit viruses such as Zika and Dengue fever, which has infected more than 3,000 people in California over the past three years.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes first arrived in Fresno in 2013, Bloomberg reports. The release of the sterile mosquitoes  1 million each over a 20-week period across two neighborhoods -- will be the biggest one in the U.S. to date, according to Verily.

The same program is currently in effect in the Florida Keys, where officials are bringing in 40,000 mosquitoes a week from Kentucky  each infected with the Wolbachia bacteria as well  to fight the population.

More than 5,000 Americans were infected in the 2016 Zika pandemic.
LEBANON  Not so fast, late bloomers. The Lebanon School Board has decided kindergartners have to be 5 by Sept. 1 to start school after all.

The 4-1 vote was part of the first meeting for new board members Tom Oliver and Nick Brooks. The two were promptly voted in as chairman and vice chairman, respectively, for the 2017-18 academic year and oversaw an agenda that included hiring a new principal for Lacomb School, adopting an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Lebanon and reauthorizing various board and district representatives.

In its former incarnation, the Lebanon School Board had voted unanimously in June to allow exceptions to the Lebanon Community School District's enrollment policy, which gives Sept. 1 as the deadline for turning 5 and being eligible to enter kindergarten.

The request for such an exception came from Elizabeth and David Trussart, whose daughter will turn 5 this year one hour after the clock ticks past midnight to Sept. 2. In a letter to the board, they asked to be allowed to enroll her in kindergarten this fall.

"We dont claim to have the next mathematical genius in our family; we just have a daughter born 59 minutes after the deadline," the Trussarts wrote. "Our daughter has been in preschool for two years, speaks English and French as native languages, and has two older siblings. She has a high aptitude in creative and analytical thinking and is always ready to learn."

But the Oregon School Boards Association, which provides boilerplate language and policy guidelines, warned Lebanon away from adding exceptions to its policy, saying it would be hard for the district to make sure it was applying those exceptions fairly without a specific procedure.

OSBA suggested creating an entirely new policy to cover early enrollees. Board members on Wednesday considered the language in the policy.

The district has received early enrollment requests in the past, often from parents simply looking for child care, and doesn't necessarily think allowing it is the best policy, Superintendent Rob Hess said. It's easier to accelerate a child academically than it is emotionally, he said.

In the end, board members voted 4-1, with Russ McUne dissenting, to withdraw the altered policy and stick with the Sept. 1 limit as outlined by state law. The Trussarts "will have to wait," McUne said.

In other business Wednesday, the board voted unanimously to hire Whitney Connolly, a math teacher and director of student services at Monroe High School, as Lacomb's new principal.

Connolly received her bachelor's in math, master's degree in education, and administrative credentials all from the University of Oregon.

She has been with the Monroe district for seven years and has held a variety of leadership positions, including dean of students, director of special education, administrator for the Talented and Gifted program, Section 504 coordinator and Community Schools Program liaison. She has experience in early childhood education, curriculum development and adoption and differentiated instruction and assessment.

Board members also unanimously agreed to enter a maintenance agreement with the city of Lebanon to have city crews mow, weed and do general outdoor upkeep for the six Lebanon schools within the city limits.

The agreement replaces the district's former contract with Cornerstone Associates. Assistant Superintendent Bo Yates said the district hopes to obtain more thorough service and better share resources by working with the city.

An intergovernmental agreement does not require requests for proposals, Yates said. He said the annual cost to the district is about $100,000, which is about the same as the Cornerstone contract.

Board members also moved forward with their annual reauthorizations but agreed to spend time later looking at whether other agencies should be researched to see if efficiencies can be gained by going elsewhere.

Board member Mike Martin said he'd particularly like to solicit new proposals from law firms, saying the Hungerford Law Firm in Oregon City may be too far away to meet with Lebanon as often as board members would like.
Thousands of people in Canada have petitioned the Alberta government to avoid killing a grizzly bear known as Bear 148.

Provincial officials said this week that they are contemplating killing the grizzly if it continues to exhibit aggressive behavior while in Alberta parkland. The animal has previously chased hikers, walked through a high school rugby practice and charged a man with a baby stroller.

But the announcement of the plan to potentially put down the bear impelled two Banff residents to start a protest petition.

That petition has already racked up around 4,000 signatures.

"If she wanted to kill people and dogs, she could have killed people and dogs already," Bree Todd, who along with fellow Banff resident Stacey Sartoretto, started the petition, said of the female grizzly. "We want this bear alive, we want this bear protected.

US OFFICIALS TO LIFT YELLOWSTONE GRIZZLY BEAR PROTECTIONS

"She is just as much of a local as I am, or Stacey is, or anybody else in this town," Todd told CBC News. "And she deserves the same respect as everybody else."

"Our intent isn't to euthanize her," Brett Boukall, a senior wildlife biologist with the province, told CBC News.

"We share the public's concern for maintaining bears on the landscape. At the end of the day, our No. 1 priority is public safety," Boukall said.

Bear 148 was captured in early July and moved to the western part of its home range in Kootenay National Park but subsequently came back to the Sunshine turnoff area in Banff National Park days later.
GoPro is hoping to reunite a lost camera filled with years of family videos and photos to its owner after the device was found in San Diego last month.

Staff at the Torry Pines Gliderport discovered the HERO4 Silver GoPro camera in mid-June and handed it to Dave Oddy, a manager at the technology company, Fox 5 San Diego reported July 12. Oddy bought the camera to the office, where workers took out the SDcard from the camera to examine it.

TINY, LENS-FREE CAMERA COULD HIDE IN CLOTHES, GLASSES

They discovered videos and photos on the memory card that documented moments since 2015. Some footage included placing the camera on a dog, a girl doing a backflip into a pool and photos from a snorkeling trip.

The company wrote about the lost camera in a blog post titled, "Lost and Found: Our favority lost GoPro stories," on July 6.

"Normally, GoPro doesnt manage reuniting lost cameras with ownersthe GoPro community has done a great job of that via social media," the company wrote.

This time, however, it's looking for the public's help to return the camera to its owner. The company posted several photos from the device hoping someone will recognize the faces.

So far, GoPro has had no luck finding the owner.

Click here for more from Fox 5 San Diego.
An Airbnb host will pay a $5,000 fine after authorities said she canceled a reservation, telling the guest, "One word says it all. Asian."

In February, Dyne Suh booked a home as part of a ski trip with her fiance and friends in Big Bear, according to the Associated Press. When she was close to the home, she messaged the host about additional guests which led to a dispute.

AIRBNB BANS TRUMP SUPPORTER FOR CANCELING ASIAN GUEST'S RESERVATION

Host Tami Barker then canceled the reservation, telling Suh in a series of messages that she wouldn't rent to her at all.

"One word says it all. Asian," one of the messages from Barker said.

The Associated Press reported that when Suh threatened to complain, Barker responded via text, "It's why we have Trump ... I will not allow this country to be told what to do by foreigners."

AIRBNB BATTLES SCAMMERS, RAMPS UP SECURITY

Suh told the AP she had agreed to pay $250 per night to rent the home.

In addition to the fine, which was issued with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), Barker will apologize personally to Suh and do community service at a civil rights organization. She also will attend a college course in Asian-American studies.

According to The Guardian, this is the first time an Airbnb host has been fined for racial discriminiation since partnering with the DFEH in earlier this year. (Airbnb made an agreement with the state in April which allowed the DFEG to conduct "fair housing testing" on its hosts.

Barker's attorney said his client was "regretful for her impetuous actions and comments" and is pleased to have resolved the matter, according to the Associated Press.

Suh said in a statement posted on Facebook that she was pleased the settlement included Barker's agreement to attend the course.

"I hope that more victims of discrimination will feel encouraged to come forward with their own stories, empowered now with the knowledge that government entities such as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing and other civil rights organizations will take our cases seriously and fight vigorously for us in order to protect our civil rights," Suh said.
An American Airlines passenger is speaking out about a horrifying ordeal she experienced on a recent flight.

Chloe King, a social media manager from New York City, was en route to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, when she awoke from a nap to learn that the man next to her had been masturbating while she slept, reports the New York Daily News.

LOOSE BEVERAGE CART LEFT AA PASSENGER WITH BRAIN INJURY, SAYS LAWSUIT

In an essay she wrote for Medium, King explained that the woman seated on the mans other side (he was in the middle seat, King was by the window) saw the man masturbating and informed a flight attendant, who allowed the woman to switch seats.

According to King, the man was informed that he would be arrested upon landing, but King herself was not notified or woken up by the flight crew during the incident. She only learned of the mans actions after she awoke a bit later, as the plane was descending toward Charles de Gualle. King says at that point, a flight attendant called her to the back of the plane and explained what had happened, because they just wanted to let me know.

What they didnt do was wake me up and move me to a safe place, King wrote in her Medium article, titled We've Now Reached Creeping Altitude.

King further claims that she wasnt allowed to switch seats, unlike the other woman who had been seated next to the man.

Instead, they made me climb back over the sex offender, trapped between him and the window for the rest of the flight. I was shaking and crying and trying not to get sick, said King.

After landing, King said she was met with blank stares at the American Airlines desk after reporting the crews actions. She also claims the company sent her a generic email after escalating the matter to AAs legal department.

Now, King is begging others not to fly with American, over what she believes was a failure on their part to protect [her] safety in a horrifying situation.

You chose to treat the man committing the crime with far more respect than the unconscious woman sitting beside him, wrote King, addressing American directly. As humans, we deserve more than that.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

She concluded the piece by asking readers to please, choose any other airline  a sentimenet she reiterated on Facebook.

American Airlines has responded to King's complaints in a statement they provided to the Daily News.

We are reviewing how we handled the situation on this flight, and have reached out directly to Ms. King, said a spokesperson for American Airlines.

The man was reportedly taken into custody after arriving in Paris.

King was not immediately available for comment.
Disneyland might be known as the happiest place on Earth, but it was anything but enjoyable for a recent guest at its Paris counterpart.

Erica Osbourne, a 37-year-old mother from Bristol, England, is suing Disneyland Paris following an incident earlier this year, during which she was badly burned by a massive fireball emanating from her creme brulee, the BBC reports.

Osbourne claims that she and her 10-year-old daughter, Abigail, were eating at the parks Newport Bay Hotel Restaurant when a chef ignited the sugar atop her creme brulee with a blowtorch.

The chef lit the sugar and a massive fireball came across the counter towards me, Osbourne recounted to the Press Association.

DISNEY REMOVING 'BRIDE AUCTION' FROM PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN RIDE

I was so terrified that I froze to the spot, but I remember an intense heat on my face, said Osbourne, who suffered second-degree burns on her face and hands during the ordeal, and also lost some of her eyebrows and hair. Abigail told me later that I was screaming Help me! Im on fire. My jumper and my face were on fire.

A chef was able to extinguish the flames by rolling Osbourne around on the ground, but not before several nearby children witnessed the nightmarish ordeal.

I opened my eyes to see everybody staring at me and there were all of these children screaming, said Osbourne.

Osbourne wasnt happy Disneyland Paris immediate reaction to the situation, either. According to her, the manager of the restaurant likened her injuries to falling off a bike, and an employee from a different part of the park suggested that maybe it was her own fault for wearing too much flammable perfume.

Paramedics were called to treated Osbourne for the burns, and she was admitted to a hospital shortly thereafter.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Osbourne has since filed a lawsuit, although she told the Press Association that what all she "really want[s] out of this is a written apology and for [Disneyland Paris] to make sure this never happens again.

The BBC reports that Osbourne is being represented by James Griffin of multinational law firm Slater and Gordon.

A spokesperson for Disneyland Paris has called the incident an extremely rare occurrence, but declined to comment further as this is an ongoing legal issue.
Summer crowds in airports can be ugly, with so many people, so many immoveable lines, so much chaos.

Most of us just suck it up, but there are better strategies for navigating terminals quickly, and theyre good year-round.

These are my top five:

1. Pay a fee thats actually worth the money.

The TSA's faster airport security program, called PreCheck, isnt free  and some think its $85 price tag is on the expensive side  but membership benefits are good for five years. And if you fly often enough, it can you save hours and hours of waiting in long, long lines.

TSA EMPLOYEE CAUGHT STEALING CASH FROM WOMAN'S LUGGAGE

Sign up online, then make an appointment for an in-person interview (which will only last a few minutes). Then, wait for the email with your Known Traveler Number (KTN) to arrive, and follow the prompts to add it to your flight. When you get to the airport, youll zip through the fast PreCheck-only line, you'll keep your shoes on, and you just might feel a little like royalty.

Or, spend an extra $15 for Global Entry, which offers a faster re-entry into the U.S. when flying internationally, and it includes PreCheck membership.

Cheapskate method: One spouse joins PreCheck while the other does not, but even the non-member will often see the PreCheck designation on his/her boarding pass when the two spouses fly together. This is not guaranteed, but its very common.

2. Check the app.

If youre thinking you really dont need another app on your phone, think again, because this TSA app is special: It tells you which security checkpoint lines are moving well at your airport and which are not, so you can avoid the worst of them. Download the app here, or view wait times on the agencys site.

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3. Be checkpoint ready.

Dont feel bad; even TSA agents sometimes go through security checkpoints with big bottles of water and other no-nos, so theres no shame when you do  but it sure does waste valuable time. Before your next flight, consult the TSAs handy guide, What can I bring? which will inform you that a jar of Grandmas homemade jam can only be transported in your big checked suitcase.

4. Use your pockets.

You dont literally have to literally use pockets; a bag or purse will do, too. Just keep a few of the most neccessary items within easy reach to avoid wasting time. Bottom line: Keep everything you need on your person, be it passports, tablets or special treats, and keep checking to be sure its still with you. Example: Do not leave a security checkpoint, or your seat by the boarding gate, without stuffing your phone and charger cord into a roomy pocket. The airport's Lost & Found departments are filled with electronics, and if you do recall where you lost/left your things, getting these items back is time-consuming. Another example: Pack a lunch from home in an easy-to-access bag; it'll save money, but it'll also save time in the line at the cash register.

LUGGAGE GO MISSING AT THE AIRPORT? HERE'S WHAT TO DO

5. Get to airport earlier than you want to.

Arriving at the last minute no longer works. Today, airlines like American shut the boarding door at least ten minutes before departure, so if you show up at nine minutes til take-off, chances are very good that you will miss your flight. Many carriers recommend people arrive at the airport 90 minutes to two hours early for domestic flights and up to three hours ahead for international travel.
Thousands of Florida kids wont have to worry about homework anymore.

Elementary school students in Marion County will no longer be assigned homework by their teachers thanks to Superintendent Heidi Maier, the Ocala StarBanner reported.

About 20,000 students from 31 different schools will reap the benefits of the new rule  but there are a couple of catches.

Parents are asked to read to their children for at least 20 minutes every evening. And even though students wont have daily homework assignments, they will be given the occasional science project or research paper to complete at home.

TEACHER'S NO HOMEWORK POLICY GOES VIRAL

Marion County parents were alerted of the new rule on Wednesday through an automated voice message, the website reported.

Maier made her decision based on research by University of Tennessee professor Richard Allington, who found that reading to kids has more benefits than homework does.

Kids who do homework, dont produce any better than kids who dont do homework, Allington told WJHL in 2016.
Samantha Stricker, an 11-year-old from Saginaw Township, in Michigan, is running a lemonade stand in her town for the third year in a row to raise money for veterans.

Samanthas mother, Kelly, told WSGW radio that even though she helped her daughter make the lemonade and the stand, the event was all Samanthas idea.

CALIFORNIA BOY PLACES THOUSANDS OF FLAGS ON VETERANS' HEADSTONES

During her first two years running the lemonade stand, Samantha raised $250 for veterans. But this year, shes upped her expectations, and set a goal of $500.

The proceeds from Samanthas lemonade stand will be used to buy blankets and care products for patients at the Aleda E. Lutz Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Saginaw, WSGW reported.

Her lemonade stand, planted in front of American Legion Post 439 in Saginaw, is open for business until 5 p.m. on July 15.
The driver of a silver 2006 Chevrolet Equinox with Mexican license plates, traveling north on Interstate 5 near San Diego on Tuesday, piqued the curiosity of agents with an elite U.S. Border Patrol unit. His driving behavior suddenly changed as he neared the agents vehicle, the agents said.

When they pulled the vehicle over and searched it, near the Camp Pendleton Marine base, the agents suspicions were confirmed. The 45-year-old driver had been traveling with a large cache of illegal drugs concealed in three of the vehicles door frames. The 2.25 kilograms of cocaine, 11.3 kilograms of methamphetamine, and 13 kilos of heroin had a combined street value of $465,302, agents said.

The case continued a trend this year that has seen more cocaine and heroin enter the U.S. via Mexico, while the meth inflow has been holding steady, agents said.

The driver was carrying valid B1 and B2 visas, allowing him to work on a specific project in the U.S. and to travel inside the country. He was taken into custody and now faces federal charges.

When we were talking to him, he just gave in, said Supervisory Patrol Agent Pete Dame, founder and commander of the San Clemente Border Patrol Station Highway Interdiction Strike Team. He has a family with teenage kids in Mexico. His business failed in Mexico and [he was involved with drugs because] he needed the money.

Since 2014, Dames team, which started with three agents and has grown to 10, has aggressively patrolled the high drug-trafficking corridor north and south of the San Clemente checkpoint in California, 67 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, putting a significant dent in the daily flow of drugs into the U.S.

Think about how many people this amount will touch in America, Dame said, referring to Tuesdays catch.

Seizures such as these are occurring increasingly along the border as the number of illegal aliens plummets  thought to be at least partly a result of President Donald Trumps rhetoric and policies against illegal immigration.

The U.S. has seen increases in seizures of most major illegal drugs, authorities say, noting that increases in heroin and fentanyl smuggling have been fueling the countrys opioid epidemic.

Nine months into fiscal 2017, Border Patrol agents have seized 745 pounds of heroin, compared with 566 pounds for all of fiscal 2016. Meanwhile, meth seizures stand at 7,287 pounds, compared with 8,224 for fiscal 2016, and cocaine seizures stand at 8,180 pounds, compared with 5,473 for fiscal 2016.

As for Dames team, in fiscal 2016 his five agents seized a total of $3,331,250 in narcotics and prevented $65,941 in cash from being returned to Mexico. So far this fiscal year, his larger team has seized $7,056,087 in drugs and $96,100 in cash.

Dame sees the spikes in drug seizures resulting from agents spending more time pursuing illegal drugs and less time arresting and processing illegal aliens.

He also points a condemning finger toward the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel, considered the primary narcotics traffickers in Southern California.

Dame suggested that Border Control agents were working to send a message to Sinaloa and other traffickers in the region.

Its a matter of being visible so other would-be smugglers see what we are doing, Dame said. No matter what we do, they figure it out, and we have to change tactics.

Terence Shigg, a veteran Border Patrol agent and president of the National Border Patrol Council local for the San Diego sector, viewed the crisis from various perspectives.

Let's be honest, Shigg said. Narcotics use is on the rise and has been on the rise for years. The argument that America's hunger for drugs fuels the drug trade, and all that it entails, is partially true.

But he said that simply blaming Americas drug users was akin to blaming obesity on humans love of sugar.

Shigg noted that Border Patrol agents have been fighting the war on drugs amid shortages in staffing, equipment and political will  resulting in seizures of only some 10 percent of the illegal drugs estimated to enter the U.S.

What changes does he say would help make Border Patrol agents more effective against drug trafficking?

We need to hire and train more agents, we need more checkpoint officers and more highway interdiction teams, we need better and safer equipment such as radios, mobile computers, VACIS scanners, etc., he said. VACIS scanners help agents examine the contents of a vehicle.

Most of our vehicles are not equipped with laptops to run checks on vehicles in the field, forcing agents to rely on radio communications, he added.

FoxNews.com observed these very same obstacles during a full shift ride-along with Dame.

But Dame said just adding more agents is not necessarily the answer. Retaining experienced agents and procuring equipment are needed more, he said, adding he had to borrow and barter for much of his equipment.

After three years of successful operations, Dame said he believes the tactics and strategies his team employs are not only effective, but should serve as models throughout the agency. Some districts have variations of highway interdiction teams while the majority dont have any at all, he said.

Dame said there are huge gaps in law enforcement coverage that smugglers know about and exploit, demonstrating the need for more inland enforcement measures.

Shigg said some civil rights advocates have pushed against immigration checkpoints, and limiting agents to mostly immigration issues hinders Border Patrol from being able to stop drugs more effectively.

Despite the parameters Border Patrol has been given to work within, Shigg wonders how much more efficient and effective the agency would be if it were not limited to mostly immigration violations.

Dame and his team keep an open but cynical mind when scrutinizing drivers.

We have to be suspicious of everyone, he said, while checking license plates and the behavior of drivers on a busy freeway. We look at the totality of the situation before we pull someone over, such as how they are driving, body language, and violations pulled from a record search.

While the teams tactics may appear random to some observers, their methods for selecting suspicious drivers have already passed judicial scrutiny twice by the reputedly liberal U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco.

We have to work within a framework. Thats why we are successful, he said. Weve never had a case thrown out.

One woman driving a silver Mazda was pulled over for inspection. While a background check revealed she had an arrest record linked to drug smuggling, agents found no incriminating evidence during a search of the car, which included use of a drug-sniffing dog.

Its their job to keep us safe so I really dont mind, said 36-year-old Dannia Lizarraga.

President Trump, who in 2016 became the first presidential candidate to receive an endorsement from the Border Patrol agents union, has been vocal against Mexicos drug-trafficking organizations.

The drug epidemic is poisoning too many American lives, and were going to stop it in many different ways. One of them will be the wall, Trump said in May, during a meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

Cheap heroin and the synthetic opioid fentanyl continue to flood into the U.S. with little sign of abatement. This is not good news for the U.S., which has seen heroin overdose death rates quadruple since 2010.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 12,989 heroin deaths in 2015, a 23 percent increase from the previous year, and 9,580 fentanyl overdose deaths the same year, a 73 percent increase from 2014.
A U.S. soldier accused of wanting to commit a mass shooting after pledging loyalty to the Islamic State (ISIS) group believed the moon landing was faked, questioned the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and thought the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were an inside job coordinated by the U.S. government, according to a former Army bunkmate.



Army Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang was ordered held without bail in federal court in Honolulu Thursday after a brief detention hearing. Kang's court-appointed attorney Birney Bervar did not contest his client's detention but said after the hearing that he will ask for a mental health evaluation.



A "turning point" for Kang's mental state seems to be a 2011 deployment, Bervar said: "He's a decorated American soldier for 10 years, goes to Afghanistan and comes back and things start going off the rails."



Bervar said his client may suffer from service-related mental health issues of which the government was aware but neglected to treat.

"It looks like rather than helping him, the government exploited and took advantage of him," Bervar said.



"Kang's military training, weapons abilities and personal combat skills, coupled with his strong stated desire to kill people in the name of Islamic State, makes him one of the more dangerous criminal defendants to have been charged in this judicial district," prosecutors wrote in a motion asking that be held without bail.



According to court documents, Kang met with undercover agents he thought were from ISIS at a home in Honolulu, where he pledged allegiance to the group and kissed an ISIS flag.



Kang was arrested immediately "to remove the possibility that he would act on his impulse to kill people in the name of Islamic State," prosecutors wrote.



Bervar noted that since Kang never had any contact with real members of the group, the government was "pouring gasoline on the fire of his mental illness."



Kang and Dustin Lyles, a medically retired soldier, bunked together for a month in 2013 during military training. The two were friends for several years before Lyle left the Army and the two lost touch.



Lyles told The Associated Press that Kang's arrest came as a shock and that he never heard Kang express support for the enemy. They shared sleeping quarters, ate together and practiced mixed martial arts.



"If I had known that then ... I wouldn't even have talked to him after that," Lyles said.



Lyles said he and Kang debated about conspiracies, including that 9/11 was staged by the U.S. to spark wars in the Middle East.



Kang aspired to become a pro MMA fighter, Lyles said. Kang completed a course to become a tactical combat instructor to soldiers, according to an FBI complaint filed in court.



With help from a Veterans Administration loan, Kang purchased a condo in May 2016 in a tidy suburban complex about a 20-minute drive to Schofield Barracks, according to property records.



Dee Asuncion, the real estate agent who helped him with his condo purchase, told The Associated Press that there was one conversation that seemed strange to her. He talked about having respect for the ideology of Islamic terrorist groups.



She also said the two were driving around together looking at properties and began talking about road rage. "(Kang) goes, `One time I followed this guy from the east side down to the west side,"' she recalled. "I told him, `Don't do stuff like that. Just let it go."'



Kang's father, Clifford Kang, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser his son's promotion to sergeant first class came in the last six months, and told the newspaper he was proud of his son for serving and his position as an air traffic controller.



But the father was worried about the stress of the job.



"I kept on telling him, `Being an air traffic controller (is) too stressful. You can always change ... and they will understand.' And he said, `I can handle."'


WASHINGTON  The Russia scandal has entered a new phase and there's no going back.

For six months, the White House claimed that this scandal was nothing more than innuendo about Trump campaign collusion with Russia in meddling in the 2016 election. Innuendo for which no concrete evidence had been produced.

Yes, there were several meetings with Russian officials, some only belatedly disclosed. But that is circumstantial evidence at best. Meetings tell you nothing unless you know what happened in them. We didn't. Some of these were casual encounters in large groups like the famous July 2016 Kislyak-Sessions exchange of pleasantries at the Republican National Convention. Big deal.

I was puzzled. Lots of cover-up, but where was the crime? Not even a third-rate burglary. For six months, smoke without fire. Yes, President Trump himself was acting very defensively, as if he were hiding something. But no one ever produced the something.

My view was: Collusion? I just don't see it. But I'm open to empirical evidence. Show me.

The evidence is now shown. This is not hearsay, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr. himself. A British go-between writes that there's a Russian government effort to help Trump Sr. win the election, and as part of that effort he proposes a meeting with a "Russian government attorney" possessing damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the Kremlin is willing to share troves of incriminating documents from the Crown Prosecutor. (Error: Britain has a Crown Prosecutor. Russia has a State Prosecutor.)

Donald Jr. emails back. "I love it." Fatal words.

Once you've said "I'm in," it makes no difference that the meeting was a bust, that the intermediary brought no such goods. What matters is what Donald Jr. thought going into the meeting, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, who were copied on the correspondence, invited to the meeting, and attended.

"It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame," Donald Jr. told Sean Hannity. A shame? On the contrary, a stroke of luck. Had the lawyer real stuff to deliver, Donald Jr. and the others would be in far deeper legal trouble. It turned out to be incompetent collusion, amateur collusion, comically failed collusion. That does not erase the fact that three top Trump campaign officials were ready to play.

It may turn out that they did later collaborate more fruitfully. We don't know. But even if nothing else is found, the evidence is damning.

It's rather pathetic to hear Trump apologists protesting that it's no big deal because we Americans are always intervening in other people's elections, and they in ours. You don't have to go back to the '40s and '50s when the CIA intervened in France and Italy to keep the communists from coming to power. What about the Obama administration's blatant interference to try to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest Israeli election? One might even add the work of groups supported by the U.S. during Russian parliamentary elections  the very origin of Vladimir Putin's deep animus toward Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, whom he accuses of having orchestrated the opposition.

This defense is pathetic for two reasons. First, have the Trumpites not been telling us for six months that no collusion ever happened? And now they say: Sure it happened. So what? Everyone does it.

What's left of your credibility when you make such a casual about-face?

Second, no, not everyone does it. It's one thing to be open to opposition research dug up in Indiana. But not dirt from Russia, a hostile foreign power that has repeatedly invaded its neighbors (Georgia, Crimea, Eastern Ukraine), that buzzes our planes and ships in international waters, that opposes our every move and objective around the globe. Just last week the Kremlin killed additional U.N. sanctions we were looking to impose on North Korea for its ICBM test.

There is no statute against helping a foreign hostile power meddle in an American election. What Donald Jr.  and Kushner and Manafort  did may not be criminal. But it is not merely stupid. It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor.

I leave it to the lawyers to adjudicate the legalities of unconsummated collusion. But you don't need a lawyer to see that the Trump defense  collusion as a desperate Democratic fiction designed to explain away a lost election  is now officially dead.
Six people were killed in a chain reaction crash involving two tractor-trailers and two passengers vehicles on a Kentucky highway Thursday night.

Five of the victims were in one of the passenger vehicles, the Bowling Green Daily News reported Friday. There was also a child in the vehicle who was injured and taken to the hospital.

The sixth fatality was the drivier of the second passenger vehicle.

Kentucky State Police Trooper Jeremy Hodges says the accident happened just after 10:30 p.m. on I-65 near Bowling Green at a spot where road construction was taking place.

The highway also merges from three lanes to two at that spot.

One of the vehicles was pinned beneath a semi, Hodges said.

The Daily News reported that one semi was stopped in the right lane with the two passenger vehicles stopped behind it. A second semi traveling in the same lane failed to stop. It struck the trailing passenger vehicle, causing a chain-reaction.

All lanes of I-65 northbound were closed at Exit 28 for several hours, the paper reported.

It reopened just after 5 a.m.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An Arizona woman has been sentenced to 8  years in prison for plotting a terrorist attack.

State prosecutors say 50-year-old Michelle Bastian of Florence also was sentenced Friday to lifetime probation after she serves her prison term.

Last month, Bastian pleaded guilty to terrorism and conspiracy to commit misconduct involving weapons.

Bastian was accused last year of providing her imprisoned husband with al-Qaida and Islamic State magazines and instructions for making an improvised explosive device for his use in an Arizona prison.

The articles made it past prison security because she disguised them as legal papers.

Authorities allege Thomas Bastian was plotting to kill a warden at the Lewis prison complex in Buckeye.

He has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial. He's already serving a life term for murder.
The remains of a man wanted for the 1980 murder of a Pennsylvania police chief have been found buried in a yard in Dartmouth, Ma., authorities confirmed on Friday.

The remains of Donald Eugene Webb were found on Thursday buried in the yard of a home owned by Webbs ex-wife.

He was wanted in the fatal shooting of Saxonburg, Pennsylvania Police Chief Gregory Adams.

Investigators say Webb shot Adams during a traffic stop.

PENNSYLVANIA COLD CASE: POSSIBLE HUMAN REMAINS FOUND IN POLICE CHIEF'S MURDER

I was 12 years old when he was murdered, I lived on the county on the other end of the county and all the adults were talking about it, current Saxonburg Police Chief Joe Beachem told Boston 25.

Getting in the field you cant help but think about it through your career, Beachem said.

Webb's car was found in Warwick, Rhode Island after the murder.

He is believed to have died approximately 17 years ago but investigators wouldnt confirm how.

Lillian Webb, the fugitives ex-wife, wont be prosecuted in the investigation. She had led authorities to discover his body.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Chinese spy ship sailed 100 miles from Alaska to witness the recent test of a THAAD anti-ballistic missile system earlier this week, a U.S. official told Fox News.

It is the first time the North American Aerospace Defense Command had seen this class of Chinese spy ship before near Alaska, the official said. The ship was spotted off the coast of Kodiak, on Alaska's southern tip.

The THAAD element provides the ballistic missile defense system with a globally-transportable, rapidly-deployable capability to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles during their final, or terminal, phase of flight.

This month's test came after North Korea successfully test launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that flew longer than any test conducted by the rogue regime to date, U.S. Pacific Command said. Officials believe Kim Jong Un's dictatorship may now have the capability to strike Alaska.

The THAAD test, however, was conducted against an intermediate ballistic missile and is not a weapon used against ICBMs, only short and medium range missiles.

China has sent warships to Alaska before, however.

When former President Barack Obama visited Alaska in 2015 China sent five ships, and recently a Chinese warship trailed a U.S. warship when it sailed earlier this month near a contested island in the South China Sea.

China recently launched a new class of destroyer in Shanghai, which analysts say is on par with modern U.S. Burke class guided-missile destroyers.

China now has roughly the same number of destroyers, cruisers and submarines as the U.S. Navy, according to new study from CNAS a Washington think tank.

China's first fully functional aircraft carrier just sailed near Taiwan after making a port call in Hong Kong that marked 20 years since the British handed the city over.

The carrier was declared combat ready following initial tests in November. It does not, however, have advanced steam catapults to launch jets like a modern U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. The Chinese carrier has a "ski jump" on the bow to launch its jets.
A Connecticut father and his two adult children are facing misdemeanor charges stemming from a boozy graduation party in which doctors admitted to a hospital a highly intoxicated underage teen who suffered a minor head injury, reports said.

Medical staff at Norwalk Hospital told police on May 30 that the 17-year-old girl had fallen down while dancing during the party at the New Canaan home of Jim Vos, 54, the New Canaan Daily Voice reported. Doctors said the girl was highly intoxicated.

Friends of the girl transported her to the hospital and told police that they were drinking alcohol at the party, which was attended by around 20 other students.

When cops arrived at the home, they discovered vomit on the patio and lawn, clear garbage bags filled with empty cans of Budweiser and bottles of Mikes Hard Lemonade, and the strong odor of alcohol in the backyard, the New Canaan Daily Voice reported.

Vos, 54, his daughter Sophie Vos, 18, and his son, Hayden Vos, 22, turned themselves into police after arrest warrants were issued. The senior Vos and Hayden were charged with failure to halt possession of alcohol by a minor, while Sophie, whose graduation was being celebrated with the boozy party, was charged with permitting a minor to possess alcohol.

Police said in the warrants that Jim Vos was uncooperative with officers when they arrived at the home to investigate, at one point telling them I am not going to answer any questions period.

All three were freed on $2,500 bond and are scheduled to appear in court again in late July and early August.

Click for more from the New Canaan Daily Voice.
A Florida woman was arrested Wednesday after police said she was drinking whiskey at a hotel with her 15-year-old daughter, who was evnetually hospitalized with alcohol poisoning.

Daytona Beach police said Thursday that they found Theresa Adkins daughter unconscious at a Days Inn.

The teen was throwing up and violently shaking, police said. Her other daughter, 13, urged Adkins to call for help, but she refused and waited two hours before finally calling for paramedics. Fox 35 Orlando reported the girl was taken out of the hotel on a stretcher.

Adkins, 35, was charged with child abuse, child neglect and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the Daytona News-Journal reported. She remained jailed Thursday night on $20,000 bail.

The paper reported that an unidentified male called 911, but Adkins ended up talking to the emergency operator. She told operator she believed her daughter had alcohol poisoning.

The 15-year-old was taken to a local hospital. The teen told the paper that she stole a bottle of Jack Daniels from her grandfather and her mother knew and shared the bottle with her, according to police.

The teen told the newspaper she almost died from alcohol poisoning and credited her mother for putting her into a bathtub and trying to take care of her until emergency personnel arrived.

Click for more from Fox 35 Orlando.
A downtown Dallas business owner says city officials are threatening to issue summonses over an 8-foot-tall fence on her property that features a mural honoring five police officers killed in an ambush last year.

The large mural pays tribute to the officers who were killed during an attack on law enforcement at a Black Lives Matter rally in Dallas on July 7, 2016. Flowers, notes and other tokens have been left at the mural regularly since its unveiling four days ago.

Diana Paz, who runs the Last Call Lounge, told Fox News Friday that city officials didnt want to listen when she tried to them about the mural, which is about a mile away from where the shooting took place.

They never gave me the chance to tell them what it was that we wanted to do, Paz said.

City officials insist the mural is not the problem and that they are wrongly being portrayed as insensitive. They say the fence was constructed in violation of city codes.

We did not ask that any mural be taken down, this has nothing to do with any mural, said Richard Hill, the public information officer for Dallas City Hall. It has to do with the fact that a fence was built without a permit.

The building inspector went out and looked at it, and gave them a notice, Hill said. They went back and the owners still didnt have a permit, so they gave them a warning. The city did its job.

Paz was issued a violation notice May 25 saying that she failed to obtain a permit to use metal siding in the construction and that the fence blocks visibility at a nearby four-way stop.

Paz said her cousin, Cesar Rodriguez, made changes. He moved the fence back three feet to address complaints about visibility at the intersection at an added cost of $2,000, bringing the cost of building the fence to more than $17,000.

They still said it wasnt right, Paz said. The previous old posts are still there, they can see we moved the posts. They say theyll keep giving us citations.

Paz said her intention was to commemorate the shooting anniversary with the mural, which shows six officers of different races carrying a coffin with an American flag draped over it.

She said she vividly remembers that horrible night. Three officers working at her bar took off when they heard the call for assistance.

We saw how they rushed out, Paz said. It touched our own employees. We just wanted to do something for the anniversary, to give some positivity by commissioning the mural.

Paz said she will continue making modifications to the fence until inspectors are satisfied and grant her a permit.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Former Bishop McDevitt teacher gets jail term in student sex case https://t.co/KMh87rmZt7 pic.twitter.com/2eRLkfXNlN  WPMT FOX43 (@fox43) July 14, 2017

A former teacher at a Catholic school in Pennsylvania was sentenced to prison after she pleaded guilty to having sexual relations with two of her female teenaged students.

Randi Zurenko, 33, of Millerstown, a married woman with five children was a teacher at Bishop McDevitt in Harrisburg, Pa. The school once praised her as one of the most inspiring teachers at the academy, according to Penn Live.

Zurenko pleaded guilty to institutional sexual assault, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors, possessing child pornography and disseminating obscene materials to minors. She faces 11  to 23 months in prison as well as four years of probation and 500 hours of community service. She also has to register as a sex offender for 25 years in the state of Pennsylvania.

COSMO DINARDO CONFESSES TO MURDERS OF 4 MISSING PENNSYLVANIA MEN, WILL BE SPARED DEATH PENALTY, LAWYER SAYS

Zurenkos lawyer asked Dauphin County President Judge Richard A. Lewis to grant her leniency and said she was truly in love with her victims.

I am ashamed to be here, Zurenko told Lewis. I have never coerced anyone. I have never taken advantage of anyone.

Im asking you today for grace and mercy and to take my children into consideration when you determine my sentence, Zurenko said.

Lewis said he would consider her children, ages 11 to 3, but also cited the pain the two victims endured by Zurenko.

One of the female victims recounted her experience with Zurenko and said the teacher psychologically abused her for years. Zurenko reportedly unclasped the girls bra and massaged her back, investigators said. The former educator also reportedly gave the girl alcohol.

You stunted my growth because I depended on you, the victim told Zurenko in court. I felt so confused and abandoned and trapped. I trusted nobody; you took everything that was mine.

WOMAN TRAPPED 9 HOURS IN PARTIAL BUILDING COLLAPSE IN PENNSYLVANIA FREED

I have no ounce of hate for you in my body, the victim said.

Zurenkos second victim also appeared in court but said she kept it together and asked Lewis for leniency regarding the teachers children.

The first victims father recounted the incident and explained the trauma his family endured.

My daughter lost three years of her life (because of Zurenkos) psychological manipulation, the man said in court.

You will always be a molester, a predator, he continued. You deserve no grace, no chance at rehabilitation. You deserve no success.

The girls mother said that Zurenko preyed on her daughter because she was kind.

Some of Zurenkos former students wrote letters of support to the court saying the former educator has been punished enough already by losing her career.
What appears to be human remains were discovered behind a Massachusetts home during a search involving a 37-year-old cold case, authorities said.

The Bristol County District Attorney said the possible remains were unearthed after a day-long dig at a home in Dartmouth, on Thursday, Boston 25 reported.

The home belongs to the wife of Donald Eugene Webb, who investigators say shot Saxonburg, Pennsylvania Police Chief Greg Adams during a routine traffic stop in 1980. Webbs car was found in Rhode Island a few weeks later.

I was 12 years told when he was murdered, I lived on the county on the other end of the county and all the adults were talking about, current Saxonburg Police Chief Joe Beachman said. Getting in the field you cant help but think about it though your career.

Authorities began searching the Massachusetts home in June after receiving a tip. At the home, they found a hidden room and a cane.

The cane is significant because the FBI believes Adams shot Webb in the leg before he was killed. The suspect could have needed the cane after being shot.

Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn told reporters that the Medical Examiners Office would determine the cause of death and identify the remains.

A $100,000 reward has been offered by the FBI for information that could lead to Webbs capture. If Webb is still alive, he would be around 85 years old. He was last seen in Miami in 1982.
A man who confessed to killing four men who disappeared last week in Pennsylvanias Bucks County and his suspected co-conspirator were hit with homicide charges Friday as gruesome details emerged surrounding the deaths.

The charges comes on the heels of Cosmo DiNardos attorney saying that his client admitted to killing the four men and telling authorities the location of the bodies buried on a farm property in Solebury, Pa., owned by DiNardo's family.

We have so much more to do to bring justice in this case, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub told reporters Friday. I am very relieved to say we brought four young men one step closer to their loved ones so they can rest in peace.

After killing the men, DiNardo confessed to burning the bodies in a metal tank that was converted into a cooker that he labeled a "pig roaster," according to The Daily Mail.

DiNardo, 20, is charged with all four homicides and 20 other counts, including abuse of corpse, conspiracy and robbery, according to court documents. Sean Kratz, 20, faces 20 counts, including three of criminal homicide.

POSSIBLE HUMAN REMAINS FOUND IN POLICE CHIEF'S MURDER

A source who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to publicly discuss details of the case said the men  identified by officials as Dean Finocchiaro, 19, Mark Sturgis, 22, Tom Meo, 21, and Jimi Taro Patrick, 19 -- were killed after DiNardo felt cheated or threatened during three drug transactions. DiNardo sold quarter-pound quantities of marijuana for several thousand dollars and sold handguns to area residents, the person said.

We are not here to make moral judgments on any of their actions, Weintraub said Friday. They have done nothing to deserve this horrible, unspeakable tragedy that has been beset upon them.

Kratz allegedly shot Finocchiaro. DiNardo then continued to shoot at his body after he had died, The Daily Mail said. Finocchiaro's body was then placed in a blue tarp and he was tossed into the pig roaster.

During a deal to sell marijuana later in the night to Meo and Sturgis, DiNardo shot Meo, The Daily Mail said. Sturgis then attempted to run away, prompting DiNardo to shoot him until he ran out of ammunition. He then drove over Meo, who may have still been alive at that point, with a backhoe.

Kratz told police that DiNardo "basically crushed" Meo with the backhoe. DiNardo then used the same backhoe to transport the bodies. The men then dropped the bodies into the roaster, added gasoline and set it on fire.

Weintraub said the bodies of Meo, Finocchiaro and Sturgis were found buried 12 feet deep in one common grave. The remains of Patrick were recovered from a separate location on the farm.

The person with knowledge of the confession said one of the men was killed July 5 and the other three were killed July 7.

SHOCK AS TEENS ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED SEX ASSAULT THAT THOUSANDS WATCHED ON FACEBOOK LIVE

"Every death was related to a purported drug transaction, and at the end of each one there's a killing," the person said.

In a criminal complaint, DiNardo told authorities that he had agreed to sell Patrick four pounds of marijuana for $8,000 and had picked him up at his home in Newtown before driving him to the farm. He said Patrick only showed up with $800 and they walked to a remote part of the property where DiNardo blasted Patrick with a .22 caliber rifle, The Morning Call reported.

Using a backhoe, DiNardo then dug a hole to place Patricks body into, the complaint said. The body was later found Thursday by investigators.

Authorities had charged DiNardo earlier this year with having a gun despite an involuntary mental health commitment. In seeking $5 million bail on a stolen car charge this week, prosecutors said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He also suffered a head injury in an ATV accident a year ago.

Finocchiaros aunt, Tina, posted on Facebook that she was completely crushed, heartbroken and numb, The Morning Call reported.

I lost my nephew to a crime that is unspeakable, she wrote in a post. Nobody should have to go through this. My heart goes out to his parents and all of the other parents.

DiNardo's lawyer says his client is remorseful.

Im sorry, a shackled DiNardo said as he left a courthouse Thursday.

Kratz's mom, Vanessa, declined to comment on the arrest of her son.

Paul Lang, DiNardo's lawyer, had told reporters Thursday that the 20-year-old was ready to plead guilty to four counts of first-degree murder. Lang said in exchange for the confession, prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table.

Fox News Travis Fedschun and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
A small plane that lost contact with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Thursday night crashed in Florida and authorities believe there are no survivors.

New images of the plane wreckage, released by Flagler County Sheriff's Office. NTSB is on scene. @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/1rqBTAXbcJ  Kevin Clark (@KevinANjax) July 14, 2017

The Piper PA44 aircraft that is believed to have had a student and a teacher on board crashed near the border of St. Johns County and Flagler County, Fla., FAA officials said. The plane was en route from Brunswick, Ga., to Ormond Beach, Fla., according to Action News Jax.

VIDEO of Coast Guard jayhawk combing marsh for missing plane, and potentially 2 people who were aboard. @ActionNewsJax @WOKVNews pic.twitter.com/wooq6assW2  Beth Rousseau (@BethANJax) July 14, 2017

"(This is) a tragic ending to a search," Sheriff Rick Staly of Flagler County said. "You always hope you'll find people alive."

BREAKING: FAA confirms they lost radar contact with aircraft at 11 Thursday night. #ANJaxBreaking pic.twitter.com/g6ElDWw6gp  Beth Rousseau (@BethANJax) July 14, 2017

Staly said the aircraft may have cut a tree before it crashed but it is not immediately clear why the plane went down.

A better look at terrain where search crews are working. Deputies believe plane went down in area, FAA says 2 people aboard @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/PA79j28j4f  Beth Rousseau (@BethANJax) July 14, 2017

Ormond Beach's Sunrise Aviation Academy confirmed a student and a teacher have been reported missing after they were sent to Brunswick on Thursday.

The Coast Guard deployed a military helicopter to search for any survivors. Local agencies such as St. Johns County Fire Rescue, Florida FIsh and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Flagler County Sheriff's Office also participated in the search.

This is a Fox News developing story. Please check back for updates.
A second person of interest was taken into custody late Thursday in the investigation into the gruesome murders of four men on a secluded farm in Pennsylvania.

The unidentified person was detained in northeast Philadelphia, Fox 29 reported.

The detention comes on the heels of Cosmo DiNardos attorney saying that his client admitted to killing the four men and telling authorities the location of the bodies.

The Associated Press, citing a person with firsthand knowledge of his confession, reported the DiNardo had a co-conspirator.

Paul Lang, DiNardo's lawyer, told reporters earlier Thursday DiNardo, 20, is ready to plead guilty four counts of first-degree murder. Lang said in exchange for the confession, prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table.

Im sorry, a shackled DiNardo said as he left the courthouse.

Prosecutors have not confirmed Lang's announcement, but the AP reported that DiNardo killed the four separately after selling them marijuana, and then burned their bodies at his family's farm.

The source spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to publicly discuss details of the case.

The source said the men were killed after DiNardo felt cheated or threatened during three drug transactions. DiNardo sold quarter-pound quantities of marijuana for several thousand dollars and sold handguns to area residents, the person said.

Multiple sets of human remains were unearthed from a 12-foot-deep mass grave on an isolated Pennsylvania farm early Thursday as authorities continued digging for the bodies of four young men who disappeared last week.

Officials were able to identify one of the victims as 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro -- who vanished last week along with Mark Sturgis, 22, Tom Meo, 21, and Jimi Tar Patrick, 19. Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said he could not identify the other remains at this time, while issuing a fresh appeal for more help from the public.

Fire and rescue crews on Thursday were using plywood to help shore up the deep grave as investigators worked inside under intense heat and choking dust.

DiNardo was arrested Wednesday for allegedly trying to sell Meo's car for $500 on July 9 -- a day after Meo was last seen. That 1996 Nissan Maxima was also found on the family's farm.

Fox News Travis Fedschun and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from Fox 29.
Three Mississippi teens are facing kidnapping and sexual assault charges in connection to a video that was recorded on Facebook Live and was watched by thousands, authorities said.

Authorities responded to a report of an assault at a Gulfport home late Tuesday. Authorities discovered the video that recorded the alleged sexual assault.

The video begins inside a bathroom with a man demanding oral sex from the woman. Others in the background also demand that the woman performs the sex act, The Clarion-Ledger reported. A female could be heard saying that the alleged victim could not leave until she performed the act.

She said: "She ain't going home and that the woman is going to perform the sexual acts until her throat swells up.

Haleigh Alexis Hudson, 19, surrendered to police on charges of felony kidnapping and sexual assault. She is being held on $400,000 bond. Ezzie Johnson and Kadari Fabien Booker, both 17, were arrested on separate felony kidnapping and sexual assault charges, the Sun Herald reported.

Johnson recorded the alleged sexual and physical assault of a 23-year-old woman at Hudsons home and will be charged as an adult, Gulfport Police Chief Leonard Papania said in a news conference Wednesday.

Facebook user Tiffany Hailey told The Clarion-Ledger she watched the video in real-time on Facebook and shared a copy of it urging her friends to reach out to the woman who looked like she was in trouble.

"This is gut wrenchingly horrific," Hailey said. "It's really, really, bad."

The video has been removed from the social networking site, but had been shared more than 1,500 times and attained 84,000 views, according to the New York Post.

Papania said he expected the disturbing trend to continue.

I wish people would look at just how warped our society has become, he said. We videotape pain and suffering, then we share it and we view it over and over. And I dont doubt this story will be dead in two days and everybody [will] move on to something else and you still have a victim of a crime.

According to The Clarion-Ledger, the victim in the alleged assault has special needs. Papania said the claims will be investigated and said additional charges could come if the claims are substantiated.

Investigators believe Johnson and Hudson knew the victim prior to the incident.
A 17-year-old girl accused of crashing her vehicle into an Indiana home Wednesday night, killing to two girls inside, may have been high on opiates, authorities says.

The Clinton County Sheriffs Office said the teenager was arrested and they have asked the prosecutor to charge her with criminal recklessness resulting in death. She could face more serious charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated if opiates in her system are confirmed, Fox 59 reported.

According to authorities, the crash happened just before 9:30 p.m. in the home of Dennis and Bridget Fullerton. When sheriffs deputies arrived on the scene, they found a white vehicle inside the living room.

Two sisters, 17-year-old Haleigh and 9-year-old Callie, were watching television when the car crashed into the house. They were killed on impact, authorities said.

Bridget Fullerton was walking into the living room when the crash occurred. She was flown to an Indianapolis-area hospital for treatment. Her condition is unknown.

In a GoFundMe account, the two sisters were described as beautiful ladies who touched every heart they came in contact with.

Investigators said there were three other juveniles in the car at the time of the crash. They were treated for non-life threatening injuries at the scene.

Its unclear what caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle. Authorities said she was traveling at 80 miles per hour and traveled about 100 feet off the roadway before hitting the home.

This is very traumatic for the county and for everyone involved, Clinton County Sheriffs Maj. Joe Mink told the Clinton County Daily News. Its just hard to swallow. Its a very traumatic event on the whole department, the firemen and the emergency responders. I cant give them enough credit.

The prosecutors office will determine if the 17-year-old driver will face charges as an adult.
A hog barn at an Ohio county fair was quarantined and the animals sent there to compete will be slaughtered, after swine flu was detected.

One of the hogs at the fair had a fever and tests came back positive for swine flu, Clinton County Fair officials told WLWT. On Thursday, a fairground official confirmed that more than one case of H3N2 swine flu was reported at the barn.

Nearly 280 hogs sent to the fair to compete had been removed from the fairgrounds by Friday morning. They will be slaughtered, WLWT reported.

Officials also will disinfect the barn to make sure the virus doesnt spread.

The building was wrapped in red tape, and only breeders and exhibitors were allowed in.

VACCINE SPRAY MAY NOT WORK FOR SWINE FLU IN KIDS

It's been a hard day, got a lot of kids that have (a) gilt or barrow or whatever that we were going to retain and now they've got to be slaughtered. It's very unfortunate, hog breeder Joey Johnson told WLWT.

The rest of the fairgrounds remained open to visitors, but fairgoers experiencing flu-like symptoms were advised to see a doctor.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that humans can be infected with H3N2 and the infections are most commonly associated with prolonged exposure to pigs at agricultural fairs.
The Pentagon says that U.S. forces killed the head of the Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan in an airstrike in Kunar province earlier this week.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says that killing Abu Sayed is significant because the loss of leadership sets insurgent groups back for days or weeks.

IS in Afghanistan is known as the Islamic State-Khorasan group. The U.S. and Afghan forces launched an offensive against the IS group in early March, as the militants were gaining a foothold in eastern Afghanistan.

Mattis tells Pentagon reporters that taking out a leader creates disarray in the ranks. He declines to provide any additional details on the strike.

A chief Pentagon spokesperson, Dana White, says that Abu Sayed was killed on Tuesday along with other members of the group.
Shes a millennial and hes an 84-year old Korean War veteran. Despite their age difference, Molly Tims and Ace Hessler share a unique and special bond.

It began at Reagan National Airport a couple years ago thanks to the Honor Flight Network, a nonprofit that takes the country's senior most veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit the memorials built in their honor. Hessler got a last-minute ticket when a World War II veteran canceled. Tims was assigned to be his chaperone.

The organization was first created in 2005 to honor veterans for their service by giving them an all-expense paid trip of a lifetime. Priority is given to World War II veterans followed by Korean and Vietnam vets.

MICHIGAN GIRL RAISES FUNDS FOR VETERANS USING LEMONADE STAND

With an entourage of help, Tims showed Hessler around Washington that fall day. He spent decades trying to forget the war. But she got him talking and somewhere along the National Mall a friendship was born.

I thought Id walk around and see a few monuments and come back home, said Hessler, a retired U.S. Army infantry officer from Michigan. I had no clue Id meet this gracious young lady and that wed become such great friends. It was serendipity.

They exchanged contact information and before saying goodbye they promised to meet again in Michigan, half way between Kalamazoo and Detroit, her hometown. They have met for lunch several times since.

Both are history buffs and classical music fans. They email most weeks, talk religion and give each other book recommendations  kindred spirits of sorts, they say.

DYING ARMY VETERAN ASKS FOR PHONE CALLS, TEXT MESSAGES

You expect to enjoy hearing their history, but what you dont expect is to feel connected, Tims said. Thats the thing about honor flights: Its an unexpected blessing.

They are not alone. Many honor flight volunteers  known as guardians  stay in touch with the veterans they meet during their daytrips.

Those relationships represent the heart of the organization, Tims said. For the veteran, the day is therapeutic. For the volunteer, the experience is rewarding.

"Theyve suffered a lot in their heads. When they come here, they get to talk about things they think young people don't care about," she said. "It makes people open up in a way they never have."

For years, many of these veterans have remained silent about the memories that haunt them still, even with their closest family and friends. But those emotions resurface at the memorials. The guardians are there to listen and friendships are made.

Hessler is grateful Tims was interested in hearing his story and recently said meeting her left a lasting impact.

"Thats the commonality between all the volunteers," Tims said. "They genuinely care."

Thirty veterans visited the nations capital in 2006 during Honor Flights first year, said Lauren Spranger, a Washington Honor Flight volunteer coordinator. Last year, 21,000 veterans took part in the honor flight program.

What started with six flights on small planes from Ohio, has turned into a national movement, said Allen Bergeron, Chairman of Honor Flight Austin. Today, the free trips for veterans are funded and organized by separate hubs in 45 states across the country.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, about 696,000 of the 16 million Americans who served in WWII were alive in 2016 and about 400 die each day.

The rush is to get as many veterans to see the memorials. We want to let our most senior veterans know that we have not forgotten about them Bergeron said. They are living history.

Longtime volunteer Nancy Griffith knows firsthand they dont have the luxury of time. Her father  a WWII veteran  suffered a massive heart attack on Sept. 11, 2001 and died before he could see the memorial built for him.

Volunteering is her way of honoring her dad. She has been a guardian dozens of times and while most of the veterans she meets become friends, others become family, she said.

Lang Spicer is one of them. Hes a 93-year-old WWII veteran who served as a mechanic in the Navy during the war. Griffith and Spicer met in Washington four years ago.

No one will ever replace my dad, she said. But knowing Lang has helped heal some of the gaping hole in my heart,

They email and talk on the phone weekly and when Spicer was diagnosed with cancer, Griffith scheduled an appointment for him with the best doctor in town. When his wife, Shirley, turned 90 years old, she planned a big birthday surprise bash to celebrate.

We bonded in a special way, Griffith said. He is one of the sweetest souls I have ever met.

Griffith continues to volunteer as often as possible, most recently on Memorial Day when 25 Purple Heart veterans traveled to Washington from Austin. Vietnam Veteran Phil Clark was among them and Griffith was his guardian.

He was quiet and reserved at first, but once they arrived at the Vietnam memorial, Clark described his experiences serving as a medic for two tours in Vietnam. In his mind, he could still see the faces of all the soldiers he could not save.

By the end of the day, they laughed as though they had known each other for years. She had made another friend. After touring the city, with police escorts clearing the way, the veterans bus headed back to Reagan for their trip back home. They promised to be in touch soon.

You become friends so quickly, she said. Its so beautiful and so special.

As for Tims and Hessler, they plan on meeting again in August  this time with her boyfriend in tow. Hessler sees wedding bells in her future, but he wants to meet the new beau before giving his stamp of approval, he said.

I feel really fortunate, I really do. I was lucky she was there to greet me that day, Hessler said. As for the wedding? I will be there. I wouldnt miss it for the world.
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The latest on a corruption investigation in Peru involving former President Ollanta Humana (all times local):

9:55 p.m.

Former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and his wife have arrived as the courthouse in Lima and turned themselves in following a judge's ruling that they should be jailed while they are investigated over allegations of corruption.

The couple didn't attend the hearing Thursday evening at which the judge ordered 18 months of preventative detention during the investigation. They have been accused of money laundering and conspiracy relating to a bribery scandal involving Brazilian builder Odebrecht.

Humala has denied the claims, calling them baseless.

There was no immediate comment from authorities on where the couple will be held.

They drove to the courthouse accompanied by a heavy police escort.

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9:40 p.m.

Former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and his wife have left their home after a judge ruled they should be jailed while they are investigated over allegations of corruption. They drove to the courthouse accompanied by a heavy police escort.

The couple didn't attend the hearing Thursday night at which a judge ordered 18 months of preventative detention during the investigation.

They have been accused of money laundering and conspiracy relating to a bribery scandal involving Brazilian builder Odebrecht.

Humala has denied the claims, calling them baseless. As he left home, he said on Twitter: "This confirms the abuse of power which we will confront in defense of our rights and those of everyone."

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8:30 p.m.

A Peruvian judge has ordered the arrest of former President Ollanta Humala and his wife as they face accusation of money laundering and conspiracy tied to a construction scandal involving Brazilian company Odebrecht.

The ruling Thursday night authorizing 18 months of preventative detention for Humala and wife Nadine Heredia while they are investigated came after prosecutors argued the couple could flee Peru to evade justice.

The same judge previously ordered the arrest of another former Peruvian president, Alejandro Toledo, for related charges. Toledo is in the U.S. fighting attempts by Peruvian authorities to have him deported to answer the charges.

Humala has insisted he has no intention of fleeing the country and says he looks forward to defending himself against what he calls baseless charges.
An American doctor will head to the UK next week to examine Charlie Gard, the 11-month old boy suffering from a rare genetic disorder.

High Court Judge Nicholas Francis said Friday that he was "open-minded about the evidence" to come after the visit of Dr. Michio Hirano of Columbia University Medical Center.

Hirano's research focuses on mitochondrial diseases and genetic myopathies and he has treated others with conditions similar to Charlies.

The New York doctor, who is also a professor of neurology at Columbia, testified on Thursday that Charlie has a 10 percent chance of improving with experimental treatment available in the U.S. The judge ruled he could meet with Charlie's doctors to discuss his case.

Charlie's parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, have been in a bitter legal battle with the hospital to keep him alive. On Thursday, they walked out of a courtroom after arguing with the judge, but returned later in the day.

The family believes the experimental treatment has a chance of improving the boy's quality of life and reducing the brain damage the illness has already inflicted on the boy.

Hirano, working with his doctors in the UK and consulting with US doctors, will determine whether Charlie would benefit from treatment.

"We'll have to wait and see the evidence," Judge Francis said. He promised to rule by July 25.

CHARLIE GARD: PARENTS OF ILL BABY SAY 'HE DESERVES A CHANCE' AT TREATMENT IN US

The London hospital, revered as one of the worlds best childrens hospitals, has argued Charlie, who can neither see, nor hear, move, swallow or even breathe without the help of life support, should be removed from his ventilator and allowed to die with his dignity.

The hospital has said that "a world where only parents speak and decide for children and where children have no separate identity or rights and no court to hear and protect them is far from the world in which [Great Ormond Street Hospital ] treats its child patients."

CHARLIE GARD'S DISEASE AND LEGAL CASE: AN EXPLAINER

New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Irving Medical Center have both announced they would be willing to take in Charlie  though they said a few conditions need to be met. Charlie needs to be transferred safely, legal hurdles cleared and it needs to receive emergency approval from the FDA for an experimental treatment as appropriate.

President Donald Trump and Pope Francis have shined an international spotlight on the case.

Pope Francis issued a statement insisting on the need to respect the wishes of the parents to "accompany and treat" their son to the very end.

Americans United for Life and other groups have also take the parents side, arguing the infant needs a "chance at life." Petitions have circulated to offer support and others have arrived at Charlie's bedside to pray.

The case has been compared to the 2005 case of Terri Schiavo, who suffered severe brain and was in a vegetative state after she went into cardiac arrest in her Florida home. Her parents, who wanted her kept alive, and her husband, who wanted to remove her feeding tube, were in a high-profile legal battle that ended when the courts sided with her husband.

Includes reporting by The Associated Press.
Two female German tourists were stabbed to death and four other tourists were injured after a man attacked them with a knife at an Egyptian resort, Egyptian officials said.

Egypts Interior Ministry said the assailant -- who was not immediately identified --was arrested immediately after the stabbings in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada. Officials said the initial investigation showed the man swam from a nearby beach and attacked the tourists.

The attacker, who has not been immediately identified, is a young man in his twenties who reportedly shouted in Arabic during the attack: "Stay away, I don't want Egyptians."

An Egyptian security official said the assailant was intentionally looking to attack foreigners.

The interior ministry said the tourists were rushed to a local hospital, but their conditions weren't immediately known. The four tourists injured included citizens from Ukraine and Czech Republic, an Egyptian security official said. The attacker reportedly stabbed the tourists in the face, neck and feet.

The attack came hours after five policemen were shot to death in Cairo's twin city of Giza when suspected Islamic militants opened fire on their vehicle early in the morning.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A German lawmaker says Turkey is blocking a planned visit next week by parliamentarians to German soldiers stationed at a NATO airbase.

Wolfgang Hellmich, the chairman of parliament's defense committee, told news agency dpa Friday that the German Foreign Ministry informed lawmakers that Ankara had asked for a delay in the visit, citing the state of the two countries' bilateral relations.

The visit by lawmakers to the base in Konya was planned for Monday. NATO AWACS surveillance planes are based there, and part of their crew is German.

Germany decided in June to move reconnaissance and refueling aircraft stationed at Turkey's Incirlik base, helping the international campaign against the Islamic State group, to Jordan after Ankara refused to let lawmakers visit German air crews there.
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The Latest on President Donald Trump's visit to Paris (all times local):

4 p.m.

President Donald Trump is thanking French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') for hosting him in Paris for the annual Bastille Day celebrations.

The president says on Twitter that they had "great conversations" on trade, the military and security.

Trump has departed France after attending the Bastille Day parade with Macron. He says in a statement released by the White House that France was instrumental in the U.S. winning its independence and the two countries are more united than ever.

Trump says they are working to destroy terrorist organizations and will work together to "eliminate their safe havens, end their financing, and eradicate their ideology."

Trump says, "America and France will never be defeated or divided."

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1:30 p.m.

President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') shared another lengthy handshake during the Bastille Day celebration, reprising their famous white-knuckle handshake showdown in May.

Trump and Macron shook hands as Trump departed a military parade, and they continued clasping hands as they walked along the parade route. Trump patted Macron's hand and they jerked their hands back and forth in an arm wrestling motion.

Trump then shook hands with Macron's wife, Brigitte, as he continued to shake hands with the French president.

At a NATO summit in Brussels in May, Trump and Macron locked hands for so long that their knuckles started turning white.

Macron later called that handshake a "moment of truth" to show he's not a pushover.

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1:15 p.m.

President Donald Trump says it was a "great honor" to represent the U.S. at the annual Bastille Day parade in Paris.

Trump says in a tweet that the military parade featuring U.S. and French troops was "magnificent." He congratulated French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN').

This year's celebration of French pride also marked the 100th anniversary of America's entry into World War I. Trump was the guest of honor at Macron's invitation.

Trump and his wife, first lady Melania Trump, spent two days in Paris. They boarded Air Force One after the parade for the flight back to the United States.

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11:20 a.m.

President Donald Trump is applauding as various French military units march by during the Bastille Day parade.

At one point, Trump saluted a combined group of American Army and Navy troops and Marines taking part in the annual event in Paris.

Trump's brief visit to Paris  he arrived Thursday morning  is intended to celebrate the French day of national pride and commemorate the 100th anniversary of America's entry into World War I.

Trump often boasts of his commitment to bolstering America's military. He watched enthusiastically from the parade stand as the French military showcased its tanks and fighter jets, including many U.S.-made planes.

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10:25 a.m.

President Donald Trump is urging fellow Republicans to approve a health care plan in the Senate, declaring on Twitter it "must happen!"

Trump is tweeting shortly before his appearance at the annual Bastille Day parade in Paris. He says Republican senators are working hard to "get their failed ObamaCare replacement approved" and says he'll "be at my desk, pen in hand!"

The president says it's important for Republicans under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to get a health care plan approved. And he's crediting Vice President Mike Pence for working to get GOP senators "to do what is right for the people."

Trump's pressure comes as a new health care plan released by Republican leaders faces opposition in the Senate.

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10:15 a.m.

President Donald Trump has arrived in central Paris to participate in Bastille Day celebrations.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump were greeted at the Place de la Concorde by Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN').

Macron arrived minutes later after being delivered via an open-air, military vehicle and reviewing the troops. Macron invited Trump to be the guest of honor at Friday's celebration, which also commemorates the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I.

Trump is scheduled to return to the U.S. after the military parade and fireworks display marking the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution.

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8:15 a.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL' mah-KROHN') is positioning himself as the indispensable intermediary between Europe and Donald Trump.

Macron made a point of detailing both the long history of ties between France and America and the areas where he and Trump disagree as he hosted the U.S. president for a Bastille Day visit.

But Macron made clear it was in the spirit of bluntness between friends, even offering a conspiratorial wink during a joint news conference.

Trump's trip has included a gilded tour of one of France's most storied monuments and dinner at the Eiffel Tower. He'll be the guest of honor at Friday's Bastille Day military parade.
Two officers were killed in an attack by three Palestinian assailants near a major Jerusalem holy site Friday, Israels police chief said.

Police Chief Roni Alscheich said the police officers died of wounds sustained in the attack. He said three Arab citizens of Israel opened fire on police near a gate of Jerusalems Old City.

The assailants were later killed in a gunfight at a mosque near Luba Samri, police said.

Mickey Rosenfeld, another police spokesman, told Reuters that authorities are working to identify the attackers. Police said the attackers were armed with 2 Carl Gustav machine guns and a pistol.

Benjamin Netanyahu says the Muslim-administered sacred compound will be shut Friday for security reasons to make sure there are no weapons there. He says the status quo governing the site "will be preserved."

The holy compound is known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary. It is the holiest site to Jews and the third holiest in Islam. Since September 2015, Palestinian attackers have killed 43 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist.

In that time, Israeli forces have killed more than 254 Palestinians, most of them said by Israel to be attackers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
United States and Somali military forces raided a rebel-held village in southern Somalia and killed several al-Shabaab fighters early Thursday, a senior Somali intelligence official said, as both countries step up efforts against Africa's deadliest Islamic extremist group.

Somali commandos accompanied by U.S. forces in two helicopters raided two locations, the official said. They included a detention center run by al-Shabaab in Kunya-Barrow village in Lower Shabelle region, and an unknown number of detainees were freed.

Troops engaged a small number of extremist fighters, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

U.S. Africa Command spokesman Mark Cheadle said U.S. forces conducted an "advise and assist mission" against al-Shabaab with members of the Somali National Army in Kunya-Barrow. He gave no further details.

There were no U.S. casualties, AFRICOM spokeswoman Jennifer Dyrcz added Friday morning.

The Al Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab said via its Andalus radio arm that its fighters foiled an attempted raid by U.S. and African forces.

Earlier this month, the U.S. military said it carried out an airstrike against al-Shabaab in Somalia and was assessing the results. The airstrike followed another last month that the U.S. said killed eight extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp in the country's south. Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said a training camp near Sakow in the Middle Juba region had been destroyed.

President Donald Trump has approved expanded military operations against al-Shabaab, including more aggressive airstrikes and considering parts of southern Somalia areas of active hostilities. The U.S. in April announced it was sending dozens of regular troops in the largest such deployment to Somalia in roughly two decades, saying it was for logistics training of the country's army.

The Horn of Africa nation is trying to rebuild after more than two decades as a failed state, and its chaos helped in al-Shabaab's rise. Now a new threat has emerged in the country's north with some fighters claiming alliance to the Islamic State group.

Al-Shabaab last year became Africa's deadliest Islamic extremist group, with more than 4,200 people killed in 2016, according to the Pentagon-supported Africa Center for Strategic Studies. The extremist group has vowed to step up attacks against the recently elected government and has carried out numerous deadly attacks in the capital, Mogadishu.

Pressure is growing on Somalia's military to assume full responsibility for the country's security. The 22,000-strong African Union multinational force, AMISOM, which has been supporting the fragile central government, plans to start withdrawing in 2018 and leave by the end of 2020.

The U.S. military has been among those expressing concern that Somalia's forces are not yet ready.
The house was supposed to be Terry Lambiases forever house, but forever didnt last as long as he had anticipated. From the outset, he was intimately involved with the homes planning and construction, his goal being to incorporate universal design elements that would allow him to age in place.

Not only that, but Lambiase had promised his mom, after his dad died in 2009, that this would be a home they could share. He would move her up from Florida once the it was complete, and in 2015, he kept his promise: The pair moved into their new home at 223 Morgan Lane. Its in Spotsylvania Countys Berkshire subdivision on a 2.5 acre cul-de-sac lot that straddles the Po River.

But then, in 2016, came Lambiases cancer diagnosis, and soon he was advised to get his affairs in order. On Dec. 23, 2016, he passed away. The decorated U.S. Army sergeant and Vietnam veteran was 68 years old.

Given Lambiases track record of planning for the future, its no surprise he got busy after learning time was short. He contacted a local lawyer, Hamilton Garnett of Virginia Wills & Probate PLC, who helped him find the right local place for his 91-year-old mother and would arrange for the sale of the house.

Garnett called on Michele Harlow of Coldwell Banker Elite in Fredericksburg to market and sell the house. It is listed with an asking price of $545,000.

CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

In 2015, Lambiase contracted with Dayle Mauck of TCB Construction. They settled on a large, ranch-style home with a full basement. The main level, with 3,600 finished square feet, is listed with three bedrooms, three full bathrooms and a half-bath. The unfinished walkout basement doubles the square footage.

Visitors are greeted by an impressive main entry, an expensive custom-made door with sidelights and transom that Lambiase especially wanted. Inside is a wide and welcoming tile foyer flanked with large port-hold windows. To the left is the basement staircase, and straight ahead is the hallway to the main living area.

Everything about that house was what Terry wanted and what he thought he and his mother would need to live there, Mauck said in a telephone interview this week. And I think he only got to live there, what, 16 to 18 months?

Also sad, Mauck added, was that Lambiase chose the subdivision because his best friend lived there. Then, when the house was nearly complete and Lambiase was in Florida to bring his mother to Virginia, his friend died unexpectedly.

I had to call him and give him the bad news, said Mauck.

Two things about the house quickly become evident. The first is that the house was in many ways designed to accommodate wheelchairs and those with disabilities. Hallways have hand rails and are extra wide, as are the doorways into various rooms. Most of the carpeting is berber style to ease the mobility of wheelchairs and walkers. Bathrooms have grab bars.

The second is that everything from the carpeting to the kitchen appliances to the bathroom fixtures looks virtually new because it had been lived in so briefly.

The great room is indeed great in size, measuring 31 feet by 25 feet, and has a gas fireplace in the corner. The ceilings are 9 feet throughout, and there is crown molding here and in all other rooms. A wall of large, picture windowsall top-of-the-line by Andersenprovides panoramic views of the wooded surroundings as well as the nearby Po River when the leaves are off the trees. Theres 300 feet of river frontage.

Clearing some low-lying vegetation would open up a view of the river, though it might be wise to check with the proper officials beforehand about any shoreline clearing rules.

Thanks to the wide-open floor plan, the great room flows into the eat-in, island kitchen. The kitchen is as attractive as it is functional and reflects Lambiases priorities. Upgraded off-white cabinetry and laminate counters contrast with black appliances and vinyl plank wood grain flooring.

There is plenty of space to maneuver around in the functional space, including the large dining area. Kitchen amenities include a range hood and pendent lighting over the island, which has a built-in wet bar sink.

As is the case throughout the house, storage space abounds in the kitchen, thanks in part to a large, walk-in pantry and other closet space.

Nearby is access to the outdoor living space, which provides the best of both worlds. A large screened-in porch has plenty of seating space as well as a hot tub, which remains covered and has never been filled. A screen door opens to a sunny deck and stairs to the backyard below. Trex decking is used in both areas.

Also from the kitchen area is access to the over-sized two-car garage. Along one side is a wheelchair ramp that lands at the interior garage door.

An interior hallway alongside the great room leads to the bedroom wing. To the left is where Lambiase provided a suite for his mother to use that can be closed off by double pocket doors. There are two bedrooms in the suite that flank a full bathroom. His mother used one as a bedroom and the other as a sitting or living room.

Across the hall is the master suite, which like the great room has large windows overlooking the woods between the house and the river.

Both the master bathroom and the secondary bathroom are luxuriously appointed with radiant floor heating, tile floors and showers with tile seating and decorative strips of mosaic tile. Multiple shower heads and grab bars enhance comfort and safety. The master bath features an extra deep separate tub and roll-up vanity.

Also in the bedroom wing is the laundry room, which has two washer-dryer sets, a laundry sink and a folding table.

The basement stairs, just off the foyer, are equipped with a little-used motorized chair. There are wide open unfinished spaces in the basement conducive to recreation space, a media room and a downstairs bedroom and bathroom, thanks to the roughed-in plumbing. There is walkout access to the back yard, and plenty of space for storage and utilities, including a well water treatment system.

Separating the main basement space and and another large area that Lambiase used as a workshop is a one-car garage that he used to house his lawn tractor and other yard equipment.

The unfinished basement also shows off the homes engineered floor joists and steel beam support structure. The house has a dual-zone heating and cooling system and a whole-house emergency generator with auto transfer. A short distance from the house is a 500-gallon above ground propane tank.
A woman who served as the getaway driver following a home-invasion robbery in southern Stafford County last year received a suspended prison sentence Thursday.

Shyanne Rose Donahue, 26, of Nokesville was sentenced in Stafford Circuit Court to a total of eight years, but Judge Michael Levy suspended the entire sentence. She previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and three counts of being an accessory after the fact.

Prosecutor Ed Lustig requested that Donahue serve a year and a half in prison, but Levy noted that she had done well on pretrial supervision, had no prior criminal record and had cooperated in the investigation.

Donahues boyfriend at the time, Steven Randall Williams of Stafford, broke into a home in the 1900 block of Sierra Drive in southern Stafford with 26-year-old Kenneth Edward Selvage of Richmond. Both men have been convicted for their roles in the crime: Selvage is serving a 14-year prison sentence, while Williams has yet to be sentenced.

According to the evidence, the robbers were wearing masks and displaying guns when they used zip ties to restrain Danielle Lucas and her 10-year-old son. They stole Lucas purse and other items, but were upset because the drugs and large amount of money they were expecting were not found. Lucas live-in boyfriend was in jail at the time on drug-related offenses.

Police had no suspects until the following month, when Donahue suffered a heroin overdose at Williams home in southern Stafford. While investigating the overdose, police found items that were taken in the robbery.

Supporters wrote that Donahues judgement had suffered in recent years following the disappearance of her brother. Donahue said Williams introduced her to heroin; she said she is now a recovering addict.
Dissident Republican Corey Stewarts entry into Virginias 2018 Senate race overlaps with this years race for governor. And that could complicate life for GOP gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie, who continues to be a recipient of Stewarts razor-sharp tongue.

On the eve of his Thursday announcement, Stewartwho nearly beat Gillespie in the GOP primary for governor in Junewas quoted in a Washington Post story saying Gillespie should maybe take some testosterone supplements and just get out there and start beating the hell out of Democratic candidate Ralph S. Northam.

Longtime GOP operative Gillespie took months of attacks from Stewart during the primary and often ignored him. Gillespie beat Stewart, who branded himself a version of President Donald Trump for Virginia, by just more than 1 percentage point in returns that surprised many GOP insiders.

Just one month later Stewart is back, saying hell run a ruthless and vicious campaign against Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., in 2018. Stewart made a formal announcement Thursday outside his Woodbridge home.

Stewarts entrance into the Senate race and his active campaigning puts pressure on Gillespie from a stylistic standpoint, said John Fredericks, a radio show host and political analyst. He worked with Stewart last year on Trumps Virginia presidential campaign until Stewart was fired as chairman for participating in a protest of the Republican National Committee.

Republicans are going to see Corey absolutely going ballistic on Tim Kaine and being very forceful, and Eds style is very different than that.

Since his primary loss, Stewart has called on Gillespie to reach out to those Virginians who backed Stewart and Trump.

Republicans want vicious and ruthless, Stewart said in an interview.

I like to win. Ill do anything to win, he said. But what I found out was thats exactly what people want right now on the Republican side. They want a fighter. Theyre yearning for one.

Fredericks said hes in agreement with Stewart that Gillespie needs to reach out to Trump voters in his race for governor.

When asked why he hasnt done so to the satisfaction of Stewart, Fredericks said, I dont know, but it is a significant strategic mistake. And every day they dont find a way to engage, motivate and inspire the Trump vote base in Virginia is a day of lost opportunity. Different styles aside, the winning campaign has to put together a broad coalition of people.

With national attention on Virginia because of its off-year election that rightly or wrongly will be viewed as a referendum on the surprise Trump presidency, theres no shortage of operatives with thoughts on what Gillespie could or should do to beat Northam.

But for those who want him to reach out to Trump voters, said Virginia GOP Chairman John Whitbeck, hes already doing it. Gillespie and the party have identified hundreds of thousands of Trump voters who didnt vote in the 2013 race for governor and theyre courting them, he said.

A winning coalition for Republicans in the governors race would include traditional Republicans, independents, Democrats crossing over and the new Trump voters who were motivated to join the political process last year, Whitbeck said.

Those voters are going to be a strong focus of our party in turning out the ticket, he said.

Every single one of those votes is important to win.

Gillespie has an uphill task: Hes a Republican running in a state in which all five statewide elected officials are Democrats. Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in Virginia by more than 5 percentage points, and Trumps approval rating in the state is low. Complicating all that is the Democratic, solidly anti-Trump stronghold of Northern Virginia.

Last year, Clinton received 355,133 votes in Fairfax County alone, compared with 157,710 for Trump. While voter turnout in Virginia typically drops sharply the year after a presidential election, with numbers like that, a Republican mimicking Trump in a statewide campaign in Virginia could expect to lose the states largest county by a healthy margin.

Gillespie won Loudoun County in 2014 when he nearly beat Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. His strategy this year is to do well in rural Virginia, Hampton Roads and the Richmond area and avoid getting throttled in Northern Virginia.

Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, said he encourages his supporters to back Gillespie this year and will help Gillespie if asked. Stewart said he wouldnt have run for Senate had he not performed so well against Gillespie in the June primary.

He also said a month out of the statewide fray was too much to bear.

Im a fighter. I love to be in the ring. ... Being outside of the ring is painful. I need to be back in it, Stewart said in his news conference.

In a fundraising email Thursday, Stewart called Kaine Hillary Clinton and Barack Obamas stooge.

Susan Swecker, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, also likes to fight. She issued a statement saying Stewart is more extreme than Trump.

Corey has completely ignored the needs of families in Prince William County to instead spend his time name-calling, bashing immigrants and re-litigating the Civil War. When he rarely turns his attention to the county he was elected to represent, he calls his colleagues slimeballs and pushes an anti-immigrant, backwards agenda that has left working families behind, Swecker said in the statement.
Julia A. Minor, 85, of Spotsylvania County, went to her heavenly home on Wednesday, July 12, 2017. Mrs. Minor was born on October 13, 1931 to Welford and Annie Mae Minor. She was preceded in death by her husband, Robert Rufus "Bush" Minor; three sisters; and three brothers. Survivors include sister Annie Johnson of Locust Grove; daughters Dorothy, Helen Marie, Josephine (Brian) and Joyce; step-daughter Annie Ruth; sons Clearance, Kenwood (LoLo), Earl (Tina), Isaac, and James (Bernice); 24 grandchildren; numerous great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren; brother-in-law John Willie Minor; and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, family members and friends. The family will receive friends from 7 to 8 p.m. Monday, July 17 at Covenant Funeral Service, Fredericksburg. A service will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday, July 18 at the funeral home chapel. Burial will follow at noon at Quantico National Cemetery. Online guestbook at covenantfuneralservice.com.
The tantalizing term Building X speaks to the mysteries at George Washington Birthplace National Monument. It refers to the brick foundations buried at one spot along Popes Creek, which were unearthed in the 1930s.

The phrase dates from then, reflecting early tensions between the National Park Service and the Wakefield Memorial Foundation, which built the monuments handsome brick Memorial House. That rivalry was part of the place from Day 1, beginning when Congress created the monument in 1932, on the eve of the bicentennial of Washingtons birth.

Now, a few people are looking ahead to the Washington tricentennial at this beautiful and storied place in Virginias Northern Neck. It will be an international event. George, the father of our country, is that big; he has many, many fans the world over.

Mark the date now: Feb. 22, 2032. That's only 15 years away; it'll be here before you know it.

The country will turn its eyes to this landscape, and it will be a national celebration, historian Philip Levy told an attentive local audience at the birthplaces visitor center a few weeks ago. The river will be chock-full of boats. There will yachts coming down from Mount Vernon, and the Secret Service blocking the roads. The gas station will run out of gas. Thats all going to happen.

Levy, an archaeologist and Washington scholar, urged listeners to reconnect with Washingtons birthplace so the first U.S. presidents 300th birthday benefits the local community and residents receive something of lasting import.

To get started, Levy urged a critical re-analysis of the sites historical and archaeological record, so that when the world turns to this landscape, we have a good answer to tell them.

On both counts, his logic is persuasive.

Taking part in Jamestowns 400th anniversary convinced us that throwing such a big party takes many years of dogged effort, a true national commitment and a lot of big donors.

Best to get started right now.

Levy is author of two books on George Washington, with a third in the works on Washington's relationship with landscapes. He is a co-leader of the team whose members have studied Ferry FarmWashingtons boyhood home in Stafford Countyfor the past 15 years. Beneath its surface, they discovered the remains of the Washington familys house, of which an interpretive replica is now being built so visitors can better appreciate the sites history and links with this founding father.

Over July Fourth weekend, C-SPAN3 (American History TV) broadcast Levys remarks about the birthplace. It's recommended viewing for all those interested in G.W.

Washington rarely talked about his early years, so his first biographersmost infamously parson Mason Locke Weemsfilled in the gaps with tales that were often fabrications. Hence the cherry tree and silver-dollar-tossing stories beloved by millions.

That makes life difficult for anyone who wants to how this seminal American figure came to be, particularly for interpreters of his life at places such as the Washington Birthplace, Ferry Farm or even Mount Vernon, his magnificent later-in-life plantation near the federal city named for him.

Compounding that strain is the situation with Building X at his birthplace.

Levy, graduate students from the University of South Florida and the monuments cultural resources staff took a fresh look at streams of data from its 1930 and 1936 excavations.

For decades, the National Park Service has interpreted the spot as where Washington's birth house stood. But that was based on evidence that doesnt really work, Levy says.

He lays out why Building X isnt one building, as visitors were told for generations. Instead, these brick foundations are from several structures that stood at different times. Artifact concentrations and the foundations' insubstantial masonry indicate outbuildings used for food preparation, not the kind of dwelling in which the Washingtonswho were in the top 10 percent of the population in wealthwould have lived, Levy says.

We commend the National Park Service for re-appraising field notes, photographs, drawings and artifacts that long had lain dormant, and applying new knowledge about period ceramics, building construction and settlement patterns to the information in the monuments collection.

Already, this research is prompting staff to examine afresh some of the stories the park inherited. And theyve begun identifying a significant peninsula on Popes Creek as Good Point, not Burnt House Point, because the latter name isnt supported by a period map.

Facts, not lore, are what most visitors are after.

To truly figure out what Building X is, and isn't, Levy says researchers should re-examine the site using ground-penetrating radar and other low-impact methods, and re-excavate and analyze the backfill that reburied its foundations.

Park Superintendent Melissa Cobern supports the notion.

We need to do further archaeological research to actually determine where the birth house is and to examine the historic landscape, she told The Free LanceStar. We need to follow up to find out whats there."

We hope fervently that this happens, for the sake of everyones knowledge of George Washington and his familyand their globally significant home base in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
On July 9, as I was reading the Today in History section of The Free LanceStar, I came across a four-line piece in the five years ago part, in which your paper recalled the day that the remains of six U.S. airmen lost over Laos in 1965 were laid to rest in a single casket at Arlington National Cemetery.

In 2012, as I sat reading a feature article in the FLS, I looked at its photo of a woman seated upon a chair, crying in the arms of her brother during the Arlington funeral. As I read further, I came across the names of those missing airmen and saw that one of them was Col. Joseph Christiano. The woman was his daughter, Barbara Annechino, who I knew as a child.

I had worked with Christiano at Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire. The last time I saw him, he informed me that he had orders to go to Vietnam. The next time I visited Pease, I was told that he was missing in action.

Over the next 40 years, I checked on his status, but heard nothing until the FLS story. It was too late for me to attend his service.

Three years after his MIA status, I was stationed in Thailand not too far from where his aircraft was shot down, though I did not know that at that time. Maj. (later Col.) Christiano was a very good man and a one-of-a-kind officer.

I visited the Arlington grave site of these brave men, and sent his daughter a picture of its stone.

John Battaglia

Stafford

The letter writer, now retired, was the base sergeant major of the Air Forces 388th Combat Support Group, which was based in Thailand during the Vietnam War.
It is time for President Trump to fulfill his oath of office in dealing with his son, son-in-law and others concerning their covert dealings with Russian officials. Blood may be thicker than water, but all eyes are on his administration and his leadership.

Any other federal employee (or military member) with a security clearance would be treated entirely differently for these irresponsible actions, and for lying to cover up their misconduct. So much for transparency and draining the swamp as promised on the campaign trail.

President Trump should get busy preparing pardons for his family members and colleagues. Amnesia is becoming the disease of the day throughout the Trump administration.

As commander in chief, enforcement when security clearance policies are violated is absolutely criticalnobody is above the law.

Is this just the tip of the iceberg? What other lies are being told? What other cover-ups are underway?

Credibility is extremely important. As someone who has worked on Capitol Hill for three decades, I am deeply concerned that Americas credibility has been compromised, both nationally and international. This is clearly a wake-up call for all Americans concerned with the future of our democracy.

Damage control is desperately needed, and congressional leaders must exercise the checks and balances outlined in the U.S. Constitution. Apathy is absolutely unacceptable.

Steve Robertson

Spotsylvania
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Putin missed one. Trump very narrowly lost New Hampshire to Clinton 348,526 (47.62%) to 345,790 (47.25%). The first in the nation primary should have been a warning for Clinton; Bernie cleaned her clock-- 152,193 (60.14%) to 95,355 (37.68%). New Hampshire Democrats were infuriated when Wasserman Schultz's delegate-rigging system awarded that massive Bernie victory just 16 delegates to Hillary's 15. Many vowed they wouldn't vote for Wasserman Schultz's candidate in the general-- and they didn't. But the primary day result I want to draw your attention to-- the Bernie Woulda Won numbers-- is a comparison of Bernie's 152,193 total to Trump's sad, anemic 100,735 total. In fact, Bernie had more primary votes in New Hampshire than 1st place Trump PLUS send place Kasich (44,932) combined.





The Senate race was also very, very close. Democrat Maggie Hassan ousted GOP incumbent Kelly Ayotte 354,649 (48.0%)-- more votes than Hillary got-- to 353,632 (47.8%)-- way more votes than Trump got. It gets a little tricky in the House. The second congressional district is the bluer district (Hillary beat Trump there 48.6% to 46.2%) but NH-01 is always sketchier. Trump won it, in fact-- 48.2% to 46.6%. NH-01 had a Republican incumbent, teabagger Frank Guinta. Progressive Democrat Carol Shea Porter-- though massively outspent-- ousted Guinta, even though there was a rich right-wing corporate Democrat, Shawn O'Connor (masquerading as a Berniecrat) in the race explicitly trying to draw Democratic votes from her. The results on election day:

 Shea-Porter- 162,080 (44.3%)

 Guinta- 157,176 (43.0%)

 O'Connor- 34,735 (9.5%)

Although each candidate spent approximately the same amount of money-- around $1.5 million-- the NRCC spent $1,294,212 attacking Shea-Porter while the DCCC "responded" with a pathetic $96,200 time buy.





Next door in much easier NH-02, conservative Democrat Ann Kuster, a New Dem beat Republican Jim Lawrence 174,371 (49.8%) to 158,825 (45.3%). Kuster raised $3,159,505 to Lawrence's $95,443. But even though Kuster's district is far bluer and more easily navigated for a Democrat, she is much more likely to vote for Ryan's agenda than Carol-- by about 10 points and, according to the FiveThirtyEight Trump adherence page Kuster votes more frequently with Trump than Shea-Porter does, even though Shea-Porter's district has far more Trump voters than Kuster's.





On Tuesday New Hampshire Public Radio's Josh Rogers had a somewhat startling piece on how Kuster uses naked politics in her votes for Trump's ugly, bigoted and xenophobic immigration agenda, Kuster: Votes For Trump-Backed Immigration Bills Part Common Ground, Part 2018 Strategy . She's always been clear that she was looking for "common ground" where she could work with the Trump regime, but not in the way progressives want to work with him by bringing him over to progressive positions. She's just looking for places she can sign to his toxic agenda-- which she's done in about 1 out of 5 votes. "One of those, it turns out, is Trumps signature issue of immigration," reported Rogers. "So far this year, Kuster is among a minority of Democrats in the House to support some Trump-backed GOP bills that aim to crack down on illegal immigration."

Kusters votes are angering some Democrats, but Kuster sees them as good politics.



When Kuster opened the floor to questions at her town hall meeting in Nashua Monday, her support for whats known as Kates Law got plenty of attention.



Margaret Wheeler of Windham begged Kuster to rethink her position on the GOP bill, which targets criminal undocumented immigrants but would also stiffen penalties for immigrants without criminal records who repeatedly attempt to cross the U.S. border illegally.



This city, I know, your city, is full of people, they wont leave their homes, because they are afraid of being deported and never being able to come back, Wheeler said.



"So I am opposed to what the Trump administration ran on, and what they are doing to discourage people from staying here. And I want to just balance welcoming people and keeping the community safe," Kuster responded.



Kuster also seems to want to strike a political balance.



The same day she supported Kates Law, she also opposed a separate Trump-backed bill aimed at crimping the flow of federal aid to so-called sanctuary cities. But as one of just twenty-four Democrats to back Kates Law, Kusters vote was conspicuous-- and frustrating-- for liberals.



Lynn Tramonte is with the D.C.-based pro-immigrant advocacy group Americas Voice.



"We should not be giving any inch to Donald Trump on immigration, and the fact that Democrats are even considering these to be tough votes, I think is outrageous."



...When asked about whats driving her recent immigration votes-- Kuster also split with most of her caucus to back a Republican bill to relax hiring standards for U.S. Customs and Border Agents-- shes quick to cast them as tactical, a way to outmaneuver Republicans looking toward 2018.



They are using votes to set people up who are in swing states. And Im not going to set myself up for an ad, but I think we should have comprehensive immigration reform.



Kuster claims thats more doable than most think. As for the bills shes voting for now, Kuster says people should see them for what she expects them to be, meaningless.



They are not going anywhere. They are not going to be taken up in the Senate. None of these things are going to happen.



This may or may not be persuasive to many of Kusters core supporters.



Longtime Democratic activist Sylvia Gale said she didnt like what she heard from Kuster on Kates Law in Nashua, but she didnt say she was shocked.



Is it about reelection? Perhaps. Is it about financial support to get reelected? Perhaps. I like to think the people I believe in, are not that shallow. But I think thats a political reality in this state and many other places.



That voters, particularly Democrats, will accept that reality, is what Kuster seems to be banking on.

Again, although Kuster voted for it in a much bluer district, Carol Shea Porter, in a district Trump won, took a more courageous and principled stand in opposition:

Today, I voted against H.R.3004, or Kates Law, which is opposed by dozens of religious groups, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities USA, the Church World Service, the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Refugee and Immigrant Center Alliance, the New Hampshire Conference United Church of Christ Immigration Working Group, the American Friends Service Committee, Truah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and the Unitarian Universalist Association.



Let me be clear: the killing of Kate Steinle was a horrible and inexcusable crime, and my heart goes out to her family and loved ones. This should never have happened. We must investigate the breakdown in policy that led to Kates tragic death. This bill would, however, have serious negative consequences by increasing the likelihood that innocent asylum seekers, trafficking victims, and other non-criminal immigrants will be imprisoned. These victims would be in trouble if they presented themselves at ports of entry to seek help.



I also voted against H.R.3003, which the US Conference of Mayors strongly opposed and the Fraternal Order of Police said would unjustly penalize law enforcement and the citizens they serve because Congress disagrees with their enforcement priorities with respect to our immigration laws. We must stand up for proper funding for law enforcement. It is unjust to jeopardize our local police agencies, which are already underfunded and understaffed. The policies this bill seeks to end are designed to improve trust in law enforcement and help our police officers do their jobs effectively. We should not take away local communities and law enforcement agencies ability to decide how to do their jobs.

Kuster is just a disaster. When I asked her why she turned into such a piece of crap once she tricked progressives to help her get elected, she told me does does exactly what Steny Hoyer tells her today. She has no shame-- and no right being in Congress. New Hampshire Democrats should get rid of her already.
Dear Doctor: How necessary is the gallbladder? I recently had two flare-ups of what turned out to be gallbladder attacks. My doctor said that if I have another attack, he would recommend removal of the gallbladder. But dont I need it?

Dear Reader: To begin to answer your question, lets first look at the liver, which is next to the gallbladder. The liver produces bile, which contains bile salts. These salts are secreted into the small intestine after eating, helping to emulsify fats so that they can be absorbed more easily. Some of the bile is also stored in reserve within the gallbladder. While bile is obviously important, the benefit of bile storage in the gallbladder is more complex.

Now we have to look at why your doctor is considering the removal of the gallbladder. Gallstones occur when the bile in the gallbladder is saturated with either cholesterol or bilirubin, formed by the breakdown of red blood cells. In the Western world, having gallstones is quite common. The problem with these stones is that they can lead to inflammation and infection of the gallbladder; they can also get trapped within the duct that leads to the small intestine. Both of these cases require surgery.

However, a gallstone can also block a duct leading from the gallbladder; this occurs when the gallbladder contracts during eating. The contraction of the gallbladder, in addition to the blockage of the duct, leads to increased pressure in the gallbladder and pain in the upper abdomen toward the right side. A fatty meal can cause greater contraction of the gallbladder and thus more pain.

To prevent further attacks of what is termed biliary colic, you could consider staying away from high-fat foods and taking medication to help dissolve the stone. However, the success rate of these combined measures in preventing further attacks is only 30 percent. To prevent more attacks, not to mention the possible complications of gallbladder or bile duct infections, the majority of people opt for the removal of the gallbladder. In fact, each year in the United States, 800,000 people have their gallbladder removed. Among those who have the surgery done electively for biliary colic, 72 percent have a resolution of symptoms; for the others, the symptoms turned out to be unrelated to gallstones.

As for whether the gallbladder is necessary, consider the aftermath of gallbladder removal. Because bile is helpful for the absorption of fats, one would think that gallbladder removal would create a problem in this respect. Thats not the case. The liver still produces the bile needed to absorb fats.

One symptom that does increase after gallbladder surgery is flatulence. The reason is unknown, but the symptom doesnt appear to be physiologically serious.

Undoubtedly, there are benefits to having a gallbladder, so make sure your symptoms are related to the organ. That said, you can live a long and healthy life without a gallbladder. Heres the take-home message: Recurrent attacks of biliary colic would indeed seem to warrant removal of the gallbladder, not only to prevent further attacks, but also to decrease your chance of future gallbladder infection.
Joshua L. Belville, 26, of Spring Creek was arrested at 345 Fifth St. for possession of a controlled substance. Bail: $5,000

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Jacob J, Hoegger, 43, of Ryndon was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor. No bail listed.

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John W. Hooper, 38, of Cullowhee, North Carolina was arrested at the Elko County Jail on a warrant for failure to appear after a bail on a felony, and two counts of failure to appear after bail on a misdmeanor. Bail: $21,581

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Duston S. Houser, 32, of Lodi, California was arrested at the Washoe County Jail on a warrant for failure to appear bail on a felony. Bail: $10,000

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Duston S. Houser, 32, of Lodi, California was arrested at the Elko County Jail for failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor and Nevada Criminal Justice Information System Detainer. Bail: $3,695

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Chad L. Macias, 40, of Elko was arrested for violation of parole or condition of suspended sentence. No bail listed.

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David J. Nelson, 50, of Elko was arrested in Washoe County for two counts of failure to appear after bail on misdemeanor. Bail: $1,855

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Adrian A. Payne, 55, of Elko was arrested on Fifth and Wilson streets for failure to drive on right side of road, second offense DUI and use or being under the influence of a controlled substance. Bail: $6,755

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Mauricio M. Sanchez, 19, of Carlin was arrested on 11th and Hamilton Street for possession of a controlled substance and use or possession of drug paraphernalia. Bail: $5,500
The Corvallis City Council meets at 6 p.m. Monday at the downtown fire station, 400 NW Harrison Blvd., with a full agenda that includes a pair of public hearings.

Councilors will act on an implementation strategy for the climate action plan, review a proposed 278 percent increase in the transportation maintenance fee and discuss a proposed land donation from Corvue Holdings, which is developing the Campus Core (previously Campus Crest) student housing project in the Witham Oaks area.

Councilors will move to public hearings at 7:30 p.m., discussing the citys action plan for allocating federal housing funds and an economic improvement district plan by the Downtown Corvallis Association.

In other public meetings:

Monday

 The Corvallis School Board will meet in a special session at 9 a.m. at the district office, 1555 SW 35th St. to discuss awarding a contract for the replacement of boilers at Corvallis High School.

 The Monroe School Board meets at 7 p.m. in the high school library, 365 NW Fifth St. The oath of office will be given to members elected in May, officers will be elected and the board will consider contracts and other issues related to summer construction and facilities upgrades.

 The Philomath Planning Commission will meet in a 7 p.m. training session at City Hall, 980 Applegate St., on applications and decision types.

Tuesday

 The Benton County Board of Commissioners will hold a work session at 9 a.m. in the county boardrooms, 205 NW Fifth St., to discuss the countys human services transportation plan.

 The Benton County Board of Commissioners will meet at noon in the county boardrooms, 205 NW Fifth St. The agenda includes public hearings on setting an election to form a road district and annex territory into a rural fire protection district.

 An open house to present the city's historic preservation plan is at 6 p.m. in the Madison Avenue Meeting Room, 500 SW Madison Ave.

Wednesday

 The Housing and Community Development Advisory Board meets at 11:30 a.m. at the Madison room, 500 SW Madison Ave., and will discuss the strategy and timeline for recommendations it plans to make to the City Council.

 The Corvallis Arts and Culture Advisory Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at the Parks and Recreation Department, 1310 SW Avery Park Drive, and will discuss an arts and economic prosperity study.

 The Corvallis Planning Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. at the downtown fire station to discuss the draft historic preservation plan. At 7 p.m. commissioners will hold a public hearing on the Ponderosa Ridge subdivision in northwest Corvallis. See Mondays Gazette-Times for a preview story on the 275-home project.

Thursday

 The Oregon State University Board of Trustees Executive & Audit Committee will meet by telephone from 2 to 4 p.m. to consider nominees to recommend to the governor for a vacant board position. Members of the public can listen to the meeting in the Trysting Tree Room of the CH2M Hill Alumni Center, 725 SW 26th St., or by calling 541-713-3840.

 The Corvallis City Council meets in a 4 p.m. work session at the Madison room with a review of social serving funding policies the key agenda item.

 A session on the historic preservation plan is set for 6:30 p.m. at the Tunison Community Room, 365 SW Tunison Ave.

 The Parks, Natural Areas and Recreation Advisory Board meets at 6:30 p.m. at the Walnut Community Room, 4950 NW Fair Oaks Drive.

Friday

 The Corvallis City Legislative Committee meets at 10 a.m. at City Hall, 501 SW Madison Ave.

July 22

 Ward 1 Corvallis Councilor Penny York will be the government comment corner guest from 10 a.m. to noon at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 NW Monroe Ave.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
Swimming pool regulations : Questions answered after woman thrown out for improper swimwear

Siegburg A Muslim woman was kicked out of a Siegburg outdoor pool for not wearing swimwear in keeping with pool regulations. Ordinances on swimwear dictate what can be worn in the water, and staff have authority to enforce those rules.

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A Muslim woman and her companion were asked to leave the water at the Siegburg Oktopus pool because she went into the water wearing a cloth made of light polyester fabric. The couple refused, there was a quarrel, and finally the police came to remove them. The incident, which happened last Friday raises questions.

Which clothing is required according to public pool regulations?

Both in Siegburg and in Sankt Augustin, the ordinance states that guests must be in usual swimming attire. This formulation leaves open as to what is meant by usual. Further, it states that swimwear should not have pockets (Sankt Augustin), and it is not allowed to be made of material such as jeans or corduroy (Siegburg).

What is meant by usual swimwear?

Short swim trunks and a bathing suit are probably undisputed as the normal swimwear. But what are the limits? Is a knee-length swim trunk still usual or a UV protective shirt with long sleeves or a Burkini? The city of Sankt Augustin answers: We see normal swimwear as including swim trunks, bathing suits, bikinis as well as burkinis. Usually, the swimwear is made of artificial fibers. Cotton clothing such as underwear, cut-off jeans, T-shirts, dresses or scarves are not accepted, according to the statement from the city.

Why do ordinances have to dictate to guests what they are and are not allowed to wear?

According to both cities, hygienic reasons play a decisive role in determining what is not allowed in the water. Everyday clothing can be sweaty or dirty. Also, one has to prevent cotton fibers from entering the pool water.

Are there safety considerations for longer clothing?

Swimwear should always fit close to the body, otherwise freedom of movement in the water may be restricted, says Stefan Halm of the DLRG, a German organization for water rescue. Even longer swim trunks can mean a swimmer has to exert more force in the water and can tire more easily.

What kind of authority does the swimming pool attendant have?

Swimming regulations are clear: The staff or other appointed persons at the pool have the right to exercise house rules. Their instructions are to be followed. Those who do not follow the instructions of the pool attendant must be prepared to leave the premises. In the Sankt Augustin outdoor swimming pool, it is up to the discretion of the staff to determine which swimwear meets requirements and which does not.

Why did the police have to intervene in Siegburg?
New Zealanders bike through Europe : Riding for the climate

Foto: Wachter

Bonn Two New Zealand teens are biking through Europe to create awareness about climate change. They passed though Bonn on Thursday and plan to return in November for the UN Climate Change Summit.

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Inka Vogt and Fabian Beveridge are biking through Europe - and Bonn. They already have 4,000 kilometers behind them and several thousand still to go. The New Zealanders are pedaling through Europe as Climate Ambassadors for the United Nations (UN). On Thursday, they made a stop in Bonn before heading towards Mainz.

Australia and New Zealand are a dream destination for many high school graduates in Europe, but the two 18-year-olds came to discover Europe - on bike. Not only did they want to see the continent but they wanted to do it in a climate-friendly way to help create awareness and get people to think about living in harmony with the climate. We cant reduce everything in our lives, but we can do quite a lot, says Fabian Beveridge on behalf of his traveling companion - in flawless German. At home, he is on his bike very often, while she admits to biking less.

For their UN bike tour, they received training for three days. The pair flew from New Zealand to Portugal and because flying is considered a climate-killer, they contributed to the initiative Climate Neutral Now, which allows people, corporations and governments to measure their carbon footprint. From Bonn the pair will travel on to Mainz, then to Frankfurt, Munich, on to Austria and down to Greece. They will visit other climate activists from NGOs and Climate Neutral Now participants as well as the Momentum for Change project.
Security controls : Staff shortage leads to long lines at the airport

DUSSELDORF/ESSEN Passengers who are flying out from airports in NRW this summer should be prepared for long lines at security. The reason: Not enough personnel.

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During the summer vacation period, passengers can expect long queues again at the security controls in airports in the state of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW). Friedrich P. Kotter, who is head of the Essen security firm which provides personnel to airports in Dusseldorf and Cologne/Bonn says they will do their best.

The security firm is contracted to the Federal Police. In the past few months, we have reinforced our personnel, but we dont have a hundred just waiting in our back pocket. Kotter said personnel capacity at the airport was not like electricity that can be switched on and off as desired.

According to estimates, the security industry is short of 12,000 to 16,000 employees, says Kotter. Because security personnel first receive a relatively long period of training of 200 hours, plus a final exam, there is no policy of hiring temporary workers.

However, there is close cooperation between the airlines, federal police and airport administration to try to minimize bottlenecks during peak periods. For example, streams of passengers or airplanes can be diverted to terminals and gates which are free. In order to speed up new hirings, the authorities could also help, said Kotter.
Article

Protecting the worlds oceans  an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy

The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs.
Meet The Youngest Female Pilot In Nigeria, Captain Obasi

bayonel3 at 14-07-2017 04:56 PM (5 years ago) (m)

Captain Obasi who was recognised by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is currently a pilot with Arik Air, flying the Lagos-Johannesburg flights.

Captain Obasi who was recognised by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is currently a pilot with Arik Air, flying the Lagos-Johannesburg flights. She has also been included in the FAA Airmen Certification Database. Prior to becoming a certified pilot, Obasi had first worked as a flight attendant.

See pictures of her below:

She has also been included in the FAA Airmen Certification Database. Prior to becoming a certified pilot, Obasi had first worked as a flight attendant.See pictures of her below:

Post Reply I scour the world wide web to bring you interesting stories from around the globe. [email protected] Posted: at 14-07-2017 04:56 PM (5 years ago) | Hero

Floyd29 at 14-07-2017 05:07 PM (5 years ago)

(f) Wow......

Posted: at 14-07-2017 05:07 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac Wow...... Reply

ficull at 14-07-2017 05:45 PM (5 years ago)

(m) How can she be the youngest pilot when your post didnt say her age? Posted: at 14-07-2017 05:45 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac How can she be the youngest pilot when your post didnt say her age? Reply

emydaddy at 14-07-2017 05:46 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Perfect lady ))) Posted: at 14-07-2017 05:46 PM (5 years ago) | Upcoming Perfect lady ))) Reply

olowoinlionsden at 14-07-2017 06:14 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: ficull on 14-07-2017 05:45 PM How can she be the youngest pilot when your post didnt say her age?

. Even if her age is stated, how do you confirm it, since the Reporter does not even know the difference between a Captain and a First Officer. Posted: at 14-07-2017 06:14 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac . Even if her age is stated, how do you confirm it, since the Reporter does not even know the difference between a Captain and a First Officer. Reply

euwilliams at 14-07-2017 06:46 PM (5 years ago)

(f) Keep it up Posted: at 14-07-2017 06:46 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac Keep it up Reply

benosky4 at 14-07-2017 07:11 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Not enough conviction that she's the youngest. #MyVerdict. Posted: at 14-07-2017 07:11 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac Not enough conviction that she's the youngest. Reply

gogoman at 14-07-2017 08:38 PM (5 years ago)

(m) I'll see her in JO'burg Posted: at 14-07-2017 08:38 PM (5 years ago) | Addicted Hero I'll see her in JO'burg Reply

dareper at 14-07-2017 08:47 PM (5 years ago)

(m) she tried. Posted: at 14-07-2017 08:47 PM (5 years ago) | Hero she tried. Reply

tegonwa at 14-07-2017 09:19 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Congrats Young Beautiful Igbo Girl.Keep Breaking Records While Some Other Girls Are Busy Priding Themselves As Babymamas.Very Hopeless Of Them.Hopelessly Hopeless! Posted: at 14-07-2017 09:19 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac Congrats Young Beautiful Igbo Girl.Keep Breaking Records While Some Other Girls Are Busy Priding Themselves As Babymamas.Very Hopeless Of Them.Hopelessly Hopeless! Reply

freethinker at 14-07-2017 09:27 PM (5 years ago)

(m) ADA BIAFRA Posted: at 14-07-2017 09:27 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac ADA BIAFRA Reply

osayan1 at 14-07-2017 11:38 PM (5 years ago)

(m) God Calabar child Posted: at 14-07-2017 11:38 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac God Calabar child Reply

pricklong at 15-07-2017 09:26 AM (5 years ago)

(m) Omotala husband should tell us which air line he work for am only hearing captain Posted: at 15-07-2017 09:26 AM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac Omotala husband should tell us which air line he work for am only hearing captain Reply
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U.S., Coalition Continue Strikes to Defeat ISIS in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 13, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 24 strikes consisting of 62 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

U.S. Central Command continues to work with partner nations to conduct targeted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria as part of the comprehensive strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 19 strikes consisting of 24 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed two ISIS oil tanks and an oil refinery building.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, six strikes destroyed 16 ISIS oil stills, 10 oil barrels, six oil trucks and two wellheads.

-- Near Raqqa, 12 strikes engaged 10 ISIS tactical units and destroyed nine fighting positions, a command-and-control node, an anti-air artillery system, a vehicle bomb and a tunnel.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted five strikes consisting of 38 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Beiji, a strike destroyed two tactical vehicles and a vehicle.

-- Near Hit, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Mosul, a strike engaged two ISIS tactical units; destroyed 19 fighting positions, four medium machine guns and a rocket-propelled grenade system; and damaged five fighting positions.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike destroyed two ISIS bunker systems.

-- Near Rawah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

July 11 Strikes

Additionally, 15 strikes were conducted in Syria and Iraq on July 11 that closed within the last 24 hours:

-- Near Raqqa, Syria, 12 strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units and destroyed five improvised bombs, three fighting positions, two vehicle bombs, three ISIS communications towers, two command-and control-nodes, an anti-air artillery system and a communications repeater.

-- Near Shadaddi, Syria, two strikes destroyed two ISIS command-and-control nodes.

-- Near Mosul, Iraq, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed four medium machine guns and a rocket-propelled grenade system.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.

For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Transcript

Presenter: Colonel Ryan Dillon, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve Spokesman; Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, Spokesperson for Joint Operations Command; Brigadier General Halgwrd Hikman Ali, Spokesperson for the Peshmerga Forces; Brigadier General Saad Maan, Iraqi Ministry Of Interior Spokesman July 13, 2017

Department of Defense Press Briefing by Colonel Dillon and Iraqi Spokesmen in the Pentagon Press Briefing Room

STAFF: (inaudible) fresh off the liberation of Mosul.

But as you know, there's still much work to be done. So, I'm also glad to be introducing Colonel Dillon, who many of you have seen (inaudible), that you know have him live and in person today.

So with that, I will leave it to Colonel Dillon. Thank you.

COLONEL RYAN DILLON: Thank you, ma'am.

Is this on? All right. Very good.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks, everyone, for coming.

As you can already see, this is not your regular weekly OIR update from me. And I am honored to have with me today a spokesman from the Iraqi security forces sitting with me: Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, who is the spokesperson for Joint Operations Command.

We have Brigadier General Halgwrd Hikman AliHalgwrd Hikman Ali, who is the spokesperson for the Peshmerga forces.

And we have Brigadier General Saad MaanMaan, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.

We also have in the audience nine of their colleagues -- spokespeople from Prime Minister al-Abadi's office, and other military and government organizations.

You are all well aware that Prime Minister Abadi officially announced the liberation of Mosul earlier this week. We in the coalition want to echo Prime Minister Abadi's congratulations to the Iraqi security forces. This is a historic victory against a brutal and evil enemy.

This victory deals a significant blow to ISIS towards ending their false statehood. Over the last three years, through Iraqi determination, ISIS has been on an increasingly rapid decline, losing Tikrit, Ramadi, Fallujah, and now Mosul.

Iraqi security forces, on the other hand, have only improved and gotten stronger. They have proven with their battlefield successes that they know they're better -- that they are a better fighting force and they are better than the terrorist that they fight.

Defeating Daesh throughout Iraq has been a true unity of effort under Prime Minister -- underneath Prime Minister Abadi's direction. And just look at how the Iraqi security forces have fought. All elements of the Iraqi security forces achieved this victory together: Iraqi army, the federal police, Peshmerga forces, local police, counterterrorism service, and popular and tribal mobilization forces.

Overall, Iraqi security forces have cleared more than 30,000 square miles of territory that had once been held by ISIS, and nearly 2 million Iraqis formerly displaced have now returned to their homes.

However, the defeat of ISIS in Mosul does not mark the end of this evil ideology and global threat. With the coalition's help, the ISF will keep the pressure on this enemy while they are on their heels and not give them a chance to rest.

The coalition, with both military and through stabilization efforts, will continue to support Iraq in their efforts to defeat ISIS. The progress that has been made to date is because of brave Iraqi partners who take the fight to ISIS every single day, and the strong coalition that supports and fights with them.

It is the professionalism and the dedication and competence of these men and women who have gone toe to toe with this terrorist group and have paved the way for ISIS's lasting defeat.

And with that, I'll now turn it to General Rasool for an opening statement.

BRIGADIER GENERAL YAHYA RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): In the name of God, (inaudible). I'm Brigadier General Yahya Rasool Abdullah, the spokesperson of the Joint Operations Command. I'm currently present with my colleagues and brothers as a part of a delegation after the victory achieved by our heroes of the Iraqi forces and the defeat of ISIL, the terrorist organization.

Quite frankly, when I talk about the battle to liberate Mosul, since Mosul (inaudible) steps and phases of this battle, whether fighting at the east or the west bank, and the victories we achieved, and also when it comes to the west bank or the right bank. We achieved a number of victories at the -- when it comes to the military operation.

I was looking at the plans and the (inaudible) planning, and professional work of our forces from the beginning. That planning went through phases and at times we stopped for -- to have some consideration for certain circumstances, of considering some of the changes based on the geography, the nature of the battle, and the enemy we are fighting, and according to what the military leaders are looking into and considering.

But the long period taken by this battle, because of the reasons that we can explain, as the Iraqi leadership with the guidance and directive of our prime minister, Dr. Haider al-Abadi, the commander of armed forces. Before the beginning of the military operation to liberate the city of Mosul, the purpose was to liberate the person, the human, before liberating the land itself.

Therefore, we considered this a human victory before a victory of a location, of a land. We liberated millions of people. We liberated them from terrorism, starvation and the worst terrorist organization in the world, known to human-kind. And we did a great job by this victory. Our hero Iraqi forces and the Iraqi military and the counterterrorism services, and also the federal police forces -- these are our heroes.

In addition, the Peshmerga -- these are other heroes, and also the Popular Mobilization forces. From the beginning, they were part of all of our military operations to liberate the city of Mosul.

This victory is a victory of a coalition that liberated large areas that was, quite frankly, the most difficult area to liberate because of the nature of our enemy. We are not forgetting here the role of our friends in the international coalition. They supported us in so many different ways.

RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): First, they really helped us when it comes to sharing intelligence information and the aerial imagery that they shared with us. And the aerial -- continuous aerial coverage that they gave our forces on top of the equipping, training, and support that we received from our partners, with the latest and the most modern weaponry that we needed, quite frankly, in this battle.

However, let me emphasize that the main victory was the liberation of the old city of Mosul. That battle has a great significance. The old city of Mosul is composed of a number of areas and neighborhoods. Its geographical nature is a little bit different. It's an old and ancient city, very crowded, with very narrow alley -- narrow -- narrow alleys that not two people can even pass. We cannot use our armored vehicles to pass these streets.

And also, we were banned from using heavy weaponry. Simply, we tried to target the enemy when it's located in an area that we can use our heavy weaponry. But they booby-trapped everything. The buildings, the small areas and alleyways, and also they used dummy trap -- traps. And they also used innocent civilians as human shields. They really used these techniques, especially, after they apprehend women, children and elderly as human shields, and tried to hinder our progress so that we will face a major casualties among civilians and blame us for it.

I would actually take a lot of time, but the last battle was the battle to liberate the old city. After we advanced to the southern area with our heroes continued, liberated to (INAUDIBLE), to the southern bank of the city, and they raised the Iraqi flag in those liberated areas.

In the western area, we had counterterrorism services, and in the northern area we have the different parts, which have the Division 16, supported by the armed Ninth Division. What was left is (INAUDIBLE) area that is closer to the counterterrorism services, and the area of (INAUDIBLE) that was located closer to the northern access, where the different divisions of the Iraqi army was located.

The -- this organization, when they realized that they are being defeated -- defeated in the battle, they were -- out of desperation, they used suicide men and women. The numbers killed, as a result of this technique, most of them are from other nationalities, Arab nationalities and foreign nationalities. I would say 80 percent of them were from other nationalities, Arabic and foreigners, and composed from both genders, men and women.

RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I was there at the -- where they -- the counterterrorism services were located, and, quite frankly, identified corpses, and we identified six women from other -- the non- Iraqi citizenry, and we have the documents. And they were wearing explosive belts, and they were attacking our forces. And around -- within one day, there were 17 suiciders (sic) facing our forces. Other than that, they were trying to run to the Tigris River, towards the eastern area. However, our forces were there, and they seized the city very well, so that will avoid any escape of any of their forces and elements.

This victory today, it's not a victory of Iraqi people. This is a victory for the whole world, a world that suffered from the acts of these terrorists everywhere. There were crimes, terrorist acts that had been committed by this organization.

This victory that will lead us to continue liberating the other areas under their occupation. We still have a long way to go. We still have more military operations to conduct. And we have a long way to work.

We have Tal'Afar (Inaudible). These are areas we need to work on how we -- Hawija, south of Kirkuk. We have Anah, Al-Qa'im, (INAUDIBLE). God willing, we continue our military operations.

We defeated the state of so-called, illusion, blasphemy. And today, we have our city back as a result of our brother -- sons and daughters, the heroes of Iraq, and all those who stood by us. And I'd like to thank them as part of the international coalition who are fighting all those terrorist organizations.

And as I said, God willing, we are continuing our military operations to continue to liberate the remaining occupied lands of Iraq. And we want to get rid of those barbaric elements from our homeland.

(UNKNOWN): (UNTRANSLATED).

COL. DILLON: OK. All right. First we'll go Saad Maan first while they (inaudible), OK?

BRIGADIER GENERAL SAAD MAAN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. It's my pleasure to be here with you. Yes, it is a historical days that we managed to achieve our victory with your help, with the help of our friends for the coalition forces, and also the American friends. Yes, it is a historical days. And really, I'm very proud about what we achieved. Especially if we compare the situation in 2014 and what we're doing now.

General Yahya Rasool, maybe he mentioned all the situation and he give you a picture about what's going on. I want to emphasize on some points.

One of it, it's we managed to make our policemen have the ability to do their job again. And to -- and we managed to build the bridge between police, Nineveh police and federal police, and our society, our people in Mosul, which was a very important issue because if we go for the indication about what happened in the last times, especially in 2014, I think it was really the weak point there.

So, we managed. And today at morning the police of Nineveh also managed to kill three of their Daesh while trying to annoy the others from West Bank to the East Bank. And they were monitoring them. And they managed to kill them.

Also, maybe it is for the -- it is the first time that a police, which is a federal police, and it is a unique job for them, managed to fight and to scold their job as side-by-side with the army. And really, you know, the federal police now, we are depending on them in so many access, and they're doing their best.

Maybe there's a question what will we do after Daesh, especially Nineveh? Ministry of Interior prepared everything. The general -- the directorate of Nineveh police and also the federal police were managed to, with the help of Nineveh people, to maintain the security inside Mosul and also inside the other cities for Nineveh.

We opened a 19th section in Nineveh, and the 34th police station. And also, other institute belong for Ministry of Interior. Now we have about 7,048 case which is arise by the Nineveh people. And we managed to tackle 4,033 of them, and still while following our 3,145 of these cases.

When we talking about cases and we're talking about policing, and when we are talking about judicial system, it means live in Nineveh. Now it is ordinary. And we are going forward for another steps is to help Nineveh government to rebuild Nineveh again. Thank you indeed.

BRIGADIER GENERAL HALGWRD HIKMAN ALI (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I'd like to welcome you. Thank you so much for being here. The success on winning battles of Iraqi forces in Mosul and other areas were just as my friend's mentioned. I'd like to say that -- to congratulate everyone. Everyone knows that the Peshmerga forces has been a fight in ISIL.

And we broke the myth about ISIS. And with support of the coalition forces, we could also as a partner in this coalition, international coalition, to be an effective force on the ground and help the Iraqi forces, especially in Mosul operation. And we know that Peshmerga forces in Kurdish region has pushed back ISIL in many areas, and also the Peshmerga support activities for the Iraqi forces has been continuous then until now.

These supports will be continue -- will continue within this international coalition, and will support the Iraqi forces. We hope that we could liberate the total Nineveh Plain, and Hawija and other areas from this terrorist group. And to get rid of them once for all, and bring back Iraq to the before when they weren't around. Terrorism could be eradicated in the region. And, of course, we need -- after eradication of this terrorist groups to have plans -- plans to eradicate the ideology of Daesh in the region. This is a main objective of all the -- should be main -- main objective of the KRG and also the government of Iraq and other countries -- neighboring countries and our friends internationally.

We would like to see that as the Peshmerga forces. We will continue in supporting, and we will remain an active member of the international community to rescue and to liberate other areas, whether Hawija or other places.

We are ready and -- of course. And we are looking forward to seeing that other areas, Hawija, Tal Afar, and the rest of the areas under control of ISIS could be liberated by the Iraqi forces in support of the Kurdish forces and other international forces.

Thank you so much.

DAVIS: OK. We'll go ahead and start with questions. Hold on one sec. Lita, please?

(UNKNOWN): (Speaking foreign language).

DAVIS: OK. Go ahead, Lita. Yes?

Q: Hi. Lolita Baldor with the Associated Press. Question for the -- the general. How do you respond to charges that the Iraqi forces had a lot of -- caused a lot of civilian casualties during the Mosul fight and -- and other abuses there?

And then, for -- for the other two, can you talk a little bit about what you'd like to see from the coalition, and also from the Peshmerga forces, as you move ahead to the fight for Tal Afar and along the Euphrates River Valley? And do you want any additional support in the stabilization of Mosul?

RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): In the name of Allah, the battle, it was fierce with its organize -- terrorist organizations. However, there was some -- something to consider that they use everything. They were using hundreds of boobytrap vehicles, and they used it among civilians.

Therefore, this organization was the main reason and significantly to cause casualties among civilians. They used boobytrapped vehicles among neighborhoods and also shooting people, using (inaudible) and rockets towards civilian residence -- residencies on top of the suiciders and land mines.

Therefore, this terrorist organization was trying to cause the most civilian casualties, knowing that -- knowing very well that militarily they have lost the battle of Mosul, and they will be eliminated. Contrary to what's been done by all those participating to liberate -- liberate the city, they were very considerate of the -- of citizens and made sure to save human lives. And we wanted -- they wanted genuinely to liberate people from this terrorist organization.

Therefore, they transferred hundreds of thousands of people to safe -- to safety. Therefore, we won morally before we achieved military victory.

The sacrifice among the civilians and the -- those sacrifices done by the elements of our forces are much more different. And this is -- if you heard about civilian casualties, it's because of what the terrorists done to them. And, quite frankly, because of tactics used in their fight.

GEN. MAAN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Regarding an -- a relation to the battle in Tal Afar and our -- what we are, quite frankly, need form the coalition on top of what's been mentioned by Brigadier General Yahya and the prime minster who has stated three days ago, he was very clear in his statement. We will not -- he stated he -- we will not anyone to commit violations against human rights or abuse of power. And if there's any controversy or issue, there was an immediate investigation, whether it's an individual behavior because it -- we need to -- we need to make sure that they don't relate to the military institutions.

There were -- there are individuals who when -- this -- we -- there are those who would like to make those victories by -- made by the military of Iraq are not as significant. So, there is a lot of fabrications and rumors and false news regarding what happened there.

What we'd like to -- to -- we would like from the international or global coalition is the continuous support to Iraqi forces to complete its missions of liberating the remaining areas, whether it's Tal Afar or -- or -- and Hawija, or other areas according to the map, based on the priorities of the joint military operations, and also to focus of returning security and stabilization of the liberated areas. This also requires additional training, and providing the basic services, and cameras, and surveillance equipment so that we'll be able to stabilize the area.

Before we arrived to Washington -- few days ago, before our arrival to Washington, there were -- there was what's called the mobile police units that's been established, prior to our arrival. And we are gratefully receive that support and those vehicles from the coalition countries. And we will distribute it to the liberated areas to secure the citizens.

And them -- they might have other duties. And also, would like to help the border control units to do their job in a better fashion.

HIKMAN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Regarding the preparedness of the Peshmerga to the great Hawija, Tal Afar, and other areas that I mentioned earlier that the Peshmerga forces are already -- even before preparing for the Mosul operation. They are ready. And we are now all prepared.

But the international community, we are first focusing on Mosul, liberating Mosul. Of course, these places should be naturalized. But it will time and mechanism -- I can still say we have to rebuild even the individuals, the people in these areas who are controlled by ISIL. Because it's not just about been controlling a place militarily, but they actually are a dangerous force that affecting the international -- the -- the whole world, not just the Iraq.

So, that's why eradicating this ideology is very important. We have to have a strategy by the coalition and the international community to continue with eradicating of this ideology. The International Coalition should continue supporting the Iraqi forces including the Peshmergas.

Q: (Inaudible) the retaking of Mosul and rightfully so. I was just...

(OFF MIKE)

Q: I was just saying you're -- you're obviously proud of retaking Mosul, and rightfully so. But obviously, we would not be sitting here if Mosul had not fallen in -- in the first place.

(OFF MIKE)

Q: We wouldn't be sitting here today if Mosul had not fallen and part of the reason -- a lot of the blame was because of the Iraqi Security Forces and their inabilities, there was a lot of melting away when a small group of ISIS fighters sort of came towards Mosul about three years ago. Now that Mosul's been retaken, President Trump, a few minutes ago, said, you know, Mosul's won and we want to make sure that it remains a victory. Can you sort of talk to the Iraqi people and the coalition who were supporting you why they should trust the Iraqi Security Forces now when just three years ago they were incapable of holding territory and against a small group of ISIS fighter?

RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Today, the Iraqi forces are the pride of the nation. Our heroic divisions, they recovered after -- and they proved themselves that they covered after these operations and they liberated the Iraqi cities that's been occupied by foreign terrorist groups. Let's go back, 2014. There were approximately 40 percent of Iraqi territory was under the control of this terrorist organization. Today, we have very small percentage of Iraqi territory under -- still under their control. This did not happen haphazardly. We made careful selections of the military -- military leadership.

They are professional and extensive training equipping and coordination with coalition forces. Many divisions and forces have been trained of street fighting, and engineering and how to address the land mines, sorry. And all those bombings that's done -- that's been put by the terrorist group.

Therefore, that is why we had this victory. The whole world now trust and have confidence in the Iraqi military institution and all the Iraqi forces. When we're dealing with dense -- dense city an urban neighborhood, Mosul has 1.5 to 2 million citizens in it, whether it's the left or the right bank. These heroes and our forces fought in an urban setting and protected their lives and their properties. It is not an easy equation to fight in an area that is populated by civilians and protect their lives and their properties, and the infrastructure and then also at the same time, eliminate the terrorist individuals. No army can achieve what the sons of the Iraqi forces achieved. These are our heroes, of liberating those cities when this (inaudible) organization that slaughtered and starved and looted and raped everything that is in that city. There's nothing we can -- I don't have the words to describe this -- what they've done in that city.

Today, the coalition forces are fighting side by side to us looking -- realizing that they are working with their counterparts. Mosul started -- operations started in autumn, then it was winter, and then it was spring, and then summer, the last days, and when the temperature is more than 50 centrigade.

In stifling heat, and the Iraqi hero as a fighter is standing there protecting the citizens and fighting terrorists. No army can achieve what we achieved, and those belonging to the Iraqi army.

Therefore, I salute them. I respect them. And I really -- I'm really sure that today can realize the wise leadership of our prime minister and the professional military leadership in Iraq. We are all proud of them. What they achieved and street wars, it's going to be something they're going to be talking at war colleges in (inaudible) and the world entirely for years to come.

Therefore, I'm confident, and the whole world is confident, in our capabilities. Without that, we wouldn't be here today in Washington having this press conference talking about our victories and the victory achieved by the different divisions and forces of the Iraqi army.

The whole world is supporting us, and standing by (inaudible). We are coordinating very well with the coalition forces in arming, equipping and training our forces to raise their capabilities. And, thank God, and that was proven in the army. We had also Iraqi air force. We have F-15s jet fighters and we were precise in the targeting of those places, just to eliminate those areas that we knew that the terrorists exist.

Therefore, we will be more confident and we will continue gaining confidence and trust as we liberate the other areas like Tal Afar and Hawija, and other places.

GEN. MAAN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Just to add to answer -- add to the answer, of course, all world armies, they fight in wars. Some battles are different than other battles in its nature. But what counts at the end of result true. Daesh is not -- fighting Daesh is a global fight. It's not only an Iraqi war.

Many countries, the whole globe, is suffering from the presence of their cells and units. Nobody's immune to Daesh's existence or ISIL.

Therefore, nobody fights face to face on the ground facing those groups other than Iraqi forces today. Therefore, the Iraqi victory is a victory for all who love peace in the world.

(CROSSTALK)

Q: Thank you.

Can you please -- can you please give us some update on the number of Daesh fighters that remain in Iraq? Can you also give us an update on the number of Iraqi security forces that have been killed?

And how long after Daesh is defeated do you think the coalition should remain in your country?

RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): First of all, in relation to ISIL fighters, (inaudible) the Iraqi intelligence agencies are tracing and trying to find out a little bit more about the remaining members of this unit.

Of course, in every battle there are sacrifices. There is a -- we will conduct a press conference in Baghdad and we will mention the percentage of areas of liberated, the number of Daesh that have been killed, and what's being conducted by the different divisions of the army and forces after the liberation of the city of Mosul. So we are going to give more details in that press conference.

Regarding the remaining time to liberate the -- sorry -- the required time to liberate the remaining areas, can I say that we'd like to assure everybody that coming shortly, or very soon, we'll start military operations to liberate the remaining Iraqi areas under occupation.

And the Iraqi military leadership, after consulting the commander in chief of armed forces, of course we will follow his directive, of if we're going to go towards Hawija or Tal Afar or other areas. And we could start military operations towards different areas at the same time. Currently, we're confident that we are capable of having a number of operations simultaneously.

And that's what we've done in the battle of Fallujah, when -- where we arrived at the center of Fallujah, and then they spread towards al-Jahara and other places. And we liberated the airport of al-Jahara .

We leave it to the Iraqi leadership -- military leadership. And God willing, I know it's going to be very soon to liberate the remaining occupied territory of Iraq.

(CROSSTALK)

RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): And last question about how long the coalition forces will stay in Iraq after liberating the country from ISIL, that's not in my portfolio. I just talk about military operations. This is left to the Iraqi military leadership with coordination with the global coalition countries.

Q: (inaudible) and your companions. I know you don't have an answer. Maybe you do. You've been asked this question a lot lately, and you're probably tired of hearing it. But there's still the question about the leadership of ISIS.

Where do you think they are? What do you think is left? And what do you think their importance is, even if they are still around?

RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Honestly, the elements of the leadership of ISIL and those influential within the organization, we -- (inaudible) -- defeated them and damaged, especially as a result of the precise intelligence information we targeted at command and control areas. We targeted some of their influential members, and we killed a large number of their leadership.

After the battle of Mosul, and liberating the city of Mosul, that city, as many of those terrorists consider the capitol of their illusionary state, after they bombed (inaudible) and the northern mosque, which is considered the main achievements of these terrorist groups, it was a clear message that they failed, as far as we see it.

Therefore, we don't want to reduce that -- reduce the importance of eliminating the remaining numbers of them, but we killed a large number of the leadership, and they collapsed within their structure, and they're fighting among themselves in Hawija and Tal Afar, currently. The system they were based on, they -- it started to collapse because we got precise intelligence information, and, currently, we are pursuing the remaining leaders of this organization to eliminate them also.

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Currently, you won (inaudible) reclaiming this city, Mosul city. But after you liberate all the areas, do you have an Iraqi strategy, or another strategy in cooperation with the international coalition to guarantee that they won't return to Mosul, or any other province of the country?

RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): The -- the only remaining elements currently under the -- the only remaining countries under the -- these organization is in Tal Afar and (inaudible). Currently, we tried to secure the borders, and that's what we achieved with the PMF, or the Popular Mobilization Forces, that currently control a large section of the border so that they won't run or cross between the Iraqi or Syrian borders, so they don't escape there, or don't return to our country. Therefore, we are -- we have a plan.

Let me clarify an important point. Yes, we have a partnership with the coalition countries, and you mentioned that cooperation with the coalition. We said about the training, equipping, and coordination, and this has happened with the approval of the Iraqi government. More than 60 countries are doing -- helping us, in addition to the United States government, helping our Iraqi forces. But the most important part you need to know -- who planned for these battles, who leads it, who goes forward in the front lines are the soldiers and sons of Iraq. Our soldiers are on the front lines. Iraqi forces are on the front line.

Yes, we have the partnership with international coalition, and I mention, specifically, where are the points that we cooperate with the international coalition, and where we gain -- get their support?

GEN. MAAN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): To add to the answer? Apparently, the coming battle is the battle of information, the intelligence information is the coming phase of this battle. Currently, they try to have attacks against civilians out of desperation, but they don't have any contract to any land. Therefore, there is an emphasis on two points.

First of all, to build our -- the intelligence information, and also gain the trust of the citizens so they will be part of this intelligence gathering. Without taking any -- without the help of citizens, we won't go forward in any step forward.

And that's how we succeeded as -- to prove it in Anbar and Fallujah and Ramadi. The information, the accurate information about any movement or any attempt of a sleeping cell comes to us, in a timely fashion, from the people, from our citizens in Mosul. Similar to our -- what happened in Mosul. Today, we have a very solid relation between the security apparatus and the Iraqi or Mosuli citizen. Anybody who follows closely the security affairs of Iraq, especially in the last two weeks, you can know that we killed more than 10 suiciders from tips that we got from the citizens. So, the coming faith is the information phase and the intelligence-gathering phase.

RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): If my colleague allow me, we have a military victory in our hands today. But, what happens after that? And how the terrorist organizations react to this is not something that's going to happen very quickly or immediately. It takes time. We need to extend bridges of trust with our people, our citizens everywhere. And that's how we get the current success. There are people who are giving us tips about their leadership, citizens. For example, city of Mosul, one of the suiciders attempted in (Inaudible) area. He wanted to have an operation to kill checkpoint. But the young people, the courageous people and young people of Mosul, they attacked him before he came to attack our checkpoints and forces there. Therefore, we need to have a good relationship with the citizens and let them trust us, on top of gathering intelligence with their help. Many of the preemptive operations that we executed as through our intelligence forces, we cannot share it with you here because we need still to follow up and capture the remaining members of these cells.

Q: Thank you very much.

Brigadier General Rasool, I want to make sure I understand your answer to Thomas's question. So, you believe you have enough Iraqi forces right now to conduct the next offensives, Tel Afar and whatnot, and still hold the other areas like Mosul?

And then Brigadier General Saad Maan, how many Iraqi police do you expect will be needed to hold Mosul?

And then one more back to Brigadier General Rasool, how long do you think until the rest of Iraq is completely cleared of ISIS? Do you think it's possible it will happen this year?

And then, if I could, one for Brigadier General Hikmat. Is the Peshmerga currently conducting any planning for what would happen if the referendum vote chooses for Kurdistan to be independent? Are you involved in any military planning for how that would impact the fight against ISIS going forward?

Thank you.

RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Regarding the military operations, as a member who's present in the planning for the military operations and also a witness to what's going on in the command and control central, we have enough forces to liberate what is remaining from our country under the organization.

At the same time, we can launch a number of operations. We can launch a military operation toward Tal Afar and another one toward Al- Qa'im, and another one toward -- maybe another one toward Hawija, and vice versa. But this is left to the military decision -- military leadership decision. What matters is the victory and thinking thoroughly before planning.

To get rid of, or eliminate Daesh completely from Iraq, what we -- my lady, let me say that we cannot completely eliminate those terrorists groups because we talk about urban settings or urban cities.

We want to -- our priority is to save or make sure to avoid civilian casualties. However, what I'm witnessing from my presence there, there is a great desire of those fighters, within our forces, to do their job and sacrifice to do their job. And that's how we achieve a lot of victory that our forces are motivated.

On the other side, there is a demoralization, on the other side, among the terrorist organizations whether we are using air strikes or the operations that we've been doing for a while currently right now in the western desert to apprehend, approximately in the desert of 25 to 30 kilometers where we have intelligent information that they might be present there, like in their safety areas where they -- weapon storages, for example.

We've been killed tens, maybe hundreds of those terrorists. We will continue chasing them. And, God willing, we will defeat them militarily completely, and we'll have complete control of the Iraqi territories. And there are -- there is a very small percentage of the Iraqi territories that is remaining under their hands after 11 -- after events of 11/10, defeat of these terrorist organizations is continuous, facing the determinations of our forces.

GEN. MAAN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): When it comes to the police of Nineveh, currently we have, on top of what I mentioned of the different police stations, we have 16 emergency units. And what they -- and out of their duties are, securing territory, participating in fight, making securing law and order. The prime minister give permission of the sending 21,000 -- creating 21,000 new jobs in Anbar. Also in those regions, in Nineveh and Anbar, it created more jobs for young people and young men to secure their areas. And, in that way, at the same time, we are securing the internal security and safety of those regions. On top of that, the Ministry of Interior, thankfully, with the support of the prime minister, we expanded the number of new recruits. And they could be 18,000 new police officers that could be sent to that province. Of course, we done a feasibility study, and this has not been done haphazardly. We studied the needs of human resources there, and we focused on training and increasing their capacity so that they'll be able to be qualified police forces that are capable of fighting. And even the current police forces, available in those provinces, are diverse, representing those areas ethnically and sectorially.

Therefore, to be honest, the support is continuous and open from the Ministry of Interior to these liberated areas. When it comes to providing them with the needed number of forces to secure it and keep them in hand, and also logistically. The government of Iraq thinks that liberation -- after liberation, there's another phase, and a big role played by the police of present. The security file will be transferred to the police officers.

COL. DILLON: All right, we're switching the translator for the last question.

GEN. HIKMAT (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): OK. Everybody knows that the Iraqis were waiting for elections, the elections, and a referendum it's a free way , and it's not something that is a stranger to Iraq. Iraq is now a democratic country, where the elections are set, and followed up.

As for the referendum in the Kurdistan region, this is about people in Kurdistan, and who will put (inaudible) in the referendum . The president of the Kurdistan region has decided this referendum. As for us, as the Peshmerga forces, we protect the Kurdistan region, and our jobs (sic) is basically about protecting our borders. That's -- we have been working in the recent years fighting terrorist groups, ISIL was -- one of the ways that we showed that we will be always far from -- we keep ourself so far from polices and politics. We just do protecting the country, the region. We are just protecting the -- the -- the entity of this region, this (inaudible) region.

COL. DILLON: Last one, Thomas.

Q: Gentlemen, thank you so much for travelling this way and talking to us. General, you we're talking about having the trust of the people of Mosul to help you secure the city in the weeks and months to come. What would you tell them after some of these videos have surfaced of small groups of Iraqi soldiers committing atrocities against potential ISIS fighters?

RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Sir, we are keenly observing and following what is being published in social media outlets about the conduct of a number of our soldiers, or those who are wearing uniforms. We are following this affair very closely, and all the leadership of Iraqi forces and military and keen to know the details of this matter.

If there's any violation of the human rights from any force -- counterterrorism forces, police, army, they will be held accountable militarily, and we will be really severe. Don't forget that those who would like to reduce the joy and the confidence we have from this victory, maybe these videos are being fabricated. And quite frankly, we'll look into this matter very carefully, and we will hold anybody who committed that act severely.

GEN. MAAN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Again, the ministry of interior, we are responding -- we're trying to respond to this matter very swiftly. There is an (inaudible) which you published of torture -- of victim's torturing elements of ISIL. Immediately, the prime minister and the minister of the interior, they created an investigative committee.

And through the internal affairs directory, they followed the conduct and the behavior of all the forces. And, quite frankly, we looked and suspended a number of those forces shown in those pictures. And there's currently an investigation being conducted. And we will publish the result of this investigation.

Let me say that there might be some misbehavior or inappropriate conduct by some of the forces, yes, but the investigation is going on. However, let me emphasize we are against any violation against any human being, and this is the position of the government.

We would like to be also transparent. There's nothing for us to hide. Yes, we -- with the right of having the information and the result of the investigation is open to all the media personnel and also all the members of the community.

Q: (inaudible) there are also reports from Iraq that security forces have forcibly relocated families of suspected ISIS fighters to detention camps being called rehabilitation camps.

Is there a camp in Mosul where families of ISIS fighters are being relocated and being held against their will? And if so, does this affect any reconciliation efforts in that area?

And that's for General Rasool, or anyone else who would like to take that. RASOOL (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Regarding the displaced people who are leaving certain areas of battle, there's (inaudible) Brigadier Mansoor that oversees those displaced people and the supervision of areas where the Iraqi forces are present.

This topic, we didn't have precise information about what's going on. However, there is no situation or scenario where the Iraqi forces will forcibly get people out of their homes as Iraqi citizens from their residency.

However, we've tried to secure safe pathways for them to avoid the battle area. Yes, we sometimes have them being transported to safer places. And, at times, when we eliminate those terrorist organizations, and we gain the control of those areas, and we make sure there's no booby-traps and we secure the area, we help returnees to come back to their homes.

That was -- that's how we behave, and that's what been doing in the eastern bank. Many of the liberated areas on the 17th of -- in (inaudible) in Shafa area and other places on the 17th of Yunio , what we've done is we have those returnees to come back, and that's how we behave systematically as we liberate the city of Mosul.

COL. DILLON: All right. Thank you very much, everyone, for coming.

And thank you, gentlemen, for being here today on this unique experience to provide an update from Iraqis, and not just me. So thank you very much.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1247303/

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US talks with Saudi, allies end without fixing Qatar rift

Iran Press TV

Thu Jul 13, 2017 2:8AM

Talks between US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and several Persian Gulf Arab states aimed at ending a rift with Qatar have come to an end without any breakthrough.

On Wednesday, Tillerson returned to Kuwait from Saudi Arabia without issuing a statement on the outcome of his talks with Saudi officials, including dignitaries.

"We're happy to see this continuous cooperation between us, and to even strengthen and increase it further without limits," said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud in relation to Tillerson's trip.

The US State Department has announced that Tillerson will be traveling to Qatar on Thursday to brief Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on his talks in Jeddah.

"I appreciate the joint interests that we share, our two countries, our mutual interests here in terms of stability for the region and economic prosperity for the region as well. It is a very important and strong partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia," said Tillerson.

On Tuesday, Tillson signed an agreement with Al Thani aimed at combating "terrorism financing," a deal Saudi Arabia and its allies branded as being "insufficient."

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain all cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5, after officially accusing it of "sponsoring terrorism."

On June 23, Saudi Arabia and its allies released a 13-point list of demands, including the severance of all Qatar's ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement.

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NATO-Russia Council Meeting 'Useful' Despite 'Fundamental Disagreements'

RFE/RL July 13, 2017

BRUSSELS -- NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has characterized the latest session of the NATO-Russia Council as a "frank and useful discussion" of Ukraine, Afghanistan, and risk reduction.

Stoltenberg made the comments at a press conference following the July 13 meeting, saying that NATO and Russia "continue to have fundamental disagreements," particularly regarding Russia's 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea and its role in the war in eastern Ukraine.

NATO and Russia also briefed one another on upcoming military exercises -- Russia's Zapad-2017 and NATO's Exercise Trident Javelin 2017. Stoltenberg said Russia had in particular provided numbers of its soldiers, planes, and ships involved in the Zapad war games in Russia and Belarus in September -- an exercise that has deeply worried the allies.

Stoltenberg said such voluntary exchanges were encouraging, but "do not substitute for the mandatory transparency required under the Vienna Document."

"It was significant that at today's meeting, we exchanged advance briefings on upcoming exercises," Stoltenberg said. "I am encouraged by this progress."

But he warned that "from previous experience, we have every reason to believe it may be substantially more troops participating than the officially reported numbers."

Rules for military exercises in Europe known as the Vienna Document set thresholds for the number of troops allowed to take part in exercises before the opposing side is allowed to demand a mandatory inspection.

Exercises involving 13,000 or more troops are subject to mandatory inspections. In the case of exercises involving 9,000 or more soldiers, the other side must be notified.

"We call on Russia to adhere to the Vienna Document," which is negotiated under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Stoltenberg said.

Stoltenberg said the Russian side gave figures but declined to make them public, saying it was up to Moscow to do so.

He said Trident Javelin was in contrast only a "command post" exercise, involving 5,000 personnel in preparation for next year's much larger Trident Juncture maneuvers with around 30,000 troops.

NATO allies such as the Baltic states and Poland are deeply suspicious of Russia.

They say Russia has carried out exercises involving many more troops -- reports cite figures of up to 100,000 -- but formally splitting them up in such a way as to get around the rules.

The talks were expected to focus on measures to reduce tensions and risks after recent incidents involving maneuvering by warplanes flying over the Baltic Sea.

Russia has denied military involvement in the conflict in Ukraine despite substantial evidence it has provided troops, mercenaries, and military equipment via the part of Ukraine's border that is controlled by the separatists.

Before the NATO-Russia Council meeting, NATO officials told journalists they will press for Russian pilots to file flight plans, respond to air traffic control, or identify themselves with cockpit transmitters when flying in the Baltic area.

NATO said last month it tracked three Russian aircraft over the sea, including two jets which it said did not respond to air traffic control or requests to identify themselves.

Moscow maintains that all Russian flights over the Baltic comply with international law.

For its part, Russia said it scrambled a jet last month to intercept a nuclear-capable U.S. B-52 bomber it said was flying over the Baltic, in an incident that had echoes of the Cold War.

The NATO-Russia Council is a forum intended to prevent such tensions from escalating.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/nato-russia-council- flight-incidents-ukraine/28614118.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Trump Says Didn't Know Of Son's Meeting With Russian Lawyer During Campaign

RFE/RL July 13, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump said he was unaware that his oldest son Donald had a meeting with a Russian lawyer during the presidential campaign, but he does not fault him for the controversial move.

Asked by Reuters in an interview on July 12 if he knew that his son met with lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya in June 2016, the president said: "No, that I didn't know until a couple of days ago when I heard about this."

Donald Trump Jr. revealed in e-mails he published this week that he eagerly agreed to meet the woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who had damaging information about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton that would be provided as part of Moscow's official support for his father's campaign.

Seated at his Oval Office desk for the Reuters interview, Trump said he does not fault his son for holding the meeting, but rather views it as a decision made in the heat of an upstart, non-traditional political campaign.

"I think many people would have held that meeting," Trump said.

"It was a 20-minute meeting, I guess, from what I'm hearing," Trump said. "Many people, and many political pros, said everybody would do that."

The Trump e-mails are the most concrete evidence to surface to date showing that Trump campaign officials might have been willing to accept Russian help to win the November 8 election.

Despite the president's assertion that "everybody would do that," Trump Jr.'s meeting has raised legal questions, in particular whether it violated a U.S. law barring candidates from accepting anything of value from a foreign government.

A complaint already has been filed before the U.S. Federal Election Commission by Democratic lawmakers alleging that the meeting violated U.S. election laws, while several committees of Congress are seeking further information about the meeting to determine whether it validated allegations that Russia meddled in the presidential election.

Donald Trump Jr., in an interview with Fox News on June 11, said: "In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently."

But he insisted that nothing came out of the meeting of use to the Trump campaign, and he did nothing to collude with Russia or cooperate with the Kremlin in any effort to damage Clinton's election prospects.

Trump Jr. said he didn't tell his father about the meeting with Veselnitskaya because "there was nothing to tell."

"It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes," he said. "For me, this was opposition research" that he had hoped might yield "concrete evidence" against Clinton.

In the White House interview, the president said he directly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin if he was involved in what U.S. intelligence agemcies concluded was Russian meddling in the presidential campaign, and Putin insisted he was not.

Trump said he spent the first 20 or 25 minutes of his more than two-hour meeting with Putin on July 7 in Germany on the election meddling subject.

Asked if he believed Putin's denial, Trump paused.

"Look. Something happened and we have to find out what it is, because we can't allow a thing like that to happen to our election process. So something happened and we have to find out what it is," he said.

While U.S. intelligence agencies and even members of Trump's Cabinet have said Russia meddled in the election, Trump has wavered on the subject.

Trump equivocated on whether he felt he could trust Putin. He said Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping both look out for their countries' interests, as he looks out for U.S. interests.

"I am not a person who goes around trusting lots of people. But he's the leader of Russia. It is the second most powerful nuclear power on earth. I am the leader of the United States. I love my country. He loves his country," Trump said.

As in the past, Trump said there was no collusion between his campaign and Russia.

"There was zero coordination. It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," he said.

The Republican president said Democrats have used the accusations to justify Clinton's loss in November, saying: "The White House is functioning beautifully despite the hoax made up by the Democrats."

Although he and Putin were able to forge a cease-fire agreement in part of Syria, Trump said their interests collide over other important matters.

Trump said his plans to beef up the U.S. military and make the United States a dominant global energy producer are in direct conflict with Putin's ambitions for Russia, where the economy and government are heavily dependent on energy exports.

Because of those major differences, Trump said he wonders whether Putin really did support him over Clinton in the election.

"It's really the one question I wish I would have asked Putin: Were you actually supporting me?"

With reporting by Reuters and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-says-didnt- know-son-meeting-russian-lawyer-veselnitskaya-june- 2016-presidential-campaign/28613550.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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Analysts Warn Foiled Montenegrin Coup Will Likely Be Repeated By Russia Elsewhere

RFE/RL July 13, 2017

WASHINGTON -- Analysts are warning that an alleged coup attempt last year by Russian agents that Montenegro said was foiled will likely be repeated, and Washington needs to do more to shore up "Europe's soft underbelly."

The analysts spoke at July 13 hearing of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that focused on the overall situation in the Balkans.

The alleged coup attempt "was not the first, nor likely will it be the last, of Russia's attempts to undermine the sovereign right of a nation to freely choose its political associations," said Lisa Samp, who worked on Russian and European affairs at the White House and Defense Department.

Damon Wilson, executive vice president for the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, said Russia was seeking to expand its influence, and undermine Western-leaning governments using "a nexus of corruption, organized crime, and underdevelopment."

"Prosperity is the antidote, as it increases the resilience of nations, particularly in Europe's east and southeast," he said.

Nebojsa Kaludjerovic, Montenegro's ambassador to the United States, told senators that the trial of several alleged coup plotters was ongoing, and the chief prosecutor had called the evidence "ironclad."

He said two Russians believed to be military intelligence agents were involved, as well as several Montenegrin politicians, and a former Russian deputy military attache had been kicked out.

"If the plans had succeeded, there would have been chaos, serious violence, and extremely dangerous instability," he told the panel.

Montenegro recently joined NATO, which Moscow strenuously opposed.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-russia-montenegro- senate-hearing/28614929.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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Azerbaijan Capable of Downing Missiles of Iskander Systems - MoD

Sputnik News

16:13 13.07.2017(updated 16:22 13.07.2017)

Azerbaijani Armed Forces had anti-missile weapons capable of shooting down Iskander missiles systems deployed in Armenia.

BAKU (Sputnik)  Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov said in an interview with RIA Novosti that his country's Armed Forces had anti-missile weapons capable of shooting down missiles of Iskander systems deployed in Armenia.

"I, as defense minister, declare that we have a system of counteraction  we can shoot down these missiles," Hasanov said.

Moreover, Azerbaijan is considering the possibility of purchasing an extra batch of arms from Russia and is conducting tests, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov said.

"We are now additionally considering some samples of arms, requesting, testing. Buying weapons is a multifaceted issue," Hasanov told RIA Novosti in an interview.

On May 16, 2016, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev met in Vienna to discuss the conflict. The sides reiterated there can be no military solution to the conflict and reaffirmed their commitment to 1994 and 1995 peace agreements. The presidents also agreed to finalize the OSCE investigative mechanism as soon as possible to reduce the risk of further violence.

On June 20, 2016, the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia met in St. Petersburg where they reaffirmed their commitment to achieve steady progress in the political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and agreed to increase the number of OSCE monitors working in the conflict zone.

Despite the achieved agreements, a new outbreak of violence erupted last week when Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said that the Azerbaijani village of Alkhanli was shelled, which resulted in the deaths of two people as well as the civil property damage. The unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh republic's Ministry of Defense pointed out that its forces opened retaliatory fire against Azerbaijan's multiple rocket launcher firing positions, and put all the blame on Baku.

 Sputnik

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Russian Arms Contract With Azerbaijan on Delivery of Tanks, Msta-S 90% Complete

Sputnik News

15:32 13.07.2017(updated 18:14 13.07.2017)

The contract on the delivery of Russian tanks, Smerch multiple rocket launchers and Msta-S self-propelled howitzers to Azerbaijan is 90-percent complete and paid for, Azerbaijan's Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

BAKU (Sputnik)  Funding into Azerbaijan's Armed Forces has grown by 17-20 percent this year, Hasanov said.

"I as a defense minister am interested in army funding, which only increased last year. This year the figure of 17-20 percent was announced," Hasasnov said.

He noted that Baku's goal in recent years has been to shore up and upgrade the national army.

"The contract has already been fulfilled by almost 90 percent. We paid for it. There are little things left. Everything has long been used in Azerbaijan and successfully applied All these are modern weapons that we have mastered and are using," Hasanov said.

Azerbaijan is considering the possibility of purchasing an extra batch of arms from Russia and is conducting tests, Azerbaijan's minister said.

"We are now additionally considering some samples of arms, requesting, testing. Buying weapons is a multifaceted issue. On the one hand, it is necessary to avoid a formula, on the other hand  variety creates problems in service. This is a very difficult question," Hasanov told RIA Novosti in an interview.

Late June, the Azeri Defense Ministry said that the country received a large batch of Russian weapons and military equipment.

In January, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev told Sputnik that Baku was in talks with Moscow on new arms purchases, adding that the signed contracts had totaled $5 billion, with most of them already having been implemented.

 Sputnik

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Update: air strikes against Daesh

13 July 2017

The RAF are continuing to take the fight to Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

Summary

- Wednesday 12 July  Tornados and Typhoons assisted Iraqi troops mopping up Daesh fanatics in Mosul, striking three targets, and attacked three more terrorist positions in Raqqah.

Detail

Following their success in liberating Mosul from Daesh control, Iraqi security forces have continued operations to hunt down any residual terrorist presence in the west of the city. A mixed Tornado and Typhoon provided support on Wednesday 12 July, and delivered successful attacks with Paveway IV guided bombs on three buildings from which terrorists had been attempting to prolong the fight. Over Raqqa, a second mixed Tornado and Typhoon pair flew overwatch as the Syrian Democratic Forces continued their advance through the city; our aircraft used Paveway IVs to engage three Daesh positions which opened fire on the SDF, and successfully silenced each threat in turn.

UK contribution to the fight against Daesh



Map of UK forces committed to Operation Shader

Campaign against Daesh



Map of Daesh losses and gains in Iraq and Syria since September 2014

Previous update

Friday 2 June: A mixed Tornado and Typhoon pair used a Brimstone to destroy an armoured truck moving along a main road on the outskirts of Raqqa. Two other flights operated over Mosul, where attacks were delivered in very close support to the Iraqi forces, hitting eight Daesh positions with a mix of Brimstones and Paveway IVs. The targets included three machine-gun teams and three groups of terrorists armed with rocket-propelled grenades. In addition, a truck-bomb, concealed close to one of the positions, was also fortuitously detonated by one of the attacks.

Saturday 3 June: A Reaper, operating south of Al Qaim in western Iraq, observed a group of dismounted terrorists, with an armed truck close by. One Hellfire missile killed several of the terrorists, a second destroyed the vehicle with a direct hit. West of Kirkuk, a pair of Tornados used a Paveway IV to destroy a Daesh strongpoint, whilst two mixed pairs of Tornados and Typhoons delivered five attacks in Mosul with four Brimstones and a Paveway against a truck-bomb, three sniper teams and a group with rocket-propelled grenades.

Sunday 4 June: A further mixed pair conducted three further attacks in Mosul, using a Brimstone to deal with a sniper, and two Paveway IVs against a pair of Daesh-held buildings from which fire was being directed at Iraqi troops.

Monday 5 June: Two Typhoons, supporting Syrian Democratic Forces close to Raqqa, used a Paveway IV to strike a Daesh-held building in the east of the city itself. Tornados meanwhile continued operations over Mosul, and employed a pair of Brimstone missiles to deliver pinpoint attacks on two firing positions located in a large multi-storey building, where the terrorists had stationed a recoilless anti-tank gun and a machine-gun.

Wednesday 7 June: A Reaper remotely piloted aircraft flew an armed reconnaissance patrol over northern Raqqa. It observed two extremists burying booby-traps along routes into the city. Hellfire missiles were deployed, killing both. Some 45 miles south-west of Raqqa, a mixed pair of Tornado and Typhoon fast jets used a Brimstone missile to hit one Daesh-held building. A Paveway IV guided bomb left a second target on fire.

Friday 9 June: Tornados struck a Daesh position in eastern Raqqa.

Saturday 10 June: A Reaper intervened in a fire fight in western Raqqa between the SDF and a group of Daesh fighters. The Reaper hit the latter with a very effective Hellfire attack. The same day, Paveway-armed Typhoons struck two entrances to a network of tunnels built beneath a factory in the north-east of the city.

Sunday 11 June: A Tornado flight patrolled the Mosul area and conducted two attacks. During the first, a Paveway IV was used against a mortar position some 20 miles west of the city. A Brimstone was then used against a Daesh firing point in western Mosul, close to the riverbank. A second Tornado flight, and two pairs of Typhoons, operated the same day over Raqqa. Paveway IVs accounted for four sniper positions and a Daesh-held building, while a simultaneous attack with two Brimstones eliminated two firing points in a building on the western edge of the city.

Monday 12 June: Royal Air Force Tornados patrolled over west Mosul. Despite Iraqi forces being exceptionally close to a target, a Tornado was able to use a single Paveway IV guided bomb to destroy a Daesh strong-point. Our aircraft then headed south to an area in the countryside near the small town of Karwi. A truck-bomb workshop had been identified in an isolated building, with three of its deadly products parked some distance away. The three truck-bombs were dealt with first. An attack with a pair of Brimstone missiles scored direct hits on two of the vehicles, and the secondary explosions from one of these then set off the third truck-bomb. A Paveway IV was then used to demolish the workshop.

Wednesday 14 June: A mixed pair of a Tornado and a Typhoon provided further assistance to the Iraqi forces in west Mosul, striking two terrorist-held buildings with Paveway IVs. Before returning to base at RAF Akrotiri, the aircraft struck a third Daesh building, some 24 miles west of Kirkuk.

Thursday 15 June: Reaper remotely piloted aircraft conducted armed reconnaissance in eastern Syria, some 35 miles north-east of Dayr az Zawr, and used a Hellfire missile to destroy a terrorist truck. Two Typhoons also struck three Daesh positions in Raqqa in support of the offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Elsewhere, two mixed pairs of Tornados and Typhoons operated over northern Iraq. A Daesh mortar was engaged east of Tal Afar, while six positions in Mosul, including machine-gun and sniper teams, were struck using a mixture of Paveway IVs and Brimstones.

Friday 16 June: Typhoons were again in action over Raqqa, when they bombed two further Daesh positions. Typhoons and Tornados, flying as mixed pairs, employed one Brimstone missile and four Paveway IVs to eliminate two machine-gun teams and three other Daesh strongpoints.

Saturday 17 June: Tornados and Typhoons suppressed a Daesh position in Raqqa, and struck six more positions in Mosul, again using a Brimstone and Paveway IV mix to deal with snipers and a machine-gun team.

Sunday 18 June: A Reaper patrolled over Raqqa. Its crew successfully spotted a Daesh mortar team and provided targeting assistance to a coalition air strike against them. The Reaper's crew then used Hellfire missiles to destroy a car-bomb and a second mortar team who were spotted in the act of firing at the SDF. The same day, Tornados and Typhoons were very active over Mosul. A Brimstone was used to target a group of terrorists engaged in a close-quarters firefight with Iraqi troops, while Paveways accounted for nine more targets, including two machine-gun teams, multiple snipers, and extremists armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

Monday 19 June: Flights of Royal Air Force Tornados and Typhoons operated over northern Iraq in support of the Iraqi security forces. Our aircraft conducted attacks in Mosul with Paveway IV guided bombs against six Daesh positions which the Iraqi forces had encountered, including a group of snipers and four machine-gun teams. Thirty miles west of Kirkuk, a Daesh weapons stockpile was also destroyed by a Paveway IV.

Wednesday 21 June: A pair of Typhoons assisted Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Raqqa. Two buildings held by extremist fighters were hit with Paveway IVs. In Mosul, a Tornado flight used a Brimstone missile to destroy safely a car-bomb spotted by the Iraqi ground forces. The Tornado flight then used a Paveway IV to eliminate a medium machine-gun team. A mixed Tornado and Typhoon pair were also active that day over the city. A Brimstone attack was directed at a mortar position, while Paveways were used against three Daesh strongpoints, including two housing machine-guns.

Thursday 22 June: Tornados and Typhoons conducted attacks with Paveway IVs against six Daesh targets in western Mosul, with some strikes being called in by Iraqi forces positioned extremely close to the terrorist locations. Four machine-gun teams were amongst the threats successfully dealt with by our aircraft. The next day, a mixed Tornado and Typhoon pair used two Paveway IVs to target successfully a large group of Daesh fighters operating with a truck-bomb and an armoured personnel carrier in Raqqa, while in Mosul a Tornado flight conducted three precision attacks with Brimstone missiles on sniper positions.

Saturday 24 June: In similar fashion, a pair of Paveway IV-armed Tornados eliminated a terrorist sniper team in Raqqa.

Sunday 25 June: Operations against groups of Daesh extremists outside of Raqqa and Mosul have also been maintained. Tornados attacked a headquarters and mortar position in eastern Syria, some 55 miles north-east of Dayr az Zawr.

Monday 26 June: Careful intelligence analysis allowed a building on the outskirts of Al Mayadin, in eastern Syria, to be identified as a truck-bomb workshop. A flight of Royal Air Force Tornados struck the target, scoring a direct hit with a Paveway IV guided bomb which left the building ablaze. Two mixed pairs of Tornados and Typhoons, supported by a Voyager air refuelling tanker, meanwhile provided close air support to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) pushing into Raqqa and to the Iraqi troops clearing remaining Daesh positions in west Mosul. A Brimstone missile accounted for a sniper team in Raqqa, and a Paveway similarly dealt with snipers in Mosul.

Tuesday 27 June: Our aircraft conducted invaluable reconnaissance operations during.

Wednesday 28 June: Two Tornado flights operated over Raqqa. At the north-western end of the city, at least one suicide bomber was known to be waiting inside a Daesh-held building, waiting for an opportunity to attack the SDF as they closed in. The building and the terrorists inside were struck with a Paveway IV. A second such weapon demolished a building in the east, from where heavy fire had been directed at the SDF. This successful strike allowed the SDF to resume their advance.

Thursday 29 June: A flight of Typhoons used a Paveway IV to silence a sniper team which had been firing on the SDF in eastern Raqqa. The same day, a pair of Tornados conducted a simultaneous Paveway attack on a group of three buildings, all occupied by Daesh extremists, in the south-east of the city. Another Tornado pair meanwhile supported Iraqi troops clearing remaining Daesh positions in the Old City in west Mosul. Our aircraft used Paveway IVs to deliver two successful attacks on strongpoints, using great precision with their munitions, given the extreme proximity of the Iraqi troops to the Daesh firing points.

Friday 30 June: Royal Air Force Tornados and Typhoons provided close air support to Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) pushing into Raqqa. The Typhoons worked closely with a coalition surveillance aircraft which had spotted a large truck-bomb. A direct hit from a Paveway IV removed the threat. A Tornado pair meanwhile bombed a Daesh-held building in the south-east of the city.

Saturday 1 July: A Reaper remotely piloted aircraft patrolled over Raqqa. A mortar was reported firing on the SDF, and the Reaper's crew spotted its muzzle flashes from a position concealed beneath a tree. A Hellfire missile destroyed the target. Typhoons were also active over the city, where they used a Paveway IV to silence a heavy machine-gun which was holding up an SDF advance. In northern Iraq, two Tornados assisted the Iraqi troops clearing remaining pockets of Daesh resistance in west Mosul. Paveway IVs were used to destroy two strongpoints from which the Daesh fighters were directing fire. The Tornados then responded to reports of a heavy machine-gun team and a group of suicide bombers preparing to attack the Iraqis  a third position was duly destroyed with a Paveway IV.

Sunday 2 July: Mixed pairs of Tornados and Typhoons operated over both Mosul and Raqqa. In Mosul, the Iraqi ground forces encountered three groups of snipers  all three positions, plus another Daesh-held building, were successfully struck with Paveways. In similar fashion, Paveway IVs were used against two terrorist firing points in Raqqa.

Monday 3 July: Two Royal Air Force Reaper remotely piloted aircraft conducted armed reconnaissance over Raqqa. One assisted Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who had come under attack from a heavy machine-gun on the top floor of a building. A Hellfire missile through the building's roof silenced the terrorist fire. The second Reaper used two Hellfires in a successful attack on a Daesh headquarters for foreign fighters. A mixed Tornado and Typhoon pair were also active over the city. The SDF, advancing into the centre of Raqqa, encountered a strongly defended building. Our aircraft demolished it with a single Paveway IV guided bomb. Two flights of Tornados operated over northern Iraq the same day. One flight used three Paveway IVs to destroy a group of three workshops producing truck-bombs near Hawijah. The second flight supported Iraqi troops in the Old City of Mosul, and conducted strikes with Paveways and Brimstone missiles on seven Daesh positions, including six machine-gun teams.

Wednesday 5 July: Typhoons continued to support the Iraqi troops in west Mosul. Exceptionally careful coordination was needed given the very short distances between the Iraqi forces and the Daesh positions, but the two Typhoons were able to destroy seven strongpoints, including two with medium machine-guns, each struck by a Paveway IV. Tornados kept watch over the latest SDF advances in Raqqa, and used a Paveway IV to deal with a sniper team.

Thursday 6 July: Two Royal Air Force Typhoons, armed with Paveway IV bombs, operated over Raqqa. Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) encountered a large building on the southern edge of the city, close to the bank of the Euphrates, which was heavily defended by Daesh extremists. Two Paveways struck the building and brought an end to the terrorists' activity. A mixed pair of a Typhoon and a Tornado were also active over Raqqa, and these aircraft bombed a sniper position which had been firing persistently at the SDF. A second mixed Tornado/Typhoon pair provided similar support to the Iraqi forces clearing the Old City in Mosul. Attacks with Brimstone missiles dealt with three Daesh positions, whilst a Paveway IV was used to destroy a medium machine-gun team.

Friday 7 July: Tornados flew further missions over Mosul, delivering two Paveway IV attacks which eliminated a sniper team and another group of terrorists firing on Iraqi troops. Further south in Iraq, a Daesh-held building had been identified in the countryside some 25 miles north-west of Bayji, with an armed truck hidden inside. Tornados demolished the building with a direct hit from a Paveway IV. Two more such weapons were used in attacks by Typhoons on a pair of defensive positions which the SDF had come up against in Raqqa.

Saturday 8 July: Typhoons conducted attacks with four Paveway IVs, eliminating a light machine-gun position and three other terrorist strongpoints. Tornados meanwhile continued to support the SDF in Raqqa, striking a Daesh position there.

Sunday 9 July: Typhoons hit a further target in Raqqa, whilst two mixed pairs of Tornados and Typhoons assisted the Iraqis as they fought at very close quarters in Mosul; our aircraft dealt with two snipers and two Daesh-held buildings. Prime Minister Abadi visited the city to mark its liberation.

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Security Council deplores ongoing violence, attacks on civilians in Central African Republic

13 July 2017  The United Nations Security Council today expressed concern at the ongoing clashes between armed groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) and deplored that civilians from some communities, UN peacekeepers and aid workers continue to be targeted.

In a Presidential statement read out at a formal meeting, members of the Security Council said they believed this violence "continues to destabilize the country, cause many civilian casualties and cause large displacements of the population, even though the parties to the conflict have agreed to put an immediate end to hostilities."

The Security Council deplored all attacks against civilians, human rights violations and violations of human rights and reiterated the urgent need to bring to justice all perpetrators of these violations or abuses, their status or political affiliation.

The Council reaffirmed that some of these acts may constitute crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and recalled that, at the request of the national authorities, the Prosecutor of the Court opened an inquiry in 2014 on crimes allegedly committed since 2012.

Clashes between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition and anti-Balaka militia, which are mostly Christian, have plunged the country of about 4.5 million people into civil conflict since 2012. In addition to those displaced within the CAR, more than 484,000 people from the country have been forced to seek refuge in neighbouring nations.

In its Statement, the Council stressed the importance of combating impunity, and called for "the Special Criminal Court to be operational and for the judiciary, the penitentiary system and the criminal justice system to be restored throughout the country."

The Council also expressed its deep concern about the humanitarian situation in CAR and once again called on "all parties to authorize and facilitate the safe and timely passage of humanitarian assistance for to those who need it."

Reiterating support for the President of the CAR, Faustin-Archange Touadera, the Council welcomed his efforts to advance dialogue with armed groups and extend the authority of the State throughout the country. It also encouraged the authorities "to carry out without delay an open political process."

The Statement went on to strongly condemn the violence perpetrated by armed groups and called upon all leaders of these groups to make the provisions of the agreement  signed in Rome on 19 June 2017 under the auspices of the Sant-Egidio community  known to their members so that they immediately implement the cessation provisions "and to honour, without any restriction, their commitment to the process of disarmament, demobilization, reintegration and repatriation."

Finally, the Council called upon all partners in CAR, particularly the African Union and neighbouring States, to adopt as a matter of urgency the Joint Action Plan concluded on 21 June in Brussels on mediation with armed groups, and to support its implementation, with a view to achieving a lasting cessation of hostilities throughout the territory.

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UN envoy calls on Security Council to further support fight against terrorism in West Africa, Sahel

13 July 2017  Amid rising terrorism and violent extremism in West Africa and the United Nations envoy for the region called on the Security Council to further support national and Regional efforts to combat this "serious threat", including strengthening the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel.

The efforts of the region's States towards broader development, increased investment, improved infrastructure and job creation are being undermined by factors of insecurity "both traditional and new," warned Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the head of the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWAS).

Terrorism and violent extremism, which aggravate humanitarian crises and erode the integrity of the region's States, have exacerbated traditional threats in West Africa and the Sahel region, which includes Mali, Mauritania, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Nigeria and Niger and Chad.

"These factors, combined with climate change, youth bulge and unemployment and unchecked urbanization constitute veritable push factors underpinning the surge in irregular migration and human trafficking," he explained to the Council.

In the Sahel, the envoy continued, instability in Mali continues to spread into north-eastern Burkina Faso and western Niger, as evidenced by the recent deadly attacks in the border areas between these three countries. In the Liptako-Gourma region, which links Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, the past month has been marked by an intensification of terrorist activities and violent extremism, including coordinated cross-border attacks on border crossings.

The leaders of those three countries met in Niamey on 24 January, and announced the formation of a multinational security force. The announcement came in the context of ongoing discussions on the operationalization of the G5 Sahel Joint Force (FC-G5S), an initiative that also includes, in addition to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Chad and Mauritania. He called on the Security Council to further support the national and regional initiatives of the Sahel States against violent extremism and terrorism.

Turning to the situation in the Lake Chad Basin, Mr. Chambas said that despite the remarkable efforts of the Multinational Joint Force against Boko Haram, recent attacks demonstrated that the terrorist group remains a "serious threat" to the region. The mode and sophistication of these attacks, he added, suggest that the terrorist group has benefited from reinforcements.

The attacks, the UNOWAS chief stressed, have "devastating humanitarian consequences" in the Lake Chad Basin, where 5.2 million people, many of whom are displaced, are in a vulnerable situation.

At the same time, the threats posed by extremists and terrorist groups should not obscure other traditional threats to security in the region, such as the rise of inter-communal tensions in several countries, including clashes between herders and farmers. Also of concern is the intensification of smuggling, cross-border crime and human trafficking in areas where State structures are scarce.

"This insecurity," he said, "also extends to the Gulf of Guinea, where piracy is increasing."

In view of these threats, he considered that the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel presents an effective multidimensional response to streamline efforts and reduce duplication between the various initiatives in the Sahel.

In that context, Mr. Chambas said he is ready to continue working with the States of the region to strengthen justice, the rule of law, security reform and national reconciliation.

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Russian Jets Buzz NATO Airspace as 'Close Encounters' Rise Sharply

By Henry Ridgwell July 13, 2017

Russia has significantly increased its military activity in the skies around Western European NATO members, according to a new report that warns the tactic could present a danger to civilian aircraft.

NATO forces in Europe scrambled fighter jets to intercept approaching Russian aircraft  so-called Quick Reaction Alerts or QRA  close to 800 times last year. That's almost double the figure from 2014, according to London-based analyst group The Henry Jackson Society.

Its report calls for improved communication and clearer rules of engagement between Western European powers and Moscow to avert potentially dangerous incidents.

The tactic was routine in the Cold War, but has been revived by Moscow since relations have deteriorated between Russia and the West following Russia's forceful annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Report author Andrew Foxall says the Russian tactics are partly propaganda.

"Russia is able to portray itself theoretically as being strong, and NATO members and NATO as a whole being weak. And this works very well domestically with President Putin," he said.

But Foxall adds that the flights also allow Russia to harvest intelligence.

"On channels of information between NATO member states; it's able to gain information on the abilities of the Royal Navy captains and Royal Air Force pilots. It's able to gain information on our early warning system for example," he said.

Russian naval activity also has increased in the Baltic Sea and north Atlantic, especially around the Scottish home of Britain's nuclear-armed submarine fleet. Foxall says the British Royal Navy fears its submarines could be tracked.

"If Russian submarines were able to, in a sense, record the unique acoustic signature of those submarines then that would have a very, very detrimental effect on the UK's ability to defend itself," said Foxall.

In turn, Russia accuses NATO of buzzing its airspace. A video released by the Kremlin last month appears to show a NATO Typhoon jet shadowing a plane carrying Moscow's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

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India China Standoff in High Himalayas Pulls in Tiny Bhutan

By Anjana Pasricha July 13, 2017

A tense standoff between India and China in the high Himalayas is being played out not on the disputed borders between the two Asian giants, but on a plateau claimed by China and Bhutan. Many analysts say the face off is also a play for power in the tiny, strategically located country, which is India's closest ally in South Asia, but where Beijing wants to increase its presence.

Indian troops obstructed a Chinese road-building project at Doklam Plateau around mid-June. The area also known as "Chicken's Neck" is hugely strategic for India because it connects the country's mainland to its northeastern region.

New Delhi cites its treaties with Bhutan, with which it has close military and economic ties, for keeping its soldiers in the area despite strident calls by Beijing to vacate the mountain region.

As the standoff drags on, there are fears in New Delhi that Beijing is also testing its ties with Bhutan, the tiny nation that has made gross national happiness its mantra, but where worries are growing about a big power conflict on its doorstep.

Analysts point out that China wants to wean Bhutan away from India and expand ties with a country with which it has no diplomatic ties.

"At a strategic level, China would like to separate India from Bhutan, they would like to open up Bhutan to their greater influence, that goes without saying," said Manoj Joshi, a strategic affairs analyst at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

One small move at a time

According to political analysts, it is not the first time the Chinese have built a road in a disputed area in Bhutan, which has a disputed border with China at several places in the high Himalayas.

"They have done the same in other areas, built roads in mountains and valleys and then claimed it was their territory during border negotiations," said a Bhutanese political analyst who did not want to be identified. "It has been a hot button issue here, and has been repeatedly debated in parliament."

These "encroachments" are seen as efforts by Beijing to muscle into Bhutan in the same manner as it has done in South China Sea. Analysts call it a "salami slicing" tactic.

But Bhutan, which worries about being drawn into the rivalry between the two large neighbors, has maintained a studied silence on the latest dispute, except to issue one demarche calling on Beijing to restore the status quo in the area.

"Bhutan has done well, so far, to avoid both the fire from the Dragon on our heads and also the Elephant's tusks in our soft underbelly. We must keep it this way," Bhutanese journalist Tenzing Lamsang wrote for The Wire.

Despite some calls in Bhutan to settle its border with China without worrying about Indian interests, political analysts say public opinion largely favors New Delhi's firm stand on the Doklam plateau.

Influence at stake

While keeping the Chinese out of the strategic plateau is India's immediate concern, there is also concern about maintaining its influence in Bhutan, which is a buffer between China and India.

India has watched warily as Beijing has steadily increased its presence in its neighborhood in recent years as countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka have also been increasingly drawn into the Chinese sphere of influence by the promise of massive investments in roads, ports and other infrastructure.

In India there are concerns that the same should not happen in Bhutan, its most steadfast ally. Saying the Chinese have been applying pressure on the Bhutanese border, analyst Manoj Joshi said. "If Bhutan were to go the way of say Nepal, where Indian influence is now questioned, it would make a difference, that buffer would vanish."

India's foreign secretary S. Jaishankar this week expressed confidence that India and China have the maturity to handle their latest dispute and it will be handled diplomatically. "I see no reason why, when having handled so many situations in the past, we would not be able to handle it," he said.

But while in the past such border standoffs have been resolved quickly, this time around there are no signs the issue is getting resolved, nearly a month after it erupted.

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Government Forces Approaching Rebel HQ in South Sudan

By Waakhe Simon Wudu July 13, 2017

South Sudanese government forces are approaching the headquarters of rebel forces led by former vice president Riek Machar, a United Nations official says.

David Shearer, the head of the U.N. mission in South Sudan, said thousands of civilians have been displaced in several areas of Upper Nile state as soldiers advance on the rebels' base in the town of Pagak, in the northeast.

Shearer told journalists in Juba Wednesday that there has been heavy fighting between the army, known as the SPLA, and opposition forces, known as the SPLA-IO.

"There has been active military engagement over the past week with heavy fighting around Mathiang, north of Pagak, on July 2," he said. "Reports suggest that the government forces are now in and around Mathiang and approaching the town of Maiwut which is about 25 kilometers northwest of Pagak."

Both the South Sudan military and the SPLA-IO faction allied to Machar have confirmed the fighting.

Machar is currently believed to be in South Africa. He fled South Sudan last year after a peace agreement crumbled and clashes between government and rebel forces killed some 300 people in the South Sudanese capital, Juba.

Shearer described the situation around Pagak as "extremely worrying," saying the fighting is worsening the already dire humanitarian situation in the country.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said it is deeply concerned about the plight of civilians in areas affected by the clashes.

UNOCHA called on all parties to uphold their responsibilities under international human rights law to protect civilians, and to provide safe, unhindered access for aid agencies trying to provide life-saving assistance.

Shearer condemned the fighting and said it undermines efforts for peace in South Sudan.

"The military advance by the SPLA is not in the spirit of the cease fire declared by the government in May this year when it opened the national dialogue," he said.

A drought coupled with with a three-and-a-half-year conflict has displaced nearly four million South Sudanese and left an estimated six million in need of humanitarian aid.

The war between supporters of President Salva Kiir and backers of former Vice President Machar broke out in December 2013.

Shearer called on the government to improve the security situation, especially in rural areas.

"I certainly agree that the economic output in the country needs to be increased; agriculture has fallen badly behind," he said. "But for that to happen the security situation in rural areas need to be improved dramatically so that people feel safe enough to return to their land to plant their crops. This is particularly the case in the south of the country, which was once the breadbasket of the country."

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Tillerson Ends Persian Gulf Trip With No Breakthrough on Qatar Blockade

By Ken Bredemeier, Cindy Saine July 13, 2017

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson left Qatar Thursday with little apparent progress in his shuttle diplomacy aimed at ending Doha's diplomatic standoff with four Arab countries.

Tillerson declined questions after a final meeting with Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, before leaving for Washington. The emir's brother, Sheikh Mohammad bin Hamad al-Thani, told Tillerson, "Hope to see you again under better circumstances."

Tillerson spoke with Qatari leaders after spending Wednesday in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah meeting with diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The Saudi-led group broke off diplomatic ties with Qatar early last month, accusing Doha of funding terrorism in the region and being too close to rival Iran. Qatar has rejected the accusations.

Over four days, Tillerson shuttled to and from meetings in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in an effort to broker an end to the dispute. He secured an agreement with Qatar to strengthen its counterterrorism efforts, but Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE said that was insufficient and continued to demand that Qatar agree to a list of 13 demands.

Doha has rejected the demands, saying they would undermine its sovereignty. Among them were ultimatums that Qatar shut down its Al Jazeera news network, cut ties with Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, limit its links to Iran and expel Turkish troops from its territory.

The U.S. is concerned the dispute could hurt its military and counterterrorism operations and enhance Iran's influence in the region.

Qatar hosts the al-Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East and hub of its fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, while U.S. surveillance planes and other aircraft fly from the UAE.

With Tillerson unable to broker a settlement, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian heads to the region soon to resume talks.

In breaking off diplomatic relations with Qatar, the four Arab countries imposed sanctions on Doha, closing its only land border, refusing access to their airspace and ordering their citizens to return home.

Human Rights Watch said Thursday that the boycott has led to difficult consequences.

"Hundreds of Saudis, Bahrainis, and Emiratis have been forced into the impossible situation of either disregarding their countries' orders or leaving behind their families and job," said Sarah Leah Whitson of the rights organization.

Aaron David Miller of the Washington-based Wilson Center, an adviser to both Republican and Democratic secretaries of state in Middle East negotiations, told VOA the conflict with Qatar and Saudi Arabia and its allies has been brewing for years. He says in many ways, Qatar's open domestic policies embody Saudi Arabia's worst fears and amount to competing views of the shape of the Middle East. He said it would be very difficult for Tillerson, or anyone else, to help broker a long-term agreement.

As Tillerson shuttled through the Gulf, rights group Amnesty International called on the top U.S. diplomatic official to not overlook the issue of human rights and advocate for the release of activists being detained in Persian Gulf states for "peacefully expressing dissent."

"While Secretary Tillerson holds talks with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, human rights defenders are in prison and face torture for speaking out against horrific abuses in the region," said Naureen Shah, senior director of campaigns at Amnesty International USA.

"Tillerson should condemn the persecution of peaceful dissidents, many who are facing bogus national security charges. Otherwise, Tillerson risks giving Gulf governments a green light to continue ruthless crackdowns on dissent."

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American, Afghan Forces Intensify Anti-IS Fight in Afghanistan

By Noor Zahid, Zia-U-Rahman Hasrat July 13, 2017

As the Islamic State terror group loses ground in Iraq and Syria, U.S. and Afghan forces are stepping up their attacks on the group's offshoot in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.

The U.S. military, in coordination with Afghan security forces, are pounding IS hideouts in Achin, Haskamena and Kot districts with rockets being fired from Jalalabad airfield where U.S. troops are stationed.

The terror group has been active in the eastern region of the country for almost two years.

U.S and Afghan security forces have been conducting ground and air operations against IS militants in the Nangarhar for some time now. The rocket attacks, however, indicate an intensification in the war against IS in the country.

Attaullah Khogyani, Nangarhar provincial government spokesperson told VOA that the rocket attacks on IS hideouts are conducted based on intelligence provided by the Afghan security agencies.

He added that the rocket attacks have targeted key IS members, killing several of them.

Rocket attacks more accurate

Local residents in areas under IS control echo Khogyani's account and have welcomed the move, saying rocket attacks are more accurate and effective. Ground operations by Afghan security forces, they say, result in civilian casualties at times.

Waliullah, a local resident in Deh Bala district said rockets have targeted IS positions only, without causing harm to the civilians in the area.

"Airstrikes and ground operations have caused civilian casualties. Rockets fired from the city (U.S. military base) are accurate and do not target civilians," Waliullah told VOA's Afghan service.

U.S. and Afghan security forces have been engaged in joint- counterterrorism operations against IS militants in Nangarhar and neighboring Kunar province.

Drone strike a success

Earlier this year, U.S military and Afghan government promised to eliminate IS in Afghanistan by the end of 2017. Hundreds of IS fighters, including several senior commanders have been killed in recent months.

A suspected U.S. drone strike late Tuesday reportedly targeted a gathering of IS militants in Kunar province, killing 11 fighters, including four key IS commanders.

Pentagon did not immediately confirm Tuesday's drone strike.

The IS terror group has been active in several districts in Nangarhar province. Recently, it has expanded to neighboring mountainous Kunar and Nuristan provinces as well, which share a border with Pakistan, to establish a persistent presence there.

Militant leaders killed

IS has drawn the majority of its members from the Pakistani Taliban fighters, some former Afghan Taliban, and other militants from varied nationalities, including militants from India, Iran, Russia and central Asian neighbors.

In May, the terror group lost Sheikh Abdul Hasib, its leader in Afghanistan. Hasib was killed in a joint U.S. Afghan forces raid in eastern Nangarhar.

His predecessor and founder of IS's branch in Afghanistan, Hafiz Saeed Khan  a former Pakistani Taliban commander  was also killed in a U.S. drone strike in July of 2016.

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Inherent Resolve Strikes Target ISIS in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 14, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 20 strikes consisting of 48 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

U.S. Central Command continues to work with partner nations to conduct targeted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria as part of the comprehensive strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 15 strikes consisting of 28 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed 50 oil barrels, 12 oil refinement stills and one vehicle.

-- Near Shadaddi, two strikes destroyed three ISIS-held buildings, a weapons cache, a storage area and a vehicle bomb.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, two strikes destroyed five oil tanks, a front-end loader and a wellhead.

-- Near Raqqa, nine strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units; destroyed three ISIS communication towers, three fighting positions, a command-and-control node, a front-end loader and an artillery system; and damaged three supply routes.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted five strikes consisting of 20 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Beiji, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed two ISIS-held buildings, a bunker and a vehicle.

-- Near Kirkuk, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a supply cache.

-- Near Mosul, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units, destroyed 22 fighting positions and a tunnel, and damaged three fighting positions.

July 10-12 Strikes

Additionally, 21 strikes were conducted in Syria and Iraq on July 10-12 that closed within the last 24 hours:

-- On July 10, near Raqqa, Syria, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit: destroyed a fighting position: and suppressed 21 fighting positions.

-- On July 11, near Raqqa, Syria, a strike destroyed an ISIS vehicle bomb and a command-and-control node; and suppressed six fighting positions.

-- On July 12, near Abu Kamal, Syria, a strike destroyed two ISIS oil trucks.

-- On July 12, near Shadaddi, Syria, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit; and destroyed three ISIS-held buildings and two command-and-control nodes.

-- On July 12, near Dayr Az Zawr, Syria, two strikes destroyed two ISIS bomb-making factories.

-- On July 12, near Mosul, Iraq, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed a fighting position.

-- On July 12, near Raqqa, Syria, 12 strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units and destroyed four fighting positions, four IEDs, three ISIS communication towers, a vehicle bomb and a vehicle bomb-making factory.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.

For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

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Soldiers test new military systems, capabilities at Network Integration Exercise

By Sgt. Maricris McLane (24th PCH) July 14, 2017

FORT BLISS, Texas -- Approximately 1,900 Soldiers from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, arrived for the Network Integration Exercise 17.2 here, July 5 - 6.

NIE began in 2011, and the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division has been a major participant in the exercise since its inception.

The "Strike" Brigade is the first rotational unit to conduct NIE here.

As an expeditionary light infantry unit recently returning from supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the brigade provides an operational mindset that will assist in the overall assessment of practices and systems being used during the NIE exercise.

"The 2nd BCT returned from combat operations in support of Operation Inherent Resolve in January 2017, where the brigade headquarters and four battalion headquarters conducted expeditionary advise and assist operations under austere combat conditions," said Maj. Timothy Chess, operations officer with 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. "This experience prepared the brigade for evaluating new mission command and electronic warfare (EW) systems from the perspective of potential fielding to deployed or deploying BCTs."

Prior to arriving here, the brigade participated in several planning conferences, new equipment training and an extensive mission command system validation exercise, said Chess.

The 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division aims to test new equipment and provide valid feedback during the exercise.

"The main objective of the 2nd BCT is to test the equipment as directed by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command and U.S. Army Forces Command to provide Senior Army leaders Soldiers' feedback on emerging concepts and capabilities within the Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership, Personnel, Facilities and Policy (DOTMLPF-P) analysis framework," said Chess.

As the main participants of the exercise, the brigade will use and test new military equipment.

"The Soldiers of 2BCT are testing Systems under Test (SUTs), Risk Reduction Events (RRE) and other mission command and EW systems under simulated combat conditions," said Chess. "As part of the test, the Soldiers are providing candid, constructive feedback on the systems and their capabilities."

In addition, this exercise will also benefit the brigade's training and deployment readiness.

"NIE 17.2 allows 2nd BCT to exercise deployment and redeployment operations, distributed mission command across six subordinate battalion command nodes, company through battalion air assaults, platoon-level live fire exercises and brigade and battalion staff planning," said Chess.

At the end of the exercise, the unit wants to provide the test community and Senior Army leadership feedback on the systems that will enable a proper decision making on future equipment fielding and ensuring the warfighter is fully supported with the right capabilities, said Chess. "2nd BCT wants to maximize the training value associated with deploying a BCT to Fort Bliss and executing a tactical scenario."

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China says no need to overreact to Chinese bombers' flyover of Miyako Strait

People's Daily Online

By Chen Lidan (People's Daily Online) 15:29, July 14, 2017

The Chinese defense ministry said its bombers' recent flyover of the Miyako Strait was a regular training exercise and the country's air force will carry out more far-sea exercises in accordance with international practice.

When asked about the Japanese air force's response to the Chinese H-6 bombers that passed through the Miyako Strait on July 13, Ren Guoqiang, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, said in a written statement that there is no need to panic or hype up the lawful actions of the Chinese military.

The Japanese side should get used to it, the spokesperson added.

Despite being a well acknowledged international flight passage, the Miyako Strait is also considered a strategic entryway into the Western Pacific between the islands of Miyako and Okinawa.

According to the Japanese defense ministry, Chinese air force flew six H-6 bombers in two separate batches through the Miyako Strait. It also released pictures of the bombers taken by aircraft of Japan's Air Self-Defense Force at close range, which were sent to follow the Chinese military aircraft in case of an emergency.

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Ex-Soviet Intelligence Officer, Now Lobbyist, Confirms Being At Trump Jr. Meeting

RFE/RL July 14, 2017

The Russian lawyer who met with the eldest son of U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials of his presidential campaign in June 2016 was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist who is a former Soviet counterintelligence officer, according to multiple U.S. media reports.

The lobbyist, Rinat Akhmetshin, on July 14 confirmed to the Associated Press that he had been at the meeting. He told the news agency he had once served in a Soviet military unit that was part of counterintelligence but that he was never formally trained as a spy.

NBC reported on July 13 that the lobbyist, whom the network did not name at the time, accompanied Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya to the meeting with Donald Trump Jr.; President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The NBC report described the man as a "Russian-born American lobbyist [who] served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship."

Akhmetshin was a known associate of Veselnitskaya's in a multifaceted lobbying and public-relations effort in the United States in mid-2016 against the Magnitsky Act, legislation that imposes sanctions on human rights abusers.

The Financial Times reported on July 10 that Veselnitskaya had hired Akhmetshin during this period.

E-mail, phone, and text queries by RFE/RL to contacts previously used by Akhmetshin went unanswered on July 14.

Contacted by RFE/RL, a representative for Veselnitskaya in Russia said on July 14 she was too "busy" to comment on the Akhmetshin reports.

Akhmetshin has said previously that he served in Soviet counterintelligence, although he denied in an interview with RFE/RL last year that he had served in Soviet military intelligence.

In April, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent the Department of Homeland Security an information request as part of a probe into possible illegal lobbying by Akhmetshin, saying he was suspected of conducting "subversive political influence operations often involving disinformation and propaganda."

NBC reported that Alan Futerfas, Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyer, said his client had met with the former counterintelligence officer in question, without using his name. Futerfas said he himself had spoken to "that individual," who denied he was working for the Russian government.

"I have absolutely no concerns about what was said in that meeting," Futerfas said.

Representatives of Kushner and Manafort refused to comment for the NBC report.

In an earlier interview with NBC, Veselnitskaya said she was accompanied to the meeting by at least one other person whom she declined to identify.

On July 11, Donald Trump Jr. released e-mails that showed he had accepted the meeting after being told Veselnitskaya had damaging information about Democratic Party presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that was purportedly provided by the Russian government.

Akhmetshin told AP that Veselnitskaya gave the Trump associates at the meeting information on what she said were funds being illegally funneled to the Democratic National Committee and suggested the information could help the Trump campaign.

"This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money," Akhmetshin recalled the lawyer as saying.

President Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have said there was nothing improper about the meeting.

With reporting by NBC and The Financial Times

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-russia-former-soviet-agent- lobbyist-at-trump-jr-meeting/28616421.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Trump Calls Son's Meeting With Russian Lawyer 'Standard Practice' In Politics

RFE/RL July 14, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump has said his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer last year in hopes of obtaining damaging information about his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton is "standard practice" during a political campaign.

"Most people would have taken that meeting," Trump said at a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron. "It's called opposition research, or research into your opponent."

"I've only been in politics for two years, but I've had many people call up, 'Oh gee, we have information on this factor or this person or frankly Hillary,' -- that's very standard in politics. Politics is not the nicest business in the world, but it's very standard," he said.

Trump's latest defense of his son Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya came as U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan urged Trump Jr. to testify before Congress about the meeting.

The younger Trump has offered to cooperate with Congress about the matter and would be the first member of the president's inner circle to testify before committees that are investigating Russian attempts to influence the election.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley said on July 13 that he will send Trump Jr. a letter asking him to testify in public, and Ryan said he supported that request.

"I think any witness who's been asked to testify in Congress should do that," Ryan said.

Trump Jr. disclosed this week that he agreed to meet with Veselnitskaya in June 2016 after he was told she represented the Russian government and had damaging information on Clinton.

Trump Jr. said he would "love it" it that were the case, and he invited his brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Trump's campaign chairman at the time, Paul Manafort, to join the meeting, according to e-mails Trump Jr. released this week.

The e-mails are the most concrete evidence to date that Trump's campaign might have been willing to accept Russian help to win the election and are now a major focus of investigations in Congress.

The president stressed that Veselnitskaya was a private attorney and not a Russian government lawyer, and that nothing of substance came out of the meeting.

Meanwhile, U.S. citizen groups filed a complaint against Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort on July 13 with the U.S. agency that oversees elections, arguing that the three violated the law by meeting with the Russian.

The complaint with the Federal Election Commission was signed by Common Cause, the Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21, and two campaign lawyers involved with those groups.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-calls-don- jr-son-meeting-russian-lawyer-veselnitskaya-standard- practice-politics-ryan-/28615658.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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Moldova's Reliance On Russia, Transdniester For Energy Seen As Risky

RFE/RL July 14, 2017

WASHINGTON -- Moldova is among the most vulnerable countries in the world in terms of energy security, with protracted conflicts in Transdniester and Ukraine potentially putting it in a perilous position, an expert on the region says.

Lyndon Allin, an associate at Baker McKenzie, told a conference on July 13 that of total energy consumption in the former Soviet republic, 98 percent is imported, most of it from Russia, and the imports are transported through the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniester

Of Moldova's electricity usage, 70 percent is generated in Transdniester, said Allin, who served with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's mission to Moldova.

"That's quite some challenge for the folks in Chisinau to ensure that they're able to keep the gas fired and keep the lights on," he said.

Transdniester is a breakaway area that is not under the control of the Chisinau authorities. It declared independence in 1992 and has received economic, political, and military support from Moscow ever since.

Allin, speaking at the Energy (In)security In Russia's Periphery conference sponsored by the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, cited statistics placing Moldova as the ninth-most-risky country in terms of short-term energy security.

He said Moldova was heavily reliant on Russian natural-gas giant Gazprom, which sends its supplies through Transdniester.

Allin said Gazprom had been supplying gas to Transdniester through the same pipeline, but had not been requiring payment, as a means of subsidizing the separatists against Chisinau, leaving an unpaid debt of some $6 billion.

However, should Russia ever want to put pressure on Moldova to prevent a tilt toward the West, Gazprom could theoretically decide to collect that debt from Moldova, although it is disputed who actually owes the money.

As it stands, Gazprom at this time would be hesitant to cut off supplies to Moldova because many of its customers are downstream from the country, meaning it would lose revenue if it tried to punish Moldova.

However, Allin said, once alternative pipelines -- Nordstream 2 and Turk Stream -- are completed, supplies could be sent westward without passing through Moldova, making the country's energy security even more precarious.

One option being explored to relieve Moldova's reliance on Russia and Transdniester is a gas interconnector with Romania, although that system is not currently able to come close to meeting Moldova's needs.

The European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the European Investment Bank are providing about $105 million in financing for a gas pipeline from Romania to Chisinau in hopes of increasing capacity to get gas from Romania.

Another possibilities being explored is the possible exploitation of shale-gas supplies in the country, Allin said, citing an agreement by the Moldovan government in January 2017 with a U.S. company, Frontera Resources, to explore its development.

Hydropower is also a possibility, Allin said, although the Dubasari hydroelectric dam is inside of Transdniester and, so far, Moldova does not benefit from its production.

And, he said, there is also a plan to connect to the Romanian electricity grid, but technical and cost challenges have slowed that development.

Ukraine does supply some Moldovan electricity, he said. But he noted that most of the transmission lines go through Transdniester, which in theory could in the future cut the lines.

In conclusion, he said, "In Moldova...there needs to be more of an effort to solve 'own' problems and not look only to foreign partners for solutions."

"Funding, sure...advice, sure...but there is a fatigue level with folks not solving their own problems, while recognizing that these are difficult problems."

Moldova has been courted by the West as well as Russia. Its current president is Igor Dodon, the pro-Russian leader of the Socialist Party.

However, the country is divided, and Dodon has clashed repeatedly with the West-leaning government over ties with Russia.

While the government has said it wants to join the EU and NATO, Dodon has opposed membership and said he would like to cancel Moldova's EU Association Agreement.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/moldova-heavy -reliance-russian-transdniester-energy-seen-risky- allin-baker-hughes/28615600.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 Asserts Readiness to Hold Talks With Pakistan on Kashmir Issue

Sputnik News

10:35 14.07.2017(updated 11:30 14.07.2017)

India has said it is open to holding talks with Pakistan in resolving the Kashmir issue under a bilateral framework, a day after Beijing offered to play a "constructive" role between the two countries.

Without naming Pakistan, India's Ministry of External Affairs said the central issue in the ongoing crisis is cross-border terrorism emanating from a particular country.

"Our [position] is absolutely clear. You are aware that the heart of the matter is cross-border terrorism emanating from a particular country that threatens peace and stability in the country, region, and the world. We are ready to have a dialogue with Pakistan on Kashmir under a bilateral framework," Gopal Baglay, spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, said at his weekly media briefing in New Delhi.

China had on Wednesday expressed concern over the mounting tension between India and Pakistan.

"We hope that the relevant sides will be able to take more action to promote peace and stability in the region, as well as avoid escalation of tensions. China is ready to play a constructive role in the issue of improvement of relations between India and China," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a briefing.

China's remarks have come at a time when it is locked in a standoff with India and Bhutan in the Doklam area near Sikkim section of the border.

The Indian MEA spokesperson said that both sides are using "diplomatic channels" to ease the tension. Baglay also referred to the informal meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping during the G20 Summit, a claim that has been rejected by the Chinese.

Indian experts said China needs to understand Indian sensibilities before meddling in the dispute. For starters, Beijing should inspire confidence by reorienting its South Asia strategy, which, at present, looks highly tilted towards Pakistan.

"India stressing on a bilateral framework for conflict resolution with Pakistan hasn't changed and New Delhi has a principled position of no third-party role in Kashmir issue. Moreover, India has reasons to doubt Chinese sincerity on the issue as it is a very close and strategic partner of Pakistan. China has failed to understand India's sensibilities, whether it is the NSG membership issue or supporting the UN ban on Masood Azhar. They first started the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and approached India thereafter," Dr. Dhananjay Tripathi, Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations, at the New Delhi-based South Asian University, told Sputnik.

 Sputnik

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US Lawmakers Demand Testimony From Trump Jr, Kushner in Russia Probe

By Ken Bredemeier, Michael Bowman July 13, 2017

Key U.S. lawmakers investigating charges of Russian meddling in the 2016 election want Donald Trump, Jr. to testify about his June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York with a Russian lawyer thought to have information that could damage Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign.

"The revelation that the Trump Campaign eagerly intended to possibly collude with Russia is deeply disturbing," Democratic House minority leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted Thursday.

Besides his eldest son, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, 36, is expected to testify in closed session. Democrat lawmakers are also demanding that Kushner, a senior adviser to the president, be stripped of his security clearance.

"There doesn't seem to be any ethical standard in the White House," Pelosi tweeted. "Jared Kushner's security clearance must be immediately revoked."

Trump Jr. asked to testify

Even some members of Trump's own Republican Party have said it would be in the president's best interest if he removed all of his children from the White House, including Kushner, who is married to the president's eldest daughter Ivanka.

In Washington, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the younger Trump asking him to testify about his June 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. Donald Trump Jr. has said he is willing to testify voluntarily, but Grassley said he would be subpoenaed if need be.

Grassley said no questions would be off limits as the panel investigates what the U.S. intelligence community has concluded was Moscow's election interference personally directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said, "I look forward to asking Donald Trump Jr. what the heck he was thinking in embracing a meeting with someone who said they were representing one of our foremost adversaries in the world?"

Grassley's committee is one of several congressional panels investigating the Trump campaign's links with Russia, while Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, is heading a criminal probe into the election interference and whether the president obstructed justice by firing another FBI director, James Comey, while he was heading the Russia probe before Mueller took over.

The leader of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, Speaker Paul Ryan, urged the younger Trump to honor Grassley's request that he testify.

"I think any witness who's been asked to testify in Congress should do that," Ryan said.

Trump: 'Most people would have taken that meeting'

Speaking to reporters jointly with French President Emmanuel Macron Thursday in Paris, Trump defended his eldest son's meeting with Veselnitskaya last year.

"I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting," Trump said Thursday of Donald Trump Jr.'s decision to talk with the lawyer after being told by an intermediary that she was a Russian government attorney and would offer him material as part of Moscow's election support of Trump.

"It's called opposition research or even research into your opponent. That's very standard in politics; politics is not the nicest business in the world but it's very standard where they have information and you take the information," Trump said as he stood alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at a Paris news conference.

Trump, who is facing months of investigations in the U.S. about his aides' contacts with Russians during his run to the White House, said, "Nothing happened from the meeting, zero happened from the meeting, and honestly I think the press made a very big deal over something that really a lot of people will do.

"As far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful young man," Trump said. "He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer. It was a short meeting, it was a meeting that went very, very quickly; very fast."

Trump was asked whether he agreed with Christopher Wray, his nominee to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that his son should have called FBI investigators when offered the meeting because it was supposedly coming from a foreign adversary, Russia. But Trump simply praised his appointment of Wray.

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U.S. Court Rules Against Trump Restrictions On Travelers With U.S. Relatives

RFE/RL July 14, 2017

A U.S. judge has ruled against the Trump administration's restrictions on refugees and travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries who have American relatives.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu said late on July 13 that people with grandparents, uncles, aunts, and other American relatives currently barred by the administration should be allowed into the country.

Watson was asked by the state of Hawaii to interpret a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that revived Trump's 90-day ban on refugees and citizens of Iran, Syria, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, and Sudan unless they have a "bona fide relationship" with an American relative or institution.

The Trump administration interpreted the high-court ruling to say people with American spouses, parents, children, fiances, and siblings could enter the country, but those with U.S. grandparents or other more distant family members would be barred.

The Honolulu court granted Hawaii's request to issue an injunction allowing grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, and other barred family members to travel to the United States.

Watson said the Trump administration had an "unduly restrictive reading" of what constituted a close family relationship.

He said grandparents were the "epitome" of close family members.

At the same time, the U.S. government has given all foreign governments 50 days to certify they meet new U.S. travel requirements or risk the possibility of sanctions.

The State Department on July 13 sent cables to all diplomatic missions, instructing them to confirm their host countries met standards on identity documents and information sharing.

Some of the factors the U.S. government says it will take under consideration are controversial, such as whether foreign governments have proven "that they are not and do not have to potential to become a terrorist safe haven."

The U.S. government has not specified which countries are likely to have difficulty complying, but a separate, classified cable was sent to diplomatic missions in countries deemed problematic.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-court-rules- against-trump-restrictions-travelers-us-relatives-grandparents -grandchildren-hawaii-watson/28615698.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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US Judge Expands Exemptions to US Travel Ban

By Victoria Macchi July 14, 2017

The U.S. State Department said Friday that it is reviewing a ruling by a federal judge that may allow thousands more travelers and refugees excluded from the United States by a presidential order to obtain travel documents.

In late June, the U.S. Supreme Court said part of President Donald Trump's executive order, known as the travel ban, could go into effect. But the court provided exceptions for travelers from the six affected countries, as well as refugees, who could prove a "bona fide" relationship to family or "entities" in the U.S.

The federal government interpreted that to mean parents and siblings, in part, but excluded grandparents, uncles, aunts, and other relatives.

But U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu on Thursday found that "the government's narrowly defined list finds no support in the careful language of the Supreme Court or even in the immigration statutes on which the government relies."

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," he wrote.

"Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The government's definition excludes them. That simply cannot be."

Watson ordered Homeland Security and the State Department not to enforce the ban on "grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins of persons in the United States."

The judge also ruled that refugees who had assurances of a placement by a resettlement agency in the United States should also be exempt.

The decision to expand the definition of "bona fide" could re-open admission to more than 24,000 additional refugees who otherwise would have been blocked, Melanie Nezer, vice president of global refugee resettlement group HIAS, told Reuters.

"We are reviewing the decision and will be in consultation with Department of Justice to ensure immediate implementation," a State Department spokesperson told VOA Friday morning.

The legal tangle of two travel-related executive orders from the Trump administration is in its sixth month. Lawsuits from coast to coast - including in Hawaii - have stymied the government's full roll-out of what were initially months-long bans on refugees and some travelers from six countries.

Attorneys for the U.S. government have defended the limitations imposed on travelfrom Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen as reasonable; critics call the orders by Trump, which he framed as national security decisions, discriminatory based on the disproportionate impact the bans would have on Muslims.

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Down But Not Out: West Faces Long War Against Islamic State

By Victoria Macchi July 14, 2017

"If they are in Raqqa, they're gonna die in Raqqa."

America's top envoy to the coalition battling the Islamic State, Brett McGurk, declared last month open season on the terror group's foreign recruits in the besieged northern Syrian city.

More than 2000 IS militants are believed still to be fighting in Raqqa, many of them thought to be foreigners from North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. But even after the Islamic militants are defeated in the coming weeks in their self-styled Syrian capital, the terror group still will have an estimated 13,000 or so fighters in Syria and Iraq, posing a remaining threat in the Levant, warn U.S. officials and independent analysts.

They expect the terror group to revert back, in the words of analyst Bruce Hoffman, to its "fundamental DNA" as "a terrorist-cum-insurgent group, not a proto-state exercising sovereignty." Most of the leadership hasn't stood to fight in Raqqa, as it didn't in Mosul, fleeing both cities to set up in remoter territory and smaller towns along the Syrian-Iraq border in the Euphrates River Valley and Iraq's western Anbar province.

Defeated, not eradicated

IS hopes to emulate its precursor jihadist organizations, which were able to weather military defeats inflicted on them by U.S. forces during the 2007-08 surge in Iraq.

IS's official spokesman, Abu Mohammad al Adnani, before his death in a targeted drone strike last year, referenced the strategy in an audio-message to followers, referencing the 2007 U.S. Surge, saying: "Were we defeated when we lost the cities in Iraq and were in the desert without any city or land? It is the same, whether Allah blesses us with consolidation or we move into the bare, open desert, displaced and pursued."

Analysts expect IS to exploit strategic depth in rugged territory both in west and east Iraq  including the Jalam desert east of Samarra and in the Hamrin mountains  to launch hit-and-run attacks from villages and hideouts on government forces, as the group began to do in April.

Whether it can hang on will likely depend on two key factors  the effectiveness of anti-IS security forces on both sides of the border and the attitude of the locals. Heavy-handed counter-insurgency operations, along with revenge killings and sectarian-based governance, risk feeding into the Sunni disaffection that gave rise to IS in the first place, breeding yet more new recruits for the terror group and giving it a chance to recover and reconstitute itself.

Stability is key

Analysts worry that neither Baghdad nor Washington have developed coherent stabilization plans involving transitional justice and inclusive governance ready for Mosul and other towns grabbed back from IS.

"We should be concerned about the lack of stabilization plans for territory from which ISIS is expelled," says Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a counter-terrorism analyst with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank. "We are in grave danger of once again winning the war but losing the peace. Absent stabilization plans... well, we've seen this movie before. In addition, the U.S. should take steps to counter atrocities that Iranian-backed forces, including the popular mobilization committees that have been a part of the anti-ISIS offensive, may commit against Sunni civilians," he adds.

In northern Syria, Washington would appear to be adopting more of a hands-off off approach when it comes to civilian affairs in Raqqa once the U.S.-backed Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, have secured the city. In an email, a spokesman for Central Command, or CENTCOM, said: "When ISIS has been defeated in Raqqa, authority will rest with the Raqqa Civilian Council and security will be maintained by the Raqqa Internal Security Force."

When asked whether U.S. authorities have discussed the treatment of IS suspects, the CENTCOM response was: "Detainees are handled by local authorities." But it added: "The Coalition supports the laws of armed conflict and works hard in training to ensure partner forces are aware of and understand the requirement for a professional fighting force to abide with these laws."

Violations are already being alleged, as VOA reported earlier this week, with some locals saying they are confronted by an immediate assumption that they must be IS members or sympathizers as they remained in the city under militant rule.

In Iraq, rights groups have already documented revenge killings by some Iranian-influenced Shi'ite militias. And a recent video of brutal Iraqi interrogation methods of suspect militants in Mosul is adding to the alarm of rights groups. On both sides of the border, IS will be quick capitalize on Sunni grievances.

Which is the top terrorist group?

"Outside of the Syria-Iraq theater, expect the group to try to continue to demonstrate that it is the foremost jihadist terrorist organization," says Gartenstein-Ross. "Terrorist attacks across the globe demonstrate its potency, relevance, and in ISIS's estimation are likely to draw more recruits to its cause," he adds.

Like rival al-Qaida before, IS has established affiliates elsewhere in the Mideast and North Africa, notably in Libya and Egypt, readying for a long war. Last year, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi assured his followers in a rare audio message that the group would defeat efforts to oust it from its major population centers in Syria and Iraq but appeared to be preparing for their eventual loss by urging foreign recruits to migrate to the affiliates.

Whether IS once its caliphate has been crushed and its nation-building pretensions shattered remains as alluring for militant recruits is one of the big questions.

The caliphate ambitions marked it out as different from al-Qaida, allowing it to boast that it had gone one better than Osama bin Laden. Aside from doctrinal objections, al-Qaida strategists opposed the establishment of the caliphate from the beginning because tactically they calculated its foes would quickly invade and crush it, as is happening.

Now al-Qaida will likely seek to demonstrate that it and not IS is the foremost global jihadist group and has already been grooming, some analysts argue, bin Laden's 28-year-old son Hamza as a figurehead leader, featuring him in four recent propaganda videos for the group.

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Chinese aircraft carrier-led flotilla leaves Taiwan's ADIZ

Central News Agency

2017/07/13 10:42:21

Taipei, July 13 (CNA) A Chinese naval flotilla headed by China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, that entered Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the early hours of Wednesday, left the zone at 2 a.m. the following day after sailing north along the Taiwan Strait, according to the Ministry of National Defense.

The four-ship flotilla left Hong Kong at noon Tuesday and entered Taiwan's ADIZ at 2:40 a.m., Wednesday before sailing north, west of the Taiwan Strait's median line, according to a statement issued by the ministry.

Earlier reports have said that the flotilla also included two guided-missile destroyers and one frigate.

The ministry said that it closely monitored every operation and movement of the Liaoning, which embarked from its home port in Qingdao, northern China on June 25 for a cross-region training operation. It arrived in Hong Kong on July 7 for a five-day port call.

China and Taiwan are technically still at war with each other and Beijing sees self-governing Taiwan as part of its territory, to be reunited by military force if necessary.

The last time the Liaoning formation entered Taiwan's ADIZ was at 4 p.m. July 1 and it left at 9:30 p.m. the next day.

During that time, the ministry denied reports that the Liaoning conducted training operations such as takeoffs and landings of jet fighters while the formation sailed through Taiwan's ADIZ.

It was the Chinese aircraft carrier's second passage through the Taiwan Strait in six months. On Jan. 12, the Liaoning sailed in the 180-kilometer-wide waterway on its way back to China after conducting training exercises in the South China Sea.

It sailed south off the eastern coast of Taiwan on Christmas Day, 2016 to reach waters where the exercises were to take place.

In late 2013, the Liaoning, which was rebuilt from a multirole aircraft carrier launched in 1988 for the Soviet Navy, sailed in the Taiwan Strait for the first time after its commission into the Chinese navy in September 2012.

(By Claudia Liu and Evelyn Kao)

ENDITEM/J

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Chinese naval fleet returns from escort mission

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 17:44, July 13, 2017

After a 208-day sail, covering nearly 120,000 nautical miles, a Chinese fleet wrapped up its escort mission Wednesday morning.

Anchoring at a military port in Zhanjiang, southern China's Guangdong Province, the 25th convey fleet was sent by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, the PLA Daily reported Thursday.

The fleet is composed of two missile frigates, a supply ship, two ship-borne helicopters, dozens of special combat soldiers and more than 700 seamen and officers.

During the mission, it escorted a total of 62 Chinese and foreign ships and rescued two ships, which were being chased and attacked. The fleet also discovered and expelled 82 suspicious vessels.

The fleet also made friendly visits to Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand and Vanuatu, according to the PLA Daily.

China sent its first escort squad to the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters in Dec. 2008 in order to protect passing ships against pirate attacks, safeguard sea lane security and maintain freedom of navigation along waterways.

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Chinese base in Djibouti not military expansion

People's Daily Online

By Sun Wenyu (People's Daily Online) 16:50, July 13, 2017

China's establishment of its first military base in Djibouti has triggered wide concerns amongst some Western countries that China is indeed conducting military expansion and building strategic layout in the Indian Ocean. The base is meant to ensure supplies rather than a "threat" posed by China as alleged, refuted a commentary.

The commentary was published on the official website of People's Daily overseas edition.

China's overseas security is based on the country's peace and friendship-oriented diplomacy rather than military operations; and the base is not military expansion, the article pointed out.

The article said that China has always adhered to the principle of peaceful coexistence. Though some adjustments have been made, the country has never deviated from the principle.

However, the paper said, substantial trade and economic exchanges have resulted in unprecedented enriched Chinese interests overseas. Therefore, it is reasonable for the country to protect them.

About 3.8 million barrels of crude oil are transported through the waters of Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden each day, accounting for nearly 20 percent of global oil trade volume. And half of China's oil imports go through the Gulf of Aden. This means that China has every reason to dispatch its fleets to the Gulf of Aden.

Previously, oil, living material and medical supplies for the fleets were brought in by ship after being purchased in neighbouring countries. Such a method was not only expensive, but also inefficient, thus setting up a military base to support Chinese warships operating in the region became necessary, it explained.

The 40-acre base is only able to accommodate a limited number of troops and facilities. Guaranteeing their logistics is the most central and realistic objective.

The article noted that the largest U.S. military base, Camp Lemonnier, is located just 10 kilometers from the Chinese base. Equipped with a regional anti-terrorism command center, the base has about 4,000 enlisted men, including a special force.

In addition, Camp Lemonnier has a drone apron that enables unmanned aircraft to conduct missions in adjacent areas. Multiple accidents have occurred due to the camp's frequent missions, which even affected the operation of Djibouti's civil aviation.

Besides the U.S., many countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and even Japan, have all established military bases in Djibouti.

The commentary believes that the reason for Western countries' undue focus on China's small military camp is indeed their conventional thinking that China would also try to control the world with its expanding military power just like they did before.

As a matter of fact, the article noted, those who fan up the "China threat" theory should be aware that even the U.S., which has established more than 100 military camps in over 40 countries, has still not made itself secure enough.

As a result, China will seldom adopt military solutions to its own development, and its overseas security will mainly rely on its peace and friendship-oriented diplomacy.

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China carrier 'enters Taiwan defense zone'

Iran Press TV

Thu Jul 13, 2017 5:38AM

Taiwan says a Chinese aircraft carrier has entered its "air defense identification zone (ADIZ)" and is being monitored by Taipei as the carrier sails back from a trip to Hong Kong.

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense added in a statement on Wednesday that the 60,000-ton carrier had entered the ADIZ at 02:40 a.m. local time and had steered north via the western side of the Taiwan Strait, China's side of the strait.

It further said that the ministry was monitoring the situation but since there had been no "unusual developments" at the time, Taiwanese people should not be alarmed.

The Chinese aircraft, the Liaoning, is capable of sailing at a top speed of 37 kilometers per hour and can carry 36 aircraft.

The warship arrived in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, on Friday for events celebrating the 20th anniversary of the former British colony's handover to China. The Soviet-built carrier lay anchored in the city's harbor until Tuesday noon, when it left the city.

The alleged entry into Taiwan's "ADIZ" has been the fourth time the Liaoning has sailed near the island territory, which China claims as a breakaway province.

On July 2, the carrier sailed through the Taiwan Strait, as it was making its way to Hong Kong, prompting Taipei to scramble warplanes to shadow the ship.

In December last year, a Chinese naval battle group, involving the Liaoning, conducted a live-fire drill in China's northeastern waters in a show of force amid an escalating war of words with the United States over Taiwan. US President Donald Trump had just taken a call from the Taiwanese president  a breach of diplomatic protocol  and had implied in later remarks that Washington would not have to abide by the so-called One China policy of recognizing Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan.

Although he later backtracked, reassuring China of his administration's commitment to the "One China" policy, Trump has continued a long-time US policy of engaging in military ties with Taiwan. In late June, the US approved sales of arms worth $1.42 billion to Taiwan, enraging China. The arms deal includes advanced missiles and torpedoes, in addition to technical support for an early warning radar system.

On June 12, Panama broke ties with Taiwan in favor of establishing formal relations with China. That brought the number of the countries that formally recognize the island as a sovereign country down to 20.

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China Posts Double Digit Trade Increase with North Korea in First Half of 2017

By VOA News July 13, 2017

China says its trade with North Korea rose in the first six months of 2017, compared to the same period the year before.

China's Customs Administration announced Thursday that trade with the international pariah North grew 10.5 percent to $2.5 billion between January and June, with exports soaring to 29.1 percent during that period.

The figures are likely to increase calls for Beijing to pressure Pyongyang, its main diplomatic and economic ally, to curb its nuclear and missile testing program. U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out at China's trade with North Korea in a tweet last week, claiming it had grown "almost 40 percent" in the first quarter of this year.

Trump angrily ended his tweet: "So much for China working with us -- but we had to give it a try!"

But Customs spokesman Huang Songping insisted China was upholding United Nations sanctions on North Korea, citing figures showing a 13.2 percent decline in imports from the regime during the same period, with sharp decreases every month since March.

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North Korea warns UN against imposing more sanctions on Pyongyang

Iran Press TV

Fri Jul 14, 2017 9:53AM

North Korea has warned the United Nations Security Council against adopting any further sanctions resolutions against Pyongyang over its launch of a ballistic missile last week.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Pyongyang would take "corresponding measures" if the Council decided to impose more sanctions, the official KCNA news agency reported on Friday.

The ministry said the launch of the ballistic missile on July 4 had been an exercise of North Korea's legitimate right to self-defense against a potential nuclear threat from the United States.

Some experts said at the time that the ballistic missile was capable of reaching Alaska.

After the launch, the US drafted a resolution to impose stronger sanctions on the North, according to several senior UN diplomats.

Last month, the Security Council imposed a fresh array of sanctions on Pyongyang in response to a number of missile tests carried out this year.

The North says it will not abandon its missile and military nuclear programs until the US ends its hostility toward Pyongyang.

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Indian Air Force Jets Slated to Have Beyond-Visual-Range Strike Capacity by 2018

Sputnik News

22:13 13.07.2017(updated 22:46 13.07.2017)

India's Tejas light combat aircraft is armed and ready with I-Derby missiles for downing other aircraft, according to The Diplomat.

The missiles have been integrated into the plane's weapons suite but have yet to finish testing, which is slated to happen by year's end, Flight Global reported. The Indian Air Force conducted tests in May "to assess the Derby integration with aircraft systems on board Tejas, including the aircraft avionics, fire-controlled radar, launchers and missile weapon delivery system and to verify its performance," a Ministry of Defense spokesman said.

The IAF said the test was a smashing success but the missiles are not yet categorized as having full operational capability.

Beyond-visual-range (BVR) strike capability is crucial for 21st century air combat, according to military analysts. "Modern air combat is divided into beyond visual beyond-visual-range combat and within-visual-range combat. BVR combat means the fighters use airborne detection equipment to search the enemy target, then use [a] remote air-to-air missile to attack it, when both of them are beyond visual range," a 2011 Beijing University study on BVR strategy reads.

The I-Derby missiles are made by Israel-based Rafael and have a 50 kilometer range.

 Sputnik

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India Revives Intel Wing to Keep Tabs on Chinese Activity in Nepal, Bhutan

Sputnik News

10:25 14.07.2017

India has revived its five-decade-old intelligence and combat unit in order to keep a tab on Chinese maneuvers in countries like Nepal and Bhutan. The separate unit will be part of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which guards the borders with the two countries.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  India's Ministry of Home Affairs has decided to deploy the full-fledged intelligence unit along the border of Nepal and Bhutan to keep tabs on infrastructure development and other activities by China in these countries. More than 1,000 specially trained troops will be part of the SSB unit which will play a dual role for the government. Apart from intelligence gathering, these troops will also be trained in combat.

In December last year, Sputnik had reported that the Indian government is considering to revive the 50-year-old SSB intelligence wing, following increased Chinese activities in New Delhi's extended neighborhood. The action was initiated after SSB had raised concerns before the government about China's project development and other activities across the border.

"The border [with Nepal] is very sensitive and the influence of elements of various types in these areas has mushroomed we have proposed to have our full-fledged intelligence wing in the force," Archana Ramasundaram, Director General, Sashastra Seema Bal, said back then.

The decision to raise combat intelligence services is based on the 54-year-old Special Service Bureau which worked on the principle of "recruit locally, train locally and deploy locally." The new service will have a larger objective than its predecessor and it is most likely that the forces belonging to this service would be deployed in the neighboring countries in question.

 Sputnik

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US not fully compliant with spirit of nuclear deal: Zarif

Iran Press TV

Fri Jul 14, 2017 6:8AM

The Iranian foreign minister has lashed out at the US for its failure to completely observe its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal by occasionally preventing the Islamic Republic from enjoying the full benefits of the agreement.

Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in New York, Mohammad Javad Zarif stressed that all parties to the deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), must remain committed to the terms of the agreement.

Zarif is in New York to attend the UN high-level political forum on sustainable development on Friday.

"Unfortunately up until now, the United States, while remaining at the very least possible level compliant with the agreement, has failed to observe, in times, the letter and mostly the spirit of the agreement by not allowing Iran to enjoy the full benefits of the nuclear deal. We believe they need to reconsider that position, because it is not conducive to the sustainability of the agreement," Zarif said.

Zarif argued that the West's policy of pressure against Iran has proved to be ineffective, adding, "The JCPOA is a multilateral agreement that was the result of many years of negotiation."

"It was also the result of many years of pressure. After all those pressures failed to bring about the results that were expected from those who were imposing pressure on the Iranian people, there was no other choice but to reach a negotiated settlement," added the Iranian minister.

"I think at the end of the day, everybody will see that the agreement will represent an outcome that was the best possibility for all concerned [parties]," he pointed out.

Zarif's comments come on the second anniversary of the landmark deal, which was inked on July 14, 2017, between Tehran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - plus Germany. The JCPOA was later endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution.

Since January 2016, when the JCPOA took effect, the International Atomic Energy Organization, which monitors the technical implementation of the deal, has in numerous reports confirmed Iran's compliance.

During his presidential campaign, US President Donald Trump described the nuclear accord with Iran as a "disaster" and vowed to unilaterally scrap it.

While he has not carried out that threat, his administration is conducting a "review" to see whether the provision of sanctions relief to Iran - a US commitment under the deal - is in America's "national interest."

On Tuesday, the European Union's foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini described the historic nuclear deal with Iran as an international agreement that "does not belong to one country," noting that all the parties to the deal "have the responsibility to make sure that this continues to be implemented."

In response to a question by the Press TV correspondent about the possibility of any meeting between Iranian and American officials during the New York visit, Zarif said, "For this visit, no meetings have been planned. I plan to meet not with US officials, but with members of the wider intellectual community that have impact on US policy-making."

Battling terror in Mideast

Zarif pointed to the ongoing campaign against terrorism and extremism across the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Syria, and noted that the current crisis is mainly caused by the US interventionist policies in the region.

"The nightmare that we are facing in the region is a consequence of many years of intervention and short-sighted policies by the US in the region which has resulted, as expected, in the exacerbation of extremism and terrorism in our region," he said.

The foreign minister said Iran has been "in the forefront of fighting terrorism and extremism in the region" and expressed satisfaction over the fact that the people and governments of Iraq and Syria have succeeded in retaking their territories.

"This menace  has been the result of short-sighted policies from the outside and unfortunately, negative policies by countries in the region who continue to sponsor, to support and provide arms and money to terrorists and extremist organizations and unfortunately provide the ideology of hatred and exclusion which lies at the heart of these extremist movements," Zarif noted.

The remarks come after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared victory of the country's forces over the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group on Monday, one day after the country's military and Popular Mobilization Forces took full control of the strategic city of Mosul.

Zarif underlined Iran's determination to help end violence in Syria through a negotiated settlement at Astana peace talks, adding, "We support a comprehensive ceasefire throughout Syria, excluding obviously terrorist and extremist organizations, particularly Daesh and al-Nusra."

"We have been in consultation with Russia and Turkey in the Astana process and outside the Astana process in order to make sure that successful implementation of our agreements would continue and would further be enhanced in order to make sure that the suffering of the Syrian people is reduced and hopefully move forward to humanitarian assistance to all Syrians throughout Syria," the top diplomat pointed out.

Syria's warring parties have attended five rounds of peace talks brokered by Iran, Russia and Turkey in the Kazakh capital, Astana. The Astana discussions produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria that sharply reduced fighting in the Arab country.

The negotiations are aimed at bringing an end to the foreign-backed militancy in Syria, which began in March 2011.

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ISIS Dealt Significant Blow After Iraq Retakes Mosul, Official Says

By Terri Moon Cronk DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2017  The retaking of Mosul by Iraqi forces delivered a significant blow to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Army Col. Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, told Pentagon reporters today.

Joined in the Pentagon press briefing room by Iraqi Brig. Gen Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the Joint Operations Command; Brig. Gen. Halgurd Hikmat Ali, the spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government's Ministry of the Peshmerga; and Brig. Gen Saad Maad, spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command and Iraq's Interior Ministry, Dillon said it was Iraqi determination that put ISIS on an increasingly rapid decline while the terrorists also lost control of Tikrit, Ramadi and Fallujah.

"Iraqi security forces, on the other hand, have only improved and gotten stronger," the colonel said. "They have proven with their battlefield successes that they know  they are a better fighting force and they are better than the terrorists that they fight."

Unity of Effort

Defeating ISIS throughout Iraq has been a unified effort under Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's direction, he said.

"And just look at how the Iraqi security forces have fought. All elements of the Iraqi security forces achieved this victory together: [the] Iraqi army, the federal police, Peshmerga forces, local police, counterterrorism service, and popular and tribal mobilization forces," Dillon said.

Iraqi forces have cleared more than 30,000 square miles of territory once held by ISIS, and nearly 2 million Iraqis who were displaced have returned to their homes, the colonel noted, but, he cautioned, the enemy still must be wiped out around the world.

"[The] defeat of ISIS in Mosul does not mark the end of this evil ideology and global threat," Dillon said. "With the coalition's help, the ISF will keep the pressure on this enemy while they are on their heels and not give them a chance to rest."

Coalition to Continue Fight

With military forces and stabilization efforts, the coalition will continue to support Iraq to defeat ISIS, he said, adding, "The progress that has been made to date is because of brave Iraqi partners who take the fight to ISIS every single day, and the strong coalition that supports and fights with them."

It is the professionalism, dedication and competence of such men and women who have gone toe-to-toe with the enemy that paved the way for ISIS's lasting defeat, Dillon said.

Human Lives First

Rasool said it is human life that comes first, and territory is secondary in the fight to rid the country of ISIS.

"Therefore, we consider this a human victory before a victory of a location, of a land," the general said through a translator. "We liberated millions of people. We liberated them from terrorism, starvation and the worst terrorist organization in the world known to humankind. And we did a great job by this victory."

The Iraqi military, counterterrorism services and the federal police forces are Iraq's heroes, he said, adding, "the Peshmerga -- these are other heroes, and also the Popular Mobilization forces. From the beginning, they were part of all of our military operations to liberate the city of Mosul."

The victory over ISIS is a victory of a coalition that liberated large areas that were difficult because of the nature of the enemy, Rasool said. "We are not forgetting here the role of our friends in the international coalition. They supported us in so many different ways."

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Iraqi Forces to Focus on Liberating Tal Afar Next - US Envoy

Sputnik News

18:09 13.07.2017(updated 18:41 13.07.2017)

The Iraqi Security Forces will next move to liberate Tal Afar, US Envoy to the Global Coalition to counter Daesh stated on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The Iraqi Security Forces will next move to liberate Tal Afar, Hawija and al-Qaim from Daesh (banned in Russia), US Envoy to the Global Coalition to counter Daesh Brett McGurk stated on Thursday.

"The battle in Iraq is far from over. Iraqi forces with our support will soon move to liberate remaining territories controlled by Daesh, including Tal Afar, Hawija and al-Qaim," McGurk said at a meeting of the coalition members in Washington, DC.

McGurk added that the coalition is planning to support the Iraqi government in the military campaign and on humanitarian, stabilization and governance levels.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Monday that Iraqi security forces had finally liberated the second largest Iraqi city of Mosul after months of fighting the terrorists, although explosions and fighting were still reported the following day.

 Sputnik

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Iraq Cannot Confirm Death of Daesh eader al-Baghdadi  Iraqi Ambassador

Sputnik News

04:46 14.07.2017

Iraq cannot confirm the death of Daesh (banned in Russia) terror group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi with absolute certainty, according to Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Haidar Mansour Hadi.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Iraq cannot confirm the death of Daesh (banned in Russia) terror group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi with absolute certainty, Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Haidar Mansour Hadi said Thursday.

"The Russian side was first to announce the elimination of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Recently this was confirmed by the Syrian side. But we cannot confirm these messages  that he was killed  with 100-percent certainty," Hadi said at a press conference.

On Tuesday, the Al Sumaria News broadcaster and UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed that the Islamic State issued a statement confirming al-Baghdadi's death.

On June 16, the Russian Defense Ministry said al-Baghdadi was likely eliminated as a result of a Russian Aerospace Forces strike on a militant command post in the southern suburb of the city of Raqqa in late May. It noted that it was in the process of confirming the information through various channels.

Al-Baghdadi appeared in the media for the first time in 2014 when he declared the creation of a caliphate in the Middle East. Since then, the media outlets have reported several times about the death of the IS leader, though the information has never been confirmed.

 Sputnik

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Myanmar's New Leaders Still Step Softly Around Military

By Joe Freeman July 14, 2017

An escalating war of words between Myanmar's powerful but sensitive military and a senior official in de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi's government shows just how lightly Myanmar's new leaders must tread amid the country's volatile transition to democracy.

Speaking to former political prisoners at a conference July 9, Yangon's Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein appeared to warn participants the army still retained strong influence, citing the fact that civilian leaders had to treat the commander-in-chief as a virtual head of state.

"This is not democracy," he said, according to a video recording of the remarks. The military responded by calling the statement an insult to the head of the army, Min Aung Hlaing, and filing a complaint with the government.

Rare comments

A former political prisoner himself and member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Phyo Min Thein was appointed by Aung San Suu Kyi to the chief minister post following historic elections in 2015 that were meant to lurch Myanmar toward civilian rule after decades of military dictatorship.

His comments are extremely rare, as the party has avoided criticizing the military while stressing national reconciliation. But they also point to an uncomfortable reality of Myanmar's precarious transition. More than a year into the NLD-led government, relations with the armed forces remain tense and uneasy.

"I think for the military, their position is to remain in the leading role or the driver's seat as long as possible, so long as they are not sure about their own position or if they are not sure about civilian politicians, especially once they are opponents, they will continue to be behaving like this in the short and middle term," said Soe Myint Aung, an analyst with the Yangon-based Tagaung Institute of Political Studies.

Treading lightly

Party insiders have stressed repeatedly that they need to be careful about what they say so as to work with the military to achieve their goals, mainly signing peace deals with the country's ethnic armed groups. Aung San Suu Kyi's defenders have highlighted this to explain why she has not spoken out more about the country's beleaguered Rohingya Muslim minority and other human rights abuses that point back to the armed forces.

But Soe Myint Aung said the approach has not worked, adding that their "overcautious" style may have ironically made the military more sensitive about its interests.

"I don't think the NLD-led government has a strategy about civil-military relations or how to deal with the Burmese armed forces. That's the whole point. But on the contrary, I think the Tatmadaw, the military, I think they have some ideas about how to be treating the civilian government," he said, using the Burmese name for the military. "That makes the whole difference."

The Tatmadaw still controls 25 percent of parliament and three ministries, and shows no interest in attempts to reform the 2008 constitution that affords them this share of the political pie. It has responded to criticism with lawsuits, and last month the army arrested three journalists and accused them of assisting insurgents.

Prickly military

Alex Dukalskis, a lecturer at University College Dublin who specializes in Asian politics, said in an email that the prickly nature of the military is an enduring feature of the institution.

"The military has always been quite sensitive to criticism. Before 2010 virtually all criticism of the military  even if it was minor  was censored," he said, adding the current situation is difficult because of the power the army retained in the form of its ministerial portfolios, including Home Affairs.

"It could do a lot to frustrate the transition to more democratic politics, so the NLD does have some reason to tread lightly. In the back of many people's minds there still may be a fear that the military could return to power," he said.

Assassination stokes fear

The assassination in January of government legal adviser U Ko Ni, who had been working on amending the 2008 constitution, has helped stoke similar fears.

While authorities have not accused the army of involvement in the murder, some of the suspects in the case are retired military, and the sole fugitive was last seen in Naypyitaw, the capital built by the former junta. Despite knowing him for years, Aung San Suu Kyi did not attend his funeral, and it took weeks for her to say anything publicly about the case.

So far the government is not defending Phyo Min Thein, though it is unclear whether that could result in him being removed from his position. He could not be reached for comment.

Government spokesman Zaw Htay told the Irrawaddy news website Thursday that Phyo Min Thein's comments do not reflect the government's position and that "we have instructed him to do what he needs to do." He did not elaborate.

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Song Young-moo takes office as new defense minister, vows military reform

Updated: 2017-07-14 20:00:32 KST

Song Young-moo is now the 45th defense minister of South Korea, and as minister he emphasized the importance of reform and vowed to revitalize the South Korean military.

"We will build a new military through reform and gain more support from the people."

He also emphasized the need for Seoul to take back wartime operational control over its forces from Washington, stressing that the country needs to be strong enough to counter North Korea's threats on its own.

"We need to strengthen our independent national defense so future generations can protect the people without the help of other countries."

Song also emphasized the need for six other reforms to the armed forces, including improving military culture, increasing the number of female personnel and improving the defense industry.

The new defense minister is also expected to conduct a reshuffle of top brass as early as next week.

Seven out of eight four-star commanders are up for replacement, including the Army Air Force chiefs of staff, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In his last words as minister, former defense chief Han Min-koo said that he would take all responsibility for any mistakes and added that credit for the achievements under his watch belongs to everyone at the ministry.

Kim Hyun-bin, Arirang News.

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Convicted Nemtsov Killers Given Lengthy Prison Terms

RFE/RL July 13, 2017

A Russian court has sentenced five men convicted of killing opposition politician Boris Nemtsov to prison terms ranging from 11 to 20 years.

Zaur Dadayev, the man convicted of fatally shooting Nemtsov, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on July 13.

Anzor Gubashev was given 19 years in prison; his brother, Shadid Gubashev, was sentenced to 16 years; Temirlan Eskerkhanov received 14 years; and Khamzat Bakhayev got 11 years.

Ater the sentencing, lawyers for the Nemtsov family, expressed dismay that those who ordered the killing and their motive remain unknown.

Prosecutor Maria Semenenko, who on July 12 asked the judge to sentence Dadayev to life, said the sentences might be appealed by the prosecution.

The convicted men's lawyers said they would appeal the convictions and the sentences.

A jury convicted the five men, all from Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya, on June 29. They all denied the accusations.

A sixth man, Ruslan Mukhudinov, has been charged in absentia with organizing the killing.

Nemtsov, a reformist former first deputy prime minister who was a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin and of Kremlin-installed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, was shot from behind on a bridge just outside the Kremlin on the night of February 27, 2015.

A lawyer for Nemtsov's family, Vadim Prokhorov, told reporters after the sentences were pronounced that he and his colleagues will continue to work to identify those who ordered the politician's killing.

"We will keep on struggling to bring those who ordered and organized Nemtsov's murder to justice. Today's sentences showed that [the murder] is linked at least to Grozny [the capital of Chechnya]," Prokhorov said.

Another lawyer for the Nemtsov family, Olga Mikhailova expressed regret that Dadayev had not been sentenced to life.

The lawyers said earlier that a decision on whether to appeal the verdicts and sentences will be made after consultation with Nemtsov's eldest daughter, Zhanna Nemtsova.

Nemtsova said earlier that the trial failed to name the organizers of her father's killing or their motive. She criticized Putin for not compelling Kadyrov to testify at the trial.

Nemtsov's associate and former deputy head of the opposition Parnas party, Ilya Yashin, also said on July 13 that the 20-year sentence for Dadayev was too lenient.

"There will be no rest as long as the masterminds of this crime are at large," Yashin added.

The killing of the charismatic and outspoken Nemtsov shocked many Russians, particularly the country's fractured and beleaguered opposition.

Many Kremlin critics and opposition politicians viewed him as a figure with the experience and skill needed to potentially challenge the Kremlin.

With reporting by tvrain.ru, TASS, and Interfax

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-nemtsov-killed- lengthy-prison-terms/28613961.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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Direct talks possible between Syria's warring sides: UN Envoy

Iran Press TV

Thu Jul 13, 2017 12:41PM

The United Nations special envoy for Syria has raised the possibility of direct talks between Damascus and opposition negotiators before the next round of peace talks in the Swiss city of Geneva.

Staffan de Mistura made the prediction on Thursday during the seventh round of the Geneva talks, which started on Monday and will wrap up on Saturday.

He ruled out the probability of the Saudi-backed Syria opposition bloc, High Negotiations Committee (HNC), uniting with the Moscow- and Cairo-based opposition groups for direct talks with the Syrian government during the ongoing round of the Geneva talks.

Asked whether such a meeting could take place before the 8th round of the Geneva discussions scheduled for late August, de Mistura replied, "Perhaps even earlier."

"I'm not pushing for it. Because I want, when it happens, that there should not be a row but should be real talks. We are actually pushing for areas where they do have common points," he added.

The UN official made the remarks before a meeting with Bashar Jaafari, the Syrian government's chief negotiator and ambassador to the UN. Jaafari has already held two official meetings with de Mistura in Geneva this week.

Syria's opposition groups have recently held technical talks, with HNC negotiator Basma Kodmani saying, "We're coming together on substance, not just principles but operationally."

Syria's warring parties have also attended five rounds of peace talks brokered by Iran, Russia and Turkey in the Kazakh capital, Astana. The Astana discussions produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria that sharply reduced fighting in the Arab country.

The negotiations are aimed at bringing an end to the foreign-backed militancy in Syria, which began in March 2011.

Earlier this week, de Mistura told Russia's Sputnik news agency that opposition groups had achieved significant progress in coming closer together on the issues of Syria's future and constitutional reform, noting that "the opposition's stance is now not that far even from Damascus."

Last month, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Syria's opposition groups, which are being sponsored by foreign countries, were progressively losing their power.

He further hailed a "rather sound processes in different groups of Syria's opposition" aimed at resolving the Syria conflict.

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Taiwan, Paraguay reaffirm strong bilateral ties

ROC Central News Agency

2017/07/13 23:56:25

Taipei, July 13 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen () and her Paraguayan counterpart Horacio Cartes reaffirmed the strong ties between the two diplomatic allies on Thursday in Taipei, with the visiting president from the South American country pledging that the friendship will continue.

During the state dinner she hosted for Cartes, Tsai said that Paraguay is a true friend of Taiwan and has stood next to Taiwan as it suffered difficulties on many international occasions.

Citing as an example, she said Paraguay spoke up for Taiwan during the World Health Assembly meeting in May, which Taiwan was blocked from attending due to China's obstruction. It has been an honor for Taiwanese people to have such a good friend as Paraguay, Tsai said.

Tsai also noted that she accompanied the Paraguayan president to Kaohsiung earlier in the day to see the development of the southern Taiwanese city's harbor, and to look for opportunities for bilateral cooperation.

Taiwan and Paraguay will continue their cooperation based on the solid foundation, Tsai said.

Echoing Tsai's remarks, Cartes said that bilateral ties are mutually beneficial and reciprocal.

He expressed gratitude for Taiwan's assistance in helping develop his country's aquaculture industry and for offering scholarships for Paraguayan students to study in Taiwan.

He said Paraguay will always open its doors for Taiwan.

The two countries have maintained close ties over the past 60 years and he said he believed that the firm friendship will continue.

Cartes arrived in Taiwan Tuesday to attend a series of events marking the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, including a painting exhibition, and to promote bilateral trade and economic exchanges, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

He was scheduled to conclude the three-day visit later Thursday.

During talks between the two presidents on Wednesday, Tsai announced that Taiwan will offer visa-free treatment for Paraguayan citizens, while Cartes said that his country will continue to help Taiwan take part in international organizations and activities.

The two leaders also witnessed the signing of an economic cooperation agreement and the exemption of double verification of official papers.

Taiwan and Paraguay established official ties on July 12, 1957. Paraguay is Taiwan's only diplomatic ally in South America.

Cartes' visit came after Panama cut formal ties with Taiwan and established diplomatic relations with China on June 13, leaving Taipei with only 20 diplomatic allies.

(By Sophia Yeh and Elaine Hou)

ENDITEM/cs

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Political Divide Deepens in Turkey as Failed Coup Anniversary Approaches

By Dorian Jones July 13, 2017

Saturday marks the first anniversary of Turkey's failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but with a post-coup crackdown firmly in place, there are concerns about a deepening political divide as the government marks the turmoil.

Turkish media broadcasts of the tumultuous events of July 15, 2016 include file coverage of soldiers opening fire on unarmed people on Istanbul's Bosphorus Bridge and jets bombing parliament. More than 240 people were killed and nearly 3,000 others were injured when a faction of the military attempted to seize power.

"The soldiers took out their rifles and started shooting. At that moment, I totally lost it. I was so furious because I wasn't expecting anything like this from them," recalls 50-year-old Mehmet Akyol, sitting with his wife and children. "I went down to the street. I was just about to lift my arm and shout at them. And then I saw blood running down my wrist. And I noticed that my wrist was shattered.

"I would have been devastated if I hadn't gone out into the street. My children would have questioned why I hadn't tried to take a stand during this terrible situation," added Akyol.

Akyol, like those who resisted the coup, is being remembered by President Erdogan and his government in broadcast accounts. Large posters of people standing up against the military coup adorn billboards in Turkey's main cities and towns.

Turkey remains under a state of emergency, with more than 60,000 people jailed and 140,000 removed from their jobs. Many are accused of being members of FETO, the name given by the government to followers of U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the government blames for the coup attempt. Gulen has denied involvement. The state of emergency allows Erdogan and his Cabinet to issue decrees without parliamentary approval or judicial review.

"The whole world should know this: This struggle will continue until there is not a single FETO member left who has not paid the legal price of their betrayal," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Wednesday. "There's no doubt we have to take further steps in the fight against the FETO terror organization. The struggle will continue with determination. What I want from my nation is for it not to lose faith in this struggle and to continue supporting us."

The appeal for support was made as the government faces mounting criticism over the crackdown and accusations it is trying to silence its critics.

"Actually it (the coup) was life-changing. A week later, I was suspended from university. Because what I did was retweet some very peaceful tweets, including being against capital punishment and the call for the government to be in accordance with the rule of law," recounts law professor Istar Gozaydin.

The prominent rights advocate is one of more than 6,000 academics who lost their jobs in the ongoing purge; but for Gozaydin, being fired was just the beginning.

"In December, there was a knock at the door. I was detained and arrested; the allegation -- being a member of an armed terrorist organization, so it's maybe up to 22 years ((in jail)). I have no prediction for trial as being somebody educated in law, in normal circumstances I would say that I would be acquitted; however, we are not in a period of rule of law, it's a very political climate; it depends on the political climate..."

Gozaydin's lawyers say the only evidence against her is a television interview in which she argued that only a court can determine whether a person is a terrorist. Human Rights activists says there are tens of thousands of similar cases in Turkey.

In May, Amnesty International described the dismissal of public sector workers in Turkey as "professional annihilation," adding, "It has had a catastrophic impact on their lives and livelihoods."

Earlier this month, 10 senior local representatives for international human rights organizations, including Amnesty and The Helsinki Citizens Assembly, were detained while attending a meeting near Istanbul. Authorities allege the representatives were conspiring against the government.

On Sunday, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party, completed a nearly month-long justice march from the capital, Ankara, to Istanbul, where fellow parliamentary deputy and close ally Enis Berberoglu is serving a 25-year prison sentence on charges of releasing state secrets. An estimated 1.5 million people turned out in support of Kilicdaroglu after the march.

"After the coup attempt of July 15, there has been a very big consensus for democracy in the people," Kilicdaroglu told VOA. "But on July 20 (2016), with the introduction of the decree for the state of emergency, there was a civil coup. All the negative outcomes of this civilian coup came one after the other. MP's and journalists arrested. Academics were dismissed from their positions; 140,000 state personnel were fired from their jobs."

Erdogan has labeled Kilicdaroglu a supporter of terrorism.

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Turkey Bans German Lawmakers From Visiting NATO Base in Konya

Sputnik News

19:31 14.07.2017(updated 19:37 14.07.2017)

Ankara banned German lawmakers from a visit to a NATO military base in the Turkish province of Konya, where German military personnel are stationed, according to media reports.

BERLIN (Sputnik)  Turkey banned German lawmakers from carrying a visit to a NATO military base in the Turkish province of Konya, where German military personnel are stationed, media reported on Friday.

According to the Spiegel newspaper, citing its sources, the German Foreign Ministry earlier in the day informed the lawmakers of the parliament's defense committee that the visit, set for July 17, was banned by Ankara.

The newspaper added that the ban was transmitted through a note verbale, saying that the relations between the two countries were too tense to enable such a visit.

Berlin has already filed a protest with NATO, the newspaper added, citing a source at the German Foreign Ministry.

Relations between Turkey and Germany deteriorated in spring after Berlin canceled a number of Turkey's pre-referendum rallies on its soil, aimed at gaining support from Turkish expats for the nation's constitutional referendum in April. Turkey's Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in response compared the German authorities' behavior to Nazism.

 Sputnik

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'Defining Moment' for RAF as Women to Serve in Close Combat Roles for First Time

Sputnik News

15:43 13.07.2017

Women are to be allowed to serve in the UK's Royal Air Force Regiment, the RAF ground fighting, close combat division, for the first time from September, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon announced at July's RAF Air Power Conference in London.

Founded in 1942, the RAF Regiment is charged with protecting RAF bases, aircraft and equipment at home and abroad. All constituent troops are trained in CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) defense, and equipped with advanced vehicles and detection measures.

For the entirety of its existence  even during World War Two, a conflict that catapulted women to the frontline forevermore  its ranks have been exclusively male, by decree.

In 2002, a UK government report on women in the Armed Forces noted the principal areas of the military from which women are excluded are those that require to deliberately be "close with and kill the enemy face-to-face." The list of precluded divisions includes the Royal Marines General Service, Household Cavalry and Royal Armoured Corps, Infantry and the Royal Air Force Regiment.

"All operate in small teams of which the basic component is often the four person fire team, which may have to face the enemy at close range. This environment poses extraordinary demands on the individuals, and success or failure  and survival  depend upon the cohesion of the team in extreme circumstances for which there are no direct comparators in civilian or even Service life," the report said.

The report added that when considering whether to change this policy, account was taken of the experience of other countries  noting in the 20th century only the Soviet Union (in World War Two) and Israel had used women in close combat roles. Moreover, while some countries permitted women to apply to serve in such roles, they had not tested them in combat.

However, this longstanding ban was lifted in July 2016, by then-Prime Minister David Cameron  ever since, female soldiers have been allowed to apply for roles in the cavalry, infantry and armored corps. The changes have been introduced in phases, starting with the Royal Armoured Corps in November 2016, before being completed by 2018 to include the infantry and Royal Marines. The RAF regiment was due to open its recruitment at the same time, but plans have evidently been accelerated.

Making the announcement, Fallon said a diverse force would be a "more operationally effective" force.

"I'm delighted the RAF Regiment will be open to recruitment to women. Individuals who are capable of meeting the standards for the regiment will be given the opportunity to serve, regardless of their gender. This is a defining moment for the RAF, as it becomes the first service to have every trade and branch open to both genders," the minister explained.

Still, the UK government is committed to attracting more women to the Armed Forces, and is offering flexible working patterns to fit in with family life. The Queen's Speech included proposals for a bill that would include part-time service and special arrangements to ensure individuals are not deployed too far away from home, and personnel returning from maternity, parental or adoption leave are offered more options to support an easier transition back into duty.

The government's push for military equality has, however, attracted accusations of pandering to political correctness. When the policy was announced by Cameron, former Colonel Richard Kemp said allowing female soldiers to fight on the front line would be a "foolish move" that would be "paid for in blood"  and likened the move to "social engineering experiment."

In response, General Sir Nicholas Carter, the professional head of the Army, was adamant standards would not slip, and women would be properly supported if and when they took on combat roles for the first time. In any event  over 80 percent of jobs across the Armed Forces are open to women already.

"If you're an infantryman now, you're just as likely to have your minefield cleared and to be escorted through that minefield by a woman, and you're just as likely to have your radio operated by a woman. I don't see that this is anything more than a natural evolution," he said.

Nonetheless, concerns about the entrance of women into front line capacities may have some foundation. The physical demands placed upon such personnel are necessarily high, and any reduction in standards would pose significant risks to the operational effectiveness of forces  something any military would wish to avoid at all costs.

Differences in the physical abilities of average men and women relevant to military performance inarguably differ significantly  sweeping divergence in male/female capacity to develop muscle strength and aerobic fitness, for instance, means only around one percent of women can equal the performance of the average man.

This means that in lifting, carrying and similar tasks  performed routinely by the British Army  women would likely have to have a lower work capacity than men and, when exposed to the same physical workload as men, have to work 50-80 percent harder to achieve the same results, placing them at high risk of injury or even death. Previous research suggests fewer than five percent of the 7,000 women in its ranks would pass the current infantry fitness test.

 Sputnik

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Defence Secretary announces new Maritime Patrol Aircraft squadrons

13 July 2017

The Defence Secretary has announced the numbers of the UK's two new Maritime Patrol Aircraft squadrons and the first commanding officer.

Nine new P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft will be operated by number 120 Squadron and number 201 Squadron from RAF Lossiemouth in Moray.

120 Squadron was the RAF's highest scoring anti-submarine unit in the Second World War with 14 kills. 201 Squadron can trace its origins back to the formation of No 1 Squadron, Royal Naval Air Service in 1914. Wing Commander James Hanson will oversee the formation of 120 Squadron from April 2018. 201 Squadron will form in 2021.

The aircraft's key role will be to help protect the UK's submarine-deployed nuclear deterrent and its two new aircraft carriers.

The UK Government is investing 3 billion over the next decade in its Maritime Patrol Aircraft capability.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said:

"Our nine new Poseidon aircraft are part of our plan to monitor and deal with increased threats to our country. They can operate at long range without refuelling and have the endurance to carry out high and low-level airborne maritime and overland surveillance for extended periods, helping keep us safe. The P-8A aircraft will allow us to work more closely with our allies, improve our surveillance coverage and will provide value for taxpayers' money."

The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier said:

"Today is an important milestone in the P-8A Poseidon programme which will bring to the Royal Air Force an unrivalled maritime patrol capability. The advanced state-of-the-art sensors aboard the P-8A will provide global protection to UK, NATO and our Allies' submarines and warships, and enhance and complement the UK's standing search and rescue responsibilities."

"It is also a great pleasure to welcome back 120 and 201 Squadrons. Both have long and distinguished records serving in the maritime role and together they will help forge the next generation Royal Air Force."

Poseidon will add to the UK's surveillance capabilities and is designed to conduct anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, search and rescue and intelligence gathering. They can carry torpedoes and anti-shipping missiles.

As a leading members of NATO, the UK Ministry of Defence has already signed agreements with the US and Norwegian militaries to cooperate closely on operating their P-8A aircraft across the North Atlantic.

With the first aircraft due to arrive in the UK in 2020, the RAF has maintained its Maritime Patrol Aircraft skills by embedding aircrew within MPA squadrons of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.

Poseidon will bring wider economic benefits with an additional 400+ service personnel to be located at RAF Lossiemouth, where 400m is also being invested in new support infrastructure for the aircraft.

As the Poseidon P-8A is based on the Boeing 737, it will help support several hundred direct UK jobs, and create opportunities for UK firms to bid for training and support contracts.

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EU's Juncker calls 'corruption' main problem in Ukraine

Iran Press TV

Thu Jul 13, 2017 5:44PM

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has cited "corruption" as the main factor hampering the European Union's efforts to build trade ties with Ukraine.

Kiev must "fight against corruption, because corruption is undermining all the efforts this great nation is undertaking," Juncker said on Thursday in a joint press conference after meeting with President Petro Poroshenko over the final ratification of a new trade pact between the EU and Ukraine.

Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk were in Kiev to attend a summit to review the new trade pact with Poroshenko, who vowed to make all efforts to strengthen bonds with the EU.

Poroshenko's pro-EU government has been boosting relations with the bloc ever since the ouster of the pro-Russia former President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

While full EU membership for Ukraine has not been achieved, Poroshenko's government has implemented all EU-styled reforms in exchange for billions of dollars in aid and a new visa-free travel deal with the EU.

The new trade pact, however, has raised ire in Russia. Moscow is wary of NATO's military buildup on its backyards as well as the West's aggressive bid to expand influence in Eastern Europe.

Ukraine's eastern provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Moscow forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in April 2014 to crush pro-Moscow protests there.

The EU and the United States accuse Russia of destabilizing Ukraine but Moscow rejects having any hand in the crisis.

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Ukraine-EU Summit In Kyiv Focuses On Bolstering Ties

RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service July 13, 2017

At an EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv, both sides have hailed strengthening relations in the wake of the European Union's final approval of an Association Agreement with Kyiv earlier in the week and the bloc's decision to grant visa-free travel to Ukrainians last month.

"On June 11, precisely one month ago, Ukrainians got the full taste of European freedom -- visa-free travel to the EU," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said at a Kyiv press event.

"More than 100,000 holders of Ukrainian biometric passports have used their visa-free-travel right already."

He said these Ukrainians have seen with their own eyes why Kyiv aspires to closer relations with the EU.

Poroshenko also expressed gratitude for the EU's support in his country's conflict with Russia, which annexed the Ukrainian province of Crimea in 2014 and then inflamed a separatist conflict in parts of eastern Ukraine that has claimed more than 10,000 lives.

Poroshenko thanked the EU for extending its economic sanctions against Russia and for its "clearly articulated message that the sanctions will remain in place" until Russia completely abides by its commitments under the Minsk agreements on resolving the war in eastern Ukraine.

"I hope that one daywe will hold another Ukraine-EU summit in Donetsk and in Yalta," Poroshenko said, referring to a city in the separatist-held part of eastern Ukraine and another in Russian-occupied Crimea.

European Council President Donald Tusk urged Ukrainians to remain united and avoid internal conflicts. "We stand steadfast behind Ukraine," he said.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called on Kyiv to do more to battle corruption.

On July 11, the European Union formally approved an Association Agreement with Ukraine, which will take effect on September 1.

Many parts of the Association Agreement have been provisionally applied since 2014, but the adoption of the agreement will ensure closer cooperation between the EU and Ukraine in areas such as foreign policy, justice, education, science, and technology.

The economic part of the agreement, called the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), is also intended to open up the EU market to Ukrainian goods and will align the Ukrainian economy with EU standards by harmonizing laws and regulations

With reporting by TASS and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-eu-summit- kyiv-poroshenko/28614244.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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Two Averett University graduates will get the chance to gain a year of experience serving with local parks and recreation departments through a new partnership program.

Averett is teaming up with both the city of Danville and the Pittsylvania County Parks and Recreation Departments to create two service year fellowships for recent graduates.

For Averett, as we started thinking about providing some fellowships for our graduates, the city and county were natural partners because we already work so well together and both localities immediately said yes, said Alexis Ehrhardt, executive director of Averetts Center for Community Engagement and Career Competitiveness.

In Danville, the program will focus on researching the sustainability of the department, said director Bill Sgrinia.

What were looking for is somebody who can help us assess and quantify our environmental impact, Sgrinia said.

Sgirinia said the position will look for ways the department also can be financially sustainable as well. Sgirinia said the fellowship would analyze the departments carbon footprint and look for others ways to be good stewards of public land.

We want somebody to look at the big picture, not just individual practices, Sgirinia said.

The fellowship also will help develop an environmental literacy campaign, focusing on teaching Danvilles young people to become environmentally aware.

In Pittsylvania County, it will assist in developing a marketing campaign for the organization as it begins to expand and grow, Ehrhardt said.

Specific tasks would include developing and implementing a marketing and advertising plan for the new recreation center and the Ringgold Rail Trail, data collection and analysis of community usage of the four new parks in the county and possible involvement in the updating of the Parks and Recreation comprehensive master plan, county parks and recreation director Mark Moore said in a news release.

Averett President Tiffany Franks said in a release the program would allow graduates to continue the schools mission of positive change in the community.

We can only hope that after they graduate, that love for ones community and the giving of ones time is something they want to continue for the rest of their life, Franks said. So, that is why we work so hard to provide local opportunities like this one. We want our graduates to have the opportunity to stay in the area they called home during their time here at Averett.

Averett is the only private institution in Virginia currently providing a program like this to recent grads. Both full-time positions will include a monthly stipend funded by Averett and the locality, Ehrhardt said.

We wanted the positions to be accessible to everyone, Ehrhardt said. We didnt want anyone to say Gee Id love to do that, but I cant afford it. Everybody should have the opportunity to serve in their community.

Interested applications can send a letter of interest, resume and three references to aehrhardt@averett.com.
MARTINSVILLE  If all goes according to plan, there will be a new ophthalmic surgery center opening next year in Martinsville. Roanoke Valley Center for Sight LLC submitted a letter of intent on Wednesday, requesting approval from the Virginia Department of Healths Division of Certificate of Public Need.

"The creation of this proposed facility is intended solely for the purpose of ophthalmic surgery and is an effort to best serve our many patients from the Martinsville and Henry County areas," said Paul Levy, Chief Executive Officer of RVCS, in a statement. "A new surgery center would allow us to expand our care at the current Martinsville location by allowing us to perform ophthalmic surgery on patients without them having to travel."

The Martinsville location hes referring to is the Vistar Eye Center, located at 749 E. Church Street. The proposed new surgery center would be roughly six minutes away from that practice, at 433 E. Commonwealth Boulevard. The company would lease half of the building, which is currently vacant. The remaining half is used by Blue Ridge Bank. According to details provided on Wednesday, the application is for a one room facility covering an estimated 5,000 square feet, at a projected cost of $1.094 million.

Just because an application has been submitted, that doesnt mean the facility is guaranteed to be approved. Under Virginia law, before a medical facility can be built, the projects owner has to submit an application to the state to show theres a need in the community. The State Department of Health will then review the application and issue a ruling. Health department officials said on Wednesday there are three criteria used in the process. The first is if the project goes along with the states long-term healthcare plan. The second is a determination if the community has a need for the project in question and the third examines if the project is both accessible to all residents in an area and is financially feasible.

If approved, this would be the third such operation run by the Roanoke Valley Center for Sight. The company has a two-room surgical center in Salem, which handles facial plastic surgery as well as eye treatment and a soon-to-open one room expansion of its building on Electric Road in Roanoke. The company also has offices in Botetourt, Smith Mountain Lake and Blacksburg.

Center for Sight officials say they hope to get a response from the Department of Health on the Martinsville project before the end of the next review cycle. That ends in January 2018.
President Donald Trump's saga of awkward handshakes continues.

On Friday, right before he left France, Trump said goodbye to France's President Emmanuel Macron, with the two grabbing and holding hands for a long, long handshake.

The entire handshake lasted about 25 seconds -- or five-twelfths of a minute.

At one point, while holding Macron's hand, Trump reached over to kiss Macron's wife, Brigitte, on her cheek and grabbed her hand as well -- and held both Macron and his wife's hands at the same time.

After Trump left France, he tweeted, "It was a great honor to represent the United States at the magnificent #BastilleDay parade. Congratulations President @EmmanuelMacron!"

This isn't Trump's first awkward handshake with Macron. When Trump and Macron met in Brussels in May, the two memorably shook hands in full view of the press.

At the time, pool reporter Phillip Rucker of The Washington Post, who was in the room, described it:

"They shook hands for an extended period of time. Each president gripped the other's hand with considerable intensity, their knuckles turning white and their jaws clenching and faces tightening."

Macron confirmed that there was indeed a deeper significance to the prolonged handshake he shared with Trump in Brussels.

"My handshake with him, it's not innocent," Macron told the Journal du Dimanche in an interview published Sunday. "It's not the alpha and the omega of politics, but a moment of truth."

Trump's palm press on Friday was even longer than his 19-second shake with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe -- which went viral after Trump pulled away and Abe made a regrettable facial expression.

"Strong hands," Trump said to Abe as the media left the room.

In addition to the awkward Abe shake, Trump has foisted his unusual tug-and-pull style on other high-profile figures, including Vice President Mike Pence and Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Lisa Harper's Powerful Adoption Story

Christian author and speaker, Lisa Harper, was never married but always wanted to have children. Years went by and she came to grips with the fact that she would never be a mother. But then, everything changed when she heard about a dying child in Haiti named Missy. She knew in that moment that this was the child she was meant to fight for.

This sweet little girl would be her daughter. After years of struggling to get Missy's adoption paperwork finalized, Lisa was finally able to fly Missy home with her. Lisa tells in vivid detail how God laid it on her heart to adopt Missy and how hard it was waiting and waiting to bring Missy home.

She tells an incredible story of perseverance, faith, and hope in Jesus. What an amazing blessing Missy is to everyone who hears her story!
Vancouver, July 14, 2017 - Durango Resources Inc. (TSX.V-DGO) (Frankfurt-86A1) (OTC-ATOXF), (the "Company" or "Durango") announces that further to the news release of May 30, 2017, exploration on the Decouverte (Discovery) Property (the "Property") resulting from its grant from the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique ("INRS") is expected to commence next week.

The Property is wholly owned by Durango and is in the Frotet-Evans greenstone belt in northern Quebec approximately 100km to the northwest of the town of Chibougamau. Neighbors on the west side of the Property are Osisko Mining Inc.'s (TSX-OSK) Assinica property and to the northwest is Beaufield Resources Inc.'s Troilus-Tortigny Property (TSX.V-BFD). The former-producing Troilus mine is approximately 60km northeast along the same fault.

The July portion of the INRS grant (FQRNT-MERN-MINES) exploration program is expected to last 4-5 days and will prepare the lines for the electromagnetic (EM) equipment. A more thorough program is planned for INRS this September to focus on defining the EM anomalies from Durango's previous DIGHEM airborne survey, which may be indicative of massive sulphide mineralization. Given the presence of formational conductors on the Property, gravimetry and sub-surface electrical resistivity work will be carried out to characterize the main anomalies detected by the DIGHEM survey.

The September follow-up Induced Polarization (IP) exploration program (outcrops, erratic blocks) will be carried out in 9 sectors previously identified as priority as can be seen on the corporate website. A lithogeochemical study is expected to be carried out to document the geochemical signature of felsic volcanics in the southern part of the Property.

Marcy Kiesman, CEO of Durango, stated, "The Decouverte property remains a compelling project for Durango due to its volcano-sedimentary environment and structural geology which increases the potential for a significant gold and/or VMS deposit. Durango is fortunate to have INRS conducting its research on the Property as IP can help identify zones such as the Detour gold zone 58. Additionally, VMS deposits often occur in clusters which mean that the discovery of one may indicate that there are others nearby."

About Decouverte

The Property is in the Frotet-Evans greenstone belt approximately 60 kilometres southwest of the former Troilus copper-gold mine, which produced over two million ounces Au and 50,000 tonnes Cu from 1997 to 2010. The Property covers approximately 5,900 hectares covering a synclinal fold nose of Archean units transected by a major northeast-trending shear zone. Durango carried out a helicopter-borne DIGHEM EM/magnetic airborne geophysical survey on the Property in 2011 (NR Nov. 24, 2011) and soil geochemistry and prospecting in 2013 and 2014 targeting areas identified in the airborne survey. The geological setting is mainly mafic volcanics (basalts/andesites), in places strongly sheared, cut by pegmatitic granitic units, and significant sedimentary, oxide and sulphide facies iron formation units. Alteration including silica, sericite and iron carbonate is noted. Significant soil values included 174 ppb gold, 0.66 ppm silver, 150 ppm nickel, 200 ppm copper and 240 ppm barium. Chip/channel rock samples gave values of 7.6 g/t gold and 6.24 g/t gold hosted in narrow quartz veins in mafic volcanics, in the contact area with the pegmatitic granite. The Property is located 100 kilometres north of Chibougamau, Quebec and benefits from favourable infrastructure, including road accessibility, being 10 kilometres from Route du Nord, and a power line that bisects the Property.

About Durango

Durango is a natural resources company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties. The Company has a 100% interest in the Mayner's Fortune and Smith Island limestone properties in northwest British Columbia, the Decouverte and Trove gold properties in the Abitibi Region of Quebec, and the NMX East lithium property near the Whabouchi mine and the Buckshot graphite property near the Miller Mine in Quebec, the Whitney Northwest property near the Lake Shore Gold and Goldcorp joint venture in Ontario.

For further information on Durango, please refer to its SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

Marcy Kiesman, Chief Executive Officer

Telephone: 604.428.2900 or 604.339.2243

Email: durangoresourcesinc@gmail.com

Website: www.durangoresourcesinc.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This document may contain or refer to forward-looking information based on current expectations, including, but not limited to the exploration of the Property and the impact on the Company of these events. Forward-looking information is subject to significant risks and uncertainties, as actual results may differ materially from forecasted results. Forward-looking information is provided as of the date hereof and we assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. For a detailed list of risks and uncertainties relating to Durango, please refer to the Company's prospectus filed on its SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

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.

Copyright (c) 2017 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.


TMAC Resources Inc. (TSX:TMR) (TMAC or the Company), provides an operations update together with its updated Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources as of June 30, 2017.Operations Update

Dr. Catharine Farrow, Chief Executive Officer of TMAC, commented: The ramp up continues to be slower than anticipated and has resulted in less than budgeted cash inflows. We anticipate that recoveries will improve as we continue to optimize the plants performance. As recoveries increase, we will increase the tonnes of ore being processed, increase the tonnes of ore being mined and hauled to surface and increase the grade of ore being processed, all resulting in greater revenues and cash inflows. Our entire site-based teams focus, assisted by our metallurgical consultants and Gekko, the manufacturer of the processing plant, and other vendor and consultant teams, is to improve plant availabilities and ramp up to planned rates through an optimization process. We acknowledge their dedication to ensure that the process continues in a safe and systematic manner.

The tonnes of ore being fed from the ore stockpiles into the processing plant continue to be lower than planned due to the processing plants ramp up proceeding slower than expected. While the underground development at Doris North and Doris North BTD continues as planned, the daily mining rate at Doris North remains less than planned due to the reduced number of tonnes being fed into the processing plant and the large stockpile of ore remaining on surface. To June 30, 2017, 79,600 tonnes of ore have been processed and 15,880 ounces of gold have been sold. As at June 30, 2017, the surface stockpile comprises 105,000 tonnes at 15.2 grams per tonne containing 51,000 ounces. In addition, there are multiple stopes underground that have been drilled and are awaiting blasting and mucking, the tonnes from which can be brought to surface relatively quickly to replenish the stockpile.

The processing plant can and has operated at or in excess of its design capacity of 1,000 per day, but its average daily throughput continues to be lower because of variable and sometimes low plant availabilities. As part of the normal ongoing ramp up process that all processing plants go through, modifications have been made and will continue to be made. The focus to date on the pre-concentrator installed in the upstream half of the processing plant (the Python) has been on the jig and gravity circuits. By the end of June, the Python was producing a concentrate for treatment at the concentrate treatment plant (the CTP) that averaged 80% of the contained gold in the ore feed. Further optimization of the Python is ongoing to increase its recovery rate and the concentrate grade being sent to the CTP.

The CTP, in the downstream half of the processing plant, continues to have lower than expected throughput availabilities and recoveries due to a variety of challenges including design issues and mechanical failure. The CTP recoveries of the gold in the concentrate from the Python remain below expectations. Although the recoveries have also reached 80%, they have not done so on a sustainable basis. For the month of June, overall gold recoveries for the processing plant were 67%. Ramp up and optimization of the CTP is ongoing with the target of bringing the overall gold recoveries for the processing plant up to those estimated by the Preliminary Feasibility Study issued in 2015.

Third party metallurgical consultants advise the Company that the expected throughputs and recoveries can be achieved with continued optimization and improvements in both the Python and CTP.

The inconsistent availability and recoveries of the CTP have negatively affected the tonnes of ore being fed to the processing plant as well as the number of tonnes of ore mined daily and put on the ore stockpile. In addition, the grade of the ore sent to the processing plant has deliberately been kept lower than planned resulting in the amount of gold produced and sold being significantly lower than planned which, in turn, results in lower revenues and higher costs. An increase in CTP recoveries is a prerequisite for the Company to start processing ore from its high grade stockpiles and achieving previously stated guidance. TMAC will update its guidance at the time of releasing its second quarter results.

Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources Highlights

Total Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves at Hope Bay have increased by 100,000 contained gold ounces to 14,529,000 tonnes at 7.7 g/t Au for 3,607,000 contained gold ounces.

Madrid North Proven and Probable Reserves have increased by 126,000 contained gold ounces to 8,350,000 tonnes at 6.7 g/t Au for 1,802,000 contained gold ounces.

Inferred Mineral Resources at Doris East Limb and Extension BTD (formerly known as Doris North Deep) are 200,000 tonnes at 14.7 g/t Au for 94,000 contained ounces.

First Probable Reserves at Doris East Limb BTD are 72,000 tonnes at 14.5 g/t Au for 34,000 contained ounces.

Dr. Catharine Farrow, Chief Executive Officer of TMAC, stated, We are pleased to provide an update to TMACs Hope Bay Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource statement. As of June 30, 2017, Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves have increased by 100,000 ounces of gold, which more than replaces the ore mined over the past year and a half at Doris. The results of diamond drilling at Doris and Madrid North, and the more than a year and a half of mining at Doris, have significantly improved our understanding of the structural controls on gold mineralization and have thereby refined our geological models. The new ramp development below the dyke at Doris North has allowed us to carry out detailed drilling to further test areas of new Mineral Resources and Reserves reported here. We are optimistic that current 2017 diamond drilling programs at both Doris and Boston will have positive impacts and will continue to add to the Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource base, thereby replacing mined Reserves.

Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves for the Hope Bay Project have increased 2.9%, from 3.51 million ounces in 2015 to 3.61 million ounces at the end of June 2017, compared with the March 31, 2015 pre-feasibility study (PFS) Mineral Reserves. Significant factors that contributed to the revised reserve estimate include;

At Doris, total Proven and Probable Reserves, including the surface stockpile, decreased by 25,900 ounces of gold compared with the PFS Mineral Reserves. Pre-production sill development and associated mapping and sampling in Doris North, have refined the geological model and resulted in a highly constrained resource estimate. Some areas previously interpreted as bends in the mineralized quartz vein have been identified as fault offsets resulting in an overall decrease in contained ounces of gold. Pre-production development (including Newmont test mining) in ore of 182,500 tonnes grading 14.0 g/t Au, totalling 82,300 ounces of gold have been mined to June 30, 2017 and transferred to the surface stockpiles. As of June 30, 2017, 105,000 tonnes, grading 15.2 g/t Au, and containing 51,100 ounces of gold remains in the surface stockpile after processing. Mining depletion has been partially offset by the addition of initial reserves in a portion of the high grade Doris North BTD zone, where 2016 diamond drilling was sufficient to allow reserve estimation.

At Madrid North Proven and Probable Reserves have increased by 125,900 ounces of gold. The change is a result of diamond drilling in 2015 and 2016 and associated detailed geological interpretation and modelling. Mineral Reserves at Naartok and Rand total 1.26 million ounces of gold, 40,000 ounces less than the PFS Mineral Reserves, as a result of refined geological modelling. Mineral Reserves at Suluk total 538,400 ounces of gold, an increase of 165,400 ounces over the 2015 PFS estimate due to diamond drilling and increased Indicated Resources and conversion to Probable Reserves.

Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves at Madrid South and Boston remain unchanged over the PFS estimates as no additional diamond drilling had been completed at those locations since 2015.

Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources were last updated and published in conjunction with the PFS. Mineral Reserves reported here were estimated using a long-term gold price of US$1,250/oz and US$/C$ exchange rate of 0.85. Mineral Resources were estimated using a long-term gold price of US$1,400/oz and US$/C$ exchange rate of 0.85.

TABLE 1: HOPE BAY PROVEN AND PROBABLE RESERVES  JUNE 30, 2017

Proven Probable Proven and Probable Tonnes Grade Ounces Tonnes Grade Ounces Tonnes Grade Ounces (Au (Au (Au Zone (kt) g/t) (koz) (kt) g/t) (koz) (kt) g/t) (koz) Doris North 38 15.9 199 54 8.3 14 442 15.0 213 Surface Stockpile 105 15.2 51 105 15.2 51 Doris Connector/Central 1,415 8.0 366 1,415 8.0 366 Doris Connector/Central BTD 111 8.0 28 111 8.0 28 Doris North BTD (East Limb and Extension) 72 14.5 34 72 14.5 34 Doris Total 493 15.8 250 1,652 8.3 442 2,145 10.0 692 Suluk 2,420 6.9 538 2,420 6.9 538 Naartok and Rand 5,931 6.6 1,263 5,931 6.6 1,263 Madrid North Total 8,350 6.7 1,802 8,350 6.7 1,802 Patch 14 432 12.2 170 432 12.2 170 Wolverine 261 7.2 60 261 7.2 60 Madrid South Total 692 10.3 230 692 10.3 230 Boston 657 8.5 180 2,687 8.1 703 3,343 8.2 883 Boston Total 657 8.5 180 2,687 8.1 703 3,343 8.2 883 Grand Total 1,150 11.6 430 13,381 7.4 3,177 14,531 7.7 3,607

Notes:

1. CIM definitions were followed for Mineral Reserves.

2. Mineral Reserves are estimated using a cut-off grade of 4.4 g/t for Doris and Madrid North. Madrid South and Boston use a 4.7 g/t Au cut-off grade.

3. Mineral Reserves are estimated using an average long-term gold price of US$1250 per ounce and a US$/C$ exchange rate of 0.85.

4. A minimum mining width of 1.5 metres for longhole mining and 3 metres for Drift and Fill mining was used.

5. Density was calculated using the geological block model density field.

6. A 95% extraction factor was applied to longhole mining.

7. The application of dilution varied by deposit, and depended on stope thickness.

8. Numbers may not add due to rounding.

Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources for the Hope Bay Project have increased 9% from 4.51 million ounces in 2015 to 4.91 million ounces at the end of June 2017, compared with the March 2015 PFS Mineral Resources. Significant factors that contributed to the revised resource estimate include;

At Doris, Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources decreased by 96,300 ounces of gold. Reductions as a result of pre-production mining and refined geological modelling, have been partially offset by an increase in Mineral Resources below the diabase dyke (BTD). Indicated resources in the high grade Doris North BTD East Limb area total 68,000 tonnes grading 18.3 g/t Au containing 40,000 ounces of gold. Initial BTD resources are constrained to the portion of the East Limb that could be drilled sufficiently in 2016 from the exploration development above the dyke. The BTD access ramp has since progressed below the dyke and results from the current drill program will be incorporated into the 2018 Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource statement. An increase of 27,000 ounces of gold is attributed to lowering the cut-off grade at Doris from 4.5 g/t Au to 4.0 g/t Au.

At Madrid North, total Indicated Mineral Resources have increased 496,000 ounces of gold, most significantly as a result of diamond drilling in 2015 and 2016. An increase of 243,000 ounces of gold is attributed to lowering the cut-off grade at Madrid North from 4.5 g/t Au to 4.0 g/t Au. Indicated Resources in the Suluk zone have increased 79% or 350,000 ounces of gold and now total 794,000 ounces of gold.

Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources at Madrid South and Boston remain unchanged from the 2015 PFS. TMAC opened the Boston camp in June 2017 and will complete 7,500 metres of surface diamond drilling. Results of the current drilling program at Boston will be incorporated into the 2018 Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource statement.

TABLE 2: HOPE BAY MEASURED AND INDICATED RESOURCES  JUNE 30, 2017

Measured Indicated Measured and Indicated Grade Grade Grade Tonnes (Au Ounces Tonnes (Au Ounces Tonnes (Au Ounces Zone (kt) g/t) (koz) (kt) g/t) (koz) (kt) g/t) (koz) Doris North 281 22.9 207 91 9.1 26 371 19.5 233 Doris Connector/Central 1,539 9.4 463 1,539 9.4 463 Doris Connector/Central BTD 141 8.4 38 141 8.4 38 Doris North BTD (East Limb and Extension) 68 18.3 40 68 18.3 40 Doris Total 281 22.9 207 1,838 9.6 567 2,119 11.4 774 Suluk 3,195 7.7 794 3,195 7.7 794 Rand 807 6.3 165 807 6.3 165 Naartok 7,441 7.5 1,800 7,441 7.5 1,800 Madrid Total 11,443 7.5 2,759 11,443 7.5 2,759 Patch 14 359 17.7 204 359 17.7 204 Wolverine 212 11.5 78 212 11.5 78 Madrid South Total 571 15.4 282 571 15.4 282 Boston UG North 236 6.0 46 236 6.0 46 Boston UG B2 608 10.3 201 2,189 9.6 673 2,798 9.7 874 Boston UG B3/B4 677 8.1 176 677 8.1 176 Boston Total 608 10.3 201 3,103 9.0 895 3,711 9.2 1,096 Grand Total 889 14.3 408 16,954 8.3 4,503 17,843 8.6 4,911

Notes:

1. CIM definitions were followed for Mineral Resources.

2. Mineral Resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 4.0 g/t Au for Doris and Madrid North, and 4.5 g/t Au for Madrid South and Boston.

3. Mineral Resources are estimated using a long-term gold price of US$1400 per ounce, and a US$/C$ exchange rate of 0.85.

4. A minimum mining width of approximately 1.5 metres was used.

5. A 50 metre crown pillar allowance was applied to resources located below lakes.

6. Numbers may not add due to rounding.

7. Doris North has been depleted based on surveyed mining cavities up to the end of May 2017. For the month of June 2017, a mathematical depletion was used based on production figures and the average dilution used for the Mineral Reserve estimate for Doris North.

8. Mineral Resources are inclusive of those resources converted to Mineral Reserves.

9. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Inferred Mineral Resources for the Hope Bay Project have increased 19% from 1.43 million ounces in 2015 to 1.69 million ounces at the end of June 2017. Significant factors that contributed to the revised resource estimate include;

At Doris, the most significant increase to Inferred Mineral Resources is from the high grade Doris BTD East Limb and Extension drilled during 2016. Current Inferred resources in the Doris BTD East Limb and Extension are 200,000 tonnes, grading 14.7 g/t Au, and containing 94,000 ounces of gold. Underground infill and expansion drilling in the Doris North BTD Extension area commenced in June 2017 from the BTD access ramp. The results of the 2017 diamond drilling will be incorporated into the 2018 Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource statement. An increase of 28,000 ounces of gold is attributed to lowering the cut-off grade at Doris from 4.5 g/t Au to 4.0 g/t Au.

At Madrid North, Inferred Mineral Resources total 843,000 ounces of gold. Subtractions due to upgrading of Inferred Resources to Indicated Resources were offset by increases from expansion diamond drilling. An increase of 128,000 ounces of gold is attributed to lowering the cut-off grade at Madrid North from 4.5 g/t Au to 4.0 g/t Au.

Inferred Mineral Resources at both Madrid South and Boston remained unchanged from the 2015 PFS.

TABLE 3: HOPE BAY INFERRED RESOURCES  JUNE 30, 2017

Inferred Tonnes Grade Ounces Zone (kt) (Au g/t) (koz) Doris North 62 6.9 14 Doris Connector/Central 204 5.8 38 Doris Connector/Central BTD 1,055 7.5 254 Doris North BTD (East Limb and Extension) 200 14.7 94 Doris Total 1,521 8.2 400 Suluk 2,583 6.3 524 Spur 188 5.5 33 Rand 238 5.6 43 Naartok 1,115 6.8 243 Madrid Total 4,125 6.4 843 Patch 14 182 6.8 40 Wolverine 238 10.7 82 Madrid South Total 420 9.0 122 Boston UG North 628 6.5 131 Boston UG B2 594 8.1 155 Boston UG B3/B4 172 7.8 43 Boston Total 1,393 7.4 330 Grand Total 7,459 7.1 1,694

Notes:

1. CIM definitions were followed for Mineral Resources.

2. Mineral Resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 4.0 g/t Au for Doris and Madrid North, and 4.5 g/t Au for Madrid South and Boston.

3. Mineral Resources are estimated using a long-term gold price of US$1400 per ounce, and a US$/C$ exchange rate of 0.85.

4. A minimum mining width of approximately 1.5 metres was used.

5. A 50 metre crown pillar allowance was applied to resources located below lakes.

6. Numbers may not add due to rounding.

7. Doris North has been depleted based on surveyed mining cavities up to the end of May 2017. For the month of June 2017, a mathematical depletion was used based on production figures and the average dilution used for the Mineral Reserve estimate for Doris North.

8. Mineral Resources are inclusive of those resources converted to Mineral Reserves.

9. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

The qualified persons are not aware of any environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, marketing, political, or other relevant factors that could materially affect the Mineral Resource or Mineral Reserves estimates.

ABOUT TMAC RESOURCES

TMAC holds a 100% interest in the Hope Bay Project located in Nunavut, Canada. TMAC is an emerging gold producer with the Doris Mine pouring first gold in the first quarter of 2017 and achieving commercial production in the second quarter of 2017. The Madrid and Boston are expected to commence production in 2020 and 2022, respectively. The Company has a board of directors with depth of experience and market credibility and an exploration and development team with an extensive track record of developing high grade, profitable underground mines. TMACs shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the trading symbol TMR.

QUALIFIED PERSON

The mineral resources for the Hope Bay Project disclosed in this press release have been estimated by Mr. Sean Horan, P. Geo., an employee of RPA and independent of TMAC.

The mineral reserves for the Hope Bay Project disclosed in this press release have been reviewed by Mr. David Robson, P. Eng., an employee of RPA and independent of TMAC. By virtue of their education and relevant experience Mr. Horan and Mr. Robson are "Qualified Persons" for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Horan, P. Geo. and Mr. Robson, P. Eng., have read and approved the contents of this press release as it pertains to the disclosed mineral reserves and mineral resource estimates.

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Information of a scientific or technical nature in respect of the Hope Bay Project, other than new information related to Doris mine development, is based upon the Hope Bay Technical Report, as filed on TMACs profile at www.sedar.com. Scientific and technical information contained in this document was reviewed and approved by David King, P. Geo., the Vice President, Exploration and Geoscience, Mr. Nicolas Yugo, P. Eng., Technical Services Superintendent of TMAC. Scientific and technical information concerning the processing plant was reviewed and approved by Mr. Phil Price, Corporate Metallurgist of TMAC. Each of the individuals named is a Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This release contains "forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws that is intended to be covered by the safe harbours created by those laws. Forward-looking information includes statements that use forward-looking terminology such as may, will, expect, anticipate, believe, continue, potential or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. Such forward-looking information includes, without limitation, bringing the timing for bringing Madrid and Boston into production and the ramp up at Doris.

Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and management bases forward-looking statements on a number of estimates and assumptions at the date the statements are made. Furthermore, such forward-looking information involves a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. See Risk Factors in the Companys Annual Information Form dated February 23, 2017 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com for a discussion of these risks.



TMAC Resources issues operations update and Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves for June 30, 2017.







Contact



TMAC Resources Inc.

Catharine Farrow, Chief Executive Officer

416-628-0216 or



Ann Wilkinson, Vice President, Investor Relations

416-628-0216

www.tmacresources.com or



Renmark Financial Communications Inc.

Daniel Gordon

416-644-2020 or 514-939-3989

dgordon@renmarkfinancial.com

www.renmarkfinancial.com


TORONTO, July 14, 2017 - Osisko Mining Inc. (TSX:OSK) ("Osisko" or the "Corporation") is proud to announce that it is a participating sponsor in the search for and recovery of nine Avro Arrow free flight models launched over Lake Ontario in series of tests during 1954 - 1957. The models are one-eighth scale replicas of the famed flying jet, and were part of the final flight design test work done prior to the production of the CF-105 Arrow. The goal of the search is to discover the resting place of the nine models, recover and ultimately house them at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa and the National Air Force Museum of Canada in Trenton, Ontario.

The search and recovery program is a Canada 150 collaborative effort spearheaded by OEX Recovery Group Incorporated, sponsored by Osisko group companies Osisko Mining Inc. and Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd., in collaboration with their financial partners at National Bank, the Bank of Montreal, Canaccord Genuity, Maxit Capital, Eight Capital and Northfield Capital; the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (CASM), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), the Canadian Conservation Institute, and Bennett Jones LLP. Support for this project is also being provided by Scarlett Janusas Archaeology, Canadian Coast Guard, the Royal Canadian Military Institute and Canada Company.

Later this month Kraken Sonar Inc. of St. John's will deploy its ThunderFish Autonomous Underwater Vehicle and AquaPix Synthetic Aperture Sonar system in Lake Ontario to search for the scale models of the Avro Arrow. The highly-advanced Canadian jet fighter and development program was abruptly cancelled in 1959.

The CF-105 Arrow performed well during in-flight tests and many thought it would put Canada at the forefront of military aviation. When the program was cancelled in 1959, over 30,000 employees and sub-contractors lost their jobs as a direct result of the program's cancellation. Many Avro engineers went on to work at Lockheed, Boeing, and NASA, and others to Britain, often cited as an example of Canadian Brain Drain. All materials related to the Avro Arrow were ordered destroyed, including six completed jet fighters, production tooling, and development-related materials. The only known artifacts from the program remaining to be found are the free flight test models, which for over sixty years have rested somewhere on the bottom of Lake Ontario. For Avro Arrow historians, the roughly one-eighth size models are something of a holy grail, since they were the flying replicas of the actual aircraft and the last step from design testing prior to production of the actual flying jets.



The free flight models were launched over Lake Ontario in a series of flights conducted between 1954 and 1957 to test the aerodynamic qualities of the aircraft design prior to a production model and were successively increased in sophistication.



The free flight models were attached to high-powered booster rockets launched out over the lake from a military test site east of Toronto. After separating from the booster rockets the models flew at supersonic speeds. Their onboard sensors, revolutionary for the 1950s, transmitted flight data back to engineers on the ground. At the end of each flight the models lost velocity, crashed into the water and sank.



In the past, privately funded missions have attempted to locate and recover the lost models, but all have failed due inadequate funding, water depths, search area size and the amount of metal debris on the bottom - according to military records, more than 600 missiles were launched from the same site, which was also used as an artillery range in the 1930's.



This summer's search for the Avro Arrow free flight models can be likened to the hunt for Sir John Franklin's lost ships. The first vessel - the HMS Erebus - was discovered in September 2014 by a Canadian expedition team that included participation by Kraken engineers and its AquaPix Synthetic Aperture Sonar technology. However, the Arrow free flight models are far smaller targets. While the full-size Arrow measured 24 metres long with a 15-metre wingspan, each free flight test model was just 3 metres long with a wingspan of 2 metres.



Like the hunt for Franklin's lost ships, the search for the Arrow free flight models began with detailed analysis of historical information to narrow the search area as much as possible. In the Arrow's case, scientists, engineers and historians from the Osisko group, Kraken and the RCAF used historical research, the collection of archival material at CASM, interviews with former Avro employees and computer-aided ballistic trajectory and flight data modeling to develop the search grids.



John Burzynski, President and CEO of Osisko Mining Inc. stated: "As professional explorers in the mining business, we initiated this program about a year ago with the idea of bringing back a piece of lost Canadian history to the Canadian public. As individuals, as a company, as a group, and with our partners and our project participants in this search effort, we all have the same goal in mind: to find and return these beautiful pieces of Canadian technology to the public eye, during this anniversary year of our incredible country. Like Avro, our own corporate group was built on dreams, and this project is a proud reminder of what we as Canadians have done, what we Canadians do, and what we Canadians can do."





About Osisko Mining Inc.



Osisko is a mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of precious metal resource properties in Canada. Osisko holds a 100% in the high-grade Windfall Lake gold deposit located between Val-d'Or and Chibougamau in Quebec and holds a 100% undivided interest in a large area of claims in the surrounding Urban Barry and Quevillon areas(over 3,300 square kilometres), a 100% interest in the Marban project located in the heart of Quebec's prolific Abitibi gold mining district, and properties in the Larder Lake Mining Division in northeast Ontario, including the Jonpol and Garrcon deposits on the Garrison property. The Corporation also holds interests and options in a number of additional properties in northern Ontario and Quebec. Osisko continues to be well financed with approximately $190 million in cash and investments.







Contact



Osisko Mining Inc.

John Burzynski, President and Chief Executive Officer

(416) 363-8653


VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jul 14, 2017) - StrikePoint Gold Inc. (TSX VENTURE:SKP)(OTCQB:STKXF) ("StrikePoint" or the Company) is pleased to report on the progress of its $2.5M summer gold exploration program in the Yukon. Comprehensive work including drilling has been completed on the Mahtin property. The crew is now working on the Pluto property judged to be Strikepoint's highest ranked target. Exploration is also planned this season for several other targets.

The Pluto Gold Project is located approximately 100km west-southwest of the town of Carmacks in the central Yukon Territory. The StrikePoint Team have established their camp and are currently undertaking a mapping and sampling program, with drilling due to start on or around July 16th. Two main targets have been identified for exploration work, the northern "Charon" target and the southern "Hydra" zone.

Charon consists of a soil anomaly with samples running up to 15,342 ppb gold, and stretching for 1.2km east to west. It is proposed that these anomalous soils are related to a layer of mineralized limestone that was mapped in 2012. These limestones have been altered by hydrothermal fluids from successive intrusions of volcanic dykes into the sedimentary package.

The mineralization model of the Hydra target is not well understood at this point, yet it appears to be a series of gold-bearing quartz veins. This has resulted in soils samples returning grades up to 3,427 ppb Au over an area 1km by 1km.

Both targets have been the subject of an Induced Polarization (IP) Geophysical study in June carried out by Groundtruth Exploration. The results are currently being analyzed and will be used for targeting the RAB drill program.

The Pluto Property

The Pluto property is in the Kluane region, and is one of the largest in StrikePoint's portfolio, approximately 40 x 30km in size. Pluto sits relatively close to the latest discoveries in the White Gold district, and is aligned along strike with this group of projects. However, initial analysis of the geology seems to show a unique mineralizing style for the area; the formation of skarns in contact with large, regional 'ring' dyke volcanic features.

The presence of a shallowly dipping 'dirty' limestone unit in the local lithology has become a focus for mineralization when intercepted by dykes of rhyolitic / dacitic material. The skarns are identified by anomalous gold-in-soil results where they outcrop in the sides of the valleys, which indicates that there is volume potential of the mineralization, a hypothesis that will be drill tested in 2017.

Update on Mahtin Exploration

Exploration work was undertaken on the Mahtin Property between June 6th and July 4th, with a focus on the Mahtin North and MayQu target areas. A total of 164 grab samples were taken from across the Mahtin property, including from potential new zones of mineralization discovered on the Alp-Forty claims in the southwestern portion of the Mahtin claim block.

A total of nine RAB holes were drilled, with six in Mahtin North and three on MayQu, ranging from 80m to 150m depth each.

All grab and RAB chip samples are currently with the laboratory for assaying, and results are pending.

Baseline environmental studies were also completed on both the Mahtin North and MayQu targets, including wildlife surveys and water sampling. The use of the RAB drill has minimal environmental impact. All collar locations were cleaned and reclaimed immediately after drilling was completed.

StrikePoint Gold also took part in the First Nations of the Na-Cho Nyak Dun 'Industry Day' on June 25th, presenting to the Council and Community the Mahtin and Golden-Oly projects which lie within their traditional territories.

Other July Activities

In addition to drilling at Pluto, StrikePoint will also undertake some regional work on the Sapphire, Kilo and Garnet properties which are also within the Kluane region. Exploration activities will be restricted to mapping and sampling of anomalies highlighted by work completed in 2012 by Ryan Gold Corp.

A small advance team will also mobilize into the North Canol Road area to undertake some first pass work on the Golden-Oly targets.

For further information, please review the Corporate Presentation on the StrikePoint Gold Inc. website for a more detailed, comprehensive review of the 2017 exploration program: http://www.strikepointgold.com/images/Yukon-Properties-Presentation.pdf.

This news release has been reviewed by Andy Randell P. Geo., Vice President, Exploration of StrikePoint Gold, the Qualified Person for the technical information in this news release under NI 43-101 standards.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD of StrikePoint Gold Inc.

Shawn Khunkhun, CEO and Director

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Distributors previously operating in Nevada's medical marijuana program may soon enter the recreational marijuana market after the Nevada Tax Commission today approved emergency regulations to reopen distribution licensing.The Nevada Tax Commission voted to let the Department of Taxation again determine whether limiting licenses for those who transport weed from Nevada cultivation and production facilities to dispensaries only to licensed alcohol distributors -- as called on by November's Ballot Question 2, which legalized recreational use and possession of the plant -- would result in a shortage of distributors for the new industry. If so, it would be able to award licenses to previous medical marijuana distributors."When businesses operate we get the tax revenue and that's what the state wants," testified Deonne Contine, director of the Nevada Department of Taxation, at today's hearing. "We need to do everything we can to get more distributors licensed so these businesses can continue operating."Contine drafted the combined seven-page statement of emergency and regulations on July 6.Gov. Brian Sandoval endorsed the emergency regulations with his signature on Friday.The department said in a March draft of recreational marijuana regulations that it found "an insufficient number of marijuana distributors" existed by limiting the industry only to licensed alcohol distributors, but it did not include that statement in its final regulations for the "early start" program released May 8.On June 20, Carson City Judge James Wilson of Nevada's 1st Judicial District Court awarded the Independent Alcohol Distributors of Nevada with an injunction, ordering the Department of Taxation to remove the other 87 nonalcohol distribution applicants from consideration for licenses.Contine said in last week's statement that none of the seven alcohol wholesale distributors passed department evaluations to begin distributing, adding that a lack of supply for marijuana dispensaries and no legal way to restock them as a result of the court-issued injunction would soon cause the booming recreational weed industry to "grind to a halt.""Without the ability to license marijuana distributors to continue the flow of product to a retail store, a high likelihood exists that consumers will revert to the black market," Contine wrote.Several speakers at today's hearing argued against the emergency regulations, accusing the Nevada Department of Taxation of discriminating against alcohol distributors and working to push them out of the industry.Las Vegas attorney Michael Hagemeyer, one of three attorneys representing the Independent Alcohol Distributors of Nevada in earning the June 20 injunction, cited Ballot Question 2's campaign to "regulate marijuana like alcohol," adding that a three-tier system used by liquor industry distributors would provide the best way for the recreational marijuana industry to maintain regulatory checks and balances."There's a huge distinction between medical marijuana and recreational marijuana," Hagemeyer said. "As the law reads, Nevadans voted for recreational marijuana to have a three-tier system."Hagemeyer rebuffed a perceived shortage in the number of alcohol distributors and their ability to soon transport weed across dozens of cultivation facilities, production facilities and dispensaries statewide. If given a fair chance to receive credentials from the Nevada Department of Taxation, more alcohol distributors would apply and pass inspections, Hegemeyer said."They do it in the alcohol industry and are more than capable of doing it in a recreational marijuana model" he said.Another IADON attorney, Kevin Benson, testified from Carson City that alcohol distributors were at a disadvantage in the new industry because they did not had adequate time to meet Department of Taxation regulations during the brief application period for distribution licenses, which began on May 8.Benson said current distributors in the medical marijuana industry had more than two years to implement best practices because they started distributing the plant as early as July 2015.He criticized a March draft of Department of Taxation regulations stating that there were not adequate liquor distributors for the industry to base its wholesale distribution only on the alcohol distributors."The department was essentially telling them thanks but no thanks," Benson said. "It's hard to fault anyone for not immediately applying under those circumstances."Today's approval of regulations represented a step in the right direction for those in the marijuana industry, including dispensary owners who said their pot supply was running low after dealing with larger-than-expected sales during the first 12 days of recreational marijuana sales. The industry reported 40,000 retail transactions across 47 open dispensaries during the first two days of sales."Not solving the distribution issue would lead to major disruptions and ultimately threaten the program that Nevadans voted for," said Andrew Jolley, president of the Nevada Cannabis Association and owner of The+Source dispensary in Las Vegas. "I support the department's recommend to open up distribution to all eligible companies, including alcohol distributors, who are licensed and meet all of the criteria required to operate in this industry."Jolley and other pot store owners reported sales increases at least five times their normal consumer output from the previous medical-only industry, which kicked off in July 2015.While many weed license holders spent months stocking their dispensaries with the plant before distribution regulations took effect on July 1, higher-than-expected sales left some dispensaries running out of marijuana products."We don't want customers to walk away angry because we don't have the product they want and that they're used to buying here," said owner Frank Hawkins of Nevada Wellness Center. "And for the state and customers, we don't want to lose the momentum that we have. Without question, this is impactful."Opening recreational distribution licenses to those who successfully operated in the medical marijuana industry would help the new recreational industry continue a stream of tax revenue estimated to reach $90 million to $120 million by June 2019, NDA Executive Director Riana Durrett said. An operating legal industry also prevents black market sellers from illegally selling the plant, she said."It means tax revenue for the states, jobs and taking black market crime out of the industry," Durrett said. "You can't move product without distributors and you can't do business."The emergency regulations adopted do not provide a timeline for issuing distribution licenses, but both Durrett and Klapstein said they expect the licenses to be issued by the end of the month.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) threw his weight behind former NAACP President Ben Jealous' bid for Maryland governor on Thursday morning during an endorsement rally.Sanders and Jealous appeared together at a convention center in Silver Spring, Md., where the senator lauded Jealous as the right kind of leader to push back against President Trump at the state level."We need, now more than ever ... a very, very different kind of leadership," Sanders said."And what Ben Jealous is about, he has the radical idea that maybe, just maybe, you should represent all the people, not just the top 1 percent."
There is No Checklist

Cost of Compliance

FALLS CHURCH, Va.  In this community center turned polling place, Juan Sanchis stands near an electronic ballot reader with a smile on his face, waiting.Many of the voters filing into the Willston Community Center, in a diverse pocket of Fairfax County, dont speak English very well. When it seems like the voters dont understand, Sanchis switches over to Korean or Spanish, or gets a worker who speaks Vietnamese. Around him on the tables and walls, pamphlets and signs are translated into all three of those languages.If they need help understanding, thats what I try to do, Sanchis said earlier this month, as Virginia primary voters went to the polls to choose candidates for a variety of state and local offices.As the country grows more diverse, more local governments like Fairfax County, a Washington, D.C., suburb, are falling under a federal election law that requires them to provide language assistance  including translators and translated election materials  to certain minority groups that are heavily represented in their communities. Dozens of communities were added to the list for the first time in December, sending local officials in those communities scrambling.The number of governments subject to the law has increased in recent years, with language requirements added in 52 places, including some where another language was already required, in December. A total of 263 jurisdictions, representing almost a third of the voting-age population, are now covered. The rules pertain to places with at least 5 percent of the voting-age population or 10,000 residents who speak the same language and dont speak English very well, as determined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Only certain languages are covered. Three states California, Florida and Texas  must also meet the rules when providing election materials statewide.For the local governments, the new costs of providing this assistance come at a time when many face tight budgets and the need to replace outdated ballot machines. Some, including Fairfax County, which was required to translate into Vietnamese for the first time this year, are doing the basics to meet the requirements and comply. Others, such as Montgomery County, Maryland, and King County, Washington, are taking it a step further, reaching out to minority communities before Election Day, and providing voter guides in multiple languages.Advocates such as Terry Ao Minnis, a senior fellow at the Democracy Fund Voice, which promotes civic engagement, say that better translation services will help eliminate language barriers that stifle voter turnout for Asians and Hispanics, who are far less likely to vote than whites and blacks.But some state and local officials see this as another unfunded federal mandate, and dont think the government should be paying for translation services to begin with. A 2007 survey of local officials who had to meet the requirements found that some of the officials thought the federal government should be paying for the assistance, some thought elections should be conducted only in English, and some didnt think the rules should remain in effect.Voters themselves  not the government  should be paying for assistance if they need it, said Phil Kent of ProEnglish, a group that wants to scrap the election law, which was added to the Voting Rights Act in 1975. For years, ProEnglish has fought to make English the official language of the U.S., arguing that providing assistance to immigrants in their native language prevents them from adapting to American culture. It undermines a very important incentive for immigrants to learn English and become full participants in our society, he said.Federal election law allows people who cant read or write well to bring someone to the polls to help them vote. But, Kent said, if youre a citizen, youre supposed to know English.The federal law is meant to target those language minorities that have suffered a history of exclusion from the political process, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, and only applies to Spanish and American Indian, Alaskan Native and Asian languages.The number of communities covered by the law has been growing as immigrants become more dispersed across the country. But in some communities, languages are being taken off the list: languages were dropped in 40 jurisdictions in December. The Pew Research Center says this may be because recent immigrants are better educated, or because Hispanics English proficiency is improving. (The Pew Charitable Trusts funds both the center and Stateline.)Most of the people getting help are Spanish speakers. As of December, 214 communities were required to translate election materials into Spanish, 18 into Chinese, 11 into Navajo, 10 into Choctaw, nine into Yupik, and nine into Vietnamese. Only 10 communities, including Fairfax County, must translate into more than two languages, and half of them are in Southern California or near San Francisco, according to a Stateline analysis of census data.The law is fairly vague as to what language assistance governments must provide. Any written material provided in English must be translated, including ballots, instructional forms, polling place notices, and voter registration information. Bilingual poll workers are essential in at least some precincts on Election Day, and there should be trained personnel in the courthouse or government offices who can answer questions in the minority language.The lack of specificity makes the rules difficult for local governments to interpret. There is no checklist, said Cameron Sasnett, Fairfax Countys general registrar and director of elections.To help, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission has for the last two years worked with Democracy Fund Voice to host a national conference during which local election officials discuss how to comply with the rules. Its most recent conference took place in Fairfax County this month.Matt Masterson, the chairman of the commission, said communities that are new to the rules may benefit from reaching out to other local governments that have already had to comply, and from building relationships with minority communities, which can lead to translation help and support.Masterson also encourages communities to anticipate changes to their populations so they know what languages may be required in the future. Thats what Fairfax County did this year. The county is only required to translate into Spanish and Vietnamese, but the county also chose to begin translating into Korean, because it knows it has a growing Korean population, Sasnett said. About 35,000 of the million or so county residents speak Korean at home, and about 55 percent of them dont speak English very well, according to census data.King County, Washington, recently made a similar move. It translates election materials into Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese, even though Korean and Spanish are not required.The county, which encompasses Seattle, also goes beyond what federal law requires in other ways. Working with a nonprofit, it created a Voter Education Fund in 2015. Last year, the fund gave $224,000 to community organizations that reached out to minority voters through voter registration drives and other community events, said Julie Wise, the countys elections director. The nonprofit and the county split the cost of the initiative. This year the fund will give out up to $400,000.Wise said the funding has paid off. The county votes by mail only, and, since the initiative started, Wise said the number of translated ballots requested by voters increased by nearly two-thirds, from 3,288 in 2015 to 5,398 in 2016.The county has met resistance from some residents, who say it is attempting to increase voter turnout among specific voters for political reasons, because some minority groups, such as Hispanics, are more likely to cast votes for Democrats. But Wise said the opposition to the changes has been limited, and the county has made a point of providing voting information to Republican-leaning constituencies, such as Ukrainian immigrants.But, in some cases, partisan politics do come into play, said Tucker, who co-authored a report on the 2007 survey of local officials. Local election officials are usually enthusiastic about increasing voter access, he said, but state or local elected officials may try to stop the efforts as a way to isolate communities who may not vote for their candidates.If there is a belief that a particular group of voters arent going to vote for your candidates, you arent going to go out of your way to remove barriers to access in voting, Tucker said.Critics say complying with the law can be costly, but data show the costs are usually small when compared to overall spending on elections. It costs King County about $75,000 to add a new language, and about $125,000 a year to maintain the services  a small part of its two-year election budget, which averages $36 million.Governments that fall under the federal rules for language assistance reported spending only a fraction of their total election budget on language services, according to the 2007 survey.The U.S. Department of Justice has brought dozens of lawsuits against state and local governments in the past four decades for failing to comply with the law. Some nonprofits that advocate for voting rights or the rights of minorities have also filed lawsuits.Alaska was sued twice, in 2007 and 2013, by the Native American Rights Fund for failing to translate election materials into Alaskan Native languages covered under the federal law. The state paid $1.8 million as part of the settlement for the second lawsuit alone, according to Indra Arriaga, the states language assistance compliance manager.Arriaga said the state hired her to help the state comply with the law  a big undertaking in a state where residents speak dozens of languages, including many Native and Alaskan dialects that are covered by the law. The state now provides translations in a dozen languages, and is working on adding at least two more. It cost the state about $350,000 to add seven languages last year, Arriaga said.Many of the people who speak these languages live in remote areas and dont have access to internet or reliable phone service, Arriaga said. She sends tribes election materials by mail, and the tribes send handwritten translations back. The translation can take months.Philosophically, we want to translate to as many people as need translations, she said, but logistically, it becomes a nightmare.Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department filed lawsuits against seven communities it said were not complying with the law. Election officials and attorneys say its unclear if the Trump administration will be as aggressive. Its focus seems to be more on increasing voter requirements to deter fraud, not on increasing voter access, Tucker said.
Tax Deductions Arent Just for the Super-Rich

Theres a Reason They Call It Chronic Deficits

Illinois Not Out of the Woods Yet

As the Trump administration promotes a tax reform agenda that would take away the state and local tax deduction, government organizations are pushing back hard against the notion that the tax perk is utilized only by the uber-wealthy. A new report this week shows that more than half of the tax filers who take the deduction earn less than $200,000 per year. In fact, the largest group of filers who deduct their state and local taxes from their federal taxable income earn between $100,000 and $200,000 per year.Contrary to popular opinion, the deduction of state and local taxes does not exclusively benefit the wealthy, even though that argument has been used countless times in attempts to modify or repeal the deduction, says the report, which was prepared by the Government Finance Officers Association.Source: Government Finance Officers AssociationThe report provides a map of populations taking the deduction by congressional district, finding it is most frequently claimed in the Northeast and in urban strongholds in the South and West. For example, in Illinois District 8, home to the Chicago suburbs, nearly half of taxpayers take the state and local tax deduction. Losing the perk would place an additional $1.2 billion in total tax burden on filers in that district.The data poke a hole in Trump's argument that his tax reform plan would be a boost for the middle class.Trump has proposed increasing the standard deduction, which could help offset some of the tax increase. But, according to the report, even if it were to double or triple, a significant portion of taxpayers would still end up with tax increases.While the report lays out convincing data regarding taxpayers, it is still primarily a lobbying document urging Congress to consider the impact any changes will have on the bottom lines of state and local governments. Many public officials worry that taking away the perk would make it harder for states and localities to raise taxes in the future.If your state struggles with budget deficits, chances are its not a one-time thing. New research from the Pew Charitable Trusts analyzes state spending and revenue performance over a 14-year period and finds that 11 states spent more than they earned in the aggregate.Of those 11, Illinois and New Jersey were the only two that had budget deficits every year between 2002 and 2015. Additionally, the two had the largest aggregate spending gaps with revenues falling an average of more than 5 percent short of expenses.Meanwhile, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York had deficits more than half the time, and Pennsylvania ran a deficit six out of the 14 years. Aggregate spending gaps were between 3.8 percent in Hawaii and less than a percent in Michigan and Pennsylvania.Nationally, state revenues over the 14-year period averaged 102 percent of expenses. Resource-rich states such as Alaska, North Dakota and Wyoming earned an average of more than 120 percent of expenses.In some ways, the list of states that averaged a deficit during that period is a whos-who of public finance woes. On the other hand, it doesn't tell the whole story. A look at Californias trend, for example, finds that the state turned a corner in 2013 after experiencing budget deficits every year prior. In 2013, the state instituted an income tax hike and later established new rainy day savings policies that helped stabilize its budget.Conversely, Louisiana, which isn't one of the 11 states and shows a budget balance close to the national average in the 14-year period, has been sliding downhill ever since 2010 when former Gov. Bobby Jindals income tax cuts took hold. The state has dealt with budget deficits every year since.Illinois first budget in two years got it out of the doghouse with one ratings agency. But another one is still considering downgrading the state into junk status.S&P Ratings this week said the enactment of a state budget means a downgrade within the next year has substantially diminished. The budget, which institutes an income tax hike and includes some spending reductions, brings the state closer to structural alignment and reduces near-term uncertainty about whether the state will meet its obligations.Still, the budget doesnt address Illinois $15 billion in unpaid bills nor does it do anything to reduce the states more than $100 billion unfunded pension liability. For those reasons, Moodys Investors Service is still considering whether a downgrade to junk status is warranted.Without a budget to fight over, political leaders in Illinois are turning their attention to the downgrade threat. Gov. Bruce Rauner has essentially cast the threat as an empty one, and told lawmakers last week,  dont listen to Wall Street .Meanwhile, State Treasurer Michael Frerichs is urging the governor to follow a six-point plan to avoid a downgrade. The plan includes issuing $6 billion in debt to start paying off unpaid bills. Should [Rauner] not take these necessary steps, Frerichs said, he is inviting the credit-rating agencies to plunge Illinois into junk bond status, the results of which will lead to higher property taxes.
Description

GIS - 14 July 2017: The Ministry of Technology, Communication and Innovation will implement the recommendations contained in the Open Data Readiness Assessment Report of the World Bank. The Assessment was carried out in view to identify datasets that may be released as open data.

The World Bank has recommended that the Ministry should consider joining the Open Government Partnership. To this end, the Ministry should work with other stakeholders to ensure that opportunities for open data are included in policies on innovation, public financial management, procurement reform, tourism sector, and transport improvement.

The Open Data Readiness Assessment Report also recommends that universities and colleges should include data skills in the curriculum or student activities.

Open Government Data can be conceptualised as information, public or otherwise, which anyone is free to use, re-use and redistribute. The data must be available as a whole in a convenient and modifiable form. The key features of data openness comprise amongst others availability and access; transparency and accountability.

Government Information Service, Prime Ministers Office, Level 6, New Government Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius. Email: gis@govmu.org Website: http://gis.govmu.org
Body cameras, broadband and big data  theres a lot happening in public safety tech right now, and Responder Ventures wants to get in early.The Florida-based venture capital firm, now about two years old and six investments deep, is in the process of raising money for its first official fund. Up until now, its been working with capital from founder Nathanial Wishs family investment office.The Center for Digital Government* estimates that the tech market for public safety in the U.S. in 2017 is about $7.6 billion. Responder thinks now is a good time to be investing in new ideas. One of the big reasons why? FirstNet.The initiative to create a nationwide broadband network for emergency responders, now several years old, is picking up steam . Earlier this year the authority behind the project signed on AT&T as its vendor to build the network, and states are moving faster than expected to develop their individual deployment plans.A nationwide broadband connectivity could be a game-changer for high-throughput tech like video analytics and augmented reality headsets, Wish said. And theres no shortage of applications for that kind of tech in public safety  just a lack of ability to set them up.Weve come across some really cool tech that wed love to support and the agencies want to use it, but theres just not the broadband to support it, Wish said.Further, said managing partner Bryce Stirton, FirstNet could lead to some big changes when it comes to selling to public safety agencies.[Currently] youre going around to every municipality, youre going around to state and local guys to try to sell your product, Stirton said. FirstNet is going to have a marketplace like an app store and youre going to be able to reach a huge section of the market in one place.Thats important in a field where, like much of government, the vendors who win are often those who already hold the contract.Responder Ventures is looking for the newer, smaller players who need help overcoming that obstacle in order to sell new ideas to agencies like fire and police departments. The firms strategy is to focus on startups in the Series A range  those whose products are already built out  and write checks between $500,000 and $1 million.We dont like to take product development risk, we like something we can touch, see and feel, Stirton said.Theres not any particular limit on the kind of technology the firm is looking to support, so long as its relevant to public safety and accomplishes some goal such as making emergency responders safer.But the firm does like to see particular kinds of entrepreneurs  namely, those who have had their feet on the ground in the agencies they want to serve. After all, thats where the firm came from. Wish is a reserve deputy and detective at the Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office. Dennis Weiner, co-founder, is a U.S. Navy Reserve officer and has served as the chief of police for multiple local departments.While I was volunteering I saw a real need for innovation in the space, Wish said. The tools and materials that the first responders had at their fingertips was not working.Many of the firms portfolio companies  like Ten8Tech and Kaseware  were founded by former law enforcement officials who had ideas for new technology while on the job.Beyond FirstNet, the public safety space is seeing some rapid innovation push its way into the market. Predictive policing companies are using artificial intelligence in an attempt to change the way departments deploy officers. Body camera companies are looking at ways to process and recognize objects in body camera videos to, among other things, make them searchable. Next-generation 911 systems are springing up across the country , allowing dispatch systems to interact with citizens in new ways. Fire and police departments are starting to use drones . Computers are scanning social media for early signs of emergencies. Et cetera.And thats all great, said Wish, but theres also a lot of things technology can do on a more mundane level to simply make law enforcement more efficient.What were supporting is a little bit simpler stuff, he said. Theres a little more catch-up to be done.For example, Responder portfolio company RapidSOS offers a service that delivers specific location to dispatchers from callers mobile phones so that emergency responders can find the places they need to be more quickly instead of driving in circles. SceneDoc, another portfolio company, offers a mobile platform for collecting and managing evidence and other data, automating manual tasks in the process.SceneDoc is automating and its saving hours for people every single shift, Wish said. The hours theyd spend doing paperwork, now theyre in the field.By getting in and investing in these companies early and building out a network of advisers and partners in the process, Wish thinks Responder can take advantage of the momentum in the sector as a whole.Were pretty focused on the nuts-and-bolts stuff," he said, "because thats gonna have a big impact over the next five years."Government Technology
A nonprofit organization aimed at inspiring young people to use tech for social good is partnering with the U.S. Census Bureau to provide fully-funded data science and technology internships within the federal government.

This summer marks the beginning of the effort, which brought 14 interns from top academic institutions (think Harvard, MIT, Cornell and Duke, among others) to work at the Census Bureau. The program is called the Civic Digital Fellowship program, and its the flagship initiative of Coding it Forward, the aforementioned nonprofit, which works with about 1,000 young technologists from colleges across the country who are interested in using their skills and abilities for social impact.

This program was founded by Neel Mehta, a senior computer science major at Harvard who has interned with both Microsoft and the U.S. Census Bureau. In an interview with The Huffington Post , Mehta said in his career hes had difficulty finding government technology internships that offer comparable opportunities to those found in Silicon Valley and throughout the private sector.

I realized, more generally, there are no on-ramps for helping young, socially-minded technologists get involved with the government, Mehta told

Mehta also said that interest in this program has been high, with 226 applicants vying for the 14 internship positions, landing the acceptance rate at about 6 percent. While the inaugural program is involved only with the Census Bureau, Mehta and the group are in talks with other agencies for future installments, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Internal Revenue Service and the State Department.

NYC Launches New Smart City Technologies and Young Innovators Program in Brownsville

New York City has rolled out a pair of new programs in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn: a smart city solutions lab initiative and a tech education program for young people in the area.

The smart city solutions lab will benefit from a series of meetings that the city held in partnership with Brownsville community leaders to find out what the neighborhood needs and how smart city tech can improve the quality of life there, all while simultaneously spurring economic development. Some of the priorities that grew from these sessions include cleanliness of public spaces, safety and access to healthy foods.

The Brownsville Innovation Lab was first announced in March, and initial tech demos will be installed at Osborn Plaza in Brownsville, including the latest version of Bigbellys solar-power trash cans , which hold as much as five times more waste than a standard can, and two Soofa smart benches that use solar power to provide free charging for tablets and phones. This program was launched on July 8.

That same day also marked the start of the new tech education push for Brownsville youth, which began with hands-on workshops to learn about STEM concepts by building solar-powered cars. The workshops, which are part of the Bank of New York Mellons Young Innovators Program, strives to spur an interest in tech, and organizers hope that over the course of a year, it can reach more than 1,000 Brownsville young people at a variety of interactive events.

Anyone interested in learning more can visit http://innovation.nyc

DARPA Invests in Neural Implants to Allow Brains to Communicate with Computers

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded developed contracts aimed at creating neural implants that could make it possible for the human brain to speak directly with computers at near-instantaneous speeds, the federal agency announced in a press release

Of the five research organizations and one company supporting this effort, which has been dubbed the Neural Engineering System Design program, three are prestigious universities  Brown, Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley  while the others are the Seeing and Hearing Foundation, John B. Pierce Laboratory, and Paradromics, Inc. All five now have teams to develop related tech.

The possibilities of this complex effort are intriguing, to say the least, with therapy for brain, hearing and vision damage being among the most practical outcomes. In fact, several of the teams will focus primarily on using a high-resolution neural interface to support sensory restoration in vision, hearing and speech. In simpler terms, there could soon come a time when this tech allows blind people to see through computers, and deaf and mute people to overcome their respective challenges as well.

The work has the potential to significantly advance scientists' understanding of the neural underpinnings of vision, hearing and speech, and could eventually lead to new treatments for people living with sensory deficits, DARPA wrote in its press release.

The way it does this is significantly complex, as one would expect. The tech involves implants in the brain that are capable of converting electrochemical signaling used by neurons into ones and zeros that computers understand, all at a near-instant speed.

According to the release, part of this effort will involve a collaboration between scientists and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in order to make sure the work takes into account long-term safety, privacy, information security, compatibility with additional devices and other regulatory aspects.

Is the Future of Open Data Accessibility Facebook Chatbots?

A recent trend in major cities has seen civic innovators going beyond the simple publish of open data to also give citizens new and easier ways to process and comprehend the info.

Google-esque search engines and easy-to-read maps have sprung up on many open data portals. Recently, Kansas City, Mo., also created a Facebook chatbot to help with this cause.

While this may strike you as a lonely existence for the chatbot, as it was the only one of its kind when it was created to help citizens find historical data about building permits just a solitary robotic being living forever inside Facebook  it is lonely no longer.

Chattanooga, Tenn., recently launched its own version in what the Sunlight Foundation calls a similar effort to provide the public there with easier access to open data. Both cities say their chatbots are in early, experimental stages. There seems to be no word yet on what would happen should they ever begin to chat with each other, presumably after one sends the other a message asking, "U up? I need to know how many arrests happened in a certain neighborhood last October."
(TNS) -- Voting being the essential democratic function that it is, the Glynn County Board of Elections is charged with keeping the countys voting machines running and in good condition. That task has become more difficult this year.The board voted Tuesday to buy five used voting machines from San Diego County, Calif., to use as backups. The machines board members chose to buy have only been used once and can be had at a savings. However, they did not have the option to buy new machines. No county in Georgia does.Glynn County Board of Elections Supervisor Tina Edwards said the board was prompted to buy the machines because the newer models are no longer being sold by the manufacturer, Electronic Systems and Software. San Diego County is the only source of the machines that she is aware of at the moment.The company has no plans to stock more in the near future, leaving Georgia counties with no choice but to buy machines secondhand or from third parties, Edwards said.They dont manufacture the (TS-R6s) anymore and they dont have an inventory of the TSx, which will complicate any new purchase, said Edwards, who only discovered last month that the manufacturer no longer produces the voting machines. They pretty much dominate the market. Theyre the sole source for the machines.Edwards said she hasnt seen a situation like this since she started working for the board in 2005.When youre using something as important as voting equipment, and its required that we use touch-screen voting machines, and the fact that the vendor isnt inventorying that equipment, that is concerning, Edwards said. Hopefully, the existing (Georgia) secretary of state or a new one will address it. It is unusual. Weve never had an issue where I cannot approach ES&S for new equipment.Edwards does not anticipate the lack of supply will affect Glynn County. But it is worrying nevertheless, in no small part because Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has not given any official word on how he intends to deal with the situation. He unofficially told election officials at a training event that the office does not intend to do anything about it within the next five years.It is a statewide question, a concern about the voting equipment, the lifetime of the equipment, how long, and were not getting an answer from the secretary of state and were all uncertain, Edwards said.The lack of a solution from Kemp leaves it uncertain as to whether the state will even still be using the same machines for the next five years, Edwards said.We have to be fiscally responsible, Edwards said. We dont want to do a full replacement and then have to replace the machines within a few years. Our equipment is in good shape, its working, this was just an opportunity to get more.Kemp may not be secretary of state after next year. He will make a run for governor in 2018.Should the county need to buy more machines from a secondhand source, Edwards has confirmed that ES&S will provide a warranty.The company manufactures the current preferred model of voting machine, one of two models the state currently uses.The state elections board stipulates counties use either AccuVote TSx, the newer model the local board recently purchased from San Diego, or the older TS-R6, which was discontinued years ago.The countys stock of TS-R6s, of which it has far more, were provided by the secretary of state with money from the 2002 Help America Vote Act.
Burned body found in car near Oregon-Nevada line

ONTARIO, Ore. (AP)  Deputies who responded to a burned vehicle in a remote area of southeastern Oregon found a body inside.

Sheriff Brian Wolfe of Malheur County says its unknown whether the burned body is male or female, or where the person may be from. The license plates and vehicle identification number melted and no missing person reports have been filed.

The Argus Observer reports a Bureau of Land Management employee reported seeing the burned-out car Tuesday night, but did not examine it. Wolfe says deputies would have started their hours-long drive sooner if it was known there was a body.

The Oregon State Fire Marshal joined the investigation Thursday as authorities try to determine the cause of fire and the ignition source.

Wolfe says it may have been a suicide, but there are still a lot of questions.

1 dead, 4 injured in house boat explosion

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  One woman is dead and four other people are critically injured after a nighttime explosion on a houseboat along the Utah-Arizona border, authorities said Thursday.

A generator exploded about 10 p.m. Wednesday as a large group that included about 20 other people vacationed on a privately owned boat on Lake Powell, authorities said.

A 52-year-old woman was killed and four other people were flown to hospitals in Grand Junction, Colorado, and Salt Lake City in critical condition, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area spokeswoman Mary Plumb said.

They suffered broken bones, burns and facial injuries, she said.

Someone was trying to start the generator in the Crystal Springs Canyon area when it suddenly exploded, Sheriff Rick Eldredge of San Juan County, Utah, said in a statement.

Identities of the people involved werent immediately released.

3rd wrongful death suit filed against Washoe sheriff

RENO (AP)  The family of a man who died after being bound by authorities in a hogtied position has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

It is the third wrongful death claim against the Washoe County Sheriffs Office in the past two years.

The Reno Gazette-Journal reported Thursday that the lawsuit was filed by the father of Thomas Purdy, who died in October 2015.

Purdy stopped breathing in a cell at the Washoe County jail after a struggle with Peppermill Resort Hotel security guards and Reno police officers, who arrested him on trespassing charges. Purdy continued to struggle against deputies who tried to remove his restraints once he arrived at the jail.

An investigation by Sparks police found no criminal wrongdoing.

The hotel and Reno Police Department are also listed in the lawsuit.

Utah lawmakers offended by anti-0.05 DUI limit ad

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Several Utah lawmakers say theyre offended by a national restaurant groups advertisement critical of Utahs new 0.05 percent blood alcohol limit.

The advertisement published Thursday in The Salt Lake Tribune includes photos of Gov. Gary Herbert and 11 lawmakers, all over age 65, with the headline reading Too Impaired to Drive?

The American Beverage Institute says the ad is based on studies showing drivers older than 65 are more impaired than drivers with a 0.05 percent alcohol level. The group says its meant to show the 0.05 limit taking effect in 2018 is unreasonable.

Santa Clara Republican Rep. Lowry Snow was among those pictured. He told the Deseret News that the ad lacks class and is offensive.

Salt Lake City Republican Sen. Jim Dabakis was not pictured but says hes appalled by the ad.

Herberts office declined comment.
(TNS) - Macon County has become the latest municipality to join the new Central Illinois Regional Dispatch Center.The county board voted unanimously Thursday night to enter an agreement with the center, which will handle the managing, staffing and equipment at the call center in the Macon County Law Enforcement Center. With the agreement, the county joins Decatur and Mount Zion, which also have agreed to join.Under the new plan, control of the center would be shifted to a three-person executive board and executive director. One seat on the board would be held by the mayor of Decatur or a designee and another would be held by the chair of the Macon County board or an appointee. The third person would be chosen by the other two board members.With this, were all going to have a say in the direction of the center, said Sheriff Thomas Schneider after Thursdays meeting.Previously, the city of Decatur has owned and operated the lone call center in the county, providing dispatching services to its own agencies as well as the Macon County Sheriff's Office and smaller police and fire departments.While he emphasized he has never had any problems with the set-up in the past, Schneider said the new center will prevent any questions of services being provided in an unfair manner.What theyre looking at now, is that everyone is going to be a shared operator of this, he said. There wont be a issue of who owns it, because everybody is going to own it.The dispatch center costs $2.5 million a year to operate. Previously, the arrangement called for the city covering $1.6 million, Macon County covering $300,000, and and the Emergency Telephone System Board covering $600,000. Now, the cost will shift under the plan based on use.Macon County Chairman Jay Dunn has previously said the countys share for the center will increase from $300,000 to about $650,000, though Schneider said Thursday that the cost will likely be an increase of around $150,000. That money will be paid for through the sheriffs department.We knew it was inevitable ... that wed be paying more down the road, Schneider said. But were at the point now where we know we need to pay our fair share, and were willing to be a team player to provide the best service for Macon County.The plan would not move the call center from its current location at the Law Enforcement Center in downtown Decatur, nor would it affect the roughly 20 employees who work there.There is no timeline for when the center will be fully in place, and sheriff Lt. Jonathan Butts said they are still in a transition as other local municipalities and local emergency services get on board.The state has been pushing for consolidating, and this is just a way of doing that, he said. I think there has been a lot of thought put into it, and Im looking forward to it. I think its time to look at this center as a great tool for the future of first responders in Macon County.Officials have touched on the future possibility of other neighboring counties to join the fold, but Butts said those plans are far into the future.rvoyles@herald-review.com|(217) 421-79852017 the Herald & Review (Decatur, Ill.)Visit the Herald & Review (Decatur, Ill.) at www.herald-review.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS) - For the first time in the last four years of turmoil, the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System's funding picture is brighter than the year before.The improvement is small compared with the system's funding ratio last year. And the outlook is still not pretty. But the future is officially not horrendous anymore.Officials from the pension system and Segal Consulting presented a report Thursday that shows the fund's performance in 2016 and projections going forward. The projections showed the dramatic long-term financial impact of legislation, set to become law Sept. 1, that will save the fund from insolvency."There is a future for this plan," said Jeff Williams of Segal Consulting.But the fund was in such bad shape that the situation remains delicate. Williams warned the board if they "get a couple of bad years, all bets are off."The Dallas Police and Fire Pension System now stands at 49 percent funded, a ratio that is dependent upon the system making an average 7.25 percent annual return on its investments after the fund's investment expenses are paid. Segal Consulting's analysis showed that the fund returned 6.82 percent on the market value of its investments in 2016. A lower actual annual return would mean a much lower funded ratio.Williams told the board that the funded ratio will probably get worse in the short term before it improves. But, he advised the board to not "freak out" about the dips. The changes to the system mean the system could be fully funded by 2061.Like all pension projections, the figures are based on assumptions that may or may not come true. Still, the new numbers represent a remarkable change for the fund, which has $2.15 billion in assets.Late last year, the system was projected to be bust within the decade. The system took in more than $171 million in contributions from taxpayers, police and firefighters and bled out $825 million in benefit payments and refunds in 2016.The bulk of the payments  $606 million  came from the Deferred Retirement Option Plan, known as DROP. The plan was a lucrative perk for veteran workers that functioned similar to a high-interest checking account for retirees. Almost all that money came out in a panic over the future of the system's solvency.New restrictions on DROP will return those annual payments to a lower, more stable and predictable amount.But the system also now has hundreds more retirees to pay. Trustees approved 32 retirements Thursday and are bracing for dozens more retirements in August.Some of the spike can be attributed to older police and firefighters trying to avoid an increase in their contribution rates, which means a cut in take-home pay. Those in DROP pay only 4 percent of their paychecks into the fund. The new rate for all officers and firefighters will be 13.5 percent.But executive director Kelly Gottschalk said some older police and firefighters mistakenly believe their already accrued benefits will take a hit if they don't retire by Sept. 1. For officers and firefighters at or closer to retirement age, their past years worked are unaffected.Gottschalk said the system will likely have another retirement spike in January when officers and firefighters who have been in DROP for 10 years can no longer put any money into their DROP accounts.Those retirements could all have a bigger impact on the city's shorthanded police and fire departments  and the city's public safety, by extension  than on the pension. The legislation requires the city will make a minimum payment into the system for the first seven years, no matter how many police and firefighters are employed. Previously, the city's contribution was based on payroll.A new board, which will begin to take shape in September, will be responsible for stewarding the system going forward. Until then, the current board is working on a transition and trying to get City Hall to pay for $2 million in pension contributions for the time police and firefighters spent on military leave. Gottschalk said they've made progress in talks with the city.The issues pale in comparison to the fight over billions of dollars the pension system had with City Hall over much of the past year. And Thursday's board meeting was noticeably smoother than the tense and well-attended white-knuckle meetings of the past year.Gottschalk said she's "cautiously optimistic" about the system's future."I feel a lot better than I felt a few months ago," Gottschalk said. "We certainly aren't out of the woods, but to actually have a plan that is projected to be solvent, funded in 44 years from running out of money in 10 years  it's monumental to do that in one year."2017 The Dallas Morning NewsVisit The Dallas Morning News at www.dallasnews.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS) -- CONCORD  Autonomous robots bearing groceries, parcels and take-out soon will rove the streets of downtown Concord and, possibly, Walnut Creek.The squat, black-and-white personal delivery devices travel on six wheels and use nine cameras to navigate sidewalks and cross streets on their delivery runs.Founded by the brains behind Skype, Starship Technologies  which has offices in Europe, Washington, D.C. and Redwood City  approached Concord last month seeking permission to conduct a 12-month pilot program.Concord, as a city, is a great candidate for robot deliveries with the layout, pedestrian density and number of potential partners, Starship Technologies spokesman Henry Harris-Burland wrote in an email.Charmed by a robot that rolled into the council chamber with the mayors gavel tucked inside, on Tuesday city leaders embraced the opportunity to be a testing ground for the developing technology and approved the pilot program.When I was back in Washington, D.C. back in June, I literally had one of these run right past me, Councilwoman Carlyn Obringer said. So, I was kind of excited when I came back to Concord to hear that you were planning to test here. I look forward to seeing how all this plays out.In addition to testing its delivery robots in such cosmopolitan European capitals as London and Tallinn, Estonia, Starship Technologies has pilot projects in the heart of Silicon Valley in Redwood City, San Carlos and Sunnyvale.The agreement with Concord marks its first foray into Contra Costa County. Next week, the Walnut Creek council is scheduled to consider striking a similar deal with the company.Up to a dozen robots will operate in a four-mile area in Concord. Starship Technologies currently works with meal-delivery services DoorDash and Postmates. A thermal liner will keep food hot.The robots will benefit local restaurants and burnish the citys image as a hub for autonomous device testing, said Pedro Garcia, economic development specialist. GoMentum Station, an autonomous vehicle-testing facility, has operated on the former Concord Naval Weapons Station since 2014.I think this demonstrates how progressive and innovative Concord is becoming, Garcia added.At this point, the 25-pound robots are not completely autonomous. Initially, handlers will accompany the robots, which can travel at a top speed of 4 mph.As the robots roam the sidewalks, the on-board cameras create a 3-D map of the area. The electric couriers are programmed to stop at driveways and crosswalks  thats when the human operator takes control, company representative David Catania told the council.As we socialize the device into the community, that will allow us into the future to be 100 percent autonomous, he said, adding that people will continue to monitor the robots remotely.Customers place and pay for orders online and may use a mobile app to set up the delivery time and track the robots. When the robot arrives, the company sends a text with a link the recipient clicks to unlock it, Catania said.If someone tries to pry open the robot or pick it up, the devices have several levels of security. If the sensors detect an obstacle, the device will alert the operator. If someone does manage to abduct a Starship robot, they are equipped with GPS that police can use to track them down.The good news is that with 40,000 miles traveled and 7 million human interactions in 73 countries weve not had a single theft and weve not had an issue of foul play, Catania assured the council.
The leadership within Alabamas Office of Information Technology (OIT) has shifted. After more than a year-and-a-half under the leadership of Dr. Joanne Hale, recently sworn-in Gov. Kay Ivey has tapped former agency Chief Operations Officer (COO) Jim Purcell to serve as acting secretary.The switch comes just months after the office was formally granted autonomy through Senate Bill 219 , which split the OIT away from the Department of Finance. In early May, Hale explained tothat the move was just the codification of an interagency agreement that had been in place for several months.Ivey was officially sworn in as the states governor roughly a month before signing the IT agency legislation in April.The appointment of Purcell, who has been with the agency as COO since December of 2016, marks a change in direction for the agency. Though it remains unclear whether Hale left to pursue other opportunities or was asked to step aside by the governor, Purcells appointment signals a safe and familiar change to the agencys executive leadership. Hale began her tenure at the agency in January 2016.I am honored to have been chosen by Gov. Ivey to lead the Office of Information Technology, Purcell said in a press release . As technology continues to change, the technology-related needs of our state government changes; and I am excited to lead the charge in keeping our state on the cutting edge.Prior to accepting the role of the chief operation officer, Purcell served as the manager of solutions architecture for VeriStor Systems, and as a solutions consultant for NWN Corporation. He also served as the chief technology officer for Brasfield and Gorrie between 1999 and 2014.
Last year, the township of East Liverpool, Ohio, shocked the nation when its local officials posted photos on Facebook. They showed a grandmother and her boyfriend, passed out from heroin overdoses, while a 4-year-old looked on from the backseat of their SUV.We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess, the city wrote on Facebook in defense of their decision. This child can't speak for himself, but we are hopeful his story can convince another user to think twice about injecting this poison while having a child in their custody.Police used naloxone , a drug used to reverse the fatal effects of opioid overdoses, to revive the adults and called the local child services agency to take custody of the child. A month later,reported similar incidents in Alabama, Indiana, Massachusetts and Michigan. National data show that the number of children placed in foster care is rising, and in many states, the most common reason for a childs removal is their parents use of drugs or alcohol. Governing* recently explored how the opioid crisis is impacting child welfare agencies across the country. In the process of reporting that story,spoke with East Liverpool Mayor Ryan Stovall  who is also a part-time police officer  about the infamous Facebook post and why they decided to post it.The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.Weve had a health epidemic here  not only in East Liverpool but in Ohio.Yes, theres been plenty. Ive responded myself as an officer to overdoses where children have been present, and we had to call in child services.When these drug addicts need their fix, they need it. They dont care whos around. Its not that they love their kids any less; its just that they have to have their fix.The photos were taken for evidence for a court case. Between myself, my safety service director, the assistant law director and the police chief, we talked. It wasnt an easy decision to make, but we decided to hit things head on.A lot of cities and towns want to keep their heads in the sand. We wanted to show this is happening here. This is whats going on in our community. We took some heat for that, and we knew we would, but the point is we got people talking, we had state officials here that otherwise would not have come here. We got the kid out of the situation that he never should have been put in in the first place.It always gets brought up. With social media nowadays, its obviously a recorded event thats out there. People say, in 20 years, if this kid looks up his name, its going to show this bad stuff that happened and its going to make him depressed. I tend to look at it as the opposite. He may very well look it up in 20 years, but hes going to say, this was when somebody said enough was enough and cared enough to get me out of that situation.GoverningGovernment Technology
The 160,0000-square-foot government center for the Colville Confederated Tribes, completed in 2015, was dedicated last week to Lucy Covington, a revered leader who led the tribal fight against terminating the reservation in the 1970s. - Scott Hunter photo

The Colville Confederated Tribes dedicated their government building to Lucy Friedlander Covington on Thursday, July 6.

Covington, a granddaughter of Chief Moses of the Sinkiuse/Columbia Tribe, and descendent of Chief Kamiakin and Chief Owhi, was instrumental in the fight against the termination of the Colville Confederated Tribes.

"If it was not for Lucy, we would not be here today," said Colville Business Councilmember Mel Tonasket, who had worked with Covington. "Lucy was our leader, there is no question about it. We were all soldiers for her. She said everything that needed to be said. She was the brain and the heart of the organization."

From the 1950s into the 70s, Covington fought bills for termination of the Colville Confederated Tribes, which would have terminated their sovereignty and led to the loss of their land.

Covington was also the first woman council chair for the Colville Business Council, as well as the first woman president of the National Congress of American Indians.

The $45.8 million dollar project to construct the 160,000-square-foot building, planned for years, became all the more necessary when the old "A-frame," the former headquarters, burned down in 2013, effectively ending an era of the Colville Tribal Agency. The new building was completed in the fall of 2015.

During the dedication ceremony, Covington's niece, Barbara Aripa, opened with a blessing by singing softly while burning sage throughout the room.

Present at the ceremony was architect Kevin Jester of Architects West, as well as others involved in the planning and development of the project. Sixty-five percent of workers on the construction of the building were of Native American descent, according to Colville Tribal Executive Director Francis Somday.

A bronze plaque now stands in front of the tribal government building dedicated to Lucy Covington last week, explaining her place in tribal history.

"Kevin Jester and his team designed the project with our history and culture at the center of its theme," Somday said.

The Colville Tribes plan to purchase museum-quality display cases to house artifacts in the building.

The CBC was presented with a giant novelty check of $50,000 from Lydig Construction, the general contractor for the project, as a donation towards the heritage sculpture and water feature outside of the building.

Aripa spoke more about her aunt, describing her life with such details as riding a horse to Nespelem School as a child. "It was an honor for this dedication today and she lives on with the name of this building," Aripa said.

A lunch of salmon, chicken, salads, mashed potatoes, chocolate covered strawberries, and more was served to all in attendance.

A plaque located outside the building commemorates Covington.
Felipe Massa says he is happy to stay at Williams in 2018.

This year, the British team pulled the Brazilian out of his brief retirement to replace Mercedes-bound Valtteri Bottas.

Team boss Claire Williams said recently she can imagine Massa, 36, staying next year.

"At the moment, I see no reason why I should not be in formula one next year," Massa said at Silverstone.

"I like the new cars and I'm doing a good job. If Williams wants me, I'll be here. But of course you can never be sure before the contract is signed," he added.

However, Massa said that if he has to accept a move into a less competitive team, he will return once again to retirement.

"If I do not get the right car, I'll stop," he confirmed.

(GMM)
Nico Rosberg has ruled out returning to F1 next year with Ferrari.

With the Maranello team openly considering replacing Kimi Raikkonen for 2018, reigning world champion Rosberg's name has been mentioned as a candidate.

But the retired former Mercedes driver said: "No, it will not happen.

"It's an honour that so much is speculated about me, but I am fully satisfied with my career," German Rosberg told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. "I have no regrets."

(GMM)
Bernie Ecclestone has admitted next year's Singapore grand prix might not go ahead.

The night race on the streets of the city-state is one of the most popular events on the calendar, but a provisional 'asterisk' has been put alongside its date for 2018.

Ousted former F1 supremo Ecclestone told Brazil's Globo: "Malaysia decided that F1 was not a good investment anymore.

"They are happy with MotoGP because they say there are many fans, they sell thousands of tickets and they make money. But in F1 the opposite was happening and they lose money. So they're leaving F1.

"Singapore is more or less the same case," Ecclestone explained.

"It cost them a fortune to do everything we asked, to look after the track, the lights for a night race, and they took everything very seriously for ten years.

"But now it's time to make some money, but it will not be with F1," he added.

(GMM)
Sergio Perez is not ready to commit to Force India for 2018.

Last year, the Mexican turned down an offer from Renault but now he admits the driver market looks more interesting ahead of next season.

"It's too early to talk about it," he told the Spanish daily Marca at Silverstone.

"But for now I have no contract with anyone next year."

When asked about the Renault offer, Perez answered: "Today we know that in formula one you can only win with Mercedes or Ferrari.

"Ferrari is perhaps the best team, but obviously we have to see what the possibilities are. Probably in August or September I will have a clearer picture."

Recently, Alonso said the 2018 market is actually more wide open than it appears on paper, and Perez does not disagree.

"There are many options this year," he admitted. "Probably more than in previous years.

"It will be an interesting market because there are many possibilities."

(GMM)
Marcus Ericsson has admitted the identity of Sauber's engine supplier for 2018 is in doubt.

Earlier, the Swiss team inked a contract to become Honda's first F1 customer, but rumours suggest the deal could now be scrapped.

"To be honest, a lot has happened over the past few days," Swedish driver Ericsson said.

"Frederic (Vasseur)'s first priority is to look into the matter."

Asked if he would be happy with a Honda engine next year, Ericsson answered: "If Honda is 100 per cent focused on success, then it's good for Sauber. Otherwise not.

"I understand the question, but I don't really know what to think of it," he added.

Meanwhile, amid speculation Ericsson is too closely linked to Sauber's new owners, incoming boss Vasseur told L'Equipe: "The future of a team should not depend on a single driver.

"I will have the last word on the driver question in the future," he said.

(GMM)
Telugu techie dies while working out in gym

A 22- year-old techie, employed with Dell, collapsed while doing a work out in the gym at his workplace in Madhapur. Varun Kumar was declared brought dead at a hospital.

According to police, Varun Kumar, a native of Vizag and residing in Matrusrinagar in Miyapur and was as a software professional in Dell for the past one year.

"The gym instructors asked him to sit for a while, but he suddenly collapsed in a heap and became unconscious. Varun was rushed to the company clinic on the campus. The doctor checked Varun's blood pressure, and found that his pulse was hovering at 40," Madhapur sub-inspector P Vijay Kumar said.

Later, Varun was rushed to Max care hospital, where he was declared brought dead. It was suspected that Varun died due to exhaustion caused by excessive workout in the gym.

Varun, a native of Visakhapatnam, joined Dell a year ago and had been going to the gym regularly.

"When we spoke to Varun's father, who rushed to the city after being informed about his son's death told us that Varun had some heart problem in the past," Madhapur police inspector Kalinga Rao told media.

Police found out that Varun did not eat properly on Tuesday night and despite this he worked hard at the gym on Wednesday.
2 vote against budget

A $185 million budget was passed by the Sweetwater County Commissioners last week, but disagreements regarding how the budget was formulated resulted in two commissioners voting against it.

The commissioners hosted a budget meeting July 5 to discuss and approve its 2017-2018 budget. The commissioners received criticism from Sweetwater County Treasurer Robb Slaughter and Chief County Assessor David Divis regarding aspects of the budget and the process the commissioners followed.

Slaughter criticized the commissioners for not allowing elected officials the chance to comment during a June 20 b...
A fire set off by a lightning strike caused a power outage in the Purple Sage area west of Rock Springs Monday morning.

Sweetwater County deputy sheriffs and firefighters were advised of a power pole on fire early Monday morning, resulting in a power outage at residences and businesses in the area between Highway 191 South and Kanda.

The burning pole was located north of Interstate 80 near the intersection of Purple Sage Road and old Highway 30.

Sheriff Mike Lowell said the fire, which destroyed not only the power pole, but burned through a significant area of surrounding brush, was extingu...
Dear Editor,

Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and 52 Republican senators are about to kill the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) and strip 10 million people of their health insurance. Fifty two Republican senators screwing 10 million Americans out of their health care coverage. Thats either insanity or despotism as GOP politicians play to the Obamahaters in the Republican Party base.

This petty move should correlate into 10 million votes against Republican politicians in the 2018 midterm elections.

Ron Lowe

Nevada City, Calif.

...
Kyle Taylor drills holes through the wood in what will eventually become a new bathroom.

Many passersby may have noticed the old Monroe Baptist Church is receiving a facelift, but that's not all that's happening.

Inside, many renovations are also taking place. All of this is occurring to prepare the church for a reopening. With a new name already picked out, the Living Hope Church is being renovated from the outside in.

Pastor Rondie Taylor said the over the next few months the church will have been visited by six groups of volunteer groups. The volunteer group's purpose is to get the Southern Baptist church ready to reopen.

The first volunteer chew to arrive in Green River wer...
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The past couple of years havent been all that great for the UNC School of Law, at least with regards to its relationship with the legislature and the UNC Board of Governors.

A couple of years ago, the BOG nuked the law schools poverty center. (The Center on Work, Poverty and Opportunity was run by law professor and GOP thorn-in-the-side Gene Nichol. Its now the N.C. Poverty Research Fund, and Nichol runs that, too.)

Last month, the legislature cut the law schools allowance by $500,000, or about 4 percent of the schools total state appropriation. It could have been worse: The Senate threatened to cut $4 million, or about 30 percent, but the House talked the Senate down off that fiscal ledge.

Now, the UNC law school is battling again with the BOG over the role of its Center for Civil Rights, founded by civil rights attorney Julius Chambers in 2001. The law school and its supporters say the center both serves the public and provides valuable legal experience for lawyers-in-training. The BOG, meanwhile, says its wrong for one part of state government (UNC) to sue another.

The N&O has been all over the story (here, here and here, for instance).

The AP reported this week that the BOG is floating a revision of its proposal to rein in the Civil Rights Center. This revision would ban UNC systems centers and institutes  not legal clinics  from filing lawsuits. The centers current director told the AP that the revision made his blood boil.

The N&O reported this week that a letter about the center from the N.C. Pork Council, of all places, was written at the behest of one of the key BOG members behind the proposed litigation ban. Click here for more correspondence and official reports on the topic.

The BOG is scheduled to take up the proposed litigation ban Aug. 1 in Chapel Hill. That should definitely be an interesting meeting.

Want to make sure you see these blog posts? Like me on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter.

Have something to say? Email me at john.newsom@greensboro.com.
The High Point Museum is celebrating High Points racing history with an exhibit, community activities and historical markers.

When Racing Was Racing focuses on the early days of stock car racing. It highlights the careers of High Point drivers Fred Harb, Bill Blair Sr., Bob Welborn, Jimmie Lewallen, Ken Rush and Jim Paschal. It features photographs and memorabilia on loan from Bill Blair Jr.

The museum will have a NASCAR simulator race car based on Dale Earnhardt Jr.s Xfinity Series Goodys Chevy Camaro from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 29. This is the car that he will be racing during the Xfinity race at the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Aug. 18.

Kona Ice of Greensboro will be at the museum from 1 to 4 p.m. July 29. Also that day, the museums Historical Park costumed interpreters will conduct a water bucket relay as well as show visitors how to use a water thumber to water plants.

The museum has planned more special events for Aug. 26. The day will begin at 10 a.m. with a cruise-in by Johnny Handy, who drove at Tri City Speedway, in a 1939 Ford Coupe No. 0, Bill Blair Jr. driving a 1953 Oldsmobile tribute car that won the 1953 Daytona race for Bill Blair Sr., and Jimmy Hailey driving a replica of Bobby Allisons AMC Matador.

Scheduled for noon is the unveiling of historical markers for the citys two tracks  High Point Speedway, a 1-mile dirt track that featured a tunnel entrance, was built by the Baity Brothers, and Tri City Speedway, a half-mile red dirt track built by Bill and Bob Blair. Drivers and local dignitaries will be on hand.

Buz McKim, the NASCAR Hall of Fames historian, will be the moderator for a panel discussion from 1 to 2:30 p.m. that will include drivers and family members involved with the old speedways.

Author Rick Houston will be on-site from 3 to 4 p.m. to discuss his new book, Dale Versus Daytona: The Intimidators Quest to Win the Great American Race. The book features research and a year-by-year look at each of Dale Earnhardts Daytona 500s from 1979 through 2001.

For information, call 336-885-1859.
July 14, 1881

Outlaw William H. Bonney Jr., alias Billy the Kid, was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner in present-day New Mexico. Garrett had been tracking Billy for three months, following his escape while he awaited the hangmans noose. According to History.com, Billy, born Henry McCarty in New York City in 1859, a few years earlier had vowed revenge after rancher John Tunstall, his employer, was murdered. He went on a spree that saw him commit some 17 murders by the time he was 18, including several lawmen. He became the most wanted man in the West. Garrett brought Billy to trial, where he was sentenced to hang, but he killed two guards and escaped.
CHARLOTTE  A $10 million gift aims to improve college advising at North Carolina high schools, where recent college graduates help low-income students find their way to higher education.

The gift, announced Thursday by the Charlotte-based John M. Belk Endowment, will go to the College Advising Corps, a Chapel Hill nonprofit that hires recent college graduates to work in high schools in North Carolina and 14 other states.

The advisers focus exclusively on helping high school seniors navigate the confusing process of applying for college and financial aid. They work to supplement the work of high school guidance counselors who are often overburdened.

This past school year, 106 advisers worked in 127 schools in North Carolina.

College Advising Corps counselors are assigned to several area high schools in and around Greensboro. These schools include Dudley and Smith in Greensboro, Andrews and Central in High Point and five campuses in Rockingham County: Morehead, Reidsville, Rockingham County, McMichael and the Rockingham County Early College.

Other area high schools served by College Advising Corps counselors are Thomasville and Lexington in Davidson County, West and South Stokes in Stokes County, and North Surry, East Surry, Surry Central, Surry Early College, Elkin and Mount Airy in Surry County.

The advisers are graduates of four colleges that have joined forces with the corps  Davidson College, Duke University, N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill.

Nicole Hurd, founder and CEO of the Chapel Hill-based College Advising Corps, said the gift will help establish a prosperity zone in North Carolina, where the organization will focus to increase college attainment in that area. The idea is to reach every student there through advising and create partnerships with business and higher education.

We believe every student in North Carolina deserves a post-secondary opportunity, Hurd said Thursday, adding, We have so many students who are ready for a four-year school who dont think they can do it.

Another push for the program will be launching a Parent Academy, a text messaging initiative, in partner high schools for better communication with parents about the college admissions process.

The Number One thing we can do to move the needle is to engage parents, Hurd said.
If a hospital falls in Phil Bergers hometown, will anyone hear it in Raleigh?

Edens 108-bed Morehead Memorial Hospital filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code Monday.

In a news release, a member of the nonprofit hospitals board of trustees cited ongoing financial pressures.

Morehead will stay open and no layoffs are forthcoming, but its future is uncertain as it looks for a strategic partner.

This is troubling news for the community, both from a health care standpoint and an economic one. Morehead employs 737, including 80 contract workers.

Its fair to wonder how much Medicaid expansion, which would have allowed more financially strapped North Carolinians to afford health insurance, could have helped Moreheads fortunes.

Rockingham County is struggling economically. Though the unemployment rate there has been ticking down in recent months, it was 4.9 percent in May, still second-highest among 14 counties in the Triad and northwest North Carolina. Meanwhile, the lack of Medicaid expansion in the state under the Affordable Care Act has imposed a strain on hospitals, most of which must treat emergency patients regardless of their ability to pay.

But Berger, a Republican who leads the state Senate with an iron hand and whose party controls both chambers of the legislature, was unmoved. There is in my view no good case that can be made that Medicaid expansion is the right thing for us to do in North Carolina, Berger, the most powerful politician in the state, blithely said in 2015.

Since 2010, 80 rural hospitals have closed in the United States, three in North Carolina. An April brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation noted that rural residents are more likely to be disabled and uninsured than their urban counterparts and face significant barriers to accessing care, including provider shortages, recent closures of rural hospitals, and long travel distances to providers.

Among the causes for the closings, reported a Kaiser Family Foundation study in 2016, was a lack of Medicaid expansion.

One of the saddest and most notable closings involved the Pungo Hospital in Belhaven, N.C., which was demolished in 2016 in spite of desperate attempts by the towns mayor and community members to save it.

Mayor Adam ONeal, a self-described conservative Republican, twice walked to Washington, D.C., and once to Raleigh to bring attention to the hospitals problems, but to little effect.

They have ripped our economic heart out of our community, ONeal said.

In 2015, Yadkin Valley Community Hospital closed, costing 150 their jobs and leaving that community with no local hospital.

As for Rockingham County, in October, HBOs Vice News reported on the impact of a lack of Medicaid expansion in Rockingham County.

The story centered on a man who works as a farm laborer and whose wife cares around the clock at home for their severely disabled son because they cant afford the expense of a nursing facility.

This, ironically, as Republican legislators have made a valid case that economic prosperity in North Carolina has largely bypassed mostly rural communities like Rockingham County.

Heres hoping that Morehead can find its way back to good health.

The hospitals leadership appears sound and it plays an indispensable role in its community.

But the bedside manner of Berger and other Raleigh politicians  who talk a good game about the urban-rural economic divide  is quite another matter.
RALEIGH  The nations largest electric company wants regulators in North Carolina to force consumers to pay nearly $200 million a year to clean up the toxic byproducts of burning coal to generate power. That doesnt sit well with neighbors of the power plants who have been living on bottled water since toxic chemicals appeared in some of their wells.

They want to pass their mistakes on to the land owner. This is not fair, wrote Nancy Gurley, who lives near the utilitys plant in Goldsboro.

She was responding to a request filed with state utility regulators last month that marks the first time Duke Energy Corp. has sought permission to have North Carolina consumers pay part of its costs of cleaning up the waste, which are estimated to total $5.1 billion in North and South Carolina alone.

Duke Energy Progress would raise electricity bills of 1.3 million North Carolina customers by an average 15 percent, generating an extra $477 million a year, with an 11 percent return on a measure commonly described as potential profit margin. The bulk of that would cover costs of replacing coal-burning plants with natural gas and storm repairs. But it also includes $66 million spent to deal with coal ash, and $129 million more in future clean-up costs.

Duke Energy Carolinas  the holding companys other North Carolina subsidiary  is expected to request a rate hike for its 2.5 million customers for similar reasons in the coming months.

Duke Energy denies that its basins contaminate the surrounding groundwater. But environmentalists and state regulators say those heavy metals could be seeping through the unlined bottoms of pits where liquefied coal ash has been stored for decades into natural sources for wells, where concentrations have been documented.

Charles Walker Jr. has been forced to use bottled water, mostly provided by Duke Energy, since the chemicals showed up in his Belmont neighborhood, near the companys Allen power plant in western North Carolina.

He says shareholders and high-paid executives of the $59 billion company should be paying for all this, not the customers.

In my opinion, if youre going to be negligent, if you made a mistake, you need to feel the sting. Dont just pass it on, Walker said. If a septic company comes to my house and accidently spills sewage all over my property, are they going to send me the bill for that?

Duke Energy said it stored coal ash in line with industry practices and regulations. Just as buying and burning coal were part of the cost of generating electricity over the decades, so is the expense of cleaning up the ash, it said.

The company is generating an average of about 150 pounds of coal ash a year for each household, Duke Energy spokeswoman Paige Sheehan said.

It is our job to manage that appropriately, which we are doing, she said.

Duke Energys clean-up plan includes excavating coal ash and moving it away from waterways at eight of the 14 North Carolina sites and two others in South Carolina. The company plans to dry out, cover and leave in place the ash in other North Carolina pits. A North Carolina law passed last year also requires the company to pay for well-water replacements for about 1,000 other households, either by extending municipal water lines or providing filtering systems.

The company already persuaded South Carolinas utilities commission in December to allow it to start recouping coal ash cleanup costs as part of a $56 million rate increase that includes a 10 percent potential profit margin.

Gurley is one of about three dozen people living near coal-burning plants who filed comments with the state at the urging of their lawyers.

We think this is not a proper cost to pass along to the general public, said their attorney, John Hughes.

Duke Energy had to address its coal-ash storage in response to federal regulations and the 2014 accident that sent sludge into the Dan River.
Southern Connecticut Gas filed to increase its residential rates next year by 1.9 percent monthly on average, escalating further the two following years.

SCG wants to increase rates $3.44 a month on average in 2018, along with an incremental $4.49 a month the following year, or 2.6 percent; and $2.94 monthly on average in 2020, or 1.6 percent. If approved by the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, it would represent the first rate increase by Southern Connecticut Gas since 2005.

In 2015, the utility agreed to a freeze of its distribution rates through this year as a condition for PURA approval of a merger agreement between parent company UIL and Iberdrola to form Avangrid. As part of that approval process, SCG also agreed to distribute $12.5 million to customers in the form of rate credits and to accelerate its inspections and replacement of main gas lines that might have leaks.

The companies are based today in Orange, with SCGs service territory extending east from Westport and Weston to Old Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut River.

The company has provided customers with a very long period of rate stability, stated CEO Anthony Marrone III in testimony to PURA. SCG has made substantial capital investments in the gas distribution system not covered in current rates, and continues to do so, and its operating costs in certain areas have increased, as well. ... At this time, the company is facing an operating revenue deficiency that must be addressed.

Combined, SCG would generate an additional $19.2 million in revenue over three years, stating its current rates are insufficient to generate a fair return in its words on what it spends to run its operations. The company has not received a rate increase since 2005, with its last rate case in 2009 resulting in a decrease totaling $12.5 million.

In its annual report to PURA covering 2016, SCG reported a $12.1 million increase in profits from its normal gas delivery operations  termed net utility operating income  to $39.2 million, up 45 percent from 2015. Revenues from gas operations were up 7 percent to $336 million.

In 2016, SCG spent $45.6 million adding to its gas distribution plant to include everything from gas mains to meters and regulators in homes.

As background preparation for the rate case, PURA plans to audit SCGs books anew in the coming few weeks, and scheduled hearings for Sept. 7 in Bridgeport and Sept. 12 in New Haven to collect public comment on the proposal.

The offices of Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen and Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz have petitioned to participate in the hearing process representing the public interest.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; www.twitter.com/casoulman
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GREENWICH  Heavy rains on Friday morning put a damper on a planned Bastille Day flag raising outside Town Hall, but Franco-American spirits were still high as the annual celebration moved indoors.

Over breakfast and coffee the strong bond between the United States and France was celebrated with the singing of The Star Spangled Banner and La Marseillaise.

The French community of Greenwich and their friends have assembled at Town Hall to mark their commitment in enhancing the business, cultural and social life of this town, First Selectman Peter Tesei said, reading a proclamation commemorating the day. We honor the shared values that are the unshakable foundation of friendship between France and the United States.

Anita Diallo, the new digital and economic adviser and deputy press attache for the French Consulate in New York, said the Greenwich ceremony has become a very dear tradition.

Bastille Day is traditionally the occasion for us to pay tribute to the French community here in the United States, Diallo said. Counting Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Bermuda, there are more than 80,000 French people in this district and as such you represent one of the most important communities of French ex-pats in the world, and without a doubt the most enterprising.

The occasion, which goes back in Greenwich more than three decades, was sponsored as always by the Alliance Francaise of Greenwich.

Bastille Day marks the storming of the Bastille fortress/prison during the French Revolution in 1789. The event is considered the turning point of the revolution,

Its important because we have a big French community here in Greenwich and a big Francophile community, Renee Ketcham, co-president of the Alliance Francaise of Greenwich, said after the ceremony. There is a tremendous interest and love of everything French. Its our way also to keep the community alive in terms of remembering the very important history of our friendship between France and the United States. It keeps everyone focused on this lasting relationship.

Ketcham, who is co-president with Gail Covney, provided some education during her remarks, noting that Bastille Day is a name that originated in America as opposed to the formal French marking of la Fete Nationale Francaise. She speculated Americans arrived at the name because there is no easy translation of the French term into English and Anglophiles wanted a name that sounded French.

She cited an article in French Morning that noted the first use of the name Bastille Day was in Louisiana in 1906.

History lessons were also provided by Col. Serge Gabriel, a life member of The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association, who discussed the vital aid French soldiers provided during the Revolutionary War in America. The assistance of American troops to France in both World Wars was also marked during the bilingual ceremony. Daniel Vock, a former president of the Alliance Francaise, said the relationship was especially notable given the 100th anniversary of World War I

Its really important to remember the long-standing, historic relationship between our two countries and honor those who fought for freedom and democracy, Ketcham said.

April Martin brought her two children, 6-year-old Noah and 4-year-old Rebecca Fabis. She recalled flying to New York from West Africa after serving in the Mercy Ships program, and during a layover in Paris meeting their father. Since her children are half-French, Martin said she wanted them to understand their heritage and she brought them from Stamford for the ceremony for the first time.

We want to celebrate who they are and learn more about French culture, Martin said. I think all of this is really neat. Im learning things I didnt even know about the French contribution to the battle of Yorktown, and I grew up in Yorktown. I think its all wonderful and I loved that the kids could hear the Star Spangled Banner and the French anthem together.

Greenwich native Linda Putman has been to many of the past celebrations, but she, too, learned from Fridays event, noting she hadnt known the origins of the name Bastille Day until she heard it from Ketcham on Friday.

Its a nice commemoration and the history is so important, Putman said.

Food was donated for Fridays event by Bistro V, Meli-Melo and Aux Delices.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
Samsung has released its range of Galaxy J Pro smartphones for the Malaysian market starting today.

The trio consists of the Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro, Galaxy J5 Pro and Galaxy J3 Pro and Samsung is including a year of extended warranty and 1 year of screen crack protection for units bought between today and September 30.

You'll pay the most for the Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro - 1,299 MYR (~265), the Galaxy J5 Pro costs slightly less at 1,149 MYR (~234) while the Galaxy J3 Pro is the cheapest at 699 MYR (~142).

If you're wondering what differentiates the Pro from the regular Galaxy J7, J3 and J5 (2017) - the J5 Pro has 3GB of RAM vs the regular's 2GB, the Galaxy J7 Pro has 64GB of built in storage (compared to 32GB on the regular version) and the Galaxy J3 Pro has a slightly bigger battery.

Thanks for the tip!

Source




Haiti - FLASH : Change at Haitian VISA for Taiwan





The Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan), in order to strengthen its friendly relations with the Government of the Republic of Haiti and promote cultural and commercial exchanges between the two countries, announces that the holders of ordinary passports Haitian, from 12 July 2017, are exempted from the requirement of a visa for entry to Taiwan for a stay of less than ninety (90) days if they meet the following requirements :



Holder of an ordinary passport of the Republic of Haiti, whose validity is greater than 6 months at the time of passage to the control of immigration Taiwanese;



A traveler with an air or sea ticket, for return or for another destination if the traveler holds a valid visa for that purpose;



A traveler who is not on the list of persons in violation of the Taiwanese immigration authorities.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Petion-ville : A merchant eviction operation goes wrong, 1 dead





Thursday afternoon, during a raid carried out by police officers from the Town Hall of Petion-ville against merchants who illegally occupied the sidewalks of the town, a young bookseller of about twenty years was fatally hit by two bullets at the head during a clash with municipal police officers.



According to the witnesses, this major incident occurred when several merchants refused to leave the site and faced a police committed to enforcing the law. This death caused a strong tension, a certain panic and a spontaneous manifestation of the merchants who erected a barricade of inflamed tires on one of the main axes of Petion-ville.



The Haitian National Police (PNH) intervened to keep distant the angry merchants who refused that the body of the victim was removed from the place, for fear that no investigation is opened. The departure of the ambulance with the body of the victim has fanned the anger of the crowd, and the PNH had to shoot in the air and make use of tear gas to disperse the protesters and restore order public.



Neither the mayor Dominique Saint-Roc present on the scene nor the PNH wished to respond to the press.



It should be recalled that these eviction operations, which have been going on for several months at the initiative of several town halls in the metropolitan area to free the sidewalks and streets, had so far never before caused the death of a merchant.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politics : 3 draft decrees and a draft bill, adopted





Wednesday, at the Council of Ministers, after discussion and analysis 1 preliminary draft law and 3 draft decrees were adopted :



1.- Preliminary draft law on the reorganization and functioning of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security;



2.- Draft Order creating the Intervention Brigade Against Land Insecurity (BRICIF) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21445-haiti-flash-creation-of-a-task-force-to-combat-spoilers.html



3. Draft Decree granting exclusively to the Heads of State elected by universal suffrage, privileges and benefits provided for in Articles 2 and 3 of the Decree of October 2015 on the privileges granted to former heads of state and government https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-15618-haiti-politic-generous-severance-pay-for-the-government.html



4.- Draft Order creating a Presidential Commission named: National Commission for the Innovation and Socioprofessional Insertion of Youth.



The draft law will soon be forwarded to Parliament for ratification and the decrees in the Official Journal "Le Moniteur" for publication.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21445-haiti-flash-creation-of-a-task-force-to-combat-spoilers.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-15618-haiti-politic-generous-severance-pay-for-the-government.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Justice : The Anti-Spoliation Brigade soon into operation





Following the announcement on July 6 of the creation of a "Task Force", the "Intervention Brigade Against Land Insecurity" (BRICIF) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21445-haiti-flash-creation-of-a-task-force-to-combat-spoilers.html , composed of the MJSP, the Office of the Secretary of State for Public Security, the Port-au-Prince Public Prosecutor's Office and the National Police of Haiti (PNH), the Minister of Justice Heidi Fortune, confirms that this new Brigade is already constituted and is waiting for the publication of the presidential decree to mobilize.



If for now this new structure targets firstly the Courts of First Instance (TPI) of Port au Prince andof the roix des Bouquets, BRICIF will eventually extend its actions throughout the national territory.



Minister Fortune welcomes the establishment of BRICIF and reiterates its will to repress with rigor the acts of spoliation and the various attacks on private property throughout the national territory recalling that "Private property being a sacred right recognized by the Constitution, the laws of the Republic and international conventions of which Haiti is a signatory."



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21445-haiti-flash-creation-of-a-task-force-to-combat-spoilers.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21515-haiti-politics-3-draft-decrees-and-a-draft-bill-adopted.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Agriculture : Donation of seeds by France





Thursday, 13 July, the French Ambassador accredited to Haiti, Elisabeth Beton Delegue, handed over 591 kg of vegetable seeds offered by France to Haitian producers during a ceremony held at the Ministry of Agriculture , Natural Resources and Rural Development (MARNDR) in the presence of Minister Carmel Andre Beliard.



This new contribution from France to the rehabilitation of agricultural activities following Hurricane Matthew is the result of a strong joint mobilization of the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the National Interprofessional Group for seeds and plants (GNIS) and three of its members, French companies specialized in the marketing of seeds : Technisem, Caraibes Semence and HM Clause.



Tomato, peas, watermelon, sweet pepper, okra, cabbage, carrot and amaranth: all the seedlings provided are known to Haitian farmers and have been collected following an analysis of the needs previously carried out by the Cooperation Department of the French Embassy in Haiti, they have been checked and validated by French research centers specialized in tropical agriculture. Their distribution on the Haitian territory will be ensured by the Seed National Service (SNS) of MARNDR to prepare the next winter crop production campaign.



According to Minister Beliard "In all agricultural systems, seeds are essential. They are the first step towards the increased production of food, thus fundamental to ensuring the Food Security of the populations by their quality, their accessibility, their diversity and their availability."



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH : DR multiplies controls, nearly 4,000 Haitians repatriated in recent days





Following complaints from various sectors of Dominican society, on the presence of a large number of Haitians in the streets of major cities and in many areas and localities of the country, the soldiers of the Border Security Specialist Corps (CESFRONT) on Monday greatly improved security both at border crossings and in areas under military control, particularly in the area of the international road, said Sugar Frugis, Director of CESFRONT, adding that "New operations are underway in other parts of the country to detect illegal". https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21499-haiti-flash-more-than-140-000-haitians-turned-back-at-the-dominican-border.html



Nearly 4,000 Haitians in irregular migratory situations were arrested and repatriated to Haiti. Thursday hundreds of Haitians crossed the border in Jimani. Nearly 7 buses filled with Haitians from different regions of the Dominican Republic waiting in line. Most of our compatriots had been arrested without document to stay, wile others had decided to voluntarily return to Haiti with their personal belongings to avoid deportation. "I prefer to go to my country and start a small business, things will become difficult here against us," said a Haitian at the window of one of the buses.



Haiti's Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Idalbert Pierre-Jean, declared at a meeting with members of the Border Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies "It is obvious that a country's immigration laws have full sovereignty. Normally, you must respect what the authorities order, the Dominican authorities have the right to deport all illegal immigrants found on their territory without papers" adding "All we can do is demand that the civil rights of our compatriots be respected" and as such, he assures "the Embassy of Haiti will remain vigilant to enforce these rights."



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-21514-icihaiti-flash-arrests-and-deportations-of-more-than-400-haitians-in-pedernales.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21503-haiti-flash-deportations-recommendations-of-the-consulate-of-haiti-to-the-haitians-in-dr.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21499-haiti-flash-more-than-140-000-haitians-turned-back-at-the-dominican-border.html



SL/ S/ HaitiLibre


















Don Moen, global praise and worship icon, was hit by "fake news" this week as reports of his death went viral via the internet. A website, disguised to appear as a legitimate news source from Houston, TX, reported the death of the internationally beloved Moen and caused his fans to launch an avalanche of mourning via social, trending on Twitter, Google and more. The news spread so rapidly that Snopes.com (a website that 'fact-checks' online stories) felt it necessary to debunk the report. Click here to read that story.

Don Moen states: "Friends from all over the world began contacting me this week to make sure I was alright. It has been humbling to receive such an outpouring of concern and prayers for me and my family. However, I want everyone to know that I am ALIVE AND WELL! God still has a plan for me, and for each of us; and He is still making a way where there seems to be no way. I love you. God bless you!"

Currently enjoying some time with family and friends in Michigan, Moen will resume touring in August with a visit to South Africa with additional dates in Asia, North America and Africa this fall.

ABOUT DON MOEN:

The music and ministry of Don Moen reaches a global audience, impacting millions of people. In addition to the United States, his travels for concerts and seminars have taken him to Ghana, South Africa, Singapore, the Philippines, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and many more. Moen has peneed some of the most iconic and classic praise and worship anthems including, "God Will Make A Way," and "God Is Good All The Time," among countless others.

Tags : Don Moen don moen death don moen news
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Published on 2017/07/14 | Source

Added episodes 37 and 38 captures for the Korean drama "Suspicious Partner" (2017)

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Directed by Park Seon-ho-I

Written by Kwon Ki-yeong

Network : SBS

With Ji Chang-wook, Nam Ji-hyun, Choi Tae-joon, Kwon Nara, Lee Deok-hwa, Nam Gi-ae,...

Formerly known as "Watch out for this Woman" (  , i yeo-ja-leul jo-sim-ha-se-yo)

40 episodes - Wed, Thu 22:00

Synopsis

"Suspicious Partner" will be a romantic comedy in a judicial setting with a killer thrown into the mix. A Taekwondo practitioner turned judicial trainee turned murder suspect.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/05/10

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Published on 2017/07/13 | Source

Jeon No-min and Yoon So-hee who were thought to be dead, reappeared.

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On the final episode of the MBC drama "Ruler: Master of the Mask", Yi Seon (Yoo Seung-ho) and Han Ga-eun (Kim So-hyun) got married.

When Yi Seon got back his throne, he rounded up the Pyeonsu and demolished them. The leader Dae Mok (Heo Joon-ho) chose to kill himself. Peasant Yi Seon (Kim Myung-soo) who acted as Dae Mok's puppet, found out that his warrior Hyeon-seok (Song In-kuk) was Dae Mok's spy and died trying to kill Han Ga-eun.

A year later, Yi Seon and Han Ga-eun got married and became king and queen. Yi Seon remembered those who died because of him in the middle of the wedding. Han Gyu-ho (Jeon No-min), Han Ga-eun's father, appeared and told him to be a king the country loves.

Kim Hwa-gun (Yoon So-hee), Dae Mok's granddaughter who died while giving endless help to Yi Seon because of her love for him appeared and Yi Seon thanked her. She told him, "Be happy. Your happiness is enough for me".

Peasant Yi Seon appeared again. Yi Seon told him, "Yi Seon, you are my friend forever" and Yi Seon said, "My lord, please be a true king to this country".

Yi Seon swore to be a king for his country and didn't forget those who died helping him.
Published on 2017/07/13 | Source

The movie-mentary for "The Battleship Island", directed by Ryoo Seung-wan, will be aired through CGV on the 14th.

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"The Battleship Island" is the story of Joseon people who risked their lives to escape Battleship Island where they were held captive by the Japanese during the Japanese Invasion. With the lead of director Ryoo Seung-wan, the casts are Hwang Jung-min, So Ji-sub, Song Joong-ki and Lee Jung-hyun. The "The Battleship Island" movie-mentary tells the story of how the movie was made over the period of 1,419 days.

Behind-the-scenes as well as the conditions of the actors during the making will satisfy fans who are excitedly waiting for the movie to ocme out.

Stars will tell their stories of things that went on in the set and there will be a sneak peak of the set that was made to look like Battleship Island in the year 1945.

Ryoo Seung-wan said, ""The Battleship Island" is a historical significant happening so I didn't want my actors to work on blue screen. So I recreated the set as closely as I could to the real thing".

"The Battleship Island" is not only based on history but the will power of the entire team was outstanding. Everyone shaved their heads as they were supposed to be impressed by the Japanese.

Ryoo Seung-wan shaved his head as well, to share his heart with the actors.

He expressed his fondness for his cast. He talked about Song Joong-ki, who would work with the staff behind-the-scenes when his part of the filming was over, and said, "He is a human being with real character".

Martial arts character Jung Doo-hong complimented So Ji-sub's action. He said, "There was a fight scene in a bathhouse. So Ji-sub in the role of Chil-seong, memorized action moves in just two observations and it was surprising as it's really hard to do".

The cast of "The Battleship Island" make short speeches in the movie-mentary and they all say Battleship Island is their history and they hope the movie lets everyone recollect the difficult times.

Hwang Jung-min who plays the past of Lee Gang-ok, a father who goes to Battleship Island with his daughter, says, "Ryoo Seung-wan is a respectable man as he fills in what needs to be filled in life".

"The Battleship Island  Movie-mentary" can be seen on CGV on the 14th at 9PM.
Burgundy report: Good weather bodes well for 2017 following 2016 shortages

By Jason Haynes

By Jason Haynes, Burgundy Specialist at Flint Wines

Flint Winess Burgundy specialist Jason Haynes has just returned from Burgundys vineyards following a recent 10-day stint in the region.

Here, he has the latest updates on how the growers and the vineyards are faring in 2017 while looking back the challenging shortages of the 2016 vintage.

As the 2017 Tour de France circus pulled out of Nuits-St-Georges at the end of last week following a dramatic final sprint to the line through the vineyards of the Cote de Nuits (a mere 6mm separated first and second despite having raced for five hours in gruelling heat), rainstorms returned to the Cote d'Or.

The weather brought with it some welcome rain and respite from the sapping temperatures, although the freshening storms on the Monday evening also brought with them some unwelcome hail.

Damage was thankfully not catastrophic.

Had it been, it would have been an enormous shame, as the vineyards were looking in fabulous condition.

Since the frost scares of late April, when temperatures dipped below freezing but just avoided going too low to destroy well-advanced buds, the weather in Burgundy has been terrific.

A quick and even flowering took place in perfect conditions and vignerons have enjoyed a relatively relaxed growing season ever since.

This of course, is in stark contrast to the traumas of 2016, which were physically draining and mentally demoralising for so many growers.

With two months to go to harvest (picking dates are scheduled for early September) everyone is crossing their fingers that nature will be kind and bless the vineyards with more bright, uneventful weather.

No-one wants to tempt fate. But so far, things look good.







2016 vintage: Low yields but high quality

Lets pause for a moment and jump back to last year and the 2016 vintage.

For many, especially those in the Cote de Beaune, 2016 was a year that almost broke the camel's back, following on from a string of small vintages.

Some growers with vineyards in Savigny, Beaune and Pommard lost between 75% and 100% of their crop in 2016 thanks to devastating frost, and have now lost the equivalent of three vintages in six, which is not sustainable long term.

If hail were to strike late and ravage this years harvest, the future of some domaines could be in very real danger.

Typically of Burgundys very localised character, volumes vary enormously from village to village.

For example, Chassagne was decimated by frost, yet many of Meursault's vineyards escaped. Chambolle was hit badly, but neighbour Morey did pretty well.

On a positive note, the quality of the wines looks to be excellent.

Less powerful than 2015 but riper than 2014, 2016s reds have a lovely streak of freshness running through the middle.

The whites are quite rich, as one might expect from such small yields, but they seem harmonious and in balance.







Shortage on white means a good opportunity for lesser-known appellations

The big issue for 2016 will undoubtedly be availability.

There is already a shortage of certain white appellations in the market and the lack of 2016 is only going to compound this issue.

Core restaurant wines such as village Chassagne and St Aubin 1er Cru will be like gold dust next year and sommeliers will need to look to alternative appellations such as Auxey Duresses and Saint-Romain, to shore up the gaps.

Good news for them.

But low yields caused real difficulties for many Cote de Nuits domaines which were down by as much as 50%.

There just weren't that many bunches on the vines and, consequently, many domaines harvested in record times.

So what they did harvest was in good condition  there just simply wasn't very much of it.







Re-discovery of older vintages

As well as boosting the profile of under-the-radar white appellations, the shortages of 2016 will also open up opportunities for some older vintages to restate their case.

For example, while it was unfortunate for the 2015 to have had to follow the stunning 2014, many of 2015s wine are now looking lively, fresh, full of personality and, crucially, very stable.

Likewise, 2011 is another vintage which now has the opportunity to shine.

It is a more concentrated version of 2007 which are now drinking beautifully - 2007 is the go to vintage on restaurants wine lists.

Six years on, the 2011 wines are gaining weight and expressing their true character and red fruit intensity and are still just beginning to show their true colours.

The market is still lagging behind in terms of price and there are plenty of bargains about.

But if these wines do indeed prove to be better than the 2007s are now, then in four or five years time they will be delicious.







Keeping the UK on-side

The lack of supply of 2016 is that the top wines will most likely be snapped up en primeur in January and disappear from the market for ever.

Prices of both colours may rise a little, but the Burgundians have a much more pragmatic approach than some of their peers in other regions and they realise that the market won't accept big hikes at the moment.

There were some increases last year, which were a reflection of the size of the 2016 vintage as much as the quality of the 2015 vintage, so there will be less need for comprehensive price rises this time round.

The UK remains a crucial market for Burgundy and the savvy current generation of winemakers will not wish to alienate buyers, especially with the current exchange rate exacerbating any increases.








periods of recent history have been more tumultuous for global geopolitics than the last 12 months.The June 2016 Brexit vote, the November 2016 US Presidential election and political developments thereafter within the EU and elsewhere have revealed a groundswell of support for populist and inward-looking nationalist policies.Not surprisingly, many businesses have been caught in the crosshairs.A quite significant amount of uncertainty is how Joydeep Hor, founder and managing principal, People + Culture Strategies, describes the prevailing mood in business circles over this period.Fresh from attending an international forum on employment law in Dublin, Hor said there was very much a wait and see approach being taken to what happens next with Brexit.In the employment law context one very relevant issue is the huge amount of uncertainty in terms of what the next Brexit piece is going to look like, and what that will translate to in terms of regulation of employment laws, he said.Some suggest the existing EU laws have been overly restrictive; others dont want these laws to change too much. It will be interesting to see what happens there.Hor added that employers based in countries that have taken more of a protectionist stance in trade should perhaps brace for more restrictive employment laws and regulations  although he quickly adds that there was no consensus opinion reached at the forum on whether this would occur.A lot of things have been tabled for now but the reality of what the position will end up being remains very uncertain, Hor said.This goes to things like the migration piece as well, which is hugely relevant in the context of this populist rise thats happening worldwide.The other piece that emerged quite strongly at the event was how these worldwide events are actually translating into discourse in organisations  that is, people sharing passionate political views in the workplace, and more importantly, employers scope to regulate that conduct.This came up not just in the context of social media but also behavioural regulation in workplaces, Hor explained.There was a lot of strong counsel to employers that they do need to be vigilant in terms of what kind of behaviours and conduct  whether its social media or otherwise  will be tolerated.Hor added that in some jurisdictions, the concept of constitutional freedom of speech is extremely well protected; in other jurisdictions such viewpoints are less likely to be shared.Where you have 35 different countries represented, as there was at this conference, there is quite a wide spectrum of what is acceptable workplace behaviour  but regardless of which country you are operating your business in, you must be clear about what you tolerate or wont tolerate.
Statistics Finland on Thursday released a new set of preliminary data indicating that the countrys gross domestic product grew by 1.9 per cent  0.5 percentage points more than estimated in March  to 216 billion euros in 2016.

The statistics bureau said it revised its growth estimate due to the availability of new data on intermediate goods used for production by a number of industrial sectors

Tuomas Rothovius, a senior statistician at Statistics Finland, reminds that what may seem to be a notable statistical difference is in fact nothing out of the ordinary. The change in economic growth tends to be adjusted by 0.6 percentage points between the first publication [of data] to the last, he explained to Helsingin Sanomat on Thursday.

Statistics Finland also reported that household consumption and private investment were the main drivers of growth in 2016.

The volume of household consumption, it revealed, increased by 1.9 per cent, that of private consumption by 1.8 per cent and that of public consumption expenditure by 1.2 per cent from the previous year.

Private investments, meanwhile, picked up by 7.9 per cent and public investments by 3.9 per cent. Investments in construction projects, and machinery and equipment acquisitions increased particularly, whereas investments in research and development dropped moderately from the previous year, according to the revised data.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Mikko Stig  Lehtikuva
Weve moved steadily closer to what it was before 2015, which is roughly 5,0008,000 [per year]. And it may even drop below that, she said in an interview on YLE Radio Suomi on Thursday .

Paula Risikko (NCP), the Minister of the Interior, has expressed her confidence that the number of asylum seekers arriving annually in Finland will regress to the levels preceding the migrant crisis in Europe in 2015.

Risikko also reiterated her assessment that the annual refugee quota should be raised by 40 per cent from 750 to 1,050 in order to enable the country to determine who are entering the country and who should be granted asylum. Refugees, she underscored, are people in the absolute most vulnerable position.

Whenever theres an uncontrolled wave [of immigration] or whenever a person steps over the border, we cant immediately be sure whether that person needs asylum. Well have to see to all of the processes, appeals procedures and conditions at reception centres. But when a person already has refugee status, it has been pre-determined that that person needs asylum, explained Risikko.

She made the same proposal in April, provoking arguments both for and against. Among the policy makers opposing the proposal was the now former chairperson of the Finns Party Parliamentary Group and current Minister of European Affairs, Culture and Sports, Sampo Terho (NA).

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Mikko Stig  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
THE organiser of Henleys Thames Traditional Boat Festival says this years event will be bigger and better than ever before.

Lady McAlpine, of Fawley Hill, is leading the organising committee for the three-day river-based extravaganza which begins today (Friday) and which will feature more than 200 craft including the royal row barge Gloriana.

She said: Im terribly excited because we have got a great show  more boats, more shopping, more everything than before. Its going to be wonderful.

We have got good bands, good music and great boats. People can expect a jolly good day out and plenty of opportunities for a ride of the river.

Lady McAlpine added: Theres an awful lot o see and do, including a blacksmith on a barge.

Organisers are hoping for a record crowd at the 38th annual event, which will take place at Fawley Meadows, off Marlow Road.

A wide range of vessels will be on display, from coracles and canoes to military and amphibious models, a Victorian steam cruiser, a flotilla of Dunkirk Little Ships and the only remaining torpedo boat from the First World War.

There will also be an exhibition of vintage and classic cars and motorbikes and fly-pasts by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, which this year will include an American Douglas C-47 Dakota transport plane, and biplanes and triplanes from the Great War Display Team.

Gloriana, which was built to celebrate the Queens Diamond Jubilee in 2012, will be the centrepiece of the festival. It is returning for the third consecutive year and for the first time will be offering river cruises on all three days.

Tickets for the trips are limited but will not be sold in advance to ensure all guests have a chance to buy one.

Luscombes at the Golden Ball in Lower Assendon will be serving fish and chips and other meals while the Time For Tea mobile vintage cafe, which is based in Henley, will sell cakes and hot drinks.

There will also be Vietnamese food, Nepalese curries cooked by Gurkhas, a Greek delicatessen, an Army field kitchen, cocktail, beer and champagne bars, Italian ice cream and more.

Hobbs will also operate a free river shuttle service from the town centre to the festival site and back for ticket holders. There will also be parties tonight (Friday) and on Sunday night and performances by local artists.

The festival used to be known as the Thames Traditional Boat Rally until 2014, when it was called off due to flooding on the meadow at the start of that year.

It was revived under its current name in 2015 by a new organising committee led by Lady McAlpine. Last year, there were more than 15,000 visitors.

Three-day tickets cost 26 for adults and 12 for children aged 13 to 17 (under-12s go free). A limited number of camping and caravan pitches is available and there is also a luxury glamping option.

For more information, visit www.tradboatfestival.com

l The winner of the Henley Standard competition to spend the weekend at the event, completely free, is Peter Behan of Wargrave Road, Henley. He correctly answered that Mr Hobbs gin, a drink launched this year by river operator Hobbs of Henley, would be served at the festival for the first time.
By Emily Sundblad

Editorial Intern Gordon Houk was recently selected to be grand marshal for the 2017 Prairie Days in Lester Prairie, including the opportunity to ride in the grand parade. Houk has lived in Lester Prairie since 1961. That year, he also began teaching there, and he has been teaching ever since. As teacher, Houk mostly taught high school science, but his since retirement in 1996, he has branched out to teach a broader scope of subjects to a wider range of ages. He enjoys substitute teaching in Lester Prairie, as well as in schools in the surrounding area. This experienced educator has taught in Lester Prairie so long that it is not uncommon for him to teach the grandkids of one of his former students. Houk has also involved in various other activities during his time in Lester Prairie, including being an advisor for a rocket club, participating in Bible studies, joining a tree survey committee, serving as president of the Lester Prairie Education Association, helping with cleaning along Highway 7, as well as cleaning up the town once a year. He also was on the teachers committee in 1970, and helped form a Master Agreement. Currently, Houk participates in the Lester Prairie Lions Club, a choir in the Twin Cities, and Gideons International, for which he speaks at churches in Lester Prairie and distributes Bibles at school and at the McLeod County Fair. He also participates at a church in Hutchinson, where he sings and is an accompanist on the keyboard. One skill Houk has kept up since high school is the ability to repair clocks, particularly grandfather clocks. As a self-taught repairman, he goes to peoples homes now, to fix their clocks. Next to his front door hangs a grandfather clock that he built from a kit. Another significant part of Houks life has been traveling. He has become a world traveller, going to many countries including Poland, Lithuania, Brazil, Germany, Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, and, most recently, South Korea for the wedding of one of his former foreign exchange students. Houk has also visited China, and taught English there. Houk commented he believes he has a pretty strong faith. When teaching would become tough and he was ready to give up, Houk would pray. He believed, with Gods help, he could carry on.
A biker shot a member of a rival motorcycle club dead over a territorial dispute in Limerick, a prosecuting barrister told a murder trial jury yesterday.

Alan McNamara (50), of Mount Fune, Murroe, Co Limerick, denies murdering Andrew O'Donoghue (51) in Murroe.

His stepson Robert Cusack is charged with impeding Mr McNamara's apprehension, knowing or believing him to have committed a serious offence.

Mr Cusack (28) has also pleaded not guilty and both men are being tried together at the Central Criminal Court.

Opening the trial, Michael Delaney, for the prosecution, told the jury it would hear evidence that Mr O'Donoghue, a retired carpenter, was a member of the Mount Fune-based Road Tramps motorcycle club.

Mr McNamara left the Road Tramps in the 2000s and later became a member of the Limerick City-based Caballeros club.

Counsel told the jury it would hear evidence that the shooting was linked to a territorial dispute between the two clubs.

On June 19, 2015, Mr McNamara and his wife went by bike to Kelly's pub in the village of Doon in Limerick.

Mr McNamara was wearing the colours of the Caballeros. This, Mr Delaney said, was a "provocative act" as Doon is in the Road Tramps' area.

When word got out, three members of the Road Tramps went to Doon to confront Mr McNamara and, as he left the pub, he was set upon by two of these men.

Manhandled

His colours were forcibly removed, leaving Mr McNamara "very vexed" at the insult to him and his club.

Giving evidence, Seamus Duggan told Mr Delaney that he and two other Road Tramps went to Doon, where they saw Mr McNamara coming out of the pub. One of them told Mr McNamara to take off his colours.

"He didn't, so they manhandled him," Mr Duggan told the court, adding: "They removed his waistcoat from him."

Mr Duggan and the two others then left in a car. As they pulled away, he said Mr McNamara threw his helmet at the side of the car and shouted, "You're dead" at one of them.

The following day, Mr Duggan was in Doon when he saw a man he knew to be a member of the Caballeros pass him in a car.

He said he drove in his van at speeds up to 160kmh to the Road Tramps clubhouse as he tried to get away from his pursuers.

He said Mr O'Donoghue was at the clubhouse waiting when Mr McNamara arrived carrying a sawn-off shotgun.

Counsel said there would be evidence Mr McNamara then shot Mr O'Donoghue once in the head at point blank range.

The trial continues today.
A garda accused of harassing a State solicitor could not be linked by any computer she used to a photograph of the victim used on abusive posters, a jury has heard.

Eve Doherty (49), a garda based in Dublin, denies harassing Elizabeth Howlin between September 2011 and March 2013 and making false statements claiming Ms Howlin was perverting the course of justice.

On day three of the trial, former Detective Inspector Martin Cummins, now retired, showed the jury a poster that had photographs of Ms Howlin and Brendan Howlin TD, a distant cousin, printed on them.

The jury has heard that the posters had been left on cars around Ms Howlin's estate in Blackrock, south Co Dublin.

Dealers

The leaflet falsely stated that Ms Howlin was a corrupt State solicitor and had interfered in the prosecution of a local family of "drug dealers".

The court heard that the photo of Ms Howlin used in the posters had been taken in 2007 during a meeting between a committee within the Department of Justice and Brian Lenihan, who had recently been appointed the minister for that department.

The photo of Ms Howlin was uploaded to a website called criminalcode.ie, and the photo could only have been obtained from that website, Mr Cummins told Kerida Naidoo, prosecuting.

The former detective said he obtained a list of IP addresses that had visited the website.

Michael O'Higgins, defending, asked Mr Cummins if any computer connected to Ms Doherty was on that list. Mr Cummins told him that was not the case.

Garda Sergeant Michael McCarthy said he had reviewed CCTV footage of the road where the posters were displayed but was unable to identify anyone as the footage was shot in darkness.

The trial continues tomorrow before Judge Melanie Greally and a jury.
Prison authorities deployed "control and restraint" (C&R) teams in riot gear 373 times to deal with high-risk prisoners at Ireland's only maximum security prison at Portlaoise last year.

New figures show the Irish Prison Service (IPS) C&R teams were deployed more than once every day on average at the facility. Portlaoise houses some of the country's most notorious criminals, including the murderous Dundon brothers from Limerick and the country's most dangerous inmate, Dubliner Leon Wright (28).

Shields

C&R teams have been deployed regularly to deal with Wright.

Last March, a five-strong C&R team armed with shields and batons accompanied Wright to a cleared Portlaoise District Court, where he was jailed for six months for the assault of four prison officers during an incident at Portlaoise in February last year.

Victim impact statements from the prison officers stated that their partners and spouses feared they were constantly at risk of assault. Wright has 106 previous convictions and has been disciplined more than 212 times in prison. He has attacked more than two dozen guards while inside, necessitating the use of C&R teams for any interactions with him.

A C&R team would typically consist of five or six guards wearing riot gear, including a helmet and shield, to deal with prisoners or situations deemed high-risk.

In a written Dail reply on the use of C&R teams in Irish prisons, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan revealed that their deployment at Portlaoise is far greater than in any other prison. The figures show that C&R teams were deployed 273 times at Mountjoy last year - 100 fewer than Portlaoise - while they were used 102 times at Cloverhill.

"As part of a control and restraint team, a staff member, with a video recording camera, records footage of the event," Mr Flanagan said in his written Dail reply to Sinn Fein TD Jonathan O'Brien.

"The majority of the incidents in which a control and restraint team was deployed did not require the physical removal of the prisoner."

Stressful

Prison Officers' Association (POA) president Stephen Delaney said yesterday that the high use of C&R teams at Portlaoise last year underlines the risks faced by staff at the prison.

Mr Delaney said Portlaoise "is a particularly stressful environment to work in and this has been recognised with the payment of an environmental allowance to staff there".

The payment of the environmental allowance - more commonly known as danger money - is in recognition of Portlaoise housing the country's subversive republican prisoners.

They currently number 40 in jail there, down 32pc from the 59 incarcerated there five years ago.
A student was arrested when he used "unparliamentary language" to gardai outside a pub.

Marcus Coffey (23), who is also a charity volunteer, verbally abused officers in a drunken episode on a south Dublin street.

Judge Michael Walsh struck the case out, leaving him without a conviction, after he paid 200 to charity.

Coffey, of Birchfield Heights, Goatstown, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to public drunkenness and threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour.

Sgt Gail Smith told Dublin District Court that the incident happened outside McSorley's pub in Ranelagh on June 17.

It was "well past closing time" and gardai were involved in moving on a number of men from the area, she said.

Comply

When approached, Coffey said to gardai: "F**k off, I don't have to give you anything."

He refused to comply with a garda's directions to leave the area and was arrested.

He had no previous convictions.

Coffey was in his final year in DIT, where he was studying logistics and supply chain management, his lawyer said.

"It was unparliamentary language, I think, that caused offence," said Judge Walsh.

His lawyer said the defendant was apologetic and "quite nervous" to be in court.

He was involved in voluntary work for the ARC Cancer Support organisation.

He was willing to pay a charity contribution to avoid conviction, his lawyer said, adding that Coffey was unlikely to ever come before the court again.

The defendant confirmed to the judge that the charity he worked with was registered.

"You can see the trouble drink will get you into," said Judge Walsh, before striking the charges out.
A massive garda alert is in place after one of Ireland's most feared gangland criminals walked free from prison last night.

Officers have established that 16 people, including a highly respected garda and a number of innocent women, are under imminent threat from the thug, who is considered one of the country's most dangerous men.

The psychotic south inner city gangster - who cannot be named here for legal reasons - had been locked up for a number of years after committing an extremely violent offence, but is now a free man.

Senior sources say gardai have serious concerns that the evil mobster may offer himself up as a hitman-for-hire for the gangsters involved in the bloody Hutch-Kinahan feud.

Terrified

He is already a suspect in a string of brutal gangland hits but has barely any previous convictions.

However, of even more concern is the fact that detectives have compiled a list of 16 people who are now under "realistic threat" after the thug walked out of jail last night.

"Yeah, he has been locked up for many years, but this guy is a psychopath. He kept to himself in jail because everyone is terrified of him," one source said.

"A total of 16 people are now under threat because this individual is now a free man.

"Even hardened criminals are sickened at his disgusting crimes, which he has got away with.

"The feeling is that his sick rage has been festering and its now just a case of how gardai can manage whatever twisted plans this individual has."

Among the 16 people on the gangster's hit list are highly respected people, former associates of his and relatives of people who gave evidence against him in the past. His targets are based across Dublin and even abroad.

Such is the level of seriousness attached to his release from prison that the garda's elite Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau has taken the lead role in managing the situation.

A serving garda and other potential victims have been warned that the gangster is now out.

The feared criminal previously had "loose links" to other criminals involved with the Kinahan cartel, but it is understood that he would "do anything for a few bob".

He was previously suspected of working as a firearms dealer for many of the country's most dangerous gangs.

Over the years, gardai have seized a large amount of weapons linked to the thug.

Aged in his late 30s, he may also be a prime target for other serious criminals as he is "hated" by many in gangland circles.

It previously emerged that he planned to murder a former pal over fears that he was talking to gardai about a high-profile court case.

However, the plan was foiled in 2012, when officers discovered a handwritten note in his cell during a raid, which outlined the evil plot that would have led to a man being murdered in Rathmines by two notorious gangsters.

Sickening

Specialist gardai were forced to act quickly after the discovery of the note, which gave specific details of the sickening assassination attempt, including where and at what time to kill the man in south Dublin.

Sources said detectives informed the man of the threat against him and moved him out of his home in Rathmines and took him to a secure location for a couple of days.

The under-threat man - who has links to the legal profession - was previously friendly with the gangland figure.

The two men had been so close that they had previously been arrested together by officers investigating the Dublin criminal's suspected links to a spate of depraved crimes.

However, it is understood that the now freed gangster turned against his former friend because he wrongly believed that he was co-operating with gardai.
The New IRA poses the biggest terrorist threat from dissident republicans in more than 20 years, Garda security boss Michael O'Sullivan has warned.

The assistant garda commissioner said that it was the most dangerous dissident group since the Provisional IRA.

Mr O'Sullivan told the Herald that the threat level from the dissidents in Northern Ireland was severe, which is the second highest threat level. In Britain, it is substantial, meaning there is a strong possibility of an attack.

This is its highest level since the Provisionals declared their ceasefire in 1994.

Mr O'Sullivan said that the garda assessment of the New IRA was shared by police and intelligence experts in Northern Ireland and Britain.

Targets

Intelligence services in both islands indicate that the group is monitoring movements of potential targets in the North and Britain.

The New IRA's bomb-making skills are considered more advanced than those of other dissident groups.

The group is also finding new sources of explosives and weapons and is continuing to recruit personnel not previously known by the Garda or the PSNI to have been involved in dissident activities.

An interception last month by the Garda Special Branch of a cache of TNT explosive in Dublin's north inner city is believed to have saved many lives.

Ballistic experts said the 4kg cache was enough to make 30 under-car bombs. Likely targets include police, military and prison officers in Northern Ireland.

The source of the TNT has not yet been established.

In the past two years, gardai have seized 100kg of explosive, nine AK-47 rifles, a sub- machinegun and a sniper rifle from dissidents.

As a result of a build-up in non-jury cases, a second special criminal court has been opened - something not seen during three decades of Provisional IRA terrorist activities.

Seventeen trials are listed for hearing involving 28 defendants, charged mainly with membership of an illegal organisation or possession of explosives.

One of the accused is charged with directing terrorism, the first time the charge has been brought since the conviction of Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt.

The New IRA has more than 50 activists, all of whom are listed as persons of interest to the Garda security and intelligence section.

It is estimated to have about 200 supporters, providing logistical help such as vehicles and safe houses.

The group was formed in 2012 and has strongholds in Armagh, Belfast, Donegal, Dublin, Louth and Tyrone.

It also has a stronghold in Cork, although it has been divided since the murder of Aidan O'Driscoll in December.

Its leader is a veteran republican from a Border county, while another senior figure is a former Real IRA boss in Derry. One of its key activists in Dublin has an address in Tallaght.

The New IRA comprises of former factions of the Real IRA, Republican Action Against Drugs - which was based around Clady, Derry and Strabane - and seasoned republicans who had previously appeared to support the peace process but became active again.

Other members include those who had stayed away from the Real IRA, the Continuity IRA and ONH (Oglaigh na hEireann) because of the infiltration of those groups by gardai and security agencies in the North.

Skills

Many members have acquired counter-surveillance skills by attending courses in countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and possibly Poland, according to intelligence sources.

Most of them travel out under the guise of setting up supposedly legitimate security companies.

The New IRA has also been developing its "engineering" side and manufacturing improvised explosive devices and attempting to open up new routes to buy guns.

It was responsible in November 2012 for the murder of Northern Ireland prison officer David Black (52) on the M1 as he was driving to work at Maghaberry near Lisburn.

Some of its members were also involved in the 2011 murder of PSNI constable Ronan Kerr and the earlier murders of off-duty British soldiers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar as they took delivery of a pizza outside Massereene barracks in Antrim.

The New IRA has also been involved in several attempted killings and bombings in recent years. Its members are also behind a number of punishment beatings, which are at an all-time high in Belfast.

These are now referred to as community controlled violence (CCV) and have resulted in five deaths in Northern Ireland in the past year.

Gardai have kept a close watch on the movements of known New IRA activists, particularly during events such as the recent visit of Prince Charles.

A new Belfast-based dissident republican political party, known as Saoradh, which has the support of New IRA prisoners in jails on both sides of the Border, was launched last September .

Among those who attended its first ard fheis, held in Newry, was prominent dissident Colin Duffy.

A tribute was paid in a Saoradh newsletter to Micky Barr, who was shot dead in the Sunset House pub in Summerhill, Dublin, during the Kinahan-Hutch feud in April last year.

Saoradh also has a branch in Dublin.
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn.Additional charges have been filed against Johnny F. Royston Jr., the Bristol, Tennessee man charged in a fatal shooting last weekend in Sullivan County.

Royston, 36, already faces charges of second-degree murder and drug possession after the body of Rowdy Yates, 44, was found early Saturday at a property on Eaton Private Drive. Yates died of a gunshot wound to the head, a criminal affidavit states.

On Sunday, a day before Royston was arrested, the Sullivan County Sheriffs Office received a tip that Royston was on Cook Hollow Road on a blue motorcycle. Officers said when they encountered the motorcycle, it sped up and went around them in the grass.

One officer said he turned his vehicle around as the motorcycle failed to stop and turned right onto Cross Community Road, according to a criminal affidavit. The motorcycle passed another motorcycle with two riders on Cross Community Road, the affidavit states.

The motorcyclist got off the bike and ran on foot into the woods toward state Route 126, the affidavit states. As the driver removed his helmet, he turned to face the officer and identified himself as Johnny Royston, it adds.

Warrants were filed Wednesday charging Royston with evading arrest, driving on a suspended license, due care, driving left of center, stop sign violation and reckless endangerment.

Royston was eventually captured along Emmett Way near U.S. Highway 421 on Monday night. Hes being held on $300,000 bail at the Sullivan County jail and has a court hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

Two others were arrested during the manhunt for Royston. His mother, Patsy Royston, was arrested Sunday night by Bristol Virginia Police on a charge of providing false information to police after a sighting at a gas station on Lee Highway. She lied to the initial officer at the scene when asked if her son had been in the vehicle, police said. Her son is believed to have fled on foot from the gas station.

Donald Gene Hammonds, 35, was arrested Monday night at the time of Roystons capture. Police charged him with possession of Schedule III drugs, DUI, and three counts of aggravated assault. The Sullivan County Sheriffs Office said Hammonds was driving a Honda, occupied by Royston, and rammed it into a Ford Explorer. Two U.S. Marshals were in the Explorer, according to a criminal complaint.
Connor Harrison didnt have much of a bass fishing experience Sunday.

Itll be a noteworthy day on the water for him nevertheless  to say the least.

Harrison hauled in the catch of his life, bringing in a 20-pound, 42-inch mammoth of a Muskie.

I seen what it was and we went after him, Harrison said. I was going to get him. He pulled the boat around pretty good. Hes a strong dude.

Harrison, 18, who was accompanied Sunday by cousin Ethan Reynolds, said it was no easy task to wrangle the monster catch.

I had to fight the sorry booger about 10 minutes, he said. ... We finally got him in a net and it wouldnt fit in the net and broke our net. I grabbed the other end of the net and picked everything up in two pieces.

The payoff, though, was plenty worth it for a guy who tries to get out fishing at least twice a week in between his job as a welder for Atmos Energy.

We took plenty of pictures and everybody else that seen it couldnt believe it, Harrison said.

Reynolds took to Facebook after their memorable day on the lake, jokingly boasting about his abilities as an expert guide: Best day [Ive] had on South Holston in a long time and I didn't even catch a fish haha.

Harrison wasnt able to keep the fish alive after bringing it in  it was too big to fit in the boats livewell  but that didnt mean the catch went to waste.

While not the most popular fish to dine upon, Harrison said that didnt stop him from enjoying a Muskie meal on Tuesday with his Papaw, who Harrison called shortly after making his catch.

He said, Bring it home  thats the best eating fish there is,  Harrison said. Hed eat a cedar bush.

The big fish filled Harrisons belly, but it didnt satisfy his hankering to be on the water.

A day after reeling in the Muskie, he was back in his boat again, although he harbored no illusions of duplicating his catch.

I probably wont ever catch another, he said.

Still, Harrisons not about to take any chances that his catch might become commonplace.

Asked about the specifics of his location on South Holston when he found the Muskie, the 2016 Abingdon High School graduate politely, but emphatically, declined to narrow it down.

I aint told nobody, he said with a laugh, and I dont plan to either.
One of the greatest challenges of a medical corps team member is to care for captured and wounded enemy soldiers. I served as an army medic during the 1967 Six Day War in the battle over Jerusalem and as a battalion physician in the 1973 Yom Kippur War in the Sinai Desert. In both wars I cared for many captured and wounded enemy prisoners.

The Six Day War in 1967 broke out two weeks before the end of my last year at Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem. I had worked as a nurse in the emergency room of the Hadassah University hospital for the prior two years and I was stationed at that hospital when the war started. I also went out with the ambulances to evacuate the wounded back to the hospital and cared for them during the ride.

During the first 72 hours we took care of over 500 wounded soldiers and civilians, among them many Jordanian and Egyptian prisoners of war. All the wounded received the same care at the hospital, whether they were Jordanian, Egyptian or Israeli. I cared for many enemy soldiers and struggled to save their lives. For me, they were human beings in need of medical attention. Watching my medical-school teachers and the medical teams at Hadassah fight for the lives of men who were fighting against us set an ethical standard for me that I adhered to when I became a physician.

As a battalion physician in the Yom Kippur War, I took care of several wounded Egyptian soldiers, providing them with the same level of treatment that I gave my own injured men. Even though I had mixed feelings about treating the wounded enemy soldiers, I saw them first and foremost as human beings in need of help. While my natural instincts and years of medical training urged me to help any wounded warrior to the best of my ability, I could not deny the feeling of animosity toward the enemy in the heat of battle. I managed to overcome these misgivings, however, in the hopes that our captured soldiers would be treated as well as we were treating the Egyptians. To me, caring for these enemy prisoners of war humanized our adversary, and I felt inner satisfaction that I could still honor the sanctity of the human life, a value with which I had been raised.

In particular, an experience with an injured Egyptian prisoner of war, a fighter pilot whose plane was downed by an Israeli jet, changed my perspective and humanized our adversaries. As I mended his broken leg and bandaged his burns, he showed me a picture of his family as a sign of gratitude. In the pictures were two young children, the same ages as my own two children. I realized at that moment that he too wanted to see them again. Following this encounter, it became emotionally easier for me to treat other wounded Egyptian soldiers.

Many of these wounded soldiers were visibly scared to death when I approached them. I could see the fear in their eyes, as if they expected that I would harm them. I wondered if their fear was based on knowing what they would have done to me should I have been a prisoner of war. I also assumed that years of anti-Israeli propaganda depicted us as monsters. Most of these soldiers were tense and apprehensive throughout the treatment and looked in disbelief as we worked to care for their wounds. I was proud that I could overcome my anger and treat these individuals as I would have wanted to be treated in a similar situation. I knew that as a Jew and as a medical professional it was my duty to do so.

The medical corps of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had always provided medical care for all injured soldiers even if they were their adversaries. This is one of the core values of the IDF and is also spelled out in the oath taken by all the physicians of the Israeli Medical Corps. (see picture of IDF Medical Corps oath) Indeed, this policy is being implemented today as the IDF has opened a field hospital near the Syrian border and cares for victims of the civil war in that country. Even though there is an official state of war between Syria and Israel, over three thousand injured and sick Syrian nationals have so far been treated at this hospital.

It is my hope that those wounded enemy soldiers and civilians that we cared for in 1967, 1973, and today have served as emissaries for peace and reconciliation after they returned to their homes. Hopefully, their testimonies have advanced the cause of peace.

Dr. Itzhak Brook served as a medic in the Six Day War and as a battalion physician in the Yom Kippur War. He is a professor of Pediatrics in Georgetown University. Dr. Brook is a speaker for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., http://www.israelemb.org/washington/Speakers-Guide/Society-and-Politics/Pages/Itzhak-Brook.aspx) and authored the book "In the Sands of Sinai: A Physician's Account of the Yom Kippur War." The book is available at https://goo.gl/ml3DQL.
The crew of the C-130 Hercules cargo plane and (then) Lt. Col. Joshua Shani (in the center of the group).

On America's Independence Day, let's not forget another important anniversary-On July 4th, 1976, Operation Entebbe, a hostage-rescue mission, was carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. This is a different story of independence and freedom for Jews and Israelis throughout the world.

Operation Entebbe a hostage-rescue mission, was carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. The operation, which took a week of planning, lasted 90 minutes. One hundred and two Israeli and Jewish hostages were rescued.

Brig. Gen. (res.) Joshua Shani was the lead pilot in Operation Entebbe, flying the first C-130 Hercules cargo plane with the entire rescue force on board. He agreed to answer a few questions.

How did the crisis at Entebbe begin?

On June 27, 1976, a Paris-bound Air France flight from Tel Aviv, via Athens, was hijacked and diverted to Entebbe, Uganda. Two of the hijackers were members of the German Baader-Meinhof Gang, and two were from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. They demanded the release of 53 jailed terrorists in Israel.

On the third day of the crisis, the terrorists separated Israeli and Jewish passengers from the others. The captors freed the non-Jews and sent them to France the next day.

Quietly, while the rest of the world talked but did nothing, the Israel Defense Forces planned a rescue mission.

How did you first find out that you would be asked to help rescue the hostages?

I was at a wedding when the commander of the Israel Air Force, Maj. Gen. Benny Peled, approached me and began asking questions about the capabilities of the C-130. It was a strange situation-the commander of the IAF, a major general, asking a lieutenant colonel questions about an airplane.

But the C-130 was a new plane, and the IAF top brass were always focused on fighter jets, not transport planes. Peled asked me if it was possible to fly to Entebbe, how long it would take and what it could carry.

I left him with the impression that a rescue would be possible.

How did the operation begin?

We began our journey from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, which at the time was under Israeli control. The takeoff from Sharm was one of the heaviest ever in the history of this airplane. I didn't have a clue what would happen. The aircraft was crowded. I was carrying the Sayeret Matkal assault team, led by Yonatan Netanyahu.

I was also carrying a Mercedes, which was supposed to confuse Ugandan soldiers at the airport, because Idi Amin, the country's dictator, had the same car. And I also found room to pack Land Rovers and a paratrooper force.

I gave the plane maximum power, and it was just taxiing, not accelerating. At the very end of the runway, I was probably two knots over the stall speed, and I had to lift off. I took off to the north, but had to turn south where our destination was. I couldn't make the turn until I gained more speed. Just making that turn, I was struggling to keep control, but you know, airplanes have feelings, and all turned out well.

What was going through your head as you approached the runway in Uganda?

My biggest fear was not being shot at from the ground, but making a mistake as a pilot. All I could think the entire time was "Don't screw this up!" True, the risks to my life were real, but I was more worried about botching the landing and endangering the success of the entire operation. Think about it-how many people would have died at Entebbe if I had made a mistake?

In case something did go wrong, though, I was prepared for the worst. I was wearing a helmet, a bullet-proof vest, and I had an Uzi. I was also given a thick wad of cash in case I needed to use it to escape Uganda. Luckily, I never had to use it. I returned the cash after returning to Israel.

What happened after you landed?

I stopped in the middle of the runway, and a group of paratroopers jumped out from the side doors and marked the runway with electric lights, so that the other planes behind me could have an easier time landing. The paratroopers went on to take the control tower.

The Mercedes and Land Rovers drove out from the back cargo door of my airplane, and the commandos stormed the old terminal building where the hostages were.

While coordinating the assault, Yonatan Netanyahu, Sayeret Matkal's commander, was fatally shot by a Ugandan soldier.

When the hostages were freed, what was your next move?

We had a little problem: We needed fuel to fly back home. We came on a one-way ticket! We had planned for a number of options for refueling, and I learned from the command-and-control aircraft flying above us that the option to refuel in Nairobi, Kenya, was open.

After about 50 minutes on the ground in Entebbe, I gave the order: "Whoever is ready, take off." I remember the satisfaction of seeing plane number 4, with the hostages on board, taking off from Entebbe-the sight of its silhouette in the night.

It was then that I knew. That's it. We did it. The mission succeeded.

How were you greeted in Israel?

The plane with the hostages landed at Ben-Gurion Airport, where they were reunited with their families. The other three planes remained for a debrief. Here comes Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, walking up to me.

I had been in my flight suit for 24 hours straight, in temperatures over 100 degrees in the airplane, sweating and smelly, and here walks the prime minister with big open arms. I'm thinking, please don't hug me, he may die from this!

He hugged me for what felt like a full minute, and said only "Thanks."

What was it like returning to Israel as a hero?

Yonatan Netanhayu

After my father's death, I found his letters from Bergen-Belsen that he sent to Kibbutz Mishmar Haemek. The letters describe his experiences during the Holocaust, what happened to his family, etc.

One of his letters said, "My only comfort is Joshua. He gives me reason to continue."

The reason I mention this letter is because, 30 years later, when I returned from Entebbe, my father hosted a party for me. Family and friends were all there to celebrate the success of my mission. My father was in a great mood.

I know what he was thinking, a Holocaust survivor. His son at the time was a lieutenant colonel in the Israel Air Force and had just flown thousands of miles in order to save Jews. It probably added 10 years to his life.

Originally blogged from The Israel Defense Forces.
(JTA)-The Great Jewish Revolt of 2017. The Bar Kotel Rebellion. The Diaspora Strikes Back.

Whatever you call it, last week's clash between American Jewish leaders and the Netanyahu government felt louder, angrier and more significant than previous clashes over pluralism in Israel.

That may be because it wasn't only about pluralism.

That's not to say that pluralism isn't important in its own right. The non-Orthodox Jewish groups who fought hard for a space and a say at the Western Wall-only to see the agreement frozen-want their versions of Judaism to be treated with respect in Israel. They knew that granting more control over conversions to the haredi Orthodox Chief Rabbinate, as a controversial conversion bill would have done, would present another signal that Reform and Conservative leaders have no authority, or legitimacy, in Israel.

Reform and Conservative Jews will tell you how galling it is that Israel may be the only place in the Western world where the freedom of Jews to marry and worship as they wish is restricted by law. They find it baffling and hurtful that their religious identity-generations old and shared with a majority in the Diaspora -- has at best only symbolic legal standing in the homeland of the Jewish people. (Consider what happened in May when boys and girls from Conservative day schools in New York and New Jersey tried to pray from a Torah scroll at a pair of kibbutzim far away from the fevered Western Wall: Local Orthodox authorities threatened to take away the kibbutz kitchens' kosher certification if the egalitarian service went on as planned. The service was scrapped.)

And they find it more than insulting when Orthodox politicians in Israel denigrate liberal Judaism as worse than no religion at all when their own religious leaders have so little to say to, and so little positive influence on, the near majority of Israelis who are secular.

All this is enough to understand the anger of U.S. Jewish groups last week. But there is reason to believe there are other factors at play: politics, psychology and strategy.

Politics: This is the thanks we get?

Mainstream Jewish groups by and large are liberal when it comes to domestic issues: abortion, immigration, a solid social safety net. These liberal groups are seeing everywhere the consequences of their support for Israel. The exclusion of the Star of David flag from the Chicago Dyke March was a funhouse reflection of more mainstream erosion of support for Israel on the left. Israel may not be a pariah for most of the Democratic Party, but you are far more likely to find unquestioning support for Israel on the right On a list of things Jewish groups share with other progressive groups, Israel stands out like a sore thumb-usually unfairly, but nevertheless.

As a result, leaders of the major groups feel they are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to supporting Israel-defending it not just to the Republicans and evangelicals whose support for Israel is unconditional, but fellow liberals who are either confused, indifferent or hostile. That task was hard enough when Israel was seen as a democratic darling of the West; it's only gotten harder as Israel's nationalist government has proposed everything from trying to hobble left-wing NGOs to banning supporters of the BDS movement to attempting to enshrine Hebrew as the country's only official language.

To then see Israeli officials ignore them or backtrack on an issue they care deeply about-pluralism-feels doubly ungrateful.

Psychology: Saying one thing, meaning another

Many of the biggest Jewish groups, and a majority of their constituents, are well to the left of the current Israeli government on the Palestinian issue. Poll after poll suggests that American Jews support a two-state solution to the conflict and are growing more wary of what they see as undemocratic tendencies in Israel. The younger they are, the more this wariness-and disconnection-grows.

But Jewish groups generally will not challenge Israel on what both sides have agreed to call security matters. American Jews do not vote in Israel and their children do not fight in its wars. Despite a diverse membership, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and AIPAC see their role as defending the sitting Israeli government.

Rabbis also tend to be more dovish than the current government, but often hesitate to say so from the pulpit. Peace issues are considered too "divisive," too "political." As a result, a third of American rabbis told a pollster in 2013 that they are "fearful" of expressing their views on Israel, and half said they had refrained from publicly voicing their views on Israel at least once in the previous three years.

Rabbis have fewer qualms expressing their views about pluralism, however. One can only guess how many sermons this past Shabbat were devoted to the Western Wall and conversion issues. Federations that would hesitate to invite a speaker from Peace Now or J Street often staff committees and fund projects devoted to fighting for the rights of Reform and Conservative Jews in Israel. And groups that are hesitant to wade into the Israeli-Palestinian debate let the rhetoric fly when it comes to pluralism.

Freud had a term for swapping unwanted impulses into socially approved expressions: sublimation. For the members of a largely liberal community, pluralism is not only a vital issue in its own right but a steam valve. It allows them to voice their independence from and occasional displeasure with the Israel government without second-guessing security decisions or-and this may be key-giving ammunition to Israel's most hostile critics, who care about the Palestinian issue and not at all about the religious debate. Tired of holding their tongues, Jewish groups have in pluralism a meaningful, focused subject through which they can help shape the Jewish state.

Strategy: What about the kids?

For the past few years American Jews have been preoccupied with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, and attempts to delegitimize Israel in European capitals, in U.N. bodies and on college campuses. The antidote, say many Jewish organizations, is educating and empowering young, often indifferent Jews, and giving them the tools to counter negative perceptions about Israel. At the same time, there is a cottage industry of organizations worried that Diaspora Jews care less and less about Israel.

Now some are beginning to make the connection between the pluralism debate and the generational challenge. Benjamin Mann, the head of school of the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan-one of the day schools denied the use of a Torah-put it this way: "If Schechter Manhattan students, and students like them throughout North America, are made to feel that their Jewish communities, their very religious identities are devalued and rejected in the Jewish state, they will not sustain positive connections with Israel."

Or as Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency, said in his Western Wall statement: "Today's decision signifies a retreat from that agreement and will make our work to bring Israel and the Jewish world closer together increasingly more difficult."

I imagine AIPAC leaders said pretty much the same thing when they flew to Israel last week to warn Netanyahu about the consequences of the anger over the Kotel and conversion decisions. Even a number of U.S. lawmakers made it known that they disapproved of the freezing of the Kotel deal.

Mainstream defenders of Israel prefer that the pluralism debate and security issues stay on separate tracks. Advocating for pluralism is a sincere, vital and "safe" way to fight for North American Jewish values in Israel without plowing into the Palestinian question. The steam valve is a good thing for the Jewish community, keeping the Jewish mainstream from tearing itself up over the West Bank.

But the June Uprising may be a moment when Jewish impatience with Israel jumped from one track to another.
The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida is thrilled to welcome Winter Park native and Tuskegee airman, Chief Master Sergeant Richard R. Hall, Jr., to the Center on Sunday, July 23, at 2 p.m. for a screening of the film "Red Tails." The program will also include a post-film talkback with Sgt. Hall. This is part of the Holocaust Center's summer series, which encourages visitors to engage in conversations about the history and future of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

Hall grew up in Winter Park. He left Central Florida to attend Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, but was called to active duty in 1942. It was then that he became a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American division to fly in World War II. After the war, the Tuskegee Airmen were disbanded and the Air Force became the first integrated branch of the U.S. military. Hall joined the Air Force, and went on to serve in the Korean War. He spent the rest of his military career teaching aircraft maintenance in Ohio and South America before retiring in his hometown of Winter Park.

Hall remains an active member of his community. In 2007, the Airmen collectively were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of which he received a CGM Certificate and was recently honored during Sanford's Memorial Day Parade. Additionally, a statue of him sits outside the Hannibal Square Heritage Center in Winter Park, where his story is preserved for future generations.

Richard Hall's history is part of a larger narrative about civil rights, equality, and overcoming prejudice and injustice-issues that are central to the Holocaust Center's mission to create a caring and inclusive community. Hall's story will be told against the backdrop of A Place for All People, a poster exhibition that celebrates the opening of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. The exhibit highlights the "Double-V Campaign," which rallied for victory at abroad and at home, alongside other major individuals who, through their contributions and accomplishments in politics, art, music, photography and beyond, advanced the Civil Rights Movement. This talkback with Hall is a chance to engage not just with the information presented in the exhibit, but with a living witness and participant in this history.

The Holocaust Center hopes that visitors will embrace this remarkable opportunity to hear from one of the few remaining Tuskegee Airmen. The film screening and talkback will take place on Sunday, July 23 at 2 p.m. The Holocaust Center is located at 851 N. Maitland Ave, Maitland, FL, 32751.
JERUSALEM (JTA)-An internal Palestinian dispute has left Gaza's nearly 2 million Palestinian residents dangerously vulnerable to a heat wave, but Israel could get burned, too.

The West Bank Palestinian Authority has recently spearheaded a sharp reduction of electricity to the coastal enclave with Israel's cooperation, resulting in the exacerbation of Gaza's already dire humanitarian crisis and hints of new alliances that could lead to new military conflict with Israel.

The electricity cuts are part of a power play by the Palestinian Authority against Hamas, its rival Palestinian faction that governs the territory. Hamas has looked to Egypt for help-a development that could auger further conflict with Israel.

Amid the political wrangling, a new U.N report said Gaza gets electricity just four to six hours a day, down from the recent normal flow of eight to 12 hours a day. Water is available a few hours every three to five days with desalination plants operating at 15 percent of capacity. Hospital care has suffered, and 29 million gallons of sewage is flooding into the Mediterranean Sea every day and threatening to overflow into the streets.

In recent days temperatures in the region have soared to over 98 degrees, with Israel reporting record-breaking demand for electricity on Sunday and Monday.

"The situation in Gaza has becoming increasingly precarious over recent months," Robert Piper, the United Nations' humanitarian coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said in a plea to diplomats here Monday for $25.2 of emergency funding. "No one is untouched by the energy crisis."

How did Gaza get here?

In 2007, Hamas violently seized control of the territory from Fatah, the political faction that dominates the Palestinian Authority government. In the decade since the coup, Israel-along with Egypt-has largely sealed off Gaza from land, air and sea.

According to Israel, the blockade is necessary to keep weapons and material out of the hands of Hamas, which has terrorized and warred with the Jewish state and vowed its destruction. Israel has allowed humanitarian goods to enter Gaza and permitted some Gazans to come for medical care.

The Palestinian Authority has continued to pay for most of Gaza's electricity, which Israel has supplied and is paid for with taxes it collects on behalf of the West Bank government. Gaza's sole power plant and, to a lesser extent, Egypt have supplied the rest.

The power crisis began in April, when the Gaza power plant shut down for lack of diesel fuel. Hamas refused to buy more fuel from the Palestinian Authority, complaining the taxes it charged were too high. In June, the Palestinian Authority announced it would reduce its payments to Israel for Gaza's electricity by 40 percent. In response, Israel has gradually decreased the power supply to the territory-by 35 percent as of Sunday.

The Palestinian Authority has said it hopes to pressure Hamas to hand over control of Gaza. Since April, the Palestinian Authority has also slashed the salaries it has paid to tens of thousands of employees of the pre-Hamas government for not working and dramatically reduced medical aid to Gaza. On Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority fired more than 6,000 of those employees.

Rather than capitulating, Hamas has looked to Egypt for help. In late June, Cairo began supplying fuel for Gaza's power plant-though not enough to compensate for the Israeli cuts. Hamas has also apparently been working toward forming a new government in Gaza with Mohammad Dahlan, a former Fatah strongman in Gaza with close ties to Egypt who helped broker the fuel shipments.

Making nice with Dahlan appeared to be an attempt by Hamas to win an opening of its Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which would give it a portal with the outside world and alleviate the humanitarian crisis. Neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority have been on good terms with Dahlan. Hamas chased him out of Gaza in 2007, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas exiled him from the Palestinian territories in 2011, deeming him a political threat.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman have said the electricity cuts are an internal Palestinian issue and Israel would restore full power were someone to foot the bill. But some officials have questioned whether Gaza's suffering is in Israel's interest. Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, a close associate of the prime minister, last month said it was "unacceptable" for Abbas to dictate Israeli policy.

Last week, municipal and regional leaders in Israel rejected the announcement of a government-planned pipeline that would require them to treat the sewage that has flowed into their communities from waterways in northern Gaza.

"Israel's interest is to allocate electricity to Gaza for civilian causes," Alon Schuster, the head of the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, told JTA. "I believe our policy should be to give the Palestinians what they need, and not to torture them in any case."

Hamas' political maneuvering could also have security implications. An alliance with Abbas' political nemesis might well widen the rift between Hamas and Fatah. Further, if history is any guide, Hamas would make use of any increase in the flow of people and goods through Rafah to bolster its military capabilities. That would make another war with Israel all the more devastating.
Haredi Orthodox Jewish men and Israeli soldiers, seen here at the main entrance of the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Oct. 12, 2015, are what many Americans think of when they picture Israel, according to a new study.

(JTA)-What do you think of when you think of Italy?

Maybe you picture beautiful works of art set against rolling Tuscan hills. Maybe a steaming plate of spaghetti topped with marinara sauce served with a deep red wine.

Now what do you think of when you think of Israel?

If you're like most Americans, you picture walls of concrete enclosing an austere and strict country. The men wear black hats, the women long skirts. Everyone looks pretty serious.

That's what Brand Israel Group, a group of former advertising professionals who set out to sell Israel to Americans, found in a series of focus groups beginning in 2005. The group has since commissioned two surveys of the American public-in 2010 and 2016-and didn't like what it found.

According to the surveys, Israel has pretty broad backing among American citizens, but is losing support among a range of growing demographics. As pro-Israel advocates tout "shared values" between the United States and Israel, fewer and fewer Americans actually think they believe the same things as Israelis.

"Shared values are the bedrock of our relationship, and young Americans do not believe Israel shares our values," said Fern Oppenheim, one of the group's co-founders. "That's a huge issue. We have to have a narrative about the heart and soul and humanity of the Israelis."

The survey was conducted online last September and October by the polling firm Global Strategy Group, and sampled 2,600 Americans among a range of demographic groups.

Knowledge of Israel has gone up-but favorability is down.

More people say they know more about Israel now than they did in 2010. While only 23 percent of Americans said they knew at least a fair amount about Israel in 2010, the number rose to 37 percent in 2016. Knowledge of Israel grew among every demographic group except college students, where it fell precipitously-from 50 percent to just 34 percent, a number on par with the national average.

But it appears that the more Americans learn about Israel, the less they like it. In 2010, 76 percent of Americans viewed Israel favorably. In 2016, the number had fallen to 62 percent. Levels of support have dropped as well. In 2010, the study found that 22 percent of Americans were "core" supporters of Israel, which dropped to 15 percent by 2016.

Israel is losing out among a range of growing demographics, from Latinos to millennials.

The groups with relatively high levels of favorability toward Israel, according to the study, included men, Republicans and older Americans. The groups that like Israel less are the mirror image: women, Democrats and millennials, along with African-Americans and Latinos. And those population groups are all growing.

A majority of all these groups still sees Israel favorably, but the numbers are falling. Favorability among Democrats dropped 13 points, from 73 percent to 60 percent. Among women, it dropped from 74 percent to 57 percent.

Among African-Americans and Latinos, favorability toward Israel fell 20 points each, from about three-quarters each to just over half. Fewer than half of African-Americans and Latinos believe "Israel shares my values."

Most college students hardly hear about Israel at all.

Colleges are hotbeds of anti-Israel fervor, right? Not so much. The study found declining results for Israel among college students, but a majority still view Israel favorably. Moreover, contrary to what some advocacy groups might shrei, most college students hardly encounter the Israel debate at all.

Favorability toward Israel fell 17 points among college students between 2010 and last year, but still stands at 54 percent. Nearly all Jewish college students used to view Israel favorably, but even after a 13-point drop, the favorability stat still stands at 82 percent.

Still, Oppenheim noted a shifting picture among Jewish college kids. While 84 percent of Jewish college students leaned toward the Israeli side of the conflict in 2010, only 57 percent do now. Support for the Palestinian side, meanwhile, grew more than sixfold, from 2 percent to 13 percent.

Notably, nearly a third of Jewish college students said they experience anti-Semitism on campus. Of those, more than 40 percent said the anti-Semitism was not connected to Israel.

But what college students can agree on most regarding Israel is that they barely hear about it. More than three-quarters of college kids said Israel rarely or never comes up. On college campuses with an organized pro-Palestinian presence, the number drops only slightly, to 70 percent.

Americans see Israel as ultra-religious and war-torn.

Israel has spent years and millions of dollars trying to portray itself as the place where Gal Gadot invented the cherry tomato on the beach using Waze. Or something.

Israel's touting of its tech industry, warm climate and Mediterranean food may have worked a bit on Americans, who view Israel as innovative (78 percent) and cool (63 percent). But around three-quarters of Americans still see Israel as dominated by conflict. And though only 10 percent of Israeli Jews are haredi Orthodox, 73 percent of Americans view Israel as ultra-religious.

So while American Jewish leaders have protested this week that a small haredi minority dominates Israel, that minority, for many Americans, is the image of the Jewish state.
Individuals described by the United Nations as Palestinian refugees are pictured in Lebanon in January 1948.

While Israeli government ministers in recent weeks have dueled over the acceptance of Palestinian "refugees" in a possible future Palestinian state, experts say the Arab world continues to refuse to take responsibility for the issue.

"Unfortunately, responsibility is something which Arabs do not believe in, and therefore they demand that Israel solves a problem which they created," said Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a research associate at Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and a leading scholar on Arab culture.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman had called for no Palestinian refugees and their descendants to be admitted into the pre-1967 lines as part of a future Palestinian state. Instead, he said, they should be absorbed into the current Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled areas in the disputed territories. Lieberman made the comments at the recent Herzliya Conference.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett quickly rejected Lieberman's plan, telling Israel National News that the descendants of Arab refugees should not be allowed into Area C of the disputed territories, which is under full Israeli control.

"The idea of importing millions of refugee descendants from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan is a very dangerous idea that will flood Israel with Palestinian refugees. It took 40 years for Zionism to bring a demographic majority between the Jordan River and the sea," Bennett said.

"The solution to the descendants of the refugees-and I emphasize that these are the descendants of the refugees and not the refugees themselves-is to settle them in their places of residence," he added.

Today, there are an estimated 5 million Palestinian refugees and descendants of refugees. The pro-Israel community disputes this number because the Palestinians count descendants as refugees. The Palestinians are the world's only refugee group with a United Nations agency-UNRWA-dedicated solely to their concerns. According to U.N. Resolution 194, "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible."

In 2014, during the most recent round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared there was "no room to maneuver" on the Palestinian claim of a "right of return" for refugees.

Two-state solution's viability

The status of Palestinian refugees has long been a sticking point in Israeli-Palestinian final status negotiations.

Israel's current internal debate on the refugee issue comes amid uncertain prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. President Donald Trump, who has stated his desire to broker a peace deal, said in February, "I'm looking at two states and one state. I am very happy with the one that both parties like." Trump's remark broke with America's longstanding firm commitment to a two-state solution.

In the past, Netanyahu has repeatedly emphasized his support for a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes a Jewish state, but his current position on the issue is unclear.

Kobi Michael, a senior research fellow at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, told JNS.org any talk of a two-state solution "for the time being and under the current circumstances is a theoretical and irrelevant issue."

Nevertheless, Michael hypothetically analyzed the merits of Lieberman's plan. Demographically, Michael does not see a risk in allowing refugees into a Palestinian state, since they would not be a part of the state of Israel.

"I think that once [a Palestinian state] would be realized, the numbers would be limited to refugees from Lebanon and Syria, and even then, not all of them," Michael said.

Asked about the capacity of a future Palestinian state to absorb a large number of refugees, he said such a state would likely assimilate them in a cautious and gradual manner.

"They will not be able to do it alone, and therefore international aid and assistance is a must," said Michael.

Origin of the refugee issue

The refugee issue was born when six Arab armies invaded Israel during the War of Independence. The Arabs aimed to immediately eradicate the state of Israel following its declaration of independence in May 1948, and to expel the Jews living in the land.

Kedar explained that during the war, many Arabs living in Israel "fled back to their original countries, but were kept in refugee camps by the local states in order to return them back to Israel one day." Today, those Arabs and their descendants consider themselves "Palestinian refugees."

The refugee problem exists not only in Arab states, but also in PA-controlled territory, according to Kedar.

"Even Palestinians from Nablus did not absorb their brethren who ran away [in 1948] from Hadera, in northern Israel, since there is a cultural problem in the Arab world to absorb refugees, even if they are from the same country," he said. "The problem is called tribalism."

Kedar said the PA "is not a solution for anything; it is the problem."
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando has hired Ben Friedman as its new director of Community Relations and Leadership Development. He replaces Marli Porth, who has moved out of state with her family.

In his new role, Friedman coordinates the Federation's Jewish Community Relations Council and the Jerome J. Bornstein Leadership Development Program, among other duties. He brings legal experience and passion for advocacy to JFGO, having worked most recently as an associate at The Raben Group, a national public affairs and political strategy firm.

He honed his research and writing skills in the federal government, on Capitol Hill and in policy organizations. At The Raben Group, Friedman focused on political strategy, coalition building and legislative analysis. He has worked with the American Immigration Lawyers Association on the organization's strategic plan, and with FairVote to reform the U.S. electoral process through bipartisan political party engagement and legislative initiatives.

Friedman holds a Juris Doctor from American University Washington College of Law. While earning his J.D., he authored an independent research project on gerrymandering in congressional districts, participated in the WCL Program on Law and Government, and sat on the board of American University's Chapter of the American Constitution Society.

Friedman is a proud native of Florida and was raised in St. Augustine. He earned his bachelor's degree in Political Science from Florida State University.

Prior to joining The Raben Group, Friedman worked as a law clerk in the office of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn at the Federal Communications Commission. He worked on congressional oversight in the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Office of Oversight and Investigations. He has also served as a legal intern with the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, and as legislative intern with Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida.

Friedman said he is looking forward to playing a key role in JFGO's mission to build and nurture a unified Jewish community.

"After spending several years in Washington, I'm thrilled to be returning to my roots in the Florida Jewish community," he said. "The important work done by the Federation extends well beyond our region, and I'm honored to join the dedicated professionals who carry out its mission every day."

"My family taught me the importance of a vibrant and active Jewish community, and I'm proud to be playing a role in ensuring the same opportunities that benefited me exist for generations of Jews to come."

You can contact Ben Friedman at bfriedman@jfgo.org.
(JTA)North Carolina lawmakers passed a bill that would bar the state from doing business with companies that boycott Israel.

Both houses of the General Assembly passed the bill last week. Gov. Roy Cooper must sign the measure before it becomes law.

It passed the state House of Representatives by a vote of 96-19 and the state Senate by a vote of 45-3.

Under the legislation, state institutions must stop contracts with companies that boycott companies or products made in Israel. The bill also prohibits future work with such companies.

North Carolina businesses conduct nearly $140 million per year in exports and commerce with Israel, according to the North Carolina Jewish Federation.

North Carolina will become at least the 22nd state with laws or executive orders banning state business with companies that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, against Israel.
A Jewish man prays at the tomb of the biblical matriarch Sarah in Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs, Nov. 25, 2016.

An upcoming vote by the United Nations cultural body UNESCO on whether to declare Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs as an endangered Palestinian heritage site is the latest example of "narrative warfare" against Israel and Jews, legal experts say.

As part of an ongoing Palestinian-engineered diplomatic campaign, an "emergency resolution" UNESCO presented to its World Heritage Committee claims Israel is causing "irreversible negative effect on the integrity, authenticity and/or the distinctive character of the property," which the resolution refers to not as the Cave of the Patriarchs, but as the Ibrahimi Mosque. The Hebron site is where the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah are believed to be buried.

The vote is tentatively scheduled to take place during UNESCO's July 2-12 summit in Krakow, Poland.

"Anyone who comes to the Cave of the Patriarchs can see that the building is well-maintained, and open for members of all faiths to pray," said Yishai Fleisher, international spokesman for the Jewish community of Hebron, who noted that the site's largest room is reserved almost exclusively for use as a mosque by local Arabs.

Further, Fleisher explained that like the Western Wall, "the Cave of the Patriarchs monument was built by a Jewish king"-King Herod, more than 2,000 years ago.

"Suggesting first, that the site of the burial of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs is a Palestinian heritage site, and then suggesting that the site is in danger, is a fraudulent interpretation of history. It is a classic case of the narrative warfare the Palestinians are waging on the Jewish people," Fleisher, a trained lawyer, told JNS.org.

In May, UNESCO's Executive Board passed a resolution denying Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. Last October, UNESCO passed two separate resolutions ignoring Jewish ties to Jerusalem's holy sites. Israel needs seven opposing votes in the committee to block the Cave of the Patriarchs resolution. None of the 10 countries opposing May's resolution against Israeli sovereignty are part of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, which seemingly stacks the odds against Israel in the upcoming vote.

'Fake history'

The claims that UNESCO submitted for the resolution included pictures of neglected areas of Palestinian-controlled Hebron that were being passed off as parts of Hebron's small, Jewish-controlled Old City, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely noted.

"We have become used to the concept of 'fake news,'" she said. "Well, welcome to 'fake history.'"

Irony of the vote

According to Eugene Kontorovich, a senior researcher at the Kohelet Policy Forum think tank and a professor of law at Northwestern University, the Palestinians are "essentially turning the U.N. specialized agencies into an echo chamber for the most extreme, deranged anti-science claims, and making a laughingstock of the U.N."

"It is particularly ironic that the U.N.'s economic, science and culture organization is taking as anti-science a measure as one can get, because there is no debate amongst historians about the Jewish connection to the Cave of the Patriarchs," Kontorovich told JNS.org. "As a matter of historical science, that is not disputed."

"The Cave of the Patriarchs has been there for over 3,500 years (predating King Herod's monument at the site), so it is very strange that all of a sudden there is an emergency," Kontorovich said.

Kontorovich pointed out that UNESCO has drafted a resolution targeting the one holy site at which members of any faith can openly come to pray, and have for decades.

"It is ironic that this is being treated is an emergency, because what we see is in areas where there is Palestinian or Muslim control, Jews cannot freely access for prayer, such as the Temple Mount, and more acutely, the Tomb of Joseph in Shechem. That would be a true issue for UNESCO to address," he said.

'Pogrom on Jewish history'

Kontorovich said the "truly shameless part" is that UNESCO is holding the vote in Krakow.

"The place where Jews were killed without a burial in Europe is the place where the Palestinians are going to deny the very first Jewish burial place," he said, adding, "I would hope that the Polish government, that really tries hard to honor the memory of the Holocaust, would not allow the site of one of the largest crematoria in Europe to be used for an attempt to erase Jews from history."

Echoing this sentiment, Fleisher called the vote a "pogrom on Jewish history taking place in Krakow."

Unilateral actions and responses

While the Oslo Accords call for neither Israelis nor Palestinians to take unilateral actions, the Palestinians "feel that they can do whatever they want unilaterally within the international diplomatic and political scene, without fearing any consequence," Kontorovich said.

"The question is whether there will be any consequences, and what is the Israeli government going to do?" he said.

In May, Israel deducted $1 million from its annual funding to the U.N. following the resolution on sovereignty in Jerusalem. Israel also withheld $2 million from the world body following the passage of anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N. Human Rights Council in March, and cut $6 million in U.N. funding in the aftermath of last December's U.N. Security Council Resolution that described eastern Jerusalem's Jewish holy sites as "occupied Palestinian territory."

Kontorovich said Israel should go further and "cut the last penny to UNESCO," particularly because the U.S. already no longer funds the cultural body. He asked, "How can it be that Israel is contributing to UNESCO, and the U.S. is not?"
Israeli soldier injured in suspected Palestinian car ramming, knife attack

JERUSALEM (JTA)An Israeli soldier was moderately wounded after a suspected car ramming and knife attack in the West Bank.

The attack took place Monday afternoon near the West Bank settlement of Tekoa, the IDF said.

The alleged attacker was shot by Israeli forces. He was treated at the scene by Israel Defense Forces medical personnel. The attacker, who was not immediately identified, later died at the scene, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.

The Palestinian driver of the vehicle reportedly veered to hit Israeli soldiers stationed outside of the settlement and hit a streetlight, knocking it over. It is unclear whether the vehicle or the falling streetlight injured the soldier. The driver then exited the vehicle and attempted to stab nearby soldiers with a knife.

The injured soldier, 20, was taken to Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem for treatment.

Dozens, including local bishop, attend ceremony commemorating Jedwabne pogrom

WARSAW, Poland (JTA)Some 100 people attended a ceremony commemorating the victims of the pogrom in Jedwabne in northeast Poland.

For the first time ceremony was attended by Bishop Rafa Markowski, president of the Council for Religious Dialogue and the Committee for Dialogue with Judaism, who said that the Catholic Church prays for the Polish perpetrators of the murder and apologizes for it.

On July 10, 1941, a few dozen local perpetrators burned alive more than 300 Jews in a barn in the village of Jedwabne.

Markowski recalled that his predecessor, Bishop Mieczysaw Ciso, had said that if the Nostra Aetate Declaration, on the relationship of the Church to non-Christian religions, was announced in 1939, there would not have been a pogrom in Jedwabne or in Kielce in 1946, or perhaps there would not have been the Holocaust.

Emil Jeowski, from Israels embassy, read a letter from Israels Ambassador to Poland Anna Azari, in which she emphasized that Israel remains friendly as it watches the difficult path being taken by Poland to learn its history.

The demands of our religion are for us to remember and not forget, said Anna Chipczyska, chairman of the board of the Warsaw Jewish Community, who was attended to during the ceremony for the first time by a bodyguard.

The ceremony also was attended by, among others, Mateusz Szpytma, deputy president of the Institute of National Remembrance; Wojciech Kolarski of the Chancellery of the President Andrzej Duda; Aaron Fishman of the U.S Embassy, and Rolf Nikel, Germanys ambassador to Poland.

Isaac Lewin, whose family was murdered during the pogrom, came from Israel to recite the Kaddish prayer at the site, as he does every year.

A monument commemorates the events.

The pogrom was described in detail by Jan Tomasz Gross in his 2000 book Neighbors. The Institute of National Remembrance began an investigation into the pogrom, but three years later the investigation was discontinued, and Polish nationalists have tried to discredit Gross and blame the pogrom on communists and the Nazis.

In 2001, President Aleksander Kwaniewski apologized for the pogrom on behalf of him and Polish people whose conscience is touched by the crime.

Anti-Semitic graffiti spray painted near high school in Denver suburb

(JTA)Anti-Semitic graffiti was spray painted on a highway underpass near a high school in a Denver suburb.

Build that wall and Hitler was right were painted next to a drawing of a swastika near a high school in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

The graffiti discovered last week by a resident out jogging is the sixth incident in the Metro-Denver area in recent months, The Denver Channel reported.

The Douglas County Sheriffs Office investigated the crime, but closed the case after not finding any clues with which to identify a suspect, according to the report.

The Anti-Defamation League in a statement condemned the graffiti attack. There is no place for such hateful, bigoted messages in our community, said ADL Regional Director Scott L. Levin.

The ADLs annual Audit of Anti-Semitic incidents found 45 incidents in Colorado in 2016, compared to only 18 incidents in 2015.

Police investigate Islamic activist who blamed deadly London fire on Zionists

(JTA)A British Islamic activist who said during a rally in London last month that Zionists were responsible for the deaths of dozens in a tragic apartment fire is under investigation by police.

London Metropolitan Police are investigating allegations that Nazim Ali, a director of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, made anti-Semitic comments during the annual anti-Israel Al-Quds Day parade, The Telegraph reported. Al-Quds is the Muslim name for Jerusalem.

Ali told the June 18 rally: As we know in Grenfell, many innocents were murdered by Theresa Mays cronies, many of which are supporters of Zionist ideology.

At least 80 people were killed June 14 when fire swept through the low-income, high-rise Grenfell Tower apartment building in West London. Protesters blame the government for ignoring safety issues in the building.

Ali also said: Let us not forget that some of the biggest corporations who were supporting the Conservative Party are Zionists. They are responsible for the murder of the people in Grenfell, in those towers in Grenfell, the Zionist supporters of the Tory Party.

Footage of his comments was posted online.

In other comments he said: It is the Zionists who give money to the Tory party, to kill people in high rise blocks... Careful, careful, careful of those rabbis who belong to the Board of Deputies, who have got blood on their hands.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews is the Jewish umbrella organization.

The Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom, told The Telegraph that it was grotesque for Ali to link his opposition to Israel with the Grenfell tragedy.

In any circumstance, these comments would have been utterly hateful, but to hang them on what happened at Grenfell Tower beggared belief. It was, of course, a pro-Hezbollah demonstration, but such hatred would have been staggering even in Beirut or Tehran, never mind the streets of London, a Community Security Trust spokesman told the Telegraph.

A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed to the newspaper that allegations of anti-Semitic comments during the Al-Quds Day parade remain under investigation.

Lawyers for Jewish woman in Montana cant find the neo-Nazi she is suing

(JTA)Lawyers for a Jewish woman in Montana say they are unable to track down a neo-Nazi she is suing for launching a harassment campaign against her and her family.

Tanya Gersh of Whitefish, Montana announced in April a suit against Andrew Anglin, the founder of the white nationalist website, The Daily Stormer, for revealing her personal information and inflicting emotional distress. After a three-month search, Gershs lawyers are still trying to find Anglin to deliver the suit.

Anglin launched a campaign in December against Gersh after Sherry Spencer of Whitefish, mother of another white supremacist, Richard Spencer, posted an article on Medium targeting Gersh, a real estate agent, over a real estate dispute. The next day, Anglin made a post for his subscribers titled Jews Targeting Richard Spencers Mother for Harassment and ExtortionTAKE ACTION!

Gersh claims that anonymous internet users harassed her family after Anglin revealed her her home address and phone number, her husbands business contact information and her sons Twitter handle.

The suit accuses Anglin of invading Gershs privacy and violating a Montana anti-intimidation law. The Daily Stormer created a campaign on WeSearchr to pay for Anglins legal expenses, raising more than $152,000 in donations from nearly 2,000 contributors. According to The Associated Press, Anglin has yet to reveal his whereabouts to face Gershs claim.

Gershs lawyers from the Southern Poverty Law Center have said that, based off procedure, her suit must be dismissed if Anglin isnt served a copy of it by July 17. Her team is asking the court for an extended deadline.

Kosher bakery delivery truck used in Miami bank robbery

(JTA)A delivery truck of a popular Miami-area kosher bakery was used in a bank robbery.

One of the six delivery trucks from the Zak the Baker kosher bakery and deli was stolen on Wednesday while the driver stopped on his delivery route, bakery owner Zak Stern told Miami.com. Before calling police, Stern first called his clients who would not be getting bread that day, he said.

Before police could locate the stolen van, which is white with the word Bakery emblazoned in black across the side, it was used as a getaway car in a local bank robbery, according to reports. The thieves got away with an unspecified amount of cash from the TD Bank branch at 7400 SW 40th St.

Police first had to determine whether the van used was the stolen vehicle or one of the other five vans in Sterns fleet. Some of the other vans in the fleet were pulled over by police as they attempted to locate the right one, according to Miami.com.

The truck was found abandoned several hours after the robbery, and later was returned to Stern.

179-year-old NYC Conservative synagogue to go condo

(JTA)A historic 179-year-old Conservative synagogue in New Yorks Upper West Side is moving forward with plans to house a 14-story apartment building.

The proposed project for the Shaare Zedek synagogue includes 20 condominiums, with a community center for the synagogue in the buildings first three floors, The Real Deal, a website focusing on New York real estate news, reported last week.

Some community members, concerned about issues such as increased traffic in the area, had asked the citys Landmarks Preservation Commission to consider naming the synagogues building a city landmark, but the commission issued a decision in October that the building didnt rise to the level of an individual landmark, The Real Deal reported.

Synagogue president Michael Firestone said in September during a community board member meeting that the congregation could not remain solvent without partnering with a developer, as several New York synagogues have done in recent years, The Real Deal reported, citing DNAinfo.

The synagogue, the third oldest in New York City, was established in 1837 by Polish immigrants, according to its website. It started on the Lower East Side and moved to Harlem before building at its current location. The current synagogue building was dedicated on April 15, 1923, and in 1944 the congregation paid off the mortgage.

Newcomer Avi Gabbay wins election to lead Israeli Labor party

(JTA)Avi Gabbay will lead Israels Labour party after defeating his opponent in the second round of primaries.

On Monday evening, Gabbay, who switched to the center-left Labor party several months ago from Kulanu, a smaller center-right party, won the election to head the party, garnering 52 percent of the vote. His opponent, Amir Peretz, a former Labor head and defense minister got 47 percent of the vote.

Gabbay, a former environmental protection minister who was seen as a dark horse candidate in the Labor race, and Peretz advanced to the second round of voting after beating current opposition leader Isaac Herzog in the first party primaries last week. In the first round, Peretz got 33 percent of the vote, Gabbay got 27 percent and Herzog, who has served as the partys chief for one four-year term, got 16 percent.

Labor currently serves in the Knesset as part of the opposition bloc Zionist Union in partnership with the small Hatnua party of former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Zionist Union holds 24 seats in the 120-member parliament.
Well, Ill admit I was wrong. It happens.

In the body of an article of mine about four months ago, I asserted that if Israel allowed the creation of any type of West Bank Palestinian State where Israel did not have the absolute right to restrict Palestinian immigration and entry the Palestinian Arabs could invite anyone they want into their state, including thousands of Hezbollah and tens of thousands of Iranian volunteers for Palestine.

Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah just stated that in a war with Israel, hundreds of thousands of fighters from all around the Arab and Islamic world [would] participate in this fightfrom Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan. If Nasrallah could mobilize hundreds of thousands for a fight in Lebanon, he could rally many more than hundreds of thousands for a war against Tel Aviv and Jerusalem from the West Bank. So, I was wrong when I wrote thousands or tens of thousands of terrorists would flood a PA West Bank State to murder Israelis, but my title, How to get 1 million more terrorists into the Palestinian Authority and having to re-invade LOL was, otherwise, exactly correct.

But lets understand how disconnected some Israeli politicians are from the demographic dangers of a Palestinian West Bank state in light of my thesis of four months ago. The problem is, if a West Bank State is created, or even if substantial contiguous pockets of Palestinian Arab control are really created, and the PA is granted the sovereign right to import population, the PA would clearly be able to bring many of the so-called 8 million Palestinian refugees into its state. And the Palestinian Arabs can invite anyone else they want into their state, including thousands of Hezbollah and tens of thousands of Iranian volunteers for Palestine.

In this light, lets examine Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, for example. Recently, Mr. Liberman stated emphatically in a Facebook post, Let it be clear about an arrangement with the Palestinianswe will not agree that even one refugee will return to the 1967 borders. If they want to receive them in Shechem, Hevron or Qalqilyalet them do so. So, Liberman, apparently, is completely ok with letting the sovereign Palestinian West Bank state bring in millions of Arab, Iranian, Turkish Muslims into the West Bank where there currently is not enough water, sanitation facilities, food, jobs, or security to control the Palestinian Arabs who are there now. But, according to Liberman, the PA state can and should import many millions of Muslims and many will immigrate to the West Bank because they solely want to murder Israelis.

Can anyone expect the millions of newly-immigrated Muslims to just sit there and be happy with just the West Bank? Could Israel, in the future, even reinvade a West Bank Palestinian state with 5 million Muslims all armed with even just small arms? A Palestinian West Bank state doesnt solve Israels demographic threat or separate Israelis from the West Bank Muslims. It only magnifies the problem by many orders of magnitude.

Minister Naftali Bennett appears connected to the 2-State demographic catastrophic threat to Israel. In response to Libermans Facebook post, Bennett stated, No, Evet, this is a grave mistake, and we will not allow it. No descendant of a Palestinian refugee will cross the Jordan into the land of Israel. Whoever brings millions of descendants of Palestinian refugees to Judea and Samaria will destroy the Jewish majority that we have achieved between the sea and the Jordan River.

They live in Lebanon? Let them become citizens there. They live in Egypt or Jordan? Let them become citizens there. Let me remind you that in the War of Independence, 650,000 Jewish refugees were expelled from Arab countries. They arrived in Israel and immediately became Israeli citizens. The problem of the descendants of the Palestinian refugees will be solved at their place of residence (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, etc.), not between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. There is enough land in the Arab countries (300 times more than Israel!) and there is no need to bring them here, continued Bennett. Bringing in millions of Palestinians to Qalqilyaon Highway 6 is a demographic and security disaster. Therefore Yvette: No refugee will cross the Jordan. Neither the 1967 borders nor the 1948 borders.

So, there you have it, Defense Minister Liberman is unaware of this reality, and Bennett is. There are also the retired generals serving in the Knesset are who say, unrealistically, Were strong, we can create a Palestinian state because we can always reinvade if something goes wrong. They give lectures and have think tanks giving the impression that they actually have a solution.

Imagine if in addition to light arms, the 5 million West Bank Palestinians had modern anti-tank weapons like the Javelin? Or, if in addition to their basic 5-Million number, Nasrallah actually can import another 500,000 trained Muslim soldiers from all over the Muslim world? A PA State would be a Jihad-magnet for every Islamic terrorist in the world.

The bottom line is elections have consequences, and every vote is precious. Rational Israelis who dont want to be demographically wiped out cant bank on or vote for so-called centrists like Liberman or Netanyahu. They have to vote for the most right-wing person they can in hopes of staving off a 2-State annihilation of Israel.

Mark Langfan is chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) and specializes in security issues, has created an original educational 3d Topographic Map System of Israel to facilitate clear understanding of the dangers facing Israel and its water supply. It has been studied by U.S. lawmakers and can be seen at http://www.MarkLangfan.com.
The newly released details about a recent terrorist attack in Jerusalem show how easily Palestinian terrorists can enter Israelthus contradicting the phony claims that Palestinians movements are severely restricted by Israel.

The attack in question took place June 16. Three Palestinian terrorists killed a teenage Israeli policewoman named Hadas Malka, in Jerusalem. They also stabbed and shot several other Israelis, before they were killed.

The BBC rubbed salt in the victims wounds by headlining its reports of the attack: Three Palestinians Killed After Deadly Stabbing in Jerusalem. After being deluged with complaints, the BBC changed it to Israeli Policewoman Stabbed to Death in Jerusalem. Notice how, even in the corrected version, the Palestinians were still not identified as the aggressors. Many journalists seem to be incapable of writing a simple factual headline such as Palestinian Murders Israeli. Its just not in their vocabulary.

This week, the Israeli authorities released some important new details about the attack. It turns out that an Arab resident of Jerusalem served as an accomplice. The terrorists were residents of Ramallah and did not have the necessary permits to enter Israel. So, the accomplice, who did have permission to enter because he lives in Jerusalem, drove to Ramallah to pick up the killers.

Let me pause in the story to point something out. The reason the terrorists had to go all the way to Jerusalem to kill Israelis is because there are no Israelis in Ramallah.

How can that be? Isnt Ramallah in the West Bank? And isnt the West Bank still occupied territory, as J Street and the BBC and the United Nations keep telling us?

The answer is no. There are no Israeli troops or Israeli governor in Ramallah; then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin pulled them out in 1995. Ramallah is the de facto capital city of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Palestinians run the schools, the courts, the police force, the hospitals and everything else.

But Dennis Ross, the former U.S. Mideast envoy, wants everyone to think Israel is still occupying Ramallah. He repeated the occupation myth in a recent article in the Jewish Review of Books. I wrote a letter to the editor, pointing out that the Israelis long ago withdrew from the areas where 98 percent of the Palestinians reside. In response, Ross insisted that those territories are still occupied because Israel maintains control over movement.

Well, that control is sometimes remarkably loose, to judge by what happened to those three terrorists from Ramallah. The accomplice picked them up in his van, and drove to Jerusalem. He would have had to cross through an Israeli checkpoint to get into Jerusalem. Evidently the border guards waved him through that fact that he is a Jerusalem resident apparently was sufficient to trust him. It sounds like they didnt even check the papers of the three passengersbecause had they checked, the passengers would have been denied entry. And of course, Hadas Malka would still be alive.

I have written previously about Palestinian hiking clubs whose members go hiking for hours every Friday throughout the disputed territories, and never encounter Israeli soldiers or checkpoints. I have written about honest journalists who have reported that they move freely from Palestinian city to Palestinian city without Israeli interference.

Former Mideast envoys whose lives are dedicated to creating a Palestinian state may not like to acknowledge it, but 26 of Israels 27 checkpoints are not in Palestinian territory, restricting the movement of Palestiniansthey are at the border between Israel and PA-controlled territory. The purpose of Israels checkpoints is the same as the checkpoints that are located at every airport in the worldto make sure that passengers arent carrying any bombs, guns or other weapons with them. Briefly controlling the movement of people passing through a checkpoint does not make Israel an occupier.

All of uspresumably even Dennis Rossmust wait in line, empty our pockets and take off our shoes before were allowed to get on an airplane. That doesnt mean were being oppressed, restricted or occupied. They are the normal precautions that every country takes to protect itself. Surely Israel, the worlds top target for terrorist attacks, has the right to do likewise.

Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.
If you havent encountered the term Shia corridor yet, chances are that you will in the coming weeks, particularly if the ongoing confrontation between the U.S. and Iran in Syria intensifies.

What was initially a sideshow to the main battle against Islamic State in Syria is fast becoming the main focus of attention. In recent weeks, the U.S. has shot down at least two Iranian armed drones over Syria. A Syrian regime bomber jet supposedly attacking Islamic State positions near Raqqa was also downed, after it ventured too close to positions held by U.S.-allied forces. Armed skirmishes have been reported between U.S.-allied forces and Iranian-backed Shia Islamist militias. The Russiansallied with Iran in supporting the tyrant Bashar al-Assad in Damascusare also part of this dangerous equation, going so far as to declare that Moscows generals will treat U.S.-led coalition aircraft flying west of the Euphrates River in Syria as potential targets.

What does Iran hope to achieve here? To start with, its important to note that the international legitimacy the mullahs have enjoyed since the Iran nuclear deal of 2015 is starting to fragment. The U.S. Senate this month voted to slap new sanctions on Iran for its violations outside the terms of the nuclear deal, such as its use of ballistic missiles and its support for terrorist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon. Such political moves invariably have a significant economic impact, which is why Western banks continue to advise caution towards companies tempted to invest in Iran.

None of this fretting is of much consequence to the overtly revolutionary wings of the Iranian regime, most obviously the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is built to retain its enormous power with or without sanctions in place. But the eclipse of the Obama administrations engagement strategy with Iran highlights once again that it is institutions like the IRGC, much more than one or another foreign minister sounding reasonable and eloquent, that define the nature of power and influence in the Islamic Republic.

This is where the Shia corridor comes in. Irans goal to become the dominant power in the Islamic world involves more than religious or ideological influence. It requires the boots of Iran and its proxies on the groundas demonstrated already in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. It requires that Iran has easy, uninterrupted access to all those parts of the region where it exercises political control.

On one level, the idea of a Shia corridor seems a little fantastical. Almost 2,000 miles separate Tehran from the Mediterranean coast to its far west. The road between the two points is distinguished by rough terrain and the presence of numerous militias along the route, many of them belonging to Sunni Islamist factions hostile to Iran. In addition to heavy defenses on the ground, the corridor would need effective aerial warning systems, given Israels demonstrated willingness to bomb weapons shipments between Iran and its allies in Syria and Lebanon. Can a country with an ailing economy like Irans, that is now facing an increasingly hostile administration in Washington, D.C., really carve out such a corridor unopposed?

The point, for now at least, is Iran is doing precisely thatassisted by the lack of a defined U.S. policy towards not just the Iranian nuclear program, but its entire regional role; the absence of any appetite among the Europeans for a confrontation with Tehran; and the unprecedented support coming from Irans traditional foe, Russia, thanks to President Vladimir Putins benevolence.

In other words, Iran will face obstacles to its contiguous territorial path only if its adversariesnot just America, but also Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia, among othersare willing to place them there.

Does the advance of the corridor so far warrant such concern? At the end of May, a few correspondents in the region, among them the Israeli journalist Seth Franztman and the American reporter Dexter Filkins, reported that Iranian-backed militias had seized a cluster of villages along the Syrian-Iraqi border, thereby securing an encumbered road link between the IRGC in Tehran and its client in Damascus.

The development is potentially momentous, Filkins wrote in The New Yorker, because, for the first time, it would bind together, by a single land route, a string of Iranian allies, including Hezbollah, in Lebanon; the Assad regime, in Syria; and the Iranian-dominated government in Iraq. Those allies form what is often referred to as the Shiite Crescent, an Iranian sphere of influence in an area otherwise dominated by Sunni Muslims.

While those same Sunni Muslims are divided between those who see the Muslim Brotherhood or Iran as their main enemy, and those who accord that distinction to Israel and the U.S., Iran is presenting a unified Shia revolutionary stance toward the outside world. Iran has allies all the way from Lebanon to Bahrain, and Iran is their unmistakable leader. When looked at on the map, this status conveys the possibility of an Iranian empire that Tehrans actions in the field seek only to reinforce.

The consequences for Israel of a Shia corridor are, needless to say, acute. Since the war in Lebanon in the mid-1980s, Israel has been acutely aware of Irans ability to wage direct war on its territory, through the missile barrages of its Hezbollah proxy in Lebanon. The existence of a land corridor will transform Irans capacity in this regard, perhaps to the point where a land-based war launched against Israel from Syria and Lebanon could be as perilous as a nuclear attack.

For some time now, it has been an established fact that Hezbollah has increased its number of missiles pointed at Israel by a factor of 10, with newer and deadlier models now in operationdespite the existence of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, passed in 2006, which demands that Hezbollah disarm entirely. A land corridor would make any attempt to enforce this resolution a much harder task.

As always, Israel is prepared for the worst. But how it responds will depend, more than anything else, on how the Trump administration copes with the reality that America is once again locked in combat with its adversaries.

Ben Cohen writes a weekly column for JNS.org on Jewish affairs and Middle Eastern politics. His writings have been published in Commentary, the New York Post, Haaretz, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications.
HICKORY  Erika Velasco doesnt shy away from talking about growing up as an undocumented student in the country.

Her family moved to the United States from Mexico when she was a little girl.

While her parents taught her the value of hard work, it was the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy that opened the door to her future.

She shared her story during Wednesdays public forum hosted by Catawba Valley Community College, the Lenoir-Rhyne Universitys office of Multicultural Affairs and BB&T bank.

The event was at CVCC and included DACA information from Carla Vestal, immigration attorney at The Law Offices of Lyndon R. Helton, PLLC, in Hickory.

Knowledge is power

A 2009 graduate from Bunker Hill High, Velasco now works as CVCCs administrative assistant for the multicultural affairs office.

I knew I wanted to pursue higher education. It was very challenging to learn how to go about to start school in North Carolina, Velasco said.

She was eventually admitted to Belmont Abbey College where she received a scholarship and graduated with a bachelor of art in political science.

Even with a college degree, she wasnt sure how to find a job while being undocumented. President Barack Obamas DACA policy in 2012 was the solution for her, giving Velasco the chance to earn a work permit.

On June 15, 2012, the Secretary of Homeland Security announced certain people who came to the United States as children and meet several guidelines may request consideration of deferred action for a period of two years, subject to renewal, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, uscis.gov.

They also are eligible for work authorization. Deferred action is a use of prosecutorial discretion to defer removal action against an individual for a certain period of time. Deferred action does not provide lawful status, according to the announcement.

Velasco has seen DACA students face their own unique obstacles, like paying out of state tuition, but she told the audience it shouldnt deter students from pursuing higher education.

One opportunity you have are scholarships. If it does not specifically say that it requires U.S. citizenship, you can apply for it, Velasco said. You have a lot of hurdles you go through and people will tell you no and you have to learn how to look past that no and look for a yes.

Avoiding misinformation

Emma Sellers, the director of multicultural affairs at LRU, was eager to work with CVCC to host the forum because of the chance to help educate more people about the DACA issue.

Its good for folks to know, regardless of their citizenship, education is an opportunity for them, Sellers said. At Lenoir-Rhyne, we have several DACA students and theyre thriving.

With the (President Donald Trump) administration, I think some things are not as clear, some policies are shifting so I think its helpful to hear it from an expert.

This was the message Vestal shared with those attending the forum as well.

This is about DACA but its also about advance parole which is another option that might be useful after they have received DACA, Vestal said. Its very important to have this community discussion at the current time because DACA is still alive.

During his campaign, President Donald Trump suggested he would seek to end DACA, but just last month, his administration said they plan to keep it for now.

According to a statement June 15, Homeland Security announced DACA recipients will continue to be eligible as outlined in the June 15, 2012, memorandum.

The Department of Homeland Security did release a statement withdrawing the memorandum for extended DACA and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent residents (DAPA), according to dhs.gov.

DACA recipients who were issued three-year extensions before the district courts injunction will not be affected and will be eligible to seek a two-year extension upon their expiration. No work permits will be terminated prior to their current expiration dates.

Vestal said it was more for political show than an actual change in the law, something else that could confuse people dealing with immigration.

Extended DACA and DAPA were never implemented. When President (Barack) Obama attempted to implement it, he was blocked by federal judges in Texas, Vestal said.

Obama successfully appealed the ruling, but a 4-4 split decision by the U.S. Supreme Court meant the ruling by the lower court in Texas remained in place.

So while youre out in the community if anyone is trying to sell you extended DACA or DAPA, its not the law, Vestal said. Walk away.

Its a subject that cant be discussed enough, Vestal said.

There is a lot of misinformation in the community; people who are not authorized to practice immigration law; people who may want to take advantage of others, she said. With the current administration, immigration changes daily. I spend about an hour every morning reviewing memos and updates, things that have come out through the night.

For Vestal, it was a homecoming as alumni of both CVCC and LRU.

One of the most important things about being an attorney is being of service, Vestal said. You get the education. You get the title. You get the license and now its time to give back.

For more information about DACA or other immigration issues, call the American Immigration Lawyers Association at 202-507-7600 or visit aila.org.

For guidelines to request DACA, visit the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website uscis.gov.
NEWTON  A man was thrown from a vehicle after a head-on collision Thursday morning on Startown Road less than a mile away from Startown Elementary School.

The wreck, which resulted in the medevac of one driver, was just past the intersection of Startown Road and Rocky Ford Road in Newton.

The crash was reported to the Newton Fire Department at 9:05 a.m., NFD Tank Chief Randy Walker said.

A black Toyota mini-SUV was traveling southbound and crossed the solid double yellow line. The Toyota collided with a Hyundai midsized car, and the Toyota overturned and ejected the driver of the vehicle, North Carolina State Highway Patrol Trooper K. Evans said.

The overturned vehicle only contained one person, and the other vehicle contained two, Evans said.

The man thrown from the overturned vehicle was airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, Evans said.

The man remains in stable condition, State Trooper B. Travis said.

The two passengers in the Hyundai were freed from the vehicle and their injuries were treated at Catawba Valley Medical Center.

It is not yet determined how fast the vehicles were traveling, Evans said.
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On 10th July reports poured in of the biggest data breach ever in India. User data allegedly that of Reliance Jio customers was displayed on a website which was subsequently taken down. Customer details, such as name, date of activation, email addresses and mobile numbers could be found in the list. In some cases even the Aadhaar number was available, which set alarm bells ringing. Jio called the data unauthentic and assured its 120 million active subscribers of the highest security. It said it was investigating the unverified and unsubstantiated claims of the website.

In The New Digital Era, Googles Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen wrote: Technology empowers all parties, and allows smaller actors to have outsized impacts. And those actors need not be known or official. To wit, we believe its possible that virtual states will be created and will shake up the online landscape of physical states in the future.

Estimates suggest 3.5 billion people or almost half the world used Internet in 2016. Some 12 billion machine-to-machine devices are likely to be connected to the Internet by 2020.

According to Cisco, Indias Internet users will shoot up from 373 million in 2016 to 829 million (59% of population) in 2021. Networked devices in India are likely to increase from 1.4 billion in 2016 to nearly 2 billion in 2021.

With the Narendra Modi government pushing digital governance to digital identities for citizens and the GST being implemented, protection of private, official and classified online data and transactions have emerged as immense challenges.

The UN telecom agency, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), ranked India 23rd among its 193 member countries in its second Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) released recently. The GCI measures commitments of countries to secure their cyber systems based on five key agendas: Legal, technical, organisational, capacity building and international cooperation.

Pawan Duggal, chairman of the International Commission on Cyber Security Laws, feels Digital Indias image has been left vulnerable with frequent UIDAI breaches, debit card forgeries, and cyber attacks from neighbouring state and non-state actors in the past few months.

India has a National Cyber Security Policy of 2013, which is a paper tiger since it was not implemented. Unlike Germany and China, India has no cyber Act. You are trying to repair a leaking roof by applying bandaids, said Duggal.

Tens of thousands of machines were left crippled on June 27, especially in the United States and Europe, following the Petya attack from unknown sources on key installation systems, including the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai. In May, corporate India scrambled for protection as Wannacry cyber attacks wreaked havoc upon some 200,000 organisations in some 150 countries. As per the ITU report, in 2016 one out of every 131 emails were malicious, the highest in five years. This is also a weapon of choice for cyber attacks for everyone from State-sponsored cyber espionage groups to mass mailing ransomware gangs.

Educational institutes are waking up to the growing demand for cyber security professionals beyond ethical hackers. The Delhi University plans to launch a masters programme in cyber security from its next academic session with prevention and mitigation as key elements. The IITs, NIT Kurukshetra and Gujarat Forensic Sciences University in Gandhinagar are few other institutions offering an MTech with cyber specialisations.

Amit Dasgupta, former diplomat and India country director at University of New South Wales, said, This is one of the great challenges of the 21st century. You have to proliferate an army of cyber security experts, through structured courses beyond just public awareness programmes.

In an increasingly interconnected online world, addressing digital risks must become high priority for the Indian government. Roles and duties of all stakeholders like the national cyber security coordinator, ministry of electronics and information technology, must be defined.

Importantly, e-initiatives must first ensure e-security.

Smita Sharma is a former journalist with India Today TV and Network 18

The views expressed are personal
In a museum an old radio has suddenly sputtered to life, and it is narrating stories that even 70 years on, make us cringe about our relationship with history, especially the violence of the Partition. This is the nightmare that Saadat Hasan Manto, perhaps the Indian subcontinents greatest literary export, wrote about in 28, one-to-four line, short stories that the radio is now broadcasting. There is a degree of paranoia and horror attached to Broadcast, a performance piece that is an ensemble of three different elements, Fouzia Dastangos narration, Stefan Kayes music and Ishaan Bharats improvised, and engineered-to-period design.

Bringing the three artists together and enabling this complex piece of performance and politics is Udayan Chakravarty, Director of Broadcast. Fouzia and I met some time ago. And she told me about these really short stories that Manto had written that had so much force, that I wanted to do something around it, Udayan says. But why choose Manto alone, given the fact that a number of authors have written around the Partition. Fouzia, a Dastangoi artist, says it is because Manto denudes ones conscience.

There is no sympathy in Mantos writing. It is like being slapped repeatedly with a wet hand. And he is unique because he is not only a mirror to the partition but to the violent climate we have since kept, she says. Fouzia in invoking the continuation of violence in the years that have followed the partition touches on something that is personal for her. During the 87 riots I saw my uncle being shot through a hole in the door. In 92, during the demolition of the Babri Masjid, I witnessed similar things. In Mantos writings I have always found a window to the world I have experienced up-close, she adds.

Broadcast can be situated somewhere between the musical piece and theatre, between performance and experience. Fouzia gives voice to Mantos stories, while Stefan, a British musician and founder of the jazz band Jass Bstards, performs his musical pieces besides her. But neither is restricted to complementing the other. They stand out on their own, as individual performance pieces, yet enhance, what the other is does.

In such a complex piece, where one of the two actors is sound, it becomes important how that sound is chosen.We couldnt simply choose instruments that did not fit the period. There have to be sounds that help people relate with the time, and also the brutal period back then. But Ill confess it was difficult and only made sense when I read the translations, Stefan says. He uses a variety of objects and instruments, 29 in total, to mime gunshot sounds, even thunder; objects like an earthern pot, a broken cymbal and a wooden spoon that he plays against a saw. It is all very organic, and real, as it would have been in that pre-digital age. All of it live.

Sadat Hasan Manto

That said, tuning a performance between words and music, both driven by tones, pitch and pace is no easy task. I did not even know what jazz music was before this.. So Ive had to learn as much about his role here, as I know about mine. There has to be synergy, Fouzia says. There is a real risk that both Stefans improvised music, in which he changes instruments in front of the audience, can either overpower Fouzias chilling recitation or become completely supplementary to it. Neither of which is ideal.

It is important for me to keep things moving. There has to be continuity even if we complete one piece and move on to the other. So it was the transition that took me the most time to figure. Picking the instrument, be it the sitar, the tabla , the dabuka or piano wasnt as difficult as figuring when they would come in, how they would fade out, and what would replace them, Stefan says. The importance of the correlation here is the fact that the music and the narration cannot, at any point disagree with each other. In horror there cant be irony, in grief there cant be indistinct sounds of life refusing to stand still and contemplate.

A crucial aspect of Broadcast which makes it both immersive and gives it its immediacy is the design. My family shifted from Pakistan after the partition. I had so many things lying at home, that had a story, or a sort of symbolism attached to it. When Udayan wanted me to do the set, and create a museum, I had a clear idea of what I wanted people to feel, as if they were a part of it when they walk in. Some of the objects we have used, we did not even clean. The dirt signifies history, Ishaan, who has designed the set, says.

At the centre of the whole performance, though, is the idea of a flawed radio. And therefore it makes sense, to close your eyes and listen, from time to time, rather than just watch Broadcast with open ears. I think the radio was a direct connection. Here it is speaking of violence that has, in a way, never really stopped. So this is a broadcast that we choose not to hear anymore because we hear what we want to hear. In a way, I guess, the dead radio is where we have left our sense of guilt, Udayan says.

What: Broadcast

When: 8.30 pm, July 15 and 16

Where: OddBird Theatre, SSN Marg, Chhattarpur

Nearest Metro Station: Qutub Minar

Call: 9540818862
Deepika Padukone is being advised by her followers to eat more and gain weight after she posted a new picture on Instagram.

The actor is being skinny-shamed by her many followers who think she looks malnourished in her cover shoot for Vanity Fair magazine.

@vanityfair @vanityfairuk A post shared by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) on Jul 12, 2017 at 10:00pm PDT

Deepika is seen posing in a black slip dress with a diamond necklace in the black and white photo. Her eyes look dark with the use of the smokey eye-shadow that she paired with nude lips.

A user asked her if she needs some food while others wondered if she is starving herself. Herere more responses to the picture:

Deepika shot for the magazine as a part of their jewellery edition. Herere more pictures from the shoot:

@deepikapadukone in @graff for #VanityFairOnJewellery. More pics at the link in or bio. Photo by @professor_ohlsson A post shared by Vanity Fair UK (@vanityfairuk) on Jul 5, 2017 at 8:33am PDT

The star of India who's dazzling Hollywood: @DeepikaPadukone covers #VanityFairOnJewellery wearing @degrisogono! See more pics at the link in our bio. Photo by @professor_ohlsson #deepikapadukone A post shared by Vanity Fair UK (@vanityfairuk) on Jul 5, 2017 at 2:29am PDT

@deepikapadukone in @boghossianjewels by @professor_ohlsson for #VanityFairOnJewellery, on sale Friday! See more pics at link in our bio and follow us to see more new shots released through the week! #deepikapadukone A post shared by Vanity Fair UK (@vanityfairuk) on Jul 5, 2017 at 3:56am PDT

Outtake of @earlsimms2 and @elizabethsaltzman putting the final touches to @deepikapadukone in our #VanityFairOnJewellery cover story, on sale now  Wearing @davidmorrisjeweller and @emanuelungaro_officiel Photo by @professor_ohlsson A post shared by Vanity Fair UK (@vanityfairuk) on Jul 7, 2017 at 7:21am PDT

All the pics from our @deepikapadukone #VanityFairOnJewellery cover shoot are now available at the link in our bio and on a newsstand near you! Pictured here wearing @cartier and @bymalenebirger  Photo by @professor_ohlsson A post shared by Vanity Fair UK (@vanityfairuk) on Jul 10, 2017 at 6:13am PDT

Deepika is currently shooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmavati with Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. She was last seen in her Hollywood debut, xXx: Return of Xander Cage.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Shab

Director: Onir

Cast: Raveena Tandon, Ashish Bisht, Simon Frenay

Rating: 3/5

Raveena Tandon in a still from Shab.

Onir explored various shades of issues that have forever been sidelined by the society -- people in homosexual relationships or suffering at the hands of AIDS -- in his previous ventures. This time, the National Award-winning filmmaker delves into the murky world of Delhi and the unconventional relationships that take wing in the shadow of the citys high-class lifestyle, with Shab. With his brilliant understanding of human emotions, Onir takes a leap into the forbidden love stories of the society with his latest venture.

Shab traces the lives of four characters - their personal struggles and love lives. Mohan (Ashish Bisht) is a small-towner who travels from Dhanaulti to Delhi with the hope of becoming a successful model. He is rejected at a talent hunt after being mocked for his lack of finnese and is ridiculed for his broken English. One of the judges, however, finds her fantasy in this young man and there starts our first love story. She is Sonal Modi (Raveena Tandon), a rich trophy wife whose husband has no interest in her life. She decides to make Mohan her boy-toy. Meanwhile, Mohan meets Raina (Arpita Chatterjee) and Neel (Areesz Gandii) who appear to be caring, helpful and hard-working people and offer him all the help he needs.

While Neel is recovering from a broken relationship, Raina appears to be mostly concerned about her younger sisters well-being even as she nurtures some darker secrets.

Onirs expertise is seen in the way he handles these characters and their stories - his sensible filmmaking is written all over the frames. Even when showing stereotypical mindsets in our society, he makes it a point to balance out the narrow-minded comments by placing sane-minded characters nearby, giving them at least one or two jibes to throw at the prejudiced characters.

Shab is the darkest film Onir has made till date. With the film, he explores the morally wrong shades of human relationship without letting the audience hold any judgments - he shows us the emotional turmoils of people in these relationships. Though the reason behind such endeavours is revealed much later in the film, what we get to witness, are the everyday struggles. Of the four main characters, Onir seems to give a bigger window into the hearts of Mohan and Sonal.

Raveena Tandon has given one of her most sensual, brilliant performances in Shab. She manages to bring out every single element of a rich and lonely trophy wife who does not shy away from paying up for the love she desires. She is authoritative, demanding and dominant when Mohan but becomes a loyal, caring wife when sitting beside her husband (Sanjay Suri) in a party. Her last scene, where she is told that her credit card is blocked, is something you will appreciate the most. When asked to pay up later at a hotel, she takes off her jewelry, places them at the counter and tells the man behind the cash counter, Tell my husband that her wife has kept all this for guarantee. And the masterstroke comes when she places her heels at the counter as well.

Ashish has an air of innocence about his presence that adds to the credibility of his character and makes his efforts shine through.

Shab is a dark, haunting film about human emotions, relationships, love and betrayal that thrive in a rather opportunistic and materialistic world of Delhis elite society.

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When a politician writes a book, readers like me perk up. The logic is simple; in an impervious political system like ours, only an insider account can reveal what goes on inside political parties, how the nations most consequential decisions are made, what is the pecking order and how the high-command culture plays out in real life. True that the accounts of politicians are one-sided, but they still give away a lot between the said and the unsaid. A case in point is BJP stalwart Jaswant Singhs account of the Pokharan nuclear tests, the Kargil war, or the moral dilemmas involved in the aftermath of the hijacking of IC 814 flight from Kathmandu to Kandahar. In his book, A Call to Honour, the Vajpayee confidant throws hints about the politics of the day while describing things like the failed Agra Summit and the post-Pokharan Indo-US engagements. Congress leader Natwar Singhs One Life Is Not Enough tells us a great deal about the mind and methods of the Congress President Sonia Gandhi. In The Accidental Prime Minister another insider, Sanjay Baru, unravels Manmohan Singhs generous attitude to corruption of others while maintaining high standards of probity for himself. Ashwani Kumars book obviates all such clues. The former Union Minister ponders over matters of life and politics but ducks the realpolitik altogether. The book is written in a different genre and is unlike any other politicians book on politics. It is neither a revelation of an insider nor a commentary on Indias peculiar polity. As a result, the book stays clear of controversies, intra-party disputes and the juicy bits of political culture.

Kumar was in parliament during Anna Hazares movement, which marked the downward slide of the Congress party. Kumar manages a kind word for Anna but describes his activism as anarchist politics. To him, the Constitution allows laws to be made only by Parliament and any attempt to do so on the street would be extra-legal. His speeches, however, omit the anxieties about the hijack of legislations and policies by the vested interests which was at the core of the anti-corruption movement. In a way, this reflects the Congress partys disconnect with the street. Kumars book is a record of his views and works in the last fourteen years. It is essentially a compilation of his many speeches in the Rajya Sabha where he spent three terms as a Congress MP. The topics are varied and the speeches are well-researched. The author maintains that a persuasive speech leaves its mark in many ways. One may add that speeches can stir an audience but dont always make great bedside reading.

Supporters of Anna Hazare protesting against corruption at the Ramilia grounds in New Delhi on 20 August, 2011. (M Zhazo/Hindustan Times)

One consistent theme of his speeches is the idea of, and access to, Justice. Time and again, the author takes pains to connect the dots between constitutional equilibrium and the institutions of a liberal democracy. He tries to anchor political discourse in reason, which is not always easy, and for common good. To him, the issues of communalism, poverty and development are intrinsically connected to the state of mutual tolerance and social cohesion, which are central to his idea of India.

Author Ashwani Kumar (Sanjeev Verma/HT)

This brings us to another common thread in the speeches, the social democratic agenda of the Congress, which nobody in the party seems eager to defend these days. On Jammu and Kashmir, he invokes healing of the wounds while on national security he tries to stay above partisan politics, which is a hallmark of a liberal mind. Unlike many of his fellow Congress Ministers who secretly tried to dilute the RTI law, Kumar upholds it as an essential component of the citizens freedom. He maintains that the RTI and judicial accountability will enhance the quality of democracy in India.

Read more: Tell-all political books fly off the shelves

Those who have known Kumar the politician, vouch for his grace and erudition which is reflected throughout in the book. He is sensitive to the sufferings of the poorest and talks about hopelessness in the face of injustices of all kinds. The flip side, however, is that his book does not seriously offend, irritate or encounter either ideological enemies or those who denounce his idea of India.

Vipul Mudgal heads Common Cause and im4change.org
Yoga guru Ramdev promoted Patanjali Ayurveda has been featured among the top 10 most influential brand in India along with electronic major Samsung and new entrant Reliance Jio, according to a study by the global research firm Ipsos.

Besides, Google has been ranked at the top slot while Microsoft and Facebook were ranked at number two and three, respectively.

Home grown Patanjali and Mukesh Ambanis controlled Reliance Jio have bagged the fourth and ninth position, respectively, Ipsos said in its report of most influential brands.

Interestingly, Patanjali and Reliance Jio made an impressive entry as they did not figure in the previous edition of the study.

The Ipsos study, which evaluates over 100 brands across 21 countries, covered more than 1,000 Indians online to assess over 100 brands. The study involved 36,600 interviews.

Commenting on the development, Ipsos Public Affairs and Loyalty Executive Director Parijat Chakraborty said: The Most Influential Brands are larger than life. They enhance our lives, make it better. We connect with them emotionally and cannot imagine our lives without them  they are influential.

State Bank of India (SBI) being the only financial institution that made to the list, moved up four ranks to take the fifth position.

E-commerce player Flipkart dropped three spots to take the tenth place while Amazon climbed couple of steps to take the sixth place, the study said.

Other companies that made to the list include Samsung (7th) and Airtel (8th).

The study measured the biggest, most well-known and highest spending brands.

Interestingly, all brands that have featured in the list are those that consumer engages with on a daily basis, the study said.

In the ranking list from 11 to 20, brands that bagged a place include Snapdeal, Apple, Dettol, Cadbury, SONY, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Good day and Amul.

The brands are rated by the consumers on quality, experience and value, as also factors such as big marketing spends and consciously work towards increasing their brand equity were counted, the study said.
The house of Mohammad Murtaza is under lock and key. His neighbour, Abdul Hakim, has also left with his family for a place known to none.

A little ahead in the lane at Sobhapur village in Jharkhands Seraikela-Kharsawan district, three more houses were also found locked and the families traceless.

An uneasy calm prevails in the village, with around 130 houses, 80 of them Muslims, that witnessed grisly scenes of violence as an agitated mob lynched four men, all Muslims, on suspicion of being child lifters on May 18. Investigations later revealed that they were planned murders, and alleged cattle theft and smuggling  not child lifting  was the actual cause of the lynching.

During the lynching, the berserk mob had also attacked and vandalised few houses. Those families were the first ones to flee.

Villagers after much persuasion revealed that the families have migrated days after the lynching incident. More families are planning to shift to safer places, they said.

Around one and half months after the gruesome incident, in Sobhapur and neighbouring Muslim-dominated Haldipokhar from where the victims hailed, the local populace has undergone a lot of social, political, and behavioural changes.

Muslims and Hindus, who peacefully coexisted and lived in harmony for decades, look at each other with suspicion. Muslims in Sobhapur  the only village under Rajnagar police station area, around 170 km from capital Ranchi, with a sizeable Muslim population  are feeling insecure and migrating gradually to safer places.

A Hindustan Times team traced Murtaza in Haldipokhar, a semi-urban Muslim colony housing at least 1200 families, eight kilometres from his village, where he has built a small asbestos roofed house on the outskirts.

I feel safe here, he said, putting up a plastic sheet outside his house to cover few household articles from the rain.

It was painful migrating from the village where I was born and my forefathers lived but there is nothing else we could have done. The fear of reprisal after massive police crackdown against those involved in the lynching loom large on the Muslim families, Murtaza rued.

Md Murtaza and his children at their new home in Haldipokhar, East Singhbhum. (Manoj Kumar/ Hindustan Times)

A farmer, he occasionally visits his farms in Sobhapur for a couple of hours during the day but returns before sunset just like other villagers who have stopped stepping out of the house in the night.

We are living in constant fear. The only solace is the newly set up police outpost in our village. Their presence is giving us strength, said Md Zakir, who hasnt migrated yet.

At Hata Chowk, the local market, Muslims shut their shops early.

Nowadays, we shut our shops as early as 6pm. Women back home get worried if we do not reach home after sunset, said Sheikh Salim, the elder brother of Sheikh Halim, who was killed along with his other business partners on that ill-fated day.

Late Sheikh Halim's father, Qazimuddin, elder brother, Sheikh Salim and his three minor children. Halim was among the four Muslim cattle traders lynched by irate mob on May 18 at Sobhapur village in Seraikela-Kharswan district. The family now lives in Haldipokhar village in East Singhbhum. (Manoj Kumar/ Hindustan Times)

Several Hindu families from Sobhapur and adjoining villages such as Kamalpur, Adarhatu, and Gopinath are also missing due to fear of being arrested.

A couple of local Hindu and Muslim leaders confided that the four men who were lynched paid a price for their wrongdoings.

They were making huge money by lifting cattle from streets, villages in their SUVs, mini trucks and selling them to slaughterhouses. Sometimes, they would butcher the cattle in their vehicles to accommodate more, said a Muslim Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader requesting not to be named.

Police said they have arrested 19 accused so far and that a search is on to arrest others involved in the crime. The government had suspended the local police station in-charge, circle inspector, deputy commissioner and police superintendent, holding them responsible for the lynching.

A completely new set of administrative and police officials are leaving no stone unturned to ensure justice prevails and normalcy returns.

We need to verify the allegations. But for the time being, our priority is to ensure normalcy returns to the villages and we have succeeded much in that direction, superintendent of police Chandan Kumar Sinha said.

The government showed resolve and took the harshest action against the callous authorities and accused. Things are back to normal, local BJP leader Ramesh Hansda stressed.
The Indo-Israeli concord brings some cultural reflections with it. My school on Pedder Road in Bombay was run by a dashing Jewish woman, Sophie Kelly, and I recall seeing the palm hut for Sukkot put up on her big balcony.

I had Jewish classmates when I lived in Cochin and my mother had Jewish friends. I was invited to Passover Seder in Delhi. I grew up greatly admiring Jewish people for their brilliance and work ethic.

Despite their history of persecution, they excelled in education, won more Nobels than most for contributing to human knowledge and produced some of the most uplifting music the world has heard. Scholar David Shulman of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, pulled off a civilisational coup in 2016 with his book, Tamil: A Biography.

I also respect Jews for sticking by their faith. Their god may seem stern to some while I may have too many graven images, as Roy, a Jewish doctor in London told me in 1997 over lunch. However, we both knew that three Jewish communities had found a haven amid my graven images. Meanwhile, the perception among Jews who did not know India seemed to change over time.

The first Jewish-Hindu summit was held in India in 2007. The second was held in Jersusalem in 2008, resulting in a joint declaration by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, led by the Chief Rabbi, Shear Yeshuv Cohen, and the Hindu Dharmacharya Sabha, led by Swami Dayanand Saraswati: The participants reaffirmed their commitment to deepening this bilateral relationship predicated on the recognition of One Supreme Being, Creator and Guide of the Cosmos; shared values; and similar historical experiences.

Further, they recognized that the One Supreme Being, both in its formless and manifest aspects, has been worshipped by Hindus over the millennia. This does not mean that Hindus worship gods and idols. The Hindu relates to only the One Supreme Being when he/she prays to a particular manifestation.

They noted, The Svastika is an ancient and greatly auspicious symbol of the Hindu tradition. It is inscribed on Hindu temples, ritual altars, entrances, and even account books. A distorted version of this sacred symbol was misappropriated by the Third Reich in Germany and abused as an emblem under which heinous crimes were perpetrated against humanity, particularly the Jewish people. The participants recognize that this symbol is, and has been sacred to Hindus for millennia, long before its misappropriation.

This changed perception came home to me when on diplomatic assignment in Bangkok in 2009. The apartment across the landing was leased to the Israeli embassy, occupied by a couple who asked me over to tea and dinner. Their children took me on a tour of each floor to see Halloween decorations.

Our friendship began over the svastika. I had a painted clay one to hang outside my door. Then it struck me I had Jewish neighbours; what would they feel each time they opened their door? When I showed it to them though, they were perfectly sweet about it. We know about the real svastika, well tell our visitors too, they smiled, and we lived happily as neighbours.

shebaba09@gmail.com

The views expressed are personal

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If anything about Donald Trump has impressed me in the past year, it has been his rather incredible imperviousness to scandal and error. Each week of his election campaign seemed to produce another embarrassment, culminating in the leaked audio recording of him bragging about sexually assaulting women. To his critics, that tape confirmed everything we imagined about Trump the human being: a man who was crude, grasping, and more than a touch psychopathic. Many commentators were convinced that Trumps bid for the presidency was doomed.

A few weeks later, he won the election.

Winning the presidency didnt stop the parade of gaffes or dispel the air of farce. From his obsession with turnout figures at his inauguration to his amateurish conversations with world leaders, his administration has lurched from clumsy spectacle to clumsy spectacle. His policy agenda has faced constant rebukes, in the form of principled federal courts (defying his Muslim travel ban), a fractious and uncertain Republican party (still struggling to pass any bill on health care), and reality (theres no way Mexico will pay for a border wall).

And thats all before we consider the overriding theme of his young presidency, the subject that eats up all media oxygen in the United States: Trumps alleged ties to Russia. Since the beginning of the year, its become clear that many of Trumps associates maintained contacts with representatives of the Kremlin. The US intelligence community is in no doubt that Moscow attempted to disrupt the American elections. The suspicion that Trump and his lieutenants may have been in cahoots with Russia has raised the spectre of collusion.

So far, Trump has weathered the drip-drip revelations and fever-pitched news cycles with a kind of manic defiance. In every instance, Trump pushed back unapologetically, dismissing the whole saga as fake news drummed up by the media.

This tactic worked because it pandered to his right-wing base. While Trumps approval ratings are abysmal for this early stage of a presidency (hovering around 40%), upwards of 85% of Republicans still think hes doing well. For a large section of the American public, the Russia investigations are malicious noise, the hyperventilation of elites in New York and Washington.

Like other rulers in the strongman mould, Trump relies on polarising the public. He enjoys dividing the country between the virtuous patriots who back him and the craven, effete cosmopolitans who want to do him down. He is far happier grandstanding at rallies (which he still holds) than immersing himself in the warp and weft of governance. His fury at treatment by the media allows his presidency to remain in this declarative mode, with only gestures at performance.

That is why the emails released this week to and from Trumps son were so damning. They showed that members of Trumps campaign were willing to meet representatives of the Russian government, that they were aware that Russia wanted to help Trump against Hillary Clinton, and that both Trumps son and son-in-law Jared Kushner were closely involved in building connections to Russia. What Trump had so adamantly waved away as fake news was, in fact, rather real, and spelled out in his own sons emails.

For the first time, Trump supporters have begun expressing concerns about the administrations handling of the Russia imbroglio. Strong support for Trump has halved in many polls. Many loyalist pundits on Fox News havent tried to defend Trump. In an internal message, a top editor at the right-wing website Breitbart suggested that the emails raised the prospect of that dreaded word: collusion.

To his credit, I suppose, few other politicians could survive the distortions, stupidities and cruelties that Trump has made routine in his short political career. But in Paris on Thursday, he cut a bit of a dejected figure. He tamely defended his sons conduct. There was very little of his usual bluster, and one couldnt help feeling that for once he was shaken.

At this stage, further investigation may pull up more damning evidence of Trumps Russia ties. Or it may not. Regardless, the Trump administrations credibility is now not just in tatters, but non-existent. His presidency has taken a hard punch to the face  not from the media or the opposition, but from itself.

Kanishk Tharoor is the author of Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories

The views expressed are personal

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It is an odd moment to talk about hope and reconciliation in the Kashmir Valley in a month when a shameful terror attack on the Amarnath Yatra tailed another moment of horror a few weeks earlier  the lynching of policeman Ayub Pandith outside Srinagars Jama Masjid mosque by a mob shouting slogans in favour of Jihadist terrorist Zakir Musa.

Yet, despite my initial sense of utter hopelessness when the news of the terror strike came in, watching how the week has unfolded, for the first time in a year, four things give me some hope.

Mehbooba Mufti: There were glimmers of the old Mehbooba (she had retreated into a shell of silence all these months) who lost no time in hot-footing it to the hospital in Anantnag late at night where the injured pilgrims were being treated. She offered compassion, made no political statements and was unequivocal in her words. The head of every Kashmiri hangs in shame, she said, in an approach that was both firm and empathetic. This was the hands-on Mehbooba of the past, much more a feisty grassroots worker than an ivory-tower administrator, who had single-handedly built the party her father launched. Though I have gone from being an early supporter of the BJP-PDP alliance (I believed soft separatism and hyper-nationalism would moderate each other) to a critic of its ideological dissonance, Mufti redeemed a lot of her reputation with her clear-headed and deep-hearted response to the terror strike. Over the last few months it seemed as if governors rule was inevitable and an imperative. Now Mehbooba Mufti has bought her government breathing time. What she does in this time will be critical.

Rajnath Singh: The home minister is the other leader who rose well above the inchoate noise and toxic finger-pointing that followed the Amarnath Yatra attacks. He was mocked and viciously trolled  by his own party base  on social media for invoking Kashmiriyat and the syncretic history of the state. All because he made the point that the spontaneous, across-the-board condemnation in the Valley proved that Kashmiriyat was alive and well. Not just did he hold his own; it was left to him to say what should never have needed to be said: All Kashmiris are not terrorists. Of course It can be argued that politicians reference Kashmiriyat only during crises. And one must not look away from a creeping radicalisation in Kashmir and the romanticisation of caliphate-supporting militants like Burhan Wani. But as one of the senior-most ministers in the government whose job was to de-escalate tensions and make sure there was no further fallout on the street, in Jammu or elsewhere, it was incumbent on Singh to use his office to provide a measured and mature response. That he did so in the face of venomous backlash is even more laudable.

Salim Sheikh: The heroic bus driver from Gujarat who drove 50 Yatris to safety through a blizzard of gunfire has already won hearts. His quiet courage and modesty was perhaps the most affirmative story to emerge from an otherwise bleak week. But in an age of strident beef politics, depressing headlines about the lynching of mostly-Muslim cattle traders and a social media discourse that often descends into blatant communalism, Sheikh was a reminder, that when people are left to themselves, basic humanity supersedes any religious divide.

And finally, the hope of renewal came from the people of Jammu and Kashmir. In the last year Ive been alarmed at the massive turnout for the funerals of slain terrorists, the targeting of Kashmiri policemen and the disruption of encounters between security forces and terrorists by street agitators who throw stones, and sometimes attempt to snatch weapons. Ive argued with Kashmiri friends that extremists and Pakistan-backed Islamists have delegitimised even genuine political grievances. I have been saddened by how grief has become a contested narrative, with even the loss of innocent lives debated on the basis of ideological affiliations, instead of elemental sadness. So, it has been uplifting to see the unambiguous condemnation of the attack on the Amarnath Yatra (and before that the lynching of Ayub Pandith) across the spectrum  mainstream political parties, separatists and of course civil society. Every Kashmiri I know is repulsed by what happened and perhaps this could be the small beginnings of a pushback against militancy. That the people of Jammu did their bit to hold the peace also merits appreciation.

In a week of tragedy, these glimmers of hope offer an opportunity. Let Delhi not waste this chance. It may not come again.

Barkha Dutt is an awardwinning journalist and author

The views expressed are personal

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People continued to dump trash into the Ganga river and its adjoining areas on Friday, a day after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed that a penalty of Rs 50,000 be imposed on anybody littering within 500 metres from the rivers edge.

Most of the locals, traders and Kanwar pilgrims visiting the river still seemed clueless about the NGT order. So, blissful in their ignorance, they left polythene bags, leftover eatables and other discarded items at various points of the river  including the sanctum sanctorum of Har-Ki-Pauri  like they have been doing for ages now.

Kanwar pilgrims  who come from various places across western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan to take a dip in the Ganga during the monsoon  could be seen chucking bamboo sticks into the river. Among them was Nanhe Kumar from Meerut, who dutifully disposed of a few polythene bags in the sacred water body.

When the NGT order was brought to his notice, Kumar simply shrugged. Such directives mean nothing to us. Kanwariyas need to leave their old bamboo sticks (used to carry Ganga water), their pilgrimage attire and other materials in the Ganga at Haridwar. Its a matter of tradition, he said.

Besides pilgrims, makeshift eateries that have illegally cropped up on the banks of the river are a major contributor to its pollution problem. Bhavesh Saini, who owns a stall at Pantdeep Ganga ghat, said he was not informed about the Rs 50,000 penalty. For the last few years, we have been dumping leftover food and waste just adjacent to the Ganga ghat. But we wouldnt do that if the civic authorities provided us with a garbage bin, he said.

A man gazes at a garbage-strewn Ganga in Kanpur. (Priyanka Parashar/ Mint)

Others wondered how the NGT plans to implement its order, considering that its prescribed distance of 500 metres means that many parts of the city now come under the ban.

The tribunal had directed the authorities to impose the penalty on anybody violating the order between Haridwar and Uttar Pradeshs Unnao. However, there seemed to be no change in peoples attitude across Hardiwar, be it Brahamkund, Malviya Deep, Kangra ghat, Pantdeep West Chain ghat, Bhagirath ghat, Nai Sota or Alaknanda Ganga ghats.

Mayor Manoj Garg said the municipal corporation had spent the last three years trying to ensure that people do not dump garbage in the river. We will soon start sensitising people through awareness drives, making them understand how they are harming an ancient river thats been accorded a status equivalent to their own mother, he added.

JP Baduni, a social activist who has filed numerous RTI applications on Ganga pollution, said the NGT has no powers to implement the order it has passed. However, district magistrate Deepak Rawat gave his assurance that the administration would ensure proper implementation of the tribunal order after due perusal.

The NGT had passed a similar order in 2015, banning the use of plastic products along the rivers Gaumukh-Hardiwar stretch. It did not help achieve anything substantial. Plastic bottles, cans and canisters for carrying river water continue to be sold at Har-Ki-Pauri and adjacent areas. Nothing much can be done about this unless the government bans the manufacture and sale of polythene items, said Mahanagar Vyapar Mandal president Sunil Shetty.
One hot and humid evening, we bump into him near Malai Mandir, in south Delhi. He is lying sprawled on the grass. His long hair and long beard are unkempt. He seems to be utterly alone.

We sit down beside him and try to break the ice by complaining about the weather. He turns his face away. Looking up at the sky, he says, What a world! Nobody exchanged even a single word with me when it was raining heavily last week, and I was so completely drenched...

The man sits up and pulls out a tuft of grass. Staring ahead at the evening rush hour traffic on Rao Tula Ram Marg, he says he arrived in Delhi two months ago from his village and has been sleeping on footpaths since. We ask why he had to leave his home and come to this big city where he doesnt know a single soul. Closing his eyes, he replies, Have you read the Mahabharata? Thats the story of my life and my family.

The man is perhaps referring to the familial conflicts depicted in the epic.

It begins to get dark. The man absent-mindedly talks of picking up used water bottles from the garbage bins the next morning. I will sell them to buy food tonight I may get rotis from the mandir.

Going back to lying on the grass, he says, Nobody talks to me here... you will also go away... will you remember me?

We ask for his name.

My name is Dev Kumar. Will you remember it?
The second day of admissions under the fourth cutoff list at Delhi University colleges also saw the colleges releasing their admission lists for seats under the Extra Curricular Activities (ECA) quota.

Colleges of Delhi University, which have reserved supernumerary seats for the ECA quota, released their first ECA admission list on Friday. Students who have made it to the list can confirm their admission on Saturday and Monday.

DU has around 56,000 seats in its 60-odd colleges with approximately 50,000 seats for merit-based courses. Admissions to almost 42,000 of these seats were approved by the end of Friday. Saturday is the last day of admissions under the fourth cutoff list at DU.

In addition to this, DU colleges reserve up to 5% supernumerary seats for students who have shown great prowess in extra curricular activities like dance, music, theatre, debate and any of the 12 ECA categories recognised by the university. After two rounds of trials, approximately 1,100 students had made it to the merit list this year for the 12 categories.

At least 120 students have made it to the Indian Classical Dance merit list, while a 110 students have made it to the English Debate list. However, making it to the merit list does not guarantee admission, according to Shalini, the head of ECA admissions at DU.

About 865 students had gotten a seat under the ECA quota last year, and this year, the number is expected to go upto 900, according to DU sources.

Students who had made it to the ECA merit lists had to approach the colleges of their choice  given that they reserve seats for the particular ECA category  and get themselves registered for admission after getting their documents verified.

The colleges then prepared an admission list, based on their requirements, which was released on Friday. Students can access the lists of the individual colleges on the respective institutions website.

Many popular courses are available under the ECA quota at top colleges. Kamla Nehru College has released a list of 23 students, Ramjas College has 21 students in their first list, Miranda House has released a list of 20 students, Lady Shri Ram College has released a list of 19 students, and Daulat Ram College has released a list of 18 students.

Colleges where admissions have been closed for most courses have also released the admissions list. At Gargi College, 39 students have made it to the first admissions list.

Students who may not have made it to the ECA admissions list in the first round, have another four more rounds to go.

All seats will not necessarily be filled by the end of the first cycle, as the same student may have made it to the list of multiple colleges, but would seek admission only at one. So a second cycle of admission will start on July 18, which will follow a similar schedule. There will be five such admission cycles, and students will need to re-register under each cycle, if they wish to be considered for admission under that session, Shalini said.

Admissions under the ECA category is expected to go on until August 10.

BOX:

Schedule of ECA Admissions:

July 8: release of ECA merit list

First cycle of admissions:

July 11-13: Registration and verification of documents at individual colleges under first cycle of admissions

July 14: Colleges will issue a notification with the names of those eligible for admission

July 15 and 17: Students will need to complete their admission procedure at concerned colleges, if selected

Second cycle of admissions:

July 18-20: Registration and verification of documents at individual colleges under second cycle of admissions

July 21: Colleges will issue a notification with the names of those eligible for admission

July 22 and 24: Students will need to complete their admission procedure at concerned colleges, if selected

Third cycle of admissions:

July 25-26: Registration and verification of documents at individual colleges under third cycle of admissions

July 27: Colleges will issue a notification with the names of those eligible for admission

July 28-29: Students will need to complete their admission procedure at concerned colleges, if selected

Fourth cycle of admissions:

July 31 and August 1: Registration and verification of documents at individual colleges under fourth cycle of admissions

August 2: Colleges will issue a notification with the names of those eligible for admission

August 3-4: Students will need to complete their admission procedure at concerned colleges, if selected

Fifth cycle of admissions:

August 5 and 7: Registration and verification of documents at individual colleges under fourth cycle of admissions

August 8: Colleges will issue a notification with the names of those eligible for admission

August 9-10: Students will need to complete their admission procedure at concerned colleges, if selected
From accompanying policemen during their raids, to paying for their expenses and from spying on them, to filing a petition in a court  a 49-year-old man did everything he could to ensure that investigators managed to trace his missing minor daughter.

However, when his 13-year-old daughter was finally traced last week, he was left enraged and bitter. His daughter was three weeks pregnant and unwilling to return home.

The accused, he found, was none other than his 22-year-old neighbour Iddu Khan who had even married his daughter.

Read: Raped and married, 13-year-old pregnant Delhi girl refuses to return home

Employed as a driver by a retired army officer, the father was on duty in Bhatinda on May 10 when he learnt that his daughter had disappeared. He returned to Taimur Nagar and filed a missing complaint with the police. It was soon established that the suspect was Iddu Khan, a neighbour who had gone missing after the incident.

The man then began accompanying police teams during their raids in Uttar Pradesh. The police did not have a spare vehicle to go on raids. So, I drove them around in my employers car. I accompanied them on two trips and paid for most of their expenses, which came to about 45,000, the father alleged.

The man has claimed that not a single penny was returned to him, prompting Romil Baaniya, DCP (southeast), to launch a probe into his allegations.

Not satisfied with the polices action in looking for his daughter, the man filed a petition with a Delhi court. The court ordered that my daughter be traced at the earliest. But I still did not trust them to do the job, said the man.

When he called the investigating officer, he was told that a raid was on. But he did not believe the officer. So, he decided to spy on the police team. I hired a cab for Rs 7,000 and visited Aliganj where the raid was supposedly taking place. I found the investigators camping there to conduct raids, said the father.

He alleged that the police took advantage of his desperation. They began using my car for transporting prisoners and for personal work, he alleged.

But the police pressure and the constant raids at the homes of the relatives of the accused Iddu Khan. The arrest of one of his relatives, on charges of being a witness to the wedding of a child, forced Khan to surrender on July 7.

My daughter is too innocent to realise that if he loved her, he wouldnt have established physical relations with her despite knowing her age, the girls mother told Hindustan Times. Forget loving my girl, he did not even care for her safety, or he wouldnt have had unprotected sex with her, her more forthcoming father added.

His daughter, meanwhile, is under the custody of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), which will soon take a call on her pregnancy.

According to a member of the Delhis Juvenile Justice Board, the CWC will most likely order the termination of her pregnancy.
Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday visited an under-construction hospital in Dwarka, which will add another 1,225 beds to existing 10,329 in Delhi government hospitals.

The construction of the hospital will be completed next year, along with two other upcoming hospitals in Ambedkar Nagar and Burari, the minister said. The three hospitals will together ramp up the bed strength by 3,200.

This hospital was initially designed to have 700 beds, we increased it to 1,225 without stopping the work and delaying the project, Satyendar Jain said.

In its manifesto for 2015 assembly elections, the AAP had promised to increase the total bed strength in Delhi to 40,000, and after taking office the health minister had said that the bed strength would be doubled in the first two years. Apart from the three hospitals, the government will also remodel 11 of its biggest hospitals to add these 10,000 beds.

The minister also said that latest technology would be used to make the new three hospitals among the best. The hospital in Dwarka will be state-of-the-art with solar panels and natural sewage treatment plant, the minister said.

The Dwarka hospital building has also used a base isolation system to protect it from earthquakes. In this kind of structures, there is a fixed base on the ground and the building is separated from it using flexible bearings.

So, in case of an earthquake, the tremors are absorbed by the bearings and the main building does not move much. This is a good thing because it is extremely difficult to evacuate patients from a hospital in the incident of earthquakes, said an official working on the project.

The patients will likely not even feel anything if there is an earthquake. This is maybe the first government hospital in India to use such a technology, Jain said.

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All but one seat out of 10,988 in 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been allotted to students by the end of round three of admissions this year, a considerable improvement over 76 left vacant last year. The Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA), which managed seat allocation to 97 institutes, including 23 IITs, 31 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), 23 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and 20 other-government funded technical Institutes (GFTIs) in 2017, also released a revised seat allotment schedule on its website, www.josaa.nic.in.

Only one seat remains vacant in IIT Bhubaneshwar now, that too in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category. This too should get taken in the next round, a JoSAA official said.

About 3,200 seats were lying vacant across IITs, NITs, IIITs and other GFTIs after the second round of allotment out of which 68 were available in 23 IITs, including the Indian School of Mines-Dhanbad (ISM-Dhanbad).

Out of the total 36,208 seats available across 97 institutes, including all IITs, NITs, IIITs as well as GFTIs, only 399 remain vacant and will be up for allotment in the remaining rounds. Allotment list for the fourth round was revealed on Thursday evening.

This is the first time that JoSAA will be conducting seven rounds of seat allotment in order to ensure zero vacancy in any of the 97 institutes. Last year, six seat allotment rounds were conducted and the year before that only two rounds were conducted. We hopefully wont have to wait till the seventh round to fill up all seats this year, added the official.

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Chennai The Tamil Nadu government will appeal against Fridays Madras High Courts (HC) decision to quash the Tamil Nadu government order to reserve 85% medical (MBBS) and dental (BDS) seats in undergraduate colleges for state board students. The admissions are being done on the basis of scores of a common entrance test, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

State health minister C Vijayabaskar said the government would appeal against the single judge order . His government was opposed to NEET to protect the interests of the students from Tamil Nadu and that was why reservation was notified. We are still against NEET and our bills are awaiting assent of the President, he said.

The state government had through a notification rolled out the reservations last month. A mention of the same was made in the brochures issued for admissions to various undergraduate medical courses in state colleges.

Disposing of a petition challenging the June 22 notification of the state government filed by a minor, C Darnish Kumar, a CBSE student, Justice K Ravichandra Babu directed the medical colleges to consider the petitioner for all the seats available for undergraduate courses in medicine in the state for the academic year 2017-18.

The petitioner had challenged the notification saying that only the Medical Council of India (MCI) had the power to regulate medical college admissions as per the provisions of the Indian Medical Council Act. The MCI had stipulated that admissions to medical courses would be based on the marks obtained in NEET and merit lists prepared on the basis of such marks and that it did not distinguish between students from CBSE and the state board.

Justice Ravichandra Babu held that the impugned reservation was bad in law and violated Art 14 of the Constitution (Equality before law). He also held that the reservation indirectly meddled with the object and process of the NEET and compromised on merits of selection.

The judge directed authorities to prepare a fresh merit list and conduct the counselling for admissions accordingly.

The state government has not been in favour of NEET. It had submitted to the court that two of its bills, passed in the state assembly exempting students from NEET, were pending with the President for assent. The advocate general (AG) of Tamil Nadu also told the HC that 88,431 students appeared for NEET, out of which only 4,675 were from CBSE. Since NEET is the basis of admission, to ensure fair and equal opportunity to candidates from different boards, such reservation is provided in the seats available in the State quota, the AG said.

Justice Reddy refused to accept the state government pleas and quashed the notification providing for reservations to Tamil Nadu board students in medical college undergraduate courses.

With inputs from PTI

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Hundreds of candidates successful in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admissions to medical and dental programmes and colleges across the country, have been spending time, money and energy desperately seeking admission to colleges in various states of the country. Lack of a uniform domicile policy could put an end to their dreams to pursue fulfilling careers in medicine or dentistry.

While some states like Maharashtra and Punjab have barred candidates from other states from participating in counselling for admission to medical colleges (both private and government), Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka have no such restrictions.

The domicile policy puts students from states with few medical colleges at a disadvantage.

NEET rules say that candidates wishing to apply for admission in state medical colleges or universities or institutes using merit list of NEET-2017 have to follow the instructions of the state government or that of the authorities of the medical and dental colleges or university/institutes concerned for counselling.

States can reserve 85% seats for their students in government medical colleges and leave the 15% quota for students from across the country ranking high on the NEET merit list. There is no provision for any reservation in private medical colleges across the country in NEET rules.

I couldnt fill the online form to join counselling in Maharashtra as candidates are required to be state domiciles, complains a student from Delhi.

MBBS aspirants from Delhi have also been left with limited options as the sprawling Capital has only nine government medical colleges out of which only eight admit students through NEET. The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, has a separate entrance examination.

Students from many north-eastern states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Lakshadweep etc, which dont have any medical colleges, say that if all states mandate domicile status, they will never be able to pursue MBBS education despite qualifying NEET.

Its fortunate that some states are not following domicile restrictions. If this happens then we will be left with only one option - 15% seat reserved under all-India quota in government colleges across the country. This, however, will benefit only the high-rank holders, says a student who ranks below 20,000 in NEET 2017.

A Supreme Court order of June 7, 2012, states that the Directorate General of Health Services, ministry of health and family welfare, has to conduct online counselling for 15% seats under all-India quota for undergraduate MBBS and BDS programme.

Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Jammu & Kashmir have opted out of NEET.

In favour of domicile restrictions Dr Raj Bahadur, vice chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Science, which conducts counselling for MBBS admission in Punjab, says Every state has the right to protect the interests of its students. Candidates clearing Class 12 from Punjab can apply for MBBS and BDS programmes in the state.

Many experts disagree.

A state can impose domicile restriction for admission in government-run colleges but I dont think the same applies for the private colleges, says Gulshan Garg, chairman, Sankalp Charitable Trust. It was Sankalps petition last year which led to the Supreme Court ordering the implementation of NEET as a single examination for admission to MBBS and BDS programmes in the country.

Whats the point of a one-nation-one-examination when each state frames its own admission guidelines? he asks.

Students also complain that the criteria to define domicile varies from one state to another. Some states want Class 12 certificates while others ask from other documents such as birth certificate etc.

The order of the Tamil Nadu government reserving 85% of its MBBS and BDS seats for state board students was quashed recently by the Madras High Court.

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The Supreme Court on Friday refused to nullify the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), 2017, saying it would affect over six lakh candidates who passed the test to join medical and dental courses.

A three-judge bench headed by justice Dipak Misra said it would be very difficult to disturb the results of NEET as around 6.11 lakh candidates, of a total of 11.35 lakh aspirants, cleared it and the counselling process was on.

We cannot pass an interim order like this. The admission process must continue. There are over six lakh students, the bench, also comprising justice AM Khanwilkar and justice MM Shantanagoudar, said.

In any case, it is very difficult to disturb the result, it said, while refusing to accept the submission of counsel appearing for the petitioners who said three sets of question papers were given to the candidates in the exam in Andhra Pradesh. The counsel contended that the NEET 2017 examination has to be nullified and conducted afresh.

Additional solicitor general Maninder Singh, appearing for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), opposed the contentions, saying besides English and Hindi, the exam was conducted in eight vernacular languages for the first time.

The level of difficulty of questions were the same in all the languages. We will put it in affidavit that there were two sets of question papers, Singh said.

The petitioners argued that the all-India ranking was given in the NEET exam which postulates that every candidate should get the same question paper. However, the bench said it would first go through CBSEs affidavit and asked the board to file it within three days.

At the fag end of hearing, the counsel for petitioners referred to an order of the apex court on June 12 saying the declaration of result and admission shall be subject to the decision in the matter pending before it.

However, the bench said, The order is there. We are not vacating it. We will not pass any order today.

The bench has listed the matter for hearing on July 31.

The top court had on June 12 stayed the Madras High Court order which had restrained CBSE from publishing the results. CBSE had declared the result on June 23.
Even though six of Indias least developed states  among eight high focus states in government jargon  spent more on education per elementary school student in 2014-2015 when compared to 2011-2012, learning outcomes of students did not improve, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of expenditure data and learning outcomes.

The six states are Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Uttarakhand.

Education expenditure per student includes both students in government schools and in government-aided schools. Data for the ninth high focus state, Assam, is not included for per student expenditure.

By 2030, India will have the worlds largest working age population  1.03 billion. More than half (55.8%) of Indias child population between the ages of six and 13 years lives in nine of the least developed states  Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, MP, Rajasthan, UP and Uttarakhand  according to data from the ministry of human resource development (HRD), and will make up the majority of Indias crucial workforce.

In 2014-2015, over 77 million students  equivalent to the population of Thailand  were enrolled in school in nine high focus states.

Less than 18% of students in Class 3 in Bihar, Uttarakhand and MP, less than 30% in Assam, less than 25% in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, and less than 21% in Odisha could read words, according to a 2016 citizen-led survey, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). Poor education could hold these children back from being productive and efficient, negatively impacting Indias growth and development of its population.

Until now states have focused more on physical infrastructure and enrollment as seen from government data on these indicators.

Rajasthan increased per student expenditure by 40% between 2011-12 and 2014-2015, but less than 20% of students of Class 3 in Rajasthan could read words in 2016, compared to 34% students in 2012.

In UP, where per student expenditure increased 25%, the proportion of students who could read words decreased from 27.1% in 2012 to 15.7% in 2016.

Two high focus states  Bihar and Odisha  reduced spending per student by 10% and 3% respectively between 2014-2015 and 2011-2012.

States have concentrated on infra, enrolment, not education quality

Until now, the governments emphasis in the education sector appears to have been on physical infrastructure such as availability of drinking water and the use of toilets, and on measures to increase student enrolment.

For instance, Bihars gross enrolment ratio (GER) in primary school (students enrolled in school irrespective of their age as a proportion of the total primary-age child population) increased from 59.8% in 2011-12 to 98.07% in 2014-15, according to data from the Unified District Information System on Education (U-DISE).

The net enrolment ratio (students of the right age enrolled in upper primary as a proportion of all upper-primary school-age students) grew in Bihar from 52.7% in 2011-12 to 87.63% in 2014-15.

In Bihar, physical infrastructure such as the proportion of schools with toilets increased from 51.2% in 2012 to 70.6% in 2016. In Chhattisgarh, schools with drinking water facilities increased from 79.2% in 2012 to 85% of schools in 2016.

Other than in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, dropouts reduced in all high focus states between 2012 and 2016.

An excessive focus on outputs has resulted in assessing physical infrastructure creation, provision of teaching and learning materials, appointment of teachers, etc rather than monitoring the learning process to see how many children have learned what, according to a 2008 study on public expenditure on education in India.

We have looked at the education sector and we believe that we have been able to get the child to the school. The effort now would be to impart quality education to the child, Anil Swarup, , secretary of Indias department of school education and literacy, told Indiaspend in a recent interview.

Niti Aayog, the government think tank, is in the process of formulating a School Education Quality Index, the aim of which is to shift the focus of states from inputs towards outcomes, provide objective benchmarks for continuous annual improvements, encourage state-led innovations to improve quality and facilitate sharing of best practices, according to a 2016 government press release.

Spending hasnt addressed absenteeism, teacher training

GER in primary school has been almost 100% since 2011-12.

But surveys find that absenteeism in school is high  not all enrolled students regularly attend school  which could impact learning. For instance, in Uttar Pradesh, where spending per student increased 40% between 2011 and 2014, about 55.8% students were present on the day of the survey in 2016, little change from the 56.7% present in school in 2012.

Further, only 51.2% government teachers were professionally trained in Assam in 2014-2015, data show, even though the state spent the highest proportion of its social sector budget (24.7%) of all high focus states on education.

In contrast, 88.2% government school teachers were professionally trained in Mizoram, a neighbouring state which spent 17.4% of total expenditure on education in 2014-15.

Less developed states receive more assistance from the central government

High focus states receive a greater share of resources under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the governments flagship scheme for elementary education which aims to provide universal education to children between the ages of 6 to 14 years.

Uttar Pradesh received 26% of the total SSA funds in 2016-17, while it accounted for 14% of total elementary enrolment in government schools in 2015. Maharashtra, which accounted for 5% of elementary school students in 2015, received 3% of SSA funds.

SSA funds might not be utilised optimally, according to an analysis by Accountability Initiative, a New Delhi-based advocacy. For instance, Bihar has allocated 80% of its SSA funds to teachers in 2016-17, up from 70% in 2015-16 but 57% of government teachers were professionally trained in that year, while 34% teacher posts were vacant in 2016, according to government data.

High focus states allocate large amount to social sector to improve their indicators, but in reality they spend a small amount as compared to what is allocated, Avani Kapur, a senior researcher at Accountability Initiative told IndiaSpend. Hence it is necessary to consider actual accounts in order to know the proper outcomes.

For instance, though Bihar allocated 21.4% of its total social sector budget on education, it spent 17.5% in 2014-2015.

Indias education policy must be thoroughly revised to put in place better accountability and monitoring mechanisms to exploit the gains of increase in fiscal outlays on education, The Mint reported on January 27, 2017.

Some states have reduced education spending

Though Assam, Chhattisgarh, MP and UP, increased money spent on education as a proportion of the total social sector budget, learning continued to lag behind more developed states such as Maharashtra and Kerala.

Further, even though the quality of education hasnt improved, some of these states have shifted their focus from education. Spending on education as a proportion of total social sector spending fell in five of these statesBihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttarakhandeven as learning outcomes declined between 2010 and 2016, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of Reserve Bank of India study of state budgets 2017.

Mixed evidence on the effect of public spending on learning

Increased expenditure on elementary education had a positive impact on enrolment rates, but at a diminishing rate, which means that the positive impact of a rupee is lower with every additional rupee, according to a 2014 research paper by Runu Bhakta from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research.

Moreover, public expenditure on elementary education has greater impact on enrolment as compared to dropout rates, said the study, which analysed data between 2003 and 2011.

Similarly, greater public spending on primary and secondary education had a positive impact on widely used measures of education attainment such as gross secondary enrolment and persistence through grade four, across 50 developing countries, according to this 1999 working paper by researchers at the International Monetary Fund.

Increasing public spending on primary education is likely to be more effective in raising primary education attainment in countries with good governance, according to a 2007 research paper by researchers from World Bank, United States which looked at 91 countries.

(Rao is an intern with IndiaSpend.)

(Indiaspend.org is a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit/FactChecker.in is fact-checking initiative, scrutinising for veracity and context statements made by individuals and organisations in public life.)
Chandigarh Students completing MBBS studies from government medical colleges in Haryana will now have to put in compulsory service for two years at state-run hospitals.

Health minister Anil Vij has said this will help minimise shortage of doctors in the state. He was presiding over a meeting of the Haryana Medical Education and Research Department on Thursday.

An official release quoted the minister as saying that Around 800 doctors from four government hospitals will be available in two years.

He also disclosed that seats at the dental college of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Science in Rohtak had been increased from 60 to 100.

This decision will help improve the availability of dentists in Haryana .

Union Health Minister J P Nadda would be the chief guest at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Government Medical College in Bhiwani.

About a request by the officials of the Gold Field Medical College in Faridabad to bring it under the ambit of the state, Vij said the matter would be placed before the chief minister for a decision.
What started with a few blemishes and cuts here and there has blown up into torn off and frayed versions  thats distressed jeans for you! A rage back in the grunge era in mid-1980s, the style made a comeback in 2015. And, it has only been growing ever since, often raising the question: How much is too much? Is there no line to be crossed in the name of being adventurous?

We get fashion designers to weigh in on the debate. Ragini Ahuja says its a personal choice. Denim is a street fashion fabric great for a comfy, casual look. But how torn you want your jeans is all about your personal style. Anupama Dayal agrees. Although she likes her jeans cut around the knees or thighs, she adds, Its healthy to experiment. Distressed can be shown in different forms depending on ones distressed level.

However, many believe that the essence of the style is lost in the name of experimentation. Nida Mahmood says, Denim is a major trend in the fashion charts and techniques like sand blasting, lazer, stone wash, and acid wash are over used... Certain sections of the fashion chain have butchered denims beyond belief, making them look grotesque and unpardonable.

Rina Dhaka is a fan of distressed denims, but echoes the sentiment. In the 90s, while I was a teenager, I used to spend a lot to get these tattered jeans. Now, people are wearing it so often. However, its elegance is lost. Some pieces are so torn and shabby, that it looks like one cut the jeans at home, says Dhaka.

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A West Delhi restaurant recently organised a burger eating contest and announced an irresistible prize for the winner  meals on the house for an entire month for the person who would eat maximum number of burgers. DU student Garv Gupta took up the challenge and won it, but with a scary consequence. Next morning, Gupta noticed blood in his vomit and rushed to the doctor, who found out that he had ruptured the inner lining of his stomach because of gulping down too many chilli burgers.

While this seems like the first case of injury caused by competitive eating in Delhi, food contests caused two deaths in the US recently. Travis Malouff, 42, died due to asphyxia last April. He was trying to devour an oversized doughnut in 80 seconds to win a food contest at a doughnut shop called Voodoo Doughnuts in Denver, Colorado, US. Last March, Caitlin Nelson, 20, had choked and died during a fund-raising pancake-eating contest held at a university in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States.

Eating for fame is dangerous

Dr Mohsin Wali, physician to the President of India says that an untrained guest participating in a food contest is like a greenhorn speeding up his car on a racing track. Consuming enormous amount of food in one go can cause serious injury. Apart from the amount, the speed at which the contestant eats can choke them to death. They dont chew, they just gulp down the food. While doing this, a lot of air goes inside their stomach thorough the food pipe and badly inflates the stomach. Food is supposed to go down by gravity but when you eat forcefully and quickly, it is unnatural. There is no gastric peristalsis, the muscle contraction that disintegrates food in your stomach and sends it to various processing units in the digestive tract. Your stomach lining can end up getting ruptured.

Also, when people take part in burger or doughnut eating contests, they eat an enormous amount of bread which swells up in the stomach and doubles in size. It soaks up all digestive juices and leaves the stomach dry. This causes friction that can also lead to rupture. The stomach gets no time to produce digestive juices, he explains.

Such contests totally defy the ideas of healthy, nutritious eating and promote junk food addiction. (HT Photo/ Shutterstock)

Stop aping trends

Dr Saurabh Arora says such cases are a result of blindly copying trends from the Internet and television without understanding the dangers. When an eating competition happens on TV, a lot of preparation goes into it. The participants are professionals, and even they are prone to risks. Restaurants should not involve untrained guest in such contest, especially in the absence of proper emergency care at the venue. They do such things for quick publicity, he says.

Dr Arora says that since customers rarely file liability suits in India, as the process is slow and expensive, businesses do not consider such activities a risk. The absence of a regulatory body for food contests in India also makes it easy for organisers to disregard safety measures. A fun event can turn into a disaster in the absence of guidelines. The risks must be spelt out clearly. Lack of expert supervision is dangerous. Also, there should be a selection criteria. Only those who qualify after heath checkups should be allowed, says chef Manish Mehrotra.

Dr Wali advises young people not to get carried away by what they see on the television. In the long run, these contests are not good for professional eating champions, too. So, one can imagine what harm they can do to those who are not trained. Its like punishing your own body. It can cause irreversible damage to your body, he says.

Encouraging obesity?

Delhi is a city that tops obesity charts. Thanks to junk food addiction, 1 in 3 kids of top private Delhi schools are obese, according to an AIIMS survey. In such a situation, how wise it is to lure young people to devour oversized burgers and hotdogs with the temptation of free meals? It totally defies the ideas of healthy, nutritious eating and promotes junk food addiction, says Dr Wali.

Why glorify gluttony?

We should also not overlook the ethical implications of such contests. Such an ostentatious showcase of food and its wastage is offensive when you have a large part of the population dying of hunger. We need to rethink such contests. Our society is divided into two halves. One that needs to eat less, and one that has nothing to eat. There was a time when nawabs who lived a showy, filthy rich life ate 9 to 10 dishes in one go. They would purposely vomit food so that they could try more dishes. We must assess what is the message we are sending to young people, says Dr Wali.

The perils of competitive eating

Contestants face the risk of dying due to asphyxiation, choking and pulmonary aspiration.

Competitive eating can also cause serious injury due to a ruptured stomach lining. In the long run, it can lead to ulcers, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, stress and a number of other health complications.

Contestants fast for very long hours, and then suddenly stuff their stomach with a crazy amount of food, which is dangerous. Hurriedly consuming massive calories puts extreme metabolic stress on the pancreas, liver, kidney and heart, leading to serious complications.

A badly inflated stomach can also lead to gastroparesis, a digestive disorder that hinders gastric peristalsis, the natural movement of the muscles in your stomach. In some cases, it can result in chronic nausea, vomiting, bloating, indigestion, heartburn and abdominal pain, making it difficult to have meals normally, unless partial gastrectomy (surgery to fix the damage done to the stomach by removing a part) is done.

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Four persons, including three former employees of PVR cinemas in Gurgaon, were arrested by Gurgaon police for allegedly cloning credit and debit cards of customers who visited the theatres.

The accused are suspected to have cloned around 45 to 50 cards of customers and siphoned off an amount of Rs20 to Rs25 lakhs of customers who visited the theatres located on two malls on MG Road, the police said on Friday.

The accused have been identified as Ajay Raghav, Sanjay Jat, Rahul Yadav and Sonajeet. They took note of ATM pin numbers of customers and later used it to withdraw cash from the cards cloned by them. Raghav, Jat, and Yadav worked in the mulitplexes.

Two ATM card readers, one card cloning machine, one laptop and few cloned cards were recovered from the accused. The accused have been sent on three days police remand for further questioning.

The machines are easily available online at a very low price, police said.

A few days earlier, a similar racket was unearthed in Delhi where an employee of Farzi cafe in Connaught Place was caught by police for cloning cards.

Sumit Kuhar, deputy commissioner of police (crime), said that Ajay Raghav, a resident of Mathura in UP, was the kingpin of the gang and was arrested from Mathura.

Raghav got to know that police was after him so he had shifted his accommodation. He is married and used the stolen money for familys expenses, said Kuhar.

Raghavs arrest and unraveling of the gang came after a Gurgaon resident Dhrishti Bhasin complained at Sector 56 police station that someone had withdrawn Rs50,000 from her account using a debit card on May 25.

The matter was referred to the Cyber crime cell, which formed a team under cell in-charge inspector Anand Kumar that started identifying the ATMs from where the cash was being withdrawn.

After sustained investigation, the police was able to identify Sanjay Jat, a resident from Alwar in Rajasthan, and arrested him from his brothers house in south city 2, said Kuhar.

On questioning, Jat spilled the beans and this led to the arrest of others including Raghav, Sonajeet who lives in DLF phase 4, and Rahul Yadav who is from Kosli in Rewari.

It is being suspected that there are more members involved in the fraud, who used to steal ATM pin numbers from different locations. Police is also on the look out of a person, who had taught card cloning to Jat, which led to his entry into this trade.

The accused have been arrested in a case registered at sector 56 police station under section 379 (theft), 420 (fraud), and 120b (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and section 66 of the IT Act.

A representative of the PVR cinemas said that officials authorised to speak to the media were not available.

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Functioning of private hospitals in Kerala is likely to be affected with an estimated 80,000 nurses deciding to go on indefinite strike from July 17 demanding higher wages.

The private hospital managements said they would be able to provide only emergency services from Monday in view of the protest call.

The United Nurses Association (UNA) and Indian Nurses Association, spearheading the ongoing agitation, said they would intensify their protest from July 17.

Satyagraha protests would be staged at the district headquarters and from July 21, they would shift the focus to secretariat here, a release from the associations said.

The nurses have been on strike since the past few days demanding minimum wages of Rs 20,000 as fixed by the Supreme Court.

Stating that 80,000 nurses would join the total strike, UNA president Jasmine Shah said they would not buckle under pressure from private hospitals.

Various associations of private hospitals held meetings in Thiruvananthapuram and in Kochi to take stock of the situation.

The functioning of the hospitals will be affected. We can provide only limited services not involving nurses. There will be limited outpatient services. ICUs will not accept new patients, said MI Shadulla of Private Hospitals Association of Private Hospitals of India (Kerala) chapter. He said only emergency surgeries would be undertaken.

With the state being gripped by viral and dengue fever, the situation could turn alarming.

We can function only partially. We have already shut emergency rooms as all of them are full, Shadulla, Chairman of KIMS Hospital, said.

Describing the situation as unprecedented, he claimed the 56% hike demanded by nurses was very steep and would be a burden on mid-size hospitals.

While maintaining that they were sympathetic to the cause of nurses, he said the hike would also make health care cost go up, burdening the patients.

Shah said nurses with graduation were taken as trainees in private hospitals and were paid only Rs 6,500 per month.

The protesters are demanding that all the qualified nurses should get Rs 20,000 as minimum salary. By merging the DA with basic pay and declaring a new basic salary of Rs 17,200 is injustice, they said.

This would mean that a qualified nurse would not get more than Rs 20,000, association sources said.
BJP president Amit Shah on Friday took a jibe at the Congress, saying a party that considered dynasty as the quality benchmark for selecting its leader could never take the country forward.

Addressing a convention of party workers in Delhi, Shah said that among all the political parties in the country, only the BJP and the Communist party had internal democracy.

To drive home his point, Shah threw a poser to the audience, seeking to know who would occupy the post of the BJP president after him.

As the audience remained quiet, he asked: Now tell me who will be the next Congress president after Sonia ji (Gandhi)?

Following a pause, when the audience broke into laughter, Shah continued: That says a lot. If dynasty, instead of merit, is the benchmark in a party, then it can never take the country forward.

Shah said the Congress, formed before the countrys Independence, never had any consistent ideology and that whoever wanted freedom joined it.

That is why Gandhi ji wanted it (the Congress) to be disbanded after Independence, he said.

During the course of his speech, he listed the achievements of the BJP government at the Centre, including the decision to demonetise high-value currency notes last year.

We take decisions that are good for the people. Our aim is not to increase votes, but to develop the country, he said.
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a CBI probe into 62 alleged extra-judicial killings by security forces in Manipur, overruling objections by the government and the army in a landmark decision that was hailed by human rights activists, victims family members and politicians.

We welcome the judgment of the Supreme Court, said Onil Kshetrimayum, a rights activist.

Such a judgment somewhat uplifts the face of the Indian democracy but its not enough

as justice is yet to be delivered, he added.

Sharing the sentiment, Meihoubam Rakesh, director of the Manipur unit of Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) that had filed the petition, said they welcomed the move.

The kin of the victims also expressed relief at the verdict.

Tokpam Somorendra, who lost his 19-year-old son Shantikumar 17 years ago in a firing incident at Malom near Imphal, said: This is good news for a victims family and I hope the truth will be revealed one day...

Hailing the judgment, Communist Party of Indias Manipur state secretary Dr M Nara said, Well pressure the parties concerned, including the government, to speed up the investigation.
The Malabar naval exercise by India, the US and Japan in the Bay of Bengal is seen as an attempt to counterbalance Chinese moves to expand its footprint in the Indian Ocean amid mounting border tensions between New Delhi and Beijing.

But the engagement is one of the five naval exercises by India and the US, and among more than a dozen joint drills the Indian Navy carries out with international navies every year.

Navy sources said the growing scale and complexity of Malabar and deployment of Chinese ships to monitor the drills propel the exercise into headlines, but Indias similar engagements with littoral countries is no less significant.

The significance of some of these drills in the Indian Ocean region will grow in the coming years as China expands its maritime reach. It has picked Djibouti to set up its first overseas military base and ships carrying Chinese troops set sail on Tuesday.

Amid the 21st edition of the Malabar exercise, heres a look at some of the other joint drills the Indian Navy conducts every year.

IBSAMAR

It represents the trilateral naval cooperation between India, Brazil and South Africa. The navy says IBSAMAR, which began in 2008, has transformed into a complex exercise involving warships, aircraft and special forces from the three countries.

Indra

It is a joint naval exercise between India and Russia. Last held in the Bay of Bengal in December, the navy says the primary purpose of the exercise is to increase inter-operability between the two navies and develop common understanding and procedures for maritime security operations. The exercise has been on since 2003.

Varuna

This is an exercise between India and France  on since 1993 and christened Varuna in 2001. The drills involve aircraft carriers of both navies. The navy says the engagement has promoted greater understanding between the two nations and helped pick up best practices from each other.

Konkan

The annual exercise between India and Britains Royal Navy. The two navies began joint drills in 2004. Like all bilateral exercises, Konkan is hosted in rotation by both navies and has grown in complexity, scale and intensity, according to the navy.

Naseem Al Bahr

India and the Royal Omani Navy have been holding this exercise since 1993. The focus in recent editions has been on surface warfare, visit board search and seizure (VBSS), anti-air warfare and advanced helicopter operations.

SLINEX

This India and Sri Lanka joint drill began in 2005. The naval interaction is significant as Chinese warships frequent the island nations ports. Previous editions have covered anti-piracy drills, gun firing, cross-deck helicopter operations and anti-surface exercises.

AUSINDEX

India and Australia have been conducting this drill in the Bay of Bengal since 2015. The objective of the biennial exercise is to bolster maritime cooperation and sharpen the ability to undertake operations such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. The focus is on capability enhancement and capacity building for all in the Indian Ocean region, a navy officer said.

Other Indo-US exercises

Apart from Malabar, the Indian and US navies conduct a series of joint drills that cover explosive ordnance disposal (Ex Spitting Cobra), salvage operations (SALVEX) and Indian Navy-US Navy Special Forces exercise.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against Madhya Pradesh policemen accused of thrashing military officers after an altercation over drinking in public in the upscale Vijay Nagar area of Indore in 2015.

Around midnight of September 10, 2015, a team from Vijay Nagar police station allegedly assaulted lieutenant-rank army officers SK Patra, Akshat Joshi, Kunal Kumar, APS Chahal, SS Yadav, Vibhu Dixit, Ritwick Singh and Gajendra Singh.

Within hours, more than 60 soldiers allegedly came to the police station, vandalised the premises and assaulted the policemen on duty. At least five policemen, including a woman constable, were wounded in the attack.

The army officers alleged that no FIR was registered against the policemen who had thrashed them at Woodstock Lounge in Indore.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court later directed the CBI to investigate why the FIR was not registered.

According to police, the punch-up took place after a heated exchange of words over drinking alcohol in public near BCM Heights, a building in the tony Indore neighbourhood.

But the military officers countered that they were waiting for a colleague outside a bar when the policemen accosted them. They alleged the policemen abused them on being informed that they were from the army and thrashed the four of them.

The policemen were also accused of taking two of the officers to the police station.

Police alleged the next day that about 60 soldiers walked into the police station, assaulted every policemen on sight and took away hard disks that stored video feeds of surveillance cameras, which recorded the attack.

The soldiers were accused of attacking a police patrol vehicle, wounding a woman constable, that day. An FIR was registered by the MP police in this regard.

The CBI charged police superintendent Vipul Shrivastava on Thursday and several other policemen with causing grievous hurt and wrongful confinement.

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The CBI on Friday said it can re-investigate the Bofors case only if the Supreme Court or the Centre orders it. This was after a parliamentary panel suggested that the case should be reopened.

The parliamentary committee on Thursday had suggested that the case of irregularities into the purchase of Bofors guns should be restarted as there were many loopholes in the previous investigation.

We need court or government order to re-investigate the case. Can a committee recommend CBI to start a probe, CBI spokesperson RK Gaur told IANS adding that CBI was not saying anything more on the issue.

The sub-committee on Defence attached to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), headed by Biju Janata Dal MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, suggested that the case be reopened.

A committee member, who did not wish to be named, told IANS that it was a suggestion from the panel, as it was felt that there were many loopholes in the earlier investigation.

On Thursday, CBI director Alok Kumar Verma had appeared before the committee, which asked him to put up the case considering systematic failure in the Bofors contract as well as charges of bribery against top political leaders and officials.

The government at that time wanted the case to be closed. Now it depends on the government and the Supreme Court to restart the investigation... the committee gave a suggestion, the member said.

Asked about reports of files related to the case being found missing from the Defence Ministry, the member said they were told the files were in court.

The alleged corruption in the Bofors guns deal had created a scandal in 1989, leading to the fall of the government under Rajiv Gandhi. Kickbacks were alleged, but no evidence was found.

Now, the six-member PAC subcommittee on Defence is looking into non-compliance of certain aspects of the CAG report of 1986 on the deal.
The government said in the Supreme Court on Friday that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has been asked to explore the option of putting jammers to prevent students from accessing online child pornography in school.

The court was hearing a petition seeking a directive to the government to block all websites hosting pornographic content.

Additional solicitor general Pinky Anand said that 3,522 sites were blocked in June, but ruled out installing jammers in school buses as part of steps to prevent youngsters from being abused sexually on the internet.

Its not possible to have jammers in buses, but to install them inside school premise is under consideration. The CBSE has been instructed to take up the issue with school managements, Anand said.

The CBSE is the countrys top school board and more than 10,000 institutions are affiliated to it.

Most schools teach computers and the internet has become part of the curriculum, enhancing knowledge as well as putting the students at risk of being sexually exploited online. Children in school buses accessing porn on mobile phones remain a grey area.

There is no accurate data on the number of Indian children being exploited in pornographic material as many victims do not go to police because of fear and shame. There were 96 reports of children being sexually exploited online in 2015, according to National Crimes Records Bureau data.

The government told a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra that it will take steps to deal with the situation in its entirety.

It said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) shares an Interpol list on online child sexual abuse material with the government, which then orders internet service providers to block these sites. This list is updated regularly.

India doesnt have a centralised mechanism to monitor websites containing child porn. A government committee has suggested that internet service providers should disable such sites until the monitoring system is created.

Besides, the service providers were asked to spread awareness among subscribers about the use of parental control filters in their machines.
China has breached and encroached territory at the disputed Doklam area, the government told opposition parties on Friday during a briefing on the latest India-China standoff and the militant attack on Amarnath pilgrims.

Foreign secretary S Jaishankar briefed the opposition leaders about the Chinese incursion, said AIADMK parliamentarian A Navaneethakrishnan, who attended the meeting.

We are satisfied with the governments response, he added.

Tension between the two Asian giants escalated in the past three weeks over the standoff at Doklam in the Sikkim sector, located at a narrow but strategically important tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan.

China has accused Indian soldiers of trespass and preventing its army from building a road in the region, which is claimed by Bhutan. Beijing wants India to withdraw its troops from Doklam for any dialogue between the two sides.

As the impasse festered, opposition parties criticised the government for what they said not taking them into confidence on issues of national interest and security.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi questioned last Friday the Prime Ministers silence on the border faceoff. Why is our Prime Minister silent on China? he asked on Twitter.

The government convened a meeting and invitations were sent to all prominent opposition leaders.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and national security adviser Ajit Doval were present at the briefing.

The Congress said that it was satisfying to know that after three years, the government had finally woken up and had convened a meeting to brief the opposition.

Party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: We shall support the government in every endeavour to defend our national interest and our borders.

Before briefing the opposition leaders, senior ministers Swaraj, Singh and Arun Jaitley, national security adviser Doval and BJP president Amit Shah held a two-hour meeting.

Sources said the meeting went over points to be discussed with the opposition on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir after militants killed seven Amarnath pilgrims and the India-China standoff.

The opposition is likely to raise these issues when Parliament sits for its monsoon session from Monday.

(with agency inputs)
Laughter and loud talk ring through the streets of Punjabs Malerkotla. It is Eid, but what has made the festival more special in this Muslim-majority town is the visit of women who have been married to Pakistanis, especially amid the strained ties between the two countries.

It is a joy seeped in relief. For many, getting a visa to India is not easy, and they are lucky enough to have managed it.

A princely state till 1947, Malerkotla was an oasis of peace during the Partition. Later, it was commonplace for locals to marry their daughters off to relatives in Pakistan and vice versa.

It was a way to nurture family ties, says Razia Bano, who married a distant relative in Pakistan in 1981.

But deteriorating bilateral relations has shaken the tradition. Nowadays, we prefer a local match, says Mohd Owais, a businessman and philanthropist.

The daughters agree. Rafiya Tanbeer, who has been married to a Pakistani for 30 years, dreads any whispers about war.

I fear they will seal the border and I wont be able to meet my ailing mother again, says Tanbeer, her kohl-rimmed eyes watering up.

The strict visa regime is another perennial pain. Gulfareen Begum, who is home after 25 years, says she couldnt even come when her father died. They kept refusing me a visa due to an anomaly in my papers. Finally, I changed my place of birth and got a fresh passport.

Her brother Akbar Khan, who wasnt born when she was married, is glad to finally meet her. We had given up hope.

Mohd Irshad Rana, who is visiting his wife Razia Banos family, wishes the visa regime was more reasonable. My wife has over a hundred relatives here but we get visa for only a month, and that too only for Malerkotla. We cant step out of this town, says Rana, editor of Muhafiz-e-Muashra, a magazine published from Mandi Bahouddin in Pakistan.

The popular way to extend the visa is to get a medical certificate. But what if I have no ailment? fumes Razia Bano.

Its not easy for Pakistani brides in Malerkotla, either. Shehnaaz Begum, married to an Indian for 25 years, breaks into tears recounting her failed attempt to get a visa to attend her only brothers funeral last week. I visited Pakistan four years ago. Since then they have been denying me a visa, she says, wiping a tear, and adding firmly, I will marry my three children here. Whats the point of having a family (in the neighbouring country) if you cant be with them when they need you the most?

Locals also complain of police harassment when there is tension at the border. Last year, when there was talk of war, CID officials started visiting families with guests from across the border. One of my guests from Pakistan was so frazzled that he refused to step out of home during his stay, says Maqsooda Bibi, whose daughter Shukria is married to a Pakistani.

For a few, however, the going has been smooth. Syeda Kowser Mobin from Sheikhpura near Lahore says she never had any trouble with the authorities since her marriage to a Malerkotla man in 1992.

At times I visit Pakistan every six months. Even my relatives never encountered any challenges, smiles Mobin.

Qadian Connection

Bareah Madina, a 23-year-old newly-wed from Rabwah in Chiniot district of Pakistan, is also all smiles as she recounts her smooth passage across the border to Qadian on May 27. I was issued multiple visas for a year, which I am told is rare, gushes the biochemistry student of agricultural university in Faisalabad.

While Malerkotla may be witnessing a fall in cross-border marriages, Qadian is seeing the opposite.

The quaint town near Amritsar is the international headquarters, and a favourite, of the Ahmadiyya community, whose members gather from 35 countries every December for a three-day convention. Pakistani Ahmadis, though, live in constant fear as the countrys constitution does not recognise them as Muslims.

We are scared of disclosing our identities when in Lahore, says Bareah, whose family was thrilled when they found a match in Idris Ahmad Mir, an Ahmadi from Kulgam in Kashmir.

While Bareah has had an easy entry, Tahira Ahmad, from Faisalabad in Pakistan, had to go through the rigmarole of getting her visa renewed every two months for almost 10 years after she married Choudhry Maqbool Ahmad, a Qadian-based writer, in 2003.

Initially, I was given only a 60-day visa, which I would have to get extended every two months. This required submitting an application to the SSP at the district headquarters of Batala every few months. It was only in 2016 that she got Indian citizenship. This was after media highlighted my case, claims Tahira, who hasnt met her father for the last 13 years.

I was rendered a quaidi (prisoner) of Qadian as my visa was confined to this town, sighs the woman who had three children in the interregnum. They could all go anywhere but I was stuck here.

Maqbool rues that no exceptions are made even in cases of medical emergencies. The authorities should extend the marriage visa to (at least whole of) Punjab, if not India, he implores.

Ahmadis in Pakistan, he claims, are keen to marry their daughters in India. They know their daughters will get equal opportunity here, he says, citing the case of Nusarat Jehan Begum from Gujranwala, who is now a councillor in Qadian.

Back in Malerkotla, Razia Bano says she is drawn to the sukoon (peace) she gets here. This land is sweet. The sukoon we get here eludes us in Lahore.

Razia Sultana, the Malerkotla MLA and a minister in the Punjab cabinet, credits the towns inclusive culture. All of us, regardless of our religion, are one.
Condemning the alleged thrashing of a Muslim man in Nagpur district on the suspicion that he was carrying beef, Union minister Ramdas Athawale said on Friday that everyone has the right to eat beef.

He also called for severe punishment for violent cow vigilantes.

Everyone has the right to eat beef. Since goat meat is expensive, people eat beef. I condemn the Nagpur incident. It is not right to become a nar-bhakshak (man-eater) in the name of being a gau-rakshak (cow protector), the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment told reporters in Mumbai.

He said cow-vigilantes should not take the law into their hands.

Such violent cow vigilantes should be punished, Athawale said.

A 31-year-old Muslim man, with links to the BJP, was brutally thrashed in public by alleged cow vigilantes on the suspicion that he was carrying beef in Maharashtras Nagpur district on Wednesday.

About explosives found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Athawale said this was a very serious matter.

This incident is similar to attack on Parliament, he said.

There is no conspiracy to kill Yogi (Adityanath), but there should be an investigation into the matter. Its possible terror links should be also probed, he said.

In a major security breach, a powerful plastic explosive was found in the UP Assembly, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday informed the House, which unanimously recommended an NIA probe into it.

On NDAs presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, who is scheduled to visit Mumbai on Saturday, Athawale said, He should visit Matoshree and meet (Shiv Sena president) Uddhav Thackeray. Pranab Mukherjee had also visited Matoshree when his candidature was announced (for the post of president).

Sources in the BJP had earlier said Kovind was not scheduled to visit Thackerays residence during his Mumbai visit.
The rift in Bihars ruling grand alliance appeared to have widened as the Janata Dal (United) said on Friday that deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav should resign if his family fails to explain the source of funding for properties mired in an alleged scam.

The JD(U)s demand, dismissed by RJD chief Lalu Prasad, followed efforts by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to broker truce among the two allies.

Chief minister Nitish Kumars JD(U) rules the state with the RJD and Congress, which together defeated the BJP in the 2015 assembly election.

But RJD-JD(U) ties were strained after Prasad and his 26-year-old younger son, Tejashwi, were named in a land-for-hotels scandal, and the CBI raided their homes and other properties last week. The alleged scam is from Prasads stint as railway minister from 2004 to 2009.

The RJD chief, who was in Ranchi attending a fodder scam trial, snapped at a media contingent eager to know of his next move.

Tejashwi was elected by the people, not by those asking for his resignation, he said. His son had said he wont step down.

Prasad returned to Patna with a court waiver of the hearing on Saturday and met top RJD leaders at his 10 Circular Road home to finalise the next step.

Congress president Gandhi spoke to chief minister Kumar to find a middle path to defuse the crisis and dispatched the partys state chief Ashok Choudhary to play mediator.

The JD(U) stuck to its stand and party spokesperson Neeraj Kumar compared assets of the chief minister and Prasad.

Nitish Kumars assets are known to the world, but on the other hand, what have you? he asked Prasad.

He said the RJD chief, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi, sons Tejashwi and Tej Pratap, and three daughters, including Rajya Sabha parliamentarian Misa Bharati, are charged with benami deals. But the family has not given any satisfactory explanation.

They must come clear and spell out the source of income, he said. The RJD owes it to the people and allies to issue a point by point rebuttal to the CBI charges and come clean on the allegations, or else, Tejashwi must resign.



Read | Tejashwi Yadav wont resign, Grand Alliance in Bihar unbreakable, says Lalu Prasad

The JD(U), however, kept a window open to salvage the alliance as it didnt specify a time limit for its partner to declare its funding source for the family properties that are under the scanner.

Why should we spell out a deadline? We will take appropriate action at the right time, Neeraj Kumar said.

The spat has reached a critical point as several JD(U) leaders suggested the party wont accept half-measures and would sever the alliance if needed.

On Thursday, JD(U) state president Basishtha Narain Singh asked the RJD to explain its position on the deputy chief minister.

The party is worried as any fresh scam taint on the RJD could splash back on chief minister, who has the image of an honest, untainted politician and pursues a policy of zero tolerance against crime and corruption. Kumars image is his and the JD(U)s biggest asset.

Read | Wheres the proof? Tejashwi Yadav hits back over tax notice

RJD leaders said Tejashwis resignation could be a possibility, but may not be immediate as it could reflect as an admission of guilt.

The party also toyed with the idea of fully withdrawing all ministers from the Nitish cabinet, should Tejashwi resign, said a party leader, who didnt wish to be named.

Sources said the party will then lend outside support to the JD(U) to run the government and deny the BJP any political space. This would also convince the people that the RJD is not a spoiler, they added.

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The Central government informed the Supreme Court on Friday that it was in the process of rushing in four additional companies of paramilitary forces to Darjeeling and Kalimpong to provide security and ensure proper supply of essential commodities in the backdrop of Gorkhaland protest.

The court has directed the Centre and the West Bengal government to take all measures maintain law and order in the state, stressing that peace is the hallmark of a progressive society.

The Supreme Court was hearing a petition by the Sikkim government highlighting its alleged economic losses because of the Gorkhaland movement in Darjeeling.

The government told a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra that 11 CRPF companies are already deployed in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts and a decision has been taken to send four more companies to ensure the safety of people and maintain law and order there.

The bench made it clear that the 11 companies which are already deployed there and the four additional companies shall be utilised by the West Bengal government only for the purpose of maintaining law and order in the two districts.

The bench also asked the authorities to ensure smooth movement of traffic and safety and security of passengers travelling in vehicles on the National Highway-10, the sole road link connecting West Bengals Siliguri with Sikkim.

Needless to say, the citizens of these areas must understand that sustenance of law and order and living in peace is the hallmark of progressive civilisation and therefore, they shall also see that free flow of life is not in anyway disturbed or affected, the bench said.

The Sikkim government has approached the apex court seeking a direction to the Centre and West Bengal that NH 10 be protected and uninterrupted vehicular movement be ensured in the wake of ongoing agitation for separate Gorkhaland.

NH 10, also referred to as lifeline of the hill state, connects it to Siliguri and any blockade or interruption on the highway leads to severe scarcity of goods and stalls passengers movement.

The plea, filed by Sikkim Chief Secretary AK Srivastav, Lok Sabha MP PD Rai and Rajya Sabha lawmaker Hissey Lachungpa, has sought a direction to the union ministries of home affairs, roads, transport and highway and the West Bengal government that the national highway is kept free for vehicular movement.

The state government has said the safety of passengers, goods and vehicles should also be ensured besides the uninterrupted traffic on the stretch.

The plea has referred to the incidents of violence on June 8 against Sikkim-bound vehicles on the national highway during the Gorkhaland agitation.

Sikkim-bound vehicles have been targeted during the protests in and around Siliguri from the last week of June.

Sikkim has been alleging that miscreants were not allowing essential commodities and fuel to be loaded in trucks at New Jalpaiguri and Siliguri and even the West Bengal police was not taking any action.

The situation along the national highway in West Bengal has been worsening with each passing day, and despite assurances by West Bengal government, incidents of violence and loot of Sikkim-bound vehicles have become a regular affair, officials have said.

According to Sikkim police, 20 trucks ferrying supplies to Sikkim from Siliguri were vandalised and looted and their drivers assaulted. Truck drivers and transporters in Sikkim said they have decided not to ply vehicles if security is not provided.
A right turn after crossing the Behrampura bridge over the Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad leads to a deserted plot that used to house Calico Mills, once the pride of Gujarat.

In one corner of the plot, a dilapidated chimney is all that remains of the mill. Sitting there with his friends, Mehboob, 35, shares the ordeal his family faced after his mill worker father Karim lost his job in the 1990s.

I remember my father setting up a roadside cart selling sweets. For some time he even worked at a power loom factory earning Rs 200 per day. The memories are still fresh in my mind, says Karim who sells bangles.

In 2010, the Calico Mills land, plant and machinery were auctioned off for Rs 270 crore.

Once the core of the citys economy, the textile mills are a thing of the past in Ahmedabad. Today, of the 65 mills that were operational in the 1990s, only seven are functional, employing nearly 13,000 workers.

Also, the absence of a strong workers movement in Gujarat has weakened the case for revival of the mills as it hardly figures on the agenda of political parties in the upcoming state assembly polls.

Till a few years ago, the 65 mills used to employ 1.5 lakh workers, mostly Dalits or Muslims, says Amrish Patel, a labour advocate.

Industry watchers say the states textile industry declined as it could not sustain the competition from cheaper power loom products and a shift in demand away from cotton textiles.

The mill owners failed to modernise and some of them could not repay the loans taken from financial institutions. The mills that modernised managed to survive and are being touted as success stories, says Amar Barot, general secretary of the Textile Labour Association (TLA).

Curiously, Ahmedabad has not witnessed any major workers movement since Independence. Most of the 1.5 lakh mill workers were on the rolls of TLA that followed the Gandhian method of negotiating with owners.

In October 2015, nearly 600 workers of Arvind Mills resumed work after a protest demanding bonus and pay hike. A similar stalemate over wages in July 2012 was settled peacefully.

The only recent agitation by workers in Ahmedabad was the month-long safai kamdars strike, which ended after the city corporation agreed to their demands, says Amrish Patel.

The manufacturing units of Arvind Limited in Naroda are among those that bucked the decline through constant upgrades. Today it is the countrys largest denim manufacturer with over 10,000 workers at its three units in Ahmedabad.

We made all efforts to modernise with time. Today we even provide denims to international brands like Arrow and Tommy Hilfiger apart from running our own cloth stores, says an Arvind mill manager.

Having realised that it was losing its dominant position in the sector, the government notified the Gujarat State Textile Policy in 2013, aimed at promoting the textile sector.

We were lagging behind many states despite being known globally for our mills. The new policy was aimed at infusing a new lease of life into the textile sector, says RH Vasava, deputy secretary in the labour and employment department.

Till 2016, the new policy had attracted investments worth Rs 9,208 crore, he said. Besides, the state has also rolled out labour-friendly schemes to benefit workers in different sectors.

But its hard to tell whether these belated moves will help revive Ahmedabad s famous mills.

Elections to the Gujarat assembly are no more than a few months away and Mehboob is filled with despair. He says no political party is even promising to retrieve the lost glory of the mills since mill workers have ceased to be a significant voting bloc. Most mill workers have moved on to other sectors or trades, points out political analyst, Achyut Yagnik.

(In a few months, PM Narendra Modis home state goes to the polls in what is being billed as one of the most important tests for the BJP before the general elections in 2019. HT travels to five of Gujarats most important cities and through them examines some of the issues that are shaping the poll campaign. This is the concluding part of a five-part series)
Intensifying their stir against the Goods and Services Tax (GST) , nearly 1,100 plywood units, including plyboard and peeling factories, across the state have decided to go on an indefinite strike from Friday.

Plywood manufacturers from the industrial town of Yamunanagar, which is home to over 1,000 units alone and considered one of Asias largest timber markets. Scores of plywood units in Kaithal, Rohtak and the NCR region are also going to join the indefinite strike.

The strike is going to affect nearly 90,000 workers employed in these units besides hitting about 1,000 timber merchants, transporters and labourers.

The plywood manufacturers are protesting against the 28 per cent GST on plywood, 18 per cent GST on raw material and 2 per cent market fee, alleging that the new tax regime will cost them heavily and it will be difficult to run the industry.

They alleged that since the implementation of GST, they are unable to sell their product and are left with no other option but to shut factories from Friday.

CLAIM SUPPORT FROM DELHI, PUNJAB, UP

Members of the All India Plywood Manufacturing Association said plywood manufacturers in Delhi NCR,Punjab,Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have also extended their support to the strike.

We cannot afford 28 per cent tax on plywood under GST besides 18 per cent GST on poplar and eucalyptus trees and 2 per cent market fee, and we have to close our units, Devendra Chawla, president, All India Plywood Manufacturing Association, said.

Before GST, we were paying about 15 per cent tax, including 4.2 per cent VAT (value added tax), on purchase of raw material. This will increase prices by about 24 per cent, he said.

YAMUNANAGAR UNITS CONTRIBUTE 40% TO COUNTRYS OUTPUT

Yamunanagar plywood units contribute about 40 per cent of total plywood production in the country. The manufacturers claim that annual turnover of all the plywood units is around Rs 1,200 crore on paper and annual collection of tax from Yamunanagars plywood industry is around Rs 117 crore.

But after the implementation of GST the plywood industrialists will have to reveal their actual income and expenditure following which the annual turnover will cross Rs 5,000 crore on paper, whereas the tax collection will jump around Rs 1,400 crore, the sources said.

Chawla, however, skipped the question about tax evasion by plywood manufacturers. Tax evasion is more likely when taxes are higher. If the government will impose 28 per cent GST, the consumer will have to pay 40 per cent more. This will also encourage tax evasion even more.

Members of the plywood association have already taken up the issue with Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and Haryana finance minister Capt Abhimanyu and demanded GST on plywood should be brought down to 18 per cent but to no avail.

Now, we have decided to shut our units as we cannot run our factories if the government does not bring GST down to 18 per cent, said Narendra Sethi, owner of a plywood factory .

Before the GST implementation, Yamunanagar units were producing more than 300 truckloads of plywood in 24 hours but after July 1 the production has fallen to below 100 truckloads, creating insecurity among workers.

We will not be able to do anything if the plywood production does not resume. This is going to affect thousands of workers in plywood units here, said Brij Lal, an electrician with a Yamunanagar unit.

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The government reached out to the opposition parties and some of its allies on Friday to build a consensus on the border standoff with China ahead of Parliaments monsoon session, but faced tough questions on the delay in resolving the dispute.

In response to the opposition leaders call for using active diplomatic channels, the Centre said it is engaged in negotiations to ease the tension in the Doklam region of the Sikkim sector.

The government briefed the leaders about the Chinese incursion as tension between the two Asian giants escalated in the past three weeks over the standoff at Doklam, located at a narrow but strategically important tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan.

As the impasse festered, opposition parties criticised the government for what they said not taking them into confidence on issues of national interest and security.

At a meeting at home minister Rajnath Singhs residence, foreign secretary S Jaishankar and home secretary Rajeev Mehrishi made a detailed presentation on the India-China border issue and Mondays militant attack on Amarnath pilgrims.

Jaishankar was quoted by opposition members as saying that China is trying to change the status quo along its southern border.

He talked about the diplomatic process to resolve one of the longest border standoff in recent times.

Opposition leaders, including Congress Anand Sharma and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, wanted to know why the impasse happened in 2017 and why the government is unable to find a solution through negotiations and discussions. Most leaders, including the NCPs Sharad Pawar, seconded the questions.

What triggered the standoff? Sharma asked.

The Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPM and Shiv Sena, which is an NDA ally, fielded a flurry of questions. Some of the opposition leaders later said they didnt get satisfactory answers.

We said that on issues of national security and integrity of the country, we are with the government, Trinamool leader Derek OBrien said.

Jaishankar informed the leaders about the strategic significance of Doklam and said the faceoff needs to be seen in the context of the Siliguri corridor, the narrow stretch of land connecting the Northeast with the country.

There was widespread appreciation of the understanding between India and China that differences between them shouldnt become disputes, foreign ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

The Shiv Sena took an aggressive stand and sought action and not mere talks from the Centre.

But AIADMK parliamentarian A Navaneethakrishnan said they are satisfied with the governments response.

Former defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, who represented the Samajwadi Party at the meeting, said the government needs to be careful about dealing with China.

Defence minister Arun Jaitley, home minister Singh and foreign minister Sushma Swaraj along with national security adviser Ajit Doval were present at the meeting.

It was decided that Mulayam Singh and Pawar, two former defence ministers, would meet Jaitley on the China issue. Swaraj called another meeting on Saturday to brief other party leaders.

The government also briefed the leaders on the attack in Jammu and Kashmirs Anantnag in which seven Amarnath pilgrims were shot dead by militants when they returning from the shrine.

Several leaders said the government couldnt come up with a credible reason to explain security lapses that led to the attack.

Why was there a lapse and security failure? asked OBrien.

The leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, wanted to know why the bus took four hours for a two-hour journey and why it was allowed to travel at night.
Succumbing to public pressure, the Himachal government on Friday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the gangrape and murder of a minor at Kotkhai. Earlier, a mob vandalized police vehicles outside the Theog police station this morning. Calling the six arrests made yesterday an eyewash, the violent crowd was demanding a CBI probe.

With elections around the corner, the outrage also took a political colour with some BJP leaders staging a protest at the Kotkhai police station.

The SIT, headed by IG southern range, Zahoor Zaidi, set up after public protests had yesterday claimed to have cracked the case with the arrest of six personsAshish Chauhan, 29, Rajinder Singh 32, Subash Singh Bisht, 42, Surat Singh (a Nepali labourer), 29, Lok Jan, another 19-year-old Nepali and Deepak, a resident of Pauri Grahwal.

The arrested were taken to Shimlas Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for medical checkup under heavy police cordon. However, an angry crowd roughed them up. Agitated at seeing them in the hospital, a woman threw her slipper on them, said a doctor at the hospital.

Government orders on CBI probe followed angry protests in Theog where the protesters vandalised police vehicles.

Earlier in the morning, people from different walks of life in Kotkhai and Chopal assembly segment had begun to assemble in Theog where the police had to produce in court the six accused arrested in the rape case.

Soon, the large crowd that had gathered near the famous potato ground of Theog, 35 kms from Shimla, became restive and took to the roads, blocking the main national highway connecting Kalka to the Sino-India border point Kauirik.

The mob also raised slogans against the government and the cops. Roshan Lal, a resident of Sainj in Chopal, summed up the sentiments of many when he said, Those arrested by the police are not the ones actually involved in the crime; this is just a whitewash. The police are trying to hush up the case.

The angry mob was marching towards the police station in search of the six men arrested yesterday when the police tried to stop them. It was then that they vandalised the police vehicles. Superintendent of Police, Shimla, D.W Negi, was also manhandled by youngsters in the mob who objected to photojournalists taking pictures.

Seeing the widespread anger, the police officials present there refrained from pacifying the people. Later, they called for additional force from Shimla to control the crowd.

Meanwhile, Neelam Seraikh, a Zila Parishad member and some BJP leaders, staged a protest at the Kotkhai police station. If the police had to arrest four non-Himachalis for their involvement in crime, they could have done it before. I wonder why those arrested by the police did not go into hiding after committing the crime, charged Seraikh, pooh-poohing the police claims of a breakthrough in the case.

A GIRL WHO DREAMT BIG

The 16-year-old had dreamt of achieving something big in life. Born into a family registered as Below Poverty Line (BPL) at Shirguli village, she was the youngest of six siblings. After her entire class at Balson senior secondary school failed to clear the Class X exam, she along with a few friends shifted to Mahasu school on May 6. Gudiya was very regular at school and was even rewarded for her sincerity.

Unlike other days, on July 4, Gudiya went to school with her elder brother. But she left school before time, telling her friends that she had to reach home early. Police sources say, on her way back, the driver of the vehicle, Rajendra Singh, offered her a lift to her village, nearly five kms from the school. But Rajendra Singh had five more people in the vehicle, who the police claim were in an inebriated condition. The drunken men reportedly pulled her out of the vehicle and took turns to rape her before strangulating her to death.

Gudiya wanted to live. The autopsy shows she fought hard to get away but her assailants got the better of her. The report by Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital confirmed that Gudiya was subjected to brutalities before she breathed her last. She had bruises and bite marks all over her body.

This is so tragic, for Gudiya wanted to achieve something big in life, her brother-in-law Kushal Hemta told HT over phone.

What led to the public outrage were her pictures that went viral after her naked body was recovered from a ditch in Dhandi forest. The gory pictures were all over the social networking sites and the news spread like wild fire, says Govind Ram, a resident of Gumma in Kotkhai.
The Kohima bench of the Gauhati high court on Friday stayed governor PB Acharyas directive that mandated a floor test for chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu by July 15.

The stay will be in place till Monday, when the matter is expected to come up for hearing again.

The petition filed by Liezietsu had argued that the governors order for a trust vote was ex-facie unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary and violative of the basic features of the Constitution. He said Acharya  without obtaining the views of the council of ministers  chose to impose the trial of strength without any legal foundation and against constitutional norms at a time when he was preparing for a by-election.

Liezietsu, who is not an elected member of the 60-member house, needs to win the by-poll from the Northern Angami-I assembly seat to continue as chief minister. The seat was vacated by his son, Khriehu, in June.

The governor  through the impugned decision  has virtually sought to strangulate the will of the council of ministers, and used his office to suit his political needs, the chief minister said, adding that the ill-timed floor test would deprive him of a shot at a free-and-fair election.

The court expressed the tentative opinion that an interim was called for, and stayed the governors directive till Monday.

Earlier in the afternoon, Liezietsu and his council of ministers visited Acharya at the Kohima Raj Bhavan soon after his arrival from Delhi. The governor asked the chief minister to reconcile with the legislators. To this, he was told that the present crisis is an internal matter of the ruling Naga Peoples Front (NPF) and not the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) government, a communique from the chief ministers office said.

On Friday morning, a number of dissident NPF legislators led by former chief minister TR Zeliang left for Kohima after they were evacuated from a flooded resort in central Assams Kaziranga by boat. About 130 people  including 36 MLAs, NPF leaders and policemen  had checked into the resort on July 8.

Zeliang claims he has the support of 43 MLAs, comprising 36 NPF legislators and seven independents. He is also confident of gaining the backing of four BJP legislators, who have partnered with the NPF to form the DAN government.

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A number of dissident Nagaland MLAs were evacuated from a flooded Kaziranga resort by the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) on Friday morning, so they could leave for a trust vote at state capital Kohima later that day.

Former chief minister TR Zeliang and 35 other MLAs of the ruling Naga Peoples Front (NPF) had been camping at the resort since July 8, following a revolt against chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu. Soon after Zeliang staked claim to form the government on July 9, governor PB Acharya directed Liezietsu to undertake a trial of strength in the state assembly by July 15.

An executive at the resort, located in Kohora area of Kaziranga, said an SDRF boat was used to evacuate the MLAs and other people camped there. The entire resort was booked to accommodate some 130 people from Nagaland. The SDRF evacuated them in batches from 7 am on Friday. The entire operation took four hours, the executive said on the condition of anonymity. After the legislators were evacuated by boat, they left for Nagaland in a fleet of SUVs parked on the highway.

Through their stay, relatives and acquaintances of the MLAs had been bringing home-cooked food from Nagaland  located 120 km away  on local boats.

The Kaziranga resort is frequently used by Nagaland MLAs and political leaders during power struggles. It witnesses low occupancy from May to October  when the national park is closed for the monsoon.

Meanwhile, Acharya reached Kohima from Delhi for the trust vote on Friday afternoon, even as Liezietsu found himself facing a potential ouster. The previous day, the governor had stated that he was convinced about Zeliang having the required number of legislators to warrant a trial of strength.

The former chief minister claims that he has the support of 43 MLAs  36 from the NPF and seven independents. He is also confident of bagging the support of four BJP legislators, the NPFs partners in the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland government.

The strength of the 60-member Nagaland assembly was reduced to 59 after Liezietsus son, Khriehu, resigned in June to help his father contest from the Northern Angami-I constituency. The by-election for the seat, which the chief minister needs to win to retain his position, is scheduled for July 29.

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After a week of hectic parleys and accusations flying thick and fast, all has been quiet in Bihar for two days. But experts feel this is an indication that chief minister Nitish Kumar is considering all options and readying a plan B if his ally, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, pulls out of the government.

Kumar spent a quiet day on Thursday but sources said he instructed all spokespersons not to go whole hog against the BJP. The saffron party too held fire after a week of bombast.

The current crisis was sparked by corruption charges against RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his younger son, deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, in an alleged land-for-hotels scam. Kumar is said to want Tejashwi out, a scenario the RJD has ruled out.

The hardening in the JD(U)s stand is evident from the fact that Kumar, who had been huddled with half a dozen senior party leaders after his return from Rajgir retreat, has sidelined two, who disagreed on the partys hard stance. Sources said the two leaders asked how can the continuing JD(U)alliance with RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who carried the taint of being a convict in fodder scam, be justified on the other hand.

Analysts say relations between the JD(U) and RJD hang by a thread. On Thursday, JD (U) state president Bashistha Narayan Singh reminded Tejashwi that despite his assertion that he was 14 when the alleged dubious hotel deal happened, the matter remained far more serious.

Dont address your constituency. Come out with a point-to-point rebuttal, Singh said, indicating that the issue of zero tolerance on corruption  a stated stand of chief minister Nitish Kumars administration, would not be diluted.

The deputy CM had also said he would go to the people to expose BJPs conspiracy against RJDs first family.

KC Tyagi also reiterated that any attempt to dilute Nitish Kumars image  that saw the Grand Alliance romp home in 2015  would only pave the way for the saffron brigades smooth run.

The Janata Dal (United),though, has rowed back on a four-day deadline it read out to Tejashwi Yadav to come clean on graft allegations.

Senior party leader Ramai Ram has blamed the the media for quoting him in a twisted manner and out of context and claimed he never meant to give a four-day deadline to Yadav, who along with his father and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, is facing charges in an alleged land-for-hotels scam.

The RJD has dismissed any such deadline and JD(U) national general secretary KC Tyagi also joined Lalu Prasad in denying that Ram had spelt out a timeframe.

But the denials have not scotched political speculation and most leaders in the state are counting down to Monday, when presidential elections are scheduled and the deadline lapses.

After JD(U) spokesperson Ajay Aloks statement that Prasads son and deputy CM was not only facing an accusation but a CBI FIR, another spokesperson Neeraj Kumar stepped said when action by the state government was initiated against RJDs Md Shahabuddin and other legislators, RJD remained mum and respected the CMs decision. But why is it trying to pick holes in CMs stand now?
BJP MLA from Charkhari, Brijbhushan Rajput, warned Muslims that they wont be allowed to go on Haj pilgrimage if they create obstacles in the construction of Ram Temple in Uttar Pradeshs Ayodhya.

He issued the warning through a video on his Facebook page.

The Muslim community should respect the feelings (on the issue of Ram Temple) of 100 crore Hindus in the country. If they dont do so, we will not respect their feelings too, he said.

If they (Muslims) create hindrance or stop construction of Ram Temple, their Haj pilgrimage will also be stopped, Rajput said.

The MLA also called upon the people to avenge the killing of seven Amarnath pilgrims by storming the houses of terrorists.

Rajput demanded that the minority status of Muslims should be repealed and the subsidy given on Haj pilgrimage should be scrapped.

After putting up the video on his Facebook page, Rajput told HT it was not his statement but that of 100 crore Hindus.

Justifying his stand he said if Muslims were taking it as a threat then let it be. I completely stand by what I have said in the video, he said.

Rajput is a first-time BJP MLA from Charkhari, a constituency represented by senior leader Uma Bharti in 2012.

He is the son of former MP Ganga Charan Rajput who shot into limelight after he threatened to end his life outside the Congress headquarters when party president Sonia Gandhi refused to take over as the Prime Minister in 2004.
The FIR by Mumbai Police against All India Bakchod (AIB) over a Snapchat filter featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi has evoked a sharp response on Twitter with many supporting the Indian comedy collectives co-founder Tanmay Bhat and his team.

It all started when PM Modis look-alike was spotted at a railway station and his photo went viral on social media sites in no time.

AIB was among the many on Twitter who jumped onto the bandwagon to spread some humour. They posted the doppelgangers photo alongside that of Modis face with the Snapchat dog filter, leaving his supporters irked.

An FIR (50/2017)against AIB has been registered at cyber police station in this regard after due legal consultation 1/2  Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) July 14, 2017

Several users, including stand-up comedians, voiced their reservations about the groups humour but argued that the FIR was unwarranted and stupid.

Even though AIB sucks ...and are openly anti MODI...they have their Freedom of speech ...FIR registered is unwarranted..  Maneesh Singh (@msmonks19) July 14, 2017

FIR against AIB is as stupid as their attempt to make jokes in their videos.  Just Yun Hi (@sarcastic_monk_) July 14, 2017

One user Anuradha pointed out that Mumbai Police overlooked a harassment complaint by a woman a few days ago but was prompt in taking action against someone for posting a meme.

Woman: A man is masturbating at us in the train.

Police: Haha kahin aur baith jao na.



Sir yeh dekhiye meme!

Police: SHINDE GAADI NIKALO pic.twitter.com/f9BeoXbBHB  Anuradha (@anuradha_kush) July 14, 2017

Heres how others on Twitter reacted to the FIR:

#AIB annual expenses :



Shooting Cost : 10 lacs

Salaries : 20 lacs

Office Rent : 30 lacs

Lawyer fees : 1 crore  SAGAR (@sagarcasm) July 14, 2017

Only if #AIB had used a cow filter and not the dog one.  Shreyass (@AchrekarShreyas) July 14, 2017

Me: Kya bore ho raha h yaar

Frnd: Chal kidhar chalte hain



MumbaiPolice1: Kya bore ho raha h yaar

Police2: Chal AIB k against FIR karte hain  Manish (@Baba_Chu) July 14, 2017

Sigh! I promise you Modi will not be upset by an internet meme. He's busy. He's Prime minister of India, not president of America.  Vir Das (@thevirdas) July 14, 2017

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Police are probing if a militants body was draped in an Islamic State flag at his funeral procession in Jammu and Kashmir.

Pictures circulating on social media websites show Sajid Ahmad Gilkars body being draped in the flag of the terror group and being taken in a procession to his home in the Malaratta area of the city.

Gilkar was killed, along with two other militants, in the Redbugh area of Budgam during an overnight encounter with security forces on Tuesday.

The police have taken cognisance of the matter and started investigations, police officials said in Srinagar.

A police spokesperson said Gilkar had played a key role in the lynching of deputy superintendent of police Mohammad Ayoub Pandit on June 22 at Jamia Masjid in the Nowhatta area.
Despite his busy schedule that takes him abroad often, Prime Minister Narendra Modi finds time to visit Gujarat. He has visited his home state at least five times this year, mostly to inaugurate water-related projects and schemes.

Assembly elections in Gujarat are due later this year and frequent visits by the prime minister, who was the states chief minister for four terms, are on expected lines. But his obsession with water projects has set off political speculations with commentators and critics saying he has taken the water route to woo the electorate.

Water is a critical issue, more so in the Saurashtra region comprising nine districts where over 100 dams have dried up in the wake of scanty rains. A majority of the projects that Modi has inaugurated will benefit the region where most farmers belong to the Patidar community that has had a fallout with the state BJP government.

Narendrabhai has been trying to compensate for 10 years of injustice inflicted by the UPA on Gujarat. He comes to inaugurate all these state projects because earlier foundation for same was laid by him, BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya told HT.

The Congress, however, sees in Modis repeated visits an increasing desperation. The BJP is not confident of winning Gujarat. That is the reason that the PM had to do a roadshow in Rajkot, the constituency of chief minister Vijay Rupani, pointed out Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil.

But the state BJP sees great positives in Modis visits and hopes to reap rich dividends in the polls. Friends, for the first time in over 40 years, a PM?has visited Rajkot to dedicate a development project. Others in the last four decades visited only for campaigns, chief minister Rupani told a rally last month.

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Heavy rains have killed 74 people, including 70 from the Northeast, and displaced thousands in the past 15 days.

The weather department has predicted an increase in the intensity of rains, with the monsoon moving towards north-west India. The monsoon has covered Maharashtra and Gujarat and parts of southern Rajasthan and western Madhya Pradesh, apart from the Northeast.

Heavy rains lashed suburban Mumbai, leading to waterlogging and traffic jams.

In Rajasthan, a sub-divisional magistrate and his vehicle were washed away by a sudden current in a river. His body is yet to be recovered.

At least 50 people died in flood-related incidents of drowning, landslides and electrocution in Assam till Thursday.

In Madhya Pradesh, many areas in Rewa and Satna were submerged and the authorities have relocated hundreds to safer places.

SK Dey, meteorologist at India Meteorological department (IMD), Bhopal, said an alert has been issued in western MP such as Indore, Ratlam, Agar Malwa, Jhabua, Alirajpur, Ujjain and Barwani for the next 24 hours. The state government has deferred local body elections in Dhar and Barwani, where houses of 15,000 people will be submerged because of release of additional water from the Sardar Sarovar Dam because of rains.

Weather department officials said the rains were good for second round of sowing and would mean higher agricultural output this year.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to clarify within one week how it intends to grant voting rights to NRIs:

It asked whether the Central government will amend the law or rules for allowing NRIs to vote.

Earlier this month, the Election Commission (EC) informed the Centre that it can pull off the process of introducing voting rights for non-resident Indians (NRI) within three months of the law being introduced.

The decision to allow over 10 million NRIs  of whom 24,348 are registered with the EC  to vote through a postal ballot will offer expatriates a chance to participate in the countrys electoral process without having to be physically present at the polling stations.

If it comes to fruition, NRIs from states such as Kerala, Punjab and Telangana - which have large populations of NRIs - will stand to be benefit.
The Supreme Court ordered on Friday a federal investigation into 97 alleged extra-judicial killings in 11 years by security forces in Manipur, overruling objections by the government and the army in a landmark decision hailed by human rights activists.

A bench headed by Justice MB Lokur ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to set up a team for the probe and asked the agencys director to respond within two weeks. The 97 cases were between 2000 and 2011.

The army  which is accused in at least 30 cases  wanted an internal probe.

The court gave the CBI time till by December 31 to lodge cases, complete its investigation and file charge-sheets before an appropriate forum.

These petitions should be listed positively in the second week of January, 2018, to ensure compliance with our directions for investigation by the CBI, the bench said.

In July last year, the top court had ruled that all incidents involving suspected use of excessive and retaliatory force by the army in Manipur must be investigated. The decision had come on a petition that alleged 1,528 staged shootings by the army and other security forces during 2010-12 in Manipur.

The army and paramilitary personnel cannot use excessive or retaliatory force even in areas where the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) had been notified, the order had said.

Manipur police officers will not be included in the special probe team as the state forces role in the killings has also come under the scanner. The police, the court said, hadnt registered cases despite complaints by families of victims.

The order is a setback for the army. Former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, who was defending the military in court until he retired this year, had argued against reopening the cases for investigation.

But the top court rejected Rohatgis argument, saying death of a person, possibly innocent, cannot be overlooked only because of lapse of time.

The state has an obligation to conduct a thorough inquiry at an appropriate time. However, it cannot take advantage of the delay to scuttle an inquiry, the court said.

Our constitutional jurisprudence does not permit us to shut the door on such persons and our constitutional obligation requires us to give justice and succour to the next of kin of the deceased, it added.

The court also dismissed the Centres argument that the affected families were compensated.

This cannot override the law of the land, otherwise all heinous crimes would get settled through payment of monetary compensation, the bench said.

It asked the government not to reduce the National Human Rights Commission into a toothless tiger but obey the panels suggestions.

The respect and dignity of the dead and the human rights of all of us will remain only on paper unless the commissions guidelines are followed, the bench said.

Human rights activists in Manipur welcomed the top courts directive but also sounded a note of caution about the composition of the investigating team.

It is too early to celebrate, said Babloo Loitongbam of the Human Rights Alert that along with an association of families filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2012 on the extra-judicial killings.

Advocate and human rights activist Rakesh Meihoubam recalled the case of 12-year-old Azad Khan, allegedly shot dead in front of his parents and villagers, and a handgun planted at the site to label him a militant. An infuriated judge had reportedly asked how a 12-year-old student could be a militant, he added.

(with agency inputs)

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The Supreme Court told the Centre on Friday it wont be able to sentence liquor baron Vijay Mallya in a contempt case in his absence.

In response, the government said the process to extradite Mallya, wanted for defaulting on bank loan repayments worth Rs 9,000 crore, has been initiated and proceedings in the British Crown Court will start by December 4, 2017.

Talking to HT, attorney general KK Venugopal said, Hopefully we should get him back by January 2018.

In May, India had asked the UK to expedite the request for extradition of Mallya and other Indian fugitives. Most of Mallyas loans are tied to his Kingfisher Airlines, which was grounded in 2012.

The Supreme Court, in May, found Mallya guilty of contempt and asked him to appear before it on July 10. A bench of justices AK Goel and UU Lalit said the 61-year-old businessman had failed to submit details of all his assets, upholding a plea by a consortium of banks to which he owes more than Rs 9,000 crore.

The banks had moved the court after Mallya transferred $40 million he received from London-based liquor major Diageo Plc in February 2016 to his three children instead of repaying the loan.

The money was received towards the $75-million debt settlement with Diageo following his resignation as chairman of United Spirits Ltd.

Mallya hid details of his transaction with Diageo when he filed an affidavit in the court sharing details of all his movable and immovable assets, the court said. He also failed to obey courts order to appear before it.

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Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav said on Friday that his son Tejashwi Yadav will not resign as the deputy chief minister of Bihar over corruption charges.

The Vidhan Mandal of our party has taken a decision that Tejashwi Yadav will not resign, Lalu told ANI.

An FIR is not sufficient reason for the resignation, he added.

This assertion from the RJD chief ends speculation that Tejashwi Yadav might step down from the post to save the ruling Grand Alliance -- Janata Dal (United), Congress and RJD -- in Bihar.

Earlier on Friday, Bihars ruling Grand Alliance turned more brittle on Friday as JD(U) demanded deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadavs resignation if his family could not come clean on the source of funds used for acquiring allegedly illegal properties.

The RJD chief further said that he and his family have already issued their clarification on the corruption charges that have been filed by the Central Bureau of investigation (CBI).

Whatever accusations have been made against me and my family, we have already issued a clarification in the press conference. We will give our responses to the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate whenever they call us, said Lalu.

The crisis was sparked by the CBI raids last week on Lalus residence and cases were filed against him, Tejashwi and others in an alleged land-for-hotels scandal.

RJD and JD(U) have since directed barbs at each other, increasing pressure on chief minister Nitish Kumar to sack Tejashwi to protect his image of clean governance.

Earlier last week, the CBI registered a corruption case against Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejaswi; former Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) managing director PK Goyal; and the wife of Lalus aise Prem Chand Gupta, Sujata on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

The CBI later questioned Rabri Devi and Tejashwi.

The case was registered on the allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of Hotels at Ranchi and Puri to a Private Company dealing with Hotels in 2006.

The investigative agency also conducted searches at 12 locations across Patna, Delhi, Gurugram and other places.

BJP conspiracy, alliance unbreakable

The RJD supremo has refuted the allegations against him and called it a political conspiracy hatched by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

RJD will not let the BJP or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) break the alliance, Lalu said.

For us the priority is the presidential election. There are reports of rift in the alliance. Media reports are showing that Sonia ji has held talks with me and Nitish ji, all this is false. Our alliance is unbreakable. The RJD will not give the BJP and the RSS any space to entre Bihar. This all song and dance with the CBI reports and the ED reports is an attempt by the BJP to break our alliance in Bihar, said Yadav.

Lalu, however, said that he would not know if Sonia Gandhi had spoken to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

There is no difference with Nitish Kumar and there is no distance from him either, he said, adding: The RJD will not let anybody break our alliance.
Tension ran high in Gujarats Surendranagar district on Friday, a day after two persons were killed and five injured in group clashes there.

Mobile internet services in Surendranagar and nearby Morbi district remain suspended till Friday noon to prevent spread of rumours through various social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook, said a government statement.

Bulk SMS services are also suspended.

The twin districts have been put under supervision of three senior officers two inspectors general of police (IGPs) Brijesh Kumar Jha and Ajay Kumar Chaudhary and Rajkot range deputy inspector general (DIG) of police D N Patel.

Seven platoons of state reserve police (SRP) have been deployed in the violent-hit areas and police forces of nearby districts have been put on standby.

The trigger for the clash, police said, was the killing of Indrasinh Zala, a former president of Dharngadhra nagarpalika on July 8, when he was returning from Rajasthan. He is reportedly a functionary of the ruling BJP.

Zala was out on parole in connection with the murder of Popat Bharward in 2012.

Zala was Kshatriya while Bharward was from a cattle-grazer community call Bharwads.

On Thursday, a group of Kshatriyas was on their way to attend Zalas condolence meeting when they allegedly got into a fight with a group of people from Bharwads community at Dhrangadhra in Surendranagar district.

Amid heavy stone pelting from both sides, one group resorted to firing, which left one dead, police said.

Soon, another clash broke out in Soladi village, where one more person was killed. Clashes were also reported from Dhrangadhra village.

Several vehicles and shops were also torched, before a large contingent of police rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control.

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Border guards intercept them periodically, but cattle smugglers keep devising ingenuous techniques to send cows and bulls to Bangladesh and feed the beef and leather industry there.

India shares a 4,096km border with Bangladesh and there are multiple points along this boundary  primarily in West Bengal and Assam  where cattle smugglers operate, often after dark.

A cow that costs Rs 5,000 in India fetches up to Rs 50,000 in Bangladesh. The illegal cross-border trade is estimated to be worth Rs 5,000 crore a year.

Less than two decades ago, when a thin barbed wire fence ran 150m from the zero line (actual boundary) along the India-Bangladesh border, the preferred strategy was to torture and irritate the cattle to make them stomp through the fencing.

The methods included driving nails on the rumps of the cows, or inserting chilli or petrol in their genitals to make them run in pain. These would be applied on the cows making up the last row in a group of 40-50, a police informer in western Assams Dhubri said.

Breaking through the fence usually killed or maimed the first few cows, but the possibility of their death is factored in when the receivers in Bangladesh pay for the consignment in advance through hawala transactions.

These transactions, officials say, are controlled by non-Muslim traders, most of them based in Mankachar on the Assam-Meghalaya-Bangladesh tri-junction.

The fence was reinforced with a double fencing in the early 2000s. This made the cattle smugglers switch to other strategies.

One of the techniques involves snorkelers, usually children, who use the hollow of papaya stems to breathe underwater and guide cattle across in rivers and channels flowing into Bangladesh.

Of the 263km border, 119.1km is riverine.

The governments stress on completing the new fence by 2019  work on some 2,800km is complete  and tighter vigil by Border Security Force (BSF) armed with night-vision cameras and lasers have made smuggling tougher.

In this Thursday, March 30, 2017, file photo, buffaloes meant for slaughter stand tethered in Malihabad, on the outskirts of Lucknow. (AP File Photo)

But the smugglers defy the hurdles. A popular method, applied mainly by agents in Bangladesh where cattle trade is legal, is a crane made of bamboo.

This involves a sturdy bamboo pole. Agents on the Bangladesh side lower one end of the bamboo for their Indian counterparts to hang a cow. The animal is then swung across the fence.

The latest method is to tie a cow to two pieces of a banana plant and the animal floats across to Bangladesh. A police informer had filmed a consignment being shipped this way on the Kaljani river along the Assam-West Bengal border.

Ashraful Akand, the kingpin of the operation in Assam, was arrested in West Bengal, Dhubri police superintendent Longnit Terang said.

The BSF said patrol boats were deployed to prevent cattle smuggling through rivers. Much of the problem is because there is no law banning movement of cattle from one place to another within India, a BSF officer said.

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Jaipur: An uneasy calm prevailed in Rajasthans Sanvrad village on Friday, two days after one person was killed and more than 30 were injured there when a stir over the encounter killing of a gangster turned violent.

Thirteen companies of the Rajasthan armed constabulary (RAC) along with 400 personnel of the district police continued to be stationed in and around the gangster Anandpal Singhs native village in Nagaur district to prevent any untoward incident.

The violent protest erupted when the villages Rajput community took out a rally to pay tribute to the gangster, who was gunned down in a police encounter on June 24, and demand a CBI probe into his death.

The unruly mob damaged several properties and also assaulted the district superintendent of police and set ablaze his vehicle.

The miscreants also misbehaved with a trainee woman IPS officer and injured several policemen.

Singh was cremated on Thursday evening, 19 days after he was killed in an encounter with the special operations group of the Rajasthan Police in Churu district on June 24.

The situation in the village marginally improved after the cremation. However, tension still prevails in the village, additional superintendent of police Gyan Chand Yadav told HT.

Railway services have been partially restored and a few goods trains have already passed through the village. Repair works at the station, which was set on fire by the mob is also underway, Yadav said.

Additional director general of police (law and order) NRK Reddy said they were also keeping close watch on other Rajput-dominated areas under the Jodhpur, Jaipur range and the Shekhwati region of the state to prevent any flare up.

We are planning to pull out one fourth of the current deployment today but companies of Rajasthan Armed Constabulary (RAC) will continue to be stationed in and around the village to ward off any untoward incident, Reddy added.

Meanwhile, Rajput leaders said they are steadfast on their plan to march to the state capital Jaipur to push for the CBI inquiry into the encounter.

They had claimed 10 lakh people will march to Jaipur to demand the CBI probe.

The cremation of the body makes no difference to our movement. We want a CBI probe into the encounter so that the truth can come out and we stand by it. We will soon meet to fix the date for the Jaipur protest march, said Giriraj Singh Lotwara, president of the Rajput Sabha.

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The current stand-off between India and China in Sikkim is different from those in the recent past in terms of its duration, strategic implications, and the potential for escalation - factors that have prompted the NDA government to convene an all-party meeting on Friday evening.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance government will brief political parties about the incident and try to evolve a political consensus during the meeting.

There is no resolution in sight to the border standoff in Doklam that is in its fourth week.

The last twoDepsang in Ladakh region in 2013 and Chumar in 2014were sorted out through talks in three weeks. This time, it involves the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in the Sikkim sector, which remained by and large incident- free since 2003.

The Depsang incident happened ahead of Chinese premier Li Keqiangs visit to India in May 2013. The Chinese army had pitched tents inside Indian territory, leading to a military and diplomatic standoff. Indian army, too, did the same. The two sides, however, withdrew their troops and restored the status quo after negotiations.

Chumar incident on the border in southern Ladakh coincided with Chinese president Xi Jinpings visit to India in September 2014.

Though this region has a history of Chinese incursions, the very fact that it coincided with the visit of Xi, who was accorded a public reception in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modis home state, didnt go down well with India. But two sides activated channels of communication and it was resolved in 16 days. Another minor incursion in Chumar took place in December last year, but it was settled at the local level.

This time around the border standoff is different in nature. A construction unit of the Chinese army started building a road near a Bhutan army post in Zompelri on June 16. Bhutan protested the move. This activity, for India, amounts to China trying to alter the status quo of India, Bhutan, Tibet tri-junction.

That goes against an understanding arrived at by both the parties in 2012, which requires consultation with Bhutan if there is any attempt to change the status quo at the tri-junction.

The road construction is also against the 1993 pact on maintaining peace and tranquillity along the border between the two countries. All this has led to a rare situation of India-China standoff in the Bhutanese territory. India and Bhutan have a bilateral understanding on matters related to defence and foreign policy.

The way the standoff continues and Chinese unwillingness to follow the usual practice of both sides backing off, either before a talk or after the talks, to restore status quo along the border are not common. The rhetoric is also unusually shrill from Beijing.

The two countries have been facing a slide in ties of late, on issues ranging from Indias entry to Nuclear Suppliers Group to Pakistan-China economic corridor.

But the larger challenge is how to find mechanisms to manage the relationship. Foreign secretary S Jaishankar said on Tuesday that India and China were a factor of stability. He also said the top leadership of two countries had agreed not to allow differences to become disputes.

But their economic rise, race for global resources, and clout are set to bring in more challenges in their relationship. Also, both the countries are led by staunch nationalist leaders at present.

Managing the challenges in the present and future would call for means backed by greater political consensus.

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Slain Rajasthan gangster, Anandpal Singhs Dubai-based daughter, Cheenu and lawyer, AP Singh are among the 12,000 accused in the violence that erupted at a tribute rally organised in his native village Sanvrad in Rajasthan on Wednesday.

The entire drama surrounding the refusal to cremate the body of the gangster to put pressure on the government, and then, calling the villagers for a tribute rally was the plan of Cheenu and AP Singh, said ADGP (law and order) NRK Reddy, justifying their naming as prime accused in the FIR, a copy of which is with HT.

AP Singh is also the lawyer of the accused in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case, and is known for making controversial statements.

Several leaders of various Rajput outfits were also named in the FIR.

Provocative speeches were made at the rally which resulted in damage of public property and attacks on the police, Reddy said.

Police have booked all the accused under 21 offences, including rioting, rioting armed with deadly weapons, unlawful assembly, wrongful confinement, kidnapping and sexual harassment.

Anandpal Singh was gunned down on June 24 in a police encounter in Churu district after which his family had refused to cremate his body, demanding a CBI enquiry.

In the violence that had ensued during the tribute rally in Ananpals native village Sanvrad in Nagaur, mob had set fire to a railway station and also the vehicle of the district superintendent of police besides allegedly assaulting the SP and misbehaving with a woman IPS officer. Several police personnel were injured in the attacks.

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Akansha Bhaskar is one of the five lucky new Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers of 2015 batch who were selected for serving the Union home ministry as assistant secretaries for a three-month period before they go back to respective home cadres.

But unlike the other four, Bhaskar will not get a full-fledged district posting as sub- divisional officer (SDO) immediately her return to her parent cadre West Bengal. Instead, she will have to undergo a round of counter- induction programme as undersecretary either with chief ministers office, or with any other state government department, for another three to six months before she gets a full-fledged district assignment.

Read: Mamata pulls up Kolkata school for playing Modis Mann ki Baat to students

The reason behind this compulsory cooling period before district allotment is the increasing bitter relations between Union and West Bengal government, with chief minister Mamata Banerjee viewing this compulsory three-month central deputation for new IAS officers as a brainwashing mechanism by the Union government.

If the Centre thinks fresh IAS officers need to spend a few months with the Union ministries to get acquainted with the way the Union government functions, they also need to spend some time to become familiar with the way the state government operates, feels Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. (HT Photo)

Confirmed an official from the state personnel & administrative reforms (P&AR) department, after returning to state cadre these officers have to go through another induction programme with any state government department the period of which might range from three to six months. The decision is taken by the chief minister, who is also in charge of the P&AR department.

Therefore, Bhaskar is not the only IAS officer of 2015 batch to undergo such counter induction programme. Nine others of the same batch, who were from West Bengal cadre will have to undergo similar programmes.

The chief minister desires such counter induction programme to be conducted by the CMO only. But since it cannot often absorb so many new IAS officers as undersecretaries, the rest will be placed with departments held by the chief minister such as home, health and P&AR, confirmed a P&AR official on condition of anonymity.

Read: IAS body ups the ante against Bengal for shrinking central deputation

The system of compulsory three-month deputation for new IAS officers with different Union ministries after they pass out from Mussoorie-based Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) was introduced by the Narendra Modi government since it came to power in 2014.

The Union government says that this is an initiative to make new IAS officer acquainted with the functioning of the Union government and its different ministries. The chief minister has a counter argument. In that case the state government, too, has the right to conduct counter induction programme to make new bureaucrats familiar with the functioning of the state government, its policies and schemes, the state P&AR official said.

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The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) will organise Hindu monks, heads of temples and religious organisations in Bengal to mount pressure on the Mamata Banerjee government so that the Centres ban on cow sale for slaughter can be enforced in the state.

As part of the agitation, the monks and heads of these organisations will take out a procession to the state secretariat in Howrah and gherao it.

Read: How RSS plans to take over West Bengal: Social media campaign to new members

Incidentally, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the cattle trade rules, which several states refused to implement, would not come into effect. The Centre would revise the rules by end August after considering the objections.

Mahajati Sadan that was built soon after Independence did not witness such a gathering in recent decades. (Samir Jana)

The announcement was made by Sachindra Nath Sinha, organising secretary of the VHP in Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and the Andaman islands at a well-attended meeting of the monks in Kolkata on Thursday. About 50 monks, priests of various temples and officials of outfits such as Bharat Sevashram Sangha, an international organisation, attended the Sant Sammelan held at the historic Mahajati Sadan auditorium in central Kolkata.

All the monks criticised the state government for the recent communal violence at Baduria and Basirhat. Many even accused the government of not being able to protect Hindus in Bengal. The graphic backdrop on the stage depicted a map of Bengal with most parts on fire.

This Sant Sammelan has not been organised only because of the Basirhat violence. There will be more such meetings. Many monks from the districts wanted to come today but were scared of the repercussions. We expected that after 34 years of Left rule the situation would change. But it didnt. This regime is more keen on securing minority votes, alleged Sinha.

Read: Mamatas pro-poor policies alone may not be enough to stop BJP in Bengal

Parmatmananda Giri, head of the famous Noapara Kali temple, said Hindus should defend themselves and learn to use weapons. Saffron is the symbol of sacrifice. But sacrifice doesnt mean giving away your life, he said.

A Hindu organisation took out a rally in Bhawanipore, Kolkata on April 5, 2017 on the occasion of Ram Navami. Never were such scenes witnessed in Kolkata in the past several decades. (Samir Jana)

I was present in Deganga during the riots (2010). Local Muslims told me that those who attacked Hindu homes came from outside. The inspector-in-charge of a police station told me that he and his men were asked not to carry firearms. The violence wouldnt have spread had the police cracked down the moment it started, said Swami Sharadatmananda, secretary of the Ramkrishna Satyananda Math at Alambazar.

Jishnu Basu, south Bengal secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) also attended the meeting. My parents came to West Bengal as refugees during the Bangladesh War. I fear that someday we all will have migrate to another state as refugees. The communal violence we have witnessed in several districts are part of a bigger plan, said Basu.

An integral part of the Indian freedom movement, Mahajati Sadan possibly witnessed a meeting of this nature for the first time in decades.

During his tenure as Mayor of Calcutta, Subhas Chandra Bose planned the auditorium on Central Avenue and requested Rabindranath Tagore to lay the foundation stone in 1939. The project got stalled after Bose escaped from India to lead the Indian National Army. After Independence, Bengals first chief minister Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy completed the construction. He had to pass a special Act in the Bengal Assembly in view of the expenditure.

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The Allahabad High Court on Thursday granted a weeks time to state government to apprise about its policy on slaughter houses in UP. It listed the matter for hearing on July 20.

The court was not convinced with the government counsels argument that the government has the power to impose reasonable restrictions on running of slaughter houses and it is for this reason that there was no slaughter house in chief ministers districtGorakhpur.

The bench comprising chief justice DB Bhosale and justice MK Gupta did not agree with the government counsel who raised preliminary objections about the relief sought in the writ petition. The bench said it had power to provide relief for the benefit of people at large.

The bench also asked a question from the state as to whether the government wanted to ban eating of non-vegetarian food in UP and if not then why there was no slaughter house in several districts.

Additional advocate general Manish Goel requested the bench to give a weeks time to seek instructions from the state government on the issue.

The order was passed on a writ petition filed by Dilshad Ahmed and several others from Gorakhpur, who in their petition had alleged that there was no slaughter house in the district and the government was adamant on not giving assent for it. The petitioners plea was that since there was no slaughter house in Gorakhpur therefore they could not get food of their choice.
Tsutomu Koizumi, head of Japans delegation to the first Senior Officials Meetings (SOM1) of the

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum (Photo: VNA)



In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) in Tokyo on July 12th, Tsutomu Koizumi, Deputy Director General of the Economic Affairs Bureau under Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs who also attended the APEC Trade Ministers Meeting in Hanoi, said the APEC meetings hosted by Vietnam have gained great successes.

Japan pins high hope on Vietnams hosting of APEC Summit 2017, he emphasised.

Highlighting APECs achievements over the past time, including economic integration in Asia-Pacific, Tsutomu Koizumi said APEC makes up 60 percent of the global GDP with about USD44.3 trillion and half of the worlds trade revenue with USD17.8 trillion.

APECs incessant efforts have contributed to the development of the Asia-Pacific region, he noted.

In the context of changes in the global business climate which sees the increasing domination of services, digital-technology trade and protectionism, APEC has played a more important role in facilitating trade and investment liberalisation in the world, according to Tsutomu Koizumi.

He said the APEC Year 2017 will focus on such issues as sustainable development, innovations, regional economic connectivity, the competitiveness of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), food security, sustainable agriculture, and climate change response.

He suggested organising dialogues for public-private businesses to get their opinions heard during the dialogue between APEC leaders and the APEC Business Advisory Council in order to serve the policy-making process.

It is necessary for APEC to roll out mid-term and long-term visions by 2020 when the Bogor goals of free and open trade and investment in Asia-Pacific are expected to be achieved, said Tsutomu Koizumi.

Japan, as an APEC member, will make more contributions to APEC discussions and continue its cooperation as well as comprehensive support to make the APEC Summit scheduled in November in Vietnams central Da Nang city, a success, he promised./.
Members of a Muslim family were beaten up and their women allegedly molested before being robbed of cash and jewellery by a group of hoodlums aboard a passenger train in Uttar Pradeshs Mainpuri district on Wednesday.

The incident happened after Mohammad Shakir (50) and his family, returning from a wedding, boarded the Shikohabad-Farukkhabad passenger, which did not have GRP personnel, from Bhongaon at night.

Reportedly, the culprits snatched the mobile phone of Faizan, a physically challenged child of the family. As Shakir and his relatives objected, the accused got violent.

According to other passengers, the accused also passed comments on the women of the family, provoking Shakir and his three male relatives to strike them.

The accused hit them back and called their friends, who boarded the train at subsequent stops and assaulted them with batons and iron rods, and also pelted stones, breaking the trains window panes.

My family members suffered fractures, head injuries and internal injuries. Some even lost consciousness, Shakir told the police, adding that the accused also molested the women, and fled with jewellery and Rs 60,000 cash.

The injured were admitted to RML Hospital in Farukkhabad, and an FIR was lodged with Farukkhabad GRP. Later, the FIR was transferred to Mainpuri GRP for probe.

Police detained four youths. However, they were not found to be involved in the incident.

Officiating SP of GRP, O P Singh said these youths and other passengers had given clues that may lead to the culprits.

A video shot by one of the victims family member showed there were around 15 assailants, a number of whom had got in after the train stopped at Pakham station.

The SP said investigations are on. We will nab them soon.

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IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) decision to shift its Lucknow operations to Noida has taken social media by storm. Techies associated with the organisation here created a twitter account  @saveTCSplease and urged chief minister Yogi Adityanath to save the establishment from closure.

An application posted on the account (made on July 11 this year) sought the chief ministers intervention in the companys decision, which was likely to affect 2,000 employees including women.

The three-page letter, also addressed to the Prime Ministers Office, was re-tweeted around 112 times, got 55 comments and 98 likes.

Read more: TCS to wind up Lucknow operations, company says no job loss

The letter reads that, The company has an annual turnover of over one lakh crore and is not at all running in losses as it has shown to the state government. TCS is not investing anything in Prime Ministers constituencyVaranasi as is being portrayed before the state government. In Varanasi, TCS is going to hire a building and will employ around 400 employees on ad-hoc basis.

Through the letter, the twitter user has also urged the CM to discuss the issue with TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan who completed his primary education from Lucknow.

TCS is closing its office in Lucknow. Please re-tweet max so that this tweet reaches the officials concerned, reads another post.

Read more: TCS miss Q1 estimates, net profit falls 5.9% to Rs 5,945 crore

What is happening Yogi sir, Lucknow is losing a big corporate house. Please look into this, another tweet appealed to CM, demanding his intervention.

Why would TCS close a 30-year-old office in Lucknow. Do people not matter to you anymore? reads a tweet addressed to Ratan Tata.

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Taking their cue from nations such as South Korea, Italy, and Japan, where menstrual leave is a part of the leave policy in most companies, two Mumbai-based companies  Culture Machine and Gozoop  have decided to grant paid leave to their women employees on the first day of their period.

This sounds like a step towards empowering women with a better support structure at work, but understandably, not everyone thinks so.

Explaining the policy, Devleena S. Majumder, President of Human Resources at Culture Machine, tells us, What we have recently introduced in our organisation is not just a policy but a gesture of support for all our women employees. [Also], as FOP cramps and pain are subjective in nature, the FOP leave is optional. This step relieves the person, preserves good cheer in the team, and is seen as a sensitive step from the organisations point of view.

If this paves the way for more companies, especially those in metro cities, to follow suit, attitudes in the workforce wont be uniformly supportive, as we figured by talking to HR professionals and general employees.

This is an enabler

Praising the FOP leave, Shirin Saluja, a working professional says, I dont know how men will react, but I see it as a blessing if I dont take my worst self to the office.

Sanya Rawal, who works with a leading audit firm, feels that its important for everyone to become aware of the difficulties a woman may go through during her period. At this time, adequate rest becomes a necessity for her to feel relaxed and rejuvenated. Giving a woman more flexibility will enable her to give more dedicated services to the business at large, she adds.

Women getting too much

A lot of men see FOP leave as women taking advantage of well, being women. Strongly opposing what he calls a weak initiative, Kartik Dhar, consultant with a learning and development firm, demands to know who pays for the downtime when women co-workers are on such special leave.

First day of period (FOP) cramps is a common phenomenon that most women face.

Women have it easy in the professional world, says a vehement Kartik. When theyre away on a six-month-long maternity leave, men get nothing. The onus of the job falls on the male employees, he adds. This is quite an outlandish claim, because nowhere in the world do all women go on maternity leave simultaneously, leaving the poor men to toil day and night. In almost every organisation, the surplus work (of the pregnant employee on leave) is equally divided among all other male and female staff.

Nevertheless, Kartik feels put upon at the thought of FOP leave. And now this additional 4-5 days of downtime, over and above the allotted holidays, is another reason why women will not get hired, he predicts, adding, [Also], urban, employed, educated women are not as oppressed as they pretend to be, and I feel even if its paid leave for just a day, it still is too much. They should take a day off from their given set of leaves.

No reverse discrimination, please

HR personnel, too, stand divided on FOP leave. Shivani Bali Nagpal, HR staffer with a leading digital media house, says that shes all for diversity and equality at work, but strictly on merit.

She says, Im certainly not up for any kind of reverse discrimination. I do feel Indian employers have to be gentle towards women, given the contextual history and background, but menstrual leave doesnt cut the ice for me. Isnt it fair to trust your employee, male or female, and allow them leave irrespective of the reason? Our focus should be on work-life integration with a lot of support, of course [with] stringent productivity benchmarks.

Impact on productivity

Another HR person in the acquisition department opines that in a scenario where theyre trying to increase the number of women employees, such a move comes as a setback. In our company, were targeting a 3:2 female-to-male ratio by 2020, so such an initiative wont prove to be a fruitful, as itll have a direct impact on overall productivity on days when female employees are not available, says Pooja Bhandari, HR person with a renowned telecom company.

This might create a perception problem, too. Pooja adds, Men may look at this as an undue advantage for women employees, as not all of them feel really sick on FOP. Every employee is entitled to sick leaves, which they can use whenever required. [Also] in the current scenario, where we talk about gender equality and giving women equal opportunities at higher level positions, this move doesnt really fit the bill.

It helps strike the right balance

About the productivity concern, Sarung Subnani, an HR person with an online travel agency, feels that it wont really be affected by FOP leave. These days, employees do have work-from-home policy, he points out, and giving a days leave for the right reason helps strike the right work life balance too. Moreover, he adds, in most organisations, the gender ratio is unequal (meaning there are more men than women), hence theres always adequate staffing and output wont be impacted in a major way.

In agreement, Devleena believes that productivity is a state of mind, And thus, its not always essential for an individual to be present physically at their respective workplace, she says.

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Jagga Jasoos

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Saswata Chatterjee

Director: Anurag Basu

Rating: 3.5/5

Anurag Basu has a trustworthy lieutenant in cinematographer Ravi Varman. His camera entices you to enter the world of Jagga and once youre there, Basu ensures your stay for a longer period. Jagga Jasoos is poster perfect, beautiful and soothing.

It all begins in Darjeeling where a deduction expert man-child Jagga (Ranbir Kapoor) lives in a school hostel and applies his theories on friends. Its a terrific opening as you get to know about his ideas, loneliness and ever wandering mind.

Basu goes for a musical which, in a way, provides Jagga a chance to ditch his stammering and go for some vividly penned ballads. Always longing for his missing father Tooti Footi (Saswata Chatterjee), Jagga is someone who you can immediately like. For all his Tintin-inspired adventures, he is fighting inner demons like most of us. A chance meeting with a Kolkata-based journalist Shruti (Katrina Kaif) pushes him to go for the journey of his life that crosses through Thailands beaches and Moroccan deserts.

Basus handling of the backdrop intrigues from the very beginning, his human formations and musical beats create a rhythm we rarely see in Bollywood. His dreamland is mostly composed with moving props. It could be anything from a giraffe to an ostrich. Be it Jaggas specially designed bike or a decorated elephant crossing an empty street, every frame gives you something to hook on. After a few minutes, you willingly glide through his world.

You remember how it felt while reading Roald Dahl or Harry Potter? The same happens while watching Jagga Jasoos. You are watching the visuals projected at you, but youre also imagining a different world inspired from them.

Then there are stories that hold their ground. After all, heres a detective whose introduction song mentions Sherlock and Feluda. The aspirations are indeed high. Jagga passes the initial test as he solves a few local cases.

This makes Basu ambitious and prompts him to talk about the serious issues plaguing the world. What initially appears like another open and shut case snowballs into a world-wide conspiracy. This is where Basu begins to waver. Larger canvas presents bigger challenges.

Thankfully, he goes for more interesting formations than relying on dialogues. Action sequences keep getting better structured and amazingly synchronized. Coupled with Pritams soulful tunes, they bring in a unique look and feel to Jagga Jasoos.

But extra focus on amusing the audience leaves the chemistry between the leads ignored. Its hard to find anything sparkling there.

Though the writers have taken care of explaining Shrutis English accent, which they do in almost every film featuring Katrina Kaif, she couldnt strike an immediate connect with the audiences the way Jagga does.

Its a fantasy film that takes away the spotlight pressure from Ranbir Kapoor. This also gives him the breather to float around the theme. Basu also lets Kapoor interpret the narrative as per his will. As a result, he makes his overgrown amateurish detective believable.

Saswata Chatterjee, better known as Bob Biswas of Kahaani, is the cushion around Ranbirs Jagga. As an accident-prone father, he can make you teary-eyed at times.

Watch: Our Facebook Live discussion on Jagga Jasoos and Shab

As a film, Jagga Jasoos isnt satisfied only with being an incredible adventure saga. It desires to become a comment on social evils. This idea affects the flow of the film in the second half. The stunning visuals we behold in the first half mixes up in the stretched story in the second. Its somewhere in the second half, you suddenly realise how multi-dimensional the story has become. The 161-minute duration of the film doesnt help either.

Ranbir Kapoor never drops one emotion and is really sincere. He is the shining knight of this story-- one that demanded its protagonist to not look silly despite being an overgrown adolescent.

But nothing can hide Anurag Basus authority over Jagga Jasoos. Its a film that must have played in his mind thousand times over before he actually started to shoot.

Its a cliche, but no other word can sum up Jagga Jasoos better: Cinematic. Well, thats it. Jagga Jasoos is the most cinematic film you have seen in the recent months. Plunge to never come out of the world of Jagga Jasoos.

Interact with Rohit Vats at Twitter/@nawabjha

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The Khar police are on the lookout for two men who allegedly molested two collegegoing girls in separate incidents in Khar and Bandra. The possibility of a single accused committing both the crimes is not ruled out.

According to the Khar police, the first incident took place on June 29 on the Nargis Dutt road near Carter road in Pali Hill in Bandra west when a 21-year-old law student was on a morning walk with her dog.

Around 7.15am, a biker started flashing his bikes headlight at her. She ignored him and walked away. He then drove past her . Before she could react, he groped her and fled.

Read more: Biker flashes 3 women in Mumbai, asks them how they felt, flees

The second incident took place on July 1 around 7.25am when a 21-year-old was on her way to college. A man came on a bike and blocked her way on Rizvi college road in Khar west.

He touched her shoulder and cheek and fled.

Two FIRs have been registered under section 354 of the IPC for outraging modesty of women.

A police official from Khar police station said,We are checking the CCTV cameras in the vicinity to identify the accused. The women have given us the description of the accused.
Approximately 3,000 housing societies on Collectors Land in Mumbai will be affected by the hike in transfer fee on the sale of their apartments.

The societies could also face problems if they want to revamp the buildings in them because they will not get permission for construction until the dues are paid.

Representatives from Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MSWA), which represents the housing societies, said that such hikes were unjustified. This will come as a big blow to the residents. Anything charged on basis of square foott or ready reckoner attracts huge costs, said Ramesh Prabhu, chairman, MSWA. This will really dampen the redevelopment process as residents will have to shell out lakhs to clear the pending dues, he added.

The state government has changed the transfer fee slabs, according to which, anyone who sells a flat in the island city with permission within five years of construction will have to pay Rs 1,000 per square feet. In case of a special catefgory (judges, bureaucrats and others), the charge will be Rs 2,000 per square feet. For people who do not have a permission, the charges will double.

Residents who bought these apartments without paying the transfer fee will now have to pay a lot more to regularise their sale.

Builders felt that this will ultimately have an effect on project costs. A builder will get approval only after securing a no objection certificate from the collector. This adds to the project cost and ultimately the selling price, said Bhavesh Sanghrajka, managing director, Shraddha Lifescapes.

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The Bombay high court has granted compensation of Rs2lakh to a 63-year-old murder convict from Aurangabad because he was kept in jail for three years and nine months beyond his sentence.

A division bench of justices TV Nalawade and Sunil Kotwal directed the government to pay the amount to Ranjitsingh Gill within 45 days, failing which it would have to shell out interest at the rate of 12% a year.

Gill was arrested in August 1975 on murder charges. He was acquitted by a trial court but the Bombay high court overturned the order and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The high court order was later upheld by the Supreme Court.

After serving 17 years and nine months in jail, Gill was released in February 2002. Two years later, he approached the high court, seeking compensation of Rs25 lakh on the grounds that he was illegally detained for three years and nine months beyond the term of his sentence.

Though the court agreed that section 433A (giving powers to state to commute or remit sentence) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which came into effect three years after his conviction, was not applicable in this case, it said that the government had failed to release him on time. This court holds that compensation needs to be paid to the petitioner, ruled the court. On the date he submitted his petition, the petitioner was about 50-year-old and it can be said that he lost more than three years of his active life owing to the illegal detention, said the bench. When a person is kept behind bars, his entire family suffers. In our society, the male member is generally the main earner of the family, it observed

READ

Bombay high court irked with states cap on compensation for rape survivors at 3 lakh

Bombay high court asks state to compensate student who lost MBBS seat to college irregularities
The Bombay high court on Friday criticised the Maharashtra government for its apathy towards students in its ashram (residential) schools in tribal areas.

Terming the condition of such schools pitiable and ridiculous, a bench of justices RM Savant and Sadhana Jadhav said that the state had wasted time by constituting one committee after another but and had taken no steps to improve the infrastructure and facilities of these schools.

The bench directed the secretary of the state tribal welfare department to file within three weeks a compliance report, including remedial measures, to improve the conditions of ashram schools in Maharashtra.

It directed the state to provide basic facilities such as clean drinking water, mattresses, healthcare, toilets etc.

These schools, meant primarily for children from tribal areas in the state, battle neglect and government apathy.

The direction came while the bench was hearing a public interest litigation claiming that 793 children had died over the past 10 years in various ashram schools. The reasons for these deaths ranged from snake bites to fevers to other illnesses.

This is really ridiculous. The state government is obligated to provide basic facilities. It is the governments duty and responsibility. Except passing hollow resolutions, the government has done little to improve the condition, the bench said.

Immediate action must be taken to provide basic facilities such as clean and adequate number of toilets, drinking water facility, medical treatment, beddings and mattresses in hostels etc. The government must also appoint a female warden in each school that has girl students, the bench said. The high court is likely to hear the matter on August 11.

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With Ganpati festival is a month away, the high court has warned police against tweaking noise rules.

Here are the set of rules, what is being demanded and what is being done:

WHAT THE LAW SAYS

The Environment Protection Act, 1986 and Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000 ban the use of loudspeakers or a public address system between 10pm and 6am. The state government can extend the time limit up to midnight for 15 days a year

Ganeshotsav (4 days)

Navratri: Ashtami and Navami (2 days)

Christmas

Diwali: Dhanteras and Laxmi pujan (2 days)

Eid-e-milad

Shiv Jayanti

Dr Ambedkar Jayanti

The remaining three days are reserved by the government for what they deem fit

PENALTY

Flouting the norm can lead to:

Imprisonment for up to 5 years

Fine of Rs1 lakh

If the offence is repeated frequently, the authorities can impose a fine of Rs5,000 a day

How noise pollution affects your health Noise pollution can cause:  Annoyance  Aggression  Hypertension  Increase in blood pressure  High-stress levels  Hearing loss  Sleep disturbance  Depression  Panic attacks If decibel levels are between the range of 80dB and 90dB over a period of time, people can develop  Damage to nerves  Hearing loss or tinnitus, a recurring buzzing sound produced in the ear (Source: Dr Ashwini Kumar Mehta, ear-nose-throat (ENT) specialist, Seven Hills Health Hospital in Andheri)

LAST YEARs HC ORDER BANNED

Use of loudspeakers in silence zones

Use of drums

Bowing horns, trumpets

Playing music using sound amplifiers

WHATS THE PLAN FOR THIS YEARS FESTIVALS

The state government may dilute noise norms for Ganeshotsav and dahi handi this year

Members of the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvay Samiti (BSGSS), the umbrella body of Ganesh mandals in the city, said Fadnavis has promised there wont be restrictions this year

Organisers demand:

Allow us to use loudspeakers in silence zones

Raise the height of human pyramids for dahi handi (currently restricted to 20ft)

Reduce the radius of silence zone from 100m to 10m

Organisers claims

The state has requested the Centre to look into the matter

If they fail to make changes, the CM has promised an ordinance to dilute noise norms will be issued by the state environment department

WHAT THE CM TWEETED LAST YEAR

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis last year requested the Union environment ministry last year to let the district collectors decide on the 15 days for which noise rules can be relaxed

Currently, relaxation for 15 days in a year is given for noise limit. Government of Maharashtra requested environment minister Anil Dave to consider districts as a unit instead of the state and empower collectors to take a call, the chief ministers office had tweeted

WHAT THE HC SAID ON THURSDAY

The Bombay high court on Thursday cautioned the state government against any relaxation in noise pollution rules during festivities like Ganpati and Navratri

A division bench of justice Abhay Oka and justice Vibha Kankanwadi said the state government cannot take any adverse decision  decision going against the judgment of the high court that says no loudspeaker or other sound amplifier can be used in a silence zone at any hour of the day.

The court directed the state to issue directions to all planning authorities across the state to incorporate the conditions  of adhering to provisions of the Noise Pollution Rules, 2000  while granting permissions.
In a first for the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to incorporate students ideas while framing its polices.

In a competition held by the BMC and think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF), the officials got new ideas for urban planning that can be used for the citys benefit.

The winning entries includes ideas to make use of vacant housing for amenities, assessing the citys bio-diversity index, a cultural policy for the city and focusing on local-area planning. Students were asked to pick topics from the recently released Development Plan (DP) 2034.

Sayali Udas Mankikar, a research fellow at the ORF, said the competition was organised to bridge the gap between policy-making and academia.

The students reviewed exiting policies with real-time data. They interacted with civic officials to understand the ground reality. With this competition, we are opening doors for academia in urban planning.

ORF had received 33 entries from students across 15 institutions. Berjis Driver, who won the first prize presented a research paper titled Transfer of Identity - Establishment of a Unification model for the open spaces of Mumbai. All seven winners will be felicitated on Friday.

A student of Lokmanya Tilak Institute of Architecture and Design Studies in Navi Mumbai, Driver pitched ideas to make open spaces accessible to all. He said, I got this idea looking at the lack of open spaces in the city and the non-accessibility of the ones existing . Legislative guidelines are imminent to achieve this.

An urban planner working with the DP the department said department is looking at ways to incorporate Drivers ideas for the citys final open spaces policy. An interim policy on open spaces is currently pending with the general body for approval.

DP to be discussed on Friday

After a delay, the BMC will start discussing the DP 2034 in its general body meeting on Friday. Officials said meetings have been scheduled on July 14 and 15 to discuss the DP. Yashwant Jadhav, Shiv Sena corporator and leader of the House, said they are hoping to pass the DP blueprint on Saturday. If we dont reach a consensus on Saturday, then the plan will be discussed on Monday, Jadhav said. The last day for BMC to submit the DP to the state is July 18.

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(Photo: VNA)

The event showcased 100 photos, showing the beauty of Vietnams sea and islands across the 3,000km of coastline, more than 3,000 islands of different sizes and 29 million people living in 28 coastal localities.

The exhibition aims to introduce the beauty of Vietnams culture, local fishermen and the countrys maritime economy.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the Czech Republic Ho Minh Tuan said he hopes the exhibit will boost Vietnam-Czech relations and mutual understanding.

The event is part of the Vietnamese Embassys activities to introduce the nation and people of Vietnam to foreign friends in the Czech Republic, he said.

Czech Deputy Minister of Cultural Heritage Anna Matouskova spoke highly of the event: All the photos are beautiful. Im glad that they can be seen by the people of Prague and people from other provinces. We hope more exhibits like this will be held.

Vietnam and the Czech Republic established diplomatic ties on February 2nd, 1950, and their traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation have continuously been enhanced./.
Kode Rating: 4 / 5 Where: 11, Trade View, Oasis Complex, Kamala Mills, Lower Parel When: 6.30 pm to 12.45 am Cost: About Rs 4,500 for two, with one cocktail each Call: 4971-6931 / 32

Just when you thought youd seen the last new Kamala Mills restaurant open, here is another one making a confident debut. Zorawar Kalras Kode is surprisingly low on the bombast one has come to expect from his brands. But it is high on sophistication.

Its aimed at everyone from well-heeled families celebrating a graduation to couples out on a rather expensive date and lone executives nursing post-work drinks.

Kode (thats code with a K) claims to have the countrys largest selection of whiskey brands  they stock 130, displayed at a huge steel-and-beige-granite island bar.

The salmon and cream cheese maki rolls remind you of the ones at Pa Pa Ya, with their spicy togarashi hit. (Aalok Soni / HT Photo)

The granite theme is carried on to the walls, with rough-hewn boulders jutting out of some of them and chevron-patterned Mexican tiles on others. The overall feel is that of measured opulence  a good reflection of the menu, where prices hover around the four-figure mark.

Kode calls its menu cuisine-agnostic. It reads like a list of the top hits from Kodes older siblings, Pa Pa Ya and Masala Library. So on the one hand there are diminutive salmon and cream cheese maki rolls that remind you of the ones at Pa Pa Ya, with their spicy togarashi hit.

On the other is the forgotten petal sour, a yummy gin-based riff on a traditional whiskey sour, accompanied by an edible soap made from Campari. Its tart burst of citrus evokes Masala Librarys gin-based Mumbai Matinee.

Kodes baked camembert souffle is a timeless classic, with its light-as-air cheesy goodness enhanced by a generous pour of bechamel. (Aalok Soni / HT Photo)

Our baked camembert souffle paid rich homage to the 1970s dinner party classic with its light-as-air cheesy goodness, enhanced by a generous pour of bechamel.

The sauce also turned up in the wonderfully re-imagined spiked bloody Mary, giving it a luscious, creamy top. Among the small plates, the crunchy lamb and cilantro taco was suitably straightforward, if a tad pedestrian and lacking in oomph.

The 18-hours cooked lamb shanks, served with a blue cheese and black truffle polenta, along with a red wine jus, had us mopping the dish clean with morsels of warm potato bread.

The slow-cooked lamb shanks with blue cheese and black truffle polenta and red wine jus had us mopping the dish clean with warm potato bread. (Aalok Soni / HT Photo)

Generously portioned, the saffron-redolent chicken and seafood paella was surf-n-turf perfection.

Dessert was a tres leches  vertiginous shards of white chocolate crisps jutting out of a milk-saturated sponge cake. It came floating in a pool of lavender-scented custard, a textural marvel that tasted every bit as divine as it looked.

Kode resets the code for decadence, if you can stomach the price.

(HT pays for all meals and reviews anonymously)

The crunchy lamb and cilantro taco was suitably straightforward, if a tad pedestrian and lacking in oomph. (Aalok Soni / HT Photo)
Maharashtra has become the first state to make social boycott a crime after President Pranab Mukherjee cleared the legislation. The Maharashtra Prohibition of People from Social Boycott (Prevention Prohibition and Redressal) Act prescribes a maximum punishment of three year in jail and a fine of Rs1lakh. It aims to prevent atrocities carried out by extra-judicial courts and caste panchayats.

After the Presidents assent, the Maharashtra government published the Act in the gazette. The bill was cleared by the state legislature in April and was sent to the President for his approval.

The Act has been cleared by the Central government. We are in the process of issuing a notification, Sudhir Shrivastava, additional chief secretary for home, told HT.

The Act also provides for compensation to victims. The fines imposed on violators will be used to compensate them. The Act also has a provision to withdraw cases with the consent of victims and permission from a court.

In case of a withdrawal, the accused will have to perform community service.

Hamid Dabholkar, activist of Maharashtra Andhshradha Nirmulan Samiti and son of slain anti-superstition crusader Narendra Dabholkar, said their three-and-a-half-year-old demand had been met. We believe the Act is a tribute to Narendra Dabholkar, who had started the fight.

READ

Unfortunate that cops ignored testimony: Hamid Dabholkar

Dabholkar murder: CBI to produce Tawade in court on June 16

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Recent controversies over slum rehabilitation projects, including a decision to tweak rules that could benefit a builder, may put housing minister Prakash Mehta in trouble.

The Opposition has upped their ante calling for Mehtas resignation. It is also likely to corner the government over the issue in the monsoon session of state legislature that starts on July 24.

CM Devendra Fadnavis has still not reacted publicly. However, he called Mehta and sought his explanation over the recent controversy.

Fadnavis also cancelled the decision in which Mehta allegedly tweaked the rules of slum rehabilitation project that benefitted a builder.

Sandip Yeole,an activist, has blown the lid of massive irregularities in slum rehabilitation projects in Mumbai. In a dramatic say, he presented before the media Rs40 lakh sent by a builder to bribe him to keep quiet about irregularities in a project in Vikhroli. Among others, Yeole has accused Mehta of being hand in glove with builders.

In another instance, Mehta on June 21, despite objections from his own department, issued orders to the SRA tweaking the original order of permitting the builder to utilise the Floor space index (FSI) originally sanctioned for the expansion of existing rehabilitation tenements of the slum dwellers to build tenements for project affected people (PAP). This would mean the builder will get a sale component of 71,822 square feet, which it would have had to otherwise forgo.

According to government insiders, Fadnavis is upset with Mehta and is of the opinion that defending the latter would be difficult.

Read more: Allegations rock slum redevelopment projects in Mumbai as Devendra Fadnavis takes corrective measures

Mehta has maintained silence over the controversies.

Mehta has mostly been in the news for wrong reasons. First, he tried to cut his minister of state for housing Ravindra Waikar to size by ordering all files Waikar clears need to get through him. Waikar took up this issue with Fadnavis .

Last year, Mehta announced the government was amending the Rent Control Act, the decision which caused fear among lakhs of tenants. This sensitive subject created a storm, where apart from the Opposition and ally Shiv, Sena even BJP legislators opposed the move. Mehta took a U-turn saying there was no such proposal at all.

In August last year, Mehta faced flak for clicking a selfie of the collapsed bridge in Raigad, instead of concentrating on rescue operations. He also misbehaved with journalists who questioned him on the matter and abused a television reporter.

Last year Fadnavis did cut him to size by divesting Mehta of labour department.

Significantly, Mehta, who has been elected for the sixth time and has headed Mumbai BJP, enjoys goodwill in citys Gujarati community.

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Unhappy with changes made to the domicile rule in the ongoing medical and dental admissions, parents and students want to discuss their concerns with state medical officials.

A meeting between parents and officials will be held at the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) on Saturday.

The recently introduced change in domicile eligibility has made a huge difference to the state merit list. Stents from different states have made it to the to ranks, pushing ranks of students from the state behind, said Mahendra Chaudhari, a parent. He added that due to this new rule, many students who moved to Mumbai from other states for integrated courses (preparation for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test as well as class XII), have made it to the top ranks in the recently released state merit. This new change defies the purpose of state domicile quota because students from the state are losing out on seats in government-run institutes, added Chaudhari.

Last week, the Bombay high court relaxed domicile norms for medical and dental aspirants in the state. Originally, those who had cleared Class X and XII from institutes in the state or had a domicile certificate, were eligible for state quota seats. Now, the clause on clearing Class 10 from the state has been dropped.

Those who have cleared Class XII from Maharashtra, even without class X from the state, will be eligible for state quota seats from now, said Dr Pravin Shingare, director of DMER.

The parents also plan to fight against the high court order in the Supreme Court. We will go to the highest authority in this country because what is happening now is unfair to our children, said a parent.

DMER also had to change the admission schedule because of an order from the central government. The Medical Council of India (MCI) released a circular in the last week of June, requesting for uniformity in medical and dental admissions across the country.

A schedule has been shared by MCI, according to which the first round of medical counselling and seat allotment should be over by July 31. According to the original schedule of DMER, the first seat allotment list was supposed to be released by July 30, the list will now be released on July 25.

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The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) board on Thursday formally approved 50.31 hectares of land at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), to set up the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC). By next month, the planning agency will table a master plan for the entire 50 hectares to the Union minister Jayant Sinha-led IFSC Taskforce for a go-ahead.

The master plan will include a layout, land reservations and land use and all urban design guidelines for the proposed financial hub. It is expected to be a car-free zone.

The 50 hectare-land has been earmarked to meet the requirements of a finance Special Economic Zone (SEZ) within the parameters laid down by the Centre. Getting a finance SEZ tag is essential for BKC if it has to get the tax sops and other benefits offered to an IFSC. Currently, Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) city is the only approved IFSC in the country.

The land approved for IFSC on Thursday is an irregular U-shaped plot that includes the entire G Tech block of BKC of around 30 hectares and the entire recreation ground of around 20 hectares close to it, adjoining the Mithi river.

Last year, the Centre had sent back the state governments proposal to consider 20 hectares plot in BKC and the rest in built-up area to meet the requirement of 50 hectares given the land crunch in the city. Following the Centres refusal to consider Mumbai a special case, the state government had sent a proposal to earmark 50 hectares of land in BKC for the project.

The decision today was to grant formal clearance and inform the members of the change in the area delineated for the IFSC. Also, so far, the Board of Approvals for Special Economic Zone (SEZ) had not yet put the Mumbai proposal on the agenda. It is now likely to come up for a hearing in the next two meetings, said a senior state government official.

However, the state government is not putting the plan for an IFSC on hold until it gets the finance SEZ tag.

We plan to do bhoomipujan of the first building by the end of this year regardless of an finance SEZ tag, said an official from the MMRDA.

There has been a tussle between the Centre and the state over the IFSC project. Many within the state government believe that Mumbais IFSC project has been put on the backburner to give GIFT a lead. There has also been ongoing tussle with the Union railway ministry over earmarking land for an underground bullet train station at BKC, which also falls partially in the G block.

Sources told HT a final go-ahead for the station will come after the state gets its IFSC plan off the ground.

Meanwhile, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who chaired the MMRDA meeting, asked officials to keep 50% of the new houses in its rental housing scheme for mill workers, 40% for project-affected persons, 5% for police and 5% for Class 3 and 4 government staffers.

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A 54-year-old businessman jumped off his 17th-floor apartment in a building in Kandivli (East) on Thursday morning. The man had told his family that he was under stress because his textile export business was not doing well.

Manish Mehta lived with his parents, wife and two children in Kandivli.

A night before he killed himself, Mehta spoke to his family about his business problems.

His kin said there was a dip in exports during the monsoon and there is no foul play involved in the case, said an officer investigating the suicide case.

The incident took place between 8 am and 8.45 am on Thursday after he returned from a morning walk and went to his bedroom, said Samta Nagar police officials.

He leapt off from the 17th-floor bedroom balcony. His family members soon learnt about the incident and alerted the police. He was rushed to Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital in Kandivli (West) where he was declared dead on arrival, said Dilip Yadav, senior inspector at Samta Nagar police station.

The police have not found a suicide note.

They will record statements of his family members to confirm the cause of death and check his call records to see if he talked to anybody before committing suicide. Following preliminary investigation, the police have filed an accidental death report in the matter.

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The six jail officials, who were arrested for murdering Byculla jail inmate Manjula Shetye, were produced before the esplanade court on Friday and sent to judicial custody for 14 days. But the Mumbai crime branch has not yet recovered the sticks that were allegedly used to assault Shetye in the prison.

Public prosecutor Rajendra Suryavanshi asked the court to extend the police custody by two days to help Crime Branch Unit 3 interrogate the accused and recover the stick, which would be a crucial piece of evidence in the case.

However, defence lawyer Pankaj Bafna objected to the demand. He said the agency was given enough time to interrogate the accused and there was no development in the investigation.

The crime branch officials said the CCTV footage of outside the barrack where Shetye was assaulted, showed the arrested jail staff dragging her towards the barrack. The police have been recording the statement of inmates who were inside the barrack during the incident.

Shetye was assaulted around 11am on June 23 and died the same night. The Nagpada police registered a case of murder against six jail officials on June 25 and the case was transferred to the crime branch for investigation.

Womens panel tells CM about poor state of jail

The parliamentary women empowerment committee comprising 14 women MPs met chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday to talk about the plight of women prisoners in Byculla jail. The committee will submit its report about the condiction the inmates live in to the Parliament and may meet PM Narendra Modi too.

The committee headed by Bijoya Chakravarty, an MP from Assam, met Fadnavis for around 30 minutes. We were not allowed to meet NGOs working for the inmates in the Byculla jail during our jail visit. It was a terrible experience. The toilets were in a shabby condition, no sanitary facilities were provided to women. The cells were overcrowded and the women were living in inhuman conditions, one of the women MPs said.

Raksha Khadse, BJP MP from Raver, said, We told the CM about the conditions in the jail. He has assured us that corrective measures will be taken.
The Kandivli police booked a man on Thursday for hurting religious sentiments over a comment he made on Facebook against Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray. While Ahmed Shaikh, a resident of a slum in Kandivli, has not been arrested, he was charged based on a complaint by one Lalsingh Rajpurohit, a builder.

In his complaint to the police, Rajpurohit said he noticed Shaikhs derogatory comment on a friends Facebook post expressing outrage over the Amarnath yatra terror attack. While his friend had put a photo of Thackeray and written a post praising the late leaders stand against terrorism, Shaikh commented with abuses.

While the police now plan to summon both  the man who put up the post and Shaikh  for questioning, a case has been registered against the later under section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings.

Mukund Pawar, senior inspector at Kandivli police station, they will decide on the further course of action only after they investigate further.

This is not the first time that police have registered an offence over a Facebook post about Thackeray. In November 2012, the Palghar police arrested two college-going girls  Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Srinivasan  for expressing anguish over a bandh after the leaders death. They were booked under the controversial Section 66a of the Indian IT Act 2002, but charges against them had to be dropped after nationwide outrage. The state government even suspended two police personnel in the case.

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The Khar police are on a lookout for a man who allegedly cheated a 34-year-old woman on the pretext of marriage. The accused and the victim came in contact with each other around a year ago on matrimonial website, and duo started communicating.

They exchanged mobile numbers and after few months, they decided to marry. The man claimed to be Aryan Patel and approached the woman in June 2016.

According to the police, the victim lives in Dadar and works at an interior designer firm. In her complaint, she said that on July 11, the duo decided to meet at Cafe Coffee Day on carter road in Bandra (West). They met around 8pm and discussed their wedding plans and decided to inform their parents about each other.

Patel told victim that he wanted to buy a gold ring for her, so he asked for the ring she was wearing to check the size. The woman removed her ring worth Rs1 lakh and gave it to him. Patel took the gold ring and picked up the phone to call someone and went out of the cafe, said senior inspector Ramchandra Jadhav of Khar police station.

The victim was inside in the CCD but Patel did not return. After half an hour, the victim came out of the cafe to look for him and tried to call him, but his mobile number was switched off, said Jadhav.

The woman then approached Khar police station and registered a case against Patel. The victim does not know Patels residential address or his job profile. It seems that the suspect did not have disclose his real name to victim, and his intention was to cheat her, said Jadhav.

The police have registered case under section 420 (cheating) and 406 (breach of trust) against the accused and have launched a manhunt for him.
The anti-narcotics cell (ANC) of the Mumbai police crime branch arrested a 40-year-old woman selling ganja near a college at Churchgate station on Thursday.

We are cracking down on peddlers operating near educational institutions as part of our campaign against drugs. Our men arrested Malan Venkatesh Kale, 40, while they were patrolling the area, said ANC chief DCP Shivdeep Lande.

We were patrolling the area outside schools and colleges in the afternoon when we spotted Kale on Sipahi Molani Road. On frisking her, we found 18 packets of ganja containing 540 grams of the drug, said senior inspector Santosh Bhalekar, from ANCs Azad Maidan unit.

Kale lives in a slum pocket in Churchgate near Ahilybai holkar bus stop. She was produced before a magistrate court on Friday and remanded in judicial custody.

Police are trying to ascertain if she has a prior criminal record.
There were 19,708 students from Vietnam studying in Australia, as of the end of March 2017, comprising 4.1% of all international students. This was an increase of 8.7% compared with the same period last year.

In the first quarter of 2017, international student numbers in Australia increased by 15%, to 480,092. China continues to be the top country for sending students to Australia (30%), followed by India (11%), Malaysia (4%), Vietnam (4%) and Nepal (4%).

Source: Australian Embassy Vietnam

A 2016 Australian Government survey of international students found that well-regarded qualifications and institution quality were two of the key draw cards. The sustained growth in the volume of international students reflects the fact that international students are mostly satisfied with their experiences.

I am pleased to see that Vietnamese families continue to choose Australia as a preferred destination for study. Vietnamese students can enjoy the worlds leading education system, as well as the outstanding lifestyle that Australia has to offer, Charge dAffaires for Australian Embassy to Vietnam, Mr Layton Pike said.

Australia is a leading provider of scholarships to Vietnam. There are currently over 5,800 Australia Awards alumni from Vietnam who graduated from Australian universities dating back to the 1970s. There are also over 50,000 alumni of Australian education, who make remarkable contributions to Vietnams socio-economic development./.
In a rare incident along the states coastline, a seven-and-a-half-foot-long sperm whale washed ashore at Rajodi beach, Virar, around 3pm on Thursday.

Though the state mangrove cell confirmed that it was a sperm whale, the officials are unclear whether it was a juvenile whale or a pygmy or a dwarf (subspecies). The whale weighed 60 kg.

Fishermen from Rajodi said they spotted the whale close to the shoreline towards the south side of the beach and it looked injured.

The mammal most likely hit a large rock close to the shoreline and got injured. We tried pulling it out, but it died as soon as it came close to the beach. We informed the forest department but nobody showed up at the spot, said James Rodrigues, a fisherman and Rajodi beach resident. Along with seven others, we buried the animal near the spot where it had washed ashore. We have not seen a mammal like this at this beach before.

When HT contacted the forest officers from Vasai-Virar, they were unaware of the beaching incident.

According to the Konkan Cetacean Research Team (KCRT), the last documented evidence of this mammal to have beached is from Goa in March 2016.

This species of whale has not washed ashore along the states coastline for more than a decade. It is extremely rare and our team is going to collect tissue samples and study the mammal, said Mihir Sule, member, KCRT.

This was the 15th case of dead marine animal carcass washing ashore along Mumbais beaches. Between 2015 and 2017, 74 carcasses have washed ashore along the citys coastline.

Both the dwarf and the pygmy sperm whales are protected under schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Owing to lack of information about the species, the mammal is not listed under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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Mumbai woke up to heavy rainfall on Friday with suburbs recording more rain than south Mumbai.

While Mumbai recorded moderate rain, areas around the city such as Thane, Palghar, Panvel and Raigad recorded heavy rain.

Between 8.30am and 8.30pm, the weather station at Santacruz, representative of the suburbs, recorded 41mm rain while Colaba, representative of south Mumbai, recorded only 9.8mm of rain.

The weather bureau said heavy to very heavy rain is expected till Sunday on the entire north Konkan coast, including Mumbai.

Several areas in north Konkan received widespread rain on Friday. The weather system  a well-marked low pressure area  over south Gujarat is pulling a lot of moisture over the coastline, said KS Hosalikar, deputy director, western region, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

Other officials from the weather department said more rain was expected in the coming week.

After a week-long dry spell, there are active monsoon conditions along the west coast. There are two upper-air circulations, one over north Arabian Sea and the other developing over Bay of Bengal. This will lead to good rain over both coasts and central India, south of Uttar Pradesh, said Dr KJ Ramesh, director, IMD.

On Friday, Matheran recorded the highest rain in the state at 78mm followed by Thane and Bhiwandi, both of which recorded 40mm rain.

Between 8.30am on Thursday and 8.30am Friday, Santacruz recorded 26.3mm rain while Colaba recorded 30.8mm. In the same period, Bhira in north Konkan recorded the heaviest rain in the state at 178mm, followed by Mahabaleshwar at 105mm, Nasik 72mm and Harnai 52mm.

From June 1, Santacruz has recorded 743.4mm rainfall, which is 152.3 mm below normal, and Colabas record says south Mumbai has got 634.3 mm rainfall, 279.3 mm below normal.

Meanwhile, while the night temperature was a degree Celsius below normal, both at Santacruz and Colaba, the day temperature was close to normal in suburbs at 30.5 degrees Celsius and a degree Celsius below normal in south Mumbai at 29.4 degrees Celsius.

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Unit 9 of the Mumbai crime branch has arrested a 40-year-old murder convict from Uttar Pradesh, three years after he jumped parole.

The convict, Yatendrasingh Chauhan, 40, killed security guard Chandraprakash Singh on August 14, 2006. Chauhan and Singh worked at the same security firm and were both posted outside actor Shah Rukh Khans home.

Singh had asked Chauhan why he was sitting, if he had loaded his revolver and if it was working. Angered, Chauhan grabbed Singh by the collar and shot him in the chest. On hearing the gunshot, other security guards rushed to the spot and took Singh to the hospital, where he died of his injuries, said a police officer.

Chauhan was given life imprisonment and lodged in Nashik Jail. In July 2014, he jumped parole. A case was registered at the Nashik Road police station.

Police launched a manhunt to find him. We recently got a tip-off that Chauhans family was in touch with him and that they had called him from a public phone, said a crime branch officer. We kept a watch on the Chauhans Worli residence. We got his mobile number and used it to track him, said an officer.

Chauhan had been working at a security guard at a school. Police nabbed him there. He was produced in a local court and brought to Mumbai.

htc
Self help groups that provide mid day meals to over 1,200 civic schools in Mumbai protested on Friday against Senas proposal to provide a plot in Vakola to an NGO for free.

The self help group has been making mid day meals for civic schools for years. Why were we not considered when the plot was given away? The plot is just being handed over following due procedure, said Kavita Deshmukh, a member.

The group leaders of political parties in the civic body recently passed a proposal by the Sena to provide a 3,000sqm plot at Vakola to a Bangalore-based organisation for providing mid-day meals to civic students. The market price of the plot is estimated to be at least Rs300 crore.

However, it is being alleged that the plot is being given away without weighing contenders.

The BMC recently acquired the plot from a five-star hotel after a long battle fought by local corporators and residents.

Sena has said that the organisation will be providing meals free-of-cost to 5,000 civic students. But corporators allege the prime plot could be misused by private entities.

The proposal is awaiting reply from the municipal commissioner which will be tabled in next group leader meeting.

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For the release of thirteen men from judicial custody, who were arrested on charges of rioting and vandalizing the property at Mahagun Moderne, a rights group, Gharelu Kamgar Union (GKU) has offered legal aid to their families. GKU works for the rights and welfare of domestic workers in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad areas.

On Wednesday, over 300 people gathered at the gates of the Mahagun Moderne and alleged that one of its residents had assaulted a domestic help, Zora Bibi. Many from the mob had managed to overpower the security guards and force their way into the premises. However, the residents claimed that the woman was allegedly caught stealing money from an apartment belonging to one Mitul Sethi. She had fled when he threatened to report the matter to the apartment management, they contended.

The mob pelted stones and vandalised the premises. Four FIRs were registered in the case and 58 people were detained, of these 13 were arrested.

The GKU has taken help of Human Rights Law Network to file bail applications in the Sessions Court. Police have also booked them under section 307 (attempt to murder) and we have to get bail orders from sessions court. We are working on the case and family has been assured help in this case. They are not financially sound and it is our duty to help them, said Maya John, convener of GKU.

Members from the union visited the families of domestic helps and interacted with them regarding the incident that took place early Wednesday. John said that Zora Bibis FIR has been continuously ignored by Noida police. The union will work to ensure that action is taken by police and courts intervention is required for it

We will approach Minorities Commission and National Human Rights Commission in response to Bangladeshi labelling used by the residents on them. The society residents shared Whatsapp messages and called them as Bangaldeshis on social media as well. We want intervention into this matter, John said.

Zora Bibi had been claiming her long overdue wages for the past 15-20 days and was cajoled into showing up for work on July 11 and the case of theft has been imposed on her post-factum.

Gharelu Kamgar Union (GKU) is intervening in the case to pressurize the district administration to take the case seriously.

Superintendent of police (city) Arun Kumar Singh said, All the videos have been scanned and Zora Bibi was not held captive. There is medical report which suggests she was not beaten up. Even in the CCTV footage, she is seen walking without any difficulty.

He said the case of rioting has been registered and there would be more arrests.

Many people are evading arrest and teams are working to arrest them. Those who were not involved were released after detention, Singh added.

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In the wake of mob violence in Mahagun society which emerged after altercation of a resident family with a maid, the Federation of Noida Residents Welfare Association (FONRWA) will help the police to complete the verification of maids and workers employed in various sectors of Noida.

A delegation of FONRWA met AK Singh, superintendent of Police (city), on Thursday evening to discuss the issue of safety and security of the residents of Mahagun society and other sectors of Noida.

On July 12, hundreds of people attacked the Mahagun Society at Noida sector 78 after a maid, Zora Bibi, accused a family of beating her, on suspicion that she had stolen money. The mob engaged in stone pelting and attacked the house of the accused family, breaking window panes and destroying valuables in their house. The altercation has resulted in strained relationship between residents and workers.

Taking cognizance of the violence at Mahagun, FONRWA president NP Singh has asked the police officials to ensure safety of the residents.. Need for regular interaction of police officials with the representatives of Residents Welfare Associations was also discussed in the meet.

We have asked police to increase their patrolling and provide ample security to the residents of Mahagun and other sectors. There must be frequent interaction of the police with the RWA members to keep both the concerned parties in loop, said NP Singh.

Regarding verification of workers and house-helps, FONRWA will be joining hands with the police to complete the process.

We have asked the police to take up the pending verification of the maids. FONRWA will also help them by completing the verification form and submitting it to the police officials, said Singh.

Verification forms are submitted at the verification cell in SSP office, Noida. However, RWAs can complete the form and submit it to their respective police stations and then they will be sent to SSP office, said AK Singh, superintendent of Police.

Other RWA members also raised the issue of identifying anti-social elements disguised as workers in Noida.

There are many urban villages adjacent to the sectors where the anti-social elements hide. If police focus on these sectors then they will be able to find out more about such elements, said Sanjeev Kumar, general secretary, RWA sector 51.

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Pune Gopikrishna Durgaprasad (25), an IT employee, who committed suicide in Pune in the early hours of Wednesday in Viman nagar, Pune was born into a family of farmers. Gopikirshnas parents Prasad and Pushpawati Rao received his mortal remains a day after he jumped off the roof of a hotel in Pune, two days after joining a city-based company.

Gopikrishna was employed at Catche Digital Private Limited in Delhi for over a year before he took up the job in Pune, said assistant police inspector (API) Dilip Jaisinghkar of Vimantal police station who is investigating the case.

The family members of Gopikrishan received his body in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh around 4:30 pm on Thursday, his brother-in-law and childhood friend Avinash Meka said. His parents were looking to get him married this year, said the API. We have registered the case under CrPC 174 as accidental death. However, we will be recording the statements of various people including his previous employers, current employers, parents and relatives, among others, Jaisinghkar said.

Gopikrishna was employed on a contract basis in Delhi, and was looking to get a permanent position. However, even after a year, the company did not provide a permanent position although they promised a position, according to Avinash. Although Gopikrishna had a job offer from a major telecom company, his managers convinced him to not accept the offer, said Avinash.

Im scared that I may not look after my family properly. Please take care of my family. Sorry guys, Im worried about future as we are not that strong. Love you all, wrote Gopikrishna before cutting his left forearm 25 times, according to the police record. When that did not work, he went to the roof of the hotel and jumped, said API Jaisinghkar.

The accommodation in the hotel from where he jumped to his death was provided by his current employer identified as a US-based software company called Pitney Bowes. Pitney Bowes employees evaded questions about the employment record of the deceased engineer. Members of a public relations company which approached Hindustan Times claiming to be representatives of Pitney Bowes also failed to answer questions.

"We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of our young colleague and offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends," a Pitney Bowes spokesperson said in a statement provided by the PR agency.

The Forum for IT Employees (FITE), an organisation working for the IT employees who lost their jobs since 2014, has released a statement in the matter. FITE has reiterated several times that most of the IT employees working in metropolitan cities are migrants from rural and suburaban areas. These layoffs not only affect the employees, but also the livelihood of their families. It is high time that the government intervenes in this issue and comes up with effective solutions. FITE demands proper inquiry into the untimely death of Gopikrishna and a reasonable compensation for his family, a statement by FITE reads.
For the first time, a Pune-based researcher has received a grant of $6,50,000 from an American medical research organisation for his research in cell membrane fission.

Dr Thomas Pucadyil of the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), is the only Indian among 41 scientists from 16 countries, who has been chosen as an international research scholar by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

HHMI, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, are organisations that together fund exceptional early-career scientists globally, to enable discoveries advancing human health and enhancing the fundamental understanding of biology.

Held in March last year, the 2017 International research scholars competition, takes place rotationally every five years. In 2012, Dr Sandhya Koushika of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, had received this grant from India.

Open to scientists, who have held a full-time position at a research-oriented institution and have had their own laboratories for at least seven years, the competition chose 41 scientists from among 1,400 applicants, and are to receive a total of almost $26.7 million. Each researcher will be given a grant of $6,50,000 over a period of five years.

A senior fellow in the Wellcome Trust- Department of Biotechnology and an associate professor in biology at IISER,Pune, his research is to understand how cell membranes - a protective layer, highly resilient to rupture, separating the interior of cells from outside environment- breaks away into smaller packages to transport cellular substances.This process, he added, is known as membrane fission.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, he explained the process, In a typical mammalian cell, all reactions inside the cell is contained within a membrane, nothing but loosely-held molecules that are stacked one against the other. This entire assembly is like five nano-meters thick, and this is what contains life, inside the cell.

Drawing the analogy of a balloon, he simplified the process, Similar to a rupture in the rubber surface of a balloon, if a membrane is ruptured, it would lead to cell death, and hence, the reason why the membrane is made of a resilient lipid layer.

Our research primarily tries to understand how cells make vesicles, a small structure within a cell, consisting of fluid enclosed by a lipid bi-layer, and how these vesicles. Due to its resilient lipid layer of membrane, takes an enormous amount of effort to bud out a vesicle. It essentially creates a whole range of proteins that come together and orchestrate this process of splitting the membrane, also known as the membrane fission, he added.

Therefore, observing the reactions within the cell, Dr Pucadyil's research would attempt at recreating or replicating the process artificially. This approach is referred to as reconstitution for which we need to understand what are the proteins that come together, how they assemble to cut the membrane, or carry out the membrane fission, he said.

According to Dr Pucadyil, very few labs in India, are looking at this process of forming vesicles and cells and that none except them are looking at understanding membrane fission.

For challenges, he mentioned replicating a natural process from scratch, making the membrane tubes from the sheets by assimilating the proteins, and so on, could be one, while time consumed in research due to lack of participating PhD graduates could be another.

In India primarily, your research is conducted by PhD students, who come fresh after their masters and it takes time for them to learn how to carry out research. Its exciting, but time consuming. In the West, however, their research is carried out by post doctoral graduates, who can identify a problem and work at it, much rapidly, so the time taken in making discoveries goes down. But our process has its own dynamics, Dr Pucadyil shared.

His team for now, involves six PhD students, and the grant for it will be applicable from September 2017 and continue till 2022.
The police on Thursday arrested a 24-year-old Maloya man for the spree of snatchings in the city on Wednesday evening.

Ajay Kumar, alias Ajju, had targeted five women the same day to raise funds for a pilgrimage to Haridwar, said police.

But before he could head to Haridwar for the Kanwad yatra, Ajay was nabbed by the anti-snatching, robbery and dacoity detection cell of the crime branch of Chandigarh police near the Maloya bus stand.

The closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage helped them nab him.

The police said he is addicted to charas and ganja.

Ajay Kumar was planning to go for the Kanwad yatra. He was in dire need of money, said Ravi Kumar, superintendent of police (SP), operations.

Ajay snatched handbags of five women within one hour on Wednesday. Suman, an assistant professor at Gharuan, was attacked while returning to her home in Sector 40.

In Sector 37, an employee of Him Parisar, DRDO, Shakuntla Devi, was targeted when she was returning from office.

Saroj Sharma of Sector 40 lost her purse and mobile phone when she was returning from the market. Harjeet Kaur of Sector 40 was the next target.

She lost her handbag containing Rs 7500 and a mobile phone. Dimple Gupta of Sector 38 lost her handbag containing Rs 5,000 in cash and two mobile phones.

Police said that all the snatched articles and Rs 29,000 were recovered from Ajays possession. The accused was identified by all the five victims and they have also identified their recovered articles, the police said.

Read | Chandigarh: 5 snatchings reported in an hour

NOT THE FIRST TIME

Ajay was earlier working as a driver with a private company and had committed three snatchings in different parts of Chandigarh in June this year, said police

At that time, he had to raise money to go on religious trip to Baba Balak Nath in Himachal Pradesh, said SP Ravi Kumar.
City residents are at the receiving end as heaps of garbage have piled up in various localities for the past two days.

Reason: The Jaypee processing plant has refused to accept any garbage, as it says 6,000 tonnes of unprocessed refuse is still lying on the premises.

Meanwhile, Dadumajra residents, who are fed up of the unhygienic conditions in the area, are up in arms and not allowing garbage to be thrown at the dumping ground.

For this reason, garbage has not been lifted from Sehaj Safai Kendras and even the streets in the city.

All municipal corporation vehicles used for transporting garbage are parked in front of the garbage plant, as the Jaypee management is not allowing entry.

ALL ABOUT THE TUSSLE The genesis: The MC-Jaypee tussle started over the non-payment of +1,000-per-tonne tipping (processing) fee. The firm, which started operations in 2005, threatened to shut the plant in March last year claiming it is suffering +50 lakh losses per month. The MC rejected the demand and asked the firm to upgrade the plant. The firm in April asked the MC to either pay the money or take over the plant What has been NGTs role: After the company suspended the operations in July last year, the MC approached the National Green Tribunal. The NGT asked the plant authorities to resume operations before July 27, to which they agreed. Later, on August 30, the NGT directed the MC chief to resolve the issue amicably once for all. After, the plant failed to fulfil its contractual commitment, the tribunal on May 24 this year told it to accept all the 450-tonne garbage produced daily in city or face action Why is plant not accepting garbage: Even as the Jaypee plant assured the MC on July 11 that it will accept all garbage, it has closed its gates for the MC vehicles carrying the refuse. The firm claims it still has 6,000-tonne garbage lying unprocessed on the premises. We are in the process of streamlining the system. The MC has to give us some time, says Jaypee Group company secretary Harish Vaidhya. What next: The MC is holding talks with the Jaypee engineers as well as Dadumajra residents, who are protesting against dumping of garbage at the ground, on Friday. We are hopeful things will be sorted out soon, says MC joint commissioner Manoj Khatri.

UNENDING ROW

The tussle between the civic body and the plant started when the Jaypee management threatened to shut the plant on March 31 last year over non-payment of tipping fee (processing fee), claiming they were suffering a loss of Rs 50 lakh per month.

As the MC refused to change its stance, the company suspended its operations in July 2016.

The MC approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which asked the plant authorities to resume operations. Later, it also asked the municipal commissioner to resolve the issue amicably.

As the plant was processing only about 50-tonne garbage daily, the NGT in May this year directed it to accept all 450-tonne garbage produced by the city as per the agreement with the MC, or face action .

After the MC House resolved to terminate the contract with the Jaypee Group on June 9, the plant on July 11 assured to accept all garbage and even install a compost plant for 300 tonnes.

But for the past two days, the plant is not accepting any garbage for treatment.

WILL TAKE TWO WEEKS

We are in the process of streamlining the system. The MC has to give us some time. Everything will be streamlined shortly, said Harish Vaidhya, Jaypee Group company secretary. Sources said it will take at least two weeks to process the existing garbage on the premises.

Councillor Rajesh Kalia, a Dadumajra resident, who has been protesting for past several days, said: It is shameful on the part of the MC that it is taking no action against the plant authorities. We will not allow dumping of garbage at the ground.

Narinder Chaudhary, Dadumajra Dalit Chetna Manch president, said, We fail to understand how the MC can be so insensitive towards our area. The plant workers throw tonnes of garbage at the dump every day, without processing it. We have been complaining of foul smell and are suffering from skin diseases.

The MC officials said they are holding talks with both the protesters and Jaypee engineers on Friday. MC joint commissioner Manoj Khatri said he was hopeful things will be sorted out soon.

NO RESPITE

It is unfortunate the MC has failed to sort out the issue. Bins are overflowing for the past two days while officers are sitting comfortably in their AC rooms. --Baljinder Singh Bittu, president, Federation of Sector Welfare Associations Chandigarh

The authorities have been talking about making Chandigarh a smart city, but have even failed to find a solution to the problem of garbage collection and disposal.-- SK Khosla, Sec-40 MIG houses welfare association

It is sad that the BJP is playing politics even when the city is suffering. Why cant it convince the protestors to let the MC throw the garbage at the dumping ground? -- Devinder Singh Babla, Congress councillor
Even after spending approximately Rs 11 lakhs to control the monkey menace on the PU campus in the past two years, the authorities have failed to combat the issue. Instead, the problem has grown bigger.

There is no end to the complaints from the students and the hostellers who have been bearing the brunt of monkey menace everyday.

Sources from the PU, told Hindustan Times that an amount of Rs 47,000 was being released among six to seven persons per month from the past two years to tackle monkey menace on the campus. However, no results can be witnessed.

Emanual Nahar, dean students welfare (DSW) said, Earlier we had kept three-four people to keep a check only on hostels but then we increased the number to six for the entire university, keeping in mind the demands from the student bodies. This amount was released from the hostel funds but now since all the funds have been transferred to FDO, the university will have to manage paying the salaries on its own level. Also, we need to take a strict action in this regard.

I have not experienced any decline in the number of monkeys on the campus even after these precautions. Rather, the monkeys have expanded their families, said, Siya Minocha, senior president of National students Union of India (NSUI).

She added, On behalf of the students, we have been writing to the authorities to take care of this issue but there has been no response.

We have received complaints from students who have found monkey waste in the water tanks. Besides, some students were even infected with rabies disease because of this, said Hardik Ahluwalia, a student leader from Panjab University Students Union (PUSU).

Harmandeep Singh, spokesperson of Students for Society (SDS) also echoed distressing claims of monkey menace on the PU campus.

There have been problems in the hostels due to monkeys. There are days when they keep sitting in the corridors or when they enter the hostel with a gang. It leads to chaos in the hostels and if by chance, a room remains opened, then be it a bed sheet, clothes or anything, nothing is saved.

Earlier, the university had hired three langurs to chase away the monkeys.

For this, the university was spending Rs 6,000 on each langur. However, the audit department raised objections on this expenditure. Following this, the services were discontinued.

In 2015, the engineering department was also asked to place an order of ultrasound repellents on pilot basis. Depending on the results the varsity was to purchase more monkey repellents but the machine caused disturbance in the department, due to which, it was also removed.

The fear of a monkey had even forced a student of girls hostel number 3 to jump off from the first floor of the hostel in October 2015, which had led to a fracture in her leg.

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Three days after a man from Maharashtra was caught smuggling 407 grams of gold concealed in his rectum, the customs officials on Thursday recovered 540 grams of the precious metal from a passengers suitcase at the Chandigarh International Airport.

The gold was concealed in the beading of the suitcase of 50-year-old Baljit Kumar, who arrived here from Dubai. The beading, a sort of wire that holds together the suitcases internal structure, was made of gold. The gold was traced when the suitcase went through the X-ray scanner. The seized 24-carat gold is valued at Rs 15 Lakh.

An official said the accused is a resident of Batala in Gurdaspur district and was acting as a courier for his Dubai-based handler.

With this seizure, the total amount of smuggled gold recovered at the airport since September last year has crossed two kilogram.

WAS COURIER, GOT Rs 7,000 FOR THE JOB

Officials said Baljit got the briefcase from a person named Raju at the Dubai airport. He was told to deliver it to an accomplice outside the Chandigarh airport. The receiver, he said, had Baljits contact and was supposed to call him as soon as he stepped out. He was paid Rs 7,000 for the job.

Gone are the days when a boat would land at a port with boxes filled with gold. Smugglers are employing different ways to outsmart security checks at airports, said a customs official at the airport.

An official probing the case said the gold has been seized under the Customs Act and the accused is being questioned for further clues.

WHATS FUELLING ILLEGAL TRADE

International operations to Dubai began at the Chandigarh airport on September 15, 2016. Within 10 months, six cases of gold smuggling have surfaced. The total seizure worth Rs 80 lakh has been made.

The attractive difference in price is fuelling the illegal trade. The Chandigarh airport has become vulnerable as the enforcement agencies have strengthened security at airports in bigger cities.

Read | Man lands from Dubai with 41-tola gold in rectum

The hike on gold duty, too, has increased the profit margin for smugglers. Importing gold from Dubai attracts 36% customs duty. If accused Baljit Kumar had managed to slip through the security, his handlers would have made a profit of Rs 3 lakh. The seized gold is valued at Rs 15 lakh.

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Breaking her silence, the South Indian actress who was abducted and assaulted by a gang of men in February on Thursday expressed hope that truth would come out in the case in which popular Malayalam actor Dileep was arrested on the charge of being a key conspirator.

In her first comments since the arrest of Dileep on July 10, the actor, in a release, said she was shocked like others on seeing the developments which unfolded in the case over the last few days.

In related developments, Dileep, under police custody, was taken to various places in Thrissur for collecting evidence while his brother Anoop alleged a conspiracy.

There is a big conspiracy. My brother is being framed... The truth will come out, he told reporters here.

The actor, without taking Dileeps name, recalled her working with him in several movies and said some personal issues between them had put an end to their friendship.

She had not tried to make anyone as an accused in the case because of personal rivalry or in the name of any other issues, she said.

Dismissing reports that the rivalry between them had erupted over a real estate deal, the actor said she had no such deals -- either real estate or financial -- with the actor.

The actor said she had come to know from media and other sources that all evidences were against the actor, currently being questioned in police custody.

Apparently referring to Anoops claims, she said if that person (Dileep) is claiming that he was trapped in the case, the fact about it should also come out fast.

Actor Dileep was arrested on the charge of being a key conspirator on Monday.

Let the truth be revealed quickly in the case, she said, adding those responsible for the crime shall not be left to go scot-free and no innocent person should be implicated.

Anoop alleged the developments which led to the arrest of the actor were being done on the basis of a pre-planned script.

Police in its remand report had claimed that Dileep had developed a grudge against the actor for letting his former wife know about his private life and hatched a conspiracy to take revenge way back in 2013.

In another development, police on Thursday took the statement of actor Aju Varghese, booked for disclosing the name of the assaulted actor on social media.

They also seized Varghese mobile phone using which he had allegedly posted the social media message.

He has been charged under Section 228 A of the IPC (Disclosure of identity of the victim of certain offences).

The actor had earlier expressed regret over revealing the identity of the actor.

The popular actor, who has worked in Tamil and Telugu films, was abducted and allegedly molested inside her car for two hours by the accused, who had forced their way into the vehicle on February 17 and later escaped in a busy area here.

Six persons, including Pulsar Suni, have been arrested in connection with the incident.

After his arrest, on the charge of conspiracy, Dileep has been expelled from various film forums, including the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA), as the industry rallied behind the actor.

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A local court in Kochi on Friday extended the police custody of actor Dileep who was arrested in connection with the abduction and rape of a popular actor to one more day. His plea will come up for hearing on Saturday.

The prosecution opposed his bail application saying that since he was an influential person he may influence witnesses and others and a bail at this juncture would affect the ongoing investigation. The court accepted its contention and extended his custody for one more day.

The actor who was returning after a shooting assignment was abducted and sexually assaulted on a moving car by a criminal gang on Feb 17. They took video clippings of the assault and let her go after three-hour ordeal and threatened to release clippings if she approached the police.

The victim broke her silence saying she had no land or business deal with Dileep. (PTI)

During the attack the main accused Pulsar Suni had told the victim that he was given a quotation (like a supari crime) and he was forced to do this. However the actor complained and the police arrested all accused who were directly involved in the crime. But there were strong speculations that they carried out the dirty job at the behest of someone. After four months the SIT had arrested Malayalam superstar Dlieep in connection with the case.

Read: Kerala actress assault: Why arrested Malayalam film star Dileep held grudge against her

Meanwhile, the victim broke her silence saying she had no land or business deal with arrested actor. I have done several movies with him. However our friendship soured due to some personal reasons. I came across various reports claiming that I have land dealings with him. These are baseless allegations, she said in a social media post adding that she never wanted an innocent be punished but the culprit should not escape the law of the land.

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Its 2017. We have driverless cars. We have absurd kitchen gadgets. We have weird personal gadgets such as a smart hairbrush that can monitor the health of our hair, and condom rings that measure velocity and girth. But when it comes to collecting human waste, we still outsource the work to our fellow human beings.

Sanitation has by now firmly entered the mainstream conversation thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modis Swachh Bharat programme launched in 2014, Indias largest ever cleanliness drive. Even Bollywood has taken the hint, with Akshay Kumars upcoming Toilet: Ek Prem Katha touted to be a comedy that apparently supports the national campaign. However, according to the 2011 census, 1.8 lakh Indian households in rural areas still reported having manual scavengers. India still has 26 lakh dry latrines, out of which human waste is flushed openly in 13 lakh toilets and human waste is cleaned manually in 7.9 lakh dry latrines. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal account for more than 72% of the insanitary latrines, says one UN finding.

Filmmaker Pa Ranjith is known to explore and champion the cause of the Dalits through his films. (Jai Bhim Mandram/Facebook)

According to reports, 209 manual scavenging deaths were recorded in Tamil Nadu over the last two decades - shamefully, one-third of these deaths were in and around Chennai itself. And as activist and founder of Safai Karamchari Andolan, Bezwada Wilson pointed out last year, TN also leads the country in the number of sewer line deaths. Wilson has been a relentless warrior in the fight against manual scavenging, describing his 35-year-long fight to eradicate manual scavenging as a chakravyuha, not knowing how to break out but only how to enter.

Despite several government programmes and initiatives - from the Swachh Bharat programme to Modis promise of abolishing manual scavenging by 2019, from the Employment of Manual Scavenging and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 to the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 - nothing much seems to have changed.

Director Karu Palaniappans still from one of the many videos which is part of a campaign launched in June to end manual scavenging in Tamil Nadu. (Jai Bhim Mandram/Facebook)

Now, 55 celebrities including those from the Tamil film industry have joined hands with the social organisation Jai Bhim Mandram for a campaign launched in June to end manual scavenging in the state. Theyve already released a series of more than 30 videos on social media where prominent faces across the industry - directors like Vetrimaaran and Ram, actors like Sathyaraj and Vivek, and writers like Bhaskar Sakthi and Salma - talk about getting rid of manual scavenging and, by extension, the caste system. Several politicians including DMK MP Kanimozhi, All India Congress Committee Secretary Su Thirunavukkarasar, Dalit leader and VCK founder Thol. Thirumavalavan, CPM leader G Ramakrishnan and former Congress member Pazha Nedumaran have also extended notional support to the campaign.

The videos featuring directors Ram and Karu Palaniappan and actor Sathyaraj have especially gone viral on the Internet. In it, Sathyaraj starts with a scathing indictment: Humans are by far the worst of the animals when it comes to faecal waste. And to clean it, they send another human being into tanks. How horrifying is that? Palaniappan says starkly, We might think manual scavenging sounds nice and polished in English but its actually manidha malathai manidhargal kayyal alluvadhu (human beings scooping human waste with their own hands), which we cleanse with Dettol and say it in English as manual scavenging.

Seen here, a manual scavenger cleaning a tank. (Divya Bharathi)

Alongside the videos, the campaign also staged a socio-political play called Manjal (Yellow) on July 3 in Chennai. Based on Bhasha Singhs explosive book on manual scavengers, Unseen, the play depicted the testimonies of women instead of going the usual way of telling a straight story. Its a women-centric practice, so we thought wed look at the cases where women revolted, says Jayaraani, coordinator at Jai Bhim Mandram. Around 2,500 people attended the play at Kamarajar Arangam in Chennai.

Jayaraani traces the beginning of the campaign to the 2015 December floods in Chennai and the various rehabilitation efforts. She and her colleagues observed that it was actually manual scavengers - who were certainly not equipped to handle disaster waste - who were involved in the cleanup. She observed how these workers suffered from nausea and fever, how glass pieces infected their feet and hands, how some even needed their legs amputated due to the glass pieces and negligence, as well as two deaths. Around the same time, news also broke of three workers who had died cleaning a septic tank of a Thalappakatti Biryani restaurant in Chennai.

In the time since, the team has also conducted workshops for children of manual scavengers, especially those between the ages of 16 and 22, to discuss the dangers of manual scavenging and encourage them to choose other professions.

Seeking public support

Jayaraani and team are not the only ones to try to abolish manual scavenging. Last month, filmmaker-activist Divya Bharathi released the heart-wrenching documentary Kakkoos on YouTube that gives us a glimpse into the toils and troubles of manual scavengers, whom she tracked across 25 cities in 20 districts in Tamil Nadu. She wanted to invoke guilt into the minds of her audience who remains unmindful of the practice and the people involved. The documentary was even prevented from screening in March this year by the TN police, citing potential law and order problems in Madurai, Coimbatore and Nagercoil districts, calling her a Naxalite and a terrorist, according to one report.

The campaign also staged a socio-political play called Manjal (Yellow) on July 3 in Chennai, which is based on Bhasha Singhs explosive book on manual scavengers called Unseen. (Jai Bhim Mandram)

Many like to contrast the fight against manual scavenging, which has been so fragmented, to the success of the pro-jallikattu protests - and point to the age-old slogan, United we stand, divided we fall. Even if it did begin small, the sheer number of public supporters who turned up for jallikattu made the fight overwhelming, prompting the media to call it a revolution. As Bharathi points out, The jallikkattu movement wasnt a struggle; it was a celebration.

Deepthi Sukumar, national core member of the Safai Karamchari Andolan, disagrees and believes that no matter who is behind the fight, whether celebrities or activists, it is still a step in the right direction. Different people take [a social issue] up in their own capacity and its not necessary that everyone has to come together. We are all networked, were in touch with each other and we support each other.

Along with Jai Bhim Mandram, acclaimed director Pa Ranjiths Neelam Productions was the one to produce the play Manjal. Ranjith, of Rajinikanth-starrer Kabali fame, first rose to prominence for his political drama, Madras (2016), detailing the life of Dalits and their politics set in north Chennai. While producing the play, Ranjith says there was one critical thing he learnt about manual scavengers. We all love rain. We romanticise it and celebrate it, but manual scavengers dont like the rain because it makes their work more difficult. I learnt how horrifying rain is to them, he says.

A major reason for this struggles slow progress lies in urban apathy - our direct disregard for the law (which deems manual scavenging illegal) coupled with our comfortable acceptance in exploiting other people for menial work, all blanketed with a heavy denial of our privilege. In February, a discussion took place in the Rajya Sabha on the miserable conditions of manual scavengers, where the deputy speaker, PJ Kurien of the Congress, initially refused to accept that the practice is prevalent in Kerala. It took more than just former union minister Jairam Ramesh to alert him to the number of manual scavengers in the country. Kurien finally conceded the point after other members also joined the argument against him, and accepted that if it is prevalent even now, it is a serious issue. It should be tackled and all of us and the government should ensure that it is stopped.

Madras and Kabali director Pa Ranjiths Neelam Productions has produced the play, Manjal. (Jai Bhim Mandram)

DMK MP Kanimozhi agrees that manual scavenging remains prevalent in Tamil Nadu simply because theres not enough awareness, and that the [Jai Bhim] campaign will help to a great extent We cant deny that there hasnt been any serious progress [in the fight against manual scavenging]. For some people theres hardly been any change, for some there has been. We cannot give up the struggle.

The need for a collective front

Jai Bhim Mandram has a list of demands it intends to present to the TN government, but no date or specific plan has been set as yet. As time passes, there is the danger that the videos on social media will be swiftly forgotten and manual scavenging will be once again relegated to small column spaces in the newspaper, only making news when there is a death.

Even government acts seem to remain ineffective. The TN government passed an order on April 24 to constitute a state-level monitoring committee under the chief minister for the effective implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. Merely three days later, a manual scavenger died of asphyxiation while trying to rescue a co-worker trapped inside a sewage pipeline. As one commentator wrote, politicians behave like politicians and now it is up to citizen groups to build a citizen-driven movement to end ill-treatment of sanitation workers.

Which is why filmmaker-activist Divya Bharathi stresses that it has to be a collective fight. Its a good thing that people are organising campaigns but a single movement cannot bring justice - we have to collaborate. Everyone spoke about the play [Manjal] on social media for 10 days but it was just people changing their profile pictures and status. That isnt the fight. If you want to participate there should be a huge revolution in you first, you should get out of your casteist comfort zone.

(Published in arrangement with GRIST Media)

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The cult fantasy series Game of Thrones is credited with driving up interest to destinations like Iceland, Croatia, Seville, Spain, and Ireland which double as the Seven Kingdoms on the show, as Thronies get geared up for the premiere of the shows seventh season.

A new data report from online booking site Hotels.com suggests that the show has inspired a movement of fans, or Thronies to embark on pilgrimages to some of its most popular filming locations, with online searches for key destinations experiencing notable spikes in recent years.

The country to reap the most benefits from the show? Iceland, whose otherworldly landscape doubles convincingly as the land beyond The Wall: Since 2014, when the show began to gain momentum, searches for hotels in Iceland shot up 258%, says Hotels.com.

Icelands otherworldly landscape doubles convincingly as the land beyond The Wall. (iStock)

Searches also spiked 30% between 2016 and 2017. Another key filming location, Split in Croatia, saw a 120% spike in searches, while Sibenik, which served as the city of Braavos in the series, saw hotel searches increase 60%. Representing the most exotic of the Seven Kingdoms, Dorne, is Seville, Spain, where searches have gone up 145%.

With rumors that Belfast is set to play a key role in the upcoming season, analysts also predict that interest in the city -- searches have grown 120% -- will only rise in 2017. Game of Thrones returns July 16.

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If youre planning a vacation later this year, look no further for new destinations. Lonely Planet has come out with its list of the best destinations to visit in Asia in 2017, and the report highlights under-the-radar gems like Gansu in China. This province lies in north-central China and is home to ancient Buddhist caves, rainbow sandstone peaks, and the end road of the Great Wall of China.

For many, the Lonely Planets best of Asia list will be an enlightening one, representing a cross-section of destinations throughout central, east and south Asia  from Japan, India, Kazakhstan to Malaysia.

Topping the list is Gansu, which has become more accessible in recent years thanks to the development of high-speed rail lines, a new metro service in the provincial capital of Lanzhou, and upgraded highways. The province is also one of the least populated in China, given its remote location and desert landscape.

Topping the list is Gansu, a province that lies in north-central China and is home to ancient Buddhist caves, rainbow sandstone peaks, and the end road of the Great Wall of China. (iStock.com)

Some of the regions star attractions include Instagram-worthy rainbow rocks at Danxia National Geopark, an otherworldly landscape where sandstone peaks are striped in various hues of red, orange, yellow and blue.

In 2015, the Mogao Caves, which house ancient collections of Buddhist art, underwent major restoration efforts.

Food lovers may already be acquainted with Lanzhous signature hand-pulled noodles, which attract foodies from around China. Freshly-pulled noodles are most commonly served in a beef broth with chilli and herbs.

Yokohama, south of Tokyo, is known for its eclectic architecture, microbreweries and local cuisine. (Shutterstock)

In second place on the list is a pair of seaside cities which lie south of Tokyo: Yokohama, for its eclectic architecture, microbreweries and local cuisine; and Kamakura, for its temples, shrines, and surf.

The seaside city of Kamakura in Japan is popular for its temples, shrines and beaches. (Shutterstock)

And in the third place is northern Kerala in India, which the Lonely Planet describes as unduly underrated. While the beaches of south Kerala attract major tourists, the opening of a new international airport in Kannur will allow visitors to discover beaches in the north. In anticipation, a string of homestays and resorts have been opening up in recent years.

Here are Lonely Planets picks of the best destinations to visit in Asia in 2017:

1. Gansu, China

2. South of Tokyo, Japan

3. Northern Kerala, India

4. Keong Saik Road, Singapore

5. Astana, Kazakhstan

6. Takayama, Japan

7. Xian, China

8. Sri Lankas Hill Country

9. Melaka City, Malaysia

10. Raja Ampat, Indonesia

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A fringe Tamil youth outfit on Thursday filed a police complaint seeking action against an actress for allegedly using abusive language against people living in slums in the Bigg Boss, reality show in a Tamil TV channel.

Tamil Youth and Students Federation said actor Gayathri Raghuram had allegedly chided another participant, Oviya using the abusive term.

Such abusive language allegedly insulted and belittled slum dwellers, said the complaint filed a day after a Hindu outfit sought a ban on the show, alleging it denigrated Tamil culture.

Coordinator of the outfit S Guhan wanted action against the actor under laws including Protection of Civil Rights Act.

We want Vijay TV to publicly apologise for it, said he.

Yesterday, Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK) sought legal action against Kamal Haasan, hosting the show, and the actors participating in the show that is being telecast on Vijay TV since June 24.

Reacting to the complaint, Haasan had said I have faith in law... if they want to arrest me, let it happen, law and justice will protect me.

The actor, recalling movies of top Tamil film directors of yesteryear like K Balachander who dealt with family issues in their movies, said the reality show was just like that and it was about co-existence.

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Actor Kit Harington has said his Game of Thrones character Jon Snow is somewhat like a psychopath in a strange manner.

Kit Harington poses at a premiere for season 7 of the television series Game of Thrones. (REUTERS)

The 30-year-old actor recalled talking to his director Miguel Sapochnik that the Lord Commander of the Nights Watch secretly thrives when he is on a war front, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

I actually think secretly deep down, hes a bit of a psychopath, weirdly. He looks for violence. In a strange way, and I said this to (Sapochnik) during Battle of the Bastards, I think that in a weird way this could be Jons natural home, on this battlefield, where he comes to life. For all of his good, hes a violent man, says Harington.

The actor adds Jons character does not have much to do with happiness.

I think happiness is a very strange term to associate with Jon. He has a very odd sense of what happy is. It might not be everybody elses happy. I dont know what happiness is for Jon, he says.

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Petroleum exploration has largely ceased in federal waters off Alaska but an Italian multinational oil and gas company has received permission from the US government to move ahead with modest drilling plans on leases sold in 2005.

The federal bureau of ocean energy management on Wednesday announced conditional approval of an exploratory drilling plan submitted by Eni US Operating Co. Inc., part of Eni S.p.A.

The company plans to drill four exploration wells from the Spy Island drill site, an 11-acre artificial gravel island constructed in state of Alaska waters. Its one of four artificial islands in the Beaufort Sea off Alaskas north coast that support oil production.

Former President Barack Obama last year banned oil and gas exploration in most of the Arctic Ocean. President Donald Trump in April ordered interior secretary Ryan Zinke to review the ban with the goal of opening offshore areas. Environmental and Alaska Native groups in May sued to maintain the ban.

Environmental groups say potential Arctic Ocean spills put polar bears, bowhead whales and other marine mammals at risk.

Enis leases would have expired at the end of 2017, said Kristen Monsell, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, in a prepared statement. Enis plan calls for extended-reach wells that could stretch more than 9.7 km into federal waters. The Trump administration provided the public only 21 days to review and comment on the exploration plan and only 10 days to comment on scoping for an environmental assessment, she said.

Approving this Arctic drilling plan at the 11th hour makes a dangerous project even riskier, Monsell said. An oil spill here would do incredible damage, and itd be impossible to clean up.

Personnel at Enis office in Anchorage said they could not comment and forwarded a request for comment to company officials in Milan.
Friends of Chinas Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo, who died of liver cancer in custody, said on Friday they were unable to contact his widow, Liu Xia, and that ensuring her freedom was now a top priority.

Liu Xiaobo, 61, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for inciting subversion of state power after he helped write a petition known as Charter 08 calling for sweeping political reforms.

Liu Xia has been under effective house arrest since her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 and was allowed to visit him in prison about once a month.

Liu Xiaobo died on Thursday after suffering multiple organ failure. He was recently moved from jail to a hospital in the city of Shenyang to be treated for late-stage liver cancer.

Liu Xia was at the hospital as her husbands health deteriorated over the past couple of weeks.

Rights groups and Western governments have mourned Liu Xiaobos death and also called for authorities to grant his wife and the rest of his family freedom of movement.

China responded by lodging stern representations with countries that made remarks about Liu Xiaobo, including the United States, expressing its firm opposition, foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told a regular briefing.

China also lambasted Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen for her comments on Liu and her calls for China to embrace democracy, saying her behaviour was very dangerous.

Geng said he had no information about Liu Xia, but added that the entry and exit of Chinese citizens would be handled in accordance with the law.

Lets not make any prejudgements here, he responded, when pressed on whether Liu Xia was allowed to leave the country. He did not elaborate.

Mo Shaoping, Liu Xiaobos lawyer, said there was no legal reason for China to prevent Liu Xia from leaving the country.

But China is not a country with pure rule of law, so it is possible they will ignore the law and stop her from going, he added.

In an interview, Hong Kongs chief executive, Carrie Lam, said she shared the compassion of people over Lius death.

Signs and portraits of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia are seen in front of the national emblem of China during a protest outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong. (Reuters File Photo)

Hu Jia, a fellow dissident and family friend, said: Now, we are most concerned about Liu Xia, but there has been no information about her.

All the willpower and force we put behind freeing Liu Xiaobo, we have turned to Liu Xia, he said.

Efforts should also focus on Liu Hui, the younger brother of Liu Xia, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2013 for fraud and to whom Liu Xia is very close, Hu added.

Several other friends said they were unable to reach Liu Xia, who suffers from depression, or confirm her whereabouts.

Efforts are being made to secure permission from Chinese authorities for Liu Xia and Liu Hui to leave, a Western diplomat said, but it was unclear if they would succeed.

Diplomatic sources also said that, before her husbands hospitalisation, Liu Xia had expressed a wish to go to Germany, in telephone calls with the German embassy.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize, said it was deeply worried about Liu Xias situation.

Its leader, Berit Reiss-Andersen, said the Chinese embassy in Oslo had declined to receive her visa application for travel so she could attend Lius funeral.

I was told that my visa application was incorrectly filled in ... because I did not have an invitation from the person I was visiting, Reiss-Andersen told Reuters.

The Shenyang justice department released a video clip of Liu Xiaobos treatment, emphasising that his family had a history of liver cancer and that family members were involved in the treatment process and informed of developments.

Funeral arrangements

Friends have begun calling to be allowed to join in Liu Xiaobos funeral arrangements and support his wife and family.

More than 150 friends and supporters have signed an open letter announcing plans for an online memorial to Liu, urging authorities to release his body and allow a public funeral.

We will pay close attention to how Liu Xiaobos funeral will be arranged, said Shanghai-based writer Wen Kejian, another friend of the family.

We, at the very least, hope to have the opportunity to go to Shenyang or Beijing to send him off.

Lius remains were taken to Shenyangs Xiheyuan funeral parlour, a source close to the family said, but a Reuters reporter was turned away on Friday.

Shenyang authorities forced half-a-dozen supporters of Liu who went to pay their respects to leave, or detained them, said Beijing-based rights activist Li Yu, who is tracking the situation.

News of Lius death prompted an outpouring of grief online, with many liberals, lawyers, dissidents and journalists sharing articles and posting on messaging app WeChat.

But censors were swift to act. An article titled, Speaking of heroes, who is a hero? from respected business publication Caixin was taken down after being shared by many of Liu Xiaobos supporters, despite making no mention of him.

The deceased has gone, the feigned sorrow is really preposterous, the state-backed Global Times tabloid said in a social media post that appeared to mock mourners. We will just eat watermelon and watch for the night.

Ye Du, a writer and friend of Lius, said he hoped people would be able to commemorate Liu Xiaobo, adding, Liu Xia will surely be monitored and controlled.
China is fast catching up as a global economic power, while the public perception around the world is that the US still remains at the top, according to a new survey in 38 countries including India.

A median of 42% say the US is the worlds leading economy, while 32% name China, Pew Research Center said in its latest survey results released on Thursday.

Across all of the countries surveyed in Latin America, as well as most in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, people tend to believe that the US is the top economy.

And by a 51-35% Americans name their own country rather than China, it said.

But in seven of the 10 European Union nations in the study, China is considered the leading economic power. It is tied with the US for the top spot in Italy.

A plurality in Russia also holds this view, Pew said.

Notably, China leads the US by a two-to-one margin in Australia - a longtime US ally, but also a country whose top trading partner, by far, is China, Pew said.

Releasing results of the survey, Pew said over the past year, perceptions of relative US economic power have declined in many of Americas key trading partners and allies.

The trend can be seen in several European countries, where views about the economic balance of power have fluctuated in recent years, it said.

Pew said following the onset of the financial crisis nearly a decade ago, Europeans increasingly named China, rather than the US, as the worlds leading economic power.

But in recent years, as the American economy slowly recovered, the pendulum began to swing back in the direction of the US, it said.

This year, however, the pattern has reversed itself again, and in countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain, China is once more seen as occupying the top spot.

But these shifts are not limited to Europe; perceptions have also changed significantly in countries such as Canada, Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines, Pew concluded.

However, both the leaders of China and the United States are perceived negatively globally, Pew said.

While Xi is less known globally than Trump, Pew said a median of 53% say they do not have confidence in Chinese President to do the right thing in world affairs.

Still, a much greater share (74%) express little or no confidence in Trump.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin also receives slightly more negative assessments than Xi (59% have no confidence).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the only world leader included on the survey who receives positive marks on balance - 42% have confidence in the long-serving leader, and just 31% say they do not.

In India along with Indonesia, and Vietnam there is a significant drop in public perception of China, Pew said.

In South Korea, Chinas favourably has fallen 27 points since spring 2015 and now hovers near historic lows, Pew said.

According to Pew, in only five countries do more than half express confidence in Xi. Three - Tanzania, Nigeria and Senegal - are in sub- Saharan Africa.

The Chinese president also gets high ratings in Russia and the Philippines, it said.
Donald Trump has made a gushing show of friendship to the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, saying the two countries had an unbreakable bond , pledging to draw up a road map for post-conflict Syria, and asserting that the two leaders could work together despite clear differences on climate change.

But when he appeared alongside Macron under the golden chandeliers of the Elysee Palace after two hours of talks about Syria, Iraq and counter-terrorism, Trump immediately faced fresh questions over allegations that his family sought to collude with Russia to win the 2016 US election.

Related: Trump publicly defends Trump Jr: Most people would have taken that meeting

He swiftly defended his son over accusations he had met a Russian lawyer during the US presidential campaign, describing Donald Trump Jr as a wonderful young man and saying most people would have taken that meeting .

Trump remained non-committal over the US eventually rejoining the global climate agreement that he pulled out of last month to the dismay of Macron and other world leaders. At first, he hinted that he might change his mind and bring the US back into the agreement, saying: Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord. Well see what happens. We will talk about that in the coming period of time.

But he quickly followed up with a shrug, adding: if it happens that will be wonderful, and if it doesnt that will be OK, too.

Trump acknowledged that France and the US had occasional disagreements but said that would not disrupt a friendship that dates back to the American Revolution. Macron acknowledged sharp differences with Trump over climate change, but he said he and the US president were able to discuss how best to combat a global threat with enemies who are trying to destabilise us, with a focus on counter-terrorism

Trump said his recent meeting with Vladimir Putin had led to a ceasefire in a part of southern Syria and said that he was working on a second ceasefire in a very rough part of Syria. He suggested that other parties would become involved in the deal, saying and all of a sudden you will have no bullets fired in Syria.

As Trump began his 24-hour visit to Paris, the two leaders body language was under close scrutiny. Macron chose to move on from the aggressive handshake he offered the US leader at their initial meeting in May, instead styling himself as Trumps new straight-talking best friend on the international stage .

The invitation to the US president to attend this years Bastille Day celebrations was in the pipeline long before both Macron and Trumps election because 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the entry by the US into the first world war.

The Trumps were greated with great military pomp by the Macrons at the vast military complex at Les Invalides, built by the Sun King Louis XIV, where Trump joined the French leader in inspecting the troops.

This appeared to flatter the US president, who has described himself as a big military person fond of army parades. He patted Macron on the back several times and, during a number of handshakes, both men were measured, not repeating their earlier white-knuckled standoff in Brussels. But when Trump took the hand of Brigitte Macron for the first time, he pulled it firmly towards himself and awkwardly did not let go for some time.

Soon afterwards, the presidential couples toured the historic military site and visited Napoleons tomb, with Trump remarking on Frances great history. Trump turned at one point to Brigitte Macron and said: Youre in such good shape, remarking to her later: Beautiful.

Trump patted Macron repeatedly on the shoulder and both seemed to slip into buddy roles. After visiting Napoleons tomb, Trump turned to Macron and said: You wanna ride? He then gave the French president a lift to the Elysee Palace in the Beast, the US presidential armoured car.

Arriving at the Elysee with Macron as his passenger, Trump appeared so self-assured he seemed to be hosting the event himself. He mouthed a silent thank you to waiting journalists as if to an applauding audience.

Inside, there was yet another official handshake, which White House reporters described as less feral than the previous death-grip encounters, with Trump willingly letting go first.

Macrons strategy was to set up a kind of of persuasive bridge-building with Trump after observing the US presidents increasing isolation on the western stage.

The Elysee deliberately added what one official called a personal postcard tourism touch: instead of dining at the Elysee Palace, Macron and his wife, Brigitte, invited the Trumps to eat a meal cooked by the chef Alain Ducasse in a restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Brigitte Macron also took Melania Trump on a tour of Notre Dame cathedral where the American first lady appeared to stop for a prayer and they then took a boat tour up the river Seine. The US first lady visited the Necker childrens hospital in Paris earlier in the day, where she spoke to children in French.

For the Macrons, it was a deliberate attempt to show the French capital was still welcoming after Trump told a rally that  Paris is no longer Paris following a string of terrorist attacks.

Trump was asked by journalists about his previous comment on France being overrun with terrorists and being not fit to visit, Trump said Paris is going to be just fine mostly because France now has a great and tough president. Trump then joked to Macron that the French leader better not make him look bad.

Related: With UK sidelined, Macron forges unlikely alliance with Trump

The military pomp of the Trump visit reflected Macrons new style of showmanship diplomacy, seen when he invited Russias president, Vladimir Putin, to the Palace of Versailles. It is aimed at highlighting French prestige and grandeur and is aimed as much for his domestic audience as foreign leaders.

Macron and Trump will attend the Bastille Day military parade on the Champs Elysee on Friday morning, before the Trumps return to Washington.

Security for the visit was tight. Far from the official events, anti-Trump protesters were gathering at a No Trump Zone at Place de la Republique, where organisers linked to the Pariss Nuit Debout movement said they would stand against Trumps anti-migrant positions, sexism, Islamophobia and racism.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the leftwing party France Unbowed, said last month that Trump was not at all welcome on Bastille Day.
Televangelist Zakir Naik, on the run from Indian authorities investigating him for alleged links to terrorism and money laundering, will be a key guest at a gathering of Muslim scholars organised by the conservative opposition Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) next week.

Naik fled India after the Bangladesh government said his controversial sermons had inspired Islamic State-linked terrorists who stormed a cafe in Dhaka in July last year and killed 24 people. Cases have been filed against him by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has also attached the assets of his Islamic Research Foundation.

Reports about Naiks participation in the conference to be held at a stadium in Kota Baru, the capital of Malaysias Kelantan state, during July 20-22 have raised eyebrows in New Delhi as deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had been quoted as saying that his country would assist India in its investigations against the preacher.

Officials said Hamidi had told a delegation from the Malaysian Associated Indian Chamber of Commerce in May that such assistance would include facilitating investigations when Naik is in Malaysia.

An official of the external affairs ministry said the process of revoking Naiks passport is underway following a request from security agencies. Sources said Naik had renewed his passport for 10 years in January 2016.

India has a mutual legal assistance treaty with Malaysia and officials have also been examining the options for taking action under the pact.

The PAS, a hardline Islamist party that is in power in Kelantan state, said it was aware of the charges levelled against Naik but defended his participation in the conference by saying the meet would stay away from debating controversial matters.

The issue of Zakir Naik is not an issue of conflict. It is his personal issue, with others who do not agree with him, PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man was quoted as saying at a news conference on Monday by MalayMail Online.

We take in the context of how he plays his role in evangelism, how he can contribute in that aspect, Ibrahim said while naming Naik among the representatives from 23 countries attending the conference.

Other guests include International Union of Muslim Scholars assistant secretary-general Sheikh Ghafar Abdul Aziz of Pakistan and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind vice-president Syed Sadatullah Husaini of India.

Since leaving India, Naik has travelled between Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and other Southeast Asian countries. Earlier this year, Malaysias home ministry confirmed that Naik had been granted permanent residence status five years ago and reports have suggested that he is seeking Malaysian citizenship.

Naik has denied the allegations against him and appeared on an Arabic TV channel recently to say that he had been offered citizenship by 10 Islamic countries. During April, Naik addressed several gatherings Indonesia while campaigning for hardline politicians.

His activities in Malaysia have been a cause of concern to some like the Malaysian Associated Indian Chamber of Commerce, which informed deputy prime minister Hamidi about its concern over the tolerance shown by Malaysian authorities on the extreme statements made by Zakir Naik in his preaching and his continued presence in Malaysia.

Naiks religious lectures in Kuala Lumpur and some other cities last year were criticised by parties in the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, and he has been named in a lawsuit filed in March by Malaysian rights activists against the government, which was accused of failing to protect the country from a security threat such as Naik.
A furious China responded on Friday to international censure over the death of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo by describing the decision to award him the peace prize in 2010 as blasphemy, and said it had lodged protests with several countries for meddling in its domestic affairs by speaking up for the pro-democracy activist.

Liu, 61, a key leader of the Tiananmen Square movement, died of multi-organ failure on Thursday night at a hospital at Shenyang in northeastern China.

He was recently granted medical parole after being diagnosed with liver cancer but China ignored international calls to allow him to travel abroad for treatment. Instead, he was admitted to the hospital in Shenyang where two doctors from the US and Germany were allowed to check him.

The hospital where Liu Xiaobo received medical treatment has done its best to save his life, his main doctor Liu Yunpeng was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

Since the day Liu Xiaobo was admitted, the hospital has made every effort in his treatment," Liu Yunpeng told a news conference late on Thursday night.

A still image from a video shows security guards outside the Shenyang Xiheyuan funeral parlour, where Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo's remains were taken, as a source close to the family said, in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China on July 14, 2017. (Reuters)

Chinas decision not to allow Liu to go abroad, despite his own request, was widely criticised by the international community. Chinese censors also scrubbed social media networks of candles, RIP and other tributes to Liu on Friday as part of efforts to silence discussion about the dissidents death.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said China had protested to several countries and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, among others, to express its discontent. Reports said France and Germany too were on the list.

Conferring the (Nobel peace) prize to such a person goes against the purposes of this award. Its a blasphemy of the peace prize, Geng said.

He said all-out efforts were made to treat Liu with humanity and in accordance with the law.

That accordance with the law has been questioned by governments, rights groups, lawyers and activists.

Of course, foreign governments have the right to complain about (Chinas) denial of internationally guaranteed human rights to the Chinese people, Jerome A Cohen, a leading US expert on Chinese law, told Hindustan Times on email.

(China), for example, in the exercise of its vaunted sovereignty, chose to limit its sovereignty by ratifying the UN Anti-Torture Convention that spells out in detail all the kinds of conduct that constitute internationally forbidden torture, mental as well as physical. (Chinas) mistreatment of its many political dissidents plainly violates this convention in many respects, he said.

A plainclothes Chinese security guard attempts to stop a photographer from taking photos of an apartment building where Liu Xia, the widow of Chinese dissident and Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, has been living under house arrest in Beijing on July 14, 2017. Friends of Liu Xiaobo's family say efforts to persuade Beijing to allow the couple to leave China were motivated not so much to seek treatment for the terminally ill political prisoner but to facilitate an escape for his severely depressed wife. Liu's death on July 13 has now returned his wife's fate back to the fore, with foreign officials calling for Beijing to release her from house arrest and let her leave the country as she wishes. (AP)

It is nonsense for (China), on the one hand, to commit itself to international rights protections in the exercise of its sovereignty and then, on the other, to say that holding it to such commitments is a violation of its sovereignty.

Referring to Mahatma Gandhi, US-based Chinese economist and political commentator Weiping Qin summed up the mood among rights activists.

In India, (Mahatma) Gandhi's non-violent protests could be successful, but in China, Liu's non-violent resistance suffered setbacks, even though he won the Nobel Peace Prize, as one of the signers of Charter 08, and the best way to mourn for Liu is to promote China's constitutional democratic transformation as soon as possible so that the Chinese people can enjoy genuine freedom, Weiping said.
As fellow Muslims were celebrating the end of Ramadan late in June, Noor Ankis and her neighbours buried her husband at the refugee camp in Bangladesh where he had lived for years.

Mohammed Ayubs body - his throat slit and hands tied behind his back - had been found dumped in a desolate corner of the camp for Rohingya Muslims who have fled neighbouring Myanmar.

Thirty-year-old Ayub was one of three Rohingya men whose bodies were found over the past few weeks.

Aid workers and long-time residents say the incidents, along with the stabbing of a community leader, amount to the worst violence in the camps since the Rohingya began fleeing Buddhist-majority Myanmar more than a quarter of a century ago.

Refugees, whose numbers have swelled since fighting late last year in Myanmars Rakhine state, also report masked men roaming the dark streets of the two camps in Kutupalong at night.

Bangladesh police and aid workers say a struggle for control of supplies to the camps is behind the violence.

They beat me and my sister and dragged him out of the house, Ankis told Reuters, as her 7- and 3-year-old children slept by her on the newly cemented floor.

The kidnappers called me from his number and threatened to kill me too. Im also getting threats in the name of al-Yaqin.

She was referring to the militant group Harakah al-Yaqin, or Faith Movement, whose attacks on Myanmar border police posts in October prompted a security crackdown in which troops have been accused of murder and rape of Rohingya civilians.

Police say it is unclear whether the insurgent group, which now wants to be known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, was involved in the violence in the camps or whether others were using its name to intimidate refugees.

The group, whose leader spoke to Reuters in an interview in March, did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Resource gap

More than 75,000 Rohingya have fled northwestern Rakhine state to Bangladesh over recent months, joining tens of thousands already there. Myanmars military and government have denied almost all allegations of atrocities by security forces.

While the government announced the end of its counterinsurgency operation in February, tensions in Myanmar have risen again in recent days after village administrators were murdered and troops killed three people while clearing a Rohingya militant camp.

The population of the official and makeshift camps in Kutupalong, around 400 km (250 miles) southeast of Dhaka, has swelled to around 86,000, from 49,000, since the October exodus, according to a Bangladeshi government document seen by Reuters.

While the nearly 14,000 refugees in the registered camp receive medical care and food from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the majority living in plastic-and-mud huts of the cramped makeshift camp are largely left to fend for themselves.

Theres always that resources gap and thats the reason there is always tension between the registered refugees and those outside, said Sanjukta Sahany, a senior official with the International Organization for Migration in Bangladesh that is charged with coordinating relief efforts by various UN agencies.

Post-influx the security situation has deteriorated.

A recent cyclone and floods that put added strain on limited aid supplies have also made things worse, aid workers said.

Shinji Kubo, UNHCRs Bangladesh boss, said he was pressing the local government to let his agency expand its role beyond the two registered camps in the country.

Masked men

Ayubs wife, Ankis, said her husband had been involved in an ongoing dispute with drug users in the makeshift camp in Kutupalong, according to a police report seen by Reuters. He was kidnapped by a group of 20-25 machete-wielding men who barged into their shack on the night of June 14, she said.

Reuters reported in February that Bangladesh blames the Rohingya influx for the soaring use of methamphetamine drug in the country.

Ayubs body was recovered from a muddy wasteland between two hillocks in Kutupalong on June 25. The body of another man, Mohammed Selim, who was also abducted on June, had been found in a similar state at the same place a week earlier.

Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and killing of Ayub, though the motive remained unclear, senior police officer Afruzul Haque Tutul said.

In the camps, refugees remain fearful of the mysterious masked men who continue to be reported moving around at night.

I was sleeping with my two children and my wife when they called my name, said a 30-year-old registered refugee, who was twice approached by groups of 10-12 men, though he did not open his door. The one hour they waited outside my home was the longest one hour of my life.
A New Zealand tourist has been killed by the blast from a jetliner taking off at a seaside airport in the Dutch Caribbean territory of St Maarten, officials said on Thursday.

The 57-year-old woman was knocked into a wall as she tried to cling to a fence to feel the blast on Wednesday, police spokesman Ricardo Henson said by phone. He said the woman was taken to the hospital, where she was declared dead. Her name was not released.

Henson said hundreds of tourists regularly ignore multiple warning signs to not stand by the fence at the Princess Juliana International Airport, which is less than 200 feet (60 meters) from the beach in the tiny territory.

Many people come just for the thrill of this main attraction, and unfortunately this time someone lost their life, he said.

Henson said dozens have been injured in recent years by the jet blasts, but this is the first time someone has died.

Its very dangerous, he said. It goes on all day, every day.
The decision by British authorities to withdraw permission for the July 8 Kashmir Rally in Birmingham to commemorate the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani after Indias strong protest did not signal a policy shift on events seen as anti-Indian, officials here said.

The UK allowing several groups to hold events and activities perceived by New Delhi as anti-India has been one of the core concerns in the bilateral relationship, highlighted by India's note verbale on the Birmingham rally and a recent strongly worded speech by Indian high commissioner YK Sinha, who said improved trade ties in the post-Brexit era would hinge on London addressing New Delhis core concerns.



Dominic Asquith, the British high commissioner to India, told Hindustan Times here on Friday: There is no shift in policy as I see it. The UKs approach to terrorism and counter-terrorism with India has always been rock solid all the way. We have close collaboration (on this issue) across many strands.

This (withdrawal of permission) was a decision taken by the Birmingham City Council. A lot of focus was directed at the position of Burhan Wani. We are not changing our position on terrorism. It is exactly what it has always been: - strongly opposed to it.

Asquith  the great-grandson of former prime minister HH Asquith (1852-1928)  said terrorism had affected Britain and India, and it came up in every conversation between prime ministers Theresa May and Narendra Modi, most recently at the G20 Summit.

However, he added: There is a long tradition of freedom of speech, but at the same time there are constraints around enabling people to go around their normal lives and concerns about inciting violence. It is difficult to say which future events will be like this one and the official approach to them.

There is always the concern to make sure that freedom of speech and incitement to violence do not contradict each other. The principles remain the same but the UK position with India on countering terrorism is stronger than ever.

Asquith recalled Modis phrase living bridge that he used to describe the 1.5 million Indian diaspora, and said the bilateral relationship was more than trade or visas. Calling convergences between the two countries touch points, the envoy said a lot was happening at various levels than was known or acknowledged in official discourse.

According to him, criticism of Britains student visa system had more to with negative perceptions than reality. The largest number of work visas was issued to Indians in 2016 and India had more UK visa centres than any other country, he said.

After taking over the role in New Delhi in March 2016, Asquith said his interactions had revealed that there is an overwhelmingly positive view of Britain among the people than may be the case towards former colonial rulers.

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An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Pakistan on Friday ordered the seizure of properties of opposition leader Imran Khan and cleric-turned politician Tahirul Qadri after they failed to appear in hearings of terrorism cases registered against them.

The ATC here heard the case which was registered with the secretariat police station against the duo for committing violence during protests in 2014 which paralysed Islamabad.

According to a lawyer, the court also issued notices to relevant police stations and revenue boards to implement the order.

On February 3, the ATC had issued perpetual arrest warrants against Khan, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaaf (PTI), and Qadri, the chief of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), in a case related to an attack on Senior Superintendent of Police Asmatullah Junejo during the 2014 protests.

Secretariat police had registered a case against several PTI and PAT workers for their alleged involvement in vandalism and attacking SSP Janjejo.

ATC judge Sohail Ikram had issued the perpetual arrest warrants after police submitted a report stating that the suspects could not be arrested despite a proclamation being issued.

So far, police have failed to arrest the two leaders due to political reasons and fear of backlash by their supporters.

Both Khan and Qadri have also demanded Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs resignation in the wake of the Panama papers leak.
A former private equity adviser and Republican operative who died soon after telling The Wall Street Journal he tried during the 2016 presidential election campaign to obtain Hillary Clintons missing emails from Russian hackers killed himself, according to a state death record obtained by the Chicago Tribune.

The Tribune said it obtained the record from Olmsted County, Minnesota, saying that Peter W Smith, 81, took his own life in a hotel near the Mayo Clinic on May 14. He was found with a bag over his head with a source of helium attached. A note from Smith found by police said that he was taking his own life because of bad health and his life insurance was expiring, the Tribune reported.

The report prompted speculation on social media that Smiths death was connected to the investigation. However, nothing in the Tribune story suggests a connection.

Smiths death came about 10 days after the Journal said that he granted the newspaper an interview. The Journal reported that Smith said in the interview that he was convinced that emails missing from Clintons server were in the hands of Russian hackers and that he had worked with a team to acquire them. Smith said he was working independently and President Donald Trumps campaign said Smith never worked for it.

Smith told the Journal he was unsure of the authenticity of emails hackers eventually did send to him and he told them to pass them to WikiLeaks, the same outfit that published the emails taken from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee.

In emails Smith sent to potential recruits for his project, which the Journal said it reviewed, Smith referenced former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn several times.

According to the record of Smiths death obtained by the Tribune, an autopsy was conducted on Smiths body but the medical examiners office declined to give the newspaper a copy of the report.

Smith had lived in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest. One of Smiths former employees told the Tribune that he thought Smith had gone to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to be treated for a heart condition.
Chinas censors raced to scrub social media networks of candles, RIP and other tributes to Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo on Friday as they seek to silence discussion about the prominent dissidents death.

The 61-year-old democracy activist died on Thursday from liver cancer while under heavy police guard at a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang - but most Chinese remain clueless about his death or even who he was.

A search for news of his death on Chinese search engine Baidu turned up no results and Chinas Twitter-like Weibo blocked the use of his name and initials LXB.

Even the most obscure homages to Liu on Weibo were removed.

One user who posted RIP was advised it had been deleted because it violated relevant laws and regulations - even though the post did not mention the activist by name.

RIP is now among the search terms blocked on Chinese social media networks.

Grieving users who had posted candle emojis on Weibo saw them erased. When accessing Weibo on a personal computer the symbol is no longer among the emoticon options.

On the Weibo mobile app, however, the candle was still available but attempts to post it were blocked and triggered a message saying content is illegal!.

The Chinese word for candle is also barred.

China tightly controls the internet through a censorship system known as the Great Firewall and closely monitors social media networks for sensitive content.

Social media sites have been cleaned of comments praising the dissident.

He is the brave one for this time. The history will remember him whether alive or dead, one user said in a Weibo post that was later deleted.

Another said: You, who was just freed, made the world different; we, those who are still in prison, salute you.

Even a Chinese language article about German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, the last Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in custody, that had been circulating on the mobile messaging app WeChat can no longer be accessed.

A search for the most commonly used Chinese translation of Ossietzkys name also returned no results on Weibo but it was not blocked on Baidu.

The circumstances recalled the situation in 2010 when Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while serving an 11-year sentence for subversion -- online searches for his name and references to his award, including the empty chair that represented him at the Oslo ceremony, were blocked.

Not all online posts were sympathetic to Liu, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests whose advocacy for democratic reform infuriated the government.

The state-run Global Times daily posted on its Weibo account: The deceased has gone and people are playing a magnificent show pretending to be sad. We are a group of onlookers eating watermelon for one night.

The post has been removed but screenshots of it have been widely shared.

As international media descended on the hospital that had been treating Liu for more than a month, most locals appeared to be oblivious about the political prisoner, whose name is extremely sensitive in the Communist country.
Donald Trumps eldest son Don Jr may be in the media spotlight over his notorious Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. But the latest revelation in the burgeoning scandal has added to the pressure on another family member who was at the meeting and is already in the crosshairs of investigators - Jared Kushner, the presidents influential son-in-law.

Democrats are up in arms, demanding that the 36-year-old Kushner - a senior adviser to the president with an office in the White House - be stripped of his security clearance.

There doesnt seem to be any ethical standard in the White House, Democratic House minority leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted on Thursday. Jared Kushners security clearance must be immediately revoked.

Even some from Trumps Republican Party are not so sure that Kushner - who is married to the presidents eldest daughter Ivanka - should remain in the West Wing.

Im going out on a limb here - but I would say I think it would be in the presidents best interest if he removed all of his children from the White House, Texas representative Bill Flores said on Thursday. Not only Donald Trump (Jr.), but Ivanka and Jared Kushner.

Omissions on security clearance forms

While Donald Jr has no role in his fathers administration - he is helping run his corporate empire - Kushner is one of Trumps closest advisors.

The Harvard graduate is also the progeny of a powerful New York real estate family, and has long been in Trumps inner circle.

It was actually an omission on a government security clearance application filed by Kushner that led to the revelation of the meeting between himself, Donald Jr, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and the Russian lawyer.

It also led Donald Jr to release an email chain about the planning of that meeting - which is now being cited as the most serious evidence yet of alleged collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia.

In the June 2016 emails, Donald Jr eagerly agrees to a meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer who is said to possess incriminating information about Clinton and invites Kushner and Manafort to come along.

Kushner, filing a security clearance document known as an SF-86, initially neglected to mention that he attended the meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya - as well as contacts he had with several other Russians, including Moscows ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.

The meeting with Veselnitskaya came to light only after Kushner filed an amended SF-86 form.

Veselnitskaya confirmed to CNN and MSNBC that Kushner attended the meeting but said he was there for only seven to 10 minutes and she had never intended to hand over damaging information about Clinton anyway.

Russia ties under microscope

But even before revelations of the Veselnitskaya meeting came to light, Kushners other dealings with Russian officials have been facing scrutiny.

According to The Washington Post, Kushner - at a December 2016 meeting with Kislyak - raised the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications link between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin.

That same month, Kushner also met with Sergey Gorkov, chief of Vnesheconombank and a former member of Russian intelligence. The bank, a key arm of the Russian government, is under tough US sanctions.

The Post reported last month that Kushners finances and business dealings were being examined as part of the probe led by special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller into whether the Trump campaign teamed with Russia to help tilt the presidential race in favor of the billionaire tycoon.

And this week, the McClatchy newspaper group reported that congressional and Justice Department investigators were looking into whether the Trump campaign helped Russian cyber operatives bombard key voting districts with fake news about Clinton.

Kushner was in charge of the Trump campaigns digital operations. He now plays a major role in shaping foreign policy.

Witch hunt?

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a massive effort to swing the election to Trump, including hacking and leaking embarrassing emails from Democrats.

Trump has vehemently denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia and repeatedly claimed to be the victim of a witch hunt by the media and sore loser Democrats.

Kushner is expected to discuss his Russian contacts at some point with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is leading one of the several probes into Russian election interference.

But ahead of that testimony -- and with unanswered questions mounting around him -- opposition Democrats are demanding action now.

It is unclear why Mr Kushner continues to have access to classified information while these allegations are being investigated, said a letter from nearly 20 members of the House Oversight Committee sent to the White House last month.
A US federal judge weakened the terms of the Trump administrations controversial travel ban on visitors from six majority-Muslim countries, dealing another legal setback to the government.

Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii ruled Thursday that grandparents and some other relatives of people in the United States should be exempt from the clampdown, saying the terms of the ban as enforced defied common sense.

His decision was hailed as a victory by opponents of the ban, who say it singles out Muslims in violation of the US constitution.

US District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu in December 2015 . (AP File Photo)

The administration of President Donald Trump insists the restrictions are necessary to keep out terrorists.

The US Supreme Court had allowed part of the ban to go into effect on June 29, putting an end, at least temporarily, to five months of politically charged skirmishes in the lower courts.

Specifically, the court allowed a 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and a 120-day ban on refugees, with exceptions for people with close family relationships in the United States.

The Trump administration defined that to be parents, spouses, children, sons- and daughters-in-law, siblings and step- and half-siblings.

Narrowly defined list

But Watson found that the governments narrowly defined list finds no support in the careful language of the Supreme Court or even in the immigration statutes on which the Government relies.

Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents, he wrote.

Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The governments definition excludes them. That simply cannot be.

Watson ordered Homeland Security and the State Department not to enforce the ban on grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins of persons in the United States.

Protesters hold signs against U. President Donald Trump's limited travel ban, approved by the US Supreme Court, in New York City on June 29, 2017. (Reuters File Photo)

The judge also ruled that refugees who had assurances of a placement by a resettlement agency in the United States should also be exempt.

Such an assurance meets each of the Supreme Courts touchstones: it is formal, it is a documented contract, it is binding, it triggers responsibilities and obligations, including compensation, it is issued specific to an individual refugee only when that refugee has been approved for entry by the Department of Homeland Security, and it is issued in the ordinary course, and historically has been for decades, Watson wrote.

Bona fide does not get any more bona fide than that.

Douglas Chin, attorney general for the state of Hawaii, which filed the lawsuit against the Trump administration, welcomed the ruling.

The federal court today makes clear that the US Government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit, said Chin.

Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough. Courts have found that this Executive Order has no basis in stopping terrorism and is just a pretext for illegal and unconstitutional discrimination.

Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin speaks at a news conference about President Donald Donald Trump's travel ban in Honolulu on June 30, 2017. (AP File Photo)

The Departments of Homeland Security, State and Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment early Friday.

Under the version of the travel ban allowed to go forward by the Supreme Court, citizens from the six targeted countries with bona fide ties to the United States -- such as a job or acceptance to a university -- are permitted entry.

The high court will review the overall case in October, after both bans on travellers and refugees have largely run their course.

While the ban itself did not single out Muslims, judges in lower courts had cited Trumps repeated statements during last years presidential race that he intended to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

His original measure, issued by executive order in January, set off chaos and protests at airports and was almost immediately blocked by the courts.
Three gunmen opened fire at police near Jerusalems holiest site on Friday, wounding three Israelis, two of them critically, before the attackers were killed by security forces, Israeli police said.

The gunmen arrived at the sacred site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, and walked towards one of the Old City gates nearby, police spokeswoman Luba Simri said.

When they saw policemen they shot towards them and then escaped towards one of the mosques in the Temple Mount compound, Simri said. A chase ensued and the three terrorists were killed by police.

She said three firearms were found on their bodies.

Mobile phone video footage aired by Israeli media showed several policemen chasing a man and shooting him down at the site, which is a popular place for foreign tourists to visit. Israeli authorities are still working to identify the attackers, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.



Israeli police check the scene where assailants fired shots in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday, July 14, 2017. (AFP)

The Israeli ambulance service Magen David Adom said three Israelis were wounded, two critically.

Tensions are often high around the marble-and-stone compound that houses the Aqsa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock. It is managed by Jordanian authorities and is adjacent to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are permitted to pray.

Police said Friday prayers for Muslims would not be held at the site following the attack.

A wave of Palestinian street attacks that began in 2015 has slowed but not stopped. At least 255 Palestinians and one Jordanian citizen have been killed since the violence began.

Israel says at least 173 of those killed were carrying out attacks while others died in clashes and protests. Thirty-eight Israelis, two US tourists and a British student have been killed in stabbings, shootings and car-rammings.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem, where the Old City and the holy compound are located, after the 1967 Middle East war and regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a move that is not recognised internationally.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they want to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel blames the wave of violence on incitement by the Palestinian leadership. The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, says desperation over the occupation is the main driver.

The last, US-led attempt to broker peace between the Israelis and Palestinians broke down in 2014.
A teenager has been arrested following a series of acid attacks in northwest London on Thursday night, Scotland Yard said on Friday.

Police are appealing for witnesses to come forward for information.

They found a 32-year-old man suffering from facial injuries , Scotland Yard said in a statement. They were called by the London Ambulance Service at 10.25 pm on Thursday to Hackney Road junction with Queensbridge Road.

The victim was on a moped when another moped, with two male riders, pulled up alongside him. They threw a corrosive substance in the victims face, with one stealing his bike and the other making off.

The victim was taken to a hospital in east London. His injuries are not being treated as life-threatening or life-changing.

Following this incident, at 11.05pm, a corrosive substance was reported to have been thrown in the face of another man by two males on a moped in Shoreditch High Street. The victim was admitted to a hospital and his injuries are not believed to be life threatening.

At 11.18pm, the police received a call to a similar incident, a robbery in Cazenove Road, where a corrosive substance had been thrown.

Officers found a man suffering from facial injuries. He was taken to a hospital in east London and his injuries were described as life-changing.

The fourth incident was reported to the police at 11.37pm in Chatsworth Road. A man said he was on his moped when two men on a bike pulled up alongside him and sprayed liquid in his face. They stole his moped and left quickly.

The victim made his way to his home before contacting the police. He was also taken to an east London hospital.

Following the incidents in Hackney, officers learned about a similar attack reported in Islington. At 10.49pm, a man was reported to have had a corrosive substance thrown in his face by two males on a moped in Upper Street junction with Highbury Corner. He was taken to a north London hospital.

Police said they were treating all five incidents as linked.

Inquiries are ongoing and officers from Hackney CID are investigating.

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US President Donald Trump on Thursday defended his eldest sons decision in June last year to meet with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer during the election campaign, saying most people would have taken that meeting and nothing happened from the meeting.

My son is wonderful young man, Trump said during a news conference in Paris with President Emmanuel Macron. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer. Not a government lawyer; a Russian lawyer.

Trump came to Paris at the invitation of Macron to take part in Bastille Day celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the United States entry into World War I.

As the two leaders, an odd couple on the international stage, faced the news media after a private meeting in the Elysee Palace, they sought to play down sharp differences over trade, immigration and climate change. Macron looked on as Trump defended his son in the scandal over possible links between Trumps presidential campaign and the Russian government.

Trump said Donald Trump Jr. had merely been responding to a person offering opposition research on his opponent, Hillary Clinton  a common practice in presidential campaigns. Politics is not the nicest business, he said, noting that he had received similar offers.

Trump tried to deflect attention from his son by asserting that President Barack Obamas attorney general, Loretta Lynch, had approved a visa for the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to enter the United States.

Veselnitskaya did receive a waiver from the justice department in October 2015 to enter the United States to defend a Russian client involved in a criminal case in New York. Immigration lawyers said the waiver, known as a significant public benefit parole, is standard practice in such cases.

On climate change, Trump acknowledged his differences with Macron  highlighted when Trump announced six weeks ago that he would withdraw the United States from of the Paris climate accord. When asked whether he would reconsider his decision, the president left the door open to some kind of unspecified compromise.

Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord, Trump said. Well see what happens. He added, If it happens, it will be wonderful; if it doesnt, that will be OK, too.

Macron also acknowledged the disagreement over the climate accord, but noted that the two leaders had agreed on many other issues. He also said he understood Trumps motivation in withdrawing, even if he disagreed with him. My willingness is to continue to work with the United States, he said. I understand it is important to save jobs.
US President Donald Trump was captured complimenting the French presidents wifes appearance Thursday as he toured a famous Paris landmark.

Video footage posted on the French governments official Facebook page showed Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and their wives chatting after their tour of the museums at Les Invalides.

As they were saying their good-byes, Trump turned to Brigitte Macron, who is 25 years senior to President Macron, and gestured toward her body.

You know, youre in such good shape, Trump said, before repeating the observation to her husband. Beautiful, he added.

Brigitte Macron was her husbands former high school teacher and their relationship has drawn international attention because of their significant age difference.

But feminists and President Macron have denounced that attention as sexist, arguing that nobody would blink an eye if he were the older spouse.

The Macrons age difference is identical to that of Donald and Melania Trump, who were spending two days in Paris in celebration of Bastille Day.

Trump has drawn criticism in the past for comments some say objectify and demean women, including the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women and boasted, When youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

It wasnt the only uncomfortable moment the France first lady shared with US President Trump, however.

US president Trumps official France tour started with an awkward handshake he exchanged with the France first lady.

The lengthy and visibly awkward handshake happened when the France first lady, with her husband, welcomed Trump and his wife Melania Trump to Paris.

Twitter, on the other hand, was quick to react on Brigitte Macrons uncomfortable moments with Trump.

Live television. Trump just yanked Brigitte Macron's hand. What's wrong with this guy?! pic.twitter.com/zGiwc2wlzn  Arjun Sethi (@arjunsethi81) July 13, 2017

Thank God he didn't dislocate her shoulder with that creepy arm pull. Can't he leave off the alpha male dominance displays w/ the ladies?  Harmless (@InertAlien) July 13, 2017

Trump to Macron: Your wife is old but still hot, seems like a high-quality person, her arm didn't come off when I pulled it. #trumpfrance  rchristie (@waspokey) July 13, 2017

Dear god whyyyy does he do that!?? pic.twitter.com/hb1ZNsIMJ7  Carol C (@gemi6615) July 13, 2017

That move was very aggressive. It's quite triggering for victims of domestic violence. Please don't ever let this man meet Queen Elizabeth.  LizzDregne (@LizzDregne) July 13, 2017

trump greeted France's First Lady with an aggressive handshake & an abhorrent comment: "you're in such great shape"



A daily embarrassment.  Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) July 13, 2017
News, events, history, and other mid-week tidbits.

Tuesday, October 25, 4:30  7 p.m.

Orr Area EMS Open House

Brats and burgers will be served. Event includes a new ambulance tour and blood pressure screenings. For more info: 218-780-3798.

Orr Fire Hall

4540 Lake St., Orr

Tuesday, October 25, 12  6 p.m.

Essentia Health Job Fair

Talent recruiters and department managers will be on-site at Essentia Health-Virginia. Candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to attendnurses, nursing and clinical assistants, surgery technicians, radiology technicians, respiratory therapists, human resource professionals, and those interested in environmental services or nutrition services. Essentia staff will greet candidates, conduct an initial screening and filter them to appropriate hiring managers for interviews. Select candidates will be verbally offered a position before leaving. Candidates are asked to bring a resume, but its not required. Attire is business casual. For more info: www.essentiacareers.org.

901 9th St. N., Virginia
Yesterday afternoon Under Armour and Cam Newton officially unveiled the Panthers QBs new signature sneaker, the C1N, which will be hitting retailers next week.

The kicks come in an all-red Hometown colorway inspired by Cams Atlanta roots, so its only fitting that he celebrated the upcoming release with Georgias own, 2 Chainz, at an Under Armour launch event last night.

Tity Boi took the stage to perform Riverdale Road, and went bar for bar with Cam in front of the crowd. Check out the footage below, as well as a video clip of Cam speaking about his Atlanta roots.

For more release details about the Under Armour C1N, click here.

Cam
Britain's Crown Agents has procured 10,500 stent systems for reperfusion center chain using the 2016 national budget funds, Deputy Health Minister Oleksandr Linchevsky has said.

"About 7,000 stents were procured using the 2015 budget funds. Crown Agents procured 10,500 stents of much better quality at a price two times lower, using the 2016 budget funds. The saved funds will allow purchasing more stents," he said at a press conference on Thursday.

Linchevsky said that these stents will be used, in particular, in the reperfusion centers chain that is being created.

"We are creating a network of institutions. We are purchasing stents and expendable materials. A new formula for distributing these stents will make coronarography available to every Ukrainian and do it for free," he said.

In turn, the representative of Crown Agents in Ukraine Tetiana Korotchenko said that under the stent purchase program the agency is in the active stage of delivery, and the first batch of stents has already been distributed among the regions.

According to Korotchenko, Crown Agents saved about 50% of the budget, so the cost of the stent system was $70-150.

"We noted that this is a highly competitive market. 18 bids from 11 countries were submitted for the tender," she said.
Bonzai has released a song that will definitely make it onto summer playlists.

The track was produced by Mura Masa, whom the 20-year-old has worked with on other tracks such as 'What If I Go'. 'I Feel Alright' begins with a tip-toeing beat before sprinting forward into catchy synth chorus.

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The Dublin-raised artists, who's given name is Cassia O'Reilly, recently signed a record deal with Sony. She appeared at Dublin's Forbidden Fruit Festival in May.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Petroleum exploration has largely ceased in federal waters off Alaska, but an Italian multinational oil and gas company has received permission to move ahead with modest drilling plans on leases sold in 2005.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management late Wednesday announced conditional approval of an exploratory drilling plan submitted by Eni US Operating Co., part of Eni.
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A recent visitor to the "Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians" exhibition didn't seem to be joking when he snarked, "Waste of a good rug."

But maybe he thought he was being funny since he promptly photographed Farhad Moshiri's "Flying Carpet," a stack of 32 Persian rugs whose centers are cut out to create a hole in the shape of a jet fighter. Then the man pointed his camera at Shiva Ahmadi's highly decorative "Oil Barrel #13" and Alireza Dayani's monumental ink drawing of a fantastical undersea world.

The show's entry gallery is as alluring as they get, dominated by Ali Banisadr's tense and gorgeous monumental painting "We Haven't Landed on Earth Yet," Timo Nasseri's glittering geometric sculpture "Parsec #15" and Shahpour Pouyan's ominous "Projectile II," which looks simultaneously like a hanging woman in a burka and a fancy missile, ornately etched with Arabic calligraphy and intricate swirls.

Stepping in any direction from there invites viewers into a magnetic vortex full of other enticements.

The "Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet" title refers to four thematic drifts within the 27 works, to underscore how gender, politics, religion and spirituality figure into contemporary Iranian identity. It also reflects the attitude of a collector on a mission to change perceptions about his native country.

Financier Mohammed Afkhami belongs to a prominent family that fled Iran in 1978, just ahead of the 1979 Revolution, when he was four. The new government confiscated his grandparents' huge collection of historical art, some of which appeared at international auctions in the 1980s.

More Information 'Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians - The Mohammed Afkhami Collection' When: 12:15-7 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, through Sept. 24 Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Beck Building, 5601 Bissonnet Info: $7.50-$15 (free on Thursdays); 713-639-7300, mfah.org See More Collapse

Afkhami began collecting contemporary art when he started revisiting family in Iran in the early 2000s, discovering new galleries and a scene that at the time was relatively unknown. He bought his first painting there for about $500. Today, about a dozen Iranian artists have broken through the six-figure barrier. Collectors like Afkhami have helped drive the market. Works he bought a decade ago for $2,000 or $3,000 are now worth a hundred times that.

Afkhami is not in it for the money, or to be political. He sees himself as a cultural ambassador. "It's more important for people to focus on art than on things they'll never agree on," he said.

Curated by Fereshteh Daftari for the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, the show includes a good mix of men and women, established and emerging artists, people whose families left Iran during the diaspora and full-time residents of Tehran.

The artists also represent three generations, from the esteemed nonagenerian Monir Farmanfarmaian, famous for her mirror mosaics (the MFAH also owns one), to the visionary Dayani, who is in his mid-30s.

All show a stunning affinity for detail. Whether it manifests as intricate imagery, refined construction or minimalist purity, one thing is clear: These Iranians embrace beauty.

Sometimes the boldness wows, but there's equal power in works of extreme subtlety.

One case in point is an untitled photograph of a snowy landscape with ghostly, barely-there trees by the late Palme d'Or-winning filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. It seems almost out of place in a room washed by red neon light, but it's also a kind of antidote - a peaceful contemplation of nature that could be seen as a political position in a highly conflicted society.

Afruz Amighi's woven polyethylene "Angels in Combat I" evokes a traditional paradise motif, but its angels point machine guns at a tree of life whose trunk holds the "Rod of Asclepius," the hippocratic oath symbol. Amighi, a U.S. citizen, is concerned about universal health care.

Works by the master calligrapher Mohammad Ehsai and sculptor Parviz Tanavoli get their charge from Arabic words. Ehsai's "Mohabbat" layers the word for kindness and compassion over itself four times. Tanavoli's painted fiberglass piece "Blue Heech" depicts the word "nothing" in nasta'liq-style calligraphy.

Shirazeh Houshiary's painting "Memory," with just one fat band of soft blue on a white field, looks from a distance like it could have been made by Agnes Martin. It's more related, however, to the thinking of the 13th-century mystic Rumi. Close up, one can see how the blue marks skim the surface of the canvas and fade like fog into the whiteness. Houshiary made them by repeatedly drawing two Arabic words until they were illegible, to achieve an infinity effect.

Parastou Forouhar's "Friday," a powerful photograph printed across four large aluminum panels, bristles with subversive humor. A black swath of fabric reminiscent of a chador fills the image, with a focal point that offers just a peek of a small hand, clenching the fabric at an angle so sensually charged it looks like a far more "forbidden" female body part.

Such delicious audacity!

Hamed Sahihi's three-minute video "Sundown" captivates with its eerily silent imagery of silhouetted people playing on a beach, oblivious to a ghostly, hanging figure that rises into the sky near the end.

I first thought "nyeh" when I approached Morteza Ahmadvand's video installation "Becoming," which is contained in a small, walled-off space where three screens hang above a large, black fiberglass sphere. The screens held images of spheres, too.

But I looked away for a minute, and when I looked again I realized I had seen the end of a loop. When it begins, each screen contains a different religious emblem: the Jewish Star of David, the Christian cross and the Islamic Kaaba. Through digital video trickery, they all morph slowly into spheres.

Ahmadvand's installation is a profound plea for unity.

It seemed a stellar ending moment, but I stopped again at Banisadr's canvas on the way out.

Banisadr has said his chaotic and prismatic compositions are driven by sound, and he's especially haunted by the sound of exploding bombs he heard as a young boy in Iran.

"We Haven't Landed on Earth Yet" borrows its title from a comment Willem de Kooning made after the first lunar landing, suggesting the not-so-giant steps of continuous and epic conflict.

Banisadr's painting has the agitated intensity of works by the Chilean surrealist Roberto Matta, which also convey internal battlefields, although Banisadr's art generally offers more sky, which makes it seem slightly more hopeful. His crudely formed figures could exist in any place, at any time. The painting's fluttering white bits brought to mind all the paper that fluttered through New York skies in the aftermath of the twin-tower bombings.

Great art provokes thought. If any one of these works just gets people talking constructively as well as snapping pictures, the show has succeeded.
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Once upon a time, two lumberjacks were knocking back pints at a pub when a witch walked in.

One of the tipsy men - though it's still in dispute which one - pinched the magic-maker on the rear. The witch was none too pleased. Still, the night's goings-on seemed nothing more than a regrettable episode of drunken debauchery. But when the lumberjacks woke up the next morning, both realized they'd sprouted wings and turned into fairies.

At least, that's the tale Dim and Wit - now part-time attractions at conventions and festivals across the country - tell people.

But for Dim, whose human name is David Cline, there's more to the story. The witch's curse may have left him be-winged and clad in pink, but it also proved a magical remedy to his not-so-magical anxiety issues.

Cline and his buddy David Bang first dressed up as fairy brothers back in 2010 for a Texas Renaissance Festival Halloween party. On a whim, the two Houston-area IT workers decided to shoot for a vast departure from their regular Grim Reaper and pirate gear. So they found tutus and gossamer wings, mixed in a smattering of pastel colors and - poof! - they were fairies.

"We were just doing it the one time, but then everybody really enjoyed it," Cline, now 47, said during an interview in his wingless human form.

"So I figured if we were going to do this again, we should have names. Then I called him up and was like, 'OK, I have names for us: Dim and Wit.' "

"That's great," Bang responded. "I'm Wit."

It may have been a tongue-in-cheek barb, but to Cline it made a lot of sense.

"Part of the reason I went with Dim was because I never talked; I had a lot of anxiety about talking in front of strangers," he said.

"I don't have that issue anymore. Dim and Wit has helped me a lot."

After picking their fairy names, the pair created a Facebook page and quickly realized an active fairy community already existed online and at festivals across the country. The pair consulted with other fairies about character and costuming, then went back for more Ren Fest outings the following year.

At first, fairy appearances - or regular human adventures - in new places were a stressful affair, at least for Dim. In exchange for free admission, the pair went to comic conventions and festivals, giving out free in-costume hugs to complete strangers.

"At the first Comicpalooza we did, it was about a week before it that I had anxiety," Cline said. "It was something that I've always struggled with."

Five years after that first con outing in 2012, the stress has receded, and panel discussions and navigating big crowds are a regular part of their fairy gig.

Bang says that's not an uncommon phenomenon in the cosplay world.

"A lot of people would tell you that their costumes act as a mask, even though we don't wear masks," the 48-year-old said. Unfortunately, the pair can't flit about fairy-clad 24/7.

"If I was dressed as Dim in a lot of places, I'd probably be more calm," Cline said.

Over the years, the fairy brothers have grown into their roles, evolving their costumes and even developing their cursed-lumberjack backstory.

They've gotten more colorful over the years, with Cline shifting from browns and earthy tones to pastel pinks and purples. Bang typically stands his bushy hair tall in a cone shape. Cline totes a tiny "Free Hugs" sign. And they both boast neon tights, fanciful footwear and pastel wings like those children would wear.

"But we're not really children's performers," Bang said. In fact, it's often little kids who are their biggest critics.

"It's the 5-, 6-, 7-year-old girls," Bang said. "They'll come stomping up, hands on hips, and be like, 'No, boys can't be fairies.' "

The fairy brothers aren't bothered by the naysayers. They have a magical mission to fulfill.

"We're fabulous, and we give out free hugs," Bang said. "That's our jobs."

The end.
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KPFT (90.1 FM) is no stranger to turmoil: Since its founding in 1970, the left-leaning Houston radio station has been bombed by the Ku Klux Klan, shot at, and has struggled to raise operating funds from its listeners. On Friday, the station boiled over yet again.

After less than three months on the job, Obidike Kamau, the station's interim general manager, was fired Friday morning by the acting head of Pacifica, the national foundation that owns KPFT, sparking a protest march by Houston staffers, board members and volunteers.

About 35 protesters gathered outside the station's Montrose headquarters Friday evening to support Kamau and demand his reinstatement.

Kamau had been appointed in April after KPFT's longtime general manager, Duane Bradley, retired.

Kamau's main job was to find ways get the station out of debt, which he hasn't yet accomplished. "I've been working to put several new initiatives in place," he said, but new fundraising projects take more than three months to get off the ground, and three months isn't enough time to turn a station around.

"I was kind of flabbergasted," Kamau said.

"He hasn't fixed 15 years' worth of problems in 90 days," said staff member Greg Audel.

Kamau's dismissal came from Bill Crosier, the interim executive director of the Pacifica Foundation, which owns KPFT and four other noncommercial stations.

The California-based foundation is in serious debt  to the tune of $7 million  and has been sued by creditors across the country. On top of the money woes, Pacifica has been plagued by infighting and politics, inspiring media blogger Ken Mills to call it "public media's most embarrassing, dysfunctional and disappointing organization."

Crosier, who lives in Houston, was brought on early this year to help get all of Pacifica back on track.

He said he didn't expect Kamau to turn KPFT around in 90 days, "but we at least need to get a plan for turning it around. ... We essentially don't have a plan yet."

All day at the station, Kamau's colleagues and supporters gathered to show solidarity  and to comb over KPFT's bylaws, looking for a way to nullify the firing.

By Friday evening, protesters were armed with signs and speeches that suggested race played a role in the firing of Kamau, who is African-American.

Crosier "calls himself a progressive, but he acts like Donald Trump," said DeWayne Lark, past president of the local station board.

Kamau's vocal supporters include Audel, the station's interim development director. (Yes, he's interim, too. The station is "so disorganized, half the major positions seem to be interim," he said).

"At a minimum, (Crosier) was extremely sneaky in how he handled it," Audel said. The board of directors was "completely blindsided."

Crosier acknowledged the dissent on the staff and admitted that the station's no stranger to controversy. "It's been like that at KPFT ever since I've been involved," he said. "I like to say KPFT attracts frustrated people."

More evidence of turmoil: At a meeting Wednesday night, the KPFT board heard and approved a motion to investigate Crosier. The motion listed several accusations that boil down to divisive management and mishandling of station funds. Friday's protesters called Kamau's firing "a retaliation" for that motion.

That's only the beginning of the station's problems, Audel said. "Let's be honest: KPFT, in a lot of ways, has been a laughingstock for a long time."

The station's programming has been solid, Audel said, but "businesswise, it's the Keystone Cops."

Crosier has appointed Larry Winters, a longtime KPFT deejay, to replace Kamau as interim general manager. But he said he's "open to negotiations" with Kamau's supporters. That might mean reinstating Kamau, he said, or arranging for Kamau and Winters to share the role.

"If they can come up with a plan, I'll be happy to reconsider."
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has declared joint-stock commercial bank Novy (New, Dnipro) insolvent, the central bank has reported on its website.

The NBU board made decision No. 441-rsh/bt on July 13.

The central bank said that the shareholders in the bank on June 26 decided to halt bank operations and submitted the relevant plan to the regulator.

According to the law on relaxation of the reorganization and capitalization of banks the NBU does not have the right to approve the plan for terminating operations of banks if there are grounds for placing the banks to the list of insolvent banks.

The size of the regulatory capital of bank Novy as of July 12, 2017 was less than one third of the lower limit, the NBU is obliged to declare it insolvent, the NBU said.

The central bank said that 99% depositors of the bank (around 3,000) will receive their deposits in the full amount, as their size does not exceed the sum guaranteed by the Individuals Deposit Guarantee Fund (UAH 200,000). The total sum for refunds is UAH 36 million.

As of June 8, 2017, the State Space Agency of Ukraine held 18.3% of shares in the bank. The rests of the shareholders are persons with less than 10% of shares.

Bank Novy was founded in 1992.

The bank ranked 58th among 90 operating banks as of April 1, 2017, in terms of total assets worth UAH 770.586 million, according to the NBU.
A Houston man and woman were sentenced Friday to more than 20 years in federal prison for sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy convictions, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Houston.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced Jazsmine Joseph, 28, and Xavier Cooper, 32, to 262 months in prison, and required them to serve five years of supervised release when they finish their time.

The two also have to register as sex offenders, according to a press release from Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez.

A federal jury convicted the pair in September after six hours of deliberation following a week-long trial.

Joseph and Cooper enticed, transported and harbored a minor girl to engage in commercial sex from October 2014 to March 2015. Joseph additionally paid for and directed the posting of prostitution ads online, according to the release.

Joseph also rented hotel rooms where the girl participated in commercial sex acts. However, Joseph said during the trial that she was "just helping a friend" by renting the hotel room and posting the prostitution ads.

She said that she was trying to help the victim and protect her from Cooper. The girl apparently participated in numerous sex acts, but was recovered on March 31, 2015 during a highly publicized sting operation.

The jury also saw text messages between Joseph and Cooper, where they discussed the minor victim and her "customers."

Both will remain in custody while they wait to be transferred to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility.

The investigation was conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety with assistance from FBI Assistant U.S. Attorneys.
Kyiv's Pechersky District Court arrested over 99% of shares in Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard (Mykolaiv), Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said, referring to a court ruling dated June 21.

"On June 21, 2017 Kyiv's Pechersky District Court arrested immovable property of Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard (workshops, warehouses, complete quay, recreation complex and other facilities, a total of 21 facilities) located in Mykolaiv and Koblevo, Mykolaiv region, as well as 99.87% of shares in the company owned by nine companies registered in Ukraine and Cyprus," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Lutsenko said that the PGO department is investigating into abuse of office by officials of the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF), the Ministry of Industrial Policy of Ukraine and OJSC Kherson Shipyard when amendments to paragraph 11.6 of the sale and purchase agreement for Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard were made. This resulted in the reduction of investment liabilities in the amount of over UAH 500 million and caused damage to the state.

Smart Maritime Group (SMG) created in 2009 by businessman Vadim Novinsky includes Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard and Kherson Shipyard.
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An apparent second arrest has been made in the slaying of the beloved 79-year-old Hedwig Village woman, according to the Hedwig Village Police Department.

Janeil Bernard was found on July 3 by her maid. Timesha Wilson, 22, is charged with capital murder, police said.

"She was located today, voluntarily came to our station and gave a statement admitting that she was present but she denied taking any part in the crime," said Hedwig Police Chief David A. Gott.

Wilson told police that she thought they were going to Bernard's to get extra money and that she didn't know a murder was planned. She also has no prior criminal history, so police have not yet been able to link her fingerprints or DNA to the crime scene.

Michael Susberry - the maid's son - is also facing a capital murder charge after confessing to the brutal slaying, police said at a press conference earlier this week.

"She knew him," Gott said. "She recognized him. She gave him something to drink. She allowed him to sit on the couch to rest."

In the course of the robbery, Susberry grabbed Bernard, headbutted her and knocked her to the ground. Then he pulled out a knife and stabbed her repeatedly, police said.

Afterward, police realized Bernard's car and wallet appeared stolen.

The vehicle - a red Cadillac sedan with a Texas license plate - turned up in southwest Houston, near State Highway 288. The keys were found about 200 feet away.

Bernard had been a resident of Hedwig Village for 50 years, Gott said. She worked as a schoolteacher in Spring Branch ISD before staying at home to take care of her two sons. Later in life, she became an accountant and eventually settled down to a quiet life brightened by dancing and family. She also had two grandchildren who adored her, Gott said.

A Metro pass and surveillance footage helped police figure out Susberry was involved in the killing. After figuring out Susberry's identity, the police called him in for questioning.

He eventually came into the police station voluntarily and confessed to the crime.

Susberry told police that Wilson did not participate in the killing.

During the press conference, police displayed surveillance video of Wilson and Susberry riding the Metro bus together to the neighborhood. It also shows them walking towards Bernard's house.

The 22-year-old was apparently Susberry's caretaker. They lived in the same south Houston neighborhood, Gott said.

Wilson is still being held at the Hedwig Village jail, but should be transported to Harris County jail sometime later Friday evening.

Keri Blakinger contributed to this report.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Vice President Mike Pence got an insider's look at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday and promised more glory days ahead for "this gateway to the stars."

Pence is heading up a newly revived National Space Council. President Donald Trump re-established the advisory group last week.

"Here from this bridge to space, our nation will return to the moon, and we will put American boots on the face of Mars," he added, drawing cheers and applause from the hundreds of space center workers, astronauts and dignitaries.

The second stop

The highlight of Pence's afternoon tour - his second NASA stop in as many months - was his address to approximately 1,200 people inside the massive Vehicle Assembly Building, once used to stack moon rockets and space shuttles. The backdrop included three capsules: the first SpaceX Dragon to carry supplies to the International Space Station, NASA's Orion that flew into space on a test flight and a training version of Boeing's Starliner crew vessel.

Later, Pence got to see an Orion spacecraft being prepared for flight in 2019 atop NASA's as-yet-unflown megarocket, the SLS or Space Launch System. He was driven past the former shuttle launch pad that will serve as the departure point for SLS flights, as well as the pad from which astronauts rocketed to the moon and space shuttles soared, now leased by SpaceX.

On Wednesday night, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon rocket with a communications satellite, and so the pad was empty Thursday. Pence said he was sorry to have missed the launch.

"I was praying for rain at the Kennedy Space Center so we might see that rocket go up today," he said.

Last month, Pence visited Johnson Space Center in Houston to help introduce America's newest astronauts. Florida's Kennedy was the second stop on his grand NASA tour. It is NASA's launch hub but hasn't seen any astronaut takeoffs since the shuttles retired in 2011. Boeing and SpaceX are working to change that with their own crew capsules.

Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin was in attendance Thursday, as were Florida's senators, Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio.

'Back to winning'

Pence said he will convene the National Space Council "before the summer is out." This is its third reincarnation; it was abandoned in 1993 under the Clinton administration. Since then, Pence said, "our government's commitment" has not matched the level of excitement for space that exists among the general public. He said that will change and repeatedly called this a new era of American leadership in space.

He gave no timelines or details, however, on the administration's plans for getting astronauts back to the moon and on to Mars. NASA is shooting for astronauts on Mars sometime in the 2030s, using Orion, the SLS rocket and other craft. As for the moon, President Barack Obama in 2010 canceled the Constellation program, a back-to-the-moon effort championed by his predecessor.

America won the race to the moon in 1969, Pence reminded everyone. "We will get back to winning in the 21st century and beyond," he said.
MILAN - Earlier this spring, the owner of a tobacco shop in Jesolo, a beach town near to Venice, got into a fight with a group of international tourists. The reason? They were stunned and angered when they saw the shop was selling lighters with pictures of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

While the tourists may have been shocked, the cult of Mussolini is "alive and well in Italy," as a German magazine noted a few years ago. Trinkets bearing the images of Il Duce, as Mussolini is known, are readily available to purchase - Mussolini's birthplace, a small town called Predappio, has a popular gift shop - some restaurants and cafes across the country display pictures of the dictator, and a beach resort in Chioggia, another town near Venice, recently made headlines for its fascist regime theme.
WASHINGTON - Senate Republican leaders on Thursday unveiled a fresh proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, revising their bill to help hold down insurance costs for consumers while allowing insurers to sell new low-cost, stripped-down policies.

Those changes and others - including a decision to keep a pair of taxes on high-income people and to expand the use of tax-favored health savings accounts - were intended to bridge a vast gap between the Senate's most conservative Republicans, who want less regulation of health insurance, and moderate Republicans concerned about people who would be left uninsured.

But Republican leaders will have to battle for votes before a final showdown they hope will come next week. Two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate, and Rand Paul of Kentucky, a conservative, said they were not swayed - even on a procedural motion to take up the bill for debate.

Several others, from both sides of the party's ideological spectrum, expressed misgivings. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, a strong conservative, said, "The new Senate health care bill is substantially different from the version released last month, and it is unclear to me whether it has improved."

But more moderate Republicans were upset by cuts to Medicaid, the health program for low-income people. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia expressed "serious concerns about the Medicaid provisions" in the latest draft Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio expressed similar concern.

"I want to make sure that with regard to those people who are currently getting coverage under Medicaid expansion, that we have some options for them," Portman said.

Two other Republican senators, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, went on television to promote their own alternative plan, just minutes before Senate leaders offered their latest.

Bill could be doomed

With 52 Republicans in the Senate, and two firm "no" votes already, a single new defection would doom the bill and jeopardize the GOP's seven-year quest to dismantle the health law that is a pillar of President Barack Obama's legacy.

Democrats probed for weaknesses in the Republican ranks.

"The Republican Trumpcare bill still slashes Medicaid," Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said. "The cuts are every bit as draconian as they were in the previous version - a devastating blow to rural hospitals, to Americans in nursing homes, to those struggling with opioid addiction and so many more."

Overall, the new version of the Senate bill made broad concessions to conservative Republicans who had said that the initial draft left too much of the Affordable Care Act in place. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, then backfilled the bill with money intended to placate moderates. The resulting mix left neither side completely satisfied.

The revised bill, like earlier versions, would roll back the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and it would still convert Medicaid from an open-ended entitlement to a system of fixed payments to states. However, in the event of a public health emergency, the resulting surge in state Medicaid spending would not be counted toward the spending limits, known as per capita caps.

The revised bill would provide roughly $70 billion in additional funds that states could use to help reduce premiums and hold down out-of-pocket medical costs.

In a departure from current law, the bill would allow insurers, under certain conditions, to offer health plans that did not comply with standards in the Affordable Care Act. Under that law, insurers sell regulated health plans through a public insurance exchange in each state and must provide "essential health benefits," such as maternity care, emergency services and mental health coverage.

Cruz's provision

Under the Senate bill, if an insurer offered several plans on state exchanges that were subject to the Affordable Care Act mandates, it could also offer coverage outside the exchanges that would be exempt from most of those regulations. Insurance plans could escape from some of the most important consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act, such as prohibitions on discrimination based on a person's health status, medical condition, claims experience, medical history or disability.

This part of McConnell's bill, incorporating ideas from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was tacked onto the end of the bill and is enclosed in brackets. Aides to Republicans said the brackets meant that the language was not final and could be revised in light of comments from other senators.

Cruz said the inclusion of this provision was "very significant progress," and he called the revised bill a "substantial improvement."

But insurers and consumer advocates worried that the new provision would send healthy consumers to low-cost, basic health plans, leaving sick and older consumers to purchase more comprehensive health policies at much higher prices.

To compensate, Republican leaders allocated tens of billions of dollars in their bill to try to offset rising premiums. Consumers could not use federal tax credits to help pay premiums for coverage that did not meet federal insurance standards.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said the section of the bill based on Cruz's proposal "would allow insurers to offer junk health insurance plans."

"To me, that is like allowing car companies to sell cars without air bags, bumpers, or emergency brakes," he said. "It might make the cars cheaper, but the cars are too dangerous to drive."

Opioid abuse crisis

In another change, the bill would allow people to use tax-favored health savings accounts to pay insurance premiums. Republicans said this policy change would increase health care coverage.

The bill also provides $45 billion to help combat the opioid abuse crisis - a provision that was particularly important to two Republican senators who opposed the previous version of the bill, Portman and Capito.

In a notable change, the revised bill would keep two taxes imposed by the Affordable Care Act on people with high incomes: a 3.8 percent tax on investment income and a 0.9 percent payroll tax. The taxes apply to individuals with income over $200,000 and couples with income over $250,000. Those taxes would have been repealed under the previous Senate bill, reducing federal revenue by about $231 billion over a decade, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Republicans expect that an analysis of the revised bill will be released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office early next week. The previous version would have increased the number of people without health insurance by 22 million in 2026 compared with current law, the budget office found.

McConnell said he would then move to take up the bill for debate, amendments and a final vote - if he can get 50 willing senators.
Despite widespread alarm over the breadth of Russian cyber attacks on state and local election systems last year, including revelations of Dallas County being targeted, Harris County officials are refusing to say whether hackers similarly took aim at the nation's third-largest county.

Releasing information on whether Harris County election systems saw attacks from Russian hackers would threaten the county's cyber security by emboldening hackers to further target local systems, county officials said this week.

The county's argument was dismissed by experts, who said the secrecy is unnecessary, and could actually downplay the seriousness of the threat and the resources needed to combat it.

"There's this concept in security called 'security through obscurity,' sort of, if they don't know about it they won't come after it," said Pamela Smith, a consultant at Verified Voting, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that promotes voting integrity. "But to really have robust security, you want people to be able to know that it's there ... I think what the public wants to know is that you're aware of the threat and you're taking steps to mitigate."

Bruce High, the chief information officer and executive director of the county's Central Technology Services, said Harris County overall sees on average more than a million hack attempts every day. He even acknowledged a recent "spike" in attempts to hack Harris County servers from outside of America's borders.

More for you HACKED

HACKED

He declined to answer, however, whether any foreign actors behind those attempts have been identified.

"Harris County is working with Homeland Security and the FBI to protect our systems and the information on them," High said in an e-mail. "The information you are requesting is too detailed and could cause a cyber-security risk."

The county's lack of disclosure comes amid a fierce national debate over whether and to what degree American politics have been intentionally manipulated by sophisticated international adversaries, like Russia.

In June, Bloomberg reported that Russian hackers "hit" voter databases and software systems in 39 states, in some cases penetrating campaign finance databases and software used by poll workers, and attempted to alter or delete voter data in Illinois.

The Dallas Morning News published a story last month that election officials there had found attempts to hack their election system ahead of the November election - possibly to try to delete voter registration rolls and cause chaos on election day. The newspaper reported that election officials there cross-referenced hundreds of suspicious or possibly Russian-linked IP addresses provided to them by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security against those that had attempted to access Dallas County servers in early October and found 17 matches.

Dallas County election officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Harris County officials will not say whether something similar happened here.

Dan Wallach, a Rice University computer science professor and scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, who has testified before Congress about the cyber security threat to elections, said that to an advanced threat like Russia, there likely are no secrets about Harris County elections.

Asked if Harris County had been targeted in a similar manner as Dallas County, High said the county had not received a list of IP addresses from the Department of Homeland Security. He added that both the FBI and theHomeland Security department will flag Harris County when they have concerns about specific IP addresses.

High did not respond to questions seeking details on how often such concerns are brought up, how big of a "spike" in hacking attempts the county was experiencing and over what period of time, whether that spike was election-related or which systems had been targeted.

Wallach said he was concerned about the ability of many local jurisdictions, including Harris County, to protect against a targeted threat from an advanced adversary like Russia. He said he believed it was probable that Russia had at least targeted Harris County servers, but also that in many cases, attackers are so sophisticated that local officials would not even know that their systems had been breached.

"The category of adversary we're facing now is not something that Harris County government is equipped to deal with," Wallach said.

High said the county uses both outside firms and internal resources to check its systems for vulnerabilities.

"Harris County uses a multi-layer approach to cyber security with preventative, detective and corrective controls, including vulnerability management, intrusion prevention, threat management and security governance," High said in an email. "We are constantly working proactively to enhance our security posture."

Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack said he would defer to High's judgment on whether to release information.

"The more we boast, the more we talk about it, just gives people, some people, inspires them to try to attack us," he said.

In response to questions about not releasing more information and the potential threat from Russia, Precinct 2 Commissioner Jack Morman said in an email that High has "extensive private and public sector experience in technology."

"I don't think any organization is ever totally safe from hackers ... that's why we have to stay ahead of the curve as much as possible," Morman said.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis and Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle did not respond to requests for comment.

Wallach said more likely targets for Russian hackers would be battleground states, like Florida, where influencing or manipulating the vote could have greater impact.

"The saving grace of Harris County is that we are in Texas, and Texas is not a battleground state," Wallach said.

Still, he said it was important to understand the full picture to set up the right protections.

"The important thing is not obsessing over what Russia did or did not do in 2016, it's what Russia and China and other countries do in 2018 or 2020 and beyond," he said.
Houston Public Works Director Karun Sreerama made $77,143 in unlawful payments to a Houston Community College trustee who faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to bribery, according to federal court records.

The payments - made when Sreerama ran a private engineering firm - are related to an extortion and bribery case against 21-year HCC trustee Christopher Oliver, who was accused of taking payments and promising to use his position to help secure contracts with the community college system. The acting U.S. attorney has agreed to dismiss the extortion charge against Oliver in exchange for his guilty plea on the bribery indictment, court records show.

HCC BOARD MEETS: Houston Community College board meets Thursday to consider censure of trustee convicted of bribery

The extortion count lists an individual with the initials "K.S." as a "victim" of "extortion under color of official right" carried out by Oliver between December 2010 and August 2013, meaning Oliver allegedly used his position as a public official to obtain an unlawful payment.

Sreerama's attorney and two sources with knowledge of the case confirmed that Sreerama, who at the time owned the engineering firm and frequent public contractor ESPA Corp., is the person identified as "K.S."

Sreerama did not address the allegation in a brief phone conversation Monday evening, saying he needed a chance to read the filing, and he did not respond to subsequent calls for comment.

"I don't know what this is," he said. "Let me look at it. I don't even know what to say."

HCC board will consider censure Houston Community College trustees plan to vote Thursday on whether to censure trustee Christopher Oliver after his guilty plea to a bribery charge. Karun Sreerama, now Houston's director of public works, allegedly made $77,143 in unlawful payments to Oliver, who faces up to 10 years in prison, according to federal court records. The board's code of conduct says trustees and senior staff must "identify and disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest" and "act at all times for the general public good, regardless of personal relationships or business interests," according to a draft resolution to censure Oliver. The section also specifies how and when trustees can interact with and suggest subcontractors. "Trustee Christopher W. Oliver has taken actions in violation of the Trustee Code of Conduct in the Board Bylaws, and those actions are also inconsistent with his duty to act solely and exclusively for the benefit of the College," the agenda item to censure Oliver says. Oliver, the board's vice chairman, will be sentenced in August. Lindsay Ellis See More Collapse

LAND DEAL: Investigative series on HCC

Houston attorney Chip Lewis, who is representing Sreerama, on Tuesday said his client was one of several targets of a "shakedown" by Oliver, and suggested broader fallout from the federal probe is to come.

Lewis said the payments in question were related to projects stemming from the college's 2012 bond referendum.

"In doing the very diligent work the agents and prosecutors did in this case, they discovered Oliver soliciting and extorting Karun," Lewis said. "When he was approached, he voluntarily met with the authorities and told them everything. Obviously, everything he told them checked out and was corroborated. That's why he was a victim of Mr. Oliver's scheme and not implicated in any criminal wrongdoing."

Sreerama's consent to the payments, as the Oliver indictment states, is not inconsistent with his status as a victim, Lewis said.

"Oliver made it very clear if Karun refused to make the payments that are reflected in the indictment he wouldn't get the contracts," the attorney said.

ESPA conducted facility studies for the college system in the years preceding and at the time of the payments, including a master plan that projected the system's building needs through 2035.

'You don't need to wait'

Mayor Sylvester Turner appointed Sreerama as director of Public Works and Engineering in March, putting him atop the city's largest department, which manages all city streets, drainage, water and sewer systems on a $2.1 billion annual budget.

Turner, who is traveling on city business in Europe, declined comment through spokesman Alan Bernstein, who said the mayor's office became aware of the situation early Tuesday. Bernstein said he did not know whether the federal probe came up in the vetting that preceded Sreerama's hiring. Lewis said he presumed not, since investigators told Sreerama to keep the probe and his role in it confidential.

The count in Oliver's indictment that mentions Sreerama was filed under the Hobbs Act. Though that statute uses the term "extortion," the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that, under the Hobbs Act, "extortion by the public official was the rough equivalent of what we would now describe as 'taking a bribe.' "

The public official need not induce the payment by threat, the Justice Department's website states, because "the coercive element is provided by the public office itself." The Oliver indictment states that the payments were made "with K.S.'s consent."

Philip Hilder, a Houston lawyer and former federal prosecutor, said the extortion and bribery charges are similar but distinct.

"In bribery, you have to have a quid pro quo. In other words, the payment is for something particular that the individual is going to deliver on," Hilder said. "In the Hobbs Act violation, you don't need that. You need to be in a position of authority."

On the mention of a "victim" in the indictment, Hilder added, "Something like this is indicative of somebody who may have exposure themselves for the activity but is choosing to cooperate with the government prior to charges being brought."

City Councilman Greg Travis said it gave him pause that Sreerama, per Lewis' statement, did not go to the authorities when Oliver first solicited a payment. "That concerns me greatly," Travis said. "If something's happening that you know is wrong, you need to go report that to the FBI. You don't need to wait for them to come to you."

Travis praised Sreerama's competence but said it may be best if he stepped away from his post temporarily.

"It would be nice if he took a hiatus of a month or two until we ferret this out," Travis said. "If it all works out the way he says it is, bring him back, because I think he's a smart guy. But again, I was floored by this revelation that he paid $77,000."

All other council members either did not respond to or declined requests for comment.

'Always so nice to them'

Rusty Hardin, a Houston attorney who represented former HCC chancellor Renee Byas, said his knowledge of the widespread corruption allegations that have swirled around the college led him to conclude that "K.S." could refer only to Sreerama.

Byas sued HCC after she was fired in 2014, alleging she was wrongfully terminated after the board of trustees learned she had told the FBI about potential misuse of bond money and that some trustees had tried to steer business to friends and political allies.

"Several different board members at different times encouraged her to try to get him (Sreerama) a project because he was always so nice to them," Hardin said.

Oliver is set to be sentenced in August on the bribery charge, which stemmed from $12,000 in bribes the indictment states he solicited between May 2015 and May 2016.

"It was revealed in open court at the plea hearing that Oliver met with another individual on several occasions at various restaurants and coffee shops in Houston where he accepted cash payments in exchange for promising to use his position to help that person secure contracts with HCC," the Justice Department said in a news release about Oliver's plea.
INDIANAPOLIS - An Indiana senator railed against Carrier Corp. for moving manufacturing jobs to Mexico last year, even as he profited from a family business that relies on Mexican labor to produce dye for ink pads, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press.

Joe Donnelly, considered one of the nation's most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year, has long blasted free-trade policies for killing American jobs. He accused Carrier, an air conditioner and furnace maker, of exploiting $3-an-hour workers when it announced plans to wind down operations in Indiana and move to Mexico.

However, an arts and crafts business Donnelly's family has owned for generations is capitalizing on some of the very trade policies - and low-paid foreign labor - the senator has denounced.

For more than a year, Stewart Superior Corp. and its subsidiaries have been shipping thousands of pounds of raw materials to Mexico, where the company has a factory that produces ink pads and other supplies, according to customs records from Panjiva, which tracks American imports and exports. The finished products are then transported back to a company facility in California, the records show.

Stewart Superior, which also has an operation in LaPorte, Ind., says on its website that the company's Mexican factory "brings economical, cost competitive manufacturing and product development to our valued customers."

Although Donnelly's brother runs the company, the senator previously served as a corporate officer and its general counsel before he was first elected to Congress in 2006. In a financial disclosure form he filed in May, Donnelly reported owning as much as $50,000 in company stock and earning between $15,001 and $50,000 in dividends on it in 2016 alone.

"Joe is proud to support good companies that create quality Hoosier jobs, including Stewart Superior," Peter Hanscom, Donnelly's campaign manager, said in an email to the AP. "Throughout his career, Joe Donnelly has always fought for a level playing field for the American worker, including a renegotiation of NAFTA, and he will continue to do so."

Alejandro Ruelas-Gossi, a Latin American trade expert, said Donnelly's stake in the company amounts to "hypocrisy" in light of his outspoken campaign rhetoric against the North American Free Trade Agreement and similar deals.

"What you are creating is poverty, because the jobs they are creating are very poor jobs. You have very poor salaries. You have poor quality of life. It's not good for America, and it's not good for Mexico," said Ruelas-Gossi, a critic of these types of policies who has taught at the University of Miami School of Business and has written about Latin trade issues for Harvard Business Review.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, the Republican ticket of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, then Indiana's governor, made the plight of workers who would lose their jobs in the planned move by Carrier and its parent company, Connecticut-based United Technologies, a key part of their presidential campaign.

Donnelly directly criticized the company, blaming corporate greed - a position that largely echoed some of Trump's campaign-trail sentiments.

"What you're seeing with Carrier is what I call free riders," Donnelly told the Indiana political news website The Statehouse File in August 2016. "What they do because of the trade agreement NAFTA, is they ship jobs to Mexico for $3 an hour, and so they get the benefit of the absolute lowest wages they can find, and then turn around to ship the products back into the United States."

Less than a month after Trump won the election, the company announced an agreement to spare about 800 jobs in Indianapolis. Donnelly thanked Trump for his involvement in the deal and pledged to stand with him in efforts to stop companies from outsourcing jobs to other countries.

Proponents of programs like the one Stewart Superior is using for its Mexican operations argue they provide employment to local workers while allowing U.S. companies to avoid some import duties and taxes.
One day a dozen years ago in Texas City, a massive explosion at the BP refinery killed 15 people and injured more than 180 workers. As flames and thick black smoke belched into the sky, helicopters flying out of the disaster scene ferried burn victims to UTMB Galveston and ambulances racing through the streets rushed injured patients to local hospitals.

The fateful chain of events that triggered the Texas City catastrophe was later documented in an authoritative report prepared by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, the federal agency charged with investigating industrial accidents. The CSB not only recommended changes to BP's safety culture, it also offered suggestions that have since been adopted throughout the petrochemical industry.

Nobody needs to tell those of us who live along the Texas Gulf Coast about the importance of industrial safety. Now we need our representatives in Washington to get the message.

President Trump's proposed budget earlier this year startled workers, executives and other petrochemical business experts when it called for eliminating the CSB. After a wave of criticism from people working in the industry, an appropriations bill released by a House of Representatives subcommittee this week suggested restoring the CSB's funding. But it's far from a done deal, and our elected officials in the nation's capital need to make sure this crucial safety board survives.

The reason is obvious to anybody who takes a moment to research the important job this little known government body performs. We're not talking about some regulatory agency run amok. The CSB doesn't issue regulations, it issues recommendations. And we literally have no idea how many lives it has saved.

The CSB does for the chemical industry what the National Transportation Safety Board does for the airline business. Just as the NTSB investigates airline crashes and makes recommendations to prevent future accidents, the CSB probes industrial mishaps and gives people in the chemical business suggestions on how they can avoid repeating the same mistakes.

The Houston Chronicle's "Chemical Breakdown" investigation last year showed how agencies involved in the petrochemical industry are already overwhelmed, with too few resources to adequately oversee facilities handling hazardous materials. As a result, the industry largely polices itself. That makes the reports the CSB produces all the more important.

What's more, this board is one of those rare government entities that can brag it's a bargain. With a staff of fewer than 40 people, it employs fewer workers than a Costco store. Its annual budget of about $12 million is a tiny investment in preventing industrial accidents that can literally cost billions of dollars and, more important, save countless lives.

One chemical safety consultant told the Chronicle that gutting the CSB would be "standing up for death and destruction." Others warn that killing this board will come back to haunt lawmakers every time pictures of deadly petrochemical plant fires flash onto television screens.

Anybody who's ever worked at a petrochemical plant understands that safety is the absolute top priority. To ensure that, we're counting on our elected representatives in Congress - especially U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz - to support full funding of the CSB.
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has said that the European low cost airline Ryanair is ready to resume talks with Ukraine.

"I had talks with Ryanair top managers. They are ready to resume the negotiations if these are really negotiations. I would recall that until this moment there were no actual talks with the Boryspil airport. There were simply public accusations and the frustration of any negotiation process," the minister said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

He expressed hope that with the help of the Ukrainian prime minister the negotiations will be completed on the conditions beneficial for Ukraine.

"I would like that we finish the negotiations as soon as possible. I do not see other option, as there is a clear order and the clear position of the prime minister. We are speaking about the social and economic aspect for the entire state," he said.
The envelope was postmarked Austin, Texas, and the contents promised to give Al Gore's presidential campaign a much-needed boost: material that then-Gov. George W. Bush's campaign was using to prepare for the upcoming debates. Election Day was less than two months away, and the Gore campaign knew what they had to do with the anonymously gifted contraband. They immediately handed the documents over to the FBI. The campaign member who saw the files then recused himself from Gore's own debate prep.

Rule of law and fair elections aren't merely means to gaining political power in the United States - they're the ends in themselves. These norms help ensure that ours remains a truly representative republic. You can tell an awful lot about politicians from how they value these informal checks and balances built into our political system.

So we have to wonder why Donald Trump Jr. didn't contact the FBI after he received emails stating that the Russian government was interested in aiding his father's presidential campaign.

"Any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation state, or any non-state actor, is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know."

That's what Christopher Wray, Donald Trump's nominee to lead the FBI, told Congress during his confirmation hearing this week.

But that's not how the president's son reacted to an email from Rob Goldstone, a former British tabloid reporter and publicist with ties to Russia, that promised to provide "very high level and sensitive information" that would "incriminate Hillary" as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."

"I love it," Donald Jr. wrote back.

He, along with the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and then-campaign manager, Paul Manafort, eventually met at Trump Tower with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a woman who was presented as a Russian government attorney.

David French of the conservative National Review has called it "attempted collusion."

We're waiting to see what special counsel Robert Mueller calls it.

Because now, after months of denials, the American people have solid evidence that Team Trump welcomed election interference from a geopolitical foe. What else will the nation know by the time the history books are written?

Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee responded to the released emails by asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to explain why his department mysteriously settled a major money-laundering case involving the son of a powerful Russian government official - U.S. v. Prevezon Holdings. The Russian lawyer in that case was Natalia Veselnitskaya. And the U.S. prosecutor, Preet Bharara, was fired by President Trump.

Texas' U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, R-Bryan, has called on Trump to clear the air by ejecting his children from the White House - including his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Kushner. Instead the president doubled down by defending his son to reporters on Air Force One this week : "Don is - as many of you know Don - he's a good boy."

His son is 39 years old - hardly a boy.

There was a time when presidents expected more from their children. There was a time when the powerful would warn their family about the risks and temptations of office.

In the midst of the 1988 presidential election, President George H.W. Bush famously wrote a letter to his family instructing them the be aware of the "microscopic probing" of the campaign trail and to be wary of "new friends."

Bush and Gore spent their lives in public service. Perhaps it is foolish to expect the new residents of 1600 Pennsylvania to share values of past politicians. The country waits for Mueller to determine whether Trump's problems are criminal. The moral judgment, however, rests with the voters.
My dad had a characteristic way of dealing with us kids when our occasional ill-advised schemes were on the brink of causing someone real harm.

He'd sit us down for what he called a "come to Jesus" talk, in which he'd gravely explain our situation and let us know in no uncertain terms what the consequences of our actions would be. Forcing us to confront reality tended to sober our wayward logic.

In a similar vein, it's time we confront reality regarding a particular bit of teacher-bashing legislation that has once again reared its ugly head in our Texas Legislature.

Texas taxpayers are about to foot the bill for a record-setting, million-dollar special session. Gov. Greg Abbott has called for legislation on the "prohibition of taxpayer dollars to collect union dues." This legislation aims to specifically deny teachers the ability to voluntarily deduct membership fees directly from their paychecks, with the hope that reducing convenience and security will lead to fewer teachers joining groups that advocate inside the Texas Capitol for classrooms and children.

Rather than own up to what this legislation is really about, its proponents continue to lie about it.

Let's start with some basic facts. The reason many employees prefer payroll deduction is because it doesn't require a credit card or checking account. For those who don't have either, which includes many public employees, payroll deduction is the only option. Others like that payroll deduction cuts down on paperwork and offers the best protection against identity theft, given that no one has to enter sensitive credit card or bank information that can be compromised.

Who else uses payroll deduction?

Often, it's used to make regular donations to charitable organizations such as the United Way. Some newspapers invite readers to pay for subscriptions through payroll deduction. Payments are electronically processed in the same way as health insurance premiums, which every district is already set up to do. And the law explicitly allows districts to bill teacher groups for any additional cost involved in payroll deduction of membership fees. Contrary to what supporters of this legislation claim, the process costs taxpayers nothing.

What else do supporters claim?

For one, they claim this movement is about targeting politically active unions. But proposals floated during the regular legislative session would exempt police unions, firefighter unions and EMS unions, all of whom are influential within the Texas Capitol. Meanwhile, non-union teacher groups like the Association of Texas Professional Educators are squarely in the crosshairs. "First responders" aren't the only groups that get special consideration under the proposed payroll deduction restrictions. Charities would continue to get a pass, even though they often take stands on political issues. Newspapers will continue to send reporters to Austin with subscription fees paid through payroll deduction. Private health clubs could still sell memberships to public employees via payroll deduction. And those health insurance premiums? What do you think pays for the legion of lobbyists employed by private health care companies?

It's time for a come-to-Jesus meeting, Texas.

This is about influence, sure. It's about finding ways to make sure teachers have less, while protecting unions and lobbyists who happen to contribute to the right campaigns. Now it's been added to the special session by a governor who promised to clean up the Capitol's sleazier impulses by passing meaningful ethics reforms. If we want to talk about banning payroll deduction, let's talk about it.

But let's be fair.

Let's be ethical.

Let's talk about everyone.

Godsey is executive director for the state's largest educator group, the Association of Texas Professional Educators.
2 Corinthians 6:2 (NIV)  For he says, In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of Gods favor, now is the day of salvation.

How about a little doctrinal clarification for our precious childrens sake? During the Protestant Reformation, the dubious doctrine of Age of Accountability was manufactured to undermine the ancient practice of infant baptism. Now, whether or not infant baptism can be justified, the doctrine of Age of Accountability is totally unsupported by Scripture. This erroneous doctrine has produced the most slipshod, haphazard practice of not promoting salvation to our children. Rather than the parent being accountable for insuring their childrens spiritual security, the monkey is placed on Gods back with the mute mentality of I did my part by bringing them into the world, now catch them if You can!

So, what justification do Protestant proponents of Age of Accountability use to support their theology for the age of twelve or thirteen being the magic threshold for salvation? Well, right off the bat youre going to hear, Jesus was in the Temple when he was 12 so thats the age when children become accountable before God.

Poppycock! Using the justification that Jesus was in the Temple at 12, for the flawed doctrine of Age of Accountability is like saying Ice cream is good because trees are green! There is no correlations between the two!

So, lets get back to Biblical basics and see when a child can be influenced by God, or for God. Just for the fun of it, how old do you think a child needs to be before responding to Gods call? Do you have an age picked out? OK, lets compare what you think to what God can actually do.

For example according to the prophecy of the angel Gabriel, John the Baptist was saved while still in his mothers womb, He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. Luke 1:15 Furthermore, John the Baptist was already impacting other peoples lives for Christ before he was born, The baby (John) leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:40

Undoubtedly, people will discredit what I have said about Gods early influence in John the Baptists life. So, lets pick someone else? How old was Samuel when God began using him? The Bible says, After he was weaned, she (Hannah) took the boy (Samuel) with her, young as he was., and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. 1 Samuel 1:24 During Hannahs day, children were weaned near the age of four or five. From that moment, Samuel began ministering before the Lord. (1 Samuel 2:18)

Although I am now an old man, God called me to accept His Son, Jesus Christ, when I was six years old. Gods call was genuine. My childish faith was genuine. In fact, Jesus said, Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it no way, no how! (Mark 10:15, Luke 18:17) Jesus wasnt looking for preachers for learned theologians or doctors of divinity who understood minute points of theology. Christ was searching for infants and children to accept him simply by faith.

The bottom line is Personal accountability begins when God calls the person regardless of their age! (Jeremiah 1:6-7, 1 Timothy 4:12) Now is the time of Gods favor, now is the day of salvation! If parents carelessly wait for some prescribed doctrinal formula to kick in at a preset age when their children qualify for salvation, you will lose the most valuable gift God ever gave you your kids. The Bible says, Havent you ever read the Scriptures? For they say, You have taught children and infants to give you praise.' Matthew 21:16 Forget the destructive doctrine of Age of Accountability, because salvation must begin early. For every year that slips by, your child is less likely to accept Christ as their savior. Time is of the essence! You have no opportunity to wait or to waste! Satan begins destroying your childs life EARLY as soon as they hit the ground! Whether among friends, in front of the TV, or in school the corrosive influence of the beggarly elements of this world (Galatians 4:9) begin to steal your childs innocent affection away from their Creator.

Sadly, Protestants once chafed at the disputed quote of the Catholic Jesuit priest, Ignatius of Loyola, Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man. God help us! What were we Protestants thinking when we objected to that? While we were mucking around with the doctrine of Age of Accountability, the Mother Church had it right all along! Undoubtedly, some timid, politically-correct soul out there will ask, But isnt that indoctrination? Isnt thatbrain washing? You bet it is! And it is precisely what Almighty God commanded regarding the spiritual development of our children.

Receive the Word of the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:5-9), Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children.

Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

Tragically, our kids are going to hell because we have irresponsibly allowed them to drift in that direction without any input or restraint on our part, trusting in the damnable doctrine of Age of Accountability.
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The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has worsened the estimate of Ukraine's real GDP growth in the second quarter of 2017 compared to the same quarter of 2016 to 1.5% from 2.4%, according to a report on conducting credit and monetary policy in the first half of 2017.

"The seizure of enterprises in the temporarily uncontrolled territories of Donbas caused a reduction in potential GDP. In addition, economic activity was affected by disruption of production ties due to a halt in trade with these areas," the National Bank said.

At the same time, it said investments, supported by improved business expectations, were growing at a high pace, despite the negative impact of no trade with the uncontrolled territories of Donbas.

"The influence of private consumption also increased, which, however, was moderate, despite a rapid growth in wages (in nominal and real terms)," the NBU added.

According to its updated forecast, the GDP forecast for the third quarter of this year was downgraded from 1.8% to 1.5%, but for the fourth one it was improved from 0.7% to 1.1%.
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My job as Home Secretary is to keep families and communities across our country safe.

Drugs destroy countless lives. They lead to crime, violence and disorder on our streets. They are one of the creeping and corrosive threats to our society that we must do more to tackle.

But I am also determined to do all I can to protect the most vulnerable, who too often become the victims. That is why today I am launching the Government's new drug strategy which sets out how we will tackle the deadly impact of drugs, including substances like spice.

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Drugs are illegal because they devastate lives. They are illegal because traffickers target vulnerable people all over the world and exploit their misery. They are illegal because of the agony caused when people become solely focused on their next fix.

The police and law enforcement agencies already do a remarkable job protecting us from the harms of drugs. Just 10 days ago Border Force and National Crime Agency officers helped intercept 1.5tonnes of uncut South American cocaine, with a street value of about 200million at sea, preventing it from entering the UK.

Last year, the Psychoactive Substances Act introduced a blanket ban on so-called 'legal highs', meaning back-yard chemists can no longer dodge the law by making small changes to the make up of dangerous drugs.

We will all have seen the terrible effects of Spice on the homeless population. The Government has already controlled this drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act, ensuring the toughest sanctions are in place.

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Let there be no doubt: under the new strategy unscrupulous drug dealers will continue to face the full force of the law. Being tough on drugs is vital, but it cannot be all we do.

It is vital we protect the vulnerable - to prevent them falling into the cycle of drug abuse and to help them turn their lives around. Doing so will spare countless families the agony of seeing a loved one's life destroyed. It could save lives. And it will reduce the burden placed on our public services, in particular the police and the NHS.

As Home Secretary I have seen first-hand the work being done to combat drug dependency. Earlier this year, I visited a recovery centre for women who want to live free of drugs. I spoke to inspiring staff members and heard the often harrowing stories of service users. I was heartened to see how these brave women were being supported to piece their shattered lives back together.

At another facility I went to, those recovering were helped to find stable housing, look for a permanent job or apply for university and vocational courses.

These are crucial steps towards helping individuals live a life free from drugs. I saw for myself how it is not enough to support people recover without fixing the root cause of the problem.

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It is too often the most vulnerable: the homeless, people with mental illness, people who suffered domestic and sexual abuse, whose lives are destroyed by drugs. It is this vicious cycle that I am determined to break with this strategy.

That is why I am going to appoint a National Recovery Champion, whose mission will be to make sure this strategy is converted into real progress on the ground. The Recovery Champion will travel up and down the country, meeting NHS staff, police officers, teachers, community groups and local authorities, who all have a vital role to play. They will frequently report back to the Drug Strategy Board that I will personally chair to ensure everyone is accountable. I believe this strategy is balanced and comprehensive.

Balanced, because it reinforces our commitment to stamp out drug related crime and violence, while recognising that the path to recovery is not easy. Comprehensive, because helping people laid low by drugs back on their feet is the only way we can achieve lasting and concrete progress.

This strategy is a vital part of our work to protect the vulnerable and make our families and communities even safer.

We owe it to future generations to work together for a society free of drugs.
On a recent trip to Copenhagen I paid a visit to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art (KADK), where I met a group of BA and MA fashion students working under the tutelage of Ann Merete Ohrt, Head of Programme at the Academy.

The visit resulted from an Instagram exchange between student Nina Balstrup and I, reconfirming the power of social media as a connector and entrepreneurial tool for switched-on creatives. To the work...

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Michelle Lyhne Schjerbeck dived, quite literally, into an underwater exploration of our littered oceans, recreating oil slicks and fish nets with locally sourced fabrics for her collection entitled 'Beautiful Disaster'. When quizzed about sourcing materials for this, her final collection before graduating, she explained "It's so hard for us to source sustainable fabrics". "In my process it has become clear how hard it is to make a difference as a fashion student and how hard it is to source materials in an eco-conscious way. Therefore, I have for now chosen to shed light on the matter of water pollution by using textiles and shapes that can represent the issue. I am however hoping that in the future I will be able to work a solution to the issue into my actual designs."

Joining the discussion on textiles and sourcing, Nina Balstrup explains that there are only two quality fabric shops in Copenhagen, making options limited. It strikes me that an alternative approach might be to source materials in general, rather than fabric shop textiles, and plundering neighbouring architecture and art student media might bear fruit. In fact, Michelle has experimented with latex and mixed materials, portraying the idea of ocean waste adhering to the skin. She did experiment originally with actual ocean waste materials, but they proved too soggy and un-salvageable for use in her collection.

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Michelle Lyhne Schjerbeck - "Beautiful Disaster" collection in progress

Morten Alberto Ishy's final collection 'In desert, creatures appear telling lies' began with an image that posed for him a philosophical question - how can something real look so manufactured - so unreal? In the current climate of fakes (news being at the top of the list), this rumination led to an exploration of objects through a layer, or 'filter' - in this case, clay sculptures vacuum-packed and metamorphosed into other forms. Morten's design ideas are clearly driven by form, rather than textiles or materials. The silhouettes of his collection were sketched from photographs he took of the trapped, skewed and partially melted vacuum packed clay sculptures which he had crafted. At each step of his creative process a translation happens, making it an incremental design approach led by fine art.

Morten elaborates on his process: "Like in the Bible, Torah and the Quran, the prophet's sights are that of blurry human like figures. I have made my silhouettes for the collection by pouring sand on a human behind a plastic curtain and documenting it and then selecting the most interesting shapes. From these I made clay figures and vacuum packed them, making them a blur once again. Out of these experiments I've drawn my collection - inspecting the vacuum packed clay figures closely for details that could be interpreted into garment elements such as lapels, cuffs, etc."

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Morten Alberto Ishy's 'In desert, creatures appear telling lies'

Nina Balstrup's work is a journey through her childhood and an exercise is search and discovery into what makes her so fond of bright colours and glitter. She tracks back to her first toys, childhood outfits and even nursery school drawings to put together a collage of her design ideas that have been germinating since she was just a few years old. She reads to me from her school report, which mentions early signs of creative talent and penchant for colour.

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Nina's inspiration includes her school report, childhood drawings and photos

In order to compile a final collection based on memories and nostalgia, Nina has undertaken a huge sourcing exercise, buying jars of Barbie shoes on ebay and dividing them into colour-ways for embroidery, as well as POGs for a Paco Rabanne-style sheath constructed with umpteen 'o' rings. A myriad of 90's vintage clothing and blankets are piled up on her desk, from which her four final looks for her collection will be crafted. Her biggest challenge now, she says, is to navigate the garment construction process carefully to add refinement so that the end result is accomplished, yet youthful and fun.

Nina ponders her journey through her BA studies, including the term she spent studying at Ravensbourne in London. She says it opened her eyes to a fiercely competitive London scene and pushed her to her creative limits. Access to all manner of heat transfer, prototyping and digital embroidery machinery at Ravensbourne kick-started her enthusiasm for experimental textile applications. She hopes to intern at a fashion brand in London after graduating from her BA and before studying for her MA, which is virtually a right of passage in Denmark. She elaborates by explaining that both BA and MA degrees are paid for by the Danish government, and students' living expenses are also supported during their studies. This means that the BA is taught almost as a precursor to the MA, rather than an end point leading chiefly to employment. Nina's final collection is a bright and punchy textile, knit and embroidery adventure and I can't wait to see where it leads.

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Nina and work in progress for her final collection "REWIND"

MA student Alexander Marstrand is working on a UN-inspired brief for his final project, provoking some interesting political and social questions. Alexander explains that from his research, he understands the UN to be, ostensibly, a unified group with equal representation and influence from all member countries - the UN flag looks down on all countries across the globe on an even plane. However, five countries maintain the right to veto resolution votes, and communication is conducted in only six languages: Arabic, Chinese English, French, Spanish and Russian. "I see the project as a comment on the current condition of the globe as such with my personal mix of melancholy and playfulness" Alexander says, of his collection in progress, entitled "UNspiration".

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So how, fair and balanced is it? There is a hierarchical seating structure at the UN, which he references in his visual inspiration and sparks his consideration of who truly has a voice and who does not. He asks how the voices of those in Bangladesh, for example, are heard amongst the dominant voices of the west.

His visual inspiration extended to Swedish artist Bo Beskow and Matisse's cutouts, in addition to Picasso's surrealist works, which have informed Alexander's illustrations reinterpreting the flags and symbols of the UN countries. The cutout theme extends to his garment silhouettes and pattern making techniques, where he has sculpted 3D shapes onto a mannequin before draping fabric on top. He has then cut and pinned the fabric in a patchwork technique to use as pattern pieces for cutting and sewing his final garments.

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"UNspirational", by Alexander Marstrand

Already making and selling a printed silk scarves, Alexander has a foot in commercial fashion. He wants more platforms and opportunities, though, and explains his frustration at a lack of collaboration between music, arts and fashion in Copenhagen. "It's not like in London" he said. "Fashion East (an emerging designer presentation platform during London Fashion Week) would never happen here". Why? I ask. "It's a small city" he explains, and cross-collaboration is rare and difficult. In terms of creative scenes he says that "we don't really have subcultures and underground movements don't really mix. We have been trying to create a street party with the music institute for years (he gestures out the window to a nearby building), but it hasn't happened."

He also mentions what he believes to be a large gap between the fashion industry and fashion students in Denmark, seconded by Nina. A 'hands-off' approach makes it difficult for students to break into the industry, and to be part of professional events, such as the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. Without a fashion week, or a platform to show their final collections (along the lines of Graduate Fashion Week in London, for example) the challenges are clear. What these students do benefit from is immense support and work space, which is in very short supply at London-based fashion institutions, and the opportunity to study abroad, fully supported by the Danish government. In the current climate, where creative degrees are under serious threat as tuition fees skyrocket and would-be university students feel under pressure to gain vocational degrees in order to justify fees, this freedom from financial shackles is golden.

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Keep up to date with Nina, Michelle, Morten and Alexander's work on Instagram.

Header Image: Nina Balstrup "REWIND" collection in progress

All images: Techstyler

Originally posted on Techstyler.Fashion
IT'S been three years since proton therapy was thrust into the UK's spotlight, following the case of Ashya King.

Little Ashya was just five when he came to the Proton Therapy Center (PTC) in Prague for treatment to his aggressive brain tumour.

At the time his case sparked a fierce debate - should parents be given the final say on how their child is treated?

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Now, the technology is back in the spotlight.

But this time it's as Manchester's Christie Hospital becomes the site of the UK's first NHS-funded proton therapy machine.

As an oncologist I'm thrilled to see the UK finally embracing protons on home soil.

But there's still a very, very long way to go.

The capacity for the new proton therapy centres set to open in England - including one at University College London - will be for less than one per cent of all UK cancer patients.

Their focus primarily will be on paediatric cancers and cancers in the head and neck.

At the PTC, our patient numbers have more than doubled year on year since we opened in 2012.

Last year we treated 800 patients, including a large number from the UK and Ireland. The vast majority of these patients funded their care privately as they were rejected for funding on the NHS.

And as awareness grows we expect to see even more patients from the UK and Ireland, where proton therapy is not yet available.

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Around 40 to 50% of all the patients we see are suffering from prostate cancer - the most common cancer in UK men.

Many of these men are terrified by the thought of the side effects of surgery and traditional radiotherapy, which include double incontinence and erectile dysfunction. So they start researching the alternatives - and it inevitably leads them to proton therapy.

Traditional radiotherapy uses high energy beams to target and kill cancerous cells but in the process surrounding tissue can also be damaged. This can lead to side effects.

With proton therapy, high-speed particles are targeted at the cancerous cells with pencil-point precision. Once they hit the cells they stop, sparing the healthy tissue surrounding the tumour.

In an area as delicate as the prostate, this is particularly important.

We conducted our own study on a small sample of 86 male prostate cancer patients who had proton therapy over the course of two years.

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Side effects were found to be minimal, and the cancer is currently undetectable in all patients observed in the study.

Long term data will be provided in due course but at the moment, the information we have points to a remarkable success rating.

Despite this, doctors in the UK are still reluctant to acknowledge the benefits of proton therapy over existing radiotherapy techniques in many cases, especially when it comes to reducing side effects.

In the last three years, the NHS spent 43.4million sending 489 patients to countries including the USA, Switzerland and Germany for proton therapy treatment.

Almost three quarters of the patients were children - making up 342 of referrals. The technology has proven to be particularly effective in young patients whose organs are still developing and in combating tumours that are close to critical structures.

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Certainly in the immediate future the NHS will continue to send suitable patients abroad for treatment as construction on the two new sites continues.
The government committee has approved the draft financial plan of Odesa seaport, which will allow completing the investment project of the Louis Dreyfus international group trader of companies.

"Today the government committee approved the fiscal plan of Odesa port, which permits selling and then demolishing the "blue house," a small tumble-down house in the center of the site, which prevented the launch of an investment project by Louis Dreyfus, one of the largest investors in agricultural and port infrastructure," First Deputy Minister of Finance Oksana Markarova said on its Facebook page.

According to her, the financial plan of Odesa seaport should be approved at a government meeting.

Louis Dreyfus Director in Ukraine Lamprakis Lazos said the demolition of the state enterprise's building in the territory of the port terminal would allow the company to complete the project on accepting vehicles.

Louis Dreyfus is an international French company, founded in 1851. The company accounts for about 10% of the world trade in raw materials. The company's main operations are concentrated in Geneva, but it also operates in more than 100 countries. In particular, Louis Dreyfus owns warehouses in North and South America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Black Sea region.
Photo credit: Author's own

Huddled around a fire in a yurt next to a nomadic tribe on the Kyrgyz steppe at 3,500m above sea level, I know I would never been able to be there without overlanding.

Overlanding is about the journey, as well as the destination; group adventure tours in a self-reliant truck, capable of driving to some of the most remote places on the planet. If you're interested in taking your first cautionary step into travelling or are tired of backpacking solo, here is why you should give overlanding a go:

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1. Get off the beaten path

Overlanding allows you to reach places that would otherwise be inaccessible, hugely expensive or unsafe. The trucks overlanding companies use are specifically designed for terrible roads, or places with no roads at all. They are kitted out with tents, a supply of drinking water, cooking equipment and food storage facilities, meaning they can go for days without needing to be anywhere near civilization.

Whether that is Khyber Pass in Pakistan, a fiery pit in Turkmenistan, fishing market in Benin or witnessing the political instability of Venezuela, you will be able to leave the hordes of tourists behind and head for the road less travelled.

There is nothing better than the feeling of total contentment from the freedom of the open, unexplored road ahead.

2. Safety

Travel has innate risks that you need to comfortable taking, and overlanding is no different, especially as it might take you to 'riskier' parts of the world. However, having a supportive tour leader and driver who have local contacts in the areas you're in can make all the difference in terms of ensuring your safety and making you feel safer.

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3. Community

You will instantly be travelling with a diverse group of like-minded individuals. Most are solo travellers.

Photo credit: Oasis Overland

4. You Can Be Yourself

No-one knows you before you join a trip, so there are no pre-conceptions or expectations of who you are. Overlanders are some of the most open-minded people - you have to be if you are spending three months driving through West Africa or across the length of China with a bunch of strangers!

5. Truck Life

Truck life centres around teamwork, both with the other passengers and the crew. You will usually be expected to cook your own meals as part of one of daily rotating 'cook groups' to which you will be assigned. You will need to help set up camp, shop for food, cook, collect firewood and do the washing up.

This is not a bad thing, though it may sound like it from home. Being involved in truck life means you bond with your fellow passengers, get to experience others' cuisines, be self-sufficient and get back in touch with nature. Shopping in local markets is a chance to explore regional fresh produce that you can't get back at home. More than anything, it makes you feel part of a small community working towards a common goal, far away from home.

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6. Good Value For Money

Whilst there will be occasional hostels when in cities, mostly overlanding is focused on the great outdoors. An added benefit of this is that all that camping and cooking over an open fire with food bought from local markets keep costs down. Whilst there are both budget and luxury companies that offer overlanding trips, either way, you are getting good value compared to hotels and restaurants.

7. A Break From Technology

There will be days, sometimes weeks at a time where you will not have access to WiFi, and sometimes even phone signal. I've listed this as a positive, as I relish the chance to not have access to technology; it lets me live in the moment in a way that we struggle to do at home. It's incredibly refreshing to have hours-long conversations with people without anyone constantly flicking onto social media.

8. You'll Sleep Better

Photo credit: pexels.com

If you haven't switched your phone on that day, let alone had access to a TV or laptop, and instead have spent the evening sitting around a campfire, you'll notice you will fall asleep in minutes and will often get far better quality sleep than at home.

The lack of glare from a screen and the weeks you spend in the outdoors means you will sleep like a log. Your body becomes more in tune with the more natural rhythm of going to bed soon after sunset and waking up around sunrise. This being said, don't forget some earplugs - there's no guarantee your tent buddy won't be a snorer.

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There are plenty of positives, but...

Overlanding can still be hard work - living a semi-nomadic lifestyle for months on end is tough. Things like not having access to basic sanitation, showers or privacy can wear you down if you don't have occasional stops in hostels.

As a female traveller, it can be frustrating to the point of tears when the only option to relieve oneself is a flat, open desert with nothing to crouch behind. It depends where in the world you are as to if you get access to the luxuries of a hot shower regularly; for example, South America, yes - Africa, probably not. Either way, at some point you will smell, but take comfort in the fact that everyone else will too.

You probably will get sick at some point, it is a rare human that manages to avoid all the stomach bugs whilst abroad. You might have to deal with this whilst on a truck that is bouncing over potholes for 12 hours and not have any access to an actual toilet. However, your fellow passengers will understand your pain, and discussing and comparing bowel habits is socially acceptable.

Overlanding will push you to your limits at times, but this teaches you what your limits are in the most positive way, something you rarely otherwise get to do.

After all, it wouldn't be such an adventure if it were easy.

--

Emma Rosen taking a radical sabbatical and trying 25 careers before turning 25, and hopes to inspire readers to explore less well-known careers.

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View her website and blog here: www.25before25.co.uk

She went to South America and Central Asia with Oasis Overland.
*Joseph McQuade [2013] is a Gates Cambridge Scholar doing a PhD in History on the transformation of laws of sedition into laws of 'terror' in both international and British imperial law from the beginning of the First World War until the end of the 1930s and the origins of terrorism as a legal category and a global idea. Picture credit: Wikipedia.

The decision of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government to offer an apology and financial compensation to Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen held for more than a decade by the US for his connection to al Qaeda, has triggered a highly polarised debate within Canada regarding the justice or wisdom underlying this settlement.

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Much of the debate surrounding this decision has centred on the apparently exorbitant fee of $10.5 million that will be paid out to Khadr. This is understandable. Many Canadians (as many as 71%, according to one survey) are unhappy at the idea that such a significant amount of taxpayer money is being paid out to someone widely labelled as a 'convicted terrorist'. However, to characterise this payment as some sort of gift or capitulation awarded personally by the Trudeau government to an enemy of the state is to grossly mischaracterise the facts and the legal standing of this case.

Omar Khadr, according to the definitions set out by international law, was a child soldier at the time of his initial detention at the age of 15.

Under international law, forcibly or 'voluntarily' recruiting child soldiers is a war crime and the victims of this crime - the children deployed as combatants - are entitled to clearly defined rights

When Khadr was first detained by the US, American officials were legally obligated to provide rehabilitation, as well as resources for psychological recovery and social reintegration. Instead, despite being badly wounded at the time, Khadr was allegedly threatened with rape, painfully shackled, sleep-deprived and threatened with deportation to Syria, Jordan or Egypt for more extended torture. When Khadr accidentally urinated on the floor of his interrogation room, he was allegedly used as a human mop.

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The Canadian government, despite being aware of Khadr's mistreatment and of America's failure to protect his rights as a child soldier and a Canadian citizen, allowed him to rot in Guantanamo Bay for over a decade.

Retracted confession

The death of Sergeant Christopher Speers during the firefight in which Khadr was captured and several al Qaeda operatives were killed was an appalling tragedy. But it has become an emotional barrier to many Canadians viewing the Khadr settlement in a rational way.

First of all, the fact that Khadr's confession to throwing the grenade that killed Speers was extracted under duress and has since been recanted raises serious questions regarding its validity. But even taking this confession at face value, the fact remains that the settlement made by Ottawa has nothing to do with what Khadr did or did not do while acting as a child soldier and has everything to do with whether the Canadian government did or did not protect Khadr's charter rights as a Canadian citizen.

The overwhelming weight of legal opinion, including the Supreme Court of Canada and monitoring groups such as Human Rights Watch, is that Canada violated the charter rights of one of its citizens. Based on legal precedent such as the case of Maher Arar, another Canadian citizen who was ultimately awarded a $10 million settlement by the previous Conservative government following his illegal detention, this entitles Khadr to sue the Canadian government for damages. For those intent on blaming the current government for the settlement with Khadr, it is worth noting that both the refusal to recognise Khadr's charter rights and the amount that was, quite rightly, paid out to Arar were likely two of the key factors that influenced the $10.5 million sum that was ultimately decided upon. Both of these earlier decisions occurred under the previous Conservative government of Stephen Harper.

A debt, not a gift

Those who are understandably angry at the way that their tax dollars are being spent should direct their anger more productively by recognising that the $10.5 million is not a gift being given to a terrorist, but rather a debt that we are collectively being asked to pay as a result of our government's failure to protect the rights of a fellow citizen.

Had the government continued fighting Khadr in court, the most likely result would have been further taxpayer expenditure in legal fees (the total to date is around $5 million) and a larger settlement, perhaps even the full $20 million demanded by Khadr's lawyers. More importantly, the settlement and the apology that came with it help to show the world that Canada is prepared to uphold the rights of its citizens and live up to its obligations to child soldiers under international law.

If Khadr had been given due process and was convicted in a fair trial of killing Sergeant Speers, then by all means he should have faced consequences, although his status as a child soldier would still have meant that these consequences should have been rehabilitative rather than punitive.
Truth be told I put myself into considerable debt to qualify for the US Graduate Visa Program. And I'd do it all again in a single heartbeat.

January 2012 saw me welcome in my 30th birthday. A big year for every girl and I was no exception. Unmarried and no career to speak of, my lifelong dream had always been to live in New York City. Even before F.R.I.E.N.D.S. or Sex and the City appeared on our TV screens giving those of us who lived in rural Ireland an intoxicating taste of bright lights and big city living, I had always dreamed of taking Manhattan whilst walking her pavements (Lady Liberty makes her female right?) drinking coffee from an Anthora cup. Of course I didn't know they were called Anthora cups back then but I had seen them appear in enough New York-based films to know they somehow represented the essence of the city. America does indeed run on coffee, but it tastes undoubtedly better from an Anthora cup. It just does.

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So unmarried, with nothing or nobody to answer to, I forewent the big 3.0. birthday bash and hightailed it to NYC for four weeks, touching down in Newark airport on the last day of my 20s. It was while sitting chatting to a couple of Irish girls in an Irish bar on West 59th Street that I found out about the graduate program and eight months later I found myself back in Dublin armed with a new student card and a great American dream.

Cut to October 2014 and I'm back walking those pavements, having completed my master's degree, graduate visa in the bag.

Two things that strike me as unequivocally New York (along with Anthora cups that is), are Central Park and The New Yorker magazine. Perhaps even more New York-esque is reading The New Yorker on a Central Park bench and Anthora cup in hand but now I'm just being twee.

A month after arriving I moved into my own apartment which happened to be the first apartment I found on Craigslist. Sitting two blocks from Central Park on the 14th floor of a 90th Street building with unobstructed views of One Trade Centre, the Chrysler and Empire State building, I congratulated myself on scoring real estate gold. However, it was Central Park that gave me solace and life. Regardless of the weather it was my go-to place for everything...to read, call home, picnic, listen to lunchtime jazz, drink wine, meet friends, organise dates, the odd bit of exercise I managed, see the first of the New York winter snow, chat to strangers, the list could go on.

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Central Park was designed by the landscape architect and writer Frederick Law Olmsted after winning a design competition alongside Calvert Vaux in 1858. It was then built with the help of Irish labourers. Olmsted's own democratic belief stemmed from the idea that a park could play host to a commonplace civilisation. As noted in a March 1997 issue of The New Yorker magazine, there is a distinct lack of orientation within the plan of the park but yet it "remains a place where the limits of tolerance and coexistence between park and playground are tested and retested in each generation, sometimes tragically but most often successfully". In short, Olmsted's vision sought to create a common ground whereby a liberal society could come together allowing space for a commonplace civilisation to breathe and where people could simply be, free from any form of discrimination.

Adam Gopnik, the writer who penned The New Yorker piece noted that "Olmsted wanted to make an American park, and he did, and to walk in his Park is to walk through a particular kind of American experience."

But that's precisely the thing I found with my experience of New York - that although we all grow up watching it on our tv screens and venture to the neon beast that is Times Square on our holidays, New York offers everybody their own little unique taste of it. It abides by no man and is constantly switching itself up so that you never experience the same city twice. Restaurants open and shut; neighbourhood bodegas get pushed out by national stores; cafes and cocktail bars move with the trends as the art and music scene evolves to match the taste of contemporary society. But boy, is it one heady tale to live amongst, if even for 12 months.

They say travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer. Well the journey I embarked on to realise my NYC-dwelling dream cost me a pretty penny but coming home has only seemed to whet my appetite for further US adventures. Still footloose and fancy free, this rootless vagabond has a great American coast-to-coast road trip planned for this summer/autumn. I'll be arriving back in NYC just in time for pumpkin pie season, to be washed down by an Anthora cup of coffee of course.

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The Hadrian X robot is made by Fastbrick Robotics from Australia. It can lay 1000 house bricks in an hour. The average bricklayer lays around 500 bricks a day. We will soon see robots doing much of the standard work in building assembly with a small number of skilled craftsmen supervising them, applying finishing touches or completing tricky tasks. McDonald's is trialilng a "Create Your Taste" kiosk - an automatic system that lets customers order and collect their own configuration of burger meal with no assistant needed.

But it is not just manual labour which will be affected by the inexorable roll out of robots, automation and artificial intelligence. The impact will be felt widely across skilled middle class jobs including lawyers, accountants, analysts and technicians. In many financial trading centres traders have already been replaced by algorithms. The world's first 'robot lawyer' is now available in 50 states.

The World Economic Forum predicts that robotic automation will result in the net loss of more than 5m jobs across 15 developed nations by 2020. Many think the numbers will be much higher. A report by the consultancy firm PWC found that 30% of jobs in the UK were potentially under threat from breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. In some sectors half the jobs could go.

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The rise of the robots will lead to an increase in the demand for those with the skills to program, maintain and supervise the machines. Most companies will have a Chief Robotics Officer and a department dedicated to automation. However, the human jobs created will be small fraction of the jobs which the robots will replace.

Any job that involves the use of knowledge, analysis and systematic decision making is at risk. Robots can not only absorb a large body of knowledge and rules. They can also adapt and learn on the job.

Where does that leave the displaced humans? The standard answer is education. Policy makers advise that people should retrain into higher skilled professions. The problem is most training simply provides more knowledge and skills which can also be replaced by automation.

So what jobs can robots not do? Einstein said, 'Imagination is more important than knowledge.' It is in the application of imagination that humans have the clear advantage. Here are some things which robots do not do well:

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Ask searching questions. Challenge assumptions about how things are done. Conceive new business models and approaches Understand and appeal to people's feelings and emotions Design humorous, provocative or eye-catching marketing campaigns. Deliberately break the rules. Create and tell stories which inspire and motivate people. Set a novel strategy or direction. Do anything spontaneous, entertaining or unexpected. Anticipate future trends and needs. Approach problems from entirely new directions Imagine a better future.
Potlokwa, a thirteen year old girl from South Africa, spent much of her youth in Mamelodi East Township in Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, frustrated, intimidated and hungry. Youth unemployment, drug use, crime and poverty plagued her community, and she felt helpless. She witnessed her mother struggle to provide food to her and her little brother; she watched as her small family was forced to leave a rented room and move to a tent in a squatter's camp. She constantly had to go and fetch clean water. It not only took hours but made her prey to the bullies loitering by the taps.

Potlokwa attended school but struggled with the stigma of living in a camp. Children and teachers alike would laugh and ridicule her without understanding her struggles and harsh realities. She only had one friend she could turn to for support, and all the adults in her life were examples of what not to do instead of the role models she needed.

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Potlowka with her mother, photo provided by Altus Sport

Even at an early age, Potlokwa knew she wanted to help others like herself and her mother; she thought there might be ways to help people generate more income through entrepreneurship and education. But she didn't know where to start and what was possible.

And then the Goal Programme, run by the NGO Altus Sport, was introduced to her school. She was too shy to join; instead, she hovered on the outskirts and strained to hear the lessons every day. She was fascinated by the topics like sanitation and saving money, but she didn't have the confidence to enlist.

One day, someone from Altus asked her to join the group. Potlokwa was thrilled. She felt like she was part of something. She found community.

Things began to change. She made many friends. She suddenly had a plethora of positive role models, like Samantha Pennells from Altus Sport, to inspire her. She learned about her fundamental human rights and how to access community services and support. And perhaps more importantly, she discovered her voice.

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Her shyness was transformed into confidence and her reluctance into boldness. Now recognising her value and power, she holds her head up high with a new sense of determination and inspiration. Though her newly gained friends, mentors, knowledge and skills, Potlokwa knows how she can help her community and improve lives. She wants to become a doctor and start a medical practice dedicated to serving populations living in informal settlements - camps like hers - because she knows the settlers either cannot afford healthcare or are too scared to seek medical help. She knows illness is a huge factor in the poverty in her community, and she wants to improve the health of people so they can work or start their own micro businesses.

Potlowka at a Goal Camp, photo provided by Altus Sport

Potlokwa is just one girl. But her multiplier impact is already evident in the way she now engages with her family and community.

Imagine the future of Mamelodi, South Africa, Africa and the world, with girls like Potlokwa leading.

Let's chase that future and invest in Potlokwa and the other 600 million adolescent girls living in emerging markets just like her, Let's help them stand up for their rights and fulfil their leadership potential.

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Women's economic empowerment programmes are flourishing. But it's critical to recognise that without creating girl centred empowerment programmes first, there will be no women to empower in the future.

That's exactly why the international bank that I work for, Standard Chartered, is holding one of the first ever global summits on girls' economic empowerment.

By bringing together over one hundred and thirty representatives from government, civil society, the media and the private sector, we hope organisations and individuals dedicated to championing adolescent girls and young women around the world can create holistic models of interventions that support girls in every critical point in their development.

No single organisation or individual can address the needs of the 600 million adolescent girls around the world, so the summit will look to broker partnerships and collaboration to ensure the best outcomes for girls.

While partnerships and end-to-end approaches are key, so too is listening to the voices of girls. They know what they want and need. If we are truly to empower them, we must let them lead us.

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Young people with HIV in North America and Europe now have near-normal life expectancy. New diagnoses of HIV have fallen among men who have sex with men in England. These recent findings are incredibly positive and should be celebrated. Progress is being made, but HIV/AIDS is far from over, especially in low-and middle-income countries, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

The largest ever generation of adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa is at risk of HIV, many of these young people are failing to test for the virus and access the relevant follow-up care and treatment... and the world is not listening to them. Inevitably, new infection and death rates are rising in the region. Globally the number of adolescent deaths from AIDS tripled in 15 years and HIV is a leading cause of adolescent deaths in Africa. Women and girls are most at risk - around 7,500 young women become newly infected with HIV every week in sub-Saharan Africa.

It is clear that adolescents and young people in this part of the world are being left behind in the HIV/AIDS response. Worse still, their views and needs are being overlooked - a stark reality that was brought home to us and global leaders in HIV/AIDS during a recent roundtable discussion organised by Sentebale, their Co-Founding Patron, Prince Harry, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

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We were privileged to welcome three of Sentebale's youth advocates - young people living with HIV from Lesotho and Botswana - countries with the second and third highest infection rates of HIV in the world. Hearing their experiences first-hand was a powerful testimony to the challenges facing young people affected by HIV in southern Africa.

We heard about the negative impact of a limited and poor education, and how youth-friendly health services are anything but. We learnt how the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS - still ingrained in the region's facilities, schools and communities - makes young people think twice about visiting a testing clinic because of the attitudes of health professionals or, as the age of consent is often 16, the thought of having to ask their parents or guardians for permission - no easy task for any teenager.

Pressure on young shoulders is immense, and this brings its own problems. The intersection between mental health issues and HIV can prevent people from receiving treatment and stop them taking it. This is just one area that must be further explored and addressed.

We simply don't yet know how best to tackle many of these problems. The youth advocates' insights not only reinforce the importance of the School and Sentebale's important HIV/AIDS adolescent research and programmes in southern Africa, but also crucially pave the way for new research avenues. By producing and using the most rigorous scientific evidence, more effective interventions can be shaped and implemented on the ground.

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Ultimately, the global community desperately needs to understand and learn from young people affected by HIV. We hope our roundtable discussion will spark new dialogue and research. At the event, global HIV leaders committed to moving young people higher up the agenda and to ensuring their voices are heard. This is a positive step but must be a catalyst for change. The 2018 International AIDS conference in Amsterdam is a key opportunity to keep the momentum going as young people will be a focus at the event.

If we are to reduce stigma, breakdown barriers to treatment and care, and provide services that are tailored to the reality of being a young person living with or at risk of HIV, young people need to play an integral part in research and policymaking. Bringing the AIDS epidemic to an end requires the global health community to work together and listen to those directly affected.
ODD ANDERSEN via Getty Images

When Donald Trump addressed the people of Poland last week, just before he headed off to Germany for the G20 summit, he spoke in glowing terms of what he called Western civilisation.

'We treasure the rule of law and protect the right to free speech and free expression,' he said. 'We value the dignity of every human life, protect the rights of every person, and share the hope of every soul to live in freedom.'

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I wonder if the Chinese pro-democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo heard those words. We'll never know, because now Liu is dead, the first Nobel peace prize winner to die in custody since the German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, who was imprisoned by the Nazis and died in 1938.

Western civilisation? The right to free speech? The dignity of every human life? Rarely have those words sounded as hollow as they do today, less than a week after China's president, Xi Jinping, was feted by his G20 fellow-leaders.

(It's not entirely fair, incidentally, to single out President Trump for criticism. Liu's American lawyer Jared Genser wrote in the Washington Post two weeks ago that Barack Obama 'led the West in playing down concerns with China on human rights and was conspicuous by his unwillingness to help Liu, his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate.')

But let's not confine ourselves to the abysmal record of China. Also at the G20 summit, looking like the cat who got the cream as he wrapped Mr Trump round his little finger (if you'll excuse the mixed imagery), was President Vladimir Putin, a man whose political enemies have a remarkable habit of ending up dead.

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Enemies like Boris Nemtsov, whom I met in Moscow in December 2013, as he campaigned to reveal the appalling corruption in which the Sochi Winter Olympics were mired. He was shot dead on a Moscow street just over a year later. Or like the campaigning journalist Anna Politkovskaya, shot dead in 2006. Or the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in police custody in 2009.

(We'll return to the Magnitsky case another day, as it's part of the increasingly surreal Donald Trump Jr emails saga. The Russian lawyer whom the young Trump met in the hope that she was about to hand over some dirt on Hillary Clinton was best known as a lobbyist against the Magnitsky Act, which blacklists Russian officials suspected of involvement in Magnitsky's death.)

Standing right next to Mr Putin in the G20 family photo was President Erdogan of Turkey, who just a year ago survived what may or may not have been an attempted coup against him and who then embarked on a crackdown in which an estimated 50,000 people have been arrested and another 150,000 have been either sacked or suspended from their jobs.

The inescapable conclusion? That Western civilisation defends the right to free speech except where it doesn't.

Certainly not in Egypt, for example, where a military coup that put an end to an inglorious -- but democratically-elected -- Muslim Brotherhood administration was greeted with a deafening sigh of relief from Western capitals.

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And definitely not in Saudi Arabia, where a ruling royal family riddled with corruption has been fawned over shamelessly for decades in return for billions of dollars-worth of arms contracts. (Last month marked the fifth anniversary of the arrest of the Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who had the temerity to write in favour of such outlandish ideas as secularism and democracy.)

I wasn't born yesterday. I know that strategic and commercial considerations will always take precedence over such wishy-washy things as 'values'. What sticks in my throat is the cant, the absurd pretence that somehow the West stands for all that is best about the human condition.

Donald Trump, as it happens, pretends much less often than most of his fellow Western leaders. His speech in Warsaw was a rare exception, but not to be taken seriously, given that no one was fooled for one moment into believing that he had written it, that he meant it, or even that he understood it.

At least Trump is open in his admiration of despots: Putin, Xi, Erdogan, Sisi of Egypt and even the truly appalling Duterte of the Philippines. I suspect he would love to be able to behave as they do: locking up his opponents, ruling by decree, and governing by fear.

To his credit, the US secretary of state Rex Tillerson did issue a statement paying tribute to Liu Xiaobo after his death on Thursday and calling for the release from house arrest of his wife, Liu Xia. It was the very least he could have done.

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We may be stuck with Brexit and all of the complications that come with it, but polls have shown that 45 percent of voters believe the U.K.'s decision to leave the EU was a mistake. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that so many people have Brexit regret is the fact that saying goodbye to the EU may compromise online data privacy. Meanwhile, EU nations are looking forward to enjoying more protection after the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) take full effect in 2018.

Leaving the EU doesn't have to mean giving up online privacy, though. Instead, there are many compelling reasons that the U.K. should fully adopt the GDPR anyway. I personally want more security for my data, and I'm sure that almost everyone agrees.

1. Data privacy concerns are at an all-time high.

Approximately 10 percent of all U.K. residents have already been victimised by online fraud. I have personal experience with how devastating this can be, and I firmly believe that it would be a colossal mistake to not permanently put the GDPR in place.

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It's become shockingly common to see news stories about data breaches, which puts everyone at risk. I had trusted a major U.K. company to safely store my personal information. After all, every company in the world knows that they could be targeted by cyberthieves, so it should be reasonable to assume that major businesses would take every conceivable step to protect their customers. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case.

It took me more than a year to correct most of the damage that was done to my credit as a result of online data theft. There are still some issues plaguing me that seem unlikely to ever get resolved. With the GDPR, the number of cyber data theft instances should begin to drop.

2. To have a uniform, and united, approach.

Something that many residents may be unaware of is a clause within the GDPR that will force most large U.K. businesses to adopt the privacy standards regardless of Brexit. Failure to do so will cause these companies to lose the ability to do business with customers in the EU.

This clause applies to any company that sells or trades services or products to 5,000 or more people located throughout the EU. If a U.K. business tries to avoid this rule, they will not only risk losing a lot of business but could also be fined as much as 20 million.

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With this being the case, it's highly likely that most large U.K. companies are going to move forward with the GDPR. An unintended consequence of this is that any smaller businesses that don't do the same thing could become huge targets for cybercriminals.

Instead of putting so many people and companies at risk, the U.K. would be wise to take a uniform approach nationwide. Our citizens deserve the higher level of protection that the GDPR will provide.

3. Enhanced consent rules give people more control.

The central focus of the GDPR is to give people increased knowledge about how their data is being stored and used. Along with this comes enhanced consent rules that make it much more difficult for companies to request data that will be used for unscrupulous purposes.

A good example of the type of improved disclosure and consent the GDPR requires can be found in the world of smartphones. In 2015, Android devices began to imitate the iOS platform by forcing app developers to provide more details regarding private data usage. Improved app permissions put control of personal data back into each user's hands, and it also gave people the ability to opt out of providing non-essential data.

4. It quite simply makes the most sense.

After my identity theft nightmare, which was made possible by all of the personal data that the hacked company requested, I have become much more careful about what information I provide to businesses of all types. I think the GDPR's emphasis on consumer consent and control is a much-needed change that every nation in the world should adopt.

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U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker will visit Kyiv again in the next few days, Ukrainian presidential administration deputy head Konstantyn Yelyseyev said.

"It was his first visit. We agreed that he will come to Ukraine again in the next few days. Of course, this will depend on his schedule, because he wants to intensively engage in the process not only of consultations with the Ukrainian side, but also, in particular, with our partners in the Normandy format," Yelyseyev said on air of the Fifth TV Channel on Thursday.

During the first visit Volker has had meetings with a vast range of statesmen. After the special envoy gets in touch with the situation, he can forward certain proposals to the U.S. leadership in order to give an impulse to a peaceful dialogue in Donbas, Yelyseyev said.

"I cannot disclose some things yet, but the president and Kurt Volker have had a quite frank and, I would say, intensive and strategic conversation, at which certain innovative elements, which we could undertake jointly with our partners in order to bring peace to Donbas after all, were discussed," Yelyseyev said.
Two Ukrainian military wounded in 29 shellings in Donbas on Thursday

Militants have shelled Ukrainian army positions in Donbas 29 on Thursday, wounding two servicemen, the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) headquarters said on Facebook.

"Our strongholds near Maryinka came under attack of infantry combat vehicle weapons, grenade launchers and mortars in the period from 9 p.m. till 10 p.m. The provocative attacks inflicted shrapnel injuries on two Ukrainian soldiers," the report said.

Militants fired grenade launchers and machineguns on Vodiane, Pavlopil, Shyrokyne and Hnutove, it said.

Militants launched five attacks using mortars, heavy machineguns and small arms on the Avdiyivka area from the side of Spartak, Yasynuvata and Mineralne in the Donetsk sector. The Luhansk sector saw attacks on Stanytsia Luhanska, Novooleksandrivka and Novotoshkivka.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced that seventy-two T-72 tanks will be delivered to the Ukrainian army by the end of the year.

"According to my instructions, 72 modernized T-72 tanks should be sent to the Armed Forces this year. We're buying the newest vehicles manufactured in Lviv, we saw the potential of a new fire engine based on the T-72," he said during his visit to Lviv armor vehicle factory on Friday, July 14.

On top of that, 20 Dozor-B light armored personnel carriers will be handed over to the Ukrainian army, he added.

"Lviv armor vehicle factory will be paid UAH 920 million, and this is not only for the tanks and the fire engines. The 20 Dozor-B cars that are now behind my back will also be ready to go to the army," Poroshenko said.

The president stressed that the Ukrainian army should be equipped with the best technology, both combat and auxiliary, "as it is forbidden to use tank brigades without evacuation vehicles."
KYIV. July 14 (Interfax-Ukraine)  Era television and radio broadcasting company would abandon the analogue broadcasting license in favor of UA: Pershy TV channel.

Director General of National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine Zurab Alasania said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine that the top managers of the company arranged this with the Era media company.

Era television and radio broadcasting company, which has been broadcasting synchronously with UA: Pershy TV channel every day since 2001 (from 06:00 until 09:00 and from 23:00 until 01:20) will stop broadcasting on August 1.

The companies start cooperating. Era Media will be able to broadcast its infotainment block on UA: Pershy TV channel in the morning from 06:30 until 09:30.

"Finally we have solved the issue that could not get off the ground for 16 years, since the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine granted Era a license for analogue broadcasting in the UT-1 network. We managed to find a compromise that suits both sides. Now the principle of "one frequency - one channel" will work again," Alasania said.

In turn, Director General of Era Media Ihor Lotashevsky said that the establishment of partnership relations and the development of long-term cooperation between Era Media and National Public Broadcasting Company are aimed at the implementation of joint projects.

"Era decided not to renew the license for analogue broadcasting after August 1, 2017. At the same time, we switch to professional cooperation and, at the request of National Public Broadcasting Company, we will produce at least three morning hours of television products per day for the UA: Pershy TV channel," Lotashevsky said.
Two Israeli Police Killed in Temple Mount Terror Attack

The Fellowship | July 14, 2017 Two Israeli Police Killed in Temple Mount Terror Attack

Terror descended upon Jerusalems Old City on Friday morning during a horrific shooting attack that left two Israeli police officers dead and a third wounded. The Times of Israels Judah Ari Gross reports that three terrorists opened fire on the officers outside of the Temple Mount, killing 30-year-old Haiel Sitawe and 22-year-old Kamil Shnaan:

The two police officers shot dead in a terror attack at the Temple Mount complex in the Old City on Friday morning were identified as Haiel Sitawe and Kamil Shnaan, both hailing from Druze villages in northern Israel.

Just after 7:00 a.m. on Friday, three Arab Israeli terrorists opened fire on a group of police officers standing just outside the Temple Mount compound near the Old Citys Lions Gate. Sitawe and Shnaan were hit and seriously wounded. A third officer was struck by shrapnel and suffered light injuries.

The three terrorists behind the attack, who all came from the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm, fled back to the Temple Mount compound and were shot dead by other police officers on the scene, a police spokesperson said.

Sitawe and Shnaan were treated by medics from the Magen David Adom ambulance service and taken to Jerusalems Hadassah Hospital Mt. Scopus, where they were pronounced dead.

Speaking to the press soon after the attack, Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich said: This was a tough morning for the police. We have two people killed, officers, who paid the dearest price in this battle.

Sitawe, 30, hailed from the town of Maghar, a mostly Druze and Arab city in northern Israel.

Shnaan, 22, was from the Druze village of Hurfeish, also in northern Israel.

Sitawe joined the Border Police as part of his mandatory national service. He joined the Israel Police in 2012 and had served in the unit responsible for securing the Temple Mount ever since.

He leaves behind a wife, Irin, a three-week-old son, his parents and three brothers.

Shnaan joined the police directly after high school. He decided to stay on the police force seven months ago, signing on as a career officer.

He was the youngest son of a former Labor Party Knesset member, Shachiv Shnaan. His engagement party to his girlfriend was to be held next week

Please join us in praying for Gods love and comfort for the loved ones of the officers who lost their lives, as well as the full recovery of the policeman who was wounded. And, please ask Him for His peace over Jerusalem, as tensions have risen, including a firebombing attack on an Israeli family that wounded three, including an infant.
Eugene Kaspersky (left) Kaspersky Lab Founder and CEO and Stephan Neumeier (right) Kaspersky Lab Asia Pacific Managing Director open yesterday the global cybersecurity companys new APAC headquarters at the Harbourfront Tower One in Singapore.

To support the expansion of its business in Asia Pacific, Kaspersky Lab today announces the opening of a new location in Singapore for its regional HQ.

There are currently 37 Kaspersky Lab offices in 32 countries around the world.

The new address, at the Harbourfront Tower One, will provide more office space for the growing global cybersecurity company as well as closer proximity to the partners it collaborates with frequently.

The relocated APAC headquarters also aims to better serve the requirements of its growing numbers of partners and customers across the region. Kaspersky Labs APAC office is currently stepping up its efforts as it continues to grow its commercial and enterprise businesses with a solid focus on critical verticals such as industrial cyber security.

Not only serving as a hub for administrative, sales, marketing, and channel departments, the new Singapore office will also represent the regional base of the companys research and development team headed by Vitaly Kamluk, Director of the Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky Lab APAC.

The move to our current location will allow us to grow and will deliver greater efficiencies. It will enable us to deliver key results to the company. Settling into our new space in this strategic location will meet our business needs for accessibility and more. Harbourfront will cater all these needs," says Stephan Neumeier, Managing Director of Kaspersky Lab Asia Pacific.

Neumeier welcomed Kaspersky Lab Chairman and CEO Eugene Kaspersky to the opening ceremony of the new office.

The Kaspersky Lab APAC headquarters was opened in 2015 to oversee its regional business development and to become an extension of the companys research and development (R&D). The opening of the first office in Singapore coincided with Eugene Kasperskys appointment as a member of the international advisory panel for Singapores National Cybersecurity Research & Development Programme.

Choosing Singapore for the location of its regional headquarters was a strategic decision of the cybersecurity company, based on the city-states favorable status as a top global financial hub. Kaspersky Lab was also attracted to the city state because of its technology-pervasive atmosphere, and the strength of, and government support for the cybersecurity industry.

Commenting on the opening of the relocated office, Eugene Kaspersky, chairman and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, said: There is so much positive energy about this move. Were glad to be staying in Singapore which has been our home in the region since we reallocated from Hong Kong two years ago. Moving to a bigger office after just two years is soon but were ushering in a new chapter for the APAC team. Being in the fastest growing region in the global economy, were determined to explore the APAC markets full potential and were ready to move ahead with greater achievements.
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Tickets for The Killers tour go on sale today.

The multi-platinum selling band will be performing live in support of their anticipated fifth album Wonderful Wonderful.

The tour follows their secret show at this year's Glastonbury Festival and a headline slot at the British Summer Time festival in London.

Tickets for The Killers at the O2 Arena in London are on sale from 9am - buy here

See the full dates and venues for The Killers tour below:

Mon 6 Nov: Birmingham, Genting Arena

Fri 10 Nov: Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena

Mon 13 Nov: Manchester Arena

Thurs 16 Nov: Dublin, 3Arena

Fri 17 Nov: Belfast, SSE Arena

Sun 19 Nov: Leeds, First Direct Arena

Mon 20 Nov: Glasgow, SSE Hydro

Tues 21 Nov: Aberdeen, GE Arena

Thurs 23 Nov: Nottingham, Motorpoint Arena

Sat 25 Nov: Sheffield Arena

Mon 27 Nov: London, The O2 Arena

Tues 28 Nov: London, The O2 Arena

Tickets for The Killers at the O2 Arena in London are on sale from 9am - buy here

Got sweaty palms already? Check out our handy tips for dealing with the demand:

1) Make sure you are ready and waiting with the web page up at least five minutes before 9am.

2) Do not let your computer, phone or whatever device holds the key to your happiness run out of battery.

3) Register your details with the website you are booking from in advance, if you can, but dont panic if you havent left enough time as your tickets will be held while you fill out your information

4) Check how many tickets you are allowed to buy in one purchase. If you try to buy more than the limited number, your booking may be cancelled without notice, meaning no-one gets to go.

5) Get your friends to try too, but stay in contact in case you all succeed and end up with a bunch of tickets you didnt want. If you do need to sell any on, do so at face value. No-one likes a tout.

6) Be patient and avoid refreshing or switching between browsers. Stick with one tab and have some faith! Be prepared to wait for an hour to get tickets.

Frontman Brandon Flowers has said that this is the most "personal and bare" he's ever been on a record.

Im turning it around. Im turning the pen around on myself, Flowers told NME. "Im looking in the mirror on this record and focusing a lot on my own personal experiences. Instead of just drawing upon all these experiences and maybe using them in other songs, I am going straight for it with this and singing about my life and my family and thats something different for me.

"What I like about it is that songs that I love to perform the most are songs that sort of went into that territory and connect with people. Even Mr Brightside was a personal song, or Read My Mind  these are songs I love to perform, tend to come from those real places. I really wanted to do that more on this record."
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It's been seven months since Carrie Fisher left us, yet we're still finding new ways to honour her.

Fisher has received a posthumous Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy for her appearance on Amazon's beloved sitcom Catastrophe, with season 3 having aired earlier this year.

The show follows an American man (Rob Delaney) and Irish woman (Sharon Hogan) whose lives intertwine unexpectedly after a one-night stand results in a pregnancy. Fisher played the mother to Delaney's character, completing filming on the show mere days before she suffered a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles.

Fisher passed away four days later on 27 December, with her mother Debbie Reynolds also passing away the day after. The pair were recently the subject of HBO documentary Bright Lights, detailing their colourful and loving relationship, which also earned an Emmy nomination for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking.

Delaney reacted to Fisher's nomination by simply tweeting, "Mom", while Hogan posted, "Very happy and sad and proud and messed up and delighted about our friend Carrie Fisher's nomination".

 Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Teaser Trailer

Other nominations in the category included Wanda Sykes for Black-ish, Angela Bassett for Master of None, Becky Ann Baker for Girls, and Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy for their guest host spots on Saturday Night Live. You can read the full list of Emmy nominations here.

Fisher will make her final appearance on screens with this year's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which hits UK cinemas 15 December.
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As doomsday prophecies go, it was an epic, suggesting the future could bring perpetual war, a rolling death smog that suffocates millions and the end of food.

But this attempt to describe global warmings worst-case scenario by American journalist David Wallace-Wells has prompted a backlash from some of the worlds leading climate scientists.

Normally found taking on so-called sceptics and deniers, they complained the article, this weeks cover story in New York Magazine and headlined The Uninhabitable Earth, was at odds with the science and would actually do more harm than good.

On the Climate Feedback website, 14 scientists rated its scientific credibility as low with some variously suggesting the article was alarmist, unclear or misleading.

Professor Michael Mann, a leading climatologist at Pennsylvania State University, wrote on Facebook that it painted an overly bleak picture by overstating some of the science.

The evidence that climate change is a serious problem that we must contend with now, is overwhelming on its own. There is no need to overstate the evidence, particularly when it feeds a paralyzing narrative of doom and hopelessness, he said.

I'm afraid this latest article does that. That's too bad. The journalist is clearly a talented one, and this is somewhat of a lost opportunity to objectively inform the discourse over human-caused climate change.

Professor Richard Betts, of the UKs Met Office Hadley Centre, complained that the idea the Earth could become uninhabitable within anywhere near the timescales suggested in the article is pure hyperbole.

Dr Daniel Swain, of University of California, Los Angeles, was more nuanced, arguing the article accurately describes some of the most dire consequences of unabated global warming, but he added that it failed to explain the risk of this happening.

Amid what Mr Wallace-Wells described as this preposterously long tweetstorm, he interviewed Professor Mann and published a transcript of their exchange.

The journalist said he did not believe Earth would become uninhabitable by 2100, partly because our complacency will surely be shaken before we get there.

But he defended the tone of the article.

I dont think were doomed, just facing down a very big challenge. But I own up to the alarmism in the story, which I describe as an effort to survey the worst-case-scenario climate landscape, Mr Wallace-Wells said.

He argued that scientists were being too cautious when explaining what might happen.

Maybe thats in part because scientists have been so anxious that the world  or at least the American public  not impugn their work as speculative or dangerous, he said.

And so scientists have felt a need to be a bit restrained in talking about what is possible. But to me it seems like it neglects a lot of really terrifying possibilities and that those possibilities are important to consider because they spur action.

Professor Mann agreed there had been quite a bit made about the so-called scientific reticence  the tendency for scientists in general to actually be conservative in what they state and the conclusions that they state, particularly when it involves the public sphere.

This, he said, was due to a combination of innate conservatism among scientists and also sort of this assault on science by climate-change deniers.

I think the intent of that assault has been to sort of cow scientists into retreating from the public discourse and frankly intimidating scientists into being very guarded and very conservative about their public statements. I think thats been the intent, or one of the intents, of the fossil-fuel-industry-funded attack on climate science, said Professor Mann, who describes this in his recent book with cartoonist Tom Toles, The Madhouse Effect.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke  filled with the carbon that is driving climate change  drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

And he said Mr Wallace-Wells had made a very important point in the article.

When it comes to societal decision-making, its critical to not just consider the most likely impacts, but those sort of low-probability but catastrophic sort of cost scenarios, he said.

What we call the so-called tails of the probability distribution. The things that may not be, we cant conclude that theyre likely, but we cant rule them out, and if they were to happen, they would have such a catastrophic impact that it makes sense to take them into account.


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It has never been deadlier to stand up against corporations that destroy the environment.

A record number of 200 environmental activists were killed in 2016 while protesting against companies' mining, logging and agribusiness activities, a report by Global Witness has found.

The NGO which exposes corruption and environmental abuse has been tracking the number of people killed defending their land from destructive activities and in the last few years has consecutively reported a record number of deaths.

Global Witness previously named 2015 as the "deadliest year on record" for the killing of activists with 185 deaths across 16 countries reported - a 59 per cent increase compared to 2014 and the highest figure since the group began collating data in 2002.

Its latest report, Defenders of the Earth, found that nearly four people were killed every week across 24 countries last year while campaigning to protect the environment.

Brazil was by far the most dangerous place for activists, with 49 reported killings, followed by Colombia where the toll more than doubled compared to last year, reaching 37 killings, and the Philippines with 28 opposing mining industry activities murdered.

According to the report, in India there were 16 killings, a three-fold increase, Honduras had 14, while Nicaragua had 11, mostly indiginous people killed in conflicts with settler communities over land. Global Witness also calls attention to concerns activists have about an inter-oceanic canal, which they say is threatening mass displacement and social unrest.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 10 were killed as large numbers of rangers defending national parks were targeted.

Almost 40 per cent of those who were killed were indigenous people and 60 per cent of those murdered were from Latin America, the report found.

In Colombia, for example, extractive industries are backed by the government and funded by international development banks but face strong opposition from indigenous communities.

In the report, the NGO warned governments and businesses around the world are "failing in their duty to protect activists at risk".

"They are permitting a level of impunity that allows the vast majority of perpetrators to walk free, emboldening would-be assassins. Investors, including development banks, are fuelling the violence by backing projects that harm the environment and trample human rights," it stated.

Global Witness also suggests police, military and security guards were also involved in the killings.

It said: "A lack of prosecutions also makes it harder to identify those responsible, but we found strong evidence that the police and military were behind at least 43 killings, with private actors such as security guards and hitmen linked to 52 deaths."

The report found that struggles between governments, companies and local communities over the use of land and natural resources underpinned most of the killings. In some instances, the NGO was able to identify the specific sectors activists had opposed.

Overall, activists were opposing the mining and oil industry on 33 occasions, logging and agribusiness each on 23 instances. Poaching was identified in 18 of the killings.

The report states that besides killings, environmental activists face other threats aiming at silencing them, including death threats, arrests, sexual assault, illegal surveillance and aggressive legal attacks, but receive little or no protection from authorities.

The 50-page report includes testimonies from activists who were confronted with intimidation and violence for protesting at what the NGO describes as environmental pillaging of their homeland.

Jakeline Romero from Colombia has faced years of threats and intimidation for speaking out against the impact of El Cerrejon, Latin America's largest open-pit mine, which has been blamed for contaminated water and mass displacement.

In India, Rinchin has been supporting local communities including the Adivasi tribespeople in Chhattisgarh, a heavily forested state in central India, who are protesting against coal companies grabbing land and causing pollution, the report states.

"There is a complete breakdown of the law. Large numbers of the Adivasi population are illegally losing their land to corporations through land grabs," she said.

"None of the demands have been met by the government or the company."

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

Last year, indigenous and environmental rights campaigner Berta Caceres was murdered in her own home in Honduras over her opposition to a hydroelectric dam project.

Honduran activist Ana Miriam Romero also told Global Witness she almost lost her baby when the police beat her up while she was pregnant as she protested against the activities of a hydro company on her community's land.

"We must keep up the fight. We must not lose our spirit, our children's future depends on it," she said.

In 2015, Global Witness named Honduras as the most dangerous place of earth for environmental activists.

The report concludes that the right to a healthy environment and the right to participate in public life and protest are internationally recognised human rights, meaning governments have to protect them under the UN Declaration of Human Rights Defenders.

In the report, the NGO urges governments to make 2017 "a watershed year" and give guarantees to communities over their ability to make free and informed choices about how their land and resources are used.
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Britain's planned exit from the European Union is creating uncertainty for businesses and Brexit negotiations should seek to reduce this as well as minimising future trade barriers, Spain's King Felipe said on Thursday.

The UK Government, seeking to highlight confidence in the British economy, said Spanish firms had committed millions of pounds of investment to Britain to coincide with a three-day state visit by King Felipe and Queen Letizia.

Addressing business leaders in London, Felipe hailed the close ties between Britain and Spain.

But he said: We cannot deny that the scenario originated by the UK decision to leave the EU has generated uncertainty and doubts for our companies ... We must make sure the current negotiations reduce this uncertainty to the minimum.

It is extremely important that the future framework of our relations establishes the conditions for a close economic relationship trying to minimise future obstacles and barriers.

Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis told the event that Spain wanted a Britain that continued to be bound together with the rest of Europe.

Bilateral trade between the two countries was worth 40bn in 2015 and more than 400 Spanish companies are registered in Britain, the UK government said.

Investments announced on Thursday included Spanish manufacturer CAF committing 30m to build trains and trams at a new factory in Wales, creating 300 jobs, and Spanish infrastructure company Sacyr unveiling plans for a new office in London.

Spanish Trade Minister Maria Luisa Poncela said: Our common goal should be to achieve strong and collaborative relations with the United Kingdom while trying to avoid any unnecessary damage to our trade and investment flows.

The pomp-laden state visit, which included a banquet hosted by Queen Elizabeth on Wednesday, aims to cement ties that have been strained by questions over the post-Brexit status of Gibraltar, a British territory on the southern tip of Spain.

The future of Gibraltar, captured by Britain in 1704, and its 30,000 inhabitants will be a major point of contention in the Brexit talks. The EU has offered Spain a right of veto over the territory's post-Brexit relationship with the bloc.

During an address to the British parliament on Wednesday, Felipe said he was confident Spain and Britain could work toward an acceptable arrangement over Gibraltar.

Prime Minister Theresa May's spokeswoman said the issue of Gibraltar did not come up during a bilateral meeting between the British leader and Felipe on Thursday.

Spain are well aware of our position on Gibraltar, she told reporters. We don't see eye to eye on this issue ... The sovereignty of Gibraltar is not up for discussion.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

The pair did discuss EU citizens' rights post-Brexit, however. On Wednesday, Felipe urged the British and Spanish governments to work to ensure the Brexit agreement provided sufficient assurance and certainty for such citizens.

The EU and Britain have yet to agree on guarantees for EU citizens living in the UK and British expats living in other EU countries. More than 300,000 Britons live in Spain and more than 130,000 Spaniards live in Britain.

(May) said we have made it a priority in the negotiations to guarantee the status of Spanish and other EU citizens living in the UK as part of a reciprocal deal, the spokeswoman said.

Reuters
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Tesco has pledged to remove a host of potentially hazardous chemicals from its F and F clothing range.

The supermarket chain joins a growing list of high street retailers who have committed to ensuring their suppliers do not allow the chemicals in their products.

Tesco will immediately begin the process of eliminating 11 groups of hazardous substances from its F&F brand, Greenpeace said in a statement.

Recommended Tesco recalls chicken salad over fears it might cause food poisoning

The environmental group has been working to sign retailers up to its Detox Standard, which aims to remove chemicals including phthalates, brominated and chlorinated flame retardants, chlorinated solvents and heavy metals, all of which are thought to be harmful to human health.

Phthalates are thought to play a role in male genital birth defects and impaired reproductive function in adult males, while brominated flame retardents have been linked to thyroid disruption, memory and learning problems, delayed mental and physical development, lower IQ and reduced fertility.

Tesco's commitment goes beyond what EU regulations require and includes some substances thought to be harmful but not necessarily backed by scientific evidence, Greenpeace said.

Marks & Spencer, H&M, Benetton, Levi Strauss, Aldi and Lidl are among 80 international brands and suppliers who have now committed to the Greenpeace Detox 2020 Campaign since it began in 2011.

Kirsten Brodde, Detox Campaign leader at Greenpeace Germany, said: The Detox standard is the new industry baseline. In only six years, forerunners of the textile sector went from total denial and opacity of their supply chain to transparency and the banning of all hazardous chemicals.

Tesco's commitment shows the rest of the industry that using hazardous chemicals is not an option anymore.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

Tesco now has the opportunity to match the progress being made by other retailers and Greenpeace will monitor it closely to ensure they follow up their commitment.

Alan Wragg, technical director for clothing at Tesco, said: This commitment is part of our goal to protect the environment by sourcing products sustainably and responsibly for our customers.
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A headteacher who took a trip to Cuba during term time has been banned from the profession for at least three years.

Ian McCann took an eight-day trip in 2015 to participate in a charity bike ride around the country despite being refused leave by school governors.

The headteacher of Rosewood Primary School in Lancashire apparently handed over a note from his GP which said he was not fit to work due to a stress-related problem.

The 59-year-old had made a written request for unpaid leave on two occasions but had both requests refused, ITV News reported.

He claimed he been suffering from stress-related issues due to challenging behaviour from pupils at the school and the death of his father.

A misconduct panel was told that Mr McCann had spent 2,000 as a deposit for the trip and told a colleague he intended to go "regardless of the consequences.

It had always been the intention of Mr McCann to go on the cycle trip to Cuba during the autumn term of 2015 irrespective of the decisions of the governing body in March and April 2015 refusing his request for authorised leave of absence, the panel concluded.

Mr McCann had previously spoken out about the incident and said the trip to Cuba was related to his father dying of cancer.

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 location and timing of the charity event were outside of my control but were poignant and personal to my grieving over the loss of my father to cancer, Mr McCann said in a letter to the Lancashire Telegraph.

I never meant the negative impact which ensued and I am truly sorry for this.

Mr McCann has been given a prohibition order and told he can apply to have it reviewed in three years.
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An ancient site rooted in the heart of modern Beijing, the Forbidden City is one of Chinas most famous attractions. Completed in 1420, the city served as the palace of the Ming Dynasty emperor, Yongle. Its walls surrounded an area large enough to contain more than 50 Buckingham Palaces, creating a private sanctuary which none but the emperors family and eunuchs were permitted to enter.

The Forbidden City became the seat of imperial power in China for almost five centuries and remains an important part of modern Chinas cultural heritage today. But it is seldom mentioned that Yongle was not the first emperor to build in that location. In fact, underneath the streets of modern Beijing lie the remains of a much earlier palace.

More than 300 years before the Ming came to power, a walled city was built on the site of present-day Beijing. Entering that citys gates, you would have been greeted by another, much taller, walled complex; it was in this city within a city, that you might have found the emperors of the long forgotten Liao Dynasty.

I say might have for good reason, as the Liao had not one capital city, but five. The Liao maintained a capital in each of the four cardinal points of their empire and still had the resources to establish another one in the middle for good measure. The emperor and his court would travel between the cities throughout the year.

The Liao Dynasty is depicted in green

The name Beijing itself  literally translated as Northern Capital, is a reflection of its position within the Ming Empire. To the Liao, however, this same city was known as Nanjing, the Southern Capital, revealing a very different world order.

With lands stretching from inner Asia in the west, into Mongolia in the north, and to the Korean peninsula in the east, the Liao Dynasty was one of the major political powers in East Asia from 907 to 1125. Yet this geopolitical influence is the least of the Liaos achievements.

The Liao have left us some of the finest examples of Buddhist art and architecture in all of Asia. The 65-metre Yingxian Pagoda  the oldest surviving wooden Buddhist pagoda in China  remains one of the tallest timber structures in the world. The Dynasty also established administrative structures that were used throughout Chinas later imperial history. The precedent for the one country, two systems policy  whereby different laws and codes are applied to different regions of the country  which can be seen in Hong Kong and Macau today, could arguably be dated back to the Liao administration.

Missing from history

Despite these lasting legacies, if you were to pick up a book on Chinese history at random, the Liao Dynasty may not even get a mention. Timelines of Chinas ruling dynasties frequently omit the Liao in favour of one of their contemporaries  the Song Dynasty. Yet records from the time demonstrate that the Liao and Song were political equals. A clue as to why the Liao are often lost from these historical accounts can be found by peering over those inner walls and into the palaces of the Liaos five imperial capitals.

Rather than the imposing timber-framed halls of Yongles Forbidden City, the Liao imperial family would instead be found living in a series of grand tents. The people who formed the Liao Dynasty originally came from the steppes of north-east Asia and lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle. They were known as the Kitan and, like most nomadic groups, history has not treated them well.

The Liao period Tianning Temple Pagoda in Beijing, with an industrial chimney in the background

Despite having their own written language, only a small number of Kitan texts survive today, and translating them is often difficult because there are no surviving languages similar enough to help linguists fully decipher the characters. As a result, finding the Kitan or the Liao voice in the historical record proves to be a challenge.

Most of the primary sources that modern historians have for the Liao period were written under the Song Dynasty. As the Liaos direct political rivals, the Song sources are often less than flattering about the Liao Dynasty, and its Kitan leaders.

Unfortunately, this attitude towards the Liao has worked its way into later sources, keeping the Dynasty in the shadows. This began to change when archaeological discoveries of the late 20th century generated new interest in Liao sites. For instance, the finds at the excavation of the tomb of Princess Chen, changed the way people viewed Liao elite culture.

Gold and other precious metal artefacts from Liao tombs have become a major draw in public exhibitions around the world. Interest among private collectors is also rising. A small, gilt-bronze, Liao Buddhist statue recently broke the record for an Asian art auction at Christies in France, selling for 13,570,500 (12,090,000).

With all of this renewed interest, academic studies of the Liao are reassessing the Dynastys position in Chinese and wider Asian history. Historical texts are being challenged and progress is being made on the translation of the Kitan writing system.

If you visit Beijing today, just about the only evidence you will find of the Liao city is a single pagoda. An ancient monument  once the tallest building in the city  it is now dwarfed by the industrial chimneys that surround it. The history of the Liao Dynasty, in contrast, has never been more visible.

Jonathan Dugdale is a PhD candidate in medieval history at the University of Birmingham. This article was originally published on The Conversation (www.theconversation.com)
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Muslims in China are increasingly living under a police state, experts have warned, after the countrys communist government imposed a series of sweeping counter-terrorism measures.

The Xinjiang province in the far west of the country is the homeland of the Uighurs, a traditionally Muslim group who say they face discrimination.

Recent years have seen bloody clashes in the region, which the Chinese government blames on Islamist militants and separatists.

But rights groups say the unrest is more a reaction to repressive policies, and argue that the new measures may end up pushing some Uighurs into extremism.

Recommended China trying to stop Muslims observing Ramadan in restive Xinjiang

Just last week, hundreds of Uighurs were detained as they returned from overseas pilgrimages, according to Radio Free Asia.

"There is a huge crackdown in Xinjiang," a rights lawyer, who did not wish to be named, told the station.

They claimed that courts across the region are being ordered by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to "deal with" anyone engaging in any form of illegal religious activity.

Tensions in the region go back many years. Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims, making up around 45 per cent of the population. Around 40 per cent are Han Chinese.

The region has had intermittent autonomy and occasional independence, but what is now known as Xinjiang came under Chinese rule in the 18th Century.

An East Turkestan state was briefly declared in 1949, but independence was short-lived and later that year Xinjiang officially became part of Communist China.

Open support for separatist groups increased after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and the emergence of independent Muslim states in Central Asia, but Beijing suppressed demonstrations and activists went underground.

Many say that ethnic tensions caused by economic and cultural factors are the root cause of the recent violence.

Major development projects brought prosperity to Xinjiang's big cities, attracting young and technically qualified Han Chinese from eastern provinces.

But it was said they were given the best jobs and the majority do well economically, something that has fuelled resentment among Uighurs.

Activists also say Uighur commercial and cultural activities have been gradually curtailed by the Chinese state.

Earlier this year, China introduced measures prohibiting "abnormally" long beards, the wearing of veils in public places and refusing to watch state television.

The laws also banned not allowing children to attend government schools, not abiding by family planning policies, deliberately damaging legal documents and marrying using only religious procedures.

Schools reportedly discourage students from using the traditional Arabic Muslim greeting As-Salaam Alaikum (peace be upon you), with the Government anxious to discourage what it views as the separation of the Muslim world from mainstream Chinese society.

It followed a call from Chinese Premier Xi Jinping to build a "great wall of steel" to safeguard the region after a group of Uighurs, claiming to belong to a division of Isis, reportedly threatened they would return to China and shed blood like rivers.

The crackdown has been felt in the region's biggest city, Kashgar, where activities in mosques are closely monitored. A live feed from inside them is reportedly beamed onto screens in police stations.

Plainclothes officers wearing Communist Party pins and dark glasses are also said to attend the mosques to keep an eye on their activities.

Signs around the province warn people that the greatest task to Xinjiangs masses is harmonising ethnic unity and religion.

A Local businessmen told the South China Morning Post the Government used the multiple checkpoints which surround the city to prevent travellers from joining in with prayers for the Islamic festival of Eid, with armed officials on guard.

Internet reacts to Googles anti-censorship in China stance Show all 2 1 /2 Internet reacts to Googles anti-censorship in China stance Internet reacts to Googles anti-censorship in China stance 295663.bin AFP PHOTO/GOH CHAI HIN Internet reacts to Googles anti-censorship in China stance 249725.bin AFP/Mark RALSTON

As a result James Leibold, an expert on Chinese security at Australias La Trobe University, told the Agence France Press that the country is essentially creating a police state of unprecedented scale.

Amnesty International also warned in a report earlier this year, that proposed amendments by the Chinese Government to the Regulation of Religious Affairs could be used to further suppress the rights to freedom of religion and belief, especially for Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims and unrecognised churches.

But Wang Hongwei, a national security expert at Beijings Renmin University, told The Guardian earlier last month that there was no sense in the the government's minds "that anything that they are doing is necessarily part of the problem."

He said: "It is the sense that the more troops you can have, the more security checkpoints, then that is the way to keep going.

He added that the high-pressure crackdown was designed to intimidate Islamist militants who threatened Chinas national and political systems.
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In 1948, many young Jamaican men found themselves destitute and looking for a better life. And so they left, initiating the biggest movement of people yet from the Caribbean to Britain.

Among them was James Berry. Of the rut he and his generation sought to escape, he later wrote: Here we were, hating the place we loved, because it was on the verge of choking us to death. His first night in London he spent, unpromisingly, in a Salvation Army hostel.

These mixed emotions  a love-hate relationship with his childhood home, along with the hope of a new life in a foreign, at times unforgiving, land  would come to inspire much of his poetry, establishing him as one of the most prominent black voices in contemporary British literature.

Born the fourth of six children in the small coastal village of Fair Prospect in Jamaica, Berry learned to read before he had turned four. From a very young age he was exposed to two distinct tongues: on the one hand, the standard English of the Bible and of Sunday prayer books; on the other, the tunes of everyday Jamaican. Both voices would permeate his work.

Having left school at 14, Berry went through several small jobs, as a shoemaker, a tailor and a travelling medicine salesman. Aged 17, he went to the United States to work as a farm labourer. But he loathed the treatment of black people he observed in New Orleans, and returned home within four years.

Two years later, in 1948, he left Jamaica once again  this time for good. He boarded the SS Orbita, which was transporting the second group of post-war immigrants from the West Indies to Britain, following the SS Empire Windrush earlier that year. On the ship, he came into contact for the first time with people from all over the Caribbean, and felt a camaraderie toward them.

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Upon arrival he soon got a job as a Post Office telegraph operator  a position he held for more than two decades. Simultaneously he wrote poetry, and started meeting some of the writers who had founded Londons Caribbean Artists Movement in the 1960s.

He himself formed a poetry performing troupe in 1972, the Bluefoot Travellers, making his own the term bluefoot, a pejorative Creole word for outsider.

His first book of verse, Fractured Circles, he published at the age of 54. One of its poems, titled Outsider, lay down his statement of purpose as an author:

If you see me lost

its that I moved

my circle from ruins

and I search to remake it whole.

Much of his poetry explored how to rebuild a sense of self and belonging in an at-first unfamiliar place.

Having ended his career as a telegraphist in 1977  the happiest day of his life  Berry was free to dedicate himself to writing. He published another four collections of verse, as well as a dozen books for children.

Berry did much experimentation with form, writing folk proverbs, rap lyrics, conversations, haikus and, in a series of poems that particularly suited him, fictional correspondence.

But what distinguished him was his ability to write beautifully both in standard English and in Creole, choosing one or the other, or sometimes interweaving the two in a single text. This style of his, he said, simply emerged naturally. But it was of great significance to Caribbean writers of his generation and the next, as it further legitimated Creole as a form of poetic expression. In one such poem, evoking the urge to set sail for Britain, Berry wrote:

To travel this ship, man

I woulda hurt, I woulda cheat or lie,

I strip mi yard, mi friend and cousin-them

To get this yah ship ride.

His attachment to oral patois placed him in the tradition of Claude McKay, the first Jamaican poet to defend the validity of Caribbean dialects in his 1912 poetry collection Songs of Jamaica. It also separated Berry from contemporaneous Caribbean poet Derek Walcott, who died earlier this year, and whose writing was in closer dialogue with the canonical English tradition, at least formally.

Berry edited two important anthologies of black British poetry  Bluefoot Travellers and News for Babylon  which served to publicise an otherwise little known literary movement that had developed with the arrival in Britain of young talents from the Caribbean. Descendants of the silent labour force of old empire speak, Berry wrote, with pride, of the poets whose work he had compiled. They show themselves loaded with talk, with a compulsive confidence and a fresh history.

Asking himself what unified West Indian-British poetry in the preface to News for Babylon, he answered that it was a collective psyche laden with anguish and rage.

Though he by and large felt welcome in Britain, a country he lived in until he died, he too experienced anguish and rage at the discrimination he sometimes encountered. In a poem about a racist dialogue he overheard on the London Underground, he concludes with the verses:

An aching hatred left the train

with me. All day suspicion

spurred me. I spoke hastily.

Retaliation wrestled me.

But Berry never gave up on the idea that people could feel empathy toward one another, and that poetry could speak to any reader, whatever their skin colour. Nor did he write only about the immigrant experience: his work could also be humorous and celebratory.

He was eager to pass his love of poetry on to the next generation, often doing workshops with schoolchildren, who he said inspired his writing. Some of his most touching poems  When I Dance, One, What To Do With A Variation? and Isnt My Name Magical?  he wrote for children.

Berry is survived by his partner Myra Barrs. As for his archive of poetry notebooks, diaries and other material, it was purchased by the British Library in 2012.

Into his waning years, the Jamaica hed left behind still was close to his heart. In a late poem, he wrote of being transported back to the land of his youth by the sight of a basketful of eggs:

I blinked, I saw: a trayful

of ripe naseberries, nesting.

I blinked, I saw: an open bagful

of ripe mangoes, nesting.

I blinked, I saw:

a mighty nest full of stars.

James Berry, poet, born 28 September 1924, died 20 June 2017
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In the days after the Chinese writer and dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on 8 October 2010, his country cut off trade talks with Norway, home of the Nobel committee, and placed his wife under house arrest.

In apparent protest at the award, a group of Chinese business and cultural leaders established an alternative to the Nobel, the Confucius Peace Prize, and later honoured such renegades as Vladimir Putin, Fidel Castro and Robert Mugabe.

Liu, who died yesterday aged 61, received the Nobel for what the committee called his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights. It was that very struggle that also made him a marked man in China.

He was in the middle of an 11-year prison sentence when he won the Nobel. But foreign reports about the honour were blacked out in China, where authorities called the award a desecration of the prize. Text messages that included his name went un-received, stymied by state-run cellular networks, and the news was squelched online by the Great Firewall.

Liu spent much of the last three decades in forced confinement  at home, at labour camps or in prison. And his final months, after being diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer in May and granted medical parole, were marked by international calls for his release.

His death at a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang was confirmed by a statement from the Chinese government, which makes Liu the latest in a string of Chinese dissidents whose incarceration ended in serious illness or fatality.

A photograph posted on 5 July on Twitter by the dissident writer Ye Du showed an emaciated Liu at the hospital with his wife, Yu Xia, a photographer and poet who had pleaded for better medical care for Liu.

A pair of American and German doctors who were granted permission to treat Liu said on Sunday that he was strong enough to seek medical treatment abroad. Chinese officials resisted that claim, and rebuffed requests from Germany and the US State Department to allow him to leave the country.

Through it all, Lius plight remained largely invisible at home, where his writings were censored and he was labelled a mere criminal.

A bespectacled chain-smoker with a stutter, Liu established himself as a literary and political bomb-thrower in the mid-1980s, when Chinese society experienced a cultural fever under reform-minded Communist Party officials.

Liu (whose full name is pronounced lee-oh SHEEOW-bwoh) was the enfant terrible of the late-Eighties intellectual scene in Beijing, says journalist Orville Schell, an acquaintance of Liu and a China scholar at the Asia Society in New York. He was somebody who you invited to a party with some trepidation, because he was bound to offend someone.

Confucius was a mediocre talent, Liu said; contemporary Chinese writers were even worse. The countrys Marxism-Leninism, he wrote in one article, was not so much a belief system as a tool used by rulers to impose ideological dictatorship.

Liu was a visiting scholar at Columbia University when, in April 1989, thousands of students began demonstrating in Tiananmen Square to demand democratic reforms. The assembly marked a turning point for Liu, who arrived at Tiananmen in May and began protesting alongside the movements young leaders.

When the chants began to die down and soldiers started trying to clear the square, Liu and three friends erected a tent alongside the 10-storey Monument to the People's Heroes, and began a 72-hour hunger strike.

We are not in search of death; we are looking for real life, the strikers declared in a statement. We want to show that democracy practised by the people by peaceful means is strong and tenacious. We want to break the undemocratic order maintained by bayonets and by lies.

Two nights later, military units launched a full-scale assault on the square, firing their rifles and driving armoured vehicles into crowds that lined the surrounding streets. Liu and his fellow hunger-strikers, fearing a bloodbath in the square, acted as negotiators between military forces and the remaining demonstrators. At dawn on 4 June, they successfully persuaded the students to leave.

Lius actions  at one point he grabbed a rifle from a demonstrator and smashed it on the ground, preventing what he saw as an excuse for the military to gun everybody down  were widely credited with saving thousands of lives. Still, several hundred civilians were killed in the attacks, details of which were suppressed by the Chinese government.

Since the moment I walked out of the square, my heart has been heavy, Liu said in The Gate of Heavenly Peace, a 1995 documentary that took its name from the English translation of Tiananmen. Ive never gotten over this.

While biking on 6 June, during a government crackdown that led other prominent demonstrators to go into hiding, Liu was captured by Chinese officers. He was imprisoned for 21 months, branded a black hand and an evil mastermind and forbidden from publishing in China  a dictate that he subverted through pseudonyms and by penning articles for overseas publications.

Liu published more than 1,000 essays by his count, and called for reform rather than revolution. Yet he remained under state surveillance, and in 1996 was sentenced to three years of forced labour for drafting a declaration that called for reconciliation with Taiwan, freedom for Tibet and the impeachment of President Jiang Zemin.

Instead of then leaving the country, Liu chose to remain, a decision that was the path of destruction but that enabled him to remain an effective critic of the state, Schell says. His work culminated in Charter 08, a sweeping pro-democracy manifesto that landed him in prison for the last time.

Modelled in part on Charter 77  the anti-Communist tract that Czech dissidents such as Vaclav Havel, a friend of Liu, had drafted decades earlier  the document drew unexpectedly wide-ranging support, receiving 10,000 signatures from farmers, lawyers, philosophers and street vendors until it was pulled off the internet by Chinese censors.

It was the organisation [that concerned them], Nicholas Bequelin, then an Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, told the Guardian in 2009. It was across different social groups and across the country. Thats really one of the red lines for the party.

Liu was captured by police shortly before the documents release and confined to a windowless room north of Beijing. His final public statement was in court, days before he was found guilty of inciting subversion of state power on Christmas Day 2009.

I firmly believe that Chinas political progress will never stop, and Im full of optimistic expectations of freedom coming to China in the future, because no force can block the human desire for freedom, he said in the statement. Entitled I Have No Enemies, it was later read at his Nobel ceremony.

Liu was born in the north-eastern city of Changchun on 28 December 1955, and came of age during the worst years of the Cultural Revolution. In Mao Zedongs bid to reassert his authority and revive revolutionary zeal, intellectuals and alleged dissidents were re-educated through forced labour, and millions of urban children were sent out of school and down to the countryside.

With his father, a professor of Chinese literature, Liu worked for a time in Inner Mongolia. He returned to Changchun and graduated from Jilin University in 1982, part of the first exiles cohort after Maos death in 1976. He received a masters degree in Chinese literature from Beijing Normal University in 1984, and his doctorate there four years later.

Liu married his wife Xia at a labour camp in 1996, although their marriage was not officially recognised for another two years. In 2012, she told The Associated Press she was allowed to visit him in prison once a month, but was otherwise permitted to leave her apartment only to buy groceries and see her parents.

A previous marriage ended in divorce during Lius first prison sentence. In addition to his wife, survivors include son Tao from his first marriage.

Liu focused increasingly on his writing and poetry in later years, and from 2003 to 2007 served as president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre. Some of his work was translated into English and published in the 2012 collections No Enemies, No Hatred and June Fourth Elegies.

The latter featured poems that Liu wrote each year in commemoration of the Tiananmen Square attacks. The writing, he said, was a means of bearing witness to a tragedy that had been excised from the countrys official histories.

He wrote in one poem:

The day

seems more and more distant,

and yet for me it

remains a needle inside my body

remains a crowd of mothers who've lost their children.

Liu Xiaobo, author and Nobel peace laureate, born 28 December 1955, died 13 July 2017

 Washington Post
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Deliveroo drivers expressed their fears about attacks in London borough of Hackney last month, before one of them was among five victims targeted in a series of acid attacks by two men on mopeds in the capital last night.

Jabed Duzzahuru is thought to have been permanently scarred after he was targeted on his way home from work.

"I did not know if my face was okay, I thought it had gone," the 32-year-old said afterwards.

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"Why should I have to suffer?" added the president of a group which represents more than 2,500 delivery drivers from companies including Deliveroo and UberEats. "I don't think my lip will get better, even if it does get better it's going to take a long time."

Deliveroo said it was "in touch with the rider and will be providing him with support".

But it has emerged that last month drivers for the company had formed a group on the WhatsApp messaging service, to share information with each other about potential attack hotspots after a series of violent incidents in Hackney.

Some of them had reported attempts to steal their mopeds or their phones, according to the Hackney Gazette, which first reported the story.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA

Other drivers were refusing to go to certain parts of the borough late at night, one driver, who wished to remain anonymous, told the newspaper.

"People who refuse to go to specific addresses or areas are just getting kicked off by Deliveroo," he said. "They say you have to go there or they'll get an email saying you've been removed from the service."

He claimed that 40 out of 50 drivers in the WhatsApp group now refused to work after 9.30 at night through fear.

Deliveroo disputed the claim, a spokesperson telling The Independent: "The safety of our riders is of paramount importance to us and we will work with the police to help bring anyone who has attacked one of our riders to justice.

"If riders feel unsafe working in a particular area then they are of course able to stop working there and move to any other area. We always advise them to contact the police and us if they feel in danger."

They added: "These are truly shocking attacks and we are working with the authorities to help bring the perpetrators to justice. We are in touch with the rider and will be providing him with support.

We have been in touch with all riders who were working in these areas at the time of last night's attacks to check whether they were a victim of these horrific crimes and to gather further information that might help the police with their inquiries. We will be meeting with the police and other delivery companies to agree concrete action to keep our riders safe from this senseless violence.

Recommended This is what you should do immediately if you witness an acid attack

Although police were informed of the regular moped attacks, drivers in Hackney reportedly felt that not enough was being done to protect them.

Police have so far arrested two teenagers, aged 15 and 16, in connection with last night's attacks which all took place in the neighbouring boroughs of Hackney and Islington.

They prompted calls to change the law to restrict the sale of acid following a recent spike in its use by criminal gangs and individuals with a grudge.
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Police have thwarted five terror attacks in the last four months, Britains most senior police officer has said.

More than a dozen atrocities have been stopped in the last two years, including some in the last few weeks that were minutes from being carried out, revealed Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick.

Thirty-six people have been killed, and scores more injured, in four terror attacks in the UK this year.

Speaking on Nick Ferraris show on LBC on Friday, Ms Dick said a very large number of plots have been foiled over the last few years.

Recommended Sharp rise in number of UK terror plots foiled since March

Pressed on exactly how many attacks have been thwarted, she said that in just the last few weeks five have been averted.

Overall, I think it is well into the teens in the last couple of years, where we know people were intent on attacking and that has been stopped, she added.

In addition, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of arrests of people who are radicalised, and are either spreading hatred or supporting terrorism, or want to carry out a terrorist attack.

We have had a huge number of successful operations, together with the intelligence agencies and we work very closely with them and with colleagues overseas.

The Met Police Commissioner, Ms Dick, also spoke of hundreds and hundreds of arrests (Reuters)

Quizzed on how far-progressed the thwarted attacks were, Ms Dick suggested some of them were within minutes of being executed by terrorists.

Some of them were very close, we would say, to an attack  very close, she said.

When asked if they were within minutes of being carried out, Ms Dick replied: Yes.

The commissioner later clarified the five attacks which had been thwarted were done so over the last three to four months.

Branding the recent terrorist outrages horrific, Ms Dick said the police and authorities need people to talk to them about what is happening in their communities.

She said violent extremism came many forms and there were undoubtedly examples of people who have carried out attacks who are home-grown or who may have travelled or been influenced by people overseas.

They are living in our communities and that is a problem for all of us, Ms Dick said.

The Government has said they are going to review their strategy and I think there is going to be a huge focus in that on what we do to prevent people becoming radicalised, and what we do to prevent radicalised people becoming violent.

Terror attacks carried out using vehicles have blighted the capital since March  resulting in large concrete blocks, acting as pedestrian-protecting barricades, being placed on several bridges across London.

When quizzed on whether the safety features will remain permanently, Ms Dick said they may well be, but not in that form.

 Holidaymakers urged to watch film about terrorist attacks

She added: These are highly effective, they are not very attractive, we need to work with the local authorities and with the mayor obviously and Transport for London to get a similar effect... which is not quite so ugly.

I think they will be needed forever.

Counter-terror police arrested a 49-year-old man on suspicion of the preparation of acts to commit terrorism on Thursday, the Met said.

He was stopped by officers at London City Airport and taken to a south London police station for questioning.

Scotland Yard said the man has been released on bail to return on a date in late July and that a search at an address in Essex was undertaken, but this is now complete.
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East London residents have expressed shock and alarm following a spate of gruesome acid attacks in the area which saw five people doused by two men on mopeds during a 90-minute spree.

People living close to the incidents, which took place in Hackney, Shoreditch, Stoke Newington and Islington, said they were alarmed that such attacks could happen in their peaceful neighbourhoods and called for action to be taken to prevent them.

All victims were taken to hospital after being attacked during the rampage on Thursday night, with one left with life-changing injuries after being doused on Cazenove Road in Stoke Newington, according to the Metropolitan Police.

Police said the assaults appeared to be linked, with two involving victims having their mopeds taken. A male teenager has been arrested on suspicious of grievous bodily harm and robbery.

Sahar Saarvari, a mother of two young children living on Cazenove Road, just metres away from where the scene of the third incident, said she heard the commotion from inside her house and now felt afraid living in the area.

Stuff like this doesn't really happen in this area. Ive lived on this street for 11 years and its really quiet, Ms Saarvari told The Independent.

Im scared now. I have two kids aged nine and six who go to school on the street. Theres a mosque just up the road.

Primary school on Cazenove Road in Stoke Newington (May Bulman)

Alex Monet, who lives on the same street just opposite the corner where the attack took place, said: The attack itself is gruesome, but the fact that it happened here is very surprising. Its a very quiet street with a few schools and different temples.

People seem to live happily among each other. I would never think that such weapons would be used to carry out actions like this around here. Most people mind their own business and its a very family-oriented area. The biggest threat is to be blocked by two prams on the sidewalk.

A Muslim father living close by, who did not want to be named, said Im fearful now. Its a nice residential area, you dont get stuff like that going on around here.

My kids go to a primary school on this road. My wife just told me to be careful when I left the house. Its a little bit scary. You hear about the acid attacks linked to hate crime. It looks like these ones arent, but its very worrying.

A mother-of-two who has lived in Stoke Newington for eight years and was taking her daughter to school the morning after the attack said: Im shocked. Its just horrific. They need to pass a law preventing this from happening.

This is such a diverse area, maybe we need more police on the streets. There are lots of kids around here and loads of schools. They need to do more to protect our children."

The spate of acid attacks comes just weeks after a man threw acid in the faces of an aspiring model and her cousin through the windows of a car in Newham, east London, in an attack that is being classed as a hate crime.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA

Resham Khan, 21, and Jameel Muhktar, 37, were left with life-changing neck and face injuries when acid was thrown at them as they waited at traffic lights in east London on Ms Khans birthday last month.

Following the incidents on Thursday night, Labour MP for East Ham Stephen Timms has called for carrying acid to be made a crime and urged that stop-and-search procedures should be reviewed in light of the attacks.

Theresa May meanwhile hinted at the introduction of new legislation to combat a rise in acid attacks, saying the Government is working with police to see what more can be done to prevent such "horrific" attacks from happening.
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A senior government adviser is facing calls for his sacking after comparing hard Brexit to appeasing the Nazis in the 1930s.

Lord Andrew Adonis, the Labour peer and ex-minister who now chairs the Government's National Infrastructure Commission, said Britain is in "serious danger" of getting Brexit wrong and his party should push to stay in the EU single market.

My language is usually pretty subdued in politics," he told The House magazine. "But for anyone with a historical sense  and Im a historian  recognises that leaving the economic institutions of the European Union, which have guided our destiny as a trading nation for half a century, is a very big step and the importance cant be overemphasised.

"To my mind, its as big a step that were taking as a country as decolonisation in the 1950s and 60s and appeasement in the 1930s. We got it right on decolonisation; we got it wrong on appeasement and I think were in serious danger of getting it wrong in the way that we leave the EU."

He added: If we cant have our cake and eat it then we face a serious relative decline in our living standards compared with France and Germany and I dont believe the British people will put up with that. So we would, in that event, I believe face a crisis. It may be a crisis played out over quite a number of years  which, after all, is what happened with appeasement  but there will be a crisis.

Standing by his remarks in a separate interview with the BBC, he said if the country was to do a hard Brexit, "then I do believe this will be the worst mistake this country has made since the 1930s."

Conservative MPs responded by calling for the former Labour transport secretary's dismissal. Former Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith said he was astonished and appalled, and found the comments deeply offensive.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters

Peter Bone, the Conservative MP for Wellingborough told The Sun Lord Adonis should be fired and Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire said he should be removed from any advisory role to government.

His view appears to be in line with the majority of those in the UK. Research by Kings College London, Rand Europe and Cambridge University found that people were more concerned with trade deals with EU and foreign countries than they were on limiting free movement of labour.

Opinion on the single market is divided in the Commons. Labour MP Stephen Kinnock told The Daily Telegraph that at least 15 Conservative MPs are in talks with to prevent a hard Brexit, meaning the Prime Ministers working parliamentary majority of 12 could be defeated.

Lord Adonis said it was only a matter of time before Jeremy Corbyn backs the single market.

However, the Labour leader recently sacked three shadow ministers who wanted to amend the Queens Speech to reflect support for keeping Britain in it.

But in a briefing to journalists, the Prime Ministers spokeswoman refused calls from her colleagues to sack Lord Adonis despite completely disagreeing with his comments on Brexit. The spokeswoman added: Andrew Adonis is not a member of the Government, its for him to explain his remarks but the PM as you can imagine disagrees with them.

Hes not a Conservative peer, his job is to provide independent advice to the Government on infrastructure. It doesnt have anything to do with the views he expressed on Brexit today. She completely disagrees with those views.

Asked why the PM sacked Lord Heseltine, the former Deputy Prime Minister, for his outspoken intervention on Brexit, the spokeswoman added: Its not comparable. Lord Heseltine is a Conservative peer. Lord Adonis is not a Conservative peer, he is not a member of the Government. He provides advice to the Government on infrastructure.

In March, Lord Heseltine was sacked from five roles as a Government adviser after rebelling on a parliamentary vote in the Lords on Brexit. At the time, he said sometimes in politics there are issues which transcend party politics.
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An American doctor will to travel to London to examine Charlie Gard, the terminally ill baby at the centre of a fierce debate over parental rights in the UK.

Dr Michio Hirano of Columbia University will assess whether Charlie is eligible for an experimental treatment, which could improve his quality of life and reduce some of the brain damage caused by his illness. The doctor claims Charlie has about a 10 per cent chance of improving with the help of this treatment.

British High Court Judge Nicholas Francis said on Friday that he is open-minded about the evidence that Mr Hirano could provide. Mr Francis will allow him to meet with Charlies medical team to discuss the case.

Charlie suffers from a little-known genetic disease called mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, which has left him unable to see, hear, move, swallow or even breathe without life support.

His parents want to take him to the US for treatment, but UK courts have blocked the move, claiming it will do more harm to the baby than good.

The case has made its way to Britains High Court, which will weigh whether Charlies parents should be able to defy the advice of his doctors and transport him to the US.

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. 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In a court appearance on Thursday, Mr Hirano said there is a small but significant chance the experimental treatment would improve Charlies condition, adding: The only way to tell if the brain damage is reversible is by trying new therapy.

The doctor, an expert in mitochondrial diseases and genetic myopathies, said he would recommend four strong doses of nucleoside bypass therapy to combat the illness.

Great Ormond Street Hospital, where Charlie is being treated, has said the experimental treatment would be futile and would prolong Charlies suffering.

This is not an issue about money or resources, but absolutely about what is right for Charlie, the hospital said in a statement.

At least two hospitals in the US have said they will treat Charlie if legal hurdles are cleared, and if he receives the emergency approval from the FDA necessary for experimental treatment.
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A man who fled torture in his home country 17 years ago has spoken out about the pain of not being able to witness his son grow up due to UK immigration policy.

Its very difficult to see your son grow up on Skype, David Lordkipanidze told The Independent. Psychologically, I am arrested... Its like the Government has sentenced me to die alone without family in a different country.

The 60-year-old former artist fled Georgia for the UK in 2000 after his political activism against the government landed him in trouble with the authorities.

Along with his wife Irine, he applied for asylum in Britain. Two-years later the couple had a son, George, only for their application to be refused in 2005.

It forced the family into a gut wrenching decision.

Unable to return without risking his own life, David stayed in Britain to appeal the decision, but his wife and son returned to Georgia in the hope that they would soon be able to join him.

Five years later, David was granted indefinite leave to remain and shortly afterwards he was granted British citizenship.

But to his surprise, his wife and son were unable to join him.

A Minimum Income Requirement introduced by the coalition government in 2012 means a UK citizen must earn more than 18,600 before they can sponsor a non-European spouse or partner to join them.

David, who worked as an artist in Georgia but has struggled to find steady and well-paid work in the UK.

As a result, he said he has been forced to watch George, now 13, grow up via the Skype internet messaging and webcam service.

The 60-year-old has seen his wife and child just three times since they parted with him in 2005, when he has been on short visits to Georgia on his British passport.

With a British passport to stay as a tourist for a short time is okay, but to stay there longer wouldn't be safe, he said. I cant describe how I feel when I see them. Its so good, but when you leave its so bad. Its so difficult for me not to be with them.

I speak to my son every day. He's going to school. Hes in a painting exhibition, like his dad. I'm always giving him advice. He's starting to be a teenager now.

With indefinite leave to remain, David was allowed to work and he did take up jobs as a caretaker, a concierge and kitchen worker.

But for the past few years he has struggled to find work. His age makes it more difficult, he said, adding that he is beginning to lose hope that he will ever be reunited with his wife and child.

Sometimes my family argues with me, saying they arent happy that Im not doing very well, that Im not finding a job, that Im not helping them," he said.

But its very hard to find a job here. I go to the job centre all the time. I volunteer all the time. But Im 60. If I couldn't find a Job 10 years ago, how will I now?

He added: If I could go back to Georgia I would have been back a long time ago. And unfortunately its not only me in this situation. There are a lot of people, so many people. With families across the continent. Im a British citizen, but you need to have money."

A Supreme Court ruling in February upheld the Government policy to deny foreign spouses visas on the basis of income, ruling against a case brought by campaigners against the policy.

But judges admitted it would continue to cause significant hardship for thousands of couples.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA

Forty-one per cent of British citizens do not meet the threshold. In 2015, it was estimated that at least 15,000 children had faced separation from a parent as a result of it.

Now, five years on from its introduction and with Brexit underway, critics argue the policy must change in order to stop tearing families apart.

Nazek Ramadan, director of Migrant Voice, a charity which supports David, told The Independent: The spousal visa cap uses your wealth to decide whether you have the right to fall in love and have a normal family life.

Weve spoken to all kinds of people  from refugees fleeing war to British workers to European or American professionals  who are unable to see their partners or children.

With our immigration system due to be rewritten as the Brexit process continues, its time for both common sense and compassion. Our policy should help families to thrive and flourish, not tear them apart.
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Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire and those living within the shadow of the charred block held a silent walk around the scene of the tragedy to honour those who were killed in the fatal blaze.

The event, which was held away from cameras, gave residents a chance to come together and pay their respects.

It was organised by Grenfell United, a collective created for those who fled the inferno in West London.

Samia Badani, chairman of the Bramley House Residents Association, broke away from the march early because it became "difficult" for her.

She said: "The more we walked and came towards the tower, the more memories there were for me and it was very hard.

"Maybe because it was a silent march, I remembered too vividly and it was too much for me."

Ms Badani said the walk, which was attended by up to 50 people, was like a "blanket of security".

She said: "I think it was about getting together and sharing the pain and the experience with people who were there.

"Everyone saw how the community came together straight after it happened and I think this was perhaps because we wanted some of that back."

The walk comes as reports said the cladding system used on Grenfell Tower was approved by a building control officer.

The system passed checks when less than half of the building had been reclad, according to a newsletter distributed to Grenfell residents by the contractor, Rydon, and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), the Guardian claimed.

The local council had already said building control officers were onsite 16 times during construction and that all works had been certified as being in line with regulations.

In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Show all 51 1 /51 In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police have released images from inside the tower where at least 58 people have died Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by polices what appears to be a stationary bicycle sitting among the ashes In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by police shows the remnants of a burnt-out bathroom In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Picture showing the lifts on an unknown floor Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency crews outside the front entrance to the tower Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Fire crews inspecting flats in the burnt out tower London Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Grenfell Tower is seen in the distance PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A drone flies near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire 'Theresa May Stay Away' message written on the messages of support at Latymer Community Church for those affected by the fire Ray Tang/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire An aerial view of the area surrounding Grenfall tower Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Donated shoes sit in the Westway Sports Centre near to the site of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of support for those affected by the massive fire in Grenfell Tower are displayed on a well near the tower in London AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A local resident stands on her balcony by the gutted Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of condolence are left at a relief centre close to the scene of the fire that broke out at Grenfell Tower, EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A police officer stands by a security cordon outside Latimer Road station Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firemen examine the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London on a huge ladder AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A search dog is led through the rubble of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn comforts a local resident (name not given) at St Clement's Church in west London where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hugs councillor Mushtaq Lasharie as he arrives at St Clement's Church in Latimer Road, where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn meeting staff and volunteers at St Clementis Church in Latimer Road David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firefighters with a dog walk around the base of the Grenfell Tower REUTERS/Peter Nicholls In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emotions run high as people attend a candle lit vigil outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Debris hangs from the blackened exterior of Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman speaks to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman holds a missing person posters near the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Sadiq Khan speaking with a resident James Gourley/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Ken Livingstone walks near the scene of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is confronted by Kai Ramos, 7, near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks to a woman outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers distribute aid near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People gather to observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People light candles as they observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man distributes food from the back of a van near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A firefighter is cheered near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A T-shirt with a written message from the London Fire Brigade hangs from a fence near The Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A young girl on her way to lay flowers near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire The remains of residential tower block Grenfell Tower are seen from Dixon House a nearby tower block Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers prepare supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block which was destroyed in a fire REUTERS/Neil Hall In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers move a car to make space for a lorry picking up supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People distribute boxes of food near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower bloc REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman touches a missing poster for 12-year-old Jessica Urbano on a tribute wall after laying flowers on the side of Latymer Community Church next to the fire-gutted Grenfell Tower AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man looks at messages written on a wall near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Candles and messages of condolence near where the fire broke out at Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry a stretcher towards Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency services at Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry out a body from Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Rick Findler/PA Wire

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council announced it's next meeting will take place on 19 July - and it will be open to the media.

A public meeting in June was scrapped after then-council leader Nicholas Paget-Brown realised journalists were present.

Meanwhile, cladding reported to have been used on the Grenfell Tower has been found on 44 school buildings in Scotland, officials at Holyrood said.
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Kings College London is planning to become the first British university to open a campus in Europe in the wake of the Brexit vote.

The institution is hoping the new site in eastern German city of Dresden will attract international students and academics.

King's College and TU Dresden have run collaborative research projects together called since 2015 and already offer shared professorships and PhD programmes.

The British university has now confirmed it was considering future collaborations with the German institution.

Professor Stefan Bornstein, who leads the "Transcampus" initiative, told Times Higher Education that the new campus was planned before the Brexit vote.

The director and chair of the department of medicine at TU Dresden, said the new campus would allow the university to maintain its presence in Europe and keep European funding.

We cannot allow things that have developed for so many years in a positive way [to be] hampered or impaired by political decisions that actually nobody really wanted, he added. Its a nice way to have a solution to get around this very stupid Brexit idea.

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A Kings spokeswoman said: Kings values the Transcampus initiative with TU Dresden, which demonstrates the success of cross-national and institutional links. We will continue to work together in various fields on research and exchange, and discuss potential further collaborations.

A number of UK colleges are thought to be making similar plans for campuses on the continent. It was reported that The University of Oxford was considering a new site in Paris, but it has since denied this.
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Saudi Arabia funds ideologies which lead to extremist activity in the UK, the former British ambassador to Riyadh has said.

The Saudis [have] not quite appreciated the impact their funding of a certain brand of Islam is having in the countries in which they do it  it is not just Britain and Europe," Sir William Patey said, speaking at a round-table debate in Parliament.

That is a dialogue we need to have. They are not funding terrorism.

"They are funding something else, which may down the road lead to individuals being radicalised and becoming fodder for terrorism."

Saudi Arabia is funding an ideology with consequences of which they might not be aware, according to Sir William.

It is unhealthy and we need to do something about it.

Sir William, 64, was British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2006 to 2010 and has headed the Foreign Office Middle East desk.

Saudis find it every easy to back off the idea that they are funding terrorism because they are not", he said.

What the World Association [sic] of Muslim Youth and the Muslim World League are doing is funding mosques and promoting an ideology  the Salafist Wahhabist ideology.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA

Sir William discussed the difficulty of defining the funding of terrorism, and said grown-up dialogue with the Gulf about what we think is needed.

The Conservative Middle East Council, which organised the debate, aims to ensure that Conservative MPs and Peers understand the Middle East.

The opposition has criticised the Government for not publishing a report into the funding of extremist groups in the UK, claiming the move is intended to avoid criticising Saudi Arabia.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: The most common source of support for Islamist extremist organisations in the UK is from small, anonymous public donations, with the majority of these donations most likely coming from UK-based individuals.

In a written statement to Parliament about the government-commissioned report, she said the Home Office has refused to publish the report due to the volume of personal information it contains and for national security reasons.

Sir William also criticised recent moves by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt to isolate Qatar.

This has all the hallmarks of a policy that has not been thought through. It does not smack of a considered strategy, he said.

Sir William identified what he perceives as the real motive for the dispute between the neighbouring states.

This is about the Muslim Brotherhood. It is a battle for the future of the Middle East.

The former ambassador's Linkedin profile lists his current occupations as non-executive director of HSBC in the Middle East, as well as adviser to AECOM engineering firm and Control Risks, a global risk consultancy.
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Theresa May and the Home Office hinted at the introduction of new legislation to combat a spate of acid attacks on Thursday after a horrific rampage in London left five people injured.

Two men on mopeds carried out five acid attacks during a spree across the capital late on Thursday, which lasted less than 90 minutes, according to the Metropolitan Police.

Asked about the assaults and whether a change in sentencing guidelines was needed, the Prime Ministers spokeswoman said Ms May viewed the acid attack as horrific.

It is already an offence to carry acid or a corrosive substance with intent to cause harm. And anyone using it can be prosecuted for pretty serious offences including ABH and GBH. We are working with the police to see what more we could do.

Home Office ministers are reported to be considering measures that would see corrosive substances treated in the same way as other weapons, such as knives, which would also restrict their sale to those aged 18 or over.

Cressida Dick, the London police chief, also said that her officers were concerned by the increase in the completely barbaric attacks in he capital.

She told LBC radio: We will arrest people, we will enforce the law as we can, and we are working very closely with the [Government] to try to see if there is any changes in the law required.

Following the attack, two teenage boys were arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery, and have been taken to a north London police station.

Recommended MP says carrying acid should be an offence after spate of attacks

Stephen Timms, the Labour MP for East Ham, has called on the Government to make carrying acid a crime, and will argue in a parliamentary debate on the topic on Monday that regulations surrounding aside should be overhauled very quickly.

Carrying acid should in itself be an offence, in the same way that carrying a knife was made an offence several years ago, he told the BBC Radio 4s Today programme, following the assault in his constituency on Thursday evening.

I think thats been a pretty effective change, and I think the same change should be made for acid.

Under the current law, if police stop someone carrying acid they have to prove intent to cause harm.

When asked whether the law would punish people using the corrosives for harmless purposes, Mr Timms said: Many people do use sulphuric acid for DIY for drain clearing  purposes of that kind  but just as its perfectly lawful to buy a knife for use in your kitchen at home... and for it to be wrapped up and safe to carry, thats fine.

We can certainly come up with arrangements that would allow people to use sulphuric acid in the normal way.

The comments by Mr Timms were also echoed by Jaf Shah, the executive director of the Acid Survivors Trust, who said that gang members see acid attacks as a safer form of crime, and called for possession to be criminalised.

Mr Shah also suggested the Government could go further and regulate the sale of concentrated acid, including an age restriction or ban on the cash sales of the fluid, which can be bought in DIY stores for as little as 7 a litre.

Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims Show all 5 1 /5 Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims 621029.bin Department for International Development Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims 621030.bin Department for International Development Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims 621031.bin Department for International Development Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims 621034.bin Department for International Development Acid attacks: Bangladesh's hidden victims 621035.bin Department for International Development

In a way, its almost like a safer crime to commit, especially for gang members perhaps lower down the hierarchy, he said.

Tim Farron, the outgoing Liberal Democrat leader, said that more needed to be done to tackle the horrific rise of acid attacks across the country. Acid is a potentially deadly weapon that can cause life-changing injures; it must be treated as such, he said.

We need to look at how best to restrict the availability of acid and ensure those committing these horrific attacks are brought to justice.

That should include increasing funding for community policing to gather intelligence, prevent crime and make our streets safer.

In 2016, there were 455 crimes in London where a corrosive was used, or used as a threat, suggesting the use of acid in assaults is becoming more widespread. While Ms Mays intervention is markedly non-committal, it does suggest the Prime Minister is looking at taking action following the recent attacks in the capital.
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At least 15 Conservative MPs are in talks with a Labour MP to prevent a hard Brexit  potentially enough to defeat Theresa May in the Commons.

Stephen Kinnock said there was a growing recognition of the need for Britain to embrace a Norway-style arrangement to head off the threat of severe economic damage.

The MP said he was seeking support for Britain remaining within the European Economic Area (EEA) after Brexit and, therefore, the EU single market  at least for a period of time.

Recommended Labour MPs demand Corbyn fights to stay in single market

I have been reaching out with a particular proposal to 15 Conservative MPs so far, he told The Daily Telegraph.

There is a growing recognition now in the economy that getting the right transitional deal is now the top priority.

What we need to do is to form a coalition of common sense to secure in particular a sensible pragmatic transition deal, which in my opinion should be based on the EEA.

It is a sensible half way house to give our economy the certainty it so desperately needs.

Given the Prime Ministers precarious working majority of just 12, a group of 15 rebel Tories could be sufficient to defeat the Conservatives in any Commons vote.

However, that would require Labour to shift its confusing policy, which is currently only to keep the benefits of membership of the single market, without explaining how.

Two weeks ago, Jeremy Corbyn sacked three shadow ministers who supported an amendment to the Queens Speech aimed at keeping Britain in the single market.

But Lord Adonis, the former Labour Cabinet minister, said it was only a matter of time before Mr Corbyn followed the public in backing the single market.

And new research suggests voters are in the mood for compromise, placing more value on maintaining strong trade with the EU than on curbing free movement of workers.

The survey, by King's College London and Cambridge University, found backing for a Norway-style relationship - remaining within the single market, while accepting freedom of movement and some loss of sovereignty.

Ms May has made ending free movement her red line in the Brexit negotiations, arguing the public clearly voted to curb EU immigration.

But a growing number of MPs argue it is possible to prevent people coming to Britain without jobs to go to, without breaching EU rules on free movement.

Mr Kinnock added: The case for the EEA is three-fold. It buys us time to negotiate the final state deal with the EU, it delivers certainty for business and workers, and it allows us to reform freedom of movement.

Lord Adonis  who described a hard Brexit as the worst mistake this country has made since appeasement in the 1930s  predicted Labour would back staying in the single market.

We are winning the argument in the country, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

The party will follow the country - they always do. Its only a matter of time before politicians come into line with the public.

There is no way that the Labour party - as the party representing the working people of this country - is going to take a position that sacrifices their jobs and makes them poorer.
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The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has credited the US's Bernie Sanders with some of his social democratic campaign planks, telling the writer Naomi Klein that he embraced comparisons with the Vermont senator.

Bernie called me the day after our election here, Mr Corbyn said in an interview published Thursday by the Intercept. I was half-asleep watching something on television. And Bernie comes on to say, well done on the campaign, and I was interested in your campaigning ideas. Where did you get them from? And I said, well, you, actually.

Mr Corbyn, who won the leadership of the Labour Party in 2015 and held it after a 2016 challenge, has frequently been cited by Mr Sanders as an example of how left politics can win. This year, a snap election that began with predictions about Mr Corbyn driving Labour into the wilderness ended with a series of surprise gains, and Prime Minister Theresa May clinging to power in a controversial deal with Northern Irelands Democratic Unionist Party. According to a post-election analysis by Ipsos Mori, over half of eligible British voters under age 30 turned out  double the youth turnout rate in some American elections. That led to surprising Labour gains in cities with large universities, with student turnout overturning large Conservative majorities.

Recommended Bernie Sanders says Labour party shows the way to beat Donald Trump

Theres a lesson to be learned from what Corbyn did in the UK, said Mr Sanders in a recent interview with The Washington Post. The remarkable thing about his election  and he did better than I did  was that among younger people, the voter turnout was as high as it was among the general population. That was unprecedented.

In recent elections, Democrats have succeeded in pushing up youth turnout just twice  when Barack Obama was on the ballot. In 2010 and 2014, youth turnout plunged. And in this years special elections, youth turnout edged up only slightly. In Jon Ossoffs near-miss bid for Georgias 6th congressional district, 17.2 per cent of the electorate consisted of millennials. That was up from 14 per cent in the races April primary  but millennials made up 25 per cent of all eligible voters.

If we can take the voter turnout in this country from 60 per cent to 70 per cent, which is where it was in the UK, and bring young people into the electoral process, Democrats would win a landslide victory, said Mr Sanders.

(C) Washington Post
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Jeremy Corbyn is set to attack Theresa May's "zombie government" as he visits two Conservative-held seats on the south coast.

The Labour leader is continuing his election-style summer campaign as he calls on the Prime Minister to step aside and make way for Labours "government in waiting".

He will visit Southampton Itchen, Labours top target seat and one which the party held from 1992 to 2015 and came within 31 votes of regaining last month, and Bournemouth West, which is a more ambitious target.

The Tories have held the seat since its creation in 1950 but their majority was cut almost in half after there was a 6.6 per cent swing to Labour in the last election.

"Theresa May's Government, propped up by the DUP, is nothing more than a zombie Government; with no ideas, no answers and no leadership. This is a Government in name only, having to ask other parties to 'clarify and improve' its policies and delaying most parliamentary business until the autumn, Mr Corbyn will say.

"If the Conservatives are unable to govern, they should step aside. Labour is no longer just the official opposition, we are a government in waiting.

"The Conservatives' 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, that make life worse for the many to maintain the privilege of the few."

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 Labour leader has already visited marginal seats of Hastings & Rye, Hendon and Chingford & Woodford Green this month as he continues preparing for an election which many are predicting will happen much earlier than the scheduled date of 2022.

Additional reporting Press Association
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Brexit can still be stopped if Britains leaders realise EU officials are prepared to meet us halfway on restricting the free movement of people, Tony Blair has said in his first intervention since the general election.

While the former Labour Prime Minister admitted there is no groundswell for a second referendum on membership of the EU, Mr Blair said it is possible that the will of the British people could change as the public becomes more aware of the potential economic damage of hard Brexit.

He also appeared sceptical of a soft Brexit, which would mean Britain remaining in the single market and the customs union, adding the political difficulties are evident. It would lead in short order to a scratch of the British collective head and feeling of oh well, in that case, whats the point of leaving?.

In an eight-page article on Brexit and the centre in European politics, Mr Blair wrote: Rational consideration of the options would sensibly include the option of negotiating for Britain to stay within a Europe itself prepared to reform and meet us halfway.

He continued, suggesting reform is now on Europes agenda and EU leaders are willing to consider changes to accommodate Britain including around the freedom of movement  one of the most contentious issues of the referendum last year.

While EU leaders have consistently said on record that there will be no compromise on free movement  one of the blocs founding principles  Nick Clegg, the former Deputy Prime Minister, has also relayed similar discussions with EU officials willing to give ground to Britain.

Describing Britains exit from the European Union as the biggest political decision since the Second World War, he added: Given what is at stake, and what, daily we are discovering about the costs of Brexit, how can it be right deliberately to take off the table the option of compromise between Britain and Europe so that Britain stays within a reformed Europe?

It is not too late for the country to grip its own destiny, change the terms of the Brexit debate and turn its attention to the true challenges the nation faces.

Ending his silence since the general election campaign last month, the former Labour Prime Minister also said the result was remarkable and one that he did not foresee. Shortly after Ms May had called the snap election, Mr Blair, a vocal critic of his partys left-wing leader, said the Conservatives were on course to win the election if the polls were correct.

I pay tribute to Jeremy Corbyns temperament in the campaign, to the campaigns mobilisation of younger voters and to the enthusiasm it generated, Mr Blair admitted.

But in the article he also warned Mr Corbyns supporters not to exaggerate the victory and for critics not to understate his gains. He tapped into something real and powerful, as Bernie Sanders has in the USA and left groups have done all over Europe, he said.

While he added unexpected victories in constituencies such as Kensington and Chelsea and Canterbury  a seat never previously held by Labour since its creation in 1918  were amazing, Mr Blair warned that losses in Middlesborough and Stoke were equally alarming.

He continued: The Labour party should be cautious in thinking one more heave will deliver victory next time. The Corbyn campaign was a positive factor in the election result; but the determine factor was the Tory campaign.

The Corbyn enthusiasm, especially amongst the young, is real, but I would hesitate before saying that all those voted to make him Prime Minister; or that they supported the body of the programme rather than its tone.

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

Mr Blair, who was Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, also urged Mr Corbyn to champion a position on Europe radically distinct from the Tories and reach out to members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) with experience in government.

He wrote: If Labour continues to be for leaving the single market, and the signs are that it will, then we are essentially for the same policy as the Government.

This will become apparent to those who voted Remain. But more than that, it puts us in the same damaging position for the economy as the Tories; and in circumstances where we are also trying to end austerity through spending programmes which, to be clear, are larger than any Labour Party has ever proposed.

In the article Mr Blair also alluded to polling conducted by the Tony Blair Institute  a policy forum set up last December  adding that it showed a majority, in Britain, France, and Germany, still identify most with the centre of politics.

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

According the poll, of those who responded 34 per cent self-identified as centre in Britain, while 16 per cent said centre-left and 25 per cent centre-right. A further 6 per cent self-identified as left and 9 per cent as right.

But when broken down by age, around 47 per cent of respondents between 18 and 24 wanted to see the next government shift to the left.

While he said he was not advocating the creation of a new party, he added that millions are politically homeless in the UK and support for centre-ground remains strong.

The challenge for the centre is to be the place of changing the status quo not managing it, he said. If it does it still beats everything else.

What the progressive centre lacks is a radical policy agenda. That is the most immediate task and the one to which my new institute is devoted.
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A university vice chancellor has defended his 230,000 salary amid accusations by a former higher education minister that institutions top managements are operating a cartel.

Bill Rammell, VC of the University of Bedfordshire, said he did a very demanding job in a competitive market and denied claims that soaring tuition fees were going to fund a bloated layer of managers at the expense of students and academic staff.

The average university vice chancellor salary is now 275,000  while fees have increased from zero to 9,250 a year in two decades and are now the worlds highest for public institutions.

Recommended University vice chancellors claim cake and bottled water on expenses

But Andrew Adonis, a former HE minister, said salaries for top management should be slashed across the sector to show leadership and to help reduce fees, which he now believes were a mistake.

He told BBC Radio 4: The successes does not justify salaries of this level. When you say its only a small fraction of the money that goes from fees, its quite interesting what happens with top salaries: people with the top salaries always say that, but its just the apex.

In the University of Bath, the information Ive been set by staff and students, who are very angry whats happening there, there are 67 top managers in the university of Bath who earn over 100,000.

Mr Rammell said he had frozen his pay while other staff had seen theirs frozen but argued: Lets not pretend that fees are driven by vice chancellors salaries, theyre about 0.2 per cent of a university budget. The reason fees came in was to repair the historic decades long cuts in university funding and thats what theyve done.

Lord Adonis says fees and top salaries should be slashed (Getty)

He said cuts to fees would herald a return to the days of penury  apparently referring to universities budgets rather than students and graduates debt mountains.

Lord Adonis said the fact that universities had repeatedly all simultaneously and immediately increased fees to the maximum as soon as they were allowed to do so showed there was a cartel.

Theres an obvious cartel operating and Ive asked the competition and markets authority to look into it, he said, adding that universities were accumulating huge reserves.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA

But Mr Rammell, himself also a former Labour HE minister, denied there was a cartel: Theres not a cartel, we take our decisions independently.

VCs now earn more than six times the average pay of their staff, according to figures from the University and College Union  with sharp rises in recent years. Salaries shot up by 10 per cent at 23 British universities in the most recent financial year, with 11 heads now on packages of more than 400,000 a year.

For comparison, the Prime Minister earns a total of 149,440 a year, a figure which is solidly within the top 1 per cent of earners.
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A Republican donor who died soon after telling a newspaper he tried to obtain Hillary Clinton's emails from Russian hackers during the 2016 presidential election killed himself, according to a report.

Peter W Smith, a former equity adviser, was found dead around ten days after telling the Wall Street Journal he tried to acquire emails missing from Ms Clinton's server.

Ms Clinton said she deleted some 30,000 online messages because they related to her personal life.

 Donald Trump defends 'wonderful' son's meeting with Russian lawyer

But Mr Smith told the Journal he thought the emails were connected to her official duties. He said and his team had found five groups of hackers, two of them Russian, who claimed to hold the emails.

Mr Smith claimed his efforts were independent of Donald Trump's campaign. Yet he implied he was working with Lt Gen Michael Flynn, who served as the President's national security adviser until he was fired over his alleged contact with Russian officials.

A cache of emails from the Democratic National Committee were published online during the election campaign. US Intelligence agencies said Russia launched a cyber attack in July last year with the intent of helping Mr Trump's campaign.

According to death records from Olmsted County, Minnesota, Mr Smith killed himself in a hotel near the Mayo Clinic on 14 May, The Chicago Tribune reported.

Police found a note from the 81-year-old saying he was taking his own life because of bad health and an expiring life insurance policy, the newspaper said.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. 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In the note recovered by police, Smith reportedly apologised to authorities and said "NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER" was involved in his death.

He reportedly said he he was taking his own life because of a "RECENT BAD TURN IN HEALTH SINCE JANUARY, 2017", adding that the timing related to life insurance of $5 million expiring.

Earlier this week two Democratic Party donors and a former party staff member launched an invasion of privacy lawsuit against Mr Trump's campaign and one of the President's advisers,

They are accusing them of conspiring in the release of hacked Democratic emails.

Associated Press contributed to this report
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Donald Trumps administration is responsible for promoting an apocalyptic geopolitics with roots similar to those of Islamist extremism, two allies of Pope Francis have said.

Writing in La Civilta Cattolica, the newspapers editor-in-chief, Antonio Spadaro, and Marcelo Figueroa, the editor-in-chief of the Argentinian edition of the Vatican newspaper, accused Steve Bannon, the US Presidents chief strategist, of being a supporter of apocalyptic geopolitics and claimed Mr Trumps team promote an evangelical fundamentalism that twists Christian scripture to promote conflict and war.

Both Mr Spadaro and Mr Figueroa are known to be close associates of the Argentinian pope. La Civilta Cattolica is vetted by the Vatican before being published, meaning the article would have had the approval of church authorities.

In the article, the authors accuse Mr Trumps team of using a selective interpretation of the Bible to demonise the migrants and the Muslims.

Within this narrative, whatever pushes toward conflict is not off limits, they write.

It does not take into account the bond between capital and profits and arms sales. Quite the opposite, often war itself is assimilated to the heroic conquests of the Lord of Hosts of Gideon and David. In this Manichaean vision, belligerence can acquire a theological justification and there are pastors who seek a biblical foundation for it, using the scriptural texts out of context.

They say the belief that leaders should submit the state to the Bible is no different from the one that inspires Islamic fundamentalism.

At heart, the narrative of terror shapes the worldviews of jihadists and the new crusaders and is imbibed from wells that are not too far apart, the authors write.

We must not forget that the theopolitics spread by Isis is based on the same cult of an apocalypse that needs to be brought about as soon as possible.

The article is likely to deepen tensions between the White House and the Vatican.

Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Show all 22 1 /22 Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump talk as they leave the Army Museum at Les Invalides in Paris AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump arrive for the group photo at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily in May 2017 Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Mr Trump was pressed on the subject at the G7 summit in Italy Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump gives a speeech at the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during a ceremony at the NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic is seen to the right of Donald Trump at a Nato summit in Brussels REUTERS Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis meeting with US President Donald J. Trump EPA Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis poses with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump arrives at Palazzo del Quirinale ahead of the meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella Ufficio Stampa Presidenza della via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is seen during a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meets US President Donald Trump PPO via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with US President Donald Trump prior to the President's departure GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering a speech at the Israel Museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance as White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watch on during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump takes his seat before his speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump look at a display of Saudi modern art at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud take part in a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips King Salman presents Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz al-Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace on 20 May AP Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is welcomed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn prior to their first foreign trip Getty Images

During last years US presidential campaign, Mr Trump called Pope Francis disgraceful for saying the Republican was not a Christian because of his plans to build a wall between the US and Mexico.

A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian, the Pope said.

Mr Trump responded: For a religious leader to question a persons faith is disgraceful.

No leader, especially a religious leader, has the right to question another mans religion or faith.

The pair have enjoyed a more cordial relationship since Mr Trump took office in January, and the Republican described meeting the Pope in May as the honour of a lifetime.

However, tensions re-emerged following the billionaire businessmans decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change  a move strongly condemned by the Vatican.
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A police department has launched an investigation after an officer was filmed repeatedly beating a homeless woman with a baton as he arrested her.

The footage shows Katie McCrary screaming as she is struck 12 times within 30 seconds by the officer, who yells "put your hands behind your back" and threatens to shoot her.

Police had been called to reports of a woman begging for money from customers at a petrol station in Decatur, a city in the US state of Georgia.

The clip, filmed by an onlooker, does not show what led to the use of force.

The officer is seen repeatedly hitting the woman with the baton as he pins her down. He lands some of the blows as she struggles on the floor and others as she lies still.

At one point the officer places the baton on the back of Ms McCrary's neck and pins her down with his knee in her back.

He can be heard shouting "let go or I'll shoot you" as she grabs the baton, prompting bystanders to shout "no, please don't shoot her".

The video ends after the officer handcuffs the woman and marches her out of the shop. She repeatedly asks: "What did I do?"

Recommended Officers who punched and kicked a handcuffed black man have been fired

The officer filed a Use of Force report following the June 4 incident and was cleared of any wrongdoing by an internal investigation, reported CNN.

But DeKalb County Police Department this week reopened the probe after the footage emerged.

A spokesman said: "Now that the Department has this new evidence we have reopened the investigation and will determine whether the incident is consistent with policy and the law."

In his incident report, filed the day after the arrest, the police officer said Ms McCrary "attempted to push me out of the way and walk out of the door" as she arrived at the petrol station.

They exchanged words before Ms McCrary "reached out and grabbed my badge" and then "grabbed my vest and radio," he added.

He said he used his baton on her legs, forearms and "one strike inadvertently struck the side of her head as she was moving around".

DeKalb County Police Department said in a statement: "The narrative in the officer's report appears to be consistent with the video."

Ms McCrary was taken to jail before being transferred to hospital for treatment to cuts to her arms and legs.

She was later charged with obstructing police and given a criminal trespass warning at the request of the shop's manager.
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A Russian former military operative with links to counterintelligence also attended Donald Trump Jrs notorious meeting with a Russian lawyer about obtaining possibly incriminating information about Hillary Clinton.

Rinat Akhmetshin, a dual Russian-American citizen and lobbyist who has been accused of acting as an unregistered agent for Russian interests and with ties to Russian military intelligence service, or GRU, has confirmed he attended the meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Also participating in the meeting was a US-based Russian translator, Anatoli Samochornov, who had worked previously for Ms Veselnitskaya and the US State Department at various points.

Recommended Trump contradicts his son and suggests he knew about lawyer meeting

Mr Akhmetshin said he accompanied Ms Veselnitskaya to Trump Tower on 9 June 2016. Although he had known and worked with Ms Veselnitskaya for a number of years, he said he had only learned about the meeting that day when she asked him to attend. He said he showed up in jeans and a T-shirt.

Mr Trump Jrs account of the meeting, which has shifted several times, failed to mention the presence of Mr Akhmetshin, or the translator. Mr Trump Jr said he had agreed to the meeting, also attended by Mr Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and campaign manager Paul Manafort, because he was told Ms Veselnitskaya had material damaging to Ms Clinton that was high level and sensitive information [and] is part of Russia and its governments support for Mr Trump.

Mr Akhmetshin said Ms Veselnitskaya brought a plastic folder with her, containing printed documents that detailed what she believed could potentially be the flow of illicit funds to the Democratic National Committee. Ms Veselnitskaya presented the contents of the documents to the Trump associates and suggested that making the information public could help the Trump campaign, he said.

Mr Trump Jr asked the lawyer if she had all the evidence to back up her claims, according to Mr Akhmetshin, including whether she could demonstrate the flow of the money. But Ms Veselnitskaya allegedly claimed the Trump campaign would need to research it more.

After that exchange, Mr Trump Jr lost interest, Mr Akhmetshin said. They couldnt wait for the meeting to end, he told the Associated Press.

Mr Akhmetshin said he does not know if Ms Veselnitskayas documents were provided by the Russian government. He said he thinks she left the materials with the Trump associates. It was unclear if she handed the documents to anyone in the room, or simply left them behind, he said.

Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said that the reports about Mr Akhmetshin add another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting.

Mr Trump Jr has insisted the meeting did not amount to much, that he was offered no information on Ms Clinton and that in truth Ms Veselnitskaya wanted to talk about the Magnitsky Act, a piece of US legislation that sanctions a handful of Russians the US believes might be linked to the 2009 death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

Ms Veselnitskaya has denied offering any information to Mr Trump Jr and working for the Russian state.

Ms Veselnitskaya has denied working for the Russian government (AP)

Mr Akhmetshin has been closely associated with Ms Veselnitskaya for several years and has worked with her in an effort to overturn the Magnitsky Act. Mr Samochornov did translation for Ms Veselnitskaya in relation to her lobbying and legal work in the US.

In 2016, Ms Veselnitskayas client, Denis Katsyv, head of the company Prevezon, registered a nonprofit company in Delaware called the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation (HRAGIF) in February 2016, which says its aim is to overturn an adoption ban on impacting American couples but which many believe is a front to lobby against the Magnitsky Act, the passage of which is said to have infuriated Vladimir Putin.

The HRAGIFs registered lobbyist was Mr Akhmetshin, who took UK citizenship in 2009.

 Trump's FBI pick suggests Donald Trump Jr should have gone to agency over Russia meeting

Earlier this year, Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he wanted to learn more about Mr Akhmetshins activities.

In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security in April, Mr Grassley wrote: I write to obtain information regarding Mr Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian immigrant to the United States who has been accused of acting as an unregistered agent for Russian interests and apparently has ties to Russian intelligence.

He added: Mr Akhmetshin is a Russian immigrant to the US who has admitted having been a Soviet counterintelligence officer. In fact, it has been reported that he worked for the GRU and allegedly specialises in active measures campaigns, subversive political influence operations often involving disinformation and propaganda.

Rinat Akhmetshin has worked as a lobbyist on behalf of various Russia-related issues for a number of years (Bill Browder)

Mr Akhmetshin has denied that he worked for the GRU, saying he served in the Soviet Army from 1986 to 1988 after he was drafted but was not trained in spy tradecraft. He said his unit operated in the Baltics and was loosely part of counterintelligence.

The development has infuriated President Trump, who had hoped to get away from the Russia story, even as special prosecutor Robert Mueller continues a probe into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russias alleged effort to interfere in the 2016 election.

Mr Akhmetshin said he has not been contacted by Mr Muellers office or the FBI about the meeting with Mr Trump Jr. He said he is willing to talk with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Earlier this week, Mr Trump was obliged to defend his eldest son, saying that anyone would have taken the meeting.

Speaking in France, where he was meeting with President Emmanuel Macron, he said: I do think this, that taken from a practical standpoint  most people wouldve taken that meeting. Its called opposition research, or even research into your opponent. Ive only been in politics for two years, but Ive had many people call up, Oh gee, we have information on this factor or this person, or, frankly, Hillary.

He added: Thats very standard in politics. Politics is not the nicest business in the world.

Mr Akhmetshin did not respond to repeated inquiries from The Independent. President Trumps lawyers also failed to respond.

Elsewhere, a former Trump campaign adviser, Michael Caputo, said after he testified to the House Intelligence Committee in closed session on Friday that he had no contact with Russians and never heard of anyone in the campaign talking with Russians.
Senior official stresses use of big data, AI in policing

A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official has called on the country's police force to make full use of big data technology and artificial intelligence (AI).

Meng Jianzhu, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks during a two-day inspection in southwest China's Guizhou Province, which concluded Wednesday.

Guizhou has been a pioneer of the application of big data technology in various sectors including police work.

Meng asked public security authorities nationwide to improve coordination and innovate case investigations and command system to curb new types of crimes and trans-regional crimes.

He also urged increased efforts on social management and judicial reforms to create a sound social environment for the 19th CPC National Congress scheduled for later this year.

In a separate occasion, Chief Justice Zhou Qiang also called for development of big data applications in the country's court system.
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Donald Trump has conceded his much-touted southern wall along the US-Mexican border may end up covering less than half of the 2,000-mile frontier.

The US President said natural barriers such as rivers and mountains meant a man-made structure along the entire length of the border was not necessary.

He also said that some areas were so remote that a wall would not be needed.

The finished project is unlikely to exceed 900 miles, he added.

Mr Trumps comments, made on Air Force One as it flew from Washington to Paris, represent a significant row back on plans that became a central part of his election campaign.

He told reporters aboard the presidential jet: "You have mountains. You have some rivers that are violent and vicious.

You have some areas that are so far away that you don't really have people crossing.

"But you'll need anywhere from 700 to 900 miles."

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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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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He also said it was important that border agents and others should be able to see through the wall so they could be aware of oncoming dangers, suggesting whatever structure ends up being built would likely be closer to a slatted fence than a solid wall.

"As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don't see them. They hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It's over," Mr Trump said.

One of the Republican billionaires major campaign promises was to build a border wall to fight illegal immigration.

His vow that Mexico would pay for the wall, which the Mexican government has insisted it will not do, has strained relations between the two neighbours.

 Mexican Congressman Braulio Guerra proves Trumps border wall is absurd by climbing it

Mr Trump has since said he will find a way for Mexico to repay the US for construction of the wall, but that Congress would need to fund it first.

However, almost six months into his presidency, he has so far asked Congress for only $1.6bn (1.2bn) for a project estimated to cost more than $20bn (15bn).

The border, which stretches across four US states, already has 600 miles (965 km) of barriers, including fences and walls.

Additional reporting Reuters
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The US House of Representatives has passed a massive defence policy bill that exceeds Donald Trump's budget request by $18.5bn.

The National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) would allocate $696bn for defence spending in fiscal year 2018, blowing past Mr Trumps requested $603bn budget  a budget the White House had previously touted as a historic increase in defence spending.

The proposal also exceeds long-standing caps on defence spending in Congress. Since 2011, the legislature has capped its defence spending at $549bn. For the new funding plan to work, Congress would need to strike a deal to increase or repeal those caps.

The prospects for such a deal looked good from the House floor on Friday. The NDAA received bipartisan support, with 117 Democrats and all but eight Republicans voting in its favour.

Republicans support the bill as the first step in rebuilding the US military, while many Democrats are eager to lift caps on both defence and domestic spending.

A surprising line of opposition may come from the White House, which supports increases in defence spending but takes issue with Congress's failure to authorise more military base realignments and closures.

The White House also opposes the bills proposal for a Space Corps military branch devoted entirely to combat in space. Mr Trump, however, has not threatened to veto the bill.

The Houses NDAA would allocate $621.5bn for national defence programmes and add another $75m to war funding. It would increase missile defence funding by 25 per cent, allocate $6bn to expanding the Navys fleet, and increase the number of active-duty troops in the Army.

Troops would also get a 2.4 per cent pay raise under the bill  the largest in the last eight years.

Two controversial proposals were ultimately left out of the bill: An amendment to end funding for gender-reassignment surgery for transgender service members, and an amendment to stop the Pentagon from implementing anti-climate-change policies.

The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Show all 20 1 /20 The most iconic images from the war in Iraq The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman HM1 Richard Barnett, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, holds an Iraqi child in central Iraq, March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An explosion rocks Baghdad during air strikes March 21, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman watches U.N. weapons inspectors leave Saddam airport in Baghdad March 18, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her sister as she waits for her mother (R) to bring over food bought in Basra March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marine Corp Assaultman Kirk Dalrymple watches as a statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad's Firdaus Square, April 9, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq US Marines kick in a door while securing a building next to the main hospital in central Baghdad April 15, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A soldier of U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division (Task Force Ironhorse) searches through dense vegetation around the Diala river where Iraqi militants are hiding outside Baquba early November 13, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi detainee gestures toward U.S. soldiers through bars of his cell at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad May 17, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Mays, a young Iraqi Shi'ite girl, cries after a mortar shell which landed outside the family's home in a Najaf residential area injured her uncle August 18, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marines carry an injured colleague to a helicopter near the city of Falluja, November 10, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi man suspected of having explosives in his car is held after being arrested by the U.S army near Baquba, Iraq, October 15, 2005 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A wounded Iraqi woman is helped after several bomb attacks in central Baghdad, July 27, 2006 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A man runs down a street warning people to flee shortly after a twin car bomb attack at Shorja market in Baghdad, February 12, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her hands up while U.S. and Iraqi soldiers search her family house in Baquba early June 30, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman tries to explain that she has nothing to do with illegal fuel as soldiers from the 2nd battalion, 32nd Field Artillery brigade patrol search for illegal fuel sellers in Baghdad August 6, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. President George W. Bush (L) walks in front of Humvees with Defense Secretary Robert Gates (C) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following remarks to the press after nightfall at Al-Asad airbase in Anbar Province September 3, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. soldiers blindfold an Iraqi man after arresting him during a night patrol at the Zafraniya neighborhood, southeast of Baghdad September 4, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi baby lies in a cradle while a woman argues with U.S. soldiers of 1/8 Bravo Company searching for weapons, explosives and information about militants in the area during a foot patrol in a neighbourhood of Mosul June 26, 2008 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Policemen cry during a funeral of their colleague a day after a bomb attack in Baghdad's Jihad district November 3, 2010 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Staff Sgt. Keith Fidler kisses his wife Cynthia, as their son Kolin looks on, during a homecoming ceremony in New York, April 8, 2011 for the New York Army National Guard's 442nd Military Police Company's return from Iraq Reuters

American defence spending previously peaked in 2009, at $691 billion, and has declined in the years since then. Mr Trump has called cuts to defence spending under former President Barack Obama a disaster, and claimed the Democrat depleted the US military.

In Mr Obamas last year in office, the US spent more on its defence than the next eight top-spending countries combined.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where the Armed Services Committee has already passed its version of the legislation. The full Senate is expected to vote on the bill later this year.
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Justin Trudeau has made a barely disguised jab at Donald Trump's inward-focused 'America First' doctrine, imploring governors from across the US to promote a "thinner border" with Canada.

Becoming the first Canadian Prime Minister to speak at the National Governors' Association - he told the the US governors gathered in Providence, Rhode Island, that the US-Canada relationship was "a model for the world" and both sides must continue to work to "get it right".

"Sometimes getting it right means refusing to take the politically tempting shortcuts. More trade barriers, more local content provisions, more preferential access for homegrown players and government procurement, for example, does not help working families over the long term or even the midterm," he said.

Recommended Justin Trudeau was his best self at the G20

Mr Trudeau to be referring to the US stance on the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) between the US, Canada and Mexico, which Mr Trump has threatened to rip up if he can't make it "fairer" to America.

The Canadian leader said isolationism between the nations could lead to "a race for the bottom" that hurts workers in all nations.

Canada doesn't want to go there. If anything, we'd like a thinner border for trade, not a thicker one," Mr Trudeau said.

He also urged the governors to get involved in the federal government's negotiations on the agreement to protect their own citizens.

"To boil this down to one point: Canada is the [America's] biggest, best customer  by far," Mr Trudeau said.

Nafta went into effect in 1994 and allows for tariff-free between the three nations, but Mr Trump repeatedly called it "a horrible deal" for the US, "a defective agreement," and "the worst trade deal maybe ever" at various points on the campaign trail and in office.

On 18 May, the administration informed Congress of its intent to re-negotiate the deal, which could start as soon as mid-August.

Though the US Chamber of Commerce have acknowledged the need to "modernise" the agreement, it also acknowledged that 14 million American jobs directly depend on it.

Mr Trump accused Canada and other countries of "dumping" lower-priced goods in the US market, pushing out American competitors and wants to eliminate the portion of Nafta that allows those disputes to be brought in front of a panel of judges.

"Free trade has worked...but Nafta isn't perfect," Mr Trudeau acknowledged, adding that the agreement can be "updated...as it has been a dozen times".

Mr Trudeau, along with nearly every leader around the world, has split with the US president over climate change as well.

Why we should all go to Canada Show all 8 1 /8 Why we should all go to Canada Why we should all go to Canada The great outdoors You might spot a moose, for goodness' sake Mark Rowland/Flickr Why we should all go to Canada Road trips You can drive through some of the most incredible scenery MaxGag/Flickr Why we should all go to Canada Maple syrup It's available in almost any form, including maple taffy - heated syrup that's been dropped on to ice to cool and turned into a kind of chewy lollypop Marcio Cabral de Moura/Flickr Why we should all go to Canada Friendly Cities The likes of Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto are not only cool, but welcoming too Getty Images Why we should all go to Canada Arctic cruises You can float between icebergs - enough said Shutterstock Why we should all go to Canada Skiing and snowboarding Resorts such as Whistler are world class Getty Images Why we should all go to Canada Real winter Canada really embraces the cold, with everything from igloo raves to husky rides EveryDamnNameIsInUse/Flickr Why we should all go to Canada Wine They make a pretty good tipple here Nomade Moderne/Flickr

Mr Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, signed by almost 200 countries in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and help poorer countries adapt to an already-changed planet.

Technically, the US will only be withdrawn on the eve of the 2020 US presidential election, but for all intents and purposes Mr Trump has said the federal government would not contribute to global funds of domestic efforts to meet targets the Obama administration agreed to in December 2015.

However, nearly a 1000 states, city mayors, and CEOs in the US have pledged in some way to work towards achieving those targets.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was optimistic about the sub-national actors' actions.

Among those states committed to combatting global warming are Washington and California. Neither governor was in attendance at Mr Trudeau's speech due to concerns in their state legislatures.

However, Washington Governor Jay Inslee's Communications Director Jamie Smith told The Independent that Mr Inslee and Mr Trudeau met and "spent quite a bit of time discussing clean energy and climate change and how states like Washington are moving forward on aggressive carbon reduction policies."

Mr Inslee is helping to lead the US Climate Alliance along with California Governor Jerry Brown and New York's Andrew Cuomo.

Ms Smith also said that Mr Inslee thinks "there are multiple issues where the states will have to pick up the mantle of leadership and collaboration with other nations" in light of the Trump administration's "America First" policies.

"Trade and climate change are two of the big ones," she noted, adding that Washington state "stand[s] as ready as ever to work together on climate, create jobs and grow our economy, and embrace people from around the world who are seeking refuge or opportunity."

For Mr Brown's part, he has organised a separate climate summit centred around the Paris Agreement to be held in San Francisco in 2018.

He announced Global Action Climate Summit in a video message to the public at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

"[Mr Trump] doesn't speak for the rest of America," Mr Brown said in the video announcement.
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Trump campaign official Michael Caputo has said that he never once spoke to anyone about the possibility of receiving help from the Russian government to get Donald Trump elected.

Mr Caputo, who served as one of Mr Trumps communications advisers during the campaign, wrote in his opening statement to a congressional committee that he never spoke about his campaign with anyone remotely associated with the Russian government".

At no time did I ever talk about Russian contacts with any member of the campaign. I certainly did not hear talk of collusion with Russia or any foreign nation, he wrote to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which is conducting an investigation into whether Trump campaign officials colluded with Russian officials.

Recommended Trump contradicts his son and suggests he knew about lawyer meeting

Mr Caputo testified before the committee for more than three hours on Friday behind closed doors. He said he told the panel that when he worked for the campaign there was absolutely no discussion of Russia.

The only time I spoke about Russia with Donald Trump was in passing, during a dinner conversation in 2013, long before he decided to run for President, Mr Caputo said in his written statement. He simply asked: 'What was it like to live in Russia.' Our exchange may have lasted 30 seconds.

Following his appearance before the committee, Mr Caputo told reporters that the panel had requested a broad and expansive number of documents and that they were negotiating limits on those.

In a prior interview with CNN, Mr Caputo also said he did not overhear anybody from the campaign talking about getting help from the Russians.

Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Show all 22 1 /22 Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump talk as they leave the Army Museum at Les Invalides in Paris AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump arrive for the group photo at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily in May 2017 Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Mr Trump was pressed on the subject at the G7 summit in Italy Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump gives a speeech at the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during a ceremony at the NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic is seen to the right of Donald Trump at a Nato summit in Brussels REUTERS Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis meeting with US President Donald J. Trump EPA Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis poses with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump arrives at Palazzo del Quirinale ahead of the meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella Ufficio Stampa Presidenza della via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is seen during a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meets US President Donald Trump PPO via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with US President Donald Trump prior to the President's departure GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering a speech at the Israel Museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance as White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watch on during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump takes his seat before his speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump look at a display of Saudi modern art at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud take part in a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips King Salman presents Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz al-Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace on 20 May AP Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is welcomed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn prior to their first foreign trip Getty Images

In fact, we were so busy just trying to keep up with the sun rising and setting on that campaign, that I cant imagine anyone had the time nor the wherewithal to go out there and even do something like this, Mr Caputo said.

Mr Caputo, who spent six months with the Trump campaign, came to know Russian government officials when he worked in Russia during the 1990s. In the early 2000s, he did work for Gazprom Media, a Russian conglomerate that has supported Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A Democratic member of the House's intelligence committee, Representative Jackie Speier, raised Mr Caputos name at a hearing in March, suggesting that he was part of a tarantula web of links to Russia. She noted that he met his second wife, who is Ukrainian, while working in 2007 on a parliamentary election in Kiev. She also said he worked for "Gazprom-Media to improve Putin's image in the United States".

Contrary to Rep Jackie Speiers comments in your March 20 public hearing, I was never President Vladimir Putins image consultant', Mr Caputo said in his opening statement to the committee. To the contrary, a simple Google search would have revealed a great deal, he said, including a 2004 op-ed he wrote in which he criticised the Kremlin.

Mr Caputo said he was offended by Ms Speiers comments and that she should be ashamed of herself.

The White House and Trump campaign have repeatedly denied that there were any contacts between officials and Russians.

However, this past week, it was revealed that Mr Trumps son, Donald Trump Jr, had a meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer during the presidential campaign. According to emails released by Mr Trump Jr, he met with the lawyer after being told she would provide him with damaging information to his fathers campaign opponent, Hillary Clinton.
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A "devastated" bride-to-be has cancelled her wedding, but instead of throwing away all the food, she has kept the bookings for the reception and invited homeless families to attend.

Sarah Cummins, 25, of Indiana had been planning her "dream" $30,000 wedding for nearly two years, saving and working overtime to make it a reality.

Though Ms Cummins preferred not to say why she called off the nuptials, she told the Indianapolis Star newspaper, "it was really devastating to me. I called everyone, cancelled, apologised, cried, called vendors, cried some more, and then I started feeling really sick about just throwing away all the food I ordered for the reception."

Recommended Dog drags blanket over for her homeless friend

She was left with a non-refundable booking at the Ritz Charles hotel in Carmel, Indiana as well as a plated dinner for 170 guests.

Working with the hotel's event planner, Ms Cummins is rearranging the tables at the reception so there is no head table for the couple or gift and cake tables. But, she wanted to serve the wedding cake to guests.

According to the Indianapolis Star bourbon-glazed meatballs, goat cheese and roasted garlic bruschetta, chicken breast with artichokes and Chardonnay cream sauce are also on the menu.

The causes of homelessness Show all 7 1 /7 The causes of homelessness The causes of homelessness Family Breakdown Relationship breakdown, usually between young people and their parents or step-parents, is a major cause of youth homelessness. Around six in ten young people who come to Centrepoint say they had to leave home because of arguments, relationship breakdown or being told to leave. Many have experienced long-term problems at home, often involving violence, leaving them without the family support networks that most of us take for granted The causes of homelessness Complex needs Young people who come to Centrepoint face a range of different and complex problems. More than a third have a mental health issue, such as depression and anxiety, another third need to tackle issues with substance misuse. A similar proportion also need to improve their physical health. These problems often overlap, making it more difficult for young people to access help and increasing the chances of them becoming homeless Getty/iStock The causes of homelessness Deprivation Young people's chances of having to leave home are higher in areas of high deprivation and poor prospects for employment and education. Many of those who experience long spells of poverty can get into problem debt, which makes it harder for them to access housing Getty Images/iStockphoto The causes of homelessness Gang Crime Homeless young people are often affected by gang-related problems. In some cases, it becomes too dangerous to stay in their local area meaning they can end up homeless. One in six young people at Centrepoint have been involved in or affected by gang crime Getty Images/iStockphoto The causes of homelessness Exclusion From School Not being in education can make it much more difficult for young people to access help with problems at home or health problems. Missing out on formal education can also make it more difficult for them to move into work Getty Images/iStockphoto The causes of homelessness Leaving Care Almost a quarter of young people at Centrepoint have been in care. They often have little choice but to deal with the challenges and responsibilities of living independently at a young age. Traumas faced in their early lives make care leavers some of the most vulnerable young people in our communities, with higher chances of poor outcomes in education, employment and housing. Their additional needs mean they require a higher level of support to maintain their accommodation Getty Images/iStockphoto The causes of homelessness Refugees Around 13 per cent of young people at Centrepoint are refugees or have leave to remain, meaning it isn't safe to return home. This includes young people who come to the UK as unaccompanied minors, fleeing violence or persecution in their own country. After being granted asylum, young people sometimes find themselves with nowhere to go and can end up homeless Getty Images/iStockphoto

Ms Cummins rang up the local homeless shelters in Indianapolis and Noblesville to invite residents to the party.

Cheryl Herzog of the Dayspring Center shelter said she "was so touched that Sarah had taken a painful experience and turned it into a joyful one for families in need".

Ms Cummins also took the care to arrange transportation for her reception guests and, if she's feeling up to it, will stay through the dinner after she, her mother, and a few bridesmaids arrange her handmade centrepieces on each of the tables.

Despite the generous gesture, Ms Cummins she did not feel that she was being particularly altruistic but was glad to have "some kind of happy memory to pull from" after working weekends and overtime to pay for it. Her ex-fiance reportedly agreed it was the right thing to do.

In fact, planning the reception has been a good distraction from Ms Cummins' pain at the end of her relationship.

She will soon be heading on her honeymoon to the Dominican Republic for a solo adventure before returning to her graduate studies in pharmacy at Purdue University.
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An autistic teenager has died after carers left him in a minibus outside a disability centre in Japan for six hours as temperatures soared above 33C.

The 19-year-old was found slumped in his seat by carers at Cosmos Earth, a centre for disabled children and young people in the city of Ageo.

It is thought he had been forgotten by staff at the facility, who only noticed he was missing hours later.

The teen, who is believed to have died of heatstroke, was rushed to hospital but later died.

Staff noticed he was missing shortly before the centre closed for the day and found him unconscious.

His body temperature was 41.4C by the time he was found, paramedics told Kyodo, a Japanese news agency.

Police have launched an investigation into his death and it is thought they could file criminal negligence charges against Cosmos Earth.

Kenji Otsuka, the manager of the centre, said: I apologise to him and to his family from the bottom of my heart.

The teenagers death came in the week it emerged a New Zealand man died at a Japanese hospital after psychiatric ward staff allegedly strapped his legs and waist to a bed for 10 days.

Kelly Savage, 27, suffered a heart attack on 10 May, two weeks after he was admitted over a manic episode. The English teacher, who had been living in Japan for two years, died on 17 May.

His family believe the heart attack was caused by deep vein thrombosis, which developed as he was forcibly restrained.

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

Japans mental health services have previously been criticised for institutionalising too many patients and breaching their human rights.

A 2013 study found Japanese people with mental health conditions faced greater stigmatisation than in many other areas of the world.

The majority of the public keep a greater social distance from people with mental illness, it said, while two-thirds of people with mental health disorders never seek treatment because of the stigma.
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The leader of Isis Afghanistan branch has been killed by a US air strike, according to the Pentagon, as the destruction of the jihadists continues across the Middle East and Asia.

Abu Sayed was killed in an air strike at the group's headquarters in Kunar province earlier this week, Pentagon spokeswomen Dana White said in a statement.

Tuesday's raid also killed other members of Isis and would "significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan", the statement added.

Sayed was the emir of ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), the terror groups affiliate in Afghanistan, which has been active since 2015, fighting against the Taliban as well as Afghan and US forces.

His reported death makes him the third Isis leader in Afghanistan to be killed by allied forces in the past twelve months.

ISIS leaders chose Abu Sayed to lead the group after Afghan and US forces killed the previous Isis-K leaders - Hafiz Sayed Khan in late July 2016, and Abdul Hasib, in late April of this year, the Pentagon statement said.

April's raid also resulted in the deaths of several other high ranking Isis leaders and 35 of their fighters. Two American soldiers were also killed, possibly through so-called "friendly fire", officials said at the time.

The announcement of the latest death comes as the fight against Isis and other terrorist groups is being ramped up by the US, with its military reportedly preparing to send an additional 4,000 troops to the region.

General John Nicholson, the commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, has pledged to drive the terror group out of Afghanistan by the end of this year.

The death of Sayed follows speculation that the leader of Isis in Iraq, Abu Bakr-al Baghdadi, could also be dead - although his demise has been falsely reported on previous occasions.

The latest claim about al-Baghdadi - described as "the world's most wanted man" - comes from a prominent Syrian human rights group, who issued a statement saying that three Isis leaders told the group's activists that their leader was dead.
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Pakistans government could be brought down by Microsofts Calibri font.

The typeface is at the heart of a huge scandal engulfing Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Sharif, after the 2016 Panama Papers revealed a string of offshore companies linked to the family had been used to purchase a number of luxury properties in London.

That revelation led critics to ask whether public funds were used to buy the flats, prompting an official investigation.

Investigators appointed by Pakistans Supreme Court say there is a significant disparity between the income of the prime ministers family and their lifestyle.

Recommended Pakistan oil tanker crash kills more than 120 people in Punjab

Much of the case has focused on who benefited from ownership of the properties. Documents submitted in defence of the Sharif family appeared to show that Maryam Sharif was only a trustee of the company that bought the flats.

However, the declaration, dated February 2006, was typed in the Calibri font, which was not introduced until 2007 - raising suspicions that the document may have been forged.

That conclusion was also reached by Pakistani investigators tasked with investigating the case. They dismissed the documents, which were assessed by the Radley Forensic Document Laboratory in London, as falsified.

Allies of the Sharif family said the Calibri font has been available since 2004, but its creator, a Dutch designer called Lucas De Groot, told AFP it was "unlikely" Calibri had been used in any official documents in 2006.

"In my opinion the document in question was produced much later," he said.

World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Show all 15 1 /15 World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Petro Poroshenko President of Ukraine World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Ayad Allawi Allawi Iraqs Vice-President between 2014 and 2015, and the countrys interim prime minister from 2004 to 2005 World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud King of Saudi Arabia World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan President of the United Arab Emirates, Emir of Abu Dhabi World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Sigmundur Davi Gunnlaugsson Prime Minister of Iceland World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Sergey Roldugin Close friend of Vladimir Putin World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Emir of Qatar 1995-2013 World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Li Xiaolin Daughter of Li Peng, the former Premier of China (The current vice-president of state-owned power company China Datang Gorporation and former CEO of China Power International Development, she has been nicknamed Chinas Power Queen World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Rami Makhlouf Cousin of Bashar Assad, the President of Syria World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Hafez Makhlouf Cousin of Bashar Assad, the President of Syria World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Clive Khulubuse Zuma Nephew of Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Maryam Nawaz Sharif Safdar Daughter of Nawaz Sharif, prime minister of Pakistan World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Hasan Nawaz Sharif Son of Nawaz Sharif, prime minister of Pakistan World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Hussain Nawaz Sharif Son of Nawaz Sharif, prime minister of Pakistan World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Alaa Mubarak The eldest son of ousted former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Read more here

Mr De Groot said he began designing the font in 2002 and sent the final version to Microsoft in 2004. It was then tested using versions that, the designer said, it would have taken serious effort to obtain.

So in theory it would have been possible to make a document with Calibri in 2006," he said.

"However ... It should have been taken from a beta operating system, from the hands of computer nerds. Why would anyone use a completely unknown font for an official document in 2006?

Calibri only became widely available as part of the Microsoft Office 2007 software package.

The revelation, dubbed Fontgate, sparked widespread debate in Pakistan and promoted Wikipedia to take the unusual decision to lock its page on Calibri to prevent further editing.

The online encyclopaedia is generally reluctant to restrict editing but took action after users amended the page to claim Calibri was available as early as 2004.
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A young man with a tattoo on his face reading DEVAST8 has said he is having difficulty finding work after being released from prison.

Mark Cropp, from New Zealand, had been inebriated when his cell mate - who is also his brother - gave him the tattoo, while he was completing a two-year sentence in prison for an aggravated robbery charge.

The tattoo was supposed to be small and go along his jawline, but after the pair drank an improvised alcoholic beverage made from fermented apples, sugar and bread, the mark turned out to be significantly larger.

I am regretting itI was going through a rough patch, he told the New Zealand Herald.

"Part of jail life, you get people with tattoos and you look at them, step back, 'Watch out for that guy' sort of thing."

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At the end of the day [devast8] is my nickname, its not gang affiliated. I shouldnt find it hard to communicate out in society.

Ive gone into a couple of places [to find work]. One employment place turned around and said to me that I wouldnt even employ you with that on your face. Ive had other people who shrugged and laughed at me.

The 19-year-old quickly became frustrated with the rejections he was getting, and decided to post a picture of himself to the Facebook group Auckland Jobs.

Mark Cropp (Facebook)

I was applying to a few things on Facebook and I thought well actually I shouldnt have to let my facial tattoo hold me back and thats when I took the selfie and put a bit of a description on it and just went from there.

The best was when my mum put a comment on it. She just said proud of you son. Ive had a lot of responses from people and I also may have a potential job offer.

Following the viral response to his post, which received hundreds of reactions, an Auckland company reached out to offer Mr Cropp laser tattoo removal free of charge, as well as transport to and from the clinic. He has accepted the offer.

Motivational Tattoos by Francesca Timbers Show all 10 1 /10 Motivational Tattoos by Francesca Timbers Motivational Tattoos by Francesca Timbers Motivational Tattoos Motivational Tattoos by Francesca Timbers Motivational Tattoos Motivational Tattoos by Francesca Timbers Motivational Tattoos Motivational Tattoos by Francesca Timbers Motivational Tattoos Motivational Tattoos by Francesca Timbers Motivational Tattoos Motivational Tattoos by Francesca Timbers Motivational Tattoos Motivational Tattoos by Francesca Timbers Motivational Tattoos Motivational Tattoos by Francesca Timbers Motivational Tattoos Motivational Tattoos by Francesca Timbers Motivational Tattoos Motivational Tattoos by Francesca Timbers Motivational Tattoos

One of the people to offer him employment is Douglas George Hebert, the owner of a scaffolding company and tattooed himself, who told the New Zealand Herald he was willing to pay the young man $22 (12.40) an hour.

With a daughter in care, Mr Cropp and his partner - who are living in emergency accommodation in a caravan park in Takini, south Auckland  hope that having a job could help get her back.
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The decision to avoid labelling wines as products of Israel if they are produced in the West Bank or in other areas controlled by Israeli forces has been reversed by Canadas federal food inspection agency.

The U-turn comes after the agency said that they had not fully considered the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement when it made its initial decision earlier this week.

The wines did in fact adhere to current policy, it said. .

According to the agreement, Israel refers to any territory in which its custom laws apply.

Wine sellers had originally been told to avoid declaring Israel as a country of origin for wine produced outside of its official borders as it would be "misleading" and contravene Ottawas policy on the territory.

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario sent a letter to the vendors informing them of the decision, specifying not to import or sell wines labelled Product of Israel from the West Bank wineries Psagot and Shiloh.

I request that all vendors discontinue any importation or sales of products labelled as Products of Israel from the wineries named above (or others located in the same regions) until further notice, the letter stated, according to The Times of Israel.

It drew considerable criticism from the Israeli embassy in Ottawa and several Canadian Jewish advocacy groups.

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

Yaakov Berg, the chief executive of the Psagot Winery, was among those angered by the move.

"We have returned home to our homeland, the place where our ancestors made wine continuing in the same place for this ancient tradition," he said.

"We live here in Judea and Samaria under historical rights. Specifically Canada, a country founded and expanded as it conquered and destroyed the homeland of another people, a country with no roots or historical validity of its existence there, questions the right of Jews to live and grow vineyards in the land of our forefathers."

The Food Inspection Agency expressed regret for its decision and said it was taking steps to correct the situation with the liquor board in the province of Ontario.

The EU maintains that the territories do not fall within Israel's borders under international law.
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A Texan couple who left the US as refugees after Donald Trump was elected President were among hundreds of people protesting against his visit in the French capital in stark contrast to the warm official welcome.

Destini and Michael ONeill joined hundreds in a designated no Trump zone in the Place de Republique to listen to music and speeches as the President sat down to a luxurious dinner in the Eiffel Tower.

Were essentially refugees in Paris, Ms ONeill said. We left Texas because Mr Trump won the election.

We want to stand with Paris to say we support the fact Mr Trump is an illegitimate President  he does not represent America.

Demonstrators held hell no and not my President signs at the event as bands played republican anthems, in one of a series of protests marking Mr Trumps visit.

Emmanuel Macron has been seeking to woo his counterpart with a tour of monuments including Napoleons tomb, visit to the Elysee Palace and dinner at the exclusive Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower with their wives.

The pair vowed to maintain the alliance between France and the US and said they discussed working together on issues including the fight against Isis and Paris climate change agreement following a bilateral meeting.

But protesters in the Place de la Republique were angered by Mr Macrons decision to extend the invitation, despite his ideological differences with Mr Trump, widespread public disdain towards the US President and continued scandal over alleged Russian backing for his campaign.

I just want to make sure Mr Trump doesnt have a good time in Paris, said Francesca Humi, a 22-year-old British-French citizen. Even though this is a diplomatic visit its not ok.

Friend Sonia Larbi-Aissa, a US-French citizen, said she was surprised by Mr Macrons invite given his previous political posturing, adding: Its hypocritical and were calling them out on it.

Lucianne Tonti, from the Paris Against Trump campaign group, said the protest hoped to act as a counterpoint to the warm official welcome given to the US President.

Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Show all 22 1 /22 Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump talk as they leave the Army Museum at Les Invalides in Paris AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump arrive for the group photo at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily in May 2017 Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Mr Trump was pressed on the subject at the G7 summit in Italy Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump gives a speeech at the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during a ceremony at the NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic is seen to the right of Donald Trump at a Nato summit in Brussels REUTERS Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis meeting with US President Donald J. Trump EPA Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis poses with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump arrives at Palazzo del Quirinale ahead of the meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella Ufficio Stampa Presidenza della via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is seen during a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meets US President Donald Trump PPO via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with US President Donald Trump prior to the President's departure GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering a speech at the Israel Museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance as White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watch on during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump takes his seat before his speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump look at a display of Saudi modern art at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud take part in a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips King Salman presents Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz al-Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace on 20 May AP Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is welcomed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn prior to their first foreign trip Getty Images

Theres diplomacy and then theres a huge parade and a grand reception on the biggest holiday for the year, she added.

Sylvestre Jaffard, another member of Paris Against Trump, said the progressive image projected by Mr Macron abroad was not being supported by his actions at home, including his planned changes to labour laws and support for Frances continued state of emergency.

We want to show that Mr Trump is not welcome anywhere on the planet, and that were not happy with this invitation, he added.

Destini and Michael ONeill say they left the US as refugees after the US Presidents election victory (Lizzie Dearden)

The no Trump zone rally was set to go on into the early hours, with fresh protests planned later on Friday.

It followed another demonstration at the symbolic Place des Etats-Unis  the former site of the American embassy and home to numerous memorials to the alliance between the two nations.

Around a hundred demonstrators held banners and sung chants including hate doesnt make America great and hey, ho, Donald Trump has got to go.

Reed Kennedy, an American expat who described himself as a Democrat voter, said Mr Trumps policies appeared to be incompatible with French values.

He was not holding out hope that Mr Macron could convince his counterpart to perform any significant U-turns on controversial policies including withdrawing from the Paris climate change deal and travel ban.

He doesnt change his stripes, Mr Kennedy said. Mr Trump has already been ostracised by 99.9 per cent of the world  I dont think Mr Macron is going to get him in a room and change his mind.

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 US President claimed something could happen with the Paris accords following the bilateral meeting, but a press conference saw the pair dominantly seek common ground, downplaying previous barbs and evading questions on the scandal engulfing the White House over Donald Trump Jrs meeting with a Russian lawyer.

Mr Macron said the ties between France and the US go deeper and further than who we are, adding: The presence of President Trump was, in my eyes, not only natural [but] also an excellent thing for the history of both our countries."

Mr Trump praised Americas first and oldest ally and called his counterpart a great President, while commemorating US troops who joined the First World War 100 years ago.

Another protest march is due on Bastille Day as Mr Trump attends celebrations for Frances national day, including a huge military parade down the Champs-Elysees, as the guest of honour  the first American President to do so since 1989.

Security has been tightened during his visit, with the Eiffel Tower closed ahead of the leaders dinner and an increased police presence around events and sensitive sites.

An Isis supporter massacred 86 people as they left Bastille Day fireworks in Nice a year ago, while another terror attack left a police officer dead in the Champs-Elysees earlier this year.
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The Italian mafia has been accused of starting the major wildfires that have spread across the slopes of Mount Vesuvius near Naples, leading to scores of evacuations.

The burned corpses of cats have been found at the scene, according to Italian media reports, leading to speculation that arsonists may be involved. The mafia has previously been found to have used the animals to start fires, pouring petrol on them before setting them alight in order to spread fire throughout the undergrowth.

Last year it was revealed that the gangs had tied petrol-soaked rags to the tail of one and set it alight as it ran into Nebrodi regional park in Sicily.

Hundreds of firefighters and four Italian army patrols were deployed alongside Civil Protection workers and volunteers to combat the flames on the volcano in the past few days.

Dozens of tourists and locals were evacuated, including 50 families.

Italian mafia expert and journalist Roberto Saviano blamed the Mount Vesuvius wildfires on criminal organisations in a 3-minute video published to his Facebook page.

The best-selling writer said that the Campanian National Park fires were caused by those who either wanted to burn waste in illegal landfill sites, or to halt construction work.

He talked about blackmail in the social media post, insinuating that if people did not pay criminal organisations, they would start fires to block building permits.

Mr Saviano also claimed that Italy cannot understand who was really responsible and criticised the government's inability to respond to emergencies.

The video has since gained 24,000 likes and 18,000 shares.

Local authorities had originally suggested that a series of surface fires was to blame and that they were not thought to be as a result of human activity.

But according to the Local, both public prosecutors and police have said they now believe that arsonists are to blame.

Police questioned a suspect caught by video surveillance on Thursday evening, local newspaper La Repubblica di Napoli reported.

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

Talking to the Corriere della Serra, Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti said arsonists are criminal idiots.

He added that they should be punished with more than 20 years in jail.

I dont have proof, but it does not seem to be an isolated action or chance: three ignition points are too many to be the result of carelessness or combustion."

Neapolitan Archbishop Crescenzio Sepe told the Local: Those who, thinking they can act with impunity, have decided to destroy the environment, have placed themselves outside Gods grace and mortal sin.

Mr Saviano has written several books, including international bestsellers Gomorrah and ZeroZeroZero.
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Donald Trumps visit to France has closed in grand style as the President watched Paris Bastille Day parade alongside Emmanuel Macron.

Crowds packed the capitals streets for the spectacle, which opened with French jets roaring over the city trailing red, white and blue smoke in a series of fly-pasts and a procession of singing troops and military vehicles.

Some onlookers waved French flags as they passed, while others clapped and cheered the troops marching in full regalia in the July sunshine.

Among the spectators was Amine Konan and his family, who travelled to Paris from Lille to celebrate Bastille Day.

The 26-year-old struggled to put into words how he felt about Mr Trump, and what he said about Muslimsthe claims he makes about us, referring to the Presidents repeated attacks on Islamic terrorism and his controversial travel ban.

But hes still the US President and France and America are allies, Mr Konan added, surrounded by his parents and sister. Mr Macron didnt invite the person, he invited the President.

Friends Catherine Gatchell and Molly Longsworth agreed, saying that they wanted to show their respect for France and Bastille Day by joining the celebration.

They had joined around 100 demonstrators at a rally organised by Democrats Against Trump on Thursday evening  one of several protests marking the Presidents visit.

Ms Longsworth, American tourist from Arkansas, said she believed most Americans do not support Mr Trump, adding: We want to keep the conversation going.

Tom and Christena Southwick, who were visiting Paris from Hawaii, said they hoped Mr Macron could educate his counterpart about European culture.

The more we can educate him and get him out of his comfort zone, the better we are, Mr Southwick added as armoured personnel carriers carrying gun-wielding French soldiers sped past.

The annual spectacle marks the storming of the Bastille prison during the French Revolution, but this year took on the additional significance of commemorating 100 years since the US joined the First World War.

American F16 and French Rafale jets flew together to symbolise military cooperation during the parade, when some troops were wearing century-old battle dress.

Friends Marwane and Youmes, who were watching the parade for the first time in Paris, said they did not support Mr Trump, but thought the war anniversary was a special occasion for both countries.

The US is more than Donald Trump and we know that, said Marwane.

Eight American planes joined the parade, along with a detachment of 145 troops on the ground, and the US flag fluttered alongside the tricolore throughout.

Mr Trump and his wife, Melania, watched the spectacle next to the French President in the Place de la Concorde, including bands playing a mix of republican anthems and pop music.

Swathes of central Paris were closed around the main parade route down the Champs-Elysees, which was the site of an attempted Isis-inspired terror attacks just weeks ago and the site of a shooting that killed a police officer earlier this year.

Counter-terrorism was a key topic of a bilateral meeting between Mr Macron and Mr Trump on Thursday, when they toured French monuments and had a luxurious dinner up the Eiffel Tower.

The US President said he had a great evening on Twitter, adding: Relationship with France stronger than ever.

The visit came as the White House is engulfed by the scandal over a meeting between Mr Trumps son and senior campaign aides and a Russian lawyer, amid continued allegations of Kremlin interference in the election.

Mr Macron refused to be drawn on the controversy during a press conference on Thursday, where Mr Trump hinted that something might happen to his position on the Paris climate change agreement.

Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Show all 22 1 /22 Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump talk as they leave the Army Museum at Les Invalides in Paris AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump arrive for the group photo at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily in May 2017 Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Mr Trump was pressed on the subject at the G7 summit in Italy Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump gives a speeech at the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during a ceremony at the NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic is seen to the right of Donald Trump at a Nato summit in Brussels REUTERS Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis meeting with US President Donald J. Trump EPA Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis poses with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump arrives at Palazzo del Quirinale ahead of the meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella Ufficio Stampa Presidenza della via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is seen during a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meets US President Donald Trump PPO via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with US President Donald Trump prior to the President's departure GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering a speech at the Israel Museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance as White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watch on during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump takes his seat before his speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump look at a display of Saudi modern art at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud take part in a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips King Salman presents Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz al-Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace on 20 May AP Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is welcomed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn prior to their first foreign trip Getty Images

Closing the Bastille Day celebrations, Mr Macron said his counterparts presence was a sign of enduring friendship between France and the US.

Nothing can ever separate us, he added. I want to thank America for the choice made a hundred years ago.

By the end of the 1914-1918 war, more than a million US troops were stationed in France alongside soldiers of French, British and other nations fighting Germany.

The parade marked the end of commemorations and the state visit, with the two presidents and their wives embracing each other before Mr Trump started the journey back to the US.

Mr Macron will travel onwards to the French city of Nice, to commemorate the one year anniversary of an Isis-inspired terror attack that killed 86 people watching the citys Bastille Day fireworks.
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Bastille Day protests threatened to boil over into violence at the end of Donald Trumps visit to Paris, as his opponents took to the streets for the second consecutive day.

Mask-wearing demonstrators threw glass bottles and missiles at lines of riot police blocking roads near the French capitals Gare du Nord station, stopping a huge march in its tracks.

Tensions rose as demonstrators attempted to push forward using a lorry and reinforcements arrived armed with tear gas, but the stalemate ended when police abruptly pulled back and let the march continue.

It was a tense end to a previously upbeat protest, encompassing a diverse range of anti-Trump activists as well as socialists, pro-Palestinian groups, migrants rights activists, environmentalists and anti-fascists.

No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA, chanted marchers holding Make The Planet Great Again signs, shortly after Mr Trump and his entourage left Paris following grand Bastille Day celebrations with Emmanuel Macron.

Lisa Gilmore, an American tourist holding an ironic placard calling herself a paid protester, said: We feel he does not represent us, we dont want people to think that he does and were doing everything we can to get him out office.

Her friend, Julia Hartle, called the US President hostile to the planet, while Californian Lori Chapin said his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement was the icing on the cake.

Ive thought he was a buffoon for 25 years and when he became President I was embarrassed for my country and the world, the 63-year-old added.

But the ire of most French marchers was directed mainly at Mr Macron and his policies on workers rights, the economy, conflict and the countrys ongoing state of emergency.

The Front Social accused the French President of parading as a war chief at the Bastille Day military parade with the racist and misogynistic US President as his accomplice.

 Trump handshake with Macron goes on forever

After the initial relief brought by Marine Le Pens defeat in the French presidential election, there is widespread dissatisfaction with Mr Macron on the French left.

Florent, an activist with the New Anticapitalist Party who did not want his surname to be published, said he was opposing Mr Macrons planned labour reforms.

He is right wing and I think he is starting to realise that he will be getting a lot of trouble, he added.

Protesters from the Droits Devant migrants' rights group at a Bastille Day march (Lizzie Dearden)

Mr Macron argues the reforms, making it easier to hire and fire employees, will boost growth but opponents argue that they erode fundamental rights.

Gaby Fries, a German woman living in Paris, said Mr Macron was continuing a war on workers rights in France.

Mr Macron is playing a double game  on one day he says something on television and the next, the government is doing the opposite. Its a facade, she added.

When I speak to friends in my circle, they hate Mr Macron.

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 French President is riding high on his partys landslide victory in the recent parliamentary elections, but faces an uphill struggle to unite France on key issues including the economy, migration and counter-terror laws.

His invitation to Mr Trump was seen as a savvy move to ingratiate himself with a President dedicated to a protectionist America first trade policy, and strengthen cooperation on environmental issues and the fight against Isis.

Mr Macron wooed his American counterpart with a tour of war monuments to mark the 100th anniversary of the USs intervention in the First World War before settling down to a bilateral meeting on Thursday, followed by a plush dinner at the Eiffel Tower.

American family Benjamin Paloff, Meg Thomas and their children Breina, nine, and Zeke, seven, at the Bastille Day march in Paris (Lizzie Dearden)

Mr Trump was then guest of honour at Fridays grand Bastille Day celebrations in central Paris, sitting next to his host to watch fly-pasts, a huge military procession and performances, including a marching bands rendition of Daft Punks Get Lucky.

The unlikely pair  who have taken numerous swipes at each other in recent months  appeared comfortable and chatted freely throughout the spectacle.

Mr Macron ended the festivities with a speech hailing a friendship across the ages between France and the US.

And that is why I wish to thank them, thank the United States for the choice it made 100 years ago, he added. Nothing will ever separate us.

The leaders put their infamous white-knuckled greeting in Brussels behind them with a 27-second goodbye handshake before Mr Trump, his wife Melania and dignitaries headed to the airport.

Protesters from the Droits Devant migrants' rights group at a Bastille Day march in Paris on 14 July 2017 (Lizzie Dearden)

Mr Macron swiftly departed for Nice, for a memorial to the victims of the Isis terror attack that killed 86 people on Bastille Day last year.

The French President made a speech at the scene where an extremist ploughed a lorry into families, before meeting victims families under tight security, amid fears of further attacks targeting crowds.
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An Airbnb host who made a racist remark when cancelling a guests reservation must pay $5,000 (3,850) compensation and complete a university-level course in Asian American studies.

Tami Barker, from California, must also apologise to the guest, volunteer with a civil rights organisation and appear in a public education event.

Barker rented her cabin in Big Bear Lake, a popular ski destination in California, through Airbnb. She cancelled a guests booking on 17 February, saying she refused to rent to Asians.

Law student Dyne Suh, had reserved the cabin in February for herself, her boyfriend and two friends, but was told by Barker minutes before their arrival that, I wouldnt rent it to u if u were the last person on earth, she wrote in a text. One word says it all. Asian.

Its why we have Trump, she added. I will not allow this country to be told what to do by foreigners.

Suh  a US citizen who has been in the country since the age of three  posted a tearful video to YouTube showing her standing in the snow describing what had happened. Airbnb banned Barker from the site, calling her actions abhorrent and unacceptable. The company then pursued her under a landmark agreement with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which allows the DFEH to take action against hosts displaying racial bias. Barker is the first host to be penalised for discrimination.

DFEH Chief Counsel Jon Ichinaga said in the ruling:

Recommended Airbnb is letting people in Milan offer their homes to refugees

There is a monetary cost to discriminating in California: a $4,000 minimum penalty for discrimination in places of public accommodation, which the Department will seek in all appropriate cases. He praised Suh for her courage in making the complaint.

Racial discrimination from hosts has been a repeated problem for Airbnb, with multiple guests from ethnic minorities reporting that their reservations are turned down for no apparent reason. This week, a South African guest was pushed down the stairs by her Airbnb host in a row over a late check-out.

In March 2016, the company hired former Peace Corps director David King as its first Director of Diversity and Belonging.
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Britains biggest budget airline has announced its post-Brexit EU base: Vienna. Although easyJet has always been UK based, it has a vast network of international and domestic flights on the continent.

With the shape of a future UK-EU aviation agreement still uncertain, the airline is setting up a separate company, easyJet Europe, in the Austrian capital. Around 100 planes will be assigned to the subsidiary, which will allow the airline to continue to fly as at present.

None of the Airbus jets will be based in Vienna; easyJet serves a range of Austrian cities, including the capital, but only on flights from outside the country.

The new subsidiary will be owned by easyJet plc, which already owns the UK-based airline and the Swiss operation, easyJet Switzerland. The majority of easyJet aircraft will remain as part of the UK operation.

European rules require airlines to be majority-owned by EU shareholders. Because the largest shareholders in easyJet plc are Stelios Haji-Ioannou and members of his family, the current ratio is only slightly below 50 per cent. The airline does not envisage any obstacle to reaching the target by the time of Brexit.

While around 100 new jobs will be created in Austria, no posts will be lost in the UK.

From a passengers perspective, there should be no discernible difference in booking flights or the travelling after the split.

While easyJets new subsidiary could have been located in any European country, it is understood that the aviation safety regime in Austria is regarded as a good match for UK regulation.

Earlier this week, the chief executive of easyJets big rival, Ryanair, slammed the UK Government for its handling of aviation after Brexit. Michael OLeary said I think Brexit is going to be one of the greatest suicide notes in history. Its a shambles. He warned Ryanair planes would start moving to other EU countries from September 2018 unless an aviation agreement is in place.
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Being thoroughly anti-social by nature, the sequence did not bother me: 20E, 21D, 22C, 28B and 32B.

These are not lottery lucky numbers, but the seat assignments for the flight I am taking on Monday from Stansted to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

In the olden days, paying for seats was unheard of. Everyone seemed to end up relatively happy. Some foreign airlines still maintain the quaint and welcome practice of allocating seats free of charge, in advance.

Recommended Ryanair threatens to cancel flights between UK and EU after Brexit

But on the Ryanair flight, our party of five is sprinkled along a dozen rows, with three of us (Im the one in 28B) allocated middle seats, and the other two being diagonally across the aisle in 21D and 22C.

Budget airline passengers are accustomed to paying extra for services which used to be free, from checking in a bag to a cup of tea on board. But as the summer surge begins, Ryanair has been accused of deliberately seating couples and families apart in order to persuade them to pay for seat reservations.

Its important to say that this has nothing to do with seating families with young children together: Ryanair already insists that at least one parent pays for a seat, and accompanying under-12s can be sat adjacent for free.

But starting in mid May, passengers travelling in couples and groups started contacting me to say that they had each been allocated the unpopular middle seat, often many rows apart.

Heres Tony Osborne, who is flying from Birmingham to Dublin with his wife. Well, they are on the same plane, even if 28 rows apart.

We have always taken pot luck and generally end up sitting together or adjoining rows, said Mr Osborne. But we could not be further apart on this flight. I cannot believe that 24 hours before departure that these were the only two seats left.

A spokesperson for the airline said: "Mr Osborne's flight was fully booked, as most of our weekend flights are, which is why he and his travelling companion were allocated seats 3C and 31E when they went to check-in and receive their randomly allocated seats."

If spare seats are available when you check in, you are presented with the opportunity to tackle the random generation of seat numbers by paying a few pounds to sit together.

On social media, many passengers have claimed this is a nasty moneymaking wheeze. But Ryanair tells me: This is entirely a matter of customer choice. We are not trying to force people to pay for reserved seats.

We are very happy to facilitate any customer who wants a free of charge random seat but we are also going to do our best to facilitate customers who are willing to pay for a reserved seat.

While I prefer British Airways and easyJets practice of seating even skinflints like me as close to their companions as possible, I think Europes biggest budget airline is behaving reasonably. It appears to me that the airlines definition of random may have subtly altered.

Since people who do pay for seating go for window and aisle seats, rather than the unpopular middle seat, this summer the airlines default is to assign non-paying people to middle seats.

From Ryanairs perspective, that has the added bonus, as the aircraft fills, of maintaining a sporting chance of there being an empty seat on one side or the other, and hence the possibility that the passenger will pay to move their companion to the adjacent space.

Casting a statisticians eye on the five seat assignments, I think it curious that none of us is seated in rows 1-19. But I know theres a seat for me on board somewhere. Its only a two-hour flight  and sociable people will be able to chat with their new randomly allocated friends on either side.
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Hello @Ryanair, began the tweet from a man using the Twitter handle @GunneXgod.

You have 15 minutes before I commit the biggest terror attack the UK has ever seen on one of your planes.

Be ready, the tweet concluded.

Recommended Ryanair threatens to cancel flights between UK and EU after Brexit

The terror threat was false, and the user anonymous. But Ryanair successfully tracked down the offender. After a series of subpoenas to Twitter, the perpetrator was identified as Brian Lake of Koppel, a northern suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Ryanair then filed extortion and defamation proceedings, claiming the tweet was written with the specific intent of harming Ryanairs business and its reputation of providing high-quality, reliable, low-cost goods and services in the commercial airline industry.

A US District Court judge has now ordered Lake to pay a total of $284,148 (220,000), which works out at 1,700 for each of the 130 characters in the message.

One quarter of the sum awarded to the Irish airline by Magistrate Maureen P Kelly was in attorneys fees and costs incurred, with the remainder in punitive damages.

Ryanairs Robin Kiely said: We welcome this US District Court ruling. The safety of our customers, people and aircraft is our number one priority and we will not allow anyone to impugn, threaten or undermine our 32-year unblemished safety record and will pursue any anonymous social media offenders through the courts.

Bomb threats have frequently been made against airlines, by a range of individuals from disaffected employees to passengers worried about missing their flights.

Writing in Aviation Security International magazine, editor Philip Baum said: When a threat is deemed to be specific in nature, one cannot assume that, just because all previous threats have been hoaxes, this one is too.
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Northern Iraq is one of the most fought over places on earth. Ancient and modern fortifications are everywhere. Just outside Erbil is the site of the battle of Gaugamela where Alexander the Great defeated the Persian army in 331 BC. Saddam Husseins soldiers fought the Kurds here for decades. But the nine-month long struggle for Mosul between Iraqi government forces and Isis, which just ended, is probably the most important and decisive battle ever fought in this region.

It is ending with a victory of historic proportions for the Iraqi government which will go far to shape the political future of not just Iraq, but the region as a whole. Isis, which for three years had an army, administration and territory making it more powerful than many members of the UN, has been defeated. It will revert to guerrilla warfare, but it will no longer be in control of a state machine through which it exercised its monstrous rule.

The decisive nature of what has just happened needs to be emphasised, because the likelihood of continuing violence in Iraq may give the mistaken impression that nothing much has radically changed. Iraq also has a long tradition of over-confident rulers declaring victory, such as President George W Bush in 2003, only to see their supposed gains evaporating within a few months or years.

There will be more fighting and Isis still holds enclaves in Iraq at Tal Afar, west of Mosul, and Hawaija near Kirkuk, but these are isolated and will be overrun; in Syria, Isis fighters are holding out in the city of Raqqa and towns further south along the Euphrates. Overall, Isis in future will hide in the deserts of western Iraq and eastern Syria, capable of raids and terrorist attacks, but nothing like the threat it posed to whole populations in 2014 -17.

 Iraq PM Haider al-Abadi hails 'big victory' in Mosul

The Iraqi government is not quite getting the credit it deserves internationally for defeating Isis. Some of the scepticism is not its fault, but reflects worldwide disbelief in claims of military success in the wider Middle East after seeing these disproved in Afghanistan after 2001, Iraq after 2003 and Libya after 2011.

But the Iraqi government is often its own worst enemy here. Other governments have slick PR operations pumping out information and disinformation favourable to themselves. Iraq, for its part, has a sort of anti-propaganda machine geared to denying the undeniable and grossly exaggerating or prematurely announcing very real successes with a consequent lack of credibility at home and abroad.

Over the last week, the Baghdad government and media kept on announcing with embarrassing frequency the final elimination of Isis in the Old City of Mosul. There is no doubt about who had won the battle,but Iraqi Prime Minster Haider al-Abadi ended up making his triumphal visit while the boom of bombs exploding and the rattle of gunfire could still be heard in the background. Official over-optimism was fuelled by different military units  Counter-Terrorism Service, Emergency Response Division and Federal Police  competing to be the first to announce that victory was theirs.

Who are the real winners and losers coming in this battle? The Iraqi government is the biggest winner and Isis the biggest loser. The people of Mosul got rid of Isis, but at terrible cost to themselves. Great stretches of west Mosul lie in ruins, some areas so badly hit that it is impossible to even visit them because the streets are choked with debris. I was in al-Jadida district where local people all complained that there had never been many Isis fighters, but, whenever a sniper fired a shot from a large building, the troops on the ground would call in airstrikes to demolish it.

One aspect of the war does not come across in much of the media reporting. It is clear, looking at wrecked streets towards the centre of the city, that much of the damage has been caused not by airstrikes, but by artillery and rocket fire that have knocked chunks out of buildings in a haphazard way. One can see the artillery of the Federal Police, a paramilitary force, near the airport road to the south of Mosul. Much of the bombardment of west Mosul, as opposed to the east, was in the shape of shells and rockets fired in the general direction of the enemy rather than at specific targets.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. 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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. 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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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Nobody knows how many people were killed, but, talking to survivors, the number must be very large. One unconfirmed report says that civil defence workers have already pulled 2,000 bodies from the rubble. The Airwars monitoring group says that 5,805 civilians may have died in west Mosul between 19 February and 19 June. The authorities may not be trying to very hard to find out the true figure: one observer caustically noted that hundreds of planes, drones and artillery pieces were mobilised to bombard Mosul, but, on one day last week, only a single bulldozer could be found to aid the search for bodies buried under the ruins of the Old City.

The horrific civilian loss of life is explained in part by the merciless determination of Isis to prevent civilians from escaping and depriving them of human shields. Isis snipers shot people who tried to flee and Isis officials welded shut the metal doors of houses with people packed inside. It is difficult to think of any other example of a siege in which civilians have been herded together like this to deter air or artillery attack.

There is a compelling and meticulous account by Amnesty International of the bombardment called At Any Cost: The Civilian Catastrophe in West Mosul. Out of thousands of attacks in west Mosul, it investigates and documented 45 attacks that it had reasonable grounds to attribute to Iraqi government or US-led coalition forces. These 45 attacks alone killed at least 426 civilians and injured more than 100. The report should be read by everybody interested in why so many died in west Mosul.

Pro-government forces relied heavily upon explosive weapons with wide area effects such as IRAMs (Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions), it says. With their crude targeting abilities, these weapons wreaked havoc in densely populated west Mosul, where large groups of civilians were trapped in homes or makeshift shelters. This is important because the government officials and the western media sometimes contrast the indiscriminate Russian and Syrian government bombardment of East Aleppo with the accurate and discriminating Coalition backed assault on west Mosul.

The crass response of the leaders of the US-led coalition who orchestrated the attack on west Mosul is telling and shows that we are back in the Vietnam era when American officers were happy to volunteer that they were destroying populated areas in order to save them.

In the face of all the evidence, General Stephen Townsend, the senior U.S. general in Iraq, said: I reject any notion that coalition fires were in any way imprecise, unlawful or excessively targeted civilians." Reading this, I was reminded of the old Israeli military saying about one general: He was so stupid that even the other generals noticed.
Paschal Donohoe said the economic report was also backed up improving employment figures and tax receipts.

Ireland's economy grew strongly last year - but contracted at the start of 2017, official figures have shown.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO), which has begun using new techniques to more accurately value business performance, said that traditional yardsticks of measurement - gross domestic product - showed the value of goods and services grew by 5.1% in 2016.

In the first three months of this year, this standard assessment showed the economy shrank by 2.6% when compared to a strong performance at the end of last year.

The CSO also said that when gross national product numbers are examined, which discount the effects of multinationals, the economy shrank by 7.1% in the first quarter.

Despite the short-term dip, Paschal Donohoe, Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, said the numbers were very positive.

"This confirms that Ireland was the fastest growing economy in the European Union in 2016," he said.

Mr Donohoe said the economic report was also backed up improving employment figures and tax receipts.

The CSO, which was accused by economist Paul Krugman of "leprechaun economics" after reporting Ireland's economy grew at 26% in 2015, also issued an alternative measurement of growth.

Gross National Income (GNI) is an attempt to strip out performance that heavily distorts Irish economic reports and it will not include multinational profits or depreciation of assets in multibillion euro industries like aircraft leasing .

It was valued at 189.2 billion euro in 2016.
Members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit and Regional Armed Support Units during a previous training exercise

Specialist Garda units have carried out a simulated anti-terror operation in central Dublin.

The exercise involved attackers targeting people at the Docklands railway station before taking hostages on a train.

The operation was partly designed to measure response times for elite Garda units and involved officers reacting to victims of knife attacks and confronting armed terrorists.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said he hoped the exercise would give the public reassurance.

"While a terrorist attack here may be unlikely, the authorities are in no way complacent in the measures being taken to respond to that threat," he said.

"The exercise today is part of an ongoing process of planning and training that, to a large extent, takes place quietly and behind the scenes. That said, this work goes on relentlessly."

The exercise began with a simulated report of a car crash at Spencer Dock to which local units were dispatched.

The scene they were confronted with included an injured person on the ground and people having been stabbed.

The officers were also told of a report of two attackers - one armed with a gun and one a knife.

The exercise then moved inside the station.

The exercise was brought to an end by armed gardai who detained one of the supposed knife-wielding attackers in the train station and the gunman after he stepped off the train.

The rapid response was played out on cordoned-off streets and with the station temporarily closed.

The current terror threat level in Ireland is described as moderate.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar marked the operation by announcing that t he first meeting of the new Government Security Committee will take place next week.

"Protecting our citizens is of paramount importance to the Government. This involves a significant amount of ongoing work by the gardai, the Defence Forces and other state agencies," Mr Varadkar said.

The Taoiseach said the exercise was about developing and assessing the capacity to prevent or respond to incidents.

"Their principle focus is on security within Ireland, but they also work with our partners in Europe and further afield. Much of this work happens behind the scenes, but I also recognise that the public need reassurances about our capacity to deal with incidents," he said.

Mr Varadkar emphasised the need to focus on prevention.

"We do this through our law enforcement and intelligence agencies, through international co-operation, through our foreign policy and peacekeeping work, and also through important domestic measures such as promoting integration, education, tolerance and respect here at home," he said.

The Government Security Committee is designed to ensure more cooperation between ministers and across departments to prepare for and manage security threats.
Socialist TD Paul Murphy has accused the Taoiseach and two of his ministers of defaming him in connection with the Jobstown anti-water protest.

The Dublin South-West politician and five others were acquitted last month of falsely imprisoning former tanaiste and Labour leader Joan Burton at the demonstration in Tallaght, Dublin in 2014.

Mr Murphy has reported Taoiseach Leo Varadkar over remarks he made during heated exchanges in the Dail this week that the protest was "thuggery" and "violent".

In an 800 word letter to Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail, signed by the TD and his party colleagues Ruth Coppinger and Mick Barry, they claim that the Taoiseach broke parliamentary rules.

"Deputy Murphy has been found not guilty of false imprisonment," the politicians stated.

"It is also a matter of public record that Deputy Murphy never engaged in, nor encouraged violence or threatening or abusive behaviour in any way. Deputy Murphy is entitled to have his good name and integrity upheld against these allegations and insinuations."

Th e Solidarity TDs also referred remarks by Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, Mary Mitchell O'Connor, the Minister of State for Higher Education, and Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan.

And they claimed that the nature of the Taoiseach's remarks may not have been immediately apparent to the Ceann Comhairle.

The exchange took place on Wednesday at Leaders' Questions in the Dail when Mr Murphy accused gardai of perjury during his trial and that their evidence had been contradicted by video footage.

Mr Murphy has been accused of an abuse of parliamentary privilege.

The Ceann Comhairle took legal advice on the accusations about gardai and has referred that to the Committee on Procedure.
A syndicate has been revealed as the winners of the huge Euromillions jackpot.

The 29 million euro EuroMillions jackpot was won by a syndicate from the west of Ireland.

Lottery chiefs revealed the group collected their cheque in the offices in Dublin and chose to keep their identities secret.

A spokesman for the group said the life-changing impact of the win is only just sinking in.

"This has come as a huge shock but we are thrilled. This will certainly make life easier for us all and will secure our futures," one of the winners said.

The syndicate only began to get word of the huge jackpot win when one of the members checked the EuroMillions' numbers last Saturday.

"It has been a roller coaster week with lots of butterflies in our stomachs and lots of different emotions," one of the winners said.

"But we are keeping level heads and we will try to take it all in and we will give it time before we decide what to do with our winnings."

The winning quick pick ticket was purchased from Umesh Kumar's Garryduff XL Store on Pound Road in Castlebar Co Mayo last Friday.

National Lottery chief executive Dermot Griffin said he was delighted to hand over the winning cheque to the syndicate.

"It is important these winners take the time and space to let the news sink in," he said.

"This is an incredible amount of money to win, and we have recommended that the winners get independent financial and legal advice."

It is the second EuroMillions jackpot win for Castlebar.

In April 2014, a jackpot prize worth a massive 15 million euro was claimed on a ticket sold in Staunton's Costcutter Express in Castlebar. On that occasion, the winner did not go public.

It is also the 11th time a EuroMillions jackpot has been won in Ireland.

It follows the win for a Dublin work syndicate in January this year when they shared out an 88.5 million euro jackpot.

The country's biggest win remains Dolores McNamara from Limerick, who took home 115 million euro in 2005.
With talks to renegotiate the NAFTA trade pact just weeks away, US farm groups and lawmakers from rural states are intensifying lobbying of President Donald Trump's administration with one central message: leave farming out of it.

Trump blames the North American Free Trade Agreement - the "worst trade deal ever" in his words - for millions of lost manufacturing jobs and promises to tilt it in America's favor.

But for US farmers the 23-year old pact secures access to stable, lucrative markets in Mexico and Canada that now account for over a quarter of US farm exports.

Now they fear this access could become a bargaining chip in efforts to get a better deal for US manufacturers.

"Perhaps some other sectors of our economy are given better terms and in exchange for that agriculture tariffs would be reintroduced," said Joe Schuele, a spokesman for the US Meat Export Federation in Denver, Colorado.

Another concern is that the mere uncertainty of open-ended trade talks could drive Mexico to alternative suppliers of grains, dairy products, beef and pork.

Mexico became even more crucial after Trump's pullout from a vast Pacific Rim trade pact negotiated under Barack Obama dashed farmers' hopes of free access to more markets.

Next week, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is due to outline the administration's goals for the NAFTA talks to Congress and the farm lobby has turned up the heat in the past weeks to ensure that its interests will make Lighthizer's list.

Operating under the umbrella of the US Food and Agriculture Dialogue for Trade, more than 130 commodity groups and agribusiness giants since Trump's inauguration have been bombarding the new administration with phone calls and letters, public comments to USTR and face-to-face meetings with top officials who have Trump's ear.

"Our first ask is to do no harm," said Cassandra Kuball, the head of the umbrella group.

Lobbyists said that Lighthizer, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross have been receptive, but the wild card is how Trump ultimately will come down on the talks. They also wonder what concessions Mexico will seek from Washington in the talks due to start in mid-August.

Among the groups involved are the American Soybean Association, Corn Refiners Association and National Grain and Feed Association and firms such as Land O'Lakes, Inc., Tyson Foods, Inc., Louis Dreyfus Company North America, Archer Daniels Midland Co. and others.

For example, US cotton producers, marketers and shippers in mid-June warned the Trump administration that any weakening of NAFTA "would threaten the health of the US industry and the jobs of the 125,000 Americans employed by it."

Quadrupling Exports

Annual US farm exports to Mexico have grown from about $4 billion in 1994, when NAFTA began, to an estimated $18.5 billion this year. With Canada included, that number is forecast to reach $40 billion, quadrupling under NAFTA.

Republican lawmakers from rural states that have backed Trump in the 2016 election have sought to leverage their political clout to press farmers' case at a time when they struggle with low crop prices.

Pat Roberts, Republican senator from Kansas, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he used an unexpected invitation for a private White House meeting with Trump to plug in agriculture's cause in NAFTA and beyond.

"He (Trump) wanted to know what was happening in farmland," Roberts said. "I told him we went through a very rough patch and if we did not have a strong, robust, predictable trade policy, it's going to make life much more difficult in farm country," Roberts said of the 45-minute meeting in late June.

In May, 18 Republican senators, mainly from pro-Trump farming states, wrote the administration about the "tremendous growth" in US trade with Mexico and Canada as a result of NAFTA.

"Efforts to abandon the agreement or impose unnecessary restrictions on trade with our North American partners will have devastating economic consequences," they warned.

Trump's pledges to crack down on immigration and calls for a wall along the border with Mexico also vex farm state lawmakers.

"What I really need is a good, solid immigration system, South Dakota Republican Senator Mike Rounds said. Given his state's low unemployment rate of just around 2.8pc, farmers and ranchers need better access to legal foreign labor, he said.

Storm Over Sunny Slope

Agriculture Secretary Perdue got a taste of farmers' angst when met cattle ranchers in Nebraska on May 20. The event was held shortly after Washington agreed with China to resume beef exports, but some 60 ranchers who gathered at US Senator Deb Fischer's Sunny Slope Ranch quickly turned to NAFTA.

"If the president wants to renegotiate that agreement with our neighbors and partners in Mexico and Canada please leave the ag portion of that discussion out," said Pete McClymont, executive vice president of Nebraska Cattlemen, summarizing the discussion.

While lobbying in Washington, some Republican lawmakers have also met with Mexico's ambassador and US farming representatives traveled south to assure their partners unsettled by Trump's "America First" mantra.

"The common comment is: 'why are you here? The problem is not with us. The problem is in Washington. Why are you talking to us?'" said Tom Sleight, president and CEO of the US Grains Council. "The new normal is that feed buyers, millers, grain buyers are actively looking at alternative sources," he said.

It will take months to find out how effective the lobbying was. Meantime, some are willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

Daryl Haack, a corn and soybean farmer from Primghar in northwest Iowa, like others fears retaliation from either Canada or Mexico, but is optimistic it will not come to that.

"I think President Trump is a negotiator," he said. "I think he runs bluffs. A lot of negotiators will do that."
Research by the European Food Safety authority has concluded that contaminated feed is the most likely cause of the continued emergence of isolated BSE cases.

The European response to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) after the crisis of the 1980s has significantly reduced prevalence of the disease in cattle.

However, isolated cases are still being reported in the EU and for this reason the European Commission asked EFSA to investigate their origin.

The key measure for controlling BSE in the EU is a ban on the use of animal proteins in livestock feed.

This is because BSE can be transmitted to cattle through contaminated feed, mainly in the first year of life.

Sixty cases of classical BSE have been reported in cattle born after the EU ban was enforced in 2001.

None of these animals entered the food chain. Classical BSE is the type of BSE transmissible to humans.

The Commission asked EFSA to determine if these cases were caused by contaminated feed or whether they occurred spontaneously, i.e. without an apparent cause.

EFSA experts concluded that contaminated feed is the most likely source of infection. This is because the infectious agent that causes BSE has the ability to remain active for many years.

Cattle may have been exposed to contaminated feed because the BSE infectious agent was present where feed was stored or handled.

A second possibility is that contaminated feed ingredients may have been imported from non-EU countries.

Experts could not rule out other causes due to the difficulty of investigating individual cases.

Some constraints are the long incubation period of the disease and the lack of detailed information available from farms at the time of the trace-back investigation.

EFSA experts made a series of recommendations to maintain and strengthen the EU monitoring and reporting system, and to evaluate new scientific data that become available.
When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg visited a farm in South Dakota recently, he praised farmers but not all his Facebook followers were impressed.

The social media magnate said he has always thought people should be thankful and understand where food comes from.

Indeed, he said that for a year he set a goal to only eat meat that he killed and helped butcher himself.

Zuckerberg highlighted that a lot of US cattle start their lives in South Dakota where he said there are about three times as many cows as people.

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South Dakota is in its third year of a bad drought, and that makes it tough to feed the cattle.

One of the ranchers told me it's the worst drought he can remember -- and maybe the worst since the 1930s, he said.

Zuckerberg visited the Norman family on their 2,500 acre cattle ranch. He said the family will probably need to shrink their herd of 500 cattle by 10-15pc since that's all the land can support.

The Normans are proud of the work they do - not just feeding the country, but helping provide things like insulin, leather and makeup ingredients that also come from cattle.

Families like theirs don't always get a lot of credit, but we depend on the work they do, he said.

However, Zuckerberg came in for some criticism on Facebook, after he posted details and pictures of the visit, with members of the vegetarian and vegan communities among the most vocal.

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One facebook use said It is not good to killing animals for food with your own hands. How you can sleep at night after doing all this. Please ask your lovely daughter what she says about killing and eating a cow who gives you milk.

Another posted : "Disappointed " and "Disgusted" are understatements for what you believe is "true" regarding animal agriculture . This shows you show no compassion by encouraging animal cruelty and exploitation.

However, Zuckerberg also drew praise from the farming community with many Facebook users saying the farming sector is often overlooked.

One user said Thanks Mark for taking the time to highlight agriculture and where our food comes from. All to often people make judgements without getting the facts. Not all land is suited for growing plants, livestock allow us to use this land for production to feed the world.

While another said I think this is amazing. It is so important for people to understand where their food comes from. Cattle are more than just meat. They provide over 500 by-products to consumers.

Zuckerberg's post has been shared by over 16,000 people on Facebook and been reacted to by over a quarter of a million people.
The plan, on the site of the old Andrews Lane Theatre, is for a luxury hotel aimed at professionals

Eir and other objectors have sought to block plans for a 21m nine-storey hotel on the site of the former Andrews Lane Theatre near Dame Street in central Dublin.

The telecommunications company lodged an appeal to An Bord Pleanala against Dublin City Council's decision to give the green light to the 155-bedroom hotel.

Appalachian Property Holdings' planned development would involve the demolition of the former theatre. Others to appeal include the owners of the building that houses nearby Pichet restaurant and local property owner Brian Rutledge.

Appalachian was set up in April of last year and its directors are Neville O'Boyle and Mark Butler who own KeyWaste, one of the country's leading waste management groups.

In support of the application, Failte Ireland made a submission with the City Council, saying there is a major threat to the future of tourism in Dublin with the acute shortage of hotel bedrooms in the city centre.

Read more: Telecoms watchdog critical of Eir over 'lack of compliance systems'

Consultants for Appalachian state that the proposal will be a "compact luxury hotel" aimed at the young professional traveller.

The planned hotel rooms are to be of a reduced size with no food and beverage facilities on site, with room rates of 75pc to 80pc of normal room rates.

The City Council gave the plan the go-ahead only after ruling that a middle floor be omitted.

However, Appalachian has also appealed the City Council decision ordering the removal of a middle floor, stating that it will result in the loss of 19 hotel bedrooms.

The firm argues that the loss of the hotel rooms has "serious implications" for its viability.

In its appeal, consultants for Eir say that the company has no objection in principle to the redevelopment of the site.

Eir operates a telecoms exchange centre opposite and it claims that the plan has the potential to significantly impact the development potential of the adjoining developable lands.
Barbara Freiman, a woman from Germany, is a mother of three. The five-member family moved to China in January 2015 because of her husband's work.

In many people's eyes, Barbara should enjoy her stable and busy life as a housewife. However, she started her own business only one year after they settled in Shenyang, Liaoning province. She is now the founder and designer of a children's fashion brand "coco & ray." It is known for German design aesthetic and lovingly hand-made features.

After graduation from high school, Barbara was accepted by a university in Germany to major in graphic design. However, she had changed her major to law to satisfy her parents.

Barbara has never given up her design dream. She brought to China a century-old wardrobe. Twenty years ago, she had redesigned and refurbished the wardrobe to its present look. Barbara has many old things at home, for instance, a sewing machine from her grandma and a pair of nearly 100-year-old scissors.

"A good mother and a boss," Barbara's 13-year-old son said when describing his mother. Her youngest daughter is only one-and-a-half years old. Her three children is the reason why she decided to make children's clothes.

"When I came to China, I didn't find the children's clothes here to be beautiful or comfortable," she said.

All "coco & ray" clothes are handmade with selected fabrics and customized buttons. At present, Barbara's studio has six staff, including an experienced pattern maker and tailors. The Liaoning Free Trade Zone opened in April 2017, providing her a good opportunity. One month ago, she registered her own company in the zone.

Barbara hopes to make clothes with unique designs. Therefore, they only make 100 clothes for each style. She will donate the 100th ones to children's welfare houses and encourage consumers to donate their used "coco & ray" products.

Barbara's effort sees gains. On July 1, "coco & ray" held its first fashion show party. She said she would never be able to start her own fashion brand in Europe, because it would be far too expensive to take the risk of starting a new business. In China, she has wonderful tailors to help her designs come to life.

Barbara hopes to expand her studio to a company with 200 staff members in two years. "My husband plans to work here till 2019. However, if my business grows and does well, I will convince him to stay in China, I love this place," she said.
Restrictions on the height of apartment buildings are limiting the supply of much-needed housing, Nama's chief executive has warned.

Brendan McDonagh told the Finance Select Committee that height restrictions "are no longer appropriate given current and prospective housing needs".

He argued a "city centre apartment development project that is not commercially viable at six to seven storeys is more likely to be commercially viable at, say, 12-15 storeys".

"Amending height restrictions to 15 storeys in city centre locations and to 10 storeys in suburban areas merits serious consideration," he said.

He also urged the planning authorities to exclude underground car parking from some city-centre residential developments, claiming they are an additional cost burden on developers. Basement parking costs are estimated to add "about 30,000 per car space to development costs", he said.

Meanwhile, the Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness heard Dublin City Council could become the first local authority in the country to push for a new affordable housing model to benefit buyers in their late 20s and 30s.

The committee also heard that 80 families a month are entering homelessness.

Read more: Greater regulation of our building standards would make it easier to fund social housing

The executive manager with responsibility for the housing programme in Dublin City Council, Tony Flynn, said: "Our housing land initiatives are currently out to tender, they'll provide an affordable element."

Mr Flynn said Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) were a "last resort" but, in a bid to answer the crisis, 11 CPOs had been completed in Dublin and the owners of 144 derelict homes were being pursued to bring properties back into use.

The committee also heard that a Dublin housing body had delivered 70 homes back to the council and 17 council tenants had volunteered their local authority homes for the use of others and moved into elderly accommodation.

"There's also scope for vacant shops to look at as a change of use," Mr Flynn added.

Eileen Gleeson, director of the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive, told the Oireachtas meeting that 80 families are entering homelessness per month in Dublin. At the end of October last year, 813 family households were in emergency accommodation, commercial hotels and B&Bs.

Between this period and the end of June this year, 842 households were moved "to more appropriate accommodation" and a further 543 would be moved from July to September.
Facebook will join Irelands major SME event YOUR BUSINESS LIVE as co-sponsor, it has been announced.

The area of sustained growth for SMEs is central to the event, which will feature a Grow Your Business stage supported by Facebook.

"Were delighted to be working with Independent News & Media on this event for small and medium businesses," Ciaran Quilty, VP SMB EMEA, Facebook said.

"SMEs are the engine of economic growth and important providers of employment in Ireland as demonstrated in recent results from the Future of Business survey by Facebook, OECD and the World Bank which revealed that 17pc of Irish SMEs created jobs in the past six months and 24pc want to create jobs in the next six months."

Attracting customers is the biggest challenge facing SMEs today, according to Mr Quilty, and Facebook is looking to help businesses in Ireland use digital and in particular mobile to reach more customers and grow their business.

"There are now over 43 million people around the world connected to a business in Ireland on Facebook," he said.

"We want to help Irish SMEs connect with that ever-growing global audience and with customers here at home. We look forward to sharing insights, trends and best practices with SMEs at the Grow Your Business stage at Your Business Live.

A showcase of exhibiting companies and organisations with an extensive programme of seminars and workshops on Growth, Finance, Technology and HR and Talent will be available at YOUR BUSINESS LIVE.

The SME event - which takes place on October 17 and 18 in the RDS Simmonscourt, Dublin - welcomes executives, decision-makers, entrepreneurs, owners and managers from around the country to network, learn and do business.

Dearbhail McDonald, Group Business Editor, INM, said securing Facebook as joint title sponsor was a major boost for YOUR BUSINESS LIVE  and the SME sector.

"Small businesses ignore the online world at their peril," said Ms McDonald.

"Facebook, with its dynamic SMB studio at the heart of its Irish operations, is using its platform, insights and reach to help entrepreneurs and small businesses in Ireland aim for global growth and reach their full potential.

"The SME sector is core to INMs business of reporting on and supporting small business across all our print and digital platforms and we are thrilled to team up with Facebook for YOUR BUSINESS LIVE."

YOUR BUSINESS LIVE 2017 is supported by Ibec for Irish Business, Small Firms Association (SFA) and Enterprise Ireland, reinforcing the aim of this event to create a new marketplace for the broad range of Irish SMEs - which account for 99.8pc of all active businesses in Ireland.

Facebook, together with Vodafone Ireland, are joint title sponsors for YOUR BUSINESS LIVE.

YOUR BUSINESS LIVE 2017 is an Independent News and Media event, please visit www.yourbusinesslive.ie for further information.
Don't be fooled by Tim Cook's 2016 reported pay of $8.75m (7.66m), which ranked the Apple CEO in the bottom third of all CEOs in the S&P 500.

Mr Cook (56) actually took home $145m, almost all of it from awards granted back in 2011.

He is not the only chief executive of a publicly traded US company to cross the $100m threshold for take-home pay, commonly referred to as "realised pay".

Reed Hastings (56), the CEO of Netflix, got $106m last year. Take-home pay for the top 25 S&P 500 CEOs who served in their positions for the last full fiscal year totalled about $1.65bn.

Bosses in the technology, healthcare and media industries dominated the list.

Take-home pay is the sum of the values of stock vested and options exercised during the fiscal year, along with cash from salaries, bonuses and perks.

Companies typically grant equity to executives as incentives each year.

Those awards are reported at their target values in the summary compensation tables of annual proxy statements.

But chief executives don't necessarily take ownership of those awards in the year they are given.

A better measure of earnings is the value of options that the CEOs exercised and the shares that vested (meaning they became entitlements) during the year. Those figures can vary significantly from companies' original estimates as stock prices change.

Mr Cook's 2016 take-home pay came primarily from the vesting of 1.26 million shares, valued at $136m, which were awarded after he became Apple's CEO, succeeding Steve Jobs, in 2011.

About one-fifth of the shares were tied to the firm's three-year total shareholder return relative to the S&P 500 Index.

Shares of the iPhone maker gained 78pc in the 36 months through the fiscal year ended September 28, placing it in the top third of the index.

The remaining 980,000 shares vested solely on his continued employment.

Mr Cook has now amassed more than $320m from vested shares of the 2011 award.

His $145m total take-home pay for fiscal 2016 also includes a $3m salary, a $5.37m cash bonus and $377,719 in perks.

In a 2015 interview with 'Fortune' magazine, Mr Cook said he planned to donate his fortune to philanthropy.

Netflix's Hastings took home $106m, the second-highest in 2016 for S&P 500 chiefs, almost entirely from exercised options that were granted as early as 2006.

Netflix shares have surged more than 3,000pc through the 10 years ended December 31, 2016.

Options, which generally can be held for up to a decade, were also given to the heads of tech and biopharmaceutical companies last year.

Leonard Schleifer (64), the chief executive of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, earned $90m from exercising options. His $94m in take-home pay ranked him fourth.

Oracle's co-chief executive, Safra Catz (55), and Salesforce's Marc Benioff (52) collected $86m and $85m, respectively. Option exercises accounted for more than 90pc of their total.

Media chieftains got the most cash, the ranking shows.

Leslie Moonves (67), the boss of America's CBS Corporation, reaped a $32m cash bonus that was the largest since he became CEO in 2006 and accounted for almost 60pc of his total take-home pay.

Walt Disney's Bob Iger (66) got $20m cash as an incentive in 2016.

His payout was tied to financial metrics, such as operating income and returns on invested capital, and was 10pc lower than the previous year.

Mr Iger can earn a retention cash bonus of as much as $60m in 2018 if the company posts aggregate five-year operating income of at least $78.3bn.

(Bloomberg)
An American Twitter user who made an anonymous bomb threat against Ryanair must pay the airline US$284,148 (248,365), a US court has ruled.

Ryanair yesterday welcomed the United States District Court ruling against the Twitter user, who had posted anonymously using the account name @GunnexGod.

The original tweet read, Hello @Ryanair, you have 15 minutes before I commit the biggest terror attack the UK has ever seen on one of your planes. Be ready.

The airline obtained a number of subpoenas from Twitter, which helped identify Brian Lake from Pennsylvania as the person responsible for posting the threat in February 2016, Ryanair said.

Ryanair took extortion and defamation proceedings in the US earlier this year, and the District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania this week ruled in Ryanairs favour.

The court ordered Brian Lake to pay $284,148 in damages (including punitive damages). Ryanair welcomed the ruling and said it will not allow any individual or group to threaten or impugn its industry leading safety record.

We welcome this US District Court ruling. The safety of our customers, people and aircraft is our number one priority and we will not allow anyone to impugn, threaten or undermine our 32-year unblemished safety record and will pursue any anonymous social media offenders through the courts, Ryanairs Robin Kiely said.
Frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea, the Trump administration could impose new sanctions on small Chinese banks and other firms doing business with Pyongyang within weeks, two senior U.S. officials said.

The U.S. measures would initially hit Chinese entities considered "low-hanging fruit," including smaller financial institutions and "shell" companies linked to North Koreas nuclear and missile programs, said one of the officials, while declining to name the targets.

It would leave larger Chinese banks untouched for now, the official said.

The timing and scope of the U.S. action will depend heavily on how China responds to pressure for tougher steps against North Korea when U.S. and Chinese officials meet for a high-level economic dialogue in Washington on Wednesday, the administration sources told Reuters.

President Donald Trump and his top aides have signaled growing impatience with China over North Korea, especially since Pyongyang last week test-launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts say could put all of Alaska in range for the first time.

U.S. officials have also warned that China could face U.S. trade and economic pressure - something Trump has held in abeyance since taking office in January - unless it does more to restrain its neighbor.

Read more: Trump odd man out as 19 of G20 group reaffirm Paris accord commitment

The so-called "secondary sanctions" now being considered are a way for the United States to apply targeted economic pressure on companies in countries with ties to North Korea by denying them access to the U.S. market and financial system.

Word of the sanctions plan comes as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley seeks to overcome resistance from China and Russia to a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing stiffer international sanctions on Pyongyang.

The targets now being weighed for sanctions would come from a list of firms numbering substantially more than 10 that Trump shared with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a Florida summit in April and which U.S. experts have continued to compile for review, according to one of the officials.

The administration has yet to see what it considers a sufficient response from China.

"The president is losing patience with China," the official said, adding that there would be a "more aggressive approach to sanctioning Chinese entities ... in the not-too-distant future."

China's embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request for comment. The White House declined comment.

HALEY'S WARNING

Though the sources stressed that no final decisions had been made, they said China, North Korea's main trading partner, was crucial to pressuring Pyongyang to prevent it from achieving the capability of striking the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile.

During a U.N. Security Council meeting last week, Haley threatened secondary sanctions if the council could not agree on new sanctions  though she did not cite China by name.

In late June, Washington imposed secondary sanctions on two Chinese citizens and a shipping company for helping North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and accused a regional Chinese bank, the Bank of Dandong, of laundering money for Pyongyang.

Fresh U.S. sanctions would be aimed at sending a message to Beijing of Washingtons resolve to act further on its own.

But they would stop short, at least for now, of the kind of broad sectoral sanctions Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama, secured through unilateral and international action against Iran to pressure it into negotiations to curb its nuclear program.

Cui Tiankai, Chinas ambassador to Washington, said on Monday that secondary sanctions were "not acceptable."

"Such actions are obstructing cooperation between China and the U.S. and lead to questions about the real intentions of the U.S. side, according to a transcript of his remarks from the Chinese embassy.

The threat of further secondary sanctions on Chinese companies could complicate next weeks U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue, an important forum for narrowing differences between the worlds two biggest economies.

While preparations for fresh sanctions are moving forward, tangible new steps by China could prompt Washington to put the measures on hold, the U.S. sources said.

"Theyd have to show theyre really serious," the second official said. "Were not going to be paralyzed into inaction."

U.S. and U.N. sanctions have so far failed to deter Pyongyang from pursuing its nuclear and missile programs.

Trump pledged repeatedly during his election campaign to get tough on Chinese trade practices deemed unfair to the United States, but his rhetoric softened after the friendlier-than-expected April summit with Xi.

Shortly after their meeting, Trump said he had told Xi that China would get a better trade deal if it reined in North Korea.

But in recent weeks, Trump has fired off tweets denouncing China's trade with North Korea and cast doubt on whether Beijing was doing enough to counter Pyongyang.

Reflecting growing concern about North Korea on Capitol Hill, two members of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, Democrat Chris Van Hollen and Republican Pat Toomey, announced on Wednesday they would soon introduce legislation for North Korea modeled on the Iran secondary sanctions laws passed by Congress.
Steve Whitmire said he is devestated to be let go (Tonya Wise/AP)

The puppeteer sacked after 27 years as Kermit the Frog has said he is devastated and feels he has failed in my duty to Muppets creator Jim Henson.

Steve Whitmire, who took over voicing and controlling the frog in 1990 when Henson died, wrote an emotional blog post on Thursday, days after his firing was made public.

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For me the Muppets are not just a job, or a career, or even a passion. They are a calling, an urgent, undeniable, impossible to resist way of life, he wrote.

I feel that I am at the top of my game, and I want all of you who love the Muppets to know that I would never consider abandoning Kermit or any of the others because to do so would be to forsake the assignment entrusted to me by Jim Henson, my friend and mentor, but even more, my hero.

Whitmire, who joined the Muppets in 1978, said he has experienced every possible emotion since executives called in October to say he was out of the job.

During the phone call, he said, they gave two reasons why he was being let go, but Whitmire did not revealed what they were.

Given the opportunity I remain willing to do whatever is required to remedy their concerns because I feel my continued involvement with the characters is in the best interest of the Muppets, he added.

I just want you all to know that I am sorry if I have disappointed any of you at any point throughout our journey, and to let everyone know that I am devastated to have failed in my duty to my hero.

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Whitmire said he has kept his silence in the hope that the bosses would reverse their decision.

A Muppets Studio spokesman confirmed his sacking, without giving the reasons, and said puppeteer Matt Vogel will take over the role.

Video of the Day
With global political turmoil, tricky Brexit negotiations ahead and gloomy weather forecasts there may seem little to smile about.

But, according to experts today is the happiest day of the year in Ireland thanks to the good weather, summer holidays and light nights.

Dr Cliff Arnall, who coined the term Blue Monday in 2005 to describe the most miserable day of the year - the third Monday in January - used a similar formula to find out when the we are at our most content.

He discovered that July 14th is when well-being soars, as the end of the working week coincides with long warm days that allow people to spend more time with friends and family outdoors.

Teenagers who have taken exams in May and June are also feeling much calmer by July as schools and colleges close for the summer and results are over a month away.

The cabin fever associated with the end of the summer break is also many weeks away and children have not had enough time to get bored and restless.

Dr Arnall said: The start of the school holidays has a positive effect on the household.

Family stress can be significantly reduced as the usual hassle of getting children ready for school then joining the rush hour school traffic stops during the holiday period.

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This reduction in traffic congestion also benefits people without children, or whose children have grown up, as the roads are clearer and car trips are more relaxed.

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Previous studies have found that happiness rockets on Fridays, as levels of stress hormone cortisol fall gradually throughout the day with the approach of the weekend.

The new formula factors in emotional connectedness, kindness, health, being true to yourself, calmness, uncertainty, friends, family and fun.

Crucially it does not include financial wealth after several studies have shown that money does not make people happier.

The world today is a very different place to 2005, said Dr Arnall, 51, from Brecon, Wales, a former lecturer at Cardiff University who now runs happiness and confidence sessions for organisations including the Department for Work and Pensions and the NHS.

We are now in a time where massive socio political national and international changes force us to examine where we are heading.

The formula addresses the core human fundamental issues head on to help people build and maintain their happiness and well-being in spite of a very uncertain world.

Read More

This years Blue Monday, which fell on January 16, was deemed to be the most depressing ever because of a string of celebrity deaths, anxiety of Brexit and fears about the Donald Trump presidency in the US.

The gloom was compounded by bad weather and Christmas debts.

The new formula was commissioned by Jury's Inn who have developed a Stay Happy Guide for guests.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
A garda accused of harassing a State solicitor could not be linked by any computer used by her to a photograph of the solicitor used on abusive posters, a jury has heard.

Eve Doherty (49), a garda based in Dublin, is charged with harassing Elizabeth Howlin between September 2011 and March 2013 and making false statements claiming Ms Howlin was perverting the course of justice.

On day three of the trial, former Detective Inspector Martin Cummins, now retired, showed the jury a poster which had photographs of Ms Howlin and Brendan Howlin TD, a distant cousin of Elizabeth Howlin, printed on them.

The jury has heard the posters had been left on cars around Ms Howlin's estate in Blackrock, south Dublin.

The court heard the photo of Ms Howlin used in the posters had been taken in 2007 during a meeting between a committee within the Department of Justice and Brian Lenihan, who had recently been appointed minister of that department.

The photo of Ms Howlin was uploaded to a website called criminalcode.ie, and the image could have been obtained only from that website, Dt Insp Cummins told Kerida Naidoo SC, prosecuting.

The detective said he obtained a list of IP addresses that had visited the website.

Michael O'Higgins SC, defending, asked Mr Cummins whether any computer connected to Mr Doherty had appeared on that list.

Mr Cummins told him that it did not.

The trial continues today before Judge Melanie Greally and a jury.
A doctor has been charged with murdering her three-year-old son who was found stabbed to death at their Dublin home.

Maha Al-Adheem (42) told gardai after her arrest: "It was my knife, it was my hand. It wasn't me, it was the power."

Ms Al-Adheem appeared in Dublin District Court yesterday morning charged after the death of her son Omar Omran, whose body was found with multiple stab wounds in their apartment in Kimmage on Monday.

Judge Michael Walsh remanded her in custody for a week.

No bail application was made as bail in murder cases can only be granted at the High Court.

Ms Al-Adheem, a qualified GP from Iraq, is charged with murdering Omar Omran at their home at Riverside Apartments, Poddle Park, Kimmage, on July 10.

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She had been arrested on Wednesday and was detained at Crumlin garda station before being brought before the court yesterday.

Det-Sgt Brendan O'Halloran of Sundrive Road Station said he arrested the accused at 12.40am for the offence of murder, contrary to Common Law.

She made no reply to the caution after arrest, he said.

The accused was subsequently charged in his presence by another garda sergeant.

"In reply to the charge, she said 'It was my knife, it was my hand. It wasn't me, it was the power'," Det Sgt O'Halloran told the court.

He said she was then handed a copy of the charge sheet.

Defence solicitor Richard Young consented to the one-week adjournment. He applied for free legal aid, handing into court a statement of the defendant's financial means.

Judge Walsh granted legal aid after hearing the accused's total income was "as stated" and there was no garda objection.

Ms Al-Adheem was remanded in custody to appear in court again on July 20.

Wearing a purple sweater, blue jeans and glasses, she nodded when the brief proceedings ended but did not address the court.

Gardai found the child in the apartment on Monday evening with multiple stab wounds to his body. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A man killed two elderly brothers in their home just hours after telling strangers in a pub that he was studying to be a doctor who would carry out post-mortems on any bodies found that night, a court heard.

Alan Cawley's murder trial also heard he threatened to have one customer "committed" with the help of gardai to prevent him killing his wife.

The evidence was heard yesterday at the Central Criminal Court, where the 30-year-old is on trial, charged with murdering both Thomas Blaine and John (Jack) Blaine. They were found beaten to death four years ago.

Mr Cawley, of Four Winds, Corrinbla, Ballina, Co Mayo, has admitted killing the brothers, both of whom had speech impediments and other illnesses. However, he has pleaded not guilty to murdering them on July 10, 2013, at New Antrim Street in Castlebar.

Michelle Nally testified that she was bar manager at The Irish House in the town, but was off duty and socialising there on the night of July 9 that year.

She told the prosecution that a couple she knew, Mick and Maureen Lacey, came into the bar. They were followed a short time later by a man she didn't know - it's accepted that this was the accused.

"He seemed to go straight over to them," she recalled. "At first, Maureen seemed to be OK but after a while I heard her saying: 'Leave us alone'."

She said she invited Mrs Lacey to join her and her friend, as she looked "very uncomfortable".

"He followed her over," she said. "He was saying that Michael Lacey had health issues and he thought that Michael was going to kill Maureen that night. He said he wanted to ring the gardai on him, that he was afraid for her."

Ms Nally said this man claimed to be studying to be a doctor and to have done four-and-a-half years of his training. "He said he was working in the mortuary in Castlebar and that if her body, or any body, was found in the morning, he'd be doing the post-mortems," she said.

She thought he might have been on drugs. "I didn't know if he was acting crazy," she added. "I was fearful."

Ms Nally said she'd had every intention of calling the HSE the next morning but when she heard the news about the Blaine brothers she called gardai instead.

The defence put it to her that it had been a completely irrational allegation to make about Michael Lacey.

"Yeah, it was crazy," she replied. "He didn't know them."

The jury also heard from the last person, besides the accused, to see Jack Blaine alive.

Barman John Ralph had just delivered a cup of tea to Mr Blaine's windowsill, when he noticed him with the accused.

He told Mr Buckley that he had known the brothers since he was a child. "Everyone would know them around town," he explained.

The trial continues on Monday.
The INTO has rejected the new public service pay agreement by an overwhelming 89pc-11pc. Stock photo

The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) has rejected the new public service pay agreement by an overwhelming 89pc-11pc.

The union executive had sought a rejection because the deal is not bringing about an end to two-tier pay rates. Some 53pc of members voted.

Pay for new entrants is a major issue for the teaching unions because of the high level of recruitment of teachers, to cope with rising enrolments, since lower rates were introduced.

INTO is one of the first unions to ballot on the successor to the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA) and the outcome is a setback for hopes of bedding down the deal because INTO has tended to be an early adopter of pay agreements.

Meanwhile, the Irish Federation of University Teachers said it was recommending acceptance of the agreement.
A MAN is in hospital with serious head injuries this morning after being run over by a car and then attacked in Dublin's north inner city overnight.

Early reports indicate that a car was driven down Hill Street and left onto North Cumberland Street at around 12.20am before appearing to deliberately knock a man down at the side of the road.

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A number of men are then believed to have jumped out of the car and attacked the victim (40s) with weapons.

The group then left the scene in the direction of Gardiner Street.

The victim was rushed to the Mater Hospital with what are described as serious injuries.

The road was closed for a time overnight and early this morning while members of the garda technical bureau carried out a forensic examination of the scene.

Gardai said in a statement: "Gardai are investigating a hit and run traffic collision and an alleged assault on Parnell Street at the junction of Hill Street in Dublin 1, which happened at about 12.20 am on Friday morning 14th July 2017.

"A man in his 40s was discovered with serious injuries following the incident. The man was removed by ambulance to The Mater Hospital.

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"Gardai believe that the man was struck by a green or blue coloured Audi saloon car which left the scene in the direction of Summerhill.

"Witnesses also allege that a number of men got out from this car and assaulted the man."

Witnesses or anyone with any information about this incident is urged to contact gardai at Mountjoy Garda Station on 01 666 8600.

More to follow
Chinas HNA Infrastructure on July 13 announced that it purchased a controlling stake of 51 percent of the stock of Brazils second busiest airport in Rio de Janeiro at 108 million yuan.

The purchase was made between HNA Infrastructure and Brazilian engineering group Odebrecht, which controlled 51 percent of the stock in Rio de Janeiro Aeroportos S.A. (RJA). The remaining 49 percent stake is controlled by Singapore Changi Airport Group. The Chinese company also plans to invest 2.16 billion RMB to pay for the airports licensing rights.

This marks the latest purchase by HNA Group after it acquired a 82.5 percent stake in the Frankfurt-Hahn Airport in March.

According to Caixin.com, the group has announced over $40 billion in acquisitions and investments overseas, making the group one of Chinas most aggressive dealmakers in the global market.

Rios international airport recorded 17 million passengers in 2016. The annual revenue of 2016 was 1.2 billion Brazilian real, but the net loss was at 351 million real.
Gardai seized the plastic explosive after armed officers stopped a taxi in the Ballybough area at about 6pm on Friday

The New IRA poses the biggest terrorist threat from dissident republicans in more than 20 years, Garda security boss Michael OSullivan has warned.

The assistant garda commissioner said that it was the most dangerous dissident group since the Provisional IRA.

Mr OSullivan said that the threat level from the dissidents in Northern Ireland was severe, which is the second highest threat level. In Britain, it is substantial, meaning there is a strong possibility of an attack.

This is its highest level since the Provisionals declared their ceasefire in 1994.

Mr OSullivan said that the garda assessment of the New IRA was shared by police and intelligence experts in Northern Ireland and Britain.

Intelligence services in both islands indicate that the group is monitoring movements of potential targets in the North and Britain.

The New IRAs bomb-making skills are considered more advanced than those of other dissident groups.

The group is also finding new sources of explosives and weapons and is continuing to recruit personnel not previously known by the Garda or the PSNI to have been involved in dissident activities.

In the past two years, gardai have seized 100kg of explosive, nine AK-47 rifles, a sub-machinegun and a sniper rifle from dissidents.

As a result of a build-up in non-jury cases, a second special criminal court has been opened  something not seen during three decades of Provisional IRA terrorist activities.

The New IRA has more than 50 activists, all of whom are listed as persons of interest to the Garda security and intelligence section.

It is estimated to have about 200 supporters, providing logistical help such as vehicles and safe houses.

The group was formed in 2012 and has strongholds in Armagh, Belfast, Donegal, Dublin, Louth and Tyrone.

It also has a stronghold in Cork, although it has been divided since the murder of Aidan ODriscoll in December.

Its leader is a veteran republican from a Border county, while another senior figure is a former Real IRA boss in Derry. One of its key activists in Dublin has an address in Tallaght.

The New IRA comprises of former factions of the Real IRA, Republican Action Against Drugs  which was based around Clady, Derry and Strabane  and seasoned republicans who had previously appeared to support the peace process but became active again.

Other members include those who had stayed away from the Real IRA, the Continuity IRA and ONH (Oglaigh na hEireann) because of the infiltration of those groups by gardai and security agencies in the North.

Many members have acquired counter-surveillance skills by attending courses in countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and possibly Poland, according to intelligence sources.

Most of them travel out under the guise of setting up supposedly legitimate security companies.

The New IRA has also been developing its engineering side and manufacturing improvised explosive devices and attempting to open up new routes to buy guns.

It was responsible in November 2012 for the murder of Northern Ireland prison officer David Black (52) on the M1 as he was driving to work at Maghaberry near Lisburn.

Some of its members were also involved in the 2011 murder of PSNI constable Ronan Kerr and the earlier murders of off-duty British soldiers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar as they took delivery of a pizza outside Massereene barracks in Antrim.

The New IRA has also been involved in several attempted killings and bombings in recent years. Its members are also behind a number of punishment beatings, which are at an all-time high in Belfast.

These are now referred to as community controlled violence (CCV) and have resulted in five deaths in Northern Ireland in the past year.

Gardai have kept a close watch on the movements of known New IRA activists, particularly during events such as the recent visit of Prince Charles.

A new Belfast-based dissident republican political party, known as Saoradh, which has the support of New IRA prisoners in jails on both sides of the Border, was launched last September.

Among those who attended its first ard fheis, held in Newry, was prominent dissident Colin Duffy.

A tribute was paid in a Saoradh newsletter to Micky Barr, who was shot dead in the Sunset House pub in Summerhill, Dublin, during the Kinahan-Hutch feud in April last year.

Saoradh also has a branch in Dublin.
Leo Varadkar has joined Sean Lemass, Eamon de Valera and Enda Kenny in featuring on the front cover of 'Time' magazine.

Last night, the Taoiseach said appearing on the cover of the European edition was a vital part of growing Ireland's positive image on the world stage. "Doing international media is important because it does give us an opportunity to speak to a global audience, to speak to people who read magazines and newspapers all over the world," said Mr Varadkar at a screening at the 2017 Galway Film Fleadh.

"To tell them a little bit more about Ireland and more about the Government's vision for Ireland, which is as an island that's at the centre of the world, not on the edge."

In the 'Time' interview, the new Taoiseach says he is opposed to many of US President Donald Trump's policies, but wants Ireland to be a good friend.

Mr Varadkar also states that he is "very much opposed" to a united Ireland referendum, as he feels it would be defeated.

In relation to Brexit, the Fine Gael leader says: "We would prefer if it wasn't happening. We still hope that at some point Britain will change its mind."
Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leary, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, Archbishop of Vienna and Fr Chris O Donnell pictured at the 'Let's Talk Family: Let's Be Family' conference in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. Photo: Brian Arthur

One of Pope Francis's closest advisers has warned that "a strict separation of Church and State will never work" and has appealed for greater co-operation between the two going forward.

Speaking to journalists in Limerick ahead of addressing the conference, 'Let's Talk Family: Let's Be Family', Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna said he could not comment on Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's concerns over possible growing hostility between the Church and State.

The Cardinal, who is one of Pope Francis's special advisory Council of Nine, said that in Austria, Church-State relations had benefited from dialogue.

"After the drama of National Socialism and World War II" Austria sought to foster a "free Church in a free State" where the State was free and the Church was free, he explained.

"The model of strict separation has never worked and the model of confusing state, religion and politics has always been very problematic," he said.

"We do not want confusion between politics and religion."

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The 72-year-old prelate was in Ireland for a conference at Mary Immaculate College, which is the first event in the build-up to the World Meeting of Families in August next year, which Pope Francis is widely expected to attend.

On the issue of the family, Cardinal Schonborn, who is considered a possible successor to Pope Francis, said the Church's intention was to "do whatever we can to favour, strengthen and encourage the family without discrediting other forms of life".

Family, he said, "is and remains and will remain forever the basis of every society. Therefore, favouring the family is favouring the future".

Asked about Ireland's marriage referendum and acceptance of same-sex relationships, he quoted Francis's words to a journalist: "Who am I to judge?"

"We never can judge a person. We may not agree with the behaviour but we are not entitled to judge a person."

On the importance of family to refugees, he highlighted how those fleeing their homes usually tried to go where they had family members.

His own family arrived as refugees in Austria in 1945 and stayed with relatives after fleeing Communist-ruled Czechoslovakia.
Senior sources say gardai have concerns the criminal may offer himself as a hitman-for-hire for gangsters in the bloody Hutch-Kinahan feud. Photo: Stock picture

Gardai fear that 16 people are under imminent threat following the release of a dangerous gangland criminal from prison last night.

A major Garda alert is in place because officers believe a number of women and a highly respected garda are under threat from the man.

The south-inner-city gangster - who cannot be named for legal reasons - had been locked up for a number of years after committing an extremely violent offence but is now a free man.

Senior sources say gardai have concerns the criminal may offer himself as a hitman-for-hire for gangsters in the bloody Hutch-Kinahan feud.

The released man is already a suspect in a string of gangland murders but has barely any previous convictions.

However, of more concern to detectives is that 16 people are now under "realistic threat" after the criminal left jail last night.

Sickened

"A total of 16 people are now under threat because this individual is now a free man," one source said.

"Even hardened criminals are sickened at his disgusting crimes which he has got away with."

Among the 16 people on the criminal's hit-list are highly respected people, former associates of his and relatives of people who gave evidence against him in the past. His targets are based across Dublin and even abroad.

Such is the level of seriousness attached to his release from prison that the Garda's elite Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau has taken the lead role in managing the situation.

A serving garda and other potential victims have been warned the gangster is now out.

The feared criminal previously had "loose links" to other criminals involved with the Kinahan cartel but it is understood he is willing to carry out violence for money.
Nine days after Rescue 116 helicopter tragically hit an island that was not included in its onboard warning system, it was discovered that the aeronautical data relating to Skellig Michael was also dangerously inaccurate.

In a report on RTE's 'Prime Time', it emerged that a pilot had flagged the absence of Black Rock from the onboard warning system of Rescue 116 four years ago. The error in the helicopter's system was not corrected.

Captains Mark Duffy (51), and Dara Fitzpatrick (45), winch operator Ciaran Smith (38) and winchman Paul Ormsby (53) died when their Coast Guard helicopter crashed 12km off the Co Mayo coast on March 14.

A preliminary report into the fatal crash of the aircraft released in April found the vital omission in the aircraft's onboard warning system.

In the report, the Air Accident Investigation Unit said that its initial inquiries have found that an Enhanced Ground Positioning Warning System (EGPW) did not have the 'lighthouse obstacle' included in its database and that 'the terrain of the island' was not listed either.

Nine days later, it emerged that a map of Skellig Michael was also inaccurate.

Read more: Pilot flagged absence of Black Rock from Rescue 116 warning system four years ago

A revised map of Skellig Michael was issued last month which increased the height of the island from just 174 feet high to its true height of 712ft.

Up until March 24, the official Aviation Authority aeronautical map registered the height of the lighthouse on the island as the site's highest point.

A chain of emails had been exchanged between Sligo base Coast Guard pilots and a senior manager with CHC Ireland, the private operator which runs the Coast Guard's Search and Rescue service.

CHC Ireland won a 10-year 500m contract to provide the service in 2012.

In the email exchange, reference is made to Black Rock island and/or other omissions in the EGPW in 2013.

According to a source quoted in the report, Coast Guard personnel were told at a meeting in April that management was trying to establish if this information had been passed on to the company that supplied the database for its system.

The Irish Aviation Authority's State Safety Plan - which provides terrain and obstacle data for use by database suppliers - said that "Black Rock island was not shown as it does not constitute an obstacle under ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) Standards".
Mark Cropp's image went viral after he shared his story on Auckland Job page on Facebook. Photo via Facebook

A New Zealand man said he did not anticipate the impact a facial tattoo would have on his life, before making the decision to get inked.

Earlier this week, Auckland man Mark Cropp took to Facebook to speak about his lack of job opportunities and said employers often judge him on his facial tattoo, which reads 'devast8'.

Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, Cropp said employers were reluctant to hire him, based on stereotypes associated with tattoos, and felt as though his facial tattoo was holding him back.

"One employment place said to me, 'I wouldn't employ you with that on you face, I wouldn't even take a second look at you.'

"I've had other people that just shrugged and laughed at me."

Cropp (19) said his social media post on the Auckland job Facebook page was an effort to show that he was a "normal human being", despite preconceptions about people with tattoos.

"I was over people judging for my facial tattoo... that's why I made the decision to put that photo on Facebook, to turn around and say 'I am just a normal human being, you do not have to judge me because of the way I look'."

Since the original post, Cropp's photographs have received attention internationally, and several employers in New Zealand have offered the 19-year-old the opportunity to work with them.

Cropp has also been inundated with offers of laser tattoo removal from several clinics, which he said he is considering.

Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, Cropp said: "It's become a part of me but if it means that I have to part with it to be able to get a job and become who I want to be then I'm going to have to part with it.

"I've had a lot of job offers, I've had people wanting to help me start up my own blog to help me through my journey. I've got one potential job there I just need to get my Site Safe for and from there I'm pretty much looking to going to start there as soon as possible. There's a whole lot I've been offered."
'I hear the drums echoing tonight," sang David Paich. "But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation." The band was Toto, the year was 1982, and the song was 'Africa'. It's a great tune but the lyrics are pure chaos.

Toto-bashers love to complain about their blend of cliche, romantic longing and blatant inaccuracy. Kilimanjaro, for example, doesn't rise "like Olympus above the Serengeti". It's a full day's drive away.

In a way, the moaners are missing the point. The band's drummer, Jeff Porcaro, wrote on Toto's website that the song was about a white boy trying to write a song about Africa "but since he's never been there, he can only tell what he's seen on TV or remembers in the past".

The cluelessness of the lyrics is intentional.

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There's a similar dynamic in African-inspired interiors. Most of them come from a romantic notion of Africa that owes more to the 1985 film Out of Africa than to the multiple realities of the real continent.

"This is a style that evokes the romance of the concept of 'safari', a Swahili word for 'journey'. We associate safari with the African wilderness, big game animals and gin and tonic at sunset," writes Thandi Mbali Renaldi, whose online store, Kudu Home, sells contemporary African-designed homeware.

A safari-style interior will often include sandy-coloured foldable campaign furniture, preferably in faded canvas, muslin mosquito nets draped over the beds, animal hides and carved masks on the walls.

Sometimes, the style expands to include more solid elements of colonial decoration: a ceiling fan, wooden shutters, or animal-head trophies. Often, these are referenced in a witty, contemporary way.

The Safari Life Rhino Head Wall trophy (64) from Cult Furniture is made of plywood. It doesn't even attempt to look like taxidermy; it's just a nod to the big-game hunting tradition.

Some trend forecasters have predicted that safari-themed interiors are due to take over from the jungle-themed decoration of the past few years. The jury's still out on that one! However, there do seem to be a lot of African-themed accessories in circulation.

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You can buy a leopard ornament from Homesense (25) or a zebra vase from Mia Fleur (around 35). Marks & Spencer has melamine safari side plates (20 for a set of four); safari geometric towels (from 8) and even a safari bath mat (from 17). Combine these with a calfskin rug (99) and a leopard-print cushion (27) from Homesense, and you'll be well on the way to a safari-themed interior.

Like Toto's 'Africa', it's all good fun. But not everyone wants to get nostalgic over colonialism and big-game hunting. It's just one strand of African tradition and it has lots of negative connotations.

Imagine if Irish-themed interiors were limited to the fox-hunting memorabilia of the Protestant Ascendancy! Once you start looking at contemporary African design for the home, you quickly realise that there's very much more to it than faux zebra-skin rugs.

Much of it is craft-based. The selection from Kudu Home includes some safari-style items but these are actually made in Africa, which seems to give them a bit more character than some of the high-street decor.

A wall-mounted sculpture in the shape of a kudu-head trophy (110) is handmade from stainless steel wire, threaded with tiny glass beads. You can also buy Zulu wire bowls (99). These are handwoven from telephone wire using traditional skills but in modern-looking colours and geometric patterns.

There's also an emerging strand of high-end African design. Fashion designers like Lisa Folawiyo and Maki Oh, both based in Nigeria, are known for an elegant and intelligent use of colour and pattern that draws deep on their local tradition. Now, this sense of Nigerian style is beginning to migrate into interiors.

"It's important to me to have an African aesthetic in the high-end interiors market," says Eva Sonaike, a London-based designer of African-inspired textiles for the home. "It's important that Africa is represented on all levels."

Ten years ago, when she first looked into establishing a homeware brand, she found that what was on offer internationally was sadly lacking.

"All the African products were cliched or colonial," she says. "I come from Nigeria, where we have very colourful textiles and I thought - why not translate these into something that we can use in the home?"

Her best-sellers are ready-made cushions (around 79) but her range also includes interiors fabrics (from 100 per metre), lampshades (145) and pouffes (453). All of these are inspired by West Africa, designed in London by Sonaike, and manufactured in Europe.

"Nigeria has a small high-end retail market, but they understood the product and welcomed me with open arms. People in Africa often think that things are better-made when they come from abroad." Doesn't that sound familiar!

Although Sonaike is from Nigeria, she lives and works in London. "I've never lived in Nigeria for more than three months. I visit every year and I come back with patterns in my head. I find them everywhere! Visually, there's a lot going on and I think that I appreciate it more because I don't live there all the time. And I'm not scared of colour. In Yoruba culture, you wear colour to celebrate life!"

Several larger interiors brands are working to collaborate with African designers. This January, Cole & Son launched the Ardmore Collection of wallpapers (pictured above) designed in collaboration with Ardmore Ceramic Art, a South African design company. The wallpaper designs include motifs from South African foliage, animals, and Zulu folklore, and are gloriously free of the European fear of going over the top.

Meanwhile, the Swedish furniture giant Ikea has announced its plans to work with Design Indaba of Cape Town to create a collection produced entirely by African designers. "The creative explosion which is taking place in several cities around Africa right now is something Ikea is curious about," says Marcus Engman, Ikea's design manager. "We want to learn from this and spread it to the rest of the world."

The collection, by designers from South Africa, Kenya, Senegal, Egypt, Angola, Ivory Coast and Rwanda, will be inspired by urban Africa and launches in 2019.

See evasonaike.com, kuduhome.com, ikea.ie, homesense.ie, marksandspencer.ie, miafleur.com

Must haves...

Pretty as a pitcher

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The Mynthe series comes from Denmark's trendy homeware brand Ib Laursen. It's an ongoing line of kitchen ceramics, updated every year. This one's a litre-sized pitcher in English rose (15.95 from avoca.com).

A rich tapestry

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This little woven basket (5 from tkmaxx.ie) was made in Uganda's Rwenzori region. It's part of the store's ongoing project to support sustainable local businesses and help the makers keep their kids in education.

Tray chic

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Impress your design-buff friends with this trendy tray by the Spanish design ace Jaime Hayon. The handle makes it look like a piece of sculpture but it's also handy for carrying around. It costs 145.70 from residebyw2w.ie.

Rainbows & unicorns

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Safari Life offers a vegan-friendly version of the traditional taxidermy hunting trophy. Options include elephant, bull, bear, long-horned cow or (for added fantasy) a unicorn. They come in walnut or ash wood finish (priced 44 from cultfurniture.com).

For the dogs

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For style-savvy mutt owners, this Charley Chau day-bed mattress comes in contrasting tangerine and claret velour with smart detail on the piping. Just flip the bed when you fancy a fresh look! It costs 80 from charleychau.com.
Noirin O'Sullivan is the great survivor. As another Dail term ends, she's still standing.

That's despite many calls by TDs for the Garda Commissioner's resignation as the force continues to be mired in controversies.

It could be argued that the list of challenges she has faced in recent months is unprecedented, but for the fact that Garda management has been fighting fires for years now.

The issue of how Garda whistleblowers were treated within the force blew up in February when allegations emerged of a smear campaign against Sergeant Maurice McCabe. The establishment of the ongoing Disclosures Tribunal was the result.

In March, it emerged that Garda members had recorded almost a million bogus breath tests.

And then there's the serious concerns over what has been described as a 'slush fund' at Templemore Training College. The Dail's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been examining an internal Garda audit report that found financial irregularities going back several years. The PAC probe has exposed deep divisions among the Garda's civilian management and contradictory accounts of when Ms O'Sullivan first learned of issues at the college. She has insisted she was first told details of the issue on July 27, 2015, and acted promptly to set up a working group to deal with the issue.

The PAC's report - due to be published next week - is likely to raise questions over the length of time it took management to inform State spending watchdog the Comptroller and Auditor General about Templemore. It won't make adverse findings against any individuals.

All of the issues listed above have been the subject of heated debate in the Dail.

As TDs on the Opposition benches called for her to go, Fianna Fail has said it no longer has confidence in Ms O'Sullivan, though it won't press the Government to remove her. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, meanwhile, has continued his predecessor Enda Kenny's stance of fully supporting Ms O'Sullivan.

Through it all, the Commissioner has batted off interrogations by TDs at a series of committee meetings and refused to be rattled, insisting she's delivering on the Garda Modernisation and Renewal Programme.

But there was a moment at yesterday's PAC meeting that was a reminder that Ms O'Sullivan's job isn't just about responding to the latest controversy.

Fianna Fail TD Shane Cassells questioned Ms O'Sullivan about her plans to deploy gardai on the streets, making an impassioned contribution about the "real fear" of crime in his home town of Navan after a recent attack on a shopkeeper. Responding, Ms O'Sullivan spoke of putting more "boots on the street" as recruitment increases and highlighted successful initiatives like Operation Thor.

The Dail in recess may provide some respite from debates over Garda scandals and a chance to focus on the nuts and bolts of policing.
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Your personal finance questions  Should I give up my tracker mortgage now that interest rates are rising fast?

Q I am on a tracker mortgage so my mortgage bills have gone up twice since last July as a result of the two European Central Bank interest rate hikes. The interest rate on my tracker mortgage was 1.5pc before the ECB started to increase its rate in July. Now it is almost twice that at 2.75pc. Tracker mortgages have always been considered gold dust but I am now considering fixing my mortgage as I am worried the ECB may increase its rates again in the coming months, which would push my mortgage bills even higher. Would it be a good idea to give up my tracker and fix my mortgage?
Health Stores are the places to go to look after your health and wellbeing, both physically and emotionally

There are many reasons to shop at your local health food store. Here are some of my favourites.

You'll find that staff are generally passionate about what they do. They want to help you, and you can feel this genuine interest when you talk with them. It's not unusual to see a staff member and a customer deep in conversation-this is not normally a chit-chat conversation - it's often a sincere discussion about what is happening in this person's life. People feel immense relief after talking because they feel heard for the first time. I have noticed a change in people myself when this happens. They often look relieved and happier.

Health Stores are exciting places to visit. It's the place to go to look after your health and wellbeing, both physically and emotionally. It's full of interesting food, snacks, high quality supplements, natural body care, and household products. Many stores stock a wide range of allergy care foods and have staff with knowledge on how to prepare them. There are always new and exciting products in the health industry, health stores lead the way in keeping up to date with these trends.

Most people who work in health stores are happy to share their knowledge and experience with you. They are trained and are very familiar with the products they sell. They can help you find solutions to your problems, taking the time to go through the options with you. They can explain the difference between products, and point out hidden allergens that you may need to avoid. Most stores are independently owned and employ local people who will offer you a friendly smile when you enter their store.

Your local Health Store is far more than bottles on a shelf. It's a place where your needs are listened to with empathy and understanding. Many stores have specialised people who can support what you are grappling with. They have advanced knowledge that can help you achieve optimal health.

Keep an eye out for talks and workshops that many stores run to help keep you informed. Members of The Irish Association of Health Stores follow their code of ethics for safe selling of products so you know you can trust them.
Wicklow, Wexford and Waterford have been in existence as independent, distinct counties for centuries.

I just wish someone could alert 'journalists' and online contributors/copy writers/content purveyors of this fact.

At a time when newspapers are closing and people are losing their jobs, it is disconcerting how often national newspapers, broadcasters and blog writers get basic Irish geographical facts wrong. Sometimes the consequences of copy errors are little more than embarrassing for everyone concerned, but one thing this job teaches you is that behind every name, there is a person and a person has a reputation, a county; a person can sue, a person should be respected. The sheer volume of information thrown our way through social media websites is overwhelming and I, for one, envy people who don't have to spend hours trawling through Facebook and Twitter each week, mentally bloated on news feeds, while being targeted by online corporate hawkers, campaigners and other dross.

Irish geography is something children learn about in third class. Just because the three counties skirting the lower spine of our teddy bear shaped country have names beginning with W, it doesn't mean that they are all the same. I've lost track of the number of times a story's intro begins with something like: Justin Trudeau's family hail from Wexford, only for the article to reveal sentences later that his family hail from County Waterford. Is a la carte factual reporting a thing that is en vogue at the moment? I would argue, yes. I have also come across some of the worst journalism I have ever witnessed - and I don't mean spelling errors, incorrect use of tenses or poor punctuation. In one intro alone on an online 'news' page, I noticed five mistakes in an intro spanning all of two sentences. It was as if the journalist was drunk or writing from a deck chair while getting a back rub.

As a former editor of mine told me: 'Writing is a craft. You're not going to pay someone to hang a door for you if it's crooked.'

I was also advised when I was starting off, all wide eyed and fresh faced into this career, to treat every story the same, big and small, and that is a good starting point. Today the craft is a trendy hobby for some.

Maybe the Millenial generation born between 1985 and 1995 are too busy flitting from webpage to webpage, fantasy to fantasy, to have much truck with boring old facts.

I am an Xennial, apparently, having had the great fortune of being born during the era when three of the best Star Wars films were released (1977 to 1983). Not to be confused with generation X'ers (people born between the 1960s and the early 1980s), or generation Y'ers (also known as Millennials, born between about 1980 and 2000). Imagine the confusion for online content writers in these letters of the alphabet labels!

Next up are the Snowflakes (Generation Z apparently), who could also become known as the Butterfly generation due to overexposure to tablet webpages.

Maybe The Whirlwind Princess and The Little Fella will be part of a new, reactionary, nature loving, level headed, grounded Generation A.

One things for sure, they will know the map of Ireland a lot better than the Generation Y'ers polluting my news feeds with their mish mash of mistruths. In these heady days of Tinder, sex robots and a la carte 'journalism', Voltaire's remark 'Common sense is not so common any more,' rings truer than the day he coined the phrase.
The Cath Lab campaign is a heartfelt one for Independent Wexford councillor David Hynes who had a quadruple by-pass operation seven years ago.

Cllr. Hynes travelled on the train to Dublin for last week's public protest outside Dail Eireann which called on the Department of Health to provide 24/7 cardiac care facilities for the South East at University Hospital Waterford.

The campaign was sparked by the recent death of 40-year old Thomas Power who suffered chest pains and died of a heart attack in an ambulance on the way to hospital in Cork after initially attending Waterford Hospital where he couldn't treated because the cath lab is not open at weekends.

Cllr. Hynes said he felt deeply for the family of Mr. Power who was tragically one of the unlucky ones. Thomas's widow Bernadette, a daughter of former Garda Superintendent Michael Delaney is from Wexford.

'I'm one of the people with personal experience of the service,' said Cllr. Hynes who suffered a heart attack over a weekend in 2010.

'I'm one of the lucky ones who were caught on time. We all know how vital the first hour is', he said.

'I was walking around for two days with the onset of a heart attack. It was after Christmas in the week before New Year. I didn't feel well but I was putting it down to everything else. You don't always get a violent pain. I had more of a numbness in my chest and arms'.

'I kept saying I must go to the doctor but I didn't. My wife and I went out for a meal and afterwards I thought it was indigestion. It faded a bit that night but the following night it got worse and we rang the Caredoc. We were advised to ring an ambulance to go to Wexford General Hospital. We don't live far from the hospital so my wife drove me.'

'I was still doubting it was anything to do with my heart but in the hospital, it was confirmed very quickly that it was a heart attack I was having and I had just got there on time,' said Cllr. Hynes.

'I was kept in overnight in Wexford Hospital where they stabilised my symptoms and they sent me down to the cath lab in Waterford on Monday to see if I could get away with having stents installed but they discovered that the blockage was too severe. At the time, I wasn't even aware that I couldn't get tested over the weekend.'

'A few days later, I was transferred to the Mater Hospital in Dublin for the by-pass surgery. I am lucky to be alive at all.'

Cllr. Hynes said the cath lab protest was an important one.

'I was lucky in that in my case, it all happened very slowly but if someone has a heart attack it can happen in minutes. The first hour can be a matter of life and death and that's why a cath lab is vital.'

'That was seven years ago now and I'm doing well. I'm able to walk a lot. I have no high blood pressure. I have to take medication for cholesterol and also a blood thinning tablet. I always get checked out every year now.'
Free public Wifi will soon be made available in Gorey town.

The announcement was made on Friday last when executives from Virgin Media met members of Gorey Chamber in the Ashdown Park Hotel to announce the arrival of ultrafast broadband for homes and businesses in the town.

The company said it is extending its ultrafast network to up to 5,000 properties this year. It will also introduce free public Wifi to citizens in Gorey.

Fibre installation work has already begun in areas including Ramsgate Village, Gorey Hill, Woodbury, among others. Minister of State Michael DArcy, welcomed the announcement and investment.

Broadband is vital for a more productive economy and boosts the prospects for economic growth, he said. The benefits of better broadband will be felt wider than businesses. It will also increase internet speeds for households.

Installing free public wifi for citizens in Gorey is an innovative move and will also be welcomed by local businesses to attract more consumers into to our vibrant town and will benefit the local retail, he added.

Paul Farrell, vice-president of the commercial arm of Virgin Media, said that there is no shortage of ambition and investment to get better broadband across Gorey and other parts of Wexford.

Diarmuid Devereux, CEO of Gorey Chamber, described the announcement as wonderful news for Gorey residents and businesses.

This investment by Virgin Media is a massive and welcome boost to our communications infrastructure, he said. We are in the midst of a remarkable transformation of Irelands digital landscape, and Virgin Medias Network investment programme will play an important role in ensuring we are fully equipped to meet the challenges of the digital age in which we live.

Cllr Fionntan Suilleabhain welcomed the announcement but said that some residents were concerned over pipe laying works done in their estate.

Following the opening of the Hatch Lab IT business centre, this is another feather in the cap for business and for the public in Gorey, he said.

He added that following complaints from Allenwood Drive Residents Association over works done by a contractor, he met residents on Friday afternoon, and the contractor and Virgin Media had both been extremely helpful and are beginning repair works in the estate this morning, Monday.

Cllr Malcolm Byrne also welcomed the free public wifi, saying it would help business and tourism. He praised Virgin Media and Gorey Chamber for working on this. I am also hoping that we can include the Park and Showgrounds with free public wifi, he said, adding that he was assured that any issues with installation would be resolved.

These include how footpaths are being repaired in Park Avenue and Ramsfort Avenue as well as the restoration of some green areas at Ramsgate Village, he said. I have senior officials from Virgin in Gorey on Tuesday to inspect this work and they have given me commitments that problems will be addressed.

He said the campaign to improve rural broadband continues.
At the launch of the Visit Wexford brochure at Wexford County Council headquarters were, front row: Rebecca McGuire,Talbot Hotel; Siobhan O'Neill, County Tourism Wexford County Council; Louise Jordan, TL Marketing; Colm Neville, chairperson Visit Wexford; Tony Larkin, Director of Services Wexford County Council and Sarah Caufield, Visit Wexford

Visit Wexford hosted a tourism networking and information day at Wexford County Council where a new 64 page guide was launched with the support of the tourism industry and the County Council.

The detailed publication highlights the events taking place during 2017 and also outlines the Wexford offering under the very successful Ireland's Ancient East initiative.

Tourism Officer Siobhan O'Neill said 'Wexford has room to grow in terms of attracting more international visitors' and have distributed the new guide across the county and at trade shows including Bloom, The Holiday World Show in Dublin and Belfast and Balmoral in Lisburn.

Chairman Colm Neville from Visit Wexford said: 'We want to highlight all that is good and all that there is to do in Wexford and we are inviting everyone in tourism or interested in growing tourism in Wexford to come on board.'

Meanwhile, Louise Jordan from TL Marketing outlined the details of Visit Wexford's 2017 marketing strategy which included a national radio and press campaign this summer promoting Wexford as 'the place to visit' that 'creates ever lasting memories.'

Visit Wexford's website has increased by 11 per cent over the last 12 months with it continuing to attract visitors from home and abroad. In May and June 2017, Visit Wexford had over two million impressions through their Google ad campaign, which has resulted in a substantial increase.
Catherine Power, sister of the late Thomas Power, at a protest at Leinster House last week

Wexford and the entire South East region isn't getting the same level of cardiac care as the rest of the county.

Last Tuesday hundreds of protesters marched on the Dail demanding 24 hour cardiac care for the South East. The march came following the death of Tom Power, who died while being taken to a Cork hospital last month because his local heart unit in Waterford closes at weekends.

Tom's wife Bernadette, who is a native of Murrintown, is expecting the couple's first child.

His death has intensified the campaign for round the clock cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford to serve the south east region.

In May, a month before Tom's death Deputy Brendan Howlin called on the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, to ensure a mobile cath lab, which has previously been promised, is in place at the hospital.

However the Taoiseach was unable to give Deputy Howlin a date as to when the mobile cath lab will be put in place in Waterford.

At the time Deputy Howlin said: 'There is enormous concern in the South East about the issue of cardiac care in University Hospital Waterford. An interim solution was announced by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health in January, namely that a second mobile catheterisation laboratory would be provided. That was a solemn commitment made to the people of the south east but to date it has not happened.

'The South East is the only region in the country that does not have 24 hour cardiac catheterisation laboratory facilities.'

Speaking following the protest march last Tuesday when Tom's sister, Catherine Power, addressed a number of politicians Deputy Howlin said 'there is no doubt that the South East region is entitled to the same level of cardiac care as the rest of the country.

'It demonstrably doesn't have that at the moment. A 24-7 cardiac unit is needed at University Hospital Waterford. I understood from previous government commitments that at the very least the hours at the current cath lab would be substantially increased and a mobile cath lab be provided on a temporary basis. To date that hasn't happened.

'The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said that the mobile cath lab has been tendered for now and when that's done the mobile service will be provided and then the situation will be reviewed to determine the need for a second permanent cath lab.

'Everything is being long fingered and reviewed over and over again.

'My clear view which is also the view of cardiac physicians across the South East including those in Wexford is that the need for the service in the South East is unanswerable.'

Deputy Howlin said that he had met people from across all five counties of the South East at the march last Tuesday.

'People were very committed to the need for the service at University Hospital Waterford. It's a big issue for people and it's an important issue that needs to be resolved.

'It's surely not a matter of money because the money involved isn't very large.

'As it is a new mortuary costing 4million is being built at Waterford Hospital. Anyone in their normal mine would believe that prioritising the living over the dead should be the top priority.'

Last Tuesday Tom's sister Catherine met a number of politicians at Leinster House although the Taoiseach and Minister for Health Simon Harris weren't present.

Catherine Power said her brother was in a' cold grave' because 'the doors were locked' on the catheterisation lab at Waterford Hospital when he needed help.

Last year, a Government-commissioned report by Belfast-based cardiologist Niall Herity recommended against expanding the service, and said emergency cardiac patients should be treated in Dublin or Cork.

Waterford Institute of Technology lecturer Ray Griffin told the politicians present that an average of 6.3 people a year will die in the southeast because of the lack of a 24/7 cardiac service in the region.

Mr Griffin said the anger in the South East about the Herity report was well-founded. He questioned whether the report should have been written by 'a UCD graduate working one hour from Dublin' whose employer had service ties with the HSE.

He said important stakeholders had not been consulted and the report had relied on British data that was applicable only in the UK.

Deputy Howlin said Tom's death had given fresh impetus to the long running campaign for the provision of 24 hour cardiac care in the South East.

'I met with Catherine Power, Tom Power's sister. She was very emotional and very distressed as you can expect and her pain was very real. The thought that he (Tom) could be alive today if the facilities were there is heartbreaking.

'Nobody can say definitively that he would have survived but there is a very real belief that he would have. The devastation that the Power family must be experiencing doesn't bare thinking about and fact that he left behind a pregnant wife is heartbreaking.

'There is no doubt that Tom's tragic death has pushed the need for a 24 hour cardiac unit at Waterford back up the agenda and today (Tuesday) all the TD's of the South East from across all the parties will table a motion calling for this.'
The Public arts manager of Dublin City Council Ruairi O Cuiv was full of praise for County Wexford's vibrant arts scene as he officially opened a two-venue exhibition at Wexford County Council Buildings in Carricklawn and Wexford Arts Centre.

The exhibition, entitled 'And Creatures Dream: A New Language', features the work of artists Robert Armstrong, John Busher, Ciaran Bowen, Eamonn Carter, Serena Caulfield, Helen Gaynor, Aileen Murphy, Kate Murphy, Rosie O'Gorman, Breda Stacey, Emma Roche, George Warren and Michael Warren and will continue until August 25.

Mr O Cuiv said that while Wexford was internationally known for its Opera Festival, it also enjoyed a strong visual arts tradition. His first association with the county goes back many years to when he curated and installed an exhibition in Wexford Arts Centre at the time Denis Collins was artistic director.

He complimented the multi-talented Wexford artist, musician and writer Helen Gaynor, who came up with the idea of an exhibition celebrating the wide range of visual art practice in the county, especially painting, and who curated the double-venue show with the Visual Arts Manager of Wexford Arts Centre, Catherine Bowe.

Helen's paintings can be found in several public and corporate collections. She is a co-founder of music for Wexford, has directed courses in music and art appreciation for primary school teachers in Dublin and Wexford; has played and sung with the Capriol Consort, Wexford Sinfonia and Valda Chamber Choir and has written a recorder tutor for Waltons Music.

She has been writing creatively since 2010 and her work has been published in the Irish Times and other publications. She was shortlisted for the Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Prize in 2013.

Helen, who has written a comprehensive art essay to accompany the exhibition, said it is focused on painting and on artists with close connections to County Wexford. 'But such is the fine state of art in corner of the country that it represents only a fraction of what is going on. It has been a stimulating and informative project and we are planning a Part 2 in 2018'.

She travelled the length and breadth of the county with Catherine Bowe, visiting artists at work in their studios. The pair were excited by what they saw and eventually settled on the theme of the exhibition.

'All the selected artists have close connections to the county. Many of them were born here. Besides that, they share a serious and ongoing engagement with the language of the visual arts, wholeheartedly referencing the distinguished history of painting; while nevertheless, making forays beyond', said Helen,.

'The works draw widely from the inherited rich history of painting, yet still, as individuals; the artists engage and push the boundaries of what painting might be. They address the strengths, vulnerabilities and challenges of the process, yet still indulge in landscape, myth and allegory, and a constancy of intriguing stories, made all the more intriguing by seeming to be 'half-told'.
Officers discovered 11 bodies at a house in Mexico, state authorities said

Attackers wielding knives burst into a child's birthday party in central Mexico, stabbing and slashing to death 11 people, including two minors, authorities said .

Hidalgo state prosecutor Javier Ramiro Lara Salinas said at a news conference that the preliminary investigation suggested the attack in a house near Tizayuca, just north of Mexico City, was a "settling of scores".

Among the victims was a man with an ID identifying him as a Mexico City police officer. Mr Lara said the home's owner had served time on a kidnapping charge in Mexico State.

Authorities received an emergency call after midnight on Thursday alerting them to the killings.

Officers discovered 11 bodies - seven of them female and four male, with two minors, state authorities said. They had initially said the victims were seven men and four women. Four minors survived the attack without injuries.

None of the victims was shot. All were killed by knives or other cutting weapons.

The area had largely been spared the violence affecting other parts of Mexico.

AP
Egypt's Interior Ministry said the assailant was arrested immediately after the attack

Two German female tourists have been stabbed to death while four other foreigners were wounded in an attack at a hotel in an Egypt resort.

The assault in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada came hours after a shooting near famous pyramids outside Cairo killed five policemen.

The motive behind the stabbing was unclear and the Interior Ministry said the attacker was arrested immediately.

A security official said the attacker, a man in his 20s dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans, wielded a knife and targeted foreigners.

"Stay away, I don't want Egyptians," the assailant said in Arabic, according to the official.

Without taking any blame for what appears to be a major security breach, the Interior Ministry said the attacker had got into the hotel by swimming from a nearby beach.

No group claimed responsibility for killing the five police officers but it bore the hallmarks of a smaller Islamic militant group known as Hasm that has been behind similar shootings.

The attacker in Hurghada stabbed the tourists in the face, neck and feet, according to the security official.

Two German tourists died of their wounds while four others were hurt, including citizens of Ukraine and the Czech Republic, the official said.

In Germany, the foreign ministry said it "cannot rule out" that German citizens were among the victims but stressed that it does not have that information.

An emergency doctor at the al-Salam hospital confirmed the wounded tourists were taken there.

Gunmen riding on a motorcycle opened fire on a security vehicle patrolling a Giza village, killing the five policemen, the Interior Ministry and officials said.

The deadly shooting - on the Muslim weekend when traffic is slower - heightened fears of what has become near-weekly attacks by suspected Islamic militants after a blitz attack left 23 troops dead in northern Sinai a week ago.

Egypt has been under a state of emergency for months following a series of church bombings in the spring that killed scores of Christians.

The village of Abusir in Badrashin, where the policemen were killed, is part of Greater Cairo. The policemen were part of the force tasked to guard the district of Saqqara, one of Egypt's most popular tourist sites.

According to the ministry, the militants sprayed the police vehicle with machine-gun fire and fled the scene after one returned gunfire.

However, a video circulated on social media appears to show the attackers faced no resistance. It shows them seizing police weapons and radios and setting fire to the bodies after the shooting.

Authorities cordoned off the area and ambulances rushed to the site.

Hasm, or "decisiveness", is a militant group that authorities have linked to the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

It has claimed responsibility for drive-by shootings and attacks that targeted police, military, judges and pro-government figures in the past.
Chinese doctor Liu Yun Peng speaks to journalists during apress comference after the death of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo in Shenyang, Liaoning province. Photo: Getty Images

Beijing was accused yesterday of bearing a "heavy responsibility" for the "premature" death of Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Peace laureate and China's most well-known political prisoner.

Mr Liu died at a heavily guarded hospital after a battle with liver cancer.

The death of the 61-year-old dissident and veteran of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 sent shock waves through China's activist community and human rights campaigners across the world.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said Mr Liu was a "courageous fighter", while the leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee accused Beijing of having a "heavy responsibility for his premature death".

Rex Tillerson, the United States' secretary of state, expressed condolences over the death of Mr Liu and called on Beijing to release his wife, Liu Xia, and allow her to leave China.

Despite increasingly desperate calls from supporters for him to be granted his dying wish to receive treatment for his condition abroad, Mr Liu remained in China where he died yesterday evening, local officials said.

His friends claim China's refusal to allow him to travel overseas was a deliberate attempt to shorten his life, to ensure he could not criticise Beijing in his final moments.

"I think it is a political murder," Hu Jia, an activist and friend of Mr Liu said. "I am in so much pain, but I have no more tears to shed as I have already cried too much over the past few days."

Mr Liu was handed an 11-year prison term for calling for sweeping political reforms in a manifesto entitled 'Charter 08'. He became only the third person to receive a Nobel Peace award while imprisoned by his own government, and the first to die in custody since tuberculosis killed Carl von Ossietzky (48), a German pacifist, in 1938.

Mr Liu spent time in prison in China before 2009, and was already the country's most famous government critic when he was sentenced for his part in 'Charter 08'. But he became a global figure when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010 at a ceremony where he was represented by an empty chair. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
"We will need the cooperation from the tech companies," Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said

The Australian government has proposed a new cybersecurity law to force global technology companies to help police by unscrambling encrypted messages sent by suspected extremists and other criminals.

But some experts, such as Facebook, warned that weakening end-to-end encryption services so that police could eavesdrop would leave communications vulnerable to hackers.

The new law would be modelled on Britain's Investigatory Powers Act, which was passed by the Parliament in November and gave intelligence agencies some of the most extensive surveillance powers in the Western world, the government said.

The Australian bill that would allow courts to order tech companies to quickly unlock communications will be introduced to Parliament by November, officials said.

Under the law, internet companies would have the same obligations telephone companies do to help law enforcement agencies, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said. Law enforcement agencies would need warrants to access the communications.

"We've got a real problem in that the law enforcement agencies are increasingly unable to find out what terrorists and drug traffickers and paedophile rings are up to because of the very high levels of encryption," Mr Turnbull told reporters.

"Where we can compel it, we will, but we will need the cooperation from the tech companies," he added.

The government expected resistance from some tech companies, many of them based in the United States. But the companies "know morally they should" cooperate," Mr Turnbull said.

"There is a culture, particularly in the United States, a very libertarian culture, which is quite anti-government in the tech sector," Mr Turnbull said.

"We need to say with one voice to Silicon Valley and its emulators: 'All right, you've devised these great platforms, now you've got to help us to ensure that the rule of law prevails,'" he added.

Attorney-general George Brandis described the growth of encrypted communication applications such as WhatsApp, Signal, Facebook Messenger and iMessage as "potentially the greatest degradation of intelligence and law enforcement capability that we have seen in our lifetime".

Mr Brandis said he met the British government's chief cryptographer last week and believed it was technically possible to decode encrypted messages in a time frame that police needed to act.

This could be achieved without so-called back doors - built-in weaknesses that allowed a tech company access to a communication but could also leave it vulnerable to hackers, Mr Brandis said.

Facebook said it had a protocol to respond to requests for police help. But the social media giant said it could not read individual encrypted messages.

"Weakening encrypted systems for them (police) would mean weakening it for everyone," a Facebook statement said on Friday.

Australia was a major driver of a statement agreed at the G20 summit in Germany last week that called on the tech industry to provide "lawful and non-arbitrary access to available information" needed to protect against terrorist threats.

The Australian Federal Police say the proportion of communication traffic they monitor that was encrypted had grown from 3% to more than 55% in only a few years.

Police say 65% of organised crime investigations including terrorism and paedophile rings involved some kind of encryption.

AP
A Brazilian congressional committee has rejected a report that said President Michel Temer should be suspended and tried on a corruption charge (AP)

A congressional committee has rejected a recommendation to try Brazil's president for corruption, handing him a symbolic victory a day after a former president was convicted of corruption and money laundering.

The corruption cases against two major Brazilian figures underscored the extent of political turmoil in Latin America's largest country, where a spreading corruption investigation has uncovered a scheme to exchange bribes and kickbacks for political favours and public contracts.

That probe has led to an accusation that President Michel Temer accepted bribes from a meatpacking executive in exchange for helping the company obtain favourable government decisions. Mr Temer has denied wrongdoing.

Earlier this week, a legislator appointed to study Mr Temer's case recommended that the charge be accepted, a setback for Mr Temer. But on Thursday, a Chamber of Deputies committee rejected that recommendation, swinging the pendulum back in Mr Temer's favour.

Both moves are largely symbolic. The decision to suspend Mr Temer and put him on trial rests with the full lower house, which is scheduled to vote on the matter August 2. If two-thirds of the 513 deputies should vote against Mr Temer, lower house Speaker Rodrigo Maia would take over presidential duties while Brazil's Supreme Court tried the president.

After the contentious committee vote, which occasionally descended into shouting matches, some politicians cried "Temer out!" and "Purchased vote!" Others responded with "Long live Temer!"

The president issued a statement calling the vote "a win for democracy and the law". Mr Temer, who has single-digit popularity in the polls, also said his allies are part of a "solid majority" that has "civic courage" to defend him.

Some politicians complained that the extensive substitution of committee members in recent days made the committee vote a farce. Party leaders have the right to replace their members on committees as they see fit, and Brazilian media reported that parties allied with Mr Temer made several such substitutions - in an apparent bid to guarantee the vote went the president's way.

The mammoth "Operation Car Wash" investigation has led to political tensions in Brazil between those who consider the prosecutors and judges pursuing corruption to be heroes and those who think some of the prosecutions are politically motivated.

A day after being convicted of corruption, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stoked those flames with a defiant public defence accusing his political opponents of trying to prevent him from becoming president again.

Federal judge Sergio Moro, hailed by many Brazilians as a hero and by others as a zealot, found Mr Silva guilty on Wednesday and sentenced him to nearly 10 years in prison, though he remains free while an appeal is heard.

AP
A US professor telephoned Great Ormond Street Hospital in London at the request of the White House offering dramatic new evidence in the fight to keep Charlie Gard alive.

The British High Court heard yesterday how the eminent doctor - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was contacted by Donald Trump's staff a day after the president tweeted his support for the 11-month-old baby.

Expand Close Chris Gard and Connie Yates with their son Charlie Gard. Photo: PA / Facebook

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Mr Justice Francis, who ruled in April that Charlie's life support should be switched off, asked the physician if he would now be prepared to fly to London to examine the baby if the case was adjourned for a few days.

The doctor replied: " Yes, if necessary, I would love to do that."

The neurologist told the court that a new analysis of a study of nine children with a disease similar to Charlie's but not nearly as severe showed five of them - equivalent to a 56pc success rate - had improved after receiving experimental treatment.

One child, who had been breathing on a ventilator for eight hours a day, no longer needs one at all.

Charlie suffers from a rare form of mitochondrial depletion syndrome. Unlike the children in the doctor's study, the illness affects not only his muscles but also his brain.

But the doctor said he could see no evidence from scans that Charlie had suffered irreversible brain damage.

The possibility that the judge may now be open to allowing an assessment threw an extraordinary lifeline to Charlie's parents Connie Yates (31) and Chris Gard (33).

Charlie's case has become a worldwide cause celebre and with tensions running high, Mr Justice Francis also spoke of his deep concern that doctors treating Charlie at Great Ormond Street had been "subjected to the most vile abuse" and threats.

He issued a warning that perpetrators who were caught would be punished and said it "was grossly unfair" that staff had been targeted.

During Thursday's hearing, Katie Gollop QC said while cross-examining the doctor via a video link: "You had a discussion with Great Ormond Street at the request of the White House on July 4."

The telephone call led to the hospital going back to the High Court to reassess in light of alleged new evidence from the doctor, prompting new hearings this week.

The hospital maintains that there is no dramatic new evidence that should reverse the decision made by Mr Justice Francis and upheld in the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the European courts.

The same doctor had given evidence in April in support of experimental treatment for Charlie but at the time admitted the chance's of the boy's condition improving was "highly unlikely".

Via video link, he said - nine days after the White House intervention - that Charlie was merely "unlikely" to improve.

Victoria Butler-Cole, a lawyer acting for Charlie's legal guardian, questioned why he suddenly thought Charlie's chances had improved after three months, during which time his head had not grown, indicating his brain is damaged. She said: "What I am struggling with is how come you concluded a future better than the one given in April?"

The professor had earlier told the court: "I estimate the chance of meaningful success [of the treatment] to be at least 10pc."

He said there was a small but significant chance of improvement in brain function, adding that he had "over-reached" when he had said at the April hearing that it was likely Charlie's brain damage was irreversible.

At one point during yesterday's hearing, Charlie's parents, who live in Bedfont, west London, stormed out of court furious at the judge for saying: "They [the couple] have not been fighting to retain what he has now but fighting for a chance to give him the treatment to possibly improve."

Mr Gard stood up at this and said: "We're not allowed, are we," adding: "I thought this was supposed to be independent."

Ms Yates said: "He's not suffering and not in pain." ( Daily Telegraph London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
It was meant to be a harmless selfie, designed to highlight the plight of the endangered crested black macaque.

But British photographer David Slater, who is at the centre of a bizarre court battle over a now infamous "monkey selfie", has revealed that being sued by a monkey has ruined his life and left him completely broke.

The 52-year-old from south Wales, who specialises in wildlife and conservation photography, said he has been left penniless after years of legal wrangling over whether he or the macaque owns the copyright of the picture.

"I am just not motivated to go out and take photos any more. I've had outlays of several thousand pounds for lawyers, it is losing me income and getting me so depressed. When I think about the whole situation, I really don't think it's worth it."

Although his photograph of a grinning monkey is famous across the globe, Mr Slater says his income is around 100 (113) every few months from image sales.

"Everything I did to try and highlight the plight of the monkeys has backfired on my private life," Mr Slater said. "I've had my life ruined".

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Mr Slater travelled to Sulawesi, Indonesia, and spent a week taking pictures of macaques in 2011. He said he mounted the camera on his tripod, and then gradually persuaded the monkeys to press the shutter while looking into the lens.

In 2014 he asked Wikipedia to take down his picture after they published it without his permission, but the web giant refused and said that the copyright belonged to the monkey.

The US Copyright Office ruled that animals cannot own copyright but People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) sued Mr Slater in 2015.

At a court hearing yesterday in front of a federal appeal judge at the 9th Circuit in San Francisco, lawyers for Mr Slater said it was "absurd" for Peta to claim that the monkey was entitled to copyright.

Angela Dunning, representing Mr Slater, told the court that Peta was "not even sure they have the right monkey", referring to Naruto. "It is absurd to say a monkey can sue for copyright infringement. Naruto can't benefit financially from his work. He is a monkey."

Andrew Dhuey, also representing Mr Slater, said Peta should pay all of his legal fees because "monkey see, monkey sue will not do in federal court".

Judge Carlos Bea asked why the case should not be dismissed and asked if anyone could point to the law which said "man and monkey are the same".

In spite of every-thing, Mr Slater said he does not regret taking the picture of the monkey. On the contrary, he said he is "absolutely delighted".

"It has taken six years for my original intention to come true which was to highlight the plight of the monkeys and bring it to the world," he said.

"No one had heard of these monkeys six years ago, they were down to the last thousands."

He said that thanks to the publicity that his "monkey selfie" attracted, impoverished locals no longer shoot or eat macaques because "the locals used to roast them, but now they love them, they call it the 'selfie monkey'," he said.

"Tourists are now visiting and people see there is a longer-term benefit to the community than just shooting a monkey." ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Chris Gard and Connie Yates with their son Charlie Gard. Photo: PA

An American specialist who has offered to treat Charlie Gard is preparing to fly to London to examine the terminally-ill baby for the first time.

Michio Hirano is scheduled to visit Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where 11-month-old Charlie is being cared for, over two days next week.

Dr Hirano is due to arrive at the hospital on Monday and discuss Charlie's condition with doctors treating the boy and with independent specialists.

Detail of the plan emerged on Friday during the latest round of a legal fight between Great Ormond Street bosses and Charlie's parents.

Expand Close Charlie Gards parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, arrive at the High Court in London. Photo: Reuters / Facebook

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Chris Gard and Connie Yates want the judge to rule that their 11-month-old son, who suffers from a rare genetic condition and has brain damage, should be allowed to undergo a therapy trial overseen by Dr Hirano in New York.

Specialists at Great Ormond Street say the therapy is experimental and will not help.

They say life support treatment should stop.

Charlie's parents, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, have already lost battles in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in London.

They have also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights judges to intervene.

But the couple say there is new evidence and want Mr Justice Francis to carry out a fresh analysis of their case.

Expand Close Charlie Gards parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates / Facebook

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In April, the judge ruled in favour of Great Ormond Street and said Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity.

Mr Justice Francis has considered their claims at preliminary hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

He is due to stage further hearings later this month following next week's gathering of specialists.

Dr Hirano gave evidence, via a link from New York, at a hearing on Thursday.

The judge said he wanted to hear what Dr Hirano believed had changed since he gave his ruling in April.

Dr Hirano said he had clinical data which was not available in April and he still believed that the therapy was ''worth trying''.

The doctor estimated that there could be a 10pc chance of improvement in muscle strength and a ''small but significant'' improvement in brain function.

He told the judge that he had never seen or examined Charlie.

Mr Justice Francis suggested that a visit to Great Ormond Street and discussions with specialists treating Charlie would be a good idea.

The judge said Charlie's mother could attend a specialists' meeting at Great Ormond Street next week.

Lawyers representing Great Ormond Street initially said neither of Charlie's parents should feature in a meeting of specialists next week.

They said the aim of the meeting was to allow medical experts to have a detailed scientific discussion.

Lawyers representing Charlie's parents objected to the meeting being staged in the absence of both parents.

Both sides agreed, after discussions, that Charlie's mother could take part.

Speaking on behalf of Charlie's family, spokesman Alasdair Seton-Marsden said outside court: "Today GOSH tried to block the parents of Charlie Gard from attending a meeting about their own child.

"After protracted legal discussions the court decided mum could attend that meeting.

"GOSH seem to want to exclude the parents at every stage.

"We are delighted that Charlie's mother, Connie, will be present at the meeting that Prof Michio Hirano, the world's leading expert on Charlie's condition, will attend.

"The professor will be flying in from Columbia University Medical Centre, New York, for a meeting this Monday to see Charlie.

"This is excellent news."

Mr Seton-Marsden added: "We have heard reports that threats have been made against the judiciary and medical staff at GOSH.

"In no possible circumstances whatsoever does any member of Charlie's family or any of Charlie's true supporters condone any such action."
World leaders and human rights advocates expressed sorrow and anger over the death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died in police custody while being treated for advanced liver cancer in prison.

They also condemned the Chinese government for refusing the political prisoner's wish to travel overseas for treatment.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was among those urging the Chinese government to release Mr Liu's wife from house arrest and to leave the country.

Mr Liu, 61, was a literary critic and writer who came to prominence in 1989 after he encouraged pro-democracy students to leave Beijing's Tiananmen Square rather than face down armed soldiers. Mr Liu was imprisoned four times, the most recently for co-writing a document circulated in 2008 that called for more freedom of expression, human rights and an independent judiciary in China.

He was in prison when the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded him the Peace Prize in 2010 for his "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China".

Renee Xia, international director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a network she said Mr Liu helped found, said the mood among her colleagues has been one of despair over his impending death and disappointment that leaders did not do more.

"When we spoke to each other people would start crying. There was this sense of, it was just a dark world,"she said. "Where are the moral leaders? Where are the values of human rights and human dignity and freedom?"

University of San Francisco law professor and immigrant rights' advocate Bill Ong Hing said it was tragic to lose such a widely-admired figure. Mr Hing's father immigrated to the US from China.

"The fact is he was not free to do and say and appear where he wanted. It's a stark reminder of the constraints that people in China have who are critical of the government," he said.

Former US president George W Bush praised Mr Liu in a statement, calling him a courageous man who "never wavered in his quest to advance freedom and democracy".

The White House said President Donald Trump was deeply saddened.

Press secretary Sean Spicer said in a brief statement: "The president's heartfelt condolences go out to Liu Xiaobo's wife, Liu Xia, and his family and friends. "

The United States had called on China's government to let the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and democracy activist seek medical care at a location of his choosing. But China considered such requests to be interference in its own affairs and considered Mr Liu a criminal.

Wang Dan, a prominent leader of the movement on Tiananmen Square, tweeted that governments worldwide must press for Liu Xia to be allowed to leave China, where she has been held under extralegal house arrest.

Wang wrote, "Xiaobo, my beloved teacher, my dear brother, you accepted too much hardship, rest easy."

Mr Tillerson urged China to let Liu Xia leave. He said her husband dedicated his life to improving China and humankind and to pursuing justice and liberty.

Suzanne Nossel, head of the US arm of the international literary and human rights organisation PEN International, faulted Chinese officials for not heeding calls to allow Mr Liu to travel abroad for medical treatment.

"China's refusal to honour Liu Xiaobo's last wish to travel overseas for treatment and its decision to hold him incommunicado during his dying days are a cruel epitaph in the tale of a powerful regime's determination to crush a brave man who dared challenge a government that sustains its rule through suppression and fear," Ms Nossel said.

Chinese authorities said the government made "all-out efforts" to treat Mr Liu and rejected foreign criticism of its handling of his illness.

In Hong Kong, prominent democracy activist Joshua Wong tweeted, "We will strive to carry forward his legacy to fight for democracy in HK and China."

Internationally acclaimed artist and activist Ai Weiwei tweeted: "Rest in peace. We are here, Xiaobo is here with us."

AP
Rescuers search for missing herders after an icefall in Ngari Prefecture in July 2016. (Photo/CCTVNEWS)

A Sino-US scientific expedition team led by Chinese academician Yao Tandong arrived in Lhasa, Tibet, on July 13. The team aims to explore the reason behind two ice avalanches in Ngari Prefecture last year, Science and Technology Daily reported.

Yao is the director of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Lonnie Thompson, a famous glacier scholar from the United States, has participated in the expedition. Both Yao and Thompson are Vega Medal winners. The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography awards the Vega Medal every three years to people who have shown excellence in the fields of physical geography, exploration, or archaeology.

The first icefall in the plateau took place in July 2016. Millions of tons of ice broke off from the Aru Glacier in the mountains of western Tibet at an altitude of about 5,800 meters and tumbled into a valley below, taking the lives of nine nomadic yak herders living there. Two months later, another icefall occurred. Fortunately, no people died this time, thanks to the researchers' early warnings.

A river is formed after the second icefall in Ngari Prefecture in September 2016. (Photo/Science and Technology Daily)

Experts from China's State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences once said that glacial collapses in Ngari Prefecture are not isolated incidents. Just like the icefalls caused by glacier surges at the Namjagbrawa Peak in the region of Nyingchi, they are the result of glacial movements.

However, Yao holds a different view. Based on decades of research, he thinks the glaciers in Ngari Prefecture are stable, featuring low temperature, low accumulation, and slow changes and movements. "There is no written record of such icefalls in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," said Yao.

The cause of the icefalls in Ngari is still controversial. One commonly accepted view is that climate change and rainfall increase are the leading forces. Most scientists predict that similar icefalls will occur again. Therefore, this joint expedition aims to confirm whether there will be another icefall soon, and if so, figure out when and where.
A Minnesota judge has that Universal Music Group should be released from a music rights deal with Prince's estate.

Universal struck a deal with the estate in January, but the estate later sought to cancel the deal after Warner Bros Records claimed it conflicted with a contract it signed with Prince in 2014.

Carver County District Judge Kevin Eide granted the estate's request in a ruling late on Thursday. The judge wrote that interpreting the contracts is difficult, and it is in the best interest of the estate to avoid costly litigation that could result if the deal is not cancelled.

"As previously noted, this court believes that the Estate must proceed in a cautious manner to preserve the assets of the Estate," Judge Eide wrote.

He said while rescinding the Universal agreement "may certainly be seen as proceeding with a lack of caution, the court believes that the other option of long and potentially expensive litigation while tying up the music rights owned by the Estate makes the other option more treacherous."

The judge said he allowed Universal Music Group's attorneys to see the Warner Bro. Records agreements, which contain a confidentiality clause, to try to resolve the conflict. But attorneys for Universal Music Group filed a letter last month saying their review only confirmed that Universal should be released, Judge Eide wrote.

Judge Eide noted that it has been suggested Universal is bluffing and would not really file a lawsuit in California if he did not rescind the contract. But based on the letter from Universal's attorneys, "this does not appear to be a bluff," the judge wrote.

Prince died of an accidental opioid overdose last year. In May, the judge confirmed Prince's six siblings to be his rightful heirs, bringing them a big step closer to collecting their shares of the megastar's multimillion-dollar estate.

In a joint statement on Thursday night, Universal and Prince's estate said they "welcome the court's approval of our amicable resolution to this matter".

Corporate publicist James Steven said Warner Music Group had no comment on the ruling.

AP
The travel ban was introduced by the Trump administration

A federal judge in Hawaii has expanded the list of family relationships needed by people seeking new visas from six mostly Muslim countries to avoid US president Donald Trump's travel ban.

US District Judge Derrick Watson ordered the government not to enforce the ban on grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins of people in the United States.

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," US District Judge Derrick Watson said in his ruling. "Indeed grandparents are the epitome of close family members."

The US Supreme Court last month exempted visa applicants from the ban if they can prove a "bona fide" relationship with a US citizen or entity.

The Trump administration has said the ban will not apply to citizens of the six countries with a parent, spouse, fiance, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling already in the US.

Hawaii said grandparents, uncles and aunts and other close relatives should also be exempted. The state asked Judge Watson, who blocked the president's revised travel ban in March, to clarify that those family members are also exempt from the ban.

Judge Watson rejected Hawaii's request, saying the state should go to the US Supreme Court since it was seeking to clarify that court's requirement of a "bona fide relationship."

Hawaii appealed Judge Watson's ruling to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, but the court said Judge Watson's ruling was not appealable under federal judicial laws. The 9th Circuit, however, said Judge Watson had the authority to interpret the Supreme Court's order and block any violation of it. Hawaii then renewed its last week request with Judge Watson in a different form.

"Because plaintiffs now seek such injunctive relief, the court reaches the merits of their request, consistent with the Ninth Circuit's guidance," Judge Watson wrote.

The Hawaii attorney general's office did not immediately comment on Judge Watson's ruling.

The US Department of Justice declined to comment Thursday.

AP
Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump next to a huge French flag at the Bastille Day parade in Paris (AP)

Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron put what looked like an unexpected bromance on display as the US president visited Paris for the Bastille Day military parade and celebration.

Mr Trump spent a large portion of his day and a half in the French capital in the embrace of the French president, who went to extraordinary lengths to impress him.

He turned a day of national pride into a celebration of American patriotism and friendship between the two countries. This year's Bastille Day event coincided with the 100th anniversary of the US entry into the First World War.

Mr Macron, in closing the parade, publicly thanked the US for coming to France's aid during the war, saying "nothing will ever separate us".

"The presence at my side of the president of the United States, Mr Donald Trump, and of his wife, is the sign of a friendship across the ages," he said.

At one point, Mr Trump declined an invitation to repeat his past criticism of Paris. He said the city's future is bright because France has a "great" and "tough" leader.

Mr Trump and Mr Macron exchanged many handshakes during the course of his first visit to France as president, perhaps none more telling than after the parade.

As the US president prepared to head home, the leaders clasped hands and held on to each other as they walked.

Mr Trump at one point pulled the smaller Mr Macron off balance and held fast as they approached their wives. Even then, Mr Trump held on to Mr Macron as he shook hands with his wife, Brigitte.

They appeared to have moved beyond a tense introduction in May, when a white-knuckle handshake that Mr Macron later said was meant to show he is no pushover was widely interpreted as a sign of fraught relations to come.

Mr Trump's brand of America First politics had unsettled some European allies. But the body language in Paris this week suggested their relationship has moved to a new level.

Both seemed to minimise differences in order to focus on areas where they can work together, such as the crisis in Syria and Middle East security.

Mr Trump returned the kindness of Mr Macron in a statement released as Air Force One flew back to the US. "America and France will never be defeated or divided," he said.

He added that it was his "high honour" to commemorate, on French soil, France's most historic day and the 100th anniversary of the entry of the United States into the First World War.

Despite major differences between the two leaders on such issues as climate change and trade, Mr Macron nonetheless carved out time to lead Mr Trump on a tour of the Les Invalides monument.

Mr Trump gave Mr Macron a lift to the French presidential palace in his armoured Cadillac limousine known as The Beast for their talks and a joint news conference.

They capped Thursday with a double dinner date with their wives at the famed Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower.

His fawning extended to Brigitte Macron and her physical appearance.

"You know, you're in such good shape," he told the French leader's wife, before repeating his observation to her husband and adding "beautiful".

Yannick Mireur, a French political scientist, said Mr Macron went into the meeting with "a rather rare quality - that of empathy, interest in the person to try and understand him, to find the key to him".

Spencer Boyer, a former national intelligence officer for Europe and fellow at the Brookings Institution, said: "President Macron was highly skilled at putting President Trump at ease and avoiding any land mines that would have derailed the show of unity.

"Macron was especially adept at sidestepping questions about US political controversies, which Trump clearly appreciated."

Trump's parting tweet showed a photo of the two men looking out over the famed Champs-Elysees, standing shoulder to shoulder during what the American described as a "magnificent #BastilleDay parade".

AP
US President Donald Trump appeared to hold the door open yesterday to reversing his decision to pull America out of the 2015 Paris climate change agreement, after a charm offensive from Emmanuel Macron, his French counterpart.

On a visit to France for Bastille Day celebrations to mark the centenary of America's entry into the First World War, Mr Trump was asked about whether he might review his position on climate, which had drawn widespread criticism from other world leaders, France in particular.

To general surprise at the Elysee Palace, the US president said: "Something could happen with respect to the Paris accords."

He added: "Let's see what happens, but we will talk about that over the coming period of time and if it happens that will be wonderful and if it doesn't that'll be okay too."

Mr Macron said that while he was in "strong disagreement" with Mr Trump, he "respected" the fact that he was being true to "campaign commitments", and that France remained committed to the accord.

However, there was no "sudden and unexpected change," he insisted.

"I hope in the end to be able to persuade him." Clearly charmed by his visit to a capital he only recently decried as unsafe and "infested by terrorism", Mr Trump appeared to place America's special relationship with Britain on the back burner as he waxed lyrical about "America's first and oldest ally".

"France helped us secure our independence," he went on, saying the two countries had an "unbreakable bond" and calling Mr Macron his "friend".

Asked about his previous disparaging comments, including a friend named Jim, who he previously claimed no longer frequents Paris any more because it was rife with Islamist terrorists, Mr Trump said: "It's going to be just fine because you have a great president.

"I think this is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. He's a tough president. I really have the feeling that you are you going have a very peaceful and beautiful Paris. I'm coming back," he beamed.

After a bumpy start to their relationship, notably their now notorious muscular handshake, the two leaders clearly clicked this time. "Emmanuel, nice to see you. This is so beautiful," the US president told Mr Macron.

Patting Mr Trump on the back several times, the French president smiled as they began a tour of the grand 17th century military complex.

Mr Trump also hazarded a Gallic double peck on the cheek for Brigitte Macron, who was dressed in white. Mrs Trump, in red, only received the one bise from Mr Macron.

The US president was then captured in an awkward moment as he complimented Mrs Macron's appearance in a video posted by the French government's Facebook account.

At one point, he gestured to Mrs Macron (64) and told her: "You're in such great shape."

He then turned to Mr Macron and repeated to him: " She's in such great shape. Beautiful".

The leaders held talks in the Elysee Palace before the couples dined on lobster and caviar at the Michelin-starred Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower.

Weeks after Mr Macron hosted Russian President Putin at the Palace of Versailles, Mr Trump will bask in the Bastille Day military parade today, where hundreds of US troops will march with their French counterparts. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
French President Emmanuel Macron, his wife Brigitte, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania at a dinner at Le Jules Verne Restaurant in the Eiffel Tower as part of US presidents 24-hour trip to Paris. Photo: Getty Images

President Donald Trump said "most people in politics" would have acted similarly, as his son was called to testify in front of a Senate committee over a meeting with a Russian lawyer during the presidential election.

The extraordinary prospect of the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, being publicly quizzed by senators about his connections to Russia could be realised as early as next week.

Expand Close Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya. Photo; AP / Facebook

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Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, confirmed he was sending a letter to Mr Trump Jr asking him to attend, and made clear the committee would issue a subpoena if necessary.

Mr Trump, speaking in Paris, defended his son as a "wonderful young man" and said what he had done was "very standard in politics", which was "not the nicest business in the world".

He said: "I think, from a practical standpoint, it's a meeting most people in politics probably would have taken. It's called opposition research or even research into your opponent. Zero happened from the meeting. A lot of people would do it."

Mr Trump Jr confirmed this week that he met lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York on June 9 2016. He released emails that showed the meeting was set up by an acquaintance, Rob Goldstone, a British-born music publicist who represented a Russian pop star.

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In the emails, Mr Goldstone told Mr Trump Jr that he would be meeting a "Russian government attorney" and could expect information damaging to Hillary Clinton, which was part of a Russian effort to support his father.

Miss Veselnitskaya has denied connections to the Kremlin, and Mr Trump Jr has said the meeting "went nowhere", so he did not tell his father about it.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and will question Mr Trump Jr, promised to "pursue justice without favour" and added: "Were there other meetings? I'm going to go wherever the facts take us."

He added: "If any government tried to help my campaign I would say no because they're trying to destroy democracy. It's a pretty simple proposition in America. He's a relevant witness. This is a chance for Donald Trump Jr to tell his side of the story."

Paul Ryan, the Republican House Speaker, said: "Any witness who's been asked by Congress to testify should testify."

Mr Trump Jr has indicated that he is willing to co-operate with any investigations.

The controversy overshadowed the unveiling by Republicans in Congress of a new revised proposal to overhaul America's healthcare system.

Republicans have fought for seven years to dismantle ObamaCare former president Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement, which they argue is an expensive example of government overreach.

The latest Senate bill retained key taxes levied on the wealthy under ObamaCare in an attempt to assuage the concerns of moderate Republicans. The revised bill also included $45 billion for fighting America's opioid addiction epidemic.

Its fate still hangs in the balance amid internal disagreements between Republicans. Mr Trump said he would "very angry" if the bill does not pass.

Meanwhile, a new government analysis of Mr Trump's budget plan concluded it would result in a $720 billion deficit at the end of 10 years instead of the slight surplus promised.

A healthcare overhaul represents Mr Trump's first major legislative battle as president, and an inability achieve it, despite Republicans holding both chambers of Congress and the White House, would be a major setback.

A Congressional Budget Office report said the Trump administration's calculations relied on overly optimistic predictions of economic growth. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
U.S President Donald Trump attends a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Thursday, July 13, 2017. Trump will be the parade's guest of honor to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I. U.S. troops will open the parade Friday as is traditional for the guest of honor. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

A Russian-American lobbyist has said he attended a meeting with Donald Trump's son, marking another shift in the account of a discussion billed as part of an effort by Moscow to help the Republican's White House campaign.

Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his participation to the Associated Press on Friday.

The meeting in June last year has heightened questions about whether Mr Trump's campaign co-ordinated with the Russian government during the election, which is the focus of federal and congressional investigations.

In emails posted by Donald Trump Jr earlier this week, an associate who arranged the meeting said a Russian lawyer wanted to pass on negative information about Democrat Hillary Clinton and said the discussion was part of a Russian government effort to help Mr Trump.

While Mr Trump Jr has confirmed that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was in the meeting, he did not disclose Mr Akhmetshin's presence.

The president's son has tried to discount the meeting, saying he did not receive the information he was promised.

Mr Akhmetshin said Mr Trump Jr asked the lawyer for evidence of illicit money flowing to the Democratic National Committee, but Ms Veselnitskaya said she did not have that information.

She said the Trump campaign would need to research it more and after that Mr Trump Jr lost interest, according to Mr Akhmetshin.

"They couldn't wait for the meeting to end," he added.

Jared Kushner, Mr Trump's son-in-law and current White House senior adviser, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting.

Mr Akhmetshin said the lawyer brought a plastic folder with printed documents. He said he was unaware of the content of the papers or whether they were provided by the Russian government, and it was unclear whether she left the materials with the Trump associates.

He said the meeting was "not substantive" and he "actually expected more serious" discussion.

"I never thought this would be such a big deal, to be honest," he told AP.

Asked about Mr Akhmetshin and his possible participation in the meeting, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters: "We don't know anything about this person."

In reports this week, Mr Akhmetshin has been identified as a former Russian counter-intelligence officer, although he has denied it. He said he served in the Soviet army from 1986 to 1988 after he was drafted but was not trained in spying.

Meanwhile, House Democrats are renewing calls for a vote on an independent commission to investigate Russia's election meddling and ties to the Trump administration.

Minority leader Nancy Pelosi also said Mr Kushner's security clearance should be revoked.

Ms Pelosi and other senior House Democrats spoke at a news conference insisting they would try to force votes on the issue on the House floor.

She said: "House Democrats are not going to let the Republicans off the hook for their complicity. They have become enablers of the violations of our constitution, the attack on the integrity of our elections."

Elsewhere, the data and digital director for Mr Trump's campaign said he will speak with the House Intelligence Committee later this month as part of its Russia probe.

Brad Parscale said in a statement that he is "unaware of any Russian involvement" in the data and digital operations of Mr Trump's campaign.

He added he is appearing before the panel voluntarily and looks forward to "sharing with them everything I know".

AP
Donald Trump kisses Brigitte Macron at the end of the Bastille Day parade (AP)

Donald Trump has been captured on video complimenting the French president's wife's appearance as he toured a famous Paris landmark.

Footage posted on the French government's official Facebook page showed Mr Trump, French leader Emmanuel Macron and their wives chatting after their tour of the museums at Les Invalides.

As they were saying their goodbyes, Mr Trump turned to Brigitte Macron and gestured toward her body.

"You know, you're in such good shape," he said, before repeating the observation to her husband. "Beautiful," he added.

Mrs Macron, 64, was her husband's high school teacher and their relationship has drawn international attention because of their significant age difference.

But feminists and 39-year-old Mr Macron have denounced that attention as sexist, arguing that nobody would blink an eye if he were the older spouse.

The Macrons' age difference is similar to that of Donald and Melania Trump, aged 71 and 47, who were spending two days in Paris in celebration of Bastille Day.

The US president has drawn criticism in the past for comments some say objectify and demean women, including the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women and boasted: "When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything."

AP
Kubuqi Desert is the seventh biggest desert in China that has been transformed into an enviable environment.

Authorities in Kubuqi Desert Community in northern China's Inner Mongolia are proud enough to tell good stories about the transformation of a once solely desert area into an enviable paradise on earth.

It was in 2016 when Wenbiao Wang, Chairman of China Elion Resources Group, assured that he would control 10,000 square kilometres desertification in five years and help 100,000 people get out of poverty which is the development affirmation and concern of Chinese President Xi Jinpings government. Since 2016, Elion Group has launched the second desertification control eco-industrial poverty alleviation plan for100, 000 people.

The authorities have so far succeeded in bringing 36, 000 people from poverty out of 102,000 poor people since the 18th CPC National Congress.

Zhao Yong, Vice Chief Executive Officer of Elion Group said governments policy support, enterprises industrial investment, poor households market participation, and biological persistence improvement are the key mechanisms that have helped a lot in transforming the Desert Community.

Kubuqi Desert was a barren land with no water, electricity, or future, nearly 30 years ago. To alleviate poverty through desertification control, Elion Resources Group (ELION) has successfully afforested an area of over 6,000 square kilometres out of 18, 000 square kilometres by means of technological innovation, leading to a 95 percent decrease in sand-dust weather and an increase by six times in precipitation in Kubuqi.

Local authorities are cooperating with companies including Elion to give people opportunities to increase their income following the central government's command.

It was in 2006 that Elion started implementing a scheme moving to house the herdsmen who were scattered across the 400 square kilometres of the Kubuqi Desert by implementing eco-migration.

Farmers were, therefore, paid 30 yuan (US$ 4.43) daily to do so, which initially proved worthwhile because of the motivation it gave, but the lack of adequate knowledge soon defeated the plan as less and less trees survived with time.

Now the about 100,000 people not only have permanent residences built for them free of charge, but they have well-paid jobs, alternative livelihoods and regular incomes of not less than 30,000 yuan (US$ 4,425.63) annually.

African journalists Give a helping hand on Tree planting in a Forest Farm

Generally, desertification and drought are two major problems that constrain the balanced global development. In China, two thirds of the territory is in the West and one third of it is desert, in which one third of Chinas poor people live.

Combating desertification by utilizing desert and to promote economic development in desert communities to bring prosperity to all the people in these areas have become an important issues for development of Chinas western regions and Chinas goal of common prosperity, says Zhao Yong during the visit of African Journalists to Kubuqi Desert.

Abu Bakarr Kargbo is a Senior Staff Writer of Standard Times Newspaper in Sierra Leone and an intern at the Peoples Daily Online.
Workers put the finishing touches to the memorial to honour the victims of the coup attempt (AP)

A wall of photographs of those who died fighting against the coup attempt last year (AP)

Turkey is commemorating the first anniversary of the quashed military coup that sought to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Authorities are staging a series of events honouring 250 people who were killed on July 15 last year while trying to stop the insurrection.

The coup attempt was the greatest challenge to the rule of Mr Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003, first as prime minister and later as president.

After crushing the attempted takeover, he went on to win a referendum in April that will considerably extend the powers of his office - a move that has raised fears among opponents who say he has become increasingly authoritarian.

The rebellion unfolded on a Friday evening when a group of military officers commandeered warplanes, helicopters and tanks to attack key government buildings in the capital Ankara, including parliament and the presidential palace complex.

They held Istanbul's main bridge and square, attacked some government buildings and tried to take over television stations. They also tried to capture or kill the president, who was on holiday at a Mediterranean resort at the time.

Heeding a call by Mr Erdogan broadcast on CNN-Turk through a video app, thousands of people took to the streets to stop the tanks and soldiers.

Within hours police and officers loyal to the government put down the coup, which did not have support in the military's top echelons.

More than 2,000 people were injured in the streets, in addition to the 250 people who died and now are hailed as "martyrs" of the coup.

The dead include 53 special operations police who were killed in an attack on their headquarters in Ankara. About 30 plotters are also believed to have died during their failed attempt.

Mr Erdogan is set to unveil a large monument for the "martyrs" opposite his palace in Ankara and another near Istanbul's former Bosporus Bridge, which has been renamed as the July 15 Martyrs Bridge.

He also is scheduled to deliver a speech in parliament at 2.32am on Sunday - the moment the assembly was attacked a year ago.

The government has blamed the coup on the influential movement led by US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who ran a network of schools, dormitories, media outlets and universities.

Mr Gulen's followers are accused of infiltrating state institutions over decades to carry out the insurgency.

Mr Erdogan once described the coup as a "gift from God" that had allowed the government to purge the military and public institutions of the Gulenists who once were allied with his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party.

A prolonged state of emergency that has been in place since the coup attempt allows the government to rule through decrees and without the initial approval of legislators.

Over the last year, more than 50,000 people have been arrested for alleged involvement in the insurgency and more than 100,000 others have been fired from civil service jobs.

AP
Three Palestinian attackers have opened fire on Israeli police from inside a major Jerusalem holy site, killing two officers before being shot dead, officials said.

The rare attack from within the contested shrine, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, raises new concerns about an escalation of violence.

Police identified the attackers as Arab citizens of Israel.

The sacred compound is at the fault line of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has triggered major confrontations in the past.

After the attack, Israel closed the site for further weapons sweeps. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it will reopen gradually, after security evaluations on Sunday.

Jordan, a custodian of the sacred compound, called for its immediate reopening.

The rare closure meant a cancellation of noon prayers, which typically draw tens of thousands of Muslims from Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the compound on Fridays.

Unable to reach the shrine, some of the faithful performed prayers in the streets near Jerusalem's walled Old City and then dispersed quietly.

Mr Netanyahu quickly tried to allay Muslim fears, saying that the status quo at the Muslim-administered site "will be preserved".

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani said Israel must not take any steps that "would change the historic situation in Jerusalem" and at the shrine.

Israeli president Reuven Rivlin said: "We cannot allow for agents of murder who desecrate the name of God to drag us into a bloody war."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke to Mr Netanyahu in a phone call, highlighting the concern about a possible escalation. The leaders have almost no direct contact.

Mr Abbas condemned the attack and said he rejects "any violence from any party, particularly at holy sites", said the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The sacred compound, popular with tourists, is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

The shooting was the latest in a wave of Palestinian attacks that erupted in 2015, in part over tensions at the Jerusalem holy site. Involvement by Arab Israelis in such attacks has also been rare.

Israeli police chief Roni Alsheikh said the weapons used had been brought into the holy compound.

The attackers opened fire on the Israeli officers from inside the site, he said, and i n response "a police force charged at the terrorists, killed two and wounded the third".

The wounded assailant used a knife to attack an officer checking him for explosives and was killed, the police chief said.

Mr Alsheikh said such an attack is "without precedent" at the holy site and an "incident of the highest severity".

The senior Muslim cleric of the Holy Land, Mohammed Hussein, was detained by police several hours after the shooting, according to his son. Omar Hussein said his father, who is based at the shrine, was taken to a police station in the Old City. He was released a few hours later.

Meanwhile, a relative said the three assailants were from the Jabareen clan - two 19-year-olds and a 29-year-old.

They were devout Muslims and frequently visited the shrine, travelling to Jerusalem by bus from their homes in northern Israel, the relative said.

The younger men belonged to a kick-boxing club and the older one was unemployed because of health problems, Yehiyeh Jabareen said. He added that clan members are in shock over the shooting.

The two killed policemen were members of Israel's Druze community, followers of a secretive offshoot of Islam. Unlike the majority of their fellow Arabs in Israel, many Druze serve in the Israeli security forces.

In other violence on Friday, Palestinian medical officials said an 18-year-old was killed in clashes with soldiers near the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

The Israeli military said troops opened fire after Palestinians hurled explosives and blocks at them.

AP
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Local educator Crystal Neumann was honored at the annual PUSH Excel Scholarship Gala in Chicago on July 12. Founded in 1975 by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, PUSH Excel is the education-focused branch of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, an organization that works to protect, defend and gain civil rights by leveling the economic and educational playing fields, and to advocate for peace and justice worldwide.

Neumann is chair of the Department of Leadership at the American College of Education, a for-profit college based in Indianapolis. She was selected as an honoree because of her commitment to making higher education more affordable at the American College of Education.

In this climate where there have been cuts to Pell Grants for higher education, we are looking at ways to address the educational funding crisis. Some people have creative solutions to the crises, so we are honoring those people, said Janette Wilson, with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

Neumanns parents emigrated from Mexico to the United States because they wanted their children to have more opportunities, but as a child Neumann questioned what opportunities were available to her.

I remember growing up and thinking there were not a lot of people who looked like me who were in leadership roles and positions. If you dont see anyone who looks like you, it might hinder someone from going forward because they dont think they can do it. I know that its something I want other people to see, and have someone to look up to, said Neumann.

She feels education is the key to a better future, but realizes that the price of higher education often scares people away. That inspired her to seek new solutions for the students at her school to help them save both time and money.

Lets just be honest; in comparison to a traditional university, when people think of online education they think price. One of the things that a lot of people dont really know about doctoral programs is they will have to go to a residency, which sounds wonderful and they get one-on-one assistance with their dissertation, but they have to take off work, buy a plane ticket, get hotel accommodations in a new city, and it adds up quickly. I had to go through that three times. It becomes a financial hardship, said Neumann.

Neumann spearheaded a virtual residency program to help students keep up with work and family obligations. Using programs such as Skype, students can interact with leaders in their chosen field without having to fork out cash for a plane ticket.

In addition to her work with the American College of Education, Neumann is a board member at the Peace Center for Forgiveness & Reconciliation, an organization that aims to offer healing and restoration to young people who have experienced violence and injustice. She is also the education officer on the board for the Indianapolis Chapter of Prospanica, a national organization for Hispanic professionals.

Neumann was in shock when she found out she was selected for the PUSH Excel honor.

Oh my goodness. Jessie Jackson, he is a huge figure in civil rights. I do have strong feelings toward affordable education and trying to be a leader and role model for the community. There are a lot of people who do a lot of wonderful things, so to be honored by such a crucial figure, I just felt incredibly honored and surprised, she said.

In addition to honoring local leaders, the PUSH Excel Scholarship Gala awarded scholarships to deserving high school graduates, some of whom will receive $25,000 a year.

For more information, visit pushexcel.org.

Crystal Neumann
1. Salman Khan And Katrina Kaif Can't Stop Looking At Each Other On Day 1 Of IIFA 2017

#salmankhan and #katrinakaif #salkat A post shared by Salman Khan (@beingsalmankhan.official) on Jul 13, 2017 at 10:15pm PDT

Ever since Katrina Kaif has broken up with Ranbir Kapoor, she has become closer than ever with Salman Khan. Again. From shooting Tiger Zinda Hai to IIFA presser in Mumbai, the two have been sharing the cutest banter ever.

2. AIB Members Might Go To Jail For Putting Modis Look-Alike In A Snapchat Filter. Like Seriously?

A complaint AIB has been charged with defamation under the IT Act whose punishment is up to three years of imprisonment apart from a fine of Rs 5 lakh.

3. Kamal Haasan Addresses Abused Malayalam Actress By Name, Receives Strong Criticism

ANI

On being pointed out that he shouldn't be naming her, he said, "It doesn't matter if I have used the name. The media itself have used her name. Do not hide the name as there is nothing wrong with it. If you want to call her Draupadi, call her that. Don't refer to her as 'a female'," he asserted.

4. Karan Johar Lashes Out At Trolls, Who Gay-Shame, Body-Shame And Slut-Shame, With A Hard Hitting Message

Instagram

Actor, director, chat show host and many other things under his belt, Karan Johar is unapologetically the coolest filmmaker. He knows he's called frivolous and shamed for a variety of things but that has never bothered him or his craft.

5. Fans Walk Out Of Rahmans UK Gig As He Sang Very Few Hindi Songs. Didnt They Know Hes Tamil?

MTVSTAT.IN.COM

What could be more ironical than this? We are going gaga over a song called Despacito whose lyrics we, including Justin Bieber who has sung the song too, dont understand, and on the other hand, A.R. Rahmans fans are disappointed because he didnt sing many Hindi songs in his recent concert in UK.
Ever been in the situation where you were facing a shortage of water at home just before you were heading out to work? Annoying isn't it? Well, if you thought that was frustrating and inexcusable these statistics just put out in a combined report by WHO and UNICEF will leave you speechless.

According to the report three in ten people worldwide, or 2.1 billion, lack access to safe, readily available water at home, and 6 in 10, or 4.5 billion, lack safely managed sanitation! With a population of around 7.5 billion people on the planet in totality, this is a shocking statistic!

Reuters

The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report, Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and Sustainable Development Goal baselines, presents the first global assessment of "safely managed" drinking water and sanitation services. The overriding conclusion is that too many people still lack access, particularly in rural areas.

"Safe water, sanitation and hygiene at home should not be a privilege of only those who are rich or live in urban centres," says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. "These are some of the most basic requirements for human health, and all countries have a responsibility to ensure that everyone can access them."

Billions of people have gained access to basic drinking water and sanitation services since 2000, but these services do not necessarily provide safe water and sanitation. Many homes, healthcare facilities and schools also still lack soap and water for handwashing. This puts the health of all peoplebut especially young childrenat risk for diseases, such as diarrhoea.

AFP

As a result, every year, 361 000 children under 5 years of age die due to diarrhoea. Poor sanitation and contaminated water are also linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, and typhoid.

"Safe water, effective sanitation and hygiene are critical to the health of every child and every communityand thus are essential to building stronger, healthier, and more equitable societies," said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. "As we improve these services in the most disadvantaged communities and for the most disadvantaged children today, we give them a fairer chance at a better tomorrow."

Reuters/Representational Image

In order to decrease global inequalities, the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for ending open defecation and achieving universal access to basic services by 2030.

Of the 2.1 billion people who do not have safely managed water, 844 million do not have even a basic drinking water service. This includes 263 million people who have to spend over 30 minutes per trip collecting water from sources outside the home and 159 million who still drink untreated water from surface water sources, such as streams or lakes.

AFP

In 90 countries, progress towards basic sanitation is too slow, meaning they will not reach universal coverage by 2030.

Of the 4.5 billion people who do not have safely managed sanitation, 2.3 billion still do not have basic sanitation services. This includes 600 million people who share a toilet or latrine with other households, and 892 million peoplemostly in rural areaswho defecate in the open. Due to population growth, open defecation is increasing in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania.

Reuters/Representational Image

Good hygiene is one of the simplest and most effective ways to prevent the spread of disease. For the first time, the SDGs are monitoring the percentage of people who have facilities to wash their hands at home with soap and water. According to the new report, access to water and soap for handwashing varies immensely in the 70 countries with available data, from 15 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa to 76 per cent in western Asia and northern Africa.

Many countries lack data on the quality of water and sanitation services. The report includes estimates for 96 countries on safely managed drinking water and 84 countries on safely managed sanitation.

AFP

In countries experiencing conflict or unrest, children are 4 times less likely to use basic water services, and 2 times less likely to use basic sanitation services than children in other countries.

There are big gaps in service between urban and rural areas. Two out of three people with safely managed drinking water and three out of five people with safely managed sanitation services live in urban areas. Of the 161 million people using untreated surface water (from lakes, rivers or irrigation channels), 150 million live in rural areas.

Safely managed drinking water and sanitation services means drinking water free of contamination that is available at home when needed, and toilets whereby excreta are treated and disposed of safely.

Reuters/Representational Image

Basic services mean having a protected drinking water source that takes less than thirty minutes to collect water from, using an improved toilet or latrine that does not have to be shared with other households and having hand washing facilities with soap and water in the home.

Sustainable Development Goal 6 is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. The JMP monitors progress on the following two targets:

Target 6.1: By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe water and sanitation for all.

Target 6.2: By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.

The JMP also contributes to monitoring of SDG 1 "to end poverty in all its forms everywhere", and "to SDG 4 to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all" by contributing data on basic water, sanitation and hygiene for the following targets:

Reuters/Representational Image

Target 1.4: By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular, the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services.

Target 4.a: Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all.

Safe water, sanitation and hygiene are also essential to SDG 3 "Ensuring healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages".

Under SDG target 3.9, countries are working to substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination by 2030. Additionally, safe water, sanitation and hygiene are needed to reduce maternal mortality and to end preventable deaths of newborns and children as called for in SDG targets 3.1 and 3.2.

AFP

The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene is the official United Nations mechanism tasked with monitoring country, regional and global progress, and especially towards the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals relating to universal and equitable access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene. Thanks to the globally supported household surveys, JMP analysis helps draw connections between the use of basic water and sanitation facilities and quality of life and serves as an authoritative reference to make policy decisions and resource allocations, especially at the international level.
A BJP worker was thrashed by a group of self-styled gau rakshaks in a village in Nagpur Rural district on Wednesday on the suspicion of carrying beef. While speaking to media, the BJP worker said the meat was of 'door' - a Marathi word used for the bovine family.

AFP/Representational Image

Salim Shah (32), former in charge of BJP's minority cell in Katol taluka who has been associated with the party for the last 12 years, fell unconscious after the thrashing he received at Barasinghi chowk, around 85km from here.

"I was targetted by around four to five people," he said. Police have booked Shah for "carrying beef" even as the forensic report on the meat is awaited. Shah is undergoing treatment at a hospital here. Four persons have been arrested for the assault while riot control police have been deployed at different sensitive localities.

One of the accused is the taluka president of an organisation run by independent MLA Bacchu Kadu.

Nagpur Rural SP Shailesh Balkawade issued warnings on the social media against rumour mongering and inciting communal passions. However, this hasn't deterred miscreants from circulating the clip of Shah's thrashing on WhatsApp groups.

Shah, who trades in cotton and pulses, had purchased around 15kg meat from Amner village in Warud tehsil in Amravati district. The meat was kept in the dickey of his scooter. He was attacked while he was returning to his residence in Katol taluka.

Representational Image

Shah's wife Zareen told reporters that being from the Shah community, the family neither trades in meat nor are they butchers. "We had to participate in a religious programme of a local mosque body on a hillock for which the meat had been purchased for the community meal," she said.

Sources said the cow vigilantes, led by Kadu's associate Moreshwar Tandulkar (26), pulled down Shah from his scooter and showered blows on him. Tandulkar also roped in Ashwin Uikey (25), Rameshwar Taywade (42) and Jagdish Choudhuri (25).

The four have been remanded in police custody till July 17. "Police rescued Shah from the mob and rushed him to a local primary health centre," said the investigating officer, sub-inspector VK Korde. Balkawade said the meat has been sent to the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory in Nagpur. "If the report of the RFSL comes negative then we shall discharge the victim (Shah)," he said.
Scientists used phone data to find out which are the laziest and most active countries in the world, and they found out that India is one of the laziest countries in the world. They analysed around 700,000 people around the world to see how many steps they took every day, and their study is the result of 68 million days of information.

unsplash

Hong Kong came at the top as the most healthy country, where citizens on average take 6,880 per day, where as Indonesia came the bottom, with 3,513 steps.

India, though not the laziest, did fair in the top 10, coming in at number 8, with 4,297 steps. Here is what it can do for its citizens to become more active.

Walkability

A citys walkability determined how many steps people took a day. Better pavements, last-mile connectivity contributed to the number of steps people take. The study found that a country with a good infrastructure and walkways, had higher walkability and more people preferred to walk no matter their age, sex or obesity.

Scott Delp, a professor of bioengineering, who worked on the study published in the journal Nature, told the BBC, The study is 1,000 times larger than any previous study on human movement.

unsplash

There have been wonderful health surveys done, but our new study provides data from more countries, many more subjects, and tracks people's activity on an ongoing basis.

This opens the door to new ways of doing science at a much larger scale than we have been able to do before.

Activity Inequality

One would think that the number of steps directly correlate to obesity but researchers found thus was not the case. Instead, activity inequality  that is, the difference between the active and the non-active  reflects figures of obesity better.

They told the BBC that the bigger the gap, the more obese people in the country.

Tim Althoff, a PhD candidate in computer science who was involved in the research, said, For instance, Sweden had one of the smallest gaps between activity rich and activity poor... it also had one of the lowest rates of obesity.

And even though the USA and Mexico had similar average steps, America had greater activity inequality and so more obesity.

Anonymity of participants was maintained and the data was collected using the Argus app on the participants cell phones to track their everyday activities.

Gender at play

Researchers also found that activity inequality was a result of differences between men and women. Men and women exercised in relatively similar amounts in countries with low inequality and obesity, such as Japan.

However, in countries like Saudi Arabia and India, activity inequality led to more inactivity among the women.

indiatimes

Another researcher behind the study, Jure Leskovec, said, When activity inequality is greatest, women's activity is reduced much more dramatically than men's activity, and thus the negative connections to obesity can affect women more greatly.

Therefore, India must rise up and do something to become more active.

Other countries in the top 10 most lazy list included Malaysia, South Africa and Qatar.
Today morning, Infosys CEO opted for a driverless ride. And it wasn't just any other ride - he arrived at Infosys's Bengaluru headquarters for work, riding an autonomous cart that was developed by his company's engineers in Mysuru.

ted.com

Vishal Sikka, who rode into work with COO Pravin Rao, tweeted, "Who says we can't build transformative technologies?" And this very cutting-edge advancement is what he thinks will teach other employees technologies such as artificial intelligence.

An autonomous vehicle for me & Pravin, built right in Mysore @Infosys Engg Services!

Who says we can't build transformative technologies? pic.twitter.com/71qEA2y5vJ  Vishal Sikka (@vsikka) July 14, 2017

Infosys also celebrated the achievement by tweeting,

What do our presidents do to have fun on campus? You may find them testing the autonomous golf carts built by our engineering services team. pic.twitter.com/UJ6v9xXW7m  Infosys (@Infosys) July 13, 2017

The cart comes with sensors that help it to gauge its environment and navigate its way without any human knowledge. The high-tech controls further help the cart to identify navigation routes, obstacles, and even road signage!

Basically, Vishal Sikka rode on the back of a technology that can change the world we live in!
BCCL/ Representational Image

A Muslim family of 10 including women, children, elders and a handicapped teenager were brutally assaulted in a train and robbed by a gang on Wednesday evening in Uttar Pradeshs Mainpuri district. Read more

Here are more top news stories of the day:





1) Modi Government Has The Highest Support Anywhere In The World With 73% Approval Ratings

indian express

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in India is enjoying the highest support as compared to the governments in any other country of the world. According to a report published by an economic cooperation organisation, Indians are most confident about Modi government. Read more

2) Chemical Explosive Found In UP Assembly, CM Yogi Adityanath Calls A High-Level Meeting Today

BCCL

In a major security lapse, 60 grams of suspicious white powder was found inside Uttar Pradesh Assembly during an ongoing session. Reports suggest that the white powder was Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) - a powerful explosive was detected near Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chaudharys seat, wrapped in a plastic bag. Read more

3) Fugitive Vijay Mallya Who Owes The Country $ 1.4 Billion, Says There's Nothing To Miss About India

AFP

Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, currently fighting a high-profile Indian extradition request, speaks instead of 'enjoying the fruits' of his labours on track and planning high-flying Force India's next decade. Read more

4) Assam Floods Take A Toll On Widlife, More Than 50 Animals Dead So Far In 8 Days In Kaziranga

PTI

The water-level in Kaziranga National Park (KNP), a World Heritage Site, started receding on Thursday, but the past eight days of deluge has left a trail of animal carcasses. Read more

5) No More Pakistani Flag, Now Kashmiri Ultras Wrap Dead Bodies Of Terrorists In ISIS Flag

Representational Image

In a first, the corpse of a terrorist was wrapped in the flag of the Islamic State terror group as hundreds of supporters joined his funeral in Srinagar on Wednesday. They waved flags with pictures of slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani and his protege Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Musa. Read more
In a first, the corpse of a terrorist was wrapped in the flag of the Islamic State terror group as hundreds of supporters joined his funeral in Srinagar on Wednesday. They waved flags with pictures of slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani and his protege Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Musa.

Representational Image

This was a departure from previous instances when the bodies of slain terrorists used to be covered with Pakistani flags. Sajad Gilkar, a resident of downtown Srinagar, was killed along with two other Hizbul terrorists in an encounter on Wednesday. Police said Gilkar had played a key role in the lynching of DSP Mohammad Ayub Pandith. Gikar's funeral prayers were held in the premises of Jamia Masjid where Pandith was lynched by a mob on June 22.

AP/Representational Image

Though police named Gilkar for Pandith's lynching, the SIT is yet to submit its report. Police said Gilkar went underground after June 22 and joined Hizbul. Gilkar was also involved in the grenade attacks on CRPF at Nowhatta on April 2, 2017, CRPF camp Safa Kadal on June 11, 2017 and on a police party at Khanyar on April 30, 2017.

AP/Representational Image

Hundreds of people defied curfew and gathered at Nowhatta for Gilkar's funeral. Many women mourners sang eulogies: "Qoam ay Bahaduro, Karyo goor gooro (Bravehearts of the nation, let me sing you a lullaby)."
A pair of twin sisters with visual impairment in Chinas southwestern Sichuan province was recently admitted in university.

The two young girls, Mei Xiaoqian and Mei Xiaoying, lost their father at a very young age, leaving their mother alone to raise them and their two older sisters. Xiaoying had eye problems in 6th grade, resulting in drastic loss of vision. The same problem happened to Xiaoqian about a year later, and the two of them had no choice but to leave school for some time.

Half a year later, their older sister bought them magnifying glasses. It enabled the twins to return to school and study with the aid of the magnifying glasses. The difference soon became clear  they were amongst students with outstanding results.

Thanks to Hu Yiru, an employee with the local educational department, the twins were accepted by a special education center in Chongqing municipality after graduating from middle school. The man offered the girls typoscopes, thereby enabling them to read books in upright position.

Because Xiaoying and Xiaoqian continued to work hard, they were recently admitted respectively in colleges in Binzhou and Changchun, majoring in acupuncture and massage.
Kaushal Bag, who became popular for his cellphone application, 'Helping Hand's, allegedly committed suicide at his Nashik residence.

Police said Bag hanged himself to death late on Wednesday after recording a suicide note in a video format on his smartphone.

A second-year information technology (IT) student, Bag became popular after his app 'Helping Hands' saved thousands of lives during the devastating flood in Chennai in 2015.

Helping Hand, a free application made by Bag, was downloaded by nearly 2 crore people across the country in December 2015 when the floods had hit Chennai. Thousands of SMSes were sent that were routed through his server during the floods. Bag had identified the location of the stranded people and informed the NGOs working on the ground.

Google Play

Bag's efforts were even appreciated by Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. The same app was used in Nashik and Ujjain Kumbh Mela to locate missing people and also during the Laksha Deepotsava, a huge religious gathering held in November 2016 at Dharmasthala in Karnataka.

"While nothing like a suicide note was found near his body, some video clips were found recorded on his smartphone. In the clip, Bag was seen saying that that the decision of committing suicide was his own and no one from his family and friends should be harassed. He hasn't blamed any person or circumstances for his suicide," commissioner of police Ravinder Kumar Singal said.

Bag's cousin, Gaurav Joshi, said no one in the family was aware if he was going through some mental stress or had arguments with somebody. "He was very happy go lucky boy. No one even guessed from his behavior that he could take such extreme step. We are not aware whether he was under some pressure or not," he said.

According to his friends, Kaushal was active on the social media till March 14 midnight.

He pinned a tweet to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to read an article about his app published in a local newspaper. "Sir, please read this article. I want to donate my application to all the sectors of India," he tweeted.
Data derived from the Global Terrorism Database has been collated into maps that show terrorist activity worldwide of last twenty years.

This visualisation was created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon alongside global security expert, Robert Muggah. They designed Earth TimeLapse, an interactive platform that reveals the many deaths that occurred due to terrorist attacks, annually, across the globe. The larger the red area, the more number of deaths took place in a particular attack.

Earth TimeLapse

For example, in November 2008, hundreds were killed and injured in planned attacks in Mumbai. The following year saw less terrorist activity but in the latter half of 2009, both India and Iraq fell prey to suicide bombings.

Earth TimeLapse

2011 saw major terrorist attacks rocking both India and Pakistan. Then came 2012 and the Syrian conflict saw the cities of Aleppo and Damascus crumbling under the siege of terrorism.

The same maps also put in perspective the number of terrorist attacks that affected regions such as Canada, Brasil, Argentina, and Australia, to name a few.
After Donald Trump's intervention, a team of Afghan girls will now be allowed to participate in an international robotics competition to be held next week in the US. The decision came after international outrage to the news of the US denying visas to six Afghan teens.

ap

The US officials had rejected the girls' visas twice. David Lapan, a spokesman for Homeland Security Department spokesman said that a State Department request for allowing the six girls from the war-torn region into the country had been accepted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The girls will be accompanied by a chaperone.

ap

The girls faced several roadblocks to even seek permission to travel to the States to participate in the international event. They prepared for six months, working seven days a week. They designed a robot that sorted balls - the robot could recognise the colours blue and orange, and then sort the balls to their designated places.

afp

The girls convinced their families to allow them to travel to the US especially when in Afghanistan, young girls are dissuaded from furthering their educational dreams. They visited the US Embassy in Kabul - 800 km away from their homes in Herat - only to have their applications rejected the first time. They reapplied but only to be denied visas again.

But thankfully now, the girls can visit the US to participate in the contest and follow their dreams.
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Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers said on Thursday that the Nigerian Army should form a synergy with the police in tackling crime, particularly kidnapping.

Wike made the call when Minister of Defence, retired Brig.-Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali paid him a courtesy visit in Port Harcourt.

The governor called on the army to also work with the police in the fight against cultism and other social vices in Rivers.

He noted that such collaboration would help in promoting security across the country.

Wike promised the security agencies that the state government would continue to provide logistics and financial support to enable them to discharge their functions professionally.

I want to urge the Nigerian Army to support the police to tackle kidnapping and enhance security, it is also necessary that you assist the police to weed out cultists.

They are beginning to rear their ugly heads to trouble peace loving residents of the state, Wike added.

The governor stressed that the state had not experienced any major vandalism of oil pipelines due to the security programmes put in place by the government.

Wike said his administration would improve on areas of collaboration with the Nigerian Army to enthrone better security system in Rivers.

Responding, Dan-Ali thanked the governor for his assistance to the security agencies.

The minister pledged that the Federal Government would continue to invest towards improving the security situation of Nigeria.

He stressed that investments in security by the Federal Government had resulted in the reduction of crime in the Niger Delta region.

The minister was accompanied by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, the General Officer Commanding 6 Division, Maj.- Gen. Okon Udoh, among others.

Source: ( PM News )
The family of the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has been thrown into mourning, following the death of his uncle, Justice Andrews Otutu Obaseki.

The deceased, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court and the Obaseki of Benin Kingdom, died at 93 years on Thursday evening at his residence, in the presence of his immediate family members.

A close family source who did not want to be named, disclosed that the late Obaseki who was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court in 1975, was first treated at the intensive care unit of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), but was later taken home where he died.

He would be remembered for one of his reflection on the Nigerian Judiciary, in which he said: Justice in the courts is the same whether in native courts, High Courts or Supreme Courts; the measure is the same and it is only when there is an error in the application of the substantive law that the different levels come in to make the necessary correction.

As at the time of filling this report, family members had gathered at the over 80-year-old Benin City residence of the deceased. But the close family member who confirmed his death, said preparations were on to take his body to the mortuary but the family is yet to formally announced his death.

Source: ( PM News )
Following their 3-months ultimatum issued to Igbos living in the North, Arewa youth group has written to United Nations demanding that Indigenous People of Nigeria, IPOB, and its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, be declared terrorists.

According to the statement released by the group on Thursday, IPOBs continous march and growth shows that it is committed to breaking away from Nigeria, and according to the groups spokesperson, Abul-Azeez Suleiman, the northern youth were concerned by IPOBs recent threats.

We became concerned that Kanu has finally crossed the boundaries of Nigerian laws and has blatantly breached international laws that specifically frown at the use of terror to achieve a goal.

However, the group commended Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for adhering to the advice in its letter in which it pointed out the necessity of urgent action to curtail Mr. Kanu and his IPOBs activities.

Commendably, the Acting President initiated series of talks with regional leaders and made genuine moves towards ensuring lasting peace and stability, the group said.

We sincerely commend the efforts of the Acting President and those regional leaders who cooperated with him in dousing tension with the aim of creating a conducive environment for meaningful discussions.

However, notwithstanding all these efforts by the Acting President and responsible national and regional leaders, Kanu and IPOB remain undaunted and even intensified their violent divisive campaign which is the main bone of contention.

The peak of the insolence came when Kanu publicly announced that he would order former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his entire family killed, the group said.
The shocking death of Mrs. Olufunke Oluwakemi Kolawole has been confirmed by the Osun Civil Service after the news initially emerged as a rumour.

The Civil Service in Osun State has been thrown into mourning following the abduction and killing of the Permanent Secretary, Bureau of General Services, Office of the Governor, Osun State, Mrs. Olufunke Oluwakemi Kolawole.

A Punch correspondent gathered on Friday that the PS travelling to Abuja from Osogbo on an official assignment when hoodlums kidnapped her and took her to an unknown destination.

The deceased was said to be driven in her official car and was going to attend the inauguration of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Mrs Abiola Adewemimo as one of the judges of Industrial Court when the hoodlums struck.

The Osun State Head of Service, Mr. Sunday Owoeye, confirmed the incident in a statement which he issued to commiserate with the family and colleagues of the deceased.

The statement read, On behalf of the Forum of Head of Service and Permanent Secretaries, Tutors-General, Accountant-General, Auditors-General and Surveyor-General, and with rude shock and a deep sense of loss, I hereby painfully announce the untimely death of Mrs. OLUFUNKE OLUWAKEMI KOLAWOLE who was brutally attacked by kidnappers while travelling along Okene  Abuja highway on her way to Abuja on Thursday, 12th July, 2017 for an official assignment.

Until her death, Mrs. Kolawole was the Permanent Secretary, Bureau of General Services, Office of the Governor, State of Osun.

The Forum commiserates with the families of the deceased, the entire public service and the State Government of Osun on this irreparable loss.

It will be recalled that Osun State Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Mrs. Adebimpe Ogunlumade, and some others persons were kidnapped in April 2016 along Lokoja-Okene Road while returning from Abuja.

All those kidnapped then were released alive.
Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)of the House of Representatives on Thursday, July 13, declared that there is vacancy in the Aso Rock come 2019. It was gathered that Leo Okuweh Ogor (Delta) stated this to highlight the struggles it passed through in the course of the partys legal battles that resulted in the victory at the supreme court. Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)of the House of Representatives on Thursday, July 13, declared that there is vacancy in the Aso Rock come 2019. It was gathered that Leo Okuweh Ogor (Delta) stated this to highlight the struggles it passed through in the course of the partys legal battles that resulted in the victory at the supreme court.

Sheriff Ogor speaking to journalists said that the APC administration has been all promises and no action, and has occasioned the impoverishment of Nigerians who now live in hunger and insecurity, Vanguard reports. The lawmaker said the APC having failed should see the PDPs legal victory at the supreme court as a quit notice towards 2019.

The former President Goodluck Jonathan congratulated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the resolution of its leadership tussle by the Supreme Court. Nigerias apex court on Wednesday, July 12, sacked Ali Modu Sheriff as the national chairman of the opposition party.

The Supreme Court in its judgement declared Ahmed Makarfi, the caretaker committee chairman, as the authentic leader of Nigerias largest opposition party. The former president said the apex courts verdict is a judgment where there are no winners or losers, adding that it will bring the party together.

( Source: Gossip.naij.com)
A whistleblower identified as Abubakar Sani Chindo has been remanded in prison by the Kaduna State High Court for allegedly providing false information against former vice president Namadi Sambo.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) accused Chindo of providing false information that huge sums of money was stashed at the Kaduna residence of Sambo.

Officers from the Department of State Services (DSS) together with the officials of the ICPC had raided Sambos house three times, without finding any incriminating document on all occasions on June 28.

The accused who is standing trial for a two-count charge pleaded not guilty.

Elijah Akaakohol, ICPC counsel, who read out the charge before the court, said Sani gave the false information on June 21, 2017.

The charge read:

That sometime in 2013 you conveyed a huge sums of money both in the Nigerian and other foreign currencies from Abuja Airport to a house in Ungwan Rimi GRA, Kaduna on the directive of a retired Army officer which money you suspected to be ill-gotten wealth and still laying in boxes in that said house at the moment of your report. And of which you made the officer of the commission of the ICPC to carry out a sting operation that turned out to be false. You thereby committed an offence, contrary to, and punishable under section 64 (3) of the corrupt practices and other related offences act 2000.

The accused, however, prayed the court to grant him bail, he was denied the judge.

The judge M.T Aliyu whos presiding over the case remanded him in prison and adjourned the case the case until November 2

If convicted, Chindo might be jailed for ten years or fined nearly N100, 000 as provided by section 64 (3) of the corrupt practices and other related offences act
Former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, has warned anyone who cares to listen that war will be declared if anyone dares to take up any form of violence against indigenes of the region in other parts of the country.

Mr. Kalu spoke Tuesday on a programme aired on the Africa Television Authority, AIT.

His comment was in response to the threat by some northern youth for Nigerians of Igbo ethnic nationality to leave the northern region by October 1 or be forced out.

He said the comments were coming from unserious northerners.

At a separate occasion, the former governor had earlier said Nigeria had gone past quit notice, and urged Nigerians to live in peace.

But pressed on the AIT programme, Mr. Kalu said, Anybody that touches any Igbo man in terms of (saying) that we should quit; the country will go into war, and I will lead the war; if Igbos are touched.

He continued: Nobody can touch Igbos because this is our country. If anybody kills any of our brothers, we will go and fight back. We will not take it lightly that anybody kills any of us and then you will tell us to go and take it lightly again; no! We will not take that, said Mr. Kalu.

Again, he dismissed the call for repatriation of Igbo from the north as nothing, saying the threat came from unscrupulous Nigerians seeking cheap popularity.

The quit notice means nothing; I know when northerners speak, I will see their hand when they speak, I was trained by them so I know when they are serious.

No reasonable northern elder will do that; did Adamu Ciroma say so? Did Babangida say so? Did President Abdulsalam say so? Will Aliko support that? Only people who are looking for cheap popularity.

Its just like you seeing me struggling for the secession of the country you will know that my heads have gone nuts. The unity of the country is not negotiable.

When you say northern elders, I dont know whether Sultan, Emir of Kano and his likes are asking us to quit. If all these people come out and say we should quit; we will quit. We are not afraid of quitting. But Nigerian unity is more important, Mr. Kalu said.

Speaking on the way forward, the former governor said Nigerias religious and community leaders have a huge responsibility to inculcate the culture of nation building among Nigerians.

The hatred is too much. I think the best way is to get religious leaders to start preaching peace. You cannot imagine that if something happens in Pakistan; they will go and kill Igbo or kill someone from the south. That is not right, said Mr. Kalu.

He added that the message of tolerance should be preached across the country.

The meeting the Acting President was calling only Igbo and Hausa people is not the right thing to do, he should invite all the six geo-political zones because the problem is everywhere, he said.

Source: (Premium Times )
Hog Prices Closed Mixed Barchart - Fri Nov 11, 4:21PM CST Lean hog prices were mixed on Friday with 12 to 52 cent losses through the April contract. The deferred contracts closed 10 to 15 cents in the black with May UNCH. The USDA National Average Base Hog Price... HEZ22 : 84.350s (-0.62%) HEJ23 : 94.100s (-0.13%) KMZ22 : 94.900s (-0.63%)

Friday Cotton Closes Triple Digits Higher Barchart - Fri Nov 11, 4:21PM CST Cotton added 116 to 182 points to the upside on Friday after a brief pause for the WASDE numbers. That kept the board under the high on Tuesday, but ended as a weekly gain of 253 points. USDAs FAS... CTZ22 : 88.20s (+2.11%) CTH23 : 86.33s (+2.09%) CTK23 : 85.56s (+1.89%)

Wheats Close in Black on Friday Barchart - Fri Nov 11, 4:21PM CST Wheat futures ended with +1% gains on Friday. KC HRW closed the strongest on Friday with 1.8% to 2% gains, leaving the Dec contract 10 1/4 cents in the red. CBT SRW closed between 1% and 1.3% higher across... ZWZ22 : 813-6s (+1.28%) ZWH23 : 835-2s (+1.15%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.4644 (+1.39%) KEZ22 : 943-4s (+1.97%) KEPAWS.CM : 9.0182 (+2.07%) MWZ22 : 945-6s (+1.53%)

Triple Digit Losses in Friday Cattle Barchart - Fri Nov 11, 4:21PM CST The cattle complex faded on Friday on a recovery in the grain complex. Front month fat cattle futures ended the day $0.72 to $1.77 lower. December contracts were 13 cents weaker for the week. Feeder cattle... LEZ22 : 151.525s (-1.01%) LEG23 : 153.250s (-1.14%) LEJ23 : 157.050s (-0.91%) GFX22 : 176.950s (-0.94%) GFF23 : 178.575s (-1.72%)

Soy Prices Rally on Friday Barchart - Fri Nov 11, 4:21PM CST Front month soy futures ended the day higher on a bounce back from Thursday. Beans closed with 1.6% to 1.9% gains of as much as 27 cents. That left the Jan contract at a net 12 1/4 cent loss for the week.... ZSX22 : 1455-4s (+1.75%) ZSPAUS.CM : 14.2086 (+1.90%) ZSF23 : 1450-0s (+1.90%) ZSH23 : 1453-6s (+1.80%)

Corn Markets Close in Black Barchart - Fri Nov 11, 4:21PM CST Corn futures bounced back into the weekend with gains of 2 to 4 3/4 cents. USDA announced a private export sale of 209,931 MT of corn to Mexico this morning. The Ukraines Ag Ministry had 7.8 MMT of... ZCZ22 : 658-0s (+0.73%) ZCPAUS.CM : 6.5662 (+0.81%) ZCH23 : 663-0s (+0.53%) ZCK23 : 662-6s (+0.49%)

What are we buying? Blue Line Futures - Fri Nov 11, 4:05PM CST The inflation impact on markets.
The U.K.s Financial Conduct Authority has outlined plans for a new stock market category that would make it easier for Saudi Aramco to partially list in London  over the strenuous objections of investors.

The U.K.s Financial Conduct Authority unveiled a proposal on Thursday to allow foreign sovereign-owned companies to list on the London Stock Exchange under a new category, a move investors say is a ploy to win a London listing for Saudi state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco  and one that will erode governance standards and lower shareholder protection.

The FCA has proposed a new category within its premium listing regime to cater for companies controlled by a shareholder that is a sovereign country, according to the announcement. The proposal aims to enable companies which may the subject of major privatisation transactions to choose the higher standards of premium listing, rather than standard listing.

Premium listings require companies to meet strict corporate governance standards, according to a Financial Times report, which notes that standard listings are off-putting to many investors. The proposal would create a new premium listing category that relaxes these standards.

The regulator unveiled the proposal over the objections of investors urging it not to bend the rules so that Aramco could list part of its business in London. Despite this, FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey said in the announcement that sovereign owners were different from private sector individuals or companies and that the listing regime should be refined accordingly.

Refining the listing regime in this way would make UK markets more accessible whilst ensuring that the protections afford by our premium listing regime are focused and proportionate, he said in the statement.

But market investors are crying foul.

It looks like the FCA is consulting on amending the existing listing rules to accommodate the peculiarities of one company, Ashley Hamilton-Claxton, corporate governance manager at Royal London Asset Management, tells Institutional Investor.

The firm has previously warned that any change to the listing rules to accommodate Saudi Aramco could leave many pension funds holding Aramco shares without the governance protections usually available to U.K. investors.

If the proposals in this consultation document are implemented, it will be bad news for London and will reverse the progress we have made in recent years to uphold strong governance and protect minority shareholders, Hamilton-Claxton says, adding that the listing rules should apply for any premium listing, regardless of whether the controlling investor is a private individual, a consortium, or a sovereign state.

Aviva Investors head of investment stewardship, Mirza Baig, echoes Hamilton-Claxtons concerns. Baig says the FCAs proposals are indicative of a wider global trend to attract large IPOs.

We are not supportive of the dilution of listing standards to accommodate foreign issuers, he says. This unfortunately is a growing trend around the world as exchanges compete for large IPOs.

Baig calls the trend a race to the bottom amongst exchanges which he thinks could be dangerous, as it would erode investor protections.

These concerns would be heightened if these companies were to be included in any of the major investment benchmark indexes, such as the FTSE 100, as index trackers and exchange-traded funds would have to buy the constituents of these indices, regardless of corporate governance issues.

A London Stock Exchange spokesman, speaking on Thursday before the FCAs announcement, said that currently, companies outside of the U.K. need to list at least 50 per cent of their free float shares in London to be eligible for inclusion in the FTSE indexes, while the requirement for U.K.-domiciled companies is 25 per cent. However, a company could still float in London even if it doesnt list 25 per cent, the spokesman said, although it wouldnt be automatically considered for inclusion in the indexes.

Still, this would be a tough sell to fund managers, whose trade association today issued a statement on the FCAs announcement. Chris Cummings, chief executive officer of the Investment Association, said the FCAs consultation on removing key investor protections from the premium-listed segment to accommodate sovereign-controlled companies would not be popular.

Investors believe a premium listed segment without these investor protections is not a premium segment and will not provide the protections that investors expect, he said in the statement.

However, Cummings added that investors recognize that the U.K. needs to maintain a good flow of business coming to list on the London market and should offer a competitive market structure.

It is not the first time that a regulator has attempted to alter the rules to accommodate a large IPO listing. Earlier this year, shares in the parent company of Snapchat were admitted to the New York Stock Exchange with zero voting rights.

The FCA has asked for responses to its proposals as part of a consultation period ending in October. Saudi Aramco is seeking to list 5 percent of the company, with plans to list in 2018.
This content is from: Portfolio

All I do is just listen to the Fed, and I believe them, says the manager of the Strategic Income Opportunities Fund.
Conservative Stourbridge MP Margot James has visited Borough Market traders to hear first-hand accounts about the business disruption brought about by the June 03 London Bridge terrorist attack.A report by Southwark News said James, joined by Labour MP Neil Coyle, assured the affected businesses that she would call in the insurance providers who have not yet made their payments. The traders lost an estimated 1.4 million due to the incident.Last month Coyle cited the need to protect small businesses through rapid payouts of compensation in cases such as the London Bridge attack. He said those whose insurance did not cover terrorism should be aided by the government.According to the report, Coyle believes the process of officially declaring an incident as an act of terrorism  which takes 21 days  is too long. The label is supposedly needed for payouts under terrorism cover.
Israel and the Palestinian National Authority announced Thursday a new water deal under which Israel would supply the Palestinians with millions of cubic meters annually.

U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt, who helped to negotiate the deal, said it was an "important step forward" towards a regional water deal.

The agreement was announced at a joint press conference in Jerusalem held by Israel's Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, Head of the Palestinian Water Authority Mazen Ghoneim, and Greenblatt.

The Palestinians suffer a water shortage and complain an unequal distribution of water between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Under the new deal, Israel would provide the PNA with 32 million cubic meters per year -- 10 million of which would be provided to the Gaza Strip and the rest would be directed to the West Bank.

The agreement was the first step in wider, trilateral plan that involves the construction of a 220-kilimeter pipeline transferring water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea to replenish the draining and depleting Dead Sear. It involves Israel, Jordan, and the PNA.

"Water is a precious commodity in the Middle East," Greenblatt said during the signing ceremony. "The U.S. welcomes the agreement reached by the Palestinian Authority and the government of Israel, which will allow for the sale of 32 million cubic meters of water from Israel to the Palestinian Authority," he said.

"In addition, we hope that the deal will contribute to the healing of the Dead Sea and that will help not only Palestinians and Israelis but Jordanians as well," he added.

Greenblatt refused to tell reporters whether the deal signals any further development in the White House efforts to revive the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Hanegbi said that the "historic and important" agreement demonstrates that water "must be a means of cooperation, not a cause for disagreement."

He said that Israel is committed to help in desalination of water within the framework of the larger deal, dubbed by Israelis as the "Canal of Seas Project."

"This project will increase the water supply to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority," said Hanegbi.
Christina Zapantoulis will head insurance broker Locktons marine team in its Northeast US operations.



Joining Lockton from Krauter & Company, Zapantoulis was executive vice president and property practice leader specializing in cargo, marine, builders risk, and complex property programs.



Celebrate excellence in insurance. Nominate a worthy colleague for the Insurance Business Awards.



The Fordham University graduate also has experience at Marsh and at Chubb  with areas of expertise in property, marine, and machinery.



Christina has earned a reputation as a thought leader and expert in complex risk management programs, especially in marine and property, said Chris DiLullo, executive vice president for Locktons Northeast US operations.



According to DiLullo, Zapantoulis will help guide clients in terms of supply chain, cargo, and related risks. She will be based in the New York office.





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Californias surplus lines industry is trying to clear up the haze over a proposed regulation that would require medical marijuana businesses to purchase insurance only from admitted carriers.

The regulation is one of several regulations under consideration at a series of public hearings conducted by the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation, which held its final hearing on the matter in Sacramento in late June.

The BMCR anticipates the regulations will be finalized by Jan. 1, 2018.

Among the proposals that will help govern the states budding medical marijuana business  some projections peg the new industrys value at $7 billion, with an estimated $1 billion in taxes generated  is wording that limits businesses to getting coverage only from authorized insurers.

Its all the typical business covers that you would expect. ... There are a lot of companies in and around this space.

The Surplus Line Association of California was one of the first groups that lined up to weed out that part of the regulations.

Benjamin McKay, executive director of group, has testified at public hearings that the proposed regulation would make it difficult, if not impossible, for those in the marijuana business to procure insurance.

Section 5108, Subsection C of the proposed regulations would require licensees to obtain insurance policies from companies authorized to conduct business in California.

This language is at odds with both market realities and the California Insurance Code, McKay argues.

The lions share of businesses selling or involved in marijuana are insured in surplus lines market, he said.

McKay has explained to the BMCR that there are many cases when it is necessary for California insurance consumers to shop outside the state for coverage, such as when the risk being covered is considered distressed, unique, high-capacity or too new for standard insurers to price.

McKay urged the bureau to reconsider the language limiting coverage to authorized insurers to ensure that businesses involved in the legal marijuana industry can get insurance.

Add the California Department of Insurance to the list of those who do not want the regulations preventing marijuana-related businesses to go to the nonadmitted market greenlighted.

The CDI in formal comments submitted a week ago expressed its concerns about the proposal, which would have the consequence of allowing only licensed insurers to write coverage.

The CDI has proposed language as a fix (deletions are stricken):

(c) A distributor licensee shall maintain the insurance required in subsection (b) from an insurance company authorized to do business in California by the Secretary of State that is:

(i) a nonadmitted insurer, that meets the requirements of Insurance Code section 1765.1 or 1765.2, and the insurance is placed pursuant to Insurance Code section 1763 and through a surplus line broker licensed under Insurance Code section 1765; or

(ii) an insurer qualified to do business in California by the Secretary of State and authorized by the Insurance Commissioner to write the liability and property classes of insurance as defined by Insurance Code sections 102, 103, 107, 114, 108 and 120; or

(iii) a registered risk retention group compliant with the California Risk Retention Act of 1991. See California Insurance Code sections 125  140.

(d) A distributor licensee shall notify the bureau in writing within 10 calendar days of a lapse in insurance.

(e) Admitted insurers and risk retention groups must show proof of capitalization in the amount of at least $10,000,000.

One reason the CDI and others may support doing away with the proposed exclusion of surplus lines insurers is that there are few if any admitted insurers in the marijuana market.

We dont know of any admitted products, McKay said.

He pointed to some impediments that prevent most admitted carriers from entering the marijuana business, specifically, federal law views marijuana as an illegal substance.

A list of marijuana insurance providers in California compiled by Marijuana Business Daily indicates that most insurers are non-admitted, and often non-traditional, with names like Cannabis Insurance Pros, Green Rock, InsureBud, MarijuanaInsurance.net, SOS Cannabis USA and www.MarijuanaBusiness

InsuranceBroker.com.

James River, Scottsdale and Lloyds are among the numerous well-known insurers who entered the states marijuana insurance business.

McKay said the lines of coverage he believes are needed for the for the marijuana business are extensive: general liability; clinical testing; all-risk commercial property; errors and omissions; crop insurance; garage liability; excess liability; errors and omissions; directors and officers.

Its all the typical business covers that you would expect, McKay added. There are a lot of companies in and around this space.

Topics Carriers California Legislation Excess Surplus Cannabis
PartnerRe Ltd. announced that Dorothee Burkel has been appointed to the new position of chief corporate and people operations officer, effective October 2, 2017.

As a member of PartnerRes executive management team, Burkel will have executive responsibility for human resources, communications, legal and internal audit.

Burkel has 30 years of professional experience leading international and decentralized teams in the digital economy, said PartnerRe in a statement. She will join PartnerRe from Google, where she has held the position of people operations director for EMEA, since 2008. Prior to joining Google, Burkel held the positions of vice president, HR & corporate communication, at AOL France, and VP brand & corporate communication, for AOL Europe.

This new position will be key to creating a working environment where employees can thrive while delivering excellent results, said PartnerRes President and CEO Emmanuel Clarke.

Dorothee will provide a strong executive voice for these important functions, as well as a refreshing perspective from a different industry. Her experience developing and managing top talent in agile, dynamic environments makes her an excellent fit for this role, he added.

Burkel graduated in political sciences from the Institut dEtudes Politiques in Paris. She will be based in PartnerRes Paris office, reporting to Clarke.

Source: PartnerRe

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Human Resources Google
Bermuda-based AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd. announced it will launch a Lloyds managing agent after receiving authorization from Lloyds, the UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Effective Aug. 4, AXIS Managing Agency will assume management of AXIS Syndicate 1686 at Lloyds, replacing the companys third-party managing agency agreement with Asta Managing Agency Ltd., which had been in place since 2014.

Launching AXIS Managing Agency enables AXIS to have a direct relationship with Lloyds and to take full advantage of Lloyds worldwide licenses and extensive distribution network, the company said in a statement.

The company said it also will be able to more efficiently manage its Lloyds operations, as well as support AXIS Reinsurances plans to access specialty reinsurance business at Lloyds.

This is a significant milestone for AXIS. It brings us closer to Lloyds and its influential community of brokers, while also allowing us to deliver broader strategic value to our customers, said Mark Gregory, chief executive officer, AXIS Managing Agency, and CEO, AXIS Insurance International Division. AXIS Syndicate 1686 will continue to underwrite the diversified and balanced portfolio of specialist classes in which AXIS has an established reputation and market position.

AXIS Syndicate 1686 will underwrite specialist classes that include marine, energy, aviation, terrorism, property, casualty, professional indemnity and reinsurance, AXIS explained.

The authorization of AXIS Managing Agency is the latest step in AXIS expansion of its presence in London and its Lloyds operations, coming on the heels of AXIS Capitals recent announcement that it plans to acquire Novae Group plc, a diversified specialty re/insurer that operates through Lloyds.

This past January, the company launched AXIS Specialty Underwriters Inc., also known as AXIS Miami, which serves as its coverholder for the Latin American and Caribbean regions and provides direct and facultative reinsurance coverage to those markets, focused on energy and property.

Source: AXIS Capital

Topics Excess Surplus Reinsurance Talent Lloyd's Human Resources
For the past year, Des Moines, Iowa-based Holmes Murphy team members across the nation have overwhelmingly embraced the independent insurance brokerages Responsible Time Off program.

Holmes Murphy said it began a redesigned, more flexible time off practice for exempt employees on July 1, 2016, with positive results across the board.

Responsible Time Off (RTO) is a paid leave program that affords exempt employees from all 12 Holmes Murphy locations the flexibility to balance work and personal life. Employees are expected and encouraged to take time away from work when they need it, and the amount of time an employee has to take off is no longer specified. Rather, time off is available when necessary for employees to operate at their highest level while providing the best service to clients.

As a company, we strive to be on the leading edge of the industry both in our services and company culture, Holmes Murphy Chairman and CEO Dan Keough said in the companys announcement. As such, we recognized Responsible Time Off as an innovative, cutting-edge benefit that allows us to continue supporting a culture of mutual trust and empowerment. It has allowed us to continue our focus on productivity and results for our clients and away from the hours spent at work.

Following implementation, Holmes Murphy has been approached by several employers asking how it works and what it takes to make Responsible Time Off a successful program.

In addition to rolling out RTO, Holmes Murphy implemented several enhanced work/life integration programs for all employees. These new benefits include Parental Leave, an enriched short-term disability plan; Celebrate your day off for an employees birthday; and Volunteer Time Off for employees to dedicate paid work days to the causes they care about most.

The companys RTO program further aligns Holmes Murphys sales and service career positions and the important role they play in the organization, as the sales operations have already had this type of flexibility in their roles.

Holmes Murphy has always been known for our great customer service and our putting clients first philosophy, Keough said. This new policy is just one more way were ensuring our employees are at their best so we can continue to deliver top-notch service to our clients.

In addition to Des Moines, Holmes Murphy has offices in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. The company has about 750 employees.

Source: Holmes Murphy

Topics Iowa
Global insurance broker Willis Towers Watson has made several senior appointments in its North America Corporate Risk and Broking (CRB) business.

Mark Rusas has been appointed CRB Northeast region leader, where he will be responsible for growth strategy and talent acquisition in New England, metro New York and Buffalo. Rusas, a 27-year industry veteran, joined Willis Towers Watson in 2003 to serve as the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) practice leader. He will continue to lead the M&A practice for the business, which delivers risk management products and services to the alternative asset community and their portfolio company investments. He is based in New York and reports to Mike Liss, head of Corporate Risk and Broking, North America.

Will Eustace has been appointed head casualty coverage officer, part of the companys North America broking organization. In this newly created role, he will be responsible for casualty coverage solutions for clients including insurance policy form and manuscript policy wording. Eustace has 16 years in the industry and joined Willis Towers Watson from Marsh USA where he was Legal and Policy Forms advisor. He is based in New York and reports to Joe Peiser, head of Broking, North America.

Jim Dorion has been appointed head of Liability Claim Consulting and Carrier Relations, part of the companys Risk Control and Claim Advocacy business. In this newly created role, he will be responsible for the consulting and advocacy services within the companys liability claims function. He will also maintain claim relationships with all major trading partners. Dorion has 22 years in the industry and joined Willis Towers Watson from Marsh USA where he was the global practice leader for Complex Liability Consulting and Chief Claim Officer for Casualty and Specialty Lines. He is based in New York and reports to Marc Hindman, head of Risk Control and Claim Advocacy, North America.

Henry Daar has been appointed head of National Property Claims, part of the companys Risk Control and Claim Advocacy business. In this newly created role, he will be responsible assisting clients in securing contract certainty, coverage enhancements and assisting in complex property claim resolutions. Daar has over 37 years in the industry as a property coverage lawyer and joined Willis Towers Watson from Aon where he was executive vice president of property claims. He is based in Chicago and reports to Marc Hindman.

Willis Towers Watson has 40,000 employees serving more than 140 countries.

Topics Agencies New York Willis Towers Watson Leadership Risk Management
The battle over now-famous selfie photographs taken by a macaque monkey will head back to federal court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco on Wednesday will hear arguments on whether an animal can own the copyright to a photograph. The proceedings will be broadcast online .

A federal judge last year ruled that the monkey cannot be declared the photos copyright owner, saying that while Congress and the president can extend the protection of law to animals as well as humans, there is no indication that they did so in the Copyright Act.

The lawsuit filed in 2015 by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sought a court order allowing PETA to administer all proceeds from the photos for the benefit of the monkey, which it identified as Naruto, a free-living crested macaque from Indonesia.

PETA says Naruto has been accustomed to cameras throughout his life and took the selfies when he saw himself in the reflection of the lens. The animal rights organizations says the monkey drew the connection between pressing the shutter release and the change in his reflection, and made different facial expressions while pressing the shutter release.

The photos of the monkey of a toothy grin were taken in 2011 in Sulawesi, Indonesia with an unattended camera owned by British nature photographer David Slater.

Slater says the British copyright obtained for the photos by his company, Wildlife Personalities Ltd., should be honored worldwide

PETA sued Slater and his San Francisco-based self-publishing company Blurb, which published a book called Wildlife Personalities that includes the monkey selfie photos.

If successful, this will be the first time that an animal is declared the owner of property, instead of being declared a piece of property himself, PETA attorney Jeffrey Kerr said.

When science and technology advance, the law adapts, Kerr said. There is nothing in the Copyright Act limiting ownership based on species, and PETA is asking for an interpretation of the act that acknowledges todays scientific consensus that macaque monkeys can create an original work.

Editors Note: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last year cited the case as one of the years 10 most ridiculous lawsuits in 2015 and again in 2016.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
ExxonMobil Corp. has been fined about $165,000 by U.S. regulators for safety lapses including inadequate training and equipment maintenance over an explosion that injured four workers at an aging Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery last year.

U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued nine citations, several of which echo previous cautions by federal agencies at two other Exxon plants. The citations, issued in May, were seen by Reuters this month.

A separate investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is ongoing and its report on the incident is due by year-end.

Exxon said it is contesting the OSHA citations and fines.

The facility was faulted five years ago by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to address corrosion on pipes and valves and for inadequate shutdown and emergency procedures provided to workers.

The Nov. 22, 2016, explosion on a sulfuric-acid alkylation unit that makes octane-boosting components of gasoline in the sprawling Baton Rouge refinery and chemical plant injured four workers, two of them severely. Two of the affected workers declined to comment; others could not be reached.

A worker on the alkylation unit removed the cover of a malfunctioning valve on an isobutane line and used a wrench to turn the value stem, Exxon reported to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality in a letter. Volatile isobutane is converted in the alkylation unit to a component of gasoline.

As the operator turned the valve stem, portions of the valve fell out, releasing isobutane, according to the Exxon letter, which was ignited by a welding machine 70 feet away.

One worker was knocked off a scaffold next to the alkylation unit and left dangling over the fire, according to two sources. Another worker was burned over most of her body.

Exxons safety procedures and training for operators on the alkylation unit were lacking, equipment was not properly maintained, and required inspections were not carried out within required time periods, according to a copy of the citations seen by Reuters.

We cooperated with OSHAs investigation and shared extensive information and records, said Exxon spokeswoman Charlotte Huffaker. We are contesting the citations and associated penalty.

Huffaker said nothing is more important to Exxon than maintaining a safe workplace for workers and residents near its facilities.

Eight of the nine citations were listed as serious, each carrying a fine of $12,675. The ninth, for failing to carry out external visual and ultrasonic inspections of piping, carries a fine of $63,373.

The later fine was higher because Exxon was cited in 2016 for violating the same inspection standard at a Baytown, Texas, refining and chemical plant complex, OSHA said in the citation.

In a report issued in May after a two-year investigation of a 2015 explosion at an 86-year-old Torrance, California, refinery then owned by Exxon, the CSB said the company lacked a procedure for operating a fluidic catalytic cracking unit in an idled mode, as was being done when the explosion took place.

Exxon sold the Torrance refinery to PBF Energy Inc in July 2016.

In 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inspected the Baton Rouge refinery as part of a risk management prevention program and found Exxon had not examined in five years more than 1,000 underground pipes, many of which the EPA said were corroded, according to the agencys report on the inspection. The EPA also said emergency and shutdown procedures failed to provide needed details for operators.

Huffaker said in an email that Exxon contested the violations, and said the EPA withdrew all but two of its findings. She did not respond to a request for details.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Gary McWilliams and Chris Reese)

Topics USA Workers' Compensation Louisiana Energy Oil Gas Pollution
Centauri Insurance has hired Cindy Gaul as assistant vice president of Claims.

Gaul will be responsible for contributing to the companys focus on customer service orientation, accuracy, innovation and oversight in the claims process.

According to the company her role will be key to Centauris continued dedication to claims servicing.

Gaul has 23 years of experience in the insurance industry and was formerly vice president of Claims at FCCI Insurance Group.

Centauri Insurance is a property and casualty insurance company based in Sarasota, Fla., which currently operates across nine states with continual plans for expansion.

Topics Florida Claims
California Gov. Jerry Brown announced yet another plan Wednesday to keep the United States on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the international Paris climate agreement.

This time, hes teaming up with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to launch Americas Pledge, an initiative to compile all of the climate change-fighting commitments of states, cities, businesses and universities in one place where they can be easily tracked and shared.

Its the latest effort by cities and states, and Brown in particular, to fight back against President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw the United States from the international pact. The two will share the data at this years United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Germany.

Brown, a Democrat, and Bloomberg, a Republican-turned Independent, have both played an outsized role on the world stage when it comes to fighting global warming.

Brown is serving as a special adviser to states and regions at the Germany gathering, while Bloomberg was appointed a special envoy for cities and climate change in 2014 by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In the U.S., emission levels are determined far more by cities, states, and businesses than they are by our federal government  and each of these groups is taking action because its in their own best interest, Bloomberg said in a statement.

Under former President Barack Obama, the country committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.

Governors, mayors and other leaders have pledged to uphold that target even without the White Houses commitment. Brown is at the helm of several multi-state pacts to lower carbon emissions.

The new pledge will record and track those individual commitments and measure their cumulative effect on reducing emissions. The Rocky Mountain Institute and the World Resources Institute will lead the analysis for the project, paid for by grants from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Antha Williams, director of the foundations environment program, could not provide an estimated cost of the Americas Pledge research. Bloombergs foundation has spent more than $100 million on climate initiatives.

The project will also present a game plan for non-federal actors to take more aggressive action on climate.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics California New York Climate Change
A top California state official said he was a passenger on an Air Canada jet that nearly landed on a taxiway where four other planes were sitting rather than the designated runway at San Francisco International Airport earlier this week.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones was on the flight from Toronto returning from a conference of insurance regulators when the pilot mistakenly made his approach toward the taxiway Friday night instead of the nearby runway.

It was just really strange because clearly something was wrong, but they didnt really give us any information afterward. So to see that we almost landed on four planes full of passengers is a little disturbing, said Jones.

Federal officials are investigating the incident.

Passengers were not told about the near-calamity after the plane landed safely, Jones said. Instead, he said the pilot told the 140 passengers on board that there was more traffic than usual and everything was fine, he said.

But he said he knew something was wrong because as the plane descended, the engines revved, and then the plane climbed.

Ive never experienced something like that for as low we were, said Jones. You could tell something wasnt right.

In audio posted on liveatc.net, which records flight communications, the pilot on the plane and the air traffic controller sounded calm as the close call unfolded.

At first, the pilot said he sees some lights on the runway, apparently alluding to planes on the taxiway, the aviation equivalent of feeder roads that planes use to roll between runways and terminals.

The controller assures the pilot there is no one on the runway. Seconds later, another voice, apparently one of the pilots on the taxiway, interjects, Wheres this guy going? Hes on the taxiway.

The controller orders the Air Canada jet to go around, and the pilot acknowledges the command.

Roughly 30 seconds later, a United Airlines pilot on the taxiway says the jet flew directly over us.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor would not comment on how close Air Canada Flight 759 came to disaster, citing his agencys ongoing investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board also will review what happened.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics California Aviation Canada
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Breaking AI Stock News: GBT's (OTCPK: GTCH) Facial and Body Recognition Patent Application Received a Notice of Allowance

San Diego, CA - November 9, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) GBT Technologies Inc. (OTC PINK: GTCH) with GBT Tokenize Corp. ("GBT/Tokenize") received a notice of allowance for its facial and body recognition non-provisional patent application.

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Breaking EV Stock News: Mullen (NASDAQ: MULN) Enters into Agreement with Newgate Motor Group, one of Ireland's most Recognized Auto Groups, to Distribute the Mullen I-GOTM in Ireland and United Kingdom

BREA, Calif. - November 9, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), an emerging electric vehicle manufacturer, announces today that it has entered into an agreement to appoint Newgate Motor Group, one of Ireland's most recognized dealership groups, as marketing, sales, distribution and servicing agent for the Mullen I-GO in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

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Breaking AI Stock News: GBT's (OTCPK: GTCH) AI Driven Financial Technology Patent Application Received a Notice of Publication

San Diego, CA - November 3, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) GBT Technologies Inc. (OTC PINK: GTCH) received a notice of publication for its financial software patent application.

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Breaking AI Stock News: Intellagents, a FatBrain AI (OTCQB: LZGI) Company, Announces Hiring of Insurtech Industry Veteran as Chief Revenue Officer

NEW YORK, NY - November 2, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc.) (OTCQB: LZGI), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for star enterprises of tomorrow, announces the hiring of Euan King, an experienced and respected Insurtech industry leader as Chief Revenue Officer for insurance technology-focused subsidiary Intellagents.

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With growing rifts in Irans leadership, and the increase in public dissent, the international community is waiting to see what will develop in Iran.

The May 19th presidential election sparked an outbreak of protests, which were escalated by investors who had placed their savings in institutions linked to the state and/or the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

For the past year, the network associated with the Iranian opposition, Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), has focused its effort on raising awareness inside the country, especially among the youth.

It is troubling that the perpetrators of the massacre during the summer of 1988, where at least 30,000 political prisoners in dozens of prisons throughout Iran were executed, still hold offices in todays regime.

Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi is the minister of justice in President Hassan Rouhanis cabinet. Conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi was the favored candidate of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the election, as well as being groomed to succeed Khamenei in the regimes ultimate leadership post. Both men were members of the four-man Death Commission presiding over the executions.

Revelations made by the PMOI/MEK network inside Iran exposed those involved in the 1988 massacre. This placed Khamenei in a position of risking a major uprising that might be worse than that of 2009, or allow Hassan Rouhani another term as president. However, Rouhanis second term will be no different from his first.

Recently, Khamenei and his faction have issued indirect threats against Rouhani, showing the great divide in Irans leadership. Also considered by many to be aimed at Rouhani was IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani lashing out at those targeting the Guards. He said, In the Islamic Republic, were all responsible towards martyrs, society, religion and our country. The biggest betrayal is to cast doubt toward the foundations of this system none today must weaken the corps. This is believed by some to be a reference to Rouhanis remarks against the IRGC through the elections process, and after presidential campaign.

Adding to this, the Trump administration is weighing the option of blacklisting the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization, and perhaps seeking regime change through supporting the Iranian opposition.

Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House of Representatives, who has a close relationship with President Trump, said at a recent Iranian opposition rally near Paris, Iran must be free. The dictatorship must be destroyed. Containment is appeasement, and appeasement is surrender. The only practical goal is to support a movement to free Iran. Any other goal will leave a dictatorship finding ways to get around any agreement and to lie about everything.

A prominent Saudi figure also showed support of such an initiative. Former Saudi intelligence chief, Turki Faisal said, The Iranian people are the first victims of [the mullahs] dictatorship. He added, Your effort in challenging this regime is legitimate and your resistance for the liberation of the Iranian people of all ethnicities, including Arabs, Kurds, Baluchis, Turks and Fars of the mullahs evil, as [Iranian opposition leader Maryam] Rajavi said, is a legitimate struggle.

Evidence that regime change may be in the future for Iran is seen in these emerging developments, both domestically and abroad.
Also acknowledging Irans involvement in Iraq and Syria, and how he has placed the countrys economy at the disposal of such meddling, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said, according to Fars news agency on July 11th, We supported the people of Iraq and Syria while being under the harshest of conditions Who provides the salary and weapons of these people? All the weapons Iraq needed and who provided the money while being under sanctions? It is the same about Syria. A missile has been fired from our soil and targeted the terrorists center however, who designed and built this missile? The government built this missile, the Defense Ministry built this missile who provided the money? The governments economic branch is providing the money a major effort was carried out [during my first term].

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) published an article on July 13th saying, These remarks prove once again how despite their increasing power struggle, the Iranian regimes various factions by no means differ in exporting terrorism, fundamentalist and warmongering. Until this regime is in power the mullahs will never forgo their meddling in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Bahrain. This is an inseparable branch of the mullahs survival strategy. Designating the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization, and expelling this entity and their proxies from the region is a necessity in establishing peace and stability across the Middle East.
Update - 11.03am: A mother told gardai Yes it was my knife, yes it was my hand, it was not me, it was the power after she was charged with the murder of her three-year-old son Omar Omran in Dublin.

Maha Al-Adheem, 42, made the reply to gardai today after she was charged with the murder of the toddler who was found stabbed to death in his Crumlin home on Monday evening.

Ms Al-Adheem, who is a doctor, was remanded in custody by Dublin District Court to appear again next week.

The body of Omar Omran was found when gardai and an ambulance crew were called to his apartment home in the Poddle Park area of Crumlin in south Dublin at about 7pm on Monday evening.

Entry was forced and the infant child was found in his bedroom. He had been stabbed and was pronounced dead at the scene while his mother Maha Al-Adheem was rushed to St James Hospital in a serious condition.

An incident room was established and Ms Al-Adheem was arrested at about 10am on Wednesday. Ms Al-Adheem, a doctor from Iraq who had been living in Ireland since 2010, was detained at Crumlin Garda Station under Section Four of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

She was held overnight and brought to appear before Judge Michael Walsh at Dublin District Court on Thursday morning. Dressed in blue jeans, pink runners and a purple sweater, she sat silently throughout the short hearing.

Det Sergeant Brendan OHalloran told Judge Walsh that Ms Al-Adheem was arrested at 12.30am on Thursday for the offence of murder contrary to common law. He said she made no reply.

Det Sgt OHalloran said that he cautioned her at 1.16am and charged her. He told the court the she was given a true copy of the charge and she replied: Yes it was my knife, yes it was my hand, it was not me, it was the power.

The district court cannot grant bail in murder cases and she was remanded in custody to appear again on July 20 next.

She was granted legal aid after Judge Walsh was given details of her income by defence solicitor Richard Young. There was no Garda objection.

Ms Al-Adheem nodded to her solicitor when he spoke quietly to her at the end of the proceedings but did not address the court during the brief hearing.

Due to the nature of the charge a bail application can only be made in the High Court.

Earlier: A woman will appear in court this morning in connection with the homicide of a three-year-old boy in Dublin.

Three-year-old Omar Omran was discovered at an apartment block at Poddle Park in Kimmage on Monday evening.

A woman was brought to Crumlin Garda Station yesterday where she was questioned in relation to the homicide.

She is due before Dublin District Court later this morning.
A hundred new jobs are coming on stream for Galway.

Canadian-based online shopping firm Shopify is hiring support staff for its office in the West of Ireland.

The cloud-based businesses came to Galway, two years ago and will expand its workforce over the next 12 months

Positions will be available in business development, commerce and entrepreneurship.

John Riordan, Director of Support, Ireland at Shopify said: "We've seen the benefits of remote culture and how it can be utilised to rejuvenate the west of Ireland and counties like Galway."
Former US president Jimmy Carter is out of hospital after being treated for dehydration, a spokeswoman has said.

Representatives for Mr Carter and Habitat for Humanity said on Thursday that the 92-year-old had become dehydrated while volunteering at a home-building project in Winnipeg, Canada, and was taken to hospital for rehydration as a precaution.

Carter spokeswoman Deanna Congileo says he was discharged from St Boniface General Hospital on Friday morning and then attended a devotional to begin the last day of a Habitat for Humanity home-building project.

"He and Mrs Carter extend their appreciation for the many well-wishes he received worldwide," Ms Congileo said in a statement.

Mr Carter had joined Habitat as the organisation builds 150 homes for people in need in Canada to celebrate the country's 150th anniversary.

The former president and his wife Rosalynn were in Edmonton, where Habitat is building 75 homes, from Monday to Wednesday before heading to Winnipeg, where the couple joined hundreds of volunteers working on 25 homes in the St James community, said Rowena Sara, a spokeswoman for the organisation.

Mr Carter had been working for about 90 minutes on Thursday morning when he went to sit down in a chair, the Winnipeg Free Press reported.

He appeared to wobble, so Secret Service agents led him to his motorcade. He was treated by paramedics who took him away in an ambulance, without using lights or siren, the newspaper said.

The Carters are prominent backers of the Atlanta-based building charity. This week's project building houses in several Canadian communities is the 34th time they have pitched in on Habitat projects, lending a hand and their name to promote the work.

Mr Carter was diagnosed with melanoma that had spread to his brain in 2015, but announced in March the following year that he no longer needed treatment.

He continued to volunteer for Habitat while being treated for cancer, working alongside volunteers at a home in Memphis in November 2015.

AP
The report, which was written by the Institute for the Future, a Californian think tank, and by technology and other experts across the world, predicts that society will enter a new phase in its relationship with machines boosting efficiency and helping humans and organisations transcend their limitations.

However, it warns that businesses face huge disruption and will need to adapt swiftly to the challenges.

Never before has the industry experienced so much disruption. The pace of change is very real, and were now in a do-or-die landscape, said chief marketing officer Jeremy Burton.

To leap ahead in the era of human-machine partnerships, every business will need to be a digital business, with software at its core.

But organisations will need to move fast and build capacity in their machines, ready their infrastructure and enable their workforce in order to power this change.

Rachel Maguire, research director, at Institute for the Future said: We need to focus on what the new relationship between technology and people could look like and how we can prepare accordingly. If we engage in the hard work of empowering human-machine partnerships to succeed, their impact on society will enrich us all.

According to the report, technology will enhance creativity, passion and an entrepreneurial mindset by 2030.

This will align with the machines ability to bring speed, automation and efficiencies, and the resulting productivity will allow for new opportunities within industries and roles.

It sees a world where artificial intelligence assistants do more than PAs can do. Technology wont necessarily replace workers, but the process of finding work will change, it said.
A joint meeting in Paris, between French and German governments, is eyeing the big prize of harmonising their tax systems, as advances on broader eurozone reform look unlikely.

The two countries are due to launch a 1bn fund to finance digital investments, French president, Emmanuel Macron, said.
The association said it wants to highlight that consumers may think that they are securing low prices but that history is repeating itself in that the many food and goods shipped directly across the Irish Sea from Britain should be substantially cheaper following the unprecedented surge in the euro since the UKs vote to quit the EU just over a year ago.

Dermott Jewell, the policy and council adviser at the consumer organisation, told the Irish Examiner that food and drink items imported on a large scale directly into Irish shops from Britain should have fallen steeply.

The comments come as CSO figures for the 12 months through June  almost exactly matching the period since the Brexit vote a year ago  showed consumer prices overall posted a modest annual fall of 0.4%.

The foods and non-alcoholic drinks category, which covers almost 60 individual items fell by only 2.7% in the year, while breakfast cereals, a benchmark for goods that are imported directly from Britain, fell by just over 4%. Not for the first time history is repeating itself, said Mr Jewell. Before we had the recession, consumers were not getting a fair or reasonable exchange rate. The Republic was always paying a margin gap and retailers and distributors were taking the profit. We are again taking the position as subsidisers.

He said that the 2.7% fall in food and beverage prices since June 2016 was small.

The more consumers understand it the better, particularly as Brexit negotiations begin to bring specifics to the discussion, Mr Jewell said.

The euro has surged to over 88p from 76p, on the eve of the UK referendum on June 23 last year.

Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Merrion Capital, said it has long been argued that businesses faced additional costs in the Republic which justified charging higher prices. But the temptation is likely that businesses were not passing on the benefits of the exchange rate, he said, adding that with so many goods imported from Britain that prices in the Republic should be much lower given the extent of the appreciation of the euro against sterling.

In a new Central Bank publication, economists Paul Reddan and Jonathan Rice highlighted the significance of the euro-sterling exchange rate in setting Irish consumer prices. Sterling has a disproportionately large impact on Irish consumer goods prices, above and beyond other currencies, given the UKs role as a key trade partner for consumer goods, the economists wrote.

A large quantity of goods imported from the US, particularly pharmaceuticals and aircraft, are not consumed in Ireland, while 50% of total manufacturing goods and 78% of food, beverages and tobacco imported from outside the euro area come from the UK, according to the research.

The Brexit-related fall in the value of sterling helps explain why Irish inflation remained lower than all other euro area countries throughout 2016. The falling cost of British exports meant Irish consumer goods prices have been particularly low and this has directly increased the real purchasing power of Irish consumers.
The warrant, authorising searches at Daimler sites in May, focused on two diesel engines allegedly equipped with so-called defeat devices that would reduce emissions controls. The Mercedes GLK 250 and GL 350 sport-utility vehicles are among models at the carmaker that use the engines. The probe is looking into sales from 2008 to 2016, said the source.

The Stuttgart-based maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars is one of a number of auto manufacturers targeted in a technology scandal thats enveloped the industry, since Volkswagen revealed in September, 2015, that it installed software to bypass pollution rules. Hundreds of police officers and prosecutors participated in the searches at Daimler sites throughout Germany as part of a probe opened two months earlier.
Mr Soriot, who has led the Anglo-Swedish company since 2012, met with Tevas search committee and its chairman to express his agreement to serve as its next CEO, the Calcalist financial news website reported.

Both companies said they did not comment on market rumours. Teva was left without a permanent CEO in February after Erez Vigodman stepped down.
German Minister of Transport Alexander Dobrindt has ordered an investigation into diesel vehicles of the carmaker Daimler to find whether it cheated on emissions with software, German media reported Friday.

The Stuttgart-based multinational automotive firm, which is famous for luxury cars such as Mercedes, is another German carmaker targeted by the authorities for allegedly diesel vehicles emission cheating, following its rival Volkswagen.

The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) will seek to determine whether Daimler's diesel vehicles were programmed with illegal software in order to falsify emissions data. Passenger vehicles, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and vans with the motor-types "OM642" and "OM651" are affected.

A Daimler representative told Xinhua that the company cooperated "fully with the authorities" and would not "comment on speculations."

According to German media reports, the illegal software could be installed in more than one million of Daimler's motors. The emissions levels officially measured for the affected vehicles were manipulated with the use of a hidden mechanism which made cars operate more efficiently in test settings than they do in actual street conditions.

The Ministry of Transport confirmed that its diesel investigative commission had invited Daimler representatives to its offices on Thursday afternoon to discuss the allegations.

A search warrant by the Stuttgart district court, seen by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, WDR and NDR accuses Daimler of having sold vehicles which exceeded legal emissions thresholds in Europe and the United States for nearly ten years between 2008 and 2016.

The warrant cited led to police raids on the corporate offices of Daimler, as well as those of other unnamed firms.

Daimler had previously promised Dobrindt to upgrade 247,000 Mercedes vehicles, following emissions measurements by the Federal Motor Transport Authority.

Aside from pursuing charges of "emissions cheating" with illegal software, the German state attorneys also believe that Daimler misled customers with false and hence unlawful advertising regarding their pollution levels.

Two individuals are under official investigation, although authorities expect that the number of Daimler employees involved in alleged wrongdoing was higher.

The search warrant considered the conditions for a Europe-wide revocation of registrations as given, potentially leading to further damage suffered by owners of Daimler cars as a result of the scandal.

Nevertheless, the Federal Motor Transport Authority saw no reason to take such a drastic step for now.

Speaking to Xinhua, Daimler said that it saw "no risk that vehicle approval may be revoked."

The investigations into Daimler mark yet another blow to the reputation of Germany's automotive industry following the global "dieselgate" scandal

Volkswagen AG was the first German carmaker which was revealed to have engaged in "emissions cheating" for its Diesel vehicles in 2015. A U.S. federal judge ruled in April 2017 that Volkswagen must pay 2.8 billion U.S. dollars fine for rigging diesel-powered vehicles to cheat on government emissions tests."

Dobrindt's Transport Ministry is keen to get carmakers to cooperate with authorities in upgrading vehicles already sold.

Daimler and other carmakers have repeatedly rejected claims that they used illicit means to manipulate emissions tests. EU law allows for emissions control mechanisms to be partially de-activated in street conditions if it protects motor function.
Shares in Europes third-largest budget airline (it is behind Ryanair and EasyJet) dropped as much as 11% to their lowest since October, 2014, taking this years losses to 34%. The airline has launched transatlantic flights from Cork to Boston, and from Belfast to Boston and New York. Its strategy of taking on more established flag carriers has risks, such as buying or leasing larger, more expensive planes.

Norwegian Airs operating expenses jumped 45%, driven by a 56% increase in technical maintenance costs. Despite the cost problems, Norwegian said securing financing for new planes, due to be delivered in 2018, would not be a problem. Anyone who believes we cant pay for the aircraft will be disappointed, chief executive, Bjoern Kjos, said.
Responding to a Freedom of Information request from the Irish Examinerto all publicly-funded third levels institutions, CIT was alone in stating it had had no complaints relating to bullying in the three-year period 2013 to 2015, inclusive.

A number of people associated with CIT, afterwards, contacted this newspaper expressing surprise at the response.

CIT has since said its initial FoI response was correct according to how the request was phrased, with particular reference to the term bullying.

Bullying is a distinct matter in of itself, as defined in our relevant policies, the college said. Therefore, cases of harassment, isolated instances of verbal or physical assaults, or other matters falling outside relevant definitions of bullying were not considered for the purposes of the request.

Information subsequently provided by CIT show that regarding complaints received by CIT about bullying, harassment, stress and violence, it received eight complaints between the academic years 2012/13 and 2014/15 and had two complaints dating from the previous two academic years.

In relation to the 10 complaints received over that five-year period, three related to physical assault, two to sexual harassment, four to bullying/harassment, and one to verbal abuse.

Five complaints were made by women and five by men, while staff lodged five of the complaints and students also lodged five complaints. CIT said three complaints had been upheld and two had been rejected.

The college also said informal approaches/processes, or instances when issues presented were deemed to fall outside the scope of the relevant policies at the outset, would have put certain cases outside the realm of the FoI request.

FoI requests to the 21 main publicly funded third-level colleges found that more than 200 cases of bullying or harassment were formally investigated over the three-year period.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has been warned that the departments resources would be seriously strained to provide adequate consular assistance to Irish people travelling abroad, if two overseas incidents happened simultaneously.

In briefing documents prepared for Mr Coveney, officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs also said to expect that more Irish people would be caught up in terrorist attacks, while abroad, in future.

If we are faced with two or more high-priority cases concurrently, and/or a combination of simultaneous major crisis incident(s), the Department would be very seriously challenged to continue to provide the current level of service to our citizens, the minister was told.

Officials advised Mr Coveney that terrorist attacks required sustained follow-up by staff, as well as short-term surge capacity.

Concern about the ability of the Department of Foreign Affairs to respond adequately to two major, simultaneous international incidents involving Irish citizens was voiced, notwithstanding the fact that the department said that all of its 72 embassies and consulates had robust crisis-response plans and key frontline staff trained in crisis management.

Officials said they were experiencing significant increases in the demands for all forms of consular assistance from Irish people abroad, especially in cases involving sudden death, arrest, and imprisonment, child abduction, and mental ill-health.

Last year, embassy and consular staff responded to 3,000 cases of Irish people abroad who experienced some serious difficulty.

Officials said cases were also becoming more complex and were involving issues of dual nationality and international legal questions.

The briefing documents said recent events in London and Manchester had again highlighted the growing risk of Irish citizens getting caught up in terrorist attacks and the importance of consular preparedness. In a sense, our frontline is overseas, with more Irish citizens travelling more frequently in an increasingly unsafe global environment, officials said.

Department of Foreign Affairs staff have already assisted Irish people abroad who got caught up in eight separate terrorist incidents during 2017.

They included three incidents in Britain, and one each in Stockholm, St Petersburg, Paris, Istanbul, and Indonesia.

Officials pointed out that three Irish citizens were killed in a terrorist attack in Tunisia in 2015, while others have been injured in similar incidents in the past two years in London, Brussels, and Paris.

We have to be prepared for the likelihood of more Irish casualties in terror incidents abroad in the short-term, the minister was told.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said that it had taken steps to improve its communication with Irish citizens, and to ensure they were better-informed, via enhanced travel and security advice, including the introduction of an award-winning travel app, TravelWise.
Dayton Literary Peace Prize officials named Toibin, whose work has drawn from his native Ireland, his life as a gay man, and his travels as an international journalist, for the Richard C Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award.

It is named after the late US diplomat, who brokered the 1995 Bosnia peace accords, in Ohio.

Among Toibins novels are The Master, depicting the life of the famed writer, Henry James; Brooklyn, a coming-of-age story about an Irish immigrant which was later made into an Oscar-nominated film; and the recent House Of Names, his reimagining of a Greek tragedy.

Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation co-chair, Sharon Rab, said Toibins writings remind us of shared humanity and the possibility of reconciliation or simply of understanding, which are the first steps to making peace.

Our (writers) aim is to reach the readers imagination, have an effect on the nervous systems of other people, Toibin, 62, said in a statement in response to winning the award.

Good sentences offer us a way to imagine life in all its strangeness and ambiguity and possibility, alert us to the power of the imagination to transform and transcend our nature, offer us a blueprint not only for who we are but for who we might be, who we might become.

Previous winners include Studs Terkel, Taylor Branch, Gloria Steinem, and Elie Wiesel.

The award has a $10,000 (8,700) cash prize.

Finalists for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in fiction and non-fiction will be announced on September 13.
Its now Leos turn, with the newly elected Taoiseach adorning the cover of Time magazine after the publication sat down to speak with him about his sudden rise to power.

Beside a glowing headline An Island At The Centre Of The World, an equally glowing Mr Varadkar was pictured.

Serious issues were of course addressed. But, as ever, through no fault of Mr Varadkar, the main focus was on personality not policy  with Time the latest to point to the appointment of such a diverse politician as a sign Ireland is now about equality and embracing the outside world.

When Varadkar ascended to his countrys highest office, he became the youngest prime minister in Irelands history, and by far its least typical.

Born to an Indian father and an Irish mother, Varadkar represents a break from the parade of aging white men who predated him. His premiership also reflects a sea-change in social attitudes, Time reported.

During the lengthy interview, Mr Varadkar did discuss the necessary policy issues that define politics, saying Ireland will not leave the EU, defending the countrys corporate tax rate, revealing Donald Trump tried to influence him over Doonbeg while transport minister, and insisting Irelands recovery is continuing.

Not for the first time in the past month, Mr Varadkar has been described as a new leader for a new era.

But, as Enda Kenny will no doubt testify, if you dont use your time wisely, it will eventually run out on you as you become just another blurry image from the past.
The publication timeline was officially confirmed last night after the Dails public accounts committee held its third private meeting this week to finalise the potentially explosive document on the garda crisis.

The report is based on months of PAC meetings with Ms OSullivan, garda whistleblower John Barrett, civilian head of internal audit Niall Kelly, and a series of officers directly linked to the garda college.

And while the final report is being kept under tight control  with PAC members understood to have been told to hand over any hard copies that were provided at the start of private meetings once they concluded to prevent leaks  a number of conclusions are known to have been made.

The report will be highly critical of Ms OSullivans failure to inform State financial watchdog the Comptroller and Auditor General of the seriousness of the concerns, and to have needlessly delayed in providing the C&AG with information.

The report will also question the official version of when Ms OSullivan was first informed of what was taking place.

In addition, the report is expected to make a series of recommendations over the handling of garda college accounts and the need for greater transparency on how public money is spent.

The signing off on the final version of the PAC report comes as the Central Bank is due to send a letter to the committee confirming if it will launch an investigation into the St Raphaels garda credit union and a private AIB bank account in Cabra, Dublin City.

It also comes as garda civilian head of internal audit Niall Kelly said he has opened a new audit into where garda college money was invested.
The fearless reporter is among a number of high profile media figures who are leaving the independent broadcaster.

Ms Halligan was recently awarded a national order of merit by France, where she was praised for being a woman of conviction.

The native of Templeogue, Dublin, entered journalism in the 1990s, firstly with the Sunday Tribune and then with Magill magazine.

More recently, the television journalist was praised for her courage in coming out as gay during the same-sex marriage referendum campaign, where she talked about hiding this part of her identity for years.

The head of 3News Mick McCaffrey announced Ms Halligans departure yesterday and highlighted her honest and formidable reporting for the station.

Ursula has made a valuable contribution to TV3 over the past 18 years and was always an independent voice in politics, going beyond the spin and hype to give our viewers the real story of what was happening at Leinster House.

Mr McCaffrey said the stations political editor commanded admiration among peers and politicians.

She was respected across all political parties for her insights and independence. We would like to thank Ursula for her dedicated service and wish her the very best for the future.

Ms Halligan also presented her own show, The Political Party, for five years.

She will leave TV3 at the end of August, having worked at the station for almost 19 years.

The announcement of her departure comes just after Vincent Browne announced he is stepping down as presenter of the Tonight programme from the end of July.

Ms Halligan famously once asked former taoiseach Brian Cowen if he was aware that the internet was alive with the belief that he had been drunk or hungover in an RTE radio interview.

She was also involved in an incident which became known as flowerpot gate where advisers to Enda Kenny collided with her as reporters attempted to quiz the then-taoiseach about same-sex marriage.

Ms Halligan disclosed in a broadcast in 2009 how then-finance minster Brian Lenihan had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
It was impossible to quantify exactly how much Tara Egan had stolen from Doyles Topshop Petrol Station on Muckross Rd in the period 2011 to 2014, Tralee Circuit Criminal Court was told yesterday.

She may only have won 800 for her trouble.

Sample charges had been brought after a painstaking Garda investigation outlined by Killarney-based Detective Garda Bill Stack.

Ms Egan, aged 28, of Arbutus Grove, Killarney, pleaded guilty to 17 sample counts of theft in that she stole National Lottery Lotto 5-4-3-2-1 tickets, the property of Billy Doyle, at Doyles Topshop, Muckross Rd, Killarney, between August 20, 2011 and August 2014.

It was impossible to quantify how often Ms Egan had played the Lotto on the shops machine, and it was also impossible to quantify how much she had won, Det Garda Stack said.

The sales value of the used tickets found by her former partner in clearing out her bedroom amounted to 19,492  and only 800 of winnings could be determined.

The owner, Billy Doyle, said he had to close his shop.

He was suffering health problems and the matter was further complicated in that Ms Egan had for quite a time been in a serious relationship with Peter Doyle, the owners son, the Circuit Criminal Court was told yesterday.

Only when that relationship broke up, and Peter Doyle was cleaning out the couples house, were the piles of used Lotto tickets with a value of just under 20,000 discovered and the theft uncovered.

Ms Egan began her employment in 2007 and worked in the shop for eight years.

A relationship developed between herself and Peter Doyle.

In 2014 difficulties arose and she was on sick leave. She ceased employment there in September 2014.

In the course of vacating their accommodation, Peter Doyle discovered a considerable amount of used lotto tickets spanning the period 2011 to 2014, said Judge Thomas E ODonnell.

She had been taking the tickets and not paying for them and attempts to quantify the exact amount had not been possible, but the conservative estimate was in excess of 19,000.

Billy Doyle had told the court in a victim impact statement that he had to close his shop in 2015 and his health was affected, the more so as Tara Egan was a trusted employee and was considered one of the family.

Ms Egan, now a mother of three, was unemployed, as was her husband, and there was no realistic prospect of compensation being paid, the judge said.

Barrister for Ms Egan, Katie OConnell said her client was deeply remorseful and that her gambling addiction issue had been addressed. She had accepted her responsibility and apologised to Mr Doyle.

A probation report by probation officer Nora Brassil found Ms Egan carried a low risk of re-offending.

The appropriate tariff was two years and five months, Judge ODonnell said.

He was prepared to suspend the sentence for a period of two years and five months.
The number of homeless children has risen by some 300% over the last six years, since Fine Gael entered Government, the Dail heard.

Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald was warned that families living in special hubs were facing long-term institutionalisation.

Inspections of accommodation were also urged.

The Government has said it will review its current building programme as levels of home-building are still low. During Leaders Questions, Sinn Feins Eoin O Broin highlighted concerns about 3,000 children now living in emergency accommodation.

Child homelessness, as I have said many times before on the floor of this house, has increased by a shocking 300% in the six years that Fine Gael has been in Government, he said.

He added that the level of time families were being left in emergency units was shocking. Some 70% of homeless families have been in emergency accommodation for more than six months, with 40% in hostels and hotels for more than a year, and there are currently at least 200 families in emergency accommodation for between 18 and 24 months.

Reports from the Human Rights and Equality Commission and Maynooth University this week highlighted problems with emergency accommodation for families.

They warned of the dangers of long-term institutionalisation and called for independent inspections of accommodation, particularly those housing children, as well as a three-month legal limit to the length of time a family would stay in such units.

Campaigners also recommended clear rehousing targets to give families homes, and a sunset clause where all special hubs would be closed by 2019.

Ms Fitzgerald agreed that special hubs were not the way to house families. The Government would examine the two reports, she said, but the ultimate solution was to build more homes.

Elsewhere, Labour leader Brendan Howlin said an audit of the Catholic Institute for Deaf People, highlighted in the Irish Examiner, identified pay levels in excess of HSE levels, multiple credit cards in use, and high levels of expenditure on meals, bottles of whiskey, and jewellery.

He asked what the Government response was and whether it was time for all publicly-funded bodies to be subject to State controls.
While more than a dozen are understood to have been subject of an initial complaint, the number being investigated is thought to be significantly less after initial consideration of the matter.

More than 130 students completed the final year of the four-year programme, but those being investigated have had their results withheld pending the outcome of investigations.

UCC confirmed a process is ongoing with a small number of students about possible breach of the universitys exam procedures.

The university takes the integrity of the examining process very seriously and has policies and procedures to protect the quality of the process, said a spokeswoman. Where a potential breach of examining conduct arises, as in this case, this is investigated fully in line with university policy.

However, it is unclear what stage the process is at or when the cases might be finalised, and UCC provided no further comment due to the ongoing probe.

The alleged breaches are understood to relate to a project in which students have to design and develop a software system to address a specific need of a business or organisation. They must use code they have written themselves to build a system prototype and develop the final software system.

Students must formally authenticate it as their own and any externally-developed components which they may integrate into the project must be identified in all documentation and presentations of the final system.

The process allows for examiners who suspect plagiarism or uncredited use of someone elses work in assessments or student projects to first consult with the head of the relevant university department or school.

After allowing a student opportunity to explain, the department head can impose a penalty, up to the awarding of a zero mark for the assignment, or refer the case to the student records and examinations officer.

A report to the student records and examinations officer can result in a penalty within the range of discretion of the department head being applied if it is found that there is no case to answer.

However, if it is considered that there is a more serious case to answer, the allegation is reported to the senior vice-president academic and registrar to determine the penalty.
A cast of stars did battle with the elements as well as each other in Pilgrimage, Brendan Muldowneys gritty new drama set in a lawless 13th century Ireland.

The film follows a small group of monks on a pilgrimage, escorting their monasterys holiest relic to Rome, in an Ireland torn apart by tribal warfare and violent Norman invaders.

The low-budget feature drew a big-name cast, including the new Spider-Man, Tom Holland, and Richard Armitage (The Hobbit, Captain America). Our dramatic landscape is still ingrained in Armitages mind.

We were largely out in Connemara in western Ireland. To me it felt Nordic in a way, says Armitage.

I was always fascinated by the fact that on the map it (a location) was two miles away, and then we would spend hours winding our way around these bays, waterways, to get to where we needed to go to. It was uninterrupted landscape, no kind of infrastructure anywhere, and I think one of the locations, we had to get across there on a little boat because the tide had come in.

I love shooting like that, because you can do a 360 with the camera and really not see anything for miles. The sky, the weather was extraordinary, we were shooting that day when we did a big fight on the beach. We could see a storm in the distance, it was probably about an hour and a half away. True to time it came across, pelted us with hailstones and rain and then just disappeared, but it was really amazing to feel so exposed to the elements, it really took you to that time and place.

Armitage gives good bad guy as a cold, French-speaking, sword-wielding Norman knight who causes havoc as the monks attempt to progress.

Although the film is fictional, the history of the time appealed to him when taking on the project, he said.

I was really interested first of all in playing a character where I would be speaking a different language. I was interested in that world. Ive always been a bit of a historian when it comes to that period of history - the Norman Conquests, Richard the Lionheart always fascinated me, the fact that he was an English king that never spoke a word of English and probably never set foot in England, by all accounts.

Also the juxtaposition of a group of very peace-loving monks, devout Christians, and a war-mongering family who were basically in occupation in Ireland at that time.

Filming in such a remote setting gave him an opportunity to drop out of the world and immerse himself in the film. There was very little cellphone reception so it was nice to disconnect from what Im used to. The only thing I really took with me was my music - I tend to listen to music to focus myself as Im driving in my car in the morning.

A lot of the time, the peace and quiet of the place, and the rain and the wind, is just taking your mind away from a very modern, busy head.

Armitage has always marched to his own beat in terms of career choices, blending high-profile projects such as The Hobbit movies with low-budget roles such as this, and theatre - he was nominated for the Laurence Oliver Award for his performance in the 2015 production of The Crucible.

Im never, ever driven by money, I never have been, so I never know what Im going to be paid until the very last minute, he smiled.

I guess I always hunt for something new and exciting and a challenge I havent tried before. Sometimes thats hard to find. I lot of the time youre sort of asked to repeat things that have been successful, but I have to find a new element to it that stimulates me.

A case in point is his next two movies. This autumn hell start work on My Zoe, an independent project written and directed by French actress Julie Delpy.

Next year well see him opposite Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett in Oceans Eight, a female take on the hit heist series. It was a whole lot of fun to make, he said. There was one night when we were doing a night shoot at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art and we were sitting in a holding room and there was Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna, sitting around eating snacks and singing songs. You pinch yourself and think: this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Pilgrimage opens in cinemas today
IN ONE of the many fascinating episodes in his book In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimers, neuroscientist Dr Joseph Jebelli travels to Iceland to visit neurologist Dr Kari Stefansson, who is carrying out groundbreaking research in the field.

Stefansson, who has taken on the task of mining the genome of the entire

Icelandic population, teases Jebelli: We havent the faintest idea how the brain generates memory youre going to write a book about a disease that assaults this function, but you cannot even define it. What the hell are you doing?

When I ask Jebelli why the way memory works is still such a mystery, he answers with the polite weariness of someone who has ruminated on this question many times, and acknowledges the Sisyphean nature of his task.

Understanding how memory works is the holy grail of neuroscience essentially. It is just very difficult to pin down where memory is  the brain is a mass of 100bn cells all firing electrical impulses to each other. To try and pin down how memory works within that, where it resides, is a very difficult task. That was a frustrating aspect of writing this book for me because

essentially Alzheimers is a disease that robs someone

of their memory. We are learning a lot about how memory works just by studying Alzheimers.

While Jebelli was interested in neuroscience from a young age, it was his familys experience that triggered his interest in exploring Alzheimers. His grandfather Abbas was a charming and sociable man who lived in Iran but visited Jebellis family in Britain regularly.

I have very fond memories of him. He was always very engaging, chatty, full of life. Then, when I was around 12 years old, he started to become a different person. He would leave the dinner table, wander off and get lost. My dad would have to go out and find him. He seemed very confused and agitated.

"To begin with, he didnt recognise me and my sister. Then the visits from Iran became less frequent until he was given a diagnosis. Seeing my granddad decline in that way, going from this larger-than-life character to a shell of his former self was a catalyst for me choosing to specialise in Alzheimers.

Many neuroscientists believe Alzheimers is simply a form of accelerated ageing but Jebelli says the boundaries are very blurred.

We still dont understand where the cut-off point is and how we can define it. Even if it is an accelerated form of ageing, it should still be considered a disease. Age is the strongest risk factor for cancer, for instance, but we wouldnt dream of saying cancer isnt a disease.

A lot of the processes that are common to normal ageing build up in the brain and we essentially think there is some sort of threshold moment that triggers those processes to then lead to a catastrophic death of brain cells. At the same time, there are lots of people who have the hallmarks of Alzheimers in their brain that remain cognitively

intact throughout their lives. Something has protected them, stopped the horse bolting, and we still dont know what that is.

Genetics probably plays a heavy role. Mapping out what projects the brain at a genetic level will be just as important as figuring out what the risk factors are.

The most recent HSE

figures show 55,000 people in Ireland are living with

dementia and each year, more than 4,000 develop it. Internationally, it is believed almost 50m people

are living with the

disease. More and more cases of Alzheimers are being diagnosed  which can be put down to the fact that we are living longer. However, Jebelli says there is cause for optimism in terms of projections for incidence of the disease.

The incidenc is not

increasing at the rate we once thought it was. Ten years ago, projections were worse than they are now. Most scientists put that down to having a healthier lifestyle.

We are well used to

reading about how eating oily fish can prevent Alzheimers or the citing of environmental risk factors such as exposure to aluminium. How much faith can we place in lifestyle and nutrition as a way to prevent the disease? Jebelli says we cannot make overarching

assumptions based on single cases, especially when one considers how his grandfather did everything right in this respect.

My granddad was very similar to the people I interviewed for the book in that he had a remarkably healthy life. He used to go trekking every day, he had a very good diet, he didnt smoke, he barely drank. He was a very intelligent man and was very mentally engaged. There was nothing in his lifestyle that you could point to as

precipitating the mental decline. Even though there is evidence linking lifestyle to alzheimers, it works in the millions as opposed to the individual.

The number of research projects into Alzheimers around the world is so

extensive now that Jebelli believes the eradication of the disease is not that far off in relative terms.

There is a lot of research going on into Alzheimers now, compared to only a few decades ago, when it was considered career suicide if you went into that field. In terms of research, the wider the net we can cast, the better. Science doesnt just work in a linear fashion, you are more likely to have a breakthrough if you have lots of different projects going on.

We are still waiting for that eureka moment in Alzheimers  and it is much more likely to come with more and more research. The goal at the moment is to push the disease back because we now know there are signs of the disease that start to accrue in the brain, years or even decades before you see symptoms.

It is often difficult to get an early diagnosis of

Alzheimers as many of symptoms are common to the normal ageing process. When should people or their families start to be concerned?

One of the main symptoms is getting lost. A recent study at the University of Edinburgh published some very interesting results about how loss of navigation is one of the earlier signs  it may even occur before memory problems arise. It is really difficult because we all forget things as we get older and that is perfectly normal.

A good way to think about it is when you get to a level of forgetfulness that starts to interfere with your day-to-day life, when it transforms into an almost malignant confusion. For example, if you are looking for your keys and glasses, then you find them but you start to think what are these for?. That is when it is something more sinister and when you should start thinking about going to see your GP.

Jebelli is optimistic about what lies ahead. He says the web of treatment is widening while the traditionally difficult process of diagnosis is also improving.

All of these early telltale signs that scientists can spot in the blood, spinal fluid and even the eye, that is getting a lot more advanced now. In terms of biomarkers the future will be a good, quick, effective blood test that will be able to tell you with a high degree of accuracy whether you will go on to develop Alzheimers  or at the very least, whether you are at high risk of developing Alzheimers. You can then take some drugs at a certain point in your life that then changes the disease course.

In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimers by Joseph Jebelli, published by John Murray, is out now.
UNLIKE celebrities, lonely farmers and townies dont often get questioned about their romantic lives by microphone-thrusting reporters. But that doesnt mean the media doesnt want to hear from them.

The BBC is planning a new show, Love in the Countryside, on which city and country folk will pair up.

Actor Orlando Bloom has said he wants to get married again. Fellow actor, Charlotte Rampling, told the Daily Mail that shes an animal that needs a mate.

Yet, Bloom, Rampling, and the Love in the Countryside participants will have little in common, other than a willingness to publicly voice their quest for a partner.

Actress Charlotte Rampling

Whether or not verbalising the wish for a romance increases its likelihood of happening is something singer Sinead OConnor knows more than most.

Five-and-a-half years ago, she wed a man she reportedly met online four months previously. A couple of months before she married, she went on the Late Late Show and spoke about her search for a man. Perhaps that public voicing of her wish to marry propelled her to Las Vegas.

We all have a primal longing to connect, but we dont always voice it or admit it to the world, say Cork-based relationship experts, Tom Evans and Alison Winfield.

From his Midleton base, Evans opines that publicly stating that you want to marry is a positive thing: We all keep a lot of stuff going around in our heads. So, to outwardly express what was previously held within is to make a strong statement of open-heartedness and readiness for change.

Often, we dont fully connect with whats in our heads until we say it aloud. The saying makes it more likely to resonate in the heart, and when that happens the wish is more likely to be fulfilled.

Evans mulls, too, but says: I often process things for lengthy periods, but Im aware that to really shift stuff, we need to hear ourselves say it. He says the desire for a mate ranges from the primal to the lofty, as in a yearning for connectedness: Either way, its important. Were designed to connect and we dont function well when isolated. Worse, we tend towards dysfunction when aloneness becomes the norm.

Relationship expert, Tom Evans

For Alison Winfield, who runs Mindfully Well, a counselling service in Douglas, the question as to whether we should tell others about our goals depends on how serious we are about them.

Our brains absolutely thrive on clear goals. But the telling of them brings a degree of accountability that can give us the extra little push we need, she says.

With a client-base comprising Irish, Americans, Europeans and Asians, Ennistymon, Co Clare-based matchmaker, Willie Daly, is the go to man for many a marriage-seeker.

There was a time when 90%of his clients were farmers, but thats changing, as increasing numbers of professionals seek his help in finding a match.

Theyre financially secure business people, leading busy lives. Many didnt make time for romance, put it on the back-shelf, then get to thinking theyve left it too late, he says.

For them, Daly has words of hope: Its never too late to search for love. Right now, Ive a couple of people in their late 80s whore seeking a match, he says.

As for whether we Irish find it difficult to say aloud to others that we want to get married, Daly says were getting better at it.

In the past, and this is slightly regrettable, it would usually be the people who most wanted a husband or wife who would be the shyest and the last people to say the words: I want to marry you. But not everyone is so vocal: Sadly, a lot spend most of their lives being a bit too shy to tell partners, and even wives, that they love them.

Really lovely, genuine people often go through their lives without saying those words out loud to anyone, and this is unfortunate, as theyre wonderful words to hear, Daly says.

But the spoken word, while important, is not vital, says Daly: Many tender, gentle people show love rather than voice it. Women intuitively pick up on that. Theyre fast to recognise the softness, sweetness, respect, and tenderness for the love that drives it.

Matchmaker Willie Daly, with his book of contacts, at home near Ennistymon, Co Clare. Picture: Eamon Ward

Daly says that at the Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival, which runs through the month of September and the first week in October, many an Irishman will walk up to a girl they do not know and ask: Will you marry me?

Usually, thats said as a joke, in jest, and theres nothing wrong with that. Of course, they never expect anyone to reply with a Yes.

But women have said yes to the men who jokingly proposed to them at Lisdoonvarna, leaving the men, who never expected an affirmative reply, spellbound in response.

Do these festival-going men make good and follow through, by marrying the strangers who spontaneously agree to marry them? Are Lisdoon love-seekers really that zany?

Daly ponders those questions awhile and, as he does, I visualise the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival scene, complete with fast-fingered fiddlers playing wild, Irish tunes, as shy, cap-wearing farmers clutch chilled pints of larger or beer  one in each hand to steady the nerves  and battle shyness to talk with the marriage-minded revellers they encounter.

Love at first sight is a wonderful thing, as is an instant attraction, says Daly, pensively, having pondered the topics enough. These are things that sometimes happen.

I know Willie. But what of the farmers who jokingly approach pretty strangers at matchmaking festivals with a cheeky-sounding Will you marry me? What do they do when, wildly unexpectedly and dare I suggest eerily, the ladies reply Yes and actually mean it? Well, that only happens every now and again and, when it does, the biggest percentage of the men become a little shy and bashful in response.

But what do they do? What do they say? Most dont really know how theyre supposed to react to the women. So, they do what you imagine they might do. He pauses again and, eyes twinkling, replies: They run away and hide.
Its a bird! Its a plane! No, its Supra-politician. But, unlike a cartoon hero, when supra-politician arrives in power, he or she probably wont save the day.

The emergence of such leaders is a relatively new phenomenon, one that is reshaping politics across the West. Today, two largely dissimilar presidents, Emmanuel Macron in France and Donald Trump in the United States, are its leading avatars.

Until a few decades ago, democratic leaders had to climb the electoral ladder, rung by rung, acquiring along the way a facility for retail politics, stump speaking, and the demands of assembling a working majority.

In the US, that meant that virtually all presidents had either served in Congress or as state governors, with the only modern exception being Dwight Eisenhower, whose background as an army general stood in for political experience.

In Europe, French politicians moved up the parliamentary ladder in the Fourth Republic, and could aspire to climb to the presidency in the Fifth.

German leaders since World War II have risen through state and federal political structures. In Italy, postwar leaders have had to navigate the byzantine political maze created by the now-defunct Christian Democrats. Even in Russia, leaders have risen through the ranks of party or state hierarchies.

Of course, political parties always had their talent scouts on the lookout for individuals with exceptional leadership potential.

But even a figure like British prime minister John Major, who was fast-tracked to the top, served as a junior social services minister, foreign secretary, and chancellor of the exchequer before taking over the premiership.

Things began to change with Tony Blairs government. Blair had served in parliament, and performed smoothly as the Labour Partys home affairs spokesman.

But, after the unexpected death of his mentor, the skillful machine politician and Labour Party leader John Smith, he was catapulted to the top, as though by divine right. More recently, David Cameron served just one term in Parliament before being chosen as leader of the Conservative Party.

In the US, Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama, was another such fast-tracked politician. In 2004, the relatively unknown Illinois state senator delivered a spellbinding speech at the Democratic National Convention. Four years later, he was in the White House.

With Trump, the rocket to the top fired on all boosters. In just over a year, Trump went from reality-television host and showboating property magnate to leader of the worlds most powerful country, leaving the Republican Party establishment with whiplash.

The closest precedent for Trump may be Italys former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who was a well-known media mogul before deciding to take advantage of the disintegration of Italys postwar party system in the early 1990s to create his own political movement.

Another Italian supra-politician, Matteo Renzi, also enjoyed a meteoric political rise, becoming prime minister without ever serving as an MP, holding national office, or building a political coalition.

Finally, there is Macron, a former banker and (briefly) economy minister, who had never entered the slog of democratic politics before the recent election.

Without backing from an established party  like Berlusconi, Macron created his own movement  he surged from relative unknown to President of the Republic in a matter of months.

Clearly, supra-politicians do not subscribe to a particular ideology or cultivate a particular appearance. And there are specific factors that fueled each individuals rise.

Cameron was supported by financial interests determined to resurrect the Conservative Party. Trumps business background and outsider status helped him to appeal to the newly dispossessed.

But these leaders do have some features in common, beginning with their use of modern media. Prior to the 20th century, leaders were remote figures who rarely made direct contact with the masses.

Then came the age of the orator, when figures like David Lloyd George and Ramsay MacDonald spoke directly to large crowds. Leaders from Adolf Hitler to Winston Churchill did the same, with the aid of the microphone.

The advent of television called for a more personal and understated presentation  brilliantly grasped by John F Kennedy  and was more conducive than ever to the rapid takeover of public discourse and consciousness.

Blair and Cameron may not have been good orators, but they knew how to present themselves on TV.

Obama expertly blended oratory with a relaxed, TV-optimal persona.

What Trump lacks in rhetorical skill, he makes up for with his ability to manipulate an audience, with Twitter as his favourite tool for connecting to the masses. Renzi and Macron are masters of the sound bite.

Of course, getting the right TV coverage takes some effort. Trump courted Rupert Murdoch, just like Blair and, to a lesser extent, Cameron had.

Macron assiduously cultivated French media interests. Berlusconis own companies dominated the Italian airwaves.

But there is another, more troubling commonality among supra-politicians: they tend to crash-land, owing largely to their lack of political skill.

Blair couldnt reconcile his neo-conservative principles with those of his own party  a situation that came to a head with his disastrous support for the US-led war in Iraq.

Camerons desperation to win votes spurred him to call a referendum on Britains European Union membership, the result of which forced him to resign.

Renzis leadership, too, was brought down in similar fashion: by tying his political fate to a referendum on much-needed constitutional reforms, he turned the vote into an assessment of his government.

Trumps cluelessness has been on display since day one, undermining the confidence of US allies and impeding the Republicans ability to enact their agenda.

The question now is whether Macron  who went on to secure an unassailable majority in the French National Assembly  can break the mould, or whether he will provide further proof that media savvy is no substitute for experience in the political trenches.

Robert Harvey, a former member of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, is the author of Global Disorder and A Few Bloody Noses: The Realities and Mythologies of the American Revolution.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2017.
There has been an upbeat mood at this weeks European Union-Ukraine summit.

Reforms and international support are beginning to bear fruit for Ukraines economy. An EU free-trade agreement is in place.

And Ukrainians can now travel to the EU on just a biometric passport  a prospect most thought unrealistic just a few years ago, when more than 140 preconditions for visa-free travel still had to be met.

Ukraines recent successes mirror a more optimistic mood in the EU. Yet, despite its achievements, Ukraine is not out of the woods, and its reform process is far from over.

The EU must not allow a sense of complacency to set in now that we are making progress. And the best way to guard against that is to establish an EU-Ukraine customs union.

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko is personally committed to the countrys modernisation and fighting corruption. But European leaders need to recognise that he faces an uphill battle to implement major reforms, with populist forces in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) turning up the heat on the government in anticipation of elections less than two years away.

In Kiev, the EU will stress the need to continue reforms and implement the EUs technical standards. But if we want to keep Ukraine moving forward, we cannot just engage in mutual celebration of the road already travelled.

Europes most powerful lever in promoting stable, viable, and successful democracies has always been its use of conditionality, linking reforms to clear and tangible benefits. We must continue to place new milestones along the road to show that we are committed to Ukraines success and serious about rewarding reforms.

The prospect of a customs union is the strongest incentive to implement the agreed free-trade deal and continue Ukraines long-term economic integration with Europe.

This is not a short-term project; it will take over a decade before Ukraine is ready. However, once fulfilled, Ukrainian businesses would be able to join European manufacturing supply chains, and the government would be able to pursue a much-needed diversified industrial strategy to capitalise on its geographical proximity to the worlds biggest market.

Rather than being an addendum to Europes economy, Ukraine would become intertwined with it.

Why does this matter? For the EU, there are significant opportunities for trade and commerce in an economy of 46m people. Since Turkey forged a customs union with the EU in 1996, bilateral trade in goods has increased more than fourfold.

Moreover, Ukraine, which had previously straddled the EU-Russia divide, has chosen a clear European future. What kind of signal would we send to other states in our neighbourhood, or to Russian president Vladimir Putin for that matter, if we turned Ukraine away?

I do not view an EU-Ukraine customs union through rose-tinted glasses; there are some downsides. (The arguments for and against it are being rehearsed daily in the UKs Brexit debate.)

Joining the customs union would limit Ukraines ability to negotiate its own trade agreements. Even if the EU is by far Ukraines largest trade partner, more than half of its trade is with the rest of the world. Ukraine would not be able to negotiate with the Eurasian Customs Union, which will become Brussels responsibility.

Protectionist tendencies are already apparent in certain Eastern European states, where governments are  perhaps unsurprisingly  concerned about the potential impact of trade liberalisation on agriculture.

Even so, Ukraines trade and investment patterns are increasingly converging with the EU. On balance, the economic case is strong, and the political case is compelling, with potential gains far outweighing any pitfalls.

The EU and Ukraine have much to celebrate this week; both have turned an important corner. But a celebration alone would be a missed opportunity.

The EU needs to consider the next steps forward for Ukraine, to keep it on the path of reform and toward a better future. And the EU needs to show that it remains a transformative force in its own neighbourhood.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Nato secretary general and former prime minister of Denmark, is a foreign policy adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and chairman of Rasmussen Global, a consultancy.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2017.
WHOD be a whistleblower? Even a cursory look at Sgt Maurice McCabes life since he alleged wrongdoing with regard to driving penalty points in 2008 would convince most of us that its not worth it. For almost a decade hes been shunned in his workplace, pilloried in the Dail, labelled disgusting by a former Garda commissioner, falsely accused of sex abuse, had his character blackened, his personal reputation trampled upon and his privacy destroyed. Hell hath no fury like a system scorned.

A minister for justice and a Garda commissioner have lost their jobs as a result of the ensuing controversy, but McCabe is the biggest loser here. No matter what the outcome of the various commissions of inquiry that have stemmed from his initial complaint, his life has utterly change.

For despite all our lip service to the conscientious objector, despite all the supposed legal protections and social safeguards put in place  in Irelands case the Protected Disclosures Act 2014  most whistleblowers, in the end, become scapegoats. Even the famous ones pay a high personal price for their activities. Look at Edward Snowden, exiled in Moscow; Chelsea Manning, who served six years in jail; Julian Assange who is holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Hardly a glorious resolution for any of them.

Theyre the ones we know about. There are others whose names have all but disappeared from the record. Take Fr Bruno Mulvihill. Who, you say? Hardly a household name, though he should be. Fr Mulvihill played a major part in the conviction of the notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth in the 1990s. His testimony exposed not just evidence of Smyths heinous crimes but a record of persistent and wilful denial by the institutional church which facilitated Smyth to abuse repeatedly in the full knowledge of his sexual proclivities. (It is estimated that Smyth sexually assaulted 117 children in Ireland  and countless victims elsewhere  between 1945 and 1989.) Fr Mulvihill was a whistleblower before it was popular or profitable, if it ever is. In 1964 when he was a 19-year-old novice at the Norbertine Abbey in Kilnacrott, Co Cavan, he heard what he described as peculiar noises from the sacristy where Smyth was closeted with two altar servers. When he reported his suspicions to the abbot, he was told he was imagining things.

There are no photos of Fr Bruno (although the demonic images of Smyth persist in the popular imagination) and what is known of him is slight. He attended Garbally College, a seminary boarding school in Ballinasloe, where he was remembered as studious, artistic (he was an accomplished pianist) and otherworldy. If Enda [his name before he entered the priesthood] ever broke the rules it was to read material of an abstruse theological or scholarly nature without first seeking approval, a classmate recalls. His decision to go for the priesthood didnt surprise anyone.

But what turned him into a whistleblower, a role that eventually forced him out of his beloved Church because his life had been made so intolerable within it? What made him so dogged and fearless when his experience of life had been, seemingly, so narrow  a rural home, a Catholic boarding school, followed by a year in a novitiate? Perhaps it was this very lack of worldliness, coupled with his youthfulness and idealism?

C Fred Alford, professor of government at the University of Maryland, author of a study into the personal impact of whistleblowing, Broken Lives and Organisational Power, cites several reasons to explain why whistleblowers do what they do. They have an imagination of the consequences, a sense of the historical moment, identification with the victim, an inability to hold double standards on moral conflict and a sense of shame. He adds another ethical category to account for whistleblowers actions  a higher form of narcissism. Whistleblowers blow the whistle because they dread living with a corrupted self more than they dread isolation from others.

Whatever motivated Fr Bruno Mulvihill, his life was twinned with Brendan Smyths from the day he first reported what he heard. For 20 years, he pursued the paedophile priest, reporting his suspicions to abbots, bishops and the Vatican, in writing and in person. But to no avail. Until 1995, when he returned to Ireland from Germany to make a formal statement to gardai about his knowledge of Smyths crimes.

Smyth was arrested in 1991 by the RUC but after being released on bail went on the run for three years, staying for much of that time at Norbertine Abbey in Kilnacrott . An RUC extradition request remained unprocessed in the attorney generals office for seven months, triggering a political crisis that led to the 1994 collapse of the Fianna Fail/Labour coalition, led by Albert Reynolds. (Later that year, Smyth was sentenced to 12 years for the sexual assault of 20 victims. A month later he died of a heart attack in the Curragh prison.) Meanwhile Fr Mulvihill left the priesthood in frustration, and died aged 59 in a car crash in Germany in 2004.

Which brings us back to the question  whod be a whistleblower?

Only the brave and the very resilient, according to Prof Alford. In his research for Broken Lives and Organisational Power he examined how more than 30 whistleblowers had fared after they had made their claims. Most had lost their jobs and would never work in the same field again, as court cases and tribunals dragged on. The majority suffered from depression, and alcoholism was common. For all of them it was a traumatic experience. The instinct to destroy the truth-teller is endemic in human behaviour.

We may well admire the whistleblower in the abstract but the organisations we, and they, belong to, are more primitive in their reactions. Perhaps its the fear of the informer, the snitch in our midst? The corporate and institutional instinct is to close ranks and turn on the person who dares to stand up and be counted. Up against a powerful system, the whistleblower is dismissed as a fanatic, unstable, unsavoury, sexually suspect, or someone whos acting out of personal grievance or for gain. A binary narrative is often imposed on those who rock the boat; theyre either nuts or sluts.

The earliest of the modern-day whistleblowers, helicopter pilot Ron Ridenhour, the Vietnam veteran who in 1969 first disclosed the massacre at My Lai of dozens of Vietnamese civilians by US troops, was initially dismissed as a fortune hunter with a vested interest. Ridenhour said later his motives were more closely scrutinised than those whom he was accusing. The question most often put to me was not why they had done it, but why I had done it.

Being a whistleblower has eaten up a decade of Maurice McCabes life. Not because of anything he did, but because of the ferocity of the official response to his challenging of the administration of power. His motives were idealistic but in the topsy-turvy world of institutional revenge, hes the one whos been characterised as corrupt.

Our laws may enshrine protection for whistleblowers, but the experience of the Maurice McCabes and the Bruno Mulvihills of this world tell us otherwise.

Mary Morrissy is associate director of creative writing at UCC. Her latest book is Prosperity Drive, a novel in stories.
(CGTN photo)

China's cyber regulator has dismissed rumors of an impending VPN ban in the country as false.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released a statement asserting that it will not block legitimate access to the global Internet by companies and individual users.

The announcement was in response to widely circulated reports that Chinese authorities had ordered three state-run telecommunications firms to forbid individuals from using virtual private networks by February 1st of next year.

The ministry refers to the new rules issued in January of this year aimed at preventing domestic telecom companies from setting up special lines without prior government approval. The ministry also noted that it is still reviewing the regulations.
The internet of things (IoT) is a catch-all term for the growing number of electronics that aren't traditional computing devices, but are connected to the internet to send data, receive instructions or both.

There's an incredibly broad range of things that fall under the IoT umbrella: Internet-connected smart versions of traditional appliances such as refrigerators and light bulbs; gadgets that could only exist in an internet-enabled world such as Alexa-style digital assistants; and internet-enabled sensors that are transforming factories, healthcare, transportation, distribution centers and farms.

What is the internet of things?

The IoT brings internet connectivity, data processing and analytics to the world of physical objects. For consumers, this means interacting with the global information network without the intermediary of a keyboard and screen (Alexa, for example).

In enterprise settings, IoT can bring the same efficiencies to manufacturing processes and distribution systems that the internet has long delivered to knowledge work. Billions of embedded internet-enabled sensors worldwide provide an incredibly rich set of data that companies can use to improve the safety of their operations, track assets and reduce manual processes.

Data from machines can be used to predict whether equipment will break down, giving manufacturers advance warning to prevent long stretches of downtime. Researchers can also use IoT devices to gather data about customer preferences and behavior, though that can have serious implications for privacy and security.

How big is the IoT?

In a word: enormous. Priceonomics breaks it down: There were more than 50 billion IoT devices in 2020, and those devices generated 4.4 zettabytes of data. (A zettabyte is a trillion gigabytes.) By comparison, in 2013 IoT devices generated a mere 100 billion gigabytes. The amount of money to be made in the IoT market is similarly staggering; estimates on the value of the market in 2025 range from $1.6 trillion to $14.4 trillion.

In its Global IoT Market Forecast, IoT Analytics Research predicts there will be 27 billion active IoT connections (excluding computers, laptops, phones, cellphones and tablets) by 2025. However, the company did lower its forecast based on the ongoing chip shortage, which it expects to impact the number of connected IoT devices beyond 2023.

How does the IoT work?

The first element of an IoT system is the device that gathers data. Broadly speaking, these are internet-connected devices, so they each have an IP address. They range in complexity from autonomous mobile robots and forklifts that move products around factory floors and warehouses, to simple sensors that monitor the temperature or scan for gas leaks in buildings.

They also include personal devices such as fitness trackers that monitor the number of steps individuals take each day.

In the next step in the IoT process, collected data is transmitted from the devices to a gathering point. Moving the data can be done wirelessly using a range of technologies or over wired networks. Data can be sent over the internet to a data center or the cloud. Or the transfer can be performed in phases, with intermediary devices aggregating the data, formatting it, filtering it, discarding irrelevant or duplicative data, then sending the important data along for further analysis.

The final step, data processing and analytics, can take place in data centers or the cloud, but sometimes thats not an option. In the case of critical devices such as shutoffs in industrial settings, the delay of sending data from the device to a remote data center is too great. The round-trip time for sending data, processing it, analyzing it and returning instructions (close that valve before the pipes burst) can take too long.

In such cases edge computing can come into play, where a smart edge device can aggregate data, analyze it and fashion responses if necessary, all within relatively close physical distance, thereby reducing delay. Edge devices also have upstream connectivity for sending data to be further processed and stored.

A growing number of edge computing use cases, such as autonomous vehicles that need to make split-second decisions, is accelerating the development of edge technologies that can process and analyze data immediately without going to the cloud.

Network World / IDG How the internet of things works.

Examples of IoT devices

Essentially, any device that can gather and transmit information about the physical world can participate in the IoT ecosystem. Smart home appliances, RFID tags, and industrial sensors are a few examples. These sensors can monitor a range of factors including temperature and pressure in industrial systems, status of critical parts in machinery, patient vital signs, the use of water and electricity, among many, many other possibilities.

Factory robots can be considered IoT devices, as well as autonomous vehicles and robots that move products around industrial settings and warehouses. Municipalities exploring smart city ecosystems are using IoT and machine-to-machine (M2M) sensors to enable applications such as traffic monitoring, street light management, and crime prevention through camera feeds.

Other examples include fitness wearables and home security systems. There are also more generic devices, like the Raspberry Pi or Arduino, that let you build your own IoT endpoints. Even though you might think of your smartphone as a pocket-sized computer, it may well also be beaming data about your location and behavior to back-end services in very IoT-like ways.

IoT device management

In order to work together, all those devices need to be authenticated, provisioned, configured, and monitored, as well as patched and updated as necessary. Too often, all this happens within the context of a single vendor's proprietary systems  or, it doesn't happen at all, which is even more risky. But the industry is starting to transition to a standards-based device management model, which allows IoT devices to interoperate and will ensure that devices aren't orphaned.

IoT communication standards and protocols

When IoT gadgets talk to other devices, they can use a wide variety of communication standards and protocols, many tailored to devices with limited processing capabilities or low power consumption. Some of these you've definitely heard of  Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, for instance  but many more are specialized for the world of IoT. ZigBee, for example, is a wireless protocol for low-power, short-distance communication, while message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) is a publish/subscribe messaging protocol for devices connected by unreliable or delay-prone networks. (See Network Worlds glossary of IoT standards and protocols.)

The increased speeds and bandwidth of 5G cellular networks are expected to benefit IoT. In its Global IoT Market Forecast, IoT Analytics Research predicted a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 159% for 5G-based IoT devices from 2021 through 2025.

IoT, edge computing and the cloud

Network World / IDG How edge computing enables IoT.

For many IoT systems, the stream of data is coming in fast and furious, which has given rise to a new technology category called edge computing, which consists of appliances placed relatively close to IoT devices, fielding the flow of data from them. These machines process that data and send only relevant material back to a more centralized system for analysis. For instance, imagine a network of dozens of IoT security cameras. Instead of bombarding the building's security operations center (SoC) with simultaneous live-streams, edge-computing systems can analyze the incoming video and only alert the SoC when one of the cameras detects movement.

And where does that data go once its been processed? Well, it might go to your centralized data center, but more often than not it will end up in the cloud. The elastic nature of cloud computing is great for IoT scenarios where data might come in intermittently or asynchronously.

Cloud vendors offer IoT platforms

The cloud giants (Microsoft, Amazon, Google) are trying to sell more than just a place to stash the data your sensors have collected. They're offering full IoT platforms, which bundle together much of the functionality to coordinate the elements that make up IoT systems. In essence, an IoT platform serves as middleware that connects the IoT devices and edge gateways with the applications you use to deal with the IoT data. That said, every platform vendor seems to have a slightly different definition of what an IoT platform is, the better to distance themselves from the competition.

IoT and Big Data analytics

Imagine a scenario where people at a theme park are encouraged to download an app that offers information about the park. At the same time, the app sends GPS signals back to the park's management to help predict wait times in lines. With that information, the park can take action in the short term (by adding more staff to increase the capacity of some attractions, for instance) and the long term (by learning which rides are the most and least popular at the park).

The theme park example is small potatoes compared to many real-world IoT data-harvesting operations. Many big data operations use information harvested from IoT devices, correlated with other data points, to get insight into human behavior.

For example, X-Mode released a map based on tracking location data of people who partied at spring break in Ft. Lauderdale in March of 2020, even as the coronavirus pandemic was gaining speed in the United States, showing where all those people ended up across the country. The map was shocking not only because it showed the potential spread of the virus, but also because it illustrated just how closely IoT devices can track us. (For more on IoT and analytics, click here.)

IoT and AI

The volume of data IoT devices can gather is far larger than any human can deal with in a useful way, and certainly not in real time. We've already seen that edge computing devices are needed just to make sense of the raw data coming in from the IoT endpoints. There's also the need to detect and deal with data that might be just plain wrong.

Many IoT providers are offering machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities to make sense of the collected data. IBM's Watson platform, for instance, can be trained on IoT data sets to produce useful results in the field of predictive maintenance  analyzing data from drones to distinguish between trivial damage to a bridge and cracks that need attention, for instance. Meanwhile, Arm has announced low-power chips that can provide AI capabilities on the IoT endpoints themselves. The company also launched new IoT processors, such as the Cortex-M85 and Corstone-1000 that supports AI at the edge.

IoT and business applications

Business uses for IoT include keeping track of customers, inventory, and the status of important components. Here are four industries that have been transformed by IoT:

Oil and gas : Isolated drilling sites can be better monitored with IoT sensors than by human intervention.

: Isolated drilling sites can be better monitored with IoT sensors than by human intervention. Agriculture : Granular data about crops growing in fields derived from IoT sensors can be used to increase yields.

: Granular data about crops growing in fields derived from IoT sensors can be used to increase yields. HVAC : Climate control systems across the country can be monitored by manufacturers.

: Climate control systems across the country can be monitored by manufacturers. Brick-and-mortar retail: Customers can be micro-targeted with offers on their phones as they linger in certain parts of a store.

More generally, enterprises are looking for IoT solutions that can help in four areas: energy use, asset tracking, security, and customer experience.

Industrial IoT

The IIoT is a subset of the Internet of Things made up of connected sensors and instrumentation for machinery in the transport, energy, and industrial sectors. The IIoT includes some of the most well-established sectors of the IoT market, including the descendants of some devices that predate the IoT moniker. IIoT devices are often longer-lived than most IoT endpoints  some remain in service for a decade or more  and as a result may use legacy, proprietary protocols and standards that make it difficult to move to modern platforms.

Consumer IoT

The move of IoT into consumer devices is more recent but much more visible to ordinary people. Connected devices range from fitness wearables that track our movements to internet-enabled thermometers. Probably the most prominent IoT consumer product is the home assistant, such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home.

IoT security and vulnerabilities

IoT devices have earned a bad reputation when it comes to security. PCs and smartphones are "general use" computers designed to last for years, with complex, user-friendly OSes that now have automated patching and security features built in.

IoT devices, by contrast, are often basic gadgets with stripped-down OSes. They are designed for individual tasks and minimal human interaction, and cannot be patched, monitored or updated. Because many IoT devices are ultimately running a version of Linux under the hood with various network ports available, they make tempting targets for hackers.

Perhaps nothing demonstrated this more than the Mirai botnet, which was created by a teenager telnetting into home security cameras and baby monitors that had easy-to-guess default passwords, and which ended up launching one of history's largest DDoS attacks.
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Haute Couture Fashion Week in Paris last week was the occasion for Chanel to unveil its new high jewelry collection titled Flying Cloud, named after the yacht on which Gabrielle Chanel had cruised as a guest of her lover, the glamorous English aristocrat, Hugh Grosvenor, second Duke of Westminster, whom she had met in 1923 in Monte Carlo.



The French Riviera, a luxury yacht and the blue waters of the Mediterranean provide the perfect backdrop for the Maison Chanel to evoke a new chapter in the life of its founder as inspiration for this new high jewelry collection. The just-in-time-for-summer extravaganza plays on Mademoiselle Chanels more rebellious side, providing what the head of Chanels watches and jewelry, Frederic Grangie, described as an element of surprise in high jewelry pieces that nevertheless rest on exceptional stones.



Inspired by Chanels trips aboard the four-mast, white-decked yacht with its piratical black hull, the collection is a 63-piece rhapsody in white and blue, the colors of the Mediterranean where the Flying Cloud broke waves all year long, with motifs borrowed from the delightful images that a seafaring adventure can offer up in the shape of tattooed sailors, knotted ropes, and white buoys against a background of blue waters.





Coco Chanel onboard the Flying Cloud, 1926

A more private showing of the collection for friends and VIPs had been organized a week earlier at La Pausa, the house overlooking the sea that Mademoiselle Chanel had once owned in Roquebrune. Bendor - as the Duke was known to his friends - was a frequent guest, along with a circle of chic Riviera bohemians, in the monastically simple and elegant house Mademoiselle Chanel had built on the hills above Cap Martin, near the Italian border, its staircase a replica of the one she often climbed as a child in the orphanage at Aubazine Abbey. The property, since sold, was repurchased by the Maison Chanel in 2015 and restored to Coco Chanels original specifications.



Mostly based on diamonds, white pearls and blue sapphires, the Flying Cloud collection presents an ensemble of 63 pieces, of which ten one-of-a-kind, and three high jewelry watches. Navy and white are the only possible colors, Gabrielle Chanel wrote after her first trip aboard the luxury yacht, according to Justine Picardie in her biography, Chanel Her Life.



The maritime-inspired motifs, well-known in the repertoire of Chanel, give the collection a sporty feel that recalls a fascination with the striped marinieres of the fishermen in Deauville whom Gabrielle had discovered years earlier in the company of her then-lover Arthur Boy Capel. She applied the same motifs in 1924, the year she and Bendor officially became an item, in the costumes she designed for Sergei Diaghilevs Ballets Russes in a production of Le Train Bleu by Jean Cocteau, where the crisp, blue and white stripes of the ballet dancers garments recalled the uniforms of the 40-member crew of the Flying Cloud.



The driving theme of this collection is cordage, said the Maison Chanel, in reference to a new rope motif previously unseen in the repertoire of the house. Still, it is the motif that provides the necessary masculine ingredient that is ever-present in Chanels studied conception of an easy, feminine chic.

The endlessly knotted rope is found in the Azurean Braid" watch in 18k white gold set with 658 brilliant-cut diamonds, its loops of pave-set diamonds intertwined with while-gold metallic rope.





Azurean Braid watch  Chanel

The "Sapphire Stripes" watch in 18k white gold set with 11 marquise-cut blue sapphires and 248 brilliant-cut diamonds also adheres to the strictly maritime color scheme in an asymmetrical design that evokes the loosening of a nautical rope knot.

Sapphire Stripes watch  Chanel



Finally, the Yachting Day pendant watch brings together a timeless combination of pearls and diamonds. Set on a string of Japanese cultured pearls forming a long pearl necklace, the transformable pendant watch allow the piece to be worn as a bracelet or Y-shaped necklace, depending on the winds or the whims of the woman wearing it. The piece is also a knowing nod to the ropes of pearls the Duke would give Coco Chanel each year, while their romance lasted, on her birthday.

Yachting Day pendant watch  Nazanin Lankarani/WorldTempus

The modernity of the Flying Cloud collection comes from integrating unexpected motifs - cords, tattoos and sailors knots - into a high jewelry line. its freshness is that of the sea breeze in late afternoon cruising along the Cote dAzur.
EMERGENCY services were called out to two separate car crashes this morning (Friday).

At 8.45am police and ambulance were called to an incident on Newport Road, Freshwater, where a car rolled off the road, landing in a field.

A police spokesperson said: "We were called to reports of a collision involving a Citroen C1 and a Vauxhall Astra.

"The Citroen rolled and came to rest in a field.

"One person was taken to hospital with minor injuries."

In a second incident around 11.15am, police were called out to a collision on Wootton High Street involving a Toyota Yaris and a Seat Ibiza, the spokesperson said.

No injuries were reported at the second incident, according to police.
A federal judge ordered on Wednesday the dismissal of the final piece of a whistleblower lawsuit filed against Wells Fargo & Co. by a former employee, George Hartzman of Greensboro.

Hartzman worked as a financial adviser for the bank from 1993 until he was fired Oct. 8, 2012.

He claims to be a whistleblower for trying to disclose  in November and December 2011 through an internal Wells Fargo ethics line  financial information that allegedly was not included in bank regulatory filings in 2008 and 2009. Some of the information related to how the bank acquired a collapsing Wachovia Corp. in fall 2008.

Hartzman filed his complaint in September 2014. He accused the bank of violating the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, not upholding fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders and committing acts of fraud in terms of financial reporting and disclosures.

Much of Hartzmans complaint evidence is based on an August 2011 Bloomberg News article and a January 2013 Rolling Stone article.

In December 2010, the Winston-Salem Journal reported on the Federal Reserve notifying Congress that it provided below-the-radar-screen loans to Wachovia and more than 400 other recipients during the 2008-11 financial crisis.

Wells Fargos dismissal request was filed in November 2014, saying the allegations were dependent on outlandish conspiracy theories. Wells Fargo didnt provide comment on the dismissal by the Winston-Salem Journals deadline.

In February 2016, U.S. District Judge William Osteen Jr. dismissed the second amended complaint by Hartzman except for a retaliation claim as it related to Sarbanes-Oxley.

Osteen had set a jury trial for July 31 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina after the parties were not able to reach a settlement on the final claim. On June 20, Osteen said he would instead rule on competing motions for summary judgment.

On Wednesday, Osteen approved the banks motion for dismissal and denied Hartzmans motion.

When contacted by email Thursday, Hartzman referred to his summary judgment motion. He repeated his opinion that BH Media Group has a conflict of interest in reporting on his complaint. BH Media Group, which operates the Winston-Salem Journal and the Greensboro News & Record, is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which is Wells Fargos largest individual shareholder, at 10 percent.

Hartzmans claim includes that his protected activity actions was a contributing factor in the unfavorable action of his termination.

Osteen wrote that assuming without deciding that Hartzman satisfied his prima facie (defined legally as at first sight) burden under Sarbanes-Oxley, this court finds that Wells Fargo has presented clear and convincing evidence detailing the rationale behind the unfavorable personnel action, including the decision to terminate Hartzman.

Hartzman was aware of the Wells Fargo policies related to teaching seminars and internal company documents, yet chose to violate those policies in advertising for his seminar, in posting inappropriate material on his public blog, and in sending a mass email with internal use only documents to non-Wells Fargo recipients, Osteen wrote.

The judgment disclosed that Hartzman sent an email to about 2,400 bank employees and non-bank customers on Sept. 10, 2012, about his whistleblower evidence. The email contained internal Wells Fargo information, which Hartzman admitted he knew that the use of violated bank policies. In June 2012, Hartzman advertised online a seminar for certified public accountants in which he would discuss his whistleblowing experiences.

Hartzman said he was told he was being fired because of the Sept. 10, 2012, email.

Osteen said Hartzman was told in unequivocal terms that if he continued to violate these company policies, he would be subject to termination.

Osteen listed that Hartzman refused to cooperate with independent investigators brought in to deal with his complaints to the banks EthicsLine.

Hartzmans argument that Wells Fargos reasoning is pretextual is unsubstantiated, as he has presented no evidence other than his own subjective interpretation of Wells Fargos actions, Osteen wrote.

In January 2013, Hartzman filed a complaint with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that accused the bank of discriminating against him in violation of Sarbanes-Oxley.

OSHA determined in July 2013 there was no reasonable cause to believe that (Wells Fargo) violated (Sarbanes-Oxley and dismissed the complaint.
Five policemen were killed in a terrorist attack on a security checkpoint in Giza governorate on Friday, state news agency MENA reported an interior ministry source as saying.

Unidentified gunmen attacked the checkpoint in the town of El-Badrashein early in the morning, killing two low-ranking policemen and three conscripts.

The source added that security forces are currently hunting the assailants.

Egypt is battling Islamist terrorist groups that are mainly concentrated in the restive northern part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

However, militants have also struck elsewhere in the country, including the capital, often targeting police and army personnel.

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Two German tourists were killed and four other tourists injured at a resort in Hurghada when a man attacked them with a knife, Al-Ahram Arabic reported on Friday afternoon.

The injured include one Czech woman and two Armenian women, a source at Hurghada General Hospital told Ahram Online.

The nationality of the fourth tourist was not immediately clear. All of those attacked are women.

According to a short statement from the Egyptian interior ministry, the assailant, who was arrested after the attack, had swum to the resort from a nearby public beach.

Security sources in Hurghada security directorate told Al-Ahram Arabic's correspondent in the city that the suspect was named as Abdel-Rahman Shams El-Din, 28, an Egyptian from the Nile Delta governorate of Kafr El-Sheikh.

Al-Ahram named the resort where events took place as Sunny Days Palacio.

The German foreign ministry released a statement condemning the attacks, and added that the German nationality of the two slain tourists had not yet been confirmed.

The interior ministry has not issued any more details about the assailant or his motives, nor any details about the injured tourists.

The governor of Red Sea governorate, Ahmed Abdullah, cut short his holiday in Cairo and returned to the governorate, where resort town Hurghada is located, to follow up on the incident, Al-Ahram reported.

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07/14/2017





By Heather Greene

On July 26 each year, the Americans with Disabilities Act is celebrated throughout the country as ADA Day. However, 365 days of the year, Jacksonville State University works to provide students with disabilities the support they need to pave the road to success.

Bailee Bryant is just one of the many students who has experienced the individualized customer service offered by JSU Disability Support Services (DSS). Originally from Pinson, Ala., Bryant, who has cerebral palsy, was considering larger universities before she visited JSU, where the caring DSS team became the defining factor in her decision to attend the university.

The DSS services at JSU are vastly different than any other school Ive ever been to because theyre personable, said Bryant. They want to know about your concerns, what you need, because every student situation with disability services is going to be a little bit different. I love the small town atmosphere, and I know everyone says that, but I felt like I was more than just a number; I felt like I was a part of the community.

The word transition is what Bryant uses to describe her college experience. Currently a sophomore, she said the beginning of her college journey consisted of a few trial and error moments of finding life hacks that worked for her. From getting help to and from her car, to having a classmate carry her books in to class, she explained how JSU has assisted her in overcoming every obstacle.

Outside the classroom, Bryant has not let her disability keep her from enjoying an active lifestyle on campus. She is a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha, Freshman Forum, Student Senate, and is an Ambassador.

We want to be integrated into society just like anybody else, she said of students with disabilities. I wouldnt want anybody to tiptoe around me because I look a little bit different, and I think anybody with a disability would speak to that. It makes it harder for us to be able to have that college experience we need.

Bryant is the daughter of Brandon and Rhonda Bryant, and she has one sister, Brooklyn.

ADA compliancy is something JSU takes to heart. On Feb. 1, 2016, the university was recognized by Gov. Robert Bentley with a Certificate of Recognition for its significant accomplishments toward improving ADA accessibility on campus. Recent renovations to campus to better support students like Bryant include:

Automatic doors installed in the Theron Montgomery Building

Automatic doors installed at the Houston Cole Library

Automatic doors and accessible bathrooms installed in Merrill Hall

Accessible bathrooms installed in Brewer Hall

Accessible seating, accessible bathrooms, additional accessible parking and curb cuts implemented at the Pete Mathews Coliseum

Accessible bathrooms and elevator installed at Bibb Graves Hall

Accessible bathrooms installed at Leone Cole Auditorium

Accessible door installed at WOW Wingery

Ramp installed at Salls Hall

Ten ADA residence units provided in renovated Sparkman Hall

Two automatic doors and accessible bathrooms installed in Daugette Hall

Signage updated for campus

JSU will recognize ADA Day with a lunch and learn event on July 26, 12-1:30 p.m., in Houston Cole Library, Room 10B. Dr. Tim King, vice president for student affairs, will deliver a presentation regarding disabilities from a personal perspective. This event is free and open to the public.

For more information on the Disability Support Services available at JSU, please call 256-782-8380 or click here.

Photo: Bailee Bryant with Cocky (JSU/Matt Reynolds courtesy).
California Representative Brad Sherman [official website] filed an article of impeachment [text, PDF] against President Donald Trump [official website] on Wednesday. The measure accuses Trump of obstructing justice concerning the Russia probe by using his authority to hinder and cause the termination of such investigation(s) including through threatening, and then terminating, James Comey. Critics of the move believe it is unlikely to succeed in the majority Republican House. Sherman addressed this in a statement [press release] saying introduction of the articles will have two likely outcomes:

First, I have slight hope it will inspire an intervention in the White House. If Impeachment is real, if they actually see Articles, perhaps we will see incompetency replaced by care. Perhaps uncontrollable impulses will be controlled. And perhaps the danger our nation faces will be ameliorated. Second, and more likely, filing Articles of Impeachment is the first step on a very long road. But if the impulsive incompetency continues, then eventuallymany, many months from nowRepublicans will join the impeachment effort.

The article is supported by Texas Representative Al Green [official website] who had previously called for Trumps impeachment on the House floor.

Allegations of Russian connections have been a problem for the Trump administration since the early stages of his presidency. Last month US Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified [JURIST report before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in relation to his alleged ties to Russia and its coordination with President Donald Trumps campaign in 2016. When asked why he had initially stated those conversations did not take place, Sessions said that he was flustered by the questioning and misunderstood what was being asked of him. He also said that he did not recuse himself from the investigations because of his failure to disclose [JURIST reports] those meetings. In May Former FBI director James Comey testified [JURIST report] in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Earlier in May the committee issued a subpoena [JURIST report] compelling former National Security Adviser Lieutenant General Michael Flynn to provide documents related to the committees investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election. Also in May former acting US Attorney General Sally Yates testified [JURIST report] before the Senate Judiciary Committee stating that she had warned about Flynns vulnerabilities to blackmail by Russia less than a week after President Donald Trump assumed office. In March now-former FBI Director James Comey confirmed [JURIST report] that the FBI was investigating allegations of Russian interference with the 2016 US presidential election.
Photos Credit: Emporer Cruises

According to the TripAdvisor website, only 10 percent of businesses listed receive their prestigious award of excellent. The privilege, which honors performance in hospitality excellence, is given only to establishments that consistently achieve outstanding traveler reviews on the site, and has recently extended to qualifying businesses worldwide. The Emperor Cruises Company also has received a Guide Awards for Excellence, rated as the best cruise in Nha Trang last year.

Emperor Cruises operate a 40-pax cruise boat in the Nha Trang Bay vicinity, Khanh Hoa Province, Viet Nam. The Junk Boat offers two unique cruising experiences with both a day cruise and sunset and cocktail dinner cruise, as well as private and party charters. Sailing among dragon legends with an award-winning cruise operator in the natural wonder of Bai Tu Long Bay, 16 passengers are catered to in eight cabins fully equipped cabins with private balconies, ocean views from absolutely everywhere, and a personal butler service. The Emperor Cruises fleet is designed to be a sanctuary to ensure that every moment counts for our guests in Ha Long Bay, a must-see on the list of all travelers to Viet Nam.

As the first five-star, all-inclusive cruise in Viet Nam, our team and I are so excited to receive this prestigious award considering our relatively short time of operation, which is encouraging our team toward excellence. With this unique difference and firm confidence, we will build new junk cruises for 60 passengers in Nha Trang Bay and Hai Phong, with 18 ensuite cabins said Pham Ha, co-founder of Emperor Cruises.
Romanian border police have detained 16 migrants from Iraq, Syria and Iran who were hidden in a truck transporting dishes to Sweden.

Police stopped the truck that was driven by a Turkish citizen early Wednesday at the Romanian-Hungarian border and discovered the migrants in the back.

A police statement said they found nine men and seven women, most of them asylum-seekers in Romania. They told police they wanted to illegally cross the border to reach a country in the visa-free Schengen travel zone. Hungary is a member of that zone but Romania is not.

The truck documents said the metal dishes were to be delivered to a company in Sweden. The driver told police he didn't know about the hidden migrants.



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Saudi Arabia on Friday hailed the Iraq government's recapture of Mosul city from Islamic State group militants, stressing its solidarity with Baghdad in combating "terrorism" despite their rocky relations.

The kingdom "congratulates the Iraqi government and people for recapturing Mosul city and liberating it from the Daesh terrorist organisation," the foreign ministry said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

The statement carried by SPA state news agency stressed that Riyadh "stands by Iraq and its efforts to combat extremism and terrorism in all its form, as well as its financing".

Iraq declared victory in Mosul this week after a nearly nine-month battle that ravaged the city and took a heavy toll on residents and security forces.

Riyadh and Baghdad have made efforts to improve their bumpy relations, with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a Shiite, visiting the predominantly Sunni kingdom last month.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir travelled to Baghdad in February for talks with Abadi, on the first visit of its kind since 2003.

Saudi Arabia has long expressed concern about Shiite Iran's "interference" in the region, including through Iraq's paramilitary Hashed al-Shaabi which has played a major role in fighting IS.

Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran in early 2016 after years of strained relations.

Although Saudi Arabia officially supports the fight against the Sunni militants of IS, Iraq and some other countries have argued it needs to do more to help defeat the extremists and their ideology.

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A cholera epidemic in Yemen, which has infected more than 332,000 people, could spread during the annual haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in September, although Saudi authorities are well prepared, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

The pilgrimage draws 2-4 million Muslims every year, including 1.5-2 million foreigners, raising the risk from diseases such as dengue, yellow fever, Zika virus and meningococcal disease as well as cholera, the WHO said.

"The current highly spreading outbreak of cholera in Yemen, as well as in some African countries, may represent a serious risk to all pilgrims during the (haj) days and even after returning to their countries," a WHO bulletin said.

Dominique Legros, a WHO cholera expert, said Saudi Arabia had not had a cholera outbreak in many years thanks to reinforced surveillance and rapid tests to detect cases early.

"Dont forget that today we are speaking of Yemen but they are receiving pilgrims from a lot of endemic countries, and they managed not to have an outbreak, essentially by making sure that living conditions, access to water in particular, hygienic conditions, are in place," he told a regular U.N. briefing.

"They are well-prepared in my view."

The incubation period of the disease, which spreads through ingestion of faecal matter and causes acute watery diarrhoea, is a matter of hours. Once symptoms start, cholera can kill within hours if the patient does not get treatment.

But people with symptoms are just the tip of the iceberg because 80 percent of patients show no symptoms, Legros said.

"Thats why we advise countries against airport screening for patients. The Saudis dont do that. It's useless, technically speaking."

The United Nations has blamed the warring sides in Yemen and their international allies, including Saudi Arabia, for fuelling the 11-week cholera outbreak, driving millions of people closer to famine, and for hindering aid access.

The WHO has rolled out an emergency treatment programme, based on the vestiges of Yemen's shattered health system, to try and catch new cases early and stop the explosive spread of the disease.

The number of new cases has continued to grow by about 6,000 per day, but the number of deaths appears to have slowed dramatically, according to Reuters analysis of WHO data.

Death rates have slumped from 20-40 in recent weeks to an average of nine per day over the past six days.



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With a flood of migrants arriving on Italy's shores, a bitter debate has erupted over whether children born on Italian soil to foreign parents should have citizenship rights at birth.

According to a poll published Thursday in the Messaggero daily, the idea of "ius soli" is losing support among Italians, even though such a path to citizenship exists in many other EU countries.

The Latin term "ius soli" refers to rights linked to the land (where you are born) as opposed to "ius sanguinis", where rights are based on blood ties.

Children currently must have at least one Italian parent to enjoy citizenship rights. Those who do not can apply when they turn 18 but rules on time spent out of the country mean some are rejected.

Back in October 41 percent of people polled said they were in favour of "ius soli", but now that number has dropped to 32.3 percent.

Italy's high-profile battle with Europe over who should deal with the hundreds of thousands of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean and brought ashore since 2014 has sparked a backlash over a proposed bill and even fisticuffs in parliament.

After 15 years of debate, the draft law establishing "ius soli" was adopted by Italy's lower house in 2015. Two years later, after a series of amendments, it is now being debated in the upper house with the support of the centre-left.

The draft law also provides for nationality via "ius culturae" for children not born in Italy who have spent at least five years in the country's education system.

Italy's anti-immigrant Northern League has slammed the proposal as a "cultural mistake". Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, founder of the centre-right Forza Italia, said it would send the wrong signal to those already attracted to Italy's shores.

"Making it known that it's easier to become Italian will create false hopes in Africa and increase migratory pressures," he warned.

Over 86,000 migrants have arrived so far this year, up over 10 percent compared with the same period in 2016.

The adoption of "ius soli" would bestow Italian nationality on around 800,000 children immediately, and another 60,000 newborns a year, according to the Italian Institute of Statistics (Istat).

"The children born in Italy are Italians and it is the duty of a civilized country to welcome them," Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said earlier this week. The proposed bill is also passionately supported by his predecessor Matteo Renzi.

Gentiloni has brushed aside attempts by critics to link the issue of citizen rights to that of national security, saying "the way to reduce risk is not through exclusion but dialogue and inclusion".

But with unemployment towering at 11 percent -- well above the average in the eurozone -- and soaring to 37 percent among young people, the age-old narrative of foreigners stealing locals' jobs has reared its head.

That fear has not been eased by new figures this week showing 4.5 million Italians are living in absolute poverty.

According to Il Messaggero, those polled in Thursday's survey said it would be better to postpone the debate on citizenship rights until after the general election in spring next year.

Italy in 2016 bestowed the highest number of citizenships in Europe at 205,000, up from just 63,000 in 2012.

Adopting "ius soli" would bring Italy into line with the majority of its European neighbours -- from Belgium and Britain to France and Portugal -- where the law already applies in various forms.

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FILE - In this July 1925 photo, a packed courtroom is scene during the Scope's Monkey trial in Dayton, Tenn. On Friday, July 13, 2017, at the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, the public will behold a 10-foot statue of the rumpled skeptic Clarence Darrow, who argued for evolution in the 1925 trial. It will stand at a respectful distance on the opposite side of the courthouse from an equally huge statue of William Jennings Bryan, the eloquent Christian defender of the biblical account of creation, which was installed in 2005. (AP Photo, File)
British low-cost airline EasyJet charted a course on Friday to keep flying unhindered across the European Union after Brexit.

The carrier, which is based in Luton, north of the British capital, said in a statement that it will create a new division, EasyJet Europe, which will be based in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

EasyJet, which will retain its Luton headquarters, added that it has applied for a new air operator's certificate (AOC) in Austria to continue flying across Europe regardless of the final Brexit deal between Brussels and London.

The accreditation process is "now well advanced" and it should be concluded "in the near future", the company said.

The application "will allow EasyJet to establish a new airline, EasyJet Europe, which will be headquartered in Vienna and will enable EasyJet to continue to operate flights both across Europe and domestically within European countries after the UK has left the EU", the no-frills carrier added.

EasyJet Europe will become the group's third airline division after EasyJet in Luton and EasyJet Switzerland in Geneva.

Vienna was picked because EasyJet had concluded that its airline regulator was "the best fit" for the firm.

The switch will create jobs in Austria, while no positions would be lost in Britain.

"While the new structure will protect all of EasyJet's current flying rights within Europe, EasyJet will continue to push for the UK and EU to reach an aviation agreement which, at a minimum, will enable flights between the UK and EU," the statement added.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern hailed the announcement as "tremendous news for Austria".

Investors, however, shrugged off the news, with the share price edging around 0.1 percent higher to 1,410 pence compared with the closing level on Thursday.

Soon after Britain voted in a referendum a year ago in favour of exiting the EU, EasyJet applied for a European Union licence to keep flying throughout the bloc.

Britain's airline industry has soared over the last two decades under the Single European Sky system, which lifted trade restrictions on EU airlines.

Unless British negotiators manage to secure preferential conditions, British airlines could lose this status once the country leaves the EU.

This will mean they no longer enjoy rights including being able to freely set airfares, and to launch any route in Europe without getting prior authorisation.

Passengers leaving or arriving in the United Kingdom will face new taxes and British airlines face obstacles and delays in developing new routes.

Under plans unveiled on Friday, EasyJet Europe will operate 100 planes and 4,000 crew flying across the 27 remaining European Union nations following Brexit.

The main EasyJet airline in Luton will operate 140 planes and 6,000 staff for UK flights, while EasyJet Switzerland will have 25 planes and 950 staff in Geneva.

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With over 500,000 immigration cases awaiting trial, funding is on the way for immigration judges to handle the backlog.

The office of Congressman Henry Cuellar says a bill has passed the House Appropriations Committee for the funding.

The judges will be heading to the Border Regions with the highest workloads.

Back in March, the Executive Office for Immigration Review finally sent a temporary judge to Laredo.

The 65 judges come on the heels of ten new judges that Cuellar helped add back in May.

Coming up on KGNS News at Ten, well have more on how many of those judges will be making their way to Laredo.
The owner of a rural pub struggled with two masked and armed raiders during a robbery last night.

Shortly after 10.30pm Gardai received a report of two men, wearing balaclavas and who appeared to be armed, entering a pub at Skough.

The pub, Moloneys, located at Skough, close to Piltown, was robbed by two raiders. It is believed that a firearm was used in the attack and the robbers threatened staff and customers. There were a number of patrons and staff in the pub during the robbery.

The men left the scene empty handed following a struggle with the owner of the premises. A wine-coloured car was seen leaving the area.

It is understood that no one was seriously injured during the terrifying ordeal.

Garda from Mooncoin on anti-crime checkpoint duty stopped a vehicle near Kildalton College and following a search of the vehicle the three occupants were arrested. During a follow up operation a fourth suspect was arrested in the Piltown area. The men are currently detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, 1939 at Thomastown and Kilkenny Garda Stations.

Two of the men are in their 30s, one in his 20s and a teenager was also arrested.

A firearm has also been recovered by gardai. The car, a wine-coloured Renault Megan with 01D plates, was seized for technical examination.

Superintendent Derek Hughes of Thomastown Garda Station while declining to comment on the specifics of the case as the garda investigation is ongoing stated that it was understandable that people living in rural communities would be alarmed by the occurrence of such a serious crime in their community however people should take comfort from the prompt action by An Garda Siochana in this case.

As always the community provided great assistance to An Garda Siochana in this instance and we are relieved that no one was injured.

Anyone with information about crime in South Kilkenny can contact gardai in the strictest confidence at Thomastown Garda Station.
Minister for Health Simon Harris has agreed to expedite a national review of all primary PCI services, encompassing the south-east region.

The minister yesterday met Waterford Oireachtas members from all parties in light of the cross-party motion in relation to cardiac services in this region. Kilkenny councillors have also written to Minister Harris on the issue.

It follows the death of 39-year-old Thomas Power last month while he was being brought to Cork University Hospital for treatment. The people of the south-east have become increasingly vocal in their demand to see full time, 24/7 high-level emergency cardiac here.

This review will seek to ensure that as many patients as possible have access on a 24/7 basis to safe and sustainable emergency interventions following a heart attack. This review will clearly encompass all regions of the country, including the south-east," said Minister Harris.

My Department will immediately commence the preparatory work including identifying an international expert and examining the scope of the review. The guiding principles for this review will be to strive to provide a primary PCI service that can deliver clinical outcomes on par with international standards.

This does not affect the additional resources provided to UHW or the commitment to review the impact of extended hours at the existing cath lab and the deployment of a mobile cath lab.
We have homeowners and auto insurance with $300,000 in liability coverage, but someone suggested that we get a $1-million personal-liability umbrella policy. Why would we need this much coverage?

"As long as you can earn a livelihood, you should have an umbrella liability policy,"says Mitch Freedman, a CPA and personal financial specialist in Westlake Village, Cal.

CALCULATOR: How Much Umbrella Insurance Do I Need?

He recommends that everyone have at least a $1-million umbrella policy to provide liability coverage beyond the limits of their auto- and homeowners-insurance policies -- even if they have less than $1 million in assets. Thats because in the rare event you are sued, you could be forced to pay a legal judgment from your current assets and future earnings. The policy can also pay for defense costs, which can quickly add up even if you win your case. Its an inexpensive way to protect your finances from devastating lawsuits.

Subscribe to Kiplingers Personal Finance Be a smarter, better informed investor. Save up to 74% Sign up for Kiplingers Free E-Newsletters Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplingers expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail. Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplingers expert advice - straight to your e-mail. Sign up

Freedman recommends getting more than $1 million in umbrella coverage if you earn more than $100,000 per year or have more than $1 million in assets. Our clients get liability-insurance limits that are at least as much as their net worth, he says. Daniel Morris, a CPA in San Jose, recommends at least a $2-million umbrella policy for most people, or a policy for $3 million to $5 million if you have rental property.

The price varies by risk, but someone with one house and two cars would generally pay about $200 a year for the first $1 million in umbrella coverage and another $100 for the next $1 million, says Bill Howard, an independent insurance agent in Alexandria, Va.

Umbrella policies are inexpensive because they kick in only after youve exhausted your liability coverage under your auto or homeowners policy. Most insurers first require you to have $300,000 or $500,000 in liability coverage on your car and home. For example, if you have $500,000 in liability insurance on your auto policy and a $1-million umbrella policy, youll have a total of $1.5 million in liability coverage.

If youre looking for extra cash to afford the umbrella policy, Howard recommends raising your auto- and homeowners-insurance deductibles. Boosting your deductible from $250 to $1,000 could reduce your annual premiums by hundreds of dollars, make you less likely to file small claims -- which could jeopardize a claims-free discount or could even get you dropped from your policy -- and still leave you with only $1,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for each claim. Then you can use the premium savings to boost your coverage by hundreds of thousands -- or millions -- of dollars.
We scoured the nation to identify the best stock in every state. Alaska Communications Systems Group (ALSK (opens in new tab)) is the publicly traded company we picked in Alaska. The company headquarters is located in Anchorage.

A word of caution: Since we selected a single stock from each state (plus one from D.C), and choices in some states are sparse, a few of our picks are best suited to investors comfortable with a higher degree of risk. This is not necessarily one of our 51 favorite stocks in the entire U.S., in other words.

Alaska Communications by the Numbers

Headquarters: Anchorage

Anchorage Share price: $2.14

$2.14 Market value: $112 million

$112 million Price-earnings ratio: NA

(Prices and data are as of June 22, 2017)

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Alaska Communications is one of only two telecommunications firms providing telephone and internet service in the Last Frontier.

Isolation has its advantages, says Eric Kuby, co-manager of North Star Opportunity Fund, which holds the stock. For instance, he says, the company owns two undersea fiber-optic routes connecting Alaska to the continental U.S. A company looking to set up shop in Alaska would be better served buying Alaska Communications than spending the money to duplicate its infrastructure.

In the past few years, the company has deployed gobs of cash to build a best-in-class fiber network. That has sapped earnings, as has the companys commitment to paying down debt. Overall sales inched up in the first quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, but broadband revenues grew 11%, boding well for the companys internet services segment. Alaska plans to buy back $10 million worth of stock through 2019 and may even initiate a dividend in the next couple years, says Kuby. Shares represent a good value for patient investors, he says.
July 14 (Reuters) - Gold miner Acacia Mining Plc on Friday said the company would meet the increased royalty rate of 6 percent imposed on metals such as gold, copper and silver under new Tanzanian natural resources legislation.

The rate has been raised from 4 percent and is in addition to the recently imposed clearing fee of 1 percent on exports out of the country.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli sent shock-waves through the mining community with a series of actions since his election in 2015 that he says would distribute revenue to the Tanzanian people. (Reporting by Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)
* Mideast share of India crude imports fall below 60 pct in June

* Drop in supply due to OPEC cuts, strong Dubai benchmark price

* India turns to substitutes from Russia, Latin America

By Nidhi Verma and Florence Tan

NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE, July 14 (Reuters) - India's reliance on Middle East oil imports shrunk in June to the smallest since October 2015 as the world's third-biggest importer tapped other sources amid OPEC supply cuts, ship tracking data from industry sources and data available on Thomson Reuters Eikon showed.

India's imports of Middle Eastern crude oil shrunk in June to the smallest since October 2015 as the world's third-biggest importer tapped other sources amid OPEC supply cuts, ship tracking data available with Reuters showed.

Middle East imports fell 7.6 percent in June from the previous month, partly driven by declines from Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia as the production cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) made more of a dent in supply.

The cuts also drove up Middle East crude prices, prompting price-sensitive Indian buyers to seek substitutes from Russia and Latin America as the world remains awash with oil.

Gulf crude accounted for about 58.5 percent of India's imports compared with about 66 percent in May, while the share of oil from Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia, including Russia, rose, according to ship tracking data obtained from sources and data compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research & Forecasts.

"The choices have increased and crude is available at competitive prices," said M. K. Surana, chairman of oil refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp .

"There are high supplies of low-sulphur crude because Nigeria is exempted" from the OPEC cuts, he said.

Even as OPEC and some non-OPEC producers cut output to shore up prices, global oil output in June is 1.2 million barrels per day above a year ago, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday in its latest monthly report. The weight of supplies has forced sellers to cut prices allowing Indian refiners to snap up cargoes in the spot market. "Pricing pressure is playing a role, whoever has crude they want to dispose it as quickly as possible," said A.K. Sharma, head of finance at Indian Oil Corp .

The refiner last week bought the country's first crude cargo from the United States and increased imports of Russian Urals crude this year. Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd could buy U.S. light crude in a tender on Friday as they are priced competitively against African oil, the company's head of refineries Ramachandran said.

HPCL is evaluating U.S. crude for its refineries, Surana said.

West Texas Intermediate oil prices are depressed relative to Middle East benchmark Dubai because of rising U.S. shale oil production and as the OPEC cuts have reduced the amount of Middle East medium, sour crude. This has made it feasible for India to buy heavier U.S. crude to replace Middle East supplies such as Iraq's Basra Light, IOC's Sharma said.

He added that a discount of at least $2 a barrel on American oil to Dubai crude is 'ideal' to cover freight costs currently.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ TABLE-India's June oil imports rose 3.7 percent from May ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
HAVANA, July 14 (Reuters) - Cuba's economy bounced back from recession and expanded an estimated 1.1 percent in the first half of this year, driven by growth in tourism, construction and agriculture, Economy Minister Ricardo Cabrisas told the National Assembly on Friday.

The figure was less however than the 2 percent government forecast for 2017 in a country where traditionally activity slows in the second half of the year.

The Communist-run island's economy slipped into its first recession in nearly a quarter century last year, as it wrestled with declining oil shipments from key ally Venezuela, a slide in exports and a lack of cash.

In his speech to the Cuban parliament that meets twice a year, Cabrisas said "this conjunction of accumulated problems cannot be resolved completely in the short term."

He added the coming half year would not be exempt from tensions, according to the state-run Cuban News Agency.

The Caribbean island is struggling to pay foreign providers on time and seeking longer payment terms, Western diplomats say. The minister acknowledged liquidity problems in his speech.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's crude and fuel deliveries to Cuba slid almost 13 percent in the first half this year, according to documents from state-run oil company PDVSA viewed by Reuters.

The main bright spot in the economy, tourism, performed strongly in the first half of the year with the number of tourists rising 23 percent on the year, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero told the National Assembly on Wednesday.

But U.S. President Donald Trump in June ordered tighter restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba as part of a rollback of the U.S.-Cuban detente, casting a shadow over the industry's outlook. Cabrisas said that besides tourism, construction, transport, communications drove economic growth in the first half of the year. Agricultural production was also positive, except for beef and milk, he said.

The minister added that the government had approved 11 new ventures, five in the Mariel special development zone, which Cuba wants to develop into the Caribbean's main shipping hub, and six outside.

Since becoming president in 2008, Raul Castro has sought to update Cuba's Soviet-style command economy, cutting the bloated state payroll, introducing reforms and aiming to drum up foreign investment.

The United Nations estimates the Cuban economy will grow 1 percent this year, in line with a 1.1 percent expansion on average throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Marc Frank, additional Reporting by Nelson Acosta; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
* STOXX 600, blue chips flat

* Steelmakers boost basic resources

* Nordic stocks in focus as Gjensidige, Skanska fall

* SEB leads banks after Q2 beat

* Earnings on horizon as U.S. banks set to report

(Adds quotes and detail, updates prices)

By Kit Rees

LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) - European shares were poised for their best week in more than two months as investors piled back into equities on signs that the world's major central banks would likely not tighten monetary policy as quickly as some had feared.

The move on indexes on Friday was more muted as investors hunkered down ahead of earnings reports from major U.S. banks including JPMorgan and Citigroup later in the day.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was flat in percentage terms by 0852 GMT while euro zone bluechips were little changed.

"In Europe, we're still not dealing with any higher interest rates, which should be benefiting the U.S. (banks) slightly in terms of net interest margin," Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets, said.

"That said we've still got the supportive QE helping, but yields are still low, which is not great for the banks."

Accendo Markets' van Dulken added that Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen had been very non-committal in her comments about both interest rates and the balance sheet.

Firmer metals prices underpinned gains on mining stocks.

Miners were led higher by steel firms Outokumpu , ArcelorMittal , and Tenaris which rose after U.S. President Donald Trump said that he was considering quotas and tariffs on Chinese steel dumping. Analysts at Barclays said that they remained positive on the European mining sector, which has gained just 4 percent so far this year after rallying more than 60 percent in 2016.

"Chinese rates are falling, demand indicators across the economy appear healthy, industry capex discipline is holding, M&A is generally off the agenda, and resulting strong cashflows are being utilised for balance sheet reconstruction and distributions to shareholders," Barclays analysts said in a note.

While a rise in bond yields has hit rate-sensitive sectors such as utilities , banking stocks have instead benefited and the sector was roughly flat as Swedish lender SEB jumped around 2 percent after its second-quarter profit topped forecasts. Other Nordic stocks were also in focus as Norwegian insurer Gjensidige slumped 6.5 percent to the bottom of the STOXX 600 after its second quarter results came in below forecasts. It was joined by Swedish construction group Skanksa , which dropped nearly 5 percent after it warned that its second-quarter profit would be hit by project writedowns in the U.S. and Britain. European earnings get underway in earnest only later this month. Overall, analyst are calling for about 9 percent year-on-year earnings growth for top European firms, compared to about 8 percent for the U.S., according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Global earnings growth ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Kit Rees, Editing by Vikram Subhedar and Toby Chopra)
NEW DELHI, July 14 (Reuters) - India's trade deficit narrowed more-than-expected to $12.96 billion in June as gold imports nearly halved from a month earlier, government data showed on Friday.

Economists in a Reuters poll had predicted that trade deficit would decline to $12.5 billion in June compared with a provisional $13.84 billion in the previous month.

Gold imports declined to $2.45 billion from almost $5 billion a month ago.

Merchandise exports for June came in at $23.56 billion, up 4.39 percent from a year ago. Goods imports for the month were $36.52 billion, up 19.01 percent from a year ago, data from the commerce and industry ministry showed.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Malini Menon)
ABIDJAN, July 14 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast will issue a three-year, 100 billion CFA franc ($172 million) bond on July 19, the West Africa debt planning agency AUT said late on Thursday. The bond, with a 5.7 percent coupon, will be sold in units of 10,000 CFA francs to investors across the region's eight-nation currency zone. ($1 = 579.8500 CFA francs)

(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Nellie Peyton and Alison Williams)

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.
PORT LOUIS, July 14 (Reuters) - The weighted average yield on Mauritius' 91-day Treasury bill fell to 1.97 percent at auction on Friday, the central bank said. The Bank of Mauritius sold all the 1.0 billion rupees ($29.22 million) worth of the 91-day notes it had offered and only 671.1 million rupees of 182-day papers from the 1.5 billion rupees on sale. Complete auction results were as follows: MATURITY 91-DAY 182-DAY WEIGHTED AVERAGE PRICE THIS AUCTION 99.511 98.998 LAST AUCTION 99.506 99.008 WEIGHTED AVERAGE YIELD (PCT) THIS AUCTION 1.97 2.03 LAST AUCTION 1.99 2.01 BIDS ACCEPTED (RUPEES) 1.0(BLN) 671(MLN)

($1 = 34.2200 Mauritius rupees)

(Reporting by Jean Paul Arouff; editing by Elias Biryabarema)

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.
July 14 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

- Uber said it had formed a partnership with Yandex NV . The companies will combine their ride-hailing businesses in Russia and other Eastern European countries under a new company valued at $3.4 billion. - An investment group led by Edwin Eisendrath and the Chicago Federation of Labor announced that it had acquired The Chicago Sun-Times. - Saudi Arabia wants to list 5 percent of Aramco, at a valuation of around $2 trillion, a listing that has set stock exchanges around the world competing against one another. - Toshiba Corp said that it had resumed talks with other bidders as the company had not reached a final agreement with the buyers it selected last month for the NAND business. - Vanguard said that its chief executive, F. William McNabb III, would step down. McNabb will be succeeded by Tim Buckley, its chief investment officer. (Reporting by Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru)
MOSCOW, July 14 (Reuters) - Ksenia Yudayeva, first deputy chairwoman of the Russian central bank, said on Friday there was scope for lowering the key rate, RIA news agency reported. After cutting the key rate three times so far this year, the central bank is set to hold another board meeting on rates on July 28. (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Maria Kiselyova)

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.
HANOI, July 14 (Reuters) - Following is a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official and unofficial markets, indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi and interbank offered rates at 0408 GMT.

July 14 USD/VND mid-point 22,445 USD/VND interbank 22,730/22,735 USD/VND unofficial 22,790/22,810 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.11/36.35

Interbank offered rates Overnight 1.2-1.8

1 week 1.4-1.8

1 month 2.3-2.8

3 months 3.7-4.2

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quoted from market sources.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co.

For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on .

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom; sEditing by Biju Dwarakanath)
COLOMBO, July 14 (Reuters) - The Sri Lankan rupee fell on Friday due to thin importer demand for the greenback, while dealers said dollar buying by the central bank prevented appreciation of the local currency.

The spot rupee was trading at 153.70/75 per dollar 0618 GMT, slightly weaker from Thursday's close of 153.65/70.

"There is some off-market importer demand. We do not see much importer demand because it is an off season. The rupee would have slightly appreciated if not for the central bank's dollar buying," said a currency dealer, asking not to be named.

Central bank officials were not immediately available for comments.

But on Wednesday, Deputy Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe told Reuters that the central bank has completely stopped defending the rupee unlike in the past. Weerasinghe in an interview with Reuters said the central bank has only been buying dollars since February, and not sold any at all.

He said the central bank does not see any pressure on the rupee and the currency is determined through market-driven demand and supply.

Weerasinghe added if the monetary authority does not intervene and buy, probably the rupee will appreciate and the central bank is "buying and preventing certain appreciation".

The market has priced in further depreciation due to the central bank's no-intervention policy, dealers said.

The rupee has been under pressure since early this year after the central bank stopped providing support for the currency at a time when the island nation faces a balance of payments crunch. It has fallen around 2.6 percent so far this year.

The spot rupee resumed trading on June 19 for the first time since May 5, when the central bank fixed its reference rate at 152.50.

Dealers said they expected seasonal demand for dollars to pick up from August.

The central bank is compelled to buy dollars from the market to meet the reserve target set by the International Monetary Fund under a $1.5 billion, three-year loan programme.

As of 0646 GMT, Sri Lankan shares were up 0.4 percent at 6,761.95, their highest since Jan 8, 2016. Turnover was 989.8 million rupees ($6.44 million).

($1 = 153.7000 Sri Lankan rupees)

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
ZURICH, July 14 (Reuters) - The Swiss blue-chip SMI was seen opening little changed on Friday, according to premarket indications by bank Julius Baer .

The following are some of the main factors expected to affect Swiss stocks:

RICHEMONT Richemont on Friday announced the immediate resignation of its watchmaking head Georges Kern, leaving a gap in the company's top talent as it presses forward with a turnaround in its watch business.

For more click on COMPANY STATEMENTS * Security group Dormakaba has bought Canadian firm Skyfold, a maker of vertically folding retractable walls, for C$109 million ($85.60 million). The Swiss group said it expects the purchase to positively impact its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin "from the first day on". * The board of EMS Chemie will this year propose a dividend of 17 Swiss francs ($17.59) per share after EMS reported a 5.8 percent rise in net operating income to 280 million francs in the first half of 2017. * Hearing aid maker Sonova's Franz Petermann, head of e-marketing and a member of the management board, will be leaving the company to pursue private investment and business endeavours, the group said late on Thursday. * Schlatter Industries expects net profit of 1.3 million Swiss francs for the first half of 2017, up from 0.1 million francs in the prior-year period. ECONOMY *

($1 = 1.2733 Canadian dollars) ($1 = 0.9667 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Zurich newsroom)

Daily Swiss stock market report in German................ All SMI constituent stocks............................ News on major Swiss stock price moves.................. FTSE Eurotop 300 index................................ DJ STOXX index........................................ Top 10 STOXX sectors............................. Top 10 EUROSTOXX sectors........................ Top 10 Eurotop 300 sectors....................... Top 25 European pct gainers... , losers... Swiss mid-cap index SMI futures Swiss all-share index Market statistics Swiss market digest Sector overview All Swiss news Swiss research news All equity news INTERNET ADDRESSES: Swiss Exchange / Eurex STOXX Ltd SPEED GUIDES: ))

Keywords: MARKETS SWISS STOCKS/
TAIPEI, July 14 (Reuters) - Taiwan auctioned T$25 billion ($822.77 million) in five-year government bonds at a yield of 0.783 percent, the central bank said on Friday. The result was in line with forecasts in a Reuters poll for a yield between 0.77 percent and 0.795 percent. ($1 = 30.3850 Taiwan dollars)

(Reporting by Jeanny Kao; Writing by J.R. Wu; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

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.
ISTANBUL, July 14 (Reuters) - Here are news, reports and events that may affect Turkish financial markets on Friday.

The lira stood at 3.5700 against the U.S. dollar at 0509 GMT, easing from 3.5651 at Thursday's close.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond was at 10.71 percent in spot trade on Thursday and was at the same level in Friday-dated trade.

The main BIST 100 share index rose 0.39 percent to 104,210.22 points on Thursday.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Global stocks scaled record highs on Friday, with Asian equities rising for the fifth straight session, as signs the Federal Reserve will pursue a gradual rate tightening path and hopes of a strong earnings season lifted appetite for risk assets. The MSCI World Index was almost 0.1 percent higher on Friday, just a whisker below an all-time intraday high hit earlier. It is on track to end the week 1.6 percent higher. ERDOGAN

President Tayyip Erdogan to take part in a panel about human rights and the attempted coup on July 15 last year (1200 GMT).

QATAR FOREIGN MINISTER

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani visits Turkey and holds talks and a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (0815 GMT). He will also meet President Erdogan (1400 GMT).

YILDIRIM

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to meet with senior media representatives (0800 GMT).

For other related news, double click on:

Turkish politics Turkish equities Turkish money Turkish debt Turkish hot stocks Forex news All emerging market news All Turkish news For real-time quotes, double click on:

Istanbul National-100 stock index , interbank lira trading , lira bond trading (Writing by Daren Butler)
July 14 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 index is seen opening 11 points higher at 7,424.7 on Friday, according to financial bookmakers.

* SKY/Twenty-First Century Fox: Rupert Murdoch is unlikely to offer any new concessions to protect the editorial independence of Sky , increasing the chance that the $15 billion takeover deal goes to a lengthy investigation, a person familiar with the situation said. * ANTOFAGASTA: Workers at the Zaldivar copper mine in Chile, owned by Antofagasta Plc and Barrick Gold Corp , will resume talks with Antofagasta after voting to strike earlier this week, the union said on Thursday. * JOHN LEWIS: John Lewis , Britain's largest department store operator, has seen a drop in demand for big ticket items as consumer confidence wanes, but trade in more spontaneous categories, such as beauty, was holding up, its boss said on Thursday. * The UK blue chip index ended the session 0.1 percent lower at 7,413.44 points on Thursday, with AstraZeneca weighing on the healthcare sector and BP and Royal Dutch Shell tracking crude prices lower.

* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets

* UK CORPORATE DIARY:

Newriver Reit PLC Q1 Trading Statement Release Hays PLC Q4 Trading Statement Release Workspace Group PLC Q1 Interim Management

Statement Release Ashmore Group PLC Q4 Asset Under Management

Statement Release

TODAY'S UK PAPERS

> Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit * For Top News : (Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru)
(Adds context, detail)

By Alice Gledhill

LONDON, July 14 (IFR) - James Marriott, head of financial institutions group debt capital markets at UBS for Europe, Middle East and Africa, is joining NatWest Markets, according to multiple sources.

Marriott will join NatWest Markets in October in a similar role and report into Harsh Shah, head of financial institutions origination & solutions. The appointment was confirmed by a NatWest Markets spokesperson.

He will be responsible for the UK lender's financial institutions capital markets business in EMEA, including securitisations, covered bonds and bank capital.

It is the latest in a series of recent financial institutions hires by NatWest Markets. Chris Agathangelou was hired from Nomura in late 2016 to run EMEA financial institutions bond syndicate.

Marriott was promoted to his role at UBS in September 2015.

Marriott was not available for comment. UBS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Alice Gledhill, editing by Alex Chambers, Julian Baker)
Tennessee sees gains for kids, ranking 35th in the nation for overall child well-being





NASHVILLE  Tennessees improvements for children in education, health and economic well-being placed the state at 35th, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundations 2017 KIDS COUNT Data Book, recently released.



The Data Book ranks states in measures of child well-being across four domains and within 16 indicators. The annual report provides data over a five-year period as well as year-to-year. Tennessee ranks 26th in health, 33rd in education, 35th in economic well-being and 40th in family and community in this years Data Book.



The 2017 KIDS COUNT Data Book reflects substantial progress during the administration of Governor Bill Haslam, said Linda ONeal, executive director of the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, the state KIDS COUNT affiliate.



The economic development and business recruitment gains contributed to economic well-being ranking improvements, ONeal said. The educational strategies related to the states Drive to 55 and Tennessee Promise have significantly contributed to improved outcomes for children and families, highlighting the importance of a two-generation strategy for the states long-term prosperity.



The state has begun to reap the benefits of Tennessee Promise, signed into law in 2014 to provide tuition-free community college or college of applied technology (TCAT). The free-tuition program has given a greater number of high school graduates the opportunity to pursue post-secondary education, and has reduced the number who are neither in school nor working.



The state is being recognized nationally for Building Strong Brains: Tennessees ACEs Initiative. These efforts, with support from the governor and first lady Crissy Haslam and funding by the legislature, are creating innovative strategies to prevent and mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).



Health continues to be the states highest ranking. During the 1990s, the state was on the forefront of health reform with the creation of the TennCare program. However, as other states have expanded coverage to their neediest working families, between 2010 and 2015 Tennessee dropped in ranking from ninth to 16th for children without health insurance.



Uncertainty about the future of health care coverage threatens the improvements the state has made in reducing the number of children who do not have health insurance, said ONeal. Tennessees failure to extend coverage to parents by leveraging federal Medicaid expansion funds still leaves 62,000 children without health care coverage.



In education, Tennessees children have improved in math and reading proficiency between 2010 and 2015. However, 61 percent of children ages 3 and 4 did not attend school between 2013 and 2015.



Addressing the states education ranking, ONeal added, We commend the states commitment to improving the quality of its pre-K programs. Efforts are also needed to expand quality pre-K so more children have opportunities to develop critical social, emotional and cognitive skills during the early years.



Published July 13, 2017
By Park Si-soo



Fans of South Korea's top actor Song Joong-ki donated 17 million won ($14,900) to help elderly women who were forced into prostitution for Japanese troops during World War II.

The money was given to the House of Sharing in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, a shelter for survivors of the tragic war crime, euphemistically called "comfort women." It was to celebrate the release of the actor's new movie "Battleship Island" later this month.

The film, a historical flick set on Japan's Hashima Island, the site of a forced labor camp during the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial era, tells the story of 400 Korean workers who risked their lives in an attempt to escape.

Song wore a small chair-shaped badge on his upper-left chest at the movie's premiere on June 15 to express his sympathy for comfort women. The chair symbolizes the women.

In October 2016, Song donated 20 million won to the shelter while filming the movie.
By Chyung Eun-ju, Park Si-soo

South Korea's biggest annual queer festival begins in Seoul Friday evening for a 10-day run.

Nearly 100 human rights groups, embassies, companies and pro-LGBT university clubs will set up booths at the 18th Korea Queer Culture Festival (KQCF)'s main venue of Seoul Plaza, hosting a variety of events promoting the rights of sexual minorities. The National Human Rights Commission will join the festival for the first time.

The U.S. Embassy in Seoul has clarified its support for the event by raising a rainbow flag on its building Thursday.

Many events are planned to jazz up the mood, including the "Queer Parade" on Saturday and the "Queer Movie Festival" at Lotte Cinema in Sinsa-dong, southern Seoul, on July 20-23.












Union, residents vow to stage all-out protest

By Lee Hyo-sik

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power's (KHNP) board members voted Friday to suspend the construction of reactors 5 and 6 at the Shin Kori Nuclear Power Plant, fueling a dispute over the government's push to phase out nuclear power.

KHNP CEO Lee Kwan-seop and 12 other board members met at the Suites Hotel in Gyeongju, South Gyeongsang Province, at 8:30 a.m. Friday. They approved the suspension of the construction project until an ad hoc committee, consisting of private sector experts, reaches a consensus on the future of the two reactors.

The directors decided to halt the scheme for three months after the formation of the committee. They also agreed to meet again and decide what to do if the committee fails to reach a decision.

The gathering, which lasted for an hour and a half, was organized at the hotel, not at KHNP headquarters, which has been surrounded by hundreds of union workers since early Thursday.

Of the 13 directors, 12 voted for the suspension, while Cho Sung-jin, a professor at Kyungsung University's department of energy science in Busan, alone voted against it, according to the KHNP report.

The report said Cho opposed suspending the Shin Kori construction, arguing against it by citing his research knowhow and expertise in the fields of nuclear power and renewable energy.

KHNP had initially planned to hold the board meeting at 3 p.m. Thursday but the seven outside directors weren't able to take part as unionized workers physically stopped them from entering the building.












By Yoon Ja-young

The government is pondering its strategic options following the United States' official demand for a revision of the U.S-Korea free trade agreement (KORUS FTA).

But experts say Korea should take an aggressive stance, demanding revisions it needs, as well as defending itself.

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) this week officially demanded the start of the revision process "to remove barriers to U.S. trade and consider needed amendments to the agreement."

Korea has focused on contradicting U.S. President Donald Trump's unfair trade allegations, suggesting the U.S. may be actually gaining more than Korea from the free trade deal. For instance, U.S. car exports to Korea surged 37.1 percent following the FTA, which is three times more than the 12.4 percent increase in Korea's automobile exports to the U.S. The government also cites research that suggests the KORUS FTA is not the cause of the U.S. deficit.

However, experts say Korea should be more aggressive, taking the revision as an opportunity to get concessions from the U.S on issues that have been negatively affecting Korea.

The U.S. abuse of anti-dumping measures may be one of them.

"Korean firms have been suffering from the U.S. anti-dumping measures," said Hyun Jung-taik, president of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP). "Korea should demand that the anti-dumping measures be transparent."

The U.S. has been aggressively taking anti-dumping action. Last month, it started three anti-dumping probes targeting Korea. It also began a market "safeguard" probe on solar panels and washing machines.












By Kim Jae-kyoung

South Korea should use the North Korean nuclear issue as leverage to get the upper hand in talks to adjust the free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States, analysts said Friday.

They said President Moon Jae-in should pursue a strategy to keep both the U.S. and China competing for their own interests in the resolution of North Korea's problem so it can benefit South Korea in trade negotiations.

"U.S. President Donald Trump really needs South Korea to deal with North Korea, especially given China's cold reaction to Trump's needs, and this clearly gives Korea the upper hand," said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Natixis.

She believes Moon is trying to play both sides after the severe consequences of THAAD but he should stick with the U.S. for a while until the FTA is renegotiated.

"Moon can also pay attention to the U.S.-China mini-trade deal and learn that small concessions can make a big difference to Trump," she said. "As a good populist, he needs a headline more than a solution."

In this regard, it is important to identify areas where Trump and his administration seek to increase exports.

Analysts said the energy sector is the area where both nations can find a win-win solution in FTA renegotiations.

"The U.S. wants to export energy. Korea should finance gas liquefaction plants in the U.S. and import LNG," independent economist Andy Xie told The Korea Times.

"Also, the agricultural market should be opened up completely to U.S imports. If Korea does these two things, the Trump administration will be satisfied."

Tara O, an adjunct fellow at the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), echoed Xie's view, saying importing shale gas from the U.S. could be an alternative solution.

"South Korea is already importing energy, and buying it from the U.S. would be a win-win situation," she said.

"It is important to find mutually beneficial situations that boost the national interests of both countries and strengthen the blood-forged alliance."












By Jung Min-ho

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) opened an office in Almaty, the largest metropolis of Kazakhstan, Friday, as part of its efforts to tap into new markets.

According to the KTO, the new office will be in charge of promoting Korea's culture, values and products to the Central Asian country and others in the region such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.

The KTO said it invited government officials, local travel agents and journalists to the ceremony to celebrate the opening.

The KTO believes Kazakhstan is a great potential market. About 34,000 of its citizens visited Korea last year, up nearly 30 percent from the previous year. Many of them were big spenders.

KTO international marketing director Park Jung-ha said the office there will be the base for its promotional activities tapping the great economic potential of the region.
"Understanding the North Korean Regime" by Atsuhito Isozaki

By Choi Yearn-hong

I am anxious to read any book or monograph that will help me understand the incomprehensible North Korean regime. How many people in the world can understand the totalitarian country ruled by one family over 70 years since 1945? Under that family rule, many people have starved to death, as the government funded heavy arms development programs, from those for nuclear warheads to intercontinental missiles.

The Woodrow Wilson Center released a monograph authored by one of its scholars, Atsuhito Isozaki, who is also affiliated with Keio University in Japan. His proposition is as follows: North Korea's military-first policy, set up by Kim Jong-il, is a necessary condition of the third-generation hereditary rule over North Korea. In addition to Kim Il-sung's Juche ideology, Kim Jong-il established the so-called Sungun policy that made possible the National Defense Commission and its chairman's control of North Korea ultimately. To validate his proposition, Atsuhito used North Korean primary resources, Japanese documents and South Korean reports and scholarly papers on North Korea. He seems to be a young promising scholar on North Korean affairs.

It is interesting for Atsuhito to borrow fellow Japanese scholar Ayako Masuhara's model of personal rule in North Korea. According to the author, "personal rule" was made possible by the North Korean Constitutional Amendment with the party-led military-first policy. Personal rule relies on state violence or violence by the state, and constant surveillance of people by the party cell leaders in all organizations, from elementary schools to colleges, collective farms and factories, military organizations, and towns and counties. The education and indoctrination of the Juche and Sungun ideologies of people, from young children to adults in all walks of life, have been shaping the North Korean regime for over 70 years, without the threats of a revolution or military coup d'etat.

It seems that the Workers Party and the National Defense Commission rule the country. However, only the supreme leader rules both the party and the commission, which glorify the revolutionary bloodline as the most legitimate succession of power.

I tend to agree with the personal rule, from Kim Il-sung to his son, Kim Jong-il, and then to his grandson, Kim Jong-un. However, I do not necessarily agree with the author's view of the Confucian tradition supporting the personal rule over three generations. Confucius never mentioned and justified the three-generation rule over such a long period of time. It may be true that the dark age of the Joseon Kingdom, the Japanese colonial rule over Korea, and the totalitarian rule by the Stalin-like dictatorship after the Liberation in 1945 did not provide a bright light to the North Korean people, so that they have been accepting the hereditary rule supported by the Workers Party and the National Defense Commission. Freedom of thought is not allowed, and complete control of mind continues. Freedom of travel is not allowed in North Korea, worse than in the Joseon Kingdom, in which people could freely move from town to another. North Korean people need a permit to travel outside of their hometown. Visiting Pyongyang is a celebratory experience of a lifetime to most country people. I heard that story from a North Korean defector and a movie director who settled in South Korea and who visited Washington last year.

This research monograph emphasized the international situational factors that do not effectively regulate the North Korean nuclear program. They were ineffective. The United States and South Korea asked, relied and expected China's intervention in denuclearizing North Korea. However, China never intended to curb North Korea's nuclear ambition until most recently. I still have some doubts on China's role in this matter. The United States could not press North Korea due to its Middle East priority. South Korea had a wishful thinking on China's role to control North Korea's nuclear program but never plotted a regime change. The Washington Post editorials have advocated a regime change as the only solution to North Korea's nuclear development program.

Atsuhito used North Korean daily newspaper Rodong Sinmun and monthly magazine Kulloja, among other materials, for his research paper. They are no doubt useful primary sources. However, North Korean daily and monthly publications are all propaganda materials. In this research work, I do not see much about North Korean defectors who witnessed the shaky ground of Kim Jong-un's power. The author claimed to have uses U.S. and Russian military documents that were disclosed after a certain time period, but I did not see those, either. I am sure that South Korean materials are more readily available from North Korean defectors, including high-level diplomats and government officials. In addition, Chinese information on North Korean affairs is now open to the outside world. I wonder whether the author used all the best available information for this research project.

I hope more scholarly works will be done for the demise of North Korea, or at least regime change. Why? The North Korean regime has been committing crimes against humanity. I met one Columbia-educated historian who predicted the demise of North Korea in the next 30 years. Thirty years is too long a time to wait!

Dr. Choi is a retired political scientist with a long teaching career in the United States and Korea.
By Yi Whan-woo

Speculation is growing that the Donald Trump administration may soon demand talks to press South Korea to bear a greater share in the cost of keeping American troops here.

This comes after the U.S. officially requested talks with South Korea this week to revise the bilateral free trade agreement, referring to the "growing trade imbalance."

The overhaul of Seoul's "free ride" on the U.S. military was President Donald Trump's major campaign promise, along with renegotiation of the "job-killing" Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (KORUS FTA).

The U.S. demand on Wednesday to form a special joint committee for talks on the trade deal means Seoul's logic to prevent the renegotiation did not work, according to analysts Friday.

South Korea has argued that the U.S trade deficit with South Korea, which Washington claimed more than doubled after the KORUS FTA took effect in 2011, is not high compared with other countries.

Citing U.S. government data, the Seoul government said China accounted for 69 percent of the U.S. trade deficit while South Korea only accounted for 5.5 percent in 2016.

Given this climate, the Trump administration is unlikely to be convinced by South Korea's argument that it spends a larger percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP) on security than many other countries where the U.S. military is stationed, the experts said.

Seoul paid 944.1 billion won ($832 million) in 2016 and 932 billion won in 2015.












By Yi Whan-woo



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday it asked the prosecution to investigate its diplomat accused of sexually assaulting a female staff member at the Korean Embassy in Ethiopia.



It also said it will hold a disciplinary hearing separately next week to decide what punitive actions should be taken against the suspect. The ministry did not disclose further details about him.



The measures came after the internal oversight inspectors at the ministry questioned him from Thursday to Friday over allegations he raped a junior administrative staff member at the embassy, July 8.



"The proof we obtained and testimony from the victim were sufficient to prove the allegations of the suspect's crime although he denied them all," a ministry official said. "The ministry asked the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to look into him with the victim's consent."



Headed by First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam, the disciplinary committee will include deputy ministers and private experts.



The possible punishments are expulsion, relegation and suspension from jobs. The suspect can also be reprimanded or face a salary reduction as a lighter punishment.



The suspect allegedly invited the victim, a contract employee, out for dinner at a local restaurant for "helping him out" with his work.



They drank three bottles of wine at dinner before she passed out, was taken to the suspect's home and was sexually assaulted, according to the ministry.



The suspect and the victim returned to Seoul on Wednesday and Tuesday, respectively.



The case follows a series of sex offenses involving the ministry officials over the past few years despite the ministry's zero tolerance policy of such offenses.



Calling the latest sexual assault case "deplorable," Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha ordered the chiefs of all diplomatic missions abroad to seriously observe discipline about appropriate conduct.



She said she will also consider possible measures to tighten discipline throughout the ministry and at overseas diplomatic missions.




New Defense Minister Song Young-moo, left, takes over the flag of the Ministry of National Defense from his predecessor Han Min-koo during his inauguration ceremony at the ministry in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul, Friday. / Yonhap



By Yi Whan-woo

New Defense Minister Song Young-moo vowed to reform the military, Friday, heralding a sweeping turnaround in the country's armed forces excessively dominated by the Army.

"Defense reform should not be delayed for any reason," he said during his inauguration ceremony at the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul. "We should also go beyond mere defense reform and newly build the armed forces so we can win the people's trust."

Replacing Han Min-koo, Song, a former chief of naval operations, took office as President Moon Jae-in seeks to fight corruption in arms acquisition, root out ill practices such as bullying, reduce the period of mandatory military service and downsize the military.

Song cited a need for self-defense, which also the President has stressed in his plan for speeding up the return of wartime operational control (OPCON) from the United States to the South Korean military.

"The security situation on the Korean Peninsula is grave than ever," he said.

"In this environment, we should pass down a strong military capable of self-defense and also of protecting the country's destiny to our future generations."

He said the Kim Jong-un regime's advancement of its nuclear program is a threat not only to regional but also to world peace. He warned that the regional powers are competing with one another to take initiatives in the economy and military.

"Our military should have power to deter any North Korean threats while helping our neighbors in a reciprocal manner."

Song is the country's 45th defense minister. Most of his predecessors were former retired Army generals.
State prosecutors on Friday raided several offices of the Korea Aerospace Industries Co. (KAI), the country's sole aircraft manufacturer, on allegations of corruption in a defense project.



Investigators from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office searched the KAI headquarters in Sacheon, 437 kilometers south of Seoul, and its office in Seoul for evidence related to the allegations that it manipulated development funds and pocketed illicit gains in the process.



"We cannot tell you about specific charges or what is being investigated for now, but we are comprehensively looking at various issues, including the allegations of illicit gains from the development cost," a prosecution official said, declining to be named.



The raid came as the Moon Jae-in government has vowed to stamp out deep-seated corruption in the defense industry, long blamed for eroding the country's military capabilities.



KAI has been involved in various defense projects, including the development of the Surion utility helicopter and T-50 trainer jet.



In 2015, state auditors found KAI pocketed illicit money by inflating expenses in the development of the helicopter. (Yonhap)




The headquarters of the Korea Aerospace Industries in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province / Yonhap



Fight against the enemies within' has begun

By Jung Min-ho

Prosecutors searched the offices of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), Friday, on corruption allegations in aircraft development projects.

According to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, dozens of investigators searched the defense company's headquarters in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, and its Seoul office over allegations it inflated product development costs to reap greater profits.

This came amid high expectations for President Moon Jae-in's pledge to root out corruption in the nation's military.

Investigators have confiscated accounting documents, computer hard disks and the mobile phones of KAI officials, but they did not specify suspects or their charges.

The latest clue came out in 2015, when the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) revealed KAI officials illegally acquired 54.7 billion won ($48 million) by inflating development costs for the Surion helicopter. Based on the fake costs, the BAI noted, they set up their own firms outside the company and took taxpayers' money through business contracts with KAI.

"We are not investigating one specific target. We are looking into all the allegations brought up against the company," a prosecution official said.

One of the suspects may be KAI President and CEO Ha Sung-yong, who is accused of having embezzled the company's money and bribed some aides of disgraced former President Park Geun-hye.

Prosecutors have reportedly secured clues suggesting a dodgy connection between him and three former presidential secretaries  Ahn Bong-geun, Jung Ho-sung and Lee Jae-man.

If prosecutors collect strong evidence of the bribery allegation, the investigation may expand  again  to key officials of the Park administration.

Ha and several other top-ranking KAI officials have been banned from traveling overseas during the investigation. They are expected to face questioning soon.

KAI, the country's sole aircraft manufacturer, has been involved in various defense-related projects, including the Surion, T-50 supersonic trainer jet and FA-50 light attack fighter.

A KAI official denied all the allegations, saying none of its business deals were illegal.

Since the 1950-53 Korean War, the nation's military has fought two enemies mainly: one is the rancorous regime in the North and the other is corruption which has been weakening its defenses.

Eradicating corruption in the military was one of the key promises of President Moon, who knows of rampant illegal business practices in the weapons acquisition sectors and the public's fatigue toward such news.
By Chyung Eun-ju

A U.S. Air Force solider was arrested for allegedly raping a Korean woman. The accused belongs to the U.S. Air Force base in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, according to the Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office, Friday.

The soldier allegedly raped the woman who he met at a night club in Seoul on April 1. She was said to be drunken at that time. Police launched an investigation into the case after the woman reported to police, saying "I think I was raped."

The U.S. solider denies rape allegations, claiming they had consensual sex.
Courtesy of Incheon City

By Chyung Eun-ju

Incheon has produced a city guidebook for foreign visitors in three languages.

The book, available in English, Chinese and Japanese, contains information about the city's key tourist attractions, restaurants and accommodation.

Incheon, west of Seoul, is home to numerous tourist attractions, including the nation's biggest China Town, an amusement park in Wolmido and the landing sites for United Nations forces during the 1950-53 Korean War.

The book is available free from various places, including accommodation venues, tourist information centers, major restaurants and tour agencies.

The book was published to meet increasing demand for tourist information in foreign languages.

Incheon had 1.068 million foreign visitors last year, up 19 percent from 899,000 in 2015, according to data from Incheon City and its tourism office.

An Incheon official said the book will "allow foreigners to have a more joyful and comfortable time in Incheon."
By Rachel Lee

The Lane Victory



A private group set up in 2013 to have the S.S. Lane Victory returned from the U.S. said Friday it has decided to create a nonprofit organization for the project.

If it succeeds, the ship would be displayed at a memorial park here, the group said.

Around 7,000 Koreans boarded the Lane Victory in the Hungnam Evacuation in late 1950, the largest U.S. military evacuation of civilians. Among them were President Moon Jae-in's parents.

Yun Kyung-won, a retired Marine Corps general who heads the group, said the ship is anchored at a port near Los Angeles and is being used as a war museum. But it has faced difficulties since the U.S. government's support for its operation ended.

The group expects about 5 billion won would be needed to take over the ship. It plans to solicit the government and the private sector to secure the money.

Yun said the group is considering sending the ship to Geoje Island, where the refugees disembarked. The ship would be part of a memorial park to remind visitors of the miracle of the evacuation and the importance of peace.

After talking with its U.S. counterpart, the group said a takeover of the ship is likely to proceed smoothly.

Along with the Lane Victory, the Meredith Victory, known for the largest humanitarian rescue operation by a single ship, saved 14,000 people during the evacuation. But it was sold to China in 1993 and scrapped.

There are concerns the Lane Victory could suffer the same fate, Yun said.

During President Moon's visit to the U.S. last month, he expressed gratitude for U.S. and U.N. soldiers who made the Hungnam Evacuation possible, in which U.S. soldiers abandoned their weapons to carry more civilians.

"Sixty-seven years ago, the U.S. soldiers sacrificed their lives for a country and people they never knew and never met," Moon said during a visit to a memorial commemorating the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia.

"Two years later, I was born on Geoje Island, where the Victory had dropped the people off. Without the soldiers and without the evacuation, I wouldn't be here."

In the December 1950 evacuation, 193 ships rescued about 91,000 civilians and 105,000 soldiers trapped in Hungnam Harbor of South Hamgyong Province in North Korea.
By Choi Ha-young





Jeong Hye-yeon

Jeong Hye-yeon, who came out as a lesbian years ago, has been elected as a deputy chief of the minor opposition Justice Party.

It is the first known instance of a sexual minority politician joining the leadership of a political party in South Korea.

Sexual minority groups hailed Jeong's election, expressing hopes she will help reduce prejudices and disadvantages facing them.

"As a politician, my main goal is to promote diversity," the 29-year-old Jeong told The Korea Times, Friday, in her first media interview since her victory early this week.

"Not only homosexuals, but heterosexuals actively took part in the sexual minorities committee of the Justice Party and we socialized together, not asking each others' sexual orientations," she said.

Jeong became one of the three deputy chiefs of the party, earning 1,667 votes, equivalent to 13.74 percent of the support at the party convention.

"It was such a surprising result for me because I'm not in the mainstream," she said. "I think my stance to pursue diversity and mutual respect, between party members with distinct ideologies, appealed to many party members. Even if I am a lesbian, I've always kept in touch with those opposing same-sex marriage, and persuaded them to join the committee. To make this party bigger and broader, I pledged to remove barriers between citizens and existing party members."

The Justice Party, formerly led by the party's presidential candidate Sim Sang-jung, emerged in the presidential election in May to prominence. The party with six seats became a serious political player with its forward-looking welfare policy and proactive advocacy for social minorities, including homosexuals.












By Doug Bandow





A week after Presidents Donald Trump and Moon Jae-in met for the first time in Washington, North Korea tested another missile. There is no simple solution.

President Moon advocates engagement with North Korea. America's president dismissed the value of the U.S.-South Korea alliance while talking of both bombing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and meeting its leader, Kim Jong-un.

Both sides offered a sunny description of the summit's outcome. Even before arriving in the U.S. President Moon minimized differences between the two. However, tensions may grow dramatically as they consider policy toward the DPRK.

Already President Trump has expressed his displeasure at President Moon's reluctance to move ahead with the THAAD missile defense system, after declaring that the ROK should pay a billion dollars for it. Any attempt by the Moon government to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex or offer aid to the North would trigger a confrontation with Washington. Trump administration threats to attack the DPRK, which could engulf the peninsula in war, would threaten to rupture relations from the other direction.

Unfortunately, the allies have no good options. Preventative airstrikes would be reckless. Tougher sanctions would require China's cooperation to be effective. Negotiation would be hopeless if focused on denuclearization.

I visited the DPRK roughly three weeks ago. The North Koreans with whom I spoke unequivocally dismissed any willingness to abandon their nuclear program through negotiation.

They blamed Washington for Pyongyang's decision to develop nuclear weapons. America has been following a "hostile policy" highlighted by "military threats" and "nuclear threats." U.S. aggression and regime change were evident in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There's obviously more hereNorth Korean behavior is important in assessing allied policybut the Kim dynasty reasonably fears the threat of regime change. And Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy's experience after negotiating away his missile and nuclear programs, is sufficient to dissuade most anyone from trusting the Trump administration's assurances that it is not interested in regime change.

As the DPRK expands the size of its nuclear arsenal as well as the reach of its missiles, it will eventually create a deterrent against U.S. military intervention. If Pyongyang has a reasonable chance of destroying even a couple of American cities, Washington's defense commitment to the South becomes dramatically riskier. Any U.S. military involvement could prompt retaliation.

This situation would weaken the alliance, perhaps fatally. U.S. security interests in the Korean peninsula after the Cold War are modest. Nothing there warrants Washington risking a nuclear attack on the American homeland. Thus, the U.S. would have to reconsider its commitment, especially since the South is well able to defend itself conventionally.

At the same time, Seoul could not help but wonder if America would live up to any security commitment when the result could be a nuclear strike on the U.S. homeland. The ROK couldn't count on America, no matter how many promises the latter made.

What to do? The two nations' presidents should rethink the status quo.

For instance, Washington could phase out its troop presence and security commitment. After more than six decades, the South should take over responsibility for its defense. With 40 times the GDP and twice the population, the ROK should have left America's defense dole long ago.

More important, U.S. disengagement would take America off of North Korea's target list. The North is seeking to deter the U.S. by threatening retaliation, not attract the U.S. by planning aggression. Pyongyang's interest in America would fall dramatically. If Washington exited the Korean confrontation, America would no longer loom large in Pyongyang's affairs.

While Seoul could create a conventional military capable of deterring and defeating that of the DPRK, the latter's possession of nukes would still give it a dramatic military advantage. Thus, with America's backing South Korea should restart the nuclear program shut down under U.S. pressure a half century ago.

The situation would be hardly ideal, but the U.S. would no longer find itself at nuclear risk in between the two hostile Koreas. At the same time, the South's security would not be dependent on America's dubious promise to risk the destruction of its homeland. Moreover, the mere prospect of nuclear weapons spreading not just to the South but also Japan would encourage China to take a more active role in limiting the North's nuclear arsenal.

Today's U.S.-South Korea alliance is outdated. Seoul and Washington should start discussing unconventional alternatives.





Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He is the author of "Tripwire: Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World" and co-author of "The Korean Conundrum: America's Troubled Relations with North and South Korea."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was humiliated with another sexual harassment scandal involving one of its officers earlier this week.



The ministry said Thursday a diplomat at the Korean Embassy in Ethiopia was summoned for questioning after receiving reports he sexually assaulted a female administrative staffer at the embassy. Internal inspectors found the offender took the female official to his home and raped her after having dinner and wine with her.



The case comes only nine months after a senior officer at the Korean Embassy in Chile caused a public uproar after video footage of him sexually abusing a minor was broadcast on local TV and uploaded on YouTube. A Korean ambassador in the Middle East was also found to have sexually harassed an embassy staffer last year.



These cases show there is something fundamentally wrong with the ministry's response to sexually misbehaving employees.



It is particularly shocking that the latest case occurred less than a month after Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha took office on June 19 vowing to bring bold reforms to transform the ministry's culture. She was reportedly enraged after learning about the incident and ordered a thorough investigation.



The foreign ministry is led by a woman for the first time. The ministry has a higher number of female employees than the other ministries. As a woman, Kang should pay keen attention to protecting female officers abroad from sexual abuse and do a better job than her predecessors in rooting out sexual offenses by diplomats.



Kang should implement various countermeasures, such as regular inspections of embassy ethics and behavior and sexual abuse prevention training before sending officers to overseas missions. Also, anyone at the ministry who sexually abuses their colleagues and others should face strong punishment including dismissal.



There are 183 Korean embassies worldwide and the people who work at them represent Korea to the world. They need to behave themselves at all times.




Parties should focus on passing urgent bills swiftly



President Moon Jae-in's 11.2 trillion won ($9.74 billion) supplementary budget plan has gained momentum after being held back by the National Assembly.



The Assembly's budget committee convened Friday to review the government's supplementary budget bill, which is primarily aimed at alleviating youth unemployment by generating jobs in the public sector and supporting smaller companies that hire young people. The meeting was made possible after the opposition parties decided to end their boycott of parliamentary activities over their objection to some of Moon's controversial Cabinet picks and the legality of the extra budget bill.



Their decision came after Cheong Wa Dae made some conciliatory gestures toward the opposition parties Thursday. The controversial Labor Minister-designate Cho Dae-yop voluntarily renounced the nomination after disputes over his alleged past wrongdoings. It is the second time for one of Moon's minister nominees to withdraw after Ahn Kyong-whan, nominated for justice minister.



The President also sent his chief of staff Im Jong-seok to the People's Party to apologize for remarks by ruling party leader Choo Mi-ae that offended the second-largest opposition party. The chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) had earlier accused the People's Party of protecting its senior members suspected of having played a key role in a smear campaign against then-DPK candidate Moon with falsified information. The People's Party has claimed the party leadership had nothing to do with the fabrication scandal.



However, it is regrettable that Moon appointed Song Young-moo as defense minister who was rejected by opposition parties after confirmation hearings due to ethical lapses, including his close ties to the defense industry.



Cheong Wa Dae's concessions should be an occasion for normalizing the Assembly. Parties should put aside their differences and focus on pressing bills, including those for the supplementary budget and government restructuring.



Given the devastating youth unemployment, the opposition parties should recognize the urgency of the extra budget bill and cooperate for its swift passage. Also the looming amendment to the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement highlights the need to quickly establish a control tower for trade policies. For this, the bill for government restructuring needs to be passed soon to set up a ministerial-level trade bureau within the industry ministry.



It has been more than two months since Moon took office, but he has not been able to fully form his first Cabinet. Among 17 ministries, four ministers have yet to be appointed. This is primarily due to Cheong Wa Dae's weak personnel verification system. Cheong Wa Dae should thoroughly check the backgrounds, including career and personal history, of future Cabinet picks before making an announcement. This is necessary to weed out substandard nominees and expedite parliamentary confirmation.



The public strongly supports the President, but their approval alone will not be enough for him to manage state affairs. Moon needs support from the National Assembly to push through his reform agenda. Therefore, Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling party should continue to be the first to reach out to the opposition, which controls a majority in the 300-seat legislature.








By Hyon O'Brien





One of our nephews recently retired from the U.S. Air Force after 23 years of service. We flew into St. Louis, Missouri to attend the ceremony and join a small family gathering. It was a real eye-opener to participate in the special event done in proper military fashion: a bagpiper, a general's speech and loads of awards and medals followed by the Air Force band's formal musical send-off. We were glad to witness this proud moment in David's life.

We spent the next seven days roaming in a great circle starting at the renowned Gateway Arch, traveling through Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois before returning to St. Louis for the trip home. I was glad to visit Nebraska as I was able to tick off one more State on my life-list. Now I have only four States left to visit in order to complete the entire United States: Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Oklahoma. Maybe next year we can have another road trip to finish off my list.

One of the highlights of this road trip was visiting Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain (1835-1910) spent his childhood: his childhood home and museum were filled with information about his life and we got to watch Ken Burns' excellent documentary on him, which brought tears to our eyes. Why? In the film, we were vividly reminded of Huckleberry Finn's moral struggle regarding the runaway slave, Jim. When confronted with the choice of doing the "moral" thing by reporting Jim's whereabouts to the authorities (as he was the escaped property of Widow Douglas's sister), or of going to hell for assisting Jim escape to freedom, Huck finally declares himself willing to go to hell for his friend. That friendship meant a great deal more to Huck than going to heaven.

Upon our return, I re-read the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." After 50 years, I realized I had forgotten most of the storyline, as well as the frustrations I had had as a college student reading the book due to Mark Twain's decision to quote Jim's and Huck Finn's uneducated speech by accurately writing in their ungrammatical dialects. But I am glad I soldiered on. It was one of the most moving books I've read in years. I thought about it for many days, contemplating what led Huck Finn to decide to go to hell for Jim.

Throughout the book, I noticed Jim's attentiveness to Huck: his affection for Huck was so great that when it was Huck's turn to be awake and be on guard on the raft going down the Mississippi River, Jim continued his watch letting Huck sleep. Jim's appreciation of Huck was constantly expressed: he emphasized that Huck was his best friend, one and only. Huck also developed a deep affection and appreciation for Jim during their time together running away from home, for him, and from bondage, for Jim. So it is not rocket science to predict that at the moment of choice Huck would do the right thing according to his heart rather than according to the law.

What about other characters in literature in whom attention, affection and appreciation were particularly strong traits? I thought of the father-daughter relationship depicted in "To Kill a Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee (1926-2016). Atticus Finch's tender, attentive, loving, gentle understanding treatment of his daughter, Scout, together with his noble defense of an innocent black man wrongfully accused of a crime, won over my heart easily.

In "Anne of Green Gables" by Canadian author Lucy Maude Montgomery (1874-1942), we get to see the mutual affection and appreciation growing among adoptive parents Marilla and Matthew and the orphaned girl Anne as they weave each day around Anne's passionate participation in her new life with the unbounded energy of youth. Their caring affection for Anne, whom they ultimately adopt, engages us to stay with the story to watch the three of them become one strong family.

What's the secret of the lasting impact of these three books? Why do they penetrate our minds and hearts and linger there for years? I believe it is partially because we love seeing Huck Finn and Jim, Atticus and Scout Finch, and Anne Shirley with Marilla and Matthew, being genuinely good, caring people. We love their triumphant moments as they overcome obstacles to stay good and loving to each other. We applaud their victories because they inspire us to do the same in our everyday life. Indeed, it should be our most important aim in life to be attentive, affectionate and appreciative. "I love you" and "thank you" should be shown through our deeds and actions at every chance we get.

Gail Sheehy (1937- ) put it more eloquently: "We have to move from the unbridled pursuit of self-gain at the expense of others to recovering appreciation for what we gain by caring and sharing with one another."





Hyon O'Brien is a former reference librarian now living in the United States. She can be reached at hyonobrien@gmail.com.
By Oh Young-jin



President Moon Jae-in's "successful" summit with U.S. President Donald Trump ironically shows the tenuous state of the ROK-U.S. alliance.



The highlight of Moon's visit that captivated Trump and other Americans was his emotional speech of appreciation for Americans at the statue to memorize the fighting retreat by U.S. Marines from the Chosin Reservoir in the early stages of the 1950-53 Korean War.



American troops were hounded by the Chinese and retreated through the port of Heungnam from Dec. 15 to 24, 1950. They took enormous risks to take along thousands of Korean refugees in what is also known as "the Christmas gift."



Old American veterans were moved to see President Moon, the son of parents who fled onboard one of U.S. evacuation ships. Hosting politicians felt proud to see a head of state in Moon, who was grateful for the sacrifice of their fathers.



But what lies beneath this show of rapport is the reality of their gaping differences.



The South has grown bigger economically and stronger to the point of becoming totally different from what it was during the conflict more than 60 years ago.



As an adult nation, Korea needs its own space and has its own needs. Moon could be the last leader to go the extra mile in thanking the U.S. for its help. It can't be ruled out that he himself has to reverse his stance before his five-year term ends.



Domestic politics was one motivation for Moon's effusive expression of thankfulness. Moon had prepared for his Washington trip fearing that if anything went wrong in his meeting with Trump, he would take a drubbing from his conservative foes, who have accused the leftist leader of being soft on the North. The foes are kept at bay and his popularity is at an enviable high.



He needed Trump's endorsement for latitude to push for reconciliation with the North in his own way.



Trump is unpredictable talking one day about talking with the North's leader Kim Jong-un and the next day about using force to force him to give up his nuclear weapons and missiles. Meanwhile, the North's capability in delivering a nuclear payload on an intercontinental ballistic missile to the U.S. is growing by leaps and bounds. Trump's capability of finding a solution is questionable.



Moon is a politician of conviction. He wants to change the status quo.



He is a believer in the diplomacy of equidistance to create a role for Korea as a regional balancer of power. Moon inherited it from his friend and mentor, the late President Roh Moo-hyun. His desire of unification surely exceeds his commitment to the alliance. One way or another, his tendencies will come out.



Moon has played his two conflicting roles well.



In Washington, he gained Trump's trust. On the basis of it, he proposed discussing a peace treaty through an inter-Korean summit to replace the current armistice. Moon's proposal was made lackluster because it followed the tension-raising long-range missile test by the North.



But his peace regime proposal is significant and precedent-setting. Seoul and Washington have long opposed it, dismissing it as a ruse by China and the North to drive Americans off the Korean Peninsula. He made his German proposal with the license he won from Trump.



Also in Germany where the G20 summit took place, Moon had his first summit with China's President Xi Jinping. The two failed to resolve the dispute over Seoul's deployment of an anti-missile battery, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). But not being properly noted is the Moon-Xi understanding to normalize their strained relations where they can. It shows they will not allow their ties to get bogged down by the THAAD issue. Moon knows where power is shifting.



China's growing influence will surely make Moon think whether there is any other way of promoting his goals of ensuring lasting peace. Encouraging him is the decline of U.S. leadership in full display.



In the G20 meeting, the U.S. was relegated to one of a group of leading nations in a demotion from the leader of the free world.



Besides the quixotic Trump, the group included the stable but dictatorial Chinese leader Xi Jinping; the militarily castrated Germany's leader Angela Merkel; the shadow of the Soviet superpower, Russia's enforcer Vladimir Putin; and the tight-handgrip French leader Emmanuel Macron.



Trump is not solely to blame. It has been a long coming. He was elected by voters who were, among other things, dissatisfied with U.S. globalism. Trump is an avatar of the isolationist fever.



So it is not one factor that would make Moon turn his back on the U.S. but a combination of factors that will rise to critical mass with the addition of one "last-straw" factor.



If that determining one factor is THAAD, the future of the ROK-U.S. alliance would not be entirely reassured. China is forcing Korea to choose it over the U.S. in a broader war of hegemony.



Korea has lost $40 billion from boycotts of its products and services by China over the THAAD row. Korea's export driver Hyundai Motor has seen its sales there drop 50 percent. There would be others to get hit. For now, Korea has held on to the U.S. but can it continue to do so, if the U.S. leadership gets shakier? If the moment of truth comes for Korea sooner than expected, it may not be ruled out that Moon has to forget about his Washington pledge of loyalty and make a new pledge of friendship to China.







Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times' chief editorial writer. Contact foolsdie5@ktimes.com and foolsdie@gmail.com.






By You Soo-sun

Video conferencing has changed the way businesses run, students learn and governments operate  and most likely, it will continue to change and affect our everyday lives.

uPrism, a Korean tech company that offers video conferencing, has entered the global race to make communication faster and more efficient.

"It's a thriving industry, as its possibilities are endless," uPrism CEO Kevin Cha told The Korea Times. uPrism provides video conference calls, video counseling, and security and emergency control. It is seeking to expand into other related fields.





Kevin Cha, CEO and founder of uPrism. / Courtesy of uPrism

Video conferencing can save travel costs and time and thereby improve the performance of individuals and companies in many ways.

The CEO, 42, began his career as an engineer after high school and later launched his own company  in his apartment. "I started the company in my living room with my wife, who is also an engineer," Cha said. "Swamped in a pile of debt, the only assets I had were passion and confidence." It took him a couple of years to get his company on its feet.

The company was officially launched in 2006; its sales kicked off in 2009, growing fivefold in a year. Since, uPrism has worked with over 200 companies and government bodies including major conglomerates such as Samsung, LG and SK, and cities and municipalities.

Cha boasts that it is the only venture technology company to have come to this point in Korea, where the industry is much smaller and the climate is unfavorable to startups.

But Korea is a difficult place for further growth. Cha said that the business climate and customer sentiment largely work against small and medium tech companies here, especially in expanding the use of video conference calls as it is simply not the preferred method in Korea.

"People here prefer to meet up for interviews and meetings," Cha said. This tendency comes from the fact it is a small country that doesn't require much traveling for work  and most companies are already concentrated in Seoul, the capital.

In recent years, uPrism has been seizing opportunities abroad. Its services have so far been launched in Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia and are planned for Vietnam. The company will also move into New Zealand, Italy, Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. in partnership with other companies here.

"What differentiates us from other services is that we tailor our programs to the users' specific needs," Cha said. For example, in Saudi Arabia, where the company's services are used in classrooms, it has incorporated features that allow breaks for prayer and options to cover the faces of female participants for cultural and religious reasons. And it provides these services at an affordable price.

"We're at a point where we can choose to either play it safe and remain as a mediocre company, or invest and expand to become a leading global company," Cha said. And Cha is determined to do the latter. It won't be easy  as investments do not come easy  but he believes he stands a chance as the quality of his services is competitive with other companies. It also has the advantage of providing customized services in other countries.

If uPrism succeeds, he hopes to improve the business climate here for startups and small companies. "My ultimate goal would be to support venture companies here, as the business climate for them is very fragile," Cha said. "By investing in those with potential, they could also have a chance to prosper.
Philippe Crouzet, chairman of the management board of Vallourec, the French maker of premium steel pipes, speaks in an interview held in Seoul, July 6. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



By Kim Ji-soo



President Moon Jae-in's pledge to gradually shift away from nuclear power plants in the country's energy mix may have prompted an immediate question among Korean consumers: will my electricity bill go up?

Philippe Crouzet, chairman of the management board of the French steel pipe manufacturer Vallourec, stressed the potential in shale gas to produce energy, electricity.

"Shale gas has enormous potential. The reserves are enormous," Vallourec said in an interview held in Seoul, where he attended a meeting at the French-Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry. With an office in Seoul, Crouzet regularly visits Korea annually.

While the abundance of shale gas does not necessarily make it profitable to drill more in the United States, he said the demand from Asia makes it a different story.

His remarks come as President Moon said during his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump to import more shale gas from the United States for the next two decades, as a way to diversifty energy mix and also to re-balance bilateral South Korea-US trade ties.

"The demand is going to be very strong, especially in Asia, so I think there will be developments in this area, such as in the transportation of liquefied shale gas from the U.S. to Asia," he said.

Vallourec, established in 1957, is a French firm that makes premium steel tubes and pipes for oil and gas industry, as well as for power plants. Steel was among the array of industries affected by the decline in oil prices in 2014.

Thus, with about 20,000 employees in 20 countries, the firm had to streamline and realign its business structure in recent years to be more efficient. It had to reduce its capacity in Europe down to 25 percent and establish the company's presence in the more competitive markets of Brazil and China.

But it is finding the uptick in the U.S. shale boom a positive impetus for the company.

Vallourec is also watching movements in the world energy market, specifically the movement from coal to gas to produce electricity, which is strong in North America, and seeing whether other regions will follow.

Shale gas, which is found in shale formations, was explored in earnest in the United States in 2008, when the price of a barrel of crude oil stood at around $100. Shale gas also suffered in 2014, hurting the performances of related companies. But innovation in shale drilling technology, coupled with anticipation for further exports to Asia, has led to another uptick in shale gas production. Crouzet said shale gas is competitive already.

As for the global oil prices, Vallourec mentioned two positive factors are creating a sunnier forecast for its business.

"The price of a barrel of crude oil has moved up; it has now stabilized at around $50 per barrel," he said.The futures indicate that it will move within the $50 to $55 dollar.

"The second piece of good news is that the North American market, specifically the oil market, has definitely recovered from its lowest level to a really good level of activity."

Crouzet said while the crisis from declining oil prices continues and development of new oil fields outside the United States have stalled, the company may see an earnest rebound in 2018.

Vallourec is preparing for the advent of renewable or alternative energy sources, their applications and their impacts, including in the electric car industry and the oil and gas sector in general. But Crouzet said the shift will take time, accompanied by innovation and investment in renewables.

"When gas replaces coal to produce electricity, and when electricity is produced for cars, less oil is used. But you see, it's indirect competition. It's not substitution of one for another. Now, those changes will take a lot of time," he said.

"I am convinced we need to go to a lower carbon energy mix, which will require, certainly, investment in renewables. But renewables are not the only solution; they're not the silver bullet. We need to combine different sources of energy."

He also said the same applies to Korea's plan to eliminate nuclear power plants.

"As far as Korea is concerned, even if there is a big change in the policy regarding both coal and nuclear energy, it will take a lot of time, decades, and in that time, there will be a need to retrofit a number of operations before phasing them out later.

And the retrofit is always an opportunity to improve the performance, to make a coal power plant cleaner, or a nuclear power plant safer."

Crouzet said all countries are rethinking their energy policies, but that will take a lot of time and there is also the challenge of having to tackle a lack of energy, or a lack of electricity.

He said Vallourec will work with safer solutions for retrofitting, but also provide new ideas and solutions to ease the transition from one energy mix to the other.
Protesters mourn jailed Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo during a demonstration outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, Thursday, July 13, 2017. / AP-Yonhap



Imprisoned for all the seven years since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo never renounced the pursuit of human rights in China, insisting on living a life of ''honesty, responsibility and dignity.'' China's most prominent political prisoner died Thursday of liver cancer at 61.



His death -- at a hospital in the country's northeast, where he'd been transferred after being diagnosed -- triggered an outpouring of dismay among his friends and supporters, who lauded his courage and determination.



''There are only two words to describe how we feel right now: grief and fury,'' family friend and activist Wu Yangwei, better known by his penname Ye Du, said by phone. ''The only way we can grieve for Xiaobo and bring his soul some comfort is to work even harder to try to keep his influence alive.''



The 1989 pro-democracy protests centered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, by Liu's account, were the ''major turning point'' of his life. Liu had been a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York but returned early to China in May 1989 to join the movement that was sweeping the country and which the Communist Party regarded as a grave challenge to its authority.



When the government sent troops and tanks into Beijing to quash the protests on the night of June 3-4, Liu persuaded some students to leave the square rather than face down the army. The military crackdown killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of people and heralded a more repressive era.



Liu became one of hundreds of Chinese imprisoned for crimes linked to the demonstrations. It was only the first of four imprisonments.



His final prison sentence was for co-authoring ''Charter 08,'' a document circulated in 2008 that called for more freedom of expression, human rights and an independent judiciary.



''What I demanded of myself was this: Whether as a person or as a writer, I would lead a life of honesty, responsibility, and dignity,'' Liu wrote in ''I Have No Enemies: My Final Statement,'' which he was prevented from reading aloud at his sentencing in 2009. He was sent to prison for 11 years on charges of inciting subversion by advocating sweeping political reforms and greater human rights in his country.



A year later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian committee lauded Liu's ''long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.''



The award enraged China's government, which condemned it as a political farce. Within days, Liu's wife, the artist and poet Liu Xia, was put under house arrest, despite not being convicted of any crime. China also punished Norway, even though its government has no say over the independent Nobel panel's decisions. China suspended a bilateral trade deal and restricted imports of Norwegian salmon, and relations only resumed in 2017.



Dozens of Liu's supporters were prevented from leaving the country to accept the award on his behalf. Instead, Liu's absence at the prize-giving ceremony in Oslo, Norway, was marked by an empty chair. Another empty chair was for Liu Xia.



On Thursday, the Nobel Committee said Beijing bore a heavy responsibility for Liu's death. But it also leveled harsh criticism at the ''free world'' for its ''hesitant, belated reactions'' to his serious illness and imprisonment.



''It is a sad and disturbing fact that the representatives of the free world, who themselves hold democracy and human rights in high regard, are less willing to stand up for those rights for the benefit of others,'' said the organization's chairwoman, Berit Reiss-Andersen.



German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Liu Xiaobo was a ''courageous fighter for civil rights and freedom of opinion.'' U.S. Senator John McCain lauded Liu as ''a champion for human rights'' whose death was ''an egregious violation of fundamental human rights.'' U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, urged Beijing to release Liu's wife from house arrest and allow her to leave the country if she wishes.



Liu was born on Dec. 28, 1955, in the northeastern city of Changchun, the son of a language and literature professor who was a committed party member. The middle child in a family of five boys, he was among the first to attend Jilin University when college entrance examinations resumed after the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.



After spending nearly two years in detention following the Tiananmen crackdown, Liu was detained for the second time in 1995 after drafting a plea for political reform. Later that year, he was detained a third time after co-drafting ''Opinion on Some Major Issues Concerning our Country Today.'' That resulted in a three-year sentence to a labor camp, during which time he married Liu Xia.



The couple's friends and supporters described the dissident and his soft-spoken wife as being deeply in love. In the same statement Liu had prepared for his trial, he addressed his wife.



''Your love is the sunlight that leaps over high walls and penetrates the iron bars of my prison window, stroking every inch of my skin, warming every cell of my body, allowing me to always keep peace, openness, and brightness in my heart, and filling every minute of my time in prison with meaning,'' he said.



''But my love is solid and sharp, capable of piercing through any obstacle. Even if I were crushed into powder, I would still use my ashes to embrace you.''



Yu Jie, a longtime friend and a biographer, said Liu frequently gathered a small group of friends for frequent dinners at his favorite local Sichuan hot-pot restaurant, where he regaled younger intellectuals on literature and philosophy before returning home to write until dawn, as was his habit.



''No one was as active as he was, and no one had so much social interaction with the young people,'' Yu said. ''He was a bridge for generations of thinkers.''



Liu was only the second Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in prison, a fact pointed to by human rights groups as an indication of the Chinese Communist Party's increasingly hard line against its critics. The first, Carl von Ossietzky, died from tuberculosis in Germany in 1938 while serving a sentence for opposing Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.



''Hitler was wild and strong and thought he was right -- but history proved he was wrong in imprisoning a Nobel Peace Prize winner,'' said Mo Shaoping, an old friend and Liu's former lawyer. ''The authorities consider Liu Xiaobo guilty, but history will prove he is not." (AP)




Recently, TvN has decided to remake the hit series 'Bride of The Water God' and turn it into a marvelous Korean Drama. Many fans are anticipating the drama due to the participation of f(x)'s Krystal.

But it seems fans aren't the only ones anticipating the drama! Perhaps f(x)'s Krystal has a secret admirer as a famous idol had sent the cast food and coffee trucks to their set in support of Krystal! Sadly, it isn't romance this time - just sisterly love! Jessica Jung had visited the set to show her support for her sister's latest project!

Jessica is seen visiting the set and taking a picture with the personal banner she made for her sister Krystal. Jessica uploaded the photo to Instagram and fans are in awe of their deep relationship. The poster within the Instagram post reads, "I'm cheering for my sister SooJung! 'Bride of the Water God' daebak!"

Nothing like the bond of sisterhood to keep two idols strong and together forever. The Bride of Habaek is a South Korean television drama spin-off of the 2006 sunjung manhwa Bride of the Water God by Yoon Mi-kyung. The drama stars Shin Se-kyung, Nam Joo-hyuk, Lim Ju-hwan, Krystal Jung and Gong Myung. The show started airing on July 3rd and is already garnering lots of attention. What do you think of this Korean drama and Jessica's cute gesture?
Springfield police say a five-hour standoff ended shortly before 5 p.m. Friday when a wanted man shot himself. They said he was critically injured and might not survive.

The standoff in west Springfield was with a man who is suspected of assaulting a woman at a home in northeast Springfield on Thursday morning. Shortly before 5 p.m., police used a battering ram on an armored vehicle to break into the home. They took two people out of the home who had been with the suspect during the standoff.

Police think the man assaulted a woman at a home on North Hayes Avenue, then fired into a different home up the street where she fled for safety, and then sped away from the scene on Thursday morning. Undercover police found out where he was and followed him to a home in the 4300 block of West Madison Street on Friday morning. The home may be a relative of the suspect. They then got a warrant to arrest him.

The home in the 4300 block of West Madison Street is south of Mount Vernon Street and west of West Bypass. The Special Response and Tactics (SRT) Team was there with armored vehicles. A negotiator is tried to talk the man out of the home. Police said other people besides the wanted man were in the home.

A person who lives in the neighborhood says police arrived there about 11 a.m. Police have blocked roads into the neighborhood around the home.
Once a month at Mt. Soledad Presbyterian Church, one can hear refined and exotic strumming coming from a great hall whose arched windows and columned terrace overlook rolling green hills. As the warm calm of the evening falls and night sounds can be heard through opened doors, eyes come to rest on two decades-old guitars, made by master luthiers, in the hands of two maestros, taught by the masters. Here, delighted local fans gather regularly to drink in the old-world sound experience and understated visual display of the Odeum Guitar Duo.

Their next concert is 7 p.m. Saturday, July 15 at the church, 6551 Soledad Mountain Road. Titled Of Northern European and Mediterranean Origins, the program features a retrospective of the Baroque, Classical, and 20th-Century periods, with works from Bach, Haydn, Guiseppe Torelli, Fernando Sor, Ferdinand Carulli, Manuel Ponce, Antonio Lauro and Ida Presti. Tickets are $5, $8 and $10 at the door.

One of La Jollas resident musical treasures, the Odeum Guitar Duo is composed of Fred Benedetti and Robert Wetzel, who together have been perfecting their craft for more than 25 years. They are master guitarists who were mentored by the legendary Spanish artists who shaped classical guitar, Andres Segovia and the Romero family, respectively.

Still mindful, even humbled, by these rapports, the Duo carries on the legacies of their mentors  showing off their signature techniques, featuring their repertoires and transcriptions and, on occasion, relating colorful anecdotes from their lives. To date, the group has released two CDs, the award-winning Concert Hall Classics (1999) and Forgotten Romance (2000)  both with new and original works. They are performing a series of 12 concerts (solo and duo guitar) at the Mt. Soledad church.

For fans, the story of how Benedetti was shaped as a guitarist is familiar. From age 9, he was taught by his father and, ultimately and profoundly, by the Grandfather of Classical Guitar Segovia. Benedetti developed as a raw talent around San Diego, notably, in Balboa Park in front of the koi pond where he played his first paying gig (for tips!). But, in 1986, he was discovered  chosen as one of 12 students worldwide to attend a Segovia masterclass at the University of Southern California. In this environment, he dazzled his new teacher and the public, which would come to include foreign dignitaries and accomplished musicians of the time. Now a father (and recent grandfather), Benedetti is a tenured music professor at Grossmont College and Head of Classical Guitar Studies at San Diego State, and he receives accolades by night at some of the Citys most iconic venues.

Wetzel, has not been as known to fans. The maestro took shape as a guitarist outside his immediate family and, rather, as the protege of the Romeros, known as the Royal Family of the Guitar. At age 12, he took up guitar after being gifted a Sears & Roebuck Silvertone by his oldest sister. He was quick to master the instrument, and, when finally surpassing local teachers, he was given the chance to play for Celedonio Romero and his three sons (Celin, Pepe, and Angel) who were on national tour.

Wetzels playing so impressed the Romeros that he was invited to spend summers in Del Mar under their tutelage, and he received scholarships to attend masterclasses conducted by Pepe. He was hosted by the family as an adoptive member, affectionately called little brother and also Roberto Antonio (a Spanish stage name that Celedonio would encourage). Wetzel later made his career debut standing in for Celedonio at a public engagement of the Romeros world-famous quartet in northern California. He continues to show deep commitment to his music as a teacher at community colleges and universities, and as performance artist soloing and participating in ensembles around town.

When the two student-masters finally played together in a chance booking at a San Diego harbor venue, they found instant, natural artistic chemistry and purpose. Like their masters, they are messengers of the music. They are transcribers of past canonical works not originally written for the guitar  an instrument that has not always found favor in high art. They look to reclaim the guitar and to explore the potential musicality of duo performance with this fine instrument. But, in tandem with the traditions they serve, they also manage to appeal to modern sensibilities with joy, warmth, and even light humor that unexpectedly surround their work and performance.

For more details, call (858) 248-9300 or visit odeumguitarduo.com
Historic ties of north Meck span throughout region Though the north Mecklenburg area didnt see significant population growth until a few decades ago, its rich history dates back to the Revolutionary War. That was the basis of...

An easier-than-expected first mammogram experience HUNTERSVILLE  Scheduling a cancer screening probably ranks somewhere on your to-do list between "clean out the garage" and "donate those clothes that don't fit." Sure, you'll get to it at...
PRESS RELEASE

New, Worse Banking Crisis by the End of the Year?

July 13, 2017 (EIRNS)Marco Zanni, an independent Member of the European Parliament from Italy, was interviewed yesterday on the anti-establishment U.S.-based website Rogue Money by site founder "V, the Guerrilla Economist," along with Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee spokesman Harley Schlanger. Zanni focused on two points: the overall weakness of the European Union banks and economy, which requires bank reform, beginning with Glass-Steagall, and the significance of U.S. President Trumps G-20 summit with Russias President Vladimir Putin.

On the EU and the euro, Zanni reviewed the collapsing economy of Italy to highlight the overall problem. He said it is false to speak of economic recovery in the Eurozoneyou cannot trust the statements coming from the European Commission (EC) or the European Central Bank (ECB). While the ECB pumping of liquidity may have temporarily saved some big banks from failure, it did so at the expense of the real economy, while doing nothing to address the systemic problems of Europes Too Big to Fail banks.

In Italy and Spain, the real rate of unemployment is over 20%, and real income is at 1999 levels. The recent bail-out/bail-in of two Venetian banks and the Monte dei Paschi bank showed the fraudulent nature of ECB policy, pointing out that many banks are carrying unsupportable levels of debt, in the form of non-performing loans and derivative obligations. There is growing anger in the population against the EC and the ECB, as well as against the Italian government for submitting to them.

He said there are moves in the European Parliament, and especially in the Italian Parliament, to enact a banking reform policy, which includes Glass-Steagall banking separation, which his group is supporting. If this does not happen, he forecast a new, more serious banking crisis by the end of this year or in early 2018, saying that this might lead to Italian exit from the euro.

Asked about his view of the Putin-Trump summit, he said he has been watching Trump "with great interest." He has a "very positive view" of the Trump-Putin meeting. "Not all of Europe is against Trump, as the media tries to make it sound." He said Europe needs strong economic relations with Russia and China, and Trump is pushing in that direction. There is now a great opportunity to create cooperation between Europe and Russia, driven by Trump, and to extend this to Asia.

He concluded by saying Europe needs to have functioning sovereign states, otherwise it will fail.
PRESS RELEASE

South Koreans Fight Back Against President Moons Anti-Nuclear Actions

July 13, 2017 (EIRNS)Both labor and private nuclear firms are putting up a fight against President Moon Jae-ins anti-nuclear plans. Moon issued executive orders to decommission a plant whose forty-year license had run out (rather than extending the license), and stopping the construction on two plants that were well under way, the Shin-Gori Nuclear Power Plant numbers 5 and 6.

The Board of the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), a government body, was scheduled to meet today to vote on whether or not to accept Moons order. There is at least a possibility that they will vote against. But the meeting was blocked by protesting trade union workers.

Korea Times reports that KHNP employees and some residents nearby the plant site are also protesting the closure, along with a consortium led by Samsung Construction & Trade. The company claimed that KHNP unilaterally stopped the project for no legitimate reason, while failing to suggest any plans to reimburse them for additional expenses caused by the measure.
My father was dying and I was pregnant, is a haunting echo from Edwidge Danticats 2007 memoir Brother, Im Dying, the story of the deaths of her father from pulmonary fibrosis and her uncle in a detention center awaiting to enter the United States from Haiti. Like her acclaimed works of fiction Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994), The Dew Breaker (2004), Claire of the Sea Light (2013), her new book The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story delves into the physical and psychic landscapes of loss. In Brother, Im Dying, Danticat translates Pa pi mal, a Haitian Creole term her father uses to explain his health, as Not so good and Not so bad, articulating the precarious nature of his health, but also his condition of living in-between different worlds as a Haitian exile.

So too, in The Art of Death, Danticat attempts to convey her mothers state  as one that has long been wrestling between at least two poles: In Haitian Creole, when someone is said to be lot bo dlo, on the other side of the water, it can either mean that theyve traveled abroad or that they have died. My mother at forty was already lot bo dlo, on the other side of the water. This memoir narrates her second crossing, into death.

In early 2014, Danticats 78-year-old mother is diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer and chooses to forgo intensive chemotherapy, telling her doctor and her daughter its up to God now.

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The book is the latest in Graywolfs The Art of series about writing, joining a dozen others loosely addressing the practice of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Danticats is a memoir written in a manner akin to the circular, overlapping and overwhelming processes of grief and mourning; she layers her story with other poems, memoirs, novels and essays about death, scaling the personal to wider-ranging political and ecological catastrophes.

Danticats is a memoir written in a manner akin to the circular, overlapping and overwhelming processes of grief and mourning.

Two inquiries frame this short but deeply felt memoir; the first is  How does one write about death? All of us are exposed to death, but none of us has experienced death ourselves, and, as she notes we cant ask anyone else what it is like to die. Danticat agrees with Michael Ondaatje, who writes that death means you are writing in the third person.

The second inquiry asks what can guide us through what Toni Morrison calls circles and circles of sorrow. Reading Elizabeth Alexanders memoir The Light of the World, a moving elegy to her late husband, Danticat reads her confession,  I want rules, I want the prayers to say every day for a year at dusk and I want them to be beautiful and meaningful. I wanted these same kinds of rules and prayers too.

Danticat attempts to find the rules and prayers through texts that have sustained her throughout her life  undertaking a process of close reading that reinforces how stories are integral to making sense of our experience, echoing James Baldwins oft quoted sentiment that you think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.

Danticats descriptions of both texts and feelings are often unsentimental. She prefers sparseness and silence, refusing to offer herself or her readers closure. In her readings, she also examines the losses of others close to her  aunts, uncles, cousins and friends  many of whose lives were curtailed by tragedy. Reading Morrisons Sula, she thinks of her Tante Rezias final moments in a coma, in relation to Sulas, whose final breaths Morrison describes with lyricism and open-ended possibility.

Like written narratives, folklore becomes a source of prayer to ease trauma. After receiving her mothers cancer diagnosistogether, on the drive home Danticat didnt respond with tears but a terrible silence. Her mother refused to let Danticat suddenly turn into a zombie, and she heeded the call to ward off the sezisman, the shock, by adhering to a Haitian folklore that liberates zombies from their living death by eating salt. Eating salt is also advised for people who suddenly receive tragic news, in shock, and in danger of turning into a lost and wandering body. When they get home, her mother promptly made them each a coffee, sprinkled with salt.

Each death frames previous deaths in a different light, and even deaths to come.  Edwidge Danticat

But what if she wonders, her mother returns as a ghost, as Zora Neale Hurstons mother did, and her travel dust shadows her? Hurstons mothers death left an atmospheric gap; she confesses that it changed a world. A world, Hurston writes which had been built out of her body and her heart. This, perhaps more than any other phrase, is one that speaks most acutely to the bond shared between Danticat and her mother.

Some of the most moving passages from the memoir take place as Danticat describes the anticipation of her mothers death and the terror involved in such an immeasurable loss. Each death frames previous deaths in a different light, and even deaths to come. During the time my mother was sick, I found myself crying uncontrollably over the deaths of people I barely knew. I attended a couple funerals, of relatives of church members, or people from my husbands past, people Id never even met. Mid-sob, I would realize that I was imagining sitting in the front row where the family was sitting, but at my own mothers funeral. If it wasnt her coffin I was looking at, then why had I come? Then I realized that I was rehearsing, so it wouldnt hurt so much when it was my turn.

A few months after her mother died, PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature asked her to write a prayer for a panel. Growing up in a family who prayed all the time, she still had difficulty writing prayer, believing that prayers are meant to be private, since they often reflect our most vital desires. A New Sky, the prayer she wrote, was inspired by her mother, a prayer where she imagines, much like Morrison does with Sula or Ondaatje with Almasy, her mothers final words in her final moments  a prayer that accounts for how her mother lived  with faith, humor and grace.

Let them not bury me in an ugly dress.

Guide them to my good wig. (I really should have told my daughter where it was.)

Let them not be talked out of a closed coffin. I now only want you to see my face.

And, please, please let my children survive this. Let them survive this. For I will not be just their Manman now. I will be their light pillar, their rainbow, their moon bow, their sunbow, their glory, their new sky.

Mirakhor is a writer and professor.

The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story

Edwidge Danticat

Graywolf: 160 pp., $14 paper
Senate Republicans unveiled a new, improved version of their Affordable Care Act repeal bill Thursday, so the treasure hunt is on: the search for provisions so horrifically inhumane that theyve had to be concealed deep in the measures legislative language and procedural maze.

Weve found quite a few, with the help of professional spelunkers Andy Slavitt, David Anderson, Larry Levitt and others. Here are some of the provisions in the so-called Better Care Reconciliation Act, or BCRA, that the Senate GOP really doesnt want you to know about.

The measure kills the birth control and womens health screening requirements. The Affordable Care Act advanced womens healthcare rights immensely by mandating that health plans cover contraceptives, as well as a range of preventive screenings, without deductibles or co-pays. Conservatives have been trying to roll back those guarantees since the ACAs enactment. The new Senate bill eliminates them.

The bill is a giant Trust Tom Price bill.  Former Medicare/Medicaid administrator Andy Slavitt

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That action is part of the Cruz Amendment, on which more below. It allows states to authorize the sale of health plans that dont include the womens health provisions. Observes Dawn Laguens of Planned Parenthood, Insurance companies would once again be allowed to refuse to cover basic preventive healthcare, as well as charge women co-pays for birth control, immunizations and cancer screenings. She calls this a major step backward for women.

HHS Secretary Tom Price gets enormous new power over healthcare standards and even state budgets. The essence of the amended bills bait-and-switch structure is the creation of several slush funds to moderate the costs to states of various repeal provisions, especially the drastic cutback in Medicaid funding.

Those slush funds, however, would come under the control of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. A known enemy of Medicaid and of expanding healthcare services for women and the needy, Price would have the authority to apportion those funds as he wishes, favoring some states over others because of their politics and policies, for example.

As former Medicare/Medicaid chief Andy Slavitt observes, there are no rules or standards guiding Prices hand  he could dole out all the money to red states or pull funding from others at will. The money doesnt have to go to services for low-income people or to replace lost Medicaid funding. He could shortchange states that require health plans to cover abortion  such as California and New York.

The bill is a giant Trust Tom Price bill, Slavitt tweeted. And even if the money is apportioned responsibly, its not enough: The total in the slush funds, Slavitt calculates, would restore barely 10% of the cuts in Medicaid.

The bill still cuts taxes for the wealthy. One widely noticed change from the original Senate bill is the retention of two taxes the ACA imposes on high-income taxpayers  those earning more than $200,000, or $250,000 for couples. These are a 3.8% surcharge on capital gains and dividends and a 0.9% increase in the Medicare tax for those taxpayers. The original Senate bill would have repealed those taxes, handing over an estimated $346-billion windfall to the rich over 10 years.

But dont cry for the wealthy just yet. The amendment expands another windfall  health savings accounts, which are tax-preferred accounts that can be used to pay for out-of-pocket medical expanses. Under the amended bill, HSAs also can be used to pay premiums, which effectively renders premiums in the individual market tax-deductible for the first time.

HSAs sound good in principle, but in practice theyre geared to higher-income taxpayers. Although some employers help their workers fund HSAs, for the most part the accounts have to be funded out of disposable income, which many middle- and working-class families may find hard to come by. A study released this month by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that, although the maximum annual contribution is $6,750 for families and $3,450 for individuals, the average total account contribution was $2,922 in 2016.

The Tax Policy Center says that more than 16% of all households with $200,000 in income or more have HSAs  but fewer than 2% of households earning less than $30,000 do.

The Republican repeal bills would raise the maximum contributions to $6,550 for individuals and $13,100 for families  but since most families cant even max out their HSAs now, they plainly wouldnt be helped by this change. Rich families would be helped, however.

The senators exempt themselves from the loss of consumer protections. A convoluted provision in the amended measure exempts Congress and its staff members from the loss of guarantees for those with preexisting conditions and other consumer protections.

You wont find the words Congress and exemption next to each other anywhere in the bill. You have to know that 1312(d)(3)(D) is the provision of the Affordable Care Act requiring members of Congress and their staffs to obtain coverage through the Obamacare exchanges, and then notice, on Page 167 of the Senate bill, that the elimination of consumer protections is non-applicable to that section.

Senate leaders say the exemption is necessary for procedural purposes, and imply that theyll remove it in subsequent legislation. Well see.

The opioid money is a Band-Aid. Opioid addiction has emerged as perhaps the worst public health crisis in the nation. As much as 40% of the cost of treatment of addicts has been covered by Medicaid. The harsh cuts in that program imposed by the Senate and House repeal bills would force more of that expense onto states that simply cant afford it. Meanwhile, the projected loss of medical coverage by as many as 23 million Americans under repeal will keep many victims of the epidemic from finding treatment.

The cost of fighting the epidemic and treating the secondary health problems of its victims, such as HIV and hepatitis C, has been estimated at as much as $183 billion over 10 years. The original Senate measure included only a one-year, $2-billion appropriation for the purpose. The revised bill provides $45 billion over 10 years. Interestingly, thats exactly what was requested by GOP Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. So the appropriation wont be adequate as a solution to the opioid crisis, but it might be enough to bring those two potential holdouts on board.

The Murkowski Mollification. The Senate bill has a craftily-worded handout for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Shes been a holdout on the Senate bill because of its massive cuts to Medicaid, an important healthcare program in her state.

The amended measure guarantees at least $1.3 billion, or 1% of a $132-billion, 10-year bailout fund, to any state where premiums are 75% higher than the national average. Only one state qualifies: Alaska.

Its not unusual for such provisions to be buried in legislation that appears to have broader application. Indeed, the Affordable Care Act included a so-called Cornhusker Kickback to benefit Nebraska and secure the vote of then-Sen. Ben Nelson. In this case, the provision means Alaska, a state with 0.2% of the nations Medicaid enrollment, would get a disproportionate windfall. As of this writing, Murkowski hasnt said if shell take the bait. But as Slavitt observes, the payoff sets the stage for demands by senators from other states.

If Im WV, TN, AZ, WY, I want to know where mine is, Slavitt tweeted. In any event, the money wouldnt be enough to cover Alaskas losses from the Medicaid rollback, and it would still be subject to cancellation at any time by Price.

The Cruz Amendment is a disaster for health insurance buyers. Weve written before about the amendment crafted by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). It would effectively destroy the healthcare market nationwide.

The amendment would allow states to authorize any insurer to offer bare-bones policies as long as they also offered at least one ACA-compliant policy in that state. This opens the door to bifurcating the insurance market. Younger, healthier buyers, especially males, might sign up for cheap policies without coverage for hospitalization, substance abuse, prescriptions, maternity or preexisting conditions. That would force everyone else to buy a fully compliant plan; since such a plan would be filled with customers with potentially risky and costly conditions, its premium would soar. As it became progressively less affordable, all but the sickest buyers would leave, making it even more costly.

This is the definition of a death spiral that Republicans claim they want to avoid. It makes a mockery of their promise to protect people with preexisting conditions, since the cost of insurance for them would soon be stratospheric.

Buyers of cheap Cruz plans would be locked out of the insurance market if they get sick. A little-noticed aspect of the Cruz proposal is that the cheap plans it allows would not qualify as legitimate insurance coverage under the GOPs continuous coverage rules.

Those rules, embodied in both the House and Senate GOP repeal bills, guarantee coverage for preexisting conditions as long as the buyer maintains insurance coverage without a break of longer than two months. Under the Senate bill, anyone with such a lapse would face a six-month waiting period for new insurance before the preexisting condition guarantee would be effective.

That means that individuals who get sick and discover that their Cruz plan wont cover their illness wouldnt be able to buy full coverage for at least six months. Its a classic bait-and-switch, but you wont hear it being bragged about by Senate Republicans. They dont really want you to know.

The Congressional Budget Office, which determined last month that the original Senate bill would cost 22 million Americans their insurance by 2026 compared with the current law, hasnt weighed in on the amended version. Its unlikely that the CBO will think much more highly of the amendments.

For that reason, Senate GOP leaders have been hinting that theyll skip, or ignore, any CBO analysis and rely instead on one prepared by Prices HHS. What are the chances the HHS will deliver a credible analysis? Probably nil.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.

Return to Michael Hiltziks blog.

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Theres been so little research done, Garen J. Wintemute told me, its hard to put anything at the top of the list.

The subject was gun violence, and Wintemutes role as head of the newest research institute of the University of California. Its the Firearm Violence Research Center, launched in the first week of July at UC Davis, where Wintemute, 65, is a professor of emergency medicine and a nationally recognized expert in gun violence.

Wintemute has been working in this field for more than 30 years, so hes well aware that its a political minefield and is equally determined to inoculate the center from political attack.

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Without question, there is a very strong interest in understanding the problem of firearm violence that cuts across pro-gun and anti-gun boundaries.  Garen Wintemute, UC Davis

I am not an anti-gun person, Wintemute told me. I enjoy using the tool. But Im not a fan of violence.

Growing up in Long Beach, Wintemute was surrounded by weapons, including his fathers Winchester carbine and .22 rifle. Young Garen became a good shot  he once was offered a job teaching riflery  but he had no taste for training his sights on wildlife.

The centers interest, he says, is not in satisfying some pre-determined political agenda, but in understanding the problem so that whats done about it is based on solid evidence and can make a difference.

The center continues a California tradition of stepping into policy vacuums resulting from federal actions or inaction. The state created its $6-billion stem cell program in 2004 after President George W. Bush effectively ended federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Californias vehicular fuel efficiency and emissions standards have become a model for other states and the federal government itself. And the state is poised to go it alone on climate change policy as the Trump administration becomes a haven for climate change deniers.

The vacuum in federally funded gun violence research dates to 1996, when Congress passed a measure by then-Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Ark.), a cats-paw of the National Rifle Assn., forbidding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to spend any funds to advocate or promote gun control.

A succession of pusillanimous CDC directors decided that the safest course bureaucratically was simply to spend nothing at all on gun violence research  even when they were specifically ordered to reenter the field by President Obama, following the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in 2012.

One project that faced termination with extreme prejudice post-Dickey was a Wintemute study of whether handgun buyers with prior misdemeanor records are more likely to be charged with new gun- or violence-related crimes than those without such a history.

Wintemutes $292,000 grant was axed, though he was able to complete the work with funding from the California Wellness Foundation. (He also has contributed some $1 million in personal funds to gun violence research over the years.)

Among his findings: Handgun buyers with more than one conviction for a violent offense were more than 15 times as likely to be charged with murder, rape, robbery or aggravated assault than those with no prior criminal record.

By then, Wintemute already had roiled the firearm industry with Ring of Fire, a 1994 book that drew on a Wall Street Journal investigation to document the impact of six Southern California companies, mostly controlled by a single family, manufacturing the infamous Saturday Night Specials  cheap, junky handguns implicated in waves of street violence.

At one point, Wintemute recalls, Bruce Jennings, a member of the family, threatened to make his life miserable with lawsuits. Nothing came of the threat, in part because Jennings ended up in federal prison on a 10-year sentence for child pornography.

Californias response to the federal funding blockade was a budget rider last year establishing the Firearm Violence Research Center at UC Davis and funding it with a five-year grant of $5 million. Among the ideas supporters was the now-retired Dickey, who has reconsidered his own legislation and co-authored a letter to state legislators endorsing the center, which he said would help provide much-needed scientific evidence on which to base effective [violence] prevention efforts.

Wintemute looks at gun violence research broadly, as a public health phenomenon with real socioeconomic causes and consequences. His goal is not gun control as that term is commonly understood, he says, but to find effective ways to prevent firearm violence.

One of the centers initial efforts will be to assess the risk factors in gun violence. At an individual level, those are alcohol and controlled-substance abuse and a prior history of violence. At a structural level, theyre poverty and poor education, lack of opportunity.

Part of the task is correcting common misimpressions. The truth about public mass shootings, for example: For millions of Americans, these appallingly frequent events symbolize the nations gun pathology  even though, Wintemute says, they account for less than 1% to maybe 2% of deaths from interpersonal [that is, non-suicide] firearm deaths every year.

These events are newsworthy, however, because they can happen to anyone, anywhere, heightening anxieties about life in our public spaces.

For large segments of the population, firearm violence occurs to people who arent like them and in places they know not to be, Wintemute said. Mass shootings happen not to people who arent like me, but to people just like me who are doing just the kind of things I do, wherever I happen to be.

Theres something to learn about them that hopefully will be useful in preventing future such events.

One possible warning sign suggested by an examination of mass shootings in California is aberrant patterns of firearm purchases prior to an attack, such as the rapid acquisition of lots of guns in a short period of time.

Another point Wintemute thinks needs to be understood is that suicide is a much bigger part of firearm violence in California than people think. According to government statistics, suicide accounted for nearly two-thirds of Americas 33,600 firearm deaths in 2014. One of the major misconceptions about firearm violence is that its interpersonal. We forget that most firearm deaths are self-inflicted.

That ties into another misconception: People vastly overestimate the contribution that mental illness makes to homicide. It may be an augmenting factor when other risk factors are present, such as drug or alcohol abuse, but those are the more important factors.

Mental illness plays a larger role in suicide, contributing to 45% to 75% of all suicides. Its not schizophrenia or bipolar conditions that count, but depression, which is more common among middle-aged and elderly white males.

Who knew that gun violence was so much an old white guy problem? Wintemute comments.

Wintemutes interest in firearm violence was years in the making. After spending five months in 1981 treating war victims in Cambodia after the fall of Pol Pot, he obtained a degree in public health at Johns Hopkins to go with his M.D. From then on, the issue became his lifes work. He returned to UC Davis, where he had received his medical degree, in 1983.

Despite the clear directive from the state Legislature, the centers gestation was choppy. UC administrators tried to take control of the funds, parceling them out year by year following annual operations reviews  effectively forcing Wintemute to reapply to continue the centers work every year.

That set up the center to fail, he says. Among other problems, it would be impossible to undertake long-term research projects. We said, No, thank you. 

Wintemute says he wasnt sure the center was actually going to become reality until nearly the launch date  July 1  but UCs Office of the President eventually relented. Even so, the presidents office will keep $150,000 a year off the top of the legislative appropriation. UC Davis, on the other hand, will contribute $100,000 a year to the center from its own budget.

In fact, the center will be a multi-campus program. Wintemute has lined up Berkeley epidemiologist Jennifer Ahern, UCI criminologist George Tita, and health educator Deborah Glik and family medicine expert Michael Rodriguez, both from UCLA, to participate in the centers work.

The center also will function as a micro-mini National Institutes of Health, Wintemute says, offering small grants to researchers outside the core group. That might help to revive a field that has almost withered away in the wake of the federal moratorium.

With almost no funding for firearm violence research, there are almost no researchers, Wintemute reported in 2013. Counting all academic disciplines together, no more than a dozen active, experienced investigators in the United States have focused their careers primarily on firearm violence.

But the most important outcome may be the building of a knowledge base to inform legislators which laws and regulations work, and which dont.

Without question, there is a very strong interest in understanding the problem of firearm violence that cuts across pro-gun and anti-gun boundaries, Wintemute told me. As a society, we agree that America can do a good job confronting problems like this. But one of the first steps in doing a good job is understanding the problem.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.

Return to Michael Hiltziks blog.
The 400 National Public Radio employees covered by SAG-AFTRA have voted to ask the unions national board to seek permission to hold a strike vote while negotiations on a new contract continue.

If the board agrees to the request Saturday, a strike vote by members of the bargaining unit can happen Monday, according to Becky Sullivan, a producer for NPRs All Things Considered who is a union member. A strike authorization vote doesnt mean that the union will in fact strike, but it does give union leaders leverage in contract negotiations.

The contract with the SAG-AFTRA member employees of the nonprofit national radio service based in Washington that provides the daily national news programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered expired June 30. A two-week extension that was given to continue negotiations with the help of a federal mediator was scheduled to end at midnight Friday.

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SAG-AFTRA has said NPR management is seeking lower minimum salaries for new hires and more flexibility in allowing union work to be contracted out to its 600 member stations, most of which use employees who are not covered by the bargaining unit.

Sullivan said progress is being made on the negotiations, which continued Friday, but there were still significant differences on the major issues.

In a statement, an NPR representative said it continues to negotiate in good faith and is looking for a deal that will make this organization economically sustainable for the long-term  and, importantly, enable NPR to invest more resources in expanding audiences, adding newsroom staff to meet that growth and support current staff, and innovating its multi-platform journalism.

If there is a strike, managers at NPR will be faced with how to keep their programs on the air. The unions membership includes the hosts of Morning Edition and All Things Considered, who would have to walk out in the event of a job action. In previous labor standoffs involving radio and TV talent, managers have taken over hosting duties themselves.

The bargaining union maintains that NPRs demands come at a time when the service is seeing its audience grow on terrestrial radio and through podcasting.

NPR had eight of the top 20 podcasts as ranked by the measurement service Podtrac in May, and reached an audience of 12.8 million unique users through the programs playable on digital devices. Sponsors have been eager to underwrite the NPR podcasts because they attract listeners who are younger than those who regularly tune into NPR radio stations.

NPR does face the threat of losing its federal funding because the Trump White Houses proposed 2018 federal budget calls for eliminating the allocation for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which currently receives $445 million annually.

CPB administers funding to public TV and radio outlets. Local public radio stations that get the bulk of that funding use the money they receive to buy programming from NPR.

In an interview with Los Angeles Times last month, NPR President Jarl Mohn said local news coverage provided by NPR member stations has created goodwill with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle who see the value of the outlets in their communities. While Mohn is hopeful that will help preserve the funding in the federal budget, its not a given.

Mohn is also planning to intensify efforts to help stations get greater financial support from local donors so that the service can become less dependent on public funding.

stephen.battaglio@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveBattaglio

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Michael Koumjian, a heart surgeon for nearly three decades, said he considered treating the sickest patients a badge of honor. The San Diego doctor was frequently called upon to operate on those who had multiple illnesses or whod undergone CPR before arriving at the hospital.

Recently, however, Koumjian received some unwelcome recognition: He was identified in a public database of California heart surgeons as one of seven with a higher-than-average death rate for patients who underwent a common bypass procedure.

If you are willing to give people a shot and their only chance is surgery, then you are going to have more deaths and be criticized, said Koumjian, whose risk-adjusted death rate was 7.5 per hundred surgeries in 2014-15. The surgeons that worry about their stats just dont take those cases.

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Now, Koumjian said he is reconsidering taking such complicated cases because he cant afford to continue being labeled a bad surgeon.

California is one of a handful of states  including New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey  that publicly reports surgeons names and risk-adjusted death rates on a procedure known as the isolated coronary artery bypass graft.

The practice is controversial: Proponents argue that transparency improves quality and informs consumers. Critics say it deters surgeons from accepting complex cases and can unfairly tarnish doctors records.

This is a hotly debated issue, said Ralph Brindis, a cardiologist and professor at UC-San Francisco who chairs the advisory panel for the state report. But to me, the pros of public reporting outweigh the negatives. I think consumers deserve to have a right to that information.

Prompted by a state law, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development began issuing the reports in 2003 and produces them every two years. Outcomes from the bypass procedure had long been used as one of several measures of hospital quality. But that marked the first time physician names were attached  and the bypass is still the only procedure for which such physician-specific reports are released publicly in California.

Californias law was sponsored by consumer advocates, who argued that publicly listing the names of outlier surgeons in New York had appeared to bring about a significant drop in death rates from the bypass procedure.

State officials say it has worked here as well: The rate declined from 2.91 to 1.97 deaths per 100 surgeries from 2003 to 2014.

Providing the results back to the surgeons, facilities and the public overall results in higher quality performance for everybody, said Holly Hoegh, manager of the clinical data unit at the state health planning and development office.

Since the state began issuing the reports, the number of surgeons with significantly higher death rates than the state average has ranged between six and 12, and none has made the list twice. The most recent report, released in May, is based on surgeries performed in 2013 and 2014.

I dont think this is reflective of my work overall. I do think thats reflective that I was willing to take on tough cases.  Daniel Pelligrini, chief of inpatient quality at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco

In this years report, the seven surgeons with above-average death rates  out of 271 surgeons listed  include several veterans in the field. Among them were Daniel Pellegrini, chief of inpatient quality at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco and John M. Robertson, director of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica.

Most defended their records, arguing that some of the deaths shouldnt have been counted or that the death rates didnt represent the totality of their careers.

For the lions share of my career, my numbers were good and Im very proud of them, said Pellegrini. I dont think this is reflective of my work overall. I do think thats reflective that I was willing to take on tough cases.

During the two years covered in the report, Pellegrini performed 69 surgeries and four patients died. That brought his risk-adjusted rate to 11.48 deaths per 100, above the state average of 2.13 per 100 in that period.

Pellegrini said he supports public reporting, but he argues the calculations dont fully take the varying complexity of the cases into account and that a couple of bad outcomes can skew the rates.

Robertson said in a written statement that he had three very complex and challenging cases involving patients who came to the hospital with extraordinary complications and additional unrelated conditions.

They were among five deaths out of 71 patients during the reporting period, giving him an adjusted rate of 9.75 per 100 surgeries.

While I appreciate independent oversight, its important for consumers to realize that two years of data do not illustrate overall results, Robertson said. Every single patient is different.

The rates are calculated based on a nationally recognized method that includes deaths occurring during hospitalization, regardless of how long the stay, or anytime within 30 days after the surgery, regardless of the venue. All licensed hospitals must report the data to the state.

Cardiac surgeons said, Enough is enough. We cant risk being in the papers as outliers.  Daniel Engelman, president of the Massachusetts Society of Thoracic Surgeons

State officials said that providing surgeons names can help consumers make choices about who they want to operate on them, assuming its not an emergency.

It is important for patients to be involved in their own healthcare, and we are trying to work more and more on getting this information in an easy-to-use format for the man on the street, said Hoegh of the state health planning and development office.

No minimum number of surgeries is needed to calculate a rate, but the results must be statistically significant and are risk-adjusted to account for varying levels of illness or frailty among patients, Hoegh said.

She acknowledged that a risk model can never capture all the risk and said her office is always trying to improve its approach.

Surgeons sometimes file appeals  arguing, for example, that the risk was improperly calculated or that the death was unrelated to the surgery. The appeals can result in adjustments to a rate, Hoegh said.

Despite the controversy it generates, the public reporting is supported by the California Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the professional association representing the surgeons.

No one wants to be on the list, but transparency is always a good thing, said Junaid Khan, president of the society and director of cardiovascular surgery at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The purpose of the list is not to be punitive, Khan said. Its not to embarrass anybody. It is to help improve quality.

Khan added that he believes outcomes of other heart procedures, such as angioplasty, should also be publicly reported.

Consumers Union, which sponsored the bill that led to the cardiac surgeon reports, supports expanding doctor-specific reporting to include a variety of other procedures  for example, birth outcomes, which could be valuable for expectant parents as they look for a doctor.

Consumers are really hungry for physician-specific information, said Betsy Imholz, the advocacy groups special projects director. And, she added, care that people receive actually improves once the data is made public.

But efforts to expand reporting by name are likely to face opposition. Officials in Massachusetts, who had been reporting bypass outcomes for individual doctors, stopped doing it in 2013.

Cardiac surgeons said, Enough is enough. We cant risk being in the papers as outliers, said Daniel Engelman, president of the Massachusetts Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

Engelman said the surgeons cited research from New York showing that public reporting may have led surgeons to turn away high-risk patients. Hoegh said research has not uncovered any such evidence in California.

Gorman is a senior correspondent for Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit newsroom that is an independent part of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

agorman@kff.org

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A spike in summer temperatures in Phoenix last month forced American Airlines to cancel dozens of flights because some planes used by the carriers regional airline could not operate in such extreme heat.

Airlines can expect to face such problems more often because of extreme temperatures caused by global climate change, according to a study from Columbia University.

The study, which appeared Thursday in the journal Climatic Change, estimated that 10% to 30% of fully loaded planes may have to remove fuel, cargo or passengers to fly during the hottest parts of the day or wait for temperatures to drop.

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As temperatures rise, air becomes less dense, which means that aircraft wings generate less lift as a plane gains speed along a runway, experts say.

The study said average global temperatures have increased nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since about 1980 and will rise by as much as 5.4 degrees by 2100. Heat waves will become more prevalent, causing more problems for airlines, according to the study by Columbia University doctoral student Ethan Coffel and climatologist Radley Horton.

American Airlines canceled 60 flights from June 19 through June 21 when temperatures at Phoenixs Sky Harbor International Airport rose as high as 119 degrees. The planes, Bombardier CRJ aircraft operated by regional carriers working with American Airlines, are designed to operate at temperatures no higher than 117.8 degrees.

American Airlines said it rebooked the passengers from the canceled flights without charging any extra fees. The Fort Worth-based carrier also contacted passengers on flights scheduled to take off during the hottest times of the day to warn them about the likelihood of cancellations.

hugo.martin@latimes.com

To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter.

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United Airlines is considering a program that pays passengers to give up their booked seats so that the carrier can resell them for a higher price to other fliers.

The Chicago-based carrier is talking with Volantio, an Atlanta-based revenue optimizing company that is looking to work on similar projects with Alaska Airlines, Qantas and Tiger Airways, an Australia-based low-cost carrier.

United Airlines representatives say the carrier has been weighing the money-making idea, to be called the Flex-Schedule Program, since the beginning of the year. They say it has nothing to do with the controversy that erupted in April when a passenger was injured while being dragged from an overbooked flight.

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We are always looking at new ways to innovate and improve the customer experience, said United spokesman Jonathan Guerin, adding that the program would start with a small pilot effort.

Delta Air Lines already runs a similar program that lets passengers make a bid via a text message on how much they would accept to give up their seats on an overbooked flight. Delta accepts the lowest bids first until everyone has a seat.

The United program first would identify passengers who have flexible travel plans and have notified the airline that they are interested in hearing offers to give up their seats.

In the case of a full flight, United Airlines would contact those travelers days before the flight to offer them up to $250 to give up their seat. In addition to handing out cash, United Airlines would rebook those passengers on a flight later that same day.

Under the proposed program, United Airlines then would resell the seat to a flier who is willing to pay more than the original price, plus the cash incentive paid out by United Airlines.

There is no word from United about when the program may launch.

hugo.martin@latimes.com

To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter.

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Three-time Super Bowl champion Ty Law is ready to play ball for his home in Plantation, Fla. The retired defensive back has chipped the price on the 5,500-square-foot home in a gated community to $2.198 million, down from $2.245 million earlier this year.

Set on more than half an acre, the two-story home is prime for outdoor entertaining. The backyard centers on a lagoon-style swimming pool with a baja shelf, waterfalls and a water slide. The largest of the waterfalls covers the mouth of a swim-in grotto.

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Nearby, a koi pond sits next to a Tahitian hut-style pavilion with a full bar and a 60-inch television. Theres also an outdoor kitchen.

Inside, common areas include a home theater, a game room/soda fountain and a newly updated kitchen with glass countertops. A backlit glass waterfall feature and aquarium create visual interest in the living room.

The master suite, one of six bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms, has sliding glass doors that lead to the backyard.

The property last changed hands more than a decade ago for $1.57 million, records show.

Barbara Shapiro of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estates Weston office holds the listing.

Law, 43, was among the NFLs premier cornerbacks during the mid 90s and early 2000s, twice leading the league in interceptions (1998, 2005). He made five Pro Bowl teams in 15 seasons with the Patriots, Jets and Chiefs, among others.

neal.leitereg@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATHotProperty

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The Los Angeles tech company behind Snapchat offers a simple sales pitch to investors: Well release features niftier than anything our competitors can produce.

In its first four months as a publicly traded company, Snap Inc. has kept its part of the bargain. It has debuted a new mapping tool that reveals the location of friends and trending events, launched several short video series and made it easier for any advertiser to buy commercial time on Snapchat. The firm also caught up to rival Instagram by matching options for replaying messages.

Yet, despite the changes, investors dont consider Snap any more valuable than when it went public. In fact, Snap shares have fallen below their $17 opening price in March to $15.27 on Friday. The companys market capitalization of around $18 billion sits right about where it did in the months leading up to Southern Californias biggest initial public stock offering.

What gives?

Theres no shortage of concerns swirling around Snap, which is scheduled to reveal its second-quarter financial results Aug. 10. But chief among them, investors remain unsure whether or how Snap will generate a profit someday. Snap declined to comment.

Financial analysts estimate the company will lose $3.3 billion this year, according to a tally by investment research aggregator FactSet. Much of Snaps expenses is stock compensation to employees.

Questions about making money dogged Snap before its IPO too. Investors and analysts say what has led the stock to drop is a creeping sense among investors that no matter how many creative features it launches, Snapchat just may be too small a player in the app economy to command a high valuation. That has investors wondering when shares might settle at a comfortable price.

At the moment, as Snap stares down the face of very pronounced head winds, wed rather fish in better waters, said Christopher Versace, chief investment officer at Tematica Research, which provides guidance to individual investors.

Advertiser reactions are mixed

Snap generates its revenue by selling ads that appear inside Snapchat. Varieties include 10-second commercials bought by the likes of Adidas, Spotify and Emirates in addition to small decorative graphics that anyone, including regular users, can buy to celebrate an event.

But it remains a work in progress for many big-budget advertisers to figure out whether the spots theyre buying are worthwhile. Snap in recent months introduced more sophisticated measures to help retailers track whether ads lead to in-store visits and purchases.

Morgan Stanley stock analyst Brian Nowak reportedly said this week that the initiatives have been underwhelming, and he lowered estimates for Snaps ad sales growth. Others have voiced concerns about users skipping past ads on Snapchat and the special effort required to design commercials for the app.

Martin Sorrell, chief executive of ad agency giant WPP, gave unenthusiastic mentions of Snap in TV interviews in recent days. He said Facebook  which has duplicated many of Snapchats best-known features in its Instagram and Messenger apps  had successfully countered Snap.

WPP spends about $2 billion annually buying ads on Facebook for clients such as Ford and Procter & Gamble. Its spending on Snapchat ads could double to $200 million this year.

Versace, the investment research analyst, said Snap also could take a hit if companies lower their growth forecasts after initially thinking the economy would grow faster under President Trump .

This coming earnings season, theres a high probability we see companies dialing back expectations for the second half of the year, he said. I wouldnt be surprised if we see Snap doing the same.

Credit Suisse stock analyst Stephen Ju said this week that he's had encouraging conversations with advertisers about Snap being on the right track. But he still lowered second-quarter sales assumptions.

While we were hoping for Snap to exhibit a more comfortable growth path, we are reminded that nascent companies sometimes grow in fits and starts, Ju wrote.

Analysts estimate Snap picked up $190 million in revenue during the second quarter, with a full-year estimate of $980 million.

The big concern is you have a company thats not profitable and doesnt show a clear path to how its going to become profitable, said Steven Dudash of IHT Wealth Management.

User growth remains difficult to predict

One of Snaps biggest priorities for the year has been loading up the app with a daily batch of short, scripted videos about sports, celebrity life, food and even dating. But analysts are getting mixed data on whether shows and other features are roping in new users or getting existing Snapchatters to spend more time on the app. More users and more time spent increases the opportunities Snap has to display an ad.

Snaps moves to increase usage may be cutting both ways. For instance, its new location-sharing feature has unleashed a wave of privacy concerns that could see parents more closely monitor or restrict their childrens app usage. On Wednesday, Arkansas Atty. Gen. Leslie Rutledge joined numerous schools and public officials in alerting consumers to be cautious about Snap Map.

Scott Devitt at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. said in a note to investors Thursday that stock buyers should give Snapchat a try  and that becoming a user might assuage some of their skepticism.

Many of these individuals dont use or understand Snap (yet), leading to a negative bias despite healthy underlying growth, Devitt said.

Snap Chief Executive Evan Spiegel has told The Times it could take several years for the public to understand his company and its products.

An increase in stock supply looms

The 200 million Snap shares available are expected to turn into 1.2 billion by the end of the summer as trading bans lift on employees, advisors and top investors. Increased supply tends to dampen prices.

How many shareholders will actually start selling their newly freed stakes is a wildcard, Versace said.

Veteran tech and media executives who took pay cuts to work at Snap may be interested in cashing in sooner rather than later, while co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy may hold off indefinitely. Both had opportunities to get millions in cash through company loans and sales in the past.

Spiegel and Murphy, who already control most of the company's voting power, may decide to even add shares to their holdings in the coming weeks. Such a move would be a strong signal of their faith in their long-term plan.

Snap's biggest venture capital investors, Benchmark and Lightspeed Venture Partners, didnt respond to requests to comment on their plans for their soon-to-be unrestricted Snap shares. Before its shares of Twitter became unrestricted three years ago, Benchmark forewarned that it wouldnt be an immediate seller.

Stock indexes could keep Snap out

Snap also could automatically lose potential buyers in the coming months. Operators of stock indexes such as FTSE Russell, Standard & Poors and MSCI are considering, and perhaps leaning toward, leaving out companies that dont offer investors voting power. An exclusion policy would be bad for Snap, whose publicly traded shares carry no votes, because several major investment funds maintain portfolios that match indexes.

The issue adds to the defense of people who are not only betting on Snap shares to fall, but also paying one of the markets highest options fees to make that wager.

There is a limit to how far skeptics think shares will sink, and some think its near. Paul Schatz, chief investment officer at Heritage Capital, said Snap is close to a low as it moves into the typical four- to six-month-after-IPO zone where a bottom is likely to appear.

He had called the shares "garbage in March when Snap traded in the $20s. At $16 months later, he says, I am a lot less negative.

paresh.dave@latimes.com

UPDATES:

5:22 p.m.: This article was updated with Snap's closing stock price for Friday.

This article was originally published at 3 a.m.
We dont have intermissions in long movies, neither should we have them in tense and involving plays.

Morrie Markoff

Los Angeles

:::

The next time you see a play with an intermission, check the line outside the womens lavatory. It is long. I leave my seat the moment the first act curtain starts to fall. Why? If I dont, I find myself at the end of a long queue and may not get to see the next act. Cut out the intermission and many will be most uncomfortable for the rest of the performance. That does not contribute to a satisfying theater experience.

Valerie Fields

Los Angeles

:::

Youve written exactly what Ive been feeling for some time. Excellent piece.

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Carol Goddard

Evanston, Ill.

:::

Bravo to you for your stand on an intermission-free theater (except when the play is worth waiting for). Im a theater producer in Ojai and want to encourage others to find or create intermission-less plays for all the reasons you stated.

Our next play is Shakespeares second shortest play, Macbeth. Do we have the guts to present that one without intermission?

Stuart Crowner, Ojai Performing Arts Theater

Ojai

:::

Great piece today. I just returned from a 20-show trip to New York City and eight of them were 90 minutes, no intermission, and I have started to realize how much I like these no-nonsense, to the point, stagings.

Doug Jones

Los Angeles

:::

Having an intermission seems a dated concept and unnecessary, even to my husband and me. We are in our 50s.

Diane Haun

Culver City

:::

:::

If only theaters would install spacious recliners as movie theatres are doing now, I could sit through almost anything! Otherwise, if its not 90 minutes, no intermission, Im increasingly likely to pass.

Risa Slavin

Porter Ranch

The happiest place on Earth, for some

Regarding A Parks Devotee Seeks Out the Experts to Explain His Several-Times-a-Month Fixation [July 9]. I have been going to Disneyland for 60 years. Starting as a child and now as an old lady. You are not alone in the pleasure you get from a D-land visit. Every visit makes me happy. Is there a better reason to go to Disneyland?

Margo Allen

Laguna Woods

:::

I believe there is a rational explanation for Todd Martens addiction to Disney theme parks. As a world traveler, I have been to 70 countries, including primitive places. Things inevitably go wrong. You get lost, you miss flights, you wind up in a terrible hotel, you get food poisoning, you are flim-flammed by locals, etc., etc. If, however, you incessantly return to Disney parks, things are very predictable and very little can go wrong. In essence, you lose control when you travel the world and you maintain control when you frequent Disneyland.

Bob Lentz

Sylmar

:::

Surely Walt Disney himself was exactly like Todd Martens, in believing that a world of fantasy could lighten our burdens and gladden our hearts. I wonder if people rolled their eyes at him? Sixty years later I would think his point has been made.

Aren Latimer

Torrance

One fine author

Regarding The Making of Sherman Alexie [July 9]. I appreciate todays story on Sherman Alexie. I had read about him in The Times over the years, then stumbled upon him at my local library a few years back and fell in love with his writing.

Hes a wonderful writer, and Im so glad hes successful. Hopefully there will be more readers out there who will find him thanks to todays article.

Pam Evans

Norwalk

:::

Theater history

I enjoyed your article on porn houses [The onetime thriving Pussycat chain and other X-rated theaters have dwindled to merely a pair, July 9]. I wondered where you got the picture of the demolition of the Pussycat in Buena Park. My grandparents and uncle bought the theater in the 1960s and renamed it the Grand Theater.

They began showing regular movies but could not compete with the chain theaters in La Mirada and Buena Park.

My grandfather died in 1967, and my uncle and dad kept the show open until about 1971, when they sold out to Miranda and the Pussycat chain.

Richard Malone

Rancho Cucamonga

The conversation continues online with comments and letters from readers at

latimes.com/calendarfeedback

calendar.letters@latimes.com
CBS S.W.A.T. reboot will take on the Trump years, #BlackLivesMatter, says Shemar Moore By Meredith Blake Stephanie Sigman and Shemar Moore (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) Dont let the funky theme song or the 70s origins fool you. While technically a remake  of both the original series and the subsequent 2003 film based on it  CBS upcoming cop drama S.W.A.T. is very plugged into the current moment, according to its cast and creators. In the series, former Criminal Minds star Shemar Moore plays a native Angeleno who runs a tactical unit for the LAPD and finds his loyalty torn between his fellow officers and the community in which he was raised. As co-creator Aaron Rahsaan Thomas told reporters Tuesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour, the series was inspired by his experiences growing up in Kansas City, which have helped him understand both sides of the raging debate over police violence. I grew up in a neighborhood that had a very complicated view towards police officers, said Thomas, who created the series with veteran showrunner Shawn Ryan. On one hand, a 12-year-old kid who was a neighbor of mine was shot and killed by a police officer. On the other hand, another neighbor of mine was an actual police officer. Moore, best known for his long run on the CBS procedural Criminal Minds, noted the diversity of the cast and creative team and added that, while the show is primarily designed to entertain, it will also resonate politically. Were taking on the Trump years, he said. I dont care who you voted for. Its just whats happening today. Its Black Lives Matter. As much as some people dont want to hear it, its All Lives Matter. Its not just black versus blue or black versus white. Its every ethnicity. Its fear. Its racism. Its terrorism. Its subject matter of today. Ryan, who created the groundbreaking drama The Shield, about corrupt Los Angeles police officers, said he was excited about the chance to examine the often charged relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve. Los Angeles is such a diverse, amazing community, and seeing an officer who kind of lives in the city and sort of sees the people that are being policed as humans and as neighbors and as friends was really important to me. Facebook

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Netflix getting A Little Help from Carol Burnett By Libby Hill What do you get when you pair up a living legend with a bunch of little kids? Comedy gold, if Netflix has its way. The online streaming service announced Monday that comedy icon Carol Burnett will be returning to television with A Little Help With Carol Burnett, an original unscripted series that pairs Burnett with children to tackle lifes dilemmas. Someone once asked me how old I am inside, Burnett said in a statement Monday. I thought about it and came up with, Im about 8. So its going to be a lot of fun playing with kids my age. Kids ages 4 to 8 will join Burnett as celebrities and everyday folks bring their real-life problems to the show to get advice in front of a live studio audience. Were thrilled Carol is bringing her unique sensibilities to Netflix, Bela Bajaria, the services vice president of content acquisition, said in Mondays announcement. Carol is truly a legend in the entertainment industry with unprecedented success and fandom across TV, film and the stage, and we are both honored and excited to work with her. A Little Help With Carol Burnett will be produced by Dick Clark Productions and is the companys first Netflix project. This is the second television project announced this year for Burnett, 84. In February, ABC ordered a pilot for the multi-camera comedy Household Name, starring Burnett, though the series has not been picked up in its current iteration. Debuting in 2018, A Little Help With Carol Burnett will feature 12 half-hour episodes. Facebook

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Ken Burns explains why his Vietnam War documentary is more relevant than ever By Libby Hill Ken Burns in Beverly Hilton on Sunday. (Richard Shotwell / Invision) History doesnt repeat itself, Ken Burns told a room of journalists gathered Sunday at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Beverly Hills Were not condemned to repeat what we dont remember, Burns explained. Its that human nature never changes. Its a curious statement from the storied documentarian, particularly given his latest project, the 18-hour, 10-part documentary series The Vietnam War, directed with Lynn Novick. But just because humanity isnt trapped in a constantly repeating cycle doesnt mean that the echoes of modern strife arent plentiful throughout the upcoming PBS series. This is a story about mass demonstrations all across the country against the current administration, Burns said in response to a question about what the youth of America will find relevant in The Vietnam War. About a White House obsessed with leaks and in disarray because of those leaks, about a president railing against you, the news media, for making up news. Its about asymmetrical warfare, which even the mighty might of the United States Army cant figure out the correct strategy to take, and its about big document drops of classified material thats been hacked, that suddenly is dumped into the public sphere, destabilizing the conventional wisdom about really important topics and accusations that a political campaign reached out to a foreign power at the time of a national election to influence that election. This is the film we started in 2006, and every single one of those points are points about the Vietnam War having nothing to do with today, Burns concluded. By creating a fully-formed picture of Vietnam, Burns hopes to shed light on the rancor and alienation defining this present moment, he explained. For Novick, the thematic relevance only serves to help teachers who have long struggled in tackling the Vietnam War. Weve had great response from teachers already that the Vietnam War is difficult to teach because its controversial and unsettled history and theyre looking forward to using the film in the classroom, Novick said. Those resonances that Ken is talking about, those will be assignments for students. Were not going to have to work very hard with teachers to come up with those themes, and students are curious about whats happening now. The Vietnam War premieres Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. PDT Facebook

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Goodbye, MTV Moonman trophy. Hello, Moon Person By Emily Mae Czachor MTVs token space cadet just scored an identity revamp  and gender didnt make the cut. In a recent interview with the New York Times, MTV President Chris McCarthy said the networks iconic Moonman trophy has been discontinued. From now on, the metallic figurine  whose impenetrably opaque helmet has become the unofficial face of MTVs Video Music Awards  will go by Moon Person instead. Because who knows whats really going on beneath that lacquered astronaut getup, anyway. Why should it be a man? McCarthy told the Times. It could be a man, it could be a woman, it could be transgender, it could be nonconformist. This new development is just the latest installment in MTVs string of efforts to do away with gender norms during its awards proceedings. The network eliminated gender-specific categories at its MTV Movie & TV Awards earlier this year, where all nominees were placed in neutral categories (i.e. best actor in a show, best actor in a movie). And the network isnt going to stop there. McCarthy also announced a new MTV reality series  still in development called We Are They about a group of gender-nonconforming young adults coming of age. With Katy Perry hosting, the VMAs will broadcast from the Forum in Inglewood on Aug. 27. Heres the full list of nominees. Facebook

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Sam Shepard: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actor and ... avant-garde drummer? By Randall Roberts Sam Shepard in 2014. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Sam Shepard, whose death at 73 was announced on Monday, will be remembered for his cross-discipline versatility. As a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, he penned classic off-Broadway plays including True West, Buried Child and Fool for Love. An Oscar-nominated actor, he starred in films including Days of Heaven, The Right Stuff, Crimes of the Heart and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. To fans of underground music, however, Shepard served a lesser-known role as the drummer for seminal New York avant-garde folk band the Holy Modal Rounders, with whom he performed on the crucial late 1960s albums Indian War Whoop and The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders. The band is best known for its song If You Want to Be a Bird, which plays during the classic scene in Easy Rider in which Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson roar down the highway on their motorcycles. Thats Shepard playing drums as Rounders founders Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber whoop and yowl. It was in his capacity as a percussionist, in fact, that he drew the attention of a young Patti Smith, who, in her 2010 memoir Just Kids, recounted their first early 70s meeting at seminal music club the Village Gate. Escorted to the club by Todd Rundgren, who had just issued his album Runt, Smith described the Holy Modal Rounders set as like being at an Arabian hoedown with a band of psychedelic hillbillies. I was fixed on the drummer, who seemed as if he was on the lam and had slid behind the drums while cops looked elsewhere. Smith, who at the time was freelancing for Crawdaddy magazine, introduced herself to this drummer, who said his name was Slim Shadow. The two started hanging out, wrote Smith, describing his tales as being even taller than mine. He had an infectious laugh and was rugged, smart, and intuitive. In my mind, he was the fellow with the cowboy mouth. Only later did she learn Slims real identity when a friend pulled her aside after seeing them at a restaurant together. As recounted in Just Kids, Smith wrote that her friend asked, What are you doing with Sam Shepard? Sam Shepard? I said. Oh, no, this guys name is Slim. Honey, dont you know who he is? Hes the drummer for the Holy Modal Rounders. No, corrected her friend, Hes the biggest playwright off-Broadway. He had a play at Lincoln Center. He won five Obies! Once she learned of his reputation and acclaim, Smith and Shepard continued to see each other -- despite his being married at the time -- and eventually collaborated on a play called Cowboy Mouth. Smith described telling him of nervousness at writing for the stage, which she had never done. But Shepard urged her on, Smith wrote, telling her that you cant make a mistake when you improvise. Replied Smith: What if I screw up the rhythm? You cant, Shepard explained. Its like drumming. If you miss a beat, you create another. 7:15 a.m. Updated to correct the title of Smiths memoir, Just Kids, and to identify the Holy Modal Rounders co-founders, Stampfel and Weber. Facebook

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Lady Gaga subpoenaed in producer Dr. Lukes lawsuit against pop singer Kesha By Randall Roberts The ongoing offstage drama between the pop singer Kesha and her former producer Dr. Luke has entangled another platinum superstar: Lady Gaga. On Saturday, attorneys for Dr. Luke, whose real name is Lukasz Gottwald, issued a statement regarding their attempt to depose Lady Gaga about relevant conversations she may have had with Kesha. The artist, who was born Kesha Sebert, is the subject of a defamation suit filed in New York by Dr. Luke stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct, which the producer vigorously denies. The statement reads: Dr. Lukes counsel served a subpoena on Lady Gaga because she has relevant information regarding, among other things, false statements about Dr. Luke made to her by Kesha. This motion has become necessary because Dr. Lukes counsel has not been able to obtain, despite repeated request [sic], a deposition date from Lady Gaga. The protracted legal battle between Dr. Luke, left, and Kesha has brought Lady Gaga into the fray. (Kevin Winter / Getty Images) Representatives for Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, said in a statement issued to The Times on Monday morning: As Lady Gagas legal team will present to the court, she has provided all of the relevant information in her possession and is at most an ancillary witness in this process. Dr. Lukes team is attempting to manipulate the truth and draw press attention to their case by exaggerating Lady Gagas role and falsely accusing her of dodging reasonable requests. Among the information Lady Gaga has provided are copies of text messages that were, according to a report on TMZ, heavily redacted. Lady Gaga has been a vocal Kesha supporter. Last year, Gaga wrote about her peers plight in an Instagram post: The very reason women dont speak up for years is the fear that no one will believe them or their abuser has threatened their life or life of their loved ones/livelihood in order to keep their victim quiet and under control. What happened to Kesha has happened to many female artists, including myself, and it will affect her for the rest of her life. The news comes at a particularly crucial moment for Keshas career. On Aug. 11, she will release her highly anticipated new album, Rainbow. The record, featuring songs such as Learn to Let Go, will arrive via Dr. Lukes imprint, Kemosabe, a situation Kesha sought to avoid in a 2014 lawsuit of her own, which she later dropped. Facebook

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Ride on, genius: Celebrities mourn the loss of Sam Shepard By Emily Mae Czachor Acclaimed actor and playwright Sam Shepard died July 27 at age 73. (Charles Sykes / Associated Press) Sam Shepard  Oscar-nominated actor and critically acclaimed playwright, author, screenwriter and director  died on July 27 after suffering complications from ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease). When news of his death broke Monday morning, Twitter erupted with posts to mourn, honor and remember one of show business beloved renaissance men. View Instagram post This story was updated with additional reactions. Facebook

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Macaulay Culkin got his first tattoo with goddaughter Paris Jackson, and its a match By Emily Mae Czachor For Paris Jackson, getting inked is nothing out of the ordinary. With more than 50 tattoos already under her belt, the 19-year-old daughter of late pop king Michael Jackson collects body art like postage stamps. According to E! News, the budding actress got her latest over the weekend: an understated sketch of a red spoon, just below the crook of her left arm. A new tattoo might be old-hat for Jackson, but it wasnt for Macaulay Culkin, Jacksons 36-year-old godfather -- and first-time tattoo patron -- who emerged from West Hollywoods Tattoo Mania with a matching spoon on his own forearm. Though neither Jackson nor Culkin spoke to the meaning of the double-inking, the design is supposedly meant to represent a kind of chronic struggle. And thats not the only news that Culkin made recently. The Internet nearly lost its collective mind last week when a new photo emerged of the Home Alone actor looking healthy and happy. E! News even declared that Culkin definitely just won 2017s greatest makeover. Your eyes aren't deceiving you. Macaulay Culkin definitely just won 2017's greatest makeover (thus far, at least). https://t.co/IdKjxii5KZ pic.twitter.com/SOAuSx57oU  E! News (@enews) July 27, 2017 Facebook

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Alex Jones products are almost as bad as his conspiracy theories, says John Oliver By Meredith Blake Over the last year, conspiracy theorist and influential radio host Alex Jones has come under intense scrutiny for his fringe beliefs, most notably his claim that the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax perpetrated by the government. On Sundays Last Week Tonight, John Oliver noted that Jones status as a Sandy Hook truther qualified him for an Easy Pass to hells version of the champagne room. But he spent most of his time on a relatively overlooked aspect of Jones conspiracy empire -- the wide range of products that he sells in order to fund it. According to Oliver, Jones spends nearly a quarter of his airtime plugging InfoWars-branded merchandise, including Wake Up America Patriot coffee to Combat One Tactical Bath Wipes and a powder called Caveman True Paleo (made from chocolate and domesticated bird corpses, Oliver joked). As the comedian pointed out, it just so happens that many of the products Jones sells, often at a significant markup, purport to address the conspiracy theories with equally wild-eyed zeal. Think: water filters to remove chemicals that supposedly turn frogs gay or vitamins to boost your immunity and ward off germs from allegedly disease-ridden refugees. Jones even has his own in-house expert, Dr. Edward Group, with dubious qualifications (and equally questionable hair) to back up his various outlandish claims. InfoWars is essentially a QVC for conspiracy, Oliver argued. So in the spirit of InfoWars, Oliver decided to introduce his own personal care product, John Oliver Moisture-Armored Tactical Assault Wipes, available via Infowipes.com. The price? A mere $1 million. Worth every penny, were sure. You can watch the complete segment here. Facebook

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Vintage Casablanca poster sells for $478,000 By Trevell Anderson How much would someone pay for a vintage movie poster? Well, if that film is Casablanca, one persons answer is $478,000. Thats how much a bidder coughed up Saturday for the only known surviving Italian-issue poster for the 1942 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The poster sold through Heritage Auctions of Dallas. The buyer has just set a world record and acquired what we in the poster collecting world would equate to a masterpiece, said Grey Smith, Heritages director of vintage posters. The stunning artistry put into this poster makes it stand head and shoulders above any paper produced for the film. The poster, measuring 55.5 inches by 78.25 inches, was produced in 1946. The film opened in Italy on Nov. 21 that year, almost four years after its U.S. premiere. Featuring artwork by Luigi Martinati, the poster is considered the best of the pictures numerous advertisements, Smith said. Previous Italian-issue posters for the film have sold for as much as $203,000. A U.S.-issue of the poster has fetched $191,200. The auction featured other rare posters for the film, with a half-sheet going for $65,725, and a postwar Spanish-release poster selling for $35,850. ---------- For the Record An earlier version of this article misstated the purchase price of the Casablanca poster sold Saturday as $487,000. Facebook

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There is no Plan B for public broadcasting without federal funding, PBS president says By Libby Hill Paula Kerger, chief executive of PBS (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images) PBS President and Chief Executive Paula Kerger wasnt pulling any punches Sunday at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Beverly Hills. When people say, What is the Plan B for [loss of federal funding]? There is no Plan B for that, Kerger said of the potential budget crisis public broadcasting faces under the Trump administration. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been under fire for months, with President Trumps proposed budget axing the institutions $450-million budget. Though its easy to suggest that budget cuts would threaten Big Birds livelihood, the true victims of defunding would be far more human. Kerger explained that of PBS $450-million budget, one-third goes to radio. Of the television budget, most goes to community service grants that local stations use for up to 50% of their operating budgets. PBS itself will not go away. But a number of our stations will. If you are a station for whom 30 or 40 or 50% of your funding is suddenly pulled away, theres no way you can make up that money, Kerger said. You will find big parts of the country that will suddenly be without public broadcasting. The fate of public broadcasting is currently in flux, waiting for the end of Congress August recess for resolution. Currently, the House Appropriations Committee has approved the bulk of the PBS budget, while the House Budget Committee recommended doing away with funding altogether. Budget concerns aside, Kerger also addressed other unresolved PBS matters. The second seat of PBS NewsHour has been vacant since the untimely death of co-host Gwen Ifill in November 2016, leaving Judy Woodruff as the shows sole anchor. We have encouraged [executive producer] Sara Just and Judy Woodruff and the team at NewsHour to take their time and think very carefully about who that right person [to replace Ifill] is, Kerger said. Im hopeful that they will be making an announcement sometime over the next few months of a new anchor. Kerger also announced an upcoming project aimed at inspiring the country to come together in celebration of literature. The Great American Read is an eight-part series launching in spring 2018 that explores the nations 100 best-loved books, chosen by the American people and culminating in the first-ever national vote to choose Americas Best-Loved Book. Facebook

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AMC Visionaries adds Eli Roth, Roots, Gibney for new docu-series By Meredith Woerner Robert Kirkman, left, and Eli Roth at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Beverly Hills. ( Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for AMC) AMC announced several additions to its upcoming Visionaries docu-series Saturday at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Beverly Hills. Writer-director-actor Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel) will be offering a deeper look into his signature style of genre filmmaking with Eli Roths History of Horror (working title) and Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Tariq Black Thought Trotter (founding members of The Roots) and Alex Gibney (Going Clear, History of the Eagles) will executive produce a series called Rap Yearbook (another working title). The cable network also has three other installments in development: History of Video Games, Outlaws of the Internet, and History of Martial Arts. The new Visionaries members join the previously announced programs Robert Kirkmans Secret History of Comics and James Camerons Story of Science Fiction. Kirkman and Roth were present at the AMC panel with Cameron appearing via satellite to show sneak peeks from the comics and sci-fi iterations of the series. A sizzle reel for the Secret History of Comics utilized plenty of classic panel pages and a sort of motion comic-like animation to illustrate the early days of Marvel Comics, going all the way back to the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby days. But the real treat was a collection of cameos, famous faces opining about their love of the form including Lee himself, J.K. Simmons, Kevin Smith, and Method Man, who earnestly revealed, You have to be born a comic book fan, I think. And there are plenty more talking heads to come, the AMC press release promised Patty Jenkins, Lynda Carter, Famke Janssen, Michelle Rodriguez, and Todd McFarlane. The second clip shared a look at Camerons love letter to science fiction. Today, science fiction is mainstream but it didnt used to be that way, the director explained. When I was a kid science fiction wasnt cool, but I thought it was cool. Cameron wants to focus on closing the gap between current fans knowledge of modern day sci-fi to the pioneering works of literature that inspired the blockbuster offerings of today. The Terminator and Avatar director noted that without Jules Verne and H.G. Wells there would be no Avengers, Star Wars or his own works. The series will be divided by theme -- space travel, time travel etc.-- and include appearances from Paul W. Anderson, Roland Emmerich, Paul Verhoeven, Bryan Singer, Keanu Reeves, Jonathan Nolan, David Gerrold and D.C. Fontana. When asked how their respective series would showcase diversity -- the footage screened was very male-centric -- Kirkman responded that History of Comics would have two episodes devoted to diversity. One will focus on the women who helped Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston steer the course of the hugely famous female superhero, and another highlighting people of color titled The Color of Comics. The episode explores the history of black characters, and the lack of black characters in the comic book industry, said Kirkman. which touches on the creation of Black Panther  the Marvel character  and does a really cool focus on this company called Milestone Comics that was founded by a group of African American comic book creators to create characters that appealed to them and represented them, because there was a huge lack of representation in comics even in the 90s. You wouldnt have horror without Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, Roth added. He cited the late George Romero as an example of how he wants to break down the themes within the horror genre. At the height of the civil rights movement [Romero] puts an African American as the lead of Night of the Living Dead and at the end of the movie hes shot by a bunch of rednecks. Not because of the color of his skin, but because they think hes a zombie. But you can read into the implications of that. What [Romero] was doing with using genre to explore racism was so ahead of its time. its just as potent today as it was 50 years ago. Its absolutely something were going to be discussing. Roths urgency to document the horror masters was apparent. It was the death of Scream moviemaker Wes Craven that inspired Roth to get involved in Visionaries. The panel then took a turn for the analytical when the creators were asked how their series would reflect the world today. The fact that dystopian science fiction has come back, especially in television and in movies, is very important, said Cameron. It means that in the age that we live in right now the challenges that face us are technological. Theyre science challenges: climate change, genetics, artificial intelligence, things like that. These are really on our horizon as major, existential threats. The best horror reflects whats going on in our times, said Roth. He used Jordan Peeles Get Out  which addressed modern day racial tensions as a reference. Its no accident that movie coming out right now is making over $200 million at the box office. You can tell its really resonating with people. Bouncing off Camerons dystopia revelation, Roth then turned his lens onto the current political climate, I dont think weve ever seen a cast of characters like this in our White House thats straight out of WWF wrestling in the 80s. When [Anthony Scaramucci] is coming out with things that would make Rowdy Roddy Piper in his heyday blush. This is a farce, is this actually happening? When will we start seeing this dystopian outlook on the current political climate in the movies? Possibly before Roths series, which will air sometime in 2018, after History of Comics and the Story of Science Fiction in 2017. Facebook

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President Trump got a fan letter from a young boy this week. Stephen Colbert introduced another young fan Friday By Greg Braxton Stephen Colbert, host of CBS The Late Show. (Michael Loccisano / Getty Images) White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders took time during a White House briefing this week to read a fan letter to President Trump from a 9-year-old boy named Dylan who has the nickname of Pickle. Sanders read part of the letter to reporters: Youre my favorite President ... I dont know why people dont like you. Sanders interjected, Neither do I, Dylan. The letter continued, You seem really nice. Can we be friends? Sanders assured Pickle that she had spoken directly to Trump about him, and the president would be more than happy to be your friend. Stephen Colbert on Friday brought another young fan of Trumps onstage Friday night to read her own letter during his CBS Late Show. Dear President, my name is Norah, but everybody calls me Mustard, the little girl recited. She continued, Youre my favorite current president. Norah then presented some probing questions to Trump: I was wondering, does the attorney general enjoy your full support? And how do you plan to implement the ban on transgender people currently serving in the military? Will those on active duty be called home? Sounds like a logistical nightmare. She continued, One more thing: Are you a puppet of Vladimir Putin? I love puppets! I made one at camp! Love, Mustard. The Late Show audience cheered. Facebook

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Broadways Great Comet producer apologizes for controversial Mandy Patinkin casting By Nardine Saad (Jeff Schear / Getty Images) The producer behind Broadways struggling musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812" has joined the apologetic refrain for the diversity uproar that followed the decision to bring in Mandy Patinkin to replace departing star Okieriete Oak Onaodowan, who is black. The production came under fire this week following its move to replace Onaodowan, who was in the original cast of Hamilton, with Tony Award winner Patinkin in a titular role. As part of our sincere efforts to keep Comet running for the benefit of its cast, creative team, crew, investors and everyone else involved, we arranged for Mandy Patinkin to play Pierre, co-producer Howard Kagan said in an official statement posted Friday on Twitter. Kagan said they had the wrong impression of how Onaodowan felt about Patinkins casting and how it would be received by members of the theater community, which we appreciate is deeply invested in the success of actors of color  as are we  and to whom we are grateful for bringing this to our attention. We regret our mistake deeply, and wish to express our apologies to everyone who felt hurt and betrayed by these actions, he said. The legendary Broadway star dropped out of the musical on Friday after the announcement that he would be replacing the African American star was met with disdain. Patinkin was to join the cast for a limited run from Aug. 15 through Sept. 3, but declined the part because he would never accept a role knowing it would harm another actor. I hear what members of the community have said and I agree with them. I am a huge fan of Oak and I will, therefore, not be appearing in the show, the Homeland alum tweeted. Another tweet on the shows account included an apology to Patinkin for any misunderstanding and said they understood his decision to withdraw from the show. Our deepest apologies. pic.twitter.com/Mks7XLGxbq  The Great Comet (@GreatCometBway) July 28, 2017 pic.twitter.com/vSZk6K2KOV  The Great Comet (@GreatCometBway) July 28, 2017 Onaodowan, who had replaced recording artist Josh Groban in the role of Pierre earlier this month, is scheduled to continue to perform through Aug. 13, after which, he stated Friday on Twitter, he will not return to the show. It is unclear if his decision to leave the production was his own or prompted by other factors. Show creator Dave Malloy, whose musical was inspired by a portion of Leo Tolstoys War and Peace, also apologized Friday on Twitter for how everything went down and missing the racial optics of their casting decision. They had previously asked actress Brittain Ashford to step aside for the casting of better-known singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson during the summer months and they didnt anticipate that Patinkins casting would be viewed differently, Malloy said. Despite 12 Tony Award nominations, Comet only received two wins -- for set and lighting -- at the June ceremony and ticket sales ebbed when Groban departed. Malloy said that sales for shows after Aug. 13, when Michaelsons run would also end, were catastrophically low. So they decided to cast Patinkin, hoping that his star power would help boost sales, because the weird show was in desperate shape and on the brink of closing. Facebook

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Eagles, Doobie Brothers will play Classic Northwest show Sept. 30 in Seattle By Randy Lewis The reconfigured Eagles, shown during a July 15 performance at Dodger Stadium, will continue with a Sept. 30 Classic Northwest concert with the Doobie Brothers in Seattle. (Kevin Mazur / Getty Images) The EaglesClassic music festival series will continue with at least one more stop, this time in Seattle. But unlike the inaugural Classic West bill July 15-16 at Dodger Stadium, which is having a Classic East encore this weekend in New York, the added Classic Northwest show on Sept. 30 will be just a single day and feature the Eagles and Doobie Brothers only. The Classic West and East shows teamed the Eagles, Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers on one day, with Fleetwood Mac, Journey and Earth, Wind & Fire on the second day of each. Tickets for the Classic Northwest bill go on sale Aug. 5 at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster. At the outset of the Eagles portion of Classic West on July 15, co-founder Don Henley indicated it was still uncertain how much of a future his long-running band might have absent co-founder Glenn Frey, who died last year at 67. To make the Classic West and East shows possible, the group tapped Freys son, singer-guitarist Deacon Frey, and country music star Vince Gill to handle the lead vocals on the many Eagles songs that were originally sung by Glenn Frey. In case this is our last dance, Henley told the crowd at Dodger Stadium, where he was joined by longtime bandmates Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, we want to thank all of you in Southern California for all your support. Facebook

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In her new Hulu series, Sarah Silverman wants to love America -- seriously By Greg Braxton Executive producers Amy Zvi, left, and Adam McKay, star/executive producer Sarah Silverman and executive producer Gavin Purcell at Hulus I Love You, America panel at the TCA summer press tour. (Willy Sanjuan / Invision/Associated Press) From her stand-up act to her Comedy Central series to her Twitter account, comic-actress Sarah Silverman has a long history of courting laughs and controversy. Her outspokenness and sometimes absurd, sometimes acerbic views on everything from celebrity to culture to politics, particularly President Trump and his administration, have raised eyebrows. On her upcoming Hulu series, I Love You, America, Silverman is focused more on forming bonds than being provocative. In surveying the current political landscape and the comedy shows that skewer it, Silverman says she wants to reach out to all on the political spectrum. For me, [those shows are] great, but they really connect with more like-minded people. Theyre brilliant. Theyre funny. But Im hoping to, with this show, connect with un-like-minded people, Silverman said Thursday during a panel at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour in Beverly Hills. The mission of the show is that were all the same. But whats important is that its funny. Although the exact format of the show is still being refined, Silverman did reveal some elements, including a monologue, a focus group in the studio and field pieces in which she travels around the country talking to people. For example, Silverman says she plans to go to Slidell, La., to meet a family that says they have never met a Jewish person. I cant help but have preconceived notions. They cant help but have preconceived notions, said Silverman. All I can do is just try to be open and brave and go into the situation. And same for them. Although Silverman and executive producer Adam McKay didnt make any sharp criticisms about Trump at Thursdays session, they did take exception to his attacks against so-called entertainment liberals or the Hollywood elite. What is he talking about? said Silverman. Im from ... New Hampshire. Everybody out here is from somewhere else. The goal of the show will be to seek common ground and understanding, she said: Ultimately were all the same. The thesis of the show is that everybody just wants to be loved. Facebook

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Jerry Seinfeld is Forbes highest-paid comedian; Amy Schumer still only woman to crack the top 10 By Nardine Saad If Jerry Seinfeld is this years king of comedy, then Amy Schumer is the queen. The Comedy Central star once again landed on Forbes list of highest-paid comedians, the financial magazine announced Thursday. She was the first woman comic to crack the top 10 last year and remains the only woman on the list this year. The Trainwreck and Snatched star made an estimated $37.5 million between June 2016 and June 2017 thanks to her Netflix show The Leather Special, her memoir The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo and endorsement deals with Bud Light and Old Navy. That ranked the raunchy comic No. 5 on the list filled with veteran comedy heavyweights. Meanwhile, the Seinfeld and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee star shot back to the top of the list this year, earning an estimated $69 million. Seinfeld was eclipsed last year by Kevin Hart, who this year dropped to the No. 6 spot with $32.5 million. Chris Rock trailed Seinfeld for the second spot on Forbes list, earning $57 million. His record-breaking $20 million-per-special contract with Netflix paved the way for several comics, including Seinfeld, to cut lucrative deals with the streaming service, which is poised to become the go-to-destination for comedy specials. In addition to touring, those deals significantly padded the incomes of several stars on Forbes list. In the third and fourth spots, funnymen Louis C.K. and Dave Chappelle, who earned $52 million and $47 million, respectively, also made expensive deals with the streaming service to make their millions. To see Forbes complete list, click here. For the record, 10:40 a.m.: A previous headline and version of this story said that Schumer was the first woman to make the top 10 list this year. Schumer was the first woman to make the top 10 last year. Facebook

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American Horror Story: Cult gets sickeningly sweet in official poster By Libby Hill We're just beneath the surface... #AHSCult pic.twitter.com/GvnMD1KieQ  AmericanHorrorStory (@AHSFX) July 27, 2017 What exactly is beneath the surface in American Horror Story: Cult? Bees, apparently. The seventh season of FXs hit horror anthology series is slowly revealing itself via its official Twitter account. On Thursday, the series shared the official poster for the series, and it is super messed up. The poster features a deathly pale woman who happens to be missing the top of her head and, for that matter, her brain. Instead, the inside of her head is a honeycomb, replete with bees and, of course, honey. This is creepy for so many reasons. Here are a few: This poor woman has had the top of her skull removed, bringing to mind that particularly gruesome dinner scene featuring Anthony Hopkins and Ray Liotta in the 2001 film Hannibal. Even more horrifying is that this poor, sweet woman is definitely dressed like a clown. The white makeup, lines through the eyes and exaggerated ruby red lips suggest that AHS: Cult is drawing inspiration from traditional grotesque whiteface clown makeup. Think more Pennywise, less juggalo. (And if none of that is enough to scare you, please enjoy this clown dating site I stumbled across while researching all of this.) FXs American Horror Story: Cult premieres on Sept. 5. Facebook

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Stephen Colbert had some [bleeped] thoughts on Anthony Scaramuccis NSFW rant By Yvonne Villarreal (Richard Boeth / Associated Press) Stephen Colbert took a cue from incoming White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci -- or the Mooch, as hes called -- by giving Thursdays episode of The Late Show a decidedly NSFW vibe. We got an incredible taste of unfiltered Mooch today, Colbert said during his monologue. He was, of course, referring to Scaramuccis disapproving -- and often vulgar -- comments about White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon in a New Yorker article that sent social media tongues wagging Thursday. But to even discuss the matter, Colbert had to issue a warning to CBS censors: Youre going to want to break out the extra bleeps for this one, he said before diving in. (If only we could get our ellipses to put in some overtime!) In his colorful conversation with New Yorker correspondent Ryan Lizza, which took place Wednesday night,Scaramucci was trying to get to the bottom of who leaked that he had dinner at the White House with President Trump, the first lady, Sean Hannity and the former Fox News executive Bill Shine. Scaramucci described Priebus as a  ... paranoid schizophrenic who had blocked him from the White House for six months -- prompting Colbert to break out an impression of Scaramucci. Yes, the guys paranoid, OK? He thinks his own communications director is gonna stab him in the back again, Colbert said with an exaggerated Italian accent. Front stab! he added with a knifing gesture. The New Yorker article also detailed how Scaramucci accused Bannon of seeking to build [his] own brand off the  strength of the president and made some other inflammatory remarks that we cant fully detail. So well let Colbert take it from here. Facebook

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Longtime Disney imagineer Martin Sklar dies at 83 By Richard Verrier (Jae C Hong / Associated Press) Martin Marty Sklar, the pioneering Walt Disney Co. imagineer who played an instrumental role in the design of Disney theme parks, has died, the company announced Thursday night. He was 83. During his 54 years at Disney, Sklar worked closely with Walt Disney and led the creative development of the Burbank companys theme parks, attractions and resorts around the world, including the companys ventures in the cruise business, housing development and the redesign of Times Square in New York. Everything about Marty was legendary  his achievements, his spirit, his career, Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said in a statement. He embodied the very best of Disney, from his bold originality to his joyful optimism and relentless drive for excellence. He was also a powerful connection to Walt himself. No one was more passionate about Disney than Marty and well miss his enthusiasm, his grace, and his indomitable spirit. Sklar was born in New Brunswick, N.J., and attended UCLA, where he was editor of the Daily Bruin newspaper when he was recruited to create the Disneyland News for Walt Disneys new Anaheim theme park in 1955. After graduating in 1956, he joined Disney full-time and would become Disneys lieutenant. He wrote speeches, marketing materials and a film showcasing Walts vision for Walt Disney World and the Epcot theme park in Florida. READ MORE> Facebook

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Is a happily ever after coming to The Mindy Project? By Yvonne Villarreal The Mindy Project creator/executive producer/star Mindy Kaling with executive producers Matt Warburton, left, and Ike Barinholtz at the shows Television Critics Assn. press tour panel. (Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP) Is there a happily ever after written in the stars for the final season of The Mindy Project? Series creator Mindy Kaling, who also plays the titular heroine at the center of the Hulu comedy, took the stage Thursday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills to discuss the shows swan song season. And when asked if Kalings rom-com-obsessed character, Mindy Lahiri, would get her storybook ending, the 38-year-old actress suggested it wouldnt necessarily be in the way viewers expect. I think that all of us would agree that we do have happily ever after, the connotations of it, said Kaling, who was joined onstage by executive producer and showrunner, Matt Warburton, and producer and star Ike Barinholtz (sporting a neck brace from a recent stunt gone wrong). But happily ever after isnt the same as no loose ends, she said. That everything is tied up neatly in a bow is something we arent super interested in. That side of it I think were trying to avoid, Kaling added, while also leaving the audience with the sense of feeling that it was about something and that it really was a project and that she had some growth in the end. And for fans wondering whether or how Danny Castellano (played by Chris Messina) would factor into all that, the season promises to shed some light on that. For the unitiated, Messinas Danny is Mindys former fiance and the father of her child. Messina, who hasnt been a series regular since Season 4, is set to return for multiple episodes. And while the Season 5 finale ended with Mindy marrying boyfriend Ben (Bryan Greenberg), hints were thrown that the new episodes would bring some clarity to the Mindy-Danny relationship. The one thing we can promise the audience is a little bit of clarity about where they stand, Warburton said. Its so great to see him back because weve always known theyre always going to be in each others lives  but its great to actually see what that means this season. Its complicated, added Kaling. Theyre both married to other people, so we went into that season with all of that, which makes things sort of fun and delicious. Other familiar faces set to return for the final season are Mark and Jay Duplass, Adam Pally and Glenn Howerton. Kaling, in discussing the decision to end the series, promised a good finale. The decision to end the show was our decision, and I think thats always very hard, Kaling said. It was like, God, should this be the end? ... I think right now the idea of doing a prequel or something like that just felt  we just have such a good finale. We have such a good finale that weve known about for awhile. The final season of The Mindy Project will start its rollout on Hulu in September. Facebook

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Tiffany Haddish clarifies controversial Bill Cosby remarks: Im not afraid of the Big Bad Wolf By James Reed Actress Tiffany Haddish has clarified her remarks about wanting to work with Bill Cosby. (Christina House / For The Times) A joke that Tiffany Haddish recently told The Los Angeles Times has backfired on the breakout star of the new film Girls Night. Talking to The Times Trevell Anderson, Haddish credited Bill Cosby as a comedy inspiration, seemingly unfazed by the multiple sexual-abuse allegations levied against the beleaguered, 80-year-old TV legend. I still want to work with Bill Cosby, I dont care, she told The Times earlier this month. Ill drink the juice. Ill take a nap. I dont give a damn. But seriously, I would love for him to play my grandfather in something. Her remarks raised eyebrows and ire on social media, with some fans questioning her intentions and a New York magazine story noting that the actress seems to have wandered into problematic fave territory. I've been rooting hard for Tiffany Haddish but I find nothing funny about her making light of Bill Cosby drugging women  Stephanie. (@qsteph) July 26, 2017 Twitter: "We loved Tiffany Haddish in #GirlsTrip. Sweetie is doing amazing!"



Tiffany Haddish: "I'd love to work with Bill Cosby."



Twitter: pic.twitter.com/X23DQWb2wi  hellresidentNY (@hellresidentNY) July 27, 2017 On Thursday, Haddish attempted to clarify those comments while speaking on a panel at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour in Beverly Hills. What I said was a joke, she said, noting that when youre expected to be funny in promotional interviews, there are risks. Youre going to say some bad jokes. Haddish said her point had been that Im not afraid to do anything. Im not afraid of any kind of job. Im not afraid to play any kind of girl as long as it doesnt compromise my morals.... Ive been through things. Ive been victimized, she added. I dont agree with what he did or anything, but, at the end of the day, Im not afraid of the Big Bad Wolf. Thats what I was trying to say, and I was trying to do it in a humorous way. Times staff writer Sarah Rodman contributed to this report. Facebook

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Tracy Morgan thanks God, and Tiffany Haddish reflects on her success at Last O.G. panel at TCA By Sarah Rodman Tracy Morgan, left, Tiffany Haddish and Ryan Gaul of the new TBS comedy The Last O.G. at the TCA press tour in Beverly Hills on Thursday. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images) Thank God. Thats what Tracy Morgan had to say about what it means for the 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live alum to be returning to TV three years after the devastating accident that put him in a coma and resulted in the death of his friend James Jimmy Mack McNair. The stand-up comic and actor, whose new TBS comedy, The Last O.G. premieres Oct. 24, was full of gratitude and thoughts on starting over during the presentation for the show at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour Thursday in Beverly Hills. Executive produced by Morgan, Jordan Peele and John Carcieri, The Last O.G. chronicles the adventures of Tray (Morgan). Newly sprung from prison after serving 15 years, he has to acclimate to the changed times, his gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood and his former girlfriend (Tiffany Haddish of Girls Trip) raising the children he didnt know existed with another man. This is a show about humanity, this is a show about second chances, this is a show about redemption, said Morgan, answering a question about whether it would explicitly explore African American issues. I wanted to transcend that... I wanted to deal with humanity. Haddish, naturally, fielded several questions about Girls Trip, the new comedy film that has minted her as a star. I feel like a foster kid whos been in the system for a long time and then turned 16 and somebody adopted them and said, You can go to college and you aint got to pay no school loans or nothing,  she said of how shes been feeling in the wake of the films superb box office. Im happy! Ive been accepted finally after all these years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears. Haddish said she was looking forward to her role in The Last O.G. since its a character who has gone through a transition in her life, just as she herself has. Her fellow cast mates, including Cedric the Entertainer, good-naturedly ribbed her about becoming a diva since shes now a movie star. But Morgan noted seriously that Haddish has been nothing but a pro: She comes to work. Haddish joked: My bank account, it dont show movie star yet. Im waiting on it. They say nine months; its like a baby. Im waiting for the delivery. Morgan said it was important to surround himself with scene stealers such as Haddish and Cedric and was clearly earnest in his appreciation of his collaborators and their sensitivity to his physical needs. They make sure I sit down... they dont ask me, they [say] sit down for a little while. So Im good. Im taken care of by my people, and I love them with my heart. Facebook

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It can be TGIF every day on Hulu: The service lands popular ABC programming block in SVOD deal By Yvonne Villarreal Every day can be Friday in the 90s with help from Hulu. The streaming service announced Thursday it has signed a deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution for the exclusive streaming rights to programs that were part of the popular ABC programming block known as TGIF. The announcement was made during the streaming services day of panels at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills. The shows under the deal include Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, Step by Step and Hangin With Mr. Cooper. Nabbing the rights to Full House is particularly noteworthy considering Hulus rival Netflixs success with reviving the comedy, which is returning for a third season in September. With the Hulu deal, more than 800 episodes of the five sitcoms from the bygone family friendly lineup will be available beginning Friday, Sept. 29. These shows are more than just beloved hits, they were part of a cultural tradition to tune in every Friday night, said Craig Erwich, Hulus senior vice president of content in a statement. Facebook

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TV Academy announces which awards will be handed out during Primetime, Creative Arts Emmys By Nardine Saad Get your Emmys ballot ready  the Television Academy has announced which categories will be awarded during this years 69th Primetime Emmy Awards and the separate Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The main event will take place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 17 and will be hosted by The Late Show star Stephen Colbert. Prizes will be awarded to comedy and drama series, limited series, reality competition, variety talk and sketch, television movie, acting, directing, and writing during the live telecast on CBS. HBOs Westworld and NBCs Saturday Night Live lead the nominees with 22 nods apiece, a total that includes several below-the-line categories to be doled out at the two Creative Arts Emmys ceremonies the week before. Honoring artistic and technical achievements that could make or break your play-at-home ballot, the Creative Arts Emmys will be held in the same venue on two consecutive nights on Sept. 9 and 10. Theyll be put together for one show, produced by Bob Bain, that will air on FXX on Sept. 16. The first night will cover categories that include animation, choreography, cinematography, costuming, make-up, hairstyling, documentary and nonfiction awards, editing, lighting, sound-mixing, technical direction, variety special and some writing awards. The second night will lean more heavily on front-of-the camera talent, awarding the likes of guest actors and actresses and stunt work, in addition to childrens programs, commercials, main title designs and theme music, music composition and supervision, prosthetic makeup and additional sound and editing categories. For a complete list of this years nominees, click here. Heres the complete list of the awards being handed out during the Primetime Emmys telecast: COMEDY SERIES

DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

DIRECTING FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL

DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SERIES

DRAMA SERIES

LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

LEAD ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

LEAD ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

LIMITED SERIES

REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

TELEVISION MOVIE

VARIETY SKETCH SERIES

VARIETY TALK SERIES

WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

WRITING FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL

WRITING FOR A VARIETY SERIES Facebook

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Kesha finds redemption in new song: The past cant haunt me if I dont let it By Emily Mae Czachor For Kesha, Learn to Let Go is not just an aptly titled track off her upcoming Rainbow LP. Its become one of my mantras over the last few years, she said in a remarkably uplifting letter that the singer published Thursday to accompany a new video for the song. (This is her new M.O., it would seem.) Learn to Let Go, which Kesha co-wrote alongside her mother, Pebe Sebert, is a heartrending chronicle of redemption. Had a boogeyman under my bed/ Putting crazy thoughts inside my head, she sings, while real home-video footage of a whimsical young Kesha cuts between clips of a grown Kesha frolicking through the forest. The chorus rings like a self-empowered anthem: The past cant haunt me if I dont let it. My mom is always telling me how you have to learn to accept that you cant try to control everything, she wrote in the letter. When you realize that you are not the one in control and you stop holding onto regrets  its liberating. Your past only has as much effect on your future as you want it to, Kesha continued. Its about embracing your past, but not letting it define you. Her new album, Rainbow, will be released Aug. 11. Facebook

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Stephen Colbert to bring animated Trump series to Showtime By Meredith Blake Stephen Colbert has ridden anti-Trump sentiment to the top of the late-night ratings. Now hes riding it all the way to premium cable. On Thursday, Showtime announced it had ordered 10 episodes of an as-yet-untitled animated series featuring cartoon renderings of the president, his family and inner circle. The satirical half-hour series, executive produced by Colbert and The Late Shows show runner Chris Licht, will debut on Showtime this fall. According to the network, turnaround on the series will be quick in order to incorporate current events. Stephen and Chris have an uncanny genius for deconstructing the world of President Trump, and this series opens a new realm for them, Showtime President David Nevins said in a press statement. Tim Luecke, who co-created the animated version of Trump who frequently appears in Late Show bits  including a recent segment from the notorious presidential suite of the Moscow Ritz-Carlton  will serve as lead animator. The announcement caps off a period of good news for Colbert, who racked up six Emmy nominations this month and will be hosting the awards in September. The recently concluded Russia Week, in which the comedian traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg, brought The Late Show its biggest margin over The Tonight Show since its premiere in 2015. While The Late Show airs on CBS, Colbert has also developed ties with his corporate cousins at Showtime. Many point to his riveting election night special Stephen Colberts Live Election Night Democracys Series Finale, which aired on the premium network, as a turning point after an uneven transition from The Colbert Report. For its part, Showtime has invested heavily in political content over the last 18 months, most notably the documentary series The Circus, from journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. Facebook

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Matt Damon gets punched right in the face in George Clooneys Suburbicon trailer By Nardine Saad  Matt Damon, Oscar Isaac and Julianne Moore star in the trailer for George Clooneys Suburbicon. In George Clooneys latest directorial effort, Suburbicon, the pleasantries of a 1950s town are undone when a home invasion exposes the communitys criminal subculture and racial tensions. And Matt Damons Gardner Lodge gets stuck in the thick of it -- defending his young son, making death threats, killing mobsters and getting popped square in his bespectacled face at the office -- as seen in the first trailer that Paramount unveiled Thursday. Did we mention this is a comedy? The dark, screwball kind from the minds of screenwriters Clooney and frequent collaborators Ethan and Joel Coen and Grant Heslov? Well, it is, in case that wasnt clear from the previous description. These animals took everything from us, a blood-splattered Gardner tells his son Nicky (Noah Jupe) at the dinner table. I have to make decisions like whats best for the family. After Gardners wife is murdered, he invites Auntie Margaret (Julianne Moore) to come live in the manicured suburban community to help with his son. Meanwhile, he gets mixed up with a loan shark that sets him on the warpath of a formidable, coffee-swilling collector named Roger (Oscar Isaac). The film is based on a script that the Coen brothers wrote years ago that Clooney found, and they agreed to have him direct it, according to Moore. Paramount acquired the U.S. rights to the film, billed as a comedy, crime and mystery, at the Berlin Film Festival last year. It will be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and hits theaters on Oct. 27. Facebook

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Woody Allens Wonder Wheel to complete Amazons turn to full-service distribution By Mark Olsen Woody Allen at the American Film Institutes Life Achievement Award tribute to Diane Keaton on June 8, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Christopher Polk / Getty Images for Turner) Thursday it was announced that Woody Allens latest film, Wonder Wheel, will have its world premiere as the closing-night film at this years New York Film Festival. The film stars Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple and James Belushi in a story set around Coney Island in the 1950s. But that wasnt the only Allen item of the day. Variety reported that Wonder Wheel will also be the first film fully distributed by Amazon when it opens in theaters on Dec. 1. The company has already made fast inroads to the movie business, winning Academy Awards this year for Manchester by the Sea and The Salesman, but has up to now worked with established distribution partners such as Roadside Attractions or Bleecker Street to help get those movies into theaters. Amazon released Allens 2016 film, Cafe Society, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell, in partnership with Lionsgate. The online giant also released Allens six-part Crisis in Six Scenes, in which he starred alongside Elaine May and Miley Cyrus, late last year via the Amazon Prime Video streaming service. The move by Amazon is yet another way the company is distinguishing itself in relation to streaming rival Netflix. Where Netflix has been seen as pulling back from theatrical distribution, opting for either extremely limited or no theatrical release at all of its titles to drive viewers to its own platform, this latest push by Amazon renews its commitment to traditional theatrical releases. The New York Film Festival slot for Wonder Wheel gives Amazon the three marquee spots at the showcase. Previously announced, Richard Linklaters Last Flag Flying will open the festival, and Todd Haynes Wonderstruck, which premiered at this years Cannes Film Festival, will show in the centerpiece slot. Other upcoming Amazon titles include Mike Whites Brads Status, starring Ben Stiller, and Luca Guadagninos remake of Suspiria, starring Dakota Johnson. Facebook

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Mick Jagger releases two new, politically charged singles By August Brown (Dave Gatley / Los Angeles Times) Mick Jagger has been looking to the past on recent albums and festival dates. But a pair of urgent new singles are firmly set in the present. On Thursday, the Rolling Stones frontman released two tracks, Gotta Get A Grip and England Lost, that describe, as he put it in a statement, the anxiety, unknowability of the changing political situation in a post-Brexit U.K. The production is resolutely modern, built on programmed drums and clanging guitar noise. The London grime artist Skepta even joins him for a verse on England Lost. Ostensibly, its about seeing an England football team lose, but when I wrote the title I knew it would be about more than just that. Its about a feeling that we are in a difficult moment in our history. Its about the unknowability about where you are and the feeling of insecurity, Jagger said in a statement. Its obviously got a fair amount of humour because I dont like anything too on the nose but its also got a sense of vulnerability of where we are as a country. The Girls actress Jemima Kirke also stars in a new clip for Gotta Get A Grip. The songs are Jaggers first new solo material since 2001s Goddess In the Doorway. Facebook

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Katy Perry to host 2017 MTV Video Music Awards By Libby Hill The MTV Video Music Awards are returning to California and getting a certified California Gurl to host. Katy Perry took to her Twitter feed Thursday to announce her upcoming gig hosting -- and performing -- at the VMAs in August. Ive been training with MTV in zero gravity, eating astronaut ice cream, and Im on a group text with Buzz Aldrin and Neil deGrasse Tyson, Perry said in a statement. Come August 27th, Ill be ready to be your MOONWOMAN! Brace for impact, kids. Perry will kick off the evening as the first announced performer for the ceremony. On Tuesday, Perry earned five VMA nominations for her video contributions over the last year, tying with the Weeknd, with only Kendrick Lamar earning more. Were thrilled to have global phenomenon Katy Perry as the host and a performer at the 2017 VMAs, said Bruce Gillmer, head of music and music talent for Global Entertainment Group, Viacom, in a statement from MTV. She is at the forefront of music culture and the perfect person to anchor this years show, which promises to be one of the most diverse and music-filled in VMA history. The 2017 MTV Video Music Awards will air from the Forum in Inglewood on Aug. 27. Find a full list of nominees here. Introducing your MOONWOMAN. Brace for impact! August 27th on @MTV @VMAs pic.twitter.com/WJsIYq7WiM  KATY PERRY (@katyperry) July 27, 2017 Facebook

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Turns out Larry David and Bernie Sanders are related! By Yvonne Villarreal Turns out Saturday Night Live was on to something when it cast Larry David to play Sen. Bernie Sanders. During his freewheeling appearance Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills to promote the upcoming ninth season of HBOs Curb Your Enthusiasm, David revealed that the resemblance is rooted in reality: Sanders is a distant relative. Hes in the line ... like a third cousin, or something, he said. The genealogical discovery comes courtesy of Davids appearance in an upcoming episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots. I was very happy about that, David said. I figured there was some connection. David played Sanders on Saturday Night Live through the 2015-16 election cycle and also appeared alongside the senator on the late-night sketch show. Its the kind of family secret that David isnt ashamed to admit. I love Bernie, yes, David said. I love Bernie. Facebook

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Trumps proposed transgender military ban turns late-night into hostile territory By Libby Hill If theres one upside to the Trump administrations early-morning Twitter proclamations, its that it gives late-night shows all day to craft their reactions. Wednesday began with President Trump announcing a ban on transgender individuals serving in the United States military and ended with late-night hosts uniformly blasting the policy decision in hilarious fashion. On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert had plenty to say about Trumps tweets, which ended with an uncharacteristic thank you. Thank you? Colbert responded, shocked, before offering his own profane two-word response to the president. Colbert went on to discuss what he saw as the greatest fallacy of the presidents reasons for banning transgender soldiers: increased medical costs. Though a 2016 study funded by the Pentagon found that military medical spending on transgender soldiers would increase anywhere from $2.4 million to $8.4 million, Colbert wanted to reframe those figures. To put that number in perspective, the military spends five times as much on Viagra, Colbert explained, And if your erection lasts for more than four hours, thats too bad, because youre stuck on a submarine for the next six months. On The Daily Show Trevor Noah had similar concerns about the presidents cost-related excuse, pointing out that taxpayers are paying $60 million for Trump to travel to his various properties throughout his presidency. Noah also pondered which of Trumps generals hed consulted with, given that the Pentagon was unaware of his proclamation, suggesting that perhaps hed spoken with The General Online. Late Night With Seth Meyers also invoked the cartoon general from the car insurance commercials, when Meyers opted to turn discussion of Trumps tweets over to four of his female writers. Today it might be trans people, but tomorrow its gay people, and then the next day its black people, and after that its women, and then its immigrants, the writers pointed out, all of those groups represented between them. On The Tonight Show Jimmy Fallon had the good sense to turn over a portion of his monologue to transgender comedian Patti Harrison, who had plenty to say about Trumps Wednesday announcement. When I saw the headline this morning, at first I just read, Donald Trump bans transgender people, and I was like, Yeah, that sounds like him, Harrison deadpanned. But then I realized it was just in the military and I was shocked, because I assumed he already did that. But it was James Corden who took a completely different take on the transgender military ban, opting for a stylish and heartfelt song and dance, expressing his love and appreciation for the LGBT community. Facebook

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Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are on the road again in new song collaboration By August Brown Ringo Starrs new LP includes a collaboration with fellow former Beatle Paul McCartney. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images) Any time the surviving Beatles reunite on record is a historic occasion. But a new single from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr packs in even more classic-rock star power. Starrs new song Were on the Road Again is one of several collaborations with his former bandmate on his new LP, Give More Love. The song also has guest appearances from Joe Walsh, Edgar Winter and Steve Lukather. Its a slightly goofy ode to life on the road, as Starr boasts that, We play really tight; we play really loud and cheekily references his own song Photograph. The two Beatles last recorded together on Starrs 2010 album, Y Not, and performed McCartneys Queenie Eye at the 2014 Grammys. Starr announced the McCartney studio collaboration back in February, thanking the fellow Beatle in a Twitter post. Thanks for coming over man and playing Great bass. I love you man peace and love.  pic.twitter.com/Z5kpyLLlkO  #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) February 20, 2017 Set for release on Sept. 15, Give More Love will also feature cameos from Peter Frampton, Don Was, Richard Marx and Dave Stewart, among others. You can hear Starrs new track with Paul McCartney via Rolling Stone. Facebook

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Curb Your Enthusiasm returns this fall -- and you can expect a Pirates of the Caribbean vibe? By Yvonne Villarreal Actor-creator-executive producer Larry David speaks at the Curb Your Enthusiasm panel during the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour at the Beverly Hilton. (Chris Pizzello / Invision/AP) Larry David revealed the real reason Curb Your Enthusiasm is at last returning after a six-year hiatus: People wouldnt stop bugging him about it. The Seinfeld co-creator took the stage Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills -- joined by his Curb cohorts Susie Essman, Jeff Garlin and J.B. Smoove and executive producer Jeff Schaffer -- to discuss the shows coming ninth season. So, why bring back the show now after all these years? Im not a misser, David told reporters. I dont really miss things, people that much, but I was missing it. I thought, yeah, what the hell. And I got tired of people asking me if the show was coming back. I couldnt get asked that question anymore and I wasnt ready to say, No, never. The often madcap and sometimes hilariously perplexing 30-minute panel -- led by Davids gruff wit and deadpans -- kicked off with a teaser for the season. There was David in a shower, David talking about constipation, David enduring the displeasure of middle-seat status on a flight. The amount of uncomfortable situations [real Larry David] has been in these last six years, Schaffer said, youre going to see it all. Its like were sitting in the Ft. Knox of awkward. As for TV Larry David, Schaffer said viewers will learn very quickly what hes been up to during the years that have passed. Once the show starts to air, it will be self-evident, he said. It goes to this really strange, fun, crazy place.... And you will never expect where it ends. The trip to that ending begins Oct. 1 when the comedy returns to HBO. The 10-episode season brings back Curb favorites like Cheryl Hines, as well as frequent faces Richard Lewis, Bob Einstein, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. And what would a long-awaited return be without some guest stars? Elizabeth Banks, Ed Begley Jr., Carrie Brownstein, Bryan Cranston, Lauren Graham, Jimmy Kimmel, Nick Offerman, Nasim Pedrad and Elizabeth Perkins will get in on the fun. For those who still need something to pin their hopes on about what this season will entail, Garlin offered this absurdly brilliant comparison. It really thematically follows Pirates of the Caribbean. ... Its more like the last one than the first few. Facebook

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At TCA 2017, HBO defends Confederate, announces Jon Stewart special and says Deadwood movie is inching closer By Greg Braxton Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, addresses reporters at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour at the Beverly Hilton on Wednesday. (Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press) HBO, which has the hottest show on television with Game of Thrones, recently came under fire with the announcement of a new series called Confederate from a team that includes Game of Thrones producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. The series revolves around events that lead to the Third American Civil War and examines an alternate reality in which the South seceded from the Union and thus, slavery is still legal. Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, defended the project Wednesday during the premium networks session at the summer edition of the Television Critics Assn. gathering at the Beverly Hilton. Bloys said that, in hindsight, the announcement was mishandled because it lacked the context and the vision that he received from Benioff and Weiss in discussing the series. He admitted it was misguided to believe they could simply announce a series with such a sensitive and volatile subject matter. We could have done a better job with the press release, he said. There was no benefit of context. My hope is people will judge the actual material instead of what it could be or should be or might be, he said. Well rise or fall based on that material. He added that he felt the series, rather than being divisive, would be able to advance the racial discussion. Although the topic is controversial, he said he and the producers of the show all feel this is a risk worth taking. Bloys also stressed that the depiction of slavery would not echo Gone With the Wind and would not include whips and plantations. In other major HBO news, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart will perform a stand-up special at a date and time to be announced, and host the latest Night of Too Many Stars, an all-star benefit for autism. Also, a movie reboot of HBOs western Deadwood is closer to reality. Bloys said the shows creator, David Milch, has completed a script that will please fans of the series while also being accessible to those less familiar with the show. But, he said, reuniting the large cast, which included Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane, may prove challenging. Facebook

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Two Jon Stewart comedy specials are coming to HBO By Yvonne Villarreal Jon Stewart, seen here presenting at the ESPYS, will return to HBO for his first stand-up special in two decades. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) Jon Stewart will headline two stand-up specials for HBO. The news was announced Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills. The former Daily Show host will get a stand-up special  his first since since 1996s Jon Stewart: Unleavened aired on the network. A date and location have not been confirmed. Were excited to bring Jon to the network with this pair of specials, said HBO programming president Casey Bloys in a statement. Weve all missed his uniquely thoughtful brand of humor. Im really thrilled to be able to return to stand-up on HBO, added Stewart in a statement. Theyve always set the standard for great stand-up specials. Plus, I can finally use up the last of the Saddam Hussein jokes left over from my first special. Stewart will also host the latest Night of Too Many Stars, the all-star benefit for Next for Autism, a nonprofit organization focused on people living with autism spectrum disorder. The special will air live this fall and will take place from the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. The specials are part of Stewarts four-year deal with the premium cable network. Facebook

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Angelina Jolie talks about difficult split from Brad Pitt By Nardine Saad A-lister Angelina Jolie is adjusting to the domestic growing pains of life as a single mom  making a proper breakfast, keeping house and picking up dog poop. I never woke up and thought, I really want to live a bold life. I just cant do the other. Its the same as I cant make a casserole. I cannot sit still, she said in a sprawling new interview with Vanity Fair, in which she discussed her high-profile split from actor Brad Pitt. Ive been trying for nine months to be really good at just being a homemaker and picking up dog poop and cleaning dishes and reading bedtime stories. And Im getting better at all three. But now I need to get my boots on and go hang, take a trip, the humanitarian said of her plans to head to Africa for a mission with the preventing Sexual Violence Initiative. Angelina Jolie opens up about putting her family first, life after Brad, health issues & her most personal film yet https://t.co/nKyf4dO8ls pic.twitter.com/WkXCgWR1PV  VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) July 26, 2017 The Oscar-winning actress explained how and when her marriage devolved, though she didnt go into great detail about the breakup for the sake of their six kids. The marriage began suffering in the summer of 2016 while she was in post-production on her fifth directorial effort, First They Killed My Father, a film about Cambodias Khmer Rouge genocide, which hits Netflix in September. Things got bad, Jolie said. I didnt want to use that word. ... Things became difficult. The director became slightly defensive at the mention of the familys globe-trotting lifestyle, which reportedly had been grating on Pitt. "[Our lifestyle] was not in any way a negative, she asserted. That was not the problem. That is and will remain one of the wonderful opportunities we are able to give our children. ... Theyre six very strong-minded, thoughtful, worldly individuals. Im very proud of them. After 12 years together and a few years of marriage, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016. While her ex was couch-surfing, she and the kids spent nine months in a rental property before settling into a six-bedroom, 10-bathroom Los Feliz manse once owned by film legend Cecil B. DeMille. Its just been the hardest time, and were just kind of coming up for air. [This house] is a big jump forward for us, and were all trying to do our best to heal our family. The divorce filing came suddenly for the health of the family on the heels of a spat Pitt had with their 15-year-old son, Maddox. They reached a divorce settlement privately in January after battling publicly for months over custody of the kids. The Oscar-winning producer had been vilified with accusations of child abuse and having an affair with his Allied costar Marion Cotillard. But he arguably won over public opinion with his introspective GQ Style interview in May in which he admitted to sobering up after boozing too much. Last year, Jolie was diagnosed with hypertension and developed Bells palsy when nerve damage caused one side of her face to droop. She took up acupuncture to treat it. Sometimes women in families put themselves last, she said, until it manifests itself in their own health. Thats just the latest in her medical history. Following a preventative double mastectomy in 2013, she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed in 2015, which sent her into menopause. I cant tell if its menopause or if its just been the year Ive had, she said, quipping about her dry skin and the idea that she could still be considered a sex symbol. I actually feel more of a woman because I feel like Im being smart about my choices, and Im putting my family first, and Im in charge of my life and my health. I think thats what makes a woman complete. For the record, Aug. 4, 12:55 p.m.: A previous version of this story said that First They Killed My Father would hit Netflix this month. It debuts in September. Facebook

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Caitlyn Jenner questions why Trump isnt fighting for transgender service members By James Reed (Taylor Jewell / Invision/Associated Press) There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them?  Caitlyn Jenner, tweeting in response to President Trumps transgender military ban announced Wednesday Read More Facebook

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Robert Pattinson confirms hes kind of engaged to singer FKA Twigs By Nardine Saad (Mike Coppola / Getty Images for People) Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson says hes kind of " engaged to singer FKA Twigs. The actor addressed the engagement rumors Tuesday in a direct response to shock jock Howard Sterns questioning on Sirius XMs The Howard Stern Show. Youre engaged, right? Stern said after calling the edgy English songstress his fiancee. Yeah, kind of, Pattinson, 31, responded uneasily. The Good Time star, whose relationships have been intensely scrutinized since he dated Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart at the height of the teen vampire frenzy, agreed that hes been a bit protective of his romances. Hes been dating the Water Me singer, real name Tahlia Barnett, since 2014 and theyve been rumored to be engaged since April 2015. Save for public appearances together, Pattinson has kept pretty mum about the relationship. Its one of the most frustrating things in the world because you want to be able to show off a relationship, he told Stern. You kind of get stuck in this position where you have to make decisions whether you want to let the kind of crazy people in. Pattinson was referring to the Twi-hards or, as he called them, a crack troupe of crazies who believe every decision he makes is part of some big conspiracy. To protect [the relationship] you kind of think, I want to create a big boundary between it. But then it makes it difficult for your actual relationship, he said. Additionally, Pattinson also discussed the racial disparagement his fiancee faces on social media for dating him. He tries to tune out the hate when he can, but he isnt always successful. I think its like professional trolls, he said of rude commenters. They get so addicted to kind of just wanting to cause hurt and pain on someone and its just one of the most difficult things to know how to confront. Its a faceless enemy. ... It might seem fake to them, but its definitely real in your life. Pattinson said responding to hate can just be feeding into it. It makes me feel less powerful if youre trying to attack and make it go away. Its like trying to attack a reflection in the water or something. You just look crazy, he said. Facebook

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David Letterman cringes when late-night TV hosts refer to viewers as fans By Emily Mae Czachor A profoundly bearded David Letterman made a rare talk-show appearance Monday -- one of just a handful of public ventures since the end of his run on The Late Show in 2015. Only this time, Letterman arrived as a guest. In an unusual turn of events, the former late-night host played interviewee on the season premiere of stand-up comedian Norm Macdonalds podcast, Norm Macdonald Live. The longtime pals discussed a number of matters, from Lettermans first-ever hosting gig (a game show called Wordbusters) to the time he found himself face to face with Richard Nixon. The two also discussed late-night TVs changing landscape and how Letterman never felt comfortable thinking of himself as the star of his own show. I could not possibly, and still dont, consider myself a star, because I couldnt refer to myself as a star, Letterman said. Johnny Carson was a star, theres no question of that. So for me to adopt that -- Starring Dave Letterman -- that was just ridiculous. In the same way, I always cringe a little when people refer to the folks who watch their show as their fans, Letterman added. I just think thats a little too  you know, you kind of just stepped over the line of basic humility there. Macdonald commented on late-nights packed roster of big-name hosts -- none of whom he finds particularly unique, except Conan OBrien, who he thinks has changed it up a little. On any plans for a late-night return to the host seat, Letterman told fans not to expect too much. Ive done it for 30 years, he said. I dont want to do it anymore. Watch the full episode above (warning: some profanity). Facebook

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Olivia de Havilland, 101, files motion to expedite her Feud lawsuit By Nardine Saad Olivia de Havilland at her Paris home in 2003. (Jean-Marc Giboux / Getty Images) Citing her advanced age, legendary actress Olivia de Havilland has filed a motion in her Feud lawsuit for a preferential trial date this fall. De Havillands attorneys filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, requesting that the jury trial be set in November or no later than 120 days of her motion being granted. The 101-year-old is hoping that a judge will fast track the trial during her Sept. 13 hearing date, which is just days before Feud is expected to be a big winner at the Primetime Emmy Awards. (The miniseries is nominated for 18 awards.) The Gone With the Wind star sued FX and Feud showrunner Ryan Murphy last month over her depiction in the miniseries about rival actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The two-time Oscar winner, who was played by actress Catherine Zeta-Jones on the show, makes legal claims about violations of her common law and statutory rights of publicity, her right to privacy and unjust enrichment. Based on her unusually advanced age, resulting particular susceptibility to disease, and recurring health issues, there is a substantial likelihood that she, as with anyone at this advanced age, may not survive for any extended period of time, the motion said. It is likely that if a trial preference motion is not granted, Olivia de Havilland will be prejudiced, because on the normal schedule, trial would not be set within the next 120 days. Her team also argued that because she is the sole plaintiff, De Havilland is crucial to the trial. Olivia de Havilland has a substantial interest in the litigation as a whole here as her personal statutory right of publicity cause of action does not survive her death. ... Further, should Olivia de Havilland die before her trial date, she will not be able to enjoy the benefits which she would receive in damages, the motion said. De Havillands June 30 lawsuit said the show damaged her professional reputation for integrity, honesty, generosity, self-sacrifice and dignity. She claimed that FX, Murphy and Fox producers never sought or obtained her permission to be depicted in the series and that Zeta-Jones portrayal of her in an episode about the 1963 Oscars cast her in a false, hurtful and damaging light. The defendants have not yet responded to de Havillands initial filing. According to Deadline, the Paris-based actress will not be attending the September hearing but may return to Hollywood if the trial is expedited to November. Olivia de Havilland 101: Everything you need to know as the movie legend celebrates her 101st birthday Facebook

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Despacitos Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee call out Venezuelan president for using song to push agenda By Nardine Saad Luis Fonsi, left, and Daddy Yankee. (Sergi Alexander / Getty Images) Despacito singers Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee and co-writer Erika Ender have condemned Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro for appropriating their international hit song for political gain. The chart-topping Puerto Rican recording artists and Panamanian songwriter on Monday called out Maduro, currently the subject of violent and sometimes fatal nationwide protests over his policies, for reworking their lyrics to appeal to voters during his weekly television show on Sunday. The revision promoted the leaders plans for a controversial citizens assembly to be elected on July 30 and tasked with rewriting Venezuelas 1999 constitution and bypassing the opposition-led legislature. Our call to the Constituent Assembly only seeks to unite the country ... despacito, Maduros version said. The term despacito means slowly in Spanish and in the original version of the song refers to the singers wooing techniques. Maduros supporters swayed to the remix dressed in matching T-shirts and baseball caps that brandished campaign slogans. the Associated Press said. The president was seen clapping along to the remix while the audience danced, according to the BBC. I DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS, Ender wrote in Spanish on Instagram, citing a news story about Maduros use of the song. I cannot see so much pain in people I love so much. Warrior people, people with iron will. Good people, who are fighting for freedom of rights and expression. ... I love Venezuela, a land that has given me true brothers and sisters. Brothers who suffer because of the situation that exists. Ender also lamented seeing the song she co-wrote be used without permission to advertise campaigns linked to a regime that has sowed so much discontent and suffering. View Instagram post On repeated occasions, I have said how much I enjoy the versions of Despacito that have been released on a global level. However there has to be a limit, Fonsi also wrote in Spanish on Instagram. I have never been consulted, nor have I authorized the use of or the change of lyrics of Despacito for political means, much less in the middle of the deplorable situation in a country I love so much, Venezuela. He added that his music is for everyone who wants to listen to it and enjoy it, not to use as propaganda that tries to manipulate the will of the people who are crying out loud for their liberty and a better future. View Instagram post Daddy Yankee took a much more blunt approach in his post, sharing an image of a news article about Maduro with a large red X superimposed on it. What can you expect of a person who has stolen lives from young dreamers and people who are looking for a better future for their children? the reggaeton rapper wrote in Spanish. That you illegally appropriated Despacito does not compare to the crimes you commit and have committed in Venezuela. Your dictatorial regime is a mockery not only for my Venezuelan brothers, but for the whole world. With that nefarious marketing plan, you will only continue to highlight your fascist ideology, which has killed hundreds of heroes and injured more than 2,000. View Instagram post Millions of Venezuelans joined a general strike last week amid economic turmoil and a shortage of food and medicine in the country. Government opponents dealt a symbolic blow on Sunday to Maduro, casting votes in an unofficial referendum that rejected his plan for the constitutional overhaul. The government denounced the opposition balloting as illegal and seditious, according to The Times, but turnout appeared high at thousands of makeshift voting places set up throughout the country and abroad. Facebook

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Netflix invests in Matt Groenings Disenchantment By Libby Hill Matt Groening is ready to take another crack at this television thing. The creator of The Simpsons, which debuts its 29th season on Fox this fall, has a new show courtesy of Netflix. The streaming service provider announced Tuesday that it had ordered 20 episodes of Disenchantment, an adult animated comedy series set in a deteriorating fantasy kingdom. The show centers around a hard-living young princess named Bean, voiced by Abbi Jacobson (Broad City), her elf companion, Elfo (Nat Faxon), and personal demon Luci (Eric Andre). Ultimately, Disenchantment will be about life and death, love and sex, and how to keep laughing in a world full of suffering and idiots, despite what the elders and wizards and other jerks tell you, Groening said in a statement Tuesday. Matt Groenings brilliant work has resonated with generations around the world and we couldnt be happier to work with him on Disenchantment,  Cindy Holland, vice president of original content for Netflix, said in a statement. The series will bear his trademark animation style and biting wit, and we think its a perfect fit for our many Netflix animation fans. The series joins Netflixs Bojack Horseman in aiming for an audience unafraid of exploring the less-savory aspects of adulthood. Disenchantment will premiere on Netflix 10 episodes at a time, beginning in 2018. Facebook

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Broad City stars talk about the decision to bleep President Trumps name on the show By Yvonne Villarreal Abbi Jacobson, left, and Ilana Glazer of the series Broad City speak at the Television Critics Assn. press tour at the Beverly Hilton on Tuesday. (Chris Pizzello / Invision/Associated Press) Broad City creators and stars Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson consider the bleeping out of President Trumps name from the comedys upcoming fourth season a different kind of joke. The two appeared onstage Tuesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills to discuss the new season and how they reworked the show in the wake of Trumps election. We just got to a point where in real life were talking about the current administration, were talking about Trump  and it sounds so gross every day saying it so many 
It has been called the miracle at Dunkirk, an utter disaster, pure mythology and one of the most momentous weeks of World War II for Great Britain  and possibly the world.

In May 1940, the British Expeditionary Force lay exposed on the beaches of a French resort town after a humiliating retreat through the countryside just ahead of German forces. Troops were stranded for days, bombed and strafed by the Luftwaffe while they awaited rescue by the Royal Navy. Several factors saved the army, and, perhaps, England itself.

First, Hitler halted his armys advance into Dunkirk, a decision historians have debated for decades. The action provided a window for getting the troops out. And when the shore proved too shallow for massive naval vessels to get near enough, hundreds of civilian small boats answered the British governments call to help pick up the increasingly desperate men. An estimated 338,000 British and French soldiers were saved by the combined effort of the small boats and the Royal Navy.

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At the outset of Operation Dynamo, the military had hoped to evacuate 35,000 to 45,000 troops. There were heavy casualties during the retreat and the days at Dunkirk, but the British army survived.

 Christopher Nolans Dunkirk stars Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy and Mark Rylance.

Even though Dunkirk marked a stinging defeat and set the stage for the Blitz of London over the next year, it is remembered in Great Britain as a shining moment. Britain refused to quit, and to this day, the Dunkirk Spirit is evoked as shorthand for the English people standing firm and persevering under the worst conditions.

This random assortment, in a very amateurish, eccentric way, come together in what was understood as a very British triumph, says Priya Satia, associate professor of modern British history at Stanford University. They saw it as England at its best.

Now, the story will be told to a new audience in the ambitious Christopher Nolan movie Dunkirk, which opens July 21. Its clearly intended to show those unfamiliar with Dunkirks place in history what the battle was like.

Nolans film avoids a reverent or mythic portrayal of Dunkirk in favor of a tightly focused view of what an infantryman, a Royal Air Force pilot and a small boat captain went through during a week, an hour and a day of the battle. All of Nolans gifts as a director of big-screen action and scale are used to deliver the immediacy of their experience . Dunkirk doesnt provide a big statement in historical or geopolitical terms. Instead, Nolan seems to say, this is what they endured. And they still survived.

The audience will include many in the U.S. who know little about it, as Dunkirk occurred a year and a half before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and four years before the D-day Allied invasion of Normandy.

When you speak to Americans, they might have heard of it, but as this terrible defeat that happened before America got involved, says Joshua Levine, author of the 2010 book Forgotten Voices of Dunkirk and now Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture. He was also the films historical adviser.

Its a hell of a lot more than that. Had the British army not gotten away, the British would almost certainly be forced to surrender, he says. There wouldnt have been a D-day if the British had not held on. It would have been a totally different world today for all of us.

British historian Andrew Roberts says Dunkirk was to his countrymen what Pearl Harbor was to the U.S.  a horrifying defeat that galvanized the war effort. Its the same trajectory  appalling defeat wakes up the nation, but of course in our case, the Germans had declared war on us.

Roberts, author of The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War, hopes the film gets straight some of the arguments historians have had about Dunkirk for years. Why did Hitler order the Panzers to halt? Why didnt the RAF better protect the soldiers on the beach? And how could the British army have gotten into this predicament?

Films and literature have drawn on the drama of Dunkirk from Mrs. Miniver (1942)  the best piece of wartime propaganda ever made, according to Roberts  to a 1958 British retelling, Dunkirk, though not as often as American-led offensives such as D-day (Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day) or the Battle of the Bulge (the miniseries Band of Brothers).

Paul Gallicos 1941 novella The Snow Goose is an enduring fable about a withdrawn fisherman who is ennobled by his death off Dunkirk. A more recent evocation came in Ian McEwans 2002 National Book Critics Circle prize-winning novel Atonement, and later, in the 2007 movie version directed by Joe Wright.

McEwan wrote a harrowing account of the grunt-level experience of the retreat by the character of Robbie Turner, from the days on foot through a countryside strewn with bodies, regular attacks by German Stukas, overpowering hunger and thirst to his arrival at Dunkirk. McEwan writes that Turner thought he had no expectations  until he saw the beach.

He saw thousands of men, ten, twenty thousand perhaps more, spread across the vastness of the beach. In the distance they were like grains of black sand. But there were no boats apart from an upturned whaler rolling in the distant surf.

McEwan used soldiers letters found in the Imperial War Museums in London to inform his account, but said in an interview at the 2002 Cheltenham Literature Festival, My emotional relationship with this is that my father was at Dunkirk along with 320,000 other soldiers, making his way to the beach.

In the run-up to Nolans take on Dunkirk, how are the retreat and evacuation seen today by historians? Do generations removed from World War II understand why Dunkirk was so important and why it remains resonant?

As a matter of historical fact, Dunkirk is a disaster, says Geoffrey Wawro, a professor of history and director of military history at the University of North Texas in Denton. Wawro formerly hosted History vs. Hollywood on the History Channel.

The need to remove the British army at the last minute and under duress they were fortunate to escape. Even so, Wawro says, Its one of the things you can point to where this single action had momentous consequences. If the German army had destroyed the British army on the beach and left them with nothing to rebuild the British ground forces, what would they have done? They would have had nothing.

Even if the particulars of Dunkirk are a bit murky for todays movie audience, for some, the experience still has power. There is this expression which almost everyone in Britain knows, which is Dunkirk Spirit, Levine said. Its the idea the British are at their best when things are difficult. Its still with us. Even though people really dont understand what Dunkirk was, theyre still very keen to invoke the Dunkirk Spirit.

When Satia teaches Dunkirk, she says she begins by setting out the myth of World War II as a peoples war, in which many of the divisions in society at that time were put aside and everyone came together and showcased what is best about Great Britain. They found unity from diversity.

Those who have studied Dunkirk agree that then-new British Prime Minister Winston Churchill artfully portrayed the operation as a testament to the virtues of the people.

Audiences saw how Dunkirk was used in the British war effort earlier this year in the film Their Finest, a story about how government propaganda officials commission a movie to boost morale (Authenticity and optimism! is the recipe they give the screenwriters) for womens wartime work, as well as encourage the U.S. to enter the war.

Other British intellectuals, such as George Orwell and J.B. Priestley, also hailed these values, saying this is what were good at, notes Satia, who adds that historian say the postwar welfare state, including creation of the National Health Service, was derived from the countrys post-Dunkirk sense of itself. So the evacuation lingers in the British consciousness, and like anything held dear, they dont want to see a bad movie made of it.

Roberts cites Michael Bays Pearl Harbor as what he hopes Dunkirk wont be: Appallingly bad, and historically all over the place. He recently wrote an article for the website Heat Street in which he pointed out 100 errors in the 2017 movie Churchill, with Brian Cox. I love war films, though my wife says I ruin all war movies for her, Roberts said. Well see how this one comes out.

calendar@latimes.com

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Whether you remember him from his child-actor days on Silver Spoons and Little House on the Prairie, his role as the long-suffering Michael, the only sane member of the Bluth family on Arrested Development (the original and the Netflix reprise, which just got a new season), or any number of comedic and dramatic film roles from the last few years including, most recently, the voice of Nick Wilde the fox in the Oscar-winning Zootopia, you know Jason Bateman, the elastic Everyman whose cool facade often masks an inner meltdown.

And before he reunites, yet again, with his nutty siblings and parents on Arrested Development, viewers will see the 48-year-old actor-director, in Ozark, premiering on Netflix July 21. Bateman not only stars in the story of a milquetoast Chicago financial adviser who runs afoul of a powerful drug lord, he also executive produces and directs multiple episodes.

You have acted in and directed so many projects centered around family with varying degrees of dysfunction  are you trying to work something out?

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Its no secret that my family was very atypical and that [sister and Family Ties star] Justine and I were both working from a really young age. My father was a writer-director-producer of independent film and television. He was a bit of a bohemian with his schedule and his work. My mother was a flight attendant for Pan Am for 30-some years, so she was flying two weeks of every month when we were growing up. Christmas was often celebrated on the 18th or the 30th. Just to hang out with her, Id go with her on one of her trips to Tokyo and I would be serving food trays down the aisle. There were times of high function and times of dysfunction by virtue of it being nontraditional. Whenever somebody comes to me with an unconventional or dysfunctional family premise, it sounds very interesting to me.

You also have often played characters who are the stable one in a world of crazies, yet you can see a rage simmering inside them at having to fill that role. Marty Byrde in Ozark is another that vein. What appeals to you about having to be contained?

Somebody whos got the gun pointed at somebody and their finger is on the trigger, you cant look away because you might miss the shot. This guys going to kill that person, right? Youre staring, youre not going to buy popcorn or youre not going to the fridge. As soon as he pulls the trigger, now you can go carry on and kind of reset and take a breath. With the characters that Im really drawn to, I am the audience.

If Im showing a little bit more control and restraint and stress than the audience is or would in that situation, then they are compelled to watch me, the proxy, pick the moment to release the valve. Because I am their valve. I just think its more interesting. I like having the audience in my hand. Thats probably why Im drawn to directing. Where you are controlling the audiences experience. Youre shaping it.

Youve now directed yourself in several projects, including Ozark. What does Jason Bateman the director think Jason Bateman the actor needs to work on improving?

Well, if my wife has anything to do with it, it would be to be less the simmering person that you were talking about and let the kettle pop a couple of times.

I would too. Im with your wife.

I would too.

In the role that calls for it.

Exactly, thats exactly it. Its a tough thing for me to pursue those kinds of roles because, as Ive gotten older, my tolerance for me, or anybody, being full of ... becomes less and less. To pursue roles that force me to act more is at odds with that. I dont want to pretend to be somebody else. I really like being as not full of ... as possible.

I just dont want to be a character actor. I dont want to be the guy that explodes and does a bunch of acting. I like to be somebody whos a little bit more of a tour guide for the audience and observes those people that are doing a bunch of acting.

Given that show business is the family business, if your kids expressed interest, would you want them to go into it?

I mean, as soon as theyre old enough to understand what it means when I say its not a meritocracy, then Ill let them.

Ive been doing this 38 years, and if you put that much time into any career, you can feel pretty confident about your job security or your pension.

I think any parent would want their child to put that much time into something thats a little bit more reliable. Im still two years or three years of no work away from not ever working. How do you recommend that for a child?

Yes, Here, have some anxiety!

Yeah, so the good part about it is it keeps you humble and it keeps you diligent with what youre doing with your career, making responsible choices, hopefully, and not grabbing the low-hanging fruit. It took a moment of quietness in my career to learn that. Im really lucky that I got to learn that lesson that its not as guaranteed and as solid as a naive actor might think. When things leveled out for me in my 20s, I just said to myself, if I ever get another chance with this thing, Ill do differently with the capital.

Bonus question: What are you watching?

To be honest, Im not great at watching stuff. I really should be much, much better for many reasons. Ive got a 10-year-old and a 5-year-old, two girls. Were screwing around till 7:30. Im a Dodger addict. Between hanging out with them and then watching  I dont even get the whole game watched. I save a little bit for the morning. I need to create more time to watch. Ive got to see Handmaids Tale. Ive got to see a ton of things.

sarah.rodman@latimes.com

Twitter: @SarahARodman
We are a nation hurtling toward a dark dystopian future, in which robots fulfill an endless need to be entertained and women are enslaved as reproductive machines. Or we are going to be just fine despite racial tensions, fat shaming, alien invasion or government conspiracy because family, love and loyal friendship will always win the day.

The Emmy nominations mean many things to many people, but this year, with an unprecedented number of popular new shows occupying berths in the categories of outstanding drama and comedy, they offer a surprisingly sharp guide to the fractured American psyche.

Lets face it. Its been a rough year. The countrys divided along every line imaginable. Glued to their phones and a 24-hour digital news cycle, Americans alternately consume conspiracy theories and cute kitten videos, political rants and baby panda food fests.

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Westworld and Saturday Night Live lead the 2017 Emmy nominations. Heres the complete list 

The nominees announced Thursday morning, evenly spread among streaming, cable and broadcast, are a perfect reflection of the Great American Mood Swing.

The drama category stretches from the bleak vision of Westworld, in which the robotic hosts seem more human than the actual humans, and the chilling religious military state of The Handmaids Tale to the tear-jerking celebration of family that is This Is Us and nostalgic cocoon of Stranger Things.

Or to boil it down to two shows, on the one hand, the evil machinations of House of Cards versus the lovely self-sacrificing nobles (and seriously great costumes) of The Crown.

Only Better Call Saul falls into any sort of moral middle-ground  Bob Odenkirks almost-Saul is a man with good intentions who cant seem to get ahead without compromising them.

As news networks teem with competing versions of reality (is global warming real?) and the future (will America be great again?), its not surprising that our big television narratives are doing the same. Though its tempting to see their existence, or even their popularity, as a direct reaction to the Trump presidency, that isnt quite fair.

Full coverage: 2017 Emmy Award nominations 

These are shows that were brought to life before he won or took office. House of Cards, the Netflix series where Capitol Hill appears a more treacherous place than Westeros, debuted way back when Trump was still holding court on The Apprentice. Westworld is based on a 1973 film and The Handmaids Tale on a 1985 novel.

Their success, however, plays off the same psychological extremes that undoubtedly helped give rise to such a divisive presidential campaign and unprecedented presidency. Collectively, the darker of these shows get at themes of fracture and dissatisfaction, of us and them, the power elite versus the real people, in a way that is chilling. Which makes the need for the alternate comfort zone even more understandable.

The influence of this particular presidency, though, is undeniable in the sketch and variety comedy categories.

It was a big year for Saturday Night Live, which added to its nomination record, and tied Westworld for first place, with 22 nominations, most of which were no doubt due to the shows nonstop lampooning of President Trump and his associates. Likewise Stephen Colbert returned to his political ways and made his way back into the race with The Late Show.

1 / 2 2 nominations, including comedy series and supporting actor Ty Burrell. (Eric McCandless / AP) 2 / 2 Nominated for lead actress in a drama series, How to Get Away with Murder. (Nicole Wilder / AP)

But in the comedy list, things were more complicated and perhaps more hopeful. Master of None, black-ish and Atlanta dealt with relevant race issues with a sense of humor but also varying degrees of intensity  from the seriousness of police brutality and shootings against young African American men to the challenges of growing up Muslim around bacon-eating, bar-hopping friends. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is, as many have pointed out, the first comedy that revolves around a victim of kidnapping and rape.

Extreme views on race, however, should have been more of an issue in the inclusion of Bill Maher as a nominee for variety talk show over Trevor Noah and Seth Meyers. The HBO host had freely used a racial slur in an early June episode, shortly before the Television Academy voters cast ballots.

Though the incident was fresh, they still decided to go with Maher, an increasingly polarizing figure theyve been voting in (and leaving out) for the last few decades. The question is why now, especially in a field where there is more than enough new talent to go around?

He is, however, in keeping with the extremes that characterized television over the last year  and now the Emmys.

As for who might win? Optimists who love This Is Us, tune in Sept. 17. Doomsdayers, whats the point, unless its to validate your deepest fears  that we are indeed headed toward a future where the darkest of scenarios seems plausible, like Maher winning an Emmy.

lorraine.ali@latimes.com

@lorraineali

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Adam Fleischman, the man who brought us Umami Burger, is holding a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, sitting on a chair in front of downtown Los Angeles Grand Central Market. It is not the PB&J of your childhood, but rather an enclosed disk that looks remarkably like something from Area 51. The sandwich, and a fleet of others built and branded like them, is Fleischmans latest project: a new empire of nostalgia-driven, high-concept food that will, early next month, arrive in the form of a sleek sandwich at the Grand Central Market stall. First stop, the 100-year-old food court. Then, if all goes according to plan, the world.

That kind of hyperbole is normal in Fleischmans realm, and given the wild success of the burger empire he founded in 2009  a brand harnessed to a deeply addictive, absurdly flavor-jammed hamburger  it is hard not to play along. Fleischmans talent is that of the pitchman, and what he slides across the counter is meant to be wrapped not just in paper but also in comfort, convenience, even archetype. PBJ.LA, as the nascent sandwich business is called, is a branded delivery mechanism as much as it is a food stall.

Were trying to create disruptive products, Fleischman says of the sandwiches, which feature a round bread made by a local baker he wont identify, and crimped in a machine Fleischman is equally secretive about  he and his partners designed and patented it. The rounds of bread look like edible Frisbees, the machine a bit like a giant lemon squeezer. Whats pressed inside the discs, the recipes also from Fleischman and his partners: house-made nut butters and jams, whose ingredients and flavor profiles fit nicely into todays Southern California farm-to-table ethos. Jams made with rose and stone fruit; nut butters from pistachios and almonds. Theres espresso and organic chocolate, cashew butter and mango chutney, apple jam and Angostura bitters.

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Everyone has their memory of what it is; I think weve been able to elevate it and gourmet-ify it, says Fleischman, your Marcel Proust moment via Don Draper.

The sandwiches, which come packaged in white and purple (Its kind of like a burrito, everything is locked in there) to be packed or ported, are meant to be simultaneously nostalgic and forward-leaning. If this sounds familiar, thats because it is. Fleischman wants to reinvent PB&J the way he did the hamburger, to rewire and rebrand a basic comfort food. In this case, the mechanism is familiar too: Remember Hot Pockets? Or, more relevantly, Smuckers Uncrustables?

A sandwich from PBJ.LA, a stall opening in August at Grand Central Market. (Christian K. Lee / Los Angeles Times)

Fleischmans history of big ideas does not just include the hamburger. In addition to Umami Burger, currently 26 restaurants and counting (Fleischman partnered with Sam Nazarians SBE group in 2011), there is the pizza empire. Fleischman co-founded 800 Degrees  part of the new wave of ingredient-driven, fast-casual restaurants when it opened in 2010  a pizza chain that boasts 16 restaurants, both in and outside of the U.S. And then there was ChocoChicken, Fleischmans chocolate-and-fried-chicken project, which debuted to mixed reviews in 2014 and has since closed. (Fleischman says hes reviving the project and hopes to reopen the restaurant next year.)

PBJ.LA is only one stall, a 12-seat counter still hidden behind construction panels at Grand Central, in the space between Chiles Secos and DTLA Cheese. (Its whats happening in food now. Everyones going small. Its the kiosk model, says Fleischman.) And his partners in the project are not Nazarian and his enormous hospitality company but rather three guys he met at a gym. Fleischman, who likes origin myths (the original Umami Burger was invented, according to Fleischman and the world, one day in his kitchen), says PBJ.LA happened after he met Payvand Salehi, Brad Greenberg and Jimmy Franklin at Sky Sport and Spa in Beverly Hills a few years ago. That none of the men had much of a culinary history wasnt apparently considered an issue. Fleischman himself has a BA in liberal arts from the University of Maryland and worked in finance and wine  hes a self-taught cook  before opening the L.A. wine bars BottleRock and Vinoteque, selling those and using the money to start Umami Burger.

The four men loved the idea of recalibrating the old-school sandwich, and Fleischman eventually took the idea to the folks at Grand Central Market. That food court is a fitting home, as its been a kind of restaurant incubator for the last century  from Magees Peanut Butter in 1917 to China Cafe in 1958 (and still operating) to Eggslut in 2013, where the lines have been a near-permanent fixture since it opened.

While he envisions his own lines, Fleischman is planning further outposts of empire: Hes working on a coffee project, called the Cold Cocked Coffee Co., to open in L.A.s Koreatown neighborhood. And he has a cookbook coming out, with the apt title of Flavor Bombs: Cooking With the Art and Science of Umami.

As for any resemblance between his new sandwich and the hand-held PB&Js produced by a noted jam company, those are the frozen burgers version, Fleischman says with the certainty of a brand man. Ours are organic and varied to the max. And fresh and artisanal, of course. And bigger.

amy.scattergood@latimes.com

@ascattergood

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Megan Henderson had to deal with the inevitable What do I keep? question when she downsized from a 2,200-square-foot house in Beachwood Canyon to a rented townhouse about half that size in West Hollywood. The KTLA morning news anchor also was disenchanted with the neutral palette that had suffused her previous home.

I was afraid of color, Henderson said. I knew I had to incorporate it somehow but it would always go wrong.

Enter Dee Murphy, founder of Los Angeles-based Murphy Deesign, who favors color and patterns in her aesthetic. Murphy helped Henderson winnow through all that beige furniture and embrace a more modern and upbeat design plan  while working within a smaller space that couldnt be radically or permanently altered.

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Murphy was also tasked with figuring out how to change the configuration of the living and dining spaces that Henderson described as awkward. They wanted to make use of every inch of space while avoiding clutter and finding a way to reflect the Spanish-inspired exterior of the historic development. (Legend has it that one of famed illusionist Harry Houdinis beloved dogs is buried in the courtyard.)

Heres how they did it:

Switching things around

1 / 25 KTLA News anchor Megan Henderson had to downsize and rethink when she moved from a 2,200-square-foot house in Beechwood Canyon to a rented townhouse about half that size in West Hollywood. She stands on the Juliet balcony off of her master bedroom in the townhouse. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 25 Megan Henderson and her designer, Dee Murphy, wanted to make use of every inch of space while avoiding clutter. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 25 The living area is defined by pastel pink and sky-blue rug from Lulu & Georgia. The navy sofa was custom-made by Article. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 25 KTLA News anchor Megan Henderson in the living area of her rented townhome. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 25 The downstairs as it looks now. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 25 A lotus-petal candleholder sits atop a stack of books. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 25 Geometric, tubular bar stools contribute warm, gold tones to the living area. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 25 The living space gives way to a dining area. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 25 Artwork lines the wall leading up the staircase. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 25 A detail of the angular bookcase in the living area. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 25 A bamboo beverage cart, left, stands beneath a circular mirror in the small dining area. Customer Megan Henderson, right, talks with designer Dee Murphy. A faux-cowhide splattered with gold paint provides cover underneath the glass dining table. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 25 Glass beads provide a splash of color. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 25 A section of wall is covered with temporary wallpaper in a subtle palm pattern, found on Etsy. To it were added plug-in sconces from Sazerac Stitches. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 25 Gold accents. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 25 A detail of a wicker chair. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 25 Artwork in the living area. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 25 A bar cart sits in the dining area. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 25 A detail in the garden of the townhome complex. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 25 A gold, tulip-shaped pendant light, left, hangs above the glass dining table. A focal point of the living area is a bright, sunny print of a yellow heart by artist Kerri Rosenthal, titled Mad Love. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 25 A small, unused space at the top of the stairs, left, is made attractive with temporary wallpaper and slender console. The white-lacquered chest of drawers in the master bedroom sits beneath a giant, graphic. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 25 The master bedroom had to be neutral and calm. I wake up at 2 a.m. to be at work by 3:15 a.m., KTLA News anchor Megan Henderson said. I needed to keep the space mellow. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 25 Megan Henderson in her master bedroom. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 25 Megan Henderson at the doors opening onto a Juliet balcony. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 25 A porcelain hand holds a watch on a nightstand in the master bedroom. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 25 Designer Dee Murphy of Murphy Deesign is responsible for the look of KTLA News anchor Megan Hendersons rented townhome in West Hollywood. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

When Murphy first saw the space, the areas allotted to the living and dining sections felt confusing.

There were no clear boundaries or obvious ways to dedicate it, Murphy said. The TV plug was in the wrong place, and there was room for only a miniature sofa. We knew it wasnt going to work.

She found a slightly rustic pastel pink-and-sky blue- hued rug from Lulu & Georgia, and used that as a jumping-off point.

It has a lot of color and was our first piece, and then we worked from there, Murphy said. The rug sits atop the original Spanish tile flooring and adjacent to a navy sofa custom-made by Article.

We wanted the couch to be a grounding color, and something more masculine, next to the pastels, said Murphy, adding that customization through online sources has become increasingly affordable. (At Article, two-seater couches in a customers pick of color start at under $1,000.) You get to have a lot of choices at prices that wont scare you off, Murphy said .

A small dining table is off to one side, near a bar cart. With a vintage credenza and rattan chair from Sunbeam Vintage, mint-colored pillows and planter and low pendant lighting above the dining table, the space that was once off-putting is now warm and inviting.

Temporary trappings

A small, unused space at the top of the stairs is made attractive with temporary wallpaper and slender console. The chest of drawers, right, in the master bedroom sits beneath a framed graphic. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

A chief concern, relevant to many across Los Angeles, was the limitations that come with living in a rental.

You can always change the fixtures of an apartment you dont own, said the designer, just hold on to the originals to return to the owner when you move. Another solution to a drab rental? Removable wallpaper in a subtle palm pattern, which she found on Etsy. It went onto the plain white walls.

It wont ruin your walls, and you just peel it off when youre done, she said. The colors and print are calming but reflect that California vibe. We didnt want to do anything too crazy but it should still be fun and playful.

She added plug-in sconces (from Sazerac Stitches) that were a more interesting option than conventional tableside lamps and are an easy fix to add personality.

Upstairs, outside the master bedroom, Henderson, did a little decorating of her own, thanks to inspiration from Murphy: She created a small focal area with a palm-print temporary wallpaper behind a slender console table, adding a pop of interest to what would otherwise be an unused space.

Letting go

In the dining area, left, a bamboo beverage cart and circular mirror lend visual interest, as does a faux-cowhide under the glass dining table. Megan Henderson, right, and designer Dee Murphy chat. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Client and designer worked together on what to donate or toss and what to incorporate into the new home. Henderson used to live in Wichita Falls, Texas, where she acquired many of her pieces.

But a lot of it didnt feel like California, said Henderson. I invested in good furniture 10 years ago for the first time in my life, and letting go of stuff that you invest in early is difficult. So I hung on to things longer than I should have. It was time for a change, and for my place to reflect something that was more me.

Mixing it up

A gold, tulip-shaped pendant light, left, hangs above the glass dining table. A large yellow heart hangs above the mantel, right, in KTLA News Anchor Megan Hendersons home. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Henderson said she had to resist the temptation to go for the easy fix  outfitting the town house in everything from one store.

With Dee, I knew everything would be interesting and different. Id never have thought of putting certain things together, but it looks so cohesive, she said. An example: a large pair of brass horns, an ode to Hendersons time in Texas, occupies pride of place in the living area, close to a bright, sunny print of a yellow heart by artist Kerri Rosenthal in a piece called Mad Love. Henderson balked the first time she saw it.

See more photos of the West Hollyhood townhome 

I thought, Oh, thats so yellow! she said. Of course, I love it now.

Maximizing space

A curved wicker chair, artwork, books and interesting details provide a comfortable haven. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Once Murphy and Henderson decided where the television would be, they wanted to think differently about it.

We didnt want it to be a big focal point of the room, Murphy said. Henderson purchased a low sideboard from Sunbeam Vintage to hold the TV, and Murphy added various small artworks and plants around it to create a 3-D gallery situation.

It has all these points of view  the walls lent themselves to that, and we wanted to utilize different parts of them, she said.

Mellowing out

KTLA News anchor Megan Henderson stands on the Juliet balcony in her master bedroom. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

When it came to the master bedroom, Henderson wanted to keep the palette neutral and calm, so she stuck with predominantly white furnishings.

I wake up at 2 a.m. to be at work by 3:15 a.m., she said. I needed to keep the space mellow.

She used the bed and nightstands from her previous home and added pretty lamps with a swirl of color from Jana Bek, a beige chair from West Elm and a dresser from Pottery Barn. Additional punches of color come from the cushions on the bed, done in a painterly watercolor pattern and acquired from Consort Design.

Im thankfully not a clutter person, Henderson said. I tend not to collect unnecessary things, which is good. I also feel like Im done with decorating this place, which is also good. Id rather not get rid of things again, so I wanted to choose pieces that can work anywhere.

home@latimes.com

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Dozens of protesters gathered in front of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Departments East L.A. station Thursday evening to demand that the sheriff support the so-called sanctuary state bill, which would block local and state law enforcement from using resources to help federal immigration agents.

About 40 activists chanted in Spanish and English, some holding up signs that read Sanctuary Now!, while a handful of vocal demonstrators sat, arms linked, on the floor of the stations lobby.

Among those outside was David Abud, a sanctuary bill supporter who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 10 years old.

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Sanctuary policies make our city safer; they make our community safer, he said.

Protest outside East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station to support 'sanctuary state' bill @latimes pic.twitter.com/TRUieIuAjC  Leila Miller (@leilamillersays) July 14, 2017

The protest was organized by the Democratic Socialists of America, along with local immigration groups.

Senate Bill 54, commonly called the sanctuary state bill, was introduced by state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) in December in response to the Trump administrations broadened deportation orders. It would limit the information that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents receive about county jail inmates and forbid local law enforcement agencies from sharing databases with immigration officials or providing information about immigrants release dates, with the exception of inmates who have committed violent crimes.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell, who heads the largest jail system in the country, has said that the bill would hinder law enforcements ability to transfer inmates from county jails to immigration officials. In a March 9 letter to De Leon, McDonnell said the bill could hurt immigrant communities by forcing immigration agents to go into communities to arrest people instead of going through the jail system.

While doing this, they will most surely cast a wide net over our communities, apprehending and detaining those not originally the target of the enforcement actions, he wrote.

An order adopted in 1979 prohibits Los Angeles Police Department officials from approaching people to ask about their immigration status. Though sheriffs deputies follow a similar protocol, the Sheriffs Department can still share with immigration officials the names of inmates in custody, as well as people who are due to be released soon. This allows immigration officials to decide who to pick up from county jails.

In 2016, Los Angeles County jail officials turned over about 1,000 inmates to immigration agents, a small percentage of the more than 300,000 inmates released from county jails that year.

SB 54 also would bar hold requests, through which immigration officials can ask that inmates be detained for 48 hours beyond their release dates.

It has gone through various amendments in recent months, including a provision that would require the state parole board or corrections department to supply ICE with 60 days notice of the release of inmates in the U.S. illegally who were convicted of violent crimes.

The bill has been opposed by the California State Sheriffs Assn. as well as lawmakers who say that it could protect violent criminals.

Bill Brown, president of the sheriffs association, said SB 54 would hinder cooperation between immigration officials and law enforcement in investigations that involve transnational crime.

The bill provides sanctuary for criminals, and it endangers the public, he said. It would extremely limit or in many cases prohibit our ability to communicate with the federal government in response to their request for information when someone is released from our jail.

Because the Trump administration has threatened to cut federal funding of sanctuary cities, critics of the bill say that it could hurt the states finances.

In a January letter to Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Public Safety, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti expressed his support for SB 54.

Immigrant members of our community have rights, and they must be able to engage with law enforcement without fear when they are victims of and witnesses to crimes, seeking basic and other health services, or attending school, Garcetti wrote.

Some in the crowd of demonstrators Thursday knew people who had been deported for minor offenses.

Cristina Felipe, who drove to the protest from her home in Pasadena, said her son was deported to Guatemala about six years ago after being arrested for drinking in her front yard.

I dont want what happened to my son to happen to anyone else, she said.

leila.miller@latimes.com

Twitter: @leilamillersays

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The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, long at battle with Los Angeles city and county officials over policies and payments, claimed a victory recently when a court dismissed a lawsuit involving charges that the foundation had overbilled L.A. County for HIV/AIDS-related services.

The Los Angeles Superior Court in May dismissed a lawsuit filed by the foundation over claims that the county had conducted flawed audits, as well as a countersuit by the county for breach of contract.

Were a big organization, and that makes us a big target, but the sum total of it is that AHF is clean as a whistle, said foundation President Michael Weinstein in an interview.

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The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that provides HIV/AIDS prevention services, testing and healthcare globally. The group became well known in L.A. earlier this year for bankrolling Measure S, a highly contentious ballot measure that would have put a temporary moratorium on certain development in the city of Los Angeles.

Weinstein and his foundation had previously sparred with city and county officials over efforts to require and enforce condom use in the adult film industry and to separate the city of Los Angeles from the jurisdiction of the countys health agency.

The dispute over billing began in 2012, when an audit concluded that the AIDS Healthcare Foundation had charged the county for services it should have paid for using other funding sources, to the tune of $1.7 million in 2008 and 2009.

A second audit, completed in 2014, found that the foundation had overbilled the county by $3.5 million in 2011 and 2012.

Because the foundation was reimbursed for those services through a dedicated federal funding stream, the county was left on the hook to repay the federal government and sought to recover the money. The foundation sued to invalidate the audit findings.

In a separate lawsuit, the foundation argued the audit findings were a form of retaliation for its outspoken views on policies with which it and county officials disagreed. In early 2014 a judge dismissed that case, finding that the foundation sued not to protect its 1st Amendment rights, as it claimed, but to obtain a tactical advantage in their ongoing political battles with the county.

An appeal on that case is still pending, Weinstein said.

The billing case was dismissed in May, after a county review of the foundations billing practices found that the foundation had not charged the county for $6 million in expenditures that were allowable under the federal funding stream, known as the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act.

The dismissal means neither the foundation nor the county will have to repay any funds.

Attorneys for the county declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation claimed a second victory late last month when a judge decided in its favor in a whistleblower case in Florida.

That lawsuit involved charges filed by three former employees that the foundation engaged in an illegal kickback scheme, awarding employees bonuses for referring clients to services the foundation itself provided. The judge in that case sided with the foundation, noting that the law allows for such payments and referrals in certain circumstances.

Weinstein said the bad publicity from the lawsuits, particularly over the audits, had hurt the foundations reputation and ability to provide services. He acknowledged the years of battle with the county but said with the election of two new supervisors last year, we really would like to put the acrimony behind us.

nina.agrawal@latimes.com

Twitter: @AgrawalNina
An Air Canada flight with 140 passengers and crew came within 100 feet of smashing into two planes waiting to depart from San Francisco International Airport, according to a preliminary report released Thursday by Canadian authorities.

The perilous proximity of Air Canada Flight 759 to other jets during a July 7 landing was summarized by Canadas Transportation Safety Board, which provides an early look at what could have been a catastrophe.

A spokesman for the agency cautioned that the information was preliminary and subject to change.

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The Airbus A320 was cleared to land shortly before midnight, but the pilot lined up the aircraft on a taxiway that runs parallel to the runway. There, four fully loaded planes were queued up and waiting for clearance to take off.

Canadas TSB said the Air Canada flight flew over the taxiway for about a quarter mile before an air traffic controller instructed the pilot to go around.

The plane was estimated to be about 100 feet from two aircraft, 200 feet from a third aircraft and 300 feet from the fourth plane, according to the TSB report.

A summary by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration that was included with the Canadian officials report said the aircraft overflew United Flight 1 and Philippine Airlines Flight 115 by 100 feet. It also overflew United Flight 863 by 200 feet and United Flight 118 by 300 feet before air traffic control directed the pilot to go around.

Earlier this week, the National Transportation Safety Board joined the investigation into the incident.

As part of its inquiry, the NTSB will review the approach for landing and interview air traffic controllers and possibly the pilots of the Air Canada flight. Though there was no crash, the agency has the authority to look into serious safety lapses.

Ross Aimer, a retired United Airlines captain, told the San Jose Mercury-News, which first reported the incident, that if the pilot had not been told to correct course, the scene would have been horrific.

If it is true, what happened probably came close to the greatest aviation disaster in history, Aimer said.

Peter Fitzpatrick, an Air Canada spokesman, said Tuesday that the airline did not have any new information about the incident. A spokesman for the airline did not immediately respond for comment Thursday.

Audio from the airports traffic control tower, which was archived online and reviewed by The Times, reveals more details of how the incident unfolded as the plane approached:

Air Canada pilot: Tower Air Canada 759 I can see lights on the runway there. Can you confirm were clear to land?

Control tower: Air Canada 759 confirmed cleared to land on 28-right. There is no one on 28-right but you.

Air Canada pilot: OK, Air Canada 759.

Unknown: Where is this guy going? Hes on the taxiway!

Control tower: Air Canada, go around.

The FAA said the air traffic controller told the Air Canada jet to circle around and make another approach.

Air Canada pilot: Going around. Air Canada 759.

Control tower: Air Canada, it looks like you were lined up for Charlie there. Fly heading 280. Climb maintain 3,000.

Air Canada pilot: Heading 2-8-0, 3,000. Air Canada 759.

United pilot: United One, Air Canada flew directly over us.

Control tower: Yeah, I saw that guys.

The aircraft then landed at the airport without incident at 12:11 a.m. Saturday, about 50 minutes later than scheduled, according to the online flight path.

matt.hamilton@latimes.com

Twitter: @MattHjourno

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Decades ago, when Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza opened its doors, its developer was determined to show that a shopping mall could prosper in a black neighborhood.

Now a new owner is pushing, once again, to prove it can thrive  this time in the digital era.

The South Los Angeles shopping center, long seen as a linchpin in the revival of Crenshaw Boulevard, could soon get a makeover that would triple its square footage with a new hotel, offices, shops and more than 900 new apartments and condos near a new Metro station.

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Backers of the project argue that with online shopping on the rise, malls are doomed unless they become destinations where people can live, work and play. Scores of people showed up at a Los Angeles City Planning Commission hearing Thursday to support the plan, saying that South L.A. deserves to have the same kind of commercial mecca as other neighborhoods.

I dont want to go to the Grove every day. We need this in our neighborhood. We want this in our neighborhood, said West Adams resident Eva Aubry.

But some neighbors raised concerns about traffic and blocked views. And some activists worried about gentrification and displacement argued that the massive project would price out people from the surrounding area, particularly black residents, as the city faces a housing crisis.

At the hearing, they contended the city needed to scrutinize how the redevelopment plan would affect financially strained residents, demand much more local hiring and insist on more affordable units.

We are fueling a gentrification crisis in South L.A. that will soon rival Oakland and Harlem, said Damien Goodmon, founder of the Crenshaw Subway Coalition.

The commission, whose members are appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti, voted unanimously to back the redevelopment plan after hours of testimony and discussion. Planning commissioners insisted that 25% of the workers hired to build and run the project should be local residents.

Under a proposed agreement with the city, the mall developer would also have to ensure that 10% of the apartments and condos are set aside for households that fall under specific income thresholds  a higher percentage than had originally been proposed.

Half of those  5%  would go to households making 50% of the area median income or less. Under current guidelines supplied by the planning department, that would mean that a family of four would have to make less than roughly $43,000. The other half would go to households making less than 150%, or around $130,000 or less for a family of four.

That failed to satisfy Goodmon and other critics, who said they would continue to fight the redevelopment plan. The proposal still must be vetted and approved by the City Council.

The plan includes more than 1.2 million square feet of new housing, a hotel, a 10-story office building and a walkable retail village open to the sky, which architect Steven Lott likened to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. The existing enclosed mall and movie theater will remain, but some other outbuildings on the 43-acre site will be demolished.

The revamped center will sit alongside a new Metropolitan Transportation Authority station that is slated to open in two years. A Kaiser Permanente medical center is under construction nearby.

The mall has a long and storied history, bound up with that of South Los Angeles. A shopping center originally opened at the Crenshaw Boulevard site in the 1940s. When that center was overhauled, turned into an enclosed mall and renamed Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in 1988, then-Mayor Tom Bradley called it a symbol of perseverance  a pioneering project that aimed to prove that urban, minority neighborhoods could support the kind of malls popping up in the suburbs.

The mall has struggled at times to draw some of the more affluent residents from surrounding neighborhoods, such as Baldwin Hills. Joanne Kim, an aide to City Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, lamented that in years past, the mall sometimes had trouble attracting and keeping retailers even though business was booming.

It epitomizes how racism can trump capitalism, Kim said. Investors are risk averse in South L.A.  even when its disproven.

Under its current owner, Capri Investment Group, Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza has already gotten tens of millions of dollars in upgrades. Capri, a minority-owned firm from Chicago, has also thrown open its doors to the community with free concerts, fitness classes and a weekly farmers market. On a hot summer afternoon, a steady stream of families, young couples and seniors crisscrossed the glossy floors inside the mall, eyeing strappy sandals, fidget spinners and baby clothes. Perfume and hot pretzels scented the air.

But the mall suffered a blow last year when Wal-Mart abruptly closed its doors, stirring up worry that other retailers would follow. And it faces the same stresses as other malls as shoppers turn to online retailers such as Amazon and Zappos: At the Thursday meeting, Capri and its partners told commissioners that 20% to 25% of the shopping centers in the United States are expected to close by 2022, according to the financial firm Credit Suisse.

As planning commissioners weighed how much affordable housing to require, Capri Chairman and Chief Executive Quintin Primo urged them to give his company flexibility, emphasizing that his firm would still have to raise $500 million to $700 million to carry out the redevelopment project in a woefully underinvested area.

In a perfect world there would be more affordable housing, commissioner Marc Mitchell said.

But, Mitchell added, what I want, versus what is possible at this moment, are two different things.

emily.alpert@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATimesEmily

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One person is dead after a small plane crashed at an airfield in El Monte, Los Angeles County fire officials said Friday.

About 9:30 a.m., a home-built, single-engine Pazmany PL-2 began to depart runway 19 at San Gabriel Valley Airport when, for unknown reasons, it crashed, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Video broadcast by TV news outlets from the scene at a corner of the airport showed the aircrafts nose flattened at an angle and its left wing crumpled.

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One person who was on board the aircraft was declared dead at the scene, fire officials said.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash.

FAA records show the plane is registered to Azusa-based Progenitech LLC.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

UPDATES:

11:10 a.m.: This article was updated with details about the plane.

This article was originally published at 10:10 a.m.
A Los Angeles woman who triggered an Amber Alert after falsely reporting an acquaintance had carjacked her vehicle with her 16-year-old stepson inside was sentenced Thursday to 60 days in county jail.

The sentence came after Charline Gatson, 26, pleaded no contest to one count of filing a false police report, according to the Los Angeles City Attorneys Office.

She was ordered to serve 36 months of probation and pay a $220 fine, the city attorneys office said.

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Making a false criminal report is a serious offense with real consequences, City Attorney Mike Feuer said in a statement. It squanders precious law enforcement resources that should be devoted to solving actual crimes. And here, this reckless and irresponsible action triggered an Amber Alert that diverted attention throughout our region.

Gatson was arrested last week after investigators determined she had lied about the kidnapping and carjacking, police said.

She told officers an acquaintance approached her on July 6 in the area of 47th and Figueroa streets in South Los Angeles, pulled out a gun and demanded that she walk away from her vehicle, said Officer Tony Im, spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Gatson told police she feared for her safety and walked away from the vehicle, the officer said. She claimed her stepson was sitting in the backseat of the car.

Authorities later found Gatsons vehicle in San Bernardino.

They determined Gatsons report was false and her stepson was not involved, the city attorneys office said.

Gatson had lent the car to the woman, who refused to return it, police said.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Twitter: VeronicaRochaLA
Los Angeles Police Officer Robert Cain, who is accused of having sex with a 15-year-old police cadet, is now facing felony weapons charges stemming from a cache of more than 100 guns found at his Rancho Cucamonga home.

Cain, 31, was back in jail Thursday after prosecutors in San Bernardino County charged him with 10 felonies, police said. Court records showed the charges included multiple counts of having an assault weapon and manufacturing, distributing or transferring such guns.

A court hearing was scheduled for Friday, according to jail records. An attorney representing Cain could not immediately be reached for comment.

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In a statement Thursday night, the LAPD said its investigators presented their case to the San Bernardino County district attorneys office Wednesday. Cain surrendered himself to sheriffs deputies Thursday, the statement said.

The gun cache was discovered as the LAPD searched Cains home after his June 22 arrest on suspicion of having sex with the teenage cadet. Those allegations were uncovered as part of the LAPDs investigation into a group of cadets who officials say stole police cars, Tasers, radios and other equipment.

Investigators seized more than 100 firearms, including assault rifles and inert grenades, sources with knowledge of the investigation have said. Sources said many of the weapons had been illegally modified and are not legal to own under California law.

The LAPD confirmed that in its statement Thursday night, saying investigators determined several of the guns were illegal in California.

Times staff writers Matt Hamilton and James Queally contributed to this report.

kate.mather@latimes.com

@katemather

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Facing criminal accusations in two counties, Los Angeles police Officer Robert Cain made his first court appearance Friday, pleading not guilty to felony weapons charges stemming from a gun cache found in his home.

Cains hands were cuffed and chained to his waist during the brief hearing in a Rancho Cucamonga courtroom and he fidgeted as his attorney first spoke to the judge. The police officer, who wore a dark green jail uniform, nodded and smiled at his attorney as the hearing ended and a bailiff escorted him out of the room.

His attorney, Andrew Pongracz, declined to comment after the hearing. Cain is due back in court in connection with the weapons charges next month.

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San Bernardino County prosecutors charged Cain this week with 10 felony counts, including multiple counts of possessing assault weapons. Authorities found the guns  part of an arsenal of more than 100 weapons  when they searched Cains Rancho Cucamonga home after the 31-year-old officer was arrested on suspicion of having unlawful sex with a 15-year-old LAPD cadet.

The accusations against Cain surfaced as Los Angeles police began investigating a string of thefts allegedly carried out by a group of teenagers in the departments cadet program, its signature youth initiative. Seven cadets have been arrested.

Police believe the cadets took police cars and other equipment, including radios, Tasers and a bulletproof vest. The cadets allegedly stopped at least one motorist while driving the stolen vehicles, giving the driver a warning, police said.

Text messages indicate Cain was aware of the thefts, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said after he personally handcuffed Cain last month. Cain worked in the equipment room of the departments 77th Street station, where all but one of the arrested cadets were assigned. He was not assigned to youth programs, Beck said.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office said Friday that prosecutors there are still reviewing the case against Cain and have not charged him in connection with the unlawful sex accusation. He is scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles courtroom next week.

Before his latest arrest, the LAPD had ordered Cain to stay at home and away from work.

The scandal unraveled in June, police say, when some of the cadets were caught driving two of the stolen police cars, leading officers on a chase that ended with two separate crashes.

kate.mather@latimes.com

@katemather

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UPDATES:

3:14 p.m.: This story was updated to include Robert Cains current status with the LAPD.

This story was originally published at 11:10 a.m.
Renowned scientists Vicki Lundblad and Katherine Jones this week sued their employer, the Salk Institute, alleging that they and other women have suffered long-term gender discrimination at the La Jolla science center.

Their lawsuits claim that the institute has long been an old boys club with a culture where women are paid less, not promoted and denied opportunities and benefits simply because they are women.

Lundblad and Jones also alleged that they have faced pressure to downsize their laboratories even though theyve done well in bringing in research money.

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They accused Salk administrators of not promoting any female scientist to the rank of full professor since 1999, of retaliating against them for their complaints and of not responding seriously to changes proposed by Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn, the institutes current president who joined the Salk in late 2015.

In a statement, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies said: Drs. Jones and Lundblad, whose laboratories have received over $5 million in support from the institute over the past 10 fiscal years, have been treated generously by the institute, including relative to their male peers. Each scientists lucrative compensation package is consistent with well-recognized metrics that have been applied to all Salk faculty in a nondiscriminatory manner.

A spokesman for the institute said that in light of the pending litigation, it wouldnt make any comments beyond the statement.

Efforts to obtain a response Wednesday from Irwin Jacobs, who served as Salks chairman for the last decade before stepping down late last year, were unsuccessful, as were attempts to reach several faculty members.

In their lawsuits, Lundblad and Jones cited 50 defendants  a significant number given the Salks small faculty and overall staff.

Lundblad and Jones didnt offer comments outside of their lawsuits Thursday, but have agreed to an interview Friday with the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Since opening in 1963, the seaside institute has consistently garnered international attention for its pioneering advancements in basic science. It was founded by Jonas Salk, who developed the worlds first effective and safe vaccine against polio.

Over the decades, the Salk Institute has been home to acclaimed researchers in a variety of fields. Its faculty members are known for their exploration of viruses, the brain, stem cells, cancer, diabetes, plant biology and other biomedical topics.

In the publics eyes, the institute isnt linked with gender turmoil. But in their lawsuits, Lundblad and Jones claimed systematic discrimination against female scientists.

Because of the lack of formal governing guidelines to ensure equitable treatment of women faculty, the Salk Institutes administration has historically demonstrated a lack of desire to address, or even admit, the problems encountered by its tenured women professors, the lawsuits said.

The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified compensation in addition to attorneys fees.

Lundblad, 64, is a molecular and cell biologist who has done groundbreaking studies of how telomeres, the protective tips of chromosomes, factor into aging and cancer.

Telomeres wear down with each cellular division, until the cell stops dividing. Thats a safeguard against unlimited growth, which can lead to cancer. However, premature loss of telomeres sends cells into senescence  when they no longer divide and grow, and this milestone hastens aging.

Lundblad, who joined the institute in 2003, has performed research on telomerase, an enzyme that rebuilds telomeres. Thats also Blackburns specialty; she was awarded her Nobel Prize in 2009 for telomerase research.

Lundblads work, performed in yeast, has catalyzed similar research into how the enzyme acts in human cells. In 2015, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the elite society formed during the Lincoln administration to advise the government on science and technology.

Jones is a biologist who has done widely cited research on how to fight cancer, and has conducted studies that have helped to explain how dormant HIV infections can become active. She has spent her entire 30-year career at the Salk Institute.

She specializes in a field called transcription elongation, which controls the activity of genes in HIV and cancer. Her analyses revealed how a protein called Tat is activated to cause HIV replication; inhibiting this mechanism could lead to new drugs to control HIV.

In other research, Jones determined how stem cells use two molecular pathways to guide their growth into mature cells. This knowledge may help stem cell scientists gain efficiency and get more predictable results in coaxing these cells into developing into specific tissues.

Robbins and Fikes write for the San Diego Union-Tribune
Along a winding stretch of the 5 Freeway near the Grapevine, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Deputy James Peterson has built a reputation for sniffing out drugs.

In recent months, Peterson made at least six large busts, uncovering stashes of narcotics in cars he stopped for speeding and other minor violations. In one vehicle, he found a storage compartment stuffed with 28 pounds of methamphetamine and three pounds of heroin. Some of the men he arrested were armed.

They appeared to be the kind of needle-in-a-haystack discoveries that sheriffs officials wanted from Peterson and the handful of other deputies assigned to a small unit launched in 2012 with a tough mission: Interrupt the flow of drugs north from Mexico by picking off traffickers as they try to make it out of Los Angeles on the busy freeway.

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But in court, some of Petersons cases have crumbled.

Men he arrested have accused the 20-year veteran deputy of violating their constitutional rights by fabricating reasons for the traffic stops and the searches that turned up the drugs.

No judge has yet ruled on the claims, but in one recent case, evidence found by Peterson  guns and drugs  was thrown out when a judge decided that a video showed no legal grounds for his traffic stop. And in another, prosecutors from the U.S. attorneys office simply gave up, asking the judge to set free two men Peterson caught allegedly armed and carrying nearly two pounds of meth. Defense attorneys said they plan to challenge Petersons arrests in the other federal cases.

The government has made the decision ... that these guilty drug traffickers should no longer be prosecuted.  U.S. District Judge John F. Walter

Law enforcement records obtained by the Los Angeles Times show that concerns about Petersons credibility were first raised several years ago in the U.S. attorneys office. In 2014, the federal prosecutor dismissed a case after concluding that Petersons account of how he found the drugs was unreliable, according to an L.A. County district attorneys memo. Months later, the government dismissed another of Petersons drug cases.

The district attorneys office ultimately concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove that Peterson had willfully lied, but legal experts questioned why federal prosecutors would continue using him on large-scale drug cases.

I would certainly have concerns about going back to an individual if there were questions about his credibility, said attorney Richard Drooyan, a former top official in the U.S. attorneys office in Los Angeles and a federal court monitor of the Sheriffs Department. It is a significant matter whenever the office decides it has to dismiss a case because of doubts over an officer.

The U.S. attorneys office declined to comment. In court, however, a top official in the office said federal prosecutors have never concluded that Peterson lacks credibility, despite the dismissals.

Sheriffs Capt. Holly Francisco, who oversees the departments Narcotics Bureau, said federal prosecutors had not informed her of the challenges to Petersons credibility in federal court or the dismissed cases.

In response to questions from The Times about Peterson, a Sheriffs Department spokeswoman said in a statement, We are not jumping to any conclusions and would caution any responsible party from doing the same.

Attorney Richard A. Shinee, general counsel for the union that represents rank-and-file deputies, declined to discuss the federal cases but defended Petersons work.

Deputy Peterson has been an extraordinarily effective investigator, Shinee said. I know nothing concerning these allegations that should taint his credibility.

Peterson, who did not respond to requests for comment, has been assigned to the Domestic Highway Enforcement Team since its inception in 2012. The team trolls for serious criminals along a stretch of the 5 Freeway between Santa Clarita and the county line in Gorman.

Officially, the deputies are on the lookout for a range of criminal activity, including human and weapons trafficking. But in reality, most of the teams cases involve drug crimes, court records show. To establish his credentials in court filings, Peterson wrote that during his time on the highway team he has actively arrested, assisted in the arrest, or investigated over 300 persons for drug trafficking related offenses.

Petersons problems began in July 2014, when he pulled over an old Honda Accord north of Santa Clarita allegedly for drifting between lanes and having illegally tinted windows.

I would certainly have concerns about going back to an individual if there were questions about his credibility.  Richard Drooyan, former chief assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles

In his arrest report, Peterson wrote that he became suspicious after observing that the drivers hands were shaking and that he was sweating despite the air conditioning in the car. In a hidden compartment inside a stereo speaker, Peterson found three pounds of methamphetamine.

The prosecutor in the case abruptly asked the judge to dismiss the charges against the driver, Rafael Arellano, after Peterson changed his account of how he obtained consent to search Arellanos car.

In his arrest report, Peterson made no mention of speaking Spanish with Arellano. But after Arellanos attorney questioned how his Spanish-speaking client could have consented to the search, Peterson submitted a sworn statement saying he had asked for permission in Spanish and had called a Spanish-speaking deputy to the scene.

Later, he acknowledged to the prosecutor in the case that he had used Googles online translation program to ask for consent, according to the district attorneys memo. The Spanish verb buscar that Peterson said he ended up using when he asked Arellano for permission has multiple meanings, the memo said.

The U.S. attorneys office expressed their concerns over Petersons credibility to sheriffs officials, who in turn conducted a perjury investigation, according to the memo.

The deputy district attorney who wrote the memo concluded that the investigation found no evidence that Peterson had willfully falsified his arrest report. He reasoned in the memo that the deputys failure to mention his use of Spanish in the report was not necessarily inconsistent with his later accounts.

Arellano, who was in the country illegally, was deported.

Several months after that case was dismissed, another assistant U.S. attorney moved to have a second case involving Peterson dismissed only days after it was filed. In that case, the deputy had found nine pounds of methamphetamine. No reason was given for the dismissal.

Peterson was back in federal court late last year when prosecutors filed charges against two men he caught allegedly carrying 10 pounds of methamphetamine and a handgun. Over the next five months, the government filed at least five more cases based on arrests by Peterson.

U.S. courts have long wrestled with how much leeway the Constitutions 4th Amendment, which prohibits police from making unreasonable searches and seizures, gives officers working in highway drug interdiction programs like the sheriffs team. An officer must have a legitimate reason, such as witnessing a traffic violation, to stop someone. And if he then wants to search the car, the officer must either be given clear consent to do so or have a reasonable basis for suspecting something illegal is hidden inside.

According to each of his arrest reports, Peterson was squarely within the bounds that courts have set for the 4th Amendment. He said he pulled over five of the drivers for drifting between lanes and other violations such as speeding. The sixth, he said, was driving too fast and close to other cars.

And in each of the cases, Peterson wrote that the drivers either consented to a search or were acting nervously, saying that their hands were shaking and that they were sweating despite being in a climate controlled car.

Defense attorneys have accused the deputy, among other things, of concocting the traffic violations and the drivers suspicious behavior in order to justify the searches.

Peterson manifests yet another dubious tactic to his already questionable law enforcement practices, one lawyer wrote in a court filing.

Deputy Peterson is a liar who has lied to his supervisors, lied at work, lied to [federal prosecutors], and caused cases to be dismissed due to such lies, other attorneys representing the two men allegedly caught with 10 pounds of meth wrote in a court filing.

Prosecutors attempted to salvage that case against Cesar Castillo Flores and Manuel Moreno by sidelining Peterson. They opted against calling the deputy to testify at a hearing late last month and avoided mentioning claims he made in his arrest report that the men had been traveling 78 miles per hour and drifting between lanes.

Instead, prosecutors played video footage from Petersons patrol car in court, arguing that it showed the stop was legally justified because the men had been speeding when he pulled them over.

The judge disagreed.

The video, which captures the minute leading up to the stop, shows Peterson traveling behind the men at various speeds. At one point, he reaches 73 mph, but his patrol car was closing in on the mens car. Their vehicle never crossed into another lane.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.  4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

Because the government had failed to show the stop was legal, U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder threw out the drugs and gun as evidence. Days later, she ordered Flores and Moreno freed from custody. The government has yet to decide whether to dismiss the case or appeal the judges ruling on the evidence.

In another case, a defense attorney argued that video and photographs contradicted Petersons account that he stopped a Honda Accord because it had illegally tinted windows and swerved into another lane without signaling. After the car stopped and the driver got out, a passenger slipped into the drivers seat and sped off before crashing two miles up the highway. Deputies later found nearly 40 pounds of meth inside the vehicle.

Federal prosecutors defended the stop, saying video showed the Accord swerving. U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer declined to suppress the drugs as evidence, ruling this week that whether or not Petersons stop was illegal didnt matter. Deputies were entitled to search the car after it fled and crashed, the judge ruled.

Last month, the government asked to dismiss drug and gun charges against two brothers Peterson pulled over. Peterson, another deputy and a sheriffs canine handler gave conflicting accounts of how the brothers car was searched, according to court records.

Saying the brothers are clearly guilty of the charges, U.S. District Judge John F. Walter said he disagreed with the governments decision but was obligated to dismiss the case.

The government has made the decision ... that these guilty drug traffickers should no longer be prosecuted, Walter said.

Walter has another pending case on his docket based on an arrest by Peterson. Assistant U.S. Atty. Lawrence Middleton, the head of the Los Angeles offices criminal division, assured the judge that the government expects to proceed with that prosecution.

joel.rubin@latimes.com

maya.lau@latimes.com

For more law enforcement news in Southern California, follow @joelrubin and @mayalau on Twitter.

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Must police disclose past accusations against them before testifying? The answer could overturn an L.A. County drug case
The University of California regents on Thursday stepped up their financial oversight of the presidents office, approving its $800-million spending plan only after engaging in deeper discussion and asking for more detailed data than ever before.

The scrutiny was prompted by a critical state audit in April that found the presidents office had used misleading budget practices and amassed an undisclosed surplus of $175 million.

The findings, disputed by UC officials, have led state lawmakers to exert more control over the university system  including an unprecedented decision this year to fund the presidents office from a pool of money that previously had been earmarked for campuses. The regents criticized Sacramentos move as an improper power grab that violated UCs autonomy as guaranteed by Californias constitution.

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Board Chairman George Kieffer opened Thursdays discussion by noting that the states action  which he called very wrong  would require the university system to make substantial changes in budget management to make sure smaller campuses get their fair share of funds.

Its the kind of thing that happens when the wrong entity does the work of another entity, Kieffer said. Most troubling  is the incursion into this boards authority to manage the university, for there is no daylight between legislators setting the [presidents] budget and legislators someday setting a particular campus budget.

UC President Janet Napolitano said the systems annual budget, which totals $30 billion, was the most complex she has ever managed  including the $40-billion U.S. Homeland Security spending plan she oversaw as department secretary during the Obama administration.

But, she said, her staff had significantly improved the offices budget presentation to make it clearer and more transparent than it has ever been.

UC staff gave the regents a detailed accounting of the presidents $800-million spending plan for 2017-18, more than half of which will go to systemwide programs and the rest to central administrative services.

Adopting one of the audits recommendations, the presidents budget made clear the sources and uses of the revenue; it also compared the 2017-18 forecast with last years actual spending.

The regents asked detailed questions about which programs were receiving funding increases, and how those decisions had been made. And they wanted to know how $78 million derived from state tobacco tax revenue would be spent.

The regents also voiced concern over the directive from Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature for UC to enroll 1,500 more California undergraduates in 2018-19  without any guarantee of how much the state would chip in to cover the additional per-student cost of enrollment.

Napolitano called that directive fairly astonishing, but said the state has asked UC to identify plans to pay for that growth by December.

In the end, the regents unanimously approved Napolitanos budget and praised the staff for its clear and detailed presentation.

This is miles from what weve ever seen before, regent John A. Perez said.

In other action Thursday, the regents approved a proposal to allow all campuses to invite letters of recommendation for up to 15% of applicants in cases where more information is needed to make an admissions decision.

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

Twitter: @teresawatanabe
"He was a man of humanity and an idealist. He's by no means a politician. Judging from his writings and speech, what he had illustrated is more of a social idealism of humanities," said Zhang Lifan, a prominent Chinese historian.

Tributes to Liu quickly poured in from Chinese intellectuals and human rights advocates, who described the former college lecturer as a moderate liberal who advocated peaceful resistance to Chinese authorities.

Liu's final days were marked by a public dispute over the quality of his care and Beijing's refusal of a family request that he be transferred for treatment to the United States or Germany. He is the first Nobel laureate to die in state custody since Carl von Ossietzky, who died of tuberculosis under the watch of Nazi secret police in Berlin, Germany, in 1938.

The hospital held a press conference late Thursday and said that Liu's wife, Liu Xia, and close family members were with Liu when he died at 5:35 p.m. local time.

Liu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who spent his last eight years as a prisoner of conscience, passed away at a hospital in Shenyang, China, where he had been moved from his prison cell in the final stage of his illness. The judicial bureau in Shengyang announced the cause of death as "multiple organ failure."

China's best-known human rights prisoner, Liu Xiaobo, died Thursday at age 61 following a high-profile battle with liver cancer that made his death as controversial as his life.

 Reputation for Outspokenness

Liu, whose name means "he who knows the waves," was born into an intellectual family in 1955 in China's northeastern province of Jilin. He received his doctorate degree in Chinese literature from Beijing Normal University in 1988.

His reputation as an outspoken dissident had deep roots. In his brief, government-sanctioned role as a popular writer and academic, he was known for his criticism of traditional Chinese culture and for urging his fellow literati to exhibit more individualism. His sharp critiques created a sensation within literary and intellectual circles and won him opportunities to travel abroad as a visiting scholar.

His promising career took a drastic turn in the spring of 1989 when he cut short a visiting scholarship at Columbia University in New York City and returned home to join student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

"During the June 4th protests, he rushed back to Beijing from the U.S. to take part in the movement without any hesitation. That showed his earnest hope in the society's transformation and the country's democratization," said Hu Jia, a Chinese rights activist and friend of Liu and his family.

Hu credited Liu with saving many lives by encouraging hundreds of students to leave the square rather than confront the Chinese troops who moved into the square with tanks in the early hours of June 4.

Despite that action, and a controversial television appearance in which he cast doubt on reports of a massacre in the square, Liu was labeled a "black hand" and jailed for his role in the protests.

Upon his release in early 1991, he continued to call for political reforms and was sentenced to three years in a labor camp from 1996 to 1999. Liu kept on pursuing his reform goals after his release, making him a constant target for state surveillance.

 End to One-Party System

In 2008, Liu and other dissidents and intellectuals issued a document known as Charter 08, modeled partly on Charter 77, which Czech dissidents, including Vaclav Havel, drafted in 1977.

The political manifesto, which was endorsed by more than 10,000 intellectuals, calls for an end to China's one-party system and establishment of a new republic comprising a "federation" of regions and political communities, with genuine participation from the public.

"If there has been any progress in the Chinese society and politics over the last 20 years, it is all because the citizens have been pushing for change," Liu said in an interview that year. "Ultimately, change will happen when problems persist and enough people are concerned."

Even while he was enjoying relative freedom out of jail, thoughts of when he, and others like him, might be locked up again were never far from his mind. "For those of us in the opposition movement under dictatorships, part of our job is confronting police, and spending time in prison. So, a dissident not only needs to learn how to oppose oppression, but also how to face the crackdowns, and time in prison," Liu told reporters from Hong Kong.

 'I Have No Enemies'

Liu's convictions were put to the test in 2009, when he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his part in the Charter 08 movement and other "subversive" activities. Worldwide fame came soon afterward when he was named as the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."

Liu learned of the honor from his wife during one of the limited prison visits she was permitted. He replied that the prize should be dedicated to those who died in the 1989 mass protests and subsequent crackdown.

Liu was known as an advocate of changing China through reasoned, non-violent means. Shortly before being sentenced in 2009, Liu praised elements of the Chinese legal system, including the polite treatment he received in jail, in a speech entitled "I have no enemies."

"Hatred can corrupt one's conscience and intelligence, enemy mentality could poison a nation's spirit," Liu said in the speech, which was read in his absence at the Nobel Prize ceremony.

Liu's remarks confounded many advocates for democracy and freedom for China. Critics pointed to the harsh treatment, including severe torture, of other activists to show the Chinese prison system is far less "humane" than Liu described it. Some suggested the authorities purposely showed leniency toward Liu so that he would make public statements in their support.

 Unfulfilled Wish

Liu was still three years from completing his prison term when he died. The German and American doctors who were allowed to see him during his last days reported that Liu, days before his death, had clearly communicated his wish to leave China for treatment elsewhere. However, Chinese authorities maintained that he was too sick to be moved.

Liu Xiaobo is survived by a son, and his wife of 21 years, Liu Xia, a staunch supporter of her husband who is reported to have said that she was determined to marry the "enemy of the state." Reflecting on their lives in a poem, she said, "I like to draw trees; why? I like the image of it standing. A life spent standing must be tiresome, you say; I answer, yes, but still I must."
The Trump administration said Friday it would go to the Supreme Court to fight a Hawaii federal judges decision vastly expanding the number of people exempt from the governments ban on travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries and all refugees.

U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson ruled Thursday that the government had failed to follow Supreme Court orders last month that established conditions for a partial revival of the ban, whose implementation had been blocked by the courts.

The decision does not halt the travel ban, which was reinstated by the Supreme Court on June 29 with exemptions for a limited list people with bona fide U.S. connections, such as close family members. But going against Trump administration policy, the ruling expands the exceptions to include travelers who have grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and brothers- and sisters-in-law in the U.S.

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The judge also said that contrary to government policy, refugees cannot be blocked if they have formal assurance from U.S. resettlement agencies for relocation to the country  even if the refugees do not have relatives in the U.S.

The administrations implementation of the bans limits represented the antithesis of common sense, the judge said.

In a statement Friday, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions accused Watson of trying to micromanage the presidents authority over ensuring national security.

By this decision, the district court has improperly substituted its policy preferences for the national security judgments of the executive branch in a time of grave threats, defying both the lawful prerogatives of the executive branch and the directive of the Supreme Court, Sessions said.

In the meantime, unless a higher court intervenes, Watsons decision means that potentially thousands of refugees who had been vetted for U.S. admission but were blocked after the government cut off most refugee admissions on Wednesday  the day the country hit a cap of 50,000 refugee admissions for the fiscal year  may now be let in.

We are reviewing the decision and will be in consultation with DOJ to ensure immediate implementation, the Department of State said in a statement Friday.

The Department of Justice also said in a court filing Friday that it was challenging Watsons order in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Refugee resettlement groups and immigrant advocates on Friday celebrated Watsons decision.

The order represents relief for over 24,000 refugees who had already been vetted and approved by the U.S. and assigned to resettlement agencies. Many of them had already sold all of their belongings to start their new lives in safety, Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, said in a statement. The group is among those suing the administration over the ban.

This decision gives back hope to so many who would otherwise be stranded indefinitely, Heller said. Nevertheless, we will continue to fight for our refugee clients, who are still affected by the governments attempts to freeze refugee resettlement.

For two weeks, the Trump administration and the state of Hawaii have fought repeatedly in federal courts over whom the ban can block.

At issue is how to determine which travelers have close relatives living in the U.S. or are associated with the country in other ways that let them bypass the ban  standards set by the Supreme Court when it lifted the previous halt on enforcement of the ban.

President Trumps executive order halts travel by nationals of Somalia, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Iran but allows exceptions for those with what the Supreme Court called bona fide connections with the U.S. The government has said those connections include a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sibling, fiance or fiancee, and in-law parents.

But the administration said grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and brothers- and sisters-in-law are not close enough to qualify for admission during the duration of the order. Attorneys for the state of Hawaii successfully petitioned Watson to order the government to count all of those categories as bona fide U.S. connections.

In the case of refugees, state lawyers argued that a refugee resettlement organizations interactions with a refugee constitute a bona fide relationship. The administration disagreed.

Hawaiis win came after it was twice rejected in court attempts to weaken the ban.

On July 6, Watson denied a request from the state to clarify exceptions to the ban, saying that he did not have the authority to interpret Supreme Court orders. The next day, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a similar request from the state, saying it did not have jurisdiction over the matter.

But appellate judges told challengers that they could try a different legal maneuver in the district court. Judges said Hawaii attorneys could request Watson to issue an injunction against the bans implementation or modify an injunction he had issued that previously had halted the ban before his order was partially lifted by the Supreme Court. Hawaii filed both requests last week.

The travel ban calls for a three-month pause on travel to the U.S. by nationals of the six Muslim-majority countries and a four-month halt on all refugee resettlement.

Watson was one of the judges who granted a restraining order blocking implementation. His order was issued in a case filed in March by the state of Hawaii.

Successful challenges in that case and another filed in a Maryland federal court were upheld in the 9th Circuit and 4th Circuit appellate courts before requests were made to the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the ban.

On June 26, the Supreme Court said the ban could be put back into place with exceptions, but left it up to the government to define most of them. The court indicated its move was a temporary measure until justices hear full arguments on Trumps executive order in the fall.

jaweed.kaleem@latimes.com

Jaweed Kaleem is The Times national race and justice correspondent. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

ALSO

Appeals court rejects Hawaiis request to let grandparents and other relatives bypass travel ban

Who is in and who is out under the revived travel ban

As travel ban goes into effect, debate ensues over who counts as close family, and Hawaii files a court challenge

UPDATES:

12:36 p.m. July 14: This article was updated with the Trump administrations decision to appeal the ruling and reaction from refugee groups.

This article was originally published at 10:30 p.m. July 13.
Upon his wifes death, George Katrouzos dropped his three children at a Chicago orphanage with a promise: He would make a life in Grand Island, Neb.  a town that was going someplace, a town that had streetlights  and he would come back for them.

Katrouzos, who came to America from Greece, did both. He opened a lunchroom in the teeth of the Great Depression and after six months retrieved the kids. It was 1933, and the family of four sometimes traded food with other vendors to get by.

Katrouzos grandson, also named George, now runs the place, scolding regulars over coffee, shyly explaining to customers that, no, in nearly a century, his family never has sprung for an ice machine.

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The story of the Coney Island Lunch Room in Grand Island is a familiar one among 20th century immigrants here on the Great Plains: A newcomer makes a gamble in a cold, new place and it pays off, for his children and their children, while the family itself becomes a bedrock of the community.

Definitely the all-American story, says the younger Katrouzos. The little lunchroom kind of keeps in its own little bubble while the world outside goes by.

In the 21st century, Grand Island and other Midwestern towns are again at the forefront of Great Plains immigration and the national debate over immigrant labor in the the American workforce.

Today, 1 in 9 Nebraskans is Latino or Asian, many lured by jobs at JBS USA, operator of the local meatpacking plant that is Grand Islands biggest employer.

Few of these immigrants have forged the New World success story that Katrouzos and his family managed to build. Some of them wound up being deported in immigration raids at the meat plant, ostensibly to free up jobs for native Nebraskans. But few locals took those jobs.

The story of Grand Island, instead, is a tale of successive waves of migration, and generations of hardship.

Nebraska, flat and featureless, has always been available to those willing to endure it.

::

Maria Garcia helps a customer at La Azteca Market in Grand Island. (Jimmy Rash / For The Times)

Swift & Co. opened the meatpacking plant here in the 1960s and it quickly attracted hundreds of Mexicans and Guatemalans, who dominated its workforce.

The first big attempt to crack down on illegal immigration came in 2006, when immigration agents stormed the plant and five others across the country, detaining 1,300 people.

The complaint then from anti-immigrant politicians was that undocumented workers were taking local jobs, and the promise from the federal government was that the immigration raids would open up jobs for Americans. Local municipalities would thrive.

But in the intervening decade, that assurance has proved hollow.

The native-born population in Grand Island did not take the jobs opened by the deportation of Latino workers, nor are those Americans particularly better off.

Instead, the deported Mexicans and Guatemalans were replaced by Somalis, some whites and yet more Latino workers. Cuban and Mexican migrants with legal working papers were recruited with bonuses and relocation costs.

Even so, poverty among foreign-born households has nearly doubled since the 2006 raid, and the rest of the population has hardly fared much better.

In 2008, 10% of all Grand Island families were poor enough to be receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. By 2015, that number was 14%. Among Latinos, the number had risen to 26%.

Work site raids are more about sending a message than about any real economic impact. If the administration was committed to reducing employment of the undocumented, they would crack down on employers rather than deporting workers, said Tara Watson, associate professor of economics at Williams College and a former deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Treasury Department under President Obama.

JBS plant employees during a shift change in Grand Island. (Jimmy Rash / For The Times)

Outside the packing plant on a recent afternoon, the line of shift workers driving to and from work stretches to the low horizon. Behind the wheels are men in ball caps and women in hijabs, one of whom was honked at by a truck full of men with the beat of a norteno corrido blaring from its speakers.

Their faces wear the sullen determination of people leaving eight hours of manual labor amid the stench of blood and viscera, or steeling themselves to start work.

The smell of manure from nearby fields wafts past a fancy cocktail bar named after the titular character in T.S. Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. There is a brewery in town and a second one coming.

Grand Islands economy is almost entirely dependent on the cattle and grain trades. Along with meatpacking plants, the cattle industry also employs ranch hands and truck drivers  steady blue-collar employment that is entirely dependent on the price of beef.

The town is subject to the whims of the commodities market even more than the supply and demand of the labor market. During the recession that began in 2008, when cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix suffered, agricultural towns prospered as commodities prices soared.

Now, commodities prices have leveled off, and Grand Island is feeling the sting. Unemployment has begun to creep up.

Katzous puts it simply: Ag is what we live off out here, bouncing with the market, and its kept us going this long.

Inside the Cuban-themed El Marinero Restaurant in Grand Island. (Jimmy Rash / For The Times)

Why didnt life get better in Grand Island? Conservatives argue that it has.

They say that without migrants working illegally, natives and legal migrants benefit in improved wages and better job security.

Examples abound of those jobs being filled by Americans after they have been raided or audited by the feds, said Eric Ruark, research director for NumbersUSA, a group that advocates for lower immigration levels. Sometimes employers have to raise wages, and sometimes they can fill the jobs at the existing rate.

In either case, the results are fantastic for the Americans who gain employment.

And while a large number of the jobs at the Grand Island meatpacking plant went not to locals but to a new wave of immigrants, there were improvements in wages.

The Center for Immigration Studies, which also advocates for immigration cuts, found that in the immediate aftermath of the roundup at Swift & Co. plants in 2006, four of the six facilities raided saw an 8% rise, on average, in wages and bonuses.

Mainstream academics and liberal immigration advocates reject those conservative interpretations as too simplistic.

There is no conclusive evidence that immigration enforcement improves employment outcomes for the native-born, Watson said.

Grand Island Mayor Jeremy Jensen denied that the citys Latino community was suffering economically from the legacy of the raid, and also downplayed fears of possible new immigration raids under the Trump administrations stepped-up enforcement policies.

I would find no reason anyone should be scared to go to work, church or shopping. No one has ever expressed this fear to me, nor do I believe there is any reason for any law-abiding individual to feel threatened, Jensen said in an email.

Grand Islands Capital Trailer Park, where many immigrants make their homes. (Jimmy Rash / For The Times)

Many of the new immigrants here have taken up residence at the Capital Trailer Park, a place without much roots. But some have begun building lives here, buying homes and weeping through their childrens graduations at the local high school. More than 75 businesses in town are owned by Latinos. It was Grand Island that sent Nebraskas first Latino lawmaker to the state Legislature.

Nearly a century after George Katrouzos walked the lamp-lit streets of Grand Island and put down $100 to purchase a piece of it, what is required to survive here as an immigrant, in the end, is evident: simply, time. It took decades.

Follow Nigel Duara on Twitter: @nigelduara

nigel.duara@latimes.com

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Nevada has approved an emergency regulation aimed at solving a marijuana shortage by expanding who is allowed to transport the drug from cultivation facilities to retail dispensaries.

The Nevada Tax Commission voted unanimously Thursday in favor of the regulation two weeks after the state began allowing the sale of recreational marijuana and supply problems quickly arose because nobody had been licensed to transport it.

The referendum passed last year by Nevada voters legalizing the drug for recreational use stipulated that for the first 18 months of sales only liquor wholesalers would be allowed to apply to distribute marijuana  a nod to the powerful alcohol industry, which is worried about new competition from pot.

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But few alcohol distributors applied, and through Tuesday, none had been approved. When sales began July 1, retail shops  all of which were already selling marijuana for medical use  had to rely on their existing stocks, which soon started to run low.

The chairman of the tax commission, Jim DeVolld, said the emergency regulation was needed as the state joined several others in the still-evolving world of legal marijuana sales.

Were trying to do the right thing, DeVolld said. This is such an important time in the state of Nevadas existence.

Nevadas distribution woes are unique among states that have legalized the sale of recreational marijuana. Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska allow the dispensaries to transport marijuana themselves.

In California, where voters passed a similar measure in November, residents can legally possess and buy recreational pot, but the state has until 2018 to begin issuing licenses to sellers and distributors.

Anticipating the problem, the Nevada tax department had tried to change the rules before legalization kicked in.

But a judge said the department had to go through the regulatory process to see how many distributors were needed.

Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, who didnt support the ballot measure, signed off on the emergency regulation this week.

Tax Commission member Thom Sheets said the answer was clear to him when no distributors had been approved. To this guy, zero is insufficient, he said.

Riana Durrett, executive director of the Nevada Dispensary Assn., a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of retail pot shops, testified at the hearing that the situation was dire and told stories of stores running low on edibles and popular strains of marijuana.

There arent enough alcohol distributors serving that market, Durrett said. Without a resolution to this, sales cant go forward and establishments will have to let employees go.

The tax department director, Deonne Contine, said that of the nearly 70 liquor wholesalers in Nevada, seven had applied to transport marijuana. One was approved Wednesday and another Thursday.

Contine said the need to get supply to retailers was critical because the state budget included $100 million in anticipated tax revenue from marijuana sales. She said the regulation would allow the department to determine if there was an appetite outside the liquor wholesalers to become distributors.

Nevada has licensed roughly 100 marijuana growers, enough to supply the dispensaries as long as there is a way to transport the pot.

Dispensary owners testified at the hearing that they already have the experience and equipment to handle wholesale distribution of marijuana.

Kevin Benson, a lawyer representing the Independent Alcohol Distributors of Nevada, blamed the department for the broken supply chain, saying it had set up a cumbersome process and a time frame too short to meet rigorous licensing requirements while also getting approval to set up storage sites from local governments.

This emergency is really of the departments own making, he said. If the department had reached out to the alcohol distributors early on, we couldve resolved these issues.

david.montero@latimes.com

Twitter: @davemontero

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Philando Castile was a veteran of police stops, if there is such a thing. By the time he encountered his final, fatal one in July 2016, the Minnesota school cafeteria worker had been pulled over more than 49 times in 13 years. So when he calmly volunteered to officer Jeronimo Yanez that July 6 that he was carrying his legally licensed firearm, he likely thought he was doing his best to ensure the situation didnt escalate. His girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter were in the car, for one thing. In the video recorded from Yanezs patrol vehicle, Castile can be heard saying, Sir, I have to tell you that I do have a firearm on me. He never reached for it, but it didnt matter. It rarely does.

There was no physical altercation between he and Yanez before the shooting, nor had he been aggressive or defiant in any way. Castile had no criminal record, nor any of the other faults for which the court of public opinion tries police victims, postmortem and in absentia. He had done everything that was asked of him during the stop, even volunteering information about his weapon in the interest of full disclosure and de-escalation. He was still shot to death by a panicky cop who was later acquitted on all charges. Castiles honesty and impeccable conduct only made the tragedy more absurd.

Despite this proof that dutiful behavior cannot by itself save anyone from being killed by a cop, the sorry argument that decorum is prophylactic persists. It just wont go away. The latest example is Home Alive: 11 Must Rules for Surviving Encounters with the Police, a self-published book thats been making the usual rounds.

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The author, a black emergency room doctor named Geoffrey Mount Varner, addresses his argument primarily to young people and their parents, and that is no accident. According to WTOP, Mount Varner was inspired by the realization that his 11-year-old son was old enough to be killed by the police. One doesnt have to remember the late Tamir Rice to validate that fear, but its the way Mount Varner takes on that reality that is so wrongheaded.

It is not the job of marginalized people to convince those in power not to kill them.

The emergency room doctors prescription for the epidemic of police violencea systemic problem if ever there was one is the politics of respectability, tailoring actions so as to appear more reputable or gain acceptance in an unfriendly environment. Of his 11 rules, Mount Varner told the reporter that be humble is the chief one to follow. One passage reads:

Train your kids regularly that this is how Daddy is going to act if he is ever pulled over by the police. Tell them, Daddy is going to be purposefully meek, humble, and deferential because Daddy wants to be sure that he has a long life with you.

I dont mean to pick on Mount Varner, who Im sure is well-meaning, but these messages are harmful. What kind of assurance does Daddy really have that no harm will come to him? It is not the job of marginalized people to convince those in power not to kill them. Those who want to keep America where it is, replete with its institutional and incidental intolerance, must love when people like Mount Varner speak up. At what point does this effort to assimilate, not agitate, become inherently submissive?

The ultimate danger is that this regressive mindset will be incorporated into public policy; in fact, thats already happening. Ralph Brown, a bureau chief with the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, told the states racial profiling panel Wednesday that the responsibility for de-escalation during a traffic stop lies with the driver. In such less than pleasant situations, Brown said, because the person or subject is not compliant with the voluntary request of keep their hands on the wheel or whatever the case might be, then that forces the officer to get into a reactionary mode and depending upon the escalation of the subject, that will dictate the escalation of the officers response. Brown has instructed police officers for a living, yet he acts as if its citizens that need the training.

It is one thing for black parents to sit their kids down and give them the talk  letting them know what to expect during a traffic stop and wherever else racism might kill them. Its quite another for a state to mandate the talk.

In August, Illinois enacted a new law requiring new drivers to get instruction on how to behave during traffic stops. Virginias new driver education law, which went into effect on July 1, requires the same thing. Mississippi, which has the largest percentage of African Americans of any state in the nation, is considering similar legislation. So are Texas, Rhode Island and North Carolina. New Jerseys version passed in June, despite strong protest from black liberation activists who insisted that it is lunacy to expect children to master the idea of respectability politics before grown police officers are expected to harness their violent behavior.

Although these legislators, like Mount Varner, may think that courtesy is the easy way out of this debate, demanding that victims modify their behavior only exacerbates the problem at hand. No amount of humility or deference will address our justice systems failure to end police abuse, or sexual assault, or any other crime that has gotten the Mount Varner treatment. Being a superhero  seriously, thats one of his rules  cant answer why courts seemingly cant convict cops, even when the dead victim did everything right.

One constructive sign comes from Philando Castiles state, Minnesota, which just authorized a new $12-million police training fund. (Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, wants it to be named after Castile.) Will it save any more lives than would Mount Varners approach? We dont yet know, but at least it addresses the issue from the proper angle. Black people and other folks of color cannot behave their way out of this crisis, nor should they be expected to do so. Police violence is a police problem, and police must fix it.

Jamil Smith is a journalist in Los Angeles.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook
Today, Paris is fluttering with blue-white-and-red, tricolored flags, vibrating to the cadenced steps of French soldiers and echoing to renditions of La Marseillaise. Its the 14th of July, a date as iconic as our own Fourth of July. But while Americans have marked and celebrated the Fourth almost from the very beginning, France needed nearly a century to settle on the 14th as their national holiday.

What accounts for this delay? The story of the 14th is more complicated, its significance more complex than is commonly understood.

What the French call le quatorze juillet, we know as Bastille Day. This is at it should be. On that date, a great throng of Parisians besieged the citys medieval fortress and prison. They were driven not just by practical reasons  they were seeking arms  but also by political and ethical reasons: The Bastille symbolized the arbitrary, unchecked powers of the French monarchy. Horror stories associated with the Bastille were legion, mostly tied to the infamous lettre de cachet: the arrest order, as readers of Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities know, issued by the monarchy without just cause or judicial process.

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While the Revolutions bloody origins could not be denied, neither could they be acclaimed.

Never mind that when the revolutionaries sprung open the dungeon doors after a fierce battle, there were only seven prisoners, mostly crooks or madmen, including a wizened old man dubbed by his guards as Major Immensity. Nevertheless, in a preview of the bloody events that would soon follow, the thickening crowd, incensed over the deaths of fellow fighters, paraded the Bastilles commander through the streets before pummeling him to death. His head then was sawn off with a penknife and displayed on a pole pour encourager les autres (roughly, to send a message).

One year later, the organizers of an official anniversary celebration called the Festival of the Federation tried to airbrush the taking of the Bastille. They downplayed the palpable class violence and sought instead to embrace the entire nation, bringing all of France to the great national table. This was not empty chatter. Aristocrats and workers, bourgeoisie and artisans had worked together to prepare for the festival. The parade, which lasted more than two hours under torrential rain, included civilians and soldiers, politicians and revolutionary militias. Arriving in France that same day, British poet William Wordsworth sensed joy everywhere, like the perfume of spring.

Soon after, however, le quatorze juillet, a victim of the Bourbon Restoration, disappeared from holiday calendars the way the 13th floor disappeared from most American buildings. It was there, but unacknowledged, persona non grata at a national table where kings and emperors again presided. No table was long enough to seat the revolutionary values of liberty, equality and fraternity with the counterrevolutionary values of autocracy, inequality and hostility toward others.

As a result, the date led a furtive and forbidden existence, its memory kept alive by those committed to republic ideals. It was only with the overthrow of the second (and lesser) Bonaparte and establishment of the Third (and wiser) Republic in 1870  oddly, the same year our long de facto national holiday became official  that July 14 could be celebrated again.

It took France 10 more years to decide which July 14, though. Behind door one was the taking of the Bastille in 1789, while behind door two was the making of the Federation in 1790. The choice of doors meant a choice of destinies. 1789 pointed to the national razor  a.k.a., the guillotine  while 1790 pointed to national celebration. But the choice wasnt simple: While the Revolutions bloody origins could not be denied, neither could they be acclaimed. And so, in order to bring conservatives and radicals together, the Republic chose not to choose. Or, rather, to choose both.

During the parliamentary debate in June 1880, the Parisian deputy who proposed the official holiday, Bernard Raspail, declared that the Bastilles fall and Festivals parade were joined at the hip. The first event drew the curtain on the old world and inaugurated a new world of justice, humanity and equality, while the second event, by bringing together French from all walks of life, will teach them to understand and love one another, and so establish our nations unity on an indestructible foundation.

For this years festivities, France has invited U.S. President Trump, the herald of the so-called Trump Revolution. The president thus will have a front-row seat to recall the true meaning of revolution, one dedicated to the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity, and predicated on the need for national unity.

Robert Zaretsky teaches at the University of Houston and is completing a book on Catherine the Great and the French Enlightenment.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook
To the editor: My late husband, George Kiriyama, served on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education from 1995 to 1999. He and his colleagues were paid $18,000 annually. (Hold your outrage  the LAUSD board deserves a big raise, editorial, July 12)

I was in adult education, where teachers reached the hourly top pay in three steps and never received pay raises along with the K-12 teachers. Furthermore, we were not allowed to work full time. With no other income source, George, the primary earner in our household, sacrificed our financial security in order to serve on the board.

Some people have said the board members should not receive any pay at all, citing examples of uncompensated public servants in other cities. This is the most ridiculous thing Ive ever heard. Such a move would make serving possible only for the wealthy.

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With the hours and demands of the job, school board members deserve  and need  to be compensated, but I would cap their pay at no more than the highest teachers pay (around $100,000) or the lowest principals pay.

Iku Kiriyama, Torrance

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To the editor: So, board members put in hard work day in and day out and therefore deserve an obscene salary increase of 174%.

They should try teaching.

Betty Watkins, Studio City

The writer is a retired teacher.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
To the editor: I found the op-ed article by Zev Yaroslavsky and Salam Al-Marayati, comparing the presidents travel ban with the United States and other countries refusal to admit Jewish refugees before World War II, to be both absurd and offensive. (A Muslim and a Jew urge the Supreme Court to strike down the Muslim ban, July 10)

Likening the refusal to allow the 900 German Jews aboard the St. Louis entry to the U.S. in 1939 to barring people from six predominately Muslim countries is a new and despicable version of apples and oranges.

There is no record of any Jew trying to escape the Holocaust having been accused of blowing up innocent people in restaurants, mowing down pedestrians with trucks or beheading anyone. Doubtless the vast majority of Muslims here and those wishing to come here are not terrorists, but history cannot be rewritten to equate an abominable act by the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration to anything happening today.

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Naomi Feldman, Beverly Hills

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To the editor: The picture of German Jewish refugees, their faces filled with hope and joy upon reaching our shores, should be etched into souls of every American.

They were turned away by the United States government, most to face the gas chambers of the Nazis. That ignominious rejection of the persecuted must not be repeated.

We must assist as best we can all those who flee violence, especially since our own actions have helped to create the vio-lence they flee.

Victoria Mudd, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: Yaroslavsky and Al-Marayati get their analogy wrong.

First, there are at least 50 Muslim-majority nations in the world, the most populous of which is Indonesia. Hence this is not a Muslim ban, but a ban on immigration from six nations riven by civil war and terrorism.

Second, the ban is temporary and meant primarily to provide the United States with a way to vet these immigrants so we can be reasonably sure they do not wish to do our country harm. When President Roosevelt refused entry to 900 Jewish refugees aboard the St. Louis in 1939, the action was all too permanent: Most of the passengers were returned to Europe and killed in the Holocaust.

A better analogy would be a ship filled with passengers of uncertain origin, many of whom could be German agents. Roosevelt would merit no criticism for denying entry to such people. Using the logic of Yaroslavsky and Al-Marayati, we should have admitted immigrants from Germany throughout World War II.

A nation that cannot control immigration, even to the extent of excluding enemy agents, is not a nation at all. It is merely an area where disparate people happen to be living temporarily.

Daniel Stolar, Los Angeles

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
It is no surprise the Trump family keeps running afoul of the rules of politics and government. After all, they have lived and thrived in a very different milieu  the world of New York City real estate.

In that world, it is perfectly normal to say things like, Dont worry, well pay you for your work, even if you dont mean it. Or to say, Trump Tower is 68 stories tall, even though it rises to only 58. Or to promise, Youll get a great business education for your money, even though you are pitching the bogus Trump University.

In that world, it is not unusual to take meetings with unsavory characters, like Mafia bosses who become peripheral business partners or Russian mobsters who launder their ill-gotten gains by purchasing a few of your pricey condominiums.

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And, in that world, rules can be flexible, aggressive lawyers can help bend the law, and the news media rarely takes notice of what you are up to.

Politics and government are different  at the presidential level, in particular. Rules are more rigid, laws are more aggressively enforced, and media attention is intrusive and constant because your personal business is the peoples business.

1 / 51 la-1491523602-y7ephyarj1-snap-image (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 51 la-1491368625-0bgh58ihw8-snap-image (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los angeles Times) 6 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 51 Trump inspires millions to take to the streets -- to oppose him. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 51 Cartoon caption contest winner at the DENT conference in Sun Valley, Idaho: Jon Duval, executive director of the Ketchum Community Development Corporation. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 51 Old radicals and big media descend on Selma (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 51 Horsey imagined the creation of the Ann Coulter phenomenon in this cartoon from 2007. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 51 This David Horsey drawing is a reconfiguration of a cartoon he first published in 2006. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 51 Donald Sterling, owner of the L.A. Clippers, should give Cliven Bundy a call. After Sterling loses his NBA franchise and the deadbeat Nevada rancher loses his cattle, the two old racists will both need a buddy. Maybe they can team up together and open an all-white rodeo. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 51 Besides sending a chill up the spine of the international community, Vladimir Putin has accomplished one other thing by seizing Crimea and threatening the rest of Ukraine: Putin has brought back the bear. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 51 The right-wing insurrection at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., has taken another weird turn with new revelations about the family history of Cliven Bundy. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 45 / 51 David Horsey / Los Angeles Times (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 46 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 47 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 49 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times)

Thus, President Trumps namesake son, Don Jr., and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, find themselves in deep trouble. They did not seem to understand that, when asked if they met with anyone linked to the government of Russia, they were supposed to tell the truth. Don Jr. did not know that everyone in the country might one day read the emails he wrote expressing enthusiasm for getting dirt on Hillary Clinton from a Russian attorney. Jared did not understand that becoming the presidents closest confidant could bring with it the risk of jail time. Neither man may have imagined their missteps would land them in front of congressional investigative committees.

That is the predicament in which Trump the younger and Kushner now find themselves.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has let it be known that he wants Trump Jr. to come testify about a June 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. According to a sequence of emails sent by Trump Jr., he got together with the Russian because he had been told that Vladimir Putins government was aiming to help his fathers presidential campaign by feeding him damaging information about Clinton. And, much to their current discomfort, Kushner and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort were pulled into the meeting as well.

Eldest son Don now characterizes the session with the Russian as a waste of time. Useful or not, legal experts say the mere intent to collude with a foreign entity may be a violation of federal law.

The meeting with Veselnitskaya was just one of several contacts with Russians and other foreign entities that Kushner failed to mention when he was filling out his application for a top-level security clearance. Now, it is being reported that the presidents attorneys are urging that Kushner refrain from any discussions about the festering Russia scandal with his father-in-law. Apparently, they want to protect their client from being legally tainted by daughter Ivankas hubby.

At this rate, conversations at family dinners are going to become particularly awkward. Maybe they can just reminisce about the good old days when the only thing the newspapers wrote about was Donald Trumps failing casinos and imploding marriages.

David.Horsey@latimes.com

Follow me at @davidhorsey on Twitter
The stretch of Appalachian Trail through the Blue Ridge Mountains here is prized by hikers from around the world for its open ridgelines, spectacular geologic formations and challenging slopes.

But one of the countrys most iconic viewsheds could soon be changed forever to make room for an energy project favored not just by fossil fuel industry boosters like President Trump , but also Virginias Democratic governor.

A natural gas developer with some powerful political allies is nearing final approval to plow a pipeline corridor as wide as 150 feet, tracking the trail for dozens of miles and burrowing through it at one point.

Amid the nations ongoing boom in natural gas production, federal rules have made pipeline construction an extremely lucrative enterprise, even in markets where the need is hotly debated.

To many, the Mountain Valley Pipeline has become a symbol of the building frenzy. Concern stretches all the way to California, where climate activists worry that such projects are undermining their efforts. Leaders of the Pacific Crest Trail Assn. fear that gas companies feel increasingly emboldened to impose an ever bigger footprint on protected lands.

Everybody, not only in the East, but around every national scenic trail, should be concerned about this, said Andrew Downs, regional director with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the 90-year-old nonprofit organization entrusted by the National Park Service decades ago with the task of managing the trail. The conservancy has never found it necessary to get involved in a pipeline fight in this way, but times have changed. Weve never seen pipelines of this size and magnitude, Downs said.

The conservancy is joined by preservationists deeply concerned that the pipeline route would cut through seven historic districts. Those include the picture-postcard village of Newport, a place where generations of families have picnicked by the 100-year-old covered bridge and gathered at the 164-year-old church in the center of town. The pipeline has pushed Newport onto the list of most endangered historic places compiled by the group Preservation Virginia.

The same glut of natural gas that helped the U.S. substantially cut its greenhouse gas emissions is now also threatening efforts to fight climate change. In communities being rattled by the rush to lay pipe, the natural gas projects are drawing the kind of rancor usually associated with more imposing and disruptive oil pipelines.

With some 9,000 new miles of pipeline in the planning stages nationwide, natural gas expansions are threatening to undermine greenhouse gas emission reduction goals already agreed to by Virginia and other states hosting the projects.

Gas helped this country get off coal, but now deep decarbonization requires getting off gas, said Michael Wara, an energy law scholar at Stanford University. If we build all this gas capacity, we will have a strong incentive to use it for its useful life, which extends well into 21st century. That will blow our climate goals.

Clockwise from top left: Campers along the Appalachian Trail in Mountain Lake Wilderness near Newport, Va. A deer feeds along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Patricia Ann Cole, who opposes the Mountain Valley Pipeline, admires a giant tree on the banks of the Greenbrier River near Pence Springs, W.Va. A branch of the New River flows near Newport.

The benefit the Mountain Valley Pipeline would bring to those living along its 303-mile route is a point of intense disagreement and opinion does not cut neatly along partisan lines. There are local tea party leaders and Trump enthusiasts who revile the plan, and die-hard Democrats who see it as salvation. The projects investors are joined by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and some community leaders in promising that it will boost the economy in ways that are otherwise impossible, such as luring manufacturing businesses that will only locate in Virginia if more cheap gas is readily available.

With the reserves we have right now on the East Coast, we are able to bring that energy to homes and business at reduced rates, said Natalie Cox, a pipeline spokeswoman. The availability of natural gas typically attracts manufacturing facilities. It is good for businesses. Company officials said advocates were exaggerating the negative impacts on the Appalachian Trail.

Critics, including several national environmental organizations, say the benefits wont be reaped by residents along the route, but by investors angling for a windfall. Those investors are permitted to collect an impressive 15% return on the project under federal rules left over from a time when domestic gas was not so plentiful and policies were designed to aggressively promote its discovery.

The regulators are not looking carefully at which of these projects are appropriate and which are not, said Thomas Hadwin, an area opponent of the pipeline and former utility executive with deep experience in permitting multibillion-dollar energy projects.

Pipelines are getting way overbuilt. We have a glut of them.  Thomas Hadwin, Mountain Valley Pipeline opponent and former utility executive

It is not just pipeline opponents raising red flags. The Environmental Protection Agency in the final days of the Obama administration pushed federal energy regulators to more thoroughly investigate whether such projects are needed. It warned during the environmental review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline that the group building it had failed to explain why the project as proposed was essential, raising the possibility of overbuilding, unnecessary disruption of the environment and unneeded exercise of eminent domain.

Soon after, Norman Bay, the outgoing chief of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees pipeline permitting, surprised the gas industry and activists by cautioning that the federal approval process for gas pipelines was full of shortcomings, creating a risk of overbuilding. In a six-page essay filed as part of a commission proceeding, Bay, long an ally of the industry, opined that regulators are not paying enough attention to legitimate concerns about the long-term viability of the projects, their impact on global warming and the hardships they can cause for communities along their routes.

The White House is hardly embracing such warnings. President Trump is vowing to step up the nations natural gas production, and he is working with the gas industry to substantially boost exports of American gas abroad, an issue he emphasized on his recent trip to Europe for the G-20 summit. Environmental groups suspect that much of the gas shipped through the Mountain Valley Pipeline will ultimately end up abroad, despite assurances from the developer and the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission that the project is not designed for that.

Top: Joy Elizabeth Reilly, 8, holds a hula hoop 42 inches in diameter, the size of the pipeline that is proposed to run through her parents' farm in Virginia. Above left: Carolyn Reilly and her husband own Four Corners Farm in Rocky Mount, Va., which is directly in the path of the proposed pipeline. Right: A pastoral view from Mountain Lake Road near the historic town of Newport, Va., through which the pipeline would be built.

The boom in gas pipeline construction was helped along in large part by the Obama administration, as it pursued an all of the above energy strategy. But Obamas action on climate change in his final years in office sought to slow things down. The Clean Power Plan, Obamas signature policy for addressing global warming, placed limits on the amount of natural gas that energy-producing states could use to meet federal emissions targets while transitioning from coal. The administrations hope was to deter states from locking themselves into generations of reliance on gas, and instead prod them to leave room for a more robust expansion of renewable energy as its cost drops.

In March, Trump ordered the dismantling of the Clean Power Plan. But while the prevailing sentiment from Washington now more heavily favors pipeline investors, gas companies are finding their projects increasingly a tougher sell in the rest of the country. The local disruption the Mountain Valley Pipeline threatens along its route in Virginia and West Virginia has touched off an intense backlash.

Carolyn Reilly wasnt an activist when she moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains four years ago. She was a home-schooling mom from suburban Florida, lured there by a bucolic patch of land and visions of launching a sustainable farming business. Now she finds herself rallying her neighbors to fight and calling the police every time pipeline surveyors try to access her property.

The easement the Mountain Valley Pipeline is seeking on Four Corners Farm, her familys business in the hills outside Roanoke, cuts right through a peaceful pasture where a handful of cows were recently meandering. If given final approval, the pipeline company could use eminent domain to get it, and then set about tearing a pathway as wide as 150 feet with heavy machinery so that a 3-foot diameter gas line could be buried underneath. Reilly worries about grazing patterns being disrupted, pesticides used to control vegetation on the corridor drifting into her crops and the propertys pristine water getting contaminated. We believe this pipeline would destroy our business, she said.

Left: Protesters against the Mountain Valley Pipeline gather beside the Greenbrier River near Pence Springs, W.Va. Right: The historic town of Newport, Va., could be permanently changed if the pipeline project is approved and built directly through the center of town.

Some 130 miles away on a recent night, a group of West Virginians along the pipeline route gathered beside the Greenbrier River to build a large bonfire, fueled by copies of the pipeline construction application. What they say in this is totally not true, said longtime local resident Ashby Berkley, pointing to the charred documents.

Pipeline promoters say such grumbling is the exception and that they enjoy the support of a quiet majority in the area. They point to strong support from business leaders and chambers of commerce, as well as a poll they commissioned showing that 62% of Virginians support the project. Activists say the poll is bunk because poll-takers told those surveyed that the project was needed to meet the regions energy needs. Three-quarters of landowners in the path of the pipeline have signed easement agreements, according to the pipeline company.

For now the project is in a holding pattern because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission lacks enough sitting members to approve it. Trumps nominees to fill those commission seats are awaiting congressional approval.

Meanwhile, opponents are preparing lawsuits and lobbying Congress.

They thought we were just a bunch of hillbillies that they could roll right over, said Diana Christopulos, president of the Roanoke chapter of the Appalachian Trail Club, as she walked along the trail recently. They were wrong.

Robert Gorman and Carolyn Portier-Gorman of Thibodaux, La., admire the view from the Blue Ridge Parkway outside Roanoke, Va. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Main photo: Danny Moody, 22, of Maine is hiking the entire Appalachian Trail with his dog Daisy. The view from the trail from the Mountain Lake Wilderness in Virginia will be changed forever if the Mountain Valley Pipeline project is approved.

evan.halper@latimes.com

@evanhalper

carolyn.cole@latimes.com

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The U.S. on Wednesday formally asked Korea to renegotiate their bilateral free trade agreement that went into effect in 2012.

U.S. President Donald Trump has denounced this FTA as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement as "job killers" for U.S. workers and businesses and claimed after a summit with President Moon Jae-in late last month that the two sides are already discussing a revision.

Now U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has sent a letter to Korean Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan seeking "a meeting of a special joint committee in Washington D.C. within 30 days" to renegotiate terms of the FTA.

The letter sent Korean trade officials into emergency mode. Officials at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy were shocked by how quickly the U.S. made the formal request and are legally bound to respond within 30 days.

The U.S. is seeking "amendments and modifications," though it is unclear what areas it wants to revise since even some in the Republican Party have praised the deal as a "win-win" arrangement.

In the letter, Lighthizer only said he wants to resolve "several problems regarding market access in Korea for U.S. exports, and... significant trade imbalance."

Korea's trade ministry said it will send a director-level official to Washington soon to fine-tune the agenda of the joint committee meeting. The position of trade representative is still vacant in the new Korean government.

Moon told senior officials in a meeting on Thursday to "make preparations leaving open all possibilities."


Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday cast his new plan to fight climate change as essential to the fate of American democracy  and humanity itself.

America is facing not just a climate crisis with the rest of the world, we are facing a political crisis, Brown told lawmakers at the first public hearing on his proposal to reduce the states carbon emissions. Can democracy actually work? Is there a sufficient consensus that we can govern ourselves? That, I submit to you, is an open question.

Brown wants to extend through 2030 the states cap-and-trade program, the centerpiece of Californias carbon-fighting effort, which forces businesses to pay to pollute.

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His proposal, unveiled on Monday with Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount), has faced criticism from Republican legislators, who argue that it will cause gas and energy prices to surge, and some environmental advocates, who contend that the measure doesnt do enough to protect the states most polluted communities. The plan has two components, continuing cap and trade, which is set to expire in 2020, and legislation to increase monitoring and impose stricter penalties on polluters.

Brown defended cap and trade as the most efficient program to regulate carbon while also allowing flexibility for economic growth. Californias system, Brown argued, serves as a model for carbon-reduction efforts across the world, from China to neighboring Oregon. The state, he said, needed to contrast itself with the federal government, which has taken a dim view of fighting climate change under the Trump administration.

Without cap and trade, Brown said, state regulators would be more heavy-handed in working to reduce carbon emissions, efforts that would cost businesses and consumers more. And he warned of mass migration, forest fires, floods, disease and other pestilence should lawmakers not act. Climate change, he said, is a threat to organized human existence.

Im not here about some cockamamie legacy that people talk about, said Brown, 79, as he turned to the crowd in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee hearing. This isnt for me. Im going to be dead. Its for you. Its for you and its damn real.

This isn't about some cockamamie legacy. This isn't for me, I'm going to be dead. It's for you & it's damn real #ExtendItNow #CapandTrade  pic.twitter.com/dAs5GD40Sz  Jerry Brown (@JerryBrownGov) July 13, 2017

In a rare move for a governor who shies away from engaging with lawmakers in public, Brown stayed for the entire four-hour committee hearing, sparring with committee members and turning in his chair to listen to a long line of supporters and opponents who testified on the cap-and-trade plan and a companion bill to tighten the states air quality rules. As they spoke, the governor took notes on a legal pad.

But even though both measures advanced on a party-line vote of Democrats out of the committee Thursday, Brown still faces hurdles on both the left and the right to pass the plan before lawmakers depart for summer recess at the end of next week.

Earlier Thursday, Brown made his case to Assembly Democrats in a closed-door caucus meeting.

Democratic lawmakers asked the governor about his support for affordable housing legislation, a key demand among the caucus more progressive members. They also lobbed questions on details about the cap-and-trade auctions and how revenue raised by the program would be spent. The bill spells out a list of broad spending priorities, including tackling air pollution and promoting sustainable agriculture, but the governor said there were no specific commitments made on how that money would be allocated, according to several members who requested anonymity to discuss the closed caucus meeting.

Some environmental advocates raised similar concerns during Thursdays hearing, saying the state should do more to advance its leadership role on climate.

A bill like this in Oklahoma is a winner, said Parin Shah, senior strategist at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. We would be popping the champagne corks. But this is California.

But a cavalry of outside interests have stepped up their advocacy for the legislation, with groups backing the deal  including labor unions such as the Service Employees International Union, utility companies and green businesses  releasing letters of support.

The California Chamber of Commerce endorsed one component of the package, the reauthorization of the cap-and-trade system, as balanced [and] well-designed, while staying silent on a companion measure meant to reduce local air pollution.

Support from business interests so far hasnt swayed Republicans, whom Brown has been wooing to secure a two-thirds vote to guard the program against legal challenges. Assembly GOP Leader Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley), who has shown a willingness to negotiate on the proposal, said there were no yes votes among his caucus members for the proposal in its current form.

Today, we are in sight of a bipartisan agreement to cut taxes, roll back regulations and government overreach, and reduce costs for ordinary Californians and businesses while doing our part to protect the environment for future generations, Mayes said in a statement. Unfortunately, this historic agreement remains elusive.

Senate Republicans also staked out opposition. Senate GOP leader Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Nigel) wrote in a letter to Brown that cap and trades reauthorization, coupled with the higher gas taxes approved earlier this year, would be a crushing blow to Californians. All but two members of her caucus, Sens. Anthony Cannella of Ceres and Tom Berryhill of Modesto, signed on. Both Cannella and Berryhill are termed out of office next year.

Californias representatives in Washington chimed in as well. Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein urged legislators to extend cap and trade in order to demonstrate to the world that we remain committed to fighting climate change. On the right, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), along with GOP Reps. Devin Nunes of Tulare, Ken Calvert of Corona and Tom McClintock of Elk Grove, urged Republican lawmakers in a letter to reject the plan, arguing the program helps finance Browns high-speed rail project, which they slammed as a boondoggle.

Brown said in the hearing he realized extending cap and trade was politically difficult, and indicated he was open to more deals to get reluctant lawmakers on board. The decision, Brown said, addressing the senators on the committee, is the most important vote of your life.

As we get older we have less patience, he said. I want to see this thing get done. We are going to get it. Whatever I gotta do, I want to do it.

liam.dillon@latimes.com

@dillonliam

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Updates on California politics
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
Trump called him my African-American. But he has few kind words for the president. By Mark Z. Barabak (Mark Z. Barabak/Los Angeles Times) On the day that changed his life, Gregory Cheadle almost stayed in bed. He was tired  he traveled a lot in his long-shot bid for Congress  but asked himself: How often does a candidate for president come to the far reaches of Northern California? And why pass up a crowd and the chance to hand out more fliers? So Cheadle roused himself that June 2016 morning and secured a spot up close when Donald Trump swooped in for a rally at Reddings municipal airport. It was hot, the atmosphere was loose and Trumps patter seeming more stand-up comedy than campaign spiel. He went into one of those sidelong digressions, about protesters and an African American  great fan, great guy  and, by the way, whatever happened to him? It was then, Cheadle said, he raised his hand and jokingly shouted, Im here. Trump looked and pointed, his voice a throaty rumble. Look at my African-American over here! he exclaimed. Are you the greatest? In the days and weeks that followed Cheadle was attacked on social media and harassed by people who dug up his phone number and email address. For a time he stayed home, too nervous to venture outside. All, he said, because the media portrayed him as something he was not and never has been: a Trump sycophant. Read More Facebook

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Trump quietly signs Russia sanctions bill By Noah Bierman President Trump quietly signed legislation Wednesday that imposes new sanctions on Russia and limits his ability to remove them, according to two White House aides. Trump signed the bill without cameras or an immediate press release. He had opposed imposing new sanctions on Moscow but had little choice after a nearly unanimous Congress approved the bill, guaranteeing they would override a veto. The bill, which also imposes new sanctions on Iran and North Korea, prevents American companies from investing in many energy projects that are funded by Russian government interests. It also prevents Trump from unilaterally lifting the sanctions. It thus marked an unusual move by Congress to tie the presidents hands on foreign policy. Trump did not want to give up that leverage. But the vote in Congress was a strong sign that lawmakers do not trust Trump to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump has repeatedly praised, and the widening federal investigation into possible coordination last year between his presidential campaign and Moscow. Passage of the sanctions bill already has sparked a harsh reaction in Moscow. Putin announced last week that the United States would need to shed 755 personnel, including U.S. diplomats, from its embassy and consulates in Russia. President Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats, said to be spies, from the United States last December. A White House aide said a statement would be issued later Wednesday. Facebook

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Senior GOP senators serve notice: No action on healthcare at this point By David Lauter Trump administration officials continue to push the Senate to take another run at healthcare legislation, but on Monday senior Republican senators pushed back, making clear that theyre done with the topic for now. Theres just too much animosity and were too divided on healthcare, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the head of the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview with Reuters. I think we ought to acknowledge that we can come back to healthcare afterward, but we need to move ahead on tax reform, Hatch said. His remarks were quickly followed by others in GOP leadership positions. I think its time to move on to something else, Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri told CNN. If the question is do I think we should stay on healthcare until we get it done, I think its time to move on to something else. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota also chimed in. Until someone shows us how to get that elusive 50th vote, I think its over, he told reporters. The remarks seemed a coordinated effort to respond to administration officials, including budget director Mick Mulvaney and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who said over the weekend that they wanted the Senate to keep working on healthcare. Last week, the Senate defeated several different Republican plans to repeal all or part of the Affordable Care Act. The votes made it clear that with unified Democratic opposition to repeal, and divisions among Republicans, the campaign to overturn the law has stalled out, at least for now. Congress faces several other pressing issues that will be demanding lawmakers attention, including deadlines at the end of September to raise the federal debt ceiling and fund government agencies for the coming fiscal year. And the administration is eager to move on tax proposals, with officials rather optimistically saying they hope to see votes by November on a tax package that is not yet written. Facebook

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Good news for Atty. Gen. Sessions: Trump has 100% confidence in Cabinet By Noah Bierman To Q re Sessions, spox Sanders says Trump has 100% confidence in Cabinet. Last wk she wouldn't say if he had it in Sessions. Kelly effect?  Jackie Calmes (@jackiekcalmes) July 31, 2017 President Trump has called Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions beleaguered and even VERY weak, but Sessions seemed to get good news from the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, on Monday. Trump has 100% confidence in all of his Cabinet secretaries, Sanders said in response to a question about Sessions job status during the daily White House briefing. Last week, when speculation about Sessions was rife, Sanders repeatedly declined opportunities to provide assurances that the attorney general enjoyed the presidents full confidence. Trump himself said time will tell when he was asked last week about Sessions. The willingness to tamp down speculation about Sessions may reflect the arrival Monday of retired Gen. John F. Kelly as the new White House chief of staff. He is tasked with restoring order to the administration. Sanders also batted down reports that the White House was discussing moving Sessions to another post, as secretary of Homeland Security. That job became vacant Monday after Kelly was sworn in as Trumps new chief of staff. Sanders said the White House has had no conversations about any Cabinet members switching jobs. Republican senators have publicly opposed firing Sessions, and a couple have objected to shifting him to another post as well, given that it could appear that Trump is trying to affect the investigations of himself and his campaign in the context of Russias election interference. Trump has said publicly that his frustration with Sessions, once among his closest allies, stems from Sessions decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, an act that led to the appointment of a special counsel. Facebook

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Can Trump really cut health insurance payments for members of Congress and their staff? It would be easy By Lisa Mascaro Reeling from the failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump now threatens to block federal funding that lawmakers and their staff rely on to help buy health insurance. Trumps threats are not empty. The administration could simply stop the payments -- which are provided to Capitol Hill lawmakers and staff much the way many employers help pay employees monthly insurance premiums -- by dashing off new federal regulation. But the easy attack on lawmakers skims over what many say was a complicated, but fair-minded, compromise made during the Obamacare debates several years ago. Under Obamacare, if lawmakers want insurance through their employer - the federal government - they are required to buy policies through the ACA exchanges. There had been great criticism at the time, largely from opponents of the healthcare bill, that lawmakers and congressional staff should not be exempt from the law. The argument was they should have to live under it. So they did. Usually those buying individual insurance on the exchanges can apply to see if their income and geographic area allow them to qualify for a federal subsidy. For lawmakers, though, that was prohibited. Instead, they get the regular employer contribution they did before, much in the same way other workers do when their companies buy insurance. For federal workers, the government covers about 70% of the costs, about the same paid by employers in the private sector, according to Kaiser Family Foundation. The administration affirmed that federal support for lawmakers and their staffs in an Office of Personnel Management regulation issued in 2013. To cut those funds off, Trump administration could simply reverse course, and issue another regulation changing the rules. Trump appeared ready to do so in a series of weekend tweets. Why should Congress not be paying what public pays, Trump tweeted over the weekend. If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon. But such a move would likely cause an uproar in Congress. Its not just members of Congress, but also their staffs, who would have to pay full price for their insurance. Stopping Trumps action, though, seems tough. It would require Congress to pass legislation ensuring the federal payments would continue to be made. Few lawmakers would likely take up that cause. And even if Congress were able to pass a bill protecting the payments, it seems doubtful Trump at this point would sign it into law. Facebook

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U.S. hits Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with sanctions By Associated Press Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro celebrates the results of Sundays election in Caracas. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP/Getty Images) The Trump administration has hit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with financial sanctions. The move comes after Venezuela held a weekend election that will give Maduros ruling party virtually unlimited power in the South American country. The Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions against Maduro in a brief statement on Monday, a day after the Venezuelan vote to elect a constituent assembly that will rewrite the constitution. A longer explanation from the White House was also expected. The administration imposed sanctions on more than a dozen senior current and former Venezuelan officials last week, warning the socialist government that new penalties would come if Maduro went ahead with Sundays election for the assembly. Facebook

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Anthony Scaramucci is out as White House communications director By Brian Bennett Anthony Scaramucci, the brash New Yorker who was announced little more than a week ago as President Trumps White House communications director, was ousted Monday before he had even officially taken the job. John F. Kelly, the newly sworn-in White House chief of staff, told Scaramucci around 9:30 a.m. EDT that he was going to be replaced, according to a person close to White House. In a statement officially announcing the move, the White House said Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. While Scaramuccis time at the center of the presidents circle was short, it was consequential, prompting the resignations of first Sean Spicer as White House press secretary and then Reince Priebus as chief of staff. The most notable firings and resignations in the Trump administration >> A former hedge fund executive on Wall Street, Scaramucci, who enjoyed media attention, also had come on strong stylistically, highlighted by a profane tirade against colleagues Priebus and Trump strategist Steve Bannon in an exchange last week with a New Yorker reporter. The abrupt shift in Scaramuccis status seemed to reflect Kellys mission to bring order to the chain of command within the chaotic administration. In getting Scaramucci to leave, Kelly was undoing Trumps own hiring decision. Scaramucci had told reporters when he was hired that he would be reporting directly to the president at Trumps request, bypassing the normal chain that would have the communications director -- like all staff -- report to the chief of staff. Scaramuccis unusually short tenure reflects a moment of extreme turbulence in the White House, which has been embroiled in infighting as it confronts low poll numbers for the president, a floundering legislative agenda and the investigations involving Russian meddling in last years presidential election. After word spread of Scaramuccis ouster, Spicer, who resigned when Scaramucci took over but was still working in the White House, walked out of his office to a throng of reporters. Is this a surprise party? he asked. UPDATE 12:15 p.m.: This story has been updated throughout with additional details and background. This article was originally published at 11:49 a.m. Facebook

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Trump swears in John Kelly, says ex-secretary of Homeland Security will do an even better job as chief of staff By Noah Bierman President Trump swore in his new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, on Monday morning, formalizing a shake-up in his top ranks that was announced Friday evening with word of the resignation of Reince Priebus. We look forward to - if its possible - an even better job as chief of staff, Trump said to Kelly, formerly the secretary of homeland security. Ill try, sir, Kelly replied. JOHN KELLY is now chief of staff. Sworn in during ceremony in Oval Office minutes ago. pic.twitter.com/dMEQ4rhpFA  Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 31, 2017 Trump is hoping that Kelly, a retired general, will retool and bring order to a White House that has struggled with low poll numbers, staff infighting, a faltering legislative agenda and an investigation into Russian election meddling and potential collusion and obstruction of justice. Yet Trump said the administration has done very well after a reporter asked what would be different under Kelly. He cited the unemployment rate, the thriving stock market and unnamed polls that, he said, show high business confidence. Were doing very well. We have a tremendous base, he said.The country is optimistic. And I think the general will just add to it. Trump praised Kellys performance at the Department of Homeland Security, where Kelly focused on immigration issues at the southern border, as record-shattering, with very little controversy. There was no word on whom the president might name to replace Kelly at the department. Trump reportedly has considered moving Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions there from the Justice Department, reflecting his unhappiness with the attorney general, but Republican senators preemptively have signaled their opposition to such a move. Facebook

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Risky investigation, stalled agenda  Trumps in trouble, so heres his strategy By Noah Bierman (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) Hosts of Southern Californias Morning Answer radio show were wrapping up a two-hour live broadcast from a white tent just outside the West Wing last week and marveling at their access to Cabinet secretaries and prominent administration figures. If youre a Trumpkin, host Brian Whitman told his listeners on AM 870, this is like fantasy camp. The White Houses daylong hospitality for Salem Radio Network, a nationwide chain of Christian and conservative stations, underscored President Trumps continued courtship of  and increased dependence on  core supporters as he confronts a stalled agenda and increasingly perilous investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Russia and he subsequently sought to obstruct the inquiries. Read More Facebook

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Obamacare vote isnt the only sign of GOP resistance to Trump By Noah Bierman In the year since Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination, party leaders have been reluctant to challenge a man who has formed a tight bond with conservative voters, even when he upset party orthodoxies and norms of presidential behavior. But that reticence is breaking down. A convergence of contentious issues, as well as embarrassing infighting and shake-ups at the White House, have a number of Republicans suddenly in open resistance to Trump on a number of fronts. Read More Facebook

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Trump ousts Reince Priebus as chief of staff in latest White House shake-up By Noah Bierman John Kelly (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump ousted his beleaguered chief of staff, Reince Priebus, naming Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly to replace him Friday in the latest White House shake-up as the administration struggles to emerge from bitter staff infighting and a stalled legislative agenda. Trump announced the abrupt reshuffle in three posts on Twitter hours after the Senate killed his latest plans to rewrite President Obamas signature healthcare law, dealing another harsh blow to the White House. The tweets, sent as Trump was returning on Air Force One with Priebus after a speech on gang violence in New York, caught Capitol Hill and others off guard even though Priebus stature in Trumps inner circle has been in sharp decline for some time. Read More Facebook

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Putins spokesman accuses U.S. of political schizophrenia By Associated Press Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting in Moscow on June 21. (Sergei Karpukhin / EPA) Russia urged the United States on Monday to show political will to mend ties even as it ordered sweeping cuts of U.S. embassy personnel unseen since Cold War times. President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said it will take time for the U.S. to recover from what he called political schizophrenia, but added that Russia remains interested in constructive cooperation with the U.S. We are interested in a steady development of our ties and are sorry to note that we are still far from that, he said. Peskovs statement followed Sundays televised comments by Putin, who said the U.S. would have to cut 755 of its embassy and consulate staff in Russia, a massive reduction he described as a response to new U.S. sanctions. The Russian Foreign Ministry had previously said that the U.S. should cut its embassy and consular employees to 455, the number that Russia has in the United States. Along with the caps on embassy personnel announced Friday, it also declared the closure of a U.S. recreational retreat on the outskirts of Moscow and warehouse facilities. Moscows action is the long-expected tit-for-tat response to former President Obamas move to expel 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian recreational retreats in the U.S. over reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Facebook

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White House urged to refrain from Obamacare sabotage as Trump mulls subsidy cutoff By Laura King A pair of prominent lawmakers urged President Trump on Sunday not to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, in the wake of failed Republican efforts to scrap his predecessors signature legislative achievement. But Trump urged GOP senators to try again to push through some version of repealing and replacing the law, even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last week it was time to move on to other matters. Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway said the president would decide in coming days whether to block subsidies that are a crucial component of the existing healthcare law. Hes going to make that decision this week, and thats a decision that only he can make, Conway said on Fox News Sunday. Two of the lawmakers who blocked the Senate GOP repeal plan last week, however, criticized the administrations continued efforts to overturn the law. Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who steadfastly rejected a series of GOP healthcare measures last week, blamed the Trump administration for encouraging instability in the insurance markets by continuing the uncertainty over whether the subsidies  cost-sharing payments that reduce out-of-pocket healthcare costs for poorer Americans  would continue. Im troubled by the uncertainty that has been created by the administration, Collins said on NBCs Meet the Press. She contested Trumps characterization of the payments as an insurance company bailout. Thats not what it is, she said, calling the reduction payments vital assistance to low-income Americans. And Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said further action on healthcare should be done in a bipartisan manner and not rushed. You cannot do major entitlement reform singlehandedly, and you wouldnt do major legislative initiatives singlehandedly, she told reporters in Alaska. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) echoed Collins criticism of Trumps threat to stop making the cost-sharing payments. You know, I really think its incomprehensible that we have a president of the United States who wants to sabotage healthcare in America, make life more difficult for millions of people who are struggling now to get the health insurance they need and to pay for that health insurance, he said on CNNs State of the Union. Prior to heading out for a day at his Virginia golf property, Trump tweeted that Republican senators should press ahead with efforts to scrap Obamacare -- a day after he tauntingly exhorted them not to be quitters in the quest for a legislative victory for him. Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace...and go to 51 votes (nuke option), get Cross State Lines & more.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2017 The White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, on CNNs State of the Union, said it was official Trump administration policy that the Senate should keep working to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, eschewing an August recess if necessary. Senators, he said, need to stay, they need to work -- they need to pass something. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, while acknowledging a responsibility to follow the law -- Obamacare -- also signaled that Trump was not accepting defeat in efforts to get rid of the measure. Our goalas well as the presidents goal, is to put in place a law, a system, that actually works for patients, he said on Meet the Press, adding, You cant do that under the current structure. Facebook

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Frustrated in defeat, Trump threatens healthcare of voters  and lawmakers By Joseph Tanfani Frustrated by the failure of the Obamacare repeal in the Senate, President Trump on Saturday threatened to end federal subsidies for healthcare insurance  for Congress as well as the rest of the country. After seven years of "talking" Repeal & Replace, the people of our great country are still being forced to live with imploding ObamaCare!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017 If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017 If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon! Trump tweeted, fuming about Congress failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which he said was imploding. Such a move could cause havoc and much higher premiums in insurance markets, since many low- and moderate-income people depend on those subsidies to help cover the cost of their policies. Through a series of administrative maneuvers by Congress and the Obama administration, members and their staffs also benefit from those subsidies. Targeting congressional healthcare might score Trump some populist points with his base, but it would likely come at a cost of poisoning his relationship with Congress. Just making the threat on Saturday highlights how far things have eroded between Trump and top GOP lawmakers. And it comes a day after Trump pushed out former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, an establishment Republican who was the GOP congressional leaderships trusted liaison in the White House. Trump actually has a jarring amount of leverage over thousands of congressional staff who depend on employer health care contribution. https://t.co/lRPmrmDIJs  Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 29, 2017 Trumps longstanding threat to let the health insurance plans fail would come with its own political price. The federal government sends about $600 million a month to insurance companies to help cover the cost, and Trump is threatening to cut that off to allow Obamacare markets to collapse. His goal is to pressure Congress to send him a repeal bill, but so far the strategy has failed. The confidence Trump has expressed that if he followed through with the threat the fallout would land not on him but on Democrats, because they created Obamacare, is not widely shared in Washington. If health care collapses, voters will blame Trump and the GOP.



That's what happens when you control the White House and Congress. pic.twitter.com/iEjEGyapAL  Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 29, 2017 Facebook

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Iran condemns new U.S. sanctions, vows to pursue missile program By Ramin Mostaghim Iran defied Washington and condemned new U.S. sanctions over its development of missiles capable of being armed with nuclear warheads. We will continue with full power our missile program, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told state television IRIB on Saturday, dismissing new sanctions passed by Congress last week as, hostile, reprehensible and unacceptable. Its ultimately an effort to weaken the nuclear deal, Ghasemi said, adding, The military and missile fields  are our domestic policies and others have no right to intervene or comment on them. Iran had agreed to limit its nuclear activities under the 2015 agreement with the U.S. and other world powers in exchange for sanctions relief. Ghasemi argued Saturday that the U.S. had violated that agreement by linking the missile program to the nuclear deal and restricting Iranian banking activities in the U.S. He argued that Irans latest missile tests dont break the agreement because the weapons are defensive. The new wave of pressure on missile projects in Iran will push the Islamic theocracy into a corner, predicted Iran analyst Hojjat Kalashi in Tehran, noting that the government of President Hassan Rouhani, who was reelected in May, is coping with an economic downturn and may step back from the compromise nuclear deal. The new Iran sanctions bill, which also targets Russia and North Korea, was passed by the House and Senate this week. It would penalize those involved in Irans ballistic missile program as well as those who do business with them, impose an arms embargo on Iran and label its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist group. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said President Trump will sign the bill. On Friday, the U.S. was joined by Britain, France and Germany in condemning Irans recent launch of a satellite-carrying rocket and warned that it violated a United Nations resolution implementing the 2015 nuclear deal. In a joint statement, they urged Iran to stop developing missiles and rockets capable of carrying nuclear warheads that have a destabilizing impact on the region. In response to a rocket launch Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on subsidiaries of an Iranian company involved in Tehrans ballistic missile program. But Nader Karimi Juni, an analyst close to Rouhanis government, said Iranian leaders dont believe the U.N. and European powers will ultimately back the U.S., and so Iran will not compromise on missile projects and will remain defiant. Facebook

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Trump jabs U.S. mayors, who push back, calling president out of touch with cities By Kurtis Lee (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) President Trump wants police to know that he  not mayors  has their back. Ive met police that are great police that arent allowed to do their job because they have a pathetic mayor or a mayor that doesnt know whats going on, Trump said Friday in a speech before police officers in Brentwood, N.Y. The comments from Trump, who in his address highlighted crime in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, drew applause from some in attendance. In a statement following Trumps remarks, the United States Conference of Mayors, a bipartisan group, released a statement pushing back against the president. The presidents comments today prove how out of touch he is with the realities of life in American cities. Mayors number one priority is  and always will be  the safety and protection of their residents, said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the groups president. There is no daylight between the mayors of our cities and the uniformed officers who work tirelessly to keep us safe every single day. During the speech Trump called on police and immigration officials to be rough with suspected gang members in cities nationwide. In a recent interview with The Times, former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who recently launched a $200-million initiative to empower city governments and mayors, stressed the key to good governing is experience as a manager  something, he said, Trump was not. Bloomberg added that the mayors are much more in tune with the needs of residents than the federal government. You got to remember a mayor and the local city council are much closer to the public than the governor and the state legislature, or the president and the federal legislature. So if the public is in favor of something, the local officials know it and they get held responsible, he said. Facebook

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The growing parade of exits under Trump administration By Len de Groot A lot of people have left President Trumps early administration  Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was replaced Friday. The White House communications department has been the scene of many of the recent turnovers as it wrestles to craft a message sometimes at odds with Trumps frequent tweeting. At the National Security Council, there has been a leadership struggle since Michael Flynn resigned in the face of pressure over undisclosed contacts with Russia. One appointee was fired over comments he made at a private function. Others have been removed as Flynns successor, H.R. McMaster, has moved to add loyalists to the council. Here are the most noteworthy departures: Read More Facebook

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Trump urges officers and immigration officials to be rough on animals terrorizing U.S. neighborhoods By Barbara Demick ( (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)) President Trump on Friday called for police and immigration officials to be rough with suspected gang members in order to rid the country of animals he said are terrorizing communities. Please dont be too nice, Trump told police recruits at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, a heavily Latino suburb of New York City. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and youre protecting their head, you know the way you put the hand  like, dont hit their head, and theyve just killed somebody?  You can take the hand away. He implied that he was satisfied with rough handling of suspects by the police. When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon  you just see them thrown in, rough, he said. Scoffing at calls for what he describes as political correctness, Trump also renewed his pledges to build a wall along the Mexican border. He accused the Obama administration of admitting criminals into the United States. Read More Facebook

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Analysis: In a Washington run by men, two overshadowed Republican women make their point on healthcare By Cathleen Decker In a Washington that has grown demonstrably more testosterone-fueled since President Trumps inauguration, it took two Republican women to secure the end of a long effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. They were the same two women  Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski  who had been excluded from the 13-member working group drafting the Republican bills. Nobodys being excluded based upon gender. Everybodys at the table, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had said of his all-white-males group. In the early hours of Friday, the duo was overshadowed by the more dramatic and unexpected no vote from Sen. John McCain of Arizona. There was reason for the attention lavished on McCain  a war hero and veteran senator returns to the Capitol days after a dire cancer diagnosis. But without both Collins and Murkowskis steadfast opposition, his vote would have been meaningless. Also largely overlooked: Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat who like McCain made an arduous trip to Washington despite her recent diagnosis of late-stage kidney cancer. Social media buzzed Friday with praise for the women senators from many fronts, including from men. But from many women, there was also a sense of familiarity at being ignored or taken for granted. Read More Facebook

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Clinton Foundation donor who was denied a visa settles leak case against the U.S. By Joseph Tanfani A billionaire Nigerian businessman and major Clinton Foundation donor banned from entering the U.S. two years ago on terrorism grounds has settled a lawsuit against the U.S. government. Gilbert Chagoury last year sued the FBI and other government agencies in U.S. District Court in Washington, saying he had been damaged by what he described as improper government leaks to the Los Angeles Times. The Times reported last year that Chagoury had been denied a visa to travel to the U.S. in 2015 on suspicion that he had provided aid to terrorist groups. One document, citing unverified information from an unnamed source, said that Chagoury  who is of Lebanese heritage  had funneled funds to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia and political group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. Chagoury, an ardent Lakers fan who for decades lived part of the year in Los Angeles, angrily denied that he ever provided funds for terrorism. He said the publicity forced him to sell his Beverly Hills mansion at a loss and caused a bank to close his account. A philanthropist, Vatican ambassador and longtime friend of Bill Clinton, Chagoury once was invited to the White House after contributing to a Democratic get-out-the-vote campaign. He donated at least $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. Emails released last year showed that a Bill Clinton aide pushed Hillary Clintons aides at the State Department to get Chagoury access to top U.S. diplomats. In the settlement filed in court on Friday, the Justice Department said Chagoury has never appeared on the list of Specially Designated Nationals, figures such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers who are generally barred from doing business in the U.S. The government did not grant Chagourys request for a court hearing to dispute the reports that led to his exclusion from the U.S. As I have often said, I have loved America my whole life because it was the land of freedom and justice, he said in a statement, adding that he hopes the agreement will help repair his reputation. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chagoury, who lives most of the time in Paris, has not applied for another visa, said his spokesman, Mark Corallo. Facebook

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Trump ousts Priebus, announces John Kelly as new chief of staff President Trump announced via Twitter on Friday that he had named retired Gen. John Kelly, head of the Department of Homeland Security, as White House chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus. I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 ...and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 Read More Facebook

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Rep. John Delaney of Maryland to run for president By Associated Press Rep. John Delaney of Maryland says hes running for president, instead of governor or reelection, in 2018. Delaney, a Democrat, announced his plans in a statement Friday. The politically moderate banking entrepreneur is in his third term in Marylands 6th Congressional District, which includes western Maryland and a large section of Montgomery County, the states largest county. The 54-year-old is worth roughly $90 million and is one of the Houses wealthiest members. He spent about $2 million to help finance his first House race in 2012. His consideration of a possible Maryland gubernatorial bid months ago quickly drew interest in his House seat. Several candidates already have expressed interest in running for the seat. Facebook

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McCain set to head back to Arizona to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments By Kurtis Lee (Shawn Thew / EPA) Sen. John McCain is headed home. Hours after McCain spurned his party and voted in opposition to a GOP measure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the senators office announced Friday he will return to Arizona to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments for his recent diagnosis of brain cancer. McCain, 80, was found this month to have a brain tumor known as a glioblastoma. He is scheduled to return to Washington in September after his initial treatments. The glioblastoma  an aggressive type of cancer  was discovered when McCain had a blood clot removed from above his left eye. According to the Mayo Clinic, which is overseeing McCains treatment, glioblastoma is difficult to treat. After returning to Washington this week and voting in favor of opening Senate debate on repeal, McCain was among three Republicans early Friday morning to vote in opposition to a so-called skinny bill that would repeal the ACA, known as Obamacare. The move by McCain, who has served in the Senate since 1987, has drawn the ire of members in his own party and some in the right-wing media. Facebook

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McCains surprise vote doomed GOP healthcare bill, but did it open the door for Senate bipartisanship? By Lisa Mascaro Sen. John McCain is usually happy to spar with reporters, but he ducked into an elevator ahead of the Senate healthcare vote late Thursday without saying a word about how he would vote. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, though, already knew the answer. The Democratic leader had been talking with the Arizona Republican all week  four, five times a day  ever since McCain returned to work after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Earlier in the week, McCain had dramatically salvaged the stalled GOP bill by voting to begin debate, only to go on to deliver a blistering speech against his own party leaders partisan, closed-door process in crafting it. Weve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle, he told them. Were getting nothing done. Schumer and McCain have been longtime colleagues, a kind of frenemies who seem like throwbacks to an earlier era of Congress. They worked together on big legislation, including the 2013 immigration overhaul  grand ideas that seem all but impossible in todays Congress. They had plenty to discuss. About the Senate, about it working again, about working together, and about how this bill was so poor for the American people, Schumer said. And he knew that, so did half his colleagues, but he had the courage to vote no. The moment stunned the Senate when McCain stepped up to cast his vote  a single down-turned finger  dooming the healthcare bill. Audible gasps filled the galleries, which were packed with onlookers. But his vote  along with no votes from Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska  did more than shelve the long campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It cracked open a new divide in the Senate, which seems to be split not so much between Republicans and Democrats, but by those senators who want to work together versus those stuck in hardened partisan tribes. Read More Facebook

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U.S. hits Iran with more sanctions in response to satellite launch By Associated Press The United States is slapping Iran with new sanctions in response to its launch of a satellite-carrying rocket into space this week. The sanctions target six Iranian subsidiaries of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group. The Treasury Department says that group is central to Irans ballistic missile program. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the sanctions illustrate deep U.S. concerns about Irans missile testing and other actions. He says the U.S. will continue countering Irans ballistic missile program, including Thursdays provocative space launch. The U.S. has said that launch flouted a U.N. Security Council resolution because the technology is inherently designed to be able to carry a nuclear payload. The sanctions come as the Trump administration continues debating its Iran policy and whether to scrap the 2015 multilateral deal that limits the development of Irans nuclear capabilities. Facebook

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Political betrayal. McCain vote against Obamacare repeal draws ire from conservative writers By Kurtis Lee (Cliff Owen / AP) Though John McCain was one of three Republicans who helped Democrats squash the legislation to repeal Obamacare, conservative media is homing in on the Arizona senator for spurning his party in the healthcare vote. Here are some of todays headlines: John McCain: Traitor to the conservative cause (Washington Times) McCain, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, has been a staunch opponent of Obamacare, but in the end he could not support the so-called skinny repeal measure put forward by his colleagues in the Senate. In this piece, Cheryl K. Chumley, jabs McCain for his vote. For American voters expecting their Republican-dominated House, Senate and White House to honor their years of repeal promises and actually, well, repeal Obamacare, McCains thumbs-down was a face-slap moment that will be remembered in history as a textbook classic case of political betrayal, she writes. McCains odd definition of leading the fight to stop Obamacare (National Review) This article is simple  its a quick compare-and-contrast of McCains recent comments versus his vote on Friday. Last year, during a tough reelection, McCains campaign ran a television ad that boasted the senator is leading the fight to stop Obamacare. But last night his office put out a statement noting the GOP Senate bill did not offer a replacement to actually reform our health care system and deliver affordable, quality health care to our citizens. The author of this piece, Jim Geraghty, concludes: Its very difficult to characterize McCains decision as leading the fight to stop Obamacare. Thats more like leading the fight to keep Obamacare in place while you continue to look for a replacement that you like better. John McCain burns Mitch McConnell sides with Democrats (American Spectator) When McConnell, the majority leader, stood on the Senate floor Friday after the bills failure, he was clearly annoyed. McCains no vote had led to applause moments earlier from Democrats. In a move thats no surprise to anyone, John McCain voted against the embarrassingly named Skinny Repeal, voted against his party (or is it his party?) and voted to keep Obamacare going as is, writes Melissa Mackenzie. Facebook

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Meet the two female GOP senators who opposed the healthcare bill from the start By Kelcey Caulder Sen. John McCain shocked Republicans and Democrats alike with his vote early Friday morning to kill the latest Republican effort to repeal Obamacare. But McCain was not the only Republican to play a role in blocking the final version of the overhaul bill. Two female Republican lawmakers, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, also voted against the bill. Collins has opposed repeal and replace efforts from the beginning, and Murkowski has also been critical of much of what the Senate Republican leadership has proposed. Collins said it would be a big mistake for Republicans to pass legislation without trying seriously to work with Democrats to reach bipartisan solutions. Instead, she called for both parties to work together to improve the healthcare system. Murkowski and Collins were the first from their party to come out against repealing the ACA without having new, replacement legislation on the table. In statements posted on Twitter, Collins, who voted against the same proposal in 2015, said she did not think it was constructive to repeal the law without a replacement, while Murkowski encouraged senators from both sides of the aisle to work together to address healthcare issues. I will vote no on the motion to proceed to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement. I voted against this same proposal in 2015. pic.twitter.com/Szuke5zYNL  Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) July 18, 2017 My recent statement on the Senate Healthcare Process: pic.twitter.com/j19Ok1KwWw  Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) July 18, 2017 The two senators were also the only Republicans to vote against opening debate on repeal of Obamacare earlier this week. Their opposition to Republican healthcare efforts has drawn a lot of criticism within the party, some of it expressed in vulgar, even violent terms. Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter said in an interview Wednesday with MSNBC: Somebody needs to go over there to that Senate and snatch a knot in their ass. A Texas congressman said the female senators narrowly avoided an Aaron Burr-style showdown with him. President Trump publicly rebuked Murkowski on Twitter for her vote. Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017 Trump has not criticized Collins by name for her vote, but warned Tuesday at a rally in Ohio that any senator who votes against repeal and replace is telling America that they are fine with the Obamacare nightmare, and I predict theyll have a lot of problems. Facebook

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The current Senate GOP effort to repeal Obamacare is dead. Now what? By Noam N. Levey (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) The sudden collapse of the GOPs Senate campaign to repeal or replace the Affordable Care Act does not mean the issue disappears. Significant problems and challenges remain, particularly for Obamacare insurance marketplaces. The defeat increases the odds that Congress will begin to look at a more limited approach to shore up the current law and stabilize markets. The GOPs repeal effort may return, but in the meantime heres a look at what a temporary fix might look like: Read More Facebook

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Paul Ryan responds to the failure of the GOP healthcare bill By Associated Press House Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday that hes disappointed and frustrated by the failure of Republican healthcare legislation in the Senate. But Ryan said in a statement that we should not give up after promising for years to repeal and replace Obamacare. We were sent to Washington to fulfill the pledges we made to our constituents, the statement said. While the House delivered a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, unfortunately the Senate was unable to reach a consensus. At the same time, the speaker said that overhauling the tax code is at the top of the Houses list of priorities. He pledged to pursue historic tax reform in the fall. He issued his statement as the House prepared to leave Washington for its annual August recess. The House passed legislation repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act in May. But after a failed vote early Friday in the Senate, its not clear if GOP leaders will be able to resuscitate the efforts. Facebook

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Economic growth rebounded to 2.6% annual rate in second quarter By Jim Puzzanghera The Port of Los Angeles (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) The U.S. economy rebounded this spring after a weak winter, expanding at a solid 2.6% annual rate as consumers picked up their spending pace, the Commerce Department said Friday. Total economic output, also known as gross domestic product, for the April-through-June period was in line with analyst expectations for a bounce-back based in part on pent-up demand. The economic growth rate was more than double the 1.2% pace in the first quarter. That figure was revised down Friday from an earlier estimate of 1.4%. After the winter blues, the economy has rebounded, said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at Cal State Channel Islands. Read More Facebook

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Never mind healthcare. President Trump has made slogans great again By Mark Z. Barabak ( (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)) His promise to repeal and replace Obamacare has crashed and burned. Tax reform hasnt gotten far. The White House is in disarray, and big plans to rebuild the nations infrastructure have hit a brick wall. But there is one unimpeachable triumph President Trump can point to: Hes made great again great again. The Make America Great Again 2016 campaign slogan  limned in block letters and emblazoned on countless cherry-red ball caps  has been reimagined, repurposed and cheekily appropriated for countless pitches and commercial products. Apart from the now-familiar caps, mercantile options include aprons, beanies, beer cozys, coffee mugs, hoodies, leggings, swimsuits, T-shirts, water bottles and, for the special someone, Donald Trump Make America Great Again Womens Booty Shorts. But MAGA, as the president short-hands the phrase in Twitter posts, is also popping up in places having little or nothing to do with politics: on a catwalk at New Yorks Fashion Week, high in the sky promoting classical music in Phoenix, on the menu at an Italian restaurant in Atlanta. Read More Facebook

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If Adam Schiff is Californias next U.S. senator, he might want to thank President Trump By Mark Z. Barabak (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) The road to elected office can be long and winding and is not always paved with the best of intentions. Some politicians  think of the Kennedys or the Bush family  are born to the trade. Others are borne by tragedy. Former Santa Barbara Rep. Lois Capps succeeded her husband when he died of a heart attack. Former New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy was spurred to run when her husband was killed and her son gravely wounded in a mass shooting on the Long Island Rail Road. Typically, though, the ascension is more methodical, one rung after the next, often with a pinch of right-place, right-time fortune thrown in for good measure. Lately that bit of luck has visited itself on Adam B. Schiff, in the form of Russian meddling and a president who hurls tweets like poison thunderbolts. Read More Facebook

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Kris Kobach says Trumps voter fraud panel will keep voter data secure. Some states arent buying it By Kurtis Lee (Jessica McGowan / Getty Images) After weeks of legal battles and bipartisan pushback from top election officials nationwide, President Trumps voter fraud commission has renewed a message for the states: Its safe to pass along your data about voters. Individuals voter registration records will be kept confidential and secure throughout the duration of the commissions existence, Kris Kobach, vice chairman of the commission, wrote in a letter sent late Wednesday to all 50 secretaries of state. Even so, by Thursday, much of the criticism that greeted an earlier request from the commission was repeated by election officials and activists, who have expressed concerns about privacy and have called the panel both a sham created by an insecure president and a tool to suppress votes. Trump  without evidence  has repeatedly alleged that 3 million to 5 million illegal votes were cast in last years presidential election. (Trump prevailed in the electoral college, while Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by about 3 million votes.) Read More Facebook

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President Trump said our guys are rougher than the violent gang MS-13. What did he mean? By Brian Bennett (SAUL LOEB / AFP ) When President Trump said this week his administration is going after bloodthirsty criminal gangs like the notoriously violent MS-13, he added a menacing flourish: Our guys are rougher than their guys. The comment raised concerns that Trump was instructing immigration agents to use excessive force when going after suspected gang members. Not so, Trumps top spokeswoman said on Thursday. I think the president means that our guys are going to do whatever it takes to protect Americans, protect American lives, protect our borders, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in response to a question about what Trump meant by rougher. Trump wants people to do their jobs, not go beyond the scope of what they should do, Sanders said. Trumps comment came during a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Tuesday night. We are throwing MS-13 the hell out of here so fast, he said, boasting that his administration is liberating towns and cities from gangs. And, well, I will just tell you this, were not doing it in a politically correct fashion, Trump added. Were doing it rough. Our guys are rougher than their guys. Trumps comment was meant to boost morale among immigration officers looking to arrest and deport gang members, said one senior administration official, who would speak only without being identified to discuss the presidents thinking. As part of Trumps crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally, he has instructed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to target a suspected gang member for deportation before that person has been convicted of a crime, said ICE director Thomas Homan. Homan joined Sanders at her daily briefing at the White House. The two spoke to preview the presidents Friday trip to Long Island, N.Y., where he will tout his administrations efforts against MS-13 and other gangs. For Trump, who grew up in Queens, recent headlines about MS-13 violence in central Long Island have hit close to home. In April, four young men were found hacked to death in a park in Central Islip, N.Y., a senior administration official told reporters Thursday night. He is a New Yorker and he knows New York, the administration official said. It is absolutely a personal issue. And he knows whats happening in New York -- and its not just Long Island -- is a tragedy and there are communities like that all across America. Facebook

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Boy Scouts chief apologizes for presidents political rhetoric at national Jamboree. Trump wont By Brian Bennett President Trump wont apologize for a surprisingly political speech this week to Boy Scouts that provoked a backlash for his attacks on his predecessor, his election rival, dissident Republicans and the news media. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered that word on Thursday, just after a top executive of the Boy Scouts of America issued an apology on behalf of the organization for allowing the political rhetoric to occur during Trumps address Monday evening at the National Scout Jamboree held in West Virginia. Michael Surbaugh, the organizations chief executive, in a statement extended his sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. He noted that the groups invitation to the president to speak was in keeping with a long-standing tradition since 1937; eight of 11 incumbent presidents have attended. But, Surbaugh wrote, we have steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters. We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program. At the White House, however, Sanders indicated that neither she nor Trump saw any reason to apologize, or considered his remarks in any way out of line. I was at that event and I saw nothing but roughly 40,000 to 45,000 Boy Scouts cheering the president on throughout his remarks, Sanders said. I think they were pretty excited that he was there and happy to hear him speak to them, she added. Sanders said she had not seen the statement from the Boy Scouts chief. During his rambling 38-minute speech to the Scouts in Glen Jean, W.Va., Trump criticized Hillary Clinton and President Obama and singled out congressional Republicans who were not in lockstep with him on healthcare. He got much applause and supportive chants from his audience, and even credited the Scouts -- who are too young to vote -- for being among the millions who elected him. But almost immediately, the Boy Scouts organization was inundated with protests from former Scouts, parents and others angered by the presidents partisan words. Facebook

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Trumps words kind of hurtful, Sessions says, but he has no plans to resign By Joseph Tanfani President Trumps scathing criticisms have been kind of hurtful, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said Thursday, even as he again signaled that he wants to stay on the job. He wants all of us to do our job, and thats what I intend to do, Sessions said in an interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News. Separately, Sessions told the Associated Press that it hasnt been my best week  for my relationship with the president. He made the comment in El Salvador, during a visit to highlight joint efforts to take on the MS-13 gang. The attorney general said he hadnt met with Trump but looked forward to talking to him about it. If he wants to make a change, he has every right, Sessions said. I serve at the pleasure of the president. Ive understood that from the day I took the job. But, he said, I believe with great confidence that I understand what is needed in the Department of Justice and what President Trump wants. I share his agenda. The comments were the first this week on the subject from Sessions, who has been subjected to harshly critical tweets from Trump for three days. The president has called him weak and said he wasnt aggressive enough in going after leakers. Last week, after Trump criticized Sessions in a New York Times interview, Sessions told reporters he planned to stay on as long as it was appropriate. Sessions has seemed to redouble his attempts this week to win back the presidents favor. He announced another crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities that dont cooperate with immigration enforcement and on Friday traveled to El Salvador to highlight arrests of MS-13 gang members, both favorite topics of the president. The Justice Department also plans to address leaks next week. Sessions said his department was stepping up leak investigations. Some people need to go to jail, he said. The president has every right to ask the DOJ to be more aggressive on that, and we intend to. On Wednesday evening, after Anthony Scaramucci , Trumps incoming communications director, falsely claimed in a tweet that hed been the victim of a leak, Sessions chief spokeswoman released a statement agreeing that leaks are undermining the government and promising to aggressively pursue leak cases wherever they may lead. Trump has made it clear that he is most angry with Sessions for recusing himself from supervising the ongoing investigation into his administrations ties with Russia. But Sessions defended that decision. I understand his feeling about it because this has been a big distraction for him, he said on Fox. Im confident I made the right decision, the decision thats consistent with the rule of law, and an attorney general who doesnt follow the law is not very effective at leading the Department of Justice, he said. In the interview, Sessions reached back to Trumps campaign slogan to praise the president as a strong leader. He is determined to move this country in the direction that he believes it needs to go to make it great again, he said. Sessions has received considerable support in recent days from conservative Republicans, including many of his former Senate colleagues. On Thursday, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) went to the Senate floor to discourage Trump from moving against Sessions, saying that the Senate would not allow the president to make a recess appointment that would bypass the normal confirmation process. A recess appointment would allow Trump to appoint a person who could serve without confirmation until the start of 2019. Such appointments can only be made if the Senate formally takes a break, which senators of both parties have said they will avoid in order to prevent Trump from avoiding confirmations. If youre thinking of making a recess appointment to push out the attorney general, forget about it, Sasse said. The presidency isnt a bull, and this country isnt a china shop. 1:55 p.m.: This post was updated with additional remarks by Sessions and remarks by Sen. Ben Sasse. 5:50: This post was updated with additional quotes from Sessions interview. Facebook

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For Trump White House, cable television becomes the venue for intramural sniping By Noah Bierman President Trump and his aides love to complain about leaks from within the White House. But on Thursday, the infighting was out in the open. The incoming communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, in a morning phone call broadcast on CNN, compared the West Wing to a fish that stinks from the head down, implying that White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is responsible for at least some of the leaks. Later, Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to come to Priebuss defense and say whether Trump has full confidence in his chief of staff. Another Trump advisor, Kellyanne Conway, used a prison analogy for the broader backstabbing among aides, telling Fox News that her West Wing colleagues were using the press to shiv each other. While the knifings might suggest a new level of chaos in a White House known for it, the style is all Trump. As a businessman, he has a history of fostering rivalries among his employees. He always did sort of like competition, backstabbing, infighting kind of stuff, said Barbara Res, who spent nearly two decades as a top executive in Trumps real estate business. He set people up to do that. Trump led the charge this week, using his Twitter account and an interview with the Wall Street Journal to ridicule his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, one of Trumps first and most prominent campaign supporters. By Thursday, both Priebus and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were seeing their fates publicly debated, less than a week after Sean Spicer was forced out as press secretary after months of speculation and presidential slights. The Priebus intrigue was amplified by Scaramucci on Twitter and in the CNN interview. He blamed Priebus for leaking Scaramuccis personal financial disclosure forms -- which are publicly available -- and suggested that Trump encouraged Scaramuccis offensive in a phone conversation the two men had just before the aide dialed into CNN. When Sanders was asked about the Scaramucci-Priebus dustup, she said that the president likes healthy competition on his staff. The president likes that kind of competition and encourages it, Sanders said. The result is a White House that increasingly suggests the presidents former way of life. As the star of a reality TV show, he fomented internal competition and firings among apprentices; their cable television appearances, meanwhile, recall the confessionals familiar to reality show fans, in which characters confide directly to the camera their anger or enmity toward others on the show. The primary attribute for a successful tenure in the Trump White House is masochism, tweeted Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican operative and Trump critic. The repeated evidence of dysfunction and the high level of insecurity among Trumps core aides help explain the White Houses inability to focus on its agenda. Trumps critics voiced suspicions on Twitter that the public staff blow-up was a deliberate distraction from the struggle in Congress to pass a healthcare bill, as well as from the ongoing investigations into potential collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia and the backlash to Trumps surprise Twitter announcement on Wednesday that transgender people will be barred from military service. But those issues also were being heavily covered on cable news. The stories that were overshadowed were those Trump was trying to promote: a deal his administration helped strike with Foxconn to build a production facility in Wisconsin, possibly creating thousands of new jobs, and nascent efforts to craft a tax overhaul plan. Facebook

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Democrats criticize financial industry backgrounds of two Trump bank regulator nominees By Jim Puzzanghera Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) Senate Democrats on Thursday criticized the financial industry backgrounds of President Trumps nominees for two key banking regulatory positions, arguing they would not protect the interests of average Americans. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and others sharply questioned Joseph Otting, the former chief executive of Pasadenas OneWest Bank, and investment fund manager Randal Quarles during a confirmation hearing by the Senate Banking Committee. Trump nominated Otting to be the comptroller of the currency, a powerful regulator of national banks. Quarles has been tapped to be the Federal Reserves vice chairman for supervision, who is in charge of the Feds oversight of the nations largest bank holding companies and other regulatory efforts. The two are expected to be friendlier to the banking industry than recent Democratic appointees. Read More Facebook

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Senator warns Trump there will be holy hell to pay if he fires Sessions By Joseph Tanfani A prominent Republican Senator issued a blunt warning to President Trump not to interfere with the Russia investigation, saying any effort to get rid of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters Thursday that there will be holy hell to pay if Trump fires Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, a favorite of conservatives who represented Alabama in the Senate for 20 years. Grahams warning was the sternest yet from Senate Republicans to Trump about the potential consequences of firing either Sessions or Mueller. The chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-Iowa), issued his own warning in a tweet Wednesday night, saying his committee would not take up a nomination of a replacement attorney general this year, which is required before the Senate can vote to confirm. Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way  ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 27, 2017 Starting with an interview in the New York Times last week and continuing with a three-day barrage of critical tweets, Trump has raged at Sessions for his decision to recuse himself from supervising the investigation into the Russian attempts to influence the election, and into whether anybody involved in Trumps campaign participated in the scheme. Trump also has bitterly complained about Mueller, whom he has accused of leading a witch hunt, and Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod J. Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and who is now supervising the probe. Justice Department regulations say that only the attorney general, or in this case Rosenstein acting in his place, can fire the special counsel. If Sessions were gone, Trump could try to appoint a replacement willing to carry out the firing. Graham said he will introduce a bill next week that would require court review if anyone tried to fire a special counsel who was investigating the president. I think Ill get all the Democrats and I hope to get a good number of Republicans, he said, adding that the enacting such a law is not just for Trump but for any future president. We need a check and balance here. Graham said Trumps campaign to marginalize and humiliate the attorney general is not going over well in the Senate or among conservatives. He also said Trump, who has called on Sessions to investigate his former rival Hillary Clinton, has gone way beyond what is acceptable in a rule of law nation. This is not draining the swamp, he said. What hes interjecting is turning democracy upside down..taking 200-year-old concepts that were a nation of laws and not men and trying to turn it upside down. Sen. Graham: "Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency." https://t.co/6Pd60LrGRU pic.twitter.com/EXBOwBC35C  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 27, 2017 Facebook

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Watch live: White House news briefing with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders Facebook

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Trump administration threatens to retaliate against Alaska for GOP senators Obamacare repeal vote, news site reports By Noam N. Levey The Trump administration threatened to block federal aid to Alaska in an effort to bully one of the Republican senators opposed to the current Senate GOP push to roll back the Affordable Care Act, according to a report by the Alaska Dispatch News. The news site reports that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Wednesday called Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan with a warning that Murkowskis vote had put Alaskas future with the administration in jeopardy. According to the report: Sullivan said the call from Zinke heralded a troubling message. Im not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop, Sullivan said. I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans.  Were facing some difficult times and theres a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear, Sullivan said. The threat followed disparaging comments made by the president about Murkowski, including a Twitter attack Wednesday morning Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad! Trump wrote. Murkowski dismissed the presidents attacks in an interview with MSNBC. Were here to govern. Were here to legislate, she said. Were here to represent the people who sent us here. And so every day shouldnt be about campaigning. Every day shouldnt be about winning elections. How about just doing a little bit of governing around here? Thats what Im here for. Murkowski and Maine Sen. Susan Collins were the only Republicans who voted against a procedural motion Tuesday to begin debating legislation rolling back the 2010 healthcare law, often called Obamacare. Sullivan, also a Republican, voted in favor of advancing the bill. Murkowski has urged a more open process to develop the legislation, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) has put together behind closed doors without committee hearings or input from Democrats. A spokeswoman for Zinke did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Facebook

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Iran angered by report that Trump wants additional nuclear inspections By Shashank Bengali Iran responded angrily Thursday to reports that the Trump administration would push for inspections of military facilities to ensure Tehran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran will not succumb to further pressure, Hamid Reza Taraghi, a hard-line analyst who is close to Irans leadership, told The Times. Taraghi did not say whether Iran would refuse inspectors access to military facilities but insisted the Islamic Republic was complying with the agreement, which required Iran to shelve its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. President Trump has said he wants to tear up the deal and doesnt believe Iran is complying, although his administration certified it was in a report to Congress this month. The Associated Press reported Thursday that Trump was pushing for inspections of suspicious Iranian military sites, either to prove that Iran was violating the deal or force it to refuse, which could cause the agreement to collapse. Iranian officials have argued in the past that inspections of military sites would be off-limits. But under the agreement it signed with the United States and five other world powers, Iran agreed to the so-called Additional Protocol, which allows U.N. inspectors limited access to any site where illicit nuclear activity is suspected. Taraghi, a former lawmaker, said the Additional Protocol allowed for snap inspections and that international inspectors had installed closed-circuit cameras in all nuclear-related facilities. They have access to everything going on here on the ground, Taraghi said. What else do they want to know? It was not immediately clear what military sites the Trump administration was seeking to have inspected, or whether it had evidence that Iran was breaching the terms of the deal. U.N. inspectors monitoring Irans compliance had not requested access to military facilities as of July 25, according to a paper published Thursday by Mark Fitzpatrick, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington. If US has good evidence of #Iran violations, then an inspection request is warranted, Fitzpatrick tweeted. A request designed to trap Iran into saying no isnt. Facebook

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Top U.S. general says Pentagon will not change policy on transgender troops until White House acts By W.J. Hennigan The nations senior military officer said Thursday that there will be no modifications to Pentagon policies for now despite President Trump social media posts declaring a ban on transgender troops in uniform. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in a memo to commanders and senior enlisted leaders of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines that the military will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect. Dunford said Pentagon policy on transgender troops would not change until the White House has issued Trumps directive to Secretary of Defense James Mattis through formal channels  not on Twitter  and the secretarys office issues guidance on implementation to the service chiefs. Its unclear when that might happen. The unusual memo appeared intended to calm widespread confusion and concern at the Pentagon, which was blindsided when Trump wrote Wednesday that Pentagon would not accept or allow transgender troops to serve in any capacity. The presidents posts appeared to reverse a year-old Pentagon policy that allowed transgender soldiers to openly serve for the first time, and to seek sex reassignment surgery, hormone therapy and other treatments at military hospitals. Trumps surprise announcement not only marked a retreat for the Pentagon push to bar gender-based discrimination. It also was an about-face for Trump, who had repeatedly vowed his support for the LGBT community during the campaign last year. The posts raised questions about the fate of thousands of transgender service members, including some deployed overseas, and whether they would be kicked out of the military under Trumps directive. Dunfords memo appeared to address those fears, at least for the short term. There will be no modifications to the current policy until the Presidents direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance, he wrote. In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect, he added. As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions. In his tweets, Trump said he had decided to bar transgender troops because the military cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Experts said neither justification was accurate or fair since the expected medical costs were negligible and transgender troops have been openly serving for the past year without disruption. The sweeping declaration drew rebuke from war veterans and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy groups, who vowed to challenge Trump in federal court if self-identified transgender service members are forced out of the military. VoteVets, a liberal military veterans advocacy group, said Thursday it had collected more than 20,000 signatures from veterans, military families and other supporters to oppose the ban. Facebook

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Analysis: Trumps war against elites and expertise By Cathleen Decker (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images) When President Trump campaigned this spring at the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson, one part of his predecessors approach got a special endorsement. It was during the Revolution that Jackson first confronted and defied an arrogant elite. Does that sound familiar? Trump asked to laughs from his audience. When Trump ally and National Rifle Assn. President Wayne LaPierre teed off six weeks later on Americas greatest domestic threats, he cited not homegrown terrorists but what he termed the three most dangerous voices in America: academic elites, political elites, and media elites. The rhetoric against elites came from two men who would seem to be card-carrying members of the club: LaPierre made more than $5 million in 2015, the most recent year for which his compensation was publicly released. Trump lived before his inauguration in a gold-plated home in the sky above New Yorks Fifth Avenue, a billionaires luxurious domain. Yet for Trump and his allies, a war on elites has been central to the campaign which put him in the presidency and has maintained the loyalty of his core voters. Trump has taken particular aim at entities that could counter his power, which has helped stoke the ardor of his political backers. Read More Facebook

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Top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway says colleagues using the press to shiv each other By Noah Bierman White House staffers continued their angry campaign against leaks -- and each other -- as top advisor Kellyanne Conway used vivid language in a Fox interview Thursday to denounce colleagues who are using the press to shiv each other in the ribs. The comments came shortly after Anthony Scaramucci, the new White House communications director, delivered his own attack on leakers -- all but blaming Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff -- in an interview on CNN. If the Trump White House at times resembles a reality show, cable television has become the confessional booth where the players vent their anger at each other. That dynamic was on vivid display Thursday morning. Kellyanne Conway: "Now, there are leaks, and then there are people using the press to shiv each other in the ribs. Thats different." (Fox)  David Wright (@DavidWright_CNN) July 27, 2017 Conway largely backed Scaramucci without explicitly taking sides in his public war against Priebus, whom he publicly suggested leaked Scaramuccis financial disclosure forms to the press. The forms are public and available through a request. We just have to cut down on people thinking its cute and its popular and it somehow enhances their resume and their portfolio for later on to curry favor with folks who are more interested in covering the style and not the substance here, Conway said of those who leak to he press. Asked specifically whether she agrees with Scaramucci that Priebus leaked the financial forms, Conway passed on the opportunity to defend Priebus. Leakers are easier to figure out than many think, she said, perhaps ominously given Scaramuccis threats to fire suspects. This West Wing is a very small place. Facebook

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Warfare in the West Wing breaks into the open as Scaramucci takes aim at Priebus By Brian Bennett A knife fight for control of the West Wing broke into the open Thursday morning as President Trumps new communications director Anthony Scaramucci lashed out at White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus in a televised interview, accusing Priebus of leaking and standing in the way of Trumps agenda. The fish stinks from the head down, I can tell you two fish that dont stink, OK, and thats me and the president, Scaramucci said, calling in to CNNs morning show New Day. I dont like the activity thats going in the White House, he said. Scaramucci, who had said the day he was named to the White House job that he and Priebus were like brothers, drastically amended that in the interview, comparing the two of them to the brothers who, in the Bible, were the characters in the first murder. Some brothers are like Cain and Abel, other brothers can fight with each other and get along. I dont know if this is reparable or not  that will be up to the president, he said. Scaramucci on his relationship with Reince: "Some brothers are like Cain and Abel." Uh, Cain killed Abel. https://t.co/UQ8F9HiXLx  Dan Merica (@merica) July 27, 2017 President Trump has a track record of encouraging rivalries among people who work for him. Scaramucci said he had spoken with Trump for 15 minutes to go over what he was going to say before he called CNN, implying his warning to Priebus carried Trumps backing. Trump, Scaramucci said, has given me his full support and his full blessing. When Scaramucci was hired, Trump told him he would report directly to the president, bypassing the chief of staff, and setting up the clash that played out Thursday on national television. If you want to talk about the chief of staff, we have had odds, we have had differences. When I said we were brothers from the podium, thats because were rough on each other, Scaramucci said. The tension between Scaramucci and Priebus flared after Politico published a story Wednesday about Scaramuccis publicly available financial disclosure form showing he still stands to profit from his stake in an investment firm he founded. The disclosure form was available to the public because Scaramucci had been nominated earlier this year for a job at the Export-Import Bank of the U.S., and the forms become public 30 days after they are filed. But Scaramucci, in a tweet Wednesday night, seemed to imply Priebus had leaked the form to make him look bad, or knew who did, and called for an FBI investigation. He later deleted the tweet, apparently after being informed that the form was not leaked. Over the last five days, Scaramucci said to CNN, he has done a major amount of work interviewing assistants to the president and communications staff. He also had dinner with Trump on Wednesday night in addition to his phone conversation with the president Thursday morning. The two of them want everyone to know we have a very, very good idea of who the leakers are, who the senior leakers are, in the White House, he said. Scaramucci took aim specifically at Priebus for leaking details about internal White House discussions and maneuvers. If Reince wants to explain that hes not a leaker, let him do that, Scaramucci said. Scaramucci appears to be giving voice to Trumps frustration with people in the White House the president believes are slowing down policy efforts, even though Trump has shown a pattern of repeatedly stepping on his own efforts on healthcare, job creation and other initiatives with unplanned tweets on topics such as Russia, transgender troops and unfounded allegations of voter fraud. There are people inside this administration who think its their job to save America from this president, Scaramucci said. Its not their jobs ... to rein him in or do things to him that slow down his agenda. People in the Washington are back-stabbers, Scaramucci said. Im more of a front-stabbing person. Facebook

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Scaramucci tweets, then deletes, confusing statement that referred to information in Politico report as a leak By Colleen Shalby In a now deleted tweet, incoming White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci sent out a confusing statement Wednesday night, addressing information reported earlier by Politico as a leak. The article reported on Scaramuccis financial disclosures. According to Politico, those details had been filed with the Office of Government Ethics, so its unclear what  if anything  was leaked information. Scaramuccis tweet further confused as it ended with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus Twitter handle. Just before those characters, he noted that he intended to contact the FBI and the Justice Department. Some speculated that Scaramucci was implying that Priebus was behind the leak. But in a new tweet roughly two hours after the original, he tweeted what appeared to be a clarification, correcting a headline of news site Axios. Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks, he tweeted, ending it  once again  with Priebus handle. Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45 pic.twitter.com/AB0reseuX1  Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 27, 2017 Five days ago, Scaramucci, responding to a question about reported tensions between him and the chief of staff, said he and Priebus are a little bit like brothers, where we rough each other up a little, which is totally normal for brothers. 10:15 p.m. PT: This post was originally published at 8:52 p.m. It was updated with information from Scaramuccis new tweet. Facebook

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Senate Judiciary chair fires off warning to Trump about Sessions By David Lauter Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, fired off an unmistakable warning to President Trump on Wednesday evening: Dont even think about trying to get a new attorney general confirmed this year. Trump has been publicly tormenting Jeff Sessions, appearing to want to push the attorney general into stepping down from his job. But in a tweet, Grassley made it clear that if Trump pushed Sessions out, he would have to live with an acting attorney general for a long time. Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way  ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 27, 2017 Any nominee for attorney general would have to pass through the Judiciary Committee before getting a confirmation vote, so Grassleys no way would be a formidable barrier. Grassley has been an administration loyalist on nearly all issues so far, but as a veteran senator, he has a strong independent streak and, as previous administrations have found, he can be implacable if angered. His message comes as conservative allies rally support for Sessions. Several other Republican senators have spoken out in favor of the attorney general, a former colleague who was well liked during his years as senator from Alabama. Senate Democrats already have said they would use procedural motions to prevent the Senate from formally going on a recess this summer, blocking Trump from making a recess appointment that would bypass the Senate. Republicans used similar maneuvers to block recess appointments by President Obama. If Sessions were to step down and not be replaced, Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein would become acting attorney general. Trump has been critical of Rosenstein as well as Sessions, so that option presumably would not appeal to him. Facebook

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Under fire from Trump, Sessions should stay focused on his job, White House says By Joseph Tanfani (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) In spite of a daily barrage of Twitter attacks from President Trump, the White House press secretary said Wednesday that Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions should stay focused on performing his duties as the nations top law enforcement officer. You can be disappointed in someone and still want someone to continue to do their job, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday, hours after Trump criticized Sessions for the third straight day  this time for not replacing acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Sessions was one of Trumps earliest and most loyal supporters, but the relationship has turned icy as Trump continues to seethe about Sessions decision to step aside from supervising the investigation into alleged Russian interference with last years election. Sessions was at the White House for meetings Wednesday, the second time this week hes visited the West Wing, but once again did not see Trump, Sanders said. Sanders did not clear up the main question surrounding Trumps strategy of publicly battering the attorney general: If the president is so unhappy, why doesnt he simply fire Sessions? Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday that Trumps apparent attempt to humiliate Sessions into quitting was a sign of weakness. To me, weakness is when you play around the edges, and you dont use the power you have, Graham said in an interview on CNN. Sanders said that Trump wants Sessions to continue to lead the Department of Justice. He wants him to focus on things like immigration, leaks and a number of other issues, she said. One of Trumps public complaints has been that Sessions hasnt been aggressive enough in pursuing leakers of classified information. In fact, the Justice Department is expected to announce next week some leak prosecutions. On Tuesday, Sessions also announced new measures to cut off some federal funds to so-called sanctuary cities that dont cooperate with immigration enforcement, another favorite issue for the president. But Sanders added that, at this point, a leak investigation would not salvage Sessions standing with Trump. I dont think thats the nature of the relationship, she said. In two tweets Wednesday morning, Trump criticized Sessions for not replacing McCabe, whose wife ran for office as a Democrat in Virginia in 2015. He suggested that McCabe had a conflict of interest in his duties as deputy director of the FBI during the investigation of Hillary Clintons handling of classified emails as secretary of State, although McCabe did not move into that job until months after his wifes campaign was over. McCabe took over the bureau as acting director when Trump fired James B. Comey in May. Sanders also declined to answer a question on why Trump did not fire McCabe himself, saying only that Trump looked forward to seeing his nominee as FBI director, Christopher Wray, be confirmed by the Senate soon. Facebook

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Trump, on Twitter, announced a ban on transgender service members. Now the military has to figure out what he means By Brian Bennett (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump surprised even the Pentagon on Wednesday morning by his unexpected announcement, via Twitter, of a ban on transgender service members. The military has not had a chance to decide how to put such a ban into effect, acknowledged Trumps top spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as she fielded numerous questions on the topic later from White House reporters. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who was on vacation, wasnt informed until Tuesday that Trump had decided to bar transgender service members from serving in any way. Sometimes you have to make a decision and once he made a decision, he didnt feel it was necessary to hold that decision, Sanders said. The president concluded, based on consultations with his national security team, that allowing transgender individuals to serve erodes military readiness and unit cohesion, she said. White House and Pentagon officials had been discussing details of medical coverage for transgender service members on active duty. But Trump went far beyond that with his series of tweets that the military will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the military. It will be up to the Defense Department to determine the specifics of the policy, including whether active-duty transgender service members will be kicked out of the military, Sanders said. Estimates of the number of current service members who are transgender range from 1,300 to about 16,000. The implementation policy is going to be something that the White House and Department of Defense will have to work together to lawfully determine, Sanders said. I would imagine the Department of Defense will be the lead on that, she added. Trumps tweets overshadowed other announcements he had planned to make Wednesday about adding manufacturing jobs to the economy and donating $100,000 of his second-quarter paycheck to the Department of Education to support science and math education. The president has expressed concerns since this Obama policy came into effect, Sanders said. She added that the president considered allowing transgender people in the ranks is a very expensive and disruptive policy. At one point, an exasp
A group of local children got a firsthand look Wednesday morning of how various employees help run the Hollywood Burbank Airport.

A group of 74 children in the Summer Daze Camp at Robert Gross Park congregated underneath a hangar in an area of the airport called the Million Air Burbank to learn about the airfields history and see demonstrations by TSA screeners and a ground crew from Southwest Airlines.

They also saw how Alaska Airlines uses technology to inspect luggage and how members of the airports police and fire departments use their equipment and gear.

Airport spokeswoman Rachael Warecki kicked off the event by sharing some of the airfields history, noting that there wasnt much in Burbank except for the airport when it opened in 1930, and she talked about legendary pilots such as Amelia Earhart who took off and landed there.

During the three-hour event, students volunteered to take part in demonstrations, such as by posing as TSA screeners and searching for hidden Kit Kat candy bars in briefcases and backpacks.

Others donned florescent vests, knee pads and ear plugs then learned how to wave orange batons to tell pilots when to stop their airplanes. Some  including a camp leader  were handcuffed by police officers in a demonstration.

Even though the event was occasionally drowned out by nearby airplanes speeding down the runway while taking off, students remained engaged and asked questions, such as Where is Amelia Earhart? and How fast does an airplane go?

Tom Janowitz, the airports senior manager of operations, said employees perform a variety of jobs including repeatedly making safety checks on the runways and notifying pilots when its time to prepare for landing through radio calls. He compared it to drivers having to call via radio for permission to merge onto freeways.

Its a lot of fun working at an airport. Its like a little community making sure its safe for travelers, Janowitz said.

Hollywood Burbank Airport police officers Ed Santos and Dan Arnold explained how they undergo special training to work at the airport and use equipment such as the T3 Motion Vehicle  an electric stand-up vehicle  that allows them to travel to terminals more quickly when carrying 30 to 40 pounds of equipment on their belts.

Officers also demonstrated how they use a Taser by shooting it at a target, much to the enjoyment of the children.

For many students, visiting an airport and seeing police and fire equipment up-close were new experiences.

A lot [of them] havent been at an airport, so being here is a big deal in itself, said Leo Rodas, director of the Summer Daze Camp. They wanted to see an airplane and wanted to get on one. They were super excited to come.

Audrey Ebrahimi, 10, volunteered to be handcuffed by police officers and said she was shaken by the experience when officers joked theyd lost the key.

Maya Whitton, 11, said she was surprised by all the demonstrations and originally thought they would just be seeing planes.

Maya volunteered to be a TSA agent, searching for hidden candy in a suitcase. Though she was excited to role play as a TSA agent, Maya said she was in awe seeing how quickly firefighters put on their gear.

Ive always wanted to be a firefighter, but now Im encouraged even more, she said.

priscella.vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscella
Originally facing life in prison, a Valencia man will instead spend 12 years and six months behind bars for a stabbing attack in a Burbank home in 2015.

Cameron Reed Hansen has been on trial since Feb. 21 for attacking his ex-girlfriend as well as stabbing her mother and her mothers partner. He was found guilty Wednesday on two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter and one count of injuring his ex-girlfriend, according to the Los Angeles County district attorneys office.

On the night of March 3, 2015, Hansen showed up unannounced at the home where his ex-girlfriend lived with her mother on Roselli Street. The two had been in a relationship for two years but broke up the day before the attack.

According to court testimony, the 31-year-old Hansen had been drinking alcohol earlier in the evening and seemed slightly manic when he arrived.

His ex-girlfriend, Ashlee Jaquette, tried to calm him down but soon got into an altercation with Hansen.

In another part of the home, Jaquettes mother, Laura Welch, and her mothers partner, Suzanne Cling, heard the commotion.

Welch and Cling went to see what was happening and saw Hansen on top of Jaquette, according to court testimony. Welch then grabbed Hansen and got into a scuffle with him.

Sometime later, Hansen struck Jaquette in the head and slashed Cling with a pocket knife that he carried on him, according to testimony. He then attacked Welch outside the home after she had called 911.

Hansen fled as emergency responders arrived but was arrested a short time later.

Both Welch and Cling suffered multiple stab wounds and required several days of hospitalization, while Jaquette needed several stitches to her head.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc
The setting was ultra-chic.

The club dining room at the posh Newport Beach Country Club had been transformed into a sophisticated salon on the classic theme of blue and white Oriental porcelain.

Each of the round dining tables in the dining room were adorned with individual porcelain vases sporting white-on-white summer blooms of hydrangeas, roses, stock and lilies.

The appropriate crystal, flatware and china supported the summer theme. It was all in recognition of guest of honor, Mark D. Sikes, a Los Angeles-based designer who had come at the invitation of the Decorative Arts Society (DARTS).

It was the organizations end of the annual lecture season luncheon, and Sikes, who has earned an international reputation as a designer of note over this last decade, came to Newport with his partner Michael Griffin, to share their story of glory. It is quite a story.

Sikes and Griffin met while working for Pottery Barn.

Each man devoted some 20 years to that organization, with Sikes rising to a senior executive design position with the company.

Then, about a decade ago, it was time to leave. The pair first settled in San Francisco and then moved to Los Angeles where they bought a home in the Hollywood Hills.

Sikes went to work decorating the home, top to bottom, his life-long passion. The preachers son from the Deep South, raised and influenced by a fashion-conscious mother who, as Sikes put it: Dressed far too expensively for a preachers wife.

I was the kid who always knew all of the design trends, the celebrities, the fashion and tastes of the current day and I was the consummate observer of every detail in every house, every fashion  anything to do with design, Sikes said.

Oddly, Sikes claims he never set out to be an interior decorator. It just happened, and it happened due to the creation of their Hollywood Hills home that he created for himself and Griffin.

Neighbors noticed and then they talked. Soon people were asking for a tour. Then, they were asking Sikes to design for them.

Sikes and Griffin would open a design firm and business would flourish over time.

Today, in addition to a full-scale roster of architectural design commissions, the pair have launched a ladies ready-to-wear line which is being managed by Griffin.

Major client commissions from celebrities including writer and director Nancy Meyer would put Sikes on design radar.

He shared a story with the DARTS audience on how the director met him, and eventually hired him to do her daughters new home.

Before we opened our design firm, I was doing store windows for a design house on La Cienega Boulevard, Sikes said. I was there actually in this one window placing objects and corresponding fabrics when I noticed two women had stopped to watch. I came out to say hello.

One of them asked me for my opinion on fabric, which I gave her and it turned out to be the fabric of choice she and her daughter had just selected for the daughters new home. It was the beginning of a long association and friendship with Nancy.

Sikes full story was brought to life for the luncheon crowd with help from noted Orange County interior design and architectural publisher Susan McFadden of California Homes Magazine.

McFadden interviewed Sikes on behalf of DARTS as the crowd listened with attention to his every detail as the decorator shared excerpts from his bestselling decorative book titled, Beautiful.

The handsome book was presented to all in attendance in a blue and white stripped canvas tote. Another detail, another touch of class.

Chaired by the amazing duo of Ann Dennis and Mary Anna Jeppe, the luncheon event attracted some of the best and brightest of the Newport social scene.

Sandra Ayres, Linda Phillips, Maureen Madigan, president of DARTS, Cathi Bledsoe, Bonnie McClellan, Carolyn Garrett, and Madeline Hayward were among the glitterati.

Major supporters of DARTS Hyla Bertea, Julia Argyros, Barbara Glabman, Laraine Eggleston, Shelley Rigg and Kim Donahue also were front and center.

Emceed by Madigan and Dennis with a little help from community leader Hyla Bertea, a very special announcement was presented to the crowd.

Bertea took the microphone and offered a little story.

I went up to Julia Argyros to thank her for her incredible, generous donation of $200,000 to DARTS, Bertea said. Julia was surprised and said, I didnt donate $200,000. I was taken aback. How could I make such an error?

I donated $250,000! responded Julia, Bertea said.

The crowd went wild.

Argyros served as honorary chair of the event, making a very significant contribution. Funds donated by Argyros and others, including proceeds from DARTS dues and fees collected from the annual designer lectures series, are distributed to local nonprofits on an annual basis.

2017-2018 organizations supported by DARTS funds include American Red Cross, Breast Cancer Solutions, CASA Youth Shelter andCaterinas Club, among others.

Established in 1995, DARTS invites community-minded women and men to support the organization participating in its annual series of five lectures featuring noted designers, architects, historians, landscapers, artists and writers in all fields of the design and decorate arts.

This support in turn funds the deserving nonprofits in the Orange County community.

Design divas spotted in the luncheon crowd were the chic Barbara Bowie of Big Canyon, Lisa Argyros, Ronnie Allumbaugh, Toni Berlinger, Judy Brady, France Campbell, Janet Curci, Elana Donovan, Brenda Eastman, Marion Hartwich, Marion Palley, Judy Slutzky, Ardele St. George, Nancy Wynne and event sponsor Stuart Winston of Lugano Diamonds, Newport Beach.

To learn more about DARTS, visit decorativeartssociety.net.

B.W. COOK is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.
Three summers ago, I was standing in a secluded jungle clearing on Saipan, the capital of the Northern Marianas Islands, a U.S. territory in the remote western Pacific about 6,000 miles from the West Coast of the United States.

Before me lay the crumbling stone ruins of the notorious Japanese Jail, where the armed forces of the Japanese Empire  which had taken possession of the islands from Germany following the end of World War I  had incarcerated, starved and executed native Chamorros, U.S. prisoners of war and American civilians before and during World War II.

Among those prisoners were, reportedly, Amelia Earhart, the famed aviator who, as I will elaborate on later, had long-standing Orange County ties, and Fred Noonan, her navigator, who, along with their twin-engine Lockheed Electra aircraft, had mysteriously vanished in the Pacific on July 2, 1937, during their historic attempt to circumnavigate the world.

As I walked unescorted through the jail, which lies between the beach highway and the Saipan cockfighting arena, a young man who lived across the road came over to greet me and volunteer to be my guide.

There were about 25 cells for men and five for women. Each was equipped with a Japanese-style squat toilet, a hole in the ground. This is where Miss Earhart and Mr. Noonan were kept, he said, pointing to filthy, trash-filled cubicles surrounded by thick, rusting metal bars.

He, like most Saipanese I met on the island during my visit in June 2014, was convinced Earhart and Noonan were imprisoned and executed in the jail.

But that theory has long been dismissed by those who believe the aviators met their deaths when their plane crashed into the sea on or near Gardner Island, also named Nikumaroro, or U.S.-held Howland Island, where they were to have refueled before flying to Hawaii and Oakland.

But what befell Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly the Atlantic, the first woman to fly in an autogiro (the forerunner of the helicopter), the first person to fly from Hawaii to the mainland, the winner of countless air races and one of this nations pioneering feminists?

The theory put forth by my young guide, that she and Noonan were taken to the Japanese Jail and executed, is correct, according to a television special recently aired on the History Channel.

During the two-hour presentation titled Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence, a former assistant executive director of the FBI produced what he said was a newly-unearthed photograph discovered in the National Archives that supposedly pictures Earhart and Noonan at a pier in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands. In the background can be seen the Japanese warship Koshu Maru, its stern tied up to a barge on which sat the aviators airplane.

According to information provided by the History Channel, Earhart and Noonan crash-landed in the Marshall Islands when their plane ran out of fuel. The pair were arrested, and they and their plane were transported by the Koshu Maru to Saipan, where they were thrown in the Japanese Jail and later executed. The plane was cut up into scraps.

But the History Channels reporting is now being questioned by the release of new evidence that indicates the photograph was published in a Japanese travel magazine nearly two years before the aviators vanished. Earhart and Noonan are not the individuals in the photo, according to this new evidence.

Should we be skeptical of all theories relating to the disappearance of the fliers? My answer is a definite yes.

As for Earharts connections to Orange County: In the early and mid-1930s, she and her husband, George P. Putnam, an heir to the Putnam publishing fortune, made their home in the Los Angeles suburb of Toluca Lake, a 5-mile drive to the Burbank Airport, from where she often flew to Crawford Field, a dirt strip at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Seal Beach Boulevard in Seal Beach.

From there, she would fly on brief jaunts along the Orange Coast with fellow pilots such as Howard Hughes, Charles Lindbergh, Paul Mantz and Eddie Martin, founder of Eddie Martin Field which years later would become Orange County Airport and, in 1979, would be renamed John Wayne Airport.

When the sun went down, Earhart and the others would adjourn for drinks and dinner at the Glideer Inn across the road from Crawford Field. The restaurant  easily recognized by the small airplane that sat on its roof  and the airfield were demolished in 1944 to make way for the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. The Glideer Inn was reestablished at the corner of 14th Street and Seal Beach Boulevard, but later sold to new owners who renamed it Mahe Restaurant.

Earhart flew often to Orange County Airport to consult with stunt-flyer Mantz, who counseled her on piloting techniques. Mantz, who founded an aviation services company at the airport with pilot Frank Tallman, was killed in 1965 when his plane crashed in the Arizona desert during the filming of The Flight of the Phoenix.

What caused Earhart, Noonan and their plane to vanish in the Pacific? Were they really jailed and executed in the Marianas, which fell into U.S. hands at the end of World War II? Alas, we may never learn the true story of the aviators fate.

DAVID C. HENLEY is a Newport-Beach based contributor to the Times Community News.
A high-ranking South Korean government official on Thursday claimed there is no evidence that money from the inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong was used to finance North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

South Korea shut down the Kaesong Industrial Complex in February 2016 after a series of North Korean missile tests, but there have been noises from within the new Moon Jae-in administration proposing to reopen it despite the Norths increasing belligerence.

The senior official, who spoke on the customary condition of anonymity for civil servants, told reporters, "I was curious myself and looked into the matter but was unable to confirm these suspicions."

The recently ousted Park Geun-hye administration took the view that the hard currency North Korea earned from skimming off staff wages and rents from the Kaesong complex went straight into nuclear and missile development.

Then-Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said in in February of last year, "We've decided to completely suspend operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex to prevent our investment there from being used to develop nuclear warheads and missiles."

But the official on Thursday said, "I believe there was no evidence to back those comments," though he admitted "some undesirable effects from "some parts of doing business with North Korea."

He explained that the payment of wages -- which instead of going to the workers went straight into the regime's coffers, often without staff seeing a penny of it -- should be "reconsidered."


On Tuesday, the Glendale City Council adopted a resolution to join other cities nationwide in expressing the Jewel Citys support of the United Nations Paris Agreement, which deals with efforts to mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions.

In a unanimous vote, local council members will join the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda, an initiative founded in 2014 by mayors of Los Angeles, Houston and Philadelphia to take local action on climate change.

According to Christine Powers, a program supervisor with the city, there is no formal way for cities to sign onto the U.N. climate accord, but mayors who join the Climate Action Agenda adopt the spirit and the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Signees must commit to a number of efforts to combat climate change, including calling for emission reductions at the federal level, developing or updating a local climate action plan and regularly reporting a municipal inventory of greenhouse gases.

The overall goal of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The local resolution is not an official request by the city of Glendale to the United States to sign on to the Paris Agreement nor does it require Glendale to adhere to the nationally determined contributions, as outlined in the accord.

Its very important that we renew our commitment to living on a healthy planet and leaving a healthy place for our children to live in, said Councilman Zareh Sinanyan.

It is the ideology of understanding that greenhouse gases are impacting our environment [and our] climate, versus this denial of scientific reality thats happening in our country now, he added.

Councilwoman Paula Devine  a member of the Energy and Environment Committee of the Southern California Assn. of Governments, or SCAG  showed her support by saying the initiative is in line with similar conservation efforts by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The ordinance will likely push Glendale to renew its ongoing sustainability policies in the form of its currently expired Greener Glendale Plan.

The 2012 plan sought to address climate change based on the U.N. Urban Environmental Accords and greenhouse-gas reduction targets set by SCAG.

City staff members are expected to present to council a version of the Greener Glendale Plan sometime in the next year for consideration.

Glendale has met Californias Renewables Portfolio Standards of 33% by 2020 and is working toward the revised goal of 50% by 2030, according to Powers.

Mayor Vartan Gharpetian added that Glendale is also working on 100% reliance on renewable energy by 2045 and moving away from the use of fossil fuels.

jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLanda
After Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident and 2010 Nobel Peace laureate, died in custody on Thursday evening, his Chinese admirers went online to voice their sympathy and grief  and countless government censors buckled down for a long nights work.

The Chinese governments drive to silence discussion of Liu  who died of liver cancer at age 61  predates even 2009, when he was handed an 11-year sentence for helping draft Charter 08, a document calling for multiparty democracy and freedom of speech. On Chinese social networks, searches for Liu Xiaobo return nothing, and most Chinese citizens barely know his name.

Yet on Friday, Chinas social media sites were filled with expressions of solidarity and grief, suggesting that Lius case  and his ideals  may be more influential in China than many outsiders believe. These expressions were often cryptic and muted  snatches of poetry, allegorical quotes  but still, the censors responded in force.

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On Sina Weibo, Chinas version of Twitter, they deleted photos of Liu and his wife, Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since Lius arrest, though she has never been charged with a crime. They blocked flickering candle emojis, the letters RIP and LXB, and the dates 1955-2017, the years of Lius birth and death. They removed poems by Liu and Liu Xia; photos of the South African revolutionary Nelson Mandela, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1993; and even the phrase: someone died today.

I think this kind of pokes a hole in the narrative that hes not well known in China, said William Nee, a Hong Kong-based researcher at Amnesty International. I dont know if Id characterize this as a paradigm shift. But it might be that some of the seeds hed started to plant  or, the ideas in Charter 08  have started to bear fruit among the rights defense community, and theyre becoming more well known and are spreading among parts of the general public.

Authorities granted Liu medical parole in late May after he was diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer. Yet they effectively kept him under arrest, confined to a hospital room with state security agents standing guard. He was allowed no visitors but his wife and brothers.

Liu, his family and his supporters reportedly requested that he be moved abroad for treatment, but the government refused. On Thursday he became the first Nobel Peace laureate to die in custody since German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky died while being detained by the Nazis in 1938.

Chinas censorship apparatus is extraordinarily sophisticated and multilayered. It features algorithms that automatically flag or block certain words  Lius name, for example. But Internet companies, acting on government orders, also employ armies of censors to ensure that sensitive content doesnt slip through the cracks.

Yet Fridays outpouring of support also exposed some of the censorship apparatus weaknesses. On Friday, LXB was censored, but XB was not. The Chinese word for candle    was censored, but adding a space between the characters     brought up several results, many related to Lius death.

Even some official accounts carried thinly veiled expressions of sympathy. One post by the state-run New China News Agency posted a Chinese expression: All ones miseries come from anger at ones incompetence.

Many young Chinese, including avid social media users, have grown accustomed to the pervasive censorship, and some Liu-related posts were met with expressions of confusion.

The atmosphere in the office is still normal, said one state media reporter who requested anonymity to avoid reprisals from her higher-ups. Nobodys discussing this topic in the office. I guess people who choose to work for state media have normalized strict government censorship. People will only see [Lius death] as a piece of news, nothing more.

Zhang Xiaodong, 25, a Beijing-based software engineer, said that many young Chinese dont pay much attention to politically sensitive topics  for them, theres simply no upside. He said hed heard of Liu Xiaobo, but not that he had died.

I think this kind of pokes a hole in the narrative that hes not well-known in China.  William Nee, a Hong Kong-based researcher at Amnesty International

Most people are apathetic about daily current affairs and politics, he said. People often joke about themselves. They say, We are ordinary people, well just have a piece of watermelon and enjoy it as we have no clue whats going on.

Chinas Foreign Ministry and its English-language state media cast Lius death as an internal matter, calling Liu a convicted criminal.

We call on relevant countries to respect Chinas judicial sovereignty, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing on Friday, adding that China had lodged stern representations with countries that remarked on Lius treatment, including the U.S. The ministry removed all mentions of Liu from a transcript of the briefing posted to its website.

Liu Xiaos death, while unfortunate, should be a sobering reminder that many in the West remain hostile to Chinas political development, the state-run Peoples Daily Online said in an English-language commentary. It is nonsense to say that China opposes democracy and human rights simply because its system is different from the Western system. What China does oppose is the politicization of Lius case and any interference in its internal affairs.

The only place in China where residents publicly mourned Lius death was Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous territory that has its own judicial system, a relatively free press and uncensored Internet access. Hundreds of people gathered at a vigil in front of the central governments office to lay flowers and sign a book of condolence.

In a brief statement, the White House said President Trump was deeply saddened to learn of Lius passing, and sent heartfelt condolences to his wife.

Trump praised Chinas President Xi Jinping as a very good man hours after Lius death at a news conference in Paris on Thursday. (Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a statement of his own, called on Beijing to release Liu Xia from house arrest and allow her to depart China, according to her wishes.)

The Taiwanese government on Thursday released a statement calling on Beijing to initiate democratic constitutional reforms. The government agency accused China of violating global, universal values by restricting Lius rights. China and Taiwan have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, but Beijing claims sovereignty over the island, which democratized in the 1980s after decades of authoritarian rule.

We deeply believe that the shackles of violence and incarceration absolutely cannot stop peoples heartfelt freedom or the yearning for democracy and justice, it said.

Special correspondent Ralph Jennings in Taipei, Taiwan, and researcher Gaochao Zhang in the Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report.

jonathan.kaiman@latimes.com

For more news from Asia, follow @JRKaiman on Twitter

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Hong Kong ousts four pro-democracy lawmakers as Beijing supporters gain influence

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A Hong Kong court on Thursday ousted four pro-democracy lawmakers for taking their oaths incorrectly, stunning the gathered crowd into silence and raising concerns that the citys legislature would disintegrate into a rubber stamp parliament for Beijing.

This decision robs pro-democracy lawmakers of their veto power in the citys lawmaking body, handing pro-establishment legislators greater leeway to pass controversial government policies.

The four were disqualified for altering their oaths as they were sworn in, an act viewed as a denouncement of Beijings rule. They did not express the solemnity, sincerity or exact form and content requirements set forth by Beijing last year, said judge Thomas Au.

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Hong Kongs youngest lawmaker, Nathan Law, veteran legislator and activist Leung Kwok-hung, professor Edward Yiu and social science lecturer Lau Siu-lai all lost their seats on the Legislative Council, the citys government watchdog and law-making body.

The verdict follows the ouster last year of two young lawmakers for using an anti-China slur while taking their oaths, in an unprecedented interpretation of Hong Kong laws by Chinas parliament.

Joshua Wong, general secretary of the Demosisto political party to which Law belongs, called the verdict manifest interference by Beijing to cripple Hong Kongs legislative power.

This will likely do little to calm jitters in a city that fears the mainland is chipping away at its core freedoms, despite promises the country made 20 years ago when it retook the former British colony. China agreed to a framework known as one country, two systems, which allowed the territory to maintain its uncensored media and independent courts  rights not enjoyed on the mainland.

The lawmakers violations were tweaks to well-known script: Law added a quote from Gandhi. Yiu included a sentence saying he will uphold procedural justice in Hong Kong, fight for genuine universal suffrage and serve the citys sustainable development. Leung held a yellow umbrella, a symbol of massive 2014 pro-democracy protests. Lau took six-second gaps between every word.

While Beijing supporters technically gain more control, analysts wonder how much they will use.

Im not sure they will exploit this, said Stephan Ortmann, assistant professor of political economy at the City University of Hong Kong. They are also worried about mass protests coming back.

Many Hong Kong citizens remain on edge after Chinese President Xi Jinping issued his sternest warning about challenges to Chinas rule.

Any attempt to endanger Chinas 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, said Xi, who made his first trip as president to Hong Kong this month, where he inaugurated the citys new leader, led a military parade and commemorated the 20-year anniversary of Chinese rule.

Xi also rallied behind patriotic education and the revival of a national security law, which more than a half million people blocked in 2003 by taking to the streets. The administration is expected to try to pass it. Opponents argue the central government will use the law as a tool for political persecution and curbs on free speech.

Only a small fraction of the city desires full independence, although some believe Beijing further stokes concerns with its harsh language and tighter controls.

Its wrong to assume that young people hate China, because they dont understand China, said Alvin Hung a 27-year-old lawyer, at a recent rally calling for full democracy in Hong Kong.

Its because we know it all too well. Theres a saying: Familiarity breeds contempt.

Choi is a special correspondent.
The front page of a recent edition of Cumhuriyet offered a sampling of the hard-hitting coverage for which Turkeys oldest independent newspaper is known:

Election officials violated international law in certifying a controversial referendum in April giving the president broad new powers. Crowds were flocking to an anti-government protest march. Leaked emails written by the presidents son-in-law were published verbatim, which a prosecutor said was akin to divulging state secrets.

Beyond the feisty headlines, however, there were clear signs of the turmoil threatening the century-old daily  and all news organizations that question Turkeys increasingly authoritarian government.

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Atop the front page was a box that has run every day since last fall, featuring portraits of 12 jailed Cumhuriyet executives and columnists who are facing up to 43 years in prison on terrorism-related charges after a failed coup attempt one year ago.

The anniversary of the coup attempt on Saturday will be marked by a series of national events commemorating the spontaneous public uprising that helped repel an attack on parliament and the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Government supporters will take to the streets to reenact an episode from that night before Erdogan delivers a speech at parliament at 2:32 a.m. Sunday, marking the moment a year ago when the building was attacked.

But for many in Turkey the anniversary is not cause for celebration. Erdogan has used the attempted coup to justify a prolonged state of emergency that has seen tens of thousands arrested, more than 100,000 civil servants dismissed from their jobs, at least 150 journalists imprisoned and scores of independent newspapers, magazines and TV and radio stations shut down.

At Cumhuriyet, there are signs of struggle that go beyond the arrests of top editors. In the recent, 18-page weekday edition, there was only one small paid advertisement, a black-and-white announcement by a Peugeot car dealership tucked into a corner.

Editors say advertisers have deserted a paper seen as a symbol of resistance to Erdogans growing authoritarianism.

Even before the coup attempt we were having difficulty attracting advertising because companies were afraid of the government, said Atakan Sonmez, the online news editor, bleakly scanning the pages at his desk inside the papers gray, six-story headquarters in central Istanbul.

Now, its almost zero.

Atakan Sonmez, Cumhuriyets online news editor, says advertisers have deserted the paper as the Turkish government targets its journalists. (Shashank Bengali / Los Angeles Times)

Cumhuriyet, which means republic, is among the last critical voices publishing in Turkey amid one of the broadest media crackdowns in modern times.

The Islamist governments main targets have been outlets that it links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK  which Turkey and the United States have labeled a terrorist group  and Fethullah Gulen, the exiled cleric whom Erdogan blames for directing the attempted putsch from his compound in the Pennsylvania woods.

But Cumhuriyet fits into neither of those camps  it is a bastion of the secular opposition that has bashed Gulenists, the PKK and the government with almost equal vigor. Media advocates say the arrests signaled that Erdogan aims to silence all dissent.

Cumhuriyet takes the concepts of secularism and democracy seriously, said Tarik Gunersel, a playwright and secretary of the Turkey center of PEN International, which promotes freedom of expression. That is why it has symbolic value. Crushing Cumhuriyet is part of the civil war that Erdogan is waging against secularists in Turkey.

The paper has continued to publish despite the de facto advertising blackout and the absence of nearly all its top editors and executives. Reporters have had to slash expenses and forgo pay raises. Last year, the foundation that administers Cumhuriyet closed some offices and sold others to raise funds.

With a small staff and daily circulation of only about 40,000 copies, Cumhuriyet has long held outsize influence in Turkish public life. Editors and reporters describe their jobs as a labor of love; they have long accepted lower salaries than they could earn at other publications.

But the stress is taking its toll on the remaining staff members, some of whom are balancing a heavier workload with preparing for court dates and visiting relatives of their jailed colleagues.

Aydin Engin, a 76-year-old columnist facing trial on terrorism charges, says the Turkish governments media crackdown is the harshest hes seen. (Shashank Bengali / Los Angeles Times)

Everyone is scared, said Aydin Engin, a 76-year-old columnist who was arrested at home last Oct. 31 but released pending trial due to his age.

We know the police can come at any time and take us. It is part of being a journalist in Turkey now.

Engin, a chain smoker whose eyes twinkle when he cracks a dark joke, has spent a cumulative six years in prison over a career that has spanned three military coups and several states of emergency. In the past, he was prosecuted in army courts under military law, and journalists operated with a general understanding of what topics were forbidden to write about.

Now, he said, it is harder to know what could land you in prison.

In a 435-page indictment against 19 Cumhuriyet employees, prosecutors refer to a July 13, 2016, column by Engin titled, Peace in the world, but what about at home? A well-known reference to the motto of Turkeys founding leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the column cited terror attacks and argued that Erdogan had failed to secure peace inside Turkeys borders.

Two days later, the abortive coup took place. The would-be revolutionaries went on Turkish television to declare themselves the Peace at Home Council  enough for prosecutors to argue that Engins column helped inspire the coup.

The coup plotters were quite stupid, Engin said. But I dont think that even they are stupid enough to take orders from me.

Turkey is now the worlds foremost jailer of journalists, but authorities say that all are being held for links to terrorist groups. In that category, the government includes the Gulen organization, an outwardly moderate Islamist movement whose members, critics say, had quietly infiltrated top levels of Turkeys military and civil service.

In court documents, links to the secretive Gulenists often seem tenuous. Prosecutors allege that Cumhuriyets chief executive, Akin Atalay, had hardwood floors installed by a company that also sold goods to a suspected Gulenist, and that Engin used the same travel agency as an alleged member of the group.

We know the police can come at any time and take us. It is part of being a journalist in Turkey now.  Aydin Engin, Cumhuriyet columnist

With the trial set to begin July 24, the paper last month ran a multi-part series rebutting the allegations against its employees. But other cases involving journalists in Turkey have offered scant hope that the defendants will be given a fair hearing.

On March, 21 journalists who had been arrested for alleged links to Gulenists were ordered released due to a lack of evidence. Their families gathered to greet them at Istanbuls Silivri prison and waited for hours  only to learn that they had been rearrested on charges of coup-plotting.

Shortly afterward, the judge and prosecutor involved in the case were dismissed from their posts.

All the decisions are political, said Engin, who faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Turkey is not a country of laws anymore.

As one of the most senior journalists left in the newsroom, Engins days are filled with administrative chores and writing his column. Staff members stare at empty desks and exchange nervous chatter on the smokers terrace.

The building feels besieged  not least by the steel fences, metal detectors and gun-toting police officers posted at the entrance. Security was beefed up in 2015 after two Islamic State militants captured in southeastern Turkey were found to be carrying a paper with the newspapers address.

But it has sometimes seemed that the police are there not to protect the newspapers employees but to keep an eye on them.

In December, the cafeteria manager, Senol Buran, joked to a security guard that if Erdogan ever visited the building, he wouldnt serve him tea. A police officer overheard the remark, leaped from a sofa and grabbed Buran by the collar.

How can you talk about the president like that? the officer barked.

Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey, and that evening Buran was arrested at his home. He spent eight days in Silivri prison before lawyers secured his release.

This is part of the work now  people are sacrificing their lives, in a way, to keep the paper alive, said Can Dundar, Cumhuriyets former editor in chief who lives in exile in Germany.

Dundar was convicted last year of espionage and other crimes after publishing videos that showed Turkish intelligence agencies purportedly funneling weapons to rebels in neighboring Syria. He appealed the judgment and was traveling in Europe when the coup occurred, and decided not to return.

He has been separated from his wife, whose passport was confiscated at the airport last year as she attempted to travel to visit him. The arrests have torn apart families and left the remaining editors worried that what they write could further endanger their jailed colleagues.

Every decision is difficult for them, Dundar said.

In the weeks after the arrests, Zeynep Oral, a 71-year-old columnist, came to the office every day to support her colleagues and offer comfort to the wives of those who were jailed. As the months have passed, the atmosphere has become heavier, the newsroom emptier.

There is a huge sadness, and we cannot just lift it by writing, Oral said. Of course we self-censor. Each of us has some ways of protecting ourselves. Definitely when I am writing, I hesitate over the words, to choose words that will be less offensive to the government but still give the truth.

She had planned to retire last year but stayed on after the arrests, continuing to write a thrice-weekly column. But she no longer visits the office daily.

The days that I go to the newspaper, she said, I come home and I cry.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Twitter: @SBengali
An American doctor who specializes in conditions such as the one affecting Charlie Gard will travel to Britain next week to assess the critically ill baby.

High Court Judge Nicholas Francis said Friday he was open-minded about the evidence to come after the visit of Dr. Michio Hirano of Columbia University.

The 11-month-old boy suffers from mitochondrial depletion syndrome, a rare genetic disease that has left him brain-damaged and unable to breathe unaided.

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Hiranos research focuses on mitochondrial diseases and genetic myopathies, and he has treated others with conditions similar to Charlies.

They boys parents are fighting an emotional legal battle with Britains most famous childrens hospital over whether it is in Charlies best interest to try an experimental treatment. The case attracted international attention after Pope Francis and President Trump weighed in on the side of the parents.

They have been fighting to take him to the United States for treatment.

Hirano will assess Charlie and meet his current immediate-care team and other specialists, including a doctor from the Vatican childrens hospital. Charlies mother, Connie Yates, fought to attend and was given permission  even though it would not normally be allowed.

It may be unconventional, but this case is full of unconventional aspects, the judge said.

Francis has promised to rule by July 25.

Specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital have fought the parents bid for treatment because they dont think it will help and may cause the boy pain. The hospital says Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity.

A succession of courts has backed the hospital, but the case returned to the High Court on Thursday after claims of new evidence and the high-profile interventions

Hirano, who testified via a video link on Thursday, said it was worth trying treatment that has recently emerged.

Hiranos name appeared in public only on Friday, as a court order had previously blocked its mention.
Former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and his wife were in jail Friday after a judge ordered the couple detained for up to 18 months while prosecutors pursue money laundering and other charges against them.

Their detention means that two former Peruvian presidents are currently incarcerated  Alberto Fujimori is serving a 25-year sentence for human rights violations and corruption stemming from his autocratic rule in the 1990s.

A third ex-Peruvian president, Alejandro Toledo, is a fugitive from justice on corruption charges, reportedly having fled to the United States.

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Humala, a former military officer who held office from 2011 to 2016, turned himself in to authorities in Lima on Thursday.

Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, both denied wrongdoing, and Humala denounced the allegations as an abuse of power in a Twitter message before being locked up. The couple is expected to appeal their pre-trial confinement, arguing that neither of them is a flight risk.

Humala and his wife were jailed a day after former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sentenced to almost 10 years in prison in his own graft scandal. Lula remains free on appeal.

Humala and Lula were both leftists whose respective governments were once seen as part of a left-wing tide sweeping through South America. But Humala completed his term an unpopular figure, accused by many former supporters of betraying his proclaimed social justice agenda. His Nationalist Party movement is in tatters.

Humala is also under investigation for allegedly receiving cash illegally from the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a one-time mentor of Humalas.

Both ex-Presidents Humala and Toledo, the latter a centrist who governed from 2001 to 2006, have been caught up in the cascading scandal engulfing the Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht, which, authorities say, liberally doled out bribes and kickbacks as it won major construction projects throughout Latin America.

Last December, the U.S. Department of Justice charged that Odebrecht and a linked petrochemical company used what prosecutors labeled a Department of Bribery that systemically paid hundreds of millions of dollars to corrupt government officials on three continents.

Odebrecht agreed to pay a fine of some $2.6 billion to resolve charges with authorities in the United States, Brazil and Switzerland, U.S. authorities announced last year.

In Peru, Odebrecht has been involved in major transit, highway, energy and other construction projects dating back more than a decade.

Officials in Peru say the investigation into the activities of the Brazilian construction conglomerate is continuing. Humala and his wife stand accused of receiving some $3 million in bribes, while Toledo allegedly pocketed $20 million. Toledo, like Humala, has denied the charges.

As for Fujimori, current Peruvian President Pablo Kuczynski has said he may issue a pardon in what is seen here as a bid to win support among Fujimoris supporters. Fujimoris daughter, Keiko Fujimori, who heads the right-wing Popular Force party, narrowly lost the 2016 presidential race in a runoff against Kuczynski.

Special correspondent Leon reported from Lima and staff writer McDonnell from Mexico City.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

twitter: @mcdneville

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Two tourists were killed and four wounded by a knife-wielding attacker at an Egyptian Red Sea resort, Egypts Interior Ministry said Friday.

There was confusion over the nationalities of the dead. An Egyptian security official said they were German and not Ukrainian as the ministry had reported.



For the record: An earlier version of this articles headline said the attack was in Cairo. It was at a resort on the Red Sea.

The Red Sea governor, Maj. Gen. Ahmed Abdullah, said both were living in the tourist hub of Hurghada, where the attack occurred.

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A man has been arrested and was being questioned in connection with the attack, the ministry said in a statement.

The tourists were rushed to a hospital, according to officials.

An Egyptian security official quoted by the Associated Press said the attacker stabbed the tourists in the face, neck and feet.

A preliminary investigation showed the suspect appeared to have swum from a nearby public beach to the resort, the interior ministry said.

Egypts security forces have been fighting an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula in recent years, where militants have targeted the beleaguered tourism industry.

This year, the attacks have increasingly spread south into the capital. The latest attack came hours after five police officers were fatally shot in Cairos twin city of Giza early Friday by suspected Islamic militants who opened fire on their vehicle.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Twitter: @mollyhf

Special correspondent Medhat reported from Cairo and Times staff writer Hennessy-Fiske from Irbil, Iraq.

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2 Israeli police officers, 3 attackers are killed in Temple Mount shootout

UPDATES:

2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with new information about the nationalities of the victims.

This article was originally published at 8:50 a.m.
Israel took the rare step of closing the Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem to Muslim worshipers and tourists through the weekend, after a deadly shootout Friday morning in which three Israeli Arabs killed two Israeli Druze policemen. The attackers were killed by police, stoking fears of more religion-based violence.

In a sign of the tensions and to diffuse any potential violence at Jerusalems holiest site, President Mahmoud Abbas held a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During the phone call, the Palestinian leader expressed strong rejection and condemnation of the attack in Jerusalems Old City.

Abbas also called on Israel to lift the closure on the holy esplanade, the site of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Noble Sanctuary shrine, warning that the move could have consequences.

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In an effort to contain a fallout, Netanyahu said that rules for worship and visits at the holy site would not be affected. However, he also said in a released statement that the police investigation of the attack would continue through the weekend and the plaza  holy to both Jews and Muslims  might remain closed until a situation assessment Sunday. Israeli security officials vowed to tighten security checks around the holy site.

Jordan, which under its peace treaty with Israel is the official custodian of the Muslim holy sites and runs the Waqf religious authority there, also called on Israel to immediately reopen the complex.

In the hours after the attack Israeli security officers detained Jerusalem Grand Mufti Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, who called on Muslims to defy the Israeli closure.

The government confirms its rejection of any assault on the rights of the Muslims in practicing their religious rites in their holy sites, said Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani in a report on the official Petra News agency.

In two tweets Friday afternoon, U.S. peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, who has been meeting with Israeli and Palestinian officials here this week, welcomed Abbas call to Netanyahu as important and condemned praise for the attack by Palestinian militant groups.

Terrorism must be renounced and unconditionally condemned by all, he wrote.

A spokesman for Egypts foreign ministry voiced concern that the violence could undermine efforts to revive peace negotiations and called on the sides to exercise restraint.

The fighting inside the complex was one of the worst incidents of violence on the Temple Mount in years. The plaza is the site of the ancient Jewish holy temple and revered by Muslims as the spot where the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.

Police said the attack occurred shortly after 7 a.m. The three attackers had just left the religious complex and opened fire on police nearby, using improvised machine guns, authorities said. In a police video purporting to show the incident, two gunmen appear just outside the entrance to the plaza and ambush two policemen from behind at a checkpoint.

After the attackers retreated to the mosque complex, teams of Israeli police forces entered the esplanade in pursuit and opened fire, killing three. Video from the Temple Mount esplanade showed Israeli security forces taking cover amid a hail of gunfire, and police shooting a man at close range.

An incident like this, to the best of my memory, is unprecedented  the use of live weapons and firing from within the Temple Mount complex, said Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan. The terrorists desecrated the holiness of the mount.

The slain officers were identified as Hail Satawi, 30, of Mughar and Kaamil Snaan, 22, of Hurfeish, both towns Arab Druze villages in northern Israel.

Police identified the attackers as Mohammed Ahmed Mohammed Jabarin, 29, Mohamed Hamad Abdel Atif Jabarin, 19, and Mohammed Ahmed Mufdal Jabarin, 19. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the attackers were from the Israeli Arab city of Um El Fahm and were Israeli citizens.

Netanyahu ordered that mourning tents in the Um El Fahm be banned, indicating the potential to sow tensions between Israeli Jews and the countrys one-fifth Arab minority.

Police investigators will be focusing on how the gunmen were able to smuggle the weapons past Israeli security forces and Waqf guards into the holy compound.

Violent clashes on the Temple Mount have been the spark for prolonged and deadly waves of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the past: rioting on the plaza that broke out in 2000 after the visit of Israels Ariel Sharon to the site sparked anuprising  dubbed the Al Aqsa Intifada  that lasted several years.

Frequent calls by Israeli right wing politicians to assert sovereignty and visits to the plaza by religious Jews who seek to defy a police ban on non-Muslim worship on the Temple Mount have spurred accusations among Muslims of an Israeli plan to tighten control and limit access to worshippers.

The last time that Israel shuttered the complex was in 2014, after an assassination attempt on Yehuda Glick, a religious Jewish activist who is a vocal advocate of allowing Jewish prayer on the compound. The closure contributed to a wave of lone wolf attacks in Jerusalem and a crisis between Israel and Jordan that required U.S. mediation to defuse.

I dont recall the last time the Israel police killed a Muslim inside Al Aqsa compound, said Ofer Zalzberg, an expert on the holy esplanade with the International Crisis Group. He said that the closure should be lifted as soon as possible because it stokes tensions. This is very big because it looks like Israel is using live weapons to kill people inside a holy site.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the militant Palestinian group Hamas celebrated it and called for a new intifada.

The Hamas movement praises the guerrilla attack in Jerusalem. It is a legitimate right for our people and the best evidence of their unity in resisting the brutal occupation, Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanua said.

Mitnick is a special correspondent. Staff writer Molly Hennessy-Fiske and special correspondents Nabih Bulos and Rushdi Abualouf contributed reporting.

@joshmitnick
Two Israeli police officers were killed Friday when gunmen with improvised weapons opened fire near the holiest site in Jerusalem, then fled back to the Temple Mount plaza outside the Al Aqsa Mosque and engaged in a rare shootout with police.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld called the incident a terrorist attack and said all three attackers were killed. At least one had a knife and tried to stab Israelis, he said.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the attackers were from the Israeli Arab city of Um El Fahm and were Israeli citizens.

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The slain officers were identified as Hail Stawi, 30, of Majar and Kaamil Snaan, 22, of Horfis.

Video from the Temple Mount esplanade showed Israeli security forces taking cover amid a hail of gunfire, and police shooting a man at close range. Police ordered the plaza cleared and closed ahead of noon prayers Friday.

The fighting inside the complex was one of the worst incidents of violence on the Temple Mount in years, and the images of the gun battle and fatalities are liable to raise tensions throughout the region. Violent clashes on the Temple Mount have been the spark for prolonged and deadly waves of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the past.

The holy site is known to Jews as the site of their ancient holy temple, while Muslims revere the complex as the place where the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

DRAMATIC FOOTAGE: Moments 3 Arab terrorists being shot dead following Exchange of fire after terror attack on Temple Mt wounding 3 Israelis. pic.twitter.com/kx8XBuMK1j  Israel News Feed (@IsraelHatzolah) July 14, 2017

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the militant Palestinian group Hamas celebrated it.

The Hamas movement praises the guerrilla attack in Jerusalem. It is a legitimate right for our people and the best evidence of their unity in resisting the brutal occupation, Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanua said.

Police said the attack occurred shortly after 7 a.m. The three attackers had just left the religious complex and opened fire on a group of Israelis near the Old Citys Lions Gate, using improvised machine guns, authorities said.

After the attackers retreated to the mosque complex, teams of Israeli police forces entered the esplanade in pursuit and opened fire, killing three. An Israeli police spokesman said the identities of the suspects had been put under gag order, as had information about the victims.

Speaking to Israel Radio, Transportation and Intelligence Affairs Minister Yisrael Katz said the attack was part of a battle for Jerusalem and an effort aimed at undermining our control of the city by targeting holy sites for attacks.

Special correspondent Rushdi Abu Alouf in Gaza City contributed to this report.

Twitter: @joshmitnick

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UPDATES:

3:15 a.m.: This article was updated with a report of two police officers being killed in the clash.

12:45 a.m.: The article was updated with a statement from Hamas.

This article was originally published at 12:20 a.m
He was only 12 when he first stole into Israel from his home in a Palestinian farming village in the West Bank to find work. A few weeks later, he returned with more than $2,000 in wages.

Ever since, Ahmed has been working construction and agriculture jobs throughout Israel, from high-rise buildings around Tel Aviv to the melon fields on kibbutzes in the Negev desert. He has spent months at a time in Israel, some of it in hiding. To avoid arrest, he takes refuge in building sites, open fields or forests.

It hasnt always worked: Ahmed counts six stints in Israeli jails and a combined 2  years of incarceration for working in Israel without a permit. If hes arrested again he risks additional jail time and thousands of dollars in fines.

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But Ahmed and tens of thousands of undocumented Palestinian laborers like him continue to sneak into Israel anyway, going around, through and over the separation barrier of fencing and concrete slabs around the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The jobs he lands tend to pay about 200 shekels, or $57, a day.

The alternative, he says, is remaining in Palestinian areas of the West Bank where wages are one-third of those in Israel.

Our lives are difficult. It doesnt matter if you sleep here in an unfinished building or in a field. Here, you can bring home bread and food for your kids, Ahmed, 27, said at his home in the village of Yatta. Either you eat or you die.

Ahmed, who asked that his last name be withheld for fear of arrest, is one of more than 50,000 Palestinian laborers who work in Israel illegally on a daily basis, according to the Israeli state comptroller  despite the $4.2-billion separation barrier meant to seal off Palestinians in the West Bank from Israels largest cities.

Started at the height of a Palestinian campaign of bombings and shootings in Israel about 15 years ago, the barrier has helped reduce attacks in the country, according to the government and security analysts.

But tens of thousands of Palestinian laborers for years have found ways to skirt the barrier.

Some scale sections of the 26-foot-high wall with ladders; others find drainage ditches underneath the concrete slabs to crawl across. The most common route into Israel runs through unfinished or damaged stretches of the barrier in the southern West Bank and near the city of Bethlehem farther to the north.

Although many Palestinians who are married with children successfully get permits for day work, Ahmed, who has a wife, an infant and a toddler to support, says he cannot because of his record of past illegal crossing offenses. He tries to take advantage of his good command of colloquial Hebrew despite being an illiterate elementary school dropout.

We have nothing in the West Bank, he said. Put yourself in my shoes: You have a wife and kids you have to earn money for. Where do you go?

Among Israelis, workers such as Ahmed are known as shabachim, a Hebrew term for illegal resident.

For many Israelis, the workers are an irresistible source of cheap labor. An online search of shabachim brings up pages of legal advice aimed at employers, who risk criminal indictment, stop-work orders and fines.

Despite border police and army patrols of the West Bank frontier and police raids in Israeli cities, the thirst for Palestinian labor on farms and construction sites in Israel generates a labor flow that exceeds what Israels security forces can handle. Even the threat of penalties for employers has not eliminated the challenge.

Everybody knows what is going on and how many people work without permits  its common knowledge, said Ala Khatib, the executive director of the Israeli worker rights nonprofit, Kav LaOved. Most of them have never been a security threat, they are simple workers, mostly in agriculture and construction.

Ahmeds journey into Israel begins in his hometown of Yatta or nearby Dahariya. The villages are located a few minutes drive from open stretches in the separation barrier where it is still possible to get across the frontier on foot.

Many Palestinians travel to the area from other parts of the West Bank to make the crossing. Sometimes they head out as the sun is setting so as to cross the border under the cover of the night. Other times they cross on weekend afternoons, when the presence of Israeli security forces is thin.

Laborers wait for a green light from Palestinian drivers and Israeli Arab smugglers on the other side of the barrier who watch the frontier to determine when it is safe to cross.

The laborers pay drivers about 250 shekels to cram into cars and vans that ferry as many people as they can fit. The drivers drop them off at locations a few feet from an unfinished section of the barrier near the Israeli settlement of Metsudat Yehudah. From there, its often a frenzied sprint across the border into Israel, where a second driver waits to ferry the laborers to Beersheba or Tel Aviv.

Theres a saying in Yatta, Your legs are your life. If you arent in shape to run, you might end up in jail, Ahmed said from his home.

As the drivers traverse uneven mountain back roads, the laborers, their limbs going numb from being cramped, ponder whether they will get picked up by police.

The worst time is when you cross, said Ahmed. Youre afraid youre going to go to jail. You are afraid there are dogs. You are afraid of the barbed wire.

A year ago, two Palestinians from Yatta who took a similar route around the fence eventually went to Tel Aviv, where they shot up a cafe in a popular tourist district. The attack killed four Israelis and renewed concerns about how easy it is for would-be attackers, as well as workers, to slip across the border.

Last month, a trio of West Bank residents who had skirted the barrier ambushed Israeli security forces near the Old City of Jerusalem, killing a policewoman.

Shaul Arieli, a former government advisor on peace negotiations and an expert on the West Bank barrier, said in an interview that most laborers go through a 6-mile hole in the barrier south of Jerusalem and a 25-mile gap in the southern West Bank.

Its easy to cross the gaps in the barrier, he said.

Commanders for Israels Security, a group of former Israeli security chiefs of which Arieli is a member, wants the government to close the remaining gaps in the West Bank fence and significantly expand the number of day permits allowing the entry of about 70,000 Palestinian workers.

The group says the government has hesitated to finish the barrier in part because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus right-wing government doesnt want to put what many consider a de facto border between Israel proper and Jewish settlements. The Defense Ministry declined to comment on the groups claim.

In recent months, Israel has started work to plug some of the gaps in the barrier with concrete walls, but a government comptrollers report cautioned that Israel has not allocated enough money.

Many people who cross into Israel illegally remain for weeks at a time to save on smuggler fees and to avoid being nabbed on the border.

After a day in late May of laying bricks at a municipal pool in the well-manicured middle-class Israeli suburb of Gedera, Ahmed showed a visitor his sleeping quarters: a neatly arranged pile of mattresses and blankets at the edge of a dirt field surrounded by the concrete shells of half-completed buildings.

Nearby was an unfinished villa where several laborers bunked. On the second floor, a Persian rug covered the dusty concrete floor as a place for the workers to sit and socialize after dark.

One of the workers stood guard to alert sleeping colleagues upstairs if the police should approach. The laborers said they often do odd jobs for Israeli residents nearby to buy their silence.

The border police look in every building and in every corner, said Ahmed, as he watched an Israeli teen on a bicycle pass by. Look at these happy kids who have everything. We didnt have anything. You know what its like to stay here three months without going home, without seeing your own kids? Its a problem. Theres no place to sleep.

What can we do. If I had been a Jew, life would be good. I would travel. I would have a car. I would have money, he said. But I came out Arab, a Palestinian, so its worse.

Mitnick is a special correspondent.

Twitter: @joshmitnick
Premier Li Keqiang met with Governor General of Canada David Johnston on July 13 in Beijing.

The Premier said the China-Canada relationship is healthily and stably developing. China is willing to continue high-level interactions with Canada, promote mutual political trust and cooperation in such fields as energy, mineral resources, infrastructure construction, sci-tech innovation and small and medium-sized enterprises.

He said both sides should promote negotiations on free trade to send the world a positive message of supporting free trade and boosting the recovery of the global economy. Efforts should also be made to promote win-win cooperation in education, tourism and sports, particularly winter sports.

Referring to climate change, Premier Li said addressing this problem is the joint responsibility of the international community. China will take effective measures to fulfill its pledge on the Paris Agreement, and stick to the principle of common but differentiated responsibility. It is not only the responsibility that a large developing country should shoulder, but also a need to transform Chinas economic structure. China is willing to deepen cooperation with Canada in clean energy, he said.

Johnston recalled his several visits to China since the country launched the reform and opening-up policy and appreciated Chinas achievements in the previous decades. He recognized that the Canada-China relationship enjoys wider prospects in the future.

He said Canada is willing to work with China to inherit friendship, expand cooperation in various fields including sci-tech innovation, education and climate change, and effectively initiate the Year of Canada-China Tourism in 2018. Canada is also willing to support China in its preparation of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Scientists should be provided with more room for creativity, said Premier Li Keqiang at the State Council executive meeting on July 12.

We should further promote the mass innovation and entrepreneurship initiative, not only by building makers spaces, but also by creating a coordinated and shared ecosystem, Premier Li said at the meeting.

The concept on an ecosystem for mass innovation and entrepreneurship was recently introduced by Chen Xian, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, at a symposium on Chinas economy. He suggested that the government should attach more importance to building a mass innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, in areas including administrative reform and public service supply.

For the government, to better facilitate innovation, the key lies in function transformation, and the reform in administrative streamlining, strengthening supervision and improving services, the Premier said at the executive meeting.

Some scientific researchers complain to me that they want more autonomy in expenditures, Premier Li said. I learned about related regulations, some of which indeed lack flexibility. I think we should make a careful study on whether they conform to laws in scientific research.

We tend to make plans and set goals for scientific research personnel, Premier Li said. However, have there been any major scientific discoveries in human history that took place as scheduled? Even Newton, himself, could not make plans on discovering the law of gravity.

People are often inspired by random chances, which is the most valuable treasure of the human mind that could never be replaced by machines, he said.

For many theoretical, basic researches, especially those that can influence the future of human beings, the only thing the government should do is provide scientists with a more tolerant environment.

As we are not experts in scientific research, we must further change our way of thinking, and not restrain the creativity of scientists, he added.

Premier Li also called for efforts in implementing an innovation-driven development strategy, further advancing the initiative on mass entrepreneurship and innovation, while encouraging scientific research personnel to innovate.

People are the makers of history, so we should fully tap the countrys rich human resources. By relying on the internet and cloud platform, we can pool the wisdom of the public and promote national construction, the Premier said.
The 20-year-old suburban Philadelphia man held on millions of dollars in bail as a person of interest in the disappearance of four men has confessed to killing them, reports say.

Cosmo DiNardo, of Bensalem Township, Bucks County, confessed to the commission of or participation in four murders and agreed to plead guilty to four murder counts, attorney Paul Lang said outside court, where DiNardo had met with investigators, The Associated Press reports.

DiNardo also told investigators where the bodies are.

"I'm sorry," a shackled DiNardo said as he left the courthouse, according to the AP.

BREAKING: Attorney says jailed man has admitted killing 4 missing men in Pennsylvania and told the authorities the location of their bodies. pic.twitter.com/ggGcmHCXz3  AP Eastern US (@APEastRegion) July 13, 2017

In their search for the missing men, local, state and federal investigators have been combing a property in Solebury Township, Bucks County, that is owned by DiNardo's family. Remains of one of the missing men, 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, were found in a 12-foot-deep grave on the property Wednesday, Bucks District Attorney Matthew Weintraub had said.

Cosmo DiNardo (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

DiNardo was jailed earlier Wednesday in lieu of $5 million bail for allegedly stealing and trying to sell the car another of the missing men, 21-year-old Thomas Meo.

Finnochiaro, of Middletown Township, and Meo, of Plumstead Township, both in Bucks County, were reported missing last Friday, along with 22-year-old Mark Sturgis, of Pennsburg, Montgomery County. The fourth man, 19-year-old Jimi Patrick of Newtown Township in Bucks, has been missing since July 5.

Following the discovery of Finocchiaro's remains, authorities were back Thursday at the Lower York Road (Route 202) farm, digging away in the dust and the 90-degree-plus heat and using plywood to shore up the deep, tent-covered trench that they excavated at the spot where Weintraub said dogs managed to "smell these poor boys 121/2 feet below the ground," the AP reports.

Susan Coleman told news outlets that she and her husband were in their backyard last Saturday afternoon when they heard several rounds of what they believed was shotgun fire coming from the direction of the DiNardo farm, according to the AP.

"This person was going bananas," she told phillyvoice.com.

Clockwise from top left, reported missing July 5-7, 2017, in Bucks County were Dean Finocchiaro, Tom Meo, Mark Sturgis and Jimi Patrick. Cosmo DiNardo, 20, of Bensalem Township, confessed to killing them, his defense attorney reportedly said July 13, 2017. (Courtesy photos | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Authorities had also searched another DiNardo family farm in Solebury, that one on Aquetong Road. That's where authorities say they found Meo's car, his life-saving diabetic kit still inside and his name still on the title, about 4 a.m. Saturday.

Cosmo DiNardo had been trying to sell the 1996 Nissan Maxima on Saturday to a friend for $500, according to Weintraub's office.

According to a report by The Intelligencer based in Doylestown, Bucks County, DiNardo's defense attorney said Thursday his client confessed to his "participation or commission in the murders of four young men."

BREAKING: Cosmo DiNardo defense attorney says client confessed to 'participation in murders of four young men' https://t.co/dYjxfCQe9j  The Intelligencer (@TheIntellNews) July 13, 2017

The attorney, Paul Lang, would not immediately say if there were any conspirators to the homicides, that report says.

Lang says the confession came after the prosecutor agreed not to pursue death penalty, according to the report.

Cosmo DiNardo is escorted to a vehicle while in police custody Thursday, July 13, 2017, in Doylestown, Pa. Lawyer Paul Lang, a defense attorney for DiNardo, said Thursday that his client has admitted killing the four men who went missing last week and told authorities the location of the bodies. Lang says prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in return for DiNardo's cooperation. (AP Photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

DiNardo had been arrested earlier this week on an unrelated firearms charge from February, for allegedly possessing a shotgun despite an involuntary commitment for mental illness. He was released on $100,000 cash bail Tuesday before being taken into custody again, identified by Weintraub as a person of interest in the disappearances of the four men.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Monroe County man and a Virginia woman are charged with forcing a woman into prostitution after the county district attorneys office organized a sting on Wednesday at a Smithfield Township hotel, authorities said.

An Upper Nazareth Township man was one of seven men cited with patronizing a prostitute during the sting, according to the district attorney's office.

But the most serious charges of involuntary servitude, trafficking of individuals, promoting prostitution and related offenses were reserved for Tarkira Monasia Bell, 20, of Richmond, Virginia, and Malik Dupree Edwards, 39, of Coolbaugh Township, authorities said.

Both were arraigned Thursday on the charges before District Judge JoLana Krawitz and sent to Monroe County jail in lieu of $250,000 bail. They have preliminary hearings tentatively scheduled 10 a.m. July 26 in Krawitz's court.

In the effort to catch johns, ads were placed online, the hotel room was wired for surveillance and initial contacts by phone were recorded, authorities said.

Bell and Edwards brought a Tennessee woman they met through a dating website to the hotel and Bell pushed her into the room, the district attorney's office said.

The woman, who authorities say was the victim in a sex-trafficking scheme, said she agreed with the pair's offer to make money and had only known them for a few days when they drove her to Pennsylvania. She told an investigator posing as a john that she was five months pregnant and wanted to get home to family, according to court records.

The woman was cared for by members of Truth Home, a nonprofit organization that "provides a safe living environment and works with women to restore hope after sexual exploitation," the district attorney's office said.

Bell later admitted to posting ads on backpage.com but used photos that weren't the victim, the district attorney's office said. Edwards traveled with Bell and the victim to "keep them safe" and to be there if "something goes wrong," Bell said, according to prosecutors.

The probe was aided by the Wayne County District Attorney's Office, the Bethlehem Township Police Department, the Sugarloaf Police Department, the FBI, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office and state constables, according to a news release

Charged with patronizing a prostitute were:

Aldo Giovanni Moncilla, 53, of the 2200 block of Evening Sun Road in Upper Nazareth

Matthew Beers, 30, of the 300 block of Shady Oaks Drive East in Ross Township

Jesse Alan Day, 30, of Milford, Pa.

David Jonathan Hubler, 43, of Elmhurst Township, Pa.

Branden Charles Russell, 27, of the 3200 block of Cherry Road in Polk Township

Dragan Trajanov, 23, of Westbrook, Illinois.

Charged with prostitution was:

Rachel Slzasa, 34, of the first block of Upper Lakeview Drive in Middle Smithfield Township.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A second person of interest is in custody in the deaths of four young men in Bucks County, according to two published reports citing sources.

And remains of three of the men were found on one property in Solebury Township and the fourth man's remains were located on another property in the township, according to the Intelligencer of Doyestown.

Fox 29 and the Intelligencer reported that the second person was in custody.

Authorities have been searching properties owned by the parents of first person of interest Cosmo DiNardo, 20, of Bensalem, Pa.

The second person of interest was picked up by detectives in the Northeast section of Philadelphia and was to be turned over to Bucks County authorities, Fox 29 reported.

DiNardo is prepared to plead guilty in the killings in exchange for the death penalty not being an option, his attorney said Thursday.

DiNardo killed the four separately and burned their bodies, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub canceled a planned update for 11 a.m. Friday and has now scheduled a 2 p.m. news conference in Doylestown, according to the office's Twitter feed.

Jimi Tar Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township, Bucks County, was last seen alive 6:30 p.m. July 5. Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, Montgomery County, and Tom Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township, Bucks County, disappeared some time last Friday. And Dean Finocchiaro, 18, of Middletown Township, Bucks County, was also last seen alive Friday.

Authorities have confirmed Finocchiaro's body was found.

All four deaths are tied to marijuana transactions, according to multiple reports.

The district attorney has said it is now a homicide investigation.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Northampton County woman pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of animal cruelty in the neglect of horses, some of which were euthanized, outside Phillipsburg.

Aiyanna Callaway, 33, of Bangor, was ordered to pay $1,316 in fines and costs and barred by court order from possessing domestic or livestock animals for 20 years in New Jersey directly, indirectly or through a third-party person or entity.

About a dozen people gathered in Pohatcong Township Municipal Court where Callaway entered her plea, and they left with grave concerns that Callaway may keep animals in Pennsylvania.

Callaway, owner of "Horses 4 Hope," is trying to regain possession of three of 13 horses taken from her care earlier this year at a 50 Warren Glen Road farm in the township, according to testimony in court. The other 10 have found homes through the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The group has no jurisdiction over the other three, said municipal court Judge Louis P. Mellinger.

"Am I concerned about? I'm concerned about it," Mellinger said of Callaway continuing to possess horses in Pennsylvania. "But I don't have any jurisdiction over it. ... I'm concerned that it occurs again."

New Jersey Human Police Sgt. Phil Amato agreed to the plea agreement worked out between Callaway's attorney, Hampton-based Arthur Nevins, and Pohatcong's municipal prosecutor, Steven Siegel.

Neither Callaway nor Nevins would speak to a reporter Thursday about the case.

The N.J. SPCA that last month brought 15 counts of animal cruelty against Callaway is pleased with the outcome, spokesman Matt Stanton said.

"Unfortunately we don't have jurisdiction in Pennsylvania," he noted. "I share those concerns, the concerns expressed from others, about her just moving shop over across the river."

The cruelty investigation began in March after multiple complaints were filed with the state SPCA. Investigators found a dead horse, Ruby, on the property March 22 that they learned had been euthanized by a veterinarian the prior day. She had showed signs of illness and was unable to stand.

Ruby. Passed Mar 22nd. First two pictures taken Feb 16th. Third photo taken Mar 17th. Pictures taken on the day of her passing were taken on Mar 22nd. This is what it looks like when a horse starves to death. Posted by Horses 4 Hope Awareness on Tuesday, April 4, 2017

On March 24, another horse in Callaway's care, Black Beauty, was also humanely euthanized, due to clinical signs of botulism.

"A joint investigation by the NJSPCA and the New Jersey State Department of Agriculture concluded that 13 of the 37 horses located on the property were below the minimal body score of a 2.0, as required by New Jersey Administrative Codes 2:8-3.2 for the Humane Treatment of Domestic Livestock," the SPCA said in a news release about the charges filed against Callaway.

Four pastures remain quarantined due to botulism at the farm where Callaway operated, said the owners there, Art and Chris Weeks. He said the deadly organism was introduced in hay Callaway ordered in shrink-wrap. The remainder of the 100-plus-acre property remains in use, Chris Weeks said.

The SPCA says Callaway would have the hay rolled into the field for the horses to rip open with their teeth. The group said it "also found tubs of water frozen on the property. The only access to water was from a pond that collected the run-off of feces and urine from the horses."

Jennifer Macri, of Pattenburg in Hunterdon County, had Callaway care for her horse, Jazz, and even provided feed. She took her horse back after learning he was undernourished, she said outside court.

Sophia Mirabella, 19, of Bloomsbury, was also among those at Thursday's court proceeding. She volunteered with Callaway. She doesn't believe Callaway will regain possession of the three horses she wants because of thousands of dollars in boarding charges she'd have to pay.

"It's not a good idea," Mirabella said of Callaway having horses in Pennsylvania. "It's just going to happen again. The same things is going to happen in Pennsylvania."

"It's a vicious cycle that's not going to stop," said Stephanie Donlay, of High Bridge.

Callaway will pay her fines and costs in $100 monthly installments, her attorney told the judge.

Mellinger paused following the plea in an effort to better understand the psychology of Callaway's neglect. Was it an obsession with animals that outstrips the ability to care for them, he wanted to know.

His goal was an assurance that Callaway recognized what she'd done, and wouldn't do it again.

"I mean, there's no excuse, there's no excuse for the neglect of an animal, period," Mellinger said. "The bottom line is animals can't be neglected, animals can't be abused, animals can't be made to suffer."

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
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A 77-year-old man is setting off on fund-raising trip around parts of the UK in his beloved Indian tuk tuk.

Steve Gibbs, from Wigston, is planning to raise at least 6,000 for the Leicestershire charity Healing Little Hearts.

With a fair wind is hoping he might even be able to double that figure.

It will be his second adventure in the tuk tuk - last year he raised more than 2,000 for Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation.

The inspiration for this years escapade came from his daughter Helen Craddock, a paediatric sister at a hospital in Bristol.

(Image: Chris Gordon)

Steve said: Towards the end of last year Helen travelled to Malaysia as part of a team from Healing Little Hearts to help with operations on children with heart defects.

When she came back she asked if I would fund raise for the charity so she and other teams can go on more trips.

He will set off on Monday (July 17) with the aim of driving from Wigston to the most southerly, westerly, northerly and easterly points of mainland England, Scotland and Wales.

Steve aims to cover 3,000 miles on the tour in some 21 days.

(Image: Chris Gordon)

With a top speed of about 30mph Steve is hoping to cover around 180 miles a day in the tuk tuk which has an engine a bit bigger than a lawn mower.

Along the way he will stay with friends and inexpensive guest houses.

The first leg will be from SpecSavers in Wigston, which is sponsoring him, to Wells in Somerset.

Steve, a retired engineer, said: I borrowed a tuk tuk for my fund raising last year and my wife, Barbara, and I so fell in love with it and so I bought it.

I cant wait to get going this year.

All the money raised will go to Healing Little Hearts, founded by Leicester hospitals consultant Dr Sanjiv Nichani.

The charity sends teams of surgeons, doctors and nurses to countries such as India, Africa and Malaysia, to perform life saving surgery on children born with heart defects.

Steve, who himself has a pacemaker, said: It costs 6,000 to send a team on each visit and I am hoping to raise enough to pay for two trips.

So far I have raised about 3,500, and thats before I have even started.

Dr Nichani said: Steve is an amazing man.

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Nightclub gunman Theodore Paget could have died in a hotel balcony fall - nine years before he was locked up for shooting a doorman.

The 29-year-old fell 40ft from his hotel in Mamaris, Turkey, after rowing with his girlfriend.

Incredibly he simply got up and trotted off into the night as distraught friends and hotel security began a frantic search for him, The Mirror reports.

Stunned doctors later declared he should have died from the fall and even dubbed him Rubber Band Man after his amazing escape.

Two hours after his fall Paget strolled back into the hotel lobby complaining of a bad back.

He was taken to hospital where a scan revealed he had fractured his lower spine.

He said yesterday: "The doctors were amazed that I lived to tell the tale.

"They said I was like a rubber band and just bounced - I was so lucky."

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A problem with his insurers meant he had to discharge himself from hospital after two days though.

Worried doctors wanted him flown home on a stretcher but, without his insurance cover, he had to make do with a back brace and a wheelchair.

Theo said that he felt dizzy on the balcony before his horror fall at the Blue Bays DeLuxe hotel early on Saturday.

He added: "I remember hitting the ground and lying there a minute to catch my breath.

"Then everyone started crowding round so I jumped up and ran off."

Hotel guest Rachel Gregory, from Doncaster, said: "I could hear a girl screaming. We looked out and we could see this lad lying on the concrete floor below.

"At first he didn't move and I thought he was dead. He looked all twisted up. Then he just jumped up and ran off into the night."

Paget was jailed for 20 years yesterday for shooting doorman Dan Lewis outside Sub8ten in Leicester.
Bastille Day is celebrated on July 14 every year marking the French National Day.

Celebrate all things French this weekend right in the heart of Laois at the Portarlington French Festival also know as Festival Francais de Portarlington.

The festival is purposely held on this weekend every year to coincide with Bastille Day.

But where exactly do the French connection to Portarlington actually come from?

Around 1702, 500 Huguenots lived in Portarlington with names such as Blanc, Camelin, Champ, Des Voeux, Pilot and Vignoles.

The vibrant community they created spread into Offaly and the surrounding countryside.

Portarlington became known for its Public Classical School, where children of well-to-do families were taught French manners. The most famous was Arlington (now the vacant Travel Goods factory). Another well-known school, Ecole St. Germain, was in the building now known as the East End Hotel.

In the early 18th century, Portarlington was the Paris of the Midlands, a place where French, rather than Irish or English, was spoken on the streets.

The French rebuilt areas in Portarlington that were destroyed during wars and that is still celebrated today with the weekend of community celebrations.

The snail eating competition and the best French fancy dress costume are two nods to French culture that will be taking place over the weekend.

The festival needs volunteers! Get involved here.

See a full line up of what's on in Portarlington this weekend here.

Read more about the launch night with Bon Jovi tribute act here.
A Slovakian national with no job or social welfare who shoplifted groceries on two occasions has been offered money from the court poor box in order to get a plane ticket back to Slovakia.

Before yesterdays (Thursday, July 13) Portlaoise District Court was Imrich Tichy (54), with an address listed at Main Street, Rathdowney.

Inspector Eamonn Curley gave evidence that on May 19 this year, at Dealz, Laois Shopping Centre, Portlaoise, the gardai were called as the accused was being held on suspicion of stealing goods.

CCTV footage was viewed and the accused was observed filling two shopping bags with goods worth 73.12 before leaving the store without paying.

It was discovered that on May 17 the accused had stolen 30 of goods.

The goods were not recovered, said Insp Curley.

Defence, Ms Josephine Fitzpatrick said her client, a Slovakian national who came to Ireland in January of this year hoping to secure work, had no income at all and no social welfare.

Ms Fitzpatrick said her client seemed like a genuine man and had made full admissions to the gardai. She said he was living with a friend and this sort of offending wouldnt happen again.

Judge Catherine Staines observed the accused had no way of living in Ireland and asked had he thought of going back to Slovakia.

The accused replied, through an interpreter, that he had, but he didnt have the money to go back as his family would not provide the money for him.

Saying that it was in the interest of everybody if the accused went back to Slovakia, Judge Staines said that if the accused was able to source flights then the court would give him the money out of the court poor box.

When the case was recalled, Ms Fitzpatrick said that the cost of a flight to Slovakia that day would be 381. She said that flights would be cheaper in two weeks time and offered to assist the accused in purchasing a ticket.

Judge Staines said that the court poor box would reimburse Ms Fitzpatrick, and compensation of 105 would also be paid to Dealz out of the poor box.

The matter was put back to September 7.
Solidarity TD, Paul Murphy has accused the Justice Minister, Charlie Flanagan of defaming him in a Dail exchange this week.

In a letter to the Ceann Comhairle, Deputy Murphy states that Minister Flanagan made "a defamatory accusation implying that Deputy Murphy had previously made threats against members of the House or others."

He claims that during exchanges between Deputy Murphy and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Minister Flanagan commented, "More threats."

The letter to the Ceann Comhairle, is signed by Solidarity TDs Deputy Murphy, Ruth Coppinger and Mick Barry.

The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar is also accused of defaming Deputy Murphy and being in breach of Standing Order 61 for his comments during Leaders Questions on 12 July.

The letter states: "Responding to the question the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said, 'It may well be the case that the Deputy was not engaged in kidnapping, but it was thuggery and your behaviour was wrong.' This is a direct accusation of thuggery and is defamatory.

"He further remarked, The protest was ugly, it was violent, it was nasty. This is an allegation that Deputy Murphy was involved in a violent protest, which again is defamatory.

"The Taoiseach goes on to say, For those of us who have seen some of the coverage of it that was broadcast on television, whether it was the anger, the virulence, the words that were being directed at two women going about their course of work on the day a water balloon being thrown in somebody's face, all of those things were behaviour that is unbecoming of a Member of this House, unbecoming of somebody who believes in democracy and unbecoming of somebody who has any respect for other human beings. In these comments the Taoiseach clearly alleges that Deputy Murphy was involved in anger, virulence and throwing a water balloon by saying that all of those things were behaviour that is unbecoming of a Member of this House. These are false allegations, which are defamatory.

"During these exchanges, Minister for Justice Deputy Charlie Flanagan said More threats. This is a defamatory accusation implying that Deputy Murphy had previously made threats against members of the House or others.

The letter concludes: "Deputy Murphy has been found not guilty of false imprisonment. It is also a matter of public record that Deputy Murphy never engaged in, nor encouraged violence or threatening or abusive behaviour in any way. Deputy Murphy is entitled to have his good name and integrity upheld against these allegations and insinuations.



"We believe that the defamatory nature of these remarks may not have been apparent to the Ceann Comhairle at the time, and in line with Standing Order 61 (3) would request that you consider the remarks made by the numerous Member of the House outlined above."
The future of 200 vital Portlaoise jobs has been raised with a Government Minister by Laois Sinn Fein TD, Brian Stanley.

The TD questioned the Minister for Communications, Denis Naughten, in the Dail on the future of the Portlaoise Mail Centre which is located beside Laois GAA HQ O'Moore Park.

Deputy Stanley said Minister Naughten must act to protect the jobs at the centre which is vital to many families in Laois.

"I am fed up with Ministers telling us the company operates at one remove from the Oireachtas and Ministers cannot act on operational matters. They take the information provided to them by Chief Executives of semi-state companies at face value. Deputies take an interest in An Post on behalf of the public and the Minister is our representative.

The importance of retaining the Portlaoise Mail centre cannot be overstated," said Dep Stanley.

The Laois TD said he has met with the CEO of An Post, David McRedmond, and trade union representatives from the Portlaoise Centre.

"The Minister has a responsibility here and cannot, therefore, act as a spectator...I asked the Minister directly what the future holds for the Mail Centre in Portlaoise. I outlined the importance of the centre, which employs 200 people, with additional staff of 180 over the Christmas period," said the TD.

The centre processes up to 450,000 mail items and 28,000 parcels per night. Portlaoise centre is the international parcel centre for An post.

"I informed the Minister that it is an extremely busy facility that operates far in excess of the capacity it was built to handle and also takes the overflow from Dublin, he said.

Deputy Stanley added that the issue is that the post office network and the future of the mail centres are intertwined. He asked Minister Naughten to take a direct interest and retain the mail centres in Athlone and Portlaoise.

"The survival of the Portlaoise Mail Centre is vital to the local economy and must be retained, said the TD.
Laois was bypassed by the IDA when it comes to showing the county to foreign investors who could create jobs here according to latest official figures.

Laois Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming asked the Tanaiste and Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Frances Fitzgerald about the number of IDA visits to County Laois for each of the past three years and the number of visits to date in 2017.

In reply the Tanaiste revealed that no companies have been brought to the county in the first four months of 2017. She also admitted that just over 2.5% of jobs in four midland counties are located in Laois.

In 2013 just two came while none visited the following year. In 2015 four companies were shown Laois while six investors were in Laois last year.

Replying to Dep Fleming in the Dail Minister Fitzgerald said the Government is committed to regional development and her Department and its Agencies are working towards ambitious targets to ensure that employment and investment are as fairly distributed as possible across the country.

"In June 2015, my Department published a Midlands Regional Enterprise Strategy as part of the Action Plan for Jobs. Good progress is being made but I know that more remains to be done, especially in counties like Laois.

"County Laois is marketed by IDA Ireland as part of the Midlands region, together with Counties Westmeath, Longford and Offaly. In total, there are 30 multinational companies based in the Midlands, employing 4,280 people.

"There are 115 people employed by those IDA Ireland client companies based in Laois," admitted the Minister.

She said site visits represent one tool through which the IDA has sought to encourage more investment in Laois. She said ten visits in 2015 and 2016 led to the creation of 28 new IDA Ireland supported jobs.

The Tanaiste said that as part of this Action Plan the Laois Local Enterprise Office (LEO) is advancing three projects - which are in receipt of approximately 230,000 of funding through the LEO Competitive Fund. She said these projects should help to collectively foster further enterprise and employment growth in the county.
Talks have taken place on getting the IDA 'end its neglect' of Laois when bringing jobs and foreign investment to Ireland, according to Laois TD and Minister Charlie Flanagan.

In a statement Minister for Justice and Equality Flanagan said he met with the Tanaiste and Minister for Jobs and Enterprise, Ms Frances Fitzgerald, to discuss the need for a greater IDA focus on Laois.

The meeting followed a meeting convened by Minister Flanagan in Portlaoise in May where he met with IBEC and made the case for a greater enterprise focus on Laois given its strategic location and infrastructural advantages.

It also follows figures which reveal that Laois was completely bypassed in the first quarter of 2017 by the agency which is tasked with bringing foreign investment and jobs to Ireland.

No companies were brought to Laois by the IDA which travels the world to bring investment and jobs to Ireland. Minister Fitzgerald revealed figures that show just 2.5% of more than 4,000 IDA backed jobs in the midlands are located in Laois. READ STORY HERE

The IDA has been ordered by Government to bring jobs the regions but the latest figures appear to prove the Laois is falling through the net. Minister Flanagan appears to agree.

I am very concerned by the latest figures which show an absence of IDA focus on Co. Laois which has been historically neglected. It is time for that neglect to end.

"Laois now has a very strong offering  it is strategically located between the capital city and the second largest city in Ireland. It has an excellent motorway network making it easily accessible. It has available sites and a hard-working and well educated populace  which is growing all the time according to the last three census. I have asked both the Chief Executive of Laois County Council and the Regional Midlands Skills Manager to examine the question of a skills audit for the county to see if more training programmes are required," he said.

Minister Flanagan was recently Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and worked alongside the IDA in promoting Ireland to investors. He said construction is underway for a 100% fibre-optic network in Portlaoise which will give connectivity of 1,000Mbps. He said the roll out of this high speed broadband will make Portlaoise, in particular, an attractive town for business to operate from.

I have had several meetings with the IDA and I am confident that these figures will grow.Quality of life is so important to people today and Co. Laois offers quality of life in abundance  with many good schools, amenities, heritage sites and recreational facilities  a great place to live, work and raise a family," he said.

Apart from a big spending on infrastructure, Laois also has one one of the youngest populations in the country. Recent Census results show that Portlaoise is the 5th youngest town in Ireland but many leave for educational and employment reasons.

READ MORE HERE ON CENSUS FIGURES FOR LAOIS
There is a long held, yet somewhat mistaken belief that Nas na Riogh is the original Irish name for the town of Naas.

It is thought to mean assembly or meeting place of the kings. There is in fact no word nas in the modern or archaic Irish language with this meaning.

However, the place-name Nas goes right back to our earliest written histories and the mythological age of Ireland. It is associated with Lugh, Celtic Sun-God and king of the Tuatha de Dannan, one of the most important figures in Irish Mythology.

Like many ancient Irish deities, Lugh had several wives, including the modest Nas. According to the legend, she was a mythological queen or goddess, who died and was buried at the place named after her (Naas).

Ancient verses known as the Dindshenchas (Lore of Places), recount the origins of place-names and their traditions. Taken from Irish manuscripts dating back to the 10th Century AD, these poems are in turn based on oral traditions dating back many centuries earlier. One of these verses is known as the Dindshenchas Nas.

(Nas) claims of right the brow and the beauty of the spot, since she is gone, with the noise of combat, how should ye know at all the spot where she died?

Nas took in hand a deed unwise: (truth and not folly) death oerwhelmed her; tis from her Nas was named, famous perpetually for stern law.

Nas of the Leinstermen, bright with splendid bounty, tis there the lady was buried; from her it is called with clear certitude: the lore of the ancient hides not this.

Dun Nas, known today as The Moat Hill, is traditionally thought to be the final resting place of Nas. Some accounts say she was buried there on the spot where she died. Others say Lugh buried her on the hill so she could be closer to the sun god himself. Dun Nas is even referred to in the Annals of the Four Masters dating from the year 705 AD. There are many other examples of the of the place-name Nas in early Irish literature.

On the few occasions that a longer form of the town-name was written in early Irish literature, Nas Laighean (Naas of Leinster) was used rather than Nas na Riogh (Naas of the Kings), the first recorded reference of which is not until 1650. Even then, it was used only as a descriptive title, in reference to the ancient seat of the Leinster kings, once based in the town. There are also recorded examples of the town-name as it was referred to by native Irish speakers as late as the 18th century, when it is still referred to as Nas.

With the gaelic revival of the late 19th and early 20th century, the name, Nas na Riogh, was recommended in a gazetteer of postal-towns published in 1905, along with the older Nas Laighean, and a variant of the original name, An Nas. This variant has no prior references in Irish literature.

I am putting forward this information, not by way of a lesson in history or folklore, but rather to provide some context to the motion on which the current custodians of our towns heritage (the Naas Town Council), have put forward. That is, whether to change the official Irish name of the town from An Nas to Nas na Riogh.

Let us not lose the ancient name given to this town on the misguided belief that Nas na Riogh is the original Irish name. Or that somehow, its royal associations may be of benefit to the town. If anything, we should return to its original Irish name, Nas. In honour of the ancient goddess from whom it was named. As the Dindshenchas states

Nas tis there the lady was buried; from her it is called with clear certitude: the lore of the ancient hides not this.

Simon Tuite is a Naas resident and Director of Monumental Ireland
Ronan OGaras wife, Jessica will be among a group of amateur jockeys preparing for the first leg of the Corinthian Challenge at the Curragh racecourse this Sunday to raise funds for the injured jockey fund.

Having spent the last few months in training, the fourteen riders will show what they are made of when the first race of the series takes place at the Kildare track at 5.50pm.

Other well-known names taking part this year are professional showjumper Tim Gredley and Sheikh Fahad Al Thani.

Several other keen riders such as Orla Donworth from Baroda Stud and Lynne McLoughlin who works with jockey Jessica Harrington will also wear their silks this Sunday.

Other entrants to the charity race series include Alan Redmond, Killian McCarthy, Paul Devereux, Paddy Woods, Deborah Mangan, Fiona Ahern, Louise Burnell, Patricia Newman and Diana Hogan Murphy.

The riders must go through a rigorous fitness and racing routine and weight maintenance. Each rider will aim to raise 10,000 each through sponsorship and fundraising with all proceeds going to Irish Injured Jockeys.

Online donations may be made through each riders page on www.corinthianchallenge.com or sent directly to Irish Injured Jockeys at Curragh House in Kildare.

This will be the first of the three-race series, which happens to fall on the weekend of the Darley Irish Oaks at The Curragh where they will compete on the 1.5 mile Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby track.

The second series takes place on Saturday September 16 at Gowran Park, Co. Kilkenny. The grand finale of the Corinthian Challenge will take place over the Longines Champions Weekend at Leopardstown Racecourse where the action will happen on Sunday October 22.

The overall winner, having accumulated the most points over the series, will be announced that afternoon.
A Newbridge man was pivotal in highlighting the dangers of the Grenfell Tower building months before the devastating fire, which took the lives of eighty people.

Speaking to Morning Ireland, Francis OConnor, co-founder of the Grenfell Action Group, told of how he lived in the area for many years before returning home recently.

In an interview with reporter Louise Byrne recorded earlier this week, which was broadcast this morning, he told how residents had warned that fire safety issues in the bulding could lead to a catastrophic event.

Even after Mr OConnor returned to Newbridge, he continued to highlight the problems, and he said he was even threatened by the council, who accused him of defamation.

He told how on November 30 last, he wrote on the Grenfell Action Group website that a catastrophic event would occur if action wasnt taken.

Back in Newbridge, Mr OConnor was following the Trump coverage on CNN when images of the Grenfell Tower came on screen.

When asked how he felt, given that the Action Group had been raising fire safety concerns for some time, he said: Furious, I guess, because we werent listened to for so long, and somehow this catastrophe occurred.

I couldnt believe what I was seeing

When the images of his former estate came on screen with the fire raging, he said; That hurt you know, and it still hurts, and I think this is maybe the first time Im starting to feel my own pain about it, because I lived in that community for so long.
While picking over the bones of our, what could charitably be called, middling, general election campaign, many Lib Dems have called on the party to develop a new identity of some kind. A single issue that we can define ourselves with. I respectfully think that such an approach is unlikely to lead to the electoral promised-land that some have hoped for.

I am yet to be convinced that there is such an issue, but even assuming one exists that the public likes, there is an underlying paucity at heart of the party in terms of councillors, vote share, seats and public trust. A new identity may help to address some of these, but realistically, much of our resurrection is only going to be based upon time, rebuilding our local base and effort.

We have constructed our parliamentary success historically upon the bedrock of strong and local campaigns. Boiling down from national context to seat-by-seat contests, often with victories instigated at council level and then translated upwards. Not only did it help to breach out credibility gap with the public (the idea that we couldnt win somewhere), but it also compensated for our relative lack of party profile and money, as compared to Labour and the Conservatives.

This approach also had significant drawbacks. For one, it certainly hampered our ability to gain a truly national identity. When I think of issues that really cut through positively for us nationally during the golden years of the prior decade, I essentially see our opposition to the Iraq War and Cleggamania; both were inherently transitory. The national purpose problem mattered a great deal when we were winnings scores of seats and felt like we were close to demolishing the edifice of two-party politics. However, things have dramatically altered since then.

We are now in a situation where we have very little parliamentary representations, polling which hovers between 7% and 8%, a massively diminished number of seats where we finished second and a drained local government base. I do not think that strong national branding alone will help to solve these issues.

Barring the miraculous emergence of our own Macron or Trudeau (and even then, the influence would not be replicable due to the electoral system and relative party strength), I have little solace to offer than time, effort and a call to redouble our excellent local campaigning. We absolutely should ensure that our national vision and messaging is better than it was for the recent election, but the wounds inflicted in recent years will only be fully healed by the balm of time.

The sort of post-Coalition repair we need may take a similar length of time as it took the Conservatives following Blairs landslide in 1997. In other words, were looking at three to four electoral cycles. In time, we can also probably assume that the stonking incompetence of the both the Conservative and Labour parties in their current guises will become increasingly evident. This is doubly true with regard to Brexit. Consequently, I think our issue is less one of wholesale rebranding, as it is building a platform from the ground up, so that we can capitalise on opportunities born of events when they occur.

So, in the meantime, we need to get back to basics in our communities. Whereas even the best parliamentary campaign can be neutered by national factors, at a local level we can really make a difference here and now. For no party is the grassroots more vital and I have long been proud of how much value we place on it.

I fully admit that my two-pennies worth to solving our existential problems as a party are hardly likely elicit the inspiration of a leading conference speech. But I believe that due to the factors outlined above, they are realistic. Moreover, they have worked in the past and I truly believe that they can do so again at this undeniably tough time for our party.
The British like to think they invented the law. It is true that thanks to empire and successful European wars, British law is the foundation of many of the worlds legal systems.

It is certainly the cornerstone of the American judicial system and the old imperial countries. British lawyers rewrote the law books in Germany following World War Two and contributed heavily to the European Court of Justice with which they are currently having so many problems.

Actually, the principle that the rule of law MUST underwrite civilized societies dates back to at least ancient Egypt. It is there where we find the first allegorical representation of the Goddess Justice holding the scales in which the rights and wrongs of a case were impartially weighed. The Egyptians called her Anubis.

The Greeks called her Dike, and added the sword to represent the finality of legal decisions. The Romans provided the moniker Justitia, or Justice, and the Swiss added the blindfold in the 16h century.

But the Britishand by association the United States have for centuries been the keenest exponents of what is generally termed the rule of law. They have argued that the laws built on centuries of parliamentary debate, court precedents, seasoned with a bucketful of common sense and administered by judges trained for their impartiality must always be above the variable winds of politics.

Representative politics represent the majority view. The law in the form of an independent judiciary protects not only the majority but also the minority so that all of society is protected, hence the blindfold and scales.

All of this makes it surprising that Britain and America appear to be subtly undermining the rule of law and following the examples of authoritarian countries such as Russia and China in trying to subjugate the law to the political will.

The latest manifestation is the aftermath of the horrific Grenfell Tower fire. The current indications are that the fire was the result of local government and contractors saving pennies at the expense of safety. Theresa May has ordered an inquiry and appointed the respected upper crust Cambridge-educated judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick to head it.

But Grenfell Tower was public housing. Its residents were from the poorest sections of society who have for years felt exploited by establishment figures such as Sir Martin. They dont want him. Their acute dislike was echoed by local Labour MP Emma Coad who demanded his replacement and said: I dont understand how anybody like that can have any empathy for what those people have been through

So why is Sir Martin the right person for the job? Because he is trained to be impartial and make decisions based on facts rather than empathy and social connections. Justice is blind.

The other side of the British class divide is just as guilty of bending the law to their political position, as demonstrated by the legal battles that preceded the invoking Article 50 of the EU Lisbon Treaty which was needed to start the formal Brexit process.

The Conservative government claimed that the referendum result overruled the sovereignty of parliament. Not so said the High Court and ruled that the Brexit process could not start until after debate and vote in parliament.

The right-wing, anti-EU tabloid The Daily Mail branded the judges Enemies of the People. The governmentwhich is sworn to uphold the lawremained silent for over a day before reluctantly defending the need for an impartial and independent judiciary. Even then, it spent millions appealing the decision to the Supreme Courtwhere it lost. The journalist who wrote the Daily Mail headline, James Slack, became Theresa Mays official spokesperson.

Donald Trump is not much better. He undermined the rule of law when he attacked the so-called federal judges blocking his Muslim travel ban. He did the same when he abruptly sacked 46 Obama-era federal prosec utors and again when dismissed FBI director James Comey for being too dogged in his investigation of the Russian hacking scandal.

It is often said that the law is an ass. Personally I would rather be judged by an ass than a political hack.

* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and the author of The Encyclopedia of the Cold War and the recently published America Made in Britain that has sold out in the US after six weeks but is still available in the UK.
In an interview with the Guardian published tonight, Vince Cable sets out some lofty ambitions for the party:

I ask him what would constitute success for his leadership. If there is a significant improvement in our vote share, and a sense that we are back in the frame as a serious party being listened to, he says. He is not looking merely at picking up the odd seat  his age doesnt permit him that incremental approach  but is more interested in driving up popular support. You could come from third to first very quickly. He is encouraged by Emmanuel Macrons remarkable ascent and the appeal of radical centrism in France, and draws parallels with Britain. The right had become discredited in France, while here the Tory brand is becoming discredited by the day, and there was also a reaction against the Melenchon left.

Thats a long way from where we are now, so under what circumstances can we get there? Well, the true cost of Brexit is going to become apparent:

Cable stands by his suggestion that we may never leave the EU. The Brexit process is going to get very messy. I meet a lot of senior civil servants and theyre trying to be loyal, but their eyebrows rise. They just cant see how it can be done. The government havent taken on board the complexity of unwinding 40 years of regulatory activity. He says the row over Euratomis a taste of the chaos to come. The Brexiteers are only just beginning to understand the enormous can of worms they have opened up. Does he see any form of Brexit that can work? Im increasingly pessimistic, he says. He thinks there is a 50-50 chance that Britain will get a deal and transition period that safeguard the economy. That could happen, he says. But I think theres a very high risk of the whole thing falling apart and [the UK] crashing out, with all the costs associated with it. Its at that point that the second referendum becomes absolutely essential.

If you like that kind of thing, theres a delicious put-down of Corbyn:

He doubts whether Corbyn can win an election. We all underestimated him. He managed very well and was good on television, but hes a pro-Brexit leader with an anti-Brexit following, and the Venezuelan economics is not, I think, likely to appeal.

Whats missing, though, is a road map of how we get to the heights he wants us to reach. We cant just rely on it all falling into our laps once Brexit goes bad. When he publishes his leaders manifesto, well get more of an idea.

I have to say Id never thought of Vince as the selfie type

Cable is, in any case, a young 74. I meet him at Waterloo station  under the clock as tradition dictates  and he easily outpaces me in the dash for the 3.20pm to Twickenham, where he is holding his first constituency surgery since regaining the seat with a thumping 10,000 majority in June. The woman he is sitting next to on the train recognises him, says she is a Lib Dem activist and insists on a selfie. He quickly produces a comb to run through the remnants of his hair before she takes the picture. The dapper, ballroom-dancing Cable  today sporting an elegant suit and striking tie, though not his trademark fedora  may be more image-conscious than his Victorian predecessor.

There is much more as he castigates the Brexiteers for getting us all into a mess that they didnt even understand. And some surprising commments about Theresa May. Read more here.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
THE SOCIAL Democrats has put forward its party chairperson Sarah Jane Hennelly to run for the Limerick City constituency, in anticipation of an early general election.

The 29-year-old community development officer with Paul Partnership stood in the February 2016 general election, securing more than 3,600 votes which she described as extremely promising.

It has been widely reported that an early election is expected, with 2018 deemed most likely.

Selected by local party colleagues, Ms Hennelly hit out at the currently-sitting TDs for not raising the issue of Limericks unemployment blackspots at national level.

Looking at the Census statistics showing Limerick as the unemployment blackspot of the country last week broke my heart. It is not good enough  we have some of the most powerful elected representatives in the country  theyve served around 20 to 30 years each. I cannot recall them talking about this issue seriously and it makes me incredibly angry to be honest.

A native of Mayo, Ms Hennelly came to Limerick in 2006 to study at University of Limerick. She first stood as an Independent for the Limerick City East district in 2014. Before joining the Social Democrats, she was headhunted by the current Minister for Transport Shane Ross to join the Independent Alliance.

The election could be called at any time so we plan to be ready. We dont want to leave anything behind, we feel theres a space for us here, she said.
IT COULD have been the humid atmosphere, or the prospect of a few weeks off that caused what seemed like months of tensions to bubble to the surface at a west Limerick council meeting this Tuesday.

No holds were barred at the Adare Rathkeale monthly municipal meeting  the last one before September.

It started well, with one and all congratulating Cllr Stephen Keary on his election as Mayor of Limerick City and County since last month.

Cathaoirleach Cllr Richard ODonoghue was quick to tell other members to get to the point, unless they wanted to be there until tomorrow.

The Askeaton arts group spoke of a noble effort to seek funding to buy an arts centre. With the support of Fianna Fail Cllr Kevin Sheahan, the group had pinpointed a suitable Askeaton property currently on the market.

Then, it transpired that Cllr Sheahan is one of the auctioneers selling the house in question.

I have a reservation, said Independent Cllr Emmett OBrien.

I am fully supportive of the project. The difficulty I have is this. A councillor who is an auctioneer has proposed a delegation to come in, is proposing for a property to be bought, while being an auctioneer in the sale of that property. I am very uneasy about that. He presumably stands to have a financial input on the transaction. Does that present a conflict?

This is not a personal attack, added Cllr OBrien.

But Cllr Sheahan struck back: I have made it quite clear in recent times to the owner of the property that if this were to happen, I would have to make a public statement withdrawing totally from the sale, other than to introduce the purchaser to the vendor.

The most I wanted out of it financially was that I would get a cup of coffee on the day we would shake hands on it. I have a track record  second to none! Im here a long time in the council, and I have never allowed my own personal life to interfere in any way with commercial activity, where public money is involved, he said.

Sinn Fein Cllr Ciara McMahon admitted that she winced when Cllr Sheahan announced his position as auctioneer, but said she had full faith that he would step back if needed.

Fine Gael Cllr Adam Teskey praised Cllr Sheahan for his transparency.

Last month, the members rallied for the reinstatement of weekend street cleaning in tourism hub Adare, but were told that the budget for it wasnt immediately accessible. During the month, a post appeared on Facebook  its understood to have been one by Cllr Emmett OBrien  announcing that it had in fact been reinstated. This week, Cllr Teskey moved to provide the same level of cleaning to all the districts towns, in the interest of fairness.

When I was first co-opted to the council, I made representations to everyone on the council executive with regards to the street cleaning in Adare, said Cllr Teskey.

I was disappointed to find out from a member of the public who rang me up, to question the way in which I make representations for them, and to say that I ultimately failed in what I had done. I would like to stress to the people of Adare that I do represent them. I went down every avenue I could go down, but obviously, some other councillors representations are dealt with at a higher level than mine, added Cllr Teskey with a sting.

I dont find it a laughing matter at all, Cllr OBrien, he said crisply, but I am glad to see its reinstated.

Cllr Sheahan said: I want to know why it was up on Facebook by one councillor before I and others were notified of the decision to change what we had reviewed at the meeting. Am I some kind of councillor who would be told second hand, or find out on Facebook?

Cllr OBrien said that the motion is not about personal egos.

Its really about working for the constituents who elected us  well, who elected five of us at least, he said curtly.

Cllr Teskey said: I was democratically elected by the Fine Gael party, to replace Deputy Tom Neville in this council, and I will be working in harmony with my party colleague Stephen Keary at the next election.

Cllr McMahon said that she is not getting into the pettiness of this, telling the others to move on.

There are more important things going on in this district.

But Cllr Kevin Sheahan said that its easy to be told to move on.

But Im not going to sit here and be called names in the meetings, outside the meetings. The latest one is that fat effer, and it is used regularly by a particular councillor, he said.

Amidst all of that, the six councillors thrashed out ideas to reduce the litter problem in the district.

If takeaways were closed at a normal hour, it might help with the situation, said Mayor of Limerick, Stephen Keary  a suggestion which could surely lead to some dismay for those who are partial to a bag of chips after a night at the local watering hole.
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Akhil Sharmas wounded world In his first collection of short stories, Akhil Sharma's landscape is unrelentingly cruel, and his prose razor sharp /news/talking-point/akhil-sharma-s-wounded-world-111646992493909.html 111646992493909 story

Akhil Sharmas universe is a quiet one. Quiet and devastating. Where tragedy befalls and wrecks characters in the space of an instant: a few minutes in a swimming pool, the click of a mouse, a gesture, a look, a conversation. In this way, the book, a collection of eight masterful short stories, couldnt have been more ironically titled. For within the pages of A Life Of Adventure And Delight, people are crippled by forces both external and within.

The book comes in the wake of Sharmas massively acclaimed and much awarded second novel, Family Life, which won the Folio Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award in 2015. In these two books, what shines is his language.

In an April 2014 essay for The New Yorker, titled A Novel Like A Rocket", Sharma outlines the difficulties he had writing the autobiographical Family Lifeit took over 12 yearsmentioning that apart from the emotional upheaval the process caused, he struggled especially with three technical challenges. The first being point of view, since his narrator was a young boy; tricky since children understand bits and pieces of whats happening, but they cant process what it all means". The second was representing the physical horror of the situation that is at the heart of the novelthe protagonists older brother hits his head on the side of a swimming pool and sinks into a comatose state for the rest of his life. And the last, most pertinently, has to do with writing a book without a plot.

It was, Sharma says, the hardest to resolve. So he looked for novels that shared some of the same DNA as (his) book". Yet the texts, among them A House For Mr Biswas, Radetzky March, Remembrance Of Things Past, failed to help. Until he read Anton Chekhov. And noticing that Chekhov relies heavily on certain aspects of our sensessmell, sound, touchand very little on the visual. This, according to Sharma, helps create a sense of immediacy and realism in the text, but without a plot, descriptions adding to the visceral reality weighed down the writing, leaving the reader stuck in a particular scene". Without causation, a stronger sense of the present tense seemed irrelevant. Reading Chekhov," continues Sharma, I began to wonder what it would be like to remove sound, feel and smell, and to leave just visuals and dialogue and introspection."

It worked.

Sharmas prose in Family Life and A Life Of Adventure And Delight is pruned to the barest essentials, leaving readers to negotiate a carefully pared sensual reality. Even geographical cues are few and far between, marking some of these stories with a strange anywhereness. What saves them from flimsiness though is the rich emotional landscapes Sharma invests in his characters. Laying them bare, holding them up unflinchingly, flaws and all, to the light.

In Cosmopolitan, the collections first story, for example, we first meet Gopal Maurya at his most vulnerablesleeping and naked, hurriedly pulling on crumpled pants and a shirt to greet his neighbour, Mrs Shaw, at the door. We learn that his wife and daughter have left him, and he is on his own, somehow getting by in a house that is beginning to rapidly show signs of neglect and shabbiness. Much like himself. The neighbours embark on an affair, regularly spending more time together, but Gopals strategy to get to know Mrs Shaw better is to read articles on how to be a good lover in womens magazines. Later, to win friends within the expat Indian community, he memorizes jokes from 1,001 Polish Jokes" and changes the Poles to Sikhs. It doesnt work, and in the end, he also loses Mrs Shaw.

A Life Of Adventure And Delight: By Akhil Sharma, Penguin Random House, 190 pages, Rs599.

This stumbling social awkwardness runs through the book. With people trying, and mostly failing, to create connections. Quite telling then that the title story opens with the protagonist Gautama being arrested for hiring a prostitute. A small-town boy from India, he had arrived in New York to study for a PhD, and like many foreign students in America who are living far away from home for the first time, he had immediately begun loitering on Craigslist and Backpage". After all, he knew he would have to get married one day, and he hoped to have as much sex as possible before then...." Gautama does find tentative love and happiness with Nirmala, a fellow Indian student, but because his parents dont approve of the match, he ends the relationship, and at the end we find him back on Craigslist, looking for adventure and delight".

Sharmas world is also unrelentingly cruel, with his characters propelled not so much by personal choice and preference as by conservative familial traditions that are as asphyxiating in America as in India. In If You Sing Like That For Me, Sharma skilfully captures the sense of watching your own life unfurl before you while you stand aside and watch. Here, our young newly wedded narrator struggles to love her arranged marriage partner, Rajinder, and tries to hold on to the tenderness she feels for him on one single afternoon. Also crushed by loveless ties is Lakshmans mother in You Are Happy? In this story, the desperation and despair spiral into raging alcoholism, and Sharmas bare descriptions of the nameless mother slowly losing her grip on life are among the books most moving passages. Eventually, for the shame she has brought upon them, she is sent back to India, to be murdered by her family.

Sharmas prose is pruned to the barest essentials, leaving readers to negotiate a carefully pared sensual reality. Even geographical cues are few and far between, marking some of these stories with a strange anywhereness. What saves them from flimsiness though is the rich emotional landscapes Sharma invests in his characters.-

Despite the seeming geographical looseness of the stories, conflict also arises in cross-cultural disjuncture, which makes impossible relationships attempting to straddle these different worlds. Mrs Shaw, for instance, forever remains a mystery to Gopal. I love you," she tells him, but I am not in love with you." In the last story, The Well, theres a sadly hilarious scene where the protagonists Indian mother places a box of jewellery on the table, offering it to Betsy, a white girl his son has got pregnant and wants to marry. This despite Betsy saying she likes Pavan but doesnt want to marry him, and in fact isnt ready to get married at all.

For me, the story which seemed at odds with the others in the collection was Surrounded By Sleep, an early piece of fiction carved out from Family Life. Here too the narrators elder brother nearly drowns in a swimming pool, and we follow the gradual unravelling of the family in the aftermath of the tragedy. Perhaps because I know it to be expanded in form otherwise, it seemed thematically less developed, and, in a way, incomplete. Yet Sharmas characteristic psychological insight runs powerfully through this story too. The boy suffers much from guilt and neglectful parents, erupting in quiet tears and a demand for Christmas presents: You have to give me something. I should get something for all this."

Sharmas prose cuts in razor-edge slices, thin, deep, and leaves his characters, and readers, bleeding, sometimes without them even noticing.



Janice Pariat is the author of Seahorse: A Novel.
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed by LTTE in a suicide blast at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu while he was on a poll campaign during the 1991 general election.
The top 10 museum exhibitions you need to see this summer From New York to London, St Petersburg to Vienna, when everyone's on vacation, museums still step it up /news/talking-point/the-top-10-museum-exhibitions-you-need-to-see-this-summer-111646992797448.html 111646992797448 story

Museums have a reputation for saving their serious" exhibitions for the winter, spring and fallthe Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Shchukin Collection at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the David Hockney retrospective at the Tate in London, for instance. Summer, when patrons and donors and critics are on vacation, is supposedly the time for low-budget follies. However, many museums make use of their excellent, often unseen permanent collections to create quiet, highly creative shows that are well worth a visit. The following 10 exhibitions are all cases in point: They range in scope, scale and content, but each, in its own way, is proof that summer is still a season for art.

1. Eduardo Arroyo: Dans Le Respect Des Traditions

At the Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence, France

The Fondation Maeght, a private exhibition space perched on a mountainside in the south of France, was founded in 1964 by art dealers Marguerite and Aime Maeght. Its permanent collection, which includes sculptures by Giacometti and a labyrinth" designed by Joan Miro, is always a draw, but its temporary shows are equally good. A collection of work by the Spanish painter Eduardo Arroyo (born 1937 in Madrid) showcases one of the giants of postwar painting who, for whatever reason, has been undervalued by the art world for decades. That probably wont last long. On till 19 November

La mujer del minero Prez Martinez llamada Tina es rapada por la policia by Eduardo Arroyo (1970).

2. The Henkin Brothers: A Discovery. People Of 1920-30s Berlin And Leningrad

At the Hermitage, St Petersburg

Rarely has an exhibition made more sense, or seemed more clever, than the juxtaposition of photographs by the brothers Evgeny and Yakov Henkin. Born in Rostov-on-Don, a port city in southern Russia on the border of Ukraine, in 1900 and 1903, respectively, the brothers split up after the October Revolution, one moving to Berlin, the other to Moscow. The Hermitage, a museum known for its unparalleled collection of old-master paintings, has organized an exhibition that contrasts the trajectory (and parallels) of the two brothers lives as their respective cities transitioned from the comparatively ebullient 1920s to the increasingly despotic and bellicose 1930s.

On till 24 September

3. China And Egypt. Cradles Of The World

At the Neues Museum, Berlin

In a very different example of contrasting timelines, this show comprises 250 objects spanning nearly 4,000 years and charts the development of the two earliest and most sophisticated societies on the planet. The exhibitions objects include a full Chinese burial suit made out of jade blocks from about 200 BCE, a perfectly preserved polychrome Egyptian stella from about 1350 BCE, and a gorgeously filigreed 13th century BCE Chinese wine vessel in the shape of an ox, on loan from the Shanghai Museum. A bonus: the Neues Museums beautifully designed interiors by starchitect David Chipperfield.

On till 3 December

4. Female Images From Biedermeier To Early Modernism

At the Leopold Museum, Vienna

In a prime example of a museum making excellent use of its extensive permanent collection, the Leopold Museum, Viennas pantheon of Germanic modernism, has organized a thematic show around female images". While any mandate that sweeping runs the risk of falling flat, reassessing the evolution (or lack thereof) of depictions of gender feels timely. The first part of the show is organized around themes (mother and child, young/old, formal portraits, etc.), while the latter part includes works created by female artists.

On till 18 September

A Chinese jade burial suit.

5. Soul Of A Nation: Art

In The Age Of Black Power

At the Tate Modern, London

Perhaps it requires a British arts organization to truly interrogate what it meant to be a black American artist. This sweeping showwhich includes work by Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Sam Gilliam and more than 50 othersseeks to articulate a relatively fresh narrative from the race riots of the 1960s through the early 1980s and the establishment of the Black Power movement. Equally refreshing, the show includes work from the birth of Black Feminism, along with less overtly political pieces, like the aesthetic photography of Roy DeCarava, the first black photographer to win a Guggenheim fellowship.

On till 22 October

6. Fred Forest

At the Centre Pompidou, Paris

Fred Forest, a French artist born in 1933, became famous (or at least art-world famous) in the 1970s for his conceptual, performative and largely incomprehensible practice. Forty years later, the theory behind much of his art remains muddled, but his embrace of new technologyhe was a leading practitioner of video arthas begun to appear dramatically ahead of its time. Given that Forest has largely disappeared from recent contemporary discourse, the Pompidous show is part retrospective and part introduction to a younger audience that wasnt alive when he was first scandalizing (or sending up) the art world.

On till 28 August

7. Sarah Lucas: Good Muse

At the Legion Of Honor, San Francisco

Sarah Lucas has been an art-market juggernaut for the better part of 25 years, having first appeared on the scene with her peers Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin in the early 1990s under the umbrella of the much maligned moniker Young British Artists. Unlike her peers, though, Lucas has managed to evolve, persistently creating art that feels fresh, challenging and fun. This show at the Legion of Honor is the result of the museums invitation to Lucas to create new works that dialogue" with works from its exhibition Auguste Rodin: The Centenary Installation, which closed in April. Many of those works will remain on view alongside Lucas sculpture.

Opens today and runs through 17 September

A sculpture by Joan Miro at the Sculpture Park at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

8. Cristobal De Villalpando: Mexican Painter Of The Baroque

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Met might be in the throes of a much publicized budget crisis and management shake-up, but you wouldnt know it from the quality of its 2017 exhibitions. One of the most exciting displays is a colossal painting by Cristobal de Villalpando (c. 16491714), a Mexican baroque painter. The painting is more than 28ft tall and depicts two biblical scenes (Moses and the brazen serpent, and the transfiguration of Jesus). Ten additional works round out the show, but the massive painting is the star: This is the first time in more than 300 years that its left Mexico.

On view from 25 July-15 October

Black Children Keep Your Spirits Free by Carolyn Lawrence (1972).

9. Playing With Fire: Paintings By Carlos Almaraz

At Lacma, Los Angeles

Its entirely reasonable that Carlos Almarazs reputation is intertwined with Los Angeles: He founded a Chicano (Mexican) artist collective in the city in the 1970s and subsequently created a series of prominent murals in East L.A. depicting the struggle for Chicano civil rights. But his paintings, which are bright, vivid, and often verge on the surreal, practically beg for an international audience. This showthe first major retrospective of his workincludes more than 60 pieces from 1967 until his death from AIDS-related complications in 1989.

On view from 6 August-3 December

10. The Sculpture Park

At the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark

No round-up is worth its salt without a glaring exception, and theres no better exception than the Louisiana Museums outdoor sculpture park. Truly, its one of the most beautiful summertime destinations for art viewership. Set on a rolling lawn overlooking the Oresund Sound, the park contains more than 60 sculptures dotted amid trees, flowers, and meandering paths. The park is about a half- hour drive from downtown Copenhagen and well worth the trip.

The sculpture park is open year-round. Bloomberg
Exploring the wet and wild Agumbe in Western Ghats Braving torrential rain and venomous snakes on a monsoon walk in Agumbe, one of the wettest places in India /news/talking-point/exploring-the-wet-and-wild-agumbe-in-western-ghats-111646992547543.html 111646992547543 story

The rain has been unrelenting for two days. Its roar mingles with the loud, grating hum of the cicadas to form a deafening background score. We are in Guddekere, a little town 9km from Agumbeone of the wettest places in India during the monsoon. Agumbe lies in the Western Ghats, one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, and is also known for its snakes, the king cobra in particular.

My friend Gautham and I are visiting the Kalinga Centre for Rainforest Ecology, the field station of herpetologist Gowri Shankar, who is best known for his work with the king cobra. The field station is located inside Agumbe Reserve forest, and has patches of rainforest interspersed with areca plantations, and a small river running through.

A signboard at the Kalinga field research station. Photo: Nishanth

We had spent the morning watching embracing pit vipers, the diminutive male lost in the folds of the large female. Now, we are trying to figure out how to make our way back to Agumbe to catch an evening bus to Bengaluru, about 350km away. We have to yell over the roar of the rain to make ourselves audible.

The tall areca-nut trees before us look hazy through the rain falling in sheets. Suddenly, Gautham suggests we walk to the bus stop.

In the rain?!" I sputter. Its 9km away! What if we get lost?"

On the bus from Bengaluru to Agumbe, I had looked out from the window at the quiet roads, the dense, wet green of the trees and the sloping roofs of the houses, and had wished I could walk around and soak in the atmosphere. Gauthams suggestion reminds me of that desire and, almost unwillingly, an adventurous smile begins to tug at the corners of my mouth. I try to think rationally about his proposition. There would hardly be any people along the way whom we could ask for directions if our memory of the confusing route from Guddekere to Agumbe wavered. If we got lost, we might miss our bus. We decide to throw caution to the wind and rains, and chance it anyway.

Part of the bio-diverse Western Ghats, the forests around Agumbe host a wide variety of reptiles and frogs. Photographs by Anisha Jayadevan

Gautham has a mammoth umbrella and I have two raincoats. Thus armed, we begin to walk. Raindrops drum on my raincoat and instantly begin to stream down my face. Everything around us is wet and looks mildly subdued. Our sandals squelch noisily in the slush and my raincoat makes a swish" sound every time my arm rubs against it.

Soon, we fall into a comfortable rhythm. The rain lets up for a few minutes every once in a while, as though pausing to take a deep breath before resuming just where it left off. We excitedly buy a packet each from a boy selling freshly cut jackfruit. The juice of the jackfruit combines with the rain and fills our mouths, dripping down our chins.

We stop to look at everything. The ornamental blooms of the rows of pagoda flowers growing by the road have small red and white flowers arranged in tiers. The blossoms seem to nod in agreement every time a raindrop falls on them. An old bus stop catches our fancy next: It is hunched by the side of the road under a tree, with the sloping tiled roof characteristic of old south Indian houses.

Part of the bio-diverse Western Ghats, the forests around Agumbe host a wide variety of reptiles and frogs. P Gowri Shankar

For some time, we walk alongside a forest and the loud trr-tik-tik-tik!" of bush frogs the size of your thumbnail mixes with the sound of the rain. Gurgling rivulets of water rush beside the road. We spot a couple of local residents who peer at us curiously as they walk past. Many of the birds and animals here have the name Malabar affixed to their names, just as we sometimes carry the names of our native houses or towns with ours. As we walk, we spot a Malabar pit viper, a venomous snake endemic to the Western Ghats, coiled around a tree branch as though in deep contemplation.

Walking on a mud path in the rain.

After walking for what seems to be a couple of hours, our feet are cold, and our fingers pinched from being wet for so long. A gentle fog begins to envelop us and visibility soon drops to a few metres. An approaching car in the fog shows us as two floating haloes of light.

Disoriented by the fog, we are lost. We walk aimlessly for a while and notice that the fence separating the forest from the road were on has a huge hole in it. An elephant-shaped hole. Our imagination starts to play tricks on us, presenting eerie scenarios. Distant trees begin look like elephants. This time, it is Gauthams turn to be cautious. He suggests, simply, that we retrace our steps.

Fungi on a tree.

We do that until we find the right turn and finally make it to the bus stop in Agumbe . Our adventure ends with dosa and Mangalore buns at a small, bustling restaurant. Outside, we hear the squelch of the golden frog that can be found by stagnant pools. The fog becomes dense and the raindrops drum on bus roofs, almost in time to my beating heart as it recovers slowly from our adventure.
Ameera Shah | Diagnosis: a risk-taker The promoter and MD of Metropolis Healthcare has a formula for growth that combines a fondness for the ethos of small firms with big risks /news/talking-point/ameera-shah-diagnosis-a-risktaker-111646992724516.html 111646992724516 story

Ameera Shah laughs when I ask her how much her firm, Metropolis Healthcare, is worth. We are at Le Pain Quotidien in the Bandra-Kurla Complex, Mumbai. Its halfway between Shahs home on Altamount Road, where she lives with her two dogs, Ginger and Lilo, and her office in the suburb of Kurla, with its 40,000 sq. ft diagnostics lab. The 37-year-old isnt shy of numbersshe tells me she took over her fathers diagnostics lab in 2001 and has grown it a hundredfold, from sales of Rs7 crore to over Rs700 crore.

This is no small feat and Shah has done it by building a team that grew the business as well as a slew of acquisitions25 in these 16 years. But shes wary of valuations. And no, its not because the sole investor, the private equity firm Carlyle Group, will objectif they do disagree, it is about the usual things all investors disagree on, such as whether to go for an IPO. She says they are happy with the growth of the company.

She is amused by discussion of her companys valuation (last estimated at Rs5,000 crore) because every time her company valuation appears in the media, she is swamped for days with hundreds of Facebook friend requests. You know what the most searched-for string on my name often is? Its Ameera Shah husband," she says.

Shah is the only non-doctor in a family of doctors. Father Sushil Shah is a pathologist, mother Duru Shah is a well-known gynaecologist and elder sister Aparna, who lives in Texas, is a geneticist. But Shah decided early on to go the finance way, studying commerce at HR (Junior ) College in Mumbai university and graduating in finance from the University of Texas in 2001. Every graduate in the US has the same two dream jobsworking on Wall Street or working with a consulting company like McKinsey & Co., and I was the same."

An internship with Goldman Sachs proved disappointing for the 19-year-old. I quickly realized big companies were not my thing. And the idea of making money without creating anything, and being driven only by making more money every day was depressing to me." After she finished college, she joined the Texas-based technology and people start-up Talenthill, where she discovered a fondness for small companiesI felt that every day I was at work, my presence mattered."

It was around this time that Shah read Bangladeshi microfinance guru Muhammed Yunus Banker To The Poor. She was tremendously influenced by the story of the economics professor who had returned to his country in the early 1970s and set up a successful microcredit business for female

entrepreneurs. The book would mark the start of Shahs interest in entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurs in particular.

Entrepreneurship in India is anyway hard," she saysfor women, it becomes that much tougher because people rarely back them with money, or give them the first contract. Women are never encouraged to take risks. If there is a guy, they say go for it, for a girl, they say, how will you manage, you have a family, a kid, you want to do this also, its too much. Give up somethinggive up work."

Shah challenges such attitudes. I have had love in my life and at the same time I have been building my business. Theres nothing that stops me from having children if I choose to, or from being married. I dont believe you have to give up one thing or the other. I think you can balance it." But then Shah has always been a risk-taker. Her career has seen a big buyout deal, a boardroom battle and multiple acquisitions.

We order lunchShah knows what she wants, and is brisk with her order of chilli lime basa fish. That done, we talk about 2014, when Metropolis investor Warburg Pincus wanted to sell its 27% stake in her company. Diagnostics is a profitable and growing business, but nobody wanted to buy a stake in Metropolis. News reports said there was a disagreement among the founders, between the Shah family and investor partner G.S.K. Velu. With no buyers in sight, Shah decided to buy Warburg Pincus stake in her own name, despite the risk of personal debt.

It was a big risk because I had to borrow money on my name (at 18-19% interest) to buy back the shares," says Shah. It was a stressful time. Many people advised her against taking on a debt of Rs550 crore. But I believed in my capability to drive the business forward, I was lucky to have the support of my parents and of a mentor in HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh. He helped me think through things. For me, the fact that a person so experienced felt that I was doing the right thing gave me the confidence. Also Shailesh Haribhakti (chairman of DH Consultants Pvt. Ltd), who has been a mentor for years and is on my company board."

After taking ownership of the company and buying out partner Velus stake, she hired a team of professional managers, including a chief executive officer. She embarked on a series of partnerships and acquisitions, from labs in Tamil Nadu and Surat to Sri Lanka and Kenya. These two methods employed concurrentlyhiring and acquiringsum up her strategy. It explains how, from a single lab in Gamdevi, Mumbai, the company has expanded to a chain of over 140 labs and 1,400 collection centres across 350 cities and towns today.

I dont like spending too much time in salons or shoppingshopping doesnt figure on my list at all. Im happiest outdoors. I spend weekends and evenings playing volleyball at the Breach Candy Club. We have a bunch of guys and sometimes a few women and we have great camaraderie. The other top choice for my weekends is going sailing.- Ameera Shah

With all the boardroom battles behind her, Shah now finds her days packed with the challenges of running a diagnostics business. Its a very unequal market in India, with very little monitoring. So while the government is talking about capping prices on some diagnostic tests, there is very little regulation to make sure that the guy next door who charges Rs60 for a cholesterol test is actually doing it." Shah says she is proud that Metropolis has stayed honest in a market that is notorious for payoffs to doctors and medical administrators. She stresses the importance of ethics, rigorous quality, service and empathy as a way to stay ahead of the competition. And there is plenty of thatlarge firms like Dr Lal Pathlabs and Ranbaxys SRL, as well as a sizeable number of stand-alone labs.

Shahs day is crammed with back-to-back meetings; she likes it that way. Some are with employees, some with business partners or the owners of labs she wants to acquire.

At a recent company get-together, Shah addressed 70 managers, who had come in from locations all over India, Sri Lanka, Ghana and Mauritius, on the values of accuracy and empathy. We are not dealing with soap, which was half in size when you bought it; we are dealing with life and death, where a lab result determines somebodys treatment. If that treatment goes wrong because of your diagnosis, then there should be a very heavy price to pay."

Empathy is a quality that has stood Shah in good stead. As she moves away from the day-to-day operations of the company, focusing on strategic issues and acquisitions, she meets promoters and other people in the ecosystem. Many of her potential acquisitions are run mostly by older men, around 65, who are doctors. At first they are uncomfortable with me, I am their daughters age, an MBA type." But Shah says she makes a conscious effort to put them at ease, often dressing deliberately conservatively, and trying not to seem too aggressive. You have to mould yourself in a way to make yourself more acceptable because of the biases people have. New employees who join, for instance, will always address my CEO as sir, but will address me as Ameera. I notice this, but its okay. It doesnt diminish my authority in any way," she says.

In all situations, (a) majority (of) men notice looks in the first place, and capability, intelligence, nature, etc. is secondary," Shah tweeted recently, on how building a business is challenging for women. It is a subject Shah is deeply engaged with. It goes back to Mohammed Yunus inspiring story. So while making money, becoming successful is good, its important to change gears and to be able to give it up," she says. And to use that time to do something she has always been passionate aboutmentoring female entrepreneurs. In the long run, in fact, Shah plans to step back from her business to focus on her mentorship efforts
Volumes well ahead of expectations in June and further gains are expected across Asia this summer

Chinas export growth accelerated in June in what was the fourth successive month of growth, with machinery, electronics and high-tech products among the key drivers.

In what is regarded by many as a key barometer of the health of global trade, Chinas latest international trade data for June revealed export growth of 11.3% year-on-year in dollar terms. Imports were also strong, with year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 17.2% led by crude oil and, more significantly for freight markets, capital goods.

Ordinary exports grew by 6.2% y-o-y last month compared with 3.4% y-o-y in May, while processing exports rose by 10.8% y-o-y compared with 6.7% y-o-y in May.

Exports to the so-called G3 markets, US, EU and Japan, were the main reason for the acceleration as they rose 15.8% y-o-y compared with 9.7% y-o-y in May. By contrast, exports to non-G3 countries were relatively sluggish at 4.7% y-o-y compared with growth of 2.8% y-o-y in May.

Looking at the breakdown, June's exports were driven by sharp improvements in the electronics & machinery (10.2% y-o-y) and high-tech products (10.9% y-o-y), while exports of labour-intensive goods such as toys, garments and furniture, which accounts for around one-fifth of Chinas exports, also picked up modestly to 6.2% y-o-y, said Kelvin Lam, HSBC Greater China economist.

Taking a closer look, exports of automatic data processing machines such as computers rose 29.2% y-o-y while mobile phones grew by a meagre 1% y-o-y. Notably, export growth of semiconductors turned positive in June, at 0.2% y-o-y.

We think the industrial upgrading in China and stronger global demand will support export growth in the coming quarters.

Elsewhere in Asia, the outlook is also positive, and analysts say recent purchasing managers indexes across Asia Pacific bode well for strong peak seasons for air and ocean, although some downside risk remains.

After a couple of months of fizzle, exports are again showing some sizzle, said HSBC economist Frederic Neumann. Across Asia, with the lone exception of Korea, new export orders expanded [in June]. Possibly, we are catching the early part of the iPhone production ramp-up.

It's all consistent with a fairly decent summer. But this could yet turn out to be a narrow, and fairly short-lived, bounce, Neumann noted.

Job growth in manufacturing, for one, is still relatively weak in emerging Asia, including China. And thatll keep a damper on consumption.

Image: Shutterstock.com
Political events in the Bay Area

Town hall: Hosted by Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, at noon at Terra Nova High School, 1450 Terra Nova Blvd., Pacifica.

Anti-Trump march: A protest against President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, starting with a rally at 2 p.m. at U.N. Plaza, 355 McAllister St., San Francisco. The rally will be followed by a march. For information: http://bit.ly/2t9t5vE.

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., San Francisco. For information: http://bit.ly/2rWxPUs.

Health and housing: Hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America-Peninsula, a chapter meeting on efforts to enact the single-payer health care plan and affordable housing. The meeting is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Unite Here Local 2, 209 Highland Ave., Burlingame. For information: peninsulaDSA@

gmail.com.

Climate forum: Cool Effect, a Bay Area nonprofit focused on climate change, is holding a forum to discuss environmental actions that will help reduce carbon emissions. The event is from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Hawthorn Room at the Golden Gate Club, 135 Fisher Loop, San Francisco. For information: http://bit.ly/2turr9A.

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, San Francisco. For information: (415) 469-5564 or www.orshalom.org.
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Mexican troops said they arrested five people and seized 11 firearms Wednesday in northwest Nuevo Laredo.

At about 5:30 a.m., Secretariat of the National Defense, or SEDENA, soldiers patrolling on Calle Zihuatanejo in Colonia Buena Vista came across a suspicious pickup truck.

Authorities said the occupants seemed nervous as soldiers were in the area.

READ MORE: Mexican army seizes arsenal of weapons in Nuevo Laredo

An inspection of the pickup yielded nine AR-15s, an M4 assault rifle, a mini-machine gun, 125 magazines and 6,900 rounds of ammo.

Soldiers said they also seized three pickups, six grenades and six bulletproof vests, among other tactical equipment. Troops did not identify the people detained.

Cartel activity continues in the Nuevo Laredo area. Last week, troops seized more than 90 assault rifles, 30,000 rounds of ammo and grenade launchers, among other tactical equipment.
The 48-year-old dropout nursing student who committed a mass shooting at Oikos University in Oakland in 2012 was sentenced Friday to seven life terms in prison  one for every victim he killed.

One Goh appeared in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, where loved ones of the victims he killed or wounded vented their anger and grief.

These past years have been really hard. My mother was a beautiful, caring, hardworking person, said Camella Seymour, whose mother, Judith, was one of the seven people Goh shot to death in April 2012.

Seymour, 34, of Sacramento, broke down in tears while addressing the court, pausing for a long period before she could speak. She said her 53-year-old mother, a San Jose resident, had enrolled in the nursing program at the university in hopes of making a better life for herself.

I cant sit in a classroom without thinking something is going to happen to me, Seymour said. Im trying to be strong ... but its hard.

Michael Howey spoke on behalf of his longtime girlfriend, Grace Kirika, who was wounded in the mass shooting and did not attend Fridays sentencing. Howey spoke directly to Goh, who wouldnt look at him.

One Goh, you are nothing but a coward, Howey told the killer. You should have decided to use the gun on yourself. You deserve everything coming to you. I hope you rot in prison.

The parents and brother of Katleen Ping, an Oikos University receptionist killed in the rampage, sat in the court gallery, periodically dabbing their eyes with tissues as they listened to the family members. The 24-year-old Ping of Oakland was killed even though Goh had promised not to hurt her if she stayed silent.

Kaine Ping, her brother, stood before the judge, sobbing uncontrollably as Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Stacie Pettigrew placed a hand on his back while wiping away her own tears.

The pain and the suffering and the grief will never end. She left behind a son whos now 9 years old, said Kaine Ping, his voice barely audible as he looked back at his parents.

On May 2, Goh pleaded no contest to seven felony murder charges and three felony attempted murder charges in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty.

Judge Jeffrey Horner sentenced him to seven life terms, or 271 years, without the possibility of parole.

Goh expressed remorse for the murder spree in a letter read in court by his defense attorney, David Klaus.

He is very, very sorry, and hell carry this shame forever, Klaus said.

Klaus added that Goh hopes his sentence will offer closure to the victims families and those who survived the massacre.

In addition to Seymour and Ping, the murder victims were Lydia Sim, 21, of Hayward; Sonam Choedon, 33, of El Cerrito; Grace Eunhae Kim, 23, of Union City; Doris Chibuko, 40, of San Leandro; and Tshering Rinzing Bhutia, 38, of San Francisco.

Following the sentencing, Goh, whose wrists were locked to a chain wrapped around his waist, was placed into the custody of Alameda County sheriffs deputies and was to be transferred immediately to the state prison system.

Since the shooting, Goh has been held at the Napa State Hospital, a locked psychiatric facility, where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Shortly after his arrest in 2012, court-appointed doctors deemed him mentally unfit to stand trial. But that changed in May when doctors determined his mental capacity was restored.

On April 2, 2012, Goh walked onto the Oikos University campus with a .45 caliber handgun and took Ping hostage before fatally shooting her and six students, and wounding three others, authorities said.

Goh then took one of the victims cars and fled to a Safeway store in Alameda, where police were called after he surrendered to an employee, authorities said.

Investigators said Goh had gone to Oikos University to murder a university administrator when he was unable to get his tuition refunded after dropping out. Unbeknownst to Goh, the administrator had left her job after Goh had left the schools nursing program.

Oikos University is a small, private Christian school near Oakland International Airport that has a vocational-nursing program and offers courses in music, Bible studies and Asian medicine.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Nothing captures the ambivalence many musicians feel toward piano competitions - those high-stakes Olympics of the musical world - better than the reaction of the rising South Korean star Seong-Jin Cho, to winning the legendary International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015.

"I was really happy, because I wouldn't have to play in any more competitions," Cho recalls.

Cho, then 21, had endured three nerve-racking weeks of competition in Warsaw. He won over the 17-member jury with his rare combination of technical bravura, artistic maturity and freshness of insight across the range of Chopin's piano writing.

"Cho was remarkable," said Garrick Ohlsson, the 1970 Chopin competition gold medalist who served on the 2015 jury, speaking by telephone from North Carolina last month. "He was such a complete young artist."

With his gold medal, Cho knew his immediate future was set - or as set as any young classical musician's can be. He was propelled to overnight celebrity in his home country, and he secured major concert dates and a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. He could leave behind the pressure-filled, circuslike and often political world of piano competitions.

The prestige of the Chopin competition will precede Cho, now 23, everywhere he goes in the coming years. In a telephone interview from Berlin, where he was recording a new Debussy album last month, Cho spoke pragmatically about why a major competition win helped his career.

His victory opened the doors to Carnegie Hall, where Cho made a sold-out recital debut in February. It surely brought him his Washington-area debut July 28 at Wolf Trap, where he will be performing Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra. But it is also carries with it some baggage.

Despite an illustrious list of past winners, the Chopin competition, like all major competitions, has a mixed track record of predicting success and longevity. Its record is, in fact, better than most. But for every legendary Chopin winner such as Maurizio Pollini (1960) or Martha Argerich (1965), there is also a mostly forgotten name, such as Dang Thai Son (1980) or Stanislav Bunin (1985). Not since 1975, when Krystian Zimerman became the first Polish gold medalist, has the winner of the Chopin competition gone on to lasting international stardom.

The reality is that, with the proliferation of musical competitions worldwide, there are far more gold medals awarded each year than there are potential world-class artists. "A Murray Perahia does not come along every day, no matter who wins a competition," Ohlsson said. "Any competition just can't create such an artist."

Competitions, in fact, have gained a reputation for selecting bland compromise winners - competent but uninspiring technicians - rather than more distinctive artists who might polarize juries. Even the most gifted winners do not necessarily adapt to the lifestyle that comes with a fledging international career: the grueling travel schedule, the demands of publicity and career management, and the relentless pressure to win over conductors, orchestras, critics and audiences in each new city.

Cho appears to have the musical potential to take his place alongside the greats of the past. He has earned praise, not only for his bulletproof technique, but also for his artistic voice: his sense of drama, his natural nobility and his youthfully searching interpretations.

Critic Joshua Kosman, reviewing one of Cho's recitals in March for the San Francisco Chronicle, summed it up: "Don't let the competition medal fool you. This guy's an artist."

Cho has gained allies, including the influential Russian conductor Valery Gergiev. Last year, Gergiev introduced Cho to incoming NSO Music Director Gianandrea Noseda, who would later conduct the London Symphony Orchestra on Cho's beautiful and nuanced studio recording of Chopin's First Piano Concerto. As a prolific opera conductor, the Italian maestro marveled at the "bel canto quality" Cho brought to the concerto's slow movement. "He made the piano really sing." Noseda said by telephone from Turin, Italy. Noseda was originally scheduled to conduct Cho's NSO debut but canceled because of emergency back surgery.

Born in 1994 in Seoul, Cho was encouraged by his parents to learn the piano at an early age so he wouldn't be lonely as an only child. He began serious studies at age 10 and gave his first public recital at 12. As a teenager, he rode the international junior competition circuit, making a precocious third-place showing at the 2011 Tchaikovsky competition at 17. In 2012, he left Korea for the Paris Conservatory, and he once again took third prize at a major competition - this time, the Rubinstein in 2014 - before his breakthrough in Warsaw.

Cho's second album features Chopin's Four Ballades, and he recalls being captivated by the dramatic qualities of Zimerman's classic recording of those works as a teenager. "I listened to that album every day," Cho says. "Each piece had a different story." These days, however, Cho no longer listens to other pianists, as he develops his own artistic voice.

"I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but it helps me to bring new ideas," he says.

In its elegant command of narrative structures, Cho's recording of the Chopin Ballades bears a resemblance to Zimerman's, but Cho's readings are also enlivened by a freshness of detail.

At the same time, there is a coolness and reserve, especially in the First and Fourth Ballades, that suggest a young artist not quite capturing the intensity of live performance in the recording studio.

"It's very difficult in the studio, because I have less adrenaline, so [there is] less excitement," Cho admits. "I play a little bit slower."

Cho's forthcoming Debussy album appears to be, in part, a declaration that he is more than a Chopin specialist.

"There are so many special composers to me, Chopin's not the only one, I'm sorry to say," he says, laughing. Cho is an unabashed Francophile and has had a lifelong interest in French music. He credits his teacher at the Paris Conservatory, Michel Beroff, but he also says the experience of simply living in the historic French capital - seeing a painting in a gallery or wandering the streets - has given him insights into the "atmosphere and color" of Debussy's music.

For Cho, who otherwise seems to be taking his musical achievements in stride, his celebrity status back home in Korea feels surreal. As the first Korean winner of the Chopin competition, Cho became a national sensation overnight. His debut album rocketed to the top of Korea's Gaon Chart - not the classical chart, but the equivalent of the Billboard Hot 100 - for a week in 2015. One writer has even coined the term "Cho Seong-Jin syndrome" to refer to the unprecedented boom in interest in classical music in Korea after Cho's victory

"It was really shocking for me," Cho says about the moment when he knocked the stars of K-pop off their perch. But he is also level-headed enough to realize that it was an essentially unrepeatable, once-in-a-lifetime achievement, a moment when the confluence of Korean history and the trajectory of his promising musical career brought the stars into perfect alignment.

Although it is impossible to predict how a rising young artist will cope with the demands of a musical career - and how the larger world will receive him - Cho has already won over discerning and veteran musicians. "I have utter confidence that he really knows what he's doing," Ohlsson said.

Noseda concurred: "Seong-Jin has all the qualities - the human qualities, the technical qualities, artistic qualities - to succeed in the music world for years to come."
Awakening: How Gays and Lesbians Brought Marriage Equality to America

By Nathaniel Frank

Belknap. 441 pp. $35

---

In the late 1980s, a friend of mine got a call at work that, while on a business trip, his male partner had been shot and rushed to the emergency room. My friend then spent four hours on the phone with the hospital, trying desperately to persuade them to tell him - a legal stranger, whose relationship he did not dare explain - whether his beloved was dead or alive. Shocked, my own partner and I quickly bought a do-it-yourself legal book, typed up health-care proxies, went out to get them notarized - and endured the notary's and witness' sneers and stares as they realized that we were queer.

All of which is to illustrate how unimaginable, back then, it was to think about being able to marry. In 1990, lesbians and gay men were presumptive felons in 25 states and the District of Columbia. If newspapers mentioned us at all, they called us "homosexuals." Men were dying horribly of AIDS and being told they deserved it. The religious right was running horrifying ballot measures against us in state after state. Hundreds of thousands of us blurred our pronouns when talking to co-workers and ducked family questions about when we were going to get married ("When hell freezes over, Aunt Jean, can I bring my roommate to Thanksgiving again this year?").

And yet by 2015, large swaths of Americans, gay and straight alike, were upset that same-sex couples weren't already free to marry. What was taking so long, went the refrain, on a matter of simple and obvious justice?

What the heck happened in just 25 years?

A lot happened. Last year, in "The Gay Revolution," Lillian Faderman gave us a broad and rollicking history of what we now call the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) movement, revealing a vast and roiling landscape of those who challenged our exclusion from full citizenship and changed the world.

But even the richest history of social transformation can't show everything. Now researcher Nathaniel Frank fills in an indispensable part of the story. "Awakening" reports meticulously on the gay and lesbian lawyers who envisioned and ran the fight for marriage and the funders who helped put the effort over the finish line, carefully recounting the legal arguments and opinions all along the way. This book doesn't paint the entire marriage fight; ground organizing and legislative battles get short shrift. But Frank is correct: The push for marriage equality was primarily conceived, led, managed and won by the movement's legal advocates, whose story he tells. As he puts it, marriage equality arrived because of the "incremental strategy that LGBTQ legal advocates had formulated and refined over two decades: carefully assess the legal landscape; understand those you need to persuade, including judges; build familiarity [among the nongay mainstream] with committed same-sex couples through discussion and exposure to gay families; and accumulate state wins as building blocks to national marriage equality at the right time."

This is a broad mural of collective strategizing. Within that, the most credit goes to Evan Wolfson, who - astonishingly - in 1983 wrote a visionary law school paper, 141 pages long, arguing that marriage rights had to be the central goal of the gay movement. At the time it seemed ridiculous. But he persisted - for decades. As a newly minted lawyer who found his way into a then-small cadre of full-time gay and lesbian civil rights advocates, Wolfson had to battle almost universal opposition to the pursuit of marriage in the movement as a whole.

Why opposition? There were two main lines of reasoning. A liberationist/radical feminist faction rejected what it saw as the confining patriarchal institution of marriage; it wanted queers to be a revolutionary vanguard inventing new legal forms of family, not retreating into normalcy. Another faction - call them the "whoa there Nellie" folks - thought marriage might be a good goal someday, but for God's sake, not yet. Their oft-used metaphor was that marriage rights were the roof of a house - and the LGBT movement hadn't even cleared the ground, much less built the foundation. People were still getting fired or losing custody of their children for coming out; aiming for marriage so soon would only bring on a backlash and ugly case law, slowing progress.

All this got hashed out at the Gay Rights Litigators' Roundtable, a little-known working group that Frank reveals as a critical source of strategy, tactics and an internal moot court testing every idea. For several years Wolfson was ordered to stand down, staying away from any potential marriage cases. But in 1993, a rogue lawsuit in Hawaii, brought by outsiders to the movement, was taken seriously at the Hawaii Supreme Court. Those justices thought denying marriage licenses because of gender smelled like sex discrimination - and sent the case back to trial under a higher standard. Wolfson's boss at the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund sent him to Hawaii to help run that effort.

That hint of homosexuals marrying, coming just as President Bill Clinton was trying to let lesbians and gay men serve openly in the military, started a feverish nationwide debate - no, let's call it a panic - about what people then called "gay marriage," before Wolfson rebranded it "marriage equality." Religious-right groups and Republican operatives rushed to put referenda on ballots and bills in front of legislators to define marriage as between one man and one woman. By 1996, 26 states and the federal government had passed Defense of Marriage Acts (DOMA) to protect innocent men, women and children from being overrun by married homosexuals, pedophilia, plague, incest, polygamy, bestiality and general apocalypse - and no, I am not exaggerating about the rhetoric. Hawaii voters passed one such measure, mooting the Hawaii lawsuit.

But by then Wolfson had a partner in Mary Bonauto, civil rights director at New England's Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, who quickly became the movement's chief marriage litigator. They won over the rest of the legal roundtable to what became their state-by-state impact litigation strategy: carefully identify states where there was already a strong foundation of laws and court rulings in favor of LGBT rights, and where the constitution was hard to amend; bring lawsuits under the state constitution, never implicating the federal government; work closely with the statewide infrastructure of LGBT activists and power brokers to prepare for and protect any win; and chloroform - er, persuade - individual rogue plaintiffs not to bring marriage lawsuits in states where they'd almost certainly lose, leaving behind trouble that would be hard to clean up.

It was a winning strategy, especially as carried out by Bonauto, who successfully plotted the lawsuits and marshalled the effort to win the first breakthroughs: civil unions in Vermont in 2000; marriage in Massachusetts in 2004; marriage in Connecticut in 2008. Wolfson, meanwhile, backed by visionary funders, launched a national organization to support activists who wanted to prepare the way for marriage in their own states. For several years he seemed to be everywhere, speaking and writing incessantly, fundraising and organizing, urging the troops onward, exhorting us all to do our part to win in public opinion as well as the courts.

While the roundtable strategy was winning, California became proof that the improv approach - let's do it because it's right! - made a big mess. In 2004, the straight mayor of San Francisco, acting with no legal authority and without consulting any LGBT advocates, started marrying same-sex couples. While the lines to city hall to marry were long and giddy, those marriages' legal status was entirely uncertain. California had passed a Defense of Marriage Act in 2000. And so those rogue marriages set off a cascade of competing lawsuits, state court decisions, another referendum, and still more lawsuits and state and federal court decisions. Finally an impatient young activist named Chad Griffin met with some rich, straight Hollywood liberals and brought to life the legal roundtable's nightmare: a lawsuit in federal court claiming that it was unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the right to marry. Republican legal big shot Ted Olson teamed up with Democratic legal big shot David Boies in hopes of galloping to the Supreme Court with Hollingsworth v. Perry, which sought a ruling akin to Loving v. Virginia on interracial marriage, striking down every ban on marriage equality in the country at one blow.

Fortunately, Bonauto had already filed a more sensible and restrained federal lawsuit that challenged the federal DOMA on behalf of couples married in Massachusetts who were denied the federal recognition that all other Massachusetts marrieds got. That lawsuit was soon joined in the federal system by similar DOMA challenges. "Awakening" explains clearly why so many of us were relieved when, once at the Supreme Court, Perry was decided on very narrow grounds, letting Californians marry but not taxing the justices to decide the constitutionality question just yet. Meanwhile Windsor v. United States, which challenged only the Defense of Marriage Act, won.

And as Frank details, the success of Windsor set off a flurry of challenges everywhere in the country. Within two years, all those DOMAs had crumbled into dust, blown away by the Supreme Court declaring a federal freedom to marry.

It turns out that while the whoa-Nellies had been right about the backlash, Wolfson and others of us had been equally right about how marriage rights would transform understanding of lesbians and gay men. Marriage made us socially comprehensible to those around us, visible within the structure that organizes so much of our culture. We weren't just people who had yucky sex; we were married or single, parenting or child-free, widowed or divorced, people who fell in love and organized our lives around the resulting commitments. Those who wished to reject marriage because it was confining or patriarchal or what have you could still reject it - just as similar straight couples did.

"Awakenings" isn't perfect. It starts too early, spending too many indifferent pages sketching the LGBT movement's background. It misses the vast uprising of ordinary lesbians and gay men who pushed their reluctant leaders to focus on marriage. It doesn't show the ugliness of the attack ads against marriage, the front-line fights to win state campaigns and change legislative minds, the bitter internal divides about how to run those campaigns, or the breakthrough door-to-door strategy and television ads that finally turned the tide.

Most puzzlingly, this is a book about marriage that lacks personal stories. For so many of us, the marriage fight was intellectually thrilling and emotionally explosive, passionate and personal, complete with extreme swings of emotion, hope and terror, exhilarating wins and despairing losses. I remember sitting in the Supreme Court press gallery for the Perry and Windsor cases, and looking down at rows of the legal roundtable - our superheroes, our gods and goddesses - filling rows at the court as honored guests, while the dignity of our lives was fought out in the gladiators' arena we call a courtroom. Such heart-stopping moments aren't captured in this book's careful academic prose.

But I don't want to make the mistake of reviewing a book the author didn't intend to write. Frank gets it down and gets it right. He has clearly mastered every document, interviewed every principal, detailed every legal argument and given credit where it's due. His book is the text from which other histories will be written, and the textbook from which future impact litigation and advocacy will be planned.

---

Graff is managing editor of the Monkey Cage at The Washington Post and the author of "What Is Marriage For? The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution."
Golden Hill: A Novel of Old New York

By Francis Spufford

Scribner. 302 pp. $26

---

New York in 1746, three decades before "Hamilton" and all that, was a small but industrious town of 7,000, an inkling of the Gotham it would become. "This is a place where things can get out of hand very quick: and often do," the exquisitely named and clearly clairvoyant Septimus Oakeshott warns in Francis Spufford's exhilarating first novel, "Golden Hill." Residents, he declares, are "wild, suspicious, combustible - and the devil to govern. "

Our young, handsome hero is an international man of mystery, fresh off the boat from London with no introduction but a note for a thousand pounds sterling, a fortune worthy of Croesus and enough to break a trading house. His name is Smith, project onto him what you will, for he reveals little.

The man in the green coat - green to the new world, not so much to performing a part - quickly becomes known as "the very rich boy who won't answer questions. "

And whoosh - we are off!

Spufford, a prize-gilded author of five works of nonfiction, including "I May Be Some Time," has finally delivered a novel, and it's a wonder. It has racked up a mantle of English literary awards and was crowned the British Sunday Times' novel of the year.

"Golden Hill" is an homage to the action-packed works of 18th-centurymasters like Sterne, Smollett and Fielding but with Spufford's nimble fingers on fast forward, speeding along character - such characters! - and plot at a delirious pace.

"Golden Hill" offers sparring lovers, hidden identities, theater, "spectacular debauchery," a duel (take that, "Hamilton"!), sedition, a prison stint, insidious small-town politics, a voluptuous thespian named Terpie Tomlinson ("Every time she misremembers a line, she'll give a flash of thigh") and multiple reversals of fortune (naturally). A feast! Also, multiple secrets and masked identities, including that of the novel's wry narrator. Almost everyone is an actor on the stage of nascent New York.

Upon arrival, Smith immediately goes to cash his note with the prosperous trader Lovell, resident of Golden Hill, the highest spot in all of tiny New York (home now to the Financial District) and future site of a 1770 battle that provided tinder for the Revolutionary War. Unfortunately, all Lovell can deliver is a small offering until Smith's legitimacy is confirmed: stacks of coins and wads of paper from multiple countries and several colonies, the uselessness of Rhode Island currency a running gag.

Ah, but Lovell has two daughters: fair, honorable and - wouldn't you know it? - dull Flora; and stern, dark-tressed Tabitha, a woman of pronounced intelligence and bite. A fan of Shakespeare, Tabitha says, "I am not a great one for novels, " even while becoming the fetching heroine of this one.

Smith and Tabitha spar exquisitely, claiming not to be at all like Benedick and Beatrice but fooling no one. "You make everything else in a room look dull," a smitten Smith informs Tabitha. "Your face is more alive than anyone else's, to me. All the other faces are dirty windows, to me, smeared with chalk and street-spatter; yours is clear though, to the soul behind. "

In 1756, London was the largest city in Europe with a population of 700,000, a hundred times that of striving New York. Smith is a man of the world, well-traveled, a master of languages, a master at fitting in almost anywhere, yet he's completely at sea on land that is not yet a nation or even an idea of one.

Spufford has immersed himself in the 18th-century quotidian world on either side of the ocean. "Golden Hill" possesses a fluency and immediacy, a feast of the senses, without ever being pedantic. It is a historical novel for people who might not like them.

In a year already ripe with tremendous fiction, did I mention that I love this book? I love this book.
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The terminator has found love in a Texas BBQ store.

On Wednesday, Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Rudy's Country Store & Bar-B-Q in Austin leaving the actor and former California governor smitten. The BBQ joint's first location was in San Antonio.

RELATED: S.A. snags 2 spots on Texas Monthly's new Top 50 BBQ list

"Just had the best meal I've ever had at a gas station here," Schwarzenegger said on a Snapchat story, rebutting the store's "worst bar-b-q in Texas," tagline. "It was the best of the best."

According to his selfie video, it was love after first bite of Rudy's ribs.

A Rudy's spokesperson told mySA.com it's unclear why Schwarzenegger was in Central Texas, but the actor clearly enjoyed his time at the popular Austin spot.

READ ALSO: Watch The Rock Butcher His Arnold Schwarzenegger Impersonation (Video)

In May, dining guide and blog Eater Austin, reported that Schwarzenegger visited Killen's Barbecue in Houston, scribbling his claim-to-fame, "I'll be back," on the restaurant's wall of fame.

jthorpe@express-news.net

@jerilynnthorpe
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If you equate actor Michael Palin with only smiles and laughter  memories of zany Monty Python skits and comedies such as A Fish Called Wanda  youre in for a huge surprise with the new TV tale Remember Me.

Youre also in for a truly chilling experience, the sort of murder mystery that makes you jump in your seat, look over your shoulder and make you feel thoroughly disturbed for days.

This deliciously frightening three-part series, which debuts at 9 p.m. Sunday on PBS, is certainly not the usual public television fare.

The story follows octogenarian Tom Parfitt (Palin), who fakes a fall to escape the living situation thats making him feel more and more uncomfortable and, by the look on his face, frightened to his core.

Trouble is, the care worker who takes him to a retirement home seems to get blamed for his leaving his longtime residence. In any event, she winds up dead after her body mysteriously flies from an upper-floor window.

As the only one in the room at the time was seemingly frail new resident Tom, whos found cowering beneath a chair by concerned young medical attendant Hannah Ward (the mesmerizing Jodie Comer), investigators are left baffled as to what happened. Was she pushed or did she jump? Maybe she fell while leaning against the glass? And why is there water everywhere?

Hannah, who appears hypnotized to the point of tears by the goings-on, soon joins up with a curious detective (Mark Addy) for a ghostly ride by the sea set to the tune of an old folk version of Scarborough Fair.

Most troubling is an eerie female figure in red that keeps showing up. Hunched over and menacing, she seems to be the spitting image of Toms childhood babysitter from India.

Saying any more about the spooky  at times, shocking  plot developments might ruin your experience, so Ill remain mum.

Suffice it to say that this haunting tale is a most unusual and satisfying whodunit. The rich, sometimes heartbreaking, performances by Comer, Addy and a mercurial Palin dont hurt, either.

The icing on this creepy cake? Remember Mes magnificent and moody cinematography, which makes you feel youve been catapulted into a painting. Its that breathtaking.

jjakle@express-news.net
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Washington

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's latest health care gambit  a high-stakes bet on delivering the cherished Republican dream of repealing and replacing Obamacare  ran headlong into opposition from both the right and left of his own party.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican moderate from Maine, and Sen. Rand Paul, a conservative libertarian from Kentucky, said they could not support the latest GOP health care iteration unveiled Thursday.

With only 52 Republicans in the Senate and all 46 Democrats and two independents against it, the campaign promise of President Trump could go down in flames with one additional GOP "no" vote.

Democrats hammered away at the revision as nothing more than a bunch of sweeteners to moderates and conservatives that ultimately does little to move the needle.

"The core of this bill is just as rotten as it was before," said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

At a news conference in the Capitol building, Schumer urged Republican senators to "step back from the brink and work with Democrats to improve health care instead of sabotaging it. We're waiting for them."

The White House dispatched Vice President Mike Pence to Capitol Hill as a way of rallying GOP senators to the cause. Trump said Wednesday he would be "very angry" if the Senate fails to pass the measure. The House approved its own version of the bill in May.

The version unveiled Thursday includes an amendment from GOP conservative ringleader Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to permit stripped-down health plans that amount to catastrophic coverage and little else. Insurance companies would be allowed to sell such plans if they also offered one that complies with Obamacare's laundry list of "essential benefits.''

Democrats and health care experts have argued a low-cost plan would take younger, healthier policyholders out of the risk pool with those older and sicker, driving up their premiums and deductibles.

It was not enough to win over Paul, who demands nothing less than a full repeal of Obamacare.

The bill also includes $45 billion extra for opioid-addiction treatment. That's more than the $2 billion offered in the previous Senate version, and more than the $15 billion put into the House bill by Rep. Elise Stefanik of Willsboro, and two other GOP House members.

Schumer said the amount was insufficient, especially since the Senate bill still bends Medicaid spending downward by $772 billion over a decade.

The extra opioids money "is about buying Republican votes, not about saving young lives," he said.

The Coalition to Stop Opioid Overdose and 465 other organizations said Thursday in a letter to Congress they cannot support the revised bill, AP reported.

Collins of Maine had argued for more spending on drug addiction, which is rampant in her state much as it is across wide swaths of upstate New York. But she was quick on Thursday to declare opposition to the new GOP version, focusing primarily on the cuts to Medicaid, the 52-year-old federal-state program to provide health care to low-income families.

Obamacare "definitely needs to be fixed,'' she told reporters. But cuts to Medicaid that include ending Obamacare's Medicaid expansion program embraced by 31 states including New York do "not make any sense to me.''

To win passage, McConnell can afford to lose no more than two Republican votes. A 50-50 tie goes to Republicans since Pence would get to cast the deciding ballot.

The new GOP bill also includes the New York-specific amendment co-authored by GOP Reps. John Faso of Kinderhook and Chris Collins of Williamsville, which says counties would no longer have to chip in for the state's share of Medicaid.

Faso had trumpeted the measure as badly needed property-tax relief, while Gov. Andrew Cuomo has condemned it as a $2.3 billion drain on revenues that would jeopardize the state's financial end of the Medicaid program, which serves more than seven million residents and is the nation's second largest after California.

Schumer on Thursday dismissed the Faso-Collins amendment. "They're pointing fingers at who should (shoulder) most of the Medicaid cuts," he said. "We say don't make Medicaid cuts.''

dfreedman@hearst.com
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Relatives of former Webb County Precinct 2, Place 2 Justice of the Peace Ricardo Rangel continued to ask the community for prayers as he remained in critical condition.

His son, Ricardo Rangel Jr., went live on Facebook late Wednesday thanking friends and loved ones for their continued support.

"He's still in critical condition. He's doing alright. He's not out of danger yet. Thank you all for your prayers," Rangel Jr. said.

READ MORE: Social media posts offer condolences, prayers to victims of fatal Laredo-area crashes

Rangel, 50, and Roberto Perez, 25, of Rio Bravo, were seriously injured early Wednesday when the vehicle they were traveling in was struck by a wrong-way driver on Interstate 35, according to DPS. Both were taken to San Antonio-area hospitals.

"I appreciate all the prayers. On behalf of my family, I thank you. I know that he is a loved man. I'm speechless," Rangel Jr. said.

At about 7:50 a.m. Wednesday, a 2013 Chevy Impala driven by Noe Alex Moreno was traveling south on I-35 near Cotulla when it veered into the northbound lane, colliding with a semi-trailer traveling north, according to DPS.

RELATED: Former Webb County judge critically injured, airlifted to San Antonio after fatal Cotulla crash

A Ford Ranger, occupied by Perez and Rangel, was also traveling north and hit the Impala, according to DPS Sgt. Conrad J. Hein. The Ranger caught fire after the impact.

Moreno, 24, of San Juan, Texas, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities said the crash occurred about 11 miles south of Cotulla.
The sound of drills and hammers filled Fremont Street Wednesday, as a group of high school students worked on a ramp to assist an elderly resident access her home.

St. Ann's Youth Ministry, from Coppell, Texas, is participating in their seventh year of Mission Laredo. Over 150 volunteers are working at multiple sites throughout the community, helping repair homes and parishes. Catholic Social Services of Laredo partnered with the St. Ann Parish in order to bring the blessing of service to the community.

"It's for serving others," Rachel Flores, executive director of Catholic Social Services, said. "Serving our Lord by serving others, and the youth that are here this week with us are doing just that."

READ MORE: Journey, Asia bring '80s rock back to Laredo Energy Arena

Mission Laredo focuses on serving communities in need and has been occurring every year since 2009. Service projects range from repairing roofs to plumbing. While Mission Laredo benefits homeowners in need, it also provides lessons much bigger than the basics of construction to the young volunteers.

One youth volunteer, Camden Chandler, has already learned some important lessons in his first year of Mission Laredo. Chandler noted what he believed to be essential in life. Rather than money and power, Chandler said a roof, running water, food and family are what matter most in life.

"The city I'm from, which is a suburb outside of Dallas, it's a fortunate place," Chandler said. "And I know the people of Laredo, they're not so fortunate. They have hearts of gold. They might not be the wealthiest but they're rich in the heart and in their soul. And that's something that a lot of people don't see in this generation."

RELATED: Son: Former Webb County judge critically injured in fatal crash 'not out of danger yet'

The St. Ann's Youth Ministry will continue their service projects in San Francisco Javier, San Carlos and throughout Laredo for the duration of a week. The concept of Mission Laredo was born when Catholic Social Services wanted to further expand their assistance in the community. In addition to the organization's immigration services and rent assistance, they created mission work opportunities for youth groups to take part in.

"By doing this and becoming aware of other parts of the world and what people are going through, they open their hearts and minds to God," Ben De La Garza, office supervisor at Catholic Social Services, said. "So I think that's beautiful."
A Laredo Police Department supervisor has been placed on administrative reassignment for alleged workplace violence with a subordinate in Frio County, about 97 miles north of the Gateway City, LPD said Wednesday evening.

Details on the allegations were not immediately available. LPD also did not identify the two employees.
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Rome

Two former officials of a Vatican-owned children's hospital were charged Thursday with misappropriating nearly half a million dollars for the renovation of the luxurious apartment of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's second in command under Pope Benedict XVI.

The officials  Giuseppe Profiti, former president of the Bambino Gesu pediatric hospital, and Massimo Spina, its former treasurer  were ordered to stand trial in a Vatican court next Tuesday.

The indictments were yet another sign of Pope Francis' efforts to root out corruption in the church's baroque bureaucracy.

Francis, who has sought to embody his message of modesty in the Vatican by eschewing the option of living in the Apostolic Palace in favor of the simpler Santa Marta residence, has sought to increase financial transparency in a walled city-state not known for open business practices.

Bertone, who appointed Profiti, has not been charged in connection with the rerouted hospital funds, and the Vatican has said he is not under investigation. Francis removed the cardinal from power in 2013, eight months into his papacy.

The Italian news media covered in granular detail the renovation of Bertone's retirement apartment, in which he joined two units into a 6,500-square-foot residence  complete with high-tech sound systems and white Carrara marble  in the San Carlo palace, where he lived with three nuns assigned to help him.

Amid the scrutiny, Bertone donated more than 150,000 euros to the hospital.

This is not the first time recently that an unflattering focus has fallen on the children's hospital, the so-called pope's hospital.
A man in his 20s stabbed six women, two of them fatally, in attacks at two hotels in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada, Egyptian officials and witnesses said Friday.

Two German women were killed in the attack, the Red Sea Security Directorate said, and the four others were wounded. All six were taken to hospitals, according to the Egyptian Interior Ministry. The conditions of the surviving women were not immediately available.

The Health Ministry deputy in the Red Sea province, Naglaa Shatt, said that the four wounded women included two Armenians, one Czech and a Ukrainian. He said the Czech woman underwent surgery at Salam Hospital, while the three others were treated at Hurghada General Hospital.

A spokesman for Germany's Foreign Office said that it was possible that German nationals were among the victims but that there was no certainty. Germany's Embassy in Cairo is working with Egyptian authorities to gain clarity about the identity of the individuals involved.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this cowardly and spiteful act, which seems to have targeted tourists who just wanted to spend a carefree and relaxing time at the sea," the spokesman said.

Egypt's Interior Ministry said in a statement that the attack occurred about 11 a.m. and that the assailant was taken into custody about noon. The statement said that the man is being questioned and that the ministry has beefed up security in the area to ensure the safety of tourists.

Diaa Elhadidi, 28, witnessed the attack and posted photos from the scene to social media. Elhadidi said on his Facebook page that the attacker is not a terrorist - "nothing but an unemployed lowlife who fought with two German ladies." Elhadidi said that the man stabbed the women with a knife at Zahabia Hotel and that they died instantly. He said the assailant then jumped into the water, swam to the adjoining Sunny Days El Palacio hotel while trying to escape, and wounded the other women before he was caught by El Palacio guards.

Other sources say, however, that the women appeared to be targeted.

One eyewitness told the privately owned Al-Masry Al-Yawm newspaper that the attacker, who was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, was speaking on the phone just before the assault.

"I saw him speak over the phone and heard him say that he will jump in the water, asking the person on the line to pick him up," but as soon as he jumped into the water, police officers followed and caught him, the witness told the newspaper.

The witness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, added that he had an encounter with the suspect and that the man told him to stay away from him because "he does not want Egyptians. They are not the ones wanted."

An Egyptian security official speaking to the Associated Press said the attacker was intentionally looking to attack foreigners and is said to have shouted in Arabic during the attack: "Stay away, I don't want Egyptians."

The attacker's motive is still under investigation, the Interior Ministry said.

The women were stabbed in the face, neck and feet, the security official said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Isaac Stanley-Becker in Berlin contributed to this report.
The settlement is still there today, four hours south from Santiago by car, tucked in the foothills of the snow-tipped Andes. The 50 square agricultural miles of wheat, corn and soybean fields are called by a different name now - Villa Baviera - but the place remains a prewar European time capsule airlifted onto the Chilean central valley. Recent footage shows that German, not Spanish, is still the dominant tongue; the structures are Bavarian-style; the signage is in gothic script.

And although the commune today gins up income from tourism, 8-foot barbed wire fences and German shepherds kept outsiders away and insiders from leaving for four decades.

During those years the settlement was known as Colonia Dignidad and housed a bizarre cult of postwar German emigres. The commune was led by Paul Schaefer, a Colonel Kurtz-like figure who waged shock-and-awe psychological warfare on his 300 or so followers as a means of total control.

The self-proclaimed holy man - a one-eyed ex-Nazi serial child abuser who once reportedly faked the shooting of a cult member in a Santa Claus costume to scare the settlement's children into obedience - acted with impunity for decades thanks to his close relationship with the government of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the military ruler of Chile from 1973 through 1990.

According to later reports from Amnesty International, under Pinochet, Schaefer's rural "utopia" was a key site in the regime's shadow war against dissidents and critics. Torture and executions all reportedly took place at Colonia Dignidad, while the government looked the other way from Schaefer's systemic sexual abuse of the settlement's children.

And although Schaefer was eventually arrested and sent to prison, the full extent of what happened at the isolated settlement - both to the German nationals who filled the dormitories as well as the Chileans who may have been killed there - has never been put into sharp focus. Earlier this year, Germany's foreign minister released the country's documents on the settlement and admitted the country had not done enough for the victims.

This week, another step was taken by both Germany and Chile. According to Reuters, the two countries signed an agreement to work together on a commission on Colonia Dignidad's legacy, a collaboration that could finally provide some needed answers.

Schaefer is one of the stranger individuals to rattle out of ruin of postwar Germany. According to a deeply-reported and definitive 2005 profile of the cult and its leader by Bruce Falconer in the American Scholar, Schaefer was born in 1921 in a small German town near the Dutch border. As the war approached, a glass eye from a childhood injury reportedly kept him out of the SS Corps; he served instead as a medic in occupied France.

After the war, Schaefer worked as a youth minister at a German church, but was fired, according to Falconer "when suspicion arose that he had somehow mistreated the boys in his care." Instead, he "struck out on his own as a solo preacher, roaming the German countryside dressed in lederhosen, strumming an acoustic guitar, and encouraging all who would listen to confess their sins."

Schaefer built his base throughout the 1950s, Falconer writes, until he established a community for war widows and their children. Once again, however, allegations of molestation arose, this time from two mothers. An arrest warrant was issued. Schaefer fled the country.

In 1961, he arrived in Chile, buying a 4,400-acre ranch with money donated by his followers back home. By 1963, 230 Germans followers were living at the rural, isolated settlement named Colonia Dignidad.

The settlers were forced into an extreme ascetic life by Schaefer, according to Falconer. The only clothing allowed was traditional German peasant-ware: "the men in wool pants and suspenders, the women in homemade dresses and headscarves." Men and women were not allowed to live together, but in separate dormitories. Sex was strictly prohibited. Children were not raised by their parents, but nurses at the settlement's modern hospital. Troublemakers were punished - tortured even. Confession was the key to Schaefer's cosmology, and he encouraged the settlers to confess sins to one another. Then, according to Falconer:

---

Every day at lunch and dinner, members of the community were expected to write the names of sinners on a blackboard near the entrance to the cafeteria. After everyone was seated, Schaefer would take his place at a small table facing the group, and, while his minions ate, he'd read through a microphone the names listed on the board. Each sinner was required to stand up and confess. To deny wrongdoing was a great offense, and the prudent among them became adept at inventing sins on the spot.

---

Meanwhile, Schaefer each night was raping the young boys. The abuse lasted for years. And yet no one among the settlers complained due to fear. "There was a complex network of emotional connections in the Colonia," a Chilean psychiatrist who later studied the settlers told Falconer. "It was not a concentration camp system in which prisoners tend to think of themselves as individuals. It was a community, and the children suffered most of all."

The preacher's religious message was spiked with a heavy dose of anti-Communism. When U.S.-backed strongman Pinochet took power in September 1973, he immediately set up a secret police force - the National Intelligence Directorate, or DINA - to root out enemies. Later reports would eventually determine that 38,254 Chileans were imprisoned and more than 2,000 killed throughout the regime's reign.

Colonia Dignidad served as one of the torture site's for Pinochet's DINA. Former torture victims recounted to Falconer how they were taken to the isolated location. Settlers would later tell investigators they drove political prisoners to isolated parts of the commune where they were executed en masse. Residents also reportedly would report digging up bodies and burning them to hide the evidence of killing. Weapons caches were also stored around the property.

Reports of torture were frequent enough to draw attention from groups such as Amnesty International, as well as journalists. The West German government, on the request of Amnesty, asked Pinochet's government to help investigate the settlement. The request was denied, as were follow-up requests in 1985 and 1988.

In 1980, when Washington Post reporter Charles A. Krause arrived at the gates of Colonia Dignidad tracking down rumors of torture and sexual abuse, he was chased off by authorities, who confiscated his camera roll. "The police, who wore no identification badges, would only say that they were from Parral, about 20 miles to the west, and that they were acting on orders from Santiago," Krause wrote.

Pinochet's fall in 1990 started the clock on Schaefer's loss of control at the site. At some point in the late 1990s, he disappeared from the settlement. By 1996, enough former residents had told their stories to police that a judge in Santiago issued a warrant on charges of child abuse. Despite frequent police raids on the commune, the cult's leader could not be found until he was tracked down in Buenos Aires by a television reporter in 2005. Extradited to Chile, he was sentence to 33 years in prison for sexually abusing 25 children.

Five years later, he died at 88.

Free from Schaefer's influence, the remaining cult members issued an apology in 2006, claiming they had been brainwashed by their former leader. Residents remain at the site today, which now markets itself as a Bavarian-themed weekend retreat.

But questions still hang over much of what happened inside the secretive cult - which Chileans were brought to the site? Who was involved in the torture? Who died in the fields?

Reuters reports the recent agreement between Germany and Chile will pool the countries' documentation related to the cult and torture center. The deal will also establish a memorial for Schaefer's victims.
WASHINGTON - Current and former government officials will be barred from receiving special treatment for their children in the District's notoriously competitive school-enrollment process under a policy adopted by Schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson.

The change comes after an uproar over a D.C. inspector general's report that found that while she was schools chancellor, Kaya Henderson gave preferential treatment to public officials' children by helping enroll them directly in coveted schools, skirting the city's highly competitive school lottery.

Extraordinary secrecy surrounded that report, which did not name any of the parents who received favors from Henderson and was initially kept confidential by the inspector general's office. In May, The Washington Post disclosed that two top officials in the cabinet of Mayor Muriel Bowser, D, were among those who benefited. The Post later obtained and published the report.

Wilson's new policy - announced in a letter Tuesday to D.C. Council Education Committee Chairman David Grosso -- goes beyond the steps Bowser laid out in an executive order she signed May 12, three days after The Washington Post reported that Deputy Mayor Courtney Snowden had her son placed directly at Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan, a school with a waiting list of more than 1,000 students seeking places.

Bowser's order required cabinet officials to consult with the D.C. Board of Ethics and Government Accountability before requesting a "discretionary transfer" from the chancellor.

In contrast, Wilson's policy states that if current or former public officials request special school placements, school officials "will deny the request immediately without further consideration."

In his letter to Grosso, Wilson said the blanket ban is intended "to limit any possibility of favoritism or improper use of public office for private gain, or even the appearance of favoritism."

Special school transfers will still be available for students who require them for special education or because of disabilities, those who are physically endangered at their schools and the children of military families, who sometimes cannot go through the normal lottery process because of the timing of their parents' postings.

LaToya Foster, a spokeswoman for Bowser, said the new policy reflected the mayor's decision to make permanent a moratorium on discretionary transfers for public officials' children that she put in place in May.

"As the policy was being formulated, the mayor decided that the best way to ensure confidence in the process was to extend the prohibition permanently," Foster said.

D.C. Public Schools press secretary Michelle Lerner said Wilson would not comment on the new rules beyond the written policy. She said the policy does not apply retroactively to public officials' children who are already in placements facilitated by Henderson.

The revelation of Henderson's special treatment for the children of public officials and some other associates outraged many District parents. In a city in which the quality of public schools varies widely, the lottery - which enables families to seek access to schools outside their neighborhoods - is an annual source of angst.

D.C. Inspector General Daniel Lucas concluded that Henderson did not commit any crimes but had misused her authority by giving preference to some parents who requested placements that bypassed the lottery process. Among those Henderson helped were Snowden; City Administrator Rashad Young; former D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty and Roberto Rodriguez, a former staffer in the Obama White House.

Snowden and Young have maintained that they did nothing improper, an assertion echoed by the mayor. Henderson, who resigned last year after six years heading DCPS, has dismissed the findings of the inspector general's report as "an attempt to besmirch my personal and professional reputation."

The city's ethics board is also conducting an investigation into Henderson's handling of school placements.

Grosso, of the D.C. Council, had requested information about all special school placements dating to 2014, the year in which the citywide lottery was launched. In his response, Wilson said the school district had not kept "systematic records" of those placements but estimated that fewer than five had been made, beyond the seven described in the inspector general's report.

None had been made since Henderson left office, Wilson said.

"Although I am disappointed that it appears better records were not kept of such requests dating back to 2014, I applaud the chancellor for establishing a policy to restore parents' confidence in the common lottery process and utilize a more formal, transparent process for discretionary placements going forward," Grosso said in a statement.
WASHINGTON - Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Thursday that too many students have been treated unfairly as colleges have sought to comply with Obama-era policy on handling sexual assault, but she declined to offer any specifics about how she intends to move forward on one of the more controversial and closely watched issues handled by her agency.

"No student should feel like there isn't a way to seek justice, and no student should feel that the scales are tipped against him or her," she told reporters Thursday afternoon, following what she called an "emotionally draining" series of meetings with college administrators, survivors of assault and students who said they were falsely accused and wrongly disciplined.

The day after her civil rights chief suggested that 90 percent of assault allegations are the result of drunken and regretted sex rather than rape, DeVos sought to show sensitivity to victims, saying that assault allegations should not be "swept under the rug" and women should not be "dismissed."

But she also said she was deeply concerned about addressing the concerns of the accused. "Their stories are not often shared," she said.

Advocates for accused students have been pleased to have the ear of the Trump administration, seeing an opening to roll back Obama-era policies that they argue have results in biased campus sexual assault investigations. During the Thursday session devoted to wrongful accusations, about a half-dozen students (including one woman) told their stories, often tearfully, according to Cynthia Garrett, co-president of Families Advocating for Campus Equality, who was in the meeting.

"The secretary was extremely attentive to these students," Garrett said. "We had young men breaking down telling their stories."

But advocates for survivors of sexual assault have been alarmed by what they view as DeVos' outsized interest in hearing from wrongfully accused students, given that only a small fraction of rape reports are found to be false.

Dozens of survivors and their allies gathered outside the Education Department Thursday to urge DeVos not to roll back federal protections for victims of sexual violence, and to decry what they view as the Trump administration's lack of commitment to enforcing federal civil rights law.

On the concrete plaza outside the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters, activists read the stories of survivors from across the country while DeVos held her meetings inside.

"Survivors want to make it very clear that we deserve to be listened to," said Mahroh Jahangiri of the advocacy group Know Your IX, one of the event's organizers.

Education Department officials are weighing whether to keep or reject Obama-era guidance that outlined how schools must meet their obligations under Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination at federally funded institutions. Critics of that guidance, issued in 2011, said it was an executive overreach that set too low a bar for campus administrators to find a student guilty of sexual assault.

It "incentivized these campus panels to err on the side of punishing potentially innocent students," said Christopher Perry of Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), who met with DeVos Thursday.

Some accused students hope the Trump administration will take a different tack. Joseph Roberts said he was "cautiously optimistic" that federal officials will care about his story: Roberts said he was falsely accused of sexual harassment and suspended three weeks before he was due to graduate from Savannah State University, an experience that left him hopeless and suicidal. The guidance, he said, "definitely needs to be reexamined."

Victims advocates and some lawyers believe that the problem is not with the guidance, but with the way some colleges have interpreted it.

"They went overboard in terms of changing their policies," said Naomi Shatz, a Boston lawyer who represents accused students. Shatz said too many schools don't hold hearings and don't give accused students a chance to see the evidence against them - approaches that are unfair and not dictated by the guidance.

Several college officials who participated in the meeting said they were grateful to be asked about this issue, as they had not been during the Obama administration.

In 2012 the American Council on Education sent a letter to the department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) with a number of questions, asking for clarification of the 2011 directive, said Terry Hartle of ACE. "The letter has never been answered," he said.

"The Obama administration took such an enforcement-centered approach that institutions were reluctant to ask questions of OCR for fear of being flagged for an audit," he said.

Victims' rights activists argue that the guidance is firmly rooted in existing law and fear that DeVos intends to jettison the guidance. They said remarks this week by Candice Jackson, the acting head of Education's Office for Civil Rights, seemed to confirm that fear.

Speaking to the New York Times, Jackson argued that college investigations have often been unfair to accused students, in part because of undue pressure from the federal government. She claimed that "90 percent" of accusations "fall into the category of 'we were both drunk,' 'we broke up, and six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation because she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right."

Jackson has since apologized for the statement, saying her words "poorly characterized the conversations I've had" with advocates. "As a survivor of rape myself, I would never seek to diminish anyone's experience," she said. "All sexual harassment and sexual assault must be taken seriously - which has always been my position and will always be the position of this Department."

Jackson apologized again to survivors in the meeting Thursday, according to attendees. "It's impossible to take something like that back," said Fatima Goss Graves of the National Women's Law Center, who was in the meeting. But she said the department can show its commitment to protecting students by helping colleges understand how to fairly adjudicate sexual assault allegations, and by conducting a listening tour to hear from survivors around the country.

"We can't expect them to go to Washington, D.C.," Goss Graves said. "The department has to go to them and listen deeply."

DeVos said that while she intends to continue seeking input, she wants to move quickly to make changes.

Thursday's event was one part of a broader effort to mobilize support for maintaining the 2011 Title IX guidance, which victims' rights advocates greeted as a step toward ensuring disciplinary consequences for students found to have committed assault. In an op-ed published in Teen Vogue this week, 114 sexual assault survivors called on DeVos to keep the guidance in place.

"We cannot imagine a more cruel or misguided policy agenda than one that withdraws protections from vulnerable students - especially coming from the administration of a man who has been repeatedly accused of committing sexual violence himself," they wrote.

In a letter to DeVos on Wednesday, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., urged her to keep the 2011 guidance in place and decried her decision to meet with advocates for the accused, including the National Coalition for Men and Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), which the Southern Poverty Law Center has called misogynistic. "Instead of catering to organizations that want to sweep sexual assaults on college campuses under the rug, the Department of Education should confront this challenge directly by coming to uphold the protections currently in place," Casey wrote.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who spoke at Thursday's event outside the agency headquarters, said she doesn't want to see an innocent person punished "any more than I want to see a guilty person let off the hook." But she said there are still too many victims who are met with blame and retaliation rather than support and protection.

"There continues to be heinous injustice across this country," she said.

---

The Washington Post's Susan Svrluga contributed to this report.
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For 10 years, from 1993 to 2003, James E. Pete Laney presided over the Texas House of Representatives as its speaker  considered one of the three most powerful political leadership posts in Texas. In fact his wife, Nelda McQuien Laney, held the unofficial title of First Lady of West Texas.

Laney represented this dist in the Texas House from 1973-2007, during an era when the states political landscape was undergoing an historic transformation  going from a solidly single-party Democratic state, to a two-party system, and finally a solid Republican state with conservatives hold every statewide elected office.

Even as that transition was in progress, Laney as ranking House Democrat was able to build lasting coalitions across party lanes. In fact some of his closest friends in Austin were also the states most powerful Republican leaders  Gov. George W. Bush and Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock.

But Laneys closest ally and biggest supporter throughout was the woman affectionately known as the Lady of the House  Nelda Laney.

Now her unique contributions have been recognized two different ways.

In June 2017, the Hale County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a resolution designating June 7  her birthday  as Nelda Laney Day. Also, on June 15, 2017, Gov. Greg Abbott signed HB 1691 designating Hale Countys I-27 rest areas, south of Hale Center, as the Nelda Laney Safety Rest Areas. That change will become effective Sept. 1, 2017, although a timetable has not been established on when new signage will go up and formal dedication ceremonies will be held.

Her family members say that private funding will most likely be required for the new signage.

I really want to think John Smithee, who is responsible for this bill, Pete Laney commented recently. He was the author and the person behind getting this legislation passed this time around.

Smithee (R-Amarillo) represents Texas House District 86, which includes Dallam, Hartley, Oldham, Deaf Smith, Randall and Parmer counties in the Texas Panhandle.

Listed as authors and coauthors in the House are Reps. Smithee, Ken King, Four Price, Senfronia Thompson, John Frullo, Dustin Burrows, Charlie Geren and Tracy O. King. It was carried in the Texas Senate by Sens. Kel Seliger, sponsor, and Charles Perry, co-sponsor.

Two years ago legislation seeking to name the north and southbound rest areas for both Pete and Nelda Laney stalled since such honors are customarily reserved as a memorial to noteworthy individuals who are deceased. This time around, the effort to name the rest stops for Nelda Laney met no opposition since she died less than a year ago, on Aug. 24, 2016, after a courageous battle with an inoperable brain tumor.

Hale Countys resolution designating June 7 as Nelda McQuien Laney Day, explains some of the things that made her such a particularly beloved Texan deserving of such lasting recognition.

Service to others, dedication to family and commitment to community are recognized as the hallmarks of the American character and especially the spirit of West Texas.

Nelda McQuien Laney exemplified this character and spirit throughout the entirety of her life. Her energy, enthusiasm and encouragement enriched the lives of her husband, children, grandchildren and many others who knew her in Hale Center, Hale County, the State of Texas and far beyond.

It should forever be noted that she made incalculable contributions to her community, state and nation through her leadership in Texas Tech Alumni Association, Texas State Capital Preservation Project, Keep Texas Beautiful, Texas Book Festival, Friends of Texas Library and Archives, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Greater Texas Community Partners, Kappa Alpha Theta, Omega Delphi Study Club, Caprock District Womens Club, co-chair of Texas Capitol Fund Drive and vice chair of Texas Capital Restorations.

After Nelda Laney died at age 73, tributes poured in from throughout the nation, with many recalling that she was the driving force behind the restoration of the Texas Capitol in the 1990s, funded in large part through the sale of Christmas ornaments that she designed and promoted. Later, she designed and helped promote holiday ornament series for Keep Texas Beautiful, Texas Tech and others.

Former President George W. Bush, who served as Texas governor from 1995 to 2000 while Laney presided over the House, commented following her death, We have many fond memories of happy times with Pete and Nelda when I was governor and Pete was speaker of the House. Laura (Bush) and Nelda were especially close. Nelda loved Texas. She was serious about her role as the speakers wife. She helped restore the Capitol and brought great joy to the speakers quarters. Most of all, Nelda loved Pete and her wonderful family. We will miss her.

Nelda graduated from Plainview High School in 1961, and attended Texas Tech where she graduated with honors in 1965. She met Pete when both were students at Tech. After graduating, she was a classroom teacher and later substitute teacher at Hale Center.

While Pete was House speaker, Nelda began a tradition of putting up a Christmas tree in the Texas House each year. In 2000, her handiwork received added exposure when her husband introduced President George W. Bush to the world from the chamber of the Texas House. Images of the brightly illuminated and lavishly decorated Christmas tree was broadcast to millions who tuned in for the introduction.

In recognition of her work on the Texas Capitol Restoration, Nelda was saluted by the Texas Womens Alliance.

Texas Tech Chancellor Robert Duncan, who was a member of the Texas House from 1989 to 1993 and the Texas Senate from 1997 to 2014, described Nelda as a truly remarkable, genuine lady whose warmth and grace was like no other.

She was a champion for West Texas and the epitome of what it means to be a Texas. The matriarch of an amazing family, her life and legacy will impact Texas Tech University, West Texas and beyond forever.

Her legacy will live on, through the lives of her mother, husband, children KaLyn, Jamey and J. Pete, their six children, and beginning Sept. 1 by everyone traveler along the Ports to Plains Corridor who passes by, and perhaps even pauses to rest and refresh, at either TxDOTs north or south bound Nelda Laney Safety Stops.
Comedy is huge in India, but that doesn't mean its prime minister, Narendra Modi, has a sense of humor.

A cyber police squad in Mumbai filed a complaint for defamation and transmitting obscene material Friday against the co-founder of the popular comedy group All India Bakchod after the group posted a photo on Twitter of the prime minister with the dog-ear filter from Snapchat.

Police allege the co-founder of the group, Tanmay Bhat, had "insulted" the prime minister, according to a report in the Hindustan Times.

The drama began earlier in the day when a photo of an unknown Indian man who is a dead-ringer for Modi began circulating on social media. AIB, joining in on the meme, added a photo of the prime minister's face with the Snapchat filter and the words "Dog filter is Lyf."

Negative reaction from Modi's online army of supporters was immediate, and the comedy group soon deleted the tweet. But the damage was done.

Bhat responded on Twitter later in the day, saying he was surprised a "silly snapchat filter meme" was getting so much negative attention from both political leaders and online trolls.

"Will continue making jokes. And deleting if necessary. And making jokes again. And Apologizing if necessary. Don't care what you think," he wrote.

PS: Will continue making jokes. And deleting if necessary. And making jokes again. And Apologizing if necessary. Don't care what you think.

- Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) July 13, 2017

Online defamation cases against people who target Modi - and politicians from other parties - are not unheard of in India. AIB, which is known for satirical videos posted on its YouTube channel, that has 2.3 million subscribers - delights in pushing the envelope. The group issued an apology to the Catholic Church and the Archdiocese of Mumbai over raunchy jibes and pedophilia jokes made during a roast in honor of Bollywood actors in 2015.
Maggie Walker started a newspaper. She was the first country's first woman to found a bank. She was a humanitarian, a teacher, an icon of her community in 1920s Richmond, Virginia.

She was also the daughter of a former slave.

Walker's accomplishments in the face of racial oppression and segregation have never been honored in her hometown in the same way as the Confederate leaders whose statues are the focal point of downtown Richmond.

But on Saturday, 153 years to the day she was born in the former capital of the Confederacy, Walker will get her own monument, a towering statue of her as she lived - her glasses pinned to her lapel, a checkbook in hand.

"She's ready to work," said Antonio "Toby" Mendez, the celebrated Maryland sculptor who brought Walker back to life, 10 feet tall, in bronze. "She wasn't just raising the bar for her community. She was working to create opportunities."

Community leaders have for decades wanted to honor Walker, who was the first African-American woman in the country to found a bank - St. Luke's Penny Savings, which gave loans to black business owners and residents at fair rates, then recycled the interest earned to keep building the community.

"Let us put our moneys together," Walker said in 1901. "Let us use our moneys; let us put our money out at usury among ourselves, and reap the benefit ourselves. Let us have a bank that will take the nickels and turn them into dollars."

In addition to the bank, Walker also opened an emporium for African Americans to shop and sell their goods without being forced to use side doors. She refused to tolerate any oppression of people of color - enough was enough.

Now that she's being publicly memorialized, her admirers are overjoyed.

"Children and adults alike need to see the missing pieces of history," said Gary Flowers, a Richmond resident who helped lead the effort to honor Walker. "We are honored to see Mrs. Walker in her full glory."

But at the same time, Flowers said he and other community leaders are concerned about the future of the city's monuments honoring, as he put it, "a foreign nation that lost to the United States."

While New Orleans and other cities have removed Confederate monuments, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, who is black, is moving forward with plans to recast signage and add context to the statues of Gen. Robert E. Lee and others along Monument Avenue.

Instead of tearing down the controversial monuments, Stoney wants to add new ones devoted to the heroes who fought against slavery and championed civil rights. Those who have criticized New Orleans and other cities for dismantling Confederate history have lauded his restraint.

Others accuse him of dodging the issue and essentially sanctioning the continued celebration of slavery's proponents and defenders.

"I think it really becomes a math equation," Flowers said. "For equal display of honor, we must add statues of African Americans who have been left out of the history books."

Mendez, the sculptor, was chosen in part because of his own history with projects honoring civil rights leaders.

His work includes statues of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall at the Maryland State House, Ernest Everett Just (a famous African-American biologist) at a Maryland Middle School, and Indian independence and civil rights leader Mohandas Gandhi in Long Island, New York.

Mendez said he thinks the coming years will see more efforts like the one honoring Walker - not just honoring more African-American figures in bronze, but female ones as well.

"These places bring people together," Mendez said. "They tell stories that should be told."
Trump Hotels' inaugural property with the Scion brand -- the first not to bear the name of U.S. President Donald Trump -- has been delayed to make design changes requested by company executives after they made three visits to the site since early June, according to the developer.

The changes, which require new construction permits, will push back the opening of the hotel in Cleveland, Mississippi, by five or six months, according to Dinesh Chawla, chief executive officer of Chawla Hotels Inc. The company is building the $20 million property and will own it, while Trump Hotels will manage it.

"We have temporarily slowed down our construction because they wanted a lot of things reworked, re-engineered," Chawla said in a phone interview.

Trump executives visited the site as recently as two weeks ago, according to Chawla. He said the hotel is likely to open in spring 2018 and he is hoping for March. Chawla had initially hoped to finish construction by the end of the year, he said, and some media reports last month said the debut was slated for "early 2018." Trump Hotels hasn't announced a date and a company representative had no immediate comment.

The construction slowdown is another setback in launching a brand that was first announced by Ivanka Trump two months before her father was elected president in November. A deal for a Scion hotel in Dallas was scuttled in April after the development partner in that deal touted his plans to finance the project with foreign investors. Trump Hotels said in June it has 39 letters of intent to develop Scion hotels, declining to specify locations.

Scion, which means "descendant of a notable family," is one of many so-called lifestyle brands introduced in recent years and aimed at millennial travelers. Its four-star tier is one notch below the namesake Trump luxury hotels.

The property in Mississippi, to be known as Scion at West End, will be a cluster of about 10 low-rise buildings and include 95 guest rooms, meeting space, restaurants, a spa and a pool, according to Chawla. Trump Hotels will set the room rates, which could run about $150 a night, he said.

Chawla also is developing the first of Trump's American Idea hotels, a budget brand announced in June that's supposed to be built around vintage decor local to the area. American Idea's rates could start at about $65, Chawla said in June. Rooms at the luxury Trump namesake brand run hundreds of dollars to more than $1,000 a night.

The Scion delay doesn't reflect any financial issues, just structural and aesthetic changes, mainly focused on repositioning the buildings and creating more open space for public functions like concerts, Chawla said.

The property is a conversion of a hotel the company had started building last year that was intended to be named Lyric, in honor of the region's blues-music heritage. Trump Hotels executives hadn't yet visited the site when they announced plans for the first Scion hotel on June 5 in New York, according to Chawla.

"They didn't realize how far advanced we were on the construction," he said. "In our lobby, we were going to have music performances. They said, if you're going to have that, you have to have a two-story lobby. That's hard to do when you have a floor above the lobby. You can't just go in there with a jackhammer and knock out concrete."

Other changes call for redesigning the spa and installing a kitchen closer to meeting space to speed up food delivery, according to Chawla.

"They felt the buildings were a little too spread out the way we had them," said the developer.

One thing remains the same: "You won't see the name Trump anywhere in any of the properties," Chawla said. "That's against the rules."
Ronny Cortez wheeled up to the microphone wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with his old station's logo and black sunglasses to protect against the glare of the scorching afternoon sun.

Cortez survived a hail of bullets in late February while confronting a burglar but continues to recuperate in the hospital.

"This guy right here and his family, they're our heroes," Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said.

Cortez and his family received a special van Friday from a police support group to help him and his family as he struggles to recuperate from the shooting, which left him paralyzed from the waist down.

The 100 Club handed over the keys Friday. The van - a gold-colored Dodge Pro Master - will help the family during his recovery and beyond, officials said.

Cortez' family  wife Sheri, daughter Tatiana, 20, and son Evan, 18  stood beside him Friday to accept the gift.

"It's really going to help my family a lot," Cortez, speaking briefly to a slew of reporters. "We've got a lot of fighting ahead of us."

Cortez and his fellow officers were searching for a suspected burglar Feb. 28 on Sterlingame in southwest Houston when the man shot him three times.

One bullet hit his spine  and is still lodged there.

The gunman, Earl Donnell Riley, a member of the 52-Hoover Crips gang, was shot to death in the confrontation.

Cortez, a 49-year old officer who has spent more than 20 years with the department, has been in the hospital ever since. A fellow officer, Jose Munoz, was also injured, but not as gravely: he was shot in the foot.

The 100 Club  a local group that supports law enforcement in Harris and 31 other Texas counties  donated the van and formally presented it to the family at a brief news conference at the Houston Police Officers Union hall.

"We appreciate the 100 Club for everything they do for our officers," said Joe Gamaldi, HPOU vice president. "It is incredible the way they step up whenever there's a hero in need."

100 Club Executive Director Rick Hartley said the foundation got involved after hearing about the shooting and learning about the extent of Cortez' injuries.

"We knew there would be a need for transportation," he said. "It's important for us ... to make sure to help those who put their lives on the line for us. Officers Cortez and Munoz did that on the afternoon they were shot. This is a small way we can say thank you to them ... Thanks for making our lives a little safer."

Sheri Cortez said her husband is undergoing several hours of physical therapy every day, working to be more independent and able to use his wheelchair on his own.

"We didn't know what to expect," she said.

It quickly became clear they'd need help moving her husband around.

"We quickly discovered because he's such a small fellow he wouldn't fit in a regular van," she joked, patting her husband's broad shoulders, as the crowd laughed. "He has a long, long road ahead ... It's really going to help."

Like Cortez and his wife, Acevedo acknowledged the struggle his officer faces going forward.

He turned to Cortez, surrounded by his family.

"Every time I see you you're looking better... We're in this for the long haul," he said. "The Cortez family knows we are a family and we're going to fight together."
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Two people were killed and a third was airlifted to University Hospital on Friday after two separate accidents on Interstate 10 near Luling, Texas.

According to Sgt. Deon Cockrell, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, the first crash occurred around 6:30 a.m. near mile marker 629. A vehicle broke down, so the driver got out to examine the issue and was struck by another vehicle.
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Style / Fashion

Combining classical Oriental elements and the silhouette of contemporary fashion, Hainan Airlines crew uniforms by Laurence Xu from Paris Couture Week, returns sophistication and style to the friendly skies.

Jul 12, 2017 | By Jonathan Ho

In an apparent throwback to the golden age of flying, Chinas Hainan Airlines recently introduced crew uniforms recalling the old glamour of classic air travel. Launched at the 2017 Laurence Xu Couture Show, Chinas Hainan Airlines crew uniforms took centrestage at the InterContinental Paris Le Grand on July 4, 2017, during Paris Couture Week Fall/Winter 2017.

Chinas Hainan Airlines has Crew Uniforms right of Paris Couture Week

Combining classical Oriental elements and the silhouette of contemporary fashion, Hainan Airlines crew uniforms by Laurence Xu from Paris Couture Week, returns sophistication and style to the friendly skies. Laurence Xu repurposed the allure of the Cheongsam, a stylish body-hugging traditional dress for women and designed the womens aircrew uniforms with a collar overlaid with a pattern of auspicious clouds and a lower hem with a pattern alternating sea and mountains which contrasts with the collars clouds and sky  in a play of Chinese traditional iconography, Xu takes a bird of strength from Chinese mythology, the Roc and weaves an embroidered allegory of the flight of a Hainan airliner.

We are not only creating a new uniform but also showing the internationalised image of our airline. Especially on international routes, we would like to let passengers know that China is modern and trendy.  Xu Fei, Brand Director, Hainan Airlines.

Where the traditional Qipao or Cheongsam typically ends at the tips of the shoulders, Xus Hainan airlines crew cheongsam features 3/4 sleeves strike a balance between sensuality and modesty, a gorgeous yet functional element which allows the Hainan aircrew to parlay their high level of competence and stellar service.

The apron is designed like a tulip-shaped dress to emphasize, in equal measure, elegance, femininity, aesthetics and practicality. The Western-style draping incorporates popular international fashion elements alongside a sense of high-quality professionalism. The fusion of traditional Chinese elements and popular international fashion created an Oriental masterpiece that turned heads in Paris.

Where Hainan Airlines stewardesses enjoy sensuous patterned dresses, light grey caped coats, blazers and Western beret-style caps, while the stewards straddle two cultures  mandarin collar two-piece suits and the more traditional if western, double-breasted overcoats.

New Hainan Airlines couture uniforms part of Global Strategy

The new Laurence Xu Paris Couture Week Hainen airline uniforms replace fourth generation uniforms which have been in use since 2010. While the new couture uniform do not resemble the old uniforms, it does take iconic elements (the Oriental art-inspired patterns) and the grey colour scheme and updates it with a modern sensibility incorporating the hottest fashion trends. The decision to collaboration with Laurence Xu is a result of Hainan Airlines strategy to take a place among the worlds most prominent air carriers.

According to a 26 June 2017 Bloomberg article, Hainan Airlines Holding Co. is looking to bolster growth by buying assets on its own outside China and taking Chinas fourth-largest carrier up the value-chain which will see it doubling down on international flights from the nations second tier cities.

We now want to build new order and set new standards.  President Sun Jianfeng, Hainan Airlines

Hainan Airlines has since recorded a 57% increase in international capacity, the highest growth with the most new international flights even when compared to the top four Chinese air carriers. With the new Xu Paris Couture uniforms, Hainan Airlines scored a PR coup. Looks like the effort of going through more than 1000 design blueprints and trying out more than one hundred samples of garments and accessories have paid off.

The uniforms are now an element of the masterful visual experience that has become part and parcel of what the airlines domestic and international passengers are treated to when they fly with Hainan. Not too long ago, Hainan was in the news when they had to forcefully subdue an unruly passenger during a long flight delay. Before that, their ingenuity made news when Hainan Airlines partnered renowned international pianist Lang Lang in 2016, performing a piano serenade in the clouds for passengers on a flight.

The new Hainan uniforms will match with new Hainan Airlines international VIP lounges where renowned designer Dr. Patrick Leung has been invited to re-design the HNA club. The club provides business class and club member passengers with a comfortable environment amid multifunctional facilities.
The next person to be appointed will be the thirteenth to hold the role in 12 years  and the third in just two months
Kochi: As per the latest reports, the Kerala police team probing the sensational attack on actress case questioned actress Kavya Madhavan and mother Shyamala in connection with the case. According to reports, the cops need to ascertain that whether the mother-daughter duo knew about the conspiracy that resulted in the abduction and assault of the prominent actress.

In Police custody, Pulsar Suni, the prime accused in the case claimed that he had handed over the memory card containing the images of assaulting the actress at Lakshyah, a boutique owned by actress Kavya Madhavan. The police had earlier conducted searches and retained CCTV images from the shop.
After Malayalam superstar Dileep was arrested in connection with the Kerala actress abduction case, his manager Appunni has gone underground. After Malayalam superstar Dileep was arrested in connection with the Kerala actress abduction case, his manager Appunni has

gone underground.

According to the reports, Appunni Appunni was supposed to be interrogated by the police about his involvement in the case on Tuesday morning. However, he has vanished into thin air and switched off his mobile phone.
The Angamaly magistrate court on Friday extended the police custody of popular actor Dileep till Saturday 5 PM. The actor was arrested and sent to two-days in police custody in connection with the alleged abduction and assault of a south Indian actress. The court will consider his bail plea only Saturday afternoon.

The 48-year-old actor, charged with criminal conspiracy in the sensational case, was brought to the court amid tight security. Hundreds of people who gathered outside the court, booed Dileep, who till now used to be hailed as a popular actor. Police alleged that the conspiracy to abduct and assault the actress and film the dastardly act was hatched by Dileep and Pulsar Suni, the prime accused in the case. PTI
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GREENFIELD -- Baystate Health and the unionized nurses at its Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield will return to the bargaining table next week.

The bargaining session set for July 21 will be the first since an acrimonious three-day work stoppage in late June.

The Greenfield hospital's 241 nurses have been bargaining with Baystate since November and have been without a contract since Jan. 1.

Friday, at a news conference with area lawmakers, Baystate CEO Dr. Mark A. Keroack said the sticking points remain: Baystate Franklin nurses want cheaper health insurance and required staffing language written into their contract. Nurses have said the plan offered by Baystate would cause their premiums to go up 26 percent.

Keroack said it doesn't make sense for one unit of Baystate's operation to be on a separate medical plan that is not offered to others. He also said the contract language the union wants on staffing levels would leave management without the flexibility it needs.

"We think we have other ways to achieve the goal of staffing," he said.

The nurses earlier this year called for a one-day strike on June 26. In response, Baystate locked the nurses out for two additional days, hiring out-of-town nurses to fill in for a total of 72 hours.

Joe Markman, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said tensions have abated since the end of the lockout and strike. Both sides have been talking with the help of a federal mediator.

Lawmakers on Friday announcing there was $3 million in the state budget for Baystate. The figure includes $1 million to help make up for shortfalls in Medicaid reimbursements and $2 million to help pay facilities costs for a medical school Baystate has started with UMass Medical School in Worcester.

Keroack said lawmakers tend not to get into the middle of labor disagreements except to know that the hospital is bargaining in good faith.

Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, and state Sen. Adam Hinds, D- Pittsfield, sent a letter to Baystate last month urging compromise. Neither Rosenberg nor Hinds were part of Friday's announcement.

During a similar labor dispute in 2014, Rosenberg and state Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, intervened and helped get a deal done at Baystate Franklin, averting a planned strike.

Baystate and the Massachusetts Nurses Association have settled a contract at the visiting nurses operation in Springfield and are negotiating at Baystate Noble Hospital in Westfield.

It's a contentious time between hospitals and the nurses union as the union calls for more nurses on the job and better pay and benefits, while hospitals complain of inadequate reimbursements for care, rising costs and threats of changes to federal health care law.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association had a strike at Tufts Medical Center in Boston this week and talks between the union and Berkshire Health in Pittsfield appear to be headed toward a strike.
In an effort to get students reading at grade level, Stand for Children Massachusetts is hosting literacy information sessions for parents and teachers across the state this summer.

"Despite having some of the best schools in the country, too many Massachusetts children can't read at grade level, and this has lifelong consequences," said Ranjini Govender, executive director of Stand for Children Massachusetts, an organization that focuses on education including literacy, family engagement and more.

According to Stand For Children, 43 percent of Massachusetts' third-graders can't read at grade level. The percentage is even higher among black and Latino children - about 60 percent of these students can't read proficiently by the end of third grade.

"Perhaps no other single education issue is more important than literacy. If you can't read, you can't learn, and these sessions will provide key information for parents and educators," Govender said.

Ready to Read Massachusetts, an initiative of Stand for Children geared toward getting students reading at grade level by third grade, will host the sessions, which are open to the community, including parents, educators and advocates.

The first session will take place at the Mason Square Library in Springfield on Thursday from 5 to 5:45 p.m.

Govender said the sessions will highlight initiatives and strategies to improve literacy rates, such as early detection, more student and educator supports, and additional resources for districts in need. The sessions will also provide attendees with suggestions on how they can make a difference in their communities.

"No child should have to experience the frustration of falling behind their peers because they need more help learning to read," she said. "All kids deserve an equal opportunity to succeed and literacy is a vital component to this. We're working with our communities and elected leaders to ensure every Massachusetts child can read.

To attend an information event text RSVP to (978) 218-8338 or email vantich@stand.org. Refreshments will be provided.

Literacy Information Sessions

 Springfield: July 6; 5 to 5:45 p.m.; Mason Square

Library

 Roxbury: July 13; 5:30 to 6:15 p.m.; Bruce C Bolling Building

 Allston: July 20; 12 to 12:45 p.m.; Josephine Fiorentino Community Center

 East Boston: July 24; 4 to 4:45 p.m.; Maverick Landing

 Allston: Aug. 2; 5 to 5:45 p.m.; Josephine Fiorentino Community Center

 Chelsea: Aug. 8; 5:30 to 6:15 p.m.; Chelsea Public Library

 Lawrence: Aug. 9;5 to 5:45 p.m.; Lawrence Main Library

 Roxbury: Aug. 15;10:15 to 11 a.m.; Urban Edge

 Holyoke: Aug. 22; 10:30 to 11:15 a.m.; Holyoke Public Library
Wait staff at a Waffle House in North Carolina received a four-figure tip thanks to a Massachusetts native.

When paying his $82 bill at the Charlotte eatery, Donnie Wahlberg left a $2,000 tip for staff.

"My mom waited tables, and my dad tended bars-- for years," Wahlberg wrote on social media. "So, when I walk into a Waffle House, and the staff treats me like a king, you better believe I treat them like queens!"

A Boston native, Wahlberg came to fame as a member of boy band New Kids on the Block with brother Mark. Both brothers have transitioned into acting with Mark starring in such films as "The Departed" and "The Fighter," Donnie on the drama series "Blue Bloods."

Donnie also owns Wahlburgers with brothers Paul and Mark.
Disney is struggling to find a live-action Aladdin for the upcoming reboot of the 1992 animated classic. The Hollywood Reporter writes the producers can't find a fresh Indian or Middle Eastern actor in their twenties who can both sing and act. Critics argue these are signs the film is in serious trouble. Although actors of color are underrepresented, fans argue there's no shortage of talent -- advocating for famous actors like Dev Patel or Riz Ahmed. Do you think "Aladdin" is doomed?

PERSPECTIVES

Skeptics who were once excited are now over it.

You know what, at this point, I am honestly perfectly fine with this live-action Aladdin film NOT happening. https://t.co/4DvUweN0zx  Ocean Master's Betrothed (@britany_murphs) July 11, 2017

Sounds like Disney is making excusing to many critics, but at this rate, "Aladdin" isn't looking like a winner.

It won't be the same anyways!

A live version of Aladdin doesn't even sound appealing to me for one obvious reason RIP pic.twitter.com/e4rWH18rhg   El Mojado You Love To Hate (@GoldenSt8OfMind) July 11, 2017

Fans are still hopeful Disney will get it together.

.@Disney I'll help you find awesome brown actors for Aladdin. I'm serious. I'll do it for free. OK, maybe chai, but otherwise free.  Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) July 11, 2017

Many are still fan-casting.

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Newton Mayor Setti Warren was ejected from his bicycle on Sunday, suffering minor injuries, according to a statement from his gubernatorial campaign.

Setti was on a 60-mile training bike ride in preparation for the Pan-Mass Challenge when he struck a pothole in Stow. Warren was transported to Emerson Hospital by emergency responders.

The Newton mayor was released from the hospital after a few hours with orders to rest, suffering what his campaign described as only minor injuries.

"Mayor Warren looks forward to resuming his training for the Pan-Mass Challenge as soon as he is able," his campaign stated in a Facebook post.
The Montana Department of Commerce works with statewide and local partners, private industry and small businesses to enhance and sustain economic prosperity in Montana. - Montana Is On The Move
Its not often that a business comes up with an idea thats good for the environment and saves money at the same time. But thats what Clearas Water Recovery http://clearaswater.com/ , a Missoula tech company, believes it has done.

Formed eight years ago, the company has developed a patented process to use algae to remove nitrogen and phosphorous from public wastewater treatment plants, keeping waterways from being inundated with the compounds that starve fish and plant life of oxygen. In turn, the algae can be sold to other companies for fertilizer, biofuels and other uses.

By DAVID ERICKSON  Associated Press

Full Story: http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/8/company-uses-wastewater-and-algae-for-biofuel-fert/
I wish to express my condolences and sympathies to the Government and people of Japan on the tragic death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

We mourn the loss of a great global statesman.

Shinzo Abe was a gentleman, a caring and visionary leader, who worked for a better and more peaceful world. He will be greatly missed.

Shinzo Abe had a special love and affection for Africa.

During the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-6) in 2016, I had the privilege of huddling together with him and several heads of State, to help find a way to provide Africa with access to Japanese cleaner energy sources. The result of that meeting was an invitation to visit him in Tokyo and a subsequent decision by the Japanese Government to provide a major clean energy financing facility to Africa.

During the 30th Anniversary of the Sasakawa Foundation in 2016 in Tokyo, he graced the occasion and delivered a moving and memorable speech about the importance of food security in Africa.

We met again in 2019, at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron during the Biarritz G7 leaders summit. As always, he was keenly supportive of the African Development Banks efforts to support African women through the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa initiative (AFAWA), for which the G7 subsequently helped to raise $450 million, with a goal to mobilize $5 billion for women in Africa.

Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the African Development Bank was given prominence in the foreign policy of Japan. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the African Development Bank signed the $3 billion Enhanced Private Sector Assistance for Africa (EPSA-3) and $3.5 billion EPSA-4 agreements for co-financing in Africa, further boosting investments in Africas infrastructure and private sector.

It is to Shinzo Abes credit that the term quality infrastructure was coined and mainstreamed into the global financing of infrastructure by the G20.

Under Shinzo Abes exemplary leadership, ties between Africa and Japan became stronger than ever.

We will be forever indebted to the lasting contributions Shinzo Abe made to our continent.

I send my deepest condolences to his dear wife, family, and the government and people of Japan at this time of much sorrow.

I share in your sorrow and pain on the loss of one of the finest global leaders of our generation. Shinzo Abes death is a huge loss to Japan and to the world.

May his soul rest in peace.

Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina

President, African Development Bank Group

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A Nebo girl scout has been recognized for her outstanding cookie sales this year.

Eight-year-old Zoe Zullo sold 2,119 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this, and was in the top 10 of the council-wide cookie sellers. She will be in the third grade at Nebo Elementary School.

Whats the secret to her success?

Her secret, she says, is always being polite, helpful in answering any questions, and making sure we have plenty of cookies for everyone so they can get their favorites, Zoes dad Zack said.

This year, 996 girls who sold 500 or more boxes of cookies during the 2017 Girl Scout Cookie Program were recognized at the annual Girl Empowering Opportunity ceremony at WetnWild Emerald Pointe on June 17. This years 2017 top cookie seller was Aariena Brincefield of Greensboro who sole 7,594 boxes of cookies, breaking her own record by 794 boxes in 2016.

Every year, our girls impress us with their initiative, dedication and enthusiasm when it comes to selling Girl Scout cookies, said Lane Cook, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont. They are putting their skills to good use and making sure every box sold goes to making a difference in their communities.

Along with the top sellers, 22 girls were recognized as recipients of the annual cookie scholarships. Each year, $25,000 in scholarships are awarded. Every girl who sells over 500 boxes is eligible to win and girls in all Girl Scout age levels receive part of the scholarship funds.

Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont, a United Way agency, is one of 112 councils nationwide chartered by Girl Scouts of the USA to deliver Girl Scout programs within specific geographic boundaries. The local council serves nearly 14,700 girls and 6,400 adult volunteers in 40 counties and maintains three camp properties and four service centers offering unique experience for girls and adults. For more information on how to join, volunteer, reconnect or donate, visit www.girlscoutsp2p.org or call 800-672-2148.
The bacterium forms spores that are extremely hard to kill, rendering the complete disinfection of contaminated surfaces very difficult.

C. difficile infection can cause a wide array of bowel ailments, with the least serious being diarrhea and the most dangerous being colitis, or inflammation of the colon, which leads to death in some cases.

But Medical News Today have previously reported on research that associated C. difficile transmission with simply using the same hospital bed that a patient formerly on antibiotics had also used.

Spores of C. difficile are spread through feces, contaminating any objects or surfaces they come into contact with. The most common means of further transmission is through the hands of healthcare professionals, who unwittingly come into contact with contaminated items.

Clostridium difficile is a bacterium that chiefly affects older patients living in nursing homes, or those who have been confined to a hospital environment for a long time. Research shows that people most at risk are those undergoing long-term broad-spectrum antibiotic treatments, which weaken the immune system and leave patients vulnerable to infectious diseases.

Scientists have found that a dangerous bacterium capable of causing serious gut infections is triggered by excess calcium in its environment, but the triggering factor might also provide the solution.

The research laboratories of the University of Michigan Medical School (U-M) in Ann Arbor, together with those of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have studied the conditions necessary for C. difficile to release its spores.

The teams were led by Travis Kochan and Philip Hanna, Ph.D., both from U-M, and Dr. Paul Carlson, Ph.D., from the FDA, and their results were recently published in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

It was discovered that excess calcium causes C. difficile to germinate. This finding sheds new light as to why senior, long-term hospital patients and nursing home residents are the most exposed to C. difficile infections.

The researchers explained that many of these patients are prescribed medication or supplements that release extra calcium into their systems. Many also have low vitamin D levels, or their system is unable to absorb calcium due to various ailments.

C. difficile is able to track down the excess calcium. This, as well as taurocholate  which is a sodium salt produced from cholesterol  allows the bacterium to germinate.

Previous research published in the Journal of Bacteriology argued that glycine, an amino acid, was a key germinant for C. difficile, alongside taurocholate. Now, it has become apparent that only calcium and taurocholate are necessary for germination to occur.

Much of the [C. difficile] spores own weight is made of calcium, but weve shown that calcium from the gut can work with bile salts to trigger the enzyme needed to activate the spore and start the germination process. Philip Hanna, Ph.D.

The experiment used mice to study the interactions between the bacterium and calcium, but the researchers argue that this aspect does not diminish the importance of the discovery for human patients.

Kochan points out that the growth medium for C. difficile used in the laboratories contained calcium. Since this could impact the experiment, he chemically removed the calcium already existent in the medium. This resulted in germination no longer occurring, despite other C. difficile nutrients having been left in.

Following this observation, additional research undertaken in Dr. Carlsons laboratories at the FDA supported the discovery that calcium is crucial for the bacteriums germination.

C. difficile spores were mutated so that they could not interact with glycine. It was found that they could still germinate and contaminate the mice in the presence of calcium.

Furthermore, both mutated and unaltered bacteria were able to release their own reserve of calcium upon germination, providing more nutrients to perpetuate on. Researchers noted that this observation is consistent with the behavior of C. difficile in its natural gut environment.

C. diff spores have specialized to germinate in the gut environment, especially in the environment of the small intestine, where calcium and the bile salt injection from the liver comes in, says Kochan.

The recent discovery could provide specialists with a strategy to fight the spread of C. difficile infections. They suggest that instead of reducing the levels of excess calcium in contaminated systems, even more calcium should be added.

The abundance of calcium could trigger all the inactive C. difficile spores, thus making them easier to suppress using antibiotics, the scientists say. This move could also interrupt the process of transmission and further contamination, if successful.

The study carried out by the U-M and FDA laboratories provides hope for a more targeted and efficient treatment of C. difficile infections, yet the scientists advise that current courses of action should remain in place until further research is completed.

Learn how gut microbes influence the bodys response to high-fat diets.
SMITHS FALLS, ON

July 14, 2017

August 2015

Bruce Linton

Canada

/CNW/ - Bedrocan Canada Inc. ("Bedrocan Canada"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canopy Growth Corporation ("Canopy Growth" or the "Company") (TSX: WEED) has commenced arbitration proceedings against Bedrocan International BV ("Bedrocan International" or the "Licensor") seeking performance of Bedrocan International's contractual obligations under the licensing and distribution agreement between the parties (the "LDA").Bedrocan Canada asserts the Licensor has withdrawn and/or withheld services, designs, and support contrary to the Licensor's contractual obligations. Because of this, and due to the fact that Bedrocan International procedures cannot be altered independently of the Licensor, Bedrocan Canada is now seeking redress through the process set out in the LDA.Canopy Growth, then operating as Tweed Marijuana Inc., completed its acquisition of Bedrocan Canada in. The acquisition was made in order to diversify the growing platform and brand identities held by the Company. Since this time, Canopy Growth has added a substantial number of brands and growing capacity to its platform. Through this process of expansion, Bedrocan Canada operations have diminished as a percentage of total capacity and brand equity within the Canopy Growth family of companies."Canopy Growth has established itself as a global leader in cannabis production, research, and physician education. We will continue our aggressive expansion efforts based on the operational knowhow developed at the Tweed, Tweed Farms, and Mettrum facilities. Seeking redress through an arbitration process is necessary to ensure that the Bedrocan Canada asset is maximized for shareholders and operating at maximum efficiency for the good of patients," said, Chairman and CEO.In spite of the Licensor's inaction, Canopy Growth has consistently met its contractual obligations as a licensee. The licensed facility operating as Bedrocan Canada remains and will remain an operating asset of Canopy Growth.The Company is hopeful that with the assistance of arbitration Bedrocan International will comply with its contractual obligations to support its intellectual property with the hope of achieving a greater level of efficiency, reliability and standardization that have become the benchmark of Canopy Growth operations.As this matter is now being arbitrated, the Company will offer no further comment at this time.Here's to Future GrowthCanopy Growth is a world-leading diversified cannabis company, offering distinct brands and curated cannabis varieties in dried, oil and capsule forms. Through its wholly?owned subsidiaries, Canopy Growth operates numerous state-of-the-art production facilities with over half a million square feet of GMP-certified indoor and greenhouse production capacity, all to an unparalleled level of quality assurance procedures and testing. Canopy Growth has established partnerships with leading sector names inand abroad, with interests and operations spanning four continents. The Company is proudly dedicated to educating healthcare practitioners, providing consistent access to high quality cannabis products, conducting robust clinical research, and furthering the public's understanding of cannabis. For more information visit www.canopygrowth.com.This news release contains forward-looking statements. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Canopy Growth Corporation, Tweed Inc., Tweed Farms Inc., Mettrum Health Corp., or Bedrocan Canada Inc. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Examples of such statements include future operational and production capacity, the impact of enhanced infrastructure and production capabilities, and forecasted available product selection. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and Canopy Growth Corp. does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities legislation.Neither the TSX Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.SOURCE Canopy Growth Corporation
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"Improved math skills helped these students outside of class," said Ellen Peters, lead author of the study and professor of psychology at The Ohio State University."This study showed that knowing how to use numbers is important for everyone, even if you think you're not using math. Numeracy helps people in their everyday lives."The study appears in the journal PLOS ONE.The study involved 221 students enrolled in an undergraduate psychology statistics course at Ohio State that is required for all psychology majors."Many students are not huge fans of the class because of the math involved, but it is a requirement," said Peters, who is director of the Decision Sciences Collaborative at Ohio State.The researchers wanted to see if a psychological intervention called values affirmation could help students succeed in the class by making them more comfortable dealing with the math that may intimidate them. The hope was that this would have a snowball effect, helping students in other areas of their life where numeracy is important. Values affirmation has been shown in other studies to be helpful in a variety of educational situations. Students first completed the values affirmation exercise near the beginning of the course. They were given a list of six values (including relationships with family and friends, spiritual/religious values and science/pursuit of knowledge) and asked to rank them in importance to themselves personally.Half the students affirmed their values by spending 10 to 15 minutes writing why their most important value was meaningful to them.The other half of the students, the study's control group, took their least important value and wrote about why it might be meaningful for someone else.The students repeated the exercise a second time right before their first exam.This simple exercise had some impressive positive effects. The researchers found that students who participated in the values affirmation did significantly better on a test of their objective numeracy skills at the end of the course compared to their scores at the beginning. The students in the control group did not see improved scores.Students also completed a questionnaire at the beginning and the end of the course that measured how good they thought they were at math and how much they preferred numbers over words. Results showed that students who completed the values affirmation showed no change in this subjective numeracy measure from the beginning to the end.Researchers saw that lack of change as a positive development because those in the control group showed declines in how good they thought they were by the end of the course, presumably because of the stress and difficulties they faced in the statistics class. While it may seem strange that a psychological intervention could help improve math skills, other studies have shown similar results. That, in turn, is thought to make them less stressed out about the math requirements and help them achieve some early successes in class, Peters said. Those early successes then give students something to build on. "It has a snowball effect. Values affirmation is thought to help students get some early wins in class. That leads them to try harder and get more achievements and it creates a cycle of success," Peters said. The success in improving numeracy was important. But Peters said she was most interested in seeing if a boost in the students' math literacy could help them in the real world. And the research found that it did.Results showed that the better numeracy scores seen with the values affirmation led to students scoring higher on a financial literacy test. In addition, these students showed better health-related behaviors, intentions and habits (such as avoiding cigarettes and practicing safe sex) over the course of the class.In contrast, students in the control group showed declines in both financial literacy and health behaviors from the beginning to the end of the semester, Peters said."We were able to show that numeric ability really matters outside of class. Math isn't just for people who want a STEM career. It is for all of us," she said.Researchers also found that students who did the values affirmation exercise and showed better numeracy received better grades in the statistics class, had stronger intentions to take future math classes, and actually took more math classes in their college career. These results were correlational, however, and without a total effect of the intervention on these positive results so that the researchers couldn't prove that values affirmation was the cause.The researchers also examined whether the values affirmation and improved numeracy would improve financial outcomes, such as whether the students had an emergency fund. Similar correlational results were found, without a total effect, and Peters said more research is needed on this issue.How can stronger numeracy skills help students make better health and financial decisions? While the answer to that question is beyond the scope of this study, Peters said evidence suggests people who are better at numbers also have a stronger understanding of probability and are less influenced by emotions in the moment. This helps them better understand the personal risk involved in health decisions such as smoking or having unprotected sex, so they make better choices.Numbers are an important part of financial literacy and help people understand how mortgages and credit-card debt work, so it is not surprising that math skills help in this regard, she said.Source: Eurekalert
We all have our drunk moments, followed by a what were you thinking' phase. While you might have drunk texted your ex or puked on your boss' expensive carpet at the most, 19-year-old Mark Cropp went ahead and made a decision that he was going to regret for a long time. The New Zealander has a DEVAST8' tattoo sitting across his face, and now unsuccessfully looking for a job as no employer is willing to give him one.

 Facebook

Mark served 2 years in prison for a robbery case. He was accused of threatening a tourist with a knife in a fake drug sale. Mark dealt in fake drug dealing. While in prison, on the advice of his brother who happened to be in the same cell, Mark mulled over getting the intimidating tattoo to discourage other inmates from picking on him.

The tattoo happened after he found himself drunk from home-brewed alcohol in prison. A drunk decision, the tattoo is now killing his chances at getting a job, because of course, no employer wants to see DEVAST8' everyday.

 Facebook

Mark has now turned to social media asking people to help him find a job. With a police record of robbery and drug dealing (that too fake, mate?), we can't really blame the employers for not hiring him, now can we?

'Hey im keen as to work but have one thing that is stoping me and thats my tattoo on my face [sic], he posted on an Auckland job search page.

Prison bullying and rapes are a scary reality and it is understandable that he wanted to ensure security in prison, but DEVAST8'? Really? You could have gotten a Mike Tyson face tattoo. Clearly, this guy doesn't handle drunk too well. We do hope he finds a job and can earn a decent living though.
Should I work towards a startup or take up a regular job? What is creativity? Am I doing the right thing? What is success and how to taste it? How to control your anger and be patient? Whether to go for your masters or stay and support your family? What is life? Am I falling behind in life? How to live a happy life? What am I doing with my life? This list can go on forever, and it will go on forever as it should. Not because it makes your life complicated but to pave the path for progress. Because, a question is where the actual search begins. Here are some of the answers to those questions by some of the greatest and wisest minds of the world. Look for your question and help yourself out.

1. Start by doing what's necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.  Francis of Assisi

2. Without a doubt you have got to decide what is important to you as a family and you have got to stick to it.  Stanford Business

3. Have more than you show, Speak less than you know.  William Shakespeare

4. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.  Jim Rohn

5. Great minds discuss ideas;Average Minds Discuss Events; Small Minds Discuss People.  Eleanor Roosevelt

6. I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.  John Adams

7. Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.  Steve Jobs

8. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.  Albert Einstein

9. Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.  Plato

10. Your smile is your logo, your personality is your business card, how you leave others feeling after having an experience with you becomes your trademark.  Jay Danzie

11. Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.  Soren Kierkegaard

12. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.  Charles R. Swindoll

13. The most effective way to do it, is to do it.  Amelia Earhart

14. "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe."  Joe Rogan

15. Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.  Farrah Gray

16. I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.  Stephen Covey

17. "Eighty percent of success is showing up."  Woody Allen

18. Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.  Kevin Durant

19. The road to success is always under construction.  Lily Tomlin

20. The line between failure and success is so fine. . . that we are often on the line and do not know it."  Elbert Hubbard

21. Be the change that you wish to see in the world.  Mahatma Gandhi

22. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.  Arthur Ashe

23. First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.  Aristotle

24. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.  Booker T. Washington

25. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.  Les Brown

26. Sometimes you gotta Run before you can Walk.  Tony Stark

27. Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.  Benjamin Franklin

28. Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting.  Joyce Meyer

29. Difference between motivation and inspiration - Motivation is external and short lived. Inspiration is internal and lifelong.  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

30. Never let anyone define who you can become.  Magic Johnson

31. Success is being in charge of your lifestyle and creating something you're proud of, surrounded by people you love.  Troye Sivan

32. if people are trying to bring you down it only means you are above them.  Anonymous

33. Because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.  Jack Kerouac

34. The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.  Stephen R. Covey

35. Done is better than perfect.  Mark Zuckerberg

36. The man on top of the mountain didn't fall there.  Vince Lombard

37. He who can see three days ahead will be rich for three thousand years.  Japanese Proverb

38. If you are going through hell, keep going.  Winston S. Churchill

39. Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to.  Henry Van Dyke

40. That which does not kill us makes us stronger.  Friedrich Nietzsche

41. Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with everything they have.  Unknown
While you may love your Snapchats and your Instagrams, Microsoft has released an app that is meant to help blind people. The app uses a smartphone's camera and narrates the world it sees through the lens for the blind and visually impaired.

 Microsoft

The app is called Seeing AI, and it is free to download from the App Store for iOS devices. The app can identify people, facial expressions, describe a scene, recognise currency and also read text.

When the app reads the text, Seeing AI can tell users to place a document in front of the camera. Once placed, the App will confirm and scan the document and read out the text. It can even scan bar codes and speak out additional information about products.

 Microsoft

The Seeing Ai can also pull up images from other apps to identify it and describe images. For example, the app can identify images on Twitter and describe the scene to the blind user. The App is currently available to download in India, US, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, but will be coming to more countries.The project was demonstrated in March last year by Microsoft software engineer Saqib Shaikh.

Shaikh, who lost his sight at the age of seven, said last year: "I teamed up with like-minded engineers to make an app which lets you know who and what is around you ... years ago this was science fiction. I never thought it would be something you can actually do, but artificial intelligence is improving at an ever faster rate and I am excited to see where this can go.

 YouTube

Smartphones already have features inbuilt that aid the visually impaired where voice assistants or Apple's VoiceOver screen reader tells users what is on the screen and guide them in tapping the correct area of the screen.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is expected to be announced soon and most of the rumours point to the phone being unveiled on August 23rd. The date has been confirmed by two different Korean publications. Since Apple is expected to announce their lineup of smartphones in September, Samsung would be keen to announce their next flagship before the iPhone 8 takes over the world.

 YouTube

The Bell reports that the announcement date is going to be 23rd August while The Investor claims that a certain Samsung executive has confirmed the month of August but will not detail any specific date.

 YouTube

Galaxy Note devices have always been announced in the late summer and this time it feels like Samsung will not hold back especially after the Note 7 debacle. The VentureBeat predicts that the Note 8 will have the same 6.2-inch screen as the Galaxy S8 Plus and will have a dual-camera system. It will also be paired with the S pen for Note fans who like to use the stylus for many other purposes such as document editing, picture editing and taking notes.

 YouTube

The dual camera system is expected to be positioned horizontally and will have two 12-megapixel sensors. However, the fingerprint sensor will be placed right next to the camera module which was probably the most annoying feature of the Galaxy S8. Other features such as an iris scanner, facial recognition and Samsung Pay is also expected to be incorporated in the smartphone. As usual, the Note 8 will be a premium priced smartphone and will come in similar colours as the Galaxy S8 i.e. Blue, Black and Gold. It is prudent to note that the dates speculated are of an International launch date, however, you can expect Samsung to launch the Note 8 in India shortly after.
The News in Brief

Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine Seek EU Membership Perspective



The Parliaments of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine released a joint statement, pledging to assist each other on the European integration path and calling on the European Council to open the EU membership perspective at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels on November 24, 2017.



The joint statement, signed by the Georgian, Moldovan and Ukrainian Parliamentary Chairmen on July 3, recognizes the significance of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) as an effective and strong mechanism for promoting democracy, rule of law and sustainable economic development in the three Eastern Partnership countries.



The Parliamentary Chairmen are convinced that the EaP Summit Declaration shall express unequivocal support to territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, as well as uphold the European choice and agenda of our countries.



We, the parliaments of Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine call on the European Parliament to adopt a Resolution prior to the EaP Summit reflecting political support and reaffirming the appeal to the European Council to opening the Perspective of Membership to the three Associated Countries in line with Article 49 of the Treaty of the European Union, the statement also reads.



With this ambitious and forward looking statement, the Chairmen added, the Eastern Partnership Summit Declaration shall carry a powerful signal in the currently strained geopolitical situation and shall become an inspiring instrument to accelerate further progress and democratic transformation of the three associated partners of the EU.

(Civil.ge)







Separatists deny leader injured in car crash visiting other breakaway region



The separatists in one of Georgias two breakaway regions denied a report in Russian media that their leader was injured in a car crash Saturday while visiting another separatist region.



Anatoly Bibilov, the de facto president of the tiny enclave South Ossetia, was hospitalized along with two members of his security detail after being involved in a traffic accident during a visit to Abkhazia, Russian news agency Interfax reported.



The news agency based its report on a source among medical circles.



Bibilovs injuries are not life threatening, the report further stated. Two members of his security detail have also been hospitalized and undergone surgeries.



Tskhinvali denies



But de facto authorities in South Ossetia denied the report. They said what happened was that a car with several members of the South Ossetian delegation veered off the road and had to undergo a medical examination. However, neither Bibilov nor any of his security detail were injured, the separatist authorities stated.



Bibilov and his entourage have now departed Abkhazia, the statement continued.



This was Anatoly Bibilovs first official visit to Abkhazia since winning the presidential election in April this year. He met with Abkhazias de facto leader, Raul Khajimba and laid down a wreath on the monument of fallen soldiers.

(DF watch)







Population of Tskaltubos Zhoneti village demands to be settled at a different location



Part of the residents of village Zhoneti, Tskaltubo district, Imereti region, demands the government to assist them to settle at a different location.



According to them the village is flooded when it rains and its impossible to live there.



They ask the government to allocate a special commission to evaluate their living conditions.



The village has been flooded for three times for the recent two months. Deputy Governor of Tskaltubo Genadi Balanchivadze says the decision should be made as a result of negotiations.



According to him the families refused to get compensations and leave the location in 2008.

(IPN)




N. HATZINIKOLAOU: A good evening to the Foreign Minister, Nikos Kotzias, and I'll start with my first question.



The Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, stated today that "the proposal of the Greek Cypriots for the occupation troops to leave Cyprus is foolish," and that "these are statements that are made by the other side," that is, by Cyprus and by Greece, "for domestic consumption." I want to ask you, sincerely, on what basis were the talks carried out in Switzerland, when the Turkish Minister, in this provocative manner, characterizes as "foolish" what I imagine all Greeks and Cypriots considered a precondition for this dialogue: the withdrawal of the occupation forces.

N. KOTZIAS: I am happy with your question, Mr. Hatzinikolaou, because it shows that you have a deep knowledge of the negotiations we carried out for eleven days.

On the third day of the negotiations, Mr. Cavusoglu started to ask for confirmation of Turkey's potential for intervening in Cyprus. I asked him very persistently and didn't allow the discussion to wander, as he usually did. In the end, he was cornered and had to answer. He said to me: "Yes, we want rights of intervention so that we can intervene militarily in Cyprus whenever we want to and whenever we deem it necessary."

This was obviously very revealing; that is, that they didn't simply want the legal potential for intervening in Cyprus, but that they had relevant planning in mind.

The second revelatory discussion was on the last day, Thursday into the early hours of Friday. On Thursday afternoon, the UN Secretary-General understood and announced to us that the Turks were relinquishing their rights of intervention from the Treaty of Guarantees and that they wanted to discuss only the Treaty of Alliance. I welcomed this and said that "we are prepared to continue our discussion."

In the evening, at dinner, which lasted over five hours, the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Anastasiades, persistently asked Mr. Cavusoglu: "What are the concessions and compromises you mentioned to the Secretary-General?" In fact, he asked him to put them in writing, just as we requested and the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, had requested; that is, for a text along the lines of the ones the Republic of Cyprus and Greece had submitted. Turkey, along with Britain, avoided submitting such a text.

Subsequently, Mr. Cavusoglu said: "I am not in a position and do not want to provide written texts, but whatever I had to say, I told the Secretary-General." The UN Secretary-General, who is a very serious and highly respected person, and who, I must say, wanted to cut the Gordian knot of the Cyprus problem, said: "Okay, I will summarise all of the proposals in a single paragraph," and he accepted the Greek proposal, which was supported by the British and the Cypriots, for an implementation and monitoring mechanism for the withdrawal of the Turkish army, a non-military friendship pact, on issues of peace, culture, education, research, economic development, etc., as well as a process for the definitive withdrawal of the Turkish army, abolition of the Treaty of Guarantee, and so on.

It was an extremely good and beneficial summary for the Republic of Cyprus. That's where Mr. Cavusoglu intervened and said: "No, Mr. Secretary-General, I said no such thing. We want to maintain our right to intervene in Cyprus, maintain our forces and the Treaty of Guarantee -which gives us the right to intervene- for at least the next 15 years, and after 15 years we can carry out a review -we Turks, with our allies or the Cypriot government- as to whether we can leave or not." The Secretary-General said: "To put it as politely as I can, I have misunderstood you and we cannot continue this discussion."

During the course of the negotiations, I explained to Mr. Cavusoglu that his view of the excessive role and presence of the army in general in a society does not correspond to western culture. Because in western culture the army is subordinate to politics and there cannot be a foreign military force in Cyprus, which would control the political leadership, Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot, on the island."

I also explained my surprise -rhetorical surprise, I must admit- at how persistent the Turkish leadership is in wanting to keep its forces in Cyprus, when it has characterized the Turkish army as an army of putschists, when the head of the Turkish forces along with ten of the fifteen highest ranking officers of the Turkish army in occupied Cyprus were arrested as Gulen supporters. How is it possible, in other words, for Turkey to tell us that an army, whose leadership was party to the coup, will be the guarantor of order, peace and security for the citizens of Cyprus?

I also said to him: "Remembering what you said to me a week ago, Mr. Cavusoglu, I understand that you want to have the opportunity, at any time, to invade the whole of Cyprus, having hung on the gun of the first tank spearheading the invasion force the agreement you want the Cypriot and Greek leaderships to sign. This can't happen. It's foreign to western culture and incompatible with what we call a solution to the Cyprus problem. Because a solution to the Cyprus problem is for the occupation and presence of occupation troops to cease."



N. HATZINIKOLAOU: It's very surprising that Mr. Cavusoglu also argued that the United Nations and the European Union know who is responsible for the foundering of the talks, meaning that Athens and Nicosia are responsible, and he said, provocatively: "Let them find another excuse not to let us into the European Union."

N. KOTZIAS: First of all, Mr. Hatzinikolaou  and I thank you for the question  of all countries, Greece is, par excellence, the supporter of Turkey's European course.

N. HATZINIKOLAOU: And maybe one of the few left..

N. KOTZIAS: Yes. For the very simple reason that God or Allah -as I say teasingly- wanted the Turks to be our neighbours, and there is no greater advantage for a country than to have a neighbour with a european mentality and a functional democracy.

So the european accession process will have these two 'goods'. But I stress, again, that the problem of Turkey's accession to the EU is not an issue for Europeans to decide. It is above all an issue of Mr. Erdogan's, Mr. Cavusoglu's and others', who need to decide whether they want to become Europeans, whether they want to act like Europeans, whether they want to put politics above the army.

With regard to the UN and the European Union, Mr. Cavusoglu, all Thursday night and into Friday morning -when we finished at 04:00- said that "the Secretary-General of the UN knows." But the UN Secretary-General said: "We are bound not to say what Turkey's proposals are." We responded: "What agreement will this be if Turkey announces its views to the UN, but prohibits the UN from telling us what these views are, while, whatever that agreement may be, it will have to be implemented or enjoyed or suffered by the citizens of Cyprus, who have to know what these views are?"

At this point, the UN Secretary-General intervened and said: "I understand that Turkey doesn't want to tell you what it told me, so I will tell you." As soon as the UN Secretary-General said what, in his opinion, Turkey had told him -or rather how Turkey had been deceiving him until then- Mr. Cavusoglu said: "No, what the Secretary-General is saying is not what we said." What was my conclusion? That they lied to him.

N. HATZINIKOLAOU: Did the UN play a good or a dubious role? I ask because you yourself raised the issue, I heard, in Switzerland, during the negotiations, regarding the role of the special adviser, Mr. Eide, about whom many comments have been made of late, to the effect that his role was strange, perhaps pro-Turkish.

N. KOTZIAS: I would say that it would be a great mistake for one to identify the UN with Mr. Eide. Mr. Eide is an adviser, special adviser on Cyprus. The Secretary-General speaks for the UN and, in my opinion, is the UN.

N. HATZINIKOLAOU: The mediator fumbled, Minister.

N. KOTZIAS: The mediator didn't mediate. He often played the lobbyist or promoted one-sided interests. It got to the point where he would come to see us in Athens having already gone to Turkey, or before travelling to Turkey. Moreover, a few times he saw the Turkish ambassador in Athens before he saw us, and after seeing us he would go and see economic and political figures in Athens, and had meetings at homes in the northern suburbs with journalists with a well-known bent against our foreign policy. That's not what mediators do.

N. HATZINIKOLAOU: Right. I now come to the concern that exists regarding the initiation of drilling in the Cypriot EEZ and the possibility of Turkish provocations, tensions in the coming days. I want to ask whether you are concerned, and how concerned you are. Whether, in your opinion, this is just blustering, or could we see other developments, and how prepared are Athens and Nicosia for such an eventuality. Whether you have made some diplomatic preparation behind the scenes, to get ahead of this. That is, for there to be interventions from other European countries, to quell the other side's provocative and aggressive inclinations.

N. KOTZIAS: Mr. Hatzinikolaou, as always, you raise key questions that I and the Greek and Cypriot governments are dealing with.

First of all, we are in coordination with the government of the Republic of Cyprus regarding what we need to do from here on in. And -as I announced in Parliament- next Monday, after the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, together with my colleague and exceptional diplomat and politician Mr. Kasoulides, we will return to Cyprus, where we will have extensive discussions on issues concerning the future prospects of Cyprus, and specifically, how we are to go about initiating a more effective negotiation process. Because what ended in Switzerland was, to me, but a phase. We mustn't close the Cyprus issue or allow certain other parties to close it there.

And in particular we will be discussing the European Union's relations with Turkey, because we have ahead of us a debate on the Customs Union, which will have a total value of 50 to 60 billion euros for the Turkish economy, which is facing great difficulties. And we will also be discussing how to consolidate international law, so that no one can dispute the Republic of Cyprus's rights in its EEZ, or the exercising of rights emanating from international law.

It is obvious that the Turks are displaying bluster. They may chose to take practical steps, but those will come at a high cost for the Turks themselves.

N. HATZINIKOLAOU: I think that last phrase of yours suffices. I won't ask for further details. It is clear from your response, and tell me whether I understand correctly, that Athens will support Nicosia in any case.

N. KOTZIAS: Athens, as well, will support Nicosia, and I believe that there will be other European countries that will support international law and the rights of a European country.

N. HATZINIKOLAOU: Right. That's clear. Tell me please, Minister, is there a chance of some other phase beginning -relatively soon- in the negotiations on the Cyprus problem, or do you believe that the foundering of the talks in Switzerland has 'burnt' this prospect? I ask you because, I remind you, we have the Cypriot elections and we have the presidential elections in Turkey in 2019, with Erdogan again running for highest office. Do you think that the Cyprus issue can be jump-started by then, with all sides returning to the table?

N. KOTZIA: The Cyprus issue, Mr. Hatzinikolaou, continues to exist, because there continues to be the occupation of territory of a UN and EU member state, because there continue to be illegal occupation troops and illegal 'exploitation' of the Treaty of Guarantee, which was written in London and Zurich in 1959-1960. So the Cyprus issue is here.

Second, there is a very helpful statement from the UN Secretary-General, which is also set out in the draft recommendation he made this morning to the Security Council. In paragraph 4 and paragraph 42 of the draft, it says that the UN is prepared to help and contribute to the initiation of a new discussion.

I have to say that I don't consider the case of Switzerland to be a failure, as some like to say. I believe that in Switzerland, at long last -as it says in the UN Secretary-General's recommendation- the issue of guarantees and security was raised in the negotiation process. This is the first time that this fundamental and key issue was raised in negotiations.

What I underscored at the closing of the talks in the morning hours of Friday, in Switzerland, was that we have to sustain our vision for a Cyprus will be a normal state. This is wording that I used and that was adopted, to my great satisfaction, by the UN Secretary-General, which means that Cyprus will be a state with the sovereignty and independence of a member of the European Union and the UN.

N. HATZINIKOLAOU: Mr. Minister, do you know why I persist on this point?



N. KOTZIAS: Let me say something further. I argued that the next negotiations have to start from the difficult issue; that is, from the guarantees and from security, and that the handling of the whole case was deeply flawed on the part of Mr. Eide, who for two and a half years said: "We'll look at security and guarantees at the end." I told him that "this is the most difficult issue, and if we don't discuss it and it doesn't mature, we will never reach the end." But they put it at the end, so that one side or the other would have to back down in the space of three days.

N. HATZINIKOLAOU: Mr. Minister, I insist on this question, because many people in Turkey, the really hard core, are writing and saying that "the Turkish leadership's plan B is to annex occupied Cyprus" and this is a very dangerous, a very dire prospect.



N. KOTZIAS: The theory that Turkey might annex occupied Cyprus did not appear after the Switzerland conference.



N. HATZINIKOLAOU: In occupied Cyprus, it existed before that.



N. KOTZIAS: It didn't appear after the negotiations in Switzerland. For two years now, the pseudo-foreign minister and the pseudo-prime minister of occupied Cyprus have been saying constantly that the occupied northern portion of Cyprus will be annexed by Turkey.



N. HATZINIKOLAOU: Maybe they'll find the opportunity now. That's why I ask.



N. KOTZIAS: When the discussion took place with Mr. Eide and the Cypriot government regarding the resolution on the history book in Cyprus  which, if you remember, said that the referendum of '50, on the union of Cyprus and Greece, which was an historical event, was to go into the Cypriot book  I asked Mr. Eide why he didn't react as strongly when the pseudo-government of occupied Cyprus asks for and seeks annexation.



In my personal opinion, annexation is the worst solution Turkey has before it, because it would come at a terrible international diplomatic cost and contravenes international law. That's my opinion.



N. HATZINIKOLAOU: I come to my last question. Today in Parliament, the Minister of National Defence and the head of the main opposition party crossed swords over the Skopje name issue and the national policy. My question is simple: Which of the two lines is in effect? Which is the national position? Is it what Panos Kammenos said, the decision of the meeting of party leaders under the then President of the Republic, the late Konstantinos Karamanlis, regarding the non-use of the term "Macedonia", even with a geographical qualifier, or is it the position that Greek governments later followed, accepting the term "Macedonia" if it is preceded by a geographical qualifier?



N. KOTZIAS: Mr. Hatzinikolaou, I made a statement in Parliament. I don't know if you saw it ...



N. HATZINIKOLAOU: I didn't see it, I admit.



N. KOTZIAS: I made the following requests: First, at the moment when we were discussing, in a spirit of unity, a common position of the Hellenic Parliament on Cyprus  on which there was a consensus and mutual understanding, and I, personally, in my speech, as well as yesterday at the meeting of the National Council on Foreign Policy, thanked all of the opposition parties that supported our delegation, our negotiating team in Switzerland, and I thanked them for that spirit  it was a shame that this discussion was opened by an observation from the head of the main opposition party. So I asked that the issue be closed, so that we could send a unifying climate of support and strength to the Cypriot people.



The second thing I told them was that we are beginning another round of negotiations on the name issue. On Sunday or Monday, in Brussels, I will be seeing Mr. Nimetz, who visited our region recently, but because I was in Switzerland, I couldn't take part in the meeting that had been scheduled in Athens.

So I said that it would not be good for us to open a front and a debate on a subject under negotiation. And it was with great satisfaction that I heard, in the Prime Ministers second remarks, the phrase that "with the same care, the same national responsibility, the same scientific approach, we will negotiate the name issue, as we did the Cyprus issue," and everyone accepted that we had carried out a very good, exceptional negotiation, setting a new agenda and placing the Cyprus problem within its real context.



N. HATZINIKOLAOU: But the essential question remains. And the essential question has nothing to do with Mr. Kammenos or Mr. Mitsotakis.

N. KOTZIAS: But it has to do with the negotiations, and I don't go to negotiations having announced what I will say.



N. HATZINIKOLAOU: Essentially, the question is, what is our red line on the name issue? That is the question, in essence.



N. KOTZIAS: You are absolutely right, Mr. Hatzinikolaou, but on Monday I'm going to a negotiation, and it would be big mistake on my part to take a stance, for P-R reasons, just a few days before, through a public statement.

But I note that a year ago, as Chair of the National Council on Foreign Policy, I sent a letter to the political parties asking them to give me their positions so that we could then have a meeting of the NCFP for a special debate on this issue, the name issue.



Unfortunately, that letter, as you will remember, came out in Parliament, despite its being confidential. A debate took place that was not creative, and that is why I am very careful about what I say publicly regarding the issue.



N. HATZINIKOLAOU: Right, I will not insist.



N. KOTZIAS: What I can tell you is this: I went to Skopje twice, as you know. I discussed the issue. They were unprepared. They came to Greece, again unprepared. They have been spoiled by the international community. I had a four-hour press conference in Skopje, during which I explained the following to them, if you will allow me to give these two examples.



I told them that I had been in Alexandria, Egypt, a few days earlier, and the Egyptians were proud that Alexandria is a legacy of Alexander the Great. I had no problem with that fact  that they wanted it to be an element of the heritage of Hellenistic culture, because no one in Egypt every thought of Alexandroupoli as an Egyptian city. In other words, there was no irredentism, but rather respect for Hellenic culture.

Also, at one point we were in Pakistan, where many, many people say they are descended from Alexander the Great, and that's fine, because they never said that Thessaloniki or Greek Macedonia belongs to them because they are the descendants of Alexander the Great.



But here we have to do with irredentism, which we cannot allow to spread in the Balkans or in general. We mustn't allow nationalism in the region. These issues require a great deal of caution, a great deal of seriousness, and that is why I think this is the first newscast I have been on as Foreign Minister, and I'm in my third year as Minister. Because it would be easy for me to want to respond and to tell you what I'm thinking, but afterwards it would be difficult for me to negotiate in the way that I want.



N. HATZINIKOLAOU: My warm thanks, Mr. Minister, for the interview.



N. KOTZIAS: And I thank you, Mr. Hatzinikolaou. It was a great pleasure and privilege.



N. HATZINIKOLAOU: For us, too. Thank you.



N. KOTZIAS: Have a good evening.


UPPER THUMB -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has designated three local practices as patient-centered medical homes.

Designated physicians in the Upper Thumb include:

 Scheurer Healthcare Network-Caseville Family Medicine in Caseville.

 Winsor Clinic, PC in Pigeon.

 Ubly Medical Practice in Ubly.

In patient-centered medical homes, primary care physicians lead care teams that focus on the distinct needs of each patient. PCMH teams coordinate patients' health care, track patients' conditions and ensure that patients receive needed care at the appropriate time and in the most appropriate setting.

"Doctors and their care teams have managed patients' health and prevented conditions from worsening, which has reduced patient hospitalizations and emergency room visits," said David Share, MD, MPH, senior vice president of Value Partnerships at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

PCMH practices offer 24-hour access to the care team. They coordinate specialist care and other therapies. They also teach patients how to manage conditions like asthma and diabetes.

Data from 2017 show that adult patients in Blue Cross-designated PCMH practices had a 25 percent lower rate of hospital admissions for certain conditions than non-designated practices. These are examples where appropriate care in the primary care physician's office prevents a medical condition from worsening.

Blue Cross-designated PCMH practices also had a 19 percent lower rate of adult ER visits and a 15 percent lower rate of pediatric ER visits.

A recent study published in Health Services Research showed that hospital per-member per-month cost was reduced by 17.2 percent and emergency department per-member per month cost was reduced by 9.4 percent for Blue Cross PCMH patients with asthma, angina, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, high blood pressure and congestive heart failure.

"Our medical-home model is successful, because it's a trusted partnership between Blue Cross and more than 40 physician organizations statewide," Share said. "We gather several times throughout the year to discuss what's working and what needs improving, and we adjust the guidelines. So, the program benefits from the best thinking from physicians who know what really works in practice. And patients are getting better care with better outcomes."

Other organizations are taking notice of Michigan's PCMH program, too. The program was approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as meeting the criteria for physicians to receive merit-based payment under the national Medicare Quality Payment Program. This national recognition confirms the Blue Cross PCMH model as a valid, regional model that uses standards meeting national quality guidelines.

The Blue Cross PCMH model of care is the foundation of the Personal Choice PPO plan, which offers lower out of pocket co-pays for Michigan members using physicians in high value organizations. Additionally, PCMH-designated practices are automatically included in the Blue Distinction Total Care program, which provides the PCMH model to companies that have employees in multiple states
BAD AXE -- A Huron County planner wouldn't take the word of some wind development officials Wednesday night.

Robert McLean wanted their promises in writing, despite claims by fellow planners that the move would pose a legal threat to the commission.

Some members of the Huron County Planning Commission argued that this would be changing the wind ordinance requirements, or retroactive zoning -- which is illegal.

Chairman Bernie Creguer asked McLean twice whether he wanted to rescind his motion to get the promises in writing from Algonquin Power officials. McLean refused.

The vote on the motion, which followed a long debate of the issue, failed 2-6.

McLean asked that Algonquin, which owns and operates the Deerfield Wind Park, provide the following in its post-construction sound study, and guarantee it in writing:

 Raw data from sound testing.

 That Algonquin use certain American Nation Standards Institute (ANSI) standards.

 That an observer be present during the sound testing.

 That the testing take place between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Some of those requirements are in the county's 2015 wind ordinance. However, the project was built under the county's 2010 wind ordinance.

Algonquin had already agreed with county officials to use the methodology of the sound protocol in the 2015 ordinance -- but not the specifics of the remainder of the ordinance.

And Algonquin officials present on Wednesday agreed verbally to most of McLean's requirements.

The only exception was that Leslie Greener, senior environmental manager for Algonquin, said she would have to check with her superiors about including an observer.

Commissioner Robert Oakes said there would be no need to get the guarantees in writing because it was on the record at the meeting, and minutes would reflect the agreement.

McLean argued that requiring the promises in writing was "good business practice."

Creguer responded: "It's not good practice to put this board at risk of legal action."

In other wind energy news:

 The commission heard from Dennis Buda of DTE Energy about the company's work on wind turbines this summer.

Technicians have replaced seven gearboxes, six sets of blade bearings and other parts.

Pitch motors have been a big issue, Buda added, and 55 percent of the necessary motors have been switched out.

Buda will present a root-cause analysis of the work at the September planning commission meeting.

 Richard Krohn of Oliver Township voiced his concern about the safety distance from the 3.45 megawatt turbines, currently being built by Sempra U.S. Gas and Power, and an occupied home.

Commissioner Terry Heck also asked Sempra officials about the turbines under construction in the Apple Blossom Wind Park. A Sempra official responded that the company is following the ordinance requirements, which are the same requirements that 1.5 megawatt turbines are held to. Heck said that due to the increased output, there should be an increase in safety distances.

"All they can do is follow the ordinance," Creguer responded.

 Sally Kain of Meade Township reported to Buda that there is a noisy turbine in Oliver township on Krohn Road, between Burne and Richardson Roads.

 McLean read an email from Larry Merrill of the Michigan Townships Association regarding conflicts of interest with local elected officials.

 Heck asked Jeff Smith, building and zoning director, about a letter to Vestas regarding a safety manual that the commission would like a copy of. Smith said he will be working with county Corporate Counsel Steve Allen to draft the letter.

In other business:

 The planners unanimously granted PA 116 enrollment to Julie and James Tyrrell for 11 acres in Sheridan Township and David and Danielle Leavine for 20.62 acres in Port Austin Township.

 The Bylaws Committee will meet at 5:30 on July 26, prior to the 7 p.m. Huron County Master Plan Workshop.
BAD AXE --The July meeting of the Michigan Association of Retired School Personnel (MARSP) is less than two weeks away.

The meeting will begin at 11 a.m. July 26 at the First Presbyterian Church at 112 E. Woodworth St. in Bad Axe.

There will also be a donation for school supplies. The speaker is Sandy Cherry, from the Michigan Attorney General's Office, with the topic of identity theft.

MARSP is open to all retired school personnel in Michigan. Membership and attendance at meetings provides up-to-date information and changes regarding retirement. All retired school personnel in Huron County are encouraged to attend. If you are not a current member, or you would like more information on attending this meeting, email Lynette at huronmarsp@comcast.net or call Dave or Marie at 989-658-2133.
#football Injured star Son Heung-min named to S. Korean World Cup squad The injured South Korean football star Son Heung-min was named to the country's World Cup squad Saturday, as the football-crazed nation waits with bated breath to see if the belove...
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...
The U.S. Army's top enlisted leader is trying to build momentum for an effort to create two new pay grades -- E-10 and E-11 -- to compensate senior noncommissioned officers as they take on more command responsibility.

Currently, enlisted pay grades stop at E-9, but command sergeants major typically advance from battalion level to higher command positions such as brigade-, division- and corps-level CSM without additional compensation.

Commissioned officers receive a pay increase each time they are promoted, all the way up to four-star general.

Sgt. Major of the Army Daniel Dailey discussed the effort at a recent conference in Texas but would not comment for this article.

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"Unfortunately, at this point, there is nothing to announce," said Master Sergeant Tyrone C. Marshall Jr., the SMA's spokesman, responding to questions from Military.com. "The mention of possibly expanding anything was all simply pre-decisional discussion at the SMA's annual conference in El Paso, Texas."

While the effort is being discussed behind closed doors, it's generating a high level of interest on social media.

Creating two new enlisted pay grades would be an uphill battle, as other services would likely make similar moves -- and such an effort would require support from leaders at the Pentagon and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

If approved, it would represent a major cultural shift in addressing a long-standing pay disparity between the enlisted and officer classes.

Upon graduating the U.S. Army Sergeant Major Academy, NCOs are promoted to E-9 and assume their first sergeant major position, working alongside a major or lieutenant colonel.

"From that point on, he gets elevated in responsibility at higher levels of command, and he never gets another pay raise for his grade ... and officers will get recognized when they move up with a different rank and different pay amount," said Command Sgt. Major John Raines, the command senior enlisted leader for the Mississippi Air and Army National Guard.

"It's just the way it is. A lot of things we do in the military are a custom, things that are handed down time after time after time and some of those things are just the way they are."

CSMs do receive a monthly stipend when they work with general officers.

"I make an additional $150 a month by working at a two-star level," Raines said, adding that the stipend increases by $75 for each star. "That money is just while I am in the position, so when I retire that money will not be calculated into my retirement."

To Raines, it will be difficult to get sergeant majors to get behind a pay raise for themselves when there are so many other priorities to meet the needs of soldiers.

Retired Army Reserve Sgt. Maj. Timothy Plunk of Mississippi said he believes the current pay ceiling for sergeant major needs to change.

"It's very outdated, but nobody ever wanted to tackle it or start raising issues about pay because then you get criticized; then you are a troublemaker," Plunk told Military.com.

Stephen Dailey retired from the Army Reserve as a command sergeant major in 2003 and remembers talk of an effort to give CSMs a bump in pay when they moved into brigade, division and corps level positions.

"If they haven't adopted the additional pay for division CSMs ... and the corps CSMs, I'd say this is a route they are going to want to take," said Dailey, who is no relation to SMA Dailey.

"From being in Operation Enduring Freedom with 700 troops under me, it kept me busy with discipline and keeping my NCOs in line and all that stuff. I can't imagine what taking care of 3,000 or 12,000 would be like.

"In my opinion, the CSMs that are above what I was deserve a pay-grade bump."

But creating new enlisted pay grades is no small feat. After Army approval, the effort would have to win support from all the services, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Congress.

"If the chief of staff of the Army and the secretary of the Army and the secretary of defense, if they agree with that, then it will happen," Raines said. "If it's not something they can support, then it won't happen.

"There are a lot of needs in the services; you prioritize those needs and I just see that it would be hard pressed to make it on top of the priority list."

-- Editor's note: This story was updated to correct attribution to a quote in the 13th paragraph.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
While accompanying President Donald Trump to Paris, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford received the French Legion of Honor for "the remarkable role he plays in the security of the world."

French Chief of Defense Gen. Pierre de Villiers presented the award to Dunford in a ceremony at the Ecole Militaire (Military School), which was founded in 1750 and now houses a complex of training facilities.

The Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 and is France's highest award for military or civilian achievement. Foreign nationals who have served France or upheld the ideals it represents are eligible.

Dunford used the occasion Thursday night to emphasize the close and historic military ties between the U.S. and France.

"As we are standing here, our soldiers are together in West Africa, they are together in Libya, they are together in Syria, they are together in Afghanistan, and we are operating together in the South Pacific," he said.

"The sun doesn't actually set on our relationship. Throughout the world, there are French and Americans standing shoulder-to-shoulder doing the job," Dunford said, according to a report from DoD News' Jim Garamone.

"We are still together," said de Villiers, who noted that U.S. troops for the first time on Friday were leading the military parade down the Champs-Elysees for Bastille Day, a French national holiday. The honor for U.S. troops marked the centennial of the 1917 landing of the American Expeditionary Force in France in World War I.

Trump, who attended the Bastille Day parade, said in a statement, "France was instrumental in the United States winning its independence.

"More than a century later, American doughboys repaid the debt. On July 4, 1917, at the tomb of the great French hero [Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette] of the American Revolution, an American army officer [Col. Charles E. Stanton] crystallized his country's gratitude with the immortal words, 'Lafayette, we are here,' " Trump said.

"Ten days later -- exactly one hundred years ago today -- soldiers from the United States Army's First Infantry Division marched down the Champs-Elysees in this very parade. And today, troops from that same storied unit march once again with their French brothers and sisters," Trump said.

The award recognized Dunford for "the remarkable role he plays in the security of the world," and "against armed terrorist groups that shock us with their brutality," de Villiers said.

There have been more than 10,000 American civilian and military recipients of the Legion of Honor. Among them are Army Gens. Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, William Westmoreland and Colin Powell.

The civilian recipients include Eleanor Roosevelt, Wynton Marsalis, Barbra Streisand, Kirk Douglas, Clint Eastwood and Bob Dylan.

Dunford, a former commandant of the Marine Corps, joined a list of former commandants who have received the Legion of Honor, including Gens. Charles C. Krulak, James L. Jones, Michael W. Hagee and James T. Conway.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
For the second time in two years, Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command held a press conference Friday to memorialize and salute seven troops from within the command who perished in a tragic aviation incident.

Col. Steven Grass, deputy commander of MARSOC, addressed the media from MARSOC's headquarters at Stone Bay, North Carolina, just hours after the Marine Corps publicly released the names of the troops killed Monday afternoon in a KC-130 crash in LeFlore County, Mississippi.

Six Marines and a sailor aboard belonged to MARSOC and were traveling from North Carolina to the West Coast for training ahead of a deployment to the Middle East. Nine more troops aboard were aircrew belonging to VMGR-452, a Reserve unit based in Newburgh, New York.

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The Washington Post reported Friday that a number of the Marine Raiders killed in the crash belonged to Marine Special Operations Team 8231, the same team that lost seven Marines in a 2015 UH-60 Black Hawk Crash near Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

"The Marines and sailors of MARSOC have been similarly tested before," Grass said. "...I'm impressed with the absolute strength and resilience that have become hallmarks of MARSOC."

The motto of MARSOC, Grass said, is Spiritus Invictus, Latin for 'unconquerable spirit.'

"Our command is a tight-knit community, made up of some of the most highly trained and dedicated Marines that I've ever known," he said. "And as a team and a family, we're going to pull together to see this through, and I thank you for your support. Semper Fidelis and Spiritus Invictus."

Grass declined to answer any questions about the specifics of the crash, citing an ongoing investigation that will likely take months to complete. He said MARSOC is expected to hold a memorial ceremony for the fallen troops in coming days, though a date and time for the event has yet to be set. The Marines who died in the crash, he said, were aware of the risks they undertook daily in training and the execution of their duty.

"We are a professional military organization, first off, and we're an all-volunteer force, especially the volunteers who come to this unit," he said. "And the families generally understand the environment that the Marines and the sailors get into when they take on this responsibility, and they don't go in with ignorance. Having said that, we do a great deal of preparation to prepare our families and Marines to be resilient and while you can't downplay the tragedy of a loss, we intend to honor our fallen, intend to take care of the families, and we intend to move on."

MARSOC's fallen, all noncommissioned officers and staff noncommissioned officers, represented a number of seasoned and decorated warriors. All but one had numerous deployments under their belts, and several had returned just months before from supporting the fight against ISIS in the Middle East.

Their names, backgrounds and photographs can be found here.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.

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accord 2018.JPG

(From Honda)

Honda is moving production of one of its models from Japan to North America, in a move that continues to show a shifting world landscape for auto production.

The 2018 Accord Hybrid will be built in Marysville, Ohio, according to the company.

"An all-new, even more refined and fuel efficient Accord Hybrid will be again built in Marysville, Ohio after a couple of years of production in Japan," the company said Friday, July 14, as it released information on its 2018 Accord models during an event in Detroit.

Marysville, in central Ohio, is where the first Accord in the U.S. was built in 1982.

The plant is now 4 million square feet and it employs 4,000.

"(It) represents the largest of our Ohio operations, producing the Honda Accord Sedan & Coupe along with the Acura TLX and ILX for customers in more than 100 countries around the world," Honda says on its website.

Honda builds about 70 percent of the vehicles it sells in the U.S. in American facilities. Other factories are located in Alabama, Indiana and the Carolinas. In 2013, it became the first Japanese automaker to export more vehicles from the U.S. than it imported.

The automaker also operates 14 R&D centers in the U.S., including one in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which was upgraded in 2013.

The unveiling of the 2018 Accord marks the 10th generation of the vehicle.

"We are redefining the Honda Accord for a new generation of buyers by bringing something unexpected that challenges the idea of what a mainstream sedan can be," said Jeff Conrad, senior vice president of the Automobile Division of American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

"Even as we advance core values like great driving dynamics, safety performance and efficiency, the distinctive design of this all-new 2018 Honda Accord will help it appeal to both head and heart in equal measure."

The Accord is the 7th best-selling vehicle in the U.S. However, sales are down 5.5 percent so far this year over 2016 YTD totals as customers increasingly turn to SUVs and trucks.

Other cars in the Top 10 are Honda Civic, Toyota Camry and Toyota Corolla, all of which are seeing sales declines in 2017.

Meanwhile, other global production shifts so far in 2017 include Ford canceling expansion of a plant in Mexico and Ford moving Focus production to China.
Photo by Shannon Millard | MLive.com

By Jessica Shepherd | jessica_shepherd@mlive.com

Sure, your local yoga studio is a fine place to experience the ever-popular discipline. Of course, it does get a little boring to look at the same scenery during every class, doesn't it?

We suggest you switch it up once in awhile by checking out some new places and ways to enjoy yoga. These quirky classes let you downward dog to new music, while looking at fabulous views and even while hanging out with farm animals.

Where is your favorite spot for yoga? What interesting classes have you participated in? Let us know in the comments.

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Yoga by the water

When: 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays during the summer

Where: William H. Haithco Recreation Area, 2121 Schust, Saginaw Township

Details: During the summer months, Kathryn Spagnuolo hosts several outdoor yoga classes, including these Tuesday classes by the water at Haithco. These classes are for everyone, so beginners are welcome. There is a $5 drop-in fee. Classes are cancelled when inclement weather occurs.

More info: Facebook and kathrynsyoga.com

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Our #SUP Boards are calling your name! Get on the water with us this week AND weekend on Reeds Lake! #SUPYoga ... Posted by The Funky Buddha Yoga Hothouse on Monday, July 10, 2017

Yoga ON the water

When: 5:30 p.m., 7 p.m. Tuesdays and 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. Saturdays through Labor Day

Where: Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids

Details: Stand up paddleboarding (SUP) is a new water trend and Funky Buddha Yoga is using it to create a new kind of yoga class. Through Labor Day, four weekly classes are offered to those who already love yoga and SUP, as well as those who are beginners to both. Registration is required prior to the classes. The pricing is $30 per class or five classes for $125. Equipment is provided. The class meets up at the Reeds Lake kayak dock behind the police department.

More info: Facebook or yogahothouse.com

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Yoga to live music

When: 7:15 p.m. July 25

Where: Down Dog Yoga Center, 316 S Kalamazoo Mall, Suite 108, Kalamazoo

Details: This special one-time class combines yoga and live, acoustic music from Penn Johnson. Beginners are welcome to join in on this class. The price is $15 per person and registration is recommended, considering space is limited.

More info: Facebook or downdogyogacenter.com

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Photo by Mac Snyder | MLive.com

Yoga under the stars

When: Next class 5:30 p.m. July 30

Where: Longway Planetarium, 1310 E. Kearsley, Flint

Details: You don't have to wait for nightfall to experience yoga under the stars. This occasional class, put on by The Yoga Loft, lets you experience a full 90 minutes of yoga with the constellations above your head. Registration is required by calling 810-397-6091. The class costs $25 per person and is limited to 25 participants.

More info: Facebook

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Yoga on a ship

When: 7 p.m. Sundays

Where: USS LST 393 Veterans Museum, 560 Mart, Muskegon

Details: This World War II landing ship tank is now a museum and a location for community yoga. A $5 donation is recommended, with proceeds benefiting the museum and other local nonprofits. Bring along a mat and bottle of water for this one hour class that lets you enjoy a view of Muskegon Lake.

More info: Facebook or rootdown.in

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Yoga at the farmers market

When: 12:30 until 1:30 p.m. Saturdays

Where: Calumet Farmers Market, 6th Street between Elm and Oak, Calumet

Details: During the farmers market season, Supernova holds a free weekly community yoga class. Everyone is invited, regardless of skill level. Bring a mat and an appetite for yoga. If outdoor weather conditions aren't optimal, the class is moved to the Supernova Yoga studio at 213 6th.

More info: dosupernovayoga.com

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Saturday's yoga session is full, but visit bit.ly/shopbroadmsu to register for June, July, and August! Free with registration, open to all levels. Posted by Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at MSU on Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Yoga in a sculpture garden

When: 6 p.m. July 30 and Aug. 27

Where: Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, 547 E. Circle, East Lansing

Details: The museum's beautiful sculpture garden is the setting for this one-hour class. Admission to the class is free with registration. Attendees are asked to bring there own mats for this outdoor session. Classes have filled up in the past so early registration is recommended.

More info: Facebook or register at this website

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Yoga with goats

When: 10 a.m. Aug. 12

Where: Fellinlove Farm, 6364 144th, Holland (The farm warns that Google takes you the wrong way, so consult the website for directions.)

Details: This Holland farm isn't the first to invite goats to a yoga class but they might be the first to also add 80s music. An 80s-themed hour-long session of goat yoga will also include a visit by pigs and mini llamas. Bring water and yoga mat, plus your 80s attire, if you choose to wear it. Children 10 and older are welcome. Your $10 donation will go to help the farm build a pig house.

More info: Facebook or fellinlovefarm.com

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Have you tried the best form of exercise yet? Yoga WITH CATS! Pre-registration is required, so to find out more, go to... Posted by Tiny Lions Lounge & Adoption Center on Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Yoga with cats

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays in July; 8:30 a.m. Sundays in July

Where: Tiny Lions Lounge & Adoption Center, 5245 Jackson Road, suite A1, Ann Arbor

Details: This cat cafe offers yoga classes so you can stretch and relax while visiting with your feline friends. A $10 fee will gain you access to the hour-long class and a limited number of mats and other supplies. Registration and advance payment is required and can be completed at the website below. The class is open to everyone 12 and older, though those younger than 16 must be accompanied by someone 21 or older.

More info: tinylions.org

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Yoga in the outfield

When: 9 a.m. Aug. 6

Where: Comerica Park, 2100 Woodward, Detroit

Details: Purchase one ticket for two days of fun at Comerica. First, you'll get to attend the Aug. 6 yoga class, held in the outfield. Then, you'll get to attend one of four September home games against the Chicago White Sox. Depending on the game and seat you pick, tickets range from $25 to $49 each.

More info: Find out more and purchase tickets here

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Photo by Emily Rose Bennett | MLive.com

Yoga on a rooftop

When: 5 p.m. July 26

Where: Rooftop of the Renaissance Center's Beaubien Place Garage, 521 Atwater, Detroit

Details: Get a view of the Detroit River as you attend this hour-long yoga class. The class is free to the public but a limited number of spots are available, so registration is recommended. Attendees must bring their own mats.

More info: Facebook or register on Eventbrite

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Photo by Cory Morse | MLive.com

Yoga and a beer

Who knew so many yoga lovers enjoyed beer? Well, many Michigan breweries definitely know, since they are holding yoga classes that conclude with a cold pint of beer.

Here's a look at just a few of the many breweries adding yoga to the menu.

Do you know of another yoga class held at a Michigan brewery? Give us the details in the comments.

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Thumb Brewery

When: 10 a.m. July 29, Aug. 5, Aug. 26, Sept. 2

Where: 6758 Pine, Caseville

Details: Each class costs $20 and includes a one-hour class and a pint of beer following yoga. A three-class pass is $54. Bring your own mat. Beginners are welcome.

More info: Facebook or register at Eventbrite

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Brewery Becker

When: 6 p.m. Tuesdays

Where: 500 W. Main, Brighton

Details: This hour-long class is held every week, unless a special event is scheduled. The class costs $10 per person, with a portion of the proceeds going to support a Brighton athletic scholarship. Drop-ins are welcome and attendees are asked to bring their own mats. After class, many participants stick around and have a beer with the group.

More info: Facebook or brewerybecker.com

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Dragonmead Brewery

When: 9:30 a.m. July 15 and July 22

Where: 14600 E. 11 Mile, Warren

Details: It is just $5 to join this hour-long class at the brewery. All skill levels are welcome and attendees are expected to bring their own mats. Register by emailing mimantrayoga@gmail.com or calling 586-459-0322.

More info: Facebook

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Photo by Jeff Schrier | MLive.com

Yoga and a wine tasting

When: 9:30 a.m. every Saturday in August

Where: Chateau Grand Traverse, 12239 Center, Traverse City

Details: The view from the outdoor area where you'll complete a one-hour yoga class is stunning. You'll look down on vineyards and West Grand Traverse Bay as you attend this gentle yoga class suitable for all skill levels. For $40, you'll get to attend the class and a then participate in a special wine tasting. If you want to visit the winery and attend the class without sampling the wine, it will cost you $25. Mats and props are provided.

More info: cgtwines.com

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What's better then cup of espresso on hot humid Michigan afternoon. The answer is cup of gelato. Posted by Mirko Pintar on Thursday, July 28, 2016

Yoga and gelato

When: 2 p.m. July 29

Where: Iorio's Gelato, 1034 Trowbridge, East Lansing

Details: Get in an hour of yoga on the patio and then reward yourself with a helping of gelato, sorbet or a coffee drink. Bring a yoga mat, towel and water. The cost is $15, if you register before July 22 or you'll pay $20 after that date. The cost includes your post-class treat.

More info: Facebook or register at Eventbrite

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Need some yoga info?

If you are new to yoga and nervous about attending your first class, here is some info that might help:

What to know before your first yoga class (POPSUGAR Fitness)

What to expect in your first yoga class (Ekhart Yoga)

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More Michigan fun

10 Michigan restaurants where you can dock your boat

The most unusual place in each of Michigan's 83 counties

This new beer trolley is the best way to drink in Beer City USA

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Ubiquitous and respected journalist Jack Lessenberry joins me on Greening of the Great Lakes to share his thoughts on a variety of environment-related topics in the news.

On Thursday, June 29, the state released the draft analysis of alternatives to the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac. The alternatives study doesn't make any recommendations. Michigan's Pipeline Safety Advisory Board will recommend what action, if any, Governor Snyder or Attorney General Schuette should take in regard to continued operation of Line 5.

"What we all know is that something like 540,000 gallons a day of oil and natural gas move through that pipeline, which has been at the bottom of the Straits since 1953. And if anything were to happen, both Lakes Michigan and Huron could be damaged beyond our power to imagine. It remains to be seen how much political pressure will be put on Enbridge to do something about that."

Lessenberry thinks that President Trump pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accord "is a very bad thing" that sends the wrong message to the rest of the world on our commitment to the environment.

He doesn't feel we've done enough to keep the Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

"I'm told that if we got 400 of them in the Great Lakes we'd be doomed. If one or two get in we may be able to sustain things. But if they get a breeding population, we're in serious trouble."

Lessenberry updates this summer's battle with algae blooms in Lake Erie and talks about the 1 trillion ton iceberg, with twice of the volume of Lake Erie, that broke off from the Larsen C ice shelf this week in Antarctica.

Despite the era of fake news we're living through, Lessenberry, who teaches journalism at Wayne State University, is optimistic about the profession's future. He says concern about the Trump administration and some of its policies will make serious journalism more popular than ever.

"Some of the major newspapers including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal have seen their circulations go up, and we have more journalism majors at Wayne State University than we've had in a while.

"But it is a changing world where there are not enough journalists, many have lost their jobs. So this is going to be a constant struggle. As we all know, and as people have known since time as far back as Ben Franklin, it's better to have an informed public than an ignorant one."

Click here to hear my conversation with Lessenberry.

Greening of the Great Lakes airs every Sunday evening at 7:00 on News/Talk 760 WJR and around the state each weekend via the Michigan Talk Network.
DELTA TWP., MI - Police were looking for a man suspected of murder in the death of a 22-year-old killed Monday in a convenience store parking lot.

Nathaniel Marcelious-Antonio Bowers, 23, is considered to be armed and dangerous. "We are making every effort to arrest him and remove this dangerous threat to public safety from the streets," reads a statement from the Eaton County Sheriff's Office.

The county prosecutor's office has authorized a warrant for open murder and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Bowers is accused of shooting Trevon McDuffy of Lansing about 4:30 p.m. July 11 at the Quickie Convenience store at 4820 S. Waverly Road in Delta Township, south of Lansing.

Deputies arrived to find him in the parking lot with multiple gunshot wounds. Paramedics tried to treat him, but he died at the scene.

Bowers is about 5 foot 4 inches tall with a thin build. Anyone who sees or has information about Bowers is asked to immediately call 911.

Any witnesses or those with tips are encouraged to call sheriff's Detective Sgt. Josh Ivey at 517-652-3315 or CrimeStoppers at 517-483-STOP.

The Lansing Police and Michigan State police departments, Michigan State Police fugitive team and the Capitol Area Violent Crime Initiative team "have provided tremendous ongoing assistance."
DETROIT - A Michigan charter school association is asking Nikolai Vitti, the new superintendent of Detroit Public Schools Community District, to "clarify his thoughts" on having Detroit Schools continue to authorize charter schools.

Detroit Public Schools has authorized charter schools since 1994, and the district currently oversees 13 charter schools.

In an interview with the Detroit Free Press earlier this month, Vitti said he would like to see DPSCD focus on improving its traditional public schools, rather than continue expending resources on authorizing charter schools. He recommended DPSCD fulfill its current contracts with charter schools and shift toward traditional schools, the Free Press reports.

Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, a charter school association, was troubled by Vitti's comments.

"I hope we can all agree that we want every child to have a seat in a high-performing school, which is why we find Dr. Vitti's comments to be a bit confusing and troubling," Quisenberry said in a statement issued Thursday, July 13. "Some of the highest-performing schools in the city are charter schools authorized by the Detroit Public Schools Community District. How is it benefitting students if you want to close those schools?

"We hope Dr. Vitti is able to clarify his thoughts, and we look forward to working with him to ensure that every child in Detroit has a seat in a high-quality school," Quisenberry continued.

At the end of a charter school's contract, the school can apply for re-authorization. DPSCD commits to another five-year agreement if it fully re-authorizes a charter school, although the district's Office of Charter Schools outlines some options for shorter agreements.

The schools could seek a new authorizer if Detroit Schools decides to end its oversight of charter schools.
BAY CITY, MI -- Dana Muscott, Bay City's longtime employee who was quietly hired last month as the city's next manager, may earn as much as her predecessor, even though she doesn't have a bachelor's degree or as many years of relevant experience.

Muscott, who lives in Freeland, has agreed to a five-year contract that would pay her a starting salary of $117,000, which is about $800 less than what Rick Finn, who left the city in June, was making as manager for the past three years. The contract also includes a $400 monthly car allowance, a potential 5 percent pay increase and job security to ensure she can earn lifetime health benefits from the city in retirement -- a nod for her 17 years of service to the city, one elected official said.

The Bay City Commission votes on the contract at its 7:30 p.m. meeting Monday, July 17, at City Hall, 301 Washington Ave.

Not everyone is in favor of the proposed contract.

Commissioner Andrew Niedzinski

"Ultimately, Dana benefited more from this contract than the city did," said Commissioner Andrew Niedzinski, 3rd Ward, who added he's still undecided on his vote.

The contract was released to the public as part of the commission's agenda packet late Thursday, July 13. Several aspects of the deal are expected to be discussed Monday night, including its length and salary, Muscott's education credentials and her decision to remain living in Freeland, as opposed to moving to Bay City.

Commissioner Lynn Stamiris, 1st Ward, who voted against hiring Muscott, arguing the commission should have done a national search for its next manager, said he prefers to see a three-year contract. He also argued that Muscott spent a majority of her municipal career as a clerk and said her manager salary should start lower and progressively increase as she gains more experience.

Commissioner Lynn Stamiris

"She simply doesn't have enough experience," he said. "She was the interim (manager) for a year and a half. That's not the same as being full time and being held accountable down the road."

Muscott, 48, was hired as Bay City's clerk in 2000 after eight years as the deputy clerk in Saginaw Township. In 2003, she added deputy city manager to her resume while continuing her duties as the city's clerk. She has worked solely as deputy city manager since 2015.

Finn, who's now looking for his next municipal manager job before he retires, brought nearly 20 years of full-time managerial experience to Bay City. The City Commission hired him at a $115,000 salary following public outcry over a proposed $120,000 salary. He then received a 2.5 percent raise eight months into the job.

When hired, Finn was the city's highest-paid manager ever.

Muscott currently makes $122,515 per year, according to records in her personnel file. She is making $110,000 as deputy plus an additional $600 per month ($7,200/year) as acting city manager. And then she is roughly making an additional $450 per month while managing the electric department as the city continues its search for a new director following the retirement of Phil Newton last year. She said she would continue to run the electric department and collect that portion of her salary after her contract is approved.

Education

Included in Muscott's contract is an opportunity for a 5 percent raise, or $5,850, if she obtains a relevant masters degree. According to her personnel file, she attended Saginaw Valley State University to study business administration, but never completed her bachelor's degree.

In an interview with MLive Friday, she said she finished three years of college and then landed a government job, married and started a family.

"It wasn't a priority at that time for me," she said.

Muscott added she has continued her education throughout her career, obtaining certifications specific to municipal clerk and manager positions.

She estimates she has as many as 30 credit hours to finish in order to obtain her degree, something that members of the commission are encouraging -- but not requiring -- her to do.

Commission President Larry Elliott, 9th Ward, said it wasn't brought up during negotiations because he and other commissioners assumed Muscott held a bachelor's degree.

"It wasn't until we made a motion on (the master's degree) part of the contract that we found out she didn't," Elliott said. "It would be great for her to have it. A bachelor's degree will give her that piece of paper that says she can do the job, but she has already shown me that she can."

Commission President Larry Elliott and City Manager Dana Muscott at a special City Commission meting in June.

Stamiris said he "couldn't imagine" why Muscott wouldn't work to finish her degree.

"A bachelor's today is a basic requirement," he said. "Cities with similar jobs now prefer a masters."

Niedzinski, who's working toward a master's degree in public administration, said Muscott's lack of a bachelor's degree sends the wrong message to the community.

"Having a bachelor's degree shows our community that education is important," he said. "How are we going to tell our kids going through Bay City Central that, 'Hey, you don't need a college degree and you can still get a $117,000 job.' That really doesn't happen ever."

Residency

Per the contract, Muscott is required to live within 20 miles of Bay City's corporate limit. Her home in Freeland meets that requirement and she says she has no plans to move. (The contract specifically said Muscott wasn't requesting any relocation reimbursement.)

"That doesn't mean my commitment to Bay City is any less," she said. "I spend a huge portion of my time here."

Stamiris said the city's manager should live in the city.

"If that person is putting forward tax issues, that person ought to live here," he said.

Job security, benefits

If Muscott is terminated from her position without just cause in the first three years, she has some unique stability built into her contract to help her reach 20 years of service with the city and secure lifetime health benefits.

According to the contract, if Muscott is fired without just cause, she can either take six months severance pay or request reassignment to another city position at a salary no less than what she received as deputy city manager, which is $110,000.

"It is a unique part of the contract," Muscott admitted. "Most managers come into a community and are here for only three to five years. With me, I've been here for 17 years. I needed that clause to get to 20 years and get my retirement benefits."

Similar to past managers, the city agrees to contribute 10 percent, or $11,700, annually toward Muscott's retirement, according to the contract.

Her performance is to be reviewed annually by March 31.

Muscott acknowledged why people may have been upset at the commission for not opening up the search to other candidates, but is leaning on her experience in City Hall to get the job done.

"You know what you have with me because I've worked here for 17 years," she said. "You know my style, I'm familiar with the area and I think that's going to be very beneficial."
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy won't share her position on the parole of Richard Wershe Jr., a former teen drug dealer and FBI informant who was serving a life sentence for a 1988 drug conviction.

Worthy's office previously fought against attempts by Wershe's attorneys to have his sentenced reduced.

"The position of the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office is that this is a decision that has been made by the parole board and that we have no further position," Worthy said. "We respect and accept the decision of the parole board."

The Michigan Parole Board voted to grant parole to Wershe Friday. He'll likely receive a release date in August, but must first complete an unfinished sentence for a racketeering and corruption conviction related to an auto theft ring in Florida.

Florida Department of Corrections representatives say Wershe still has about 3 years and 8 months to complete of the five-year sentenced he received there.

Holly Kramer, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, said he'll likely be transferred immediately to Florida upon his release in Michigan.

Wershe began working as a paid FBI informant, helping bust various drug dealers in his east Detroit neighborhood, when he was 14.

His involvement in the drug world increased with the help from the FBI.

After the FBI stopped using Wershe as an informant, he began selling drugs himself using connections made while working for law enforcement.

He was arrested and convicted of possessing nearly 8 kilos of cocaine in 1987 and convicted the following year.

The Wayne County prosecutor said she would reevaluate her position on Wershe's imprisonment last August, but never subsequently revealed what the outcome of the reevaluation was.

"Having been deeply immersed in the juvenile life without parole murder cases for the last six months, I have noted parallels to the Richard Wershe case that have caused me to review the office position in this case," she said in August 2016. "However, it is important to note that only the Michigan Parole Board determines who does or doesn't receive parole."

Wershe came close to having his sentence reduced in 2015.

A Wayne County Circuit judge agreed his life sentence should be reevaluated and ordered a new sentencing hearing, but Worthy thwarted the opportunity, filing an emergency stay and appeal, which her office won.

"Prosecutor Worthy believes that Wershe's sentence is valid under the law, and she has not found any compelling reason to justify changing it," Worthy spokeswoman and Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller said at the time.
After spending 29 years in prison, the Michigan Parole Board on Friday voted unanimously to parole former teen drug dealer and FBI informant Richard Wershe Jr.

Shortly after news of the parole, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy issued a statement that she has "no further position" on the matter and respects the decision.

The 47-year-old father of three and grandfather is serving a life sentence since being convicted in 1988 for cocaine possession with intent to distribute. He was arrested in connection with a bag of cash and 8 kilos of trafficked cocaine hidden beneath a neighbor's porch in Detroit after being stopped by Detroit police en route to make a sale.

"I know that the drugs I sold destroyed people's lives," Wershe said at a parole hearing in June, but said he's a changed man and will not present any harm to society if released.

Wershe doesn't deny he committed the crime for which he was convicted, but says he has served his debt to society.

Wershe will receive a release order for some time in August, but his time in custody probably isn't over, Michigan Department of Corrections spokeswoman Holly Kramer says.

He's expected to be transported immediately to Florida, where he has an unfinished prison sentence to serve there. Florida will make the transportation arrangements.

While in the Witness Protection Program serving time for his Michigan drug sentence in Florida, Wershe was convicted of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering for his participation in an auto theft and title fraud scheme from behind bars.

He was sentenced to 5 years and has not served the full term.

Wershe claims he simply noticed a good deal on a car in Auto Trader Magazine, so he passed the number for the Miami-area dealer along to his sister. The plan was for her to broker a sale in the Detroit area, where prices were higher.

Wershe claims his sister brokered deals on up to four stolen cars and was paid about $6,000. Wershe then told an prison acquaintance about the arrangement and helped connect the man's son, who lived in Virginia, with the same car dealer.

After arrangement progressed, Wershe says he learned some of the vehicles were "tagged," meaning they were stolen, the VIN numbers were altered, they were issued fraudulent Florida titles and sold in other states.

Wershe called his involvement "stupid," but said he was motivated by a need to financially help his sister, who was caring for Wershe's daughter at the time.

Wershe believes he still has about four years to serve on the Florida sentence, but hopes it will be reduced.

He became involved with Detroit's drug underbelly when he was approached by the FBI to become an informant at 14. Narcotics officers liked that Wershe, who seemed to be an average kid, had access to drug dealers and information in his neighborhood that police did not.

After working with law enforcement for several years, Wershe says he was told his services were no longer needed.

That's when he decided to use the connections he'd made as an informant to sell drugs himself.

After his arrest in 1987 when he was 17, Wershe collaborated with the federal government in a sting that nabbed nearly a dozen corrupt Detroit police who were assisting or participating in drug deals themselves.

Some of those impacted were close to then-Mayor Coleman A. Young's administration and intertwined with city and county government.

This is partly why some, including retired FBI agent Gregg Schwarz, who worked with Wershe in his informant days, and Wershe's attorney, Ralph Musilli, believe Detroit officials fought vigorously to keep Wershe behind bars.

At Wershe's previous parol hearing in 2003, Detroit police and then-Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Duggan argued he presented a threat to society and should not be released from prison.

No one appeared in opposition at the most recent parol hearing.

When Wershe was convicted in 1988, there was a harsh law inplace that required anyone convicted of possessing more than 650 grams of cocaine receive life in prison without the chance of parole. That law has since been repealed.

Wershe's attorney spoke on his behalf during a public comment section of the meeting in June. Musilli mentioned how Wershe's work as an informant helped police arrests the Curry brothers, twins Johnny and Leonard Curry, who were some of the most prolific drug dealers in the city.

They've served their sentences and been released, while Wershe remains in prison.

"Where's the proportionality?" Musilli asked.
FLINT, MI - A man has been hospitalized Thursday afternoon after the vehicle he was driving knocked over a light post on the campus of Kettering University in Flint.

Flint police and fire responded shortly after 4:30 p.m. July 13 to University and Chevrolet avenues for a crash and discovered a grey, four-door Chevrolet Malibu had struck a light post and traffic sign before coming to a stop.

The driver was placed in the back of a STAT EMS ambulance and transported to a local hospital for treatment.

Traffic was backed up for a short time as emergency response vehicles, including a paramedic from the Genesee County Sheriff's Office, filled a portion of the intersection.

The driver's injuries did not appear to be serious. Police at the scene did not provide any further comment on the driver's condition or the cause of the crash. No one else was injured during the incident.
FLINT, MI -- The city has replaced more than 7 percent of the estimated number of lead and galvanized water service lines in the city, meeting a federal mandate to do so by June 30, the coordinator of the effort says.

Retired Brig. Gen. Michael McDaniel, coordinator of the Flint Action and Sustainability Team, told the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in a letter Monday, July 10, that the city's replacement of 2,150 service lines as of June 30 exceeds the requirement in the federal Lead and Copper Rule.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an administrative order to the city in January 2016 after the agency determined Flint's water constituted an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public because of elevated levels of lead.

"The city thus had until (June 30) to replace ... the 2,037 service lines," McDaniel wrote in a July 10 letter to the director of the DEQ's Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance Division. "I am very pleased to advise, formally, on behalf of the city (the replacement of) 2,150 service lines, exceeding the LCR requirement."

The city achieved the service line target despite having encountered copper service lines, which do not require replacement, during nearly 20 percent of its excavations.

McDaniel's letter says the city began hydro-evacutation of service lines on July 5, a process that's expected to save contract crews time as they more quickly determine which homes have lines that need replacement.

MLive-The Flint Journal reported in May that more than one in five excavations performed by service line removal crews initially this year were dead ends, leading to copper pipe that does not pose a threat of leaching lead.

City records requested by The Flint Journal-MLive through the Freedom of Information Act then showed 252 of 1,155 excavations -- 22 percent -- tied to the Flint water crisis have led to copper lines.

McDaniel's letter says Flint will provide a revised number of service lines that require replacement after more hydro-excavation work is done.

Hydro excavation trucks use pressurized water and industrial-strength vacuums to drill into the ground, allowing operators to identify whether service lines are made of lead or galvanized steel and need to be replaced.

The process takes less time and causes less disruption to the ground around homes than digging a trench to find out the same information.

The city issued a news release Friday, July 14, saying lead-tainted lines have so far been replaced at 1,283 homes. The work is part of the mayor's plan to replace lead-tainted pipes at 6,000 Flint homes in 2017.
FLINT, MI -- The former operator of Flint's water treatment plant remains on administrative leave without pay, and a city councilman wants to know why.

A criminal case was dismissed in May against Mike Glasgow, the operator of the plant when Flint's water source was changed to the Flint River in April 2014.

Glasgow is cooperating with special Flint water prosecutors as part of a plea agreement with the Michigan Attorney General's Office and has been praised -- despite having been charged criminally -- for tryin to stop the water plant from being put into service without adequate equipment or manpower while the city was run by a state-appointed emergency manager.

Glasgow was suspended without pay after he was among 15 individuals charged with criminal wrongdoing in connection to the water crisis.

He was replaced on the job by JoLisa McDay as plant manager, but McDay resigned from the position June 30, leaving Flint to make other arrangements for a certified operator to be in charge of the water plant.

Although Flint's current water supply is pre-treated by the Great Lakes Water Authority, the city still provides some treatment, adding phosphates and chlorine to water after it arrives here, and a certified operator is required at the plant.

Councilman Scott Kincaid asked about Glasgow's status during a council meeting this week.

"I don't know anything about his court case. The only thing I know is charges were dropped against him and he's not accused of any wrongdoing," Kincaid said. "So why wouldn't we bring him back? He's got x-amount of years and experience in this job. Why would we want him to lose his pension and benefits if he can do the job?"

Interim City Attorney Angela Wheeler told council that discussion of Glasgow's job status should be done in a closed session, but Kristin Moore, a spokeswoman for the city, told MLive-The Flint Journal this week that Glasgow remains on unpaid administrative leave.

"That is all we are able to say about the matter at this time," Moore said in an email to The Journal.

The Journal also could not reach Robert S. Harrison, who represented Glasgow in his criminal case, for comment.

A judge dismissed the criminal case against Glasgow, who has also served as Flint's utilities administrator, in May following a request by prosecutors, who said he has "cooperated significantly" with their investigation into the water crisis.

"Mr. Glasgow attempted to call the police -- that would have been the (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) -- and they never responded," Ruth C. Carter, special assistant Michigan attorney general, said at the time. "Mr. Glasgow sent the flares up when nobody else did. He's the reason that we were able to get started because he did try, and no one responded to him."

Glasgow, 41, was the first of 13 Flint water crisis defendants to agree to a plea deal with prosecutors.

Corinne Miller, retired director of the state Department of Health and Human Services' Bureau of Epidemiology, also reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and was sentenced in March.

While working as the water plant operator in the days leading up to it being put into full-time service for the first time in decades, Glasgow warned state regulators of a potential disaster on the horizon in emails.

"I have people above me making plans to distribute water ASAP," he said in an email to the DEQ on April 17, 2014.

"I was reluctant before, but after looking at the monitoring schedule and our current staffing, I do not anticipate giving the OK to begin sending water out anytime soon," one Glasgow emails says. "If water is distributed from this plant in the next couple weeks, it will be against my direction.

"I need time to adequately train additional staff and to update our monitoring plans before I will feel we are ready. I will reiterate this to management above me, but they seem to have their own agenda."
ALLENDALE, MI -- The Grand Valley State University Board of Trustees increased tuition for the coming school year at a meeting where they also approved the 2018 budget.

Trustees approved a $237 per semester increase in tuition during the Friday, July 14 meeting, bringing annual tuition to $11,994 for a full-time undergraduate Michigan resident, the university said in a news release.

The $474 annual increase equates to 4.11 percent compared to the previous rate, according to university figures. Annual tuition in 2016-17 was $11,520, GVSU said.

The trustees also adopted the university's FY 2018 budget. It includes $47 million in financial aid for students, an increase of more than $3.3 million, to be awarded in the form of scholarships and grants, the university said.

The university is expected to receive $70.1 million in state funding, the school said. The state's share of Grand Valley's entire budget is 18 percent.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The Grand Valley State University Board of Trustees approved a new $70-million building project on Grand Rapids' Medical Mile.

The new building at 333 Michigan will be next to Grand Valley's Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences and within a block of Raleigh J. Finkelstein Hall, currently under construction on Lafayette Avenue, a news release from the college said.

The new $70-million building project will create additional spaces for the health professions and nursing programs, GVSU said. Construction is scheduled to begin in June 2018, with the opening set for May 2021.

A Google image of the lot at 333 Michigan, where GVSU approved a new building project.

"This approval is a major turning point for Grand Valley's health programs," Provost Maria Cimitile said. "Demand has exceeded our ability to accept highly qualified students, and these two new buildings, right in the middle of the city's vibrant medical community, will provide exceptional opportunities for more students to attend Grand Valley and benefit from the unique combination of liberal education with professional training.

"This combination makes our graduates highly employable by area hospitals and medical facilities," she said.

A site plan for the building at 333 Michigan.

The state approved a capital outlay request of $29 million for the five-story, 160,000-square-foot building. The rest of the funds will come from private donors and university bonds, GVSU said.

Finkelstein Hall is 84,000 square feet and will be completed next May, GVSU said.

In other board action and discussion:

* Trustees approved a 4.11 percent tuition increase for the coming school year.

* Trustees approved the 2018 Fiscal Year budget.

* Trustees approved a new master's degree program in Data Science and Analytics. Housed in the School of Computing and Information Systems and Statistics Department, graduate students will learn analytics skills that are necessary to work with big and complex data sets. Paul Leidig, director of CIS, said the program will prepare students to be data scientists, a field that has grown by 57 percent since 2016.

* James Moyer, associate vice president for Facilities Planning, reported that renovations and an addition to the Performing Arts Center on the Allendale Campus will be finished in August. The two-story, 47,000-square-foot addition includes a black box theater, support spaces, two theater classrooms and three ensemble rooms.

Moyer also said the Mackinac Ravine Restoration Project on the Allendale Campus will be finished in October. The project will restore about 1,000 feet of the ravine located north of Zumberge Pond.

* Trustees approved the authorization of Old Mission Peninsula Community School, a charter school in Traverse City; a site change for Michigan Mathematics and Science Academy in Center Line; a grade addition for Evergreen Academy (Kalamazoo) and Oakland Academy (Portage); and the appointment or reappointment of charter school board members to GVSU authorized public school academy boards.
MUNISING, MI -- Two people who were reported missing earlier this week in the Upper Peninsula are safe after being located at a gas station in Munising, though police suspect one of holding the other against her will.

In an interview with WLUC TV6, Michigan State Police First Lt. Robert Pernaski said the 28-year-old missing woman was "definitely held against her will" by Eric Scott Ruska, 37.

Police located Ruska and the woman at about 4:25 a.m. Friday, July 14, when they stopped at a Shell gas station to purchase food and drinks, Pernaski told TV6.

Undercover officers, who received tips that Ruska often made late night trips to 24-hour convenience stores, approached the two occupants of a 2006 Chevrolet Colorado pick-up truck belonging to Ruska.

Ruska was arrested and taken to the Munising Police Department to be interviewed, while the woman was transported to UP Health Systems for evaluation. Her status is unknown, though police said both parties were in healthy condition.

"This was not a voluntary situation," Pernaski told TV6. "We're just thankful and joyful that this ended the way it did."

State police issued an advisory Tuesday asking for the public's help in finding Ruska and the woman. Police found Ruska's boat on the water and believed the two went fishing on Chicago Lake.

On Wednesday, the woman's family posted a video on Facebook and suggested she might be held against her will. Her brother Gerald Schneider asked for support in the search, and begged Ruska to let his sister go.

Ruska is a tier-3 registered sex offender. He was convicted of kidnapping and third-degree criminal sexual conduct in June 2004, according to Michigan State Police records.

Police will continue their investigation to determine if any criminal charges should be filed in the case.

The full interview with Pernaski is available on TV6's Facebook page.
[July 13, 2017] Phoenix Tower International expands across the Andean region

BOCA RATON, Fla., July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Phoenix Tower International ("PTI") announces that it has closed on three separate transactions across Peru and Colombia increasing its wireless infrastructure sites by over 150 towers and increasing its marketable real estate properties by over 2,000 sites across the Americas. "PTI has spent significant time looking to grow our business operations in Peru and Colombia through the construction and acquisition of strategic towers that are well suited for continued wireless collocation and unique property locations to offer our customers. After our latest transactions, we have furthered our scale in both markets with quality sites poised for growth as well as real estate partnerships with major property owners that we can collocate new customers on or construct new tower on. Additionally, we have expanded our local personnel in both markets that are working closely with our customers to further grow the business through active BTS and collocation orders. We are excited to support and grow these markets in the coming years ahead as we continue to strive to provide the best site offerings to help our customers grow their networks in all of the markets we do business in. These transactions fit strategically into our portfolio across the Americas and further solidifies PTI as a market leader," stated Dagan Kasavana, Chief Executive Officer of Phoenix Tower International.



About Phoenix Tower International

Phoenix Tower International ("PTI") owns, manages and operates over 4,000 towers, wireless infrastructure and related sites throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States. PTI was founded in 2013 with a mission to be a premier site provider to wireless operators across high-growth international markets. Phoenix Tower International currently owns and operates wireless infrastructure in Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru and the United States including Puerto Rico. PTI's investors include funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities as well as various members of the management team, and is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. For more information, please visit www.phoenixintnl.com.

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/phoenix-tower-international-expands-across-the-andean-region-300488278.html SOURCE Phoenix Tower International

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Sandeep Wagle of powermywealth.com told CNBC-TV18, "I dont see a turnaround happening in Suzlon Energy. This stock was showing strength but that was at lower levels; around Rs 12-14 levels there was strength. However, as of now, I see the stock moving in a range of Rs 17-20. So, the best thing at this point in time would be to exit nearer Rs 20. A move towards Rs 25-26 is likely only if Rs 20 were to be taken out and that too with good volume which as of now I dont see that happening. So, I would advise booking out in the range of Rs 19.50-19.80, nearer Rs 20 levels."

"I am not very positive on Torrent Pharma . The stock did show some strength today, so, I would use that move as an exit. Broadly the range is between Rs 1,250 and Rs 1,350. I would talk of this range for next few weeks. So, nearer Rs 1,330, around those levels, I would recommend booking out," he said.
business Buy Biocon, Aurobindo Pharma on every dip; sell Axis Bank, Adani Ports: Ashwani Gujral Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com is of the view that one can buy Biocon and Aurobindo Pharma on every dip and advises selling Axis Bank and Adani Ports.
trends Essar fights liquidation: Hearing concludes in Essar versus RBI case The hearing in Essar Steel versus Reserve Bank of India (RBI) case is over, with all parties concluding their arguments -- and the Gujarat High Court has reserved the order in the matter. Watch accompanying video of CNBC-TV18's Yash Jain for all the details.
Air India

A union of Air India employees will hold a protest on July 18 against the disinvestment of the national carrier.

The grouping comprising nearly 8,000 of the total 21,137 employees of Air India held a general body meeting last week to deliberate on its strategy to oppose privatisation of the debt-laden carrier.

The union will hold a protest on July 18 near Terminal 2 at Indira Gandhi International Airport, according to a press statement issued by Air Corporations Employees' Union (ACEU), which represents Air India's non-technical staff.

Seven unions of Air India had last month joined hands to oppose the Centre's decision to disinvest the carrier and had written to Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapthi Raju, warning him of an "industrial unrest".

The Union Cabinet had last month given its in-principle nod for consideration of disinvestment of Air India.

'Alternative Mechanism' or a group of ministers under the aegis of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is entrusted with working on the modalities of Air India's stake sale.
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The delay caused by one of the top loan defaulters Essar Steel challenging the action on them under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), could increase losses and reduce the chances of resolution, according to Rajnish Kumar, Managing Director of State Bank of India (SBI).

Essar Steel, one of the 12 large corporates, has been taken to courts by SBI-led banks on the Reserve Bank of Indias directives. It has challenged this directive in the Gujarat High Court halting the resolution process in the insolvency court National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

"Anybody has legal right or remedy in the country. You cannot deprive anybody of approaching the court(But) If we delay, the losses increase and the chances of any resolution they become very dim. It is a much awaited reform that was needed. In any capitalist society, it is the survival of the fittest and you have to find the ways and means" Kumar said on the sidelines of a banking event.

Essar Steel owes over Rs 37,000 crore to its lenders and was sent to the NCLT to bring a resolution in a time-bound 6-9 months period under the new law.

Kumar said, As far as NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) is concerned, the ecosystem is evolving, laws are evolving. On how to handle it, what are the legal issues...it will take some time in this country to evolve. It will be at least 6 months to a year when all these issues will be tested, courts will give their judgments. We are in the stage of evolution, it is a new law in this country. Let us have some patience.

The RBI counsel at the Gujarat High Court has also presented that Essar Steel was misguiding the court and any order on restraining IBC proceedings will impact other 11 NPA accounts. Most of 12 companies are awaiting the verdict from Gujarat High Court for further action after being sent to the NCLT.

On Thursday, the high court asked RBI to submit documents supporting its June 13 directive to refer 12 large corporate NPA (non-performing assets) accounts as priority for insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings. The court will hear the matter today, July 14.

The Ruia-family owned steel firm had argued that it was not given enough opportunity to present its position before the insolvency case was filed at the NCLT. At the time, lenders were already discussing a restructuring plan approved by the companys board and it required six months to implement it.

However, the central bank has said that its action against Essar Steel is neither unjust nor outrageous and lenders were nowhere close to extending a recast plan.
Grab, Uber Technologies Inc's biggest rival in Southeast Asia, is raising as much as USD 2 billion in funding from Japan's SoftBank Group and China's top ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The deal, which could close in the next few weeks, would value Singapore-based Grab at more than USD 5 billion, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The reported funding comes amid efforts by Grab to transform into a consumer technology firm that also offers loans, electronic money transfer and money-market funds.

Grab declined to comment, while SoftBank and Didi did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Grab, which operates its ride-hailing platform in 55 cities across seven countries, raised USD 750 million in a funding round in September, with sources then valuing the five-year-old startup at over USD 3 billion.

The reported deal also comes at a time when San Francisco-based Uber, the world's largest ride-hailing service, faces setbacks at home ranging from accusations of a sexist work culture and driver protests.

Uber's challenges have culminated in the departure of co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick, who stepped down under investor pressure last month.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently came down heavily on the Ganga cleanup initiatives taken up by central and state governments and passed a number of regulatory strictures in order to speed up work on the river.

Passing a 543-page judgement on a petition filed by lawyer M C Mehta, the NGT observed that over Rs 7000 crore was spent on the project, without yielding many results. The NGT order outlining a number of steps that it said should be taken by governments. Highlights:

#It declared that 100 metres from Ganga's edge would be a "no development zone", stretching from Haridwar in Uttarakhand to Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.

#No waste dumping inside the radius of 500 metres from the river's edge.

#Uttar Pradesh should be responsible for shifting its leather tanneries from Jajmao to Unnao, or any other place it deems fit, so as to not pollute Ganga.

#A fine of Rs 50,000 would be imposed on anyone who dumps waste in River Ganga

#Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have been asked to formulate guidelines for religious activities on ghats of Ganga and its tributaries.

#Additionally, the NGT will form a supervisory committee to oversee its directions passed in the 543-page judgement.

MC Mehta, also a noted environmentalist, demanded a CBI enquiry or a CAG audit into the expenditure of over Rs 7000 crore by the Centre and the state governments in cleaning the 500 km Haridwar-Unnao stretch.

In February, the NGT had said that the government agencies were "wasting public money" without any effective pollution control done in Ganga. It raised questions on the progress of the Namami Gange Project launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016, which allocated more than Rs 2000 crore for a cleanup project.

Further, the NGT had also warned 14 industrial units in Bijnor and Amroha districts to be ready to shut down if they fail to justify their reason for not facing action.

In the light of the recent contentions, below is a look at the steps that have been undertaken to clean up the Ganges.

The initiative to clean up the river has been a two-decade long endeavour, first initiated by the Congress in 1986.

In October last year, the NGT had ordered an inspection on the pollution level in the Ganga river basin. It asked the Member Secretary of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Chief Secretary of U.P Jal Nigam, Chief Environmental Officer of U.P Pollution Control Board and a representative from the Ministry of Water Resources to conduct the probe.

Some of the key observations of the inspection found that out of the 33 drains joining river Ganga from Haridwar to Kanpur town, 4 drains were trapped and two were found to be dried up or used for irrigation.

Two out of the 14 drains joining River Kali-East directly were found to be dry. Shockingly, only 4 drains joining Ganga directly were devoid of pesticides. The study also found that 3515 MLD of waste water directly flows into Ganga. Drains joining Ganga were found to have traces of lead, chromium, arsenic and cadmium.

Moreover, a CPCB report of 2013 shows a massive amount of faecal coliform (human excreta) along the river's mainstream. The river's upstream is also concentrated with human excreta, which is a worrying factor as the upstream provides for a river's breathing space.

CPCB noted that 2,723 million litres per day (mld) of domestic sewage is discharged by 36 class-1 cities located along the river. Further, 764 industrial units along the main stretch of the river discharge almost 500 mld of toxic waste. Industries along the stretch of Kanpur and Varanasi along the stretch of the river contributes to the most amount of pollution.

According to the data by the National Mission for Clean Ganga on June 30, 2015, out of the projects taken up in the five states, only West Bengal shows a 100 percent progress rate for all clean-up projects undertaken. The Cente and State allocation add up to Rs 350.90 crore, while the expenditure shoots up to Rs 383.69 crore.

On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh had an expenditure cost of Rs 691.56 crore, which exceeded the fund release of a total of Rs 660.29 crore. However, it showed an average progress rate of 65.42 percent for all its projects.

Jharkhand's sole Sahibganj projects stand at a zero percent progress rate. Uttarakhand has a very low progress rate in its projects with an average rate of 26.55 percent. Not close behind is Bihar with an average progress rate of 29.8 percent.

A Right to Information (RTI) filed by a student on August 2016 also revealed some inaction on the Namami Gange Project of Narendra Modi. Data showed that in spite of spending Rs 2958 crore out of the total allocation of Rs 3703 crore, not much has been done in two years since its inception in 2014.

The RTI revealed that Rs 84 crore was cut from the initial allocation of Rs 2137 crore in 2014-15 for the national mission of Ganga cleaning. Even then, the government only spent Rs 326 crore of the Rs 2053 crore, leaving around Rs 1700 crore unspent. Rs 18 crore was unspent in 2015-16. No accounts were available for the 2016-17 allocations of Rs 2500 crore.

The RTI also brought out that PM Modi had chaired only one meeting of the NGRBA. All the others were chaired by Union Minister Uma Bharti.
CoinSwitch Kuber | Apart from a plethora of facilities it provides to customers similar to other crypto exchanges, CoinSwitch Kuber allows users to buy cryptocurrencies with a credit card at an effective price. Funded by Sequoia Capital, the exchange allows users to access the pooled liquidity of the leading exchanges in India to get the best rate and trade instantaneously.

The fate of bitcoin and other virtual currencies may hang in the balance for some more time as the government appointed panel is unlikely to formulate regulations around it.

But in what may be come as a relief to bitcoin-watchers, a government official privy to the development told Moneycontrol that bitcoin and other virtual currencies are unlikely to be declared illegal in India.

The panel is still to decide which body will have regulatory oversight over cryptocurrencies.

"Discussions till now suggest that bitcoin will most likely fall under the ambit of the RBI [Reserve Bank of India]. But some are of the opinion that bitcoin is a security rather than a currency and should be regulated by Sebi [Securities and Exchanges Board of India]," the source said.

"The panel does not want to openly term it a currency like how Japan has. But it will take more time to come up with rules around it [bitcoin]," the source added.

On April 12, the government had set up an inter-disciplinary committee chaired by the special secretary (Economic Affairs) to examine the existing framework surrounding virtual currencies and was asked to submit its report within three months.

The committee was tasked with (i) taking stock of the present status of virtual currencies both in India and globally; (ii) examine the existing global regulatory and legal structures governing virtual currencies; (iii) suggest measures for dealing with such virtual currencies including issues relating to consumer protection, money laundering etc; and (iv) examine any other matter related to virtual currencies which may be relevant.

The issue of bitcoin has vexed regulators and governments around the world.

Though termed as the world's first digital currency, it also evokes comparisons with precious commodities (not least because some precious commodities like gold are also equated with currencies, or considered a store of value).

Bitcoin has had a phenomenal rally since last year. It gained momentum in India in the wake of demonetisation, but the popularity also raised concerns on whether people may be using it to launder black money.

BJP MP Kirit Somaiya termed it as a pyramid-ponzi scheme. In an interview with Moneycontrol, he said bitcoin was a medium of money laundering and added that he was "very unhappy with the RBI" for not regulating it. He further demanded that bitcoin be declared illegal in India.

Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal had also said that the use of virtual currencies like bitcoins is not authorised by the RBI and could result in a breach of anti-money laundering provisions.

As bitcoin provides anonymity to its users, it has become the currency of choice for ransomware attacks, which is evident from the recent WannaCry and NotPetya attacks which took the world by storm.

Many experts say that governments have now come to understand thatlike the internet, bitcoin is not owned by any one central authority, and this may be difficult to ban. However, like the internet, businesses based on bitcoin or cryptocurrency can be regulated, but not the entire network itself, they add.
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The group CEO of Balaji Telefilms, Sameer Nair, whose salary was increased by 54% in FY16 to Rs 4.35 crore  close to 22% of the total employee cost of the company in FY16  also had a decent stake in the company. He owns 0.91% stake, or 6.92 lakh shares, allotted to him in the past, worth Rs 11.4 crore.

The announcement that Sameer Nair is stepping down from the role of group CEO effective July 15, 2017, has now led the market to question the company's turnaround strategy, which was largely backed by the expected profits from the movies business and success of the digital initiative under ALTBalaji. Nair will continue to be with the company as a consultant.

Since the time Nair joined, the market capitalisation of the company has moved up from Rs 302 crore in FY14 to Rs 1,265 crore currently. Many prominent investors like DMarts Radhakishan Damani and Enams Vallabh Bhanshali (through Talma Chemical, a group company) have invested in the company in the past.

Balaji, which was largely perceived to be a family-run business, had raised a lot of expectations on the Street after professionals like Sameer Nair joined as group CEO in 2014. The company also inducted few known faces including Shubhodip Pal, who joined from Micromax in March 2015 to head its movies business. Importantly, Shubhodip Pal also left Balaji by the end of November 2015.

Nair, aged 52, had a very successful stint with STAR India as CEO at a time when the channel was doing phenomenally well with the successes of Kaun Banega Crorepati in the year 2000 and huge success of the traditional family shows such as Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, thereby putting the channel in the top slot.

At Balaji, Nair's immediate challenge was to revive both the programming and the movies business. He also masterminded strategies for the digital initiatives and was responsible for scaling up the business and leveraging its capabilities.

During the first year of Nair's leadership, Balaji Tele went through a few changes, such as shifting focus of its programming business from sponsored content (managing content and advertising) to commissioned programming (based on fixed rates of the telecast), and improving the volumes. The number of programming hours produced increased from 590 in FY14 to 1,002 in FY16. Profits of this vertical also shot up from Rs 10 crore in FY14 to 37.1 crore in FY16.

FY17  Not a Year to Remember

But the last one year has not been good for Balaji Telefilms, which has seen losses mounting in the movies business and falling profits in the programming business. Profits of the programming business have fallen from Rs 37.1 crore in FY16 to Rs 31 crore in FY17. Importantly, the movies business, which employs Rs 144 crore of capital, has seen losses increase from Rs 5.4 crore in FY15 to Rs 44.3 crore in FY17.

With the intention of limiting losses, the company is scaling down this business to unlock capital. The movies business has around Rs 60-70 crore of capital deployed in advances which will get released once the operation is scaled down. While its digital initiatives through the ALTBalaji are expected to be futuristic, the reality today is that it is making no contribution.

Market also worries that the sustainability of digital unit, ALTBalaji (similar to Netflix and Amazon Prime), depends a lot on its success. It has already invested over Rs 50 crore for the content and development of the ALTBalaji. It further intends to step up investments to the extent of Rs 300-400 crore. Since it is supposed to have its own original content, it will need to burn a lot more cash so that it keeps on creating a regular flow of content and increases awareness.

While the transformation journey at Balaji has started, a senior-level exit might turn investors jittery to start with, unless the company has a credible Plan B to share with the investors.
The Indian equity market although had a tepid closing on the last working day of the week, the market made new all-time highs in the week. Nifty touched 9900 levels but closed below that for the week. The Sensex closed above 32000.

Both the indices gained over two percent, the Bank Nifty too gained over two percent. However, the midcaps and smallcaps underperformed which experts believe was a healthy for the market.

To know the way forward for the market and the investment strategies that would benefit investors, CNBC-TV18 spoke to two market experts Manish Sonthalia, Head Equities-PMS, and Aashish Somaiyaa, MD & CEO from Motilal Oswal AMC.

Sonthalia said there is a correction which is overdue for this market and the sooner it comes the healthier it would be for the market.

Somaiyaa too agrees and says people have been waiting too long for a correction and are getting nervous. There is still lot of money waiting on the sidelines to come into the market, he added.

Overall, there has been a shift from physical savings into financial savings across all asset classes and equities being a part of financials has benefited from this movement, said Sonthalia.

According to him, there is a definite froth in the midcap and smallcap space but there is still money to be made in the long-term.

Somaiyaa said the SIPs are currently at record highs with around Rs 14000-15000 crore coming into equity mutual funds through systematic investment plans.

When asked about the some of the sectors like pharma which were rallying, Sonthalia said the house is bullish on the space and believe the sector is close to the bottom now. They like Sun Pharma from that space, he said.

However, for IT, growth is still a challenge with regards to their business models, said Somaiyaa.

Sonthalia said they are basically growth investors - growth at reasonable prices and not contrarian or deep-value investors. Whatever stocks we have in the portfolio, we think growth is yet to come, which is not yet been priced.

Talking about risks for the market Somaiyaa said the one of the risk is that liquidity inflows are thick and fast and if market corrects or shocks, investors will have a bad experience. So post that would these investors panic  that is the worry. So it would be good if market consolidated a bit.

Other risk is of continued disappoints be it from China and commodity market, asset quality review, demonetisation etc. So, the only hope is that there are no more accidents and investors have a good experience for some time.

Sonthalia also shared on their rationale of being positive on oil marketing companies.
Despite a late entry into online retail segment, Noida-based Paytm is in no mood to let the two e-commerce giants US-headquartered Amazon and Bangalore-based domestic rival Flipkart to steal the market.

Spearheading the big e-commerce plans for Noida based Paytm is 40-year old Amit Sinha, one of the veterans at One 97 Communications, the parent firm of the mobile wallet firm.

Alibaba-backed Paytm Mall, the e-commerce unit of mobile wallet firm Paytm recently raised USD 200 million from the Chinese firm and says it plans to hire 2000 more employees by the end of this year.

Our goal is to build India's largest commerce platform, which enables trusted partners including brands and shopkeepers in growing their business, says Sinha, who hails from a small town of Panchet in Jharkhands Dhanbad district.

"We are bringing their catalogs online and providing them with Paytm Mall QR codes, for consumers to scan and browse their products to place an order," adds Sinha.

The Noida-based firm is targeting the offline retailers to bring them to sell online. The company also plans to start cross-border shipping of Indian brands to China on its platform.

Also popularly touted as the vehicle for Chinese behemoth Alibabas play in India, Paytm Mall is making every stone unturned to ensure they are on the right path to match or at best steer ahead of the two big rivals as soon as possible.

Spent almost a decade with One97

The company which was scouting for a chief executive for quite some time, finally ended the search with Sinha at the helm.Having spent almost a decade with One97 Communications, Sinha was roped in as the company's best bet for the position.
Bull's Eye, CNBC-TV18's popular game show, where market experts come together to dish out trading strategies for you to make your week more exciting and compete with each other to see whose portfolio is the strongest.

Remember these are midcap ideas not just for the day, but stocks that look attractive in the medium-term as well.

This week, Ruchit Jain, Kunal Saraogi and Vishvesh Chauhan battle it out for top honours.

Below their top stock picks and analysis:

Ruchit Jain of Angel Broking

Buy Hindalco Industries with a stoploss at Rs 197 and target of Rs 217

Buy Hindustan Zinc with a stoploss at Rs 270 and target of Rs 288

Buy Tata Chemicals with a stoploss at Rs 627 and target of Rs 667

Buy Voltas with a stoploss at Rs 473 and target of Rs 500

Kunal Saraogi of Equityrush

Buy Bajaj Finserv with a stoploss at Rs 4325 and target of Rs 4450

Buy Cholamandalam with a stoploss at Rs 1150 and target of Rs 1200

Buy Motherson Sumi Systems with a stoploss at Rs 318 and target of Rs 326

Buy Capital First with a stoploss at Rs 740 and target of Rs 760

Vishvesh Chauhan of Monarch Networth Capital

Buy Capital First with a stoploss at Rs 738 and target of Rs 790

Buy Ujjivan Financial Services with a stoploss at Rs 340 and target of Rs 375

Buy PNB Housing with a stoploss at Rs 1420 and target of Rs 1530

Buy Strides Shasun with a stoploss at Rs 980 and target of Rs 1075
Sushil Finance's commodity report on crude oil

Oil prices rose 1.3 percent on Thursday after much stronger demand in China overshadowed a downbeat report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that showed higher production by key OPEC exporters. Prices had responded only minimally to data Wednesday showing U.S. crude oil inventories dropped last week by the most in 10 months. Oil prices have dropped in recent weeks to levels not seen since the end of last year as investors lost faith in a deal between OPEC and non - OPEC produers to reduce output, while U.S. shale oil production has risen sharply. But there is evidence world oil demand is picking up, notably in the United States and China, the world's two biggest oil consumers. China imported 8.55 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in the first half of this year, up 13.8 percent from the same period in 2016, making it the world's biggest crude importer ahead of the United States. Rising demand is helping to drain a global fuel glut but rebalancing of the market is taking longer than anticipated. The IEA said the oil market could stay oversupplied for longer than expected due to rising production and limited output cuts by some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Oil inventories in industrialised nations remain high despite a modest drop in May. OECD stocks are still 266 million barrels above the five - year average, the IEA said. OPEC said on Wednesday the world would need only 32.2 million bpd of its crude next year, down 60,000 bpd from this year and about 400,000 bpd less than it pumped in June.

We expect crude oil prices to trade sideways on the back of profit booking after up move.

For all commodities report, click here

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

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Share price of Pricol added 5 percent in the early trade on Friday as it is going to acquire wiping systems business of PMP Auto Components.

The company has signed binding agreements to acquire 100 percent of the wiping systems business of Ashok Piramal Group's PMP Auto Components.

"The acquisition would be undertaken by Pricol through its wholly owned subsidiaries and the transaction will be funded by a combination of internal accruals and external debt," company said in press release.

"The transaction would be EPS accretive to the shareholders of Pricol and the profitability is expected to further improve upon the integration of the business with Pricol," it added.

PMP Auto Components has manufacturing facilities operational in the Czech Republic, Mexico and India and supplies wiper motors to global automotive customers including VW, Fiat, John Deere, Skoda, Audi, Seat.

Vikram Mohan, managing director of Pricol said, "This acquisition ties in well with our long-term strategy of driving growth and achieving product diversification."

"With manufacturing presence in Czech Republic and Mexico, this acquisition fits in perfectly with our ongoing plans to establish the presence in these regions. We are also very excited about the potential of this business in the Indian market and confident of extracting synergies, he said.

At 09:26 hrs Pricol was quoting at Rs 93.10, up Rs 2.65, or 2.93 percent on the BSE.

Posted by Rakesh Patil
Vertu's President Alberto Torres displays Cobra mobile phones during a news conference in Mumbai in this October 5, 2006 file photo. Luxury mobile phone group Vertu's commitment to manufacturing in Britain stands out as many older British luxury goods firms shift their production to cheaper factories in Eastern Europe and the Far East. To match feature LUXURY-BRITAIN/ REUTERS/Prashanth Vishwanathan/Files (INDIA) - RTR1RWFN

Vertu, known for its high-class, jewel-embedded handsets has shut shop. Vertu, a luxury brand, was founded by Nokia in 1998. The brand provided luxury phones to celebrities. The phones were an expensive commodity, sold in boutique stores in posh neighborhoods.

The phonemaker was expected to maintain its legacy for years, with its hand cut-leather and precious metals.

A technology analyst, told BBC that Vertu faced competition from companies trying to follow a similar business model, by embedding jewels in handsets.

Vertu models carry heavy price tags. These phones cost 11,000 and one model having 18-carat red gold costs 39,100.

In March, the companys Chinese owner sold it to Hakan Uzan, a Turkish living in Paris.

The Daily Telegraph reports that he had planned to pay 1.9m to bring the company out of administration, but it had an accounting deficit of 128m. Uzan will preserve the brand, technology and licenses.

Ian Fogg, an analyst at IHS Technology, told BBC that, It is very unusual, they hand make the phone at incredibly low volumes and they were incredibly high-priced."

He also talked about Vertus recent phones. These phones had synthetic sapphire for screens  similar to iPhones plans for Apple, but later scrapped the idea because of issues with production.
Agriculture

When two of the country's largest, oldest and most reputed industrial conglomerates decide to exit from a sector, it is time check if the best days for the sector are over. The Tatas and Birlas are exiting from the fertiliser sector and that too in a short span of time.

Tata Chemicals sold its urea business to Norways fertiliser and chemicals major Yara for Rs 2,670 crore, in what it termed as a move toward value-unlocking. At the time of its sale R Mukundan, Managing Director, Tata Chemicals had said, The sale was part of our strategy to cap the capital exposure in the fertiliser business. The company, however, continued to own the brands Paras, TKS and Daksha and its exposure to complex fertilisers.

The Babrala plant which produced urea generated revenue of Rs 2,244.50 crore and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and ammortisation (EBIDTA) of about Rs 230 crore in FY16. The unit was thus sold at 11.6 times its operating profit or just above its revenue earning capacity. The Tatas used the money to invest in consumer and inorganic chemical business.

Even Aditya Birla group's recently-merged Aditya Birla Nuvo is all set to sell its fertiliser business, which can fetch around Rs 3,000 crore. The move is to help consolidate the business of the group into core activities. The business generated a revenue of Rs 2,164 crore in FY17 and EBIDTA of Rs 153 crore.

The Birlas have been discussing the sale of the unit for some time now, however, it seems to have received some suitors for its unit now. The Birla unit also manufactured urea, just like that of Tata Chemicals.

Why are the top two industrial houses planning to exit fertiliser business?

A look closer would reveal that the Tatas are not exactly exiting their fertiliser business but only the one which was producing urea. Birlas unit was mainly a urea unit.

Urea has been one of the most controlled and politically sensitive commodity. Being a controlled fertiliser, its price has not been changed for over a decade despite sharp changes in input cost. As a result of its control and political interference no new urea manufacturing capacities have not been set up in a decade.

Apart from no control on the pricing of finished product, fertiliser companies were not getting paid the subsidy amount by the government. As a result most companies were saddled with high levels of debt.

But this environment has been existing for over a decade, so what made the companies exit the business now, especially when the government of the day has taken major initiatives to make the sector transparent.

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), expected to be launched soon, would result in subsidy being disposed of in days as compared to 9-12 months earlier. This itself would have been a big reason to stay invested in the sector and capitalise on their market presence and low cost manufacturing base.

However, there seem to be other reasons behind the exits.

First is the reason which the companies themselves are saying, that is as the economy opens up, and they would like to utilise their capital in a better way by investing in higher growth areas. This makes a lot of sense as urea growth is expected to be flat on a best case scenario.

There is a huge price differential between urea (nitrogenous) and other fertilisers. Non-nitrogenous fertilisers are sold at over three times the price of urea. This resulted in indiscriminate use of urea which in turn affected the quality of soil and thus the farm yield.

The governments use of soil card coupled with data of fertiliser consumption is expected to correct the usage of various fertilisers. Districts where DBT was tried out have shown improvement in the consumption of fertiliser in favour of non-urea fertilisers. In fact consumption of urea in these districts have fallen down.

Further, pilferage of urea to other usage has also come down. With the use of DBT and Aadhaar consumption of urea can be tracked and noted if a farmer is buying it or some other user who is planning to take advantage of the subsidy to use it for some other purpose. In fact government is on record saying that subsidised urea was smuggled to neighbouring countries where it is sold at import parity price.

Since technology and smart usage is likely to bring down consumption, it makes sense for these conglomerates to exit from a business which would, at best have marginal growth.
Visitors patronise Best Sunshine Live casino at Saipan, a U.S. South Pacific island, November 22, 2016. Picture taken November 22, 2016. REUTERS/Farah Master - RTX2UKEJ

Goa Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai suggested that the offshore casinos, currently anchored in the Mandovi river, could be relocated to the land.

A group of NGOs in Goa has been opposing the offshore casinos in the Mandovi river flowing along the Panaji city, alleging that they block the channel of the movement of ships.

Some social activists claimed the casinos are promoting social evils.

The BJP-led Goa government last month promised in its 'common minimum programme' to shift the offshore casinos from the river.

"I am of the opinion that the offshore casinos should be shifted out of Mandovi river even at the cost of getting them on the land," Sardesai told reporters yesterday.

He said the casinos should be brought on the land as anchoring them in the deep sea may not be feasible.

"Forcing the offshore casinos to shift in the deep sea is not possible. We have to be practical," he said.

The Goa government granted a six months extension in April this year to five offshore casinos to relocate from the Mandovi river.

However, following an order of the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court earlier this year, the State Government granted permission to another offshore casino vessel, run by Golden Globe Hotels Pvt Ltd, for operating in the river for another six months.

Sardesai said, "My stand on the issue is that if the state government's policy is to not allow any offshore casino, then we should challenge the court order. This is the view of my party."

Sardesai is the leader of Goa Forward Party, which is one of the alliance partners in the BJP-led state government.
I hope such informal summits becomes a tradition between both the countries. I'll be happy, if in 2019, we can have such informal summit in India: PM Modi (Reuters)

India should understand its future lies in Asia and not as an ally of the US, stated Chinese newspaper Global Times in a recent op-ed. The State backed newspaper which comes under the official Chinese newspaper 'Peoples Daily usually reflects the official state viewpoints in matters of international politics.

In a review article credited to Yubaraj Sangroula, the piece advises India to become more integrated to Asia, by which it means the Chinese sphere of influence rather than allying with the US. The media said that the negative activities and attitudes of certain western powers against the OBOR (One Belt One Road) project is due to the rise of 'nationalism'.

It also hinted that India by not being part of the project has lost a great opportunity of investment and development, particularly in Indias states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which the paper said were 'trapped in a state of massive poverty'.

The article listed several merits that India will have by improving its relations with China. It, however, cautioned that the prerequisite for this is to ensure that the country does not get into border disputes like that in Doka la.

It added that India should withdraw from the area and let China and Bhutan deal with the issue. The article ends with cautioning India that it should refrain from trying to gain regional supremacy aided by foreign powers but become an 'integral part of Asia.

The article comes at a time when India and China are involved in stand-off with the former moving forward with a naval exercise with allies USA and Japan.
A view of India's presidential palace Rashtrapati Bhawan is seen during the evening in New Delhi July 10, 2008. REUTERS/B Mathur (INDIA) - RTX7TF9

The AAP on Thursday announced that it would support Meira Kumar, the opposition nominee for the presidential poll, after the latter 'appealed' to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to back her candidature.

AAP leader Sanjay Singh said the decision to support Kumar was taken by the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the party's apex decision making body, to 'strengthen democracy'.

"AAP will support joint opposition's candidate Meira Kumar in (the) presidential election," senior party leader Ashutosh posted on Twitter.

On supporting Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the opposition's candidate for the vice presidential poll, Ashutosh said the PAC will discuss the issue later.

"We believe that a time should not have come for voting for a crucial post like the president. All political parties should have come together and put up a consensus candidate.

"Nevertheless, election is taking place to choose the president. In such a scenario, the Aam Aadmi Party supports the joint opposition candidate," Singh said.

"Kumar had called up AAP's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal seeking support," Singh added.

The presidential election is taking place on July 17. Ram Nath Kovind has been fielded by the ruling BJP and its allies.

Some opposition parties, including the JD(U), Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the YSR Congress and the Biju Janta Dal, have extended support to Kovind's candidature.

The Congress did not invite the AAP when it had held discussions with other opposition parties on the matter.

An AAP leader, who did not want to be named, said the party was 'fine' with keeping a distance from the Congress.

The AAP is the principal opposition party in Punjab.

The four-year-old party has 85 MLAs and four MPs, which translate into around 9,000 votes in the electoral college for the presidential election.
New Delhi: A view of Parliament House in New Delhi on Monday.PTI Photo by Manvender Vashist(PTI1_30_2017_000100B)

The issue with China and growing unrest in the Kashmir Valley will be raised in the Parliament session beginning next week by opposition parties, who were on Friday briefed by the government about the situation on both the fronts.

Emerging from the meeting, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma told reporters that their party has raised some doubts before the government but made it clear that "nation is first -- be it China or Kashmir".

"There is too much of tension and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament," both the leaders said.

Sharma said that the Congress made its view clear that national security was the priority and advised the government to rise above politics and tackle the situation diplomatically.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said that his party raised "some serious questions" and claimed that the government had no answer to his question on preparedness for such incidents.

The opposition leaders were briefed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, ahead of the Parliament session beginning Monday.

The opposition leaders were told about the prevailing situation along the Sino-Indian border and Jammu and Kashmir and the government's action.

Others who attended the meeting -- considered an effort to build consensus on dealings with India's biggest neighbour and Kashmir -- included Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Tariq Anwar (NCP) and Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi (JD-U).

New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Dokalam area of Sikkim.

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

CPI-M General Secretary Yechury said that the government conveyed to the participants about the efforts being carried out to resolve the dispute.

Union minister Paswan said the external affairs minister and foreign secretary gave a detailed information on border issue, especially in Dokalam.

"Everybody promised support to the government," he said.

On Jammu and Kashmir, government's chief spokesman Frank Noronha said the basic purpose of the meeting was to apprise the MPs from different parties of the situation following the attack on Amarnath yatris on July 10.

The MPs were informed that 2.2 lakh pilgrims had visited the cave shrine last year and this year 1.86 lakh pilgrims have already visited till today. The yatra will continue till August 7.

Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- are on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the April 9 by-poll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on China.

On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir.

He also alleged that the prime minister's pursuit of short-term political gains through the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost.
India's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav speaks during a meeting with his party workers in the eastern Indian city of Patna June 20, 2009. REUTERS/Krishna Murari Kishan (INDIA POLITICS) - RTR24UMC

The JD(U) today ramped up pressure on alliance partner RJD over the corruption case involving Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, asking it to come clean on the allegations against him.

Tejashwi, son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, has been named by the CBI as an accused in its probe into the land-for-hotels scam case.

Amid a growing rift in the coalition on the issue, state Janata Dal (United) chief spokesman Sanjay Singh said the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) should provide facts and not "display arrogance" of having 80 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.

"The RJD, which is showing arrogance of 80 MLAs, should not forget that it was reduced to 22 MLAs in the 2010 state polls and in the election in 2015, their number swelled due to the credible face of Nitish Kumar as the head of the coalition," he told PTI.

The JD(U) has 71 MLAs and the other alliance partner Congress 27 while the BJP, which is the main opposition in the House, has 53 MLAs.

The Assembly has representation from the CPI(ML), the HAM (Secular), the LJP and the RLSP among others.

Singh was reacting to the "80-MLA" remark of Ram Chandra Purve, the Bihar unit chief of the RJD.

In Delhi, JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would never compromise on the issue of corruption.

"Nitish Kumar's stand on corruption is well known. He will never compromise on it," he said.

A reaction from the RJD on the stand taken by the JD(U) was not immediately available.

Asked what his party expected from the RJD over the charges against Tejashwi, Tyagi said the RJD leader should give a detailed explanation over the allegations, an issue his party had made clear following a meeting of its leaders in Patna.

Tyagi also insisted that he never sought Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's intervention to defuse the crisis in the Grand Alliance and only welcomed such a suggestion reportedly made by a Congress leader in Bihar.

Union minister and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan said the Bihar chief minister should take a decision on his association with the RJD "at the earliest" as Lalu Prasad could break the JD(U) to form a government of his own.

The Congress said the Grand Alliance in Bihar was intact.

"It is based on principles. The people of Bihar had rejected a coalition which wanted to break the 'Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb' (syncretic culture) of Bihar," party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.

To a question on the remarks of some alliance leaders that Sonia should intervene to resolve the present crisis, he said functionaries of all the three parties should consult their leaders, including Nitish Kumar, before speaking on the issue.

JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar, in an apparent reference to Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi, said those against whom accusations have been levelled should explain the source of their assets "to silence the opposition".

His colleague Sunil Singh echoed similar views and made it clear that the party would in no case compromise with the "clean image" of Nitish Kumar, saying the JDU president was known for his "politics of principles and zero-tolerance to corruption".

A section of the media reported that Tejashwi had made up his mind to tender resignation and the decision to this effect could be announced after the return of Lalu Prasad tomorrow from Ranchi, where he had gone for appearances in courts in fodder scam-related cases.

However, Tejashwi, in a tweet, ridiculed these reports.

"Some media in the name of 'utpati (destructive) sources' is running one-point programme of the BJP...I feel like laughing at it loudly (sic)," he said.
A man talking on his phone walks past the logo of LG Electronics during Korea Electronics Show 2016 in Seoul, South Korea, October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji - RTX2QNKT

Korean smartphone maker LG has hinted that it plans to launch V30 on August 31. The company has rolled out invites to users asking them to book their dates for a launch event in Berlin, a day before IFA 2017 commences.

Nowhere in the teaser does the company reveal the model which it is about to launch, however hints are loud and clear that the device would be its upcoming flagship model V30.

V30, the latest and the most advanced model in LGs flagship V series phones have been highly anticipated as the previous versions V10 and V20 tasted fair amount of success in the market.

V30 would also be special as with this model LG is expected to bring an end to its usage of LCD display and step into OLED displays. The phone is also expected to be launched with narrow bezels as is the trend with premium models lately.

The second half of 2017 seems interesting as all the smartphone goliaths are expected to launch their own flagships. Samsung is rumoured to be launching its upcoming flagship Galaxy Note 8 on August 23. Apple will be launching the much anticipated iPhone 8 in September.

Though on a different price band, V30 will also have to face stiff competition with Chinese smartphone giants OnePlus 5, Honor 8 Pro, etc which again are the flagship models of OnePlus and Huaweis subsidiary firm Honor.

All in all, later part of 2017 is expected to bring an end to the dry spell of first half of 2017 when flagships devices clash against each other.
Answer: Windshield wiper (Image: Reuters)

The "world's first robot lawyer" - which has so far overturned parking tickets worth USD 10 million in the UK and the US - can now help people tackle legal disputes regarding landlords, credit card fraud and harassment at work free of cost.

The online tool, developed by 20-year-old British student Joshua Browder at Stanford University in the US, is upgraded to fight legal disputes in 1,000 different areas.

These include fighting landlords over security deposits and house repairs and helping people report fraud to their credit card agency.

"There's so much exploitation going on where landlords aren't behaving properly. I'm really excited about how it can help people," said Browder.

"I really hope it will help people stand up for their rights for free and instantly," he said.

To get robot advice, users need to type their problem into the 'DoNotPay' website, which directs them to a chat bot that can solve their legal issue.

It can draft letters and offer advice on problems from credit card fraud to airline compensation, 'The Telegraph' reported.

It can also understand complex disputes such as employment rights and offer a range of suggestions.

With problems around parental leave and harassment at work, it provides options with different levels of formality. It can send a casual letter, an official one, and file a complaint to the regulator.

The tool can fight parking tickets in just 30 seconds. DoNotPay had negated more than 375,000 tickets worth around USD 10 million in the UK, New York and Seattle.

At present, the robot lawyer can solve problems that involve a single document, such as filling out a form or writing a letter.

Browder is now planning to develop the tool so it can handle more complicated processes.
Books on hacking, along with other computer hardware have been seized from the possession of Imran Chippa, a computer science drop out, arrested in connection with unauthorised access to Reliance Jio's database, the Maharashtra Police said today.

"During the searches at the residence of 35-year-old Chippa, we found books on hacking and related material apart from the desktop, laptop, pen -drive and other devices," Balsingh Rajput, Superintendent of Police, Maharashtra Cyber Cell, told PTI.

"We will interrogate him about possible hacking on the Internet in connection with the data leak case," he said.

The team of Maharashtra Cyber Cell, Crime Branch of Navi Mumbai Police, Vigilance and Security department officials of Reliance-Jio, are returning to Mumbai with the arrested the accused Chippa tonight from Jaipur, another official said.

Chippa will be kept in custody of Navi Mumbai Police, where he will be interrogated by the Maharashtra Cyber and Navi Mumbai Police team, he said.

Yesterday, the police had said that he had gained unauthorised access by using some credentials for a part of the database which he put up on a website. This led to the widespread concerns for data security.

On reports of Chippa trying to create a 'search engine', Rajput said it was premature to say anything before a thorough investigation is carried out.

A day after the arrest of Chippa in the Reliance Jio (RJio) data breach case, the police had said it was a case of "unauthorised access" into the company's database and "not of a theft."

"It is not a theft, even though while filing the complaint they (RJio) had stated it as a theft. Now it is almost sure that he (the accused) was actually accessing the data in an unauthorised manner," Navi Mumbai Deputy Commissioner of Police Tushar Doshi told PTI.

The Rabale (Navi Mumbai) MIDC Police had on Monday registered a case against unidentified persons in connection with data theft. RJio is headquartered in the satellite city.

Doshi explained as part of its regular operations, RJio--whose subscriber base had crossed 100 million within six months of the launch--makes certain data available to its retailers which was made available through the website and the arrested person gained unauthorised access to the company's servers.

Asserting that this excludes sensitive details like Aadhaar details or PAN numbers, Doshi said one was able to get a RJio subscriber's name, email ID, SIM activation date, telecom circle and alternate number by putting the RJio number in the search command.

Reliance was one of the first operators to add customers solely on the basis of Aadhaar details as address and identity proof. Later, the government made it mandatory for all new connections to be activated against Aadhaar details.

"It is not that data is entirely visible there. You will get details only on the RJio number. There is a search engine on the website," Doshi explained.

The presence of Aadhar details, which includes biometrics, had raised concern in certain quarters after the data breach came to light over the weekend.

"It will take some time to know Chippa's modus operandi and the number of people involved in the data leak," the official said.

A resident of Sujangarh town in Rajasthan, Chippa had made the website Magicapk. He claimed to provide Jio user data through his website, police said.

In a statement on late Sunday evening, the company had said that the claims of the website were "unverified" and "unsubstantiated".

"Prima facie, data appears to be unauthentic. We want to assure our subscribers that their data is safe and maintained with highest security. Data is only shared with authorities as per their requirement," it had said.

Jio further said it has "informed law enforcement agencies about the claims of the website and will follow through to ensure strict action is taken".

After the police complaint was lodged, the Mumbai Police reached Churu after tracking the Internet Protocol address and took Chippa into custody on Tuesday evening.

Following the data leak, the domain of the website has been suspended. An analysis by the Maharashtra Cyber Police headed by IG Brijesh Singh led investigators to zero in on the location from where the suspected data breach took place, he said.
Nitin Gadkari

Minister for Road Transport and Highway, Nitin Gadkari on Friday said that obtaining driving licence could soon be just a click away as the ministry was contemplating a completely computerised procedure.

The fitness of a person for issuing driving licence will be decided through a computer programme with no human interference, Gadkari said underscoring the ministrys step towards enhancing road safety.

This will greatly enhance safety on roads by ensuring that licences are issued only to deserving drivers, he said.

He underlined that information technology can enhance transparency and effective governance in the country.

We need to leverage technology to get the maximum returns from our assets, the minister said. He said that around two lakh kilometres of highways has been used for laying optic fibre and oil and gas pipes.

The minister was speaking at INFOCOM 2017 in New Delhi today where he said that the ministry had decided to two lakh kilometres of highway for laying down of optic fibre and oil and gas pipes.
Condemning the alleged thrashing of a Muslim man in Nagpur district on the suspicion that he was carrying beef, Union minister Ramdas Athawale on Friday said that everyone has the right to eat beef.

He also called for severe punishment for "violent cow vigilantes".

"Everyone has the right to eat beef. Since goat meat is expensive, people eat beef. I condemn the Nagpur incident. It is not right to become a 'nar-bhakshak' (man-eater) in the name of being a 'gau-rakshak' (cow protector)," the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment told reporters here.

He said cow-vigilantes should not take the law into their hands.

"Such violent cow vigilantes should be punished," Athawale said.

A 31-year-old Muslim man, with links to the BJP, was brutally thrashed in public by alleged cow vigilantes on the suspicion that he was carrying beef in Maharashtra's Nagpur district on Wednesday.

About explosives found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Athawale said this was a 'very serious matter'.

"This incident is similar to attack on Parliament," he said.

"There is no conspiracy to kill Yogi (Adityanath), but there should be an investigation into the matter. Its possible terror links should be also probed," he said.

In a major security breach, a powerful plastic explosive was found in the UP Assembly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today informed the House, which unanimously recommended an NIA probe into it.

On NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, who is scheduled to visit Mumbai on Saturday, Athawale said, "He should visit 'Matoshree' and meet (Shiv Sena president) Uddhav Thackeray. Pranab Mukherjee had also visited 'Matoshree' when his candidature was announced (for the post of president)."

Sources in the BJP had earlier said Kovind was not scheduled to visit Thackeray's residence during his Mumbai visit.
Kingfisher Airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya attends a news conference in Mumbai February 6, 2007. REUTERS/Adeel Halim (INDIA) - RTR1M1NG

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has said that liquor baron Vijay Mallya laundered over Rs 1,300 crore through 13 shell companies in US, Ireland, Mauritius and France.

The agency has made this indictment against Mallya in its charge sheet filed on June 14 for the money laundering case involving a loan of about Rs 900 crore from IDBI-KFA bank. The charge sheet has indicted eight other persons too for their alleged roles in the case.

The charge sheet has indicted eight other persons too for their alleged roles in the case.

The 57-page charge sheet or prosecution complaint, was filed under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) before a special anti-money laundering court here.

The ED has also said that these shell companies had no actual activities and was fully controlled by Mallya with former employees of UB group being its directors.

The agency said that the only purpose of these companies were to either obtain loans or launder money. The agency also said Mallya has huge property in the US in the name of his daughters - Leana and Tanya.

The ED had registered a criminal case in this deal last year under the PMLA and has attached assets worth over Rs 9,600 crore till now.

The total loan sanctioned and disbursed by the IDBI bank to KFA was Rs 860.92 crore.

The ED said its "money trail analysis revealed that out of the total loan of Rs 860.92 crore, sanctioned and disbursed by IDBI, Rs 423 crore has been remitted out of India.

The said payments were shown to be made towards aircraft rental leasing and maintenance, servicing and spare parts."

The agency is expected to soon file a supplementary charge sheet in this case.

Mallya has been in the UK since March 2016 and was arrested by the Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant on April 18 this year.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is also probing into the IDBI loan fraud case.
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Biopharmaceutical company Biocon has said the US FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) has recommended approval of its proposed biosimilar trastuzumab.

The committee voted 16-0 in support of eligible indications of the reference product.

If the breast cancer biosimilar drug gets USFDA's nod, Biocon will become the first Indian drug maker to crack highly regulated US market for biosimilars.

Trastuzumab is a proposed biosimilar version of Roches Herceptin, which is indicated to treat certain HER2-positive breast cancers in the metastatic and adjuvant settings.

"ODAC determined that no clinically meaningful differences exist between the biosimilar product and Herceptin in terms of safety, purity and potency," a joint statement by Biocon and Mylan said.

"As such, the committee concluded that the totality of evidence supports a recommendation for FDA approval," the statement added.

US FDA uses advisory committees and panels to obtain independent expert advice on a variety of matters, including product approvals.

The agency often follows the advice of ODAC in determining whether a product should come to market, although they are not required to follow it.

Mylan and Biocon's proposed biosimilar trastuzumab along with US FDA is also is under review by regulatory authorities in Australia, Canada, Europe and several emerging markets.

Biocon has teamed up with Mylan to develop and commercialise the drug.

The vote marked the first proposed biosimilar trastuzumab to be recommended by the committee.

We welcome ODACs endorsement of our biosimilar trastuzumab as it brings our collaboration a step closer to addressing the critical needs of cancer patients in the US," said Biocon CEO and Joint Managing Director Arun Chandavarkar.

"We now look forward to engaging with the FDA to seek final approval in order to expand access to a high-quality, affordable option for treating HER2-positive breast cancers, Chandavarkar said.

"We look forward to working with FDA to further increase access to this important treatment option for the thousands of patients affected by HER2-positive breast cancer each year, Mylan President Rajiv Malik said.

Data presented to ODAC included results from analytical, nonclinical and clinical studies which demonstrated that our proposed biosimilar trastuzumab is highly similar to Herceptin, in line with the FDA assessment provided in the pre-meeting briefing documents.

Mylan and Biocon are exclusive partners on a broad portfolio of biosimilar and insulin products.

The proposed biosimilar trastuzumab is one of the six biologic products co-developed by Mylan and Biocon for the global marketplace. Mylan has exclusive commercialization rights for the proposed biosimilar trastuzumab in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and in the European Union and European Free Trade Association countries. Biocon has co-exclusive commercialization rights with Mylan for the product in the rest of the world.

A biosimilar is a complex biological product that follows a different approval pathway compared to chemical drugs. They involve clinically testing the drug on animals and humans to demonstrate that the drug is highly similar to the innovator biological product (known as a reference product) and has no clinically meaningful differences in terms of safety and effectiveness from it.

Roche's subsidiary Genentech Inc. is the innovator of monoclonal antibody (those made by identical immune cells that are all clones of a unique parent cell) trastuzumab, which is used primarily in the treatment of HER 2 positive breast cancer. Herceptin had contributed $6.54 billion in global sales for Roche in 2015.

Sandoz, the generic arm of Swiss pharma major Novartis and South Koreas Celltrion were the only two companies that were able to get approvals through the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (BPCI Act).

Worldwide, nearly 2 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, making it the second most common cancer in the world. HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer is an aggressive form of breast cancer that tests positive for the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which promotes cancer cell growth. Approximately 20 percent to 30 percent of primary breast cancers are HER2-positive.
US President Donald Trump suggested today he could change his position on the Paris climate accord, in remarks after talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

"Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord," he said at a joint news conference with Macron, six weeks after announcing that the United States would abandon the 2015 pact, adding: "We'll see what happens."

Macron said he "respected" Trump's decision but France remained committed to the accord.

Earlier today, the 39-year-old French leader said he had a "strong disagreement... about the climate" deal, with Trump, adding: "I hope in the end to be able to persuade him."

Trump, whose country is the world's second biggest producer of greenhouse gases after China, drew widespread criticism when he announced on June 1 that he would quit the pact.
US President Donald Trump is willing to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House, but not yet, according to official remarks released today.

During a conversation aboard Air Force One flying into Paris, Trump said he was willing to engage the Russian leader despite controversy over the country's involvement in the 2016 US election.

Asked whether he would invite Putin, Trump said he would "at the right time. I don't think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would."

Trump argued that shunning Putin would be the easy thing to do, but it would not be smart, according to the comments released by the White House.

Trump has been embroiled in a scandal over his campaign's ties with Russia - which US intelligence agencies say tried to tip the 2016 US election in his favour.

Trump denies allegations of collusion, but the recent publication of his son's emails show Donald Jr did solicit dirt on Hillary Clinton from a Russian contact.

"Look, it's very easy for me to say absolutely, I won't. That's the easy thing for me to do, but that's the stupid thing to do," Trump said.

"Let's be the smart people not the stupid people. The easiest thing for me to tell you is that I would never invite him. We will never ever talk to Russia. That all of my friends in Congress will say, oh he's so wonderful, he's so wonderful.

"If you don't have dialogue, you have to be fools. Fools."

During a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron today, Trump said that a ceasefire in Syria - which he agreed with Putin last week - was evidence that engagement works.

He added that a second ceasefire in another region of Syria was also under consideration.
Education

Montgomery County Community College will present the spring installment of the interview/talk show program Issues and Insights April 20 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Science Center room 214, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The programs will be simulcast to the Colleges West Campus in South Hall room 216, 101 College Drive, Pottstown. Dr. Kolsky will offer a humorous presentation, Carrots, Sticks and Politics: A State of the Nation and the World Message. In this speech, he will provide his interpretation of domestic and international politics and then welcome questions from the audience for discussion. Issues and Insights, is free and open to the public. For information, contact Dr. Thomas Kolsky, professor of political science, at 215-641-6380 or tkolsky@mc3.edu.

Montgomery County Community Colleges STEM Scholars Program will host a STEM Jam! open house April 25 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Advanced Technology Center at the Colleges Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The drop-in event is designed for students interested in learning more about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Activities will include STEM program information and career advising, STEM speakers throughout the day from industry and academia, micro-helicopter and robotics competitive obstacle courses and demonstrations and static models of STEM student and faculty work. For more information about STEM Jam! or STEM programs at MCCC, contact William Brownlowe at wbrownlowe@mc3.edu or 215-641-6644, or Robin Zuhlke at 215-619-7440 or rzuhlke@mc3.edu.

Temple Ambler, located at 580 Meetinghouse Road, presents the following events:

International Club Global Bazaar April 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. The Ambler Campus International Club invites all students, faculty, staff and the community to celebrate a multitude of diverse cultures, which will be showcased at the organizations Global Bazaar. This family friendly event will highlight cultural traditions and celebrations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South American, North America and Africa through music, entertainment, food and informative displays developed and presented by students at the Ambler Campus. Young visitors will be provided with passports, which they may get stamped at each country they visit. Prizes will be awarded to world travelers who talk to cultural representatives, answer questions about the countries theyve visited and take part in fun-filled activities designed to help them learn about the rich diversity of cultures found throughout the world. Refreshments will be served. The event is free. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail tuc36466@temple.edu.

EarthFest 2011 April 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. More than 75 exhibitors, including the Philadelphia Zoo, The Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Elmwood Park Zoo and the Insectarium, will take part in EarthFest 2011. School students of all ages are invited to attend and develop displays of their own. EarthFest partner the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society also offers its Kids Grow Expo, featuring the Junior Flower Show, as part of the event. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail duffyj@temple.edu.

Annual Spring Plant Sale May 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The plant sale  an Ambler Campus tradition dating back to the early 1900s  will feature woody plants and perennials in portable sizes, hardy trees, shrubs, and vines, native plants that are attractive to wildlife, herbs, and hanging baskets. There will also be numerous special plants for sale to highlight Amblers special anniversary year. Garden books and garden tools will also be available for sale. Students, staff, and volunteers from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and the Ambler Arboretum Advisory Committee will be available to answer questions. All proceeds from the Spring Plant Sale will support the Ambler Arboretum Fund and the Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society. Information: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

June Homecoming/Louise Bush-Brown Garden Dedication June 5 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. (June Homecoming), Bright Hall Lounge; 2 p.m. (Garden Dedication), Ambler Campus Formal Perennial Gardens. Tickets  June Homecoming: Participant  $18 per person; Sustainer  $25 per person; Benefactor  $40 per person. The 2011 June Homecoming, sponsored by the School of Environmental Design Alumni Association, will include the Alumni Association annual meeting and luncheon. June Homecoming will be followed by the formal dedication of Temple University Amblers Formal Perennial Gardens as the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Gardens. During this 100th anniversary of the campus, Temple University Ambler and the Ambler Arboretum of the Temple University is honoring Louise Bush-Browns many contributions to the history of the campus by formally dedicating the gardens in her honor. During the program, campus Executive William Parshall will welcome guests, Ambler Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey will speak about the Bush-Browns and the history of the garden, and an official ribbon cutting will be held for the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Garden. Following the ribbon cutting, guests are invited to take a tour of the gardens, which will wend their way to the Campus Greenhouse for the School of Environmental Designs annual Plant Auction. Information (Garden Dedication): 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Information (June Homecoming): 215-482-0722. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

Northview Garden Tour and Fundraiser for the Ambler Arboretum June 12 from noon to 5 p.m. Call for reservations. Tickets: $15 per person or $20 at the door. In addition to the gardens of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey has a garden oasis all her own right in Ambler  Northview. Visitors will have the opportunity to take self-guided tours throughout the many gardens, where garden experts will be available to answer questions about the various designs. The Ambler Keystone Chapter of the Womans National Farm and Garden Association will also provide tea and refreshments. All proceeds from the tours will support the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University. Information or to register: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

The Senior Adult Activities Center of Montgomery County, 536 George Street, Norristown, will hold the following events:

SAAC Adult Day Care, an alternative to Nursing Home Care is available  for information call 610-275-1960

Volunteers are needed for Meals on Wheels Program (call the number above)

SAACs Fifth Avenue Boutique opens Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Exercise with Theresa will be held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 p.m.

Dance class is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Tai Chi is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Yoga is held every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

Line Dancing is held every Thursday at 10:30 a.m.

Dancing with Joan is held every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.

Sculpture Class is held Wednesdays from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Why Should I Learn Spanish? will be held Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m.

Generations On-Line computer classes for seniors will be held Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.  4 p.m.  computers are available during those hours.

Health Living will be held every Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Boomer U will hold the following events. Boomer U is located at 45 Forest Avenue, Ambler. Registration & payment is required for all events: 215-619-8863.

Pilates Class is held Wednesdays and Fridays at 9:30 a.m. First class is free; please bring a mat. For information call 610-291-5376.

Blue Bell School of Dance, 921 Penllyn Blue Bell Pike, Blue Bell, hosts Argentine Tango Classes and a Milonga dance party every Friday evening. Lessons start at 8:30 p.m. followed by dancing at 9:30 p.m. Andrew Conway, master Argentine Tango dancer, instructor and performer and his partner Linda Chase will instruct. All levels welcome and no partner is needed. Refreshments will be served. Fee is $12 per person and includes lesson and dancing. Information: 215-634-1101 or www.amoretango.com.

The Montgomery Hospital Medical Center will offer the following classes:

Childbirth Education Class- all parents are invited to participate, including those who are delivering at

other hospitals. For more information on maternity services or classes, call 610-270-2020.

CPR and First Aid Courses are offered for beginners to experiences health care providers. Call 610-270-2313.

The Ambler SAAC (Senior Adult Activities Center), located at 45 Forest Ave in Ambler will hold the following events:

Tai Chi every Monday and Thursday at 11 a.m.

Yoga is every Tuesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 10:30 a.m.

Strength and balance training every Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Armchair Aerobics is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Gourmet Weight Wise every Thursday at 12:30.

Fitness Center and Pool Room open daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

The Diabetes Education Center will offer day and evening classes each month. Health insurance pays for diabetes education classes. Preregistration is required. Call 610-270-2301.

For Kids & Families

The Ambler Kiwanis Club will host its annual Easter Egg Hunt April 26 at 10 a.m. in Ambler Borough Park, located just off of the intersection of Hendricks Street and Valley Brook Road. Members of the Wissahickon Key Club will assist Kiwanians in hiding thousands of wrapped chocolate eggs in a designated area of the park. Also hidden will be plastic colored eggs, which are redeemed for prizes. Elementary school children are separated by age.

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation will hold its 21st annual Storybook Egg-Stravaganza April 15 fom 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Upper Dublin Township Building. Toddlers and preschoolers love this annual event where photo opportunities with favorite friends abound! Treasures are collected from UDP&Rs assortment of lifesize cutouts of favorite cartoon characters from Disney, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon and other well-known animation. Children can have their picture taken with Bugsy OHare; bring your own camera. And dont forget a basket for goodies! $7 for UD residents; $12 for non-residents. Pre-register at 215-643-1600 ext. 3443.

Splash Week is a free week-long program that teaches children and families basic swimming skills and water safety practices. All YMCA branches will host multiple classes each day from April 11 to 15. For more information, contact the Ambler Area YMCA at 215-628-9950.

Healthy Kids Day is April 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day is filled with fun, engaging and artistic activities that cultivate healthy living as part of the YMCAs larger efforts to help more kids and families become physically active. All activities are free and open to the community. For more information, contact the Ambler YMCA at 215-628-9950. No reservation is required.

The Ambler Area YMCA has added several new programs for area youngsters. Classes are held late afternoons or evenings on various weekdays. For more information, visit philaymca.org or call 215-628-9950.

Basic Beading: Ages: 10+. Wednesdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. This class will teach you the fundamentals of wiring and stringing along with how color can be used to create unique and vibrant beadwork design. You will create various jewelry including earrings, bracelets, charm pendants and much more! Supplies will be provided. Bringing your own jewelry pliers or tools would be a plus.

Messin with the Masters: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. Learn about some of the worlds greatest artists. You will be inspired to create your own Starry Night with oil pastels and tempera paints, a tissue paper painted Monet garden, a Picasso head using scraps of paper, a Georgia OKeeffe clay flower bowl and a Rousseau jungle collage.

Super Scientist: Ages: 5-7. Mondays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Well be concocting chemistry experiments such as making slime, mixing potions and having fun with magnet magic. Your budding little scientist will enhance his/her creative thinking and motor skills and to top it off will learn that science can be serious fun.

Wacky Junk Art: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 6 to 6:45 p.m. Why throw it away! Instead join us to make household junk into aliens from outer space, wacky specs, crazy hats, body masks or a recycled train.

Globe Trotters: Ages: 4-6. Tuesdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Youre never too young to start thinking globally. Each week, we explore a new country through crafts, games, music, stories and even some taste-testing. A perfect introduction to our great big world!

Crazy about Crafts: Ages: 5-7, Thursdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Let your childs creative juices flow with our fun arts and crafts projects each week. Fine motor skills and creative thinking skills will be enhanced with this crafty class.

Come out and join the Ambler Area YMCAs Teen and Junior Leaders Club. Participants are given the freedom to plan community service projects year round and truly make a difference in the lives of people in need. Those in Teen and Junior Leaders also attend leadership retreats all along the East Coast three times a year and meet other leaders who are doing the same great work in their respective areas. Dont miss out on this inspiring opportunity. Teen Leaders, ages 13-17, meet every Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Junior Leaders, ages 10-12, will begin in the spring and will meet every Monday. For more information, contact Mike Miles, Teen Director, 215- 628-9950 x 1540 or mmiles@philaymca.org.

Did you know that the new Ambler Area YMCA holds childrens birthday parties at its site for members and non members as well. The Ambler Y does all the work from start to finish and birthday parties include a personalized cake, ice cream, beverage and paper products. Parties are held on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and include two party hosts to lead activities, set-up, clean-up and assist with serving. You can have a Splash Party for children ages six to 12 in the new zero depth entry pool with water slide and spray fountains. Up to 25 children have exclusive use of the pool area with 30 minutes in the party room. Sports Parties are offered for kids ages four to 12 with age appropriate activities and games, and sports such as floor hockey, soccer, basketball or dodge ball. Children ages three to five years of age will enjoy parties in the Family Active Center with use of the Moon Bounce and organized activities, such as parachute play and songs. For information, 215-628-9950 ext. 1583.

Community Events at the Ambler Y:

-YAchievers YMCA Achievers is a developmentally based, extracurricular, educational and team mentoring program designed to help students in grades five through 12 prepare for fulfilled livelihoods in college and beyond. Participation is free and all students in this program receive a free YMCA membership. Registration for the 2009 program begins now. You do not need to be a YMCA member to utilize these special services. Call 215-628-9950 to register.

Greater Norristown Art Leagues Childrens Weeklong Summer Art Camps will be held at 800 West Germantown Pike in East Norriton, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday throughout the summer. The cost per session is $125 per student for ages 6 and up. Jo Ann Cooksey Bono teaches an introduction to basic drawing skills and techniques from 10 a.m. until the lunch break each day. In the afternoon sessions, Mary Vogel Lozinak involves the students in hands on projects such as collage, papermaking, T-shirt printing, 3D design and sculpy clay. Fridays Graduation Day includes an art show, awards ceremony and reception for parents, siblings, grandparents and friends. All supplies are included. Students provide their own lunch. A refrigerator is available and the building is air-conditioned. This is the 15th year to run this successful program. Both instructors are professional artists with State Police and Child Abuse Clearances. To register, call Jo Ann at 610-279-1008, or register on-line at www.gnal.org.

Health

Dresher Physical Therapy is hosting an interactive seminar discussing its Golf Assessment Progam April 30 from 10 a.m. to noon at Dresher Physical Therapy, 1075 Virginia Drive, Suite 200, Fort Washington. Physical therapist Chris Miller, certified through the Titleist Performance Institute, will discuss why your body may be the most important piece of golf equipment you invest in and how this can drastically improve your game. $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Call 215-619-4545 to reserve your spot.

The Chestnut Hill Center for Enrichment, Center on the Hill and Chestnut Hill Hospital will host a Senior Health and Resource Fair April 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, 8855 Germantown Ave. The event is free. For more information, call 215-248-0180 or e-mail chseniors@cavtel.net.

The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is hosting Help Yourself to Health, a new six-week workshop for older adults with ongoing health conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, heart disease and others. The free workshop will take place at the Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center, 45 Forest Ave. on six Thursdays, May 12 through June 16 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Although there is no charge to participate, registration is required. To register, call 215-619-8863.

The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is sponsoring an eight-week program called A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls. Presented by the Montgomery County Health Department, this workshop will be held on Tuesdays, May 3 to June 21 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ambler Center, 45 Forest Ave. If you pre-register by April 27, the fee is only $5! Registration at the first class is $10. (Checks should be payable to SAAC and will benefit our Meals on Wheels program that serves homebound seniors.) A workbook will be provided and refreshments will be served. Call 215-619-8863 to register or for more information.

Fort Washington Wellness Center classes are ongoing. There are several offered during lunch or right after work, for your convenience: Boot Camp from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday; Zumba is MWF from 11 a.m. to noon and Friday at 4 p.m.; there are 25 cycling classes; Ashtanga and Vinyasana Yoga and Pilates; and a group Womens Strength Training class M-F from 10 to 11 a.m. Questions, call Cathy DeMarco at 215-641-1245.

Following the success of other local area programs, Impact Sports and Upper Dublin Parks and Recreation are delighted to team up again to offer a spring program for the 2011 season! Upper Dublin area children ages 3-5 years old can attend a Sports Program featuring their favorite sports games; soccer, rugby, hockey, track and field, basketball, and more. The program will start on April 27 and run through June 1. Cost for the program is $85 for the six weeks. The classes will be running 12- 1 p.m.; 1- 2 p.m.; 2- 3 p.m. For more info or to register, call Upper Dublin Township on 215 643 1600 or visit their website a http://www.upperdublin.net.

Spring Aquatic Programs  UDHS Pool:

-Summer is just around the corner  Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool can help get you into shape! Programs begin in March; preregistration is required.

 Shallow Water Aerobics  Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 8-8:45 p.m., $40R/$50NR.

 Adult Swim Instructions  Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 7-8 p.m., $50R/$60NR

-Open Rec Swims are fun for the whole family! Come out on Fridays from 7-9 p.m. or Saturdays from 1-4 p.m. and enjoy use of the pool and diving area. Fridays are offered through June 17; Saturdays are offered March 12-May 21.

-Join a growing group of adult lap swimmers and water walkers. Lanes are set aside evenings and weekends for use; lanes are shared. Monday  Thursday from 7:30-9:30 p.m.; Fridays from 7-9 p.m. and Saturdays (March 12-May 21) from 1-4 p.m.

-Private Swimming & Diving Lessons for ages 3-adult are offered at the UDHS Pool through a partnership with the Upper Dublin Aquatic Club (UDAC). Visit the UDAC website for more information, www.udac.us, and click the link to UDHS Private Lessons.

-Looking for local programs for US Masters Swimming (adults) or Water Polo (all ages)? UDAC and UDSD are working together to develop programs that will be offered at the UDHS Pool. Add your name to Interest Lists by emailing slohoefer@upperdublin.net. emails will be sent about clinics and program start dates.

Questions about Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool, group use of the pool or pool rental? Contact Susan Lohoefer, Facility & Community Affairs Manager at slohoefer@upperdublin.net or call 215-643-8800 x8994.

SilverSneakers Fitness Program. The Healthyways SilverSneakers Fitness Program is a result-oriented program that enables older adults to take charge of their health. The program is an innovative blend of physical activity, healthy lifestyle and socially oriented programing. Members of the program are eligible for a free YMCA membership, with use of the pool and exercise equipment, along with customized classes designed for older adults who want to improve their strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. If you are a subscriber to Independence Blue Cross (Personal Choice 65 PPO) or Keystone 65 HMO, Bravo Health, or Health Options Programs (HOP), call the Ambler Area YMCA, 215-628-9950 or Hatboro Area YMCA, 215-674-4545. You can also visit www.silversneakers.com.

Zumba Fitness offers Zumba dance/fitness classes at Academy of Dance and Music/BBAD Studio located at 1524 DeKalb Pike in Blue Bell (behind Sherwin Williams). Classes are offered three times a week: Tuesdays at 6 p.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m. For a free trial pass for your first class, email us at info@danceandmusic.biz or call 610-277-2557. For more info, visit our site at www.academyofdanceandmusic.org.

Chestnut Hill Health Systems presents the following Health Education Programs:

FITNESS CLASSES

Golden Yoga: A Breathing, Stretching and Relaxation Class. Fridays, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Lea Auditorium, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. Registration for four classes at a time required. Golden Yoga is Classical Yoga, adapted by the SKY Foundation, to accommodate those who have difficulty getting up and down from the floor. The program includes postures, breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques, all performed while sitting in a chair and standing. Registration required. Call 215-247-3029. Cost: $20 for 4 classes per month.

Tai Chi: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 8:30  9:30 a.m. Springfield Residence, 8601 Stenton Ave. Classes, for the novice or beginner/intermediate student, are designed to improve balance, power, posture, coordination, flexibility and mental focus. Slow, gentle movements are modified to most everyones abilities. For more information or to sign up for a free introductory class, call 215-882-2804. Cost: $8 per class/paid monthly.

SUPPORT GROUPS

Weight Loss Surgery Support Group: Fourth Wednesday of the month, 7-8 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. Join us for a monthly get-together where well share information for those interested in weight loss surgery, learn from guest speakers discussing current news on issues including lifestyle modification, nutrition and exercise and provide ongoing support for those who have completed surgery. Registration required. Call 215-753-2000.

Breast Cancer Networking Group: Fourth Tuesday of the month 5:30  7 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. A free, confidential support group for women living with a diagnosis of breast cancer designed to provide a forum for sharing information, feelings and concerns associated with breast cancer. Facilitated by Tish Wakefield, LCSW, Oncology Social Worker. Registration required. To register or for more information, call 215-248-8047.

New Moms Support Groups Tuesdays 10:30 a.m.  12 p.m.; contact Jeanine ORourke, MSW or 2:30  4 p.m.; contact Susan Schack, Ph.D Volunteer Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. The Center for Postpartum Depression at Chestnut Hill Hospital is pleased to offer two new support groups to support new moms. Both groups will be run by experienced mental health professionals who really get it when it comes to new motherhood and juggling relationships, extended family, work/family balance and self-care. If you are experiencing new mom challenges that often heighten anxiety and involve hormonally driven depression, join us for an informative and supportive forum to connect with other moms. Infants are welcome. $30 per session (flexible based on need). Registration is required. Call Dr. Schack, 646-265-2484, or Ms. ORourke, 215-206-2931.

Man to Man Prostate Cancer Support Group Third Thursday of the month 8-9 a.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. A networking group for men diagnosed with prostate cancer designed to provide education, support and encouragement. Spouses and partners welcome. Harry M. Baer, MD, Chief, Urology Division, will host Ask the Doctor. Registration required. Call 215-248-8325.

Contact the Senior Center by phone 215-248-0180 or email (chseniors@cavtel.net) with your questions about these programs or any of our on-going activities and classes.

Holy Redeemer HomeCare and Hospice seeks compassionate and emotionally mature volunteers to provide support to local hospice patients and their families in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. Volunteers may also assist with pet therapy and administrative work within the hospice department and are requested to have daytime availability. Hospice patient care volunteers visit with patients in their homes or nursing facilities once a week for two to three hours. They provide emotional support and companionship to patients and family members, assist with errands or provide respite for caregivers. Bereavement volunteers support the families of hospice patients following the loss of a loved one, while administrative volunteers assist with typing, mailings and/or filing. Hospice care workers provide a great service to families and loved ones of hospice patients. Many volunteers also report a great deal of personal satisfaction as a result of their services. Patient care and bereavement volunteers complete an application and attend an 18-hour volunteer training program that covers the medical, psychological and spiritual aspects of hospice volunteering. Day and evening training programs are offered. To sign up for volunteer opportunities in Pennsylvania, contact Holy Redeemer Volunteer Coordinator Jean Francis at 215-698-3737 or email jfrancis@holyredeemer.com.

Librarytalk

Upper Dublin Public Library, 805 Loch Alsh Avenue, Ft. Washington, 215-628-8744

www.upperdublinlibrary.org

APRIL CHILDRENS PROGRAMS:

Storytimes: Please register in the library.

o Wee Ones: 0 to 23 months Thursdays and Fridays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m.

o Tiny Tots: age 2. Wednesdays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. and Fridays 11 to 11:20 a.m.

o Jr. Book Lovers: ages 3 to 6. Tuesdays 10:30 to 11 a.m.

o Bedtime Storytimes: 7 to 7:30 p.m. April 20 and 27. Wear your jammies, bring your teddy & hear Miss Barbara read bedtime stories! For ages 3 to 6.

APRIL TEEN PROGRAMS:

North Hills Library Teens April 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. Movie Matinee

APRIL UDPL ADULT PROGRAMS:

NEW! ESL Conversation Group. Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. Interested in practicing your English in a safe and caring environment? Come to our conversation group and improve your skills! Please register with Kay Klocko at 215-628-8744 or kklocko@mclinc.org.

One-on-One Computer Mentoring. Get personalized assistance from experienced computer volunteers! Sign-up for a one-hour session. Limit one session per month. Please register  contact info above.

Book Groups Please register with Kay Klocko 215-628-8744.

o Daytimers: April 21 at 1:30 p.m. Tired of book groups where you all read the same book? Read any fiction or non-fiction book on this months theme: Explorers. Please register.

Meetings:

Annual Meeting of the Friends of UDPL: April 14 at 1 p.m.

Board of Directors: April 20 at 7 p.m.

Blue Bell Library www.wvpl.org Upcoming Events: The Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 650 Skippack Pike (Route 73) in Blue Bell, is diagonally across from the Blue Bell Inn. Call 215-643-1320 or visit their website at www.wvpl.org.

For children and teens at Blue Bell:

* Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian.

* Mondays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages.

* Fridays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Family Movies, new releases, second Saturdays of the month at 1:30 p.m.

* May 14  Despicable Me

* June 11  Alpha and Omega

* Special Events

* April  watch for date of spring/Easter events

* April 14 at 4:30 p.m.  Junior Lego Club for children ages 3 through 5. Parents and caregivers need to stay with children.

* April 14 at 7 p.m.  Jeopardy for ages 11 to 18. Test your book and library knowledge for prizes. Sign up to be a contestant. No sign up to be in the audience. Snacks provided.

* April 16 at 1 p.m.  Adult Mystery Book Group discussing The Beekeepers Apprentice by Laurie King.

* April 16 at 1:30 p.m.  Childrens event for One Book, Every Young Child celebration. Story and craft for book Whose Shoes?

* April 19 at 7 p.m. and April 26 at 1:30 p.m.- Adult book group discusses The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. Group led by Adam Button.

* April 30 through May 3  Friends book sale with about 10,000 items for sale for children, teens and adults.

* May  sign up for Science in the Summer

* June  sign up for Enrichment Programs for Elementary-Age children

* June  sign up for Summer Reading, all ages

For adults at Blue Bell:

* Daytime Book Discussion Group  fourth Tuesday, Jan  April at 1:30 p.m.

* April 26  The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

* Night-time Book Discussion Group  third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.

o April 19  The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

* Art Series with Dr. Sheldon Weintraub, docent at The Barnes and speaker at local colleges

o April 27 at 2 p.m. The Art of Looking at Art-Is She Nude or Is She Naked?

*Mystery Book Discussion Group, third Saturday of the month at 1 p.m.; new mystery theme each month; www.wvpl.org/programs

* Yoga on Mondays at 1:30 p.m. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop-in class.

* Tai Chi on Mondays at 3 p.m. with Dr. Kurt Findeisen. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop in class.

* Philadelphia Museum of Art presents class on their Marc Chagall exhibit, April 13 at 2 p.m.

* Giant Book Sale, April 29  May 3

o Starts with almost 10,000 items for children and adults!

o Held during library hours.

o Preview for members of the Friends of the Library, April 28 at 7 p.m.

o Join the Friends and attend the preview sale. Modest fee to join.

* Blooms at Blue Bell Gardening Series

o May 11 at 1 p.m.  Summer Bulbs by PA Horticultural Society

* Knitting group Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Work on your project or observe and learn. The groups continue year-round in the community room.

* Socrates Cafe discussion group every Monday at 7 p.m. You pick the topic to discuss each week. No sign-up, nothing to read.

* Bridge every Friday at 12:30 p.m. New players welcome.

* Mah Jong every Wednesday at 1 p.m. New players welcome.

*Chess every Wednesday at 7p.m. for adults and teens 14 and older.

* Movie Matinee showing recent releases every Thursday at 2 p.m. April 14: Maos Last Dancer; April 21: Welcome to the Rileys; April 28: Conviction; May 5: Inception; May 12: Inside Job; May 19 The Kings Speech; May 26 The Fighter; June 2 Rabbit Hole; June 9 Black Swan; June 16 127 Hours

* Ongoing like-new, year-round book sale for adults & children during library hours

* Library opening at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday!

Ambler Library, a branch of the Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 209 Race St., 215-646-1072. www.wvpl.org. All the following events occur at the Ambler Library.

* Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian.

* Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages.

* For adults:

* Beading Group meets the first and third Monday of every month at 1 p.m. Work on your own projects or come to watch and learn.

* Free Family History Lookup with Connie Briggs. Email Connie for an appointment at the Ambler Library. conniebriggs@comcast.net

* Special Events:

* April 14 at 1:30 p.m.  Book Group discusses Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian.

* April 19 at 7 p.m.  Travel to Paris with world traveler Harry Balin. Tea and scones at 6:30 p.m.

* April 21 at 7 p.m.  Art with Sara for children in fourth through seventh grades.

*May 2 at 6:30 p.m.  Discuss the movie Lone Star with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time.

*May 10  Robert Capucci discusses Art into Fashion. Tea and scones served at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m.

*May 12 at 1:30p.m.  Book Group discusses The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.

*May 17  Tour the gardens of Devon and Southwest England with Lois McMullen. Tea and Scones at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m.

*June 13 at 6:30 p.m.  Discuss the movie Blade Runner with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time.

Meetings and Lectures

The Unisys Blue Bell Retiree Group will meet in the Church on the Mall in the Plymouth Meeting Mall April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Kathy Sacket Young, director/trainer with the North Penn YMCA, will speak on Keeping Fit in Retirement. For more information, contact Membership Committee Chairperson Jerry Feldscher at 610-275-3538 or President Al Rollin at 215-368-4833.

The next FWBA meeting will be April 28 at the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Networking begins at 11:30 a.m.; meeting from noon to 1 p.m. Leon Singletary, Principal, First Contact HR and FWBA Executive Board, will present: Social Media: How to Use It To Get More Business. Lunch is provided courtesy of the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Members are welcome to bring a guest. An RSVP is requested by return email or 215-628-0313.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern PA is hosting a information sessions over the next few weeks on how to become a Big Brother. The information sessions will take place: April 16 at noon, April 19 at 8 a.m. and April 28 at 6 p.m. All sessions will be held at the groups Norristown Office,t 530 DeKalb St., Norristown. For more information, call 610-277-2200.

The North Penn Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) normally meets on the third Tuesday of each month from now until May. Meetings are held at the William Penn Inn on Route 202 and Sumneytown Pike, Upper Gwynedd, PA. Social hour starts at 5:30 p.m., dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., and the technical program begins at 7 p.m. Cost with reservation is $28 for members. Members without reservations and guests pay $30. Students with reservations pay $15. Reservations may be made by noon on the Monday preceding the meeting by phoning 215-371-1854 or emailing the reservation to northpennima@yahoo.com northpennima@yahoo.com. Information about the North Penn Chapter is available at http://northpenn.imanet.org/.

LeTip, a professional organization of men and women who are dedicated to the highest standards of competence and service meets every Tuesday at Cedar Brook Country Club, 180 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell at 7 a.m. -meeting officially starts at 7:16 a.m. and ends at 8:31 a.m. Our purpose is the exchange of business tips, leads, and referrals. Each business category is represented by one member and conflicts of interest are disallowed. Guests are welcome to visit any of our breakfast meetings.

Every third Thursday of month, Sunrise Assisted Living of Blue Bell (795 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422, 215-619-2777) serves as a satellite site to 148th Legislative district PA congressman Mike Gerber from 10 a.m. to noon. Stop by for help needed with things such as disability placards and license plates, vehicle registration, utilities issues, birth/death certificates,property tax/rent rebates, etc. Notary services arranged by appointment.

The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce is an action-oriented organization dedicated to promoting its members and the economic health of eastern Montgomery county. The Chamber is committed to serving as a catalyst by uniting business, community agencies, government and education to make our county a great place to live and work. For information, call 215-887-5122 or visit www.emccc.org.

Do you have a fear of public speaking? Blue Bell Toastmasters Club can help. We meet from 7 to 9 p.m., on the second and fourth Tuesday at the Marriott Courtyard, located on Route 202, directly across from the Montgomeryville Mall. Learn how to improve communication and leadership skills in a friendly and supportive environment. Guests are welcome. Admission fee: $5. For more info, visit www.bbtoast.org.

The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will hold the following meetings (for reservations to any of the following, email info@PennSuburban.org)

-Breakfast News Network, 7:30-8:45 a.m. at Normandy Farm Hotel (1401 Morris Road, Blue Bell, PA 19422) $15 members, includes full buffet breakfast. Join us for a networking program at Normandy Farm Hotel every Thursday morning for breakfast, business news, informative speakers, and plenty of networking. The cost includes a full breakfast buffet. Copies of the business cards will be made available to those who would like them.

The BNI, Fort Washington Chapter meets every Monday at The Hilton Garden Inn, 520 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Washington for a networking meeting. Meetings are from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Visitors are welcome. The only cost to attend is the cost of your meal. For information or a reservation to attend, please call Luanne Cram at 215-947-7784, or visit our Internet site at: http://www.BNIDVR.Com and click on the menu item Find a Chapter.

For the past seven years, people have enjoyed participating in WVWAs Adopt-a-Tree program. Individuals can support the Association in its reforestation efforts by purchasing native trees to be planted. Supporters can plant their adopted tree or have WVWA volunteers will plant it. Trees cost $30 each. If you would like to volunteer or purchase a tree(s), please contact: Bob Adams at Bob@wvwa.org or call: 215-646-8866 for more information. Check www.WVWA.org for directions and maps.

Sustainable Upper Dublin, http://sustainableupperdublin.org, meets the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m., at the Upper Dublin Township Building, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington, PA 19034. Please send any questions to suec@sustainableupperdublin.org or call 610-996-6316. To learn more about Sustainable Upper Dublin, view or join the discussion at http://googlegroups.com/group/sustainableupperdublin.

Special Events

The Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard will hold its first nutrition class April 19 at 10 a.m. at the Community Cupboard, 150 N. Main St., Ambler. Lynne Sinclair, a nutritionist from Abington Memorial Hospital specializing in diabetic nutrition, will conduct the class. Topics will include healthy eating, beneficial foods, recipes, making meals with every day foods, and how to use unfamiliar produce. A healthy snack will be provided.The class is is open to all residents in Montgomery County.

The Historical Society of Fort Washington presents The History of Conshohocken April 19 at 8 p.m. at the Clifton House, 473 Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington. Jack Coll will present an illustrated program on the history of the Borough of Conshohocken. Coll is a longtime resident of Conshohocken and a member of the Conshohocken Historical Society. He is co-author with his son, Brian, of the Arcadia Then and Now Series book Conshohocken. He has also done books Conshohocken and West Conshohocken Sports and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Italian Feast. He has taken many photos for the Conshohocken Record and the Norristown Times Herald. This program is free. Refreshments will be served. For additional information, call 215-646-6065.

Taste of the White House Soiree featuring former White House Chef Walter Scheib will take place April 29 at 6 p.m. at Manufacturers Golf & Country Club in Fort Washington to celebrate HealthLinks 10th anniversary and honor its founders, the Eugene Jackson Family. The evening will heat up with a Chef Meet & Greet, followed by a specially selected presidential menu. Gala tickets are $150 per person. Proceeds benefit HealthLink, a free clinic providing compassionate, quality medical and dental care to uninsured, working adults in Bucks and Montgomery counties who fall in between the health care cracks. Go to http://tasteofthewhitehouse.charityhappenings.org to make reservations online or lend support through sponsorship. For event information, call 267-699-0124 or email jmarushak@healthlinkmedical.org.

The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association will hold an open house at the Evans-Mumbower Mill April 17 from 1 to 4 p.m. The Mill is at the corner of Swedesford and Township Line Roads in Upper Gwynedd. The open house is free but donations are welcome. For more information, call 215-646-8866 o email info@wvwa.org.

The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce will host Breakfast With Your County Commissioners and State Representatives April 21 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Fort Washington, 432 W. Pennasylvania Ave. Commissioners: James R. Matthews (Chairman), Joseph M. Hoeffel (Vice Chair), State Representatives: Todd Stephens (District 151) and Josh Shapiro (District 153). Register onlineat www.emccc.org. $10 for EMCCC member; $20 for non-members.

Upper Dublins Districtwide Allied Art Show will be held April 27 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the Upper Dublin High School Athletic Complex.

The Rev. Alfred Muli, chaplain at Fort Washington Estates, will be the featured speaker at the Kiwanis sponsored breakfast observing the National Day of Prayer May 5 at 7 a.m. at the William Penn Inn. The breakfast is open to the public ($15). Reservations can be made by calling 215-646-4356 or by emailing georgesaurman@Juno.com.

The Upper Dublin Shade Tree Commission invites people to participate in its spring bare root planting events, sponsored in part by Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Friends of Robbins Park. On April 9, zix trees will be planted at the Evelyn B. Wright Park & Community Pool, 401 Logan Ave., North Hills, at 9 a.m., followed by the planting of 10 trees at Sheeleigh Park, Loch Alsh Avenue and Douglas Street, Ambler, at 10:15 a.m. On April 29, students from Upper Dublin High School will join the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to plant 16 trees in Robbins Park, Butler Pike and Meetinghouse Road, Ambler, to help launch the societys Million Trees campaign. This event will occur in conjunction with Temple Amblers EarthFest. Experienced tree-tenders are sought to assist the students. For more information,contact Ron Ayres at 215-653-0421 or 215-483-4348.

The Friends of the Wissahickon and the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association are teaming up once again to clean the Wissahickon Creek from top to bottom April 30 from 9 a.m. to noon. This spring marks the 41st anniversary of Wissahickon Valley Watershed Associations annual Creek Clean Up, and the second year that FOW has teamed up with WVWA. Volunteers of all ages will clean the creek, the surrounding trails and the many tributaries of the Wissahickon Creek. Armed with bags, volunteers will be assigned to sections of the creek. Following the clean up, all volunteers are invited to WVWAs Talkin Trash picnic in Fort Washington State Park, with food provided by Whole Foods Market of North Wales. The pavilion is located on Mill Road in Flourtown. To help out in Montgomery County, all volunteers must be pre-assigned a section of the Wissahickon Creek to clean. Please contact Bob Adams, WVWA director of stewardship, at 215-646-8866 ext. 14 or bob@wvwa.org. To work with the Friends of the Wissahickon in Philadelphia, meet at the pavilion along Forbidden Drive, a short distance south of the intersection of Forbidden Drive and Northwestern Avenue. Limited parking is available along Northwestern Avenue and other nearby streets. Volunteers are encouraged to bike or carpool to the event. To participate, register at www.fow.org. Contact Kevin Groves with questions at 215-247-0417 ext. 105 or groves@fow.org.

Montgomery County Community Colleges International Club invites the community to the second annual International Festival April 20 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The rain date is April 26. The International Club will transform the outside quad area into multicultural celebration with various performances by dancers, singers and musicians. Artists will share their artwork at various display tables. Activities include games, raffles, Easter egg decorating and henna tattoos. Students will have samples of international cuisine at tables representing different countries and will serve food from various local ethnic restaurants. Throughout the evening, volunteers will accept donations and will raffle gift baskets and prizes to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity. Donations of food, international clothes and prizes are needed. Volunteers, including artists and performers, are welcome. For more information or to sponsor an activity, contact Gillian Nel, International Club president, at gnel9277@students.mc3.edu or 267-974-0163.

The Arts and Humanities Division at Montgomery County Community College is partnering with the Philadelphia Writers Conference to host Memoirs Matter: How Life Stories (Including Yours) Can Transform Your Relationship to Literature April 23 from 1 to 3 p.m. in Advanced Technology Center room 101, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The event is free and open to the public. In the first part of this two-hour seminar, professor and author Robert Waxler will explain how writing his two memoirs affected his life as well as his relationship to literature. In the second part, blogger and workshop leader Jerry Waxler will present a sequence of steps to help writers find their own story. For information, contact Dana Resente at dresente@mc3.edu.

The Maple Glen Garden Club will hold its fourth annual Plant Sale on May 7 from 8 to 11 a.m. Perennials, shrubs, vegetables and native plants grown by the club members will be sold. The club uses the plant sale proceeds to fund community projects, a college scholarship and community plantings. The sale will be held in the 500 block of Coach Road, Horsham, as part of a neighborhood garage sale. Plants will be sold at bargain prices. For more information, email MapleGlenGardenClub@gmail.com.

The Relay for Life Craft Show is looking for local crafters to participate in show, which will be May 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Wissahickon High School track, 521 Houston Road, Ambler. There is a $10 entry fee, and 20 percent of sales are donated to the American Cancer Society. Participants will receive a 6-foot table under a tent. For information, contact Joanne at joannescoles@comcast.net or Mindy at mcamsilver@comcast.net.

Spring House Estates is hosting its annual book fair on April 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. and April 9 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Included will be hardback and paperback used books. Spring House Estates is located at 728 Norristown Road, Lower Gwynedd.

The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will present the Penn Suburban/Hatfield Joint Business Card Exchange April 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Univest Bank Lansdale Area Financial Service Center, 120 Forty Foot Road, Hatfield. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. Join Univest National Bank and Trust Co. for a spring-inspired Business Card Exchange at its newest office in the Hatfield Pointe Shopping Center. Come out and meet members of Univests executive management team while enjoying fine food and beverages.

13th Annual Community Reading Day Kick-off Breakfast Get Together April 26 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the North Wales Area Library, 233 Swartley St., North Wales. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. For more information, contact the chamber office at 215-362-9200 or info@pennsuburban.org. Join presenting sponsor Verizon, chamber staff and fellow members for the Community Reading Day volunteer get together. The Community Reading Day program allows volunteers to read a designated book to second-grade students throughout 38 area public and private schools and present the book as a gift to each class. Even if you are not a volunteer, you are cordially invited to stop by to network, enjoy coffee and pastries.

Ambler Mennonite Church is hosting a Spring Craft Show and Flea Market May 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Rain date will be May 28. The community is invited to shop the great craft booths, find some gifts and deals, as well as enjoy home baked goods and tasty lunch specials. Childrens activities are planned. All vendors are encouraged to contact the church at 215-643-4876 or AmblerMennonite@verizon.net. Advertising, signage, customer parking and a shuttle to auxiliary parking at nearby lots for vendors will be provided. 10 foot by 10 foot spaces can be rented for $5 each and tables for an additional $5 each. All proceeds from space and table rentals go toward school kits for children around the world. The church is located at the corner of East Mt. Pleasant Avenue and North Spring Garden Street, Ambler.

The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association presents The Life & Times of Aquatic Insects in the Wissahickon Creek April 16 from 1 to 3 p.m. Join WVWA for a hands-on program. RSVP required: www.wvwa.org or 215-646-8866. WVWA member fee: $5 per person / $15 per family. Non-WVWA member fee: $10 per person / $20 per family.

The photography exhibition Natures Palette by photo-artist Judy Miller will run March 18 to May 19 at the Art in the Storefront gallery, 41 E. Butler Pike, Ambler.

JPRN  Networking For People in Transition & People Who Can Help Them  Unemployment remains high. JPRN, the Jarrettown Professional Relationship Network can help. Are you trying to network your way to a new job? Do you have expertise or contacts that can help people in transition? Is your company or organization looking for people in the area? This is a free outreach program to support those seeking work, involve people with contacts and networking know how, and involve local companies. Meetings held monthly at Jarrettown United Methodist Church, Limekiln Pike.

Pennsylvanias Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) grant program is now open for the 2010-11 heating season. Grants are based on income, family size, type of heating fuel and region. Additional information, such as specific income limits, and applications for LIHEAP grants are available online via the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Access to Social Services (COMPASS) website at www.compass.state.pa.us. Applications are available at most public officals district offices, county assistance offices, local utility companies and community service agencies, such as Area Agencies on Aging or community action agencies.

Begin your holiday shopping at Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation! Entertainment books for 2011, Philadelphia North, are now on sale at $30 each. Regal/United Artists movie tickets are on sale for just $7.50 each, and tickets to the Adventure Aquarium, Baltimore Aquarium, and the Philadelphia Zoo are also available. Discounted ski vouchers to area mountains will be arriving in December; call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

RSVP of Montgomery County and the Wissahickon Valley Public Library have partnered again to offer the public their popular free mock interview sessions. The mock interviews are conducted by RSVP volunteers who are retired professionals, some of whom were in hiring positions themselves. Packets of information which include a sample employment application and interviewing tips with mock interview questions are available at the library to pick up prior to a scheduled mock interview or will be sent via email once the interview is scheduled. To schedule your interview, please contact Janis Glusman at RSVP 610-834-1040, ext. 16. The library is also offering a free resume review service. Bring in your current resume and the professional reference staff will assist you with hints and tips on capturing your work history accurately.

Registration for Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation summer playgrounds, Camp B.I.G. and Small Folks, X-Zone, and sports camps has began. Register online at www.upperdublin.net/store, or at the UDP&R office, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington. Call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information.

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Danielles Espresso Cafe presents Mornings at Mondaug Bark Park April 16 and May 21 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Meet fellow dog lovers. These events include complimentary coffee, treats for people and pups and raffles/giveaways.

Upper Dublins Annual Spring Flea Market will be held June 4 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reserve a table, or come and shop. Tables are $15 for UD residents, $20 for non-residents. This successful event occurs rain or shine. Refreshments available. Call 215-643-1600 ext. 3443 to register for a table.

Regal movie tickets available for purchase at Upper Dublin Township Parks & Recreation. Reduced rate: $7.50 per ticket. Some restrictions apply. Call 215-643-1600 x3443.

Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation movie tickets $7.50 Regal Cinemas, United Artist & Edwards Cinemas on sale throughout the year Monday  Friday from 9 a.m.  4 p.m.

Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation Camp Sign-ups for Stony Creek Day Camp  Stony Creek Tracers and Park n Tots. Register on-line at www.whitpaintownship.org OrCome to Township Building with check or Visa MasterCard Monday  Friday from 9 a.m.  4 p.m. For additional information call 610.277-2400 ext. 374

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation offers exciting new programs for the fall:

-Returning favorites include UK Elite Petite Soccer, Tiny Dancers, Kiddie Tennis, Fun-nastics, Messy Playtime, Little Chefs, and more. Babysitters Training will be offered in November and December. Continuing Adult Fitness Classes include Cardio Circuit, Core & More, Yoga, Boxing, and Adult G.Y.M. For more information call 215-643-1600 x3443. Register for programs online at www.upperdublin.net/store.

Music and Theater

The community is invited to a Cantors Concert April 16 at 8 p.m. Congregation Beth Or, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen. Listen and hum-along to the Yiddish, pop tunes and classical music performed by Congregation Beth Ors own Cantor David Green and his special guest, Cantor Irvin Bell, from Temple Beth Israel in Deerfield Beach, Fla. The cantors will be accompanied by Mark Sobol and his Klezmer musicians. Tickets are $18 in advance and $25 at the door. RSVP with payment to Barb Murtha, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen, PA 19002, or call 215-646-5806 ext. 220.

Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse will host the Jameson Sisters May 14. Doors open at 7:30 pm, performance at 8:00 pm. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse is located at the corner of Rte. 202 & Sumneytown Pike, Gwynedd. $5 suggested donation. Light refreshment available at a modest cost. For further information, call 215-393-9576 or visit gwyneddmeeting.org/coffeehouse.html.

Celebrate patriotism through song with Gwynedd-Mercy Colleges choir, the Voices of Gwynedd, as it presents Hear America Singing April 15 at 8 p.m. The choir will perform song selections from all over the country, including Georgia on My Mind, New York State of Mind, and a medley including Philadelphia Freedom and Allentown. The performance will end with When the Saints Go Marching In to acknowledge the choirs upcoming tour in New Orleans. Hear America Singing will take place in the Julia Ball Auditorium, located in St. Bernard Hall. Parking is available in lots A, C and D. Admission is free.

The Choristers will present Anton Dvoraks Stabat Mater April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Upper Dublin Lutheran Church in Ambler. The choir will be accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, $10 for students and children are free. Tickets will be sold in advance or at the door. For more information, call 215-542-7871 or visit TheChoristers.org

Religious News

The Staircase Gallery at Or Hadash: A Reconstructionist Congregation in Fort Washington will feature the work of Emily Ennuat-Lustine. The artist will be showing paintings and graphics inspired by her own personal spiritual journey and quest for meaning. Some of the works to be shown have been inspired by Biblical Psalms and writings. Her work has been shown at Abington Art Center, Cheltenham Arts Center and Old City Gallery of Jewish Art among others. The exhibition is open Friday evenings starting Feb. 18 after Shabbat services. Gallery hours are: Mondays through Thursdays 10-4:30, Fridays 10-3 and following Shabbat Services and Sundays 10-1. The synagogue is located at 190 Camp Hill Road in Fort Washington. For additional information contact the synagogue office at 215-283-0276.

Reunions

St. Matthews High School Conshohocken Class of 1961 is looking for classmates. For details, contact Greg Marincola at 215-646-2239, 215-740-1296 or gregcola@comcast.net.

Olney High School Class of 1971 is Lloking for classmates for a 40th reunion Oct. 28. For details, contact Judy at ohsclassof71@yahoo.com or 215-870-7572.

Abington High School Class of 1961 is seeking classmates for a 50-year reunion to be held Oct. 14-15, 2011.Visit the website, www.abington61.com, for details or call 215-947-1779.

Overbrook High School class of January 1956 is having a 55 year reunion on May 22, 2011 at the Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia. For information please contact overbrookreunion56@comcast.net

Germantown High School Class Of January 1961 is looking for classmates for 50th year reunion to take place in May of 2011. Please contact: 215-362-9148, 856-577-0659 or samdelcomo@comcast.net

The June 1961 class of Germantown High School is holding their 50th reunion on May 15, which will be a brunch. For further details please contact Linda Dorfman Alten at lindaalten@yahoo.com or call 215-441-8411.

Support

New Life Presbyterian Church in Dresher, will host GriefShare, a special seminar and support group which will run on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m., from March 7 through June 6. At each meeting there will be a DVD about the grief process, discussion and reference to a grief workbook. Preregistration is required to secure a place in the group and to purchase a GriefShare notebook (for a one-time fee of $15). The notebook goes along with the 13-week schedule covering such topics as: living with grief, the effects of grief, and stuck in grief. For more information or to register, call: Sandy Elder at 215-884-5149.

PUPS (People Understanding Parkinsons) A self-help group for those adjusting to a new diagnosis or dealing with the early stages of Parkinsons Disease. Meets fourth Tuesday of the month from 1 to 2:30 p.m., at Abington Health Center, Schilling Campus, Willowood Building, 2510 Maryland Road, Suite 251, Willow Grove. For more information or to RSVP, contact Lorna at 215-542-2931.

The North Penn Visiting Nurse Associations Meals on Wheels program is looking for volunteers to pack or deliver meals to the elderly and infirmed. Meals are packed and delivered mornings, Monday through Friday. You can volunteer for as many days per week or month as you would like. Packaging meals requires approximately 2-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves making sandwiches, packaging food into individual serving containers and packing coolers with the meals. Delivering meals requires approximately 1-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves loading coolers into your car and delivering a route of approximately 10 to 15 stops. The Meals on Wheels program is also in need of emergency, winter-weather volunteers to pack and deliver meals in bad weather. North Penn VNA is located at 51 Medical Campus Drive in Lansdale and delivers meals in the Lansdale, North Wales and Blue Bell areas. For more information or to volunteer, please call Bridget, North Penn VNA Meals on Wheels coordinator at 215-855-8296.

Elkins Park Area CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) meets the first Tuesday of every month, 7- 8:30 p.m., at Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital in Elkins Park. For information on CHADD or ADHD, please see our website www.chadd.net/249 or call Claire Noyes at: 215-779-6656.

Center for Loss and Bereavement, 3847 Skippack Pike, Skippack (610-222-4110) www.bereavementcenter.org Offers professional counseling for individuals, couples, children and families dealing with issues of loss and bereavement. Six-week adult support groups: Newly forming young adult grief support group  every other Wednesday, 7  8:15 p.m. (free of charge); Monthly loss of child support  second Mondays, 7-8:15 p.m.; Six-week young loss of spouse/partner  Thursdays, 10-11:15 a.m.; Other groups scheduled as interest is shown for suicide loss support, adult loss of parent, motherless daughters, adult loss of sibling, coping with chronic illness and disability and mens loss of spouse. Nellos Corner Family Bereavement program offers peer grief support groups for ages 4 through teen and their caregivers  Every other Tuesday or Wednesday (free of charge) Local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children also meets at the Center. Registration required. Call for further information.

CHADD is a national organization for children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, providing education, advocacy and support for individuals and their families with AD/HD. Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital, 60 Township Line Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027, will host children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder on the First Tuesday of each month 7  8:30 p.m. Free, no childcare provided.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphias Kehillah of Old York Road is sponsoring a free Caregiver Support Group for individuals who care for an elderly person with cognitive and/or physical impairments. The group meets at SarahCare Adult Day Care Center, 101 Washington Lane, Suite G-6, Jenkintown, Pa., on the first Wednesday of each month. Patty Rich,
July 14, 2017

Is Killing "Leaders" Useful Or Not - CentCom Can't Make Up Its Mind

A contrasting juxtaposition in my twitter feed:



bigger

First the U.S. Central Command tweet with this statement by the commander of the U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, General Nicholson:

GENERAL NICHOLSON STATEMENT ON THE KILLING OF THE THIRD ISIS-K EMIR BY U.S. AND AFGHAN FORCES IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS

...

"This operation is another success in our campaign to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017," said Nicholson. "Abu Sayed is the third ISIS-K emir we have killed in the last year and we will continue until they are annihilated. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan." [bold added]

Then the Micah Zenko tweet with this interview with the commander of U.S. Central Command, General Votel. Votel is the direct superior of the above Nicholson:

Q: ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi  dead or alive? And does it matter anymore? Votel: [..] I hope that he is (dead), frankly. [..] That said, we've been doing this long enough to know that leaders are killed and we've killed plenty of them. And that there's always somebody who is going to step up into those positions so we shouldn't think that just killing Baghdadi is the key here. He can be replaced. So in that regard, it may not matter as much. [bold added]

Nicholson says he can win the war against XYZ by killing a bunch of successive XYZ "leaders". Votel rightly says that this is clearly not so. During sixteen years of War of Terror and constant killing of various "emirs" special boilerplate statements were prepared for the typical "victory" announcements. Votel seems to have understood that such killings do not matter. His direct subordinate Nicholson did not. Shouldn't they talk to each other about such issues?

But it may well be that Votel would have sounded very different if his troops had killed Baghdadi and not a Russian(!) air strike.

Posted by b on July 14, 2017 at 21:11 UTC | Permalink

Comments
Morganton native Carrie Stephens will celebrate her graduation from North Carolina State University by traveling to Ghana to help combat global food insecurity.

Stephens, who earned a bachelors degree in animal science, has signed on with AgriCorps, a nonprofit organization which sends young American agriculture professionals into developing countries to share the agricultural education models of the 4-H and Future Farmers of America programs, according to a press release announcing the trip.

She will leave Morganton in August and spend the next 11 months in Ghana, a country on the west coast of Africa, teaching agricultural methods and sharing up-to-date technology with local farmers while teaching and mentoring local 4-H students, inspiring them to become the farmers of the future. It will be her first trip outside the U.S.

I grew up around horses and other livestock and knew I had a passion for animals, Stephens said. When I was 4, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian, but as I got older, (I realized) it wasnt what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I learned of many different career opportunities that you can have with a degree in animal science.

Stephens is the daughter of Brad and Linda Stephens and graduated from Freedom High School in 2013 before attending NCSU, where she heard about the AgriCorps program.

I have always had a passion for wanting to educate people, whether children or adults, Stephens said. AgriCorps gives me the opportunity to teach in an environment where the education is applicable to everyday life and where people genuinely want to learn. Its an education that applies to more than just a career that affects them, but one that can positively impact their entire community, as well as the rest of the world, by being able to more efficiently grow food.

Her instruction will focus on helping farmers yield more out of their efforts through avenues as diverse as record-keeping, irrigation systems, no-till farming, composting and proper feed regimens and housing options for livestock.

The main point she wants to instill in her 4-H students is that becoming a farmer does not mean they will have to live in poverty for the rest of their lives.

(Ill be) helping the students create a business out of agricultural practices they are applying and (teach them) how to more efficiently lead business-type meetings amongst their peers, Stephens said. I want them to know that they, as well as their passions for agriculture, are important.

She believes she will learn as much, if not more, from her experience in Ghana as she teaches.

There are so many aspects of living in Ghana I know I wont understand, even after living there for a year, Stephens said. I hope to learn more about the people there and about their culture. I hope to learn more about myself and the person Im becoming and want to be.

Upon returning to the U.S., Stephens will work as a companion animal sales representative at Elanco Animal Health, a company based in Greenfield, Indiana, which develops healthy and environmentally friendly food and other products for animals. Elanco has an agreement with AgriCorps to employ the organizations fellows, according to the press release, due to their shared goals of feeding a growing and changing world.

Stephens urged people to make themselves more aware of where their food comes from and how food scarcity affects millions of people worldwide.

My biggest challenge to people in our community would be to educate themselves about agriculture, Stephens said. Its important to know the science as well as the emotion that farmers pour into their crops and their animals and how much they do to make sure our community and others have food to eat. The growing pressure on agriculturalists to provide food and the growing media and marketing pressures on society to choose the highest quality products make it hard for us all to work together, but thats what we have to do if we want to truly combat global food insecurity.

I only wholeheartedly devote myself to endeavors that I have faith in, and I have so much faith in the future of AgriCorps and what they are doing for the world. I would encourage anyone reading this article to check out more about AgriCorps at www.agricorps.org or to check out AgriCorps on social media.

Tammie Gercken can be reached at tgercken@morganton.com.
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The H3N2 dog flu has spread to 12 different counties across the state, and Orange County is a hot spot for the illness, according to a top veterinarian at University of Florida.

H3N2 dog flu has spread to 12 counties in Florida

Dogs get canine influenza through direct contact, in the environment

Vaccine does not prevent infection, but does limit severity and duration

RELATED: H3N2 dog flu n Florida: 5 things to know

Dr. Cynda Crawford is an infectious disease specialist who has been tracking canine influenza.

"This infection has now been documented in more than 100 dogs throughout Florida," Crawford said.

The state of Florida does not collect data on dogs diagnosed with H3N2. What data is known is because veterinarians are reporting on their own to the state. But Crawford says the data we do know is likely the tip of the iceberg.

In Orange County alone, Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando and at least one boarding facility has been impacted by H3N2. Other pet facilities have also reported dogs who have H3N2, which means the virus has moved from its original source in Florida, show dogs, into the general dog population.

Pet Alliance allowed dog adoptions again Thursday.

Dogs get canine influenza through direct contact with a sick dog, like when a dog coughs or sneezes. The virus can also survive in the environment for 12 to 24 hours, like kennels and dog parks.

There are two strains of canine influenza -- Crawford helped detect the H3N8 canine influenza in 2004, which originated from horses.

The H3N2 strain, which is endemic in Southeast Asia, first appeared in America in Chicago in 2015. Hundreds of dogs were infected, and Crawford says the illness is still prevalent in Chicago.

Moreover, the virus will probably not go away in Florida any time soon.

"We're going to have these two viruses for a while, and it's going to circulate around the country in very unpredictable ways until we get enough dogs vaccinated to create a barrier," Crawford said.

How the dog flu vaccine works

Socially-active dogs should get the dog flu vaccine, Crawford says. That includes dogs who travel a lot, go to competitions, are boarded, regularly go to groomers or dog parks, or even pet-friendly businesses like PetSmart and Petco.

"It would be wise to get your dogs vaccinated. We have vaccines, we should use them," Crawford said. "You should also capitalize on your awareness of the virus."

The vaccine uses a killed virus, which means it won't make the dogs ill. The vaccine requires two injections, given two to four weeks apart.

But then studies show a dog's best immune response does not occur for another one to two weeks.

"You're looking at three to four weeks of pre-planning in order for your dog to be protected by the virus," Crawford said.

Also, the vaccine does not mean your dog is protected against infection.

"With most of our vaccines, protection means reducing the duration and severity of the disease," Crawford said. "Some dogs won't get infected, but some dogs will. But they won't get as sick, or sick for long."

The vaccine also protects the dog against pneumonia, which is the most dangerous aspect of the illness. If the virus progresses to that stage, it will require a hospital stay and intensive care, which gets expensive.

It also makes the dog's contagious phase much shorter.

Crawford recognizes that not everyone supports vaccinations. She says she tries to understand that point of view, while also providing facts. But she accepts that it's a personal choice.

"Always keep in mind in the forefront, what can I do to keep my dog healthy? What can I do to keep my dog from getting sick in the first place?" Crawford said.

If your dog is not socially active, you're less likely to need the vaccine. But the dog flu is not seasonal, which means eventually your dog may have to be somewhere where they are susceptible.

"If we want it out of the state of Florida, we're going to have to vaccinate a heck of a lot of dogs," Crawford said.

Questions to ask pet businesses

If your dog has to go to a groomer, or you need to board your dog, Crawford has some questions you can ask before bringing your dog in.

Have they had any situations where dogs got sick in their care, particularly a respiratory illness? What vaccines do they require for boarding dogs or grooming dogs as an effort to reduce transmission of infections? What is their policy if a dog in the facility starts having signs of a respiratory infection? What is their policy regarding letting customers know a dog was potentially exposed to a contagious disease? Do they have a veterinarian for the facility that can care for a dog, and steps they take to prevent other dogs from getting sick?

Crawford also says to be especially scrutinous of grooming facilities. A good groomer may have a direct or indirect connection to the show dog world, where the Florida outbreak began.

The University of Florida provides regular updates on canine influenza. Stay up to date with the college's Facebook page.
The revised health care bill to replace Obamacare is out and with it, plenty of reaction from lawmakers.

Florida political leaders speak out about health care bill

RELATED: New GOP health care bill keeps big Medicaid cuts

Unsurprisingly, opinions are split on the Senates newest version, largely along party lines.

"This new GOP healthcare bill is just as bad. If approved, this bill will hurt a lot of Floridians and for that reason alone I will oppose it," Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) tweeted.

However, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), felt differently.

"Some good news for Florida in new Senate Health Care Bill, reallocation of funds leads to big increase in (Disproportionate Share Hospital) money for states like Florida," tweeted Rubio. "However, still need changes to Medicaid per person money. Not fair to punish states that held line on cost by locking them in on lower rate."

The Senate's revised health care bill gives insurers the right to offer less expensive, bare bones policies.

Other changes include more money for opioid treatment and funding to help states lower premiums for high-cost enrollees.

The new bill holds on to a pair of Obamacares taxes towards the wealthy. However, it maintains earlier GOP proposed cuts to Medicaid that could leave 15 million fewer people from having coverage by 2026.

"As before, it aims to stabilize and reform the collapsing insurance markets that have left too many with no options and it aims to make insurance more affordable, said Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

McConnell needs 50 votes for the bill to pass and he can only afford to have two GOP senators defect.

President Donald Trump has pressured lawmakers to approve the bill.

If the Senate passes the bill, it will go back to the U.S. House, where Speaker Paul Ryan has promised to get the bill across the finish line.
Less than two weeks remains in the drive to raise $15,000 necessary for the Contemporary Art Museum of Plainview to get ready for its Grand Opening Exhibition, running Nov. 10-Feb. 10.

The good news is that by mid-day Friday, $9,757 has been raised toward the $15,000 goal.

Kelly Alison explains, A museum should not exist if it cannot get the support of the local community as well. I was really unsure if that would be possible since I have been gone from Plainview for a very long time. In so many ways, it is a whole new world to me.

Amazingly, what is happening is that Plainview, Texas -- both old friends and new  have stepped up to the plate to lend us a hand and offer their support.

I live/lived in Plainview. Growing up in Plainview, I feel more confident than ever now that this could really work here.

Alison is the daughter of Rex and Ethel Ramsower. The contemporary artist along with husband Preston and her two cats have relocated from Houston to be closer to her parents. Kelly is working to transform the Ramsower Furniture warehouse at Sixth and Beech into the Contemporary Art Museum of Plainview in time for Novembers BIG ART in small town grand opening exhibition.

A press release, distributed Thursday, explains: "BIG ART in small town will bring BIG name visual artists from around the state to exhibit their work and to spend opening night in the small West Texas town of Plainview .

Artists will be treated to a Grand Opening Dinner, hosted by the citizens of Plainview, and they will take a tour Caprock Canyons and other local sites.

Exhibiting artists include Joe Barrington, Dandee Warhol, Steven Kraig & Patrick Renner, Sharon Kopriva, Sherry Owens, Daniel Anguilu, Benito Huerta, Ben Tecumseh DeSoto, Katy Anderson, Patrick Medrano, Emily Sloan, Kelly Moran and Emily Peacock.

Bringing the local community and our visiting artists together is the central goal of the exhibition. Lubbock and Amarillo are booming when it comes to contemporary art. The new museum in Plainview will be part of a growing Panhandle Arts region.

The exhibition will consistantly be a regional showcase participating at a statewide level as part of the 2017 Texas Biennial, and will produce both catalog and film documentation.

The international curator Leslie Moody Castro recently included CAMP in her 40-day, 25-city tour across Texas where she visited over 40 organizations and hundreds of artists. She interviewed at CAMP for a live feed for the museum's Kickstarter campaign.

The opening exhibition is sponsored in part by the Community Foundation of West Texas and the Sybil B. Harrington Fund.

Alison notes that the fundraising target of $15,000 is the baseline support need by the museum through the end of 2018.

It is an all or nothing campaign, so the creators are working hard to get further community support, both locally and regionally.

To make a pledge, visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1415474731/big-art-in-small-town-creating-the-contemporaty-ar

CAMP is a nonprofit organization serving the Texas Panhandle and surrounding areas, bringing in a regional New West focus in Contemporary Visual Art. The museum will feature four major exhibitions each year and host regular educational programs serving to connect the community to a larger cultural scene.

The museum will have regular business hours and be free to the public.

Board members include several artists with strong Panhandle connections -- BC Gilbert in Wichita Falls, Jeffrey Wheeler from Slaton now in Splendora, Kathy Kelley who teaches at Texas Tech, Jon Whitfill with the CASP program in Lubbock, and Chloe Rizzo and Chad Holliday who teach at West Texas A&M.

Other board members include collector Joe Diaz and artist Michael Collins; Blair Willson, Plainview Downtown Restoration project; Justin and Heather Mays, founders of Plainview Repertoire Theater; Josiah and Debbie Herrera; and Preston and Kelly Alison.

The museum will start as a private collection and works-on-loan, then transition into an artists-led non-profit organization.
Covenant Health Plainview is proud to welcome Danette Howell as the hospitals new nurse manager of Womens Services.

I love it here: everyone is so friendly. The people here at Covenant Health Plainview are genuinely kind and warm. Everyone has been super, said Howell who started her tenue in Plainview last week.

Before her move to Plainview, Howell worked for both Covenant Health in Lubbock and at the Lamb Healthcare Center in Littlefield.

In Lubbock, the registered nurse worked in several departments including the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and in the Emergency Room.

However, Howell said she mostly favored working in the Labor and Delivery Units.

Womens Services is definitely my passion, said Howell, who explained the department really allows her to enjoy her favorite aspect of nursing, patient advocacy.

Ive always wanted to be a nurse, even from the time I was little. I love the people and making sure they are OK.

With just a week under her belt at Covenant Health Plainview, Howell says she already loves the culture of the community hospital and the work ethic of its staff and physicians.

The staff is wonderful. Ive seen a lot of them go above and beyond to make sure their patients are taken care of. Its a really good team, Howell said.

Howell was born and raised in Littlefield and her and husband, Lelton, have two daughters; Emily, 19, a student at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, and Tucker, 16, a student at Littlefield High School.
LUBBOCK  Dimitrise Lyghts, 23, of Lubbock, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 293 months in federal prison following his guilty plea in March 2017 to one count of sex trafficking of a child related to his pimping a 15-year-old girl in Lubbock, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

In addition, at Fridays sentencing hearing, Judge Cummings ordered that following his custody sentence, Lyghts must serve a 10-year term of supervised release. He must also register as a lifetime sex offender.

Co-defendant Marcelia Sanchez pleaded guilty in November 2016 to one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of a minor. Judge Cummings sentenced Sanchez in February 2017 to 60 months in federal prison.

Make no mistake, the horrific crime of trafficking young girls for sex resides in the dark underbellies of even our best communities, said U.S. Attorney Parker. Together, we can get survivors the help they deserve, and ensure that traffickers who prey on the most vulnerable among us get the sentences they deserve.

According to documents filed in the case, in late May 2016, Lyghts contacted a 15-year-old female, K.M., by phone and by Facebook, suggesting that they could hang out. On June 3, 2016, Lyghts and a friend of his picked up K.M. and another girl at an apartment in Lubbock. Lyghts provided drugs to K.M., and asked her if she would run an ad on Backpage so they could get a hotel room. She agreed to do it once, and Lyghts ran an ad on K.M. in Backpage. Shortly after the ad was run in Backpage, Lyghts arranged with a man who called in response to the ad, for the man to pick up K.M. and take her to a motel in Lubbock. K.M. was picked up, as had been agreed, and went to the motel with the man, where they engaged in sexual intercourse for the payment of a fee.

Between June 3 and June 7, 2016, K.M., with the assistance and direction of Lyghts and Sanchez, was transported and provided for several male customers to engage in commercial sex acts. On several occasions, Lyghts received the payment made for the sex acts performed by K.M. Lyghts also personally drove K.M. to various meetings with men for the purpose of K.M. engaging in commercial sex acts with the men.

Project Safe Childhood (PSC) is a Department of Justice initiative that aims to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children. Led by U.S. Attorneys Offices and the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, tribal and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. These cases include prosecutions of child sex trafficking; sexual abuse of a minor or ward; child pornography offenses; obscene visual representation of the sexual abuse of children; selling or buying of children; and many more statutes. To learn more about PSCs work, visit: https://www.justice.gov/psc.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Lubbock Police Department investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Sucsy was in charge of the prosecution.
A photo of a soldier showing his respect has gone viral and the internet is impressed by his act for a stranger.

RELATED: This is the U.S. Army's new pistol of choice

According to Fox News this week Erin Hester from Vine Grove, Kentucky took a photo a soldier saluting a funeral procession as it drove through that town, just south of Fort Knox.

Hester told a local outlet that she was amazed by the actions of the soldier, considering that most people weren't even stopping and pulling over to let the procession through the intersection. State law says that those processions must have the right-of-way.

The soldier didn't have to get out and salute, especially in the rain.

PREVIOUS: U.S. Army releases harrowing photo of the terrifying last moments of soldiers killed by mortar blast

"It was amazing that he wasn't only respecting the deceased, but also respecting a family that he doesn't even know,"" Hester told a local outlet.

That photo posted on social media platforms Facebook and Instagram was shared over 200,000 times.
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Texas lawmakers have been busy this year.

The legislature, which met for 140 days stretching from January through May, managed to pass a number of new laws that will have a notable impact for Texans, and some that may be a little more niche.

One of the most high profile new regulations concerns texting while driving, which many lawmakers have been attempting to ban for years. On Sept. 1, Texas will become the 47th state to ban the dangerous practice, with a few caveats for mobile phone use.

ALL CLEAR: Feds say Texas' voter ID law no longer discriminatory

A more niche regulation concerns the carrying of bladed weapons in public. Until this session, people were only allowed to carry a blade of less than 5.5 inches, but now swords, machetes and other weapons are fair game.

While the state waits for the legislature to tackle some of the most hot-button issues in special session, take a look at the most impactful laws passed by the legislature this year.
MERIDEN  Cadets at the State Police Training Academy learned rescue techniques from area firefighters as part of a program during American Legion Connecticut State Police Youth Week.



On Sunday, 25 new cadets were welcomed to the program, which is open to 16- and 17-year-old high school students, according to state police. The program is modeled after police recruit training to provide insight into police work.



During the week of training, all recruits participate in a variety of mental and physical challenges including patrol techniques, use of laser speed measuring equipment, accident investigation, emergency vehicle driving, firearms training, and criminal investigation.



On Thursday, Meriden firefighters demonstrated how they extricate people from vehicles after a crash. The firefighters used tools to cut open vehicles to get inside as the cadets looked on.



Youth week concludes on Saturday with a Warriors Path Safety & Survival course, followed by a graduation ceremony.






MERIDEN  A plan to build nine affordable rental units for veterans on Hanover Street is moving forward, pending the closing process with the state Department of Housing.



Maynard Road Corp., the development arm of the Meriden Housing Authority, received $1.65 million in DOH funds last fall to develop nine affordable units earmarked for veterans at 249 Hanover St., between South First and South Second streets where the Hanover House bar once stood. The total cost of the project is estimated at $2.2 million. The housing authority purchased the half-acre lot on Hanover Street from Ennis Property Management for $120,000 in 2010.



MHA Executive Director Robert Cappelletti said Friday the authority is working to close on the project with the DOH.



We expect itll be in the next three months, he wrote in an email.



Daniel Arsenault, a DOH spokesman, said the closing process with the agency is similar to a mortgage closing. Before the $1.65 million is handed over to the housing authority, other sources of funding and local approvals must be in place, he said, adding that it isnt unusual for the process to take an extended period of time.



City Planner Bob Seale said Friday the housing development, called Hanover Place, is expected to receive final approval in the near future from city engineering and utility officials who are assessing where water lines and other utilities will connect.



Once a building permit is issued, the MHA is looking to get started as soon as possible, Seale said.



In 2011, Cappelletti told the Record-Journal that veterans returning from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan would be the ideal tenants for the units.



When Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced funding for the project in 2016, he said the housing will include full supportive services for veteran families with disabilities and special needs in an effort to help those at the greatest risk of homelessness.



Plans call for solar panels and a geothermal heat source.



Its going to look really nice when it is finished, Seale said.



The MHA and Maynard Road Corp. proposed the housing in 2010, but didnt move forward due to the lack of funding. At the time, the development was designed for returning veterans, homeless veterans, and female veterans with children. When it was proposed in 2010, the nine housing units included three two-bedroom apartments and six single bedroom apartments. Seale said plans approved by the Planning Commission at the time havent changed.






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Houston's Linn Energy is changing the name of its pipeline subsidiary from Linn Midstream to Blue Mountain Midstream and starting to build up its Oklahoma asset base.

Linn said Blue Mountain is working with BCCK Engineering to construct the Chisholm Trail Cryogenic Gas Plant to help with the extraction, treatment and processing of gas hydrocarbons in the growing Oklahoma oil and gas shale plays. The project will build on Linn's existing Chisholm Trail gathering and treatment network.
Every time I turn around, cats got they hands out wanting something from me, hip-hop legend DMX lamented in his 2003 hit X Gon Give It To Ya.

I aint got it, so you cant get it, he rapped, lets leave it at that cause I aint with it.

DMX was, of course, talking about his hardscrabble journey to the top of the hip-hop game.

But if federal prosecutors in New York are to be believed, he might as well have been discussing his income taxes.

On Thursday, DMX was charged in a 14-count indictment with concealing millions of dollars in income from the Internal Revenue Service and dodging some $1.7 million in federal tax liabilities.

The 46-year-old rapper, whose given name is Earl Simmons, surrendered to authorities, according to prosecutors.

Its not clear if DMX has retained an attorney. Messages to his publicist and a lawyer who represented him in another matter werent immediately returned.

Known for his guttural voice and confrontational, frequently violent lyrics, DMX made his debut in 1998 with the album Its Dark and Hell Is Hot, featuring the now-classic single Ruff Ryders Anthem. He went on to release six more records and numerous singles. All but two of his albums have been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. He has toured the world playing sold-out concerts and has appeared in more than a dozen films, including the 2014 comedy Top Five directed by comedian Chris Rock.

Prosecutors claim that for several of those years DMX evaded taxes by avoiding personal bank accounts, setting up accounts in other peoples names and maintaining a cash lifestyle to pay for personal expenses. In one instance, he refused to tape a segment for the television show Couples Therapy until he was issued a check for $125,000 that didnt withhold taxes, according to the indictment.

From 2010 through 2015, prosecutors alleged, DMX earned more than $2.3 million, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties from his songs, but did not file income tax returns. He filed a false affidavit in bankruptcy court reporting his income as unknown in 2011 and 2012 and as $10,000 the following year, the indictment says.

The rapper faces counts of tax evasion, failure to file a tax return and corruptly trying to obstruct and impede the administration of IRS laws.

Celebrity rapper or not, all Americans must pay their taxes, Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said in a statement.

The indictment, while serious, is something of a drop in the bucket for DMX, who has been arrested more than a dozen times over the past two decades on charges ranging from animal cruelty to theft to drug possession. He has received multiple prison sentences, including a six-month term in 2015 for failure to pay $400,000 in child support and 90 days in 2010 for a reckless driving charge.

In perhaps his most infamous encounter with the law, DMX in 2004 broke into the parking lot of New Yorks John F. Kennedy Airport with an accomplice and tried to commandeer an SUV, telling the driver he was a federal agent. The Daily Beast recounted what happened next in a profile last year:

DMX then physically removed the driver from his vehicle - while the mans 12-year-old daughter was in the car. Upon his arrest, police found a handgun, nightstick, 20 rocks of crack cocaine, Oxycodone, and Diazepam, and the rapper was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal mischief, driving under the influence, menacing, impersonation, and endangering the welfare of a child. He struck a plea deal where he only ended up serving under six weeks behind bars for violating parole.

The incident in some ways marked the beginning of a gradual fall from stardom over the following decade-plus and foreshadowed some of the darker events that were to come in DMXs life.

In February 2016, after years of legal troubles and dwindling musical output, DMX was found unresponsive by police in a hotel parking lot in his native Yonkers, N.Y. Medics resuscitated him, leading to speculation that he had overdosed on drugs, but his attorney said it was an asthma attack.

In his profile of the rapper, Daily Beast writer Stereo Williams urged sympathy.

X has a long, hard history. And one has to wonder who he has in his corner helping him push forward and making sure hes staying focused on sobriety, Williams wrote. But fans and media would do better by him, and all famous addicts, to not treat him like a spectacle or to treat his behavior and his problems like theyre just part of the troubled artist mythos.
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Robb Ortel, a former regular on the hit Discovery Channel reality show "American Chopper," is hosting a new television series, according to a press release, and one episode is scheduled to be shot in San Antonio today.

So in case you're downtown and wondering why cameras are busy on East Crockett Street near the Alamo and Ripley's Believe it or not, that's why.

When Ortel stopped painting custom bikes on "Chopper," he looked to get his art fix elsewhere. The result, according to the release, is "Art Attack," a high-energy travelogue that showcases extreme art around the country.

RELATED: National TV show focuses on murder of San Antonio journalist's sister

He started the Texas shoot in Blanco on Thursday and will wrap it up today in San Antonio.

The artist in this episode is Scott Wade of Wimberley, who's famous in these parts for inventing an unusual way of expressing his creativity.

Dusty, gritty windshields are the canvases for Wade's "dirty car art." He uses the dirt to create intricate portraits and landscapes.

His temporary art has earned much acclaim and has been hash-tagged by thousands online.

Not many artists have tried to emulate or learn the process because it's so difficult to accomplish.

RELATED: Reality show seeks fun-loving San Antonio students from Mexico

"That's exactly why we reached out to Scott," Ortel said in a statement. "We seek out the most unique and difficult art forms in the world, and I attempt to learn them for the show."

For other planned episodes of "Art Attack," Ortel has leaped from planes to attempt sky diving photography in Arizona and got cut to experience scarification in New Hampshire.

In San Antonio, the release states, Ortel and Wade intend to pay tribute in art to the heroes of the Alamo.

It's still up in the air where on TV the series, produced by New York production company Red Line Studios, will land. A publicist said a network is on board but isn't ready to make an official announcement.

jjakle@express-news.net
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Three burglars were arrested following a bungled heist early Friday at a Northside pawn shop.

Police spotted the burglars about 3 a.m. as they were leaving an EZ Pawn, on North Shepherd near Pinemont, in a white Ford F250. The truck bed was piled high with stolen merchandise including generators, a welding machine and a dirt bike, said Capt. Megan Howard with the Houston Police Department.

Police trailed the burglars for about two miles, until they crashed the Ford into a fire hydrant, said HPD spokesman John Cannon.

The burglars bailed out of the truck in a largely unsuccessful, escape. Officers arrested three suspects at the scene, Howard said.

There may have been a fourth burglar who avoided arrest and is still at large, Howard added.

Police determined the Ford the suspects were driving was stolen.

Police did not immediately release the names of the burglars or a description of the suspect who may still be on the run.
Dear Mr. Premack: I work for someone else as a contractor and have been on the side buying houses and fixing them up for either resale or rental. My cousin wants to get involved and for us to make it a full business for us both instead of just a side business for me. I want to consider it but what legal documents do we need, before we start to make it work in the long run? I am single and have a Medical Power of Attorney the doctor's office gave me and also a handwritten Will. Thank you. FM

Congratulations on your business plan. I cannot speak to the viability or profitability of your new venture, but can give you some guidance about business structure, and insight on how to integrate the new business into your estate plan.

Since this business will involve two owners, you could select a traditional corporate format, a traditional Partnership, or a Limited Liability Company as the business structure. Each has its pros and cons. If you want to limit your personal liability, or if you intend to eventually sell shares to raise money from investors (which you must do carefully to avoid violating state and federal laws) then you may want to use the corporate format. If you want to operate with less formality and simpler taxation, you could select the Partnership format. But if you want the best of both, you would select the Limited Liability Company (LLC) format.

An LLC allows the two of you to own the company, to determine how it will be managed, to divide up gains as they are earned, and to avoid personal liability for the companys troubles. An LLC allows you to avoid double taxation by allowing the companys gains and losses to be reported on your individual tax returns. An LLC does not need a formal board of directors, has no need of officers, and reduces the need for documented business meetings.

On the liability side, the LCCs assets are at risk for any debts or judgements against the company. But any assets that you hold personally  like your savings, investments and home  are protected. If, for instance, the LLC was sued over a contractual dispute and found to be liable, any accounts and resources owned by the LLC are at risk. If it owns a few houses that are used as rental properties, they could be lost. But your own resources outside of the LLC would be safe. (This is one reason that some real estate businesses form several LLCs, each owning just one particular property. If there is a liability, then only that single property is at risk of loss. The others are owned by different LLCs, and are thus sheltered.)

You mention that you are single, have a handwritten Will and a Medical POA from your doctors office. Question: would you trust someone who has never held a hammer to rehab one of your houses? No. So why do you trust yourself, who has no legal training, to prepare a Will that has an effect over each and every asset youve worked hard to acquire? You should work with a professional who will do the work properly.

The Will should be, at least, reviewed by an experienced estate planning attorney. The attorney can help you select the best business format, can help with the legal establishment of the business, and can help you determine what will happened to the new business should you die or become incapacitated. You might consider a Living Trust to own your share of the LLC, and you certainly need a proper financial Durable Power of Attorney. Also, that Medical POA from your doctor is very likely legally inadequate (yes, youd think a doctor would know about such things  but the Medical POA is a legal issue, not a medical issue, so the doctor has no special expertise in the matter).

Consult with experienced legal counsel on your business formation and on your estate planning. You will be well served in the long-run when you and your assets are protected by well-drafted legal instruments.

Paul Premack is a Certified Elder Law Attorney with offices in San Antonio and Seattle, handling Wills and Trusts, Probate, and Business Entity issues. View past legal columns or submit free questions on legal issues via www.TexasEstateandProbate.com or www.Premack.com.
Troy

SeaChange is a social movement whose efforts to stop climate change unfold atop and along the Hudson River. This weekend SeaChangers will be in Troy and Albany.

A crew of artists, musicians and Mohawk tribe members will launch a 10-day voyage down the river. They are scheduled to board a boat near Troy's Farmers Market at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. A Mohawk DJ will provide music on the cruise to Albany where the group will observe air, soil and water pollution problems in the South End and the Hudson River. The crew will stage a theatrical performance that evening. Sunday morning, there will be a riverfront ceremony before SeaChange continues its journey.

It sounds like 24 hours designed to make radio show host and climate change denier Alex Jones shriek but it might otherwise struggle for attention on a summer weekend. But Solar Sal, the solar-powered boat that will transport SeaChange, is a proven crowd magnet. Solar Sal's creator, designer and captain is Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor David Borton, who teaches mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering. SeaChange organizer Kevin Buckland met Borton when the scientist visited a SeaChange event.

SeaChange's ambitious goals also include saving the Hudson River from pollution and "bomb barges." (The latter term is the nickname for vessels that transport volatile Bakken crude through New York via waterways rather than on land by trucks or trains).

"The boat matches perfectly with our goals of using sustainable, renewable energy to save the world from climate change, the defining issue for my generation, millennials," said Buckland, 33, an artist and activist optimistic about inspiring Capital Region residents. "People have heard the science of climate change and a lot of them are still complacent. Emotion and imagination can change ideas and opinions. Music, multimedia storytelling and street theater might resonate with people who never thought about climate change seriously. But we welcome scientists to join us."

And scientists are lending the group a hand.

Borton will pilot the SeaChange members to Albany where they will meet Radix Institute education director Scott Kellogg who earned a master's in environmental science and policy from Johns Hopkins University. The institute is dedicated to pragmatic, green solutions to soil contamination, water shortages and clean energy. The voyage will continue to Kingston and Newburgh.

SeaChange drew interest from locals back in 2014 when it launched a flotilla of handmade paper canoes heavily lacquered until waterproof. It was an homage to Troy's history as a primary maker of paper river boats in the 1870s. Buckland relishes area history. During the interview, he consulted an old map to trace the Mohawks' ancient homelands that encompassed the Hudson River, including Albany and Troy.

"When we launch from Albany onto the rest of the Hudson, we'll participate in a traditional ceremony with Mohawk leaders in which we ask their permission to travel their river," Buckland said.

lyedwards@timesunio-n.com  518-454-5403
Albany

Capital Region Assembly members on Thursday expressed dismay that former Democratic Majority Speaker Sheldon Silver's federal corruption conviction was vacated by an appeals court because of erroneous instructions to the jury.

But they had few easy answers, admitting that a consensus on broad ethics overhauls remains elusive.

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Some, though, noted that after Silver's arrest, followed by the arrest of Senate Leader Dean Skelos, lawmakers adopted stronger rules about disclosure of outside income.

Notably the delegation is relatively new by state Capitol standards with several only in their second or third terms. That means they don't have the long history with Silver that other lawmakers had. Silver was speaker from 1994 until his arrest in 2015. He had been in office since 1976.

Here is what some members of the Capital Region Assembly delegation had to say.

"We have to respect the judicial process but taking it out of the courts and putting it in the court of public opinion means we still have much more to do," said Cohoes Democrat John McDonald. He noted that Silver, while the highest profile case, was one of many lawmakers who have been arrested and convicted on corruption charges in recent years.

Albany Democrat Patricia Fahy predicted that this episode will boost chances that voters in November will say yes to a constitutional referendum to allow judges to take away the pensions of lawmakers convicted of felonies related to their positions,

Currently, lawmakers convicted on corruption charges still get to keep their sometimes-considerable taxpayer funded pensions.

"This gives renewed attention to it," Fahy said of the ballot item. "There's always more to be done," when it comes to tougher ethics laws.

"When you take somebody like this and give them that much power, this is what happens," said Ballston Spa Republican Mary Beth Walsh, a freshman. Minority Republicans have, to no avail, called for term limits on leadership positions, she noted.

"There have been changes made. But have they gone far enough? Clearly not," Round Lake Democrat Carrie Woerner said. She also criticized the Supreme Court's earlier decision in the McDonnell vs United States case that narrowed the definition of official corruption in the case of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonell. "If it looks like a carrot and smells like a carrot and tastes like a carrot, it's probably a carrot," she said.

rkarlin@timesunion.com  518-454-5758  @RickKarlinTU
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STAMFORD  Downtown is about to get a lot more foot traffic from University of Connecticut students.

UConn-Stamford has nearly reached its occupancy goal for the first year of housing as city life draws local students looking to save money and time.

University spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said the downtown campus has filled 275 of the school's projected 290 spots for the new apartments at 900 Washington Blvd. The resident students are about evenly split by gender and more than three-quarters are from Connecticut, she said. Some 50 students are from outside the state and 16 are international.

Nearly 80 percent of the residents will be first-year students, including freshman computer science major Christopher Coney.

Coney, 18, of New Haven, said he applied for housing because commuting to Stamford would be a hassle, and he heard good things about the apartments  even though he missed the building tour.

I saw it on Snapchat, Coney said.

Thirty of the incoming residents were commuters last year, including sophomore business major Tyler Thomas. Thomas, 19, of Westport, said he walked an hour to his train before riding 30 minutes to Stamford for class. His whole day revolved around around the commute.

Thomas said he will save at least $5,000 for the 2017-18 school year living in the UConn residence instead of renting a place in a local building near campus.

According to a UConn-Stamford study conducted in 2015, the average monthly rent in the city for a one-bedroom apartment was $1,900. A standard shared bedroom at UConn would cost about $1,100 monthly  $4,975 per semester  over the roughly nine months of an academic year.

Reitz said UConn received inquiries from students who traveled within Fairfield County and beyond, because they were interested in Stamford's proximity to employers  and by extension internships  in New York City.

Reitz said UConn-Stamford's academic programs are attractive for students looking for housing, particularly digital media and business majors. However, the residence won't be divided into designated learning communities like the ones in Storrs, where the school hosts 19 major-based and interdisciplinary programs.

Reitz said UConn hasn't established if it will add learning communities to Stamford, but Coney said he would be interested in the idea.

If I was in a dorm with people who are also in computer science, that would be great, Coney said.

According to Reitz, all 10 of the resident assistants for the new housing are upperclassmen. Saad Mustafa, 20, is a junior who was denied an RA position. He is a financial management major and volunteer firefighter in Darien who hopes to get housing next year.

It's a great addition to the city of Stamford itself, Mustafa said. And it will really help students in the long run.

UConn will soon post housing assignments and students will move into their new apartments Aug. 26.

Grant Miller is a freelance writer. He can be reached at miller.grantj@gmail.com
Failure to control speed may have caused a single-vehicle crash in north Laredo that killed two locals and critically injured a third one, Laredo police said.

Authorities identified the deceased as Orlando De la Cruz, 24, and Juan Mateo Herrera Jr., 25.
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BRIDGEPORT  Appointed to the school board six months ago, Republican John Weldon has to run to keep his seat in November, and not just against other members of his party, state and city officials agree.

City Attorney R. Christopher Meyer, in an opinion sent Thursday to the Secretary of the States office, said statutes wont allow Weldon to simply fill out the remaining two years of Kevin McSpirits term.

Time is of the essence as the major party endorsements are scheduled to occur in a week, Meyer wrote to Secretary of the State Denise Merrills office.

It didnt take Merrills office long to respond.

We are fine with (the city attorneys) opinion, Tina Prakash, a spokeswoman in the Secretary of the States Office, said Friday afternoon.

State statutes call for the appointment to be limited until the next municipal election. The statutes also do not require the person elected in November 2017 to fill out the remaining two years of the seat to be a Republican.

That means instead of five open board seats in November, there will be six with one seat elected separately from the rest.

The Republican convention is Thursday. Democrats hold their convention July 24.

On Friday, before the Secretary of the States Office weighed in, GOP chairman Mike Garrett said as far as he was concerned, the whole situation was in limbo.

Still, he was proceeding under the assumption his party will put up three candidates for the four-year seats and one for the two-year seat. He is leaving it up to Weldon to decide whether he wants to run with the pack or for the single seat.

For the five-seat race, parties can each put up three candidates. In recent elections, the slate has included not just Democrats and Republicans but the Working Families Party too.

The five candidates with the highest vote totals in that race will win four-year seats on the board.

The current board has nine members, including five Democrats, three Republicans  including Weldon  and one member representing the Working Families Party.

Several incumbents whose terms are up, including Joe Larcheveque, a Republican and the board chairman, have indicated they will not seek re-election in the fall.

Weldon, 45, was the third Ganim school board appointment over the past two years, made after the remaining school board members failed to pick replacements.

His appointment came after two failed runs for a school board seat as an endorsed Republican. He was named secretary of the board less than a month after being appointed.

There is much more work to be done ... and it would be disingenuous for me to not admit that I am interested in doing my part to help carry it through, Weldon said of his intentions to run.

In his short time on the board, Weldon said the panel has been able to retain a new superintendent who he said is very qualified and competent and voted to keep the citys Lighthouse Program open.

Weldon grew up in Bridgeport, lives in Black Rock and is a field contract manager for the Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority in New York City.
The Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority/Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone 10 board approved a contract for improvements to the intersections at West Lake Houston Parkway and Kings Crossing Drive; and West Lake Houston Parkway and Northpark Drive.

After reviewing bids during the board meeting on Thursday, July 13, at the Kingwood Community Center, the board chose Jerdon Enterprise for the project.

This project marks a first for the LHRA.

Until recently, the TIRZ board was unable to enter into a construction project independently of the city of Houston Public Works and Engineering Department. Once the city approved the creation of LHRA, now the LHRA/TIRZ10, the board received the ability to do so autonomously.

"This is the first time that the Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority actually put out a job for bid on our own," said Stan Sarman, chairman of LHRA/TIRZ10.

Rachel Ray-Welsh, with Walter P. Moore, delivered a presentation comparing contractor bids and evaluations, which took into account different criteria, such as proposal price, experience and references.

Jerdon received the highest criteria score and had the lowest bid of the contractors.

Its $1.23 million bid is nearly 16 percent less than the engineer's original estimate.

"The low bid was $1.23 million and our estimate was $1.46 million, so that's a pretty good price," Ray-Welsh said. "I know they're really excited about this opportunity to work out here.

"They do a lot of work downtown. I worked with them before many years ago on other roadway-type projects. They do good work. They have plenty of experience in this type of thing."

According to a timeline from Walter P. Moore, the W. Lake Houston Parkway intersection improvements construction start date is projected for Monday, Aug. 28. The project is expected to reach substantial completion by Tuesday, Dec. 26, with a final completion date of Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018.

The West Lake Houston Parkway at Northpark Drive improvements include adding eastbound and southbound right turn lanes, reducing the intersection's west median, realigning the street right-of-way and extending the northbound left turn bays.

The improvements for West Lake Houston Parkway at Kings Crossing Drive include adding a westbound right turn lane, new ramps and sidewalk on the east median, and sidewalk markings and curb ramps.

Sarman said once the project is underway, LHRA/TIRZ10 will coordinate with the city of Houston District E office to disseminate important project notifications to the public.
One of the more memorable presentations that I attended during the time I worked for an international corporation was a lunch-and-learn on work-life balance. The top 50 senior executives of the company were giving the same PowerPoint presentation in meeting rooms across the organization. The executive vice-president for our region (male, early 60s, who had worked for the company for more than 35 years) slogged his way through the prepared slide pack that he had been presenting all week. He punctiliously read the bullet points to a disengaged crowd of predominantly young graduates who were munching sandwiches and discreetly checking messages on their handhelds.

Related: Here's What Work-Life Balance Means to These 20 Founders

The memorable bit had nothing to do with the predictable content; it was when we got to a slide which depicted work-life balance as the state of equilibrium between the demands of work versus the right for an employee to have a satisfying personal life outside of the business environment. A hand shot up and a young 20-something audience member interrupted his flow with this question. What if your work gives you so much satisfaction that it is part of who you are? He looked at her blankly. Im with you there, somebody else piped up. Sometimes I get all my best ideas at two in the morning. What's to stop me working on the project and coming into the office a bit later? The audience stirred. And then the killer question came from somewhere at the back. "If you believe so much in work-life balance, why did you hold this business presentation during my lunch break? The C-suite executive looked dourly at the congregation and said, I'll be taking questions at the end and clicked the next slide. That killed that.

The short flurry of questions, and the attitude in which they were dealt with, revealed some intriguing incongruences around the nature of work-life balance that was clearly felt in the room, but notably absent from the slide pack.

1. Function versus meaning.

The presentation was treating work-life-balance as an algorithm for contracted hours, policies and the consequences for work productivity for those unable to switch off. In strictly functional terms, work-life balance is an issue of scheduling -- one where workers unplug from work and plug into life. The new generation of workers tend to view this as a false dichotomy where work is not seen as a quantifiable measure, but a meaningful life choice. Dave Ulrich, professor of business at the University of Michigan, said in an interview with the Bangkok Post, that for this demographic, Work is not just about performing tasks, but about finding meaning. It seems they want to have a life-work, not work-life, experience -- a state of flow as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls it -- where borders dissolve, and they become so absorbed in their work that it defines their very being.

2. Baby boomer presentism versus millennial flexibility.

Our presenter was part of the baby boomer generation, 1946-1964. The oldest of the 79 million baby boomers reached 65 in 2011, and the youngest will get there by 2029, meaning that this generation's leadership era will continue into the 2030s. This post-war generation are quintessential workaholics, tending to put their careers before their family and believing in workplace structure, visibility and hard work. This goes some way toward explaining the mixed messages on work-life-balance that you tend to get from a baby boomer boss. They are loyal to their company and will present the corporate line on work-life balance, but in the back of their minds, they are most likely thinking that a bit of hard work and sacrifice never harmed anybody.

Related: How Millennials Are Unlocking the New World of Work

Millennials, on the other hand, tend to focus on output rather than input. They seem to have a better understanding of their productivity cycle and don't feel they should be chained to the desk. They are more likely to connect with global colleagues at unsociable hours and do all-nighters to complete projects. But in return, they want flexibility and time off during core working hours to catch up with their lives. If baby boomers believe in presentism, millennials want to be trusted to make up their own hours, work to their productivity cycle and take time off in lieu of compensation for the hours they put in outside of the formal 9-5 structure. This often puts them in in conflict with baby boomers who see millennials as the slacker generation.

3. Self versus other.

Another unvoiced question in these presentations is where should the scale tip in this complex balancing act between organization and employee? The lunch-and-learn presentation seemed to suggest that work-life balance is something employees need to figure out. Germany and France see things differently and regulate work-life balance at the company, or even the national level, forcing employees to switch off. In 2011, Volkswagen deactivated emails available on Blackberry devices 30 minutes after an employees shift ended to give staff a complete break. BMW, Puma and the German Labor Ministry followed suit. Earlier this year, a French employment law came into being stating that workers have the right to disconnect. Not surprisingly, both countries are featured in the "Top 10 Better Life Countries for Work-Life Balance" in the OECD Better Life Index.

It begs the question, how much is work-life balance a means of control where life comes at the cost of embracing fixed work patterns? Don't put the quality of your life in the hands of a commercial corporation, cautions author Nigel Marsh in his TED talk How to Make Work-Life Balance Work. He reasons that we should be setting the boundaries of our own life. Lizzie Penny, writing in the The Guardian, views work-life balance in terms of corporate imprisonment. "Large organizations embrace a fixed regime of regimented hours and a single office space because it enables them to retain control over their workforce. Big businesses that allow employees to work from home on Wednesdays, leave early on a Friday, or work a four-day week are not offering true flexibility, they are merely extending the leash.

Related: Habits Are Hard to Break and Checking Email Is No Exception

Toward a better fit. Six strategies for making work-life balance work.

Clearly there is an issue with people working long work hours. The aforementioned OECD Better Life Index shows that at least three of the G7 countries, the United States, U.K. and Japan, all work long hours. The direct consequences of this always on culture was outlined in a recent study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience showing that people who can't detach themselves from work are more at risk for negative health issues and have an increased risk of disease. The all-too-often solution of giving generic PowerPoint presentations telling employees that they need to do a better job in segregating work from life simply throws up other deeper dichotomies around meaning, generational difference and organizational responsibility and control.

The next time the issue of work-life balance crops up on the leadership team agenda, take a more systemic approach by focusing on these six strategic approaches for making work-life balance work:

Ditch the generic presentations, and encourage an honest and open dialogue with employees about hitting the right balance between organizational needs and an individual's health, cycle of productivity, meaning and family. Focus on finding a work-life fit. Give your employees genuine choice to work to their productivity cycle and not a binary predefined either/or formula. Judge employees on output not input. Review the covert operant conditioning in your organization that rewards and promotes presentism, perfectionism and hyperconnectivity. Stop making work-life balance a way out for bad leaders. If a supervisor in the organization expects employees to work unreasonable hours, then don't call this a work-life balance issue. Call it what it is -- lousy leadership. Avoid hypocrisy. Don't tell staff how much you care about their welfare whilst increasing workloads and dispatching emails at unsociable hours encouraging hyperconnectivity.

Related:

3 Aspects of Work-Life-Balance You Won't Find in Company Presentations

You're More Likely to Succeed If You Enjoy the Process

Check Out the Airbnb Camping Experience for Owners and Their Dogs



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This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


Entrepreneurs have to be a bottomless pit of creativity, dont they? Not only do we have to dream up big ideas, we also have to innovate new ways of executing them. And the sheer number of hours it takes to build a successful business can also lead to creative burnout, which is, of course, counterintuitive.

Creativity is a process that you cant force, says Molly Reynolds, cofounder and host of The Unicorn in the Room. You have to know its a process and respect that process. But there are certainly some ways to set yourself up for success.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Reynolds was a professional musical theatre actor and continues to study dance and fine art in her spare time. Her love of the creative process spurred the creation of The Unicorn in the Room, an online resource for entrepreneurs.

Related: You Can Boost Your Creativity by Imagining You're Someone Else

Having interviewed business icons, such as Arianna Huffington and John Paul Dejoria, as well as top executives from GE, PwC, Forbes, Chobani and Heineken, Reynolds has identified these key ways to top business minds stay creative. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Buy an alarm clock.

Rest is a crucial part of the creative process and as Arianna Huffington will tell you, keeping your cell phone next to your bed while you sleep is a bad thing. According to a study by Pew Research Center, 44 percent of cellphone owners keep their favorite handheld next to them as they sleep to make sure they dont miss an important call. But this is an extremely unhealthy habit to get into.

So many people tell me theyve got creative burnout, and almost all of them check their emails before they go to bed, first thing when they wake up, and yes, even in the middle of the night, says Reynolds. I used to do it too and the longer term effects are never good.

Cellphones, TVs, tablets and other gadgets with LED screens all emit blue light that can inhibit our production of the sleep-inducing hormone, melatonin. The blue light can also trick our bodies into thinking that its daylight and interfere with our sleep cycles. Worse than that? An overheating cellphone in your bed could even set your pillow on fire!

People will use the excuse that they need their phone as an alarm clock. Newsflash: you can buy an alarm clock that is not a smartphone. Avoid bouts of insomnia and house fires by keeping your cell phone out of your bedroom.

2. Get a variety of perspectives.

Do you know why The Challenger mission failed? Lack of diverse thinking. While many reports have placed the blame on technical fault and cold weather, others suggest that the disaster could have been avoided. The engineering team was used to receiving orders from the top down. Despite being aware of the potential dangers, they went ahead and cleared the spacecraft for launch. The management team at NASA simply would not allow room for different perspectives or opinions.

GE is a company that is more than 100 years old, and the executives there are still learning so that they can continue innovating. In fact, they hold leadership summits, where they invite in a wide variety of companies and share their best practices. With a culture of constant learning, GE wanted to see what they could learn from Silicon Valley culture. So, they partnered with author of The Lean Startup, Eric Ries, to see how they could build innovation and fast work into their company core. Being open to change and new ideas is essential for companies to remain competitive and creative in shifting environments.

Related: 4 Ways Creativity Is Killing Your Viable Business Ideas

3. Travel.

Theres nothing like taking a timeout to get your creative juices flowing. Travel broadens the mind and exposes you to new and unfamiliar situations. You get to sample local cuisine,find out about different cultures and maybe even learn a language. All these experiences translate into enhanced problem solving skills and the ability to think creatively on your feet.

You might think that taking a sabbatical year to study Spanish in Barcelona or backpack around Southeast Asia is just an excuse for a time off. But there can be surprising benefits from taking yourself outside of your situation. It might even become the catalyst for new success. Winston Chen decided to invent an app, just to have some fun while he was traveling. It turned out to be the start of his new career and company, voice-based mobile app, Voice Dream.

4. Step away from the desk.

Getting a Fitbit actually made me a better problem solver, Reynolds says. Before, Id sit at my desk for hours trying to figure something out, but the thing buzzes me and makes me take a break to walk. Inevitably, as Im walking, I figure out the problem more quickly.

Do you know one of the least inspirational places for people to come up with creative solutions? The meeting room! Thats because we often need to get up and mobilize our bodies to get unblock our creativity. Steve Jobs was well known for his walking meetings, and Mark Zuckerberg reportedly likes to meet standing up as well.

Theres actually some science to back this up. Researchers at Stanford revealed that bursts of walking, whether indoors or outdoors, can help to boost our creative inspiration. So, when you come up against a case of writers block, or you simply feel like youre staring into an abyss instead of your computer screen, get up and get moving!

5. Draw your strategy.

Thats right, draw your strategy. Dont write it. This will cause your mind to think differently, which is a great way to shake up creativity. Expert on visual thinking, Dan Roam, worked as a consultant for some of the worlds largest companies, including Google, Sun Microsystems and eBay. He believes that one of the best ways to help people solve problems and contribute new ideas is by drawing them out. In an interview with Business Insider, he said taking advantage of our innate ability to see -- both with our eyes and with our minds eye -- in order to discover ideas that are otherwise invisible, develop those ideas quickly and intuitively, and then share those ideas with other people in a way they simply get.

Get vulnerable.

Lastly, says Reynolds, if youre really committed to improving your creative mind in every one of these five steps, you need to allow yourself to get vulnerable. Take a class that you would never think of taking, charcoal drawing, samurai sword fighting, tap dancing, whatever! You might feel ridiculous at first, and thats a good thing. Having that vulnerability will remind you that you dont have all of the answers and need to be open.

Related: 5 Things I Did Before I Completely Burned Out

According to David Brendel, of the Harvard Business Review, vulnerability can actually make you stronger. Things like apologizing for errors, admitting when youre wrong, or seeking help from others can all make you a better leader. When you allow yourself to be in a position where youre learning something new, you leave yourself vulnerable to criticism and failure. Yet this learning process is all part of improving your creative mind and ongoing education.

So, watch your sleeping habits, and make sure you take breaks from your desk to leave room for inspiration to come through. Be open to travel, culture and new ideas, as well as using visual thinking. Do all that with a dose of vulnerability and an enquiring mind, and youll give yourself the innovation makeover you desperately seek.

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This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


The Woodlands resident Melanie Bush, who owns her own bookkeeping business, said she has enjoyed her time as a Conroe Independent School board trustee, but the Montgomery County's financial state has given her reason to challenge County Treasurer Stephanne Davenport in the March 2018 Republican primary.

Davenport was appointed treasurer in 2013 by Commissioners Court and ran unopposed in 2014.

Bush, who confirmed her intention to run to The Courier Thursday, says plainly "the Treasurer's Office needs help." Bush said her desire to run is not personal but rather about the duty of the office and what's right for the taxpayers. Treasurer's offices in Texas counties have the responsibilities of receiving and disbursing funds and accounting for money in the county's possession.

"We need to evaluate the entire financial state of the county and how things are being run," Bush said.

In an exclusive interview with The Courier, Bush addressed a Courier editorial suggesting voters should be allowed to decide whether to keep or eliminate the county Treasurer's Office, as has been done in a handful of other Texas counties and the state Treasurer's Office. In all of those constitutional amendment elections, voters eliminated the position, including at the state level.

"I don't know that we need to do that at this point, but I can't say it is off the table," said Bush, adding she would need to get in office and evaluate how it is operating before supporting the elimination of the department.

The Treasurer's Office, she said, is not fee-producing, making low overhead critical.

"It should be as efficient as possible to be as cost-effective as possible," she said. "I believe we should make as many cuts as we can to be as efficient as possible."

While the political climate in Montgomery County has continued to become more divided, Bush said she hopes by running a positive campaign, she can avoid that in the treasurer's race.

"It doesn't change how I run for the seat," said Bush, who was elected to the Conroe ISD board in November 2014. "I will run a positive campaign based solely on why I am the best person for the position. We are looking for a political climate that isn't so contentious, so caustic.

"One of my biggest challenges is seeing that happen. I really don't like candidates constantly attacking others. I refused to do that in my previous race and I will not do that in this race."

Bush said because Montgomery County has grown so large, residents need to elect those who are qualified for the position and have experience.

"Voters need to look at this as a job interview and who they want to hire and not based on who has done it before, not based on any alliances they have in the political world," she said. "The county needs to be run like a business."

For Bush, she said now is the time for the county to come together for the good of residents and the future generations.

As for qualifications, Bush said her more than 15 years as a bookkeeper makes her the right choice for treasurer. Bush opened The Woodlands-based Better Bookkeepers in 2010.

Bush and her husband Alan, who is an attorney, have two daughters.

Davenport could not be reached for comment. But according to her Facebook page Stephanne Davenport Moontgomery County Treasurer, she was appointed as treasurer in 2013. She was twice named Montgomery County's Employee of the Month and in 2011 was also named as Montgomery County's Employee of the Year.

Davenport is active in the community and is a founding board member and executive secretary for the Montgomery County Association of Business Women. Davenport was named a recipient of Montgomery County Women's Council of Organizations "Women of Distinction" award for 2013, an honor based on volunteerism and service to the community. She is active with Montgomery County Young Republicans and the Montgomery County Republican Party.
President Donald Trump received his first official estimate on Thursday of how his proposals would affect the economy. The results were mediocre -- especially compared to the numbers for President Barack Obama while he was in office.

Trump's proposals so far would only add about 0.1 percentage points to growth in gross domestic product, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). That would increase the pace of GDP growth to just 1.9 percent a year, much slower than the 3 percent administration officials have promised.

After a decade, GDP would only be about 0.7 percent greater if Trump's proposals were enacted, CBO predicted. Obama's plans would have expanded GDP by substantially more. For instance, the budget he put forward in 2014 would have increased GDP by 2.1 percent after a decade, CBO said at the time.

There are two main reasons for the discrepancy between the forecasts for Trump's and Obama's proposals. The first is that Obama's plans would have reformed the immigration system, which would have resulted in more people living and working in the United States.

In other words, the main reason that the economy would be expanded by Obama's proposals is simply that with a larger population, the country would have more economic activity. CBO's analysis did not investigate the question of whether workers already in the country would be better off -- a point of debate among experts.

Research generally shows that immigration increases wages for most native workers, but some economists argue that immigration brings down earnings for those who are already in the country and who lack skills or education. These are the workers who must compete the most directly with new immigrants if they are also less skilled, and CBO did not go into this level of detail in its studies of Obama's budgets.

Putting aside these questions over the benefits of immigration, Trump's proposals are difficult to evaluate because they are, so far, described only in relatively vague terms. CBO said in the forecast it issued Thursday that the Trump administration has not put forward plans that are detailed enough for the agency to analyze their economic benefits.

Above all, Trump has not put out a plan for overhauling the tax system, despite the White House's promises to deliver the greatest tax cut in U.S. history. A change in taxes could have major economic consequences, but because of the Trump administration's unusual slowness in developing complete proposals on taxes and other major issues, CBO is not giving the president credit on his economic agenda.

Under Obama, CBO put out separate reports analyzing the effects of the president's budgets on the economy. CBO staff have indicated that they will not do the same for Trump's first budget due to the lack of detail.

For many Americans, the most important consequences of Trump's proposals would not relate to GDP or the state of the economy overall. The administration's budget calls for bringing down spending on public assistance, including a $1.9 trillion cut in health-care benefits over a decade, CBO said. The document also contains a reduction of $238 billion in food stamps and other programs for those in need.
New Jersey Transit is using a record $505 million earmarked for maintenance and other capital improvements to plug a hole in its operating budget through mid-2018, continuing the years-long practice of raiding that fund to pay for day-to-day expenses.

Even though the commuter rail system has been dogged by delays and crowding, the agency increasingly has raided an account intended for upkeep and upgrades. Of the total $7.6 billion tapped by Democratic and Republican administrations since 1990, two-term Republican Gov. Chris Christie has shifted $3.4 billion, or 45 percent.

New Jersey lawmakers conducting public hearings into the railroad's safety and operations have criticized the use of those funds, saying it shows that the agency needs a more generous and guaranteed state subsidy. Christie, who is term-limited and will leave office in January, has twice raised fares and repeatedly dipped into the capital fund to close budget deficits. This year's figure was 26 percent higher than last year and 9 percent bigger than the previous record.

Nancy Snyder, a New Jersey Transit spokeswoman, said that even after the transfer, more than $500 million will be spent on repairs and maintenance to trains, buses and light-rail cars. The latest capital-to-operating shift "is still under the historical average of approximately 23 percent of our operating budget," Snyder said in an email.

The transfer comes as New Jersey Transit commuters, most with jobs in New York City, navigate eight weeks of maintenance at Manhattan's Pennsylvania Station. Work being done by the station's owner, Amtrak, has caused Midtown direct trains to be canceled on the Morris-Essex route, which serves about 35,000 riders every weekday. Though the first week has run relatively smoothly, thanks to supplemental buses and ferries, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has told riders to expect "the summer of hell."

In September, New Jersey Transit had its first fatality in two decades when a train crashed into a barrier in Hoboken, killing a woman on the platform and injuring more than 100 passengers. In April, as Christie was faulting Amtrak's maintenance of Pennsylvania Station in the wake of two derailments, federal records showed New Jersey Transit had 67 outstanding violation citations, some documenting serious equipment defects.
WASHINGTON - The challenge for President Donald Trump's legal team has become, at its core, managing the unmanageable - their client.

He won't follow instructions. After one meeting in which they urged Trump to steer clear of a certain topic, they had not yet arrived back at their office when he had sent a tweet on that very theme.

He won't compartmentalize. With aides, advisers and friends breezing in and out of the Oval Office, it is not uncommon for the president to suddenly turn the conversation to Russia - the topic that perpetually gnaws at him - in a meeting about something else entirely.

And he won't discipline himself. Trump's lawyers, led by New York attorney Marc Kasowitz, are laboring to underscore the potential risk to the president if he engages without a lawyer present in discussions with other people under scrutiny in the widening Russia probes, including Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser.

Nearly two months after Trump first retained outside counsel to represent him in the investigations of alleged Russian meddling in the election, both his and Kushner's legal teams are struggling to enforce traditional legal boundaries to protect their clients, according to a half dozen people with knowledge of the internal dynamics and ongoing interactions, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about a sensitive matter.

Compounding the challenges have been tensions between Trump and Kushner's legal teams in a frenzied, siege-like environment. Senior White House officials are increasingly reluctant to discuss the issue internally or publicly and worry about overhearing sensitive conversations for fear of legal exposure.

"Stuff is moving fast and furious," said one person familiar with the work of the legal teams. "The tensions are just the tensions that would normally exist between two groups of lawyers starting to work together and struggling with facts that we don't all know yet."

A third faction could complicate the dynamic further. Trump's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., hired his own criminal defense attorney this week amid disclosures that he met with a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin whom he believed could provide incriminating information on Hillary Clinton during the campaign. Trump Jr. also is considering hiring his own outside public relations team.

In remarks to reporters on Air Force One before his arrival in Paris on Thursday, Trump defended his son as "a good boy" who had done nothing wrong and suggested he would support Trump Jr. testifying about the case "if he wants to."

As in Trump's West Wing, lawyers on the outside teams have been deeply distrustful of one another and suspicious of each other's motivations. They also are engaged in a circular firing squad of private speculation over who might have disclosed information about Trump Jr.'s meeting with the Russian lawyer to The New York Times, according to people familiar with the situation.

Michael Bowe, a partner at Kasowitz's firm and a member of Trump's legal team, said the lawyers are collaborating effectively. "The legal teams have worked together smoothly and professionally from the start," he said.

Another question is who will pay the growing legal fees for the president and administration officials caught up in the Russia inquiries. Some in Trump's orbit are pushing the Republican National Committee to bear the costs, according to three people with knowledge of the situation, including one who euphemistically described the debate as a "robust discussion."

Though the RNC does a have a legal defense fund, it well predates the Russia investigation and is intended to be used for assisting with legal challenges facing the Republican Party, such as a potential election recount.

The RNC has not made a final decision, in part because the committee is still researching whether the funds could legally be used to help pay legal costs related to Russia. But many within the organization are resisting the effort, believing it would be more appropriate to create a separate legal defense fund for the case.

RNC officials declined requests for comment. The White House has not said whether Trump, Kushner and other officials are personally paying their legal bills or if they are being covered by an outside entity.

Those retained by the parties involved include Kasowitz, Bowe and Jay Sekulow for Trump; Jamie Gorelick and Abbe Lowell for Kushner; and Alan Futerfas for Trump Jr.

Trump has been irritated with Kasowitz, which the Times first reported this week. The two men have known each other for decades and both are hard-charging, prideful and brash.

But people briefed on the evolving relationship said Trump has made Kasowitz absorb his fury about the Russia probe - in keeping with how the president treats his White House staff, quick to assign blame to aides when things go awry.

The lawyers now find themselves in the challenging position of trying to force change on Trump, 71, who throughout his life has often thrived amid free-wheeling chaos. He made his name as a flamboyant Manhattan developer, trafficking in hyperbole and mistruth - or "puffery," as one former aide put it - while exhibiting little discretion in his daily conversations. For Trump, this was a formula for success.

"There's no question that Donald Trump has lied flagrantly and almost pathologically his entire life," said Timothy O'Brien, author of the Trump biography, "TrumpNation," and a Bloomberg View columnist. "For good parts of his life, he's been insulated from the consequences of doing that."

Trump is now the highest elected official in the nation, and with that outsized perch comes potentially outsized consequences. His legal team is trying to impress upon him and those in his orbit that there could be severe ramifications for lying to federal investigators or congressional committees.

O'Brien said, "He is now in a completely different world, and it's a world unlike any he's ever existed in before - both in terms of the sophistication and honesty that's required of him to do his job well, and most especially the Titanic legal and reputational consequences of Donald Trump continuing to be the same old Donald Trump."

The president, however, believes he has done nothing wrong and is the target of what he repeatedly has called "a witch hunt." His instinct, those close to him have said, is to trust his gut and punch back.

Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser, said Trump isn't used to losing and "he never stops fighting. That's what life has taught him. In Washington, politics is a full-contact sport and it's certainly tougher than having it out with a magazine. It's a new arena for him and he's treating it like every arena he's ever been in. He may be right, but it's messy."

During last year's campaign, Bennett recalled, "Do you know how many times people came to him and said, 'That was lethal, you're never going to survive it?' Every time, he survived. When somebody tells him he can't do something, he's at a minimum circumspect."

When it comes to Twitter, however, the president is hardly circumspect. His political advisers have long urged him to restrain his first impulses on social media and to think twice before tweeting - and now, his lawyers are asking the same.

Still, the president persists.

"It's my voice,'' Trump said in a recent interview with The New York Times Magazine. ''They want to take away my voice. They're not going to take away my social media.''

---

The Washington Post's Robert Costa, Rosalind S. Helderman and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.
A former administrator for several Bexar County Emergency Services Districts is accused of stealing at least $30,000 in government funds.

Gilbert Muniz Perez, 61, was indicted by a grand jury on three counts including misapplication of fiduciary property, theft by public servant, and abuse of official capacity, all between $30,000 and $150,000, according to court records. All are third-degree felonies.

The ESDs are agencies that provide fire and medical response to unincorporated parts of Bexar County.

The Texas Rangers said in multiple search warrants for Perez that he was an administrator for ESDs 1, 2, 10, 11, and 12. He was also a former board president for ESDs 4 and 8.

During Perezs time as president of District 2, an employee filed complaints about his lack of financial documentation and supervision.

Investigators discovered that some expenses such as mileage, meals, and office supplies were in excess and lacked supporting documents, the search warrants state.

Approximately 394 checks were found to be out of sequence for ESDs 10, 11, and 12 in 2015, according to the warrants.

Investigators noted that breaks in sequencing are typically a red flag indicator of concealing misappropriated payments.

Bexar County Precinct 3 Commissioner Kevin Wolff said although Perez was indicted two years after his alleged thefts were discovered, similar types of abuse are bound to happen with a lack of oversight for the districts.

This has been a struggle and nightmare of mine since I got on the court, Wolff said. Because when I looked at how ESDs are managed, its scary.

Wolff said the ESDs are property-taxing entities that can also be sales taxing entities with almost complete autonomy and no oversight.

The closest thing to oversight is that the Commissioners Court appoints board members, he said. Hopefully, they do what they need to do.

The Bexar County Fire Marshal previously created a standard policy and procedures manual for the ESDs to follow in their operation.

It's not something we can make them use but we thought it would be a good idea to make it as a resource, Wolff said.

Perez, who was indicted on July 10, was released from jail after posting $15,000 bail Wednesday hours, after he was booked on a warrant for misapplication of fiduciary property or property of financial institution.
A Canadian man has been arrested in Texas after he shared details of him killing his girlfriend on Reddit.

Ager Hasan, 24, from Hamilton, Ontario, was apprehended Tuesday in San Antonio during a traffic stop on a second-degree murder warrant issued jointly by the U.S. and Canada.

Hasan's 22-year-old girlfriend, Melinda Vasilije, was found dead in her apartment from multiple stab wounds at 3 a.m. April 28, Waterloo Regional Police said.

Just hours after killing her, Hasan crossed over into the U.S., police said. He was captured on security video putting Pennsylvania plates on his vehicle that he took from another vehicle in a Walmart parking lot.

RELATED STORY: Mental health in question for mother accused of fatally stabbing 4-year-old

Four days later, Hasan allegedly took to Reddit to recount his relationship and what led to him killing his girlfriend, said Cherri Greeno, media relations coordinator for Waterloo Regional Police Service.

"I go up to her to try and give her a hug, almost out no where she grabs a knife by the sink," Hasan allegedly wrote under his Reddit username Redasblue101 in a now-deleted post. "Initially I thought was just going to hold it to try and tell me to leave. She doesn't. She comes at me in full force, aiming towards my face. I tell her to stop. She doesn't, I tried grabbing the knife but ended up cutting my hands. After a few cuts I lost it. I freaked out, I was scared and in a state of shock. Never in a hundred years did I think she would use a knife against me. Out of shock and fear I grab one. I hit her with it, almost blindly. A few times. I didn't know what happened."

RELATED STORY: Pasadena police release video in fatal stabbing at apartment complex

Hasan goes on to write about how shocked he was about what happened. He thought she had just passed out. Then he saw "the blood, and started freaking out and just ran."

"She was with me the most, we were each other's best friends, she would tell me everything. Her deepest secrets that not even her friends or family knows. The amount of regret and sadness is beyond words," Hasan wrote.

On Sunday, Hasan also allegedly posted two photos on Instagram. One photo appeared to show him with Vasilije and the other showed a nondescript man sitting in a dark room with the caption, "I'm coming home. It's time to end the dark path I've been traveling and give people the closure they deserve."
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Mayor Ron Nirenberg announced Friday that hes hired a well-known civil rights attorney to be his chief of policy in a final round of staff appointments to his nascent administration.

Marisa Bono, Southwest regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, is expected to take on her new role as policy chief for Nirenberg in August. Shes currently trying a school-finance case in New Mexico.

As Nirenbergs adviser, she will oversee issues including public safety, housing, transportation and ethics reform.

RELATED: Nirenberg announces new staff

Marisa brings invaluable expertise, and understands the importance of public service and working on the behalf of those in need, Nirenberg said in a news release. She will be instrumental in helping us focus on solutions that will improve the lives of all San Antonians.

Bono, the daughter of a former San Antonio city manager and a social worker, has tried major cases in educational equity, immigration and political access, according to the citys news release.

State Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, met Bono when the two both attended law school at the University of Michigan. They were both known as champions of the Alamo City and as would-be lawyers who had burning desires to return to San Antonio instead of going with their classmates to major firms on the East and West coasts, Bernal said.

First of all, shes brilliant. And shes principled and shes absolutely fearless, Bernal said. And like many of us, she has to operate in a variety of different worlds. And she does it all really well.

In her work at MALDEF, Bono has fought for people harmed by bad policy and offered solutions to make policy better, Bernal continued. Shell be able to help Nirenbergs aggressive agenda by working to ensure city policy positively affects the most people here in the most meaningful way, he said.

She is not at all interested in cosmetic media wins. Shes not at all interested in symbolic wins, Bernal said. Shes laser-focused on making sure people are not only well-served but also protected and insulated from unintended consequences and dont become collateral damage.

Thomas Saenz, the president and general counsel of MALDEF, lamented the loss of Bono but applauded her hiring by Nirenberg.

At MALDEF, we are sorry to lose Marisa Bono as the leader of our regional office, but we know that she will accomplish great things for San Antonio, he said in the news release. Congratulations to Mayor Nirenberg for selecting such a well-qualified, strong, smart and energetic policy chief. We look forward to working with Marisa in her new capacity.

On Friday, Nirenberg also announced four other appointments. Victoria Gonzalez, whod worked at the Golden Steves & Gordon law firm, will become senior policy adviser. Shes a land use expert who will focus on the implementation of SA Tomorrow, affordable housing policies, and economic development, the release said.

Sarah McLornan, whod worked as director of constituent services under then-Mayor Julian Castro, will join Nirenbergs staff with the same role, in addition to senior policy adviser. Nirenberg also named Jackie Bolds and Alice Aguirre as executive assistants in his administration.

The new staffers will work under Chief of Staff Trey Jacobson, Nirenbergs first hire. The administration previously announced the appointments of former San Antonio Express-News Editorial Page Editor Bruce Davidson, who is now chief of communications; Maria Cesar, a senior policy adviser who also previously worked at the Express-News; and Juany Torres, a senior policy adviser and director of community engagement.

jbaugh@express-news.net

Twitter: @jbaugh
The state legislator who chaired the 2013 congressional redistricting panel Friday defended the process as legal, but invoked legislative privilege to deflect some questions.

Under cross-examination by civil rights groups, Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, resorted to the privilege  specified in the U.S. and 40 state constitutions  that is intended to shield legislators from threats of judicial or executive intervention.

Minority groups are trying to convince a three-judge panel  Judges Orlando Garcia and Xavier Rodriguez, both of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, and Judge Jerry E. Smith of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals  that the GOP-controlled Legislature implemented the 2013 congressional and state House maps with intent to discriminate by race. The trial is being held in San Antonio.

The plaintiffs argue that the 2013 maps should be invalidated because they include portions of the 2011 maps that the same judicial panel this spring found to be in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because they were drawn with discriminatory intent and diluted the minority vote.

But attorneys for the state argue theres no evidence that Texas legislators intentionally discriminated, and that lawmakers cant be held liable for any racial discrimination in the 2013 maps because they were ordered by the court ahead of the 2012 primaries.

Darby testified that redistricting was not a Legislative priority during the regular session, but legislators took it up after then-Gov. Rick Perry called them into special session for it.

Although Darby introduced his own bill for the maps during the special session, the House ended up acting on versions of the state Senate bills for the maps that came to the House chamber, according to his testimony.

Asked by Assistant Attorney General Patrick Sweeten what the purpose of the Senate bills were, Darby said:

The purpose of those was to exercise our legislative process and adopt maps pertaining to the Texas House and congressional districts that were legal and (that) they complied with the law, Darby testified.

Darby maintained the process flowed as it should, that there were public hearings on the bills and that he stuck by legislative rules that govern what types of amendments are allowed, and at what junctures in the process. For instance, amendments that significantly changed portions of the bills regarding the House or congressional maps were required to be introduced at least 12 hours before each bill was considered, Darby said.

As Nina Perales with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund questioned Darby, Sweeten kept advising Darby to invoke the legislative privilege and not testify about his thought process in the redistricting legislation process. Sweeten also advised Darby not to discuss the thought process of fellow legislators he may have had communications with.

Perales peppered Darby with questions of whether he took into account prior court rulings that had blocked previous redistricting maps because of constitutional violations against minorities, but Darby offered little insight other than whats in the (legislative) record.

I have no testimony, Darby answered repeatedly.

At one point, one of the three judges on the trial panel, Rodriguez told Sweeten that its Darbys right to invoke the privilege, not Sweetens.

Its up to him whether he wants to answer, the judge said,

Darby limited many of his responses to what he had said on the House floor when the legislation was taken up in 2013, or what he had laid out in correspondence and other pieces of the public Legislative record.

In another instance, Mark Gaber, a lawyer for a different group of plaintiffs, asked Darby whether minority legislators who offered coalition districts be drawn into the 2013 maps, but were turned away, were treated differently than their nonminority counterparts.

I think the record speaks for itself  with regard to those matters, Darby replied.

The trial wraps up Saturday with one final state witness, U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes.

gcontreras@express-news.net

Twitter: @gmaninfedland
Americans waste an average of 17 hours a year trying to find a place to park, a new report has revealed.

And San Antonio is no exception.
While it is home to a renowned university, New Haven often seems as anti-intellectual as any place on the planet, on account of the citys street theater, which isnt so funny anymore as it evokes the political disintegration of Germanys Weimar Republic, when Nazis and Communists rioted until democracy gave way.

Last Saturday there were rumors that right-wing groups would rally on New Havens green. So hundreds of counter-protesters got there first. According to the New Haven Register, what was nearly a riot developed as the counter-protesters confronted the half-dozen or so supposed right-wingers who showed up. One of the supposed right-wingers, who said only that he was anti-socialist, was told by the counter-protesters to leave the green and as obscenities were shouted at him he was shoved and kicked and his hat was grabbed from his head.

Police made several arrests for disorderly conduct.

Afterward Mayor Toni Harp issued a statement: We were in no way supportive of any assembly that intends to incite fear, hatred, and violence. New Haven is and remains an inclusive city and I personally take responsibility for ensuring that this is the case.

But how inclusive is a city that assaults and runs out of town anyone merely suspected of planning to disagree with the local mob?

Of course this kind of thing is happening throughout the country, as left-wingers and right-wingers spoil for such fights and sacrifice the law for a chance to strike a blow. The left started the trend years ago with political correctness. Donald Trump trumped it with the hatefulness and vulgarity of his presidential campaign. Now the left is trying to trump Trump with political violence, forgetting that when guns are outlawed, only Trump will have guns.

Maybe this situation will give old-school liberals pause about the powerful executive style of government they long have celebrated. In any case the country will be lucky if the current chief executive continues to be too incoherent and incompetent to play Caesar. Indeed, the country will be lucky simply to maintain the rule of law through the next 3 years as even people sworn to its impartial enforcement discard it quickly to smite their political adversaries, as Connecticuts secretary of the state, Denise Merrill, did last week by refusing the Trump administrations request for elections data that was public until the administration asked for it.

If Trump really is the Devil this would be a good time for television networks to broadcast the brilliant 1966 movie of Robert Bolts play about the Catholic martyr Sir Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons.

For as Paul Scofields More memorably reprimands his daughters suitor, Roper, a fanatic not unlike those of today:

ROPER: So now youd give the Devil benefit of law!

MORE: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

ROPER: Id cut down every law in England to do that!

MORE: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you  where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This countrys planted thick with laws from coast to coast  mans laws, not Gods  and if you cut them down  and youre just the man to do it  do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, Id give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safetys sake.

Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester.
Recent national headlines once again made Texas look like a dark swamp of prejudice. This time, wrongly.

The Washington Post, NPR, the liberal Daily Beast and right-wing Breitbart all declared that the Texas Supreme Court had ruled against benefits for same-sex couples.

The Texas Supreme Court did no such thing. Not even close. But before we get to what it actually did do, its important to explain the bald politics of this case.

It began in 2013 when Houston Mayor Annise Parker led the city in providing health insurance benefits to spouses of gay employees who were legally married in other states. This, of course, was before the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage in all states.

The Harris County Republican Party promptly instigated a suit in state court, with Jack Pidgeon, a conservative minister, as the lead plaintiff. The lawsuit described them as devout Christians who have been compelled by the mayors unlawful edict to subsidize homosexual relationships that they regard as immoral and sinful.

State District Judge Lisa Minard, a Republican, was sympathetic. She issued a temporary injunction preventing the city from providing the benefits while the case was decided.

City officials appealed the injunction to Houstons 14th Court of Appeals, and won.

But before Judge Minard could take up the case, the plaintiffs appealed to the Texas Supreme Court. They wanted the Supreme Court to restore the injunction to keep gay spouses (now including couples married in Texas), from getting health benefits from the city. They also wanted the Supreme Court to order the city to claw back, or recover, from gay employees money already spent on their spouses benefits.

In addition, the plaintiffs wanted the Texas Supreme Court to instruct Judge Minard to narrowly construe the U.S. Supreme Court decision. They argued that all that decision required was for states to issue marriage licenses, not to provide other benefits.

So how did the Supreme Court respond to the plaintiffs appeal? Last September they voted 8-1 to decline to hear it.

And the wrath of the evangelical wing of the Republican Party fell upon it. More than 50 Republican legislators signed briefs or otherwise called for the Supreme Court to take up the issue. Some specifically raised the threat of retribution in the upcoming Republican primaries. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton signed an amicus brief joining the choir.

The Supreme Court of Texas buckled. It heard arguments in March and issued its opinion two weeks ago. But what did it actually give the plaintiffs?

It did not reinstate the injunction, nor grant the instruction that the trial court narrowly construe the U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Heres what the Texas Supreme Court did give the plaintiffs. The appeals court, in addition to overturning the injunction, had instructed Judge Minard to make findings consistent with a case called DeLeon. In that 2014 case, San Antonio federal Judge Orlando Garcia ruled that it was unconstitutional for the state of Texas to deny benefits to spouses of legally married gay employees. His decision was upheld by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Texas has provided benefits ever since.

The Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Judge Minard, as a state judge, is not bound by the federal appeals court decision. So she is not required to make decisions consistent with the DeLeon decision. But she should, the high court ruled, proceed in light of De Leon.

Thats it. Thats all the Texas Supreme Court changed. Its hardly a ruling against benefits for same-sex married couples as headlines declared. Three-and-a-half years after they began, the plaintiffs are back to square one, without the injunction and burdened with a powerful U.S. Supreme Court decision they despise.

This column originally appeared as Rick Caseys Last Word on KLRNs Texas Week with Rick Casey, which appears Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 1 p.m.
Let us not be naive. There is only one reason any health care bill will be passed to eliminate Obamacare. It is to give the top 1 to 5 percent of the wealthy Americans a significant tax break, which happened in 2001 with George W. Bushs election and may happen again with Donald Trumps election.

Craig Bell

Keep on speaking

Re: Call to serve, Your Turn, Monday:

I will not shut up, although I did serve four years in the Army, three of them overseas, to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans (including their right to engage in speech I perceive as offensive and including that of the letter writer!).

I toiled for more than 28 years in the vineyards of higher education, helping to educate thousands of students (and continuing to educate myself) while stressing to them the values of tolerance and a better understanding of our Constitution. At times, some students even accused me of being a  gasp  socialist (or worse). Im fine with that label, and guess what? This socialist is not going to shut up!

Furthermore, I will never tell the letter writer, or any of his political tribe, to shut up simply because their views may be anathema to me. That would truly be contrary to the First Amendment of that Constitution I swore to protect and uphold. Indeed, it would be un-American.

John Carhart, Seguin

Fragmenting voters

No surprise that the 19th-century political style of marking your territory with barbed wire and nails is still active in hammering out gerrymandered districts in the 21st century by the Texas Republican Party.

Instead of widening the circle to include meaningful representation to minorities  oh, so Lincoln Republican  this party practices fragmentation and zero-sum strategies to keep power. The result is longevity, but also economic stagnation and political polarization.

Twenty-first-century positive sum, win-win political strategies would better serve larger groups of Texas voters than a smaller group of ranch-style politicians. Mapping does matter.

J.L. Howell
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A 20-floor luxurious hotel-condominium complex is coming to San Antonio's art district.

Development on the $116 project near the Tobin Center is underway and the building is expected to be completed by 2019.

"San Antonio is ready for the sky rise at The Arts," Karla Dupre, senior director of sales for The Art Residences at the Thompson Hotel, told mySA.com. "We are ecstatic on how the market has received us. Our sales are great."

READ ALSO: Photos: Inside the luxury Central Texas pet hotel that will pick up your dog in a Ferrari

The building will consist of the Thompson Hotel, and The Arts Residences, condominiums and penthouses, perched above the hotel on levels 12-19. The high rise includes 66 condominiums, five two-story penthouses and 167 premium hotel rooms.

Both hotel guests and building residents will be able to use the 24-hour room service or dine at the hotel's restaurant, with a renowned chef who has yet to be disclosed.

"The vibe is some place you want to hangout," Dupre said of the hotel. "It's luxurious without the stuffiness."

As for the residences, she promises there are no bad views.

RELATED: Living the high life: 7 Luxury condos in San Antonio

Guests and residents will have access to the 24-hour concierge, a rooftop bar and lounge and a luxurious spa. The 5,000 sq. ft. cabana style pool includes a bar and overlooks the river.

One-bedrooms start at $400,000 and a 2 bed/2 bath starts at $563,00.

For ultimate luxury, a 7,324 sq. feet penthouse can be yours for around $4 million.

Dupre said there is currently a sales gallery for the residences at 115 Auditorium Circle featuring a vignette, building model and video.

Schedule an appointment with The Arts for a sneak peak of the highly awaited condominiums, here.

jthorpe@express-news.net

@jerilynnthorpe
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The coliseum-like mansion you've seen nestled off U.S. 281, overlooking the Olmos Dam, is off the market in record time.

Phyllis Browning realtors Judy Dalrymple and Haley Rodriguez represented the anonymous local buyer who forked over $3.6 million to call one of San Antonio's most iconic estates "home."

The 6,500-square-foot "landmark residence" was originally listed for $4.9 million, increased to $5.25 million, then decreased to $4.25 and was eventually reduced to $3.95 before the final price was agreed on.

The home was under contract in less than six months  an amount of time Rodriguez called "surprising."

RELATED: 9 Dominion homes for sale that have seen significant price drops

"This is house that's unique enough, you'd expect it to be on the market for a year," she added.

555 Argyle Ave., in Alamo Heights, was originally owned by local philanthropists Joe and Joci Straus. Joe Straus is the co-founder of Retama Park.

They are credited for restoring the Majestic and Empire theaters and lived in the home for 26 years.

They are also the parents of Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio.

The home boasts two elevators, wrap-around patios on each of the levels, floor-to ceiling windows with "spectacular views" of the dam and a modern, open floor plan, realtor Phyllis Browning told mySA.com when the listing hit the market in January.

RELATED: Top 10: San Antonio's wealthiest zip codes

Rodriguez said the home's multi-level, outdoor waterfall is what piqued her client's interest.

Browning called the property an "incredible entertaining home." She spoke of the stately guests the Straus family hosted, including celebrities, world leaders and the 41st first lady of the United States, Barbara Bush. A book-signing party for Mitt Romney was also held in the home, Browning added.

In the listing for the home, the Phyllis Browning Company wrote, "This is a very rare opportunity to acquire one of the city's most unique properties."

Step inside the home that has wowed celebrities and San Antonians since 1986 in the gallery above.

mmendoza@mysa.com

Twitter: @MaddySkye
We have spoilers for the August Boxwalla Book box:

The Theme of the August Book Box is 'Language & Identity' with writers from the United States of America & Armenia.

Each August Book Box will contain Armenian writer Zareh Vorpouni's novel 'The Candidate' which was translated just last year from Western Armenian, forty years after it was first published in 1967. The modern Armenian language has two forms: Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian. During the 1915 Armenian genocide, most Western Armenians were driven out the country and they settled all over the world. And now Western Armenian is only spoken by the Armenian diaspora. In 2009, UNESCO identified Western Armenian as an endangered language. Since language and culture are so inextricably linked and culture in turn shapes identity, the preservation of language is an important part of preserving identities. We are excited to showcase a book translated from this disappearing language.

An excerpt from this Western Armenian Novel, The Candidate :

Now and then people would rush past, the sidewalk rumbling like an empty barrel under their feet. At that moment, the street - like a watchdog opening and closing its eyes - would wake up with a start, only to lazily fall back asleep. Most of the people on the street were busboys, waiters, or cleaners who worked in banks or government buildings. In their haste none of them had time to care about Minas's mindless laughter.

FYI - "Starting with August, the Book Box will have a new format: one great writer from the past paired with a great living writer who we think is a potential Nobel Laureate." The price of the - "Starting with August, the Book Box will have a new format: one great writer from the past paired with a great living writer who we think is a potential Nobel Laureate." The price of the BoxWalla Book is now $29.95.

What do you think of the spoilers? Check out our Boxwalla reviews to learn more about this box!
Less than 300 spots remain for retailers to receive the Best Saver rate at the upcoming NACS Show.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.  On October 17-20, the 2017 NACS Show returns to Chicago for the first time in six years, at McCormick Place, and this year is one you wont want to miss. The NACS Show connects retailers to new products, ideas and businesses.

Registration is open for the Show, and the first 2,000 retailers to register receive the most favorable pricing, the Best Saver rate, on any one registration typea savings of more than 60% for NACS retail members. With less than 300 discount spots remaining, you dont want to miss out on this exclusive Best Saver rate.

Explore different aspects of the 2017 NACS Show below or view the schedule-at-a glance for a quick snapshot of whats in store for you at this years Show.

New Products. This years Expo will feature a 400,000+ net-square-foot expo floor with 1,200+ exhibiting companies showcasing thousands of products. Onsite, youll get a first look at new products and services, and have the opportunity to meet and network with new and returning exhibiting companies. Some of the best solutions to business challenges and ideas for growth come from colleagues, peers and other industry leaders.

New Ideas. NACS Show education sessions are where ideas emerge and flourish. This year, attendees can choose from more than 50+ education sessions tailored to meet your needs. Sessions range from specific top-of-mind topics, to level of expertise, to store size specifics. Every session is thoughtfully chosen and developed by industry leaders and led by respected industry experts.

New Connections. Get a jump start on your NACS Show by attending the Kick Off Party on Tuesday, October 17. This years party will take place at the Museum of Science and Industry, which is housed in the stunning former Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition. Get ready to mix and mingle with thousands of industry peers and experts over a few cocktails and make lasting connections with retailers just like you.

Act quickly to receive our Best Saver rate before this opportunity runs outregister today and save!
ALEXANDRIA, Va.  Sam Pfanstiel, solution principal at Coalfire, will present a free Conexxus webinar, Third-Party Risk Management: How to Identify and Manage Data Security Risks from your Vendors, on Thursday, July 27, at 12:00 pm EST.

Today, most organizations have relationships with dozens, hundreds or even thousands of suppliers, vendors, service providers, contractors and subcontractors. When a company enlists these third parties, it entrusts its operations, brand and data to the supplierbut it doesnt shed any of its data security obligations. Indeed, the PCI DSS, data privacy laws and multiple regulatory agencies are clear on this: Enterprises must ensure that the data security standards of their vendors are consistent with their own, and they are potentially held liable themselves when those third parties suffer security lapses.

In recent years, the number of cyber security incidents originating from outside vendors has increased dramatically. The now infamous Target credit card data breach was a watershed event, demonstrating just how much companies could be impacted by third-party security vulnerabilities. Thus, third-party risk oversight has become a key strategic priority.

Webinar attendees will learn:

Why third-party risk management matters to every enterprise

The third-party risk management requirements articulated in PCI DSS v3.2

Best practices, recommendations and resources for establishing an effective third-party risk management program

To register for the free webinar on Thursday, July 27, at 12:00 pm EST, click here. Contact info@conexxus.org with questions.
By Shadow Governance Intel, the analytical arm of West Sands Advisory Limited, a UK-based business intelligence firm. Originally published at OilPrice.com.

Almost five weeks have passed since Saudi Arabia, its Gulf allies, and Egypt announced the start of a diplomatic boycott against Qatara fellow Arab monarchy which, the boycotters contend, encourages sectarianism in the Middle East and sponsors terrorist organizations.

Doha has refused to comply with KSA and friends demands that it shut down renowned news outlet Al-Jazeera, end the construction of a Turkish military base inside Qatar, and cut off ties with Hezbollah and terrorist organizations. The whole list of demands includes 13 points, each one bent on curbing the Qatari diplomatic initiatives that contradict the Saudi Arabian foreign policy agenda.

Risk consultancy Shadow Governance talks to OilPrice about the political players driving the landmark rift between GCC monarchies that has shaken Middle Eastern alliances without causing volatility in oil and natural gas prices.

1. Who are the most influential individuals in the GCC dispute?

Generally, the heads of government in Saudi, the UAE, and Egypt are most influential in driving the current dispute. Mohammed bin Zayed is staunchly against the presence of Islamic groups and Minister or State Anwar Gargash, a key Emirati power player with regards to foreign policy issues, has also been a vocal critic of Qatar since the crisis unfolded.

Adel Al Jubair, the Saudi foreign minister, is another figurehead of Saudi condemnation of Qatar. Jubair is likely to have strong backing from Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, who is reportedly on very good terms with Mohammed bin Zayed, and this UAE-Saudi nexus is the real engine driving forward confrontation vis-a-vis Qatar.

The influence of Abdel Fattah El Sisi is also notable here, as the Egyptian President is closely aligned with the Gulf monarchies leading the boycott of Qatar. He has his own networks in Saudi from time spent as a military attache stationed in Riyadh, and Saudi has proven an ardent backer of his government over what has been a difficult few years, especially in regard to the power struggle against the Muslim Brotherhood.

2. What are the key Gulf political moves that require monitoring?

Qatars next move in response to the diplomatic attack is perhaps most worth watching going forward. On one hand, it may begin to slowly comply with GCC demands in certain areas, as it did during the previous crisis in 2014, which lasted for nine months. On the other hand, it may instead play the long game this time and resist the demands of the Saudi-led bloc, which most likely entails growing closer to Iran and Turkey.

Equally, it will be interesting to see whether the GCC countries move the goal posts, so to speak, in terms of expectations from Qatar. It is unlikely that the list of 13 demands these countries issued on the 23rd of June were meant to be met, and is indicative of the fact that GCC are not looking for a quick rapprochement with Qatar. Should they soften or alter their stance, it will signal a readiness to de-escalate tensions with Qatar.

Energy Markets

3. Is the GCC dispute about energy and if so, how will It impact global energy markets?

First and foremost, this dispute centres on political divergence between Qatar on the one hand, and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt on the other. Disagreement over energy policy, which in the case of Qatar pertains to gas, does not appear to be a driving factor behind the dispute and neither has it impacted the energy markets so far.

That being said, given the UAEs ownership of the Dolphin Gas Project, and Qatars reliance upon gas reserves to make up its budget, it is not unfathomable that power plays over energy assets may creep into the dispute. Should the outlook worsen, the disagreement may take on an energy dimension that could impact global energy markets, but this is still a long way away. In this sense, energy would be more of a victim of this dispute, as opposed to a driving factor of the crisis.

4. Does the GCC dispute change Saudi Arabias plans for the privatisation of Aramco?

In short, no. The privatisation of Aramco is part of a wider strategy unfolding in Saudi aimed at diversifying the economy. As such, it is unlikely to be used as a bargaining chip, or a point that will come under threat as a result of diplomatic tensions with Qatar. The most damaging outcome for the IPO would be a situation where there is a choice between doing business with either Qatar or Saudi, which could be a major disincentive for some investors.

Although the GCC crisis may pose some red flags to investors, and even knock confidence in certain sectors, Aramcos listing is largely removed from these events so there are no indications that the IPO is under threat.

Political Implications & Forecasting

5. How does Turkey benefit from developing closer relations with Qatar and Iran? And how does this impact Ankaras relations with Riyadh in light of the GCC dispute?

Firstly, it is important to understand that President Erdogan portrays Turkish involvement in the crisis as part of Turkeys role as a regional power. This highlights that Turkey is active in the region and that it is a decisive power in disputes, which in this case is legitimised by its military presence in Qatar. Obviously, this is the line taken in Ankara and projected to the AKPs constituency at home.

In any case, backing for Qatar should not necessarily be equated with direct confrontation vis-a-vis the GCC bloc. Turkey appears unlikely to challenge Saudi, and lose its commercial and political relations with the other GCC countries because of this crisis. The exception is Egypt, whereby Erdogan and Sisi have a series of bilateral disagreements that existed prior to this crisis.

6. Does Saudi Arabias targeting of Al-Jazeera pose a major significance in terms of Qatars relations with the other GCC countries and are all GCC countries on board?

Al Jazeera Network is integral to the Saudi-led targeting of Qatar, primarily because it represents all that the bloc of four countries perceive to be wrong with Dohas foreign policy. It is the mouthpiece for an independent actor, which isnt conforming to the unified policy line generally taken among the wider GCC states, with Kuwait and Oman traditionally taking a passive and back seat position.

On a tangential note, the relative neutrality and less influential positions of the latter two is again apparent in this crisis, so it is inaccurate to say a unified GCC targeting of Qatar exists, but rather a Saudi-led faction which only makes up half of the GCC countries.

The Arabic language outlet of Al Jazeera, in particular, has been accused of playing host to figures that have been labelled as terrorists and extremists by the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, therefore also linking it to the wider concerns that these countries have with the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups advocating political Islam.

7. What is the prospect of an escalation in the GCC region, both militarily as well as in terms of the termination of bilateral trade relations?

With reference to military confrontation, there is very little to suggest that any internal armed confrontation among GCC members will take place. The only military aspects to this crisis so far has been Turkeys troop deployment to Qatar, which was not met with military confrontation by the GCC countries.

Previous armed confrontations between GCC states, such as that over the land border between Qatar and Saudi in 1992, have also not led to larger scale conflicts  and neither is it supposed this it is in the interests of any GCC country at present.

With respects to trade relations, the interdependency of GCC countries has become part of the fabric of the community since 1981. Commercial laws in the region often state that majority ownership of commercial entities, such as Public Joint Stock Companies (PJSC), must be local or GCC citizens. In this sense, the breaking of bilateral trade relations would be detrimental to all parties; and so, the motivation to harm each other, in a commercial sense, is likely to be lacking.
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

I and others been mulling how to write such an agenda for some time, but a confluence of articles from several sources provokes me to think that this topic is about to become part of the, er, conversation, so I thought I would put this post together, imperfect though it certainly is; its a sort of Frankensteins monster, patched together from other peoples quotes and relying on galvanic assertion far more than reasoned argument. But since it is, after all, Bastille Day, en avant!

The first provocation comes in the form of two articles from Matt Yglesias, who seems to have recently applied for his Communist Party card, amazingly enough, but even the lowliest worm etc. Yglesias on July 11:

It was convenient for Democrats that for years, Republicans were committed to profoundly unpopular positions on entitlement programs that made it possible for Democrats to win the votes of some cross-pressured, culturally conservative whites. But even though Trumpism hardly amounts to a coherent ideology, the promise to protect the concrete material interests of older[1] working-class people has some real appeal on the merits.

To repeat:

As NC readers know, Ive been advocating for a focus on concrete material benefits for many years (I owe the phrase to a long-time, now silent blogger named AnglachelR). So if this earworm has, through whatever devious channels, worked its way into the brain of Matt Yglesias, and hence into the hive mind of the political class, I think a little celebration is in order, as we all do our bit to drag the (actually triangular, not linear) Overton Window left.

And then on July 12 Yglesias doubles down. The headline:

Democrats should take the class warfare message to upscale suburb

And the deck (and I hope somebody told Neera Tanden to put down her coffee, because otherwise she would have lost a keyboard):

It worked for Jeremy Corbyn, and the opposite failed for Jon Ossoff.

And Yglesias concludes:

Democrats, in short, shouldnt mistake the possible ambivalence about soaking the rich of their own multi-millionaire donor class for the views of any substantial block of people. The broad American upper-middle class, full of college-educated professionals whose cultural sensibilities broadly align with mainstream Democratic Party politics, is perfectly happy to raise taxes on the rich to pay for universal social services. Its a good message that Democrats ought to take to all kinds of districts, but especially the ones full of college graduates that party leaders have rightly identified as the most promising near-term pickup opportunities.

But of course universal social services (I would say universal programs that deliver concrete material benefits, especially to the working class) is a concept, not a message. What is required, therefore, is an agenda. How would such an agenda be constructed? Well see, but first the second provocation

This, from Grassroots Economic Organizing, which was in Links yesterday, but I think should be called out again. This was the key point for me:

All too often, I think, we have a tendency to organize more-or-less short-lived mass gatherings as a sort of knee-jerk reaction to anything we are trying to oppose or support (but mostly oppose), without thinking through exactly what purpose in our long-term strategy that action is serving. There are times and places where a march or a petition might be exactly what is called for, but I think a lot of us tend to assume that organizing a march or a petition are good things in and of themselves. But if the march is just the equivalent of the doctors shot of morphine or a night out with the girls then thats not necessarily the case. And, as in the metaphors above, our inclination to engage in actions that simply allow us to let off some steam without moving us any closer to real solutions does, in many cases, keep us from taking steps that would actually start moving us in the right direction .

Pink pussy hats. Giant puppets. Clever signs. Memes. Etc. But what do those steps look like? An agenda, obviously, but before that, the third provocation from Hampton Institute (named for Fred Hampton) amplifies the second by raising the question of how long a long-term strategy must be:

In brief, Ill conclude that in order to make Marxism consistent with itself it is necessary to abandon the statist perspective to which Marx and Engels arguably were committed, and which they transmitted to most of their successors. It is necessary to conceive of revolution in gradualist way, not as a sudden historical rupture in which the working class or its representatives take over the national state and organize social reconstruction on the basis of a unitary political will (the proletarian dictatorship). According to a properly understood Marxism, even the early stages of the transition from capitalism to post-capitalism must take place over generations, and not in a planned way but unconsciously and rather spontaneously, in a process slightly comparable to the transition from feudalism to capitalism.

In a way, I find this perspective freeing; its never bugged me that I might not live to see everything that I dream of come to pass. How many generations? Striking a blow at random, Id say three, because I think people can think as far out as their grandchildren, with a little effort. I realize to somebody who wants to go out and smash up an ATM machine, that might seem gradualist (a word Hampton concedes) but in historical terms, three generations is a very short time.

So let me translate this into requirements for what I will unblushingly call the perfect revolutionary agenda. I will assert (this is the three tricks part)

(1) Every agenda item should be a concrete material benefit

(2) The agenda items should be staged

(3) Stages may be generational in scope

(Staging the items is only sensible; pick the low-hanging fruit first. Win some victories. Train people to exercise actual power through experience. And so forth.)

Lets look at a list from Beth Lynch and Andre Roberge of Progressive Army (and kudos to them for putting one out there. Im not trashing Lynch and Roberge, at all; theyre both about a hundred years younger than I am, which is a good thing, and Progressive Army is an excellent site you should check out). But to make the point:

If the Democratic Party has any interest in winning elections, it will have to find its soul and its roots as the Party of the People. The party will have to run on the same issues that got so many Independent and first time voters to the polls during the Democratic primary: Single-Payer Healthcare

Liveable Wages

Debt-Free Public College

Halting Climate Change

Overturning Citizens United

Criminal Justice Reform

Pay-Equity

Ending Military Interventionism

Job Creation

Immigration Reform

Racial Justice

Wall Street Reform

I agree in principle. But there are some snags. First  Ill crassly go into the imperative mode, here  focus on the concrete material benefit. Single-payer health care is accurate, but a Medicare for All item brings the concrete benefit home. Similarly, #FightFor15 is more concrete than Liveable Wages; everybody can translate more money in their pocket to what they can buy. Racial Justice, sadly, is so vague as to be meaningless, as is Wall Street Reform. Job Creation might be replaced with Jobs Guarantee, an idea for which theres a solid literature (and guarantee sounds better anyhow).[2] And so forth.

Second, put the agenda in rough order of execution. For example, Criminal Justice Reform wont be easy, but its certainly easier to execute than Halting Climate Change. So why is the easier agenda item after the harder one? Doesnt it make sense to rack up some victories with whats do-able first? More subtly, if the agenda items arent ordered, you cant put mutually reinforcing items next to each other. For example, a Jobs Guarantee is not only good in itself, it solves the problem of how to help all the people who used to work in the insurance industry, before Medicare for All nuked it. Finally, even accepting Racial Justice and Halting Climate Change as precisely formulated universal concrete material benefits, the left cant deliver them in a year, ten years, or twenty years; they really will take at least two and probably three generations to play out. So why not begin with that time-frame in mind?

* * *

I lied about the three tricks, though. Theres a fourth:

(4) A separate agenda for changes in the political infrastructure, necessary to achieve the main agenda.

(Programmers call this separation of concerns. Infrastructure  like co-ops, say  is not good in itself, but good only insofar as the concrete material benefits it brings. Ditto for lefty shibboleths like the revolution. If the revolution becomes just another reason why we cant have nice things, just as before, Animal Farm-style, then what good was it? So put the benefits in one agenda, and put the infrastructure in a second agenda.) One critical infrastructure item is elections with hand-marked paper ballots, hand-counted in public, with election day as a national holiday. We can hardly expect to win any battles if election fraud is as easy as it is! Another infrastructural item would be MMT; weve got to get out of the neoliberal box that Federal taxes pay for Federal spending and that deficits are sinful.[3]

* * *

So, happy Bastille Day! Again, Im sorry this isnt as well-worked out as the topic deserves, but the provocations were there, and I felt I should get these thoughts out on the table so that others could make use of them, if they like.

NOTE

[1] Thats not strictly true. If you believe (as I do) that Trump on the trail at the very least expressed skepticism about our military adventures (and especially adventurism against a nuclear power like Russia), thats partly an appeal to youth: Older people dont die in wars. Young ones do.

[2] I would throw in a Post Office bank, too.

[3] MMT provides a solid reason why Medicare for All should be implemented by the currency issuer, at the Federal level.

APPENDIX

To be clear, my dream for the left is that it stop acting like a squillion different tiny non-profits selling papers on the street or trying to get the next grant from a donor, and that the left accepts a common agenda as described above (think of it as the promised land that everybody wants to get to). I dont think common institutions are needed or even possible, though of course one might emerge from the pack, but on the agenda, it really is hang together or hang separately.
By Jesse Griffiths, Director of the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad). Originally published at Triple Crisis.

The strangest aspect of the G20 communique, and the part that has dominated media coverage, is the section on the Paris climate agreement. The strangeness arises not because of the topicthe G20 has always played second fiddle to the UN on climate issuesbut because, for the first time, a whole paragraph is devoted solely to one member, the USA, explaining why it doesnt agree with the others, followed by a paragraph by the others explaining why they will go ahead without the USA anyway, including through agreeing a G19 action plan on energy and climate for growth.

The climate change issue is a jarring symbol of the G20s difficulty in reaching agreement. However, the Trump administrations America first stance and resulting lack of movement on economic issuesthe raison detre of the G20is evident throughout the document.

Two things stand out.

Firstly, many key economic issues receive very little attention. The opening paragraphs on the global economy, trade and investment are masterpieces of bureaucratic obfuscation, offering something for everyone, while saying very little, and presenting no new initiatives. Financial sector reforman issue at the centre of G20 work since the global financial crash of 2007/8merits one short paragraph, with no new promises. The Action Plan which accompanies the communique has a more detailed summary of work in this area, highlighting that the G20 has essentially outsourced this work to the Financial Stability Board (FSB)a worrying development given the major governance problems with that institution. In addition to being one of the least transparent and accountable international financial institutions, the FSB replicates the flawed G20 governance model, but makes it worse by adding the financial centres of Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Singapore to the G20 membership list (as well as Spain and the Netherlands).

Secondly, the continued expansion of G20 interest into a whole host of issues outside its traditional mandate is striking, with the G20 concerning itself with, for example, health, womens empowerment, food security, rural youth employment, and marine pollution.

Debt Problems, What Debt Problems?

Shockingly, despite developing country debts reaching record levels, and a significant number of countries being in debt distress, not a single mention was made of the need to tackle current and future debt crises in the communique. This came after the Finance Ministers earlier this year ignored the strong work being done at the UN on the need for a fair and transparent debt workout mechanism to rapidly resolve and help prevent debt crises, preferring instead to endorse a two page Operational Guidelines for Sustainable Financing that simply emphasises better information sharing informal methods of creditor coordination. They are a step backwards when compared to existing guidelines such as the UNCTAD Principles on Promoting Responsible Lending and Borrowing, which have already been endorsed by the UN General Assembly.

The G20s Action Plan also fails to mention the UNs work on multilateral sovereign debt restructuring frameworks, and offers only one new initiativea Compass for GDP-linked Bonds. While it makes sense to focus on linking debt repayments in bond contracts to the ability of the borrower to pay, the vast majority of low-income country debt does not involve bonds: countries suffering from debt crises need a comprehensive approach which deals rapidly and fairly with all kinds of debt. The way the G20 dealsor fails to dealwith debt issues faced intensive critique by Eurodad members and partners at a major event that took place alongside the Hamburg Summit.

The German government had hoped to make management of international capital flows a central issue at this G20, but, as Eurodad predicted, the issue merits barely a mention in the communique, due probably to long-standing differences between some developed countries that are keen to further liberalise international finance, and emerging markets, who are rightly wary of this agenda.

As noted previously by Eurodad, promises to conclude governance reform of the IMF by 2019 shows how glacial progress is, given that the last of these every five year reforms was concluded in 2010 (though only implemented in 2016).

TaxA Blacklist of One

G20 efforts to tackle tax dodging by multinationals continue to centre on the flawed OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative. Eurodad has already noted the major flaws of BEPSit lacks transparency, contains significant loopholes, and has failed to incorporate the needs and interests of developing countries, the vast majority of which have had little meaningful participation in decision-making.

In March, Finance Ministers called on the OECD to prepare a blacklist of countries not meeting agreed international standards of tax transparency. The result was that the OECDa body that boasts well known tax offenders such as Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK amongst its membersproduced a blacklist naming only tiny Trinidad and Tobago as non-compliant with international standards. Almost comically, the G20 chose to see this as a sign that all was well, and asked the OECD to repeat the flawed exercise for the next summit. Finally, the G20 leaders noted the work they are doing on enhancing tax certainty which previous Eurodad analysis suggests is an effort to shift attention away from ensuring that multinationals pay taxes in the country where they do business, to a focus on ensuring they dont receive any surprisesin other words, protecting the status quo.

Private Finance

There is remarkably little in the communique on previous G20 pushes to increase the role of private finance, particularly for infrastructure. However, the leaders endorsed the Joint Principles and Ambitions on Crowding-In Private Finance, which Eurodad has previously raised concerns about, including its emphasis on mechanisms to de-risk private financea euphemism which can often mean the risks are not actually reduced, but simply transferred to the public sector.

As one centrepiece of its presidency, the German government had launched a new Compact with Africa initiative, aimed at encouraging foreign private investment in Africa, but this is not mentioned in the communique. Instead, the G20 groups a number of smaller initiatives under the umbrella of an Africa Partnership. Perhaps this downplaying of the Compact was due to the small number of African countries that signed uponly seven are listed in the communiqueor it may be a response to the substantive criticism of the Compact and the real motives behind it. For example, Eurodads sister organisation, Afrodad, launched a comprehensive critique of the initiative, after consultation with groups from across the African continent. While noting that the initiative could be beneficial, Afrodad goes on to highlight major concerns, including noting that developed countries that support such initiatives are in search of space for their expansionism and that the end result may be how to integrate Africa into the global division of labour  with Africa playing the same old role of raw materials provider.

The digital economy was a particular focus of the German G20, which published a G20 Roadmap for Digitalisation. The G20 promise to constructively engage in WTO discussions relating to E-commerce is a warning flag for critics of the WTOs work in this area. A recent analysis by the think tank the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) found that current e-commerce proposals being considered by the WTO are designed around a borderless, digitized global economy in which major technology, financial, logistics, and other corporations like Amazon, FedEx, Visa and Google can move labor, capital, inputs, and data seamlessly across time and space without restriction. They also want to force the opening of new markets, while limiting obligations on corporations to ensure that workers, communities, or countries benefit from their activities.

Finally, green finance, a major topic of Chinas presidency, seems to have been sidelined: it is not mentioned in the communique, though both the accompanying G20 Hamburg Action Plan and the Climate and Energy Action Plan take note of the work of the G20 study group on green finance, and the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.

The lack of concrete outcomes in the G20s core areas as the self-proclaimed premier forum for international economic cooperation underlines the governance shortcomings of the G20. As an informal club with no permanent secretariat and which operates by consensus, its ability to reach agreement can be held to ransom by powerful countries, such as the U.S., refusing to cooperate. This governance problem is inherent in the G20 design, which is one reason Eurodad and others have called for its replacement by an Economic Coordination Council elected by all UN member states, as proposed by the UN Commission of Experts on reforms of the international monetary and financial system.
Happy Bastille Day!

Ravenslike humans and apescan plan for the future Science

NASAs Juno Spacecraft Spots Jupiters Great Red Spot (photos) NASA

Amazon is getting too big and the government is talking about it MarketWatch. Says hedgie Douglas Kass.

A dynamic model of financial balances for the United Kingdom Bank Undergound (UserFriendly). Though from 2016, UserFriendly: Excellent stock flow model from BOE in super easy to read blog with working paper linked.

5 Things to Know about the Trillion-Ton Iceberg Scientific American

Doomsday narratives about climate change dont work. But heres what does Guardian

Era of Biological Annihilation Is Underway, Scientists Warn NYT

Syraqistan

Brexit

Britains Jeremy Corbyn: I got my ideas from Bernie Sanders WaPo

Spy drones, blast zones, treetop sit-ins: getting fracking gas to Scotland The Ferret

Brussels supports end to Greek deficit procedure EU Business

Calibri in spotlight as Fontgate could leave Pakistan sans Sharif The Express Tribune. Shades of Rathergate!

China?

Would impeaching Trump restore the rule of law? Lessons from Latin America Quartz

Yes, Trump Can Accept Gifts NYT. On emoluments.

New Cold War

Millions Of Policy Proposals Spill Into Sea As Brookings Institution Think Tanker Runs Aground Off Crimea Coast The Onion. Thats the third Crimean story thats floated through the zeitgeist to land on my desk in the last three days, after many months of nothing.

Poland remembers victims of massacres by Ukrainians Radio Poland

Trump Transition

Health Care

Democrats in Disarray

Video shows Minneapolis police officer shooting two dogs in north Minneapolis yard Star-Tribune (Huey). Huey: The video footage of this incident is unreal, and the police testilying is deplorable. Were police always this cowardly or is this a new trend were seeing?

At four years old, the Black Lives Matter network takes stock of its work on the ground Mic

Imperial Collapse Watch

Only in America

Open carry law for knives and swords to begin in September ABC

Guillotine Watch

Class Warfare

Partisanship and the media: How personal politics affect where people go, what they trust, and whether they pay American Press Institute

For years, weve been told fat clogs our arteries. Now, scientists say thats all wrong. Quartz

Jimmy Carter gets medical attention after collapsing from dehydration in Winnipeg CBC (Re Silc).

Antidote du jour:

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Londons Grenfell Tower went up in flames on June 14, killing an unknown number of people (certainly there were more casualties than the official toll of 80) and leaving a particularly ugly charred scar on the West London skyline (short photo essay at NC here). Since this is July 14, now seems like a good time to catch up with the story. Heres a good photo timeline of the fire itself, with illustrations of the layout and construction of the building, from the BBC. Wikipedia summarizes:

The fire started in a fridge-freezer on the fourth floor. The growth of the fire is believed to have been accelerated by the buildings exterior cladding. Emergency services received the first report of the fire at 00:54 local time. It burned for about 60 hours until finally extinguished. More than 200 firefighters and 70 fire engines from stations all over London were involved in efforts to control the fire. Many firefighters continued to fight pockets of fire on the higher floors after most of the rest of the building had been gutted. Residents of surrounding buildings were evacuated due to concerns that the tower could collapse, but the building was later determined to be structurally sound The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, criticised safety protocol, in particular those telling people to stay in their flats until rescued. This advice presumed that the buildings structure could contain a fire within a single flat, but in this case the fire was spreading rapidly via the buildings exterior. Since 2013, the residents organisation Grenfell Action Group had repeatedly expressed concern about fire safety, saying in November 2016 that only a catastrophic fire would force the blocks management to adequately address fire precautions and maintenance of fire-related systems.

(Before we blame the tenant for the fridge, Grenfell Tower was subject to power surges, and other household appliances had already caught fire.) Theres a great deal of discussion at the safety code and fire-fighting protocol levels, but Im going to skip over that to the big picture as presented by Bill Black, writing at NC here, focusing on deregulation and the cladding:

I do not focus on Tony Blair and Gordon Brown because they are uniquely culpable for the mass deaths in the fire. Their failures are important to explaining several points that are often unclear to Americans. First, Blair and Brown, as leaders of the Labor Party, were supposed to protect poorer citizens like those living in the tower blocks through effective health and safety regulation. Historically, that would have been a top priority of the Labor Party. Second, the reality is that Blair and Brown were aggressively hostile to health and safety regulation and that hostility exemplifies the radical transformation that New Labors leaders made to the party. As weak as the building requirements were for cladding once Thatcher emasculated them, initial testing results are that the cladding at Grenfell and many of its counterpart tower blocks failed to meet even the UKs rudimentary standards. The lack of a sprinkler system and a single stairwell for evacuation again show the inadequacy of UK building standards compared to other modern nations. Those deficiencies were made worse by a lack of fire breaks, (reportedly) missing fire-resistant doors, and the failure to conduct required inspections. Every UK leader from Thatcher to May is a part of this problem. The fact that the Tories emasculated vital building safety rules is consistent with their Partys ideology. Blair came to power after Thatcher and was the leader of the Labor Party. His Partys ideology had long supported effective safety rules. Blair, however, proudly led what he called New Labor  a Party that embraced Thatchers anti-regulatory zeal with its own special passion.

I agree with Black that the Grenfell Tower disaster is blowback from years of Thatcherite deregulation by Tory and New Labour mandarins working together. However, Grenfell Tower  and, it seems, British public housing generally, are also subject to a terrible neoliberal infestation, so the story is more complex than Black makes out. (Black also omits the agency of tenant organizations like the Grenfell Action Group, who fought on the complex, broken ground that neoliberalism creates.) In this post, Ill look at some of the effects of that neoliberal infestatiion. Let me telegraph the question Id like to have answered by including a photograph of the Guardians Grenfell FAQ at right. Ill explain more about it later.)

Here are five characteristics of the official response to the Grenfell Tower Disaster, and to the management of Grenfell Tower generally:

(1) Inability to reassure the public that official actions were taken in good faith

(2) Opaque and complicated public-private governance structures

(3) Little prospect of redress from law enforcement

(4) Inability to generalize to larger systems issues.

(5) A system stacked against the public at every turn.

Lets take each of the of these in turn

(1) Inability to reassure the public that official actions were taken in good faith. The latest public meeting was held on July 13:

Pat Mason, a Labour councillor on Kensington and Chelsea Council, told Sam Delaney: It was meant to update people on what was happening but it was a completely shambolic meeting because [officials] just couldnt run a meeting. People are just so angry, they wanted straight answers which they didnt believe they were getting. Theres too many people with too many stories about promises broken. The meeting eventually descended into a shambles because people decided they didnt have any confidence in those people [in charge]. Even the things [authorities] are doing which you would say are good, they seem unable to communicate it to the audience.

And why would they? Because they live there, tenants know the quality of work done on the Tower  Relations with [the contractor] broke down so completely that Grenfell residents pinned up posters to their doors warning workmen not to enter their homes  and they know the costs, too. Grenfell Action Group:

For a number of years RBKC has spent 1.5 millon a year of our Council Tax on subsidising the Holland Park Opera while refusing to spend their massive reserves (currently in excess of 240 million) on providing decent housing for residents in North Kensington. This is something that we are determined to challenge through direct action in the future. The Council is now proposing to end the HPO subsidy by donating a 5m lump sum to create instead an independent opera charity.

Ive got nothing against opera, but 5m vs. 300K is a little raw, no? Why would anybody trust the council, if those are their priorities? Even the new chair of the Council says it will take a generation for trust to be rebuilt. If it is at all.

(2) Opaque and complicated public-private governance structures. Grenfell Tower is governed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organization (KCTMO). Wikipedia defines a Tenant Management Organization as follows:

A TMO is created when residents (tenants and leaseholders) in a defined area of council or housing association homes create a corporate body and, typically, elect a management committee to run the body. This body then enters into a formal legal contract with the landlord of the home, known as the management agreement. The management agreement details precisely which services are managed by the TMO on behalf of the landlord. The extent of the devolution in service can vary enormously, particularly between small and large TMOs, but may typically include day-to-day repairs, allocations and lettings, tenancy management, cleaning and caretaking, and rent collection. The TMOs operations are mainly funded by the management fees payable by the landlord under the agreement.

(Imagine trying to create a dataset from 4,000 of these.) You can already see the complexity, which I will illlustrate with a link to the brochure supplied to tenants after the Grenfell Tower refurbishment (regeneration) was complete. You see if you can figure out who to call if you have a problem, and how fast the response will come; it reminds me of ObamaCare.

(3) Little prospect of redress from law enforcement, as a happy by-product of this complexity. From the Guardian FAQ:

When is the trial starting? The simple answer is not this year, maybe next, and maybe not at all. The words used most often by police to describe the criminal investigation into the Grenfell Tower disaster are unprecedented and complex. Nothing in the modern history of the British criminal justice system compares. There are many questions to answer. Which of the 60 companies involved in the refurbishments over the years at Grenfell Tower did what? Who is to blame? Are they a company or individuals? And how to prove beyond reasonable doubt to a jury that a certain company or person should be convicted? Did they break a law, and are the laws even that clear cut? Or did their actions or inactions just fly in the face of common sense? Four weeks on from the disaster, and the usual hallmarks of a criminal investigation are absent. There have been no arrests, no search warrant has been applied for, no one has been interviewed under criminal caution. The Met say they are content with the progress, with companies and individuals voluntarily handing volumes of material over. Police vow to use harder powers if they suspect evidence is being withheld.

Ah. Voluntarily. The Guardian describes police investigators at the shambolic meeting:

DCI Matt Bonner, who is leading the police investigation, struggled to reassure more than 200 people present at St Clements church that he would bring those responsible to justice. He told the meeting it was a highly complex investigation, one unprecedented outside terrorist attacks, only to be told the fire was indeed a terrorist attack or mass murder. The investigation will hold people to account, Bonner insisted almost inaudibly amid the commotion. He was repeatedly asked why arrests had not already been made. I cant give you a commentary. It would risk jeopardising the investigation and losing prosecutions down the line, he responded. Every single question you ask will be answered. The investigation was recovering vast troves of data and had identified 60 companies and organisations involved in the construction, refurbishment or management of the building. The scale of this investigation is why it will take so long. Give me the space to conduct an effective investigation and judge me at the end of it. Bonner said a team of about 250 officers was working on the criminal investigation. Attempting to illustrate its scale, he said the team would interview about 650 firefighters, 300 police officers, 255 Grenfell fire survivors and residents of the Lancaster West estate where the tower is sited.

Hmm. Im not seeing any members of the Grenfell Towers governance structure on that interview list. Surely an accidental omission?

(4) Inability to generalize to larger systems issues, again(Im guessing) a happy by-product of the complexity. From The Independent:

Shadow housing secretary John Healey criticised the Government for being too slow to reassure residents, claiming the safety check process is in chaos. He also condemned the Department for Communities and Local Governments (DCLG) failure to list buildings that failed the combustibility testing carried out in the wake of the North Kensington blaze that killed at least 80 people. Speaking ahead of the debate, Mr Healey said: It is totally unacceptable that four weeks on from the Grenfell Tower fire ministers still dont know and cant say how many other tower blocks are unsafe Too slow to grasp the complexity of the help survivors need and too slow to reassure residents in 4,000 other tower blocks across the country.

(5) A system stacked against the public, by a process called regeneration by its advocates (and social cleansing by those it affects. The Financial Times explains:

Londons regeneration: the backdrop to Grenfell rage Regeneration sounds like a sensible concept: knocking down old and tired housing estates and replacing them with larger, denser developments that feature a mixture of affordable and luxury flats. The latter carry the cost of the former, which is particularly appealing at a time when government budgets are tight. The idea has been championed in various forms by both Labour and Conservative governments as a way to fund new homes in a city that is desperate for them. It has gained particular momentum in recent years as property prices have surged across the capital and austerity has strained public finances. Last year, David Cameron, then prime minister, pledged to demolish nearly 100 so-called sink estates as part of an anti-poverty blitz. The concept is seductive to councils, she argues, because they can cash in on the property boom by selling land to developers while, at the same time, washing their hands of the responsibility of maintaining ageing estates. But as developers run into higher costs and delays, they often petition to reduce the affordable component of their projects. In 2015, members of the London Assembly found that the regeneration of 50 estates over the preceding 10 years had led to a net loss of 8,000 socially rented homes. This depletion took place even as the total number of homes on the sites almost doubled. So many property investors have flooded in that regen has become its own asset class

So its entirely rational for tenants to think theyll be displaced by regeneration, and that their own local governments are siding with property developers against them:

Along the way, social housing has increasingly become the refuge of societys poorest and most vulnerable. That tends to make such properties even more of a burden to manage, giving local councils greater incentive to let them run down and then sell them to developers. The temptation is particularly great in Kensington and Chelsea, where an influx of foreign buyers has helped make property among the most expensive on the planet.

And that brings me back to the image I placed at the beginning of this post: Where is the money going? The image comes from a question wall posted under the Westway, presumably by an activist, and the Guardian FAQ answers many of those questions. But the Guardian doesnt answer Where is the money going?. That strikes me as odd, especially given that regen, including regeneration at Grenfell Tower, is an asset class. One would think that relationships between KCTMO, the Council, and any potential future investors in Grenfell Tower would be a topic for investigation. I cant find any material on it. UK readers?

Where is the money going? Do the many Councillors who resigned have any ideas?
Scientists use DNA to store digital movies inside living cells (w/video)

(Nanowerk News) Researchers are developing ways to harness DNA, the blueprint of biological life, as a synthetic raw material to store large amounts of digital information outside of living cells, using expensive machinery. But what if they could coerce living cells, like large populations of bacteria, into using their own genomes as a biological hard drive that can record information that can be accessed anytime? Such an approach would not merely open entirely new possibilities of data storage but could also be engineered further into an effective memory device capable of recording, in a chronological fashion, the molecular experiences of cells as they develop or as they get exposed to stresses, such as infections and pathogens.

In 2016, a team from Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering led by George Church built the first molecular recorder based on the CRISPR system that allows cells to acquire bits of chronologically provided, DNA-encoded information to generate a memory of them in the genome of bacteria as a cell model. The information, stored away as an array of sequences in the CRISPR locus can be recalled and used to reconstruct a timeline of events.

However, as promising as this was, we did not know what would happen when we tried to track about a hundred sequences at once, or if it would work at all, said Seth Shipman, a research fellow in genetics working with Church. This was critical since we are aiming to use this system to record complex biological events as our ultimate goal.

The new CRISPR technology enables the recording of digital data, like those presenting successive frames of the movie of a galloping horse, one of the first made ever, in a population of living bacteria. (Image: Wyss Institute)

Now, in a study published July 12 in Nature ("CRISPRCas encoding of a digital movie into the genomes of a population of living bacteria"), the same team shows in proof-of-principle experiments that the CRISPR system, developed further as a first-of-its-kind approach, is able to encode in living cells information as complex as a digitized image of a human hand, reminiscent of some of the first paintings drawn on cave walls by early humans, and a sequence of one of the first motion pictures ever made, that of a galloping horse.

The CRISPR system helps bacteria fend off a constant onslaught of viruses in their different environments. As a memory of survived infections, it captures viral DNA molecules and generates short, so-called spacer, sequences from them that are added as new elements upstream of previous elements in a growing array located in the CRISPR locus of bacterial genomes. The CRISPR-Cas9 protein constantly resorts to this memory to destroy the same viruses when they return. Besides Cas9, which has become a widely used genome engineering tool, other parts of the CRISPR system, however, have so far not been exploited much technologically.

In this study, we show that two proteins of the CRISPR system, Cas1 and Cas2, that we have engineered into a molecular recording tool, together with new understanding of the sequence requirements for optimal spacers, enables a significantly scaled-up potential for acquiring memories and depositing them in the genomeas information that can be provided by researchers from the outside, or that, in the future, could be formed from the cells natural experiences, said Church, who also is the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at HMS. Harnessed further, this approach could present a way to cue different types of living cells in their natural tissue environments into recording the formative changes they are undergoing into a synthetically created memory hotspot in their genomes.

In this video, Wyss Institute and Harvard Medical School researchers George Church and Seth Shipman explain how they engineered a new CRISPR system-based technology that enables the chronological recording of digital information, like that representing still and moving images, in living bacteria. (Video: Wyss Institute)

To approach complex information on much larger scales, the team resorted to still and moving images because they represent constrained and clearly defined data sets while a movie offers the additional opportunity to have bacteria acquire information frame-wise over time.

We designed strategies that essentially translate the digital information contained in each pixel of an image or frame as well as the frame number into a DNA code, that, with additional sequences, is incorporated into spacers. Each frame thus becomes a collection of spacers, said Shipman, the studys first author. We then provided spacer collections for consecutive frames chronologically to a population of bacteria which, using Cas1/Cas2 activity, added them to the CRISPR arrays in their genomes. And after retrieving all arrays again from the bacterial population by DNA sequencing, we finally were able to reconstruct all frames of the galloping horse movie and the order they appeared in.

While realizing this new concept of molecular recording, Shipman, together with second-author Jeff Nivala, a research fellow in genetics at HMS, identified a valuable set of requirements in their analysis that make spacer sequences likely to be more easily acquired and defined sequence features that prevent their acquisition into growing CRISPR arraysthe dos and donts of spacer design.

In future work, the team will focus on establishing molecular recording devices in other cell types and on further engineering the system so that it can memorize biological information. One day, we may be able to follow all the developmental decisions that a differentiating neuron is taking from an early stem cell to a highly specialized type of cell in the brain, leading to a better understanding of how basic biological and developmental processes are choreographed, said Shipman, who is also mentored by neurobiologist and co-author Jeffrey Macklis, the HMS Max and Anne Wien Professor of Life Sciences and Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University. Once adapted to specific paradigms, the approach could also lead to better methods for generating cells for regenerative therapy, disease modeling and drug testing.
Find the newest releases to watch from National Geographic on Disney+, including favourite documentary series and films Free Solo, The Rescue, Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth and The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
Plans are now being made for the annual Fr. Colm O'Brien Memorial Cycle, which takes place on Saturday August 12th.

This year's cycle, in memory of Fr. Colm from Waterford, who served as a curate in Ss Peter and Paul's parish in Clonmel and Tramore, will support Laura Lynn, Ireland's children's hospice.

The first route of 60 kilometres from Clonmel to Tramore departs from Ss Peter and Paul's church at 11am, while the second route of 10 kilometres will travel from The Kingfisher, Tramore Road, Waterford to Tramore at 12.30.

Fr. Colm passed away in September 2009 at the age of just 36, having spent eight years in Clonmel before being transferred to the Holy Cross parish in Tramore.

The annual cycle is now in its eighth year and participant numbers continue to grow.

It attracts hundreds of cyclists each year who experience a fun and rewarding day, while at the same time fundraising for some very worthy causes. To date, thanks to the public's support, more than 75,000 has been raised for those good causes.

For further information visit the website FrColmOBrienMemorialCycle.com

There's also a Facebook page of the same name and a Twitter feed @MemorialCycle
Independent TD Mattie McGrath challenged the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, on Tuesday to clarify the steps he is taking to address what he describes as 'the ongoing crisis in rural GP Practices'.

Deputy McGrath was speaking ahead of a Dail debate that he requested on foot of a report that shows 666 GPs are currently over the age of 60, including 244 over 65:

I have been warning the Minister, and his predecessor, Taoiseach Varadkar, about the impending crisis in rural GP Practice for the last number of years.

We are now even closer to the cliff edge, where the viability of GP services in significant areas of the country are at stake.

Cavan, Clare, Dublin, Kerry, Offaly, Tipperary, Cork and Wexford all stand to lose at least 25pc of GPs in the next 7 years.

That is a crisis by any definition of the term.

One frustrating aspect of this saga is that the government could immediately address some of the burnout issues that are confronting a significant number of GPs by reviewing the implementation of the Free-Under 6 GP Scheme.
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(Natural News) A court in El Salvador has recently sentenced a 19-year-old rape survivor to 30 years in prison after suffering a still birth due to pregnancy complications. The rape survivor, Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez Cruz, was charged with aggravated homicide under the countrys anti-abortion law. As per local reports, Hernandez Cruz was convicted on grounds of failing to get prenatal care.

However, local rights groups noted that Hernandez Cruz was raped months before going into labor. The groups also said that she did not notify the police of the incidence due to fear. Hernandez Cruz allegedly did not know that she was pregnant when she experienced severe abdominal pain and fainted in her bathroom in April last year. Hospital staff purportedly reported her to the authorities upon discovering the body of the fetus in a toilet.

The judgment sentencing Evelyn to 30 years in prison shows how in El Salvador justice is applied without direct proof, without sufficient evidence that clarifies what a woman has done. In this case, Evelyn did not kill her newborn child. She simply experienced an obstetric emergency and the state prosecutor has badly interpreted the facts and unfortunately the judge hasnt listened to the witnesses that told her there was no direct proof. Were going to appeal this decision. Luckily, we still have recourse within the judicial system that  as weve demonstrated in other moments  can be effective so that women unjustly sentenced like Evelyn can regain their freedom, said Morena Herrera, executive director of the Citizens Group for the Decriminalisation of Abortion.

El Salvadors anti-abortion law draws flak from various human rights groups

Hernandez Cruz sentence was not a first for the country. In fact, El Salvador-based Alliance for Womens Health and Life documented at least 147 cases of women being charged under the countrys strict abortion law between 2000 and 2014. One of them was Maria Teresa Rivera, who was given a 40-year sentence for aggravated homicide in 2011. Like Hernandez Cruz, Rivera was not aware of her pregnancy when she suffered a stillbirth in her bathroom on the said year. Rivera was eventually released in 2016.

El Salvador is one of five countries that penalize abortion in all cases. The countrys anti-abortion law was implemented in 1998, and holds women accountable for murder and other related charges even when their pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. The law also penalizes women and girls who undergo abortion due to life-threatening conditions. Under the countrys anti-abortion law, women may be sentenced between eight and 40 years in prison. (Related: Abortion To Be Labeled Child Abuse In Alaska If Landmark Measure Passes)

A large number of human rights groups have denounced the law. According to Amnesty Internationals Americas director Erika Guevara-Rosas, El Salvadors retrograde anti-abortion law goes against human rights and has no place anywhere. Human Rights Watch expressed a similar sentiment, calling the law a risk to womens life and health. A group of experts from the United Nations has also called on El Salvador to allow abortion under specific circumstances.

The criminalization of the termination of pregnancy imposes an intolerable cost on the women, their families and the society. It restricts womens access to sexual and reproductive health services and information. [El Salvadors abortion law is] contrary to international human rights standards and violates the countrys international obligations, U.N. experts said.

Sources include:

Independent.co.uk

AlJazeera.com
(Natural News) Human-induced pollution has greatly affected the Greenland ice sheet and the whole Arctic region over the last few decades.

Back in the late 1950s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Camp Century, an army base located just below the surface of the ice sheet. The cavernous army base, big enough to accommodate up to 200 people, was home to trucks, tunnels, and even a nuclear reactor. Disguised as a research station, the army base utilized the region as a test site for deploying nuclear missiles. However, when the ice sheets started shifting, the army was forced to abandon the camp in 1967, leaving behind radioactive cooling water, diesel fuel, human waste, and other toxic compounds while accumulating snow and ice buried the camp.

Fast forward to recent years and the problem on the remaining toxic wastes persists. In fact, a study published last year found that the rapidly shifting and melting Arctic ice caps may well reveal the army base by the end of the century, potentially exposing the people to a plethora of toxic chemicals and pollutants long buried in the ice. The already worsening global warming is also expected to generate more cracks on the Greenland ice sheet, an expert cautioned.

According to the expert, toxic water from chemicals and pollutants long buried in the ice may find its way to cracks and crevasses in the ice sheet. Once there, the melted water may seep through the ice sheet, worsening contamination though under-ice channels, before eventually reaching the oceans. (Related: Banned toxic pesticides are locked up in frozen sea ice, warn scientists)

The study also found that the army base was developed under a treaty between the U.S. and Denmark, which holds jurisdiction of Greenland. With the treaty raising legal concerns, it remains unclear who should be held responsible for the remaining toxic wastes, the researchers said.

Study sheds some positive light on ice sheet toxicity

A recent study spearheaded by researchers at the University of Greenland found that the Greenland ice sheet has in fact become a large reservoir of toxic chemicals over the past decades. According to the experts, these globally-emitted contaminants include mercury, lead, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, (PAH) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB).

Globally emitted contaminants accumulate in the Arctic and are stored in the frozen environments of the cryosphere, essentially meaning they have become reservoirs of toxic chemicals. Our understanding of how biological processes interact with contamination in the Arctic is limited, which is why we hope our study represents a large step forward in the understanding and solving of this problemMore attention needs to be paid to the potential release of anthropogenic contaminants in this fast-changing environment. As the ice sheets melt due to climate change, they have the potential not only to increase sea level, but also pollute the environment around them through the release of other anthropogenic pollutants that have accumulated in them, lead researcher Dr. Aviaja Hauptmann told ScienceDaily.com.

On a positive note, the researchers also found that ice samples taken from different parts of the region contained microbial communities that have the potential to resist, and even degrade, the toxic pollutants. The microbial potential to degrade anthropogenic contaminants, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and the heavy metals mercury and lead, was found to be widespread, and not limited to regions close to human activities, Dr. Hauptman added.

Sources include:

NPR.org

ScienceDaily.com
(Natural News) For seven years, the European regulators have been investigating Googles business practices and the companys overarching dominance in searches and smartphones, reports The Guardian. Unlike the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), who opted not to pursue any similar charges in 2013, EU regulators found that Google artificially and illegally pushed its own price comparison service in searches and slapped a record 2.42bn fine, or $2.7 billion. The ruling also includes demands that Google stop these activities within three months, as well as give an explanation of  how it will reform its ways. If they dont, they could face fines up to 10.6m a day.

Margrethe Vestager, as reported by Bloomberg, is the popular Danish politician in charge of making these decisions as the EUs directorate for competition. Shes been in the ring before with large corporate entities. In late summer of 2016, Vestager was instrumental in ruling that Apple, Inc. pay Ireland $14 billion in back taxes and interest after she concluded that Apple had been granted these benefits illegally. Current cases on her plate include investigations into McDonalds and Amazon, which are being looked at in their tax deals with Luxembourg.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was most displeased by Ms. Vestagers ruling. He called it total political crap. Since U.S. Treasury department officials usually get their way, shes not real popular with them either. Theyve accused her of being a supranational tax authority. But the name calling and U.S pressure doesnt dissuade Vestager from diligent investigation. Her work philosophy holds that maxim that a well policed economy yields the largest and most widespread benefits for society.

Google officials disagreed with Ms. Vestagers assessment of their business practices and were, at first, considering an appeal. But recent comments to CNBC indicate that Google may just pay the fine with the suggestion that an appeal might not work. That may be true. After looking at over 1.7 billion searches in the EU investigation, it was evident that those ubiquitous Google algorithms were found to consistently give prominent placement to its own comparison shopping services. European business were, in a very visceral way, simply being shut out. Vestager was clear in her decision that EU companies suffered losses due to this unfair dominance:

What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation.

Breitbart reports that Vestager has been accused with bias, a charge that she denies. The fine she has imposed against Google is the highest ever, exceeding a $1.9 billion fine handed out in 2009 to chip maker Intel. The fine levied on Google wont really do much to their bottom line. They are holding $92 billion in cash and an additional $56 billion in various accounts outside of Europe. But the push back against the global technological titan could be a boon for other businesses, and alternate search engines, as well as entities like the Health Ranger Store, which offers a superior line of products, to have a shot at some fair competition.

Sources include:

TheGuardian.com

Bloomberg.com

Cnbc.com

Breitbart.com
(Natural News) Beginning July 12, 2017, the first robot lawyer in the world will be providing free legal counsel across the entire United States. The countrywide availability of the advice-dispensing chatbot follows hot on the heels of its success in Seattle, New York, and the United Kingdom, its country of origin. In those areas, its helped overturn about 375,000 parking ticket convictions worth an estimated $10 million in the two years since its inception.

DoNotPay is the brainchild of British entrepreneur and Stanford University undergraduate Joshua Browder. The inspiration behind DoNotPay stemmed from Browders own experiences with parking tickets. Speaking to Telegraph.co.uk, Browder explained: I was the worst driver you can imagine and over the course of months I got about 30 tickets. So I became this accidental witness to the system, I was endlessly copying and pasting documents. As a technologist, I thought, this is the perfect thing a bot can do.

From providing assistance with parking tickets, DoNotPays capabilities have been upgraded to deal with all kinds of legal problems that involve a single-page document. These range from disputes with landlords over security deposits, to credit card fraud, to work harassment.

To use DoNotPay, one only needs to use Facebook Messenger or the DoNotPay website to type in their legal concerns. From here, the IBM Watson-powered artificial intelligence machine will ask a series questions before giving out an answer to your legal dilemma. DoNotPay can even draft letters with formality levels that can be easily adjusted, as well as file complaints to regulators.

Though DoNotPay is currently unable to aid in lengthier, more complex processes like divorce and bankruptcy, Browder stated that that would be the next hurdle he would have to overcome. I want to provide a free service for processes where youd pay a lawyer huge amounts of money. I really think the law should be free, Browder noted.

In a separate statement to TheVerge.com, Browder remarked that one of his biggest concerns was competing with actual lawyers. The legal industry is more than a 200 billion dollar industry, but I am excited to make the law free, Browder commented. Some of the biggest law firms cant be happy!

Browder acknowledged that even though DoNotPay may not be the first technology that specifically caters to the legal industry, it already has numerous advantages over patronizing those who are employed by legal firms. The primary one is that, since DoNotPay is free, its not subject to certain regulations that control the sales of legal advice.

He then added that DoNotPay would be as beneficial to government officials as it is to ordinary people. I think governments waste a huge amount of money employing people to read parking ticket appeals. DoNotPay sends it to them in a clear and easy-to-read format. Everybody can win. (Related: R2-D2 night watchman robot unveiled for patrolling schools, neighborhoods and more)

Through his continuing efforts, Browder hopes to level the playing field and allow everyone the same legal resources as the wealthiest members of society.

Visit Robotics.news for other stories about artificial intelligence.

Sources include:

TheVerge.com

Telegraph.co.uk
(Natural News) A secret tunnel may have been built under the Pyramid of the Moon, which is the second-largest pyramid in San Juan Teotihuacan in Mexico, after Pyramid of the Sun, archaeologists at the Teotihuacan ruins site said.

Denisse Argote Espino, who heads a team of experts at the Directorate of Archaeological Studies of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, said computerized tomography (CT) scans made last June of the site showed the existence of a straight cavity that was 30 feet (10 meters) deep that plunged into the center of the large square called Plaza de la Luna into the Pyramid of the Moon.

The researchers injected electric current into the subsoil and determined the resistance of the materials found there; after that, they used the data they had collected to create 2D and 3D models of the tunnel.

Archaeologist Veronica Ortega, who is the Teotihuacan Archaeological Zone deputy technical director and the leader of the Plaza de la Luna conservation project, said the tunnel may have been constructed as a passageway to an underworld, noting, The function of the tunnel may have been to reproduce the underworld, a world where life, animals, and plants originated. Its possible that it was used purely for rituals, as part of ceremonies to celebrate the agricultural cycles.

Ortega was talking about human sacrifices.

Archaeologists are divided as to the political landscape of Teotihuacan. Some said the civilization probably gave focus to a strong leadership, as evidenced by the existence of pyramids in their culture, while others were of the opinion that the tribe focused on the collective, due to the citys grid-like structure.

For the researchers who believed that Teotihuacan was ruled by one man, they gathered evidence from descriptions of him by some people of the Mayan culture, and said he was probably called Spearthrower Owl.

Around 125,000 people lived in Teotihuacan between 100 B.C. And 750 A.D. The city of the Teotihuacan civilization had been the sixth biggest in the world at that time.

No garrisons or military bases were found near the entrance to the Teotihuacan site, which probably meant that it was safe from outside interference from warriors of other tribes. Be that as it may, the civilization eventually collapsed and evidence that it was sacked and burned to the ground around the year 500 A.D. showed.

The Aztecs claimed the land for their own around the 14th century and were the ones who gave names to the temples and pyramids, such as the Pyramid of the Moon. Teotihuacan was designated as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site in 1987.

The Pyramid of the Moon, which was located at the northern mouth of the Calzada de los Muertos, was elevated by the land and was the highest point in the complex. It was built in seven stages between 1 A.D. and 450 A.D. and was 150 feet (46 meters) high and had a base of 550 feet (168 meters) square. Twelve small pyramid platforms flanked it  these mini-pedestals were believed to have been the areas where early residents stationed themselves to watch the sacrificial rituals, which started happening around 200 A.D.

The Pyramid of the Sun and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent also had tunnels that were unearthed in the 1970s. Although the Pyramid of the Suns tunnel was found to have already been looted, the temples tunnel was discovered to have seeds, pottery, and bones. (Related: Archaeologist discover ancient tombs filled with actual GIANTS unusually tall and strong people once roamed the planet)

Nearby Mesoamerican city of Tlaxcallan

Researchers said the nearby Mesoamerican city of Tlaxcallan, which was built in 1250, had a senate of around 100 men. However, candidates to the senate had to endure excessive public beatings, a long starvation period, and years of study and training. Tlaxcallan, which is now Tlaxcala in Mexico, was governed by the rule of the collective, researchers said.

Lane Fargher of Purdue Univeristy in West Lafayette, Indiana said Teotihuacan was built like a huge grid, in which no indications of a clear hierarchical predilection for structure was very evident, and that common houses were erected beside public plazas, noting, Right in front of a very public space. In any other Mesoamerican site, next to the principal plaza youd have an enormous palace. Here we have a pretty humble house.

Read more stories such as this one at discoveries.news.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

IBTimes.co.uk

LiveScience.com

IFLScience.com

DailyStar.co.uk
(Natural News) On its website, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, says its mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate all hazards.

If that seems overly broad and even a little vague, thats most likely by design. Because the fact is, its not possible for the federal government  or state or local governments  to adequately plan, fund and staff for major regional disasters or national emergencies.

Now, thats not to say that smaller disasters  a tornado, localized flooding, limited social unrest  cannot be managed by state or federal agencies. In fact, state agencies, especially, handle situations like these nearly every week. America is a big country, and something is going on that local emergency and disaster response personnel must deal with all the time.

But its those major disasters and large-scale emergencies that state and federal agencies say they train for and are the reason why the exist that they are most unable to handle.

Take a look at a few case studies in recent years to get an indication as to how unprepared  and inept  state and federal agencies are in handling major disasters.

Remember Hurricane Katrina? The Bush administration, and President George W. Bush, in particular, were hammered over the federal governments wholly inept and slow response, despite the fact that everybody had about a weeks notice the storm was approaching.

As reported by PBS in September 2005, shortly after Katrina made landfall and devastated much of New Orleans while damaging other Gulf Coast cities, the resulting failure to respond rapidly and effectively earned FEMA some of the harshest criticism the agency has ever faced.

It wasnt as if the agency should not have been ready. Created by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and elevated to a Cabinet-level position in 1993, then incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security a decade later, the agency has been around for a long time. Its entire purpose of existence is major disaster response. And while the agency does defer to state and local agencies for initial disaster response, FEMA is supposed to provide rapid, effective backup after receiving a request for assistance from a governor and regional FEMA director.

The agency failed miserably in the aftermath of Katrina, PBS noted:

The delayed federal response to Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast has led many officials, including President Bush, who called the initial response not acceptable, to question FEMAs preparedness for a natural disaster.

The obvious fact is that Hurricane Katrina was an enormously powerful and destructive act of nature. It certainly wasnt caused by any government, Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut told the public broadcaster. But government failures preparing for and responding to Hurricane Katrina allowed much more human suffering and property destruction to occur than should have. That is the sad and stunning fact.

Then-Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco made a timely request to Bush for a disaster declaration and FEMA assistance, but the internal bureaucracy of the agency slowed any real response.

We wanted helicopters, food and water. They wanted to negotiate an organizational chart, Blancos press secretary Denise Bottcher told reporters at the time. (RELATED: 5 Survival lessons we can learn from people who havent had power in their homes for hundreds of years.)

In 2012, when the agency was again called upon to respond to Superstorm Sandy, which devastated large swaths of New Jersey and New York, many of the same problems were still evident. As Breitbart News reported in November 2012:

Massive FEMA supply chain failures have resulted in shortages of bottled water, food, gasoline, shelter, power and clothing across New Jersey and metropolitan New York, where victims of Hurricane Sandy are angrily calling President Obamas response no betterand in some regards worsethan President Bushs handling of Hurricane Katrina seven years ago.

Whats the point? Only that when it comes to disasters, the only way you and your family are going to be taken care of is if you do it yourselves.

Too much bureaucracy on the federal level coupled with inadequate supplies, personnel and response equipment on the state level guarantees that any large-scale disaster will tax the available systems and resources tasked to respond to them. That leaves you out in the cold  or heat, depending on the time of year.

If you were on the fence about starting a prepping program of your own, hopefully this little history lesson will help you decide its the right thing to do.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com

PBS.org

Bugout.news
An Airbnb host who made a racial remark after cancelling a Bay Area woman's reservation has been ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and attend a college course in Asian American studies.

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing said Thursday the host also agreed to apologize.

The guest, Dyne Suh of San Francisco, had reserved a home in Big Bear in February through Airbnb. The host later canceled the reservation as Suh was driving to the home.

The host, Tami Barker, said it was because Suh was going to have additional guests. Barker wrote in a message to Suh, "One word says it all. Asian."

Suh said she hoped the settlement encourages others to report discrimination.

A message left at a number listed for Barker in public records wasn't immediately returned.
The iconic sign of running immigrants posted on Interstate 5 in San Diego now borders on being extinct, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The yellow sign features a silhouette of a family running with "CAUTION" looming over their heads. Authorities installed 10 signs during the 1990s to warn drivers of immigrants crossing the freeway.

Over 100 people were struck and killed on the freeway in prior years, prompting officials to create and post the signs, according to the Times.

In 1986, Department of Homeland Security reported that 628,000 people were detained at the border. Last year, that number lingered just under 32,000.

Since their installment, the warning has represented a much larger idea for all who came across it. For designer John Hood, he hoped that the image would tug at the heart, the Times reported. Others have since reimagined the sign by altering the familys appearance. Even street artist Banksy recreated the image, anchoring a kite to the running father's hand.

The other signs slowly disappeared after being dispersed along the road, stated the Times - a consequence of car accidents and graffiti.

While it is unknown how much longer the image will be standing, there are no plans to replace it, according to the Times. Even after the sign disappears from the side of the freeway though, the outline will continue to survive as a photo instillation at the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C.
The family of an American with ties to the Bay Area says he was killed by ISIS troops in Syria.

Robert Grodt, who was born in Mountain View, was a self-proclaimed activist who joined a military effort in Syria to fight against terrorist organizations. He was five months into a six-month deployment when he died.

Grodt's mother, Tammy Grodt, in an interview with NBC Bay Area on Thursday said she received a heart-breaking phone call from the State Department notifying her that her son was killed in Syria last week.

Tammy Grodt said she will never fully understand why her son traveled to Syria, but she is proud that he died fighting for a noble cause.

"That we do things that are meaningful. That we do things for other people," she said. "I think it's important that we help out and speak up and don't tolerate the mistreatment of others."

Spike Murphy worked with Robert Grodt at a non-profit organization in Santa Cruz several years ago. He described his friend as an inspired man who devoted his life to helping others.

"You don't have to agree with his politics, but he did this because he wanted to make the world better for everyone," Murphy said.

Grodt leaves behind a 4-year-old daughter and fiancee.

Friends have set up a GoFundMe page.
A disgruntled former nursing student was sentenced Friday to life in prison for killing seven people at a Northern California vocational college five years ago.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Horner gave One Goh, 48, seven life sentences without the possibility of parole. He then tacked on 271 years to life for the shooting deaths at a nursing school in Oakland in April 2012.

In May, Goh pleaded no contest to killing the seven and injuring three others during the rampage at Oikos University.

Goh had been eligible for the death penalty before his plea deal.

Goh walked onto the campus with a .45-caliber handgun. He took a receptionist to a classroom where he fatally shot her and six students and wounded three others.

He then stole a car belonging to one of his victims and drove to a nearby grocery store and surrendered to employees, who called police.

Criminal proceedings were halted when Goh was found mentally unfit to stand trial in early 2013 and sent to a state-run psychiatric hospital for criminals and suspects where he received treatment for paranoid schizophrenia. In April, doctors determined he was sane enough to stand trial, reinstating the criminal proceedings.

Investigators say Goh plotted to kill an administrator who refused to refund Gohs tuition after he quit the Christian college. Unbeknownst to Goh, that administrator had resigned shortly after he dropped out.

Doctors testified that Goh falsely believed administrators and teachers were conspiring against him.

His lawyer, David Klaus, said Friday his client is remorseful.

Mr. Goh hopes his life sentence will bring some degree of closure to all those who were effected, Klaus said.

Family and friends of those killed or injured also spoke up.

"I can't understand why a piece of s__ over there can take away a loving women, said Kaine Ping, brother of Kathleen Ping who was killed in the massacre.

Michael Howey, longtime boyfriend of Grace Kirika who was wounded, called Goh a coward.



"You should've decided to use the gun on yourself. You deserve everything coming to you and I hope you rot in prison," he said.



Camilla Seymour, daughter of Judith Seymour who was murdered, said she still gets nightmares.



"Before this I was getting my masters. Your honor, I can't sit in a classroom without thinking something is going to happen to me," Seymour said. "I'm trying to be strong for my mom's family and friend but it's hard. I feel like so many people forgot about this tragedy. I feel like after my mom died, instead of my family coming together, it split us apart."
Rep. Brian Dempsey, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee who was widely viewed as a likely successor to Speaker Robert DeLeo, announced Thursday he will be leaving the Massachusetts Legislature to join a prominent lobbying firm.

The Haverhill Democrat has served in the House for more than 25 years and was named by DeLeo in 2011 to head the committee that writes the House version of the state's $40 billion annual budget and reviews scores of bills before they are sent to the floor for debate.

ML Strategies said Dempsey will join the firm's Boston office in September as senior vice president and chief operating officer.

Dempsey said in a statement that he was moving on to a new chapter in his life and called it an "incredible honor" to serve his constituents in elective office. He was a Haverhill city councilor before winning election to the House.

DeLeo, a Winthrop Democrat, called Dempsey a close friend and colleague, noting the two entered the House together in 1991.

"In terms of the job he did as chair of Ways and Means, he's been one of the best I have ever seen at it," DeLeo told reporters. "He will be deeply missed by all of us here, but it appears to be a great opportunity for him and his family."

Before the surprise announcement certain to rock the state political establishment, Dempsey had been considered the most likely heir apparent to DeLeo, based on their close relationship and Dempsey's considerable knowledge of legislation and the inner workings of the House.

DeLeo has been speaker since 2009 and hasn't given any indication he's prepared to relinquish the post anytime soon. In 2015, he engineered a change in legislative rules to eliminate an eight-year term limit for speakers, enabling him to be re-elected in January to another two-year term as House leader, his fifth.

On Thursday, DeLeo said he planned to run for his seat in 2018 but had not thought ahead to how much longer he wished to remain as speaker.

Other key members of DeLeo's leadership team include Majority Leader Ron Mariano, of Quincy; Patricia Haddad, of Somerset, who holds the title of Speaker Pro Tempore; and assistant majority leaders Byron Rushing, of Boston, Paul Donato, of Medford, and Michael Moran, of Boston. Dempsey's departure could also leave the door open for a dark horse candidate to emerge as the speaker's eventual successor.

Recently, Dempsey was the lead House negotiator in talks that produced a compromise with the Senate on an overdue $40.2 billion budget for the fiscal year that started July 1. A shortfall in state tax collections forced lawmakers to slash revenue estimates in the budget by $733 million, and spending by at least $400 million. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker is reviewing the spending plan.

State lobbying law includes a one-year "cooling off period," meaning Dempsey will be prohibited during the first 12 months of his new job from directly lobbying state legislators on any issue.

Stephen Tocco, chief executive of ML Strategies, called Dempsey a "dynamic leader with a track record for success." The firm, with offices in Boston and Washington and an array of high-powered clients, also employs former Republican Gov. William Weld.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has issued a State Disaster Proclamation for Kane, McHenry, and Lake counties after flooding in the region.

The governor issued the declaration to "continue state support to communities as they recover from the recent heavy rains," according to the proclamation.

The proclamation directs IEMA (Illinois Emergency Management Agency) Director James K. Joseph to acitvate the State Emergency Operations Center to coordinate requests for assistance for flood-impacted communities.

Rauner warned of potential evacuations in Lake County while touring flood damage in the area Friday morning, two days after the county declared a state of emergency as rising rivers continued to threaten suburban communities.

"This is dangerous and the danger has not gone away," Rauner said. "We may be calling for evacuations in certain neighborhoods and certain communities as the flood waters continue to rise."

The governor and Illinois Emergency Management Agency Director James Joseph arrived in the area just before 11 a.m.

"Folks think, 'Well its not raining anymore, things are just fine or theyre getting better'- theyre not," Rauner said. "In fact for many of our communities and for residents along the river the crest still has not arrived"

Flood Warnings remained in effect along the Des Plaines and Fox Rivers Friday . As of 4:45 a.m., the National Weather Service reported the Des Plaines River at Lincolnshire was at 16.2 feet and officials expect it will continue rising to near 17 feet by Saturday afternoon. Flood stage is 12.5 feet.

"Please if your local officials call for you to evacuate your home please honor their request," Rauner said.

Lake County declared a state of emergency late Wednesday night, with County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor saying "severe flooding has created a disaster" and "widespread flooding has "compromised roadways and other public works infrastructure."

Rauner said no death or injuries have been reported so far in the floods, but added that at least 6,800 buildings were damaged.

"We are very, very fortunate," he said, echoing earlier warnings to drivers and residents to stay off flooded roadways and sidewalks.



Homes and businesses in numerous suburbs were surrounded by sandbags as residents rushed to keep the rising waters at bay.

Several roadways remained shut down in the area Friday morning.

Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital had its power restored after evacuating some of its patients amidst concerns over power outages and flooding in the area, the medical facility reports. Still, the hospital will remain closed for clinical operations Friday, but a limited number of physician offices were expected to reopen for scheduled appointments only.

Our primary goal is to assure the safety of our patients and staff, the facility wrote on its website.

See a full list of closures in the area.
Federal officials have located a Connecticut doctor accused of fleeing the country after being named a suspect in an investigation into what authorities are calling the largest ever health care fraud enforcement action by the federal Medicare Fraud Strike Force in the country.

Dr. Bharat Patel, 70, of Milford, and 47-year-old Dr. Ramil Mansourov, of Darien, are accused of running a pill mill and selling prescriptions for drugs, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, to addicts and drug dealers, who would then sell the drugs on the streets.

In all, 412 defendants have been charged across the country, including 115 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for alleged participation in health care fraud schemes involving approximately $1.3 billion in false billings.

Patel was arrested at his Milford home Wednesday, has been detained and is scheduled to appear in court on July 17.

Federal authorities were searching for Mansourov, who they believed fled to Canada. He was taken into custody at a Marriott in Montreal Thursday.

The local investigation began after allegations that the two doctors might be writing prescriptions outside the scope of legitimate medical practice.

Patel and Mansourov operated out of Family Health Urgent Care, at 235 Main Street in Norwalk, which is closed until further notice.

Some of those addicts they are accused of selling to referred to the defendants medical practice as The Candy Shop, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Patel owned the previous practice, which was known as Immediate Health Care, and sold it in 2012 to Mansourov, who renamed it, according to the United States Attorneys Office.

Authorities said Patel regularly provided prescriptions for narcotics, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, to patients he knew were addicted or had been arrested for distributing or possessing controlled substances.

On several occasions, he sold the prescriptions to patients under the table for $100, including to some who used a state Medicaid card, then distributed the drugs, officials said.

In some instances, Patel wrote prescriptions for people who were not his patients in exchange for cash, federal officials said, and Mansourov provided Patels patients with unnecessary prescriptions.

In 2014 alone, more than $50,000 in cash was deposited into Patel and his wifes bank accounts and some of that money went to buy the house Patel currently lives in, according to federal authorities.

These two doctors are charged with violating their oaths and recklessly prescribing highly addictive painkillers, U.S. Attorney Deidre Daly said in a statement. Dr. Patel is alleged to have regularly sold to addicts solely for his own profit. Many of these patients filled the prescriptions using state healthcare benefits, and then turned around and sold the pills on the street, contributing to our devastating opioid epidemic.

Mansourov is accused of defrauding the states Medicaid program of more than $4 million between November 2013 and December 2016 and moving some of that money to a bank account in Switzerland.

He is accused of billing for home visits he never made, billing for nursing home visits he never made, billing for office visits that never happened and billing for visits that he claimed took place on dates on which he was actually out of state or out of the country, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Too many trusted medical professionals like doctors, nurses, and pharmacists have chosen to violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement about the nationwide crackdown.

Amazingly, some have made their practices into multimillion dollar criminal enterprises. They seem oblivious to the disastrous consequences of their greed. Their actions not only enrich themselves often at the expense of taxpayers but also feed addictions and cause addictions to start. The consequences are real: emergency rooms, jail cells, futures lost, and graveyards. While today is a historic day, the Department's work is not finished. In fact, it is just beginning. We will continue to find, arrest, prosecute, convict, and incarcerate fraudsters and drug dealers wherever they are, Sessions added.
A former employee at a Connecticut grocery store has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for his role in a $3 million food stamp fraud scheme.

Tallat Mahmood, 64, of Waterbury, pleaded guilty to unlawful use of food stamp benefits in federal court. In addition to his prison term, he was ordered Wednesday to pay $1.5 million in restitution.

A federal agent, with help from an informant, went undercover for nearly two years to document Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program fraud at the W.B. Trade Fair Supermarket.

Authorities said store employees, including Mahmood, illegally allowed customers to swap their food stamps for cigarettes and glass smoking pipes. Sometimes customers were allowed to cash in their benefits for half of their value.

On April 7, Raul Carlos Monarca-Gonzalez, also an employee at WB Trade Fair Grocery, was sentenced to 30 months of imprisonment and restitution of approximately $1.5 million for his role in this scheme. A third employee of the store accused of being involved in this scheme, Tahir Shahzad, also pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31.
The Chinese version of The Spirit of Cities 2: Inclusion and Identity. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"Because of its rapid urbanization, in China, cities are emerging as a very important part of a person's identity," says Daniel Bell, sitting comfortably in a chair, legs crossed, wearing an oversize suit jacket.

In fact, although people tend to refer to their nationality, he says their strongest sense of belonging is often to a city.

"It means attachment to particular communities," he says.

Bell, from Canada, says this is significant as it can moderate extreme and closed-minded forms of nationalism.

A political science professor, Bell has lived and worked in a number of cities, including Montreal, Oxford, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and most recently Jinan city in Shandong province, and he is the co-author of the book The Spirit of Cities 2: Inclusion and Identity with his friend Israeli Avner de Shalit, a political science professor from Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Bell and De Shalit met each other at Oxford University in the 1990s. At that time, they found they shared a similar intellectual outlook and forged a close friendship.

Bell is a professor in the Department of Philosophy of the Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University in Beijing and dean of faculty of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University in Jinan, where he moved earlier this year.

In the newly released Chinese version of the book, Bell mentions Qufu, the city in Shandong that was hometown of Confucius, as a good example of a city promoting its spirit.

"Qufu, as you probably know, has a very strong Confucian culture," Bell says. "It attracts many visitors, which has helped the local economy grow."
Connecticut State Police have arrested a 20-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.

Matthew Noto, 20, of Stafford, was charged with sexual assault of a minor and risk of injury to a minor.

According to the arrest warrant, the investigation began in June when one of the victims classmates came forward and told police that a classmate told her about a relationship with an older boy. The witness said that her classmate was 12 and that she thought the boy was maybe 17 or 18.

When police spoke to the victim, she told them she had sex with Noto once and they did not use a condom. The victim told police that Noto told her not to tell her friends that they had sex.

The arrest warrant states that when police spoke with Noto, he admitted to having sex with the victim, but said he thought she was 15 going on 16.

Noto was arrested Thursday. His bond was set at $5,000 and is due in court on July 24.
A Trinity College professor who was placed on leave after his social media posts sparked threats against the school will resume teaching in January 2018 and the school determined that his commentary is protected by academic freedom.

On June 21, Professor Johnny Williams shared a June 16 controversial article from Medium.com on his Facebook and Twitter pages, according to President and Trinity College professor Joanne Berger-Sweeney on June 21. That article encouraged readers who see bigots in life-threatening situations to do nothing.

That prompted threats to the school.

Williams has apologized for threats made to the campus and said he wanted to bring awareness to white supremacy and never intended to invite or incite violence.

After the backlash and threats, Trinity College reviewed Williams actions and college policy and determined that the professors actions and words were protected by academic freedom and did not violate Trinity College policies.

A statement from Berger-Sweeney says Williams will be on leave throughout the fall semester, by mutual agreement, to provide some time and distance from this recent controversy and to allow him to continue his scholarship on race, racism, and academic freedom.

She went on to say threats of violence against Williams, his family and Trinity campus have shaken the college community.

Let me be clear: While I support Professor Williamss right to express his opinions, as I have previously stated, I do not condone the hashtag he chose to use. This was interpreted by some to be a call to let people die, though Professor Williams stated publicly that was not his intent. Nevertheless, the words used in that hashtag not only offend me personally, they also contradict our fundamental institutional values and run counter to our efforts to bridge divides and to promote understanding, both among members of our College community and between us and members of communities beyond our own, Berger-Sweeney said in a statement.

Later this summer, Trinity will launch a program, on and off campus, that fosters civil discourse and cements Trinity as a community of learning that values differences and promotes understanding.

The board of trustees also released a statement, commending the college leadership for quickly undertaking a thoughtful, thorough, and balanced review.

While not all of our community members will agree with the outcome of the review, we do support the tenets of academic freedom that are critical to an institution of learning. The strength of Trinity College is evidenced in the passion and depth of feeling we all have for this great institution, Cornelia Parsons Thornburgh, chair of the board of trustees for Trinity College, said in a statement.

Williams' attorney, Todd Steigman said Friday that Trinity came to a proper decision, but that the school didn't go far enough.

"Although the Deans Review concluded that there are no grounds to institute disciplinary action against Professor Williams, Trinity College has still not sufficiently acknowledged that it improperly disciplined Professor Williams by placing him on an involuntary leave of absence and publicly reprimanding him," Steigman said in a statement. "It is also disappointing that the statements issued today by the College not only fail to apologize for the actions taken against Professor Williams, but that the President continues to publicly castigate Professor Williams for statements that she and the College recognize are protected by the First Amendment and principles of academic freedom and are not a proper basis for disciplinary action."

The ACLU also released a statement about the college's decision:

Colleges and universities do not have to be passive in the face of controversial speech. We are heartened that Trinity College has noted its intent to continue broader campus conversations about free speech and the racial and political divides that split our nation.

We commend Trinity Colleges decision to uphold free speech in the face of controversy. We understand the deep concerns expressed over Professor Williamss Facebook posts. In the face of todays polarized climate, it is vital for universities to maintain equitable learning environments for all students, while upholding the free expression of students and faculty alike," David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut, said in a statement.

"This incident was fundamentally about a professors ability to freely express his political views on his personal social media page. It is clear that Professor Williams was not attempting to incite violence or making individualized threats, and it does not appear that he was discriminating against students in the classroom. The response to his posts has also shown that many people have conflated Professor Williamss own words with those included in a blog post to which he linked.

"While there may be better ways to draw attention to the very real problem of white supremacy, Professor Williamss choices to use an offensive hashtag, link to a controversial article, and express his political views on his personal Facebook page were protected free speech.

"Colleges and universities do not have to be passive in the face of controversial speech. We are heartened that Trinity College has noted its intent to continue broader campus conversations about free speech and the racial and political divides that split our nation.


Some DFW brides have hit a major roadblock in their path to the alter. Wedding dress company Alfred Angelo filed for bankruptcy leaving brides and employees blindsided.



Across the country, 62 Alfred Angelo stores are suddenly closing after being in business for more than eight decades.



When Sarah Bliss first walked into the Frisco location, she met the perfect person to help her find that perfect dress  assistant manager, Kathy Udvarhely.



You could feel it in her soul. Like, all she wanted to do was help me find this dress that was going to make me feel beautiful, said bride-to-be, Bliss.



Now, about 130 days out from walking down the aisle, she's not sure what she'll be wearing.



It's really sad for the brides, but it's really sad for them too because they don't have answers to give these brides that they spend days trying to make happy, she said.



Udvarhely said she learned about the bankruptcy Thursday morning.



We went there and we tried to pack up every dress that's in that store, whether there was a balance on it or not, she said.



Udvarhely said her team raced the clock to move orders, without boxes from the company.



We had to tape paper envelopes together, said Terri Broussard, another Alfred Angelo's employee.



Udvarhely said the company had been sending new dresses, pushing 50-percent off sales, without explaining why.



I found out from a friend in Florida that they already knew and we didn't, she said.



Now they're left crushed, confused and financially strapped, just like some of the brides.



I understand that they're upset. We tried everything, but no one reached back out to us from corporate. They just washed their hands of us, too, Broussard said.

Bliss said she hopes people understand the employees are sorry. Shes only upset at the company.



Alfred Angelo corporate did everybody really wrong and they should be ashamed of themselves, Bliss said.



NBC 5 made several attempts to reach the companys lawyer listed on the Frisco locations door. So far, those calls have not been returned. Its unclear who will be getting their dresses. Many orders may still be shipped to customers. Some Frisco shoppers could get theirs soon. If orders were placed recently, if may be worth calling your credit card company to cancel.



The chain's two other North Texas stores  in Garland and Arlington  did not have obvious signs they were shut down when NBC 5 cameras stopped by early Friday morning.

Pennsylvania-based David's Bridal posted on Facebook that Alfred Angelo customers can show a receipt and get discounted wedding and bridesmaid dresses. Read more here.



NBC 5 Responds using the Consumer Complaint Form found online HERE.

This is the information Alfred Angelo listed on the door:

Patricia A. Redmond, Esquire

Stearns Weaver Miller

150 West Flagler Street

Miami, FL 33130

(305) 789-3553

predmond@stearnsweaver.com


The man accused of killing a Dallas mother of three in 2015 has been arrested in Mexico and has been escorted to Texas to face charges, authorities said.

Faustino Lara Valdez, 36, was arrested Wednesday in Durango, Mexico, by Mexican immigration agents, according to the FBI and Dallas police.

Valdez, a U.S. citizen, is suspected of killing 34-year-old Marisol Espinosa, who was last seen alive Dec. 29, 2015. Her remains were found about two months later under a bridge near Dowdy Ferry Road in southeast Dallas.

"I'm feeling very mixed emotions. I'm excited that they caught Faustino, but that won't bring Marisol back," Espinosa's aunt Monica Garza said. "But justice will be served."



Officials in Mexico told Telemundo 39 that immigration authorities were conducting a routine check at a factory where Valdez worked. They said Valdez was arrested because he didn't have documentation.

A photo released Thursday by Mexican officials showed Valdez on a flight back to Dallas. As of Friday morning, he had been booked into the Dallas jail. His bond was set at $1 million.



Valdez was indicted for murder in Dallas County in April 2016, but he was nowhere to be found. Authorities said he fled to Mexico shortly after being interviewed by investigators.

Mexican authorities worked in coordination with the FBI legal attache office at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City to locate Valdez, and they said he was arrested with incident.
A woman says Arlington police offered to drop charges against her two teenage sons in exchange for cellphone video she shot that she says shows an officer needlessly pushing her older son to the ground and arresting him.

The Next Generation Action Network, a Dallas-based group that lobbies against police violence, posted the video on its Facebook page Wednesday. That video can be seen below in this article.

Dominique Alexander, a spokesman for the group, said the boys' mother, Latasha Nelson, alleges that police took her cellphone while making the July 3 arrests and that when she tried to get it back, they offered to drop the charges in exchange for the video.

He said the video was backed up to the cloud, which enabled her to let the group post it online.

Full statement regarding the misconduct allegation against an Arlington Police Officer. Posted by Arlington Police Department on Thursday, July 13, 2017

Thursday afternoon, Arlington police said in a statement posted to Twitter and Facebook that officers were called to the Addison Park Apartments after witnesses described two teens breaking into a vehicle. Police said officers found a teen matching the description provided and detained him -- the video in question, police said, starts at that point.

<strong>Warning: Coarse Language.</strong> A woman says Arlington police offered to drop charges against her two teenage sons in exchange for cellphone video she shot that she says shows an officer needlessly pushing her older son to the ground and arresting him. The video was released by the woman, identified as Latasha Nelson, and the Next Generation Action Network.

The video shows officers taking Nelson's handcuffed 14-year-old son, identified by the family as Trayvon, into custody for questioning about the burglary.

As the squad car pulls away with the boy in the back, Nelson asked where they were taking him. The lead officer refused to tell her and said she had "become uncooperative."

Attorney Kim Cole said as Nelson continued to plead with the officer for information on where her son was being taken, her other son, 16-year-old Broderick, stepped beside her to console her.

Cole said the officer then stepped toward Nelson and her son while radioing for backup and saying he had "a mother out here that is interfering in my investigation." While it's unclear where Broderick is in the video, he enters the frame being forced to the ground by the officer.

The Next Generation Action Network holds a news conference to discuss the case of a July 3 incident involving Arlington police.

Broderick was arrested for obstructing police operations. The family says neither teen has been charged.

Nelson said Thursday that she didn't learn where her sons had been taken until about eight hours after their arrests.

"When you sit here and tell me you're going to take my son somewhere and not let me know, it didn't have to escalate like that. I just wanted to know where he was going," Nelson said.

Arlington police addressed the allegation of misconduct Thursday afternoon in posts on social media.

"After reviewing the video, there are many questions that will require a thorough investigation," the department said. "As with any allegation of misconduct, we take this seriously. We want to maintain our position of transparency with our community by doing a complete and thorough review. This will include speaking with the family and officers involved in the video.

A woman is asking for an Arlington police officer to be fired after she released a video of the officer arresting her two sons earlier this month.

On behalf of the family, the NGAN is asking that Nelson's confiscated phone be returned, that the officer who made the arrests be fired and that he be prosecuted for official oppression.

"The Next Generation Action Network is outraged with the continuation of police misconduct in the City of Arlington and we are demanding that the Chief of Police and the Mayor of this city respond to this issue and drop all charges and return all property to the mother. We are also asking for a formal apology and that the officer to be charged with official oppression and terminated," Alexander said in a statement Thursday.

Arlington police said the officer remains on duty and that the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
With a military parade on the Champs-Elysees and a gilded tour of France's most storied monuments, French President Emmanuel Macron laid on the charm as he positioned himself as the indispensable intermediary between Europe and Donald Trump.

The Bastille Day demonstration on Friday capped two days of Parisian glitz for Trump and his wife, who were Macron's guests of honor in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of America's entry into World War I.

Thanking the United States for the decision that turned the tide of a devastating conflict, Macron said the Trumps' presence on France's national holiday "is the sign of a friendship across the ages."

Macron made a point of detailing both the long history of ties between France and America and the areas where he and Trump disagree. But he made clear it was in the spirit of bluntness with a friend and ally, even offering a conspiratorial wink during a joint news conference.

The two-day visit beginning Thursday featured a personal tour of the golden-domed Invalides monument and a private dinner high in the Eiffel Tower prepared by chef Alain Ducasse himself.

Trump had front-row seats at the reviewing stand Friday, applauding during the hours-long parade carried out under blue skies as various French military units marched past. At one point, Trump saluted a combined group of U.S. Army and Navy troops and Marines taking part in the annual event.

Macron and Trump both came to office as unlikely outsider candidates. The youngest president of modern France  and the same age as Donald Trump Jr.  Macron started his own political movement just over a year ago. He won strong parliamentary majority and is riding high in the polls.

The flattering French visit gave Trump a respite from his troubles at home, and he amended the opinion of a friend he calls Jim, who believes that "Paris isn't Paris any longer" because of the blight of Islamic extremism.

Asked about Jim's criticisms Thursday, Trump deflected and said Paris was "going to be just fine" because France now has a "great" and "tough" president. At Macron and Trump's first encounter in May, the two shared a white-knuckle handshake that the French president said was intended to show he was no pushover.

As Friday's visit ended, the men embraced and then the arm wrestling seemed to begin anew. As Trump walked to his motorcade, he gripped Macron's hand firmly, pulling the smaller man off-balance and held fast as they walked together toward their wives.

Still, both seemed to minimize their differences, said Spencer Boyer, former national intelligence officer for Europe and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

"President Macron was highly skilled at putting President Trump at ease and avoiding any land mines that would have derailed the show of unity," Boyer said. "Macron was especially adept at sidestepping questions about U.S. political controversies, which Trump clearly appreciated."

Although the welcome may have taken some of the sting out of their first encounter, Macron's amiable meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier in the day showed the balance Macron appears to be striking.

With Merkel, he emphasized their agreement on nearly every issue as well as their joint development of a fighter jet.

The German leader said there was no getting around interdependence in the 21st century. "Europe alone cannot win the war on terrorism," Merkel said.

"There is no divergence between France and Germany in the manner of treating President Trump," Macron added.

Still, the German chancellor, who was less than a block from the U.S. Embassy when Trump was ensconced inside, left the presidential palace before she and Trump could cross paths.

Trump left open the possibility that he would reconsider his decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord  the main source of disagreement with European Union governments. But he said if it doesn't happen, "that will be OK too."

Macron's ability to firmly acknowledge his differences with Trump are part of modern French tradition. His invitation to Trump was "a way of illustrating the history of France and America, allied but not aligned," said Thomas Gomart, director of the French Institute for International Relations.

Trump's parting tweet showed a photo of the two men looking out over the Champs-Elysees, standing shoulder to shoulder during what the American described as a "magnificent #BastilleDay parade."
Authorities on Friday filed murder charges against Cosmo DiNardo and Sean Michael Kratz in a case that centers on the killings of four young men one week ago on a Bucks County farm owned by DiNardos family.



DiNardo, 20, is charged with all four homicides and 20 other counts, including abuse of corpse, conspiracy and robbery, according to court documents. Kratz, 20, faces 20 counts, including three of criminal homicide.

"I feel a lot of sadness," Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said while announcing the charges Friday. "I feel relief. I feel so proud of my team, and I feel resolve. We have so much more to do to bring justice to this case."

DiNardo and Kratz, described as cousins in the criminal affadavit, are charged in the slayings of four men between July 5 and July 7 on the 70-acre DiNardo family farm in Solebury Township. Kratz is charged for three of the murders, while DiNardo faces charges for all four.

At an arraignment Friday afternoon, both men entered pleas of not guilty.

Bucks County District Court Judge Maggie Snow scheduled the men's preliminary hearings on July 31 and set no bail. She also ordered that they be held in separate prisons out of concern for their safety.

[PHOTOS]Timeline: Murder of Four Young Men in Bucks County, Pennsylvania

On Thursday, in what his attorney called a "full confession," DiNardo admitted to authorities that he'd been involved in killing all four men, who were identified as Dean Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown Township; Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, Montgomery County; Tom Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township; and Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township.

"We have brought four young men one step closer to their loved ones so that they can rest in peace," Weintraub said.

Patrick was shot to death by DiNardo on July 5 as the two were alone on the farm, according to the affadavit. DiNardo told authorities that he and Patrick had arranged to meet on the farm for a marijuana drug deal, but once Patrick had arrived, DiNardo fatally shot him instead. He said he used a backhoe to dig the hole in which he buried Patrick's body.

The other three victims were killed July 7 in two separate incidents at the farm, both of which were under the guise of a drug deal, according to the affadavit.

Kratz and DiNardo had planned to rob Finocchiaro after luring him to the farm, but he was shot in the head by Kratz, the affadavit said. Later in the day, the two met up with Sturgis and Meo and shot them to death in a similarly sudden manner, the charging document said.

After killing Finocchiaro, Sturgis and Meo, DiNardo and Kratz put their bodies into a large container  what DiNardo called a "pig roaster"  and burned them using gasoline, according to the affidavit.

On Thursday, DiNardo's lawyer announced that his client had admitted to the killings and was cooperating with investigators. Kratz was arrested later the same day, authorities said.

Kratz, who is linked to addresses in the Oxford Circle section of Philadelphia and in Upper Dublin, was taken into custody by Philadelphia police late Thursday. Detectives from Bucks County also searched a property on Susquehanna Road in Upper Dublin linked to Kratz.

DiNardo, shackled and clad in an orange prison jumpsuit, said: "I'm sorry," as he was escorted to a sheriff's van Thursday.

Katy Zachary

Meo's grandfather, Chuck Meo, told an NBC News producer that crews found the remains under a blue tarp after lifting out a tank.

Newtown Township Police, Middletown Township Police

Bucks County District Attorney's Office

A lawyer for the DiNardo family released a statement on their behalf on Wednesday before crews had discovered the men's remains.

"As parents, Mr. and Mrs. DiNardo sympathize with the parents and families of the missing young men and they are cooperating in every way possible with the investigation being conducted by law enforcement," the family attorney wrote.

DiNardo's mother declined requests for comment after her son's arrest Thursday.



Bucks County District Attorney's Office

The DiNardo estate consists of three separate parcels that Cosmo DiNardo's parents, Antonio and Sandra DiNardo, of Bensalem, purchased between 2005 and 2008 for a combined nearly $6.5 million.



Unlike neighboring estates, the DiNardo property has no name markers at the main entrance on Lower York Road. Only a broken mailbox with fading numbers marks the driveway. On the other side of the property, along Aquetong Road, a small and crumbling white house stands near the roadside.

NBC10 journalists Deanna Durante, Rosemary Connors, Randy Gyllenhaal and Katy Zachry contributed to this report.
An Airbnb host who canceled a reservation and told the guest, "One word says it all. Asian," has agreed to pay a $5,000 fine and attend a college course in Asian-American studies, officials with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing said Thursday.

The guest, Dyne Suh, had booked the home as part of a ski trip with her fiance and friends in Big Bear in February. When she was close to the house, Suh messaged host Tami Barker through the Airbnb app, but the host canceled the reservation after a dispute over additional guests.

Barker told Suh in a series of messages that she wouldn't rent to her if she were the last person on Earth.

"One word says it all. Asian," one of the messages said.

When Suh told Barker that she would complain to Airbnb, Barker wrote, "It's why we have Trump ... I will not allow this country to be told what to do by foreigners."

Suh, who posted an emotional video about the incident on YouTube, has said she'd agreed to pay $250 per night to rent the home and later asked Barker if two other friends could also stay at the house, which Barker agreed to. Suh sent Barker screenshots of text messages where she agreed to the additional guests, but Barker canceled the reservation.

As part of an agreement with state officials, Barker also agreed to personally apologize to Suh and perform community service at a civil rights organization.

A message left at a number listed for Barker was not immediately returned. Her attorney, Edward Lee, said his client was "regretful for her impetuous actions and comments" and is pleased to have resolved the matter.

Suh said in a statement posted on Facebook that she was pleased the settlement included Barker's agreement to attend an Asian-American studies course and hoped the settlement would encourage others to report discrimination.

"I hope that more victims of discrimination will feel encouraged to come forward with their own stories," Suh wrote. "Your pain is not insignificant and you are not alone."

Associated Press writer Janie Har contributed to this report.
It was a chaotic scene at a Southwest Florida Chick-fil-A Tuesday as animal rights activists clashed with customers and employees during the fast food chain's annual Cow Appreciation Day celebration.

Customer Tina Lealock posted a video to Facebook showing the group of advocates rallying inside the Pinellas Park Chick-fil-A with customers and employees inside. Some demonstrators wore cow and chicken costumes with fake blood splattered on their clothes. One protester was seen carrying what appeared to be a fake knife as the group chanted, "It's not food; its violence!"

Some parents were outraged by the group, including Lealock. She wrote in her Facebook post that some activists went too far when they pretended to cut costumed demonstrators in front of children eating at the restaurant.

People running in with knives, bleeding. Like bleeding on their shirts and just bloody knives. It scared the kids, Nichole Kretchmar said.



One woman is seen on video yelling at the protesters, "Why y'all acting like this? Stop!" Other patrons screamed, "Get out!"

The group eventually left the restaurant before police officers arrived.

Tampa NBC 6 affiliate WFLA reported that the group was part of Direct Action Everywhere Pinellas, an organization that opposes eating meat or anything else from animals.

People might be upset, but I think that putting it out on the table and showing people, like this is the reality of where the animals are coming from and how bad the animals are suffering, spokeswoman Kayla Leaming told WFLA.
The continent should be pragmatic about implementing labor and environment laws, says Chinese academic

Chinese academic Li Xiaoyun believes it is important that Africans do not put up unnecessary barriers to attracting manufacturing jobs leaving China.

It is estimated by the World Bank that China could shed 100 million low-skilled manufacturing jobs over the next few decades.

But the professor of development studies at China Agriculture University believes whether Africa gets a significant proportion of these depends on how attractive a location it is for investors. The vast majority of jobs are currently going to Southeast Asia.

"The number of jobs China eventually releases could be as much as 20 to 30 percent of Africa's effective workforce.

"The problem for Africa is that it has some of the highest standards of labor protection, with labor unions very protective and similar to those in Britain and the US, as well as high standards of environmental protection."

Li, who was speaking at the Hilton Addis Ababa after the first day of the Africa-China High-Level Dialogue and Think Tank Forum addressing poverty in Africa, says there is nothing wrong with setting safeguards but there is a need for more pragmatism.

"I would say it is a huge barrier. It could, in fact, be the only barrier. They can have this political correctness and there is nothing wrong with that but it can also be a rich man's ideology."

Li says one of the problems for Africa is that it has become enmeshed in an aid culture, which has put in place a wide range of standards that in the end do not benefit the people.

This culture, he argues, is partly the result of the World Bank and aid agencies having too large a control over much of Africa's recent development.

"They are what I call a psuedo safety net concept and they do not really help," he says.

Li believes Ethiopia, whose government has strong links with Beijing, has adapted the right approach to attracting Chinese manufacturers.

One of the biggest manufacturing success stories is Huajian, the Chinese shoemaker which set up operations in 2012 and now employs 6,000.

"Huajian is exactly the model that Africa should learn from. They are taking advantage of what Justin Yifu Lin (the former chief economist of the World Bank and an advocate of African industrialization), says is their comparative advantage, which is labor.

"If this is your advantage you need to create an environment where labor can be employed. This can then generate what I call inclusive growth and then you could have poverty reduction."

Before the forum, a Financial Times report highlighted World Bank data that showed manufacturing shrinking from 7.8 percent of gross value added, or GVA - an alternative measure of national output - in 1997 to 4.1 percent in 2015.

"It is actually not declining but it is not growing as fast as other sectors. You have sectors like telecommunications and transportation growing faster. Manufacturing might be growing by 7 to 9 percent a year but as a percentage of GDP it is becoming actually lower."

Li insists industrialization holds the key to poverty reduction across Africa because it is labor intensive and provides jobs.

"Telecommunications and sectors such as mining are highly capital intensive and do not hire a lot of people."

Li, 55, from Dingbian in Shaanxi province in the Northwest and whose father was a Party official and mother a teacher, did a bachelor's degree in soil science and agronomy at Ningxia University.

He then went to Beijing to do his master's and doctorate at China Agriculture University, where he studied crop science and ecology.

Following his studies, he worked as a research scientist for the government at the Research Center for Development of the State Council.

He later studied at the Catholic University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands before returning to China Agriculture University in 1994 as a professor of development studies and he has remained there ever since. He was also dean of the College of Humanities and Development there until 2014.

Li, who has written numerous research papers and regularly attends conferences, makes numerous trips to Africa every year, advising on agriculture projects.

He believes his scientific background gives him particular expertise in the whole area of development studies.

"It has given me a lot of advantages. I understand a lot about meteorology and soil sciences. I can say to people that they can't plant this because the soil is not right.

"People ask me how I know this and I say to them that I am a scientist and it is very basic. Like ABC, you know."

He is known for his hands-on approach and has been the team leader of a number of agriculture and poverty reduction projects in Africa.

He has done extensive work, in particular, in the Morogoro region of Tanzania, where he has worked with local farmers.

"I worked in one village, where they were producing three or four bags of maize per acre. I told them that I was an ecologist and that they needed to increase plant density. Within five years they were producing 20 to 25 bags an acre," he says.

He says this is a completely different approach than that of the World Bank or the African Union.

"They would just say that there needs to be investment in fertilizers and irrigation to do this, but there just isn't the money for that. You can organize farmers into communities where they can have their own water collection systems, their own small canals. It is so simple and there is no need for really big investment."

Li, a spry, wiry figure, works closely with the farmers in their own communities and likes the contact with local people.

"I find this work very interesting. I don't actually stay in the villages because you can easily contract malaria. I stay in very remote and often not very good local hotels," he laughs.

Li believes many of the problems Africa now faces relate to the colonial period when many African countries were run by European powers.

"There was very little in the way of industrialization and agriculture was not very developed. You had these very little colonial economies within the countries that just basically hired local labor. It was often about just transporting raw materials out to Europe."

The academic insists the experience was very different in white Commonwealth countries of Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

"These were not really colonies but settler economies. People settled there and invested in infrastructure and there were genuine technology transfers. When the colonizers left Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, the (indigenous) people who were left didn't know how to manage anything. There was no industry anyway and no manufacturing."

Li says that, in contrast, China pioneered irrigation techniques more than 2,000 years ago during the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) and that by the time of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) had quite advanced agriculture.

"Chinese agriculture was very much green crop-centered, such as wheat and rice, basically food crops. Because Africa is mainly tropical, the main crops were dry, like bananas, cassava and millet. Maize is quite new to Africa," he says.

Li says China's strong agriculture base meant it could also build the foundations of an industrialized economy and this is something that has been a problem for many African countries.

"This is the big difference between China and Africa. China began industrializing from the 1950s onward."

One of the focuses of the debate at the Addis Ababa forum was the book, Up and Out of Poverty, a collection of speeches and articles by the President Xi Jinping when he was Party chief of Ningde prefecture of Fujian province almost 30 years ago.

"One of the principles of the book is the importance of self-reliance and that is something that Africa needs to think about. It has been used to being supported by aid and other initiatives and this is very bad."

Contact the writer at andrewmoody@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 07/14/2017 page8)
Controversy surrounded rocker Roger Waters Thursday night concert at American Airlines Arena as pro-Israel protesters rallied against the Pink Floyd co-founder.

Fans at Thursdays show were greeted by a roaming message that read Say no to racist attacks against Israel by Roger Waters.

The ad is by the group StandWithUs Southeast in response the Pink Floyd co-founder's criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinians. The rocker called the anti-Semitism accusations malicious.

The outrage against Waters was enough for the City of Miami Beach to pull the plug on a performance by a groups of teens set to share the stage with Waters.

Kimberly Rodriguez Lepp attended the concert without her husband, who is Jewish and refused to go.

I love the music and even though he might be anti-Israel and anti-Trump, he's still a great artist and I'm going to support his art," Lepp explained. He's been to Israel many times, he loves it, and it just hit home and he's just totally like no way."

The Greater Miami Jewish Federation said anti-Semitism and hatred were not welcomed in Miami and called on sponsors to pull out of the concert.

The group released a statement that read in part: "Mr. Waters, stop using your musical platform to spout venomous and hateful rhetoric, employing anti-Semitic symbols and anti-Israel language during your performances."

Twelve drama participants from the Miami Beach Parks and Recreation Teen Club were set to perform with Waters part of a concert night tradition, but those plans were canceled by the City of Miami Beach amid accusations of anti-Semitism.

"In light of recent information surrounding this event, the Miami Beach Parks & Recreation Teen Club will no longer be participating," the city said in a statement Thursday. "Miami Beach is a culturally diverse community and does not tolerate any form of hate."

In an interview with CNN before the show, Waters said he's never had that happened and denied being an anti-Semite. He added that he wanted to be a voice to the oppressed.

StandWithUs/Southeast said in a statement that Waters: "Is clear about the support for the boycott campaign against Israel, which does not promote peace, does not create a better life for Palestinians, and whose agenda is the destruction of the state of Israel."

Some of the kids set to perform Thursday night were with a local non-profit called Ayuda. The CEO called the situation unfortunate because she said the teens were excited for the performance.
A South Florida woman accused of stalking a local doctor for more than 30 years told police she will never give up when she was arested Wednesday, police said.

Tamarra Nichols, 67, violated a restraining order protecting the doctor, who the suspect has stalked for the past three decades, police said. Nichols has been arrested numerous times in the past for persistently calling the victim and showing up to his Aventura clinic.

During Thursday's bond court hearing, Nichols burst into laughter when a judge set her bond. She also called her arrest a "complete scam."

"It's been a hostage situation and I've been taken under to confront you and tell you the truth about what has happened. I have mastered immortality with two others. Two very brave men," Nichols told the bond court judge. She added that she's been dead for 30 years.

It was revealed in court that Nichols told police she will never give up. The suspect is seen on video mouthing the words "I will never give up" to the judge. She also told the judge she plans on calling the victim once she gets out of jail.

The 67-year-old was ordered held on $2 million bond. The judge also ordered house arrest and a GPS monitor for Nichols should she bond out of jail. Nichols is listed as homeless on the arrest report.

On Wednesday, the suspect walked into the doctor's clinic after calling the victim incessantly two days before, an arrest reports said. The doctor fears for his safety and the safety of his family, specifically because Nichols mentioned the doctor's son in voicemails, according to the arrest report.

NBC 6 spoke with the doctor who said Nichols was never a patient of his and he doesn't know why she targets him.
A sinkhole that started out the size of a small swimming pool and continued to grow in Florida swallowed a boat, destroyed two homes and prompted officials to evacuate residents from about a dozen homes Friday.

Dramatic video showed the home in Land O' Lakes, north of Tampa in Pasco County, collapsing into the hole Friday morning. It quickly engulfed one home and a boat and then consumed about 80 percent of another home, said Kevin Guthrie, Pasco County's assistant county administrator for public safety.

By Friday afternoon, the hole stretched up to 250 feet wide and 50 feet deep, and threatened to damage a third home, Guthrie said.

Pasco County Fire Chief Shawn Whited told reporters that no one was home when crews responded to a call about a "depression" under a boat in the backyard of a house in Lake Padgett Estates in Land O'Lakes. Within minutes, he said, "the hole opened up" and the boat fell in.

Firefighters were able to get two dogs out of the home and retrieve some belongings before the first home started collapsing into the quickly expanding hole.

"This is people's lives. They have everything in that house. The house that I went into, the elderly woman was in a walker, so we wanted to make sure we got medications  things that she needed," Deputy Jay Murphy said.

No injuries have been reported.

Sheriff Chris Nocco said that within roughly 30 feet of the sinkhole, the ground was soft underfoot and felt like it was moving.

"Walking down the street, you can see in people's eyes the anxiety level. They're fearful," Nocco said.

The sinkhole had been dormant for about 90 minutes Friday night when Nocco addressed members of the media, but officials were cautious because it's the rainy season. A fence was being erected around the sinkhole. The scene is being considered a hazardous materials incident because of possible septic tank issues and building debris.

"We're all wondering what's going to happen next. We can't control this. This is mother nature," said the sheriff, who added that plenty of rescue crews were on standby to evacuate residents quickly, if necessary.

Eleven homes were evacuated, including the two destroyed. County property records show there was a sinkhole at the property where the first house was swallowed up, and that it had been stabilized in 2014. The home was sold in 2015, according to records. Messages left for its owner were not immediately returned Friday.

Sinkholes are stabilized by boring holes into the ground and injecting concrete.

Records also show a sinkhole was stabilized at the partially destroyed home in 2007. Two sisters renting that home with four other family members said they had left the house early Friday and returned to see their neighbor's home falling into the sinkhole.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that Edilia and Theresa Villa and their relatives had time to retrieve important documents and six dogs from their house before officials declared it unsafe. Theresa Villa's 15-year-old daughter, Thalia Chapman, told the newspaper the family moved into the home after arriving from Cuba about a decade ago.

Officials say Duke Energy cut power to about 100 homes in the neighborhood. The American Red Cross is assisting residents who've been displaced.

Guthrie said he was concerned that if the sinkhole continued to grow, it would damage septic tanks that could pollute a nearby lake.
The survivors of a 1940 roundup of Romanian Jews called are finally being given access to pensions under an agreement negotiated with Germany, NBC News reported.

Around 15,000 people died in the Iasi Pogrom, which was planned by Romanian and German officials.

Survivor George Herscu, 90, was 13 at the time. He escaped death by hiding in a cornfield, but his father didn't survive. He told NBC News that "justice is done" for the "barbaric way" his father died on a transport train.

Germany refused to compensate the Iasi survivors for years in the same way it compensates other survivors. But now the Iasi survivors who meet the criteria will receive pensions of about $400 a month and are eligible for more home car services.
What to Know The 73-year-old former New York Assembly speaker was convicted of federal corruption charges in November 2015

A federal appeals court overturned the Democrat's conviction, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from last year involving Bob McDonnell

Prosecutors say they will retry Silver, who held his powerful Assembly job for more than two decades

A federal appeals court has overturned the corruption conviction of former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, citing in its Thursday decision a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from last year that raised the standards prosecutors must use when they accuse public officials of wrongdoing.



Silver, 73, was convicted on Nov. 30, 2015 of honest services fraud, extortion and money laundering in a $4 million kickback scheme. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison but has remained free during the appeal process.



The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in question involved former Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, whose corruption conviction was reversed when the high court narrowed the definition of the type of official misconduct on which such prosecution can be based.



Lawyers for Silver had made the McDonnell ruling a key component of their appeal. And while the federal appeals court said in its opinion Thursday that there was sufficient evidence to prove Silver's guilt, it found issue with jury instruction related to the definition of an official act. The judge in Silver's case had defined it as "any action taken or to be taken under color of official authority," which "was erroneous under McDonnell," the appeals court said.



A properly instructed jury may not have convicted Silver, the court said.



"Though we reject Silvers sufficiency challenges, we hold that the District Courts instructions on honest services fraud and extortion do not comport with McDonnell and are therefore in error," the opinion said "We further hold that this error was not harmless because it is not clear beyond a reasonable doubt that a rational jury would have reached the same conclusion if properly instructed, as is required by law for the verdict to stand."



Attorneys for Silver said they were pleased by the court's decision.



"We are grateful the court saw it our way and reversed the conviction on all counts," attorneys Steven Molo and Joel Cohen said in a joint statement.

Prosecutors said they were disappointed by the ruling, but looked forward to retrying the case.



"We look forward to presenting to another jury the evidence of decades-long corruption by one of the most powerful politicians in New York State history," Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon Kim said in a statement. "Although it will be delayed, we do not expect justice to be denied."



Silver led the Assembly for more than two decades before he became the centerpiece of one of New York's steepest political falls from grace. He resigned his seat when he was convicted.

More than 30 other state lawmakers have left office under a cloud of criminal or ethical allegations since 2000, including Silver's former state Senate counterpart, Republican ex-Majority Leader Dean Skelos.

Prosecutors said Silver came to trade his office for $4 million in kickbacks from a cancer researcher and real estate developers. They said he amassed more than $2 million in assets and arranged to receive a $70,000 annual pension from the state.
The People's Liberation Army officially established its Djibouti Logistics Support Base on July 11, according to a news release from the PLA Navy.

Troops designated for the base in the Horn of Africa left for the facility, the first of its kind for the Chinese military, after a departure ceremony at a naval port in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, the Navy said.

The PLA Djibouti Logistics Support Base, located in the city of Djibouti, the African nation's capital, is a result of friendly negotiations by the governments of China and Djibouti and is in the interests of the two peoples, the PLA Navy said.

The base will support the Chinese military's naval escort, peacekeeping and humanitarian missions in Africa and western Asia, the news release said. It will also help China to improve its capabilities in international military cooperation, joint exercises, emergency evacuation and overseas rescue.

Additionally, the base will enable the nation to better safeguard with other countries the safety of international strategic maritime passages, it said.

Vice-Admiral Shen Jinlong, commander of the PLA Navy, announced an order on the base's establishment and conferred a flag to the base garrison at the ceremony.

The troops are carried by two ships - the CNS Jinggangshan, an amphibious landing craft, and the CNS Donghaidao, a semi-submersible support ship, the news release said.

Pictures of the departure ceremony released by the Chinese Navy show that the commander and political commissar of the base are two male officers with a rank of senior captain, which means the base is likely to be of the division level.

In November 2015, the Chinese military confirmed for the first time its interest in having a "support facility" in Djibouti. At the time, Wu Qian, a Defense Ministry spokesman, told a news conference that China was in talks with the African nation on the matter.

In February 2016, Wu said the two sides had reached an agreement on the base and construction had begun.

In November, Yang Yujun, another spokesman for the ministry, said China plans to use the base to better implement its international obligations and to protect the nation's overseas interests but not to seek "military expansion".

The United States, France and Japan now have military bases in Djibouti.

General Fan Changlong, vice-chairman of China's Central Military Commission, made a two-day visit to Djibouti in November. It was the first time that the top officer in the PLA had visited the African country.

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn

Vice-Admiral Shen Jinlong, commander of the PLA Navy, presents a flag to the base garrison at a naval port in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, on July 12. Provided to China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 07/14/2017 page14)
What to Know Prosecutors announced an arrest Friday morning in the killing of 11-year-old Abbiegail Smith whose body was found hours after she vanished

Abbiegail's mother reported her missing from their Keansburg, New Jersey, apartment shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday

The girl had last been seen in the apartment around 7:45 p.m. that day; her body was found around 10:45 a.m. the next morning

Authorities have arrested a neighbor in the killing of a New Jersey girl whose body was found near her home Thursday morning, hours after she was reported missing by her mother, the Monmouth County prosecutor says.

Andreas Erazo, 18, was arrested on murder and weapons charges in the stabbing death of 11-year-old Abbiegail Smith in Keansburg, the prosecutor said Friday morning. Erazo lived upstairs from the girl at the Hancock Street Apartments, authorities say.

Abbiegail's body was found partially clothed and wrapped in a comforter on a roof behind the building where she and the suspect lived, law enforcement sources tell News 4. The sources said her hands had been bound. She had gone out the night before to throw out something in the dumpster and never returned.

Erazo hung his head and said nothing during his first court appearance Friday afternoon. The girl's mother, a nurse, said to him at the end of the proceeding, "I hope you rot in jail. My one and only daughter. Rot in jail."

Erazo is being held in jail without bail. He'll get another detention hearing next Wednesday. If convicted of murder, he faces a minimum of 30 years in prison without parole and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Investigators questioned several people in Abbigeail's death before arresting Erazo. Another neighbor told News 4 he was suspicious about a building resident he saw talking to Smith Wednesday before she vanished. It's not clear if that man is Erazo.

The young girl's mother reported her missing around 9 p.m. Wednesday, about an hour after she disappeared from their apartment at the Hancock complex in Keansburg.

Abbiegail's body was found around 10:45 a.m. Thursday, shortly after the Monmouth County prosecutor launched a social media campaign asking for the public's help finding the missing girl.

"We were really hopeful that we would find her," Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said in a news briefing at the scene Thursday. "It's a punch in the gut for all of us here in the community, especially in law enforcement."

Chopper 4 over the scene Thursday showed police gathered on the roof of a shed behind an apartment building after the girl's body was found. They carefully lowered a covered stretcher, then wheeled it away.



Neighbors have been distraught since Abbiegail's body was found.

"This girl was a very good girl. She was sweet," Deborah Heasman told News 4, her voice shaking. "This shouldn't happen to anybody's child."

"We live in a world, where we turn our backs for one second, our kids -- we gotta be afraid," she said.

On a street where the suspect once lived, neighbor Brian Iupo said he would get an occasional hello.

"He would come and play basketball, he was very good," said Iupo. "He seemed like a quiet kid."
What to Know Abbiegail Smith's mother reported her missing from their Keansburg, New Jersey, apartment shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday

The 11-year-old girl had last been seen in the apartment around 7:45 p.m. that day; her body was found around 10:45 a.m. the next morning

Investigators want help in finding the culprit: "Nobody should sit still until we figure out who did this to this 11-year-old girl"

A missing 11-year-old New Jersey girl has been found dead, and prosecutors are asking for the public's help investigating her killing.

Police had been searching for Abbiegail Smith since she was reported missing Wednesday evening. She was with her mother in their Keansburg apartment, and the girl vanished at about 7:45 p.m., prosecutors said. Her mother reported her missing about an hour later. Authorities have ruled out the girl's family as suspects.

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The child abduction response team from the Monmouth County prosecutor's office, along with Keansburg police and other agencies, arrived on scene in the early morning hours Thursday to investigate, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.



The young girl's body was found on the grounds of the Hancock apartment complex where she lived around 10:45 a.m., shortly after the prosecutor launched a social media campaign asking for the public's help finding the missing girl.

"We were really hopeful that we would find her," Gramiccioni said. "It's a punch in the gut for all of us here in the community, especially in law enforcement."

[NATL-NY] In Pictures: Archive Photos Show Scenes From the 1977 New York City Blackout

Chopper 4 over the scene showed an extensive law enforcement presence around the Hancock Street Apartments. Gloved investigators were seen carrying black tarps and other potential evidence while others set up a makeshift tent around the apparent crime scene. The immediate entrance to the apartment complex appeared to be blocked off to traffic as investigators flooded the area.

Police dogs scoured the area for clues, and investigators armed with flashlights were seen going through the apartment where the young girl lived.

Chopper 4 was over the scene as police investigated the death of an 11-year-old girl who was found dead in New Jersey Thursday.

The medical examiner will determine a cause and manner of death but prosecutors are investigating the case as a homicide. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Monmouth County prosecutor's investigators at 800-533-7443.

"Nobody should sit still until we figure out who did this to this 11-year-old girl," said Gramiccioni.

Gramiccioni said he didn't find it unusual that the girl's mother called police just an hour after the girl went missing.

"Everybody reacts differently, but if you were looking around for an hour and didn't find your child, I think many parents would probably right away report their child missing to the police, out of an abundance of caution," he said.

One neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous, says he was suspicious about a man who lives in building he saw talking the girl Wednesday before she went missing.

"He was talking to her," he said. "That's the part I didn't appreciate his age and her age."

The prosecutor's office said they are questioning several people, but no arrests have been made.

Top Tri-State News Photos

Meanwhile, there was a soft glow of candles lighting up Keansburg as a memory for the young girl. A memorial was created under the crime scene tape surrounding the girl's apartment building.

"My heart breaks for the family," Sabrina Bellotti of Keansburg said. "It really truly does."
Nearly a half a dozen king cobras and a handful of geckos were seized by border agents at Kennedy Airport, authorities said.

The reptiles were detected by Customs and Border Protection officers scanning an express mail package from Hong Kong late last month.

The contents of the package were described as a plastic tray, but an x-ray revealed the slithering outlines of snakes.

U.S. Customs

The officers contacted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to examine the package further.

The FWS officers opened the container and found a Styrofoam casing with rows of holes. The parcel was filled with five juvenile king cobras and three geckos.

The animals were all alive, and the package was turned over to the FWS for further investigation, authorities said.

The Intrepid (and Hungry) Animals of New York City
An Iranian cancer researcher who was denied entry to the United States previously headed a student branch of a volunteer paramilitary militia, according to footage aired on Iranian state television on Thursday.

The TV also showed Mohsen Dehnavi arriving back in Tehran alongside his wife and children. In comments to the channel at the airport, he defended his travel to the United States as solely intended for science and research.

"The topic of our research was health and saving ill people fighting cancer from this dangerous disease, but they didn't allow us entry, despite, as I mentioned, all the efforts made by the American academic community," he said.

Dehnavi was detained at Boston's Logan International Airport along with his wife and three young children upon arrival on Monday. They were sent back to Iran the following day despite holding a J-1 visa for visiting scholars. He was expecting to take up work at Boston Children's Hospital.

The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has said the family's detention was for "reasons unrelated" to President Donald Trump's executive order on travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries, including Iran. It did not say why specifically the family was turned back.

The Supreme Court recently ruled the Trump administration could largely enforce its temporary ban on travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. But the court said the ban cannot block people with a "credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States."

The state TV footage showed that Dehnavi was the same man who was featured in a years-old report by the semi-official Fars news agency on his being named the head of the student branch of the Basij at Iran's Sharif University in September 2007. The Basij is a volunteer militia that is linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

He later served on the unsuccessful 2013 presidential campaign of a prominent hard-liner, former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.

Dehnavi said on arrival in Tehran that he and his family were detained for around 30 hours in Boston.

"They kept me and my family under detention-like conditions for 28 to 30 hours in a room," he said. "They didn't allow us to call anyone or exit the room."

Sourena Sattari, Iran's vice president for science and technology, said that type of treatment only creates frustration in the scientific community, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Thursday.

Sattari said Dehnavi and his family were denied entry to the U.S. "under unconventional pretexts," despite obtaining all legal documents, the report said.

The Children's Hospital in Boston issued a statement Thursday saying that Denhavi had not previously worked there.

"He was due to come to Boston Children's as a visiting scholar on a J-1 visa. His visa had been approved by the State Department prior to travel," it said. "Boston Children's has no additional information about the basis for denying Dr. Denhavi entry to the U.S."

Also Thursday, Stephanie Malin, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that "due to privacy law, CBP is prohibited from discussing the details of any individual's admissibility inspection."

Associated Press writer Denise Lavoi in Boston contributed to this report.
Cosmo DiNardo admitted in a "full confession" Thursday afternoon to participation in the killings of four men who disappeared in early July, his attorney said.

The confession is part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, attorney Paul Lang told reporters outside the Bucks County Courthouse in Doylestown.

Moments later, the 20-year-old DiNardo was seen being escorted to a sheriff's van. He was shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit.

"I'm sorry," he said before being driven away.

Later Thursday evening, a Northeast Philadelphia resident was questioned by police in connection to the case, though it is unclear if that person remains in custody.

Katy Zachary

A source close to the investigation with knowledge of the plea negotiations told NBC10 that DiNardo admitted to killing all four men on the 90-acre Solebury Township farm. The source said multiple victims were shot and three of the four victims were found in a 12-1/2 foot deep "common grave." DiNardo admitted to burning at least two of the bodies and told officials where to find the remains of the fourth victim, according to the source.

The sudden announcement came a day after cadaver dogs helped lead investigators to a patch of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, farmland where the remains of at least one of the missing young men were buried deep underground.

Lang deferred all questions about the killings to District Attorney Matt Weintraub, who was not immediately available for comment.



"He admitted to the participation in the commission of four murders," Lang said. "In favor of that, the Commonwealth will not be seeking the death penalty. So Cosmo was spared life for in terms of giving all of his relevant information he could."

The Associated Press, citing a source with knowledge of the confession, reported that DiNardo killed each man separately after selling them marijuana.

The AP's source said DiNardo, who sold quarter-pound quantities of marijuana for thousands of dollars and handguns, felt cheated or threatened during the drug deals.

"Every death was related to a purported drug transaction, and at the end of each one there's a killing," the person said.

Investigators are now looking into the possibility that he had help in the crime, the source told NBC10.

DiNardo has been held since Wednesday on $5 million bail for allegedly trying to sell a car belonging to one of the men.

The discovery at the farmstead estate in the rolling, lush hills above New Hope marked a grim turn in the intense search for four men who disappeared late last week.

Weintraub said in a midnight press conference Thursday that the remains of 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, of Middletown Township, were positively identified.

Finocchiaro's death was immediately ruled a homicide, though Weintraub did not reveal an exact cause.



"This is a homicide, make no mistake about it," Weintraub said. "We just don't know how many homicides. We are yet to know the answer to that question."

Finocchiaro, along with 22-year-old Mark Sturgis of Pennsburg, Montgomery County; 21-year-old Tom Meo of Plumstead Township; and 19-year-old Jimi Taro Patrick of Newtown Township, vanished last week.

Meo's grandfather, Chuck Meo, told an NBC News producer that crews found the remains under a blue tarp after lifting out a propane tank.

Newtown Township Police, Middletown Township Police

Bucks County District Attorney's Office

The sprawling property, which is bordered by three roads, is about three miles west of New Hope on the Delaware River, in a secluded part of the county where hidden mansions are marked by names like Idlewild and Mountaintop.

The property consists of three separate parcels that Cosmo DiNardo's parents, Antonio and Sandra DiNardo, of Bensalem, purchased between 2005 and 2008 for a combined nearly $6.5 million.

DiNardo was initially arrested Wednesday after investigators determined he tried to sell Meo's 1996 Nissan Maxima to a friend after his disappearance.

DiNardo was also arrested Monday on an unrelated weapons charge but left the Bucks County jail Tuesday night after his father, Antonio DiNardo, posted 10 percent of $1 million bail.

According to an affidavit obtained by NBC10, DiNardo was accused of possessing a 20-gauge shotgun and ammunition in February despite being barred from owning a firearm due to a history of mental illness that included an involuntary commitment. A district judge dismissed the charge in May, but the district attorney authorized for it to be refiled on Monday.

A family lawyer released a statement Wednesday, before the human remains were discovered, on behalf of DiNardo's parents.

"As parents, Mr. and Mrs. DiNardo sympathize with the parents and families of the missing young men and they are cooperating in every way possible with the investigation being conducted by law enforcement," the family attorney wrote.

Bucks County District Attorney's Office

According to Sturgis' father, Mark Potash, Sturgis and Meo are longtime friends who work in construction for him. Finocchiaro was a mutual friend of theirs, Potash said. Investigators began looking at DiNardo after they received tips indicating he was seen with the men shortly before they went missing.

Patrick went missing on Wednesday, July 5 and has not contacted family or friends since, police said. Finocchiaro was last seen alive Friday around 6:30 p.m. getting into a vehicle.

According to a newly obtained criminal complaint, Meo's mother reported him missing Saturday. Meo's girlfriend said she last texted him Friday at 6:53 p.m. and didn't hear from him after. Meo is an insulin-dependent diabetic.

Sturgis, who was last seen leaving his home on Walt Road in Pennsburg around 6 p.m. Friday, told his father he was going to meet with Meo in Doylestown.

On Sunday at 2:10 a.m., Sturgis' vehicle was found in the area of Peddler's Village in Buckingham Township about two miles away from a DiNardo estate.

Unlike neighboring estates, the DiNardo property has no name markers at the main entrance on Lower York Road. Only a broken mailbox, with fading numbers, marks the driveway. On the other side of the property, along Aquetong Road, a small and crumbling white house stands near the road.

A marked police cruiser held guard over that location Thursday, idling in front of a decrepit garage several yards from the house. The car of Thomas Meo was found inside the still open structure less than two hours after Sturgis' car.

Detectives say they found Meo's car keys hanging up on the wall of the garage. They also found Meo's diabetic supplies inside the vehicle.

On Sunday at 4:30 p.m., Bucks County detectives interviewed DiNardo's friend, whose identity police are withholding. The friend told police DiNardo had called him Saturday at 5 p.m. The two then met on Bristol and Galloway roads in Bensalem where DiNardo allegedly offered to sell Meo's Nissan Maxima to him for $500, the criminal complaint reads.

Police also interviewed DiNardo Sunday. DiNardo allegedly told detectives he was driving a silver Ford pickup truck Friday night.

A Solebury Township police mobile license plate reader data found DiNardo's Ford pickup truck was on 2541 Street Road in Solebury Township Friday at 7:49 p.m. Within a few seconds, the license plate reader also captured Meo's vehicle at the same location.

The location where both vehicles were captured is within two miles away of the DiNardo home and less than one mile away from where Sturgis' vehicle was found.

Based on the information, investigators say they had probable cause that DiNardo did "unlawfully take and retain control" of Meo's vehicle.

[PHOTOS]Timeline: Murder of Four Young Men in Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Susan Coleman, a woman who lives near the farm, told NBC10's Deanna Durante that she heard gunshots from around the property on Saturday  hours after Meo and others were last seen.

"We heard a series of blasts, they were loud," Coleman said.

Coleman said she was sitting outside with her husband when she heard the gunfire but at first didn't think much of it since people go hunting in the area. But, she decided to talk to investigators after hearing what sounded like more gunshots then yelling and commotion.

About 50 students, faculty and staff also gathered at a chapel at Loyola University in Maryland where Patrick was a rising sophomore to pray for him and the three other men. Director of Campus Ministry Sean Bray told the Baltimore Sun the group wanted to honor the request of Patrick's grandmother to "storm heaven with our prayers for Jimi's safe return."

Patrick, who graduated from Holy Ghost Preparatory School in Bensalem, was on the Dean's List at Loyola, his grandparent Sharon and Rich Patrick said in a prepared statement supplied to reporters.

Officials continue to work to identify the other human remains that were found Wednesday night. The investigation is ongoing.

"We're going to remain strong," Weintraub said after announcing Finocchiaro's death. "We're going to see this investigation to the end and we're going to bring each and every one of these lost boys home to their families, one way or another. And we will not rest until we do that."

NBC10 journalists Deanna Durante, Denise Nakano, Drew Smith, Dan Stamm and Brandon Hudson contributed to this report.
Matt Weintraub was an intern in the Bucks County District Attorneys Office in the early 1990s, before moving up through the ranks in other offices in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Now, as law enforcement officials investigate a quadruple homicide in the bucolic suburbs of Philadelphia, Weintraub is back in Bucks, and hes a long way from his internship. He has risen all the way to district attorney, and those who know him say he is the right person to handle the high-profile case.

Matt will not leave any stone unturned. Hes very, very thorough, said Brian Hessenthaler, the chief operating officer of Bucks County. He doesnt back down from a challenge. And hes got one right now.

Bucks County prosecutors have led the investigation into the disappearance of four young men, which became a homicide investigation Thursday as 20-year-old Cosmo DiNardo confessed to his participation in the slayings of all four men. DiNardo agreed to plead guilty to four murder counts, attorney Paul Lang said.

The FBI and other local police departments have been assisting in the investigation.

This is a homicide, make no mistake about it. We just dont know how many homicides, Weintraub announced at a midnight news conference on Thursday.

"We're going to remain strong. We're going to see this investigation to the end and we're going to bring each and every one of these lost boys home to their families, one way or another," he added. "And we will not rest until we do that."



Police arrested DiNardo Wednesday for attempting to sell a car owned by one of the missing men. DiNardo also lives on the property where the remains were found.

Questions remain: Will Bucks County prosecutors charges anyone else? Will they get a conviction?

Weintraub did not immediately respond for a request for comment. But colleagues who have worked with him throughout his career are confident he is up to the task. Hes a humble man of conviction with a thorough work ethic, former and current colleagues told NBC. Hes also a seasoned and aggressive prosecutor who was appointed as Bucks County district attorney because of his experience.

After his internship in the Bucks office, he went on to work in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, and Cape May, New Jersey, until he was essentially summoned back to Bucks County for the district attorney job in 2016 by his predecessor, David Heckler.

When he announced his mid-term retirement, Heckler told NBC he handpicked Weintraub to succeed him to the extent that I could. The district attorney appointment had to be approved by county judges, who ultimately saw in Weintraub what Heckler did.

To me, nature or something picked him, Heckler told NBC. I saw most of the senior people in the DAs office when I was a trial judge. He was just clearly the pick of the litter.

He was aggressive, Heckler said. He knew what he was in the courtroom for and he got the job done.

When he took the job, his former colleague Michelle Henry agreed.

He is a top-notch prosecutor in every sense of the word," Henry told Philly.com at the time.

Weintraub is up for election this fall for the first time in Bucks County. Even with an unpopular president of the same party, Heckler seemed confident Weintraubs personal and professional credentials will carry him to victory.

But first theres the quadruple homicide to put to bed. Weintraubs press conferences about the case are now beamed through TV and computer screens nationwide.

Were going to start looking seriously at those homicide charges, Weintraub said at one of those press conferences Wednesday night. In fact, we already have.
Blink-182 wouldve played the disastrous Fyre Festival in the Bahamas earlier this year if guitarist/vocalist Matt Skiba wasnt such a...witch?

Before wisely backing out last-minute, San Diegos most celebrated pop-punk band was set to play at both of the lavish events inaugural weekends (April 28-30 and May 5-7) alongside Major Lazer, Tyga, Migos, Disclosure, and others.

The infamously hyped luxury festival was founded by Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule with hefty ticket prices ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 according to Rolling Stone. The ill-fated festival promised epic performances, outlandish accommodations, gourmet meals, super models, and yachts. Instead, when attendees arrived, they were allegedly left stranded on the island while the disorganized event descended into chaos without even bare necessities provided.

On June 30, McFarland was taken into custody by the F.B.I. and charged with wire fraud in connection with a scheme to allegedly defraud investors (he has since been released on $300,000 bail and is set to appear again in court on July 31). A charge of wire fraud can carry a sentence of up to 20 years. Co-organizer Ja Rule has continued to claim his innocence, at one point tweeting, This is not my fault.

Strangely enough, Skiba (Alkaline Trio frontman and, as of 2015, the latest Blink-182 member), spoke recently to NME about how he did his part to help prevent the Fyre Festival monstrosity from happening.

I had a bad feeling about that event, Skiba told NME. I consider myself a pagan and a witch. With every inch of my energy I wanted Fyre not to happen. I put all the electricity and energy in my body against that thing happening.

Ive been to the Bahamas before and its so crass, the guitarist/vocalist continued. You land in Nassau and the whole island is replete with beauty and culture, but theres a lot of poverty. It is a largely black population, then they build these places like Atlantis and the Cove that are walled off. It's classist and racist and then they decided to park a bunch of yachts with models to show off in front of these poor people, going down there with all your Ferraris and bulls--- and yachts.

Socioeconomics aside, Skiba, of course, is not the first Blink-182 member to make headlines for his personal beliefs: Take former frontman Tom Delonge, for example...

Musician, people-pleaser, lover, fighter and writer Matthew Craig Burke has been spewing musical words of wisdom since never. He lives off of peanut butter sandwiches, beer and Beck Hansen. Follow his updates on Facebook or contact him directly.
In a three-bedroom apartment in San Diego's El Cajon community lives a growing statistic -- seven of them, in fact.

Mostafa Inezan -- a blind refugee from Syria -- his wife, and their five sons arrived in San Diego last September. They are one of the hundreds of Syrian refugee families now living in San Diego County.

Their situation is more challenging than most.

Through translator Zainab Nuhaily, who works with the group Hearts for Refugees, Inezan told NBC 7 how he was tortured for weeks by the Syrian government, and electrocuted until he went blind.

Now, even though his family is safe in the United States, he is unable to work.

Rent is a very difficult thing for them to make each month, explained Nuhaily.

In addition to being blind, Nuhaily said Inezan faces a challenge that's common among refugee families: learning to speak English.

If hes not working, he doesnt have a home and hows he supposed to work if he doesnt speak the language? said Nuhaily.

This familys situation is one that has become a lot more familiar over the past few years.

According to the San Diego County Department of Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA), there have been 300 new Syrian refugee arrival cases since last October.

For the year of October 2015-2016, there were 788 cases, which was an increase of 1,400 percent from the year before.

We noticed there was an overwhelming amount of refugees arriving in San Diego. So, we started offering them basic needs, said Nuhaily, referring to the services provided by Heart for Refugees.

The organization started an "adopt a family" program, which has connected 200 Syrian families living in San Diego with sponsor families.

The Inezans have two sponsors trying to raise money to help them pay rent and buy food every month, Kathy Gallagher and Alicia OSullivan.

The sponsors said the Inezan family is always smiling, despite their situation.

It always brings a tear to my eye. Theyre such great people, Gallagher told NBC 7.

The women are trying to help the family fill a $500 per month gap in their expenses.

To actually see where its going towards and how it helps them out is something thats very fulfilling to me, said OSullivan.

California is ground zero when it comes to the U.S. part of the global refugee crisis.

According to the Refugee Processing Center, 4,763 refugees arrived in California between October 2016 and June 2017. That is the most of any state, and more than 24 other states combined.

Nuhaily said she is witnessing, firsthand, the welcoming so many of these families need.

Theyre receiving so much support from Americans whether it be moral or financial, or just letting them know theyre loved and that what they went through is not okay," she added.

A GoFundMe fundraising page has been established for the Inezan family. To learn how to donate to them, click here.

To find out more about Heart for Refugees, click here.
The sense of urgency by U.S.-led coalition forces to liberate the ISIS strongholds of Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, has come at a heavy cost  particularly for the civilians trapped in the two cities, NBC News reports.

ISIS is known for using civilians as human shields and killing Iraqi residents trying to flee, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office.

The U.S.-led coalition airstrikes meant to root out the jihadists have wreaked extensive collateral damage in Mosul and Raqqa, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

At least 603 civilians had "more likely than not" been "unintentionally killed" by airstrikes since August 2014, the U.S. military confirmed Friday.
Fuling field to reach annual output of 10 billion cubic meters by end of year

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, the world's largest refiner, has vowed to double its annual natural gas output by 2020 to reach 40 billion cubic meters.

The company, also known as Sinopec, said its Fuling shale gas field, China's first shale gas commercial production program, launched in 2014, will reach an annual output of up to 10 billion cu m by the end of this year.

Proven geological reserves of shale gas at Fuling in Chongqing have exceeded 600 billion cu m, after the discovery of more than 220 billion cu m in additional deposits this month.

A worker checks facilities at the Fuling shale gas field in Chongqing. Xinhua

Sinopec's natural gas output increased by 4.3 percent year-on-year in 2016, and it has pledged to further develop its resources in Sichuan as well as in Erdos in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Analysts said Sinopec's efforts are in accordance with China's ambitious goal to wean itself off coal, betting big on a shale gas boom to decrease its dependency on coal and foreign gas imports.

Wang Lu, an Asia-Pacific oil and gas analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, says China's aggressive shale gas development target may boost the share of gas in its energy mix.

"Sinopec's Fuling project will play a leading role in achieving China's goal of producing 80 to 100 billion cu m in 2030," she says.

"Its shale gas production may contribute about 4 to 5 percent of China's total gas consumption by 2020, and Sinopec can also strengthen its upstream unit, which is weaker than its domestic competitors PetroChina and CNOOC, by developing shale gas."

According to S&P Global Platts, a provider of energy and commodities information, China's liquefied natural gas imports in the first five months of this year surged by 38 percent year-on-year to 12.88 million metric tons, as pollution concerns spurred greater gas usage.

The Chinese government announced in its 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for natural gas that it is keen to promote gas usage in the country and plans to raise the proportion of natural gas in the energy consumption mix to about 10 percent by 2020 from about 5.9 percent in 2015.

Natural gas imports will play an increasingly important role in the country's energy mix, especially for coastal regions that are far from pipelines and domestic gas fields, it said.

Wang says China's shale gas resources could be as much as 21.8 trillion cu m, but technological and geological challenges may slow the development of the unconventional gas.

In addition, lowered shale-gas subsidies may also discourage developers, while ample supply from domestic conventional gas, LNG, pipeline imports and cheap oil might also impede shale gas development, she says.

Li Li, energy research director at ICIS China, a consulting company that provides analysis of China's energy market, says the technological challenge is one of the most significant factors dampening China's shale gas exploration.

Li says that despite being the third country to have successfully commercialized shale gas, China is far behind the United States in its commercialization, mostly due to technological challenges.

Chances are low that China will become the next shale gas superpower in the near future, and the cooling of the enthusiasm that foreign companies had for Chinese shale gas might also hamper the development, as expertise to access the immense shale deposits is also necessary, she says.

Foreign investors have been pulling back from Chinese shale gas exploration in recent years, including Conoco-Phillips of the US, which has quit exploration in China after abandoning a second block in the Sichuan basin earlier this year, considering the block did not meet its benchmark for commercial development.

"We need the technology and the know-how to diversify and reduce risks by working with these companies on complicated projects", Li says.

However, considering that the natural gas price is likely to witness a surge in the future, and given Sinopec's dedication to increase shale gas output and reduce costs, the future is promising, she adds.

According to the oil and gas reserve assessment office under the Ministry of Land and Resources, against the backdrop of low oil prices, China has come up with the core technologies for the exploration and development of shale gas, while achieving the localization of key equipment.

China has also set more than 100 technical standards and substantially reduced the cost of shale gas exploration in Fuling.

According to Sinopec, after years of development, most of the key equipment for shale gas exploration has been domestically manufactured, including the drilling wells, and the testing, extraction and transportation facilities.

zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn

( China Daily European Weekly 07/14/2017 page28)
Dana Fisher has spent recent weekends zigzagging through crowds of lab coat wearers and pussy hat knitters gathered on and around the National Mall. She has been collecting data on protesters, and what she has found is that the 2017 protester is part of a new -- and growing -- breed.

Fisher, a professor at the University of Maryland who studies protests, said these protesters are more likely to be new to protest and more likely to support a broad base of liberal ideals.

They are also more likely to return for more protests, which might help explain why the number of protests happening in Washington, D.C. is on the rise.

A new audit of the Metropolitan Police Department found that the District hosted approximately 2,436 marches between 2014 and 2016. That number does not include protests under the supervision of the U.S. Capitol Police or National Parks Service -- including events on the National Mall.

Each year, more protests were reported than the year prior.

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Just Friday, protesters gathered at the National Rifle Association headquarters in Fairfax and began a walk to the Department of Justice in D.C. They plan to rally in D.C. Saturday.

They were organized as part of the movement that also led to the Women's March on Washington the day after President Trump's election.

It's part of a persistent protest movement, Fisher said. And its growing, she added.

The recently released audit data does not include information on the number of protests that have happened in 2017. But Fisher said she knows the numbers are still going up, and fast.

Since Inauguration Day, the Womens March, the March for Science, the March for Truth and others have flooded the District. According to Fisher, the National Parks Service has seen a significant increase in the number of requested permits this year.

The presidential election is likely the explanation for the uptake in protests reported during 2016, when former President Obama was still in office. Fisher said her research shows that peak protest times for 2016 were in November and December, in the time immediately before election day and in the period between the election and inauguration.

With all that protesting, D.C. Police have had plenty of experience monitoring the crowds. We are there to make sure the peace is maintained, said D.C. Police Assistant Chief Jeffery Carroll, who heads the Homeland Security Bureau, which includes the Special Operations Division.

The SOD is responsible for public safety during protests and other events that D.C. law defines as "First Amendment activities."

He said that all D.C. officers receive at least one week of First Amendment activity training at the police academy. Some officers, including those in SOD and some in patrol units, receive even more training for protest monitoring.

When a protest happens, Carroll said an appropriate number of officers are deployed to monitor the situation without alarming protesters. Specially trained officers are called in from their individual patrol units if more officers are required.

Carroll said most protesters are peaceful. Police responsibilities are mainly focused on making sure people can move about safely, especially during large gatherings such as the Women's March.

We talk a lot about demonstrations, Carroll said. But in the large [gatherings] there is a large concern about crowd management.

Carroll said many of the protests that D.C. Police respond to are on the smaller side, with 100-200 attendees.

While the number of large protests did increase between 2015 and 2016, the number did not rise between 2014 and 2015. Mid-size protests featuring 25 to 999 protesters saw the largest increase.

Carroll said D.C. Police look to other departments to learn more about how to best manage protest situations -- and that D.C. often serves as a model.

We have a lot of different agencies that have reached out to us over the years, Carroll said. We are very unique here in how we handle demonstrations, and I would venture to say that our officers are some of the best trained officers in the world.

For Fisher, who came to D.C. with the hope of observing protests, protest activity is a part of D.C.'s identity.

Protests are one of the main ways that citizens express their opinions, Fisher said. And when they want to do that they go to Washington.
Human remains found buried in a yard in Massachusetts on Thursday have been identified as those of fugitive Donald Eugene Webb, bringing to a close a decades long search for the suspected cop killer.

The FBI and state police in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania discovered remains Thursday at the home of Webb's ex-wife in North Dartmouth.

The state medical examiner positively identified the remains on Friday, according to the FBI. Investigators said they believe Webb died approximately 17 years ago. The cause of death has not been determined.

Police said Webb shot Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, police Chief Greg Adams during a traffic stop back in 1980.

Webb, then 49, was a jewelry thief from Massachusetts with connections to the New England mob. Police believe he was in Saxonburg, outside Pittsburgh, to case a jewelry store he planned to rob when Adams stopped his car.



He disappeared after the shooting, and his rental car was found more than two weeks later at a motel in Warwick, Rhode Island.

For almost 37 years, the family of Chief Adams, and the citizens of Saxonburg have been awaiting news of Donald Eugene Webbs whereabouts," said Harold Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division. "The FBI is grateful to have been able to play a role in helping to resolve this case. Although its unfortunate Mr. Webb will never be brought to justice to pay for his crimes, were hopeful the family can find some closure in knowing that this alleged murderer has been located."

"The biggest question in the history of Saxonburg has been answered," Saxonburg Police Chief Joseph Beachem added. "Our thoughts are with the family and we hope this eases their minds, if even only slightly. While the hurt will continue, at least doubt about what happened that day has been eliminated."

Webb was one of the longest-tenured fugitives ever to appear on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list, and there had been a $100,000 reward for information leading to his capture. He was the only fugitive in the U.S. wanted for the murder of a police chief.

Police were led to Webb's body Thursday by his ex-wife, Lillian, who showed them where he was buried in her back yard. Prosecutors in both Massachusetts and Pennsylvania confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that authorities have agreed not to prosecute Lillian Webb in the investigation.

The police chief's widow, Mary Ann Jones, said she is livid that Lillian Webb kept her ex-husband's whereabouts hidden for years, as Jones and her two sons struggled with their loss and the thought that the killer was still at large.

"I guess I'm angry at her at this point because she could do that to my family -hide him for years and then bury him so we never know," Jones said. "Why hide him? Why not allow us closure?"

Adams was 31 when he was killed, leaving his wife to raise two young sons. She eventually remarried.

Lillian Webb did not come to the door when NBC Boston knocked on it Friday.

Lillian Johnson, who knows her, said she was shocked to learn about the investigation.

I feel sorry for her. Shes a lovely person. Thats all, Johnson said. She said it had been a long time since she had spoken to her.
The New Hampshire Attorney General's Office is investigating claims that teachers at a prestigious prep school sexually assaulted students.

State police and the office of Attorney General Gordon MacDonald have launched a criminal investigation in response to a 2017 report detailing allegations of sexual assaults by teachers at St. Paul's School in Concord.

Investigators will be focusing initially on whether the school did anything to endanger children, according to the attorney general's office, which noted that any other potential crimes would be investigated "as dictated by the evidence."

"Protection of children is a paramount priority for law enforcement," MacDonald said in a statement. "I am confident that an institution such as St. Paul's School will be fully cooperative with this investigation."

"We have been in close contact with local law enforcement regarding recent incidents of concern, and we will continue to fully cooperate with any inquiries we receive," Mike Hirschfeld, the rector at St. Paul's School, said in a statement. "We also intend to work closely with the attorney general's office to answer any and all questions regarding the independent report issued last month. Our goal is and always will be the health, safety and well-being of our students. We will work tirelessly to meet that goal and strengthen the public's faith in St. Paul's School."

MacDonald's office is also investigating new allegations that students were taking part this year in a sexual conquest ritual reminiscent of the "senior salute," in which seniors tried to have sex with as many underclassmen as possible.

Students described the senior salute during the trial against Owen Labrie, who was acquitted of rape charges, but convicted of misdemeanor sex assault on a younger classmate.



"We commend the attorney general's office for taking action to investigate the potential mishandling of sexual misconduct at St. Paul's School," the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence said in a statement. "They are right to shine a light on the darkness that continues to surround this school. The administration's practice of hiring outside 'investigators' to determine whether to report suspected criminal activity to law enforcement points to a culture that places the school's reputation far above the health and safety of the children entrusted to its care. Elite boarding schools are in many ways exceptional, but they are not above the law."

Anyone with information is asked to contact the New Hampshire Department of Justice at (603) 271-1263 or email Mark.Myrdek@doj.nh.gov.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh spoke to NBC Boston Thursday about violence in the city, his re-election bid, marijuana legislation and other issues.

He said he is disappointed by the recent spate of violence in Boston, most notably over the Fourth of July weekend, when there were three homicides.

"The bottom line is we have too many guns on the street," he said. "Long term, the way we deal with it, we deal with it through education, strengthening our education system, creating more opportunities for employment, putting young people on pathways to career schools.

"That's how we fix it long term. Short term, we have to keep getting out in the street every day we can."

The mayor said he is also keeping an eye on the State House, where lawmakers are trying to compromise on a marijuana bill that will decide who makes decisions about pot shops in cities and towns.

"I don't want to have the gateway cities into Massachusetts become the havens for marijuana, for selling pot," Walsh said. "I don't think Boston is going to opt out of it. There hasn't been any conversation about that. And I think it's unfair that voters in some of those 101 cities and towns voted for marijuana, but they're opting out of selling it in their town."

Walsh has long spoken in opposition to recreational marijuana legalization, and he is in favor of the legislative moves that have followed November's ballot measure approval.

"Take your time, get the bill right. We don't want you to keep going back and make adjustments on it. And I'm certainly supportive of the legislature taking their time on it and coming up with something that's a good bill," Walsh said. "I'd like to see some of the money from the taxation go back to the cities and towns, not go into the general fund. It has to come back because we're the ones that are going to be dealing with the police protection, the traffic coming in here."

The well-publicized alcohol addiction problems in the mayor's past have him concerned by the bill.

"I'm concerned about it. I know people have questioned me and said marijuana is no different than alcohol. We'll see. We'll see. I'll sit back and wait and see. We'll see what happens in a year from now when it goes into effect. Let's look at the emergency rooms. Let's see if our drug addiction rate has gone down," he said. "If I'm wrong, that's great. I'd be proud to say I'm wrong on that one. Because I'd like to see you less people using heroin and fentanyl and opioids. But I don't know if I'm going to be wrong on that one."

As for the upcoming election season, the mayor has some focus on his own re-election bid, but not Gov. Charlie Baker's.

"I'm running for re-election for mayor of Boston. I'm focused on being mayor of the City of Boston," he said when asked if he would vote for Baker, with whom he has had a strong political relationship. "I have to focus on my office to get re-elected first, because if I'm not re-elected, it won't matter who I vote for."

The mayor touched on several other issues during the interview:

Race Relations in Boston

"We have long discussions about, are we a racist city? Did we deal with our past? Then we kind of hope that it goes away and forget about it and move on to a new subject, and I think what we're doing here is, we are not moving on. At the end of the day, the next generation of kids hopefully will have a different Boston that they grow up in."



Donald Trump Jr.

"Nothing surprises me with his family being out of control like they are. With what was said during the presidential election or trying to get Hillary Clinton. They are justifying, they're justifying potential espionage. There are justifying it. And justifying it through  the president of the United State of America is tweeting about it. About his son colluding with the Russians. I just, I don't get it."

Renovations to City Hall Plaza

"When you see the plan you're like, 'Oh wow, this is great - let's do it.' And you realize that to upgrade City Hall is going to cost $150 to $200 million. Like, 'Oh boy, hold on,' because when you have about $150 million a year to bond, you can't suck it all into the building here. And you also have to remember the building is not my building - it's the peoples building. So you have to make sure you do some work there. So we're slowly breaking in some of the plaza."


900 runners turned out for Race for Life

Yesterday (2nd) more than 900 women and children took part in Race for Life, to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

An incredible 71,000 was raised for charity with participants running or walking 5km or 10km.

Find more in this week's Newbury Weekly News. Photographs will be ready to view and order from Thursday on the Gallery page.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Traders body CAIT today urged the government to take up the proposed Consumer Protection Bill in the Monsoon Session of Parliament starting next week.

"The passage of this bill is critical not only in terms of protection of consumer interests' but also to differentiate between the roles and responsibilities of small and genuine retailers," Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said in a statement.

It said that the bill should also adequately address the long-standing problem of misleading and celebrity-driven endorsements, whereby celebrities should be held responsible for the products they endorse.

"There are about 6.3 crore traders in India and it is their demand that the proposed Consumer Protection Bill pending in Parliament for the past three sessions be immediately taken up on priority in the forthcoming session of Parliament," it added.

"Engaging brand ambassadors for product promotions have become widely prevalent and consumers typically are guided (or misguided) by such endorsements, irrespective of the quality of the products on offer," it further said.

The framing of coherent and enforceable policy guidelines for brand ambassadors is the need of the hour and is an imperative for consumer protection, it said.

The government is revamping the consumer protection law to safeguard consumers in view of new challenges posed by e-commerce, direct selling, and multi-level marketing sectors.

A new Consumer Protection Bill has been introduced in Parliament to repeal the 30-year-old Consumer Protection Act.

Quoting Ashim Sanyal, Chief Operating Officer, Consumer Voice, a voluntary consumer organisation, it added that the old law is not able to address most of the consumer grievances.

Echoing similar views, Pritee Shah, Chief General Manager  Consumer Education and Research Centre, said the new law if implemented, will not only put an end to unfair practices but would also enable the creation of powerful central consumer protection authority.

NEW DELHI: Traders body CAIT today urged the government to take up the proposed Consumer Protection Bill in the Monsoon Session of Parliament starting next week. "The passage of this bill is critical not only in terms of protection of consumer interests' but also to differentiate between the roles and responsibilities of small and genuine retailers," Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said in a statement. It said that the bill should also adequately address the long-standing problem of misleading and celebrity-driven endorsements, whereby celebrities should be held responsible for the products they endorse. "There are about 6.3 crore traders in India and it is their demand that the proposed Consumer Protection Bill pending in Parliament for the past three sessions be immediately taken up on priority in the forthcoming session of Parliament," it added. "Engaging brand ambassadors for product promotions have become widely prevalent and consumers typically are guided (or misguided) by such endorsements, irrespective of the quality of the products on offer," it further said. The framing of coherent and enforceable policy guidelines for brand ambassadors is the need of the hour and is an imperative for consumer protection, it said. The government is revamping the consumer protection law to safeguard consumers in view of new challenges posed by e-commerce, direct selling, and multi-level marketing sectors. A new Consumer Protection Bill has been introduced in Parliament to repeal the 30-year-old Consumer Protection Act. Quoting Ashim Sanyal, Chief Operating Officer, Consumer Voice, a voluntary consumer organisation, it added that the old law is not able to address most of the consumer grievances. Echoing similar views, Pritee Shah, Chief General Manager  Consumer Education and Research Centre, said the new law if implemented, will not only put an end to unfair practices but would also enable the creation of powerful central consumer protection authority.
Shruthi H M By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: A fortnight into the implementation of GST, traders and businessmen are yet to get a hang of the new system. Even though the GST Network has a call centre, individual companies are forced to set up their own helpdesks to help in this transition. Canara Bank, Coca-Cola and EY are among those who have done it. Companies say it will take a couple of months before the process can get completely streamlined as customers and partners are yet to get the complete picture. GST invoicing, billing and GSTN numbers are some of the areas of concern. While Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages has set up a post-GST helpline meant for its 4,000 distributors, tax consultancy firm EY has launched a help desk for small businesses.

At the forefront of the services sector are banks. To help their customers with GSTN numbers, Canara Bank has set up a helpdesk.

Speaking to Express, Rajakumaran S, AGM, Canara Bank, said, We are getting 7-10 mails a day, which we address the same day.

Banking is under 18 per cent slab now from the earlier 15 per cent. People want to know how much they have to pay now and whether it encompasses all services. We have sent a message to all our customers that whatever services are availed, it will attract 18 per cent GST. We plan to contact all our vendors so that they will be able to capture our GSTN number properly in their system. We have also written to all our business customers asking them to provide their GSTN numbers to avail tax credit.

Logistics firm Blue Dart has setup a forum called gstupdates@bluedart.com to address queries on GST and to keep all stakeholders aware about the latest developments on the new tax regime. This is in addition to the companys efforts to create a back end system aligning its processes, accounting and billing systems etc. to the new system.

We have been working closely with our customers and vendors with GST updates to help them comply with the regulatory process, said Aneel Gambhir, chief financial officer, Blue Dart.

Most traders are getting their clarifications and concerns addressed through auditors and chartered accountants. Around 80 per cent of the people were of the opinion that GST was implemented in haste. Some confusion is going to be there for sometime but slowly, we are getting on board the new system. We are regularly in touch with CAs and auditors, said Bengaluru-based trade activist Sajjan Raj Mehta.

BENGALURU: A fortnight into the implementation of GST, traders and businessmen are yet to get a hang of the new system. Even though the GST Network has a call centre, individual companies are forced to set up their own helpdesks to help in this transition. Canara Bank, Coca-Cola and EY are among those who have done it. Companies say it will take a couple of months before the process can get completely streamlined as customers and partners are yet to get the complete picture. GST invoicing, billing and GSTN numbers are some of the areas of concern. While Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages has set up a post-GST helpline meant for its 4,000 distributors, tax consultancy firm EY has launched a help desk for small businesses. At the forefront of the services sector are banks. To help their customers with GSTN numbers, Canara Bank has set up a helpdesk. Speaking to Express, Rajakumaran S, AGM, Canara Bank, said, We are getting 7-10 mails a day, which we address the same day. Banking is under 18 per cent slab now from the earlier 15 per cent. People want to know how much they have to pay now and whether it encompasses all services. We have sent a message to all our customers that whatever services are availed, it will attract 18 per cent GST. We plan to contact all our vendors so that they will be able to capture our GSTN number properly in their system. We have also written to all our business customers asking them to provide their GSTN numbers to avail tax credit. Logistics firm Blue Dart has setup a forum called gstupdates@bluedart.com to address queries on GST and to keep all stakeholders aware about the latest developments on the new tax regime. This is in addition to the companys efforts to create a back end system aligning its processes, accounting and billing systems etc. to the new system. We have been working closely with our customers and vendors with GST updates to help them comply with the regulatory process, said Aneel Gambhir, chief financial officer, Blue Dart. Most traders are getting their clarifications and concerns addressed through auditors and chartered accountants. Around 80 per cent of the people were of the opinion that GST was implemented in haste. Some confusion is going to be there for sometime but slowly, we are getting on board the new system. We are regularly in touch with CAs and auditors, said Bengaluru-based trade activist Sajjan Raj Mehta.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: In what could be a setback to fast food chain McDonalds in India, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday restored its estranged partner Vikram Bakshi as the managing director of Connaught Plaza Restaurant (CPRL), a 50:50 joint venture between McDonalds India Pvt Ltd (MIPL) and Bakshi. The tribunal has said the meeting of CPRL of August 6, 2013 in which Bakshi was removed as MD of the company was illegal, unjust and malafide.

The status of Mr Vikram Bakshi as managing director of CPRL is restored, said a two-member NCLT bench headed by its President Justice M M Kumar.

The court has also appointed former Supreme Court judge G S Singhvi to act as administrator in the company with power to vote.

He (Bakshi) shall continue to act as managing director of CPRL subject to passing of any resolution under the Chairmanship of the administrator, the tribunal said. It further observed, All steps taken in pursuance of non-election of Vikram Bakshi as Managing Director are also declared illegal, unlawful, unjust and malicious.

In a public notice on August 30, 2013, McDonalds India had said: Vikram Bakshi has ceased to be the Managing Director of Connaught Plaza Restaurants pursuant to expiration of Bakshis term on July 17.

However, Bakshi contested that he cannot be removed as MD through a general meeting of the company.

NEW DELHI: In what could be a setback to fast food chain McDonalds in India, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday restored its estranged partner Vikram Bakshi as the managing director of Connaught Plaza Restaurant (CPRL), a 50:50 joint venture between McDonalds India Pvt Ltd (MIPL) and Bakshi. The tribunal has said the meeting of CPRL of August 6, 2013 in which Bakshi was removed as MD of the company was illegal, unjust and malafide. The status of Mr Vikram Bakshi as managing director of CPRL is restored, said a two-member NCLT bench headed by its President Justice M M Kumar. The court has also appointed former Supreme Court judge G S Singhvi to act as administrator in the company with power to vote. He (Bakshi) shall continue to act as managing director of CPRL subject to passing of any resolution under the Chairmanship of the administrator, the tribunal said. It further observed, All steps taken in pursuance of non-election of Vikram Bakshi as Managing Director are also declared illegal, unlawful, unjust and malicious. In a public notice on August 30, 2013, McDonalds India had said: Vikram Bakshi has ceased to be the Managing Director of Connaught Plaza Restaurants pursuant to expiration of Bakshis term on July 17. However, Bakshi contested that he cannot be removed as MD through a general meeting of the company.
Ashwini M Shripad By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Back in 2014, Karnatakas Labour Departments issued a notification that specifically says that an IT employer has to inform the concerned deputy labour commissioner or labour commissioner about any termination of an employee.

Labour commissioner R R Jannu admitted the notification is still valid. "These companies should inform our officials when they lay off employees, he said.

He added, But they do not comply."

For the past few months, technology professionals in Bengaluru have been knocking on the doors of the labour commissioner, seeking legal redressal for what they say are illegal terminations. In the last month alone, more than 200 sacked professionals have done so.

The labour department has sought an explanation from some of the employers. Labour Department officials confirmed that they included companies like Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant and Capgemini.

According to Kumaraswamy A C, president of the Information Technology Employees Union, over 5,000 people have lost their jobs in IT firms in Bengaluru in the past couple of months. He said some of the union members met Karnatakas information technology minister Priyank Kharge to complain about this, but little action was taken. So they decided to approach the Labour Department.

"In one month, more than 200 individuals filed petitions under Section 2A of Industrial Disputes Act. The Labour department has issued notices to the companies and hearings are expected to start from next week,'' he said.

Section 2A of the Industrial Disputes Act states that if an employer retrenches a workman, any dispute between the two arising out of the termination of service will be deemed as an industrial dispute.

Incidentally, while the government has been stressing that IT and ITES firms are exempt from the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, the 2014 notification issued by the Labour Department continues to be valid.

But theres a downer to the notification. While it says sackings have to be informed to the deputy labour commissioner or labour commissioner, what can be done if they are not?

Zilch, really. Labour commissioner Jannu, when asked what action the department can take against such employers, he said there is no such provision in the 2014 notification.

BENGALURU: Back in 2014, Karnatakas Labour Departments issued a notification that specifically says that an IT employer has to inform the concerned deputy labour commissioner or labour commissioner about any termination of an employee. Labour commissioner R R Jannu admitted the notification is still valid. "These companies should inform our officials when they lay off employees, he said. He added, But they do not comply." For the past few months, technology professionals in Bengaluru have been knocking on the doors of the labour commissioner, seeking legal redressal for what they say are illegal terminations. In the last month alone, more than 200 sacked professionals have done so. The labour department has sought an explanation from some of the employers. Labour Department officials confirmed that they included companies like Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant and Capgemini. According to Kumaraswamy A C, president of the Information Technology Employees Union, over 5,000 people have lost their jobs in IT firms in Bengaluru in the past couple of months. He said some of the union members met Karnatakas information technology minister Priyank Kharge to complain about this, but little action was taken. So they decided to approach the Labour Department. "In one month, more than 200 individuals filed petitions under Section 2A of Industrial Disputes Act. The Labour department has issued notices to the companies and hearings are expected to start from next week,'' he said. Section 2A of the Industrial Disputes Act states that if an employer retrenches a workman, any dispute between the two arising out of the termination of service will be deemed as an industrial dispute. Incidentally, while the government has been stressing that IT and ITES firms are exempt from the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, the 2014 notification issued by the Labour Department continues to be valid. But theres a downer to the notification. While it says sackings have to be informed to the deputy labour commissioner or labour commissioner, what can be done if they are not? Zilch, really. Labour commissioner Jannu, when asked what action the department can take against such employers, he said there is no such provision in the 2014 notification.
By Express News Service

More than 10 days into the GST regime, New Indian Express finds that prices of many products are showing huge variations across locations as traders make sense of the new tax structure and profiteers see opportunities in the many grey areas

CHENNAI: Two weeks after the GST rollout, not much seems to have changed with respect to its core vision of a single Indian market. Confusion, lack of awareness of critical system components and perhaps some unscrupulousness has seen prices of the same product priced significantly differently across states.

The Goods and Services Tax is designed to impose uniform taxation on products across the country, resulting in uniform pricing. Earlier, the Value Added Tax (VAT) system saw VAT vary across states for the same product and, combined with other state and local levies, saw the same products from the same brand priced differently in different locations.

However, two weeks later, the GST regime has barely resulted in any equalization. According to data collected by New Indian Express reporters, for instance, a 10 kg bag of atta of the same brand is being sold at Rs 420 in the Andamans, Rs 440 in Thiruvananthapuram, Rs 320 in Punjab and Rs 334 in Odisha. Other product prices also differ widely -- including home appliances, everyday groceries and even construction materials.

This is not surprising, say retail and indirect tax experts, especially since many are still not clear about the new regime and the pricing scenarios that go with it. This was expected and it will take some time to settle down -- maybe two or three months. Despite over a year to prepare, many are confused, pointed out Rajat Wahi, partner, management consulting, Deloitte India.

Wahi even pointed out that it was not just prices in different states that were different, but even those in different cities inside the same state. For example, New Indian Express found that the same 10 kg bag of atta was sold for Rs 420 in Kochi while it was retailing at Rs 440 in Thiruvananthapuram.

There are several issues driving this disparity. One is that many traders and retailers still hold old stock. With several companies yet to release, or properly disseminate, new rates, traders are stuck selling old stock at old rates. Another reason is the lack of awareness on the input tax credit (ITC) system. While ITC is eligible on old stock (unsold as of July 1) up to 60 per cent of excise duty paid on it (for items taxed at 18 per cent GST), many traders are unaware or unsure of the law.

Despite help desks and other initiatives, traders are asking for more time. For instance, the new MRP rules were only framed last week. Right now, traders are in a learning phase, pointed out Confederation of All India Traders national general secretary Praveen Khandelwal. The traders body is asking that the initial nine months be an interim period of sorts, where purely procedural lapses will not be penalised.

Sachin Menon, partner, indirect tax at KPMG India concurred. Lack of awareness is the main reason. Second, some might also be taking advantage of the confusion even though they know what should be cheaper. Around 80 per cent of products in the list are actually in the lower tax brackets.

Once monitoring systems are not as swamped as they are now, things should improve, concluded Wahi.

More than 10 days into the GST regime, New Indian Express finds that prices of many products are showing huge variations across locations as traders make sense of the new tax structure and profiteers see opportunities in the many grey areas CHENNAI: Two weeks after the GST rollout, not much seems to have changed with respect to its core vision of a single Indian market. Confusion, lack of awareness of critical system components and perhaps some unscrupulousness has seen prices of the same product priced significantly differently across states. The Goods and Services Tax is designed to impose uniform taxation on products across the country, resulting in uniform pricing. Earlier, the Value Added Tax (VAT) system saw VAT vary across states for the same product and, combined with other state and local levies, saw the same products from the same brand priced differently in different locations. However, two weeks later, the GST regime has barely resulted in any equalization. According to data collected by New Indian Express reporters, for instance, a 10 kg bag of atta of the same brand is being sold at Rs 420 in the Andamans, Rs 440 in Thiruvananthapuram, Rs 320 in Punjab and Rs 334 in Odisha. Other product prices also differ widely -- including home appliances, everyday groceries and even construction materials. This is not surprising, say retail and indirect tax experts, especially since many are still not clear about the new regime and the pricing scenarios that go with it. This was expected and it will take some time to settle down -- maybe two or three months. Despite over a year to prepare, many are confused, pointed out Rajat Wahi, partner, management consulting, Deloitte India. Wahi even pointed out that it was not just prices in different states that were different, but even those in different cities inside the same state. For example, New Indian Express found that the same 10 kg bag of atta was sold for Rs 420 in Kochi while it was retailing at Rs 440 in Thiruvananthapuram. There are several issues driving this disparity. One is that many traders and retailers still hold old stock. With several companies yet to release, or properly disseminate, new rates, traders are stuck selling old stock at old rates. Another reason is the lack of awareness on the input tax credit (ITC) system. While ITC is eligible on old stock (unsold as of July 1) up to 60 per cent of excise duty paid on it (for items taxed at 18 per cent GST), many traders are unaware or unsure of the law. Despite help desks and other initiatives, traders are asking for more time. For instance, the new MRP rules were only framed last week. Right now, traders are in a learning phase, pointed out Confederation of All India Traders national general secretary Praveen Khandelwal. The traders body is asking that the initial nine months be an interim period of sorts, where purely procedural lapses will not be penalised. Sachin Menon, partner, indirect tax at KPMG India concurred. Lack of awareness is the main reason. Second, some might also be taking advantage of the confusion even though they know what should be cheaper. Around 80 per cent of products in the list are actually in the lower tax brackets. Once monitoring systems are not as swamped as they are now, things should improve, concluded Wahi.
Brazil's President Michel Temer reacts during a ceremony at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil July 13, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

BRASILIA - The Commission on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship (CCJ) of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies voted on Thursday to reject the corruption charges against President Michel Temer by 40 votes to 25.

In this way, the CCJ advises the full Chamber of Deputies to vote against the report elaborated by deputy Sergio Zveiter, which recommended accepting the charges.

This result was expected as, in recent days, the government succeeded in changing a number of CCJ members who had threatened to vote against the president.

Ahead of these changes, Temer was set to lose a CCJ vote by 32 to 30, according to estimations by Brazilian media.

Before the vote on Thursday, Zveiter said the government had used public money to try and save its mandate, which consisted "obstruction of justice."

However, this vote is a non-binding, advisory motion for the full Chamber of Deputies which must now vote on whether to accept the corruption charges against Temer.

Prosecutor-general Rodrigo Janot filed charges against Temer at the Supreme Court, accusing the president of accepting bribes from meatpacking group JBS since 2010.

If the Chamber of Deputies and the Supreme Court both accept the charges, Temer will step down from office for 180 days and face trial.

This would be the first time that a sitting president has been charged before the Supreme Court.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday reconstituted the three-member Delhi Minorities Commission for a period of three years after securing the assent of Lt. Governor Anil Baijal.

The previous panel completed its tenure earlier this year.

The reconstituted Commission will be headed by renowned scholar and journalist Zafarul Islam Khan. Anastasia Gill and Kartar Singh Kochhar will be the other members on the panel.

Khan -- who has a doctorate in Islamic Studies from Manchester University -- has worked for several international organisations.

The names of the three members were proposed by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday reconstituted the three-member Delhi Minorities Commission for a period of three years after securing the assent of Lt. Governor Anil Baijal. The previous panel completed its tenure earlier this year. The reconstituted Commission will be headed by renowned scholar and journalist Zafarul Islam Khan. Anastasia Gill and Kartar Singh Kochhar will be the other members on the panel. Khan -- who has a doctorate in Islamic Studies from Manchester University -- has worked for several international organisations. The names of the three members were proposed by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
By PTI

CHENNAI: Actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasans upcoming multilingual comedy "Sabash Naidu", currently put on hold for various reasons, has not been shelved, confirms a source close to the "Dasavatharam" star.

"Kamal sir is busy with 'Bigg Boss' show. Contrary to some reports, Sabash Naidu' has not been shelved and will be revived very soon. It had to be stalled when he had a leg injury followed by some unfortunate events," a source close to Kamal told IANS.

Last July, Haasan fractured his leg after he slipped and fell at his residence here.

The injury put him out of action for nearly seven months.

The team had made plans to resume shoot from last December.

"The make-up team from the US, which had to take care of Kamal sir's prosthetic look, wasn't available as they were on a Christmas break. Therefore, the shoot had to be pushed to this year," the source added.

"Sabash Naidu", a spin-off on Kamal's Balram Naidu character from "Dasavatharam", is being simultaneously shot in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

The film also stars Ramya Krishnan, Shruti Haasan and Brahmanandam.

CHENNAI: Actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasans upcoming multilingual comedy "Sabash Naidu", currently put on hold for various reasons, has not been shelved, confirms a source close to the "Dasavatharam" star. "Kamal sir is busy with 'Bigg Boss' show. Contrary to some reports, Sabash Naidu' has not been shelved and will be revived very soon. It had to be stalled when he had a leg injury followed by some unfortunate events," a source close to Kamal told IANS. Last July, Haasan fractured his leg after he slipped and fell at his residence here. The injury put him out of action for nearly seven months. The team had made plans to resume shoot from last December. "The make-up team from the US, which had to take care of Kamal sir's prosthetic look, wasn't available as they were on a Christmas break. Therefore, the shoot had to be pushed to this year," the source added. "Sabash Naidu", a spin-off on Kamal's Balram Naidu character from "Dasavatharam", is being simultaneously shot in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. The film also stars Ramya Krishnan, Shruti Haasan and Brahmanandam.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Heres the news: the names of the Tollywood personalities who have been summoned by the Telangana Prohibition and Excise Department to explain their phone messages to a captured drug dealer are: Ravi Teja, Tarun, Navdeep, Tanish, Nandoo, Subba Rao, Charmme Kaur, Mumaith Khan, Puri Jagannath, Shyam K Naidu, Chinna and Srinivas Rao.

The last named is Ravi Tejas driver. The rest of them are stars, big and small. The interviews have been scheduled from July 19 to 27.

But heres the surprise: Akun Sabharwal, the director (enforcement) of the said department, is going to be on leave during that time. He said the reasons are personal, something related to the demise of his mother recently.

As eyebrows go up over this curious twist in Hyderabads much-touted crackdown on drugs in Tollywood, ten of the invitees have acknowledged the notices. The two who are shy are Nandoo and Tanish, both young actors. Meanwhile, denials and protestations of innocence are coming in from some of the others.

Actor Navdeep confirmed receiving the notice but gave an insight into what his pleas will be. Indeed his name may have buzzed the anti-drug radar but that may have been because he was associated with a number of event management companies and one that had a poor reputation. "They (these companies) could be associated with Calvin Mascarenhas (one of the peddlers now in the cooler) and I think thats why I have been summoned.

Navdeep -- who was once caught for drunken driving and then became an ambassador of sorts for sober behaviour -- said the media is sensationalizing Tollywoods drug bust before anything has been established. These allegations need to be proved," he said, and lamented that he has become a soft target for the media.

Actor Subbaraju, whose date is on July 21, said he hasnt even seen Toollywood stars indulging in drugs. He supplied a certificate of character for all of the other 11 Tollywood invitees: Not one of them is a drug user, he said.

A denial also came from Akun Sabharwal, who is fronting this investigation into Tollywoods dalliance with drugs. Sabharwal said it wasnt he who has been blabbing to the media about the names in the list.

In the midst of all this excitement, Akun Sabharwal dropped the bombshell Friday that he is set to go on leave for one month beginning Saturday.

Sabharwal had earlier this month initiated an investigation into drug peddling in Hyderabad and faced the wrath of the political class when names of schools to which notices were issued by his department were leaked in the media.

He had then stayed away for a couple of days citing health reasons.

Speaking to the media Friday, Sabharwal cited personal reasons for going on leave. He would not reveal details. "I have 100 per cent support from the government. I had applied for leave even before this investigation started and the government has sanctioned it," he said.

Information gushing out of the Prohibition and Excise Departments office is that there were 246 contacts on arrested peddler Calvin Mascarehnas' phone The 12 Tollywood personalities were issued notices on the basis of Calvins call history and WhatsApp chat.

The summons to depose is on the basis of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act. At the moment, the 12 personalities have been asked to come by for a chat. But Akun Sabharwal said that if something concrete emerges, they can be arrested. But curiously, he wont be doing the grilling.

Meanwhile, one more arrest has been made in the episode that has enlivened talk in Tollywood. Another alleged drug peddler, Piyush, a civil engineer, was arrested in East Marredpally Friday afternoon based on information gleaned from by Calvin. That takes the number of arrests to 13.

Piyush is accused of supplying drugs to students. He used to allegedly procure them from Germany and Netherlands through the dark web. The department seized 3600 fake LSD units and some 100 pills in Piyushs possession.

HYDERABAD: Heres the news: the names of the Tollywood personalities who have been summoned by the Telangana Prohibition and Excise Department to explain their phone messages to a captured drug dealer are: Ravi Teja, Tarun, Navdeep, Tanish, Nandoo, Subba Rao, Charmme Kaur, Mumaith Khan, Puri Jagannath, Shyam K Naidu, Chinna and Srinivas Rao. The last named is Ravi Tejas driver. The rest of them are stars, big and small. The interviews have been scheduled from July 19 to 27. But heres the surprise: Akun Sabharwal, the director (enforcement) of the said department, is going to be on leave during that time. He said the reasons are personal, something related to the demise of his mother recently. As eyebrows go up over this curious twist in Hyderabads much-touted crackdown on drugs in Tollywood, ten of the invitees have acknowledged the notices. The two who are shy are Nandoo and Tanish, both young actors. Meanwhile, denials and protestations of innocence are coming in from some of the others. Actor Navdeep confirmed receiving the notice but gave an insight into what his pleas will be. Indeed his name may have buzzed the anti-drug radar but that may have been because he was associated with a number of event management companies and one that had a poor reputation. "They (these companies) could be associated with Calvin Mascarenhas (one of the peddlers now in the cooler) and I think thats why I have been summoned. Navdeep -- who was once caught for drunken driving and then became an ambassador of sorts for sober behaviour -- said the media is sensationalizing Tollywoods drug bust before anything has been established. These allegations need to be proved," he said, and lamented that he has become a soft target for the media. Actor Subbaraju, whose date is on July 21, said he hasnt even seen Toollywood stars indulging in drugs. He supplied a certificate of character for all of the other 11 Tollywood invitees: Not one of them is a drug user, he said. A denial also came from Akun Sabharwal, who is fronting this investigation into Tollywoods dalliance with drugs. Sabharwal said it wasnt he who has been blabbing to the media about the names in the list. In the midst of all this excitement, Akun Sabharwal dropped the bombshell Friday that he is set to go on leave for one month beginning Saturday. Sabharwal had earlier this month initiated an investigation into drug peddling in Hyderabad and faced the wrath of the political class when names of schools to which notices were issued by his department were leaked in the media. He had then stayed away for a couple of days citing health reasons. Speaking to the media Friday, Sabharwal cited personal reasons for going on leave. He would not reveal details. "I have 100 per cent support from the government. I had applied for leave even before this investigation started and the government has sanctioned it," he said. Information gushing out of the Prohibition and Excise Departments office is that there were 246 contacts on arrested peddler Calvin Mascarehnas' phone The 12 Tollywood personalities were issued notices on the basis of Calvins call history and WhatsApp chat. The summons to depose is on the basis of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act. At the moment, the 12 personalities have been asked to come by for a chat. But Akun Sabharwal said that if something concrete emerges, they can be arrested. But curiously, he wont be doing the grilling. Meanwhile, one more arrest has been made in the episode that has enlivened talk in Tollywood. Another alleged drug peddler, Piyush, a civil engineer, was arrested in East Marredpally Friday afternoon based on information gleaned from by Calvin. That takes the number of arrests to 13. Piyush is accused of supplying drugs to students. He used to allegedly procure them from Germany and Netherlands through the dark web. The department seized 3600 fake LSD units and some 100 pills in Piyushs possession.
By PTI

JAMMU: Security forces and Jammu and Kashmir Police have killed 102 militants till now this year, making it the highest number of killings in the January-July period in seven years, a police official said today.

The security forces also have prepared a hit-list of several other terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen.

The slain militants included Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Bashir Lashkari who was involved in the killing of six policemen in south Kashmir and top Hizbul Mujahideen militant Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, he noted.

The security forces and police are going after terrorists as part of the operation "hunt down" and on the basis of a "hit-list" of terrorists, said the official who refused to be identified.

The killing of 102 militants till July 12 makes it the highest number in the past seven years, the official said. Earlier in 2010, the highest number of 156 militants were killed between January and July that year.

Last year, 77 militants were killed during this period, 51 each were killed in 2015 and 2014, respectively, 43 in 2013, 37 in 2012 and 61 in 2011, according to the police data.

The hunt for militants of various outfits has been intensified under an operational strategy, the official said.

The counter-terrorist grid continues to maintain dominance and deny any space to terrorists, the official said, adding synergised hard intelligence-based joint operations involving the J&K police and central paramilitary forces have been the hallmark of these operations.

While the forces have already eliminated those involved the killing of seven cops and lynching of Dy SP, a massive hunt is underway for LeT commander Abu Ismail who has emerged as the mastermind of the deadly attack on Amarnath pilgrims. Sabzar Bhat, who was a close associate of the slain poster boy Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, was killed along with an associate in an encounter in Tral in South Kashmir on May 28.

On July one this year, Lashkari and another LeT militant Azad Malik were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Anantnag's Brenti village in South Kashmir.

Bashir Lashkari was involved in the killing of six policemen in the districts Acchabal area on June 16, according to the police. On July 12, top Hizb militant Sajad Gilkar was among three militants killed by security forces in Budgam district of central Kashmir.

According to the police, Gilkar had played a key role in the lynching of DySP Mohammad Ayub Pandith near Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area of Srinagar on June 22. Most of the encounters have taken place in south Kashmir's Pulwama, Shopian and Anantnag districts while others have taken place in Bandipora and Kupwara in north Kashmir and Budgam in central Kashmir, the official pointed out. In June, the Army had released a "hit-list" of 12 top militants in Jammu and Kashmir who it aims to "go after".

The hit-list carries the names and pictures of the militants along with the areas they are active in and the strikes carried out by them.

The hit-list includes LeT's so-called 'divisional commander' Abu Dujana alias Hafiz, its Kulgam 'district commander' Junaid Ahmad Matoo alias Kandroo, Anantnag 'district commander' Bashir Wani alias Lashkar, Pulwama 'district commander' Showkat Tak alias Huzaifa, Shopian 'commander' Wasim Ahmed alias Osama and Zeenat-ul-Islam alias Alkama (LET), according to the police.

Abu Hamas, Jaish-e-Mohammad's so-called 'divisional commander and a Pakistani national, is also in the hit-list.

From the Hizbul Mujahideen, the list includes its 'divisional commander' Zakir Rashid Bhatt alias Musa, Shopian 'district commander' Saddam Paddar alias Zaid, Pulwama 'district commander' Reyaz Ahmed Naikoo alias Zubair, Badgam 'district commander' Mohd Yasin Ittoo alias Mansoon and Kulgam 'district commander' Altaf Ahmed Dar alias Kachroo.

JAMMU: Security forces and Jammu and Kashmir Police have killed 102 militants till now this year, making it the highest number of killings in the January-July period in seven years, a police official said today. The security forces also have prepared a hit-list of several other terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen. The slain militants included Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Bashir Lashkari who was involved in the killing of six policemen in south Kashmir and top Hizbul Mujahideen militant Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, he noted. The security forces and police are going after terrorists as part of the operation "hunt down" and on the basis of a "hit-list" of terrorists, said the official who refused to be identified. The killing of 102 militants till July 12 makes it the highest number in the past seven years, the official said. Earlier in 2010, the highest number of 156 militants were killed between January and July that year. Last year, 77 militants were killed during this period, 51 each were killed in 2015 and 2014, respectively, 43 in 2013, 37 in 2012 and 61 in 2011, according to the police data. The hunt for militants of various outfits has been intensified under an operational strategy, the official said. The counter-terrorist grid continues to maintain dominance and deny any space to terrorists, the official said, adding synergised hard intelligence-based joint operations involving the J&K police and central paramilitary forces have been the hallmark of these operations. While the forces have already eliminated those involved the killing of seven cops and lynching of Dy SP, a massive hunt is underway for LeT commander Abu Ismail who has emerged as the mastermind of the deadly attack on Amarnath pilgrims. Sabzar Bhat, who was a close associate of the slain poster boy Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, was killed along with an associate in an encounter in Tral in South Kashmir on May 28. On July one this year, Lashkari and another LeT militant Azad Malik were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Anantnag's Brenti village in South Kashmir. Bashir Lashkari was involved in the killing of six policemen in the districts Acchabal area on June 16, according to the police. On July 12, top Hizb militant Sajad Gilkar was among three militants killed by security forces in Budgam district of central Kashmir. According to the police, Gilkar had played a key role in the lynching of DySP Mohammad Ayub Pandith near Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area of Srinagar on June 22. Most of the encounters have taken place in south Kashmir's Pulwama, Shopian and Anantnag districts while others have taken place in Bandipora and Kupwara in north Kashmir and Budgam in central Kashmir, the official pointed out. In June, the Army had released a "hit-list" of 12 top militants in Jammu and Kashmir who it aims to "go after". The hit-list carries the names and pictures of the militants along with the areas they are active in and the strikes carried out by them. The hit-list includes LeT's so-called 'divisional commander' Abu Dujana alias Hafiz, its Kulgam 'district commander' Junaid Ahmad Matoo alias Kandroo, Anantnag 'district commander' Bashir Wani alias Lashkar, Pulwama 'district commander' Showkat Tak alias Huzaifa, Shopian 'commander' Wasim Ahmed alias Osama and Zeenat-ul-Islam alias Alkama (LET), according to the police. Abu Hamas, Jaish-e-Mohammad's so-called 'divisional commander and a Pakistani national, is also in the hit-list. From the Hizbul Mujahideen, the list includes its 'divisional commander' Zakir Rashid Bhatt alias Musa, Shopian 'district commander' Saddam Paddar alias Zaid, Pulwama 'district commander' Reyaz Ahmed Naikoo alias Zubair, Badgam 'district commander' Mohd Yasin Ittoo alias Mansoon and Kulgam 'district commander' Altaf Ahmed Dar alias Kachroo.
By PTI

SRINAGAR: An Afghan national, awaiting deportation from Delhi, was arrested from Baramulla District of Kashmir as he was on his way towards the Line of Control to exfiltrate to Pakistan, police said today.

Twenty-seven-year-old Mohammad Dawood was taken into custody at Kralahar in Baramulla yesterday.

"Dawood, who was acquitted in case under various sections of NDPS Act in New Delhi, was to be deported but meanwhile government had decided to appeal against his acquittal.

"His passport lies with the Special Cell of Delhi Police and he was under orders to restrict his movements to Lampur, Narela area of New Delhi," a senior police official said.

Dawood told police that he wanted to return to Afghanistan via Pakistan by crossing the LoC.

"His claim is being verified, " the official said.

Besides Dawood, police also detained two residents of Uri, the border town, and the driver of the vehicle in which they were travelling.

"The local residents claim not to be connected with him. Investigation, however, is going on to ascertain the facts," the official said.

SRINAGAR: An Afghan national, awaiting deportation from Delhi, was arrested from Baramulla District of Kashmir as he was on his way towards the Line of Control to exfiltrate to Pakistan, police said today. Twenty-seven-year-old Mohammad Dawood was taken into custody at Kralahar in Baramulla yesterday. "Dawood, who was acquitted in case under various sections of NDPS Act in New Delhi, was to be deported but meanwhile government had decided to appeal against his acquittal. "His passport lies with the Special Cell of Delhi Police and he was under orders to restrict his movements to Lampur, Narela area of New Delhi," a senior police official said. Dawood told police that he wanted to return to Afghanistan via Pakistan by crossing the LoC. "His claim is being verified, " the official said. Besides Dawood, police also detained two residents of Uri, the border town, and the driver of the vehicle in which they were travelling. "The local residents claim not to be connected with him. Investigation, however, is going on to ascertain the facts," the official said.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The government today told opposition leaders that China is constructing roads near the international border hampering the country's strategic interests and NSA Ajit Doval will put forward New Delhi's position before his Chinese counterparts later this month, officials said.

The opposition leaders were briefed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar ahead of the parliament session beginning Monday.

Officials said Doval and Jaishankar made a detailed presentation before the opposition leaders, including those from the Congress, the Left, the NCP and the TMC, saying Indian Army is in a stand-off with the People's Liberation Army of China in the India-Bhutan-China tri- junction.

The top ministers told the opposition leaders that Doval will be visiting China on July 26-27 and will put forward before Chinese interlocutors India's position, they said.

The importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy was underlined at a briefing by senior Union ministers to political parties on the situation in Dokalam, the External Affairs Ministry said. Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma told reporters after the meeting that their party has raised some doubts before the government's policy but made it clear that "nation is first -- be it China or Kashmir". "There is too much of tension (with China) and that should be lowered through diplomacy.

We will also raise the issue in Parliament," both the leaders said. Sharma said that Congress made its view clear that national security was the priority and advised the government to rise above politics and tackle the situation diplomatically.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said his party raised "some serious questions" and claimed that government had no answer to his question on preparedeness for such incidents.

Opposition leaders were also briefed about the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the government action in the wake of killing of seven Amarnath pilgrims by terrorists last Monday. The briefing on Kashmir was made by union home secretary-designate Rajiv Gauba.

Government chief spokesperson Frank Noronha said the basic purpose of the meeting was to apprise MPs from different parties about situation along Sino-Indian border and on terrorist attack on Amarnath Yatris.

The MPs were briefed that 2.2 lakh pilgrims visited Amarnath last year while so far 1.86 lakh have already visited the cave shrine in Jammu and Kashmir. NDA ally Shiv Sena leader Anandrao Adsul said the government need to be more aggressive in dealing with China. "I thought the government will speak on these lines, but it did not," he said.

CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the government conveyed about the efforts being carried out to resolve the dispute with China. Union minister Ramvilas Paswan, who is an alliance in the NDA government, said the external affairs minister and foreign secretary gave a detailed information on border issue especially in Dokalam. "Everybody promised support to the government," he said.

Others who attended the meeting -- considered an effort to build consensus on dealings with India's biggest neighbour and Kashmir -- included Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar (NCP) and Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi (JD-U).

New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Dokalam area of Sikkim. China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Dokalam area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road.

Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- are on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on China.

On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir. He also alleged that the prime minister's pursuit of short-term political gains through the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost.

NEW DELHI: The government today told opposition leaders that China is constructing roads near the international border hampering the country's strategic interests and NSA Ajit Doval will put forward New Delhi's position before his Chinese counterparts later this month, officials said. The opposition leaders were briefed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar ahead of the parliament session beginning Monday. Officials said Doval and Jaishankar made a detailed presentation before the opposition leaders, including those from the Congress, the Left, the NCP and the TMC, saying Indian Army is in a stand-off with the People's Liberation Army of China in the India-Bhutan-China tri- junction. The top ministers told the opposition leaders that Doval will be visiting China on July 26-27 and will put forward before Chinese interlocutors India's position, they said. The importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy was underlined at a briefing by senior Union ministers to political parties on the situation in Dokalam, the External Affairs Ministry said. Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma told reporters after the meeting that their party has raised some doubts before the government's policy but made it clear that "nation is first -- be it China or Kashmir". "There is too much of tension (with China) and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament," both the leaders said. Sharma said that Congress made its view clear that national security was the priority and advised the government to rise above politics and tackle the situation diplomatically. Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said his party raised "some serious questions" and claimed that government had no answer to his question on preparedeness for such incidents. Opposition leaders were also briefed about the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the government action in the wake of killing of seven Amarnath pilgrims by terrorists last Monday. The briefing on Kashmir was made by union home secretary-designate Rajiv Gauba. Government chief spokesperson Frank Noronha said the basic purpose of the meeting was to apprise MPs from different parties about situation along Sino-Indian border and on terrorist attack on Amarnath Yatris. The MPs were briefed that 2.2 lakh pilgrims visited Amarnath last year while so far 1.86 lakh have already visited the cave shrine in Jammu and Kashmir. NDA ally Shiv Sena leader Anandrao Adsul said the government need to be more aggressive in dealing with China. "I thought the government will speak on these lines, but it did not," he said. CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the government conveyed about the efforts being carried out to resolve the dispute with China. Union minister Ramvilas Paswan, who is an alliance in the NDA government, said the external affairs minister and foreign secretary gave a detailed information on border issue especially in Dokalam. "Everybody promised support to the government," he said. Others who attended the meeting -- considered an effort to build consensus on dealings with India's biggest neighbour and Kashmir -- included Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar (NCP) and Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi (JD-U). New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Dokalam area of Sikkim. China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Dokalam area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region. Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday. Four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- are on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016. The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on China. On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir. He also alleged that the prime minister's pursuit of short-term political gains through the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today dismissed the plea of disqualified Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra to vote in the presidential polls on Monday.

A specially constituted single-judge bench of Justice Indermeet Kaur also upheld Mishra's disqualification for three years over paid news charges.

The high court had yesterday reserved its judgement after hearing day-long arguments on behalf of Mishra, the Election Commission of India and Congress leader Rajendra Bharti on whose complaint the poll panel had disqualified the BJP leader.

The Supreme Court had transferred the matter to the high court to be decided expeditiously before the July 17 presidential election.

Pursuant to the apex court's decision, the high court had constituted the special single-judge bench to hear Mishra's plea challenging the ECI's June 23 order disqualifying him.

The poll panel had held him guilty of filing wrong accounts of poll expenses relating to articles and advertorials in the media during the 2008 assembly polls.

While transferring the matter to the high court, the apex court had said that the right to vote in the presidential poll can only be determined after the challenge raised to the order passed by the Election Commission on June 23 is suitably addressed by the High Court, finally or through an interim order as the High Court may consider appropriate.

Mishra had moved the apex court challenging a Madhya Pradesh High Court order refusing an urgent hearing to his interim prayer to allow him to vote in the presidential poll.

While disqualifying Mishra from contesting elections for three years following a complaint against him, the poll panel had used some strong words against paid news, calling it a "cancerous menace" that is assuming "alarming proportions" in the electoral landscape.

His election from the Datia Assembly constituency also stands void.

Mishra, who won from Datia assembly constituency, is the minister for water resources and public relations and the chief spokesperson of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.

Bharti, the main complainant in the case, had first sent a complaint to the EC about eight years back in 2009.

The poll panel order had said that all the 42 news items that had appeared in five Hindi dailies were "extremely biased in favour of" Mishra.

It had said that its findings had also strengthened the conclusion that he had "knowingly participated or took advantage of the expenditure on such advertisements" that had appeared as news in the publication.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today dismissed the plea of disqualified Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra to vote in the presidential polls on Monday. A specially constituted single-judge bench of Justice Indermeet Kaur also upheld Mishra's disqualification for three years over paid news charges. The high court had yesterday reserved its judgement after hearing day-long arguments on behalf of Mishra, the Election Commission of India and Congress leader Rajendra Bharti on whose complaint the poll panel had disqualified the BJP leader. The Supreme Court had transferred the matter to the high court to be decided expeditiously before the July 17 presidential election. Pursuant to the apex court's decision, the high court had constituted the special single-judge bench to hear Mishra's plea challenging the ECI's June 23 order disqualifying him. The poll panel had held him guilty of filing wrong accounts of poll expenses relating to articles and advertorials in the media during the 2008 assembly polls. While transferring the matter to the high court, the apex court had said that the right to vote in the presidential poll can only be determined after the challenge raised to the order passed by the Election Commission on June 23 is suitably addressed by the High Court, finally or through an interim order as the High Court may consider appropriate. Mishra had moved the apex court challenging a Madhya Pradesh High Court order refusing an urgent hearing to his interim prayer to allow him to vote in the presidential poll. While disqualifying Mishra from contesting elections for three years following a complaint against him, the poll panel had used some strong words against paid news, calling it a "cancerous menace" that is assuming "alarming proportions" in the electoral landscape. His election from the Datia Assembly constituency also stands void. Mishra, who won from Datia assembly constituency, is the minister for water resources and public relations and the chief spokesperson of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. Bharti, the main complainant in the case, had first sent a complaint to the EC about eight years back in 2009. The poll panel order had said that all the 42 news items that had appeared in five Hindi dailies were "extremely biased in favour of" Mishra. It had said that its findings had also strengthened the conclusion that he had "knowingly participated or took advantage of the expenditure on such advertisements" that had appeared as news in the publication.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Union Minister Smriti Irani, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen are among the 10 leaders who would end their terms in Rajya Sabha, upcoming weeks. The election commission on Friday announced the schedule for the polls which will be held on August 8.

While the terms of nine Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat and West Bengal are ending on August 18, 2017, bypoll to the Upper House seat from Madhya Pradesh will also be held following the demise of Union Environment Minister Anil Dave (BJP) on May 18, 2017. Daves Rajya Sabha term was to end on June 29, 2022. The biennial poll and the bypoll will take place on August 8, 2017.

Earlier, on May 17, 2017, the poll panel had announced the schedule to the nine seats from West Bengal and Gujarat for June 8. But, EC had postponed the poll saying it would clash with the July 17 presidential election and the electronic voting machine challenge on June 3, 2017.

Out of the 9 retiring members, four are from the Trinamool Congress, two from the Congress, two from the BJP and one from the CPI(M).

The tenure of Ahmed Patel (Congress), Dilipbhai Pandya and Ms. Irani (BJP) from Gujarat and Derek OBrien, Debabrata Bandhopadhyay, Sukhenduhakhar Roy and Dola Sen (all Trinamool), Pradip Bhattacharya (Congress) and Yechury (CPI(M)) from West Bengal ends on August 18, 2017.

Since the presidential poll is on July 17, 2017 and vice-presidential election on August 5, 2017 these members will be able to cast their ballot in the election as their retirement is due after that.

Forensic Test for EVMs

Poll panel sources said that a forensic test was conducted on an EVM on the orders of a high court to check whether it can be tampered with and the lab gave its clearance saying there is no evidence of manipulation in the machine. The official said that it is for the first time an EVM underwent such a test.

In May, the Bombay High Court had ordered examination of the EVMs from the Parvatti constituency in Pune. The order was issued to rule out tampering during elections to Maharashtra legislative assembly in 2014.

The court had asked the central forensic science laboratory (CFSL), Hyderabad to examine the EVMs and opine as to whether they could have been remotely accessed.

As per the test report, the machine is a stand alone, non-networked, one-time programmable unit, which is neither computer controlled externally nor could be connected internally or to any network.

The report concluded that no evidence of tampering, altering or any other manipulation could be detected.

NEW DELHI: Union Minister Smriti Irani, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen are among the 10 leaders who would end their terms in Rajya Sabha, upcoming weeks. The election commission on Friday announced the schedule for the polls which will be held on August 8. While the terms of nine Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat and West Bengal are ending on August 18, 2017, bypoll to the Upper House seat from Madhya Pradesh will also be held following the demise of Union Environment Minister Anil Dave (BJP) on May 18, 2017. Daves Rajya Sabha term was to end on June 29, 2022. The biennial poll and the bypoll will take place on August 8, 2017. Earlier, on May 17, 2017, the poll panel had announced the schedule to the nine seats from West Bengal and Gujarat for June 8. But, EC had postponed the poll saying it would clash with the July 17 presidential election and the electronic voting machine challenge on June 3, 2017. Out of the 9 retiring members, four are from the Trinamool Congress, two from the Congress, two from the BJP and one from the CPI(M). The tenure of Ahmed Patel (Congress), Dilipbhai Pandya and Ms. Irani (BJP) from Gujarat and Derek OBrien, Debabrata Bandhopadhyay, Sukhenduhakhar Roy and Dola Sen (all Trinamool), Pradip Bhattacharya (Congress) and Yechury (CPI(M)) from West Bengal ends on August 18, 2017. Since the presidential poll is on July 17, 2017 and vice-presidential election on August 5, 2017 these members will be able to cast their ballot in the election as their retirement is due after that. Forensic Test for EVMs Poll panel sources said that a forensic test was conducted on an EVM on the orders of a high court to check whether it can be tampered with and the lab gave its clearance saying there is no evidence of manipulation in the machine. The official said that it is for the first time an EVM underwent such a test. In May, the Bombay High Court had ordered examination of the EVMs from the Parvatti constituency in Pune. The order was issued to rule out tampering during elections to Maharashtra legislative assembly in 2014. The court had asked the central forensic science laboratory (CFSL), Hyderabad to examine the EVMs and opine as to whether they could have been remotely accessed. As per the test report, the machine is a stand alone, non-networked, one-time programmable unit, which is neither computer controlled externally nor could be connected internally or to any network. The report concluded that no evidence of tampering, altering or any other manipulation could be detected.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The issue with China and growing unrest in the Kashmir Valley will be raised in the Parliament session beginning next week by opposition parties, who were today briefed by the government about the situation on both the fronts.

Emerging from the meeting, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma told reporters that their party has raised some doubts before the government but made it clear that "nation is first -- be it China or Kashmir".

"There is too much of tension and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament," both the leaders said.

Sharma said that the Congress made its view clear that national security was the priority and advised the government to rise above politics and tackle the situation diplomatically.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said that his party raised "some serious questions" and claimed that the government had no answer to his question on preparedness for such incidents.

The opposition leaders were briefed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, ahead of the Parliament session beginning Monday.

The opposition leaders were told about the prevailing situation along the Sino-Indian border and Jammu and Kashmir and the government's action.

Others who attended the meeting -- considered an effort to build consensus on dealings with India's biggest neighbour and Kashmir -- included Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Tariq Anwar (NCP) and Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi (JD-U).

New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Dokalam area of Sikkim.

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

CPI-M General Secretary Yechury said that the government conveyed to the participants about the efforts being carried out to resolve the dispute.

Union minister Paswan said the external affairs minister and foreign secretary gave a detailed information on border issue especially in Dokalam. "Everybody promised support to the government," he said.

On Jammu and Kashmir, government's chief spokesman Frank Noronha said the basic purpose of the meeting was to apprise the MPs from different parties of the situation following the attack on Amarnath yatris on July 10.

The MPs were informed that 2.2 lakh pilgrims had visited the cave shrine last yea and this year 1.86 lakh pilgrims have already visited till today.

The yatra will continue till August 7. Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- are on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on China.

On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir. He also alleged that the prime minister's pursuit of short-term political gains through the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost.

NEW DELHI: The issue with China and growing unrest in the Kashmir Valley will be raised in the Parliament session beginning next week by opposition parties, who were today briefed by the government about the situation on both the fronts. Emerging from the meeting, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma told reporters that their party has raised some doubts before the government but made it clear that "nation is first -- be it China or Kashmir". "There is too much of tension and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament," both the leaders said. Sharma said that the Congress made its view clear that national security was the priority and advised the government to rise above politics and tackle the situation diplomatically. Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said that his party raised "some serious questions" and claimed that the government had no answer to his question on preparedness for such incidents. The opposition leaders were briefed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, ahead of the Parliament session beginning Monday. The opposition leaders were told about the prevailing situation along the Sino-Indian border and Jammu and Kashmir and the government's action. Others who attended the meeting -- considered an effort to build consensus on dealings with India's biggest neighbour and Kashmir -- included Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Tariq Anwar (NCP) and Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi (JD-U). New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Dokalam area of Sikkim. China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region. CPI-M General Secretary Yechury said that the government conveyed to the participants about the efforts being carried out to resolve the dispute. Union minister Paswan said the external affairs minister and foreign secretary gave a detailed information on border issue especially in Dokalam. "Everybody promised support to the government," he said. On Jammu and Kashmir, government's chief spokesman Frank Noronha said the basic purpose of the meeting was to apprise the MPs from different parties of the situation following the attack on Amarnath yatris on July 10. The MPs were informed that 2.2 lakh pilgrims had visited the cave shrine last yea and this year 1.86 lakh pilgrims have already visited till today. The yatra will continue till August 7. Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday. Four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- are on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016. The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on China. On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir. He also alleged that the prime minister's pursuit of short-term political gains through the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost.
By PTI

BHOPAL: The Cyber Crime Branch of Bhopal police arrested the kingpin of the alleged sex racket that was being operated through a website, an officer said today.

The racket had been busted two months ago by the cyber police, but the prime accused, identified as Subhash alias Veer Dwivedi (24), had remained elusive.

"Acting on the leads, police arrested Dwivedi, the main accused in the case, from a hotel in the city with the help of Mangalwara police station last evening," cyber crime branch's Superintendent of Police (SP) Shailendra Singh Chouhan said.

Police had earlier announced a reward of Rs 5,000 for any information leading to his arrest, he said.

Nine persons, including the customers, had been arrested when the online racket was busted about two months back. All of them had been sent to judicial custody.

"Dwivedi, who was evading arrest since then, was finally caught last evening. He had created a website with the help of a Delhi-based firm and the customers were contacted only through it," the SP added.

BHOPAL: The Cyber Crime Branch of Bhopal police arrested the kingpin of the alleged sex racket that was being operated through a website, an officer said today. The racket had been busted two months ago by the cyber police, but the prime accused, identified as Subhash alias Veer Dwivedi (24), had remained elusive. "Acting on the leads, police arrested Dwivedi, the main accused in the case, from a hotel in the city with the help of Mangalwara police station last evening," cyber crime branch's Superintendent of Police (SP) Shailendra Singh Chouhan said. Police had earlier announced a reward of Rs 5,000 for any information leading to his arrest, he said. Nine persons, including the customers, had been arrested when the online racket was busted about two months back. All of them had been sent to judicial custody. "Dwivedi, who was evading arrest since then, was finally caught last evening. He had created a website with the help of a Delhi-based firm and the customers were contacted only through it," the SP added.
Bristish students perform in Mandarin at the Dynasty Art and Culture Exchange Exhibition in front of more than 30 Chinese students in London on July 12, 2017. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

Students from China were treated to a variety show on Thursday that included traditional Chinese folk dancing, songs, and short plays performed in Mandarin by British children.

The show was part of a new education initiative, the Dynasty Youth Exchange, which aims to deepen understanding among youths and therefore support the future China-UK relationship.

The exchange, which was launched last year, brings Chinese students, or"little diplomats", to the UK, where they attend classes and live with British host families. Parents fund the exchange, which will soon feature a bursary to support the participation of poor children.

Dynasty is a UK-based biotechnology company that invests in life science projects that link Europe and China. The company's chief executive Simon Haworth came up with the idea on a business trip to China.

Haworth said: "I am always shocked by how much time I spend, each and every week, unraveling cross-cultural misunderstandings between my colleagues and friends in the UK and China. I firmly believe that it is China's turn now on the world stage and that links and interactions with China will be the most important influence on the lives of today's children in the UK."

Li Xiaopeng, personal assistant to the minister counselor for education in the Chinese embassy, said: "Empathy between people is the key to state-to-state relationships, so, from the government's perspective, this kind of program will help to build up the relationship between our two countries."

Three British schools performed at the Dynasty Art and Culture Exchange Exhibition in front of more than 30 students from Anhui province and Shandong province.

Students from St Catherine's College performed a song in Mandarin followed by a traditional Chinese folk dance choreographed and taught by members of the Confucius Institute at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Pupils from Kingsford Community Schoolone of the first in London to add Mandarin to its curriculumwore traditional costume to perform a play in Chinese.

And Carisbrooke College on the Isle of Wight shared a video of an exchange with students from Shanghai, including calligraphy lessons and interaction in the school dining hall. Li Zihan, a 15-year-old from Anhui province, said: "I was really surprised at how good their Mandarin was. It was a really high level."
By IANS

NEW DELHI: Senior ministers were not told by the Ministry of External Affairs that there would be "no withdrawal" of Indian troops from Doklam, where Indian and Chinese troops are in a stand-off.

"Some sections of media have reported that MEA has told senior Ministers today that there would be no withdrawal of Indian troops from Doklam. Such false reports are without any basis," sources said.

The clarification came in the context of top ministers meeting in the morning ahead of a briefing to be given to opposition leaders on the Doklam stand-off and the Kashmir situation in the evening.

The brief statement triggered a number of questions whether India was preparing for withdrawing its troops from Doklam in the Sikkim sector, but there were no answers from the government.

China has been demanding that India must withdraw troops from Doklam for any dialogue between the two sides.

NEW DELHI: Senior ministers were not told by the Ministry of External Affairs that there would be "no withdrawal" of Indian troops from Doklam, where Indian and Chinese troops are in a stand-off. "Some sections of media have reported that MEA has told senior Ministers today that there would be no withdrawal of Indian troops from Doklam. Such false reports are without any basis," sources said. The clarification came in the context of top ministers meeting in the morning ahead of a briefing to be given to opposition leaders on the Doklam stand-off and the Kashmir situation in the evening. The brief statement triggered a number of questions whether India was preparing for withdrawing its troops from Doklam in the Sikkim sector, but there were no answers from the government. China has been demanding that India must withdraw troops from Doklam for any dialogue between the two sides.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind met with Bharatiya Jantha Party and Biju Jantha Dal leaders in Odisha and promised that he would not allow the state to be neglected as in the past.

Addressing the BJD lawmakers in the assembly conference hall on Friday, he said he will act as per constitution and will do his duty, taking into account the federal structure. "I will try to ensure that no State or language is neglected," he said.

Kovinds promise comes as BJD smoothed out whatever differences it had within its ranks on the party's support for the NDA candidate.

The meeting started with an address by chief minister Naveen Patnaik. After that, Kovind sought support from the BJD lawmakers, several BJD leaders including food supply and consumer welfare minister Surya Narayan Patro, government chief whip Amar Prasad Satpathy, party MPs - Tathagat Satpathy, Dileep Tirkey and BJD parliamentary party leader Bhartruhari Mahatab also spoke about partys stand in the presidential election.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, BJD spokesperson Patro said the NDA presidential candidate praised the former chief minister late Biju Patnaik for his efforts to turn Odisha into a developed state. Kovind also congratulated Naveen for making Odisha a model state, he said.

The BJD leaders maintained that though Odisha witnessed all-round development during the 17-year rule of the party, it had to fight Central government's neglect. Odisha faces natural calamities including drought and flood every alternate year, but assistance from New Delhi is negligible, Tathagat Satpathy reportedly said.

After the hour-long meeting ended, Kovind went to have lunch at the chief minister's residence. After lunch, Kovind thanked BJD for supporting his candidature. Then he visited the residence of BJP leader KV Singhdeo where he met BJP MLAs.

Earlier, both parties gave him a rousing reception at the airport, upon his arrival.

He was accompanied by union health minister JP Nadda.

Union minister for tribal affairs Jual Oram, state BJP president Basant Panda, Singhdeo, former BJP minister Manmohan Samal, senior BJP leader Sajjan Sharma, Odisha finance minister Shashi Bhusan Behera, BJD vice-president Debi Mishra and Patro received him at the airport.

There was resentment within the ranks of BJD after chief minister extended support to NDA presidential candidate. However, the chief minister ruled out the possibility of cross voting from BJD in the presidential election.

BHUBANESWAR: National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind met with Bharatiya Jantha Party and Biju Jantha Dal leaders in Odisha and promised that he would not allow the state to be neglected as in the past. Addressing the BJD lawmakers in the assembly conference hall on Friday, he said he will act as per constitution and will do his duty, taking into account the federal structure. "I will try to ensure that no State or language is neglected," he said. Kovinds promise comes as BJD smoothed out whatever differences it had within its ranks on the party's support for the NDA candidate. The meeting started with an address by chief minister Naveen Patnaik. After that, Kovind sought support from the BJD lawmakers, several BJD leaders including food supply and consumer welfare minister Surya Narayan Patro, government chief whip Amar Prasad Satpathy, party MPs - Tathagat Satpathy, Dileep Tirkey and BJD parliamentary party leader Bhartruhari Mahatab also spoke about partys stand in the presidential election. Briefing journalists after the meeting, BJD spokesperson Patro said the NDA presidential candidate praised the former chief minister late Biju Patnaik for his efforts to turn Odisha into a developed state. Kovind also congratulated Naveen for making Odisha a model state, he said. The BJD leaders maintained that though Odisha witnessed all-round development during the 17-year rule of the party, it had to fight Central government's neglect. Odisha faces natural calamities including drought and flood every alternate year, but assistance from New Delhi is negligible, Tathagat Satpathy reportedly said. After the hour-long meeting ended, Kovind went to have lunch at the chief minister's residence. After lunch, Kovind thanked BJD for supporting his candidature. Then he visited the residence of BJP leader KV Singhdeo where he met BJP MLAs. Earlier, both parties gave him a rousing reception at the airport, upon his arrival. He was accompanied by union health minister JP Nadda. Union minister for tribal affairs Jual Oram, state BJP president Basant Panda, Singhdeo, former BJP minister Manmohan Samal, senior BJP leader Sajjan Sharma, Odisha finance minister Shashi Bhusan Behera, BJD vice-president Debi Mishra and Patro received him at the airport. There was resentment within the ranks of BJD after chief minister extended support to NDA presidential candidate. However, the chief minister ruled out the possibility of cross voting from BJD in the presidential election.
By PTI

JAMMU: Undeterred by the recent terror attack, more than 4,000 pilgrims left for the Amarnath cave shrine from here today, officials said.

The numbers have been steadily going up since July 10, when seven Amarnath pilgrims, including six women, were killed and 19 injured in a terror attack in Anantnag district.

On the day of the terror attack, 2,430 pilgrims left Jammu for the high altitude cave shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva. This went up to 3,289 pilgrims the next day, 3,500 on July 12 and 3,791 on July 13. Today's number went up to 4,105.

Escorted by the CRPF and police, the batch consisting of 3,111 men, 892 women and 102 sadhus and sadhvis, left in a convoy of 191 vehicles for Baltal and Pahalgam base camps this morning, officials said.

The yatris housed at Bhagwati Nagar base camp here vowed to undertake the journey to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva at the shrine without caring for the terror threats.

Their enthusiasm evident in the loud chants of 'Bam Bam Bhole'.

"My family told me return back to home after terror attack on pilgrims. But I told them I will return home only after performing darhsan at Amarnath whether alive or dead. I don't care about the threat. Lord Shiva will take care of that," said Kumar Raja from Chennai.

Chander Mohan from Madhya Pradesh echoed his sentiment.

"We will perform pilgrimage and only after that will return home. These threats and attacks cannot deter us," he said.

A total of 46,630 pilgrims have left Jammu for Amarnath in 15 batches since the 40-day-long yatra began from Jammu on June 28.

Since the beginning of the pilgrimage this year, 1,77,134 yatris have paid obeisance at the cave shrine.

The government has mobilised a heavy security blanket of over 35,000 to 40,000 troops including the police, the Army, the BSF and the CRPF.

This year's yatra will be eight days shorter than last year's and will conclude on Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan) on August 7.

JAMMU: Undeterred by the recent terror attack, more than 4,000 pilgrims left for the Amarnath cave shrine from here today, officials said. The numbers have been steadily going up since July 10, when seven Amarnath pilgrims, including six women, were killed and 19 injured in a terror attack in Anantnag district. On the day of the terror attack, 2,430 pilgrims left Jammu for the high altitude cave shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva. This went up to 3,289 pilgrims the next day, 3,500 on July 12 and 3,791 on July 13. Today's number went up to 4,105. Escorted by the CRPF and police, the batch consisting of 3,111 men, 892 women and 102 sadhus and sadhvis, left in a convoy of 191 vehicles for Baltal and Pahalgam base camps this morning, officials said. The yatris housed at Bhagwati Nagar base camp here vowed to undertake the journey to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva at the shrine without caring for the terror threats. Their enthusiasm evident in the loud chants of 'Bam Bam Bhole'. "My family told me return back to home after terror attack on pilgrims. But I told them I will return home only after performing darhsan at Amarnath whether alive or dead. I don't care about the threat. Lord Shiva will take care of that," said Kumar Raja from Chennai. Chander Mohan from Madhya Pradesh echoed his sentiment. "We will perform pilgrimage and only after that will return home. These threats and attacks cannot deter us," he said. A total of 46,630 pilgrims have left Jammu for Amarnath in 15 batches since the 40-day-long yatra began from Jammu on June 28. Since the beginning of the pilgrimage this year, 1,77,134 yatris have paid obeisance at the cave shrine. The government has mobilised a heavy security blanket of over 35,000 to 40,000 troops including the police, the Army, the BSF and the CRPF. This year's yatra will be eight days shorter than last year's and will conclude on Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan) on August 7.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha is likely to pass a bill that aims to accord constitutional status to the OBC Commission in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, as the select committee has adopted the report without any amendment. Once the bill is passed in the Rajya Sabha, the Commission will become as powerful as the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and National Commission for Schedule Tribes.

Till date, the OBC Commission is simply a legal body, whose job is to advise the government regarding the inclusion or removal of caste/community lists.

The bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha in April, was referred to the Rajya Sabha's Select Committee after opposition parties blocked its passage in the Upper House.

The select committee headed by Rajya Sabha MP Bhupender Yadav has adopted the report to accord constitutional status to the commission without any amendment, a member in the panel said, on the condition of anonymity.

Consensus has been arrived at among the members of the committee with the MPs of all parties agreeing on according constitutional status to the commission, said one of them.

The commission is currently a statutory body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The member further said the panel will submit its report in the first week of the monsoon session of Parliament, which is likely to commence on July 17.

The 25-member Rajya Sabha Select Committee includes senior MPs like Sharad Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav, Satish Misra and Praful Patel. Yadav has, in the past also, successfully convinced all the parties to agree on many controversial legislations, including the GST Bill, the Mines and Minerals Bill and the Enemy Property Bill.

The BJP general secretary was also the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015.

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha is likely to pass a bill that aims to accord constitutional status to the OBC Commission in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, as the select committee has adopted the report without any amendment. Once the bill is passed in the Rajya Sabha, the Commission will become as powerful as the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and National Commission for Schedule Tribes. Till date, the OBC Commission is simply a legal body, whose job is to advise the government regarding the inclusion or removal of caste/community lists. The bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha in April, was referred to the Rajya Sabha's Select Committee after opposition parties blocked its passage in the Upper House. The select committee headed by Rajya Sabha MP Bhupender Yadav has adopted the report to accord constitutional status to the commission without any amendment, a member in the panel said, on the condition of anonymity. Consensus has been arrived at among the members of the committee with the MPs of all parties agreeing on according constitutional status to the commission, said one of them. The commission is currently a statutory body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The member further said the panel will submit its report in the first week of the monsoon session of Parliament, which is likely to commence on July 17. The 25-member Rajya Sabha Select Committee includes senior MPs like Sharad Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav, Satish Misra and Praful Patel. Yadav has, in the past also, successfully convinced all the parties to agree on many controversial legislations, including the GST Bill, the Mines and Minerals Bill and the Enemy Property Bill. The BJP general secretary was also the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015.
By Express News Service

PATNA: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad on Friday night said his younger son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav will not resign and claimed that the state's ruling Grand Alliance is intact.



"Tejashwi will not resign. There is no question of his resignation," Lalu Prasad told the media here after holding a nearly three-hour-long meeting with senior party leaders and legislators at his official residence.



He said the RJD was going by the decision of its legislature party, which met earlier this week and decided that Tejashwi Yadav would not resign.



The RJD supremo said: "Mahagathbandhan (ruling Grand Alliance) is intact in Bihar and he and his party will not do anything which can give any space to the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to step into Bihar."



Lalu Prasad also refuted media reports that Congress President Sonia Gandhi had been requested to intervene to save the Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance government in the state.



"A baseless news is running in television news channels that Sonia Gandhi has spoken to me."



He, however, said that he would not know if Sonia Gandhi had spoken to Nitish Kumar.



"There is no difference with Nitish Kumar and there is no distance from him either," said Lalu Prasad.



He said that the BJP-led government at the Centre had been using the Income Tax Department, Enforce Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation to destabilise the Grand Alliance government in Bihar, comprising the Janata Dal-United, RJD and the Congress.



"BJP wants that the Grand Alliance government to fall somwehow... But we will not allow that to happen," he stressed.

PATNA: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad on Friday night said his younger son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav will not resign and claimed that the state's ruling Grand Alliance is intact. "Tejashwi will not resign. There is no question of his resignation," Lalu Prasad told the media here after holding a nearly three-hour-long meeting with senior party leaders and legislators at his official residence. He said the RJD was going by the decision of its legislature party, which met earlier this week and decided that Tejashwi Yadav would not resign. The RJD supremo said: "Mahagathbandhan (ruling Grand Alliance) is intact in Bihar and he and his party will not do anything which can give any space to the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to step into Bihar." Lalu Prasad also refuted media reports that Congress President Sonia Gandhi had been requested to intervene to save the Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance government in the state. "A baseless news is running in television news channels that Sonia Gandhi has spoken to me." He, however, said that he would not know if Sonia Gandhi had spoken to Nitish Kumar. "There is no difference with Nitish Kumar and there is no distance from him either," said Lalu Prasad. He said that the BJP-led government at the Centre had been using the Income Tax Department, Enforce Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation to destabilise the Grand Alliance government in Bihar, comprising the Janata Dal-United, RJD and the Congress. "BJP wants that the Grand Alliance government to fall somwehow... But we will not allow that to happen," he stressed.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: Thirty-six dissident MLAs of Nagalands ruling Naga Peoples Front (NPF) were on Friday evacuated from a flooded Kaziranga resort in Assam where they had been camping since July 8 in the wake of a power struggle between chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu and his predecessor TR Zeliang.

Following their evacuation, the legislators left for Nagaland in a fleet of vehicles, which were parked at a distance from the resort as the area was flooded.

The resort's management said, a boat was arranged by the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), which was used to evacuate the MLAs, including the former chief minister TR Zeliang who had staked a claim to form a government after receiving the support of 43 of 59 MLAs in Nagaland Assembly.

There were some 130 people, including police personnel and NPF party workers, and they were evacuated in batches from 7 am (of Friday). The SDRF boat ferried legislators while country boats and buses were arranged to take the NPF workers and cops out of the flooded resort. It took us around four hours to evacuate all of them, a resort staff told the New Indian Express.

The MLAs had booked all the rooms in the resort. The Kaziranga National Park normally remains closed for visitors from May to October.

Governor of Nagaland PB Acharya had Tuesday asked Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu to prove his majority on the floor of the House on or before July 15. But as the Liezietsu Cabinet challenged the governor with a terse legal argument, the governor on Thursday said he would go by the Constitution if the chief minister refused to take the floor test.

Zeliang claimed that he has the support of 43 MLAs - 36 of them from NPF and seven Independents. He also claimed that he could get the support of all four BJP MLAs in the 60-member House, which now has an effective strength of 59, following the resignation of the chief ministers son Khriehu Liezietsu.

GUWAHATI: Thirty-six dissident MLAs of Nagalands ruling Naga Peoples Front (NPF) were on Friday evacuated from a flooded Kaziranga resort in Assam where they had been camping since July 8 in the wake of a power struggle between chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu and his predecessor TR Zeliang. Following their evacuation, the legislators left for Nagaland in a fleet of vehicles, which were parked at a distance from the resort as the area was flooded. The resort's management said, a boat was arranged by the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), which was used to evacuate the MLAs, including the former chief minister TR Zeliang who had staked a claim to form a government after receiving the support of 43 of 59 MLAs in Nagaland Assembly. There were some 130 people, including police personnel and NPF party workers, and they were evacuated in batches from 7 am (of Friday). The SDRF boat ferried legislators while country boats and buses were arranged to take the NPF workers and cops out of the flooded resort. It took us around four hours to evacuate all of them, a resort staff told the New Indian Express. The MLAs had booked all the rooms in the resort. The Kaziranga National Park normally remains closed for visitors from May to October. Governor of Nagaland PB Acharya had Tuesday asked Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu to prove his majority on the floor of the House on or before July 15. But as the Liezietsu Cabinet challenged the governor with a terse legal argument, the governor on Thursday said he would go by the Constitution if the chief minister refused to take the floor test. Zeliang claimed that he has the support of 43 MLAs - 36 of them from NPF and seven Independents. He also claimed that he could get the support of all four BJP MLAs in the 60-member House, which now has an effective strength of 59, following the resignation of the chief ministers son Khriehu Liezietsu.
By Express News Service

KOCHI: Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court on Friday denied bail to Malayalam actor Dileep who was arrested in connection with the abduction and sexual assault of a prominent actress.

The court has extended his police custody for two days until July 15. It directed the police to produce the actor again on Saturday at 5 pm. The court also posted the hearing of the actor's bail plea for July 20.

Opposing his bail plea, the prosecution said the mobile phone used to film the sexual assault was yet to be seized. Hence, further interrogation of the actor was necessary. To prove the conspiracy part, a thorough investigation has to be conducted, the prosecution said. It also claimed that Dileep was not cooperating with the investigation.

Dileep' s counsel said that the police appear to be groping in the dark and playing hide and seek after arresting a respectable and well-known person as accused without substantial evidence. The actor's counsel blamed the police for allegedly misusing the judiciary by filing for his police custody repeatedly so as to collect evidence.

KOCHI: Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court on Friday denied bail to Malayalam actor Dileep who was arrested in connection with the abduction and sexual assault of a prominent actress. The court has extended his police custody for two days until July 15. It directed the police to produce the actor again on Saturday at 5 pm. The court also posted the hearing of the actor's bail plea for July 20. Opposing his bail plea, the prosecution said the mobile phone used to film the sexual assault was yet to be seized. Hence, further interrogation of the actor was necessary. To prove the conspiracy part, a thorough investigation has to be conducted, the prosecution said. It also claimed that Dileep was not cooperating with the investigation. Dileep' s counsel said that the police appear to be groping in the dark and playing hide and seek after arresting a respectable and well-known person as accused without substantial evidence. The actor's counsel blamed the police for allegedly misusing the judiciary by filing for his police custody repeatedly so as to collect evidence.
By PTI

THANJAVUR: Residents of a village in this district continued their protest against ONGC's exploration work, demanding the release of 10 persons arrested in connection with violence on June 30.

People belonging to Kathiramangalam village continued their "sitting agitation" at Ayyanar temple premises for a fourth day today, police said.

They cooked food using firewood and demanded that the 10 persons arrested for taking part in an agitation against ONGC were released by the police.

"It is unfortunate that both the central and state governments are indifferent to our agitation. We are continuing (the protest) in a bid to protect the livelihood of people and fertility of the soil," the residents said.

Meanwhile, A Marx, chairperson of the National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations, visited Kathiramangalam and met the people.

"The confederation will prepare a report on what has happened in the village and submit it to the state and central governments. If necessary we will also go to court," he said.

Police had stepped up security in the village as a group of students had announced that they would take part in the agitation.

However, they did not turn up, police said.

The villagers have been up in arms against the exploration work by ONGC and a protest by them had turned violent on June 30, leading to use of "minimum force" by police, which was criticised by opposition parties.

Also, shops remained shut for several days in the village to express solidarity with the protesting locals.

THANJAVUR: Residents of a village in this district continued their protest against ONGC's exploration work, demanding the release of 10 persons arrested in connection with violence on June 30. People belonging to Kathiramangalam village continued their "sitting agitation" at Ayyanar temple premises for a fourth day today, police said. They cooked food using firewood and demanded that the 10 persons arrested for taking part in an agitation against ONGC were released by the police. "It is unfortunate that both the central and state governments are indifferent to our agitation. We are continuing (the protest) in a bid to protect the livelihood of people and fertility of the soil," the residents said. Meanwhile, A Marx, chairperson of the National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations, visited Kathiramangalam and met the people. "The confederation will prepare a report on what has happened in the village and submit it to the state and central governments. If necessary we will also go to court," he said. Police had stepped up security in the village as a group of students had announced that they would take part in the agitation. However, they did not turn up, police said. The villagers have been up in arms against the exploration work by ONGC and a protest by them had turned violent on June 30, leading to use of "minimum force" by police, which was criticised by opposition parties. Also, shops remained shut for several days in the village to express solidarity with the protesting locals.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda is getting more active in the Indian subcontinent and by 2017, it boasted several hundred members, with its cells mostly in Afghanistan and its operatives flourishing in Bangladesh, counter-terrorism experts have told the US lawmakers.

"By 2017, al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent boasted several hundred members and had cells in Afghanistan's Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Ghazni, and Nuristan Provinces. Al- Qaida's presence in Afghanistan was almost certainly larger and more expansive than five or even ten years before," said Seth G Jones, a strategic expert.

He was speaking during his Congressional testimony before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence yesterday.

This expansion, Jones said, may have been partly due to Taliban advances in Afghanistan and al-Qaida's relationship with operatives from the Taliban and other groups, such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e Jhangvi.

"Al-Qaeda operatives in Bangladesh were particularly active, conducting a range of attacks. In addition, al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent conducted a steady propaganda campaign from its media arm As-Sahab," he said.

However, the group conducted few attacks in Afghanistan or Pakistan and was largely irrelevant in the Taliban-led insurgency, Jones said.

In September 2014, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had announced the creation of regional affiliate al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent, taking advantage of sanctuaries in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

"A new branch of al-Qaida was established -- Qaida al-Jihad in the Indian subcontinent, seeking to raise the flag of jihad,...and return the Islamic rule across the Indian subcontinent," al-Zawahiri had said.

The group was led by Asim Umar-- an Indian and former member of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami-- a Pakistan-based terrorist group with branches across the Indian subcontinent. Umar was flanked by Abu Zar, his first deputy.

In October 2015, US and Afghan forces targetted a large training camp in Kandahar Province, killing over one hundred operatives linked to al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, Rhodes said.

According to Katherine Zimmerman, research fellow, American Enterprise Institute, the al-Qaeda presence in the Indian subcontinent remains weak after Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the launch of a new affiliate in September 2014.

Al-Qaeda divides the Pakistani theatre by ethnic group, he said. The Pashtun are part of its Khorasan theater, which includes Afghanistan and Iran, and the Punjab is under al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), which works through the Indian Punjab and Bangladesh, Zimmerman said.

"A recent surge in propaganda from AQIS leadership may indicate an attempt to revive the group," Zimmerman told the lawmakers.

Zimmerman said al-Qaeda never fully lost its sanctuary in Pakistan and used this base to project forward into Afghanistan again as the US drew down militarily.

"By 2015, al-Qaeda was running large training camps inside Afghanistan. The US began revising its assessments of al-Qaeda's strength in Afghanistan based on the discovery of these training camps," he said.

"The US killed senior al-Qaeda leaders operating in Afghanistan in an October 2016 air strike, their presence a telling indicator that al-Qaeda had returned to the country," he added.

WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda is getting more active in the Indian subcontinent and by 2017, it boasted several hundred members, with its cells mostly in Afghanistan and its operatives flourishing in Bangladesh, counter-terrorism experts have told the US lawmakers. "By 2017, al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent boasted several hundred members and had cells in Afghanistan's Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Ghazni, and Nuristan Provinces. Al- Qaida's presence in Afghanistan was almost certainly larger and more expansive than five or even ten years before," said Seth G Jones, a strategic expert. He was speaking during his Congressional testimony before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence yesterday. This expansion, Jones said, may have been partly due to Taliban advances in Afghanistan and al-Qaida's relationship with operatives from the Taliban and other groups, such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e Jhangvi. "Al-Qaeda operatives in Bangladesh were particularly active, conducting a range of attacks. In addition, al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent conducted a steady propaganda campaign from its media arm As-Sahab," he said. However, the group conducted few attacks in Afghanistan or Pakistan and was largely irrelevant in the Taliban-led insurgency, Jones said. In September 2014, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had announced the creation of regional affiliate al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent, taking advantage of sanctuaries in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. "A new branch of al-Qaida was established -- Qaida al-Jihad in the Indian subcontinent, seeking to raise the flag of jihad,...and return the Islamic rule across the Indian subcontinent," al-Zawahiri had said. The group was led by Asim Umar-- an Indian and former member of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami-- a Pakistan-based terrorist group with branches across the Indian subcontinent. Umar was flanked by Abu Zar, his first deputy. In October 2015, US and Afghan forces targetted a large training camp in Kandahar Province, killing over one hundred operatives linked to al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, Rhodes said. According to Katherine Zimmerman, research fellow, American Enterprise Institute, the al-Qaeda presence in the Indian subcontinent remains weak after Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the launch of a new affiliate in September 2014. Al-Qaeda divides the Pakistani theatre by ethnic group, he said. The Pashtun are part of its Khorasan theater, which includes Afghanistan and Iran, and the Punjab is under al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), which works through the Indian Punjab and Bangladesh, Zimmerman said. "A recent surge in propaganda from AQIS leadership may indicate an attempt to revive the group," Zimmerman told the lawmakers. Zimmerman said al-Qaeda never fully lost its sanctuary in Pakistan and used this base to project forward into Afghanistan again as the US drew down militarily. "By 2015, al-Qaeda was running large training camps inside Afghanistan. The US began revising its assessments of al-Qaeda's strength in Afghanistan based on the discovery of these training camps," he said. "The US killed senior al-Qaeda leaders operating in Afghanistan in an October 2016 air strike, their presence a telling indicator that al-Qaeda had returned to the country," he added.
By AFP

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte made a new joke about rape on Friday, saying he would congratulate a rapist who could carry out the crime even knowing he would die.

The often-foul mouthed Duterte made the joke in a speech to Filipino diplomats in his southern home town of Davao as he defended his bloody war on crime which has left thousands dead since he took office last year.

"What I don't like are kids (being raped.) You can mess with, maybe Miss Universe. Maybe I will even congratulate you for having the balls to rape somebody when you know you are going to die," for your crime, he said, implying the rapist would be lynched.

It was the latest in a series of off-colour jokes by Duterte who openly boasts of having mistresses and often makes sexual remarks about women.

Speaking in his rambling style, the president also boasted to the diplomats that he faked tuberculosis to escape mandatory military training in college.

But he also reiterated his vow to continue his bloody war on drugs despite accusations that thousands of suspects had been killed by police and vigilantes since he took office.

"Human rights? That is bullshit to me," he said, recalling how he called then-US president Barack Obama "a son of a whore" after Washington criticised the wave of killings.

Police say at least 3,200 people were slain in their anti-drug operations but rights groups charge that thousands more have been killed by vigilante groups.



MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte made a new joke about rape on Friday, saying he would congratulate a rapist who could carry out the crime even knowing he would die. The often-foul mouthed Duterte made the joke in a speech to Filipino diplomats in his southern home town of Davao as he defended his bloody war on crime which has left thousands dead since he took office last year. "What I don't like are kids (being raped.) You can mess with, maybe Miss Universe. Maybe I will even congratulate you for having the balls to rape somebody when you know you are going to die," for your crime, he said, implying the rapist would be lynched. It was the latest in a series of off-colour jokes by Duterte who openly boasts of having mistresses and often makes sexual remarks about women. Speaking in his rambling style, the president also boasted to the diplomats that he faked tuberculosis to escape mandatory military training in college. But he also reiterated his vow to continue his bloody war on drugs despite accusations that thousands of suspects had been killed by police and vigilantes since he took office. "Human rights? That is bullshit to me," he said, recalling how he called then-US president Barack Obama "a son of a whore" after Washington criticised the wave of killings. Police say at least 3,200 people were slain in their anti-drug operations but rights groups charge that thousands more have been killed by vigilante groups.
By PTI

KARACHI: A senior pilot of Pakistan's national carrier PIA exposed hundreds of lives to danger by operating a long-haul flight without taking adequate rest, compromising air safety and violating aviation laws, according to a media report.

Sadiq Rehman, former Vice President of the Pakistan Air Lines Pilots Association (PALPA), violated aviation laws by not taking the 24-hour mandatory rest before operating a Toronto-bound flight on July 4, Dawn reported. Pakistan International Airline (PIA) spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar conceded that the pilot did not take the mandatory rest before operating the long duration flight on July 4, the report said.

The PIA had scheduled Rehman to arrive in Lahore on July 2 evening, rest on July 3 and then go ahead (after resting for over 36 hours) to operate the flight to Canada, it said. Rehman did not follow the schedule. He stayed in Karachi on July 2 and left for Lahore on July 3 evening along with 30kgs of luggage in two suitcases and then operated the Toronto-bound flight on July 4 morning, without completing the 24-hour mandatory rest.

The sources said that the 24-hour mandatory rest was prescribed by the CAA rules and Air Navigation Order (ANO) before long-haul flights so that the crew could remain fresh during the flight, as an overworked, under-rested and fatigued crew in the cockpit is a sure invitation to a disaster. Rehman travelled from Karachi aboard PK-306, arriving in Lahore at 8.45pm on July 3. This makes his stay in Lahore for around 15 hours before he operated PK-789 on July 4 at 11.35am, Tajwar said.

In May, a PIA pilot has been accused of risking security by allowing a young Chinese woman into the cockpit during a flight from Tokyo to Beijing, days after another pilot was taken off duty for allegedly sleeping on a London-bound PIA flight. In January, the PIA allowed seven passengers to travel standing in the aisle all the way to Saudi Arabia, prompting a probe into the serious breach of security regulations by Pakistan's loss-making national carrier.

KARACHI: A senior pilot of Pakistan's national carrier PIA exposed hundreds of lives to danger by operating a long-haul flight without taking adequate rest, compromising air safety and violating aviation laws, according to a media report. Sadiq Rehman, former Vice President of the Pakistan Air Lines Pilots Association (PALPA), violated aviation laws by not taking the 24-hour mandatory rest before operating a Toronto-bound flight on July 4, Dawn reported. Pakistan International Airline (PIA) spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar conceded that the pilot did not take the mandatory rest before operating the long duration flight on July 4, the report said. The PIA had scheduled Rehman to arrive in Lahore on July 2 evening, rest on July 3 and then go ahead (after resting for over 36 hours) to operate the flight to Canada, it said. Rehman did not follow the schedule. He stayed in Karachi on July 2 and left for Lahore on July 3 evening along with 30kgs of luggage in two suitcases and then operated the Toronto-bound flight on July 4 morning, without completing the 24-hour mandatory rest. The sources said that the 24-hour mandatory rest was prescribed by the CAA rules and Air Navigation Order (ANO) before long-haul flights so that the crew could remain fresh during the flight, as an overworked, under-rested and fatigued crew in the cockpit is a sure invitation to a disaster. Rehman travelled from Karachi aboard PK-306, arriving in Lahore at 8.45pm on July 3. This makes his stay in Lahore for around 15 hours before he operated PK-789 on July 4 at 11.35am, Tajwar said. In May, a PIA pilot has been accused of risking security by allowing a young Chinese woman into the cockpit during a flight from Tokyo to Beijing, days after another pilot was taken off duty for allegedly sleeping on a London-bound PIA flight. In January, the PIA allowed seven passengers to travel standing in the aisle all the way to Saudi Arabia, prompting a probe into the serious breach of security regulations by Pakistan's loss-making national carrier.
By PTI

HARGEISA, SOMALIA: United States and Somali military forces raided a rebel-held village in southern Somalia and killed several al-Shabab fighters early Thursday, a senior Somali intelligence official said, as both countries step up efforts against Africa's deadliest Islamic extremist group.

Somali commandos accompanied by U.S. forces in two helicopters raided two locations, the official said. They included a detention center run by al-Shabab in Kunya-Barrow village in Lower Shabelle region, and an unknown number of detainees were freed.

Troops engaged a small number of extremist fighters, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

U.S. Africa Command spokesman Mark Cheadle said U.S. forces conducted an "advise and assist mission" against al-Shabab with members of the Somali National Army in Kunya-Barrow. He gave no further details.

There were no U.S. casualties, AFRICOM spokeswoman Jennifer Dyrcz added Friday morning.

The al-Qaida-linked Al-Shabab said via its Andalus radio arm that its fighters foiled an attempted raid by U.S. and African forces.

Earlier this month, the U.S. military said it carried out an airstrike against al-Shabab in Somalia and was assessing the results. The airstrike followed another last month that the U.S. said killed eight extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp in the country's south. Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said a training camp near Sakow in the Middle Juba region had been destroyed.

President Donald Trump has approved expanded military operations against al-Shabab, including more aggressive airstrikes and considering parts of southern Somalia areas of active hostilities. The U.S. in April announced it was sending dozens of regular troops in the largest such deployment to Somalia in roughly two decades, saying it was for logistics training of the country's army.

The Horn of Africa nation is trying to rebuild after more than two decades as a failed state, and its chaos helped in al-Shabab's rise. Now a new threat has emerged in the country's north with some fighters claiming alliance to the Islamic State group.

Al-Shabab last year became Africa's deadliest Islamic extremist group, with more than 4,200 people killed in 2016, according to the Pentagon-supported Africa Center for Strategic Studies. The extremist group has vowed to step up attacks against the recently elected government and has carried out numerous deadly attacks in the capital, Mogadishu.

Pressure is growing on Somalia's military to assume full responsibility for the country's security. The 22,000-strong African Union multinational force, AMISOM, which has been supporting the fragile central government, plans to start withdrawing in 2018 and leave by the end of 2020.

The U.S. military has been among those expressing concern that Somalia's forces are not yet ready.

HARGEISA, SOMALIA: United States and Somali military forces raided a rebel-held village in southern Somalia and killed several al-Shabab fighters early Thursday, a senior Somali intelligence official said, as both countries step up efforts against Africa's deadliest Islamic extremist group. Somali commandos accompanied by U.S. forces in two helicopters raided two locations, the official said. They included a detention center run by al-Shabab in Kunya-Barrow village in Lower Shabelle region, and an unknown number of detainees were freed. Troops engaged a small number of extremist fighters, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. U.S. Africa Command spokesman Mark Cheadle said U.S. forces conducted an "advise and assist mission" against al-Shabab with members of the Somali National Army in Kunya-Barrow. He gave no further details. There were no U.S. casualties, AFRICOM spokeswoman Jennifer Dyrcz added Friday morning. The al-Qaida-linked Al-Shabab said via its Andalus radio arm that its fighters foiled an attempted raid by U.S. and African forces. Earlier this month, the U.S. military said it carried out an airstrike against al-Shabab in Somalia and was assessing the results. The airstrike followed another last month that the U.S. said killed eight extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp in the country's south. Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said a training camp near Sakow in the Middle Juba region had been destroyed. President Donald Trump has approved expanded military operations against al-Shabab, including more aggressive airstrikes and considering parts of southern Somalia areas of active hostilities. The U.S. in April announced it was sending dozens of regular troops in the largest such deployment to Somalia in roughly two decades, saying it was for logistics training of the country's army. The Horn of Africa nation is trying to rebuild after more than two decades as a failed state, and its chaos helped in al-Shabab's rise. Now a new threat has emerged in the country's north with some fighters claiming alliance to the Islamic State group. Al-Shabab last year became Africa's deadliest Islamic extremist group, with more than 4,200 people killed in 2016, according to the Pentagon-supported Africa Center for Strategic Studies. The extremist group has vowed to step up attacks against the recently elected government and has carried out numerous deadly attacks in the capital, Mogadishu. Pressure is growing on Somalia's military to assume full responsibility for the country's security. The 22,000-strong African Union multinational force, AMISOM, which has been supporting the fragile central government, plans to start withdrawing in 2018 and leave by the end of 2020. The U.S. military has been among those expressing concern that Somalia's forces are not yet ready.
By AFP

WASHINGTON: US forces killed the leader of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan branch in a raid earlier this week in the northeastern province of Kunar, the Pentagon said Friday.

"US forces killed Abu Sayed, the emir of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) -- in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, July 11," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement.

"The raid also killed other ISIS-K members and will significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan."

First emerging in 2015, ISIS-K overran large parts of Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, near the Pakistan border, but their part in the Afghan conflict had been largely overshadowed by the operations against the Taliban.

Afghan and US forces had killed Abu Sayed's two predecessors atop the group's Afghan branch -- Hafiz Saeed in July 2016 and Abdul Hasib in late April of this year, the Pentagon said.

Hasib and other top militant commanders were killed in a joint raid by US Army Rangers and Afghan special forces.

At the time, the US military had said Hasib's death would "help reach our goal of destroying them in 2017."

The compound used by Hasib in Nangarhar province was not far from the spot where on April 13, the US military dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat, hitting IS positions.

The deployment of the so-called Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB) killed at least 95 jihadists, according to the Afghan defense ministry, but fighting in the area has continued.

WASHINGTON: US forces killed the leader of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan branch in a raid earlier this week in the northeastern province of Kunar, the Pentagon said Friday. "US forces killed Abu Sayed, the emir of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) -- in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, July 11," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement. "The raid also killed other ISIS-K members and will significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan." First emerging in 2015, ISIS-K overran large parts of Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, near the Pakistan border, but their part in the Afghan conflict had been largely overshadowed by the operations against the Taliban. Afghan and US forces had killed Abu Sayed's two predecessors atop the group's Afghan branch -- Hafiz Saeed in July 2016 and Abdul Hasib in late April of this year, the Pentagon said. Hasib and other top militant commanders were killed in a joint raid by US Army Rangers and Afghan special forces. At the time, the US military had said Hasib's death would "help reach our goal of destroying them in 2017." The compound used by Hasib in Nangarhar province was not far from the spot where on April 13, the US military dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat, hitting IS positions. The deployment of the so-called Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB) killed at least 95 jihadists, according to the Afghan defense ministry, but fighting in the area has continued.
By PTI

BERLIN: Germany today said Turkey once again blocked a visit by its lawmakers to German troops stationed at a Turkish base, a move adding to tension in their relations. Turkey asked the legislators to postpone a scheduled visit next Monday to a NATO base in Konya, the German foreign ministry said, adding that it regretted the decision.

The dispute comes after Germany last month pulled out 260 troops from Turkey's Incirlik base, from where a multinational coalition is fighting the Islamic State jihadist group, and redeployed them and their Tornado surveillance jets to Jordan. Some 20-30 German troops have remained at Konya as part of an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACs) mission, part of the coalition's campaign against IS in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

The German foreign ministry insisted that all sides, including NATO, remained in talks on setting a new date for a visit. Lawmaker Wolfgang Hellmich, head of the parliamentary defence committee, said Turkey's latest move amounted to another denial of the right to visit German troops, and that Ankara had referred to the "strained bilateral relations".

Hellmich added that he saw no chance now of Parliament renewing the mandate for the smaller contingent later this year. Relations between Turkey and Germany, home to millions of ethnic Turks, have been badly strained, especially since the failed coup attempt almost one year ago against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Berlin has voiced deep concerns over mass arrests and sackings of alleged coup plotters since and a host of other civil rights controversies. One dispute centres on Deniz Yucel, a German-Turkish journalist with the newspaper Die Welt who was imprisoned by Turkey on terror charges earlier this year. Erdogan has been angered by Germany's refusal to let him and his ministers campaign in Germany, charging last week that Germany was "committing political suicide". He has also accused Germany of failing to aggressively pursue Kurdish militants or alleged coup plotters.

Merkel and Erdogan last week met on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Hamburg, but Merkel conceded afterward that "deep differences" remained.

BERLIN: Germany today said Turkey once again blocked a visit by its lawmakers to German troops stationed at a Turkish base, a move adding to tension in their relations. Turkey asked the legislators to postpone a scheduled visit next Monday to a NATO base in Konya, the German foreign ministry said, adding that it regretted the decision. The dispute comes after Germany last month pulled out 260 troops from Turkey's Incirlik base, from where a multinational coalition is fighting the Islamic State jihadist group, and redeployed them and their Tornado surveillance jets to Jordan. Some 20-30 German troops have remained at Konya as part of an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACs) mission, part of the coalition's campaign against IS in neighbouring Syria and Iraq. The German foreign ministry insisted that all sides, including NATO, remained in talks on setting a new date for a visit. Lawmaker Wolfgang Hellmich, head of the parliamentary defence committee, said Turkey's latest move amounted to another denial of the right to visit German troops, and that Ankara had referred to the "strained bilateral relations". Hellmich added that he saw no chance now of Parliament renewing the mandate for the smaller contingent later this year. Relations between Turkey and Germany, home to millions of ethnic Turks, have been badly strained, especially since the failed coup attempt almost one year ago against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Berlin has voiced deep concerns over mass arrests and sackings of alleged coup plotters since and a host of other civil rights controversies. One dispute centres on Deniz Yucel, a German-Turkish journalist with the newspaper Die Welt who was imprisoned by Turkey on terror charges earlier this year. Erdogan has been angered by Germany's refusal to let him and his ministers campaign in Germany, charging last week that Germany was "committing political suicide". He has also accused Germany of failing to aggressively pursue Kurdish militants or alleged coup plotters. Merkel and Erdogan last week met on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Hamburg, but Merkel conceded afterward that "deep differences" remained.
By AFP

ISTANBUL: Turkey announced the dismissal of another 7,000 police, soldiers and officials on Friday, the eve of the anniversary of a military-led coup that failed to topple President Tayyip Erdogan.

It is the latest move in an unprecedented purge by the Turkish authorities, who have arrested some 50,000 people and sacked over 100,000 more in the wake of the thwarted bid to overthrow Erdogan on July 15 last year.

A total of 7,563 people have been sacked in the latest cull, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported, with nearly 350 retired army members also stripped of their rank. Hurriyet daily reported that some 2,300 police were dismissed.

The new decree came a day before Turkey holds a major programme of events to mark the one-year anniversary of the coup attempt, blamed by the authorities on US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Gulen on Friday again denied any involvement in what he called a "despicable putsch," and called on Ankara to end its "witch hunt" of his followers.

"Accusations against me related to the coup attempt are baseless, politically motivated slanders," Gulen, who lives at a compound in rural Pennsylvania, said in a statement.

"I reiterate my condemnation of the despicable putsch and its perpetrators," he said, while decrying a government "witch hunt to weed out anyone it deems disloyal to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his regime."

The attempted putsch came when a disgruntled faction in the army sent tanks into the streets and planes into the sky in a bid to oust Erdogan.

War planes bombed Ankara and tanks surged into the streets of Istanbul in a night of violence that left 249 people dead, but the bid was swiftly thwarted as the authorities regrouped and people poured into the streets in support of Erdogan.

- Late-night commemorations -

Ankara insists the post-coup crackdown is necessary to tackle the threat they say is posed by the Gulen movement, but activists and Western governments have criticised it as excessive.

Gulen called for an independent international investigation of the coup attempt, saying "hundreds of thousands" of innocent Turks had been punished simply for suspected links to him.

"The government's treatment of innocent citizens during the past year is dragging Turkey into the category of the countries with the worst record of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms in the world," Gulen said.

Saturday's events begin with a special session of parliament, after which Erdogan will take part in a people's march on the bridge over Bosphorus that saw bloody fighting on the night of the coup, since renamed Bridge of the Martyrs of July 15.

At midnight local time (2100 GMT) people across Turkey will take part in "democracy watches", rallies commemorating how people poured out into the streets.

Erdogan will return to Ankara and give a speech to parliament at 2:00 am -- the time it was bombed on the night of the attempted putsch.

A monument to those killed will then be unveiled outside his palace in the capital as the dawn call to prayer rings out.

ISTANBUL: Turkey announced the dismissal of another 7,000 police, soldiers and officials on Friday, the eve of the anniversary of a military-led coup that failed to topple President Tayyip Erdogan. It is the latest move in an unprecedented purge by the Turkish authorities, who have arrested some 50,000 people and sacked over 100,000 more in the wake of the thwarted bid to overthrow Erdogan on July 15 last year. A total of 7,563 people have been sacked in the latest cull, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported, with nearly 350 retired army members also stripped of their rank. Hurriyet daily reported that some 2,300 police were dismissed. The new decree came a day before Turkey holds a major programme of events to mark the one-year anniversary of the coup attempt, blamed by the authorities on US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen. Gulen on Friday again denied any involvement in what he called a "despicable putsch," and called on Ankara to end its "witch hunt" of his followers. "Accusations against me related to the coup attempt are baseless, politically motivated slanders," Gulen, who lives at a compound in rural Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "I reiterate my condemnation of the despicable putsch and its perpetrators," he said, while decrying a government "witch hunt to weed out anyone it deems disloyal to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his regime." The attempted putsch came when a disgruntled faction in the army sent tanks into the streets and planes into the sky in a bid to oust Erdogan. War planes bombed Ankara and tanks surged into the streets of Istanbul in a night of violence that left 249 people dead, but the bid was swiftly thwarted as the authorities regrouped and people poured into the streets in support of Erdogan. - Late-night commemorations - Ankara insists the post-coup crackdown is necessary to tackle the threat they say is posed by the Gulen movement, but activists and Western governments have criticised it as excessive. Gulen called for an independent international investigation of the coup attempt, saying "hundreds of thousands" of innocent Turks had been punished simply for suspected links to him. "The government's treatment of innocent citizens during the past year is dragging Turkey into the category of the countries with the worst record of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms in the world," Gulen said. Saturday's events begin with a special session of parliament, after which Erdogan will take part in a people's march on the bridge over Bosphorus that saw bloody fighting on the night of the coup, since renamed Bridge of the Martyrs of July 15. At midnight local time (2100 GMT) people across Turkey will take part in "democracy watches", rallies commemorating how people poured out into the streets. Erdogan will return to Ankara and give a speech to parliament at 2:00 am -- the time it was bombed on the night of the attempted putsch. A monument to those killed will then be unveiled outside his palace in the capital as the dawn call to prayer rings out.
Our County Editor

Dave Hinton is editor of The News-Gazette's Our County section and former editor of the Rantoul Press. He can be reached at dhinton@news-gazette.com.
One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
Bill Baker, an 86-year-old Mid-Michigan man with brain cancer, is the first patient to receive treatment at Beaumont Health's new Proton Therapy Center at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Said Craig Stevens, M.D., Ph.D., chairman, Radiation Oncology, Beaumont Health, "Beaumont's Proton Therapy Center is the first in Michigan to treat cancer patients with this powerful and precise form of treatment that deposits energy directly in the tumor, sparing nearby healthy organs and tissue from harm. It was many years in the making, but we never gave up in our efforts to bring this advanced cancer therapy to patients and families in Michigan."

Beaumont's center is one of just 25 operational proton therapy centers in the U.S.

"This means that cancer patients from other states and countries will travel to Michigan for proton therapy, making Beaumont even more of a destination center for cancer care," said Dr. Stevens.

According to independent research, conducted by NRC Health, Beaumont Health is one of the most preferred providers of cancer care in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

How proton therapy works

Proton therapy is a high-tech alternative to X-ray radiation. A scanning beam of proton radiation with online image guidance offers greater precision to destroy cancerous cells, sparing adjacent healthy tissue with fewer side effects.

Proton therapy uses positively charged atomic particles, traveling up to two-thirds the speed of light, to fight cancer. A cyclotron, or particle accelerator, creates protons from hydrogen molecules. The proton beam is sent to the treatment room through a transport system consisting of magnets, called the beam line, finally arriving in the gantry, a device that rotates around the patient. The beam is directed to the patient through a nozzle that targets the tumor.

While proton therapy is not effective against all cancers, Dr. Stevens explained it is effective in treating many solid and localized tumors, including:

pediatric cancers

soft tissue cancers that develop in bone or muscle

brain and skull base tumors

eye tumors

head/neck cancers

abdominal/pelvic tumors

liver tumors

lung and thoracic cancers

left-side breast cancer

"Proton therapy is an ideal treatment option for many patients, especially those with tumors close to vital organs," added Dr. Stevens. "For children, those most vulnerable and susceptible to the damage of traditional radiation therapy, proton therapy offers less radiation exposure while reducing side effects."

Advanced technology

"Our IBA ProteusOne single-room treatment system includes precision technologies," said Dr. Stevens. "Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy, which combines Pencil Beam Scanning and 3-D Cone Beam CT, can target a tumor within less than a millimeter."

Pencil Beam Scanning refers to the delivery of protons in a thin beam. Like a pencil, the beam uses back and forth motions to target the treatment area  the shape, size and depth. It "paints" a radiation dose on tumors layer by layer. Compared to X-ray beams, which pass through a patient, proton beams deliver targeted radiation to the tumor and then stop  resulting in no exit dose.

Radiation oncologists at Beaumont are well versed in precise image guidance, having developed cone beam CT technology almost 20 years ago. Image guidance allows doctors to analyze soft tissue and bone contrast to see tumor changes.

Single-room facility

Unlike larger, multiroom proton treatment facilities, Beaumont's compact, single-room treatment center is more affordable to build and maintain. Along with advanced, image-guided technology, Beaumont's facility includes the Philips Ambient Experience system that lets patients select a color theme, music and video for relaxation during treatment.

"Our center offers the most advanced proton technology available anywhere in the world," said Dr. Stevens. "We will have the ability to potentially cure patients that have failed conventional treatment at other centers."

In February 2015, construction began on the $40 million Proton Therapy Center. The two-story building is 25,200-square-feet, including a basement. The first floor houses the Proton Therapy Center, including a cyclotron and gantry that produces and delivers proton beams to a single-room treatment area. The second floor will soon be the home of Beaumont's Center for Children with Cancer and Blood Disorders.

Beaumont chose Ion Beam Applications S.A., or IBA, of Belgium, to manufacture, install and maintain the proton system. An Atlanta-based proton therapy development group, Proton International, is lending its operational expertise.

Beaumont's Facilities Management department oversaw design and construction, with Kasco Construction as the contractor and SmithGroupJJR, as the architect.

Comprehensive cancer care

Proton therapy is an important addition to Beaumont's comprehensive arsenal of leading-edge cancer treatments. Beaumont's Radiation Oncology department is ranked among the nation's best for advanced technology, innovative treatment and research. Advanced radiation treatments developed at Beaumont include adaptive radiation therapy, image-guided radiation therapy, intensity-modulated arc therapy, high-dose rate brachytherapy and hyperthermia therapy.

Source: https://www.beaumont.org/health-wellness/press-releases/beaumont-health-first-in-michigan-to-treat-cancer-patient-with-protons
Mount Sinai Health System has been named among "Health Care's Most Wired," according to 2017 survey results released this week by the American Hospital Association's (AHA) Health Forum, and published in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN).

The survey found that Most Wired hospitals are increasingly using smart phones, telehealth, and remote monitoring to create more ways for patients to access health care services and capture health information.

"We are honored to receive the 2017 Most Wired award," said Kumar Chatani, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Mount Sinai Health System. "Mount Sinai is making a substantial investment in technology to deliver excellent health care using patient-friendly mobile apps, population health management systems and data exchanges."

This year's results show:

76 percent of the institutions surveyed offer secure messaging with clinicians on mobile devices.

74 percent use secure emails for patients who need ongoing monitoring at home and their families to keep in touch with the care team.

68 percent simplify prescription renewals by letting patients make requests on mobile devices.

62 percent add data reported by patients to the electronic health record to get a better picture of what is going on with the patient.

Nearly half of the hospitals are using telehealth to provide behavioral health services to more patients.

40 percent offer virtual physician visits.

More than 40 percent provide real-time care management services to patients at home for diabetes and congestive heart failure.



"The Most Wired hospitals are using every available technology option to create more ways to reach their patients in order to provide access to care," said AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack. "They are transforming care delivery, investing in new delivery models in order to improve quality, provide access, and control costs." Innovation in patient care embraces emerging technologies and underscores the need for secure patient information exchange. Hospitals have increased their use of sophisticated IT monitoring systems to detect patient privacy breaches, monitor for malicious activities or policy violations, and produce real-time analysis of security alerts. Most Wired hospitals are transforming care delivery with knowledge gained from data and analytics. They are investing in analytics to support new delivery models and effective decision-making and training clinicians on how to use analytics to improve quality, provide access, and control costs.

The "Health Care's Most Wired" survey, conducted between January 15 and March 15, 2017, is published annually by Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN). The 2017 Most Wired survey and benchmarking study is a leading industry barometer measuring information technology (IT) use and adoption among hospitals nationwide. The survey of 698 participants, representing an estimated 2,158 hospitals-;more than 39 percent of all hospitals in the United States-;examines how organizations are leveraging IT to improve performance for value-based health care in the areas of infrastructure, business and administrative management, quality and safety, and clinical integration.

Detailed results of the survey and study can be found in the July issue of H&HN. For a full list of winners, visit www.hhnmag.com.
A study funded by the National Institute of Health, US, has for the first time encoded a primitive movie in the DNA of living bacteria cells that replayed it, using CRISPR technology.

The researchers from Harvard University, Seth L. Shipman, Jeff Nivala, Jeffrey D. Macklis and George M. Church, believe that their study is a major step forward to a "molecular recorder" that may someday make it possible to get read-outs, has published online their proof-of-concept on July 12, 2017, in the journal Nature.

They expect the futuristic "molecular ticker tape" to read stages like that of the changing internal states of neurons as they develop.

Seth Shipman, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow and neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, Boston explains: "We want to turn cells into historians. We envision a biological memory system that's much smaller and more versatile than today's technologies, which will track many events non-intrusively over time."

According to the researchers, the ability to encode sequential events, such as a movie is the key to the idea of reinventing the core concept of recording using molecular engineering. Through this method, the recording of molecular events happening within the cells, like changes in gene expression over time, can be done by the possible induction of the cells themselves into their own genomes. Then, by simple genome sequencing of those cells, the information stored could be retrieved.

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Acquiring those steps of transcription can let the potential use of them as a recipe to engineer similar cells and can be used in therapies as well as to model diseases, says Shipman.

Initially, the researchers had to show that apart from genetic information, DNA can also be used to encode any arbitrary sequential information into a genome. To achieve this, they turned to CRISPR - a cutting-edge gene editing technology funded by NIH.

Primarily, they demonstrated the process of encoding and decoding of an image of a human hand in DNA inserted into bacteria. The similar method was followed to encode and reconstruct frames from a classic race horse in motion sequence of photos from the 1870s (an early predecessor of motion pictures).

The use of CRISPR in storing sequences of DNA in bacteria was previously described by the researchers. CRISPR is a group of proteins and DNA that act as an immune system in some bacteria that vaccinates them with genetic memories of viral infections. When a bacterium is infected by a virus, parts of the foreign DNA is cut out by CRISPR, which then gets stored in the bacterias own genome. The stored DNA is used by the bacterium to identify and defend against the virus during future attacks.

Movie Replayed From Living Cells' DNA Debuts "Molecular Recorder" Play

Shipman explained: "The sequential nature of CRISPR makes it an appealing system for recording events over time.

The researchers followed the same method in translating five frames from the motion photo sequence of the race horse into the DNA. They sequentially treated bacteria over the course of five days with a frame of translated DNA. Then, by sequencing DNA, they could reconstruct the movie with 90% accuracy.

Even though there are multiple ways to use this technology, the researchers look forward to use it in the study of the brain and recording the molecular history of a neuron. According to Shipman, this kind of a molecular recorder can allow the eventual collection of data from every cell in the brain at once. There will not be any need to gain access, to observe the cells directly, or disrupt the system to extract genetic material or proteins, in this case.
Family relationships may both benefit and harm the mental health among U.S. Chinese older adults, suggested by new studies published in The Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences Volume 72: S1 (2017).

Chinese populations consider family as the major source of protection against hardships, such as immigration. Adult children fulfilling filial obligations and grandparents providing care for grandchildren are traditional ways to strengthen the family connections within Chinese families. However, little was known about how these traditional values affect the mental health of Chinese older adults within immigrant families.

Drs. Man Guo, Ling Xu, and XinQi Dong from the PINE study interviewed over 3,000 U.S. Chinese older adults to examine factors for family conflicts, and the association between grandchildren caregiving, filial discrepancy, and depression. Main findings include:

Older adults who did not feel their children fulfilling the cultural expectation of filial obligations were more likely to have both family and marital conflict.

Caring for grandchildren may be beneficial for mental health, but only if caregiving responsibilities are not burdensome.

Chinese older adults may have high risk of depressive symptoms when expecting more care from children than they receipt.

Our studies indicate that the intergenerational relations may become a double-edge sword that benefit or harm the mental health of Chinese older adults, as immigration has changed the pattern of filial obligations fulfillment and grandparent caregiving.

In order to improve the well-being of Chinese older adults, Dr. Guo said, "Educational programs may be designed to help both younger and older immigrants to have conversations about expectations, challenges, and adaptations of family relations in the new society. Developing ways of enhancing the independence of older adults while preserving their close relations with families will be the key for such planning."

Dr. Xu added, "Additionally, though a positive impact of grandchild care on psychological well-being was found for Chinese American grandparent caregivers, both grandparent and middle parent generations should be aware that grandparent caregiving is of a choice, not an obligation. When burden is perceived in caring for grandchildren, specific efforts are needed to identify and reach out to grandparent caregivers who are in need of help."
The General Assembly at the United Nations met and adopted a resolution yesterday to transfer a substantial amount of unused aid to Haiti to help it combat the cholera outbreak.

Hand washing is a key step in preventing cholera and other diarrheal diseases after Hurricane Mathew in Haiti. Photo: PAHO

The UN chief and the members have thus agreed to ask the member states to wave off a return of $40.5 million and transfer it to Haiti that is presently gripped with a cholera outbreak so severe that over 800,000 people have been affected. The cholera outbreak has till date killed over 9000 persons there.

The UN said that it has a moral responsibility to help those affected by the cholera epidemic and to provide support to the country fighting this monster. The earlier Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had apologized last December for not doing enough to help stop the spread of the disease. The new Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has provided a new approach to containing this epidemic which includes overall development of health and sanitation.

Cholera is a bacterial disease leading to intense vomiting and diarrhea that lead to rapid development of dehydration. This dehydration if not corrected, can lead to serious consequences and death especially among children and the elderly. The disease is highly contagious and spread though contaminated hands and contaminated water. One of the first steps to stopping spread of cholera is to ensure clean drinking water and improved sanitation. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has focused on improvement of drinking water provision, sanitation and improved access to care and treatment. These measures could be more effecting if stopping the epidemic that just providing the country with medications and supplies to treat cholera.

Until late May this year only $2.67 million was gathered by the UN from the member states as aid to Haiti. The UN had hoped to collect $400 million in funds for the country. Guterres, for the funds has asked the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti to give away its $40.5 million unspent funds for cholera prevention and control. The peace keeping mission was voted unanimously to end in mid-October after 13 years by the Security Council. This voting took place in April. The peacekeeping mission was termed UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym, MINUSTAH. Guterres has asked the members to waive the return of this money so that it could be put to use in the cholera trust fund. More money is being raised from the member states.

According to Jamaican Ambassador Couernay Rattray, who first talked about this resolution at the 193-member General Assembly of the United Nations, the crisis began and was sustained by inactions on the part of the United Nations and could not be ignored any more. He called this a stain in the name of the United Nations and called for action. The General Assembly after passing this resolution asked for intense cholera monitoring and follow up. They asked for a higher scale of international and regional cooperation and technical assistance in order to improve the surveillance and maintenance of care. Bilateral North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation was also asked for. The General Assembly also lauded the idea that the Secretary General would invite the UN Member States to give up the pending balance from the MINUSTAH.

Source: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=57175
More than 4 in 5 opioid prescriptions given after surgery over a recent two-year period at Mayo Clinic exceeded guidelines now in the works, the clinic's researchers have found. The research, published today in the Annals of Surgery, also highlights a significant difference in opioid prescribing among Mayo Clinic's Arizona, Florida and Rochester campuses, and within specific surgical procedures. The team of physicians and scientists expect their results will improve care for Mayo Clinic patients and help shape national policy and health care guidelines.

"In light of the opioid epidemic, physicians across the country know overprescribing is a problem, and they know there is an opportunity to improve," says senior author Elizabeth Habermann, Ph.D., scientific director of surgical outcomes research in the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery. "This is the first step in determining what is optimal for certain surgeries and, eventually, the individual patient."

Since 2000, the number of Americans receiving an opioid prescription and the number of deaths involving prescription opioid overdoses have roughly quadrupled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 90 people per day died from a prescription opioid or heroin overdose in 2015.

"For the last two decades, there had been such a focus at the national level on ensuring patients have no pain," says co-author Robert Cima, M.D., a colorectal surgeon and chair of surgical quality at Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus. "That causes overprescribing, and, now, we're seeing the negative effects of that."

In contrast to antibiotics, the Mayo researchers say, there really aren't evidence-based guidelines for prescribing opioids after surgery.

"That's the fundamental issue," Dr. Cima says. "And because pain is very subjective, it makes it challenging."

The study looked at 7,181 opioid prescriptions following 25 common surgeries from January 2013 to December 2015 at Mayo Clinic campuses in Arizona, Florida and Rochester. In particular, the researchers examined patients who weren't taking opioids in the 90 days before surgery. Within that group of 5,756 patients, they found the median opioid prescription was equivalent to 50 pills of five-milligram oxycodone. That's almost twice the amount draft Minnesota state guidelines recommend for a maximum, which is roughly a seven-day supply or about 27 pills of five-milligram oxycodone.

Also, within that group, the prescription varied among the three campuses after adjusting for other factors. The Rochester campus median equaled 40 pills of oxycodone; whereas, the Arizona and Florida campus' median equaled 50 and 60 pills, respectively.

Because different surgeries require different degrees of pain management, the researchers also compared the opioid prescribing ranges within each of the 25 surgeries. They found a wide variation  even after controlling for individual patient factors.

While the researchers say the results show there is room for improvement  as is likely the case in most practices that prescribe opioids nationwide  the draft Minnesota guidelines aren't appropriate for all cases. "For some of the procedures, the guideline is probably appropriate and we have an opportunity to reduce the amount prescribed," says Dr. Habermann. "For some of the more painful procedures, in orthopedics, for example, the draft guideline is likely too low."

The Mayo Clinic Department of Orthopedic Surgery already has used these data to improve its opioid prescribing practices, developing a tiered approach based on surgical procedure. Other departments plan to follow suit.

For their part in reducing opioid prescriptions, patients must adjust expectations on appropriate levels of pain after surgery, the researchers say.

"We actively support patients, but they also need to be educated that some discomfort is part of the process," says Dr. Cima. "We want patients to be comfortable enough to function, but taking away all the pain isn't an appropriate part of recovery."

The research was funded by the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, which analyzes data with the goal of making broad-based quality and efficiency improvements in patient care.

"This work is exactly the purpose of our center," says Dr. Cima. "We ask questions about our practice, see how we can do better, implement change, and study that change."
The University of Birmingham has secured 2 million from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to launch a research group aimed at improving healthcare for patients with lung diseases around the world.

The NIHR Global Health Research Group on Global COPD in Primary Care will be based at the University of Birmingham and will be co-directed by Dr Rachel Jordan and Professor Peymane Adab at the University's Institute of Applied Health Research, who will work with leading primary care experts in China, Brazil, Georgia and FYR Macedonia.

Together they will embark on several research projects over the next two years to find better ways of early detection and improving the management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in primary care and the community in each of the four global regions, with transferrable lessons to other settings and countries.

COPD is a progressive lung disease, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis. COPD is mainly caused by smoking, but particularly in less developed countries, exposure to indoor air pollution, passive smoking and gases and fumes from the workplace can also be important causes of the disease.

There is no cure for COPD, but treatment can help ease symptoms, lower the chance of complications and hospitalizations, and generally improve quality of life. Over half of those with the condition do not know they have it, and so earlier diagnosis could improve the outcome for patients.

Professor Peymane Adab, Professor of Public Health at the University of Birmingham, said: "We are delighted to have secured this funding which will enable us to deliver research that will have a real impact and will lead to measurable benefits to COPD patients living in low and middle-income countries around the world.

"Sharing our expertise, we will work with our international partners to identify areas of priority within each individual country and we will provide them with the skills and training required to ensure they are equipped to improve their own research capacity to impact on the diagnosis and treatment of COPD."

Dr Rachel Jordan, Senior Lecturer in Public Health & Epidemiology, said: "This important research will continue to build on the University of Birmingham's established position as a top 100 global university and is part of our clear vision to make a difference to not only our city, our region, and our nation, but also our world."

It is one of 33 new research units or groups announced today by The Department of Health. They have been funded by 120 million from NIHR's Global Health Research initiative which has given UK-based universities and research institutes the opportunity to develop and expand their existing global health work.

Health Minister Lord O'Shaughnessy said: "This funding allows our universities to strengthen their research and expertise as a leader in Global Health Research.

"The UK will continue to be at the forefront of health knowledge, and it is only right that we support developing nations as they improve care for patients and public."
University of Warwick researchers are to improve the lives of India's millions of psychosis sufferers.

The National Institute of Health Research's (NIHR) Global Health Research Unit has awarded the University's Warwick Medical School 1.5 million (almost USD 2 million) to work with this highly vulnerable and disadvantaged group. The award will be used to improve their health, wellbeing and functioning.

In India psychosis is a leading cause of disability and affects between seven and eight million people. In the absence of adequate treatment and support many of them languish in long stay hospitals for years in appalling conditions or drift into homelessness and destitution. The research award aims to identify sufferers early and ensure that they regain their health and wellbeing.

The grant has been made to the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Psychosis Outcomes: the Warwick-India-Canada {WIC} Network at the University of Warwick, which is led by Professor Swaran Singh along with partners in All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi; Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) Chennai, and Douglas Hospital, McGill University Montreal.

Prof Singh said: "We are delighted to have received this grant. Early treatment of first-episode and untreated psychosis is key to reducing burden of disability for this neglected group. We have been successful and developing and implementing early intervention strategies in UK and the developing world. There is a great opportunity that such interventions can be tailored to the Indian context that deliver similar gains"

The three-year project will lead to evidence-informed interventions relevant to India, such as culturally appropriate interventions for families, raising standards of care, and using digital technologies to overcome infrastructure problems. Professor Singh added: "The Warwick-India-Canada network will deliver measurable individual, family and societal gains by alleviating suffering, enhancing recovery, preventing social exclusion, and reducing emotional and financial burden on families, while helping policy makers to implement innovative community-care models that exploit the enormous potential of the digital and mobile technologies."

The University of Warwick is also receiving 5,686,767 from the NIHR Global Health Research Unit to find better ways of delivering healthcare to slum dwellers.

The long-term aims of the project include finding the best ways to deliver healthcare to people living in slums in Asia and Africa and then to persuade and work with politicians and other officials to make these changes.

The grants are a result of the 2016 NIHR invitation to UK-based universities and research institutes to submit applications to deliver applied global health research. Sixty million pounds were made available to successful universities and research institutes looking to expand their existing global health work or for new entrants to the field.
Zika virus transmitted by mosquitoes is affecting scores of teenage girls in the latest Brazilian Zika outbreak. The consequences of this could be serious say experts.

Image Credit: Nussar / Shutterstock

Zika virus affects the babies of pregnant mothers leading to severe disabilities and mental retardation requiring constant lifelong care. Most teenage girls do not have access to information and good antenatal care when they are pregnant. This leaves this population at a very vulnerable state. Most of these teenage pregnancies are unplanned and thus there is a high risk that their babies are born with severe afflictions.

Zika virus spreads via mosquito bites. Due to poor health and sanitation conditions the mosquitoes continue to thrive and spread the virus. The virus itself may lead to mild illness in the mother. But in the unborn baby it can have serious consequences leading to anenchephaly or lack of a brain or microcephaly or a much smaller brain. There are other birth defects as well such as hearing problems, deformed limbs, convulsions or seizures etc.

Reports show that nearly 20% of births in Brazil are in girls who are between 10 and 19 years of age. This translates to over 560,000 births per year. According to surveys in Brazil among a thousand girls aged between 15 and 19 years, it was found that 21% were not using any method of contraception and only 17% visited any health clinic for information regarding prevention of unwanted pregnancy, abortions and prenatal care if pregnant. Further abortion is not an available option in Brazil where it is illegal unless the woman has been raped or has a life threatening condition or the fetus has a congenital condition where its brain has not developed. On the flip side this has given rise to unsafe and illegal abortions that can be severely dangerous for the girls and could lead to lifelong infertility, serious infections and even death. More illegal abortions were sought by women in Brazil during the Zika virus outbreak.

Zika Moms Fight for Help from Brazilian Government Play

It is thus evident that teenage girls are forced to carry on with their pregnancies. Further teenage girls who have been afflicted with Zika virus face more dire consequences with babies born with Zika syndrome and lack of government support.

The poor water and sanitation conditions continue to fan the Zika virus spread in Brazil and the spread remains active. This May Brazil had declared an end of this public health menace after 18 months passed since the peak of cases. But a health activist group Human Rights Watch warns of a looming threat of a new outbreak. It says that Brazil has not done enough to ensure continuous clean water supply or access to good sanitation to combat this public health emergency. Water supply is not ensured for over one third of the population who store the water in tanks that form breeding grounds for the mosquitoes if they are not covered or treated appropriately.

The report urges the government to take heed of the teen mothers and also decriminalize abortions so that babies with Zika syndrome are not born to teenage girls. More support is sought for babies born with Zika syndrome.

Source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/07/13/how-zika-impacts-teens-brazil
Hyundai India has released the first teaser video of the upcoming 2017 Verna which is expected to be launched in India by next month. As per the teaser, the bookings for the same will commence soon. The teaser shows that the next-generation sedan will have projector headlamps and LED DRLs along with chrome accented grille and LED tail lamps as on its older sibling Elantra. You can watch the teaser below.Earlier Hyundai also released a teaser image of the new 2017 Vernas interior. The cabin will now come equipped with a touchscreen infotainment system with Bluetooth, USB, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto support. The image shows a two tone dashboard with chocolate brown colored top dash and a beige lower half. Expect the 2017 Verna with loads of features to give tough competition to rivals. (Image: Hyundai)Hyundai is yet to reveal any detail on the performance of the next-gen 2017 Verna but it is expected to continue with the current engine options - 1.4-litre petrol, 1.6-litre petrol, 1.4-litre U2 CRDi diesel and 1.6-litre CRDi diesel.When launched Hyundai Verna will compete against the giants of Honda City and the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and so, pricing has to be a winning factor here.
Investment opportunities in India's booming automobile and auto-components sectors have attracted around 100 Chinese firms to attend 'Make in India' seminars held in two key auto manufacturing hubs in China. The seminars were the part of a series of industry and sector specific 'Make in India' events to be organised across China this year, the Indian Embassy said in a statement."These seminars received an overwhelming response with nearly 180 representatives from around a hundred Chinese auto companies in Chongqing and Changchun attending the events," the statement said. During the seminars, Counsellor (Economic) Prashant Lokhande noted the important role played by the auto sector in India and highlighted the potential for collaboration between Indian and Chinese companies in the sector, the statement said.Vinnie Mehta, Director General of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), gave a detailed presentation on the strengths of India in the automotive sector and the areas for future growth, it said.Santosh Pai, Partner, Link Legal India Law Services gave a presentation introducing the legal and regulatory framework in India with a special focus on the Goods and Services Tax. During the seminars, Chinese companies queried about the taxation structure in India and the incentives offered to Chinese investors in the country, the statement said.
Srinagar: An Afghan national, awaiting deportation from Delhi, was arrested from Baramulla District of Kashmir as he was on his way towards the Line of Control to exfiltrate to Pakistan on Thursday.



Police said 27-year-old Mohammad Dawood was taken into custody at Kralahar in Baramulla on Wednesday.



"Dawood, who was acquitted in the case under various sections of NDPS Act in New Delhi, was to be deported but meanwhile government had decided to appeal against his acquittal. His passport lies with the Special Cell of Delhi Police and he was under orders to restrict his movements to Lampur, Narela area of New Delhi," a senior police official said.



Dawood told police that he wanted to return to Afghanistan via Pakistan by crossing the LoC.



"His claim is being verified, " the official added.



Besides Dawood, police also detained two residents of Uri, the border town, and the driver of the vehicle in which they were travelling.



"The local residents claim not to be connected with him. Investigation, however, is going on to ascertain the facts," the official said.


The AIIMS Jodhpur & Rishikesh Staff Nurse Grade II Result 2017 is released on the official website of AIIMs - aiimsexams.org.



The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi conducted the Staff Nurse Grade II Computer Based Test (CBT) on March 25th, 2017 for around 750 posts in AIIMS Jodhpur and AIIMS Rishikesh. The candidates who had appeared in the CBT for recruitment as Staff Nurse Grade II in AIIMS Jodhpur and AIIMS Rishikesh can check the results online by following the below instructions:



How to Check AIIMS Jodhpur & Rishikesh Staff Nurse Grade II Result 2017?



Visit aiimsexams.org



For AIIMS Jodhpur Results Click:



RESULT NOTIFICATION NO. 56/2017-Roll Number wise Result for the Recruitment to the post of Staff Nurse Grade-II

for AIIMS Jodhpur conducted by AIIMS, New Delhi



For AIIMS Rishikesh Results Click:



RESULT NOTIFICATION NO. 57/2017-Roll Number wise Result for the Recruitment to the post of Staff Nurse Grade-II for AIIMS Rishikesh conducted by AIIMS, New Delhi



You can do a CTRL+F with your Roll Number to find your AIIMS Jodhpur or Rishikesh Rank.



There are total 550 posts in AIIMS Jodhpur with 279 posts in the Unreserved Category, 82 posts reserved for the Scheduled Caste Category, 41 posts reserved for the Scheduled Tribe Category and 148 posts reserved for the Other Backward Class. For the AIIMS Rishikesh there are a total of 200 posts with 101 posts in the Unreserved Category, 30 posts reserved for the Scheduled Caste Category, 15 posts reserved for the Scheduled Tribe Category and 34 posts reserved for the Other Backward Class.



The appointment of the provisionally selected candidates selected for Staff Nurse Grade II as per the lists above is subject to verification of original certificates and Biometrics which will be verified by the respective AIIMS Jodhpur and Rishikesh Institutes.
#Lucknow: Security personnel have reached Uttar Pradesh assembly, after suspicious white powder was found yesterday. pic.twitter.com/bCeFIN1mL4  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 14, 2017

The suspicious white power found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on July 12 was identified as Pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a highly explosive organic compound.Around 60 grams of the deadly compound was detected near Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chaudharys seat by the dog squad during a security sweep on Wednesday, following which a forensic investigation was launched.Speaking in the Assembly on Friday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called for an NIA investigation. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) should investigate the matter. A response team to act on such threats should also be immediately put in place. It should have been done a long time ago, the CM said.He also appealed to lawmakers to not bring mobile phones inside the House.The Uttar Pradesh chief minister has called for a high-level meeting. Security is an important issue. There is no need to panic, UP minister Siddharth Nath Singh said.The Samajwadi Party has demanded an immediate inquiry. It should be checked how the explosive powder reached the Assembly. If the Vidhan Sabha is not safe, then you can imagine the safety situation of the rest of Uttar Pradesh, said SP leader Rajendra Chaudhary.Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, too, raised questions on the security situation. I have never seen a government fail so soon. If explosives can be found under (sic) the Leader of Oppositions seat, image the condition of rest of UP.Police have arrested a man named Farhan Ahmad from Devariya who had, in a phone call to ADG of Lucknow Zone, allegedly threatened to blow up the Assembly on August 15.Pentaerythritol tetranitrate or PETN can easily dodge metal detectors and its colourless crystals are hard to detect in sealed containers. It is a powerful explosive, 100 gram of which is enough to blow up a car to pieces, say experts.It also acts as a major ingredient in Semtex bombs and belongs to the same chemical family as nitroglycerin.
New Delhi: Supreme Court has asked Centre and Reserve Bank of India for information on steps taken to ensure virtual currency including BitCoin isnt used for terror funding and money laundering.



The court has given four weeks to examine all security related issues pertaining to virtual currency, including BitCoin.



A PIL claimed that RBI was failing to regulate transactions in virtual currency. It also said alleged that virtual currency was being used for terror funding and money laundering.



There is no clear law stating whether BitCoin and other crypto-currencies are legal in India. However, such currencies are being widely traded.



According to media reports, the Centre has been considering to introduce a regulatory regime for virtual currencies. There is also a proposal to make these currency a part of formal economy and charge goods and services tax on their transactions.
Mumbai: Condemning the alleged thrashing of a Muslim man in Nagpur district on the suspicion that he was carrying beef, Union minister Ramdas Athawale on Friday said that everyone has the right to eat beef.



He also called for severe punishment for "violent cow vigilantes".



"Everyone has the right to eat beef. Since goat meat is expensive, people eat beef. I condemn the Nagpur incident. It is not right to become a 'nar-bhakshak' (man-eater) in the name of being a 'gau-rakshak' (cow protector)," the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment told reporters here.



He said cow-vigilantes should not take the law into their hands. "Such violent cow vigilantes should be punished," Athawale said.



A 31-year-old Muslim man, with links to the BJP, was brutally thrashed in public by alleged cow vigilantes on the suspicion that he was carrying beef in Maharashtra's Nagpur district on Wednesday.



About explosives found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Athawale said this was a "very serious matter". "This incident is similar to attack on Parliament," he said.



"There is no conspiracy to kill Yogi (Adityanath), but there should be an investigation into the matter. Its possible terror links should be also probed," he said.



In a major security breach, a powerful plastic explosive was found in the UP Assembly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday informed the House, which unanimously recommended an NIA probe into it.



On NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, who is scheduled to visit Mumbai tomorrow, Athawale said, "He should visit 'Matoshree' and meet (Shiv Sena president) Uddhav Thackeray. Pranab Mukherjee had also visited 'Matoshree' when his candidature was announced (for the post of president)."



Sources in the BJP had earlier said Kovind was not scheduled to visit Thackeray's residence during his Mumbai visit.
New Delhi: Top central ministers and officials on Friday briefed opposition leaders, including from the Congress, Left and SP, on the standoff with China and the situation in Kashmir, officials said.



The briefing by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, comes ahead of the parliament session beginning Monday. Opposition leaders were told about the prevailing situation along the Sino-Indian border and Jammu and Kashmir and the government action, officials said.



Those who attended the meeting - considered an effort to build consensus - include Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Tariq Anwar (NCP), Sharad Yadav, K C Tyagi (JD-U) and Derek O'Brien (TMC).



New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Dokalam area of Sikkim. The two nations have been engaged in the standoff in the Dokalam area for more than a month after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.



In Jammu and Kashmir, seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday. Four districts of the state - Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag - have been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.



The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir.



Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on China. On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir. He also alleged that the Prime Minister's pursuit of short-term political gains from the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost.
New Delhi: More laboratories and more samples to test  scientists are clear about what Indias surveillance programme needs after the countrys fourth case of Zika virus infection came to light.



We do need more labs, says Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research, the body which heads the national surveillance programme.



More labs would reach more regions, which will also help scientists determine what kind of a health problem India is dealing with, she says.



As 80 percent of people infected with Zika are asymptomatic  they show no outward signs of the disease  its not possible to go around testing everyone. Its impractical and no country is planning such testing, says Swaminathan.



There is no good antibody test to detect the virus in such patients, she added. For now Zika can only be detected in those suffering an acute infection.



We need to see how prevalent the virus is in India and whether it will cause the kind of problems it did in Brazil and other South American countries.



Her views are echoed by Dr. G Arunkumar from the Manipal Centre for Virus Research at Manipal University. Though the centre is one of the 25 laboratories notified by the government to test for Zika, the sample of the infected man from Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu did not reach the lab through the government surveillance programme, but through their own project.



The Hospital Based Acute Febrile Illness Surveillance, which Manipal University started in 2014, tests for causes of fever to build a national database and be on the lookout for new infectious diseases.



One of AFIs sites is in Krishnagiris N Puttur village, where the 27-year-old man infected by Zika was found.



He is not the kind of patient anyone would think has Zika, says Arunkumar. He hadnt traveled anywhere to be exposed to it. Its an entirely indigenous case.



The first three cases, detected in Bapunagar area of Ahmedabad, are waiting on the centres word on whether the infection was indigenous or picked up from outside India.



Indias first response to the threat, during the 2015-2016 global outbreak that started from Brazil, was to step up surveillance at airports, as the virus had piggybacked on travellers to spread to different countries. However, Arunkumar suspects that India may already have some reservoirs of the virus.



At the moment we have very little information as to how the virus is spreading. Perhaps we have low level animal reservoirs as there are for many mosquito or arthropod-borne diseases, he says.



To know for sure, India needs to step up research and, therefore, expand beyond the 25 laboratories testing for the virus. Of the 40,000 samples tested by these labs for Zika since January 2016, the Manipal centre has tested 20,000. This is because of our AFI project, he explained. The samples that came to us through the government surveillance are probably 1,000.



Its not enough, he adds. We need to expand more laboratories, need to come in the network if we want to increase detection capabilities. We have no idea which geographic areas see more virus activity.

There also needs to be better coordination and more real-time activity between labs and the surveillance programme so that samples reach in time for testing.



Most of the surveys, at least for other diseases, are not laboratory supported but clinical syndrome-based survey, where a doctor decides on a disease based on symptoms, says Arunkumar. We need basic testing at district level, for the surveillance to be stronger, he adds.
Singapore: A 29-year-old Indian-origin Malaysian man was executed on Friday in Singapore for drugs smuggling despite calls by the UN and rights groups to halt his capital punishment.



Prabagaran Srivijayan was sentenced to death in 2014 after he was caught with 22.24 grams of diamorphine while trying to enter Singapore.



Srivijayan had his death sentence carried out at Singapore's Changi Prison Complex, said the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).



He was arrested in April 2012 at Woodlands Checkpoint in the main causeway to southern Peninsular Malaysia.



Two packets of the drug were recovered from the vehicle he was driving, the CNB said in a statement.



On Thursday, Srivijayan's lawyer, Choo Zheng Xi, on instructions from Srivijayan's family, asked the Singapore apex court to stay his client's death sentence on the grounds that his appeal in Malaysia was pending.



Judges of Appeal Chao Hick Tin, Andrew Phang and Tay Yong Kwang called the attempt to halt Srivijayan's execution because of proceedings in another country "an abuse of process".



"The judiciary of each country is entitled to act in accordance with its Constitution and its laws," The Channel News Asia quoted Judge Chao as saying.



"No judiciary of one country interferes in the judicial process of another country," he said.



Srivijayan had a pending appeal before the Malaysian Court of Appeal to institute proceedings against Singapore in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).



Amnesty International had raised concerns about the fairness of the trial, including the alleged failure of the authorities "to follow up leads and call on key witnesses that would corroborate his version of events".



The United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR) South East Asia Regional Office had called on Singapore to halt the scheduled execution of Prabagaran, and had urged the government to immediately reinstate a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.



"Drug-related offences do not fall under the threshold of 'most serious crimes'. Furthermore, under domestic law, the death penalty is not mandatory for drug-related offences," the OHCHR said.



The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death penalty if the amount of diamorphine imported is more than 15 grams.



His petition for clemency was unsuccessful.



Srivijayan was accorded full due process under the law, and he was represented by legal counsel throughout the process, the CNB said.



It said that 22.24 grams of diamorphine is equivalent to about 1,853 straws, which is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 265 abusers for a week.



Both Malaysia and Singapore execute murderers and drug traffickers by hanging, a system which dates back to British colonial rule.



Singapore has consistently maintained that the death penalty is an effective deterrent to crime and has rejected calls to abolish capital punishment.
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday have constituted a six-member Special Investigation Team to probe the Amarnath terror attack.



We have formed an SIT headed by the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of South Kashmir, said IG Munir Ahmad.

Seven Amarnath Yatra pilgrims were killed and several injured on Monday evening when terrorists attacked a bus carrying the yatris in Batingu, near Anantnag.



The terrorists first attacked the combined checkpoint of STF, SOG and CRPF in Khannabal at around 8:15 pm, and ran towards Batingu. The terrorists, then, targeted the bus carrying pilgrims, killing six of them, and escaped running towards Arwani area. They opened fire on the camp of G/90 battalion while running away from the spot.



The police have identified the main perpetrator of the attack as Abu Ismail. Attack on Amaranth yatra pilgrims was carried out by LeT, masterminded by Pak terrorist Ismail. He was also supported by local militants, said Muneer Khan, the IGP.



Meanwhile, LeT issued a statement early morning on Tuesday, condemning the attacks and calling it "reprehensible and unIslamic."



"Islam does not allow violence against any faith. We strongly condemn such acts, the outfits spokesperson Abdullah Ghaznavi said in a statement.



While LeT still remains primary suspects in the case, the outfits denial in Mondays attacks is the first of its kind. The outfit, which previously has also attacked Amarnath pilgrims, has never earlier issued a denial.



Security forces have also found a unique angle to Mondays attacks  the support of local Hizbul Mujahideen cadre.

Lashkar had recently gone on a recruitment drive in the Valley and now have about 30 terrorists in South Kashmir, most of who are locals, and about 80 in North Kashmir, who are mostly Pakistani nationals, and are lying low at the moment.
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has issued a circular making Kannada mandatory in CBSE and ICSE schools from this academic year.



Education Minister Tanveer Sait said the decision comes in the wake of the report submitted by Kannada Development Authority and the schools have no choice but to implement it.



"Kannada being a state language we have amended the state education act to bring all schools under the ambit of the education department. And we have introduced Kannada as an introductory language in all schools. At least students should know the essence of the state language," Minister Tanveer Sait told CNN-News 18.



The minister said the decision was taken without carrying out any consultation with the stakeholders.



"We have amended Section 1 of the Karnataka Education Act, making Kannada compulsory in all schools in Karnataka irrespective of their affiliation. Hence, there is no need of (consultation). They have to implement it."



The rule will also apply to all Kendriya Vidyalaya schools based in the state. "All schools are allowed to work only after the issue of no objectification certification by the government of Karnataka. We have certain conditions. All schools in Karnataka, including Kendriya Vidyalayas, will have to follow it," he added.



The minister claims that the circular is not an imposition as it introduces only the basics of the language. Further, no exam has been prescribed yet, he said.



Sait, however, didn't clarify whether Kannada will be made compulsory from Class 1 till 10 or will be taught as an extra subject. Many of the CBSE and ICSE school managements had earlier opposed similar moves of the state government.



Apart from making Kannada compulsory, the minister said that schools will also have to play state anthem naada geethe in daily assemblies along with the national anthem.



We are also part of India. State anthem written by Jnanpith awardee Kuvempu speaks about rivers, religion and our commitment to the nation. It will be compulsory for the schools to play the state anthem.



When asked about the timeline of implementation, he said that Introductory Kannada will take off immediately. State anthem introduction is yet to be prescribed, he said.




Srinagar: A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist was arrested on Friday from Kashmir's Bandipora district. Police have recovered arms and ammunition from his possession.



The terrorist has been identified as Shahbaz Rasool Mir, a resident of nearby Hajin.



Police said Mir was nabbed during a search operation in an orchard area in Markundal village in Sumbal area of the district.







A Chinese pistol, a pistol magazine, four pistol rounds, a hand grenade, a knife and other items were recovered from his possession, the official said, adding a case has ben registered.



(With inputs from PTI)
Kolkata: The West Bengal government has told the Calcutta High Court that Maoist leaders from Nepal are in Darjeeling to help Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in their movement for a separate state.



Sources said state Advocate General Kishore Dutta submitted a report  prepared by ADG (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma  before the HC seeking its intervention for additional security forces.



As per the intelligence report, several senior administrative officials and political leaders may be targeted by those who are creating unrest in the Darjeeling Hills. We have specific input about the presence of Maoists in Darjeeling and this was conveyed to the Chief Ministers Office, said a senior police officer.



The HC expressed dismay over the Centres delay in sending additional force to the Hills. The court directed the Centre to provide four additional companies of CRPF within 48 hours in Darjeeling to quell the violence.



We have also alerted the government about regrouping of Maoists in Bengal from Jharkhand, the officer said.



Recently, Maoist leader Netra Bikram Chand demonstrated in front of Indian Embassy in Kathmandu and condemned police highhandedness against Morcha leaders in Darjeeling.



He also alleged that there were severe human rights violations in Darjeeling and the central and Bengal governments are suppressing the voice of innocent people in the Hills.



Innocent people are being killed and this is a serious issue, he had said.



Meanwhile, the strike continued in the Hills as Mahila Morcha members took out a rally against the recent killings.



On Thursday night, the Directorate Board of Railway Police Force (RPF) was set on fire in Kurseong, allegedly by Morcha supporters. A library and a police check post was also torched in Sukhiapokhri and Mirik respectively.



GJM members will on Thursday observe a fast unto death at Mall Road in Darjeeling.
Delhi: Sensing a possible opposition onslaught in the Monsoon session of Parliament, the government briefed leaders of 14 political parties on the stand-off with China.



Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar made a presentation outlining why the matter is of strategic importance to India even though the dispute is over road construction by PLA in Doklam in Bhutan. The government explained to the opposition that Bhutan had complained after the its army was unable to dissuade the PLA road construction party from their unilateral action.



CPI(M) General Secretary who was part of the nearly three-hour long meeting said that the government had stressed that the matter will be 'resolved through dialogue' with China. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, Gopal Baglay in a statement reiterated that the government outlined the 'importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy'. The two sides are in touch over the matter through their embassies even though China has openly displayed belligerence, with the Chinese ambassador Luo Zhaohui calling the situation "grave".



According to sources, all parties looked satisfied with the briefing and assured the government that they will stand by it on matters of national security, according to LJP leader and Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. However, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma clarified that the Congress will raise the issue of the Modi government's foreign policy in Parliament. They were present at the meeting on Friday.



Rahul Gandhi had questioned the Prime Minister's silence over China in a tweet even as PM Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hamburg on the sidelines of the G20 summit at the BRICS informal meeting. Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is believed to have advised the government to exercise caution with China. The rest of the political parties are going to be briefed on Saturday.


Bengaluru: Campaigners, who have been fighting against alleged imposition of Hindi by the Centre, are taking their fight to the next level by trying to unite people from all non-Hindi speaking states.



Pro-Kannada outfit Karnataka Rakshana Vedike is holding a round table in Bengaluru on Saturday, where language campaigners will decide how to fight Hindi chauvinism, says KRV spokesperson B Sanneerappa. Prominent among those who are participating are the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (which is sending its general secretary Sandeep Deshpande) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (whose MP Tiruchi Siva and spokesperson Saravanan are participating).



Many other groups from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal are likely to participate, in the first attempt to consolidate non-Hindi-speaking campaigners. Language activists from these states have taken to social media to fight against Hindi imposition at public places like Metro stations, railway tickets, bank documents, etc.



In all these states, there is forced imposition of Hindi in some form or other. We want to save the languages of all these states for the future, so we have reached out the chief ministers, Opposition leaders and leaders from interest-groups have been called, especially the Dravidian languages and a few others like Punjabi and Bengali, Sanneerappa told News18.



The recent outrage that Hindi songs werent given their due at Oscar-winning musician A R Rahmans concert have further fuelled the angst against what is seen as superiority complex of Hindi-speaking population.



Kannada activists have also been disappointed about the lack of interest shown by BJP leaders like Venkaiah Naidu (who, two weeks back, said Hindi is the countrys national language), Ananth Kumar and Sadananda Gowda who have not supported their campaigns on #NammaMetroHindiBeda.



Another vociferous campaigner, both online and offline, Arun Javagal says that responses from politicians like MK Stalin and Raj Thackeray to unite against the Hindi-imposition cause have been encouraging.



We want to send a strong message to people who are pro-Hindi-imposition with this event. And again, it is not against Hindi, its against Hindi imposition. Almost all the parties have agreed to send their representatives, Javagal said.



Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Sandeep Deshpande said: "Hindi is being forcibly promoted. It is forcibly imposed in Maharashtra. we demand equal treatment of other languages."



Attempts to bring in political parties from Bengal, Kerala and Andhra have, however, not been fruitful. We all give taxes to the Centre. Just because Centre funds some project, they cannot discriminate against other states languages, says Sanneerappa, who says the movement could one day grow into a political force.



We want to keep Hindi high-command parties out, build a parallel to the NDA and the UPA. It is other parties that are saving our languages and identities  be it Kannada, Telugu or Tamil. We need to create an environment to usher in governments that dont foist Hindi on us, he says.



It may be early days for such ambitions, but the movement to unite non-Hindi states is building up.




New Delhi: Even as Pakistan continues to internationalise the Kashmir issue, it was in for a bit of a setback on Friday. Its ally Turkey has clarified that it 'never suggested a mediatory role' over Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Turkish ambassador to India, Sakir Ozkan denied that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had offered to mediate and said he was misquoted. According to the ambassador, the President had only called on both sides to "not allow the bloodshed to continue."



In the meeting between PM Modi and the Turkish President in May, India had categorically mentioned that it will resolve all matters with Pakistan bilaterally. India also drew attention to terrorism being the core issue in Kashmir and between India and Pakistan. The PM had said, there was "need to work as one to disrupt the terrorist networks and their financing and put a stop to cross-border movement of terrorists."



The Turkish ambassador was speaking at a press meet called to mark a year of the failed coup attempt in Turkey that the Erdogan regime blamed on Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO) of having carried out. He said they are in the process of purging Turkey of Gulen sympathisers and would need the support of friends like India. On Turkey's request to India to take action against Gulen funded institutions in the country he said, "the institutions are still active but the cooperation with India is satisfactory."
A software engineer from Andhra Pradesh allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the terrace of a hotel in Punes Viman Nagar area over the lack of job security in the IT sector.Twenty-five-year-old Gopikrishna Durgaprasad, who had worked in Delhi and Hyderabad earlier, joined an IT firm in Pune and came to the city only four days ago. His employer had put him up in the hotel, according to police.He wrote a suicide note before slashing his wrist and later jumped off the terrace of the four-storey hotel on Wednesday, an officer said.In IT, there is no job security. I am scared that I may not look after my family properly. Please take care of my family. I am worried about future, as we are not that strong, read the suicide note, purportedly written by Durgaprasad.He was found spotted lying in a pool of blood at around 4 am by the staff of the hotel who alerted the police. The body was handed over to his relatives after postmortem.(With PTI inputs)


With elections just two years away, Congress know that their regional partners need to be on board, and Sonia Gandhi still has the clout to keep them together.



Would Lalu consider a request by Rahul who tore up an ordinance that would have given convicted netas leeway to contest elections? asks the Congress leader.

Rahul Gandhi is unlikely to be the face of the Congress party in the 2019 general elections as the partys old guard, led by his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, retake the reigns of the party. A clutch of upcoming state elections will most likely now be fought under the leadership of older satraps rather than Rahuls youth brigade, multiple sources familiar with the matter have told News18.There have been hints pointing to the massive strategic shift, with a steady increase in the role of the party elders. It was Sonia Gandhi, and not Rahul, who was at the center of recent deliberations to forge a broader opposition unity to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. She also helped pick candidates and forge alliances for the presidential elections. The most recent change was Thursdays announcement of the Congress Communication Committee, which will now be dominated by senior leaders such as P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma and Ghulam Nabi Azad.Whats clear is that it will have to be the entire opposition together to take on Modi. And Congress alone is no longer capable of doing it. A truncated Congress needs the charisma and clout of regional satraps. I am not sure Rahul can be the interface, said one Congress functionary familiar with deliberations on this topic in the partys top echelons.What News18 has picked up from not one but from at least five top leaders within the party who were involved in the deliberations is that even if Rahul is elevated to the post of party president in October, he will not be the face. Former union minister Anand Sharma evaded questions when CNN-News18 asked him about the change in guard.Some political analysts feel this would be a sensible move by the Congress. Rahul has simply not clicked at the popular level. When you talk to people who are unhappy with the BJP, they would say, so what's on the other side? Rahul Gandhi does not enthuse them, says columnist Neerja Chowdhury.A senior Congress leaders admits that Congress currently is in no position to dictate terms within the secular front. The situation in 2004 was different. First, there was no Modi then, and Congress was still a force to reckon with. Unlike then, when Congress under Sonia called the shots, this time it is the regional allies who are dominant, says the leader.The issue of the partys leadership has been simmering for a long time. The tipping point, however, was Rahuls vanishing act at the peak of the farmers agitation in Madhya Pradesh last month. We thought we had the government on the mat for the first time on agrarian crisis and lynching cases. We had planned a nation-wide campaign before the upcoming monsoon session. We would have followed it up by cornering the government in Parliament, says a leader not willing to be identified.But the opposition campaign was soon derailed, as after making a visit to violence-hit Mandsaur, Rahul went on one of his foreign trips, triggering backlash from the partys allies.Which is why when Lalu Yadav called Congress President Sonia Gandhi to extend an invite for the mega rally planned in Patna, he was careful with his words. If the you cannot make it for some reason, send Priyanka instead, he reportedly told her over the phone. Perhaps this was also the reason why Bihar CM Nitish Kumar upped the ante and gave Congress a wake-up call by supporting BJPs presidential pick.It is not just the Congress allies from Bihar who have reservations on Rahul being the face. Sharad Pawar has gone on record to say that he wont be able to do business with him. Pawar accepted Sonia in 2014 despite him having broken away from Congress over her foreign nationality.With elections just two years away, Congress know that their regional partners need to be on board, and Sonia Gandhi still has the clout to keep them together. When Sonia picks up the phone and calls, say, a Mayawati or Mulayam, they would listen to her. Its her age and her charisma that works. Rahul still has a long way to go, says another top source.To bolster this claim, the leader sites a recent lunch hosted by the Congress President. It was a full house, with the whos who in the opposition ranks being in attendance - Mayawati, Mamata Bannerjee and JD(U) members, they all turned up. It was Sonia who had the political authority and stature to call up both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav, requesting them to stop squabbling and save the mahagathbandhan.The growing unease with the current state of affairs outside has also triggered a re-think within. Sources accept that till date, there is still a larger demand for Sonia to be more proactive not just by her party but by its allies as well.And the anxiety within Congress is not just confined to the old guard. For leaders who have many years of political career ahead of them, its an unenviable situation. Some have already left for greener pastures. Some others like Amarinder Singh have fought their way against Rahuls team to assert themselves.Others like Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah have minced no words in indicating where their loyalties lie. I was brought to the Congress party by Ahmed Patel, he recently told the media in Bengaluru.Another worrying factor for the Congress is its loosening grip in states where it was traditionally very strong. Even in the worst of times, when it was in opposition under Sonia, the party was in power in Maharashtra, MP and Karnataka. If Congress fails to retain Karnataka in April next year, it will face a huge resource crunch before the next general elections.A Congress leader who was a cabinet minister in UPA-II rues that some like us, who are so intrinsically associated with the family, cant even join the BJP.So each time the Congress faces failure, the demand for Priyanka resurfaces. The family, however, has not responded to these calls, for it would create multiple power centres within. Priyankas debut before UP polls was almost certain. The party leadership backed off at the last moment.Sonia has also had to step in to defuse the extended crises in state units often. The Congress president had to intervene to coax Shankarsinh Vaghela to remain in the party. Former Mumbai Congress chief Gurudas Kamath, who had a running battle with Rahul loyalist Sanjay Nirupam, withdrew his resignation only after the Congress president stepped in. For many who matter in the Congress, she is the last, if not only, word.
Pune: Describing the protest by passengers that prevented the Deccan Queen Express from leaving Pune Station as "anti-national", Railways on Friday said they have arrested three women commuters for "obstructing a running train."



On Monday, around 100 daily commuters of Pune-Mumbai Deccan Queen Express, staged a protest demanding that the train should leave from platform number one instead of platform number five.



Railways said that the Railway Protection Force (RPF) was currently going through the CCTV footage and will soon identify other passengers who blocked the train's journey.



The Deccan Queen, a popular train among passengers who commute between Pune and Mumbai, has been departing from platform number 5 of Pune railway station for last few months instead of platform number one as has been the practice of several years.



The decision to shift the departure platform was taken due to "operational compulsion".



"Around 100 commuters held up the train for almost one hour and railways have taken this act seriously and held three female commuters under section 174 (A) (obstructing a running train) of the Railways Act," said a release issued by the public relations office of Pune Division.



In the release, Pune's Divisional Railway Manager B K Dadabhoy said, "Such anti-national act will not be tolerated at any cost and action will be taken as per the legal provisions."



He also appealed the commuters not to take the law into their hands and cooperate with railway administration for smooth functioning of the trains.



In the release, Pune DRM office said the Railway Protection Force has obtained CCTV footage and photos of the incident and with the help of the evidence the identity of other commuters, who were involved in the Monday protest is being probed and they too will face the action.



The three women commuters were later produced before Railway Magistrate, who imposed a fine on them, the release added.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday modified its earlier order on encroachments near the Haji Ali Shrine in Mumbai and protected Kinara mosque located near the shrine from demolition.



The court also asked the Maharashtra government to decide within a week the plea seeking regularisation of the mosque.



A bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud took on record the consent of all parties including the Haji Ali Trust that if the state government rejects the regularisation plea, nobody will oppose the demolition of portions of the mosque which are built on encroached land near the historic shrine.



The bench initially suggested that the parties should agree to shifting of the mosque to some other place.



It has been alleged that certain part of the Kinara mosque falls under the encroached area which have been ordered to be cleared by the Bombay High Court. The Supreme Court has also upheld it.



The bench has now fixed the matter after one week.



The apex court had earlier given a last opportunity to the Maharashtra government and warned it of serious consequences if squatters from 908 square metre area near the historic shrine were not removed in two weeks.



It had made it clear that the encroachments have to be removed within two weeks from July 3 from the 908 square metre area earmarked in the Bombay High Court order.



The direction to the Mumbai civic body had come as the Haji Ali Dargah Trust (HADT), which had volunteered to remove the encroachments, had expressed inability in removing the encroachments from an area of about 500 square metres.



The HADT had on April 13 agreed to remove encroachments on its own by May 8 and was later given some more time to remove the squatters.



The trust's offer to remove and demolish the encroachments had come after the apex court made it clear that only the mosque, located on an area of around 171 sq metres, would remain protected while the rest of the area, measuring 908 sq metres, has to be cleared of squatters.



The court had lauded the efforts of the Dargah Trust in its attempts to remove encroachments.



The Haji Ali Dargah was constructed in 1431 in the memory of a wealthy Muslim merchant, Sayyed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari, who gave up all his possessions before making a pilgrimage to Mecca.



The High Court had ordered the formation of a joint task force comprising the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the Collector to remove the illegal encroachments on the approach road leading to the Haji Ali Dargah.



The High Court was hearing a petition filed by Sahayak, a socio-legal and educational forum, seeking immediate removal of the encroachments on the approach road to the dargah which is located on the sea.



The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai was of the view that the land on the approach road to Haji Ali fell in the collector's jurisdiction and therefore the collector should remove the encroachments.
New Delhi: Stating that democracy will be in peril if people in India are deprived of human rights, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered CBI to register FIRs into 98 cases of encounter killing in Manipur.



A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Uday U Lalit dismissed the government's objections to reopen these cases from last 20-odd years and paved way for a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising CBI officers.



"If a crime has been committed, a crime which involves the death of a person who is possibly innocent, it cannot be over-looked only because of a lapse of time...Merely because the State has not taken any action and has allowed time to go by, it cannot take advantage of the delay to scuttle an inquiry," said the bench in its 26-page judgment.



It also trashed the Centre's argument that there was no need to revisit these cases since compensation has been paid to the next of kin in most of such instances.



"Compensation has been awarded to the next of kin for the agony they have suffered and to enable them to immediately tide over their loss and for their rehabilitation. This cannot override the law of the land, otherwise all heinous crimes would get settled through payment of monetary compensation. Our constitutional jurisprudence does not permit this and we certainly cannot encourage or countenance such a view," held the bench.



It added that it was SC's constitutional obligation to give justice and succour to the next of kin of the deceased even though direct members of aggrieved families were not in a position to move the court.



"If the people of our country are deprived of human rights or cannot have them enforced, democracy itself would be in peril," said the bench.



It then ordered the Director of the CBI to nominate a group of five officers to lodge necessary FIRs and to complete the investigations by December 31, 2017 and prepare charge sheets, wherever necessary.



"We expect the State of Manipur to extend full cooperation and assistance to the Special Investigating Team. We also expect the Union of India to render full assistance to the Special Investigating Team to complete the investigation at the earliest without any unnecessary hindrances or obstacles," said the court. It has now asked the CBI Director inform the bench of the composition of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) within two weeks.



By a judgment in 2016, the bench had decided to probe 1,528 cases of alleged fake encounters by security forces. It later decided to take up cases in batches and it first took up those inquiry cases where personnel from Army and Assam Rifles were involved. The order on Friday pertains to this batch.



Cases to be reopened:



- 32 cases of commission of enquiry



- 37 Judicial enquiry cases by HC



- 23 case enquired by NHRC



- 6 cases enquired by retd justice santosh hegde


New Delhi: The Uttarakhand Board of Technical Education, Roorkee (UBTER) is expected to release the results of JEEP 2017 1st Seat Allotment on Friday by evening on the official website and initiate its counseling process.



The Joint Entrance Examination Polytechnic (JEEP) 2017 was conducted on May 7th and 8th, 2017 by UBTER in which approximately 1 Lakh candidates had appeared.



The eligible candidates will seek admissions in various Polytechnic institutions that come under the purview of UBTER JEEP 2017.



Students need to follow these steps to check UBTER JEEP 2017 1ST seat allotment result:



Clik on the official website http://www.ubter.in



Click on DOWNLOAD JEEP 2017 1ST SEAT ALLOTMENT RESULTS



Enter your 8 Digit Roll Number to see the details



Download and take a Print-Out for further reference



The candidates who will make it to the 1st Seat Allotment of Uttarakhand JEEP 2017 need to report to their allocated institution for verification of documents and payment of fee between 15th to 21st July.



The 2nd Seat Allotment process will start 25th to 28th July this month. The results of 2nd Round of Seat Allotment for Uttarakhand JEEP 2017 will be declared on 1st of August as per the official notice published by the department.



All the official intimation regarding the counseling process will be shared via email and SMS. Candidates who had applied for Uttarakhand Polytechnic JEEP 2017 can view the entire Counseling schedule and process here:



http://www.ubter.in/jeep/jeep2017/1_cou_adv.pdf


New Delhi: In a landmark order, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected Armys submission that it had already investigated the alleged encounter killing cases in Manipur and that there was no need for any further probe, and ordered a CBI probe.



In this order, the bench led by Justice Madan B Lokur, considered the allegation of human rights violation in Manipur and stated that CBI will look into these cases of deaths... we have ordered the CBI director to constitute a team in two weeks he will inform us about the composition of officers in three weeks.



But with Armed Forces Special Powers Act in place in Manipur, the order to probe the Army and police personnel has raised doubt as to whether it could pose a question on AFSPA itself.



Major Gen (Retd) Ashok K Mehta, who was founder-member of the Defence Planning Staff in the Ministry of Defence, told News18 that the order could lead to piercing of the blanket autonomy of AFSPA by judicial interference.



AFSPA is no longer a complete code as it used to be. Just like how Justice Sunanda Bhandare opined on Section 18 of the Army Act which gave the President the power to terminate the services of a staff depending on his pleasure, now even the blanket autonomy of AFSPA stands pierced by judicial interference. Now AFSPA is slowly becoming justiciable, said Major Gen Mehta.



Echoing Major General Mehtas view, Babloo Loingtonbam, who was the original petitioner in the case, told News18 that this order meant that AFSPAs powers were being chipped off.



AFSPA explicitly entails that there can be no legal probe by the central government and now a probe has been ordered and this precisely means that AFSPA provisions have been chipped away in a sense, said Loitongbam.



In a petition filed before the Supreme Court in 2012, Loitongbam, director of Human Rights Alert, and the Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association (EEVFAM) claimed that 1,528 people were killed in staged encounters by security forces in Manipur. The extra-judicial executions took place between May 1979 and May 2012, according to the petition.



However, Major General (Retd) BK Sharma, Deputy Director (Research) and Head of Centre for Strategic Studies and Simulation, The United Service Institution of India, differed from this viewpoint and said that this once incident cannot hint to a fact that AFSPA could be withdrawn in the near future.



One incident cannot hint towards a fact that AFSPA could be withdrawn. Only when there is a sustained environment of peace which does not warrant interference by the Army, only then the question of withdrawing AFSPA arises. Plus, judiciary can only check the efficacy of the way AFSPA is being implemented and not the act in itself. Whether AFSPA needs to be lifted or not is a call that needs to be taken by either Central or State governments. Hence, courts have nothing to do with it. Yes, there can defects in the way the department is implementing AFSPA and Army should look within and correct itself, but this order in itself does not hint in any feeling that AFSPA could be withdrawn, said Major General Sharma.



Even Major General Ashok Mehta said that most of these allegations are usually false. Most of these allegations against the Army are usually false and have no meat. Even according to a human rights report, there was earlier a case where there were allegations that around 1678 encounters were carried out. But it was reported that 80% of those allegations were false, said Mehta.



The court on Friday has stated that the CBI director has to form the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and now the case has been listed for January, 2018.
: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Saswata Chatterjee, Saurabh Shukla: Anurag BasuThe simple story of a young mans search for his missing father is served up with a large dollop of whimsy in Jagga Jasoos, Anurag Basus ambitious but exhausting musical starring Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif.Ranbir is Jagga, a young fellow with a pronounced stutter who has learnt to communicate by singing his words. That idea was suggested to him by a goodhearted man (played by an excellent Saswata Chatterjee), who mentored him in his youth then vanished without warning. Jagga, who has grown into an intrepid boy detective, enlists the help of Shruti, a clumsy journalist played by Katrina, to help him search for his foster father.This is a film that begins in West Bengal in the mid-nineties, opening with the infamous Puralia arms-drop incident that made headlines at the time. From there Jagga Jasoos evolves into a rollicking adventure through Manipur, taking a pit stop in Kolkata, before moving to picturesque locations in Africa.The vision is admirable but the execution is indulgent. Basu stuffs the narrative with too many ideas and as a result the film is an overlong mess.After opening nicely with charming scenes between a young Jagga and the father figure he knows as Tutti Futti, the film piles on the pounds. A track in which Jagga solves the mystery of a school teachers death plays on far too long, and the continuing subplot about spies and arms dealers is convoluted and distracting. Theres a rogue intelligence officer (Saurabh Shukla), bumbling cops, and even a reference to Subhash Chandra Bose and the Independence struggle. Basu also throws in a two-headed villain for good measure, by which point I suppose its fair to make the joke that just one focused head wouldve been enough to fix the problems with this films script.But its not as if nothing works. Ranbir Kapoor is expectedly in very good form, endearing himself to the viewer with a lovable performance, revealing the sort of solid comic chops that he hasnt had to flex since Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani. Katrina too, comfortably pulls off the comedic bits, but lets her leading man do most of the heavy lifting.Pritams music is inventive and infectious; and the films format really gives the composer an opportunity to fly. Ravi Varmans camerawork also deserves special mention; the film is exceptionally shot. This is a movies made with passion, powered by some great ideas and an experimental spirit. A scene at a birthday party in which a stray line of dialogue becomes the chorus of a musical number is just one of the best bits in the movie. There are others too, rare moments of genuine feeling.But its a shame Jagga Jasoos is never more than the sum of its parts. The films heart  the moving father-son dynamic  is buried somewhere under all the manic Tintin-like adventure and the sensory overload it triggers. Clocking in at 2 hours and 49 minutes, much of whats good in the film is lost amidst the many indulgences.Im going with two out of five. Its a disappointment, no question about it, from a team capable of so much more.What's Your Reaction to Jagga Jasoos?Write Your Review of Jagga Jasoos?
Patna: Nitish Kumars JD(U) on Friday upped the pressure on RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, asking him to come clean on the latest corruption allegations against him and his family members.



Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family must come clean. They will have to give a point-by-point explanation of the allegations against them as demanded by the opposition (BJP)," JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar said. This is the first time the party has mentioned the BJP while talking about the case.



Lalu, his wife Rabri and son Tejashwi, who is the deputy chief minister of Bihar, have been booked by the CBI for allegedly influencing the awarding of an IRCTC tender in 2005. Lalu, who was the railway minister then, has been accused of accepting three acres of prime land for awarding the contract to Sujata Hotel Private Limited. His family allegedly used a benami property to acquire the land.



Pressure has been mounting on Tejashwi to step down as the deputy CM to protect the 'Mr. Clean' image of CM Nitish Kumar, but the RJD has so far ruled out his resignation. It has also denied a rift in the grand alliance over the issue.



Sources, however, told CNN-News18 that Tejashwi may step down if Lalu says so after his return to Patna.



The party may also have found another way to keep peace within the Mahagathbandhan. Reports said Lalu may tell the RJD ministers in Nitish Kumars Cabinet to resign and may extend outside support to the government to counter BJPs attempts to break the alliance.







Lalu recently refuted the allegations and vowed to "uproot" the NDA government at the Centre before it completes its five-year term. "Listen, you BJP and RSS people, Lalu will drag you off the seat of power in Delhi, no matter what happens to me. Get it straight... Don't you dare threaten me," he had said.
Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa dared Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to go ahead and arrest an influential RSS leader in coastal Karnataka at his own peril.



Yeddyurappa, who was speaking at a BJP protest meet in Dakshina Kannada on Thursday, warned Siddaramaiah that if RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat is arrested in any of the cases filed against him, all RSS workers would hit the streets and the fire would engulf the whole state.



"It is not right to file a case against someone (Bhat) just because he participated in a procession. If the government plans to set fire (to more trouble) by arresting Bhat, I warn you, that fire will spread to the rest of the state. Be warned, that is the scale in which our workers will hit the streets. If such developments happen that further deteriorate law and order, the state govt will be directly responsible," Yeddyurappa raged, at the demonstration organised by the party in Mangalore against the murder of RSS worker Sharath Madiwala last week.



The former CM came to the defence of Bhat after reports that the government could take action against Bhat over cases related to provocative speeches he has made in the past. Yeddyurappa blamed two ministers in the Congress government for the continued unrest in the region and said the police are not being given enough freedom to act.



He was accompanied by Shoba Karandlaje, a prominent MP from the coastal region, who also fumed at the reports of a possible arrest.



"Ramanath Rai, this is an open challenge to you. Try touching Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat even once. Just try arresting him. That would be the last nail in the coffin of the Congress party," Karandlaje said. Rai is an MLA from the region and the district-in-charge Minister for Dakshina Kannada.



In their defence of Bhat, the two leaders went on to attack the Congress government for its failure to control law and order in the area, where four taluks had seen prohibitory orders imposed for more than a month now. It is only this week that prohibitory orders have been lifted.



Reacting to BSY's statement, CM Siddaramaiah said, "I have never told anyone to arrest Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat. Why do they keep brigning up his name? That shows there is a guilt feeling."



"we tried to hold a peace meeting, but they did not even attend it. What does that show? Why don't they cooperate in bringing about peace? Their hidden agenda is to provoke people on sensitive issues, to stoke fires and then watch from the sidelines," he added.



Siddaramaiah accused of Karandlaje have an ulterior motive in making the allegations which he said were baseless.



So who is Bhat?



Bhat is a prominent RSS functionary in the region who runs educational institutions and wields considerable influence. He is someone that many in the BJP look up to for advice on strategy, planning, and growth of the party. Bhat faces a number of cases for provocative speeches, some of which are in early stages of the trial.



On Thursday, the High Court stayed the government's sanction to prosecute him in one case against him for allegedly making an inflammatory speech in 2015. Summons by a local court in the same case too has been stayed. In fact, the government sanctioned to prosecute him came in March, but the summons was issued last month.








Lucknow: In remarks that may snowball into a controversy, BJP MLA Brij Bhushan Rajput has said that Muslims may be denied Haj pilgrimage if they oppose the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya.



In a video posted on his Facebook wall, the MLA from Bundelkhands Charkhari is seen making a communally charged speech in which he also rakes up Partition.



If Muslims dont allow construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, we Hindus will deny them Haj. Muslims got Pakistan but even then we allowed many of them to stay back. India is of Hindus and 100 crore Hindus need to realise their might, the first-time MLA is heard saying.



Rajput also termed leaders like (AIMIM chief) Asaduddin Owaisi as traitors, adding that they should be sent to Pakistan.



This is not Rajputs first brush with controversy. His Bundelkhand Sena had shot to notoriety when its workers stormed and ransacked the Uttar Pradesh Congress headquarters in Lucknow before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.




Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday said people of the valley have to fight the life of fear and the situation held "hostage by some forces", and make efforts for establishing a prosperous state.



She was speaking to reporters after paying floral tributes to the martyrs of 1931 at the Martyrs' Graveyard in a downtown locality of the summer capital.



"We have to fight this life of fear, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, which has been held hostage by some people. We have to make efforts towards establishing a prosperous state for which these martyrs gave their lives," Mehbooba said.



She said the people of the state should remember the sacrifices of the martyrs who gave up their lives for establishing a democracy and a prosperous state where Kashmiriyat is the basic principle.



The chief minister said the way people of the valley stood together in condemning the attack on Amarnath pilgrims gave a message to the entire world that Kashmiriyat was alive.



"The way people with different viewpoints stood together and condemned the attack gave a message once again to the world that Kashmir's Kashmiriyat is alive and people will not tolerate anything which is against Kashmiriyat," she said.



Mehbooba was joined by her Cabinet colleagues and senior party leaders in laying floral wreaths on the graves of the 21 people who were killed in firing by the Dogra army on this day in 1931.



However, no one from the BJP, the coalition partner in the state government, was present there.
Patna: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday spoke to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav over phone to try and save the Bihar Mahagathbandhan which has been jolted by the recent corruption charges against Lalu and his family.



Confirming the development, Congress spokesperson Harendra Kumar Verma said, "Soniaji dialled Lalu and Nitish as she was worried about their strained relationship and wanted them to be united. Now that she has spoken to them, I feel everything will be alright within a couple of days.



Verma said that Sonia requested both the leaders to save the government at any cost as it was imperative to keep the BJP at bay.



Sonias phone call to Lalu and Nitish came as the JD(U) upped the pressure on Lalu, asking him to come clean on the charges as demanded by the opposition (BJP).



Lalu, his wife Rabri, and son Tejashwi, who is the deputy chief minister of Bihar, have been booked by the CBI for allegedly influencing the awarding of an IRCTC tender in 2005. Lalu, who was the railway minister then, has been accused of accepting three acres of prime land for awarding the contract to Sujata Hotel Private Limited. His family allegedly used a benami property to acquire the land.



Pressure has been mounting on Tejashwi to step down as the deputy CM to protect the 'Mr. Clean' image of CM Nitish Kumar, but the RJD has so far ruled out his resignation. It has also denied a rift in the grand alliance over the issue.



Sources, however, told CNN-News18 that Tejashwi may step down if Lalu says so after his return to Patna.



Lalu recently refuted the allegations and vowed to "uproot" the NDA government at the Centre before it completes its five-year term. "Listen, you BJP and RSS people, Lalu will drag you off the seat of power in Delhi, no matter what happens to me. Get it straight... Don't you dare threaten me," he had said.
Paris: President Donald Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, are looking to set aside differences on trade and climate change and find common ground as they meet Thursday ahead of Bastille Day celebrations in Paris.



Trump arrived in the French capital after an overnight flight from Washington and hours before his meeting with Macron to tackle potential solutions to the crisis in Syria and broader counterterrorism strategies.



Trump's decision last month to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord sparked outrage across Europe and anti-Trump protests are planned while he is in Paris. Macron, a staunch advocate of research to combat global warming, has beckoned "all responsible citizens," including American scientists and researchers, to bring their fight against climate change to France.



The leaders plan to hold a news conference after their talks, and Trump may face tough questions about emails revealing that his eldest son welcomed the prospect of receiving Russian government support in last year's presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton.



Trump came to his son's defense Wednesday, praising Donald Trump Jr.'s performance in an interview on Fox News Channel. Trump tweeted: "He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!"



The visit to Paris could offer Trump a well-timed distraction from the controversy. He will mark the 100th anniversary of America's entry into World War I by visiting U.S. troops. He'll also be the guest of honor at Friday's Bastille Day events  a celebration of French national pride. White House officials are casting it as a celebration of the U.S.-French military alliance  both then and now.



The leaders and their wives will end a busy day of meetings Thursday with a lavish dinner at Jules Verne at the top of the Eiffel Tower.



Trump is visiting a city he has repeatedly disparaged. When he announced his decision on the climate agreement, Trump said he was "elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris." And he's repeatedly said the city has been ruined by the threat of terrorism, which he ties to immigrants.



"Paris isn't Paris any longer," he said in February.



But counterterrorism issues give Macron and Trump the potential for a strong working relationship.



Macron's national security pitch hasn't differed drastically from Trump's. On Syria, he argues for intervention, saying that President Bashar Assad is a threat to Syria and the Islamic State group is a threat to France. France has been plagued in recent years by extremist attacks. During last year's Bastille Day celebrations, a 19-ton cargo truck deliberately plowed into crowds in Nice, killing more than 80 people.



Macron supports intervention against Syria's government in response to its use of chemical weapons and could prove an important ally as the Trump administration seeks to increase pressure against Assad. But in doing so, they'll need to tackle the issue of Russia's support for Assad, something Trump has only passively acknowledged.
Washington: A treatment for a common childhood blood cancer could become the first gene therapy available in the US.



A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 10-0 on Wednesday in favour of the leukemia treatment developed by the University of Pennsylvania and Novartis Corp. The FDA usually follows recommendations from its expert panels, but isn't obligated to do so.



The therapy could be the first of a wave of treatments custom-made to target a patient's cancer. Called CAR-T, this type of therapy involves removing immune cells from a patients' blood, reprogramming them to create an army of cells that can zero in on and destroy cancer cells and injecting them back into the patient.



"This is a major advance," said panel member Dr. Malcolm A. Smith of the National Cancer Institute. He said the treatment is "ushering in a new era."



The vote came after lengthy discussion and impassioned pleas from the fathers of two young patients whose lives were saved by the therapy. The one-time leukemia treatment would be for children and young adults with the most common form of childhood cancer, known as ALL.



"Our daughter was going to die and now she leads a normal life," said Tom Whitehead, of Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. His daughter Emily, now 12, was the first child to receive the experimental therapy, five years ago. "We believe when this treatment is approved, it will save thousands of children's lives around the world."



After decades of setbacks and disappointments in efforts to fix, replace, or change genes to cure diseases, several companies are near the finish line in a race to bring CAR-T and other types of gene therapy to patients. Kite Pharma also has a CAR-T therapy under FDA review and Juno Therapeutics and others are in late stages of testing.



The FDA is expected to decide whether to approve the Novartis treatment in the next few months. The drugmaker is seeking approval to use the treatment for patients aged 3 to 25 with a blood cancer called acute lymphoblastic leukemia whose disease has spread or failed to respond to standard treatment. That happens to more than 600 patients in the US each year.



At that point, they have limited options  all more toxic than the CAR-T therapy  and survival chances are slim. ALL accounts for a quarter of all cancers in children under age 15.



In a key test, results were far better than chemotherapy and even newer types of cancer drugs. Of the 52 patients whose results were analysed, 83 percent had complete remission, meaning their cancer vanished. Most patients suffered serious side effects. Eleven patients died, four from side effects and seven from their leukemia.



CAR-T therapy starts with filtering key immune cells called T cells from a patient's blood. In a lab, a gene is then inserted into the T cells that prompts them to grow a receptor that targets a special marker found on some blood cancer cells.



Millions of copies of the new T cells are grown in the lab and then injected into the patient's bloodstream where they can seek out and destroy cancer cells. Doctors call it a "living drug"  permanently altered cells that continue to multiply in the body to fight the disease.



During the patient testing, the whole process took about 16 weeks on average, which can be too long a wait for some desperately ill patients, the FDA advisers noted during the meeting in Silver Spring, Maryland. Drug company officials said they can now produce a treatment and get it to a patient in about three weeks.



Novartis said in a statement after the vote that it has long believed CAR-T therapy could "change the cancer treatment paradigm."

"It is encouraging to see the FDA panel's recommendation and continued momentum behind this innovative therapy," said the Penn team's leader, Dr. Carl June.



The cost of CAR-T therapy is likely to be hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it's only given once. Typically, cancer patients take one or more drugs until they stop working, then switch to other drugs, so treatment  and side effects  can go on for years.



The treatment's short-term side effects, including fever and hallucinations, are often intense as the body's revved-up immune system goes on the attack.



The long-term side effects of the treatment are unknown. It's also unclear if patients whose cancer goes into remission will be cured or will have their cancer return eventually. The FDA panel recommended that patients who get the treatment be monitored for 15 years.



Other biotech and pharmaceutical companies are developing types of gene therapy to treat solid cancers and rare gene-linked diseases.



A few products have been approved elsewhere  one for head and neck cancer in China in 2004 and two in Europe, most recently GlaxoSmithKline's Strimvelis. That was approved last year for a deadly condition called severe combined immunodeficiency and launched with a $670,000 price tag.



UniQure's Glybera was approved for a rare enzyme disorder. It was used only once in five years, likely due to its $1 million-plus price tag, so uniQure is pulling it from the market.




Trump tells the First Lady of France, Brigitte Macron: Youre in such good shape  beautifulpic.twitter.com/tKCzX15cPl  Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 13, 2017

US President Donald Trump praised French first lady Brigitte Macron for being in "such good shape" on Thursday during his state visit to France, according to a video on the French government's Facebook page.Trump, 71, who has come under fire for his comments about women's appearances, and his wife, Melania, 47, met with French President Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte, 64, at Hotel des Invalides, where Napoleon Bonaparte and other French war heroes are buried.After a tour, Trump turned to the French first lady, gestured toward her and said: "You're in such good shape."After repeating the comment to the president, Trump turned back to Brigitte Macron and said: "Beautiful." Her response was unclear.Social media immediately reacted to the video with many users denouncing Trump's comments as sexist."#Trump telling France's First Lady 'you're in such good shape' epitomizes men toeing the line between compliment & sexual harassment," wrote Twitter user Alex Berg (@AlexfromPhilly), a free-lance video producer and writer who works on feminist and gender issues.Jen Siebel Newsom, a documentary maker, and actress, (@JenSiebelNewsom) said on Twitter: "Mr. Trump - Women do not want to hear unsolicited remarks on what you think of their bodies. Its gross, and deeply inappropriate."The White House declined to comment on the exchange. The couples dined together at a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower on Thursday night.Brigitte Macron was once the 39-year-old French president's high school teacher. He is the country's youngest leader since Napoleon two centuries ago.Trump has been denounced for comments deemed sexist, including criticizing the looks of former presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Carly Fiorina, comedian Rosie O'Donnell, media figure Ariana Huffington and models Kim Kardashian and Heidi Klum. His presidential campaign was rocked in October by the release of a 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape in which he talked about grabbing women by the crotch.Trump recently attacked MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski on Twitter, calling her low I.Q. Crazy Mika and saying she was "bleeding badly from a facelift" at a gathering at his Florida resort around New Year.
Project launched to examine poverty

Delivering opening remarks at the launch at the Courtyard Marriot, Audrey Jeffers Highway, Port of Spain, Richard Blewitt, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten said poverty is a critical issue facing Trinidad and Tobago,

Blewitt said that the relationship between income and poverty is affected by differences of age, gender, social roles, and the places where people live and can go,

He said age especially is a handicap to someones ability to earn an income and childhood is an age of economic dependence. For this reason children are uniquely vulnerable to multiple social, economic, cultural and environmental deprivations. The programme will focus on poverty among children and will be executed by the Health Education Unit of the University of the West Indies with Director of the unit, Professor Karl Theodore as Project Lead,

Blewitt said it will support national partners and stakeholders in developing and implementing a national poverty reduction strategy; provide technical assistance to articulate and establish a national multi-dimensional poverty definition and measurement methodology including child poverty; and thirdly strengthen the coordination and evidence-base of integrated delivery of social protection programmes specifically to address the needs of vulnerable families, women and children,

In a speech delivered on behalf of the Minister of Social Development and Family Services, Cherrie-Ann Crichlow-Cockburn, the ministrys Permanent Secretary, Jacinta Bailey Sobers, said that in shaping its national development agenda, Vision 2030, for moving Trinidad and Tobago to developed country status and achieving the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this country has identified poverty eradication as a top priority,

She said that the government recognises that challenges may continue to exist which militate against the achievement of the vision of a nation that is caring, equitable, inclusive and prosperous, free of the scourge that is poverty,

She expressed the Governments commitment to addressing and ending poverty in all its forms and dimensions, the first of the SDGs, and said that the Government was happy to be working with two critical entities, the UNDP and Unicef in its effort to achieve that goal,

She said that the Government recognises that it is impossible to make a dent in the poverty statistics on its own, a unified front is necessary with all key stakeholders on board. She said the Government, through the ministry, is working to develop a National Poverty Reduction Strategy (Vision 2030) and the SDGs to define poverty for the country and address disparities, particularly with child poverty, and advocate for evidence-based programme design to strengthen the countrys social protection system,

Bailey read that since poverty and in equality continue to be challenges for the country, made worse by the economic downturn through which the country is suffering, the Governments strategy recognises the need to rationalise the many overlapping social programmes and improve its targeting mechanisms,
Carmona hails Sir Trevors sister

Carmona praised McDonald- Grant following her swearing in at the Office of the President in St Anns. As he listed her academic and professional criteria, Carmona told McDonald-Grant that her acceptance of this post was part of a, continuing saga of genuine public service. Noting that Sir Trevor is her brother and has, distinguished himself in no small measure in international journalism, the President said McDonald-Grants willingness to serve should not come as a surprise to anyone.

After he disclosed that Sir Trevor has been someone he admired for many years, Carmona observed, In fact, at the BBC he became the benchmark by which others will judge. The President said he has it from certified sources that Sir Trevor often tells people that he is from TT. Recalling that veteran CNN journalist Jim Clancy was the feature speaker at a recent event hosted by the Media Association, Carmona asked, Why didnt they bring Sir Trevor? However, he said Clancy identified with Sir Trevors mantra of a, sense of adherence to truth in journalism.

The President was certain that Sir Trevor often felt, a sense of angst when he hears this concept or ascription to what can only be deemed as lies. While this may be described as fake news by some people, Carmona bluntly stated, A lie is a lie, it is not fake news. Carmona also felt that Sir Trevor and TT-born British recording artist Billy Ocean were two individuals who are,  worthy of the highest national accolade we could perhaps possibly give The President told Statutory Authorities Appeal Board chairperson, retired Justice Annestine Sealy, that he was confident the board was further fortified to carry out its duties on behalf of the population, with McDonald- Grants appointment.
No One Will

Ever Smash

Stuff Quite

Like He Did
There have been many reports lately about so-called "dry drowning," "delayed drowning," or "secondary drowning," like when a boy in Texas died several days after swimming last month. But many experts, including emergency room doctors, the World Health Organization, the Red Cross, and the CDC, say there's a big problem with these terms, which are confusing and "unduly alarming" parents, reports Live Science. Drowning is defined as breathing problems following being submerged or immersed in a liquid, and it doesn't necessarily kill a person. If it does, it can take minutes, hours, or even days, though lengthy delays are very rare. So-called dry drowning is, in short, just straight-up drowning. As one doctor describes it on her blog, drowning happens when someone aspirates, which is the technical term for something passing the trachea into the lungs.

Aspirating can kill someone quickly, or lead to more drawn-out breathing trouble and even pneumonia or death days after the event. It's very different from swallowing something into the digestive tract. That may make a swimmer cough or even throw up, but aspirating involves coughing, gasping, sputtering, and may even require CPR. If coughing, wheezing, or pain persists, or a person seems unusually tired, it's time to get to the ER. The bottom line? Watching children while they are swimming is key to knowing whether they actually aspirate. If they don't, they're not going to fatally drown next week. "There are no cases of completely normal, asymptomatic patients who suddenly die because they went swimming a few days ago," said the president of the American College of Emergency Physicians in a statement this week. (This little girl drowned and almost died several hours after exiting a pool.)
The (former) Airbnb host who canceled a guest's stay at her cabin in Big Bear, California, for racist reasons has been penalized. Tami Barker, who told would-be guest Dyne Suh "one word: Asian" when she canceled her stay at the last minute, must pay $5,000 in damages for racial discrimination, take a college-level course on Asian-American studies, apologize to Suh, and volunteer with a civil rights organization, among other things, the Guardian reports. Barker, who stranded Suh and her party in the middle of a storm during a holiday weekend, was banned from Airbnb after the incident.

The penalties were arrived at under a new agreement between Airbnb and the California department of fair employment and housing. Under the agreement, the regulator can penalize certain California hosts for racial bias; it was established after complaints that Airbnb hosts often refused guests due to race. Barker (who may be a college professor, SFist reported in April) is the first host penalized under the program. Her lawyer says she is "regretful for her impetuous actions and comments" but happy the situation was resolved "in a manner that can hopefully bring a positive outcome out of an unfortunate incident." Read Suh's story here. (Read more Airbnb stories.)
"My brain couldnt register that James Woods ... was saying that my sweet, happy, harmless 10-year-old son will eventually kill us," Lori Duron tells HuffPost. Duron has written an award-winning book and blog about raising her son CJ, who's identified as gender nonconforming since he was 5. He says hes a boy who only likes girl things and wants to be treated like a girl," Lori explains. On Sunday, Woods tweeted a photo of CJ and his parents. "Wait until this poor kid grows up, realizes what you've done, and stuffs both of you dismembered into a freezer in the garage," the actor tweeted. Duron says she has no idea how Woods heard about her family, but they've been subjected to an explosion of online harassment since his tweet.

"I never expected to get mom-shamed by James Woods," Duron says. E! News reports Neil Patrick Harris came to the family's defense, but Woods doubled down in further tweets. The actor denied being homophobic while accusing CJ's parents of "child abuse" by forcing their ideals on their son. "Making your child a target is unwise," Woods said. Duron denies she and husband Matt aren't making CJ gender nonconforming. In fact, she says it would be easier for the family if he wasn't. Duron says it's important to stand up to people like Woods to make a better world for her son and "all the other children like him." As for CJ, Matt Duron tells HuffPost his son "is far too busy with sewing, art, and gymnastics to know or care who James Woods is." (Read more gender nonconforming stories.)
A stunning twist in the case of four men who disappeared this month in Pennsylvania: A person of interest in the disappearances confessed Thursday to murdering the missing men, the Washington Post reports. [Cosmo DiNardo] confessed to his participation or commission in the murders of four young men, defense attorney Paul Lang says. According to ABC News, the 20-year-old DiNardo offered his full confession in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. Lang says DiNardo told authorities where the four bodies are located as part of his confession and that the motivation for the killings will be revealed in time. Lang says DiNardo has "deep remorse" over the murders, and DiNardo told the victims' families he's sorry as he left the courthouse Thursday.

There are a lot of questions surrounding DiNardo and the deaths of the four men, one of whom's remains were found Wednesday in a deep grave on property belonging to DiNardo's parents. The AP reports it's unclear how the victims died. It's also unclear how DiNardo is connected to the men. The district attorney hasn't commented on DiNardo's confession. DiNardo was originally arrested Monday on an unrelated weapons charge before being released on $1 million bail. He was arrested again Wednesday and held on $5 million bail for allegedly trying to sell a car belonging to one of the victims. An acquaintance of DiNardo says DiNardo sold guns and talked "about weird things like killing people." The district attorney says DiNardo has been diagnosed as schizophrenic. (Read more Cosmo DiNardo stories.)
After watching a Rachel Maddow Show segment that was critical of Trumps attorney, Marc Kasowitz, a viewer dashed off an email to the lawyer saying he should quit. The response he probably didn't expect to get from Kasowitz? F--- you. This was the first in a series of alarming email responses the unidentified man received from Kasowitz, reports ProPublica, which confirmed the details of the exchange. (You can see the forwarded email exchange in full on Twitter). The viewer's initial email, with the subject line Resign Now, was sent after he watched Maddow speak about a ProPublica article speculating that Kasowitz, Trumps personal lawyer regarding the Russia investigation, wasnt seeking security clearance because troubling behavior including alcohol abuse would prevent him from obtaining it.

Kasowitz blasted off the two-word response five minutes later, then followed up three times, writing "Watch your back, b---" and "I already know where you live, Im on you." Per ProPublica, the man immediately forwarded Kasowitzs emails to the FBI in case he made good on his promises. A spokesperson for Kasowitz says he intends to apologize for the exchange, writing, "While no excuse, the email came at the end of a very long day that at 10pm was not yet over." The Hollywood Reporter also has a statement from Kasowitz: "The person sending that email is entitled to his opinion and I should not have responded in that inappropriate manner. ... This is one of those times where one wishes he could reverse the clock, but of course I cant." "Maddow herself responded to the story on Twitter: "I'm going to need a new cup of coffee, since the old one just came flying out of my nose." (Read more Rachel Maddow stories.)
President Trump is serious about a plan to put solar panels on his proposed border wall. There's "a very good chance" panels will be included in the final design and "we have major companies looking at that," Trump told reporters as he flew to France on Wednesday. Business Insider calls it his most detailed public remarks on the wall in months. But there's an added caveat: The wall must be see-through or "have openings because you have to see what's on the other side." Without openings, people on the US side won't see when "they throw the large sacks of drugs over  They hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It's over," Trump said. Business Insider reports Trump's example isn't an outlandish one, as "cannons" that could potentially launch drugs have been found at the border.

Trump has suggested solar panels would offset the cost of the wall, though the Washington Post notes most electricity generated "would be useless" without costly transmission lines to direct it to more populated parts of the US. Trump also said that while the border measures 2,000 miles, only 700 to 900 miles of wall are needed. Mountains and rivers provide natural barriers, and 600 miles of fencing are already in place and currently undergoing repairs, the Hill reports. Trump suggested Wednesday that the repairs meant he was making good on his promise for a border wall. "We're taking wall that was good but it's in very bad shape, and we're making it new. We're fixing it  so in a true sense, we've already started the wall." The New York Times has Trump's comments in full; he plans to invite Vladimir Putin to the White House "at the right time." (Read more President Trump stories.)
Three Arab-Israelis launched an attack on a compound in Jerusalem that is one of the holiest sites for both Jews and Muslims, police say. Two officers were killed in the attack at the shrine, which Jews call Temple Mount and Muslims the Noble Sanctuary, per Reuters. It's the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam, reports the AP. The attack caused the cancellation of Muslim Friday prayers for the first time in 17 years, reports the Guardian, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the status quo governing the site "will be preserved." Still, the New York Times calls the temporary closing an "exceptional and potentially explosive measure."

Police say the gunmen, all of whom have been identified as Arab citizens of Israel, were spotted approaching a gate near the compound in Old Jerusalem and fled inside when pursued. The ensuing shootout left all three gunmen dead along with the two Israeli officers. Violence at the site in previous years has caused major escalations in Israeli-Palestinian violence. Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas condemned the shooting but criticized the decision to cancel Friday prayers, reports the Jerusalem Post. Hamas praised the "heroic" attack, while Fatah urged Muslims to go to the site despite the cancellation of prayers and "break the Israeli siege." (Read more Israel stories.)
There were no mentions of Liu Xiaobo to be found across Chinese social media sites following the Nobel Laureate's death on Thursday, a result of government censors. But that doesn't mean Liu's Chinese admirers weren't paying tribute. Though "RIP" and even the burning candle emoji were barred from site Weibo, subtle references to Liu could still be found, reports the New York Times. Referencing a thunderstorm in Beijing, one user noted, "It must be to mark the exit of a hero. The heavens are also moved." Others shared Lui's birth and death dates and a photo of an empty chair, mimicking how the Nobel Prize committee acknowledged Liu in 2010 while he was serving an 11-year sentence in China for inciting subversion. More coverage on the dissident's death:

Wife's fate: The committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize says it is "deeply worried about Liu Xia's situation" and has demanded Chinese authorities "lift all restrictions they have put upon her," reports the BBC. She has been under house arrest since 2010 amid growing concern over her mental health. The government has refused to say whether it will allow her to leave China, though Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Beijing to do just that, notes Reuters.

The committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize says it is "deeply worried about Liu Xia's situation" and has demanded Chinese authorities "lift all restrictions they have put upon her," reports the BBC. She has been under house arrest since 2010 amid growing concern over her mental health. The government has refused to say whether it will allow her to leave China, though Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Beijing to do just that, notes Reuters. Last words: The hospital said Liu's last words were directed to his wife: "Live on well," per the South China Morning Post. He had also written fragmentary poems to her in his final days, and the New York Times has excerpts.

The hospital said Liu's last words were directed to his wife: "Live on well," per the South China Morning Post. He had also written fragmentary poems to her in his final days, and the New York Times has excerpts. His life: Quartz has a timeline of his life. He left his studies in the US in 1989 to return to China when the Tiananmen Square protests broke out, and he's credited with saving the lives of many students by negotiating their departure before the tanks rolled in. His last conviction, in 2009, was for "inciting subversion of state power" over a manifesto he wrote on human rights.

Quartz has a timeline of his life. He left his studies in the US in 1989 to return to China when the Tiananmen Square protests broke out, and he's credited with saving the lives of many students by negotiating their departure before the tanks rolled in. His last conviction, in 2009, was for "inciting subversion of state power" over a manifesto he wrote on human rights. Butt out: China responded to international criticism over Liu's death by telling critics to mind their own business. Foreign countries are in no position to make improper remarks, said a Foreign Ministry spokesman, per the Guardian. Liu was the first Nobel laureate to die in custody since German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky in 1938.

China responded to international criticism over Liu's death by telling critics to mind their own business. Foreign countries are in no position to make improper remarks, said a Foreign Ministry spokesman, per the Guardian. Liu was the first Nobel laureate to die in custody since German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky in 1938. Blackout: Though the state-run Global Times ran an editorial calling Liu "a victim led astray by [the] West," per CNN, many in China were left in the dark about his death, which was ignored by media outlets on the mainland.

(Read more Liu Xiaobo stories.)
Photos released by the US Navy give an idea of the damage caused to the USS Fitzgerald in its fatal collision with a container ship June 17 off the coast of Japan. CNN reports the container ship, which weighed nearly three times more than the Fitzgerald, ripped a hole in the Navy vessel adjacent to where sailors sleep. Water flooded in, killing seven sailors and ruining many millions of dollars worth of equipment, according to UPI. The bodies of the sailors were found in a flooded compartment. The Fitzgerald has entered dry dock in Japan for evaluation. It has yet to be determined whether repairs will happen in Japan or the US. The Navy's investigation into the cause of the collision is ongoing. (Read more Navy stories.)
People in one Hawaiian city may have to say "aloha" to texting while crossing the street.* CNN reports the Honolulu City Council voted 7-2 Wednesday to bar pedestrians from looking at their mobile devices while crossing the street. The legislation applies to cellphones, tablets, video games, digital cameras, pagers, and laptops, according to Hawaii News Now. Pedestrians caught checking Facebook or sending a tweet while in the street would be subject to a fine of between $15 and $99. Fines could increase to up to $500 for multiple citations.

Brandon Elefante says he got the idea for the legislation from high school students. "These high school groups were concerned for their peers being distracted while crossing the streets and looking at their phones instead of looking both ways," the councilman tells CNN. While the Honolulu Police Department supports the legislation, Councilman Ernie Martin, who voted against it, says a public awareness campaign would be a better solution. The legislation now heads to Mayor Kirk Caldwell for approval. A spokesperson for the mayor's office tells KITV that Caldwell is still deciding whether he'll approve the legislation.



*Ed. Note: In this case, "aloha" means "goodbye," not "hello." (Read more Honolulu stories.)
Cosmo DiNardo and his cousin, Sean Kratz, were charged Friday with multiple counts of homicide, abuse of a corpse, and conspiracy in connection with the deaths of the men who disappeared earlier this month in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. According to NBC News, the district attorney says "we may never know" why DiNardo and Kratzboth 20allegedly killed the four men, though all four deaths appear tied to drug deals. DiNardo, who confessed to the murders Thursday in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, says he was going to sell Jimi Patrick, 19, four pounds of marijuana for $8,000 on July 5. He says Patrick only had $800 so he offered to sell him a shotgun instead; then he shot him.

DiNardo says he and Kratz agreed to rob Dean Finocchiaro, 19, during a similar drug deal July 7. He says Kratz shot Finocchiaro during the robbery. (WPVI reports the major difference between statements by DiNardo and Kratz is that Kratz claims DiNardo shot Finocchiaro and he never shot anyone.) DiNardo told police he shot the other two victimsThomas Meo, 21, and Mark Sturgis, 22during a second drug-deal-turned-robbery July 7. With help from DiNardo, police found the four bodies on property belonging to DiNardo's family. Authorities say DiNardo had attempted to burn three of the bodies in a metal container he called "the pig roaster." Prosecutors say DiNardo has been diagnosed as schizophrenic. Kratz has been implicated in multiple burglaries in the past. (Read more murder stories.)
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New Delhi:

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev promoted Patanjali Ayurveda has been featured among the top 10 most influential brand in India along with electronic major Samsung and new entrant Reliance Jio, according to a study by the global research firm Ipsos.

Besides, Google has been ranked at the top slot while Microsoft and Facebook were ranked at number two and three, respectively.

Home grown Patanjali and Mukesh Ambanis controlled Reliance Jio have bagged the fourth and ninth position, respectively, Ipsos said in its report of most influential brands.

Interestingly, Patanjali and Reliance Jio made an impressive entry as they did not figure in the previous edition of the study.

The Ipsos study, which evaluates over 100 brands across 21 countries, covered more than 1,000 Indians online to assess over 100 brands. The study involved 36,600 interviews.

Commenting on the development, Ipsos Public Affairs and Loyalty Executive Director Parijat Chakraborty said: The Most Influential Brands are larger than life. They enhance our lives make it better. We connect with them emotionally and cannot imagine our lives without them they are influential.

TRENDING NOW: Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals are back in IPL after two-year ban

State Bank of India (SBI) being the only financial institution that made to the list, moved up four ranks to take the fifth position.

E-commerce player Flipkart dropped three spots to take the tenth place while Amazon climbed couple of steps to take the sixth place, the study said.

Other companies that made to the list include Samsung (7th) and Airtel (8th).

The study measured the biggest, most well-known and highest spending brands.

Interestingly, all brands that have featured in the list are those that consumer engages with on a daily basis, the study said.

In the ranking list from 11 to 20, brands that bagged a place include Snapdeal, Apple, Dettol, Cadbury, SONY, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Good day and Amul.

The brands are rated by the consumers on quality, experience and value, as also factors such as big marketing spends and consciously work towards increasing their brand equity were counted, the study said.

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New Delhi:

In a unique way to grab a greater traction among female employees, Vodafone India on Friday launched Sakhi pack for its women customers. The new pack provides the facility to its users to conveniently recharge their mobile phones, without sharing their mobile numbers with retailers.

The phone major in the past ran a pilot test of this scheme in selected areas, where it tasted tremendous success. After which, Vodafone made a massive plan to roll out the plan nationwide.

Vodafone 2014 estimated that 300 million fewer women owned a mobile phone than men. This gender gap, according to the company, is the largest in the emerging economies and prevents many women benefiting from mobile services.

Here is a step wise guide to avail the Sakhi pack

To avail the Vodafone Private Recharge option, a user needs to send an SMS - 'Private - to 12604. The SMS message would be toll free. After which, the users will be able to make a Private Recharge through an OTP code, without sharing mobile number.

The received One Time Password (OTP) can also be used for all recharges done over a 24 hour period. The Sakhi scheme also provide the users connectivity with 10 minutes of calling even with zero balance on their phone.

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New Delhi:

In a shocking incident, shots were fired at four people by unidentified people in high-security Lutyens Delhi. On Thursday night.

The victims, including two women, were returning from a birthday party at Connaught Place (CP), the police said.

No one was injured in the incident, they said.

The four had lost their way and drove towards Bangla Sahib Gurdwara from CP, the police said, adding that the victims informed policemen at a picket.

The police have registered a case and are scanning footage from a CCTV camera to trace the car from which the shot was fired.

However, the camera could not capture the cars number, they said.

(With inputs from PTI)

Suggested read: Delhi: Scuffle breaks out between two groups in night club
New Delhi:

It was earlier issued that the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 was not to be held but now the Supreme Court on Friday has refused to nullify the examination, saying it would affect over six lakh candidates who have passed the test to join medical and dental courses.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said it would be very difficult to disturb the results of NEET as around 6.11 lakh candidates, out of a total of 11.35 lakh aspirants, have cleared it and the counselling process was on.

We cannot pass an interim order like this. The admission process must continue. There are over six lakh students, the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar, said.

In any case, it is very difficult to disturb the result, it said while refusing to accept the submission of counsel appearing for the petitioners who said that three sets of question papers were given to the candidates in the exam in Andhra Pradesh.

The counsel contended that NEET 2017 examination has to be nullified and conducted afresh.

Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, appearing for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), opposed the contentions saying besides English and Hindi, the exam was conducted in eight vernacular languages for the first time.

The level of difficulty of questions were the same in all the languages. We will put it in affidavit that there were two sets of question papers. Around 1.48 lakh candidates have given the exam in vernacular languages and it was to avoid leakage of question papers, Singh told the bench.

The petitioners argued that the all-India ranking was given in the NEET exam which postulates that every candidate should get the same question paper.

What has been done is completely unlawful. How can there be all-India ranking when students are given different sets of question papers, the counsel asked.

However, the bench said it would first go through CBSEs affidavit and asked the board to file it within three days.

At the fag end of hearing, the counsel for petitioners referred to an order of the apex court on June 12 saying the declaration of result and admission shall be subject to the decision in the matter pending before it.

However, the bench said, The order is there. We are not vacating it. We will not pass any order today.

The bench has listed the matter for hearing on July 31.

The top court had on June 12 stayed the Madras High Court order which had restrained CBSE from publishing the results. CBSE had declared the result on June 23.
Chennai:

The Madras High Court on Friday quashed a Tamil Nadu government order reserving 85 per cent of MBBS and BDS seats to state board students and only 15 percent for CBSE and other boards, holding that it amounted to discrimination among equals.

Allowing petitions by some CBSE students challenging the June 22 state government order, Justice K Ravichndrababu held that the impugned reservation was bad in law and violated Art 14 of the Constitution (Equality before law).

He also held that the reservation indirectly meddled with the object and process of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and compromised on merits of selection.

The judge directed authorities to prepare a fresh merit list and conduct the counselling for admissions accordingly.

ALSO READ: KEAM Results: NEET rank list for Kerala released on cee-kerala.org

He had on July 11 reserved orders on the petitions by Darnish Kumar, a student represented by his parents, and two others and ordered status quo on the admission process till the adjudication of the matter.

The state government had defended the G.O, saying the policy of the state government was not in favour of NEET, conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

More than 50 percent of the questions in the NEET were based on the CBSE syllabus and hence there was an inequality in the all-India exam, it had contended.

Assailing the G.O, the petitioners had submitted that the Supreme Court had clearly stated that when admission is based on entrance examination NEET, it should make no difference whether the qualifying examination was conducted by the state board or CBSE because no discrimination can be made between the schools affiliated to both the boards.

As per the earlier schedule, the merit list for medical courses was to be published today and the counselling to start on July 17.
New Delhi:

Model-actress Mahika Sharma who has worked in Assam projects and Hindi TV industry is not happy with Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra. She claims that Priyanka the brand ambassador of Assam state's tourism is showing no interest towards Assam Flood.

Mahika said to a english daily, Priyanka is my aspiration and inspiration. She is really a humble person. But Im very upset from her. Because she owns some power to help the poors who are victim of Assam flood. She didnt even showed any emotions for the state even in social networking site. This is what not only me but anyone from assam would be upset.

I dont wish she takes my word personally but understands my and Assam peoples emotions and excitement from her being associated with the state, she concludes.

Currenty Baywatch actress is currently shooting in the US for her two Hollywood flicks, 'A Kid Like Jake' and 'Isnt It Romantic?'.

Over two lakh people are reeling under the impact of floods in eight districts, where the swirling flood waters have overrun several villages.

According to a report by Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), more than 2.68 lakh people have been affected in Barpeta, Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Karimganj, Cachar, Dhemaji, Karbi Anglong and Biswanath districts.

The report said that 453 villages are currently under water and over 5,272 hectares of crop area have been damaged. Karimganj is the worst affected with 1.53 lakh sufferers. 76,000 people have been affected in Lakhimpur, it said.

5,670 people have taken shelter at 269 relief camps in four districts set up by the authorities. The flood has affected several roads in the state, and bridges have been damaged in Barpeta, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Karbi Anglong and Biswanath, the report said.







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New Delhi:

It's been a couple of days when director Milan Luthria had impressed the audience with the mind boggling trailer of his upcoming movie 'Baadshaho'. And now the makers have come up with the first song of the movie 'Mere Rashke Qamar' and it has got the tinselvile buzzing.



The soulful number has been shot on Ajay Devgn and Ileana D'Cruz beautifully display their love story and romantic moments in the stunning locales of Rajastan. 'Mere Rashke Qamar' which was originally sung by Nusrat Fateh Ali, has been recreated by his Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.



Ajay and Ileana's perfect chemistry along with Rahat's soulful voice will indeed make this sufi number the next favourite of the music lovers.



Spilling the beans about the movie, Milan had earlier told PTI, "This is a historical fiction film. We have used some facts, there is a lot of stuff that was unusual and exciting. It (Emergency as subject) is a great backdrop for action and thrills. We have done extensive research on the subject."



Also starring Emraan Hashmi, Vidyut Jammwal, Esha Gupta and Sanjay Mishra in key roles, 'Baadshaho' is said to release on September 1.

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New Delhi:

Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday constituted a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the view of Amarnath Yatra terror attack. The team will be headed by DIG South Kashmir, SP Pani.

At least seven pilgrims were and 19 others injured after terrorists opened fire on a bus in Bantigoo area of Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district. Terrorists attacked the bus when a police party was escorting them.



At 8.20 pm on Monday, the militants attacked an armoured car of the police, an official said. When the police fired back, the militants fled, firing indiscriminately, the official added.



Ministry of Home Affairs called an emergency meeting and the security was beefed up in the Jammu and Kashmir. A high alert was also issued.

ALSO READ | Amarnath terror strike: 2 Pakistanis among 4 terrorists involved in attack, says govt

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New Delhi:

Three people were killed, including a woman, by Naxals on Friday in Barahat of Jamui district of Bihar.

It is believed that Naxals were suspecting them to be police informers. The bodies were recovered near a dam that falls under Barhat police station.

The police officials have launched a probe into the matter.

In a similar incident in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, Naxals killed a 60-year-old man on the suspicion that he was a police informer.

Ghasiyaram Salaam was shot dead by a group of Naxals at village Khadka under Bhanupratppur police station limits last night, a local police official had informed.

Bihar: Three persons including a woman killed by Naxals suspecting them to be police informers in Jamui's Barhat.  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

Preliminary probe revealed that before killing him, they accused him of being a police informer, the official had said.

Also Read: Chhattisgarh: Security forces kill two Naxals in encounter in Rajnandgaon district

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United Nations:

UN chief Antonio Guterres has insisted on the need for India and Pakistan to find a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue through engagement and dialogue, his spokesperson said.



Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarrics remarks came when he was asked if the Secretary-General is paying attention to the situation in the region or we are just waiting for some sort of big tragedy to occur for the Secretary-General to take attention.



...we reiterate the need for the parties to find a peaceful solution through engagement and dialogue, Dujarric said at a daily press briefing in United Nations HQ on Thursday.



He said that in terms of paying attention, I think the Secretary-General answered in his own words that question during the press conference.



Dujarric was referring to Guterres first press conference at the world bodys headquarters in June when he was asked whether he is engaged in bringing about dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute.



Why do you think I met three times the Prime Minister of Pakistan and two times the Prime Minister of India, Guterres had said.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Guterres had met in St Petersburg earlier in June on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. During the meeting, Modi had stressed on multilateralism to address global challenges such as terrorism.



Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the UN chief had met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos in January and in Astana in June on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

Suggested read: India snubs China by rejecting its offer to intervene in improving Indo-Pak ties, Kashmir issue

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Muzaffarnagar (UP):

The brother of the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Sandeep Sharma, who was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir, has been held for questioning over Rs 2 lakh bank deposit, police said on Friday.

Praveen, who works as a taxi driver in Haridwar, was taken into custody here yesterday.

Police found a bank account in Haridwar in which Rs 2 lakh was deposited from Mumbai some months ago. There were also two transactions of Rs 50,000 each in the account.

Sandeep Sharma alias Adil was arrested by J-K Police on Monday.

Earlier, Sharmas mother Parvati and sister-in-law Rekha were also interrogated by a team of the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS).

Parvati had told reporters here that, If my son is a militant he must be punished. Due to his actions we are facing problems and shame.

Both Parvati and Rekha work as domestic workers in the district.

Sharma, alias Adil, had left the district in 2012 and told his family that he was earning Rs 12,000 per month in Jammu. His father died in 2007.

Also read: 'If my son is a militant he must be punished': Sandeep Sharma's mother

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Dindigul (TN):

An objection to the proposed marriage of human rights campaigner Irom Sharmila with her long-time partner at the office of the Sub-Registrar in Kodaikanal, has been filed by a local social activist.



The activist, V Mahendran, from Pethuparai near Kodaikanal filed a petition in the office against Sharmila's proposed marriage with Desmond Coutinho, a British national. He contended that if the couple was granted permission, they would settle in Kodaikanal permanently and this was not good for the interests of local residents and safety of the place.



In his plea filed with the Sub-Registrar at Kodaikanal, he said Coutinho was in charge of a website, engaged in activities around the world, and their stay here would affect peace in the hill station.

ALSO READ: Irom Sharmila to live among Kerala tribals after poll debacle



The Sub-Registrar had called for objections under the Special Marriage Act between Sharmila and the British national as they belonged to different nations and different religions. Meanwhile, Subramanian, an advocate, who specialises in marriage act, wondered if the petitioner had any 'locus standi' to file objections and if the grounds were valid.



Sharmila had moved to this hill town with Coutinho following her defeat in the Manipur state assembly elections in March last and her party 'People's Resurgence and Justice Alliance' had suffered a rout.



The 44-year-old shot to fame after she launched her fast-unto-death on November 4, 2000, demanding withdrawal of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 from Manipur. Sharmila, also known as 'Iron Lady', broke her 16-year-long hunger strike, the world's longest, on August 9, 2016 and declared she wanted to become the chief minister so that she could repeal the contentious AFSPA.

ALSO READ | Decoded: Why voters of Manipur rejected their Iron Lady Irom Sharmila?

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New Delhi:

The Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday called Opposition parties meet on the stand-off with China and the situation in Kashmir in New Delhi. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar were also present during the meet.

Representatives from Opposition parties attended the meet. The prominent leaders who attended meet were Ram Vilas Paswan, Anand Sharma, Derek O Brien and Sitaram Yechury.

MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay said that senior Union Ministers briefed all national political parties on Doklam situation. All parties greatly appreciated the detailed briefing.

All participants expressed strong support for India's approach and also for the need for national unity. Importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy was underlined, said Baglay.

"There was widespread appreciation of the Astana understanding between India and China that differences between them shouldn't become disputes. The unique nature of very close and longstanding India  Bhutan relationship was recognised," said MEA Spox.

The DG PIB F Noronha said that basic purpose was to apprise MPs from different parties about situation on terrorist attack on Amarnath Yatris on July 10.

"Above 19 MPs from different parties were present and those who have not been called today will be called tomorrow at the same time," said Naroha.

"EAM and Foreign Secretary gave detailed information on border issues, especially on Doklam. Everybody promised to support government," said Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

"National security is priority of INC, advised them to tackle situation diplomatically, rising above politics for national interest," said Congress leader Anand Sharma.

"Asked serious questions. Why was government unprepared and if this was their failure? We didn't get answers we were looking for," said TMC leader Derek O Brien.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said that government said that they will tackle the situation through dialogues and they also gave a clarification on the security lapses.

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New Delhi:

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday asserted that there will be no compromise on security after a powerful explosive PETN was found under the seat of Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly on July 12. He said," NIA should probe the matter."

While addressing the members, the chief minister vowed that the government will expose those who have conspired this terror threat. He said it posed a life threat to all public representatives, staffers and 22 crore people of the state.

#Lucknow: Security personnel have reached Uttar Pradesh assembly, after suspicious white powder was found yesterday. pic.twitter.com/bCeFIN1mL4  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 14, 2017

Adityanath said police verification of the employees is necessary who are working in the Assembly.

Everyone needs to be cautious related to security matters. Police verification needs to be done for workers in assembly: UP CM in assembly  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 14, 2017

The chief minister said that the government cannot compromise with the security of representative for the sake of pleasing people.

Adityanath informed that 150 gram PETN was found in assembly. He said the nature of the explosive was so powerful that 500 gram of PETN can blow the state assembly.

The chief minister said a Quick Response Team will be deployed to counter any such threat in future. He said security guidelines must be issued and everyone must follow them. He added that there will be an arrangement to keep mobile and phones outside the House.

Security guidelines must be issued and everyone must follow them: CM Yogi Adityanath in UP assembly  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 14, 2017

UP Speaker Hriday Narayan Dixit said that PAC will be deployed at all eight gates of the UP Assembly. Passes of old vehicles will be cancelled, and Quick Response Team will be deployed in the Assembly, he said.

Dixit said that each MLA will have to show pass, otherwise he or she will be denied entry in the premises. He said full body scanner will be installed in the Assembly.

Also Read: UP CM Adityanath asks devotees not to play vulgar songs during kanwar yatra

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New Delhi:

The Inspector General of UP ATS Aseem Arun on Friday said that they will do a detailed investigation into the incident where a powerful explosive PETN found under the seat of Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

Arun said that they will scan through CCTV footage to reach conclusion in case. He said that the fact that PETN was found at the spot hints at possibility of a terrorist activity.

As per reports, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also visited the spot to carry out investigation.

Earlier in the day, while addressing the members, the chief minister Yogi Adityanath vowed that the government will expose those who have conspired this terror threat. He said it posed a life threat to all public representatives, staffers and 22 crore people of the state.

Adityanath informed that 150 gram PETN was found in assembly. He said the nature of the explosive was so powerful that 500 gram of PETN can blow the state assembly.

The chief minister said a Quick Response Team will be deployed to counter any such threat in future. He said security guidelines must be issued and everyone must follow them. He added that there will be an arrangement to keep mobile and phones outside the House.

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Mumbai:

A police complaint against the India Meteorological Department has been filed by farmers from a village in Marathwada region, accusing it of colluding with seed and pesticide manufacturers and inflating the monsoon forecast figures.

The complaint, filed at the Dindrud police station in Majalgaon tehsil of Beed district, says officials of the Pune and Colaba Met Department colluded with the manufacturers and caused loss of lakhs of rupees to farmers, who undertook sowing operations based on the forecast.

Gangabhishan Thaware, 54, a farmer from Anandgaon village in Beed district, who is among the complainants, told PTI that the IMD officials misled farmers saying that there would be ample rain during the kharif season in June.

Farmers undertook sowing operations, based on the IMD forecast. But after a brief initial spell, there has been no rain and farmers are staring at a bleak future, with the sowing operations having gone waste, Thaware said.

Farmers in our region completed pre-sowing operations before June, based on the IMD forecast which said there will be ample rains in June-July this year, the farmer said.

Despite scanty initial rainfall, farmers in our village undertook sowing operations as the IMD forecast a good rainfall. They spent lakhs of rupees on seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and labourers wages. However, there has been no rain since and our sowing operations have gone waste, the farmer said.

According to Thaware, farmers have also written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, seeking his intervention.

IMD officials and those in concerned seed and fertiliser companies, who colluded with each other and gave an inflated monsoon forecast are responsible for the plight of farmers and should be taken to task, the farmer said.

An official of the police station in Majalgaon said they have received the farmers complaint and were looking into the matter.

No IMD official was available for comment.

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New Delhi:

In a major security lapse in Uttar Pradesh assembly, an explosive was found by the security personnel with the help of dog squad on July 12 on the premises which could have created a big mishap.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has called a high-level meeting in this regard on Friday. UP Assembly Speaker, Chief Secretary, Principal SecretaryA (Home ) and senior officials of the police department will attend the meeting.A

As per information, PETN is a powerful explosive which was found in the Assembly. Later, it was sent to aA forensic lab which has corroborated its nature. PETN was kept under a seat of an MLA.

Lucknow (UP): 60 grams of suspicious white powder found in UP assembly during ongoing session yesterday, sent to forensic lab for testing a ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 14, 2017

PETN has no smell so it is difficult to detect the explosive.Even, a metal detector cannot sense the explosive.A

State cabinet minister SiddharthA Nath Singh said no need to worry aboutA the matter.A

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New Delhi:

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will hold an all-party meeting at formers residence in the national capital on Friday.

The ministers will apprise the leaders of opposition on the stand-off with China and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

As per sources, the opposition leaders have been invited to attend the meet where the two cabinet ministers will give detailed presentation on the prevailing situation along the Sino- Indian border and Jammu and Kashmir.

#TopStory: Home Minister Rajnath Singh and EAM Sushma Swaraj to jointly hold an all party meeting at the former's residence in Delhi, today. pic.twitter.com/WTgXfMCqNn  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

Ahead of the Parliament session, beginning Monday, the government is apparently aiming to build a consensus to deal with its biggest neighbour as well on Kashmir issue. In the latest tussle, New Delhi has expressed concerns over China trying to change the status quo at the India- Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Doklam area of Sikkim, where Indian troops stopped road construction by Chinese soldiers China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Doklam area near the Bhutan tri-junction for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road.

Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

In Jammu and Kashmir, seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from Amarnath cave shrine on last Monday.

Four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- have been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.

Also Read | Budgam encounter: Three Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists killed in J&K arms recovered

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court may pronounce quantam of sentence in the contempt case against fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Friday. Mallya had failed to appear before the Apex court despite the later directed to do so.

On Monday, A bench comprising of Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit had scheduled the case for hearing on July 14 and had sought the assistance of the Solicitor General, Ranjit Kumar in the case.

The apex court had on May 9 held Mallya, who is presently in the United Kingdom, guilty of contempt on a plea by the consortium of lender banks, led by the State Bank of India, for his failure to furnish details of all his Indian as well as offshore assets.

It had directed Mallya to appear before it today to argue on the quantum of punishment.

The offence of contempt of court entails a maximum imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of upto Rs 2,000 or both.

#ExpectedToday: SC to pronounce quantum of sentence against #VijayMallya in connection with the contempt of court case. pic.twitter.com/iStNhFfCVz  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

India had recently asked Britain to ensure early extradition of Mallya, who is an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The apex courts order had come on a plea by the consortium of banks, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), which had said that Mallya had allegedly transferred USD 40 million received from British firm Diageo to his children in flagrant violation of various judicial orders.

The banks had argued before the court that Mallya had wilfully disobeyed the orders and made vague disclosure about his assets.

Also Read: Vijay Mallya steps down as India's top representative to FIA

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New Delhi:

In a fresh development in mysterious Sunanda Pushkar death case, Delhi police on Friday sought the damage report of the sealed suite no. 345 from Hotel Leela Palace where Sunanda was found dead on January 17, 2014.

The Hotel Leela Palace room no. 345 has been closed since 2014 and the Police have no clue so far how Sunanda, wife of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor died.

After several forensic experts visits to the room and five others reports from different medical boards, nothing could be found about the cause of her death.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday had adjourned the hearing of the Sunanda Pushkar death case on a plea by fire brand BJP leader Subramanian Swamy till July 20.

Suggested Read: Shashi Tharoor files defamation suit against Goswami, Republic in HC

Swamy on July 6 had filed a petition in the court seeking a court monitored enquiry into the death of Sunanda. The Court also asked Swamy that why he woke up so late for which Swami replied he has come after exhausting all other options.

Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was found dead in a suit of The Hotel Leela Palace in South Delhi on January 17, 2014.

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Friday said that it wanted the presence of liquor baron Vijay Mallya in the contempt case against him. The Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for Centre told SC, extradition proceedings being conducted in UK Court and would most likely end by December 4.

Mallya, who was held guilty of contempt, on Monday failed to make a personal appearance before the Supreme Court despite being directed to do so.

A bench comprising of Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit fixed the matter for hearing on July 14 and sought the assistance of the solicitor general in the case.

The apex court had on May 9 held Mallya, who is presently in the United Kingdom, guilty of contempt on a plea by the consortium of lender banks, led by the State Bank of India, for his failure to furnish details of all his Indian as well as offshore assets.

It had directed Mallya to appear before it on Friday to argue on the quantum of punishment.

The offence of contempt of court entails a maximum imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of upto Rs 2,000 or both.

India had recently asked Britain to ensure early extradition of Mallya, who is an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The apex court's order had come on a plea by the consortium of banks, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), which had said that Mallya had allegedly transferred $40 million received from British firm Diageo to his children in "flagrant violation" of various judicial orders.

The banks had argued before the court that Mallya had wilfully disobeyed the orders and made "vague" disclosure about his assets.

With PTI inputs

Also read: Vijay Mallya appears before court in extradition case; next hearing on September 14

Also read: Extradition case: Vijay Mallya gets bail until Dec 4, says enough evidence to prove his case; next hearing on July 6

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Chennai:

Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Saturday told that the Tamil Nadu government will establish e-villages named after former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

One village will be selected from every district which will be made Amma E-village and services like wifi hotspot and smart street lighting will be provided, he said.

Making suo motu announcements in the state assembly covering the IT department among others, Palaniswami said Tele Education and Tele Medicine Services will also be provided to the selected village under this scheme.

Further, he announced expansion of a Centre-state joint e-governance initiative.

The third phase of Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) covering the period 2017-2022 will be implemented at a cost of Rs 477.96 crore, he said, adding it will benefit the government departments and the common public.

The cost will be borne by the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV (TACTV) under its CSR initiative, besides the respective departments, the chief minister said.

Benefits of this initiative will include learning through e-classrooms in rural areas, providing tele medicine and delivery of many public services using internet, he said.

A Memorandum of Understanding on connecting rural local bodies through optical fibre for delivery of public services had been signed in April, he recalled.

The government has now decided to extend this scheme to urban areas and it will be implemented in the name of Tamil Net, he said.

Making some announcements under the Animal Husbandary department, the chief minister said 150 veterinary medical centres will be set up this year at an estimated cost of Rs 49.09 crore with NABARD assistance.

The government will set up a Fisheries College and Research Institute in Nagapattinam district, he said.

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New Delhi:

73 per cent Indians have confidence in their government, highest in the world. According to a report published in Forbes magazine, quoting OECD's Government at a Glance report, people's faith in Modi Government surpasses every other government in the world.



With 73 per cent India sits firmly at the top, while Justin Trudeau's government comes second having earned the confidence of 62 per cent of its people. Turkey (58%), Russia (58%) and Germany also secured spots in top 5, the data quoted by report indicated.



In the United States, where fake news, scandals and allegations about Russian collision are still dogging the White House, only 30 per cent of people have confidence in their government. In the United Kingdom which is attempting to negotiate an amicable divorce from the European Union, trust stands at 41 per cent, Forbes report said.



Government trust levels are generally determined by whether or not people consider their government stable and reliable, if it's able to protect its citizens from risk and whether it can effectively deliver public services.

Trust in government serves as a driving force for a country's economic development, makes governmental decisions more effective and leads to greater compliance with regulations and the tax system.

Credit: Forbes/Statista

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New Delhi:

A 22- year-old techie, working with Dell, fell while doing a work out in the gym at office in Madhapur. By the time he was rushed to hospital, he was already dead.



According to police, Varun Kumar, a native of Vizag and living in Matrusrinagar in Miyapur was employed as a software professional in Dell, Hyderabad for the past one year.



"The gym instructors asked him to sit for a while, but he suddenly collapsed in a heap and became unconscious. Varun was rushed to the company clinic on the campus. The doctor checked Varun's blood pressure, and found that his pulse was hovering at 40," Madhapur sub-inspector P Vijay Kumar said.



After some time, Varun was rushed to Max care hospital, but he was declared brought dead. It is believed that Varun died due to exhaustion caused by extreme exercising.



Varun, a native of Visakhapatnam, joined Dell a year ago and had been working out in the gym regularly.



"When we spoke to Varun's father, who rushed to the city after being informed about his son's death told us that Varun had some heart problem in the past," Madhapur police inspector Kalinga Rao told media.



Police discovered that Varun had not eaten properly on Tuesday night and in spite of this fact he over exercised in the gym on Wednesday.
New Delhi:

A trillion-ton iceberg, one of the biggest ever recorded that was reported to be a hanging by a thread, splintered from the Larsen C section of the Larsen ice shelf on Wednesday morning.

This massive iceberg is almost the size of Delaware, marking the end of decade long splintering that was first witnessed in 1960s. The crack stayed small for years until, in 2014, it began racing across the Antarctic ice.

The new iceberg, at 5,800 sq km, is now expected to be called as A68. The iceberg is half as big as the B-15, which holds the record after it split off from the Ross ice shelf in 2000.

Read more: Trillion-tonne iceberg breaks off Antarctica ice shelf, say scientists

The breakage that occurred in Larsen C Ice Shelf and took more than 12% of its total area. This occurence of chunks breaking off is known as calving, which is considered a natural phenomenon, but scientists have noted that the recent event was quite enormous.

The iceberg is one of the largest recorded, and its future progress is difficult to predict, said Adrian Luckman of Wales' Swansea University, who led a project tracking the crack since 2015. It may remain in one piece but is more likely to break into fragments. Some of the ice may remain in the area for decades, while parts of the iceberg may drift north into warmer waters.

If it follows the path of previous icebergs from the Larsen Ice Shelf, it will drift north along the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula before heading northeast into the south Atlantic Ocean, according to NASA.

Read more: Indian astronomers discover supercluster of galaxies: 'Saraswati'

On concerns regarding the threat this break off may cause, scientists say that the massive iceberg isn't expected to cause any imminent danger to people, ships, or nearby areas. But they're worried about what this could mean in the long run for Antarctica and rising sea levels.

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New Delhi:

Abdullahi Kojo (name changed) from Ghana has got a new set of genitals, all thanks to doctors in India.

A year after he was attacked by a stray dog that bit off his testes and scrotum back home in Ghana, Kojo says life is back to normal.

The Ghanaian, on the advice of a doctor in his country, decided to seek help in India and, two operations later, says he is now experiencing a good sexual life.

As India celebrates National Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Day on Saturday, doctors who conducted two operations on him at Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh in New Delhi talk about the challenges of such surgery, and how far the country has moved in this area of treatment.

Dr Richie Gupta, senior consultant, department of plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive surgery at the hospital, said reconstructing a body part, particularly genitals, needed the skills of both a surgeon and an artist.

According to her, penile reconstruction surgery is akin to performing four or five reconstructive surgeries in one sitting, during which a new penis, urethra and scrotum are created.

Penile reconstruction is one of the most challenging and difficult operations in plastic surgery, she said.

The surgery involves the tedious art of sculpturing and meticulous microsurgical skills to make the reconstructed part look like a normal penis.

Hence, it involves the skills of an artist and plastic surgeon specialised in microsurgery, Dr Richie told PTI.

With Sushrutabelieved to have been born in 600 BC and author of an ancient text on medicine and surgeryhailed as the father of plastic surgery, it was perhaps natural for doctors in Kojos hometown to suggest treatment in India.

One of the doctors in my country told me about phalloplasty and said India had good doctors in this speciality. While searching the Internet, I came across the website of a doctor and contacted him, he told PTI.

Doctors said plastic surgery in India is now performed using the latest procedures, with the help of 3D printing, fat and stem cell therapy and many other processes.

For Kojos operation, the Radial artery forearm flap, Tube within tube technique was used, where the genital was recreated with the skin, blood vessels and nerves taken from his forearm.

The total operation took almost 12 hours. Post surgery, pain lasted for two weeks, the patient said. The surgery cost him about Rs 3.5 lakh.

Six months later, silicone rods were inserted, and Kojo, who was a university student in Ghana when the dog attacked him, is now back home.

One of the major risks involved in such surgeries is scarring of the body part which is used for the flapthe lifting of tissueson the injured site. Patients are given an option of penile reconstruction with a thigh flap. Most patients go for that, since the grafting leads to multiple scars which are not as visible on the thigh as they are on forearm.

Flap loss and accidental urinary leaks are among the other risks involved, added Dr Rajat Gupta, associate consultant, plastic surgery, at the hospital.

The idea of reconstructing ones genitals may seem impossible, but Kojo urges people not to hesitate to seek help if they face similar problems.

Loss of my genital was my biggest trauma. I had to see a psychiatrist in Ghana. I never knew that it could be regenerated and I could get back to my previous life. Science and technology have advanced, and we must use them for our benefit, Kojo said.

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New Delhi:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday rekindled the Franco-German friendship by launching a series of defence projects, including plans to build fighter jets, drones and Europe's own GPS system.A



The two leaders of Europe buried the hatchet over past rivalries and appeared in the zeal to move forward on a United EU front, minus United Kingdom.



"I believe that we have shown shortly after the new government here was installed that we are ready to activate Franco-German relations with a new impetus," Merkel said at the joint cabinet meeting in Paris on Thursday.A



The pair's development of both manned and unmanned warplanes would replace France's Rafale jets and the Eurofighter, rival jets that compete fiercely for global sales.



Both leaders also pledged to push ahead with the Eurodrone programme, which is expected to produce Europe's first fleet of military drones by 2020. Working alongside Spain and Italy, the program plans to power the drones using a twin-engine concept, according to the two countries. Berlin has promised to lead on the initiative.A A

To ensure the astrategic autonomya of Europeas military space applications, the Paris-Berlin alliance should also work on fitting the EUas nascent Galileo constellation of satellites, which provides a European alternative to the U.S. GPS system, with a high level of security, the governments said.



The Franco German Defence and Security Council, created in 1988, met earlier on Thursday, and included both countriesa interior ministries for the first time, as well as their defense and foreign affairs ministries, a move designed to emphasize Merkel and Macronas intention to cooperate more closely in the fight against terrorism.



According to defence experts, the Franco-German alliance of defence projects was A an answer to Britain, Europe's leading military power, for its decision to leave the EU.



"It is a sign to the British. It means 'you are leaving the EU and we are driving forward. We are no longer interested in you blocking the EU on defence'," a senior German defence industry official told Reuters news agency.





Apart from the defence deals, French president Emmanuel Macron also called on Chancellor Angela Merkel to help provide a a1bn fund to fix Europe's economic woes.



"We have launched calls for projects, along with the Germans, to attract researchers as part of the aMake our planet great againa initiative," he told French newspaper Ouest France.A

Tweet translation:A Unique meeting of the Franco-German defence and Security Council to revive the Europe of defence and combat terrorism.

RAunion inAdite du Conseil franco-allemand de dAfense et de sAcuritA pour relancer l'Europe de la dAfense et lutter contre le terrorisme. pic.twitter.com/1cxITuhKXO a Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 13, 2017

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Islamabad:

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is holding consultations with the lawmakers of the ruling party to devise a strategy to respond to the oppositions calls for his resignation over the Panama case probe panels report on money laundering charges against him.



A six-member Joint Investigation Team, probing the Sharif familys offshore assets and alleged corruption, in a 10-volume damning report submitted to the Supreme Court on July 10 recommended that a corruption case should be filed against the prime minister and his sons - Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz - as well as daughter Maryam.



During the meeting with the lawmakers of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN), Sharif would take stock of the prevailing political situation in the country. Sources close to PMLN said that it would be an important meeting to woo some of the disgruntled backbenchers of the party whose support would be a key for Sharif.



It is the fourth high-level meeting to take place since Monday when JIT submitted the report on money laundering allegations against Sharif.



The JIT in its report said that Sharifs lifestyle and that of his children was beyond the known means of income.



Opposition parties have been demanding his resignation after the submission of the report.



The high-profile graft case is about alleged money laundering by Sharif in 1990s when he twice served as the Prime Minister to purchase assets in London. The assets surfaced when Panama papers last year showed that they were managed through offshore companies owned by Sharifs children.



The case filed by various petitioners Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan, Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq and Sheikh Rashid Ahmed sought disqualification of Prime Minister Sharif over his alleged misstatement in his address to the nation on April 5, 2016 and his speech before the National Assembly on May 16, 2016.



The petitioners had claimed that the prime minister lied about the investments made by his children in offshore companies, which led to the acquisition of four apartments in Londons upscale Park Lane neighbourhood.



In April, a five-judge Supreme Court bench issued a landmark 540-page split judgement ordering setting up of the JIT comprising officials from different agencies including those from powerful spy agencies the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Military Intelligence.



Sharif is the only Pakistani politician who has the distinction of being the prime minister of the coup-prone country for a record three times.



He had served as the Prime Minister from 1990 to 1993 and from 1997 to 1999. Both of Sharifs first two stints had ended in the third year of his tenure.

Suggested read: Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif refuses to resign despite demands after Panama case report

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Washington:

President Donald Trump was captured complimenting the French president's wife's appearance as he toured a famous Paris landmark.

Video footage posted on the French government's official Facebook page showed Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and their wives chatting after their tour of the museums at Les Invalides.

As they were saying their good-byes, Trump turned to Brigitte Macron and gestured towards her body.

"You know, you're in such good shape," Trump said, before repeating the observation to her husband.

"Beautiful," he added.

Brigitte Macron was her husband's former high school teacher and their relationship has drawn international attention because of their significant age difference.

But feminists and President Macron have denounced that attention as sexist, arguing that nobody would blink an eye if he were the older spouse.

Also Read: China fast catching as global economic power, US at top, says survey

The Macrons' age difference is identical to that of Donald and Melania Trump, who were spending two days in Paris in celebration of Bastille Day.

Trump has drawn criticism in the past for comments some say objectify and demean women, including the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women and boasted, "When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

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Jerusalem:

Three Arabs opened fire on Israeli police in Jerusalem on Friday, killing two before fleeing to an ultra-sensitive holy site where they were also shot dead in one of the most serious incidents in the city in recent years.



Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone later in the day as tensions rose over the attack and its aftermath.



The three attackers, Arab Israelis aged between 19 and 29, were shot dead by police, and a body could later be seen lying on the ground near the Al-Aqsa mosque at the holy site in Jerusalem's Old City. They had been armed with guns and knives, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.



Videos circulating on social media showed a hail of gunfire ring out in what seemed to be an exchange of bullets between Israeli security forces and the assailants. Security forces locked down the area and the Al-Aqsa mosque was closed to Friday prayers after the attack in a highly unusual move.



The attackers were from the Arab Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm, located near the occupied West Bank. They were identified by police as Muhammad Ahmad Muhammad Jabareen, 29; Muhammad Hamed Abdel Latif Jabareen, 19, and Muhammad Ahmad Mafadal Jabareen, 29.



Arab Israelis are descendants of Palestinians who remained on their land following the creation of Israel in 1948. They largely identify with the Palestinian cause. The police who were killed were identified as Ha'il Satawi, 30, and Kamil Shanan, 22, both from the Druze minority.

ALSO READ: Turkey detains 44 people over Istanbul terror attacks



The assailants were killed at the site known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, the location of regular clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police, but where gunfire rarely occurs. The site includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.



In the phone call with Netanyahu, Abbas "expressed his strong rejection and condemnation of the incident at the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque and his rejection of any act of violence from any side, especially in places of worship," official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.



The statement appeared stronger than previous such responses from Abbas, who has repeatedly called for non-violent resistance to Israel's occupation without specifically condemning Palestinian attacks. A statement from Netanyahu's office confirmed the call.



"The prime minister said that Israel will take all the necessary measures in order to ensure the security on the Temple Mount without changes in the status quo," it said. Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan called it an "extremely severe event which crossed all red lines. We will need to re-evaluate all of the security arrangements on the Temple Mount and its environs."



The grand mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the city's highest Islamic authority, condemned the closure of the mosque compound for prayers. "I have very little information about it, but it doesn't mean you should close the mosque for prayers," he told journalists at the Lions Gate entrance to the Old City, near the holy site.



Palestinians called for worshippers to go to the holy site in defiance of the shutdown. Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, called the attack "a natural response to the Zionist terrorism and the desecration of the Al Aqsa mosque," referring to previous Israeli raids at the holy site.



UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov said on Twitter that "places for worship are for prayer, not for violence. All must take a stand against terror & condemn it." Basem Badawi, a 60-year-old water seller in the Old City, told AFP that "I was standing here and then I heard the shooting. I thought it was fireworks.



"But then I saw the police coming from everywhere." The Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount is considered the third-holiest site in Islam and the most sacred in Judaism. It is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Palestinians fearing Israel may one day seek to assert further control over it.



It is located in east Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community. Jews are allowed to visit, but not pray there to avoid provoking tensions.



The site is administered by the Islamic Waqf organisation. Waqf officials said its guards at the site had been detained by Israeli police following the attack. A wave of unrest that broke out in October 2015 has claimed the lives of at least 280 Palestinians or Arab Israelis, 44 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, a Sudanese and a Briton, according to an AFP toll.



Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were shot dead in protests and clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. The violence had greatly subsided in recent months.

ALSO READ: Attack on religious freedom is attack on most fundamental right of liberty, says White House on Amarnath terror strike

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The U.S. Senate confirmed private equity executive William Hagerty on Thursday as President Donald Trump's ambassador to Japan, filling a post considered especially crucial in light of neighboring North Korea's recent missile tests.

The vote was 86 to 12 in the 100-member Senate.

Hagerty, founder of the private equity firm Hagerty Peterson, spent several years in Japan with the Boston Consulting Group and later served in the White House under former President George H.W. Bush.

Trump's choice of Hagerty was taken as a sign of the interest in economic ties to Japan by the Republican president, a real estate developer and reality television star, who had never held public office when he was elected in November.

North Korea has been worrying and frustrating neighboring countries and U.S. officials with a series of missile tests, more so since Pyongyang last week test-launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile.
Radioactive tritium, said to pose little risk to human health, will be released from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power complex into the sea, according to a top official of the plant operator.

"The decision has already been made," Takashi Kawamura, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., said in a recent interview with media outlets, referring to the discharge of tritium, which remains in filtered water even after highly toxic radioactive materials are removed from water used to cool the damaged reactors at the plant.

At other nuclear power plants, tritium-containing water has routinely been released into the sea after it is diluted. But the move by Tepco has prompted worries among local fishermen about the potential ramifications for their livelihood as public perceptions about fish and other marine products caught off Fukushima could worsen.

They are the first public remarks by the utility's management on the matter, as Tepco continues its cleanup of toxic water and tanks containing it continue to fill the premises of the plant, where three reactors suffered meltdowns after tsunami flooded the complex in March 2011 following a massive earthquake.

Kawamura's comments came at a time when a government panel is still debating how to deal with tritium-containing water at the Fukushima plant, including whether to dump it into sea.

Saying its next move is contingent on the panel's decision, Kawamura indicated in the interview that Tepco will wait for a decision by the government before it actually starts releasing the water into sea.
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STAMFORD  Twenty young recruits reported for work July 5 at the Synchrony Financial headquarters on Long Ridge Road. They all returned the next day  to the delight of their supervisors.

The attendance of those high school students was celebrated because their participation in the nonprofit Girls Who Codes computer science program at the Synchrony campus is helping bridge the gender gap in programming and engineering fields. With this summers seven-week experience, organizers want to motivate the girls to develop their skills in advanced classes and build a pipeline of talent for companies like Synchrony.

One of the challenges we have today in the U.S. and globally is that the number of women entering technology fields are significantly underrepresented, Carol Juel, Synchronys chief information officer, said in an interview at Synchronys headquarters. As a corporate sponsor, we as a company really focus on diversity inclusion.

The share of women in U.S. computing positions is on track to drop from 24 percent to 22 percent by 2025, according to research released last year by Girls Who Code and professional-services firm Accenture. But the study also predicted that initiatives such as the Synchrony-hosted program could work together to triple the number of women in computing to 3.9 million in 2025. Doing so would increase their representation to 39 percent of that sectors workforce.

This summers program represents the first Girls Who Code session in Connecticut and the second round of participation for Synchrony. The company first hosted a GWC program last summer at its offices in Chicago.

The Stamford classes enrolled girls going into the 11th and 12th grades, many of whom are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and might struggle otherwise to gain access to computer science programs. A majority attend southwestern Connecticut high schools.

Most of the girls have no or limited programming experience  but they are eager to learn.

I love making things work, and coding is pretty much the best way to make things work, said Simmi Agarwal, who is going into her junior year at Stamford High School. Its the language of machines.

The curriculum includes units on the Scratch, Python and HTML programming languages, as well as assignments with robotics and algorithms.

I just like how you can create things to help people, said Andrea Lindner, who is going into her senior year at John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, N.Y. You can create an app that helps people with their daily life.

Girls Who Code provides the instructors. Fairfield native Nicholas Anaya is leading the Stamford group.

This is about building a supportive community and introducing them to the greater movement that is Girls Who Code, Anaya said. We just want to make sure theyre comfortable and find out if they have a serious interest in coding. Hopefully, we inspire them to continue on in the future.

Each girl in the program is assigned two mentors, all of whom work at Synchrony.

Women are better represented at Synchrony than at many other large companies. CEO and President Margaret Keane represents one of 32 female chief executives to lead a 2017 Fortune 500 company. Companywide, women account for 63 percent of the employees and 27 percent of executives.

Juel said she expects all of the girls in the program to study computer science or engineering in college. Doing so would help to redress the sharp gender imbalance that exists in programming classes in the K-12 system. More than three times as many boys as girls took the Advanced Placement Computer Science A exam in 2016, according to data from the College Board.

I think this program is the basis for doing more, said Shyann Taylor, who is going into 12th grade at the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering in Stamford. Im learning now, and Ill be able to do more once I get into college.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott
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DANBURY  After giving birth to her son alone in her bedroom early on a spring morning, Anny Castillo looked at him and knew she couldnt care for him.

She held the child for most of the day, calming him with breast milk.

Castillo, 22, hadnt told anyone about the baby, except for the childs father  a man she had met on Facebook and seen only a few times. When she messaged him to tell him she was pregnant, he blocked her from communicating with him.

She didnt have enough confidence in herself to tell anyone in her family about the birth, Castillo told police. What if he died from a lack of food? The young woman had not received any medical care during her pregnancy and didnt realize she was going into labor when her water broke.

After sunset on that first day, she decided to put the baby outside. She hoped someone who could care for the baby would find him.

Castillo didnt have any diapers or baby clothes, so she wrapped the baby in her own clothing and walked outside into the 55-degree evening air, the baby bundled tightly in her arms.

In a spur-of-the-moment decision, she left the baby behind Zaytuna Grocery on the north end of Main Street near her home. She placed him between several air conditioning units.

The details of the events of May 21 were laid out in an arrest warrant affidavit made public Friday. Castillo turned herself into police on Thursday after learning about the warrant for her arrest on several charges including abandonment of a child.

Castillo, a young woman who speaks little English, told police she wasnt aware of the states Safe Haven law, which allows new mothers to drop off babies less than 30 days old at any hospital  with no questions asked.

The young women held her head low during her arraignment in state Superior Court on Friday, listening to the proceedings with the aid of a Spanish interpreter.

Judge Thomas Welch issued a protective order that prevents Castillo from having any contact with her son.

Joseph Romanello, her attorney, said in court he didnt object to the order, noting the Department of Children and Families is involved with the case.

Officials with DCF said Thursday the boy is s healthy and thriving in a home with a family that hopes to adopt him.

The child was eventually found around 11:30 p.m. on May 21 by a man who realized he had lost a $100 bill during an earlier trip to a nearby store. When he went to search for the money, he heard the baby crying and called police.

Emergency officials who responded to the scene had to cut the umbilical cord. Days after abandoning her son, Castillo walked into the police station and announced she was the mother of the child, police said. She was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Officials with the courts family relations division said Friday they declined to take up the case because of the seriousness of the charges and because domestic violence was not involved.

Assistant States Attorney Sharmese Hodge objected to the characterization no violence was involved, noting the newborn was abandoned behind a grocery store. She agreed the case should not be transferred to family court.

She said the protective order would not interfere with arraignments already established with DCF.

Castillo, who was accompied at the hearing by members of her family, was released from custody on $1,500 bond and is expected to appear in court on Aug. 16.

dperrefort@newstimes.com
OTTAWA, July 14, 2017 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada is committed to advancing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples through a renewed, nation-to-nation, Inuit-Crown and government-to-government relationship based on the recognition of rights, respect, cooperation and partnership.

Today, the Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, and Chair of the Working Group of Ministers on the Review of Laws and Policies, released a set of Principles Respecting the Government of Canada's Relationship with Indigenous Peoples. The Principles will guide the review of laws, policies and operational practices and form a foundation for transforming how the federal government partners with and supports Indigenous peoples and governments.

The ten principles are based on the recognition of Indigenous peoples, governments, laws, and rights, including the right to self-determination and the inherent right of self-government. The Principles are rooted in Section 35 of the Constitution and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and informed by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action. They will serve as the basis for federal engagement with Indigenous peoples on the on-going work of rebuilding and reconciliation, turning the page on the Indigenous-Crown relationship, and creating the space for strong Indigenous governments, political, social, economic, and cultural development and improved quality of life.

Over the coming months, in accordance with the Principles, members of the Working Group, in partnership with Indigenous leaders, organizations and communities, experts, and where appropriate the provinces and territories, will further advance its review of laws, policies and operational practices with First Nations, Inuit and the Metis Nation.

Quotes

"Today, our Government is taking another important step to renew Canada's nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous Peoples. Working in partnership with Indigenous leaders, communities, and youth, the Working Group will use these Principles to take a whole-of-government approach to assess and recommend statutory change and new policies to best meet our constitutional obligations and international commitments to Indigenous Peoples."

Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister of Canada

"As we mark 150 years of Confederation, it is time to ask what we want the next 150 years to look like and the role First Nations, Inuit and the Metis Nation will have in building a stronger and more inclusive Canada. These Principles affirm recognition of Indigenous peoples and their rights as the necessary starting point for the Crown to engage in partnership with Indigenous peoples to develop new Indigenous-Crown relations, and as the foundation for transforming laws, policies and operational practices."

Jody Wilson-Raybould

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Chair of the Working Group of Ministers on the Review of Laws and Policies

Quick Facts

Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes and affirms the existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Indigenous peoples of Canada .

recognizes and affirms the existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Indigenous peoples of . On May 10, 2016 , Canada became a full supporter, without qualification, of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

, became a full supporter, without qualification, of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. On February 22, 2017 , Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the Working Group of six federal ministers responsible for the review of all relevant federal laws, policies and operational practices.

Associated Links

Stay Connected

Follow the Department of Justice Canada on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Follow Minister Wilson-Raybould on Twitter: @MinJusticeEn.

Subscribe to receive our news releases and more via RSS feeds. For more information or to subscribe, visit http://justice.gc.ca/eng/news-nouv/rss.html

SOURCE Justice Canada, Department of

For further information: David Taylor, Director of Communications, Office of the Minister of Justice, 613-992-4621; Media Relations, Department of Justice, 613-957-4207

Related Links

http://www.justice.gc.ca/


VANCOUVER, July 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Nevsun Resources Ltd. (TSX:NSU)(NYSE MKT:NSU) ("Nevsun" or the "Company") announced today that Cliff Davis's two month transition period was completed on July 12, 2017. Mr. Davis has now retired from the Company and has stepped down as a Director of the Company.

On behalf of Nevsun Management and the Board of Directors, Peter Kukielski commented, "We are deeply grateful for all of Cliff 's contributions to the Company over his 22 year history with Nevsun. I appreciate the commitment he has made toward the smooth transition to a new CEO. I wish Cliff all the best for a very happy and productive retirement."

About Nevsun Resources Ltd.

Nevsun Resources Ltd. is the 100% owner of the high-grade copper-gold Timok Upper Zone and 60% owner of the Timok Lower Zone in Serbia. Nevsun generates cash flow from its 60% owned copper-zinc Bisha Mine in Eritrea. Nevsun is well positioned with a strong debt-free balance sheet to grow shareholder value through advancing Timok to production.

NEVSUN RESOURCES LTD.

"Peter G.J. Kukielski"

Peter G.J. Kukielski

President & Chief Executive Officer

SOURCE Nevsun Resources Ltd.

For further information: Nevsun Investor Relations, Tel: +1 604 623 4700, Toll free: 1 888 600 2200, Email: [email protected], Website: www.nevsun.com
GATINEAU, QC, July 14, 2017 /CNW/ - "Like all British Columbians, I am deeply concerned for our neighbours impacted by the wildfires. As Chair of the Ad Hoc Cabinet Committee on Federal Recovery Efforts for 2017 BC Wildfires, I and my Cabinet colleagues will work tirelessly to make sure immediate steps are taken to help those affected. Our priority now is to work closely with the Province of British Columbia and municipalities to coordinate our efforts and focus on what needs to be done in both the short and long-term. The Government of Canada, along with all Canadians, will stand with the people of British Columbia for as long as it takes. We British Columbians are resilient and will come through this together and stronger."

- Hon. Carla Qualtrough, Delta MP and Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities

SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada

For further information: Ashley Michnowski, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, 819-934-1122 / TTY: 1-866-702-6967
OTTAWA, July 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Their Excellencies the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, and Mrs. Sharon Johnston will travel to London, England, from July 17 to 19, 2017. During the visit, His Excellency will meet with Her Majesty The Queen to bid her farewell as his term as governor general comes to an end in the fall. Their Excellencies will also join Her Majesty and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh at Canada House for a celebration to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

"As Sharon and I get ready to visit London for the last time during my mandate as governor general, we reflect upon the past seven years and my time as Her Majesty The Queen's representative," said His Excellency. "It has been a tremendous privilege to act on our Sovereign's behalf and to serve my country. It will also be an honour to have Her Majesty and His Royal Highness present at Canada House to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation, as they have always demonstrated a great affinity towards our country over the course of The Queen's 65-year reign."

Below is Their Excellencies' itinerary in London, UK Time (GMT+1)

Tuesday, July 18

Audience with Her Majesty The Queen

The Governor General will have a private audience with The Queen. This meeting will serve as a farewell from His Excellency, whose term will come to an end in the fall of 2017.

Buckingham Palace

UK POOL ONLY

Wednesday, July 19

10:30 a.m.

Canada House Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of Confederation

Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh will be greeted at Canada House by Their Excellencies, along with Mrs. Janice Charette, Canadian High Commissioner, and Mr. Reg Charette, for a visit to celebrate our Confederation's 150th anniversary.

On this occasion, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will have the opportunity to meet with young Canadians, business leaders, artists, entrepreneurs and members of Indigenous communities in attendance, as well as view artifacts and displays celebrating Canada 150. They will then observe a brief performance, and the event will conclude with Her Majesty and His Royal Highness unveiling a new Jubilee Walkway Panel outside Canada House.

Canada House, Trafalgar Square

POOL MEDIA ONLY

MEDIA CONTACT: Christie Tucker, Canadian High Commission, 0207 004 6162, [email protected]

Follow GGDavidJohnston and RideauHall on Facebook and Twitter

SOURCE Governor General of Canada

For further information: Media information: In London: Annabelle Cloutier, Director, Communications and Public Affairs, 613-301-2764 (cell), [email protected]; In Ottawa: Melanie Primeau, Rideau Hall Press Office, 613-993-2569, 613-218-2691 (cell), [email protected]
Ten people, including a state corrections officer, have been charged in connection with a heroin distribution ring in the Plattsburgh area.

From June 2016 until May 2017, the group transported heroin from Annapolis, Maryland, and Schenectady and sold it in Plattsburgh, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of New York.

The charges were announced Thursday by the Department of Justice.

Luke Kiroy, a New York State Corrections Officer, was working at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, prior to his arrest on June 20.

Kiroy, 32, of Saranac, was suspended without pay last month, according to the Press Republican. He had been working with the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision since July 2007. His last known salary was $59,821 per year.

Five of the other defendants are from the Plattsburgh area, one is from Schenectady and three are from Annapolis.

Two indictments charge the following with conspiracy to distribute heroin:

Kyle Touchstone, 29, of Plattsburgh

Melissa Kusalonis (a.k.a. "Mel" and "Liss"), 35, of Plattsburgh

Jimolo Coates (a.k.a. "Lo," "Marlo" and "Brodie"), 24, of Annapolis, Md.

Tynaejah Thompson (a.k.a. "Naee"), 19, of Annapolis, Md.

Kiara Scott, 28, of Annapolis, Md.

Anthony DeFilippo (a.k.a "Flip"), 35, of Schenectady

Charles Adams (a.k.a. "Chuck"), 31, of Peru

Travynn Ippolito (a.k.a "Trav") 29, of Plattsburgh

Luke Kiroy, 32, of Saranac

Danielle Conners, 31, of Plattsburgh

If convicted, Touchstone and Coates would each face at least 10 years and up to life in prison. Kusalonis, Thompson, and Adams would each face at least 5 years and up to 40 years in prison. DeFlippo, Ippolito, Conners, Kiroy, and Scott would each face up to 20 years in prison.
By GMM 14 July 2017 - 12:35





Bernie Ecclestone has admitted next years Singapore grand prix might not go ahead.

The night race on the streets of the city-state is one of the most popular events on the calendar, but a provisional asterisk has been put alongside its date for 2018.

Ousted former F1 supremo Ecclestone told Brazils Globo: "Malaysia decided that F1 was not a good investment anymore.

"They are happy with MotoGP because they say there are many fans, they sell thousands of tickets and they make money. But in F1 the opposite was happening and they lose money. So theyre leaving F1.

"Singapore is more or less the same case," Ecclestone explained.

"It cost them a fortune to do everything we asked, to look after the track, the lights for a night race, and they took everything very seriously for ten years.

"But now its time to make some money, but it will not be with F1," he added.
Address Food Productivity, Others, Expert Urges

Vice President Corporate & Government Relations, Olam Nigeria, Ade Adefeko, has urged farmers and the food industry to address the challenge of agricultural competitiveness and productivity.Speaking during Akindelano Legal Practitioners seminar on Transforming Nigerias Agriculture and Agro-Allied Industry in Lagos, Adefeko stressed the need for practical support to farmers on improving quality and cutting costs to improve competitiveness.He explained that the private sector has an important role to play in promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth through initiatives that will benefit thousands of farmers, both women and men, across the sector.According to him, improving rice production will help the agri-sector will help the sector to increase profitability sustainably, and improve farmer livelihoods.He announced that Olams as a way of supporting the industry has rolled out sustainable agricultural standards and practices throughout its rice-production value chain .Adefeko said Olam was investing $150 million to set up two state-of-the-art animal feed mills, poultry breeding farms and a hatchery to produce day-old-chicks in Nigeria.He said the project will be Nigerias largest integrated animal feed mill, breeding farm and hatchery. He said $100 million had been committed to building and operating the facilities in Kaduna State while $50 million is for a second investment in an integrated poultry and fish feed mill located in Kwara State.The other investment is thev ongoing development of a 10,000-hectare rice farm and mill in Nasarawa State.To support Nigerias quest for rice self-sufficiency, he said Olam aims to scale up production to over 40,000mt of paddy rice yearly.
A young lady was almost lynched by angry money changers and residents after she was caught trying to change fake US Dollars.



The suspect

Some angry local money changers and residents on Wednesday, almost lynched a 22-year-old lady after she was caught along Neezoe road, opposite James David hospital in Liberia, for committing fraud.

A Facebook user who shared the story on social media disclosed that the suspect identified as Marie Gibson, was caught red-handed by a local Liberian business man, while trying to change counterfeit $200USD to Liberian dollars.

He wrote; "She was caught after the local business man has given her 20usd scratch card and 19,260 LD as a change. An eye witness said Maria came with her boyfriend( papay) who absconded when the business man raised an alarm."

It was gathered that fortunately for the victim, the timely arrival of Police officers of zone 9 base in Jacob town, Paynesville, saved her from the angry crowd.
Doctors had advised him two months ago that he should resign to take care of his health but Cabals say NO! https://t.co/UFANGYsISJ  Jackson Ude (@jacksonpbn) June 30, 2017

Jackson Ude, a renowned journalist and Media practitioner at PointBlank News says he knows the exact location and name of hospital where the president's life is desperately being resuscitated. According to him, a hospital in Nottingham where the president had been admitted for the past 7days has transfered him "on wires" to a more enhanced hospital in London.Jackson Ude who refused to disclose the name of the hospital where the president is currently admitted in London, revealed that according to informations he obtained from a staff in the London hospital, the health condition of President Buhari is "scary at the moment.""Buhari was moved from Nottingham to Central London on wires. Situation is scary at the moment! I am keeping the hospital name to my chest!," the journalist posted on his Twitter page.This latest development is contradictory to the statement of the Nigeria government few days ago, in which it claimed that the President is "hale and hearty", while trashing the viral rumour which has it that the President is dead.Family Writers will bring you more verified reports on the health condition of the Nigeria president as events unfold as we will be heading to London.
(Reuters/NAN) North Korea on Friday threatened to take corresponding measures if the UN Security Council adopts another sanctions resolution in response to the Norths test-launch of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) on July 4.The Norths foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency that the ICBM test was an exercise of its legitimate right to self-defense against nuclear threat from the United States.The U.S. has been trying to get China and Russia to back a new UN Security Council resolution imposing stiffer sanctions on North Korea following its latest missile test.NAN reports that during a Security Council meeting on July 7, U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, threatened secondary sanctions if the council could not agree on new sanctions.On June 3, the council voted to broaden sanctions on North Korea in a unanimous decision from the councils 15 member nations.The new sanctions applied to a travel ban and asset freeze to 14 people and four North Korean entities.Among the blacklisted officials is the head of North Koreas overseas spying operations, senior members of North Koreas Workers Party, and heads of trading firms that have funded North Koreas military program.Blacklisted entities include two trading firms, the Strategic Rocket Force of the Korean Peoples Army, and the Koryo Bank, which is tied to an organisation that manages the private finances of North Korean officials, including the nations president, Kim Jong Un.
The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has announced that its National Convention will take place in October this year.The Niger State chairman of the party, Alhaji Tanko Beji, disclosed this in Minna on Thursday, while addressing a stakeholders meeting, where the fallout of the Supreme Court verdict was discussed.Each state branch of the PDP, has been directed to submit the names of 30 members, that would serve on the convention planning committee.Beji also confirmed that the partys leadership, have taken a decision on the zoning of the presidency of the country in 2019 to the Northern part of the country, while the vice-presidency would go to the south.He advised all those with ambitions to seek the mandate of the people to do so, stating that the era of no vacancy had come to an end.Anyone with ambition to seek political office should go to the people, the leadership will not allow imposition of candidates, he said.
The Nigeria Army has revealed the sponsors and masterminds of the two most deadly cult groups in Rivers state.According to General Officer Commanding 6 Division, Port Harcourt, Major General Enobong Udoh, a House of Representatives member and a traditional ruler in Ozoji community in Rivers state are the personalities behind the Ice Landers and the Greenlanders fraternities in Ahoada area of the state.Udoh disclosed this during an interactive session between the high command of the Nigerian army led by the Chief of Army staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai and traditional rulers in the state.He said: In Ahoada East, I am aware it is a problem with Icelanders and Greenlanders. King of Ozochi community is said to be sponsoring Greenlanders; a member House of Representatives is said to be sponsoring the Icelanders.I have invited the both sponsors and the Special Adviser to the governor on Conflict Resolution.He further said the army was working round the clock to restore peace in Ahoada; adding that it would also step up security patrol in Kula, Abonnema and other riverine areas of the state.Fayose distributed money to us after 2014 court attack  Witness tells courtOn his part, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Buratai said the army will always work with the Police and other security bodies to achieve enduring peace in the state.He further solicited cooperation of traditional rulers in the state in the effort by security agencies to effectively secure the state, stressing that their contribution was necessary.The traditional rulers, government and the people have important roles to play to secure the state., he said.Earlier, the Chairman, Rivers state Council of Traditional rulers, King Danderson Douglas Jaja, Amanyanabo of Opobo kingdom, urged Buratai to address what he dubbed marginalization of Rivers indigenes at the top echelon of the army; adding that the army should recruit more to have enough hands to tackle insecurity all over.Our people have not had their fair share in the recruitment into the Nigerian army. Time was when we had army officers from Rivers state. Unfortunately the few left were retired at the last retirement exercise.We need to see that our sons and daughters are counted among officers of the Nigerian army occupying good positions, he said.
President Muhammadu Buhari was among prominent Nigerians who sent their condolences on Friday as the remains of the State House correspondent of Channels Television, Mr. Chukwuma Onuekwusi, were buried in his hometown, Akabo, in Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo State.Onuekwusi aged 55 died on May 23 at a private hospital in Abuja.Buharis condolence message to the deceaseds family was signed by the Permanent Secretary, State House, Mr. Jalal Arabi.He urged Onuekwusis family to take solace in the fact that the deceased was a respected journalist and a pride to the profession and the nation.The message read, I write on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari and the entire staff of the State House to console you and members of Onuekwusi family on the transition of your father, Mr. Chukwuma Onuekwusi.It is on record that for the 10 years that Chukwuma served as a correspondent of Channels Television reporting Nigerian Presidents, he exhibited uncommon dedication, professionalism and patriotism to work, and was not found wanting in any respect.His passage has therefore left a huge vacuum which will be difficult to fill as covering the State House requires maturity, integrity and hard work.While the Presidency joins you in mourning him, I enjoin you to take solace in the fact that Chukwuma was a respected journalist and pride to his family, employers, the journalism profession and the nation.I pray that Almighty God will console his family, friends and professional colleagues and grant Chukwumas soul peaceful rest.Onuekwusis remains had earlier arrived his family compound for a brief lying-in-state after which a funeral service was held at the St. Andrews Anglican Church, Akabo.His remains were later buried in his family compound.Dignitaries who witnessed the funeral included the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige; and the Imo State Deputy Governor, Eze Madumere, among others.Onuekwusi was survived by his wife and three children.
The Nigerian government has abolished the dichotomy between holders of university degree and higher national diploma, HND, in all the par...

The Nigerian government has abolished the dichotomy between holders of university degree and higher national diploma, HND, in all the paramilitary services.The development was announced through a press statement on Thursday signed by ,Abubakar Magaji, a permanent secretary in the Ministry of Interior.According to the statement, the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Board (CDFIPB), under the chairmanship of the Minister of interior, Abdulrahman Dambazzau, gave the approval for the change on TuesdayThe Board directed that all officers with HND are to be upgraded to COMPASS 08, which is the Salary Grade Level for holders of Degree certificates at entry point.The nomenclature for the HND holders will start with the Rank of Senior Inspector, the Degree holders are with the rank of Assistant Superintendent II.Below is the statementCIVIL DEFENCE, FIRE, IMMIGRATION AND PRISONS REPOSITIONED FOR EFFECTIVE SERVICEThe Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Board (CDFIPB), at the end of its meeting held on Tuesday, 11th July 2017, under the chairmanship of the Honourable Minister of Interior, Lt Gen. (Rtd) Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau, approved the regularization of the dichotomy between holders of University degrees and Higher National Diploma (HND) in all the Services.To this end, the Board directed that all officers with HND to be upgraded to COMPASS 08, which is the salary Grade Level for holders of Degree certificates at entry point. While the nomenclature for the HND holders will start with the Rank of Senior Inspector, the Degree holders are with the rank of Assistant Superintendent II.The Board also approved the commencement of the Year 2017 Promotion Exercise for all the Services with effect from 17th July, 2017.In order to boost internal security mechanism, the Board accordingly approved the establishment of the Institute of Domestic Security aimed at strengthening Inter-Agency cooperation, among other functions.In another development, the Federal Government has approved the re-organisation of the Nigeria Immigration Service in line with the provision of Immigration Act, which stipulates the establishment of Directorate of Immigration.The Directorates, each to be headed by Deputy Comptroller-General, are as follows:Human Resources ManagementFinance and AccountsPlanning, Research and StatisticsPassport and Other Travel DocumentsInvestigation and ComplianceBorder ManagementMigrationVisa and ResidencyThe Honourable Minister states that the Government of President Muhammadu Buhari places high premium on the welfare of its workforce and hopes that officers and men in the Services will reciprocate this gesture through improved performance and dedication to duty, in line with the Executive Order on the Ease of Doing Business, so as to revamp the economy.Abubakar G. MagajiPermanent Secretary
Former Abia State Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, has said the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajos trip to his principal, President Muhammadu Buhari has proven that those spreading rumours of the Presidents death are liars.Speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, the former governor said those claiming that Buhari is on life support have been proven wrong.Kalu, a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, said everything possible should be done to reduce increasing hate speeches and death wish in Nigeria.According to Kalu, The confirmation of the Presidents health status by the acting president and wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari is something good Christians and good Muslims should embrace with joy.Those wishing the President dead and spreading false rumours about his health are exposing their ignorance about life and death.I do not understand what joy people derive in wishing their fellow human being dead. Anybody can fall sick, but no good Christian and Muslim would wish someone dead.Commending the Act President for the visit, Kalu said Osinbajo had not only shown leadership, but also maintained the virtues of the President.BREAKING: Osun Permanent Secretary, Olufunke Oluwakemi murdered in KogiAfter initially spending over 50 days on medical vacation in London, the President had in May returned to the United Kingdom, UK, for follow-up medical check-up and is yet to return.Against the backdrop of his current health status, both his media aides and associates have continued to assure Nigerians that the President is responding to treatment.Despite the assurance from the Presidency, the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose recently claimed that Buhari has been on life support since June, an allegation that has been generating heated controversy. Similarly, a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, on Saturday alleged that doctors have ruled out Buharis possible return because he can no longer function.
New Arsenal striker, Alexandre Lacazette, has thanked his team-mate Alex Iwobi, for laying on his first goal for the Gunners.Lacazette got his stint with the Premier League side to a flying start, by scoring 15 minutes into his debut against Sydney FC on Thursday.The France international who only joined Arsenal last week for a fee that could rise to 52m, came off the bench with Iwobi to replace Danny Welbeck and Mesut Ozil respectively, in the 68th minute.With the scoreline at 1-0, Iwobi escaped down the right and fed Lacazette inside the box to double their advantage.Happy to score my 1st goal with my new Team !! Thanks @alexiwobi.. great assist, the former Lyon striker wrote on Twitter.Arsenals next pre-season game comes up on Saturday against Western Sydney Wanderers.
The Lagos State Police Command has arrested one Ufom Udoh for allegedly staging his kidnap and demanding the sum of N60m from his family.Udoh was said to have carried out the act in Apapa area of the state.It was learnt that one Victor Udoh, had reported at the police command that his younger brother was kidnapped by unknown persons.The Commands spokesperson, Olarinde Famous-Cole said following the complaint, operatives of the anti-kidnapping unit were drafted into the matter.Famous-Cole revealed that the unit traced all calls the complainant got on his phone, adding that it led to the arrest of one Paul Okiemute, who reported the case at Udohs workplace.He said that upon interrogation, Okiemute confessed that Udoh staged his own kidnap because he needed money from his elder brother.Famous-Cole said: Udoh was not kidnapped. It was all planned. He staged his own kidnap so that his elder brother can pay ransom.The suspect said he made calls to the victims elder brother with an unknown number demanding a ransom of N60 million.Udoh was later picked up and he confessed to the crime. He said he had checked into a hotel at Iyana-Ipaja area on July 3, where he spent three nights without food and water.The suspect said he later trekked to Ifo area in Ogun state, only to return to Lagos looking frail for his story to look convincing.The Commands spokesperson further disclosed that the State Police Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, has directed that Udoh and his accomplice be charged to court.
The Permanent Secretary, Bureau of General Services, Mrs Olufunke Oluwakemi Kolawole has been murdered around Okene, in Kogi State, on her way to Abuja onThursday.Kolawole had left Osogbo in the early hours of Thursday for Abuja, to felicitate with her friend, who is the Solicitor General in the state on her confirmation as a judge before he was accosted and shot by unknown assailants along Okene-Abuja road around noon.She was said to have been rushed to a hospital at Lokoja, the state capital but later gave up the ghost.The younger brother to the deceased, Mr Femi Ajibade, who spoke to newsmen on Friday expressed shock over the incident, he described the death of his sister as devastating and sadden.According to him, the family members became so anxious when her number was no more going through on Thursday evening.I spoke with her last on Wednesday, and one of my sisters called me on Thursday evening that her number could not be reached, I rushed down to her house at Ofatedo where I gathered that she was in a critical condition after being attacked and shot by  armed robbers in Kogi State, on her way to Abuja for an event.We later arranged among the family members to travel to Kogi and ascertain her condition, but we were prevailed upon not to go again, as some of her associates confirmed to us that she was dead, he said.It was gathered that the deceased, who is one of the most powerful Permanent Secretaries in the state hailed from Modakeke, in Ife East Local Government of Osun.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Oladejo Lamikanra, has explained the background reasons that informed the decision of the Supreme Court to declare Ahmed Makarfi the authentic leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).According to Lamikanra, the Apex Court gave priority to institutional decisions against individual decisions; considered substantial justice ahead of technical perfections in the filing of Makarfis appeal; and also thought of consonance with natural sense of order and justice.He said this in Abuja during an exclusive chat with journalists over the judgement of the Apex Court on the leadership crisis that had rocked the PDP for almost two years.He said: The PDP as a party has been vindicated in their decision to assert that this is not about an individual; this is not about a strong man. This is about strong institutions.That is what our political parties need to evolve to be.We cannot really have a true democracy without strong institutions, strong party institutions who are willing to abide by their own rules and play by their own rules.I think the Supreme Court judgement has affirmed that the PDP has abided and operated according to its own rules as a political institution, and they have been vindicated by those their own institutional rules.I think that is the essential message to take away from this judgement.On the narrow objection raised by the Sheriff camp about the authority of Makarfis camp to file an appeal at the Supreme Court on behalf of the PDP since the National Working Committee (NWC) led by Sheriff did not ask to do so, theSenior lawyer said: In all my years of legal practice, I have never seen a situation where a respondent will seek to terminate an appeal that has been raised against him.What the respondents (Sheriff and co.) were trying to do in seeking the withdrawal of the appeal was to say that the Court of Appeal decision is final. Whereas, the constitution of Nigeria says a decision by the Court of Appeal is appealable to the Apex Court. The only final court in the land is the Supreme Court.So, when they purported to have withdrawn and terminated the appeal filed to the Supreme Court, they actually intended, as it were, to subvert the constitution and the constitutional powers of the Supreme Court and of course the outcome was gratifying.On the issue of the Supreme Courts decision to consider Substantial Justice over legal technicalities in the filing of Makarfis appeal, Lamikanra said: The Supreme Court has eschewed technicalities and to some extent, it has put down what clearly was an absurdity in no uncertain terms.It is absurd for a defendant to say to a plaintiff This case you intend to file, I have terminated it. Justice doesnt work that way.Justice is about ventilation of grievance and the role of the court is to finally resolve dispute between two parties.You dont resolve dispute by seeking to truncate or terminate or withdraw when there still exists the right to appeal to the Apex Court, which PDP-led by Makarfi has.The whole objective was to prevent the PDP from pursuing its right of final appeal. And as you can see it, that ploy collapsed spectacularly.It is the first point; I think the Supreme Court struck out.On the issue of Article 47 of the PDP constitution which talks about vote of no confidence needed to be passed on leaders before they are removed from office, as raised by Sheriff, which meant that he had the powers to remain as Acting National Chairman since such vote of no confidence was never passed on him and members of his National Working Committee (NWC) prior to a national convention that established Makarfis caretaker committee, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria said: In this case, the court resolved it on two grounds.First, it was not a constitutionally mandated requirement that as a matter of must; a vote of confidence or no confidence must be taken.Dont forget that the National Executive presided over the then Acting Chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff issued a notice of convention at which the national executives of the Party consented to.That notice says that National Convention should hold in in Port-Harcourt in 3 months time which is in May, 2016.Now, if you agree that a national convention should hold and that elections to national offices should also hold at that convention, it means that you who sat to take that decision has accepted that you would surrender your mandate for that fresh election to hold.You cannot later complain and say Oh! You cannot remove me unless a vote of confidence is first passed. You have already decided that vote of confidence when you issued that notice of congress which included the mandate for National elections into elective offices of the Party to hold.So, those are the two background reasons that informed the decisions of the Supreme Court to not only uphold Article 47 but to also say that in this circumstance, vote of no confidence was not a strict requirement.
Etisalat Nigeria on Thursday announced a switch to a new brand name, 9Mobile.

The decision to use 9Mobile as the new brand name was taken at the end of a meeting of the telcos management in Lagos yesterday. Etisalat rebrands, now 9Mobile The network had debuted with the 0809 number plan in 2008, which may have informed use of the figure 9 in rebranding the network.The rebranded network, 9Mobile, is also expected to drop the domain name, www. etisalat. com.ng Etisalat International of the United Arab Emirates parted ways with its Nigerian partner, Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services Ltd, trading as Etisalat Nigeria in the wake of a crisis over a $1.2 billion loan package, which defied solutions.Last Monday, Hatem Dowidar, CEO of Etisalat International, announced that discussions were ongoing with Etisalat Nigeria to provide technical support; it can use the brand for another three weeks before phasing it out. This followed the termination of a management agreement with Etisalat Nigeria by its brand parent, Etisalat International.Dowidar added that all UAE shareholders of Etisalat Nigeria have exited the company and have left the board and management, including United Arab Emirates-owned investment fund, Mubadala. Etisalat Nigeria took out a $1.2 billion (N377.4 billion) loan with 13 Nigerian banks in 2013 to refinance an existing loan and fund expansion, but four years later, it was still struggling to repay the loans. Asked if the company will return to Nigeria, Dowidar said: The train has left the station on that one.Being in that market as an investor  are we willing to risk more money compared to the reward for the long-term? Etisalat is among the top two in markets such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt and Afghanistan.(Nigerian) lenders may try to continue to operate the company until they find a buyer (or) they may merge the company with the existing players in Nigeria.The coming of 9Mobile is similar to that of Vmobile (0802), though the driving circumstances are different. Following completion of the first round of GSM licensing, Econet Wireless Nigeria, EWN, started business with the 0802 number plan on August 5, 2001.All seemed well, until 2004, when after a shareholder dispute, the company was purchased by Vodacom of South Africa. Suddenly, Vodacom pulled out of the country in one of the shortest-lived corporate deals. The company quickly pulled itself together, and resumed trading as VMobile Nigeria, owned by Vee Networks Limited.As the year 2006 dawned, subscribers who were just getting used to the Vmobile brand name could not know that soon another brand name change was imminent. In May of that year, Celtel International, owned and promoted by a Sudanese electronics engineer, Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim, acquired majority equity in Vee Networks.Again, a little over two years after the Celtel brand had become entrenched, Mo Ibrahims Celtel International fell prey to another corporate investor, MTC Group of Kuwait, which later tranformed into the Zain Group.Zain effected another re-branding. Finally in March 2010, Bharti Airtel of India bought over Zains operations in Sub-Saharan Africa, which included Nigeria, and the company was renamed Airtel Nigeria, which it has been to date.
The Buhari Youth Organisation, Lagos State Chapter, has urged Gov. Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State to stop negative comments about President Muhammadu Buharis health.The State Coordinator and the General Secretary of the organisation, Mr Waheed Odunuga and Mr Adekunle Aderibigbe, respectively, made the appeal in a statement they jointly signed on Friday in Lagos.According to them, the governor should have left behind the 2015 Presidential election outcome and move forward in the interest of the nation.It is obvious that President Muhammadu Buhari is receiving treatment.The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has further reassured Nigerians that President Buhari would soon be back. So, there is no need for Fayose to create a hospital album for himself.The governor should desist from wasting time and resources to shop for pictures for the album of the ailing president that adds no value to his people, he said.The organisation urged Fayose to harness the inherent natural resources of his state and facilitate mechanised farming with well-irrigated lands to produce various cash crops.According to them, that will attract investors from within, like Kebbi partnered Lagos State, to produce LAKE Rice.The duo said that every state government should be concerned about the welfare and security of the people.Every state government should be saddled with the responsibilities of providing health care facilities, education, security of lives and properties and conducive environment for businesses to thrive.Most essentially, states need to generate revenue as the people; especially the poor, are looking up to them for dividends of democracy.
Nobel laureate and playwright, Wole Soyinka, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari against contesting for Presidency in 2019.He said despite his call that Buhari should not contest in 2019, Nigerians must ensure that the Presidents projects like the anti-corruption fight continues.In a video, where the playwright was seen addressing some youths, he said, My view right now is that Buhari needs to take a rest. I hope he doesnt put himself up for Presidency in 2019.But that doesnt mean that his programs and projects should take a rest.People can be very scornful by saying is it anti-corruption we are going to eat but it is up to us to see that programmes like the anti-corruption fight is empowered especially at a time when people are launching books.Soyinkas call is coming at a time when the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose called on the President to resign over his ill-health.After initially spending over 50 days on medical vacation in London, the President had in May returned to the United Kingdom, UK, for follow-up medical check-up and is yet to return.Against the backdrop of his current health status, both his media aides and associates have continued to assure Nigerians that the President was responding to treatment.Despite the assurance from the Presidency, the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose recently claimed that Buhari has been on life support since June, an allegation that has been generating heated controversy. 
GLOUCESTER TWP. -- A 25-year-old man was fatally struck by a 1998 Chevy Blazer in traffic on a busy six-lane highway Friday afternoon, a state police sergeant said.

The incident occurred in the northbound lanes of Route 42 near the College Drive exit at 2:57 p.m. Friday, said state police Sgt. Scowcroft of the Bellmawr barrack. No further information identifying the victim was immediately provided.

Scowcroft said an internet report that the victim was a robbery suspect fleeing was inaccurate. He said state police had no information about the victim being connected to a robbery.

A Gloucester Township police captain said they "are not releasing any information at this time" when asked about the incident. The officer said the state police are handling the investigation.

The driver remained on the scene after the collision. Scowcroft said no charges were immediately pending. Two of three northbound lanes on the busy, divided highway were blocked after the incident with one lane getting by. Traffic was backed up in both directions on the key corridor to the Jersey Shore after the accident.

Southbound traffic was slowed by a gaper delay and a heavy thunderstorm that hit shortly after the accident. At 5:50 p.m. Scowcroft said he expected the lanes to be blocked for at least another hour.

Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A fan of Krispy Kreme doughnuts?

Then maybe -- if you live or work in the vicinity of New York's Penn Station or the only New Jersey Krispy Kreme stores, located in Jersey City and Collingswood -- you're inclined to pick up a dozen every now and then.

On Friday, July 14, you can get a lot more bang for your doughnut buck. That is, if you can somehow make use of two dozen. To celebrate the 80th birthday of Krispy Kreme's original glazed doughnut, the chain is offering a dozen glazed doughnuts for 80 cents when customers buy any dozen of doughnuts.

You can call it a buy 12, get 12 almost free.

Newark native Shaquille O'Neal, who owns a Krispy Kreme store in Atlanta and recently told TMZ that he wants to own 99 more, gave out free glazed doughnuts in Times Square on Thursday to mark the birthday. He also appears in a video spot for the chain.

.@Shaq kicked off the #OriginalGlazed Doughnut's bday. Celebrate Friday- buy any dozen, get an Original Glazed dozen for 80 cents (US/CAN). pic.twitter.com/cbR1tgmW7y -- krispykreme (@krispykreme) July 10, 2017

To gauge which Krispy Kreme spot is nearest to you -- the doughnuts are also sold at some grocery and convenience stores -- visit the Krispy Kreme location search.

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- A Bayonne man has been charged with violating a restraining order by repeatedly calling a woman while he was locked up in the Hudson County jail in Kearny.

Carl Degnan, of West 44th Street, is charged with harassment in connection to the calls made to the woman from the jail over the course of three days, the criminal complaint says.

The woman told police she obtained a temporary restraining order against Degnan in Bayonne Municipal Court on June 9 but that he called her from the jail between June 27 and June 29, the complaint says.

The complaint does not say why Degnan is being held at the jail and an official at the facility said this afternoon that the correctional jail does not disclose charges.

Degnan made his first court appearance on the new charges Wednesday in Criminal Justice Reform Court in Jersey City vial video link from the jail.

At the hearing, the state moved to detain him through the course of his prosecution and a detention hearing is scheduled for Monday before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale.
JERSEY CITY - It's been three years since Det. Melvin Vincent Santiago was killed in the line of duty, but the city is still healing from the Sunday morning shooting that took the life of a rookie officer.

Santiago, 23, was shot responding to a robbery call at the Walgreens on Communipaw Avenue. The suspect, 27-year-old Lawrence Campbell, used a security guard's gun to kill Santiago. Campbell was shot and killed by police at the scene.

Despite some rain and gloomy weather more than 100 people- including police, fire, and city officials - gathered near the 13 flags in Liberty State Park to remember Santiago.

Cathy McBride, Santiago's mother, said Thursday morning was the first time she's been to Walgreen's since her son was gunned down. A ceremony was held in the parking lot at about 4 a.m., the time when he was killed.

In an emotional address, McBride said her son always dreamed of becoming a police officer. The day he died is still "fresh in (her) mind as if it was yesterday."

Santiago had dreams of becoming a cop, even at a young age to follow in his uncle's footsteps.

"This is all Melvin wanted to do," McBride said. "For six short months he got to do it and he loved it and I'm glad he got to do something for a short amount of time that he loved."

Many in attendance wore shirts in memory of Santiago. A moment of silence was also held in memory of NYPD officer Mosotis Familia, who was assassinated in the Bronx earlier this month.

Blue and white pedals were tossed into the Hudson River as the Jersey City and Port Authority police departments' Pipes and Drums played "Amazing Grace." Family, friends, and police officers comforted one another during the emotional ceremony.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- A Jersey City man who has already served two prison terms was sentenced to 10 years today for a robbery in which he held a screwdriver to a man's throat in Union City last year.

"His criminal history is one of violence," Hudson County Superior Court Judge Martha Royster said before sentencing Julio Ferrer-Laureano.

Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Andrew Baginski said that in January 2016, Julio Ferrer-Laureano approached a man in his 20s at Seventh Street and Central Avenue and asked for his cell phone. When the victim refused to turn it over, Julio Ferrer-Laureano put the man in a bear hug.

Julio Ferrer-Laureano, who is a very large man, then tried to pry the phone away while holding a screw driver to the victim's neck. During the scuffle, the screw driver slipped from his hand and the victim escaped.

"Fortunately, he only received scratches," Baginski said during the sentencing hearing. "It could have been a lot worse."

Ferrer-Laureano showed no remorse when he spoke at the hearing through a Spanish translator.

"I don't know what I am going to say to change anything, but I want to say God is going to ultimately determine what is going to happen," Ferrer-Laureano said. "I know God is going to manage what has to be done."

Ferrer-Laureano pleaded guilty to the armed robbery in February. He must serve more than eight years of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole. He has jail credit from the time of his arrest on Jan. 26, 2016 until today.

Court records indicate Ferrer-Laureano was sentenced to three years in prison in 2012 after pleading guilty to making terroristic threats. In 2005, he was sentenced to a seven-year term for robbery.

Royster said it's likely Ferrer-Laureano only has two convictions because he has been incarcerated so long. She said he must be deterred from committing further offenses. The judge said people must be able to feel physically safe and they must feel their property is safe.

Ferrer-Laureano was represented by defense attorney Christopher Gogan.
Two 20-year-olds were charged Friday with multiple counts of homicide in the killings of four young men who went missing last week in Bucks County.

Cosmo Dinardo, 20, of Bensalem, was charged in all four killings , according to court records. Sean Michael Kratz, 20, of Northeast Philadelphia, was charged in three of the homicides, authorities said.

The Bucks County District Attorney's Office released details of the killings Friday afternoon. All of the victims have been positively identified, said District Attorney Matthew Weintraub.

Cosmo Dinardo, left, and Sean Michael Kratz are charged in killings of four men in July 2017 in Solebury Township, Bucks County. (Courtesy photos | For lehighvalleylive.com)

The bodies were recovered on a sprawling property in Solebury Township owned by Dinardo's parents. One of them was found buried in a 6-feet-deep grave and the other three were found in a tank buried more than 12 feet underground in a separate spot, authorities said.

Dinardo is accused of killing Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township, on July 5, and burying him in a single grave on his parents' land.

Dinardo and Kratz are both charged with the July 7 slayings of Dean Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown Township; Thomas Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township; and Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, Montgomery County. Their bodies were found Wednesday in a 12-foot-deep common grave elsewhere on the same property.

All four men had been shot, according to a probable cause affidavit, which said the suspects both gave statements to police on Thursday.

Dinardo and Kratz are expected to be arraigned via video Friday afternoon before District Judge Maggie Snow of Buckingham Township.

The district attorney's office gave the following account:

According to the probable cause affidavit, Dinardo told investigators that he had agreed to sell Patrick four pounds of marijuana for $8,000. Dinardo said he picked up Patrick at Patrick's home in Newtown on July 5 and drove him to the Dinardo property at 6071 Lower York Road in Solebury, the affidavit says.

When they arrived, Dinardo said, Patrick had only $800, so Dinardo offered to sell him a shotgun for that amount, the affidavit says. They walked to a remote part of the property, where Dinardo said he fatally shot Patrick with a .22 caliber rifle, according to the affidavit.

Dinardo then drove a backhoe that was on the property to where Patrick lay, dug a hole no more than 6 feet deep and buried him, the affidavit states. Based on Dinardo's statement, investigators located Patrick's body in that grave late Thursday.

On July 7, Dinardo told investigators, he agreed to sell a quarter-pound of marijuana to Finocchiaro for about $700, the affidavit states. Dinardo first picked up Kratz, whom he described as his cousin, and drove to Finocchiaro's home in Middletown, agreeing on the way that they would rob him, the affidavit says.

Dinardo said he gave Kratz a .357 handgun belonging to his mother, and then drove all three to the Solebury property. According to the affidavit, he said Kratz shot Finocchiaro in the head as they were leaving a barn on the site. Dinardo told investigators he then took the gun and shot Finocchiaro a second time as the victim lay on the ground.

Also on July 7, Dinardo said he met Meo and Sturgis at a church parking lot in Peddlers Village, a short distance west of the Dinardo property on Route 202 in Lahaska, the court records say. Dinardo told investigators that he had a marijuana "deal" set up with Meo, according to the affidavit.

Meo and Sturgis followed Dinardo to the Solebury property in Meo's Nissan Maxima, Dinardo told investigators, the documents say. After parking the Nissan at 2827 Aquetong Road, Meo and Sturgis rode with Dinardo in his truck to the adjacent Lower York Road property, where Kratz awaited, the affidavit states.

After the men exited the truck, Dinardo said, he shot Meo in the back with the .357 handgun, then fired several times at Sturgis as he fled, felling him, the affidavit states. Dinardo said he then ran over Meo with the backhoe before using it to lift both bodies into a metal tank where he already had placed Finocchiaro's corpse, the court records say..

The following day, Dinardo told police, he and Kratz returned to the property, where Dinardo used the backhoe to dig a deep hole and bury the tank containing the three bodies, the affidavit says.

Kratz gave a similar statement to detectives on Thursday night, the affidavit says, but said that it was Dinardo who shot Finocchiaro, not him.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
HOPEWELL -- A 23-year-old Ewing man was thrown from his car and killed in an early morning crash on Interstate 95 Friday, officials said.

Dylan Kathiari was killed in the single car crash at 5:44 a.m. in the southbound lanes of the highway in Hopewell Township at mile marker 4.8, New Jersey State Police said.

According to State Police, Kathiari's Toyota Avalon veered to the left of the road and overturned.

Kathiari was ejected from the car and suffered from fatal injuries, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation.

Olivia Rizzo may be reached at orizzo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LivRizz. Find NJ.com on Facebook
KEANSBURG-- Authorities in Monmouth County said Friday they have arrested and charged a man with the killing of an 11-year-old Keansburg girl.

Andreas Erazo, 18, has been charged in the girl's death, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said. Erazo lives upstairs in the same apartment building as the victim, 11-year-old AbbieGail "Abbie" Smith.

He is expected to appear before Superior Court Judge Richard English on Friday afternoon for a detention hearing.

The Middlesex Regional Medical Examiner's Officer is expected to conduct an autopsy later Friday to determine AbbieGail's cause of death.

AbbieGail was found in a rear area of the Hancock Arms apartments, where she lived with her mother. The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said previously her death was being investigated as a homicide.

Abbiegail's mother first reported her missing Wednesday night. During the course of the search, the prosecutor's office was called in to assist.

Authorities said earlier Thursday that no member of her immediate family appeared to be involved in her death. Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni also sought to reassure the shaken community after Abbiegail's body was discovered.

"We have no reason to believe that you or your child should be worried," Gramiccioni said to a parent during a news conference, describing Abbiegail's killing as "an isolated crime."

In a statement, John Niesz, superintendent of the Keansburg school district, said the community has "suffered a tragic loss." The school district will provide grief counselors at Bolger Middle School, where Smith was a student, he said.

"AbbieGail was a wonderful young girl who was a Titan through and through," Niesz said. "She will be greatly missed by the entire Keansburg School District family, especially her friends and teachers."

Investigators with the prosecutor's office got involved in the investigation, at about 5 a.m. Thursday.

MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at mspoto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
KEANSBURG -- Community members in the borough are in shock over the killing of an 11-year-old girl, who was found dead Thursday morning.

At about 10:45 a.m. Thursday, authorities found the body of AbbieGail "Abbie" Smith in "the back area" of the Hancock Arms Apartments in Keansburg, where Smith lived with her mother, officials said. Her death is being investigated as a homicide, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said.

After news broke of her death, neighbors described Smith, a student at Bolger Middle School, as an everyday young girl who could frequently be seen playing outside or riding her bicycle down the street. Many remembered her as friendly and kind.

As he watched authorities investigate the scene, Edward Paradia, who has lived in an apartment complex across the street for nine years, described Smith as a "pleasant and wonderful" child. He said he would often see her playing outside with other youth in the area.

Holding back tears, he called Smith's family "happy and loving."

While he showed confidence that authorities would catch the killer, Paradia, 53, said community members are frightened by the slaying.

"Everyone is a mental wreck," he said. "It's just a shock to everybody."

In a statement, John Niesz, superintendent of the Keansburg school district, said the community has "suffered a tragic loss." The school district will provide grief counselors at Bolger Middle School, where Smith was a student, he said.

"AbbieGail was a wonderful young girl who was a Titan through and through," Niesz said. "She will be greatly missed by the entire Keansburg School District family, especially her friends and teachers."

Smith was last seen in her apartment at about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, officials said.

The girl's mother called police to report her missing at about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, officials said. Investigators with the prosecutor's office got involved in the investigation, at about 5 a.m. Thursday.

"It's a punch in the gut for all of us in this community, especially with law enforcement," Gramiccioni said at a news conference in front of the apartment complex where the girl was found. Authorities have not said how Smith died.

At the news conference, Gramiccioni said authorities do not suspect an immediate family member was involved in Smith's death. Authorities have not announced any arrests in the killing.

Smith's family could not be reached for comment.

As she watched police work from across the street, Cindy Enslia, 57, of the borough, called the killing a tragedy. Enslia, who has a daughter, said she is praying for the girl's family.

"Just as a mom, I mean, this is terrible," Enslia said. "It's the most tragic thing a mother could ever have to face."

"This world, I'll tell you, it's getting so crazy," she added.

Alice Stralkus, 60, and James King, 62, who live near where investigators set up the crime scene Thursday, expressed similar shock over Smith's death. The two remembered her as a friendly, regular child.

"I wish the person who did this would turn themselves in," Stralkus said. "I feel so bad for her mother."

Staff writer Alex Napoliello contributed to this report.

Luke Nozicka may be reached at lnozicka@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @lukenozicka.

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The Senate's health care bill has so many awful features it's difficult to know where to start. The Medicaid cuts are as heartless as those in the House version, and that part alone would cause 14 million Americans to lose coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House bill.

The rest of the Senate bill is even worse, which is what happens when you draft a bill of this enormous importance in a rush, behind closed doors.

Today, let's look at the amendment offered by Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas firebrand so despised by his colleagues that Sen. Lindsey Graham, a fellow Republican, once said, "If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, no one would convict you."

Cruz's amendment would eviscerate protections for people with pre-existing conditions, like cancer, asthma, or diabetes. If he carries the day, and you or a family member become sick, the cost of your insurance will skyrocket, according to insurers and health economists who has examined the question.

In the House version, New Jersey's own Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-3rd) stripped away some of the protections for this group in an unforgivable stunt to win votes from the his most conservative colleagues. Cruz now puts that effort into hyper-drive.

Here's his scheme, boiled down: Cruz wants to give insurers the right to offer bare-bones insurance plans that cover only catastrophic care, and exclude coverage for any of these conditions. For those who are young and healthy, it would make sense to switch, since the skimpy plans would be cheap.

But consider the impact on everyone else. With the younger and healthier crowd gone, those left behind would be older and sicker, on average. Insurers would have no choice but to charge them more, given the higher medical bills. So, the young and healthy would pay less, and the sicker and older would pay more.

Insurers warn this would cause a "death spiral" as more and more healthy people flee the high-risk pool, leaving an even sicker pool of patients behind, and forcing rates up even more. The American Association of Retired Persons is banging alarms, too, warning of much higher costs to anyone over 50, given the higher risk.

The amendment will do nothing to lower overall health costs; it only creates winners and losers. It helps the healthy, and hurts the sick. It helps the young and hurts the old. It is the medical equivalent of giving tax breaks to the rich, while cutting food stamps for the poor. And if it creates the kind of chaos that insurers predict, it would make losers of us all.

The chances are this bill will fail. Let's hope so.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
Senate Republicans unveiled their newest health care bill Thursday as they continue the desperate attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare.

The new bill includes major changes to the original, including allowing insurers offering plans to also offer cheaper, more bare-bones policies.

The reworked bill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, presented also aims to placate moderates by adding funding to combat opioid abuse and help consumers with skyrocketing insurance costs.

Right off the bat, the new bill lost two key votes, leaving one to spare, putting the seven-year pledge to kill Obamacare in jeopardy.

Moderate Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she had told McConnell she would be voting against beginning debate on the bill, citing in part cuts in the Medicaid health program for the poor and disabled.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky also said he was a "no." He has repeatedly complained that McConnell's efforts don't amount to a full-blown repeal of Obamacare.

Democrats are unanimously opposed to the bills that have been put forth by the GOP leaders.

The vote is set for next week, but could be canceled if McConnell believes he will be short of support.

Do you think the Republicans should pass the reworked health care bill?

Vote in our informal, unscientific poll and tell us how you voted in the comments.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen's latest campaign finance disclosure report showed an unusual expenditure for him: $27,120 for legal fees.

The first expenditure was made May 23, a week after a watchdog group filed an ethics complaint against him, Federal Election Commission reports show.

The Campaign for Accountability, some of whose advisory board members have Democratic ties, asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether Frelinghuysen violated House rules by singling out a member of an opposition group to her employer.

Richard W. Painter, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota and former chief ethics officer to President George W. Bush, called Frelinghuysen's actions "not illegal but an awful thing to do."

Frelinghuysen hired the law firm of Wiley Rein, whose election law and government ethics experts include Jan Witold Baran, who was then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich's lawyer during his investigation by the House Ethics Committee, and Michael Toner, former Federal Election Commission chairman.

The activist in question, Sally Avelenda was a senior vice president and assistant general counsel at Lakeland Bank.

Frelinghuysen in March appended a postscript to a fundraising letter to a member of the bank's board, calling her one of the "ringleaders" of NJ 11th for Change, a group that has been demanding an in-person town hall meeting with the congressman. She later resigned her bank post.

David Wasserman, who follows House races for the Cook Political Report, which rates Frelinghuysen as being in a competitive contest, called the incident "the kind of error that someone who hasn't had a competitive race in a long time makes, and traditionally, it hasn't turned out well for the incumbent."

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ran a digital ad campaign Tuesday against Frelinghuysen over the issue.

The most powerful member of the New Jersey congressional delegation, Frelinghuysen represents a district that Donald Trump carried last fall with less than 50 percent of the vote.

Two Democrats, Mikie Sherill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, and Passaic County Freeholder John Bartlett, are seeking the Democratic nomination. Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex) is considering entering the race as well.
TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie has signed into law a bill that will allow virtually anyone who ever wore a badge to carry a firearm in New Jersey after they retire.

The new bill, signed Thursday, substantially adds to the list of those who can carry firearms in New Jersey to virtually all former uniformed law enforcement officers.

Previously, only interstate, state and local police officers, county sheriff's deputies or corrections officers and state or or county park police officers were allowed to continue to carry their firearms into retirement.

"We've had many instances where retired law enforcement officers have stepped in to save lives in emergencies" said state Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R-Monmouth), one of the bill's sponsors. "With this law, we're expanding that pool of qualified people."

Not all lawmakers went along with the expansion willingly.

"There's no solid reason for this," said former state Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex), who voted against the bill in the upper house, where it passed in May by a vote of 28-6.

Codey, a former governor, questioned whether low-risk professions like park rangers and revenue agents ought to be toting firearms after handing in their badges.

"When, during their performances of duty, did they have to use a gun?" Codey asked. "Rarely, if ever. ... It just expands the number of people who are out there with guns, and that never ends up to anything good."

On Thursday, O'Scanlon blasted Codey's opposition to the law.

"I can't think of a more ignorant statement," O'Scanlon said. "What the hell is there to argue with here? It's a slap into he face of these well-trained retired officers that he belittles their skill, training and dedication."

Under a federal law enacted in 2004, the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act (LEOSA) qualified retired law enforcement officers are permitted to carry a concealed firearm in most jurisdictions in the United States.

But in 2005, the New Jersey attorney general determined that it "not alter the obligation of retired New Jersey law enforcement officers to comply" with state laws proscribing who can carry a firearm.

The new law now also applies to retired police officers of the state park police, special agents of the Division of Taxation, Department of Human Services, NJ Transit, campus police officers employed by higher education institutions, state conservation officers, Palisades Interstate park police officers, housing authority police officers, juvenile corrections officers, parole officers and even full time Burlington County Bridge police officers.

They can all to continue to carry a gun in retirement, until age 75. However, all such officers must qualify semiannually on firearms proficiency exam.

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump, who pledged during the campaign that no one would lose health insurance, threw his support in a big way behind Senate Republican legislation that could leave 22 million more Americans without coverage.

Trump used his weekly address to endorse the Senate GOP bill, which also broke another of his campaign promises by cutting Medicaid by $772 billion over 10 years and even more after that.

"The Senate health care bill stops the Obamacare disaster, expands choice, and drives down costs," Trump said. "And I want to tell you the Republican senators are working very hard to get something that's going to be really, really good."

The Senate bill closely tracks House Republican legislation that Trump called "mean" after he celebrated its passage at the White House.

A revised version of the Senate Republican legislation, drafted in secret without committee hearings or public debate, is expected to be voted on next week.

The Better Care Reconciliation Act would phase out the enhanced federal funds for New Jersey and other states that expanded health coverage, and provide a fixed sum to states regardless of need rather than providing funds for every recipient enrolled under the federal-state program.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) abandoned plans to vote on the original bill before the July 4 recess due to lack of support.

Trump also sent out a series of tweets in support of the measure.

Republicans Senators are working hard to get their failed ObamaCare replacement approved. I will be at my desk, pen in hand!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2017

So impt Rep Senators, under leadership of @SenateMajLdr McConnell get healthcare plan approved. After 7yrs of O'Care disaster, must happen!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2017

After all of these years of suffering thru ObamaCare, Republican Senators must come through as they have promised!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2017

.@VP Mike Pence is working hard on HealthCare and getting our wonderful Republican Senators to do what is right for the people.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2017

In his weekly address, Trump claimed that Senate bill "maintains Medicaid coverage for every single elderly American, disabled American, and American child who is currently on the program."

Under the similar House GOP measure, however, New Jersey taxpayers would have to pay an additional $810 million to cover the 560,000 residents now receiving health care under the Medicaid expansion, according to the Center on Budget and Priorities, a Washington-based progressive research group.

Trump and congressional Republicans have insisted that the current Affordable Care Act was failing and therefore needed to be replaced.

Independent studies from the Congressional Budget Office and the Kaiser Family Foundation have said that those arguments weren't true, and that the insurance marketplaces were stable in most areas.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
BRIDGEWATER -- A public works employee has filed a lawsuit against the township, alleging his bosses did nothing to stop the racial taunts to which he and others were subjected.

Mark Garcia, who was born in the U.S. but is of Mexican descent, said he was passed over for a promotion in favor of a white man who wasn't properly licensed, according to NJ101.5.com.

Garcia alleges there was a "culture of discrimination, harassment and retaliation" against Hispanic and black employees in the department of public works.

Bridgewater officials responded to the suit by saying they investigated Garcia's complaint and took "remedial actions," the radio station's report said.

According to the suit, one of Garcia's co-workers asked him if he ate "Taco Bell or rice and beans for dinner," while also saying, "at least I'm a citizen."

When Garcia complained, he and the co-worker each allegedly received a one-day suspension.

A general foreman frequently used a racial slurs for African-Americans, according to the lawsuit. The supervisor also allegedly said a black employee was auditioning for "The Planet of Apes" when the man missed a day of work.

In another instance, a Hispanic contractor was referred to as a "wetback."

Those employees and supervisors weren't disciplined, the suit said.

Garcia added that he was called a "rat" when he complained.

Township administrator James T. Naples responded to NJ Advance Media's request for comment with an emailed statement that read:

"On advice of counsel we cannot comment on matters of litigation. The township takes all accusations of discrimination seriously, all claims were fully investigated and addressed. The facts will bear witness to this during the judicial proceedings."

Garcia's attorney, Nancy Erika Smith of Smith Mullin in Montclair, wasn't immediately available for comment.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
ELIZABETH -- Dawud Hicks was star wrestler at Plainfield High School who had colleges around the country pursuing him, his father Dawud Hicks Sr., said in court Friday.

"He had so many opportunities," the father said.

That all ended on Dec. 3, 2013 when the son, then 21, was shot and killed on Manson Place in Plainfield.

On Friday, the son's admitted killer, Lavarr Nowell, 25, was sentenced to 20 years in prison as part of a plea agreement.

"He has gotten the benefit of a very generous plea offer," Union County Assistant Prosecutor Colleen Ruppert told Superior Court Judge Stuart Peim. "This was a murder. (Nowell) lie in waiting for this victim, and then got out of a car and shot him."

Nowell, who also lived in Plainfield, and a co-defendant, Julian Robinson, 26, of Newark, were both tried for Hicks' murder. Robinson was found not guilty. Nowell was convicted of unlawful possession of a weapon, but the jury failed to reach a verdict on the murder charge.

After the trial, Nowell agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree aggravated manslaughter.

Peim, who presided over the trial, said it "was a very difficult case to prove" because witnesses claimed they could not recall the events surrounding the shooting.

In a statement to the judge, Dawud Hicks Sr. said Nowell chased his son "down the road like a dog," shooting him twice.

"This man devastated our community," the father said. "To let him off with anything less than the maximum is a disgrace to my family, to our community. This is going to happen again. He's going to be back here."

Nowell, when given the chance to comment before being sentenced, looked at Hicks' father sitting in the audience and softly said, "I apologize."

Ruppert said Nowell only accepted responsibility for the shooting after reaching the plea agreement.

Peim called the killing an "execution."

"As for the family (of the victim), my heart breaks for you," Peim said. "There's no punishment that's going to make this feel better."

However, Peim said the sentence "took a dangerous person off the street."

Peim said Nowell must serve 85 percent of his sentence before being eligible for parole.

While in high school, the younger Hicks competed in two state wrestling tournaments, and was the number two seed in the 2011 competition, finishing sixth.

After graduating Plainfield High School in 2011, Hicks went on to Iowa Central Community College, one of the best junior college wrestling programs in the country. However, he left the school and returned to New Jersey, enrolling in Middlesex County College to be closer to home, his father said.

On the night of the shooting, Hicks was shot at about 9 p.m. Police responded to the scene and Hicks was taken to a hospital where he died about 30 minutes later, authorities said.

Nowell was arrested two months later, in February 2014. Investigators later developed evidence against Robinson and charged him in 2015.

Tom Haydon may be reached at thaydon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Tom_HaydonSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
ELIZABETH -- A man accused of with making racially charged threats - including at least one death threat - to his neighbors was sentenced Friday to three years in prison.

Superior Court Judge John Deitch imposed the sentence on Glenn Miller, 59, of Union Township, who had previously pleaded guilty to a second-degree bias intimidation, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace Park said in a statement.

According to police, on March 3, a married couple who are Miller's neighbors, called police to report that Miller had parked his truck on the grass divider between the curb and sidewalk directly in front of their home.

Police issued Miller a traffic summons, but four days later, on March 7, police again responded to the victims' home for the same reason, finding Miller's truck parked in the same place, said Union County Assistant Prosecutor Barnes, head of the prosecutor's office Bias Crimes Unit.

When confronted by the victims and police, Miller directed numerous expletives and racial slurs at the victims, and on one occasion, threatened to kill the husband and sexually assault his wife, said Barnes, who prosecuted the case. The husband and wife are African-American.

Barnes said Union Township Officer Chris Scudeiri arrested Miller on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest following the March 7 incident.

Miller was released, but police again arrested him later that month on bias charges. Miller was held in the Union County jail since that arrest.

At a detention hearing last March, Barnes said that Miller told the neighbors, "You don't belong here. I'm going to get my Aryan brothers."

Barnes said under state law, a person is guilty of bias intimidation for threats to commit crimes with the purpose of intimidating people because of their race, color, religion, gender, disability or sexual orientation.

"This was an attempt to terrorize people based on their race," Barnes said.

He said that prior to sentencing, statements written by each of the victims - describing the impact Miller's actions had on their emotional well-being - were read into the record.

Miller, who apologized to the victims in a brief statement before the sentence was imposed, was also ordered to have no future contact with the couple, Barnes said.

Tom Haydon may be reached at thaydon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Tom_HaydonSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
ELIZABETH -- A Roselle man who pleaded guilty to possessing and sharing hundreds of videos and pictures of child pornography was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday.

Dimas Zuniga, 45, of Roselle, had approximately 350 videos and images of child pornography, according to Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino.

Zuniga admitted he knowingly used file-sharing software to make files containing child pornography available for other users to download from a designated folder on his computer, Porrino said.

Zuniga was arrested after a search warrant was executed at his home in March 2016 during "Operation Safeguard," a child pornography sweep conducted by the Division of Criminal Justice, ICE Homeland Security Investigations and the New Jersey State Police, Porrino said. Sixteen men were charged in the investigation.

Zuniga was indicted on Jan. 19. On June 5, he pleaded guilty on June 5 to a second-degree charge of distribution of child pornography.

On Friday, Union County Superior Court Judge Lisa Miralles Walsh sentenced Zuniga to five years in state prison.

Zuniga will also be required to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life, Porrino said.

Porrino said a New Jersey State Police detective had downloaded videos from a shared folder at an IP address traced to Zuniga. When authorities executed a search warrant at Zuniga's home, detectives took his computer equipment, including a hard drive that contained approximately 350 files of child pornography, he said.

During Operation Safeguard, investigators monitored several online file-sharing networks, searching for telltale digital "fingerprints" and search terms popular with offenders who download and trade child pornography, Porrino said.

Another Union County man, Burt G. Harvey-Martinez, 35, of Elizabeth, was also charged in the bust. When authorities executed a search warrant at Harvey-Martinez's home on July 19, 2016, they seized his laptop computer, which had 1,459 files of suspected child pornography in a shared folder, Porrino said previously.

"Child pornography is a product that is manufactured by torturing and sexually exploiting young children, and criminals like Zuniga who distribute this product online contribute directly to that exploitation," said Porrino. "By sending offenders like Zuniga to prison, we hammer home the message that this is a very serious crime that will be met with stern punishment."

Porrino urged anyone who has information about the distribution of child pornography on the Internet or who suspects improper contact by unknown persons communicating with children via the Internet or possible exploitation or sexual abuse of children to contact the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Tipline at 888-648-6007.

Jessica Remo may be reached at jremo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessicaRemoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
More than 400 people, including an Omaha dentist, have been indicted in the largest crackdown on health care fraud on record, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The cases involve more than $1.3 billion in falsified billings, many for narcotics and opioids that have helped fuel the nations drug crisis, federal officials said Thursday.

Omaha dentist Gregory Garro Jr. has been indicted on 24 counts of health care fraud related to the Nebraska Medicaid program. Federal officials say he submitted claims and received reimbursements for dental services he didnt provide.

Garro, 58, declined to comment, according to a person answering the phone at his office.

The indictment alleges that Garro received $82,554 for 129 claims in dental services that he did not provide between February 2013 and January 2016. The maximum penalty on each count is 10 years imprisonment plus a $250,000 fine. His initial appearance in federal court is scheduled for July 24 in Lincoln.

In southwest Iowa, U.S. Attorney Kevin VanderSchel in the Southern District of Iowa said five people were indicted in two schemes involving the distribution of opioids. He said Shawne Marie Widener, 47, of Hamburg is charged with multiple counts of possession with intent to distribute hydrocodone and oxycodone. Charged with conspiracy and distribution of the drugs are Mark Edward May, 31; Chiann May Jones, 32; Clara Ann Milks, 37; and Jeremiah Jones, 40, all of Missouri Valley.

Nationally, 412 people were indicted on charges of falsely prescribing opioids and other narcotics, health care fraud, money laundering and violations of anti-kickback statutes. Of those indicted, 115 were doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals.

As part of Thursdays announcement, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is suspending payment to 295 providers, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists.

The investigation focused on schemes that took advantage of three federal programs: Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE  a health insurance program for members and veterans of the armed forces and their families.

Also indicted were people who recruited patients for unneeded services and family members who supplied beneficiary information to health care providers to use in fraudulent medical bills. The recruiters and family members were paid cash kickbacks, according to the Justice Department.

Health care fraud is a problem nationwide, and Nebraska is not immune from it, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said in a statement announcing the indictments.

The investigation was undertaken by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which includes more than 20 state Medicaid fraud control units.

This report contains material from the Associated Press.
The man charged in the death of a passenger in the van he was driving was drunk and speeding last week when he lost control of the vehicle, which hit a guardrail and a bridge abutment before it rolled and caught fire, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Nemias Garcia-Velasco, 32, has been charged with motor vehicle homicide in the death of Silvano Torres, 58. A judge set his bail at $2 million.

When he asked for a high bail amount, prosecutor Ryan Lindberg of the Douglas County Attorney's Office said Garcia-Velasco was in the United States illegally and had been deported five times before.

Garcia-Velasco was going over 100 mph about 1 p.m. last Wednesday when he lost control of a 2001 Dodge Ram work van as he headed west on Interstate 80 near the Interstate 680 split, Lindberg said. Garcia-Velasco told officers he had consumed 12 beers the previous evening into the morning of the crash, the prosecutor said.

Garcia-Velasco's blood-alcohol level was .243 when it was checked at a hospital following the crash, Lindberg said.

Torres was riding unrestrained in the cargo area of the van and was declared dead at the scene. Front-seat passenger Jesus I. Gonzalez, 16, was treated at the hospital and released the day of the crash. Garcia-Velasco was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center with severe burns. He later was released and booked into jail.
The Charles E. Lakin Human Services Campus will hold its 10th annual Back to School Extravaganza, helping local families prepare for a return to the classroom, on Aug. 18.

The event, held on a Friday afternoon from 2 to 5 p.m., gives children a free backpack with school supplies made possible through donations and volunteer efforts. Information is also available on the services available at the campus and elsewhere in the community.

Advanced registration is required, and the event is limited to between 700 and 750 students. Sign up will be at The Salvation Army, 715 N. 16th St., on a first-come basis from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 7, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 8 and 5 to 7 p.m. Aug. 9. The Aug. 18 event will be in the gym between the Boys & Girls Club and The Salvation Army.

The Back to School Extravaganza, held in the gym between the Boys & Girls Club and The Salvation Army, is open to any Iowa family in Council Bluffs or surrounding communities, including outside Pottawattamie County, with no income requirement.

Families must have children who will be attending kindergarten through 12th grade.

Students must be present or have proof of registration from a school and proof of Iowa residency.

The event is sponsored by American Red Cross Loess Hills Chapter, Boys & Girls Clubs of Council Bluffs, Heartland Family Service, The Salvation Army and the Micah House. Members of the community also contributed donations.
CHI Health Mercy Hospital is joining a national campaign to educate the public on how to control bleeding.

Someone can die from uncontrolled bleeding in as little as five minutes, according to a press release from CHI Health. That means a bystander probably needs to stop it before first responders arrive.

The No. 1 cause of preventable death in trauma is uncontrolled bleeding, said Nikki Rauth, supervisor of trauma and EMS services at Mercy.

The purpose of Stop the Bleed is to prepare people to stop serious bleeding in an emergency  just as people perform CPR or use an AED to restart someones heart, said Barb Roenfeld, director of emergency services at Mercy.

Its really the trauma equivalent of CPR, she said.

The campaign grew out of concerns after the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, Roenfeld said. The Dec. 14, 2012, tragedy killed 20 children and six staff members. Law enforcement officers, health care officials and government representatives gathered to discuss what could be done.

There was a real recognition that, when you have a mass casualty event, law enforcement and paramedics cant get there right away, she said.

Stop the Bleed was initiated by a federal interagency work group formed by National Security Council staff and the White House, the CHI press release stated.

The Loess Hills Health Care Coalition awarded Mercy a $25,639 grant to take the lead in teaching other area health care workers how to train nonmedical people on the lifesaving skills needed, Roenfeld said. The labor and management Mercy provides will serve as a match for the grant, she said.

Mercy has already talked to Council Bluffs Community School District, Iowa Western Community College and the Mid-America Center about partnering on the project, Roenfeld said.

We really want to engage the community in the campaign, she said.

Added Rauth, Ive reached out to county EMS organizations to partner with them, as well.

The training and supplies could prove critical in industrial accidents, vehicle crashes and other traumatic events  not just in mass shootings, she said.

Some Mercy staff members have attended classes to become trainers and have already trained small groups at Iowa Western, Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital and some EMS services in the county, said Katie Morse, supervisor of clinical education at Mercys chest pain center.

So far, training has targeted people with a medical background, but future sessions will also take aim at nonmedical staff at Mercy, Roenfeld said.

That will include security staff, workers at registration desks, gift shop personnel and others. She said other staff who would like the training will be given an opportunity to take it.

Mercy will partner with local emergency medical services workers to train people at area high schools, other hospitals, colleges and arenas, Roenfeld said. The hospital will provide kits to a limited number of organizations, but they are expensive. A package of eight kits appropriate for a workplace or other large facility costs up to $950, she said.

Thats the kit that, if you run an organization, you would want that hanging on your wall next to the AED, she said.

Each individual kit contains a combat-application tourniquet, one emergency trauma dressing, two patches of compressed gauze, one bleeding control patch, two pairs of protective gloves, one pair of trauma shears, one permanent marker and one instruction card.

The tourniquet has a strap to wrap around a persons limb that can be fastened with Velcro and a windlass rod that can be used to further tighten the strap, then locked in place by placing one end in a plastic hook.

It can be very painful when blood is cut off, Morse said.

Said Rauth, You want to shut off the blood completely to that portion of the extremity thats injured. If you put a tourniquet on and its not tight enough, it can cause additional bleeding.

The marker is provided so the rescuer can write the time the tourniquet was applied on a white strip on the tourniquet, Roenfeld said. That information will be helpful to first responders when they arrive.

During training, participants will learn how to help others, as well as how to stop their own bleeding, if necessary, she said. The information could prove especially valuable in rural areas, where response times are generally longer.

The whole goal of it is, its geared to the general public, so its very simple, Morse said.

Said Roenfeld, Its really to have as many people as possible with the knowledge and the tools.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa has called for Donald Trump Jr. and former Donald Trump Sr. campaign manager Paul Manafort to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Republican, chair of the committee, said he will send a letter to Donald Trump Jr. to ask him to testify. The senator said hed subpoena the presidents eldest son if necessary.

The Iowa Republican says he wants Trump Jr. to appear pretty soon, and it could be as early as next week.

Trump Jr. released emails this week from 2016 in which he appeared eager to accept information from the Russian government that could have damaged Hillary Clintons campaign. Trump Jr., Manafort and Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and a top advisor, met with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya in June of 2016.

Trump Jr. has said the discussion centered on the adoption of children from Russia by U.S. parents. The Magnitsky Act, a 2012 act that banned Russians determined to have participated in human rights violations from entering the U.S. Russia in turn placed a ban on Americans adopting Russian children.

Veselnitskaya has denied being a Russian government official.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is investigating Russian meddling in the U.S. election. Grassley wouldnt say what he wants to hear from the presidents eldest son, but said members arent restricted from asking anything they want to ask.

Grassley said Wednesday during his weekly press call that the committee already planned to call Manafort to testify because of his involvements with foreign governments.

My motive for bringing him to the committee is because of other involvements  with whether or not the Foreign Agents Registration Act has been adequately enforced by this administration and the Obama administration, Grassley said. Its been lackadaisical enforcement.

Grassley said the committee would subpoena Manafort if necessary.

Manafort disclosed the meeting in a package of information he provided to the Senate and House intelligence committees, who have been investigating potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, as is Robert Mueller, the former FBI director appointed by the Justice Department as the special counsel.

Itd be appropriate for anybody to get into anything that went on at that meeting, Grassley said of the committees potential questioning of Manafort.

Grassley has also called for an investigation into how and why Veselnitskaya was in the country in June of 2016. Veselnitskayas travel visa expired in January of 2016, according to the senator. There was a complaint against Veselnitskaya and her colleague for not filing as Russian agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Asked if the investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign is a media-created controversy, Grassley said the investigations by Mueller and four Congressional committees are the answers to your questions.

Were pursuing it not because of (the media), he said. Thats what all this oversight is about.

On Tuesday, Trump Jr. disclosed on Twitter a series of emails that revealed his eagerness to hear negative material on Clinton from a Russian lawyer.

The exchange showed Trump Jr. conversing with a music publicist who wanted him to meet with a Russian government attorney who supposedly had dirt on Clinton as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump. He was told the Russian government had information that could incriminate Clinton and her dealings with Russia.

If its what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer, Trump Jr. said in one email response.

In an interview before departing Wednesday evening for France, Trump told Reuters that he didnt know about the meeting until a couple of days ago when I heard about this. He also said that he didnt fault his son for attending. I think many people would have held that meeting, he said.

Trump also said in a tweet that his son was open, transparent and innocent and again dismissed the ongoing Russia investigation as the greatest Witch Hunt in political history.

During testimony before the Judiciary Committee Wednesday, Christopher Wray, the Trump administrations pick to head the FBI, said the investigation is not a witch hunt.

In separate news on the investigation into Russian meddling in the election, Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said his panel wants to look at the use of Russian social media trolls and whether they were connected to the Trump election campaign. That concern is certainly something we want to explore, along with the Trump campaigns data analytics, Schiff said.

Trumps son-in-law, Kushner, oversaw digital strategy for the campaign.

One of the biggest crimes were looking at is the hacking of data, so understanding how it was used certainly needs to be part of the investigation, said Rep. Eric Swalwell, another Democratic member of the committee. We want to understand what data was hacked, where it was stored and if it was weaponized at all, whether it was by Russia or the campaign.

 Chad Day and Eric Tucker of the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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The first week-long Gedling Arts Festival opens on Monday with a music, visual arts, literature and crafts programme and bill-toppers including Stephen Booth, the Notts-based crime writer, and novelist Eve Makis.

The multi-venue event has grown out of Gedling Book Festival with the backing of several local arts organisations, Gedling borough councillors, Arnold Methodist Church and Gedling Homes.

It started five years ago with the first Gedling Book Festival, said joint organiser Julie Malone, the Arnold-based novelist and leading light in New Writers UK, another of the events supporters.

It was an open-air event in Arnot Hill Park and the next year it was a two-day festival at Bonington Theatre and the Civic Centre. Then we went to Arnold Hill House and after that we thought about making it more accessible by opening it to other arts as well as literature.

That really worked last year and people took a lot more notice of what was actually happening.

Gedling Borough Council leader Councillor John Clarke is a major supporter of the festival. Between local government meetings he has been out on the streets, handing out leaflets for an event that he believes showcases the talent on offer in the borough.

It was a festival that needed to expand, he said, and that has been achieved on a shoestring. I think this years programme will inspire local people to find something so close to their homes that they can walk to it.

The festival has spread out of the Arnold area into other corners of the borough. The Gedling Homes tenants arts exhibition, for instance, will be held all week at the Richard Herrod Centre in Foxhill Road, Carlton.

Monday, the first day of the festival, offers a variety of events ranging from willow weaving sessions in the bowls pavilion at Arnot Hill Park to a music, drama and dance performance, also in the park, by students of Redhill Academy. In the evening, Arnold Library hosts A Gathering of Poets, with Joy James and Jan Cummings.

(Image: Matthew Page)

Ponds Hill Lane Community Centre is another important venue, hosting Arnold Arts Society open sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday and a members exhibition next weekend, July 22 and 23.

The festival retains its literary flavour with Stephen Booth leading a Wednesday workshop at the Bonington Theatre on the theme: Could you write a thriller? The session is followed by a talk in which he explains how he researches his storylines. Earlier in the same day, at the same venue, novelist Eve Makis talks about her work.

Julie Malone hosts a childrens writing workshop at Arnold Library on Thursday. Other contributors during the week include childrens author Ian C Douglas, writer David J Howe and actor and writer Ashley Bates.

The musical highlights include a joint concert at the Richard Herrod Centre on Thursday by Bestwood and Carlton Male Voice Choirs.

Footnote: For details of these and all Gedling Arts Festival events, visit http://www.gedling.gov.uk/leisure/artseventsandplay/gedlingboroughartsfestival/
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UPDATE: Macey has now been found safe and well.

Officers are concerned for a missing 14-year-old girl's safety.

Macey Bondswell was reported missing from the Southwell area at around 11am yesterday (Thursday July 13).

She is described as white, of a slim build and is around 5ft 4ins. She has long brown hair and was last seen wearing a black jumper and black leggings.

Police believe she has links to Hyson Green, St Ann's and the Carlton areas of Nottingham.

A Nottinghamshire Police spokesman said: "If you have seen Macey or know where she might be, please contact Nottinghamshire Police on 101, quoting incident number 305 of 13 July 2017."

The Post has launched a Whatsapp group to help you keep up to date with the latest news. If you'd like to receive one daily message with the main headlines, as well as breaking news alerts, text NEWS to 07790 586202. Then add the number to your phone contacts book as 'Nottingham Post'. Your phone number won't be shared with other members of the group.
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Work has begun to transform part of a large city centre office complex into a contemporary music and events education hub that will be one of the finest in Europe.

The ground floor and basement of the Marco Island site, in Huntingdon Street, is being converted into a 38,500 sq ft space that will be home to contemporary music and live events at the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies.

The Contemporary Music Hub will feature music studios, rehearsal rooms, sound recording and editing suites, social spaces and a 300-capacity auditorium, with the first elements expected to be ready for students in October.

Craig Chettle, founder and chief executive of Confetti, a specialist technology education provider, said: Our role is all about harnessing talent and creating the best opportunities for success.

We have always re-invested in our facilities to stay current but this development takes our provision for music and events to another level.

It makes Nottingham a must go to destination for contemporary music education.

Students learning the nuts and bolts of the music and events industries will be guaranteed the best possible learning opportunities and will acquire the skills required by the industries they want to work in.

Students applying to Confetti to study both college-level and degree courses in music performance, music technology, and live and technical events production will learn in the finest studios in Europe, according to Mr Chettle  giving them a head start in making it into the highly competitive music industries.

The Confetti developments have been financed by parent company Nottingham Trent University.

The Marco Island scheme is the second Confetti site being developed this year, with work also ongoing to build the 9m Digital Media Hub, in Lower Parliament Street, which will be provide course for both music and film talent.

Professor Edward Peck, vice-chancellor of Nottingham Trent University, said: As our gold rating in the governments Teaching Excellence Framework highlighted, all of us at Nottingham Trent University are committed to providing an excellent student experience across our campuses.

These new facilities will secure that for our Creative Quarter Campus students.

Combined with continuing work to create Confettis Digital Media Hub, these developments will not only provide positive benefits for the students fortunate enough to study there, but will also generate additional economic benefits for creative businesses in the area and further enhance the reach and reputation of Nottinghams Creative Quarter .

The site will benefit from acoustic and technical design by renowned industry specialist White Mark, which is installing the very latest industry-standard equipment.

David Bell, managing director of White Mark, said:  Confettis new Contemporary Music Hub will, undoubtedly, be an educational centre of European significance.

Its facilities - both in quality and variety, will fully reflect the highest standards of the professional work place and offer students a learning experience in a context that truly represents the world in which they hope to succeed ."

Next door neighbour at Marco Island is the UKs largest musical instrument retailer, Professional Music Technology.

CEO Simon Gilson added: With our Nottingham flagship store located directly next door, this partnership is a great positioning for us.

Were incredibly excited to be working with the Confetti Media Group, along with their strategic partners at Nottingham Trent University.

The Marco Island development will undoubtedly become the UKs centre of excellence for music technology education. By working closely with Confetti, our company will ensure that the facility and its community of students will have access to cutting-edge music technology, performance-based equipment and exclusive events.

The 300-capacity auditorium  which, as well as presenting a performance space for music and events students to put their learning into practice  will also run a distinctive programme of public-facing activities, curated by Confetti and NTU.

The site will undergo a staged development programme and is expected to be fully operational by spring 2018.
I morally oppose abortion, yet even I find this to be appalling.If she didn't know she was pregnant, how was she supposed to seek help she didn't know she needed?The judge just didn't believe her, so tough? Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence?
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Thierry Audel has agreed a move to National League side Barrow.

The Frenchman left Notts County at the end of the last season, after boss Kevin Nolan decided not to offer him a new Meadow Lane deal.

Audel has agreed a one-year deal with the Bluebirds and becomes manager Paul Coxs ninth signing of the summer so far.

The 30-year-olds stay in Cumbria could be extended by a further year, with the club having an option on a second, which is dependent on his performances.

After announcing his departure from Notts, Audel said: My NCFC adventure comes to an end, what great time! It's sad not to be part of the future plan but thank you to all fans and all the best.

During his stay at Meadow Lane, Audel played 44 times scoring three goals and counts Macclesfield Town, Crewe and Lincoln as his former clubs in England, having began his career in the reserves at AJ Auxerre in his homeland.
All the latest team changes, injury news and rumours ahead of Round 19 of the NRL Telstra Premiership.



Match Draw Widget

[2017] Telstra Premiership - Round 19: Warriors vs Panthers

Warriors: Set to be unchanged as the Warriors prepare to farewell club legend Manu Vatuvei. Tevita Satae and Mason Lino were cut from the squad 24 hours prior to kick-off.

Panthers: While yet to be confirmed by the Panthers there's talk Matt Moylan will miss Friday night's clash with a hamstring injury. Tyrone May (NRL debut) will replace Moylan in the halves if he's ruled out. Viliame Kikau and Sitaleki Akauola were dropped from the 21-man squad named on Tuesday.



Match Draw Widget

[2017] Telstra Premiership - Round 19: Raiders vs Dragons

Raiders: Hooker Josh Hodgson will play after his injured calf ticked all the boxes in the captain's run.

Dragons: Former Raider Paul Vaughan is set to be a surprise inclusion, after he recovered ahead of schedule from a calf injury. Josh Dugan injured his groin in the Origin decider but also looks set to take on his former club. Tyson Frizell wasn't named on Tuesday and won't play.



Match Draw Widget

[2017] Telstra Premiership - Round 19: Knights vs Broncos

Knights: Look likely to be unchanged with State of Origin man of the series Dane Gagai right to back up after Wednesday night.

Broncos: UPDATE: Anthony Milford is set to return against the Knights with either Benji Marshall or Kodi Nikorima to make way, while Matt Gillett and Josh McGuire are both set to be rested after State of Origin III. Debutant Jamayne Isaako is set to play fullback with Jordan Kahu switching to the wing.



Match Draw Widget

[2017] Telstra Premiership - Round 19: Titans vs Sharks

Titans: Set to be as per program with Queensland try-scorer Jarrod Wallace and Blues pair Nathan Peats and Jarryd Hayne all fit to back up.

Sharks: There could be mass changes for the Sharks, with Shane Flanagan yet to decide whether he'll rest any of his Origin stars. Andrew Fifita didn't travel with the squad to the Gold Coast as he awaits the birth of his third child, but will fly up on game day. Valentine Holmes will play, but Wade Graham, James Maloney and Jack Bird could be rested. James Segeyaro is set to return from a broken arm, with Nu Brown likely to revert to the halves if Maloney doesn't play and Segeyaro joins the 17.



Match Draw Widget

[2017] Telstra Premiership - Round 19: Sea Eagles vs Wests Tigers

Sea Eagles: No late changes expected with Jake Trbojevic fine to play after the Origin decider.

Wests Tigers: James Tedesco and Aaron Woods look set to take to the field after making through Wednesday night unscathed.



Match Draw Widget

[2017] Telstra Premiership - Round 19: Rabbitohs vs Cowboys

Rabbitohs: Should be as per program for the trip to Cairns.

Cowboys: Michael Morgan, Gavin Cooper and Coen Hess should all play following Queensland's Game Three success.


The Parramatta District Rugby League Referees Association have partnered with the Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation to promote the "Stay Kind" initiative.

Parramatta Referees jerseys will now feature the Stay Kind logo as both a sign of our commitment to the initiative but also as a reminder to us all that every one of us can make a positive difference in our community.

Stay Kind aims to foster social and cultural change through community values of caring for each other and mutual respect. It encourages people to provide a supportive community environment for those that suffer in silence, and discourages persecution of people within our communities.

Young people may find themselves overwhelmed by life or by others, and be unable to speak out. Suicide rates amongst Australian youth are increasing. We are experiencing significant changes in social values, behaviours and respect shown to others. Social media platforms are one example of this change in social values.

Parramatta Referees President, Darren Rickersey said, "We are genuinely excited to be able to align ourselves with the Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation and in particular the "Stay Kind" initiative. The principles and values espoused by "Stay Kind" are ones that we endeavour to instil in all our members and we will wear the "Stay Kind" logo with pride on-field. Most of our referees are young people and providing a caring, supportive and respectful environment is something we continually strive for.

Our association with the "Stay Kind" initiative assists us in having these important conversations within our Association and the broader community we operate in."

Ralph Kelly, Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation CEO said, "Stay Kind" is an important community value that should really be a given in terms of how we behave as individuals towards others. It doesn't matter if we are playing sport, in a school, at work or in the general community - empathy, compassion and understanding should be at the forefront of our values. You can never know how an individual may be feeling."

"Parramatta Eels is one of the professional clubs leading this initiative in sport and, together with West's Tigers, has partnered with us for Stay Kind Day. The Eels have shown their commitment and leadership to this important community value by also encouraging the Stay Kind logo for the referees. We are really pleased that the Parramatta District Rugby League Referees Association is leading this initiative in community sport, by being the first community sporting code organisation to adopt this important messaging."

Bernie Gurr, CEO Parramatta Eels said, "Whilst we are a part of our local community we also strive to lead and support a Rugby League family that is both caring and inclusive. The Parramatta Eels recognise the importance of community values within our game and support a culture of caring for each other. "Stay Kind" is a very important community message and the Parramatta Eels are more than happy to promote this initiative to the Parramatta District Rugby League Referees Association."

"Stay Kind" Day will be held at ANZ Stadium on Sunday 23 July,2017 where the Wests Tigers v Parramatta Eels.

For 24/7 crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. If life is in immediate danger call 000.

For further information, please visit http://staykind.org.au/

Follow us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/parrarefs/ and https://www.facebook.com/TKYFdn/
Brazil is an emerging economy whose stock market offers lots of potential for investors with long time horizons. Instead of investing through individual stocks, the iShares MSCI Brazil Capped ETF (NYSEMKT: EWZ) index fund can be a smart investment in the performance of the overall Brazilian economy, without too much exposure to any one stock.

Why use an ETF to invest in Brazil?

Like most other emerging markets, Brazil's stock market can be quite volatile. Take a look at the iShares MSCI Brazil Capped ETF's performance since its inception in 2000. During the mid-2000s, the fund increased tenfold, rapidly crashed during the Great Recession, and has fluctuated quite a bit since then.

My point is that Brazil's stock market is volatile and risky enough without adding the risk that comes with evaluating and selecting individual stocks. In addition, individual stocks in emerging economies can be quite difficult to evaluate. In other words, an ETF allows you to invest in Brazil without depending too much on any single company.

About the iShares MSCI Brazil Capped ETF

There are several ETFs that track Brazilian stocks, but the iShares MSCI Capped ETF, with about $6 billion in assets, is by far the largest.

The fund tracks the MSCI Brazil 25/50 index, which is named for the caps it puts on the exposure to the largest companies. Specifically, no single stock can make up more than 25% of the index's weight, and all of the companies that each make up more than 5% of the weighted index cannot combine to exceed 50% of the overall weight in the index.

At the moment, these caps aren't an issue. The largest holding in the index, Itau Unibanco Holding, makes up 11.7% of the total, and only three stocks (Itau, Ambev, and Bank Bradesco SA) have weightings above 5% and combine for 28.4% of the index. However, this does provide ongoing protection from the fund and its investors becoming too dependent on any single company's performance.

Although this index is intended to track the overall performance of Brazil's market, it's important to note that the fund holds just 58 different stocks  a far cry from the 500 stocks that make up the S&P 500 index that is generally considered a benchmark of U.S. performance.

About 36% of the fund's assets are invested in financial-sector companies, like the two big banks in the top three. This is by far the largest allocation to a sector, and other major sectors include consumer staples (15.6%), energy (11.6%), and materials (9.6%).

Finally, the gross expense ratio of the ETF is 0.63%, which means you'll pay $63 in management fees per year for every $10,000 you have invested. This is relatively high as far as index funds go, but is still below-average for mutual funds and ETFs as a whole, and in my opinion, it's worth the cost if you want broad exposure to this high-potential economy.

The bottom line

Emerging markets can be exciting and lucrative long-term investments, but individual stocks in these countries can be difficult to evaluate. Instead of investing in individual companies, an investment in Brazil's overall economic future can be the smartest way to get exposure in your portfolio.

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MERRILLVILLE  It's almost time to make the doughnuts in Merrillville.

Manvee Real Estate Indiana LLC is pursuing a project to convert the former Merrillville Off-Track Betting site at 7610 Broadway into a wholesale bakery that will make and distribute baked goods to numerous Dunkin' Donuts locations.

Todd Leeth, an attorney representing Manvee Real Estate, said the bakery is independent from Dunkin' Donuts, but the eatery is its sole customer.

Doughnuts won't be sold to the public directly from the facility.

A timeline to renovate the 22,300-square-foot building wasn't provided, but the bakery would use about 17,000 square feet of the space. The total investment made there is expected to be around $1.5 million.

Leeth said it isn't certain how the remainder of the facility would be used, but converting it to office space is a possibility.

The project will create about 25 new jobs, and representatives for the business hope that number will grow.

Leeth said the facility will deliver to 20 Dunkin' Donuts locations in its first year of operation and increase to 40 to 50 sites in its second year.

The facility that will house the business is in a highway commercial zoning district, and a wholesale bakery isn't a permitted use in that zoning classification.

Manvee Real Estate is seeking a variance that will authorize the operation there. The Board of Zoning Appeals sent the request to the Town Council with a favorable recommendation.

The council may consider final approval of the variance at its July 25 meeting.

Leeth said if Manvee Real Estate was planning to open a bakery selling directly to the public, a variance wouldn't be needed.

The building proposed for the bakery was once the home of the Merrillville Off-Track Betting business that closed in March 2015. Board member Chuck Stojakovich is pleased the facility will be reused.

Board member Robert Bigelow asked how the bakery would handle loading its trucks to avoid making excessive noise to nearby homes.

Leeth said the company will use box trucks, which won't be running when they are filled with the doughnuts.

Board member John Minchuk said a variety of businesses have occupied that area, and he has never heard of any noise issues.
Auto parts supplier Lear Corp., one of Hammond's largest employers, is planning a massive investment in a new factory on the city's north side.

The company, which supplies seats for the Ford Explorer to the nearby Chicago Assembly Plant in Hegewisch, plans to invest $30 million in a new 270,000-square-foot facility on the north side of Michigan Street near Hammond's South Shore Line station. It will employ 750 workers there.

Knowing Lears past success in our city, we hope that this much bigger 30-acre site will allow for future expansion and additional job creation, Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. stated in a news release. Hammonds Economic Development team has been working on this project for hundreds of hours over the past year. We were in competition with many other communities around the Chicagoland area for this employer, so I am proud that Hammond was chosen as Lears new location."

For decades, the Dearborn, Michigan-based auto supplier has operated a 100,000-square-foot seat factory on 165th Street in Hammond. As Explorer sales have risen, it outgrew the factory, even moving subassembly work to Portage a few years ago.

The company could not be immediately reached for comment.

Lear had been looking for a new location where it could build a much larger factory to accommodate the demand, McDermott said. Hammond has been trying to land the new factory for the last 12 to 18 months.

"I want to congratulate Hammonds Director of Planning and Development, Phil Taillon, and Hammonds Director of Economic Development, Africa Tarver, for their persistence in landing this project for the residents of Hammond," McDermott said in the release. "Losing Lear would have been a blow to Hammonds economy. Instead, we will receive a new investment of $30 million, and hundreds of new jobs as well. This is a great day for our city.

Hammond lined up a long-vacant 20-acre site by the train station where Lear could build a factory nearly three times as large as its current one in the city.

"They couldn't get bigger at their current location," McDermott said in a phone interview Friday. "I was scared they would move and I'd have to explain why they left. We did everything we could because it's hundreds of jobs and a big deal for Hammond taxpayers."

Hammond is offering a $4 million incentive to Lear, which will add hundreds of new jobs in Hammond. McDermott said it will be the first major new factory built in Hammond since Munster Steel constructed a new plant in 2013.

"This is three times larger," he said in the phone interview. "It's a big deal. We had to fight hard for this."

The Hammond Redevelopment Commission will consider the incentive package at its Tuesday meeting.
The father of a Michigan City girl shot and killed in 2011 demanded a trial, and now it appears he's getting one.

That is despite the prosecution's key witness recanting what he told investigators.

Kalvon Hawkins, father of NeKeisha Hodges-Hawkins, a 17-year-old shot and killed at a party, said going to trial is worth the risk of acquittal considering what little time behind bars the alleged perpetrator was going to receive under a plea agreement.

"So why not take my chances?" Hawkins said.

The June 15 plea agreement called for one year in jail, five years on work release and two years on probation. It was rejected Thursday by LaPorte Superior Court 1 Judge Michael Bergerson. The plea would have convicted Charles Gerron, 21, of Class C felony criminal recklessness for firing a gun.

He would not have been held responsible for Hodges-Hawkins' death, because the defense claimed there was no proof of who actually fired the gun.

Now, Gerron is potentially facing a 45- to 65-year sentence for murder in a trial scheduled for Sept. 18.

Gerron was arrested in December, several weeks after Hawkins demanded the case be reopened because of new evidence.

LaPorte County Prosecutor John Espar told the court a "renewed and reinvigorated" investigation followed and produced new witness testimony that led to Gerron's arrest.

Since then, Espar said the witness has fully recanted, claiming "I said the things I said, but I didn't see the things I said I saw."

Espar did not give an explanation for the witness testimony changing and would not comment because the case remains undecided.

According to police, Hodges-Hawkins was struck with a bullet after two separate disturbances broke out at a friend's 16th birthday party attended by more than 100 people at Memorial Park. Hodges-Hawkins had just graduated from Michigan City High School.

Defense attorney Scott King said more than one gun was fired and no gun has surfaced that matches the caliber of the bullet. Without a key witness, King wouldn't speculate how that might impact the outcome of a trial.
HAMMOND  A federal grand jury has convicted an East Chicago man of having a role in a drug trafficking organization.

Jurors late Thursday found Mauricio Portes, 49, guilty of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas M. McGrath and Armando L. Salinas, Jr. presented evidence Portes, two family members and two other Northwest Indiana men sold illicit drugs in 2015 to a confidential informant working for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

A government document alleges telephone intercepts the DEA used to monitor the suspects revealed Portes stored cocaine in his residence.

Jurors acquitted Portes of a related drug count that he possessed cocaine during a government raid on his home May 28, 2015.

U.S. District Court Judge Philip P. Simon ordered Portes remanded into federal custody until his sentencing Oct. 13 when he could face a prison term.

Highland defense attorney Aaron A Koonce said Friday he will explore whether to ask the judge to void the conviction and grant Portes a new trial.
Nearly two weeks after suffering a paralyzing neck injury in what police say was domestic abuse, Lowell resident Brittany Ortell has been removed from a ventilator, but is now battling pneumonia, according to her mother.

The 21-year-old suffered enough damage to her diaphragm that she has difficulty coughing forcibly enough to clear her lungs, said her mother, Sherry Ortell, also of Lowell.

"We don't leave her side," Sherry Ortell said.

The Times typically does not identify victims of violence, but received permission from Sherry Ortell.

The young woman, who remains on oxygen in a hospital intensive care unit, can only speak very faintly because of her diaphragm damage and cannot use her hands to push the nurse-call button at her bedside, her mother said.

She also remains unable to feel her legs and has only very limited use of her arms, said Sherry Ortell.

Brittany Ortell's former boyfriend, 22-year-old Dalton Corning, of Hebron, is accused of lifting her over his shoulder at his home late in the morning on July 1 and dropping her on the back of her neck, according to court records. When Ortell arrived at the hospital, doctors determined the blow broke her C5 vertebrae and left her paralyzed.

Corning has been charged with felony counts of domestic battery and aggravated battery. He made an initial court appearance on July 5, had bond set at $20,000 surety and $2,500 cash, and left jail later that same day after posting the money, according to officials and court records.

"She's not really talking about it," Sherry Ortell said about her daughter and the incident that left her paralyzed in the hospital bed.

Sherry Ortell said while her family's energy is focused on helping her daughter through this very difficult time, they have hopes the legal system comes through on her behalf.

"We just want him to be brought to justice," she said.

A call to Corning's attorney was not immediately returned.

Ortell and Corning have a 3-year-old daughter, Addyson, who has been frightened by the experience, said Sherry Ortell.

"She asks the doctors to, 'Fix my mom,' " Sherry Ortell said.

Brittany Ortell underwent a seven-hour surgery July 3 that should have lasted two hours, her mother has said. The ligaments in Brittany Ortell's neck were torn, which required surgeons to open the back of her neck to provide stabilization.

Her C5 vertebrae was removed and was replaced with plates and pins, Sherry Ortell said.

It was hoped she would be taken off the ventilator a couple days following surgery, but that did not happened until Sunday, her mother said.

Corning is scheduled to appear back in court Aug. 14, with future hearings Sep. 18 and Oct. 23.
VALPARAISO  A Crown Point man was killed Friday morning in a crash on Ind. 49.

Andrew Vloedman, 42, died of his injuries at Porter Regional Hospital following the crash that happened at 11:18 a.m. on Ind. 49 and County Road 500 North, according to a news release from the Porter County Sheriff's Department.

Police responded to the crash involving a motorcycle and two vehicles.

The accident took place in the northbound lanes of Ind. 49 causing the roadway to be shut down for approximately two hours as Porter Countys Accident Reconstruction team investigated the crash.

According to the release, the initial investigation at the scene, as well as witness statements, show a black 2011 Heritage Softail Harley Davidson, driven by Vloedman, was northbound on Ind. 49 in the right lane, slowing for a red light. Following behind the motorcycle was a blue 2015 Honda Accord, driven by Lawrence Drummond, 58, of Valparaiso. A white 2009 GMC Sierra, driven by Jackilyn Sturghill, 23, of Hebron, was eastbound on County Road 500 North, turning northbound onto Ind. 49.

As Vloedman was slowing for the red light he was struck from behind by Drummond. The motorcycle and Vloedman were pushed into the intersection striking the rear of Sturghills truck.

Vloedman, who was not wearing a helmet, was thrown from his motorcycle. Sturghill and Drummond were not injured. Life-saving efforts were immediately provided to Vloedman, who was transported to Porter Regional Hospital and later died from his injuries.

Assisting at the scene were Valparaiso Police Department, Valparaiso Fire and EMS, Porter EMS, and Sandbergs Towing.
HAMMOND  President Donald Trump has nominated a Schererville man to be the next U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana.

Republican U.S. Sen. Todd Young congratulated Thomas L. Kirsch II, of Schererville, who will oversee criminal prosecutions for the U.S. District offices of Hammond, South Bend, Fort Wayne and Lafayette. The U.S. District of Northern Indiana comprises 32 counties.

Kirsch will replace Clifford Johnson, who has served as acting U.S. Attorney since David Capp's departure in March. His nomination is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

Kirsch is currently a partner with the Chicago law firm of Winston & Strawn LLP, where his practice focuses on litigation and investigations.

Kirsch served as an assistant U.S. Attorney here from 2001 to 2008. He received his bachelor's degree from Indiana University in 1996 in economics and political science, with honors, and a law degree from Harvard University.

Kirsch currently is defense lawyer for Portage Mayor James Snyder, who on Nov. 16 was indicted on charges he solicited money from a local businessman to put him on the city's towing list. Snyder is a Republican in his second term as mayor of the largest city in Porter County. His federal corruption and bribery trial has been pushed back to January.

Neither Snyder nor Kirsch, who was out of his law office Friday afternoon, could be reached for comment.

Young today praised the nomination of what he termed an extraordinarily qualified Hoosier.

"Tom has a great legal mind and is a fearless litigator who has shown a willingness to take on powerful interests. I have no doubt he will continue the laudable work done by David Capp over the last decade," Young said.

Capp said Friday, "I think it's an excellent choice. Tom is a very experienced litigator. I worked hand in hand with him for about seven years. He has great judgment. I never hesitated to assign him our most complex case whether it was violent crime or public corruption.

"Tom will be well-received by everyone in the U.S. Attorney's office, law enforcement, the judiciary, the defense bar. He is a great choice," Capp said.

The biography on the law office's website states he focused as an assistant U.S. Attorney here on white collar investigations and prosecutions, including the prosecution of numerous elected and appointed public officials.

He also handled complex high-profile white collar investigations, prosecuted many jury trials, and briefed and argued numerous appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals.

He has prosecuted offenses in numerous areas including: mail and wire fraud; honest services fraud; tax fraud; bank fraud; health care fraud; conspiracy; extortion; money laundering; racketeering; obstruction of justice; perjury; and gangs and narcotics.

For one year, Kirsch also served as counsel to the assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Policy. While in Washington, D.C., he assisted in developing legislative and policy proposals in corporate crime, violent crime and counter-terrorism.
It was another brick in a grand edifice -- only this time, it isn't a Trump Organization structure. It belongs almost entirely to French President Emmanuel Macron. Donald Trump is simply the window-dressing.

There's no question who was in charge at Thursday afternoon's joint press conference that wound up a day of talks. It was a prequel to tomorrow's grand Bastille Day parade, where Trump and Macron will sit side by side on the reviewing stand for the type of military extravaganza Trump's inauguration team reportedly so much wanted for his own inauguration. Donald Trump has come to the court of the French ruler and not the other way around.

During the press conference, with Macron standing by his side, Trump did his best to walk back some of his previous attacks on issues that are at the heart of what it means to be France today.

Instead of linking the increase in immigration to the recent rise in terrorist attacks in France, Trump said that, in its new President, France has a tough leader who can handle terrorism. Indeed, it was quite a different tune from his suggestion that Marie Le Pen -- France's former far-right presidential candidate-- could win the election after the Paris attacks because of her tough stance on immigration.

As for climate change and Trump's shocking decision to withdraw the United States from the global climate pact negotiated in Paris two years ago, Trump said, "something could happen with respect to the Paris accord, we'll see what happens. If it happens, that'll be wonderful, if it doesn't, that'll be okay too." Not dissimilar to the remarks Trump made in the Rose Garden when he announced his apparently unbending decision to withdraw six weeks ago.

The subjects of their bilateral session earlier had spanned the entire range of agreements and disagreements between the two nations -- trade, refugees, Ukraine, Syria, terrorism. But for Trump, it seemed that the bully in the schoolyard, having found one potential friend, was going to go at least that extra rhetorical mile -- and quite likely for one key reason.

Somehow, whatever Macron touches turns to gold. It is quite clear that, for Trump, it would not be unwelcome if some of that gilt were to rub off on him -- a perfectly understandable motive for jetting across the Atlantic for the second time in a week. And the French people, for whom Macron can apparently do no wrong, approved. A poll by BFMTV shows some 59% think Macron was justified in issuing the invitation -- far better than any numbers Trump's been polling back home.

The reason for these numbers is that the French understand Macron's underlying motives for inviting someone who so far represents almost nothing their own President stands for. Trump is seemingly a climate-change denier, Macron fully embraces the global environmental pact that Trump exited with fanfare; Trump wants bilateral trade pacts and supported Britain's exit from the European Union, Macron believes deeply that his nation's prosperity is tied to a globalized economic structure; Trump has been dismissive of the plight of Middle East refugees, Macron believes Europe and the world needs to do its best in the face of a humanitarian crisis.

Nevertheless, Trump is there. And it's largely due to a grand underlying agenda that may not be immediately apparent to the American President. Macron is bidding for France to become the central pillar of a resurgent Europe. And if becoming Europe's Trump whisperer has to be a part of it, he seems willing to grit his teeth, smile winningly, and pitch right in.

Macron hasn't come to pay court to Trump at the White House. Instead, he simply awaited his moment, then shrewdly engineered Trump coming to pay court to him. By this calculus, it's legitimate to ask: who is driving Europe's ship? Certainly not Theresa May. She had a barely civil first meeting with Trump in Washington, then everything went to hell for her at home. It's not even Angela Merkel, long viewed as Europe's capo di tutti capi, who's deeply involved in her own re-election campaign and, at the same time, spent much of "her" G20 marginalizing Trump. The Economist observed that "Berlin has neither the appetite nor the means of becoming Europe's principal leader."

It's Macron who has stage-managed all of this to perfection, trying, in Macron's words, "to build solutions" with Trump by his side that could serve as the basis for a strong diplomatic foundation for France to be a leader among nations.

Now, if Macron can manage to shepherd his huge social, economic and tax reforms through a National Assembly that he seems to control unreservedly, France's economy, too, could emerge as the strongest in Europe. With post-Brexit London newly marginalized, Paris could be poised to take London's position as the continent's leading banking and financial center -- making France a nation that American interests will certainly need to deal with going forward.

In the age of disrupters, where Trump has emerged as the disrupter in chief, Macron is turning out to be a conciliator -- and, in the end, the kind of true leader that his American guest may aspire to be, but never become.
WASHINGTON  From both sides of the Atlantic, President Donald Trump and other administration officials lobbied Republicans Friday to support the Senate GOP's reworked health care bill, with the president saying wavering senators "must come through" to keep the measure from collapsing.

But the bill, repealing much of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, hovered near failure as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell strained to keep more Republicans from deserting. Complicating the effort, Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich called the revised measure "still unacceptable," largely because of its cuts to Medicaid, the same concern that's been voiced by holdout Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman.

McConnell, R-Ky., released the measure Thursday, a plan that caps seven years of his party's promises to obliterate Obama's 2010 law.

But two GOP senators immediately said they'd vote "no" on a crucial vote planned for next week. Facing uniform Democratic opposition, a third Republican defection would sink it  a reality not lost on Trump.

"After all of these years of suffering thru ObamaCare, Republican Senators must come through as they have promised!" the president tweeted from Paris, where he was attending Bastille Day ceremonies.

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., was also targeted as top administration officials were talking to his state's GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval. Republicans consider winning over the popular Sandoval a key to gaining Heller's vote.

In an interview Friday, Sandoval said his initial understanding of McConnell's new bill was that it "really doesn't change the dynamic" about its Medicaid cuts, and "that's a big concern for me." Nevada added 200,000 new beneficiaries under Obama's expansion of the health insurance program for the poor, disabled and nursing home patients.

Heller, who faces a tough re-election next year, has stood arm-in-arm with Sandoval in criticizing the proposed Medicaid cuts. Heller has said he would have opposed McConnell's original legislation, which the leader withdrew last month because it faced certain defeat.

Sandoval said he expected to meet privately with Vice President Mike Pence and Health Secretary Tom Price at governors' meetings he is attending in Providence, Rhode Island. He said he had already heard from both men.

The nation's largest doctors' group dealt another blow Friday, saying the plan falls short on coverage and access, particularly for low-income people on Medicaid. The American Medical Association said Medicaid cuts and "inadequate subsidies" will lead to "millions of Americans losing health insurance coverage."

The AMA said GOP leaders took a "positive step" by adding $45 billion for treatment to help victims of the opioid epidemic. But it pointed out that people dealing with addiction also need regular health insurance, and that many would lose it if Republicans succeed in rolling back Medicaid financing.

McConnell's reworked bill aims to win conservatives' support by letting insurers sell low-cost, skimpy policies. At the same time, he seeks to placate hesitant moderates by adding billions to combat opioid abuse and help consumers with skyrocketing insurance costs.

Moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told reporters she had informed McConnell she would be voting against beginning debate on the bill, citing in part cuts in the Medicaid health program for the poor and disabled. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has repeatedly complained that McConnell's efforts don't amount to a full-blown repeal of Obama's law, also announced he was a "no."

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate GOP leader, said in an interview he is hoping for the climactic vote Tuesday or Wednesday. "I'm optimistic we'll get there," he said of prevailing.

McConnell could cancel next week's vote if he's short of support. He and other GOP leaders are urging senators to at least vote in favor of opening debate, which would open the measure up to amendments.

Like legislation earlier passed by the House after struggles of its own, the Senate bill would get rid of the law's mandates for individuals to buy insurance and for companies to offer it, repeal taxes and unwind the Medicaid expansion created by the Affordable Care Act. Analyses by the Congressional Budget Office have found the House bill and the earlier Senate version both would eliminate insurance coverage for more than 20 million people over the next decade.

The new bill contains language demanded by conservative Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas letting insurers sell plans with minimal coverage, as long as they also sell policies that meet strict coverage requirements set by Obama's 2010 statute.

The retooled measure retains McConnell's plan to phase out the extra money 31 states have used to expand Medicaid under Obama's statute, and to tightly limit the overall program's future growth.

The rewritten package would add $70 billion to the $112 billion McConnell originally sought that states could use to help insurers curb the growth of premiums and consumers' other out-of-pocket costs. And it has an added $45 billion for states to combat the misuse of drugs like opioids.

___

Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Mary Clare Jalonick, Julie Bykowicz, Matthew Daly and Kevin Freking in Washington, Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, and Will Weissert in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
Anyone doubting the ability of a sound economic development plan to unite counties that rarely collaborate or communicate should question no more.

The St. Joseph County Council's Tuesday vote to finance its share of the South Shore Line's $290 million double-tracking project provided the icing on a massive economic development cake.

During the past seven weeks, all northern-tier Indiana counties along the line took their turns pledging local matching money to the project in order to lure essential federal dollars.

The state Legislature and governor have supported the plan both verbally and financially as well.

Most recently, St. Joseph County committed $18.25 million to double-tracking, which will speed commutes between Indiana communities near the line and the amenities and jobs of Chicago.

"90 minutes or bust!" South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg tweeted after his home county's vote to fund double-tracking. Double-tracking is slated to shorten the commute from South Bend to Chicago to about 90 minutes, and far quicker in Northwest Indiana.

Under Buttigieg's visionary leadership, South Bend alone pledged another $25 million to reroute the city's portion of the rail line and move its airport-based station to quicken the commute.

Now a unified front of Lake, Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph counties is speaking with one voice, signaling federal transportation officials that northern Hoosiers are invested in one of the biggest economic development projects in our Region or state.

The double-tracking project, coupled with plans to extend the line from Hammond to Dyer, is progressively dispelling rumors that our Region isn't visionary enough to put aside boundaries for our collective economic good.

Any straggling communities not yet fully on board should take note. Opportunities to unite in such common purpose, rather than hiding behind municipal and county borders, must be seized upon by all possible parties.
INDIANAPOLIS  An Indiana senator and longtime critic of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries announced Friday that he's selling his stock in his brother's arts and crafts company after The Associated Press reported it manufactures some products in Mexico.

Democrat Joe Donnelly said he hasn't had an active role in the company for 20 years but was taking the action to avoid allowing the issue to become "a distraction from our work to end outsourcing and keep American jobs here instead of shipping them to other countries." His campaign said he made the statement to reporters at an Indiana Black Expo luncheon.

The AP reported Thursday that Donnelly made at least $15,001 in dividends last year on as much as $50,000 of stock in Stewart Superior Corp., which used Mexican workers to produce dye for ink pads.

Donnelly, considered one of the nation's most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year, was highly critical of Carrier Corp., an air conditioner and furnace maker. He accused it of exploiting $3-an-hour workers when its parent company announced plans last year to cut some 2,000 jobs at two Indiana factories by moving production to Mexico.

The senator praised then President-elect Donald Trump in November for reaching a deal that saved 800 of the jobs at an Indianapolis factory.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee quickly criticized Donnelly in a statement Friday, alleging he is "hypocritically profiting" from the company's actions. It called on him to donate his sale profits to organizations helping the families of displaced workers.

Donnelly has sponsored a bill, titled the End Outsourcing Act, which aims to make it more difficult to transfer jobs to other countries.

"The real issue we need to focus on, days before 300 Carrier workers in Indianapolis face layoffs, is how we can keep manufacturing here in Indiana," he said in the news release, urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, to bring the bill to the floor next week.

Donnelly, the lone Democrat elected statewide in Republican-dominated Indiana, is facing a tough re-election bid in 2018. Two Republicans in the U.S. House, Luke Messer and Todd Rokita, have signaled an interest in running.

For more than a year, Stewart Superior and its subsidiaries have been shipping thousands of pounds of raw materials to Mexico, where the company has a factory that produces ink pads and other supplies, according to customs records from Panjiva Inc., which tracks American imports and exports. The finished products are then transported back to a company facility in California, the records show.

Stewart Superior, which also has an operation in LaPorte, Indiana, says on its website that the company's Mexican factory "brings economical, cost competitive manufacturing and product development to our valued customers."

Donnelly's brother runs the company, but the senator previously served as a corporate officer and its general counsel before he was first elected to Congress in 2006. He won election to the Senate in 2012.
Last year, Don Porter returned to the Region to manage the massive 430,000-barrel-a-day BP Whiting Refinery.

Porter worked in engineering and operations at the former Standard Oil Refinery for years before he was sent to Texas City, Texas, where he helped the former BP refinery there recover after a massive explosion in 2005. He also has a family connection to Northwest Indiana.

"My wife is from Dyer, Indiana, and we still have family there, so I have learned to love the Region," he said.

Porter oversees the 1,400-acre refinery that stretches across Whiting, Hammond and East Chicago.

"Don is basically in charge of the largest refinery in the Midwest," Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dave Ryan said.

"His company plays a significant role in the business world and is significant for its community involvement with the Lakeshore Chamber, the United Way. A lot of nonprofits in the community need the support of business, and BP is generally there."

Porter runs BP's largest refinery, also the largest in the Midwest. The 128-year-old facility supplies gas to seven states and produces nearly 5 percent of the nation's asphalt.

"In my experience with Don, he is passionate about creating an open, inclusive environment where everyone contributes to help make BP Whiting the safest, most efficient and competitive refinery in the U.S.," BP spokesman Michael Abendhoff said.

The refinery is one of the Region's largest industrial employers with more than 1,800 workers. It's also an industrial powerhouse that BP estimates paid out $290 million to more than 500 vendors last year.

A facility of that magnitude keeps Porter busy.

At pinnacle of his career

"My job is to lead the Whiting Refinery as a business, focusing on safety first, compliance, reliability, and then profitability," he said. "Whiting is the largest BP refinery, and has a major impact on BPs downstream business, so it is a very important asset."

Porter rose up the ranks at BP after working in several areas, including trading and the commercial side. He's worked at various locations, including Texas and the company's corporate offices in Chicago. He considers being named BP Whiting Refinery manager one of his greatest professional accomplishments.

"I started out as a chemical engineer in our central engineering team many years ago," he said.

"I never dreamed Id end up as Whitings refinery manager. This is my fourth trip through Whiting  so it is home to me. This is where I really grew up and learned about people, leadership and operations and I am very happy to come back."

Most days, he starts work by reviewing the operating status of the refinery, reviewing what happened overnight, what's slated that day and what's planned for the upcoming week.

Employees 'bedrock of success'

"I rely heavily on my leadership team to manage the day-to-day, week-to-week, execution of our plans," he said.

"Most mornings I try to get out into the plant  this is important as it helps me meet many of the great people that work here, which to me are the bedrock of our current and future success.

"It also helps me keep in touch with what is happening daily  the challenges the team is facing, what they are happy or frustrated about and helps me think about what I can do to make their jobs better and more fulfilling. I believe this is key to any businesss success: the people."

Since he views people as the bedrock of success, he wants everyone at the BP Whiting Refinery to feel like they have a stake.

"I know this is a huge task and one that will take a lot of time and effort, but fundamentally this is one of my major goals," he said. "This will have to be both a bottoms-up and top-down effort. Then, its about improving and creating momentum for the future  focusing on safety, compliance, reliability and profitability."

BP recently invested $4.2 billion in a multiyear construction project at the refinery so it could process heavy crude from Canada and the Dakotas instead of Texas sweet, setting it up for the future.

Porter said he hopes to ensure the refinery delivers a return on that massive investment and achieves its full potential.

"BP invested significant resources in this asset a few years ago, which is a testament to the sites importance to BP," he said.

"So seeing Whiting fully deliver on that investment is very rewarding. Another outcome that has struck me, and is both rewarding and humbling, is the positive impact this asset has on the community. That starts with Whiting team members volunteering for many worthy causes, including contributing to United Way, supporting veterans and encouraging STEM education in local schools."

Community engagement also key

In his leadership role, he's come to realize just how significant the refinery is to Northwest Indiana.

"And there is the economic impact this site has to the surrounding businesses and community," Porter said. "I never thought about it as a young engineer many, many years ago, but it is really humbling to run a business with this level of positive impact."

The work is not without challenges, such as aligning everyone at the sprawling refinery with the company's long-term vision.

"What I mean by this is keeping everyone at the site, and within BP that impact Whiting, pulling in the same direction," he said.

"As you might imagine, there is a tremendous amount of activity here every day. It is important that everyone has a clear vision of where we want to go, understand the path to get there and understand their role, and why its personally important to them. By doing this, we can all ensure Whitings future success."

Porter never had the career goal of becoming Whiting Refinery manager, but always has been motivated to have an impact at the company.

"From a professional standpoint, I have always wanted to be in a role of influence where I could make things better, from whatever aspect was needed. This has always driven me and continues to drive me," he said.

"From a personal standpoint, with our first child and then when the triplets arrived, I really got to thinking about what I really wanted to achieve  both professionally and to be able to provide for them all like I wanted to. So this actually further fed my motivation and led me to do some roles I had not considered in the past."
Three men were arrested early Friday morning for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman Tuesday night in Queens, the city police department said.

Investigators say Brandon Walker, 20, Justin Williams, 17, and Julisses Ginel, 19, all residents of the Jamaica neighborhood, face charges that include sex abuse.

The incident happened around 11:10 p.m. Tuesday on 150th Street near Beaver Road in Jamaica, according to the NYPD.

Police said two men approached the 50-year old woman and forced her to take off her clothes after one of the men displayed a gun.

They then stole her money, debit card and cellphone.

Two more men then showed up and forced her to perform a sex act, police said, before all four men fled.

NY1 was told the victim had just left a late service at her church, which was nearby. She ran back there after the attack.

The victim was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Police are still looking for a fourth man, who is described as being in his 20s.
Wellington features move to Hastings

The Wellington Racing Clubs prestige jumping events have found a new home and will be run at Hastings next Thursday, July 20.



This weeks polar blast left officials with no choice but to call off Saturdays meeting at Trentham that featured the Grant Plumbing Wellington Steeplechase and the Anuka Smoker Wellington Hurdles.



However, New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing has announced the events will be slotted into Hawkes Bay Racings programme. The steeplechase will run at the unchanged distance of 5500m and the hurdles will drop back from 3400 to 3100m.The original fields will stand and will not be re-drawn



"Obviously it would have been preferable for the races to be run at Trentham but the switch to Hastings is a much better outcome than losing two of our most significant jumping races, NZTR General Manager of Racing, Matthew Hall, said. "It will also help those horses preparing for the Grand National meeting at Riccarton.



The changes followed an inspection of the Trentham track on Friday morning and RIU stewards and club officials didnt take long to come to a decision to abandon Saturday's meeting, with significant sections of the course proper and the steeplechase course under water.



I understand it wasnt a difficult decision to make," Hall said. Those of us who have been in Wellington for the last 48 hours wont be surprised by that.



Delaying the meeting wasnt a viable option either. The forecast for tomorrow has deteriorated a bit as well so we couldnt move it to Sunday, Hall said.  NZ Racing Desk.
LINCOLN  Six Cass County students reaped a large amount of agricultural knowledge this week during a statewide conference in Lincoln.

Jacob Meyer of Avoca, Erin Muntz of Louisville, Sofia Sedlacek of Nehawka, Charlie Knust and Macy Pape of Plattsmouth and Madison Mills of Weeping Water took part in the Nebraska Agricultural Youth Institute. They joined more than 200 fellow students from across the state at the 46th annual convention July 10-14.

Activities at the five-day NAYI took place at the University of Nebraska-Lincolns East Campus. Student delegates participated in a variety of career development sessions and agricultural policy discussions. They also listened to motivational speakers and networked with many local and state agriculture industry and education leaders.

Delegates participated in an opening ceremony Monday night and listened to an assortment of panel presentations on Tuesday morning and afternoon. Wednesdays schedule included presentations by representatives of the Nebraska Beef Council, Nebraska Corn Board, Midwest Dairy Association, Nebraska Wheat Board, Nebraska Grain Sorghum Board, Nebraska Soybean Board and Nebraska Pork Producers Association. Nebraska Department of Agriculture officials also talked to students throughout the day.

Thursdays itinerary focused on educational opportunities for the delegates. The teenagers explored career choices such as agricultural communications, agronomy, animal science, agricultural education, agricultural business and economics, mechanized systems management and natural resources/wildlife management. Many students toured UNL-East Campus buildings and talked to university representatives.

Friday mornings portion of the NAYI included a talk from motivational speaker A.J. Adams. Students also took part in their final group meetings before leaving for home in the early afternoon.

Meyer (Weeping Water), Muntz (Louisville), Sedlacek (Conestoga), Knust (Plattsmouth), Pape (Plattsmouth) and Mills (Elmwood-Murdock) represented all five Cass County school districts at the NAYI. All six students were either juniors or seniors at their schools during the 2016-17 academic year.
Dr. Shweta Tripathi loves Auburn. So much so, that she commutes to Alabama State University for work every day, rather than relocate from her home in the loveliest village on the plains.

All my co-workers are like, Why dont you move to Montgomery? she said. And I was like, I just cant.' I just dont want to leave this place. Its worth two hours of a drive.

Tripathi knows a little something about travel and relocating. Her work in cancer research brought her to the United States from her hometown of New Delhi, India.

While earning her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from the University of Delhi, she applied for a scholar-in-training award through the American Association for Cancer Research. The AACR sponsored Tripathi to present her work in the United States, and she was offered a postdoctoral experience at Emory University in Atlanta.

So I went back to India, finished my Ph.D. and everything, then I came back and joined my post-doc here, Tripathi said. Then, there was no going back.

Tripathi said she was interested in cancer research while she was in medical school, but it took a personal turn a couple years ago.

Ive been in cancer research since Ph.D., but I never knew the reason until my mom had (uterine) cancer in 2014, Tripathi said. She passed away two years ago. Since then, its like, I need to make a difference in somebodys life. When youre in that field, you really feel, Why couldnt I saved her? Since then, its been my passion.

Tripathi moved to Alabama to work at Tuskegee University, where she served as an assistant professor until this summer, when she began as a researcher at Alabama State University's Center for Nano Biotechnology Research.

Coming from Emory, going to Tuskegee was a culture shock, she said. But Dr. Clayton Yates, whose lab I joined, is great. His family also had somebody very close with cancer. So I think we just kind of hit with our motive, that we need to do something for cancer.

The team looked at the latest triple-negative breast cancer treatments after an oncologist told them, Im doing this androgen receptor therapy for these women, and they dont respond, Tripathi recalled. Triple-negative breast cancer is its most aggressive form, she added.

So the researchers asked the doctor for profiles of the cancer patients.

When I got to see those patient profiles, they were negative for the androgen receptor, but they were being given androgen receptor therapy, Tripathi said. So thats why its not responding.

Yates and Tripathi are now trying to challenge the current classification of breast cancer as well as introduce immunotherapy as a possible treatment. The Auburn resident is the lead author of a paper addressing the findings, assisted by 10 other researchers.

Tripathi was recently recognized for her work by the American Association of Immunologists. She and Dr. David Chaplain from the University of Alabama at Birmingham were invited to Capitol Hill to present their research to the AAI and meet with Rep. Mike Rogers and Sen. Richard Shelby.

While in Washington, Tripathi advocated for federal funding for medical research.

Ive just had twins. Theyre six months old, she said. I feel the need of my mom so much, and I can feel the pain families go under because of this disease. If we dont get the federal funding for cancer and immunology, we wont be able to do research and help out people.

One way Tripathi wants to help is by making people aware that a healthy lifestyle is one of the most important factors in fighting cancer. The other is to never give up.

If youre diagnosed with cancer, dont get disheartened. There is hope. People in research are actually working, she said. They just have to look for options out there, because there are options continuously.

The good thing is, at the end of the tunnel, there is always hope. And you are actually working to make a difference in somebodys life. So thats the best thing. Especially after Mom. I wasnt there when she passed away. I was here. I was on visa, so I couldnt leave the country, she continued. I sometimes feel, was it worth it, my mom being there and I being here? Now I feel that she was suffering a lot, but I think she too wanted me to make a difference in the world. Thats why she sent me all the way from home to the U.S., like, Go, do something for somebody.
Lee County Sheriffs Office

 A second-degree theft of property was reported Thursday at 11:59 a.m. in the 1000 block of Lee Road 230 in Smiths.

 A second-degree theft of property was reported Thursday at 1:24 p.m. in the 1000 block of Lee Road 230 in Phenix City.

 A second-degree theft of property and unlawful breaking and entering of a motor vehicle were reported Thursday at 1:26 p.m. in the 100 block of Lee Road 38 in Opelika.

Auburn Police Division

 Octavius Cortez Smith was arrested Thursday in the 900 block of Pleasant Avenue for giving fale identification to a law enforecement officer and resisting arrest.

 Makayla Lynn Throw was arrested Thursday in the 100 block of Magnolia Avenue for failure to appear (bail jumping, second degree).

 Alexis Simone Winston was arrested Thursday in the 2100 block of Cox Road for failure to appear (bail jumping, second degree).

 Marion Darnell Morris was arrested Thursday at Lee County Sheriff's Office for failing appear (traffic).

Opelika Police Department

 Barry D. Durham, 24, Ozark, Arkansas was arrested and charged as a Fugitive from Justice (State of Arkansas). A warrants check revealed an Arkansas outstanding felony warrant. Durham was booked into the Lee County Jail to await extradition to Arkansas.

Lanett Police Department

 Domestic violence second degree (criminal mischief first degree) and domestic violence third degree were reported Thursday in the 600 block of N. 14th Court.

 Kevin Lemar Pugh, 23, of Valley, was charged with public intoxication and possession of a controlled substance.

 James Arthur Murphy, 61, of Valley, was charged with theft of property, fourth degree.

 Jalen Juarez Washington, 22, of Lanett, was charged with criminal tresspass third degree, possession of marijuana second degree and receiving stolen property second degree.

 Alisa Shaquita Andrell Patton, 29, of Lafayette, was charged with domestic violence third degree.

 Jason Phillips Roberson, 46, of Lanett, was charged with theft of property fourth degree.
ASHLAND  A 54-year-old man from South Bend, Patrick Cunningham, was killed last Thursday morning in an accident on Interstate 80 between Omaha and Lincoln, the Nebraska State Patrol said.

The accident occurred at approximately 6:40 a.m., the patrol said.

After a preliminary investigation, troopers believe the accident occurred near mile marker 423, which is near Ashland, when a westbound semi-truck/tanker trailer attempted to pass a motorcycle.

The semi made contact with another westbound semi-truck/trailer, pushing that semi into the left lane, colliding with a van. The first semi then over-corrected and struck the motorcycle and rider, the patrol said.

That rider, identified as Cunningham, 54, was pronounced deceased at the scene, the patrol said. There were no other injuries.

The interstate was closed in the area for westbound traffic for approximately six hours. The patrol was still investigating the accident as of Monday with assistance from the Cass County Sheriffs Office.
People are always looking for legal loopholes to help them get away with various crimes, but when it comes to murder, the chances of avoiding a criminal trial are pretty slim. Unless they commit the heinous act in the Zone of Death, a remote area of Yellowstone National Park where one can apparently kill someone, openly admit to it, and not face legal consequences.

Brian Kalt, a law professor at Michigan State University, discovered the judicial no-mans land in 2004, while looking for interesting material for an article. He was researching legal gray areas when he stumbled upon a reference to the unusual jurisdiction of Yellowstone National Park, and red flags went up in his head. He quickly realized that that because of the way that the vast park geographically covers three US states, but only one of them has legal jurisdiction over all of it, getting a murderer on trial would be virtually impossible.

Photo: Daniel Mayer

Like all national parks, Yellowstone is federal land, and it is also the only federal court district in the United States that crosses state lines. The bulk of it is in Wyoming, but small portions fall in Idaho and Montana. That doesnt mean very much to the average person, but as a constitutional lawyer, Brian Kalt immediately knew that it was a major legal loophole. You see, Article III of the United States Constitution requires federal criminal trials to be held in the state in which the crime was committed, but according to the Sixth Amendment, a criminal defendant has the right to a trial by jurors living in the state and district where the crime was committed. So what happens when the crime is committed in the 50-square-mile uninhabited area of the park located in Idaho? It would be impossible to form a jury, Kalt says.

The more I dug into it, the more interested I got, Kalt told VICE Magazine, last year People have this fascination with uncovering a loophole for the perfect crime. There are a lot of different approaches to it. But in terms of geography, theres just this one spot.

Photo: Daniel Mayer

Convinced that he had gone over all the details and that his arguments made sense, Brian Kalt decided to write an article about the Yellowstone Zone of Death. There was one problem though  he feared that someone might read it, take the person they most disliked to Yellowstone and actually kill them there. So before publishing his paper, he sends copies of it to the Department of Justice, the US attorney in Wyoming, and the House and Senate judiciary committees, hoping that they would close the loophole, making his article a simple what might have been story.

Fixing the judicial problem would have been easy, and Kalt even drafted legislation language in his letters. It was three lines long and it simply suggested dividing Yellowstone into three federal districts, with each of the states getting jurisdiction of the portions that fell on their land. Shockingly, to this day, no one has done anything about this problem.

Brian Kalt

I naively thought that once Congress found out about this, theyd think it was a problem worth fixing and theyd fix it, the law professor said. But nothing happens in Washington just because its a good idea.

But while the US judiciary authorities pretty much ignored Kalts discovery, the media was all over it as soon as his paper was published. Articles about the Zone of Death, or the perfect place to commit murder were published by the Washington Post, NPR, BBC and even newspapers in Japan. News soon reached Wyoming-based crime writer C. J. Box, who decided to use it as a plot for his best-selling novel, Free Fire.

I write about mystery, suspense, and crime, so the idea of a perfect crime anywhere, and especially in my neighborhood, was just really intriguing, Box told VICE. Every time I go on tour, someone asks me about it. The book is sold all over Yellowstone, which I find really interesting. People are still buying it like crazy.

Thankfully, no one has ever tested Brian Kalts theory does far, primarily because it wouldnt be the easiest thing in the world to pull off. First of all, it would have to be a serious enough crime to need a jury trial, as lesser offenses could just warrant fines or short prison sentences. Also, the whole thing would have to be orchestrated in Yellowstone, otherwise the perpetrator could still be charged with conspiracy to commit murder in another district. And, even so, a person could still face civil lawsuits, like getting sued by relatives of the victim.

All of these things reduce the incentive, Kalt says. It becomes harder to imagine someone relying on my theory and getting away with it.

But that doesnt mean it couldnt happen, if authorities continue to ignore this loophole. Im less concerned about the odds than the stakes, the law professor said. I dont think something is likely to happen, but it would be really bad if it did. If Congress really wanted to fix this, it wouldnt take long at all. The problem isnt that its complicated; its that theyre not interested in it.

Contacted by VICE about the Zone of Death, a couple of senators offered different explanations for the lack of action from Congress. The press secretary of Wyoming senator Michael Enzi said that after studying the problem, Enzi found that there does not seem to be a simple legislative fix, while Idaho senator Jim Risch claims that the whole issue is pure science fiction, and if a murder were to happen in this uninhibited area of his state, Idaho would have jurisdiction, despite the statute clearly placing Yellowstone National Park under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States.

One thing is for sure, until the Zone of Death legal loophole is fixed, Brian Kalt has no intention of going anywhere near it, or the whole of Yellowstone, for that matter. When Free Fire came out, he was invited to speak at a series of publicity events, and when asked by someone if he were willing to drive out to the Idaho portion of the park to take some pictures, Kalt said:

Im not going there for a million dollars, not until this is fixed and probably not even then. The irony gods would have a field day with that one.
EXIRA, Iowa  Mike Bendfeldt smelled smoke when he woke up about 2:30 a.m. Friday in the loft apartment next door to Jerrys Bar.

Bendfeldt, the owner of the Exira bar, said he didnt think the smell was a problem, figuring the smoke was coming from somebodys fire pit nearby.

He got up to take a shower, thinking it was 5:30 a.m. after misreading his clock. By the time he got out of the shower, he said, his apartment was filled with smoke.

He ran outside and met Audubon County Sheriff Todd Johnson, who was driving by after having been called about a fire in the bar.

There are flames shooting out of the back of your building, Johnson told Bendfeldt.

Bendfeldt said he helped a neighbor who uses a wheelchair out of his apartment.

The fire call came in about 2:50 a.m. Mike Bintner, Exiras fire chief, said firefighters soon realized they would need assistance from area towns.

By the time the fire was mostly out Friday afternoon, 30 fire departments had responded, shuttling in water to help extinguish the blaze.

The fire, which was under control before 1 p.m., destroyed the bar, the apartment, Gabbys and Crabbys gift shop, a coffee shop and a doctors office.

No injuries were reported.

Firefighters from Audubon, Exira, Elk Horn, Anita, Adair, Atlantic and Kimballton were among the departments responding to the fire. Two aerial trucks poured water on the blaze from above, and crews aimed eight fire hoses at the fire from ground level. Crews rotated about every 30 minutes.

Exira, which has about 780 residents, is about 65 miles northeast of Council Bluffs.

People in town brought out coolers of water for firefighters. Some sat against the outside of the buildings across the street to watch crews work.

Exira firefighters were monitoring what was left of the fire after 3 p.m. Other crews had left the scene.

Jerrys has had a few different names over the years, starting in the 1970s as Jerrys Joint. It had changed hands a few times before Bendfeldt opened it back up a year ago. He fixed up the inside, had a new roof put on and added a deck on the side of the building.

Julie Johnson, a former owner, said she ran the bar from 2004 to 2011 after her uncle, Jerry Johnson, died. People started telling her what was happening soon after she woke up at 5 a.m., she said.

Its devastating, Johnson said. We always had a huge Fourth of July celebration because it was the biggest place of its kind in town. Families would come here. People would say, Ill see you at Jerrys. 

Bendfeldt said Friday afternoon that it was too soon to know what hell do next. He says his insurance adjusters will be by to look at whats left of the building.

Its almost like Im at a funeral, he said. I think a piece of the town died today.

The World-Herald News Service contributed to this report.
Douglas County taxpayers filed just over 6,600 property tax valuation protests this year, the second most on record.

Almost 5,200 of those came from homeowners.

In Sarpy County, 673 property tax protests have been filed this year. Thats down from 2016.

The deadline for filing or mailing a protest was June 30. A few postmarked by June 30 are still trickling in by mail.

In 2016, when the State of Nebraska mandated higher valuations across a large swath of Omaha, 4,874 Douglas County taxpayers filed protests. They included about 3,100 on residential valuations.

According to Douglas County Clerk's Office records dating back to 1995, the 2017 protest total is the second most on record. Taxpayers filed the highest number of total protests -- 10,660 -- and the highest number of protests on residential property, 8,705 -- in 2007.

This year, controversy arose from large proposed increases in thousands of Douglas County homeowners valuations for tax purposes. County Assessor Diane Battiato trimmed the increases. Some County Board members held town hall meetings to explain the protest process.

While the number of protests is up, it still represents a sliver  about 3 percent  of the 220,000 real estate parcels in Douglas County.

Battiato noted that her office changed the valuation on 149,444 of those properties this year.

Last year, she said, her office changed the valuation on about 108,000 properties.

That means the ratio of protests to valuation changes was about the same this year as last: roughly 4.5 percent.

Referees  independent appraisal experts hired by the counties  are reviewing the protests.

They will make recommendations to the county boards, which will then set final valuations.

Taxpayers who filed a protest but still disagree can appeal to the Nebraska Tax Equalization and Review Commission.

World-Herald staff writer Emily Nitcher contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the number of tax valuation protests filed in Douglas County this year was a record.
Its been a busy summer for staffers at The Bridge.

And considering the agencys lineup of education and awareness projects, it looks like it will stay that way.

The Bridge, formerly known as the Crisis Center, is a Fremont-based organization dedicated to preventing and eliminating domestic abuse and sexual assault.

On July 19, the agency will have a thank you reception called, Lemonade on the Lawn! The event, set from 9-10 a.m., will be a gathering designed to thank volunteers, board members and donors, said Linda Schlapfer, outreach coordinator.

The agency plans to participate in various activities in August.

They include:





National Night Out. The agency will have a booth at this event planned from 6-8 p.m. Aug. 1 at John C. Fremont City Park, downtown. The event is part of a nationwide program designed to increase awareness of police programs and anti-crime efforts in communities. The Fremont High School cheerleading squad will do face painting and sidewalk chalk (art) with the kids, Schlapfer said.

FREE-mont Fair. The agency will have an informational booth at this event set from 1-4 p.m. Aug. 9 at Fremont Mall.

Run for Shelter. The agency, along with the Heartland Family Services Jefferson House and Care Corps Family Services, will participate in this fundraising walk-run on Aug. 19 at the Fremont Lakes State Recreation Area.

Such activities are only part of what agency staffers have been involved with this summer.

In June, they visited 25 care centers in the five-county area it serves educating employees about the signs of elder abuse. The Bridge serves a five-county area: Dodge, Burt, Cuming, Washington and Saunders counties.

Staffers from The Bridge also spoke at senior centers in Fremont, Arlington and West Point about how abuse continues on at every age and signs to look for regarding elder abuse.

They provided each center with a notebook telling how to spot and report elder abuse and a video with a story about an elderly woman who was abused by her spouse.

We also offered our services to come out and work with their staff if they were interested in learning more or how to facilitate awareness, she said.

Stacey Lichtenberg, community education coordinator, will visit one of Fremonts care facilities to provide a presentation to its staff, Schlapfer said.

During the 2015-16 year, The Bridge responded to 3,387 calls for help.

The agency gave 547 prevention presentations to 6,854 youth during that time.

It has a 24-hour crisis line: 1-888-721-4340. For more information, contact The Bridge at 402-721-4340.
Three Omaha Tribe members smiled as the camera shutter clicked.

The elders from the citys namesake tribe were a little unsure of what to do in the portraits taken of them in Fontenelle Forest on Tuesday.

But photographer Matika Wilbur, 33, was sure of her purpose as she directed the elders here and there among the trees.

Each click was an attempt to paint Native Americans as they actually exist, beyond the sepia-toned and stereotyped images of the past theyre often associated with. Each image was her way to humanize a people who face high rates of rape, incarceration and poverty and other less-quantifiable issues like racism and discrimination.

That oppression and marginalization that were so used to in our communities is directly related to the way weve been represented, Wilbur said.

Wilburs three-day stop in Nebraska last week was part of a cross-country body of work called Project 562. Thats the number of tribes that were federally recognized when she began her journey to photograph them all.

Wilbur is a photographer from the Swinomish and Tulalip Tribes who graduated from the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. She has worked as a teacher and international journalist, but Project 562 has been her focus for the past five years.

Shes shot about 8,000 rolls of film and visited 450 tribes. The work keeps growing. A few more tribes have been federally recognized, and her project has expanded to include state-recognized tribes and urban Indian centers.

Interviews, films, blog posts, poems and other media accompany the images in her archive. Parts of the collection have been shown in exhibitions, including one that opened Monday at Fontenelle Forest and will continue there into October.

The end goal of the series includes broader exhibitions, a series of books and school curricula. Wilbur is also fundraising to create a traveling museum. She hopes that by showing her work in a 6,000-foot longhouse she can expand the reach of her work and make it more welcoming to a Native American audience.

The lack of education and understanding about Native Americans that she sees in this country is unacceptable, she said.

We know that the mascotry or even the way were represented in textbooks has been incredibly false, she said. The American historical amnesia has won, so to speak.

On Tuesday afternoon the Omaha elders couldnt shake the ties they felt to their history at Fontenelle Forest. The three siblings were one of several groups of Native Americans that Wilbur was photographing in Nebraska.

Sisters Glenna Slater and Octa Keen chatted nearby in the Omaha language.

Keen sported moccasins under her dress fashioned after traditional buckskin clothing.

When the animals were decimated, we took to calico, she said.

They grew up with the Omaha language and have tried to pass it on. Slater is teaching several students now at the University of Nebraska at Omaha through a partnership with Macys Nebraska Indian Community College.

None of the fluent speakers left is under 70. Its a difficult language to learn, Slater said.

The third sibling, Dr. Rudi Mitchell, used to teach Native American studies at Creighton University and served as the Omaha Tribes chairman in the 90s. A descendant of the Omahas last hereditary chief, Big Elk, Mitchell said his ancestors lived in the tree-lined land that surrounded him Tuesday. The outlines of their earth lodges can still be found around the area.

Slater felt that influence the minute she got into the forest, she said. As she posed for another round of pictures with her siblings, she said the work Wilbur was doing that day was important.

When I came here, I know that the footprints of my ancestors are here, she said. Im sure theyre looking down and theyre happy to see all of this today.
The University of Nebraska at Omaha will host two more free discussions on the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse.

The public lectures are set for July 21 at 7 p.m. and July 22 at 2 p.m. They will be held in the Durham Science Centers Room 115/116 on the UNO main campus.

Parking will be open on the weekend for the 45-minute talks on the eclipse, which will pass through Nebraska.

Telescope-safety demonstrations and how-to guidelines on taking pictures with cameras and smartphones will be included in the lectures.

UNO also will sell solar glasses for $1.
President Trump again defended his son Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian attorney last year during the campaign, saying in a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday that "zero" improprieties occurred in a meeting that "most people would have taken."

"As far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful young man," Trump said. "He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer."

In fact, Trump Jr. accepted a meeting with a woman who was described to him in an email as a "Russian government attorney" who he believed possessed incriminating information about Hillary Clinton, which could help his father's presidential campaign.

Trump's comments in Paris, in advance of the country's Bastille Day celebration Friday, marked yet another instance in which a domestic controversy has followed him abroad, this time in the form of a newly disclosed meeting between a Russian attorney with Kremlin ties and Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, and Paul Manafort, who was serving as Trump's campaign chairman at the time.

In response to a reporter's question, the president tried to cast the meeting as a brief one  "It was a meeting that went very, very quickly, very fast"  that any political operative would have taken.

"I do think this: I think from a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting," Trump said. "It's called opposition research or even research into your opponent."

However, Christopher A. Wray, Trump's nominee to serve as FBI director, said in congressional testimony Wednesday that any politician receiving such an email from a foreign entity offering damaging information on a political opponent should alert the FBI: "Any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation-state or any nonstate actor is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know," Wray said.

But Trump cast the meeting as simply standard practice in the cutthroat world of presidential politics, saying he often received phone calls from people saying that had information that could damage Clinton.

"Politics is not the nicest business in the world, but it's very standard where they have information and you take the information," the president said. "In the case of Don, he listened, I guess they talked about, as I see it, they talked about adoption and some things. Adoption wasn't even a part of the campaign, but nothing happened from the meeting, zero happened from the meeting, and honestly I think the press made a very big deal over something that really a lot of people were doing."

The president, who found out about his son's meeting just several days before the New York Times first broke the news, declined to answer whether he felt misled by his own team for not knowing sooner about the controversial meeting.

Macron, too, dodged a question about whether he believed Trump should have taken a tougher line against Russia after it became clear to U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia had tried to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, saying he did not want to interfere in Trump's "domestic life."

"What a good answer that is," the president said.

What is opposition research?

Its information obtained about a political opponent that could help build a negative storyline about the person. The dirt on an opponent can be documents, recordings or tips claiming evidence of a rivals misdeeds. It can be arrest records or recordings of a candidate saying something untoward.

Once a campaign finds out something unsavory about an opponent, the info might be used in an attack ad, given to reporters or shared on social media.

Some people have this idea of opposition research being shady people diving around in dumpsters, said Colin Reed, senior adviser to America Rising, a Republican-supporting opposition research group. But in the last few years it has become accepted by most campaigns as just as critical as get-out-the-vote and communications operations.

Opposition research may be standard fare, but it does not usually come from people representing a nation hostile to the United States.  AP
LINCOLN  Talk of a special legislative session is premature even though Nebraska closed out its fiscal year with $34 million less in tax revenue than expected, state leaders said Friday.

Questions arose after the State Department of Revenue released a report showing that net general fund receipts were below forecasts for the year that ended June 30.

Net receipts for the month of June were 5.9 percent below forecasts for the month and collections for the year were 0.8 percent lower than the yearlong forecast.

But State Sen. Kate Bolz of Lincoln, vice chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, said the state has enough money in reserve to manage.

While we all need to take this into consideration and to carefully monitor it, theres no indication that we need to take immediate action, she said.

State Tax Commissioner Tony Fulton also said it was too early to tell whether tax collections will continue to fall short of projections for the new two-year budget period, which started July 1.

But both he and Gov. Pete Ricketts called for keeping a close eye on tax revenue in the coming months.

The ongoing deterioration of tax revenues demonstrates the importance of the budget restraint exercised by the Legislature in sustaining my vetoes, Ricketts said. I am continuing to work with my state agencies to constrain spending.

Whether they do it in special session or next January, though, state lawmakers may not be done with making tough budget decisions, the new report suggests.

A committee of legislative leaders will meet on Monday with Fulton to review the year-end fiscal picture, including estimates of expenditures.

The group could recommend raising taxes or calling for a special legislative session.

Ricketts has vowed to oppose any tax increases.

But Bolz said its time to look at some tax issues, including proposals to start collecting sales taxes on Internet purchases and at the states business tax incentive programs.

She pointed to a second Revenue Department report released Friday.

The report showed that tax incentives provided to encourage job creation and investment meant $100 million less in state coffers last year compared with 2015.

The OpenSky Policy Institute, a Lincoln-based think tank, called for an honest conversation about whether or not we have a revenue problem, given the fact that our revenue system is not keeping up with our states needs.

Along with falling short of predictions, the state tax receipts for the year just ended were lower than in either of the two previous years.

Net tax receipts for the 2016-17 fiscal year were $4.266 billion. Net receipts for the prior year were $4.308 billion.

Fridays report compared tax collections with the official revenue forecast issued at the end of April, less than three months ago. At the time, the Nebraska forecasting board projected tax collections of $4.3 billion for the fiscal year.

The board lowered its tax revenue projections twice during the year  by $80 million in late February and then by $15 million in late April.

The board has reduced its forecasts five times over the past two years.

Fulton cited the struggles of Nebraskas agriculture sector as the biggest factor in the revenue slowdown.

But he said another factor may be people waiting to see what tax changes may be coming at the federal level before they cash in on their capital gains. He speculated that those people contributed to the drop in final income tax payments in April.
State Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha said he plans to leave the Republican Party to challenge Gov. Pete Ricketts as a third-party candidate.

This administration, like others, is not listening, Krist said Friday. I think we need a change.

Krist said he would seek the signatures needed to put a new party on the ballot rather than run as an independent, which requires more signatures.

Independent candidates running for governor must gather signatures from 10 percent of all registered voters entitled to vote for office, according to Nebraska law. There were 1.2 million Nebraskans registered to vote in the 2016 general election.

Getting a third party on the ballot requires only 5,000 signatures.

I am running as an independent party but not in name as an independent, he said.

Krist, 60, was appointed to the Legislature by then-Gov. Dave Heineman in 2009. He was then elected as a Republican in 2010 and again in 2014. He said he intends to remain a Republican until his term ends. Term limits bar him from seeking re-election in the Legislature.

Krist said he is switching to a new party because he wants to restore a nonpartisan attitude in the state that he said he saw in his early days in the Legislature.

Back then, the Legislature was truly a nonpartisan body, he said. But thats not the case today, he said, with less conversation, less debate and more of the party highway or no way.

Its divisive, Krist said. Its counter to everything we need to do right now. I believe the emphasis should be on working together.

Krist also said he would aim to restore a separation of power between the executive and legislative branches. The line between the two has blurred during Ricketts time as governor, he said.

Ricketts spokesman Taylor Gage said the governor respects the independence of the unicameral.

Jessica Flanagain, the head of Ricketts re-election campaign, said the governor is not commenting on potential candidates for governor.

The Nebraska Republican Party issued a press release Friday afternoon calling Krists plan another flip-flop.

The release pointed to a May 2 article from the Lincoln Journal Star in which Krist said: It has been suggested that I should run as an independent ... but I am what I am. Im a Republican and Im a centrist. I am not going to change my coat.

Since that article, Krist said, he has been looking more at what his pathway to success may be. It would be impossible to crack the staunch GOP criteria, lead the state forward and make changes, he said.

If the definition of flip-flop is someone who does what he believes, then Ill own it, Krist said.
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced the opening of its new Holiday Inn in Mutare, Zimbabwe. The franchised property, owned by African Sun Limited, features 96 rooms, an outdoor pool and a meeting room capable of seating 250 people. It is located in the heart of the city centre with significant business activity across the forestry, citrus farming and mining industries.

India and Zimbabwe have good bilateral relations and strong economic cooperation with trade interest in various sectors such as agriculture, pharmaceutical and diamond trade, amongst others. Mutare is located in the diamond mining region of Zimbabwe and close to the Tete Province, a coal mining region in Mozambique.

Commenting on the announcement, Pascal Gauvin, Chief Operating Officer, India, Middle East and Africa, IHG, said: Africa represents huge untapped opportunities for a variety of industries across the region. Were thrilled to announce the opening in Mutare as we believe that it will further support business travel between the India and Africa. We are especially proud to continue working with established partners such as African Sun Limited who also own several other properties with us. We are excited to begin welcoming guests to the Holiday Inn Mutare.

Edwin T Shangwa, Managing Director, African Sun, said: We are happy to be partnering with IHG once again. We have successfully launched two Holiday Inn hotels together, and have seen great success across both properties. Now that the hotel has opened its doors, it will benefit equally from IHGs global distribution systems, strong brand portfolio and loyalty programmes.

The Holiday Inn Mutare is the third Holiday Inn franchised property with the African Sun Limited. The Holiday Inn Harare and Holiday Inn Bulawayo have both performed to brand standards and present further opportunities for growth. The new Holiday Inn property in Mutare increases IHG and Africa Suns footprint to a total of 351 rooms.

IHG currently operates 30 hotels across four brands in South West Asia: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and Holiday Inn Express, with a further 39 in the development pipeline due to open in the next three to five years*.

Globally, there are almost 1,200 Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts open, with a further 265 due to open in the next three to five years.

* Figures as at 31st March 2017
The commander of U.S. Strategic Command is giving a forceful push to strengthening the nations missile defenses in the wake of the North Korean missile threat. Its sound advice.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has gone very fast in moving toward effective intercontinental missile capability, and we have to step up and go fast in response, Air Force Gen. John Hyten told the Stars and Stripes military newspaper Sunday.

We are not going fast. We are so risk-averse that we only test every 18 months. ... The best way to build rockets, the best way to move fast, is to build it, test it, instrument it, learn from your failures.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, D.C., recently released a detailed missile-defense analysis by Thomas Karako, a military technology specialist. Karako described modernization efforts underway and offered recommendations. Among them:

 Build on U.S. military relationships with Japan and South Korea to jointly develop projects and create a coordinated regional missile defense. Considerable coordination is already in place.

 Pursue missile-defense technologies that are more flexible and standardized (hence lower-cost).

 Increase the number of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile batteries and improve the systems capability. The U.S. recently installed THAAD batteries in South Korea.

 Develop and deploy a layer of anti-missile sensors in space, for quicker and earlier detection.

Nebraska U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committees Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, this week underscored the importance of missile defense and pointed to initiatives supported by the committee.

Lawmakers in 2013 authorized long-range radar systems to improve the tracking and interception of North Korean missiles and more recently supported increased funding for an interceptor system called the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program, Fischer said.

In its defense budget recommendations this year, the committee incorporated Fischers proposals for additional missile-defense funding.

The North Korean threat warrants serious countermoves by the United States. Stepped-up missile defense can make an important contribution. As Fischer says, keeping Americans safe is the first duty of our federal government.
Whether its studying cells in a laboratory or teaching English abroad, two Creighton University Bluejays are pursuing their passions thanks in part to national academic awards.

Goeckner earns Fulbright, set to teach in South Korea

Burlington, Iowa, native Peter Goeckner, a 2017 Creighton graduate, earned a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award and is soon heading to a South Korean classroom. He will spend 11 months in the Asian country, where he will teach English.

Goeckner, who majored in psychology, is Creightons second consecutive Fulbright Teaching Award winner.

My parents bestowed on me a love of finding different points of view, he said. Creighton has truly helped me foster and expand on that. Im very excited about this opportunity and am so grateful to everyone at Creighton who has helped me on this journey.

During his undergraduate years, Goeckner traveled abroad in order to gain a global perspective. He was inspired by two faculty mentors and former Fulbright Scholars with whom he traveled, Jill Brown in the Department of Psychology, with whom he traveled to Tanzania, and Scott Eastman in the Department of History, who led the trip to Spain.

Goeckner said University President the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, also encouraged him to travel and study abroad.

Its going to be an interesting time to be in East Asia, Goeckner said, given the recent political spotlight on the region, and the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics that will be held in Pyeongchang.

Goeckners future plans include graduate school and pursuit of a doctorate in educational psychology.

Latest Goldwater winner continues long Creighton tradition

Kathleen Marinelli, a senior biology major at Creighton, was named a scholar in the 2017 Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program, one of the nations most prestigious awards for students in mathematics, science and technology.

Marinelli, a student in the Universitys Honors Program, is Creighton Universitys 20th Goldwater Scholar in the last 13 years, making the university one of the nations top producers of Goldwater Scholars.

The Medicine Lake, Minnesota, natives biochemistry research is conducted under the faculty mentorship of biochemistry professor Juliane Strauss-Soukup, director of Creightons Center for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship, and involves analyzing the utility of the glmS riboswitch as a possible antibiotic target.

Marinelli calls her relationship with Strauss-Soukup pretty incredible.

Dr. Soukup is a friend and a mentor, she said. I can go to her with any question, not just those about research or academic goals.

She is planning to earn an MD/PhD in translational science to conduct biochemical research of disease mechanisms at the molecular level.

She said she feels like shes being pushed and challenged at Creighton to become the best version of myself.

Its not just a mottothey really push you to be the best you can be, Marinelli said.

Creighton University offers a top-ranked education in the Jesuit, Catholic tradition. Read more about the university, and connect with Creighton on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
650 new combat posts for better intelligence gathering at border approved

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The centre has given its nod for setting up 650 combat posts for better intelligence gathering. This would add strength to the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), the force guarding India's borders with Nepal and Bhutan.

This unit would help anticipate threats and also assist the SSB which is the lead intelligence agency for the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders.

The SSB guards the two borders where there are no restrictions on the movement of people on either side. The area under the SSB jurisdiction comprises densely populated foothills and plains, thick jungles, underdeveloped regions and inhospitable terrains.

An official statement from the government said, "There is trans-border movement of criminals and anti-national elements and it poses a major challenge on the border in the context of the visa-free regime. Most of the stretches of the border are infested with ISI activists, insurgent groups, Maoists, fundamentalists, smugglers of narcotics, arms and fake currency, and human traffickers."

The SSB had earlier sent a proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs for setting up an intelligence unit to strengthen the efficiency and operational mandate of the force on borders.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 6:03 [IST]
Portals of Gangotri shrine close for winters, devotees can worship at Mukhba village now

Anand Mahindra's tweet about UPI at country's 'last tea shop' is every Indian's emotion

8 Sikh pilgrims missing in Uttarakhand; search operations on

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Search operations are underway after eight pilgrims, including two US citizens, went missing from Chamoli's Govindghat who had come to visit Hemkund Sahib in Uttarakhand, reports said.

Families of all the eight Sikh pilgrims from Punjab failed to establish contacts with them since July 6.

#Uttarakhand: 8 pilgrims go missing from Chamoli's Govindghat, had come to visit Hemkund Sahib. FIR lodged, search operation underway. pic.twitter.com/f3Tcg4p0QY  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

Luvpreet Singh of Amritsar has complained all the pilgrims had come to Hemkunt Sahib from Amritsar on July 6 by an Innova (PB-06-AB-5472). There has been no information since the driver called his family to inform that they were returning after having paid their obeisance at the gurdwara, reports Hindustan Times.

Meanwhile, the US Embassy in New Delhi on Thursday established contact with the Amritsar district administration to know about the two Sikh US citizens, Harkewal Singh and Premjit Singh.

some of the pilgrims contacted their family members on July 6 from Gobind Ghat and told that they are returning home. Later their phones are switched off.

Sri Hemkunt Sahib is situated at a height of over 15,000 feet above the sea level in the Himalayan ranges of northern India. It is a popular centre of Sikh Pilgrimage which is visited by thousands of devotees from all over the world every summer.

According to Bachitra Natak, the autobiographical account of the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, it was at Hemkunt 'adorned with seven snow peaks' that he meditated in his previous birth.

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 16:16 [IST]
Why is the passage of Women's Reservation Bill a perfect political opportunity for Modi regime

Why Mizoram took 30 years to get its second woman minister

Ab 33 per cent nahi 50 per cent, women's groups raise reservation call in Parliament

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 14: Will the Narendra Modi government pass the long-pending Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament?

If not, the Centre is likely to face the backlash of women's rights groups from across the country, who have come together to raise the demand for the passage of the bill in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament. The monsoon session of Parliament will start from July 17.

It's not just the passage of the bill, but this time women activists want 50 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies instead of 33 per cent.

On Thursday, a women's collective-- the National Alliance for Women's Reservation Bill-- comprising of more than 1,600 organisations, pitched for the passage of the "long-pending" bill in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.

The women's collective has also come up with the slogan--"Ab 33 per cent nahi 50 per cent" (This time not 33 per cent, but 50 per cent)--to stress their demand for 50 per cent reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

"The Prime Minister had congratulated African countries for women's majority in their Parliament. But when it came to his country, he never said a single word about this bill," general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women, Annie Raja, said.

"This is the time to act so that women are able to contest a maximum number of seats in the next election," she added.

According to figures, women hold a mere 12 per cent of the seats in Parliament and nine per cent in state assemblies, informed director of the Centre for Social Research, Ranjana Kumari.

"Unless there are more women in politics, their concerns cannot be addressed effectively," she added.

Director of the Joint Women's Programme, Jyotsna Chatterjee, said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had "committed" support to the bill in its 2014 election manifesto, and now it was time for the party to stand by it.

"It is high time to prove what they had declared in their election manifesto. The government says 'beti bachao beti padhao' (save girls, educate girls), but what about her political rights?" she asked.

For long, most political parties including the Congress had promised to pass the bill, but several leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav are strongly against such a reservation for women.

Indian politics, like most other fields, is dominated by men, thus women-related issues hardly get any attention. The latest case is the 12 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) levied on sanitary napkins, while there is no GST on condoms.

OneIndia News
3 CISF commandos dismissed from service over security breach at NSA Ajit Doval's residence

NSA Ajit Doval holds talks with his Russian counterpart in Moscow

NSA Ajit Doval, late CDS Gen Rawat among others to be awarded Uttarakhand Gaurav Samman

Ahead of all-party meeting, union ministers meet Doval

India

ians-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, July 14: Ahead of a meeting with opposition parties on the border stand-off with China and Kashmir situation, senior union ministers on Friday held a meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah were present at the meeting, held at Singh's residence.

Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj will on Friday evening brief opposition parties on the India-China standoff in Doklam and on the situation in Kashmir ahead of Parliament's monsoon session that begins on Monday.

The all-party meeting, to take opposition leaders into confidence on the two key issues, would also be held at the Home Minister's residence.

Meanwhile, high level strategy meeting of senior Congress leaders has been scheduled for 4 pm on Friday, ahead of the all party meeting.

IANS
An honour killing led to Maharashtra's law criminalising Social Boycott

India

oi-Anusha

The cold-blooded murder of a fully pregnant woman by her own father for marrying outside the caste laid the foundation for Maharashtra's anti-social boycott law. The fear of excommunication by a caste panchayat pushed a father to kill his pregnant daughter while those who ordered the murder went scot free. But not anymore.

Maharashtra makes Social Boycott a crime

Krushna Chandgude, one of the many activists who toiled for the Maharashtra Prohibition of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2016 recalls how the movement for the law came to be. It all started four years ago when slain rationalist Narendra Dhabolkar looked beyond the obvious.

Blood on the hands of an entire community

"Four years ago a case of honour killing was reported in Nashik. We went looking for root and found that the real reason behind the murder was Khap Panchayat," said Krushna Chandgude. It was not a mere case of honour killing. An entire community led by its leaders had collectively pushed a father to murder his pregnant daughter for marrying outside the caste. The issue was highlighted in an article by Dr Narendra Dhabolkar.

"After the article was published, one man approached us and told us that he was boycotted from his community because his daughter had married outside the caste. More and more such people came forward and exposed that Khap panchayat was a very real thing in Maharashtra," Krushna added.

Movement against Social Boycott in Maharashtra

Dr Dhaboklar's organisation Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti began the 'Jaat Panchayatila Muthmatil Abhiyan', a campaign to put an end to caste-based extra-judicial bodies. The movement did not stop even after Dr Dhabolkar was murdered.

"We went to every nook and corner of the state and brought together at least 250 people who had been boycotted by such caste panchayats. We approached the High Court to put an end to these atrocities. That is when we realised that there was no law to prevent or punish this," the activist added.

The Bombay High Court then asked the government to legislate a law against the social evil. The then Congress government did nothing to bring about a legislation. Owing to public and media pressure, the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra finally passed the Maharashtra Prohibition of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2016. It got the President's assent in June 2017. Under the new law, punishment including social boycott by the caste panchayats is a punishable offence.

Murder in the name of honour by a community

On the morning of June 28, 2013, Eknath Kumbharkar, a resident of Panchavati went to his daughter, Pramila's residence in Mahatma Nagar. Pramila had eloped to marry a man from the SC community and was pregnant with their first child. Eknath Kumbharkar told his daughter that her mother was desperate to see her. Moved by his appeal and overwhelmed with the fact that her father, who was angry about her eloping had come to visit her, she decided to go with him.

Kumbharkar hired an auto but when they neared Joshiwada, he asked the auto driver to call someone who lived nearby. As soon as the driver left, Kumbharkar strangled Pramila to death using a rope. She was taken to the hospital by the auto driver on his return but was declared brought dead. The police arrested the father in a matter of minutes. In June 2017, a Nashik court sentenced the 47 -year-old man to death.

However, the people and the circumstances that prompted the man to murder his daughter were overlooked due to the lack of a law to bring them to books. "After the girl eloped, a khap panchayat of the girl's community imposed a fine on the father. They did not stop at that. When they found out that the girl was pregnant, the caste panchayat told the father that the child was of 'impure blood' should not be allowed to be born. He was told that it was against the wishes of God. The panchayat asked him to either die or kill his daughter with the baby," Krushna said.

The fear of excommunication from his community at the hands of caste based panchayats, fueled the anger of a father towards his daughter pushing him ultimately to kill her and her unborn child. With the new law, the state can now punish extra-judicial bodies that indulge in such acts. Activists now hope that the law will deter victimisation of hundreds at the hands of khap panchayats that are the reality of Maharashtra even to this day.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 13:34 [IST]
BJP looks for insider as candidate for next Vice President of India

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national president of the party, Amit Shah held discussions with senior leaders on the selection of a candidate for the next Vice President of India. The opposition has already declared Gopal Krishna Gandhi as its candidate for the VP elections.

Modi and Shah held consultations with ministers and senior party leaders. Another meeting of the BJP's parliamentary board is scheduled in which a final call on the candidate would be taken.

Electoral College: Here is how the next President of India will be elected

The BJP is looking a candidate who is capable of running the Rajya Sabha. This is a very crucial factor for the BJP as it has had its fair share of problems in the upper house of Parliament. Further the BJP is also looking for a candidate who subscribes to the core values of the party.

A BJP source said that the candidate would be a party insider. The BJP is not looking for someone outside the party. The election to the post of VP will be held on August 5.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 6:19 [IST]
CBI set to grill Lalu Yadav and family

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

There is more trouble for Lalu Prasad Yadav as a team of the Central Bureau of Investigation will grill him next week. A team is set to leave for Patna and will question him for the alleged in awarding tenders for development, maintenance and operation of railway hotels at Ranchi and Puri to a private company.

The CBI had recently registered a case against then railway minister and RJD chief Lalu Yadav his wife Rabri Devi, Bihar deputy chief minister and his son Tejashwi.

The CBI team comprising 5 persons will head to Bihar. The team will record the statements of all the accused in the case. When asked if the accused would be arrested, the CBI source said that it was unlikely. The source further added that as of now the case is at a preliminary stage. More evidence is being gathered the officer also noted.

"The agency is collecting all relevant documents pertaining to the case from the railway ministry and other concerned agencies. The CBI will start interrogation of the accused, named in the FIR, from next week," the officer also noted.

The CBI on July 5 registered a corruption case against the RJD chief, his family members, particularly his wife, and his son Tejashwi, Bihar's deputy chief minister, in connection with the alleged irregularities in tenders allotted to Sujata Hotels for development, maintenance and operation of two railway hotels BNR Ranchi and Puri.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 7:31 [IST]
SC wants Vijay Mallya to be present in court; Centre says cant extradite him before Jan 2018

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 14: The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court it won't be able to secure the extradition of liquor baron Vijay Mallya, wanted for defaulting on bank loan repayments worth Rs 9,000 crore, before January 2018.

The Centre's response came after the Supreme Court said it cannot sentence him in a contempt of court case in his absence.

Attorney general KK Venguopal told the court that extradition hearings against Mallya in a UK court will begin on December 4, and "hopefully we should get him back by January 2018.

Mumbai's Arthur Road jail for Mallya if extradited says India

A bench comprising of Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit had fixed the matter for hearing on July 14 and sought the assistance of the Solicitor General in the case.

In the last hearing, the apex court had convicted him for contempt of court and summoned him to personally appear on July 10. Subsequently, the hearing was adjourned till July 14.

The apex court was hearing a plea by a consortium of banks, which moved the apex court after Mallya received loan of USD 40 million from a British firm, Diageo Plc, in February 2016, and allegedly transferred the money to his children, instead of repaying the loans that he owes to the banks.

India had recently asked Britain to ensure early extradition of Mallya, who is an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

OneIndia News
Vietnams most important and established travel event, the International Travel Expo, Ho Chi Minh City (ITE HCMC), returns for the 13th year from September 7 to 9 at the Saigon Exhibition & Convention Centre (SECC).

Vietnam was ranked seventh in the list of the worlds top 20 fastest growing travel destinations. The country saw a 24.6% surge in the number of foreign visitors in 2016 compared to the previous year.

The annual ITE HCMC is the key international tourism event in Vietnam, and the largest event of its kind in the Mekong subregion for both inbound and outbound markets.

The first two days of the event are catered to trade professionals, and the third day to trade visitors as well as the public; special promotions, travel packages, stage activities and performances will especially enthrall the latter with wanderlust.

Following the success of last years edition, and the positive positioning of Vietnam as the latest tourism hotspot, the Organisers of ITE HCMC 2017 are expecting an overall increase of 20% in participation from last year.

This years event will host a multitude of national pavilions, and current confirmed participation include those of Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, with many more to be announced soon.

The confirmed exhibitors currently include airlines, hotels and resorts, tour companies, and travel representatives from countries like Australia, Cambodia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE and Vietnam.

Apart from an array of networking events, it will also host a series of high-powered seminars on topics relating to emerging travel and tourism, like tourism sustainability, travel technology, social media for tourism and hospitality, investment tourism development, and more.

Special business matching services, online pre-appointments, and buyer-seller meetings will provide exhibitors greater exposure and buyers more opportunities to discover that special tourism boost they are searching for. More than 3,600 meetings were conducted between buyer and sellers last year, and the Organisers expect the number to grow 15% this year.

Hosted Buyers & Media Programme

Organisers of the ITE HCMC will also invite and host at the event 300 international and regional travel buyers from 50 major markets like Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK, US and many others.

The Hosted Buyer Programme allows buyers, from leisure, corporate, MICE, luxury, and special interest travel companies to enjoy pre-show and post-show tours to explore Vietnam; make pre-appointment bookings with sellers online; engage in buyer-seller meetings and attend various networking functions. All hosted buyers are carefully selected and approved by an advisory board with the ITE HCMC Organising Committee.

Additionally, the Organisers will also invite and host 50 international media partners from prominent travel, lifestyle, tourism, and broadcast platforms, as well as award-winning travel bloggers and social media professionals. Some of the activities the media would be invited to include dinners, networking events, and also pre-show and post-show tours showcasing the beauty of Vietnam.

Pre-registration is now open, and trade & public visitors are strongly encouraged to pre-register at www.itehcmc.com before the event to skip the long queues at the door.
Dokalam stand-off: Congress urges govt to engage with China to resolve the crisis

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Jul 14: The Congress urged the government to engage diplomatically with China to deescalate the situation in Dokalam and resolve the border crisis without compromising on India's national interests.

Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Mallikarjun Kharge attended a meeting where top Union ministers and officials briefed the political parties on the standoff between India and China. The Congress leaders also alleged security lapses in Jammu and Kashmir that led to the attack on Amarnath pilgrims and asked the government to engage with the local population and help improve the situation in the Kashmir Valley.

The Congress made it clear that when it comes to national security, all the parties are with the government as national security was the party's priority. "We stand united when it comes to India's national interests," Sharma said.

"We had concerns. We told the government to deescalate the situation and resolve the crisis by diplomatically engaging with China without compromising on India's security interests," he said. The Congress had earlier raised concerns over the situation in Dokalam area where the armies of China and India are in a border standoff for a month now after Indian troops objected to road construction in the area.

Sources said the opposition was informed about the ground situation in Dokalam area and what the government intended to do to de-escalate the border tension. Azad also said that all opposition parties have assured the government that when it comes to territorial integrity of the country they all stand united. He also raised the issue of the overall internal security situation in the country in the wake of rising incidents of lynchings and vigilantism. He also urged the government on the need to initiate engagement in Kashmir to improve the situation in the valley after all-round condemnation of attacks on Amarnath pilgrims.

The Congress has been critical of the government for not keeping it informed over the developments on the border standoff with China and on the internal security situation. During the meeting Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affiars Minister Sushma Swaraj briefed the leaders of various political parties on the situation in Dokalam area and the steps being taken by the government in this regard.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar were also present and gave detailed presentations also. The briefing comes ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, beginning on Monday, and is being viewed as an attempt to apparently build a consensus to deal with India's biggest neighbour as well as on the Kashmir issue.

AICC media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala earlier in the day took a jibe at the government, saying it was "satisfying" to see that the NDA government had "finally woken up" after three years to brief the opposition on the issues concerning the nation.

Criticising the Modi government, he said the previous Congress-led UPA regime had always kept the opposition in the loop on such critical issues. He alleged that the present situation in Kashmir was the result of the "immaturity and failure" of the PDP-BJP government in the state, and the Centre. "Unfortunately, the prime minister and the BJP government think they have all the answers. They have not taken the opposition into confidence on the issue. We hope they take us into confidence," he added.

PTI
Doval's China doctrine: We need you, but not at the cost of a compromise

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The National Security Advisor of India, Ajit Doval is likely to visit China amidst the standoff between the two countries. It is expected that the standoff would melt down during his China visit as he is expected to find a solution there.

Known as a man who relied on a military solution over a compromise, it would be interesting to see how Doval would go about his business in China. India would not compromise on its territorial interests he would say when asked. His views on the territorial interests of the country whether it is China or Pakistan are now famously known as the Doval doctrine.

Doval is well aware that China has is mightier than India on the military front. However he makes it clear that China's weak spot is on the missile front. India must ramp up its missile capabilities, he always said.

He had also said even though the relationship with China is very important for India, there can be no compromise on matters relating to sovereignty. At a security conference he had said that India would like to develop relations with China to such an extent till the time our territorial sovereignty and integrity is not compromised.

At China one would get to witness a mix of both the hardliner stance as well diplomacy. China is not known to compromise, but highly placed sources tell OneIndia that the matter will be sorted out. Relations will be fine, our stance would be made clear, but not at the cost of a compromise, the source also said.

OneIndia News
EC bribery case: Dinakaran not named in first chargesheet filed by Delhi police

India

oi-Anusha

The Delhi Crime Branch police on Friday filed the first chargesheet in the Election Commission of India bribery case. AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran's name was, however, missing from the chargesheet. The Delhi police claimed that a supplementary chargesheet would be filed against him later.

The Delhi police filed a chargesheet against alleged middleman Sukesh Chandrasekhar in the Tis Hazari court on Friday. While TTV Dinakaran's name did not feature in the chargesheet, police maintained that he along with the other accused will be named in the supplementary chargesheet.

"From the statement of witnesses, analysis of call details of all accused persons and witnesses, recovery of CD and its analysis, it was found that accused Sukesh and TTV Dinakaran were discussing the matter over 'two leaves' election symbol pending in ECI. These facts clearly show that a criminal conspiracy was hatched...", the charge sheet said.

While the first chargesheet has been filed solely against Sukesh Chandrasekhar, the Delhi police told the court that a separate chargesheet would be filed in the case against the other accused since the investigation was still in progress.

"Investigation regarding the CD containing the conversation between Sukesh and Dinakaran, contents of mobile phones seized from different accused persons/witnesses in pending. The same shall be finalised after receipt of FSL results. The investigation regarding the alleged involvement of officials in ECI is also in progress. Similarly, investigation regarding the source and route of the illegal channels of financial transactions is still in progress. Investigation with respect to recovered cars and Pulkit Kundra is in progress," the chargesheet submitted to Tis Hazari court said.

The Delhi police have told the court that chargesheet in all pending aspects will be filed before it separately. Since the police were able to gather enough evidence against Sukesh Chandrasekhar, the present chargesheet was prepared against him, the police said. More evidence against him in the form of FSL results will be added in the additional chargesheet.

Sukesh Chandrasekhar has been accused of receiving money from TTV Dinakaran to pay bribes to election commission of India officials in the AIADMK Symbol row. While the Tis Hazari court agreed to grant bail to Dinakaran and his aide, Sukesh Chandrasekhar and two others hawala operators were denied bail in the case.

OneIndia News
International news brief: Floods trap many in Florida; Royal Mint unveils first coins and more

Experts from space technology, ISRO to assess damage caused by floods, landslides in NE

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Guwahati, July 14: The Northeast India is grappling with unprecedented damage caused by floods and landslides since June. The situation in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh are especially critical as major rivers, including Brahmaputra and its tributaries, are flowing above the danger mark.

On Thursday, Union minister Jitendra Singh said as many as 80 people have lost their lives in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur due to floods and landslides that have hit 58 districts in the NE region.

Singh, who reviewed the flood situation in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur with officials of these three states in the national capital, said the damage caused by the rains was "unprecedented".

The minister suggested that experts from space technology and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be roped in for carrying out an assessment of damage in the region.

The Union minister of state for development of north eastern region (DoNER), said the Centre is committed to provide all kinds of support to the state governments in rescue and relief operations, an official release said.

Singh said the ministry of DoNER and the Prime Minister's Office are closely coordinating with a team, led by union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju, which is currently visiting the region to assess the flood situation there.

He said the damage caused by the floods and landslides has been contained to a large extent. He also suggested that essential items like staple food and baby food be made available for the affected people.

The minister said he has approached the union health ministry to undertake measures to prevent outbreak of epidemics and telecom ministry for restoration of communication lines.

The meeting was attended by secretary, DoNER Naveen Verma, senior officers from PMO, home ministry and resident commissioners of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and Deputy Resident Commissioner of Manipur.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 6:48 [IST]
Explosive found in UP Assembly: What is PETN?

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath on Friday confirmed that the suspicious white found in the state assembly was Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate or PETN, one of the most dangerous plastic explosives.

PETN is not something that is available off-the-shelf or a chemical that can be manufactured in the backyard. The main ingredients needed to manufacture PETN are Pentaerythritol and Nitric acid, which can be procured as these chemicals find uses in other manufacturing process as well. But, process involved in PETN production is quite complex and needs an eloborate setup.

[After explosive powder found in UP assembly, CM Yogi calls for NIA probe]

CM Adityanath rightly called for an NIA investigation. The investigation needs to be a thorough one which ought look into every aspect of the incident like How it reached the assembly?, where was it manufactured?, How it was procured? and most importantly, can terrorists access it? It is indeed a matter of national security.

What are the uses of PETN and who uses it?

PETN is mixed with RDX to make Semtex, which is a plastic explosive used by the miltary and the mining industry. Semtex is used by military and especially by special forces in operations involving storming a building. Mining industry uses it for controlled explosions where dynamite cannot be used.

It is preferred by militant groups because it cannot be easily detected owing to its colourless crystals.

What makes PETN very dangerous is that it cannot be detected by metal detectors and can easily surpass security checks.

How can it be detected?

Trained sniffer dogs can detect PETN, additionally swabs of clothing and personal belongings of passengers can be analysed to detect its traces.

Incidents involving PETN use:

It was suspected that nitrate-based explosives laced with PETN were used in 2011 Delhi High Court blast, which left 17 people dead.

Nigerian man Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was convicted for attempting to detonate PETN explosives hidden in his underwear while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253. He attempted this on an Amsterdam to Detroit flight in 2009. The device that he used was sewn into his underwear containing the explosive powder PETN. He failed in his attempt as the chemical burst into flames instead of exploting, the flames were doused by airline staff using fire extinguisher.

A British national by the name Richard Reid tried to detonate PETN concealed in his shoes on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami. Reid tried to light the fuse protuding from his shoes but was thwarted by flight attendents.

OneIndia News
UP ATS picks up two more accused in Al-Qaeda radicalisation case

Explosive in UP Assembly: Congress corners govt over law and order situation

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The Congress on Friday cornered the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh over the explosive chemical found in the state assembly, saying that it shows the condition of law and order in the state.

Adityanath had earlier called a high-level meeting after 60 grams of suspicious white powder was found in the state assembly on Thursday. The powder was found to be Pentaerythritol tetranitrate or PETN, an explosive chemical.

"Have never seen a government failing this soon. If explosives can be found under seat of Leader of Opposition, you can imagine condition of law and order in UP," senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told media persons.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker said that Provincial Armed Constabulary and Quick Response Teams would be deployed at the assembly.

Speaking in the Assembly on Friday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called for an NIA investigation.

The suspicious powder, which was found on Thrusday, was sent to the forensic lab for testing.

[After explosive powder found in UP assembly, CM Yogi calls for NIA probe]

PETN is a major ingredient of Semtex, a general-purpose plastic explosive, and belongs to the same chemical family as nitroglycerin. It is one of the most powerful explosives made today and is a favourite among terrorists because its colourless crystals are hard to detect in a sealed container.

OneIndia News
Gap between rich and poor has widened, needs to be bridged: Gadkari

Gau rakshaks attack on Muslim man misfired? Victim turns out be BJP leader from Maharashtra

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Mumbai, July 14: The gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) of Nagpur in Maharashtra must be scratching their heads after they miserably bungled by attacking one of their own men (although a Muslim) for allegedly carrying beef.

On Wednesday, four persons brutally beat up a 40-year-old Muslim man in Nagpur's Bharsingi area on suspicion of carrying beef.

In spite of the victim's repeated plea that the meat in his possession is "mutton" and not "beef", the attackers were in no mood to listen to his pleas.

However, there is a twist to the entire tale. Generally, attacks on people in the name of cow protection follow a similar pattern. Most often Muslim men are either brutally beaten or killed over suspicion of possessing beef or illegally ferrying cattle.

This case also followed the similar path, but the victim turns out be a Bharatiya Janata Dal (BJP) leader from the state. The man at the centre of controversy--Salim Ismail Shah--is the head of BJP minority cell in Maharashtra's Katol.

Salim, a resident of Katol town, is a "dedicated party worker," his mother Rihana was quoted as saying by The Hindu. "He was not carrying beef," she said.

Even BJP's Nagpur rural president Rajiv Potdar defended Salim. However, Potdar added that the "attackers have no relation with the BJP."

The four attackers have been arrested and remanded in five-day police custody on Thursday. Reports suggest that the four accused belong to the Prahar Sangathana.

According to police, Salim was travelling in his two-wheeler when the accused stopped him and alleged that he was carrying beef. In spite of Salim's repeated denial that the meat was not beef, they refused to hear him out.

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Gau Rakshaks attack again; Nagpur man beaten up by mob | Oneindia News

Salim, who underwent treatment in a hospital as he had sustained severe injuries, on Thursday, told the media that he was carrying "mutton" for a function and he was in no way related to any business associated with selling "beef".

The police on its part have sent the "meat" to a forensic laboratory for test as cow slaughter is illegal in the state.

Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly condemned the attacks carried out by cow vigilantes in the name of cow protection.

However, it seems nobody cares what the head of the country has to say about these kinds of barbaric and inhumane attacks, which have led to several deaths in recent times.

The killing of 16-year-old Muslim boy, Junaid Khan, on a train in Haryana by a group of 15-20 men last month rattled the whole country. Before Junaid was stabbed to death, the attackers called him "beef-eater" and "anti-national", thus clearly stating out why they decided to kill him.

After Junaid's death, a nationwide campaign, #NotInMyName, was started to demand an end to attacks on people in the name of cow protection.

OneIndia News
Home ministry assures to unite Pakistani bride, Lucknow groom

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

The Union home ministry has come to the rescue of a couple seeking intervention to resolve the visa issue plaguing their wedding plans. Lucknow boy Syed Shariq Hashmi and Karachi-based girl Sadia Mehran, whose plan to get married had earlier received a jolt with the Indian high commission in Islamabad rejecting the girl's visa twice.

Earlier, Sadia had sought home minister's and external affairs minister's help through Twitter to issue visitors visa to family members which had been held up. This denial of visa had put their wedding slated for August 1, in jeopardy.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh's office responded to a TOI reporter's tweet about the plight of Syed, and Sadia. The home minister's office responded to the tweet on Thursday seeking details of Sadia's visa application. "The couple should not lose hope. We will make all efforts to get the issue sorted. The details will have to be looked into," said an official from the HMO has said.

The couple's marriage was fixed in 2012, when Sadia visited Lucknow. Both families conversed over phone and never met since then. They never thought that marriage would be at stake because of a visa denial. Meanwhile, Syed had also sought Swaraj's help.

Seeking help, Sadia had tweeted, "Es beti ki help kariye (Please help this daughter). You are my only hope".

OneIndia News
Hyderabad drugs haul: Tollywood celebrities asked to appear before Excise Department

India

oi-Anusha

The Department of Prohibition and Excise in Telangana has issued notices to 12 Tollywood celebrities in connection with the drug haul case. Popular actors, directors and technicians have been asked to appear in person before the Excise department officials.

Notices have been issued to two actresses, one director, two technicians and many lead and supporting actors including a superstar in the Telugu film industry. Officials of the Excise Department have asked the celebrities to appear between July 19 and 27 in person. While all male celebrities have to appear at the Excise department's office, the two actresses can choose to appear at a place of their convenience.

Hyderabad: Doon School alumnus used 'Lunacy' to acquire drugs from Netherlands

Those summoned include a Telugu superstar who has a mass fan base, director of blockbuster hits who has also won multiple state awards, an actor who has been part of a recent mega hit multi-lingual film and actresses who have been part of movies in all southern languages.

Officials maintained that notices were issued after those arrested in the case revealed the list of their clients that also included big names from the Telugu film industry. The Excise Department officials had earlier spoken about the involvement of a Telugu film producer in peddling the drugs.

Officials maintained that names of most of the celebrities cropped up during investigations. Apart from peddlers who have been arrested in the case, officials also depended on contact details and messages exchanged between the celebrities and drug peddlers to zero in on names.

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 15:11 [IST]
MEA says Pak's terror support, sponsorship needs to be condemned by one and all

China face off: India wants peaceful resolution of the matter, says MEA

Importance of India-China to remain engaged diplomatically underlined: MEA

India

oi-Madhuri

External affairs ministry spokesman Gopal Baglay on Friday said that Senior Union Minister briefed all national political parties on Doklam situation. There is a stand off between the armies of India and China in the Dokalam area in the Sikkim sector after Indian troops stopped a road construction by Chinese soldiers on June 16.

"All participants expressed strong support for India's approach and also for the need for national unity. Importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy was underlined," MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

Baglay said, "There was widespread appreciation of the Astana understanding between India and China that differences between them should not become disputes."

''The unique nature of very close and longstanding India - Bhutan relationship was recognised'', he added.

The briefing comes ahead of the Parliament session beginning Monday. The opposition parties had earlier said the government had not kept them informed over the developments in Dokalam.

OneIndia News
Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj reach out to opposition parties

India

oi-Madhuri

Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday evening met opposition parties to discuss on two crucial issues - the India-China standoff in Doklam and the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The meeting was held at home minister Rajnath Singh's residence and aimed at briefing the opposition parties about the situation. Demanding that the Centre "share full information" on stand-off with China and the Kashmir situation, the Congress attended the meeting called by the government.

Emerging from the meeting, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma told reporters that their party has raised some doubts before the government but made it clear that "nation is first -- be it China or Kashmir". "There is too much of tension and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament," both the leaders said.

The decision to address the meeting was taken after the nation was hounded on both sides, by Pakistan and China.

Invitation for the meeting was sent out by the External Affairs Ministry ahead of the Monsoon Session of parliament, which is set to start from 17 July.

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on China.

OneIndia News
Jharkhand crisis: UPA to stage protest across state on Nov 5 against 'attempts to destabilise govt'

Jharkhand rights panels site hacked; defaced with Stop killing Muslims messages

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

The Jharkhand Human Rights Commission's site has been hacked twice in a span of 10 months and its wall was defaced with messages such as "stop killing innocent Muslims" for the second time, reports said.

The site was hacked by a hacker group, codenamed 'Mr H1DD3N' in July, no one noticed it until Thursday, reported Hindustan Times.

Messages on the home page were addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "India Hello Modi....stop killing innocent Muslims, stop killing beef eaters, stop torturing Muslim women, stop arresting Muslim boys from college. We are human being. We are equal. We are Islamic Cyber (sic)."

However, the hacker apologized for his actions. The hacker further posted, "Sorry for my actions. This is just a lesson for you to make your website more secure. Fix the gap immediately. I am not a destroyer I am a slit seeker. Because there is no safe system then you should be more careful (sic)."

Founder of National Anti-hacking Group Vineet Kumar said two to three hackers were involved and they used proxy server.

Subsequently, the site has been blocked.

"Ranchi police have been informed about the hacking of the site and asked to lodge an FIR against unidentified persons," JSHRC secretary Bhagwan Das said.

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 18:45 [IST]
Ready to quit cinema if it becomes hurdle to political career: Kamal Haasan

Chennai Rains: Kamal Haasan asks fans to help flood victims as his birthday gift

Kamal Haasan tests positive for Covid-19 after US trip

Kamal Haasan reveals abducted Malayalam actress' name; NCW sends notice

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

The National Commission for Women (NCW) on Friday took a suo moto cognizance over actor Kamal Haasan for revealing the name of Malayalam actress who was abducted in Kerala.

The NCW has sent him a notice demanding an explanation.

Hassan is already embroiled in the Bigg Boss Tamil controversy. A fringe Hindu group - Hindu Makkal Katchi has filed a complaint about Bigg Boss Tamil and how the show is destroying the Tamil Hindu culture.

Subsequently, security has been enhanced at the actor's Chennai residence following Bigg Boss Tamil controversy and also for publicly revealing victim's name in Malayalam actress abduction case.

Security enhanced at Haasan's residence following Bigg Boss Tamil controversy&him publicly revealing victim's name in Malayalam actress case pic.twitter.com/yy9q9P4x51  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

As per reports, the actor while addressing a press conference regarding Hindu Makkal Katchi's complaint about Bigg Boss Tamil, he also spoke about the recent Malayalam actress abduction case, the investigation of which has resulted in the arrest of actor Dileep.

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 14:35 [IST]
Kannada made compulsory in all schools in Karnataka but where are the textbooks?

India

oi-Anusha

The Karnataka government has made Kannada a compulsory subject in all schools irrespective of boards across the state. The government, however, is brushing a bigger problem under the carpet. Neither has the government prescribed textbooks to be used for first, second and third language nor are there enough textbooks.

Primary education minister Tanveer Sait said that starting August, Kannada will be mandatory for students from class 1 in all schools including ICSE and CBSE boards. What he did not mention was the lack of preparedness on part of the government to implement the same. "It is all good to hear but who will address the technical issues? Which books are prescribed and where are the textbooks? Who has prescribed them? Nobody has thought about it. The academic year has already begun and most districts haven't received books at all. The government has not even taken the initiative to find out how many books are required," said Shashikumar, the president of Private schools association.

To prescribe a textbook, the government calls for indents in the month of September or October. School associations claim that no such move was taken and the government has no clue how many textbooks are required. "Every school has to fall in line if there is a state policy and schools don't mind teaching Kannada as a mandatory subject but insisting the same without proper preparation is not the way to go about it. No books have been prescribed for third and second language. Have they been printed? Is it ready for this academic year? these questions are important," Shashikumar added.

In most districts, students are yet to receive Kannada textbook even in state board schools leave alone supplying them to ISCE and CBSE boards. For example, state board schools in Mandya district are yet to receive Kannada textbooks for class 1 to 5. In Kodagu, schools have an acute shortage of class 2 and 4 Kannada textbooks. In Bengaluru, schools are facing a shortage of First language Kannada textbooks for class 2, 4, 7 and second language Kannada textbooks for class 8 and 5.

CBSE and ICSE boards alone can affect change

While the Karnataka government may make as many announcements as they want for CBSE and ICSE schools to make Kannada a compulsory subject, it is ultimately the respective boards who can affect change.

"We already teach Kannada for students who have opted it as a language but making it compulsory as second for the first language will pose big problems, especially tot hose students who are not from Karnataka and come on transfer. Moreover, the academic year has already started and students have already opted for the languages that they want to study. This will now become a legal issue. The central board has to give a circular or notice that the state language has to be the second language, until then, we cannot affect the change," said Srinivasan Muthusamy, the President of CBSE Schools Association in Karnataka.

The Karnataka primary education minister has threatened to revoke 'No Objection Certificates; of schools that do not adhere to the compulsory Kannada rule, however, the lack of preparation is from the government's side, is what schools associations have to say. "How can you affect change when the academic year has already begun? The parents too have to have a say," said a CBSE school student's father.

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 10:32 [IST]
Kiran Bedi lauds Karnataka cop for her report on VIP treatment given to Sasikala

India

pti-PTI

Puducherry, Jul 14: Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi on Friday lauded the "courage" of senior Karnataka police officer D. Roopa who said AIADMK (Amma) chief V K Sasikala was getting preferential treatment in Bengaluru central prison.

"We need more officers of the kind of D.Roopa, the DIG (Prisons) of Karnataka, to inspire younger generation to be like her," Bedi, herself a former IPS officer, tweeted.

Such officers are not easy to find these days. "Those who have the courage to speak and write out the truth as they see knowing well that they may not get support from senior quarters," she said.

The DIG also said there was suspicion that senior jail officials had accepted Rs 2 crore as a bribe to facilitate special facilities for Sasikala, prompting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to order a high-level probe on Thursday.

Roopa made the allegations in a report to her superior, DGP (Prisons) H S Sathyanarayana Rao. Bedi, credited with ushering in jail reforms during her career, asked Roopa to "keep going strong wherever you are posted as the country needs you. You will inspire younger generation to be like you..."

The Lt Governor said in such a situation, good leadership welcomes reporting or feedback and makes a joint field visit.

"This helps improve matters," Bedi added.

In her four-page report after visiting the central prison on July 10, Roopa said a special kitchen was functioning in the jail here for Sasikala.

OneIndia has accessed the four-page report that contains observations made by Roopa D, DIG prisons, alleges that a special kitchen has been set up for Sasikala who is convicted in a disproportionate assets case.

"A special kitchen is functioning for Sasikala Natarajan, an aide of former Tamil Nadu chief minister who is now convicted in a disproportionate assets case. The special kitchen is in violation of the jail rules. There are rumours that you are in the know of it but the violation has continued. I am told that Rs 2 crores were given in bribes to provide special privileges to her and unfortunately the allegation is on you," the report addressed to DGP Prisons, HN Satyanarayana Rao says.

Rao has termed Roopa's charges against him "absolutely false, baseless and wild" and said he would take legal recourse against his junior.

PTI
Kodaikanal activist objects to Irom Sharmila's marriage

India

pti-PTI

Dindigul (TN), Jul 14: A local social activist has filed an objection to the proposed marriage of human rights campaigner Irom Sharmila with her long-time partner Desmond Coutinho, a British national, at the office of the Sub-Registrar in Kodaikanal.

The activist, V Mahendran, from Pethuparai near Kodaikanal filed a petition in the office against Sharmila's proposed marriage with Desmond Coutinho. He contended that if the couple was granted permission, they would settle in Kodaikanal permanently and this was not good for the interests of local residents and safety of the place.

In his plea filed with the Sub-Registrar at Kodaikanal, he said Coutinho was in charge of a website, engaged in activities around the world, and their stay here would affect peace in the hill station. The Sub-Registrar had called for objections under the Special Marriage Act between Sharmila and the British national as they belonged to different nations and different religions.

Meanwhile, Subramanian, an advocate, who specialises in marriage act, wondered if the petitioner had any 'locus standi' to file objections and if the grounds were valid. Sharmila had moved to this hill town with Coutinho following her defeat in the Manipur state assembly elections in March last and her party 'People's Resurgence and Justice Alliance' had suffered a rout.

The 44-year-old shot to fame after she launched her fast-unto-death on November 4, 2000, demanding withdrawal of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 from Manipur. Sharmila, also known as 'Iron Lady', broke her 16-year-long hunger strike, the world's longest, on August 9, 2016 and declared she wanted to become the chief minister so that she could repeal the contentious AFSPA.

PTI
Lashkar's Sandeep Sharma converted to Islam to marry Kashmiri girl

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Sandeep Sharma alias Adil had converted to Islam to marry a Kashmiri girl. This UP resident who was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police for being part of a Lashkar-e-Tayiba module told the police that he was in love with a Kashmiri girl.

He said that he was desperate to marry that girl and hence converted to Islam. He said that the girl was insistent that he converted to Islam.

He had left his home town in UP's Muzzafarnagar and moved to Punjab six years back in search for a job. In Patiala he came in contact with some Kashmiri youth. He then began frequenting the Valley along with them.

In Kashmir he got into criminal activities such as theft. He later joined a group that was involved in ATM robberies. These were incidentally men of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. Sandeep had an original driving licence in his name and this was used by the Lashkar. On June 16, when terrorists killed six policemen in Achabal area of Anantnag district, Sandeep drove the motor vehicle ferrying the terrorists.

Sandeep Sharma was given arms training by Lashkar-e-Taiba. Having a driving licence in his original name, Sharma was used as a driver by terror operatives in the Valley to move weapons from one location to the other.

His family on the other hand said that they never knew about his dealings. Shocked at the revelation, the family members said that if guilty he deserves to be hanged.

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 7:51 [IST]
Gangrape of 8-year-old in Mandsaur: Chargesheet filed against the accused duo

MP: Two men gets death sentence for raping 8-year-old in Mandsaur

Mandsaur protests: SC stays arrest of woman Congress MLA

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the arrest of Congress MLA Shakuntala Khatik accused of inciting violence in Mandsaur during farmer agitation in which five farmers were killed in police firing.

The apex court issued a notice to Madhya Pradesh Government and the state police.

A local court in Madhya Pradesh had issued an arrest warrant against Shakuntala Khatik for allegedly inciting protesters to burn down a local police station during the farmers agitation in Madhya Pradesh.

Amid violent protests by farmers in Madhya Pradesh, a video surfaced purportedly showed Khatik inciting people to set a police station ablaze. The video had gone viral on social media and was shared on Twitter by BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya.

The video was shot when she was staging a protest at Karera police station in Shivpuri district against the killing of farmers in Mandsaur.

She was leading a protest march, during which an effigy of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was burnt. The police poured water on the effigy in a bid douse the flames, in which the woman legislator got partially drenched.

This irked Khatik, who later sat on a protest at the police station along with her supporters and the video was shot during the sit-in

The video shows the MLA purportedly asking her supporters to set the police station on fire.

(With agency inputs)
Maoists kill 3 persons suspecting to be police informers in Bihar

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Three persons, including a woman, were allegedly killed by Naxals suspecting them to be police informers in Jamui's Barhat of Bihar.

The naxals have put up posters calling the deceased as anti-people, anti-party, and stooge of police. In another poster, naxals wrote their victims names as: Shiv Koda, Bhajarangi Koda and Meenadevi Koda. At the end, naxalites have mentioned their party name CPI-Maoist claiming responsibility for the murders.

#Visuals from Bihar: Three persons including a woman killed by Naxals suspecting them to be police informers in Jamui's Barhat. pic.twitter.com/icZgzx8cn1  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

According to TOI reports, Maoists have killed one civilian every two days till May 2017, most of them tribals branded "police informers". The majority of the victims were tortured before being killed, with a few cases of beheadings in Chhattisgarh similar to those carried out by the Islamic State terror group.

At least 21 incidents have been reported from across Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha of CPI (Maoist) cadres blasting the offices of local contractors and targeting their staff.

As per reports, the districts that reported the highest number of civilian killings, include Sukma (8); Narayanpur and Gadchiroli (7); Kanker and Malkangiri (5); and Chatra (4). In all, Naxalites had killed 62 civilians by April 30, 2017 - of these, at least 30 were executed by 'Janatana sarkars' or kangaroo courts as "instant punishment".

April has been the bloodiest month, with 21 killings, followed by 16 in February, 13 in January and 12 in March. In the same month, 25 CRPF personnel were martyred in a Maoist ambush in Sukma.

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 12:04 [IST]
Mumbai's Arthur Road jail for Mallya if extradited says India

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Vijay Mallya will be lodged in the Arthur Road jail if extradited to India, a UK court has been told. The Indian government was responding to questions from the UK government on where Mallya would be lodged if extradited to India.

This correspondence is annexed to a status report filed by the Ministry for Home Affairs in the Supreme Court which is hearing a case relating to Mallya.

"All evidence regarding falsities, mis-statements and false representations of Vijay Mallya and officials of KAL were forwarded to the U.K.... U.K. authorities are satisfied with material supplied by the Indian agency," the correspondence also said.

One of the UK prosecutors had in a hearing acknowledged the "excellent cooperation from Indian authorities" and submitted that India had "sufficient material to establish a prima facie case," the report also states.

The affidavit further stated that the extradition process is "already under progress in the UK courts."

OneIndia News
Modi not to raise internal matter like J&K during annual UNGA session next month

Myanmar is key pillar in India's 'Act East' policy, says PM Modi

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, July 14: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today described Myanmar as a "key pillar" of India's 'Act East' policy and expressed his firm commitment to strengthen the bilateral relationship in all areas.

He made the comments when Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Defence Services Sr Gen. U Min Aung Hliang called on him here, a PMO statement said. Hliang briefed the prime minister about bilateral defence and security cooperation, the statement said.

The prime minister appreciated the close cooperation between the armed forces of India and Myanmar, it added.

During the meeting, Myanmar's military chief condemned the recent terrorist attack on pilgrims of Amarnath yatra in Kashmir and expressed his sincere condolences for the victims, the statement said.

Modi also conveyed his condolences at the loss of lives of Myanmar armed forces personnel and their families in the tragic air crash of June 7.

PTI
Bharat Jodo Yatra will proceed to Srinagar, come what may, says Rahul Gandhi as march enters Maharashtra

If Cong is elected in HP, decision on 1 lakh govt jobs, pension scheme in 1st cabinet meet: Rahul

Naani ke ghar ja ke bhi dimaag theek nahi hua, BJP min takes a jibe at Rahuls brains

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 14: It seems the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is massively miffed with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi as he has been constantly attacking the Narendra Modi government on various issues in recent times.

Often the ruling party is brushing aside Rahul's criticism as his "immaturity". However, on Friday, BJP's Haryana minister Anil Vij, known for his below the belt remarks, hit a new low as he not only criticised Rahul for having "no brains", but also dragged his maternal grandmother, who stays in Italy, into the entire controversy.

"Even after visiting his grandmother's house, Rahul Gandhi's brains has not been cured (Rahul Gandhi ka to naani ke ghar ja ke bhi dimaag theek nahi hua)," Vij was quoted as saying by ANI.

Vij's reference to Rahul's visit to his grandmother's house is in regard to the Congress VP's recent vacation in Italy with his grandmother and other family members.

The Haryana minister's swipe against Rahul and his grandmother turned 'vitriolic and sexist' as he called the elderly woman a "buddhi" (a derogatory word used to refer elderly woman in Hindi).

"India was hoping that he would go to grandmother's house, bring the oldie here, but he came back empty-handed (Hindustan ummeed kar rha tha ki naani ghar jaayega buddhi le ke aayega, lekin lagta hai wahan se khaali haath aa gya)," Vij added.

Right from criticising the Prime Minister for his Kashmir policy to demonetisation, Rahul these days is busy tweeting against the government.

We have to wait and watch to see how the Congress is going to respond to Vij's latest remarks against Rahul and his grandmother.

OneIndia News
Netaji Subash Chandra Bose's relative to mediate to end Darjeeling impasse

India

oi-Amitava

By Amitava

Darjeeling, July 14: Netaji Subash Chandra Bose's relative Chandra Bose is all set to mediate between the Centre, State and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) to end the Darjeeling impasse. He has already initiated talks with Bimal Gurung and the Centre.

There has been a buzz doing the rounds that an interlocutor could be appointed by the Centre to resolve the Darjeeling impasse. During the 28 month long bloody agitation spearheaded by the Gorkha National Liberation Front for Gorkhaland in the 1980s, journalist Inderjit Khullar had been appointed by the Centre as an interlocutor. He later on went on to become the Member of Parliament from Darjeeling.

When questioned on this, Chandra Bose, talking to Oneindia, stated "I don't know whether I am the interlocutor or not. Time will tell. However the Union Home Ministry has asked me to mediate in the Darjeeling issue."

He said that the offer to him to mediate was not in the capacity of BJP Vice President, West Bengal, but as Chandra Bose, the grandson of Sarat Chandra Bose who was the elder brother of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose.

"Our family has very close ties with Darjeeling and the Gorkhas. We used to own a house in Giddeypahar, Kurseong which has now been converted into the Netaji Museum and Netaji Institute of Asian Studies. Both my grandfathers, Netaji and Sarat Chandra Bose were interned in this house.

Netaji had written the famous Haripura Congress speech from this house in Kurseong. Gorkhas were also an integral part of the Indian National Army" stated Chandra Bose.

Netaji was interned in this house for seven months in 1936. He again spent a few days in this house in October 1937. Netaji had written to prominent Gorkha leaders pledging support to the demand of a separate administrative arrangement for the Darjeeling Hills. The letters are displayed in the Netaji Museum in Kurseong.

"Peace should return to the Hills. By the day the matter is getting complicated. People are suffering. There is shortage of essential commodities including food supplies and medicines. I am trying to get the Centre, State and the agitators on the table for talks. The matter has to be resolved through dialogue. It is a difficult task but I am trying" stated Chandra Bose.

Bose claimed that has already spoken to Gorkha Janmukti Morcha President Bimal Gurung. "They want a permanent solution to the Darjeeling impasse. They have vehemently opposed the police excesses that has left many dead along being labeled as terrorists by the State Government. However I am trying to make them see reason that only agitation and demonstrations will not resolve the demand. Dialogues need to be initiated" stated Bose.

He stated that the Centre honouring the federal setup of the country wants the State to sit in the talks also. "Even if Chief Minister does not want to sit for talks she can depute someone to represent the State. I am trying to talk to the State Government for talks" added Bose.

Incidentally the State Government including CM Mamata Banerjee has urged the GJM to lift the ongoing indefinite bandh and sit for talks. Morcha however has shut the doors to the State and said that they will sit with the Centre alone. The bandh hit the 30 day mark on Friday.

Interestingly the fast unto death programme of Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee which was to commence from July 15 has been put on hold. The coordination committee is a conglomeration of pro-Gorkhaland forces including the GJM.

The committee has been demanding immediate intervention by the Centre in the Darjeeling impasse. Feelers regarding call for talks by the Centre has deferred the fast unto death state coordination committee leaders.

Meanwhile a division bench of the Calcutta High Court comprising of acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatrey and Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty on Friday ordered the Union Government to send 4 companies of Central Armed Police Force to the Hills within 48 hours. Already 11 companies of Central Paramilitary forces are deployed in the Hills along with the army.

OneIndia News
Next President of India: Kovind thanks BJD for supporting him

India

pti-PTI

Bhubaneswar, Jul 14: NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, who is on a one-day visit to Odisha, on Friday met ruling BJD MLAs and MPs at the Assembly and had lunch with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Kovind addressed the BJD MLAs and MPs at the Assembly conference hall after the chief minister's brief introduction. The meeting lasted about an hour, a legislator said.

Before the meeting, Patnaik, Kovind and Union Health Minister and senior BJP leader J P Nadda raised hands in unison, he said.

"I am very happy to be here and thankful to the BJD led by Naveen Patnaik for supporting me," Kovind told reporters after lunch with the chief minister.

Kovind was earlier welcomed by leaders of both BJD and BJP at the city airport on his arrival by a special flight. Kovind's meeting with BJD legislators and MPs was considered as a mere formality as Patnaik had already announced his party's support to the NDA nominee describing him as a "distinguished dalit leader."

Kovind, accompanied by Nadda, spent around an hour at Naveen Niwas, the chief minister's residence near the city airport, for the luncheon meeting with Patnaik.

The ruling BJD has 117 MLAs in 147-member Odisha Assembly and 28 MPs (20 in Lok Sabha and eight in Rajya Sabha). Kovind is also scheduled to garland the statue of Buxi Jagabandhu and meet BJP MLAs and leaders at the party's legislature party leader K V Singhdeo's residence before leaving for New Delhi.

PTI
No Haj for Muslims if they protest against Ram temple in Ayodhya, says BJP MLA

India

oi-Anusha

A BJP MLA from Bundelkhand has threatened to prevent Muslims in India from going on Haj pilgrimage, if construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya is obstructed. In a Facebook live video, BJP leader Brijbhushan Rajput from Charkhari in Mahoba district of Bundelkhand has made many communally inflammatory statements.

Brijbhushan Rajput alias Guddu Raja in an 8.30 minutes video is seen seated in his car and claiming that "India belongs to Hindus." The BJP leader continues to make communally inciting statements throughout the video including a threat to stop Muslims from going to Haj.

"Our government gives subsidy to them (Muslims) and we do not object to it. In the near future, we will construct Ram temple, and if Muslims try to stop us then we will not allow them to go to Mecca and Medina," he is seen saying in the video reiterating that since he is an MLA, he will ensure that this is done.

The video that was uploaded on the MLA's Facebook wall on July 12 has been viewed more than 21,000 times. Most comments for the video echoed the MLA's communal rant while others criticised Rajput for his inflammatory statements.

OneIndia News
Security grid streamlined to nab Amarnath yatra attackers

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The security forces have streamlined the security grid in a bid to track down the main accused in the Amarnath yatra attack. This would help the security who have launched a massive manhunt for Abu Ismail who plotted the attack on the yatris on Monday in which seven persons had died.

The security forces are using both technical and human intelligence to track down the terrorist. The operations are on in full swing especially in South Kashmir where the terrorist is believed to be hiding.

Official sources say that the attack was carried out by four persons. Two were Pakistanis, investigations have also revealed. Investigations have also revealed that Ismail not just plotted the attack, but was part of it as well.

Ismail has been in South Kashmir since the past 30 months after he managed to infiltrate in from Pakistan occupied Kashmir. It is said that he plotted the attack to avenge the killing of his friend and Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander Bashir Lashkari.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 6:41 [IST]
Why Punjab farmers burn stubble at this scale when others do not

Sena writes to Fadnavis to provide 10k loan assistance to farmers within 24 hrs

India

pti-PTI

Mumbai, Jul 14: The Shiv Sena said the Maharashtra government has not provided funds to District Cooperative Central banks for them to disburse Rs 10,000 loan assistance to farmers and demanded it to do so within 24- hours.

In a letter written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, senior Shiv Sena ministers Diwakar Raote and Ramdas Kadam demanded that the state government immediately release funds to DCC banks and direct them to provide loan assistance to farmers within 24 hours.

The Fadnavis government had on June 13 announced Rs 10,000 as interim assistance to farmers for purchase of seeds and fertilizers. The decision was aimed at pacifying farmers, who were demanding a loan waiver over non-payment of their outstanding loans.

The government today extended its scheme till August 31, as against July 15 as announced earlier. "There has been no implementation of the government's decision to provide an immediate loan assistance of Rs 10,000.

Being the guardian minister of Osmanabad, I have received information that DCC banks there have not received any funds from the government," Transport Minister Diwakar Raote said. He added that while on a tour to Dhule and Jalgaon with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, it was found that DCC banks there too have not received any funds. "The farmers there too complained that they did not receive the promised help to buy seeds and fertilisers," Raote said.

PTI
Sexual harassment case: Complainant expresses displeasure over Pachauri's review petition

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

The victim and complainant in the former TERI chief RK Pachauri sexual harassment case expressed displeasure over exemption application filed by him a day before the hearing.

The victim told ANI that she was quite surprised and disgusted at the same time for the review petition filed by the accused just a day prior to the hearing. She questioned what was the accused doing all these months.

Quite surprised&disgusted at same time, just a day prior to hearing they filed review petition,what were they going all these months?-Victim pic.twitter.com/w4HkY8DhC1  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

She said, 'I have suffered enough. It's my right to talk to media, it's down to my comfort level, not theirs.'

RK Pachauri has moved an exemption application for his inability to appear before the court on medical grounds. The matter is adjourned for Oct 25.

An FIR was lodged against RK Pachauri for the alleged offence of sexual harassment, criminal intimidation on the basis of a complaint of a woman research analyst of TERI.

In April 2016, few months after the charge sheet was filed against him, Pachauri slapped a civil suit against lawyer-activist Vrinda Grover and the other woman for allegedly making defamatory statements against him outside the courtroom to the media in connection with the case.

(With agency inputs)

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 13:55 [IST]
Mother has the right to decide surname of child after husband's death: SC

In best interest and welfare, SC orders mother to return child to father in US

Mother throws 4 year old daughter from 4th floor of building, child dies on the spot

UP: 5, including a child, killed and 5 seriously hurt as car hits electric pole

Steps being taken to curb child porn sites, says Centre to SC

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

New Delhi, July 14: The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court that it is taking steps to deal with the issue of child pornography in its entirety and around 3,500 websites hosting such content have been blocked last month.

The government told a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra that it has asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to consider installation of jammers in schools to block access to child pornographic content.

Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand told the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar that it is not possible to install jammers in school buses.

"We are coming out with steps which will deal with the situation in its entirety," she told the bench.

"Jammers in school buses are not possible," Anand said, adding, "government has asked the CBSE to consider whether jammers can be installed in schools to curb access to such websites."

Central Government has filed status report in the Supreme Court on steps taken by them to curb child pornography across India.

OneIndia News
Blacklisting Mahmood blocked by China: The man who raised funds under garb of religion in India

Terrorist arrested in J&K, pistol recovered

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

One terrorist has been arrested in Jammu and Kashmir by the security forces. The terrorist has been identified as Shabaz and is suspected to be part of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

One pistol has been seized from him. Security officials say that he was planning a major strike.

The terrorist was arrested during an ambush laid by SOG Sumbal and 13RR army at Markundal in Pushwari.

He is currently being questioned. The arrest comes in the midst of a massive manhunt that has been launched to nab the terrorists responsible for the attack on the Amarnath yatra in which seven persons were killed.

OneIndia News
Under Operation Sadbhavana, army starts free school to educate nomadic children of Kashmir

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Srinagar, July 14: The very first thought about Kashmir, especially in today's time when the Valley is under the constant shadow of terror, brings to mind Indian jawans patrolling its streets.

The reports of confrontation between soldiers and civilians have become a regular feature in the Valley. It is not that the Indian Army is only battling terrorists and disgruntled civilians in Kashmir.

The army has a "humane" side too, which most often the media fails to highlight.

The soldiers in the Valley are also involved in many social activities to bring changes in the life of the people. Among many of its "good" deeds, the army is trying its best to educate the children of Kashmir.

The army has recently started--Free Open Army School--a special school, which provides free books, lunch and other facilities in Sonamarg's Ganderbal. The school has been started under the army's Operation Sadbhavana.

As a part of the Operation Sadbhavana, the army has undertaken a large number of military civic action programmes aimed at "wining the hearts and minds" of the people in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeastern States. It's a part of a strategy for conflict resolution in these places.

J&K: Army starts "Free Open Army School', providing free books, lunch & other facilities in Ganderbal Sonamarg under Operation Sadbhavana. pic.twitter.com/upkYacYzHv  ANI (@ANI_news) July 14, 2017

Speaking about the school, Altaf Ahmad, head teacher, told ANI that the students who are attending classes belong to the nomadic community.

"These kids have never been to a school. The army has brought them here to provide them education and build their future," he added.

Since July last year, when violence rocked the Valley, several schools have been set on fire by miscreants. Moreover, due to the ongoing unrest, students studying in various schools and colleges hardly attend their classes in the Valley.

According to experts, children and their education have become the worst casualties due to the prevailing situation in Kashmir.

The latest initiative of the army will go a long way in building the future of these nomadic children who hardly get a chance to go to schools.

OneIndia News
Violent clashes in Gujarat: 2 dead, 5 injured

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Ahmedabad , July 14: Two persons were killed and at least five others were inured in a violent clash that broke out between members of the Bharwad and Rajput communities in Gujarat village near Halvad town of Morbi district on Thursday.

The incident took place on Thursday evening when some people pelted stones on cars of those who were on their way to nearby Dhrangadhra town to attend condolence meeting of Zala, who was hacked to death last Friday, officers at the Morbi police control said.

Incidents of arson, stone-pelting and rioting were reported from near Morbi district's Halvad town and in some villages around Surendranagar's Dhrangadhra town, the police said.

The clashes, during which firearms were used, took place in Morbi and adjoining Surendranagar district, where Internet services have been suspended for the time being to curb rumour mongering, officials said.

Around 30 vehicles were torched. One person from the Bharwad community died, while two others were seriously injured, he said.

"The situation is under control as a large number of police personnel have been deployed on the Halvad-Dhrangadhra road," the SP said.

On Thursday, Minister of State for Home, Pradeepsinh Jadeja told a local news channel that SRP had been deployed in Dhrangadhra and Halvad and that mobile internet services had been suspended in Mobri and Surendranagar districts. He further said that inspector genral of police of Rajkot range had reached Halvad and that the situation had been brought under control.

Zala, a former president of Dhrangadhra municipality, was in jail since 2013 in connection with the murder of a Bharwad community member and was hacked to death a day after he was released on parole.

Since then, the situation in Dhrangadhra has been tense, said an official of the Surendranagar police control room.

Zala was associated with the BJP and had also been elected president of Halvad municipality.

OneIndia News
Voting rights for NRIs: SC gives one week time to Centre to take decision

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The Supreme Court on Friday gave the Union Government one week time to take decision on granting voting rights to Non-Resident Indians (NRI).

The Election Commisiion had earlier this month said that they can out in place a process to allow NRIs to vote within three months of the law being introduced.

Last year, a bench led by then Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur emphasised that NRIs cannot participate in the voting process unless there is an amendment in the law.

The EC had also submitted a report to the court in this matter in October 2014. The report was titled 'Exploring Feasibility of Alternative Options for Voting by Overseas Electors'.

In 2015, The Union government on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it had accepted Election Commission's recommendation to allow NRIs to vote through e-ballot system or through proxy, said reports.

The process that the EC is considering to adopt is the one-way postal ballot system which involves sending e-ballot papers to the voters. The voter are then required to return the ballot by post after having marked their choice. The system was introduced for armed forces personnel and service voters in October last year, said reports.

Nasim Zaidi, who retired as the Chief election commissioner (CEC) on July 5, had said that the commission has proposed a one-way e-postal ballot system for NRIs, but is awaiting for word from the law ministry.

The proposal can only be implemented after Parliament amends the Representation of the People Act and the Conduct of Election Rules.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 12:36 [IST]
From hijab to Kashmir, Zawahiri was Al-Qaeda's voice for everything anti-India

As Al-Qaeda scouts for new chief, Indian agencies worry about an Islamic State spillover

They stay among you to kill you: Ansarul Bangla Team could be Indias biggest threat

Al-Qaeda more active in Indian subcontinent : US experts

International

oi-PTI

Washington, July 14: Al-Qaeda with its cells mostly in afghanistan is now getting more stronger and active in the Indian subcontinent and by 2017, it boasted several hundred members, counter-terrorism experts have told the US lawmakers.

"By 2017, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent boasted several hundred members and had cells in Afghanistan's Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Ghazni, and Nuristan Provinces. Al- Qaida's presence in Afghanistan was almost certainly larger and more expansive than five or even ten years before," said Seth G Jones, a strategic expert.

He was speaking during his Congressional testimony before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence on Thursday.

This expansion, Jones said, may have been partly due to taliban advances in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda's relationship with operatives from the Taliban and other groups, such as Tehreek-e-Taliban pakistan and Lashkar-e Jhangvi.

"Al-Qaeda operatives in Bangladesh were particularly active, conducting a range of attacks. In addition, al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent conducted a steady propaganda campaign from its media arm As-Sahab," he said.

However, the group conducted few attacks in Afghanistan or Pakistan and was largely irrelevant in the Taliban-led insurgency, Jones said.

In September 2014, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had announced the creation of regional affiliate al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent, taking advantage of sanctuaries in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

"A new branch of al-Qaeda was established, Qaeda al-Jihad in the Indian subcontinent, seeking to raise the flag of jihad. And return the Islamic rule across the Indian subcontinent," al-Zawahiri had said.

The group was led by Asim Umar, an Indian and former member of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, a Pakistan-based terrorist group with branches across the Indian subcontinent. Umar was flanked by Abu Zar, his first deputy.

PTI

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 10:54 [IST]
32,000 girls converted to Islam and sold as ISIS slaves: This is The Kerala Story

How Zahran Hashim converted the radical Islamists of South into violent Jihadists

A bayath, a massive suicide bombing, the Coimbatore blast was in the making for a year

Days after Mosul liberation, US increases humanitarian aid for Iraq

International

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Washington, July 14: Days after Mosul was liberated from the Islamic State by the Iraqi forces, the US said on Thursday it would add an additional $119 million for humanitarian aid in Iraq.

The announcement was made by Brett McGurk, the US special envoy for the coalition against the Islamic States (IS), in a meeting in Washington. It came three days after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared that Mosul in northern Iraq was liberated from the IS after nine months of fierce fighting, Xinhua reported.

The victory has been seen as a major milestone in the fight against the extremist militants in Iraq.

In the anti-IS meeting, McGurk also said that the United States hoped to see "similar contributions" from the coalition partners over the coming weeks.

McGurk mentioned that the United Nations had outlined a total appeal of 1.3 billion U.S. dollars for post-IS humanitarian and stabilization requirements.

After the liberation of Mosul, Iraq faces the immense challenge of restoring essential services and rebuilding its infrastructure. More than one million people from Mosul have been displaced by IS brutal rule.

In a phone call on Tuesday, President Donald Trump congratulated Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on eradicating ISIS forces from Mosul, the self-proclaimed caliphate's largest stronghold.

IANS
Should Kashmir be given to Pakistan: Row erupts after this question appears in MP civil service exam

From hijab to Kashmir, Zawahiri was Al-Qaeda's voice for everything anti-India

Is dialogue between India, Pak possible over Kashmir? UN stresses on it

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New York, June 14: The relationship between India and Pakistan has hit a new low after suspected Pakistani-sponsored terrorists killed seven Amarnath Yatra pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag on Monday.

In order to resolve the crisis, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has reiterated the need for India and Pakistan to find a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue through engagement and dialogue.

The message of the UN chief was conveyed by his spokesperson.

Guterres' spokesperson Stephane Dujarric's remarks came when he was asked if the Secretary-General is paying attention to the situation in the region or "we are just waiting for some sort of big tragedy to occur for the Secretary-General to take attention."

"...we reiterate the need for the parties to find a peaceful solution through engagement and dialogue," Dujarric said at a daily press briefing at the office of the UN in New York, US, on Thursday.

He said that "in terms of paying attention, I think the Secretary-General answered in his own words that question during the press conference."

Dujarric was referring to Guterres' first press conference at the world body's headquarters in June when he was asked whether he is engaged in bringing about dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

"Why do you think I met three times the Prime Minister of Pakistan and two times the Prime Minister of India," Guterres had said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Guterres had met in St Petersburg earlier in June on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. During the meeting, Modi had stressed on multilateralism to address global challenges such as terrorism.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the UN chief had met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos in January and in Astana in June on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 13:14 [IST]
Israel and Palestine agree to build canal between Red Sea and Dead Sea

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Jerusalem, July 14: An agreement has been signed between Israelis and Palestinians to build a canal between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, which includes selling about 33 million cubic meters of water annually to the Palestinian National Authority, the US special envoy for the Middle East announced on Thursday.

At the press conference with Israeli minister of regional cooperation, Tzachi Hanegbi, and the PNA director for water, Mazen Ghuneim, the former noted that the Red Sea-Dead Sea project is "the biggest and most ambitious project event initiated and exercised" in the area, Efe reported.

Hanegbi explained that the deal is part of a larger five-year plan for the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, although Palestinians are expected to start receiving water before that time.

Meanwhile, Ghuneim stressed that 22 million cubic meters of water will go to the occupied West Bank, with another 10 million to Gaza.

He added that this will alleviate and reduce the suffering of the Palestinian people, which has worsened during the summer.

US envoy Jason Greenblatt explained that this agreement, which is also expected to benefit Jordan, is the second major deal to be closed during his visit to the region this week after Israel and the Palestinians signed another on Monday to start up a power plant in Jenin.

The agreements were backed by US President Donald Trump, who has said it is a priority to reach a final agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said the special envoy.

IANS

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Story first published: Friday, July 14, 2017, 9:56 [IST]
Warmongering Chinese media a mirror image of Indian counterparts

International

oi-Prabhpreet

By Prabhpreet

"Trespassing," "kicked out" or reminding of the other country of losses suffered in previous wars, are just some of the words out of many used by the Chinese media in relation to the current stand-off between India and China at the tri-junction between Bhutan and the two countries in the Doklam region since last month.

While no one from the field of journalism would in any way label editorials and such line of reporting as conforming to ethics of the profession, such blatant disregard for them, along with calls for military action by the Army of its country against that of another gives a chance to look at how their Indian counterparts have acted not in just the present case, but previously too, when it came to India's other neighbour, Pakistan.

The reporting by various media publication in China has clearly gone far away from journalism, but the reality is if the names of countries are changed or switched in such reports, they could very reflect the reality of Indian journalism, at least in the English Television segment.

And the complaining by this very segment and calling such statements in the Chinese sphere as inflammatory and as calls for war, reek of heavy irony if compared to the treatment of similar issues, especially related to Pakistan, by those conducting prime time debates in India.

Those supporting the inciting nature of news being reported on Indian television sets would try to point out that acts against Pakistan, which requires retaliation unlike the situation on the Chinese front. In all honesty, all that has happened this time is that the roles have been reversed.

In the case of Pakistan, India is the big brother which does not need to focus on what the Pakistani media reports seriously and can even call former officers of their Army on air and lambast them for their country's actions.

The dynamics when it comes to China are just not the same, and this fact though difficult to digest for many who claim to be the voice of the nation, will have to be accepted nonetheless, even if it comes with a pinch of salt.

Private Indian Channels vs Chinese state media

This has brought out not only the fault of the coverage of serious issues on most India news channels but also laid bare the reason behind why these networks do what they do. The reality is behind the veil of 'Nationalism' that such media houses claim to stand for, lies the search for high TRP ratings for which, what seem to be a million channels, are apparently fighting for. That is what warmongering gets these channels, especially when it comes to a country like Pakistan or even China with which India has a checkered history.

Warmongering, that is, encouraging or advocacy of aggression against other countries or groups, is exactly how the reporting of Indian media (TV in particular) both in the past (Against Pakistan) and the present (Against both Pakistan and China), and that in China itself, needs to be labelled as.

The fact is that the propaganda related to the country is expected to be reported by the government owned media houses or publications around the world. As is done in the case of China where the state media or the private ones (read all others) which are directly or indirectly owned by senior, past or present, officials of the country pick up this mantle.

The surprising fact when it comes to India is, while the state-controlled channels such as those run by Prasar Bharati like DD News have shown restraint and maintained semblance of ethical reporting and not given way to sensationalism, the private news channels seem to have taken it upon themselves to take on the Chinese media as well as the whole of Pakistan by themselves.

Rhetoric helped by rash statements from those in power

The eyes of the entire world, at least of the public and the media from both of the countries were on the meeting between the heads of state of both India and China at the recently held G20 summit in Germany.

And though the media of both would have loved Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping to have given them more material by having a confrontation of some sort, they managed to not only keep the meeting co-cordial, they also praised each other's contribution in other areas such as BRICS etc.

Though the Chinese media and the various spokesperson of its government have continued to make statements that may rub their Indian counterparts the wrong way. The meeting in Hamburg seems to have given the cue to other leaders, at least on the Indian side, to tone down the rhetoric when it came to the present stand-off between the two countries.

This is the reason that in the past week or so, none of the top leadership on the Indian side has made inciting statements on the issue. A marked difference from earlier comments made such as those by Army Chief General Bipin Rawat about the Army being prepared for a two-and-a-half front war or Defence Minister Arun Jaitley reminding China that India is not the same as that of 1962.

Media is not doing anyone any favours

The situation at the tri-junction is complicated and tense enough without the media of both countries adding fuel to fire. As instead of helping with bringing out facts related to the issue, the focus has now shifted in justifying aggression from both forces.

While this might be helpful for in the search for TRP's, it is not doing anyone any favours, especially the Army of both countries. Though it is being done so under the garb of showing support to the armed forces, it should be remembered that calls for war is easily made sitting in air-conditioned studios and newsrooms, far away from the reality that soldiers who take part in them die and nations, irrespective of a victory or defeat, lose considerably in terms of human and economic loss.

Instead of questioning the false bravado of the leaders of their country by checking and double checking tall claims made by them, the channels have turned into a propagandist machinery selling an agenda. This while understandable in terms of the state media in China is almost disastrous in the case of private channels in India.

The risk can be seen by not only the 1962 war between the countries where missteps by the government of the time created the circumstances which led to the brief yet damaging war for India. The steps have been blamed by observers of the events of the time on the country's leaders trying to pacify the media and the public of the country which wanted the government to take action against the Chinese.

Such risks hold true not only related to the Indian media but also of foreign countries. A recent example being the flawed reporting from American journalist on the threat posed by Iraq which was misreported, intentionally or unintentionally, to possess weapons of mass destruction. This created an environment where the public supported the US government's decision to got to war. Ramifications of which are still being faced by the world.

An ideal opportunity to correct past wrongs

The idea and action of course correction is an extremely difficult task, especially when not provided with a mechanism to make the mistakes being made visible. The working of the Chinese media and reporting done by it is exactly such a tool for the Indian media.

This comes not only as a view in the mirror of the flaws in reporting in terms of the happenings in the border with China but also in the case of Pakistan. Along with the overall mode that the majority of channels in India seem to have taken, of not questioning the narrative put out by those in power through a neutral journalistic lens. Instead, they are serving to the watching public exactly what those in the government would want the nation to know for its own benefits. This is not journalism, even if it might be paraded as that.

So if it is felt in India that the media in China is wrong and is not performing its duties, a logical corollary to it is that the India television media is guilty of the same. And it would do well to learn from the past and recent history, so as to not repeat the mistakes that could end up causing damages to those on the front, whether that along with China or Pakistan.

OneIndia News
by  Graham Pierrepoint



Its not exactly been an easy few months for Samsung. The Japanese technology giant faced an enormous recall of their Galaxy Note 7 device in 2016 after it was found that batteries supplied for the devices were exploding on minimal use  and even those that were replaced continued to offer the same results. This resulted in a massive public apology from the firm, and huge reparations lined up for those who purchased the device and especially for those who had experienced exploding batteries. This also resulted in the firm even offering credit to buyers to even look for alternative devices from other manufacturers  an unprecedented move that spurred Samsung on to tighten up its quality assurance and to eat a sizable slice of humble pie. Since then, the corporation has worked hard to tie up its quality and to operate quietly on its follow-up to the disastrous Note 7  and, if reports heading out this week are thought to be true, it seems that they are more than on their way to bouncing back into consumers hearts.

Samsung Electronics operating profits, it is reported, are thought to be topping $12.1 billion just in the second quarter of 2017  rendering the firm the most profitable company in the world outside of finance. Even more so, this means that the company has made the landmark target of beating Apple, who up until recently was at the forefront of profit generation in at least the smartphone market. Its thought that the launch of the Galaxy S8 phone has helped to drive sales back up into the black  though it must be noted that the firm is widely known for producing hardware such as TVs, PC equipment and more besides.

Regardless, almost a year on from the Note 7 scandal, it appears that Samsung does still have that core support and belief from consumers that they need to survive and compete healthily against Apple and other smartphone manufacturers. This year will very likely be a fundamental one for Apple, particularly as their most recent iPhone 7 and Air Pods unveiled last year were received with a lukewarm reception. Its shaping up to be a very interesting year for the market  meaning that there may be even more choice lining up for those looking to get the best gadgets going.
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FORT DODGE | A Lake Mills man is said to have snorted meth before committing a double homicide in Mason City in November, testimony revealed Friday.

An investigator who testified in Peter Veals double homicide trial Friday morning described the steps taken to verify the story told by Ron Willis, a witness at the scene who says Veal also tried to kill him.

Chris Calloway, special agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said officers traced Willis steps from the time he said he encountered Veal on Nov. 16 until the deaths of Melinda Kavars and Caleb Christensen shortly after 2 a.m. Nov. 17 in Mason City.

Willis told law enforcement he and Veal stopped by Kavars apartment and had a turkey dinner earlier in the evening. He also said Kavars and Veal snorted methamphetamine there before they all went to Christensens house in the 1600 block of North Hampshire Avenue.

Calloway said evidence of both the dinner and drug use were found at Kavars apartment.

Calloway also testified that he and another investigator were able to find and talk to a man Veal told Willis he saw earlier in the day.

Willis also told investigators he went through the drive-through at a Mason City liquor store to buy beer the evening of Nov. 16. Calloway said security camera footage shows Willis vehicle at the drive-through.

During cross examination, public defender Steven Kloberdanz asked Calloway if he learned about a car that neighbors said they saw coming and going frequently from Christensens house.

We had a good idea of who it was, Calloway said.

Kloberdanz also asked about a white van that allegedly would come to the house, take Christensen somewhere and then return him.

Calloway said investigators never discovered whose van it was.

He also said evidence of drug use, including a pipe used to smoke controlled substances, was found in Christensens garage. He said the evidence was left there.

Calloway said Willis told him about his fears that people were watching him and following him.

Our earlier story:

FORT DODGE | Testimony from state witnesses resumes this morning in Peter Veal's double homicide trial.

The jury Friday morning was shown a video shot by drone showing a blood trail from the crime scene to where law enforcement found Veal.

Veal, of Lake Mills, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Melinda Kavars and Caleb Christensen on Nov. 17 in Mason City.

He also is charged with attempted murder for allegedly attempting to shoot an eyewitness, Ron Willis.

The trial was moved to the Webster County Courthouse in Fort Dodge due to pretrial publicity.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
HAMPTON | A Franklin County jury deliberated for two and a half hours Friday afternoon before finding a Meservey man guilty of kidnapping and torturing a known woman in October.

The 12-person jury found Charles Raymond Albright, 41, guilty of two felonies, first-degree kidnapping and willful injury. The kidnapping charge carries a life prison sentence upon conviction.

Albright didn't appear to show any emotion as the verdict was read.

Our previous story:

HAMPTON | An attorney for a Meservey man accused of kidnapping and torturing a known woman in October says the man "knows he committed willful injury."

"He beat her up pretty bad, and he knows he committed willful injury," defense attorney James Metcalf said during closing arguments Friday in Franklin County District Court. "We think he's guilty of willful injury."

Charles Raymond Albright, 41, was charged with felony first-degree kidnapping and felony willful injury. The kidnapping charge carries a life prison sentence upon conviction.

A 36-year-old woman was held against her will in Meservey for 12 to 14 hours, court records state. Albright is accused of punching, cutting and shocking the woman on Oct. 7, as well as allowing his dog to bite her repeatedly.

The woman suffered electrical burns, sinus damage and an eye injury that caused loss of vision, court records state. An X-ray found broken bones in her face.

While Metcalf said Albright "lost it" and "went nuts," he argued the man didn't commit first-degree kidnapping.

"If this happened the way state said it happened -- why didn't she call, you decide -- 911, talk to somebody, talk to her mother, talk to her kids, talk to the local cops?" Metcalf questioned.

Metcalf said at one point the woman had Albright's truck, a phone and time to call 911. He had taken her to Sheffield in Franklin County, according to court records, where he continued to assault her in the vehicle.

Franklin County deputies were called to a store in Sheffield, where they say they found the woman with severe swelling and bruises. Albright had left the area but was located Oct. 20.

"This was a terrible night; he's willing to take responsibility for it," Metcalf said.

Metcalf believes that the state and the police blew the incident out of proportion because Albright ran. Roan said Albright fled because he knew he would face serious charges.

The manhunt gets heated up; they want kidnapping in the first (degree), but we dont think it happened, Metcalf said. Didnt seem to be that way at the hospital.

Iowa Assistant Attorney General Laura Roan told jurors the same intent for willful injury in this case existed for kidnapping.

"The defendant's blind rage made him so mad -- that was indeed, as he now admits, this specific intent," she said. "He was going to beat her so bad she couldn't walk, couldn't see."

Roan used the term "blind rage" several times in reference to the outburst of anger she said caused Albright to brutally beat the woman for hours.

Throughout the ordeal, Albrights dog bit the woman repeatedly, police said. The woman said during her testimony Albright did not sic the dog, a German shepherd, on her but he did not stop the dog from biting her. Roan repeated this during closing arguments.

When he would attack (the woman) the dog would attack, Roan said. The woman suffered dog bite marks on her right leg and puncture wounds on her hip.

Albright then removed her from the home and into his truck, Roan said.

She didnt want to get in the car, Roan said. She didnt want to meet her demise. Did she think it was coming? Thats why she ran.

The defense argued that the woman could have escaped when they drove to the vet to drop off the dog, who suffered a broken leg, before going to Caseys in Sheffield where the woman ended up running away.

Roan argued that nowhere in the law does it say that the victim holds the blame for not getting away sooner.

Shes a survivor, Roan said.

Roan said that the woman knew not to get into that truck but had little to no choice as she had been threatened.

Do you think she wouldnt have gotten away sooner if she could? Roan asked.

Roan described one threat the woman said Albright made on that day in early October.

He threatened to bury her in a cornfield up to her neck and let a farmer take her out in his combine, Roan said, making a chopping motion at her own neck.

She asked the jury to remember that it was October at the time and that is when farm equipment would be out for harvest.

She was nothing but his target, nothing but his punching bag, Roan said.

Roan said taking the dog to the vet shows that he cared more about his dog than he did the womans well-being. She urged the jury to listen to the 911 tape again, when the woman called police from the Dollar General bathroom.

You can hear the fear; you can hear the terror in her voice, Roan said. She helped herself.

The 12-person jury began deliberating around noon Friday.

Our earlier story:

HAMPTON | A 12-person jury has begun deliberations in the trial of a Meservey man accused of kidnapping and torturing a known woman.

Charles Raymond Albright, 41, was charged with felony first-degree kidnapping and felony willful injury.

A 36-year-old woman was held against her will in Meservey for 12 to 14 hours, court records state. Albright is accused of punching, cutting and shocking the woman on Oct. 7, as well as allowing his dog to bite her.

"He beat her up pretty bad, and he knows he committed willful injury," defense attorney James Metcalf said during closing arguments Friday in Franklin County District Court. "We think he's guilty of willful injury."

The woman suffered electrical burns, sinus damage and an eye injury that caused loss of vision, court records state. An X-ray found broken bones in her face.

But Metcalf argued Albright was not guilty of the kidnapping charge.

"If this happened the way state said it happened -- why didn't she call, you decide -- 911, talk to somebody, talk to her mother, talk to her kids, talk to the local cops?" Metcalf questioned.

Metcalf said at one point the woman had Albright's truck, a phone and time to call 911. He had taken her to Sheffield in Franklin County, according to court records, where he continued to assault her in the vehicle.

Franklin County deputies were called to a store in Sheffield, where they say they found the woman with severe swelling and bruises. Albright had left the area but was located Oct. 20.

"This was a terrible night; he's willing to take responsibility for it," Metcalf said.

Iowa Assistant Attorney General Laura Roan told jurors the same intent for willful injury in this case existed for kidnapping.

"The defendant's blind rage made him so mad -- that was indeed, as he now admits, this specific intent," she said. "He was going to beat her so bad she couldn't walk, couldn't see."

The jury began deliberating around noon Friday.

This is a developing story. Check back later for more details.
OSAGE | An Osage man is accused of threatening a person with a gun, police say.

Bryce Steven Zahradnik, 25, is charged with felony intimidation with a dangerous weapon.

Osage police officers were dispatched at 12:25 a.m. July 10 for a dispute at a residence in the 1000 block of Main Street, according to court documents.

Once officers arrived at the home, they say they found Zahradnik at the front door holding a gun.

The victim, who called 911, said Zahradnik was beating down the back door and threatened to kill me with a gun after he had left the house for a short period of time following an argument, the complaint states.

Zahradnik was released after posting bond. A preliminary hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. July 21 in Mitchell County District Court.

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Real Madrid captain, Karim Benzema has disclosed that hes not disturbed with his age but that hes willing to help the club win the UEFA Super Cup.

The France international stated this on Tuesday ahead of their clash against against Frankfurt on Wednesday.

Age doesnt exist. Its true that we arent young, but we work hard on the pitch and off the pitch. We have a good squad, lets hope its better than last year.

Read Also: Chicharito Expresses Readiness To Play For Man United For Free

I dont know [if I need a substitute]. Theres a coach here and the president too, Im not here to answer that, Benzema said.

Los Blancos lost out in the battle to sign Kylian Mbappe this summer, as the France forward opted to sign a bumper deal at Paris Saint-Germain.

Two more forwards, Luka Jovic and Borja Mayoral also left the Santiago Bernabeu this summer.

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FORT DODGE | A Lake Mills man is said to have snorted meth before committing a double homicide in Mason City in November, testimony revealed Friday.

An investigator who testified in Peter Veals double homicide trial Friday described the steps taken to verify the story told by Ron Willis, a witness at the scene who says Veal tried to kill him.

Chris Calloway, special agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said officers traced Willis steps from the time he said he encountered Veal on Nov. 16 until the deaths of Melinda Kavars and Caleb Christensen shortly after 2 a.m. Nov. 17 in Mason City.

Veal is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

Willis told law enforcement he and Veal stopped by Kavars apartment and had a turkey dinner earlier in the evening. He also said Kavars and Veal snorted methamphetamine there before they all went to Christensens house in the 1600 block of North Hampshire Avenue.

Calloway said evidence of both the dinner and drug use were found at Kavars apartment.

Calloway also testified he and another investigator were able to find and talk to a man Veal told Willis he saw earlier in the day.

Willis also told investigators he went through the drive-through at a Mason City liquor store to buy beer the evening of Nov. 16. Calloway said security camera footage shows Willis vehicle at the drive-through.

During cross examination, public defender Steven Kloberdanz asked Calloway if he learned about a car that neighbors said they saw coming and going frequently from Christensens house.

We had a good idea of who it was, Calloway said.

Kloberdanz also asked about a white van that allegedly would come to the house, take Christensen somewhere and then return him.

Calloway said investigators never discovered whose van it was.

He also said evidence of drug use, including a pipe used to smoke controlled substances, was found in Christensens garage. He said the evidence was left there.

Calloway said Willis told him about his fears that people were watching him and following him.

Also on Friday, the jury was shown a video shot by drone months after the homicide showing the path officers say Veal took after leaving the crime scene on foot.

The path was determined by a blood trail from Christensen's house to the deck of a home on North Carolina Avenue where officers found and arrested Veal.

Officers testified Veal had cuts on two fingers and had blood on his face and his pants.

Mason City Police Investigator Terrance Prochaska said drops of blood were found every 25 feet or so along streets and sidewalks in the area.

More blood was found in various places in backyards in the neighborhood, including on a fence post, a chain link fence and the deck where Veal was found, according to Prochaska.

He said officers determined from the blood trail Veal went south on North Hampshire Avenue for about four blocks before turning west and heading through some backyards.

Items such as a coat, a knife, an Oakland Raiders hat, pieces of a broken flip phone and a flip phone battery were found along the path, Prochaska said.

Testimony by state witnesses resumes Monday at the Webster County Courthouse in Fort Dodge. The trial was moved there due to pretrial publicity.

Cerro Gordo County Attorney Carlyle Dalen said he wasn't sure if a video of Veal's interview with law enforcement would be shown to the jury.
MASON CITY | A man considered a witness to a November double homicide in Mason City testified Thursday he saw his cousin draw her last breaths after being shot in the neck.

"That was too much for me," Ron Willis said Thursday during the trial of Peter Veal, who is accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of Melinda Kavars and Caleb Christensen.

Veal also faces an attempted murder charge for allegedly attempting to shoot Willis, who testified he ran from the house and called 911.

Willis said he had driven Veal and Kavars over to Christensen's house in the 1600 block of North Hampshire Avenue on the night of Nov. 16-17 and the four of them were sitting in the living room and drinking.

He testified he heard a shot fired and saw Kavars was bleeding.

Willis said he saw Veal come toward him and point a gun at his head.

Willis said he pleaded with Veal, telling him, "I've got kids, Peter."

He testified Veal pulled the trigger and the gun didn't fire. Veal then hit him in the head with the gun.

Willis said he heard Kavars take four breaths.

"That's all it took and she was dead," he said.

Veal was trying to get a bullet out of the jammed gun, according to Willis.

He said "something told me to get the hell out of there."

Willis testified he ran into the kitchen, where the side door to the house was located.

He said the door was locked but he was familiar enough with the house to unlock and it and get out.

Willis testified that as he was leaving the house he could hear Christensen say, "What the f--- are you doing?"

Authorities say Christensen was later found inside the house with 25 stab wounds in the head and shoulders. Both he and Kavars were pronounced dead at the scene.

Willis said after leaving the house, he ran across the street and called 911.

A recording of the 911 call, which was made at 2:15 a.m., was played for the jury.

He could be heard telling the dispatcher that Peter Veal shot his cousin. Willis then reported seeing Veal leaving the house.

When the dispatcher asked if Kavars was already dead, Willis said he didn't know. He also said Christensen was still in the house.

Willis told the dispatcher that Veal "flipped out" but the group hadn't been arguing before that.

The dispatcher told him officers were looking for Veal.

"I don't even want to go in the house," Willis told her.

He continued his testimony after the 911 call was played.

When Assistant Iowa Attorney General Scott Brown asked him if he had anything to do with murder of Kavars and Christensen, Willis said no.

During cross examination, he admitted he told several people that night that he had a gun, but it was only a joke and he didn't really have one.

Willis also said police searched the car he was driving that night and found several knives. However, he said he wasn't carrying a knife on his person that night.

He said police also found some high-grade marijuana and rolling papers, but he was never charged in connection with those items.

Willis testified he was not offered any kind of deal in exchange for his testimony.

When public defender Steven Kloberdanz asked if he had been convicted of a drug felony in 2009, Willis said he was.

However, he denied selling drugs to Veal, Christensen or Kavars.

Willis also denied he and Christensen had a falling out in the two to three weeks prior to his death.

Willis' voice was hostile at times as he was being questioned, particularly about drugs.

The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Friday at the Webster County Courthouse in Fort Dodge. The trial was moved there due to pretrial publicity.

Brown said he anticipates the state won't finish presenting evidence until sometime Monday morning.
.

By Biodun Busari

Kwara State High Court sitting Ilorin has sentenced a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Adetuberu Christopher to two years imprisonment for internet fraudulent activities he charged with.

The 28-year-old also lost a car, a house and a sum of N9 million to the court having being found guilty of two count charges.

Justice Ibrahim Yusuf of the Kwara State High gave the ruling on Thursday according to the statement by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

EFCC disclosed the information titled Internet Fraud: Corps Member Jailed, Loses House, Car, N.9m to FG in Ilorin on its official Twitter page on Friday morning.

It said: A corps member currently serving in Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Adetuberu Christopher Adetoyese, has been sentenced to two years imprisonment for internet-related fraud offences by Justice Ibrahim Yusuf of the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin.

The court, on Thursday, August 11, 2022 found Adetuberu, 28, guilty of the two counts preferred against him by the Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

RELATED NEWS
Ademola Lookman made a dream start to his career with Serie A club Atalanta netting in the clubs 2- 0 away win at Sampdoria.

Lookman took the place of Luis Muriel in the 63rd minute of the keenly contested encounter.

Rafael Toloi opened scoring for Atalanta in the 26th minute after he was teed up by Mario Pasalic.

Lookman make the points save in added time following a pass from Ruslab Malinovskyi.

Atalanta will host champions AC Milan in their next league game.

At the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Isaac Success was in action as Udinese fall to a 4-2 defeat to champions AC Milan.

Success was replaced by Beto in the 67th minute.

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Atalanta defender and captain, Rafael Toloi, believes Italian-born Nigerian defender Caleb Okoli has developed well and is ready for the Serie A action for the club in the new season.

The 21 year old Okoli, a centre-back, joined the Atalanta academy in 2015.

He was loaned to SPAL in the 2019/20 season in the Serie B and he spent last season with Cremonese also in the Serie B,although Cremonese have been promoted to the Serie A this season.

Okoli has since joined up with the rest of Atalanta senior squad. He was impressive in Atalantas preseason friendlies against Valencia and Newcastle United.

Also Read  Exclusive: Oshoalas Ballon dOr Nomination Well Deserved Dosu

Chris Woods penalty gave Newcastle United a 1-0 win over Atalanta. Valencia defeated Atalanta 2-1 with Hugo Duro scoring a brace, while Ederson scored Atalantas consolatory goal.

In an interview with Tuttoatalanta.com Toloi assesed Okolis growth and readiness to play in Serie A.

He is very strong physically, Toloi said.

He has grown a lot and I find him ready and in the matches against Valencia and Newcastle he has shown that he can be there.

Okoli has played for Italy at the U-19, U-20 and U-21 levels. He is eligible to represent the Nigeria at senior international level due to his parentage.

Okoli recorded one assist in 27 Serie B games for Cremonese last season.

Atalanta finished eighth in the Serie A last season with 59 points from 38 games.

By Toju Sote

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MASON CITY | Mason City Schools' HR director Jodie Anderson has decided to not renew her contract, according to school officials.

"Jodie has decided not to return as our employee," Superintendent Dave Versteeg said via email Friday afternoon. "She is starting her own HR consulting service."

Anderson, who was hired in 2015, was on a one-year contract. She was paid $87,750 in 2016-17.

Mason City welcomes new teachers, administrators MASON CITY | As classes begin Wednesday, Mason City Schools is welcoming a number of new tea

Her 2017-18 contract was due June 30, Versteeg previously told the Globe Gazette. She asked for and received an extension expiring July 14.

The Globe Gazette sought comment from Anderson Friday, but a phone listing for her was disconnected.

At Monday's School Board meeting, Versteeg said the district "will consider in engaging her services on a part-time, temporary basis until a HR director can be hired."

The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Administration Building's board room.

Anderson is the second director to depart the district in recent months.

Mason City School finance director 'disappointed,' expects to be fired MASON CITY | The finance director of Mason City Schools has issued a statement regarding his

After being placed on paid administrative leave in June, Finance Director John Berg was not issued a contract for the coming fiscal year, which began July 1.

Neither Berg or district officials have said why he was placed on leave.
The domestic political fantasy life of the last fifteen years finds us in an unnerving time loop of our own making in this country. Very much on its own, history seems to be running in reverse and knowledge is not seen as a public good, but as something suspect, dubious or even ungodly, as it was for example in Italy in 1633, when the church put Galileo on trial for his heretical view that the earth was in orbit around the sun.

These past years have produced a prison house of the mind, insidiously endeavoring to promote a fleeting fraudulent terrorist phantom and the darkness of ego. It has produced the degradation of the thinking mind, all of it in fear of what it knows. Our society has mentally transported the rank and file back into the darkness of tribal war and shrieking, far from the tolerance that came with American religious freedom and the liberty of our conscience.

What is good as opposed to evil? Does it mean the evil of specific terrorist organizations, or the evils of the political cultures from which they came about?

Our civil discourse has morphed into a civil disguise, something akin to, I have a great future behind me. People have been restored to passive apathy, while the intellectual language of righteous empire cravenly moves on. Life becomes a constant paradox and the best illusion wins, because we have been taught a lesson-less past, while everywhere we look today we see the price of unchecked power.

Our renewed civil and spiritual discourse must adhere to three basic principles:

1. Facts matter, even if we dont like them.

2. Universal moral principles matter, even if they have consequences we would prefer not to face.

3. Clarity matters, such as distinguishing between terror and the political culture that breeds it, and what lies uneasily at its borders; aggression and legitimate response to it.

The word emotion literally means disturbance. It come from the Latin word emovere, meaning to disturb.

Humans have learned to spit the atom and instead of killing 10 or 20 people with a wooden club now can kill 1 million people by pushing a button. Are we to call that real change? The pollution of our planet is an outward reflection of our inner psychic pollution, which millions of unconscious people do not take responsibility for how their inner mind works.

The bond that connects us with other people is the same bond that connects us with the person sitting next to us on the bus, or with a bird, a tree, or a flower. Only the degree of intensity with which it is felt differs.
Homeland Security & Public Safety Trends, Status, Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin UK Market Professional Survey Report Forecast 2017 to 2022

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UK Homeland Security & Public Safety Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Homeland Security & Public Safety Market 2017 UK Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Executive Summary:UK HLS and Counter Terror Market Surge: 2015 2020 CAGR 11.4%. Granulated Into 51 SubmarketsThe UK is facing security problems with a far greater reach than its economic ones. ISIS terror threats are alarming and show no signs of declining.The present UK security measures, which have been effective in the past, cannot meet the 21st century ISIS-inspired terror tactics (following 5 years of security agencies budget and personnel cuts). A revision of the UK security infrastructure and funding is already underway.The transformation of the UK security infrastructure and HLS budgets is best expressed in the words of David Cameron, UK Prime Minister, in the aftermath of the Brussels carnage: "They could just as well be attacks in Britain or in France or Germany, or elsewhere in Europe and we need to stand together against these appalling terrorists and make sure they can never win".Following a 5-year CAGR of 2-3%, this UK Homeland Security Market research forecasts a 4-fold increase in the 2015-2020 market, at a CAGR of 11.3% .The two-volume (*) + one "UK Homeland Security & Public Safety Market  2016-2022" report is the most comprehensive review of the UK HLS market available today. It provides a detailed and reasoned roadmap of this growing market.The UK Security Market Forecast covers the Homeland Security Immigration Enforcement & Public Safety markets since, in most cases, products and services have dual or triple use applications and present the same business opportunities (e.g., biometric modalities are used for the following three sectors: counter-crime, immigration enforcement and counter terror).The UK Homeland security market is set to undergo a major transformation from 2016-2022 through the following drivers:According to the British intelligence organizations (March 2016), at least 800 people from the UK have traveled to support or fight for jihadist organizations in Syria and Iraq. Approximately 400 have since returned to the UK. A further 600 British citizens have been caught trying to join ISIS.The 2015 Paris, and the March 2016 Brussels terrorist attacks have focused greater attention on the threats posed by international terrorists and acted as a spur for UK authorities to enhance emergency planning and response capabilities.UK, the 5th largest economy in the world with a 2015 GDP of approximately $2.9 trillion, can invest "whatever it takes" to protect its citizens from the looming risks of terrorism and immigration.While the UK has a tradition of quite effective coordination among its competing counter terror and public safety agencies, some inter-agencies coordination problems are an obstacle to harmonized efforts to carry out the country counter terror and public safety missions. This phenomenon increases the national markets due to duplication of purchased systems.The UK market for security & safety products is sophisticated and well served. Local defense and security companies are well entrenched in the UK security market. Even with a preference for locally manufactured products, foreign products can usually strongly compete on the basis of price and innovation. They do not encounter any direct trade barriers or quotas. Non-tariff, indirect trade barriers may be the approval process of dual use goods, which include many security market products.This report is a resource for executives with interests in the UK Homeland security industry. It has been explicitly customized for the security industry and government decision-makers in order to identify business opportunities, developing technologies, market trends and risks, as well as to benchmark business plans.Questions answered in this 485-page two-volume + one (*) market report include:What will the UK HLS market size and trends be during 2016-2022?Which submarkets provide attractive business opportunities?Who are the decision-makers?What drives the UK Homeland Security & Public Safety managers to purchase solutions and services?What are the customers looking for?What are the technology & services trends?What is the market SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)?What are the challenges to market penetration & growth?With 485 Pages, 65 Tables and 151 Figures, this 2-volume + one(*) report covers 9 Vertical, 9 Technology and 3 Revenue Source Submarkets, offering for each of them 2015 data and assessments, and 2016-2022 forecasts and analyses.* The Global Homeland Security & Public Safety Industry  2016 Edition report is a free of charge Bonus for multi-reader license customers and is offered at half price to single-reader customers.Request Sample Report Here @...Why Buy this Report?A. This is the only report that addresses the HLS & Public Safety dual-use markets:76% of the UK market revenues emanate from dual-use products. For example, cybersecurity systems are used to address both cyber-crime and cyber-terror. Decision-makers forming their strategy need a complete view of this overlapping market both independently and in their intersections.B. Market data is analyzed via 3 key perspectives:With a highly fragmented HLS & Public Safety market we address the money trail  each dollar spent  via the following 3 viewpoints:By 9 Vertical Markets including:Airport SecuritySmart Borders, Immigration Enforcement & Border SecurityIntelligence AgenciesCritical Infrastructure ProtectionPolice Modernization & Other 1st RespondersPublic Events & Safe CityBuilding & Perimeter SecurityCBRN Security & SafetyOther Vertical MarketsBy 3 Revenue Sources including:Products SalesMaintenance & Service, Upgrades, RefurbishmentPlanning, Training and ConsultingBy 8 Technology Markets including:CybersecurityCounter Terror & Crime ITCommunication Systems & DevicesBiometricsVideo Surveillance TechnologiesIntrusion Detection SystemsBorder & Perimeter Security TechnologiesExplosives & Weapons Detection TechnologiesC. Detailed market analysis frameworks for each of the market sectors, including:Market drivers & inhibitorsBusiness opportunitiesSWOT analysisCompetitive analysisBusiness environmentThe 2015-2022 market segmented by 51 submarketsD. The UK homeland security and public safety market report includes the following 5 appendices:Appendix A: UK Counter Terror & Public Safety AgenciesAppendix B: European Security Related Product StandardsAppendix C: The European Union Challenges and OutlookAppendix D: The European Migration CrisisAppendix E: AbbreviationsE. The UK HLS market report addresses over 90 technologies including:Access Control SystemsAutomated Border Control (ABC) GatesBackscatter X-Ray Container-Vehicle Screening SystemsBio-Agents & Infectious Disease DetectionBiometricsBiosecurity and Biosafety Devices & SystemsBio-Terror & Infectious Disease Early Alert System Devices & SystemsBoarding Gate Explosives ScannersBorder & Perimeter BarriersC2/C4ISR SystemsCapacitance Sensors FenceCBRN and Hazmat Personal Protective GearCell Broadcast Mass Emergency NotificationChemical Agent DetectionChemical, HAZMAT & Nuclear DetectionCoherent Scatter 2D X-Ray SystemsCommunication Systems & DevicesCybersecurityDecontamination of CBRN & HAZMAT IncidentsDesktop ETD DevicesDual Energy LINAC X-Ray Container-Vehicle Screening SystemsDual-View LINAC X-Ray Container-Vehicle Screening SystemsDumb FencesElectronic FencingEmergency Management IT SystemsEmergency Medical Services (EMS) Devices & SystemsE-PassportsFiber Optic FenceGamma Ray Systems Container-Vehicle Screening SystemsHand Held Metal DetectorsHandheld ETD DevicesHomeland Security & Public Safety IT SystemsHuman Portable Radiation Detection Systems (HPRDS)Hybrid Tomographic EDS & 2D X-Ray ScreeningIED Placement DetectionInfrastructure as a Service (IaaS) ITIntelligence Community Big Data ITIntelligence Community Cloud Infrastructure ITIntelligence Community Software as a Service (SaaS)Intelligence Services ITInteroperable Communication SystemsIntrusion Detection SystemsIon Mobility Spectroscopy (IMS)Liquid Explosives Detection DevicesLuggage, Baggage & Mail Screening SystemsMaritime Awareness Global Network (MAGNET)Mass Emergency Notification Devices & SystemsMetal detection PortalsMultimodal Biometric SystemsNarcotics Trace Detection DevicesNatural & Manmade Disaster Early Warning systemsNon-Lethal Weapons(NLW)Nuclear/Radiological Detection Devices & SystemsOther Security TechnologiesPeople Screening MMWave (AIT) PortalsPeople Screening X-Ray Backscatter (AIT) PortalsPerimeter Security TechnologiesPersonal (Ballistic & CBRNE) Protective GearPersonal Body ArmorPlatform as a Service (PaaS)Police Modernization Systems and DevicesPorted Coax Buried Line FenceRescue & Recovery EquipmentRespiratory Protective EquipmentSatellite Based Maritime TrackingShoe ScannersSiren SystemsSkyBitz Global Locating SystemStandoff Explosives & Weapon Detection SystemsStandoff Suicide Bombers DetectionStrain Sensitive Cables FenceSuicide Bombers Borne IED (PBIED) DetectorsSuicide Bombers Detonation NeutralizationTaut Wire FenceText Alert SystemsThe Advanced Spectroscopic Portals (ASP)Tomographic Explosive Detection Systems (EDS)Transportable X-Ray Screening CheckpointsVBIED Detonation NeutralizationVehicle & Container Screening SystemsVehicle Borne IED (VBIED) DetectorsVehicle Screening ETD SystemsVibration Sensors Mounted on FenceVideo AnalyticsVideo SurveillanceVisa & Passport related ITVoice Alert SystemsWide Area Communications and Tracking TechnologyX-Ray Container-Vehicle Screening SystemsX-ray Screening systemsF. The UK HLS market report addresses over 300 European Homeland Security and Public Safety standards (including links)G. The UK HLS Market analysis provides the number of passengers and number of screened cabin & checked-in baggage and luggage at each of the major airports by 2016 & 2020H. The supplementary (*) Global Homeland Security and Public Safety Industry  2016 Edition report (updated by May 2016) provides the following insights and analysis of the industry including:The Global Industry 2016 statusEffects of Emerging Technologies on the IndustryThe Market TrendsVendor  Government RelationshipGeopolitical Outlook 2016-2022The Industry Business Models & StrategiesMarket Entry ChallengesThe Industry: Supply-Side & Demand-Side AnalysisMarket Entry StrategiesPrice ElasticityPast Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) EventsI. The supplementary (*) "Global Homeland Security and Public Safety Industry  2016 Edition" report provides updated (May 2016) and extensive information (including company profile, recent annual revenues, key executives, homeland security and public safety products, and contact info.) on the 119 leading vendors in the industry, namely:3M3i-MIND3VR3xLOGICABBAccentureACTi CorporationADT Security ServicesAeroVironment Inc.Agent Video IntelligenceAirbus Defence and SpaceAlcatel-Lucent (Nokia Group)ALPHAOPENAmerican Science & Engineering Inc.AnixterAralia SystemsAT&T Inc.Augusta SystemsAustalAvigilon CorporationAwareAxisAxxonSoftAyonixBAE SystemsBioEnable Technologies Pvt LtdBioLink SolutionsBoeingBollinger Shipyards, IncBosch Security SystemsBruker CorporationBTCameroCassidianCelPlanChina Security & Surveillance, Inc.Cisco SystemsCitilogCognitec Systems GmbHComputer Network Limited (CNL)Computer Sciences CorporationCrossMatchDieboldDRS Technologies Inc.DVTelElbit Systems Ltd.Elsag DatamatEmerson ElectricEricssonESRIFaceFirstFinmeccanica SpAFiretideFulcrum Biometrics LLCG4SGeneral Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.General Dynamics CorporationGetac Technology CorporationHanwha TechwinHarris CorporationHewlett Packard EnterpriseHexagon ABHoneywell International Inc.Huawei Technologies Co., LtdIBMIndigoVisionIntel SecurityIntuVision InciOmniscientIPConfigureIPS Intelligent Video AnalyticsIris ID Systems, Inc.IriTech Inc.Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.ISSL-3 Security & Detection SystemsLeidos, Inc.Lockheed Martin CorporationMACROSCOPMDSMer groupMilestone Systems A/SMirasysMotorola Solutions, Inc.National InstrumentsNEC CorporationNICE SystemsNorthrop Grumman CorporationNuance Communications, Inc.ObjectVideoPanasonic CorporationPelcoPivot3ProximexQinetiQ LimitedRapiscan Systems, Inc.RaytheonRockwell Collins, Inc.Safran S.A.Salient SciencesSchneider ElectricSeeTecSiemensSmart China (Holdings) LimitedSmiths Detection Inc.Sony Corp.Speech Technology CenterSuprema Inc.Synectics PlcTandu Technologies & Security Systems LtdTexas InstrumentsTextron Inc.Thales GroupTotal RecallUnisys CorporationVerintVialogy LLCVigilant TechnologyZhejiang Dahua TechnologyEnquiry Before Buying @CONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :More about WiseGuyReports:Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT. LTD.Office No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune  411028Maharashtra, India
France Homeland Security & Public Safety Trends, Status, Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin Global Market Professional Survey Report Forecast 2017 to 2022

France Homeland Security & Public Safety Market

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Global France Homeland Security & Public Safety Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds France Homeland Security & Public Safety Market 2017 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Executive Summary:France Interior Security Market  France is at war [] The security pact takes precedence over the stability pact President Francois HollandeFrance Homeland Security Market is in transition. The November 13, 2015 Paris well-planned terror attack demonstrated that the present French security and intelligence apparatus does not have the resources to address future ISIS terror challenges. A major overhaul of Frances internal security infrastructure and funding is already underway. Based on 6 months of intensive market research, interviews and analysis we forecast that the 2015-2020 France Homeland Security market will grow at a CAGR of 15.6%, a dramatic growth from the 3.7% CAGR during 2000-2015.As stated by the French president, the government is fully aware of the fact that France is facing problems with a far greater reach than its economic ones. ISIS terror threats coupled with the surge in arrival of millions of migrants to Europe are alarming facts that show no signs of declining. Apart from declaring a 6-month state of emergency, the president guided the government to fund whatever is necessary to combat terrorism.The two-volume * + one France Homeland Security & Public Safety Market  2016-2022 report is the most comprehensive review of Frances internal security market available today. It provides a detailed and reasoned roadmap of this growing counter terrorism market.Counter Terror & Public Safety Market is boosted by the following drivers that will transform and drive Frances security market over the 2016-2022 period:The Friday, November 13 Paris terror carnage shook France unlike any other recent terror attack, since they were complex and well-planned.The transformation of Frances security infrastructure is best expressed in the words of President, Francois Hollande: France is at war []. They (security measures) will necessarily result in extra spending, but under these circumstances, I believe that the security pact will have precedence over the (economic) stability pact.Up to 1,600 French nationals traveled to fight in Syria and Iraq and approximately 2,000 French citizens are involved in extremist Islamic cells in France.Europol estimates that up to 5,000 European jihadists have returned to the continent after obtaining combat experience on the battlefields of the Middle East.France is caught between a rock and a hard place  if it remains a country with inadequate counter terror funding and homeland security budget.Frances market for security & safety products is sophisticated and well served. Local defense and security companies are well entrenched in the French homeland security market. Even with a preference for locally manufactured products, foreign security products can usually strongly compete on the basis of price and innovation. They do not encounter any direct trade barriers or quotas. Non-tariff, indirect trade barriers may be the approval process of dual-use goods, which include various security market products.This France Interior Security Market report is a resource for executives with interests in the industry. It has been explicitly customized for the security industry and government decision-makers in order to enable them to identify business opportunities, developing technologies, security market trends and risks, as well as to benchmark business plans.Questions answered in this 475-page two-volume + one* report includes:What will the French Homeland Security Market size and trends be during 2016-2022?Which submarkets provide attractive business opportunities?Who are the French HLS decision-makers?What drives the French Homeland Security & Public Safety managers to purchase solutions and services?What are the customers looking for?What are the technology & services trends?What is the Marche de la securite interieure SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats)?What are the challenges to market penetration & growth?With 475 Pages, 66 Tables and 151 Figures, this 2-volume + one* report covers 9 Vertical, 9 Technology and 3 Revenue Source Submarkets, offering for each of them 2015 data and assessments, and 2016-2022 forecasts and analyses.* The Global Homeland Security & Public Safety Industry  2016 Edition report is a free of charge Bonus for multi-reader license customers and is offered at half price to single-reader customers.Request Sample Report Here @...Why Buy this Report?A. Market data is analyzed via 3 orthogonal perspectives:With a highly fragmented HLS & Public Safety market we address the money trail  each dollar spent  via the following 3 viewpoints:By 9 Vertical Markets including:France Airport SecurityFrance Smart Borders, Immigration Enforcement & Border SecurityFrance Intelligence AgenciesFrance Critical Infrastructure ProtectionFrance Police Modernization & Other 1st RespondersFrance Public Events & Safe CityFrance Building & Perimeter SecurityFrance CBRN Security & SafetyOther Vertical Markets (including Maritime Security, Mass transportation Security and Oil-Gas Industry Security)By 3 Revenue Sources including:Products SalesMaintenance & Service, Upgrades, RefurbishmentPlanning, Training and ConsultingBy 9 Technology Markets including:France CybersecurityFrance Counter Terror & Crime ITFrance Communication Systems & DevicesFrance BiometricsFrance Video Surveillance TechnologiesFrance Intrusion Detection SystemsFrance Border & Perimeter Security TechnologiesFrance Explosives & Weapons Detection TechnologiesOther Technologies (including: C2/C4ISR Systems, NLW, Counter IED, Personal Protective Gear and morB. Detailed market analysis frameworks for each of the market sectors, including:Market drivers & inhibitorsBusiness opportunitiesSWOT analysisCompetitive analysisBusiness environmentThe 2015-2020 market segmented by 51 submarketsC. This is the only report that addresses the HLS & Public Safety dual-use markets in France:76% of the French market revenues derives from dual-use products. For example, cybersecurity systems are used to address both cyber-crime and cyber-terror. Decision-makers forming their strategy need a complete view of this overlapping market both independently and in their intersections.D. The France HLS Market report includes the following 5 appendices:Appendix A: French Counter Terror & Public Safety AgenciesAppendix B: European Security Related Product StandardsAppendix C: The European Union Challenges and OutlookAppendix D: The European Migration CrisisAppendix E: AbbreviationsE. The Marche de la securite interieure report addresses over 90 technologies including:Access Control SystemsAutomated Border Control (ABC) GatesBackscatter X-Ray Container-Vehicle Screening SystemsBio-Agents & Infectious Disease DetectionBiometricsBiosecurity and Biosafety Devices & SystemsBio-Terror & Infectious Disease Early Alert System Devices & SystemsBoarding Gate Explosives ScannersBorder & Perimeter BarriersC2/C4ISR SystemsCapacitance Sensors FenceCBRN and Hazmat Personal Protective GearCell Broadcast Mass Emergency NotificationChemical Agent DetectionChemical, HAZMAT & Nuclear DetectionCoherent Scatter 2D X-Ray SystemsCommunication Systems & DevicesCybersecurityDecontamination of CBRN & HAZMAT IncidentsDesktop ETD DevicesDual Energy LINAC X-Ray Container-Vehicle Screening SystemsDual-View LINAC X-Ray Container-Vehicle Screening SystemsDumb FencesElectronic FencingEmergency Management IT SystemsEmergency Medical Services (EMS) Devices & SystemsE-PassportsFiber Optic FenceGamma Ray Systems Container-Vehicle Screening SystemsHand Held Metal DetectorsHandheld ETD DevicesHomeland Security & Public Safety IT SystemsHuman Portable Radiation Detection Systems (HPRDS)Hybrid Tomographic EDS & 2D X-Ray ScreeningIED Placement DetectionInfrastructure as a Service (IaaS) ITIntelligence Community Big Data ITIntelligence Community Cloud Infrastructure ITIntelligence Community Software as a Service (SaaS)Intelligence Services ITInter-operable Communication SystemsIntrusion Detection SystemsIon Mobility Spectroscopy (IMS)Liquid Explosives Detection DevicesLuggage, Baggage & Mail Screening SystemsMaritime Awareness Global Network (MAGNET)Mass Emergency Notification Devices & SystemsMetal detection PortalsMultimodal Biometric SystemsNarcotics Trace Detection DevicesNatural & Manmade Disaster Early Warning systemsNon-Lethal Weapons(NLW)Nuclear/Radiological Detection Devices & SystemsOther Security TechnologiesPeople Screening MMWave (AIT) PortalsPeople Screening X-Ray Backscatter (AIT) PortalsPerimeter Security TechnologiesPersonal (Ballistic & CBRNE) Protective GearPersonal Body ArmorPlatform as a Service (PaaS)Police Modernization Systems and DevicesPorted Coax Buried Line FenceRescue & Recovery EquipmentRespiratory Protective EquipmentSatellite Based Maritime TrackingShoe ScannersSiren SystemsSkyBitz Global Locating SystemStandoff Explosives & Weapon Detection SystemsStandoff Suicide Bombers DetectionStrain Sensitive Cables FenceSuicide Bombers Borne IED (PBIED) DetectorsSuicide Bombers Detonation NeutralizationTaut Wire FenceText Alert SystemsThe Advanced Spectroscopic Portals (ASP)Tomographic Explosive Detection Systems (EDS)Transportable X-Ray Screening CheckpointsVBIED Detonation NeutralizationVehicle & Container Screening SystemsVehicle Borne IED (VBIED) DetectorsVehicle Screening ETD SystemsVibration Sensors Mounted on FenceVideo AnalyticsVideo SurveillanceVisa & Passport related ITVoice Alert SystemsWide Area Communications and Tracking TechnologyX-Ray Container-Vehicle Screening SystemsX-ray Screening systemsF. The market report addresses over 300 European Homeland Security and Public Safety standards (including links)G. The market report provides the number of passengers and number of screened cabin & checked-in baggage and luggage at each of the major airports by 2016 & 2020H. The supplementary* Global Homeland Security and Public Safety Industry  2016 Edition report (updated in May 2016) provides the following insights and analysis of the industry including:The Global Industry 2016 statusEffects of Emerging Technologies on the IndustryThe Market TrendsVendor  Government RelationshipGeopolitical Outlook 2016-2022The Industry Business Models & StrategiesMarket Entry ChallengesThe Industry: Supply-Side & Demand-Side AnalysisMarket Entry StrategiesPrice ElasticityPast Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) EventsI. The supplementary* Global Homeland Security and Public Safety Industry  2016 Edition report provides an updated (May 2016) and extensive information (including Company Profile, Recent Annual Revenues, Key Executives, Homeland Security and Public Safety Products, and Contact Info.) on the 119 leading security Vendors in the industry, namely:3M3i-MIND3VR3xLOGICABBAccentureACTi CorporationADT Security ServicesAeroVironment Inc.Agent Video IntelligenceAirbus Defence and SpaceAlcatel-Lucent (Nokia Group)ALPHAOPENAmerican Science & Engineering Inc.AnixterAralia SystemsAT&T Inc.Augusta SystemsAustalAvigilon CorporationAwareAxisAxxonSoftAyonixBAE SystemsBioEnable Technologies Pvt LtdBioLink SolutionsBoeingBollinger Shipyards, IncBosch Security SystemsBruker CorporationBTCameroCassidianCelPlanChina Security & Surveillance, Inc.Cisco SystemsCitilogCognitec Systems GmbHComputer Network Limited (CNL)Computer Sciences CorporationCrossMatchDieboldDRS Technologies Inc.DVTelElbit Systems Ltd.Elsag DatamatEmerson ElectricEricssonESRIFaceFirstFinmeccanica SpAFiretideFulcrum Biometrics LLCG4SGeneral Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.General Dynamics CorporationGetac Technology CorporationHanwha TechwinHarris CorporationHewlett Packard EnterpriseHexagon ABHoneywell International Inc.Huawei Technologies Co., LtdIBMIndigoVisionIntel SecurityIntuVision InciOmniscientIPConfigureIPS Intelligent Video AnalyticsIris ID Systems, Inc.IriTech Inc.Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.ISSL-3 Security & Detection SystemsLeidos, Inc.Lockheed Martin CorporationMACROSCOPMDSMer groupMilestone Systems A/SMirasysMotorola Solutions, Inc.National InstrumentsNEC CorporationNICE SystemsNorthrop Grumman CorporationNuance Communications, Inc.ObjectVideoPanasonic CorporationPelcoPivot3ProximexQinetiQ LimitedRapiscan Systems, Inc.RaytheonRockwell Collins, Inc.Safran S.A.Salient SciencesSchneider ElectricSeeTecSiemensSmart China (Holdings) LimitedSmiths Detection Inc.Sony Corp.Speech Technology CenterSuprema Inc.Synectics PlcTandu Technologies & Security Systems LtdTexas InstrumentsTextron Inc.Thales GroupTotal RecallUnisys CorporationVerintVialogy LLCVigilant TechnologyZhejiang Dahua TechnologyEnquiry Before Buying @CONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :More about WiseGuyReports:Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT. LTD.Office No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune  411028Maharashtra, India
HDPE Pipes Market :Global key Vendors,Trends, Analysis,Segmentation, Forecast to 2017-2022

HDPE Pipes Industry

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For Immediate ReleasePress Release: Pune, India- 13th July , 2017Global HDPE Pipes Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022Description:HDPE pipe is a pipe made from high-density polyethylene. Known for its large strength to density ratio, it can carry potable water, wastewater, slurries, chemicals, hazardous wastes, and compressed gases.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the HDPE Pipes in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversJM EagleChevron Phillips Chemical CompanyAliaxisWL PlasticsJain Irrigation SystemsPipelife InternationalNandi GroupBlue Diamond IndustriesNational Pipe & PlasticsKubota ChemiXFLO-TEKOlayan GroupPexmartGodavari PolymersLESSOCangzhou MingzhuJunxing PipeGinde PipeChinaust GroupBosoar PipeNewchoice PipeShandong Shenbon PlasticsJinniu Power Industry Science and TechnologyERAQingdao Yutong PipelineGoodyHongYue Plastic GroupEspecially Nick TubeARON New MaterialsZhejiang WeixingFor Sample Report @Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversPE80 PipePE100 PipeOtherMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoWater SupplyOil and GasSewage SystemsAgricultural ApplicationsOthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global HDPE Pipes market.Chapter 1, to describe HDPE Pipes Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of HDPE Pipes, with sales, revenue, and price of HDPE Pipes, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of HDPE Pipes, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, HDPE Pipes market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe HDPE Pipes sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor any Enquiry write us @Table of Content1 Market Overview1.1 HDPE Pipes Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 PE80 Pipe1.2.2 PE100 Pipe1.2.3 Other1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Water Supply1.3.2 Oil and Gas1.3.3 Sewage Systems1.3.4 Agricultural Applications1.3.5 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 JM Eagle2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 HDPE Pipes Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 JM Eagle HDPE Pipes Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Chevron Phillips Chemical Company2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 HDPE Pipes Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Chevron Phillips Chemical Company HDPE Pipes Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Aliaxis2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 HDPE Pipes Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Aliaxis HDPE Pipes Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 WL Plastics2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 HDPE Pipes Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 WL Plastics HDPE Pipes Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Jain Irrigation Systems2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 HDPE Pipes Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Jain Irrigation Systems HDPE Pipes Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)ContinuedFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028 Maharashtra, India
Cyber security Technologies 2017 Europe Key Players  Parameter, Accenture, Agiliance, AhnLab, Airbus, AirWatch, Akamai, Alert Logic, AlertEnterprise, AlienVault, Alt-N Technologies Market Analysis and Forecast to 2022

Cyber security Technologies Market

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Cyber security Technologies Market 2017Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Cyber security Technologies Market -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Description:Europe Cyber Security 2016-2022 Market CAGR 8.5%Cyber-attacks against European targets are becoming increasingly more frequent and more sophisticated, pushing existing security capabilities to the limit. New solutions and the rapid expansion of networks and services indicate that this information overload will only worsen.Considering the economic and business implications of cyber-attacks, it has now become mandatory for the Europeans to significantly increase their investments in state-of-the-art cyber security technologies, solutions and outsourced services to detect, prevent, analyze, and resolve the epidemics of cyber-crime and cyber-terror...Request for Sample Report@The Cyber Security report presents:Market data  analyzed via 2 independent key perspectives:With a highly-fragmented market, we address the "money trail" (each dollar spent is analyzed and crosschecked via 2 orthogonal viewpoints):Enquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Contents:18 national markets:UKFranceNetherlandsBelgiumSwedenNorwayFinlandDenmarkGermanyAustriaSwitzerlandItalySpainPolandHungaryCzech RepublicRussiaRest of Europe3 Revenue source markets:Products salesAftersales revenues (maintenance & upgrades)Other revenues (consulting, planning, training, contracted services and government funded R&D)European cybersecurity market analysis:Business opportunities and challengesCybersecurity market SWOT analysisMarket dynamicsMarket drivers and inhibitorsDozens of European cybersecurity legislation and standardsCurrent & emerging technologies & services, key facts, sector background and analysis of the following 15 cybersecurity sectors:Endpoint Security2. Identity and Access Management3. Mobile Enterprise Management4. Mobile Security5. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)6. Content Security7. Malware Mitigation8. Data Loss Prevention (DLP)9. Datacenter Security10. Firewalls11. Next Generation Firewalls12. IDS/IPS13. Unified Threat Management (UTM)14. Cloud-Based Services15. Vulnerability/Risk Management & Managed Security ServicesVendors Data on 190 cybersecurity companies operating in the market (profiles, contact information & management personnel):41st Parameter, Accenture, Agiliance, AhnLab, Airbus, AirWatch, Akamai, Alert Logic, AlertEnterprise, AlienVault, Alt-N Technologies, Application Security, AppSense Limited, Arbor Networks, Attachmate, Authentify, AVAST Software, Aveksa, AVG Technologies, Avira, Barracuda Networks, Beyond Security, BeyondTrust, Bit9, Bitdefender, BlackBerry, BlackStratus, Blue Coat Systems, BoxTone, Bromium, BullGuard, Cassidian Communications Inc., Catbird Networks, Centrify, Cenzic, Check Point, CipherCloud, Cisco Systems Inc, Clearswift, Click Security, CloudFlare, CloudLock, Code Green Networks, Commtouch Software, Comodo, CORE Security, Corero Network Security, Courion, Covisint, CrowdStrike Holdings, CSID, Cyber Operations, Cyber-Ark, CyberArk Software, Cyberoam, Cyren, Damballa, DigiCert, Digital Info Security Company, EdgeWave, EiQ Networks, Elbit Systems, Enterasys Networks, Entrust, ESET, Exobox Technologies Corp, Extreme Networks, Faronics Technologies, Fast facts, Fiberlink, Fidelis Security Systems, FireEye, FireMon, ForeScout Technologies, FoxGuard Solutions, F-Secure, Fulcrum IT Services Company. LLC, G2 Web Services, Gemalto, General Dynamics, GFI Software, Good Technology, Guardian Analytics, Guidance Software, Hewlett-Packard Co, HyTrust, ID Analytics, Igloo Security Inc, Imprivata, Intel Security Group, International Business Machines Corp, Intrusion Inc, IOActive, Iovation, Juniper Network, Kaspersky Lab, L-3 Communications, Lacoon Security Ltd, Lancope, LANDesk Software, LogRhythm, Lookingglass Cyber Solutions, Lookout Mobile, Lumension Security, M5 Network Security, Mandiant, Mantech International Corp, Memento, Merlin International, MessageLabs, MetricStream, Mobile Active Defense, Mobile Vault, MobileIron, Mobilityone Ltd, Mocana, MU Dynamics, N-Dimension Solutions, NetCentrics Corporation, Network Security Systems, Nics Tech Co. Ltd., NIKSUN, NSS Labs Inc., Odyssey Technologies, Okta, OpenDNS, Palantir Technologies Inc, Palo Alto Networks Inc, Panda Security, ParetoLogic, Perimeter Internetworking Corp., PerspecSys, Ping Identity, Prolexic Technologies, Proofpoint, Qualys Inc., Quick Heal Technologies (P) Ltd., QUMAS, QuoVadis, Radware Ltd, Rapid7, Raytheon Pikewerks Corporation, Red Lambda Inc., ReD plc, RedSeal Networks Inc., Retail Decisions Plc, RLM Communications Inc., RSA Security LLC, SafeNet Inc., SailPoint Technologies Inc., SAINT Corporation, Salient Federal Solutions Inc., SecurityMetrics, Senetas Corp Ltd, SilverSky, Skybox Security Inc., SolarWinds, Solera Networks Inc., Sophos Ltd., Sotera Defense Solutions Inc., Splunk Inc., Stormshield Network Security (Formerly: NETASQ S.A.), Strikeforce Technologies, Symantec Corporation, Sympli ied Inc., Synectics Plc, Tangoe, TeleSign Corp., Tenable Network Security, Thales, The KEYW Holding Corporation, ThreatMetrix, TIBCO Software, TraceSecurity, Trend Micro Inc, Tripwire, Trusteer, Trustwave, Utimaco Safeware Inc., Vanguard Integrity Professionals Inc., Varonis Systems, VASCO Data Security International, Venafi, Veracode, Verdasys, Verint Systems Inc, WatchGuard Technologies, Webroot, WhiteHat Security, Workshare Technology, Zix Corporation, ZscalerThe Cyber Defense Market report includes the following appendices:Appendix A: European Homeland Security & Public Safety Related Product StandardsAppendix B: The European Union Challenges and OutlookAppendix C: Europe Migration Crisis & Border SecurityAppendix D: AbbreviationsThis Cyber security Technologies & Market  Focus on Europe  2017-2022 report is a valuable resource for executives with interests in the industry. It has been explicitly customized for industry and decision-makers to identify business opportunities, emerging technologies, market trends and risks, as well as to benchmark business plans.Questions answered in this 386-page report include:What will the European Cyber security market size be in 2017-2022?Where and what are the Cyber security market opportunities?What are the Cyber security market drivers and inhibitors?What are the challenges to the Cyber security market?The Cyber security Technologies & Market  Focus on Europe  2017-2022 report presents in 386 pages, 24 tables and 32 figures, analysis of current situation in this market. This report, granulated into 36 national and revenue source submarkets, provides for each submarket 2015-2016 data and assessments, and 2017-2022 forecasts and analyses.Continued..For accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check:For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check:Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra, Europe: Ph: +91 841 198 5042
Digital Signage Systems Trends, Status, Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin Global Market Professional Survey Report Forecast 2017 to 2022

Digital Signage Systems Market

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Global Digital Signage Systems Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Digital Signage Systems Market 2017 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Executive Summary:This report studies Digital Signage Systems in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringAdvantechBarco N.V.BrightSignDaktronicsDynasignExtron ElectronicsFour WindsGefenLG CorporationNanonationNEC CorporationNEXCOMSamsungScalaSharpSIIGSony CorporationSpinetiXRequest Sample Report Here @...By types, the market can be split intoDigital Signage DisplaysDigital Signage Set Top BoxesMedia PlayersDigital Signage SoftwareOtherBy Application, the market can be split intoRetailPublic TransportationOtherBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Enquiry Before Buying @Some Major Points from Table of Content:Table of ContentsGlobal Digital Signage Systems Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Digital Signage Systems1.1 Definition and Specifications of Digital Signage Systems1.1.1 Definition of Digital Signage Systems1.1.2 Specifications of Digital Signage Systems1.2 Classification of Digital Signage Systems1.2.1 Digital Signage Displays1.2.2 Digital Signage Set Top Boxes1.2.3 Media Players1.2.4 Digital Signage Software1.2.5 Other1.3 Applications of Digital Signage Systems1.3.1 Retail1.3.2 Public Transportation1.3.3 Other1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Digital Signage Systems2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Digital Signage Systems2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Digital Signage Systems2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Digital Signage Systems3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Digital Signage Systems3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Digital Signage Systems Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Digital Signage Systems Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Digital Signage Systems Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Digital Signage Systems Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Digital Signage Systems Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Digital Signage Systems Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Digital Signage Systems Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Digital Signage Systems Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Digital Signage Systems Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Digital Signage Systems Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Digital Signage Systems Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)5 Digital Signage Systems Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Digital Signage Systems Market Analysis5.1.1 North America Digital Signage Systems Market Overview5.1.2 North America 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.1.3 North America 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Sales Price Analysis5.1.4 North America 2016 Digital Signage Systems Market Share Analysis5.2 China Digital Signage Systems Market Analysis5.2.1 China Digital Signage Systems Market Overview5.2.2 China 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.2.3 China 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Sales Price Analysis5.2.4 China 2016 Digital Signage Systems Market Share Analysis5.3 Europe Digital Signage Systems Market Analysis5.3.1 Europe Digital Signage Systems Market Overview5.3.2 Europe 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.3.3 Europe 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Sales Price Analysis5.3.4 Europe 2016 Digital Signage Systems Market Share Analysis5.4 Southeast Asia Digital Signage Systems Market Analysis5.4.1 Southeast Asia Digital Signage Systems Market Overview5.4.2 Southeast Asia 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.4.3 Southeast Asia 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Sales Price Analysis5.4.4 Southeast Asia 2016 Digital Signage Systems Market Share Analysis5.5 Japan Digital Signage Systems Market Analysis5.5.1 Japan Digital Signage Systems Market Overview5.5.2 Japan 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.5.3 Japan 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Sales Price Analysis5.5.4 Japan 2016 Digital Signage Systems Market Share Analysis5.6 India Digital Signage Systems Market Analysis5.6.1 India Digital Signage Systems Market Overview5.6.2 India 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.6.3 India 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Sales Price Analysis5.6.4 India 2016 Digital Signage Systems Market Share Analysis6 Global 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Segment Market Analysis (by Type)6.1 Global 2012-2017E Digital Signage Systems Sales by Type6.2 Different Types of Digital Signage Systems Product Interview Price Analysis6.3 Different Types of Digital Signage Systems Product Driving Factors Analysis6.3.1 Digital Signage Displays of Digital Signage Systems Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.2 Digital Signage Set Top Boxes of Digital Signage Systems Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.3 Media Players of Digital Signage Systems Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.4 Digital Signage Software of Digital Signage Systems Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.5 Other of Digital Signage Systems Growth Driving Factor AnalysisList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Digital Signage SystemsTable Product Specifications of Digital Signage SystemsTable Classification of Digital Signage SystemsFigure Global Production Market Share of Digital Signage Systems by Type in 2016Figure Digital Signage Displays PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Digital Signage DisplaysFigure Digital Signage Set Top Boxes PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Digital Signage Set Top BoxesFigure Media Players PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Media PlayersFigure Digital Signage Software PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Digital Signage SoftwareFigure Other PictureTable Major Manufacturers of OtherTable Applications of Digital Signage SystemsFigure Global Consumption Volume Market Share of Digital Signage Systems by Application in 2016Figure Retail ExamplesTable Major Consumers in RetailFigure Public Transportation ExamplesTable Major Consumers in Public TransportationFigure Other ExamplesTable Major Consumers in OtherCONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :More about WiseGuyReports:Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT. LTD.Office No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune  411028Maharashtra, India
Luxury Watches Trends, Status, Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin Global Market Professional Survey Report Forecast 2017 to 2022

Luxury Watches Market

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Global Luxury Watches Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Luxury Watches Market 2017 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Executive Summary:In this report, the global Luxury Watches market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Luxury Watches in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesEUChinaJapanSouth KoreaTaiwanRequest Sample Report Here @...Global Luxury Watches market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingSeikoTAG HeuerOmegaBell & RossCartierJaeger-LeCoultrePaneraiPiaget SAUlysse NardinRolexIWC SchaffhausenVacheron ConstantinPatek PhilippeBlancpainChopardAudemars PiguetBreitlingBremontLouis MoinetA.Lange & SohneOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoMechanical WatchesElectronic WatchesOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Luxury Watches for each application, includingWomenMenIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Enquiry Before Buying @Some Major Points from Table of Content:Table of ContentsGlobal Luxury Watches Market Research Report 20171 Luxury Watches Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Luxury Watches1.2 Luxury Watches Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Luxury Watches Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Luxury Watches Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Mechanical Watches1.2.4 Electronic Watches1.3 Global Luxury Watches Segment by Application1.3.1 Luxury Watches Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Women1.3.3 Men1.4 Global Luxury Watches Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Luxury Watches Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 EU Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 South Korea Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 Taiwan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Luxury Watches (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Luxury Watches Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Luxury Watches Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)2 Global Luxury Watches Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Luxury Watches Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Luxury Watches Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Luxury Watches Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Luxury Watches Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Luxury Watches Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Luxury Watches Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Luxury Watches Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Luxury Watches Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Luxury Watches Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Luxury Watches Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Luxury Watches Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Luxury Watches Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Luxury Watches Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Luxury Watches Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 United States Luxury Watches Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 EU Luxury Watches Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Luxury Watches Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Luxury Watches Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 South Korea Luxury Watches Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 Taiwan Luxury Watches Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Luxury Watches Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global Luxury Watches Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 United States Luxury Watches Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 EU Luxury Watches Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Luxury Watches Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Luxury Watches Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 South Korea Luxury Watches Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 Taiwan Luxury Watches Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Luxury Watches Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Luxury Watches Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Luxury Watches Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Luxury Watches Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Luxury Watches Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Luxury Watches Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Luxury Watches Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Luxury Watches Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Luxury WatchesFigure Global Luxury Watches Production (K Units) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2012-2022)Figure Global Luxury Watches Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2016Figure Product Picture of Mechanical WatchesTable Major Manufacturers of Mechanical WatchesFigure Product Picture of Electronic WatchesTable Major Manufacturers of Electronic WatchesFigure Global Luxury Watches Consumption (K Units) by Applications (2012-2022)Figure Global Luxury Watches Consumption Market Share by Applications in 2016Figure Women ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in WomenFigure Men ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in MenFigure Global Luxury Watches Market Size (Million USD), Comparison (K Units) and CAGR (%) by Regions (2012-2022)Figure United States Luxury Watches Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure EU Luxury Watches Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China Luxury Watches Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Luxury Watches Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure South Korea Luxury Watches Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Taiwan Luxury Watches Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Luxury Watches Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Luxury Watches Capacity, Production (K Units) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Luxury Watches Major Players Product Capacity (K Units) (2012-2017)Table Global Luxury Watches Capacity (K Units) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Luxury Watches Capacity Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Figure Global Luxury Watches Capacity (K Units) of Key Manufacturers in 2016Figure Global Luxury Watches Capacity (K Units) of Key Manufacturers in 2017CONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :More about WiseGuyReports:Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT. LTD.Office No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune  411028Maharashtra, India
Polybutylene Terephthalate Market Forecast 2017-2022: Sipchem, Sabic, Celanese, Toray, Changchun

Polybutylene Terephthalate

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Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) Market Research 2017A market study  Global Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) Market  examines the performance of the Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) Market 2017 report includes Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) market Revenue, market Share, Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) industry volume, market Trends, Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) Market 2017:1. Sipchem2. Sabic3. Shinkong4. Celanese5. Toray6. Changchun7. DuPont8. BASF9. Lanxess10. Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics11. Polyplastics12. DSM13. Nan Ya Plastics14. SASA15. Sinopec Yizheng16. Xinjiang Blue Ridge Tunhe17. Henan Kaixiang18. Yingkou Kanghui19. Nantong Xingchen20. Shandong WeijiaoFirstly, the report covers the top Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) industry, Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) market revenue worldwide.Finally, Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Sclareolide Market Forecast 2017-2022: Greenlife, Capot, Haotian, Avoca Inc, Wuhan Dahua

Sclareolide

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Sclareolide Market Research 2017A market study  Global Sclareolide Market  examines the performance of the Sclareolide market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Sclareolide market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Sclareolide market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Sclareolide Market 2017 report includes Sclareolide market Revenue, market Share, Sclareolide industry volume, market Trends, Sclareolide Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Sclareolide Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Sclareolide Market 2017:1. Greenlife2. Capot3. Haotian4. Avoca Inc5. Wuhan Dahua6. Aphios Corporation7. App Chem-Bio8. Shanxi JinjinSclareolide Market : By Application Comestics Tobacco BeverageSclareolide Market : By Type Natural SyntheticFirstly, the report covers the top Sclareolide manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Sclareolide report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Sclareolide industry, Sclareolide industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Sclareolide Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Sclareolide research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Sclareolide market revenue worldwide.Finally, Sclareolide market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Intravenous Solutions Market Forecast 2017-2022: Grifols, Fresenius Kabi, Hospira, Vifor Pharma

Intravenous Solutions

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Intravenous Solutions Market Research 2017A market study  Global Intravenous Solutions Market  examines the performance of the Intravenous Solutions market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Intravenous Solutions market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Intravenous Solutions market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Intravenous Solutions Market 2017 report includes Intravenous Solutions market Revenue, market Share, Intravenous Solutions industry volume, market Trends, Intravenous Solutions Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Intravenous Solutions Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Intravenous Solutions Market 2017:1. Grifols2. Fresenius Kabi3. Hospira4. Vifor Pharma5. Baxter6. B. Braun Melsungen7. Claris Lifesciences8. JW Life ScienceIntravenous Solutions Market : By Application Basic IV Solutions Nutrient Infusion SolutionIntravenous Solutions Market : By Type Crystalloids ColloidsFirstly, the report covers the top Intravenous Solutions manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Intravenous Solutions report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Intravenous Solutions industry, Intravenous Solutions industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Intravenous Solutions Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Intravenous Solutions research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Intravenous Solutions market revenue worldwide.Finally, Intravenous Solutions market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 13, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Growth Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V:FGH) (First Growth or the Company) announces that Mr. Valent Chan has resigned as Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary of the Company. Ms. Ting Zhao will serve as the interim acting Chief Financial Officer while the Company searches for a Chief Financial Officer.



About First Growth Holdings Ltd.

First Growth is a Canadian-based company that identifies and develops strong brands in the Canadian and international markets. First Growths brands have a global reach in todays modern world with the rapid adoption of social media and advancements in technology. First Growth recognizes the potential for its brands to penetrate international markets and will be focused on developing each one of its brands to its fullest potential.

ON BEHALF OF FIRST GROWTH HOLDINGS LTD.:

Ting Zhao

Ting Zhao

Chief Executive Officer

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
DNA Microarray for Agriculture Market Forecast 2017-2022: Agilent, Affymetrix, Illumnia

DNA Microarray for Agriculture

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DNA Microarray for Agriculture Market Research 2017A market study  Global DNA Microarray for Agriculture Market  examines the performance of the DNA Microarray for Agriculture market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the DNA Microarray for Agriculture market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of DNA Microarray for Agriculture market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global DNA Microarray for Agriculture Market 2017 report includes DNA Microarray for Agriculture market Revenue, market Share, DNA Microarray for Agriculture industry volume, market Trends, DNA Microarray for Agriculture Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, DNA Microarray for Agriculture Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global DNA Microarray for Agriculture Market 2017:1. Agilent2. Affymetrix3. IllumniaDNA Microarray for Agriculture Market : By Application Bovine Potato Sheep RiceDNA Microarray for Agriculture Market : By Type Oligonucleotide DNA Microarrays Complementary DNA MicroarraysFirstly, the report covers the top DNA Microarray for Agriculture manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the DNA Microarray for Agriculture report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of DNA Microarray for Agriculture industry, DNA Microarray for Agriculture industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. DNA Microarray for Agriculture Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The DNA Microarray for Agriculture research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the DNA Microarray for Agriculture market revenue worldwide.Finally, DNA Microarray for Agriculture market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
PM2.5 Masks Market Forecast 2017-2022: Aethaer, Respro, Pcoyx, Shanghai Futu, CM Mask

PM2.5 Masks

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PM2.5 Masks Market Research 2017A market study  Global PM2.5 Masks Market  examines the performance of the PM2.5 Masks market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the PM2.5 Masks market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of PM2.5 Masks market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global PM2.5 Masks Market 2017 report includes PM2.5 Masks market Revenue, market Share, PM2.5 Masks industry volume, market Trends, PM2.5 Masks Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, PM2.5 Masks Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global PM2.5 Masks Market 2017:1. 3M2. CM Mask3. Jiutouying4. Pcoyx5. Honeywell6. Improve Medical7. Aethaer8. Shanghai Futu9. Respro10. Rizhao FuruidePM2.5 Masks Market : By Application children AdultsPM2.5 Masks Market : By Type Ordinary Grade Disinfection Grade Sterilization GradeFirstly, the report covers the top PM2.5 Masks manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the PM2.5 Masks report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of PM2.5 Masks industry, PM2.5 Masks industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. PM2.5 Masks Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The PM2.5 Masks research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the PM2.5 Masks market revenue worldwide.Finally, PM2.5 Masks market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
South Korea Renewable Energy Policy Handbook Market 2017 - Current and Future Plans

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SUMMARYWiseGuyReports published new report, titled South Korea Renewable Energy Policy Handbook."South Korea Renewable Energy Policy Handbook 2017 is among the latest country specific policy reports from the industry analysis specialist that offers comprehensive information on major policies governing renewable energy market in the country.The report provides the current and future renewable energy targets and plans along with the present policy framework, giving a fair idea of overall growth potential of the renewable energy industry. The report also provides major technology specific policies and incentives provided in the country.The report is built using data and information sourced from industry associations, government websites and statutory bodies. The information is also sourced through other secondary research sources such as industry and trade magazines.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Scope- The report covers policy measures and incentives used by South Korea to promote renewable energy.- The report details promotional measures in South Korea both for the overall renewable energy industry and for specific renewable energy technologies that have potential in the country.Key points to buyThe report will enhance your decision making capability in a more rapid and time sensitive manner. It will allow you to - Develop business strategies with the help of specific insights about policy decisions being taken for different renewable energy sources.- Identify opportunities and challenges in exploiting various renewable technologies.- Compare the level of support provided to different renewable energy technologies in South Korea.- Be ahead of competition by keeping yourself abreast of all the latest policy changes.Table of Contents1 Table of Contents 21.1 List of Tables 32 Introduction 42.1 Renewable Energy Policy 42.2 Report Guidance 43 Renewable Energy Policy, South Korea 53.1 Renewable Energy Market, Overview 53.2 Major Policies 63.2.1 Green Growth Policy 63.2.2 Subsidy Program (Renewable Energy Demonstration and Deployment) 63.2.3 Research Funding for the Development of Renewable Energy Sources 63.2.4 Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership 73.2.5 The Promotional Law of New and Renewable Energy Development, Use and Dissemination 7..CONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially checkFor updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially checkWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Global Permutite Market 2017- BASF (Germany), Honeywell International (US), Albemarle Corporation (US), Clariant (US)

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The Global Permutite Market 2017 Research Report includes a complete and meticulous study of Permutite industry covering different aspects like market volume, market Share, market strategies, Permutite growth trends, variety of applications, utilization volume, demand and supply analysis, production capacity and Permutite industry cost structures during Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.The report titled Global Permutite Market 2017 provides the comprehensive study of Permutite market on a global scale, focusing on current as well as past details of Permutite market. The competitive view of the Permutite industry with respect to the industry competitors is also covered in this document. The company details of leading players like their profile information, revenue segmentation, business strategies followed by them and their contribution to the global Permutite market share are mentioned.Request Here For Sample Report:Comparative Analysis of Permutite Market According to the Key Vendors:1 BASF (Germany)2 Honeywell International (US)3 Albemarle Corporation (US)4 Clariant (US)5 W.R. Grace & Co. (US)6 Tosoh Corporation. (JP)7 Union Showa K.K. (JP)8 Zeochem AG. (Switzerland)9 KNT Group (RU)10Arkema S.A. (Fr)11Zeolyst International (US)12Chemiewerk Bad Kostritz GmbH (Germany)13National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) (IN)14Pq Corporation. (US)15Huiying Chemical Industry (Quanzhou) Co., Ltd (CN)16Sorbead India (IN)17Gujarat Credo Mineral Industries Ltd (IN)18Ningbo Jiahe New Materials Technology Co., Ltd (CN)19Dalian Haixin Chemical Industrial Co., Ltd. (CN)20Fujian Anten Chemical Co., Ltd. (CN)The Permutite report is organized into various sections based on different geographical regions and industry standards. The report mainly sheds light on leading players in the regions like (United States, EU, China, and Japan). Other regions can be added as per the requirement.Distinct aspects of the Permutite industry like supply chain analysis, Permutite industry rules and policies, factors that enhance the growth of Permutite industry along with the limiting factors that restrict the growth of the industry are covered in depth. Furtherly, the Permutite report elaborates product details starting with product definition, cost, product images, the cost structure, import/export information.Purchase Entire Report Here (To Get Instant Access):Various analytical are employed to analyze the market attractiveness, investment feasibility and investment return with respect to Global Permutite Market 2017.Apart from providing a complete picture of the overall Permutite market conditions the report also helps the industry players to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.QY Market Research is the terminal where all industrial, commercial and profitmaking venture will get the best research reports of the market in all sectors like automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, food and beverages etc.We provide you the important and necessary information to identify and analyze the need of market and the market size.Read More-S no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Telephone Numbers:+1(857)2390696+91 9130855334Email ID: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest Market News-
Global Pharma Packaging Machinery Market 2017- Provital Group, Croda, Res Pharma, Hallstar, Laboratoires Expanscience

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The Global Persea Gratissima Oil Market 2017 Research Report includes a complete and meticulous study of Persea Gratissima Oil industry covering different aspects like market volume, market Share, market strategies, Persea Gratissima Oil growth trends, variety of applications, utilization volume, demand and supply analysis, production capacity and Persea Gratissima Oil industry cost structures during Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.The report titled Global Persea Gratissima Oil Market 2017 provides the comprehensive study of Persea Gratissima Oil market on a global scale, focusing on current as well as past details of Persea Gratissima Oil market. The competitive view of the Persea Gratissima Oil industry with respect to the industry competitors is also covered in this document. The company details of leading players like their profile information, revenue segmentation, business strategies followed by them and their contribution to the global Persea Gratissima Oil market share are mentioned.Request Here For Sample Report:Comparative Analysis of Persea Gratissima Oil Market According to the Key Vendors:1 Provital Group2 Croda3 Res Pharma4 Hallstar5 Laboratoires Expanscience6 Greentech7 Sandream Impact8 Sesajal9 Yasin10 Bella Vado11 Chosen Foods12 Grupo Industrial Batellero13 La Tourangelle14 Avoolio15 Ahuacatlan Avocado Oil16 Mt. Kenya Fresh Avocados17 Kevala18 Bio Planete19 Hain Celestial Group20 Da Gama Avocado Oil21 Tron Hermanos22 Proteco Oils23 Westfalia24 Aconcagua Oil & Extract25 Olivado26 Grove Avocado Oil27 AvoPure28 Village Press29 Kahangi EstateThe Persea Gratissima Oil report is organized into various sections based on different geographical regions and industry standards. The report mainly sheds light on leading players in the regions like (United States, EU, China, and Japan). Other regions can be added as per the requirement.Distinct aspects of the Persea Gratissima Oil industry like supply chain analysis, Persea Gratissima Oil industry rules and policies, factors that enhance the growth of Persea Gratissima Oil industry along with the limiting factors that restrict the growth of the industry are covered in depth. Furtherly, the Persea Gratissima Oil report elaborates product details starting with product definition, cost, product images, the cost structure, import/export information.Purchase Entire Report Here (To Get Instant Access):Various analytical are employed to analyze the market attractiveness, investment feasibility and investment return with respect to Global Persea Gratissima Oil Market 2017.Apart from providing a complete picture of the overall Persea Gratissima Oil market conditions the report also helps the industry players to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.QY Market Research is the terminal where all industrial, commercial and profitmaking venture will get the best research reports of the market in all sectors like automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, food and beverages etc.We provide you the important and necessary information to identify and analyze the need of market and the market size.Read More-S no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Telephone Numbers:+1(857)2390696+91 9130855334Email ID: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest Market News-
Global Pharmacovigilance Market 2017- Eli Lilly and Company, ICON plc, Elsevier, Chiltern

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The Global Pharmacovigilance Market 2017 Research Report includes a complete and meticulous study of Pharmacovigilance industry covering different aspects like market volume, market Share, market strategies, Pharmacovigilance growth trends, variety of applications, utilization volume, demand and supply analysis, production capacity and Pharmacovigilance industry cost structures during Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.The report titled Global Pharmacovigilance Market 2017 provides the comprehensive study of Pharmacovigilance market on a global scale, focusing on current as well as past details of Pharmacovigilance market. The competitive view of the Pharmacovigilance industry with respect to the industry competitors is also covered in this document. The company details of leading players like their profile information, revenue segmentation, business strategies followed by them and their contribution to the global Pharmacovigilance market share are mentioned.Request Here For Sample Report:Comparative Analysis of Pharmacovigilance Market According to the Key Vendors:1 Eli Lilly and Company2 ICON plc3 Elsevier4 Chiltern5 Atlantic Research Group6 Mapi Group7 Accenture Plc.8 Clinquest Group B.V.9 GSK10 PRA Health Sciences, Inc.The Pharmacovigilance report is organized into various sections based on different geographical regions and industry standards. The report mainly sheds light on leading players in the regions like (United States, EU, China, and Japan). Other regions can be added as per the requirement.Distinct aspects of the Pharmacovigilance industry like supply chain analysis, Pharmacovigilance industry rules and policies, factors that enhance the growth of Pharmacovigilance industry along with the limiting factors that restrict the growth of the industry are covered in depth. Furtherly, the Pharmacovigilance report elaborates product details starting with product definition, cost, product images, the cost structure, import/export information.Purchase Entire Report Here (To Get Instant Access):Various analytical are employed to analyze the market attractiveness, investment feasibility and investment return with respect to Global Pharmacovigilance Market 2017.Apart from providing a complete picture of the overall Pharmacovigilance market conditions the report also helps the industry players to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.QY Market Research is the terminal where all industrial, commercial and profitmaking venture will get the best research reports of the market in all sectors like automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, food and beverages etc.We provide you the important and necessary information to identify and analyze the need of market and the market size.Read More-S no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Telephone Numbers:+1(857)2390696+91 9130855334Email ID: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest Market News-
Clot Management Devices Market: Global Markets & Advanced Technologies

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Global Clot Management Devices Market: OverviewAccording to an article published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, the awareness about venous thromboembolism (VTE) remains alarmingly low. What makes this scenario more concerning is that nearly 10 million VTE cases are estimated to occur every year across the world making this condition among the leading causes of disability worldwide. The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Inc. states that while the United States reports anywhere between 100,000 and 300,000 deaths resulting from VTE every year, this number is as high as 544,000 in Europe. A blood clot is several times more dangerous when it breaks away from the blood vessel wall (where it may have formed) and travels to the heart or lungs, creating a fatal blockage.However, it is now widely believed that VTE-related hospital death is preventable, as the majority of VTE cases occur during or just after hospitalization. Medical experts are stressing on the use of the right clot management devices and therapeutics so that concerns about VTE as a public health problem can be alleviated. This realization has helped created appreciable demand for clot management devices across the world.Obtain Report Details:As awareness about deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism rises, it is expected that more people will also become aware about VTE as a condition that could prove fatal if not addressed in time.Moreover, with approvals for self-monitoring devices coming in a faster rate than before, the global market for clot management devices will gain traction and stay firmly on the growth path in the coming years. In this report, this market is discussed at length and estimates are provided for the best-selling clot management devices. The overall revenue that clot management devices will generate worldwide by 2024 is also projected in the report.Global Clot Management Devices Market: Drivers and RestraintsNewer approaches to clot management are now receiving greater acceptance among the medical community. This is expected to create a favorable environment for the growth of the global clot management devices market. The demand for effective clot management devices is also increasing because patients are wary of the many risks and discomforts associated with open-heart surgery and other highly invasive procedures. The demand for clot management devices will also rise with many medical surgeons now recommending percutaneous devices as an alternative to open surgeries.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report:Despite the conditions currently indicating a positive outlook for the global clot management devices market, a gap between the demand and supply of trained physicians in many parts of the world will act against the markets growth. Moreover, reimbursement policies are not well-defined in many developing countries, which could also hamper the growth of the global clot management devices market.Global Clot Management Devices Market: Segmentation and Region-wise OutlookThe global market for clot management devices can be broadly segmented on the basis of end users and the type of device used. By device type, the market can be segmented into: Embelectomy balloon catheters, neurovascular embelectomy devices, catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) devices, percutaneous thrombectomy devices, and inferior vena cava filters (IVCF).The demand for percutaneous thrombectomy devices has been rising at a healthy rate over the last few years. It is expected that several new research initiatives exploring new types of percutaneous thrombectomy devices will be reported through the reports forecast period. By end use, the key segments of the clot management devices market are hospitals and diagnostic centers.Request For Discount On This Report:From the geographical standpoint, the global clot management devices market can be split into: North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. The United States is projected to remain at the forefront as far as innovation in clot management devices is concerned. Neurovascular embelectomy devices are expected to give the clot management devices market in the U.S. a further upward thrust.Among the top players in this market are: Straub Medical, Argon Medical Devices, Edwards Lifesciences, DePuy Synthes, and LeMaitre Vascular.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Proteins in Oncology Market - Latest Innovations, Drivers, Restraints, Challenges and Forecast 2016 - 2023

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Global Protein in Oncology MarketOncology is the branch of medical science dealing with cancer research and treatment. There are several research facilities and universities identifying unique proteins in oncology for developing diagnostics. Several studies are underway to discover new proteins that play a role in cancer. Currently there are a number of companies and/or their collaborators engaged in developing several protein drugs in cancer. Surgical treatments and radiation therapy, though effective at treating primary tumors, are not found to be successful in detecting metastatic tumor cells and those flowing in the bloodstream, making treatment of these cancer cells very difficult. Cancer is one of the largest causes of death worldwide and finding leads to cure or control the disease is one of the primary goals of governments globally.Global Protein in Oncology Market: SegmentationObtain Report Details:The global proteins in oncology market has been segmented based on protein type and geography. Protein types include recombinant non-glycosylated proteins, recombinant glycosylated proteins and recombinant peptides. Geographically, North America and Europe lead the global proteins in oncology market thanks to the very stringent regulatory environment for clearing the products. Asia-Pacific countries such as China and India are estimated to be the fastest-growing markets. South Korea and Brazil are also poised to register high growth in the coming years due to boost in biosimilars market. The services that can be provided in the global proteins in oncology market include contract research organizations and contract manufacturing organizations.Global Protein in Oncology Market: Drivers and RestraintsWorldwide increase in the prevalence of cancer and the rising awareness of the therapeutic and commercial opportunities offered by new oncology treatments have provided a major incentive for the pharmaceutical industry to pursue the development of new agents for the treatment of cancer. Proteins or peptide drugs are usually required to be administered only by injection due to their large and labile nature. Peptide drugs are used effectively in monitoring various tumors and related therapies. They selectively are known to bind responsive versus unresponsive tumors. Therefore, this advantage associated with the use of peptides assists their use in assessing tumor response and evaluating its effectiveness in cancer therapy. The main challenge for the newer generation of recombinant drugs seems to be the new route of administration, new formulations and consequently even higher efficiency and safety. Though the parenteral route of administration is the most common, there are advances being made to deliver medicines through the oral route, which is considered to be the most preferred one due to better patient compliance.Recently new research has demonstrated that attaching a cancer killer protein to white blood cells annihilates metastasis. Isolation of a protein named as TRAIL by researchers at Cornell University in the U.S. demonstrated killing of cancer cells on contact. The TRAIL protein is binded with leukocytes (white blood cells) that are present across the bloodstream. The cancer cell is essentially known to kill itself when it comes in contact with TRAIL protein. The mechanism has been surprising and unexpectedly effective as compared to targeting the cancer cells with liposomes.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report:Global Protein in Oncology Market: Competitive Landscape AnalysisThe key players contributing to the global proteins in oncology market include Actavis, Inc., Biocon Ltd., Celltrion, Inc., Dr. Reddys Laboratories Ltd., Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Hospira, Inc., Merck, Mylan, Inc., Roche Holding Ltd., Sandoz, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Wockhardt Ltd. Expansion of product portfolio enables these companies to gain a competitive advantage over other players in the market. Strengthening of market position by extensive investments in research and development is also one of the business strategies undertaken by the key players. A lot of research is still to be carried out in the protein recombinant drugs in oncology market which will come along with years of efforts and high risk.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Blood Preparation Market 2024: Global Industry Analysis Report

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Global Blood Preparation Market: OverviewBlood components refer to products derived from platelet-rich plasma or whole blood. Blood components such as platelets, plasma, red blood cells, and white blood cells are derived from blood by the process of phlebotomy or hemapheresis through the technique of differential centrifugation. These blood components are separated from whole blood in hospital laboratories and blood centers, and are administered to patients suffering from various diseases through transfusion. The whole blood is often collected and separated into major components before transfusion. However, automated collections are becoming increasingly popular nowadays and only blood components that are needed for transfusion are collected.On the basis of product type, the global blood preparation market has been segmented into whole blood and blood components. While whole blood comprises platelets, plasma, red cells, and granulocytes, blood components constitute whole blood components, leukocyte reduced RBC, packed red cells, frozen plasma, and platelet concentrate. According to the antithrombotic and anticoagulant type, the blood preparation market has been divided into anticoagulants, fibrinolytics, and platelet aggregation inhibitors. Major application segments in the blood preparation market include renal impairment, thrombocytosis, and pulmonary embolism.Obtain Report Details :Global Blood Preparation Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe growing demand for blood transfusion across emergency departments in hospitals has boosted the growth of the global blood preparation market. The rise in blood disorders such as thrombocytosis and the increasing requirement for blood during accidents and surgical procedures have supported the growth of the market.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conditions such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) lead to over 60,000 deaths in the U.S. every year. Various initiatives taken by the National Institutes of Health and other regulatory bodies to spread awareness about the complications associated with these conditions have also propelled the markets growth.However, during blood transfusion, the chances of transmission of diseases such as viral hemorrhagic fever, HIV, and Hepatitis B are high. This is the single major restraining factor impacting the growth of the global blood preparation market. The overall market has a significant opportunity to grow with the development of high speed technology to separate blood components without losing their activity. The introduction of new oral anticoagulants and the re-launch of drugs such as Urokinase, the growing demand for source plasma, and the need for specific blood components such as packed red blood cells will create new growth opportunities for the market.Global Blood Preparation Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global blood preparation market has been segmented into four key regions: Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and Rest of the World. North America has been contributing significantly to the growth of the market owing to the presence of a robust healthcare infrastructure. In the U.S., the collection, preparation, storage, and transport of blood is regulated by the FDA. Other federal agencies are working toward the implementation of health insurance portability standards to achieve adequate reimbursement for blood components.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report:However, during the forecast period, the Asia Pacific blood preparation market is anticipated to expand rapidly due to various initiatives taken by governments, especially in countries such as India and China. The positive growth of the healthcare sector across Japan and Australia will also support the growth of the regional market.Global Blood Preparation Market: Competitive LandscapeSome of the key players in the global blood preparation market are GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Pfizer Inc., Leo Pharma Inc., Celgene Corp, Sanofi Aventis, Baxter Healthcare Corp., Shandong East Chemical Industry Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., and AstraZeneca Co. The blood preparation market worldwide is being driven by technology. As a result, market players are investing heavily in research and development to introduce novel and cost-effective drugs.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
U.S. Scar Treatment Market Segment Forecasts up to 2024, Research Reports

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U.S. Scar Treatment Market: OverviewOften considered a concept that draws from wound care and first aid, scar treatment has emerged as a niche market promising high growth to medical device manufacturers. However, products used in scar therapy are far more advanced than conventional first-aid adhesives. Driven by innovations, demand in the U.S. scar treatment market is poised to surge exponentially between 2016 and 2024.A scar is any mark on the skin caused by injury, burns, surgery, acne, or inflammation of tissue. Scars can impact the mental and physical well-being of an individual, resulting in poor self-esteem, depression, embarrassment, and altered social interactions. Scars can be of various types depending on their age, color, shape, and sizes. The incidence of skin problems leading to scar formation is significantly high in the U.S., which is driving the scar treatment market in the country.Obtain Report Details:Additionally, the U.S. scar treatment market is significantly gaining from the easy availability of technologically advanced products with the capability of fading apparent scars. The growing geriatric population and rising consciousness about appearance among consumers are also aiding the expansion of the scar treatment market in the U.S. Increasing expenditure on personal grooming also has been boosting the U.S. scar treatment market.A comprehensive overview of the U.S. scar treatment market has been provided in the report. The factors impacting the markets growth are studied in detail. The report also presents insights into the growth drivers and restraints that are expected to influence the markets trajectory during the forecast period. Some of the companies operating in the market are profiled in the report to examine the competition prevailing in the U.S. scar treatment market.U.S. Scar Treatment Market: Key Opportunities and ThreatsThe increasing disposable income of consumers and rising economic growth are cited as reasons for the revenue generated from the increasing sale of scar treatment products. It is important to note that while the treatment of keloids and burn scars is considered medically important by regulatory bodies, the treatment of mild to medium acne and spot correction is not considered a medical necessity. However, a rise in the affluence of the population has been fuelling the demand for aesthetic corrective procedures such as dermal filling, wrinkle reduction, volume restoration, and laser treatment.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report:Botulinum type-A injections and hyaluronic acid based dermal fillers are primarily used for aesthetically improving a persons appearance.The U.S. scar treatment market is also significantly gaining from the increasing demand for combination therapeutics in scar treatment to enhance the effectiveness of procedures and shorten the time taken for treatment.The various products available in the U.S. scar treatment market include ointments, creams, gels, oils, and sprays. These products have proven helpful in reducing redness, bumps, pain, and itching caused by scars. Since these products can mostly be applied onto scars without any medical supervision, demand for them is quite high in the U.S. Additionally, the demand for minimally invasive surgical treatments and laser treatments has also significantly increased for the treatment of more severe scars.On the flip side, some of restraints witnessed by the market include the increasing awareness about the side effects associated with the usage of scar treatment products. The high cost of scar treatment therapies also has an adverse impact on the scar treatment market in the U.S.U.S. Scar Treatment Market: Competitive InsightTo present insights into the prevailing competition in the U.S. scar treatment market, the report also profiles companies such as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., Johnson & Johnson Services, Oculus Innovative Sciences, Inc., and others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
CALGARY, Alberta, July 13, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Computer Modelling Group Ltd. ("CMG" or the Company) announces that, at its annual meeting of shareholders held earlier today, all of the nominees listed in its Management Information Circular dated May 18, 2017 were elected as directors of CMG. The detailed results of the votes are set out below.







Votes For % For Votes Withheld % Withheld Judith J. Athaide 57,115,458 99.89 % 63,709 0.11 % Kenneth M. Dedeluk 57,163,307 99.97 % 15,860 0.03 % Christopher L. Fong 57,118,418 99.89 % 60,749 0.11 % Patrick R. Jamieson 57,019,862 99.72 % 159,305 0.28 % Peter H. Kinash 56,952,549 99.60 % 226,618 0.40 % Robert F. M. Smith 57,091,242 99.85 % 87,925 0.15 % John B. Zaozirny 55,754,758 97.51 % 1,424,409 2.49 %





Frank Meyer has retired as the Chair of the Board of Directors. John Zaozirny succeeded Mr. Meyer as the Chair of the Board of Directors. Judith Athaide was elected to fill the vacancy created by Mr. Meyers departure.

Additionally, all other resolutions put to shareholders were duly passed at the meeting. For additional details on the voting results with respect to other resolutions, please refer to the Report on Voting Results which is filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Computer Modelling Group Ltd. is a computer software technology and consulting company serving the oil and gas industry. CMG, recognized by oil and gas companies worldwide as a leading developer of reservoir modelling software, has sales and technical support services based in Calgary, Houston, London, Dubai, Bogota and Kuala Lumpur. CMG is the leading supplier of advanced processes reservoir modelling software in the world with a blue chip client base of international oil companies and technology centers in approximately 60 countries. The Company's shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the trading symbol "CMG."




Skin and Soft Tissue Infection Treatment Market Trends, Regulatory Landscape and Operational Strategies 2024

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Skin and Soft Tissue Infection Treatment Market: OverviewSkin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) are one of the most common infections present in inpatient as well as outpatients. Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) comprise of various minor and major infections of skin, fascia, subcutaneous tissue and muscle. These infections include such as impetigo, folliculitis, furuncles, carbuncles, erysipelas, cellulitis, necrotizing fasciitis and pyomyositis. These infections may be associated with an underlying cause such as diabetes or systemic immunosuppression.Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) may be caused by any of the pathogenic microorganisms which include Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogene, gram-negative bacilli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, beta-hemolytic streptococci, Enterococcus, streptococci, staphylococci, Peptostreptococcus, Bacteroides, Clostridium and S. pyogenes. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and streptococci are the most common organisms causing skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs).Obtain Report Details:Skin and Soft Tissue Infection Treatment Market: SegmentationThe market for skin and soft tissue infections treatment is analyzed based on the medications used for its treatment which includes antibiotics and anti-fungal agents. Traditionally, use of beta-lactam antibiotics has proved to be beneficial against various skin and soft tissue infections. However, with rising use of these traditional medications has led to resistance of these bacteria against the beta-lactam antibiotics.Moreover, new strains of infectious bacteria urge the need for development of new therapies. Consequently physicians have started using the third-generation antibiotics such as cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones or extended-spectrum agents such as amoxicillin and clavulanic acid. The selection of an appropriate drug depends on the causative microorganism. Besides medications, imaging tools and surgical methods are also practiced for the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs).Skin and Soft Tissue Infection Treatment Market: Key TrendsThe rising incidence of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections has resulted in the need for new therapies to combat the serious skin and soft tissue infections. In addition, new product developments will drive the skin and soft tissue infections treatment market. Recently, in February 2014, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that its Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for investigational candidate tedizolid phosphate has been accepted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for review. With a decision expected from the European Commission (EC) during the first half of 2015, the company seeks to market its new product for the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report:Prior to EMA, the U.S. FDA accepted companys New Drug Application (NDA) for review and the company had also planned for submitting a New Drug Submission (NDS) in Canada in 2014 for tedizolid intended for the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections. Moreover, in December 2013, Durata Therapeutics, Inc. announced the acceptance of its Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for dalbavancin, intended for the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections, by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for review.The Infectious Diseases Society of America has recently released guidelines for the diagnosis and management of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs). This practice guideline is to guide the physicians in proper diagnosis and efficient treatment of the skin and soft tissue infections and avoid serious consequences. Based on geography, the skin and soft tissue infections treatment market is analyzed into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World.Skin and Soft Tissue Infection Treatment Market: Key PlayersSome of the companies engaged in the development of skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI) treatment medications include Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Wockhardt Limited, Atox Bio Inc., Durata Therapeutics, Inc., Basilea Pharmaceutica AG, and Melinta Therapeutics Inc.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth insights, understanding market evolution by tracking historical developments, and analyzing the present scenario and future projections based on optimistic and likely scenarios. Each research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology developments, types, applications, and the competitive landscape.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Electrical Steel Market Revenues are Anticipated to expand at a healthy CAGR of 7.3% through to 2026

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The global electrical steel market is projected to witness healthy growth in 2016. Asia Pacific excluding Japan is estimated to grow at the highest pace, accounting for a substantial share in the global market revenues.Extensive use of electrical steel (silicon steel or laminate steel) in the core manufacturing of motors, transformers, and inductors is expected to primarily drive the demand for electrical steel in 2016. In addition, the aerospace industry is estimated to fuel sizeable demand for electrical steel in the global market. Electrical steel is also estimated to witness significant demand, attributed to superior electric and magnetic properties compared to its industrial counterparts. Increasing applications of electrical steel in manufacturing of supercars and consumer appliances are expected to accelerate the global market growth throughout 2016.On the basis of product type, the global electrical steel market has two key segments. Driven by applications in motors, the non-grain oriented electrical steel segment is estimated to remain the largest segment, accounting for the highest market revenues of around US$ 13.3 Bn in 2016. However, this segment is expected to witness decline by 2016 end, and further.Request For Report Sample@The grain oriented electrical steel segment is expected to thrive dramatically at the fastest CAGR of 7.5% in terms of value in 2016, owing to increasing demand for grain oriented electrical steel from energy and power generation industries.The electrical steel market is anticipated to gain the maximum traction by applications in motors and transformers. The market will continue to attract the highest application opportunities from power and energy generation sectors.North America, Europe, and Japan are strong markets, contributing major revenue shares to the global electrical steel market. Asia Pacific is the most attractive region and forms a key market in the global electrical steel industry. APEJ is projected to be the largest market in 2016, owing to the highest electrical steel production in terms of volume. China will maintain its leading market position in APEJ, attributing to its strategic production and export.The key players in the global electrical steel market include Novolipetsk Steel, voestalpine Stahl GmbH, POSCO, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, thyssenkrupp AG, JFE Steel Corporation, ArcelorMittal, Cogent Power Limited, Aperam, Baosteel Group, AK Steel Corporation, ATI, Schneider Electric, Nicore Electrical Manufctory Co.,Ltd., ABB, Emirates Transformer & Switchgear Limited, Phoenix Mecano AG, Crompton Greaves, Leicong Industrial Co., Ltd., and Hoganas AB.Send an Enquiry @Long-term Outlook: Global electrical steel market revenues are anticipated to expand at a healthy CAGR of 7.3% through to 2026. The demand for electrical steel will witness an exponential growth curve from 2016 to 2026.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Smart Fabrics and Textiles Market Growth Prospects and Development Outlook by 2022

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Global Smart Fabrics and Textiles Market 2017 report spread across 120 pages gives Market Segment Analysis by Key Manufacturers, Regions, Types and Applications. Smart Fabrics and Textiles are fabrics that have been designed and manufactured to include technologies that provide the wearer with increased functionality. Smart Fabrics and Textiles are defined as textiles that can sense and react via an active control mechanism to environmental conditions or stimuli from mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical or magnetic sources.Complete report is available atScope of the Report:This report focuses on the Global Smart Fabrics and Textiles market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers: Textronics, Milliken, Toray Industries, Peratech, DuPont, Clothing+, Outlast, d3o lab, Schoeller Textiles AG, Texas Instruments, Exo2, Vista Medical Ltd., Ohmatex ApS, Interactive Wear AG.Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers: North America (USA, Canada and Mexico); Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy); Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia); South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.); Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa). Market Segment by Type, covers: Passive Smart Fabrics and Textiles, Active Smart Fabrics and Textiles, Ultra-Smart Fabrics and Textiles & Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into: Military Uses, Civil Uses, Healthcare Uses, Other.Request for discount atThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Smart Fabrics and Textiles market.Chapter 1 to describe Smart Fabrics and Textiles Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force.Chapter 2 to analyze the top manufacturers of Smart Fabrics and Textiles, with sales, revenue, and price of Smart Fabrics and Textiles, in 2016 and 2017.Chapter 3 to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017.Chapter 4 to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Smart Fabrics and Textiles, for each region, from 2012 to 2017.Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions.Order copy of report atChapter 10 and 11 to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017.Chapter 12 Smart Fabrics and Textiles market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022.Chapter 13, 14 and 15 to describe Smart Fabrics and Textiles sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.ReportsnReports.com is your single source for all market research needs. Our database includes 500,000+ market research reports from over 95 leading global publishers & in-depth market research studies of over 5000 micro markets.Ritesh Tiwari,+ 1 888 391 5441sales@reportsandreports.com
Global Whiskey Market 2017 : Beam Suntory, Brown-Forman, Gruppo Campari, Boundary Oak Distillery

Whiskey Market

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This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering- Beam Suntory- Brown-Forman- Diageo- Gruppo Campari- Heaven Hill- Alexandrion Grup Romania- Alltech Lexington Brewing and Distilling- Barrel House Distilling- Boone County Distilling- Boundary Oak Distillery- Kirin BreweryThe Market Research Store report offers majority of the latest and newest industry data that covers the overall market situation along with future prospects for Whiskey market around the globe. The research study includes significant data and also forecasts of the global market which makes the research report a helpful resource for marketing people, analysts, industry executives, consultants, sales and product managers, and other people who are in need of major industry data in a ready-to-access format along with clear presentation of graphs and tables.The report comprises the current size of the Whiskey market. It also provides with different types of product segments of the global market. Furthermore, the Whiskey market research report gives an in-depth information about the overall market and various product segments and their growth trends. The future market forecasts about the global Whiskey market are also covered in the research report. In addition, the overall market potential is further described in the report along with different countries around the globe.Browse Complete Report with TOC @The latest and the newest trends of the Whiskey industry are also included in this report. Moreover, overall global market size, the market size by product segment, growth rates of the global market along with and different product segments of the market, and various product segments with their value and volumes evaluation are also included in the research report.The Market Research Store report offers the global market potential rates of the Whiskey market along with various product segments. The research report provides an overview of the current market situation, historic development, and future outlook of the Whiskey market. It also tracks the industry developments trends and identifies the global market opportunities. The report helps to plan and develop precise marketing, market expansion, market-entry, and other business strategies through identifying the major market prospects and opportunities.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The data in the report is clearly presented which can be easily integrated into presentations and internal reports.MarketResearchStore.com is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Suite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803
Global LAMEA Beer Market 2017 : Anheuser-Busch InBev., Tsingtao Brewery Co. Ltd. & United Breweries Group (UB Group)

LAMEA Beer Market

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This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering- Heinekin N.V.- Anheuser-Busch InBev.- Tsingtao Brewery Co. Ltd.- Carlsberg Group- Diageo Plc.- Molson Coors Brewing Company.- Boston Beer Company, Inc- Beijing Yanjing Brewery Co., Ltd.The Market Research Store report offers majority of the latest and newest industry data that covers the overall market situation along with future prospects for LAMEA Beer market around the globe. The research study includes significant data and also forecasts of the global market which makes the research report a helpful resource for marketing people, analysts, industry executives, consultants, sales and product managers, and other people who are in need of major industry data in a ready-to-access format along with clear presentation of graphs and tables.The report comprises the current size of the LAMEA Beer market. It also provides with different types of product segments of the global market. Furthermore, the LAMEA Beer market research report gives an in-depth information about the overall market and various product segments and their growth trends. The future market forecasts about the global LAMEA Beer market are also covered in the research report. In addition, the overall market potential is further described in the report along with different countries around the globe.Browse Complete Report with TOC @The latest and the newest trends of the LAMEA Beer industry are also included in this report. Moreover, overall global market size, the market size by product segment, growth rates of the global market along with and different product segments of the market, and various product segments with their value and volumes evaluation are also included in the research report.The Market Research Store report offers the global market potential rates of the LAMEA Beer market along with various product segments. The research report provides an overview of the current market situation, historic development, and future outlook of the LAMEA Beer market. It also tracks the industry developments trends and identifies the global market opportunities. The report helps to plan and develop precise marketing, market expansion, market-entry, and other business strategies through identifying the major market prospects and opportunities.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The data in the report is clearly presented which can be easily integrated into presentations and internal reports.MarketResearchStore.com is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Suite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803
Global Fruit Powder Market 2017 : BI Nutraceuticals, Naturalin, Blueberry Anthocyanin

Fruit Powder Market

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This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering- BI Nutraceuticals- Naturalin- Blueberry Anthocyanin- Baobab Fruit Company Senegal (BFCS)- Saipro Biotech Private Limited- FutureCeuticalsThe Market Research Store report offers majority of the latest and newest industry data that covers the overall market situation along with future prospects for Fruit Powder market around the globe. The research study includes significant data and also forecasts of the global market which makes the research report a helpful resource for marketing people, analysts, industry executives, consultants, sales and product managers, and other people who are in need of major industry data in a ready-to-access format along with clear presentation of graphs and tables.The report comprises the current size of the Fruit Powder market. It also provides with different types of product segments of the global market. Furthermore, the Fruit Powder market research report gives an in-depth information about the overall market and various product segments and their growth trends. The future market forecasts about the global Fruit Powder market are also covered in the research report. In addition, the overall market potential is further described in the report along with different countries around the globe.Browse Complete Report with TOC @The latest and the newest trends of the Fruit Powder industry are also included in this report. Moreover, overall global market size, the market size by product segment, growth rates of the global market along with and different product segments of the market, and various product segments with their value and volumes evaluation are also included in the research report.The Market Research Store report offers the global market potential rates of the Fruit Powder market along with various product segments. The research report provides an overview of the current market situation, historic development, and future outlook of the Fruit Powder market. It also tracks the industry developments trends and identifies the global market opportunities. The report helps to plan and develop precise marketing, market expansion, market-entry, and other business strategies through identifying the major market prospects and opportunities.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The data in the report is clearly presented which can be easily integrated into presentations and internal reports.MarketResearchStore.com is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Suite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803
Global Fluid Milk Market 2017 : Lactalis Group, Nestle, Fonterra, FrieslandCompina

Fluid Milk

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This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering- Lactalis Group- Nestle- Fonterra- FrieslandCompina- Danone- Dairy Farmers of AmericaThe Market Research Store report offers majority of the latest and newest industry data that covers the overall market situation along with future prospects for Fluid Milk market around the globe. The research study includes significant data and also forecasts of the global market which makes the research report a helpful resource for marketing people, analysts, industry executives, consultants, sales and product managers, and other people who are in need of major industry data in a ready-to-access format along with clear presentation of graphs and tables.The report comprises the current size of the Fluid Milk market. It also provides with different types of product segments of the global market. Furthermore, the Fluid Milk market research report gives an in-depth information about the overall market and various product segments and their growth trends. The future market forecasts about the global Fluid Milk market are also covered in the research report. In addition, the overall market potential is further described in the report along with different countries around the globe.Browse Complete Report with TOC @The latest and the newest trends of the Fluid Milk industry are also included in this report. Moreover, overall global market size, the market size by product segment, growth rates of the global market along with and different product segments of the market, and various product segments with their value and volumes evaluation are also included in the research report.The Market Research Store report offers the global market potential rates of the Fluid Milk market along with various product segments. The research report provides an overview of the current market situation, historic development, and future outlook of the Fluid Milk market. It also tracks the industry developments trends and identifies the global market opportunities. The report helps to plan and develop precise marketing, market expansion, market-entry, and other business strategies through identifying the major market prospects and opportunities.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The data in the report is clearly presented which can be easily integrated into presentations and internal reports.MarketResearchStore.com is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Suite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803
EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Rigid Plastic Packaging Market Report 2017

EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Rigid Plastic Packaging Market Report 2017

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qyr reportThe Rigid Plastic Packaging Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Rigid Plastic Packaging industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Rigid Plastic Packaging market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Rigid Plastic Packaging industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.In a large and developing economy, rapid changes in the industry make it necessary for professionals to keep themselves updated with the latest market dynamics. Market Research Report can offer the ability to quickly respond to these changes determines the success of a business enterprise.EMEA Rigid Plastic Packaging market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Rigid Plastic Packaging sales volume (K Units), price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingAmcor LimitedBemis CompanyCoveris Holdings S.AReynolds Group HoldingBerry Plastics CorporationSonocoSealed Air CorporationSilgan Holdings, Inc.Plastipak Holdings, Inc.Consolidated Container CompanyBall CorporationDS Smith PLC......Ask a complete report sample or have any requirement, please contact my email: tinaning@qyresearch.com or visit atTable of contents:1 Rigid Plastic Packaging Overview2 EMEA Rigid Plastic Packaging Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application3 Europe Rigid Plastic Packaging (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application4 Middle East Rigid Plastic Packaging (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Region, Type and Application5 Africa Rigid Plastic Packaging (Volume, Value and Sales Price) by Players, Countries, Type and Application6 EMEA Rigid Plastic Packaging Manufacturers/Players Profiles and Sales Data7 Rigid Plastic Packaging Manufacturing Cost Analysis8 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers9 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders10 Market Effect Factors Analysis11 EMEA Rigid Plastic Packaging Market Forecast (2017-2022)12 Research Findings and Conclusion13 AppendixRelated Reports:Global Rigid Plastic Packaging Market Report 2017Europe Rigid Plastic Packaging Market Report 2017China Rigid Plastic Packaging Market Report 2017India Rigid Plastic Packaging Market Report 2017Japan Rigid Plastic Packaging Market Report 2017USA Rigid Plastic Packaging Market Report 2017Korea Rigid Plastic Packaging Market Report 2017Contact Details:Company Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITED | focus on Market Survey and ResearchTina| Sales ManagersEmail: tinaning@qyresearch.com Tel: 0086-20-22093278(CN)Web:QYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. The company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business.Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe District
Electronic Power Steering Market Report 2017-2025: Global Advance Technology Research, Key Manufacturers, Competitive Analysis and Development Forecasts

The Insight Partners

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Electronic Power Steering Market Research Report 2017-2025 is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Electronic Power Steering Market. This report studies Electronic Power Steering in Global market, especially North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and South America. Focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with size, growth, capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer includes JTEKT Corporation, Misubishi Corporation, Nidec Corporation, Rober Bosch, Nexteer Automotive, Hyndai Mobis, Thyssenkrupp Presta AG, Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd., ZF Friedrichshafen Group and Zhuzhou Elite Electro Mechanical Co. Ltd. among others.View Complete Company Profile and Table of Contents atThe electromechanical power steering controls and assists vehicle steering using an intelligently controlled electric motor. It is the latest system in which the electric motor ("E-motor") is attached directly to the steering gearbox without a hydraulic system. Sensors detect the motion of the steering column and a processor module applies assistive power via an electric motor. This allows varying amounts of assistance depending on driving conditions.The report aims to provide an overview of global electronic power steering market with detailed market segmentation by vehicle type, EPS type, and geography. The global electronic power steering market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. Added benefits of electronic power steering over hydraulic steering such as improves fuel economy, eliminates the weight and bulk of the power steering pump and hoses as well as creates less noise, all these features are expected to drive the electronic power steering market.Request Sample Copy atThe objectives of Electronic Power Steering (EPS) Market report are as follows: To provide overview of the global electronic power steering market To analyze and forecast the global electronic power steering market on the basis of vehicle type and EPS type To provide market size and forecast till 2025 for overall electronic power steering market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries To evaluate market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend To provide exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions To profiles key electronic power steering players influencing the market along with their SWOT analysis and market strategiesSome of the leading players in electronic power steering market are JTEKT Corporation, Misubishi Corporation, Nidec Corporation, Rober Bosch, Nexteer Automotive, Hyndai Mobis, Thyssenkrupp Presta AG, Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd., ZF Friedrichshafen Group and Zhuzhou Elite Electro Mechanical Co. Ltd. among others.Inquire and Speak to Expert for More Details atElectronic Power Steering Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - EPS Type C - EPS P - EPS D - EPS R - EPSElectronic Power Steering Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - Vehicle Type Heavy Duty Light Duty Passenger VehicleElectronic Power Steering Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - Geographical Analysis North America Europe Asia Pacific (APAC) Middle East & Africa (MEA) South America (SAM)Buy a Copy of Complete 150 Pages Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout US:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global ECG Monitoring Systems Market 2017 : GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, Nihon Kohden, Schiller AG

ECG Monitoring Systems

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Global ECG Monitoring Systems Market 2016 - 2017A market study  Global ECG Monitoring Systems Market  examines the performance of the ECG Monitoring Systems market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the ECG Monitoring Systems market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of ECG Monitoring Systems market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global ECG Monitoring Systems Market 2017 report includes ECG Monitoring Systems market Size, Revenue, market Share, ECG Monitoring Systems industry volume, market Trends, ECG Monitoring Systems Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, ECG Monitoring Systems Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report :Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global ECG Monitoring Systems Market 2017: GE Healthcare Philips Healthcare Nihon Kohden Schiller AG Opto Circuits Cardionet Spacelabs Healthcare Mindray Medical Compumed Inc Welch Allyn Fukuda Denshi Biotronik Inc. Draeger Omron Healthcare Penlon Bionet Mortara CAS Medical SystemFirstly, the report covers the top ECG Monitoring Systems manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the ECG Monitoring Systems report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of ECG Monitoring Systems industry, ECG Monitoring Systems industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. ECG Monitoring Systems Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Inquiry Before Purchasing Report :The ECG Monitoring Systems research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the ECG Monitoring Systems market revenue worldwide.Finally, ECG Monitoring Systems market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us :Market and Research are a trusted brand in the research industry with capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Market and Research, we believe in building long term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive and Aerospace.Contact Us :Market and ResearchUnited States
Orkla's operating revenues rose 4% in the second quarter, to NOK 9,771 million. The Branded Consumer Goods business delivered organic growth for the 13th consecutive quarter. Orkla achieved organic growth of 0.7% this quarter, despite the negative effect of the timing of Easter.

Operating profit (EBIT adj.) increased by 3%, totalling NOK 1,025 million. Orkla Confectionery & Snacks, Orkla Care and Orkla Food Ingredients all reported profit improvement. Orkla Foods posted slightly lower operating profit than in the corresponding period of last year, primarily due to increased raw material prices and higher advertising investments.

"We saw a rise in raw material prices for meat and dairy products in the EU this quarter, in addition to a weaker krone in Norway and Sweden. Our goal is to compensate for this by raising the prices of our finished products, but the price increases will have a gradual effect. We will also continue to improve our own operational efficiency," says Orkla President and CEO Peter A. Ruzicka.

Profit from associates amounted to NOK 115 million in the second quarter, and can mainly be attributed to Jotun. Weaker shipping and offshore markets impacted negatively on Jotun. Hydro Power achieved operating profit of NOK 79 million in the second quarter, compared with NOK 53 million in the same period of 2016. The improvement is primarily due to higher power prices and increased production volume.

Orkla's profit before tax increased by 3%, amounting to NOK 967 million in the second quarter. Earnings per share for continuing operations rose 9%, to NOK 0.75.

Acquisitions were made in the quarter for a total of NOK 531 million, of which the Danish company Riemann Holding accounted for the largest share. With this acquisition, Orkla Care has expanded its position in the personal care segment and its presence in the pharmacy channel. Riemann Holding has good positions in the sun protection and antiperspirant markets.

Orkla Food Ingredients strengthened its position in the ice cream and bakery ingredient market by means of several small acquisitions.

In line with its strategy of being a leading branded consumer goods company, Orkla entered into an agreement on 10 July to sell its interest in Sapa to Norsk Hydro. The parties have agreed on a purchase price that values Sapa at a total of NOK 27 billion (on a debt-free basis). The final purchase price will be determined on the basis of the statement of financial position at the date of completion. Orkla's Board of Directors will propose that an extraordinary dividend of NOK 5 per share be paid out. The agreement is subject to the approval of the relevant competition authorities.

"The sale of Sapa will give Orkla a very solid financial platform that will provide a foundation for both continued growth and good dividend capacity. In line with Orkla's capital allocation strategy, our first priority is to strengthen the Branded Consumer Goods area by making acquisitions and investing in our present operations," says Peter A. Ruzicka.

Orkla ASA

Oslo, 14 July 2017

Ref.:

Group Director Corporate Communications and Corporate Affairs

Hakon Mageli

Mob.: +47 928 45 828

SVP Investor Relations

Mattias Orrenius

Mob.: +47 983 66 334

An Excel spreadsheet with key figures may be found at www.orkla.com.
Siler Extract Market to Witness a Substantial Growth in the Near Future

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Siler Extract Market Introduction:The Saposhnikovia divaricate or siler, is a herb, and popularly known as Fang Feng in Chinese herbal medicine. It is an important herbal ingredient used in many herbal medicinal formulae. The siler root extract has various medicinal properties and thus being popular herbal medicine since ancient times in china.Obtain Report Details @Siler extract possess antioxidant and anti-proliferative properties. It is effective in treatment of colds, and body aches, joint pains, chills, diarrhea, and tremors. Siler extract is also a useful remedy for lockjaw, general convulsions, and tetanus. Siler root extract has an antimicrobial effect and has been shown to inhibit influenza viruses and also useful in sinus. Thus, considering its various benefits and medicinal properties siler extract market demand is higher and expected to expand at higher growth rate over the forecast period.Siler Extract Market Segmentation:Siler extract market is segmented on the basis of its applications in pharmaceutical, herbal medicines, and in nutritional supplements etc. Siler extract has proven helpful in cure of four meridians of bladder, spleen, lung, and liver. Its vital functions are relieving pain by removing dampness, relieving itching, and effective in spasmolysis. Thus, market demand from pharmaceutical and herbal medicine industry is higher and expected to grow rapidly over the forecast period. Herbal medicine market is expanding at a higher rate which is in turn expected to drive market demand for siler extract.Siler extract market is further segmented on the basis of product form available in the market as liquid and powder form, powder is also sold in capsule form. The different form is used for different application and purpose.For more information on this report, fill the form @Siler extract market is also segmented on basis of regions includes North America, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, Europe and Asia pacific. China is major producer of siler extract followed by Japan, from Asia Pacific regional markets thus, Asia Pacific is major exporter market of siler extract to the world. However, as traditionally being used as herbal medicine China consumes major part of the production into various herbal as well as pharmaceutical preparations.Siler Extract Market Drivers:Siler extract possess high market demand from pharmaceutical market segments as due to its various uses in treatment of various disease conditions. It is useful in treatment of tetanus, trembling of the hands and feet , painful diarrhea with bright blood in the stool, migraines, it may help antidote arsenic poisoning etc. In Chinese herbal medicine siler extract is blended or mixed with other herb extract and different medicinal formula for disease treatments can be formulated thus market demand from herbal medicine segment is growing continuously.Siler extract contains nutrients which includes Beta Sitosterol, volatile oil, and Mannitol etc. Beta Sitosterol is plant Sterol useful in lowering cholesterol thus market demand from health supplements is expected to grow at a significant rate over the forecast period.Looking at various health benefits of siler extract driving attraction of researchers and various pharmaceutical industries, thus are investing in R & D for siler extract products and medicines, in turn driving market demand for extracts. Increasing popularity of herbal medicine and shifting consumer preferences towards herbal and natural medicine is another factor expected to drive growth of the global siler extract market over the forecast period.Siler Extract Market Key Players:Key players operating in siler extract market are Hawaii Pharma, Changsha Vigorous-tech Co., Ltd, Hunan Nutramax Inc., Hill Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.,Hunan Sunshine Bio-Tech Co.,Ltd. , Shaanxi Xinya Biotechnology Co. Ltd. Considering the continuous growth in market demand for Siler extract globally, various new entries are expected into the market to grab upcoming opportunities over the forecast period.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Virus Filtration Market 2017 : Merck KGaA, Pall Corporation, Thermo Fisher, Sartorius AG

Virus Filtration

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Global Virus Filtration Market 2016 - 2017A market study  Global Virus Filtration Market  examines the performance of the Virus Filtration market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Virus Filtration market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Virus Filtration market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Virus Filtration Market 2017 report includes Virus Filtration market Size, Revenue, market Share, Virus Filtration industry volume, market Trends, Virus Filtration Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Virus Filtration Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report :Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Virus Filtration Market 2017: Merck KGaA Asahi Kasei Medical Pall Corporation Thermo Fisher Sartorius AG Lonza GE Healthcare WuXi PharmaTechFirstly, the report covers the top Virus Filtration manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Virus Filtration report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Virus Filtration industry, Virus Filtration industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Virus Filtration Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Inquiry Before Purchasing Report :The Virus Filtration research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Virus Filtration market revenue worldwide.Finally, Virus Filtration market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us :Market and Research are a trusted brand in the research industry with capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Market and Research, we believe in building long term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive and Aerospace.Contact Us :Market and ResearchUnited States
Global Glaucoma Treatment Drugs Market 2017 : Merck & Co. Inc, Pfizer Inc, Akorn Inc., Alcon, Allergan plc

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Global Glaucoma Treatment Drugs Market 2016 - 2017A market study  Global Glaucoma Treatment Drugs Market  examines the performance of the Glaucoma Treatment Drugs market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Glaucoma Treatment Drugs market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Glaucoma Treatment Drugs market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Glaucoma Treatment Drugs Market 2017 report includes Glaucoma Treatment Drugs market Size, Revenue, market Share, Glaucoma Treatment Drugs industry volume, market Trends, Glaucoma Treatment Drugs Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Glaucoma Treatment Drugs Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report :Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Glaucoma Treatment Drugs Market 2017: Aerie Pharmaceuticals Akorn Inc. Alcon Allergan plc Bausch & Lomb Incorporated Inotek Pharmaceuticals Merck & Co. Inc Pfizer Inc Santen Pharmaceutical Co. LtdFirstly, the report covers the top Glaucoma Treatment Drugs manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Glaucoma Treatment Drugs report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Glaucoma Treatment Drugs industry, Glaucoma Treatment Drugs industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Glaucoma Treatment Drugs Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Inquiry Before Purchasing Report :The Glaucoma Treatment Drugs research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Glaucoma Treatment Drugs market revenue worldwide.Finally, Glaucoma Treatment Drugs market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us :Market and Research are a trusted brand in the research industry with capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Market and Research, we believe in building long term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive and Aerospace.Contact Us :Market and ResearchUnited States
Global Physiological Saline Market 2017 : Baxter, Hospira (Pfizer), Fresenius Kabi, BBraun

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Global Physiological Saline Market 2016 - 2017A market study  Global Physiological Saline Market  examines the performance of the Physiological Saline market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Physiological Saline market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Physiological Saline market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Physiological Saline Market 2017 report includes Physiological Saline market Size, Revenue, market Share, Physiological Saline industry volume, market Trends, Physiological Saline Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Physiological Saline Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report :Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Physiological Saline Market 2017: Baxter Hospira (Pfizer) Fresenius Kabi BBraun Otsuka Kelun Group CR Double-Cran SSY Group Cisen Tiandi Chimin BBCAFirstly, the report covers the top Physiological Saline manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Physiological Saline report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Physiological Saline industry, Physiological Saline industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Physiological Saline Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Inquiry Before Purchasing Report :The Physiological Saline research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Physiological Saline market revenue worldwide.Finally, Physiological Saline market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us :Market and Research are a trusted brand in the research industry with capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Market and Research, we believe in building long term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive and Aerospace.Contact Us :Market and ResearchUnited States
Global Erlotinib Hydrochloride Market 2017 : Natco Pharma, Tecoland, Shanghai Biosundrug, Shilpa Medicare

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Global Erlotinib Hydrochloride Market 2016 - 2017A market study  Global Erlotinib Hydrochloride Market  examines the performance of the Erlotinib Hydrochloride market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Erlotinib Hydrochloride market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Erlotinib Hydrochloride market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Erlotinib Hydrochloride Market 2017 report includes Erlotinib Hydrochloride market Size, Revenue, market Share, Erlotinib Hydrochloride industry volume, market Trends, Erlotinib Hydrochloride Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Erlotinib Hydrochloride Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report :Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Erlotinib Hydrochloride Market 2017: HEC Pharm Arasto Pharmaceutical Chemicals Tava Polpharma Pharmaceutical Works Suanfarma Natco Pharma Tecoland Shanghai Biosundrug Shilpa MedicareFirstly, the report covers the top Erlotinib Hydrochloride manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Erlotinib Hydrochloride report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Erlotinib Hydrochloride industry, Erlotinib Hydrochloride industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Erlotinib Hydrochloride Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Inquiry Before Purchasing Report :The Erlotinib Hydrochloride research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Erlotinib Hydrochloride market revenue worldwide.Finally, Erlotinib Hydrochloride market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us :Market and Research are a trusted brand in the research industry with capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Market and Research, we believe in building long term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive and Aerospace.Contact Us :Market and ResearchUnited States
Global Facial Essence Market 2017 : Olay, Helena Rubinstein, Lancome, Biotherm, LOreal Paris

Facial Essence

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Global Facial Essence Market 2016 - 2017A market study  Global Facial Essence Market  examines the performance of the Facial Essence market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Facial Essence market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Facial Essence market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Facial Essence Market 2017 report includes Facial Essence market Size, Revenue, market Share, Facial Essence industry volume, market Trends, Facial Essence Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Facial Essence Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report :Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Facial Essence Market 2017: Helena Rubinstein Lancome Biotherm LOreal Paris kiehls Olay La Mer Estee Lauder Clinique Origins Guerlain Dior Sulwhasoo Innisfree HERAFirstly, the report covers the top Facial Essence manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Facial Essence report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Facial Essence industry, Facial Essence industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Facial Essence Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Inquiry Before Purchasing Report :The Facial Essence research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Facial Essence market revenue worldwide.Finally, Facial Essence market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us :Market and Research are a trusted brand in the research industry with capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Market and Research, we believe in building long term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive and Aerospace.Contact Us :Market and ResearchUnited States
Hydro-processing Catalysts Market Forecast and Opportunity Assessment by Future Market Insights

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In last two decades, the business of refining catalyst has grown from regional to global level. Refinery product values are dependent on process catalysts of refined products, petrochemical products and chemicals alongwith other refinery operations. One of the major concerns in the refinery is to reduce the sulphur content to the required limit. Hydro-processing catalysts (HPC) are primarily consumed in the hydro-processing operation of crude oil fractions. Such crude oil fractions include kerosene, naphtha and diesel. As a common practice, hydro-processing of crude oil fractionsis carried out at an elevated temperature and pressure.Hydro-processing is required to remove pollutants such as sulphur, heavy metals and nitrogen from fuel oils. These catalysts also help in the catalytic hydrocracking process to crack larger hydrocarbon molecules into smaller sizes,to be used as fuel oils. Thus, hydro-processing catalysts enable conversion of heavy feedstock into lighter products for efficient processing. Hydro-processing catalysts market is the fastest growing refinery catalysts market segment in the world. In addition, hydro-processing catalysts supplement the process control and operational efficiency improvement activities. Therefore, it is expected that the hydro-processing catalyst market will dominate the global refinery catalyst market by 2020.The global hydro-processing catalysts market can be categorized on the basis of its product type as molybdenum oxides, cobalt oxides, nickel oxidesand tungsten oxides. These metal oxides are carried on a carrier or matrix of silica, alumina and silica/alumina. Further, global hydro-processing catalysts market can also be categorized on the basis of their applications such as creating cleaner fuels, ultra-low sulphur levels in diesel fuels (ULSD) and others. On the basis of technology, global hydro-processing catalysts market can be segmented as hydro-treating catalysts, hydrogenation catalysts, hydrocracking catalysts, isomerisation catalyst and reforming catalyst. Among these, hydro-treating catalysts are dominant segment at present,accounting for more than half of the global hydro-processing catalysts market.Request For Report Sample@Refiners are more focusing to maximize residue feedstock yield through hydro-processing catalysts as petroleum product prices are rising globally. This is one of the key supply side drivers of the global hydro-processing catalysts market. Moreover, stringent environmental regulations and legislations are expanding, which, in turn, affects the heaviercrude processing and sulphur elimination process market.Enhanced refinery capacities coupled with the rising oil production are driving the growth of global hydro-processing catalysts market.Environmental fuel specifications regulations introduced by Europe, the U.S.and few Asia Pacific countries have been driving the global hydro-processing catalysts market.Further, developed countries have mandate to reduce sulphur content whereassulphur restrictions are implemented in the developing countries such as India, China and Mexico. As hydro-processing catalysts are advantageous to reduce sulphur content, these countries are likely to open up opportunities for hydro-processing catalysts market.Due to presence of giant oil and gas chemical manufacturers in the refinery catalyst market; the market competition is quite high. Expansion of production facilities in oil producing fields along with the strategic alliances are few of the major market strategies in the global hydro-processing catalysts market.Request For TOC@Some of the major market participants of global hydro-processing catalysts market include HaldorTopse, W. R. Grace and Company, Albemarle Corporation, Axens, UOP- Honeywell International Inc., Chevron Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell plc, BASF SE, Criterion Catalysts & Technologies, Criterion catalysts & Technologies and others. Among these, BASF has increased its R&D efforts since it acquired Engelhard. Further, BASF SE has come up with new developments in the processing of residue to increase the quality of yield.W.R. Grace and Companyhas introduced new products inthe hydro-processing catalysts market in the past five years. Thus, it is clear that global hydro-processing catalysts market participants are focused to expand their business through innovative product launches with specific market application. These innovative products include catalyst to eliminate sulphur content upto mandate limits. The worldwide hydro-processing catalysts market stands ready to meet the challenges, where energy costs significantlyfluctuate. However,fluctuating raw material prices, price spike, price collapse along with the governments enact legislation for certain related products or technologies, the demand of hydro-processing catalyst market are expected to undergo fluctuation.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Lipstick Market 2017 : Proctor & Gamble (USA), Estee Lauder (USA), Relvon (USA), LVMH (France), Shiseido (Japan)

Lipstick

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Global Lipstick Market 2016 - 2017A market study  Global Lipstick Market  examines the performance of the Lipstick market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Lipstick market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Lipstick market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Lipstick Market 2017 report includes Lipstick market Size, Revenue, market Share, Lipstick industry volume, market Trends, Lipstick Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Lipstick Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report :Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Lipstick Market 2017: L Oreal Group (France) Proctor & Gamble (USA) Estee Lauder (USA) Relvon (USA) LVMH (France) Shiseido (Japan) Chanel (France) Dior (France) It Cosmetic (USA) Elizabeth Arden (USA) Kat Von D (USA) Laura Mercier (France) ROHTO (Japan) Beiersdorf (Germany) DHC (Japan) Johnson & Johnson (US) Avon (Japan) Shanghai Jahwa Corporation JALA LOCCITANE (France)Firstly, the report covers the top Lipstick manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Lipstick report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Lipstick industry, Lipstick industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Lipstick Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Inquiry Before Purchasing Report :The Lipstick research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Lipstick market revenue worldwide.Finally, Lipstick market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us :Market and Research are a trusted brand in the research industry with capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Market and Research, we believe in building long term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive and Aerospace.Contact Us :Market and ResearchUnited States
Automotive Horn Systems Market is Considered as One of the Rapidly Growing Dynamic Markets by 2026

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With the advent of efficient connected vehicles technologies, Internet of Things and autonomous vehicles, redundant designs and components have undergone a substantial change to adapt and increase the overall efficiency of the vehicle. Similarly, as one of the pivotal integral components of vehicle, the automotive horn systems has come a long way from pedestrian hand operated horn system or a whistle to inbuilt automated electric horn serving the same function of alerting other approaching vehicles and alerting pedestrian throughout its history. With advancement in automotive horn systems the startling high decibel sound has gradually been mellowed down to audible yet soft honk which is enough to indicate a perceived emergency. A wide range of air horns and electric with customizable sounds is also in demand by many motorist and enthusiast throughout the world. These horns have a higher frequency and intensity which can be detected for a quite a range.To view complete report @The increasing new automotive sales are propelling the demand for the automotive horn system market. Although the life cycle of automotive horn is dependent on the kind of utilization, the estimated minimum life cycle of a horn system 2 to 4 years. Increasing replacement of automotive horn system therefore provides sustainable opportunity for the aftermarket of automotive horn systems. Manufacturers are upgrading designs for efficient functioning and are focusing of softer and relatively lower tones to comply with regional noise laws. With increasing preference for compact engine and better performance, there is an increasing demand for trumpet horns for light and heavy commercial vehicles. Owing to increasing heath concerns and targeted regulation aimed to reduce certain frequencies, there has been a restriction in production options and offerings for certain manufacturers in the automotive horn system market.TOC of this report is available upon request @The automotive horn system market can also be segmented on the basis of region as North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific ex. Japan, Middle East and Africa and Japan. The automotive horn systems market in the United States automotive horn systems market is expected to increase with escalating sales of hybrid and electric vehicles. The recuperating sales of light commercial vehicle segment is further expected enhance the revenue contribution of the automotive horn system market. The Western Europe market has a strong export market with Germany and Italy therefore are leading contributors to the automotive horn system market in the region. The APEJ automotive horn system market is spearheaded by key region of India and China. The regions represents maximum opportunities for automotive horn system market owing proliferating production of vehicle and sustainable aftermarket opportunities. The Latin America automotive horn system market is expected to witness relatively moderate growth till 2018 after which the market it expected to regain sustainable growth throughout the forecast period. The sales of passenger and light commercial vehicle in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina are expected to boost sales of the automotive horn system in the region. The automotive horn system market is expected to be propelled by swiftly changing automotive industry dynamics of South Africa, Egypt and Iran.Sample of this report is available upon request @The automotive horn system market regionally fragmented with numerous domestic player participating in the domestic supply dynamics of the automotive horn system market. However some of key participants identified in the report, among other key players of the automotive horn system market are FiammSpA, Uno Minda, HELLA KGaA Hueck & Co., Mitsuba Corporation, Maruko Keihoki Co. Ltd., Imasen Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Kleinn Automotive, Sun Automobile Co.,Ltd, Robert Bosch GmBH, SORL Auto Parts, Inc. Wolo Manufacturing Corp.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Shower Gel Market 2017 : P&G, Unilever, Johnson, Shanghai Jahwa, COTY, LVAH

Shower Gel

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Global Shower Gel Market 2016 - 2017A market study  Global Shower Gel Market  examines the performance of the Shower Gel market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Shower Gel market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Shower Gel market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Shower Gel Market 2017 report includes Shower Gel market Size, Revenue, market Share, Shower Gel industry volume, market Trends, Shower Gel Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Shower Gel Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report :Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Shower Gel Market 2017: P&G Unilever Johnson Shanghai Jahwa COTY Chanel KAO Shiseido L'Oreal Kiehl's LVAHFirstly, the report covers the top Shower Gel manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Shower Gel report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Shower Gel industry, Shower Gel industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Shower Gel Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Inquiry Before Purchasing Report :The Shower Gel research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Shower Gel market revenue worldwide.Finally, Shower Gel market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us :Market and Research are a trusted brand in the research industry with capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Market and Research, we believe in building long term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive and Aerospace.Contact Us :Market and ResearchUnited States
WILMERDING, Pa., July 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wabtec Corporation (NYSE:WAB) said it will report 2017 second quarter results before the U.S. financial markets open on Tuesday, July 25. The company will conduct a conference call to discuss those results with analysts and investors at 10 a.m. the same day. To listen to the call via webcast, please go to www.wabtec.com and click on the Investors and Webcasts tabs of the site. An audio replay of the call will also be available by calling 412-317-0088 (passcode: 466#).

Wabtec Corporation (www.wabtec.com) is a leading global provider of equipment, systems and value-added services for transit and freight rail. Through its subsidiaries, the company manufactures a range of products for locomotives, freight cars and passenger transit vehicles. The company also builds new switcher and commuter locomotives, and provides aftermarket services. The company has facilities located throughout the world.
Fiber Cement Market Trends, Forecast, and Analysis by Future Market Insights

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Fiber cement, formerly known as a composite building and construction material, is used in the manufacture of facade and roofing products owing to its properties such as high durability and strength. Cement is a substance which reacts chemically with water therefore, forming a hard stone. The presence of fiber reinforcement in cement contributes in making strong and long lasting building and construction material. At present, fiber cement has great scope for construction products such as roofing and cladding due to its primary function, i.e., enhancing performance and decreasing commercial value. Fiber cement siding market is expected to be the fastest growing market because of its product features and high demand from construction professionals.The key drivers for the growth of fiber cement market include factors such as growing construction activities in various regions on global basis and rapid industrialization which are poised to register demand of fiber cement products. Huge demand for fiber cement in terms of construction activities is reported from Asia Pacific. In addition, there is a growing demand for fiber cement from developed economies of North America and Europe due to the presence of stringent regulations and turnaround of manufacturing industries in these regions. The U.S. and Japan are stated as the fastest growing market for fiber cement with huge demand for the product. However, fiber cement market is expected to face competition from other products in the market such as vinyl siding.Request For Report Sample@The key players in the fiber cement market includes Akzo Nobel NV, Building Materials Corporation of America, Central Fiber LLC, Canfor Corporation, Dow Chemical Company, Elementia SA de CV, Ecolab Incorporated, Hardie (James) Industries plc, Mercer International Incorporated, Imerys SA, PPG Industries Incorporated and US Silica Holdings Incorporated among others. The market is highly fragmented in nature owing to the presence of several manufacturers. This research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data and statistically-supported and industry-validated market data and projections with a suitable set of assumptions and methodology. It provides analysis and information by categories such as market segments, regions, product types and distribution channels.Request For TOC@ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Rising Incidence of Periodontal Diseases Stokes Growth of Dental Implants Market

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This report on dental implants studies the current as well as future prospects of the market globally. The stakeholders of this report include companies and intermediaries engaged in the manufacture and commercialization of various dental implants and products as well as new entrants planning to enter this market. This report comprises an elaborate executive summary along with a market snapshot providing overall information of various segments and sub-segments considered within the scope of the study. This section also provides the overall information and data analysis of the global dental implants market with respect to the leading market segments based on major products, key materials utilized, end-users, and geographies.The market overview section of the report explores the market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities that currently have a strong impact on the global dental implants market and could influence the market in the near future. Market attractiveness analysis has been provided in all the sections of the report in order to explain the intensity of competition in the market across different products/materials/end-users/geographies. The competitive scenario among different market players is evaluated through market share analysis in the competition landscape section of the report. The section also includes completion matrix that analyzes the competition among some of the top global players operating in the market. All these factors would help market players to take strategic decisions in order to strengthen their positions and expand their shares in the global market.Download a PDF Brochure of Report -The global dental implants market has been studied based on major implantable product segments, material segments, their end-users, and regional as well as national markets. Based on product type, the global market has been categorized into three major 4 segments: Endosteal Implants, Subperiosteal Implants, Transosteal Implants, and Intramucosal Implants.Based on material, the global market has been categorized into two major segments Titanium Implants and Zirconium Implants. Based on end-user market has been categorized as Hospitals, Dental Clinics, Academic & Research Institute, and Others. The market for these segments has been extensively analyzed based on their utility, effectiveness, sales, and geographic presence. Market revenue in terms of US$ Mn and market volume in terms of units for the period from 2015 to 2025 along with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) from 2017 to 2025 are provided for all segments, considering 2016 as the base year.Geographically, the dental implants market has been segmented into five regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Each regional market for dental Implants has been further categorized into major product, material, and end-user segments considered within the scope of the study. Key country (U.S., Japan, Germany, France, U.K., Australia, Canada, China, Brazil, Mexico, India, etc.) market revenues have also been provided in different regional sections within the report. Market revenue in terms of US$ Mn and volume in terms of units for the period from 2015 to 2025 along with CAGR % from 2017 to 2025 are provided for all the regions and nations considering 2016 as the base year.The report also profiles key players operating in the dental implants market based on various attributes such as company details, SWOT analysis, strategic overview, financials, and business overview. Major players profiled in this report include Straumann Holding AG, Dentsply Sirona Inc., Henry Schein, Inc., Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc., Danaher Corporation, 3M Health Care, Ivoclar Vivadent AG, AVINENT Implant System, S.L., Bicon, LLC, and Osstem Implant, CO., Ltd.Read Report with Complete TOC -Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Calcium Gluconate Market Assessment and Forecast Report by Future Market Insights

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Calcium gluconate is a mineral supplement which is prepared by the neutralization of gluconic acid with lime or calcium carbonate. It is listed as one of the essential medicines on WHOs list of essential medicine. Calcium gluconate is used to treat conditions arising from calcium deficiencies such as hypocalcaemia tetany, hypocalcemia related to hyperparathyroidism and hypocalcaemia due to rapid growth or pregnancy. Apart from being an active ingredient in medicines, calcium gluconate finds its application in various food products as a nutrient supplement. It is a used as a source of calcium, in a variety of food & beverage products, such as; milk, soft drinks, juices, bottled waters, dairy products, soy products, baked goods, and confectionery.Calcium Gluconate Market: Drivers & RestraintsGlobal calcium gluconate market is expected to grow owing to increasing demand from end-use industries such as pharmaceuticaland food & beverages. Sunrise industries like the nutraceutical industry has also largely impacted the global calcium gluconate market, as it finds itself as major ingredient in multiple calcium based health supplements. Increase in the demand for health supplements from the health conscious consumers has largely driven this market globally. More than 75% of Americans are calcium deficient, and more than one in 10 Americans either has, or is at risk of developing, osteoporosis or other bone diseases. This fact is also acting as a driver for the global calcium gluconate market in that region. The segment is anticipated to witness above average growth on account of increasing use of health supplements in developed countries for over the last few years and trend is likely to continue over the forecast period.Request For Report Sample@Excessive intake of calcium gluconate may lead to various side effects such as nausea, constipationand stomachupset. Rapid intravenous injections of calcium gluconate may cause hypercalcaemia, which can result in vasodilation, cardiac arrhythmias, decreased blood pressure, and bradycardia. This has proven to be a major restraint for this market.Calcium Gluconate Market:SegmentationThe global calcium gluconate market can be broadly segmented on the basis of end use, application, and form available. On the basis of end use, the market can be further segmented into; bulking agent, emulsifier, and thickening agent. On the basis of application, the global calcium gluconate market can be bifurcated into pharmaceuticals, food & beverages, and nutraceuticals. Commercially, calcium gluconate is available in three major form, i.e. gum, liquid, and powder.Calcium Gluconate Market:Region Wise OutlookGeographically, the calcium gluconatemarket is segmented into seven regions which are ; North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Japan.Asia Pacific region is anticipated to witness high growth on account of increasing demand from end-use industries. In addition, increased government spending on infrastructure development is likely fuel market growth over the next six years.Visit For TOC@Calcium Gluconate Market: Key PlayersSome of the major global key players in this segments are; Aaron Industries, Inc. American Biorganics, Inc, AKZO Nobel Chemicals Inc, Alfa Aesar, Coyne Chemical , Glucona America, Inc, PMP Fermentation Products, Inc, Noah Technologies Corporation, Westco Chemicals Inc, Mallinckrodt Inc., Spectrum Bulk Chemicals. These companies are developing market strategies such as mergers and acquisitions, Joint Venture, New product development and Expansion to increase their market share in Global Functional Beverages Market. Apart from these big firms, there are multiple new entrants in the market.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Mobile Cardiac Telemetry Systems Market Analysis by Future Market Insights

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Cardiac monitoring is continuous monitoring of heart activity using electrocardiography techniques to understand the heart rhythm and find anomalies in the functioning of the heart. Cardiac monitoring is a critical part of healthcare diagnostics as several functions of the body can be understood by carefully analyzing the heart rhythm. Mobile cardiac telemetry is one of the newest technology in the cardiac monitoring which allows remote monitoring of the patients who are situated at far away distance from the physicians. Mobile cardiac telemetry (MCT) devices are small portable sensors that are worn by the patient for monitoring cardiac rhythm. In the case when an anomaly is detected in the heart rhythm the sensor records it and sends the data to the transmitter which transmits the data to the manned monitoring center using a mobile network. The data, which is sent to the monitoring center is analyzed by the trained healthcare professionals for reported to the physicians or the patients for further treatment. The real-time data provided by the mobile cardiac telemetry systems provides an edge over the other cardiac monitoring systems like Holter monitoring systems or event monitoring systems.Mobile Cardiac Telemetry Systems Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe demand for mobile cardiac telemetry systems is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period owing to the technology edge. Mobile cardiac telemetry systems provide mobility to the patient and real time data of the patient to the physicians. Increased diagnostic yield of the MCT devices is over standards cardiac monitoring devices is expected to create high demand from the patients. Moreover the increasing demand for cardiac monitoring in home care settings is increasing owing to rapid expansion in the geriatric population. Increasing incidence of cardiovascular diseases is expected to create high growth opportunities for the MCT systems manufacturers over the forecast period. According to the WHO estimates nearly 17.5 million people die from cardiovascular diseases each year worldwide. In past few years several new manufacturers have entered the MCT market owing to which the prices of MCT devices are expected to fall over the forecast period which in turn is expected to increase adoption of the MCT systems over the forecast period. However the stringent regulations and product recalls associated with product failure is expected to hamper revenue growth of the MTC systems market.Request Report Sample@Mobile Cardiac Telemetry Systems Market: SegmentationThe global mobile cardiac telemetry systems market is segmented into two key segments, by revenue channel and by regionSegmentation by revenue channelPatientsPhysiciansPayersMobile Cardiac Telemetry Systems Market: OverviewThe mobile cardiac telemetry systems market is expected to witness robust growth over the forecast period owing to increasing adoption rate and awareness among the end users. Moreover the technological developments and increasing disease burden of cardiovascular diseases is expected to boost revenue growth of MCT systems market.Mobile Cardiac Telemetry Systems Market: Region  Wise OutlookRegionally the mobile cardiac telemetry market is segmented into seven key regions, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan and Middle East and Africa (MEA)North America and Western Europe are expected to dominate the MCT systems market over the forecast period owing to high adoption rate of the mobile cardiac telemetry devices in these regions. Japan and APEJ region is expected to follow next owing to increasing incidence of cardiovascular diseases in these regions. According to the World Health Organization more than 75% of the cardiovascular diseases occur in low  middle income countries which in turn APEJ, Latin America and Eastern Europe regions are expected to witness significant growth in the MCT systems market over the forecast period. MEA region is expected to witness growth opportunities depending on the adoption of the cardiac telemetry systems in this region.Visit For TOC@Mobile Cardiac Telemetry Systems Market: Market ParticipantsSome key participants in the mobile cardiac telemetry systems market are, Medtronic, Digirad Corporation, Kyma, Boston Scientific Corporation, Biotelemetry, Inc., The ScottCare Corporation and Spectocor LLC.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Analysis and Assessment on Military Vehicles and Aircraft Simulations Market by Future Market Insights

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Military vehicles and aircraft simulation have now become critically important due to high safety and security reasons in every part of the world. Growing need to cut down the cost of pilot training, technological developments, and introduction of new generation aircrafts is escalating the growth in the global military vehicles and aircraft simulation. Additionally, increased environmental impacts, cost of fuel and real wear and tear on weapon system, is anticipated to be the major target market in near future. The simulation technology (imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time) allows both commercial and military trainees to learn faster and master to advance on and off road operations along with handling hazardous and dangerous situations without risk to machine and man. However, simulation of technology is used in many contexts such as safety engineering, education, training, testing, performance optimization, video games and others. It is also used in computer experiments to study simulation models.The military vehicles and aircraft simulation continues to gain importance in the aerospace, defence and military industry. With reduced financial resources, governments are taking initiatives to cut down on training budgets. Owing to this, currently militaries are focusing on attaining cheaper and more effective solutions for their training requirements. Owing to this, flight simulations has evolved to become an essential part of civil aviation operations and military capability. It is a device that artificially creates the environment for flight (where it flies) for pilot training and other purposes. Flight simulator may vary from one model to another and is widely used in commercial and military applications. As a result, training in a fight simulator is more operative than training in aircraft, also it has made a major contribution towards the aviation industry.Request For Report Sample@Military Vehicles and Aircraft Simulations Market: Drivers & RestraintsTo accommodate new generation aircrafts, mission rehearsal and simulation technologies are moving forward along with embed in a variety of military systems to carry out training in reality at reasonable cost. Commercialization of unmanned aerial vehicles is the emerging trend and will give new opportunities to this market. A fundamental growth driver to the market is growing awareness over the benefits of virtual pilot training. Additionally, demand for trained pilots and crew members, technological advancements, rising demand for air transportation which has further resulted in growing needs for safety and security concerns along with cost advantages are the drivers identified in the military vehicles and aircraft simulations market. Safety regulations and push from the government side is also helping in increasing the degree of awareness among the users. However, high implementation cost, lack of reliable communication and complexity in system are the major setback for military vehicles and aircraft simulations market.Military Vehicles and Aircraft SimulationsMarket: SegmentationOn the basis of types global military vehicles and aircraft simulations can be broadly into: Virtual, Live, and Constructive and others. On the basis of application global military vehicle and aircraft simulation market is segmented into: Platform, System and Maintenance. On the basis of system, global military vehicles and aircraft simulations can be further segmented into: Flight simulation and Non-Flight Simulation.Military Vehicles and Aircraft SimulationsMarket: Region-wise OutlookThe global military vehicles and aircraft simulation market is expected to register CAGR of 6.27 percent over the forecasted period 2015-2025. Depending on geographic regions, global military vehicles and aircraft simulation market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. In terms of regions, Europe accounts for the largest market share followed by North America. Asia Pacific market is projected to register a significant CAGR during the forecast period. Increasing demand for training of pilots and rising demand for air transportation along with technological updates is fuelling the growth of global military vehicles and aircraft simulations market in Asia Pacific. Eastern Europe and Latin America are also forecast to register a significant growth in the global military vehicles and aircraft simulations market, as growing awareness over the pilot training is expected to grow in these regions as well.Request For TOC@Military Vehicles and Aircraft SimulationMarket: Key PlayersSome of the players identified in the aircraft simulation are FLIGHTRiX (Command Sims Pvt. Ltd.), Presagis (formed through the acquisition of three industry leading companies includes Engenuity Technologies, MultiGen-Paradigm, and TERREX.), Rheinmetall Defence, Alsim, Atlantis System Corp., CAE Inc., Bae Systems PLC, FlightSafety International Inc., Moog Inc., Simteq B.V., Lockheed Martin Corporation, Thales Group, Rockwell Collins, PMDG, Israel Aerospace industries, ATC Flight Simulator, Mechtronix Inc., L-3 Communications Holdings Ltd., among many others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Bulldozers Industry Market Research Report 2017

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SummaryThe Global Bulldozers Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Bulldozers industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Bulldozers market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Bulldozers industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Ask a sample or any question, please email to:hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comThe players list(Partly, Players you are interested can also be added):CaterpillarVolvoKomatsuLiebherrHitachiDoosanJohn DeereBharat Earth MoversGuangxi LiuGong MachineryJCBSany GroupXCMGKey Topics Covered:Chapter One Industry Overview of BulldozersChapter Two Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of BulldozersChapter Three Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of BulldozersChapter Four Capacity, Production and Revenue Analysis of Bulldozers by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Five Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Bulldozers by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Six Consumption Volume, Consumption Value and Sale Price Analysis of Bulldozers by Regions, Types and ApplicationsChapter Seven Supply, Import, Export and Consumption Analysis of BulldozersChapter Eight Major Manufacturers Analysis of BulldozersChapter Nine Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of BulldozersChapter Ten Industry Chain Analysis of BulldozersChapter Eleven Development Trend of Analysis of BulldozersChapter Twelve New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of BulldozersChapter Thirteen Conclusion of the Global Bulldozers Industry 2017 Market Research ReportRelated Reports:US Bulldozers Industry Market Research Report 2017Europe Bulldozers Industry Market Research Report 2017India Bulldozers Industry Market Research Report 2017China Bulldozers Industry Market Research Report 2017Korea Bulldozers Industry Market Research Report 2017Japan Bulldozers Industry Market Research Report 2017If you need a report or have any question, please feel free to contact meHebe | Sr. Manager  Global SalesProfessional Market Research Report PublisherQYResearch Co.LtdQYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchPhone: +86 20 2209 3278Email: hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comWeb:About QYResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, database and seminar services. the company owned a large basic database (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business. Through the companys years of effort and a lot of customer support, QYResearch consulting group creative design method of many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch brand has become the consulting industry with quality assurance consulting brand. The company has 2500 global well-known customers, covering energy automobile pharmaceutical chemical agriculture more than 30 industries, services from the data analysis and recommendations-Consulting landing one-stop solution, and research regions cover China,US,EU,Asia,Middle East and Africa,South America,Australia,etc Global all regions,and also built research or marketing center in China USA UK France Hongkong etc regions. currently, QYResearch has become the first choice and worth trusted consulting brand in Global and China business consulting services.Media ContactCompany Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITEDContact Person: HebeEmail: hebe@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: +86-20 2209 3278Address: Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe DistrictCity: GuangzhouCountry: ChinaWebsite:(US) |(EU) |(JP)
Comprehensive Industry Report Offers Forecast and Analysis on Clinical Alarm Management Market

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Clinical alarm systems are devices that alert caregivers of immediate adverse patient conditions and help in enhancing potential patient-safety. Alarmsmust be accurate, unique and provide alerts, which could be readily identified and understood by caregivers and the products must belong to standardized & approved product categories. These systems are either built-in or attached to other medical equipment & monitoring systems. Alarm fatigue is the psychological effect produced by too many alarms occurring in a clinical environment, causing clinicians to miss true clinically significant alarms. When alarms work well, the environment of patient care is enhanced. When alarms do not work well, they pull caregivers away from their line of respective duties and other patients, or even ignore alarm sounds altogether. Cases of ignored alarms have resulted in patient deaths earlier in extreme cases. Most often, the major usability problem is an alarm flood- too many alarms ringing together, in case of any device failure. Other defects hampering clinical alarm uptake in sophisticated healthcare systems include poorly designed alarms, improperly set alarm points, ineffective alarm announcements, and unclear alarm messages among others.Clinical Alarm Management Market: Drivers and RestraintsIncreasing awareness of care providers towards enhancing patient safety is a prominent factor pushing the revenue growth of the clinical alarm management market. Others revenue drivers include rising medtech investments by governments of all major countries and promoting access to basic healthcare across all sections of the society. Integrated alarm system designs are often not standardized across different medical equipment systems and devices. This could be considered as a restraint for clinical alarm management market. Improper alarm escalation leading to false negative cases - such as a patient needs immediate clinical attention but a clinician is not alerted - substantially compromises on patient-safety. Other factors negatively affecting market growth are lack of product standardization across regions and lack of proper skills to rationalize the alarm adjustment process.Request Report Sample@Clinical Alarm Management Market: SegmentationClinical alarm management market is segmented based on product type, end user and geography.Based on product type, clinical alarm management market is segmented as follows:Physiological monitorsTelemetry monitorsVentilatorsInfusion PumpsAnesthesia MachinesCompression PumpsFeeding PumpsNurse Call SystemBed AlarmsBased on end user, the clinical alarm management market is segmented as follows:HospitalsClinicsAmbulatory surgical centersLong term and palliative care centersHome careOthersClinical Alarm Management Market: OverviewIn the present market scenario, clinical alarm manufacturers prioritize sensitivity over specificity. This often leads to a large number of false positive cases, which is often misleading. Particularly, when alarm frequency is high, caregivers could become desensitized, develop alarm fatigue, and create a false negative outcome, compromising patient safety. With rise in the number of urban healthcare centers across regions, there clinical alarm management market is witnessing a sustained growth in demand for standard and tested products. To avoid product level dysfunctionalities, the AAMI (Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation) Foundation had added clinical alarms to its portfolio of multidisciplinary initiatives to advance patient safety and created an Alarm Best Practices Workgroup in 2012. The committee reviews and recommends best practices on clinical alarm management at regular intervals. Developed pharmaceutical markets are expected to create sustainable traction in generating demand for standardized clinical alarm systems over the forecast period, while developing markets are expected to follow suit.Clinical Alarm Management Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global clinical alarm management marketis classified into seven regions namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America is expected to dominate the clinical alarm management market in terms of both revenue and demand generation owing to greater awareness on medtech advancement followed by Western Europe. However, over the foreseeable long term, markets in Latin America and Asia-Pacific could prove lucrative in terms of market opportunities owing to persistence of factors such as greater penetration of access to organized healthcare and rising disposable income level contribution to private healthcare spending.Visit For TOC@Clinical Alarm ManagementMarket: Key PlayersSome of the major companies contributing to global clinical alarm management market include Medtronic, Extension Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Koninklijke Phislips N.V., Baxter incorporated, Connexall, Mindray Medical International Limited among others.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
MHealth Market Outlook 2022: Top Companies, Trends and Competition Details for Business Development

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Market Research Report on MHealth Market is a professional and in-depth research report. The Report include basic information like definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain overview, industry policies and plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures and so on.In this report, the global mHealth market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Global mHealth Market Research Report 2017 estimates the drivers, restraints, and opportunities pertaining to the global mHealth market over the timeframe of 2017-2022. Delivering the key insights pertaining to this industry, the report provides an in-depth analysis of the latest trends, present and future business scenario, market size and share, and commercialization potential of the mHealth industry over the coming five years.Request Simple for Global mHealth Market Research Report @The industry is analyzed in terms of products, applications, regions, and the key manufacturers holding a prominent share of the global revenue.In terms of end-user or applications, the report is Hospital, Clinics, Family Use and Other. A detailed analysis of the contribution of these application segments to the overall market revenue and volume has been included in the report.The product landscape of the Electronic Health Record, Home Health Tracking, Patient Education, Diagnostic Support and other. Each product has been analyzed in terms of its production, capacity, and consumption. The report further details the market share to be procured by each of these products over the coming years.Request Discount for mHealth Market Research Report @The regional segmentation of the report includes North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and India. Detailing the consumption and production rate of mHealths in these regions, the report outlines the growth curve of this industry in terms of market volume and share over 2017-2022.The competitive landscape of the mHealth market profiles the key players participating in the global business space. These AT&T, LifeWatch, Boston Scientific, Omron Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, Sanofi. The report also details the market positioning, strategies, and revenue procured by each of these manufacturers.For More Info on Market Research @Related Reports: -Global Follicle Stimulating Hormone Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022This report studies the follicle stimulating hormone market. Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) is a hormone made by the pituitary gland that affects the gonads (female ovaries and males testes). In females, it stimulates growth of the ovarian follicles.Centralize market research purchases across your entire organization in one place.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:
Vacuum Cleaner Detailed Analysis Report  Evolving Product, Type, Application & Global Major Companies Panasonic, Dayton, ProTeam, Midea, LEXY Projection 2017-2022

Vacuum Cleaner Detailed Analysis Report

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A new research document with title 'Global Vacuum Cleaner Detailed Analysis Report 2017-2022 ' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like USA , Europe , Asia Pacific , Middle East and important players/vendors such as Panasonic, Dayton, ProTeam, Midea, LEXY................The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2022Request a sample report @SummaryThis report splits Vacuum Cleaner by Vacuum Bag Type, Vacuum Cord Type, Wet-Dry Vacuum Capacity, and Price. This shares the history data information from 2012 to 2016, and forecast from 2017 to 2022.And this report mainly introduces volume and value market share by players, by regions, by product type, by consumers and also their price change details. As a Detailed Analysis report, it covers all details inside analysis and opinion in Vacuum Cleaner industry.This report focus Global market, it covers details players regions product type and other details as following:Key Players of Vacuum CleanerBissell(US)Shop-Vac(US)Dyson(UK)IRobot(US)Electrolux(Sweden)Hoover(US)BLACK+DECKER(US)Dirt Devil(US)SHARK(US)TacPower(US)Eureka(China)Generic(US)Oreck(US)SHARKNinja(US)Miele(Germany)Sanitaire(US)Ridgid(US)Panasonic(Japan)Dayton(US)ProTeam(US)Midea(China)LEXY(CHINA)PHILIPS(NETHERLAND)Haier(China)CHIGO(CHINA)SUPOR(CHINA)Puppy(China)Deerma(US)Karcher(Germany)TEK(CHINA)Key RegionsUnited StatesEuropeGermanyUnited KingdomFranceItalySpainRussiaNetherlandPolandOthersChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOthersKey Product TypeVacuum Cleaner Market, by Vacuum Bag TypeBaglessBaggedVacuum Cleaner Market, by Vacuum Cord TypeCordedAutomatic RewindCordlessVacuum Cleaner Market, by Wet-Dry Vacuum CapacityUnder 2 Gallons2 to 3 Gallons4 to 5 Gallons6 to 10 Gallons11 to 13 Gallons14 Gallons & AboveVacuum Cleaner Market, by PriceUnder $25$25 to $50$50 to $100$100 to $200$200 & AboveKey Consumers (End User)Vacuum Cleaner Market, by ConsumerHousehold UseCommercial UseGet customization & check discount for report @Table of ContentsChapter One Vacuum Cleaner Market Overview1.1 Global Vacuum Cleaner Market Sales Volume Revenue and Price 2012-20221.2 Vacuum Cleaner, by Vacuum Bag Type 2012-20221.2.1 Global Vacuum Cleaner Sales Market Share by Vacuum Bag Type 2012-20221.2.2 Global Vacuum Cleaner Revenue Market Share by Vacuum Bag Type 2012-20221.2.3 Global Vacuum Cleaner Price by Vacuum Bag Type 2012-20221.2.4 Bagless1.2.5 Bagged1.3 Vacuum Cleaner, by Vacuum Cord Type 2012-20221.3.1 Global Vacuum Cleaner Sales Market Share by Vacuum Cord Type 2012-20221.3.2 Global Vacuum Cleaner Revenue Market Share by Vacuum Cord Type 2012-20221.3.3 Global Vacuum Cleaner Price by Vacuum Cord Type 2012-20221.3.4 Corded1.3.5 Automatic Rewind1.3.6 Cordless1.4 Vacuum Cleaner, by Wet-Dry Vacuum Capacity 2012-20221.4.1 Global Vacuum Cleaner Sales Market Share by Wet-Dry Vacuum Capacity 2012-20221.4.2 Global Vacuum Cleaner Revenue Market Share by Wet-Dry Vacuum Capacity 2012-20221.4.3 Global Vacuum Cleaner Price by Wet-Dry Vacuum Capacity 2012-20221.4.4 Under 2 Gallons1.4.5 2 to 3 Gallons1.4.6 4 to 5 Gallons1.4.7 6 to 10 Gallons1.4.8 11 to 13 Gallons1.4.9 14 Gallons & Above1.5 Vacuum Cleaner, by Price 2012-20221.5.1 Global Vacuum Cleaner Sales Market Share by Price 2012-20221.5.2 Global Vacuum Cleaner Revenue Market Share by Price 2012-20221.5.3 Global Vacuum Cleaner Price by Price 2012-20221.5.4 Under $251.5.5 $25 to $501.5.6 $50 to $1001.5.7 $100 to $2001.5.8 $200 & AboveBuy this report @Chapter Two, Vacuum Cleaner by Regions 2012-20222.1 Global Vacuum Cleaner Sales Market Share by Regions 2012-20222.2 Global Vacuum Cleaner Revenue Market Share by Regions 2012-20222.3 Global Vacuum Cleaner Price by Regions 2012-20222.4 United States2.5 Europe2.5.1 Germany2.5.2 United Kingdom2.5.3 France2.5.4 Italy2.5.5 Spain2.5.6 Russia2.5.7 Others in Europe2.6 China2.7 Japan2.8 India2.9 Southeast Asia2.10 OthersChapter Three, Vacuum Cleaner by Brands 2012-20223.1 Global Vacuum Cleaner Sales Volume Market Share by Brands 2012-20223.2 Global Vacuum Cleaner Revenue Share by Brands 2012-20223.3 Global Top Brands Vacuum Cleaner Key Product Model and Market Performance3.4 Global Top Brands Vacuum Cleaner Key Target Consumers and Market PerformanceChapter Four, Vacuum Cleaner by Consumer 2012-2022....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
Latex Medical Disposables Market Research Report Forecast to 2024

Latex Medical Disposables Market

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The latex medical disposables market is largely fragmented, with the top five companies accounting for just over 60.0% in 2015. Transparency Market Research has found that these companies, namely Top Glove Corporation, Ansell, Hartalega Holdings Bhd, C.R. Bard, and B. Braun Melsungen, have been capturing market share through technological advancements and offering a wide product range. Investing in R&D activities has also proven to be beneficial for companies competing in this market.While dominant players are competing by launching innovative products, regional vendors are striving to gain market share from existing players, the lead analyst states. Companies are also offering price discounts on bulk purchases, further boosting their position in the latex medical disposables market. Although the threat of new entrants is moderate, the threat of substitutes is considerably high.The opportunity in the global latex medical disposables market is expected to be worth US$6.4 bn by 2024, rising from US$4.1 bn in 2015 at a modest CAGR of 4.9% therein.This 163 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Latex Medical Disposables Market. Browse through 24 data tables and 53 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market:Latex gloves has been the major product segment of the latex medical disposables market, accounting for 60.4% in terms of revenue in 2015. The latex foley catheters segment is projected to expand at a CAGR of 5.1% from 2016 to 2024, emerging as the most lucrative segment thus far. By end use, the hospitals segment is expected to account for the dominant share by 2024, followed by diagnostic centers. Hospitals are also anticipated to exhibit a high CAGR throughout the forecast period.The global latex medical disposables market is well developed in regions such as North America and Europe. However, regions such as Latin America and Asia Pacific exhibit immense potential for high growth. North America leads the global latex medical disposables market, with 33.0% share in 2016. The Asia Pacific market, on the other hand, is projected to expand at the fastest CAGR of 5.8% during the forecast period.Players within the latex medical disposables market have been investing in the launch of novel technologies and products that are aimed at reducing risks and infections and offering a host of benefits to the patients, the author of the report finds.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Latex Medical Disposables Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market:For instance, the BARDEX I.C. infection control latex Foley catheter is clinically proven to minimize the risk of catheter-associated urinary tract infections. The catheters technologically-advanced formulation dramatically lessens bacterial adherence and reduces the formation of biofilm. Similarly, Medline Industries, Inc.s three-way Foley catheter offers continuous irrigation capabilities for use after urological surgeries. The growth of the latex medical disposables market rides on such developments.Latex allergy is one of the most prominent challenges faced by the global latex disposables market. As a result, many healthcare providers are opting for non-latex products, thereby inhibiting the growth of the market. Leading medical technology company Becton, Dickinson and Company has found that as many as 17 million people in the U.S. are allergic to latex.Competition is rather high in the medical disposables market, which often leads to diminishing prices of these products, including latex disposables. Shrinking or slowly increasing revenues are expected to hamper the growth of the global latex medical disposables market.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Addition of ACAM2000  , the only FDA-licensed smallpox vaccine, expands and diversifies Emergents portfolio of medical countermeasures and is synergistic with companys existing smallpox countermeasure offering

, the only FDA-licensed smallpox vaccine, expands and diversifies Emergents portfolio of medical countermeasures and is synergistic with companys existing smallpox countermeasure offering Company to assume responsibility for existing CDC contract with a remaining value of up to approximately $160 million for deliveries of ACAM2000 to the Strategic National Stockpile

All-cash consideration of $97.5 million upfront and up to $27.5 million in near-term contingent regulatory and manufacturing-related milestones

Transaction expected to be accretive beginning with anticipated product deliveries in 2018 following FDA licensure of U.S.-based manufacturing facility

GAITHERSBURG, Md., July 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the ACAM2000, (Smallpox (Vaccinia) Vaccine, Live) business of Sanofi in an all-cash transaction with a total value of up to $125 million, consisting of $97.5 million upfront and up to $27.5 million in near-term contingent regulatory and manufacturing-related milestones.

Upon the closing of this transaction, Emergent will acquire:

ACAM2000  , (Smallpox (Vaccinia) Vaccine, Live), the only vaccine licensed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for active immunization against smallpox disease for persons determined to be at high risk for smallpox infection;

, (Smallpox (Vaccinia) Vaccine, Live), the only vaccine licensed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for active immunization against smallpox disease for persons determined to be at high risk for smallpox infection; An existing 10-year contract originally valued at up to $425 million with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with a remaining value of up to approximately $160 million for deliveries of ACAM2000 to the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS);

A cGMP bulk manufacturing facility and a lease to a cGMP fill/finish facility, both U.S.-based, along with the existing staff of approximately 100 employees.

Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi, president and chief executive officer of Emergent BioSolutions, stated, This transaction diversifies our portfolio and broadens our countermeasure franchise with a vaccine that is being stockpiled both in the U.S. and internationally. We expect it to meaningfully contribute to revenue growth in 2018 and advance our efforts towards achieving our goal of $1 billion in total revenue by 2020. We further anticipate that ACAM2000 will help us achieve our goal of generating more than 10% of total revenue from international markets. This acquisition fits squarely within our core strategy and business focus, and we look forward to closing this transaction and to integrating this business into our operations.

Strategic Rationale

This transaction supports Emergents plan to grow through the acquisition of revenue-generating products and businesses, leverages its core competencies in manufacturing and government contracting, and reinforces the companys strategic focus on providing preparedness solutions for public health threats. The addition of ACAM2000 expands the companys portfolio of only-in-class products, diversifies its portfolio of medical countermeasures against Category A bioterrorism agents, and is synergistic with its existing smallpox countermeasure offering, specifically VIGIV [Vaccinia Immune Globulin Intravenous (Human)], the only FDA-licensed therapeutic for certain complications from smallpox vaccination.

Upon the closing of the transaction, Emergent will assume responsibility for an existing 10-year CDC contract, which will expire and be up for renewal or extension in 2018. The original contract, valued at up to $425 million, called for the delivery of ACAM2000 to the SNS and establishing U.S.-based manufacturing of ACAM2000. This required the tech transfer of the upstream portion of the production process from Austria to a U.S.-based manufacturing facility. Sanofi is in the process of completing this tech transfer to the cGMP bulk manufacturing facility to be acquired in this transaction. Emergent anticipates that a supplemental Biologics License Application for licensure of this facility will be filed in the second half of 2017. Upon closing, Emergent will assume all responsibilities under the CDC contract, including completing the FDA licensure process and the fulfillment of all remaining product deliveries to the SNS valued at up to approximately $160 million, subject to the availability of government funding and the exercise of contract options. The company anticipates that product deliveries will resume in 2018, following expected FDA licensure of the U.S.-based manufacturing facility. The company expects that this transaction will be accretive beginning with product deliveries following FDA licensure of the facility. The company intends to negotiate a follow-on, multi-year contract with the U.S. government to ensure the continued supply of ACAM2000 to the SNS.

Emergent expects that this transaction will enhance its contract manufacturing operations through the addition of live viral manufacturing and fill/finish capabilities and the execution of a contract manufacturing agreement to supply bulk drug substance for one of Sanofis commercial vaccines.

This transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions including antitrust regulatory approval, is expected to close in 2017.

Cowen is acting as financial advisor to Emergent in this transaction.

About ACAM2000

ACAM2000 is the primary smallpox vaccine designated for use in a bioterrorism emergency, with more than 230 million doses having been supplied to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile. ACAM2000 is also licensed in Australia and Singapore, and is currently stockpiled both in the U.S. and internationally.

About Smallpox

Smallpox is a highly contagious disease caused by the variola virus, a member of the Orthopox virus family. According to the CDC, it is one of the most devastating diseases with a mortality rate as high as 30%. Smallpox is classified by the CDC as a Category A bioterrorism agent and the U.S. government continues to invest in countermeasures to protect the nation from this threat. Governments around the world are also taking precautionary measures to be ready to deal with a potential smallpox outbreak.

Conference Call and Webcast

Emergent will host a conference call to discuss this acquisition on July 14, 2017 at 8:00 am eastern. The conference call will be accessible by dialing 1.855.766.6521 and providing confirmation number 24783897. The call will also be webcast, accessible from the companys website at www.emergentbiosolutions.com, under Investors.

A replay of the conference call will be accessible approximately one hour following the conclusion of the call by dialing 1.855.859.2056 and using the passcode 24783897. The replay will be available through July 28, 2017 on the companys website www.emergentbiosolutions.com, under Investors.

About Emergent BioSolutions

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. is a global life sciences company seeking to protect and enhance life by focusing on providing specialty products for civilian and military populations that address accidental, intentional, and naturally emerging public health threats. Through our work, we envision protecting and enhancing 50 million lives with our products by 2025. Additional information about the company may be found at emergentbiosolutions.com. Follow us @emergentbiosolu.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements, other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding the expected closing of the transaction, expected FDA licensure of the U.S. manufacturing facility for ACAM2000, the anticipated delivery schedule under the existing CDC contract, the potential opportunities and financial impact of the transaction, and any other statements containing the words believes, expects, anticipates, intends, plans, targets, forecasts, estimates and similar expressions are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current intentions, beliefs and expectations regarding future events. We cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will be accurate. Investors should realize that if underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could differ materially from our expectations. Investors are, therefore, cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release, and, except as required by law, we do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement to reflect new information, events or circumstances.

There are a number of important factors that could cause the companys actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including uncertainties as to the satisfaction of closing conditions with respect to the transaction, including the timing and receipt of third-party and regulatory approvals; our ability to successfully integrate the business and realize the benefits of the transaction; the timing of expected FDA approval of the U.S. manufacturing facility for ACAM2000; our ability to extend or to otherwise deliver under the ACAM2000 contract with the CDC upon its expiration in 2018; the timing and yearly volume of product deliveries to the CDC once such deliveries have resumed under the current contract; the availability of funding and the exercise of options under the current contract for ACAM2000; and our ability to secure a follow-on, multi-year contract with the CDC.

The foregoing sets forth many, but not all, of the factors that could cause actual results to differ from our expectations in any forward-looking statement. Investors should consider this cautionary statement, as well as the risk factors identified in our periodic reports filed with the SEC, when evaluating our forward-looking statements.
Sustainable Palm Oil Market Analysis and Forecast Study for 2016-2026

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Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil extracted from the reddish pulp of the oil palms. Sustainable Palm oil is naturally reddish in color because it has the component of high beta carotene. Sustainable palm oil means the palm oil which is manufactured under the guidance and rule of the Roundtable on sustainable palm oil (RSPO). To produce certified sustainable palm oil, manufactures has to follow the environmental and social criteria set by RSPO. It can also be kept in the room temperature. Palm oil also contains very little cholesterol. It is also used in products where animal fats are not accepted for the religion issues. It has been noticed that the palm oil is used in several industries to make the ultimate product. Those industries are also growing. So the demand of the palm oil will be more. So the market will expand very fast in the stipulated period of time.Global Sustainable palm oil Market Dynamics:-The market of sustainable palm oil market is anticipated to be driven by the various used of the product in a different way. It has a great cooking properties, even it can be used in the high temperature. Its smooth and creamy texture and having no smell make it a perfect ingredient for many recipes like it is used in the bakery (specially for biscuits). It has a natural perspective effect which helps the longevity of the food byresisting the oxidation that spoils them. It is also the highest producing vegetable oil crop which makes it very efficient. It needs less land required by other oil crops to produce same quantity of oil. It makes this cheaper than the other oil in the market. Sustainable palm oil is also used in the cosmetic industry. Sustainable Palm oil ingredients are used in the skin care products, make up products. Due to have the rules and regulations of RSPO the producers are not able to destroy the environment and wild life. It keeps the social interest towards sustainable palm oil production and the conflict cannot be created between the communities and workers. Palm oil is available as an ingredients such as palm kernel oil, palm kernel stearin, palm kernel olein, partially hydrogenated palm oil, asorbyl palmitate, Palmate, Sodium Laureth Sulphate etc. Palm oil used as a frying fat for many food items, as a shortening in bakery products.Request For Report Sample@Global Sustainable Palm oil Market Segmentation:Sustainable palm oil market can be segmented on the basis of application of the palm oil such as food, soap and detergents, pet food and cosmetics. Then food also can be sub segmented such as bakery, ice cream & other frozen desserts, confectionery products and margarine. Palm oil market also can be segmented on the basis of types of the palm oil availability in the market such as palm kernel oil, red palm oil, fractional palm oil, white palm oil.Global Sustainable palm oil Market: Regional Outlook:Geographically, the global palm oil industry can be divided by major regions which include North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa. Indonesia and Malaysia captured the highest market share in terms of the production of palm oil. Other production countries are Thailand, Columbia, Nigeria and Ecuador. China got the first position in terms of consumption of palm oil followed by EU, India, Indonesia and United States. Malaysia was the highest exporter of palm oil.Visit For TOC@Global sustainable palm oil Market Players:The major players identified across the value chain of global sustainable palm oil market include New Britain palm oil limited, Golden agri resources limited, IOI corporation Berhad, Wilmer international limited, Cargill, SIPEF group Belgium, Kulim berhad, Sime Darby plantation sendirian Berhad, Hap seng Plantation Holdings Berhad, Kuala lampur kepong Berhad.and United Plantation BerhadABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Battery Management System Market Anticipated to Surge at a Tremendous Pace during the Period of 2015  2025

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Environment sustainability is the main concern, which is increasing the adoption of electric/ hybrid vehicles across the globe. These vehicles require complicated battery management systems mainly to guarantee efficient working of vehicle components. This is primarily expected to drive global automotive battery management systems market. Considering this aspect, a new research report with a title Battery Management System Market - Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2015  2025 has been recently added to the vast online repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE). This report on battery management system market analyzes the current status as well as future prospects of the market across the globe.Request For Sample Report:This research report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market and includes numerous thoughtful insights, historical information and statistically validated and industry maintained market numbers. It also entails estimations using a reliable set of methodologies and assumptions. The report is a collection of qualitative and quantitative analysis by industry researchers, first-hand information, inputs from industry experts, and industry participants across key points in the value chain. It also provides a comprehensive analysis of macroeconomic pointers, parent market trends and governing aspects, along with market attractiveness for each segment. The report also highlights the impact of numerous market factors on market segments and different geographies.Automotive Battery Management System Market is segmented on the basis of parameters such as vehicle type, sales channel, connection topology and connectivity. Based on vehicle type, global automotive battery management systems market is segmented into Passenger vehicles, Light Commercial vehicles, Heavy Commercial vehicles and Two Wheelers. On the basis of sales channel, global automotive battery management systems market is divided into Original Equipment Manufacturer and Aftermarket. On the basis of topology, the market is segregated into centralized (multi wire system), distributed (single wire systems) and modular (special systems). Geographically, the global automotive battery management system market is segregated into Western Europe, North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan, Middle East and Africa. The North America automotive battery management systems market is the biggest market with the highest consumer base.Browse Full Report with TOC :Some of the key players profiled in the report are Elithion, Inc., Ewert Energy Systems, Inc., Ashwoods Energy Ltd., Ventec SAS, Intersil Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, LG Chem Power Inc., Atmel Corporation, Midtronics, Inc., Toshiba Corporation, Lithium Balance A/S, Mastervolt B.V., Intersil Corporation, Texas Instruments Inc. and Navitas Systems LLC.Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.State Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:
Automotive Starter And Alternator Market Intelligence with Competitive Landscape

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Modern day automobiles widely use starters and alternators. These are generally used in diesel and gasoline engines. The rising investments on R&D by key players in the market coupled with acquisitions and mergers is expected to make the global automotive starter and alternator market flourish in near future. The manufacturers of automotive starters and alternators are expanding their businesses to emerging economies like China, India, Russia, etc. as these countries are focused on development of automotive sectors in order to serve the rising demand across the globe.Electric starters are expected to dominate the segment during the forecast period. The different types of electric starters used in automotive sector are gear reduction, inertia starter, folo-thru drive and moveable pole shoe. Based on alternator type, the claw pole alternators are projected to witness significant growth in near future.Automotive Starter and Alternator Market: DriversOne of the major factors driving the growth of the global automotive starter and alternator market is increase in production of vehicles across the globe. According to OICA, the total vehicle production increased by around 1% in 2015. Moreover, increasing adoption of electric vehicles due to environment concerns such as rising air pollution, is further expected to escalate the demand for automotive starter and alternator market during the forecast period. Additionally, increasing preference for light weight and fuel efficient vehicles is further projected to escalate the demand for automotive starters and alternators in near future.Request For Report Sample:Automotive Starter and Alternator Market: RestraintsThe increasing production of hybrid vehicles is anticipated to hamper the growth of the global automotive starter and alternator market. The hybrid vehicles use one or more motors which ignite with the help of internal combustion engine. Due to this reason, these vehicles have eliminated the use of automotive starters and alternators which, in turn, is expected to restrict their demand in near future.Automotive Starter and Alternator Market: SegmentationThe global automotive starter and alternator market can be segmented on the basis of starter type, alternator type and vehicle type. On the basis of starter type, the market can be segmented into electric, hydraulic and pneumatic. On the basis of alternators, the market can be further segmented into claw pole alternator and cylindrical alternator. On the basis of vehicles, the global starter and alternator market can be further segmented into light commercial vehicles, heavy commercial vehicles and passenger cars.Automotive Starter and Alternator Market: Region wise OutlookBased on regions, Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the automotive starter and alternator market over the forecast period. Asia Pacific, led by emerging economies like China and India, is projected to be the dominant region during the forecast period due to the presence of continuously increasing automobile manufacturing companies in this region. North America, led by U.S. is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period. The increasing demand for starters and alternators in North America, owing to rising production of vehicles, coupled with continuous investment in this market is expected to fuel the demand for automotive starters and alternators in near future. The automotive starter and alternator market in Middle East & Africa and Latin America is anticipated to witness steady growth due to sluggish demand in this region. However, increasing demand for vehicles is expected to create lucrative growth opportunities for automotive starters and alternators in near future.Request For TOC:Automotive Starter and Alternator Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the market participants identified in the global automotive starter and alternator market are mentioned below:Valeo SADenso CorporationRobert Bosch GmbHNingbo zhongwang auto fittings Co.,LTDHitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd.Mitsubishi Electric CorporationASIMCO Technologies LtdHella KGaA Hueck & Co.BBB IndustriesUnipoint Electric MFG Co., Ltd.Remy International, Inc.Lucas Electrical LimitedMitsuba CorporationABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global liquid encapsulants market is driven by the Growing Use of Electronics and Semiconductor Devices in Everyday Life

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For electronic components firm structuring of electronic component which are shock and moisture proof are considered to be essential for smooth functioning. To avoid these issues electronics manufacturers are increasingly using products called liquid encapsulants. Liquid encapsulants provide additional protection to the electronics components liquid encapsulants are considered to be the better alternative to the molding in high volume manufacturing processes used through automated dispensing equipment. Growing consumer demand of electronics equipment and accumulative reach of technology in everyday life are considered to be the prime factors for the growth of the Liquid encapsulants market.Fill the form to gain deeper insights on this market @Primarily, there are two types of liquid encapsulants i.e. glob top and dam-and-fill. In addition to the shock and moisture protection the liquid encapsulants also provide excellent film formability, high voltage resistance, impregnation, migration resistance. Some of the Liquid encapsulants are also used to provide reduce wafer warps.Global liquid encapsulants market is primarily driven by the growing use of electronics and semiconductor devices in everyday life. Electronics and semiconductor devices are progressively being used in healthcare, transportation, industrial automation and consumer electronics. Global liquid encapsulants market is driven by strong demand in consumer electronics primarily driven by changing lifestyle and growing per capita income. The growing use of complex structures in semiconductors for electronic and electrical application is anticipated to drive the global lencapsulants market. Miniaturization trend of consumer electronic devices is also anticipated to catalyze the demand for liquid encapsulants. On the other hand the sluggish growth of end use sectors in few regions might acts a restraint for global liquid encapsulants market.The opportunity for the global liquid encapsulants market lies in increasing the application horizon in electronics and electrical device manufacturing. Increasing use of semiconductors in transportation and industrial automation is considered to be the major opportunity for the global liquid encapsulants market players.Browse Market Research Report @The global liquid encapsulants market is segmented on the basis of the material, product, application and geography. On the basis of material the global liquid encapsulants market is segmented into epoxy modified resins, epoxy resins, hardners colorants and others. On the basis of product the global liquid encapsulants market is segmented into sensors, semiconductors, integrated circuits, optoelectronics and others .On the basis of application the global liquid encapsulants market is segmented into consumer electronics, industrial electronics, automotive, industrials automation, telecommunication and others.On the basis of geography the global Liquid encapsulants Market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Latin America. Asia Pacific is considered to be the leading consumer and manufacture of global Liquid encapsulants Market by volume and value. Japan, China, South Korea and others are considered to be the major consumers of the global Liquid encapsulants Market. Followed by Asia Pacific North America is considered to be the major market for the global Liquid encapsulants Market primarily due to growth in consumer electronics segment. Europe is considered to be a leading consumer especially due to growth in application sectors such as automotive, industrial equipments and healthcare equipments. Latin America is considered to show sluggish growth in the global Liquid encapsulants market. Middle East and Africa due to its growing economies is anticipated to contribute the growth in liquid encapsulants market.Some of the key market participants in the global liquid encapsulants market are Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd., KYOCERA Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd., Sanyu Rec Co. Ltd., Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., NITTO DENKO CORPORATION., NAGASE & CO., LTD., Epic Resins and Others.About TMRTMR is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Plywood Market Size to Grow Steadily during Forecast period (2017 - 2027)

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Plywood is a type of wood product, an engineered wood. It is a panel made of wood, manufactured from thin sheets of wood veneer that are stuck together. Due to its improved qualities, such as resistance to shrinkage, splitting, cracking and twisting, it finds application as a substitute for wood. Plywood also displays high strength as compared to plain wood and it is flexible, workable, reusable and inexpensive.Rising construction activity worldwide, increase in the number of homes and the rising application of plywood in the interior designing of home floorings, walls, and ceilings, especially in high-cost residential spaces, along with a growing furniture industry are expected to drive the global plywood market for the next few years.The advantages of using plywood as a low-cost yet durable substitute for raw wood, along with its growing demand make it imperative to study the global plywood market.Market SegmentationThe global plywood market can be segmented in several ways, two of the prominent ones being on the basis of product type and application type.On the basis of product type, the global plywood market is segmented as follows:Commercial plySemi-waterproof plyWaterproof plyRequest For Report Sample:On the basis of application type, the global plywood market is segmented as follows:Softwood plywoodHardwood plywoodTropical plywoodDecorative plywoodKey Trends, DriversIn recent times, manufacturers of commercial vehicles require increasing quantities of chequered plywood for applications in automotive flooring. This is expected to propel global plywood market growth in the near future.Plywood also finds applications in the marine industry for the construction of decks. The structural panel industry has also been a major consumer of plywood, thereby driving the market.However, the cost associated with plywood is relatively high as compared to oriented strand board (OSB), which provides similar features to that of plywood. Thus, growth rate of the plywood market could be hampered as a result of a shift of usage from plywood to oriented strand board (OSB).It should be noted that the North American region has been consistently dominant globally, in terms of the market demand for plywood. This has been primarily due to high plywood consumption by the construction sector. In terms of plywood demand, North America is followed by the European region, which is mainly driven by the high demand from Germany and the U.K. However, the region displaying a relatively high market growth is Asia Pacific, as China, India and Japan have been witnessing massive construction, thereby driving the demand for plywood applications to a considerable extent.It could be observed that countries with rich forest resources and wood plantations, such as India, Brazil and South-East Asian countries have a potential to be key suppliers of plywood in the near future, as they could look at possible vertical integration to produce plywood after making relevant infrastructural investments for the same, thereby driving the supply side of the plywood market. For instance, the rich and varied forest wealth of India with a variety of deciduous, coniferous, tropical and evergreen trees could be an important resource for the wood panel industry in the future. Also, the growing indigenous demand for plywood in India as a result of rising disposable income among the growing middle and affluent class and the growing infrastructure in recent times is expected to make India an important consumer of plywood in the near future.Request For TOC:However, it should be noted that the plywood demand growth has been facing resistance from the packaging industry, which has been finding preferences of other materials, such as metals, plastics and cardboards.Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global plywood market are as follows:Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd.Boise Cascade LLCAtlantic Plywood CorporationEksons Corp. BhdCentury Plyboard (India) Ltd.Greenply Industries Ltd.Georgia-Pacific CorporationUniply Industries Ltd.Weyerhaeuser CompanyJaya Tiasa Holdings BerhadRoseburg Forest Products Co.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Glass Tableware Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024

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Glass tableware comprises of products which are used for serving food for dining, and other purposes as well. They also form a part of table setting. The global glass tableware market has passed through a number of qualitative and quantitative changes in the past few years. More than 400 manufacturers are involved in the production of glass tableware products at the global level. However, quite a few of them have merged into one or split into two during the course of time. The sales of glass tableware products have escalated in the past few years with Asia Pacific being the dominant market for the same in 2015.Request For Sample Report:Previously, the purchase of glass tableware products was restricted to the upper class population and a part of the upper middle class population, since they were considered as premium products. However, in recent times, these products have gained access to consumers across all income groups, which are primarily fuelled due to the increasing disposable income of the consumers. This factor is expected to lead the glass tableware market during the forecast period.Global Glass Tableware Market: Drivers and RestraintsIncreasing investment by the international hotel brands in the developing countries is one of the major factors responsible for the growth of the glass tableware market at present. Rising disposable income of the consumers which has resulted in increasing expenditure on travel and tourism, which in turn has resulted in the growth of the hotels industry. The impact of this is expected to be high in the long run.However, increasing raw material prices are expected to hinder the growth of the glass tableware market. The glass tableware industry pay high tariffs on gas compared to the other industries. High cost of soda ash, which contributes more than 30% of the overall cost production of glass products, which is the key factor hindering the growth of the market at present and the impact of this restraint is likely to remain high throughout the forecast period.Global Glass Tableware Market: SegmentationThe global glass tableware market has been bifurcated on the basis or product types into beverageware, tableware, baby bottles and others. In terms of revenue, tableware held the major market share. Increasing repeat purchases for tableware products is the key factor for the high market share of this segment. Beverageware held the second largest market share in 2015 and is expected to retain its position throughout the forecast period. However, the others segment which are inclusive of cookpots, roasters and casseroles among others held a considerable market share.The beverageware segment has been further classified into tea pots, coffee and tea jugs, pitchers and coffee brewers, while the tableware segment has been classified into glass, cups and mugs among others.Global Glass Tableware Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, Asia Pacific dominated the global glass tableware market in 2015. High population count combined with the rising middle class population in this region is a key factor which is complementing the growth of the glass tableware market in Asia Pacific. India, China and Japan are the frontrunners for this market in Asia Pacific. Rapid urbanization which has resulted in the increasing per capita income of the consumers is a key factor boosting the demand for glass tableware market in countries such as India, China and Japan. Further, transition in the lifestyle of the consumers leading to the increasing inclination for trendy glass tableware products is another key factor complementing the growth of the glass tableware market in Asia Pacific. North America and Europe are expected to exhibit a healthy growth during the forecast period as well.Key Players Mentioned in this Report are:The global glass tableware market is marked by some intense competition from the major players operating in this market. Frequent mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and partnerships, product innovations and geographical expansions are some of the key strategies adopted by these leading players operating in this market. Libbey Inc., Arc International, Bormioli Rocco SpA, Anchor Hocking LLC and WMF Group are some of the key players operating in this market.Browse Full Report with TOC :The global glass tableware market has been segmented on the basis of product types and region. The report provides the current market size and anticipates its status over the forecast period.The report also analyzes factors driving and inhibiting growth of the glass tableware market. The report will help manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors to understand the present and future trends in this market and formulate strategies accordingly.The report segments the glass tableware market as:Global Glass Tableware Market, by Product Type:BeveragewareTea PotsCoffee/Tea JugsPitchersCoffee BrewersBaby BottlesOthersCookpotsRoastersCasserolesBakewareBowlFood WarmerMeasuring JugsGlobal Glass Tableware Market, by Region:North AmericaS.Rest of North AmericaEuropeWestern EuropeK.GermanyFranceBeneluxRest of Western EuropeSouthern EuropeItalyRest of Southern EuropeEastern EuropeI.S.RussiaRest of C.I.S.Northern EuropeNORDICRest of Northern EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanRest of Asia PacificMiddle EastA.E.Rest of Middle EastAfricaNorth AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaLatin AmericaBrazilRest of Latin AmericaMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.State Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:
Pickle Market is Anticipated to Witness the Fastest Growth Rate during the Forecast Period of 2017-2025

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Pickle is form of a relish that is made up of either vegetables or fruits that is preserved in brine or vinegar. Pickles are made my immersing the fruits or vegetables in the brine or vinegar solution and stored for a period of time during which the ingredients goes through the pickling process and acquire the desired taste. Pickles are usually sweet or sour in taste and are often spicy. They acquire the taste of the key ingredient which is the vegetable or fruit of which the pickle is made. Pickles are consumed both as savory items as well as accompaniments with main courses especially in the Indian cuisine. The global pickle market is segregated on the basis of type, distribution channel and region. Based on type, the global market for pickles is segmented into fruit and vegetables. Fruit pickles are further sub-divided into mango, cucumber, orange and others. Vegetable pickles are further sub-divided into chili, cabbage, carrots, bell peppers and others. Fruit pickles held majority market share in 2016 and is anticipated to hold its dominant market share throughout the forecast period.For more information on this report, fill the form @Vegetable pickles are anticipated to witness the fastest growth rate during the forecast period of 2017-2025. This is attributed to increased demand for these types of pickles in the Asia Pacific region as an accompaniment with food during meals. Based on distribution channel the global pickle market is segregated into supermarkets/hypermarkets, departmental stores and convenience stores. Supermarkets/hypermarkets held majority market share in 2016 and is anticipated to hold its position throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to large scale business that they do which leads to bigger revenue generation. This segment is also anticipated to witness the fastest growth rate during the forecast period of 2017-2025 owing to repeat business that they do through customers.Major drivers driving the global pickle market include health benefits that pickles offer. Apart from being a taste enhancer in everyday foods, pickles also have numerous health benefits which is triggering market growth globally. Pickles are proven antioxidants which prevents free radicals to attack the human body. They also help in digestion as they have probiotic properties in them. They are also a source of natural nutrients such as iron, vitamin, calcium, potassium and others. They are also proven to be reducing ulcers and provide protection. Therefore, they are driving the market positively. In addition, rising awareness about GMO products is also triggering market growth for organic pickles.The growing awareness about the harmful effects of GMO products is shifting the demand trends towards organic pickles which is in turn, triggering market growth. Lack of use of preservatives in organic pickles reduces their shelf-life due to which they cannot be stored for a longer period of time. This is acting as a major restraint to the global pickle market. Rising demand for pickles in countries of Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa will provide great opportunity to the global pickle market.Browse Market Research Report @Geographically, the global market for pickles is segregated to North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. North America and Latin America combined makes the most dominant region in the global market for pickles. This is attributed to larger consumption of pickles among the consumers in North America due to their differentiating taste and taste enhancing capabilities. Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness the fastest growth rate during the forecast period owing to increased demand for pickles among consumers as a savory product and also as food enhancers. Developing nations such as China and India are showing substantial growth rate in this region.Major players of the global pickle market include ADF Foods (India), Del Monte Foods (U.S.), Mt. Olive Pickle Company (U.S.), Kraft Foods Inc. (U.S.), Reitzel International (Switzerland), Pinnacle Foods, Inc. (U.S) and Mitoku Company, Ltd. (Japan) among others.About TMRTMR is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Smart Parking Systems Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2022

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Smart parking system provides real-time information about the availability of parking space in a particular location, thereby enabling hassle-free vehicle parking while saving on time, cost, and fuel. It consists of low-cost sensors, real-time data collection and analytics, and automated payment systems that allow people to find parking in desired locations and pay for it in advance.Once deployed, the smart parking system helps in reducing exhaust emissions from cars in urban cities by reducing the needless circling of city blocks in the search of parking space. It also efficiently manages the availability of parking space for cities and controls illegal parking.Request For Sample Report:The rapid growth in the number of vehicles worldwide is increasing the scarcity of parking space, which is further magnifying the need for smart and innovative parking systems. Whether at airports or shopping centers, parking issues are a regular occurrence, in turn hurting the local business and affecting the quality of life of the city residents. These intelligent parking management systems provide high levels of convenience to the drivers while simplifying and automating the parking site operations. Deploying smart parking systems in cities requires data collection and management, integration with mobile phones, and various software and hardware innovations. Furthermore, there is a need for cooperation among various parking stakeholders such as off and on-street parking operators, transport authorities, municipalities, as well as customers. The smart parking market is growing significantly with numerous advanced solutions being adopted by major global cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Stockholm, Shanghai, Beijing, and Sao Paulo. In the long run, smart parking can significantly transform these and other cities by making them friendlier to citizens. Smart parking systems are expected to open up opportunities for the reuse of commercial as well as municipal parking garages Hence, smart parking systems contribute toward making urban cities cleaner, greener, compact, and thereby more freely walkable and drivable.This research report provides in-depth analysis of the global smart parking systems market based on parking site types, components, application areas, and geography. In terms of geographical regions, the report segments the global smart parking systems market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America; these are analyzed in terms of revenue generation. North America is further segmented into the U.S. and Rest of North America, while Europe is divided into EU7, CIS, and Rest of Europe. Moreover, the analysis for Asia Pacific is subdivided into Japan, China, South Asia, Australasia, and Rest of Asia Pacific. Likewise, MEA is further segmented into GCC countries, South Africa, and Rest of MEA, while Latin America is subdivided into Brazil and Rest of Latin America.The report analyzes the factors that drive and restrain the growth of the smart parking systems market. The report also identifies prospective growth opportunities, prevailing market trends, and major strategies enhancing the popularity of smart parking systems. It also provides market estimates and forecasts for all the segments in terms of revenue. The global smart parking systems market is categorized based on parking site types as on-street parking and off-street parking. The market is also segmented on the basis of components that include sensor and network hardware, software, and services. The report further subdivides the smart parking services market into system integration and installation, parking management, and maintenance. This research report provides complete insight into different application areas of the smart parking systems market including airports, government and municipalities, and corporate and commercial institutions.Browse Full Report with TOC :The report also includes profiles of major players engaged in providing these smart parking systems. Key business strategies adopted by the major players, their market positioning, and various recent developments have also been identified in the research report. Besides, market positioning of key players in the smart parking systems market has also been provided. The major players in the smart parking systems market include Streetline, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., ParkMe, Inc., Urbiotica, Skidata AG, Amano McGann, Inc., Swarco AG, Smart Parking Ltd, Nedap N.V., and Parkmobile, LLC.The global smart parking systems market is segmented as below:Smart Parking Systems MarketBy Parking Site TypeOn-Street ParkingOn-Street ParkingBy ComponentSensor and Network HardwareSoftware (Management and Analytics Software and Mobile Applications)ServicesSystem Integration and InstallationParking ManagementMaintenanceBy End-use IndustryAirportsGovernment and MunicipalitiesCorporate and Commercial InstitutionsBy GeographyNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificLatin AmericaMiddle East and AfricaMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.State Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:
Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Treatment Market Research Study for the Period 2016-2026

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A syncytial virus is a multi-nucleated virus which results from multiple cell fusions. Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has a size of around 120 to 200 nm and is an enveloped virus with a linear minus-sense RNA genome. Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes complications such as bronchiolitis, asthma, chronic respiratory tract infections and acute otitis media in patients. Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infects the lungs and breathing passages. Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is experienced as a mild cold in healthy individuals while it can cause serious complications in infants and children younger than one year.Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Treatment Market: Drivers & RestraintsHuman respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a syncytial virus which causes respiratory tract infections, particularly the lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children. The prophylaxis for Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) treatment is in the form of medications. Infants and children become weak after recovery and continue to spread the virus for the next one to three weeks. The Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection can infect people of any ages but the severity is low in adults while infants and children with weakened immune systems show high severity of the infection. The growing number of patient cases is expected to drive the market growth while the lack of appropriate in-vitro facilities for conducting research studies for newer treatment alternatives is projected to hamper the market growth with a high impact over 2026.Request For Report Sample@Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Treatment Market: SegmentationHuman Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Treatment Market is classified on the basis of treatment, end use and geography.Based on treatment, the global Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Treatment Market is segmented into the following:Supportive CareHospital CareBased on end use, the global Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Treatment Market is segmented into the following:Hospitals500 Beds200-400 BedsLess than 200 BedsAmbulatory Surgical CentresClinicsHuman Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Treatment Market: OverviewAs per the World Health Organization statistics, Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes 64 Mn infections and 160,000 deaths annually. Natural infection with Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) induces immunity against the virus which decreases over time. Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections are recurrent. Currently, Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection lacks an approved vaccine therapy owing to limited number of studies in vitro and inability to culture the virus and maintain it in a stable state. As a result, the global Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) market is anticipated to grow at a moderate CAGR during the forecast period from 2016 to 2026.Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Treatment Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on geographic regions, global radiofrequency ablation system market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. According to the statistics of U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, it is estimated that more than half the total children population globally get infected with Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) within the first two years of birth. Owing to the viral infection outbreaks in winter and spring in North America, the diagnosis by a physical examination, chest x-rays to check for bronchiolitis, skin monitoring, blood tests for white cell counts and other laboratory tests for checking the respiratory secretions and treatment of the viral infection through medications is expected to drive market growth in the region through the forecast period and contribute significantly to the global market.Visit For TOC@Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Treatment Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market players identified in global Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Treatment Market are AstraZeneca, Arrow Therapeutics, Alnylam to name a few.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Ten Year Forecast of Disruptive Technologies in Tray Former Machines to 2025

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Players in the packaging industry are deeply vested in adoption of equipment and machineries that support their output capacity without impacting the quality of packaged products. Machines that can deliver production at high speeds, and can quickly adapt to new packaging formats continue to remain in great demand. Tray former machines are such critical constituents in packaging operations that contribute towards achieving steady production of packaging products in the face of surplus demand.Browse Market Research Report @Equipped with easy handling mechanism and forming & transferring convenience, tray former machines can produce multiple types of trays for packaging purposes. Importance of durable, precisely-built trays in further packaging operations fuels the significance of adopting an effective tray former machine. Manufacturers of tray former machines are catering to such critical needs of packaging companies by delivering advanced offerings that can improve their operational efficiency, and ultimately, enhance their production capacity.Tray Former Machines Market: Market DynamicsThe global market for tray former machines is witnessing a boost from emergence of innovative tray designs. From consumer products to industrial goods, trays in the form of different sizes and designs have a wide scope of application. Forming flexibility provided by a single unit of tray former machine eliminates the costs of changing equipment in the view of renewed tray designs. New and advanced tray former machines can easily incorporate such designs and produce defectless trays within a cost-effective time period.Apart from innovative tray designs, the global market for tray former machines is also witnessing favorable growth accounted by advancements in packaging materials. Demand for trays made from composite, hybrid and eco-friendly materials is gaining traction, compelling packaging companies to adopt an all-embracing tray former machine and avoid any abrupt makeovers in their packaging infrastructure. Tray former machines can replace existing raw materials with more effective substitutes, without creating complications in production of trays.For more information on this report, fill the form @A key challenge, however, is requirement of high capital investment. Tray former machines can successfully reduce expenditure of packaging companies under evolving environments, but procuring them in the first place entails high costs. Expensive price of almost every tray former machine available commercially is expected to impede the markets growth. In addition to this, rising demand for trays made out of corrugated materials is also restraining the growth of global tray former machines market. In harsh environment, properties of corrugated materials tend to change, becoming soft in wet conditions and hard in arid weather. Tray former machines are unable to retain production quality while using such materials.Tray Former Machine Market: Market SegmentationThe global tray former machine market is segmented on the basis of type of machines, their end-use, and regions.On machine-type basis, the tray former machine market is bifurcated into:AutomaticManualBased on the end use of these tray, the market is segmented into:Bakery productsAgricultural productsPoultry & fishRed meatPharmaceutical productsProcessed foodTray Former Machine Market - Regional Segmentation:Europe (Eastern Europe and Western Europe)North America (US and Canada)Middle East & Africa (MEA)Latin AmericaAsia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ)JapanA well-established and modernized retail sector across US and Canada is factoring the dominance of North America in the global tray former machines market. The demand for tray former machines is also expected to register high growth in global manufacturing hubs such as Latin America and the APEJ region. In developing regions of the world, rapid industrialization is expected to stimulate the adoption of tray former machines. Meanwhile, advanced technological infrastructure and favorable policies will attract manufacturers of tray former machine towards developed markets.Tray former Machine Market - Key Players:The global market for tray former machines is observing active participation of companies, namely, Bosch Corporation, Gebo Cermex, Radpak Fabryka Maszyn Pakuj?cych Sp, Grandi r. Srl, Wexxar Packaging, Inc., Adco Manufacturing, Tecnicam Srl, Lead Technology Ltd., Ixapack Global, Delta Packaging Industries, Gma Generale De Mecanique Appliquee Sas, Arpac Group, Iman Pack Inc., Lantec Uk Ltd, Hybernya Industrial, S.a. De c.v, Trepko (Uk) Limited, Meca Systeme Snp., Sacmi Packaging S.p.a, and Acmi Sa.About TMRTMR is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
AUSTIN, Texas, July 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mitratech, the leading provider of legal, compliance, and operational risk software solutions, today announced its Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Sam Monti has been recognized as 2017's Best CFO for the large, privately held business category by the Austin Business Journal.



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4c7471c2-e3b1-47d5-932d-bc4f0a0dd57b

Monti received his award during a ceremony in Austin on July 13, where he was honored alongside the winners in the small, medium, and non-profit categories, as well as past recipients of the award. Over the past 10 years, the Austin Business Journal has highlighted the key role that CFOs have played in the success of the companies they help to lead. Monti joins an esteemed group of honorees that includes the CFOs of iconic Austin brands like Whole Foods Market and HomeAway.

Sam has been such a critical part of Mitratechs success these past five years, and in so many ways. Hes brought vision and insight to the role, has developed a stellar team below him, and has been a key part of every strategic initiative we put in place to develop the best business in our space, said Jason Parkman, Chief Executive Officer at Mitratech. But most importantly, hes been a key partner as weve worked to build the culture that underlies the special business that Mitratech has become, one where transparency, continuous improvement, and ownership are embraced at every level.

As CFO and COO at Mitratech, Monti is responsible for all financial, human resources, security, and legal operations for the company. A 20-year veteran with deep experience in software, operations, contracts, international finance, mergers and acquisitions, and audit, Monti has been with Mitratech since 2012, and has seen the company through seven acquisitions in that time.

Im honored to receive this award from the Austin Business Journal and to be recognized alongside a number of exceptional peers, added Monti. Of course, none of this would be possible without my colleagues at Mitratech and my family, who I want to thank for the incredible support day in and day out.

To learn more about Mitratech and its leadership, visit www.mitratech.com.

ABOUT MITRATECH

Mitratech is a market-leading provider of legal, compliance, and operational risk solutions for more than 1,200 organizations of all sizes across the globe, representing almost 40 percent of the Fortune 500, and over 500,000 users in over 160 countries. Mitratechs portfolio of enterprise legal and risk management software includes: legal matter management, spend management, e-Billing, legal hold, contracts management, risk management, policy management, audit management, and health & safety management. To learn more, visit www.mitratech.com.
2017-2022 Soy Milk Report on Global and United States Market - Silk, West Soy

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This report studies the Soy Milk market status and outlook of global and United States, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global and United States market, and splits the Soy Milk market by product type and applications/end industries.The global Soy Milk market is valued at XX million USD in 2016 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions.North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Soy Milk. United States plays an important role in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2016 and will be xx million USD in 2022, with a CAGR of XX.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share (%) and growth Rate (%) of Soy Milk in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East and AfricaThe major players in global and United States Soy Milk market, including Silk, West Soy, Wegmans, Vitasoy, Pearl Soymilk, Lifeway Foods, Inc., Wild Harvest, Wildwood, So Good, So Nice, Organic Endensoy, Sammis Best, Natures place, Unisoya, Vermont Soy, NancysThe On the basis of product, the Soy Milk market is primarily split intoOriginal Plain SoymilkUnsweetened SoymilkOrganic SoymilkFlavored SoymilkOthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report coversAdultToddlerOthersTable of Contents2017-2022 Soy Milk Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications1 Methodology and Data Source1.1 Methodology/Research Approach1.1.1 Research Programs/Design1.1.2 Market Size Estimation1.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data TriangulationRead Comprehensive Overview of Report @2 Soy Milk Market Overview2.1 Soy Milk Product Overview2.2 Soy Milk Market Segment by Type2.2.1 Original Plain Soymilk2.2.2 Unsweetened Soymilk2.2.3 Organic Soymilk2.2.4 Flavored Soymilk3 Soy Milk Application/End Users3.1 Soy Milk Segment by Application/End Users3.1.1 Adult3.1.2 Toddler3.1.3 Others4 Soy Milk Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1 Global Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1.1 Global Soy Milk Market Size and CAGR by Regions (2012, 2016 and 2022)4.1.2 North America4.1.3 Asia-Pacific4.1.4 Europe4.1.5 South America4.1.6 Middle East and AfricaAbout UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Soaring Volume of Online Content Compels Telcos to Revise Digital Advertising Strategy

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Albany, NY, July 14: The publication, titled  Telco Digital Advertising Strategies: Leveraging Data, Technology and Content Assets to Generate Revenue, offers a holistic outlook on the role of telecom service providers in the worldwide mobile and digital advertising ecosystem.The study offers readers an overview of the opportunity available in digital advertising and the key trends that are globally impacting this market. The main business drivers are examined in detail and the participation of various players is studied. Valuable insights into the different revenue models of leading companies help clients formulate profitable decisions and strengthen their presence in the field digital advertising.Browse more details:One of the key factors driving spending on digital advertising is the explosive rate at which online content  written, video, and audio  has been growing and being consumed. Advertisers and publishers today are empowered by the growing adoption of automated advertising trading platforms and ongoing advancements in audience analytics. Equipped with this information, advertisers can take real-time decisions in order to improve the results of their marketing campaigns.Click to get more details with TOC in a PDF Format:value-added services by making the most of behavior-based analytics and authenticated user information. The premium content can also be integrated with big data analytics so as to improve sales. Telecom companies will also profit from becoming enablers for players in the ecosystem and for enterprises and by investing in open-architecture platforms. Customer loyalty can also be gained by investing advertising funding in free OTT services. In addition to this, telecom companies can set up horizontal partnerships beyond geographic boundaries and transform the digital advertising vendor landscape.The global telcos companies investing in impactful digital advertising strategies are Singtel, Telefnica, Verizon, Indosat Ooredoo, and AT&T among others. While some companies are focused on expanding their content arsenals to improve viewership, others are making efforts to acquire technology assets to as to strengthen their position in the field of advertising. A number of telecom companies are also striving to increase their revenue by offering diverse ad portfolios. The report finds that given the fast growing nature of the advertising industry, telcos are altering their business models to emerge as formidable contenders in the digital advertising market.The research report delves into the competitive landscape present in the global market and assesses some of the crucial elements. The research report also examines the value propositions of these companies, their competencies in the field of digital advertising, go-to-market strategy, and respective objective. The in-depth assessment of the how these companies are expected to lead in the coming years offers the readers of this research report a fresh perspective on market dynamics.About UsResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Market Intelligence with Competitive Landscape

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Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic condition that causes severe pain in legs, arms, feet, and hands or may involve the entire body. CRPS is commonly of two types, with similar symptoms and treatment. If Complex Regional Pain syndrome occurs after an injury without any nerve damage, it is known as Type I CRPS (also known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy). Type II CRPS occurs after a specific nerve injury or trauma. The prognosis of complex regional pain syndrome differs from person to person. In most cases, CRPS is mild and patient recovers gradually with time, and in some cases, the symptoms are severe, with long-term disability. CRPS occurs in both men and women, but women are more likely to be affected.The cause of the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is not well understood. In about 90% of cases, CRPS occurs due to injury or trauma. The common factor of injury includes limb immobilization, soft tissue injury, fracture, sprain or due to needlestick injuries caused during surgical procedures. Peripheral nerve abnormalities in patients with CRPS includes unmyelinated and lightly myelinated nerve fibers at the axon region that causes abnormal neurological conditions. CRPS is common in patients with inflammatory and autoimmune conditions as an elevated level of inflammatory chemicals such as cytokines are found in tissue with CRPS. Currently, genetic predisposition of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is not examined broadly. A study related to the familial occurrence of CRPS among Dutch patients resulted that CRPS may occur in a familial form, but inheritance pattern was unclear.Request For Report Sample@Diagnosis of CRPS depends upon the individuals medical history and the extent of symptoms. There are limited diagnostic methods available for CRPS. The incidence rates reveal that female are three times more affected than male. According to a study conducted in U.K, 1 in 3,800 people develops CRPS each year. CRPS can be treated by therapy (Rehabilitation Therapy, Psychotherapy) or medications such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids, and others.Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market: Drivers and RestrainsCurrently, there are no drugs approved by US FDA - for the treatment of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. However, physicians prescribed therapies and medicines to alleviate chronic pain. Recently U.S. Food and Drug administration, designated Neridronic acid breakthrough therapy, undergoing clinical trials for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. The drug has also received Fast-track and orphan drug designations from the FDA. Intense research and development, the rise in the incidence of CRPS cases, successful completion of clinical trials are anticipated to fuel the growth of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. The strict regulatory approval and the high cost of medication in the near future could restrain the growth of Complex Regional Pain syndrome market.Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market: SegmentationThe global complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) market has been classified on the basis of therapy type, route of administration, distribution channel, and geography.Based on Therapy Type, the Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market is segmented into following:Physical TherapyDrugsAnalgesicsAntidepressantsCorticosteroidsOthersSurgical sympathectomyIntrathecal drug pumpsSpinal cord stimulationBased on the Route of Administration, the global Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) market is divided into following:OralIntravenousBased on the distribution channel, the Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market is segmented into the following:Hospital PharmacyDrug StoresRetail PharmacyE-commerceComplex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market: OverviewNational Institutes of Health (NIH) is supporting research for CRPS on the brain and CNS by focusing on studying new approaches in treating CRPS. Based on the therapy type the global Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) market into physical therapy, drugs such as analgesics, antidepressants, corticosteroids, surgical sympathectomy, intrathecal drug pumps and spinal cord stimulation. On the basis of route of administration, the global Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) market in segmented into oral and intravenous administration. Based on the distribution channel, the market is segmented into hospital pharmacy, drug stores, retain pharmacy and e-commerce.Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market: Regional OverviewRegion wise, the global Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) market is classified into regions namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa. Along with expansion in the emerging markets, and greater focus on early diagnosis, screening, monitoring and clinical development of drugs have been the major strategies adopted by major players in the global complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) market.Visit For TOC@Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players in global complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) market are Mallinckrodt Pharmaceutical, GlaxoSmithKline plc., Mylan N.V., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., AbbVie, ACTAVIS, Zydus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Sandoz, and Janssen Global Services, LLC.and others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Silicone Defoamer Market - India Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016  2024:MRRSE

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The high availability of silicone defoamer at a varied range of viscosities and its capability to work at high temperatures and pH levels have been driving the market for silicone defoamers in India significantly. Its insolubility in foaming solutions and superior surface active properties compared to organic defoamers are another important factors that are boosting the sales. Besides this, the increasing popularity of silicone defoamer, promoted by its chemically inert nature and flexibility to work in intense climate changes, is expected to propel the silicone defoamer market over the next few years. Considering this fact, a new research report with a title Silicone Defoamer Market - India Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016  2024 has been recently added to the vast online repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE). This report on silicone defoamer market analyzes the current status as well as future prospects of the market across India.Request for Sample Report:The India silicone defoamer market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.90% between 2016 and 2024. Rising at this pace, the market will reach a valuation of US$299.4 million by the end of 2024 from US$197.4 million in 2015. The report provides an exhaustive value chain analysis for the product segment. It also includes a comprehensive view of the market. Value chain analysis also presents a detailed information regarding value addition at each stage. The report further entails drivers and restraints for the silicone defoamer market along with their effect on demand over the forecast years.The study provides an all-inclusive view of the silicone defoamer market by segmented it into application. The silicone defoamer market is segmented into paints and coatings, water treatment, food & beverages, pharmaceutical, metalworking fluids and others. Application segments are analyzed based on past, present, and future trends, and the market is projected in terms of volume (Tons) and revenue (US$ Million) between 2016 and 2024.The report offers a precise competitive outlook that covers market share and profiles of key players operating in the India market. Key players profiled in the report are Wacker Chemi AG, Evonik Industries AG, Clariant International AG, BASF SE and Resil Chemicals Pvt Ltd. Company profiles include attributes such as financial overview, company overview, number of employees, key competitors, business overview, business strategies, brand overview, key developments, acquisitions, and financial overview.Browse Full Report with TOC:About UsMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.ContactState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY  12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comFollow Us on LinkedIn-Follow Us On Twitter-
EMEA Stem Cells Market will Targets Emerging Markets by 2022

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In this report, the EMEA Stem Cells market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split EMEA into Europe, the Middle East and Africa, With sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Stem Cells for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast)Europe: Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Benelux;Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran;Africa: South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria.Ask for sample copy @EMEA Stem Cells market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Stem Cells sales volume (K Units), price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingCCBCVcanbioBoyalifeBeikebiotech...On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K Units), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Unit), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoUmbilical Cord Blood Stem CellEmbryonic Stem CellAdult Stem CellOtherPurchase a copy of this report @On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume (K Units), market share and growth rate of Stem Cells for each application, includingDiseases TherapyHealthcareKey elements for this report:1 Stem Cells Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Stem Cells1.2 Classification of Stem Cells1.2.1 EMEA Stem Cells Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 EMEA Stem Cells Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cell1.2.4 Embryonic Stem Cell1.2.5 Adult Stem Cell1.2.6 Other1.3 EMEA Stem Cells Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 EMEA Stem Cells Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-20221.3.2 Diseases Therapy1.3.3 Healthcare1.4 EMEA Stem Cells Market by Region1.4.1 EMEA Stem Cells Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Middle East Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Africa Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 EMEA Market Size (Value and Volume) of Stem Cells (2012-2022)1.5.1 EMEA Stem Cells Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 EMEA Stem Cells Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 EMEA Stem Cells Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application2.1 EMEA Stem Cells Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers2.1.1 EMEA Stem Cells Sales Volume and Market Share of Major Players (2012-2017)2.1.2 EMEA Stem Cells Revenue and Share by Players (2012-2017)2.1.3 EMEA Stem Cells Sale Price by Players (2012-2017)2.2 EMEA Stem Cells (Volume and Value) by Type/Product Category2.2.1 EMEA Stem Cells Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 EMEA Stem Cells Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.3 EMEA Stem Cells Sale Price by Type (2012-2017)2.3 EMEA Stem Cells (Volume) by Application2.4 EMEA Stem Cells (Volume and Value) by Region2.4.1 EMEA Stem Cells Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.2 EMEA Stem Cells Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.3 EMEA Stem Cells Sales Price by Region (2012-2017)3 Europe Stem Cells (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application3.1 Europe Stem Cells Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 Europe Stem Cells Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 Europe Stem Cells Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.2 Europe Stem Cells Sales and Market Share by Type3.3 Europe Stem Cells Sales and Market Share by Application3.4 Europe Stem Cells Sales Volume and Value (Revenue) by Countries3.4.1 Europe Stem Cells Sales Volume by Countries (2012-2017)3.4.2 Europe Stem Cells Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)3.4.3 Germany Stem Cells Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.4 France Stem Cells Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.5 UK Stem Cells Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)..Browse this report @About us:Research Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the clients specific requirement. Our database consists of a large collection of high-quality reports obtained using a customer-centric approach, thus providing valuable research insights.Contact Us:Email: sales@researchtrades.comCall us: +1 6269994607 / +91 7507349866Skype ID: researchtradesconWeb:
Washing Machine Market 2017 - GE, LG, Electrolux, Samsung, Speed Queen, Bosch, Frigidaire

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Apex Research, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Washing Machine Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Washing Machine Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Washing Machine industry, and estimates the future trend of Washing Machine market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Washing Machine Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportGE(US)LG(Korea)Electrolux(Sweden)Samsung(Korea)Speed Queen(US)Bosch(Germany)Frigidaire(US)Arbreau(US)Kenmore(US)ECOAP(CHINA)Turbo Series(Korea)Avanti(Denmark)Fisher & Paykel(New Zealand)Globe House Products(US)Magic Chef(US)Summit(US)Haier(China)Blomberg(Germany)Crossover(US)othersTo see all companies click hereThe market research report explores the Washing Machine market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Washing Machine Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Washing Machine market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Washing Machine. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Washing Machine market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Washing Machine is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Washing Machine market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Washing Machine market globally.Enquire Before Buying @The worldwide Washing Machine market 2017 is further analyzed ` on the basis of product pricing, Washing Machine production volume, data pertaining to demand and Washing Machine supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Washing Machine along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Washing Machine across the world.About UsApex Research offer latest market research reports and update to serve you with immediate on-line access to professional insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends. Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemica1l and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezBusiness Development Executive| sales@apexresearch.bizPhone: +177390426831155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606
North America CT Scan Market Share, Size, Growth and Forecast 2021

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North America CT Scan Market was worth $2.2 billion in 2016 and estimated to reach $2.73billion by the end of 2021 with a CAGR of 4.44%. CT scan (Computed Tomography) is an imaging of the body that uses tomography and digital geometry to generate a 3D image of the internal organs of a body. The evolution of CT scanners has advanced to the point where the number of slices per rotation no longer is the benchmark for performance. With the advent of high-speed and multi-slice CT scanners, healthcare providers have changed their approach to imaging, diagnosis and treatment of patients as new ways for clinical applications in such areas as trauma, vascular, pediatric, and cardiac imaging are possible due to the higher speeds at which scanning can be done. CAD software has been pivotal in bringing new applications to CT, for example, making cancer detection possible with CT.Full report at:The multi-slice feature has evolved CT from simply a diagnostic tool into an interventional modality. The innovation cycle of CT has become indeed very short with new and cutting-edge technology is getting introduced in the market with each being more efficient and faster. There is an increasing demand for high slice CT. The high slice CT scan is expected to improve the clinical utility considerably, as the introduction of 256 slice scanner, which has a detector width of 10 to 12 cm would help in scanning organs, including brain, heart, entire joints, and lungs and liver, within a single rotation. It is also expected to have the feature to scan the heart with a single heartbeat.Some of the main factors driving industry growth are rapidly growing demand for bedside imaging, home healthcare, and growing use of CT scan to assess the accuracy of post interventional medical procedures, medical implants and anatomical confirmation. Increasing prevalence of diseases such as cancer, orthopedic, cardiovascular and dental disorders will also enhance the growth of the market. Other drivers of growth include the growing demands from governments for premium healthcare delivery. Significant advances in imaging technologies promise to improve wellness through quicker and more precise detection of medical conditions. A rising fiscal deficit is expected to hinder the growth of CT scan market. Also, CT imaging radiation dose continues to be an area of concern. A lot of patients and medical associations have raised this issue and raised their voice against the possible side-effects of CT scanning. The industry continues to try to reduce exposure while ensuring image quality.The North America CT Scan Market is segmented based on its types. There are three types, namely Low-slice, Mid-slice and High-slice. Low-Slice Type has been segmented into Single Slice CT Scanners and Dual Slice CT Scanners. Mid-Slice Type has been segmented into 6 Slice, 10 Slice, 16 Slice And 32 Slice. And High-Slice Type has been segmented into 40 Slice, 64 Slice, Open Versions, and Cardiac CT. On the basis of geography, the global market is analyzed under regions namely United States and Canada. North America is expected to dominate the overall market in the next five years owing to the presence of premium healthcare infrastructure, established reimbursement framework and high healthcare affordability in this region.Request sample:Some of the major players in this market are GE Healthcare, Hitachi Medical Corporation, Hitachi Medical Systems America, Inc., NeuroLogica Corporation, Neusoft Medical Systems Co. Ltd., Philips Healthcare, Shenzhen Anke High-Tech Co., Siemens Healthcare, and Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation.About Market Data Forecast:The publisher of this report is Market Data Forecast whose forte lies in Market research and Business Intelligence. Handling both individual and corporate clients across multiple business domains they offer syndicated/customized research to suit the clients research objective. Their research reports section offers a wide variety of market studies ranging from all-encompassing comprehensive market studies to product specific niche markets covering North America among other regions of the global market as well. For more info kindly visit,Contact:Abhishek ShuklaSales Manager (International Business Development)Market Data ForecastDirect Line: +1-888-702-9626Mobile: +91 998 555 0206Mail: abhishek@marketdataforecast.comVisit MarketDataForecast Blog @View latest Press Releases of MDF @
Global Property Insurance Market 2016-2020 Key Vendors - Allstate Insurance, American International Group (AIG), Berkshire Hathaway, Homestate, Liberty Mutual, Wells Fargo, Lloyds

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Property Insurance Market 2016-2020" to its huge collection of research reports.A property insurance policy covers any loss or damage to personal or commercial property. It also insures against loss or damage to the contents that are kept on the property and are under the control of the customers. However, if the property is given on rent or lease, the owner is expected to take appropriate insurance by the terms of the lease or contract. The more kind of loss the policy covers, the higher the premium.Technavios analysts forecast the global property insurance market to grow at a CAGR of 5.6% during the period 2016-2020.Browse Detail Report With TOC @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global property insurance market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers two types of property insurance premium: personal and commercial.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Property Insurance Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsAllstate InsuranceAmerican International Group (AIG)Berkshire Hathaway HomestateLiberty MutualOther prominent vendorsState Farm Fire & Casualty Co.Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.Farmers Insurance Group of CompaniesChubbs Federal Insurance Co.CAN Financial Corp.s Continental Casualty CompanyWells FargoMunich ReZurich Insurance GroupAXALloydsMarket driverRisk management toolsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeEffect of pricing and rating systemFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendData analytics and predictive modeling strategyFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Smart Oilfield Market to grow at a CAGR of 4.1% during 2016-2020 - Baker Hughes, CNPC, Halliburton, Honeywell International, Schlumberger

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Albany, NY, July 14: Smart oilfield involves the application of advanced software, hardware, and data analysis techniques to increase the E&P efficiency of oil and gas. In an era of ever-growing energy demand and depletion of easy oil, smart oilfields facilitate in maximizing oilfield recovery by reducing downtime. These oilfields increase the ROI and profitability through effective integration of workflows and design, and by reducing production costs. The workflow includes business process management that utilizes advanced information technologies to streamline or even automate various operations performed across different functional teams.The global smart oilfield market to grow at a CAGR of 4.1% during the period 2016-2020. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global smart oilfield market for 2016-2020. The market size has been calculated based on the demand for smart oilfield technologies and services by the oil and gas companies.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEAClick to get more details with TOC in a PDF Format:Technavio's report, Global Thoracic Surgery Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- Baker Hughes- CNPC- Halliburton- Honeywell International- SchlumbergerBrowse more details at:Other prominent vendors- Accenture- Kongsberg Gruppen- Microseismic- National Oilwell Varco- Paradigm- Pason Systems- Petrolink- Redline Communications Group- Rockwell Automation- Shell- Siemens- WeatherfordMarket driver- Remote onshore and deep and ultra-deepwater offshore explorations- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Resistance to change- For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?About UsResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
Network Forensics 2017 Global Market Key Players  IBM Corporation, Cisco Systems, Fireeye, Symantec Corporation, Netscout Systems Analysis and Forecast to 2022

Network Forensics Market

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Network Forensics SWOT Analysis and Forecast to 2022Report Details:This report studies Network Forensics in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringIBM CorporationCisco SystemsFireeyeSymantec CorporationNetscout SystemsEMC RSAViavi SolutionsLogrhythmNiksunSavviusSample Report @By types, the market can be split intoCloudOn-premisesBy Application, the market can be split intoBanking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI)GovernmentHealthcareEnergy and utilitiesEducationTelecom and ITManufacturingRetailOthersBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaComplete Report Details@Table of Content:1 Industry Overview of Network Forensics1.1 Definition and Specifications of Network Forensics1.1.1 Definition of Network Forensics1.1.2 Specifications of Network Forensics1.2 Classification of Network Forensics1.2.1 Cloud1.2.2 On-premises1.3 Applications of Network Forensics1.3.1 Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI)1.3.2 Government1.3.3 Healthcare1.3.4 Energy and utilities1.3.5 Education1.3.6 Telecom and IT1.3.7 Manufacturing1.3.8 Retail1.3.9 Others1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India..8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Network Forensics8.1 IBM Corporation8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 IBM Corporation 2016 Network Forensics Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 IBM Corporation 2016 Network Forensics Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Cisco Systems8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Cisco Systems 2016 Network Forensics Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Cisco Systems 2016 Network Forensics Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 Fireeye8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 Fireeye 2016 Network Forensics Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 Fireeye 2016 Network Forensics Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 Symantec Corporation8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 Symantec Corporation 2016 Network Forensics Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 Symantec Corporation 2016 Network Forensics Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Netscout Systems8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Netscout Systems 2016 Network Forensics Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Netscout Systems 2016 Network Forensics Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 EMC RSA8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 EMC RSA 2016 Network Forensics Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 EMC RSA 2016 Network Forensics Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Viavi Solutions8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Viavi Solutions 2016 Network Forensics Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Viavi Solutions 2016 Network Forensics Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 Logrhythm8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 Logrhythm 2016 Network Forensics Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 Logrhythm 2016 Network Forensics Business Region Distribution Analysis8.9 Niksun8.9.1 Company Profile8.9.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.9.2.1 Product A8.9.2.2 Product B8.9.3 Niksun 2016 Network Forensics Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.9.4 Niksun 2016 Network Forensics Business Region Distribution Analysis8.10 Savvius8.10.1 Company Profile8.10.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.10.2.1 Product A8.10.2.2 Product B8.10.3 Savvius 2016 Network Forensics Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.10.4 Savvius 2016 Network Forensics Business Region Distribution AnalysisContinued.Buy now @Contact Us:NORAH TRENTSales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)For accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check:For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more 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Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: Majedie Asset Management Limited (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):



The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:



Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree



TESCO PLC (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:



For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure 13 July 2017 (f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?



If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state "N/A" No





2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:



ORD 5P



Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: 273,403,238 3.34 (2) Cash-settled derivatives:



(3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:



TOTAL:



273,403,238



3.34

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale



Number of securities Price per unit ORD 5P Purchase 3,440,838 172.7130 ORD 5P ORD 5P ORD 5P

(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description



e.g. CFD Nature of dealing



e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit





(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type



e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description



e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit





(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing



e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)





4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:



Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



None





(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:



(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or



(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:



If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



None





(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? NO

Date of disclosure: 14 July 2017 Contact name: Matthew Hambly Telephone number: 0207 618 3900

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.




Immunoassay Systems Market is Expecting Worldwide Growth by 2017  2025

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Some of the players identified in global immunoassay systems market includeSiemens Healthcare Private Limited, Beckman Coulter, Inc. (Danaher Corporation), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Promega Corporation, Immunodiagnostic Systems Inc., Bio Rad Laboratories Inc., EMD Millipore (Merck KGaA), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. etc. among others. All the companies operating in immunoassay systems market also provide immunoassay kits and reagents specific to their systems. Major players are trying to maximize their install base for immunoassay systems on the basis of long term contracts with the end customer to purchase reagents and kits specific to their immunoassay system.Immunoassay has become essential laboratory technique that can be used to measure concentration of different analytes. Immunoassay systems are thus essentially adopted by virtually all the diagnostic laboratories, academic and research institutes, hospital diagnostic centers and other potential end users. Introduction of multiplex immunoassays has further expanded the applications of immunoassay systems in different industries such as pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology and life science industries, food and beverage industries, environment control measurements etc. Modern immunoassays employ labeling techniques such as enzyme labeled, radiolabelled, chromophore labelled, fluorescence labelled etc. and immunoassay systems are used to detect these labelled analytes qualitatively or quantitatively. Some of the established brands in global immunoassay systems include ADVIA (Siemens), UniCel DxI (Beckman Coulter), IDS-iSYS (Immunodiagnostic Systems Inc.), LUMINEX (Luminex Corporation), Cobas Analyzer (Roche) etc. among others. Companies offering multiplex immunoassay systems are expanding their efficiency of multiplexing which is expected to boost the demand for these devices over time. These established brands are benefited with customer loyalty and high cost of instrument switching.The global market for immunoassay systems is expected to be driven by adoption of immunoassay systems by academic and research institutes in U.S. and Europe. Moreover, continuous increase in R&D expenditures and increasing research grants and government funding to research laboratories would further increase the demand for immunoassay systems. Growing automation in diagnostic laboratories would demand the more use of automated immunoassay systems in order to fulfil the need for performing more in less cost. Recent advancements in multiples immunoassay and expansion of its applications in veterinary diagnostics and food contamination testing would expand the install base of immunoassay systems in these industries. However, stringent regulatory requirements and frequent recalls of immunoassay systems is the major factor limiting the growth of global immunoassay systems market. For instance, recently in July 2016, FDA announced recall of ADVIA Centaur XPT system due to defective results generated by system software.In recent there has not been much innovation in the immunoassay systems technology. However, manufacturers of immunoassay systems are cross collaborating with developers of immunoassay kits and reagents. Moreover, manufacturers who provide immunoassay kits and reagents for their own system are focusing to launch new or improved immunoassay kits in order to ensure the continuation of services and customer retention for already installed immunoassay systems.The global market for immunoassay systems is segmented on basis of product type, technology, end user and geography:Segmentation by Product TypeFluorescence Immunoassay Systems, Chemiluminescence Immunoassay Systems, Nephelometric Immunoassay Systems, Radio Immunoassay Systems, OthersSegmentation by TechnologySingle Plex Immunoassay Systems, Multiplex Immunoassay SystemsSegmentation by End UserDiagnostic Centers, Pharmaceutical Companies, Academic and Research Institutes, Government Agencies, OthersBased on product type, fluorescence and chemluminescence immunoassay systems collectively contributed highest share in global immunoassay systems market so far. Based on end user, global immunoassay systems market has been segmented into diagnostic centers, pharmaceutical companies, academic and research institutes, government agencies and others. Diagnostic laboratories and pharmaceutical companies contribute highest share in global immunoassay systems maret.Request to View Tables of Content @Regionally, global immunoassay systems market is segmented into five key regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. North America clearly dominates the global market for immunoassay systems due to huge install base and growing adoption of these systems in academics and research institutes. Europe is expected to be the second largest market for immunoassay systems owing to consolidation of immunoassay system providers and manufacturers in the region in recent years. Asia pacific immunoassay systems market is expected to witness impressive growth rate over the forecast period of 20172025, primarily due to high demand for immunoassay systems in Japan and Australia.To Know About Latest Report Click Here:About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. 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Bariatric Surgical Procedures Market to Witness an Outstanding Growth by 2017  2025

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Some of the players operating in global bariatric surgical procedures market areMedtronic Plc, Intuitive Surgical Inc., Allergan Inc., Johnson and Johnson, Pare Surgical, Inc and Mediflex, and TransEnterix Inc. among others. For sleeve gastrectomy companies such as Medtronic launched flagship devices representative the expansion of the global market.Obesity is a medical condition which occurs due to excessive fat accumulation leading to adverse effect on health. Few of the prime reason for obesity are excessive food intake, less physical exercise and genetic susceptibility. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 25-30 kg/m is known as overweight, and BMI greater than or equal to 30 kg/m is considered as obesity. According to the WHO, globally, around 1.8 billion adults are overweight, and around 600 million of them were obese in 2014. In addition, around 40 million children below the age of five years were overweight. Bariatric surgery is one of the best treatment option for obesity and overweight.Increasing obese population due to the rise in lifestyle diseases and sedentary lifestyle is one of the key factors to drive the global bariatric surgical procedures market over the forecast period 2017-2027. Similarly, growing trend of body toning and grooming therapy would have a greater importance on the aesthetic appearance leading to the market growth. Furthermore, increasing healthcare expenditure for obesity management, strategic collaborations among devices manufacturers and bariatric surgery service providers are is also anticipated to fuel the growth of this market over the forecast period. The increasing spending on healthcare per capita for quality patient care and various advanced treatments also boost the growth of the global bariatric surgical procedure market. However, the post-surgical complications and the cost associated with bariatric surgery might hamper the growth of the global bariatric surgical procedures market. On the other hand, the availability of weight management medications and other alternatives might lead to the decreasing growth rate of the market.Request to View Tables of Content @Based on surgery type, the global bariatric surgical procedures market has been segmented into gastric bypass surgery, adjustable gastric banding surgery, gastric sleeve surgery, duodenal switch surgery and others. Gastric bypass surgery type dominated the market in 2016 and expected to do so throughout the forecast period. The gastric bypass surgeries are preferred by patients with diabetes and gastric reflux. Increasing innovation such as minimally invasive surgeries is expected to boost the adoption of surgical procedures leading to the market growth.Based on end user, the global bariatric surgical procedures market has been segmented into hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. Hospitals are expected to contribute highest share in the global bariatric surgical procedures market over the forecast period due to large number of local and outpatient surgeries performed each year.On the basis of regional presence, global bariatric surgical procedures market is segmented into five key regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to lead the global market due to high incidence rate of obesity in U.S. and Canada, while Europe is expected to hold second largest market share in the global market. Market in Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness significant growth owing to increasing case of diabetic and sedentary life leading to obesity. In addition, increasing healthcare expenditure related to weight loss treatment and growing trend of medical tourism is expected to boost the market growth in near future.To view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Climate Test Chamber Market Key Applications, Investments, Dynamic Opportunities and Gross Revenue 2017

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Climate Test Chambers Sales Market Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.This research report on the Climate Test Chamber market intends to offer a comprehensive strategic market analysis including a statistical study on revenue generated in this market and its growth projections over the next few years. With the improvements in Climate Test Chamber in terms of returns and benefits, this market is expected to experience a high growth rate in the years to come.This research study on the Climate Test Chamber market offers an in-depth analysis of the various application of Climate Test Chamber and the requirements of the end users. Further, it assesses this market by segmenting it on the basis of the business and the deployment models. It also talks about the demand for Climate Test Chamber across various geographies and how it has impacted the growth of this market as a whole. An all-inclusive coverage of the fundamental economic and technological factors that influences the markets progress has also been provides in this market study.This report studies sales (consumption) of Climate Test Chambers in Global market, especially in United States, China, Europe and Japan, focuses on top players in these regions/countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these regions, coveringESPECWeiss TechnikThermotronCSZAngelantoniBinderClimatsMemmertHitachiRussells Technical ProductsTPSCMEKambicHastest SolutionsShanghai JiayuChina CEPREIGuangzhou MingshengFill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @Research analyst have carried out a number of assessments to identify the volume of the production and the efficiency of the market for Climate Test Chamber considering the performances of its regional markets. The statistics pertaining to the demand, supply, and sales of Climate Test Chamber has also been reviewed thoroughly in this market study.Further, the driving forces, restraints, limitations, and growth opportunities have been analyzed at length in this report. With these factors, the research study determines various prominent trends in the Climate Test Chamber market, which have been influencing this market and are expected to impact the markets growth greatly in the years to come. A detailed analysis of the competitive landscape in the market for Climate Test Chamber in a bid to highlight the level of the competition between the leading players has also been provided in this study.Table of ContentsGlobal Climate Test Chambers Sales Market Report 20171 Climate Test Chambers Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Climate Test Chambers1.2 Classification of Climate Test Chambers1.2.1 Constant Climate Chambers1.2.2 Dynamic Climate Chambers1.2.3 Small Benchtop Chambers1.2.4 Walk-in Chambers1.3 Application of Climate Test Chambers1.3.1 Industry1.3.2 Electronic1.3.3 Biological1.3.4 Pharmaceuticals1.4 Climate Test Chambers Market by Regions1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Climate Test Chambers (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Climate Test Chambers Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Climate Test Chambers Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global Climate Test Chambers Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Global Climate Test Chambers Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Global Climate Test Chambers Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Climate Test Chambers Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Climate Test Chambers (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Climate Test Chambers Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Climate Test Chambers Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Climate Test Chambers (Volume and Value) by Regions2.3.1 Global Climate Test Chambers Sales and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Climate Test Chambers Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)2.4 Global Climate Test Chambers (Volume) by ApplicationRead Comprehensive Overview of Report @3 United States Climate Test Chambers (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Climate Test Chambers Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Climate Test Chambers Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Climate Test Chambers Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States Climate Test Chambers Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States Climate Test Chambers Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers3.3 United States Climate Test Chambers Sales and Market Share by Type3.4 United States Climate Test Chambers Sales and Market Share by Application4 China Climate Test Chambers (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Climate Test Chambers Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China Climate Test Chambers Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China Climate Test Chambers Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China Climate Test Chambers Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China Climate Test Chambers Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers4.3 China Climate Test Chambers Sales and Market Share by Type4.4 China Climate Test Chambers Sales and Market Share by ApplicationList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Climate Test ChambersTable Classification of Climate Test ChambersFigure Global Sales Market Share of Climate Test Chambers by Type in 2015Figure Constant Climate Chambers PictureFigure Sales Market Share of Climate Test Chambers by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Climate Test Chambers Sales Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Table Global Climate Test Chambers Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)Table Global Climate Test Chambers Revenue Share by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Revenue Market Share of Climate Test Chambers by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Climate Test Chambers Revenue Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Table Global Climate Test Chambers Sales and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:
Veterinary Teleradiology Market is Expecting Worldwide Growth by 2017  2025

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Some of the players operating in global veterinary teleradiology market areVetCT, Veterinary Imaging Consultations, Inc., Lynks Group, Animal Imaging Consultants, Vet-Rad LTD, Veterinary Medical Centers, and PetRays among others.Veterinary teleradiology is the practice of medical images interpretation and analysis by a radiologist who is not present at the site where the images were generated. This market is utilized by hospitals, pet clinics, and veterinary radiology centers. Teleradiology enables radiologists to use advanced teleradiology solutions in order to improve patients care and treatment without any delay in the treatment process. The concept of teleradiology arose due to dearth of radiologists, as the specialized group of people is generally located in metropolitan areas. Teleradiology markets enable trained specialists to provide their interpretation and guidance 24/7 across the globe.The primary factor fuelling demand for teleradiology market is increasing domestic, livestock and companion animal industry, rising animal disease and accidental cases, growing number of veterinary practitioners and the income levels. In addition rising innovations in teleradiology services, which offer rapid and accurate results to customers. However, a primary factor hampering growth of the teleradiology market is the risk of data security, high cost of technology, dearth of trained radiologists and technicians and transformation access to remote areas.High cost of services, image transmission issues, low awareness in emerging economies are going to be a major challenge for veterinary teleradiology services market. Manufacturers are expected to invest more on the product technology for quick transformation of data which include various parameters of information and technology. Ongoing trends for teleradiology services are driving the whole market coupled with the latest IT infrastructure which also include artificial intelligence and algorithms, cloud with low maintenance and image backup storage.The global market for veterinary teleradiology is segmented on basis of product type, construction material, end user and geography:Segmentation by Service TypeEmergency Care, Day Time Coverage, Second Opinion, Sub-specialty ReadingSegmentation by Modality MaterialX-ray, Computerized Tomography (CT) Scan, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Ultrasound Scans, Nuclear ScanSegmentation by End UserHospitals, Pet Clinics, Veterinary Radiology CentersBased on services type, the market has been segmented into emergency care, day time coverage, subspecialty reading, and second opinion. Day care and emergency care dominates the global veterinary teleradiology services market and is expected to do so throughout the forecast period. This service type segment is anticipated to expand with the fastest CAGR over the forecast period.Based on modality type, the market is segmented into X-Ray Scans, CT Scans, MRI Scans, Ultrasound Scans, Nuclear Scan, and Others. In terms of revenue share, CT scans dominated the veterinary teleradiology Market owing to increase in CT scans in the region is projected to do so throughout the forecast period. However, MRI scans are projected to grow with high CAGR than other modalities over the forecast period.Based on end user, the global veterinary teleradiology market has been segmented into hospitals, pet clinics and veterinary radiology centers. Hospitals are expected to contribute highest share in the global veterinary teleradiology market over the forecast period.A Sample of this Report is Available Upon Request @On the basis of regional presence, global veterinary teleradiology market is segmented into five key regions namely North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to lead the global market due to large number of pet adoption, increasing disease and accidental cases in pet animals, and growing expenditure on animal healthcare, while Europe is expected to hold second largest market share in the global market. Market in Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness significant growth rate over the forecast period owing to growing trend of pet adoption and increasing focus on teleradiology services.To Know About Latest Report Click Here:About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Endotoxin Testing Market is Expected to Generate Huge Profits by 2017  2025

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Endotoxin Testing Market: Key Market ParticipantsSome of the endotoxin testing market participants are Accugen Labs, Wako Chemicals USA, Inc., Charles River Laboratories, Inc., Pacific BioLabs, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC., Lonza, STERIS, Nelson Laboratories, LLC, Bio-Synthesis Inc and Biogenuix.The gram-negative organisms release endotoxins, the presence or absence of which is determined by the endotoxins tests. Endotoxin testing is carried out at different phases of the manufacture and development of bulk lot release testing, raw material testing and final product release testing. Endotoxin testing is used in various industries such as medical devices, biopharmaceuticals, research, and pharmaceutical to name a few.In early 1950s, Frederick Bang discovered that the horseshoe crab s blood cells contain a clotting agent which attached to the endotoxins produced by gram-negative bacteria. In 1983, the test was further approved by the FDA. Soon FDA, established guidelines for Limulus Amebocyte Lysate testing of medical devices and pharmaceuticals in 1987. Endotoxins can be found in water, air, via human contact, soil and any other non-sterile environment.Endotoxin Testing Market : Drivers and RestraintsLimulus Amebocyte Lysate assay is the choice of endotoxin test used in the parenteral pharmaceuticals. Tachypleus Amebocyte Lysate is one more approved test, but only in Asia. The demand of biologics has triggered the need for more limulus amebocyte lysate and tachypleus amebocyte lysate testing. As more countries are moving toward economic development, healthcare needs are expected to increase and so will the product development and research scenario. This is expected to create an exponential demand for the exotoxins testing market.The demand for the endotoxins market is expected to propel in the near future as industry players are bringing in newer methods such as the USP chromogenic method by Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC or the Endosafe-PTS test by Charles River Laboratories, Inc. Moreover, industry is consolidating by acquiring companies expertise in proving the e ndotoxin test. For instance, in December 2016, Fujifilm agreed to acquire Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd. for US$ 1.40 billion. The synergy is expected to help Fujifilm in the field of regenerative medicine, contract development and manufacturing organization and in-vitro diagnostics.Request to View Tables of Content @Endotoxin Testing Market: Region-wise OutlookIn terms of geography, endotoxin testing market has been divided into five regions including North- America, Asia- Pacific, Middle-East & Africa, Latin America and Europe. North America is the dominating region with most established regulatory guidelines for taking care of the limulus amebocyte lysate and tachypleus amebocyte lysate shortage. Moreover, the region is experiencing many takeovers by the pharmaceutical industry to lead in the exotoxing testing market.Economically developing region such as AsiaPacific is expected to be the fastest growing region during the forecast testing.To view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Clinical Microbiology Market - Global Industry Analysis, Growth Rate By 2025

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Global Clinical Microbiology Market: OverviewThe intercontinental clinical microbiology market is envisioned to be pampered by a wide spectrum of opportunities in different applications such as the identification of diseases caused by pathogens with the help of laboratory services. Class A carbapenemase, a group of causative agents of clinical infections, is proliferating rapidly and has augmented the need for determining carbapenemase genes through clinical microbiology. In order to address this need, Cepheid, Inc. introduced Xpert Carba-R, a diagnostic assay, which was sanctioned by the U.S. FDA in 2016.The global clinical microbiology market could be segmented considering disease, application, and product as significant parameters. With the rise in targeted diseases and swelling geriatric population, the disease segment could see a handsome growth.This report on the world clinical microbiology market can be used as a guideline to operate in the industry as a winning player. Vital aspects of the market such as opportunities, restraints, and growth factors are analyzed in a radical manner to help gain a paramount insight into the clinical microbiology industry.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Clinical Microbiology Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe world clinical microbiology market could acquire growth at a stallion pace in the wake of the need to keep a tight rein on human errors during the manual processing of samples in research projects. In this regard, the automation of clinical systems could be demanded at a brisk rate. This demand is foretold to also gain increased support from the need to maintain constancy in manual processing.Having pulled in a kings share in the global clinical microbiology market in 2015, reagents are foreseen to earn more revenue while riding on the hike in purchases and aggravating penetration due to the demand from therapeutic and analytic research projects.The towering degree of the prevalence of respiratory maladies in emerging as well as developed nations could intensify the demand in the international clinical microbiology market. This can be attributed to the soaring levels of air pollution because of meteoric industrialization.Request TOC of the Report @Global Clinical Microbiology Market: Regional OutlookThe North America clinical microbiology market is prognosticated to get help from the existence of leviathan companies and hard and fast regulatory structures. An interesting part of the geographical analysis is the expectation on the part of the Europe market to maintain a close proximity with North America in terms of growth. However, North America secured a stupendous share in the global clinical microbiology market in 2015. The region is anticipated to stimulate high adoption of clinical microbial methodologies with the higher development of healthcare and industrial domains in countries such as the U.S.Besides China, Japan is expected to promise a faster growth in the Asia Pacific clinical microbiology market on the back of aggressive microbial testing application in a variety of fields. The august technological buildout in Japan cannot be sidelined when considering this market on the basis of demand. A countable number of top companies in the market are looking to relocate their major manufacturing outlets to Asia Pacific. This is due to the quantum leaps in building sophisticated manufacturing infrastructure and large availability of skilled labor at low cost in the region.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Clinical Microbiology Market: Companies MentionedAs a result of their pacey progress in research and development and introduction of automated laboratory systems, the giant players in the international clinical microbiology market have won the trump card of being the first movers. There are only a few names competing at worldwide level, viz. Bruker Corporation, Danaher Corporation, Cepheid Inc., and bioMerieux S.A. Howbeit, the contest is predicted to be escalated by the entry of new faces in the global market. Of these are Hologic Inc., Becton Dickinson & Company, Alere Inc., and Roche Diagnostics.About TMR Research :TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Market Set to Surge Significantly During 2017  2025

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Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Market: Key Market ParticipantsSome of the medroxyprogesterone acetate market participants are Pfizer Inc., Fangtong Pharma.Co.Ltd, Gador S.A., Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Greenstone LLC, Serum Internation Ltd., West-Coast Pharmaceutical, Arrow Pharma Group, and Zuche Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd..The synthetic version of progesterone, 17-hydroxy-6-methylprogesterone acetate is also known by the name Medroxyprogesterone Acetate. Medroxyprogesterone acetate is a more potent derivative of medroxyprogesterone and what is normally injected is its acetate derivative. Medroxyprogesterone acetate is administered every 3 months which in turn prevents ovulation and follicular maturation in endometrial thinning producing a contraceptive effect.Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe medroxyprogesterone acetate market is driven by the increasing need for birth control measure and government initiatives to generate more awareness related to the different contraceptive methods. There are various forecasting initiatives undertaken to understand the demand of Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) as a birth control measure. In January 2015, the Concept Foundation contracted William Davidson Institute (WDI), to understand the demand of DMPA in low income and middle-income countries.Manufacturers are now trying to develop low-dose injectable of medroxyprogesterone acetate through subcutaneous route so as to lower some of the side effects related to weight gain and metabolic effects.Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Market: SegmentationOn the basis of end use the medroxyprogesterone acetate market can be segment as:ContraceptiveHormone replacement therapyTreatment of endometriosisOtherOn the basis of route of administration the medroxyprogesterone acetate market can be segment as:OralParenteralMedroxyprogesterone Acetate Market: OverviewSayana Press a three-month, progestin-only injectable contraceptive was approved by the UK authorities in 2015. PATH along with ministries of health in Uganda and Senegal are researching on self-injection of Sayana Press and ways that it could be effective in women. Through the PATH initiatives since 2014, this contraceptive is available in remote locations in Uganda, Senegal, Niger and Burkina Faso. Sayana Press has regulatory approval in Europe and 25 other countries. In 2014, the Childrens Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Pfizer Inc. decided to offer Sanaya Press to purchasers from 69 countries for US$1 per dose.Request to View Tables of Content @The public and the private partners announced in the London Summit to reach poorest countries by 2020 with around 12 million doses of Sayana Press. Injctables has always been a popular contraceptive method in Sub-Saharan Africa and hence the presentation of Sayana Press inj the Uniject device is expected to increase the demand. The all-in-one prefiled injection system improves safety and enhances access through non-clinical channels.Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Market: Region-wise OutlookIn terms of geography, medroxyprogesterone acetate market has been divided into five regions including North- America, Asia- Pacific, Middle-East & Africa, Latin America and Europe. The presence of major market players, technology advancements and research investments has made North America the dominating region for the cardiac biomarkers market. Moreover, there are many startups who are trying to enter the medroxyprogesterone acetate market with new technologies and more efficacy.Developing countries are focusing on bringing down the infact and maternal death rates by legalizing the use of injectable contraceptives. One such initiative was taken by Haryana, which became the first state in the country to implement the use of injectable contraceptives. The project would be initiated in nine blocks of the state where the injectable would be available free of costs in all district hospitals, primary health centers and community health centers.To view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Galvanic Skin Response Sensor Market Estimated to Flourish by 2017  2025

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Galvanic Skin Response Sensor Market: Key Market ParticipantsSome of the major key players in Galvanic skin response sensor market are Maxim Integrated Products Inc., Mindfield Biosystems Ltd., Moviesens GmbH, Siemens AG and Thermo-fisher, Empatica Inc. and others.Galvanic Skin Response is also referred as Skin conductance, or Electrodermal Activity, which allows us to measure skin conductance of the skin and variation occurs with its moisture level. It is because the sweat glands are controlled by the sympathetic nervous system and also the moments of strong emotion which brings changes in the electrical resistance of the skin. Galvanic skin response sensor act as an indicator of physiological and psychological arousal. Stress is the response to particular events and is the way where our body prepares itself to face tough conditions with heightened alertness, strength, and focus. When an individual perceives a threat, the Nervous system responds by releasing stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Releasing of these hormones prepares the body for emergency action, and in some cases, these symptoms could be dangerous in certain situations. Galvanic Skin Response Sensor device is used to detect the different conductance of the skin when an individual is under stress and when not. Galvanic Skin Response Sensor uses just two electrodes which are placed on the fingers and act as if they were the two terminals of one resistance. To detect stress in blind people, an ambulatory device is developed which is used for the measurement of skin temperature which is another method to analyze stress.Galvanic Skin Response Sensor Market: Drivers and RestraintsGalvanic skin response sensor is nowadays available in the form of wearable, the design and development of these devices for monitoring health increasing the comfort level of an individual has gained lots of attention which is driving market of the galvanic skin response sensor. Galvanic skin sensor response market is mainly motivated by the increasing healthcare investment through government and non-government players. Galvanic Skin Response Sensor is also propelled by technological advancement in miniature biosensor devices, microelectronics, smart textiles as well as wireless communication and offers low-cost galvanic skin response sensor in low-cost wearable solutions for any place and continuous all-day mental, health and activity monitoring. Galvanic skin response sensor market is facing the challenges which could hamper it growth in upcoming years such as compatibility issues, stringent safety, and validation regulations, as well as difficulty in understanding the functionality of the product.A Sample of this Report is Available Upon Request @Galvanic Skin Response Sensor Market: SegmentationGalvanic Skin Response Sensor Market is segmented by the end users.By end users, Hospitals, Research Institutes, Diagnostic centers, Homecare settings, OthersGalvanic Skin Response Sensor Market: OverviewGalvanic Skin Response Sensor Market is expected to grow at healthy CAGR in forecast period as these galvanic skin response sensor are available in some various or different sizes and variety as well as designed using innovative technologies which aim to meet different requirements. Manufacturers are using highly versatile technologies in galvanic skin response sensors which are improving the precision of the device. Furthermore, eliminating the use of large other mechanical measuring devices and with the advent of new and advanced technologies being introduced in sensors the market for Galvanic skin response sensor is expected to witness significant opportunities.Galvanic Skin Response Sensor Market: Region-wise OutlookBy region, the global Galvanic Skin Response Sensor market is segmented into seven major regions such as North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (including Japan), Middle East and Africa. North America held the largest market share in galvanic skin sensor response market because of high technological development in the field of healthcare and medical into this region and also the rise in research and development investments. Furthermore, the growth is influenced by the high adoption of smart watches and wearable medical devices into this region. Europe ranked second followed by North America region regarding demand for galvanic skin response sensors. Europe market is mainly driven by increasing demand for continuous monitoring and diagnosis of the patient. Asia-Pacific follows Europe due to technological innovations, rise in disposable income as well as in funding through various players.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also includes projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to market segments such as geographies, application, and industry.To Know About Latest Report Click Here:About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Chronic Depressive Personality Disorder Treatment Market Forecast over 2017  2025

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Chronic Depressive Personality Disorder Treatment Market: Key PlayersSome of the market participants in the global chronic depressive personality disorder treatment market are Eli Lilly and Company, Forest Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Pfizer, Inc., Allergan and Novartis AG. These companies are investing on research and development to develop more effective treatment option for chronic depressive personality disorder. Companies are also focusing on collaboration strategies for chronic depressive personality treatment market expansion in emerging market.Chronic depressive personality disorder also known as Dysthymia is a chronic form of depression. It is mild form of depression which last up to two years or more. This disorder is less severe in comparison to other forms of depression. Symptoms of chronic depressive personality disorder are loss of interest in daily activities, sadness, tiredness, trouble in concentrating and decision making, suicidal thoughts, and some others. Medication and psychotherapy are used for the management of chronic depressive personality disorder. Psychotherapy is preferred for children and adolescents instead of medication. But it also depend upon the severity of the chronic depressive personality disorder. Changing the lifestyle can also help in management of this disorder.Chronic Depressive Personality Disorder Market: Driver and RestraintsChronic depressive personality disorder treatment market is expected driven by increasing prevalence and increasing diagnosis. Chronic depressive personality disorder is a chronic disorder as suggested by the name which require a long term treatment measures. Requirement for long term treatment is also expected to drive the growth of this market. Government initiatives and awareness programs are also expected to fuel the growth of chronic depressive personality disorder treatment market. Effectiveness of psychotherapy alone and non-medicated treatment option can be restraint in the growth of medicated chronic depressive personality disorder treatment market.Chronic Depressive Personality Disorder Market: SegmentationThe global chronic depressive personality disorder treatment market can be segmented into Drug Class, Distribution Channel and Geography.On the basis of drug class the global chronic depressive personality disorder treatment market can be segmented as:Selective Serotonin Reuptake InhibitorsTricyclic AntidepressantsNorepinephrine Reuptake InhibitorsOthersOn the basis of distribution channel the global chronic depressive personality disorder treatment can be segmented into:Hospital PharmacyRetail PharmacyOnline PharmacyChronic Depressive Personality Disorder Treatment Market: OverviewChronic depressive personality disorder treatment market is expected to show significant growth over the forecast period. Cases of chronic depressive personality disorder are increasing due to changing life style which lack personal attachment and leads to depression. Psychotherapy is also one of the treatment measure for the chronic depressive personality disorder and but this measures in mostly used along with the medication. Chronic depressive personality disorder treatment market is also growing as cases of this disorder is increasing due to other health related condition. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are expected to dominate the chronic depressive personality disorder market owning to their effectiveness in managing the depression in comparison to other drugs.Request to View Tables of Content @Chronic Depressive Personality Disorder Treatment Market: Region Wise OutlookGeographically, the global chronic depressive personality disorder treatment market can be segmented into region: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. North America is most attractive and biggest market for the chronic depressive personality disorder treatment and is expected to continuously dominate the market due to increasing prevalence and diagnosis. Followed by which is Europe. Other factors which are driving the growth of chronic depressive personality disorder market in North America is increasing awareness among people and government programs to raise the awareness. Asia Pacific market is also expected to show significant growth over the forecast period due to increasing healthcare infrastructures and changing life styles.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, types, technology and applications.To view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. 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Injectable Drug Delivery Devices Market Analysis with Expected Growth during Forecast Period 2017-2027

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Market Highlights:Injectable drug delivery is defined as a method of administration of medicines directly into patients blood circulation system using a specialized delivery device. It is considered as the most common and effective route of administration of most therapeutic agents to achieve the desired quick response.Major Key Players: Pfizer, Inc. (U.S.), Eli Lilly and Company (U.S.). Incube Labs, LLC (US) Endocyte (US) Genentech, Inc. (US) Pearl Therapeutics Inc. (US) Presage Biosciences (US) QLT Inc.,(Canada) E3D Elcam Drug Delivery Devices (Israel) Alkermes Inc. (Republic of Ireland) Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel)Request a Sample Report @Market Segments:Global Injectable drug Delivery Devices market has been segmented on the basis of injector types which consist of Disposable Auto injector, Reusable Auto injector, Wearable injectors, pumps and others. On the basis of end users, the market is classified into; hospitals/clinics, home care, research laboratories. On the basis of delivery which consists of oral, injectors, sprays, inhalers and othersThe report for Global Injectable Drug Delivery Devices market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance.Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 50 market data tables and figures spread in 120 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on Global Injectable Drug Delivery Devices Market Research Report- Forecast To 2027Access Report Details @Study Objectives of Injectable Drug Delivery Devices Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global injectable drug delivery devices market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the global injectable drug delivery devices market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia, and Middle East & Africa To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by injector type, by end users by delivery method and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global injectable drug delivery devices market.Make an Enquiry @Americas North America US Canada Latin AmericaEurope Western Europe Germany France Italy Spain UK Rest of Western Europe Eastern EuropeAsia Pacific Asia China India Japan South Korea Rest of Asia PacificThe Middle East& AfricaThe report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regionsBrowse Related Statistical ReportThe Global connected healthcare market has been evaluated as growing market and expected that the market will touch high growth figures. On the basis of type, the market is segmented into; M-health devices, M-health services and E-prescription. The M-Health Services holds 56.7% market share and expected to reach USD 59.05 billion by 2022 from USD 6.80 billion in 2015. E-prescription is expected to grow at a fastest CAGR of 30.84% from 2016 to 2022.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Washington, D.C., July 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A feature article published this afternoon in the new, online nonprofit journalism news outlet Bioengineering Today explores the global, billion-dollar industry of wearable fitness and medical technologies, which stands at the crossroads of computing, consumer electronics, exercise culture and human health.

The article begins:

"As you read this, you wont have a population of customized precision medicine nanobots holding vigil in your body curing diseases just as they arise. Nor are you wearing a complete bodysuit that protects you from the near-vacuum, zero gravity and smidge-above-absolute zero threat of space, sending real-time data about your condition to your home planet via the galaxy-wide web.

"Someday you might. For now you may be wearing a small piece of the future on your wrist.

"You do already if you have a fitness tracker. Or, if you suffer from any of several chronic diseases, you may soon have a wearable, noninvasive medical device that monitors and/or treats your condition and sends data to yourself, your doctor or your insurance company.

"The gap between the science fiction version and the real-life version may be rapidly closing. Wearable fitness and medical technologies will be a $4.5 billion market globally by 2020, according to Global Industry Analysts. Everything from heart rate to insulin status to recreational drug use can now be measured and monitored digitally. The convergence of miniature electronics, software and some fancy technical work at the interface of chemistry and physics is poised to explode -- with huge upsides and some possibly disturbing downsides "

Read the entire story for free right now at the Bioengineering Today site:

https://bioengineeringtoday.org/biosensors/wearable-technology-and-future-billion-dollar-industry

###

ABOUT BIOENGINEERING TODAY

Bioengineering Today is a nonprofit journalism venture owned and operated by AIP Publishing in Melville, New York. See: https://bioengineeringtoday.org

ABOUT AIP PUBLISHING

AIP Publishing is a wholly owned not-for-profit subsidiary of the American Institute of Physics (AIP). AIP Publishings mission is to support the charitable, scientific and educational purposes of AIP through scholarly publishing activities in the fields of the physical and related sciences on its own behalf, on behalf of Member Societies of AIP and on behalf of other publishing partners to help them proactively advance their missions. AIP Publishings portfolio comprises highly regarded, peer-reviewed journals, including the flagship journals Applied Physics Letters, Journal of Applied Physics, and The Journal of Chemical Physics, in addition to the AIP Conference Proceedings. http://journals.aip.org

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Business Aircraft Market Size (Value), Share, Overview, Type & Applications, Growth, Trends, Regions, Forecast to 2022

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Latest industry research report on: Global Business Aircraft Market Research Report: Industry Size, Share, Research, Reviews, Analysis, Strategies, Demand, Growth, Segmentation, Parameters, ForecastsIn this report, the global Business Aircraft market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Global Business Aircraft Market Research Report 2017 estimates the drivers, restraints, and opportunities pertaining to the global Business Aircraft market over the timeframe of 2017-2022. Delivering the key insights pertaining to this industry, the report provides an in-depth analysis of the latest trends, present and future business scenario, market size and share, and commercialization potential of the Business Aircraft industry over the coming five years.Request Simple for Global Business Aircraft Market Research Report @The industry is analyzed in terms of products, applications, regions, and the key manufacturers holding a prominent share of the global revenue.In terms of end-user or applications, the report is Business Group, Governments, Armed Forces and Other. A detailed analysis of the contribution of these application segments to the overall market revenue and volume has been included in the report.The product landscape of the Jets Aircraft, Turboprop Engines Aircraft, Piston Engine Aircraft, Helicopters and other. Each product has been analyzed in terms of its production, capacity, and consumption. The report further details the market share to be procured by each of these products over the coming years.Request Discount for Business Aircraft Market Research Report @The regional segmentation of the report includes North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and India. Detailing the consumption and production rate of Business Aircrafts in these regions, the report outlines the growth curve of this industry in terms of market volume and share over 2017-2022.The competitive landscape of the Business Aircraft market profiles the key players participating in the global business space. These Agustawestland (US), Airbus Industrie(Germany), American Eurocopter(US), Bell Helicopter Textron(US), Boeing Business Jets(US), Bombardier Aerospace (Canada). The report also details the market positioning, strategies, and revenue procured by each of these manufacturers.For More Info on Market Research @Related Reports: -Global Commercial Aircraft Engines Market Research Report 2017In this report, the global Commercial Aircraft Engines market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Centralize market research purchases across your entire organization in one place.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:
Artificial Intelligence Market in Agriculture Industry 2017 Trend, Analysis and Forecast to 2021

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is a program that can adapt itself to execute tasks in real-time situations using cognitive processing as the human mind. As the program can analyze and adapt itself to real-time situations, it does not require constant supervision. In the agriculture industry, on the basis of application, AI technology has been segmented into robotics, crop and soil management, and animal husbandry.Publisher's analysts forecast the global artificial intelliegence market in agriculture industry to grow at a CAGR of 22.68% during the period 2017-2021.For more information about this report:Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global artificial intelliegence market in agriculture industry for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEAPublisher's report, Global Artificial Intelliegence Market in Agriculture Industry 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- Ag Leader Technology- Trimble- John Deere- IterisRequest Sample Copy atOther prominent vendors- AGCO- aWhere- Gamaya- Granular- Raven IndustriesMarket driver- Maximizing profits in farm operations- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- High initial investment involved in robotics- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend- Face recognition system for farm animals- For a full, detailed list, view our reportInquire for Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Market 2017 Forecast to 2022

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Latest Research Report on Global (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Market 2017 Forecast to 2022 added by OrbisResearch, In-depth Analysis by Industry Experts Report Covers Market Size, Share, Growth Factor, Sales, Consumption, Manufacturers Analysis, Key Regions, Strategies, Challenges and Economical Growth."This report studies the Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Market. It is a rubber conveyor belt whose carcass is composed of a single plane of steel cables. It is composed of a core of plastic, rope, cover and side glue composition.Steel cord conveyor belts are widely used in high strength, long distance and heavy load transportation of materials, and they are also used in high strength and short distance transportation of materials on special occasions."Download PDF Sample of Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Market Report@Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Steel Cord Conveyor Belt in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Bridgestone Bando Yokohama Mitsuboshi DRBBrowse Full Report with TOC:Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, covers Kanto Kansai Chubu Kyushu OthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Common Type Anti-tear Type High Temperature Type OthersPlace Purchase Order for this Report@There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Steel Cord Conveyor Belt market. Chapter 1, to describe Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force; Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Steel Cord Conveyor Belt , with sales, revenue, and price of Steel Cord Conveyor Belt , in 2016 and 2017; Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017; Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Steel Cord Conveyor Belt , for each region, from 2012 to 2017; Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions; Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017; Chapter 12, Steel Cord Conveyor Belt market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022; Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Steel Cord Conveyor Belt sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Table of Contents1 Market Overview2 Manufacturers Profile3 Global Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Market Competition, by Manufacturer4 Global Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Market Analysis by Regions5 North America Steel Cord Conveyor Belt by Countries6 Europe Steel Cord Conveyor Belt by Countries7 Asia-Pacific Steel Cord Conveyor Belt by Countries8 South America Steel Cord Conveyor Belt by Countries9 Middle East and Africa Steel Cord Conveyor Belt by Countries10 Global Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Market Segment by Type11 Global Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Market Segment by Application12 Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Market Forecast (2017-2022)13 Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and Dealers14 Research Findings and Conclusion15 AppendixList of Tables:Figure Steel Cord Conveyor Belt PictureTable Product Specifications of Steel Cord Conveyor BeltFigure Global Sales Market Share of Steel Cord Conveyor Belt by Types in 2016Table Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Types for Major ManufacturersFigure Kanto PictureFigure Kansai PictureFigure Chubu PictureFigure Kyushu PictureFigure Others PictureTable Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Sales Market Share by Applications in 2016Figure Common Type PictureFigure Anti-tear Type PictureFigure High Temperature Type PictureFigure Others PictureFigure USA Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Canada Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Mexico Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Germany Steel Cord Conveyor Belt Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Orbis Research is a single point aid for all your Market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customised reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialisation. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required Market research study for our clients.Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.com
Global and Chinese Safety Glass Membrane Industry Outlook by Varying Applications Overviewed from 2012-2022

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Safety glass membrane is less likely to break, or less likely to pose a threat when broken which makes the component durable. This fact makes the market for safety glass membrane rise significantly. To detail the industry scope, Market Research Hub (MRH) has recently added a study titled as Global and Chinese Safety Glass Membrane Industry, 2017 Market Research Report to its vast report repository. The report forecast 2017-2022 market development trends of safety glass membrane industry evaluated by various market factors.Request Free Sample Report:Safety glass membrane has additional features that make it tough and durable for use. It is further molded into toughened glass, laminated glass, wire mesh glass and engraved glass. The further market use includes applications such as passenger vehicle windows, shower doors, architectural glass doors and tables. Also, it is also used for making refrigerator trays, diving masks, and various types of plates and cookware. Further, this material is also utilized as a substitute for standard glass, as it is intended to provide greater security and reduce the chance of injury from breakage.The report starts with the detailed introduction of safety glass membrane along with the development and status of the present industry. It further describes the manufacturing technology of the glass membrane for development, analysis, and trend exploration. The companies at the global scale are also listed in the research with company profile, product information, 2012-2017 production information and contact information. Furthermore, the global and Chinese market of 2012-2017 is also evaluated for safety glass membrane industry capacity, production and production value, cost/profit, supply/consumption and import/export.Browse Full Report With TOC:In the succeeding section, the market status of the concerned industry is discussed for competition by the company, country (U.S.A, EU, Japan and China) and consumption by application/type. Further, the related market is forecast from 2017-2022 by various market factors. The industry chain of the discussed compound is also analyzed for the industry chain structure, upstream raw material, and downstream industry. It further discusses the global and Chinese economic impact on safety glass membrane industry, market dynamics of the industry and concludes by the new projects market entry strategies, countermeasures of economic impact, various marketing channels and new projects investment feasibility study. The provided research details the key information on the market status of the safety glass membrane manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for the companies and individuals interested in the industry and for quick-witted decision making.Make An Enquiry:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:
By 2024, Cardiac Pacemaker Market to Cross US$ 3923.8 Million

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Some key players in the global cardiac pacemaker market identified in this report are Medtronics, Lepu Medical Technology Co ltd., Osypka Medical GmbH. MEDICOWEB, Boston Scientific Corporation, Pacetronix ltd., BIOTRONIK SE & Co. KG, LivaNova Plc., and St.Jude Medical Inc. Persistence Market Research has discussed individual strategies of these companies in terms of increasing focus on rare diseases, initiatives to increase awareness, and enhancing distribution base. The report has been concluded with strategic recommendations for players already present in the market and new players planning to enter the market, which could help them in the long run.Browse Complete Report @Persistence Market Research (PMR) delivers key insights on the global cardiac pacemaker market in its upcoming report titled, Cardiac Pacemaker Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 20162024. The global cardiac pacemaker market was valued at US$ 4,100.0 Mn in 2015 and this is likely to decline to US$ 3923.8 Mn by 2024. In terms of revenue, the global cardiac pacemaker market is anticipated to exhibit a declining CAGR of -0.5% over the forecast period owing to various factors, on which PMR offers detailed insights and forecasts.A key unmet need in global cardiac pacemaker market is the lack of a 100% safe and efficient pacemaker device to treat arrhythmias. There is an imperative need for development of cost-effective and rapid diagnostic methods for arrhythmias with a growing geriatric population and increasing patient pool with escalating global demand for treatment. This is anticipated to offer lucrative opportunities to new players in the global cardiac pacemaker market. Various key players in the cardiac pacemaker market are signing partnerships and licensing deals to share the research and development platform. In 2014, Medtronic has signed a deal with Lifetech Scientific to bring pacemaker into the Chinese market. According to the agreement, Lifetech Scientific shall manufacture pacemaker at their facility and Medtronics would provide with technology and required training.A sample of this report is available upon request @The market is segmented based on product type, end users, and regions. Based on product type, the market is segmented into implantable pacemaker and external pacemaker. Both the segments are expected to exhibit a negative CAGR for the forecast period, owing to increasing number of device recall related to device malfunctioning. The implantable pacemaker segment is expected to exhibit a declining CAGR of -0.5% and external pacemaker segment is expected to exhibit a declining CAGR of -1.0% during the forecast period.Based on end users, the market is segmented into hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. The hospitals segment is anticipated to account for the highest market share over the forecast period exhibiting a declining CAGR of -0.1% due to better reimbursement rates offered by government and non-government bodies.Request to view table of content @This report assesses trends, that drive growth of each segment on the global as well as regional levels, and offers potential takeaways, that could prove substantially useful to medical device manufacturing companies who wish to enter into the global cardiac pacemaker market. North America and Europe are expected to lose market share in terms of revenue generation. Latin America, APAC, and MEA are collectively expected to be more attractive in terms of revenue generation in the global cardiac pacemaker market in 2016 with growth in revenue for the forecast period. Latin America is expected to expand at a CAGR of 1.1% closely followed by Asia Pacific with a CAGR of 1.0% over the forecast period, due to increase in the diagnosis rate and improved healthcare infrastructure. The India cardiac pacemaker market is expected to increase over other markets and register a CAGR of 1.5% in the region due to increased government initiative, increase in health care expenditure, and increase in disease prevalence. The growth of cardiac pacemakers in this region is largely due to increased participation of local manufacturers and increasing healthcare expenditure.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Analysis on Global Bovine Insulin Industry with Development Methods and Rising Trends Forecasted to 2021

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Market Research Hub (MRH) has recently broadcasted a new study to its vast research portfolio, which is titled as Global Bovine Insulin Industry 2017, Trends and Forecast Report. The study provides a holistic outlook of the global market for its readers, by presenting historical data along with the current market scenario. The industry development trend is further analyzed and detailed in the report for the forecast period 2017-2021.Additionally, it details the market drivers supporting the growth of this market and states the restraints that are likely to hamper the growth of the global market in the near future.Request Free Sample Report:This study is a thorough analysis of the market conditions in the major regions including Asia, Europe and North America, with stern detailing about the prime countries including the United States, Germany, South Korea, United Kingdom, Japan and China, for the forecast period until 2021. In this section, the research analyzes product price, demand, sales and market growth rate and forecast etc. With statistical analysis, the report depicts the global market of Bovine Insulin industry together with its capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand.At first, the report starts with the bovine insulin industry overview which details about the definition, analysis of classification, application and industry chain structure. Bovine Insulin is also known as beef insulin, is a two-chain polypeptide hormone produced in the pancreatic ? cells and it is the most considered hormone. Insulin regulates glucose acceptance into muscle and fat cells by recruiting membrane glucose transporter Glut-4 to cell surface. The research has identified that Bovine Insulin is a medicine that is used for the treatment of Diabetes and other conditions. Beef insulin is still available for use by a minority of patients who prefer animal-sourced insulin.Browse Full Report With TOC:Then, the report emphases on global leading industry players operating in this market with the information such as company profiles, products, products specifications, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue, market share, contact information and gross margin analysis. At present, major players in Global Bovine Insulin Market are RayBiotech, Inc., BioVendor, Cusabio and Sigma-Aldrich.Moving further, the study also offers insightful inputs given by industry experts to assist decision-makers in formulating effective business strategies. Numerous analytical tools have also been used in the study to examine the growth factors and potential opportunities for the market players. Finally, in the concluding section, the report introduces new project SWOT analysis, investment return analysis and investment feasibility analysis.Make An Enquiry:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:
Medical Copper Tubing Market - Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies, Industry Verticals and Forecasts

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Global Medical Copper Tubing Market: OverviewMedical copper tubing equipment is used for the supply of medical gas, which includes oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and nitrous oxide. The burgeoning opportunity for medical copper tubing manufacturers relies on the basic fact that copper is good for health.The global medical copper tubing market can be analyzed by application, end-use, type, and geography.The report on the global medical copper tubing market is a credible source of information for a telescopic view of the current status of the market. The research report includes a diligent analysis of the competitive landscape of the market including a detailed profile of key vendors in this market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Medical Copper Tubing Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe global medical copper tubing market is driven by the increasing demand for copper tubing for gas delivery owing to its corrosion-resistant and antibacterial properties. Copper tubing are easy to install and long lasting. However, copper tubing products should satisfy the regulatory standards such as CSA and ASTM B819. Manufacturing and marketing standards and specifications compliances met by product manufacturers are expected to fuel the markets growth.The type K segment led the overall industry by revenue in the recent past. The rising demand and high price factor of products account for the large share of type K segment. The oxygen application segment is expected to account for a significant share in the overall industry in the coming years. This is mainly due to the presence of a large number of individuals with respiratory disorders and an increasing number of patients that need emergency treatment. Medical vacuum, on the other hand, is expected to display the highest growth rate due to the rising use of copper tubing for the secure and adequate flow of medical vacuum at required pressure levels to gas outlets.The hospital end-use segment accounted for the highest revenue contribution to the global medical copper tubing market in the recent past. Copper tubing is preferred for medical gas delivery in hospitals due to its benefits as compared to traditional systems. Copper tubing products are particularly advantageous for critical care patients in ICU, CCU, and OT for an uninterrupted supply of gases. However, outpatient facilities is expected to display the fastest growth rate in the medical copper tubing market. This is mainly due to the increasing use of copper tubing products for diagnostics and laboratory tests.Request TOC of the Report @Global Medical Copper Tubing Market: Regional OutlookThe global medical copper tubing market can be analyzed with respect to the regional markets of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. Amongst these, North America is the leading regional market for medical copper tubing.Global Medical Copper Tubing Market: Competitive OutlookSome leading companies in the global medical copper tubing market include Mueller Industries, Inc., J & D Tube Benders, Inc., Cambridge-Lee Industries LLC Cerro Flow Products LLC, Beacon Medaes, , Samuel, Son & Co., C&H Medical (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., Limited, KME Germany GmbH & Co KG, Wieland Copper Products LLC, The Lawton Tube Co. Ltd, UACJ Corp., and Amico Group of Companies.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Key players in the market are focused on strategic collaborations and joint ventures to stay competitive in this market. In addition, companies in the medical copper tubing market are also focused on product improvement and expand their distribution channels to strengthen their position and maximize revenue share in the market.About TMR Research :TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Damiana Extract Market  Overview of Vital Industry Drivers

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Turnera Diffusa commonly known as Damiana is a woody shrub natively found in Southern Texas of U.S, Central America, Mexico, South America and Caribbean. It produces small aromatic flowers followed by the fruits that shares the similar taste as of figs. Damiana is quite popular in its native region as its been used traditionally over there. Damiana possess various health benefits such as anti-depressant, kidney tonic, diuretics, aphrodisiac, blood glucose regulator, and tranquilizers etc. Damiana extract, also called Damiana leaf extract is also known for boosting physical and mental stamina. If taken in high doses, it produces relaxing effects, with mild high.Browse Market Research Report @Although, Damiana extract Market is popular in North and South America, and Caribbean, it is a niche market for other regions, and is expected to grow because people have started to opt for herbal products rather than mainstream (allopathic) products. Damiana extract also act as diuretic, helping person to remove extra fluids, and regularizing kidney health. Damiana extract can be found alone or along with supplements or other herbs in liquid extracts, teas, or capsules. The key application of Damiana extract is enhancing ones sexual life as it produces aphrodisiac effects, hence could be a godsend to impotent couples.Damiana Extract Market: SegmentationDamiana Extract is used as herbal alternative for regulating reproductive, kidney and digestion health. Damiana Extract Market is segmented on the basis of form, applications, variety and region.On the basis of form, Damiana extract Market is segmented into Damiana powder extract and Damiana liquid extract. These forms are although available in market but its safer to use the product of these extracts because of quantity issues.Damiana extract Market is further segmented on the basis of applications, into Syrups, powders, liquid supplements, teas, Mexican liqueurs and herbal capsules.For more information on this report, fill the form @Depending on the variety Damiana extract market is segmented into Organic Damiana extract and conventional Damiana extract. According to the trend, Organic products are preferred more in the market, hence organic Damiana extract is witnessing preference in the market.Damiana Extract Market: Drivers, Restraints and TrendsWith the globalization of the world in this new era, people started to adapt into busy lifestyle and facing major stress problems along with the consequences. This is driving Damiana extract market globally and market is expected to grow during the forecast period.Herbal products are trending now a days globally, specifically in North America and Europe, hence it would be a key trend for Damiana Extract Market. Gymnastics are trending globally, hence it could drive the market because diuretics are used by body builders and Damiana Extract stimulates urinal process. One of the key driver for Damiana extract Market is that it can be used as an aphrodisiac and can also be used to treat impotency. Damiana extract is also known for dilating the vessels.One of the restraining factor is that people are globally less aware about the products of Damiana extract.Damiana Extract Market: Regional OutlookDepending on the geographic regions, Global Damiana extract Market is segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, APAC and MEA.North and Latin America holds the largest share of Damiana extract Market followed by Latin America which also possess a large Damiana extract Market.Europe and Asia Pacific Damiana extract Market is expected to grow during the forecast period because people are opting for herbal products. Middle East and Africa is expected to grow in forecast period.Population around the globe is getting aware about the health benefits and products of Damiana extract.The recent trend is people are looking for more health beneficiary herbal products.Damiana extract Market: Key PlayersKey global market players producing Damiana extract Market include Barlowe's Herbal Elixirs, Whole Herb Company, Herb Pharm, Liberty Natural Products, Inc., Bristol Botanicals Limited, Nature's Way Products, LLC, Traditional Medicinals, Now Foods, Natural Factors Inc., and few regional players.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global and Chinese Dicyclohexylammonium Nitrite Industry Growth Analysis, Forecast till 2022

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The use of dicyclohexylammonium as a vapor phase corrosion inhibitor that mainly acts as metal corrosion protector is acknowledge all across the globe. This is one of the prime reasons pushing its market to newer heights. To analyze the market in-depth, Market Research Hub (MRH) has recently added a study titled as Global and Chinese Dicyclohexylammonium Nitrite Industry, 2017 Market Research Report to its vast report archive. The report presents a precise insight of the global and Chinese dicyclohexylammonium nitrite industry covering all important market parameters.Request Free Sample Report:Dicyclohexylammonium nitrite is physically a white to light-colored crystalline solid which is insoluble in water. Any contact with the crystalline solid may cause irritation to skin, eyes, and mucous membranes. It is used as corrosion protector in motor vehicles and parts, deceleration chassis, internal combustion engines, machine tools, cutting tools measuring tools, etc. Further, dicyclohexylammonium nitrite can also be used in weapons, radar and other equipment linked to metal protection.The report starts with the detailed introduction of dicyclohexylammonium nitrite along with the development and status of the industry. Further, the study describes the manufacturing technology of the dicyclohexylammonium nitrite for development, analysis, and trend. At the global scale, the related companies are listed along with the company profile, product information, 2012-2017 production information and contact information.Browse Full Report With TOC:The global and Chinese market for capacity, production and production value, cost/profit, supply/consumption and import/export from 2012-2017 is also evaluated for the dicyclohexylammonium nitrite industry. In the next section, the market status of the concerned industry is discussed for competition by the company, country (U.S.A, EU, Japan and China) and consumption by application/type. Further, the related market is forecast from 2017-2022 by various market facets.Moreover, the research has discussed the industry chain of the compound with detail analysis of the industry chain structure, upstream raw material, and downstream industry. It further discusses the global and Chinese economic impact on dicyclohexylammonium nitrite industry, followed by market dynamics of the industry and concludes by the new projects analysis. The mentioned market dynamics include dicyclohexylammonium nitrite industry news, industry development challenges and industry development opportunities. Finally, the new project proposal is listed that consist of the market entry strategies, countermeasures of economic impact, various marketing channels and new projects investment feasibility study. The research analysis suspends with the forecast analysis during 2017-2022 covering mapped tables and figures for analyzing the future market scenario.Make An Enquiry:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:
Global Handheld Ultrasound Equipment Industry Market Research Report 2017

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SummaryThe Global Handheld Ultrasound Equipment Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Handheld Ultrasound Equipment industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Handheld Ultrasound Equipment market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Handheld Ultrasound Equipment industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Ask a sample or any question, please email to:hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comThe players list(Partly, Players you are interested can also be added):GEPhilipsSiemensFujifilmToshibaSamsungHitachiMindray MedicalBoston ScientificBenQ MedicalChisonEcareEsaoteTelemedZoncareMedGynKey Topics Covered:Chapter One Industry Overview of Handheld Ultrasound EquipmentChapter Two Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Handheld Ultrasound EquipmentChapter Three Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Handheld Ultrasound EquipmentChapter Four Capacity, Production and Revenue Analysis of Handheld Ultrasound Equipment by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Five Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Handheld Ultrasound Equipment by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Six Consumption Volume, Consumption Value and Sale Price Analysis of Handheld Ultrasound Equipment by Regions, Types and ApplicationsChapter Seven Supply, Import, Export and Consumption Analysis of Handheld Ultrasound EquipmentChapter Eight Major Manufacturers Analysis of Handheld Ultrasound EquipmentChapter Nine Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Handheld Ultrasound EquipmentChapter Ten Industry Chain Analysis of Handheld Ultrasound EquipmentChapter Eleven Development Trend of Analysis of Handheld Ultrasound EquipmentChapter Twelve New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Handheld Ultrasound EquipmentChapter Thirteen Conclusion of the Global Handheld Ultrasound Equipment Industry 2017 Market Research ReportRelated Reports:US Handheld Ultrasound Equipment Industry Market Research Report 2017Europe Handheld Ultrasound Equipment Industry Market Research Report 2017India Handheld Ultrasound Equipment Industry Market Research Report 2017China Handheld Ultrasound Equipment Industry Market Research Report 2017Korea Handheld Ultrasound Equipment Industry Market Research Report 2017Japan Handheld Ultrasound Equipment Industry Market Research Report 2017If you need a report or have any question, please feel free to contact meHebe | Sr. Manager  Global SalesProfessional Market Research Report PublisherQYResearch Co.LtdQYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchPhone: +86 20 2209 3278Email: hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comWeb:About QYResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, database and seminar services. the company owned a large basic database (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business. Through the companys years of effort and a lot of customer support, QYResearch consulting group creative design method of many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch brand has become the consulting industry with quality assurance consulting brand. The company has 2500 global well-known customers, covering energy automobile pharmaceutical chemical agriculture more than 30 industries, services from the data analysis and recommendations-Consulting landing one-stop solution, and research regions cover China,US,EU,Asia,Middle East and Africa,South America,Australia,etc Global all regions,and also built research or marketing center in China USA UK France Hongkong etc regions. currently, QYResearch has become the first choice and worth trusted consulting brand in Global and China business consulting services.Media ContactCompany Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITEDContact Person: HebeEmail: hebe@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: +86-20 2209 3278Address: Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe DistrictCity: GuangzhouCountry: ChinaWebsite:(US) |(EU) |(JP)
Alpharetta, GA, July 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Homeside Properties, an Associa company, continues to expand their client list by adding four new communities in June.



Carriage Lakes consists of 91 single-family homes located in a beautiful wooded, mature neighborhood in Roswell, GA. The community is close to shopping, churches, schools and activities for the whole family to enjoy.



Ashley Manor is an upscale neighborhood that contains 35 single-family homes located in Roswell, GA. This conveniently located community is perfect for the growing family and has access to local shopping and fine dining.



Wyndsor at Charleston is a 244 single-family home community nestled between Old Fountain Road, Old Peachtree Road, and Auburn Road located in the unique town of Dacula, GA.



Westside Master Association manages a 20 single-family unit community located in Alpharetta, GA.



We are eager to continue to add new clients, stated James Arterbury, Homeside Properties president. My team is constantly looking for new opportunities to expand our services and reach more and more residents. We want to continue to grow our branch and provide best-in-business customer service to the residents of Georgia.



With more than 180 branch offices across North America, Associa delivers unsurpassed management and lifestyle services to nearly five million residents worldwide. Our 10,000+ team members lead the industry with unrivaled education, expertise and trailblazing innovation. For more than 40 years, Associa has provided solutions designed to help communities achieve their vision. To learn more, visit www.associaonline.com.



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Acne Treatment Market Predicted to Rise at 4.6% CAGR

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PMR report titled Acne Treatment Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2017  2025 further reveals that the quest to look youthful from the baby boomer generation coupled with growing preference for minimally invasive procedures and high adoption rate of prescription drugs are major factors driving the global acne market. Amongst regions, demand for acne treatment products is expected to remain high in the regions such North America and Asia pacific (APAC). The market for acne treatment in North America is estimated to exceed a valuation of US$ 3,206 Mn towards the end of assessment period. By 2017-end, the region is expected to account for around 43.2% revenue share of the global market. Meanwhile, the market in APAC is set to expand at a CAGR of 4.8%, to reach US$ 1,718.0 Mn over the forecast period.Browse Complete Report @The average age of onset of acne has reduced from 14-15 years to 11-12 years due to changing demographics and social habits. Moreover, some of the misleading media content continue to encourage the habit of self-medication that often backfires, resulting in further complication. Over the past couple of years, demand for acne treatment drugs and medications has surged at a remarkable pace. After conducting an exclusive study, Persistence Market Research (PMR) identified that approximately 20% of the young population (aged below 13 years) suffer from moderate-to-severe acne issues. According to the PMR study, the global acne treatment market was pegged at US$ 4,920 Mn in 2016. This market is expected to reach US$ 7,348 Mn by the end of 2025, reflecting a CAGR of 4.6% over the forecast period (2017 2025).A sample of this report is available upon request @Drug makers are implementing better testing methods. Many of the active ingredients for manufacturing acne treatment medicines are used only if they are clinically evidenced and have satisfactory documented outcomes. Alma Lasers Ltd., Lumenis Ltd., Cutera, Inc, Stiefel Laboratories Inc., Galderma S.A., Verilux, Inc., Valeant Pharmaceutical International, Inc. , Johnson & Johnson, Merz Pharma GmbH & Co. KGaA, Allergan Plc., and Syneron Medical Ltd are some of top medical companies that operate in the global acne treatment market. Many of these market players are actively focusing on expanding distribution base to emerging countries in order to improve their overall market presence. As a matter of fact, growing medical tourism in developing countries is expected to create potential market opportunities in the near future.Request to view table of content @Key Insights of the Report Include:In recent years, retinoid therapy has come up as an effective treatment module for acne. Therefore, retinoid therapy is expected to account for the largest value share of the market during the forecast period.In 2017 and beyond, prevalence of inflammatory acne is anticipated to remain relatively high as compared non-Inflammatory acne.By treatment modality, oral segment is estimated to account for 37.4% revenue share of the global acne treatment market by 2017 endAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Data Analysis Market : Analysis and Segment Forecasts to 2025

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Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Data Analysis Market: OverviewNext generation sequencing allows researchers to examine biological systems deeply due to the unprecedented throughput, speed, and scalability of these systems.Today, complexities involved in genomic research demands a higher level of understanding than what is offered by traditional DNA sequencing methodologies. Next-generation sequencing has become an everyday research tool and filled the gap to cater to these needs.NGS is the digital alternative for sequence-based gene expression. Moreover, the scalability of NGS allows to tune the resolution level to meet specific experimental needs.The report analyzes the various segments and sub-segments at length and offers a detailed assessment of their current, past, and future performance. The factor propelling and challenging the global next generation sequencing data analysis market and recommendations on how to overcome the challenges have also been presented in this study. Using industry-centric tools, such as SWOT analysis and Porters Five Forces analysis, readers are given a 360-degree overview of where the NGS data analysis market will stand in the near future.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Data Analysis Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe continuous advancements in cloud computing and data integration solutions are effectively addressing data handling bottlenecks, which involves analyzing a sizeable volume of high-throughput sequence data. Technological advancements in bioinformatics are anticipated to provide lucrative opportunities to this vertical and hence propel growth of the global NGS data analysis market in the near future.The introduction of NGS methods combined with their increasing adoption in clinical diagnosis, genomic research, and for personalized treatment of several diseases are bolstering the demand for precise and rapid sequencing interpretation tools and algorithms that can expedite data analysis. Moreover, the scope of sequencing projects is expected to rise due to the high genetic data output and concurrent drop in the prices of sequencing. This has led to an increased demand for elaborate bioinformatics pipeline with advanced and efficient solutions.However, infrastructural cost for the development of algorithms and software is anticipated to hold back the markets growth to some extent. Moreover, time-consuming nature of NGS data analysis is also hampering the markets growth. This, however, will provide lucrative opportunities for commercial service providers to design and develop newer solutions with faster turnaround times.Request TOC of the Report @Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Data Analysis Market: Geographical OutlookThe NGS data analysis market can be analyzed with respect to the regional segments of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America is the leading market for NGS data analysis due to the presence of some of the established market players in this region. Moreover, the increasing number of NGS research undertakings carried out in Canadian universities is leading to the growth of the NGS data analysis market in this region.However, Asia Pacific is anticipated to exhibit significant growth in this market in the coming years. This is mainly due to the increasing number of grants received for sequencing projects in the developing countries of this region. Moreover, positive R&D outcomes that are encouraging the inclusion of high-throughput sequencing in clinical diagnosis is anticipated to boost the growth of the NGS data sequencing market in Asia Pacific.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Major Companies Mentioned in ReportSome of the leading companies in the global NGS data analysis market includes Illumina Inc., Ingenuity, Station X Inc., DNAnexus SevenBridges Genomics, Genalice, Congenica, Omicia Inc., WuXiNextCODE, Bluebee, and Edico Genome.About TMR Research :TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
U.K. Private Healthcare Market to Reach US$ 321.4 Mn in 2018

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PMRs report titled Private Healthcare Market: U.K. Industry Analysis, 2012  2016 and Forecast, 2017  2025 further identifies some of the key trends governing the U.K.s private healthcare market under the influence of multiple factors. Leading private healthcare providers in the country are now offering several fixed packages for various procedures and treatments in an attempt to lure more patients. The focus has shifted toward a more meticulous marketing of medical services to patients. Some of the private companies are using local media and medical scheme membership brochures to reach out to more number of people. Market players are also investing in improving out-patient services, setting up day clinics and sub-acute beds in order to increase their services offerings.Browse Complete Report @The decline in individual purchases of private medical insurance and low medical cover pay-outs to clinics and hospitals will continue to negatively impact the U.K. private healthcare market. Besides, the country has a well-defined public healthcare structure for its permanent residents. At the point of need, public healthcare coverage is subsidized or offered completely free and is usually paid through general taxation. Persistence Market Research in its latest study reveals that the U.K. private healthcare market is set to expand at a sluggish 2.8% CAGR during the forecast period (20172025). In addition, this market is anticipated to represents an absolute $ opportunity of US$ 321.4 Mn in 2018 over 2017. According to PMR findings, the U.Ks private healthcare sector is much smaller than the public sector. However, a rise in self-pay elective procedures and introduction of attractive packaged pricing is expected to support the countrys private healthcare sector in the near future.A sample of this report is available upon request @Hospital of St. Johns & St. Elizabeth, Care UK, CIRCLE HOLDINGS PLC, BMI Healthcare, Nuffield Health, HCA Management Services, L.P., Ramsay Health Care, Spire Healthcare Group plc., The London Clinic, Aspen Healthcare (A Sub. Of Tenet Healthcare), Bupa Cromwell Hospital, The Huntercombe Group, KIMS Hospital, 3fivetwo Group, London Welbeck Hospital, The Bournemouth Private Clinic Limited, Alliance Medical, King Edward VII's Hospital, The Private Clinic, and Vein Centre Limited are the key players operating in the regions private healthcare market. Currently, Ramsay holds the top position in the market, maintaining around 21.1% share despite the growing competition.As per the report, increasing waiting times for various treatment and procedures at public healthcare centers is prompting patients to opt for private healthcare services. This, in turn, is expected to create lucrative market opportunities for private healthcare organizations during the forecast period.Request to view table of content @Additional Excerpts of the Report Include:The demand for private acute care services, private specialist services, and private patient care services is projected to remain higher as compared to other private healthcare services over 2025. By 2017-end, private hospitals that provide acute care services are expected to account for more than 57% value share of the market.Based on end-users, self-pay individuals and NHS referrals are expected to collectively account for a massive market share in terms of revenue. Over the next couple of years, increasing out-of-pocket spending on healthcare expenses is projected to create further demand for private healthcare services in the country.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Commodity Chemicals Market to Incur Rapid Extension by 2020

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Commodity chemicals (bulk chemicals) are a group of chemicals that are made on a very large scale and act as intermediates to produce other chemicals, which, in turn are used to produce a extensive range of end-user products including construction materials, adhesives, plastics, apparel and tires. Commodity chemicals are the largest sub-segment of the chemical industry. Commodity chemicals are commonly traded under broad categories such as organics, inorganics, plastics resins, synthetic rubbers, fibers, films, explosives and petrochemicals. These broad categories include chemicals such as, acetic acid, acetone, acrylate esters, adipic acid, acrylonitrate, benzene, bisphenol, butadiene, butanediol, butyl acetate, hexane, melamine, polyvinyl chloride, propylene, methanol, methyl, glycol and glycerines. These chemical are very low in product differentiation, and hence making price the dominant economic factor in purchasing decisions for the end users.To access full report @The commodity chemical industry is highly fragmented and served with large number of local or regional players. Asia Pacific is by far the largest market for commodity chemicals accounting almost half of the total market. It is followed by North America and Europe. The growth prospective is still high in Asia Pacific attributed to the growing economy and ongoing trend and support for manufacturing sector in the developing countries such as India, China, and Indonesia. Bulk availability of crude oil and natural gas from gulf countries such as Saudi Arabian, Iran, Iraq and Syria is helping the commodity chemical industries in Asia Pacific.A sample of this report is available upon request @Commodity chemicals serve a wide range of industries ranging from personal care products to aerospace industries. It has its application either directly or indirectly in almost all manufacturing industries. The economy growth and increasing Gross domestic product (GDP) of developed and developing countries around the world is boosting the overall market of commodity chemicals. However the stiff regulation of the governments around the world regarding the health and environment side effect of chemicals and fluctuating prices of crude oil and natural gas are posing significant challenge for the industry.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the major players in commodity chemicals market include, BASF SE, Bayer AG, The Dow Chemical Company, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, PPG industries, Linde Group, Akzo Nobel, LyondellBasell Industries, Asahi Kasei, Sumitomo chemicals, Evonik Industries, INEOS Group Holding and Chem China.Key points covered in the reportReport segments the market on the basis of types, application, products, technology, etc (as applicable)The report covers geographic segmentationNorth AmericaEuropeAsiaRoWThe report provides the market size and forecast for the different segments and geographies for the period of 2010 to 2020The report provides company profiles of some of the leading companies operating in the marketThe report also provides porters five forces analysis of the market.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Clinical Oncology Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market to increase rapidly by 2017 - 2025

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Global Clinical Oncology Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market: OverviewNext Generation Sequencing (NGS) is referred to as a non-Sanger based high throughput DNA sequencing technology. This term is specifically used to define several modern and advanced sequencing technologies such as SOLiD sequencing, Proton / PGM sequencing, Roche 454 sequencing, and Illumina (Solexa) sequencing, among others. Billions of strands of DNA can be chained in parallel, substantially yielding more throughput and decreasing the requirement for methods for fragment cloning, often employed Sanger genome sequencing. Next generation sequencing enabled cataloging of the genomic outlook of numerous oncogenes is likely to pave way for the investigation of pathway leading to the occurrence of several diseases. The widespread applications of next generation sequencing is expected to bolster the use of multi gene sequencing.The report is an investigation in the growth of the global clinical oncology next generation sequencing market over the last couple of years and in the coming years. The market research publication further reasons out the causes of the changes in the market across the globe. It does this so by presenting an evaluation of the dynamics and the trends prevalent from the last few years and the ones that are likely to retain an impact during the forecast period. The Porters five forces analysis is being taken into consideration for the analysts to provide a clear view of the vendor landscape to the readers. Mergers, agreements, acquisitions, and other partnerships have also been highlighted in the report. The study further delves into the working of the various leading companies along with the information on the products, strategies, and shares of the companies in question.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Clinical Oncology Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market: Trends and ProspectsThe global market for clinical oncology next generation sequencing is expected to be benefitted by the growing use of advanced genetic sequencing analysis in several fields of clinical research owing to the simultaneous fall in the costs of base pair mapping and is likely to render high impact on the market over the coming years. Many cancer researchers have warranted the importance of NGS technology in the field of clinical oncology and have also invested efforts for creating bioinformatics algorithms to be used for cancer test development and screening.Numerous oncologists also believe that over the coming years, next generation sequencing in combination with companion diagnostics is anticipated to play a crucial role in personalized therapeutics and diagnostics, thus exponentially triggering the demand for these platforms in clinical oncology. Moreover, loans and grants provided by governments for the purpose of research and development is also expected to bode well for the markets growth in the near future. It has also been expected that with the rise in expenditure for cancer research, the adoption of clinical oncology next generation sequencing will also magnify. However, time consuming process and data interpretation is expected to act as major bottleneck in the growth of the market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Clinical Oncology Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market: Regional OutlookRegionally, the global market for clinical oncology next generation sequencing can be segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Rest of the World. North America is expected to emerge as a prominent region supplementing the markets growth owing to strategic initiatives taken up by the governments in the region. Other regions are also anticipated to support the growth of the market with early adoption of the technologies.Global Clinical Oncology Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market: Competitive LandscapeCompanies such as DNASTAR Inc., Roche, Illumina Inc., Agilent Technologies, Qiagen NV, CLC Bio, Biomatters Ltd., and Pacific Bioscience, among several others are likely to establish a strong position in the market with their services and products.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@About TMR Research :TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Pediatric Ultrasound Market : Emergence of Several New Industries to Create Fresh Opportunities

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Global Pediatric Ultrasound Market: OverviewPediatric ultrasound imaging, also called pediatric sonography, is one of the standard imaging techniques used across a variety of healthcare facilities to scan different parts of body of children to diagnose and treat a number of medical conditions. The noninvasive and safe nature of the imaging technique is significantly used to evaluate and examine a variety of conditions and is witnessing a steady rise in demand across the globe owing to a significant rise in several diseases affecting children.This report on the global pediatric ultrasound market presents a detailed overview of the present growth dynamics of the market and an analytical overview of the key factors expected to exert a significant impact on the overall development of the market over the period 2017-2025.Global Pediatric Ultrasound Market: Trends and OpportunitiesA host of factors are leading to the increased demand for pediatric ultrasound devices in the global market, including the significant rise in prevalence of a number of pediatric diseases, the resultant rise in demand for increased number of diagnostic procedures, and the increased consciousness among parents about the need for early diagnosis of pediatric diseases. The low threat of exposure to harmful radiations as compared to other popular imaging techniques and technological advancements in the field of pediatric ultrasound are also expected to drive the market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Additionally, vast untapped growth opportunities in developing and less-developed economies are also expected to drive the market for pediatric ultrasounds in the next few years. However, the markets growth is expected to be restrained to a certain extent owing to the thriving industry of refurbished medical devices, limited availability of skilled resources, and some inherent limitations of the ultrasound technology that restrict their scope of use.Global Pediatric Ultrasound Market: Geographical AnalysisFrom a geographical perspective, the report examines the global pediatric ultrasound market across regions such as Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa. Of these, the markets across developed regions such as North America and Europe are amongst the top revenue-grossers for the global market. The high prevalence of pediatric chronic heart diseases, high awareness among parents about children health, and technologically advanced healthcare infrastructures in these regions are the key factors driving the pediatric ultrasound market.Request TOC of the Report @Over the reports forecast period, however, the market for pediatric ultrasound in Asia Pacific is expected to exhibit growth at the most promising pace, chiefly owing to the increased focus of government bodies on modernization of healthcare infrastructures and rising expenditure on healthcare and fitness. With the presence of some of the worlds leading medical device manufacturers such as Hitachi and Toshiba, Japan dominates the Asia Pacific pediatric ultrasound market.Global Pediatric Ultrasound Market: Competitive OverviewThe vendor landscape of the global pediatric ultrasound market features intense competition in terms of product pricing and product features. The rising demand for portable and handheld systems has compelled leading vendors to focus on this niche segment of the market to reap sustainable returns. Futuristic technologies such as 3D and 4D ultrasound devices are also gaining increasing acceptance across developed regional markets as well as developing regional markets, a trend that could result in excellent growth opportunities for vendors wanting to venture into the pediatric ultrasound market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Some of the leading companies contributing to the development of the global pediatric ultrasound market are Toshiba Medical System Corporation, Boston Scientific, Agfa-Gevaert NV, Hitachi Medical Corporation, Esaote SpA, General Electric Company, Fujifilm Corporation, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Samsung Medison Co. Ltd., Mindray Medical International Limited, GE Healthcare, and Siemens Healthcare.About TMR Research :TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
By 2025, Pressure Relief Devices Market to Rise at 5.3% CAGR

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Persistence Market Research (PMR), in its report, projects the global pressure relief devices market to register 5.3% CAGR during the forecast period 2017 to 2025. In 2016, the market was evaluated at revenues worth US$ 2,280.4 Mn; by 2025 this number is estimated to reach nearly US$ 3,600 Mn.Demand for pressure relief devices is on a surge in developing economies including Asia Pacific (APAC) and Middle East & Africa (MEA). With the advent of medical tourism in various APAC countries such as Vietnam Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and Philippines, the market in this region is expected to witness considerable growth. Provision of after sales will be the key focus area of the global pressure relief devices market. Various global players have signed strategic partnerships & collaborations with regional players for offering sales and aftersales services in developing markets.Browse Complete Report @According to a study by Hill-Rom, growing number of patients with hospital-acquired pressure ulcer has led to a robust adoption of pressure ulcer devices in North America. In addition, rising prevalence of obesity and growing geriatric population has also driven the demand for pressure ulcer devices. These factors are expected to drive growth of the market in this region. However, reimbursement stands as a critical factor, considering the fact that products are highly priced. Private insurers in North America are adopting reimbursement restrictions for pressure ulcer treatment, which in turn will restrain market growth in this region.Increasing out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure is current trend in both developed and developing countries of APAC. This is expected fuel demand for medical devices including pressure relief devices in this region. In addition, provision of government initiatives is expected to offer better healthcare facilities across developing economies, which is further expected to fuel demand for pressure relief devices in APAC. In contrast, affordability of purchasing new pressure relief devices is a major challenge for large number of population across this region. This is because of limited support from government policies covering pressure ulcer treatment in developing economies, and lack of health insurance. These factors are expected to impede market growth in Asia Pacific.A sample of this report is available upon request @Long-term care centres will continue to remain most lucrative end-users of pressure relief devices, with revenues estimated to reach nearly US$ 1,700 Mn by 2025. Demand for pressure relief devices from long-term care centres is expected to witness expansion at 6% CAGR through 2025. In addition, hospitals are estimated to be second largest end-users of pressure relief devices. Revenue garnered by demand for pressure relief devices from hospitals is expected to surpass US$ 800 Mn in 2017.By product type, specialty beds will remain sought-after in the market. Sales of specialty beds is expected to exhibit 5.8% CAGR through 2025. Specialty beds are expected to account for over 50% market share by 2025-end. In addition, sales of pressure relief mattress is projected to reach nearly US$ 600 Mn in 2017. In contrast, mattress overlays are expected to witness a comparatively low CAGR in the market.Request to view table of content @North America will remain the largest market for pressure relief devices. Sales of pressure relief devices in this region will reach nearly US$ 800 Mn in 2017; by 2025 this number is estimated to surpass US$ 1,000 Mn. In addition, APAC is expected to witness fastest growth in the market. Sales of pressure relief devices in APAC is projected to expand at 6% CAGR through 2025. In contrast, MEA is expected to exhibit sluggish expansion in the market during the forecast period.Key players identified in PMRs report include Arjohuntleigh AB, Hill-Rom Global Holdings B.V., INVACARE CORP, PARAMOUNT BED CO., LTD., Talley Group Limited, STRYKER CORPORATION, SIDHIL LIMITED, MEDTRONIC PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY, SMITH & NEPHEW PLC, Apex Medical Corp, Proma Reha, s. r. o., Besco Medical Co., Ltd., Hirtz & Co. KG, GF Health Products, Inc., ADL GmbH., Linet spol. s r.o.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Personal Care Ingredients Market for Skin Care, Hair Care, Oral Care, Cosmetics and Other Applications : Global Industry Analysis, Research & Forecast 2017 - 2023

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Albany, New York, July 14, 2017 : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Personal Care Ingredients (Surfactants, Conditioning Polymers, Emollients, Rheology Control Agents, Emulsifiers, Antimicrobials, and Others) Market for Skin Care, Hair Care, Oral Care, Cosmetics, and Other Applications - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023" globally.This report analyzes and forecasts the personal care ingredients market on the global and regional level. The study provides historic data of 2014 along with forecast from 2015 to 2023 based on volume (kilo tons) and revenue (US$ Mn).Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @The study provides a decisive view of the personal care ingredients market by dividing it into product, application, and regional segments. Product and application segments have been analyzed based on current trends and future potential. The market has been estimated from 2015 to 2023 in terms of volume (kilo tons) and revenue (US$ Mn). Regional segmentation includes current and forecast demand for North America, Europe, Rest of Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. These regions have been further sub-segmented into countries and sub-regions with relevance to the market. Segmentation also includes demand for individual product type and applications in all the regions.The study covers drivers and restraints governing the dynamics of the market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period. Additionally, the report comprises opportunities in the personal care ingredients market on the global and regional level.The report includes detailed value chain analysis to provide a comprehensive view of the personal care ingredients market. Analysis of Porters Five Forces model has also been included to help understand the competitive landscape in the market. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis, wherein applications have been benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate, and general attractiveness for future growth.The market has been forecast based on constant currency rates. Prices of personal care ingredients vary in each region and are a result of the demand-supply scenario in the region. Hence, a similar volume-to-revenue ratio does not follow for each individual region. Individual pricing of personal care ingredients for each application has been taken into account while estimating and forecasting market revenue on the global level. Regional average price has been considered while breaking down the market into application segments in each region.The report provides the size of the personal care ingredients market in 2014 and the forecast for the next nine years. Size of the global personal care ingredients market has been provided in terms of volume and revenue. Market volume has been defined in kilo tons, while market revenue for regions is in US$ Mn. Market size and forecast for each product segment has been provided in the context of global and regional markets. Numbers provided in the report are derived based on demand generated from different applications and types of raw materials. Market dynamics prevalent in North America and Europe have been taken into account for estimating growth of the global market.Market estimates for this study have been based on volume, with revenue being derived through regional pricing trends. Prices of commonly utilized grades of personal care ingredients in each application have been considered, and customized product pricing has not been included. Demand for personal care ingredients has been derived by analyzing the global and regional demand for personal care ingredients in each application. The global personal care ingredients market has been analyzed based on expected demand. Market data for each segment is based on volume and corresponding revenue. Prices considered for calculation of revenue are average regional prices obtained through primary quotes from numerous regional suppliers, distributors, and direct selling regional producers based on manufacturers feedback and application requirement. Forecasts have been based on expected demand in personal care ingredients applications. The global product segment and application split of the market has been derived using the bottom-up approach, which is cumulative of each regions demand. Regional demand is the summation of sub-regions and countries in the region. Companies were considered for market share analysis based on their product portfolio, revenue, and manufacturing capacity. In absence of specific data related to sales of personal care ingredients by several privately held companies, calculated assumptions have been made in view of companies product portfolio and regional presence along with demand for products in their portfolio.More Information about TOC @The report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the global market. Key players include BASF SE, Evonik, Akzo Nobel N.V., Ashland, Dow Corning Corporation, Lonza Group Ltd., Croda International Plc, Wacker Chemie AG, and Clariant. Company profiles comprise attributes such as company overview, brand overview, financial overview (in terms of financial year), business strategies, and recent/key developments.Personal Care Ingredients Market - Product Segment AnalysisSurfactantsConditioning polymersEmollientsRheology control agentsEmulsifiersAntimicrobialsOthers (Including UV absorbers and hair fixative polymers)ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMoz90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States
Thermal Management Technologies Market Research Report Analysis and Forecasts 2017 - 2025

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Global Thermal Management Technologies Market: SnapshotThe electronics industry has witnessed a sea change in terms of underpinning technologies and the way they are integrated in the past couple of years. In most cases, this has upped the total power consumed by the devices which seem to be getting smaller by the day. This has necessitated heat density management through the development of effective heat management technologies.At present, high-performance heat spreader systems that leverage multi-phase cooling in place of alloy-based heat spreaders is one of the most researched areas in the field of thermal management technologies. There is also substantial ongoing research in fabrication or discovery of structures and materials capable of providing notable decline in the thermal resistance of the thermal interface layer between the back layers of electronic devices, which could be a heatsink.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The global thermal management technologies market is choc-a-bloc with players and no single player enjoys dominance over the market. From a geographical standpoint, Asia Pacific is the primary contributor to the revenue in the market on account of the presence of some of the global electronic majors in nations such as Japan, South Korea, and China. Europe is another key market owing to a robust electronic manufacturing and research and development facilities in nations of Germany and the US. The EU regulations requiring the use of thermal interface in electronic devices is also said to be driving the market in the continent. Add to that increasing concerns about the rising ranks of discerning consumers about the environment and what you have is further focus on the development of environment-friendly heat management materials.Global Thermal Management Technologies Market: OverviewThe electronics industry has seen significant enhancements in technologies, system integration, and fundamental materials used to manufacture elemental structures in the past few years. This has led to a rapid rise in the total power consumed by the device, which, in several cases, are seeing a rapid reduction in size. Supplying high power to such devices, with electronic parts crammed in small packages, make the issue of heat density management even worse for the industry. This has increased the industrys focus on the development of efficient heat management technologies.Request TOC of the Report @This report on the global thermal management technologies market covers the state of research and development activities undertaken in this area and their influence on the electronics industry as seen in the past few years. A detailed overview of the thermal management technologies markets present growth dynamics and several forward-looking statements predicting the growth prospects of the market and its key segments over the period between 2017 and 2025.Global Thermal Management Technologies Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe development of high-performance heat spreader systems which use multi-phase cooling in place of alloy-based heat spreaders in conventional systems is presently one of the most researched areas in the field of thermal management technologies. Research efforts in the area so far have led to the development of technologies such as cold plates, jet impingement, and heat vapor chambers. Research is also underway in fabrication/discovery of structures and materials capable of providing notable decline in the thermal resistance of the thermal interface layer between the back layers of electronic devices, which could be a heatsink.Of the key components of a typical thermal management solution, namely thermal management hardware, thermal management interface product, thermal management software, and thermal management substrates, the hardware segment is presently the leading contributor of revenue to the global market. The rising demand for compact microprocessors is expected to enable the hardware segment lead over the next few years as well.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@The segment of thermal management interfaces is also expected to see demand rise at a promising incremental pace over the reports forecast period. The rising implementation of thermal management interfaces in automated machineries and portable and miniaturized computing devices such as smartphones and tablet computers will be the key to healthy growth prospects of the thermal management interface segment.Global Thermal Management Technologies Market: Geographical and Competitive DynamicsFrom a geographic perspective, the report presents an analytical overview of the thermal management technologies market for regional markets such as North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East and Africa. Of these, Asia Pacific is expected to be the leading contributor of revenue to the global market over the forecast period. The presence of some of the worlds leading electronic companies in countries such as South Korea, China, and Japan will further strengthen the demand prospects for thermal management technologies in the region over the forecast period.Europe, with the large number of electronic manufacturing and R&D facilities in countries such as the UK and Germany, is also expected to see a rise in use of thermal management technologies in the near future. The Europe market is also expected to thrive due to stringent EU regulations necessitating the use of thermal interface in electronic devices. The heightened consumer awareness about environment sustenance is expected to lead to an increased focus on the development of environment-friendly heat management materials in the near future.It has been found that the global thermal management technologies market features an exceedingly fragmented competitive landscape, wherein no leading player accounts for a major share in the global markets revenue- or value-wise valuation. Some of the markets leading players are Honeywell International, LairdTech, Alcatel-Lucent, Pentair Thermal Management, Thermacore, Heatex, Aavid Thermalloy, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Thermal Management Technologies, Sapa Group, and Honeywell International.About TMR Research :TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Internet of Things Market, by Technology : Zigbee, Bluetooth Low Energy, Near Field Communication, Wi-Fi & RFID - Global Industry Trend & Forecast 2017-2024

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Albany, New York, July 14, 2017 : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Internet of Things Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024" globally.The Internet of Things refers to the interrelated devices that are able to transfer data over a network without requiring computer and human interaction devices. Internet of Things is directly and indirectly associated with daily lifestyle products across the globe. Internet connectivity is one of the major requirements of different application as it is expected to grow at high rate in next forecast period. Furthermore, internet connectivity requires more monitoring through applications and human interactions. Moreover, Internet of Things offers an easier and comfortable controlling of different electronic devices from one place. Internet of Things is definite as an invisible and intelligent network of things that correspond directly or indirectly with each other which is fueling the enlargement during the forecast period.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Global Internet of Things Market: DriversIoT is expected to transform how we work, live and other things. Smart object and their different applications such as smart cities, smart homes, and smart environment is dynamic the evolution of the universal market. Moreover, increasing demand of smart wearable electronic products in different application is boosting the market growth. The prospective for cyber physical systems to improve productivity in the production process and supply chain are growing the demand of industrial sector in Internet of Things market. Additionally, fast technological advancement is increasing the global IoT market growth. Wi-Fi connectivity is growing rapidly and due to various government initiatives supporting the widespread usage of WiFi and collaboration between various companies, market is experiencing a surge and is forecasted to grow considerably during the forecast period. Consequently, all drivers are set to contribute to the expansion of global market of Internet of Things in the upcoming years. Moreover, IoT finds in application such as urban planning and environmental planning, is could create immense opportunities for the IoT market.Growing acceptance in the various industrial segments along with strong economic growth in growing economies are contributing to the prospective growth opportunities of the global Internet of Things market. Internet of Things is anticipated to increase acceptance through end-user applications like medical and manufacturing and this will lead to the increase in the growth of IoT market in the upcoming years. However, the major challenge that Internet of Things markets likely to face is the lack of standardization in IoT products and interoperability problems. The privacy and security problems with usage of cloud technology is likely to obstruct the anticipated growth of IoT market.Global Internet of Things Market: Scope of the StudyBased on application, the Internet of market is generally classified into media, manufacturing, medical and healthcare, consumer application, energy management and others. Geographically, Internet of Things market is classified into Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific.The key companies in the global Internet of Things market have been competitively profiled across the five broad geographic regions. This competitive landscape is inclusive of the various business strategies accepted by these key players and their recent developments in the field of Internet of Things. Furthermore, the report contains analysis of market attractiveness of different applications and provides an insight into various application areas of the Internet of Things. A detailed analysis of the various dynamics of the market of global Internet of Things market is provided in the report. Opportunities, restraints and market drivers are also covered in this report. Thus, the report of global Internet of Things offers a detailed report of the market and that includes the projection of the global IoT market revenue-wise (USD Million) from the period of 2016 to 2024.The global Internet of Things market is characterized by the presence of numerous major players in the market. The major players of the market compete their competition on the basis of factors such as price, performance, quality, support services and innovations of product. Major players in IoT market are Intel Corp. (U.S), Amazon (U.S), Microsoft Corp. (U.S), Cisco Systems Inc. (U.S), Google Inc. (U.S), AT&T (U.S) and Apple Inc. (U.S) among others.More Information about TOC @The global high resolution dispensing systems and equipment market has been segmented into:Internet of Things Market, by TechnologyZigbeeBluetooth Low EnergyNear Field CommunicationWi-FiRFIDInternet of Things Market, by ApplicationMediaManufacturingMedical and HealthcareConsumer ApplicationEnergy ManagementOthersInternet of Things Market, by Geography: The market is broadly segmented on the basis of geography into:North AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMoz90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States
BROOKS, Alberta, July 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- JBS Food Canada Inc. has reached an agreement to sell Lakeside Feeders, its beef cattle feed yard and adjacent farmland in Brooks, Alberta, Canada, to MCF Holdings Ltd. (MCF), a subsidiary of Nilsson Bros. Inc., a livestock-based agricultural business in Alberta, for $50 million CAD. Completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory review and approval.



Under terms of the agreement, MCF will continue to supply cattle to the JBS Food Canada beef processing facility in Brooks. MCF anticipates offering employment to current feed yard and farm employees upon closing.

About JBS Food Canada Inc.

JBS Food Canada, Inc. is a diversified agribusiness involved in the feeding, harvesting and processing of cattle. JBS Food Canada includes one beef packing plant in Brooks, Alberta, one feedlot in Brooks, Alberta, farmland adjacent to the Brooks feedlot, and corporate headquarters in Calgary, Alberta.

About MCF Holdings Ltd.

MCF Holdings is a subsidiary of Nilsson Bros. Inc., a livestock-based agricultural business in Alberta. Nilsson Bros. owns a diverse group of agricultural businesses that operate across all the Western provinces. They include auction markets, livestock insurance and finance, and feed yards. Nilsson Bros. also has ranches and livestock production facilities in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Corporate offices are located in Edmonton, Alberta.
Latest Research on Global Nanosatellite and Microsatellite market 20172025

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According to a latest report published by Progressive Markets on the ICT & Media sector, titled, Global Nanosatellite and Microsatellite Market- Size, Trend, Share, Opportunity Analysis & Forecast, 2014-2025, the industry is anticipated to register a CAGR of 22% during the period, 20172025. It offers comprehensive analysis of geographical locations and it determines opportunities that prevail in these regions. This would aid manufacturers, investors, and new entrants to avail opportunities and contribute in the growth of the industry.The research gives an overview of the global nanosatellite and microsatellite market. It also offers description of scope of the industry. In addition it includes summary, such as recent developments, industry attractiveness, trend analysis, and competitive landscape. It also incorporates Porters Five Forces Analysis (PFFA). The report uses this research methodology to assess rivalry in the market which includes bargaining power of suppliers and buyers. It also evaluates threats from substitutes and new entrants. Further, it analyzes market dynamics and its impact upon the industry. It also segments the market into application, end-use, solution, and region.Request Sample At:The study segments the global nanosatellite and microsatellite market on the basis of solution into platform, services, and software. According to it, the industry finds its application in astronomy, research & education, security & surveillance, communication, remote sensing, and navigation & mapping. Geographically, it breakdowns the market into North America, Europe, Latin America Middle East & Africa, and Asia-Pacific. The research splits end-users of the industry into aerospace & defense and government. It analyzes market share of applications, end-users, solutions, and geographies for the period, 20142025. Moreover, it evaluates industry size of each application, solution, and end-user by region for the historic period and forecast period, 20142016 and 20172025, respectively.The report discusses leading manufacturers of the global nanosatellite and microsatellite market. These include Clyde Space, Lockheed Martin, GomSpace, Innovative Solutions in Space, Raytheon, Planet Labs, RUAG, Space Quest, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Skybox Imaging. The experts analyze aforementioned firms on certain parameters, such as finance and business segment of each company. In addition, they assess recent development by every giant of the industry. The study also evaluates factors that fuel market growth which include integration of hi-tech commercial. It analyzes alternative factors that determine progress of the industry, such as decrease in manufacturing cost. It also evaluates aspect that hinders prosperity of the industry which includes delay in launches.Enquire About Report At:The research offers various key takeaways of the global nanosatellite and microsatellite market, such as an in-depth assessment of developments in the market aids manufacturers and new entrepreneurs to understand the industry as well as consumer behavior. The report thoroughly follows the status of the products and also provides a substantial examination of top manufacturers of the market framework. For instance, there are tables that show revenue generated by all segments of the market.Table Of Contents:Executive summary1.1. Key findings1.2. Market attractiveness and trend analysis1.3. Competitive landscape and recent industry development analysis2. Introduction2.1. Report description2.2. Scope and definitions2.3. Research methodology3. Market landscape3.1. Growth drivers3.1.1. Impact analysis3.2. Restraints and challenges3.2.1. Impact analysis3.3. Porters analysis4. Global nanosatellite and microsatellite market by application4.1. Astronomy4.1.1. Historical market size by region, 2014-20164.1.2. Market forecast by region, 2017-20254.2. Security and surveillanceProgressive Markets is the answer to every possible business query. It is a market research and business consulting firm, headquartered in India with an aim to deliver up-to-date executive support to foster overall growth of an organization in its domain.Contact Us:Asia Pacific Intelligence CentreUnited StatesEAST COAST U.S.Direct: +1-646-564-2246Toll Free + 1-888-906-9222Email:help@progressivemarkets.comWeb:
Wide Range Of Medical Products Available In Global Home Healthcare Market Between The Period 2016 - 2020

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Wide Range Of Medical Products Available In Global Home Healthcare Market Between The Period 2016 - 2020" to its huge collection of research reports.Home healthcare refers to a wide range of medical products (include heart rate monitors, blood glucose level indicators, and nebulizers), services, and solutions that provide health monitoring, treatment, and physical support to patients or customers at home. People do not need to visit a hospital or any other healthcare facility to benefit from these offerings; they can be accessed in the comfort of homes. The home healthcare market offers complete solutions that include the product as well as software and support from consultants and physicians.Technavios analysts forecast the Global Home Healthcare Market to grow at a CAGR of 8.85% during the period 2016-2020.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the Global Home Healthcare Market for 2016-2020.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEuropeMEATechnavio's report, Global Home Healthcare Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsJohnson & JohnsonOmron HealthcarePhilipsMcKessonRoche HoldingsTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Other prominent vendorsA&D CompanyAbbottAlmost FamilyApria HealthcareeCaringFreseniusGentiva Health ServicesInterim HealthcareKindred HealthcareLinde HealthcareLJC GroupKinnser SoftwareRotech HealthcareMarket driverGrowing demand for affordable healthcare solutionsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeComplexity in pricingFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendIntegration of mobile devices with home healthcare systemsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Browse More Details @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Remote Diagnostics Market- Size, Trend, Share, and Opportunity Analysis & Forecast, 2014-2025

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According to a latest report published by Progressive Markets on the semiconductor and electronics sector, which titled, Global Remote Diagnostics Market- Size, Trend, Share, and Opportunity Analysis & Forecast, 2014-2025, the industry is anticipated to register a CAGR of 17% during the period, 20172025. It is advantageous to new entrants and manufacturers owing to its characteristic to keep them an edge of current dynamics of the market.The research describes the global remote diagnostic market in terms of scope and product. It comprises of summary of the industry in reference to market attractiveness, trends, and competitive scenarios. It incorporates the Porters Five Forces Analysis (PFFA) to have a comprehensive know-how of these landscapes in the industry. It evaluates them based on bargaining power of customers & buyers, threat of substitutes & new entrants, and industry rivalry. It bifurcates the market into industry verticals and regions.Request Sample At:Based on industry verticals, the report classifies the global remote diagnostic market into healthcare, public sector, information technologies, energy, banking, manufacturing, automotive, and financial services & insurance. Geographically, the study segments the industry into North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Latin America Middle East & Africa (LAMEA). The report further classifies regions of the industry, such as the North America region, countries explored are Canada, U.S., and Mexico. In the Europe, nations discussed are France, U.K., Germany, Italy, and Spain. In the Asia-Pacific region, nations assessed are Japan, China, India, South Korea, and Australia. The LAMEA countries included are South Africa, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia. The study analyzes market share by industry verticals and regions for the period, 20142025.The research evaluates size of the global remote diagnostic market of each industry vertical by region during the historic as well as forecast period, 20142016 and 20172025, respectively. It discusses major manufacturers of the industry, such as Robert Bosch GmbH, OnStar LLC, Continental AG, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Subaru of America Inc, Magneti Marelli S.p.A., Softing AG, Delphi Automotive PLC, Voxx International Corporation, Vector Informatik GmbH, and Snap-On Inc. The experts assess each vendor based on different strategies adopted by them in order to keep themselves updated about evolvement in market trends. These strategies include collaboration, product development, acquisition, and product approval. Further, they business & finance segments and recent development. They also offer an overview of every top vendor.Enquire About Report At:In addition, the research helps to explore factors that drive and impede growth of the global remote diagnostic market. The aspects that propel progress of the industry include increase in end-user industries, such as automotive, energy, manufacturing, and e-commerce. Apart from this, alternative factor that fuel market growth is growth in demand for services of remote diagnostic. The analysts also highlight aspects that restrict growth of the market, such as less knowledge of recent developments in technology.Further, the report offers numerous takeaways of the global remote diagnostic market, such as it provides great competitive edge to manufacturers, stakeholders, and new entrants. These are comprehensive evaluation of aspects that have potential to restrict or drive the industry. The experts explore competitive scenario which helps them to understand the present rivalry within the geographical locations. Further, they assess the opportunities that prevail within these regional distributions. An in-depth assessment of developments in the market aids manufacturers and new entrepreneurs to understand the industry behavior. The research thoroughly follows the status of the products and also provides a substantial examination of top manufacturers of the market framework.The study illustrates the abovementioned parameters of the global remote diagnostic market through tables and figures. For instance, there are table that depict market value of each industry vertical by region for the forecast period. There a few tables that show market share by geographies and industry verticals during the historic period. It depicts the same characteristics through figures.Table Of Contents:1. Executive summary1.1. Key findings1.2. Market attractiveness and trend analysis1.3. Competitive landscape and recent industry development analysis2. Introduction2.1. Report description2.2. Scope and definitions2.3. Research methodology3. Market landscape3.1. Growth drivers3.1.1. Impact analysis3.2. Restraints and challenges3.2.1. Impact analysis3.3. Porters analysis4. Global remote diagnostics market by industry vertical4.1. Healthcare4.1.1. Historical market size by region, 2014-20164.1.2. Market forecast by region, 2017-20254.2. Information technologiesProgressive Markets is the answer to every possible business query. It is a market research and business consulting firm, headquartered in India with an aim to deliver up-to-date executive support to foster overall growth of an organization in its domain.Contact Us:Asia Pacific Intelligence CentreUnited StatesEAST COAST U.S.Direct: +1-646-564-2246Toll Free + 1-888-906-9222Email:help@progressivemarkets.comWeb:
2016 - 2024: Global District Heating and Cooling Market Divided Into Consumption, Generation - Boilers and Chillers; Distribution - Pipes, Pressure Pumps, and Valves

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "2016 - 2024: Global District Heating and Cooling Market Divided Into Consumption, Generation - Boilers and Chillers; Distribution - Pipes, Pressure Pumps, and Valves" to its huge collection of research reports.The district heating and cooling (DHC) market report by Transparency Market Research provides in-depth analysis of the district heating and cooling market globally. The report segments the market on the basis of geography. The report analyzes the global district heating and cooling market in terms of both energy sales volume (Tera Joules) and revenues (US$ Mn) for the years 20162024. For this research study, the base year is 2015, whereas the forecast is from 2016 to 2024. The report also provides investment figures by DHC players in district heating and cooling generation (boilers and chillers) and distribution (pipes, pressure pumps, and valves). The report provides a comprehensive competitive landscape and features companies manufacturing district heating and cooling systems.This report includes the key dynamics affecting the district heating and cooling market globally. The analysis in the report provides detailed insights of the global district heating and cooling market. The drivers, opportunities, and restraints of the market were analyzed in detail and are illustrated in the report. The report also provides a detailed industry analysis of the global district heating and cooling with the help of the Porters Five Forces Analysis model.The research report is divided into the consumption, generation, and distribution segments and further broken into the components of each segment. DHC generation segment is further segmented into chillers and boilers. DHC distribution segment is further segmented into pipes, pressure pumps, and valves.The district heating and cooling market has been segmented geographically into four regions and further into 16 unique country sub-segments. The regional segments are Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and Rest of the World. The 16 countries which have been separately addressed in this report are the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Sweden, Austria, Germany, France, Finland, Poland, South Korea, Japan, China, India, Taiwan, and the GCC countries.District heating systems dominated the global district heating and cooling market in terms of both energy sales volumes and revenues. In terms of DHC generation, boilers dominated the market across the globe. In terms of DHC distribution, pipes dominated the global market, followed by pressure pumps and valves.Asia Pacific held the major share of the global district heating and cooling (DHC) market in 2014, accounting for more than 50% of the global market share in terms of sales volume. Europe was the second-largest market for district heating and cooling systems, followed by North America in 2014. Rest of the World (RoW) held the fourth-largest share of the global district heating and cooling market in that year.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Asia Pacific held the major share of the global district heating (DH) market in 2014, accounting for more than 55% of the global market share in terms of sales volume. North America held the dominant share of the global district cooling (DC) market in 2014, accounting for more than 50% of the global market in terms of sales volume.Some of the key market participants in the district heating and cooling market are ADC Energy Systems LLC, Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (EMPOWER), Emirates District Cooling LLC (Emicool), Emirates National Central Cooling Company PJSC (Tabreed), KELAG Warme GmbH, Keppel DHCS Pte. Ltd., Logstor A/S, Ramboll Group A/S, Shinryo Corporation, and Tekla Corporation. The report provides an overview of these companies, followed by their financial details (if available), business strategies, and recent developments. The district heating and cooling market has been segmented as follows:Global District Heating and Cooling Market: Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaThe U.S.CanadaMexicoEuropeDenmarkGermanySwedenPolandAustriaFranceFinlandAsia PacificChinaJapanSouth KoreaIndiaTaiwanRest of WorldGCC CountriesGlobal District Heating and Cooling Market: Consumption Analysis by Technology TypeDistrict HeatingDistrict CoolingGlobal District Heating and Cooling Market: Generation Analysis by Components TypeChillersBoilersGlobal District Heating and Cooling Market: Distribution Analysis by Components TypePipesPressure PumpsValvesBrowse More Details @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Meat, Poultry, Seafood Packaging Market Analysis and Global Forecast to 2022

Meat, Poultry, Seafood Packaging Market

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Market Research Future published a half cooked research report on global meat, poultry and seafood packaging market.Market Highlights:The growing population, improved standard of living, growing demand for ready to eat meals in emerging economies is expected to drive the growth of the global meat, poultry and seafood packaging market. Features such as longer shelf life and user friendly solutions in terms of storage are expected to fuel the market. Meat, poultry & seafood packaging are designed to meet all the physical requirement of the supply chain to ensure that the product arrives on time along with preserving the texture, nutritive quality and taste. Heightened demand for single portion and other smaller sized products will give the market significant level. Moreover, new trends shows that shift towards ready packaging as well as ready to eat meat, poultry & seafood which drives the demand for meat, poultry & seafood packaging market.Request a Sample Copy @Key Players of Meat, Poultry, Seafood Packaging Market: Bemis Company Inc. (U.S.) AEP Industries Inc. (U.S.) DuPont (EI) de Nemours (U.S.) Smurfit Kappa Group (Dublin) Visy Industries Holdings Pty Ltd (Australia) Tri-Mach Group Inc. (Canada), Printpack, Inc.(U.S.) ABBE CORRUGATED PTY. LTD (Australia) Cambridge Packing Company (U.S.)Market Research Analysis:Asia pacific region holding largest share in the global market. Awareness among consumers about healthy products and preference towards convenience are driving the market of meat, poultry & Seafood packaging. Moreover, Rapid lifestyle changes and economic growth, coupled with rising population in Asia Pacific countries such as China and India has spiked the growth rate of meat, poultry & Seafood packaging in the region.Brief TOC for Meat, Poultry, Seafood Packaging Market:1. Executive Summary2. Research Methodology2.1. Scope of the study2.1.1. Definition2.1.2. Research Objective2.1.3. Assumptions2.1.4. Limitations2.2. Research Process2.2.1. Primary Research2.2.2. Secondary Research2.3. Market size Estimation2.4. Forecast Model3. Meat, Poultry & Seafood Packaging Market Dynamics3.1. Market Drivers3.2. Market Inhibitors3.3. Supply/Value Chain Analysis or Market Ecosystem3.4. Porters Five Forces Analysis4. Meat, Poultry & Seafood Packaging Market, by Material4.1. Introduction4.2. Plastic4.3. Paper4.4. Metal5. Meat, Poultry & Seafood Packaging Market, by Type5.1. Introduction5.2. Rigid Packaging5.3. Flexible PackagingContinueScope of the Report:This study provides an overview of the global meat, poultry & seafood packaging industry, tracking three market segments across four geographic regions. The report studies key players, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, volume and share for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. The report also provides a forecast, focusing on the market opportunities for the next five years for each region. The scope of the study segments the global meat, poultry & seafood packaging market as material, type and application. On the basis of material it is segmented as plastic, paper and metal. On the basis of type it is segmented as rigid packaging, and flexible packaging. Additionally on the basis of application, it is segmented as fresh & frozen products, processed products, and ready-toeat products.Access Report Details @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Akash AnandMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Needle Bearings Market Research Report 2017 - 2021

Needle Bearings Market

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The report on the Needle Bearings market gives a meticulous introduction about the Needle Bearings market in the intial part of the report and further the information such as emerging trends, regional markets, application, policy analysis, end-users, and value chain structure are discussed. The report contains complete details about global the market, which comprises the past market scenario, the current situation of the market, and the future conditions forecasted. The report also contains the position of the market in different regions along with its market share.Get full report with TOC @The industrys best tools and methodologies were used in order to evaluate the market dynamics. The market situations are expected to keep on changing as the market trends keep changing along with time, thus zilch remains stagnant in the market. The market players that are involved in the market are also aware of this situation and hence are taking initiatives and are making investments in order to maintain the competitive edge. They are also making efforts in making technological advancements. The prominent market players are involved in the Needle Bearings market further in the report. The company details that are included consist of their mass production, services, sales, collaborations, products, profit made, and the future developments expected.The data collected was taken from reliable databases and the industrial experts evaluation and analysis of the data for validation. Statistical data is represented in the form of graphs, diagrams, pie charts, and so on. This makes the user to understand the data in a much easy way. The concepts of the Needle Bearings market such as trends analysis, recommendations for growth, investment feasibility analysis, SWOT analyses of competing companies, investment return analysis, and the opportunity analysis are included for better understanding of the market. Bottom-up and top-down approaches have been used in the report along with Porters Five Forces model and SWOT analyses for the data analysis purpose. The report also includes details about the smaller markets dependent on the Needle Bearings market.For sample report visit @In the final section, the recommendations and the suggestions of experts and analysts are covered in order to help the companies gain maximum profit and retain their market position.Market Research Store is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations. Market Research Store is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air.Contact UsJoel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United StatesTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651Email: sales@marketresearchstore.com
Global Market For Adhesive Tapes: By Types - Single-sided Adhesive Tape, Double-sided Adhesive Tape & Others

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Market For Adhesive Tapes: By Types - Single-sided Adhesive Tape, Double-sided Adhesive Tape & Others" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies Adhesive Tapes in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering3MHenkelDIC CorporationTape-RiteNitto DenkoDow CorningTesaBostikAvery DennisonAdvance Tapes InternationalAdhesives ResearchEvans AdhesiveSTC TapesNADCO Tapes & Labels, Inc.Intertape Polymer GroupCSHydeLintec CorporationKruse Adhesive TapeSaint-GobainSurface ShieldsScapa Group PlcCCT TapesVibac Group S.p.aH.B.FullerCMS Group of CompaniesLohmann GmbH & Co.KGNICHIBAN CO., LTDK.L. & LingNICHIBAN CO., LTDRoyal Adhesives & SealantsBy types, the market can be split intoSingle-sided Adhesive TapeDouble-sided Adhesive TapeOthersBy Application, the market can be split intoHealthcareElectrical & ElectronicsAutomotiveBuilding & ConstructionConsumer GoodsPaper & PrintingOthersTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @By Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaTable of ContentsGlobal Adhesive Tapes Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Adhesive Tapes1.1 Definition and Specifications of Adhesive Tapes1.1.1 Definition of Adhesive Tapes1.1.2 Specifications of Adhesive Tapes1.2 Classification of Adhesive Tapes1.2.1 Single-sided Adhesive Tape1.2.2 Double-sided Adhesive Tape1.2.3 Others1.3 Applications of Adhesive Tapes1.3.1 Healthcare1.3.2 Electrical & Electronics2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Adhesive Tapes2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Adhesive Tapes2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Adhesive Tapes2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Adhesive TapesBrowse More Details @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Cosmetic Packaging Market, Research Report

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Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence announces the publication of a new report: The Global cosmetic packaging market- Forecasts from 2017 to 2022.The global cosmetic packaging market is driven by increasing rate of urbanization and deeper penetration of cosmetic and body care product through e-commerce and other retail channels. Plastic remains the most preferred material for packaging and is ahead of other material segments. New products such as 3D printed and airless bottles are being introduced by suppliers to meet fast changing consumer requirements.This research report segments the The Global cosmetic packaging market by Application (Skin Care, Hair Care, Make-up, Nail Care, Others), Container type (Jars, Tubes, Bottles, Pumps & Dispensers, Sachets, Others), Material type (Glass, Paper, Metal, Plastic, Others- Rolling balls, sticks, pen types etc.), Capacity type (Type 1 (< 50 ml), Type 2 (50 ml - 100 ml), Type 3 (100 ml - 150 ml), Type 4 (150 ml - 200 ml), Type 5 (> 200 ml)), Region (North America, Latin America, European Region, Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa). The report provides in-depth and most accurately anticipated forecasts in a quantitative manner.Some of the major Global cosmetic packaging Market companies covered in the report are Albea, Brimar Packaging, Silgan Holdings, Gerresheimer AG, RPC Group, ABC Packaging, Aptar Group, Inc., Bemis Company, Inc., and Sonoco Products Company among others.Sample request or complete report can be purchased through the link below:For any report inquiry: info@knowledge-sourcing.comFor any sales inquiry: info@knowledge-sourcing.comThis 90 pages report contains a wide range of figures and data tables for the forecasted period based on the segmentations listed above.Brief TOC is as below: Market Dynamics Segmentation By Container Type Jarso Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Tubeso Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Bottleso Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Pumps & Dispenserso Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Sachetso Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Otherso Market Size and Forecast to 2022 By Applications Skin Careo Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Hair Careo Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Make-upo Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Nail Careo Market Size and Forecast to 2022 By Material Glasso Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Papero Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Metalo Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Plastico Market Size and Forecast to 2022. PETo Market Size and Forecast to 2022. PPo Market Size and Forecast to 2022. PEo Market Size and Forecast to 2022. Otherso Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Others- Rolling balls, sticks, pen types etc.o Market Size and Forecast to 2022 By Capacity Type 1 (< 50 ml)o Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Type 2 (50 ml - 100 ml)o Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Type 3 (100ml - 150 ml)o Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Type 4 (150 ml  200 ml)o Market Size and Forecast to 2022 Type 5 (> 200 ml)o Market Size and Forecast to 2022 By Geography North Americao United Stateso Canada Latin Americao Brazilo Argentinao Rest of Latin America Europeo United Kingdomo Russiao Germanyo Italyo Spaino Franceo Others Asia-Pacifico Indiao Chinao Japano ASEANo Australiao Others The Middle East and Africao GCC Countrieso South Africao North Americao Others Competitive Intelligence Profiles of key companiesAbout Us:Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence is a market research and consulting firm based out of India. Driven by industry experts, the company provides syndicated reports, custom research, and consulting services. Our proprietary data analytics model blended with quality primary and secondary research data assists in generating quality reports providing crucial insights to managers and decision makers. The services offered by us help companies to gain required competitive edge. Our expertise across 10 industries such as ICT, Chemicals, Semiconductors, Healthcare among others caters to diverse client needsContact Us:Knowledge Sourcing IntelligenceAscent Business CenterH-38, Sector 63NOIDA, IndiaContact: +1-866-714-4587
Global Holographic Display Digital Signage Market 2017 Consumption Research Report explores Growth, Development Challenges and Opportunities till 2022

Holographic Display Digital Signage Market

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Global Holographic Display Digital Signage Market 2017 Sales, Growth, Trends and Market Share Forecast Research Report till-2022.The MRS Research Group report by QY Research Global Holographic Display Digital Signage Market 2017-2022 provides an essential information and statistically evaluated data about the Holographic Display Digital Signage . The research report provides a detailed study of the Holographic Display Digital Signage market, enlightening the major areas such as future market scenario, market growth factors, market growth restraints, and others. The advanced technological trends and various new opportunities are also provided in this research report.Read Complete Report with TOC :This report studies Holographic Display Digital Signage in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringSamsungZebra ImagingHoloxicaMusionLEIA 3DEach and every segment of the Holographic Display Digital Signage industry isevaluatedin a qualitative as well as quantitativeway so that the customers get an exact estimation of the market. The MRS Research Group Holographic Display Digital Signage report by QY Research covers important informations such as definition, the major players in the market, and also the demand for new opportunities.Split by application, this report focuses on consumption, market share and growth rate of Holographic Display Digital Signage in each application, can be divided intoConsumer SectorBusinessHealthNational defenseIndustrial ApplicationsGet Free Sample Copy Of Report :The Holographic Display Digital Signage report covers the precisely studied and evaluated data of the global market players and their scope in the market using a number of analytical tools. The analytical tools such asinvestment return analysies, SWOT analysis and feasibility studyare used to analyze the keyglobal market players growth in the Holographic Display Digital Signage industry.Abou Us: MRS Research Group provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Prof Research cover more than 30 industries including energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free : +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@mrsresearchgroup.com
Biologic Therapeutics Global Market, by Type, Trends, Analysis and Forecast 2019

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Biologic therapeutics include virus, therapeutic serums, toxins, allergenic products, antitoxin, blood components or derivatives, vaccines, blood, and proteins (except any chemically synthesized polypeptide). They also include analogous products, arsphenamine, or derivatives of arsphenamine (or any other trivalent organic arsenic compound) for the prevention, treatment, or cure of a disease. The differences between the biologics and small molecules include the molecular weight, structure, procedure of synthesis, and immunogenicity. Biologics have a higher molecular weight and a complex molecular structure. They are usually derived from living entities, which is another important feature that differentiates it from small molecules. Biologics are also vulnerable to extreme temperatures (thermolabile) and light.For more information atPublisher's analysts forecast the global biologic therapeutics market to grow at a CAGR of 8.26% over the period 2014-2019.Covered in this reportThis report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global biologic therapeutics market for the period 2015-2019. To calculate the market size, the report considers revenue generated through the sales protein therapeutics (monoclonal antibodies, enzymes, and other protein therapeutics).Other protein therapeutics covers proteins such as cytokines, fusion proteins, peptide antibiotics, peptide hormones, and blood factors.The report also presents the vendor landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the top vendors in the market. The vendor landscape section includes a market share analysis of the major vendors along with the competitive performances of their product portfolios. In addition, the report discusses the major drivers that influence the growth of the market. It also outlines the challenges faced by the vendors and the market at large, as well as the key trends emerging in the market.Request Sample Copy:Publisher's report, Global Biologic Therapeutics Market 2015-2019, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the Americas, APAC, and EMEA; it also covers the landscape of the global biologic therapeutics market and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key regions- Americas- APAC- EMEAKey vendors- Amgen- F. Hoffmann-La Roche- Novo Nordisk- SanofiMake an enquiry:Other prominent vendors- AbbVie- AstraZeneca- Bavarian Nordic- Baxter International- Beijing Minhai Biotechnology- Bharat Biotech- Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals- Bio Med Pvt.- bioCSL- Biodel- Bristol-Myers Squibb- Diamyd Medical- DiaVacs- Dynavax Technologies- Eli Lilly- Generex Biotechnology- Hualan Biological Engineering- Imunoloski Zavod- Indian Immunologicals- Janssen- JN International Medical- Kaketsuken- LG Life Sciences- Macrogenics- MannKind- Merck- Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma- Nuron Biotech- Osiris Therapeutics- Pfizer- Protalix- Protein Sciences- Serum Institute of India- Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products- Sinovac Biotech- Tolerion- Vacunas Finlay- XOMA- Zydus CadilaPurchase Report atContact InfoName: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
TORONTO, July 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. (CSE:SNA) (CSE:SNA.CN) (OTCBB:SNAVF) ("Star" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that the latest version of its server, the Star Server Unit-G3 (SSU-G3) has received full certification and is ready to enter service.

The SSU G3 features, amongst other things, an additional GSM transmission capability for its reporting and raw data transmission functions. It is now fully compatible with the latest avionics standards and is available for on-board implementation across all currently flying aircraft and helicopter fleets worldwide. In addition, the SSU-G3 has enhanced capabilities of manual USB extraction.

The latest generation SSU-G3 has successfully passed all Environmental Tests for hardware as well as software for avionics equipment. Electromagnetic interference (EMC/EMI), environmental and flammability testing were successfully completed for the DO 160G certification. DO 178B Level E was also successfully attained for software certification.

About Star Navigation:

Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. owns the exclusive worldwide license to its proprietary, patented In-flight Safety Monitoring System, STAR-ISMS, the heart of the STAR-A.D.S.  System. Its real-time capability of tracking performance trends and predicting incident-occurrence enhances aviation safety and improves fleet management while reducing costs for the operator.

Stars MMI Division designs and manufactures high performance, mission critical, flight deck flat panel displays for defence and commercial aviation industries worldwide.

Certain statements contained in this News Release constitute forward-looking statements. When used in this document, the words may, would, could, will, expected and similar expressions, as they relate to Star or its management are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect Stars current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause Stars actual performance or achievements to vary from those described herein. Should one or more of these factors or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Star does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this release.

Please visit www.star-navigation.com or

Jean-Louis Larmor, (416) 252-2889 Ext. 221

Jean-louis.larmor@star-navigation.com

Gold Feather Marketing Group

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Worldwide Rigid Packaging Market by Material Type, Trends, Analysis and Forecasts to 2020

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Rigid packaging refers to packaging materials that are not flexible or do not change shape with changes in temperature. In terms of revenue, the global rigid packaging market is expected to grow moderately during the forecast period. The major customers of rigid packaging are distributed across various verticals such as F&B, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, and consumer goods.Publisher's analysts forecast the global rigid packaging market to grow at a CAGR of 5.6% over the period 2015-2020.Covered in this reportThe report covers the current scenario and growth prospects of the global rigid packaging market for the period of 2016-2020.For more informationthe market size, the report considers revenue generated through sales of various products used in rigid packaging, such as plastics, glass, and metals.Publisher's report, Global Rigid Packaging Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers APAC, Europe, North America, and ROW; it also covers the landscape of the global rigid packaging market and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report includes a discussion on the key vendors operating in this market.Key regions- APAC- Europe- North America- ROWKey vendors- Amcor- Ball- Berry Plastics- Crown Holdings- Owens-IllinoisRequest Sample CopyOther prominent vendors- AEP Industries- APPE- Ardagh Group- Britton Group- Can-Pack- DS Smith- Gerresheimer- Graham Packaging- LINPAC Group- Rexam- RPC Group- Silgan- Sonoco- Vetropack Holding- VidralaMake an enquiry:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Outlook of Global Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Market Report 2017 - Major Players are DJO Global, DPE Medical, EMS Physio, Isokinetics, PowerMedic etc.

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ResearchMoz added Latest Research Report titled " GLOBAL Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy MARKET REPORT 2017 " to it's Large Report database.This report studies the Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy market status and outlook of global and major regions, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global and major regions, and splits the Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy market by product type and applications/end industries.The global Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy market is valued at XX million USD in 2016 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions.North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy.Request for Sample PDF of Premium Research Report with TOC:Europe also play important roles in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2016 and will be xx million USD in 2022, with a CAGR of XX.The major players in global Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy market include Patterson Medical Ltd. (UK), Beijing Health East Technology & Development Co., Ltd. (China), DPE Medical Ltd. (US), BTL (Czech Republic), Bharat Medical Systems (India), Whitehall Manufacturing (US), Chungwoo Co., Ltd. (South Korea), DJO Global, Inc. (US), EMS Physio Ltd. (UK), Enraf-Nonius B.V. (The Netherlands), Guangzhou Kepeng Electronics Co., Ltd. (China), India Medico Instruments (India), Isokinetics Inc. (US), PowerMedic ApS (Denmark)Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with Sales, Sales, revenue, Market Share (%) and Growth Rate (%) of Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East and AfricaBrowse more details @Table of ContentsGlobal Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Market Research Report 20171 Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Market Overview1.1 Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Product Overview1.2 Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Segment by Types (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Sales and Growth (%) Comparison by Types (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Sales Market Share (%) by Types in 20161.2.3 Gels, Ointments, and Creams1.2.4 Sprays and Foams1.2.5 Patches1.2.6 Roll-On1.3 Global Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Segment by Applications1.3.1 Global Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Sales (K Units) Comparison by Applications (2012-2022)1.3.2 Musculoskeletal Disorders1.3.3 Post Operative Therapy1.3.4 Sport Medicines1.3.5 Post-Trauma1.3.6 Physical Therapy1.4 Global Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Market by Regions (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Market Size and Growth (%) Comparison by Regions (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 South America Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Status and Prospect (2012-2022)About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Contact Us:Mr. Nachiket Ghumare90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074 / Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:Follow me on Blogger at:
Soy Milk Market Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2017-2022

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ReportsWeb.com has announced the addition of the 2017-2022 Soy Milk Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications The report focuses on global major leading players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share (%) and growth Rate (%) of Soy Milk in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast) , covering United States, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific , South America, Middle East and Africa.Get free sample copy of report atThe major players in global and United States Soy Milk market, including Silk, West Soy, Wegmans, Vitasoy, Pearl Soymilk, Lifeway Foods, Inc., Wild Harvest, Wildwood, So Good, So Nice, Organic Endensoy, Sammi's Best, Nature's place, Unisoya, Vermont Soy, Nancy's. The On the basis of product, the Soy Milk market is primarily split into Original Plain Soymilk, Unsweetened Soymilk, Organic Soymilk, Flavored Soymilk and Others. On the basis on the end users/applications, this report covers Adult, Toddler and Others.Get more information about Soy Milk Market atTable of Content1 Methodology and Data Source2 Soy Milk Market Overview3 Soy Milk Application/End Users4 Soy Milk Market Status and Outlook by Regions5 Global Soy Milk Market Competition by Players/ManufacturersGet discount on report purchase at6 United States Soy Milk Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers7 Soy Milk Players/Manufacturers Profiles and Sales Data7.1 Silk7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors7.1.2 Soy Milk Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Silk Soy Milk Sales (K Units) , Revenue (Million USD) , Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 West Soy7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors7.2.2 Soy Milk Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 West Soy Soy Milk Sales (K Units) , Revenue (Million USD) , Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Wegmans7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors7.3.2 Soy Milk Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Wegmans Soy Milk Sales (K Units) , Revenue (Million USD) , Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview8 Soy Milk Manufacturing Cost, Industrial Chain and Downstream Buyers9 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors and Market Effect Factors10 Global Soy Milk Market Forecast11 Research Findings and ConclusionPurchase complete report atList of Tables and FiguresFigure Bottom-up and Top-down Approaches for This ReportFigure Data TriangulationTable Key Data Information from Secondary SourcesTable Key Data Information from Primary SourcesFigure Soy Milk Product PictureFigure Global Soy Milk Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure United States Soy Milk Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Product Picture of Original Plain SoymilkTable Major Players of Original Plain SoymilkFigure Global Original Plain Soymilk Sales (K Units) and Growth Rate (%) (2012-2017)Figure Product Picture of Unsweetedned SoymilkTable Major Players of Unsweetedned SoymilkFigure Global Unsweetedned Soymilk Sales (K Units) and Growth Rate (%) (2012-2017)Figure Product Picture of Organic SoymilkTable Major Players of Organic SoymilkFigure Global Organic Soymilk Sales (K Units) and Growth Rate (%) (2012-2017)Table Global Soy Milk Sales (K Units) and Growth Rate (%) Comparison by Types (2012, 2016 and 2022)Table Global Soy Milk Sales (K Units) by Types (2012-2017)Table Global Soy Milk Sales Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)Figure Global Sales Soy Milk Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)Figure Global Sales Soy Milk Market Share (%) by Types in 2016Table Global Soy Milk Revenue (Million USD) by Types (2012-2017)Contact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Functional Drinks Sales Market For 2017: By Product Types - Hydration drinks, Rejuvenation drinks, Health & Wellness drinks & Weight Management drinks

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Functional Drinks Sales Market For 2017: By Product Types - Hydration drinks, Rejuvenation drinks, Health & Wellness drinks & Weight Management drinks" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies sales (consumption) of Functional Drinks in Global market, especially in United States, China, Europe and Japan, focuses on top players in these regions/countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these regions, coveringArcher Daniels Midland (ADM)Campbell SoupCoca-ColaDanoneDel Monte PacificDr. Pepper Snapple GroupFonterraGlaxoSmithKlineKraft HeinzMonster BeverageNestlPepsiCoYakultRed BullUnileverMarket Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with sales (consumption), revenue, market share and growth rate of Functional Drinks in these regions, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaSplit by product Types, with sales, revenue, price and gross margin, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoHydration drinksRejuvenation drinksHealth & Wellness drinksWeight Management drinksSplit by applications, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of Functional Drinks in each application, can be divided intoCommercial consumptionHousehold consumptionOtherTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Table of ContentsGlobal Functional Drinks Sales Market Report 20171 Functional Drinks Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Functional Drinks1.2 Classification of Functional Drinks1.2.1 Hydration drinks1.2.2 Rejuvenation drinks1.2.3 Health & Wellness drinks1.2.4 Weight Management drinks1.3 Application of Functional Drinks1.3.1 Commercial consumption1.3.2 Household consumption1.3.3 Other1.4 Functional Drinks Market by Regions1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.5 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2011-2021)2 Global Functional Drinks Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Global Functional Drinks Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Global Functional Drinks Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2011-2016)2.1.2 Global Functional Drinks Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2011-2016)2.2 Global Functional Drinks (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Functional Drinks Sales and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)Browse More Details @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Rise in Incidence of Cancer to Propel the Growth of the Oncology Information System Market

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Oncology information system is an image and information management system that allows to check all parts of oncology care for patients. Oncology information system combines medical, surgical, and radiation oncology information into a comprehensive, oncology electronic medical record that allows to manage patient's details from start of the patients admission through diagnosis and follow-up details.The factors driving the growth of the oncology information system market are increase in technological adaption and technological advancement. Increase in health care infrastructure in developing nations, growth in prevalence of secondary tumor, and rise in incidence of cancer are the other factors anticipated to propel the growth of the oncology information system market during the forecast period. According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer is among the leading causes of death worldwide; in 2012, there were 14 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer-related deaths worldwide. However, lack of health care IT professionals and strict regulation are likely to restrict the growth of the oncology information system market.Obtain Report Details @According to a report by the American Cancer Society, 50% of men and 30% of women are estimated to develop cancer in some form or the other in their lifetime. Increase in amount of cancer patients is a major driver of the sales of the oncology information system market. Additionally, rise in amount of tobacco consumption and increase in amount of carcinogens present in the polluted air or in any other form are projected to drive the oncology information system market in the near future.Some of the factors driving the growth of the market are rising disposable income, which enables patients to avail expensive treatments, easily available medical insurance policies, and growing medical tourism activities. Heavy investments in R&D further act as an opportunity for the growth of the market since innovative and technologically advanced products always have the capability of substituting its predecessors.The oncology information system market has been segmented by product, application, end-user, and geography. Based on product, the oncology information system market is classified into patient information system, treatment planning system, consulting/optimization, implementation, maintenance, services, and others. Based on application, the market is segmented into care management, treatment management, and knowledge management. Based on end-user, the oncology information system market is segmented into hospital, government institution, research center, and others.Geographically, the oncology information system market in segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to account for a large market share in terms of revenue, followed by Europe. The oncology information system market in North America is expected to grow due to technological advancement and increase in demand for advanced product. The growing need to implement advanced systems in the health care sector in the region and, at the same time, deliver quality care to patients are the factors likely to drive the market in the near future.Fill the Form for an Exclusive Sample of this Report @Asia Pacific is expected to rise at a high CAGR owing to increase in adoption of technological advanced products, growth in disposable income, and rise in health care infrastructure in countries such as India, China, Australia, and other countries in the region. The Latin America oncology information system market is mainly driven by the increasing adoption of technological products in countries such as Brazil and Mexico. The Middle East & Africa oncology information system market is estimated to grow in the near future due to rise in incidence of cancer. According to World Health Organization, women in the African region had the highest incidence of cancer of the cervix uteri.Major players operating in this market include CureMD Healthcare, Varian Medical Systems, Inc., Flatiron Health, Inc., Epic Systems Corporation, Bogardus Medical Systems, Inc., Cerner Corporation, McKesson Corporation, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Elekta AB, and Accuray Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Surgical Equipment Market Report 2017, Trends, Analysis, Share, Estimates and Forecasts to 2022.

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According to Stratistics MRC, the Global Surgical Equipment Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.47 % during the forecast period. Rise in the number of surgical procedures, increase in demand for minimally invasive procedures, growing aging population and technological developments leading to inventive products are some of the key factors driving the market growth. However, inappropriate sterilization measures for reusable equipment and severe price competition from local manufacturers may create significant challenges before vendors operating in the surgical equipment market.Surgical sutures and staples segment accounted for the largest share of the global surgical equipment market revenue. Electrosurgical devices segment is anticipated to show fastest growth due to the rising demand for minimally invasive procedures that widely use these devices. New product launch is the major trend followed in the global surgical equipment market, which has helped the manufacturers to achieve significant market share. North America and Europe were the primary and subsequent largest regional markets for surgical equipment, followed by Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW) respectively.Some of the key players in global surgical equipment market are Aspen Surgical Products, Boston Scientific, Covidien PLC, Ethicon Inc., Hologic Inc., Intact Medical Corp., Medtronic Inc., Megadyne Medical Products Inc., Olympus Corp., Stryker, Conmed Corporation, Carefusion Corporation, Alcon Laboratories Inc, Smith & Nephew PLC and Zimmer Holdings Inc.For More, Please Visit:Type of Devices Covered: Electrosurgical devices Handheld surgical deviceso Retractorso Scissorso Scalpelso Forceps Surgical sutures and staples Otherso Power systemso Retraction systemsApplications Covered: Cardiovascular Laparoscopy Microvascular Neurosurgery Gynecology and Obstetrics Orthopedic Surgery Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeries Power Systems Retraction Systems Thoracic Surgery Urology Wound Closure OthersTechnologies Covered: Wireless Surgical Equipment Manual Surgical Equipment Electrosurgical EquipmentEnd Users Covered: Small Clinics Medium Level Specialty Hospitals Large Hospitals OthersRegions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo UKo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Brazilo Argentinao South Africao EgyptWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 7 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsFor More, Please Visit:We offer wide spectrum of research and consulting services with in-depth knowledge of different industries. We are known for customized research services, consulting services and Full Time Equivalent (FTE) services in the research world. We explore the market trends and draw our insights with valid assessments and analytical views. We use advanced techniques and tools among the quantitative and qualitative methodologies to identify the market trends. Our research reports and publications are routed to help our clients to design their business models and enhance their business growth in the competitive market scenario. We have a strong team with hand-picked consultants including project managers, implementers, industry experts, researchers, research evaluators and analysts with years of experience in delivering the complex projects.STRATISTICS MRC17049 King James Way, Gaithersburg,MD, 20877, USA
Gradual Acceptance of Mobile Creche Market in the US 2017-2021

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"The Report Mobile Creche Market in the US 2017-2021 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Mobile CrecheMobile creches are day-care facilities provided by on-demand service providers such as Pots of Fun and Rise and Shine Childcare. Unlike traditional day-care facilities, vendors of mobile creche services send caretakers to the required venue to take care of children. Enterprises can also book mobile creche services during corporate outings and conferences. This allows employers to maintain low attrition ratios.Technavios analysts forecast the mobile creche market in the US to grow at a CAGR of 6.15% during the period 2017-2021.View Report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the mobile creche market in the US for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers fee income generated by third-party service providers by providing mobile creche facilities to individuals and enterprises.Technavio's report, Mobile Creche Market in the US 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsRise and Shine ChildcareSafe and Sound Event ChildcareElegant Event SittersPots of FunOther prominent vendorsAmerican Child CareBright Horizon Family SolutionsUrbanSitterPoppyNannyPodSeekingSittersGet Sample Copy of this Report @Market driverIncreasing women workforceFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeLow salaries for caregiversFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendGradual acceptance of mobile creches by workplacesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?You can request one free hour of our analysts time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA: Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
North America Mobile Photo Printer Market: Fujifilm, Polaroid, HITI, LG, EPSON, HP Forecast to 2022

Mobile Photo Printer Marke

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Mobile photo printer is a small photo printer, its biggest feature is easy to carry, and you can immediately print photos with it.Get a Sample of Mobile Photo Printer Market Research report from @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Mobile Photo Printer in North America market, especially in United States, Canada and Mexico. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries, type and application.Major Players Included in Mobile Photo Printer Market :CanonFujifilmPolaroidHITILGEPSONHPPryntAnd Many OthersScope of the Mobile Photo Printer Market on the basis of region:United StatesCanadaMexicoBrowse full Report with table of contents and data tables For Mobile Photo Printer Market Report @Market Segment by Type, coversDesktop typeHandheld typeMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoOnline SalesOffline SalesThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the North America Mobile Photo Printer market.Chapter 1, to describe Mobile Photo Printer Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by countries, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Mobile Photo Printer, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the North America market by countries, covering United States, Canada and Mexico, with sales, revenue and market share of Mobile Photo Printer, for each country, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the segment market in United States, Canada and Mexico, by manufacturers, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and market share by manufacturers, types and applications;Chapter 10, Mobile Photo Printer market forecast, by countries, type and application, with sales, price and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 11, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 12, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 13, to describe sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 14 and 15, to describe Mobile Photo Printer Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data sourceSome points from TOC:-1 Market Overview1.1 Follicle Stimulating Hormone Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Recombinant FSH1.2.2 Urinary FSH1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Infertility Treatment1.3.2 Assisted Reproductive Technology1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Merck Serono2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Follicle Stimulating Hormone Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Merck Serono Follicle Stimulating Hormone Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 MSD2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Follicle Stimulating Hormone Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 MSD Follicle Stimulating Hormone Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 IBSA2.3.1 Business Overview ContinuedFor more help Speak to our Experts @No. of Report Pages: 117Price of Report (Single User Licence): $4480About Global Info Reports:GIR Market Research is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. GIR Market Research is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the worlds most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:+1-888-376-9998 (US)Email- sales@globalinforeports.comWeb-Blogs-
Global Power Banks Market to Expand at CAGR of 25.9% till 2022 due to Increased Use of Consumer Electronics

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ResearchMoz added Latest Research Report titled " Power Banks (Exceeding 20,000 mAh, Portable Power Banks and Solar Power Banks) Market - North America Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2015 - 2022 " to it's Large Report database.The research study titled Power Banks Market  North America Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2015 - 2022 provides a strategic analysis of the North America power banks (exceeding 20,000 mAh) market along with the market growth (size in US$ Mn) forecast for the period from 2015 to 2022. The report includes competitive analysis of various market segments based on power rating, types, and applications for the power banks market in North America. In order to aid in strategic decision-making, the report also includes competitive profiling of the leading power bank manufacturers in the industry, their market positioning, recent developments, and the winning strategies adopted by them. Other in-depth analysis covered in the report includes insights into industry competition, market dynamics, and the most profitable segments of the power banks market in North America. Furthermore, the report analyzes the current and future market potential for power banks (exceeding 20,000 mAh) in North America.Request for Sample PDF of Premium Research Report with TOC:On the basis of product type, the market is segmented into: portable power banks and solar power banks. The market revenue and forecast for these product segments have been included in the report in terms of US$ Mn, along with the CAGR for the forecast period from 2015 to 2022. Furthermore, the report also segments the power banks market on the basis of applications into consumer and industrial/B2B applications. The market revenue and forecast for different application and sub application segments have also been included in the report for the period from 2012 to 2022 in terms of US$ Mn, along with the CAGR for the forecast period from 2015 to 2022.The report also provides the breakdown and review of the various factors affecting the growth of the power banks market, appropriately described as market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. These factors emphasize upon the existing trends and their impact on the market growth. In addition, the report provides a separate section focusing on the key trends and future outlook of the power banks market. Overall, the report includes a holistic analysis of the power banks market in North America and provides growth estimates for the period from 2015 to 2022, keeping in mind the various factors affecting the market.Browse more details @Table of ContentChapter 1 Preface1.1 Report Description1.2 Market Segmentation1.3 Research Methodology1.3.1 Sources1.3.2 Secondary Research1.3.3 Primary ResearchChapter 2 Executive Summary2.1 Market Snapshot: North America Power Banks Market (2014 & 2022)2.2 North America Power Banks Market, by Application, 2014 (US$ Mn)2.3 North America Power Banks Market, by Product Type, 2014 (US$ Mn)2.4 North America Power Banks Market, by Power Rating, 2013 (US$ Mn)Chapter 3 North America Power Banks Market Analysis3.1 Overview3.1.1 North America Power Banks Market Revenue, 2012  2022, (US$ Mn) and Y-o-Y Growth (%)3.2 Key Trends Analysis3.2.1 Green Energy Adoption3.2.2 Preference for Li-ion Polymer Batteries over Li-ion Batteries for Industrial Applications3.3 Market Dynamics3.3.1 Drivers3.3.1.1 Increasing Instances of Blackouts and Power Outages Driving the Market for High Capacity Power Backup Solutions3.3.1.2 Growing Industrial Demand for Green Energy and Power EfficiencyAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Contact Us:Mr. Nachiket Ghumare90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074 / Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:Follow me on Blogger at:
ATH Flame Retardant Market Global Industry Analysis Forecast 2016 - 2026

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Flame retardants are the components which restricts and prevents the spread of fire. Flame retardants can be of halogenated type and non-halogenated types. ATH called as alumina trihydrate is a non-halogenated type of flame retardant. ATH undergoes endothermic decomposition and functions as a flame retardant by liberating its high water content. This process cools the product and delays its ignition. ATH is widely used in thermoplastics such as poly vinyl chloride (PVC), the most used material in electrical applications. The ATH flame retardants are available in ground, precipitated types. Also, the flame retardants are surface treated for specific high performance applications.The wires and cables is an important sector in consumption of ATH flame retardant followed by building and construction. Also, reinforced composites in automobile body sections, foam seats are an attractive growth area for ATH flame retardant market. The global ATH flame retardant market is anticipated to show significant growth in terms of consumption over the forecast period owing to the strict industrial regulations and standards.Obtain Report Details @:Global ATH Flame Retardant Market: Drivers and Restraints:The ATH flame retardant market is primarily driven by the increasing adoption of plastic material. Flame retardants are widely used for variety of products from carpets to the building materials. Besides, use of flammable products drives the global ATH flame retardants market. Also, ATH flame retardant is a cost effective compared to the other non-halogenated type of flame retardants and thus further gives an advantage for expansion. The regulations such as RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), and REACH further boosts the consumption of global ATH flame retardant market.However, substitutes such as magnesium hydroxide (MDH) for ATH flame retardants might restrain the global ATH flame retardant market.Global ATH Flame Retardant Market: SegmentationOn the basis of type, ATH flame retardant market is segmented into:-Ground ATH flame retardantPrecipitated ATH flame retardantSurface treated ATH flame retardantOthersOn the basis of application, ATH flame retardant market is segmented into:-ThermoplasticsPolyethylene (PE)Poly vinyl chloride (PVC)RubbersUnsaturated resinsOthersOn the basis of end use industry, ATH flame retardant market is segmented into:-Electrical and electronicsConstructionTransportationFurnishingsTextilesOthersGlobal ATH Flame Retardant Market: Region Wise OutlookFor more information on this report, fill the form @:The global ATH Flame retardant market is divided into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan and Middle East and Africa (MEA). APAC holds major share in the global ATH Flame retardant materials. This is attributed by growing end use industries in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. North America and Europe followed by Japan are expected to grow moderately during the forecast period since the markets in these regions are matured. The ATH film retardant market in MEA and Latin America are expected to show above average growth during the forecast period.Global ATH flame retardant market: Key PlayersSome of the key players identified in the global ATH Flame retardant market includes:JM HuberAlbemarle CorporationAlmatisAlcoa World Alumina MineralsSumitomo ChemicalsMagyar AluminiumNabaltecChalco Aluminium Corp of ChinaTOR Minerals EuropeAlteoThe report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207
Lavender Extract Market Growing Due to its Fragrance & Flavored Eminence

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Lavender extract is the collection of essential crude mixtures from extraction of different parts of lavender flower, which is extracted by using solvent such as ethanol or water. Lavandula oil is extracted from the lavender flowers scientific known as Lavandula Angustifolia. Production of lavendula oil requires huge laborious work and help of distillation process, Lavandula oil (Lavender oil) is extracted. There are different methods from which this essential oil is extracted such as hydro distillation, steam distillation and solvent extraction. Lavender extracts contains desirable properties extracted from herbaceous lavender flowers which is finding increasing and extensive uses in various industries such as pharmaceuticals for therapeutic properties and herbal medicines, cosmetics for functional properties in skincare related products, along with food and beverages products. Lavender extracts containing phytochemical compounds such as carotenoids and flavonoids are primarily used in tea, bakery products, cosmetics, decoction, oils and others, that is fuelling the demand for global lavender extract market in near future. Lavender extracts can be used in the form of liquid and powder form. Cosmetics industries are using Lavender extracts in their products due to the rising consumer demand for lavender extract skincare products. Shifting consumer preference for natural lavender extract based products is a major driving factor for the growth of lavender extract market.Obtain Report Details @Global Lavender Extract: Market SegmentationThe global lavender extract market is segmented on the basis of form, application, and distribution channel and region type. Market segment as per application, it is segmented on the basis of its application in cosmetic, food and beverage and pharmaceutical. Among these application segment cosmetic and pharmaceutical segments are expected to contribute more that 50% market share and expected to grow at higher space. Another segment is on the basis of distribution channel which includes health and beauty stores, pharmacy and drug stores, online retailing and other (direct selling) distribution channels. On analyzing the demand of lavender extracts in form of oil on pie, it was assessed that cosmetic industry acquires majority of share in terms of volume followed by the demand of lavender extracts in food and beverage industry. Primary reason behind its increasing demand for lavender extracts in global level market is due to its richness in natural quality and organic nature. Lavender extracts in form of oil has wide application in products of cosmetic industry such as in perfumes, skin care, and hair care and in many other beauty care products. Demand for lavender oil is also growing from food and beverage and pharmaceutical industry. In food and beverage industry, lavender extracts oil has primarily demand as a food flavoring like in dairy products, tea, culinary herb, jelly etc. and in pharmaceutical industry, lavender extracts oil is used for therapies, dermatitis, diabetes, cold, asthma, insect repellant and for many other purposes. The global lavender extract market is also segmented on the basis of form primarily into powder, liquid and others. Among these, oils segment is expected to fuel the lavender extract market over the forecast period. Among these industries, the cosmetics industry is expected to increase significantly followed by pharmaceuticals industry. Hence, the global lavender extract market is expected to significantly increase the revenue contribution over the forecast period.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @Global Lavender Extract Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the global Lavender extract industry can be divided by major regions which include North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Globally, among all regions, Western Europe has developed as the most dominant region followed by Asia Pacific in global lavender extract market. Increasing usage of oils in skincare products extracted from lavender flower coupled with rise of lavender extracts in processed food has strengthened the growth of global lavender extract market and hence is projected to significantly expand the revenue contribution of the market over the forecast period.Global Lavender Extract Market: Growth DriversThe global lavender extract market driving factors are increasing demand for natural ingredients of lavender extracts in processed foods is important driving factor. Major driver behind increasing demand of lavender extracts in current market scenario is due to its fragrance and flavored eminence. Nowadays consumers are mostly influenced towards that product which has natural quality, organic in nature and also good for their health, due to which it has higher demand among growing economies of world. On the other side as per the current market trend, lavender extract oil is trending in market because of its wide application in body care and beauty care products. This oil is mostly used in body creams, lotions, soaps, perfumes and many other cosmetic products. In addition to this, lavender extract oil is also gaining demand from specialty food industry where consumers preferred to buy food and beverages which are rich in terms of natural ingredient, natural flavor, taste, aroma etc.Global Lavender Extract Market: PlayersSome of the key players identified across the value chain of the global Lavender extract market includes Young Living Essential Oils, TERRA, NOW Foods, Ovvio Oils, Enio Bonchev, Alteya Group, Alpha Aromatics, Mother Herbs Private Limited, Sydney Essential Oil Co. Pty Ltd and NHR Organic Oils and others. The companies are expected to expand their business by enhancing their product portfolio in global Lavender extract market. The companies are projected to frame certain strategies in future in order to gain the competitive advantage in global lavender extract market till 2025.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Major Advancements : Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Market Report 2017 - Ergotron, Capsa Solutions LLC, Enovate Medical & Herman Miller

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Albany, New York, July 14, 2017 : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of " Research of Procedure/Treatment Carts Market in Global Industry : Development and Forecast 2017-2022 " globally.In this report, the Procedure/Treatment Carts market is valued and is expected to grow day by day at the end of 2022 .Geographically, this report split Asia-Pacific into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Procedure/Treatment Carts for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), includingChinaJapanSouth KoreaTaiwanIndiaSoutheast AsiaAustraliaGet PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Procedure/Treatment Carts sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingErgotronCapsa Solutions LLCEnovate MedicalHerman MillerOmnicellThe Harloff CompanyMedline IndustriesAdvantechJACOScott-clarkArmstrong Medical IndustriesWaterloo HealthcareRubbermaidStanleyInterMetroTouchPoint MedicalAFC Industries IncNanjing TianaoOn the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K Units), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Unit), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPoweredNon-Powered (Mechanical)On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume (K Units), market share and growth rate of Procedure/Treatment Carts for each application, includinHospitalsClinicsAmbulatory Surgical CentresOtherTable of Contents1 Procedure/Treatment Carts Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Procedure/Treatment Carts1.2 Classification of Procedure/Treatment Carts by Product Category1.2.1 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Types (2012-2022)1.2.2 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Powered1.2.4 Non-Powered (Mechanical)1.3 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2012-2022)1.3.2 Hospitals1.3.3 Clinics1.3.4 Ambulatory Surgical Centres1.3.5 Other1.4 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Market by Region1.4.1 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 South Korea Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Taiwan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.8 Australia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Asia-Pacific Market Size (Value and Volume) of Procedure/Treatment Carts (2012-2022)1.5.1 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)More Information about TOC @2 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application2.1 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Sales Volume and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts (Volume) by Application2.4 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts (Volume and Value) by Region2.4.1 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.2 Asia-Pacific Procedure/Treatment Carts Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMoz90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States
Autonomous Tractors Market in Europe To Grow At 57.91% CAGR To 2021

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"The Report Autonomous Tractors Market in Europe 2017-2021 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Autonomous TractorsAutonomous tractors are vehicles that are light in weight, driverless, and can be remotely operated by farmers. Autonomous tractors can work for 24 hours a day without any downtime. Autonomous tractors provide precision and high-quality farming experience to farmers. These autonomous tractors are also called as unmanned tractors, robotic tractors, or driverless tractors. Autonomous tractors are a combination of advanced electronic components and are operated with the help of controllers.Technavios analysts forecast the autonomous tractors market in Europe to grow at a CAGR of 57.91% during the period 2017-2021.View Report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the autonomous tractors market in Europe for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers installations, shipments, sales, retrofit, replacement, spares, aftermarket, and services market.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:FranceGermanyPolandThe UKRomaniaOthersTechnavio's report, Autonomous Tractors Market in Europe 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsAGCOKinze ManufacturingNew HollandYanmarGet Sample Copy of this Report @Other prominent vendorsCase IHJohn DeereKubotaMarket driverIncrease in profit generated from farmingFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeDifficulty in collaborating robotic machines with information technologyFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendSolar energy powered tractorsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?You can request one free hour of our analysts time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA: Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Carnauba Wax Market: Industry Survey and Outlook 2025

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Global Carnauba Wax Market: OverviewThe global carnauba wax market has witnessed tremendous growth over the past few years, due to its increasing application in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sector. Brazil is the leading producer as well as exporter of carnauba wax across the globe. The manufacturing of this wax involves low setup cost, however, the labor intensive nature of extraction and processing leads to a high labor cost, thereby boosting the overall manufacturing cost. Moreover, the widespread adoption of primitive tools for extraction leads to an increase in the overall extraction time. This wax commonly finds its application in food, pharmaceutical, automotive, and cosmetics.The report serves as a reliable business tool providing information regarding important parameters of the global carnauba wax market. It is intended to update stakeholders about the ongoing trends of the market. It provides an immaculate understanding of the market through definitions, classifications, applications, and chain structure. It gives a detailed description of the factor influencing the market and analyzes the extent to which they impact the growth. It offers qualitative and quantitative insights into the competitive landscape of the market. It profiles key players in the market and takes into account their business strategies, latest development, investment outlook, financial overview, and market shares. For a coherent understanding, the report segments the global carnauba wax market on the basis of various criteria including geography and applications.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Carnauba Wax Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe burgeoning consumption of confectionary products such as jellies and chewing gums, particularly in developing countries, is anticipated to stimulate the demand for carnauba wax in the forthcoming years. In addition, the rising demand for food glazing agent in the food and beverage industry is bolstering the growth of the market. The growth of the market is also backed by conducive regulations enforced by regulatory authorities such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Union. On the other hand, the rising attempts of market participants to increase their margins and revenues are resulting in an increase in price, which in turn is adversely affecting the growth of the market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Carnauba Wax Market: Geographical SegmentationBased on geography, the key segments meticulously studied in the report are Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Rest of the World. Europe and North America will account for a substantial cumulative share in the market throughout the forecast period. The growing demand for waxes for the production and maintenance of automobiles is bolstering the growth of these regions. The robust growth of the automotive care industry, due to rising automobile sales coupled with the increasing sales of pre-used cars, is translating into the greater uptake of carnauba wax.Asia Pacific will rise at a noteworthy pace during the same period, owing to the growing demand for food glazing agents in the food and beverage industry. The rapid industrialization, which is leading to the flourishing growth of various end-user industries, is also impacting the growth of the region positively. Moreover, the rising disposable income of consumers is propelling the growth of the region.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Carnauba Wax Market: Competitive LandscapeProminent players in the global carnauba wax market are paying strong attention to improving their distribution network to cater to the global demand. The majority of players are focusing towards product customization to serve better to the requirements of end users and stay relevant in the market. The strong foothold of key players, due to their market knowledge and acumen, makes the market a highly competitive arena. Some of the key companies operating in the global metal carnauba wax market are Brasil Ceras, Tropical Ceras do Brasil Ltda, FONCEPI  Comercial Exportadora Ltda, Pontes Industria de Cera Ltda, and Carnauba do Brasil Ltda.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Business strategies Of Global Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022

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MarketResearchReports.Biz presents this most up-to-date research on "Global Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022"View Full Report at:DescriptionThis report studies the global Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) market, analyzes and researches the Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeFresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KgaBaxter International Inc.B. Braun Melsungen AGNikkiso Co., LtdNxStage Medical, Inc.Asahi Kasei CorpNIPRO CorporationMedicaToray Medical Co., Ltd,Medtronic plc.,INFOMED SA.,Medical Components, Inc.,Medites Pharma, S.R.O.,Central Admixture Pharmacy Services Inc.,Haidylina for Advanced Medical Industries.Hemoclean Co. Ltd.,FARMASOL Medical Products Ind. and Trd. Co.,Bain Medical Equipment (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd.,Jihua Medical Apparatus & Instruments Co.,Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) can be split intoHemodialysisHemofiltrationMarket segment by Application, Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) can be split intoKidney DiseaseNon-kidney DiseaseRequest Sample Copy of This Report at:Table of ContentsGlobal Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT)1.1 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Market Overview1.1.1 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Market by Type1.3.1 Hemodialysis1.3.2 Hemofiltration1.4 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Kidney Disease1.4.2 Non-kidney Disease2 Global Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in FutureRequest Sample Copy of This Report at:3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. Kga3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Baxter International Inc.3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 B. Braun Melsungen AG3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Nikkiso Co., Ltd3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 NxStage Medical, Inc.3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 Asahi Kasei Corp3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 NIPRO Corporation3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 Medica3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 Toray Medical Co., Ltd,3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 Medtronic plc.,3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.10.5 Recent Developments3.11 INFOMED SA.,3.12 Medical Components, Inc.,3.13 Medites Pharma, S.R.O.,3.14 Central Admixture Pharmacy Services Inc.,3.15 Haidylina for Advanced Medical Industries.3.16 Hemoclean Co. Ltd.,3.17 FARMASOL Medical Products Ind. and Trd. Co.Browse Latest Industry Press Release at:About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports.MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients.We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated researchreports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and typesof companies spanning across various industries.ContactState Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizFollow us on LinkedIn:
Global Travel Insurance Market 2017 Consumption Research Report explores Growth, Development Challenges and Opportunities till 2022

Travel Insurance Market

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Global Travel Insurance Market 2017 Sales, Growth, Trends and Market Share Forecast Research Report till-2022.The MRS Research Group report by QY Research Global Travel Insurance Market 2017-2022 provides an essential information and statistically evaluated data about the Travel Insurance . The research report provides a detailed study of the Travel Insurance market, enlightening the major areas such as future market scenario, market growth factors, market growth restraints, and others. The advanced technological trends and various new opportunities are also provided in this research report.Read Complete Report with TOC :The research report provides the Travel Insurance markets classification in detail. The Travel Insurance market is bifurcated into a number of segments on the basis of materials,types,applications,and end-users. The geographical analysis of the global Travel Insurance market is also coveredin the report. The vital information mentioned in the research report helps in significantly predicting the future scope of the global market.Each and every segment of the Travel Insurance industry isevaluatedin a qualitative as well as quantitativeway so that the customers get an exact estimation of the market. The MRS Research Group Travel Insurance report by QY Research covers important informations such as definition, the major players in the market, and also the demand for new opportunities.The various segmentation of the global market is based on the overall product profit, costing, global market growth, and manufacturing processes. The report covers a region-wise analysis which provides the customer with different market studies that give a detailed analysis of the product and its impact on the global market. The Travel Insurance report also highlights the growth statistics depending on the supply and demand in the different regions.Get Free Sample Copy Of Report :The Travel Insurance report covers the precisely studied and evaluated data of the global market players and their scope in the market using a number of analytical tools. The analytical tools such asinvestment return analysies, SWOT analysis and feasibility studyare used to analyze the keyglobal market players growth in the Travel Insurance industry.Abou Us: MRS Research Group provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Prof Research cover more than 30 industries including energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United States
Global Nuclear Valves Market 2017 : Henry Pratt, Metrex Valve, IMI Nuclear, Samshin and Daher-Vanatome

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The report titled Global Nuclear Valves Market gives a proper understanding of global Nuclear Valves industry. Furthermore it also cover-up forecast and analysis for Nuclear Valves market on the global and regional level. The report analyses Nuclear Valves market on basis of its attractiveness and investment feasibility. It also presents proper description of every section and emerging industry trends. This will allow the readers to target Nuclear Valves market product specifications, current competitive players in Nuclear Valves market and the market revenue with profitability. Global Industry Analyze Nuclear Valves Market by its type, competitive players, regions and applications of Nuclear Valves market, forecast up to 2022.Before purchasing the report please do inquire here:Report scope is as follows:Global Nuclear Valves MarketThis report analyses the scope of Nuclear Valves market. This can be achieved by using Nuclear Valves previous historical data, analysing qualitative insights in detail, provable projections about global Nuclear Valves market size. The projections showed in this Nuclear Valves report are taken from previously proved research methodologies and hypothesis. By performing such projections, the Nuclear Valves market research report serves as a storehouse of analysis, data and information for every aspect of the Nuclear Valves market. Considering the geographic area, Nuclear Valves market is divided into various regions like Middle-East a and Africa, Asia-Pacific, South America and Europe.In order to help key decision makers, the Nuclear Valves report consists of competitive depicting of the leading players in worldwide Nuclear Valves market, tempting investment plans, market positioning of crucial producers sections. Other thorough evaluation offered in the report consists of:Key Players/Manufacturers Segment of Global Nuclear Valves Market(2017-2022):VelanPentair Valves & ControlsEmerson-FisherCopes-Vulcan (SPX FLOW)IMI NuclearHenry PrattSamshinMetrex ValveDaher-VanatomeKSBBNLBabcock ValvesVector ValvesToa Valve Engineering Inc.Jiangsu Shentong ValveZhonghe SuFaNeway ValveShanghai LiangGongShanghai EHO ValveSoovalveThe worldwide Nuclear Valves market is cut down into two sectors each type and application.Application Segment Analysis of Global Nuclear Valves Market(2017-2022):Nuclear Island (NI)Convention Island (CI)Balance of Plant (BOP)Type Segment Analysis of Global Nuclear Valves Market(2017-2022):Globe ValveBall ValveButterfly ValvesGate ValvesDiaphragm ValvesRegional Segment Analysis of Global Nuclear Valves Market(2017-2022):1. Europe (UK, Germany, Italy, France and Russia)2. South America (The Middle East and Africa)3. North America (The USA, Canada and Mexico)4. Asia-Pacific (India, China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia)Request Sample Nuclear Valves Research Report atGlobal Nuclear Valves Market report mainly covers 11 Chapters. They are as follows:Chapter I gives us Nuclear Valves Introduction, market overview, product scope, market opportunities, market driving force and market threat;Chapter II displays Nuclear Valves market forecast, by regions, application and type, with revenue and sales of Nuclear Valves market, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter III and IV, to show the competing situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share of Nuclear Valves market in 2016 and 2017;Chapter V shows the top manufacturers of Nuclear Valves , with revenue, Nuclear Valves sales and price, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter VI and VII, shows the market by application and type, with sales Nuclear Valves market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter VIII, to show the global Nuclear Valves market by regions, with sales, market share and revenue of Nuclear Valves , for each region, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter IX, covers the global Nuclear Valves market key regions, with sales, market share and revenue by key countries in these regions, from 2012 to 2017;Lastly, Chapter X and XI gives details about Nuclear Valves sales channel, traders, distributors, dealers, research discovery and conclusion, appendix and data source;What Nuclear Valves Market Report Contributes?-Comprehensive Study of the global Nuclear Valves market.-Evaluation of Nuclear Valves market progress.-Important revolution in Nuclear Valves market.-Share study of Nuclear Valves industry.-Nuclear Valves market primary strategies of dominant manufacturers.-Full data regarding Segmentation details of the Nuclear Valves market-Rising Nuclear Valves industry segments and local markets.-Endorsement to firms in order to establish/entrench their niche within the Nuclear Valves marketAbout Us:Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.Market.Biz has access to the worlds most comprehensive and up-to-date databases in your business sector, including countless market reports that can provide you with valuable data relating to your business. We understand the needs of our clients, and keep our reports updated as market requirement changes.Contact Us:James JohnsonS. no. 51/14 First Floor,Office No. 4, Vishwa Arcade,Near Navale Lawns, Pune.Tel: +1(857)2390696Email: inquiry@market.bizWebsite:Blog:
EMEA Welding Consumables Professional Market, Applications, Product & Forecast Study till 2020

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The welding consumables market is developing rapidly since the huge demand from the metal, electronic, electrical and industrial sectors is quite significant. To look further into this development, a new study has been included into the vast online repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE), with the title Welding Consumables (Stick Electrode, Solid Wires, Flux-cored Wires, SAW Wires & Fluxes, and Others) Market for Automobile & Transportation, Building & Construction, Marine, and Other Applications - EMEA Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020. The report offers a useful evaluation of the most profitable elements of the report which are the products, applications as well as the growth forecast.Request for sample report:Welding consumables products are now being used for a selection of beneficial applications such as fabrication, maintenance, joining and other repair solutions. The study begins with a careful report description, market segmentation, and precise data on the research scope and assumptions. In this section, the research methodology, together with the analysis product segment covering stick electrodes, solid wires, flux-cored wires, SAW wires fluxes and others, is carefully enclosed. Considering the welding consumables market, its splits the application into transportation, automobile, building, construction, marine, repair and others. Useful data such as the benefits like huge deposition rates enhancing demand for flux-cored wires, particularly in Europe is also available in the report.In this report, there are useful parts where the welding consumables market regional analysis that include the countries such as Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Additionally, the study introspects the most successful companies such as ESAB, Lincoln Electric, Voestalpine AG, Illinois Tool Works, Air Liquide, Welding Alloys Ltd, Castolin Eutectic, AFROX, Tianjin Golden Bridge Welding Materials Group Co., Ltd, Vorarc Welding CC, Promax Welding Consumables (PTY) Ltd., Kobe Steel, Ltd., IASF S.p.A., Arcsel LLC and Corodur Fulldraht.Through the industry analysis, the study offers opportunities in the welding consumables market in the near future. Moreover, the research study investigates competition in the market through Porters Five Forces analysis. Using the industry analysis, the research also gives the knowledge about the production capacities of several manufacturers in EMEA. Alongside, the study offers details about the company profiles together with the parameters such as company headquarter, company overview, key competitors, product portfolio, key end-users, financial overview, recent developments and business strategies.Browse Full Report with TOC :About UsMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.ContactState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United StatesTelephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:
New report examines the Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM) Market - leading players Focus on innovation to bolster positions

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Global Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM) Market: OverviewScanning probe microscopes include imaging technologies that measure surface of small molecules, atoms and fine scales. This technique uses interaction of sharp, electrically charged probe with the surface of samples at particular points. This electrically charged probe is used to interact with sample that helps researchers to understand the properties of sample specimen. In addition, scanning probe microscope scan sample surface with sharp probe in order to observe three dimensional images at high magnification rate. Scanning probe technology is widely used for the study of macro-molecules and biological specimens. Additionally, scanning probe microscopy technique is used for the measurement of wide variety of inorganic (e.g. to measure surface chemistry of the molecules), synthetic (e.g. identify surface of polymers) and biological materials (like polymers and polymer matrix). In addition, scanning probe microscope technology can also be used for manipulation and observation of environmental non-conductive specimen.Obtain Report Details @Global Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM) Market: Trends and ProspectsThe market of scanning probe microscopes is witnessing positive growth owing to development of advanced technologies in this field coupled with wide application areas of scanning probe microscopy in science, environmental and engineering field. For example, RHK Technology, Inc. offers innovative and well engineered RHK UHV Scanning Probe Microscopes. This microscope provides variety of applications in science and environmental field. In addition, Danish Micro Engineering A/S offers ProberStation 150 scanning probe microscope. This microscope offers accurate sampling and flexibility for customer specific modifications by combining with other types of analytical heads. Thus, these types of offering will help key manufacturers to attract more number of customers hence drives the market growth. In addition, various advantages of scanning probe microscope as compared to conventional optical microscopes will further drive the market growth. For example, scanning probe micros offers highest possible magnification i.e. more than 800 to 1000 times greater than conventional microscopes. Thus, this advantage will offer proper analysis of sample specimen hence drives the market growth of scanning probe microscopes. Moreover, these types of advanced microscopy is rapidly growing in developing countries like North America and Europe due to their innovative features and novel applications in variety of disciplines that will further boost the overall market of scanning probe microscope. However, high cost of these types of microscopes will restrain the market growth.The market of scanning probe microscopes can be segmented on the basis of:By TechnologiesAtomic Force Microscopy (AFM)Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM)Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscopy (NSOM)OthersGlobal Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM) Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, North America is the largest market of scanning probe microscopes due to the launch of novel and innovative products by domiciled key manufacturer coupled with increasing uptake of these technologies by consumers. Europe is considered as the second largest market of scanning probe microscopes. The growth of this market is attributed to the presence of large number of companies like NanoTechnology GmbH, Danish Micro Engineering A/S and others. This factor would help European market to grow consistently in future and hence stimulate the market growth. Additionally, Asia-Pacific region in emerging markets for scanning probe microscopes because of increasing awareness about scanning probe microscopy technology among customers.Fill The Form To Gain Deeper Insights On This Market @Global Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM) Market: Companies Mentioned in the ReportVarious key players contributing to the global scanning probe microscopes market comprises Danish Micro Engineering A/S (DME), Klocke Nanotechnik, Agilent Technologies, Omicron NanoTechnology GmbH, Hitachi High-Tech Science Corporation, RHK Technology, Inc., Bruker Nano, Danish Micro Engineering, Schaefer Technology and others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Market by Offering, Technology, Application, and End User- Global Opportunities, Trends, Analysis 2023

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Artificial intelligence assists the machines to perform any task without human interventions. It uses different algorithms and software that help the machine to inculcate perception and reasoning for various situations. AI is widely applicable in the healthcare sector for various purposes such as drug discovery and precision medicine. In addition, it is used to analyze patients medical data, to predict disease onset, and personalize treatment provided to the patient. The global AI market was valued at $1,441 million in 2016, and is estimated to reach at $22,790 million by 2023, registering a CAGR of 48.0% from 2017 to 2023.For More Info, Get Sample With Full Of T.O.C :The AI market is segmented based on offering, technology, application, end user, and geography. On the basis of offering, the market is divided into hardware, software, and services. By technology, it is classified into deep learning, querying method, natural language processing, and context aware processing. Applications covered in the study include robot-assisted surgery, virtual nursing assistant, administrative workflow assistance, fraud detection, dosage error reduction, clinical trial participant identifier, preliminary diagnosis, and others. According to end user, the market is categorized into healthcare provider, pharmaceutical & biotechnology company, patient, and payer Geographically, it is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.The market growth is driven by rise in adoption rate of AI systems and delete technological advancements in the AI field. In addition, the ability of these systems to improve patient outcomes, increase in adoption of precision medicine, and increase in need for coordination between healthcare workforce & patients are expected to fuel the market growth. However, lack of standard regulations and guidelines and reluctance among healthcare professionals to adopt AI-based technologies are expected to hinder the market growth.KEY BENEFITS FOR STAKEHOLDERS This report offers a detailed quantitative analysis of the current market trends from 2016 to 2023 to identify the prevailing opportunities. The market estimations provided are based on comprehensive analysis of the key developments in the industry. In-depth geographical analysis facilitates to analyze the regional market to assist in strategic business planning. The developmental strategies adopted by key manufacturers are enlisted to understand the competitive scenario of the marketEnquire About Report :KEY PLAYERS Welltok, Inc. Intel Corporation Nvidia Corporation Google Inc. IBM Corporation Microsoft Corporation General Vision, Inc. Enlitic, Inc. Next IT Corporation iCarbonXKEY MARKET SEGMENTS By Offering Hardware Software Service By Technology Deep Learning Querying Method Natural Language Processing Context Aware Processing By Application Robot-assisted Surgery Virtual Nursing Assistant Administrative Workflow Assistance Fraud Detection Dosage Error Reduction Clinical Trial Participant Identifier Preliminary Diagnosis Others By End UserAlso Request For Discount : Healthcare Provider Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Company Patient Payer By Geography North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany France UK Italy Spain Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific Japan China Australia India South Korea Taiwan Rest of Asia-Pacific LAMEA Brazil Turkey Saudi Arabia South Africa Rest of LAMEA The other players of the artificial intelligence in healthcare market include (companies not profiled in the report): Shimadzu Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Siemens Healthineers General Electric (GE) Company Koninklijke Philips N.V. Cloudmedx, Inc. Bay Labs, Inc.Table Of Content CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 3 MARKET OVERVIEW CHAPTER 4 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HEALTHCARE MARKET, BY OFFERING CHAPTER 5 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HEALTHCARE MARKET, BY TECHNOLOGY CHAPTER 6 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HEALTHCARE MARKET, BY APPLICATION CHAPTER 7 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HEALTHCARE MARKET, BY END USER CHAPTER 8 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HEALTHCARE MARKET, BY GEOGRAPHYWe have a large database of quality and precise market research reports that will be very beneficial for your organization. Reports that we sell our authentic in nature and from reputed publishers, hence it can definitely help you with your growth opportunities.Research Beam will always make sure to bring most ethical and high quality reports. We value your relationship with us and look forward for a long term relation.Contact UsGlobal Head Quarters5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United States+1 (800) 910-6452help@researchbeam.com
Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Market 2017 Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth and Forecast Report Up To 2022

Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Market

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The Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Research Report Forecast 2017-2022 is a valuable source of insightful data for business strategists. It provides the Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors industry overview with growth analysis and historical & futuristic cost, revenue, demand and supply data (as applicable). The research analysts provide an elaborate description of the value chain and its distributor analysis.For this report, the Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors market value is provided for 2016 in USD millions, an expected CAGR % as well as USD million worth of industry in 2022. Regionally, the globe is segmented into United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia and India to study their market size and local analysis. End user applications of Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors market covering Motors, Transformers, Capacitors, Reactors and Others are studied in this research. Share of Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors market is covered by applications as well supported with potential applications in the future.Buy the complete Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors report with Comprehensive table of contents @The research methodology used to estimate and forecast the Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors market involves a primary and a secondary research. A systematic procedure has been used to arrive at the global size of the Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors market and present revenue of key players in the market. Accurate data has been collected by conducting extensive interviews with people holding key decision making positions in the industry such as CEOs, VPs, directors, and executives.Inquire for discount for this report @Industry chain analysis covering upstream raw materials and equipments of Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors market, their suppliers' information as well as analysis of downstream major consumers for Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors is provided to understand the complete industry chain structure. Overall market analyzed in this report is divided by regions, types and manufacturers/companies. The research estimates 2017-2022 Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors market development trends covering capacity, production and revenue forecasts as well as regional supply consumption forecasts.Towards the end, this report includes a feasibility analysis of New Project Investment covering SWOT analysis of Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors OR marketing strategy analysis and market effect factor analysis. Overall, the report provides factual insights collected and analyzed with detailed primary and secondary research on Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors market.The research compiles profiles of small and big Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors market companies covering their product details as well as important statistics on production, capacity, price and more. These active companies' numbers are supported with information on marketing traders and/or distributors of the Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors industry along with their contact information. This data gives valuable industry insights and direction to individuals and/or companies that are new entrants, eyeing to enter or grow in the Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors market. Some of the Key vendors profiled in this research include: Siemens Eaton ABB Toshiba Arteche Schneider Electric General Electric Tavrida Electric MITSUBISHIPartial list of Tables and Figures for this report include:Figure Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Market Share (%) of Top 5 ManufacturersTable Global Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Production (K Units) by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Production Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017) Figure Global Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Production Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017) Figure 2016 Global Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Production Market Share (%) by RegionsTable Global Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Revenue (Million USD) by Regions (2012-2017)Table Global Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Revenue Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017) Figure Global Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Revenue Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017) Figure 2016 Global Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Revenue Market Share (%) by RegionsFigure Global Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Production (K Units) and Growth Rate (2012-2017) Table Global Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Production (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)Figure Europe Medium Voltage Vacuum Contactors Production (K Units) and Growth Rate (%) (2012-2017)About Us:eMarketOrg.com aims to provide businesses and organizations market intelligence products and services that help in making smart, instant and crucial decisions. Our database offers access to insights from industry leaders, experts and influencers on global and regional sectors, market trends, user behaviour, for companies as well as products. With data and information from reputable and trusted private and public sources, our clients are never short of statistics and analysis that are up to date.Contact Details:Ronald Aldensales@emarketorg.cominfo@emarketorg.comeMarketOrg.com aims to provide businesses and organizations market intelligence products and services that help in making smart, instant and crucial decisions. Our database offers access to insights from industry leaders, experts and influencers on global and regional sectors, market trends, user behaviour, for companies as well as products. With data and information from reputable and trusted private and public sources, our clients are never short of statistics and analysis that are up to date.Starting with market research reports, eMarketOrg.com plans to add conferences, knowledge products, which can be periodically subscribed to, and more to its range of business offerings. Spread across the globe, our network of partners, in collaboration with our service specialists, ensure that our clients receive the right product, service and/or solution that meet their requirements in convenient timelines and within comfortable budgets that neither go underutilized nor dig a big hole into their monthly, quarterly and/or yearly spends.Get in touch with us to experience a new one-stop market intelligence and business service.F/3, 4A Bharat Pushpa Apt.,Subhash Nagar, Shukrawar Peth,Pune  411002
New Release | Global Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Market Research Report 2016

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Industry 2016 Market Research Report" to its huge collection of research reports.2016 Market Research Report on Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Industry was a professional and depth research report on Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine industry that you would know the world's major regional market conditions of Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine industry, the main region including North American, Europe and Asia etc., and the main country including United States ,Germany ,Japan and China etc..The report firstly introduced Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine basic information including Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine definition classification application and industry chain overview; Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine industry policy and plan, Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine product specification, manufacturing process, cost structure etc.. Then we deeply analyzed the world's main region market conditions that including the product price, profit, capacity, production, capacity utilization, supply, demand and industry growth rate etc.Browse Detail Report With TOC @In the end, the report introduced Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis and Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine industry.In a word, it was a depth research report on Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine industry. And thanks to the support and assistance from Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine industry chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.The report including six parts, the first part mainly introduced the product basic information; the second parts mainly analyzed the Asia Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine industry; the third part mainly analyzed the North American Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine industry; the fourth part mainly analyzed the Europe Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine industry; the fifth part mainly analyzed the market entry and investment feasibility; the sixth part was the report conclusion chapter.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Table of Contents2016 Market Research Report on Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine IndustryPart I Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Industry OverviewChapter One Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Industry Overview1.1Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Definition1.2 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Product Development History Overview1.3 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Classification Analysis1.3.1 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Main Classification Analysis1.3.2 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Main Classification Share Analysis1.4 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.4.1 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Upstream Raw Materials Analysis1.4.2 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Downstream Application Market Analysis1.5 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Application Analysis1.5.1 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Main Application Analysis1.5.2 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Main Application Share Analysis1.6 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.1 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.5 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Global Market Development Trend AnalysisPart II Asia Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine IndustryChapter Two Asia Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Product History of DevelopmentChapter Three Asia Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Key Manufacturers Analysis3.1 Company A3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Product Picture and Specification3.1.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value3.1.4 Contact Information3.2 Company B3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Product Picture and Specification3.2.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value3.2.4 Contact Information3.3 Company C3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Product Picture and Specification3.3.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value3.3.4 Contact Information......Chapter Four 2011-2016 Asia Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast Analysis4.1 2011-2016 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Capacity Production Statistics4.2 2012-2016 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Production and Market share4.3 2011-2016 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Demand Overview4.4 2011-2016 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Supply Demand Shortage4.5 2011-2016 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Import and Export Consumption4.6 2011-2016 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Average Cost Price Production value Profit marginChapter Five Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Industry Development Trend5.1 2016-2020 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Capacity Production Trend5.2 2016-2020 Production and Market share Forecast5.3 2016-2020 Demand Analysis5.4 2016-2020 Supply Demand Analysis5.5 2016-2020 Import and Export Consumption Trend5.6 2016-2020 Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Production Cost Price Profit TrendPart III North American Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine IndustryChapter Six North American Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Product History of DevelopmentChapter Seven North American Wind Power Tower Shot Blasting Machine Key Manufacturers Analysis7.1 Company A7.1.1 Company Profile7.1.2 Product Picture and Specification7.1.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.1.4 Contact Information7.2 Company B7.2.1 Company Profile7.2.2 Product Picture and Specification7.2.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.2.4 Contact Information......Continued...Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
United States Wind Power Equipment Industry Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Research Report 2016

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "United States Wind Power Equipment Industry 2016 Market Research Report" to its huge collection of research reports.The United States Wind Power Equipment Industry 2016 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Wind Power Equipment industry.The report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Wind Power Equipment market analysis is provided for the United States markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status.Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and Bill of Materials cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins.Browse Detail Report With TOC @The report focuses on United States major leading industry players providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out. The Wind Power Equipment industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered.With 150 tables and figures the report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Table of Contents1 Industry Overview1.1 Definition and Specifications of Wind Power Equipment1.1.1 Definition of Wind Power Equipment1.1.2 Specifications of Wind Power Equipment1.2 Classification of Wind Power Equipment1.3 Applications of Wind Power Equipment1.4 Industry Chain Structure of Wind Power Equipment1.5 Industry Overview of Wind Power Equipment1.6 Industry Policy Analysis of Wind Power Equipment1.7 Industry News Analysis of Wind Power Equipment2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Wind Power Equipment2.1 Bill of Materials (BOM) of Wind Power Equipment2.2 BOM Price Analysis of Wind Power Equipment2.3 Labor Cost Analysis of Wind Power Equipment2.4 Depreciation Cost Analysis of Wind Power Equipment2.5 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Wind Power Equipment2.6 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Wind Power Equipment2.7 United States Price, Cost and Gross of Wind Power Equipment 2011-20163 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of United States Key Manufacturers in 20153.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of United States Key Wind Power Equipment Manufacturers in 20153.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of United States Wind Power Equipment Key Manufacturers in 20153.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of United States Wind Power Equipment Key Manufacturers in 20154 Production Analysis of Wind Power Equipment by Regions, Type, and Applications4.1 United States Production of Wind Power Equipment by Regions 2011-20164.2 United States Production of Wind Power Equipment by Type 2011-20164.3 United States Sales of Wind Power Equipment by Applications 2011-20164.4 Price Analysis of United States Wind Power Equipment Key Manufacturers in 20154.5 United States Capacity, Production, Import, Export, Sales, Price, Cost and Revenue of Wind Power Equipment 2011-20165 Consumption Volume and Consumption Value Analysis of Wind Power Equipment by Regions5.1 United States Consumption Volume of Wind Power Equipment by Regions 2011-20165.2 United States Consumption Value of Wind Power Equipment by Regions 2011-20165.3 United States Consumption Price Analysis of Wind Power Equipment by Regions 2011-20166 Analysis of Wind Power Equipment Production, Supply, Sales and Market Status 2011-20166.1 Capacity, Production, Sales, and Revenue of Wind Power Equipment 2011-20166.2 Production Market Share and Sales Market Share Analysis of Wind Power Equipment 2014-20156.3 Sales Overview of Wind Power Equipment 2011-20166.4 Supply, Consumption and Gap of Wind Power Equipment 2011-20166.5 Import, Export and Consumption of Wind Power Equipment 2011-20166.6 Cost, Price, Revenue and Gross Margin of Wind Power Equipment 2011-20167.1 Phoenix Contact7.1.1 Company Profile7.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.1.2.1 Type I7.1.2.2 Type II7.1.2.3 Type III7.1.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross and Revenue7.1.4 Contact Information7.2 ABB7.2.1 Company Profile7.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.2.2.1 Type I7.2.2.2 Type II7.2.2.3 Type III7.2.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross and Revenue7.2.4 Contact Information7.3 Schneider Electric7.3.1 Company Profile7.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.3.2.1 Type I7.3.2.2 Type II7.3.2.3 Type III7.3.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross and Revenue7.3.4 Contact Information7.4 Eaton7.4.1 Company Profile7.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.4.2.1 Type I7.4.2.2 Type II7.4.2.3 Type III7.4.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross and Revenue7.4.4 Contact Information7.5 Ingeteam7.5.1 Company Profile7.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.5.2.1 Type I7.5.2.2 Type II7.5.2.3 Type III7.5.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross and Revenue7.5.4 Contact InformationContinued...Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Industrial Emergency Shutdown System Market: Applications, Types, Forecast Analysis to 2021

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The Global Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems Market Research Report Forecast 2017-2022 is a valuable source of insightful data for business strategists. It provides the Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems industry overview with growth analysis and historical & futuristic cost, revenue, demand and supply data (as applicable). The research analysts provide an elaborate description of the value chain and its distributor analysis.This Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems market study provides comprehensive data which enhances the understanding, scope and application of this report. This report provides comprehensive analysis of Key market segments and sub-segments Evolving market trends and dynamics Changing supply and demand scenarios Quantifying market opportunities through market sizing and market forecasting Tracking current trends/opportunities/challenges Competitive insights Opportunity mapping in terms of technological breakthroughsGlobal Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems Market: Regional Segment Analysis North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaThe Major players reported in the market include: ABB Rockwell Automation Schneider Electric Yokogawa Electric Emerson Process Management Esoterica Automation General Electric HIMA Paul Hildebrandt Honeywell InternationalGlobal Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems Market: Product Segment Analysis Type 1 Type 2 Type 3Global Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems Market: Application Segment Analysis Application 1 Application 2 Application 3Get a free sample copy of Global Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems at:Reasons for Buying this Report This report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics It provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growth It provides a six-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to grow It helps in understanding the key product segments and their future It provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitors It helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segmentsTable of ContentChapter 1 Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems IndustryChapter 3 Global Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)Chapter 5 Global Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2017)Chapter 6 Global Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Global Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Global Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems Manufacturers AnalysisTable of FiguresFigures: Global Industrial Emergency Shutdown Systems:Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast (2017-2022)Production and Growth Rate Forecast (2017-2022)Consumption Forecast by Regions (2017-2022)Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)Market Share (2012-2017)Get access to full report @24MarketReports is the marque of market research industry which identifies massive database of market research reports. We are having a numerous sectors market research gathering which covers diverse verticals around the Earth.New York City Zone 01, United Stateshelp@24marketreports.comInt'l: (+1) 646 781 7170UK(Toll free): +44 800 088 5734
Global Wind Power Electrical Equipment Consumption Market Research Report 2016 | Now Available at Researchmoz.us

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Wind Power Electrical Equipment Consumption 2016 Market Research Report" to its huge collection of research reports.The Global Wind Power Electrical Equipment Consumption 2016 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Wind Power Electrical Equipment market.First, the report provides a basic overview of the Wind Power Electrical Equipment industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. And development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures.Secondly, the report states the global Wind Power Electrical Equipment market size (volume and value), and the segment markets by regions, types, applications and companies are also discussed.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Third, the Wind Power Electrical Equipment market analysis is provided for major regions including USA, Europe, China and Japan, and other regions can be added. For each region, market size and end users are analyzed as well as segment markets by types, applications and companies.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information. Whats more, the Wind Power Electrical Equipment industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Browse Detail Report With TOC @Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Wind Power Electrical Equipment1.1 Definition and Specifications of Wind Power Electrical Equipment1.1.1 Definition of Wind Power Electrical Equipment1.1.2 Specifications of Wind Power Electrical Equipment1.2 Classification of Wind Power Electrical Equipment1.3 Applications of Wind Power Electrical Equipment1.4 Industry Chain Structure of Wind Power Electrical Equipment1.5 Industry Overview and Major Regions Status of Wind Power Electrical Equipment1.5.1 Industry Overview of Wind Power Electrical Equipment1.5.2 Global Major Regions Status of Wind Power Electrical Equipment1.6 Industry Policy Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment1.7 Industry News Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment2.1 Raw Material Suppliers and Price Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment2.2 Equipment Suppliers and Price Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment2.3 Labor Cost Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment2.4 Other Costs Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment2.5 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment2.6 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment3 Global Market Size (Volume and Value), Sales and Sale Price Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment3.1 Global Market Size (Volume and Value) and Growth Rate of Wind Power Electrical Equipment 2011-20163.2 Global Market Size (Volume and Value) of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Regions 2011-20163.3 Global Market Size (Volume and Value) of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Types 2011-20163.4 Global Market Size (Volume and Value) of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications 2011-20163.5 Global Sales Volume and Sales Revenue of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Companies 2011-20163.6 Global Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Regions 2011-20163.7 Global Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Types 2011-20163.8 Global Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications 2011-20163.9 Global Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Companies 2011-20164 United States Market Size (Volume and Value), Sales, Sale Price and End Users Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment4.1 United States Market Size (Volume and Value) and Growth Rate of Wind Power Electrical Equipment 2011-20164.2 United States Market Size (Volume and Value) of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Types 2011-20164.3 United States Market Size (Volume and Value) of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications 2011-20164.4 United States Sales Volume and Sales Revenue of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Companies 2011-20164.5 United States Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Types 2011-20164.6 United States Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications 2011-20164.7 United States Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Companies 2011-20164.8 United States Regional Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of Wind Power Electrical Equipment 2011-20164.9 United States End Users with Contact Information and Consumption Volume of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications5 Europe Market Size (Volume and Value), Sales, Sale Price and End Users Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment5.1 Europe Market Size (Volume and Value) and Growth Rate of Wind Power Electrical Equipment 2011-20165.2 Europe Market Size (Volume and Value) of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Types 2011-20165.3 Europe Market Size (Volume and Value) of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications 2011-20165.4 Europe Sales Volume and Sales Revenue of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Companies 2011-20165.5 Europe Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Types 2011-20165.6 Europe Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications 2011-20165.7 Europe Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Companies 2011-20165.8 Europe Regional Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of Wind Power Electrical Equipment 2011-20165.9 Europe End Users with Contact Information and Consumption Volume of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications6 China Market Size (Volume and Value), Sales, Sale Price and End Users Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment6.1 China Market Size (Volume and Value) and Growth Rate of Wind Power Electrical Equipment 2011-20166.2 China Market Size (Volume and Value) of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Types 2011-20166.3 China Market Size (Volume and Value) of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications 2011-20166.4 China Sales Volume and Sales Revenue of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Companies 2011-20166.5 China Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Types 2011-20166.6 China Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications 2011-20166.7 China Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Companies 2011-20166.8 China Regional Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of Wind Power Electrical Equipment 2011-20166.9 China End Users with Contact Information and Consumption Volume of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications7 Japan Market Size (Volume and Value), Sales, Sale Price and End Users Analysis of Wind Power Electrical Equipment7.1 Japan Market Size (Volume and Value) and Growth Rate of Wind Power Electrical Equipment 2011-20167.2 Japan Market Size (Volume and Value) of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Types 2011-20167.3 Japan Market Size (Volume and Value) of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications 2011-20167.4 Japan Sales Volume and Sales Revenue of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Companies 2011-20167.5 Japan Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Types 2011-20167.6 Japan Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Applications 2011-20167.7 Japan Sale Price of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by Companies 2011-20167.8 Japan Regional Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of Wind Power Electrical Equipment 2011-20167.9 Japan End Users with Contact Information and Consumption Volume of Wind Power Electrical Equipment by ApplicationsContinued...Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Duplicate Files Fixer Crosses 500K Downloads on Play Store

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Duplicate Files Fixer, an all-in-one identical file removing app, developed by Systweak Software, has crossed 500,000 downloads on Google Play Store. The app has seen several upgrades since its launch to improve overall user experience. Most recently, it saw the addition of the popular Material theme along with more detailed and categorized scan results.We always want to add new features in our apps that users may find useful. Keeping this aspect in mind, we encourage our developers to upgrade our utility apps at regular intervals. Duplicate Files Fixer has gone through many such updates and the 500,000 download mark is a reflection of the time and effort we put into it, said Shrishail Rana, CEO, Systweak.Our constant effort is to create apps that encompass all possible functionalities. Duplicate Files Fixer is not only a complete package functionality-wise, it also includes a total of 14 language options, making it available to a wide user-base, added Praveen Khanna, Manager, Android Apps.Duplicate Files Fixer is a duplicate file removing tool available across all major platforms viz. Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. It efficiently scans and deletes duplicate files based on filename, content, size, date created and tags, retrieving much needed storage space on any device or system.To download Duplicate Files Fixer for Android, visit:Systweak Software has been developing and distributing Windows, Mac, iOS & Android Apps since last 18 years to improve the average users digital experience. It has recently been featured in 100 Most Promising Microsoft Solution Providers list by the enterprise solutions magazine, CIO Review. Some of the companys flagship apps have been featured on Newswatch, Discovery Channels tech news bulletin. Systweak Software has a large user-base in North America followed by several countries in Europe and Asia.572 & 573, G-1, Tower B-1 Evolve, IT/ITeS Mahindra World City, Village Kalwara, Taluka Sanganer, Jaipur- 302037, INDIA Phone: +91-141-2243030, 2243031 (5:00 AM to 5:00 PM G.M.T.) FAX: +91-141-2577982
Basal Cell Carcinoma Therapeutics Market is Size, Status and Forecast, 2017  2025

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Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) is a form of non-melanocytic skin cancer that arises from basal cells, the small, round cells present in the lower epidermis. Around 85% of BCCs occur on the face, head and neck. BCCs usually do not spread or metastasize to other parts of body, they become life threatening by metastasis only in extremely rare cases. According to the American Cancer Society, BCCs constitute around 80% of all non-melanoma skin cancers. Australia has been found to have the highest rate of basal cell carcinoma across the globe. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation is considered as the major cause behind BCC. Use of immunosuppressant drugs further enhance the chances of BCC as the immune system is compromised. White people are more vulnerable to BCC comparatively, according to a research published in the British Medical Journal. The symptoms of BCCs include waxy papules (slightly transparent bump) with pearly appearance and central depression and bleeding from the papules.The factors driving the growth of the global Basal Cell Carcinoma Therapeutics market is increasing incidence of Basal cell carcinoma by up to 10% annually across the globe. The incidence rate is much higher specifically in White population. Expanding geriatric population pool will also add to the market growth since the elderly people are more sensitive to BCCs. Changing habits of the urban population living in the developed countries such as the USA and European countries and a shift of population in the US from northerly cool areas to the sunbelt of the Southern and South-western United States will definitely give rise to incidence rate, leading to market growth.Global Basal Cell Carcinoma Therapeutics market has been segmented on the basis of therapy, route of administration, distribution channels and region.Global Basal Cell Carcinoma Therapeutics market is consolidated due to the lack of number of available treatment options and companies. The market is expected to increase globally owing to increasing incidence rate and environmental factors leading to exposure of UV radiation. According to a published article in the journal Deutsches Arzteblatt International, 115 cases of BCC per 100,000 of population are reported in the Great Britain annually, similarly 7080 BCC in Germany, Switzerland and Italy; 170 BCC in the USA; and over 800 BCC cases in Australia are reported annually. Last 3 decades have observed the rise in incidence at a minimum 23 fold.Geographically, Basal Cell Carcinoma Therapeutics market is segmented into regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The market in North America is expected to grow due to increase in the incidence in white population and ageing population. European market is also expected to grow because of their fair toned skin. Currently, Australia is the leading market globally because of the highest incidence rate. Asian and African countries would report a slow market growth rate as the incidence rate and prevalence of BCC is uncommon in Asians and Black African races. However, Chinese and Japanese have a higher incidence rate in Asia.A Sample of this Report is Available Upon Request @Some of the players in the global Basal Cell Carcinoma Therapeutics market include Allergan, Inc., Genentech USA, Inc., Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Perrigo Company plc, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., Apotex Inc., Sandoz AG, Strides Arcolab Ltd., TOLMAR Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and G&W Laboratories, Inc.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, types, technology and applications.Request to View Tables of Content @The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.To view complete report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Carrier Ethernet Access Devices To Grow At 3.10% CAGR To 2021

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"The Report Global Carrier Ethernet Access Devices Market provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Carrier Ethernet Access DevicesCarrier Ethernet allows telecommunications services providers to offer Ethernet services as carriers move toward packet-based and IP networks. These services include E-Line, E-LAN, and E-Tree. Carrier Ethernet switches are deployed in the aggregation, access, and edge layers of carrier networks to offer reliable higher bandwidth and distinguished services to business, residential, and mobile users.Technavios analysts forecast the global carrier ethernet access devices market to grow at a CAGR of 3.10% during the period 2017-2021.View Report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global carrier ethernet access devices market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers ethernet access devices for carriers as end-users.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATechnavio's report, Global Carrier Ethernet Access Devices Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Key vendorsAlcatel-Lucent EnterpriseArista NetworksBrocade Communications SystemsCisco SystemsDellHPEJuniper NetworksOther prominent vendorsAerohiveAllied TelesisAdvantech B+B SmartWorxEricssonHuaweiMellanox TechnologiesMoxaNECNETGEAROraclePLANET TechnologySiemensTelco SystemsWestermo (Beijer Electronics Group)ZTEMarket driverIncreasing adoption of Ethernet access devices in telecom networks backhaulFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeComplex installation and maintenance processFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendDecrease in price of Ethernet access devicesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?You can request one free hour of our analysts time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA: Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Automotive gear market 2023: Superb Expansion USD 28.40 Billion in 2015, at a CAGR of 6.4%

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Pune, India, July, 2017/MRFR Press Release/- Market Research Future published a research report on Global Automotive Gear Market Research Report - Forecast to 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Global Automotive Gear Market, By material (metallic and plastic) By product type (Planetary, Bevel, Helical, Non-Metallic and other), By vehicle type (Passenger vehicle, Commercial vehicle) and Region - Forecast 2016-2023.The high demand for automotive gears is due to the growth in the automotive industry. An automotive gear helps give an automobile, a smooth start to and allows the outer wheel to rotate faster than the inner wheel for safer turns. Smooth gear shifting enhances the driving experience as well as the growing demand for low-carbon-footprint technologies fuels the growth of the global automotive gears market. Moreover, rising disposable incomes and vehicle-ownership boosts the market growth. Lightweight and highly durable aluminum and composite gears are estimated to gain higher popularity during the forecast period. Focus towards high-quality products & the changing lifestyle of consumers and increasing spending power, enhance the growth of the gear market for automotive sector.However, the high cost of advanced gear system than the conventional gear system acts as a barrier for the growth of automotive gear market.Global Automotive gear market was valued at USD 28.40 Billion in 2015 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.4% during the forecast period.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players: Eaton, Linamar Corporation, NSK Ltd, Bharat Gears Ltd, Neapco Inc, Mitsubishi Group, Dana Holding Corporation, Robert Bosch GmbH, ZF TRW and GKN plc.Study Objectives of Automotive Gear markets Market. To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the automotive gear market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the automotive gear markets market based on tools such as Porters Five Forces Analysis. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies, North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) and their countries. To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective. To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by material, product type, vehicle type and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the automotive gear market.Browse Report Details @Regional Analysis:Asia-Pacific market is dominating the market of automotive gear market due to growth in automotive sector. Development of automotive manufacturing industries in developing economies such as China and India are driving the market for automotive gears. The market in the developing countries is largely driven by economic growth and ongoing industrialization, which helps in production of motor vehicles and other manufacturing output.North America is referred to as the second-largest automotive gears market due to factors such as large customer base and high disposable income of end-users have fueled the demand for vehicles in the country.Target Audience: Organizations Manufacturer Research Institute / Education Institute Potential InvestorsProduct Analysis: Product matrix which gives a detailed comparison of the market for different recycled product typesAdditional Information Regulatory Landscape Pricing Analysis Macroeconomic IndicatorsGeographic Analysis: Geographical analysis across 15 countriesCompany Information: Profiling of 10 key market players In-depth analysis including SWOT analysis, and strategy information of related to report title Competitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesGet a Discount @The report for Global Automotive Gear Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Automotive Gear Market Research Report - Forecast to 2023 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Excellent Expansion of Laxatives Market 2022: Complete Research Report

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Pune, India, July, 2017/MRFR Press Release/- Market Research Future published a research report on Global Laxatives Market Research Report- Forecast to 2022  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2022.Global Laxatives Market Information, by Mechanism of Action (Bulk Forming, Emollient, Stimulant, Osmotic and Others), by Type (Organic and Synthetic), by Route of Administration (Oral and Rectal) - Forecast Till 2022Laxatives are drugs utilized as a part of the treatment of clogging and to advance clearing of entrails by increment defecations. Despite the fact that there is a distinction in their instrument of activity yet all diuretics increment the water substance of excrement and along these lines facilitate their expulsion.The market for Laxatives is a bloated Market with the developing interest because of ascend in hazard components related with obstruction. The hazard components incorporate inactive way of life, overweight, long working hours which influence utilization designs and so on. Alternate components driving the market are accessibility of intestinal medicines as over the counter meds without remedy and the falling costs of most purgatives because of ascent of engineered items. The off name utilization of intestinal medicines likewise brings about more prominent request than is required because of inefficient and wrong utilization of these pharmaceuticals and results in purgative mishandle. Purgative manhandle is a condition in which the body can't remove confronts because of over the top incitement by endless utilization of intestinal medicines. Incessant utilization of purgatives may likewise brings about unsettling influence of electrolyte adjust, hypotension, hypokalaemia, rhabdomyolysis, steatorrhoea, and so on.Get a Copy of Sample Report @The market limitations are the reactions related with the medications, for example, their propensity framing potential, fart, stomach issues, lack of hydration and so on. The market is overwhelmed with plenty of items with questionable cases which diminishes the believability of the market by raising the cost of choice. The casual directions has instigated numerous questionable makers to surge the market with spurious and even hurtful items which is the best risk to the market.Key Players for Global Laxatives market: AstraZeneca plc, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Bayer AG, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott Laboratories, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company and othersStudy Objectives Global Laxatives market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 6 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global laxatives market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by mechanism of action, by type, by route of administration To provide overview of key players and their strategic profiling in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments globally.Browse Full Report Details @Segments:Global Laxatives market has been segmented on the basis of mechanism of action into bulk forming, emollient, stimulant, osmotic and others. On the basis of type the market has been segmented into organic and synthetic. On the basis of route of administration the market has been segmented into oral and rectal.Regional Analysis of Global Laxatives market:Globally North America is the largest market for global Laxatives market. Europe is the second-largest market for global laxatives market. However the developing regions market particularly Asia Pacific will be the fastest growing and will be the key to the future.The report for Global Laxatives Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regions.Get a Discount @ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Laxatives Market Research Report- Forecast to 2022 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Autonomous Vehicles Market 2027: Complete Study by Sensor, Hardware & Software, Type and Forecast

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Pune, India, July, 2017/MRFR Press Release/- Market Research Future published a research report on Global Autonomous Vehicles Market Research Report- Global Forecast 2027  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2027.Global Autonomous Vehicles Information, by Sensor (Ultrasonic, Radar, Lidar, Image Sensor), by Hardware & Software (Cameras, Communication Systems, GPS systems), by Type (Semi-Autonomous and Fully Autonomous) - Forecast 2016-2027Market Synopsis of Autonomous Vehicles Market:Market Scenario:Autonomous vehicle or driverless car or self-driving car is a new concept of car, which is capable to reading and sensing the environment and operates without human input. Currently, many major players are contributing in the development of semi-autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles. Since, 1980s companies are working on various prototype to make the autonomous vehicle a reality. This market is expected to be US $65.3 billion by the end of forecast period (2016-2027). Currently all the prototypes are being tested in the R&D centers of various automobile company, universities and expected to launch the autonomous vehicles by 2020.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players for Autonomous Vehicles Market: Google (U.S.), General Motors (U.S.), Volkswagen (Germany), BMW (Germany), Ford Motor Company (U.S.), Baidu (China), Toyota (Japan), Tesla (U.S.), Audi (Germany), Jaguar (U.K.) among others.Browse Full Report Details @Study Objectives of Autonomous Vehicles Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Autonomous Vehicles Market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the Autonomous Vehicles market based on various factors- supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by sensor, by hardware & software, by type and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Autonomous Vehicles MarketIntended Audience Car Manufacturers Technology Providers Car Component Manufactures Sensor Manufactures Software Developers OEMs in automotive IndustryKey Finding The global Autonomous Vehicles market and is expected to reach $65.3 billion by 2027. Radar Sensors are expected to be the fastest growing market with high CAGR of 29.2% between 2016 and 2027. Regionally, North America holds the largest market share 39.08% of global Autonomous Vehicles market and is expected to reach $24.40 billion by 2027 from $1.42 billion in 2015. Asia Pacific market is expected to be the fastest growing market, and expected to grow at a CAGR of 29.02% from 2016 to 2027Segments:Global autonomous vehicles market has been segmented on the basis of sensors which comprises of ultrasonic, radar, lidar, image and other. On the basis of hardware and software the market is segmented into cameras, communication systems, and GPS systems. Furthermore, market by type comprises of semi-autonomous vehicles and fully autonomous vehicles.Regional Analysis of Autonomous Vehicles Market:Globally, North America is the largest market for Autonomous Vehicles.Europe is the second largest market for autonomous vehicle with market size of US $1.10 billion in the year 2015 but Asia-Pacific will become the second biggest market by the end of year 2027.Due to the high technological advancement, Asia-pacific region is expected to be the fastest growing region globally, registering 29.2% CAGR during the forecast period.Get a Discount @ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Autonomous Vehicles Market Research Report- Global Forecast 2027 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Complete Survey on Absorbable Heart Stent Market 2027: Product Type, Key Vendor, Size, Growth and Forecast

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Pune, India, July, 2017/MRFR Press Release/- Market Research Future published a research report on Global Absorbable Heart Stent Market Research Report- Forecast To 2027  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2027.Global Absorbable Heart Stent Market Information, by Product Type (Polymer Based, Metal Based), by end users (Hospitals, Clinics) - Forecast to 2027Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are disorders of the heart and blood vessels and include coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, rheumatic heart disease and other conditions. Four out of five CVD deaths are due to heart attacks and strokes. According to WHO, 17.5 million people die each year from CVDs, an estimated 31% of all deaths worldwide. 80% of all CVD deaths are due to heart attacks and strokes. With increasing number of cardiovascular diseases and people undergoing heart surgeries, market for absorbable Heart Stent is booming.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players for Absorbable Heart Stent Market: Abbott Laboratories, Biotronik SE & Co., Arterial Remodeling Technologies SA, Amaranth Medical Inc., Elixir Medical Corporation, Kyoto medical planning Co. ltd and others.Study Objectives of Absorbable Heart Stent Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Absorbable Heart Stent Market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To Analyze the Absorbable Heart Stent Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia, and Rest of World. To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by product type, by end users and sub-segments. To provide overview of key players and their strategic profiling in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Absorbable Heart Stent Market.Segments:Global Absorbable Heart Stent Market has been segmented on the basis of product types which comprises of polymer based absorbable stent and Metal based absorbable stent. On the basis of end users, market is segmented into Hospitals, clinics and others.The report for Global Absorbable Heart Stent Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regionsBrowse Full Report Details @ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Absorbable Heart Stent Market Research Report- Forecast To 2027 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Emerging Trends And Dynamics In The Neuromuscular Blocking Agents Market by 2027

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The neuromuscular blocking agent is also known as a paralyzing agent as they block the connection between nerves and muscles and paralyzed muscle function of the body. Neuromuscular blocking agents are potent muscle relaxant which is particularly used during surgery to prevent muscle movement and for mechanical ventilation. Neuromuscular blocking agents normally work as a pre-junctional receptor and post junctional receptor. Neuromuscular blocking agents are indicated for a wide variety of uses in hospital settings, from surgeries to trauma. Neuromuscular blocking agent is used as an adjuvant in general anesthesia, electroshock therapy, endotracheal intubation, during incubation and endoscopic procedures, brief surgeries and as adjuncts in the treatment of encephalitis, tetanus, and poliomyelitis which propels the demand of the neuromuscular blocking agents over the forecast period.Read the Comprehensive Overview of Neuromuscular Blocking Agents Market:The global neuromuscular blocking agent market is segmented on the basis of drug class, drug group, and distribution channel.On the basis of drug class, the global neuromuscular blocking agent market is segmented into:PachycuraresLeptocuraresOn the basis of drug group, the global neuromuscular blocking agent market is segmented into:Non-polarizing agents (Competitive)Depolarizing agents (Non-competitive)On the basis of distribution channel, the global neuromuscular blocking agent market is segmented into:Hospital PharmacyRetail PharmacyDrug storesE- CommerceThe global neuromuscular blocking agent market is anticipated to register a significant CAGR over a forecast period. The increasing use of the neuromuscular blocking agent in the surgeries is anticipated to boost the demand of the neuromuscular blocking agent and drives the global neuromuscular blocking agent market. The rising geriatric population is also expected to propel the demand of the neuromuscular blocking agent and drives the global neuromuscular blocking agent market. The increasing research and development activities for the new drugs and new combinations of drugs to minimize the side effects of the blocking agents and increase safety and efficacy of the drug, also anticipated to drives the global neuromuscular blocking agent market.However, the possible side effects of the neuromuscular blocking agent such as hyperkalemia, dysrhythmia, cardiac arrest, muscle pain and prolonged paralysis, which may hamper the demand for the neuromuscular blocking agent and restrain the growth of the global neuromuscular blocking agent market. The possibilities of injuries and death due to the substitution errors involved in these drugs may also hamper the demand of the neuromuscular blocking agent and restraint the growth of the global neuromuscular blocking agent market.On the basis of regional presence, the global neuromuscular blocking agent market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. Currently, North America is contributing the leading shares to the global neuromuscular blocking agent market in terms of value and anticipated to register a significant CAGR over a forecast period. The Europe is also contributing the moderate shares to the market due to the increasing use of the neuromuscular blocking agent during surgeries. APAC is the most lucrative market for the neuromuscular blocking agent due to the increasing use of drugs during the surgical procedures in the region and expected to show a robust growth to the global neuromuscular blocking agent market. MEA is at a nascent stage to the global neuromuscular blocking agent market and anticipated to register a decent growth to the market over a forecast period. Overall, the global neuromuscular blocking agent market is expected to show significant growth over a forecast period.Request for the Sample Report:Some of the major market players in neuromuscular blocking agent market globally include Aqua Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co., Inc., Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC., GlaxoSmithKline Plc., Abbott Laboratories, AbbVie Inc., Pfizer, Novartis AG, Bayer AG, Roche Inc. and Zydus Cadila.About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Alternative Fuels Advisor Global Market Other Key Strategies By Type & Geography Analysis & Forecast to 2022

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The Global Alternative Fuels market is estimated to be $7.2 million in 2014 and is expected to reach $13.8 million by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 8.4%. The key factor influencing the global alternative fuel markets are increase in global vehicle production, demand and sales. The increase in crude oil prices, government regulations to reduce greenhouse gases emissions are major drivers for the growth of Alternative fuels advisor market.For more information about this report:Global Alternative Fuels Market is mainly segmented by Source and Geography. Based on Source, market is classified into Hydrogen & Fuel Cell, Solar, Hydro, and Bio power, Energy Efficiency, Geothermal, Transformation Technologies and Wind. By Geography, the Alternative Fuels Market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. North America is the fastest growing region in the global Alternative Fuels market. Asia Pacific is expected to be the largest market with increasing in demand and economic conditions.The key players in the Alternative Fuels Market include Canadian Solar Inc., First Solar (FSLR), Enphase, NextEra Energy, SunPower Corp., TerraForm Power, Viviant Solar, Inc., SolarCity Corp., Plug Power Inc., SunEdison, Inc.Request Sample Copy atWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 8 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancements1 Executive Summary2 Preface3 Market Trend Analysis4 Porters Five Force Analysis5 Global Alternative Fuels Advisor Market, By Source6 Global Alternative Fuels Advisor Market, By Geography7 Key Developments8 Company Profiling8.1 Canadian Solar Inc.8.2 First Solar (FSLR)8.3 Enphase8.4 NextEra Energy8.5 SunPower Corp.8.6 TerraForm Power8.7 Viviant Solar, Inc.8.8 SolarCity Corp.8.9 Plug Power Inc.8.10 SunEdison, Inc.Inquire before Buying atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
The newly configured Portland school board, in office for just two weeks, has narrowed its search for a permanent superintendent to four candidates from around the country.

Board chair Julia Brim-Edwards described the search to The Oregonian/OregonLive. She declined to name the four people, all with experience as educators, whom the board will ask a panel of key school district players to interview later this month.

Over the past week, she said, the board interviewed seven semi-finalists  including some from Oregon  culled from a pool of about 40 potential superintendents it considered.

Leading Oregon's largest school district a big job. Roughly 49,000 students attend Portland Public Schools, and the board has approved a salary range between $245,000 to $335,000. A salary at the top end of that scale would be nearly $90,000 higher than what the previous board paid Carole Smith and higher than the top-paid Oregon superintendent, Don Grotting, who was awarded a starting salary of $291,000 when the Beaverton school board hired him last year.

It's the third time in a year Portland school board members are meeting behind closed doors to find someone to lead the scandal-scarred district.

The high salary range is designed to attract a better-qualified field of candidates than the last search did. The board ultimately concluded that search didn't turn up any applicant it deemed hire-worthy.

The players and the rules this go-around are different.

To safeguard against the last search's embarrassment, board members are now conducting a deep background check on multiple finalists and hammering out contracts with them before presenting a top choice to the public.

Last time, the school board announced Atlanta administrator Donyall Dickey to the public  and then let negotiations and a background check drag out publicly for two months.

After public assurances the hire was more or less a done deal, Dickey's candidacy imploded.

The school board blamed Dickey for not being truthful about minor blemishes in his past, while Dickey asserted he felt the salary wasn't to his liking and that he wanted more flexibility to have a business on the side.

All of that came out after the board had done its all to sell the public on Dickey and gone to the expense of traveling to Atlanta on a vetting trip they let the candidate orchestrate.

This time, the deciders will also be different. Brim-Edwards and two other new school board members were sworn in at the beginning of the month.

The school board is sticking with the same Chicago-based search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates. But now a contract employee of that firm is in charge  and he's got Portland experience. Hank Harris, a former Portland Public Schools human resources director is at the helm.

Brim-Edwards said the board reviewed 40 to 45 applicants and from there narrowed to the seven. Out of those, four people are being asked back for interviews with a panel of community stakeholders later in the month.

From there, the plan is to have another "engagement" in August to suss out contenders, she said.

The board hasn't decided whether a team from Portland will travel to the district of their top choice, as happened last time, she said.

The board didn't go through a search process for its current interim leader, as it did when it tapped Bob McKean to lead the district this past school year. Instead, the panel tapped an administrator board members already know well: Yousef Awwad, the district's deputy chief executive officer and a rising star within Portland Public Schools.

McKean, who previously lead Centennial School District, made a base salary of $243,600. Carole Smith, who left last summer and had the job for nearly a decade, made a base salary of $247,000. As interim, Awwad is making $275,000.

Awwad has made his name as someone who is able to hold the district together. He joined Portland Public Schools in 2014 as chief financial officer, but his responsibilities mounted after a lead in water crisis spotlighted decades of deferred maintenance and laid bare that neglect extended not just to the buildings but accountability itself.

Smith, the district's longtime superintendent, quit shortly after, at which point Awwad briefly took over her job along with other vacancies caused by the controversy.

When McKean took over, he promoted Awwad to deputy chief executive officer, which is the role he'll return to when the board finds a permanent superintendent. He came to Portland Public Schools from Arizona, where he was Tucson Unified School District's chief financial officer.

Some disgruntled teachers complained at Tuesday's school board meeting about Awwad's lack of classroom experience. The Portland teachers union showed up in force to demand the district settle its contract and to decry the district's vast void in leadership.

 Bethany Barnes

Got a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com
Gov. Kate Brown will meet privately with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke this weekend where she will lobby to maintain the Obama-era expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and advocate for public lands overall.

Brown snagged a Sunday meeting with Zinke in Medford, her spokesman said Friday. The governor and Zinke will also meet with Southern Oregon elected officials separately. Brown will hold a press conference Sunday afternoon following the meetings. Zinke is holding a Saturday press conference at the Hyatt Lake Resort east of Ashland.

President Obama in January signed off on a 48,000-acre monument expansion for the area of the Cascade and Siskiyou Mountains known for its rich biodiversity first designated as a protected area in 2000 by then-President Bill Clinton.

But in April, President Trump signed an executive order calling for a review of any national monument larger than 100,000 acres. That review included the Oregon monument.

"The governor is concerned that the Trump administration and Secretary Zinke are interested in scaling that designation back," said Bryan Hockaday, Brown's spokesman.

Hockaday said Brown "will fight" if the administration does push to roll back the expansion.

The meeting comes as Zinke, a former Congressman from Montana before accepting the Cabinet post, tours several monuments across the West as part of his department's review of more than two dozen national monuments.

On Tuesday, the government department announced that two monuments, one in Washington and one in Idaho, were no longer under government review.

Brown and some of her staff will also take a private horseback ride through part of the monument on Sunday.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen
Congress is once again considering giving Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife officials and regional tribes broader authority to kill sea lions below the Bonneville Dam, an effort supporters say is necessary to protect 13 endangered species of salmon and steelhead.

But unlike previous attempts to rein in the marine mammals, which are protected under federal law, the legislation goes beyond killing the dozens that converge each spring on the fish logjam at the Columbia River dam 145 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

The bipartisan team behind the bill -- Reps. Jaime Herrera-Beutler, R-Washington, and Kurt Schrader, D-Oregon -- want to go much further. They also want to make it easier to kill California sea lions found on the Willamette River and its tributaries, and anywhere on the Columbia River east of Interstate 205.

If the legislation is approved, as many as 920 sea lions could be killed annually, compared with 92 under the current agreement.The bill's supporters say they don't envision ever reaching that toll  that would be expensive and a public relations nightmare. The measure, they say, would allow them to move quickly to remove nuisance animals before they engage in a months-long feast on prized spring Chinook salmon, an industry that accounts for hundreds of millions of dollars in business in the Pacific Northwest. In 2016, the states removed and euthanized 59 sea lions, the most in any single year since the program began in 2008 (two additional sea lions were accidentally killed).

Animal rights advocates and some members of Schrader's party describe the bill as "extreme," and a distraction from the real issues preventing salmon and steelhead recovery in the Columbia River basin. The debate took center stage at a Congressional hearing last month.

"There is an elephant in the room," U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, the ranking member of a subcommittee on natural resources, said before the hearing. "Four elephants to be precise." The California Democrat and some salmon rights groups say four "increasingly obsolete" dams on the Snake River pose a greater risk to salmon than sea lions.

"The Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite dams have caused salmon returns to the Snake to plummet by 90 percent," Huffman said, "disadvantaging commercial, recreational, and tribal fishing interests and threatening many salmon runs with extinction."

It's not an isolated opinion. Five times in the past two decades, the government plan to manage the threatened fish has been rejected by a federal court. Last year, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon said the government should put all options on the table to recover salmon, including removing the four Snake River dams.

Sharon Young, marine issues field director for the Humane Society of the United States, said killing more sea lions fixes nothing and is a "draconian solution."

"It's a complete distraction from dealing with the actual problems facing the fish," said Young, who has participated in marine mammal protections workgroups since 1992.

But Schrader, a fifth-term congressman, said the dam argument is a "total red herring" brought up by people who "don't want to face reality."

"Our bill deals with a much more obvious and persistent problem," he said of the sea lions.

POPULATION REBOUNDS

When Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972, making it illegal to kill or harass marine mammals, the California sea lion population hovered around 10,000.

Today they number an estimated 300,000, stretching from Mexico to Southeast Alaska. Oregon's transient sea lion population consists of largely massive males who venture north from the California breeding grounds to eat while females nurse the pups.

Steve Jeffries, a marine mammal research scientist with Washington State Fish and Wildlife since the early 1980s, said the animals were treated like a pest species before the federal protections passed. Oregon and Washington paid trappers to kill or keep the pinnipeds out of the Columbia River until 1970. It also was standard procedure to kill sea lions if they were in the river.

Today the animals can gather for months at a time in places like Astoria, where recently more than 5,000 were clustered.

Close to 70,000 California sea lions pass the mouth of the Columbia for waters north, Jeffries said, but hundreds of the animals are increasingly swimming upriver instead of lounging in Astoria.

Jeffries said it's no mystery why. "If you stay at the dam, you hang out at the dam, your refrigerator is constantly getting filled," he said. "It's a perfect spot to live if you're a sea lion."

Doug Hatch, senior fisheries specialist with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said sea lions migrating so far upriver is a "relatively new phenomenon."

Harbor seals were not uncommon at Celilo Falls, the natural wonder flooded by the Dallas Dam on the Columbia. But Hatch said nobody knows for sure whether California sea lions made it that far upriver.

"They were hunted for sure, when they were there," he said.

Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, pictured on March 4, 2016. Sea lions ate an estimated 9,500 spring Chinook this year, according to government figures.

SALMON RUNS PLUNGE

The spring Chinook run on the Columbia used to number in the millions, but this year it was closer to 100,000.

According to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, sea lions consumed 5.8 percent of the spring Chinook run that made it to Bonneville Dam last year, an estimated 9,525 fish. That's an eight-fold increase over estimates from 2002.

The pinnipeds also are increasingly taking a right turn at the Willamette River and swimming up to Willamette Falls.

"People quit fishing the Oregon City area because close to 80 or 90 percent of the time, there was a sea lion on top of you," said Bob Rees, a sixth generation Oregonian and executive director of Northwest Steelheaders.

They're also being spotted on rivers like the Clackamas.

Shaun Clements, a senior policy adviser on fish issues, said the worsening problem prompted the state to say last month it would apply for a permit to kill sea lions on the Willamette for the first time. That permit will likely be submitted next month.

Roughly one-quarter of the winter steelhead run was wiped out by sea lions, he said.

"That population is getting pretty dire," he said.

State biologists, officials with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and tribal officials say the true number of fish consumed by sea lions is unknowable because sea lions travel upriver from the ocean and presumably eat salmon along the way.

The bill in Congress estimates the mammals eat "at least 20 percent" of the spring Chinook run and 15 percent of the winter steelhead run on the Willamette River.

Clements said state estimates point to sea lions consuming 7 to 8 percent of wild Chinook on the Willamette. Historically, the Willamette estimates were around 15 percent, but that increased to 25 percent this year.

'MISCONCEPTIONS' AND MISGUIDED POLICIES

The Humane Society of America disputes nearly every argument made by state and federal officials concerning sea lions, and points out the commercial and recreational fisheries also affect salmon runs.

The nonprofit went to federal court to block the government from giving Oregon, Washington and Idaho the authority to kill sea lions at Bonneville back in the mid-2000s.

The arguments are the same today, Young said, just more extreme.

It's a misconception that sea lions eat fish all the way from the mouth of the river to Bonneville, she said. "There's no documentation to show that," she said of the estimates included in the Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act.

She believes its supporters don't grasp the backlash they'd face if it was open season on seals and sea lions.

"If you really care about the fish," she said, "do something that will help them instead of shooting sea lions."

At the congressional hearing last month, Nez Perce General Council Chairman Gary Dorr criticized the lack of focus on the issues caused by the dams throughout the river system.

If they are not removed, salmon won't recover. "This is not just a loss for my tribe," he said, "but everyone in the Northwest."

SHOOT TO KILL

In 2016, nearly 200 sea lions were spotted at Bonneville from January to May 31, the second most since the government started tracking them. Of that number, 149 were California sea lions and 41 the larger Steller sea lions.

Hatch said nobody knows how many animals would need to be removed before other sea lions got the message and stopped swimming upriver. "If you were able to remove about 100 animals there [at Bonneville] and about 30 or 40 from the Willamette you could make a pretty good dent in it," he said,

It's unclear whether this iteration of the bill will fare better than previous efforts. Several times, the House passed legislation only to watch it die in the Senate.

Schrader said he is confident the bill has made traction. "I want this thing to pass," he said.

Jeffries, the Washington marine mamal specialist, said the management question is not going away.

"We can't ignore the issue, and we can't go kill them outright," he said, "We've got to have something in the middle."

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen
More houses came into the Portland-area market in June, a small measure of relief for would-be home buyers.

The month' saw more newly listed houses than any June since 2008, according to the Regional Multiple Listing Service. The bump could leave people shopping for a home with a few more choices, and perhaps diffuse the competition that leads to bidding wars.

That's a significant shift for market characterized by bidding wars and rapidly rising prices.

Those bidding wars aren't going away, particularly for the most affordable homes, and prices continue to rise. The median home price reached $390,000 in June, a 7.7 percent increase from a year earlier.

Though housing inventory remains near record lows by historical standards, the market still firmly favors sellers. A balanced market usually has a six-month supply of homes; if June's trends held, it would take just seven weeks to sell all 5,200 residences currently on the market.

But buyers are getting choosier, said Brian Houston, principal managing broker at Coldwell Banker Bain in Portland. As a result, some overpriced homes are sitting on the market.

"The sellers that have recently come on the market are overpricing because they've been able to get away with it up to this point," Houston said. "I think buyers are saying, 'I'm a little tired of this.'"

About 3,200 homes sold in June, a less than 1 percent increase from a year before. The number of homes put under a sale contract dropped 4 percent.

The more relaxed market could encourage more homeowners to sell, said Israel Hill, a managing broker with John L. Scott Real Estate in Northeast Portland.

In recent years, owners have stayed in their homes longer. Many lacked sufficient equity to sell, while others looking to move into a larger home or another neighborhood were worried they'd find nothing available to buy.

"There are more options, and that means somebody's willing to make that jump," Hill said. "Sellers are thinking, 'OK, I'm willing to put my home on the market.'"

Clearing the logjam for move-up buyers could help make more homes available for first-time buyers.

It's not clear what might come next. The cooling off, combined with an expected increase in mortgage rates, could help slow growth in home prices to a more sustainable level.

But even the recent uptick in new listings doesn't suggest a road to a totally balanced market.

"We don't see enough inventory coming on to think that we're going to do a pendulum swing to the other side," Hill said. "We're still going to go into next spring with a shortage of inventory."

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjus
Relatives of American citizens from six majority-Muslim countries will no longer be selectively barred from the United States following a federal judge's ruling in Hawaii on Thursday. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson described the State Department's recent guidancewhich barred aunts and uncles, cousins, in-laws and grandparents but not parents, spouses, fiances, children, or in-lawsas "the antithesis of common sense."

The travel ban guidelines overturned this week were shared with US embassies and consulates in late June. They are the State Department's interpretation of recent Supreme Court guidance, after the highest court agreed to hear arguments on the Trump Administration's travel ban this October. In the meantime, the Supreme Court said, only nationals of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, and Yemen with a "bona fide" relationship to a US citizen could enter the country.

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," Watson wrote in his decision, published by the Washington Post. "Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The Government's definition excludes them. That simply cannot be."

"This is another demonstration in the courts of how absolutely preposterous the Muslim Ban is," said Daniel Altschuler, a spokesman for Make the Road New York, following the decision.

The original 90-day travel ban caused chaos in airports across the country in January, and was quickly batted down in the courts. Trump signed a second version of the ban on March 6, barring nationals of six countries from applying for visas for 90 days and pausing the refugee program for 120 days. This, too, was shot down in Hawaii and Maryland.

At a rally last month, immigrant advocates said selective restrictions on relatives would impact families in the states.

"We all know what this means for so many people here in New York," said Naz Ahmad, an attorney with CUNY CLEAR. "The fact that grandparents can't visit their own grandchildren, you can't attend a cousin's wedding, a niece or a nephew's graduation."

Thursday's ruling also stated that refugees with existing agreements with resettlement agencies are exempt from the ban, overturning the DOJ's guidelines.

"We are reviewing the decision and will be in consultation with DOJ to ensure immediate implementation," a Department of State spokeswoman stated.
For the fourth straight summer, the Museum of the City of New York and El Museo del Barrio will celebrate New York City and East Harlem with Uptown Bounce, a free summer block party series at the top of Museum Mile. Uptown Bounce features music, dance lessons, art-making workshops, kid friendly activities, gallery talks, food trucks, and more, and the best part - its completely free.

Uptown Bounce takes place on the front terraces of both Museums, on Fifth Avenue, and throughout the galleries of each institution on four consecutive Wednesday nights. Themes this year include salsa nights, a throwback 90s party, and a tribute to 80s music icons at the Museum of the City of New York, plus celebrations of El Barrio, New Rican Soul, palo palante, and Afro-Diasporadical culture at El Museo. Uptown Bounce is a four night series, falling this summer on July 19, July 26, August 2, and August 9, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Exhibitions on view range from NKAME: A Retrospective of Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayon, and uptown: nasty women/bad hombres at El Museo del Barrio to New York at Its Core and Rhythm and Power: Salsa in New York at the Museum of the City of New York.

There is no better way to mix art, history, drinks, music, and the vibes of a New York City block party than at Uptown Bounce.

This post is brought to you by the Museum of the City of New York.
The Saginaw-Tittabawassee Rivers Contamination Community Advisory Group is set to meet Monday, July 17, to discuss updates on the years-long cleanup of dioxin-tainted areas of the Tittabawassee River.

The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the Tittabawassee Township Memorial Park Building, 150 Park St., in Freeland, and is open to the public.

The agenda includes new member orientation at 5 p.m.; general project updates; and a public question and comment period.

Flooding that affected Midland, Isabella, Bay, Gladwin, and other counties in late June will be a topic of discussion, according to Mary Logan, project manager with the Environmental Protection Agency.

The flood was one of the worst to hit Midland. The Tittabawassee River set a 32.15-foot crest, the second highest in history according to National Weather Service records.

Midland and surrounding counties declared a state of emergency and are seeking funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Residents are still in recovery mode, hauling away flood-tainted carpet, beds, and myriad possessions from their homes.

Even with such a catastrophic flood, the EPA told the Daily News (http://bit.ly/2tf8l5J) that a single flood event is not expected to affect dioxin levels in or along the Tittabawassee River.

Past discharges from The Dow Chemical Co. resulted in elevated dioxin levels in sediment and riverbank soil. Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, damage to the immune system, and can interfere with hormones. They can persist in the environment for decades, so dioxins from sources that were active in the 1800s and 1900s may still be present today, according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Portions of the river have been cleaned. Dow and the EPA continue cleanup.

Though the EPA does not expect the flood to increase public risks from dioxin contamination exposure, all flood waters, mud, and sediment should be treated as if there may be sewage in it.

For questions about the July 17 meeting, contact Diane Russell, 989-395-3493, or russell.diane@epa.gov; or call Region 5 toll-free at 800-621-8431, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., weekdays. More information is at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/tittabawassee-river

The Community Advisory Group meets to discuss issues related to the Superfund site and its cleanup. The group was established to represent the interests of the community and to share information and make recommendations to the EPA on the cleanup of the rivers and bay. Learn more at www.saginawcag.org
Thanks for helping food pantry

To the editor:

The Midland County Emergency Food Pantry Network held a mobile food pantry (MFP) at Blessed Sacrament Church, located on the comer of Ashman and Swede roads in Midland on June 29. This free food giveaway was sponsored by Blessed Sacrament with support from the Midland Area Catholic Community, which includes Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Grace, and St. Brigid of Kildare. One-hundred thirty volunteers served 243 families (728 individuals) with 18,595 pounds of food purchased from the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan.

The food included fresh produce, boxed and canned foods, frozen meats, pastries and breads. Additional beverages and cucumbers were received, at no cost, from Hidden Harvest. Many recipients of the food were victims of our recent flood. The Network also is very grateful to the many donors of food, money and time throughout the year to the Network's mission of "always food in every home."

Midland County residents in (financial) need of food and personal care items during the year may call the Network number of 486-9393 to leave your name and phone number. The seventh MFP in 2017 is scheduled for Saturday, July 22, at Messiah Lutheran Church located on the corner of Poseyville and Gordonville roads in Midland. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. Thanks again to the congregations of the Midland Area Catholic Community churches for their partnering support.

SALLY ANN SUTTON

Midland County EFPN

Celebrate with more moderation

To the editor:

As the 4th of July is now gone, I have some issues with people and fireworks. The 4th is a holiday for our freedom, not to shoot off fireworks four nights in a row that causes families to lose their dogs to a heart attack or someone who has PTSD to be constantly stressed due to the noise, or have windows shake; if they break who is going to replace them?

This is so wrong at so many levels. My grandfathers, one was in the Army, one was a Marine, two uncles who were Marines, a brother who was a Marine 11 years and a nephew who is a Marine, a stepdad who was in the Korean War went into the service at age of 15, so I know what our service people did for us and I thank them. My nephew is making it a career.

But shooting off these fireworks for days is for yourselves, not for them. You need to to think about others. Where I live is a small mobile park and last year two families lost their dogs due to heart attacks. This is just wrong. I hope some will understand this and think about others. God Bless.

KARLA DICKERSON

Midland
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EL PASO  An open house Saturday at the El Paso Emergency Squad building will celebrate the groups 40th anniversary.

Things are a lot different than they were back in 1977, said administrator Karen Krug.

In March of that year, El Paso resident Vincent Albrecht and other interested citizens asked the city council to organize a rescue squad, since the town relied on firefighters as first responders. Two months later, an organizational meeting was held and Ruth Ann Roberts was elected captain to help form the group.

Within a year, there were 20 volunteers, including 11 qualified emergency medical technicians who completed a 91-hour course in emergency rescue techniques. During that first year, they responded to 270 emergency calls.

We have taken a lot of strides forward since then, said Krug. In fact, in the past, we have had doctors refer to us as LifeFlight on wheels.

Now, there are 13 full-time staff members and another 15 part-timers.

El Paso is a small community and often times, we know the patient or know the family and those ties are very important to us, she said.

In addition to handling rescue calls, the EPES offers critical care transport services for patients who require care beyond the scope of a paramedic. Those services include patients who have experienced multi-system trauma, require continuous hemodynamic monitoring, require invasive diagnostic/intervention for a cardio-thoracic injury or disease, high-risk obstetrical services, advanced airway procedures and specialized pediatric care.

We are very proud of our staff, especially for a community the size of El Paso, said Krug. Our people are uniquely-trained individuals. We have six critical care paramedics and four of them are board-certified. To illustrate the importance of that, there are only 10 board-certified critical care paramedics in the state of Illinois and four of them live in El Paso. We pride ourselves on making our department the best it can be.

Krug said the department is funded through three different means. Ten percent comes from local tax dollars, 10 percent comes from billing for service calls and 80 percent comes from the critical care transport services, billed to the hospitals.

We make sure we have the top of the line equipment and are very fortunate that we have organizations and agencies that support us such as the McLean County Area EMS Association, she said.

Saturdays open house will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the El Paso Emergency Squad building at 195 S. Orange St., in El Paso. Guests are invited to come for tours and to learn about the history of the agency.
BLOOMINGTON  A 300-mile bicycle ride is strengthening the bodies and souls of families and friends of fallen Illinois police officers.

The Illinois Chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS) is hosting the 13th annual Cycle Across Illinois charity bicycle ride this weekend from Alton to Maywood.

Its a tough ride, spiritually and physically, said Jane McMillen of Pana. Its the people that get you through. Its a wonderful cause.

McMillen joined the four-day ride in honor of her son, Illinois State Trooper Brian McMillen who died in 2007 when his patrol car was involved in an accident with two cars driven by intoxicated drivers.

The group of 60 bicyclists rested overnight at Illinois State University in Normal on Friday after a stop at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 197 on Beich Road in Bloomington. The ride will continue north on Saturday, stopping around 10 a.m. at the Livingston County Sheriffs Office in Pontiac and around noon at Hager Memorial Funeral Home in Dwight.

The trip will end Sunday in the Chicago suburb of Maywood.

COPS has been there for us since that day, said Jane McMillen. Were all sharing the same experience. This makes it easier to express what we went through with others because they understand.

The group raised nearly $100,000 for COPS which offers counseling services and other support for family, friends and co-workers of fallen officers.

To the family and friends of Albin, McMillen said, Were here. Call us any time.

Next years ride will include a dedication to Albin, added Terry Roderick, president of COPS.

This is meant to bring awareness to the sacrifices made, he said.

Roderick said COPS helps connect families of fallen officers, assisting with funeral planning and funding counseling retreats for those affected by the loss.

When theres a line-of-duty death, the average person doesnt know what that family is going through. We help prepare them for what will be in the news, what will happen in trial and give them the opportunity to talk to someone who has been in their shoes, said Roderick.

ISU police chief Aaron Woodruff rode the trail in honor of ISU police detective Anthony Hosey who died in 2005 in a single-car accident on Interstate 55 north of Dwight.

When we ride into towns, we meet families of officers who have died. Even though were just riding our bikes down the road, you see the tears in their eyes and know this makes a difference to them in some small way, said Woodruff. Were all here and we support them. We have to support each other.
100 years ago

July 14, 1917: Someone is stealing horses in the Sunnyside area west of Stevensonville. In the past two days, two horses, described as bony animals, have gone missing. Others have disappeared before these two. Given their bony state, motive is a mystery.

75 years ago

July 14, 1942: Residents of Sherman Street know theres a war. The street has only 13 houses. But it has nine men in uniform. Names like Long, Deutsch, Theis, Schmidt, Fekete and Carrel are well known in the neighborhood through their letters home.

50 years ago

July 14, 1967: Dr. Leo Davis Jr. has been named to the medical staff of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. He is a Trinity High School graduate, and his parents still live on Harwood Place in Bloomington. A psychologist, Davis is a Marine veteran and holds degrees from the U of I.

25 years ago

July 14, 1992: A weekend fire at a Shirley-area home might be suspicious. The house, a shed and a tractor inside were all destroyed, for a loss of $63,400. Owner Carl Becker said the house was vacant and being painted but had nothing inside that he thought could have ignited.
Thank you, Illinois Legislature, for setting aside partisan politics and getting a budget done. Two and half years is way too long without one. Im sure you dont run your household budget like this.

Is the budget perfect, did everyone get everything they wanted? No. However, you have to start somewhere and you did. Now, before next June, please start on budget negotiations, be willing to compromise where needed and, tweak and change the current budget where needed.

I have heard complaints about the income tax. I have also heard more that support adding this back and that it never should have been rescinded in the first place. At least you have a start. This does not mean wanton spending. Get the bills paid, get the schools funded equitably, get the social service agencies back up and running so they can help those in need.

Pay the states share of pensions. I have heard complaints that state employees are getting retirement for nothing. Not true. State employees, and that includes university employees pay 8 percent every pay period into the pension fund, just like private sector employees pay into their retirement. Stop using the pension fund and other dedicated accounts, like the motor fuel tax and lottery, as a savings to pull from when money is needed elsewhere.

Mary H. Haskell, Bloomington
Nina Farran is the force behind FashionKind, a blog turned e-boutique with a focus in exclusively ethical and sustainable fashion. Launched initially as an Instagram account, Farran took her years of experience in business and investment and her passion for impact fashion and used it to launch a medium where humanitarian designers can educate and sell to the general public. The website features brands like Maiyet and Coclico, as well as a journal that highlights stories on everything from personal style to facts on gun violence in America. PAPER caught up with her as she is getting ready to launch FashionKind's first capsule collection. Peep the slideshow below to see some of the gorgeous sustainable pieces from their site styled by Ella Cepeda.

What inspired you to get involved in humanitarian efforts, and how did this transition into the creation of Fashionkind?

Since I can remember, I have always been happiest when making a difference. I knew from a very young age that whatever I did with my life had to make a positive impact. I also knew that fashion was one of my favorite ways to express myself, and I had always been fascinated with its ability to transcend boundaries and connect people, not to mention the sheer beauty of the craft. It wasn't until 2008 that I first saw these two passions  impact and fashion  come together, and as soon as I did my life was forever changed; I knew that I had found my calling.

As an English major at the time, I set out on a path to better prepare myself to have my own humanitarian fashion company. After an internship in the fashion industry, I transitioned to finance because I wanted to better understand what makes a company worthy of investment. It was during my time in finance that I discovered impact investing  ethical and sustainable investments  and ultimately initiated, built and launched the impact investing platform at the investment and wealth management firm where I was working. My work in impact investing opened my eyes to the ethical and sustainable issues facing our society and our planet, and I began to notice a pattern in the statistics I read: so many had to do with fashion's resource consumption, pollution and labor violations. This was the final catalyst to my launching Fashionkind in 2014.

When transitioning the website into an e-commerce boutique, what was the reaction you got from designers when you reached out to them? How have those relationships progressed?

When we were first reaching out to designers we received mixed responses. Some brands were not interested because we weren't well known, while others were excited about the work we were doing and eager to learn more. As we've grown, this dynamic has shifted. We've gone from originating each new relationship to receiving daily inquiries from designers requesting to partner with us. I remember when I received an email from the first brand we profiled when we launched on Instagram. Its knitwear designer had been following our work from the beginning and couldn't stop talking about it with the rest of the team. It was an exciting moment to realize our work was attracting the leading brands in the space.

What are the factors you keep in mind when determining if you want to work with a brand?

First and foremost, we look at a brand's style. If its designs don't stand alone as pieces of high-end fashion, it isn't the right match for us. Someone needs to be able to see the products in a magazine or worn on the street and say, "I need that" without even knowing its story. This is the key to changing the dialogue of ethical and sustainable fashion: you don't have to sacrifice your style like so many people think you do.

If the brand meets our style standard, we evaluate that brand's impact. It's important to note that 'impact' is not a black and white criterion; impact can be achieved in many ways (not everything has to be vegan!). We look at impact in four overarching categories: underserved populations that are employed; materials that are used; processes that are implemented; and initiatives with which a brand aligns itself.

Finally, it is important to us to have a strong relationship with each brand we partner with. I use the term 'partner' intentionally, because we truly do view our relationships with our brands as mutually-beneficial partnerships. It is core to us to champion their work and tell their stories in a way that traditional retailers do not.

Is there an ethical or sustainability issue that you hope to involve yourself in that you haven't had the opportunity to at this point in time?

This is a hard question! There are so many impactful initiatives targeting pressing issues, and I honestly wish I could be involved with them all (wouldn't that be nice?!). Personally, I continuously find myself being drawn to initiatives that target hunger, education and water access. However there are plenty of necessities  not privileges  that so many people around the world live without. We need to band together to change this, and I know that fashion can  and should  play a large part in raising awareness and bringing solutions.

Since you do so much traveling for Fashionkind, would you say that your personal style has been influenced by the places and people you have come in contact with? Is there one in particular that stands out?

I think everyone is influenced by the people and places around them, although often subconsciously. One of my favorite things about traveling is exploring different cultures and traditions, and fashion is a large piece of most cultures and local traditions. From solid, neutral palettes and tailored silhouettes to bold, colorful prints and statement jewelry, I've absolutely taken a bit of every style with me from my trips. Most notably, though, traveling has really opened my eyes to the creative talents around the world and the importance  and power  of knowing and connecting with the people, places, materials and stories behind the pieces that you wear. This realization has had a tremendous impact on me and on Fashionkind.

Has there been a defining moment in the life of Fashionkind so far that has made you feel like you are truly making an impact and a difference?

I'll never forget the first time I saw Lucy in action. Lucy is the Maasai artisan who beads our exclusive sunglasses by hand. As part of launching the collection with Michael Nelson and Selima Optique, we had a local filmmaker take footage of Lucy at her home in Karen, Kenya, so we could create a film to share her story. Among the videos and pictures he took were images of Lucy's children resting on her shoulders, leaning over the pile of beads that would soon adorn our aviator frames. It was extremely powerful to see Lydia  one of Lucy's children  watching her mother create the very product that would help send her and 21 other children from her village to private school. With each pair of sunglasses we sell, we contribute to an education fund that makes it possible for these children to have access to quality schooling. As Fashionkind grows, we hope to have a positive impact in more lives and to effect positive change in more situations.

Do you have plans to expand? Where do you see your brand 5 years from now?

We are gearing up to expand our platform in September, when we will be increasing the number of designers we partner with and launching our Fine Jewelry Vault, the premier curation of ethical and sustainable fine jewelry designers from around the globe. It was clear to us  and every editor we've met with about the Vault - that there lacked a strong curation of the top fine jewelry designers who were marrying their craft with ethics and sustainability, so we set out to fill that void. We've curated an amazing selection of designers so far, some of whom we will have exclusive relationships with as the US launch partner. We can't wait!

In terms of longer-term vision, we want to be the leading destination for ethical and sustainable luxury, carving a new path for consumers and designers alike. We will continue to use for-profit business to influence positive change and set a precedent for others in the industry. Someone recently told me you are either driven to make a profit or driven to make an impact, but never both. I couldn't disagree more.





Photographer: Zachary Chick

Stylist: Ella Cepeda

HMU: Anna Webber @ Wilhelmina

Model: Kate Bowman @ Wilhelmina
News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism.
Staged Visit by Foreign Ambassadors to Iran's Evin Prison Condemned by Rights Activists

07/14/17

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

Abusive Conditions and Political Prisoners Hidden from Visitors



Related Article: PHOTOS: Foreign ambassadors tour Evin prison in Tehran



A state-choreographed visit by dozens of foreign ambassadors based in Iran to Tehran's Evin Prison has been condemned by prominent human rights activists inside and outside the country for glossing over the prison's documented history of ongoing human rights violations.

Guarded by state minders and preceded by a red carpet welcome, the visit on July 5, 2017 excluded certain areas of the prison, according to political prisoners currently held there. Envoys from participating countries including Great Britain, Germany, Japan and Denmark were, however, treated to a reception on the prison's lawn.

On July 7, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who spent much of her life defending political prisoners in the Iranian court system, sent a letter to the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Iran, Asma Jahangir, describing how the wards were "pre-cleansed" to hide selected prisoners.

"On the day of the ambassadors' visit, at least 20 political prisoners and financial convicts were transferred to Ward 2-A under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and told they were going to be taken to court," wrote Ebadi, a co-founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center.

"Strangely enough, the esteemed ambassadors did not even visit the political wing of the Women's Ward, where 24 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience are being held, including Narges Mohammadi, Nazanin Zaghari [Ratcliffe], Atena Daemiand Azita Rafizadeh, who I'm sure had a lot to share with the ambassadors."

Two civil rights activists imprisoned in Evin also pointed out some of the places the ambassadors were prevented from viewing in another letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

"On Wednesday, July 5, 2017, we heard that a group of 45 ambassadors were visiting Evin Prison upon invitation from the Prisons Organization and the judiciary's Islamic Human Rights division," wrote Atena Daemi and Golrokh Iraee in a joint letter on July 8.

"Did they give you a tour of Ward 209, Ward 2-A or Ward 241? Did they show you the solitary cells without windows, ventilation or toilets? What about the cells known as the 'graves?'" asked the political prisoners.

Ward 2-A is under the control of the IRGC, the Intelligence Ministry controls Ward 209, and Ward 241 is run by the judiciary's intelligence branch.

The letter continued: "Did they inform you of the existence of Ward 350, where male political prisoners are held? Or the ward that is exclusively for convicted clerics? Did they tell you about prisoners such as Mohammad Ali Taheri, who has been in solitary confinement for more than five years in IRGC's Ward 2-A?"

Ward 350 is also used to hold political prisoners, but is controlled by any specific security or intelligence organization.

"Did they introduce you to a physician with the alias 'Shahriari?'" said the letter. "He's the one who finds out what's wrong with sick prisoners just by looking at them. He's the one who never dares to sign his name because he's afraid one day he will be exposed for his malpractice."

"When we invite guests to our home, we obviously try to make a beautiful presentation, even if it's the same place where [thousands of] political prisoners were executed in the 1980s," added the letter.

An estimated 4,500-5,000 political prisoners who had already been tried and sentenced-mostly members of political opposition groups-were suddenly executed in prisons throughout Iran including Evin during the summer of 1988 without being provided access to due process.

Political prisoners in Iran, including elderly inmates, are singled out for harsh treatment, which often includes denial of medical care. The threat of withheld medical care has also been used as an intimidation tool against prisoners who have challenged the authorities or filed complaints.

In 2016, political prisoner Omid Kokabee was diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer after years of repeatedly being denied treatment for his symptoms.

Since 2005, no United Nations or other international monitoring body has been allowed to visit Evin Prison.

The deputy secretary general of the judiciary's Islamic human rights division, Kazem Gharibabadi, described the visit by "about 50" ambassadors as an opportunity "to show that we consider prisons to be like universities."

"Some Western countries and media have made unfounded and false accusations regarding human rights because they are particularly biased against the Islamic Republic of Iran," he added. "Part of those accusations have regarded conditions in our prisons."

Media Coverage

Iranian state and right-wing media presented the ambassadors' visit as a vindication of Iranian officials' repeated claims that the well-documented reports of rights violations in the prison are false.

Mizan, the judiciary's official news agency, responded to the letter by Ebadi, Iran's first female judge, on July 11 accusing her of "making things up" and supporting armed opposition groups, as well as the terrorist organization, ISIS.

The state TV and radio broadcasting agency, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), which has routinely filmed and broadcast forced confessions by detainees, meanwhile played interviews of some diplomats describing the areas they were shown as "good" while adding that they had no experience in foreign prisons or that they were new to the country.

"I have been in Tehran for six months and my information about the country is not complete, but today during this visit I had the opportunity to become informed about the conditions in this prison," said Joao Corte Real, the Portuguese ambassador to Tehran.

"It is a good model. I was very amazed. It was very interesting to me. I think the conditions in the prison are really very good," he added.

Kim Seung-Ho, the South Korean ambassador to Tehran, said: "I have not seen prisons in other countries, but what was very interesting for me was that the prisoners here did not have uniforms. They had no nametags and their cell doors are not closed. In South Korea, prisoners have uniforms and every six to 10 prisoners are kept in cells behind closed doors."

The areas the envoy were allowed to visit were not disclosed. Overcrowding has resulted in some prisoners being crammed together into open rooms rather than single cells, with some inmates without access to beds forced to sleep on the floor.

In 2007, the head of the Tehran Province Prisons Organization, Sohrab Soleynami, said that Evin Prison's official capacity is 1,000 prisoners, but 5,300 prisoners were being held there at the time.

Some far-right media outlets meanwhile described Evin Prison like a community center where prisoners "enjoy their rights as citizens."

"During an inspection of the private visiting hall, located near the traditional sports gym, the head of the Tehran Province Prisons Organization [Mostafa Mohebbi] said all prisoners can spend a few hours with their spouses in rooms equipped with beds, refrigerators, showers and sanitary services," said the Young Journalists Club, which maintains close relations with the IRGC, on July 6.

"The last stop in today's visit was Penitentiary No. 4, where inmates, who are not interested in working or learning skills, spend their time resting or using other prison facilities," added the article. "Visiting this section clearly shows how prisoners enjoy rights as citizens in the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Photographs released by official Iranian media were limited to the red-carpet banquet held for the diplomats on the prison's lawn away from the prisoners.

Documented Rights Violations

Human rights organizations have published numerous reports-based primarily on testimony from current and former political prisoners-over the last two decades detailing rights violations inside Evin Prison and its deplorable conditions

In June 2016, CHRI published a report on the Women's Ward of Evin Prison, documenting the routine denial of medical care and hospitalization, severe restriction or denial of visitation rights even with the women's young children, denial of regular telephone contact with their families and inadequate nutrition.

In addition to the "cruel denial of medical care," the prison's living conditions have also endangered inmates.

A report on insect infestation in the quarantine section of Evin Prison's Ward 7, where 75 political prisoners who were being held there at the time had to share four toilets and showers without hot water, was also published by CHRI in 2014.

In a September 2010 letter from Evin Prison to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, prominent student activist Abdollah Momeni described how he had been severely tortured, forced to make false confessions, and subjected to a "show trial" during his incarceration.

"Political detainees in Evin report different experiences in prison than those charged with common crimes," according to a 2004 report by Human Rights Watch.

Political prisoners are subjected to "threats of torture, threats of indefinite imprisonment and torture of family members, deception and humiliation, multiple daily interrogations lasting up to five or six hours, denial of medical care, and denial of family visits," added the report.



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Two suspected armed robbers have reportedly shot a police officer who led a team to stop their robbery operation at Lapaz near Las Palmas, popular restaurant in Accra.



Reports indicated that the robbers who were on motorbikes shot the unidentified police officer three times.



An eyewitness said the incident was like an action movie.



He noted that the masked men, armed with locally manufactured guns opened fire which brought activities at the very busy area to a halt.



The police who was part of the team chasing the robbers went closer to them and they shot him three times. He dropped on the floor but I cannot tell if he is dead he added.



The armed robbers he indicated abandoned their motorbikes and snatched an ash Hyundai Sonata in the full glare of the public and headed towards Kasoa in the Central region.



Meanwhile, the police man who sustained gunshot wounds was rushed to the hospital by some residents in the area.

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
Fear has gripped residents of Seketia, a farming community in the Jaman North district of the Brong Ahafo Region, following the beheading of a fifty (50)-year-old woman by unknown assailants.



The woman, who was identified by some residents as Maame Ama Kyereboah, had gone to her farm for foodstuffs on Thursday afternoon where she was gruesomely murdered.



Some residents revealed that the deceased body wasn't mutilated apart from her head that was severed.



The Assembly member for Seketia /Korase, Samuel Sakyi recounted that the odious act was the first of its kind since the community was established.



"I was in farm when I received a call that someone had been beheaded so I should come home," he added.



He said the entire community had been saddened by the news and that "even men were afraid to go to their farms."



The mortal remains of the deceased has been deposited at the Sampa Government Hospital awaiting autopsy.



The Jaman North police commander, ASP Vitus Napen says they are yet to begin their investigations.

Source: Henryson Okrah









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
The Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul has disclosed that progress has been made on the establishment of the endowment fund in honour of the late Major Maxwell Adam Mahama.



He was speaking to representatives of the family of the late major who called on him to show appreciation for the roles he played during Maxwell Mahamas funeral.



The president announced the establishment of the fund and others when he visited the family last month, which the minister said government is committed to fulfilling all the promises it made to the family and that everything is on course to attain them especially the endowment.



He said, We have drafted the endowment fund bill, Major Mahama endowment fund bill, we have drafted it, it has gone to the AG, the AG has brought it back to my office, I have forwarded it to my Jack to look at it and I believe by the close of this week Ill send it back to the AG and put a cabinet memo.



I have instructed the chief director to put a cabinet memo by Friday so that we can send it to cabinet because well send it to parliament He added that the establishment of the endowment fund is a national concern for that matter it will not be shrouded in secrecy and it will be unique.



That is the way we are doing it, its not about hiding to do it, it is a national thing and I hope that the day well be taking it in parliament you will be there. That is how we are establishing it so it is not just the normal appeal for fund that we want to do, thats not it.



Were going to have a law, he explained. Spokesperson for the family Zakaria Sakara Ahmed, expressed the familys gratitude to the government for agreeing to raise the monument in honour of the late soldier and also to establish the endowment fund to support soldiers family.



We made a request that we wanted a monument erected in the memory of Maxwell as a reminder to all Ghanaians that never again should such a thing befall anybody in this country. That request was granted.



The additional which we didnt ask for but which was a pleasant surprise to us was when the president visited us and announced that an endowment fund would be set up for Maxwells family he expressed.



The family also requested that the minister keeps them posted as and when progress is made. They further expressed interest in being present at the trial.



The Major Maxwell Mahama fund is expected to receive GHS 500,000 from the state and 50,000 from the presidents and other donations from the public.

Source: 3news.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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There are conflicting reports over the number of Ghanaians to be deported from the United States of America this year.



While the US Embassy in Ghana insists that 7,000 Ghanaians will be sent back home after the detection of their illegal stay in the country, Ghanas Foreign Affairs Ministry claims that only 365 Ghanaians have been penned down to be deported from the US.



Foreign Affairs Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey made the clarification when she appeared before parliament to answer a question from North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.



Ms Botchwey told the lawmakers: Following claims made by the United States Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Robert Jackson, that 7000 Ghanaian illegal immigrants in the US were awaiting deportation, the Embassy of Ghana in Washington DC was requested to urgently confirm the claims with the relevant authorities and report back promptly to headquarters.



According to the mission, when the enquiry was submitted to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, they were unable to confirm whether the number of Ghanaian deportees was 7000. Rather, the mission was informed that 180 Ghanaians were under deportation orders while an additional 185 cases were at various stages of processing pending final deportation orders.



The United States authorities further noted that 80 out of the 180 who had already been interviewed by the Washington DC mission and consulate in New York were due to be deported in June 2017 while the remaining 100 were yet to be interviewed. The ministry was informed that because of the legal processes involved, the deportation exercise would have to be staggered. Subsequently, the ICE on 14 June, 2017 effected the repatriation of 63 out of the 80 cleared for deportation who arrived on a chartered flight on the said date. The deportees offences range from drug-related offences, asylumand credit card fraud to immigration-related offences.



It was confirmed that all the deportees exhausted the legal processes to remain in the United States prior to their being removed to Ghana. Following the arrival of the 63 deportees, the ministry caused a note verbale to be transmitted to US authorities through the United States Embassy in Accra registering the government of Ghanas concern about the process and the alleged treatment of the Ghanaians during the flight to Ghana.



In a related development, Mrs Botchwey disclosed that Ghana's Embassy in Saudi Arabia has begun processing over 800 illegal Ghanaian immigrants back home.



Saudi Arabia has extended its three-month amnesty for illegal immigrants to 24th July, 2017, by which time illegal residents are to leave or be sanctioned by the authorities.



According to Mrs Botchwey, government will subsidise the travelling costs of these individuals back to Ghana.

Source: classfmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Iddrisu Musah Superior, the Metropolitan Chief Executive Officer(MCE) of Tamale, Northern Regional capital, has arrived in Washington D. C, the United States on an investment tour.



His decision to tour the United States to seek investment was preceded by a similar one he undertook in Ghana where he had major responses from corporate Ghana and business institutions.



The main reason for the US tour is to engage business institutions, individuals and strategic institutions that could mobilise resources for the development of the Tamale Metropolis. The MCE is scheduled to meet US Former President Bill Clinton, Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and some diplomats in Virginia.



He is also scheduled to meet officials of Louisville to revive a broken 35 year-long SisterCity relationship with the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly.

In a telephone interview with journalists, Mr. Musah Superior indicated that, he planned to have broader and wider discussions with the individuals and institutions on how to mobilize resources to harness the development of Tamale and the nation at large. Another reason for our tour is to attend the 61st Anniversary of the Sister-City National Conference in Virginia from July 13-15.



He said: the agenda to revive the relationship with Louisville requires discussions with the city authorities.

The MCE said the support for development from the Central government was inadequate, hence there was the need to move around the world to mobilize investors into the Metropolis.



He said this would be done by bringing to the fore an innovative type of leadership in marketing the Tamale Metropolis to the outside world.





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
Audio Attachment: Listen to Kweku Baako Jnr.

Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako has slammed Former Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Inusah Fuseini for planting a secret recorder in his office.



Kweku Baako wondered why Hon. Fuseini failed to inform the National Security when he began to feel threatened in his official capacity.



According to him, if Hon. Fuseini felt his security might have been compromised or could be compromised, his first resort should have been the National Security and not a private security firm.



To him, having a private person to install secret security devices in his office is risky because the person could have a personal data about the Minister and his activities, and use it to blackmail him.



"He didnt have too much confidence and trust in National Security to tell them what he was perceiving, that insecurity he was perceiving and where it was coming from so that together with National Security; he could have cured that mischief. That can be an indicator. There must have been a reason why he decided not to invest his confidence and trust in National security at that material moment that he perceived some personal insecurity within the context of his public duties, he said.



Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Mr. Baako asked Hon. Fuseini to describe the nature of the threat that accounted for his planting of the secret recorder.



"What threat was it? Where was it coming from?" he questioned.



He took such a risk. I find so difficult, in this case, to defend . . . Even if he did, then I think he wasnt smart, he stressed.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Concern Market Women, a pressure group in the Ashanti Region have strongly warned the Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, to desist from his baseless and fruitless attacks on the young Akufo-Addo led government.



Members of the group have vowed to bring Kennedy Agyapong down before he carries his empty threats of running down the New Patriotic Party



They have also given the Assin Central MP seven day ultimatum to immediately retract his comment that seem to suggest that the NPP won the 2016 general elections through crude means.



According to them, they will stop respecting him and what he stands for, should he fail to either provide evidence of his claim; or apologize to the NPP fraternity and the entire country.



To Nana Akua Dwomo, a market queen and spokesperson for the group, the overwhelming victory that the NPP chalked in the 2016 election was as a result of the massive popularity and hope that the good people of Ghana have in President Akufo-Addo and the NPP but not because of Kennedy Agyapong.



We want him (Kennedy Agyapong) to understand that the popularity of Nana Addo and the NPP won the victory and not the useless and loose talks of the Assin MP, the women set the records straight.



Using votes garnered by both President Nana Addo and Kennedy Agyapong in the just-ended elections as case study, the market women said: it is a very big lie that Agyapong just churned out and he surely knows it.



How can someone who had 17,000 votes claims to be popular than someone who had over 18,000 votes? Even in his own constituency the President remains more popular than he is and the figures prove it too, they continued.



In the 2016 elections results from the Assin Central constituency, President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo had 18,368 representing 64.04 percent in the Presidential results, while Kennedy Agyapong had 17,979 also representing 62.53 percent.



And with these figures, its a palpable lie and misleading statement by the foul-mouthed MP, the group said.



Speaking on behalf of women who voted for the NPP, the spokesperson for the group added that even many women at the various markets of the region, who without any inducement, relentlessly put their lives and jobs on the line, just to see the return of the NPP are not angry or complaining of neglect from the party.



Further expressing their anger, the group said they were reliably informed that it was as a result of Kennedy Agyapong's nagging and scheming that led to Hon. Abena Dapaah being denied to head the Ministry of Roads and Highways, a position she was to be given originally.





It was as a result of Ken's irresponsible nagging and scheming that denied Madam Abena Dapaah the chance to be the Roads Minister. And it is sad the even in his greed, Ken Agyapong still has the effrontery to mess with the reputation of the party," the concern market women alleged.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Western Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam has resigned from Parliament after news emerged that he had not renounced his New Zealand citizenship, and is therefore ineligible to serve.

The Constitution of Australia forbids dual nationals from serving in the Australian Parliament, meaning that his re-election was entirely invalid. Ludlam was born in New Zealand but left when he was three years old.

The Constitution holds an exemption for those who have taken reasonable steps to renounce their foreign citizens, but it doesnt look like Ludlam has done this. He has been a senator since 2008.

hey everyone. im sorry about this, but its a thing. ill really miss it, but there are other ways to make trouble. love and thanks. pic.twitter.com/1QsEgRIEnW  Scott Ludlam (@SenatorLudlam) July 14, 2017

He only learned of his continuing citizenship in the past week, but admitted while announcing his resignation that he should have checked. I am personally devastated to learn that an avoidable oversight a decade ago compels me to leave, he said.

This was my error, something I should have checked when I first nominated for preselection in 2006.

Ludlam is exceptionally popular with the Greens base, and is known for being one of the lone voices in the Australian Parliament capable of engaging in a thoughtful way with technology and the politics of the Internet.

A recount is likely to be held at some point for the seat, and it may remain vacant for a few months before anything happens. If the Greens vote holds out, it would go to Jordan Steele-John, a 22-year-old disability activist.

Its possible that Ludlam could have chosen to battle it out in the High Court, but his chances of proving to the court that he was totally unaware of his NZ citizenship, or that he had taken appropriate steps to rectify the situation, are pretty grim.

Its a bit of a blow to progressives, and will send shockwaves through the Parliament. Well keep you posted.

Photo: Getty Images.
The shocking news that Greens senator Scott Ludlam has resigned after discovering his dual NZ citizenship has been met with, well, shock.

In the nearly ten years that Ludlam has served in Federal Parliament, weve come to know him as the Only Good One  a bloke capable of showing actual activism in a stifling bureaucracy, someone who wasnt afraid to take the piss out of his blithering opposition or to talk about his mental health struggles in a way that helped de-stigmatise the issue, and probably the only person in Parliament we could trust to engage with the politics of the Internet. Also he had a great relationship with his really excellent hair.

So it makes sense that a significant portion of progressive Australia is in dazed mourning, with reactions spanning the full seven stages of grief.

Devastated by @SenatorLudlams resignation. Scotts decision shows his absolute integrity. The Senate will be so much poorer without him.  Richard Di Natale (@RichardDiNatale) July 14, 2017

Very bad news. @SenatorLudlam was one of the best. One of the clearest communicators in a sea of superstition and ideology.  Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) July 14, 2017

Can @SenatorLudlam now renounce his NZ citizenship and stand for office again next time? Some sort of Ludlam 2.0: Senator with a vengeance?  VictoriaSM (@VicStoneMeadows) July 14, 2017

Were I Ludlam Id have suggested conquering New Zealand and renaming it Extremely South Australia.  Gabriel Morton (@gabrielenguard) July 14, 2017

An absolute shame, but you cannot be faulted for your principled response. I hope you can rectify it and stand for election again soon.  Chad Ryan (@ChadwikoRCC) July 14, 2017

Today is sad, and Scott Ludlam has resigned. I will miss him and his hair very much.  Linda Linda Linda (@LindaDrummond) July 14, 2017

You were the only good one   Nick Ross (@maninultimo) July 14, 2017

Sorry Scott. Your resignation is rejected.  BRING THEM HERE (@SarahRubyWrites) July 14, 2017

Reasons Australian senators have had to resign

1. Born in illegal country

2. Stole car keys

3. Forgot he owned an office

4. Stephen Conroy  Video James (@cashbonez) July 14, 2017

to hear that the most decent and on point politician #auspol has is forced to resign has made me reach peak political disillusionment  neigh (@naycation) July 14, 2017

Theres also the very salient point being raised about the citizenship status of several other high-profile pollies:

The Ludlam dual citizenship resignation should re-ignite the Tony Abbott dual citizenship debate. When did he renounce Britain?  Derryn Hinch (@HumanHeadline) July 14, 2017

*whispers* Larissa Waters was born in Canada pic.twitter.com/kZV3cEsZlB  Alice Workman (@workmanalice) July 14, 2017

Were all going to miss you, your sass, and your wonderful hair very much, Hot Scott Ludlam. Please get into talks with Hollywood about a biopic starring Adam Scott immediately, thank you.

Sad day for the Senate, sad day for politics, sad day for hair. pic.twitter.com/5dUvPCImTw  Benjamin Law (@mrbenjaminlaw) July 14, 2017

Image: Stefan Postles / Getty.
As we continue to reel in shock after everyones favourite good-hair-haver Scott Ludlam resigned suddenly on discovering his dual NZ citizenship, the Onion Eater otherwise known as Tony Abbott has piped up to reiterate that hes totally in the clear, citizenship-wise, thank you very much.

FYI rumour mongers: I renounced my UK citizenship in 1993 and heres the proof: pic.twitter.com/tHAeJeqo5T  Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) July 14, 2017

To be fair, he tweeted the letter from UK Immigration in response to a number of people yodelling about double standards, as up until this point he hadnt publicly addressed the rumours that hed remained a dual British/Australian citizen throughout his tenure as prime minister.

The Ludlam dual citizenship resignation should re-ignite the Tony Abbott dual citizenship debate. When did he renounce Britain?  Derryn Hinch (@HumanHeadline) July 14, 2017

Fortunately/unfortunately, it sure does seem like he renounced his UK citizenship way back in 1993.

Has that stopped him from being roasted?

No.

*calls local supermarket* how much popcorn do you have in stock? https://t.co/SrE7jFY3fv  Gubs dont @ me (@nogubs88) July 14, 2017

OF COURSE HE HAD THE RENOUNCEMENT SAVED ON HIS DESKTOP AS A PDF.  Mark Di Stefano ???? (@MarkDiStef) July 14, 2017

Nice try, but I read the document, and its actually for some bloke called Anthony. https://t.co/qqpQ3RHvbL  Liam ODonoghue (@PRPRTRTR) July 14, 2017

oi tones I reckon this means youre eligible to become PM. you should defo think about it.  Nick Schadegg (@nickschadegg) July 14, 2017

Iworked on this story for a yearandhe justhe tweeted it out https://t.co/NYAcL2GgnU  Pat Murray (@_patmurray) July 14, 2017

I think we know what all this is working towards, and Im here to say: youre not getting the top job again, Tony. Give it up. Let it go.

Image: Getty.
In yet more evidence that were living in the weirdest of all eras, a man being sued by PETA on behalf of a monkey over copyright of a photo taken in 2011 says hes now nearly broke thanks to ongoing legal costs.

Just to break it down a little: photographer David Slater is being sued over the ownership of a photograph of an Indonesian macaque. The entity suing Slater is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. They are suing him on behalf of the macaque.

The legal issues started in 2014, when Slater asked Wikipedia to take down the photo of the macaque, which theyd used without credit or reimbursement. They refused, saying that the copyright of the photograph belonged to the monkey, as it was the one whod actually pressed the button.

That bit is true, by the way  Slater had been in Indonesia expressly to create a series of monkey selfies by encouraging the macaques to take their own photos.

However, the US Copyright Office sensibly ruled that animals cant own copyright.

HOWEVER however, bloody PETA stepped in and decided to sue Slater for ownership of the photo on the monkeys behalf. Theyre saying that a seven-year-old monkey called Naruto took his own photo and is entitled to the rights to it, as hed created the picture through purposeful and voluntary actions [] unaided by Slater, resulting in original works of authorship.

Long story short, a judge threw the case out, but PETA have pushed it through to a federal appeals court, and Slater is fucken broke and strongly considering taking up a career as a dog walker. Hes also disputing that PETA are even suing on behalf of the right monkey. The whole thing is laughably tragic.

Still, the nonsensical legal proceedings have thrown up some absolute gems of absurdist comedy, such as:

A monkey took a selfie. PETA says he owns the copyright. The photographers defense: He is a monkey https://t.co/cYfYLmMc5V pic.twitter.com/fY0ENa0fP6  Ally Marotti (@AllyMarotti) July 13, 2017

So about that monkey-selfie-copyright lawsuit:

1- The wrong primate might be in court!

2- The photographer is broke https://t.co/J57fJXtM6M pic.twitter.com/ptZgcaZEBz  Polly Mosendz (@polly) July 13, 2017

And this incredible quote, courtesy one of Slaters lawyers:

It is absurd to say a monkey can sue for copyright infringement. Naruto cant benefit financially from his work. He is a monkey.

He is a monkey.

As for Slater, despite the financial ruin, he says hes happy that his monkey selfie project seems to have had the desired effect: preserving the Indonesian macaques.

No one had heard of these monkeys six years ago; they were down to the last thousands. The locals used to roast them, but now they love them, they call it the selfie monkey.

Well thats nice. Pity the monkeys other advocates are brazen manipulators of the American legal system.

Source: The Age.

Image: David Slater.
The man who served for nearly 40 years as a puppeteer on The Muppets has issued a heartfelt blog post, detailing his distress after allegedly being fired from his role last October.

Steve Whitmire, who spent the 27 years leading up to his departure as the instantly-recognisable voice of Kermit The Frog, says for me the Muppets are not just a job, or a career, or even a passion.

They are a calling, an urgent, undeniable, impossible to resist way of life.

The show veteran says that he wasnt given the opportunity to discuss the Disney-owned Muppet Studios two stated issues which had never been mentioned to me prior to that phone call.

After being told of their issues  which have not yet been detailed  Whitmire says he offered the head honchos what he believed to be suitable solutions. However, the Studio moved ahead with their decision to recast Kermit.



I wish that we could have sat down, looked each other in the eye, and discussed what was on their minds before they took such a drastic action, Whitmire says.

Whitmires past nine months have been spent outside of the spotlight. He explained he chose not to go public on his firing on the off-chance the Studio changed its course, but that wasnt to be.

Despite his axing, he says doing what is best for the Muppets is the lens through which all my interactions have been filtered, and that I feel my continued involvement with the characters is in the best interest of the Muppets.

As if this whole ordeal hadnt already given you unexpectedly heavy feelings for a show you may have stopped watching at the age of seven, cop Whitmires absolutely heartfelt message to Muppet mastermind and mentor, Jim Henson:

I was invited to sit at the feet of the true masters, Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and Dave Goelz; working alongside them, absorbing different skills from each, as we, along with many talented others, contributed towards the same shared vision, the vision of one man I just want you all to know that I am sorry if I have disappointed any of you at any point throughout our journey, and to let everyone know that I am devastated to have failed in my duty to my hero.

In a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney says The Muppets Studio thanks Steve for his tremendous contributions to Kermit the Frog and The Muppets franchise. We wish him well in his future endeavors.

Matt Vogel, who played Kermits doppelganger Constantine in Muppets Most Wanted, will replace Whitmire. His first official Kermit gig will be filmed next week.

Source: Deadline / The Hollywood Reporter.

Photo: Lawrence Lucier / Getty.
Its a well-known fact that if two attractive young actors of opposing gender star in a Spider-Man movie together, then they must start dating in real life. In Hollywood, thats just the law, Im sorry.

Two such celebs are Tom Holland and Zendaya, who despite being hot actors who appeared together in the latest reboot of the twinky superheros adventures Spider-Man: Homecoming and thus should 100% be dating, continue to refute any romance is going down at all.

People magazine were one of the first to declare the co-stars an item, citing the kind of unnamed source from inside the actors camp that theyre so fond of pulling out their arses, as evidence the pair were definitely smanging.

They started seeing each other while they were filming Spider-Man, says the made-up source who doesnt exist. Theyve been super careful to keep it private and out of the public eye but theyve gone on vacations with each other and try and spend as much time as possible with one another.

Zendaya was the first to laugh off suggestions, posting to Twitter a big ol LOL at the accusations, before being backed up by Holland who seemed to confirm that theyre just besties and nothing more.

Wait waitmy favorite is when it says we go on vacations together HA! I havent been on a vacation in years!??????hbu @TomHolland1996 ??? https://t.co/zSkvcfzzTa  Zendaya (@Zendaya) July 13, 2017

Whilst we kind of understand the thought process behind People mags unfounded claims of a new Spidey-related romance, seeing as both Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield ended up dating for a time their respective Spider-Man co-stars Kirsten Dunst and Emma Stone, it looks like Holland and Zendaya are not making it a hat-trick.

Oh and gossip mags, a source just informed me that you suck heaps. #RINSED.

Source: People.

Picture: Karwei Tang / Getty.
What is gender fluidity?

According to most professionals and authorities on issues of sexuality and gender, it refers to a person who does not identify entirely with any gender. A person may feel they are more female on some days and more male on others, or possibly feel that neither term describes them accurately, says Gender Diversity, a US-based LGBTI organisation. Their identity is seen as being gender fluid.



According to Gigi Hadid, its about, like, shapes.



A recent Vogue cover piece on the prevalence of gender fluidity across pop culture and fashion tapped Gigi and her boyfriend Zayn Malik  neither of whom are known to identify as genderfluid  to star in it. Gigis brother Anwar was there too. He doesnt publicly identify as genderfluid, either.

In fact, WHY WERE ANY OF THESE PEOPLE THERE.

Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik Are Part of a New Generation Embracing Gender Fluidity the headline screams, before detailing how sometimes, they borrow each others clothes. Are you raging yet?

This new blase attitude toward gender codes marks a radical break. Consider the scene one recent morning out in Montauk, New York, where the photos accompanying this story were shot: Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik snuggle in interchangeable tracksuits as, nearby, Hadids younger brother, Anwar, rocks back and forth on a tire swing, his sheer lace top exposing scattered tattoos. For these millennials, at least, descriptives like boy or girl rank pretty low on the list of important qualitiesand the way they dress reflects that. I shop in your closet all the time, dont I? Hadid, 22, flicks a lock of dyed-green hair out of her boyfriends eyes as she poses the question. Yeah, but same, replies Malik, 24. What was that T-shirt I borrowed the other day?

The Anna Sui? asks Hadid. Yeah, Malik says. I like that shirt. And if its tight on me, so what? It doesnt matter if it was made for a girl.

Hadid nods vigorously. Totally. Its not about gender. Its about, like, shapes. And what feels good on you that day. And anyway, its fun to experiment. . . . Anwar, eavesdropping, pipes up. Were chill! he calls out from a picnic table not far away. People our age, were just chill. You can be whoever you want, he adds, ambling over, as long as youre being yourself.

Its incredible that this needs to be said, but borrowing your partners clothes on occasion doesnt make you gender fluid.

The piece isnt all about Gigi, Zayn and Anwar. Vogue also gives a fairly broad (and very Vogue-y) recent history of gender fluidity making its way into fashion mainstream. Theres Jaden Smiths recent turn as the star of a Louis Vuitton womenswear campaign, Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele dressing girls in suits and boys in florals, and Young Thugs iconic album cover for No, My Name Is Jeffrey where he poses in a ruffled, soft-lilac dress.

The piece interviews Instagram artist Richie Shazam, who breaks down gender norms in his style, and agender poet and activist Tyler Ford. It briefly mentions Ruby Rose, who identifies as genderfluid, and her iconic Break Free video in which she transforms from a typically feminine representation of beauty into her badass, tattooed, short-haired self.

But then it cuts back to those well known queer icons Gigi and Zayn.

If Zayns wearing a tight shirt and tight jeans and a big, drapey coat, Hadid says, I meanId wear that, too. Its just about, Do the clothes feel right on you? Malik shoots Hadid a tender look and joins the conversation. With social media, the worlds gotten very small, he says, and it can seem like everyones doing the same thing. Gender, whateveryou want to make your own statement. You know? You want to feel distinct.

Oh there is just so much to unpack here.

First of all, people are mad that Vogue defines gender fluidity as occasionally wearing clothes intended for the opposite sex. Thats the biggn here.

Think Vogue is a bit confused on what gender fluidity is! Wearing your gfs T-shirt does not make you gender fluid https://t.co/5yvh8FmUky pic.twitter.com/yPADJDwvPV  Colette Fahy (@colettefahy_) July 13, 2017

Looool, nocishet people did not. Trans, bi and agender people are the ones who started this, everyone else just copies it. pic.twitter.com/HqnXEFolpn  Queen Sugar (@TeenSuccubus) July 13, 2017

Lol yeah @vogue first generation of women wearing suit and trousers yeah its so gender fluid https://t.co/kyixM0XEgV  berrault (@jberrault) July 13, 2017

NOT progressive: we put a girl in boy clothes! Gender! Progressive: there is no such thing as boy clothes  drunk at vogue (@jersing) July 13, 2017

they asked Gigi and Zayn to do a article on Gender Fluidity  pic.twitter.com/HSPcfO7F3u  Janet ? (@musicheaux) July 13, 2017

Even Ford called out the piece on Twitter.

the only mention of the word trans in this article on gender fluidity is by me via interview. ?? https://t.co/27wSCkVXJ4  Tyler Ford (@tywrent) July 13, 2017

How do you possible write a piece on gender fluidity without even touching upon the complex intersections of gender, sex, queerness and trans issues? The mind boggles.

Then theres the far more minor issue  but hey, an issue nonetheless  that Vogue put two people on its cover for seemingly no reason. Does Zayn have new music out? Is Gigi doing anything other than continuing to play the part of super-famous but also kinda average model? No. Theyre just a hot couple who, again, sometimes wear each others clothes.

Zayn and Gigi are profiled in this piece on gender fluidity because they borrow each others clothes sometimes? https://t.co/ItswHOaBUd  Hannah Orenstein (@hannahorens) July 13, 2017

I AM DONE. GET ME IN THAT EDITOR CHAIR NOW BECAUSE THIS LOOKS LIKE HELLO NOT VOGUE.  I https://t.co/8wucdYfgXI  IMONATION (@THEIMONATION) July 13, 2017

There is a tiny thing to say here for Vogue putting a Muslim immigrant and a half-Palestinian model on its cover in the current political climate, but like we said. Its tiny.

Next time, Vogue, if youre going to do a big piece on gender fluidity, maybe try profiling literally anyone that isnt a cisgendered hetero.

Photo: Vogue.


If you a person who likes visiting amusement parks, particularly ones on the other side of the world, who also has a minor/major/debilitating obsession with Star Wars, we might just have something that neatly intersects your two very particular interests.

Disney have revealed the first glimpse of their two 14-acre Star Wars-themed lands, due to open at Disneyland in California, and Walt Disney World in Florida in 2019.





Theyll be exhibiting the below 50-foot model of the lands-in-construction at the biennial Disney superfan D23 Expo in Anaheim this weekend.

What theyre offering for their largest ever single-themed land are planets not based on anything weve seen before (real bummer they didnt base it on Tatooine -guffaw-), which they describe as a remote trading port and one of the last stops before Wild Space.

The Star Wars Space Fun Land will apparently host two rides: one where you control the Millennium Falcon, apparently in a simulated mission like Star Tours, not in a super fun indoor rollercoaster like Space Mountain; and one where youre apparently thrust into the middle of a First Order v. Resistance battle, BYO Adam Driver/John Boyega.

There are also said to be three different entrances, where youll be recruited to either the Resistance or First Order, or youll walk into something neutral like the Mos Eisley Cantina.

Let this video really stir something in you (I think its the rousing music):

Behold, about ten seconds of behind the scenes footage from earlier this year:

Too early to book flights?

Source: The Telegraph.

Photos: Disney Parks.
BILLINGS  A man who rammed a Montana Highway Patrol trooper's cruiser during a pursuit was recommended to enter treatment on Friday.

Alan-Michael Richard Amundson, 26, was sentenced on multiple felonies related to the January pursuit in the Lockwood area.

As part of a plea agreement, Amundson will be recommended to a substance abuse treatment program in the Montana Department of Corrections for 13 months, after which he will be on probation for three years. District Judge Ingrid Gustafson presided over the hearing.

Amundson apologized in court to the trooper whose car he rammed during the pursuit.

"I'm glad nobody got hurt," he said. "But that very, very easily could have happened."

He was sentenced on two felony counts of criminal endangerment, as well as felony counts of DUI, drug possession and tampering with evidence. Four misdemeanors were dismissed as part of the deal.

Amundson tried in late January to evade the trooper, who was pulling him over for a traffic offense, according to court documents. Amundson rammed the patrol car on the passenger side before crashing through the gates of Warren Transport.

As part of his sentence, he was ordered to pay nearly $1,100 to MHP.

Amundson has been in the Yellowstone County Detention Facility since January.
A woman, holding her dog, watches from her window the scene where Peru's former President Ollanta Humala and his wife Nadine Heredia leave the headquarters of Peru's National Party where they met with their lawyers, in Lima, Thursday, July 13, 2017. Prosecutors in Peru have requested the arrest of the former leader who governed Peru between 2011 and 2016 and his wife on money laundering and conspiracy charges tied to a corruption scandal involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Montana's top utilities regulator broke ethics laws when he used office resources to write a column that disparaged a candidate for the regulatory body during last year's election, the state's chief political watchdog ruled Friday.

Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan issued a fine of $3,000 against Montana Public Service Commission Chairman Brad Johnson for violating the state's Code of Ethics.

Mangan said Johnson broke the law by penning the letter in his office using a government computer and his state email account. In addition, Mangan said, Johnson violated the ethics code by having his agency's legal counsel review his op-ed piece targeting 2016 candidate Caron Cooper.

Johnson said he was disappointed by the ruling but did not plan to file a legal challenge.

"I'll work with the commissioner of political practices to bring this to a final resolution," Johnson said.

Nevertheless, he said, the ruling could have a chilling effect on the ability of elected officials to defend themselves against criticism.

Cooper was seeking a spot on the PSC when Johnson wrote his commentary, which was published in October in the editorial pages of at least three newspapers. She later filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Political Practices.

The intent of the letter, Johnson said, was not meant to be a statement opposing the Cooper's candidacy but to rebut criticism against the regulatory agency. Johnson did not dispute that he used agency resources to write his commentary, but argued that the piece should not be considered as electioneering.

Mangan disagreed and said Johnson's piece was "express advocacy which solicits opposition to Ms. Cooper, a clearly identified state candidate."

The Public Services Commission is the state's chief regulator of power companies and other utilities.

Cooper could not be immediately reached for comment.
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.
BOZEMAN  The owner of two pit bulls that attacked and killed a Bozeman woman has been cited for having vicious and dangerous dogs and for failure to have current rabies vaccinations for the dogs.

Wayne Bartlett was cited for two counts of each violation of the Gallatin County dog control ordinances after the June 24 attack that caused fatal injuries to 65-year-old Melissa Barnes.

A vicious and dangerous dogs citation carries a maximum fine of $500 while a first offense of failure to have current rabies vaccines carries a $50 fine.

Investigators have said Barnes was attacked in her yard by two dogs belonging to Bartlett, a tenant living on Barnes' property. Barnes was flown to a Billings hospital, where she later died.

The dogs were euthanized and both tested negative for rabies.
Protesters hold candles, demanding the release of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo on June 29 in Hong Kong. Liu Xiaobo died Thursday at the age of 61. Read more

On Thursday the announcement came: Liu Xiaobo, who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, had died at 61 of liver cancer in a hospital in the northeast city of Shenyang. He lived most of the last 30 years of his life under some sort of house arrest, imprisonment, or restraint.

Thanks to tight censorship, most Chinese had no idea Liu had even won the Nobel. China resisted all efforts to free him, or even secure him emergency treatment abroad.

Liu's miserable death reminds us of something true all over the world: It is dangerous to write in the public sphere.

So it was, long before the printing press. Long before Giordano Bruno's agony at the stake in 1600 or Galileo's 1642 death under house arrest, all the way through to the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris and beyond, writers have been hounded, murdered, locked up, or otherwise suppressed.

Who's worried? The powerful. Why? They fear the contrary voice, the least shred of contrary fact. They're afraid it'll spread, once out, and the infection of truth will sap their authority. If they can't bully it down, they'll choke it off at the source.

You see it amid the protests in Venezuela, where journalists are routinely harassed, threatened, thrown in jail. You see it throughout the Middle East, and in Somalia, a leading site of such attacks, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Not all these are government-driven; about 40 percent of attacks on journalists are by ISIS or similar extremist groups.

Those in power must surely think writers can change things. Why else would you chase a poet like Pablo Neruda (another Nobel winner) over the mountains, as Chile did in 1948-49 (as recounted in the great movie Neruda)? Why chase down a blogger and hack him to death with machetes, as the Jamaat-e-Islami party did to Ahmed Rajib Haider in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2015? Why turn 30 years of a man's life into a living prison, as China did to Liu Xiaobo?

(For years in the U.S. academy, you used to hear, again and again, that art and literature change nothing; the best it could do, in this view, was tighten the chains of language and institutional coercion around us. Sounds quaint, I know.)

Our own country is now convulsed over "fake news," "sourceless reporting," and a "failed press." Plenty of yelling. Lots of chest-beating. Eruptions of aggressive words. All that hogwash, though, is actually a good thing, a sign of healthy, vigorous, effective, free media.

Sure, you can bully reporters, or you can at least try. You can mischaracterize what they do, even lie about it. A truly free media world  in which, short of libel, slander, and incitement to break the law, speech is protected  is and always will be messy, confusing, loud, and nasty. To be sure, that can be wearying and sad.

But all that is far from what happened to Liu Xiaobo.

When the Tiananmen Square demonstrations broke out in 1989, he left his safe post as a visiting scholar at Columbia University and hastened back home. At the square, he joined in a hunger strike and tried to head off bloodshed. For his efforts he was thrown into prison, for the rest of his life subject to incarceration, under the government's eye, forbidden to publish in China. (He tried to keep publishing under various names.) He couldn't go to Sweden to receive his Nobel; too busy being in prison.

The Croatian musician and activist Nenad Bach once brought home to me what it was like growing up in the former Yugoslavia.

"Day to day," he said, "life was pretty much the same as it is here. You get up, go to work, do what you do. But in the back of your mind, you know they can take everything away from you, at any time, whenever they want."

That's what they did to Liu Xiaobo. They could have done it by killing him, as the powerful do to dozens of journalists and writers every year. But they chose the more perfect revenge: life as prison, where you live having lost everything, and know it, minute by slow, empty minute, until you die, as reports tell us, from cancer, septic shock, and respiratory and renal failure.

In the name of Liu Xiaobo, who died horribly for truth, I hereby embrace every insult, every bad name, every lie anyone wants to hurl at investigative journalists, essayists, poets, artists, historians, and anyone else whose work challenges in public the official story, whatever that story is. Want to call it fake news? Bring it on.
This story was updated at 9:15 a.m. July 14 to include comments from Henry Koffie's attorney.

On Facebook, Henry Koffie called himself a "professional entrepreneur from SouthWest Philadelphia." He posted selfies flexing his muscles, looking pensive, and flashing large wads of cash.

On the darkest corners of the internet, Koffie allegedly branded himself as "Narcoboss" and used a Mexican booking photo of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman as his profile picture.

In Philadelphia this week, federal prosecutors identified Koffie as a mail-order businessman, a "nationwide drug dealer" who shipped packages of the powerful narcotic fentanyl across the country using USPS Priority Mail.

According to charging documents, Koffie is responsible for the overdose deaths of two men in Portland, Ore., and has been linked to more overdoses in Florida, Idaho, Michigan, North Dakota, and Oregon.

Koffie allegedly ordered bulk quantities of fentanyl 14 times from China and Hong Kong. The drugs were shipped through the U.S. Postal Service to his mother's home in suburban Philadelphia, prosecutors said, and Koffie picked up the drugs and repackaged them into smaller amounts, often pressing the powder into pill form.

He advertised on the dark web, a part of the internet where illegal activities are rife, taking orders from his diverse clientele over a notorious site called AlphaBay, which operated as an escrow service between buyers and vendors. (The site appeared Thursday to have been shut down by the federal government.)

Then Koffie "prolifically" shipped out thousands of parcels using online postage services to buy postage, Priority Mail envelopes, and corner mailboxes, prosecutor's said. His most popular product was "2 Grams China White Synthetic Heroin Fentanyl Mix."

On internet forums, Koffie's alleged alter-ego, Narcoboss, earned glowing reviews for impeccable customer service. He was hailed as a reliable vendor who provided quick service and always included a little more product than the client had paid for. His reputation earned the attention of Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security that pursues cross-border cybercrime.

"He was a top-10 target," said Brian Michael, the agency's deputy special agent in charge in Philadelphia. "He was a large importer of fentanyl." Using not much more than basic internet search tools, the agency determined that Narcoboss had filled more than 6,615 orders for fentanyl at $40 a gram. Federal agents estimated that during a one-year period, Koffie sold more than seven kilograms of the deadly drug and netted at least $260,000.

On June 10, Narcoboss became a short-lived internet star when he was mentioned in a New York Times story about opioid dealers embracing the dark web. Soon after, Narcoboss went silent. Customers, who had praised Narcoboss for two-day shipping, began to grouse about unfilled orders.

"Don't buy from this vendor," grumbled Reddit user Sanyardsent in mid-June. "He isn't shipping out orders anymore; we've been had."

"That's a damn shame," replied NoWayJesus1. "All the opiate vendors are either getting locked up or exiting."

Koffie, 32, was arrested July 5 at his home in Darby, just over the Philadelphia city line, and charged with multiple federal drug-trafficking counts. He was being detained at the Federal Detention Center pending transfer to Oregon, where he will face charges in connection with two fatal overdoses. When federal agents raided Koffie's property, they seized a half-kilogram of fentanyl, several pounds of a binding agent used in pill production, scales, and bank statements.

Michael, of Homeland Security Investigations, said he could not go into detail about the investigation.

"He's definitely one of the largest targets we've taken off the market in the Philadelphia area," Michael said.

Koffie's attorney said the feds may have the wrong man.

"I told the judge that for the purposes of the hearing, that my client was Henry Koffie, but not that he was Narcoboss," said Enrique A. Latoison, whose practice is based in Media.

"When you're dealing with a case on the dark net, anybody can be anybody," said Latoison."The U.S. Attorney is going to have to be able to prove that my client is Narcoboss, and that Narcoboss committed these crimes."

Asked about Koffie's most recent work history, Latoison would not go into specifics.

"I know what his other occupations are, but I can't comment," Latoison said. "He does have legitimate income."
John Dougherty, business manager at the Philadelphia Building Trades Council, will likely get a second in command when the group's executive board meets July 19.

The current president, Wayne Miller, who also heads Sprinkler Fitters Local 692, will likely step into a more responsible position as assistant business manager, a new position under Dougherty, according to several sources. Miller's position will be likely filled by Ryan Boyer, who leads the Laborers' District Council in Philadelphia.

In the building trades, business manager outranks president.

The move comes at a challenging time for Dougherty. His wife, Cecilia, is gravely ill and has been hospitalized for months. And Dougherty, who also leads Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, faces a wide-ranging federal probe into his activities with the union.

But, said Dougherty spokesman Frank Keel, the decision to add an assistant business manager has much to do with the illness of Dougherty's wife  he has been spending hours at the hospital  and nothing to do with any federal probes. Miller lives in Northeast Philadelphia, near the building trade council's office, and can easily handle day-to-day issues, Keel said.

Keel said Dougherty proposed the restructuring in part "to bring diversity to the leadership of the building trades." Building trades have been criticized for not being diverse in proportion to the region's population.

Boyer is African American and leads a council of locals of one of the region's largest building trades, the Laborers International Union of North America. In Philadelphia, Local 332 is primarily African American. For years, its business manager, Sam Staten Sr., had held the president's position on the council. Staten, 80, died April 26, and his son son, Sam Jr., now leads that local.

"It's important that John ran unopposed and was unanimously elected," Keel said. "He has the full support of the membership, and any inference to the contrary is patently false. [The changes] have nothing to do with all the problems. Anybody who is spinning anything other than what I said is a liar."

Boyer said the same. "I fully expect John to be exonerated," he said, adding that there are "zero contingency plans" for any alternate outcome.

Dougherty took over the leadership of the council on Dec. 1, 2015, after Patrick Gillespie, the council's former leader, announced his retirement and shepherded Dougherty into the top spot. A staffer, Bernard Griggs, was also recommended for nomination, but his candidacy never materialized. Griggs remains on the council's staff.

Dougherty, also known as "Johnny Doc," was reelected June 7, along with his entire slate, which included Miller and Patrick Eiding, who heads the Philadephia AFL-CIO. Dougherty's supporters credit him with creating a hassle-free labor situation at the Democratic National Convention last summer and with raising the profile of the city's construction workers. Miller did not return several calls for comment.
Maybe this is why these people are CEOs.

Only Skip Rosskam, honorary president at the flavors firm Tastepoint by IFF and the former chief operating officer of David Michael & Co., will admit to "pure escapism" for his summer reading. "Grisham, Patterson, Vince Flynn," he wrote. Of course, Rosskam,70, sold his company this year, which might have affected his summer reading.

Our other CEOs are busy reading heavy tomes about business, leadership, history, and the state of the nation and the world. One CEO, newly married, is so conscientious, he's reading a how-to book on relationships. We asked Philly's CEOs to tell us what's on their nightstands  or in their beach chairs  this summer. Here's what they said:

Business

Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss without Losing Your Humanity, by Kim Scott

"Too many people, particularly bosses, think that the only ways to deal with others are to be completely candid and cruel or to be kind and not `brutally honest.' This book shows that you can criticize directly AND let the person know that you care about their success and life. Love that it once again shows that in human relationships, it is about them, not about you."

Reviewer: Thomas Spann, Accolade, founder and vice chairman

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike, by Phil Knight

"Terrific book. Reads like a well-structured novel. The book reaffirmed my strong belief in surrounding yourself with the right people who have talents and strengths you don't have. Also, if you want to build something great, whether it's an iconic brand and culture like Nike, or anything, for that matter, it takes vision, guts, determination and the will to never give up even when the odds are stacked against you."

Reviewer: Carl A. Ortell, Holman Enterprises, chief executive

1,000 CEOs, by Andrew Davidson and Marshall Goldsmith

"This book profiles the ups and downs of the world's most powerful people  corporate titans whose careers help me to realize that only the strong survive. I recommend this book for CEOs who need encouragement. After all, heavy is the head that wears the crown."

Reviewer: Donna L. Allie, Team Clean, founder and chief executive

Blue Ocean Strategy, by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

"This book challenges all of your perceived perceptions about strategy and makes the point that the last thing you want to do is focus your strategy on your competitors. Rather, focus on the `blue ocean' and what differentiates you, what creates new markets, and makes competitors irrelevant."

Reviewer: Judith M. von Seldeneck, Diversified Search, chairman and founder

History and Politics

Shattered: Inside Hillary Clintons Doomed Campaign, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes

"As a Hillary supporter for years, I was anxious to read an unbiased explanation of what caused the failure of her campaign. According to this book, she couldn't connect, get that stickiness, show transparency, or convey a vision that excited the right groups. She looked to her campaign staff to create it all for her and they were not, nor should they been expected to be, capable of such an undertaking. It made me feel better about what happened."

Reviewer: Judith M. von Seldeneck, Diversified Search, chairman and founder

A Soldiers Story, by Gen. Omar N. Bradley

"Unlike some of his contemporaries, Gen. Omar Bradley did not seek the limelight and was known as the combat soldiers' general. It is important to show the people that you are leading that you are willing to do anything they might have to do. Be down to earth. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. Have a `walk-around' management style. `Lead from the front, not from the rear.' "

Reviewer: Ted Peters, Bluestone Financial Institutions Fund, chairman

Team of Rivals, by Doris Goodwin

"At a time of greater divisions and heightened differences, I've been intrigued by how best to engage with those who clearly have different views and aspirations."

Reviewer: Vikram H. Dewan, Philadelphia Zoo, chief executive

Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydidess Trap? By Graham Allison

"The book provides a compelling overview of how China is on a course (hopefully not collision) economically/technologically/militarily to overtake the U.S. in the next 20 years as the world's dominant power. The author lays out examples of how this dynamic has occurred over the past 500 years between great world powers and that most of those situations ended in very destructive military and economic conflicts/wars. I was compelled to read this book to get above the `fog and white noise' of the current media landscape that tends to focus much more on short term interactions of our government and China and not what really matters the most: How two great economic powers will co-exist in the 21st century. By the way, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump are strikingly similar on how they see their country's place in the world (a good and possibly very bad thing!)"

Reviewer: Rob Wonderling, Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia, chief executive

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of Americas Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson

"The book chronicles the migration of some six million black citizens between roughly 1915 and 1970 from the South to the North and western parts of the U.S. Wilkerson not only relies on some new data and official records to explain this migration, but weaves the story of three black citizens who elected to migrate from the South. It is a page-turner and a book that has helped me in my discussions with our news director as we explore ways to make WHYY even more relevant to this cohort."

Reviewer: William J. Marrazzo, WHYY, chief executive

Other:

The Mans Guide to Women, by John Gottman and Julie Schwartz Gottman

"I was married [June 7] to Philadelphia radio and television pioneer Jill Chernekoff, and want my marriage to always be strong. I'm also a member of the male species, so I need all the wisdom I can get about relationships."

Reviewer: Stephen Tang, Science Center, chief executive

The Paris Architect, by Charles Belfoure

"I have been reading a great deal about the `ordinary' citizens who lived in Europe and the U.S. during the Second World War and extraordinary impact they had on thousands of lives in helping people who were so devastated by the war. I expect [this novel] will be another of those inspiring great reads."

Reviewer: Patricia D. Wellenbach, Please Touch Museum, chief executive

Hop on Pop, by Dr. Seuss

"With our seven grandchildren, it is going to be a busy summer."

Reviewer: Vikram H. Dewan, Philadelphia Zoo, chief executive
The former home of the Inquirer, the Daily News, and Philly.com is set to become the future headquarters for the Philadelphia Police Department. Read more

Conversion of the Inquirer Building on North Broad Street into the Philadelphia Police Department's new headquarters  stacking up to be the second most expensive historic-rehabilitation project of its kind in city history  comes with an extra bonus for the plan's developer: a federal historic-renovation subsidy said to be worth $40 million.

Building owner Bart Blatstein's deal with the city allows him to retain funds generated by the federal historic tax credit being sought in connection with the $280.3 million plan for the 93-year-old tower at 400 N. Broad St., rather than using those proceeds to offset specific project costs.

City officials say the arrangement is a win for taxpayers, because it allows Blatstein to charge less. But compared with other recent property transactions and historic-renovation projects, it appears to be no bargain. And, an Inquirer and Daily News analysis found, it seems likely to translate into a big windfall for Blatstein.

It also ends Blatstein's years-long effort to find a use for the oddly configured property consisting of the 18-story tower that once held editorial offices of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com ,and a sprawling industrial annex designed for printing and distributing newspapers.

Bill Luff, the Philadelphia-based founder of the commercial real estate consultancy CRE Visions LLC, said no other centrally located properties would have met the city's need for office space, holding cells, and other specific police requirements.

"He's sitting there with a massive project that only has a few viable uses," said Luff, who had marketed the building in 2009 for a former owner. "Then somebody shows up with a really complex requirement.  It just seems like the stars were aligned."

But David Thornburgh, president and chief executive of the government-watchdog group Committee of Seventy, said the arrangement deserved extra scrutiny, given that the city has just abandoned an equally costly plan to move police to the former Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building at 4601 Market St. in West Philadelphia after spending $50 million.

"It does raise the stakes," Thornburgh said of the abandoned plan. "The last thing you want to do after making this kind of decision is to give away the store, or be perceived as giving away the store."

Blatstein spokesman Frank Keel declined Thursday to comment about the newspapers' analysis of the deal.

Last month, City Council approved the plan to lease, and ultimately acquire, the 468,000-square-foot building, which has been empty since the departure of the Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com in 2012, to replace the dated four-story police headquarters at 750 Race St. known as the Roundhouse.

The vote followed private talks between city officials and Blatstein. Further discussions are being held to finalize the deal's financial structure and specifics of the lease, with the goal of having the building ready by 2020, city spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said in an email.

Blatstein paid $22.7 million in 2011 for the newspaper building, parking structure, and two adjacent empty lots that are not part of the deal with the city.

In 2014, an effort to develop the building into a casino resort faltered when a gambling license was awarded to a competing proposal in South Philadelphia. The following year, Blatstein made an unsuccessful bid to obtain a $5 million state development grant for a 125-room boutique hotel on part of the property.

Hitt said that other buildings were considered for the new Police Administration Building but that none would have been able to accommodate additional city functions  such as its morgue and toxicology lab  and police district offices that are also bound for the new site, so the other choices would have ultimately cost more.

Under the Council-passed plan, a subsidiary of Blatstein's Tower Investments Inc. will redevelop 400 N. Broad and lease it  along with the adjacent 590-space parking structure at 1501 Callowhill St.  to the city for nine years at a rate of up to $15.6 million a year, after which the renovated properties will be acquired by the city. The lease payments will count toward the final purchase price.

The deal was designed to leave the property in Blatstein's possession for a period covering construction and the first five years of occupancy, so the project could qualify for historic tax-credit support, city officials have said. Under municipal ownership, the project would not qualify for the credit, because cities pay no taxes.

Historic tax credits are valued at 20 percent of a project's eligible expenses, which exclude items such as finance fees and some infrastructure costs. Developers frequently "sell" those credits to entities such as big financial institutions with hefty tax bills, often for a little bit less than their face value.

According to Councilman Allan Domb, who negotiated a price reduction and more favorable interest-rate terms for the city after most of the deal's terms had already been decided, the tax credit being sought is expected to be worth $40 million.

Of the $280.8 million budgeted for the police project, $42 million will go toward buying the building in its current condition for redevelopment, as well as the parking structure at 1501 Callowhill St., according to a breakdown provided by Hitt. Another $207 million is to be spent on renovations, including "soft costs" such as architectural, engineering, financing, and legal fees.

An additional $28.3 million has been allocated for "fixtures, furniture, and equipment," including a specialized exhaust system for the morgue, biosafety equipment for the toxicology lab, and security features such as ballistic glass, crash barriers, and bollards, with an additional $3.5 million going to pay finance-related fees.

All that money, however, comes from city sources, with the federal tax credit unaccounted for as a funding stream.

Hitt disputed that, saying the tax credit is accounted for, "embedded across all the city's costs."

"Regardless of who is the direct recipient of the $40 million tax credit, the tax credits are ultimately reducing the city's costs by that amount," she said.

Hitt put the market value of the parking structure alone at $13.3 million.

Mark Primoli, an accountant in the St. Paul, Minn., area who advises on historic-credit deals, said he was unsure whether the city's effort to structure this deal to qualify for a credit would be successful.

But if the deal manages not to spook investors, the credit proceeds will likely be retained by the project's developer in addition to whatever is charged in fees for the work, said Primoli, a former tax-credit specialist with the Internal Revenue Service.

"They're getting a fee from the city, plus they'll be getting the tax credit," Primoli said after the police headquarters transaction was described to him. "It's a good deal for the developer."

Even with the deal to let Blatstein keep the credit, the city doesn't appear to be getting off cheap.

The $42 million acquisition price for the building in "as-is" condition works out to $90 a square foot. That's more than other vacant or underutilized buildings recently sold for redevelopment, including the former GlaxoSmithKline headquarters at 200 N. 16th St., which traded in 2015 for $71 a square foot, and the 2400 Market St. structure once known as the Marketplace Design Center, for which $86 a square foot was paid while still earning some tenant income in 2014, according to data compiled by the real estate services firm JLL.

The former GSK headquarters sold with rights to about 170 parking spaces in a garage shared with a nearby hotel. The 2400 Market St. sale included a parking structure with space for 450 cars, compared with the Inquirer Building's 590-spot garage on a separate parcel.

Meanwhile, the North Broad Street building's $207 million renovation budget will make it Philadelphia's second most expensive tax-credit project since the subsidy program began in 1976. The most expensive was Brandywine Realty Trust's $240.2 million rehabilitation of the former 30th Street Main Post Office, according to data from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Records list the 1930s-era post office, now home to local IRS offices, at 962,000 square feet, more than double the size of the former newspaper building.

The 30th Street project received final tax-credit certification in 2011, when material and labor costs were lower than they are now. But next to more recent projects, the newspaper building's conversion also looks expensive, about $442 a square foot. That's 73 percent greater than the $256-a-square-foot average for the five Philadelphia office projects receiving historic tax credits since mid-2013 for which complete information is available from the state Historical and Museum Commission and other sources, according to the newspapers' analysis.

Per square foot, the most expensive office project to use tax credits during that period was Drexel University's conversion of a 33,200-square-foot complex of historic properties into the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships for $12.2 million, or $367 a square foot.

Hitt said the police plan should not be compared with other renovation projects because of its complexity and the number of law enforcement and other city functions involved.

"That specialization is extremely expensive  way and above the normal construction costs you'd have to do for an office building," she said. "This will be the nucleus for the city's public-safety operations, so it has to be built to survive natural and man-made events."
Vanessa Natale, daughter of former Philly mob boss Ralph Natale, is accused of "strong-arming" Jesse Goode (right), an administrative law judge. Read more

Labor disputes typically bore us, but Clout couldn't ignore this tip from Washington when it came across our desk.

Former Philadelphia mob boss Ralph Natale's daughter, now a lawyer in the District, is ensnared in a knock-down-drag-out fight with a judge who accuses her of "strong-arming" him with some, uh, familiar tactics  including referencing her Mafia heritage.

Jesse Goode, an administrative law judge with the Office of Administrative Hearings, filed the unfair-labor-practice complaint this month against Vanessa Natale, the office's general counsel.

Goode, president of the local labor union for administrative judges, says Natale entered his office in March and informed him that anonymous letters in his file had left him "at peril" of not being reappointed as judge.

According to Goode, Natale suggested that his problems would go away if his union made concessions in a separate labor matter within the office.

"That's what I need you to do," Natale told Goode, according to a complaint Goode filed with the Public Employee Relations Board.

But that's not what caught our attention.

After the March 22 meeting with Natale, Goode notified a national union official  and other colleagues  and documented the conversation that evening with a detailed email that said in part:

"Weirdly, Ms. Natale also talked for a bit about the fact her father was a 'mob Boss' in 'Philly,' how he spent 20 years in prison because of his mob activities, and she had to testify at his sentencing hearing." Goode added, "It was very strange. It felt like she was trying to show me that she is tough, connected to tough people, and a street fighter. "

Uh-oh. Contemporaneous notes, a la James Comey, the FBI director who was canned by President Trump.

Paul Shearon, secretary-treasurer of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the umbrella union that represents Goode and other administrative judges, confirmed that Goode reported the alleged shakedown March 22, and that Goode said then that Natale had mentioned her father.

"I did a quick Google search and found out who her father was and thought, 'Holy s,'" Shearon said. "This is extremely unusual, to say the least."

Vanessa Natale was none too pleased about Goode's allegations when we got her on the horn.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. He's lying," Natale said. "It's very dirty, what they're doing."

Natale said Goode is just angry that the office's chief administrative law judge wrote in a letter June 20 that he wasn't supporting Goode's reappointment.

Then, 11 minutes after we hung up with Natale, Philadelphia lawyer George Bochetto called and said Goode's allegations had no merit.

"This is some low-level critter judge trying to save his skin," Bochetto said.

We have not heard back from Bochetto since we told him that Goode emailed notes of the Natale meeting in March  three months before the letter that Natale said triggered his accusations.

As a side note, Vanessa Natale used to be BFFs with Ruthann Seccio, Ralph Natale's ex-mistress. He met Seccio back in 1994 when she was sunning by the pool with Vanessa.

"That's how I met Ralph," Seccio told us this week. "We were seeing each other for a while, and when she found out, we just distanced ourselves."

Last time we wrote about Seccio, she was threatening to go after Ralph with an "8-pack of TNT" because he dissed her in his memoir.

We hope that doesn't come to pass.

PPA cuts journo some slack

We've been pretty hard on the Philadelphia Parking Authority this year, but it turns out they do have a heart. Last week, Josh Cornfield, an Associated Press editor and Daily News alum, posted a note on his car, parked in Northern Liberties, saying that his sister had just delivered twins and he was babysitting her daughter.

"Hope you can let me slide on two-hour limit. Thank you," Cornfield wrote.

A PPA officer left a blank ticket and replied: "This is not a ticket. 1st, congrats to your sister. 2nd, get your car inspected."

With a smiley face at the bottom.

Splish-splash, pols takin a bath

It's been hot outside this week  darned hot. Your loyal Clout contributors gasped for air when we stepped outside the air-conditioned Inquirer and Daily News offices.

Normally it's the toxic mixture of bus fumes and body odor that smothers the Market East corridor like an old wool blanket. This time, it was the swamp-like humidity. Made us think about how much happier we could've been if we'd spent the day swan diving into a city pool like City Councilman Mark Squilla.

Speaking of which: The councilman suggested last month that he might challenge his colleagues to jump into public pools in their districts next year, too.

But what it we upped the stakes a little bit? That's right, gang, it's time for a reader poll. (Did we mention how slow things get for Clout during the summer months? Real slow. Tumbleweed slow.)

If you could (gently) push one local pol into a swimming pool, whom would it be? Maybe we can work out a charity angle here.

Let us know your top picks and we'll post them in next week's star-studded edition of Clout. Email: clout@philly.com.

Quotable

"My God, this kid was dropped on his head as a child!"  Republican strategist Ana Navarro, referring to Donald "Fredo" Trump Jr.

Staff writers William Bender, David Gambacorta, and Jason Laughlin contributed to this column.
If you've seen the trailers for The Big Sick, you've seen the motion picture film debut of North Penn high grad Kuhoo Verma.

She's plays one of several prospective Muslim brides who form a funny-but-important story thread in the movie, the story of a Pakistani-American (Kumail Nanjiani) who's afraid to tell his devout parents he has an American girlfriend. Verma plays Zubeida, who tries to impress Nanjiani with her enthusiasm for The X Files, which she's been told is his favorite show (her laugh line: An enthusiastic recitation of "The truth is out there.").

Read more: 'The Big Sick': Finally, Hollywood gets a comedy

Though Verma's not on screen for long, she was on set for an entire day, improvising with Nanjiani and director Michael Showalter, just to find the right rhythm and the right comedic note for the bit that turns up in the film, which opened in Philly last week, but expands its nationwide footprint to 2,500 theaters (from 365) Friday.

"This was my first experience in film and I didn't know what to expect. It was one of the last days of shooting, so the cast was very comfortable with each other, and I was this new person walking into this creative family," Verma recalled. "That being said, it was kind of like 'My Day,'" she said. The cast and crew were nearing the end of a long journey, and "they were there to facilitate my scene."

She was nervous but soon found it easy to get down to work. "I was so scared, but by the end they were all applauding."

Verma's background is theater  she played Belle in the North Penn's production of Beauty and the Beast  and found on-camera work a new challenge. "In live theater, you don't have to do it more than once. [In film], you find yourself sitting around a lot, and you have to re-create that energy out of nowhere, over and over again," she said.

Verma's path to The Big Sick was unusual. She doesn't have an agent and attends NYU to study vocal performance, where's she in her third year. Some time ago a friend suggested she answer the casting call for a theatrical version of Mira Nair's 2001 film Monsoon Wedding, just to "'get her toes wet."

Verma went "to figure out what it feels like to be in a real professional audition room."

Read more: Sleeper hit: Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon talk about their coma comedy 'The Big Sick.'

She got a call back, but eventually lost the job to another candidate. The producers gave her a consolation prize  a head's up about auditions for the Big Sick job, which incredibly enough she got. Even more incredibly, she got another call from the Monsoon Wedding producers saying that after further consideration, she'd gotten that job as well.

"I must have done something pretty great in my last life to be this lucky, so much of this field is just luck," Verma said. "It just doesn't happen this easily. I've definitely put in the work, but you don't expect things to happen this way. It's like magic."

Also magical: putting in her day on The Big Sick, then finding out her scene was selected for one of the movie's trailers. In the old days, her phone would have been ringing off the hook. These days, the words of surprise and encouragement turned up on her Facebook page.

Verma knows she's lucky, and lucky to have attended North Penn.

"My entire high school experience was the theater classes. They have such an amazing theater program; I was lucky to be a part of that school. If I was anywhere else, I don't think I'd be where I am now," she said. "Everyone I knew in high school has been taking a minute to post on my wall, and really just being incredibly supportive."
Susan Benton welcomed attendees to the 2017 Partners Conference on Thursday with a quote.

"We are each other's harvest, we are each other's business, we are each other's magnitude and bond," she said, quoting Gwendolyn Brooks' poem "Paul Robeson."

Benton, president and CEO of the Urban Libraries Council, said she couldn't think of better words to open the conference at the Logan Hotel, where more than a dozen heads of public libraries from around the country gathered to seek new ways to form partnerships with their local leaders.

"The conference really is about reinforcing the idea that the library needs to acknowledge [that] its partners are essential," said Siobhan Reardon, president and director of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The Urban Libraries Council is an association of libraries in the United States and Canada, and advocates for libraries, encourages innovation among its members, and promotes partnerships between libraries and communities. The three-day conference ends Friday. It includes panel discussions, speakers, a visit to the National Constitution Center, and an awards ceremony, where Christopher Coleman, the mayor of St. Paul, Minn., will receive the Urban Leader Award for his work with his city's library system.

After a welcome reception on Wednesday evening, the conference officially got underway Thursday morning. During the first panel discussion of the day, representatives from the city, the William Penn Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and Brandywine Realty Trust spoke about the importance of libraries and why they need to build strong partnerships with local organizations.

"Libraries are an important public institution, one of the equalizing public institutions in the history of the country, [that] have a very important role to play," said Managing Director Michael DiBerardinis, one of the panelists.

"I think the Philadelphia system and the Philadelphia partnerships and the Philadelphia civic community, we want, at least this administration, Mayor Kenney, wants it to be a leading force in that effort," he added.

Benton praised the city's Rebuild initiative, a $500 million effort to renovate parks. recreation centers, and libraries, calling it a model for cities and counties around the country. It is to be funded by the sweetened-drinks tax, which is embroiled in a lawsuit.

"It's basically saying we will not accept anything but the best. We're not going to accept things being marginalized in the city, we're going to be a strong city," she said.

Benton, citing a statistic from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, said 67 percent of children nationwide are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade. She said libraries improve literacy, especially among the poor.

Sheba Marcus-Bey, director of the East Cleveland, Ohio, public library system, agreed, saying libraries are tools against economic problems in cities.

"We're at the bottom, and we have to come back up," she said. "And so, the library is one of the resources that could help our community come back up."

Maureen Hartman, deputy director of the St. Paul library system, said the conference was useful.

"I'm really inspired and motivated by the work that other library systems are continuing to do  to think about libraries beyond just the books that are on our shelves," she said.
Elizabeth R. Bodine, 96, formerly of Wyndmoor, an English teacher, world traveler, and civic volunteer, died Friday, July 7, of heart failure in her home at Foulkeways at Gwynedd, where she had lived for the last 27 years.

Born at Lankenau Hospital, Mrs. Bodine was known to friends as "Betty." She grew up in Germantown. the daughter of pathologist Stanley P. Reimann and homemaker Elsie B. Reimann, who accompanied her to and from Germantown Friends School each weekday on the Walnut Lane trolley until the family purchased a car.

While at Germantown Friends, she was praised on an early report card for "good development and fertile individuality," but warned that she "is not good about cleaning up, but improving."

After graduating as class valedictorian in 1937, she received a bachelor's degree from Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, both in English. In the 1980s, she taught the subject to eighth graders at Germantown Friends, and to young adults at the Ambler campus of Temple University.

Mrs. Bodine was a voracious reader. She read the New York Times daily and belonged to a book club at Foulkeways, a senior community in Montgomery County.

"Her children learned early on that reading was not just a gift, but a responsibility in English, and occasionally French and Latin," the family said in an appreciation. "She also read and spoke some German, a requirement in [her childhood] household."

Mrs. Bodine also loved music. Her father, a skilled amateur pianist, taught Mrs. Bodine to sight-read, and she, too, became an accomplished pianist. She played with other instrumentalists in a chamber music group at the family home. Her children said they had "fond memories of Schubert's 'Trout Quintet' wafting up the stairs where they sat, out of the musicians' way."

"When we heard them playing the quintet, we knew we didn't have to go to bed," said daughter Susie Holahan. "Nobody was there to supervise us."

Mrs. Bodine studied with pianist Rudolf Serkin. She accompanied the Smith College Orchestra on piano, and until a year ago, played for religious services at Foulkeways.

Mrs. Bodine also sang at some of the musical evenings hosted by Dr. Henry S. Drinker at his home in Wynnewood. At one of the musicales, Mrs. Bodine had a first date with her future husband, John W. Bodine. A lawyer and Rhodes scholar, he advocated for reform during the Joseph S. Clark-Richardson Dilworth era of the late 1940s.

The couple married in 1943, and reared four daughters in Wyndmoor. Bodine, the president of the Penjerdel Council, an early attempt at regional cooperation, died in 1991 at age 79.

Mrs. Bodine supported the Settlement Music School, American Friends Services Committee, Planned Parenthood, and International House. She served as an alumnae trustee with an interest in Smith College's School for Social Work.

She had friends everywhere.

"We heard stories about various boyfriends and were amazed and delighted when Dr. Allan J. Erslev, a friend from her past, resurfaced and was Betty's devoted companion for eight wonderful years following the deaths of their respective spouses," her children wrote. Erslev, a Haverford resident, died in 2003 at age 84.

The Bodines traveled widely  to England, Russia, Iran, Peru, the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Germany, Scandinavia, and a ranch in Wyoming.

Summers were for camping, monthlong visits to a compound outside Freeport, Maine, and time spent at the family vacation house in the Poconos.

After her husband's death, Mrs. Bodine traveled with granddaughters to Chile and China. She went on safari to Africa, visited Australia, New Zealand, and France, and toured Seattle and Victoria, British Columbia, with an Elderhostel group.

A lifelong Democrat, Mrs. Bodine closely followed current events, and held strong opinions.

"There was a huge amount of discussion around our dinner table. There was a map of the world on the dining-room wall," said her daughter. If a place came up in conversation, the children would be asked to locate it on the map.

Besides her daughter, Mrs. Bodine was survived by daughters Amelia Bergmann, Lucy Nattrass, and Cornelia McCann; 11 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. A sister died earlier.

A memorial service will be at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, July 16, in the auditorium at Foulkeways at Gwynedd, 1120 Meetinghouse Rd. Burial will be private.

Memorial donations may be made to the Settlement Music School via www.settlemusic.org, or to Planned Parenthood of Southeastern PA via www.ppsp.org.
WASHINGTON -- "I love it."

That's how Donald Trump Jr. responded, we now know, to an email last year offering dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government.

What I love is the defense of this attempt by senior Trump campaign officials to receive Russian help in the election. As my colleagues John Wagner and Rosalind Helderman report, presidential advisers are explaining away the meeting with the Russian lawyer as a "rookie mistake" by an "unsophisticated" campaign.

"Rookie mistake": the all-purpose defense of the Trump White House.

When President Trump failed to support NATO's collective-defense promise, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called it "a rookie mistake." After revelations of Trump's meddling in the FBI's Russia probe, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) explained that Trump is "new at this." The rookie-error explanation has been employed to describe Trump's firing of FBI Director James B. Comey, his handling of health care and his legislative approach.

There have been enough rookie errors to send this whole team back to Double-A ball. The longer this goes on -- we're now six months into Trump's term -- the less it looks like growing pains than incompetence and mismanagement aggravated by nepotism and dishonesty.

Returning from three weeks abroad, I've been catching up on developments at home. These weeks, though highly abnormal by usual standards, were fairly typical of the Trump presidency. Mistakes and outrages are so common that we become numb to them. But stack three weeks of the embarrassments together and the cumulative effect makes it plain that this is amateur hour for the greatest nation on Earth:

The president, representing the United States at the Group of 20 summit in Germany, tweets that "everyone" at the world conference is talking about why Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta wouldn't give DNC servers to law enforcement. Trump erroneously claims the CIA sought the server. Podesta, who had no authority over the DNC, urges "our whack job" president to "get a grip."

Trump gives a speech in Warsaw contradicting an earlier speech he gave in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. While in Poland, he publicly disparages U.S. intelligence agencies.

The president meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the White House press release identifies his country as "the Republic of China" -- that is, China's foe Taiwan.

Trump meets with Vladimir Putin and tweets that he "discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit" with Putin. Twelve hours later, Trump tweets that such a "Cyber Security unit" can't happen.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tells reporters that Trump discussed sanctions with Putin. Trump tweets the next day: "Sanctions were not discussed." (The previous month, Tillerson called for the end to a blockade of Qatar; hours later, Trump touted the Qatar blockade.)

Trump's voter-fraud commission requests voter files and is roundly rejected by Democratic and Republican state officials alike; the Mississippi secretary of state, a Republican, tells the commission to "go jump in the Gulf of Mexico."

In spite of Trump's vow that a North Korean missile capable of reaching the United States "won't happen," North Korea tests an ICBM. Trump calls this "very, very bad behavior."

The president tweets that a cable-news host, Mika Brzezinski, was "bleeding badly from a face-lift" when he met her. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) responds: "Please just stop."

Trump follows this by tweeting a mock professional wrestling video of him pummeling "Fraud News CNN."

The Post's David Fahrenthold reports that fake Time magazine covers featuring Trump were on display in at least five of Trump's clubs.

The president, who had implied he had tapes of his talks with Comey, tweets that there are no such tapes. Lawmakers, calling the president's word insufficient, threaten to subpoena the tapes.

Trump claims the Senate health-care bill "is working along very well." Republican leaders soon abandon plans to have a vote on the bill.

The White House issues a statement threatening to bomb the Syrian regime. Both the intelligence community and the Pentagon appear to be caught off guard.

Eight months after the election, Trump tweets: "Hillary Clinton colluded with the Democratic Party in order to beat Crazy Bernie Sanders."

Now, after months of Trump denials of Russia contacts, comes proof of a Russia meeting with Donald Jr., Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul J. Manafort during the campaign. Among Junior's conflicting explanations: It was OK because the Russian didn't produce good dirt on Clinton.

And these are just some of the misfires.

They aren't rookie mistakes. This is a team that never should have taken the field.
Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart makes a surprise appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Thursday night to address Delco teen Will Rubin. Read more

Jon Stewart made a surprise television appearance Thursday night, and it had nothing to do with President Trump, Stephen Colbert or politics of any kind.

In fact, it was all about a Delaware County teen's bar mitzvah.

Will Rubin, a 13-year-old who lives in Media, decided to make late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel the focus of his ceremony, complete with a set mimicking the stage of Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

"I want your job one day," Rubin said in a video Kimmel aired on his show Thursday night. The host responded: "I don't know if that was an invitation or a threat."

Kimmel ultimately didn't attend the ceremony, noting there was "no way in hell I'm going to Media, Pennsylvania." But he did send Rubin an ice sculpture of his sidekick Guillermo's head and filmed a video message that was aired during the bar mitzvah.

"Today, you become a man with no body hair," Kimmel quipped.

"When I heard you themed your bar mitzvah after my show, I was so moved I called my attorney to see what kind of damages I could collect." Kimmel added. "But then a little voice in my head told me the optics of suing a 13-year-old on his big day might not look right, so I agree to settle for half of the money your grandparents give you tonight."

Rubin appeared on Kimmel's show Thursday night in a remote interview, and just as Kimmel was asking the Delco teen about the ceremony, a bearded stranger stumbled onto the set wearing a T-shirt and a pair of jeans.

It was Stewart.

"I'm Jon Stewart; I'm a talk show host as well  I was, years ago," Stewart told Rubin. "And I'm a Jew. You probably had your choice of idolizing any talk show host, and you could have gone with a Jew, is what I'm saying."

After asking to speak with Rubin, Stewart implored Kimmel to "sheket b'vakasha" (which translates to "be quiet please" in Hebrew). He turned back to Rubin and noted that Kimmel didn't understand the reference because he's not Jewish.

"Don't be fooled by his learned-looking beard and his puffy, sad eyes. He's not rabbinical, he's just unhealthy," Stewart added. "Will, wouldn't you rather idolize a talk show host who is also circumcised? He's not. Will, I don't know how I put this. How do the kids say this? He's still wearing his hoodie."

Kimmel then asked Rubin: "Maybe you can have a Jon Stewart themed wedding?"

"I'll think about it," the teen dryly responded.
A tourist on the Caribbean island country of St. Maarten was killed Wednesday after a blast from a jet that was taking off nearby knocked her into a retaining wall, police said.

The 57-year-old New Zealander had been standing at a fence that separates Maho Beach and a runway at Princess Juliana International Airport, police said. The area has become a popular, albeit dangerous, tourist attraction for those seeking to feel the powerful winds of an aircraft's jet-engine revving for takeoff just yards away.

At the time of the incident, the unidentified woman had been hanging onto the fence along with several others, according to a statement from the Police Force of Sint Maarten. As a large plane was taking off, the woman was "blown away by the jet blast and was seriously injured," police said.

Despite immediate response from police and paramedics, the woman died shortly afterward at St. Maarten Medical Center, police said.

St. Maarten police spokesman Ricardo Henson told the Washington Post that it was the first such fatality, though there have been minor injuries in the past as a result of people trying to stand in the jet blast while clinging to the fence. Police do not have an official number of how many injuries have occurred at Maho Beach, he said.

The police statement acknowledged that watching planes take off and land at the Sint Maarten airport is "well known world wide as a major tourist attraction" but notes that doing so is extremely dangerous. Airport and local officials have placed signs along the airport's chain-link fence, warning them of the dangers of standing there while a plane is taking off, and officers patrol the area during busy hours, police said.

Despite the warnings, the area remains a huge tourist draw for thrill-seekers and aviation enthusiasts. Numerous videos on YouTube show beachgoers  many still in their swimsuits  lined up along a chain-link fence at the end of the airport's runway as a plane prepares to take off. The sheer force of the blasts from these jet engines can be seen blowing loose shoes, beach towels and sand straight back into the clear blue waters of the Caribbean behind them. Even those who cling to the fence can have a hard time holding on.

In 2012, two tourists were injured outside the airport after the force of a jet-engine blast blew them away. In one viral video of the incident, a girl can be seen being overpowered by a gust of wind, which slams her headfirst into a low concrete wall behind her.

Airport spokesman Damien Schmidt only confirmed that a woman had died Wednesday "as a result of injuries sustained during an unfortunate accident while an aircraft took off."

"Further investigation by the local authorities will have to show what exactly took place; for now we cannot express enough, our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of the deceased," he said in a statement.

St. Maarten tourism director Rolando Brison told the New Zealand Herald Wednesday he had offered his condolences to the family of the woman who died.

"I met with the family of the deceased this evening and while they recognized that what they did was wrong, through the clearly visible danger signs, they regret that risk they took turned out in the worst possible way," Brison told the newspaper. "At this time I only wish to express my deepest sympathy to the family and loved ones while we continue to investigate what transpired just hours ago.  I didn't want to ask them too many questions at this time, just wanted them to know we are here for them."
New Jersey state employees rally outside the Statehouse in Trenton calling for retroactive pay for those who missed work because of the government shutdown this month. Read more

TRENTON  New Jersey lawmakers came one step closer Thursday to paying state employees who missed work during the government shutdown this month.

During a special session Thursday morning, the state Senate approved a measure calling for retroactive pay to all state employees who were involuntarily furloughed during the shutdown. For the bill to become law, the Assembly would also need to approve it and Gov. Christie would need to sign it.

Shortly after the Senate vote was held Thursday, state employees rallied outside of the Statehouse in support of the back pay.

Many state government agencies were shut down from July 1 to 3. The majority of affected employees missed work on July 3, a Monday, but Motor Vehicle Commission employees as well as workers at state parks and beaches also missed work over the weekend. Christie said Wednesday that he would approve legislation to restore back pay for those workers if it reaches his desk.

The Senate passed the bill Thursday by a 31-0 vote. Between 30,000 and 35,000 workers would receive retroactive pay if the bill becomes law.

Senate Assistant Majority Leader Linda Greenstein, a Democrat, said the back pay would "make a radical difference" to the employees affected.

"People do live paycheck to paycheck," Greenstein said. "And just losing one day's pay really affects people."

Senators said Thursday that they were unsure exactly how much money would be paid in total to the furloughed workers.

Some legislators, such as Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, have called on Christie to use executive power to pay the employees. Whether or not Christie has the ability to do that was a point of disagreement Thursday. Christie has said he does not.

"If the governor wants a bill to sign, what's the big deal?" said Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat and a sponsor of the Senate bill.

While addressing employees at the rally outside the Statehouse, Prieto said the Assembly would return to the Statehouse before the end of the month to approve the bill.

"That's not a problem at all," Prieto said. "But the one thing I will tell you is [Christie] has always found a way to do things, and I think he could do this" by executive order.



During the shutdown, Christie aroused public anger by spending time with his family on Island Beach State Park, a beach that had been declared closed to the public. An image of the governor lounging in a beach chair  and internet memes inspired by the image  quickly went viral.

Christie ordered the shutdown of nonessential services after the Legislature missed the deadline for approving a budget for fiscal year 2018 that began July 1. Christie had insisted on legislation to restructure the state's largest health insurer, Horizon Blue Cross, before he would sign the budget. While Sweeney was amenable, Prieto balked. A compromise was reached and the shutdown ended.

The rally, organized by the New Jersey branch of the Communications Workers of America, lasted about 30 minutes. State employees joined together in chants calling for the back pay, held signs critical of Christie, and listened to several speakers, including Prieto and Greenstein.

Ron Roberts, 56, who processes mail for the Division of Pension and Benefits, involuntarily missed work during the shutdown and was among those at Thursday's rally. He said he came to the rally to express his dismay with Christie, who Roberts said was "breaking the law" by not using his executive power to pay the state employees.

"We wanted to come to work. We were forced out of work," Roberts said. "It's sad that we have to come here to fight for one to three days of pay."
And here comes Donald Trump Jr., bringing up the 'ear.

Last we saw The New Yorker's Barry Blitt rendering judgment on the White House with flighted fancy, the oft-viral cover artist was depicting Attorney General Jeff Sessions dragging ousted FBI boss James Comey through the aisle, United Airlines-style, for "Ejected."

Now, for next week's issue, Blitt has painted the Stooge-inspired "Grounded," in which President Donald Trump has a lock on the lobe on Donnie Jr. (and boots son-in-law Jared Kushner) amid revelations of a Russian meeting last summer  a Trump Tower campaign sit-down confirmed by Trump the Younger's own tweets.

At this rate, Blitt could illustrate major events of the administration entirely through aerial metaphors, with such future cover titles as "The Plane Dealer," "Air Farce One" and "covFAA." Till then, DT Junior remains his latest err-brushed figure of editorial satire.

Blitt, in illuminating "Grounded," aptly references a Russian: "Tolstoy said that 'happy families are all alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Somehow this seems to apply to the Trumps, particularly lately."

At the beginning of the week, Francoise Mouly, the magazine's art editor, was looking forward to a non-Trump illustration. That was Before Junior.

"We had a nice summer image in place, and were delighted not to have to think about yet another Trump cover," Mouly tells the Post. "But as Junior kept widening his revelations, it became more and more inevitable that an image should mark the moment.

"Barry Blitt felt that the story was about dumbness at the highest level," Mouly continues, "and when he proposed to depict the president in a Three Stooges mode, we knew we had the apt metaphor for what we're living through."
Pennsylvania State Treasurer Joe Torsella said without a complete budget package, the state could run out of money as early as next month. Read more

HARRISBURG  State Treasurer Joe Torsella warned Thursday that the commonwealth could run out of money to pay its bills by the end of August unless the legislature quickly passes a responsible revenue package to balance its budget.

That's alarmingly early in the year, said Torsella, who said he also fears that the state's cash-flow problems could last for a worrisome eight straight months.

"That's not some distant prospect," said Torsella, a Democrat. "There is going to come some real trouble soon."

If the state did run out of money, Gov. Wolf could be forced to make dramatic cuts.

Budget negotiations continue in private, and spokespeople for some of the leaders said they remained optimistic a deal could be reached  although they disagreed on when and provided no details as to why.

"Gov. Wolf continues to negotiate with Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly and is optimistic that all parties can come together to balance the budget," said J.J. Abbott, the governor's spokesman.

Jennifer Kocher, a spokeswoman for the Senate Republicans, said: "There is a willingness by everyone involved to finalize everything and to do so quickly. We are close to a final deal."

But Steve Miskin, a spokesman for House Republicans, said he did not believe a deal on revenue would happen "right away."

"Hopefully I'm wrong about that," he said.

Many of the hallways in the Capitol were empty Thursday. Both the Republican-controlled House and the Senate were in recess  with no definite return date  and many legislators had returned home to their districts.

On June 30 the legislature passed a nearly $32 billion spending plan, and Wolf, a Democrat, allowed it to lapse into law without his signature this week. Missing are the code bills, which further detail how that money is to be spent, and a revenue package that would outline where the state would get the money to cover those expenses.

Negotiators face the challenge of closing a $1.5 billion shortfall in the fiscal year that just ended  the largest since the 2009 recession  and a projected $700 million deficit in the one that began July 1.

The treasurer's office predicts that without a revenue package, the general fund  the state's main bank account  would need to borrow as much as $3 billion this fiscal year.

Money in the general fund regularly ebbs and flows throughout the year, and the Treasury typically provides short-term loans to cover the state when its account is short. But in recent years, Torsella said, the loan amounts have increased and covered longer periods of time.

"What was a cold that you could take an aspirin for is now an eight-month chronic illness," he said.

Torsella said Treasury would still be willing to do some short-term lending, but "I've said we don't have the ability to do it to this degree, and I can't responsibly be OK with going to the private market if there's no revenue to sort of base that on."

Miskin, the House GOP spokesman, said the treasurer's "publicity interviews" aren't "changing how legislative leaders are thinking about it."

"Everyone gets it," he said.

He contended the state was facing a $1.5 billion shortfall in last fiscal year's budget "because the administration and the treasurer kept spending money we didn't have."

He said that instead of allowing the spending plan to lapse into law absent a revenue package to pay for it, Wolf should have struck spending lines from it to bring it into balance  a process known in Harrisburg as "blue-lining."

"Ultimately, it is the governor's responsibility to sign the budget or blue-line it," Miskin said. "Since that didn't happen, now he has to decide whether he can fund things. He should be putting money in budgetary reserves  but that requires making a decision."
They were just three words  not even uttered in real life but in a Hollywood movie  that nevertheless came to define American politics over the last 40-plus years. "Follow the money." That's what the fictional portrayal of the whistleblower "Deep Throat" told Bob Woodward in the 1976 movie version of "All the President's Men" was the key to tracing the real roots of the Watergate scandal  follow the flow of illegal campaign money into Richard Nixon's 1972 campaignwho it came from and where it was going. It turned out, of course, that the money from favor-seeking millionaires paid for illegal bugging, break-ins and other dirty tricks, and Nixon became the first and only president to resign in disgrace (so far). Despite that, the role of money in propelling political power in America grew only stronger.

Now it's 2017 and things have changed. Money is still important, and more dark money flows into our politics than ever before. But that's because money helps campaigns buy the real source of political power: Knowledge. And in the computer era, knowledge means data: Where to find your voters, how to reach them, what to tell them that will guarantee they turn out to vote for your candidate  or how to make the other side stay home.

If there was a Deep Throat in the Trump-Russia scandal, this is what he'd be telling today's Woodwards and Bernsteins:

Follow the data.

With all the drama over this week's bombshell disclosures of Donald Trump Jr.'s emails and a previously unknown Trump Tower meeting between top campaign officials and a woman who'd been pitched to them as "a Russian government lawyer," there was another investigative report that arguably could have equal or greater significance in the ongoing probes of wrongdoing in the 2016 campaign. It said probers are now taking a much closer look at possible cooperation between Russia  which had an operation to churn out "fake news" about Hillary Clinton during the fall campaign  and the Trump campaign's data operation.

The campaign's data effort was overseen by President Trump's son-in-law and arguably his closest adviser, Jared Kushner. Here's what the McClatchy News Service reported Wednesday:

Investigators at the House and Senate Intelligence committees and the Justice Department are examining whether the Trump campaign's digital operation  overseen by Jared Kushner  helped guide Russia's sophisticated voter targeting and fake news attacks on Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Congressional and Justice Department investigators are focusing on whether Trump's campaign pointed Russian cyber operatives to certain voting jurisdictions in key states  areas where Trump's digital team and Republican operatives were spotting unexpected weakness in voter support for Hillary Clinton, according to several people familiar with the parallel inquiries.

The Washington Post also took a deep dive into the important of the "fake news" blitz in helping bring out Trump's surprise victory in November.

In October of last year, Bloomberg News reported that the campaign's digital arm, run by Brad Parscale, would target possible Hillary Clinton voters for an inverse pitch. The Trump campaign would not show them ads making the case for voting for Trump; instead, they showed videos that they hoped would dampen enthusiasm for Clinton  and get the voters to stay home.

[A] young staffer showed off a South Park-style animation he'd created of Clinton delivering the "super predator" line (using audio from her original 1996 sound bite), as cartoon text popped up around her: "Hillary Thinks African Americans are Super Predators." The animation will be delivered to certain African American voters through Facebook "dark posts"  nonpublic posts whose viewership the campaign controls so that, as Parscale puts it, "only the people we want to see it, see it."

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia back in May questioned how the Russian fake-news-spreaders knew which voters to contact. He said: "When you see some of the explanation and some of the fact that it appears that, for example, women and African Americans were targeted in places like Wisconsin and Michigan, where the Democrats were too brain dead to realize those states were even in play  It was interesting that those states seem to be targeted where the bots  where they could could create a lot of these fake Twitter and Facebook accounts, could in fact overwhelm the targeted search engines that would end up saying on your news feed, you suddenly got stuff that "Hillary Clinton's sick" or "Hillary Clinton's stealing money from the State Department."

It's fascinating: Most of the media attention has focused on the emails that were hacked  i.e., stolen  a felony  from Democratic sources, allegedly by the Russians, and then leaked to help Trump's campaign. The key points in the Trump Jr. emails bombshell were that 1) Russia wanted Trump to win the election and 2) Trump's inner circle seemed eager to cooperate with them. And so if the Trump campaign somehow provided data to Russia's "fake news" content farms, that would suggest an even closer level of cooperation between the winning presidential campaign and an adversarial foreign power that wanted a new president to lift economic sanctions.

Here's where it really gets interesting. The Trump campaign, including Kushner (who also took part in the Trump Tower confab with the Russian lawyer) worked closely with a data firm  Cambridge Analytica  connected to Trump's richest, most secretive and arguably most influential backer, hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, and his daughter Rebekah. That circle also includes another top Trump adviser, Steve Bannon, who was on the Cambridge Analytica board of directors, and Kellyanne Conway, who did consulting work for the Mercers before she connected with Trump.

Much of this scenario was spelled out in an article that appeared on the website Just Security in May. After the election, Kushner bragged that micro-targeting was Trump's secret weapon, and he specifically praised the Mercer-run outfit for Forbes:

This wasn't a completely raw startup. Kushner's crew was able to tap into the Republican National Committee's data machine, and it hired targeting partners like Cambridge Analytica to map voter universes and identify which parts of the Trump platform mattered most: trade, immigration or change.

A deeply reported investigative piece in the Guardian, also published in May, made two explosive claims about Cambridge Analytica's work over the course of 2016 that go well beyond Kushner's claims. The first was that a key part of the Mercers' firm's work was indeed to suppress the Democratic turnout last November. Specifically:

Cambridge Analytica worked on campaigns in several key states for a Republican political action committee. Its key objective, according to a memo the Observer has seen, was "voter disengagement" and "to persuade Democrat voters to stay at home": a profoundly disquieting tactic. It has previously been claimed that suppression tactics were used in the campaign, but this document provides the first actual evidence.

Second, it claims that Cambridge Analytica also played a critical role in the other 2016 vote that shocked the world: The successful Brexit campaign to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union. Both that result and Trump's election achieved the key strategic goal of Russia: Destabilizing the Western alliance. That's no proof of collusion, of course. But you can see why investigators are stepping up their probes. In the case of hacking, we know that the Trump campaign was seeking dirt on Hillary Clinton and the Democrats and that dirt  courtesy, it is alleged, of Russian hackers  appeared just weeks later. In the case of data, we know that Jared Kushner wanted to target specific voters and the Russians set up an operation to create "fake news" content for exactly those readers. Either it's the world's greatest coincidence, or something darker was going on. This take by the Guardian's writer Carole Cadwalladr is as dark as it gets:

There are three strands to this story. How the foundations of an authoritarian surveillance state are being laid in the US. How British democracy was subverted through a covert, far-reaching plan of coordination enabled by a US billionaire. And how we are in the midst of a massive land grab for power by billionaires via our data. Data which is being silently amassed, harvested and stored. Whoever owns this data owns the future.

To say it more simply: Follow the data.
I believe that access to high quality, affordable healthcare is a fundamental right. When our health, or the health of our loved ones, is compromised, it strikes a blow at the heart of our lives -- often made much worse by an opaque medical system where costs can be exorbitant and unpredictable.

The Senate's "Better Care Reconciliation Act" fails to seek real solutions to the dysfunction in our healthcare system. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 22 million Americans risk losing their insurance. This would have catastrophic effects on Montanans. According to the Montana Healthcare Foundation, the state's Medicaid program risks losing $4.8 billion in federal funding, jeopardizing the coverage of more than 70,000 Montanans on Medicaid Expansion.

Over 120 Montana organizations and leaders, including the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, and the American Heart Association, have come together to oppose this bill. I stand with them in opposition to the BCRA because it will lead to more sick, infirm and destitute people across Montana, replacing their essential coverage with tax cuts benefiting only the wealthiest Americans. I urge our Senators to prioritize keeping Montanans healthy by voting against this bill.

Maren Haynes Marchesini

Helena
Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump at the Quicken Loans Arena, during the fourth day of the RNC, Thursday, July 23rd, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio. Read more

Perhaps the most memorable scene from the film Bridge Over the River Kwai depicts a British colonel played by Alec Guinness suddenly realizing the depth of his collaboration with the Japanese captors he helped build the bridge. "What have I done?" he gasps after defending the bridge from Allied saboteurs he should be helping.

Many wonder when President Trump's defenders, in particular Republican senators following his lead by trying to pass a toxic replacement for the Affordable Care Act, will have a similar moment of clarity and realize his administration is not only different from what they envisioned, but dangerous to the republic if it continues its present course.

With his poll numbers sinking among all but the president's die-hard fans, Trump at some point must accept that confronting truth, rather than dismissing it as "fake news," is the best way to instill public confidence.

Trump's long years in the business world have obviously taught him to address situations differently. That's a world where company secrets are kept and confidentiality agreements signed to coerce employee loyalty under threat of termination. "You're fired." Trump isn't used to having his motives questioned and actions criticized before a vast audience.

Holding public office is foreign to him. But it is no excuse.

When Trump took an oath to "preserve, protect and defend" this country, he was vowing to put its interests above his own. Most Americans, whether they voted for him or not, wanted to believe Trump was sincere. But his actions since that January day have given his harshest critics ammunition and his most ardent supporters reason to doubt.

Trump's knee-jerk reaction to adversity is to circle the wagons and show no sign of weakness. Like the philandering husband caught in the act, Trump seems determined to deny the truth, no matter how clear it may be.

He continues to dismiss credible evidence of Russian interference in last year's presidential election, tweeting Wednesday that an ongoing federal investigation was the "greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!"

What's sad is his refusal to accept facts, including that his son, Donald Trump Jr., has admitted to participating in a meeting in which he hoped to obtain information from Russian contacts that could be used to hurt the presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. "If it's what you say I love it," said Trump Jr. in a reply to an email that suggested the meeting.

At the very least, the president should admit that his son showed poor judgment. He wouldn't be less of a father for doing that. He would be acting like a president, putting the well-being of his country before family.

Trump's inability to act presidential has made other Republicans leery of going too far on a limb for a man whose political coattails grow shorter by the minute.

In desperation to regain some semblance of unity, Republicans appear on the verge of passing an Obamacare substitute that will leave millions of Americans without coverage while protecting the profits of insurance companies. That must not happen. Members of Congress took an oath too. And it was not to Donald Trump.
DECATUR

Basic computer skills

Basic computer classes begin July 24. Training will include keyboarding, computer basics, using the internet, Windows 10, Microsoft Word and Excel.

Classes meet 9 a.m. to noon Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for four weeks. Classes are free but students must be eligibility guidelines. Call (217) 428-0155.

EXTENSION

4-H robotics camp

The 4-H RoboStorms will host robotics boot cam for ages 8 to 13 will be 1 to 3:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, July 24-25, and for ages 12 to 15 will be 1 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, July 26-27, at the Extension office, 3351 N. President Howard Brown Blvd. on Richland Community College's campus.

Register by July 19 at go.illinois.edu/dmp, or call Samantha, (217) 877-6042 or email her at skgibbon@illinois.edu. Each workshop costs $15 and includes a snack.

CLINTON SCHOOLS

Online registration

Online registration available beginning July 17, www.cusd15.org. In-person registration will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. or 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3, at Clinton Elementary School, 680 Illini Drive; Lincoln Elementary School, 407 S. Jackson St., and Douglas Elementary School, 905 E. Main St.; Clinton Junior High, 701 Illini Drive; Clinton High School, 1210 Illinois 54 West.

The first day of school is Wednesday, Aug. 16 for all students.
DECATUR  Macon County has become the latest municipality to join the new Central Illinois Regional Dispatch Center.

The county board voted unanimously Thursday night to enter an agreement with the center, which will handle the managing, staffing and equipment at the call center in the Macon County Law Enforcement Center. With the agreement, the county joins Decatur and Mount Zion, which also have agreed to join.

Under the new plan, control of the center would be shifted to a three-person executive board and executive director. One seat on the board would be held by the mayor of Decatur or a designee and another would be held by the chair of the Macon County board or an appointee. The third person would be chosen by the other two board members.

With this, were all going to have a say in the direction of the center, said Sheriff Thomas Schneider after Thursdays meeting.

Previously, the city of Decatur has owned and operated the lone call center in the county, providing dispatching services to its own agencies as well as the Macon County Sheriff's Office and smaller police and fire departments.

While he emphasized he has never had any problems with the set-up in the past, Schneider said the new center will prevent any questions of services being provided in an unfair manner.

What theyre looking at now, is that everyone is going to be a shared operator of this, he said. There wont be a issue of who owns it, because everybody is going to own it.

The dispatch center costs $2.5 million a year to operate. Previously, the arrangement called for the city covering $1.6 million, Macon County covering $300,000, and and the Emergency Telephone System Board covering $600,000. Now, the cost will shift under the plan based on use.

Macon County Chairman Jay Dunn has previously said the countys share for the center will increase from $300,000 to about $650,000, though Schneider said Thursday that the cost will likely be an increase of around $150,000. That money will be paid for through the sheriffs department.

We knew it was inevitable ... that wed be paying more down the road, Schneider said. But were at the point now where we know we need to pay our fair share, and were willing to be a team player to provide the best service for Macon County.

The plan would not move the call center from its current location at the Law Enforcement Center in downtown Decatur, nor would it affect the roughly 20 employees who work there.

There is no timeline for when the center will be fully in place, and sheriff Lt. Jonathan Butts said they are still in a transition as other local municipalities and local emergency services get on board.

The state has been pushing for consolidating, and this is just a way of doing that, he said. I think there has been a lot of thought put into it, and Im looking forward to it. I think its time to look at this center as a great tool for the future of first responders in Macon County.

Officials have touched on the future possibility of other neighboring counties to join the fold, but Butts said those plans are far into the future.
Popular Chinese brand Doogee is now in the Philippines! Theyre offering the Doogee Mix with bezel-less display as their flagship product.

As its name suggests, its very similar to the Xiaomi Mi Mix. However, it also has dual rear cameras, smaller 5.5-inch display and a powerful Helio P25 chipset from MediaTek.

Design and Display

The top, left and right bezels of the Doogee Mix are reduced to the minimum while the one at the bottom has been made to accommodate a fingerprint sensor and its selfie camera.

Its 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display only has a 720p resolution. While this might discourage others, it will make the battery last longer on a single charge.

The back of the phone is made of glass with the dual rear camera residing at the top left corner.

Performance

The MediaTek Helio P25 powers the Doogee Mix. It has two sets of quad core Cortex-A53 CPUs running at 2.6GHz and 1.6GHz. Theres also a Mali-T880 chip for graphics.

Two variants of the device will be available  one has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage while the other has a whooping 6GB of RAM and the same amount of built-in storage.

Its battery is rated at 3380mAh with support for 5V 2A fast charging.

Photography

The Doogee Mix uses a Samsung ISOCELL image sensor for its dual rear cameras. This is composed of a 13.0 Megapixel main lens and an 8.0 Megapixel secondary lens.

It can take photos with bokeh effects, i.e. blurred backgrounds.

One the front of the phone is a 5.0 Megapixel selfie camera. Its placed awkwardly though on the right corner below the screen.

Connectivity and Sensors

The Doogee Mix is a dual SIM smartphone with 4G LTE connectivity. Its second SIM card slot also serves as a microSD card slot for storage expansion.

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS are supported too. Theres no USB Type-C but USB OTG is supported.

Doogee Mix Price and Availability

The 4GB variant of the Doogee Mix has an official price of 11,995.00 in the Philippines. It will go on sale on July 28 to August 3, 2017 for 9,995.00 only!

Meanwhile, the other variant with 6GB of RAM has an official price of 12,995.00. Pre-orders are now accepted on Lazada Philippines while shipping starts on August 4, 2017.

UP NEXT: Doogee Mix (6GB) Full Review!

Doogee Mix (6GB) specs:      Average rating of 3 stars from 1 users. 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED Display (720 x 1280 Pixels), 267 ppi

Android 7.0 Nougat Operating System

MediaTek Helio P25 (MT6757CD) Chipset

6 GB of RAM

13.0 + 8.0 Megapixel Rear Camera with LED Flash

5.0 Megapixel Front Camera

Dual SIM (Micro + Nano)

64GB Internal Storage

Expandable Up to 128 via microSD

4G LTE, 3G HSPA+, 2G EDGE & GPRS Networks

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n

Bluetooth 4.0

MicroUSB 2.0

3.5mm Audio Jack

Fingerprint Sensor

3380mAh Battery

Fast Charging (80% in 30 min)

159.6 x 82.1 x 9.5 mm @ 160 g

 12,995.00 Official Price in the Philippines












Sending a spacecraft to Mercury is hard.

First of all, it gets pretty hot that close to the Sunabout 430 degrees Celsiuswhich is bad for a space robot's electronics.

Secondly, it's hard to get there. Any spacecraft visiting Mercury has to shed a huge amount of energy as it spirals in towards the Sun to match Mercury's orbital trajectory.

In the 1960s, as NASA prepared to launch humanity's first mission to Mercury, an Italian mathematician-engineer named Giuseppe "Bepi" Colombo proposed a way for a spacecraft to enter a 176-day orbit around the Sundouble the orbital period of Mercury. This allowed the mission, Mariner 10, to successfully fly past Mercury three times in 1974 and 1975.

Mercury then remained unexplored for three-and-a-half decades, until NASA's MESSENGER probe arrived for a four-year stay in 2011.

Now, we're going back. Next year, Europe and Japan are sending a pair of spacecraft to Mercury in hopes of answering outstanding questions about our innermost planet, as well as the formation of the solar system. The mission is named BepiColombo, in honor of the person who helped make the initial reconnaissance of Mercury possible, and it just took another step next year's October 2018 launch.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has sued Columbus police for three protesters pepper-sprayed in the face during a Jan. 30 rally against Trump administration policies.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Columbus, contends that police used excessive force, committed assault and battery on the protesters, and violated their right to free speech.

Police gratuitously attacked several demonstrators by shooting them with pepper spray directly in the face  intentionally, and at very close range, according to the suit. It said three of the officers selected demonstrators to spray, saying, I call that guy first, and I wanted that chick to get it.

The 200 or so protesters were remnants of a larger group that had held a peaceful demonstration at the Statehouse against President Donald Trumps ban on refugees and immigrants from seven mostly Muslim countries.

The smaller group spilled onto South High and State streets shortly before 8:15 p.m., linked arms and stood in the middle of the intersection, police said.

The suit names Chief Kim Jacobs and Lt. Jeffrey Lipp as defendants. According to the suit, Lipp instructed officers to spray a two-second burst above the crowd.

It also names as defendants three unnamed officers, the Dispatch reports.
A fitness test given to Colorado Springs, CO, police officers discriminated against women and violated civil rights laws, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in a two-year lawsuit.

The test "shamed and ostracized" the 12 plaintiffs - many of them decorated officers with decades of service - while providing "meaningless" results, ruled U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch.

Performing poorly on the mandatory test left officers at risk of losing their jobs, despite the benchmark scores being "arbitrary" and the evaluation having little to do with the officers' everyday work, Matsch said. Significantly more women than men failed it.

"To retroactively impose that requirement on women who have invested their lives as career police officers is fundamentally unfair," Matsch wrote.

The ruling that Colorado Springs violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 leaves the city on the hook for a possible payout to the plaintiffs for wage loss and emotional distress. A hearing on damages is expected to be set in the coming week.

A California civil rights advocate said it also sends a message to municipalities across the nation to avoid such fitness tests for potential hires and veteran employees.

The issue dates to 2009, when former Chief Richard Myers mandated all officers undergo fitness tests, and the department hired Human Performance Systems of Beltsville, Md., to create the evaluations. They included one-minute sit-up and push-up tests, as well as two running tests, one of which focused on agility.

Forty percent of women failed the test, compared with 9 percent of men. Women police recruits tested that year fared slightly worse, while men did slightly better.

All 12 plaintiffs failed on the first try, The Gazette reports.
ASSUMPTION  At the end of Capt. Joe Smith's last flight home, they will all be there to greet him.

Hundreds of well-wishers, police, fire and emergency vehicles and an eight-mile stretch of road lined with American flags await the fallen pilot whose remains are due to arrive today (July 15) in Assumption, his hometown.

First Lt. Smith was 25 when he was shot down and killed on April 4, 1971, while flying an F-100 Super Sabre fighter jet over the skies of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. His remains were finally recovered by military search teams, who never stopped looking, in 2016. He was posthumously promoted to captain.

Escorted by Air Force officers, the remains are due to first arrive at the Seitz Funeral Home in Moweaqua. The procession carrying the remains will leave at 4 p.m from the parking lot of First Baptist Church for the final emotional journey back to Assumption, along a U.S. 51 lined with flags and escorted by Assumption Police Chief Brian Wade and police, fire and emergency vehicles from all over Christian and Shelby counties, and beyond.

And we've got some local motorcycle groups that said they are going to show up and we're getting calls from people and organizations from all over, Wade said. It's incredible.

Smith's remains will be entrusted to the Seitz Funeral Home in Assumption and held there until Monday, when Smith's funeral mass is held at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Assumption. Burial, with full military honors, will follow in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery. Weather permitting, the Air Force has arranged for a fly-by of jets in a final salute to their comrade, home at last.

Seitz Funeral Homes owner Michael Seitz says he has handled a lot of final arrangements but has never seen anything quite like this.

This is a first, he said. It's a sad occasion but it's also a homecoming, finally bringing this hero back to his home after all these years.

His funeral service will be attended by pilots coming from all over the country who trained and flew with Smith and have never forgotten him. Chief among the mourners, however, will be Elaine Mills, who had been married to him for less than a year when he was killed. She would go on to marry a Vietnam Army veteran, David Mills, and raise two children. David Mills will accompany his wife as she faces the difficult emotional task of saying goodbye, again, to her first husband.

Elaine Mills explained a memorial service for Smith had been held on April 17, 1971, as any hope of the pilot's return alive quickly faded. Fighting tears, she said the discovery of Smith's remains, culminating in Monday's funeral, have not been easy on her heart.

It's been a very emotional time, said Smith, 68, who lives in Peoria and grew up in Decatur. But I am also very happy that he is being brought home to his hometown and will be laid to rest with his parents, as it should be. And I appreciate the work the Air Force has done and all the support we've received from so many wonderful people.
Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael P. Stewart (Photo: Pennsylvania State Police)

Pennsylvania State Police officials say a state trooper was killed in a multi-vehicle crash early Friday morning in Ligonier Township, Westmoreland County.

The State Police Commissioner identifies the fallen trooper as 26-year-old Michael P. Stewart, KDKA TV reports.

Officials say Trooper Stewarts state police vehicle collided with a garbage truck around 2:30 a.m. near the intersection of State Route 711 and State Route 271.

A second state trooper has been hospitalized. State police say his injuries are not life threatening.
Maximilano Villegas was charged with aggravated assault in the shooting of an Albuquerque police officer. (Photo: MDC)

A man is in custody after Albuquerque police say he opened fire on officers Wednesday night, hitting and injuring one officer, near Montgomery and Wyoming NE.

Maximilano Villegas, 38, was booked into the county jail after a SWAT standoff early Thursday morning and is charged with aggravated battery on a police officer, false imprisonment, child abuse, and misdemeanor domestic violence charges.

Officer Fred Duran, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman, said the officer was struck in the shoulder as police were responding to a domestic violence call around 11 p.m. He was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries, the Albuquerque Journal reports.
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After Sens. Rand Paul (KY) and Susan Collins (ME) both announced that they would vote against moving the health care bill forward, Democrats need just one more Republican no vote to firmly kill the legislation and save Obamacare.

Politico reported:

Two GOP senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, said Thursday afternoon they will oppose a procedural vote next week to bring the bill to the floor. GOP leaders are putting immense pressure on about half a dozen other Republican senators not to join them and topple the entire effort. Another no is enough to kill the bill, and would also likely lead to mass defections.Undecided Republicans include Lee and Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Dean Heller of Nevada, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

If one of these undecided Senators votes no, Trumpcare will be dead, and Obamacare will remain the law of the land. Both Heller and Portman have been lobbied by Republican governors in their home states who oppose the bill. If the governors continue to oppose the legislation, it will be difficult for both of the two Senators to support moving forward.

The situation is so bad for the Trumpcare bill that some Republicans are suggesting that even getting the bill to the floor for debate and a final vote would be a victory. Mitch McConnell and his Senate Republican leadership still dont have the votes needed to move the bill forward, so now is the time to get on the phone and tell those undecided Senators to vote no.

No one thought it was possible after Trump and the Republicans took control of the Congress and the White House, but Democrats are one vote away from victory. The ACA will only be saved if you tell these Senators that they must vote no on cloture.
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Some might say this is par for the course for Donald Trump associates.

The chaser: Donald Trumps lawyer for the Russia scandal might be in legal jeopardy after threatening messages he sent to an unidentified man were send to the FBI.

The shot: President Trumps personal lawyer for the Russia scandal threatened a stranger in an email Wednesday evening, writing, Watch your back, b*tch and I already know where you live, according to Justin Elliot of ProPublica.

After reading an article about how President Trumps personal attorney for the Russia collusion scandal, Marc Kasowitz, might have trouble getting security clearance due to issues with alcohol and bad behavior, an unidentified man wrote to him to suggest he resign.

Kasowitz responded in a string of emails laced with threats and profanity between the hours of 9:30 PM and 10 PM Eastern time.

One read, per ProPublica: Im on you now. You are fucking with me now Lets see who you are Watch your back , bitch.

Another: Call me. Dont be afraid, you piece of shit. Stand up. If you dont call, youre just afraid.

Another: I already know where you live, Im on you. You might as well call me. You will see me. I promise. Bro.

ProPublic traced the IP address to Kasowitzs firm and in one email, they say a cell phone number that is not widely known was provided to man who wishes to remain unidentified.

The Russia scandal involves classified material that requires a security clearance.

The unidentified man watched the ProPublica report on The Rachel Maddow show Wednesday evening. He sent the exchanges to the FBI in case there was any follow up on Kasowitzs part.

Experts spoken to by ProPublica differed on whether his threats crossed the line from free speech, but the claim that Kasowitz knew where the unidentified man lived and promised he would see him could be problematic.

Nothing says not colluding with anyone like some good, old-fashioned mob threats to a stranger. This kind of press is exactly what Donald Trump does not need. This is the time to point out that the unidentified man is a retired public relations expert and seemed genuinely concerned that Kasowitz would reflect poorly on the Trump presidency.

Suspicion confirmed.

This is more of the Trump associate type casting: The abusive alcoholic who threatens any and everyone, behaves so poorly in public that he might not be able to get a security clearance, and in general is as inept and incompetent as he is abrasive and inappropriate.

This is the kind of behavior that is acceptable for lawyers working for Putin. It is not acceptable representing the president of a free country.
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A handful of Democratic Senators were fuming on Thursday as Donald Trump and the White House could be on the verge of giving back two compounds to Russia that were shut down by the Obama administration.

The compounds were closed as part of a larger punishment, which included sanctions, for Russias 2016 presidential election meddling. The Democrats are appropriately telling the Trump administration that Moscow hasnt done anything to earn them back.

An administration official will be meeting next week with a Russian diplomat, and there are understandable fears that the Putin-friendly White House will return the compounds.

More from CBS News:

Four Democratic senators have written a letter to Undersecretary Tom Shannon, who will be meeting with his Russian counterpart on Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov. We strongly urge the State Department not to return the diplomatic compounds in Maryland and New York to the Government of the Russian Federation at this time, they wrote. Simply put, the Russian government has done nothing to deserve renewed access to these compounds. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York hail from the two states where the compounds are located. They believe that keeping the compounds closed and being vigilant in the meeting next week will help deny the Russian government the ability to advance its interests from within our own states.

As CBS News also noted, The closure of the Russian compounds in November of 2016 took place in conjunction with new Russian sanctions that included the expulsion of 35 Russians who the U.S. said were spies operating under diplomatic cover.

So, lets break down the lunacy of all of this, shall we?

It hasnt even been a year since the 2016 presidential election, the investigations into both the Russian hacking and the Trump campaigns involvement are still ongoing  and becoming more explosive each day  and this White House is considering easing punishment imposed by the Obama administration just eight month ago?

All of this even after knowing it was the Russians who waged an attack on American democracy.

Meanwhile, the President of the United States  and he alone  is the only man or woman on the face of the earth, besides Vladimir Putin, who says that maybe it wasnt Russia, after all. And day after day, more information comes out that draws a direct connection between Trumps closest advisers  and family members  and the Kremlin.

The latest development being that Donald Trump Jr., along with Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, secretly met with a Russian lawyer connected to the Kremlin in hopes of getting damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Perhaps there was no collusion. Perhaps the Trump campaign all of the meetings with Russians taken by the presidents campaign were all just coincidental, and they all just happened to forget about them  until, of course, the media uncovered them.

But regardless of all of that  regardless of whether Trumps team was working with Moscow to defeat Clinton, its clear that Trump is giving the Russians exactly what they wanted when they were working to get him elected in 2016.
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By Susan Cornwell and Yasmeen Abutaleb

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  Senate Republican leaders released on Thursday a revised plan to dismantle the Obamacare law, playing to the partys disparate factions by letting insurers sell cheap, bare-bones policies while retaining taxes on the wealthy, but quick criticism showed the healthcare overhaul is already in jeopardy.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, pushed hard by President Donald Trump to pass a healthcare bill and make good on Republicans seven-year mission to gut Democratic former President Barack Obamas signature legislative achievement, is walking a tightrope.

With Democrats united against it, McConnell cannot afford to lose more than two Republican senators to win passage. But moderate Susan Collins and conservative Rand Paul voiced opposition to even bringing the new plan up for debate.

Several senators said they had concerns about the legislation, particularly its Medicaid cuts, including Shelley Moore Capito, Rob Portman and John McCain. And two other Republican senators, Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy, complicated matters by announcing an alternative plan.

McConnell, a skillful tactician who was forced two weeks ago to scrub a planned vote on an earlier version opposed by both moderates and hard-line conservatives in his party, has planned for a vote on the retooled bill next week.

The measure represents a retreat from long-standing Republican aspirations to dump Obamacare-related taxes.

It retains two taxes on the wealthy that helped pay for the Obamacare law that the previous version would have repealed. They are: a 3.8 percent tax on net investment income for individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples earning more than $250,000; and a 0.9 percent surtax for the Medicare insurance program for the elderly on people with those incomes.

It also keeps Obamacares limits on corporate tax deductions for executive pay in the health insurance industry.

Its provision allowing insurers to offer stripped-down, low-cost healthcare plans that do not comply with Obamacare regulations to cover certain health benefits, as proposed by Senator Ted Cruz, was aimed at winning over holdout conservatives.

The benefits currently required include maternity and newborn care, mental health services and addiction treatment, outpatient care, hospitalization, emergency room visits and prescription drugs.

Insurer groups, including the national Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, have derided these skinny plans, saying they would raise insurance premiums, destabilize the individual insurance market and undermine protections for pre-existing medical conditions. Moderate senators could balk at the provision for the same reasons.

The new bill provides additional funds to help stabilize the individual insurance market, providing $70 billion on top of the $112 billion in the original bill. That would help insurers hold down growth in the cost of insurance premiums and help lower-income insurance holders cover out-of-pocket medical expenses.

The American people deserve better than the pain of Obamacare. They deserve better care. And the time to deliver that to them is next week, McConnell said.

The bill retains the previous measures phase-out of the Obamacare expansion of the Medicaid government health insurance program for the poor and disabled and sharp cuts to federal Medicaid spending beginning in 2025.

It would still repeal certain Obamacare taxes aside from the taxes on the wealthy, end a penalty on individuals who do not obtain insurance and overhaul Obamacare subsidies to help people buy insurance with tax credits.

Moderate Republicans were spurned in their desire to see a reduction in Medicaid cuts in the revised version.

Critics said despite some changes to coax wavering senators, the revised bills core remains unchanged: restructuring and cutting the critical Medicaid social safety-net program, taking away insurance from millions of Americans and driving up healthcare costs for millions of the most vulnerable Americans, especially older people and the sick.

The continuing lack of consensus among Republicans on what to do with Obamacare after calling for its demise since Congress passed it in 2010 with only Democratic votes shows that it is no sure thing that Trumps party will be able to get the job done.

Healthcare is Trumps first major legislative initiative. Failure would call into question his partys ability to govern despite controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House.

MARKET REACTION

Hospital and insurer groups have spoken out against the Senate Republican approach, particularly proposed Medicaid cuts. The cuts would result in lower revenues for hospital companies like Community Health Systems Inc and Medicaid insurance specialists like Molina Healthcare and Centene Corp.

Molina Healthcare, which has more than 1 million customers on the Obamacare individual exchanges and manages Medicaid health programs, said that as a result of the proposed changes in the individual market, insurers would compete for the least risky customers, making plans for sick people unaffordable and destabilizing markets.

Healthcare stocks were mostly unmoved by the announcement, as Wall Street analysts described the core of the revised bill as largely unchanged from the earlier one.

The new bill includes another $45 billion for fighting the opioid addiction epidemic that has hit large parts of the nation, on top of the $2 billion in the earlier version.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which forecast that the previous version would have increased the number of Americans without health insurance by 22 million by 2026, is due to evaluate the new bill in the coming days.

The Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare, expanded health insurance coverage to some 20 million people, in large part by expanding Medicaid.

Repealing and replacing Obamacare, which Republicans fault as a costly government intrusion into the healthcare system, was a top campaign promise for Trump, who was monitoring the Senate developments during his visit to France.

Id say the only thing more difficult than peace between Israel and the Palestinians is healthcare, Trump told reporters on his flight to France.

The House of Representatives on May 4 passed its own version of healthcare legislation.

Republicans have a 52-48 Senate majority, with Vice President Mike Pence able to cast a potential tie-breaking vote. Any bill passed by the Senate would have to go back to the House for approval.

The alternative offered by Graham and Cassidy would redirect much of Obamacares federal funding for health insurance to states.

(Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Caroline Humer, Eric Walsh, Lewis Krauskopf and Richard Cowan; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler)
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While representing the people of the United States, Trump grabbed Brigitte Macron and repeatedly judged her looks as President put his scummy sexism on full display in front of the world.

Video:

Donny virtually assaults Mrs Macron behind his back. pic.twitter.com/FPznwhfUXu  USA TempOffline  (@Sensata2014) July 13, 2017

The AP reported that Trump judged Brigitte Macrons looks:

Trump at one point turns to Brigitte Macron and tells her: Youre in such good shape. He repeats the observation to the French president before turning back to the French first lady, and remarking: Beautiful.

Look at the way Trump grabs Macron and pulls her closer to him. Mrs. Macon, like hundreds or maybe thousands of women before, has been cornered by Trump, and she doesnt look comfortable.

Anyone who has heard the Access Hollywood tape, or read the dozens of complaints against Trump for sexual assault knows that this is how he treats women. Trumps remarks were both sexist and rude. Donald Trump, or no other man for that matter, has a right to judge a womans looks.

In the video above, Trump looks like exactly what he is. The President Of The United States is a man who thinks he has the right to comment on and touch women inappropriately. He is a sleaze and a disgrace to the people of the United States of America.
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During a gaggle with reporters aboard Air Force One, Donald Trump admitted that he might have been told about Donald Trump Jr.s meeting with a Russian government attorney, but he claims that he was never told that the meeting was about getting dirt on Hillary Clinton.

According to the White House Press Pool report provided to PoliticusUSA:

On Don Jr, POTUS was asked if as a father he supported Don Jr. being willing to testify.

I think if he wants to, Trump said. He mentioned that h had seen something about her being in Congress recently talking to members. She had meetings with various people. So its the same thing.

He said the press had been unfair and said of the meeting that they talked about the adoption stuff which was actually a big thing at the time but nothing happened. He added, In fact maybe it was mentioned at some point, but then when asked if he had been told that it was about Hillary Clinton and dirt against her he said no.

The adoption stuff that Trump referred to is the Magnitsky Act, which is a law that sanctions Russia for human rights abuses. Trump could have said no. The President could have said that he knew nothing about the meeting. Instead, what he tried to do was parse his way to a middle ground of maybe knowing, but not knowing the details.

Trump knew that his son was meeting with someone from Russia, which brings Trump closer to being directly connected to the scandal than ever before.

The pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together, and the fuzzy outline that we have now suggests that Trump knew a lot more about what was going on with Russia than he has ever let on.
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Despite telling Reuters that he only heard about his sons troubling emails just a couple of days ago, a new stunning report from Yahoo News reporter Michael Isikoff claims that Donald Trumps team of lawyers have known about the chain of correspondences for weeks.

According to Yahoo News, President Trumps legal team was informed more than three weeks ago about the email chain showing that his son Donald Jr. met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer last June.

More from the report:

Trump told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that he learned just a couple of days ago that his son, Donald Trump Jr, had met with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, after receiving emails that she would supply him with information that would incriminate Hillary and was part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump. That was the day after Donald Jr. released the email exchanges himself, after learning they would be published by the New York Times. Trump repeated that assertion in a talk with reporters Air Force One on his way to Paris Wednesday night. I only heard about it two or three days ago, he said according to a transcript of his talk when asked about the meeting with Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in June 2016 attended by Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, then Trumps campaign chief, and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner. But the sources told Yahoo News that Marc Kasowitz, the presidents chief lawyer in the Russia investigation, and Alan Garten, executive vice president and chief legal officer of the Trump Organization, were both informed about the emails in the third week of June, after they were discovered by lawyers for Kushner, who is now a senior White House official.

The idea that Trumps own lawyers would know about the explosive emails  which showed that Trump Jr. met with a Kremlin-backed lawyer  and the president himself would be left out of the loop is almost impossible to believe.

Whats more likely is that Trump has known about the emails at least as long as his lawyers have, or he knew about his sons secret meeting from the beginning. Perhaps he even encouraged it, for all we know.

The latter would explain the presidents rhetoric and emphasis on the subject of Russia hacking Hillary Clintons emails around the same time Donald Jr. met with the Russian lawyer.

Either way, its clear that Donald Trump is lying, which is hardly news.
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By Ayesha Rascoe and Patricia Zengerle

PARIS/WASHINGTON (Reuters)  U.S. President Donald Trump, who is fighting off allegations of ties between his election campaign and Moscow, said he would invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House but that now was not the right time for that.

I dont think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would, Trump said when asked if he would extend such an invitation to the Russian leader.

He was speaking to reporters on Air Force One during a flight from the United States to France in comments released by the White House on Thursday.

The Republican president drew criticism last week from Democrats who accused him of not pressing Putin hard enough at a meeting they held in Germany over Moscows alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

Accusations that Moscow meddled in the election and colluded with the Trump campaign have dominated Trumps first months in office. Russia denies meddling, and Trump says there was no collusion.

Trump told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that he had asked Putin if he was involved in Russian interference in the campaign.

Trump said he spent the first 20 or 25 minutes of his more than two-hour meeting with Putin last Friday in Hamburg on the subject.

I said, Did you do it? And he said, No, I did not. Absolutely not. I then asked him a second time in a totally different way. He said absolutely not, Trump said.

U.S intelligence agencies said earlier this year that Russia sought to help Trump win the election by hacking private emails from Democratic Party officials and disseminating false information online.

TRUMP JR.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday urged Trumps eldest son to testify to a congressional committee about the alleged links between Trumps election team and Russia.

If he testified, Donald Trump Jr. would be the first member of the presidents inner circle of relatives and White House aides to give testimony to congressional investigations into the Russia allegations.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, a Republican, planned to send a letter on Thursday to the younger Trump to ask him to appear before his committee in a public session, CNN reported.

Ryan, the top-ranking Republican in Congress, told a news conference he supported that.

I think any witness whos been asked to testify in Congress should do that, Ryan said.

Trump Jr. disclosed this week that he had met with a Russian lawyer last year who was said to be offering damaging information on Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump Jr. eagerly agreed to meet the lawyer, who he was told by an intermediary was part of Moscows official support for his fathers campaign, according to emails the son released this week.

The emails were the most concrete evidence that Trumps campaign might have been willing to accept Russian help to win the election, a subject that has also prompted an investigation by a federal special counsel.

Asked by Reuters on Wednesday if he knew his son was meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June last year, the president said: No, that I didnt know until a couple of days ago when I heard about this.

He later told reporters on Air Force One that in fact maybe it was mentioned at some point, referring to the meeting, adding he was not told it was about Clinton.

Senator Ron Wyden, a Democratic member of the intelligence committee, said it was odd that senior members of Trumps campaign attended the meeting but that Trump himself said he knew nothing about it until recently.

How is it was plausible that nobody told then-candidate Trump about it? Weve got to ask about this. Weve got to get to the bottom of it, Wyden told reporters.

Trump said in Paris on Thursday that the lawyer was a private attorney and not a Russian government lawyer, and that nothing of substance came of the meeting.

My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer but a Russian lawyer. It was a short meeting. It was a meeting that went very, very quickly, very fast, he said at a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Trump said it was normal in U.S. politics for campaign teams

to look into allegations about their opponents, as his son agreed to do before the meeting in June 2016.

Watchdog groups filed a complaint against Donald Trump Jr., Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former campaign chief Paul Manafort on Thursday with the Federal Election Commission, which oversees elections, arguing the three violated the law by meeting with the Russian.

Separate from the complaint, the Federal Election Commission  frequently criticized as being paralyzed by partisan deadlock  declined on Thursday to conduct a review of foreign interference in the 2016 election. The five-member commissions three Republicans said they could not support moving forward because not all the facts were available.

The Russia allegations forced U.S. Attorney General Jeff

Sessions to recuse himself from the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the election after media reports revealed he held undisclosed meetings with the Russian ambassador to Washington, Sergei Kislyak.

Sessions, who testified to Congress in June about his dealings with Russian officials, released a government form on Thursday dealing with contacts he has had with foreign nationals, including Russian government officials, but much of it was redacted.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Roberta Rampton; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Peter Cooney)
The Decatur region has a front-row seat to the greatest show above earth.

A cross-country total solar eclipse will eerily dim the skies as the sun vanishes behind the moon on Aug. 21  a rare cosmic marvel that wont be seen here for another seven years.

The darkest part of the lunar shadow barreling diagonally across the U.S. will fall about 130 miles south of Decatur, a length practically across the street in outer space terms.

Places like Carbondale, which is directly in the path, are preparing for throngs of people for the phenomenon, the first of its kind to cross coast to coast in 99 years. Further north, the celestial feat will still be dramatic to see, said Casey Watson, a physics and astronomy professor at Millikin University. Watson compared it to the Super Bowl for the sheer magnitude of interest being generated.

Just because it is in our backyard doesn't mean others aren't just as excited, Watson said.

The school is organizing events at its Requarth Observatory, which lays claim to the biggest university-owned telescope in the state, and is distributing special glasses to children for viewing the fleeting spectacle.

When the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, the eclipse is poised to be visible in Decatur starting at 11:52 a.m. Peak blockage is at 1:19 p.m., when about 95 percent of the sun will be hidden. The event will be over by 2:44 p.m.

All of the sun will be blocked for those in a 70-mile-wide band from Oregon to South Carolina, called the path of totality. In Illinois, the northern edge of the path passes from about East St. Louis southeast to near Mount Vernon and onto the Kentucky border.

The nearer to the center of the shadow, called the umbra, the longer the darkness. For example, in Carbondales Giant City State Park, the total eclipse is expected to hit 2 minutes, 40 seconds. For them, only the suns faint outer atmosphere, the corona, will be visible.

Large cities in the zone include Kansas City, Nashville and Charleston, South Carolina, although almost the entire country will see at least some of the sun blocked  as long as the weather cooperates. As of Friday, the National Weather Service didnt have projections for forecasts that far out.

Either way, for anyone watching, telescopes, special glasses and other devices are suggested for viewing the event, since looking at even a sliver of the sun can damage eyes.

Aside from the lack of light, the lowering of temperatures and the disruption of wildlife are common during the dark time.

We will be able to see the planets and stars clearer, said Daniel Miller, a Millikin professor of mathematics.

A rare lunar line-up

Overall, the lunar shadow next month will race across 2,500 miles of the U.S. in about 94 minutes.

The fast-moving nature is one of the many reasons all sorts of myths and legends have been linked to eclipses in many cultures, from a dragon eating the sun by the early Chinese to ancient Greeks believing it was when gods were angry with humans.

Instead, solar eclipses are simply a product of a planetary quirk. Although the moon and sun align every 29 days, the moons tilted orbit around the earth means it rarely blocks the sun. Only occasionally do all the pieces line up.

For example, the August event will be the first total one visible in the contiguous United States since February 1979 and the first coast to coast since June 1918.

The once-in-a-lifetime status means interest has been building for months. The U.S. Postal Service in June unveiled a 49-cent stamp that uses temperature-sensitive ink that turns the sun into the moon.

In Oregon, Portland State University is readying four high-altitude balloons equipped with GPS tracking systems and 360-degree video cameras. Emergency officials also have issued warnings about expected crowds, and Idaho transportation workers have suspended construction projects during the eclipse weekend because of expected tourists.

As eclipse excitement grows, so do cautions about eye safety On Aug. 21, millions of people across the United States will have the opportunity to view a total solar eclipse, an astronomical event that has not happened in St. Louis since 1442.

Jefferson City, Missouri, is creating Capital Eclipse Village and Lincoln, Nebraska, is preparing for a massive viewing area.

But Carbondale may get the award for the biggest astronomical coincidence  its also smack in the path of the next total eclipse, on April 8, 2024. That route passes from southwest to northeast, once again right over the city.

The curious fluke  Carbondale is being called the "Eclipse Crossroads of America" now  has meant lots of attention has been directed on Jackson County. Hotels are booked. Stores are being stocked. Amtrak is offering discounted tickets on its Illini and Saluki trains from Chicago to accommodate the crowds.

Southern Illinois University alone is preparing for 50,000 visitors next month, or about twice the citys population. The school has partnered with NASA, the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and the Louisiana Space Consortium on a research workshop, art and craft fair, comic con and technology expo, along with a viewing event in 15,000-seat Saluki Stadium.

Theyre renting out suites in Schneider Hall at $800 for three nights, charging $36 for parking on campus and have made commemorative SIU eclipse glasses. The city also is planning a music festival dubbed Shadow Fest.

There are going to be so many things going on at SIU and from Mount Vernon to Cairo, really from Oregon to South Carolina, Chris Walls, executive director of The Science Center in Carbondale.

Technically, the point of longest duration will be on the grounds of Blue Sky Winery, near Makanda. But Patti Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, said theyre actually concentrating on 18 counties south of Interstate 70 that could be impacted by crowds. She said state officials have been in planning mode for months about how to handle the intense interest. That includes coordinating public safety concerns for motorists to making sure there are adequate medical facilities in case of high temperatures.

We do know, she said, there is going to be an influx of people into that part of the state.

Connection to Decatur

For scientists and educators, the eclipse also is a chance to learn about the sun and its effects on Earth. NASA has funded 11 studies tied to the event, including one at SIU.

Locally, fifth and sixth grade students from French Academy in Decatur also will be traveling to the SIU stadium to view the eclipse.

Younger students are invited to the watch from Millikin. Ten smaller telescopes also will be posted for the public. The white-domed Requarth Observatory, named after late Decatur surgeon William H. Requarth, can be seen on the rooftop of the Leighty-Tabor Science Center on Fairview Avenue.

To maximize the solar learning experience for other students, Millikin's School of Education also collaborated with French Academy in developing an education plan. The college has provided funding for solar eclipse glasses and a student field trip to SIU for the day of the eclipse.

We have aimed to support French in their exploration and development of STEM initiatives, said Christie Magoulias, Millikin's director of education. The upcoming solar eclipse is a perfect opportunity for that.

This year, the Decatur School District also picked the eclipse theme for its summer camp.

Watson, Miller and a few Millikin professors and students are traveling to Glendo State Park in southeast Wyoming a few days before to view the eclipse.

Miller said the group selected two areas of the park ideal for their purposes. Experiments will be conducted on the west side of the mountain with the highest probability of a clear view.

I wanted to be able to see the eclipse in the clearest sky, Miller said. It is also the driest side of the mountain.

Watson said the group hopes to simulcast the eclipse back to Millikin's campus.

We bring astronomy education to the public, he said. And being a state park, we can camp out, which is less expensive.

Back in Illinois, Ed Cross, of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said theyve identified 13 parks and recreational areas in Illinois best for viewing the eclipse. He said theyre ready for the big watch day  and lots of visitors from afar.

We are working with local law enforcement, because it is such a large event, he said. It's not just people from Illinois. We are expecting people from other states, too.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly described what happens during an eclipse and what will be seen in Decatur, as well as the purpose of Millikin professors going to Wyoming. This version has been corrected.
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Just one no vote away from falling short yet again in their so far failed efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Senate Republicans received another blow on Thursday, this time from a Republican governor in a swing state.

In remarks to CNN, GOP Governor Brian Sandoval of Nevada said he is greatly concerned about the citizens in his state who are now covered under Medicaid because of Obamacare, because the new version of Trumpcare is likely to decimate the program.

They are living healthier and happier lives as a result of their receiving coverage, and for them to lose that at this point would be very hurtful for them, Sandoval said of those covered under the Medicaid expansion. And its about people  this is about people. And 210,000 people in my state.

Despite what many GOP senators have said, the Nevada governor added that the new version of the Republican health plan isnt that much different than its previous iteration, which is why he continues to oppose it.

According to the CBO score of the earlier version of Trumpcare, more than 20 million Americans would lose health insurance, Medicaid would face nearly $800 billion in cuts, and individuals would no longer be able to count on essential health benefits Obamacare currently guarantees.

That goes without evening mentioning the fact that up to 27,700 more Americans will die in the year 2026 as a result of the potential new law.

As CNN also noted on Thursday, Gov. Sandovals opposition to Trumpcare is critical because Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller has closely tied his own vote to the states popular governors stance.

In other words, if Sandoval is against the revised legislation, its likely that Sen. Heller will also oppose it.

With Republicans just one no vote away from again seeing their deathcare hopes vanish, the Nevada governors fierce opposition to the new version of Trumpcare could signal that the end is very near for this bill.

Thats good news for millions of Americans.
Watchdog and Public Service reporter

Thad Moore is a reporter on The Post and Couriers Watchdog and Public Service team and a graduate of the University of South Carolina. To share tips securely, reach Moore via ProtonMail at thadmoore@protonmail.com or on Signal at 843-214-6576.
Graduates walk during Trident Technical College's May commencement ceremony. A new report from Ball State university says low rates of educational attainment could weigh on the growth of the state's manufacturing sector. The S.C. Technical College System says it's taking steps to address that trend. File/Michael Pronzato/Staff
Kalyn Oyer is a Charleston native who covers arts & entertainment and food & bev for The Post and Courier. She's a music festival & concert photographer and used to write about music for the Charleston City Paper, among other publications.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High 78F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 54F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
In Georgetown County's closest race, the board of elections and voter registration certified Scott DuBose's election to the county school board with a margin of victory of just three votes out of 4,343 cast. Read moreGeorgetown Co. elections: DuBose's election to District 2 school board seat certified
Terry Graham, interim director for Richland County's elections office, previously said he planned to resign in January, but now plans to stay on as deputy director for a few more years after the Nov. 8 election had few issues. Read moreRichland County interim elections director decides not to resign after successful election
WASHINGTON  Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen told senators Thursday the risk of another financial crisis would increase if some Trump administration proposals to roll back regulations were enacted.

In her second straight day of Capitol Hill testimony, she walked back her statement last month that she didn't expect another financial crisis "in our lifetimes."

"I think we can never be confident there won't be another financial crisis," Yellen told members of the Senate Banking Committee.

The U.S. has "done a great deal" since the 2008 crisis to strengthen the financial system, she said. That includes forcing banks to hold more capital to cover potential losses as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul law.

"It is important that we maintain the improvements that have been put in place that mitigate the risk and the potential damage," Yellen said.

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President Donald Trump has promised to dismantle Dodd-Frank, which Republicans have said has been too burdensome for banks.

In a report last month ordered by Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin proposed sweeping regulatory reductions, including changes that would reduce capital requirements for the biggest banks.

Yellen said she would not favor reducing those capital requirements.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, pressed her on whether adopting the Treasury report recommendations "would more likely result in a potential financial crisis."

"Well, some of them, yes," Yellen said.

She said that she agreed with "a lot of things in the Treasury report" that are similar to Fed efforts to tailor regulations so they are not so burdensome for smaller banks.

The Republican-controlled House voted last month along party lines to repeal many of the Dodd-Frank regulations.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, is working with Brown, the panel's top Democrat, on legislation to make changes to Dodd-Frank that could focus more on small and midsized banks than Wall Street.

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Also at Thursday's hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pushed Yellen to remove Wells Fargo & Co. board members who presided over the bank when it opened millions of accounts without customers' authorization.

Wells Fargo agreed in September to pay $185 million to settle investigations into its sales practices by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer. The bank did not admit any wrongdoing but said its employees had opened millions of checking, savings and credit card accounts that customers never authorized.

The practice was made public by the Los Angeles Times in December 2013.

Warren wrote to Yellen last month urging the Fed, which oversees Wells Fargo's holding company, to take the step. The Fed has not taken such a step.

"How could removal of these board members not be warranted given the facts that we already know?" Warren asked.

Yellen said she could not discuss confidential information about the Fed's supervision of the bank. She indicated no decision has been made on the board's fate as the Fed continued to look into the matter.

"The behavior that we saw was egregious and unacceptable and it is our job to understand what the root causes are of those failures," Yellen said. "We are certainly prepared to take enforcement actions if those are appropriate."
WABASHA  In the middle of a very long Tuesday, I was standing on the patio at Slippery's in Wabasha aiming a very long lens across the Mississippi River.

Ah, the variety that is my life.

As I'm snapping photos, these two men approached, and one asked, "What are you taking pictures of?"

"That dredge over there," I said, pointing to the odd-looking boat on the far side of the river that was doing its best to clear the 9-foot navigation channel.

"Why would you take a picture of a dredge?" the guy asked.

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Inside I laughed. Maybe a bit of that laugh got to the surface. "You're not from around here, are you?"

He and his buddy were not.

So I explained to the gentlemen about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the dredge material management plan that has Wabasha, Kellogg and, frankly, much of Southeast Minnesota up in arms. I told them I was a reporter for the Post Bulletin.

Mr. Talkative informed me that, in fact, he had read something about the Corps and its dredging plan, most likely a story from the Star Tribune since the two of them hailed from some suburb north of the Cities.

"They shouldn't be able to take someone's land like that," he said. "Not a law-abiding citizen."

I gave him my standard answer when it comes to controversial stories: I don't take sides. I just report. But, yes, I admitted, there had to be a better solution.

The other thing I mentioned, as we gabbed and I zoomed in and out on the weird boat across the water, was how this story -- which I suggested he start following online at postbulletin.com! -- pretty much was dominating my summer.

Earlier that day I met with Jim Schurhammer, the farmer who actually farms the land owned by Willard Drysdale, that 298 acres of beautiful, flat, irrigated farmland just north of Kellogg . Later, I was planning to take a photo of the folks who live along River Drive South in Wabasha. They've formed a grassroots organization to stop the Corps' plan, especially the part about running 200 dump trucks a day for two-and-a-half months through their quiet neighborhood. Then it was on to Red Wing for meeting about islands in Lake Pepin .

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Basically, this story has kept me hopping all summer.

All this reminds me of May 23. It was a Tuesday, and while I looked over my calendar for the next few months I was lamenting the fact there was no big story on my plate.

The summer of 2016 had been all about frac sand mining and the ban that was slowly working its way into law in Winona County. Every time I had a light week on my calendar last summer, frac sand mining came to the rescue to keep me busy. It was the journalism gift that kept on giving.

Out loud but to no one in particular, I said, "I sure wish I had something like frac sand mining this summer to keep me busy."

Two days later, the mustachioed editor handed me a note to call Wabasha County Commissioner Brian Goihl about a farm and dredging. My summer has been busy ever since.

With the public comment period for the dredge material management plan ending today -- after being extended twice previously -- the issue, from a reporting standpoint, shifts gears. But that doesn't mean I'm not still following it closely.

After all, I was standing there taking photos because the main picture guy around here told me we'd already run all our photos of dredges more than once. He was hoping for some file art because, chances are, we're going to need it as this story evolves.

I told that to Mr. Talkative too then went on my way. The summer of dredging stops for no one.
AUSTIN  There's going to be a clearer picture of what makes Austin a welcoming community during this upcoming city council meeting.

The Austin Human Rights Commission is releasing its Welcoming Report during Monday's presentation to the city council. This report identifies what Austin is doing well with and what barriers currently exist in town that prevent it from becoming a welcoming community, according to a news release.

A welcoming community is defined as a community where all residents feel engaged and welcomed.

"Austin's future success depends on maximizing the potential of all residents, and this trail-blazing report will help our city turn vision into reality," said Jason Baskin, Austin Human Rights Commission chairman.

This report was based on more than six months of interviews and community input from a diverse group of newcomers and long-time residents. The final report was unanimously endorsed by the human rights commission.

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Here's a snapshot of the report:

While Austin was found to have a strong head start, there are still five major barriers that were identified:

 Lack of interaction between immigrants, refugees and long-time residents

 Lack of communication between groups

 Leadership development in the immigrant and refugee communities

 Lack of available transportation

 Lack of available housing

The report also recommended three main actions:

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 Austin should create a Strategic Welcoming Plan by the end of 2018

 Build leadership capacity of multicultural community by proactively increasing the diversity of the city commissions, boards and taskforces

 Human Rights Commission should work with key stakeholders to increase exposure between cultures in Austin
WASHINGTON  A Republican donor and operative from Chicago who said he had tried to obtain Hillary Clinton's missing emails from Russian hackers killed himself in a Rochester hotel across the street from Mayo Clinic's St. Marys Hospital, days after talking to The Wall Street Journal about his efforts, public records show.

In a room at Aspen Suites, Peter W. Smith, 81, left a carefully prepared file of documents, which includes a statement police called a suicide note in which he said he was in ill health and a life insurance policy was expiring.

Days earlier, the financier gave an interview to the Journal about his quest, and it published stories about his efforts beginning in late June. The Journal also reported it had seen emails written by Smith showing his team considered retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, then a top adviser to Republican Donald Trump's campaign, as an ally. Flynn briefly was President Trump's national security adviser and resigned after it was determined he had failed to disclose contacts with Russia.

At the time, the newspaper reported Smith's May 14 death came about 10 days after he granted the interview. Mystery shrouded how and where he had died, but the lead reporter on the stories said on a podcast he had no reason to believe the death was the result of foul play and that Smith likely had died of natural causes.

However, The Chicago Tribune obtained a Minnesota state death record filed in Olmsted County that says Smith committed suicide in the Aspen Suites at 1:17 p.m. on Sunday, May 14. He was found with a bag over his head with a source of helium attached. A medical examiner's report gives the same account, without specifying the time, and a report from Rochester police further details his suicide.

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Rochester Cremation Services was called to the Aspen Suites hotel at 1211 Second St. SW by the Olmsted County Coroners office on May 14.

Staff say that the service picked up Peter W. Smith's body, next to a helium tank. A Chicago funeral home later worked with Rochester Cremation to cremate the body. There was not direct contact with Smith's family.

"We're getting calls from everyone. CNN called tonight," said a Rochester Cremation employee who wished to remain anonymous on Thursday night. "I expect we're going to be busy with the media, now that this news is out there."

In the note recovered by police, Smith apologized to authorities and said that "NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER" was involved in his death. He wrote that he was taking his own life because of a "RECENT BAD TURN IN HEALTH SINCE JANUARY, 2017" and timing related "TO LIFE INSURANCE OF $5 MILLION EXPIRING."

One of Smith's former employees told the Tribune he thought the elderly man had gone to the famed clinic to be treated for a heart condition. Mayo spokeswoman Ginger Plumbo said Thursday she could not confirm Smith had been a patient, citing medical privacy laws.

The Journal stories said it was on Labor Day weekend in 2016 that Smith had assembled a team to acquire emails the team theorized might have been stolen from the private server Clinton had used while secretary of State. Smith's focus was the more than 30,000 emails Clinton said she deleted because they related to personal matters. A huge cache of other Clinton emails were made public.

Smith told the Journal he believed the missing emails might have had been obtained by Russian hackers. He also said he thought the correspondence related to Clinton's official duties. He told the Journal he worked independently and was not part of the Trump campaign. He also told the Journal he and his team found five groups of hackers  two of them Russian groups  who claimed to have Clinton's missing emails.

Smith had a history doing opposition research, the formal term for unflattering information that political operatives dig up about rival candidates.

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For years, Democratic President Bill Clinton was Smith's target. The wealthy businessman had a hand in exposing the "Troopergate" allegations about Bill Clinton's sex life. And he discussed financing a probe of a 1969 trip Bill Clinton had taken while in college to the Soviet Union, according to Salon magazine.

Investigations into any possible links between the Russian government and people associated with Trump's presidential campaign now are underway in Congress and by former FBI chief Robert Mueller. He is acting as a special counsel for the Department of Justice. Mueller spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment on the Journal's stories on Smith or his death. Washington attorney Robert Kelner, who represents Flynn, had no comment on Thursday.

Smith's death occurred at the Aspen Suites in Rochester, records show. They list the cause of death as "asphyxiation due to displacement of oxygen in confined space with helium."

Rochester Police Chief Roger Peterson on Wednesday called his manner of death "unusual," but a funeral home worker said he'd seen it before.

An employee with Rochester Cremation Services, who spoke on the condition he not to be identified, described the tank near the body as being similar in size to a propane tank on a gas grill. He did not recall seeing a bag that Smith would have placed over his head. He said the coroner and police were there and that he "didn't do a lot of looking around."

"When I got there and saw the tank, I thought, 'I've seen this before,' and was able to put two and two together," the employee said.

An autopsy was conducted, according to the death record. The Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner's Office declined a Tribune request for the autopsy report and released limited information about Smith's death.

The Final Exit Network, a Florida-based nonprofit, provides information and support to people who suffer from a terminal illness and want to kill themselves.

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Fran Schindler, a volunteer with the group, noted that best-selling book "Final Exit," written by Derek Humphry in 1991 and revised several times since, explains in detail the helium gas method.

"Many people obtain that information from his book," Schindler said. "It's a method that has been around for many years and is well known."

Smith's remains were cremated in Minnesota, the records said. He was married to Janet L. Smith and had three children and three grandchildren, according to his obituary. Tribune calls to family members were not returned.

His obituary said Smith was involved in public affairs for more than 60 years and it heralded him as a "quietly generous champion of efforts to ensure a more economically and politically secure world." Smith led private equity companies in corporate acquisitions and venture investments for more than 40 years. Earlier, he worked with DigaComm, LLC, from 1997 to 2014 and as the president of Peter W. Smith & Company, Inc. from 1975 to 1997. Before that, he was a senior officer of Field Enterprises, Inc., a company that owned The Chicago Sun-Times then and was held by the Marshall Field family, his obituary said.

A private family memorial was planned, the obituary said. Friends posted online tributes to Smith after his death. One was from his former employee, Jonathan Safron, 26, who lives in Chicago's Loop and worked for Smith for about two years.

Safron, in an interview, said he was working for a tutoring business when Smith became his client. His job entailed teaching Smith how to use a MacBook, Safron said. At the time Smith, was living in a condominium atop the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago. Safron said Smith later employed him at Corporate Venture Alliances, a private investment firm that Smith ran, first out of the same condo and later from an office in the Hancock Building.

Safron, who said he had a low-level job with the Illinois Republican Party in 2014, said he had no knowledge of Smith's bid to find hackers who could locate emails missing from Clinton's service as secretary of state. In his online tribute to his former employer, he called Smith the "best boss I could ever ask for  a mentor, friend and model human being."

Safron said he worked part-time for Smith, putting in about 15 hours a week. But the two grew close, often having lunch together at a favorite Smith spot: the Oak Tree Restaurant & Bakery Chicago on North Michigan Ave. He called Smith a serious man who was "upbeat," "cosmopolitan" and "larger than life." He was aware Smith was in declining health, saying the older man sometimes had difficulty breathing and told work colleagues he had heart problems. Weeks before he took his life, he had become fatigued walking down about four or five flights of stairs during a Hancock Building fire drill and later emailed Safron saying he was "dizzy," he said.

Smith's last will and testament, signed last Feb. 21, is seven pages long and on file in Probate Court in Lake County. The will gives his wife his interest in their residential property and his tangible personal property and says remaining assets should be placed into two trusts.

He was born Feb. 23, 1936, in Portland, Maine, according to the death record.

His late father, Waldo Sterling Smith, was a manufacturer's representative for women's apparel firms, representing them in department stores in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, according to the father's 2002 obituary. The elder Smith died at age 92 in St. Augustine, Fla., and his obit noted that he had been active in St. Johns County, Fla. Republican affairs and with a local Methodist church

Smith wrote two blog posts dated the day before he was found dead. One challenged U.S. intelligence agency findings that Russia interfered with the 2016 election. Another post predicted: "As attention turns to international affairs, as it will shortly, the Russian interference story will die of its own weight."
On Monday, May 15, 2017, the Decatur City Council debated and voted on: "Resolution Authorizing an Agreement for the 'Removal of Certain Trees - Critchelow Logging Company'. It was a request from the logging firm to pay a minimum of $25,000 as part of anticipated proceeds of harvesting over 100, primarily 80- to 125-year-old hardwood trees on city property near 3622 Skyline Drive. When Mr. Critchelow was asked how long trees live, he responded "only for 150-170 years." However, arborists state that white oaks, the state tree of Illinois, one of the species to be harvested, have an average life span of 300 years. Some live 600 years.

Decatur Audubon Society (DAS) members present were concerned about the lack of a bidding process and the loss of ecological services that would occur due to logging -- erosion control, carbon storage, oxygen production, pollutant removal, air-cooling, and wildlife habitat. They also feared potential loss of aesthetic value and the potential damage to adjoining residential property.

DAS discovered that progressive communities like Yorktown, Pennsylvania, enacted rules to protect city-owned old trees. Vital Lands Illinois hosts programs on protecting oak-dominated forests. In Douglas W. Tallamys book Bringing Nature Home, the author notes that certain native trees, especially oaks, attract caterpillars containing crucial nutrients for feeding nestling birds. Thus, the loss of older hardwood trees may reduce habitat quality for native songbirds.

With these concerns, DAS board members authorized sending a letter to the City Council asking to rescind its 5-2 vote to accept the resolution as allowed under Section 4, Termination of the Agreement. They also recommended that the city conduct an inventory to evaluate the real worth, the ecological impact, and subjective aesthetic factors, of the woods in the resolution above and all city-owned wooded property for future decision-making.

Paul Rosenberger, Secretary, Decatur Audubon Society
WINONA  Raised in Lake City, Rich Dahman is happy to move back along the Mississippi River.

"I grew up in a river town, and I'm excited to live here in Winona," said Dahman, the new superintendent for the Winona Area Public Schools.

Dahman moved from the 900-student Medford School District, where he served as the superintendent for four years. Before that, he was a middle school principal and a math teacher in Mankato. But a week into his time in Winona  he's still not unpacked in either his office or his home  he says he feels at home.

He's also hit the ground running, scheduling meetings with civic leaders and representatives of the three colleges  Winona State University, Saint Mary's University and Minnesota State College Southeast  to find ways to bring advantages to his district's students. "I really see opportunity," he said. "I see some great things in Winona Area Public Schools. There are some strong needs we have right now, there are important decisions and important projects we're working on."

Dahman sat down with the Post Bulletin to talk about his change from Medford to Winona:

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Post Bulletin: What challenges did you leave behind in Medford?

Rich Dahman: Medford had a growing enrollment. Part of that is making sure our facilities match our needs as our enrollment grows. Do we have the space we need? How much more growth can we manage with our current facilities? With a district that size, you make sure you're connecting with the community.

PB: How is connecting with the community different in the 3,000-student Winona district?

RD: Overall, it's the same thing. As superintendent, it's making sure I'm available to the people in the community, the parents, the business community. The difference is here we have the higher education component. I'm making sure I'm making connections with our higher education partners.

PB: How does Minnesota State fit into that partnership with WAPS?

RD: A big piece with them is as we're prepping our students for life after high school, we want to make sure we're exposing our students to what's interesting to them and what jobs are available in the community and the region. If students leave us and get a quality two-year degree from Minnesota State, that's a positive path.

What are businesses looking for for jobs? Can we get students some experience while they're still here in high school?

But whether they're going to a four-year college or a two-year, we need to prepare them for whatever they decided to do after high school.

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PB: There is an $81.8 million bond referendum coming in November. How to you get 51 percent of the voters to vote for it?

RD: It's going to be really important that we as a district are really up front on our needs, the effect this will have on the taxpayers, and what educational benefits it will have if this referendum passes.

A lot of our efforts moving forward with the community are to schedule meetings, public meetings, meetings with the business community.

PB: The district has a lot of interest groups with their own specific concerns. There are people who care mainly about the Spanish immersion program. The folks who want to keep Rollingstone open. There are people who don't want to lose neighborhood schools. Do you have a plan to get these groups on board with the referendum?

RD: A big piece ties back to being clear what benefit we see educationally. I completely see the concern people have about closing neighborhood schools. But our enrollment has dropped considerably over the last 10 to 15 years.

We have to explain what benefits we get from the money we save by having fewer schools.

We went through about $1.5 million in cuts for next year. We're projecting about another $1 million a year for the next four years. Those cuts affect programming across the district. Closing schools would save $1.2 million in operating costs a year.

PB: And this last year, the district's fund balance dipped dangerously low.

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RD: We have, over the years, operated at a deficit so that our fund balance has got very low. This (school closing proposal) allows us to avoid future cuts and to rebuild the fund balance up to a more healthy level.

PB: What is the biggest challenge going forward? What is the biggest opportunity?

RD: A big challenge for us is getting all the different stakeholders moving in the same direction. I've met a lot of people already here, and it's clear they want the best for our students and WAPS. There may be some disagreement on what that looks like. We need to identify what that vision looks like and bring people together to achieve that vision.

Because of all the discussions going on over facilities, the opportunity is to set our district up in a manner that will allow us to be successful for the next 100 years.
MINNEAPOLIS  A Somali-American family held at a U.S.-Canada border crossing for nearly 11 hours in 2015 after the father's name appeared on a terror watch list is alleging its rights were violated during the long detainment, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

The lawsuit filed by Abdisalam Wilwal, his wife Sagal Abdigani, and four children  then ages 5 to 14  says the family was denied food for hours, Wilwal passed out after hours of having his hands cuffed behind his back, and the ordeal caused so much fear that at one point the 8-year-old girl told her mom, "maybe they'll kill us after sunset."

According to the lawsuit, which is supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, the family members were stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials as they re-entered the United States after visiting Abdigani's sister in Saskatchewan. The lawsuit says Wilwal's name is on the government's terror watch list for no reason.

The suit alleges officials violated the family's right to be free from unlawful search and seizure, and that those responsible for the terror watch list violated Wilwal's right to due process.

"The government has refused to tell Mr. Wilwal why his name appeared on the watchlist, and it has not provided him with a meaningful opportunity to correct or challenge whatever error led to his placement on it," the lawsuit says.

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The family is now afraid to leave the country.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction that would bar authorities from arresting, searching or interrogating Wilwal and his family again because of his inclusion on the list. It also asks that authorities remove him from the list.

Named in the suit are the heads of several federal agencies as defendants, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

The Department of Justice didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

According to the lawsuit, after Wilwal gave his family's travel documents to border officers in Portal, North Dakota, three officers ordered him out of the minivan at gunpoint. He was separated from his family and handcuffed for nearly 11 hours  at one point passing out and requiring medical attention.

He was questioned about his religious practices and travels, the lawsuit says, and was denied access to a lawyer or interpreter.

The rest of the family was kept together. When Abdigani realized her 14-year-old stepson had his phone, she used it to call 911 for help. An officer confiscated the phone and police never came. Authorities searched the phone and took the boy to a separate area where he was given a pat-down. He was told to remove his clothes for a strip search, but he refused.

All of the family members are U.S. citizens.

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"Our own government just shouldn't be treating my family and me or anyone else this way," Wilwal said in a statement. "It's wrong."
Edina High School in suburban Minneapolis was long regarded as one of the countrys top secondary schools. In recent years, its national ratings and its local reputation have slipped, perhaps in part because teachers are spending time promoting a left-wing agenda and bullying conservative students rather than teaching the subjects they are paid to teach.

Following last Novembers election, 80 Edina High School teacherswhich must represent pretty much the entire facultysigned an editorial in the schools newspaper that was basically a Democratic Party manifesto. The editorial was authored by Tim Klobuchar (second cousin). It went so far as to oppose calls for unity; unity, it implied, will exist only when all conservatives have been banished from the stage.

We learned of the editorial and other events surrounding the election just a few days ago, and I wrote about left-wing indoctrination at Edina High School on Center of the American Experiments web site. This caused more students and teachers to get in touch with us, and I did follow-up posts here and here. Stories about abuse at the hands of bullying left-wing teachers continue to come in.

Not many things shock me, but I confess that I have been shocked by what I have learned about the Edina public school system. Indoctrination in left-wing politics begins in elementary school, where children are taught the pernicious doctrine of white privilege. In Edina, not even bus drivers are exempt: they, too, are required to take political re-education classes.

Here are excerpts from some of the communications we have gotten from Edina parents and students. There are lots more at the links.

This one is from a student:

The day after the election I was texting my mom to pick me up from school and she almost had to!! Every teacher was crying in class, one even told the whole class Trump winning is worse than 9/11 and the Columbine shooting. The amount of liberal propaganda that was pushed every single day in class this year was worse than its ever beenand youre bullied by the teachers and every student if you dare speak against it. Yeah its horrible, the teachers can absolutely do whatever they want. The administration will do nothing about it!! The day of the election every single student was in the commons chanting F*** TRUMP and the teachers never did anything. A LOT of people are starting to complain and my mom has some friends who are leaving the school district.

A parent describes her daughter being abused in class in an email to a school administrator:

In talking with [my daughters], it came out that yesterday in my 10th graders AP World class, [the teacher] called out any Trump supporters and asked them to assure the class that they werent racist. Both my husband and I were aghast and we felt strongly that we should say something to you.  Yesterdays incident in her class really surprised us as it is so completely inappropriate and unprofessional. If you talk with [the teacher] about this, please dont mention my daughter. She doesnt want to be identified for fear of retribution.

The fear of retaliation is a common theme in the emails and comments we have gotten from students and parents. Left-wing teachers and administrators are often vicious.

Another parent:

Were tired of them trying to indoctrinate our children to believe what they believe rather than teaching critical thinking and actual course work. Were tired of our kids coming home feeling defeated because their beliefs are forbidden at school and they will be ostracized if they speak out. Were tired of our kids telling us that all they hear in LA and other classes is that white people, especially white men, are bad, over and over. Were absolutely sickened when our son tells us that he is labeled a racist, sexist and rapist  yes, a RAPIST  because he is a white male.

Race plays a surprisingly prominent role in the liberals bullying. Edina is not exactly known as a multicultural city.

This account by a student of events surrounding Novembers election is very sad:

I was one of 6 leaders of the Young Conservatives Club which, in our group message, had close to 200 participants. During the election we felt like the minority, which we were. The day of the election a group of us (maybe 20-30 kids) chose to wear political shirts to school. I wore a Trump shirt while other people were wearing Hillary shirts or Bernie shirts. I knew walking into school that it was going to be an odd day but I had no idea what was really in store for me. I walked into morning rehearsal for choir at 7:15 am and I proudly wore my shirt. As I took my seat I could see and feel eyes on me and people whispering. I kept my head up and was proud. Then I got to the cafeteria where I liked to meet my friends before school starts and in between classes. People were glaring at me, whispering, challenging me on my views, people called me racist to my face and over social media, and I experienced public humiliation. During lunch the YCC had gathered for a group picture with our Trump shirts on. And by 6th hour, when all I wanted was to go home and lie in bed after a day of bullying, a staff member pulled me out of class. As I was leaving the classroom a girl said How ugly is that shirt haha commenting on my Trump shirt. The staff member pulled me out of class not to ask me about how my day was going or if I was emotionally okay, but his question for me was I heard there were students in the YCC picture yelling deportation! as the picture was taken. Is that true? I assured him that, no that wasnt true. But he kept asking as if he didnt believe me. Finally I got to go back to the last 5 min of class and then go home. The next day, the day after Trump won, was even harder. Teachers were crying alongside students in the classroom. Speeches by teachers included the phrase we will make it through this together. One teacher said in front of a class of 100, through tears that the election was rigged. Teachers bashed President Trump in front of their students, and people continued to bully me for my views.  I had to have my mom come pick me up after third hour that day. I couldnt stand to walk around a school filled with both teachers and students crying and looking to me through their tears with hurtful eyes. Im not kidding when I say so many people were crying that walking through school felt like someone had died or something.

We will make it through this together? Do the liberals not realize how ridiculous they sound?

Another student got so tired of being bullied for his political views in class that he made an audio recording of the teacher, who repeatedly harangued him about Donald Trump. The recording got into the hands of several parents, who confronted school administrators.

In his words, they had to own up to the consequences of Mr. Trumps election. Upon hearing this recording it reminded me of the descriptions a friend of mine makes when recalling his classroom experiences, growing up in communist Hungary in the 1970s. When this recording became public, several parents confronted the principal, and only then was he forced to take action

The Edina school district has hired someone to go from elementary school to elementary school, lecturing little children on white privilege:

He has spent the last year going from classroom to classroom at the Edina Elementary schools, starting Kindergarten  5th grade, teaching about white privilege, they did a 6 week project, the students age 8 had to each pick a black person and do a project on only black people including drawing pictures of them and writing up reports. What we know as parents is very little, but for every rat you see there are 50 you dont see. I cant imagine what is going on behind closed doors with these impressionable children.

Finally, the bus driver:

I worked for Edina for almost 13 years driving a school bus. We were forced to attend Equity classes that basically were excoriating us for our white privilege. I had some wonderful times driving but the indoctrination was more than ridiculous.

The outpouring of outrage and concern from Edina parents and students, following our first post on this subject, has been extraordinary. Yet I am sure we have barely scratched the surface. And Edina is by no means unique. Across the country, student achievement has been sliding as a social justice agenda has replaced rigorous instruction in the priorities of teachers and administrators. This cant be allowed to continue.
Ashot Manoukyan, Armenias Minister of Energy Infrastructure and Natural Resources, today sat down with a delegation from Moodys to discuss ways to boost Armenias credit rating.

Manoukyan presented an overall picture of the work being carried out in Armenias energy, mining and water resources sectors that can potentially upgrade the countrys credit rating.

In January 2017, Moodys published an economic report of the nine rated sovereigns in the Commonwealth of Independent Countries (CIS) that gave a negative credit outlook for the region in 2017.

Geopolitical conflicts also will continue to weigh on the CIS economies, mainly because of the impact of Western sanctions on Russia and the conflict in eastern Ukraine but also due to the flare-up of aggression between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Of the nine CIS sovereigns rated by Moody's, only Belarus and Kazakhstan are not engaged in a military conflict or border dispute with a neighbor, Moodys wrote in the report.
ATLANTIC CITY  On the second day of the 2017 Atlantic City BeachFest Concert Series on Thursday morning, the crowd was much different from the day before:

There wasn't one at all.

By 10 a.m. Wednesday, lines of fans had gathered to see three-time Grammy award winner Pink take the stage. But Thursday morning, only one person was waiting in line to see country music act Brantley Gilbert. As the day went on, the crowd grew, but never reached the nearly 50,000 people who took in Pink's show the night before.

Thunderstorms also threatened later Thursday  but although Gilbert sung out the lyrics "let it rain" during his opening song, "It's About To Get Dirty," the wet weather held off as he took the stage.

Gilbert asked the crowd If they were ready to raise some hell during his show, then went right into his next song, "My Kinda Party."

"You all know how to party!" he told the crowd.

The crowd was significantly smaller than the previous night, but fans took advantage of the space, setting up beach blankets and kicking off their boots to put their toes in the sand.

Event staff Thursday evening said they had no official count yet, but they were expecting 12,000 to 15,000 attendees.

Gilbert performed with Luke Combs, whose single Hurricane has become a chart-topping country song.

Gilbert is making the Atlantic City stop as part of his 23-city Devil Dont Sleep Tour," his website says.

He recently released his fourth studio album, featuring the hard-rocking country singles The Weekend and You Dont Know Her Like I Do.

The show ended at about 9 p.m.

Earlier Thursday, Done Eley sat by the general admission tent with a black cowboy hat and a backpack filled with water bottles.

Eley, of Marlton, got in line on the Boardwalk at 8:30 a.m. so he could get a good seat for the show. He probably could have waited a couple of hours, but he wanted to be sure he could sit up front with his wife, who is disabled and cannot stand all night. He wanted to get her a good seat.

Eley said he is retired and travels to all types of concerts, but usually sees a good turnout for country music shows. Eley is no stranger to the Atlantic City Beach concert series: Last year, he was the first person in line for the Zac Brown Band concert on the beach.

"They draw a lot of people. I think you'll get a younger crowd today. He's got a younger following," Eley said.

Still, although he expected a good turnout, Eley did not think it would be the same size Pink brought in the night before.

"She sings a different kind of music," he said. "I'm expecting 20,000 to 30,000."

Mike Ferrera and Carolyn Kline were taking pictures by the 107.3 Cat Country inflatable cat mascot.

The two, who are from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, came to Atlantic City for Ferrera's birthday. They're both huge country fans, but had no idea that Brantley Gilbert was even playing.

"I think it was a lack of promotion. I knew about Pink and I have friends who are actually down here now that stayed for Pink and are staying for Gilbert since hes playing. But without having enough promotion, nobody would know," Ferrera said. "I probably wouldve gone to the concert if I had known about it in advance."

Kline added she was still surprised no lines had yet formed for the concert. She attended Blake Shelton in 2014 and Maroon 5 in 2015, and remembers lines forming early in the morning for both.

Ferrera said it's just a tough act to follow.

"(Gilbert) has great music. He's good," Ferrera said. "It's unfortunate that you're after an act that you just can't compete with."

Besides the absence of people waiting in line, another thing that stood out late Thursday morning was the heat.

Atlantic City was near 90 degrees by 10 a.m.

As he sat with his cowboy hat pulled down in front of his face, Eley recommended attendees bring water and an umbrella  and stay away from alcohol.

State and city police were on site both nights, Atlantic City police Sgt. Kevin Fair said. There were 18 medical assists Thursday, but nobody went to the hospital.

During both concerts, 21 people were cited for underage drinking and one for providing alcohol to a minor. One person was arrested for assaulting an officer, Fair said.

 Staff Writer Lauren Carroll contributed to this report.
A new civil lawsuit filed by the parents of an Oakcrest High School graduate struck and killed by a NJ Transit train in 2015 seeks to reopen the investigation into her death.

The purpose of it is to take what is a cold case and open it up, said attorney Paul DAmato, who is representing the parents of Tiffany Valiante.

Valiante, 18, of Hamilton Township, was killed July 12, 2015, when she apparently walked in front of a train traveling 80 mph near Prague Avenue in Galloway Township. Her death was ruled a suicide, but her parents, Stephen and Dianne Valiante, suspect foul play.

What is so troubling to the Valiante family is that the legacy of their daughter at this point in time is suicide, DAmato said.

This is the second lawsuit filed by the family. It names no real defendants but several Does. The first lawsuit, filed in 2016, names as defendants the state Attorney Generals Office, the state Medical Examiners Office and its southern regional branch.

The Valiantes filed the new lawsuit Monday in Atlantic County Superior Court, alleging kidnapping, murder and destruction of evidence.

DAmato said the new complaint will include affidavits from Louise Houseman, of the Atlantic County Medical Examiners Office, and a forensic pathologist regarding the manner-of-death finding.

The Valiantes claim in the complaint the examination by the Medical Examiners Office was significantly flawed. They believe Valiantes death was not a suicide but that she was the victim of a conspiracy to inflict bodily harm, violently abducted on the night of July 12, 2015, and subsequently murdered by the defendants while attempting to flee her imprisonment, according to the complaint.

DAmato said the lawsuit will allow him to subpoena individuals he and his investigators believe have more information on Valiantes death. He said some of those people have been interviewed by the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office in the past and some have not.

DAmato said the family was approaching the two-year statute of limitations to file a civil suit in the matter, so they decided to take this approach to meet the deadline. The civil suit allows a lower burden of proof than a criminal case, he said.

The lawsuit states Valiante was killed at 11:16 p.m. when she reportedly dove in front of the train from an east to west direction while the train was being operated by a student engineer. The train was traveling south from Philadelphia to Atlantic City at the time and the student engineer, in a written statement, said there was limited visibility at the time of the crash, the suit states. A spokesperson for NJ Transit declined to comment on the case.

Six days after the crash, Valiantes manner of death was ruled a suicide by the state Medical Examiners Office.

Since then, her family has been pushing for Justice for Tiffany Valiante, a grass-roots campaign that includes a hotline to call with any information. Signs are posted around the county advertising the hotline, and Facebook and Twitter have accounts for the group.

The lawsuit questions why no law-enforcement agency made an inquiry as to Valiantes state of mind on or before July 12, 2015, no DNA testing was done on her body or clothes, and no rape kit was done on her body. It also calls into question the four-mile circular route investigators say Valiante took before she allegedly took her life, as determined by a bloodhound.

In the complaint, the Valiantes say their daughter had been at her cousins home on Mannheim Avenue across the street from their house for a graduation party. The lawsuit states Dianne Valiante found her daughters sneakers and a headband along Tilton Road as she retraced the area from her house to the point of impact on foot after the crash. Valiante was barefoot at the time of the crash, and her cellphone was found off the road near the Valiante property at the time she went missing.

Valiante, who stood 6 feet, 2 inches tall, planned to attend Mercy College, where she would play volleyball. No drugs or alcohol were found in her system after the crash.
Dr. James Kauffmans license to practice as an osteopathic physician and surgeon in Pennsylvania has been temporarily suspended following his arrest while police were attempting to execute a search warrant at his medical practice last month.

Kauffman, 68, of Linwood, is an Atlantic County-based endocrinologist who was married to veterans advocate and radio host April Kauffman when she was murdered in 2012. He was arrested after an armed standoff with police at his Egg Harbor Township medical office June 13 when they arrived with the search warrant, which was unrelated to the homicide investigation.

He is charged with unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, possession of hollow-point bullets and obstruction of the administration of law.

Reached for comment, Kauffmans attorney, Edwin Jacobs, said it was the first he was hearing of any suspension of his clients license outside New Jersey.

The Pennsylvania suspension comes on the heels of his license suspension in New Jersey June 26 by the State Board of Medical Examiners. Kauffman agreed to the temporary suspension of his license pending the resolution of the criminal charges against him and other conditions set by the Medical Examiners Board, according to the state Division of Consumer Affairs.

When his license was suspended in New Jersey, Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino said in a statement, Dr. Kauffmans conduct, followed by his criminal arrest, demonstrates an imminent danger to the public.

On July 10, the Probable Cause Screening Committee of the Pennsylvania State Board of Osteopathic Medicine issued an order suspending his license pending a hearing on the grounds that he presents a clear and immediate danger to public health and safety.

Kauffman is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and served a residency at Jefferson Hospital in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism. According to his professional website, Kauffman is also licensed in Florida.

Kauffman was first licensed under the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners on Aug. 4, 1978, according to state records, which show no previous board actions against him while practicing in New Jersey.

Kauffman remains in the Atlantic County jail, as he has been ordered held until trial.

Contact: 609-601-5197

Twitter @mainlandcurrent
New Jerseys retired police and firefighters are not the enemy in the states pension crisis. We did not create the crisis. That was accomplished by our state governments elected officials.

Since Gov. Christie took office, he has tried to create a public sector versus private sector battle in New Jersey. This divide and conquer tactic is unethical, blaming one to divert the real blame from who is truly responsible, our elected officials and their mismanagement.

He talks about the problems the pension system faces and then tries to lay the blame at the feet of retirees.

We recently saw how Christie really feels about the people of New Jersey when he shut down the state parks and state beaches for the 4th of July holiday, yet he went to a state beach with his family and friends.

The May 24 editorial, Risky pension bill stopped for now, giving taxpayers an opportunity, said the pension reform bill would let police and firefighter unions increase their benefits. We are not trying to vote ourselves raises at the expense of the taxpayer. We too are taxpayers. This is about trying to gain some stability in the pension system, something the government has failed to accomplish. If the state would have made its obligated contributions, the pension system would be more than adequately funded.

We police officers and firefighters worked under contracts which we followed and made our pension contributions. When we retired, after the 25-plus years of service, we had paid into the pension plan without fail. Every paycheck we had our pension contribution deducted from our pay. We were not given waivers or holidays from payments like the state took and continues to take or those granted to municipalities. If we took a pension loan, we paid it back with interest, unlike the state, which just took the money from our pension fund and then wasted it on projects of its choosing.

I do not lay all the blame at Christies doorstep. It began with Gov. Whitmans pension bond fiasco. The abuse and failures to fully fund the pension system continued through to Christie. He has taken the politicians failures to another level by blaming the retirees when all we did was work and make pension contributions on time.

In 2015 Christie retroactively changed the pension contribution methodology to allow local governments to pay $135 million less than they should have into the pension system. That was the latest in the governments history of shortchanging the pension system. From fiscal year 2009 through 2011, the government underfunded the pension system by $585 million.

The state government increased the employees pension contribution by 1.5 percentage points to 10 percent of earnings, which the workers believed was going to the pension system to help with the shortfall. However, it was later learned that money did not go to the pension system but was returned back to the municipalities. The public and many politicians were deceived into believing the increased pension payments by the officers and firefighters would go into the pension fund and this was not the case.

Last year the investments of the pension fund made a profit. Yet, after administration fees were deducted, the fund ended up losing money. Another example of mismanagement and excessive investment costs.

The editorial mentions the bills possibility of giving ourselves, the retirees, raises. The only increase retirees ever looked forward to was a cost of living adjustment (or COLA), which we each were promised upon entering the pension system. The last COLA increase was in 2011. There is a valid and standardized formula used to determine the COLA, very similar to the COLA formula used by Social Security. More than likely we will not see that increase in the near future.

These reasons are why we are interested in having more control over our pension system. We have a very special vested interest in its success, our limited retirement future, not funding excessive spending by the state politicians with our pension funds, limiting the profits of investments firms, and making all pay their fair and obligated contributions.

Ron Di Giovanni, of Seaville, is president of the Atlantic County Retired Police & Firemens Association.
New Jerseys coast and estuaries will always draw lots of people to live and visit, so the estuaries and bays will always face harmful levels of pollution and misuse. Protecting them is a job without end.

A new effort by the state Department of Environmental Protection continues decades of help for Barnegat Bay, whose vast shallow waters are behind most of Ocean Countys Atlantic-facing islands.

The state is appealing to boaters using the bay to modify their habits to reduce damage, and giving them digital tools to make that easier.

An online interactive map, accessible on mobile phones as well as personal computers, shows 16 ecologically sensitive areas in the 42-mile-long bay that are important to aquatic vegetation and wildlife.

Personal watercraft users and boaters are encouraged to stay away from the areas, since in the shallow bay, the harm of propellers and wakes is magnified.

The map also provides information useful to boaters such as launch ramps, restrooms, trash disposal sites, sewage pump-out facilities, marinas, and bait and tackle shops. That should help make the map a familiar resource for bay users that reminds them of their environmental responsibilities.

This new initiative in the Governors Action Plan for Barnegat Bay also asks boaters to stay 100 feet from natural shorelines, to not harass nesting birds, to use buoys to keep anchor and mooring chains from scraping bottom vegetation, and to not discharge wastewater or let unsecured trash get into the bay.

This is good advice and applicable to the states many estuaries. All boaters and personal watercraft users at the Jersey Shore should be following it.

But Barnegat Bay and its lesser peers, such as the Great Egg, Little Egg Harbor and Ludlum bays, also need help from people at the shore who never go out on the water.

Since the 1980s, scientists have known the main threat to the health of such bays is the fertilizer that runs off developed areas and into their waters. The food for grass and plants on land also feeds algae and plants in the water, where it causes excessive growth that leads to oxygen depletion. That creates dead zones without fish or other animals.

Stafford Township in the late 1980s helped by requiring developments to use more expensive underground stormwater discharge instead of the ubiquitous and less effective drainage basins. But thats just a start, and just one municipality.

Barnegat Bays watershed is the whole of Ocean County.

Efforts to limit runoff pollution throughout the watershed or to restrict residential development have not had much success. And as use of the bay increases, it faces the common danger that people will love it to death.

Fully implementing the New Jersey Soil Restoration Law would help reduce runoff pollution into bays. Eventually restrictions on fertilizer use may be needed to ensure the health of estuaries.

Meanwhile, homeowners and businesses can help by choosing more natural landscapes that dont require chemical fertilizers and pesticides. We think native plants enhance the feeling of being at the shore, instead of undermining it like the lawn-and-shrub look that might as well be in Ohio.
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.
PLYMOUTH, Minnesota, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ASI DATAMYTE, the global standard in enterprise quality software and hardware solutions, today announced the sale of its QDA software platform and related operations to Alpina Partners (ALPINA), a private equity group located in London, UK and Munich, Germany. As a part of this transaction ASI DATAMYTE will transfer substantially all of the QDA related customer contracts, assets, vendor contracts and its related operations. The two companies will continue a deep bi-directional partnership to resell, support and service each other's products worldwide.

ASI DATAMYTE will continue to support its global customers with data collectors, torque solutions, dimensional gages, quality management software as well as support and services for QDA. In addition, they are innovating a new line of products and service offerings.

"This transaction will allow both organizations to focus on their core businesses while also providing capital, resources and investment which will accelerate and deepen its position as the global standard for enterprise quality management," said ASI DATAMYTE Chairman Joel Ronning.

ALPINA's new company, QDA Solutions, will provide "Industrie 4.0" platform software integration with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Computer-aided Quality (CAQ), Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems.

"This new strategic direction positions both of our organizations to offer leading-edge manufacturing solutions to advance the quality goals and efficiencies of our customers worldwide," said ASI DATAMYTE president Rick Bump.

Raymond James acted as corporate finance advisor to ASI DATAMYTE with Winthrop & Weinstine providing legal advice.

About Alpina Partners

Alpina Partners (ALPINA) is an owner-managed, independent investment firm with approximately  300 million in assets under management. With proven industry, technology and international business expertise, ALPINA focuses on helping small- and mid-sized businesses in Europe to implement growth strategies. ALPINA is supported by the European Union through the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Program (CIP). For more information, visit http://www.alpinapartners.com.

About ASI DATAMYTE

ASI DATAMYTE is the global leader in providing world-class software and hardware solutions and services for quality management and quality improvement. For decades, they've been serving assembly, manufacturing and laboratory operations worldwide in a broad range of industries, including automotive, aerospace, consumer products, defense, food and beverage, medical device, industrial, pharmaceutical, wind power and others. Headquartered in Plymouth, Minn., U.S.A., ASI DATAMYTE has offices in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Italy, Singapore, and India. For more information, visit www.asidatamyte.com.

Related Links

http://www.asidatamyte.com



SOURCE ASI DATAMYTE
FOTON TOANO, which escorted Vladimir Putin and other dignitaries of countries at the 70th anniversary of the V-day in 2015, became the only state guest vehicle to meet European standards. At the Expo, FOTON TOANO was incorporated into the 'leading cadres' motorcade' to ensure the travel of officials and honored guests of China Pavilion.

FOTON AUV bus at China Pavilion was responsible for providing round trip airport transfer operations for leaders and other delegations who come from more than 30 provinces and cities. FOTON AUV bus was designated to ensure the green and safe travel at the Expo with the strictest service standards.

During the Expo, there were activities for provinces and cities every two days. Foton Sauvana provided a comfortable driving experience to working personnel of China Pavilion and comfortable travel service to delegations attending the activities.

Foton Motor set up many assurance services, including appointing service stations, vehicle and accessory preparation and PDI to guarantee all vehicles working without malfunction for Expo 2017 Astana. Foton Motor maintained a team of professional service technicians on-site 24 hours a day, providing training for working staff in China Pavilion.

As the sole designated vehicles of China Pavilion in Expo 2017 Astana, TOANO, AUV, SAUVANA not only blended seamlessly with the "future energy" theme of Expo, but also showed Foton Motor, as a new benchmark for intelligent manufacturing in China; displaying Chinese innovative power with scientific and technological innovations.

For more information contact:

Edward

+86-10-5991-2095

wangchao10@foton.com.cn

Photo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535815/Foton_Motor.jpg

Photo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535816/Foton_Motor2.jpg

Photo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535817/Foton_Motor3.jpg



SOURCE Foton Motor Group
TORONTO, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

TSX - NYSE: RIC

Richmont Mines Inc. (TSX: RIC) (NYSE: RIC) ("Richmont" or the "Corporation"), announced the filing of a Technical Report for the Island Gold Mine with respect to the Expansion Case Preliminary Economic Assessment announced on May 29, 2017. The Technical Report supports the scientific and technical disclosure in that press release. The Technical Report is available at http://www.sedar.com.

About Richmont Mines Inc.

Richmont Mines currently produces gold from the Island Gold Mine in Ontario, and the Beaufor Mine in Quebec. The Corporation is also advancing development of the significant high-grade resource extension at depth of the Island Gold Mine in Ontario. With 35 years of experience in gold production, exploration and development, and prudent financial management, the Corporation is well-positioned to cost-effectively build its Canadian reserve base and to successfully enter its next phase of growth.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements that include risks and uncertainties. When used in this news release, the words "estimate", "project", "anticipate", "expect", "intend", "believe", "hope", "may", "objective" and similar expressions, as well as "will", "shall" and other indications of future tense, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and apply only as of the date on which they were made. Except as may be required by law or regulation, the Corporation undertakes no obligation and disclaims any responsibility to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

The factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, changes in the prevailing price of gold, the Canadian-United States exchange rate, grade of ore mined and unforeseen difficulties in mining operations and mine development that could affect revenue and production costs and future production. Other factors such as uncertainties regarding government regulations could also affect the results. Other risks may be set out in Richmont's Annual Information Form, Annual Reports and periodic reports. The forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date of this news release.

Cautionary note to US investors concerning resource estimates

Information in this press release is intended to comply with the requirements of the Toronto Stock Exchange and applicable Canadian securities legislation, which differ in certain respects with the rules and regulations promulgated under the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended ("Exchange Act"), as promulgated by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). The requirements of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") adopted by the Canadian Securities Administrators differ significantly from the requirements of the SEC.

U.S. Investors are urged to consider the disclosure in our annual report on Form 20-F, File No. 001-14598, as filed with the SEC under the Exchange Act, which may be obtained from us (without cost) or from the SEC's web site: http://sec.gov/edgar.shtml.

National Instrument 43-101

The scientific or technical information in this press release has been reviewed by Mr. Daniel Adam, Geo., Ph.D., Vice-President, Exploration, and Leon LeBlanc, P. Eng., Chief Engineer, both employees of Richmont Mines Inc., who are qualified persons as defined by NI 43-101.

Renaud Adams, President and CEO, Phone: 416 368-0291 ext. 101; Anne Day, Senior Vice-President, Investor Relations, Phone: 416 368-0291 ext. 105

SOURCE Richmont Mines
An employee at the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King has filed a complaint against the state alleging she was discriminated against on the job.

Amber Nikolai, the former member and public relations director at the King home and the current volunteer and event coordinator, said she was discriminated against because of her sex and her efforts to oppose discrimination at the agency against others.
Mobilmo is an app available for download on smartphones and tablets that allows children around the world to create their own Mobilmo (3D contraptions) to explore the virtual planet of Cosmobi.

2. What makes Mobilmo fun?

Create Mobilmo of various shapes however you like.

Choose from a variety of 3D parts to create your very own Mobilmo.

Choose from a variety of 3D parts to create your very own Mobilmo. Add your favorite movements to your Mobilmo.

You can program your Mobilmo to remember unique movements that you create.

You can program your Mobilmo to remember unique movements that you create. Team up with others to co-create Mobilmo.

Exchange parts with other Mobilmo that you may encounter while exploring the virtual planet of Cosmobi to build up your own original Mobilmo.

3. How to play Mobilmo

Build

With over 100 3D parts to choose from, Mobilmo is a new foray into the craft of the future of manufacturing. You can make your Mobilmo cool, cute, and even strange looking  your own original creation.

With over 100 3D parts to choose from, Mobilmo is a new foray into the craft of the future of manufacturing. You can make your Mobilmo cool, cute, and even strange looking  your own original creation. Move

Add your favorite movement to your Mobilmo, and your Mobilmo will remember it. Do you want your Mobilmo to run? To fly? To dance? It is easy to add any kind of movement with the touch of your finger to your Mobilmo.

Add your favorite movement to your Mobilmo, and your Mobilmo will remember it. Do you want your Mobilmo to run? To fly? To dance? It is easy to add any kind of movement with the touch of your finger to your Mobilmo. Adventure

After you create and add movement to your Mobilmo, you are free to explore the vast expanses of the giant planet of Cosmobi. Once your Mobilmo leaves a footprint (footprint = uploading your original Mobilmo) on Cosmobi, your Mobilmo becomes visible to other players on Cosmobi.

After you create and add movement to your Mobilmo, you are free to explore the vast expanses of the giant planet of Cosmobi. Once your Mobilmo leaves a footprint (footprint = uploading your original Mobilmo) on Cosmobi, your Mobilmo becomes visible to other players on Cosmobi. Meet and Clone Parts

Once you meet other Mobilmo created by other players on Cosmobi, you can exchange parts with other Mobilmo friends. Explore various places with your Mobilmo, and connect with other Mobilmo players from around the world.

Mobilmo has lots of other cool features.

Mini Games

Using your Mobilmo you can compete in mini games such as "Time Attack" and "Banana Jump" and boost your ranking.

9 Worlds of Wonder

The nine worlds of wonder feature areas including a penguin-shaped mountain and the sparkling cave area. You can adjust your Mobilmo to fit the characteristics of each area and enjoy the game even more.

Emblems

Collect emblems as your Mobilmo gains popularity among other players or if you win mini games.

DNA

See how parts from your Mobilmo are used by other players.

Auto Pilot

Set your Mobilmo to auto pilot mode and traverse the virtual planet of Cosmobi with ease.

Ranking

Interacting with other users gets you "experience points" and allows you to level up your rank.

Mobilmo Radar

Use the in-app radar feature to find new arrivals and popular Mobilmo. Be sure to "like" your favorite Mobilmo.

Two creation modes for beginners and advanced users

Mobilmo Creation Mode (Beginner)

You can select and combine "action" and "normal" parts to create your Mobilmo.

You can select and combine "action" and "normal" parts to create your Mobilmo. Action Parts Creation Mode (Advanced)

You can select and program your original movements to "normal" parts to create "action" parts.

Once you are able to master the Action Parts Creation Mode, your Mobilmo can move even more freely.

4. The Birth of Mobilmo

Toyota's Role

In 2004, Toyota launched the "Toyota Dream Car Art Contest" with the goal of enabling children to experience the joy of expressing themselves by drawing their dream cars. Since the debut of the contest, Toyota has received more than 4.6 million submissions from children from over 100 countries and regions.

In addition, Toyota would like to reach out to children (or "digital natives") who have been exposed to the internet and digital environment from a young age and provide them with an opportunity to exercise creativity. This has led to the development of a revolutionary app that will put children on the path of discovery and opportunity to navigate in a digital world and enjoy a completely new way of communicating.

About teamLab (development partner)

teamLab is an art collective founded in 2001 that brings together professionals, referring to themselves as "ultratechnologists" from various fields of practice in digital society, including artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, architects, web and print graphic designers, and editors. The collective plans and operates teamLab Island, a futuristic amusement park where children can learn and play.

HP: https://www.teamlab.art/

Comment from the teamLab development team

"In the tech industry, it's common practice for people from all around the world to build upon each other's work. Society can best make progress through the continuous process of improvement. Like in the software industry, we believe this approach will be used in the manufacturing of physical products, including cars, in the future. Toyota and teamLab have developed Mobilmo to pioneer this approach and to equip children with the knowhow to pursue the craft of future manufacturing."

Documentary on the Mobilmo experience

Feel free to watch interviews of those involved in the development of the app, including the voices of children, and cutaway scenes from a Mobilmo workshop conducted by Life is Tech! (an organization that teaches programming to middle and high school students and also runs an IT camp/school) (https://lifeistech.co.jp/en/).

Introduction to Movies

1. Play Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfX4p1tNrM0

Click the link to watch Mobilmo gameplay.

2. Promotion Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Lradracdg

Click the link to watch a Mobilmo promo clip demonstrating key in-app features.

3. Documentary Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX0TzgRy3_U

Click the link to watch the Mobilmo documentary.

Mobilmo Details

Title: Mobilmo

Date of distribution: July 14, 2017

Cost: Free of charge

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/id1246694257?mt=8

Android: Coming soon

Official site: http://www.toyota-global.com/events/mobilmo/

< For inquiries regarding this project >

Direct Communications Dept., Marketing Div., Toyota Motor Corporation

iz-mobilmo@mail.toyota.co.jp

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535485/Mobilmo.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535486/How_to_play_Mobilmo.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535487/Meet_and_Clone_Parts.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535488/Adventure.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535489/Mini_Games_Time_Attack.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535490/Mini_Games_Banana_Jump.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535491/9_Worlds_of_Wonder.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535492/Emblems.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535493/DNA.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535494/Auto_Pilot.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535495/Ranking.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535496/Mobilmo_Radar.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535497/Two_creation_modes.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535498/teamLab.jpg

SOURCE Toyota Motor Corporation
NEW ORLEANS, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- 365 Connect, a leading provider of award-winning marketing, leasing, and resident technology platforms for the multifamily housing industry, announced today the release of a comprehensive industry study on the utilization of resident services in affordable housing. The study, Affordable Multifamily Rental Housing Resident Services - Twenty-First-Century Solutions, brings into focus the future of delivering services through web-based platforms.

The study encompasses extensive research related to the state of the affordable housing industry and the pressing need to evolve the delivery of compliance-required resident services. It explores the complexities of on-site programs, which have a history of poor attendance and high maintenance costs, before proposing how technology platforms can be leveraged to reduce this costly burden and generate more affordable housing units to better serve residents.

Kerry W. Kirby, CEO of 365 Connect stated, "The supply of affordable rental units has not kept pace with the significant demand in the market. Due to fluctuations in the tax credit market, costs of meeting compliance requirements, restrictions on rent, and continuously increasing operating expenses, developers are building new rental units designed for the upper end of the rental market where rents are higher."

He suggested, "Utilizing technology to deliver resident services can redirect financial resources into efforts such as creating a safe, stabilized community, funding mandated repairs, marketing to future residents in search of affordable housing, and delivering more targeted services to residents that they will genuinely use. More importantly, it can open the gates to fund more affordable housing units, which is a vital need across the nation."

The study is one of the most complete compilations of data, independent research, and industry survey participation to ever be produced on this subject. Countless organizations, affordable housing operators, and industry advocates contributed tremendous guidance, insights, and resources throughout the development of this expansive, in-depth report. The resulting research builds a complete picture of how people are engaging with current programs and suggests how technology can redefine an outdated program by a modern, twenty-first-century solution.

"The core of resident service programs is based on getting information into the hands of residents; therefore the key to providing a successful program is delivery. Through the progression of technology and the declining cost of Internet access, a large percentage of the population is now connected online. We must deliver a consistent experience throughout every step of the housing process while providing cohesive solutions that focus on the entire resident lifecycle," Kirby concluded. "As we continue to look at innovative methods to simplify onboarding practices and serve residents, it is crucial that affordable housing operators realign their strategies to accommodate the next generation of renters. We are excited to share our knowledge of this subject with our industry peers."

The complete industry study is available at: www.365connect.com

ABOUT 365 CONNECT: 365 Connect was founded in 2003 with an unwavering commitment to transforming how apartment communities market, lease, and retain residents. As a leading provider of award-winning technology platforms for the multifamily housing industry, 365 Connect delivers a fully-integrated suite of comprehensive solutions that automate marketing, simplify transactions, and serve residents after the lease is signed. The 365 Connect Resident Lifecycle Platform allows its clients infinite expansion, robust integrations, and the ability to revolutionize user experiences. Explore: www.365connect.com

MEDIA CONTACTS:

365 Connect

[email protected]

504.299.3444

Related Links

Like Us On Facebook

Follow Us On Twitter

SOURCE 365 Connect
DURHAM, N.C. and WILMINGTON, N.C., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcami, a leading provider of custom development and manufacturing services for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, today announced plans to transition its global headquarters to Durham, North Carolina. The decision to expand Alcami's presence within Research Triangle Park (RTP) reinforces its commitment to the ongoing innovation and growth within the region.

"We are very excited about this relocation, which prominently positions Alcami in a region known for its culture of diverse expertise, cutting-edge innovation and invention," stated Dr. Stephan Kutzer, Ph.D., Alcami President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our stronger presence in the Triangle is necessary to meet the evolving needs of our clients, accommodate growth, recruit top talent, and attract investors and new customers."

Alcami employs approximately 50 people at its current Durham, NC laboratory services site and anticipates adding critical new jobs to support its technology expansion into biologics and establishment of its new headquarters location in 2018. The company will continue to house executive offices in both its current Wilmington, NC headquarters and Durham, NC facilities until the full transition is complete.

Alcami will maintain its strong community ties in Wilmington, NC, where it employs over 450 employees and recently established a collaboration with the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The company remains committed to its Wilmington manufacturing and laboratory operations, where it recently invested approximately $6 million as part of its 5,000 sq. ft. laboratory services expansion and serialization upgrade for drug product packaging. Alcami's Wilmington operations account for approximately 35 percent of the company's overall business.

"North Carolina is home to Alcami, and our expansion in the Research Triangle Park area is an investment in the future of the company," Kutzer said.

ABOUT ALCAMI

Alcami is a world-class contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) headquartered in North Carolina, with executive offices in Durham and Wilmington. With over 1,000 employees operating at seven sites globally, Alcami provides customizable and innovative services to small and mid-size pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies by offering individualized and integrated services across multiple areas. We connect our clients with innovative solutions for API development and manufacturing, solid-state chemistry, formulation development, analytical development and testing services, clinical and commercial finished dosage form manufacturing (oral solid dose and parenteral), packaging, and stability services. For more information, please visit www.alcaminow.com.

SOURCE Alcami Corporation

Related Links

http://www.alcaminow.com


S 1534 is identical to H.R. 555, which passed the House of Representatives in January. The legislation takes vital steps necessary to protect the right of all Amateur Radio operators to practice their craft in their residences, ensuring that they are prepared when needed in the case of an emergency.

Specifically, the Amateur Radio Parity Act will, for the first time, guarantee all Amateur Radio operators who are living in deed-restricted communities governed by a homeowner's association (HOA), or subject to any private land use regulations, the right to construct and maintain an effective outdoor antenna at their residences.

Amateur, or "ham" Radio, is a popular voluntary communications service. More than 760,000 federally licensed participants communicate by radio locally, worldwide, and even into space. During an emergency, hams have the ability to operate independently of the public power grid and provide service without the need for normal communications infrastructure, such as cell phone networks or the Internet.

Because of this flexibility and independence, Amateur Radio is regularly used during natural disasters to help local emergency and served agencies respond when normal communications methods are disrupted. These skilled communications services are provided by radio amateurs free of charge, as a public service. The Amateur Radio Parity Act would ensure that amateurs living in deed-restricted communities would still be able to prepare for and to provide this vital community service during an emergency or disaster, by protecting their ability to install an effective outdoor antenna.

Importantly, the legislation also strikes a carefully crafted balance with HOAs, ensuring that local homeowners' associations have a voice in the process.

ARRL President Rick Roderick said that "ARRL is grateful for the support of Senators Wicker and Blumenthal for sponsoring this important piece of legislation, and for advocating this bill for the past three years. Their continuing support is critical to the success of our efforts." Roderick also thanked Senator John Thune (R-SD), Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, for "championing the Parity Act in the Senate since the beginning of our effort."

The bill has widespread, bipartisan support. In the 114th Congress, there were nearly 130 cosponsors in the House and the Senate, and the legislation has passed the House twice in the past year. On January 24, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said that the bill would "help Amateur Radio operators, and take several steps to promote public safety."

ARRL looks forward to working with the bipartisan leadership of the Senate and the Commerce Committee to help move the Wicker-Blumenthal legislation through the Senate and to the President's desk.

More information on the Amateur Radio Parity Act is available at www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-parity-act.

More information on Amateur Radio is available at www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio

SOURCE ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio

Related Links

http://www.arrl.org


RICHMOND, Va., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided 10-5 to prohibit First Liberty Institute clients, Rowan County, NC, Commissioners, from opening commission meetings with an invocation by government officials. This decision comes three years after the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that legislative meetings may open with a prayer given by local religious leaders even if all the prayer givers are of the same faith.

"While we are disappointed in the Fourth Circuit's decision to ban invocations before legislative meetings contrary to Supreme Court precedent, we are encouraged that the split in the vote on the Fourth Circuit demonstrates the need for Supreme Court review on this issue," said Mike Berry, Deputy General Counsel for First Liberty Institute.

First Liberty Institute is one of the law firms representing Rowan County in this matter and is also representing Jackson County, Michigan in a similar matter that is currently pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

SOURCE First Liberty Institute
FORT WASHINGTON, Pa., July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following a cancer diagnosis, all patients experience some level of distressregardless of disease stage. When severe and left untreated, distress can have a significant impact on health outcomes, lead to greater mortality and morbidity, affect immune function, and result in higher health care expenditures through more frequent use of medical services, such as emergency department (ED) visits. To combat these issues, the Commission on Cancer (CoC) put into place mandates for routine distress screening at cancer centers.

To uncover the correlation between cancer screening adherence and use of medical services at community and academic cancer centers, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, led by Brad Zebrack, PhD, MSW, MPH, reviewed electronic health record (EHR) data from 55 cancer centers in the United States and Canada. The results showed that adherence to screening protocols led to 18% fewer ED visits and 19% fewer hospitalizations in the two-month period following the screening.

The study, "A Practice-Based Evaluation of Distress Screening Protocol Adherence and Medical Service Utilization," is published in the July 2017 issue of JNCCNJournal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

Reduced Anxiety and Improved Outcomes

According to Dr. Zebrack, utilization of distress screening protocols, such as the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Distress Thermometer, have the ability uncover incapacitating conditions that, left untreated, could have an incredibly negative impact on patient outcomes.

"Appropriate screening and identification of distress would flag a referral to a social worker, whose clinical assessment would uncover the cause of the patient's distress and lead to clinical engagement and delivery of an appropriate, evidence-based intervention, complementary to clinical treatment," said Zebrack.

To illustrate this impact, Zebrack et al use the example of a screening that uncovers a spouse's anxiety related to the responsibility of maintaining the patient's central line at home. In this instance, the authors explain, appropriate response would preempt improper home care, reduce risk of infection, and prevent an ED visit and hospitalization.

In many cases, coexisting psychosocial conditions inhibit adherence to therapy, and helping ensure that patients have access to appropriate support breaks down barriers to necessary clinical care and, essentially, better outcomes.

"Just as we do not expect blood pressure screening alone to reduce symptoms of cardiovascular disease, we should not expect distress screening alone to improve outcomes," said Zebrack. "There must also be an appropriate clinical response when risk conditions are detected."

Challenges to Utilization

In 2015, the CoC established accreditation standards for patient-centered care that included a requirement for distress screening for all patients with cancer, as well as appropriate clinical response when warranted.

The University of Michigan study is the first to examine adherence among nonexperimental distress screening protocols. Of the 55 centers studied53 in the United States and two in CanadaEHRs for more than 8,400 patients were examined. Among those reports, 62% of patients received the mandated distress screening and follow upthe highest rates of which were reported by community cancer programs. Among National Cancer Institute (NCI)designated cancer centers, less than half adhered to the protocol.

"Particularly concerning is the finding that documentation of psychosocial screening in one of every three cases in this sample is lacking. The absence of these clinical data can compromise the ability of oncology care providers to know whether patients are receiving the psychosocial care and support they need," said Zebrack.

Moreover, regardless of care setting, adherence rates for adolescent and young adult patients (aged 1539 years) were significantly lower (58%) when compared with other age populations. Researchers identified that the highest adherence rates (70%) were among black/African American patients, while the lowest adherence rates (45%) were found in patients of American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Island descent.

The efficient use of scarce medical resources and the delivery of cost-effective care depends upon getting the right treatments to the right patients at the right times. Distress management protocols are critical for identifying and responding to the needs of patients. When left unchecked, unmet patient needs for psychosocial support contribute to poor patient outcomes and unnecessary use of costly medical services.

Available Resources

Among the cancer centers studied, 84% utilized the NCCN Distress Thermometer and Symptom Checklistor a modified version thereof. This checklist, derived from the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Distress Management, is similar to the pain scale used in various areas of medicine. The distress thermometer allows patients to self-identify their stress level from zero to 10, with 10 being an extreme level of distress. Under the guidelines, patients reporting above a "4" should be referred to supportive care that will best serve their needs.

The corresponding problem list allows patients to self-identify sources of distress, including practical problems, family problems, emotional problems, spiritual/religious problems, and physical problems.

A patient version of this tool is available free-of-charge at NCCN.org/patients.

"In patients with cancer, distress encompasses far more than anxiety about treatment and prognosis. Encouraging patients to identify and express the sources of distress in their lives will ultimately improve their psychosocial and physical well-being. My hope is that one day, all oncologists will post the NCCN Distress Thermometer in their examination rooms just as primary care physicians have the eye chart," said Jimmie Holland, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Founding Chair of the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Distress Management. "Discussion of distress should be a routine part of the patient visit. I applaud the efforts of Dr. Zebrack and his fellow researchers and hope these findings will help uncover barriers to appropriate care so that patients will receive the care they need when they need it."

Complimentary access to the study, "A Practice-Based Evaluation of Distress Screening Protocol Adherence and Medical Service Utilization," is available until September 30, 2017, at JNCCN.org.

About JNCCNJournal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network

More than 24,000 oncologists and other cancer care professionals across the United States read JNCCNJournal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. This peer-reviewed, indexed medical journal provides the latest information about best clinical practices, health services research, and translational medicine. JNCCN features updates on the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines), review articles elaborating on guidelines recommendations, health services research, and case reports highlighting molecular insights in patient care. JNCCN is published by Harborside Press. Visit JNCCN.org. To inquire if you are eligible for a FREE subscription to JNCCN, visit http://www.nccn.org/jnccn/subscribe.asp

JNCCN 360 is a new online resource for oncology professionals featuring up-to-date news, literature, trials, clinical perspectives on current therapies, and much more. Visit JNCCN360.org

About the National Comprehensive Cancer Network

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of 27 leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education, is dedicated to improving the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of cancer care so that patients can live better lives. Through the leadership and expertise of clinical professionals at NCCN Member Institutions, NCCN develops resources that present valuable information to the numerous stakeholders in the health care delivery system. As the arbiter of high-quality cancer care, NCCN promotes the importance of continuous quality improvement and recognizes the significance of creating clinical practice guidelines appropriate for use by patients, clinicians, and other health care decision-makers.

The NCCN Member Institutions are: Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, Omaha, NE; Case Comprehensive Cancer Center/University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, Cleveland, OH; City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA; Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center | Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA; Duke Cancer Institute, Durham, NC; Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA; Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Seattle, WA; The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD; Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Phoenix/Scottsdale, AZ, Jacksonville, FL, and Rochester, MN; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY; Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL; The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, Columbus, OH; Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY; Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO; St. Jude Children's Research Hospital/The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN; Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford, CA; University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center, Birmingham, AL; UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, CA; UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, CA; University of Colorado Cancer Center, Aurora, CO; University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, MI; The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, Madison, WI; Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN; and Yale Cancer Center/Smilow Cancer Hospital, New Haven, CT.

Clinicians, visit NCCN.org. Patients and caregivers, visit NCCN.org/patients. Media, visit NCCN.org/news.

Media Contact:

Katie Kiley Brown, NCCN

215-690-0238

[email protected]

SOURCE National Comprehensive Cancer Network

Related Links

http://www.nccn.org


"We're trying to build something that the university needs going forward, which is a culture of philanthropy," said ASU President Michael M. Crow. "All great universities in the United States are built around philanthropy."

"This strong momentum indicates that our community is growing in its understanding of the value of private support to the university  and of the value of the university in society," said R.F. "Rick" Shangraw, Jr., chief executive officer of ASU Enterprise Partners, the parent organization to the ASU Foundation.

Campaign ASU 2020 focuses on six priorities, but donors can choose from 5,000 specific areas to make an impact.

"I believe ASU is a major life force in our community, and I want to do my part to help it thrive," said Jeremy Meek '09, a donor and President's Club Young Leader. He is one of more than 100,000 individual, corporate and foundation supporters to give to ASU this year.

Though private support is not a replacement for public funding, it provides the margin of excellence that allows scholars' experiences to transform from good to great.

Around 8,000 students receive scholarships enabled by private donors each year. Other beneficiaries include the reinvented Sun Devil Stadium, mid-career professionals hoping to transition to teaching and the student-run, free clinic for the homeless in downtown Phoenix.

"We are so grateful for our donors," said ASU Foundation CEO Gretchen Buhlig. "They are genuinely doing good in the world through the research they enable and the programs that help our students who might not otherwise attend or graduate from college."

The ASU Foundation is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the mission of ASU as a New American University. It consistently received the highest ranking for efficiency and transparency from Charity Navigator, the largest independent non-profit evaluator.

CONTACT:

Beth Giudicessi

[email protected]

SOURCE Arizona State University Foundation

Related Links

https://asunow.asu.edu


WEST MIDDLESEX, Pa., July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Autosoft, Inc., a leading national dealer management system (DMS) provider, announces the expansion of their Connect program with nine new third-party partners. Additional partners give dealers more affordable options for integration with their DMS.

New partnerships include Dashboard Dealership Enterprises, Dealer Spike, Digital Technology, Inc., EZ-ETITLE, GoMoto, KEYper Systems, ProMax, Scan123, and Speed Digital. All partners offer services and products that help automotive dealers increase profits, drive traffic, and create better customer experiences.

Dashboard Dealership Enterprises is a data analytics and enterprise reporting company providing dealers with operational and accounting issue alerts.

Dealer Spike offers responsive websites and digital marketing tools to engage customers and increase leads, increasing dealers' sales and service profitability.

Digital Technology, Inc., helps improve customer service and reduces costs with integrated document management that digitally stores documents with an imaging system.

EZ-ETITLE helps dealers alleviate costs and get instant updates on titles from the bureaus with an easy-to-use system.

GoMoto offers kiosk technology for the service lane that provides streamlined, self-led customer check-in and payment, providing customers captivating, interactive technology in-store.

KEYper Systems prevents key and vehicle theft by storing keys in a simple, secure electronic system, utilizing web-based software.

ProMax manages desking, CRM, websites, and more with an award-winning, complete front end solution to increase sales while reducing expenses.

Scan123 eliminates paper filing with a scanning system that gives dealers easy and secure retrieval.

Speed Digital increases profits through powerful, custom website and vehicle management solutions with cloud based technology.

"We're excited to continue to grow our partner relationships in response to the evolving needs of our customers," said Autosoft Connect Program Director, Dale Novotniak. "Our dealers get deep integration between Autosoft DMS and our third-party partners' solutions. We also remain committed to keeping our third-party integration fees among the lowest in the industry."

Autosoft offers total integration between their DMS and many CRM, Sales, Marketing, Inventory, F&I, Parts, Service, and other third-party solutions. By continuously adding new partners, dealers can create a more profitable dealership with more satisfied customers, using the best software on the market.

Currently, Autosoft gives dealers access to choose from over 150 partner solutions to integrate with their DMS. Dealerships can also ask Autosoft to partner with a new third-party partner of their choice. To learn more about Autosoft's partners and see a complete list, visit www.autosoftdms.com/partners.

About Autosoft

Autosoft provides and supports a complete dealer management system (DMS) that has received the Highest Rated DMS award from DrivingSales three years in a row. With affordable month-to-month contracts, Autosoft's DMS improves processes and reduces operating costs in over 2,000 franchised automotive dealerships. Easy-to-use, affordable, and innovative software helps dealers focus on their customers' needs.

Contact: Michael Cross, [email protected], 724-906-6249

SOURCE Autosoft

Related Links

http://www.autosoftdms.com


WHIPPANY, N.J., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Bayer and the White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) announce that two-years into their partnership and less than one year from community project launch, their Every Woman Every Child commitment to empower women to practice self-care has reached 1,200 women in 91 communities across four developing countries. The announcement comes after the July 2016 release of self-care policy recommendations from Bayer and WRA, and the partnership's launch of local community programs to support the reduction and prevention of maternal, newborn and child mortality in developing countries including Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Indonesia and Bolivia.

Programs in Bangladesh are addressing birth preparedness and educaiton. In Zimbabwe, the program addresses the high maternal mortality rate in Kwekwe District by increasing effective birth preparedness for emergency situations, increasing knowledge about birth complications and informing community members of their rights. Every Woman Every Child White Ribbon Alliance Self-care is the foundation of maternal, newborn and child healthcare. This includes giving people the tools, knowledge and resources to get well, be well and stay well.

Self-care is the foundation of maternal, newborn and child healthcare. This includes giving people the tools, knowledge and resources to get well, be well and stay well. In Indonesia, the self-care project addresses current health care needs; in Bangladesh it addresses birth preparedness and education; in Bolivia it addresses nutrition and in Zimbabwe, the self-care project addresses the high maternal mortality rate in Kwekwe District by increasing effective birth preparedness for emergency situations, increasing knowledge about birth complications and informing community members of their rights.

"I booked my prenatal care appointments early so that I can be assessed and be given information about the pregnancy, for example, the well-being of the baby and myself. That gave me satisfaction and confidence," said one woman in Kwekwe who participated in the project.

"When we're talking about how to transform health for women and girls, we should be talking about a fundamental change in how we think about health care," said Erica Mann, President Consumer Health Division and Member of the Board of Management, Bayer AG. "When women can access and understand health information, their health and well-being and that of their children are less at risk. Self-care gives women the tools and skills to take charge of their own health, which in turn improves their lives and the lives of generations of girls and women, and eases the burden on overstretched health systems by reducing costs and increasing effectiveness."

Bayer/White Ribbon Alliance Partnership

Today's announcement comes at the two-year anniversary of the Bayer/WRA commitment in support of the United Nations Every Woman Every Child movement and contributes to the success of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Established through a three-year, $1.3 million commitment from Bayer in 2015, the self-care programs complement work that is underway by WRA in Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Indonesia, and expands their work to Bolivia.

With a goal of providing self-care knowledge to underserved women and their families, these programs deliver education and skills to give women the confidence to take charge of their personal and family health before, during and after childbirth. White Ribbon Alliance leads the implementation effort, which focuses on vital health issues and barriers to care, including nutrition, birth preparedness, newborn care, hygiene and self-care policy advancement and advocacy.

The partnership is key in Bayer's commitment to continuing progress in this critical time of need, as outlined in public policy recommendations released by White Ribbon Alliance and Bayer in 2016. The policy paper, "Self-Care: A Cost Effective Solution for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health for All," underscores the potential of self-care to drive forward recommended global policies and interventions.

"We must reframe healthcare and put women at the center in partnership with health providers the health system," said Betsy McCallon, CEO, White Ribbon Alliance. "When women and communities are equipped with information about health services and rights, they become empowered agents to improve their health and that of their families, making self-care a vital component of global, national and local health policy and practice."

"In Zimbabwe women do not have adequate information they need to make decisions about their health before, during and after childbirth. This increases the chance of complications that lead to illness and death among women and newborns," said Gretel Mahere, District Nursing Officer for Kwekwe. "The good news is that the work we are doing is already having a powerful impact, improving the knowledge and confidence of the women in the program and is showing early signs of success in our community."

Every Woman Every Child

The Bayer and WRA partnership is part of the Every Woman Every Child movement.

"The Bayer, White Ribbon Alliance commitment to Every Woman Every Child directly contributes to the Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health and the success of the Sustainable Development Goals," said Natalie Africa, Senior Director for Private Sector Engagement for Every Woman Every Child. "This mission aims to keep women, children and adolescents at the heart of the sustainable development agenda, unlocking their vast potential to transform their lives and their communities."

Previous self-care efforts have not achieved broad reform, focusing instead on disease-specific or physician-specific initiatives. But self-care must start more broadly and focus on the individual in order to be effective for long-term health impact personally, societally and across generations.

With nearly 1,200 women impacted through their work thus far, Bayer and White Ribbon Alliance, supported by Every Woman Every Child, are committed to addressing obstacles to self-care in maternal, newborn and child health. By continuing to implement systemic and structural changes on global, national and local levels, health systems can empower women to trust themselves, know their rights and take actions which improve their health and that of their community.

Bayer: Science For A Better Life

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the Life Science fields of health care and agriculture. Its products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life. At the same time, the Group aims to create value through innovation, growth and high earning power. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development and to its social and ethical responsibilities as a corporate citizen. In fiscal 2016, the Group employed around 115,200 people and had sales of EUR 46.8 billion. Capital expenditures amounted to EUR 2.6 billion, R&D expenses to EUR 4.7 billion. These figures include those for the high-tech polymers business, which was floated on the stock market as an independent company named Covestro on October 6, 2015. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

About White Ribbon Alliance

White Ribbon Alliance is a powerful network of advocates working for maternal and newborn health and rights at the local, national and global levels. With members throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States, WRA mobilizes citizens, helping them recognize and seize their power to demand that all women and their children are safe and healthy before, during and after childbirth. For more information, visit our website at whiteribbonalliance.org.

About Every Woman Every Child

Launched in 2010 and led by the UN Secretary-General, the Every Woman Every Child movement aims to intensify national and international commitment and action by governments, the UN, multilaterals, private sector and civil society to keep women's, children's and adolescents' health and wellbeing at the heart of development. As a multi-stakeholder platform to operationalize the Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health, the movement mobilizes partnerships and coordinated efforts across sectors to ensure that all women, children and adolescents not only survive, but also thrive to help transform the world. Since 2015, 62 country and around 150 multi-stakeholder commitments have been pledged in support of the EWEC Global Strategy, totaling nearly US$30 billion to deliver on the promises of a sustainable future for all. More information at http://www.everywomaneverychild.org

SOURCE Bayer

Related Links

http://www.bayerus.com


HOUSTON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- BBVA Compass, which has channeled $79 million in community development loans and investments in rural Texas communities since 2015, was honored with a Rural Matters award last month at the Texas Rural Challenge.

The Texas Rural Challenge is the largest state event of its kind, focusing on business and economic development, community development and statewide issues including energy and health care access in the state's rural communities. The conference, which had more than 300 attendees from over 90 cities across the state, is hosted annually by the University of Texas at San Antonio's Small Business Development Center Rural Business Program and the Office of the Governor. The conference's steering committee selected BBVA Compass and four other organizations as recipients of the inaugural Rural Matters awards on the strength of their efforts to serve rural Texas.

"This award is particularly meaningful to BBVA Compass because our purpose is to create opportunities for brighter futures for all people," said BBVA Compass Waco City President J.D. King, who accepted the award on behalf of the bank at an evening reception during the conference at the Waco suspension bridge. "Let me underscore that last part: all people. It's not just those in big cities or their suburbs, but everyone. It's why we actively look for ways to support our rural communities."

One of those initiatives is BBVA Compass' sponsorship of the strategic plan and feasibility study that ultimately led to the Pharr Life Net pilot program in Pharr, Texas. The program is giving 50 families in the border community broadband access and bilingual training and technical support, with an additional 250 homes to receive broadband internet in the coming months. The bank's investment  it is the largest corporate sponsor of the strategic plan and feasibility study  was spurred by research by BBVA Compass economists that found internet access to be the dominant factor in financial inclusion, and that the McAllen area, of which Pharr is part, was ranked last among 250 cities for financial inclusion levels.

The BBVA Compass Foundation also awarded a $50,000 grant in 2016 to the Housing Assistance Council, whose mission is to improve housing conditions for the rural poor.

"BBVA Compass' interest and investment is making rural Texas more competitive and sustainable," said Gil Gonzalez, director of the SBDC Rural Business Program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. "But, more importantly, it's restoring hope and opportunity for rural Texans."

UTSA's SBDC Rural Business Program is a specialty center affiliated with the university's South-West Texas Border Small Business Development Center Network, a 79-county service area that covers the Gulf Coast of Texas as well as South and West Texas. Rural communities in the network area have been principally agricultural based. The program's focus is to provide rural communities and small to medium-sized businesses with technical assistance to help them grow, develop and create new jobs across the state's rural areas.

About BBVA Group

BBVA is a customer-centric global financial services group founded in 1857. The Group is the largest financial institution in Spain and Mexico and it has leading franchises in South America and the Sunbelt Region of the United States; and it is also the leading shareholder in Garanti, Turkey's biggest bank for market capitalization. Its diversified business is focused on high-growth markets and it relies on technology as a key sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate responsibility is at the core of its business model. BBVA fosters financial education and inclusion, and supports scientific research and culture. It operates with the highest integrity, a long-term vision and applies the best practices. More information about BBVA Group can be found at bbva.com.

About BBVA Compass

BBVA Compass is a Sunbelt-based financial institution that operates 657 branches, including 342 in Texas, 89 in Alabama, 63 in Arizona, 61 in California, 45 in Florida, 38 in Colorado and 19 in New Mexico. BBVA Compass ranks among the top 25 largest U.S. commercial banks based on deposit market share and ranks among the largest banks in Alabama (2nd), Texas (4th) and Arizona (5th). BBVA Compass has been recognized as one of the leading small business lenders by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and ranked 5th nationally in the total number of SBA loans originated in fiscal year 2016. Additional information about BBVA Compass can be found at www.bbvacompass.com. For more BBVA Compass news, follow @BBVACompassNews on Twitter or visit newsroom.bbvacompass.com.

SOURCE BBVA Compass

Related Links

https://www.bbvacompass.com


myPayrazr Portal SLR is a specialty edition of the myPayrazr Portal that addresses the growing issue of defaulted student loan debt. The portal enables agencies to establish reasonable, income based, repayment plans for qualified consumers in default on their student loans, and then accept monthly online payments 24/7 until the loan is rehabilitated. The portal also integrates with federally authorized payment services.

In addition to celebrating myPayrazr SLR's GA at next week's conference, BillingTree's VP of Sales and Business Development Chad Probst along with VP of Marketing Dave Yohe will present Tuesday at 1:30 on healthcare payments. The company is also a Gold Sponsor for the event and will be exhibiting in booth 218.

"We are excited to share our celebration of the student loan rehabilitation portal's General Availability with the annual ACA International Convention and Expo," said Chad Probst. "The opportunity to showcase innovative new solutions like myPayrazr SLR, and speak on payment services for ARM including HealthPAS, are two of the many reasons BillingTree continually supports the events and activities of ACA International."

Related News:

New Student Loan Rehab Portal from BillingTree Assists Agencies and Consumers

About BillingTree

BillingTree is the leading provider of integrated payments solutions to the healthcare, ARM and financial services industry verticals. Through its technology-enabled suite of products and services, BillingTree enables organizations to increase efficiency and decrease the costs of payment processing while adhering to compliance regulations. Leveraging more than a decade of market experience, BillingTree is dedicated to growing payments with technology through an integrated omni-channel offering, suite of proprietary products and value-added services, and a Company-wide focus on delivering extraordinary customer service.

Contact: Contact: Dave Yohe Jamie Kightley VP of Marketing PR for BillingTree BillingTree IBA Tel: 602.443.5948 Tel: 561.228.1940 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE BillingTree

Related Links

http://www.mybillingtree.com


"I congratulate Dr. Shean on his acceptance to the Association of Chief Academic Officers Digital Fellows Program," said Bridgepoint CEO Andrew Clark. "I am certain Dr. Shean's participation in the fellowship will be beneficial to his role as chief academic officer, and will benefit Bridgepoint in its efforts to offer innovative learning resources to students at Bridgepoint's academic institutions."

The 18-month fellowship program is designed to provide senior campus leaders with critical information, effective resources, and tested strategies to help chief academic officers and their faculty understand and adopt high quality digital coursewear. In addition, the program will provide a unique opportunity for fellows to focus on the adoption and deployment of courseware and digital learning resources intended to enhance student learning, increase retention and degree completion, and improve institutional outcomes. The ACAO Fellowship program will also provide a public archive of resources on digital learning to help chief academic officers leverage digital curricular materials to foster student engagement and enhance student learning at their institutions.

Participation in the year-long ACAO Digital Fellows Program includes four meetings of workshops on digital learning. The fellowship program also provides support for individual institutional projects focused on digital learning.

To learn more about the Association of Chief Academic Officers and the ACAO Fellowship Program, please visit www.acao.org/digitalfellows.

About Bridgepoint Education

Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE:BPI) harnesses the latest technology to reimagine the modern student experience. Bridgepoint owns two academic institutions  Ashford University and University of the Rockies. Together, these programs, technologies, and resources represent a unique model for advancing education in the 21st century. Bridgepoint stands for greater access, social learning, and exposure to leading minds. For more information, visit www.bridgepointeducation.com, www.facebook.com/BridgepointEducation, or call Marianne Perez, Media Relations Manager, at 858.668.2586 x11636, or email [email protected].

About ACAO

Chartered in 2013, the vision of the ACAO is to provide professional development and networking opportunities to all individuals who are responsible for the leadership of academic affairs in institutions of higher education. The ACAO provides a network of support for CAOs through its e-lists, professional resources, and annual conference held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Council on Education (ACE).

SOURCE Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.bridgepointeducation.com


HOUSTON, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Bristow Group Inc. (NYSE: BRS), the leading provider of global industrial aviation services, announced today it will release financial results for its fiscal 2018 first quarter ended June 30, 2017, after the market closes on Thursday, August 3, 2017. In conjunction with the release, Bristow has scheduled a conference call, which will be broadcast live over the internet on Friday, August 4, 2017, starting at 10:00 a.m. ET (9:00 a.m. CT). Investors may participate in the call either by phone or audio webcast.

By Phone: Dial 1-877-404-9648 for domestic callers or 412-902-0030 for international callers at least 10 minutes before the call. A telephone replay will be available through August 18, 2017 by dialing 1-877-660-6853 for domestic callers or 201-612-7415 for international callers, using passcode 13665035#.



By Webcast: Visit the Investor Relations page of Bristow's website at www.bristowgroup.com. Please log on at least 10 minutes in advance to register and download any necessary software. A replay will be available shortly after the call and will be accessible for approximately 90 days.

ABOUT BRISTOW GROUP INC.

Bristow Group Inc. is the leading global industrial aviation services provider offering helicopter transportation, search and rescue (SAR) and aircraft support services, including maintenance and training, to government and civil organizations worldwide. Bristow has major operations in the North Sea, Nigeria and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and in most of the other major offshore oil and gas producing regions of the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Russia and Trinidad. Bristow provides SAR services to the private sector worldwide and to the public sector for all of the U.K. on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. For more information, visit bristowgroup.com.

Contact: Linda McNeill

Investor Relations

(713) 267-7622

SOURCE Bristow Group Inc.

Related Links

http://www.bristowgroup.com


HOUSTON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Burton Construction, a leader in Houston's commercial construction industry, has started work on Lockwood Business Park, 13300 Lockwood Drive, a flex industrial/office complex set on 25 acres fronting Lockwood Road in the thriving northeast Harris County area.

"The rapid growth of Northeast Harris County and developments like Generation Park are making the area an appealing new destination for families and organizations," said Juan Ospina, Vice President of Burton Construction. "Lockwood Business Park will provide valuable industrial and office space for the growing Lake Houston economy."

The Lockwood Business Park is part of the master planned commercial development, Generation Park, owned by McCord Development. The park sits opposite TechnipFMC's new campus, with multiple entrances and exits on four-lane Lockwood Drive. It is part of a Foreign Trade Zone created by Harris County that allows businesses to save up to 100 percent on duty and 65 percent on inventory tax for qualified goods. Construction is scheduled to be completed in early 2018.

"We have developed a great relationship with Burton Construction over the years," said John Flournoy, Vice President of Sales and Leasing at McCord Development, Inc. "We appreciate their commitment to growing relationships and their passion for our project."

Meeting Demand in a Fast-Growth Area

The Lockwood Business Park is being developed in the right place at the right time to meet the needs of a growing community. Fitting with its long-standing reputation for wooded beauty, excellent location and top-notch schools, northeast Harris County is experiencing an upsurge in growth that has earned the area's 77044 zip code the title of "fastest growing" zip code in Harris County.

Spurred by the completion of Sam Houston Tollway and the US 99/Grand Parkway's Interstate 45-to-US 59 segment, much of the new development in the northeast is taking shape in and around the Lake Houston community. Demographic studies indicate that more than 40,000 new residents will move to the Lake Houston area by 2025.

Generation Park's Appeal

Generation Park brings an element of urban living to the suburbs and offers a synergistic feel that younger generations seek. The office, industrial, education and commercial components of this emerging development complement surrounding residential communities and attract residents and families who want to work near where they live.

In the 4,000-acre Generation Park enterprise, more than 2 million square feet of Class A office space is planned, and 52 acres have been set aside for parks, restaurants, bars and shops.

In addition, Lone Star College and San Jacinto College are working on tailored curriculum so that business and industry located in Lockwood Business Park and the surrounding area can benefit from specific training programs for employees and create a qualified base of new hires.

About Burton Construction

Headquartered in Houston, Burton Construction is a commercial construction company with a dynamic approach to customized, high-end construction and high-end interiors. Founded in 2004, Burton Construction's all-encompassing services include: design build, design assist and competitive bids. With attention to details, Burton blends industry-specific elements into each building and brings a world of experience to the craft of commercial construction. Visit Burton's new website, www.burtonconstruction.com!

SOURCE Burton Construction

Related Links

http://www.burtonconstruction.com


LONDON, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Is it possible to make a solid wood bathtub out of a single 3000-kilogram (6600lbs) mass of wood, that didn't contain glue or epoxy? More importantly, can this be done in a sustainable manner?

TRAD - BATHTUB SHAJARA BATHTUB

The general consensus is you can't even make a kitchen cabinet out of solid wood let alone a nearly 6-feet diameter bathtub. There was a concern, "will it hold water?" In this case, it was a literal metaphor. Woodworkers insisted it would crack from uneven drying, and architects just shrugged it off as "impossible" as the wood would be too unstable and move and twist and be as one architect stated, "a hopeless mess." Dugout canoes, it was pointed out, contain many cracks and issues, yet the thought of making a dugout seems very daunting in this day and age.

"Most architects have very limited training in wood," explained Jonathan Kitzen, sustainable wood expert and one of the original founders at Timber Neutral (www.timberneutral.com), the company that oversaw the sustainability issues. There are more than 2,000 commercial tree species in the world and each one has different mechanical and aesthetic qualities.

In the past, the company consulted on a 2.4m (8-ft) by 25m (80-ft) hardwood slab from a single tree, which at under 100 years old was one-quarter the age of many mature European hardwood trees. "Just because it's big doesn't mean its old," commented Kitzen. "In fact, if you think about it you can cut one single big fast growing tree or 300 to 500 slow growing temperate ones to equal the same mass, which is more sustainable? Which is better for the environment? Cut down an acre or a single tree? And this is not a 3000-year-old softwood sequoia, we are talking huge fast-growing hardwood tree."

The tubs are made from trees that are less than 75 years old, sourced from a supplier in Colombia, or about the same age as most mature oak, or beach trees you might find in your yard but far more massive. They were also replanted under the Timber Neutral planting scheme, which replaces sustainable timbers with replanted endangered species. "There is no point in replanting a maple, for example, as they grow like weeds; we need to rethink sustainability and replant those in need," explained Roberts. Timber Neutral offers timber audits to manufacturers to allow them to take control of sustainability and not rely on someone else's chain of custody, because as Roberts pointed out, "Certified does not mean replanted; most people do not realize that."

"The goal was to make a 100% natural object and a reflection of the organic nature of wood and true to the spirit of the tree," said company spokeswoman Fiona French of Timber Neutral. "The client was very happy with the result and appreciated that we replanted scores of endangered trees in the area we took the single tree down in."

The company has no plans to continue making them, but a few of the limited collection are available in North America and sold exclusively through www.amelieandmax.com.

About Timber Neutral

Founded in 2004, Timber Neutral is as a trusted adviser within the sustainable forestry sector. Its breadth and depth of experience in responsible forestry practices help mitigate the environmental impact of commercialization and allow consumers and manufactures to take control of their own wood product use with out relying on vague and incomplete third-party certifications.

Media Contact

Sandra Herve

416.732.0363

[email protected]

SOURCE Timber Neutral

Related Links

http://www.timberneutral.com


LONDON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlights

 The ceramic sanitary ware market is projected to reach USD 59.17 billion by 2022

 The ceramic sanitary ware market is projected to reach USD 59.17 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 9.6% between 2017 and 2022.

 The increasing demand for sanitary ware products such as wash basins and toilet sinks/water closets and the growing real estate sector are key factors anticipated to drive the demand for ceramic sanitary ware.

 In addition, increasing construction activities, rising disposable income, increasing concerns over personal hygiene, and growing hospitality industry are further contributing to the growth of the ceramic sanitary ware market.

 Environmental concerns regarding the release of toxic emissions generated during the production of ceramic sanitary ware products are expected to act as a restraint to the growth of the market.

 Toilet sinks/water closets - The largest type segment of the ceramic sanitary ware market in 2016

 The toilet sinks/water closets segment is projected to lead the ceramic sanitary ware market during the forecast period.

 The increasing need for replacement of old sanitary ware with advanced and innovative ceramic sanitary ware is influencing the demand for toilet sinks/water closets.

"The ceramic sanitary ware market is projected to reach USD 59.17 billion by 2022"

The ceramic sanitary ware market is projected to reach USD 59.17 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 9.6% between 2017 and 2022. The increasing demand for sanitary ware products such as wash basins and toilet sinks/water closets and the growing real estate sector are key factors anticipated to drive the demand for ceramic sanitary ware. In addition, increasing construction activities, rising disposable income, increasing concerns over personal hygiene, and growing hospitality industry are further contributing to the growth of the ceramic sanitary ware market. Environmental concerns regarding the release of toxic emissions generated during the production of ceramic sanitary ware products are expected to act as a restraint to the growth of the market.



Toilet sinks/water closets - The largest type segment of the ceramic sanitary ware market in 2016

The toilet sinks/water closets segment is projected to lead the ceramic sanitary ware market during the forecast period. The increasing need for replacement of old sanitary ware with advanced and innovative ceramic sanitary ware is influencing the demand for toilet sinks/water closets. In addition, the upcoming mega infrastructure projects in emerging economies are further anticipated to drive the growth of the toilet sinks/water closets segment.



Residential - The fastest-growing application segment of the ceramic sanitary ware market

The residential application segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2017 to 2022. This growth is mainly attributed to the rise in residential construction activities in emerging economies worldwide. In addition, rapid urbanization, increase in disposable income, and change in lifestyle of individuals are further anticipated to drive the growth of the ceramic sanitary ware market in the residential application segment.



Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest market for ceramic sanitary ware

Asia-Pacific is the most lucrative market for ceramic sanitary ware and is expected to witness robust growth in the near future. This growth is mainly driven by the increasing demand for ceramic sanitary ware products from the real estate sector in the Asia-Pacific region. Among all countries in this region, the ceramic sanitary ware market in China is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, owing to rise in construction activities in this country. In addition, Indonesia and Thailand are also contributing to the growth of the ceramic sanitary ware market, due to the upcoming infrastructure projects in these countries.



Break-up of profiles by primary participants for the report:



 By Company Type  Tier 1 - 37%, Tier 2 - 50%, and Tier 3 - 13%

 By Designation  C Level - 50%, D Level - 31%, and Others - 19%

 By Region  North America - 28%, Europe - 22%, Asia-Pacific - 17%, Middle East & Africa - 28%, and South America - 5%



Key players operating in the ceramic sanitary ware market include Roca Group (Spain), Geberit Group (Switzerland), Toto Inc. (Japan), RAK Ceramics (UAE), LIXIL Corporation (Japan), Duravit AG (Germany), Ideal Standard International S.A. (Belgium), HSIL (India), Villeroy & Boch (Germany), and Duratex S.A. (Brazil), among others.



Research Coverage

The ceramic sanitary ware market has been segmented on the basis of type, technology, application, and region. Based on type, the market has been classified into wash basins (pedestal, wall hung, corner, table top, and counter), toilet sinks/water closets (one piece, two piece, wall hung closets, EWC, and others), urinal, cisterns, and others (bathtubs and bidets). With respect to application, the market has been categorized into commercial (office, institutional and retail, industrial, and hospitality) and residential (single family and multi-family). Based on technology, the market has been classified into slip casting, pressure casting, tape casting, and isostatic casting.



Key benefits of buying the report:

This research report is focused on various levels of analysesindustry analysis (industry trends), dive matrix, and company profiles, which together comprise and discuss the overall views on the competitive landscape; emerging and high-growth segments of the ceramic sanitary ware market; high-growth regions; and market drivers, restraints, and opportunities.



The report provides insights on the following pointers:

 Market Penetration: Comprehensive information on ceramic sanitary ware offered by top players in the market



 Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on upcoming technologies, research & development activities, and new product launches in the ceramic sanitary ware market



 Market Development: Comprehensive information about lucrative emerging markets  the report analyzes the markets for ceramic sanitary ware across varied regions



 Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the ceramic sanitary ware market



 Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of leading players in the ceramic sanitary ware market

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4977705/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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CHICAGO, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicago Counterpoint TV is back for another captivating and unforgettable season this Thursday July 13th, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. (CDT) on CAN-TV's Channel 21. Hosted this Thursday by matrimonial attorney James Hagler, Chicago Counterpoint TV provides crucial legal education to single dads, men going through divorce and family law attorneys looking to expand their legal skills. Hagler will be substituting for the show's host Fathers' Rights attorney Jeffery M. Leving, who will instead be meeting with Fast and Furious actor and artist Ludacris.

Veteran custody litigator Arthur S. Kallow joins Hagler where they will discuss the many obstacles fathers endure when going through divorce. They'll analyze the disheartening effects of parental alienation and the impact of false and vicious accusations of abuse on good dads, children and families everywhere.

Kallow has successfully represented hundreds of fathers and their children throughout the decades and will stop at nothing to ensure that all children are in safe hands and have their loving fathers by their sides.

In addition to the 2017 Matrimonial Law Award, Kallow has also been presented The Lawyer of the Year award from his peers in the legal community. He also lectured at Northwestern University School of Law and as a keynote speaker at The Philadelphia Fatherhood Festival in his pursuit of justice and social change.

Chicago Counterpoint TV is an interactive television show with a potential viewing audience of over one million. They can stream the show live at http://cantv.org/live and participate in discussions on the Fatherhood Educational Institute (FEI) website (www.fatherhood-edu.org) and Facebook.

Jeffery M. Leving has been named one of "America's Best Lawyers" by Forbes Radio [TM] and has dedicated more than 30 years of his professional life to strengthening healthy families and fighting for fathers. He founded the Fatherhood Educational Institute , which provides critical parenting skills to fathers and seeks to eliminate father absence. Leving's latest book, How to be a Good Divorced Dad, received praise from President Barack Obama, and was endorsed by the late Cardinal Francis George.

For more information about the Fatherhood Educational Institute (FEI) or Chicago Counterpoint TV call 312.795.9060 and follow FEI on twitter @fatherhoodedu.

Contact: Jennifer Whiteside

312-296-3666



SOURCE Fatherhood Educational Institute

Related Links

http://www.fatherhood-edu.org


WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J., July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb today announced several new leadership appointments within its Global Casualty and Excess Casualty lines of business for its North America Major Accounts division, which serves large U.S.- and Canadian-based companies requiring risk management solutions for some of the most complex global risks. The following appointments are effective immediately:

Bill Rabl appointed Executive Vice President, Chubb Global Casualty

appointed Executive Vice President, Chubb Global Casualty Lou Capparelli appointed Executive Vice President, Chubb Global Casualty Field Operations

appointed Executive Vice President, Chubb Global Casualty Field Operations Bill Hazelton appointed Executive Vice President of Chubb Construction Industry Practice, Environmental and Excess Casualty

appointed Executive Vice President of Chubb Construction Industry Practice, Environmental and Excess Casualty Joseph Fobert appointed Executive Vice President, Chubb Excess Casualty

"With the recent appointments of Ross Bertossi to Vice President of Global Underwriting, Chubb Group and Matt Merna to Chief Operating Officer of Chubb's North America Major Accounts division, these additional announcements further reinforce our deep bench of leadership," said Chris Maleno, Senior Vice President, Chubb Group and Division President, North America Major Accounts. "This group's extensive experience and strong leadership skills will help further our recognition for the superior underwriting and exceptional risk management solutions we have become known for in the large account market space."

Global Casualty Appointments

As Executive Vice President, Mr. Rabl will lead Chubb's Global Casualty business unit. In this new expanded role, he will have overall responsibility and oversight of the day-to-day operations for Chubb's full range of global primary casualty coverage offerings and service solutions for U.S. and Canadian domiciled large national and multinational companies. Mr. Rabl joined ACE in 2002 and previously served as Chief Operating Officer for Chubb's Global Casualty business. He will report to Matt Merna, Chief Operating Officer, North America Major Accounts and will be based in New York City, N.Y. Mr. Rabl earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Quantitative Analysis from St. John's University in New York City, and an MBA in Finance and International Business from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He holds the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) professional designation.

Mr. Capparelli, who previously served as Senior Vice President, Chubb Global Casualty will now oversee all field operations for the business unit. He will spearhead efforts to implement strategies centered on delivering Chubb Global Casualty's full range of capabilities and services to distribution partners in Chubb's U.S. and Canadian branch offices. All branch managers supporting Chubb Global Casualty will report to Mr. Capparelli. Based in New York City, Mr. Capparelli will report to Mr. Rabl. Mr. Capparelli earned a Bachelor of Arts dual degree in Economics and Political Science from the University at Albany (SUNY) in Albany, N.Y., and an MBA in Finance from Fordham Gabelli School of Business. He holds the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) professional designation.

Excess Casualty Appointments

In this expanded new role, Mr. Hazelton will oversee Chubb's Excess Casualty business operations. He will continue to lead and retain current responsibilities for Chubb's Construction Industry Practice, Environmental and Primary and Excess Construction lines of business. Reporting to Chris Maleno, Mr. Hazelton will be based in New York City. Mr. Hazelton earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA., and received a Master of Arts degree from Rutgers.

Reporting to Mr. Hazelton will be Mr. Fobert, who will lead and handle all day-to-day management and field operations for Chubb's Excess Casualty business unit. All excess casualty underwriting segments will report to Mr. Fobert, who will be based in New York City. Mr. Fobert earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from The College of New Jersey in Ewing Township, N.J., and he completed his MBA at the College of Insurance with a dual concentration in Risk Management and Finance. He holds both the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designations.

About Chubb

Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at www.chubb.com.

Chubb Insurance Company of Canada has offices in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver and provides its products and services through licensed insurance brokers across Canada. For additional information, visit: chubb.com/ca.

SOURCE Chubb

Related Links

https://www2.chubb.com/us-en


NEW YORK, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT), a leading provider of commercial lending and leasing services, today announced that CIT Communications & Technology Finance provided a $20 million delayed-draw term loan (DDTL) to CTI Towers, a wireless tower company. CTI Towers owns 208 towers and manages the Comcast Cable portfolio of 435 towers. The term loan will be used to grow the company's portfolio via acquisitions, construction of new wireless towers and other wireless infrastructures as well as for working capital.

"We've been watching CTI Tower's performance since inception and are confident about their continued growth potential," said Roger Fong, managing director, CIT Communications & Technology Finance. "With our experience in serving leading companies in the wireless infrastructure sector, we look forward to supporting this extraordinary team."

CTI Towers Chief Executive Officer Tony Peduto said, "We are extremely pleased with the terms of the debt arrangement, and this now positions us well for future growth as the wireless industry continues to grow. 5G, new spectrum deployments and the continued use of wireless devices for data and video will continue to burden the existing carrier networks. As the carriers look to add capacity everywhere, and bring better coverage to rural areas, towers will facilitate those deployments for the best coverage at the lowest cost.

"CIT has numerous investments in the wireless infrastructure space, and we are pleased to partner with such an experienced group," Peduto added.

About CIT

Founded in 1908, CIT (NYSE: CIT) is a financial holding company with $63 billion in assets as of March 31, 2017. Its principal bank subsidiary, CIT Bank, N.A. (Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender), has more than $30 billion of deposits and more than $40 billion of assets. CIT provides financing, leasing, and advisory services principally to middle-market companies and small businesses across a wide variety of industries. It also offers products and services to consumers through its Internet bank franchise and a network of retail branches in Southern California, operating as OneWest Bank, a division of CIT Bank, N.A.

For more information, visit cit.com. View our corporate video and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook. Register to receive press releases at cit.mediaroom.com/email-alerts.

About CTI Towers

Based in Franklin, MA, CTI Towers was founded in 2011 to provide wireless carriers an opportunity to further continue network deployment without having to go through lengthy zoning processes to have towers constructed. The CTI Towers portfolio of existing towers allowed for immediate collocation and expanded wireless coverage and capacity. The company serves the national wireless carriers, regional carriers, utility companies, along with state and federal governmental agencies. For more, go to www.ctitowers.com.

Contacts

SOURCE CIT Group Inc.

Related Links

http://www.cit.com


ROCKVILLE, Md., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- There's no doubt about it: owning a pet is good for your health.

Pet Market Outlook 2017-2018, a recent report by market research firm Packaged Facts, shows that 95% of dog owners and 94% of cat owners agree that their pets have a positive impact on their mental health; similarly, 95% of dog owners and 90% of cat owners agree that their pets have a positive impact on their physical health.

Pet Market Outlook examines the consumer trends reflective of pets' stress-relief capabilities that are helping to shape the U.S. pet market. Among the most important takeaways is that a pet's stress-relief capabilities aren't exclusive to the animal's owner(s), nor is the ability to provide stress-relief exclusive to popular household pets such as dogs and cats. And retailers and marketers are taking notice.

For example, this past May, PetSmart became the first national pet specialty retailer to launch a dog therapy training course. The program is for pet owners interested in giving back to their pets. The training course prepares dogs for their 'Therapy Dog' evaluation, provided by organizations such as Pet Partners and the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, after which registered dogs can support people at senior living facilities, hospitals, funeral homes and other places.

These days you can even find pets trained to help anxious Americans in some rather unexpected locales. For instance, dozens of airports have canine therapy teams helping passengers decompress. Some airports have even added non-canine therapists such as pot-bellied pigs or miniature therapy horses. The increased inclusion of the latter of these two novel therapy animalshorseshas been one of the key saving graces for an otherwise challenged equine industry.

As Packaged Facts discusses in our 2017 report U.S. Equine Market, 3rd Edition, horse therapy (also referred to as equine therapy, equine-assisted therapy, and equine-assisted psychotherapy) is a form of experiential therapy that involves interactions between patients and horses. It is similar to how therapy dogs and cats are used to help humans with emotional and physical ailments to recover more quickly. Equine therapy typically involves activitiessuch as grooming, feeding, haltering and leading a horsethat are supervised by a health professional, with the support of a horse professional. The goal of equine therapy is to help patients develop needed skills and attributes, including accountability, responsibility, self-confidence, problem-solving skills, and self-control. Equine therapy also provides an innovative environment in which the therapist and the patient can identify and address challenges.

Studies have shown that equine therapy has been successful in helping patients show marked improvements in assertiveness, emotional awareness, problem-solving skills and social responsibility. Many of the benefits of equine therapy are likely due to the nature of the animals with which the patient and equine therapist are interacting. Because of the horse's natural traits, which include a non-judgmental disposition and an ability to mirror attitudes and behaviors of the humans with whom they are working, they are ideal therapy partners. This type of therapy has helped to successfully treat a variety of issues, including substance abuse, mood disorders, autism spectrum disorders, grief/loss and trauma.

About The Reports

With this latest edition of our U.S. Pet Market Outlook, Packaged Facts delivers all the essential insights about the pet industry in one source. This year's edition includes the latest in market sizing and projections, hot new product trends, as well as data from Packaged Facts proprietary Pet Owners Survey. U.S. Pet Market Outlook, 2017-2018 has everything you need to know about mergers and acquisitions, retail channel trends, and pet owner demographics and spending habits.

View additional information about U.S. Pet Market Outlook, 2017-2018, including purchase options, the abstract, table of contents, and related reports at Packaged Facts' website: https://www.packagedfacts.com/Pet-Outlook-10840437/.

Meanwhile, U.S. Equine Market, 3rd Edition, highlights strategic directions for current and prospective marketers within the U.S. equine industry, with a forward-looking focus on high-growth product segments and market drivers. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the market for equine industry services, covering cross-market trends and opportunities in both equine supplies and services. Packaged Facts' report thoroughly reviews the industry's competitive trends, new product and retail trends, as well as trends in equine owner demographics.

For more about U.S. Equine Market, 3rd Edition visit: https://www.packagedfacts.com/Equine-Edition-10706833/.

Additional Packaged Facts reports on pet products and services are available for purchase at: https://www.packagedfacts.com/pet-products-services-c124/.

About Packaged Facts

Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer market topics, including consumer demographics and shopper insights, consumer financial products and services, consumer goods and retailing, consumer packaged goods, and pet products and services. Packaged Facts also offers a full range of custom research services.

For more essential insights from Packaged Facts be sure to follow us on Twitter and Google+. For infographics, tables, charts and other visuals, follow Packaged Facts on Pinterest.

Please link any media references to our reports or data to www.packagedfacts.com.

Press Contact:

Daniel Granderson

240.747.3000

[email protected]

SOURCE Packaged Facts

Related Links

https://www.packagedfacts.com


LANSING, Mich., July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Lansing Community College (LCC) has been selected as one of 43 Aircraft Maintenance schools to partner with Delta Air Lines. LCC was selected from 177 Aviation Maintenance Programs across the United States and is the only community college in Michigan to offer this program.

Over 100 criteria were used in Delta's selection process including equipment and facilities, level of hands-on-training, and quality of teaching. This new partnership establishes Delta as a resource for continuous improvement and will broaden access for LCC graduates to become the next generation of aviation maintenance professionals.

"By providing students from these top-notch schools real-world training and direct support from Delta, we have a unique opportunity to generate awareness and interest in a very promising and enriching aviation career," said Joe McDermott, Delta's managing director of Cabin Maintenance, Training and Support Services.

"This partnership is a great opportunity for our students and their careers," said LCC President, Dr. Brent Knight. "As our program continues to evolve, Delta will play a role in shaping our training to anticipate and meet the needs of the industry. To have a partner as well-renowned globally as Delta Air Lines is very powerful for our students and our community."

LCC's program is one of the most affordable in the nation. Graduates who attain FAA licensure as Aircraft and Powerplant Mechanics can earn a starting salary of up to $50,000.

"This is a significant achievement for our students, faculty and program," said Mark Bathurst, director of LCC's Aviation Program. "We are pleased Delta recognized the opportunities offered to our students and anticipate a highly productive relationship with them for years to come."

LCC's two-year Aviation Technology program prepares students to earn three FAA approved certificates, allowing them to enter a career in aviation as experts in aircraft maintenance and repair. Students can choose from morning or evening class sessions and train on contemporary aircraft including jets and helicopters.

"We are proud to have Lansing Community College's Aviation Maintenance Technology program and its state of the art facility at Mason Jewett airport as part of the capital region's airport system," said Wayne G. Sieloff, AIA, AAE, president and CEO of the Capital Region Airport Authority. "The program exemplifies excellence and fulfills a vital role for the future of the air travel industry. LCC's partnership with Delta Air Lines will yield immense benefits for the students, Lansing's aviation community, and our region."

LCC's Aviation Technology program operates at the Mason Jewett Airfield. To learn more about the program, visit lcc.edu/aviation. For questions, or to receive more information, please call (517) 483-1406.

About Lansing Community College

Lansing Community College is Michigan's third largest community college and is ranked as the best Community College in Michigan this year by www.schools.com. With nearly 15,000 students attending each year, LCC offers general education for those interested in transferring to a university, career and workforce development, continuing education and personal enrichment. To meet the professional development and training needs of regional employees, the college offers customized classes and short-term certifications. The University Center at LCC offers students the opportunity to earn bachelor's and master's degrees from six partner universities on the downtown LCC campus. For more information, visit lcc.edu.

About Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines serves more than 180 million customers each year. In 2017, Delta was named to Fortune's top 50 Most Admired Companies in addition to being named the most admired airline for the sixth time in seven years. Additionally, Delta has ranked No.1 in the Business Travel News Annual Airline survey for an unprecedented six consecutive years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 335 destinations in 62 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs more than 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 800 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry's leading transatlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia as well as a joint venture with Virgin Atlantic. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 15,000 daily flights, with key hubs and markets including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK and LaGuardia, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested billions of dollars in airport facilities, global products and services, and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on the Delta News Hub, as well as delta.com, Twitter @DeltaNewsHub, Google.com/+Delta, and Facebook.com/delta.

SOURCE Lansing Community College

Related Links

http://www.lcc.edu


BRISBANE, Australia, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Earnify, a native advertising demand-side platform based in Brisbane, Australia, has just launched their exciting new technology that allows advertisers to join their system and have their advertisements displayed on 15,000+ premium websites such as eBay, CNN, Forbes and Buzzfeed. Earnify works closely with their advertisers at every stage to help them exceed their goals while allowing them to take full control of their own native advertising.

Earnify has the best in the industry machine learning fraud prevention systems and traffic quality control systems in place. This allows Earnify to provide a better return-on-investment for their advertisers, more than any other current native advertising solution on the market today. Earnify's redeposit rate was close to 90 percent last quarter, which is why advertisers are joining the company's platform to get their product or content in front of millions of readers monthly.

"We believe publishers and advertisers deserve a better deal so we created a native advertising platform that puts our clients in control," says Kyle Ryan, CEO of Earnify. "Our new advanced technology is an intuitive system that equips advertisers and publishers with the tools to boost their brand, traffic, and revenue."

Content marketers using Earnify can boost their brand while driving traffic to their most important content. They can grow their readership and build an interested, engaged visitor-base with high-quality click-throughs to their articles. Further, businesses can brand themselves as an industry expert and respected source for relevant, valuable content while generating more leads and keeping consumers moving towards a purchase point, increasing online sales.

To learn more about Earnify' s demand-side platform, visit Earnify.com.

About Earnify

Earnify is the next generation of native advertising technology, offering competitive revenue shares, superior targeting, and faster payment terms. Earnify puts their publishers and advertisers in control. For more information, visit Earnify.com.

Media Contact

David Rahiminia

Phone: +61 7 3303 8575

E-mail: [email protected]

Related Links

Earnify

SOURCE Earnify

Related Links

https://www.earnify.com


NEW YORK, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces it has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of the securities of Roche Holding AG (OTCQX: RHHBY) from March 2, 2017 through June 5, 2017, inclusive (the "Class Period"). The lawsuit seeks to recover damages for Roche investors under the federal securities laws.

To join the Roche class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-1140.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. or Kevin Chan, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

NO CLASS HAS YET BEEN CERTIFIED IN THE ABOVE ACTION. UNTIL A CLASS IS CERTIFIED, YOU ARE NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL UNLESS YOU RETAIN ONE. YOU MAY ALSO REMAIN AN ABSENT CLASS MEMBER AND DO NOTHING AT THIS POINT. YOU MAY RETAIN COUNSEL OF YOUR CHOICE.

According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the combination of Perjeta and Herceptin is only marginally more effective than Herceptin alone in preventing breast cancer; and (2) as a result, Defendants' statements about the Company's business, operations and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable bases at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than August 7, 2017. If you wish to join the litigation, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-1140.html or to discuss your rights or interests regarding this class action, please contact Phillip Kim or Kevin Chan of Rosen Law Firm toll free at 866-767-3653 or via email at [email protected] or [email protected].

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm.

Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Since 2014, Rosen Law Firm has been ranked #2 in the nation by Institutional Shareholder Services for the number of securities class action settlements annually obtained for investors.

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

Kevin Chan, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 34th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

Related Links

http://www.rosenlegal.com


"We are proud to add ERA Vietnam to our international portfolio," said Sue Yannaccone, president and CEO of ERA Real Estate. "As a global company, we are continuously seeking to increase our footprint and this latest agreement fortifies the presence of the ERA franchise system in the Asia-Pacific region."

ERA Vietnam is now one of eight markets in which ERA Asia-Pacific operates, joined by Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Jack Chua, chief executive for ERA Asia-Pacific, said, "Vietnam is an up and coming country that saw tremendous growth in home sales last year, due in large part to government measures to improve urbanization."

According to Tuan Thanh Pham, chief operating officer of ERA Vietnam, the brokerage operates three ERA-branded real estate offices with 150 affiliated sales associates serving Ho Chi Minh City. He anticipates the ability to tap into the area's growth potential with expansion plans targeting Hanoi and Da Nang.

Chua also noted that ERA Vietnam will benefit from strong referral channels with its ERA operations in Singapore, a popular target for Vietnamese residents purchasing properties abroad.

Eurocapital is one of Vietnam's leading real estate brokerage, consultancy and investment advisory companies, and was responsible for nearly $90 million in sales volume in 2016. As an ERA-affiliated operation, the local team will benefit from the proven professional development programs of the ERA system that focus on increasing productivity to fuel growth.

"ERA Real Estate was the first residential real estate brand to expand internationally, when ERA Japan was established in 1981, quickly followed by its expansion into Singapore in 1982, then Taiwan and Indonesia in 1991," said Yannaccone. "As stalwart brand ambassadors, our Asia-Pacific affiliates have played an integral role in shaping the brand's enduring reputation around the globe and we are excited to welcome ERA Vietnam to our international network."

ABOUT ERA REAL ESTATE

The ERA Real Estate system is an innovative franchising leader in the residential real estate industry with 45 years of experience in developing consumer-oriented products and services. The ERA network includes more than 37,000 affiliated brokers and sales associates and more than 2,350 offices throughout the United States and 30 countries and territories. Each office is independently owned and operated. ERA Franchise Systems LLC, which operates the ERA Real Estate system, is a subsidiary of Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY), a global provider of real estate services. ERA Real Estate information is available at www.ExploreERA.com.

Media Contact

Melissa Drake/ERA Real Estate

973-407-7904

[email protected]

SOURCE ERA Real Estate

Related Links

http://www.exploreera.com


Through a donation to Point 27 https://point27.org/ , Versa Gripps http://www.versagripps.com/ will send a Shields of Strength http://www.shieldsofstrength.com weight plate necklace to every customer who orders Camo Versa Gripps Pro Series directly from the VG website. Along with each purchase of Camo Versa Gripps Pro Series, Versa Gripps will send a signature Shields of Strength Dog Tag necklace to a 1BCT paratrooper. This "Get one-Give one" promotion is for the month of July. Versa Gripps will also donate pairs of their Pro Series Versa Gripps for the 1BCT.

Versa Gripps inventor and co-founder, Michael Parker, describes the company's July "Train Better-Be Better" Charity promotion: "Our company has been blessed in so many ways; and, in partnership with Point 27 and Shields of Strength, we are excited to share God's word on Shields of Strength, and to show our appreciation for Soldiers who serve to keep America strong and free."

U.S. (Ret.) Col. David Dodd who serves as director of the national nonprofit Point 27, and served in the 82nd Airborne Division, said: "I believe the most effective weapon in the war on terrorism is the love of Jesus Christ. Equipping America's soldiers with the Word of God and the love of Jesus is a combat multiplier. These brave men and women defend the freedom that every American enjoys. I know, firsthand, that when a soldier receives a Shield of Strength Dog Tag engraved with God's Word, that dog tag serves as a physical reminder that God is with them wherever they go and America supports them."

Dodd said he hopes that other corporations and businesses will partner with Point 27 to support America's military.

Kenny Vaughan, founder of Shields of Strength, sent Dodd and the troops under his command Shields of Strength, as they deployed to Afghanistan following 9/11; and has been helping supply U.S. service men and women with Shields of Strength for more than two decades. Dodd founded the nonprofit Point 27, after retiring from the military, to help provide Shields of Strength to the military, veterans and first responders.

CONTACT: Marcia Davis, [email protected], 972-834-5898

SOURCE Shields of Strength

Related Links

http://www.shieldsofstrength.com


LONDON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- "The feed enzymes market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.3% during the forecast period."

The feed enzymes market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.3% from 2017, to reach USD 1,428.6 million by 2022. The demand for feed enzymes is projected to be on the rise, owing to factors such as increase in production/consumption of animal-based products. The global production and consumption of animal-based products have increased rapidly in recent decades; the increased demand for these products has had a direct impact on their production, and has increased the pressure on the global livestock production, driving the feed enzymes market in the world. The other drivers of the market include high cost of feed in livestock farming, ban on antibiotics as growth promoters, and positive impact on the environment. On the other hand, the regulatory structure and interventions pose as the major restraint for the feed enzymes market.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5001213/

"The market for protease in feed enzymes is projected to grow at the highest CAGR."

The market for protease in feed enzymes is projected to be the fastest-growing during the forecast period. Protease help the farmers in saving on feed costs, owing to which the use of protease can contribute significantly to the current efforts focused on reducing nitrogen emissions during livestock production. Hence, protease is an emerging type of feed enzymes, which has been gaining popularity in the recent years.



"Poultry segment, by livestock, is set to dominate the feed enzymes market."

In 2016, the poultry segment accounted for the largest share in global feed enzymes market. It provides poultry birds with proteins, thereby increasing their growth rate; they also strengthen their immune system. The demand for poultry meat is higher than the demand for other meat products. This drives the poultry segment in the feed enzymes market.



"Liquid segment is projected to be larger, by form, in the feed enzymes market."

On the basis of form, liquid was the larger segment in the feed enzymes market in 2016. The liquid form of feed enzymes is preferred and used more often. The reason for this is that it provides a number of advantages over the dry form of feed enzymesit is the more convenient, economical, and effective for use in animal feed as against to dry feed enzymes, which is projected to drive its market.



"Microorganism segment, by source, is projected to be fastest-growing segment during the forecast period."

Enzymes extracted from microorganisms are of great importance in the manufacturing of animal feed. Currently, the latest molecular techniques are used to discover microbial enzymes, which are used in the feed industry to improve feed quality. These reasons drive the microorganism segment in the feed enzymes market.



"Asia-Pacific is projected to be the fastest-growing region in the feed enzymes market."

The fastest-growing market for feed enzymes between 2017 and 2022 is projected to be Asia-Pacific. The largest producer in the region, China, continues to contribute to the region's leading position, with substantial growth witnessed in India and Japan. Pork and poultry are widely consumed in the Asia-Pacific region. The demand for poultry is estimated to increase in India and China, due to the rise in population, increase in purchasing power, and changes in consumer food preferences. This increase in demand for meat protein has triggered meat production in the region, where uptake of feed enzymes has increased and is expected to show a healthy growth.

Break-up of primaries:



- By Company Type: Tier 1 - 15%, Tier 2 - 45%, and Tier 3 - 40%

- By Designation: Director level- 20%, C-level - 35%, and Others - 45%

- By Region: North America- 25%, Europe - 20%, Asia-Pacific - 45%, Rest of the World- 10%,



The global market for feed enzymes is dominated by large players such as BASF SE (Germany), E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), Associated British Foods plc (U.K.), Koninklijke DSM N.V. (Netherlands), and Adisseo France SAS (France), Azelis Holdings SA (Belgium), Rossari Biotech Ltd (India), BIO-CAT (U.S.), and Alltech Inc. (U.S.).



Research Coverage

The feed enzymes market has been segmented on the basis of type, livestock, form, source, and region. In terms of insights, this research report has focused on various levels of analysesindustry analysis, market share analysis of top players, and company profiles, which together comprise and discuss the basic views on the competitive landscape, emerging and high-growth segments of the global feed enzymes market, high-growth regions, countries, and their respective regulatory policies, government initiatives, drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges.

Reasons to buy this report:



 To get an overview of the global feed enzymes market

 To get an overview of the key players of the feed enzymes industry and key strategies adopted by key players to increase market presence

 To gain insights on the major regions in which the feed enzymes market is growing

 To gain knowledge of the growth of various feed enzymes

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Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

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Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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"While nuclear power plant accidents and dirty bomb attacks do not usually happen, there is still an unmet need to better understand the cause of radiation injury and develop a treatment strategy if we face such disasters," said Dr. Yang, who is an associate professor at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and associate professor of surgery at the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine .

"We are grateful for the support from the NIH. This grant is extended from our early discovery on the protective effect of human ghrelin against radiation exposure in an animal model." said Dr. Wang, chief scientific officer and professor at the Feinstein Institute.

Exposure to a high dose of ionizing radiation can cause acute radiation syndrome with severe and widespread organ damage, but also result in long-lasting injury to the body even after recovery. Blood vessel injury plays a key component in this damage process. Drs. Yang and Wang's study, "Mechanisms of Radiation-induced Vascular Endothelial Cell Injury and its Correction," attempts to understand how the human hormone ghrelin reduces damage to blood vessels and the death of endothelial or blood vessel cells after radiation exposure. Results from this grant will shed some light on the mechanisms involved in vascular damage and lead to the development of human hormone ghrelin as a treatment for radiation injury.

"This extraordinary support from NIH is an important acknowledgement of Drs. Yang and Wang's innovative and scholarly research addressing the serious problem of radiation damage," said Kevin J. Tracey, MD, president and CEO of the Feinstein Institute.

About the Feinstein Institute

The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research is the research arm of Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York. Home to 50 research laboratories and to clinical research throughout dozens of hospitals and outpatient facilities, the Feinstein includes 4,000 researchers and staff who are making breakthroughs in molecular medicine, genetics, oncology, brain research, mental health, autoimmunity, and bioelectronic medicine  a new field of science that has the potential to revolutionize medicine. For more information about how we empower imagination and pioneer discovery, visit FeinsteinInstitute.org

Contact: Heather E. Ball

516-465-7917

[email protected]

SOURCE The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research

Related Links

http://www.feinsteininstitute.org


NADI, Fiji, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Fiji Airways, Fiji's National Airline, is proud to announce that Business Class guests travelling out of or through Los Angeles Airport (LAX) are set to receive another upgrade. From today, Fiji Airways' Business Class and eligible Tabua Club passengers will have access to the stylish One World Lounge, located on Level 5 of the Tom Bradley International Terminal.

Fiji Airways has relocated its lounge at the popular airport to offer guests more space and the premium amenities available at the One World Lounge, including distinctive lounge dining, an impressive bar service, showers and refreshments, wireless internet and a business center.

Mr. Andre Viljoen, Fiji Airways' Managing Director & CEO, commented: "We are thrilled to announce our upgraded lounge at LAX as part of our series of continued enhancements we are making for our guests. With the continued growth of Business Class passengers from North America, our priority as Fiji Airways is to offer the best experience possible, and the move to a new luxury lounge at LAX will allow us to continue these efforts."

Access to the One World Lounge will be offered exclusively to Fiji Airways guests seated in Business Class and eligible Tabua Club Members. These guests may enter the lounge three (3) hours prior to their scheduled departure time and must be an adult over 21 years of age or accompanied by one.

For more information about the amenities and location of the new lounge for Fiji Airways' Business Class guests at LAX, please click here.

About Fiji Airways: Founded in 1951, Fiji Airways Group comprises of Fiji Airways, Fiji's National Airline and its subsidiaries: Fiji Link, its domestic and regional carrier, Pacific Call Comm Ltd, and a 38.75% stake in the Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa on Denarau Island, Nadi. From its hubs at Nadi and Suva International Airports, Fiji Airways and Fiji Link serve 64 destinations in 13 countries (including code-share). Destinations to and from the U.S. include: Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. The Fiji Airways Group brings in 64 percent of all visitors who fly to Fiji, employs over 1000 employees, and earns revenues of over FJD$815 million (USD $390m). Fiji Airways rebranded from Air Pacific in June 2013. Visit www.fijiairways.com for more information.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Lauren Hammerson

Publicist

Myriad Marketing for Fiji Airways

[email protected]

1-310-649-7700

SOURCE Fiji Airways

Related Links

http://www.fijiairways.com


DENVER, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Halfway through 2017, the U.S. housing market is on pace for another record year as four of the last six months have topped same month sales from 2016, according to the July 2017 RE/MAX National Housing Report. June home sales were 1.4% higher than June 2016, which was previously the month with the most home sales in the nine-year history of the report. To access the housing report infographic, visit rem.ax/2cYFT50.

The combination of increased sales and a record low inventory that slipped further to 2.8 months resulted in higher sales prices. June's median sales price of $245,000, up 7.5% over last June, also set a RE/MAX National Housing report record. In fact, prices increased in 50 of the report's 53 markets.

The average number of Days on Market dropped to a report-record low of 47, while inventory dropped year-over-year in 87% of the markets.

Other notable numbers:

Thirty of the 53 metro areas experienced an increase in transactions.

The June 2017 Median Sales Price of $245,000 was the highest in the history of the report.

Median Sales Price of was the highest in the history of the report. Decreasing 15.2% from June 2016 , inventory continued to decline year-over-year. This is the 104th consecutive month of year-over-year declines dating back to October 2008 .

, inventory continued to decline year-over-year. This is the 104th consecutive month of year-over-year declines dating back to . The June 2017 average Days on Market was 47, the lowest Days on Market in the history of the report.

"Sellers continue to benefit from limited inventory, getting top-dollar for their homes, and as a result, overall sales are at a record high," said Adam Contos, RE/MAX Co-CEO. "But buyers shouldn't be discouraged. Mortgage rates are still relatively low and the market may be taking a positive turn, albeit subtle, as recent Labor Department data showed a decline in open construction jobs which could mean more workers focused on new home builds."

Closed Transactions

Of the 53 metro areas surveyed in June 2017, the overall average number of home sales increased 7.5% compared to May 2017 and 1.4% compared to June 2016. Thirty of the 53 metro areas experienced an increase in sales year-over-year including, Trenton, NJ +14.9%, Fargo, ND +14.6%, Wilmington/Dover, DE +12.9%, Albuquerque, NM +10.4% and Billings, MT +10.4%.

Median Sales Price  Median of 53 metro median prices

In June 2017, the median of all 53 metro Median Sales Prices was $245,000, up 5.6% from May 2017 and up 7.5% from June 2016. Only three metro areas saw a decrease in Median Sales Price (Trenton, NJ, -12.1%, Anchorage, AK, -2.5%, and Wilmington/Dover, DE, -1.3%). Ten metro areas increased by double-digit percentages, with the largest increases seen in Las Vegas, NV +13.7%, Nashville, TN +13.7%, Seattle, WA 12.3%, Manchester, NH +12.2%, and San Diego, CA +11.6%.

Days on Market  Average of 53 metro areas

The average Days on Market for homes sold in June 2017 was 47, down four days from the average in May 2017, and down seven days from the June 2016 average. The four metro areas with the lowest Days on Market were Omaha, NE at 20, Seattle, WA at 20, Denver, CO at 21 and San Francisco, CA at 22. The highest Days on Market averages were in Augusta, ME at 119 and Miami, FL at 85. Days on Market is the number of days between when a home is first listed in an MLS and a sales contract is signed.

Months Supply of Inventory  Average of 53 metro areas

The number of homes for sale in June 2017 was up 1.2% from May 2017, and down 15.2% from June 2016. Based on the rate of home sales in June, the Months Supply of Inventory was 2.8, compared to May 2017 at 2.6 and June 2016 at 3.2. This is the fourth consecutive month that months supply has been below 3.0. A 6.0-months supply indicates a market balanced equally between buyers and sellers. In June 2017, 52 of the 53 metro areas surveyed reported a months supply of less than 6.0, which is typically considered a seller's market. At 6.4, Miami, FL continued to be the only metro area that saw a months supply above 6.0, which is typically considered a buyer's market. The markets with the lowest Months Supply of Inventory continued to be in the west, with San Francisco, CA at 1.0, Seattle, WA at 1.1, and Denver, CO at 1.2.

Contact

For specific data in this report or to request an interview, please contact [email protected].

About the RE/MAX Network:

RE/MAX was founded in 1973 by Dave and Gail Liniger, with an innovative, entrepreneurial culture affording its agents and franchisees the flexibility to operate their businesses with great independence. Over 110,000 agents provide RE/MAX a global reach of more than 100 countries and territories. Nobody sells more real estate than RE/MAX, when measured by residential transaction sides. RE/MAX, LLC, one of the world's leading franchisors of real estate brokerage services, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of RMCO, LLC, which is controlled and managed by RE/MAX Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RMAX). With a passion for the communities in which its agents live and work, RE/MAX is proud to have raised more than $157 million for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and other charities. For more information about RE/MAX, to search home listings or find an agent in your community, please visit www.remax.com. For the latest news about RE/MAX, please visit www.remax.com/newsroom.

Description

The RE/MAX National Housing Report is distributed each month on or about the 15th. The first Report was distributed in August 2008. The Report is based on MLS data in approximately 53 metropolitan areas, includes all residential property types, and is not annualized. For maximum representation, many of the largest metro areas in the country are represented, and an attempt is made to include at least one metro from each state. Metro area definitions include the specific counties established by the U.S. Government's Office of Management and Budget, with some exceptions.

Definitions

Transactions are the total number of closed residential transactions during the given month. Months Supply of Inventory is the total number of residential properties listed for sale at the end of the month (current inventory) divided by the number of sales contracts signed (pended) during the month. Where "pended" data is unavailable, this calculation is made using closed transactions. Days on Market is the number of days that pass from the time a property is listed until the property goes under contract for all residential properties sold during the month. Median Sales Price is the median of the median sales prices in each of the metro areas included in the survey.

MLS data is provided by contracted data aggregators, RE/MAX brokerages and regional offices. While MLS data is believed to be accurate, it cannot be guaranteed. MLS data is constantly being updated, making any analysis a snapshot at a particular time. Every month the RE/MAX National Housing Report re-calculates the previous period's data to ensure accuracy over time. All raw data remains the intellectual property of each local MLS organization.

SOURCE RE/MAX, LLC

Related Links

http://www.remax.com


AKRON, Ohio, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The FirstEnergy Foundation has donated $50,000 over two years to the Foundation for Reading Area Community College (RACC) Science of Success Campaign, which will support a $4.5 million renovation of the college's science laboratories.

This project will allow RACC to expand course offerings in the basic sciences and support efforts to encourage students to consider STEM-related careers. The renovated space also will be used to offer customized laboratory training for area businesses.

"FirstEnergy has been working with RACC for many years on our Power Systems Institute program that adds highly-skilled line personnel to our Met-Ed workforce," said Dee Lowery, president of the FirstEnergy Foundation. "We are pleased to support the 'Science of Success' campaign because it will help enable RACC to do even more to promote workforce development efforts in Berks County."

The FirstEnergy Foundation is funded solely by FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) and provides support to non-profit, tax-exempt health and human services agencies; educational organizations; cultural and arts programs and institutions; and civic groups in areas served by FirstEnergy's 10 electric operating companies and in areas where the company conducts business.

FirstEnergy is dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. Follow FirstEnergy online at www.firstenergycorp.com. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.

Related Links

http://www.firstenergycorp.com


HARLEYSVILLE, Penn., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Chris Schalleur, founder of Christo IT Services, has just been signed to join a select group of IT experts across the United States to co-write the forthcoming book titled, Sitting Duck. Nick Nanton, Esq. along with business partner, JW Dicks, Esq., leading agents for authors worldwide, recently signed a publishing deal with each of these authors to contribute their expertise to the book, which will be released under their TechnologyPress imprint.

Sitting Duck is tentatively scheduled for release in fall 2017 and will serve as a resource for business owners and professionals alike to take the necessary precautions to protect their critical information from online threats.

Unsuspecting and often unwary businesses and their personnel are often Sitting Duck to cyber-criminals. In this digital age, it's important to understand the risks associated with protecting your business and critical information from online threats. Sitting Duck is compiled of excerpts from IT professionals, business leaders, and entrepreneurs, each of whom contributed their expertise on various methods of cyber security and the protection of information systems from theft or damage.

About Chris Schalleur:

Chris Schalleur founded Christo IT Services in 1999 with the goal of providing the type of professional IT support larger companies enjoy to small businesses in the Philadelphia region. Applying his experience working in Marketing and Sales, as well as IT and Engineering at firms such as Honeywell, Primavera, and Microtrac, Chris quickly built a reputation for superior IT Services for Small Business. Chris has been a leader in the Philadelphia region for Small Business IT Services.

With encouragement from Harry Brelsford of SMB Nation and Microsoft, Chris started the Small Business Server (SBS) Philly User Group in 2006. The group is comprised of IT professionals in the Philadelphia region who serve Small Businesses. They are dedicated to improving best practices, learning about new technologies, and increasing customer awareness in the region.

Chris is an Engineering graduate of Villanova University. He has been a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer since 1998. Chris is a multiyear award winner of the SmartCEO Future 50. With Chris guiding the firm as CEO, Christo IT has also been awarded the Wharton School "Philly 100", given to Philadelphia's 100 fastest growing companies, for 3 years in a row.

Chris is an award winning speaker, both locally and nationally. Chris has won Connectwise IT Nation's "Best Breakout Session", as well as their "Outstanding Software Solution".

Christo IT provides IT services that will allow your business to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that a trusted IT service provider is on your side. Technical glitches happen, yet small businesses in Philadelphia trust in Christo IT's proactive programming. Do not let your business fall short of effective PC services that will allow your system to stay current and up-to-date with all of the advanced technologies of today's world. Christo IT is always on the cutting edge with new programming and software, allowing our clients to receive only the best PC services.

What we want for all of our customers is 99.9% uptime. And the only way we can guarantee that is by providing you with a Complete Care Experience  that is, Premiere IT consulting services around the clock.

Chris lives in North Wales, PA with his amazing wife Jen and his two wonderful daughters Julia and Emily.

You can connect with Chris at:

[email protected]

www.twitter.com/ChristoIT

www.linkedin.com/in/chrisschalleur

About TechnologyPress:

TechnologyPress is a leading business and technology book publisher that publishes books from thought leaders around the world. TechnologyPress has published books alongside Robin Robins and other Cybersecurity experts. TechnologyPress is an imprint in partnership with CelebrityPress LLC. CelebrityPress has published books alongside Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, Dan Kennedy, Dr. Ivan Misner, Robert Allen, Michael Gerber, Tom Hopkins, and many of the biggest experts across diverse fields.

SOURCE Christo IT Services

Related Links

http://www.ChristoIT.com


LONDON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlights

The Global Anti-counterfeit packaging market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.15% over the forecast period of 2016 to 2025.

The revenue generated by the market is expected to increase from $36064 million in 2016 to $128338 million by 2025.

in 2016 to by 2025. The major factors responsible for driving the market growth at such a phenomenal rate are stringent government and industry regulations, preclusion of counterfeit packaging, customer loyalty, and an increased health awareness.

The market can be segmented on the basis of application and on the basis of technologies.

The applications can be further classified into the pharmaceutical industry and the food industry.

The pharmaceutical applications can be sub-divided into retail chain and internet pharmacies.

The pharmaceuticals application generated a revenue of $21097 million in 2016 and is fast growing.

in 2016 and is fast growing. The food application involves packaging using anti-counterfeiting techniques such as barcodes, holograms, and RFID for baby food, dairy products, packaged bakery, convenience food, packaged meat products, confectionery items, and packaged seafood, in order to differentiate branded products from the counterfeits.

KEY FINDINGS

The Global Anti-counterfeit packaging market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.15% over the forecast period of 2016 to 2025. The revenue generated by the market is expected to increase from $36064 million in 2016 to $128338 million by 2025. The major factors responsible for driving the market growth at such a phenomenal rate are stringent government and industry regulations, preclusion of counterfeit packaging, customer loyalty, and an increased health awareness.



MARKET INSIGHTS

The market can be segmented on the basis of application and on the basis of technologies. The applications can be further classified into the pharmaceutical industry and the food industry. The pharmaceutical applications can be sub-divided into retail chain and internet pharmacies. The pharmaceuticals application generated a revenue of $21097 million in 2016 and is fast growing. The food application involves packaging using anti-counterfeiting techniques such as barcodes, holograms, and RFID for baby food, dairy products, packaged bakery, convenience food, packaged meat products, confectionery items, and packaged seafood, in order to differentiate branded products from the counterfeits. The technological segmentation is done on the basis of authentication packaging technologies and traceable technologies. The authentication packaging technologies which include products such as taggants, holograms, watermarks, inks, and dyes are expected to show a growth in CAGR of18.27% during the forecast period. The traceability technologies are widely used for tagging products that are susceptible to counterfeiting. They include barcodes and RFID tags. These traceable technologies held a market share of $ 20682 million in 2016 and are expected to lead the Global Anti-Counterfeit Packaging Market in terms of technologies.





REGIONAL INSIGHTS

The Asia anti-counterfeit packaging market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.39% during the forecast period. This surge in growth observed in the Asian countries like China and India are majorly attributed to the fast growing retail markets in the region. The Europe anti-counterfeit packaging market generated a revenue of $6360 million in 2016 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.32% during the forecast period 2017-2025. However, it is the North American region which anticipated to show the highest growth in CAGR by the end of the forecast period. This exceptional growth is assumed to be a result of the stringent regulations on the quality of drugs and food products in the region. Also, a large number of pharmaceutical companies and retail outlets are implementing RFID for supply chain on a large scale as a security measure to overcome the issues of counterfeiting in this region.







COMPETITIVE INSIGHTS

Shiner International (Shiner) is a global company that deals with manufacturing and sale of packaging and anti-counterfeit plastic films. The company products include anti-counterfeit laser holographic film, anti-counterfeit laser holographic film, color printed packaging materials, coated packaging film, and shrink-wrap film. Applied DNA Sciences (ADS) is another company that provides security solutions against theft, fraud, and diversion to protect companies, governments, and consumers. Some of the other top companies in the market include Zebra Technologies, Ccl Industries Inc., E. I. Dupont De Nemours & Company, Inc., Avery Dennison Corporation Essentra Plc, R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company, Impinj, Inc, Trutag Technologies Inc, Sicpa Holding Sa and 3m Company.

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Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

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For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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From July 9-14, President and Mrs. Carter joined thousands of volunteers for Habitat's Carter Work Project to build 150 homes across Canada in celebration of the country's 150th anniversary.

About Habitat for Humanity

Driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity began in 1976 as a grassroots effort on a community farm in southern Georgia. The Christian housing organization has since grown to become a leading global nonprofit working in more than 1,300 communities throughout the U.S. and in nearly 70 countries. Families and individuals in need of a hand up partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, we empower. To learn more, visit habitat.org

SOURCE Habitat for Humanity International

Related Links

http://www.habitat.org


NEW YORK, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ernst & Young LLP announced today that the Family Enterprise Business Services (FEBS) practice of Headwaters SC, LP (HWSC), including James C. Bly, Jr., the founder and CEO of HWSC, has joined Ernst & Young LLP where he will serve as an Executive Director. A professional services firm founded in 1982, HWSC helps business-owning families develop and implement strategies related to business growth, company capitalization, generational transition, and shareholder liquidity. Most of HWSC's clients are multi-generational family enterprises, which typically control upper middle market companies.

"The addition of the FEBS team from HWSC reflects EY's ongoing commitment to family businesses and family offices that represent an incredibly important segment of our economy and drive opportunities in communities across the country," said Kate Barton, EY Americas Vice Chair of Tax Services. "Jim and his team have deep experience with these companies and the unique opportunities and challenges they face. The HWSC team is going to be a great addition to our Private Client Services practice and our EY Global Family Business Center of Excellence."

Bly founded HWSC 35 years ago to help family-owned and controlled businesses. He has personally advised the principal owners of hundreds of businesses on wealth building or transitions. Bly also co-founded the Business Growth Alliance (BGA), an international network of professional service firms dedicated to assisting owners of private companies.

"By joining EY, we will be able to deliver cross-border, multi-disciplinary services to enterprising families and family offices that own and control operating businesses and operating assets, in a way and on a scale that was not previously available in the market," said Bly. "We have carefully planned this transition during the past couple of years, as it stemmed from a joint vision and passion for serving enterprising families as well as a purpose-driven mindset and shared interest in building a better working world. I am proud of what we have accomplished at HWSC over the last 35 years, and my team and I are excited to further build that legacy with EY."

About EY's Family Business Services

EY is a global market leader in advising and guiding family businesses. With almost a century of experience supporting the world's most entrepreneurial and innovative companies, we understand the unique challenges they face  and how to address them. We offer a personalized range of services aimed at the specific needs of each individual business  helping it to grow and succeed for generations. Our Family Business Global Center of Excellence is a powerful resource that provides access to our knowledge, insights and experience, connecting family business owners to their peers through the strength of our global network.

About EY

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young LLP, a member firm of EY serving clients in the US.

SOURCE EY

Related Links

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LONDON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlights

 The global hexamethylenediamine market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.0% from 2017 to 2022, in terms of value

 The hexamethylenediamine market is estimated to be USD 5.35 billion in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 6.82 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 5.0% during the forecast period.

 The demand for hexamethylenediamine is mainly driven by the growing consumption of nylon 66 in different end-use industries.

 The demand for nylon is expected to be quite significant in the automotive industry owing to the strong growth of the automotive industry in emerging markets, such as China, India, and Brazil.

 The growth of the automotive industry is expected to steer the demand for hexamethylenediamine.

 Nylon synthesis is the largest application segment of the global hexamethylenediamine market

 Automotive is the largest end-use industry segment of the global hexamethylenediamine market

 The automotive industry is the largest end-use industry segment of the global hexamethylenediamine market.

 North America is projected to lead the global hexamethylenediamine market during the forecast period

"The global hexamethylenediamine market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.0% from 2017 to 2022, in terms of value"

The hexamethylenediamine market is estimated to be USD 5.35 billion in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 6.82 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 5.0% during the forecast period. The demand for hexamethylenediamine is mainly driven by the growing consumption of nylon 66 in different end-use industries. The demand for nylon is expected to be quite significant in the automotive industry owing to the strong growth of the automotive industry in emerging markets, such as China, India, and Brazil. The growth of the automotive industry is expected to steer the demand for hexamethylenediamine. Lack of institutional arrangements for the consumption of hexamethylenediamine in emerging economies acts as a key restraint on the growth of the global hexamethylenediamine market.





"Nylon synthesis is the largest application segment of the global hexamethylenediamine market"

By application, the nylon synthesis segment is anticipated to account for the largest share of the global hexamethylenediamine market in 2017. This large share is mainly attributed to the growth of the nylon market across end-use industries, such as automotive and textile. The growth of this segment is projected to drive the demand for hexamethylenediamine in the coming years.



"Automotive is the largest end-use industry segment of the global hexamethylenediamine market"

The automotive industry is the largest end-use industry segment of the global hexamethylenediamine market. Hexamethylenediamine is majorly used in the synthesis of nylon 66, which is widely used in the automotive industry for making various products and components, such as connectors & housings, under-the-hood components, wheel well, and lighting components, such as headlamp structural housings, headlamps & fog lamps, and reflectors & lighting sockets, among others.



"North America is projected to lead the global hexamethylenediamine market during the forecast period"

By region, North America is anticipated to lead the global hexamethylenediamine market during the forecast period. The growth of the North America hexamethylenediamine market is mainly driven by the growth of the region's automotive industry. There is an increasing demand for nylon-based products and components in the automotive industry. Hence, the growth of the automotive industry is, in turn, anticipated to drive the hexamethylenediamine market in the coming years. The hexamethylenediamine market in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2017 to 2022. This growth is primarily attributed to the high demand for hexamethylenediamine from countries like China, Japan, India, Taiwan, and South Korea in the Asia-Pacific region.



Profile break-up of primary participants for the report:



 By Company Type: Tier 1  30%, Tier 2  40% and Tier 3  30%

 By Designation: C Level  51%, D Level  28%, and Others  21%

 By Region: Asia-Pacific  36%, North America  29%, Europe  21%, Middle East & Africa- 7%, and South America  7%



Furthermore, as a part of qualitative analysis, the research provides a comprehensive review of market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges. It also discusses competitive strategies adopted by varied market players, such as BASF SE (Germany), E. I. du Pont de Nemours (DuPont) (US), Asahi Kasei Corporation (Japan), Toray Industries, Inc. (Japan), Merck KGaA (Germany), Evonik Industries AG (Germany), Solvay S.A. (Belgium), Ashland Global Holdings, Inc. (US), Invista (US), Ascend Performance Materials (US), Rennovia, Inc. (US), and Compass Chemical (US).





Research Coverage:



The report defines, segments, and projects the global hexamethylenediamine market on the basis of application, end-use industry, and region. It provides detailed information regarding major factors influencing the growth of the market, such as drivers, restraints, opportunities, and industry-specific challenges. It strategically profiles key players and comprehensively analyzes their market share and core competencies as well as tracks and analyzes competitive developments, such as partnerships, contracts, joint ventures, mergers & acquisitions, expansions, new product launches, and research & development activities, in the market.





Reasons to buy the report:

The report will help the market leaders/new entrants in this market by providing them the closest approximations of revenue numbers of the global hexamethylenediamine market and its subsegments. This report will also help stakeholders better understand the competitor landscape, gain more insights to better position their businesses, and make suitable go-to-market strategies. The report will help stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provide them information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4970257/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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NORFOLK, Va., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Hope On Wheels will present Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters (CHKD) of Norfolk with a $50,000 Hyundai Impact Award. CHKD is one of 25 recipients of this year's award, which is given to pediatric oncology departments at select children's hospitals nationwide. They will use the funds to support the work of pediatric cancer research and programs.

In 2017, Hope On Wheels will award $15 million toward pediatric cancer research and programs. This brings the organization's donation total to $130 million since Hyundai joined the fight against pediatric cancer in 1998. With this latest grant, CHKD has received more than $585,000 from Hope On Wheels.

"Throughout the country, talented doctors are working tirelessly to help kids fight cancer by conducting research or providing bedside care," said Scott Fink, chairman, Hyundai Hope On Wheels Board of Directors. "Our goal at Hope On Wheels is to provide these doctors with the grant funds they need to perform their lifesaving work. Superheroes come in all forms, but for children and families battling cancer  superheroes wear lab coats."

The $50,000 Hyundai Impact Award will be officially presented to CHKD on Wednesday, July 19 at 10:00 a.m. During the event, Norfolk-area children battling cancer will participate in the program's signature Handprint Ceremony, in which they'll dip their hands in paint and place their handprints on a white 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe. Their colorful handprints on the official Hope Vehicle represent their individual and collective journeys, hopes and dreams.

Doctors and researchers that receive a grant from Hope On Wheels are named Hyundai Scholars and are presented with a special lab coat. This year, Hope On Wheels will further recognize its Hyundai Scholars for their incredible efforts on behalf of children battling cancer through a campaign called "Superheroes Wear Lab Coats." The video series will showcase their lifesaving work.

For more information about Hyundai Hope On Wheels and to view a complete list of this year's grant winners, please visit HyundaiHopeOnWheels.org/research . Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at facebook.com/HyundaiHopeOnWheels, twitter.com/HopeOnWheels or instagram.com/HyundaiHopeOnWheels.

CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF THE KING'S DAUGHTERS

CHKD is the only freestanding children's hospital in Virginia and serves the medical and surgical needs of children throughout greater Hampton Roads, the Eastern Shore of Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. CHKD Health System operates primary care pediatric practices, surgical practices, multi-service health centers, urgent care centers and satellite offices throughout its service region. Visit CHKD.org for more information.

HYUNDAI HOPE ON WHEELS

Hyundai Hope On Wheels is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is committed to finding a cure for childhood cancer. Launched in 1998, Hyundai Hope On Wheels provides grants to eligible institutions nationwide that are pursuing life-saving research and innovative treatments for the disease. HHOW is one of the largest non-profit funders of pediatric cancer research in the country, and primary funding for Hyundai Hope On Wheels comes from Hyundai Motor America and its more than 835 U.S. dealers. Since its inception, Hyundai Hope On Wheels has awarded more than $130 million towards childhood cancer research in pursuit of a cure.

HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA

Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, Calif., is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout the United States by Hyundai Motor America and are sold and serviced through 835 dealerships nationwide. All new Hyundai vehicles sold in the U.S. are covered by the Hyundai Assurance program, which includes a 5-year/60,000-mile fully-transferable new vehicle limited warranty, Hyundai's 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty and five years of complimentary Roadside Assistance.

For more details on Hyundai Assurance, please visit www.HyundaiAssurance.com

Please visit our media website at www.hyundainews.com

Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook

SOURCE Hyundai Hope on Wheels

Related Links

https://hyundaihopeonwheels.org


CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Hope On Wheels will present the Levine Cancer Institute in Charlotte, NC with a $50,000 Hyundai Impact Award. Levine Cancer Institute is one of 25 recipients of this year's award, which is given to pediatric oncology departments at select children's hospitals nationwide. Levine Cancer Institute will use the funds to support the work of pediatric cancer research and programs.

The $50,000 Hyundai Impact Award will be officially presented to Levine Children's Hospital, Tuesday, July 18, at 10:00 a.m. The award will be presented to Dr. Joel Kaplan for his proven track record in providing excellent patient care to families affected by pediatric cancer and to support his continued efforts.

In 2017, Hope On Wheels will award $15 million toward pediatric cancer research and programs. This brings the organization's donation total to $130 million since Hyundai joined fight against pediatric cancer in 1998. With this latest grant, Levine Cancer Institute has received more than $525,000 from Hope On Wheels.

"Throughout the country, talented doctors are working tirelessly to help kids fight cancer by conducting research or providing bedside care," said Scott Fink, chairman, Hyundai Hope On Wheels Board of Directors. "Our goal at Hope On Wheels is to provide these doctors with the grant funds they need to perform their lifesaving work. Superheroes come in all forms, but for children and families battling cancer  superheroes wear lab coats."

The $50,000 Hyundai Impact Award will be officially presented to the Levine Cancer Institute Tuesday, July 18th at 10:00 a.m. During the event, Charlotte, NC area children battling cancer will participate in the program's signature Handprint Ceremony, in which they'll dip their hands in paint and place their handprints on a white 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe. Their colorful handprints on the official Hope Vehicle represent their individual and collective journeys, hopes and dreams.

Doctors and researchers that receive a grant from Hope On Wheels are named Hyundai Scholars and are presented with a special lab coat. This year, Hope On Wheels will further recognize its Hyundai Scholars for their incredible efforts on behalf of children battling cancer through a campaign called "Superheroes Wear Lab Coats." The video series will showcase their lifesaving work.

For more information about Hyundai Hope On Wheels and to view a complete list of this year's grant winners, please visit HyundaiHopeOnWheels.org/research . Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at facebook.com/HyundaiHopeOnWheels, twitter.com/HopeOnWheels or instagram.com/HyundaiHopeOnWheels.

HYUNDAI HOPE ON WHEELS

Hyundai Hope On Wheels is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is committed to finding a cure for childhood cancer. Launched in 1998, Hyundai Hope On Wheels provides grants to eligible institutions nationwide that are pursuing life-saving research and innovative treatments for the disease. HHOW is one of the largest non-profit funders of pediatric cancer research in the country, and primary funding for Hyundai Hope On Wheels comes from Hyundai Motor America and its more than 835 U.S. dealers. Since its inception, Hyundai Hope On Wheels has awarded more than $130 million towards childhood cancer research in pursuit of a cure.

HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA

Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, Calif., is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout the United States by Hyundai Motor America and are sold and serviced through 835 dealerships nationwide. All new Hyundai vehicles sold in the U.S. are covered by the Hyundai Assurance program, which includes a 5-year/60,000-mile fully-transferable new vehicle limited warranty, Hyundai's 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty and five years of complimentary Roadside Assistance.

LEVINE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

Carolinas HealthCare System's Levine Children's Hospital is a 234-bed hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina, located on the main campus of Carolinas Medical Center. It is the most comprehensive facility of its type between Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Since opening in 2007, the hospital has grown to include more than 30 pediatric specialties and has received national recognition from U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Children's Hospitals." The hospital's Torrence E. Hemby Jr., Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Center houses one of the premier pediatric hematology and oncology programs in the country. The center offers state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities and therapies for childhood malignancies and blood disorders.

For more details on Hyundai Assurance, please visit www.HyundaiAssurance.com

Please visit our media website at www.hyundainews.com

Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook

SOURCE Hyundai Hope on Wheels

Related Links

https://hyundaihopeonwheels.org


ANAHEIM, Calif., July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Having auto insurance is comforting; even if the unthinkable happens and you find yourself involved in a serious accident, you can rest assured that someone is there to help defray the related expenses. Sadly, though, not all auto insurance companies are quick to resolve claims  and some may outright refuse. In a new statement to the press, I Accident Lawyer advises motorists on what to do about an unresponsive or unhelpful insurance company.

"If the auto insurance company refuses to pay a claim, the first thing you should do is read through your policy very carefully," says the press statement from the Anaheim auto accident attorneys. "Know your rights as a consumer. We would also recommend documenting everything thoroughly. Keep all receipts, medical bills, any files related to the accident."

In some cases, approaching the state insurance regulator may be helpful  but ultimately, the best strategy against an unhelpful insurance company is persistence. "Keep sending follow-ups, and document the entire process thoroughly," says I Accident Lawyer.

If all of that fails, the next course of action is to hire an attorney. "An auto accident attorney can represent you against the insurance company, getting results and minimizing the headache and hassle on your end," says I Accident Lawyer. "Representation from a qualified attorney can sometimes be the only recourse against an insurance company that isn't holding up its end of the agreement."

I Accident Attorney represents those injured in auto accidents throughout the Anaheim area and beyond. More information can be found online at www.iaccidentlawyer.com.

ABOUT:

The attorneys at I Accident Lawyer offer personal injury representation to individuals across California, Nevada, and Colorado, and especially to those seriously injured in auto collisions. Over 25 years, the firm has won more than $150 million in settlements*. More information is available at www.iaccidentlawyer.com. The I Accident Lawyer team can be reached directly at:

I Accident Lawyer in Anaheim

2400 E Katella Ave #801

Anaheim CA 92806

800-920-0810 (Toll Free)

*This does not constitute a guarantee, warranty or prediction regarding the outcome of your case and results include that of independent associated counsel. In the event of a loss, you may be obligated to pay the opposing parties fees and costs. We are not affiliated with any public agency. Nothing on this site or any site that brought you to this one, is to constitute an inference or implication that we are the "best" (or similar word) attorneys in comparison to other firms, but rather states our opinion. In the event that you fill out any forms or request a case evaluation, this does not guarantee that you: (a) do in fact have a case (b) that we will become your legal representation (c) does not guarantee a response from one of our attorneys (d) enter into any type of relationship with the firm. It is at our discretion to call you or take you on as a client. The Accident Attorneys' Group makes no claim or representation regarding, and accepts no responsibility for, the quality, content, nature or reliability of third-party websites accessible by hyperlink from the site, or web sites linking to the site. This website, postings, articles, upkeep, and general online presence is controlled by a marketing team and is not necessarily the views, opinions, or writings of any Attorney(s) at The Accident Attorneys' Group.

Related Links

The Accident Attorneys' Group

The Accident Attorneys' Group

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f1ST5oJKYo

SOURCE I Accident Lawyer

Related Links

http://www.iaccidentlawyer.com


BOSTON, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- John Hancock Hedged Equity & Income Fund (NYSE: HEQ) and John Hancock Financial Opportunities Fund (NYSE: BTO) announced earnings1 for the period ended June 30, 2017. The same data for the comparable period ended June 30, 2016 is also available below.

























Period Ended 6/30/2017 Ticker Fund Name Current Fiscal Year End Net Investment

Income Per Common Share NAV Total Managed

Assets

Total Net Assets HEQ Hedged Equity & Income Fund 12/31 $2,038,770 $0.167 $17.47 $213,183,296

$213,183,296 BTO Financial Opportunities Fund 12/31* $2,391,240 $0.128 $34.67 $755,657,088

$645,657,088























Period Ended 6/30/2016 Ticker Fund Name Current Fiscal Year End Net Investment

Income Per Common Share NAV Total Managed

Assets

Total Net Assets HEQ Hedged Equity & Income Fund 12/31 $1,883,450 $0.154 $16.50 $201,503,726

$201,503,726 BTO Financial Opportunities Fund 12/31* $2,377,337 $0.128 $24.73 $569,448,830

$459,448,830



































* Total managed assets include assets attributable to borrowings under a Liquidity Agreement.











Amounts distributed by the Funds may vary from the earnings shown above and will be announced in separate press releases.

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined by the United States securities laws. You should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on forward-looking statements because they are subject to uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Fund's control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

An investor should consider a Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing.

About John Hancock Investments

John Hancock Investments provides asset management services to individuals and institutions through a unique manager-of-managers approach. A wealth management business of John Hancock Financial, we managed more than $140 billion in assets as of March 31, 2017 across mutual funds, college savings plans, and retirement plans.

About John Hancock Financial and Manulife Financial

John Hancock Financial is a division of Manulife Financial, a leading Canada-based financial services group with principal operations in Asia, Canada and the United States. Operating as Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, the Company offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were C$1 trillion (US$754 billion) as of March 31, 2017. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at manulife.com.

The John Hancock unit, through its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in the United States. John Hancock offers and administers a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, fixed products, mutual funds, 401(k) plans, college savings, and other forms of business insurance. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com.

1 Earnings refer to net investment income, which comprises the Fund's interest and dividend income, less expenses. Earnings presented represent past earnings and there is no guarantee of future results.

SOURCE John Hancock Investments

Related Links

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RIVERSIDE, Calif., July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A Riverside Superior Court jury awarded Steven Meier $17 million after he had his right leg amputated below the knee due to being run over by a forklift in October 2013.

Mr. Meier, who was a security guard employed by Securitas Security Services, was patrolling at a PennySaver USA facility in Mira Loma, CA, when he was struck from behind by a forklift operating in reverse on October 20, 2013. The forklift crushed Mr. Meier's right leg, dragging him several feet and degloving his lower limb. To dislodge Mr. Meier's leg from underneath the forklift, a second forklift was brought in to lift the first forklift off of Mr. Meier.

Mr. Meier was rushed to Riverside Community Hospital where he underwent various surgeries to repair his leg and ankle. Over the next year and a half, Mr. Meier underwent eleven surgeries to repair the damage to his leg, foot, and ankle. Due to the large zone of injury, Mr. Meier was plagued with complications, requiring multiple hospitalizations, and surgeries. Ultimately, however, these measures were for naught and on July 21, 2015, a year and a half after the collision, Mr. Meier's right leg was amputated just below the knee.

Even after the amputation, Mr. Meier had to undergo three revision surgeries, and infections continued to set back his recovery. In September 2016, Mr. Meier was finally fitted for a temporary prosthetic leg, and is expected to get a permanent prosthetic towards the beginning of 2018.

Lead trial counsel for Mr. Meier, Ricardo Echeverria, said after the verdict "We are very pleased that the jury recognized the tragedy that this case presented. The verdict was a fair and reasonable result given the liability and damage issues in the case."

The trial lasted ten days before the jury ruled in favor of Mr. Meier.

The case was Steven Meier v. PennySaver USA, LLC, et al. Riverside Superior Court, Case No. RIC1507069.

About Shernoff Bidart Echeverria LLP

At Shernoff Bidart Echeverria LLP we lead the nation in protecting policyholders from insurance company abuse. The firm has been protecting the rights of insurance consumers, both individuals and businesses, for over 40 years after having set the legal precedent requiring insurance companies to act in good faith.

Joe Marchelewski, Juris Productions

[email protected]

SOURCE Shernoff Bidart Echeverria LLP
NEW YORK, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading global communications firm Ketchum today announced that Gabriel Araujo, EVP and creative director of Little George, Ketchum's hot creative shop in Brazil, will take on expanded responsibilities as executive creative director, international, for Ketchum. As the agency's first roving creative consultant, Araujo will join both client and new business teams to conceive and produce campaign-leading ideas, branded content, advertising and product innovation. He will report to Karen Strauss, partner and chief strategy & creativity officer.

"Gabriel has been a true leader within Ketchum's creative community, serving as an incredible sounding board who is relentlessly focused on making ideas stronger and more shareable. I am excited Gabriel will now share his spirit of collaboration, global perspective and integrated marketing lens with many more Ketchum clients," said Strauss.

Most recently, the Little George team, led by Araujo, earned a 2017 Cannes Health Lion and a PR Lion award for "Amazon Warriors Safe Children," a campaign for Ananse that addressed malaria and yellow fever in the Amazon. It also previously won a CLIO Award. Also, his work for Pfizer's "Age Shamelessly" won a PRWeek Award and a Gold SABRE Award from the Holmes Report.



Araujo, who joined Ketchum in 2014, will retain his role with Little George, Ketchum Brazil's hot shop of planners, copywriters, art directors and PR creatives who specialize in innovative solutions across the advertising, digital, social media and PR spectrum. In this role, he will continue to report to Valeria Perito, partner and CEO, Ketchum Brazil. Since its formation in 2016, Little George has grown to 35 employees and has been recognized with eight awards.

"Gabriel has played a major role in affirming Ketchum's reputation as a creative powerhouse. Colleagues and clients who have had the opportunity to work with him benefit from his extensive advertising and technical knowledge. He's a dynamo who works at breakneck speed and generates tremendous energy around him," said Perito.

With his expanded global focus, Araujo will work in partnership with the agency's senior strategy and creative leaders and will support teams worldwide seeking creative inspiration.

About Ketchum

Ketchum is a leading global communications firm with operations in more than 70 countries across six continents. The winner of 45 Cannes Lions and an unprecedented five PRWeek Campaign of the Year Awards, Ketchum partners with clients to deliver strategic programming, game-changing creative and measurable results that build brands and reputations. For more information on Ketchum, a part of Omnicom Public Relations Group, visit www.ketchum.com.

About Omnicom Public Relations Group

Omnicom Public Relations Group is a global collective of three of the top global public relations agencies worldwide and specialist agencies in areas including public affairs, marketing to women, fashion, global health strategy and corporate social responsibility. It encompasses more than 6,000 public relations professionals in more than 330 offices worldwide who provide their expertise to companies, government agencies, NGOs and nonprofits across a wide range of industries. Omnicom Public Relations Group is part of the DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. that includes more than 200 companies in a wide range of marketing disciplines including advertising, public relations, healthcare, customer relationship management, events, promotional marketing, branding and research.

SOURCE Ketchum

Related Links

http://www.ketchum.com


"Latinos are passionate about enjoying the outdoors and hold a strong belief that we have a moral obligation to protect it for future generations," said Maite Arce, president of Hispanic Access Foundation, which launched Latino Conservation Week in 2014 in its effort to showcase this community's commitment to the outdoors and provide opportunities for engagement. "The week's events introduce Latinos to new opportunities, new locations and new ways to translate their passion for the outdoors into making a difference for our nation's treasured natural resources."

Historically, Latinos have not been actively engaged to participate in our nation's public lands. Even with widely documented support, only eight percent of Latinos engaged in outdoor recreation in 2015, according to the Outdoor Foundation. Latino Conservation Week helps to break down barriers to the Latino population's enjoyment of public lands, encourages new opportunities to experience these sites, creates a unique platform for groups to reach out to this community and inspires the next generation of environmental stewards.

"As the largest minority group in America  one that is expected to grow to nearly one-third the population by 2050  the Latino community's engagement is critical to ensuring the future success and preservation of our nation's public lands," said Arce. "We appreciate the vast number of event partners and sponsors who recognize the importance of encouraging more Latinos to go outdoors and experiencing all that our nation's public lands have to offer."

Nearly 80 parks, organizations and community groups have joined Latino Conservation Week as sponsors and event partners. These include National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, U.S. Forest Service, National Wildlife Refuge System, Save the Redwoods League, George H.W. Bush Vamos A Pescar Education Fund, California Department of Fish & Wildlife, Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, Por la Creacion: Faith-based Alliance, Latino Outdoors, Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Atlanta Audubon Society, Los Angeles Audubon Society, Conservation Lands Foundation, Houston Zoo, REI and Whole Foods Market. A full list of participating groups is available here.

"The growth in participation and interest of Latino Conservation Week has been tremendous. What started as 17 events in six states has grown  in just three years  to more than 100 events in as many as 15 states," said Arce. "This is a national collaborative effort with the potential to positively impact the Latino community and our nation's treasured spaces."

The full list of confirmed events is available at http://bit.ly/2uSVhEV.

For media that would like to participate in any of these events, request interviews or need additional information, please contact Robert Fanger at [email protected].

About Hispanic Access Foundation

Hispanic Access Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that improves the lives of Hispanics in the United States and promotes civic engagement by educating, motivating and helping them access trustworthy support systems. Our vision is that all Hispanics throughout the U.S. enjoy good physical health, a healthy natural environment, a quality education, economic success and civic engagement in their communities with the sum improving the future of America. For more information visit www.hispanicaccess.org.

Contact: Robert Fanger

P: 317-410-7668

E: [email protected]

SOURCE Hispanic Access Foundation

Related Links

http://hispanicaccess.org


LONDON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Rapid Growth, Reforms, and Partnerships are Transforming Healthcare Systems in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia



Southeast Asia (SEA) is emerging as the gold mine for both local and international healthcare vendors. Within SEA, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia still have unexplored and under-served markets providing boundless opportunities for healthcare vendors with innovative products and services.





Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5001034/







To be able to capitalize on the market, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and digital health vendors need to understand the market trends unique to each of these 3 countries.



However, the healthcare industry in these countries evolves rapidly, as they constantly find ways to upgrade the quality of the healthcare systems. Due to the turbulence in the market, there is a need to understand the key trends as well as predictions for each of these countries to foresee how the future would be like.



This research highlights the key trends and provides some predictions and suggestions to healthcare vendors. This research will help vendors align their strategies accordingly and develop innovative solutions and products that will help them to capitalize on the opportunities in these markets.



Research has found that medical tourism will continue to be one of the major focus areas for Malaysia and a lot of investments are already being done by the private sector.



In Singapore, the opportunity is in the areas of aged care and home care markets, as the government is actively promoting step down care. In Indonesia the opportunity lies in digital technological solutions that enhance the operational efficiency, as the country is revamping its healthcare system. Healthcare and non-healthcare participants need to understand where and how they can capitalize on the opportunity in the long run.



This study, however, does not provide an in-depth analysis of the market dynamics for each of these countries.



Project Scope

 Geographic Coverage: Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia

 Market Segmentation: Advance Medical Technology, Life Sciences, and Digital Health

 Base Year: 2016

 Forecast Period: 20172022

 Study Period: 20102022



Key Questions This Study Will Answer

 What are the key trends in the healthcare industry in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia?

 What is the impact of these trends on the medical devices, pharmaceutical, digital health, and healthcare services markets?

 What does it mean to the healthcare vendors operating in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia?

 What are the predictions for the healthcare industry in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia? How will the current scenario change in the future?

 What are the implications of these predictions for healthcare vendors?

 What are the strategic imperatives for growth and success in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia?



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About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

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WASHINGTON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Amid major and growing concerns that Washington, D.C. is going backwards on climate change action and air quality rules, more than 500 moms and children organized by the Moms Clean Air Force held a "Play-In" rally and press conference in a park near the U.S. Senate office buildings.

Following the protest event, Moms and their children from nearly 40 states will meet with their corresponding members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

Now in its 4th year, the Play-In for Climate Action takes on a special urgency in 2017 against the backdrop of the Trump Administration's pullout from Paris Climate Agreement and recent moves to roll back key protections at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

According to a new Moms Clean Air Force survey, the majority of U.S. moms and grandmothersregardless of backgroundare concerned about climate and air pollution. See the full survey results here: http://www.momscleanairforce.org/moms-poll/. Recently, Moms Clean Air Force welcomed their one millionth member. More information about that major milestone can be found here: http://bit.ly/2tNWdKF and also at http://www.momscleanairforce.org/one-million-moms-video/.

Organized by Moms Clean Air Force, the "family friendly" demonstration took place Thursday from 9 a.m.-11 a.m. at Upper Senate Park, 200 New Jersey Avenue NW on Capitol Hill. A news event was held from 10:15-11 a.m. at the same location.

News event speakers included: Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR); Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI); Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, (R-PA 8th); Ben Monterroso, executive director, Mi Familia Vota; Megan Boone, lead actress, The Blacklist (TV series); Vanessa Hauc, Emmy-award-winning correspondent, Noticiero Telemundo; Victoria Barrett, plaintiff, Our Children's Trust; and Casey Camp-Horinek, actress, Native rights activist and environmentalist.

Photos and video from the Play-In are available online at: http://bit.ly/PlayIn17.

Moms Clean Air Force is a community of over one million moms -- and dads -- working together to combat air pollution, including the urgent crisis of our changing climate. For more information, go to www.momscleanairforce.org or follow us on Twitter @CleanAirMoms, Instagram @cleanairmoms, or Facebook @momscleanairforce.

Play-In for Climate Action partners are: 350.org, Allergy & Asthma Network, Alliance for Climate Education, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Children's Environmental Health Network, Citizens' Climate Lobby - DC chapter, Clean Air Moms Action, Climate Parents, Cool Effect, Dear Tomorrow, Defend Our Future, Elders Climate Action, Evangelical Environmental Network, Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, Green for All, Interfaith Moral Action on Climate, Interfaith Power & Light, Latina Lista, Mi Familia Vota, Mindful Healthy Life, Our Children's Trust, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Reverb, Sachamama and WEACT for Environmental Justice.

SOURCE Moms Clean Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Related Links

http://www.momscleanairforce.org/


ORLANDO, Fla., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading plaintiffs' firm Morgan & Morgan announces its successful recovery of four major verdicts in a single day on Wednesday. In each trial, the attorneys handling the case were able to win a sizable jury verdict after the client was offered low-ball pre-trial compensation that discredited the severity of his or her injuries and suffering.

Attorneys Secure $1.5M Jury Award for FL Worker Injured in Maritime Accident

Morgan & Morgan attorneys Adam Brum and Michael Fayard represented client Rex Craig, who in 2013 suffered a serious concussion, traumatic brain injury and a fractured skull after a crane operator dropped a several-hundred pound pile driving hammer bell on his head while he was on a barge installing docks. A Pinellas County jury awarded the client $1.5 million, finding his employer negligent in the incident. The award comes after defendant C-Scape Construction Inc. initially denied responsibility for the incident, offering nothing.

"My client was very happy with this result, and he hopes this verdict will protect others so that this won't happen to someone else," said Brum.

$395K Jury Verdict for Car-Crash Victim; Award Is 40x Higher Than Insurance Company's Initial Offer

Morgan & Morgan attorneys Tim Moran and Eric Andeer represented a 65-year-old woman who suffered severe back injuries in a 2014 crash in Jacksonville. Insurance company, Allstate Insurance Company, offered a settlement of just $10,000 to cover the extent of her serious injuries, which required multiple medical procedures over the span of multiple years. However, Moran and Andeer, embodying the Morgan & Morgan ethic of fighting for the people, not the powerful, knew their client deserved better and were successfully able to recover the verdict the client needed to heal from her injuries.

"Our client is ecstatic and so are we," Moran said. "We are proud to have been able to help our client heal after she endured years of injustice."

$80K Court Victory for Car Crash Victim That's 20x Insurance Company's Pre-Suit Offer

Morgan & Morgan attorneys Crosby Crane and Jonathan Brozyna represented client Melody Dianaty who faces a chronic neck condition and other life-altering injuries after she was rear-ended while driving home from work. Despite the severity of her injuries and the expense of her medical treatments, the most insurance company State Farm was willing to pay in this low-property damage case was $3,500. But with the help of Morgan & Morgan's attorneys, that pre-suit offer of $3,500 became an $80,000 verdict.

"This case was about the client. She is a fighter," Crane said. "State Farm tried to intimidate her. They didn't think she had the guts to take her case to trial and take the stand; they expected her to fold and take the last best offer. When she took the stand, she was prepared and she was the difference in the case."

Attorneys Turn $0 Offer into $47K Jury Award for Client Injured in Car Crash

Morgan & Morgan attorneys Brian McClain and Harran Udell represented a 46-year-old electrician who was injured while sitting in the back of a cargo work van that was rear-ended while en route to his employer's home office. They were leaving a job site where he had worked that day.

The defendant denied any wrongdoing, attributing the cause of the crash to a number of factors, and offered nothing to the client. However, the jury decided in favor of Morgan & Morgan's client, who faced medical bills and reimbursement for weeks of work that he missed. The client also came away from the collision with a permanent scar on his forehead.

"Although the defendant denied all liability and asked the jurors to award nothing to our client, the jurors found the defendant solely at fault," McClain said. "We are pleased with this verdict."

The cases are Rex L. Craig, Jr., v. C-Scape Construction Inc., and Bulldog Marine, Inc., case number 14-003536- CI, in the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in and for Pinellas County, Florida; Gloria Scott vs. Allstate Insurance Company, case number 2015 CA 006364, Division CV-D, in Duval County, Florida; Melody Dianaty v. Kristin N. Fullerton, case number 29-2015-CA-004314, in the Circuit Court of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, in and for Hillsborough County, Florida; and 2015-CA-007761-O, in the Circuit Court of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, in and for Orange County, Florida.

ABOUT MORGAN & MORGAN

Morgan & Morgan, a national plaintiff's law firm fighting for the people, not the powerful, has recovered more than $4 billion for more than 200,000 clients. The firm has more than 350 attorneys in about 40 offices in 11 states. With the support of nearly 2,000 employees, the firm's attorneys represent clients in a wide range of practice areas  from personal injury, workers' compensation, and medical malpractice cases to labor and employment, mesothelioma, and product liability lawsuits to national mass torts and class actions.

For more information, contact:

Karine Lim / Erika Nedwell

Morgan & Morgan, P.A

[email protected] / [email protected]

212-738-6265 / 212-738-6254

SOURCE Morgan & Morgan

Related Links

http://www.classaction.com


LONDON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlights

 The global needles market is projected to reach USD 8.47 billion by 2022 from USD 5.82 billion in 2017, at a CAGR of 7.8%.

 Factors such as the growing geriatric population, increasing number of hospitals in emerging markets, high prevalence of chronic diseases, and increasing demand for vaccines are driving the growth of the market.

 The plastic needles segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR

 By material, the needles market is segmented into stainless steel/metallic, plastic, glass, and PEEK needles.

 The plastic needles segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of the needles market in 2017.

 Increasing inclination towards self-administration is a major factor driving the growth of the plastic needles market across the globe, as plastic needles are disposable and are more compatible with self-injection devices as compared to glass needles.

 The hospitals segment to dominate the global needles market during the forecast period

 Based on end-user, the needles market is segmented into hospitals, diagnostic centers, home healthcare, and other end-users.



Growing geriatric population to drive the global needles market

The global needles market is projected to reach USD 8.47 billion by 2022 from USD 5.82 billion in 2017, at a CAGR of 7.8%. Factors such as the growing geriatric population, increasing number of hospitals in emerging markets, high prevalence of chronic diseases, and increasing demand for vaccines are driving the growth of the market. On the other hand growing focus on the development of alternative drug delivery methods and rising needle stick injuries are some of the key factors limiting the growth of the global needles market.



The plastic needles segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR

By material, the needles market is segmented into stainless steel/metallic, plastic, glass, and PEEK needles. The plastic needles segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of the needles market in 2017. Increasing inclination towards self-administration is a major factor driving the growth of the plastic needles market across the globe, as plastic needles are disposable and are more compatible with self-injection devices as compared to glass needles.



The hospitals segment to dominate the global needles market during the forecast period

Based on end-user, the needles market is segmented into hospitals, diagnostic centers, home healthcare, and other end-users. The hospitals segment accounted for the largest share of the global needles market in 2016 due to the increasing economic expansion and government focus on healthcare delivery systems and access to preventive and curative care of the population.



Asia-Pacific to witness the highest growth during the forecast period (2017-2022)

North America held the largest share of the global needles market in 2016, but Asia-Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period. A number of factors such as the conducive regulatory policies for the approval of new injectables and the rapid growth in the geriatric population are contributing to the growth of the needles market in this regional segment.



Breakdown of primary interviews: by company type, designation, and region:



 By Company Type - Tier 1  45%, Tier 2  34% and Tier 3  21%

 By Designation  C level  10%, Director level  14%, Others  76%

 By Region  North America - 40%, Europe  32%, APAC  20%, RoW  8%



Some of the major market players in the needles market are Hamilton Company (U.S.), Medtronic plc (Ireland), Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.), Stryker Corporation (U.S.), B. Braun Melsungen AG (Germany), Boston Scientific Corporation (U.S.), and Terumo Corporation (Japan). Product launches, agreements, and partnerships were the major strategies adopted by market players to achieve growth.



Research Coverage

This report studies the needles market based on type, products, delivery mode, material, and end user. The report also studies factors (such as drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges) affecting market growth. It analyzes opportunities and challenges in the market for stakeholders and provides details of the competitive landscape for market leaders. Furthermore, the report analyzes micromarkets with respect to their individual growth trends, prospects, and contributions to the total market. The report forecasts the revenue of the market segments with respect to four main regions.





Reasons to buy the report:

This research focuses on various levels of analysisindustry trends, competitive mapping of top 25 companies in this market, and company profiles, which together provide the basic view of the competitive landscape, emerging and high-growth segments of the needles market and high-growth regions and their respective drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities.



The report will enrich both established firms as well as new entrants/smaller firms to gauge the pulse of the market, which in turn will help firms garner greater market shares. Firms purchasing the report could use any one or a combination of the below-mentioned five strategies for strengthening their market shares.





The report provides insights on the following pointers:

 Market Penetration: Comprehensive information on product portfolios offered by major players in the needles market. The report analyzes the needles market based on products, type, delivery mode, material, end user, and region



 Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on the upcoming products, research and development activities, and product launches in the market



 Market Development: Comprehensive information about lucrative emerging markets. The report analyzes the markets for various needles products across geographies



 Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the needles market



 Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of market shares, strategies, products, distribution networks, and manufacturing capabilities of leading players in the needles market



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4970265/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

http://www.reportbuyer.com


VANCOUVER, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Nevsun Resources Ltd. (TSX:NSU)(NYSE MKT:NSU) ("Nevsun" or the "Company") announced today that Cliff Davis's two month transition period was completed on July 12, 2017. Mr. Davis has now retired from the Company and has stepped down as a Director of the Company.

On behalf of Nevsun Management and the Board of Directors, Peter Kukielski commented, "We are deeply grateful for all of Cliff 's contributions to the Company over his 22 year history with Nevsun. I appreciate the commitment he has made toward the smooth transition to a new CEO. I wish Cliff all the best for a very happy and productive retirement."

About Nevsun Resources Ltd.

Nevsun Resources Ltd. is the 100% owner of the high-grade copper-gold Timok Upper Zone and 60% owner of the Timok Lower Zone in Serbia. Nevsun generates cash flow from its 60% owned copper-zinc Bisha Mine in Eritrea. Nevsun is well positioned with a strong debt-free balance sheet to grow shareholder value through advancing Timok to production.

NEVSUN RESOURCES LTD.

"Peter G.J. Kukielski"

Peter G.J. Kukielski

President & Chief Executive Officer

SOURCE Nevsun Resources Ltd.
STARKVILLE, Miss., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Global Teaching Project has announced the launch of a new initiative, The Mississippi Public School Consortium for Education Access, to provide Advanced Placement courses for underserved students, starting in seven rural Mississippi school districts that have extremely limited curricula for students with the potential for high academic achievement.

Across the U.S., students who have the ability and desire to succeed academically often live in areas where they do not have access to the higher-level courses they need to achieve their full potential. Enrollment in AP courses correlates strongly with college success, and access to high-quality AP courses increasingly separates the educational haves from the have-nots. The College Board estimates that 60 percent of U.S. high school students who have high potential to excel in AP science courses do not take any, largely because their schools lack qualified instructors to teach those subjects, and up to 25 percent of U.S. high schools do not offer more than one of the basic courses in the typical sequence of high school math and science educationsuch as Algebra I and II, Geometry, Biology, and Chemistry.

The new initiative, funded by a grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, is designed to change this by offering AP courses to students in underserved and rural districts, where shortages of qualified teachersand high-level math and science coursesare most acute. The courses are taught by renowned instructors from leading educational institutions around the world, with support from faculty, staff, and students from Mississippi State, Jackson State, Yale, and Stanford, among others. The Global Teaching Project also provides educational content and support.

"For today's students, demography should not determine destiny, and a student's circumstances should not be a factor to be able to access a high-quality education," said Harold Levy, executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. "By providing students in rural communities with the opportunity to learn from some of the most respected subject-matter experts in the world, we're giving them the chance to achieve their full potential."

"Particularly for low-income students, a college degree is the surest path to opportunity and economic stability," said Governor Phil Bryant. "That opportunity, however, means accessand that's what the Mississippi Public School Consortium is providingthanks to the Jack Kent Cooke Foundationthrough Advanced Placement courses."

The first stage of the pilot launched the week of June 19, 2017, by implementing a residential program for participating students at Mississippi State University to help prepare them for a course that they will be taking in the FallAP Physics 1, taught by Professor Meg Urry, director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. The program is designed to help the students develop a foundation in math and science, as well as study skills that will be necessary to succeed in the course. Eventually, five AP courses will be implemented in the participating districts.

Media Contact: Matt Dolan, 202.255.9054/[email protected]

SOURCE Jack Kent Cooke Foundation

Related Links

http://www.jkcf.org


LONDON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Noble Corporation plc (NYSE: NE) today announced it plans to report financial results for the second quarter 2017 on Thursday, August 3, 2017, after the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Copies of the Company's press release will be available on the Noble Website at www.noblecorp.com.

Noble also has scheduled a conference call and webcast related to its second quarter 2017 results on Friday, August 4, 2017, at 8:00 a.m. U.S. Central Daylight Time. Interested parties are invited to listen to the call by dialing 1-877-201-0168, or internationally 1-647-788-4901, using access code: 21883520, or by asking for the Noble Corporation plc conference call. Interested parties may also listen over the Internet through a link posted in the Investor Relations section of the Company's Website.

A replay of the conference call will be available on Friday, August 4, 2017, beginning at 11:00 a.m. U.S. Central Daylight Time, through Monday, September 4, 2017, ending at 11:00 p.m. U.S. Central Daylight Time. The phone number for the conference call replay is 1-855-859-2056 or, for calls from outside of the U.S., 1-404-537-3406, using access code: 21883520. The replay will also be available on the Company's Website following the end of the live call.

About Noble Corporation plc

Noble is a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. The Company owns and operates one of the most modern, versatile and technically advanced fleets in the offshore drilling industry. Noble performs, through its subsidiaries, contract drilling services with a fleet of 28 offshore drilling units, consisting of 14 drillships and semisubmersibles and 14 jackups, focused largely on ultra-deepwater and high-specification jackup drilling opportunities in both established and emerging regions worldwide. Noble is a public limited company registered in England and Wales with company number 08354954 and registered office at Devonshire House, 1 Mayfair Place, London, W1J 8AJ England. Additional information on Noble is available at www.noblecorp.com.

SOURCE Noble Corporation

Related Links

http://www.noblecorp.com


EAST HANOVER, N.J., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Novartis, a global leader in Immunology & Dermatology, confirmed today positive 5 year efficacy and safety results for Cosentyx from a Phase III long-term extension study in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.1 Data will be presented at a key medical congress in the second half of 2017. 5 year Phase III data are a milestone for assessing long-term efficacy and safety.

"Cosentyx has consistently demonstrated sustained efficacy and safety providing psoriasis patients a new standard of long-term care," said Vas Narasimhan, Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer, Novartis. "With the first data from a trial with 5 years of follow up, Cosentyx continues to demonstrate it can provide what psoriasis patients want, clear skin."

4 year data from the same Phase III study presented at EADV 2016 already showed Cosentyx delivered almost clear or clear skin in many patients (PASI 90 - 66%, PASI 100 - 44%) from year 1 to year 4 of treatment.13

Recently, new label updates announced for Cosentyx in Europe demonstrated superiority of Cosentyx versus Stelara* (ustekinumab) in moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis on the basis of 52 week data from the CLEAR study, and expanded the use of Cosentyx for the treatment of moderate-to-severe scalp psoriasis.2,3 Cosentyx was launched in 2015 as the first and only fully-human IL-17A inhibitor to treat psoriasis and is now approved for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis as well. Novartis remains committed to investigating important scientific questions with Cosentyx that address unmet needs and could significantly enhance patients' quality of life.

About the study

The Sculpture (NCT01406938) extension study of Cosentyx for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis was designed to assess long-term safety and efficacy during a double-blind period (up to 4 years) and open-label period up to year 5 (Week 260). The data analysis for Cosentyx includes all patients who reached a PASI 75 response at Week 12 and subsequently received continuous treatment with 300mg Cosentyx until the end of Year 5. The study includes analysis of the PASI 75/90/100 response rates over the extended treatment period from Year 1 (Week 52) to the end of Year 5 (Week 260), analyses of body surface area (BSA) and absolute PASI scores, proportion of patients with 1% or less BSA involvement, mean PASI and BSA improvement, as well as the safety profile of Cosentyx.1

About psoriasis

Psoriasis is a common, non-contagious, auto-immune disease that affects more than 125 million people worldwide.4 Plaque psoriasis is the most common form of the disease and appears as raised, red patches covered with a silvery white buildup of dead skin cells. Scalp psoriasis is a form of psoriasis that is reported to affect approximately half of all patients with psoriasis.5 The disease has a significant impact on patients' quality of life, which is an aspect of the disease underestimated by most physicians.6

Psoriasis is not simply a cosmetic problem, but a persistent, chronic (long-lasting), and sometimes distressing disease, which can affect even the smallest aspects of people's lives on a daily basis. Up to 30% of patients with psoriasis may develop, PsA.7 PsA is a condition in which the joints are also affected, causing debilitating symptoms including pain, stiffness and irreversible joint damage.7,8 Psoriasis is also associated with other serious health conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and depression.7

About Cosentyx and interleukin-17A (IL-17A)

Launched in January 2015, Cosentyx is a targeted treatment that specifically inhibits the IL-17A cytokine. Research suggests that IL-17A may play an important role in driving auto-inflammatory conditions in enthesitis and ultimately the body's immune response in psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS).9,10

Cosentyx is approved in more than 75 countries for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, which includes the US, Canada, the European Union countries, Japan, Switzerland and Australia. In Europe, Cosentyx is approved for the first-line systemic treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in adult patients.2 In the US, Cosentyx is approved as a treatment for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in adult patients who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy.11

Cosentyx is the first IL-17A inhibitor approved in more than 70 countries for the treatment of active PsA and AS, which includes the US and the European Union countries. Cosentyx is also approved for the treatment of PsA and pustular psoriasis in Japan.12

INDICATIONS

COSENTYX is a human interleukin-17A antagonist indicated for the treatment of:

moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adult patients who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy

adults with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA)

adults with active ankylosing spondylitis (AS)

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Do not use COSENTYX if you have had a severe allergic reaction to secukinumab or any of the other ingredients in COSENTYX. See the Medication Guide for a complete list of ingredients.

COSENTYX is a medicine that affects your immune system. COSENTYX may increase your risk of having serious side effects such as:

Infections

COSENTYX may lower the ability of your immune system to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections.

Your doctor should check you for tuberculosis (TB) before starting treatment with COSENTYX.

If your doctor feels that you are at risk for TB, you may be treated with medicine for TB before you begin treatment with COSENTYX and during treatment with COSENTYX.

Your doctor should watch you closely for signs and symptoms of TB during treatment with COSENTYX. Do not take COSENTYX if you have an active TB infection.

Before starting COSENTYX, tell your doctor if you:

are being treated for an infection

have an infection that does not go away or that keeps coming back

have TB or have been in close contact with someone with TB

think you have an infection or have symptoms of an infection such as:

fevers, sweats, or chills



muscle aches



cough



shortness of breath



blood in your phlegm



weight loss



warm, red, or painful skin or sores on your body



diarrhea or stomach pain



burning when you urinate or urinate more often than normal

After starting COSENTYX, call your doctor right away if you have any signs of infection listed above. Do not use COSENTYX if you have any signs of infection unless you are instructed to by your doctor.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease

New cases of inflammatory bowel disease or "flare-ups" can happen with COSENTYX, and can sometimes be serious. If you have inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease), tell your doctor if you have worsening disease symptoms during treatment with COSENTYX or develop new symptoms of stomach pain or diarrhea.

Serious Allergic Reactions

Serious allergic reactions can occur. Get emergency medical help right away if you get any of the following symptoms: feeling faint; swelling of your face, eyelids, lips, mouth, tongue, or throat; trouble breathing or throat tightness; chest tightness; or skin rash. If you have a severe allergic reaction, do not give another injection of COSENTYX.

Before starting COSENTYX, tell your doctor if you:

have any of the conditions or symptoms listed above for infections

have inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis)

are allergic to latex. The needle caps contain latex.

have recently received or are scheduled to receive an immunization (vaccine). People who take COSENTYX should not receive live vaccines.

receive live vaccines. have any other medical conditions

are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if COSENTYX can harm your unborn baby. You and your doctor should decide if you will use COSENTYX.

are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. It is not known if COSENTYX passes into your breast milk.

Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Know the medicines you take. Keep a list of your medicines to show your doctor and pharmacist when you get a new medicine.

How should I use COSENTYX?

See the detailed Instructions for Use that comes with your COSENTYX for information on how to prepare and inject a dose of COSENTYX, and how to properly throw away (dispose of) used COSENTYX Sensoready pens and prefilled syringes.

Use COSENTYX exactly as prescribed by your doctor.

If your doctor decides that you or a caregiver may give your injections of COSENTYX at home, you should receive training on the right way to prepare and inject COSENTYX. Do not try to inject COSENTYX yourself, until you or your caregiver has been shown how to inject COSENTYX by your doctor or nurse.

The most common side effects of COSENTYX include: cold symptoms, diarrhea, and upper respiratory infections. These are not all of the possible side effects of COSENTYX. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see accompanying full Prescribing Information, including Medication Guide.

Disclaimer

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "potential," "can," "will," "plan," "expect," "anticipate," "look forward," "believe," "committed," "investigational," "pipeline," "launch," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals, new indications or labeling for the investigational or approved products described in this press release, or regarding potential future revenues from such products. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the investigational or approved products described in this press release will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that such products will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding such products could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; our ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures; general economic and industry conditions, including the effects of the persistently weak economic and financial environment in many countries; safety, quality or manufacturing issues, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Novartis

Located in East Hanover, NJ Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation is an affiliate of Novartis which provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, cost-saving generic and biosimilar pharmaceuticals and eye care. Novartis has leading positions globally in each of these areas. In 2016, the Group achieved net sales of USD 48.5 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.0 billion. Novartis Group companies employ approximately 118,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are sold in approximately 155 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.

Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at http://twitter.com/novartis

For Novartis multimedia content, please visit www.novartis.com/news/media-library

For questions about the site or required registration, please contact [email protected]

*Stelara is a registered trademark of Janssen Biotech, Inc.

References

1. Novartis, data on file

2. Cosentyx Summary of Product Characteristics. Novartis Europharm Limited. Available at: http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/EPAR-Product_Information/human/003729/WC500183129.pdf. Last accessed July 2017.

3. Blauvelt A et al. Secukinumab is superior to ustekinumab in clearing skin of subjects with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis up to 1 year: Results from the CLEAR study. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 2017;76:60-69.

4. International Federation of Psoriasis Associations (IFPA) World Psoriasis Day website. "About Psoriasis." Available at: http://www.worldpsoriasisday.com/web/page.aspx?refid=114. Last accessed June 2017.

5. Farber EM, Nall L. Natural history and treatment of scalp psoriasis. Cutis. 1992;49:396-400.

6. Wozel G. Psoriasis treatment in difficult locations: scalp, nails, and intertriginous areas. Clinics in Dermatology. 2008;26:448-459.

7. National Psoriasis Foundation. Psoriatic disease: about psoriasis. Available at: www.psoriasis.org/about-psoriasis. Last accessed June 2017.

8. Mease PJ, Armstrong AW. Managing patients with psoriatic disease: the diagnosis and pharmacologic treatment of psoriatic arthritis in patients with psoriasis. Drugs. 2014; 74:423-441.

9. Kirkham BW et al. Interleukin-17A: a unique pathway in immune-mediated diseases: psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Immunology. 2014; 141:133-142.

10. Ivanov S, Linden A. Interleukin-17 as a drug target in human disease. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences. 2009; 30(2):95-103.

11. Cosentyx (secukinumab) [prescribing information]. East Hanover, NJ: Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp, 2016.

12. Novartis, data on file

13. Bissonnette R et al. Secukinumab maintains high levels of efficacy through 4 years of treatments: results from an extension to a phase 3 study (SCULPTURE). Presented as a late breaking abstract at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology 2016. 1st October 2016.

Novartis Media Relations

Central media line: +41 61 324 2200

E-mail: [email protected]

Eric Althoff Jeannie Neufeld Novartis Global Media Relations Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation +41 61 324 7999 (direct) +1 862 778 2104 (direct) +41 79 593 4202 (mobile) +1 201 650 2728 (mobile) [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation

Related Links

https://www.novartis.com


All three were shot and killed and the area has been closed off, he said. The victims have been transported to nearby hospitals.

The incident took place near one of the world's most important religious sites, called the Nobel Sanctuary by Muslims and the Temple Mount by Jews. It is home to the Western Wall -- which used to be part of the Second Jewish Temple and is the holiest place for Jews to pray in the world -- and the Dome of the Rock, the site where Muslims believe the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
DETROIT, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM) (NYSE: AXL) has named Olaf Bongwald President AAM Driveline  Europe. In this role, Bongwald will lead AAM's European driveline business, succeeding Michael J. Bly who has been appointed AAM's global sales lead for the Driveline Business Unit. In addition to his leadership of the European driveline business, Bongwald will also be responsible for profitably growing and globalizing AAM's electric drive and hybrid drive business.

"We are extremely pleased to announce the addition of Olaf to AAM's executive team," said David C. Dauch, AAM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Electric drive and hybrid drive systems are quickly becoming a critical part of our driveline technology portfolio. Strengthening AAM's leadership capability in this area of strategic focus is an important priority for us and Olaf's global technical and operational experience will be instrumental in advancing this global effort as well as our driveline business in Europe."

Prior to joining AAM, Bongwald was Vice President Magna Electronics Global for Magna Electronics. In this role, Bongwald was responsible for leading Magna Electronics within Germany, Austria, Italy, USA, Canada, Mexico, Taiwan and China. In his 18-year career at Magna, he held several executive positions.

Bongwald serves on the board of EDAG Engineering GmbH. He has a degree in engineering from TU Dortmund, Germany.

Bongwald will be located at AAM's European Headquarters and Engineering Center in Bad Homburg, Germany.

About AAM

AAM (NYSE: AXL) is a premier, global leader in design, engineering, validation and manufacturing of driveline, metal forming, powertrain, and casting technologies for automotive, commercial and industrial markets. Headquartered in Detroit, AAM has over 25,000 associates operating at more than 90 facilities in 17 countries to support our customers on global and regional platforms with a focus on quality, operational excellence and technology leadership. To learn more, visit www.aam.com.

Media Contact:

Andrea Knapp

(313) 758-2730

[email protected]

SOURCE AAM

Related Links

https://www.aam.com


CHICAGO, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. (ORBA), one of Chicago's largest public accounting firms, is proud to announce that Jason Flahive, CPA and Jacqueline Janczewski, CPA, MBT have been elected as Directors, effective July 1, 2017.

"We welcome the addition of Jason and Jacqueline to ORBA's roster of outstanding directors," said ORBA Managing Director Mark Thomson. "Today, we celebrate and recognize Jason and Jacqueline's contribution to the firm, as well as their commitment to providing exceptional service to our clients."

Jason Flahive provides attestation, accounting and tax services for medical groups, nursing homes, privately-owned businesses, not-for-profit organizations and high net worth individuals. He also has experience providing various technology consulting services, including accounting system conversion and implementation, data analytics and other ad-hoc analysis. He serves clients in a variety of industries including health care, real estate and financial services, as well as not-for-profit education and social service organizations.

Jacqueline Janczewski, CPA, MBT has 20 years of experience working with entrepreneurs and closely-held businesses in various industries, helping them with their business and succession planning, accounting and tax needs. Jacqueline also focuses on providing outstanding service to high net worth individuals, such as executives, attorneys and private investors, with tax planning and compliance services. Jacqueline's dynamic leadership and proven managerial skills, combined with her range of experience and perspective, help her to provide unique and significant value and excellent service to her clients.

Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. (ORBA) is a full-service accounting, tax and business consulting firm located in downtown Chicago serving privately-held companies, individuals and not-for-profit organizations. ORBA's Certified Public Accountants have experience with accounting and assurance, business advisory services, financial and estate planning, fraud investigation, tax, litigation, and mergers and acquisitions. With some of the highest levels of direct client involvement in the industry, ORBA is where clients go to build long-standing, meaningful and successful relationships with resourceful, proactive business and tax advisors. For more information, visit www.orba.com. Subscribe to our blog www.orbablog.com or connect with us on LinkedIn.

Contact: Joy Long

312.670.7444

[email protected]

SOURCE Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. (ORBA)

Related Links

http://www.orba.com


LOS ANGELES, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Author Reading, Author Signing, Children's Event

Saturday July 15, 2017 11:00 AM

(Childrens)

Location:

The Grove at Farmers Market

189 The Grove Drive Suite K 30

Los Angeles, CA 90036

323-525-0270

Event Description

"Parker Pig Goes to Yoga" is a children's yoga book aimed at teaching mindfulness and yoga all while having fun doing animal yoga poses.

A few of benefits of kids yoga include increasing strength, flexibility, focus, concentration, confidence and giving children the tools to calm their bodies. Through breath and posture, the children are guided through fun animal yoga poses while being told an inspiring story of a Pig who didn't think she could do Yoga. Parker overcomes her own fears and doubts, and finds inner peace and calm. Parker is representative of anyone who thinks they can't do yoga, and this adorable story will leave children not only with a new knowledge of animal poses and sounds, but with a confidence and strength to do them! Namaste!

Parker Pig Goes to Yoga available for purchase at event and Amazon

Barnes and Noble online and in stores The Grove, Los Angeles

Pumpkinhead Kids in Brentwood CA

Hot 8 Yoga

Zooyga Yoga

Kitross on Robertson Blvd (formerly known as Kitson, Kitross Kids and Kitross)

Nathalie Seaver on 3rd street

Chevaliers Books in Larchment Village

Sandbox Fitness

$18.95

Written by Stacey Alysson

Illustrated by Patrick Girouard

26 pages, 8.5" h by 8.5 w

STACEY ALYSSON,

AUTHOR & YOGA INSTRUCTOR

Stacey Alysson is a certified yoga instructor and mother residing in Beverly Hills, California. She is passionate about teaching children and sharing the Gift of Yoga through storytelling, specializing with children 18 months to 7 years of age. Stacey completed her teacher training at Hot 8 Yoga in Beverly Hills. She teaches yoga to over 300 kids a week at a local Los Angeles preschool. Stacey holds a BS in Nutritional Science from the University of Maryland and has worked with children at hospitals including Children's Hospital and NIH.

More information: https://parkerpiggoestoyoga.com

Stacey Alysson

[email protected]

SOURCE Stacey Alysson
ETTERS, Pa., July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera visited Newberry Elementary School in the West Shore School District to tour its mobile library, which travels across the region bringing books to students of all ages under the district's "Driving Reading Home" literacy program.

"Summer vacation is a fun-filled time for children across the commonwealth, but spending too much time away from studies can have detrimental effects on a student's future success," Secretary Rivera said. "Children who do not engage in educational activities during the summer months may often lose developmental milestones and important reading retention skills. West Shore School District's efforts to promote summer reading will certainly help its students combat the summer slide."

To battle the effects of summer slide, public libraries around Pennsylvania offer summer reading programs to interested students and their families. Programs like West Shore School District's Driving Reading Home Initiative -- a result of a Keystones to Opportunity grant -- have been proven to help maintain or even raise reading skills while school is out of session.

Studies show that summer slide is exacerbated by socioeconomic status  and the gap caused by summer slide only widens over time. After just a few summers, students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds will see their reading achievement scores drop below national averages.

"It is important to ensure that our students, no matter where they live or what backgrounds they come from have access to books, libraries, and other vital resources," said Secretary Rivera. "This is just one great example of getting children excited about reading and encouraging students to expand their educational opportunities during the summer months."

The federal Keystones to Opportunity grant is awarded to Pennsylvania schools to improve literacy outcomes for all students. The program supports programs that advance literacy skills through professional development, screening and assessment, targeted interventions for students reading below grade level and research-based methods of improving classroom instruction and practice.

MEDIA CONTACT: Casey Smith, 717-783-9802

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Education

Related Links

http://www.state.pa.us


HARRISBURG, Pa., July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the State Board of Education welcomed two new members to the Board: Ellie DeWitt, who attends Gettysburg College, and Alex Fey, a Phoenixville Area School District student. Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera informed attendees at the July 13 meeting that the new members will serve two-year terms as Board members.

"As we work to enhance public education in the commonwealth, we know that we cannot craft policy and make critical decisions without first receiving feedback from our stakeholders," said Secretary Rivera. "It is undeniable that the student perspective is an essential component of stakeholder engagement, and including their perspective in Board proceedings is helpful and necessary. I offer my congratulations and welcome the two new members of the State Board of Education, Ellie DeWitt and Alex Fey."

The Board changed its bylaws in May 2008 to incorporate student representation on the Board in a non-voting capacity. The student representatives - one senior student member and one junior student member  will serve on the Council of Basic Education and the Council of Higher Education.

"Student representatives serve as essential members of the Board, bringing with them a unique perspective on education in the commonwealth," said Chairman of the Board Larry Wittig. "Additionally, their inclusion provides students with the chance to shape education policy and impact both current and future generations of students. I welcome Ellie and Alex, and look forward to working with them."

Wittig said student members must attend and participate in board meetings, advise and consult with the board, and adhere to board regulations. The State Board of Education's 21 members  and four student representatives  convene every other month throughout the year to discuss and vote on education policies and procedures.

MEDIA CONTACT: Casey Smith, 717-783-9802

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Education

Related Links

http://www.state.pa.us


NEW YORK, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Below are experts from the ProfNet network who are available to discuss timely issues in your coverage area.

You can also submit a query to the hundreds of thousands of experts in our network  it's easy and free! Just fill out the query form to get started: http://prn.to/queryform

EXPERT ALERTS

Potential Medicaid Cuts Put Savings of Middle-Class Elderly at Risk

Could the New Netflix Movie 'To the Bone' Trigger Anorexia or Other Eating Disorders?

MEDIA JOBS

Cybersecurity/Defense Tech Reporter  FCW (DC)

Education Reporter  Politico Pro (VA)

Reporter, Refined Products  Argus (CA)

OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES

4 Ways to Build Trust Through Authentic Content

Blogger Events: Top Events to Attend in July

Blog Profiles: Office Fashion Blogs

-------------------------------------------------------------------

EXPERT ALERTS:

Potential Medicaid Cuts Put Savings of Middle-Class Elderly at Risk

Kelley Bentley

Elder Law Attorney

Roberts Markel Weinberg Butler Hailey PC, Houston

The health care bill the U.S. Senate is fine-tuning could have profound effects on elderly people who rely on nursing home care. Says Bentley: "The bill proposes large cuts to federal Medicaid support over several years with reliance on states to decide funding in the future. While many people may assume the program pays solely for health care for the poor, it also fills a gap for long-term care, including at-home and nursing home care for the elderly population. The cost of long-term care in the U.S. can be substantial and a serious drain on an individual's assets. That includes middle-class retirees who sometimes have managed to save substantial assets. Some people simply outlive their savings for long-term care. Older people should take a hard look at their savings long before any health problems. The secret is to start to plan early, before the need arises as there are more options available for the preservation of assets. The goal is not necessarily to preserve assets for future generations, but to ensure that an individual (or married couple) has sufficient assets to cover any future long-term care needs."

Contact: Kit Frieden, [email protected]



Could the New Netflix Movie 'To the Bone' Trigger Anorexia or Other Eating Disorders?

Dena Cabrera, PsyD, CEDS

Executive Clinical Director

Rosewood Centers for Eating Disorders

"Could 'To the Bone' trigger anorexia or other eating disorders in someone struggling with the disease? Yes, of course -- but those in the thick of an eating disorder, or who are not yet working on their recovery, can use this film as 'thinspiration.' In fact, Impressionable men and women are triggered all the time by social media, TV commercials, music videos and print ads that glorify thinness. Just check out a Victoria's Secret ad! I hope that 'To the Bone' communicates a message about the mental and psychiatric devotion of an eating disorder, beyond just TV images."

A Certified Eating Disorders Specialist with a wealth of diverse clinical experience, Dr. Cabrera is able to provide expert insight on eating disorders and associated issues, such as body shaming, depression, anxiety, co-occurring disorders, the impact of eating disorders on family and loved ones, and cognitive-behavioral treatment for eating disorders. She has authored numerous articles and publications, and is honored by her academic and clinical peers for contributing vital resources to the field of eating disorders. She most recently co-authored "Mom in the Mirror: Body Image, Beauty and Life After Pregnancy" (Rowman & Littlefield), a first resource of its kind that speaks to moms and those who love them through a personal and compassionate lens that assists in healing from body-image disturbances and eating disorders. Dr. Cabrera is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Academy of Eating Disorders, and the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals. She received her Master of Arts and PsyD in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles. She is based in Arizona.

Website: www.rosewoodranch.com

Contact: Paul Maccabee, [email protected]



****************

MEDIA JOBS:

Following are links to job listings for staff and freelance writers, editors and producers. You can view these and more job listings on our Job Board: https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/community/jobs/

 Cybersecurity/Defense Tech Reporter  FCW (DC)

 Education Reporter  Politico Pro (VA)

 Reporter, Refined Products  Argus (CA)

*****************

OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES:

Following are links to other news and resources we think you might find useful. If you have an item you think other reporters would be interested in and would like us to include in a future alert, please drop us a line.

4 WAYS TO BUILD TRUST THROUGH AUTHENTIC CONTENT. When it comes to branding, we're hearing the buzzword "authentic" a lot lately. But what does that actually mean? How can a brand like yours be authentic, especially in its content marketing? Being authentic doesn't mean pulling crazy stunts like Burger King did recently when it hacked Google Home with its ad. Authenticity isn't attention-seeking or off-the-wall. It's real. It feels comfortable. So how can you build trust through authentic content? Find out here: http://cisn.co/2tFkKDr

BLOGGER EVENTS: TOP EVENTS TO ATTEND IN JULY: Blogger Events is a monthly column of what's happening in the blog world. Here are some events that should be on your radar for July: http://bit.ly/2ufcsU1

BLOG PROFILES: OFFICE FASHION BLOGS. Each week, PR Newswire's Audience Relations team selects an industry/subject and profiles a handful of sites that do a good job with promoting and contributing to the conversation. This week, they look at office fashion blogs: http://bit.ly/2tKaZlR

****************

PROFNET is an exclusive service of PR Newswire.

SOURCE ProfNet

Related Links

http://www.profnet.com


LONDON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlights

 Purging Compound market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.4%

 The purging compound market is projected to reach USD 586.3 Million by 2022, at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2017 to 2022.

 Factors such as increasing use of purging compound in various industries leads to a reduction in machine downtime, low production cost, and less raw material wastage are driving this market.

 Chemical/foaming purging segment to register the highest growth in the purging compound market

 Injection molding segment to register the highest growth in the purging compound market

 Purging compound is widely used in injection molding, as it is one of the most significant processes used for the production of plastic parts in bulk quantities.

 The use of injection molding accelerates production processes and ensures high precision in the development of engineering components.

 A wide range of thermoplastics such as ABS, PA, PC, PP, and GPPS, among others, can be processed by injection molding.

 The purging compound market in the Asia-Pacific region is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

 The Asia-Pacific purging compound market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2017 to 2022.

 Rapid industrialization in this region has contributed to the expansion of various industries, such as chemicals, petrochemicals, automotive, construction, and food & beverage, among others.

"Purging Compound market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.4%"

The purging compound market is projected to reach USD 586.3 Million by 2022, at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2017 to 2022. Factors such as increasing use of purging compound in various industries leads to a reduction in machine downtime, low production cost, and less raw material wastage are driving this market. However, the high cost of purging compound is expected to restrain the purging compound market.



"Chemical/foaming purging segment to register the highest growth in the purging compound market"

Chemical/foaming is one of the most common purging compounds which is used in plastic processing equipment. Chemical purging compounds are most preferred due to their high moldability rate, as scrap generated can often be used to remold parts.



"Injection molding segment to register the highest growth in the purging compound market"

Purging compound is widely used in injection molding, as it is one of the most significant processes used for the production of plastic parts in bulk quantities. The use of injection molding accelerates production processes and ensures high precision in the development of engineering components. A wide range of thermoplastics such as ABS, PA, PC, PP, and GPPS, among others, can be processed by injection molding. Typical products produced by injection molding are automotive dashboards, electrical switches, television cabinets, battery casing, telephone headsets, drug inhalation units, syringes, bottles, and disposable razors, among others.



"The purging compound market in the Asia-Pacific region is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period"

The Asia-Pacific purging compound market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2017 to 2022. Rapid industrialization in this region has contributed to the expansion of various industries, such as chemicals, petrochemicals, automotive, construction, and food & beverage, among others. As purging compounds are increasingly utilized by these industries to reduce machine downtime and improve production efficiency, the growth of the end-use industries has propelled the demand for purging compounds in this region.

BREAKDOWN OF PROFILE OF PRIMARY PARTICIPANTS:



 By Company Type: Tier 1 - 19 %, Tier 2 - 45%, and Tier 3 - 36%

 By Designation: C Level - 20%, Director Level - 48%, and Others - 32%

 By Region: North America - 24%, Europe - 18%, Asia-Pacific - 47%, South America  8%, and Middle East & Africa - 3%



Major companies profiled in this report include Asahi Kasei Corporation (Japan), Chem-Trend (China), Purgex (U.S.), Dyna-Purge (U.S.), 3M Company (U.S.), Clariant AG (Switzerland), VELOX GmbH (Germany), E. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), Kuraray Co., Ltd. (Japan), Daicel Corporation (Japan), The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), Formosa Plastics Corporation (Taiwan), CALSAK Corporation (U.S.), Reedy Chemical Foam & Specialty Additives (U.S.), Magna Purge (U.S.), and RapidPurge (U.S.)





Research Coverage:

This report offers an overview of the market trends, drivers, and barriers with respect to the purging compound market. It also provides a detailed overview of the market across five regions, namely, Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and South America. The report categorizes the purging compound market on the basis of type, process, and region. A detailed analysis of the leading players, along with the key growth strategies adopted by them is also covered in the report.



Reasons to buy the report:

This report covers the following key aspects:

 The market size by 2022, and the growth rate from 2017 to 2022

 The key market trends

 The factors expected to drive the growth of the market

 The barriers that impact market growth

 The key players in this market

 The global purging compound market report covers key regions, such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4970263/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

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LUXEMBOURG, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- QGOG Constellation S.A. (" QGOG Constellation " or the " Company ") announced today the early results of its previously announced private exchange offer (the " Exchange Offer ") for any and all of its outstanding 6.250% Senior Notes due 2019 (the " Existing Notes "). Concurrently with the Exchange Offer, the Company is soliciting consents (the " Consent Solicitation " and, together with the Exchange Offer, the " Offer ") to certain proposed amendments (the " Proposed Amendments ") with respect to the indenture dated as of November 9, 2012, pursuant to which the Existing Notes were issued (the " Existing Notes Indenture ").

The early expiration date has been extended to 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on July 17, 2017, unless further extended by the Company (the " Expiration Date "), instead of the previously scheduled early expiration at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on July 12, 2017 (the " Prior Early Expiration Date "). The terms and conditions of the Offer are set forth in the Company's exchange offer memorandum and consent solicitation statement, dated April 3, 2017 (as supplemented on June 28, 2017 (the " Offer Memorandum ")).

According to information received by Ipreo LLC, as information agent and exchange agent for the Offer, as of 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on July 12, 2017, Eligible Holders had validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) $603.1 million aggregate principal amount of the Existing Notes (the " Consenting Notes "), constituting 86.16% of the aggregate principal amount of the Existing Notes. All Existing Notes previously tendered and related consents for the Existing Notes previously delivered will remain so tendered and delivered and no other action with respect to these Existing Notes is required. Holders of Existing Notes who have not previously tendered their Existing Notes and delivered their related consents for the Existing Notes may use the Offer Memorandum for such purposes.

The Company will accept for exchange in full all Consenting Notes, subject to all conditions to the Offer having been either satisfied or waived by the Company. The Company will pay a consent fee equal to 2.0% of the principal amount of the Consenting Notes (the " Early Exchange Payment ") to holders thereof and exchange each U.S.$1,000 principal amount of Consenting Notes for U.S.$1,000 principal amount of the Company's 9.000% Cash / 0.500% PIK Senior Secured Notes due 2024 (the " New Notes ") on the " Settlement Date ," which is currently expected to occur on July 20, 2017, subject to all conditions to the Offer having been either satisfied or waived by the Company.

Set forth below is a brief comparison of the principal terms of the Existing Notes and the New Notes. We caution that holders of the Existing Notes should carefully consider the entire Offer Memorandum before deciding whether to participate in the Exchange Offer and deliver Consents.

Term

Existing Notes

New Notes









Coupon

6.250% Cash

9.0% Cash + 0.5% PIK









Maturity

November 9, 2019

November 9, 2024









Amortization

None

Amortization schedule beginning on November 9, 2019









Cash payment on Settlement Date

None

Early Exchange Payment: a consent fee equal to 2.0% of principal amount of Existing Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn)









Dividends

Subject to customary restricted payment clause

No dividends allowed









Guarantors

Constellation Overseas Ltd

Constellation Overseas Ltd., Lone Star Offshore Ltd., Gold Star Equities Ltd., Olinda Star Ltd., Arazi S.a. r.l., Snover International Inc. and certain future entities subject to the terms of the Offer Memorandum



In addition, Star International Drilling Limited will provide a subordinated guarantee









Collateral

None

Lien on Lone Star, Gold Star and Olinda Star, assignment of related insurance receivables and, subject to the terms of the Offer Memorandum, assignment of receivables from the related charter agreements



Pledge of dividends received by the issuer from Arazi S.a. r.l. (the FPSO-owning entity) and pledge of shares of Snover International (the entity that owns certain of the onshore rigs)



Possible additional collateral subject to the terms of the Offer Memorandum









Project Finance Subsidiaries

Permitted indebtedness and lien flexibility with respect to project finance subsidiaries

Concept eliminated

The aggregate principal amount of New Notes issued to each participating holder for all Existing Notes properly tendered (and not withdrawn) and accepted by us will be rounded, if necessary, to $150,000 or the nearest whole multiple of $1,000 in excess thereof. This rounded amount will be the principal amount of New Notes a participating holder will receive, and no additional cash will be paid in lieu of any principal amount of New Notes not received as a result of rounding down. All Eligible Holders who validly tender, without subsequent withdrawal, their Existing Notes will receive a cash payment for the accrued interest on their Existing Notes on the Settlement Date.

The Offer is being made, and the New Notes are being offered and will be issued, only (a) in the United States to holders of Existing Notes who are "qualified institutional buyers" (as defined in Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act")) and (b) outside the United States to holders of Existing Notes who are persons other than U.S. persons in reliance upon Regulation S under the Securities Act. The holders of Existing Notes who have certified to the Company that they are eligible to participate in the Exchange Offer and Consent Solicitation pursuant to at least one of the foregoing conditions are referred to as "Eligible Holders."

The New Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws. Accordingly, the New Notes will be subject to restrictions on transferability and resale and may not be transferred or resold except as permitted under the Securities Act and other applicable securities laws, pursuant to registration or exemption therefrom.

This press release is neither an offer to sell nor the solicitation of an offer to buy any security. This press release is also not a solicitation of any consent to the proposed amendments to the Existing Notes Indenture. The Offer is being made solely pursuant to the exchange offer memorandum and consent solicitation statement, as supplemented by the Supplement. No recommendation is made as to whether the holders of Existing Notes should tender their Existing Notes for exchange and deliver their consents in the Offer.

Rothschild Inc. is acting as the Company's financial advisor in connection with the Offer. White & Case LLP and Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr. e Quiroga Advogados are serving as New York and Brazilian legal advisors, respectively, to the Company. Ipreo LLC has been appointed as the information agent and the exchange agent for the Offer (the " Exchange Agent "). Holders may contact the information agent to request the eligibility letter in order to become an Eligible Holder at the contact information set forth below:

Ipreo LLC

1359 Broadway, 2nd Floor

New York, New York 10018

Attn: Aaron Dougherty

Email: [email protected]

(212) 849-3880 or toll free at (888) 593-9546

NOTICE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by such sections and other applicable laws. Where the Company expresses or implies an expectation or belief as to future events or results, such expectation or belief is expressed in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis. However, such statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed, projected or implied by the "forward-looking statements." The Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly revisions to any "forward-looking statement," including, without limitation, outlook, to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this news release, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. Investors should not assume that any lack of update to a previously issued "forward-looking statement" constitutes a reaffirmation of that statement. Continued reliance on "forward-looking statements" is at investors' own risk.

SOURCE QGOG Constellation S.A.
SALT LAKE CITY and SEATTLE, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Qualtrics, the leader in experience management software, today announced the appointment of John Torrey, former Chief Corporate Development Officer for SAP and EVP of Corporate Strategy for Concur Technologies, as head of corporate strategy, corporate development, and business development.

"We couldn't be more pleased to have John join our team," said Ryan Smith, co-founder and CEO of Qualtrics. "As Qualtrics expands the ecosystem it is building around our experience management platform it will require building key relationships across many industries. Bringing John in to head up our strategy, corporate and business development team will allow us to accelerate the pace at which we help organizations manage the experiences they provide their customers and employees."

In his role as head of corporate strategy, corporate development, and business development, Torrey's responsibilities include Qualtrics' strategic planning, partnerships and M&A initiatives. This new role reflects Qualtrics' deep commitment to an experience management ecosystem of consultants, developers, and system integrators to provide a wealth of expertise, technical skills and services for thousands of enterprise customers, including more than 75 percent of the Fortune 100 who are building on the Qualtrics XM Platform.

"Qualtrics pioneered the experience management industry," said Torrey. "There is nothing more exciting than working with an ecosystem of partners who are revolutionizing the way organizations understand and engage their customers, employees, products and brands."

Torrey most recently ran corporate and strategic business development for SAP, where he was also Chief Strategy Officer for the company's Business Networks and Applications Group which houses the majority of SAP's public cloud application units. Before SAP, Torrey served as Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Concur Technologies, where he was instrumental in helping to grow one of the first and most successful cloud application businesses, later acquired by SAP. Before joining Concur, he was an equity research analyst at Adams Harkness, Credit Suisse First Boston Technology Group, and Montgomery & Co., where he was also Director of Research.

Qualtrics is continuing to experience dramatic growth and international expansion. In the past three years, the 15-year-old private company has opened nine additional offices in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia. Last year, Qualtrics opened a new, 150,000-square-foot headquarters in Provo, Utah, which Forbes dubbed "tech's boldest new headquarters." Seattle, Qualtrics' second largest office, is the company's co-headquarters and is home to several executives as well as members of the company's design, marketing, product and engineering teams. Qualtrics is also regularly awarded high-profile accolades. Earlier this week, it was listed at No. 6 on the Forbes 2017 Cloud 100 list of the world's top private cloud companies. In addition, Qualtrics was listed at No. 28 on CNBC's Disruptor 50 list of the most innovative private companies in the world. And late last year its CEO, Ryan Smith, was listed at No. 12 on Fortune's 2016 40 Under 40 list of "the most powerful, influential, and successful young people in business."

About Qualtrics:

Qualtrics is a single system of record for all experience data, also called X-data, allowing organizations to manage the four core experiences of businesscustomer, product, employee and brand experienceson one platform. Over 8,500 enterprises worldwide, including more than 75 percent of the Fortune 100 and 99 of the top 100 U.S. business schools rely on Qualtrics. To learn more, and for a free account, please visit www.qualtrics.com.

Press Contacts:

Julia Giona, Qualtrics

+1 (415) 828-4775

[email protected]

McKenzie Haggard, Method Communications

+1 (801) 850-3624

[email protected]

SOURCE Qualtrics

Related Links

https://www.qualtrics.com


WASHINGTON, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and the Eco-Rapid Transit signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) designed to support the development of an environmentally friendly and energy efficient high speed, light-rail transit corridor in Southern California.

Eco-Rapid Transit Officials anticipate the project will create 59,000 jobs during construction and an additional $6.68 billion in economic growth to the area over 15-20 years.

MBDA Acting National Director Chris Garcia, MBDA staff and board members of the Orange Line Development Authority Eco-Rapid Transit gather to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) during a special signing ceremony in South Gate, California on June 29. Pictured are Michael Kodama, Tony Lima, Cristian Markovich, Frank Quintero, Karina Macias, Gene Daniels, Maria Davila, MBDAs Antori Miranda, MBDAs Efrain Gonzalez and MBDA Acting National Director Chris Garcia (photo by MBDA).

"This agreement is just the beginning for MBDA and our partners. We're eager to work closely with Eco-Rapid Transit to move this project forward to support the President's directive to rebuild America's infrastructure. President Trump understands that a strong infrastructure means good jobs, growth, opportunity, and prosperity," said MBDA Acting National Director Chris Garcia. "There are substantial economic opportunities particularly in the construction and contracting sectors that will not only benefit minority firms, but also allow us to maximize federal, local and state resources to help boost the Nation's economy and effectively meet the needs of the American people."

Through the MOU agreement, MBDA and Eco-Rapid Transit will work together to identify contracting and construction opportunities for minority business enterprises (MBEs), share information and training resources, and provide MBEs with professional business development assistance through MBDA's national network of business centers.

Once completed, the light rail line called the West Santa Ana Branch, is scheduled to run from Downtown Los Angeles to Artesia. The capital costs for the system is estimated between $4.3-$4.6 billion with substantial related economic development opportunities along the entire corridor. Future plans can include more rail transit opportunities and related investments north from Downtown Los Angeles to Glendale and the Hollywood Burbank Airport.

"This MOU opens the door for minority investors and businesses at a national and local level," said Eco-Rapid Transit Chair and South Gate Mayor Maria Davila. "We are very grateful and happy to work with MBDA. This is a tremendous opportunity for our communities in the industrial and manufacturing heart of Los Angeles County. Eco-Rapid Transit looks forward to our partnership with MBDA."

Rebuilding America's infrastructure is a critical component of President Trump's agenda to promote job creation and grow the U.S. economy. The president released details on his infrastructure plan in June of this year.

The plan calls for lowering the average permitting time for infrastructure projects from 10 years to two years, unleashing private sector capital and expertise to rebuild U.S. cities and states, investing in infrastructure and bold new transformative projects, and implementing a work-force training initiative focused on skill-based apprenticeship education.

For more details on the President's plan visit https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2017/06/08/president-trumps-plan-rebuild-americas-infrastructure

About the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)

MBDA, www.mbda.gov, is the only Federal agency dedicated to the growth and global competitiveness of U.S. minority-owned businesses. Our programs and services better equip minority-owned firms to create jobs, build scale and capacity, increase revenues and expand regionally, nationally and internationally. Services are provided through a network of MBDA Business Centers. Established in 1969, MBDA continues to be a dedicated strategic partner to all U.S. minority-owned businesses, committed to providing programs and services that provide greater access to capital, contracts and markets. Follow us on Twitter @usmbda.

Contact: Dijon Rolle

Phone: (202) 482-1375

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.mbda.gov

Fax: (202) 482-5117



SOURCE Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)

Related Links

http://www.mbda.gov


LONDON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Synopsis

Timetric's 'Reinsurance in China, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides detailed analysis of the market trends, drivers and challenges in the Chinese reinsurance segment. It provides values for key performance indicators such as written premium, reinsurance ceded and reinsurance accepted during the review period (20112015) and forecast period (20152020).



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4089266/



The report also analyses information pertaining to the competitive landscape in the country, gives a comprehensive overview of the Chinese economy and demographics, and provides detailed analysis of natural hazards and their impact on the Chinese insurance industry.



The report brings together Timetric's research, modeling and analysis expertise to enable reinsurers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages, and access profiles of reinsurers operating in the country.



Summary

Timetric's 'Reinsurance in China, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides in-depth market analysis, information and insights into the Chinese reinsurance segment, including:



- The Chinese reinsurance segment's growth prospects by reinsurance ceded from direct insurance



- A comprehensive overview of the Chinese economy and demographics



- Detailed analysis of natural hazards and their impact on the Chinese insurance industry



- The competitive landscape in the Chinese reinsurance segment



Scope

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the reinsurance segment in China:



- It provides historical values for the Chinese reinsurance segment for the report's 20112015 review period, and projected figures for the 20152020 forecast period.



- It offers a detailed analysis of the key categories in the Chinese reinsurance segment, and market forecasts to 2020.



- It provides a detailed analysis of the reinsurance ceded from various direct insurance segments in China, and the reinsurance segment's growth prospects.





Reasons To Buy

- Make strategic business decisions using in-depth historic and forecast market data related to the Chinese reinsurance segment, and each category within it.



- Understand the demand-side dynamics, key market trends and growth opportunities in the Chinese reinsurance segment.



- Identify growth opportunities and market dynamics in key product categories.



- Gain insights into key regulations governing the Chinese insurance industry, and their impact on companies and the industry's future.



Key Highlights

- At the end of 2016, China overtook Japan to become the world's second-largest insurance market, after the US.



- The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) implemented the China Risk Oriented Solvency System (C-ROSS) framework in January 2016 with the objective of improving regulatory control and establishing a solvency supervisory system.



- The government and the CIRC approved the establishment of three domestic reinsurance companies in 2016: Taiping Re (China), PICC Re and Qianhai Re.



- In June 2015, CIRC established a consortium of 45 qualified companies with the objective of providing earthquake insurance for residential properties in urban and rural areas.



- In November 2014, the China Agriculture Insurance Reinsurance Community was established by 23 agricultural insurers, with the objective of developing agricultural insurance.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4089266/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

http://www.reportbuyer.com


NEW YORK, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against General Motor Company ("GM" or the "Company") (NYSE: GM) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, and docketed under 17-cv-12185, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired GM securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased GM securities between February 27, 2012 and May 24, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until July 26, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

General Motors Company designs, builds, and sells cars, trucks, crossovers, and automobile parts. The Company offers vehicle protection, parts, accessories, maintenance, satellite radio, and automotive financing. General Motors provides its vehicles and services worldwide.

Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) the Company installed at least three distinct defeat devices in over 700,000 trucks with Duramax diesel engines from 2011 to 2016 in order to cheat emissions tests in the U.S.; (ii) consequently, the GM trucks at issue emit up to five times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide pollutants; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, GM's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On May 25, 2017, Bloomberg reported that a consumer lawsuit had been filed against GM for installing multiple defeat devices in two models of heavy-duty trucks with the Duramax diesel engine from 2011-2016. The lawsuit alleges that GM's unlawful, unfair, deceptive, and otherwise defective emission controls affect model year 2011-2016 GM Sierra 2500HD and 3500 HD trucks and GM Silverado 2500 HD and 3500 HD trucks. According to the lawsuit, extensive testing of a 2013 Silverado 2500 diesela vehicle representative of the class of Duramax diesel engines present in both the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra model years 2011 to 2016indicated as follows: (1) the vehicle produces emissions above the certification tests at temperatures above the certification range (86F); (2) the vehicle produces higher emissions when temperatures are below the certification test range (68F); and (3) the vehicle produces higher emissions occur after the vehicle has been run for 200-500 seconds of steady speed operation on average by a factor of 4.5 in all temperature windows. These test results confirmed the presence of three distinct defeat devices, which enable the vehicle to meet emissions standards in the test temperature range, while allowing two to five times the legal amount of nitrogen-oxide pollutants to be emitted at all other times.

On this news, GM's share price fell $0.60, or 1.81%, to close at $32.60 on May 25, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

Related Links

http://www.pomerantzlaw.com


NEW YORK, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorney Advertising -- Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against DigitalGlobe, Inc. ("DigitalGlobe" or the "Company") (NYSE:DGI) and certain of its officers, on behalf of DigitalGlobe common stock shareholders in connection with the proposed acquisition of DigitalGlobe by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd ("MDA") announced on February 24, 2017. Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm's site: http://www.bgandg.com/dgi.

This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

On February 24, 2017, DigitalGlobe and MDA announced that they had entered into an agreement and plan of merger (the "Merger Agreement"). Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, for each share of DigitalGlobe stock owned, DigitalGlobe shareholders will receive $17.50 in cash and $17.50 in MDA (the "Proposed Acquisition"), for a value of $35 per share based on MDA stock's closing price of on February 16, 2017.

The Complaint alleges that: (1) the value to be received by DigitalGlobe shareholders in the Proposed Acquisition significantly undervalues the Company; (2) in an attempt to secure shareholder support for the Proposed Transaction, defendants issued materially incomplete disclosures in a registration statement (the "Registration Statement") filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on April 27, 2017; and (3) the Registration Statement omits material information necessary to enable shareholders to make an informed decision as to how to vote on the Proposed Transaction, including material information with respect to DigitalGlobe's financial projections, the analyses performed by DigitalGlobe's financial advisor, and potential conflicts of interest.

A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint you can visit the firm's site: http://www.bgandg.com/dgi or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Investor Relations Analyst, Yael Hurwitz of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 212-697-6484. DigitalGlobe shareholders have until July 24, 2017 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.

Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a corporate litigation boutique. Our primary expertise is the aggressive pursuit of litigation claims on behalf of our clients. In addition to representing institutions and other investor plaintiffs in class action security litigation, the firm's expertise includes general corporate and commercial litigation, as well as securities arbitration. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

Contact:

Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC

Peretz Bronstein or Yael Hurwitz

212-697-6484 | [email protected]

SOURCE Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC

Related Links

http://www.bgandg.com


NEW YORK, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of DryShips Inc. ("DryShips" or the "Company") (NYSE: DRYS). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether DryShips 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 July 13, 2017, The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled "A Shipping Company's Bizarre Stock Maneuvers Create High Seas Intrigue". The article described a series of transactions in which DryShips "repeatedly printed huge numbers of new shares and sold them to" Kalani Investments Ltd. ("Kalani"), a British Virgin Islands firm. Kalani, meanwhile, "appears to have earned tens of millions by immediately selling the stock, which it purchased at a discount to the stock market price." Citing legal experts, the article reported that the transactions, in which Kalani purchased DryShips stock with the apparent intent to resell, likely constituted a public offering with Kalani acting as the underwriter, and that Kalani's failure to duly register as an underwriter with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would constitute a violation of the federal securities laws. Since November 2016, DryShips' share price has fallen approximately 99.9%.

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


CHICAGO, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SPINS, the only source for consumer insights; digital applications for brands, consumers, and retailers; cross-channel retail analytics; health & wellness expertise; and industry-leading consulting services, announces Thomas Nielsen as strategic advisor to its growing portfolio of consumer insights, loyalty, and personalization offerings to retailers.

Nielsen brings 25 years of experience and leadership in the fields of technology and operations, spanning business development, engineering, and product management across a wide range of digital media, in-store, and e-commerce retail solutions. Most recently, Nielsen served as chief digital officer with Tesco, the U.K.'s largest multi-channel retailer with 40B in revenue, where he managed a digital portfolio of platforms, websites, and apps, including Clubcard, Tesco's loyalty program of 16 million active members. Nielsen was also responsible for Tesco's data-driven customer and marketing activities across digital and traditional channels. Nielsen also oversaw Tesco's transformation of dunnhumby's data analytics and loyalty arm. Prior to Tesco, Mr. Nielsen held executive positions at Brightcove, RealNetworks, Adobe, and Microsoft.

"SPINS' assets, including their Product Library and wellness expertise, enable brands and retailers to develop customer activations programs that are personalized and highly relevant," said Nielsen. "What comes next will change the way retailers do business, and our team is ready to propel this evolution and growth to new levels."

"We're assembling a powerful team of thought leaders to enable retailers to adapt, evolve, and thrive in today's changing retail landscape," said SPINS CEO, Tony Olson. "Bringing Thomas Nielsen on board is another formidable investment in the future of our participating retail partners."

About SPINS

SPINS is a passionate advocate of brands and retailers that promote healthy living. As the leading provider of retail consumer insights, analytics reporting, and consulting services for the Natural, Organic, and Specialty Products Industry, its business offerings are helping retailers in this high growth area to connect people with the brands that they need and love. Learn more at www.spins.com.

SOURCE SPINS

Related Links

http://www.spins.com


Queen Latifah on paving the way for others in Hollywood :

"It's people like Jada's husband Will (Smith) who helped us every step of the way, so it wasn't just us When Will got in, he helped me get in; I'm going to help somebody else get in. It's not about keeping it all to yourself, it's about passing it on and keeping that door open."

"It's people like Jada's husband who helped us every step of the way, so it wasn't just us When Will got in, he helped me get in; I'm going to help somebody else get in. It's not about keeping it all to yourself, it's about passing it on and keeping that door open." Pinkett Smith on Black (Acting) talent:

"This year for some reason it's really been illuminated that given the opportunity we can produce!"

Gordon profiles Super Bowl champion-turned broadcaster Michael Strahan and the very busy television talent discusses his life, the challenges of becoming famous and gossip-page fare and more. Gordon interviews Strahan on the set of GMA.

Strahan on being a role model:

"When you see someone of color excelling at something or given an opportunity, people are very embracing of that. I understand what I represent and every day I do my best. I try to be the guy, when I walk in the room everybody is happy I am there and not happy when I am gone."

Power's Omari Hardwick talks with Gordon about the hit series, the relationship with his wife and how he has handled fame in the social media era.

Hardwick on considering giving up acting when he was young:

"There was that moment when I decided to ask Mom and Pops what they thought about that. They collectively put together about twenty-five hundred dollars and said 'You ain't going nowhere. You didn't go that far to come back home, not when you got all that talent.'"

Gordon also sits with Cedric the Entertainer and D.L. Hughley who, among other things, discuss the state of comedy in the age of President Donald Trump and the pros and cons of utilizing material based on the activities of the current administration.

Cedric the Entertainer on being funny during the Trump Administration:

"That's the part that is frustrating, that you can't always find humor in it. You do have to take it on stage, you do have to find moments in there that you can turn it into a joke, but on a daily basis, the dude is a liar, the dude is a liar. When is that funny someone who just lies to you all the time?"

"That's the part that is frustrating, that you can't always find humor in it. You do have to take it on stage, you do have to find moments in there that you can turn it into a joke, but on a daily basis, the dude is a liar, the dude is a liar. When is that funny someone who just lies to you all the time?" D.L. Hughley on the difference between White and Black people being funny:

"I think our funny is more melancholy and painful and angry. It's much like the skill set when slaves used to pick fun at the masters and they didn't know it. It's a skill, it's something you learn. You learn how to stab at authority."

Award-winning journalist Gordon serves as executive producer and host of the Bounce original series Ed Gordon, sitting down for revealing interviews with top headline makers, entertainers and pop cultural figures. Ed Gordon also includes investigative pieces, celebrity profiles, current event segments and human-interest feature stories.

Gordon has been a contributing correspondent for 60 Minutes II, The Today Show and Dateline NBC, the host of "News and Notes with Ed Gordon" on NPR, anchorman for BET and is a weekly contributor to the national Steve Harvey Radio Show. He is also the recipient of an NAACP Image Award, as well as the prestigious Journalist of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists.

Bounce is the fastest-growing African-American network on television and airs on the broadcast signals of local television stations and corresponding cable carriage. The network is available in more than 95 million homes across the United States and 93% of all African-American television homes, including all the top AA television markets.

SOURCE Bounce

Related Links

http://www.bouncetv.com


The Lone Bellow will hit the road in support of their new album beginning September 21st with Central Park's Summerstage supporting The Head and The Heart. Highlights include a performance at Toronto's Opera House, Chicago's Thalia Hall and Washington DC's 9:30 Club. All November tour dates will be supported by The Wild Reeds.

It's been three years since the band's victorious, Then Came The Morning was released. The album was produced by The National's Aaron Dessner and nominated for an Americana Music Award. The Lone Bellow appeared on Kimmel, Letterman, Conan, CBS This Morning, Later...with Jools Holland and James Corden in support of the album. In the years since the release the band left their beloved adopted home of Brooklyn and moved to Nashville, TN.

Additional tour dates will be announced soon!

WALK INTO A STORM

TRACK LISTING:

1. Deeper In The Water

2. Is It Ever Gonna Be Easy

3. May You Be Well

4. Come Break My Heart Again

5. Feather

6. Walk Into A Storm

7. Time's Always Leaving

8. Can't Be Happy For Long

9. Between The Lines

10. Long Way To Go

TOUR:

Sept 21 - Central Park Summerstage - New York, NY#

Sept 29 - The Orange Peel - Asheville, NC

Sept 30 - Riverfront Park Concert Series - Lynchburg, VA

Oct 01 - Beachland Ballroom - Cleveland, OH

Oct 02 - Opera House - Toronto, ONT

Oct 03 - El Club - Detroit, MI

Oct 05 - Lincoln Theatre - Columbus, OH

Oct 06 - Dave Finkelman Auditorium - Middleton, OH

Oct 07 - Headliners Music Hall - Louisville, KY

Oct 08 - Deluxe at Old National Center - Indianapolis, IN

Oct 10 - Thalia Hall - Chicago, IL

Oct 13 - Majestic Theatre - Madison, WI

Oct 14 - The Englert Theatre - Iowa City, IA

Oct 15 - Fine Line Music Cafe - Minneapolis, MN

Nov 01 - Bijou Theater - Knoxville, TN*

Nov 02 - Variety Playhouse - Atlanta, GA*

Nov 05 - Iron City Birmingham - Birmingham, AL*

Nov 06 - Charleston Music Hall - Charleston, SC*

Nov 07 - Neighborhood Theatre - Charlotte, NC*

Nov 09 - Haw River Ballroom - Saxapahaw, NC*

Nov 10 - 9:30 Club - Washington D.C.*

Nov 12 - Infinity Hall Hartford - Hartford, CT*

Nov 14 - State Theatre - Portland, ME*

Nov 15 - House of Blues - Boston, MA*

Nov 16 - Higher Ground - South Burlington, VT*

Nov 17 - Union Transfer - Philadelphia, PA*



#Supporting The Head And The Heart

*w/ The Wild Reeds

Grandstand Media & Management:

Meghan Helsel / [email protected]

Kate Jackson / [email protected]

Sony Music Masterworks:

Angela Barkan / [email protected]

Larissa Slezak / [email protected]

www.thelonebellow.com

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Youtube

SOURCE Descendant Records/Sony Music Masterworks
CHICAGO, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Parking Spot, the nation's largest owner and operator of near-airport parking properties, is proud to announce its partnership and integration with expense management providers Certify and Expensify.

This new expense tracking feature helps The Parking Spot's thousands of daily business travelers save time by eliminating the need to search for and upload airport parking receipts. Travelers now have the option to connect their Spot Club account directly to Certify or Expensify, and a copy of their receipt will be sent automatically to their expense tracking account for reimbursement. Both Expensify and Certify integrations are available today in Spot Clubmembers' profiles under Account Settings on The Parking Spot's website.

"Partnering with Certify and Expensify was a no-brainer because they make travel so much easier and more convenient for our guests," says Kevin Shrier, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Parking Spot. "Completing expense reports can be time consuming, but we can help our guests save time and skip the mundane process so they can focus on what truly matters to them."

"A partnership with The Parking Spot will allow us to give our customers even more options for making travel and expense tracking easy," says Bob Neveu, Chief Executive Officer of Certify. "The business travel industry is projected to grow to a $1.6 trillion business by 2020. By finding ways to simplify expense reports, Certify is committing to partnerships, like with The Parking Spot, that will ease travel for our customers."

"At our core, Expensify is simplifying the expense reporting process through automation," says David Barrett, CEO and founder of Expensify. "Our integration with the Spot Club means that users will no longer have to waste time manually capturing expenses on the go. Instead, they can focus on their job, knowing that their expense reports are being handled for them automatically by Expensify and The Parking Spot."

For more information on these expense management provider partnerships or to sign up for a corporate account, please visit The Parking Spot's website.

About Certify

Certify is the leading online travel and expense management solution for companies of all sizes. Organizations worldwide book travel and complete expense reports quickly, easily and cost-effectively using Certify cloud and mobile applications. For more information about Certify, please call 207.773.6100 or visit www.certify.com.

About Expensify

Founded in 2008, Expensify has quickly become the innovation leader in automated receipt and expense management with an easy-to-use mobile and web app. With intelligent expense reporting processes and standout features such as SmartScan OCR technology, company card management and integrations with all major accounting software, Expensify now serves over 4.5 million users globally. Headquartered in San Francisco, Expensify continues to expand-ify with offices from London to Melbourne, working around the clock to keep customers smiling.

About The Parking Spot

As the nation's largest near-airport parking company, with 38 convenient locations at 21 major U.S. airports, The Parking Spot makes airport travel simple and seamless. Our friendly, courteous team members, outstanding value, unmatched customer service commitment and industry-leading Spot Club loyalty program combine to ensure that The Parking Spot is the best part of our guests' travel experience. For more information, please visit www.theParkingSpot.com or follow The Parking Spot on Twitter @theparkingspot and on Facebook.

Contact:

Tara Parsell

Geben Communication

[email protected]

SOURCE The Parking Spot
MOORE, Okla., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Moore, Oklahoma, is a desirable place to live. The top-rated schools, convenient location, and quality of life contribute to the city's appeal. Soon, people who want to experience life in Moore will have the option of becoming part of a new and highly anticipated community. Homes By Taber is beginning the first phase of The Waters, a master-planned community that will include 107 homes in Phase 1.

The Oklahoma City builder is launching The Waters with a VIP event on Saturday, July 29 from 10:00-1:00. Interested homebuyers who attend will get first choice of the homesites and become a founding member of an exciting community. Homes By Taber is also offering a discounted price and builder incentives, exclusively during the presale event, which will provide instant equity to the founding community members.

The Waters features two ponds, a playground, and walking trails. Homes By Taber is offering 22 different home designs, ranging from 1,500 square feet to 2,800, and priced from $208,990. Every Taber home includes an air filtration system, storm shelter in the garage, and outdoor wood-burning fireplace. Homes By Taber includes many standards with homes over 1,800 square feet that are considered "upgrades" by other builders. These features include a storm shelter, granite countertops and under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen, a filtration system, walk-in shower and jetted tub in the master bath, and crown molding in the entry, living room, dining room, and kitchen. A tankless water heater, ceiling fans in every living space, interior gas fireplace, full sprinkler system, 30-year roof, and stainless steel appliances are just a few of the included features at no extra cost in these homes.

"When I started this company, it was with the intention of giving people more than the minimum. I want them to feel like we are investing in their future by including features like a storm shelter, which I personally think should be required in every Oklahoma home," explains Taber LeBlanc, who started the company in 2000. Since that time, the population of Moore has increased 44 percent, creating a need for new homes.

The Waters is situated along North Eastern Avenue, near the intersection with Southeast 94th Street. The community is served by Bryant Elementary School, Central Junior High School, and Moore High School, which earned a "9" (out of 10) rating on GreatSchools.org.

The VIP event at The Waters will take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 29 and is first come first serve.

For more information on Homes By Taber, contact Lindsay Haltom at (405) 509-0670 or visit www.homesbytaber.com.

Related Files

Press Release Homes By Taber-The_Waters_pr_7.12.17.docx

SOURCE Homes By Taber

Related Links

http://www.homesbytaber.com


CALGARY, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - TransAlta Corporation ("TransAlta" or the "Company") (TSX: TA; NYSE: TAC) is pleased to announce that its Board of Directors has appointed the Honourable Rona Ambrose to its Board of Directors effective July 13, 2017.

"On behalf of our Board, it is my pleasure to welcome Rona," said Ambassador Gordon Giffin, Chair of the Board. "We believe that Rona's extensive public policy experience and demonstrated ability to bring people of divergent views together for a common purpose will strengthen our Board. Her experience, along with her Alberta roots, will also help further our strategy of becoming Canada's leading clean power company through good governance, operational excellence, and growth."

The Honourable Rona Ambrose was the former Leader of Canada's Official Opposition in the House of Commons and former leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. She also acted as Minister of the Crown across nine government departments, including serving as Vice Chair of the Treasury Board and Chair of the cabinet committee for public safety, justice and aboriginal issues.

In addition to serving as an independent director, the Honourable Rona Ambrose is a Global Fellow at the Wilson Centre Canada Institute in Washington D.C. focusing on key Canada-U.S. bilateral trade and competitiveness issues.

TransAlta looks forward to the contributions of the Honourable Rona Ambrose to its Board of Directors.

About TransAlta Corporation:

TransAlta is a power generation and wholesale marketing company focused on creating long-term shareholder value. TransAlta maintains a low-to-moderate risk profile by operating a highly contracted portfolio of assets in Canada, the United States and Australia. TransAlta's focus is to efficiently operate wind, hydro, solar, natural gas and coal facilities in order to provide customers with a reliable, low-cost source of power. For over 100 years, TransAlta has been a responsible operator and a proud contributor to the communities in which it works and lives. TransAlta has been recognized on CDP's Canadian Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI), which includes Canada's top 20 leading companies reporting on climate change, and has been selected by Corporate Knights as one of Canada's Top 50 Best Corporate Citizens and is recognized globally for its leadership on sustainability and corporate responsibility standards by FTSE4Good.

For more information about TransAlta, visit our web site at transalta.com, or follow us on Twitter @TransAlta.

SOURCE TransAlta Corporation

Related Links

http://www.transalta.com


SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Technical Institute (NYSE: UTI) has inked a partnership with Mitsubishi Materials U.S.A. Corporation, global leader in manufacturing and materials innovation. Mitsubishi Materials will provide tools and products for students enrolled in UTI's new Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Machining Technology program.

Developed in partnership with industry leader Roush Yates Engines, the new course will be offered at UTI's NASCAR Tech campus in Mooresville N.C. The machining and CNC training will give students the skills to start careers as entry-level CNC technicians. These highly skilled technicians are in demand and use sophisticated computer programming to make high-precision parts for multiple industries, including motorsports, aviation, advanced and medical manufacturing.

"The need for CNC technicians has never been greater, and UTI's new CNC program will play an instrumental role in meeting that demand," said Mike Pace, Executive Director of Marketing, Engineering and Business Development for Mitsubishi Materials U.S.A. "Not only will students benefit from a state-of-the-art curriculum that aligns with the highest industry standards, they'll have the advantage of training with an extensive range of superior products at their fingertips. We're proud to be part of the program and to help develop tomorrow's CNC technicians."

The official launch of the CNC Machining Technology program will be celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday, July 26, at the NASCAR Tech campus. Classes begin Monday, August 14.

"We are thrilled to welcome Mitsubishi Materials to the UTI and NASCAR Tech team," said John Dodson, VP of Business Alliances & NASCAR for UTI. "Having Mitsubishi Materials as an industry partner and preferred vendor will give our students access to some of the most innovative tools and technologies in the world, and our graduates will have a leg up to pursue careers in the sought-after field of CNC machining."

About Mitsubishi Materials U.S.A (MMUS): Established in 1984, principally for the sale and distribution of Carbide Cutting tools in North America, Mitsubishi Materials U.S.A. Corporation (MMUS), formerly known as FABMET, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (MMC). MMUS sells Mitsubishi Materials carbide cutting tools through a number of sales channels in the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico. Offices are located in Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, and Queretaro, Mexico, and manufacturing in Brighton, Michigan. MMUS has created a world-class sales and service organization to meet the needs of customers all over North America. MMC also produces a comprehensive range of cemented carbide tools (Advanced Materials and Tools Company), heat and corrosion resistant alloys, sintered machine parts, precision molding dies, casting products, and aluminum cans. These products are vital elements in the use and production of automobiles, electronic parts, machine tools, consumer electronic equipment, and plant and home construction.

About Universal Technical Institute, Inc.: Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE: UTI) is the leading provider of postsecondary education for students seeking careers as professional automotive, diesel, collision repair, motorcycle and marine technicians. With more than 200,000 graduates in its 52-year history, UTI offers undergraduate degree and diploma programs at 12 campus locations across the United States, as well as manufacturer-specific training programs at dedicated training centers. Through its campus-based school system, UTI provides specialized post-secondary education programs under the banner of several well-known brands, including Universal Technical Institute (UTI), Motorcycle Mechanics Institute and Marine Mechanics Institute (MMI) and NASCAR Technical Institute (NASCAR Tech).

For more information, visit www.uti.edu. Like UTI on www.facebook.com/UTI or follow UTI on Twitter @UTITweet, @MMITweet, and @NASCARTechUTI.

About NASCAR Technical Institute: NASCAR Technical Institute, the exclusive educational partner of NASCAR, is one of 12 campuses operating under parent company Universal Technical Institute (UTI), a nationwide provider of technical education training for students seeking careers as professional automotive, motorsports, diesel, collision repair, motorcycle and marine technicians. NASCAR Tech is the country's only technical training school to combine a complete automotive technology curriculum and a NASCAR-approved technologies curriculum into a single program. Students learn the basics of engine construction, lubrication systems, chassis fabrication, dyno testing, racing theory principles, NASCAR rules and regulations, as well as the teamwork needed in today's automotive and motorsports industries. Follow NASCAR Tech on Twitter at @NASCARTechUTI.

Media Contact:

Jody Kent

Universal Technical Institute, Inc.

(623) 445-0872

[email protected]

SOURCE Universal Technical Institute, Inc.

Related Links

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LONDON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- "The rising number of deep-water offshore oil & gas production activities is a key factor expected to drive the demand for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), globally"

The unmanned underwater vehicle market is expected to grow from an estimated USD 2.69 billion in 2017 to USD 5.20 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 14.07% from 2017 to 2022. The growth of the market can be attributed to the rising number of deep-water offshore oil & gas production activities and increasing maritime security threats.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5001209/

"The commercial exploration segment of the of the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) market is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period"

Based on application, the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) market has been segmented into commercial exploration, defense, scientific research, and miscellaneous. The commercial exploration segment of the market is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period. ROVs are used for several commercial applications, such as survey and seabed mapping, offshore drilling, pipelining, cabling, and inspection several others.



"North America is estimated to be the largest market for unmanned underwater vehicles in 2017"

North America is estimated to be the largest market for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) in 2017. The US is the largest developer, operator, exporter, and consumer of UUVs, globally, which is expected to support the growth of the market in North America.



Break-up of profile of primary participants for the unmanned underwater vehicle market



 By Company Type: Tier 1  35%, Tier 2  45%, and Tier 3  20%

 By Designation: C level  35%, Director level  25%, Others  40%

 By Region: North America  45%, Europe  20%, Asia Pacific  30%, RoW  5%



major companies profiled in the report include Teledyne Technologies (US), Subsea 7 (UK), Kongsberg Maritime (Norway), and Oceaneering International Inc. (US).

Research Coverage:

This research report categorizes the unmanned underwater vehicle market based on type (remotely piloted vehicle (ROV) and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) ), ROV product type (small vehicles, high-capacity electric vehicles, work class vehicles, and heavy work class vehicles), AUV product type (man-portable vehicles, lightweight vehicles, heavyweight vehicles. and large vehicles), application (commercial exploration, defense, scientific research, and miscellaneous), propulsion (electric systems, mechanical systems, hybrid systems, and others), payload (sensors, lasers, camera, radars, and others) and maps these segments and sub-segments across the major regions of the world, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

Reasons to buy this report:

From an insight perspective, this research report focuses on various levels of analyses  industry analysis (industry trends), market share analysis of top players, company profiles, emerging and high-growth segments of the market, high-growth regions, and market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges.

The report provides insights on the following pointers:

 Market Penetration: Comprehensive information on UUVs offered by the top 10 players in the global unmanned underwater vehicle market



 Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on upcoming technologies, research & development activities, and new product launches in the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) market



 Market Development: Comprehensive information about lucrative emerging markets - the report analyses the markets for unmanned underwater vehicle across regions



 Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the unmanned underwater vehicle market



 Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players in the unmanned underwater vehicle market

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5001209/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com

For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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LONDON, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

US federal prosecutors have dropped all charges filed over five years ago against Calvin Ayre and the Bodog online gambling business.

In February 2012, the US Attorney for the District of Maryland indicted Bodog, Calvin Ayre and three other individuals on charges of illegal gambling and money laundering conspiracy. The indictment accused Bodog of offering gambling services to US customers between June 2006 and January 2012.

According to the Department of Justice, Bodog and the charged individuals were responsible for more than $100m in gambling proceeds being transmitted to customers in the United States.

Today (July 14th 2017) Chief Judge Catherine Blake of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland accepted a resolution that dismissed all of the felony charges against Calvin Ayre and Bodog. All of the charges against the other individuals were dismissed separately a short time ago.

In a statement to his gaming industry news portal CalvinAyre.com, Ayre dismissed suggestions that the settlement would result in major changes to his current lifestyle, saying he planned to carry on his role as an online gaming industry analyst, tech investor and philanthropist. "But most importantly, I'm just going to continue enjoying life to the fullest." 

Full article: https://calvinayre.com/2017/07/14/business/charges-dropped-calvin-ayre-bodog-friends

SOURCE Bodog Brand
LONDON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- "Growing penetration of smart factory fueling growth of vibration monitoring market"

The vibration monitoring market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.5% between 2017 and 2023 to reach USD 1.85 billion by 2023, from USD 1.19 billion in 2016.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5001214/

The demand for vibration monitoring solutions increases with the growing adoption of the smart factory to increase the efficiency and productivity of industries. However, additional cost incurred for retrofitting vibration monitoring solutions on existing machinery, and the need for education and training may act as major factors limiting the growth of the vibration monitoring market.



"Growth of vibration monitoring market expected to be driven by oil and gas industry during forecast period"

The oil and gas industry is expected to hold a significant share of the vibration monitoring market during the forecast period. The oil and gas industry uses extremely complex and expensive equipment such as boilers, pumps, generators, and piping network for their operations; these equipment consume a lot of power and generate an equally large amount of heat. Even a minor fault in the equipment may lead to an increase in power consumption and process downtime or trigger the release of powerful gases, leading to an explosion. Thus, vibration monitoring systems are in high demand in the oil and gas industry. Besides oil and gas, other industries that hold a major share in the vibration monitoring market are energy and power, metals and mining, and chemicals, among others.

"Vibration monitoring market in APAC to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period"

The market for vibration monitoring in APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR between 2017 and 2023. Rapid industrialization, growing adoption of predictive maintenance tools, and competitive pressure to achieve operational efficiency are fueling the growth of the vibration monitoring market in APAC.



The expansion of manufacturing activities as a result of the migration of production bases to Asian countries with low labor costs, such as China, India, and South Korea, is driving the demand for vibration monitoring systems in the region.



In the process of determining and verifying the market size for several segments and subsegments gathered through secondary research, extensive primary interviews have been conducted with key officials in the vibration monitoring market. Following is the breakup of the primary participants for the report:



 By Company Type: Tier 1 = 50 %, Tier 2 = 30%, and Tier 3 = 20%

 By Designation: C-Level Executives = 60%, Directors = 25%, and Others = 15%

 By Region: North America = 35%, Europe = 25%, APAC = 30%, and RoW = 10%



Moreover, the report profiles the key players in the vibration monitoring market and analyzes their market ranking. The prominent players profiled in this report are SKF AB (Sweden), Emerson Electric Co. (US), General Electric (US), Meggitt PLC (UK), National Instruments Corp. US), Rockwell Automation, Inc. (US), Honeywell International Inc. (US), Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG (Germany), Bruel & Kiaer Sound & Vibration Measurement A/S (Denmark), and Analog Devices Inc.(US), among others.





Research Coverage:

This research report categorizes the vibration monitoring market on the basis of offering, monitoring process, system type, industry, and geography. Moreover, the report provides a description of the major drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities pertaining to this market, as well as the value chain analysis and market ranking analysis.



Reasons to Buy the Report

The report would help the leaders/new entrants in the vibration monitoring market in the following ways:

1. The report segments the vibration monitoring market comprehensively and provides the closest market size estimation for all subsegments across different regions.

2. The report helps stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provides them with the information on key drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities for the vibration monitoring market.

3. The report would help stakeholders understand their competitors better and gain insights to improve their position in the vibration monitoring market. The competitive landscape section describes the competitor ecosystem.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5001214/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com

For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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BOSTON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Vice Cream today unveiled its first national advertising campaign with a video entitled "Vice Cream: Call the Vice Line," encouraging consumers to take an unapologetic approach to eating real ice cream. In anticipation of National Ice Cream Day on Sunday, July 16, 2017, Vice Cream is giving everyone in America a "little sample" of their premium ice cream.

"Vice Cream: Call the Vice Line," a long-form, two-minute online video that features an empowered, millennial female lead eating Vice Cream and talking about the brand in an unexpected and entertaining way, makes no apologies for the decadent flavor combinations and ingredients in Vice Cream's eight flavors of premium, real ice cream. The ad ends with the Vice Cream Call Center where live "virtual tasters" field calls from customers who call 1-833-VICE-CREAM, seductively giving each caller a "taste" of Vice Cream by describing the flavors. Both the Vice Cream Call Center phone line and the video campaign kick off today  Thursday, July 13.

"We hope this virtual sample for everyone in America gets the young, and the young at heart, excited about our brand and puts a smile on their face," said Dan Schorr, founder and CIO (Chief Ice Cream Officer) of Vice Cream.

"We were getting tired of seeing so-called ice cream companies boasting about high-protein, low-fat and dairy-free ice cream. You have to Live Life. We take great pride in being the most decadent ice cream company out there," added Schorr.

The launch of the campaign marks a pivotal point in Vice Cream's growth as it continues to expand from a Boston-based, edgy brand to a national brand with a cult following. Vice Cream tapped HellHorse  a recently-launched micro agency founded by Jude Senese and Lawson Clarke  to create the video. Station Film is the production company and Brendan Gibbons is the director.

Vice Cream is expanding rapidly across the country and is currently available by the pint in grocery stores throughout the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and South. It produces eight super premium flavors, including Choc of Shame, Breakfast in Bed, Higher Grounds, Bourbon Mash, Afternoon Delight and recently launched Toffee Wife, Minted, and L'Orange A Trois.

To view the "Vice Cream: Call the Vice Line" video, please visit www.eatvicecream.com.

About Vice Cream

Vice Cream is all about unapologetic indulgence with their eight super premium flavors and tagline "Live Life, Dig In." When Vice Cream Founder Dan Schorr was in college, he paid for school by driving a Good Humor ice cream truck during the summer. Years later in 2015, life threw Dan a curveball when doctors told him he had cancer. After undergoing treatment that included chemotherapy at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Dan beat the disease and made a decision to not just live life, but indulge in it, which led him to create Vice Cream in Boston. To Dan, ice cream is, and always should be, about unapologetic indulgence.

Find Vice Cream at Ahold, Key Foods, Food Emporium, Shop Rite, Shaw's, Roche Brothers, Star Market, Stop & Shop, Big Y and Dave's Marketplace in the Northeast. In the mid-Atlantic and South, you can find it at Harris Teeter stores. For more information, please visit www.eatvicecream.com, follow them on Twitter or Instagram @eatvicecream, or find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EatViceCream.

Dominic Amenta | DPA Communications

[email protected] | 781.789.5074

SOURCE Vice Cream
NEW YORK, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Vitech, a leading provider of software to insurance, retirement and investment organizations, announced today that V3 Connect 2018 will be held June 6-8, 2018 at the Four Seasons Resort in Orlando, Florida.

V3 Connect is a premier thought leadership and technology event for the V3 user community and related industry participants, designed to help V3 organizations maximize the impact of their investment in V3 and other technology. It offers attendees a valuable opportunity to learn about the latest V3 capabilities, examine industry trends, explore new ideas and best practices, and network with industry peers.

"We are excited to announce our upcoming V3 Connect conference," said Frank Vitiello, Vitech's CEO. "The pace of transformation and change taking place across the industries we serve, combined with the unveiling of new V3 and V3 Cloud capabilities, make this a V3 Connect conference not to be missed."

The conference will offer keynote presentations, business and technology sessions, a hands-on learning lab, roundtable discussions, and an array of network opportunities and social events.

V3 is a scalable, configurable, administration software that addresses the complex needs of insurance, retirement, and investment organizations. It is an award winning, contemporary technology solution available for on-premise or cloud-based deployments.

About Vitech

Vitech Systems Group, Inc. is a leading provider of administration software to insurance, retirement and investment organizations. Vitech provides its clients with proprietary enterprise software, related implementation services and ongoing support, and offers a cloud-based application hosting option. For more information, please visit http://www.vitechinc.com.

SOURCE Vitech Systems Group, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.vitechinc.com


SALT LAKE CITY, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Western Governors University (WGU) will recognize more than 10,000 graduates at the university's 33rd semi-annual commencement ceremony on July 15 at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City. The ceremony, which will be streamed live online will begin at 9:45 a.m., MDT. While all WGU graduates earned their degrees online, more than 1,000 bachelor's and master's degree graduates from 47 states and the District of Columbia, along with nearly 8,000 family members, friends, faculty, and staff, will attend commencement in person.

Clayton M. Christensen, the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and Founder of The Christensen Institute, will deliver the commencement address. In addition, two recent graduates will share their stories: Kristen Gibson, MBA from Oakland Park, Florida; and Erin Bishop, B.A. Special Education (K-12) and M.Ed. Instructional Design from South Weber, Utah.

During Saturday's ceremony, WGU will recognize 6,348 undergraduate and 4,140 graduate degrees in business, K12 teacher education, information technology, and health professions, including nursing. For graduates, faculty, and staff who are unable attend the ceremony in person, the entire program will be broadcast live via streaming video at www.wgu.edu/wgu/commencement_summer2017.

Since WGU's founding in 1997, the online, competency-based university has awarded more than 87,000 degrees; 20,000 of them in just the past year. Designed to meet the needs of working adults, WGU's competency-based learning model makes it possible for students to fit studying into their busy lives. Students complete courses as soon as they demonstrate that they have mastered the subject matter, enabling them to move quickly through material they already know and spend more time on focusing on what they still need to learn. As a result, many students are able to accelerate their studies, finishing faster and saving moneythe average time to complete a bachelor's degree is about two and half years.

About WGU

Established in 1997 by 19 U.S. governors with a mission to expand access to high-quality, affordable higher education, online, nonprofit WGU now serves 82,000 students and 87,000 graduates in all 50 states. Driving innovation as the nation's leading competency-based university, WGU has been recognized by the White House, state leaders, employers, and students as a model that works in postsecondary education. In just 20 years, the university has become a leading force in changing lives of through education. WGU is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, has been featured on NPR, NBC Nightly News, CNN, and in The New York Times. Learn more at www.wgu.edu.

Follow WGU:

http://www.facebook.com/wgu.edu

http://www.linkedin.com/companies/western-governors-university

http://twitter.com/wgu

http://www.youtube.com/WesternGovernorsUniv

http://google.com/+wgu

http://news.wgu.edu/news/news.xml

Contact for media inquiries:

Joan Mitchell  VP of Public Relations

801-428-5463

[email protected]

Contact for enrollment information:

866-225-5948

wgu.edu

SOURCE Western Governors University

Related Links

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NEW YORK, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Rising focus to minimize environmental impact in the power generation industry, has fueled the wind energy market. Exponential rise in wind turbine installation across the globe, especially in Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America is expected to have a positive impact on the industry over the forecast period.

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04998537/Wind-Turbine-Operations-and-Maintenance-Market-Analysis-By-Application-Onshore-and-Offshore-By-Region-North-America-Europe-Asia-Pacific-Latin-America-MEA-And-Segment-Forecasts.html

Various components such as blades, gearbox, rotors, generator, yaw, and hydraulic pumps are susceptible to failure and require regular condition monitoring to avoid breakdown. Effective maintenance at regular interval helps to decrease failure rate and thus increases the operational efficiency by reducing downtime. Focus to establish cost effective operations & maintenance is expected to fuel industry growth over the next none years.

Onshore accounted for the largest share of the global market in 2016 and this trend is expected to continue over the forecast period. However, offshore installation is estimated to increase at an unmatched rate, owing to favorable governmental initiatives in China, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, and South Korea. This in turn, is predicted to drive the offshore market segment over the next nine years.

Europe held the largest share in 2016, owing to significant installation in countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden. Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a promising rate over the forecast period. The region is estimated to dominate the global market in 2025. Latin America and Middle East & Africa are predicted to create lucrative opportunities over the forecast period.

Further key findings from the report suggest:

The global wind turbine operations & maintenance market was valued at USD 8.08 billion in 2016 and is expected to witness rapid growth from 2017 to 2025 owing to increasing capacity installation across the globe

in 2016 and is expected to witness rapid growth from 2017 to 2025 owing to increasing capacity installation across the globe Supportive policies to boost the renewable energy sector was one of the key drivers for market growth over the past few years

Global annual installed capacity increased from 39.06 GW in 2010 to 54.60 GW in 2016. China , the U.S., Germany , India , Brazil , France , Turkey , and the Netherlands were the major contributors for the growth in annual installation.

, the U.S., , , , , , and were the major contributors for the growth in annual installation. Onshore wind turbine operations & maintenance market held an unassailable share of the overall industry revenues and is estimated to reach over USD 18 billion by 2025

by 2025 Offshore application segment of the market is expected to rise at a growth rate of 15.2% from 2017 to 2025, owing to the increasing demand as a result of higher energy output

Asia Pacific is projected to witness significant growth over the forecast period and surpass Europe in terms of market share of the global market by 2025, owing to increasing capacity installations and rising demand from the rapidly-growing population

is projected to witness significant growth over the forecast period and surpass in terms of market share of the global market by 2025, owing to increasing capacity installations and rising demand from the rapidly-growing population Latin America and Middle East & Africa are projected to experience exceptional growth over the forecast period, owing to robust increase in capacity installations

and & are projected to experience exceptional growth over the forecast period, owing to robust increase in capacity installations Key players include Siemens Wind Power GmbH, Suzlon Group, GE Wind Turbine, Enercon GmbH, and Gamesa Corporation. The companies are focusing on extending their services in remote location through implementation of advanced technology

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04998537/Wind-Turbine-Operations-and-Maintenance-Market-Analysis-By-Application-Onshore-and-Offshore-By-Region-North-America-Europe-Asia-Pacific-Latin-America-MEA-And-Segment-Forecasts.html

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ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

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Contact Clare: [email protected]

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HOUSTON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas trial and appellate firm Wright & Close LLP secured a major victory when a Texas appellate court overturned a $43.5 million jury verdict and clarified what evidence and intent are required to allow a worker injured on the job to be exempted from the Texas Workers' Compensation Act.

The Texas 14th Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that a company supervisor who ordered workers to push hard to free an auger could not have specifically known that pieces of the machinery would break away and fall behind a barricade to injure worker Tyler Lee, whose crushed leg had to be amputated above the knee. The court reversed and rendered the Brazoria County jury verdict and trial court judgment.

Firm partners Thomas C. Wright and Jessica Zavadil Barger represented Berkel & Company Contractors, Inc., in the appeal.

"In its very thorough opinion, the appellate court found that 'intentional injury' requires an intent to injure a particular person or a small class of people, not just a general knowledge that an activity is dangerous. Many plaintiffs attempt this way around the Workers' Compensation Act, and this case should bring some clarity to the law," said Mr. Wright.

The court found that a defendant has to be substantially certain a worker could be injured in a specific way for the parameters of the act to be surpassed. Recovery for injuries beyond the Workers' Compensation Act is not permitted if the actor simply knowingly permits a hazardous work condition, orders performance of an extremely dangerous job, or even willfully violates a safety statute, according to the opinion.

The case is Berkel & Company Contractors, Inc., v. Tyler Lee and Leigh Anne Lee, No. 14-15-00787-CV.

Wright & Close LLP is a Houston-based civil trial and appellate firm handling complex trial and appeals work for clients across Texas. Our lawyers have a track record for achieving favorable resolutions in cases involving catastrophic personal injury, insurance coverage, intellectual property, oil and gas, product defects, commercial disputes, arbitration and mediation, and trade secrets, among others. We also assist with pretrial motions, special evidence problems, challenges to expert witnesses, and the critical work on the court's charge to the jury. To learn more, visit http://www.wrightclose.com/.

For more information about this important appellate win, please contact Mary Flood at [email protected] or 800.559.4534.

SOURCE Wright & Close LLP

Related Links

http://www.wrightclose.com


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Fedora Update Notification

FEDORA-2017-b674dc22ad

2017-07-13 13:55:12.014043

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Name : php

Product : Fedora 25

Version : 7.0.21

Release : 1.fc25

URL : http://www.php.net/

Summary : PHP scripting language for creating dynamic web sites

Description :

PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. PHP attempts to make it

easy for developers to write dynamically generated web pages. PHP also

offers built-in database integration for several commercial and

non-commercial database management systems, so writing a

database-enabled webpage with PHP is fairly simple. The most common

use of PHP coding is probably as a replacement for CGI scripts.



The php package contains the module (often referred to as mod_php)

which adds support for the PHP language to Apache HTTP Server.



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Update Information:



**PHP version 7.0.21** (06 Jul 2017) **Core:** * Fixed bug php#74738

(Multiple

[PATH=] and [HOST=] sections not properly parsed). (Manuel Mausz) * Fixed bug

php#74658 (Undefined constants in array properties result in broken

properties).

(Laruence) * Fixed misparsing of abstract unix domain socket names. (Sara) *

Fixed bug php#74101, bug php#74614 (Unserialize Heap Use-After-Free (READ: 1)

in

zval_get_type). (Nikita) * Fixed bug php#74111 (Heap buffer overread (READ: 1)

finish_nested_data from unserialize). (Nikita) * Fixed bug php#74603 (PHP INI

Parsing Stack Buffer Overflow Vulnerability). (Stas) * Fixed bug php#74819

(wddx_deserialize() heap out-of-bound read via php_parse_date()). (Derick)

**DOM:** * Fixed bug php#69373 (References to deleted XPath query results).

(ttoohey) **Intl:** * Fixed bug php#73473 (Stack Buffer Overflow in

msgfmt_parse_message). (libnex) * Fixed bug php#74705 (Wrong reflection on

Collator::getSortKey and collator_get_sort_key). (Tyson Andre, Remi) * Fixed

bug

php#73634 (grapheme_strpos illegal memory access). (Stas) **Mbstring:** * Add

oniguruma upstream fix (CVE-2017-9224, CVE-2017-9226, CVE-2017-9227,

CVE-2017-9228, CVE-2017-9229) (Remi, Mamoru TASAKA) **Opcache:** * Fixed bug

php#74663 (Segfault with opcache.memory_protect and validate_timestamp).

(Laruence) **OpenSSL:** * Fixed bug php#74651 (negative-size-param (-1) in

memcpy in zif_openssl_seal()). (Stas) **Reflection:** * Fixed bug php#74673

(Segfault when cast Reflection object to string with undefined constant).

(Laruence) **SPL:** * Fixed bug php#74478 (null coalescing operator failing

with SplFixedArray). (jhdxr) **Standard:** * Fixed bug php#74708 (Invalid

Reflection signatures for random_bytes and random_int). (Tyson Andre, Remi) *

Fixed bug php#73648 (Heap buffer overflow in substr). (Stas) **FTP:** * Fixed

bug php#74598 (ftp:// wrapper ignores context arg). (Sara) **PHAR:** * Fixed

bug php#74386 (Phar::__construct reflection incorrect). (villfa) **SOAP** *

Fixed bug php#74679 (Incorrect conversion array with WSDL_CACHE_MEMORY).

(Dmitry) **Streams:** * Fixed bug php#74556 (stream_socket_get_name() returns

'\0'). (Sara)

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This update can be installed with the "dnf" update program. Use

su -c 'dnf upgrade php' at the command line.

For more information, refer to the dnf documentation available at

http://dnf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/command_ref.html#upgrade-command-label



All packages are signed with the Fedora Project GPG key. More details on the

GPG keys used by the Fedora Project can be found at

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Mumbbai, July 11 : Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, who has been asked by the censor board to remove words like RSS and Akali from his film "Indu Sarkar", says he doesn't wish to make changes as he fears its essence will get affected.

Bhandarkar had screened the film on the 1975-77 Emergency for the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) committee on Monday. They suggested 12 cuts and two disclaimers, leaving the filmmaker appalled.

Asked about his next move, Bhandarkar told IANS: "I don't want to change anything since it will affect the essence of my film. We will go to the Revising Committee first. Hope it gets cleared there. If not, we will have no option but to go to the Tribunal."

They have also been asked to do away with dialogues such as "Bharat ki ek beti ne desh ko bandi banaya hua hai", "Aur tum log zindagi bhar maa-bete ki gulami karte raho ge", shared the film's makers.

Is imposing such cuts a reflection of the CBFC's political views?

"You should ask them that," said the National Award winning filmmaker.

Starring Neil Nitin Mukesh, Kirti Kulhari, Supriya Vinod, Anupam Kher and Tota Roy Chowdhury, the film has characters inspired by the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi.

The forthcoming film has already drawn the ire of the Congress party. Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam had last week penned a letter to CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani, asking for the movie to be screened for them before it is censored.

It has also been attacked by Priya Singh Paul, a woman who claims to be Sanjay Gandhi's daughter.

Bhandarkar had earlier said: "I have no agenda to promote any specific political ideology. The film is showing the conflicts of two different ideologies on the Emergency."

"Indu Sarkar" is set to release on July 28.
Mumbai, July 11 : Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who has shot for lovemaking scenes for the first time in his upcoming film "Babumoshai Bandookbaaz", says he was very conscious and nervous during the filming.

The National Award-winning actor was present on Tuesday at the trailer launch of the film with the cast and director of the movie.

Asked about his experience of doing intimate scenes onscreen, Nawazuddin told the media here: "Yes, I have done intimate scenes for the first time, so I was quite nervous to do such scenes. You feel good and nervous at the same time... It's not that fun when you are doing a scene... You focus on the scene and not on other things."

Known for his realistic acting for which he has been lauded film after film, Nawazuddin also said he prefers playing characters with grey shades.

"I do not like a character that is either an extreme villain or a hero. But I think that as time goes by, things are changing. These days, even heroes are playing characters with grey shades because I believe grey characters are more real. There are bad and good characteristics in all of us," said the actor, who is very conscious abut his choice of role.

Directed by Kushan Nandy, "Babumoshai Bandookbaaz" -- slated to release on August 25 -- is a rustic drama. It also features Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami and Divya Dutta.
New Delhi, July 12 : The Cabinet Committee on Security met here on Wednesday to take stock of the security situation in the wake of the terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims and the stand-off with China along the border.

According to government sources, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj attended the meet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The CCS was held prior to the Cabinet meeting.

Seven persons were killed and 19 others injured on Monday night when militants opened fire at a bus carrying Amarnath Yatra pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district.

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat rushed to the valley to review the security on Tuesday, while two central ministers - Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir and Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh were sent by the Centre to assess the situation.

A stand-off continues between Indian and Chinese troops since the middle of June on the border in the Sikkim sector.
Washington, July 12 : Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has claimed that he contacted US President Donald Trump's son to publish via WikiLeaks the emails about setting up a meeting with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

Instead, the US President's eldest son did so via Twitter, igniting a firestorm of criticism around his apparent willingness to work with the Russian government against his father's Democratic rival, the Guardian reported.

"Contacted Trump Jr this morning on why he should publish his emails (i.e with us)," tweeted Assange, who is based at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. "Two hours later, does it himself."

Trump Jr released the emails on Tuesday after The New York Times told him they had the documents and would be reporting on them.

Assange said he told Trump Jr to release the documents "because his enemies have it -- so why not the public?"

"Better to be transparent and have the full context," he continued, "but would have been safer for us to publish it anonymously sourced. By publishing it himself it is easier to submit as evidence."

It was not clear whether Assange's use of the word "enemies" was the reference to the media or political rivals, the report said.

The emails reveal correspondence between Trump Jr and his acquaintance Rob Goldstone as they set up a meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who promised to share incriminating evidence on Clinton to help the Trump campaign.

"This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Trump," Goldstone wrote in one email.

"If it's what you say I love it," Trump Jr said in one reply, referring to the information about Clinton.

Trump Jr said that nothing came out of the meeting and that Veselnitskaya only wanted to talk about a US policy on Russian adoptions.

He denied any wrongdoing in taking the meeting, but lawmakers were vying to get him to testify before House and Senate committees.

US President Trump said in a statement that Trump Jr "is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency".
New Delhi, July 12 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Delhi High Court's acting Chief Justice to set up a bench for hearing the plea of Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra, challenging his disqualification by the Election Commission.

The Commission had on June 23 disqualified Mishra for not disclosing expenses he incurred on paid news in his election expenditure returns and debarred him from contesting elections for three years.

The bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud directed Mishra and complainant Rajender Bharti to approach the Delhi Chief Justice on Wednesday itself for setting up of the bench.

Transferring the matter from Madhya Pradesh High Court to Delhi High Court, the order said that during the course of the hearing, counsel for rival parties agreed that that the proceedings before the Madhya Pradesh High Court be transferred to the Delhi High Court.

"We order accordingly", the order said.

The top court in its order also said that the outcome of the case has an "important bearing" on whether Mishra would continue to be a member of the state assembly and vote in the presidential election scheduled for July 17.

"We are of the view, that (whether Mishra can continue to be a member of State assembly and vote during Presidential election) can only be determined after the challenge raised to the order passed by the Election Commission of India, on June 23, 2017, is suitably addressed by the High Court, finally or by an interim order as the High Court may consider appropriate."

It directed the rival parties to appear before Delhi's acting Chief Justice during the course of the day with the entire paperbook of the case that has been filed before the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Allowing the rival counsel to request, on behalf of the top court, Delhi's acting Chief Justice to set up a a bench and "our desire, that the hearing should commence on July 13, 2017, to suitably address the issue, even if it entails the continuation of hearing during the week-end".

Mishra had moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court challenging the EC order but did not get any interim relief and the matter is still pending before it.

Contesting the Election Commission order on different counts, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Minister, had sought an urgent hearing of the plea either by the high court or the apex court itself, so that he could participate in the polling for presidential election.

Rohatgi told the bench that Narottam is Parliamentary Affairs Minister and the assembly session is starting from July 17 and the voting for the Presidential election is also on the same day.

But as he urged the court to stay the poll panel's order, Chief Justice Khehar said: "We can't do, we will not do, we have not seen the order."

The Election Commission while disqualifying Mishra for not disclosing the expenditure he had incurred on the paid news that was carried in local media during the 2008 assembly elections had said that it was concerned about the "menace of paid news" which has been assuming "alarming proportions" in the electoral landscape.

This phenomenon, a manifestation of the "pernicious effect of money in elections", has been growing increasingly vicious and "spreading like cancer", in recent time, the EC had said.

The EC order disqualifying Mishra had come on a complaint filed in 2009 by Congress MLA Bharti, who had unsuccessfully contested against Mishra from Datia constituency.
New Delhi, July 13 : Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved its judgement on a plea filed by Madhya Pradesh Minister Narottam Mishra, challenging his disqualification by the Election Commission (EC).

Justice Indermeet Kaur reserved the verdict after hearing arguments from the counsels of Mishra, the EC and complainant Rajender Bharti.

The Commission had, on June 23, disqualified Mishra for not disclosing expenses he incurred on paid news in his election expenditure returns in the 2008 assembly polls and debarred him from contesting elections for three years.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed Mishra to move the Delhi High Court after he failed to get any interim relief from the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The Minister had moved the apex court seeking an urgent hearing of the plea either by the high court or the apex court itself, so that he could participate in the polling for presidential election on July 17.

The top court in its order had said that the outcome of the case has an "important bearing" on whether Mishra would continue to be a member of the state assembly and vote in the presidential election.

The Madhya Pradesh assembly session begins from July 17 and the voting for the Presidential election is also on the same day.

The EC while disqualifying Mishra had said that it was concerned about the "menace of paid news" which has been assuming "alarming proportions" in the electoral landscape.

This phenomenon, a manifestation of the "pernicious effect of money in elections", has been growing increasingly vicious and "spreading like cancer", the EC had said.

The EC order disqualifying Mishra had come on a complaint filed in 2009 by Congress MLA Bharti, who had unsuccessfully contested against Mishra from Datia constituency in the 2008 assembly poll.
Shimla, July 13 : After over a week a schoolgirl was raped to death in Himachal Pradesh, police on Thursday said it had arrested all the six accused involved in the crime.

"One accused was arrested yesterday and five others were arrested today in the rape and murder of a girl in Kotkhai (in Shimla district)," Director General of Police Somesh Goyal told reporters here.

Goyal said it was a blind rape-murder case. The accused, aged between 19 and 42 years, included two Nepalese and two from Uttarakhand. Most were farm labourers and had settled in Kotkhai area.

"In this case, we had no witness and no CCTV footage. Even most of the evidence at the crime spot was washed away by rains. We have now gathered sufficient human and technical evidence," Inspector General Zahur H. Zaidi, heading a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case, told IANS.

He said 84 people were rounded up and 28 calls were recorded at the crime spot.

The 16-year-old girl was offered lift in a vehicle by the accused on July 4 when she was returning home from school. On the way, the accused raped and murdered her at a nearby forest. Her body was found two days later.

The arrested accused have been identified as Rajinder Singh, the prime accused who offered her the lift, Ashish Chauhan, Subhash Bisht, Deepak Kumar, Surat Singh and Lokjan.

Bisht and Kumar belong to Uttarakhand while Surat Singh and Lokjan are from Nepal.

Goyal said the arrests were made on the basis of technical, physical, forensic, circumstantial and confessional evidence. He said the accused were drunk at the time of crime.

"We hope we will take the case to the logical conclusion," he said.

The police said the prime accused had developed familiarity with the victim as he offered her lift two times earlier.
Barsilia, July 14 : The Commission on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship (CCJ) of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies voted on Thursday to reject the corruption charges against President Michel Temer by 40 votes to 25.

In this way, the CCJ advises the full Chamber of Deputies to vote against the report elaborated by deputy Sergio Zveiter, which recommended accepting the charges, Xinhua reported.

This result was expected as, in recent days, the government succeeded in changing a number of CCJ members who had threatened to vote against the president.

Ahead of these changes, Temer was set to lose a CCJ vote by 32 to 30, according to estimations by Brazilian media.

Before the vote on Thursday, Zveiter said the government had used public money to try and save its mandate, which consisted "obstruction of justice."

However, this vote is a non-binding, advisory motion for the full Chamber of Deputies which must now vote on whether to accept the corruption charges against Temer.

Prosecutor-general Rodrigo Janot filed charges against Temer at the Supreme Court, accusing the president of accepting bribes from meatpacking group JBS since 2010.

If the Chamber of Deputies and the Supreme Court both accept the charges, Temer will step down from office for 180 days and face trial.

This would be the first time that a sitting president has been charged before the Supreme Court.
Washington, July 14 : Time magazine has featured Donald Trump Jr. on the cover of its latest issue with the words "red handed" printed on his face over his alleged plans of meeting a Russian lawyer to obtain "incriminating information" about Hillary Clinton, the media reported.

The cover on the magazine's July 24 issue features an image of Trump Jr., with excerpts from the emails he made public on Tuesday superimposed on the photo, reports CNN.

The emails show that Trump Jr. agreed to meet with someone who was a "Russian government attorney" about "very high level and sensitive information" that would "incriminate" the former presidential hopeful.

Time's title: "Red Handed", written by Time editor-at-large David Von Drehle, explores what kind of damage the email story might cause for Trump Jr. and his father's presidency.

President Donald Trump has had a longtime preoccupation with Time covers. He was first featured on the magazine in 1989, and he called it a "very, very great honour" last year when he was named its Person of the Year, CNN reported.

Trump even bragged during a speech at the CIA headquarters in January about his cover count: "I think we have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine."

However, the actual record belongs to former President Richard Nixon, who appeared on the cover 55 times. As of June 28, Trump had been on the cover 14 times, according to Time.

Trump's fascination with the magazine has sometimes manifested itself in strange ways. Last month, The Washington Post reported that a faked Time magazine cover featuring Trump had been framed and hung up in at least five of Trump's clubs.

After the story published, Time asked the Trump Organization to remove the Photoshopped covers.
Washington, July 14 : Grandparents and other relatives of people living in the US cannot be barred from entering under President Trump's travel ban, a judge has ruled.

The order on Thursday night by District Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii, is a fresh legal blow to Trump's immigration crackdown, reports the BBC.

The judge said the ban had interpreted a Supreme Court ruling too narrowly.

The decision, made last month, partly reinstated the ban on refugees and travellers from six Muslim-majority countries.

It said only those with "bona fide" family ties that did not include grandparents, as well as grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and cousins would be let into the US.

The judge condemned the government's definition of a close relative as "unduly restrictive", the BBC reported.

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents. Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members"," Judge Watson wrote in the ruling.

The Supreme Court is still considering President Trump's attempt to prevent people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from travelling to the US.

The justices allowed a temporary ban to come into effect in May.
New Delhi, July 14 : The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the over 60 cases of alleged fake shootouts by the security forces in Manipur.

The CBI has to file its report in January 2018.

Handing over the investigation to the CBI, a bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur asked its director to constitute a team within two weeks to investigate the encounters.
Duluth Trading Co. is coming to Red Wing.

The Belleville, Wisconsin-based retailer of work wear, casual wear and the famous Buck Naked underwear, opens its 23rd retail store on Saturday in Red Wing, Minnesota, on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River.

"We are excited to open a combination store/outlet in Red Wing, a town of distinctive charm," said Duluth CEO Stephanie Pugliese.

Duluth Trading Co. started in 1989 in Duluth and opened a call center, warehouse and new headquarters in Belleville in 1997.

The company originally just had a catalog to sell its goods before opening its first retail store in Mount Horeb in 2010. It returned to Duluth with a store in 2014.
Washington, July 14 : A federal judge in Hawaii has ruled that grandparents and other relatives should be exempt from the enforcement of President Donald Trump's travel ban, which bars people from six Muslim-majority countries, the media reported on Friday.

US District Judge Derrick Watson ruled on Thursday night that the federal government's list of family relatives eligible to bypass the travel ban should be expanded to include grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts and other relatives, reports The Washington Post.

Watson also ordered exemptions for refugees who have been given formal assurance from agencies placing them in the US.

Watson said the government's definition of what constitutes close family "represents the antithesis of common sense".

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," Watson wrote.

"Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The government's definition excludes them. That simply cannot be."

On June 26, the Supreme Court ruled that the government could begin enforcing the travel restrictions, but not on people with "a credible claim of a bona fide relationship" with a person or entity in the US.

The Trump administration then decided to make exceptions for spouses, parents, parents-in-law, children, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, fiances and siblings of those already in the country.

However, they barred grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, The Washington Post reported.

The measure was then rolled out on June 29, affecting travellers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

As part of the measure, officials could also block refugees with a formal assurance from a resettlement agency.

Judge Watson, in his ruling, also argued a refugee's assurance from an agency satisfies the Supreme Court's "bona fide" relationship requirement because of the formal, binding nature of the contract.

"Bona fide does not get any more bona fide than that," he added.
Islamabad, July 14 : At least two militants were killed when Pakistani security forces on Friday foiled an attempt to storm a Frontier Constabulary camp in Khyber Agency.

Two suicide bombers from Afghanistan targeted Misthara post near the Pakistan-Afghan border, the media quoted the military as saying.

It said two Pakistani soldiers were injured in the exchange of fire with the terrorists. The Dawn said the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Khyber Agency is among Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal districts near the Afghan border, rife with homegrown insurgents.
Beijing, July 14 : China on Friday said it had lodged diplomatic protests with several countries, including the US, for making what it called "irresponsible statements" on the case of late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.

Liu passed away on Thursday at a Chinese hospital due to liver cancer, reports Efe news.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said China has lodged protests with the US, France and Germany as well as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein to express Beijing's discontent.

After having been granted medical parole, the 61-year-old activist and writer died on Thursday night in the First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, while his family's request for seeking treatment abroad had been rejected.

After two decades of fighting for democracy, Liu was arrested in 2008 and sentenced on December 25, 2009 to 11 years in prison on subversion charges after co-drafting the Charter O8 -- a political manifesto calling for democratic reforms in China.

In 2010, Liu received the Nobel Peace Prize for his activism in favour of democracy in China. He also played a significant role in the Tiananmen protests of June 1989 which ended in bloodshed when they were quashed by troops.
New Delhi, July 14 : Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has convened an all-party meeting on Sunday, a day before Parliament's monsoon session begins.

The meeting with leaders of various parties in the Lok Sabha will take place in Parliament's Library Building, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said.

Mahajan will seek cooperation from all political parties for a smooth functioning of the lower house during the customary meeting ahead of the monsoon session scheduled to end on August 11.

Opposition parties are all set to corner the government over issues related to India's border stand-off with China, the Kashmir situation, farmers' distress and Goods and Services Tax among others.

Both houses of Parliament are unlikely to transact any business on the first day (July 17) on account of the death of two MPs - Vinod Khanna (Lok Sabha) and P. Goverdhan Reddy (Rajya Sabha).

On the same day, voting to elect the new President is scheduled in which 776 MPs are eligible to vote.

Vinod Khanna, who represented Gurdaspur in Punjab, died on April 27. Reddy, the Rajya Sabha member of the Congress from Telangana, died on June 9.
Singapore, July 14 : A Malaysian national, Prabagaran Srivijayan, was executed here on Friday after being sentenced to death in 2014 for importing heroin.

Prabagaran, 29, was hanged to death at the Changi Prison at 6 a.m.

He was arrested in April 2012 at the Woodlands Checkpoint after two packets carrying 22.24 grams of the drug were recovered from a Malaysian-registered vehicle that he was driving, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said.

The Singapore Court of Appeal on Thursday dismissed an eleventh-hour motion to halt his execution, reports Channel News Asia.

The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for death penalty if the amount of heroin imported is more than 15 grams.
New Delhi, July 14 : The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a plea filed by Madhya Pradesh Minister Narottam Mishra, challenging his disqualification by the Election Commission (EC).

Justice Indermeet Kaur who reserved the judgement on Thursday dismissed Mishra's plea.

The Election Commission had on June 23 disqualified Mishra for not disclosing expenses he incurred on paid news in his election expenditure returns and barred him from contesting elections for three years.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed Mishra to move the Delhi High Court after he failed to get any interim relief from the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The Minister had moved the apex court seeking an urgent hearing of the plea either by the High Court or the apex court itself, so that he could participate in the polling for the July 17 presidential election.

The top court in its order had said that the outcome of the case has an "important bearing" on whether Mishra would continue to be a member of the state assembly and vote in the presidential election.

Narottam is Parliamentary Affairs Minister and the assembly session is starting from July 17 and voting for the Presidential election is also on the same day.

The Election Commission, while disqualifying Mishra for not disclosing the expenditure he had incurred on the paid news that was carried in local media during the 2008 assembly elections, had said that it was concerned about the "menace of paid news" which has been assuming "alarming proportions" in the electoral landscape.

This phenomenon, a manifestation of the "pernicious effect of money in elections", has been growing increasingly vicious and "spreading like cancer", in recent time, the EC had said.

The EC order disqualifying Mishra had come on a complaint filed in 2009 by Congress MLA Rajender Bharti, who had unsuccessfully contested against Mishra from Datia constituency.
New Delhi, July 14 : Senior ministers were not told by the Ministry of External Affairs that there would be "no withdrawal" of Indian troops from Doklam, where Indian and Chinese troops are in a stand-off.

"Some sections of media have reported that MEA has told senior Ministers today that there would be no withdrawal of Indian troops from Doklam. Such false reports are without any basis," sources said.

The clarification came in the context of top ministers meeting in the morning ahead of a briefing to be given to opposition leaders on the Doklam stand-off and the Kashmir situation in the evening.

The brief statement triggered a number of questions whether India was preparing for withdrawing its troops from Doklam in the Sikkim sector, but there were no answers from the government.

China has been demanding that India must withdraw troops from Doklam for any dialogue between the two sides.
New Delhi, July 14 : The Shipping Ministry is planning to modernise and upgrade its hospitals at major ports into medical colleges and tertiary-care hospitals, Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari announced on Friday.

The government had earlier formed a committee to suggest the development model for the port hospitals on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, and the panel, headed by Medical Council of India member Ved Prakash Mishra, presented its findings at a meeting with Gadkari on Friday.

The committee, tasked to leverage the ports' healthcare infrastructure optimally to provide world class healthcare facilities and education at affordable rates, visited hospitals in five major ports including Mumbai, Cochin, Chennai, Kolkata and Vishakhapatnam, the Minister said.

Gadkari said that as per the recommendations of the committee, the government would invite private players to modernise and run the hospitals at the ports.

"It is not the job of the port authorities to run hospitals. We will give our assets on lease to those organisations which have been successful in the healthcare sector and they will run the hospitals," he said, adding the port hospitals would be upgraded into world-class facilities and would provide both medical education and healthcare services at affordable costs.

"The local people would get the best medical facilities and won't have to go to the cities," he said adding that the government would bring a transparent policy.

As per the recommendations of the committee, the Shipping Ministry could transfer the port hospital with over 200 beds at Mumbai to a society, trust or a company for starting a medical college.

It said that healthcare facilities with lesser number of beds at Mumbai, Cochin,Chennai, Kolkata and Vishakhapatnam needed to be upgraded into tertiary-care facilities through PPP mode.
Patna, July 14 : Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday stepped into the political crisis dogging the ruling coalition in Bihar, as the JD-U stepped up pressure demanding the resignation of state Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

However, Tejashwi Yadav, the younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, ruled out his resignation in the wake of corruption charges against him.

Sources in JD-U said Sonia Gandhi had spoken with Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad and appealed to both not to do anything to break the ruling Grand Alliance of JD-U, RJD and Congress, known as Mahagatbandhan.

However, it was still unclear whether she had asked Lalu Prasad to ask his son to quit to save the alliance from breaking. Sonia Gandhi reportedly intervened at the instance of JD-U leaders, who wanted to see that the issue does not precipitate the crisis further.

In a related development, state Congress leader and Education Minister Ashok Chowdhry went to Nitish Kumar's official residence and was closeted with the Chief Minister for an hour. What transpired between them was not known.

In a tweet, Tejaswhi Yadav made it clear that he is not resigning. He even claimed a section of the media has been "spreading lies" of him resigning.

"In the name of sources, a section of media is spreading lies that I am resigning. I am laughing at such lies as news," Tejashwi Yadav said.

He reiterated that he will not resign.

His remarks on Twitter came even as alliance partner JD-U raised the pressure on RJD seeking resignation of Tejashwi Yadav, after the CBI registered a case against him and interrogated him during raids last week.

JD-U spokespersons Ajay Alok and Neeraj Kumar on Friday made it clear that the party will not compromise on corruption and their leader Nitish Kumar has never made any compromise for the sake of power. "People across the country are fully aware of Nitish Kumar's clean image and his stand of zero tolerance against corruption."

The JD-U spokespersons also countered RJD MLA Bhai Virendra's statement that RJD has 80 MLAs and "we will do what we want", saying that the alliance won due to the clean image of Nitish Kumar.

According to RJD leaders, the party has decided that all its ministers in the Nitish Kumar cabinet will submit their resignations en masse to the Chief Minister if Tejashwi Yadav is compelled to quit. "RJD has no other way as BJP has conspired to target our leader Tejashwi Yadav. We have to stand with him," the leaders said.

Tejashwi Yadav, 28, is leader of the RJD legislature party in the Bihar Assembly.

RJD leaders said in case Tejashwi Yadav is forced to resign by Nitish Kumar the party's ministers will only resign en masse, but it will not withdraw from the Mahagatbandhan government.

"The RJD will continue to support the Nitish Kumar government from outside so as not to provide any opportunity to the BJP to extend support to him to run the government," they said.

Lalu Prasad has been in Ranchi for the past two days to appear before a court in connection with the fodder scam. "The final decision will be taken by Laluji after his return from Ranchi on Friday evening," a RJD leader said.

The RJD claims the CBI action against Tejashwi Yadav is a political conspiracy to destabilize Bihar's ruling Grand Alliance and "Nitish Kumar knew about it".

Nitish Kumar has yet to say anything directly to media on the Tejashwi Yadav issue.

Earlier this month, the CBI conducted raids across four cities in a corruption case in which Lalu's wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav are among the accused. The case relates to alleged manipulation in award of contract for maintenance of two hotels run by a subsidiary of the Indian Railways - IRCTC -- when the RJD chief was Railways Minister in the United Progressive Alliance government.
Mumbai, July 14 : Anees Bazmee claims his forthcoming directorial venture "Mubarakan" is the first Hindi film to have been shot in the "beautifully looking neighbourhood" Weybridge in England.

While a lot of movies have showcased Indian Punjabis in England, a majority of them were shot in Southhall and Birmingham as they have a huge Indian population. However, Bazmee chose a typical British neighbourhood like Weybridge for "Mubarakan", a family entertainer about two Punjabi families and two Big fat Indian weddings.

Bazmee said in a statement:"This beautifully looking neighbourhood was so co-operative with us throughout the shoot. Our producers ensured that they followed all the rules, informed them everything about the shoot, and never did anything that would trouble them."

"We not only shot during the day but also in the night. Such detailed discussions like using light in the night shoot also happened with them so that it doesn't disturb them. On a few days, when we wanted to shoot a Christmas scene, they would switch on their decorative lights in the lawn as a friendly gesture."

"Sometimes, some shootings create so much of inconvenience for the locals who are staying there that next time when someone goes there asking permission for a shoot, they immediately shut their doors. We are the first Hindi film who have shot in such locations and I can assure you that next time, when a Bollywood film goes there, they would be welcomed with open arms".

The film stars Arjun Kapoor in a double role as Karan and Charan with two distinctive looks. His uncle and actor-producer Anil Kapoor portrays the role of Kartar Singh. Ileana D'Cruz and Athiya Shetty also star in the movie playing the love interests of Karan and Charan.

Produced by Sony Pictures Networks Productions and Ashwin Varde and Murad Khetan's Cine1 Studios, the film is slated to have its worldwide release on July 28.
The wait is over.

Well, almost. Sunday, when Game of Thrones returns for its penultimate seventh season  and a truncated one at that, at a mere seven episodes  it paves the way for the ultimate showdown for the Iron Throne. What happens in this season  enemies become allies, family members choose opposite sides, dragons make mayhem in the sky  takes care of business and sets the stage for the eighth and final season, even shorter with only six installments.

The message is clear, Thrones fans: Its days are numbered.

That is not to say they wont be substantive. An epic push for the rightful heir to the throne of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros has been coming since the show began in 2011. Four people have occupied it, the latest being Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), widow of Robert Baratheon (king upon the shows beginning), and mother to Joffrey (who succeeded Robert upon his death) and Tommen (who took over when Joffrey was poisoned). Ever the manipulator, Cersei assumed the throne after Tommen took a fatal dive from his window after an explosion killed his wife  and several members of the Sparrows, a strict religious order that brought to light many of Cerseis transgressions. Cersei was not uninvolved in said explosion.

But a threat approaches from the east, a woman driven to reclaim what she feels is her birthright. Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), daughter of Aerys the Mad King (whose murder by Cerseis twin brother, Jaime Lannister played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, earned him the nickname Kingslayer, and led the way for Robert to rule), has amassed a massive army, her full-grown dragons and a bevy of unorthodox allies, including Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), brother to Cersei and Jaime, a fugitive after escaping a death sentence (with Jaimes help) and then killing his father. The showdown between Targaryen and Lannister, simmering for seasons, is finally at hand.

Lest we forget Jon Snow (Kit Harington), King of the North, who returned Winterfell to House Stark, the family who raised him. His alliance with the Wildlings and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), along with others who had once been enemies, looms as a threat to Cerseis reign as well.

And then theres the whole thing about who Jons parents really are  and if you arent caught up with the show, stop reading and get thee to an HBO Go account to catch up quick. No one but Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) knows for certain (though readers of the books have suspected from the start, as have obsessive fans who scour the blogs and sites and articles devoted to the show) that Jon is the son not of Ned Stark, as many believed, but his sister, Lyanna, and Rhaegar Targaryen, older brother of Daenerys and heir to the Iron Throne. That complicates things a little bit, no?

In a nutshell, then, big things are about to happen. And that doesnt even get into the roving, stone-cold assassin Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) and her list of vengeance, or the deadly Night King and his army of the dead, who could make this little scuffle for the Iron Throne moot as they lay waste to every living thing it their path. The seventh season of Game of Thrones returns at 8 p.m. Sunday on HBO.

From Russia, with love: Capitalizing on the seemingly uninterrupted focus on Russia in the news these days, Stephen Colbert decided hed check out the country for himself. So he packed his bags in mid-June and colluded with his crew on documenting his experiences while visiting Moscow and St. Petersburg. The results, including interviews with Russian citizens, Colberts experience in living like an oligarch, and his appearance on the Russian late-night talk show Evening Urgant, hosted by Ivan Urgant  which included shots of vodka and a shocking revelation  will air during Russia Week, beginning Monday on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The ever-clever Colbert said in a statement about the visit, I was asked to go to Russia by an acquaintance I knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant to meet with an individual who I was told might have information helpful to my show. Donald Trump Jr.s father knew nothing of the meeting or these events. Or evidently, much else. The weeks shows will likely be filled with more of such pokes at the president and the questions surrounding his administrations dealing with Russia; The Late Show airs weeknights at 10:35 p.m. on Ch. 3.

Money changes everything: When four British friends and business partners sell their start-up gaming company  and its hit iPhone game, Cat Factory, as if there were any doubt about the importance of cats on smartphones  to an American company for an obscene amount of money, they find out being filthy rich isnt the answer to all of their problems. In fact, it may be the beginning of several more. Thats the premise of Loaded, AMCs latest original series, premiering Monday. These four guys  Josh (Jim Howick), Leon (Samuel Anderson), Ewan (Jonny Sweet) and Watto (Nick Helm)  were just ordinary blokes who spent their time playing video games until their app caught the eye of an American company, and now they have to start working  like, really working  for their new, crack-the-whip boss, Casey (Mary McCormack). Can the foursome remain friends even as wads of money brings out some ugly truths? Loaded premieres at 9 p.m. Monday on AMC.
Beijing, July 14 : China on Friday warned Botswana against the scheduled visit of the Dalai Lama, saying it hoped the African country understands Beijing's "concerns" about the Tibetan "separatist".

According to news reports, the Tibetan spiritual leader will attend a three-day human rights conference in Gaborone from August 17. He will also meet Botswana's President.

"The Dalai Lama 14th is a political exile who is engaged in anti-China activities and wants to separate Tibet from China on the pretext of religion," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said here.

"China firmly opposes his contact in any form with officials of any countries. China's position is clear cut. Hope relevant countries and accommodate the concerns and interests of China."

China calls the Dalai Lama a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and accuses him of secessionist activities in Tibet.

In 1959, after a failed uprising in Tibet, the Dalai Lama fled to India and has lived in self-imposed exile since then.

China slams any country which hosts or keeps any contact with the spiritual leader.

It also resorts other measures and tactics to show its anger. In the case of neighbouring Mongolia, it imposed a kind of economic blockade, crippling the economy of the poor country.

Following his April visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as its own, Beijing had retaliated by changing the name of six cities in the northeastern Indian state.
Imphal, July 14 : Human rights activists in Manipur welcomed the Supreme Court's Friday directive ordering a CBI probe into alleged cases of staged shootouts in the state.

"I welcome it," said Babloo Loitongbam, director of the Human Rights Alert, which had along with an association of families of missing persons, filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court in 2012 seeking trials of the 1,528 cases of staged gunfights.

The plea was jointly signed by N. Neena, president of the families' association and me, Loitongbam told IANS.

He however sounded a note of caution saying that the ball is in the court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director who will set up a 5-member SIT to look into the cases. "It is too early to celebrate," he added.

Welcoming the directive, advocate and human rights activist Rakesh Meihoubam said: "Though much delayed, justice will prevail now."

He noted the case of 12-year-old Azad Khan, who was gunned down in presence of his parents and villagers and a hand gun planted at the site to label him a "militant". An infuriated judge had reportedly asked how a 12-year-old student could be a militant, he added.

Meihoubam, who is also director of Human Rights Law Network Manipur, hoped that in due course, other cases will also be heard. However, he expressed concern that since the cases are old, "some of the evidence may be lost by now".

He said that the Supreme Court issued a 16-point directive which, among other things, says that the police and security forces personnel involved in fake gunfights that saw loss of human lives should be suspended and their firearms seized.
New Delhi, July 14 : India's exports rose for the 10th consecutive month in June 2017, official data showed on Friday.

Exports grew by 4.39 per cent to $23.56 billion from $22.57 billion worth of merchandise shipped out during June 2016, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

"Exports have been exhibiting positive growth for the last nine months. In continuation with growth indicated by exports since September 2016, exports during June 2017 have shown growth of 4.39 per cent in dollar terms valued at $23,562.62 million as compared to $22,572.30 million during June, 2016," the ministry said in a statement.

"During June 2017, major commodity groups of export showing positive growth over the corresponding month of last year are engineering goods (14.78 per cent), petroleum products (3.60), organic and inorganic chemicals (13.20), rice (27.29) and marine products (24.27)."

The data revealed that non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports in June increased to 6.02 per cent to $17.48 billion against $16.48 billion reported for June 2016.

However, the country's imports during the month under review also increased by 19.01 per cent to $36.52 billion from $30.68 billion.

"Major commodity group of imports showing high growth in June 2017 over the corresponding month of last year are petroleum, crude and products (12.04), electronic goods (24.22), pearls, precious and semi-precious stones (86.31), machinery, electrical and non-electrical (7.02) and gold (102.99)," the statement said.

Besides, the data showed that India's oil imports during June increased by 12.04 per cent to $8.12 billion from $7.25 billion.

"The global Brent prices ($/bbl) have decreased by 3.28 per cent in June 2017 vis-A -vis June 2016 as per World Bank commodity price data," the statement said.

The data pointed out that non-oil imports were up by 21.17 per cent, to $28.39 billion from $23.43 billion in the corresponding month of last year.

Segment-wise, country's gold imports on a year-on-year basis zoomed by 102.99 per cent to $2.45 billion from $1.20 billion, whereas on a sequential basis it came down from $4.95 billion reported for May 2017.

Consequently, the trade deficit during the month under review rose higher to $12.95 billion from $8.11 billion reported for June 2016.

Further, the ministry disclosed the services exports data provided by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for May 2017 was estimated at $13.43 billion.

The ministry said that cumulative trade balance, including merchandise and services sectors, has improved.

"Taking merchandise and services together, overall trade deficit for April-June 2017-18 is estimated at $28.6 billion as compared to $8 billion during April-June 2016-17," the statement added.
New Delhi, July 14 : Opposition leaders were on Friday briefed by the government on the stand-off with China and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who also holds the Defence portfolio, were among those present at the meeting.

Leaders of opposition parties present included Congress's senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikurjan Kharge and Anand Sharma, Janata Dal-United's Sharad Yadav and K.C. Tyagi, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury and Trinamool Congress's Derek O'Brien.

AIADMK leader A. Navaneethakrishnan told reporters later that Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar made a presentation on the military stand-off in the Doklam Plateau adjoining the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan.

He said Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi made a presentation on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Our central government under the leadership of Prime Minister is protecting the Indian territories very properly. And with regard to Amarnath Yatra, the central government is taking appropriate steps to protect the yatris," Navaneethakrishnan said.

Earlier in the day, Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval met and are learnt to have gone through the points to be discussed with the opposition leaders on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of the killing of Amarnath pilgrims and the military stand-off with China.

The opposition is likely to raise the two issues during Parliament's monsoon session that begins on Monday.
Beijing, July 14 : The diplomatic resolution of the border row is not possible unless troops are withdrawn by India, which by "turning a deaf ear" to Beijing's demand will only worsen the situation, China's state-run media said on Friday.

India's External Affairs Ministry on Thursday said diplomatic channels were "available" to the two countries to resolve the border stand-off in the Sikkim sector.

However, the commentary in Xinhua news agency seemed to reject India's overture, saying there was no room for talks until Indian troops vacated Doklam - a disputed territory between China and Bhutan.

"China has made it clear that there is no room for negotiations on this incident and India must withdraw its border-crossing troops from Doklam. For China, the border line is the bottom line," the commentary said.

"China has a will to solve the problem peacefully by diplomatic means and China also cherishes peace and serenity in the border areas, but the precondition is that the trespassers of India must withdraw unconditionally."

It said by "turning a deaf ear" to China's demand for troop withdrawal, India "will worsen the month-long stand-off and put itself further into embarrassment".

"India has to know (that) illegal stay of its troops in Doklam will by no means force a fait accompli there, and that it has to change mind before things go even worse.

"India should not regard the existing situation as the same as or even similar to the previous two stand-offs in 2013 and 2014 near Ladakh, a disputed area between China, Pakistan and India in southeastern Kashmir.

"Diplomatic efforts led the troop frictions there to a well-arranged end. But this time it is a totally different case."

It said China's several protests and arguments have failed to bring India back to reason.

"In recent years, some Indian civil groups, tinted with intense nationalism, have been constantly stirring up anti-China sentiments, even clamouring to boycott 'the commodities of hostile countries' at a time when the situation on China-Indian boundary intensified.

"As an old Chinese saying goes, peace is most precious. It has been noticed that Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar recently has made positive remarks in Singapore, saying that 'India and China should not let differences become disputes'.

"What China would like to see more are corresponding actions taken by India.

"It is highly anticipated that India would abide by the basic principles of international law and would not stick to its errors stubbornly."
New Delhi, July 14 : A 52-year-old widow was found murdered in east Delhi's Laxmi Nagar over a money dispute and a man was arrested for the crime, police said on Friday.

Police said Sangeeta Bansal, who worked as caretaker at a girls' paying guest accommodation, was murdered around 10 p.m. on Thursday.

The suspect, whose name was not given by the police, is being interrogated.

"She had lent money to the suspect last year, for which he had given jewellery as security. He said he returned the money but Sangeeta did not return the jewellery," Deputy Commissioner of Police Omvir Singh told IANS.

The suspect, who runs an electronics shop in Ghaziabad but stays in Shahdara, told police he went to meet her on Thursday night.

"When he demanded his jewellery back, she allegedly refused and he slit her throat and stabbed her in the abdomen. He then escaped," the officer said.

Sangeeta stayed on the first floor in Lalita Park in Laxmi Nagar. Her husband Anil Bansal had passed away a year-and-half ago and had been a financier.

Her relatives, residing on the ground floor of the premises, allegedly saw the suspect running away after committing the crime and rushed upstairs to find Sangeeta lying in a pool of blood.

Police zeroed in on the suspect from closed-circuit television footage from nearby shops.
When I met Nelson Mandela, I think he knew that he was dying and wanted to share with me his vision for the future, for the whole world.

From growing up in Sudan as a child labourer, battling crocodiles and pirates, and surviving terrifying rooftop train journeys across the desert, to heading up one of the UN agencies, Professor Kamil Idris life story is one of a remarkable journey and inspiring leadership.

Motivated by a promise made to Nelson Mandela, not long before the former South African Presidents death, to tell his story as a true son of Africa, Kamil has written and published his memoir, My Nile Odyssey, chronicling his early life in Sudan, his studies in Khartoum, Cairo, Ohio and Geneva, and later his professional development with the United Nations.

In his diplomatic career, Kamil Idris met with many world leaders and statespeople, including Bill Clinton, Boutros Ghali, Fidel Castro, Jacques Chirac, King Abdullah and King Hussein of Jordan, King Felipe VI of Spain, Kofi Annan, Mary Robinson, Tony Blair and Yasser Arafat, working behind the scenes to help solve international crises.

However, much of the book focuses on Kamils childhood in Sudan, blighted by tragedy and hardship, but also encouraged by the many warm-hearted and humble figures and mentors in his life, who spurred him on to higher learning and achievements, all set against the reassuring presence and backdrop of the mighty River Nile.

When I met Nelson Mandela, I think he knew that he was dying and wanted to share with me his vision for the future, for the whole world, Kamil Idris explained. He felt my optimistic faith in human nature echoed his own, and that a positive, uplifting message of brotherhood, reconciliation and compassion could be a powerful antidote to intolerance, racism and bloodshed. I was humbled by his confidence in me, and I hope this memoir honours his wishes.

In 2010, Professor Idris stood as a Presidential candidate in his native Sudan, but was later placed under house arrest and received death threats. The former Prime Minister of Sudan, Imam El-Sadiq El-Mahdi (1966-67 and 1986-89), has written the foreword to the memoir, citing the role it could play in the ongoing cultural enlightenment of Sudan and the wider world. El-Mahdi describes My Nile Odyssey as a testimony to the achievement of the human spirit in overcoming adversity and a testament to the importance of self-discipline, the hunger for knowledge and the universal values of brotherhood that transcend nationality and religion.

About the author

Kamil Idris is currently the President of the International Court of Arbitration and Mediation (ICAM), the former Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), former Secretary-General of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), and a former member of the United Nations International Law Commission.

Scholar, international statesman and polymath, Kamil Idris has published an extensive range of books on intellectual property, political science, philosophy and international law and development, including A better United Nations for the new millennium. He lives with his family in Durham, north east England.

Notes to editors:

My Nile Odyssey is published as a hardback book by UK Book Publishing and is available on Amazon UK, Amazon US and other online retailers.

Kamil Idris is available for interview.

Review copies of the book are also available.
"Dare to Lead is an opportunity for students to reinforce and implement the necessary leadership skills for them to pursue career choices," said Sara Bell, Chief Human Resources Officer at BlumShapiro.

For the ninth consecutive year, BlumShapiro, the largest regional business advisory firm based in New England with offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, provided leadership development workshops and exercises during its Dare to Lead summer program for 35 college students from Connecticut entering their junior year.

The two-day event was held July 11-12, 2017 at BlumShapiros office in West Hartford. Participating students attend UConn, University of Hartford, University of Alabama, Quinnipiac University, Bentley University, Bryant University and other higher education institutions.

Dare to Lead is just that  an opportunity for students to reinforce and implement the necessary leadership skills for them to complete their college education and pursue career choices, said Sara Bell, SPHR, SHRM-SCP and chief human resources officer at BlumShapiro. It is also an invaluable in-house tool for us to identify talent.

Dare to Lead focuses on networking, teambuilding and leadership skills and includes various activities and interaction with BlumShapiro staff. The workshops, including one titled, Introduction to Innovative Leadership, were hosted by BlumShapiro partners and managers. Students were also joined by BlumShapiro summer interns who served as buddies for the two-day event.

During the second day of the program, the Dare to Lead students and BlumShapiro interns performed community service at Gifts of Love and Community Farm of Simsbury.

Following the program, the top students are extended an offer for an internship based on employee feedback throughout the two days.

We hope to continue using the program to help build future leaders in our community as well as help the firm identify top talent and eventually bring them aboard as full-time staff, said Bell.

###

BlumShapiro is the largest regional business advisory firm based in New England, with offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The firm, with over 450 professionals and staff, offers a diversity of services which includes auditing, accounting, tax and business advisory services. In addition, BlumShapiro provides a variety of specialized consulting services such as succession and estate planning, business technology services, employee benefit plan audits and litigation support and valuation. The firm serves a wide range of privately held companies, government and non-profit organizations and provides non-audit services for publicly traded companies.

Contact

Thomas DeVitto

Chief Marketing Officer  BlumShapiro

860-561-6851

tdevitto(at)blumshapiro(dot)com
Center for Patient Safety "Dr. Froelkes experience, coupled with his desire to improve EMS patient safety, will add an exciting level of expertise to the CPS team." -Lee Varner, CPS' Patient Safety Director

The Center for Patient Safety (CPS) announced that Brian Froelke, M.D., an emergency medicine physician at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named the centers first Emergency Medical Services Medical Advisor. CPS is a national organization, based in Missouri, dedicated to promoting healthcare safety through a reduction in medical errors.

For more than 10 years, CPS has worked to improve safety for both patients and healthcare providers by fostering a culture that encourages healthcare workers to quickly report medical errors so they can be quickly addressed and prevented in the future. CPS was also one of the first organizations in the nation to be certified as a Patient Safety Organization (PSO), which offers federal confidentiality protections to healthcare workers for reporting medical errors. Additionally, CPS was the first in the nation to provide EMS PSO services, including sharing and learning opportunities with EMS providers based, in part, on the collection of data on adverse events.

Onboarding an EMS Medical Advisor is a logical next step, and Dr. Froelke is an obvious first choice for this position. He has long been involved with CPS and is a recognized EMS leader with a passion for patient safety, said Alex Christgen, Executive Director of CPS. We are delighted that he is joining CPS in a voluntary role as Medical Advisor to our EMS services.

EMS, as a profession, is called to change in light of new laws and a healthcare system that is placing more emphasis on patient safety improvements. To meet new expectations, the advancement of safety in EMS must be a focal point of leadership across the nation.

Dr. Froelke, an assistant professor of emergency medicine, is board-certified in emergency medicine and emergency medicine EMS. As EMS Medical Advisor, he will engage leadership and support CPS by conducting activities and supporting programs that improve and promote patient safety efforts nationally and internationally among air and ground medical transport services. He also will advise the CPS team on current and long-term safety objectives as well as provide education and awareness opportunities among the EMS healthcare community.

Dr. Froelke noted, The Center for Patient Safety is a national leader in the field of EMS, and I look forward to working with this group to improve the culture of safety for patients and healthcare providers. The participation of the centers member EMS agencies and medical directors is a key step toward improving our systems and reducing preventable medical errors. Analysis of data on adverse events has already lead to real-world solutions and initiatives that have improved patient care. I believe this partnership, with the support of an academic medical center like Washington University School of Medicine, will strengthen these endeavors.

We are excited to welcome Dr. Froelke, said Lee Varner, Patient Safety Director at CPS. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from his diverse background in EMS including many roles and projects that have spanned the regional, state and national level. Dr. Froelkes experience, coupled with his desire to improve EMS patient safety, will add an exciting level of expertise to the CPS team.

About CPS: The Center for Patient Safety is a non-profit organization whose primary service offering is creative and innovative solutions to improve patient safety. CPS was established in 2005 and was one of the first PSOs in the nation. It conducts patient safety improvement consulting, educating, and supporting services to hospitals, home care, nursing homes, EMS, ASCs, medical offices, and pharmacies across the United States. Find the Center for Patient Safety on Facebook and Twitter @PtSafetyExpert.

# # #

For more information about PSO and safety culture services, contact the Center for Patient Safety at info(at)centerforpatientsafety.org.
Two Madison police officers used unreasonable force when they shot and killed a 26-year-old woman who was pointing a gun at her head during a 2014 incident, a jury found Thursday, awarding her family $7 million in damages.

The six-woman, two-man jury deliberated for about 3 hours before ruling in the federal civil lawsuit brought by the family of Ashley DiPiazza against the officers, Justin Bailey and Gary Pihlaja. Bailey is no longer with the department.

After further deliberations, jurors awarded the family $4 million in compensatory and $3 million in punitive damages.

The jury found that a third officer, Carey Leerek, who was a negotiator, bore no responsibility.

The jury ruled loud and clear for justice for Ashley DiPiazza, said her father, Joe DiPiazza, who embraced his wife, Tami, after the verdict was read.

Across the courtroom, the defendants, their friends and co-workers, sat in silence. Across town, Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, called the verdict outrageous.

This sends a disconcerting message to officers because this will lead to second-guessing that puts officers at risk, Palmer said. Thats very unfortunate.

Since it was a civil trial, the jury only needed to find that the claims made by the DiPiazza family against the officers were probably true rather than the higher burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal trial.

This was the third lawsuit brought against Madison police in recent years after a fatal shooting. Earlier this year, the family of Tony Robinson, 19, agreed to settle a civil rights lawsuit with the citys insurance company for $3.35 million. Robinson was fatally shot after allegedly punching Officer Matt Kenny in a stairwell in 2015. A lawsuit brought by the family of Paul Heenan, who was fatally shot in 2012 by former Officer Stephen Heimsness, was settled for $2.3 million in 2015.

Madison Police Chief Mike Koval said in a statement that police officers accept jury verdicts as a necessary part of respecting the process that is critically important to our criminal justice system. That said, the dynamics of rapidly evolving, highly stressful incidents involving guns is never easy and our officers are well-trained and versed in trying to resolve these sort of calls doing the best they can under the totality of the circumstances. I support our officers in (the DiPiazza) case.

Koval also noted that an investigation by the state Department of Justice led Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne to clear the officers of any criminal liability and that an internal review by Madison police determined that the officers did not violate departmental policy.

DiPiazzas family contended that DiPiazza, a forklift operator at Pitney Bowes in Madison who was described by friends and family as fun-loving and loyal, was shot without making any threats to hurt anybody or pointing the gun toward anybody but herself. The suit claimed DiPiazzas constitutional rights against unreasonable searches and seizures were violated when Bailey and Pihlaja shot her 11 times inside her MacArthur Road apartment. It also alleged Leerek, who was negotiating with DiPiazza, did nothing to stop them.

The incident began after DiPiazzas then-boyfriend contacted police to say that they had a relationship-ending argument and she had been drinking and was holed up in their apartment with his gun.

Shortly after police arrived, DiPiazza emerged from the bedroom with a gun pointed to her head as four officers planned to enter the apartment behind a protective shield. They were ordered to quickly retreat.

DiPiazza re-emerged, holding a gun to her head, about 30 minutes later and was shot by Bailey and Pihlaja as they stood near the front door of her apartment. Bailey had no cover other than his bullet-proof vest, and Pihlaja had some protection behind a shield that Leerek was behind.

Actions, intent were key

Bailey and Pihlaja testified that they fired at DiPiazza after she quickly opened the door and emerged from her bedroom clearly enraged and, with the gun pointed at her head, took as many as four steps toward them in the tiny apartment, ignoring multiple commands to drop the gun.

That is imminent danger. Her actions showed an intent to harm them, their attorney, Claude Covelli, said in his closing argument. She had a dangerous weapon and the means to use it.

But DiPiazza family attorney Andrea Farrell told the jury forensic evidence could not prove DiPiazza took even one step toward the officers. Forensic studies presented in the trial showed the bullets that exited DiPiazzas body were found in the door or bedroom directly behind where she fell. Also, the only blood found was also near the threshold of the door.

Farrell also said the officers failed to prove that DiPiazza showed she intended to use her weapon on them, a situation that must be present before they can use deadly force. Bailey testified that his lack of cover exacerbated the issue, and Pihlaja testified that he was trained that a person with a gun to his or her head can fire it at an officer before an officer can respond.

Pihlaja also testified that he had completed an in-service training weeks before the incident and was told it was OK that, during an exercise with paintball guns, he shot and killed a suicidal subject who was pointing a gun at his own head.

None of that equals intent for Ashley, Farrell said.

But that is where the verdict has serious implications for police officers in Madison and elsewhere, according to Palmer.

The verdict sends a message that officers have to wait to be fired upon or have a gun directed at them before taking action to protect themselves. That is inconsistent with their training, he said.

That training wont change, according to Palmer.

Suicidal subjects can become homicidal subjects to force a confrontation, he said. The almost universal view  and studies support this  is that an officers reaction time is slower than the time it takes for a person to move the gun from his head and fire it.

Covelli told the jury that DiPiazza was armed with a dangerous handgun, expressed anger at the officers after she emerged and disobeyed commands to drop the gun. If she was simply suicidal, Covelli said, she could have pulled the trigger within the confines of the bedroom where she had been hiding.

She came out for another reason, Covelli said.

In rebuttal, DiPiazza family attorney Jeff Scott Olson told the jury that DiPiazza presented the officers with a potential threat, not an imminent threat. For the defendants to say she took steps toward them and somehow moved back to the doorway following a withering fusillade of 11 shots is absolutely incredible, Olson said.

As the jury deliberated on damages, Olson said he believes there are scenarios when officers should shoot a person who is holding a gun to his or head. Somebody who has a criminal track record, somebody who says something hostile toward the police officers, Olson said. This is a case without any of those earmarks.

But Sgt. Jason Sweeney, who was supervising the officers during the fatal shooting, said officers must make split-second decisions and any second-guessing can be fatal. My concern is: What happens tonight if any of our officers face the same scenario? he said.

Sweeney testified during the trial that he was the first to check on DiPiazza after she was shot.

She looked like my daughter, Sweeney said shortly after the verdict was read. That is still with me.

It still bothers everyone who was at the apartment that night, he said. There have been lots of tears, he said. (The defendants) are some of the finest officers we have in the department. To hear them called liars and murderers is a misjustice to the commitment they made to the community. That breaks my heart.

After the verdict, the jury heard friends and family members recall how DiPiazza had many friends, loved her family, was responsible and had a couple of relationships with young men that left her disheartened.

At the time of the shooting, DiPiazza also was grieving over the impending death of her mother, Michelle Duby, of Lake Geneva, who died of cancer two days after DiPiazza was killed, DiPiazzas father said.

Pihlaja and Leerek had testified that DiPiazza asked for her father while she was holed up in her bedroom. That didnt surprise Joe DiPiazza, who said he had plenty of heart-to-heart talks with his daughter.

She had just told me all her friends were married and had kids, and she felt a little left out, he said. Shed ask, Dad, what kind of mother do you think Id make to my child? I told her shed be great.
thera-LINK's New Dashboard Both updates provide a significant step towards where we want to take thera-LINK and signal the progression of our business to sync with what we are seeing and hearing from our customers and industry partners."

thera-LINK is announcing two major updates regarding their telehealth platform focused on mental and behavioral health providers. First is a complete overhaul of their platform which is intended to allow for further scalability plus new features built into the app. Second is a brand-new Directory website, which showcases providers that are using thera-LINKs online services, so they can be located by potential new clients.

Both updates provide a significant step towards where we want to take thera-LINK and signal the progression of our business to sync with what we are seeing and hearing from our customers and industry partners. We are very excited with how these two major changes position us to move forward.

 Carol Park, CEO, LPC, RD

With the all new redesigned web interface, thera-LINK not only streamlined the look and feel of the platform but also modernized back end infrastructure and frameworks. In addition, the providers on thera-LINK now have more control over their practice and settings such as how far in advance a reminder notification should be sent to their clients, ability to securely share the same document with multiple people at once, and even more beautiful waiting room imagery. Beyond that, larger practices and treatment centers can now see all providers in one side-by-side view to efficiently locate an available time slot for a client. The possibilities are endless with the new platform and thera-LINK has plenty more in store for this year.

The thera-LINK Directory is a brand new optional feature for all customers on the ultimateLINK or higher plan. The Directory is an all new website that beautifully presents the providers in a one page listing with pertinent information such as cost, insurance carriers accepted, and area of specialty for the provider. Clients seeking providers can search and find an online provider to contact and connect with. The thera-LINK mantra from the very beginning has been because connection matters and the Directory is the evolution of where technology has led us in facilitating that connection further. COO Heather Potter says, Clients seeking a new provider today typically search online first and we want to showcase thera-LINK providers right at the top. We provide the listing, updates, and are handling all of the SEO and ad campaigns on behalf of the provider.

thera-LINK is a HIPAA-secure telehealth platform founded in 2013 focused on the mental health space to allow a provider to meet with their clients online through face to face video connection. In addition to video, thera-LINK provides robust scheduling, credit card payment processing, and the ability to share documents with clients securely at an affordable price point for any size practice!

If you would like more information, please contact Heather Potter at 972-674-9855 or email at heather@thera-LINK.com or visit the website at http://www.thera-LINK.com.
"Dare to Lead allows us to share our leadership expectations and skills with the next generation workforce, said Brian A. Renstrom, managing partner Massachusetts.

BlumShapiro, the largest regional business advisory firm based in New England with offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, provided leadership development workshops and exercises during its Dare to Lead summer program for 22 college students from Massachusetts entering their junior year.

The two-day event was held July 11-12, 2017 at BlumShapiros offices in Quincy. Participating students attend UMass, Bentley University, Bryant University, Stonehill College and other higher education institutions.

Dare to Lead allows us to share our leadership expectations and skills with the next generation workforce, said Brian A. Renstrom, managing partner Massachusetts and managing partners consulting of BlumShapiro. The program also provides us with insights into those students who may become future employees of the firm.

Dare to Lead focuses on networking, teambuilding and leadership skills and includes various activities and interaction with BlumShapiro staff. The workshops, including one titled, Introduction to Innovative Leadership, were hosted by BlumShapiro partners and managers. Students were also joined by BlumShapiro summer interns who served as buddies for the two-day event.

During the second day of the program, the Dare to Lead students and BlumShapiro interns performed community service at Cardinal Cushing Centers.

Following the program, the top students are extended an offer for an internship based on employee feedback throughout the two days.

We hope to continue using the program to help build future leaders in our community as well as help the firm identify top talent and eventually bring them aboard as full-time staff, said Renstrom.

###

BlumShapiro is the largest regional business advisory firm based in New England, with offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The firm, with over 450 professionals and staff, offers a diversity of services which includes auditing, accounting, tax and business advisory services. In addition, BlumShapiro provides a variety of specialized consulting services such as succession and estate planning, business technology services, employee benefit plan audits and litigation support and valuation. The firm serves a wide range of privately held companies, government and non-profit organizations and provides non-audit services for publicly traded companies.

Contact

Thomas DeVitto

Chief Marketing Officer  BlumShapiro

860-561-6851

tdevitto(at)blumshapiro(dot)com
Its a good news, bad news update for restaurant industry performance this month. Bad news is same-store sales and traffic growth were still negative in June and the second quarter of 2017; and year-over-year, same-store sales have been declining for the last six consecutive quarters. However, the good news is that June results were the best for the industry for both sales and traffic growth since January, and the second quarter of 2017 posted the best results since the second quarter of 2016. These insights come from TDn2K data through The Restaurant Industry Snapshot, based on weekly sales from 28,500+ restaurant units, 155+ brands and represent $67+ billion dollars in annual revenue.

This is likely the result of a combination of factors, commented Victor Fernandez, Executive Director of Insights and Knowledge for TDn2K. While economic indicators have been pointing to some improved conditions this year, the reality is that we are also lapping over some weak results in 2016 which make the comparisons much easier for the industry in 2017.

Same-store sales growth was -1.0 percent in June and growth for the second quarter of 2017 was also -1.0 percent. As a comparison, same-store sales growth for the first quarter was -1.6 percent. Same-store traffic fell by -3.0 percent during June. Traffic declined by -3.1 percent for the latest quarter, a significant 0.6 percentage point improvement from first quarter results.

Average guest checks grew at the same rate in the second quarter as in the first. Both periods posted year over year increases of 2.2 percent. In general, check averages have been growing more slowly since 2015. In that year, average checks were up 2.8 percent. The more modest increases are a factor in the continued softness in top-line results.

Brands seem to be reluctant to implement significant price increases given the current environment. Price promotions have been widely utilized, especially by struggling brands and segments to drive traffic, said Fernandez. Average guest checks for the bar and grill sub-segment of casual dining remain flat year over year for the first two quarters of 2017, while casual dining overall has seen its guest checks grow by only 1.2 percent.

Economic and Job Growth Accelerate

Both job and economic growth picked up in the spring, though neither can be classified as robust, according to Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors and TDn2K economist. The surprisingly large June employment increase was largely due to outsized public sector hiring, which should unwind in the next few months.

Consumption, meanwhile, has slowed and vehicle sales have faltered. That is good news for other retail sectors, including restaurants, as credit growth is moderating. The rise in debt payments has funneled money from spending on other goods and services. National retail sales data seem to be indicating the outflow from restaurants is ending, but an uptick in demand has yet to appear.

Nevertheless, the summer season should be solid as people have money to spend. Unfortunately, until wage gains improve, which so far continue to be disappointing, no major acceleration in spending at restaurants should be expected, predicted Naroff.

Fine Dining & Upscale Casual: Best Performance Results

Affluent restaurant consumers continue to respond positively to those brands that provide a more experience-driven dining occasion. Fine dining was the best performing segment based on same-store sales growth in the second quarter, followed by upscale casual. These were the only two segments with positive sales. They were also the top performing segments in the first quarter.

However, even those segments with positive growth in their same-store sales are doing so through increases in average guest checks and not through driving incremental guest visits. All segments experienced a fall in their guest counts year over year during the quarter. The increased competition for dining occasions both from within the industry (independent operators) and from other sectors (grab-and-go prepared food options, meal replacement kits, and other players like convenience stores and food trucks) continue to grab additional share from traditional chain restaurants.

The weakest segments based on second quarter results were fast casual and the bar and grill sub-segment within casual dining.

Quick service, which was the top-performing segment in 2016 and was among the top three segments in 2015, is now struggling to keep up building on that rapid growth. The segment has now experienced three consecutive quarters of negative same-store sales growth.

Increase in Turnover and Staffing Headaches

Restaurant sales may be showing modest signs of improvement, but when it comes to finding enough qualified employees to staff the restaurants and retaining them once they are hired, the industry is still facing an uphill battle. According to TDn2Ks People Report, rolling-12-month restaurant hourly employee turnover increased again in May. Turnover for restaurant managers is also on the rise and is tracking at a 10-year high.

Recent research by People Report shows that staffing challenges are greater for the back-of-the-house (BOH) hourly employee positions compared with their front-of-the-house counterparts. Companies have expressed that turnover rates tend to be higher for their BOH positions. Additionally, these positions tend to take longer to fill and generate fewer job applicants than their front of house openings.

The unemployment rate continues to drop and brands report that the majority of applicants are coming from competing restaurants. The result is pressure on restaurant wages, which are expected to increase in the upcoming quarters. Almost 75 percent of restaurant companies report that they are offering higher wages as an incentive for potential employees.

Also a case of good news, bad news: the restaurant industry continues to create jobs. The latest numbers for the chain restaurant industry show year-over-year growth in net number of jobs at 1.0 percent in May, after 1.9 percent growth reported for April. This reflects an industry that continues expanding and opening locations, but it also adds to the headaches of those in charge of staffing those restaurants.

The real story is not average performance, cautioned Wallace Doolin, Chairman and Co-Founder of TDn2K. The sales growth performance gap from the top quartile and the bottom quartile of table service brands has grown to 8.4 percent in the second quarter of 2017. The gap for counter service brands has risen to 10.9 percent. And at the trade area, DMA or country level, we see a widening gap of performance that is driven by more than just the marketing budget and remodels. At every level we see retention of talent, adequate staffing and engaged employees predicting top or bottom quartile performance.

TDn2K (Transforming Data into Knowledge) is the parent company of People Report, Black Box Intelligence and White Box Social Intelligence. People Report provides service-sector human capital and workforce analytics for its members on a monthly basis. Black Box Intelligence provides weekly financial and market level data for the restaurant industry. White Box Social Intelligence delivers consumer insights and reveals online brand health. TDn2K membership represents 41,000 restaurant units, 2.3+ million employees, and $67+ billion in sales. They are also the producers of leading restaurant industry events including the Global Best Practices Conference held annually each January in Dallas, Texas.
AJ's new 70,000 square foot facility more than doubles it's previous space.

AJ Manufacturing, the industry leader in stainless steel air distribution products for critical environments, recently completed its move into a new 70,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and headquarters building that has resulted in a 50% increase in capacity.

The new facility in suburban Kansas City, Missouri, more than doubles the space of AJs previous manufacturing plant. In addition to the increased space, AJ has improved productivity while continuing to enhance quality. A new tower loader for its laser cutting machines gives the company multiple automated high-speed lasers capable of running 24 hours a day. The facility also features a new state-of-the-art powder coating system for a more homogeneous finish with improved color quality.

We were able to design the new building from the ground up to maximize efficiency and plan for future growth, says Tony Williams, general manager of AJ Manufacturing. The increased space and new equipment will speed production, dramatically increase capacity and help reduce our already excellent lead times.

AJ Manufacturing produces a wide range of standard and custom stainless steel products for the HVAC industry, including diffusers, grilles, dampers, louvers and more. Specializing in serving critical environments such as hospitals, laboratories, clean rooms, food processing facilities and water treatment plants, the AJ product line includes the popular Criti-Clean fan-powered laminar flow HEPA filter diffuser.

Our Criti-Clean FFU continues to be a top seller for us, and we will now be able to produce them faster to meet increased demand, says Williams. The industry has really responded to the Criti-Cleans unique features, including higher CFM output, room-side CFM display and control, and optional built-in surgical-grade lighting.

For more information on AJ Manufacturings broad range of stainless steel HVAC products, visit http://ajmfg.com.
Gay Knipper, HNTB Gay Knipper is a highly respected professional, well known in the industry for her excellence in effectively managing some of the countrys largest infrastructure programs, including the TIMED program in Louisiana.

Gay M. Knipper joined HNTB as senior program manager and vice president, specializing in program and construction management. She is based in the firms New Orleans office and works with clients throughout the country.

Knipper has more than three decades of infrastructure experience and has been responsible for all aspects of management, administration and financial control on several multibillion-dollar PM/CM programs. She will play a key role in serving HNTBs clients, initially focusing on the firms work with the Georgia Department of Transportation Major Mobility Investment Program.

Gay Knipper is a highly respected professional, well known in the industry for her excellence in effectively managing some of the countrys largest infrastructure programs, including the TIMED program in Louisiana, said David Downs, PE, HNTB program and construction management practice leader and senior vice president. As our clients seek to deliver highly complex, multimodal solutions, her expertise will be valuable as they address the mobility needs of customers across the nation.

Knippers experience encompasses diversified program management and financial control activities on multi-disciplinary projects, including Louis Armstrong International Airport and Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority. Her deliverables have included strategic program plans; complex procurement and contracting mechanisms; financial and progress reports; design/construction schedules and budgets; training programs; quality control programs; and affirmative action elements.

Knipper earned a Master of Business Administration from Tulane University and a bachelor of arts in mathematics from the University of New Orleans.

About HNTB

HNTB Corporation is an employee-owned infrastructure firm serving public and private owners and contractors. With more than a century of service in the United States, HNTB understands the life cycle of infrastructure and addresses clients most complex technical, financial and operational challenges. Professionals nationwide deliver a full range of infrastructure-related services, including award-winning planning, design, program management and construction management. For more information, visit http://www.hntb.com.
Delta Dental of New York, Inc., announced today its grant of $50,000 to Americas ToothFairy: National Childrens Oral Health Foundation to support oral health services and education in the state of New York.

Millions of children nationwide are affected by dental disease. According to the National Association of Dental Plans 2016 dental benefits report on enrollment, only about 56% of New York residents have dental insurance, which means about 46%  9 million children and adults statewide  go without coverage for their oral health care needs. Americas ToothFairy will use the Delta Dental grant to help narrow the care gap and support dental health care and education in the New York counties of Bronx, Queens, New York, Westchester, Orange, Richmond, Suffolk and Kings.

Were proud to support America's ToothFairy and its goal to educate residents about oral health and reduce tooth decay in children, said Kenneth Yale, DDS, chief clinical officer for Delta Dental. Education is key in preventing disease and reducing the problem of tooth decay among children, which in turn can reduce the number of school days missed due to oral health problems and lead to better overall health.

With support from Delta Dental of New York, Inc., students will have increased opportunities to learn about the importance of oral health and its connection to overall health and well-being, said Jill Malmgren, executive director of Americas ToothFairy. We are grateful to Delta Dental of New York, Inc., for understanding the importance of prevention and for investing in educational programs that teach children to establish and maintain positive oral health behaviors.

About Delta Dental of New York, Inc.

Delta Dental of New York, Inc., is part of a group of companies that includes Delta Dental of California, Delta Dental of Pennsylvania and Delta Dental Insurance Company. Collectively, the group of companies provides dental benefits to nearly 36.5 million people in 15 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and in 2016, they donated nearly $7 million to help improve oral health and support community initiatives. They all are part of the Delta Dental Plans Association, whose member companies collectively cover more than 75 million people nationwide.

About Americas ToothFairy: National Childrens Oral Health Foundation

As a resource provider, Americas ToothFairy: National Childrens Oral Health Foundation (NCOHF) increases access to oral health care by supporting nonprofit clinics and community partners delivering education, prevention and treatment services for underserved children. Since its inception in 2006, Americas ToothFairy has distributed more than $17 million in donated products, educational materials and financial grants to improve oral health outcomes for children and youth in need. For more information, visit http://www.AmericasToothFairy.org.
Part of the new Colombia Belatrix team Were impressed by the quality of the individuals were hiring here in Colombia. They have great digital skills combined with business know-how, which is exactly what our clients are looking for.

Belatrix Software, a leading software development company, has announced that it has opened new operations in the capital of Colombia, Bogota. Belatrix continues to grow rapidly, at over 37% year-over- year and in the first quarter of 2017 alone, the company added more than 50 new positions. The new Colombian operations will help sustain this growth.

This delivery center is Belatrixs 4th center in Latin America, in addition to having offices in Mendoza and Buenos Aires in Argentina, and Lima, Peru.

Bogota was chosen after careful consideration of different locations. The city has excellent transport links to the USA, with direct flights to major US cities and Europe. Colombia offers an excellent and welcoming business environment for organizations, being ranked in 2nd place in Latin America by the World Banks Ease of Doing Business Index. The city has numerous universities producing highly-skilled technical graduates.

The Colombian government has been highly supportive of the technology outsourcing industry, helping to contribute to the industrys rapid growth in recent years. Government initiatives, such as Colombia Bring IT On, are helping to encourage and cultivate young digital talent in the country. Meanwhile, organizations including Invest in Bogota and ProColombia have provided support to Belatrix in starting operations. These are some of the reasons that the consulting company, A.T. Kearney ranked Colombia as one of the most attractive locations for outsourcing in Latin America in their most recent assessment in 2016.

Initial hires of Belatrix Colombia have spent the past few weeks visiting the companys Lima offices to understand Belatrixs innovation-led culture. Meanwhile, Fernando Gonzalez, Belatrixs VP of Marketing, has relocated from Argentina to Colombia, and is leading Belatrixs operations in the country. Commenting, he highlighted the potential of Bogota to help Belatrixs rapid growth: Were impressed by the quality of the individuals were hiring here in Colombia. They have great digital skills combined with business know-how, which is exactly what our clients are looking for. Were excited about the potential to rapidly expand our presence in Bogota.

About Belatrix Software:

Belatrix Software helps clients achieve the full impact of their R&D capabilities developing high quality, innovative software, QA, testing and mobile solutions that enable clients to generate best-in-class software products, decrease time to market, and gain competitive edge.

Belatrix's clients include both established Fortune level and emerging, venture backed firms. Some of the firm's clients are Disney, Adobe, SiriusXM, mFoundry, and Chatham Financial. Belatrix is a South American company with offices in Florida, New York, San Francisco, London, Mendoza, Buenos Aires, Bogota and Lima. For more information, visit http://www.belatrixsf.com.
ExtensionEngine, a leading provider of Custom Learning Experiences, announced that it has been selected by ArtCenter College of Design to develop and deploy new online education offerings. The online educational offerings will incorporate ArtCenters new model for art and design education in the 21st century  an approach based on the Colleges innovative, conservatory-like approach to teaching and learning. The specific programs and courses will be announced as they get closer to launch.

While online higher education has grown significantly in recent years, serving those who study art and design has proved challenging. Traditional LMS-based courses with text and video do not work well in these disciplines. For ArtCenter, whose standards are exceptionally high, the opportunity to develop something unique and effective online  an innovative online learning and making space  is only now possible, with new technology and approaches to online learning unimaginable just a few years ago.

ArtCenter is recognized as a leading innovator in design education and in our commitment to further advance our values we are excited to partner with ExtensionEngine to tap into new and creative ways to deliver a rich online learning experience, said Theresa Zix, Vice President of Information Technology at ArtCenter. We chose ExtensionEngine because of their experience working on pedagogy-driven online learning models and creating unique online learning spaces, which will allow ArtCenter to broaden its strong brand awareness.

As we work through and experiment with different ways to deliver this online experience, our goal is not only to translate the impactful face-to-face creative learning process, but also to provide access to a larger community of learners worldwide students, adult learners, and alumni alike. Technology allows us to accomplish this in engaging and interesting ways that are agile and adaptive to the needs of our learners while upholding ArtCenters values and supporting our strategic objectives.

In contrast to the traditional approaches of either outsourcing to an online program management provider and sharing the revenue or doing everything in house, ArtCenter chose a different path. They chose as their strategic partner in this effort ExtensionEngine, an unbundled service provider that builds custom technology and courses on a fee-for-service basis while complementing the Colleges internal resources. This approach allows ArtCenter to maintain greater control over pedagogy, student experience, marketing strategy and revenue model.

ExtensionEngine develops custom learning experiences, leveraging the latest in learning science and technology to create rigorous, collaborative, learner-centric experiences that are more effective and engaging than traditional online learning. As a fee-for-service custom service provider, the company takes a comprehensive approach, providing strategy, instructional design, creative, software development and integration, project management, and learner acquisition services.

We love working with the creative and innovative staff and faculty at ArtCenter. They are bold and pushing the boundaries of how design is taught, and learned, online, said Furqan Nazeeri, Partner at ExtensionEngine. Our team thrives on these projects  doing what has not been done before.

About ExtensionEngine

ExtensionEngine develops Custom Learning Experiences, delivering online and blended programs for universities, corporations and nonprofits. Leveraging the latest advances in learning science and technology, the company takes a comprehensive, unbundled, fee-for-service approach to develop programs that engage learners, encourage collaboration, and increase impact. A privately held company based in Cambridge, MA, ExtensionEngine has launched over 70 programs for more than 40 organizations. http://www.extensionengine.com.

About ArtCenter College of Design

Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design (artcenter.edu) is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees in a wide variety of industrial design disciplines as well as visual and applied arts. In addition to its top-ranked academic programs, the College also serves members of the Greater Los Angeles region through a highly regarded series of year-round educational programs for all ages and levels of experience. Renowned for both its ties to industry and social impact initiatives, ArtCenter is the first design school to receive the United Nations Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the Colleges long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.
Ashley Greene, known for her role as Alice Cullen in the film adaptations of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novels, visited Xplor Park in celebration of her 30th birthday.

The actress and model enjoyed the unique subterranean world of Xplor in the company of her closest friends.

During her birthday celebration, Greene took on five great adventures. She flew on the parks ziplines -- the highest in Cancun and Riviera Maya. Greene also drove through the tropical jungle aboard amphibious vehicles, paddled on rafts along an underground river, swam in the most spectacular rivers of stalactites, and hiked through scenic caves and grottos.

Greene took to Instagram to share a picture of a friend and her on Xplors zipline adventure. She gushed about her adventures at the park with the caption, Just came across this gem. Went to @xplorpark for my bday and it was one of the coolest experiences EVER. Best zip line I've ever done and coolest caves I've ever swam in. Kinda wanna go back for the weekend.

About Xplor Fire

At Xplor Fuego, adventure evolves. At dusk, torches are the only guide through this underground park. A ring of fire ignites the only nighttime zip-line circuit at Cancun & Riviera Maya, flaming lava flows through the stalactite rivers, darkness covers the amphibious vehicle trails and underground rafts will take you to the center of the Earth.

Xplor is the most-visited zip line park in the world, thanks to the high level of safety of its facilities, which have been certified by the Association for Challenge Course Technology (ACCT).

For more information please contact:

Iliana Rodriguez

Sub Director of Communications and Public Relations

irodriguez(at)experienciasxcaret(dot)com(dot)mx
Paul M. Seby, an environmental shareholder in the Denver office of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, will present on the CLE webinar, Presidential Executive Orders Impacting Energy and Environmental Regulations, July 14, for Lawline.

The course will examine the function of an Executive Order, identifying recent primary Executive Orders involving energy and environmental policies and several federal agency actions taken in response. The course will assess the impact of these actions on energy and environmental regulations, discuss the potential timeframe for full implementation of such Executive Orders, and recognize the level of scrutiny to which Executive Orders will be subject in court. Registration for the course can be found here.

Lawline is a platform for online continuing education. According to its website, Lawlines instructors represent many of the AmLaw 100 as well as includes faculty from nonprofits, corporations, and government agencies.

Seby is a leading practitioner in the Rocky Mountain region, with nearly 25 years' experience analyzing a myriad of environmental issues. He counsels public and private clients in the energy, mining, manufacturing, and service industries on how to navigate and successfully operate within the complex framework of state and federal environmental regulations and policies. Seby has vast experience prosecuting cases to enforce and overturn administrative agency regulations and decisions, and has defended clients in federal and state enforcement proceedings, in appearances before the U.S. Supreme Court, several U.S. Courts of Appeal, and the Colorado Supreme Court, among others. Bearing in mind that a successful outcome is often a combination of traditional and non-traditional legal strategy, Seby leverages his experience to negotiate with government agencies and adversary groups.

About Greenberg Traurigs Environmental Practice

Greenberg Traurigs Environmental Practice assists clients with issues under the environmental and natural resource laws that affect their businesses. The firms environmental attorneys assist with securing permits and approvals; negotiate and close transactions; defend clients in enforcement actions; handle a broad range of environmental and toxic tort litigation; ensure the understanding and satisfaction of regulatory requirements; prepare for and respond to emergencies; craft approaches for legacy cleanup issues; and develop solutions for product regulation, market access, and environmental policy challenges. The practice was named Law Firm of the Year for Environmental Law in the U.S. News  Best Lawyers 2016 edition of Best Law Firms.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GTLaw) has more than 2,000 attorneys in 38 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and is celebrating its 50th anniversary. One firm worldwide, GTLaw has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, was named the largest firm in the U.S. by Law360 in 2017, and among the Top 20 on the 2016 Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law.
A state board has offered its initial approval for Madison Area Technical Colleges plan to lease its Downtown campus for a $130 million private development.

The Wisconsin Technical College System Board unanimously approved Wednesday the concept to convert MATCs Downtown Education Center into a hotel, office building and retail space, bringing the proposal by Madison-based Hovde Properties and hotel developer Drury Southwest closer to an intended 2019 start date.

In May, MATCs Board of Trustees voted to begin negotiations with the development team after it was selected from five finalists seeking to develop the block just off Capitol Square.

College officials intend to move programs to the citys historically under-served South Side.

Mark Tyler, president of the Wisconsin Technical College System Board, said he fully supports the plan to lease the property, adding that its an interesting concept that allows the college to avoid costly upgrades to the two aging buildings.

Its a good deal in terms of providing a consistent stream of revenue to the college, Tyler said.

Missouri-based Drury plans to renovate the buildings on the campus, 211 N. Carroll St., into a 197-room, limited-service hotel. On the other side of the block, Hovde would construct a 10-story office tower with retail space and a grocery story to replace a parking lot and the arch from the former Madison Central High School.

The arch would be moved to a courtyard. The final build-out is projected to be 609,000 square feet.

Under the proposal, MATC would abandon its Downtown campus June 30, 2019. The lease is set to begin the following day.

Payments to the college would start at $750,000 annually, with Drury paying $450,000 and Hovde $300,000. After the first five years of the initial 50-year ground lease, payments would rise annually based on the Consumer Price Index or by 2 percent, whichever is less.

The development team would have the option of six eight-year extensions, potentially totaling 98 years.

Tyler said the only concern among board members was whether the property would be in good condition when it reverts back to MATC, also known as Madison College, at the end of the ground lease.

But he said college officials ensured the board that the development team has a vested interest in maintaining the property.

A final sign-off on the project will be needed by the Technical College System Board, while MATCs Board of Trustees will also need to approve the lease agreement.

MATC officials did not respond for request for comment.
Today every third person is threatened by cancer, and nearly every fourth actually dies of the disease. So, if there is an opportunity to change this situation, we have no right to remain indifferent.

In The Conquest of Cancera Long-Ignored Breakthrough: Autologous Tissue Anticancer Immunization Therapy (published by AuthorHouse UK), author and biotechnologist Vladimir Kalina describes the circumstances of a revelatory experience made by Dr. Karel Fortyn in 1957 and its fundamental scientific significance in the struggle against cancer.

The book deals with the issue of cancer treatment, particularly how the important findings and decisive breakthroughs in medicine have nearly always encountered fierce opposition, taking a long time before they were finally recognized as major discoveries, according to Kalina.

Ultimately, The Conquest of Cancera Long-Ignored Breakthrough serves as a call to action, asking readers to be aware and empathetic of those living with cancer, which Kalina notes is a costly major health problem  becoming only more expensive to treat.

An excerpt from The Conquest of Cancera Long-Ignored Breakthrough:

Today every third person is threatened by cancer, and nearly every fourth actually dies of the disease. So, if there is an opportunity to change this situation, we have no right to remain indifferent.

The Conquest of Cancera Long-Ignored Breakthrough

By Vladimir Kalina

Hardcover | 6 x 9 in | 356 pages | ISBN 9781524679194

Softcover | 6 x 9 in | 356 pages | ISBN 9781524679187

E-Book | 356 pages | ISBN 9781524679224

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Born in Prague, author and biotechnologist Vladimir Kalinas school years started in Paris when in 1940 war events brought him to Britain. There, intrigued by the penicillin adventure of Professor Chains group at Oxford, he found early interest in the medical sciences. Coincidentally, in 1950 the author made Professor Chains acquaintance in Czechoslovakia when Chain was there as consultant for the government. They met again in Switzerland under similar circumstances. Later, when the author was defending a thesis in bioengineering at Dijon University he was honored having Sir Ernst Chain as President of the jury. The critical coincidence relating to later work is that shortly after Dr. Fortyns revelatory biological finding in 1957, Kalina had in mind a project based on the same principle. Becoming acquainted by chance in 1999 both realized they passed their matriculation in the same school. What followed is the result of their mutual understanding of the cancer challenge.

AuthorHouse, an Author Solutions, Inc. self-publishing imprint, is a leading provider of book publishing, marketing, and bookselling services for authors around the globe and offers the industrys only suite of Hollywood book-to-film services. Committed to providing the highest level of customer service, AuthorHouse assigns each author personal publishing and marketing consultants who provide guidance throughout the process. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, AuthorHouse celebrated 15 years of service to authors in Sept. 2011.For more information or to publish a book visit authorhouse.com or call 0800 1974150. For the latest, follow @AuthorHouseUK on Twitter.
Adena Rissman studies the ways human interaction with ecological systems can be harmonious or ruinous.

As part of a $4.9 million National Science Foundation project, the UW-Madison professor delved into peoples attitudes about government policies that rely on voluntary anti-pollution measures and those policies failure to rid lakes of unnatural bacteria, algae and weed growth.

In Wisconsin, clean-water advocates complain that laws offer financial incentives for voluntary anti-pollution efforts  but few meaningful penalties  for farmers whose land is the main source of water quality problems. But many farmers say they cant afford to do more in a tough market where each year smaller farms disappear, while so-called mega-farms increase.

After detailing existing policies, Rissman and her colleagues surveyed 1,000 Dane County residents about local lakes. Urban and rural residents agreed water needed to be cleaned up, and they strongly supported both the financial incentives for voluntary efforts on farms and the notion of adding meaningful penalties.

People who trust government were more likely to support stricter regulations, while those with individualistic leanings more often favored incentives  leading Rissman to conclude that the best way to clean up lakes may be to strengthen both regulations and incentives, because the combination could win broad support from the public.

Rissman, 39, grew up in St. Louis, was an undergraduate at the University of Texas in Austin and trained at Berkeley in environmental science, policy and management.

She has worked on a community-based farm in Missouri and a dairy operation in Israel. In Madison, she has served as an Aldo Leopold Nature Center naturalist, a UW-Madison soil science technician and a state forest planner.

She lives near Lake Wingra with her wife, Toki Middle School science and math teacher Carey Callies, and their 5-year-old son, Zeke Rissman-Callies. Two years ago, they took a long vacation that included wetting their feet in each of the Great Lakes. Rissman is expecting their second child in September.

Why study peoples attitudes? Isnt it enough for scientists to figure out how to clean up the water, send the scientific paper over to the policymakers, and then they just make it happen?

No (laughter), not really. Theres this longstanding metaphor about science and education thats really been overturned  that the peoples minds are an empty bank account waiting for that big deposit to come from people with more knowledge. Thats really been replaced with a model that thinks about how even the questions we ask should be affected by what society needs and what is important to peoples values. ... Often that requires establishing, from the very beginning, relationships with the people who might be the recipients of the information.

And you did that in the study about water pollution in Dane County?

We asked about both carrot and stick policies  carrots being incentives and sticks being regulations  for reducing runoff from farms and from lawns. The majority supported all seven policies we proposed (with incentives and regulations) for improving water quality. We found the least support, at least in Dane County, was for (two options) relying only on voluntary actions.

After reviewing all the efforts by farmers and others to clean up lakes, what do you see as the strengths of current government policies?

One is the numeric criteria for water quality. Other states have less specific narrative standards. And (in Wisconsin) there is a requirement for farms not to have excessive phosphorus in their soil, although there is debate about whether the standard (is strict enough to be) effective.

And the weaknesses?

We spend money, and we dont see improvement. ... One of the things that is difficult is seeing the proposed (federal) budget cuts (for clean water programs).

What is the answer?

We do have the basic structure in place. Its just not operating at a level that has produced the reductions in runoff that are likely to be needed. ... We know overall we may need to run faster to stay in place because of factors like population growth, development, greater concentrations of livestock and larger storm events that are induced by climate change.

Youve said there are legal obstacles to even obtaining a full understanding the problem. Whats an example? Private land owners have a lot of concerns about privacy. Government wont let researchers access soil testing records (showing were the highest nutrient pollution concentrations are). It makes it very difficult to understand what sort of changes are happening.

 Interview by Steven Verburg
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In the early days of the technology, people with a few computers were able to mine hundreds of coins in three to four days. That's not what the landscape looks like today, according to Sebastian Quinn-Watson, a consultant with Blockchain Global, a bitcoin mining firm.

But Quinn-Watson thinks two factors could make up for a spike in cost and difficulty and sustain bitcoin miners moving forward.

"Ironically, the rise of ether is one trend that could help bitcoin miners," he said.

Ether, the bitcoin rival, which is powered by Ethereum blockchain, is up over 2,000% since last year. Up until June, the cryptocurrencyCoindesk, but its share of the market has since pulled back.

"Many miners without the wherewithal to compete may completely shift over to mining ether tokens," Quinn-Watson said."Less participants means better economies of scale for firms that stay in."

Miners could also benefit from future appreciation in bitcoin's price, according to Quinn-Watson. If bitcoin's appreciation were to outpace the rise in the cost of mining, then the profitability of the business would be unaffected.

To be sure, bitcoin is up about 250% since last year, but it has recently experienced extreme swings in its price. Some miners have attributed this volatility to an ongoing civil war between crypto-power brokers over the future structure of the cryptocurrency.

This, however, doesn't bother Quinn-Watson. He told Business Insider volatility is exciting.
A spokesperson for Lynch said the former attorney general "does not have any personal knowledge of Ms. Veselnitskaya's travel," The Hill reported Thursday evening.

"The State Department issues visas, and the Department of Homeland Security oversees entry to the United States at airports," Lynch's spokesperson said according to The Hill.

President Donald Trump earlier Thursday attempted to blame Obama's Justice Department for allowing Veselnitskaya into the US in the first place, months before she met with Trump Jr. on the premise that he would receive damaging Hillary Clinton emails courtesy of the Russian government.

"Somebody said that her visa or her passport to come into the country was approved by Attorney General Lynch," Trump said. "Now, maybe that's wrong. I just heard that a little while ago, I was surprised to hear that. She was here because of Lynch."

Veselnitskaya was temporarily allowed into the US in fall 2015 when an earlier visa request was denied. The temporary grant was due to expire in January 2016.

Trump sought to play down the June 2016 meeting between Veselnitskaya, Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort: "Most people would've taken that meeting," Trump said. "It's called opposition research."
This facility aims to create a spectacular education hub, research and business incubation in West Africa.

Seme City is expected to generate and house educational establishments and research and development centres which include a business incubator supporting up to 250 startups.

President Patrice Talon explains thatSeme City symbolises our determination to promote knowledge as a growth driver and position Benin at the forefront of the knowledge economy on the international scene.

The project will receive state sponsorship of XOF207-billion (roughly $354 million at the time of publication) in the coming years.

Meanwhile, some funds have already been released to begin preparation work, he stated.

The flagship project which Benin hopes of making it a lab for entrepreneurs will cover 350 hectares.

We are designing Seme City so it becomes an open-air laboratory  a Living Lab, said Claude Borna, the development officer of Seme City.

Various points of call regarding the hubs strategic projects still in need of partners are:

Training  Schools  hotel management, IT, cinema and audio-visual design, socially impactful design, sustainable fashion.

Research  Laboratory for research and quality control of plant-based medication, laboratory of research for new medication.
After Martin Scorsese teams with his long-time collaborator Robert De Niro on the anticipated Netflix movie, "The Irishman," he'll switch gears and join up with another actor he can't help but work with: Leonardo DiCaprio.

Variety reports that the two Oscar winners are developing an adaptation of the true-crime book, "Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI." Scorsese plans to make that his next project after he's done with "The Irishman."

Written by "The Lost City of Z" author, David Grann, "Killers of the Flower Moon" is set in the 1920s and focuses on a string of murders done in Oklahoma after oil is discovered beneath the land of the Native American tribe, Osage Nation. It was one of the FBI's first major homicide investigations.

The rights to the book were bought for $5 million, according to the trade. Veteran Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump," "The Insider") is drafting the script.

Scorsese and DiCaprio have been eyeing the project for months, but don't expect seeing it on screen anytime soon. Scorsese still has to shoot "The Irishman," which he's eyeing for September.

There's no word yet who DiCaprio will play in the movie.
About 14 million cedis of the total is expected to be used to roll over maturities and the remaining GH3.2 billion as fresh issuance to meet governments financing requirement.

READ ALSO: Pulse Ghana honored at Ghana Startup Awards

In the said quarter, a 2.6 billion cedi fifteen-year bond will be issued in August. Two five year bonds will also be issued, one to be issued in July and the other in August.

Two 3 year bonds, three 1 year and two 2 year bonds will also be issued.

The rest will be 91 and 182-day bills which will yield about 11 billion cedis.

The statement added that the 1-Year Note will be issued every two weeks through the primary auction, while the 91-day and 182-day will be issued every week.

Settlements will be done on first and third Mondays of each month.

Meanwhile, the 2-year note will be issued every month through the primary auction, with settlement occurring on the second Mondays of each month.

READ ALSO: 6 ways to survive on a minimum wage as a Ghanaian

The book building method will be used to issue the 3 and 5-year bonds and settlement will occur on the last Monday of each month.

The 3-Year target in July 2017 will be issued through the reopening of the 3-Year Bond (coupon of 18.50%) maturing 1st June 2020.
This was announced by President Nana Akufo-Addo at the launch of the plan.

The president said his main objective as president is create jobs for the growing unemployed youth.

READ ALSO: 6 ways to make extra money aside your regular income

President Akufo-Addo said NEIP will solve four main challenges.

The overall objective of this plan is to stimulate private sector growth to accelerate job creation and to provide entrepreneurial Ghanaian youth with a critical alternative to salaried appointment."

He added that the objective is also to raise money from private sources and public organization to the tune of 100 million US dollars to fund this programme.

He further revealed that the NEIP will give tax incentives for start-ups and entrepreneurs to help them begin and expand their operations.

READ ALSO: Pulse Ghana honored at Ghana Startup Awards

The plan will also incentivize and partner private sector investors to set up business incubator hubs and industrial parks, [and] establish a new enterprise fund to attract private partnership nationally.

It will also provide a ready market for the products and services of start-ups through the reservation of the percentage of the proposed 70 percent of local content public procurement contract, he added.

President Akufo-Addo was optimistic that a conducive environment for start-ups will ensure more people are employed and subsequently bring about growth in the economy.
The award ceremony was held in Accra on Thursday (July 13, 2017).

Pulse Ghana has, through the Meet The Boss series, given exposure to a number of start-ups in the country.

READ ALSO: The dreamers who sold Ghana power banks

This is done mainly by presenting readers with insightful interviews from entrepreneurs in the country and telling the success stories of Ghanaian business owners.

A citation presented to the publication by the Managing Director of Premium Bank Kwesi Tumi said, we celebrate Pulse Ghana for their initiatives aimed at echoing the voices and stories of entrepreneurship through their business segment and popular online feature such at Meet the Boss. To Pulse Ghana, we say Ayekoo!

READ ALSO: Meet the university graduate making money out of coconut waste

Other award winners at the event include Wear Ghana, Creo concepts, Trotro tractor, Doughman foods, Tonaton Ghana, Food for all Africa Programme, My home teacher, Claudia Lumor, Zeepay Ghana Limited, Express Pay, Asoriba, Kantanka Automobile, Quik Medical Consult, and Leizer-Legacy Productions.

The Ghana Startup Awards is organised by The African Network of Entrepreneurs and The Start-up Network.
Farmers in the Yahara watershed will have easier access to a manure-spreading tool that reduces phosphorus runoff under a partnership between Dane County and local organizations.

The implement, which farmers in the area can rent by the hour, injects manure into the earth, rather than depositing it on the surface, where it is prone to drifting off fields and into waterways.

By sharing the cost of the cutting-edge technology, more farmers are able to make use of what would otherwise be a cost-prohibitive tool, said Maria Woldt, a spokeswoman with Yahara Pride Farm Group, a coalition of farmers that focuses on conservation practices.

Organizers said the tool can reduce the amount of phosphorus entering the watershed by 1.5 pounds per acre. The nutrient is a leading cause of dangerous algae blooms in local lakes, with just one pound of phosphorus producing up to 500 pounds of algae, said Josh Wescott, a spokesman for County Executive Joe Parisi.

The new technology is the result of a partnership among Dane County, the Yahara Watershed Improvement Network, Yahara Pride and Carl F. Statz and Sons Inc., which is providing a tractor.

Dane County is contributing $60,000, paired with another $60,000 from the Yahara Watershed Improvement Network, to buy the tanker and injection bar.

The effort provides a long-range continuation of another county initiative  a four-year, $12 million project to remove phosphorus-laden sediment from local streams, Parisi said. The first stage of removal, on Dorn Creek, will begin this fall.

In addition to that, we need to continue to do conservation work upstream  just like what were doing now  so that once we remove that legacy sediment, that legacy phosphorus thats feeding the current blooms, that those streams arent filling up again with new sediment, Parisi said.

The new tool allows the soil to retain 15 percent to 20 percent more nitrogen than if the manure were simply spread over the earths surface, organizers said.

Several farmers in the group have experimented with the injection bar already, resulting in 1,100 pounds of phosphorus savings on 1,200 acres of land in 2016. Jeff Endres, the Yahara Pride Farm Groups chairman, projects that, through the new cost share system, the average cost per farmer will be $35 per acre, which would cover operator costs, tractor rental and repair and maintenance.

Endres said that farmers can also increase the conservation impact of the technology by pairing its use with the planting of cash crops, such as corn or alfalfa. He projects that up to 20 farmers will be using the technology by the end of the summer, though the hope is to attract more.

The ones who have used it in the past, would use it again, Endres said. He anticipates that the technology will be used on 500 to 600 acres in its first year.
The 30-year-old identified as Rafiqul Islam, who is a migrant worker in the United Arab Emirates, is said to have warned his wife, 21-year-old Hawa Akhter, of what he would do if she refused to listen to him and give up her education.

Ms Akhter told The Times that her husband had said that, "Upon getting back to Bangladesh, he wanted to have a discussion with me."

Rafiqul reportedly blindfolded Hawa, taped her mouth under the guise of trying to surprise her and cut off all her five fingers.

One of his relatives then discard the chopped digits in the dustbin so that doctors would be unable to reattach them.

Hawa went on, "Suddenly, he blindfolded me and tied my hand. He also taped my mouth saying that he would give me some surprise gifts. But, instead, he cut off my fingers."

Bangladesh Police Chief, Mohammed Saluddin, said that Mr Islam confessed to the crime after he was arrested in the capital, Dhaka, and will be arraigned in court on charges of permanent disfiguration.

According to the reports, a human rights group is demanding life imprisonment sentence for Rafiqul.

ALSO READ: Woman's face bathed with acid by husband

On the bright side, Hawa revealed that she is learning to write with her left hand and is set on resuming her studies.
Dailymail reports that the correctional officer identified as Olukunle Oyekanmi who was attached to the Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her cell at the Clarksburg correctional facility around 6:20 a.m. on Tuesday, July 11.

ALSO READ: Nigerian student gets indefinite hospital order for murdering lecturer in the UK

The police disclosed on Wednesday, July 12, that Oyekanmi was on duty at the time of the alleged incident.

According to the reports, the correctional facility staff was notified of the assault and a review of the video surveillance showed Oyekanmi in the victims cell during the period of the alleged assault.

The 41-year-old later confessed to a detective, admitting that he had indeed committed the crime.

He was arrested by the police at his residence and transported to the Central Processing Unit.

Oyekanmi was reportedly released after posting a $20,000 bond.
He is expected to begin his new role on August 1, 2017.

The Ghana Publishing has over the years been saddled with the problems of a low public image, patronage of products and services and poor state of buildings and machinery.

But David Asante has told Pulse.com.ghthat he hopes to turn things around and make the company a leading name in the publishing industry.

I have been given a major sector of this economy to manage and I am hoping to bring a lot of expertise to bear to change the whole scope of publishing in this country. It is a major hub for the government to make a lot of revenue. I hope to bring a lot of changes to the place, he said.

READ ALSO: LMVC to join Movement for Joint Action demo on new voter register

He further believed that the company, when managed well, will be able to enhance profitability.

Being a state institution, there is the likelihood and the tendency that they may cry out because of lack of funding but I believe as an autonomous wing or department in the government when we manage it well, we will not need government effort to put resources in there. We need diligent management to make the place active and make it a profit-centered organisation. We hope to get down there and make it work better, Mr Asante added.

READ ALSO: Police whip Let My Vote Count Alliance demonstrators

The LMVCA headed by Mr Asante had in the run-up to the 2016 elections engaged in a back and forth with the police over its decision to picket at the offices of the EC to present a petition for a new voters register.

The group had before then held a demonstration which ended violently after police fired tear gas and flogged some demonstrators because they used the unapproved route for the protest for a new voters register.
Son also met with John Malone, the cable mogul, at the Allen & Co. annual conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, the report said.

The Journal reported that details of the potential deal were unclear but that it could be an investment of over $10 billion in Sprint from Berkshire Hathaway.

Sprint shares gained as much as 4% after the news.

Amid fierce competition and price cuts among the largest telecoms companies, the chief financial officer of T-Mobile has said the company would benefit from a merger with Sprint. Sprint's controlling shareholder was gearing up for deal talks with T-Mobile's top shareholder, Deutsche Telekom AG, Reuters reported in May.
After a meeting in which lawyers advised Trump to avoid a particular subject, the newspaper reported, he tweeted about it before they even got back to their office.

Trump has frequently been at odds with close advisers, even after seeking their advice, as was evident during his 2016 presidential campaign, in which his use of social media sometimes ruffled feathers in both the Republican and Democratic parties.

"It's my voice,'' Trump said of his Twitter use, according to an article published Tuesday in The New York Times Magazine. "They want to take away my voice. They're not going to take away my social media."

Trump hired his outside counsel after the investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election began. Nearly two months after Trump hired his legal team, it is having difficulty keeping up with its client, who habitually strays from legal norms and candidly voices his thoughts on Twitter, The Post said, citing six people familiar with the matter.

Specifically, infighting between Trump's and Jared Kushner's legal counsel was also said to be brewing inside the White House, according to The Post.

Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, is also a central figure in the ongoing Russian investigation. After reports that he attempted to establish a back-channel line of communication with Russia, he further became a target of scrutiny this week when Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged having participated in a meeting with a Russian lawyer in 2016 on the premise that he would receive information damaging to Hillary Clinton. Kushner was present at the meeting.

The atmosphere has become so toxic that staff members have been distrustful of one another, especially after news of Trump Jr.'s meeting surfaced. For instance, Marc Kasowitz, the head of Trump's private legal team, was irritated at Kushner's "whispering in the president's ear" about stories on the Russia investigation without telling the lawyers, The New York Times reported this week.

But not all of Trump's legal team characterized the atmosphere inside the White House in negative terms. "The legal teams have worked together smoothly and professionally from the start," said Michael Bowe, a member of the legal team.
However, Africans countries while most are not involved in the space race they are not necessarily new to space explorations.

Lying across the equator line, most African countries have budding space agencies which if properly funded can see an African leave their footprint on the moons surface in the near future.

The African Union Working Group on Space in 2014, for instance, approved a draft on African space policy and is currently developing a comprehensive space strategy.

Here are African countries which are piercing the space and making history in the same breath.

Ghana

This is Africas newest kid on the block in terms of space exploration.

The West African nation launched its first-ever satellite into space at a cost of $50,000 (40,000).

The GhanaSat-1 as the satellite has been christened was developed by students at the All Nations University College (ANUC) in the Eastern Region with support from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Also read: 5 AFRICAN FEMALE FOUNDERS WHO ARE CALLING THE SHOTS IN THE AFRICAN TECH SPACE

Nigeria

Nigeria is one of Africas powerhouses that is determined to leave its footprints in space.

In 2016, Nigeria announced plans to send an astronaut into space by 2030, as part of its drive to develop a world-class space industry.

"The space program is very important," said Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science and Technology, during a speech in the capital city Abuja.

"Space is a major asset that Nigeria must be involved in for the purpose of protecting national interests."

The announcement was met with skepticism of course keeping in mind the shoestring budget the state space agency operates on.

Nigerian Space Agency hopes to fulfill these Hercules task by partnering with China, one of the worlds space giants.

"We have always said ... the Nigerian space program is not going to be an ego trip," S. O. Mohammed, director general of the Nigerian National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) told CNNMoney in a past interview.

All in all, Nigeria's space program is no joke and since 2003, NASRDA has launched five satellites, with three still in orbit delivering vital services.

The most recent - NigeriaSat-X -- was the first to be designed and constructed by NASRDA engineers, and more advanced models are in development.

South Africa

South Africa launched its first satellite, SUNSAT, in 1999. A second, SumbandilaSat, was launched from Kazakhstan in 2009.

In 2010, South Africa formed its national space agency called South Africa National Space Agency, (SANSA) with the intent of consolidating space-related research, projects and research in South Africa and to assume the role as a regional center for space research in Africa.

In 2013, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology launched South Africa's first CubeSat  a type of nano-satellite, known as ZACUBE-1.

Also read: 5 LITTLE KNOWN BUT EXTREMELY INNOVATIVE AFRICAN STARTUPS TO WATCH OUT FOR

Kenya

Until last year, there was nothing much to write about Kenyas space exploration apart from a few space brushes here and there coupled with Kenyas unique position on the equator.

All this, however, is set to change after the countrys cabinet finally approved the formation of the Kenya National Space Agency in 2016 at a cost of $96 million.

The development paves way for Kenya to venture into space science after a long break.

"This is a great step in the right direction as it will help the country in critical sectors such as agriculture, mining and forestry among others," the Director General of the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) Dr. Moses Rugutt said.

Kenya's first satellite was launched in 1970 and was named Uhuru, its mission was to study celestial X-ray astronomy.

Kenya was also involved in the launching of the first Italian satellite from the San Marco space station of Ngomeni falls in Malindi.

Angola

The first Angolan satellite, built by a Russian consortium, will be placed in orbit in the first quarter of 2017, according to the Secretary of State for Telecommunications, Aristides Safeca.

Ethiopia

In 2015, Ethiopia built a privately funded astronomical observatory, taking the first step towards creating a fully fledged national space agency.

Located in the hills outside of the Addis Ababa, the Entoto Observatory and Research Center is propelling the nation forward in Africa's space race.

In January this year, the government said it would launch a Chinese-built civilian satellite from an overseas rocket pad within the next five years.

Algeria

Algeria, established its space agency in 2002 and since then it has launched five disaster monitoring microsatellites.

The Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) announced the successful launch of three earth observation satellites; Alsat-1B, Alsat-2B and Alsat-1N on 26 September 2016 from Chennai, India.

Egypt

Egypts National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Science was established in 1971 with help from the U.S. government.

Egypt launched its first satellite in 2007 for scientific research.
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This disclosure was made during a courtesy visit to Nigerias Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu by the Iranian Ambassador toNigeria, Mr Morteza Zarchi on Thursday, July 13, 2017, in Abuja.

Onu said the country desires to consolidate its relationship with Iran, especially in the area of science and technology.

I must commend you for the good work you have done to promote a good relationship between Iran and Nigerian. I also commend Iran for her commitment to using science and technology for nation building, he said.

It is as a result of this that government has initiated many programs to support many technology hubs and companies developing tech products in the country.

The minister also said that science and technology would help Nigeria to use its resources more efficiently to create jobs. Hence, he noted that Nigeria would be happy to cooperate with Iran.

At one of the conferences I attended representing my country in Pakistan, your minister of science and technology told us that Iran as of last year was investing 1.2 per cent of your GDP in science and technology.

There is that decision to even boost allocation of more resources to science and technology because you understand and appreciate the importance and relevance of science and technology to nation building.

The Iranian envoy also appreciates Nigerias commitment to using technology to diversify her economy.

Zarchi stressed that both countries are in the same situation as both are exploring diversifying their economies through technology and agriculture.
The act took to social media today Friday, July 14, 2017, to make this known. He wrote alongside a political photo post of himself, "My name is Yul Edochie. And I'm running for Governor of Anambra State. 2017. #TheLastBusStop."

ALSO READ: Yul Edochie Actor launches film Academy

According to him, he has a plan for restructuring the life of his people by aspiring for a governorship seat. "We need a new brand of Leaders who will put the masses first. The older ones have failed us for too long...

They have come to THE LAST BUS STOP!!!," he added.

Pulse Celebs reached out to the actor's manager Alex who said his governorship declaration is not a stunt. According to him, Yul's political party would be announced next month. "That's correct. He hasn't been announced yet until next month."

Named after Russian actor, Yul Brynner, Yul Edochie was born on January 7, 1982.

He is known for his role in movies like "Palace Maid," "Royal Maid," "Sarafina" among others.

He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Arts from University of Port Harcourt and is the last child of veteran actor Pete Edochie.
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The owner of East Towne and West Towne malls will impose a new policy banning anyone under 18 from being in the malls without a parent or guardian after 4 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays starting July 28.

CBL Properties of Chattanooga, Tennessee, which owns many shopping centers across the nation, is starting the policy in Madisons two biggest malls over concern about large groups of teens gathering  sometimes in groups of more than 100  on weekend evenings and causing disruptions, shoplifting and fighting, Stacey Keating, CBLs director of communications, said in an interview Thursday.

This policy has not been developed in a vacuum, Keating said. Its not something we take lightly. At the end of the day, we believe its in the best interest of East Towne and West Towne and the best interest of our shoppers.

The policy is drawing a mixed reaction, with concern and support from city officials, caution from city police, skepticism from youth, and opposition from the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

For Jaelynn Harris, 13, the mall is taking away our fun with the policy change. She said she usually goes to the mall two times a week  often after school or on weekend evenings  to shop, eat or hang out with friends.

Madison police East District Capt. Tom Snyder and West District Capt. Cory Nelson issued a joint statement, saying, The MPD recognizes business owners  in this case mall owners and managers  have the right to establish rules governing what they believe are best practices for their properties.

We do not believe the new youth escort policy will dramatically change the way in which MPD officers police East and West Towne malls, they said. We will continue to respond to trespassing complaints, treat people with respect and attempt to gain voluntary compliance.

Private property

On Friday, the malls will post signs announcing the new policy and fliers will be distributed in the evening at both properties, Keating said. Information will also be posted on the malls websites, she said.

Under the policy, at 4 p.m. on those nights, private security will ask for identification of unescorted youth in the malls common areas and those without proof of age will be asked to leave. But those entering stores that have a separate outside entrance, like a department store, wont be carded unless they leave the store and enter the malls common areas.

CBL has instituted similar policies in 25 of its 83 shopping centers, most recently at a mall in Rockford, Illinois, Keating said. The mall is private property, she said. We do have the ability to enforce a code of conduct on properties like this.

The company has been mulling the policy in Madison for months after other measures, including the addition of state-of-the-art cameras, added security and closer relations with police, failed to quell complaints from customers and tenants, she said.

Fridays and Saturdays should be the most productive days of the week for tenants, and thats just not the case, she said.

A review of police data from January 2014 through June 2017 shows that the most calls for service from the mall come on Friday and Saturday, with the peaks at 4 and 5 p.m. About 20 percent of calls occurred during the time period covered by the coming curfew, and 37 percent of the calls happen on Fridays and Saturdays.

In interviews at West Towne on Thursday, teenagers said setting a curfew for them at the mall was unnecessary or silly, calling malls a good place to walk around and socialize.

Most of the kids hang out here unless theres like a fair or something, Harris said. We usually hang out here, and not all kids shoplift.

She said shes witnessed altercations among groups of teens at malls before but that the malls policy will just push those groups elsewhere, where theyre still going to fight.

Concerns, praise

Mayor Paul Soglin said he is concerned about the policys legality, has reservations about racially equitable enforcement, and fears police will be asked to enforce the policy.

City Council members who represent the malls locations are split.

It is bad when we start to address problems by limiting the rights of people who are not causing the problem, said Ald. Samba Baldeh, 17th District, which includes East Towne. We are creating new and concerning issues. My fear is that this could be a pipeline to jail or prison for mainly poor and people of color who frequent the malls as kind of a public space because that is what they can afford largely.

The enforcement could be biased and could result in unfair profiling, Baldeh said. He encouraged the malls owner to educate youth about the policy before it is implemented and not seek citations for those who violate it, particularly in the first month.

The ACLU of Wisconsin agrees.

These policies treat young people like criminals when they have not committed a crime, said Chris Ott, executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin. This breaks the trust between youth and law enforcement, reinforces a belief that the criminal justice system is biased and inconsistent, and may push young people into the criminal justice system through receiving municipal tickets for trying to hang out at the mall.

But Ald. Paul Skidmore, of the Far West Side 9th District, said: This is a private business exercising their legal right on their property. I am grateful that the plan is in place. I will do everything that I can to help CBL and West Towne Mall succeed in their effort to provide a secure and pleasant experience for their tenants, their customers and staff.

Keating said the policy is color blind, and that CBLs only concern is unsupervised youth being at the malls on Friday and Saturday evenings. Security guards will be trained on how to implement the policy properly, she said.

State Journal reporter Chris Aadland and online editor Nick Heynen contributed to this report.
Abbas was arraigned by National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on a charge of trafficking in Cannabis Sativa (hemp).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the convict, who was not represented by a lawyer, had pleaded guilty to the charge and begged the court for leniency.

In his judgment, Justice Rlwan Aikawa, said he found the man guilty of the offence as charged.

Aikawa, consequently, sentenced him to five years imprisonment, beginning from the date of his arrest.

Earleir, the Prosecutor, Mr Jeremiah Aernan of the NDLEA, said the offence was committed on Feb. 14 at Agege Motor Park, a Lagos suburb.

Aernan said the accused was arrested with one kg of hemp and was seized from him.

He tendered in evidence a written statement of the accused, a request for scientific aid form, a test analysis form as well as the bulk of exhibit which was admitted and marked as exhibits.
The group, in a letter sent to Prof. Osinbajo, has threatened to stage a nationwide protest if justice and necessary action is not taken on the incident where it was reported that over 50 persons were killed while 120 houses were razed in the attacks on June 18, 2017.

According to the group, the attack which was targeted at the herdsmen by the indigenes also saw over 200 cows when gunmen who invaded several villages and settlements occupied by the Fulani people.

The Executive Director of the SHAC, Comrade Abubakar Ibrahim, in a statement issued in Kaduna State after its general meeting, condemned the senseless killings in the Mambilla Plateau and ordered reinforcement of security in the area to avert further loss of life.

Ibrahim who acknowledged the acting President's prompt reaction by setting up a panel of inquiry to unravel the root cause of the attack added that more action is needed to tackle the issue.

Part of the letter sent to Osinbajo reads:

We are at pains to bring to your attention the need to go beyond these initial reactions from Your Excellency since we know the demands of managing the affairs of a country as complex as Nigeria could soon have the tragic incident on the Mambilla Plateau pushed into irrelevance until another rude awakening exposes the culture of ethno-religious intolerance that has become ingrained in our national psyche having been actively promoted by some state actors.

The Fulani communities in Sardauna Local Government Area of Taraba State have called for the Acting President's intervention in the wake of the massacre.

In a nation that is being ravaged by sponsored violence by highly placed persons, the plight of these communities may not merit special attention but the concerns they have expressed about the attacks against them being an act of genocide calls for a different approach in addressing the Mambilla Massacre.

It is a development that can complicate matters for Nigeria before the International Criminal Court since indifference from the Federal Government would be construed as an acquiescence with a pogrom.

A further imperative to investigate the allegation of genocide in Mambilla, Sardauna Local Government Area of Taraba state is the domino effect that could result if nothing is done.

The groups director said if the attack is allowed left uninvestigated, it would spell future disaster for the country as ethnic cleansing could become a trend that eventually compromises the corporate integrity of the country.

Continuing, Ibrahim said:

"Your Excellency the Acting President, our prayers are, therefore, that:

The attention of the nation and the entire world should be focused on what happened on the Mambilla Plateau as a way of building the consensus that ensures this does not happen anywhere else in Nigeria ever again.
Olusola, who was said to have arrived the country via an Emirates Airlines flight on Thursday, July 13, slumped at the screening point of the airport.

According to The Cable, he was quickly attended to and given medication by airport clinical personnel but he did not survive.

Medics said the passenger slumped around 4.18pm when he arrived and was pronounced dead at 5.34pm.

He was said to have died of cardiac arrest.
The Guardian reports that aside the tongue lashing Ogungbeje has from a Federal High Court judge, Abdulaziz Anka, he was also told to pay a fine of N20,000 for wasting the court's time.

Ogungbeje, claiming to be representing Evans who has been in detention since he was arrested on June 10, 2017, the lawyer had sued the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Lagos State Police Command, for allegedly infringing on his fundamental human rights.

Ogungbeje had urged the court to mandate the police to either charge the suspect to a court or to release him as he was being detained illegally, and also wanted the police to pay the suspected kidnap kingpin the sum of N300 million.

However, on the date assigned to the case, the lawyer failed to appear in court and instead wrote to the judge requesting for an adjournment because he was sick and needed to treat himself.

The action of Ogungbeje was said to have angered Justice Anka, a vacation judge who was warned never to waste the time of courts as he was always doing with frivolous cases and desist from acts unbecoming of a legal practitioner.

Justice Anka also awarded the N20,000 against him for what he described as unprofessional conduct.
She has been trying to get pregnant for her fiance, Damian, but all her efforts have been in vain and she fears the words of the doctor could come true.

Read her story here:

"My name is Joy, a 29-year-old woman. My wedding is coming up in two months time but my secret past is threatening to catch up with me and truncate my joy.

I have a secret that I have been keeping from my fiance, Damian, and I know if he gets to know, he will call off the wedding because he is so jealous and quick to get angry.

I don't know how to tell Damian that I have four abortions in the past and after the last one, the doctor told me I stand the risk not getting pregnant when I get married.

I know many will say since it was in the past, I should just let it go but I know the man I have and I know very well he will surely only call off the wedding and no one would make him change his mind.

I must confess that when I was much younger, I did what most young girls did and got pregnant for the first time when I was 19 and I was still waiting to get an admission into the university and there was no way I could be saddled with a baby.

My parents too would have skinned me alive if I went to tell them I was pregnant, so the wisest thing to do was to get an abortion especially after the guy who got me pregnant bluntly refused to take responsibility.

I was in my second year in the university when I got pregnant for a lecturer I was dating and he took me to a doctor for an abortion.

I became pregnant two other times and had to get rid of them with the last one almost claiming my life as the doctor had to evacuate the foetus to save my life. After the emergency operation, the doctor told me I had a 70% to 30% chance of getting pregnant when I get married.

I have been with Damian for three years and in all that time, I have tried to get pregnant for him especially as he keeps talking about wanting babies but to no avail. We have made love even when I am ovulating but I am yet to get pregnant.

I don't know if I should tell him about my past or I should just keep it as a secret? What will happen if I cannot give him the children he so much wants? Won't that be the end of my marriage?

Joy."

The teaser for the day was:

How Nigeria voted:

Joy should not keep the secret to herself - 21%

Joy should never divulge the secret to Damian - 4%

Joy should go on a fertility treatment so as to get pregnant - 29%

Joy should just pray for God's intervention - 46%
The Judge, Justice John Adeyeye, who handed the sentence, also slammed another 10-year jail term on the convict for unlawful possession of firearms.

Adeyeye held that the accused was guilty as charged having committed the offence contrary to Section 6 (b) of Robbery Firearms (Special Provisions) Act Cap R11 Laws of Federation of Nigeria 2004.

He said that Bamiteko was arrested and arraigned alongside a 12-year-old boy, Ayobami Ojo, on a three-count charge of conspiracy, robbery and unlawful possession of firearms.

The court, Adeyeye said, discharged the boy on grounds of being underage in line with Section 30 of the Criminal Code.

He said Bamitekos charge sheet stated that he robbed one Adefunke Amire of her Nokia phone near the Ewis Palace in Ado-Ekiti on July 14, 2016, with a locally-made pistol with live cartridge and one knife.

The judge said that the convict was arraigned on Feb. 16, 2017, and he pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Adeyeye said that the prosecution called three witnesses to prove the case while the accused did not call any witness.

He also said that the prosecution tendered exhibits such as the statement of the accused, items stolen from the victim and one locally-made pistol with live cartridge.

Others were one knife, two Nokia phones and a golden wristwatch which were admitted as exhibits.

He held that the court found Bamiteko guilty of armed robbery and unlawful possession of firearm as contained in counts one to three and accordingly convicted him.

On count two, the sentence of armed robbery is mandatory in respect of which I have no discretion.

"Therefore, the 2nd defendant is sentenced to death by hanging until he be dead. May the Lord have mercy on your soul.
Ikpeazu spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of a counselling session organised by the foundation for sickle cell patients in Umuahia.

She said that there would also be follow up treatment for the patients at subsidised rates, as a way of mitigating impact of the condition on the sufferers.

According to her, the foundation also plans to have desk officers in all the local government secretariats to enlighten people at the grassroots about the disorder.

In his remarks, Mr Godswill Ogbonnaya, a consultant public health physician, said that family support played a valuable role in the management of sickle cell anaemia.

Ogbonnaya said that it was pertinent to support sickle cell patients right from the home front.

This, he said, was because the problems associated with sickle cell disease and its management occurred primarily at home.

The physician said that patients with sound family support did better in managing the disease, especially in adhering to medical advice.

The family can assist the patients to have access to proper medication and help them to cope with stressors of life and provide basic nutrition.

When the patient has problems, they can move him quickly to a facility, because you dont expect someone who has crisis to carry himself to the hospital, Ogbonnaya said.

He expressed dismay over the negative disposition of some families toward sickle cell anaemia, saying that in such families, sickle cell patients were usually regarded as cursed and in turn neglected.

Ogbonnaya urged sickle cell anemia patients to know where to get help in time of emergency, go for regular medical checkup and visual assessment.

He also advised them to maintain good hygiene, good sanitation, prevent infection through immunisation and avoid stress as it precipitates crisis.

Also, Miss Osinachi Kanu, a 32-year-old sickle cell patient, thanked the foundation for providing a health centre that would be devoted to addressing the needs of patients.
WASHINGTON  The Russia scandal has entered a new phase and theres no going back.

For six months, the White House claimed this scandal was nothing more than innuendo about Trump campaign collusion with Russia in meddling in the 2016 election. Innuendo for which no concrete evidence had been produced.

Yes, there were several meetings with Russian officials, some only belatedly disclosed. But that is circumstantial evidence at best. Meetings tell you nothing unless you know what happened in them. We didnt. Some of these were casual encounters in large groups, such as the famous July 2016 Kislyak-Sessions exchange of pleasantries at the Republican National Convention. Big deal.

I was puzzled. Lots of cover-up, but where was the crime? Not even a third-rate burglary. For six months, smoke without fire. Yes, President Trump himself was acting very defensively, as if he were hiding something. But no one ever produced the something.

My view was: Collusion? I just dont see it. But Im open to empirical evidence. Show me.

The evidence is now shown. This is not hearsay, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr. himself. A British go-between writes that theres a Russian government effort to help Trump Sr. win the election, and as part of that effort he proposes a meeting with a Russian government attorney possessing damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the Kremlin is willing to share troves of incriminating documents from the Crown Prosecutor. (Error: Britain has a Crown Prosecutor. Russia has a State Prosecutor.)

Donald Jr. emails back. I love it. Fatal words.

Once youve said Im in, it makes no difference that the meeting was a bust, that the intermediary brought no such goods. What matters is what Donald Jr. thought going into the meeting, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, who were copied on the correspondence, invited to the meeting, and attended.

It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame, Donald Jr. told Sean Hannity. A shame? On the contrary, a stroke of luck. Had the lawyer real stuff to deliver, Donald Jr. and the others would be in far deeper legal trouble. It turned out to be incompetent collusion, amateur collusion, comically failed collusion. That does not erase the fact that three top Trump campaign officials were ready to play.

It may turn out they did later collaborate more fruitfully. We dont know. But even if nothing else is found, the evidence is damning.

Its rather pathetic to hear Trump apologists protesting that its no big deal because we Americans are always intervening in other peoples elections, and they in ours. You dont have to go back to the 40s and 50s when the CIA intervened in France and Italy to keep the communists from coming to power. What about the Obama administrations blatant interference to try to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest Israeli election? One might even add the work of groups supported by the United States during Russian parliamentary elections  the very origin of Vladimir Putins deep animus toward Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, whom he accuses of having orchestrated the opposition.

This defense is pathetic for two reasons. First, have the Trumpites not been telling us for six months that no collusion ever happened? And now they say: Sure it happened. So what? Everyone does it. Whats left of your credibility when you make such a casual about-face?

Second, no, not everyone does it. Its one thing to be open to opposition research dug up in Indiana. But not dirt from Russia, a hostile foreign power that has repeatedly invaded its neighbors (Georgia, Crimea, Eastern Ukraine), that buzzes our planes and ships in international waters, that opposes our every move and objective around the globe. Just last week the Kremlin killed additional U.N. sanctions we were looking to impose on North Korea for its ICBM test.

There is no statute against helping a foreign hostile power meddle in an American election. What Donald Jr.  and Kushner and Manafort  did may not be criminal. But it is not merely stupid. It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor.

I leave it to the lawyers to adjudicate the legalities of unconsummated collusion. But you dont need a lawyer to see that the Trump defense  collusion as a desperate Democratic fiction designed to explain away a lost election  is now officially dead.
The Director of Defence Information, Major General John Enenche, made the military position's clear in a statement released on Thursday, July 14, 2017.

The statement said the military is not planning to disrupt the country's democracy, saying it was committed to the "best global practices of governance".

The statement read, "It is necessary to make clarifications on an ill motivated article published by the media by a group of 'unnamed concerned military and intelligence officers'.

"This is another machination of mischief makers and distractors against the military in its entirety.

"The publication by all intent is ultimately aimed at undermining the efforts of the Armed Forces of Nigeria towards tackling the security challenges in the country and particularly that of the North-east. It should be disregarded as an unfounded and absolute disinformation.

"Thus, the contrary assertion reported is a gross and evil intended message to the general public and therefore should be disregarded.

"The BBC's Hard Talk with the Chief of Army Staff during his official visit to the United Kingdom was never arranged by any group or cabal as reported.

"It is normal media practice to interact with principals of organisations on topical issues at such opportunities, which was what happened. It was not for any image burnishing as maliciously purported. Hence, it should be ignored.

"The book launched on the late Brigadier General Zakaria Maimalari in Abuja on 3 July 2017 was attended by notable senior citizens of Nigeria among others, including former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon and former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, both who by every standard can never belong to any such thing as cabals.

"It was not a cover for any power take over as wickedly portrayed, not minding the presence of key patriotic elder statesmen and leaders at the event. This shows clear lack of situation analysis capability due to ulterior motives. Hence, should be discountenanced.

"It is worthy of note that the Nigerian military in the recent past has been in the fore front of the country's foreign policy and political direction of ensuring political stability in the West African sub-region.

"In The Gambia, the Armed Forces of Nigeria took the lead in the military coalition to ensure that the will of Gambians was achieved and democracy sustained.

"Thus, it is morally, practically, professionally and ethically impossible for the contemporary Nigerian military to embark on truncating democracy in its own country. "More so, members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria are in tune with best global practices of governance, which is civil democracy.

"Therefore, the Defence Headquarters reassures all Nigerians of the unalloyed loyalty of the military to the Commander-in-Chief and total subordination to political and constituted civil authorities in the country.

"The Armed Forces of Nigeria will continue to carry out their constitutional roles as directed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria."

There have been unending rumours about a cabal trying to unseat Osinbajo ever since he's been acting as the country's Commander in Chief in the absence of President Buhari.

The president left for London on May 7 to resume treatment for an undisclosed illness that has invited speculations that he might be unfit to continue to lead the country.

This week, Osinbajo met Buhari in London, and on his return said the president is "recuperating very quickly and hes doing very well.
The relentless destruction of lives and properties aside, it also exposed the dire incapability of the Goodluck Jonathan administration to properly contain a really bad situation.

President Muhammadu Buhari's government came in and restored order for a while but through those eight years, human casualties was a constant.

The insurgency has resulted in over 20,000 deaths, and displaced over two million people scattered across refugee camps all over the region.

Even more worrying is the disturbing indication that millions more are at risk of dying an even slower, more painful death.

Earlier this year, the United Nations declared famine in parts of war-torn South Sudan, and projected that 20 million people across four African countries are at risk of being affected by an imminent famine crisis.

What these four countries (Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria) have in common is internal conflict.

South Sudan has plunged into war since 2013 after a clash between President Salva Kiir of the Dinka ethnic group and Vice President Riek Machar of the Nuer group turned into an ethnic conflict that has divided the country and claimed the lives of many.

In Somalia, terrorist group Al-Shabaab reportedly controls 10% of the country's territories.

The civil war in Yemen, that's chiefly between the government and the Houthis rebel group, has attracted opposing participation from Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Nigeria has, of course, been dealing with its own Boko Haram problem, which has over the course of the past eight years, become one of the deadliest terrorist groups in the world.

Over the years, the Nigerian government has unwittingly combined efforts with the terrorist group to create a disastrous famine crisis in the north to worsen the situation.

It took a combination of connected actions from both parties, but the northern part of the country is at risk because of them.

Boko Haram's contribution to the crisis

In its bid to establish a caliphate in the country, Boko Haram, armed with imprudent violence that shocked many, trod all over the northeast with a campaign of destruction.

Their rampage suppressed economic activities in those areas, steadily destroying agricultural production and causing food insecurity.

They went about the place, rashly decimating the agricultural economy of the north that was regarded as the country's agricultural capital.

At the height of their powers, some of the injudicious decisions the group made included destroying farmlands, looting food, and stealing cattle from the common folk.

There have been reports that the terrorist group even went to the trouble of planting land mines in farmlands to deter people.

Over these tortuous years, many harvest seasons passed in Borno with nothing to show in the markets which were also favourite attack spots for the terrorists to bomb.

This was the beginning of the food crisis in the north as it was incredibly dangerous to attempt to grow food.

As a result of this, prices of food were unsurprisingly jacked up to what most people couldn't afford.

In unfortunate circumstances such as this, local and/or foreign humanitarian aid is something victims always have to desperately depend upon.

When non-governmental organisations started sending food aid and other relief materials to victims in piling refugee camps in the affected areas, Boko Haram, on cue, started to attack and raid the supplies for their sustenance.

ALSO READ: Africa is the worst place for children

Federal Government's culpability in the famine crisis

There's no real fool proof guide on how to effectively snuff out a full blown insurgency, but lukewarm reactions to it in its early years did not help.

Former President Jonathan's actions against Boko Haram in the early years of the group's rampage bordered on recklessly unbothered.

This was mostly because, according to many, his administration believed it was a politically orchestrated gambit by opposition forces to frustrate his governance and turn the country against him.

If it was indeed planned by opposition forces, it worked because he was voted out of office in the 2015 presidential elections and replaced by President Buhari partly due to the Boko Haram problem.

One month after his inauguration in 2015, Buhari relocated the military's Anti-Insurgency Command and Control Centre in Abuja to Maiduguri.

This set the tone for the president's subsequent aggressive military campaign against the sect that had already decimated the northeast.

In December 2016, the president declared the scourge of the group as finally over after the military sacked Sambisa Forest, Boko Haram's main stronghold.

Several successful attacks in recent months suggest that the president was wrong.

Despite significantly curtailing the operations of Boko Haram, Buhari's sustained aggressive military operations came with the side effect of further repressing the region's economic life, making it even more difficult to grow food.

The army closed markets because they were easy targets for terrorists to attack.

Soldiers also, quite understandably, blocked food supplies to areas that were heavy with Boko Haram presence, punishing them and, unfortunately, the civilian victims trapped there with them.

Food became a weapon the military deployed (or didn't) to fight the insurgency, a very common tactic.

It's hard to blame Buhari or his administration for the ugly consequence of their tactics because it was left with virtually no other choice than to respond with adequate military response.

However, despite the marked difference between the approach of Jonathan and Buhari's governments, one problem persisted: administrative arrogance.

To maintain the appearance of a stable flourishing nation foreign investors can be comfortable in, Jonathan inadvertently swept Boko Haram under the carpet, delaying relevant agencies from responding to the crisis in time.

To paint a picture of tremendous success against the group, Buhari's government suppressed the true extent of the damage that was still going on in the north.

Efforts of the media to gain unfettered access, to be able to adequately report the full scope of the malaise ravaging the region, were frustrated.

The government's stranglehold on humanitarian and media access to the region has invited accusations of negligence in light of their uncompromising stance that downplayed the scale of the damage.

This resulted in the United Nations neglecting to declare a 'Level 3 Emergency' in time despite that the rate of severe acute malnutrition was already 19% in 2016; 16% more than it needed to have been to declare an emergency.

After a UN revelation last year claimed that millions could die of starvation in 2017, the presidency responded by referring to the projection as unnecessary hype.

An official statement said, "We are concerned about the blatant attempts to whip up a nonexistent fear of mass starvation by some aid agencies, a type of hype that does not provide solution to the situation on the ground but more to do with calculations for operations financing locally and abroad.

"In a recent instance, one arm of the United Nations screamed that 100,000 people will die due to starvation next year. A different group says a million will die.

"If you say that 1 million people will die or 7 million will go hungry - are they really accurately taking cognisance of the entire situation? Our sense is that there is no need for hype.

"The hype, especially that which suggests that the government is doing nothing is, therefore, uncharitable and unnecessary."

Damage assessment

What the country is dealing with now, because of the mismanagement of a very bad situation, is a full blown man-made disaster that's going to take a lot of smart decisions to undo.

To solve the famine across the four countries, the UN is soliciting $4.4 billion for emergency relief funding. Only a fraction of that has been donated.

Last month, in what appears to be a significant show of intent to avert the impending famine crisis, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo launched a quarterly Special Relief Intervention plan that will largely cover provision and distribution of food grains in the region, especially for internally displaced people.

While this may represent a major turnaround, provision of relief aid to IDPs has been dogged by a series of high profile cases of mismanagement by officials that have largely gone unpunished by the government.

This considerably tames expectations about the intervention scheme because at the end of the day, this is still Nigeria. Those who know, know.

It is hoped that the government somehow muscles its way into solving a crisis that it could have avoided with a few choice changes.

If it doesn't, a few thousand people to millions in the north will have to live with a monster that its government helped to create.
After their search turned up empty, it was realised that the whistleblower, Chindo, led them astray.

The accused is standing trial for a two-count charge. He pleaded "not guilty".

Counsel to the ICPC, Elijah Akaakohol, who read out the charge before the court, said Chindo gave the false information on June 21, 2017.

The charge reads: "That sometime in 2013 you conveyed a huge sums of money both in the Nigerian and other foreign currencies from Abuja Airport to a house in Ungwan Rimi GRA, Kaduna on the directive of a retired Army officer which money you suspected to be ill-gotten wealth and still laying in boxes in that said house at the moment of your report.

"And of which you made the officer of the commission of the ICPC to carry out a sting operation that turned out to be false.

"You thereby committed an offence, contrary to, and punishable under section 64 (3) of the corrupt practices and other related offences act 2000."

ALSO READ: Former Vice President Sambo's home raided by security operatives

The presiding Judge, Justice M.T Aliyu, denied Chindo's pleas for bail and remanded him in prison until he can get a lawyer to perfect his bail conditions.
Adeosun had on Monday, July 10, said that the Federal Government cannot afford to any longer to fund its budget, adding that it should instead raise money internally.

"We cannot borrow anymore, we just have to generate funds domestically to fund our budget, and mobilise revenue to fund the necessary budget increase," Adeosun had said.

But in a statement issued on Thursday, July 13, by the ministry's Director of Information, Mr. Salisu Dambatta, the Minister's comment was contradicted.

The statement asserted that the Federal Government will continue to borrow from foreign and domestic financial institutions to fund its programmes.

"Following recent reports on comments by the Minister of Finance about Nigeria's debt strategy and ability to borrow, it is important to clarify the position of the minister and the Federal Government," the statement said.

"Nigeria will continue to borrow. Nothing has changed. The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan provides for an increase in spending over a three-year period, which is reflected in the 2017 budget.

"In 2017, the government is committed to spending N7.44tn, with a projected fiscal deficit of N2.356tn, which will be funded by a combination of domestic and international borrowing."

It added that, "Nigeria's debt to GDP ratio is low when compared to our contemporaries in Africa and across most of the developed world.

"We have a headroom to borrow and are doing so aggressively in the short to medium term in order to address our infrastructure deficit and to stimulate growth."

The statement stressed that the government is working towards diversifying the country's revenue base, adding that this would, in the long run, save the Nigeria from relying on debt to fund its budget.

It, however, said the government will borrow at a reduced proportion.

It added, "It is vital that Nigeria diversifies its revenue base and builds its revenue profile as is projected in the ERGP to ensure that we do not continue to overly rely on debt to fund our budget spending over the long term.

"To build a sustainable economy, we must replace the debt that we are incurring in the short to medium term with strong revenue sources.

"That is why the Ministry of Finance is focused on expanding our tax base, which we are doing with a range of initiatives, which include the Voluntary Asset and Income Declaration Scheme and recruitment of community tax liaison officers to improve tax compliance in the long-term, and we are heavily focused on making government spending more productive and efficient.
According to a statement from the tax agency, one of the affected institutions is an educational facility, Fanaks International Schools in the Asokoro area of the federal capital.

The agency disclosed that the school is owing a total of N976,133.57 in Company Income Tax (CIT), Education Tax (EDT) and Withholding Tax (WHT).

The enforcement team, led by Zubairu Usman, gave the school management till 2 pm to evacuate the children to enable to officials to totally seal the school.

ALSO READ:LIRS seals Protea Hotel over failure to remit N11m tax proceeds

Also sealed was Hotel Bahamas International, which owes N694,045.29 in CIT, EDT, WHT for the 2015 assessment year.

Another hospitality facility, Dabiyi Hotels and Suites in Kurudu was sealed over tax liabilities totaling N4,191,996.26 carried over from the 2014 assessment year.
The director of the bureau of communication and strategy in the office of the governor, Semiu Okanlawon made this known on Friday, July 14, 2017.

TheCable reports that Kolawole was killed after being kidnapped along the Okene-Abuja highway in Kogi state on her way to Abuja.

Kolawole's abductors reportedly shot her when the driver of her vehicle was trying to escape.

We commiserate with the families of the deceased, the entire public service and the state government of Osun on this irreparable loss.

Details of the burial programme shall be released as soon as they are announced by her family," Okanlawon said.

The Osun state's head of service, Sunday Owoeye, also expressed shock and sadness over the state's loss.

ALSO READ: Gunmen kidnap Osun State Permanent Secretary, others

He said: On behalf of the forum of head of service and permanent secretaries, tutors-general, accountant-general, auditors-general and surveyor-general, and with rude shock and a deep sense of loss, I hereby painfully announce the untimely death of Mrs. OLUFUNKE OLUWAKEMI KOLAWOLE who was brutally attacked by kidnappers while travelling along Okene  Abuja highway on her way to Abuja on Thursday, 13th July, 2017 for an official assignment.

Until her death, Mrs. Kolawole was the permanent secretary, bureau of general services, office of the governor, state of Osun.

The forum commiserates with the families of the deceased, the entire public service and the state government of Osun on this irreparable loss.
According to a report by Premium Times, Yusuf, in a letter dated July 12, 2017 said he would not comply with the July 6, 2017 suspension order.

The reply which was reportedly written on the official letterhead of the NHIS, saw Yusuf acknowledging the receipt of the suspension letter.

Yusuf also gave five reasons why he would not comply with the suspension order despite being directed he proceeds on a three months suspension.

ALSO READ: Minister reportedly suspends NHIS boss over alleged fraud

The 54-year-old Yusuf's suspension came weeks after the Senate launched investigations into his activities as the NHIS chief.
He said: There is no division between the acting president and the cabinet, there is no division between the acting president and the president.

He further said: All these talks about division, I think they are just fictions of the imagination but they have a purpose which is to weaken this government to ensure that we are distracted and Im happy that we as a government, we are resolved that this is a very trying time of Nigeria and we must all put in our best to ensure that this country remains one.
On episode three of the series, BJ is about to sign his new contract with Magix and this could be the start of his career.

The guys think they are being followed, and Ebuka might be in trouble.

Lagos "Big Boy" is a story of four aspiring young men who tackle the challenges of being successful in the city that never sleeps, getting themselves mixed up in all sorts of hustle to actualize their dreams of attaining the ultimate Big Boy status.

The series, produced by NdaniTV with Dare Olaitan of Ojukokoro fame as writer and director, features an all-male lead cast.
Silver May Start Parade of Horribles Out of McDonnell Case, Critics Say: Alan Feuer of The New York Times has this report.







Md. redistricting case could stall while Supreme Court hears Wisconsin case: Josh Hicks of The Washington Post has this report.







Four of Trumps judicial nominees clear Senate committee: Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times has this report. And last week, Melissa Nann Burke of The Detroit News reported that Trumps Michigan judicial nominee hits a snag.







Former Pitt neuroresearcher Robert Ferrante appeals conviction for killing wife: Paula Reed Ward of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has this report.







Yes, Trump Can Accept Gifts: Josh Blackman and Seth Barrett Tillman have this essay online at The New York Times.







Benched: Abortion, Terrorists, Drones, Crooks, Supreme Court, Kennedy, Nixon, Demi Moore, and Other Tales from the Life of a Federal Judge. Senior Second Circuit Judge Jon O. Newman has written a new book, and you can learn more about it here and here.







Why the U.S. could see more executions this year: Mark Berman of The Washington Post has this report.







Uncertainty swirls around Trump nominations; White House delay in floating names for Oregon seat on powerful U.S. Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and top federal prosecutor job has sparked speculation U.S. Rep. Greg Waldens picks are not a sure thing: Nick Budnick of the Portland (Ore.) Tribune has this report.







Two Trump federal appeals court nominees survive judiciary committee votes: Ryan Lovelace of the Washington Examiner has this report.






In a statement made available to , the former minister noted that he was in Saudi Arabia for religious purpose.

Mohammed linked the report to political opportunists and agent provocateur in the All Progressives Congress (APC) while advising them to spare the nation the embarrassing conspiracy narrative.

The statement reads:

In the past few days, many Nigerians and our foreign friends have been bombarding me with calls and visits to ascertain the authenticity of a report by the to the effect that I attended a meeting in Saudi Arabia where a plan was hatched to remove the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.

I did not attend a meeting where the fate of Acting President was discussed, let alone decided. To claim that I attended any such meeting is a figment of the imagination of the authors of that story. My sojourn abroad did not go beyond my spiritual obligation which has become part of my life in the past 35 years or so.

I was not invited to such a meeting, if it held at all. And even if I had been invited I would not have attended for reasons that are all too obvious. My antecedents are so well established that to associate me with a clandestine parochial project aimed at subverting the constitution will negate everything that I stand for and cherish.

"As everyone knows, throughout my political career, I have stoutly defended the constitution at similar moments in the past when, as a serving senator, I spearheaded the in the Senate that paved the way for then vice president , to ascend to the position of acting president as required by the constitution. I wish to recall with nostalgia the statesmanship of the Senate as an institution which provided the political solution, by way of the novel ' to rescue the country from the precipice.

"Why would I then descend from that high moral pedestal, from the status of a statesman, to the nadir of political juvenility and rascality at a time that summons all patriots, to join forces to stabilize our tottering nation-state? No matter how anybody feels, it must be acknowledged that Yemi Osinbajo is today occupying the position of acting President and Commander-in- Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the grace of God.

"Therefore, political opportunists and agent provocateur especially those of his All Progressives Congress (APC) should spare the nation this embarrassing conspiracy narrative that is domiciled in their party. What is playing out, with respect to the Presidents health, is a painful and sordid illustration of the desperation of some members of the political class and the complete loss of humanity by some politicians that, rather than pray for the recovery and return of our President, they are busy plotting how to replace him.

"Is it not shameful that they are displaying such morbid desperation that negates both religious and traditional values to even allow their treacherous thoughts to filter out? How much more unconscionable can we be as a people to show such great disrespect for anybody, let alone our President? If Sahara Reporters and its heartless sponsors do not mind, I do and plead to be spared the agony of dignifying the treacherous politicians with any further reply.

"Contrary to the falsehood painted in the Sahara Reporters story, I wish the President speedy recovery. And that is for very good reasons. First by my cultural and religious orientation, I would not wish any other human being to die, not even my traducers because life and death are in the hands of Allah. Second, President Buhari has been one of my leaders since my days in the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) when, riding on his popularity and the grace of God, I won election to represent Bauchi South in the Senate. That was the pedestal that launched the dizzying political trajectory that those who smuggled my name into that gathering are trying desperately to scuttle. They will fail. For now, my main preoccupation is to join all those patriotic Nigerians who have been praying for the recovery and return of our President. If there was any time he was needed most, that time is now: his presence and leadership are required at this challenging crossroads in the history of our country.

At a time like this, when tempers are flaring up dangerously and fear has become the order of the day, what is required is for all stakeholders, notwithstanding personal ambitions, party affiliation or sub-national interests, to join hands with the Acting President in stabilizing the ship of state. Unless we are being hypocritical, Professor Osinbajo is doing his best to bridge the leadership vacuum created by the absence of the President, a vacuum that has triggered all kinds of dangerous political permutations. This is rather unfortunate.

"However, let it be sounded loud and clear that, at a time like this, the countrys leadership is expected to galvanize all stakeholders while the political class is expected to rally behind it to fashion a way out of the present crisis. I would want to say that Professor Osinbajo has demonstrated courage in the face of danger, commendable sobriety in spite of provocation and focus in the midst of distraction to the extent that, I am confident, President Buhari will be very proud of him. I make this comment with every sense of responsibility and without prejudice to my loyalty to my party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and my personal ambition and aspirations as a politician," he added.
He said that he would have also destroyed the partys flag in his possession.

Fayose, who returned to the state on Friday after the Wednesdays Supreme Court session, stated this while addressing PDP supporters in Ado-Ekiti.

He said that he would have destroyed his membership card of the party and the flag right at the court premises if the verdict had been in favour of Sheriff.

I never imagined myself being in the same party with impostors he said.

I went to court with a perfume which I wanted to use to spray my cards and party flags and set them ablaze even within the court premises if Sheriff had won; that was why I went to court.

Although I believe that we remain the same PDP family, no one can cause our party such pains and embarrassment and expect that he will go without being asked to account for his actions.
This sign, which is written in Latin, bans all whiners from entering his Vatican apartment (Casa Santa Marta.)

It reads: Complaining Not Allowed (in Italian, Vietato Lamentarsi), Crux reports.

The smaller print tells people why they need to stop complaining. Apparently, complaining has negative effects on ones health and could lead to a "victim complex.

According to the sign, sanctions will be doubled for anyone guilty of complaining in the presence of children

The sign reads: Offenders are subject to a syndrome of victimhood that reduces their sense of humour and capacity to solve problems.

"To become the best of yourself, you must focus on your own potential and not on your limits. So stop complaining and act to change your life for the better."

The sign was made by Salvo Noe, an Italian psychologist and psychotherapist.

He gave it to the pontiff after an audience with him on June 14, 2017.

The funny notice could not have come at a better time as the Vatican has had to deal with a lot of bad news in recent times.

ALSO READ: Pope Francis gives rebel Nigerian priests ultimatum over bishop

In June, Libero Milone, the Vaticans auditor-general's resignation came out of nowhere. Insiders say it is was due to apretty ugly situation.

That same month, the Vatican had to deal with a Senior official named Cardinal George Pell who has been hit with many sex assault charges.

He has pleaded innocent.

Speaking at a press conference, he said, "I am looking forward finally to having my day in court. I am innocent of these charges.

"They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me."

This new month (July), the Vatican is dealing with two former officials that have been accused of misusing children's hospital funds.

The former officials, Giuseppe Profiti and Massimo Spina, will face a Vatican tribunal on July 18th.
Macron called General De Villiers to order on Thursday, saying: "I am your chief. I know how to honour the commitments I make to our citizens."

Speaking to military brass at a traditional gathering on the eve of Bastille Day, he called on them all to remember their "sense of duty and reserve."

The rebuke came after participants at a closed-door hearing of parliament's defence committee said De Villiers banged his fist on the table and told them the military did not want to be "screwed" by the economy ministry.

Under pressure to find savings, the new French government asked the military to stick within its overall budget of 32.7 billion euros ($37.3 billion).

Defence cost overruns are expected to total around 850 million euros this year.

The government has pledged to keep its overall deficit under 3.0 percent of GDP -- which is required under EU budget rules -- and has identified a total of 4.5 billion euros in savings.

Speaking on French radio RTL early Friday, Defence Minister Florence Parly said Macron had "reminded certain people of the collective discipline that is needed."

She said "everyone should contribute to the joint effort" to tighten belts so that France's spending can comply with EU rules for the first time in a decade -- one of Macron's key commitments.

In a commentary that appeared in the conservative daily Le Figaro on Friday De Villiers was more measured, writing: "Our armies have been under great pressure for several years... with 30,000 troops in operational roles, day and night."

He complained that operations have had to be postponed or cancelled for lack of funds.

In addition to its commitments overseas, notably in the west African former French colony Mali, the army has deployed 7,000 soldiers to domestic operations since the start of a string of jihadist attacks in early 2015.

The military budget is to increase to 34.2 billion euros in 2018.
The dispute comes after Germany last month pulled out 260 troops from Turkey's Incirlik base, from where a multinational coalition is fighting the Islamic State jihadist group, and redeployed them and their Tornado surveillance jets to Jordan.

Some 20-30 German troops have remained at Konya as part of an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACs) mission, part of the coalition's campaign against IS in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

The German foreign ministry insisted that all sides, including NATO, remained in talks on setting a new date for a visit.

Lawmaker Wolfgang Hellmich, head of the parliamentary defence committee, said Turkey's latest move amounted to another denial of the right to visit German troops, and that Ankara had referred to the "strained bilateral relations".

Hellmich added that he saw no chance now of parliament renewing the mandate for the smaller contingent later this year.

Relations between Turkey and Germany, home to millions of ethnic Turks, have been badly strained, especially since the failed coup attempt almost one year ago against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Berlin has voiced deep concerns over mass arrests and sackings of alleged coup plotters since, and a host of other civil rights controversies.

One dispute centres on Deniz Yucel, a German-Turkish journalist with the newspaper Die Welt who was imprisoned by Turkey on terror charges earlier this year.

Erdogan has been angered by Germany's refusal to let him and his ministers campaign in Germany, charging last week that Germany was "committing political suicide".

He has also accused Germany of failing to aggressively pursue Kurdish militants or alleged coup plotters.
Democrats are up in arms, demanding that the 36-year-old Kushner -- a senior adviser to the president with an office in the White House -- be stripped of his security clearance.

"There doesn't seem to be any ethical standard in the White House," Democratic House minority leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted on Thursday.

"Jared Kushner's security clearance must be immediately revoked."

Even some from Trump's Republican Party are not so sure that Kushner -- who is married to the president's eldest daughter Ivanka-- should remain in the West Wing.

"I'm going out on a limb here  but I would say I think it would be in the president's best interest if he removed all of his children from the White House," Texas Representative Bill Flores told local television Thursday.

"Not only Donald Trump (Jr.), but Ivanka and Jared Kushner."

Omissions on security clearance forms

While Donald Jr has no role in his father's administration -- he is helping run his corporate empire -- Kushner is one of Trump's closest advisors.

The Harvard graduate is also the progeny of a powerful New York real estate family, and has long been in Trump's inner circle.

It was actually an omission on a government security clearance application filed by Kushner that led to the revelation of the meeting between himself, Donald Jr, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and the Russian lawyer.

It also led Donald Jr to release an email chain about the planning of that meeting -- which is now being cited as the most serious evidence yet of alleged collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia.

In the June 2016 emails, Donald Jr eagerly agrees to a meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer who is said to possess incriminating information about Clinton and invites Kushner and Manafort to come along.

Kushner, filing a security clearance document known as an SF-86, initially neglected to mention that he attended the meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya -- as well as contacts he had with several other Russians, including Moscow's ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.

The meeting with Veselnitskaya came to light only after Kushner filed an amended SF-86 form.

Veselnitskaya confirmed to CNN and MSNBC that Kushner attended the meeting but said he was there for only "seven to 10 minutes" and she had never intended to hand over damaging information about Clinton anyway.

Russia ties under microscope

But even before revelations of the Veselnitskaya meeting came to light, Kushner's other dealings with Russian officials have been facing scrutiny.

According to The Washington Post, Kushner -- at a December 2016 meeting with Kislyak -- raised the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications link between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin.

That same month, Kushner also met with Sergey Gorkov, chief of Vnesheconombank and a former member of Russian intelligence. The bank, a key arm of the Russian government, is under tough US sanctions.

The Post reported last month that Kushner's finances and business dealings were being examined as part of the probe led by special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller into whether the Trump campaign teamed with Russia to help tilt the presidential race in favor of the billionaire tycoon.

And this week, the McClatchy newspaper group reported that congressional and Justice Department investigators were looking into whether the Trump campaign helped Russian cyber operatives bombard key voting districts with "fake news" about Clinton.

Kushner was in charge of the Trump campaign's digital operations. He now plays a major role in shaping foreign policy.

'Witch hunt'?

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a massive effort to swing the election to Trump, including hacking and leaking embarrassing emails from Democrats.

Trump has vehemently denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia and repeatedly claimed to be the victim of a "witch hunt" by the media and sore loser Democrats.

Kushner is expected to discuss his Russian contacts at some point with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is leading one of the several probes into Russian election interference.

But ahead of that testimony -- and with unanswered questions mounting around him -- opposition Democrats are demanding action now.
Newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the Elysee Palace in Paris on Thursday for a joint cabinet meeting between their governments.

Among a host of measures agreed between their economy, culture and education ministers, the joint fighter jet proposal underscored their plans to create a new dynamic in the Franco-German motor at the heart of the European Union.

"The aim of this joint fighter jet project is to do research and development together... to use it together... and to coordinate on exports," Macron said, calling it "a profound revolution."

Europe currently produces two fighter jets, the Rafale manufactured by French arms maker Dassault and the Eurofighter, produced by a consortium of companies from Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain.

Macron also won a commitment from Merkel to support a Paris-backed joint anti-jihadist regional force in Africa called the G5 Sahel made up of soldiers from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

The two countries also agreed to align their corporate tax policies by the end of the year in a bid to avoid rivaling each other for investment and company headquarters.

Macron, 39, was elected in May promising to create a "Europe that protects" and he is pushing for new measures for the 28-member bloc in defence, trade, immigration and security.

Some of his bigger plans -- creating a new common budget for the countries that share the euro and a finance minister for the area -- will have to wait until after German elections in September.

"I have nothing against a eurozone budget (and) we can talk about creating a European finance minister," Merkel said ahead of the vote, which her centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is expected to win.

United front vs. Trump

Macron and Merkel also stressed their common position on climate change and trade, issues on which they have major disagreements with US President Donald Trump who also arrived in Paris on Thursday for talks with Macron.

The French leader said Paris and Berlin would "continue to fight on one hand against all types of protectionism and on the other hand against any attempts at dumping."

He also said they were firmly opposed to the decision by Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris global accord on climate change reached at the end of 2015.

Europe has been alarmed by the prospect of new US tariffs on steel imports, which could hit European manufacturers, while Macron has urged tougher action by the EU against low-cost Chinese imports.

As well as dealing with a radically different transatlantic relationship, the EU is grappling with the fallout from Britain's shock vote to exit the bloc in a referendum in June 2016.

But Brexit, along with perceived threats from Trump, as well as from Russia, has given Europe a renewed sense of purpose.

The EU last month created a European defence fund with an annual budget of 5.5 billion euros ($6.1 billion), laying the basis for long-stalled military cooperation.

The blooming Franco-German relationship reflects this new dynamic, but differences are likely ahead.

Macron has warned Germany that it must move to correct the "dysfunctions" of the eurozone and give it "the fate it deserves".

He wants Germany with its large trade surpluses and healthy public accounts to contribute to a eurozone budget which would be used to stimulate growth and investment in weaker members of the bloc with high unemployment.

"I want the eurozone to have more coherence and convergence," Macron said in an interview with Ouest-France newspaper on Thursday.

"France must reform its economy to give it more vigour," he added, but Germany, for its part, "must support a revival of public and private investment in Europe".

Immediately after meeting Merkel, Macron headed off to welcome Trump to Paris at the former military hospital Les Invalides, Napoleon's final resting place.
The animals were so cruelly treated by the 24-year-old suspect that they had to be culled.

Many thousands of donkeys in African countries have been slaughtered in recent years and their skins, meat and hooves sold to China for use in traditional medicine.

The skins and hooves are boiled to make gelatin, which is used to treat health problems ranging from sexual dysfunction to anaemia and is also valued as an anti-ageing treatment.

"The suspect is being investigated for cruelty to animals," police spokesman Witness Bosija said, adding he was arrested late last month outside Botswana's second city of Francistown.

"The donkeys were found in a very bad state of health, therefore government officials reached a decision to cull the animals to prevent them from suffering more," said Bosija.

Police said the donkeys were bought from across the country, allegedly to be skinned, and that the man was expected to appear in court soon.

Botswana is the sixth African country to impose restrictions on donkey exports, following Niger, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Gambia.

Zimbabwe turned down an application to build a donkey slaughterhouse, while Ethiopia has closed its only functioning donkey abattoir.

But the trade has flourished due to soaring prices.

Farmers in Botswana have been urged to closely monitor their donkeys to prevent thefts as well as to report suspicious buyers of live animals.

Animal rights groups say the docile beasts of burden are often bludgeoned to death before being skinned in backyards and clandestine slaughterhouses.

The industry is said to be worth billions of dollars worldwide.

Donkey numbers in China nearly halved from 11 million in the 1990s to six million in 2013, according to official statistics.

The gelatin, known in China as ejiao, is dissolved into hot beverages, or mixed with nuts and seeds.
"It is time for this narco-government to fall," Perez, dressed in olive green and sporting a mask, said at a plaza in eastern Caracas. "It's the zero hour."

Perez urged Venezuelans to turn out for a opposition-organized symbolic vote this Sunday, an effort to voice resistance to President Nicolas Maduro's plans to rewrite the constitution.

"What does Venezuela want?" he shouted, with the crowd responding, "Freedom!"

On June 27, Perez and unidentified accomplices flew over Caracas in a police helicopter and dropped four grenades on the Supreme Court before opening fire on the interior ministry. There were no casualties.

The 36-year-old is one of the men most wanted by Venezuelan authorities, who said they had issued an arrest warrant through Interpol after accusing him of a "terrorist attack."

Prior to Thursday's surprise appearance Perez has twice re-emerged in videos, calling for an anti-Maduro uprising and urging protestors to stand firm.

The opposition has distanced itself from Perez's dramatic actions. Many suspect that Perez might be a frontman hired by the government to justify its crackdown on opponents.
Torchlight fell on the now empty beds and they saw naked legs smeared in manure, a "shuka" blanket rolled at the waist and the muzzle of a gun.

"There was nothing I could do but hide," said John, recounting the June invasion by armed herders, dressed for battle, at their small family compound in Kamwenje, a mostly ethnic Kikuyu settlement in Laikipia, high on the eastern rim of Kenya's Rift Valley.

Such raids have become common in recent months in the counties of Laikipia and neighbouring Baringo, with pastoralists invading private land, raiding homes, burning property and driving livestock into farms.

But where the government blames bandits, victims see political intrigue.

Kenyans vote in a general election on August 8. The unrest echoes the politically motivated ethnic violence that has prefaced almost every election since multiparty politics was introduced a quarter of a century ago.

Since voting in Kenya tends to follow ethnic lines, evicting different tribes so that another can dominate a constituency is a pragmatic political strategy.

"They want to drive us away so that they can take over our land," says John, who has farmed a vivid green field of maize in Kamwenje since 1997.

His family's clothes, food and possessions were stolen during the attack, but others have suffered worse: neighbours have been raped and shot. Some have already fled.

 'Politics is fuel of chaos' 

The raiders come from the Pokot tribe, pastoralists for whom cows are at the heart of social life. Cattle raids serve as a test of manhood as well as a way to get rich and gain enough cows to pay for a wife.

The easy availability of illegal weapons means that cattle raiding has grown more violent, while poor rains and large herds prompt pastoralists to roam further in search of adequate pasture.

But the spike in attacks ahead of elections and their brutality has locals convinced that grazing is not the main motive.

"This is not about pasture. This is politics," says Paul Njoroge, a 53-year-old father of four, farmer, paralegal and Kikuyu community leader.

"The motive is to evict the farmers and own everything. Politics is the fuel of this chaos."

Njoroge has lived and farmed on a ridge above Kamwenje since 1983. Currently, he sleeps alone at night, his family, like others, has become what he calls "day scholars": working the farm by day but staying with neighbours at night where they feel safer, a few miles further from the county boundary.

Residents say that barely a night goes by without gunfire, an ambush or a home invasion.

On worn sheets of folded notepaper Njoroge keeps a running tally of murders, rapes and thefts. So far, Njoroge said, more than 40 families have chosen to leave and he wonders how much longer the rest of them will hold out.

The future Njoroge fears can be found 28 kilometres (17 miles) due west and 1,000 metres below Kamwenje, deep in the belly of the Rift Valley, in Eldume, a forlorn settlement of hundreds of stretched tarp tents.

The more than 700 people living here are the surviving ethnic Ilchamus population of the nearby village of Mukutani.

 'Slaughtered like goats' 

They fled after an attack by the Pokot in mid-March in which nine of their people died -- a revenge raid of extraordinary cruelty that terrorised the whole community into abandoning their homes.

Queen Siambui, 22, lost her younger sister, Janet, who was murdered as she sheltered with her daughters, five-year-old Nasinya and three-year-old Vicki. Siambui wept as she recounted the attack: Janet was shot in the chest and then she and her children had their throats slit.

"They slaughtered the women and children like goats," said Benjamin Lecher, the 45-year-old chief of the Mukutani Ilchamus.

"We left Mukutani because of the attacks by the Pokot community," he said, sipping tea outside his rough tent as the morning's heat cranked up.

"We have been evicted and they have occupied our land."

Tit-for-tat cattle raids are common between the Ilchamus and Pokot. Young men known as "morans" are regularly killed in skirmishes, but the deliberate murder of women and children, Lecher said, was different.

"It has become a tribal thing, it's not banditry. This is not cattle rustling," Lecher said. "Politics is fuelling this issue, these people are expanding their territory by evicting others."

In an act of violent gerrymandering, the displacement means Lecher and his people may be unable to vote in August.

Yet the Pokot and their politicians -- some of whom hold senior posts in Baringo county, dominated by the ruling party -- are not exempt from violence, though widely blamed for it.

A belated government security operation has, they say, disproportionately targeted the Pokot, while at least three prominent Pokot politicians have been killed in recent months.
Catalonia leader Carles Puigdemont told the press on Friday that ministers in charge of interior matters and education, as well as government spokeswoman Neus Munte had stepped aside.

He did not give a reason for their departure, but Catalonia's executive has recently been embroiled in heated debate over the vote planned for October 1 as Madrid piles pressure on members of the northeastern regional government.

The first major sign of tensions came earlier this month when Jordi Baiget, in charge of business, expressed doubts over whether the referendum could ever take place, given the power of Madrid.

Puigdemont promptly announced Baiget's departure -- a decision that was criticised by some of the most fervent supporters of independence.

Madrid is fiercely opposed to a referendum, deeming it illegal and a threat to Spain's unity.

The Constitutional Court has already quashed a resolution approved by Catalonia's parliament calling for the referendum to take place.

It has also warned Catalonia's elected officials that they will face legal consequences if they take any steps towards holding such a vote.

Catalonia's former president Artur Mas was banned from holding office for two years for organising a referendum in 2014. The vote he held was merely symbolic and non-binding.

The referendum planned for October will be binding, according to Catalonia's executive, which has said it will declare independence within 48 hours if the region's voters opt to separate from Spain.

Pressure

Civil servants in Catalonia are in a tough situation, struggling to decide whose orders to follow -- those of their Catalan bosses or of the national government in Madrid.

They will be called upon to organise the referendum by carrying out such steps as opening schools to serve as polling stations, or policing the 7.5-million-strong region.

If they disobey orders from their Catalan bosses, they could face disciplinary action but if they obey, they will go against Spanish law and will therefore face sanctions, which could even lead to job losses.

Madrid has also warned companies against any involvement in the referendum, such as providing ballot boxes for the vote.

As the pressure mounted, cracks emerged this week between Puigdemont and his number two Oriol Junqueras, who had refused to be put in charge of organising a referendum.

He wanted the entire executive to take responsibility for such a controversial vote.

As a result, Puigdemont decided to talk to each and every government member. Friday's resignations could mean that those who stepped aside were not ready to take joint responsibility.

Speaking at the same press conference, Junqueras said from now on all those in the government would take responsibility for any decision made.

Catalans themselves are divided on the issue of independence.
In a press conference, Carles Puigdemont said the regional ministers in charge of interior matters and education, as well as government spokeswoman Neus Monte -- all three on the front line in the organisation of the referendum -- had "decided to step aside".

He did not give a reason for their departure, but Catalonia's executive has recently been hit by internal divisions over the vote planned for October 1 as Madrid ups pressure on members of the separatist regional government.

The first public sign of tensions came earlier this month when Jordi Baiget, the regional councillor in charge of business, expressed doubt over whether the referendum could take place, given the power of Madrid.

Madrid has remained steadfast in its opposition to such a vote, considering it a threat to Spain's unity.

The Constitutional Court has already quashed a resolution approved by Catalonia's parliament calling for the referendum to take place.

It has also warned Catalonia's elected officials that they will face legal consequences if they take any steps towards holding such a vote.

But Baiget's comment was not to the liking of Puigdemont, who promptly announced his departure -- a decision that was criticised by some of the most fervent supporters of independence.
Bekaye Sangare, a senior figure in the Macina Brigades, a group that joined a powerful jihadist alliance formed in March, was killed in the town of Mougna by Mali's National Guard, a military source told AFP.

Sangare was behind "several attacks in the area against police and customs checkpoints," the same source said, specifically along the porous border with Burkina Faso on July 8 and 9.

Sangare's death follows the killing of a dozen jihadists this week by joint Malian-French forces in the troubled north, while an attack by Islamists on Malian soldiers dead left three troops dead and five more still missing.

The French army said in a statement Thursday that fighting "took out several terrorists in the Gao-Ansongo region," between July 10 and July 12, requiring helicopter and drone cover.

Elsewhere, non-jihadist armed groups faced off in the region of Kidal on Tuesday, violating a ceasefire as they battled for control around the Anefis area, which they have fought over for two years.

Mali's north is controlled in parts by armed groups loyal to Bamako and in others by former rebels who want greater autonomy for the region, while the state is absent from much of the territory.

Head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country Mahamat Saleh Annadif noted that the clashes between the Gatia pro-government group and the former rebels of the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA) took place as a committee aimed at enforcing a peace accord was in session.

Both sides signed a 2015 peace deal aimed at curbing violence in Mali's north, but both have repeatedly violated a ceasefire.

Several of the peace deal's key planks have yet to be fully implemented, while jihadists continue to roam the north and centre of the country, despite being ousted from key northern towns by an ongoing French-led military intervention in 2013.
"Uber and Yandex have entered into an agreement to form a new company," the head of Uber's operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, said in a statement, calling it "an exciting opportunity in a unique situation."

The merger applies to ex-Soviet Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and will also cover Armenia and Georgia, where Uber does not currently operate -- in total covering 127 cities, he said.

The move follows the sale by Uber of its China business in 2016 following a ferocious battle for market share.

The company's chief executive Travis Kalanick resigned in June under pressure from investors over a corporate culture rife with bullying and sexism.

Uber launched in Russia three and a half years ago. Yandex started its taxi app in 2011 and controlled more than half of the market in 2016.

Yandex.Taxi's general director Tigran Khudaverdyan said in a statement that the joint venture would provide 35 million taxi journeys per month.

He said the aim was to "create a platform that will be comparable in terms of comfort and accessibility with having your own car."

Yandex said the joint company was worth $3.725 billion. It said it was investing $100 million into the venture, with a 59.3 percent stake.

Uber said its investment is $225 million dollars and its 36.6 percent stake will be worth almost $1.4 billion. The remaining stake will be held by employees.

The companies said that passengers could continue to use the separate apps, while drivers will work using a single platform.

The combined venture will also include Uber's EATS online meal delivery business.
The General Assembly adopted a resolution endorsing a proposal from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who is facing a major shortfall in the $400 million needed to help Haiti recover from the epidemic.

Haiti has been in the grips of a raging, years-long cholera epidemic that has claimed some 9,500 lives, after infected UN peacekeepers from Nepal introduced cholera. The peacekeepers were sent to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon was forced to apologize to the Haitian people for the cholera outbreak, but the United Nations insists it is not liable for the damage.

The UN mission in Haiti known as MINUSTAH will shut down in October, ending a 13-year operation that fell out of favor with Haitians.

Guterres will ask all contributors to the peacekeeping budget to notify him within 60 days whether they are willing to shift their share of the unspent money to the cholera fund.

The United States, the biggest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping, last month announced that it will be taking back its share of the unspent budget and will not be making a contribution to the fund.

US Deputy Ambassador Michele Sison said Washington has already provided $100 million to help Haiti respond to the cholera outbreak and that "the United States is not in a position to contribute in this way."

President Donald Trump's administration is seeking deep cuts to its funding for the United Nations and its peacekeeping missions.

Addressing the assembly, Jamaica's Ambassador Courtenay Rattray said the United Nations must not "turn a blind eye" to Haiti's cholera crisis "which stands starkly as a stain against the good name of the United Nations."

Rattray said the funds from the mission's budget "would be small relative to the amount required" for the $400 million trust fund but that "every feasible source of funding can make a difference.

Launched in October last year, the fund has failed to draw contributions.

Only seven countries have so far contributed -- Chile, France, India, Liechtenstein, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Britain -- for a total of $2.67 million.
When it was signed in Vienna, President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry, claimed the pact -- commonly known as JCPOA, for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action -- as an undeniable success.

Their Iranian counterparts, President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, were equally ebullient.

The pact was also signed by China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany, lending it additional weight.

In force since January 16, 2016, the JCPOA provides for international monitoring of Tehran's nuclear program to ensure its purely peaceful, civilian use.

In exchange, Tehran was promised the gradual lifting of the international sanctions that have strangled the Iranian economy for years.

But during his presidential campaign, billionaire Republican Donald Trump made the accord a favorite target. In campaign speech after campaign speech, he pronounced it "the worst deal ever," and he vowed, if elected, to "rip it up."

As president, however, Trump has not carried out his threat.

In May, the Trump administration even decided to pursue the Obama policy of easing some sanctions at least while completing a JCPOA review to decide -- in principle by Monday -- whether to continue lifting sanctions.

Obama legacy at stake

After vowing to drop out of the Paris climate agreement and questioning the Obama-era opening to Cuba, Trump would be dealing a terrible blow to his predecessor's legacy if he decided to abandon the JCPOA.

The former real estate mogul has already staked out contrary positions to Obama in the Middle East, tightening US ties to Saudi Arabia's Sunni leaders while calling for the "isolation" of their Shiite rivals in Iran.

Washington accuses Tehran of posing a regional "threat" that "destabilizes" Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, either directly or through its "terrorist" proxies.

The Republican-controlled US Senate passed a bill in June to impose new sanctions on Tehran for its "support for international terrorism."

Meantime, the State Department, which since 1984 has declared Iran a "state sponsor of terror," continues to punish Tehran for its ballistic missile program.

The JCPOA nonetheless still has its fervent supporters in Washington.

'An existential threat'

The accord "removed an existential threat to the United States and our allies and partners," said a statement from Diplomacy Works, a pressure group founded by John Kerry and some former advisers.

The lobbying group added, "We encourage the administration to recertify Iran's compliance -- which they must do in order to reissue sanctions waivers due Monday."

As Jonathan Finer, a former Kerry chief of staff, told AFP, "The nuclear agreement is working... It would be hard to understand why the administration would want to generate a crisis" by tearing up the accord.

In a letter to Trump, 38 retired US generals and admirals stressed that the agreement had "successfully blocked Iran's paths to a nuclear weapon."

"Iran dismantled two-thirds of its centrifuges, gave up 98 percent of its stockpile of sensitive uranium and poured concrete into the core of its heavy-water reactor," the retired officers wrote.

In fact, the UN nuclear monitoring authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), praised Iran last month for respecting its commitments.

Europeans are deeply concerned, however, about the path Trump might take.

"What we are telling the Americans is that the JCPOA is not perfect but (is) much better than other options," a senior European official told reporters, speaking on grounds of anonymity.

"Losing the JCPOA would be a mistake."

The retired officers warned against "aggressive posturing that could pave the way to war" with Iran, something that seemed a possibility in the early 2000s.

Dashed hopes in Iran

In Tehran, too, the euphoria of July 2015 has given way to disillusion.

Even if the desire for closer ties with the West remains strong among many Iranians -- as shown by the re-election in May of the moderate Rouhani -- the much-anticipated economic fruits of the nuclear deal have been slow to materialize.

The continuing American sanctions frighten bankers and scare away international corporations.

While the French oil company Total did recently sign a $4.8 billion gas deal with Iran, foreign direct investment in the country topped out last year at $3.4 billion, a very long way from the $50 billion that Rouhani once promised.

And that provides grist for ultraconservative factions in Iran hostile to America.

As the holy month of Ramadan was ending in June, and just before a speech by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the official poet of the Islamic Republic proclaimed:

"Too much excitement over the JCPOA was a mistake,

Relying on Uncle Sam was a mistake,
A Bettendorf man accused of making bomb threats against Scott Community College has pleaded guilty to a related federal charge.

America Yegile Haileselassie, 39, was accused of sending bomb threats via email on Nov. 2 and Nov. 4, 2015, according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Iowa. He initially faced state prosecution in Scott County, but that case was dropped in favor of the federal one.

Mr. Haileselassie was charged for each incident and faced counts of interstate communication of threat, according to federal documents.

On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to the charge related to the Nov. 4 threat as part of an agreement with prosecutors, records state. In return, the U.S. Attorney's Office will drop the other charge.

A status conference is scheduled for Oct. 13, with sentencing set for Nov. 9.
SPRINGFIELD (AP)  Illinois lawmakers who recently ended the longest fiscal standoff of any state since the Great Depression are counting on an ironic strategy to dig out of mountains of debt: borrowing even more money.

It's an unorthodox approach considering deficit spending largely created the mess and Illinois' worst-in-the-nation credit rating makes borrowing inordinately expensive. However, supporters say it's the best way to begin to erase $14.6 billion in overdue payments to vendors and service providers.

Bills that are 90 or more days past due incur 12 percent in late-payment fees. By paying off a chunk of that at a time with the sale of bond proceeds, the state could cut that rate in half.

"We are being smothered by our liability and our indebtedness, not only in the state and trying to deal with the budget, but with the people we owe money," said Democratic Sen. Donne Trotter of Chicago, the assistant majority leader who sponsored the measure.

Trotter said it currently takes Illinois about 200 days to pay a bill, but his plan would reduce that to as few as 60 days.

The Democratic-controlled General Assembly endorsed the budget  and a $6 billion borrowing scheme  over Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's vetoes. However, it's unclear whether Rauner will actually use the borrowing authority given to him. He has said nothing about it in the 10 days since the budget was passed and his spokeswoman, Eleni Demertzis, declined comment Thursday.

It's typically advisable for governments to borrow for long-term construction projects only. But analysts say for Illinois, it's a sound way to get ahead of its crisis instead of letting it fester.

"Illinois' problems are entirely a matter of politics and willingness," said Matt Fabian, a partner at Municipal Market Analytics. "The state has had the ability to fix its budget and remedy its long-term liability. It's just chosen not to for all these years."

Creditors don't object.

"If the state came to me and said, 'We'll pay you all the back pay at one time, but you won't get the (late-payment) interest, I'd be happy with that," said Ken White, owner of Above and Beyond Cleaning Specialists, which maintains several downtown Springfield Capitol complex buildings and is owed up to $200,000.

Bond-rating houses have reacted favorably to Illinois' financial plan, if not to the idea of borrowing specifically. Three major agencies threatened a downgrade of Illinois' creditworthiness to "junk" status without a swift remedy but have published positive messages since the July 6 budget action.

While not unprecedented, borrowing to pay bills is "not a good sign of fiscal stability," said Alan Schankel, municipal bond strategist for Janney Capital Markets. Schankel noted that Connecticut borrowed to bridge a deficit several years ago. But Connecticut's credit rating, like Illinois', is in the tank.

A state such as Georgia, with gold-standard credit, could borrow at about 3.5 percent interest, Fabian said.

Lynnae Kapp, senior revenue and bond analyst for the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, the Illinois Legislature's budget office, said Illinois would be forced to pay as much as $2.5 billion in interest on a $6 billion loan  even if it's paid off quickly.

Historically, debt from a state such as Illinois has been an attractive investment because, with its power to take whatever means necessary to pay off its bills, the state is considered immune from default. Detroit's bankruptcy and Puerto Rico's $70 billion debt-restructuring plan have given the market pause.

"You don't want to finance deficits with borrowing, but sometimes you have to," Schankel said. "The deeper into the hole you get the harder it is to dig out of the hole. ... Illinois has got a lot going for it but the willingness to get things done is hard to see."
Id like to address the elephant in the room. That elephant being the Republican Party and their refusal to represent the majority of their constituents. Lets begin with stricter gun control (something that would help lessen the fears parents have when sending their children off to school), 53% of Americans favor this (Pew Research) yet the elephant in the room refuses to consider any such thing. Over 70% of Americans want stricter background checks yet again; the elephant in the room refuses to represent them. 61% of Americans say abortion should be legal. Again, the elephant in the room pushes laws that do the opposite. 74% of Americans do not want social security reduced in any way. But the elephant in the room pushes to do just the opposite, cut social security. 63% of Americans now prefer Medicare for all, but the elephant in the room fights it with all its might. 67% of Americans feel more needs to be done to reduce climate change, but not the elephant in the room. The elephant sides with the fossil fuel industry claiming its not a big concern. Given these few statistics (there are more like them) its obvious that the Republican Party is the party of minority rule, quite the opposite of what our founding fathers envisioned. The Republican Party has become a power cult, not a party that represents the majority of Americans. Remember this while you mark your ballot in this midterm election. Save Democracy! Vote Democratic!
The 252.5km line is the first phase of a 615km standard-gauge railway from Bangkok to Nong Khai, where it will meet the 414.3km China - Laos Railway, which is currently under construction and due for completion in December 2021.

Deputy prime minister Mr Somkid Jatusripitak said the government would seek a loan from international financial institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to finance the Baht 179.4bn ($US 5.2bn) project. The Thai government expects to finance 70% of the project through loans from domestic and international sources, with 10% coming from the national budget and the remaining 20% from China.

The government says Thai companies will be responsible for civil works, which will cost Baht 122.6bn, while railway infrastructure and rolling stock will be procured from Chinese suppliers at a cost of Baht 43.8bn.

Construction is expected to begin in October and the line will open in 2021.

In March 2016 the Thai government decided to finance construction of the line independently after failing to agree terms with China on the creation of a Sino-Thai joint venture to implement the project. Previously the Thai government had proposed creating a special purpose vehicle to invest in the project, in which China would hold a 60% stake, but this was rejected by the Chinese government.
Stadler will now commence a feasibility study of the Georgian market with a view to establishing a Joint Stock Company in the country as well as the new factory.

It is expected that the plant would manufacture rolling stock and provide maintenance services, and Stadler representatives say that depending on the terms of production and the results of the feasibility study, construction on the new plant could start by the end of 2018.

Georgia has gone through a process of very quick modernisation in recent years and we are pleased to have the opportunity to develop our production here, Spuhler says.

Gakharia added that the plant could offer localisation of the railway industry within Georgia in the long-term. He also believes it could offer the chance to expand exports and relations with its neighbouring countries. Such large companies can bring significant benefit to our country, he says. It is also important to emphasise the export potential that Georgia has and can offer to these types of companies.
In a major victory for freight railroads, a Surface Transportation Board (STB) attempt to revive what previously was ruled an unconstitutional regulatory scheme has been blocked by the federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a July 12 ruling, the Eighth Circuit, headquartered in St. Louis, said the STB exceeded its authority in attempting to define Amtrak on-time performance as part of an investigation into delays when Amtrak passenger trains operate over privately owned freight railroad rights-of-way.

At issue were Sections 207(a) and 213(a) of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act (PRIIA) of 2008, intended to improve the on-time performance of Amtrak passenger trains by threatening host freight railroads with substantial monetary fines if found responsible for Amtrak delays.

Section 207(a) directed the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Amtrak jointly to establish metrics and standards for assessing on-time performance of Amtrak trains when operating on host freight railroad track. Section 213(a) instructed the STB to enforce Section 207(a) whenever on-time performance of any intercity passenger train averages less than 80% for two consecutive calendar quarters.

Union Pacific, later joined by the Association of American Railroads, challenged the PRIIA provisions beginning in 2011, with the case eventually reaching the Supreme Court. On remand, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2015 ruled Section 207(a) an unconstitutional grant of regulatory power to Amtrak, as it is a party of interest in the outcome.

The STB, saying it was merely filling gaps in the law left by the invalidation of Section 207(a), subsequently sought to provide its own definition of on-time performance for enforcement purposes. Freight railroads then challenged that action, with the Eighth Circuit framing the question before it:

When Congress expressly delegates rulemaking authority in a regulatory sphere to one agency, and that delegation is declared unconstitutional, may a different agency provide regulatory guidance in the same sphere on its own initiative?

The Eighth Circuit ruled no, saying:

Reading Section 213(a) in isolation, the Boards interpretation is reasonable [but] the Boards interpretation fades in the light of the full text and context  Congress likely did not give the FRA/Amtrak and the Board separate authority to develop two potentially conflicting on-time performance rules.

[O]n-time in [Section] 213(a) means on-time performance as developed by the FRA and Amtrak [not the STB] under [the invalidated Section] 207(a). We therefore reject the Boards interpretation of [Section] 213(a). Accordingly, we grant the [freight railroads] petitions and vacate the Boards Final Rule defining on-time performance.

Ray Chambers, president of the Association of Independent Passenger Rail Operators (AIPRO), whose members operate some 250,000 commuter trains annually, says the court decision has a considerable impact on the rail commuter world because the STB decision, had it stood, would have disrupted commuter trains not under contract to Amtrak. The station-by-station federal priority for Amtrak contained in the now discredited rule could have created tremendous rush-hour disruption.

The Courts decision can be downloaded from the link below.
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In the wake of the vote for the UK to the leave the European Union (EU), the UK government has started the process to negotiate terms for 'Brexit'. However, the EU referendum result provided little information on the sort of relationship that the British people seek with the EU post-Brexit. Did the vote to leave mean the UK leaving the EU single market, limiting migration to the UK, making the UK's own laws or making the UK's own trade deals?

Most people probably wouldn't think that the history of a light railway line on the US west coast 5,000 miles away from the UK has much relevance to what the British public think about Brexit. But it turns out that it does. Discrete choice modelling, a Nobel prize winning economic methodology first used to predict demand for the Bay Area Rapid Transit rail line in San Francisco, can be used to reveal a great deal about people's preferences for the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

A group of researchers from RAND Europe, The Policy Institute at King's College London and the University of Cambridge used this method to really understand what the British public want from Brexit. The overall aim was to quantify what characteristics in the UK's future relationship with the EU are most important to the British public. The study showed that getting a trade deal and access to the EU Single Market consistently emerged as the areas that are most important and valuable to the British public.

The basic idea of discrete choice modelling is that you can describe goods and services by their characteristics (e.g. using a chocolate bar as an example; whether it is milk or dark chocolate, the number of grams of chocolate, whether it has nuts or peanuts, how much it costs, etc.), and that people consider these attributes when choosing what to buy.

Further, information on the purchases that people make can then tell us about their preferences regarding these characteristics and how these vary across the population. This could inform how to design the most appealing product or service (e.g. going back to the chocolate bar analogy; entrepreneurial chocolatiers could use such information to design chocolate bars that would be most attractive to the public).

In our study, we used this approach by asking a representative sample of the British population to make choices between different hypothetical options showing key attributes that describe Britain's relationship with the EU to fill in the missing gaps not provided by the referendum choices. These attributes included freedom of movement for working or holidays, access to the EU single market and sovereignty, among others. The aim was to go beyond the politically-contested and sometimes ill-defined language of 'hard' and 'soft' Brexit and look at the public's views about the detailed choices on offer.

On average, the British population across the boardfrom Leavers to Remainers, those with degrees to those with no education qualifications, young to oldviewed access to the EU single market for trade of goods and services and the ability to make free trade deals with other countries outside the EU as the most important characteristics of Britain's future relationship with the EU.

Controlling freedom of movement, having UK sovereignty over its own laws and minimising the amount that the UK contributes to the EU budget were all viewed as important by the British public. However, all three attributes contained polarising views across the British population. Education level was the most important explanatory variable in quantifying people's preferences across these three attributes.

The British public would like to see constraints on freedom of movement to some extent. This seemed to stem from concerns about limiting demand for valued public services rather than wanting to limit freedom of movement per se. However, some peopleparticularly those with higher educational degreesstrongly disliked severe restrictions on freedom of movement, such as requiring a visa to travel to other European countries for holiday and requiring other Europeans to have a visa to travel to the UK.

The polarisation of views was further reflected in the value placed on UK sovereignty over its own laws. Those who voted remain and those with degrees would prefer the UK to be subject to EU laws in areas like trade, employment, consumer protection and the environment. This was in direct conflict with those who voted Leave and those without degrees, who preferred the UK to be able to make all of its own laws.

Based on our study, the priority for the UK government during Brexit negotiations should be exploring opportunities that allow for access to the single market and free trade deals with countries outside the EU. This would build on the common ground felt by the majority of Britons about what they feel are the most valuable aspects of the UK's future relationship with Europe.

By Charlene Rohr, senior research leader at RAND Europe, Jonathan Grant, professor of public policy at King's College London, Alexandra Pollitt, research fellow at the Policy Institute at King's, and David Howarth, professor of law and public policy at the University of Cambridge.

This commentary originally appeared on UK in a Changing Europe on July 14, 2017. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
Moscow Region ex-official Kuznetsovs assets seized in France

MOSCOW, July 14 (RAPSI)  French authorities have seized assets in the value of 120 million belonging to former Moscow Region finance minister Alexey Kuznetsov and his ex-wife Janna Bullock, who are currently under investigation in Russia, the Prosecutor Generals Office of Russia announced on its website on Friday.

Specifically, furnished apartment with art objects in Paris, villa in Saint-Tropez and hotels in Courchevel have fallen under the seizure, the statement reads.

Russian investigators claim that from November 2005 to November 2008, a group organized by Kuznetsov deceived several housing and utility companies into selling the rights to over 3.5 billion rubles worth of claims ($59 mln at the current exchange rate) against the Moscow Region municipal authorities. The group laundered and misappropriated the money. The group members are also alleged to have embezzled 7.2 billion rubles ($121 mln) in assets from Mosobltransinvest, a Moscow regional investment company.

According to investigation, damage caused by Kuznetsov and his alleged accomplices is estimated at 14 billion rubles ($234.5 million).

Former Russian official was placed first on the federal and subsequently on the international wanted list in November 2012 on suspicion of fraud, money laundering, and embezzlement.

The search for Kuznetsov gathered momentum after Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin met with the French police chief in January 2013.

In the summer of 2013, Kuznetsov was arrested at a hotel near the prestigious French resort of St. Tropez. Nevertheless, the French judiciary has so far failed to extradite him to Russia. Kuznetsovs lawyers claim the criminal prosecution in Russia is politically motivated.

In January 2015, Kuznetsov filed an application seeking political asylum, but it was dismissed by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless people (OFPRA). His defense appealed the decision claiming that it was politically motivated.

In March 2015, the French Court of Cassation granted Russias request for Kuznetsovs extradition. However, the ruling has not been executed yet.

In April 2017, a court in Lyon released Kuznetsov from jail. The French court held that the period of his detention had exceeded the reasonable time in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. Since then, he has been under surveillance of police. Former Russian official is obliged to report to the police once a week. He also was ordered to surrender his passport to the authorities.
Convicted Pokemon Go player added to terror blacklist

MOSCOW, July 14 (RAPSI) - Videoblogger Ruslan Sokolovsky sentenced for playing Pokemon Go in a church was added to the list of active terrorists and extremists, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service announced on its website on Friday.

All bank accounts of Sokolovsky have been blocked, his attorney Alexey Bushmakov wrote on his Facebook page.

On May 22, Sokolovsky was found guilty of inciting hatred, violation of religious rights and illegal possession of special technical means intended for obtaining secret information. On July 7, a court in Yekaterinburg on Friday reduced the young mans suspended sentence from 3.5 to 2 years and 3 months.

The blogger insisted on innocence and claimed that said technical means, photo- and video-camera, mounted in the housing of a ballpoint pen, belonged to one Sergey Lazarev who lives in Ukraine. Russian authorities were not able to locate and interrogate Lazarev, Bushmakov told RAPSI earlier.

According to investigators, from May 2013 to September 2016, the defendant produced nine video files and placed them on the YouTube. These videos, according to a forensic examination, contain signs of incitement of hatred or hostility, humiliation of human dignity and a group of persons on the grounds of nationality, religion, as well as against members of a particular social group. Placement of these videos on the Internet was qualified by experts as public actions, expressing clear disrespect for society and committed to insult the religious feelings of believers.

In addition, Sokolovsky allegedly used unlawfully acquired special technical means. Investigators believe that he recorded videos through camera in the housing of a ballpoint pen. According to experts, the device corresponds to the category of special technical means intended for secret reception and registration of visual and acoustic information.

The case against Sokolovsky was launched after he had published video on Youtube channel, in which he played the mobile app of the popular Pokemon Go game in Orthodox Church-on-Blood in Yekaterinburg.

Pokemon Go, a videogame with elements of augmented reality for mobile devices, became incredibly popular all over the world.
State Duma ratifies Convention on confiscation of proceeds from crime

MOSCOW, July 14 (RAPSI)  The State Duma has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism, the website of the lower house of parliament reads on Friday.

The State Duma Committee recommended to ratify the Convention on July 10.

On June 26, President Vladimir Putin submitted the Convention to the lower house of Russian parliament for ratification.

The Convention was signed on behalf of the Russian Federation on January 26, 2009, in Strasbourg.

Ratification of the Convention will enhance the efficiency of Russias cooperation with other countries in anti-money laundering and combating the financing of international terrorism and provide additional features for development of international cooperation of competent authorities in laundering, search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from crime, an explanatory note to the document reads.
President Trump meets French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris this week to commemorate the 100th anniversary of America's entry into World War I. The election of Macron, a 39-year-old business-savvy reformer, who swept away incumbent parties with a movement created barely a year ago, has triggered a wave of optimism in France and Europe that he can reinvigorate the French economy and the EU. At a time when, as Trump stated in Poland, the West doubts itself, this newfound vitality is a welcome development for the United States.
Donald Trump and his entourage touched down in Paris Thursday morning, on the invitation of French president Emmanuel Macron, to attend Bastille Day celebrations the following day. At first glance, the two are seemingly near opposites, but recent developments bely a chummier relationship than observers had originally expected. Macron appears on the verge of becoming Trumps number one international buddy.

Initially, the invitation to the U.S. president to attend the French national day struck many as another trollish publicity stunt by Macron, the occupant of Elysee Palace who once locked Trump in a death-grip handshake. A May survey found over 80 percent of Frenchmen disapprove of the New York business mogul. And the Washington Post pointed out Wednesday that Trump has a long recent history of rebarbative remarks about Paris (complete with references to a presidential friend, Jim, who may or may not actually exist).

Trumps visit . . . has stirred some controversies in France. The American president has a terrible reputation here, to say the least, says Cecile Alduy of Stanford. In France, Donald Trump is the most unpopular U.S. president ever and hosting him on such a symbolic day exposes the French president to savage criticism, adds Vincent Michelot of Sciences Po.

But Trump has shrewdly counter-trolled, actually accepting Macrons offer. "President Trump looks forward to reaffirming America's strong ties . . . and to commemorating the 100th anniversary of America's entry into World War I, the White House said in a statement late last month. Michelot argues it would have been a scandal if Trump hadnt gone this year: not having a high-level U.S. presence at the July 14 military march as we celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the U.S. entering World War I would have sent a disastrous signal.

And from the administrations perspective, it also likely doesnt hurt to get Trump out of Washington, as this week saw more concerning revelations of connections between his apparatus and Moscow. When scandal takes hold, presidents usually look for opportunities to demonstrate they aren't prisoners in the White House, says Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia. There's nothing more presidential than foreign affairs and travel. Nixon, Reagan and Clinton all used international forums while under the weight of scandals.

But spurring further intrigue, there are signs that Trump, the nationalist populist gadfly of the international scene, and Macron, the cosmopolitan champion of the European Union and liberal democracy, might actually be getting along. A senior administration official emphasized to reporters in Washington on Tuesday the number of times the two have spoken since Macrons election victory in April, actually allowing the two to forgo a formal sit-down at last weeks G-20 gatheringsince they have already built such a familiarity. The White House repeatedly characterized the early goings in the relationship as immensely encouraging, and there are signs this might be more than just puffery from team Trump. Macrons outsized popularity in France and internationally also might be giving him more leeway than most leaders in dealing with the U.S. president, who has achieved pariah status in western Europe.

By way of example, the British parliament has tediously debated whether Trump should be allowed to visit the country for over a year, even when he was just a candidate. Macron decided he should come to Paris by swift fiat, and the U.S. president will visit Elysee and eat blue lobster in the Eiffel Tower. Sometimes Trump makes decisions we dont like, such as on climate, but we can deal with it in two ways: we can say, We are not going to talk to you, or we can offer you our hand to bring you back into the circle, government spokesman Christophe Castaner has told LCI, a French news channel. Macron is symbolically offering Trump his hand.

Euronews argues that Macrons business background, which includes stints at a Rothschild investment bank (somewhat controversial during the campaign) and as economy minister, is also making him a more natural fit for Trump. Both he and Macron have a political interest in building rapport, and both have a corporate background that may help underpin their relationship, the outlet noted. Likely further greasing the wheels is that Macron speaks near-fluent English, and does so more openly than other French presidents, who have made the political calculation to militantly emphasize the cherished French language. Observers have noted that Trump has routinely shirked translation and earpiece software in interactions with foreign leaders, of course murdering any chance at true retention.

And in June, Macron said that there is no clear successor in Syria to Bashar al-Assad, reversing on a previous stance, and in putting him more in line with Trump, who has intermittently endorsed such sentiments, despite striking the Syrian president in April. Only Nixon could go to China, and only Macron could have taken France out of the Assad must go camp without anyone batting an eyelash, Russia Insidercommented.

But even more is going on here: the emerging classical liberal tendencies of Macron. The thirty-nine-year-old, who before April had never been elected to office, is a proud centrist who came to power at a relatively young age under unique circumstances. That he faced off with, and trounced, hard-line nationalist Marine Le Pen earlier this year prompted him to be embraced by much of the liberal left as a sort of bulwark against barbarism. But, aside from saber-rattling on the climate and science, he doesnt seem to be much of a left-winger.

Macrons appointed second-in-command, the conservative Edouard Philippe, gave remarks to the Financial Times earlier this week that should dash the hopes of any socialist supporters of Macron. FT: When it is suggested that the governments plans for a more flexible labour market, tax cuts for businesses and emphasis on public spending curbs were all rightwing measures, Mr Philippe bursts into laughter. Yes, what did you expect? he says.

And it remains a little bit to be seen how big a backer of globalization and immigration Macron is, says Scott McConnell of the American Conservative. He certainly campaigned as one, but he doesnt seem any more eager to allow migrant encampments in the north of Paris than any preceding French president. . . . That joke he made about the kwassa-kwassacaught by an open micis not something that anyone genuinely steeped in Anglo-American-style political correctness would ever say.

Macrons popular now, but the former Socialist Party minister could soon face heat from the left. The final outcome of this weeks visit is unclear, notes Stanfords Alduy. The famous virile handshake between Macron and Trump last time yielded no tangible result except symbolic ones for Macron. Trump still withdrew from the [Paris] agreement. Things might be warming up between them, but what matters are concrete policy agreements. But both Macron and Trump won improbable victories and both are realists. Whether the issue is Syria or trade, this could be the start, to use Trumps favorite word, of a beautiful relationship.
Russias large-scale military exercise to be conducted in September can provide critical insight for NATO allies seeking to improve their readiness posture against an increasingly revanchist Russia, according to an Estonian defense official.

Russians train exactly as they intend to fight, thus Zapad will give up ample information on their military and political thinking as it is right now, Kristjan Prikk, undersecretary for defense policy at Estonias Ministry of Defense, said at the Atlantic Council on July 11. According to Prikk, we dont consider this years Zapad exercise in itself to be a direct threat to us [NATO] or a cover for an attack, but we have to keep in mind that the Russians have the nasty habit of hiding their actual military endeavors behind exercises.

We have to be calm, vigilant, flexible, in the months leading up to and following Zapad 2017, said Prikk.

In September, Russia will conduct a joint military exercise with BelarusZapad. Based on initial indications and past Zapads, the exercise, which will take place in Belarus, will assess the readiness of Russias military across many forcesland, sea, and airand test a range of capabilitiesnot only conventional, but also cyber and nuclear, within a particular set of scenarios. This will be the first Zapad exercise since 2013. Zapad, which is also the Russian word for west, will take place against the backdrop of Russias annexation of Crimea, ongoing war in Ukraine, military intervention in Syria, and meddling in the US and French presidential elections.

According to Evelyn Farkas, Atlantic Council senior fellow and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, this is a military exercise, but there is also a political component. The size of the force tested and the nature of the scenario will send a message to NATO that Russia is ready, reinforcing the adversarial stance between Moscow and the West, she said.

In opening remarks at the event, Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in Estonias parliament, said: Russia is the only country today in the world that has a national strategy to confront NATO as an enemy. He urged NATO allies to watch closely and asses the implications of Zapad, an exercise due to be a show of force, and part of the Kremlins process of building up muscle memory for total war against the West.

Prikk and Farkas joined Maj. Gen. Finn Kristian Hannestad, defense attache at the Embassy of Norway to the United States, to discuss the significance of carefully monitoring Zapad 2017 and assessing the long-term implications for NATOs defense and deterrence strategies. Caroline Houck, staff correspondent at Defense One, moderated the discussion.

Robert Nurick, a senior fellow in the Atlantic Councils Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, described in introductory remarks how early indications project Zapad will be the largest military exercise since the Cold War. The exercise is significant for what it could reveal about the thinking and planning of Russian political and military leaders, as well as the types of messages they wish to convey to potential adversariesin this case, NATO.

The Zapad exercise is not about abstract readiness, but testing the transatlantic community, testing the Russian ability to pursue its own goals, said Prikk. Consequently, he added, for military and political experts, this is a golden opportunity to get the kind of information [needed] to test out their assumptions.

According to Nurick, Alliance leaders must pay close attention to the size of the force used in the exercise and what it indicates about Russian defense planning, the scenario posed to Russian forces, and what forces are involved in the exercises and the roles they seem to play.

This is a force which is much more mobile which can move quicker and faster than what weve seen before, said Nurick, adding that the exercise may be a preparation for some kind of military action. He said that should the Kremlin choose to challenge NATO militarily, its forces could cause trouble in the immediate region and can produce force rations along the borders in the region that are quite unfavorable to NATO.

Direct military action is unlikely, said Nurick, though incidents and provocations along the border would become more plausible.

After the conclusion of the exercise, US intelligence agencies will need to assess not only what was seen, but what it reveals about Russias thinking and strategy in such a way as could contribute to forewarning for NATO forces should something go wrong, said Nurick. Inasmuch as they increase their readiness, we will also increase our readiness, said Farkas.

For Zapad, Russia will mobilize large numbers of troops and capabilities on the border of, and in some places nearly surrounding allied territory, all without any formal announcement to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) or transparency with NATO, leading to widespread concern.

Currently, the Russians are clearly in violation of Vienna documents, said Farkas. The Vienna Document is an international transparency measure to try and decrease the risk of miscalculation when militaries in Europe are conducting normal exercises for readiness.

In the messaging surrounding Zapad 2017, you can expect the Russians to obfuscate the fact their opponent is NATO, said Farkas, adding: We didnt want to be in an adversary situation with Russia, but now we are.

Hannestad called for the Kremlin to increase its transparency on the specifics of the exercise, saying transparency is essential from both a tactical and strategic point of view. Lack of clarity from the Kremlin with regard to its intentions could lead to misunderstanding, Hannestad warned. Misunderstanding is a prerequisite for increased tensions [which leads to] episodes and incidents, he said.

He claimed there is concern about an incident during Zapad in contested air or sea space in the Baltic region. If somethings going to happen, thats where it will most likely be, said Hannestad.

According to Mihkelson, NATO [plans] to work for its core goalto defend its allies by Article 5, not only in a declaratory way, but by building up deterrence. In response to the threat posed by Russia, NATO allies agreed in July 2016 to establish Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) forces in the Baltics. As of July 1, four multinational battle groups led by the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada, have been stationed in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Estonia.

Prikk described how these forces demonstrate the solidarity of NATO allies and present a strong deterrent force against Russian aggression in its neighborhood. The deployment of eFP forces in the Baltic region has achieved new elements of stability there, and is a testament to the understanding that when it comes to the current Russia, we have to be clear and strong in our messaging.

However, he said, we have to continue adjusting the Alliances deterrence posture on the eastern flank to reflect the existing complexity of the challenge we currently face and will face in the foreseeable future.

These exercises dont take place in a vacuum. Context matters, said Nurick, insisting that Zapad cannot be looked at in isolation, but must be considered as part of a holistic strategy. It is likely to coincide or overlap with other exercises and training drills which may not be formally identified as part of Zapad, he added.

Farkas emphasized the need to consider not just the exercise itself, but how it ties into events happening in other theaters. For example, she said, Russia remains involved in both Ukraine and Syria, and allies must watch to see if the Kremlin deploys additional forces or new capabilities in those arenas while the Wests attention is diverted.
Diverse interests and regional divides threaten to destabilize the country.

Chinas actions so far in the ongoing North Korean affair have been ambiguous. In order to try to understand Chinas strategy toward North Korea, it is necessary to understand Chinas strategy in general. To do that, it is important to recognize the imperatives and constraints that drive the country.

First, we need to outline Chinas basic geographical parts. The country has four buffer regions that are under its control. Tibet in the southwest has seen some instability and is vulnerable to outside influences. Xinjiang in the northwest is predominantly Muslim, with a significant insurgency but not one that threatens Chinese control. Inner Mongolia in the north is stable. Manchuria in the northeast is also stable and of all four buffers is the most integrated with the Chinese core. These last two regions are now dominated by the Han Chinese, Chinas main ethnic group, but they are still distinct. When you look at a map of China, you will see that a good part of what we think of China is not ethnically Chinese.

Within Han China, there are also divisions. The population is concentrated in the east because western China has limited rainfall and cant sustain very large populations. In this sense, China is actually a relatively narrow country, with an extremely dense population. The interests within Han China are also diverse, and this has frequently led to fragmentation and civil war.

The most important distinction is the one between coastal China and interior China. Coastal China, when left to its own devices, is involved in regional and global maritime trade, while the interior has fewer commercial opportunities. Coastal Chinas priority is reaching its customers, whereas the interior wants Beijing to transfer the wealth from the coast to help support the poor interior. Many other regional disagreements exist of course, but this is the source of discord between the two regions.

It is not a new problem, and left to fester, it can result in internal conflict, with coastal interests frequently seeking intervention by their customers. This was the case from the British intervention in the mid-19th century until 1947. During this time, there was endless internal conflict in China and constant foreign involvement. Mao Zedong tried to solve the problem by closing China to trade (at least somewhat), crushing the coastal elite and imposing a dictatorship. Like emperors before him, he imposed a powerful state on a unified but nonetheless very poor country.

Changing Gears

After Mao died, China embarked on a traditional Chinese strategy: It tried to build its economy by selling low-priced manufactured goods to the world without allowing divisions to arise  in other words, it wanted to have its cake and eat it too. This worked for a generation; once the state stopped undermining economic development, China surged. By 2006, exports, particularly to the U.S. and Europe, accounted for 37 percent of Chinas gross domestic product. The coastal region became relatively prosperous, while the rest of China and the buffer regions lagged far behind, as they always have. But the surging economy helped raise living standards, even if it also created inequality.

2008 was a turning point. Chinas major customers, Europe and the United States, went into recession, and their appetite for Chinese goods declined. Economic growth slowed dramatically, and by 2016, exports only contributed 19 percent of GDP. Although internal consumption increased, the coastal region was focused on markets in advanced industrial countries, which the interior couldnt replace.

And in the process of maintaining weakening businesses, saving jobs and increasing domestic demand, the cost of production rose. China faced competition from other countries for markets, and the pressure on its internal system intensified.

Coastal and regional interests diverged again, and each advocated different policies in response to the crisis. The Chinese government tried to accommodate all but accommodated none. In 2012, President Xi Jinping took office and sought to put the genie back in the bottle. He imposed a dictatorship that had two goals: to take control of the Communist Party and to impose party rule over the country. His anti-corruption campaign was intended to take control of the economy and to convince the interior that he was not a pawn of the coastal region. Xi sought to maintain exports as much as possible and to re-establish centralized control with minimal effect on the economy.

He also had to deal with the United States. The United States consumption of exports was a major engine of Chinas economy. At the same time, the crackdown on government and business officials  an essentially political act  would affect American investments and other interests in China. China had to take greater control of the economy without losing U.S. investment or imports.

But in case the worst happened, China developed a fallback strategy. It began producing a new class of high-tech products. It also had to find new markets outside the U.S. The economic solution posed a military problem.

Protecting Sea Access

In the event there was an economic falling out with the U.S., China had to consider the possibility of a military confrontation. But the key issue was the ability to guarantee Chinas access to sea lanes. In this, China had a major geographic problem. The South and East China seas are ringed with small islands, spaced in such a way that passage between them can be blocked with relative ease. The U.S. Navy is far superior to the Chinese navy, and the Chinese were concerned that in some unforeseen crisis the U.S. would block access to their much needed sea lanes. Those small islands were now at the center of Chinese national interest. The Chinese could claim the entire region, but they were not in a position to seize it.

At the same time, the Chinese devised a political solution to their strategic problem. If a country like Indonesia or the Philippines aligned with China instead of with the United States, access to the global sea lanes would be assured without having to confront the United States. The problem here is that the two strategies undermined each other. Aggressive assertion of Chinese power in the regional waters and finding accommodation with regional powers were inconsistent approaches. Whats more, they could only work if the United States was not present. And, of course, it was.

China had one other option for getting around potential U.S. actions: creating an alternative export route through Asia to Europe. This was the One Belt, One Road concept. But it, too, was flawed. First, the cost of building the requisite infrastructure was staggering. Second, it would run through countries that were unstable and, for the Chinese, unimportant customers. Add to that the speed with which One Belt, One Road needed to be enacted, and this was more posturing than policy.

China, therefore, is caught in a set of interlocking problems. Its economic miracle has matured into more normal growth rates. It has a vast population that lacks the ability to consume all that it produces. It has to contend with global stagnation and competition from other producers  and competing with high-tech producers is no small task. It is therefore afraid of internal instability and has imposed a dictatorship designed to maintain a vibrant economy without social costs. To do that, it must increase exports and control access to Chinas economy, a move designed to alienate a large and dangerous power, the United States. But it cant afford to confront the U.S., whose navy it cant defeat.

The Chinese are caught between the need to placate the United States and to distract it with as many problems as possible. North Korea is a perfect diversion, but siding with Pyongyang is not an option. China can appear to be helping the United States while keeping the U.S. focused on Pyongyang.

Incompatibilities

This is a strategy that emerges not from a position of strength but from one of fundamental weakness. Chinas internal contradiction is that prosperity creates instability, and stability is incompatible with prosperity. There are complexities and nuances of course, but this is the root of Chinas problem. China is therefore trying to maintain what prosperity it can without destabilizing the system. In doing this, it is jeopardizing its overseas markets, particularly the United States, creating the opportunity for a conflict it cant win and opening the door to regionalism and warlordism.

Unlike Japan, which moved from being a high-growth country to a low-growth country without social upheaval, China may not be so lucky. Japan had a homogeneous, socially integrated society. China is not homogenous, and it has irreconcilable social differences. Its global strategy reflects these contradictions and ultimately poses a greater risk to China itself than to others. And in such a situation, the key is to look confident and try to keep others off balance. But this can only work for so long.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit and Expo 2017 hosted in the Kazakh capital Astana in June served to highlight important regional trends to which US policy makers should play close attention.

First, Eurasia is in the midst of a massive geopolitical realignment. This realignment, shaped by China and Russia, is centered on Chinas One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiativea $3-trillion infrastructure project to which nearly seventy countries and institutions have signed up. Russia, meanwhile, is pushing forward with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which creates an integrated single market that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.

The United States is not part of either the SCO, the security bloc jointly led by Russia and China, or the EAEU. Iran and Turkey, however, have expressed an interest in SCO membership. Iran is already working with Russia on North-South transportation corridors from Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea to Bandar Abbas on the Arabian Sea. Turkey, meanwhile, is crucial for a number of energy and transportation projects, including the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad, and the Sultan Selim Bridge that connects Asia and Europe. Iranian and Turkish membership in the SCO will further shift the balance of power in Eurasia away from the West.

The Obama administration unfortunately shunned the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) even as the United States Western allies rushed to join it. US President Donald J. Trumps administration should not compound this error by shunning OBOR and Central Asia at a time when regional cooperation is deepening.

Second, this enhanced regional cooperation has produced a recent flurry of visits to Central Asia by heads of state and government creating a more productive environment. The Trump administration should seize this opportunity to reinforce the US-Central Asia (C5+1) framework, initiated by the Obama administration to discuss and work on issues of common concern. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson should consider a visit to the region in the near term.

Besides the SCO summit, Astana is hosting Expo 2017, which runs until September 10. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev hosted his counterparts from Russia and China, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, respectively, as well as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While the United States is represented at Expo 2017, no such high-level visit is in the offing.

Third, the OBOR is clearly not just about energy and infrastructure hardware, but also about the software of business services in which multibillion-dollar business opportunities exist. Once Expo 2017 is over, its campus will host a Future Energy Center for Green Technologies and Investment Projects, supported by the United Nations Development Program and Kazakhstans Ministry of Energy.

While Kazakhstans renewable energy production is currently low, it is developing wind and solar projects with the goal of meeting 30 percent of its total energy needs through renewable energy sources by 2050.

Kazakhstan is eager to take its place as the logical entry point to the EAEU and its 180 million consumers, and to China with its giant market. However, its main challenge goes beyond the fact that this remote nation needs to be transformed into an advantageous transit corridor. Kazakhstan also needs to move from being primarily an energy and minerals producer and exporter to becoming a post-industrial economy that is based on advanced manufacturing and services. The Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), a Kazakh government initiative led by Kairat Kelimbetov, will play a key role in this transformation. The AIFC will specifically play a crucial role in regional integration and as a source of capital for OBOR projects spanning from Chinas Xinjiang province to the Black Sea.

The United States needs to be engaged in Eurasia for a number of reasons, including finding a way to bring peace to Afghanistan, preventing the spread of radicalization in Central Asia, availing of the opportunity to participate in OBOR, and addressing potential challenges posed by the SCOs growth.

Russia and China may aspire to exclude the United States from the heart of Eurasia. However, the Trump administration should not just pack up and walk away. Eurasia is far too important and rich with economic opportunities to abandon. Packing up tents and leaving isnt foreign policy.
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The need for larger investment in infrastructure that is the biggest shortcoming, says A V Rajwade.

During his recent visit to the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the chief executives of several American corporations, presumably to market India as an investment opportunity.

Press reports indicate that most of the CEOs present were from enterprises in the service sector (Amazon, Google, Cisco, Microsoft, Mastercard etc) and few from the manufacturing or industrial sectors, when there is a great need to increase the contribution of these segments to our gross domestic product (GDP), growth and job creation.

In the last 70 years, no Asian economy has grown fast and consistently without rapid expansion of the manufacturing sector.

And, the governments own objective for Make in India is to increase the contribution of the manufacturing sector to 25 per cent of GDP by 2025, from the current level of around 16 per cent.

This preponderance of service sector CEOs in the meeting is also reflected in the actual inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) in India, in which manufacturing has a very small proportion - but manufacturing dominates outflows.

General Motors recently announced closure. Lafarge, the cement giant, has sold its holdings.

One wonders whether cases like the tax demand on Cairns UK, currently under international arbitration, has something to do with the issue. (Some US investors in Cairns had requested their government to raise the issue during the Prime Ministers visit.)

Nokia also left India because of tax issues. Posco and Arcelor Mittal seem to have given up the idea of investing in Indian manufacturing.

Nor do domestic entrepreneurs seem very enthusiastic about creating new capacity. Project investments have fallen sharply in the first quarter of 2017-18, even as stalled projects have ballooned.

As for FDI, do our low sovereign ratings by international agencies have something to do with this?

One doubts, but it is humiliating to see policymakers of the worlds third-largest economy (in public-private partnership terms) pleading for higher ratings; adopting fiscal deficit targets at least partly to please international agencies even at the cost of starving the economy of needed investments.

On the subject of sovereign ratings and how much they matter, one recent case is worth recalling.

China was downgraded by Moodys a couple of months back.

This has not stopped the European Central Bank from starting to invest part of its reserves in the Chinese currency - or MSCI from including Chinas A shares (that is, those traded on the domestic exchanges) in its index of international equities.

The introduction of a uniform Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1 should help ease of doing business in India. (We currently rank a low 130 in the World Banks rankings.)

President Pranab Mukherjee praised the prime minister and the finance minister for this reform, which governments of all hues had tried to implement for decades without success. (Mukherjee should know the difficulties - he himself tried to make the change when he was the finance minister, but failed despite the full backing of the then prime minister.)

But it is perhaps the need for larger investment in infrastructure that is the biggest shortcoming.

Infrastructure projects are, almost by definition, capital-intensive, with long gestation periods and not really suitable for commercial bank finance. They need public funding.

But self-imposed fiscal constraints have passed on the burden to the banking system.

There is no empirical evidence to suggest that public debt beyond 60 per cent of nominal GDP is risky or counterproductive. (The euro zones parallel is not relevant for us: The euro is, for public debt purposes, a foreign currency for member countries.)

The other problem in manufacturing growth is that bank lending to industry has slowed down considerably after non-performing assets grabbed the headlines.

In the latest Financial Stability Report, the Reserve Bank of India has emphasised that the stressed banking sector may drag down growth.

This apart, the introduction of the new accounting standard (Ind-AS) would mean greater provisioning and add to the capital needed for meeting the Basel III norms.

Mitigating the bad debt problem and recapitalising banks for them to increase lending, both would need substantial commitment of public resources; institutional and regulatory reforms alone may not do the trick.

Our prime minister has demonstrated his willingness to take bold decisions, some recent examples being demonetisation, the move to privatise the perpetually loss-making Air India and the introduction of GST. (In a recent full-page article, Financial Times headlined GST as a great tax gamble.)

Will he be bold enough to relax fiscal constraints that are coming in the way of both infrastructure investment in the economy and resolving the bad debt problem on a sustainable basis?

Photograph: Reuters

A V Rajwade is chairman, A V Rajwade & Co Pvt Ltd.
Phee Teik Yeoh, who has returned to the SIA HQ in Singapore, worked hard to make Vistara the airline of choice. New CEO Leslie Thng would have the job of cutting losses while going international.

IMAGE: With clever, innovative advertising and by making sure it got impeccable word-of-mouth reviews, Vistara built itself up as the airline of choice in the country. The Best Domestic Airline award from Travel + Lesiure magazine cemented that. Photograph: Kind Courtesy @airvistara/Twitter.

Vistara's chief executive officer Phee Teik Yeoh has been a Singapore Airlines man for life.

Even his student days at university -- studying Chemistry -- were under the airlines scholarship programme. The company recognised his talent early. After only four years of serving at two international destinations, he was brought back to work in the chairmans office. He soon became part of all regulatory processes and board decisions.





IMAGE: Vistara's chief executive officer Phee Teik Yeoh, has been ably helming the Tata-SIA airline since start up. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters.

When Tata Sons finally tied up with SIA to set up an airline, after a failed attempt in 1990, Yeoh was the first choice to lead the venture. My mandate was to launch the venture as quickly as possible and we did that in record timeaircraft was delivered in September 2014 and we were in the skies by January, he said in an interview earlier this year.



That was not an easy task as the Tata-SIA joint venture was facing regulatory hurdles due to opposition from incumbent airlines, which did not want the authorities to allow a foreign airline to take wing. We managed to convince the authority that in no way are we foreign, we are a true blue-chip Indian company, with illustrious parents, he said then.



Setting up an airline, which wants to differentiate on service quality, is one thing and running it in a market where fares can fall below Rs 1,500 is another.





IMAGE: A Vistara Airbus A320 passenger aircraft taxis on the tarmac after landing at Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport in Mumbai. Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters.

For the first six months, 40 per cent of Vistara seats remained empty. Clearly, the airlines focus on premium was becoming a problem. Yeoh accepted that his team had read the market wrong and decided for a cabin reconfiguration. The airline cut its business-class and premium-economy seats and increased the number of economy-class seats.



We have shown we can sell economy-class seats better than other airlines. Very soon, our load factor in economy class will exceed the market average, Yeoh had said then too.

It showed results: Vistaras load factor since then has hovered around 80 per cent, at par with other airlines. We have grown very quickly. We have managed to open 18 destinations in 18 months. We are a committed player in the domestic market, Yeoh said in January.





IMAGE: After the national carrier went vegetarian, in an advertisement Vistara made a sly dig at Air India, now called Air Bhindiya by Twitter wags. Photograph: PKind Courtesy @airvistara/Twitter.

What he managed to do was spread an impeccable word of mouth for Vistara. It got rave reviews from flyers.

With clever and innovative advertising, it seemed the airline of choice of the whos who in the country. I like the airline, comfortable leg space, wonderful catering service, said Moran Birger, British Airways regional manager for South Asia.



But, maintaining the standard came at a cost. The airline has suffered Rs 900-crore loss in the first two years. Its cost available seat kilometre stood at Rs 5.28 at the end of FY16, significantly higher than other carriers. Some call it gestation cost while others call it cash burn.

Despite that, Yeoh got an extension of tenure from the Vistara board in April. What made the company call him back only after a month?





IMAGE: Former SilkAir CEO Leslie Thng will take charge as the new CEO of Vistara in October. Photograph: Kind Courtesy @BHX_Ambassador/Twitter.

There was no problem with his functioning, Singapore Airlines has a rotation policy, independent of procedural matter at the Vistara board, a person close to the development said.



Former SilkAir CEO Leslie Thng will take charge as the new CEO in October. The airline, said he would lead to next phase of growth -- international operations.



With Jet Airways now firming up new alliance partners, and IndiGo rushing to their long-haul international preparations, Thng -- a veteran in aviation business -- will have to be in battle mode from Day 1.
RuPay has 42% of total debit cards, but contributes only 16% of PoS, e-commerce transactions. With banks scheduled to renew deals with Visa and Mastercard, Alnoor Peermohamed finds out how RuPay plans to tap premium customers.

IMAGE: RuPay was launched around five years ago, designed as a local payment mechanism and as an alternative to Visa and Mastercard. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is looking at increased uptake of its RuPay debit cards among premium customers, as deals signed between banks and its global competitors Visa and Mastercard expire over the next few years.

Though RuPay controls 42 per cent of the Indian debit card market, the share of its cards is only 16 per cent of total Point of Sale (PoS) and e-commerce transactions. This is largely due to the fact that the majority of RuPay cards -- around 220 million-- are held by benefactors of the Jan Dhan Yojana scheme.

"Visa and Mastercard are international companies. They have deep pockets. At the time of the launch of the RuPay debit card, they had signed three to five year deals with banks. Once these deals expire, and banks have an opportunity to change their portfolio, they might consider RuPay," said A P Hota, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), NPCI.

RuPay was launched around five years ago, designed as a local payment mechanism and as an alternative to Visa and Mastercard.

NPCI has already signed up over 750 banks, including cooperative banks and regional rural banks (RRBs), in the country, far larger than the 50 odd top banks Visa and Mastercard used to cater, prior to the RuPay's entry. Despite this deep penetration, top banks in the country continue to issue Visa and Mastercard debit cards instead of RuPay cards.

Hota says the deals signed between banks and Mastercard and Visa stops them from issuing RuPay cards despite the NPCI's charges being one-third of what the two global firms charge on every transaction.

Though banks allow customers to choose the card provider they want, they often end up picking either of the global providers' cards due to lack of awareness.

"Visa is a sponsor for the Olympics. Mastercard is the co-sponsor of the Mumbai Indians IPL [Indian Premier League] team. We are just a small startup in comparison, a not-for-profit entity. It will take time for us to really build our muscles," added Hota. "We've been around for just five years; they've been around for five decades."

While the government wants to promote NPCI and RuPay in a big way to save on the foreign exchange that comes from the charges of Mastercard and Visa on every transaction, it understands this will take time.

For its ambitious goal of reaching 25 billion electronic transactions in the current financial year (FY), it has set a mandate for Visa, Mastercard and AMEX to grow their number of transactions from 3.2 billion last year to 8 billion this year. For RuPay, the mandate is far smaller, with the government expecting the domestic card network to do 3 billion transactions in the current FY.

However, the expectation of growth is far higher, over eight times to be precise when comparing the 370 million transactions RuPay did in the previous FY.
'It will be foolhardy to overlook that this stunning shift in China's stance comes as the culmination of the severely damaged India-China relationship under the present government,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.

India will surely reject -- if South Block has not done it already -- the resolution passed by the Organisation of Islamic Conference's Council of Foreign Ministers on July 11 regarding the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

India's consistent position is that it rejects such third-party role except by the United States very selectively on a few occasions.

The OIC resolution as such isn't unusual. Pakistan obviously mooted such a resolution, estimating its likely resonance against the backdrop of the grave situation prevailing in J&K.

It is a calculated move, given the Trump administration's inclination toward taking a 'regional approach' to resolve the Afghan problem.

At a minimum, the Pakistani move is intended to put pressure on India.

The OIC, after all, comprises 57 member countries (56 whom also happen to be member States of the United Nations.)

However, what is extraordinary is China's reaction to the OIC resolution.

China's foreign ministry spokesman said in Beijing on July 12: 'We have noted relevant reports. The situation of Kashmir has drawn the attention of the international community. Both Pakistan and India are important countries in South Asia.'

'The conflict between the two countries along the Line of Control in Kashmir is neither conducive to their own stability and development nor regional peace and tranquility.'

'China hopes relevant parties to do more to help with regional peace and stability and refrain from escalating the tension.'

'China stands ready to play a constructive role to improve the relations between Pakistan and India.'

No doubt, it is a carefully worded statement -- and it is a poignant fact that Beijing has articulated on the above lines against the backdrop of the month-long military standoff on the Sikkim border.

The Chinese statement shows a marked shift from its traditional stance (in the post-Cold War era) on the Kashmir issue and India-Pakistan relations.

My mind goes back to another slice of the Kashmir chronicle when the OIC spearheaded a Pakistani move to get the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva pass a resolution condemning India.

This was at the beginning of 1994 when the insurgency in the Kashmir valley had peaked and there was total breakdown Constitutionally and politically.

Upon sensing that the OIC resolution had a fair chance of getting passed in Geneva (whereupon the Kashmir file could get re-opened in New York), on the then prime minister P V Narasimha Raos instructions, our foreign minister Dinesh Singh travelled to Tehran in an uncertain mission aimed at seeking Iran's help to literally break the OIC's 'consensus' on Kashmir favouring Pakistan.

Dinesh Singh was accompanied by the then foreign secretary K Srinivasan and myself (as head of the Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan Division and the Kashmir Unit in South Block).

While in Tehran holding talks with the Iranian leadership, the then foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati suggested to Dinesh Singh discreetly that it might be a good idea if India also sought China's help in shooting down the Pakistani resolution in Geneva -- and it so happened that then Chinese foreign minister Qian Qichen was actually in the Iranian capital on an official visit.

Velayati's proposal came as a total surprise because seeking China's support for killing a Kashmir resolution mooted by its 'all-weather friend' hadn't occurred to us up until then -- not even to PM Rao's smart thinking as a veteran diplomat.

After some quick 'internal consultation' with the two of us on the spot, Dinesh Singh accepted Velayati's suggestion, and the latter promptly set up a meeting for us within the hour.

(It stands to reason that Velayati had consulted Qian prior to making the suggestion to Dinesh Singh.)

Suffice to say, Qian was well prepared for the meeting with Dinesh Singh. We were stunned to hear from Qian the Chinese formulation, after listening to Dinesh Singh's demarche on the OIC resolution coming up in Geneva for voting -- and seeking China's understanding and help.

Let me recall from memory the incredible notes I took at that extraordinary meeting:

'China regards the Kashmir problem as a backlog of history left behind by the British.'

'The Kashmir issue has complicated India-Pakistan relations.'

'China hopes that the issue can be resolved peacefully and through negotiations by the two countries on their own.'

'This is not an international issue.'

'China will take an appropriate stance if the resolution came up for voting in Geneva.'

In essence, China upheld the bilateral approach prescribed under the Simla Agreement. (We later came to know that the Chinese envoy in Geneva was duly instructed by Qian.)

China held on to that stance on Kashmir and India-Pakistan relations consistently since 1994 -- that is, right up to July 12, 2017.

The remarks by the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman on Wednesday in Beijing contain the following nuances:

China 'took note' of the OIC resolution. It does not question the OIC's locus standii in the matter.

China now feels that the Kashmir issue is indeed of concern to the international community.

India and Pakistan are 'important' countries (read nuclear powers).

China is worried that the tensions ('conflict') on the LoC negatively impact the stability of India and Pakistan and are detrimental to regional peace and tranquility.

The two countries should do more to safeguard regional peace and stability and 'refrain from escalating tensions.'

China is willing to play a mediatory role.

The Chinese stance is strikingly similar to the United States's, but considering that the China-Pakistan relationship is extremely close and mutually supportive, it is undoubtedly weighed against India.

Wouldn't China know India's allergy toward third party mediation? Of course, it does.

To be sure, Beijing has strongly hinted that things are moving in a dangerous direction, which in turn underscores the futility of leaving the Kashmir issue to be sorted out bilaterally between India and Pakistan.

Indeed, it must be factored in that China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and is in a position to kickstart consultations in New York.

It will be foolhardy to overlook that this stunning shift in China's stance comes as the culmination of the severely damaged India-China relationship during the three year period under the present government.

The birds have come to roost, finally.

India's core interests have come under challenge.

The most consequential template of India's foreign policies is breaking loose right in front of our eyes and is beginning to drift away in a perilous direction over which we may have no control.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at their most recent encounter -- at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, July 7, 2017.
'The border standoff, if not properly addressed by both sides, could escalate to a conventional or sub-conventional conflict between India and China,' predicts Srikanth Kondapalli, one of India's leading China experts.

The continued military standoff at the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction has led to speculation about the possibilities for confidence building measures, diplomatic intervention, or even conventional or sub-conventional skirmishes between India and China.

In the light of escalation in China's 'three warfares' (in the media, psychological and legal arenas) on India in the last few weeks, several scenarios could unfold between these two rising countries with long-term consequences for Asian regional alignments.

It has been nearly a month since the standoff began between Indian and Chinese troops at the tri-junction with Bhutan.

No party to the dispute seems to be blinking unlike in previous such border standoffs.

This has led to a palpable uncertainty in bilateral relations, although so far the acrimony is mainly confined to tactical levels even as the strategic levels have been relatively free of the contagion.

This situation may not last long if other active measures are not initiated by both sides.

The three sides have struck to their respective positions: India and Bhutan insist that China shelve its military road construction activity and go back to the June 15, 2017 position.

China on the other hand demands Indian troops withdraw from Bhutan's territory.

For Bhutan, which has come under heavy pressure from Beijing, the age-old historical and cultural relations with India and security guarantees have been conducive to its all-round growth.

On the other hand, opening to China diplomatically are fraught with uncertainties.

Firstly, if diplomatic relations are established with Beijing, Thimpu is aware that it has to first accept the iron-clad 'One China' policy of jettisoning fellow Buddhist Tibetans from the Himalayan kingdom, thus tearing apart the social fabric and creating tensions.

Bhutan is aware of the recent plight of Nepal in this regard where the Chinese police wantonly intrude to chase away Tibetans.

Secondly, for Bhutan the pushy nature of Beijing's diplomatic, political and economic clout could alter its much-preserved happiness quotient in the long-term while upsetting the mutually beneficial apple-cart with New Delhi.

On the other hand, China has unleashed a barrage of invective against India -- both questioning the Bhutan-India special relations as well as on Sikkim and other areas, repeatedly reminding of the 1962 imbroglio.

This has led to speculation about a possible change in the escalatory ladder in the current standoff in the Doklam area.

While India has been assiduously de-escalating tensions, nevertheless, four possibilities could change the current situation at Doklam.

Firstly, while India and China signed confidence building measures in the conventional military field since 1995, including border personnel meetings, 'hot lines', periodic flag meetings, mutual military visits in local areas, these are conspicuous by their absence at the Doklam standoff.

At the moment, both armies are looking forward to the elusive political signaling.

Secondly, diplomatic intervention to resolve the issue is being explored -- quietly at the moment with back-channel diplomatic activity.

This is expected to increasing in the coming days with high-level official meetings.

In the previous standoffs at the Depsang Plain in 2013 and Chumar in 2014 and 2015, this track proved to be decisive, although slow in the making.

Thirdly, the border standoff, if not properly addressed by both sides, could escalate to a conventional or sub-conventional conflict between India and China.

While both sides have ruled such possibilities, miscalculation and misperceptions, which abound on both sides, could result in escalation.

Misperceptions abound with the unresolved territorial dispute triggering mistrust, fueled further by other factors such as 'extended territorial claims' as in Tawang or in Doklam, Pakistan, the Tibetan dynamics, and others.

At the conventional level, much preparation is being made by both sides, although spilling over into the nuclear domain is ruled out given the 'no first use' doctrines of India and China.

In conventional warfare, China clearly has an edge in quantity, logistics sustenance and saturation missile strike capabilities.

However, the Indian armed forces are no pushover with clear advantages in morale, motivation and professionalism, in addition to recent preparations in arms build-up including new air bases and advanced landing grounds, transport and rapid response, the Brahmos and a part of the Strike Corps available for operations.

For a decisive military outcome, China has to mobilise about 28 divisions across the Line of Actual Control, across narrow mountain passes with over 200 to 300 Four Plus generation J-10 and J-20fighter aircraft, Yun-20 transports from 12 airfields in and around Tibet and rapid response unit deployments.

This is a tall order given the ever-increasing demands in the South China Sea, Taiwan and Senkaku Islands.

Also, given the enhancement in the kill-ratio capabilities of the Indian armed forces, thanks to recent inductions, Beijing has to re-think Defence Minister Arun Jaitley's comments on the 1962 skirmishes.

Nevertheless, Beijing may be tempted to resort to Mao Zedong's dictum 'feint in the east, but attack in the west'.

This bleak conventional scenario leaves the possibility for sub-conventional stress levels increasing between India and China in the short term.

Much of the 'three warfares' that China is waging against India is in this domain of legal, psychological and media aspects recently.

In addition, cyber domains are expected to come under pressure.

Also, over 150 trans-Himalayan Buddhist monasteries could witness major changes in leadership and finances in the coming years with law and order as subjects of concern.

Srikanth Kondapalli is Professor in Chinese Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

IMAGE: Chinese troops on the India-China border in the Sikkim region.
The party leaders said that not only would they quit the cabinet, but also withdraw support from the Grand Alliance.

M I Khan reports.

The cracks in the Janata Dal-United and Rashtriya Janata Dal are growing deeper each day with RJD leaders on Friday threatening to quit the cabinet if Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav was compelled to quit.

RJD has decided that Tejashwi will not resign, but, in case, Tejashwi is sacked or compelled to quit by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, all RJD minister will resign en masse, said a senior RJD leader, close to Lalu Yadav.

The leader added that the party had no option but to follow Tejashwi as he is the leader of the RJD Legislature party in the assembly and the political heir of Lalu. Laluji has told party MLAs and senior leaders that Tejashwi is the future leader of the party and face of the party.

RJD leaders said that not only would they resign from the cabinet, but the party, itself, would withdraw from the Mahagathbandhan government. RJD will continue to support the Nitish Kumar government from outside so as to ensure that BJP does not extend support to the government, said another leader.

According to sources in the RJD, Lalu, who is camping in Ranchi for the past two days to appear in court in connection with the fodder scam case, would take the final decision about Tejashwis future after he returned from Ranchi.

Laluji may be in Ranchi, but he is in touch with some party leaders and keeping close watch on statements of JD-U leaders and any development related to the ruling Grand Alliance, said RJD leaders.



Following the RJD leaders statement, it is learnt that Nitish Kumar approached Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul to persuade Lalu not to delay the resignation of Tejashwi and not put the alliances future in doldrums.

Last Friday, the Central Bureau of Investigation conducted raids across four cities in a corruption case in which Lalus wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi were among the accused. The case relates to alleged manipulation in awarding contracts for the maintenance of two hotels run by a subsidiary of the Indian Railways -- IRCTC -- when the RJD chief was railway minister in the United Progressive Alliance government.
At least nine such NGOs that had 'gau' or 'cow' in their names are on the list, reports N Sundaresha Subramanian.

The latest home ministry crackdown on non-compliant non-governmental organisations might have hit some holy cows.

The list of 5,922 units which have not filed their annual returns and have been served show-cause notices includes several institutions working for cow protection.

At least nine such NGOs that had 'gau' or 'cow' in their names are on the list.

These are Shri Haryana Gaushala, Gau Sewa Trust, Shri Gaushala Kathar Jungle, Ratanlal C Bafna Gau Sewa Anusandhan Kendra, Shri Pinjara Pole Gaushala Sewa Trust, Shri Dayalu Gau Jeav Jan Parmarthseva Sansthan Kherapa, Shri Harihar Maharaj Kamdhenu Gaushevashram Dharmik Trust, Sri Panch Dev Mahamandir Gau Sewa Ashram Samiti, and Care for Cows Public Charitable Trust.

The list could have other such organisations, without a giveaway in the names, which are serving the cause of the bovine considered holy by a section of Hindus and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Protection of cows and creating gaushalas were part of the partys manifesto in the Uttar Pradesh polls. The spurt in cow love has fuelled the rise of vigilante groups, which have been accused of involvement in several lynchings across the country.

Besides, there were about a dozen organisations whose names suggest they worked in the area of animal welfare.

Among the minority institutions, over 100 organisations with Islamic/Arabic names have been issued show-cause notices.

These included at least five institutions named after Dr Zakir Hussain. Several Madrasas and Islamic educational trusts also received the notices.

The number of NGOs with Islamic names accounted for about 1.7 per cent of the 5,922 that received the show-cause notices. This is slightly lower than the 1.96 per cent recorded in a similar analysis done by Business Standard last year of nearly 14,000 NGOs that had been banned since 2012.

The ministry has warned these entities that their Foreign Contribution Regulation Act licences would be cancelled, if they did not furnish financial records pertaining to a five-year period beginning 2011.

The cancellation would mean these cannot receive foreign funds. The NGOs have been given time till July 23 to reply to the notices issued on July 8.

As a one-time measure, all associations were given an opportunity by way of a public notice requiring the associations to file their missing annual returns pertaining to FY (financial year) 2010-11 to 2014-15 within a period of one month, starting from May 15, 2017 to June 14, 2017, without payment of penalty for filing of annual returns.

However, in spite of sufficient and adequate notice, it has been observed that 5,922 associations have not uploaded their annual returns for three or more than three years within the stipulated time given in the notice, the show cause notice said.

Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images
'We felt a documentary on an Indian Nobel laureate referring so insensitively to our politics and religion could result in a serious breach in the peace and harmony of the country,' Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani tells Subhash K Jha.

While there has been an uproar over the cuts ordered by the Central Board Of Film Certification in Suman Ghosh's documentary The Argumentative Indian, CBFC Chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani, speaking exclusively to this correspondent, argues that the mere deletion or beeping of six words is no reason to feel creatively smothered.

Says Nihalani, "I've been flooded with calls from print and television channels asking why we've beeped six words in the documentary."

"For the first and last time, here's the reason why."

"Because we felt a documentary on an Indian Nobel laureate referring so insensitively to our politics and religion could result in a serious breach in the peace and harmony of the country."

"At one point Professor Sen talks of Indian democracy and refers to Gujarat's 'criminalities.' We've asked for 'Gujarat' to be removed."

"At another point in the documentary there is a reference to the enemy in India being religious leadership. We've asked for 'India' to be removed here."

"The third word we've ordered cut is when Professor Sen speaks of India being interpreted as 'Hindu'. We've asked for Hindu to be removed."

"The fourth cut is that of the word 'cow' where Professor Sen while speaking of religious integration makes a frivolous reference to the 'cow'."

"The fifth and according to us minor change is in Professor Sen's line about the Vedas being used in a sectarian way these days. We've asked for the words 'used' and 'these days' to be removed."

"And finally Professor Sen refers to the Hindutva view of India as 'banal'. We asked for the offensive adjective to be removed."

Nihalani says the 6 words removed from the documentary is wrongly being seen as pro-government chamchagiri.

"We are not asking for the removal of the words under pressure from the government. We seriously feel the removal of the words causes no injury to Professor Amartya Sen's thought processes in the documentary."

"On the other hand referring to a cow in a flippant manner or calling Hindutva 'banal' could seriously breach the communal harmony of the country," Nihalani adds.

"When filmmakers talk about freedom of expression they should know that such freedom comes with a responsibility. You may be a Nobel Laureate, but if you speak disparagingly about things held sacred by the population you are vulnerable to attacks."

Nihalani wants the documentary's director Suman Ghosh to calm down.

"Simply reacting because six words are beeped out when they in no way affect your artistic freedom is just a knee-jerk reaction. Please look at the larger picture," Nihalani tells Ghosh through this interview.

The censor chief alleges a serious legal breach on the part of the documentary's makers. "They have been screening the film without a censor certificate in various public places. That's illegal."

"Freedom of expression is fine," says Nihalani. "What about breaking the law?"
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday visited the families of 14 people killed in a major landslide here and said he had asked authorities to restore road connectivity within a month.

Floods and landslides triggered by incessant rain in the last couple of days have completely cut off large areas, including many district headquarters, in the state from the rest of the country, officials said.

At least 14 people were killed in Laptap village when their homes were swept away in the landslide on July 11.

Rijiju, the Union minister of state for home and the local MP, visited the bereaved families in Laptap, which has been cut off from rest of the state due to landslides across Papum Pare district.

I condole the loss of lives in the landslide which has wreaked havoc in the district. Being the local MP, I assure you all possible help from the centre. We are with the people of the village in these tough times, he said.

Rijiju, who was accompanied by MLA and former chief minister Nabam Tuki, appreciated the locals who have been voluntarily helping state authorities in restoring roads and connectivity, essential for further assistance.

Though the entire state has suffered and borne the brunt of rains and landslides which have damaged highways and roads, I have asked the authorities to restore the roads within one month, the minister said, as he handed over the cash relief to the victims.

Rijiju also undertook an aerial survey of the worst-hit Papum Pare district and neighbouring areas along with Tuki and high-level central team comprising officials of National Disaster Response Force, National Disaster Management Authority and National Institution for Transforming India, or NITI Ayog and took stock of the situation.

Several major roads in Arunachal Pradesh have been damaged due to landslides with district officials working round the clock to restore the roads.

The state capital was virtually cut off with its lifeline NH-415 getting totally eroded at the entry point. The alternate road via Jullang was also blocked, leaving only one road through Hollongi en route Lakhimpur district in Assam open, officials said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday announced Rs 2 lakh per person to those killed and Rs 50,000 to those injured in the landslide. The state government has also announced ex gratia relief for the victims.
United States President Donald Trump, battling allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians to get him elected, has said he would invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House, but 'at the right time'.

Trump expressed his willingness to invite Putin with reporters travelling with him en route to Paris on Thursday.

It came at a time the scandal reached his eldest son after the American media reported that Donald Trump Jr last year met a Russian lawyer who had promised to provide information damaging to Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic rival.

According to the reports, Trump Jr met the lawyer at Trump Tower in New York in June. This week, he released emails about the meeting and the US president publicly defended his son for his 'transparency' in releasing the emails.

Trump has denied allegations his campaign had contacted Russians to tilt the 2016 election in his favour, but the US intelligence agencies have differed with that assessment.

Aboard the Air Force One, Trump, when asked by reporters whether he would invite Putin to the White House, said, "I don't think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would."

"Look, it's very easy for me to say absolutely, I won't. That's the easy thing for me to do, but that's the stupid thing to do. Let's be the smart people not the stupid people," he said.

Trump described Russia as 'perhaps the second most powerful nuclear country in the world' and said that if 'you don't have dialogue (with them), you have to be fools'.

Since assuming office on January 20, the Republican president has appeared inclined to do business with Russia.

Trump has previously spoken with Putin by phone, and at the G20 summit in Germany last week, they had their first face-to-face meeting since Trump's election, when he pressed Putin over the election meddling allegations.

Trump twice asked Putin whether Russia tried to hack the election during the meeting and was reportedly appeared satisfied with Putin's denial.

On Thursday, Trump said he wants to make great deals with Russia and added that these deals would affect Moscow.

"Why does that affect Russia? Because Russia makes its money through selling of oil, and we've got underneath us more oil than anybody, and nobody knew it until five years ago. And I want to use it," he said.

"I don't want that taken away by the Paris Accord. I don't want them to say all of that wealth that the United States has under its feet, but that China doesn't have and that other countries don't have, we can't use," he said.

Responding to the allegation that Putin favoured him over Clinton in presidential election, Trump said he would directly pose this question to the Russian president when he meets him next time.

"The next time I'm with Putin, I'm going to ask him: who were you really for? Because I can't believe that he would have been for me. Me: strong military, strong borders - but he cares less about the borders - but strong military, tremendous," Trump said.

Trump said that during his meeting with Putin he did ask him if he hacked the US elections. "I said to him, 'were you involved with the meddling in the election'? He said, 'absolutely not. I was not involved'. He was very strong on it. I then said to him again, in a totally different way, 'were you involved with the meddling'. He said, 'I was not -- absolutely not'".

The US president, though, reiterated that other countries too could have been involved with the hacking of the polls.

"I'm not saying it wasn't Russia. What I'm saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is. China is very good at this. I hate to say it, North Korea is very good at this. Look what they did to Sony Studios. They were the ones that did the whole deal to Sony," he said.
First, they shared an awkward handshake. Then, United States President Donald Trump complimented Frances First Lady Brigitte Macrons physical shape.

Youre in such good shape. Shes in such good physical shape. Beautiful, Trump told the French presidents wife, who was standing next to US First Lady Melania Trump.

IMAGE: French President Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte Macron welcomed US President Donald Trump and wife Melania to Paris on the eve of Bastille Day. Photograph: Michel Euler/Pool/Reuters

The awkward exchange came after Frances President Emmanuel Macron and wife welcomed Trump and Melania to Paris on the eve of Bastille Day.

On first arriving, Trump kissed Brigitte Macron Parisian-style, once on each cheek, before taking both her hands for a prolonged grip, in which he appeared to jerk her left arm towards him as she appeared to be struggling to get him to let go.

IMAGE: The visit started off an awkward note when Trump took both her hands for a prolonged grip, in which he appeared to jerk her left arm towards him as she appeared to be struggling to get him to let go. Photograph: Michel Euler/Pool/Reuters

It was an off-script start to a carefully-choreographed visit to Paris which on Friday will see Trump and Macron together for the Bastille Day celebrations, as well the couple dining together on Thursday evening at the Eiffel Tower.

Trump spoke to Brigitte Macron as she and Melania left Les Invalides -- the complex of buildings that serve as a monument to the French military in central Paris -- for a tour of other site of the French capital.

IMAGE: The leaders later met for dinner at the Jules Verne restaurant for a private dinner at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Its not the first awkward greeting between Trump and a Macron. In May, Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron shared a long, tense handshake during their first meeting in Brussels. The French leader later said his white-knuckled grip had a deeper meaning.

IMAGE: US First Lady Melania Trump donned a patriotic red, white, and blue dress for dinner at the Eiffel Tower, while France's Brigitte Marcon wore a stylish black and white patterned minidress.

Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters
A husband and wife from Mumbai filed their nominations for Monday's Presidential election.

A sign that common Indians like you and me can aspire to be the First Citizen of the land.

Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel met Mohammed and Saira Patel a couple of days before the Election Commission nixed their dreams.

IMAGE: Saira and Mohammed Patel at their home in Andheri, north west Mumbai.

It was the first time that a pati-patni had filed their nominations in a Presidential election.

Photograph: Satish Bodas/Rediff.com

An aspiring President and his deputy live in a cosy flat on the seventh floor of Caribbean Sagar, near Gilbert Hill, Andheri west, Mumbai.

They grew up and lived in a slum colony right across the road.

He in a family of 11. She an only child.

His father worked in the Golden Tobacco factory, Vile Parle, that markets Gold Flake and Panama brand of cigarettes.

Her father was a small-time seller/hawker of costume jewellery.

This busy, modest, but rising locality, noticeably Muslim, that stretches up to the black basalt, monolith hill, was once a vast slum until the midscale Sagar City buildings came up around here -- Caspian, Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Caribbean. Artic and Meditterean are still under construction and will open soon, hopefully with correct spellings.

Their modest beginnings did not stop Mohammed and Saira Patel from boarding an Indigo flight to New Delhi last month, armed with Rs 30,000 in cash, to seek the highest office in the land.

They filed their nominations at Parliament House, before returning officer and Lok Sabha Secretary General Anoop Mishra and returned to Mumbai in the evening by an Air India flight, no doubt feeling like conquering heroes.

Yes, they both submitted nomination forms to be the President of India.

What did the folks in their neighbourhood think of their ambitious dreams when the Patels took off for the airport in an Ola cab?

Or about the possibility of living next to a potential Mr or Mrs President?

"They don't know what a President is," says Saira with a gentle smile, explaining that it is not a very literate neighbourhood.

"They only understand elections where money is distributed, like for corporators and MLAs," says Mohammed. The conversation proceeds in Hindi peppered with English words.

Mohammed is already familiar with the Presidential election process, having filed his nomination in 2012.

This year, he went one step further and persuaded his wife to join him in his quixotic mission.

What propels him to make a bid for the Presidency despite knowing he stands no chance?

As you probe him and Saira, an unlikely Mumbai couple dreaming of occupying Rashtrapati Bhavan, it seems to be a mixed bag of motivations.

Some hubris, no doubt.

A touch of self-aggrandisement.

Thrills.

Also knocking off a bucket-list item. A wish to create a record, too.

"In the history of India, this is the first Presidential election in which a pati-patni have filed their nominations. No one has done this before," says Mohammed proudly.

"People from all communities, generations, states, middle class, non-political have filed nominations to be President. For the first time, two people from one family have filed. And not brother and sister. But husband and wife..."

When he filed solo in 2012 it was more, he recalls, to understand the system and its powers.

This time it is definitely to go down in the record books as an example.

"We gave a statement in Parliament House in front of the returning officer, others were sitting there too. Logon ne appreciate kiya ki yeh unique cheez hai. They wanted to know why miya-biwi were fighting for the same office."

"If one loses what will happen. I said, 'The election of the vice-president is coming next month. One of us will fight there. Whoever loses will fight there'..."

What was the need for a dual presidential adventure?

Mohammed, a well-spoken man, with commonsensical, progressive views, firmly believes in exerting the citizen's rights vested in him.

"Babasaheb Ambedkar gave every citizen of India the right to fight an election. My wife is also a citizen of India. She does social work with me. I am social activist. She works along with me, shoulder to shoulder, in this field."

"So if in social work she marches along with me, then in the Presidential elections she should be there too. The Constitution has given this right to women, and to Muslim women too."

"This is the first time that a Muslim lady has filed a nomination in a Presidential election. You will not find any past record of this. This is the first time."

"It is a very big thing for a Muslim woman to go to Parliament House and fill a form to be the President of India. She is also a graduate," he says, beaming with satisfaction at their achievement.

"If you go to Parliament House, when you arrive there, you don't feel you are any less than an MP or a minister. It's that psychological (moment)."

Says Saira, who is equally thoughtfully spoken, "I felt special doing this as the first Muslim aurat (woman). For the first time... That at least I had the courage to go up to there, fill the form and come back."

That morning in Delhi, an excited Saira and Mohammed, along with four other Rashtrapati hopefuls, showed up at the gate of Parliament House.

"You have to tell the guards that you want to contest the President's election at the gate. Then they check you and let you in," says Mohammed.

Following which there is a round of paperwork which prevented them from chatting much with the other candidates: K Padmaraja from Tamil Nadu; Anand Singh Kushwaha from Madhya Pradesh; Bala Raj from Telangana; Kondekar Vijayprakash from Pune.

Independent candidates, Mohammed says, are driven to file their nominations because they want an opportunity to exercise their rights.

What did it feel to be standing before the returning officer with their nominations?

"A lot of happiness that in our democratic country, the Constitution has given a common man like me, a middle class person, this big right..."

"Yeh humare liye bahut hi bada proud ki baat hai, gaurav ki baat hai."

Setting examples for their Muslim community is essential, but that was not the exact significance of this exercise for them.

"I did it because I am worried about our nation and what is happening in it. You read the newspapers. You feel tension that so many wrong things are happening and they should be stopped," says Mohammed.

"To stop them, good people must come forward. People with good thoughts should come forward. This is a non-political election."

Mohammed, who works for a construction company, and Saira, who once worked in nursing, are social workers too.

They have been working in the Gilbert Hill area for more than 25 years. Saira is a well-known figure, having run for the corporator's post in the next ward.

"When you came here looking for our house if you asked anyone for Saira's house they would have directed you and taken you to my doorstep," she says with a tinge of pride.

They work, they say, on the pressing issues of the area, which she estimates is 80 per cent Muslim -- water, roads and education.

The Right To Education has helped get local children into better schools. It is more about sustaining it.

Seeing that young Muslim girls, who usually study better, turn it into a career and get jobs, in spite of their community's "narrow-minded" outlook. And ensuring that young Muslim boys do graduate.

Saira, with Mohammed's help, has over the years organised public meetings, awareness drives, VIP visits and campaigns, aware of the importance of an educated Muslim woman doing social work in a slum area.

IMAGE: Saira, left, and Mohammed Patel file their nominations for the presidential election before the returning officer, Lok Sabha Secretary General Anoop Mishra at Parliament House, June 14, 2017.

"In our democratic country, the Constitution has given a common man like me, a middle class person, this big right," says Mohammed.

Mohammed gets up and rummages in the sideboard and brings out an album of Saira's engagements.

There are pictures of her with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, former MP Priya Dutt, and various actors, politicians and celebrities. Of tiranga drives. Woman's day functions. And anti-plastic gatherings.

Says Mohammed, "When you do service your mind is full of happiness. In service there is a lot of mewa (value). If you do seva with a good heart, then you are doing a prayer to god."

She has a BA in politics and the husband and wife follow politics avidly, on the television (a large flat screen television has pride of place in their drawing room), through newspapers and social media.

Both are up to date on the latest political news. They call it "practical politics" because they feel they put their money where their mouth is.

Mohammed explains that those on the fringes of society need to be more worried about maintaining democracy than the mainstream or upper classes.

"Democracy ko bachana hai, na (has to be saved, no)? Unless people like us don't fight, how will democracy survive?"

"If only big people fight the elections, then how will it be a democracy? The majaa (joy) of democracy is that a middle class person and a high profile class can also win. Toh hi democracy hai (only then is it a democracy)!"

The Patels moved into Caribbean Sagar about two years ago and live here with their second son Adnan who is headed for a career in IT.

Their neat flat is in the name of their elder son Danish who works in the travel industry in the "Gulf" (Qatar).

It affords them quite a bit more space than the earlier slum housing, and consistent water supply. And clearly a better lifestyle.

Their presidential ambitions are not the only reason that makes the Patels an unusual couple. They seem to share interests and idealism and work as a team in a sweet way. They even complete each other's sentences.

Apart from aspirations to reach Rashtrapati Bhavan together -- nixed by the Election Commission a couple of days after I met them; their nomination papers were rejected as were all the others barring Ram Nath Kovind, the National Democratic Alliance candidate, and Meira Kumar, the Opposition candidate -- another joint project the couple work on is self-education.

She has written the entrance exam for an LLB course. He is awaiting his TYBA (history) exam results after completing his course from the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University.

They say they have time now and want to use it to study, because degrees matter. He did not complete his graduation earlier, for whatever reasons, and regretted it.

"Babasaheb Ambedkar had so many degrees," he says.

Also, pursuing education at a later age sets a good example to their community -- to show Muslims the importance of education. And that education is something one can do even at an older age.

Given that the ruling alliance's Ram Nath Kovind is a shoo-in for the Presidency why the desire to lose Rs 30,000 (each nomination has to be accompanied by Rs 15,000 as security deposit), apart from the expense on flight tickets?

Mohammed explains that each nomination has to be proposed by 50 electors (MPs and MLAs) and seconded by another 50.

That they are not forthcoming, on their behalf, illustrates to him that no one is really interested in minority rights or women's welfare.

Says Saira, "The government talks all the time about doing things for the Muslim aurat (women)... On talaq (divorce)... If they are so worried about Muslim women, why didn't they make a Muslim woman President?"

"So many women in the Hindu community are suffering because of divorce and separation too. Why don't they think of them?"

Mohammed feels this requirement of proposers and seconders for a Presidential nomination takes away from the beauty of this special citizen right Dr Ambedkar had so thoughtfully crafted, and plans to write to the Chief Justice of India about it as well take it to the Supreme Court.

This requirement makes the President's post in reality off-limits to the "common man," he rues.

They know they won't make it past the first round, but nevertheless Mohammed has a firm agenda in mind as President.

"If one of us becomes President, then within 24 hours we sabak sikhlayenge Pakistan ko, based on what our soldiers are facing and what is happening at the border."

"Today because of Pakistan we have so many terrorists spread across our country. The peace in Kashmir has ended. Finish off the terrorists in our country. Bring peace to Kashmir."

"If we have to finish off the terrorists, then we have to take a very kadak (rigid) stand with Pakistan. We have to see what is happening with our soldiers."

The last time he filed his nomination for President he had announced that his first move would be to order Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru and 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab to be hanged.

"Mera statement ka itna asar hua, ki they were hanged within a few days. I feel that somewhere my thoughts are perfect..."

Will he be back in Parliament House in 2022 too?

"Yes. Karenga jab tak hai!" he says with certainty.
Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.


Gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker, who supports the Madigan tax hike, with Hillary Clinton

CHICAGO - Friday, hard-working citizens will get their first weekly paycheck sans the 32% state income tax hike a majority of House Democrats and 15 Republicans supported last week. And when they cash their checks and go to the nearest service station, everyone in Illinois that drives will pay an additional five cent per gallon gasoline tax.

But not only did those lawmakers celebrate the tax hike, Democrats who've declared they want to be Illinois' next governor are excited about Illinois' taxpayers tossing more into the state coffers.

The IL GOP points out:
But when we do dig deep when we do take a moment to think about what happened to France in the 1790s we cannot help feeling the horror of an age in which a city lost control to madness and if we dig just a bit deeper, we may find painful similarities to our own time and place.

Even here in the United States, an ocean away, with only the slightest connection to the French people and culture, we enjoy the day as an unofficial holiday. We drink French wine, enjoy brie and crackers, and sing Le Marseillaise (in the original French, of course). Its an excuse for a sale, for a party, for a festival. As long as we dont dig too deep.

Every year on July 14, the French celebrate Bastille Day, the beginning of the end for the Bourbon monarchy, and, ostensibly, the rise of the power of the people.

The Storming of the Bastille

There was a time when the story of the Storming of the Bastille was well known in the United States. A century ago, Americans grew up reading Edmund Burkes contemporary account, Reflections on the Revolution in France, or the later masterpiece by Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution, A History. Or at least the wonderful Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities.

But time has passed, and history has fallen out of favor, so all that we know is the romanticized version: The people of Paris, furious at political oppression and poverty, stormed the prison that held so many innocent political prisoners, starting the movement that freed them from despotism and opened the gates to liberty and equality for all.

Sadly, the facts tell a different story.

In truth, a gradual easing of absolute monarchy had already begun under the good king Louis XVI. He wasnt perfect, but he clearly meant well. He had convened the Assembly of Notables in 1787, and well-intentioned, thoughtful people, including such lights of the Enlightenment as the Marquis de Lafayette, were meeting to study gradual changes to improve life in France.

But the mob rose in 1789, and destroyed such visions of a calm and peaceful change. They lay siege to the Bastille, long the most famous and imposing prison in France, until the crowd of about a thousand rioters eventually stormed the place on July 14, 1879, murdering the warden and many of his guards, and freeing all those political prisoners.

How many were there?

Seven.

At the time of the Storming of the Bastille, the old prison was largely unused. Because of its lousy conditions (yes, thats the right adjective; the old place was infested with vermin), they didnt keep prisoners there long, usually just a few months at most.

There were seven inmates on that fateful day: four convicted forgers, a sexual predator, and two very confused old lunatics. Think, for a moment, of what was built on the foundation of freeing these seven prisoners:

A hundred attackers and a number of the guards died in the assault on July 14, and revolutionary reputations were built. Heads were displayed on pikes, and the streets ran red with blood for years.

In the years to come, what might have been a gradual and peaceful transformation, from unlimited monarchy to a British-style government of figurehead king and elected parliament, was stillborn.

Because of Bastille Day, hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen were killed in the terrors to come, and a generation of promise was squandered. All because the rabble-rousers (among them, the Marquis de Sade, of all people!) had whipped the crowd into a frenzy, lying about the nature of the prison and its prisoners, lying about the problems France faced, lying about the intentions of the mobs leaders, who wanted nothing more than to take power for their own benefit, to get revenge for imagined slights, and to wield the awesome powers of public opinion and the guillotine for their own warped ends.

Is this really, truly, anything for 21st Century Americans to celebrate?

21st Century America

We have similar problems in America today.

The problems of history, in fact, are almost unchanging crime, poverty, illiteracy, disease, sadness, mental illness, starvation. Every country suffers them, and every government is tasked with finding the best way to alleviate them.

In 1780s France, the King had convened an Assembly to work on the problem, but people lost their patience. This is understandable, of course when youre starving in the summer or freezing in the winter, being told that men in suits in a fancy hall across town are working on it cant be terribly satisfying.

But the fact remains that some problems take time to solve. Time, and thoughtful study, and, frankly, capitalism.

The only true solution for poverty is the creation of wealth, and that can only happen with economic freedom. The United States were suffering a terrible depression at the same time the French were, but we solved our problem with a Constitutional Convention and the empowerment of Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury; he built an economic model from whole cloth, and Americas path to prosperity was begun. The French didnt have such patience; they chose violence over discussion, mass executions over economic and political freedom.

Today, we see rabble-rousers in America as well.

The Class Envy orators of the Bernie Sanders and John Edwards stripes, who tell the poor that they can be wealthy if only they steal from those who are wealthy already.

The Race-Hustlers of the NAACP and BLM crowd, who turn the victims of crime against the police who try to protect them.

The Free Stuff crowd of the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton brand, who give away checks and SNAP cards, cellphones and college tuition, funded by a governments printing press, uncaring that future generations will work their entire lives to pay for todays largesse.

The Tax-and-Spenders of the Illinois variety  Speaker Mike Madigan, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, County Board President Toni Preckwinkle  who raise taxes to pay for outrageous spending, taxes that drive taxpayers out of the state at an unprecedented rate, causing a spiral requiring ever-higher taxes, in a fruitless attempt to get ahead of the problem as the people flee.

They dont look like the rabble-rousers we envision, of course. But thats because the mob and its spokesmen have never dressed the same. Robespierre, Danton, Babeuf and Barere all wore suits, dressing every bit as well as the honorable leaders they supplanted at the head of state. The Paris Mob may have been a shabby bunch of thieves and thugs, but their representatives, haranguing away at the podium of the Assembly, sending innocents off to the guillotines by the thousands, were dashing and professional. Nobody would ever look at a Robespierre or Barere and think thug but then, looks have always been deceiving.

Today, we see Madigan, Preckwinkle and Madigan  or their national colleagues, Sharpton, Schumer and Pelosi - wearing their business suits, speaking at podiums and facing questions on television, and we dont think of a bloody revolution.

But what are the policies they advocate? And who backs them in their efforts?

Its the George Soros funded groups  Organizing for America, MoveOn.org, Black Lives Matter, and the Occupy crowd. They march in the streets and make demands, while their representatives on the political scene enact their policies.

Who are the leaders, and who are the followers? Hard to say. Does Occupy drive Pelosis policies, or does Pelosi drive Occupys choice of chants? Worth noting, though, that George Soros funds them both.

The Policies of 2016

In the 2016 political campaigns, we saw an amazing array of political positions, many of which were printed in plain sight on candidate websites, but never even covered by the media.

The Clinton/Kaine campaign promised massive tax increases it promised to reduce prison sentences and even turn the wheels of government against the criminal justice system, limiting the way that police can help a community terrorized by robbers, rapists and killers. The Clinton/Kaine campaign promised to legalize the entry of criminal illegal aliens, to reward sanctuary cities for flouting federal immigration law, to partner with gang leaders in our inner cities instead of incarcerating them.

This is the modern Democratic Party  a voice for mob rule, for turning the prisons inside-out and flooding the nation with known criminals. What does that do, in the end? It drives employment out of our cities, making the residents ever more dependent on welfare, on government housing, government healthcare, government checks. Because thats how they like their subjects: dependent and afraid.

This country is on a precipice. The President supports the necessary reforms to our criminal justice system, our business system, our schools and agencies, to bring back the days of free market economics to America. The Presidents policies are the policies of Reagan, of Coolidge, of McKinley, of Washington and Hamilton. With those policies, we could again have safe streets, career opportunities, a chance for prosperity for everyone, even those at the most dependent level in our inner cities.

But the Mob rules in our cities, and - thanks to vote fraud, gerrymandering, and their allies in the mass media  bears a disproportionate influence in our state and national legislatures.

The Mob is opposed to the gradual positive change afforded by free market economics. The Mob parades on bridges and at city parks, at Daley Plaza and Lafayette Square, cheering the demagogues of the modern American Left, calling for food stamps and the emptying of prisons, even dancing perilously close to calls for assassination. The French Revolution lives on in the wicked hearts of Organizing for Action and its allies in nonprofits and capitol hill cocktail parties alike.

Look at Chicago, Cook County, and the state of Illinois. Bankrupted by welfare obligations, they advocate policies that will drive more people into poverty, increasing the need for such help. Terrorized by muggers, shooters, drug dealers, and rapists, they insist on a revolving door in our jails so that the criminals return to commit ever more crimes, again and again.

And these leaders of our troubled cities insist on welcoming in even more competitors for scarce jobs, more dependents and more criminals, by declaring Sanctuary City status, inviting so-called refugees and foreign gang members from all over the world for the easy pickings of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and dozens of other cities across the land.

Celebrate Bastille Day, on July 14, you say?

Theres no need. In the cities of modern America, every day is Bastille Day.

Copyright 2017 John F. Di Leo

John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based writer, actor, and international trade lecturer. Being Irish, Italian, Austrian, and Scots-Irish, he has no French blood at all, to the best of his knowledge.

Permission is hereby granted to forward freely, provided it is uncut and the IR URL and byline are included.
By the end of the 1986 student movement in Anhui, Nanjing, Shanghai and Beijing, I had heard of Liu Xiaobo, though I had never met him.



He tried to visit me twice in 2007, but was stopped both times by police, who wouldn't let him in [to visit me under house arrest], and he had to leave again.



Later, in 2007 and 2008, I met Liu Xiaobo, and we quickly became good friends.



Liu Xiaobo's specialism was the theory of literature and art, and he had studied the theories of [Russian literary theorists] Dobrolyubov, Belinsky and Chernyshevsky in university, but didn't find them satisfying.



He liked to live a relaxed and carefree life, meeting up with people, talking to them. In terms of his temperament, he was no politician. Chatting with him usually meant trivia, anything and everything, history through the ages. There was almost no political stuff at all. But whenever we would meet up to drink tea and talk together, the people around us would always be listening in.



Once we got to know each other, we would meet to drink tea once a month, although we couldn't always make it every time for a variety of reasons. He knew that I would practice tai chi in Yuyuantan Park every morning, and sometimes he would seek me out there if there was something on his mind.



On one occasion, in 2008, he came to the park to say that a few friends were drafting Charter 08, and that he was hoping we could discuss it. From that time on, we met more than once a month.



Charter 08 wasn't entirely drafted by Liu Xiaobo, but he presided over it, and we discussed it together. He listened very carefully, and in great detail, to different opinions. He also argued, but not in a stubborn way. He would always choose his ideas on merit, and he wanted it written in a way that recognized as many people's contribution as

possible.



Liu Xiaobo was a very gentle man who never went to extremes, and was never subjective. His later statement, titled "I have no enemies," was a true reflection of the man.



When he was drafting Charter 08, he also asked for my advice, but my opinion was simple, taking up only one sentence: the simpler, clearer and more moderate you can make it, the better. Besides that, I had no other opinion. Out of several friends who were busy discussing Charter 08, he was the busiest.



Liu Xiaobo was smart, and he knew that things had to stay within the law, so as to attract more participants, and to meet with less resistance.



The contents of the Charter are almost all to be found in the Chinese constitution. We just asked that their implementation be taken seriously. There was nothing new there.



Under normal circumstances, this would be acceptable to the authorities, and there would be no reason to refuse us.



For example, the idea that all the power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people. Or that the people have freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and assembly, freedom of demonstrations, all of which are expressly included in the constitution, and which the government should guarantee.



Two things might meet with less acceptance, however. The first was the nationalization of the armed forces, and the second was the setting up of a federal system of government.



We thought about leaving those things out, but the consensus was that we had to leave them in, because they were patriotic. It was our responsibility to say them, as patriots.



As for the army, without nationalization, it might be privatized, or co-opted by partisan forces or warlords. That must not be allowed to happen, so the army should be nationalized, as it had been between 1937 and 1946. This had been the consistent position of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, and we should uphold it.



As for federalism, it was to be the foundation of democracy. China is so big, that it lends itself to centralization or federalism. Ever since the emperors, all subjective power has been associated with centralization. So a federal system would actually be a remedy for the country's symptoms.



The successful experience of the United States has shown us conclusively that if there is no federal system, if there is no local autonomy, the people would never be able to implement their power. The history of the Communist Party of China advocated provincial self-government,



When he was in Hunan, Mao Zedong even suggested Hunan should be independent, although that was really too extreme. The federal system is not the same thing, the United States is a federal system, and that's why it can't be broken up.



Liu Xiaobo chose to take this route in a very thoughtful way: these ideas were all based on lawful, peaceful and non-violent principles: moderate rather than radical, well founded, and with a realistic legal and historical basis.



At that time we were all much more optimistic, because China was said to be cultivating a "harmonious society." We already had the constitution, which, while it may not have been perfect, had some good things in it. A lot of people seemed to support them, and we thought there should be very little resistance to putting those good things into practice, because there was no good reason to oppose it. I, and everyone else, were full of hope.



Liu Xia always listens quietly. She laughs and smiles brightly. But she has a melancholy temperament. She is a poet, and a painter, who likes to take photographs. The tone of her work is melancholy and sad, yet it sees the world with compassion.



When Charter 08 was published, the authorities detained Liu Xiaobo and sent him to prison. I don't know if Liu Xia had any sense that this might happen. It certainly took me by surprise.



Why was Liu Xiaobo found guilty of what were very serious charges, and sentenced to jail? To this day, I still can't see how patriotism and wanting to protect the rule of law can be a crime.



There was a professor at Tsinghua University called Hu Angang, who said the Communist Party's Politburo standing committee system was a collective presidency. When this remark appeared in the Global Times newspaper, nobody in China said a word of criticism. It seemed to be a genuine consensus.



The 16th and 17th Party Congresses seemed to abide by this principle, with each member of the Politburo standing committee sticking to their own turf.



When Liu Xiaobo was formally arrested, Zhou Yongkang was minister of state security. So the only way I can make sense of it is this: that the arrest and sentencing of Liu Xiaobo was an act of mischief wrought by this corrupt official. But I belief that the truth will one day become clearer.



Liu Xiaobo went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, which was well-deserved. Liu Xiaobo trod the path of least resistance and most sense. His ultimate goal was one that nobody dared to oppose openly.



If China really did set out on the path to democracy, the people of China, and the whole world, would benefit from the presence of a truly responsible great power, and could play a hugely positive role in the development of civilization as a whole.



In memory of a great patriot, Liu Xiaobo.



, 2017



Translated by Luisetta Mudie.



Bao Tong, former political aide to the late ousted premier Zhao Ziyang, is under continual surveillance and frequent house arrest at his home in Beijing.
A Chinese policeman stands guard as Muslims arrive for the Eid al-Fitr morning prayer at the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, northwestern China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, June 26, 2017.

Authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have ordered local residents to install an app on their cell phones that will monitor their activity for "terrorist" content, local sources told RFA on Thursday.

"In order to achieve city-wide coverage in the antiterrorist video and audio clean-up, and to target people, materials and thinking for clean-up work, management and crackdowns, a technology company affiliated with the municipal police department has developed an app for Android smartphones that can filter out terrorist video and audio content," the Tianshan district government in the regional capital Urumqi said in a directive issued July 10.

The app, called CleanWebGuard, is to be installed by all Android smartphone users in the city, regardless of ethnic group, in order to carry out "self-surveillance," the directive said.

The app is designed to be installed on Android smartphones with the use of a QR code.

"Once operational, it will automatically pinpoint the location of video or audio containing terrorist content or illegal religious content, images, e-books or documents, and delete them automatically,"

the Tianshan notice said.

It warned that anyone declining to delete or trying to save such content "will be pursued according to law."

Local residential neighborhood committees and places of work were also ordered to post notices requiring people to use CleanWebGuard, it said.

Notices must also be placed in audiovisual retailers, residential communities, institutes of higher education and public places where people gather in numbers, providing the local population with the QR to install the app, it said.

"Antiterrorism task-force leaders" across the city must provide full statistics and report back on their implementation of the measures, it said.

The QR code instructions order smartphone users to open up the popular social media app WeChat and download the CleanWebGuard app from within the app.

The app's website advertises it as a family-friendly filter aimed at protecting internet users from porn sites, online fraud, viruses and malware, and phishing sites.

However, it also offers "mobile phone remote control and other security services," the website said.

Targeted for persecution

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exile group World Uyghur Congress, said the Chinese authorities are targeting Muslims generally, which includes many Kazakhs in China.

"The plight of Uyghurs is already in the international eye, but it's not just Uyghurs who are suffering oppression in Xinjiang," Raxit said. "There are also Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other Turkic ethnic groups who are being increasingly targeted by China for persecution."

"The international community shouldn't ignore the treatment of these groups, but should be concerned about any ethnic minority groups under threat with the borders of Xinjiang," he said.

An ethnic minority Kazakh resident of Xinjiang said police are already using the app to monitor users' digital activity, resulting in the detention of 10 Kazakh women in Xinjiang's Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture on Tuesday.

"They detained 10 Kazakh women on charges of using WeChat to discuss content that shouldn't be discussed," a Kazakh source in the region told RFA on Thursday.

"One of the women was named as Jamila," he said. "They are all ordinary citizens, with no connection to anything political or religious."

Another Kazakh source said the Xinjiang authorities are now requiring ethnic minority communities to demonstrate their loyalty to Beijing by attending daily morning flag-raising ceremonies.

A video of one of the ceremonies seen by RFA showed a number of people lined up in front of a building in a remote, mountainous region, listening to the Chinese national anthem.

And authorities in Xinjiang's Chapchal county also recently detained an ethnic Kazakh woman after her husband became a Kazakh citizen, amid a regionwide crackdown on Kazakhs relocating across the shared border.

"She is a Chinese national, but they wanted to know why her husband had applied for Kazakstan citizenship," the source said.

Growing anger

The detentions come amid growing anger among Kazakhs with relatives in China over the Chinese Communist Party's widening crackdown on the minority ethnic group within its borders.

Last month, a group of state scientists and other scholars hit out at the "persecution" of ethnic Kazakhs by Chinese authorities, and called on Astana to put pressure on Beijing.

Residents of Kazakhstan have complained they are being prevented from seeing their families after Chinese authorities began confiscating the passports and residence permits of ethnic minority Kazakhs whose family members live across the border.

Some 200,000 Kazakhs who hold Chinese passports and permanent residence cards for Kazakhstan were told to hand in their Kazakhstan-issued residency cards to Chinese police "for safekeeping," although sources later said officials in some parts of Xinjiang were rapidly backpedaling on the policy and working round the clock to send Kazakh green cards and passports back to their owners.

Reported by Qiao Long and Xi Wang for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Hong Kong's High Court on Friday issued a ruling stripping four pan-democratic lawmakers of their seats in the city's Legislative Council (LegCo), paring back an all-important veto power for pro-democratic voices in the chamber and sparking street protests in the former British colony.



The government asked the High Court to disqualify former democracy protest leader Nathan Law of the Demosisto party, rights activist Leung Kwok-hung, Lau Siu-lai from Democracy Groundwork and Edward Yiu, who represents the surveying profession, from their seats in the Legislative Council (LegCo).



Judge Thomas Au found that Law, of the post-Occupy Central party Demosisto, had raised the pitch of his voice while reading the words Peoples Republic of China as if he was asking a question.



This had given the impression that Law was being "forced" to pledge allegiance to the SAR and central governments, Au said.



Leung, a veteran activist from the League of Social Democrats, held up a yellow umbrella, a symbol of the 2014 Occupy movement, when he read his oath, and he also ripped up a piece of paper, acts which Au deemed "theatrical" and not befitting the dignity of the swearing-in ceremony.



Lau was judged to have read her oath extremely slowly, with pauses in between each word, suggesting that she wasn't "genuine" about the commitment she was making, while independent Yiu had added a line to his oath about fighting for genuine universal suffrage, Au found.



All four lawmakers were judged to have broken Hong Kong's Oaths and Declarations Ordinance, which Au said he had interpreted with repeated reference to a controversial interpretation issued by China's National People's Congress (NPC) standing committee last November.



"Solemnity and sincerity" were qualities required retroactively by the NPC standing committee, in a move that prompted street protests and widespread fears over the erosion of the city's judicial independence and political autonomy.



"The sole remaining channel for elected representatives to supervise the administration and the chief executive has now been lost," Leung told reporters after the ruling. "This is a result that no Hong Kong person should accept."



Courts politicized



Pan-democratic lawmakers hit out at the decision, which will leave the democratic camp in LegCo potentially unable to block hugely unpopular subversion and national security legislation demanded by Beijing. It will also now be unable to vote down procedural rule changes favoring Beijing's supporters.



Law said the ruling had politicized Hong Kong's judiciary.



"The government may have tried to portray this as a legal dispute, but everyone knows that it has now dragged the courts into the political arena," he said.



"They have privileged their political decision, as well as the interpretation by the NPC, over the rule of law, and in doing so, have damaged the rule of law."



Lau said there is now scant difference between former unpopular chief executive Leung Chun-ying, current chief executive Carrie Lam and the ruling Chinese Communist Party.



"In one hand is the carrot, and in the other is the bludgeon of authoritarian government," she said.



"The stripping of our seats in LegCo today will pave the way for the passage of the Article 23 [national security] legislation, and it's clear to see where they were heading all along with this case and the interpretation."



"Our entire city of Hong Kong, and its people, are now facing a very grim situation," she said.



Movement backlash



Edward Yiu said the move was likely a backlash from the powers-that-be in Beijing following the 2014 pro-democracy movement, which saw hundreds of thousands of people pour onto the streets at its height, in support of fully democratic elections.



"I think our new approach struck fear in the hearts of the government; fear of democratic lawmakers, so they pulled out all the stops to strip us of our seats," Yiu said.



"But the lower the government stoops, the harder we citizens will have to work," he said. "The democracy movement requires the support of everyone."



While Beijing was prepared in 2014 to allow one person, one vote, it refused to allow public nominations to ballot papers, meaning that all potential candidates would have to be vetted by officials.



"What has happened today is very clear," LegCo member James To told journalists after the ruling. "The Hong Kong government has declared war on the people of Hong Kong."



"These four legislators were still chosen by the people," To said. "The Hong Kong government has used Beijing's interpretation and deprived the people of their choice by brute force."



He said pan-democratic lawmakers had garnered the majority of the popular vote in the last LegCo elections, but their choices were being ignored.



Demosisto issued a statement saying that the choices of 180,000 voters had been taken from them, and hit out at "the manifest interference of the Beijing government to cripple Hong Kong's legislative power through reinterpretation of the Basic Law."



Hundreds protest



Several hundred people gathered in Hong Kong in a protest rally on Friday night, with participants saying the decision had been a huge blow to the rule of law.



"It's actually very hard to determine what is respectful [in terms of oath-taking]," a protester surnamed Duen told RFA. "How do you define that in law?"



"This was the result of a subjective judgment by the judge, for example in his finding that Nathan Law's voice rose slightly when saying 'The People's Republic of China.' How can they say that this is disrespectful?"



A protester surnamed Yeung said the decision had disrespected the will of the people.



"The people of Hong Kong elected those four people to LegCo by popular vote, and then they were disqualified by the government," she said. "But those four lawmakers each won more votes than the chief executive Carrie Lam."



"There is a huge mismatch between the number of votes won and the amount of power held," she said.



A fellow protester surnamed Chan said the decision hadn't only stripped the lawmakers of their seats.



"They have stripped the people of Hong Kong of the last of their freedoms, of democracy, of everything," Chan said. "You can tell from the people they vote in what kind of lawmakers the local people want to see, but the government and the communist party have grabbed all of the power, and there is only authoritarianism now, and no justice."



Before Beijing stepped in, there had been no rules about what constituted an acceptable manner of oath-taking, and lawmakers had previously been offered a second chance to take their oaths.



Democratic politicians won 29 out of 70 seats in September's LegCo elections.



In the past, pan-democrats have succeeded in blocking unpopular national security legislation as well as the 2014 proposals for electoral reforms that were slammed as "fake universal suffrage" by the Occupy Central movement.



Reported by Lam Kwok-lap and Hei Na for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
China on hit out at the international community for its support of late democracy activist and Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died on in the northeastern province of Liaoning, as activists continued their calls for his wife Liu Xia to be allowed to leave China.



As Liu Xiaobo's body awaited cremation at the Xiheyuan Funeral Home in Liaoning's provincial capital Shenyang, German diplomats extended an invitation to Liu Xia to come with her brother Liu Hui to Germany.



But Liu Xia has been incommunicado, presumed under surveillance by the state security police, at an unknown location since her husband's death, Liu Xiaobo's former lawyer Shang Baojun told RFA.



"I can no longer get in touch with Liu Xia," Shang said. "I haven't been able to contact her since ."



He said he has no information about her current situation.



Amnesty International's China researcher Patrick Poon said Liu Xia's mental and physical health are also under extreme strain.



"Naturally we are worried about Liu Xia right now, because she has been suffering from depression and heart disease in the years since Liu Xiaobo went to prison," Poon told RFA. "We are very worried about the impact that his death will be having on her."



"It must be very hard for her."



Poon hit out at President Xi Jinping for showing "not one iota of concern" for Liu Xiaobo, who was transferred to hospital on medical parole only after his liver cancer was confirmed to be in its final stages.



"The 19th Party Congress is nearly upon us, so I think it's likely that Xi Jinping only cared about consolidating his own power," he said.



Focus on Liu Xia

But he said he wasn't optimistic that the ruling Chinese Communist Party would allow Liu Xia to take up Germany's invitation.



"Politically, they didn't want Liu Xiaobo to go overseas, so it's even harder to imagine that they will let Liu Xia leave the country on humanitarian grounds," Poon said.



The overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network called on the international community to turn the focus of their campaign to Liu Xia.



"CHRD urges the international community to do everything possible to free Liu Xia, Liu Xiaobos wife and the love of his life," the group said in a statement on its website.



"A poet and artist, she has never been accused, charged, or convicted of any crime," it said. "Yet since , she has been subjected to extra-legal restrictions on her movement, communications, and access to medical treatment."



"Liu Xia was diagnosed with a serious heart condition, and has developed severe depression due to her cruel treatment," the group said.



Bruce Lui, senior journalism lecturer at Hong Kong's Baptist University, said there is widespread concern over Liu Xia's fate in the international community.



"But the Chinese government will be concerned that, if they allow her to go overseas, there may be a reenactment of the Nobel Peace Prize [debacle]," he said.



"China really doesn't want to see that."



Will family's wishes be respected?

A friend of the family who asked to remain anonymous said it is unclear whether the family's wishes respected regarding the funeral arrangements will be respected by the government.



"Some news came out when Liu Xiaobo was still with us, that it was Liu Xia's wish to have his ashes scattered at sea," the friend said. "But this is more likely to be the government's wish."



"I don't know if this is true or false information."



The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on governments to exert pressure on Beijing regarding its treatment of the family.



"No government should let the death of Liu Xiaobo pass without challenging Beijings mistreatment of this critical voice for human rights, calling for Liu Xias freedom, and pressing for the release of all those wrongfully detained across China," HRW China director Sophie Richardson said in a statement.



"Governments should send a clear message to Beijing that the principles to which Liu Xiaobo devoted his life will thrive after his tragic death," she said.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a statement issued after Liu Xiaobo's death on Thursday, appealed for his widow's release.

"My heartfelt condolences go out to Lius wife Liu Xia and all of his loved ones. I call on the Chinese government to release Liu Xia from house arrest and allow her to depart China, according to her wishes," he said.

China has responded to international criticism by lodging diplomatic protests with countries that have spoken out in support Liu Xiaobo, including the United States, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on .



Geng also hit out at Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen for her comments on Liu and her calls for China to embrace democracy, saying her behavior was "very dangerous."



Taiwan lawmaker Lee Chun-yi said many in Taiwan are horrified at the circumstances of Liu's death.



"I don't think anyone in Taiwan thinks this is acceptable," Lee told RFA. "This is a country that can't even offer the most basic human rights protections, and it is adamant that Taiwan should be considered a part of it."



"They even see our insistence on basic human rights as making trouble for the Chinese Communist Party," he said. "This isn't helpful to the future development of cross-straits relations."



Reported by Ding Wenqi and Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Goh Fung for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Armed Myanmar border police walk by homes during a patrol in Maungni village, Maungdaw township, in western Myanmar's Rakhine state, Oct. 15, 2016.

Reporters from 18 domestic and international news agencies on Friday toured Rohingya Muslim villages in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships in the northern part of Myanmars Rakhine state which has continued to be wracked by violence nine months after a deadly attack on border guard posts last October.

The government said it would impose no restrictions on the group, which arrived in Rakhine on Wednesday for the five-day trip and includes a reporter from Radio Free Asias Myanmar Service.

The countrys border guard police are providing security for the group who have been granted unrestricted access, though they have been advised to stay close to officials to ensure their safety, Myanmar News Agency reported.

There are no restrictions regarding the areas you can report from, Thet Swe, a director at the Ministry of Informations News and Periodicals Enterprise, told the journalists on Wednesday, according to the report.

We didnt arrange any for show places for news reporting, he said.

The government permitted the reporters to visit the areas after an obscure group of Rohingya militants killed nine border patrol officers during raids on their posts near the Bangladeshi border on Oct 9.

An estimated 1,000 died during a subsequent security sweep and about 90,000 Rohingya residents fled, some of whom accused troops of arson, torture, rape, indiscriminate killings.

The government has denied most of the charges and has refused to issue visas for experts appointed to a United Nations fact-finding mission tasked with investigating the allegations.

'They killed my son'

Violence continues to plague the townships where Muslims said to have worked closely with local administrative officials or security forces have been kidnapped and killed, reportedly by other Muslims.

In addition, recent killings of ethnic Rakhine people, who constitute a minority in the area, coupled with alarm about armed assaults by Rohingya Muslims have force scores of ethnic Rakhine to flee Maungdaw in recent weeks and troops to be put on high alert.

Murian Khaton, a resident of Buithidaungs Maunghnama village, told reporters that about 10 people armed with knives had entered the house of her son, 55-year-old Adul Suwon, around midnight on July 4.

They killed my son and took his body, she said.

Adul Suwons family members said they do not know who committed the crime, but they assume that the killers came from Bangladesh.

Village administrator Maung Lon told reporters that the man was killed because he was working an informant for the government army.

Village officials have been sleeping in other peoples houses every night since July 4 on security detail, he said. Top-level officials have warned us to be very careful.

He also said villagers have teamed up with security forces to patrol the village, and authorities told residents to inform the township administrative office if they receive any threats.

So far, no reports have been filed, he said.

We have been living in this village since 1964, said villager Khagi Bawchaw. We are afraid of living here now because of the people who came in recently. They kill people by cutting their throats.

Residents go to other places at 6 p.m. every day to sleep because they fear being attacked at night if they stay in Maunghnama village.

The villagers said they do not know anything about the militants, such as who they are and where they are from.

The group of reporters also visited Tinmay village in Buthidaung where Myanmar security forces were involved in a shootout with what the government said were armed terrorists on July 9 during which two Muslim men were killed and another arrested after they detonated an explosive device.

The current reporting trip to northern Rakhine coincides with a visit to the state by Yanghee Lee, the U.N.s special rapporteur on human rights to Myanmar, though she is not expected to visit Maungdaw or Buthidaung townships.

The government previously permitted a group of independent domestic journalists to visit Maungdaw township on Dec. 19-22 and March 28-April 1.

Reported by Min Thein Aung and Thet Su Aung for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Authorities in northwestern Chinas Qinghai province have closed two facilities set up to provide income for a local Tibetan monastery, calling the move part of a drive to improve the local environment, Tibetan sources say.



The two facilities, one a brick works and the other a sand-sifting plant, had been operated by the Ragya monastery in Qinghais Golog (in Chinese, Guoluo) prefecture for many years, a Tibetan living in South India told RFAs Tibetan Service.



But recently, Chinese authorities arrived to shut them down, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity and citing contacts in Golog.



They claim that they are doing this so that they can plant trees and clean up the environment in the area, but they are creating a real nuisance and disturbance with this order, he said.



The sand plant and brick works that they closed were the main source of income for Ragya monastery, he added.



Local authorities are meanwhile building bridges and highways nearby in a tight-lipped scheme to mine natural resources in the area, RFAs source said, adding that excavations on nearby Machen mountain are continuing without a break.



The Chinese mining on Machen mountain has not stopped, and the welfare of the Tibetan people is being completely ignored, he said.



Mining operations in Tibetan regions have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms of disrupting sites of spiritual significance and polluting the environment as they extract local wealth.



In August 2015, security forces in Qinghai attacked and beat a group of elderly Tibetan villagers and women who were blocking construction of a dam, injuring an unknown number and later detaining several, sources said in earlier reports.



The group had sought since the beginning of the year to halt the work near Seching village in the Yadzi (Xunhua) Salar Autonomous County amid concerns it could be linked to mining operations in the area, an area resident told RFAs Tibetan Service.



Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.




A young Tibetan studying in India set himself ablaze on Friday at the Central University for Tibetan Studies in Varanasi in a protest calling for freedom for his homeland, Tibetan sources said.



Tenzin Choeying, aged about 20, self-immolated at around 9:00 a.m. in the entrance of a residence hall after dousing himself with kerosene, witnesses told RFAs Tibetan Service.



He ran [a short distance] and shouted Victory to Tibet, said Chime Namgyal, president of the Varanasi chapter of the Tibetan Youth Congress activist group, who later visited the burned student in a nearby hospital.



Several students and Indian staff quickly ran to Choeying to put out the fire, another source said.



Choeying, who is now in critical condition with burns over 60 percent of his body, is being treated in a hospital in Varanasi, Namgyal told RFA.



The doctor cannot guarantee his chances for survival, but he is able to speak, Namgyal said, adding that Choeying said he had burned himself because there are no rights for Tibetans in Tibet.



Choeying was especially concerned that Tibetans under Chinese rule should be allowed learn their own language, Namgyal said.



Choeying launched his protest while Lobsang Sangay, president of Tibets India-based exile government the Central Tibetan Administration, was giving a speech to university students, but the protest was not linked to Sangays presence on campus, Choeying said from his hospital bed.



The Sikyong is doing a great job, and I fully appreciate him, Choeying said, using the Tibetan title for Sangays political role in exile. I burned myself only for Tibet.



Choeyings parents, residents of the Kollegal Tibetan Settlement in South India, were informed of their sons protest and condition and are expected to arrive soon to see him at the hospital in Varanasi, Namgyal said.



Whole-hearted opposition



In a statement released July 14, the London-based advocacy group Free Tibet called Choeyings protest further evidence of the deep and whole-hearted opposition that Tibetans have to Chinas continued occupation of their country and to the human rights abuses that prop this occupation up.



Both inside and outside Tibet, young Tibetans feel a sense of injustice that drives them to act and make sacrifices that many of us can barely comprehend, Free Tibet said.



Self-immolation protests by Tibetans living outside Tibetan-populated areas of China are rare, while a total of 150 have now set themselves ablaze in Tibet and Tibetan-populated counties in western China.



Most protests feature demands for Tibetan freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama from India, where he has lived since escaping Tibet during a failed national uprising in 1959.



Reported by Sangye Dorjee for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.




Authorities in northwest Chinas Xinjiang region have launched a racial profiling campaign to assess the security threat posed by non-Han Chinese majority residents of the capital Urumqi, with points automatically docked for members of the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority, according to a local official.



On July 10, the Western Hebei Road Neighborhood Committee in Urumqis Yengisheher (in Chinese, Xinshiqu) district circulated a document listing 13 non-Han residents of the area and grading their individual risk to security based on ten categories.



While the title suggests that all non-Han residents of Western Hebei Road had been graded, subsequent mentions of ethnicity on the document only refer to the Uyghur minority, and only Uyghurs were listed on the copy obtained by RFAs Uyghur Service.



The ruling Chinese Communist Party blames some Uyghurs for a string of violent attacks and clashes in recent years, but critics say the government has exaggerated the threat from the ethnic group, and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for violence that has left hundreds dead since 2009.



According to the document from the Western Hebei Road Neighborhood Committee, each resident is assigned a 100-point value and 10 points are subtracted from that value for each of the 10 categories that applies to them.



The remaining value for each resident is used to determine the security risk they pose to the community, with anyone rated 80 points or higher designated safe, anyone rated between 50 and 70 points seen as average, and anyone rated below 50 points considered unsafe.



The 10 categories on the form consist of: Between Ages of 15 and 55, Ethnic Uyghur, Unemployed, Possesses Passport, Prays Daily, Possesses Religious Knowledge, Visited [one of] 26 [flagged] Countries, Belated Return to China, Has Association With Foreign Country, and Family With Children Who Are Homeschooled.



Additionally, personal information for each resident is listed on the document, including their name, home address, age and number of family members.



In one example, 85-year-old Ibrahim Ismail (Yibulaying Simayi), was rated an average security threat based on a 50-point score after 10 points each were subtracted for being a Uyghur, possessing a passport, praying daily, possessing religious knowledge, and visiting a flagged country.



Another resident, 29-year-old Misir Emet (Misaier Aimaiti), was also rated average based on a 70-point score after he lost points for being Uyghur, falling within the risky age range, and being unemployed.



While the 11 other residents were rated safe with scores of 80 points or more, all of them were docked at least 10 points for being Uyghur.



Gathering information



When contacted by RFA, officials from the Yengisheher district Party Committee and the district government office said they were unfamiliar with the document and referred questions to the area Political Law Committee.



But an official from the Yengisheher district Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee confirmed that the Western Hebei Road Neighborhood Committee had prepared the document and brought it to his office, where it was officially endorsed.



We examined the content related to religious affairs and compared it to our own findings, and then stamped the documentwe also kept one for our records, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



We can say that the purpose of this document is to gather general  [and] personal information from the residents in our jurisdiction.



According to the official, the campaign had been underway for two to three weeks already, and various neighborhood committees in the district had brought their completed lists to his office for endorsement immediately after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ended on June 24 this year.



I cannot say it is mainly targeting Uyghurs, but I do not knowyou can view it however youd like to, he said.



[Neighborhood committee representatives] told us that the document was issued to collect basic information from the residents. Thats all we know. Im not aware who was responsible for ordering this kind of documentation.



The official referred further questions about the matter to the county propaganda department.



Being Uyghur is a crime



Ilshat Hassan, president of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association, told RFA that his group was extremely concerned by the document, adding that it was an example of how extreme Chinas Uyghur policy had become.



China deems being Uyghur a crime, he said. This campaign reminds us of how Nazi Germany first racially profiled Jews, perceiving them as a security threat, and then committed the Holocaust during World War II.



According to Hassan, the document shows that even Uyghurs who identify predominantly as Chinese and abide by the policies of the state will always be viewed as terrorists by the authorities, simply because of their ethnic background.



The Chinese government doesnt trust any Uyghur, because  being a Uyghur simply increases [a persons] threat level, according to the document, he said.



The simple fact that China is specifically targeting the Uyghur population and subtracting points for such information clearly demonstrates its intention to enforce ever more repressive policies against the minority group with ethnic cleansing in mind.



China regularly conducts strike hard campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.



Reported by Eset Sulaiman for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma and Alim Seytoff. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Brian Haug is the new leader for Long & Foster Real Estate in southern Virginia, putting him in charge of company operations in the Richmond, Charlottesville and Hampton Roads areas and the southwest part of the state.

Haug oversees nearly 45 Long & Foster offices and about 1,300 real estate agents in the region. He is working with company management to determine the best marketing, technology and operations program to support the firms agents.

Haug, 38, was formerly an area manager for Prosperity Home Mortgage, overseeing 17 offices in the Washington and Montgomery County markets. Prosperity Home Mortgage is a wholly owned subsidiary of Long & Foster.

He is a 2002 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering. He started his real estate career here, worked his way through college and bought his first property while still in school  a duplex in Richmonds Fan District.

I loved finance, I loved numbers, so I jumped into that business, Haug said Friday. By owning properties over long periods of time, he said he was able to create wealth.

Haug owns 14 rental properties in the Richmond area. He and his wife, Jessica, whom he met at VCU, are in the process of buying a home in Midlothian and selling the home they bought a year ago in Bethesda, Md. We were just getting settled.

Then this opportunity arose. Its so amazing to be back in Richmond, he said. I started my career here, I fell in love here, and we started our family here. He and his wife have two children, 8 years old and 16 months.

The regional headquarters for Chantilly-based Long & Foster is in western Henrico County.

Haug has been meeting with employees and agents since starting in his role on July 5. I am surprised at how positive the momentum is, he said.

Haug succeeds R. Scott Shaheen, who left Long & Foster in May to start a real estate firm with three other former Long & Foster managers  Mahood Fonville, John Martin and Scott Ruth.

Long & Foster filed a lawsuit on June 6 citing contract violations against the four business partners who created Shaheen, Ruth, Martin & Fonville Real Estate, also know as SRMF Real Estate, in Henrico.

Their lawyer has asked the court to dismiss the case on the basis that the contract and non-compete agreements were overly broad, ambiguous and unenforceable.

We are comfortable with the facts and the law in this matter, but businessmen should always look for reasonable solutions to disputes, said their attorney, Kevin E. Martingayle with Bischoff Martingayle in Virginia Beach.

Ruth was the former manager of Long & Fosters Tuckahoe office, and Martin was the former managing broker of a Strawberry Street office in the Fan District. Fonville was the former manager of the Short Pump office.
The Richmond Symphony Summer Series fourth season, The Flower of England: From the Empire Through the Wars, exploring the fertile but largely unfamiliar terrain of late-romantic and modern British chamber music, opened with one of the series few brand-name selections, Ralph Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending.

Violinist Adrian Pintea and pianist Russell Wilson played the chamber arrangement of this bittersweet, impressionistic tone poem, written shortly before the outbreak of World War I and usually heard in its later, violin-and-orchestra incarnation.

Pintea, the Romanian-born associate concertmaster of the symphony, downscaled his tone nicely for the intimate setting of Dominion Arts Centers Gottwald Playhouse  some of his highest notes were truly silver threads  but without downplaying the pieces rhapsodic character. Wilson alternated smoothly between impressionistic accompaniment of the violin and more straightforward projection of Vaughan Williams folksy melodies.

The duo switched gears radically for three pieces from Benjamin Brittens Suite for violin and piano, Op. 6  music that, as Pintea remarked, offers caricatures of familiar musical forms. The musicians effectively contrasted the tipsy qualities of the suites march and waltz with a hazy, emotionally off-kilter reading of its lullaby.

Wilson took a solo turn in the Petite suite de concert of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, an Edwardian-era composer whose Afro-British ancestry would be hard to detect in this set of decorous miniatures. The pianist made the most of the plentiful filagree of La caprice de Nanette and La tarantelle fretillante, saving his most expressive playing for the quasi-waltz Demande et reponse.

Pintea and Wilson closed the program with Edward Elgars Salut damour, a musical bon-bon that the composer wrote for his fiance, here played for romantic affect but without sappy excess.

The Summer Series continues with hourlong programs at 6:30 p.m. Thursdays through Aug. 17. The next three concerts are already sold out.
Richmonds newest statue had yet to be unveiled, but George James could not conceal his pride as he walked by our striking new Maggie Lena Walker Memorial.

Yes, Richmond had erected monuments to Arthur Ashe and, before him, entertainer Bill Bojangles Robinson. But, This is a little different, James said. What she represented in her time.

James listed finance, education and NAACP leadership, but he could have gone on and on. Entrepreneurship. Newspaper publishing. Political activism. Civic leadership. Womens rights.

Its amazing, he said. Think about it  a black woman, in that time.

You cant help but look at it and smile.

Amazing that a black woman, born a year before emancipation, the daughter of a former slave, could leave such a wide swath of achievement.

On Saturday, Richmond will celebrate the Walker statue by sculptor Toby Mendez at a new downtown plaza at Broad and Adams streets.

We talk about adding diversity to our statuary as a nod toward balancing a historical landscape dominated by outsize Confederate memorials. That conversation will not end Saturday. But you cant visit Walkers plaza and not yearn for more like it.

Carmen Foster, a leadership instructor and a historian on the faculty at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, cites Walker as an influence and an inspiration. At the memorial, she got a chance to return the favor: She worked with the National Park Service to write the inscriptions on its benches.

Thats my legacy mark to honor my dad (Dr. Francis M. Foster, a Jackson Ward dentist and Richmond historian) and for my grandson, Foster said.

It takes 10 inscribed benches at the site to list Walkers legacy. Perhaps this monument will promote wider appreciation and deeper knowledge of a Richmond icon whose achievements too often are reduced to first black woman banker.

Walker and John Mitchell Jr. were instrumental in the boycott of Richmonds segregated trolley car system, an act of protest predating the more celebrated Montgomery Bus Boycott by half a century.

Maggie Walker had an amazing network of working women and men to galvanize them to walk rather than ride the trolley, Foster said. She understood the value of social capital and relationships. She never forgot who she was or where she came from as the daughter of a slave.

Walker also knew something about leading a protest against segregation. After completing her teacher training at Richmond Normal School, Walker and her high school classmates refused to receive their diplomas at First African Baptist. They demanded that they receive them in a desegregated City Auditorium, where white students had their graduation ceremony.

Her graduating class of 10 carried out what historian Wendell Dabney later called the first school strike of Negroes in America, Foster said. (Sixty-eight years later, Barbara Johns of Prince Edward County would lead a school walkout that would change America.) Ultimately, they were admitted to the auditorium but seated apart from white students in a protest that received wide coverage from the black press.

Walkers life story and legacy is the consummate American story, said local historian Elvatrice Belsches, whose book Black America Series: Richmond, Virginia has been updated to include new scholarship on Walker.

Belsches said during an influenza pandemic in 1918-19, John Marshall High School was converted into an emergency hospital, with the colored ward in the basement. Walker, a member of the American Red Cross, was among the black women who answered the call for volunteers.

When overflow hospitals were needed, she prevailed upon Gov. Westmoreland Davis to convert Baker School for black children into an emergency hospital for blacks, staffed by black doctors and nurses, Belsches said. Nearly a decade later, she was among the black leaders chosen to raise funds for what would become Richmond Community Hospital.

Mrs. Walker, in recognizing the health care disparities, sought to eradicate those disparities, she said. Her contributions to public health were integral in saving many lives. Walker utilized her considerable power to impact virtually every facet of the lives of black citizens.

Walker was a founding member of what would become the Richmond Urban League in addition to the NAACP. And when women were granted their franchise, she led a delegation of women down to City Hall to register to vote, Belsches said. In 1921, she ran for superintendent of public instruction on a statewide ticket that included Mitchell for governor.

Randolph Nelson, who has cut hair downtown for 37 years, saw the statue uncovered when it was delivered to the site last weekend, and declared it beautiful. He looks forward to sitting on a bench and reading and telling people about this great work and this great woman.

Ron Rider is a Richmond newcomer who opened Rider Boot Shop next door to the plaza in November. On Thursday, he admired a memorial he called socially significant and another step in the redevelopment of the neighborhood.

Rider, from Baltimore, didnt know anything about Walker before visiting the nearby Maggie Walker House National Historic Site.

Theres a lot of inspirational stories down here, and heres another one, he said.

Thursday, Walkers likeness remained a mystery to passersby. Saturday, the cover will be lifted and shell be on display in all her dimensions on Richmonds busiest street  a black woman, ahead of her time and perhaps our own. She was amazing.

You cant help but smile.
Today is Bastille Day, the French national holiday. Think of it as the French Fourth of July, except where we celebrate a legalistic vote on a congressional declaration, the French celebrate a riot.

Vive la difference.

In some quarters, its fashionable to make fun of the French. Freedom fries and all that. We all too easily forget that it if wasnt for the French, George Washington wouldnt be known today for chopping down a cherry tree; hed be known for swinging from one.

Today, lets raise a glass of wine, and ask this question: Should we try to be more like the French? By that, we mean this: Should Americans try to emulate the political revolution the French just had this year?

In May, France elected a new president, Emmanuel Macron. What makes Macron remarkable (aside from being just 39) is that he represents a party that didnt exist until last year. Its also the most unusual of political creatures  a centrist party.

Macron had been the economy minister in the Socialist government of President Francoise Hollande. Then he quit to start a new, middle-of-the-road party. In the elections first round  thats how the French roll  Macrons new En Marche! party led the balloting. Neither of the two big traditional parties  the Socialists on the left or the Republicans on the right  made it to the final round. That would be like Americans having a presidential election  by popular vote  and neither the Democrats nor the Republicans making the runoff.

The French hold their legislative elections separately  yes, the French really are different. When they got around to those in June, this new center party won a majority of the seats. Again, imagine an American congressional election in which neither Democrats nor Republicans win.

Thats why we must ask: What would it take for Americans to break the paralyzing duopoly of two parties increasingly under the way of their extremes  Bernie Sanders-style liberals for Democrats and the Tea Party for Republicans? Why cant we do what the French did and create a middle-of-the-road party  and win?

We are not the first to pose this question. The economist Charles Wheelan authored a book in 2013 called The Centrist Manifesto, in which he laid out how it could happen. Teaser: Virginia plays a central role in his plan.

First, though, lets look at why this hasnt happened. Theres a certain centrifugal effect at work in politics. To quote the Irish poet W.B. Yeats: Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. Its hard to find middle-of-the-road parties anywhere, even in countries with multi-party systems.

In Great Britain, theres the Liberal Democratic Party, formed in 1988 when the left-wing Labor Party lurched even further to the left. The LDP, though, remains a left-of-center party . . . and consistently in third (or even fourth) place in British elections. The effective choice there remains between the Conservatives under Theresa May or the Labor Party under Jeremy Corbyn.

Likewise, the two big parties in Canada are the Liberals . . . and the Conservatives. Are you sensing a trend here?

What Macron has pulled off in France is quite unusual, indeed. Still, we must ask: Could it work here?

Third parties in the United States generally spring up on the fringes and either go away, or have their ideas absorbed into the mainstream of one of the two dominant parties. The Libertarians are the nations biggest third party, but they represent quite a different political orientation altogether. These are not the centrists you seek.

The rules of American politics work against third parties of any persuasion: Its hard to get on the ballot. When it comes to electing a president, the Electoral College makes it virtually impossible to elect a third party. If theres no majority, the vote goes to the House of Representatives, which is controlled by one of the two traditional parties.

Theres also a stark cultural divide that makes it hard to form a middle-of-the-road party in the United States. Where candidates stand on just two issues  guns and abortion  tend to divide people into one camp or another. Its hard to imagine a centrist party that could accommodate members from both sides of those two issues.

Still, Wheelan lays out a theoretical way that a new centrist party could take hold: Concentrate on winning U.S. Senate seats in a handful of swing states. He says New England states are best because theyre small and quirky. Maine has led the way by electing Angus King, a middle-of-the-road independent. However, Wheelan also lists Virginia as a potential target given its recent electoral history.

Once the Centrists control four or five U.S. Senate seats, the party will hold the swing votes necessary for either the Republicans or the Democrats (including the president) to do anything, he writes. The Centrists would be the gatekeepers for the entire federal government. But unlike the Tea Party extremists, or the obstructionist parties that hold their governments hostage in parliamentary systems elsewhere in the world, the Centrist Party would not be making demands that are out of sync with mainstream American public opinion . . . The Centrist Party could use its fulcrum of power in the U.S. Senate to force Republicans and Democrats to come to sensible compromises on important issues.

Sounds great. Now, here are the problems. First, youd need a credible candidate. Since theres no feeder system for our new party, such a candidate would be hard to find. Even the weakest Democratic or Republican nominee begins with a certain level of credibility; a Center Party nominee starts from zero unless he or she is already well-known.

Then theres money. Wheres it going to come from? Look at the millions both Democrats and Republicans poured into the recent special election to fill a single House seat in Georgia. Both parties would consider a Center Party candidate an existential threat, and respond accordingly. Theres some bipartisanship for you.

We do, though, have a suggestion for the symbol of this proposed Center Party. Democrats have their donkey, Republicans have their elephant. Its clear which animal a Center Party should choose: A unicorn. Or, as the French would say, a licorn.
Firbeck Hall

LONG-awaited plans to renovate a neglected 16th-century stately home have been welcomed by campaigners.

Applicant Ashley Wildsmith, of Sophia Property Developments, has revealed his rescue plan for grade II-listed Firbeck Hall.

The proposal would see the ailing three-storey mansion - built in 1594 - converted into 21 apartments with three more in the stable block.

The extension annex, which was added in the 20th century, would be demolished to make space for a further eight properties.

Sid Ellis, secretary of the Friends of Firbeck Hall, said: This planning application has been long-awaited and we are delighted.

After going through lots of false dawns and changes in ownership, it really looks as though were all systems go.

If you look at many of these sorts of places, at the end they are so neglected and falling down that restoration never happens.

In the years since the friends formation, weve seen the deterioration, of course, as winters come and go, and that was our biggest fear. But it appears that Firbeck Hall has been caught just in time.

Planning documents submitted by Mr Wildsmith said: Due to the severely dilapidated state of the buildings, any restoration needs to happen sooner rather than later to prevent further deterioration to the point of a severe structural failure.

The creation of dwellings with a traditional appearance has been heavily supported by the local community.

The extensions to be demolished have no historic merit and as such their removal will benefit the setting of the listed buildings.

The hall was an exclusive country retreat in the 1930s, favoured by royalty and Hollywood stars. During the Second World War it was an RAF base and part of the Sheffield Royal Infirmary.

It was later a rehabilitation hospital for workers who suffered industrial injuries until it closed in 1990 and has been empty since.

The halls deterioration has been hastened by vandalism and, in 2009, fire tore through the roof space as workmen tried to carry out structural repairs to make the property water tight.

The plans added: In its current state, the hall is an extremely dangerous structure. If left to continue to decline, the hall is dangerously close to being beyond saving.

Mr Wildsmiths 2015 purchase of the site followed several attempts to revive the hall which did not come to fruition.

Mr Ellis said: The big difference is that Ashley Wildsmith has been aware of Firbeck Hall because hes from this area. Hes admired the building from being a child and owning it has been an ambition of his.

We cant be completely happy until its under way, but at this stage, it couldnt be any better.
Anwar al-Awlaki

A RADIO station broadcasting to Rotherham has had its licence suspended by Ofcom for airing lectures by a global terrorist.

Sheffield-based Iman FM, which is aimed at Muslim listeners, played 25 hours of content by the late Anwar al-Awlaki, who was linked to al-Qaeda by the UN Security Council in 2011.

In one such lecture, al-Awlaki urged listeners: Prepare whatever strength you have for jihad.

Ofcom suspended the radio station after complaints about two lectures that were broadcast.

Station owner Iman Media UK has caused controversy before, notably last year when it invited celebrities who praised an Islamist assassin to speak at Choudhrys Orient Express in Masbrough.

Anwar al-Awlaki is said to have inspired shootings at US military base Fort Hood in 2009, a 2010 attempted car bombing at Times Square in New York and the attempted murder of Stephen Timms MP the same year.

He also helped to produce Inspire  an English language al-Qaeda recruitment magazine and manual.

The Yemeni-American preacher was killed in a US drone strike in 2011 but his sermons are still available online.

On July 4, Ofcom suspended Iman FM broadcasts for 21 days pending a decision on its future.

The regulator said a listener had complained about two lectures broadcast during Ramadan, said to have encouraged violence and religious hatred.

These condemned the evil actions of Jews, called jihad worship and urged clandestine special operations against the enemies of Allah.

Iman FM told the regulator that lectures were broadcast in place of its live daily breakfast show, while the presenter was away.

Station managers told Ofcom they were not aware of al-Awlakis history and had no knowledge of him being proscribed by the United Nations.

They said volunteers had searched for and downloaded lectures on the life of the prophet Muhammad and that not all were listened to beforehand.

Anwar al-Awlaki was not identified on air because staff were rushing to prepare the lectures for broadcast ahead of Ramadan, they said.

Volunteers and management were unaware of the speaker of the background, they added.

But Ofcom decided this did not appear credible, as information on al-Awlaki was freely available online.

Two broadcasts were extremely serious breaches of sections of Ofcoms code on inciting crime or disorder, hate speech and discrimination.

In a subsequent live show, a presenter told listeners that Iman FM always advances the causes of a united community and condemned in the strongest terms al-Awlakis words and actions.

But the Ofcom report said the regulator had serious concerns that Iman FM gave a platform to a widely-known terrorist leader and al-Qaeda recruiter.

It added that al-Awlakis words could condone, promote and encourage violent behaviour towards non-Muslim people.

Station management told Ofcom the broadcast was an isolated mistake and an unwitting oversight.

It confirmed on Facebook that it had temporarily stopped broadcasting due to a 21-day licence suspension on the basis that unwittingly some controversial lectures were broadcast.

They added: Please note that we are trying our level best to remedy this situation and look forward to broadcasting as soon as possible.
Rawmarsh Community School

FURIOUS parents have labelled a school disrespectful after teachers banned their children from paying tribute to cancer victim Bradley Lowery by writing on their school shirts.

But the head teacher has apologised for any confusion and said it was planning its own fund-raising event in memory of Bradley.

More than 30 pupils from Rawmarsh Community School paid tribute to six-year-old Bradley  whose funeral was held today (Friday)  by writing on their school shirts R.I.P Bradley, his age and other messages of sympathy or drawings of stars and hearts.

Pupils were also reprimanded for breaking out into a chant of: Theres only one Bradley Lowery, according to upset mother Jay Haywood, when they were hauled before teachers.



Bradley Lowery

The tribute was arranged by pupils and Ms Haywood (37), of Rawmarsh, said the school should have been proud pupils had taken it upon themselves to pay tribute to Bradley.

Head teacher, Helen OBrien, told pupils to go home and change, or cover up the writing.

Ms Haywood said: The school hadnt backed it, but I cant believe they were sent home for that  its disrespectful.

An angry Ms Haywood said she refused to send her 12-year-old daughter, Elle-Jay Inwood, back to school and instead hung the shirt up on the school railings.

Ms Haywood added: The kids have just tried to do a good thing, they are not hurting anyone or graffitied on walls, they have just written on their tops to show respect like a lot of kids have around the world.

They have been punished for something they shouldnt have been punished for.

Margaret Celmeta said her 12-year-old daughter, Poppy Davies, had also been sent home to change.

Ms Celmeta (33) said: All the kids are disgusted about it and thinking of protesting.

I didnt think it would be a problem, but obviously the school does.

Bradley, from County Durham, died last Friday following a cancer fight after being diagnosed with neuroblastoma aged just 18 months.

During his battle he struck up a friendship with former Sunderland and England striker Jermain Defoe  who called him a little superstar.

Some schools around the country have taken part in non-uniform days to raise money for the Bradley Lowery Foundation, initially set up to help pay for the youngster to have treatment abroad.

But the school's head teacher, Ms OBrien, said the school was raising money for the foundation in October during its annual sponsored walk.

Ms OBrien said: This gives parents and pupils plenty of notice and is likely to raise more money and awareness for the foundation.

We apologise if this has caused any confusion with parents or pupils and we certainly have no intention of this causing any distress towards the foundation or indeed Bradleys family.

A small minority of students  32 in total out of a possible 930 pupils  did arrive at school today with messages written on their school shirts.

These students were either sent home to change or asked to cover their shirt with their school jumper in accordance with the school uniform policy.

We did not exclude anyone for not wearing their uniform today.

READ MORE: Fund-raising tributes inspired by brave football fan Bradley Lowery
Milwaukee World Festival Inc., the organizer of music festival Summerfest, filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Red Lobster restaurant chain.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Wisconsin, is over the use of Summerfest in Red Lobster's promotional campaign "Lobster and Shrimp Summerfest".

Summerfest is the registered trademark for the Wisconsin company's annual music festival for more than four decades. The world's largest music festival has been held for 11 consecutive days in Milwaukee for the past 49 years.

According to the lawsuit filed in Milwaukee federal court, this year is the festival's 50th anniversary, with thousands of people attending from June 28 to July 9.

The lawsuit seeks to block Red Lobster from using the trademark for commercial purposes and has demanded payment of damages.

The dispute dates back to last year when attorneys for Summerfest sent a letter asking Red Lobster to stop the use of Summerfest in its "Lobster and Shrimp Summerfest" campaign. However, attorneys for Red Lobster argued that there was no infringement.

The festival company alleges that Red Lobster brought back its promotion this year despite many requests to abandon the use of the trademark.

The complaint stated, "This is not the first time that defendant has misappropriated the SUMMERFEST mark to promote its restaurant campaigns: in 2016, defendant engaged in identical behavior by running a promotion it called 'Lobster and Shrimp Summerfest'. To protect its intellectual property, Milwaukee World Festival reached out to defendant to demand that it cease and desist infringing the Summerfest mark, and defendant eventually ceased its use of the Summerfest mark and rebranded its promotion to 'Crabfest,' without requiring Milwaukee World Festival to resort to litigation."

When the Lobster & Shrimp Summerfest promotion began again in 2017, the festival company said it contacted Red Lobster on June 6, but the restaurant chain allegedly denied infringement.

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Business News
President Donald Trump indicated in comments on Friday that he still wants Mexico to pay for his proposed border wall.

"Absolutely," Trump said when asked by reporters if he wants Mexico to pay for the wall as he sat down with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.

Trump called Nieto a friend even though the two leaders have had an at-times strained relationship over the proposed wall and other issues.

"We've all had a very successful day and a very interesting day," Trump said. "It's great to be with my friend, the president of Mexico."

"We're negotiating NAFTA and some other things with Mexico. Let's see how it all turns out," he added. "But I think we've made very good progress."

Nieto has repeatedly stated Mexico will not pay for the border wall and canceled a meeting with Trump in January over the issue.

The Mexican president told reporters he would have a "flowing dialogue" with Trump regarding "the security of both nations, especially for our borders."

(Photo: Gage Skidmore)

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Political News
Tesla Inc. is building the world's largest lithium-ion battery in Australia under an agreement between the company, French renewable energy provider Neoen and the South Australian government.

Tesla said it was selected through a competitive bidding process by the South Australian government to provide a 100 MW/129 MWh Powerpack system. This will be paired with Neoen's Hornsdale Wind Farm near Jamestown in South Australia.

Tesla was awarded the entire energy storage system component of the project. The system will be installed by December 2017 and will provide power enough for more than 30,000 homes.

The South Australian government has been looking for a sustainable solution to ensure energy security for all residents.

In September 2016, a one-in-50-year storm damaged critical infrastructure in the state and left 1.7 million residents without electricity. Further blackouts occurred in the heat of the Australian summer in early 2017.

However, under the agreement, Tesla must deliver the battery within 100 days of the contract being signed or it will be free.

This is due to a bet taken by Tesla's founder and CEO Elon Musk, who said in March that his company could deliver an operational battery-powered energy system to South Australia that would prevent blackouts in the state within 100 days, or it would be free.

Tesla noted that the grid scale energy storage project is not only sustainable, but will also help solve power shortages, reduce intermittencies, and manage summertime peak load to improve the reliability of South Australia's electrical infrastructure.

In January this year, Tesla and Southern California Edison unveiled a huge lithium-ion battery storage facility in the Southern California desert, described as one of the largest energy storage facilities in the world. Tesla was selected to provide a 20 MW/80 MWh Powerpack system at Southern California Edison's Mira Loma substation.

Unlike traditional electric generators, batteries can be deployed quickly at scale and do not require any water or gas pipelines. In addition, the huge fall in lithium ion battery prices over the last few years has made the viable.

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Business News
Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NVGS) and Enterprise Products Partners announced Wednesday that they will jointly develop an ethylene marine export terminal on the Houston Ship Channel.

Navigator Holdings spiked to the upside at the open Thursday, but settled into a range for the majority of the session. Shares finished up by 3.05 at $11.55 on the highest volume of the year. The stock surged to a 2 1/2 month high and re-crossed its 200-day moving average.

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A New Zealand tourist was killed by the blast from a jetliner taking off at a seaside airport on Caribbean Island of St. Maarten.

The unidentified 57-year-old woman was holding onto the fence of St. Maarten's Princess Juliana Airport, which is very close from the Maho beach, when the jet blast from a Boeing 737 threw her backwards. She fell on the pavement with her head hitting the concrete.

According to officials, the incident occurred on Wednesday around 6 p.m. The woman was vacationing with her family.

The island's Maho beach is a very popular spot for tourists to gather for the thrill of low-flying planes as they descend on the runway. Although danger signs are posted up on the fence outside the airport warning tourists of the jet blast, many passengers have been injured. However, this is the first time a person has lost life.

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(Agencia CMA Latam) - Brazilian political parties allied to President Michel Temer will try to block a corruption charge against the president at the House of Representatives floor - and managed to obtain a small victory today related to that effort in a House committee. That task, however, could be too hard, according to analysts.

Temer was formally charged with passive corruption by the prosecutor-general Rodrigo Janot at the end of last month. However, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court must accept the charges against the president before any trial can begin.

Earlier this week, a report from Sergio Zveiter, the congressman in charge of guiding the House of Representatives vote on Temer's corruption charge, said that lawmakers should allow President Michel Temer to be accused and trialed for corruption.

Temer's allies, however, replaced 17 of the 66 members of the committee that would vote on the report and managed to change that guidance today. Now, the report says that lawmakers should dismiss the charges.

Parties such as PP, PR, and PMDB promised to expel from its ranks the congressmen who voted against Temer. He needs to secure 172 votes on the House floor to avoid the charges. If he loses that battle, then the Supreme Court will vote on the matter, and the president could have to step down.

Analysts believe that lawmakers would hardly confront their voters to save a president with a 7% approval rate and suspected of involvement in multiple crimes.

"I believe Temer will not fulfill his term. Temer's bloodletting process should not end so soon. Even if he escapes this first charge, I do not think he has the strength to survive the second one", said Danilo Freire, a political scientist and researcher at Kings College in London.

"Party leaders are already estimating the costs and benefits of having Rodrigo Maia [the House speaker] as the president. Even if the improves, the recovery is still too small to lead to increasing popular support for the president," added Freire.

FIA-LabFin finance professor Alexandre Cabral believes that Temer has a "considerable" chance of dodging the corruption charges because of the new House report which instructs lawmakers to dismiss the accusations.

The Supreme Court, however, could be a wildcard in this case. "Nobody knows how they think. Nothing prevents the Supreme Court from accepting the complaint against Temer. I have more doubts about them than about the Congress," he said.

S?rgio Rocha, a judge from the Labor Court for the 8th Circuit and a law teacher at the Federal University of Par?, says that charges against Temer will wear his political image out and that Temer has already lost even if the House floor keeps him from being trialed.

"The battle will weaken him a lot, but let's say the House rejects the process. It will further increase the political power of a plea bargain deal by former representative Eduardo Cunha, which has a much greater destructive potential for Temer and other politicians," said Rocha.

Also, lawmakers do not intend to have their images linked to Temer near the 2018 elections. "The time is coming when lawmakers first look at their personal and electoral interests and start to worry about what voters are thinking, and there is no government to hold them," Rocha noted.

At the same time, some people question the strength of the opposition lawmakers. Wagner Iglecias, a political scientist and professor at the University of S?o Paulo (USP), believes that Temer is putting a lot of effort to keep lawmakers loyal to him, including releasing money through amendments.

"Temer's greatest risk is the betrayal by his allies. There is already intense negotiation in the House so that Maia becomes the new president, but in theory, he is a government partner. With a weakened leftist opposition, right-wing parties have no breaks. It has the power to define if Temer stays or leaves," said Iglecias.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al Baker has apologized for making fun of American flight attendants that created a huge outcry among the U.S. airline industry.

During a launch event last week in Ireland to celebrate a new flight route between Doha and Dublin, Baker said that "the average age of my cabin crew is only 26 years, so there is no need for you to travel on these crap American carriers. You know you are always being served by grandmothers on American airlines."

"I should like to apologize unreservedly to those offended by my recent remarks which compared Qatar Airways cabin crew with cabin crew on U.S. carriers," al Baker said. "Cabin crew are the public face of all airlines, and I greatly respect their hard work and professionalism. They play a huge role in the safety and comfort of passengers, irrespective of their age or gender or familial status."

"There is no room for a separation of humanity in air travel or in an emergency. Flight Attendants are onboard to save lives and every life counts," said AFA President Sara Nelson in statement. "If you prop up Qatar Airways, you are supporting sexism, racism, and ageism. Period."

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Business News
(Agencia CMA Latam) - Brazil's Federal Court of Audit (TCU) said that the federal government could miss 2017 fiscal target because a large part of this year's expected revenue refers to public asset sales scheduled to the end of this year that could face delays.

According to the TCU, out of the R$ 27.9 billion in expected revenue from public concessions and permits, almost 70%, or R$ 19.3 billion, refer to tenders that are scheduled to conclude in the last two months of 2017. It would be R$ 11 billion in November and R$ 8.3 billion in December.

"It is worth noting that an eventual R$ 19.3 billion revenue frustration would raise the federal government's annual primary deficit to more than R$ 161 billion if no compensatory measure is adopted," said the TCU report.

The document stressed that the government would also have a "short time to take

alternative compensation measures," like limiting spending or raising other revenues.

Investors believe that Brazil's primary deficit in 2017 will reach R$ 145.268 billion - above the R$ 139 billion deficit target set by the government -, according to a recent survey by the Finance Ministry. In June, investors expected a lower primary deficit, of R$ 142.0551 billion.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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Mylan N.V. (MYL) and Biocon Ltd. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee recommended approval of the companies' proposed biosimilar trastuzumab.

The committee voted 16-0 in support of eligible indications of the reference product, Herceptin, which include HER2-positive breast cancer in the metastatic and adjuvant settings.

Data presented to ODAC included results from analytical, nonclinical and clinical studies which demonstrated that our proposed biosimilar trastuzumab is highly similar to Herceptin, in line with the FDA assessment provided in the pre-meeting briefing documents. ODAC determined that no clinically meaningful differences exist between the biosimilar product and Herceptin in terms of safety, purity and potency. As such, the committee concluded that the totality of evidence supports a recommendation for .

FDA uses advisory committees and panels to obtain independent expert advice on a variety of matters, including product approvals. FDA often follows the advice of ODAC in determining whether a product should come to market, although they are not required to follow it.

Mylan and Biocon's proposed biosimilar trastuzumab also is under review by regulatory authorities in Australia, Canada, Europe and several emerging .

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Business News
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) reported Friday that its second-quarter net income was $5.81 billion, up 5 percent from $5.56 billion a year ago. Earnings per share grew 6 percent to $1.07 from $1.01 last year.

Revenues for the quarter were $22.2 billion, same as last year.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.01 per share on revenues of $22.47 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net interest income of $12.5 billion increased 6 percent, and net interest margin improved to 2.90 percent from prior year's 2.86 percent.

Total average deposits of $1.3 trillion grew 5 percent and total average loans of $956.9 billion grew 1 percent.

Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry said, "Wells Fargo reported $5.8 billion of net income in the second quarter, up on a linked-quarter and year-over-year basis. Overall results were solid in a period with continued modest economic growth and included growth in net interest income and continued improvement in credit results. Second quarter 2017 also included discrete tax benefits totaling $186 million, or approximately $0.04 per share, primarily as a result of our agreement to sell Wells Fargo Insurance Services."

Further, the company said it received a non-objection to its 2017 Capital Plan submission from the Federal Reserve. As part of this plan, the company expects to increase its third quarter 2017 common stock dividend to $0.39 per share from $0.38 per share, subject to approval by the Company's Board of Directors.

The plan also includes up to $11.5 billion of gross common stock repurchases, subject to management discretion, for the four-quarter period from third quarter 2017 through second quarter 2018.

In pre-market activity on the NYSE, shares were losing 1.29 percent to $54.93.

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Business News
By SA Commercial Prop News

The Liberty Properties presence in Africa through the Standard Bank network.



Liberty first foray into Africa, through its role as the development manager of Levy shopping centre in Lusaka, the company now looks at broadening their footprint by launching an African Direct Property Development Fund in 2013.

Liberty has a presence in 15 African countries and one of its main objectives is offering investors commercial retail property opportunities in countries such as Nigeria and Kenya.

Liberty which released its annual report this week said that as far as the retail business was concerned it would explore short-term bancassurance businesses in Africa and further penetrate the business banking base of Standard Bank.



On the retail business side Liberty which is 53.6% owned by Standard Bank has pointed out in its 2012 annual report that in 2013 it will explore short-term bancassurance businesses in Africa and further penetrate its business banking base.



Liberty has a master agreement with Standard Bank which enables it to distribute products using the banks platform.



Part of the strategy for Liberty in Africa has been to entrench itself in areas where Standard Bank operates. The bank which is the largest in Africa by assets and earnings operates in 16 African countries excluding South Africa.



This year Liberty has plans to expand its footprint in West Africa particularly in Ghana and Nigeria.



In East Africa Liberty Kenya previously CfC is looking to enhance its bancassurance business.



Libertys asset manager Stanlib which has won five Raging Bull awards this year should announce a deal in Ghana in the short term.



On the investment side the company said in its annual report that it was looking to launch Liberty branded unit trusts.



In the year to end December 2012 Liberty posted an increase of 38% in black economic empowerment (BEE) normalised headline earnings to just over R3.7bn with R1.9bn coming from markets division Libfin which benefited from strong markets. BEE normalised earnings take into account the companys black ownership programme.



Libertys Retail SA which provides long-term insurance and wealth products was the second largest earnings contributor posting BEE normalised earnings of R1.3bn. Retail SA is the largest writer of retail risk products in the affluent segment comprising with 27% market share.



Following its financial performance in 2012 the insurers remuneration committee allocated CEO Bruce Hemphill total compensation of R23.6m compared to R20.7m in 2011.



Hemphill received fixed payment of R4.9m and a cash bonus of R7.9m.



About R3.8m came in the form of a deferred bonus of R3.8m and R7m through long-term incentives.



Hemphill who has been in the Standard Bank Group since 1993 was previously Stanlib chief executive CE a position now held by Thabo Dloti.



Casper Troskie the chief financial officer was allocated total compensation of R13.8m made up of a R3.1m fixed pay and a R4.5m cash bonus. About R1.6m was deferred and R4.5m awarded in long-term incentives.



Last year Libertys retail division paid out R6bn in death and disability claims. The insurer has 5.9-million retail policies in force. and its distribution headcount was 3634 at the end of 2012.



One of the objectives in 2013 is to expand sales capacity and grow share of market especially in the emerging consumer market.



In total the company had an employee base of 9449 of which 56% are women and 73% black.



Libertys total group payroll cost (excluding commission earners) for 2012 was R3bn versus R2.6bn in 2011.
Meet Carsten, Dea and their son Andreas Kragh from Denmark.

Dear Tourist caught up with them in town exploring the beautiful capital of Samoa.

However, there is more to their summer holiday than you would think. The family is staying at the Sheraton Aggie Grey hotel and they are here to visit Deas birthplace.

She told the Dear Tourist that she was born here and sure enough she has a Samoan Birth Certificate and a Samoan Passport.

I am Danish, and was born in Samoa some 51 years ago. My father was working for the United Nations on a furniture programme, where he and another Danish architect, Jrgen (John) Gammelgaard Petersen, had the obligation to design and produce school furniture. They were in Samoa from 1964-1966, she said.

I was born in the Apia General Hospital on 27th May 1966, I have an old Samoan passport (I am now a Danish citizen) and I still have my original Samoan Birth Certificate.

I have not been in Samoa since my birth, and I was only there a couple of weeks after my birth, as I became very ill and was taken to Los Angeles for treatment.

I have of course always wanted to visit my birthplace, and now I have succeeded. I have contacted a person in Apia, with whom my father worked, (Steve Young) and I am of course going to visit him and his family.

Mrs. Kragh said their 12 day holiday is about experiencing the culture and the lifestyle.

I have always wanted to come here because my parents were always talking about Samoa, how beautiful it is and the people are lovely and that made me want to come and visit and now its a reality with a family of my own, she said.

I want to see the culture, the landscape and we will be going to Savaii in a couple of days to see all sorts of things.

We went to the Cultural Village yesterday and they did a really good performance and it was also interesting to have an explanation of all the traditional things like the tattooing and the siapo and everything else.

There is so much that is different here; the people are very friendly, they smile and wave at us and everyone that we have spoken to are just stunned that I was born here.

We hope to get a better knowledge of Samoa and a nice holiday and see things that are completely different from what we are used to back home.

My husband and son want to see all the white beaches and places where they can go snorkeling and enjoy the Samoan ocean.
Dear Editor

Re: In response to We are living in a time of prophesy

We can explain the wind with extensive, compelling, objective, scientific evidence. We know about all the particles, starting with quantum fields leading to quarks and electrons, leading to atoms, and finally to the molecules that make up the air, (N2, O2, CO2, etc.) which is put into motion and referred to as wind. We know how heating and cooling in the atmosphere creates the wind and we can demonstrate this by experiment.

We have absolutely none of this compelling, objective evidence for any gods.

Not a shred of objective evidence.

None whatsoever.

Your analogy is busted wide open.

Niuveve, you too are an atheist. Researchers tell us that there are at least 3000 gods that mankind has worshipped. The only difference between us is that you dont believe in 2999 of those gods (making you an atheist), and I dont believe in just one more. (Actually I prefer agnostic).

Your god has a huge problem. He has lost his foundation. We know today beyond reasonable doubt that there was no six day creation, no two-person DNA bottleneck, no global flood, no mass Exodus from Egypt and no conquest of Canaan.

All but a handful of religious scholars, acknowledge this. Without these five pillars, the foundation for the Abrahamic gods have completely washed away. With no Yahweh, there is no need to believe the right thing about Jesus in order to avoid the heinous evil of eternal torment.

Note as well, that the religious never take long before hurling personal insults, such as those you have hurled at Leo in this thread, and are now preparing to hurl at me, for pointing out how counterproductive your debate is. Christianity has become the religion of hostility to the other, which is why it is driving the young people away, and once you lose the kids, the religious game is over.

Patrick Gannon
Masinalupe Tusipa Masinalupe is back to the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration, this time as a Judge for the Lands and Titles Court.

The former Chief Executive Officer of Justice, was sworn in yesterday morning.

He served in the M.J.C.A. for 41 years and was one of governments longest serving C.E.Os. The swearing-in ceremony was led by Reverend Iaeva Amitai and the event was well attended by family and friends.

Chief Justice Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu, congratulated the new Judge on behalf of the Ministry.

From this day forward your new title is Honourable Judge of Lands and Titles, and you will no longer be called Lau Tofa Masinalupe Tusipa Masinalupe.

I take this opportunity to thank you for your long term service to the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration.

For 41 years - your service started in 1975 until 2016 when you finally retired, you worked tirelessly in those many years.

From 2001 up till 2016 you were Chief Executive Officer, however in the previous years, you were Deputy Registrar.

During your many years of service, Im certain that you conducted your duties whole heartedly.

You utilized your talents to serve in the Ministry of Justice and we cant thank you enough for your hard work. Im certain I dont have to go into details of the your work as a Judge, as you know the Justice system very well.

The Chief Justice further pointed out Masinalupes qualifications are not questioned given his long service in the Ministry.

He told Masinalupe there is no need for a speech on the role of a Judge, as he knows this very well.

Remember, the importance of honesty and to remain neutral when making a decision, said the Chief Justice.

Masinalupe retired last year January and during his retirement farewell, Masinalupe admitted that it was not easy to walk away from a job he started in when he was 18.

From a humble Court Clerk in 1975, Masinalupe progressed through the ranks over the years until he became the C.E.O for 15 years.

I am so thankful to God for using me as a servant, he said. Without his love and guidance I wouldnt be able to have survived these many years.

In the beginning, I was just happy that I was able to get a job. I was committed to my job.

Masinalupe acknowledged the support of Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, his Cabinet Ministers, his staff and the silent prayers from Samoa.

He also thanked Chief Justice, His Honour Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu, the Judiciary and his family.

I strongly believe that working together enabled us to move forward, he said.

My duty as a leader was to coordinate and direct the talents possessed by the staff members to ensure that the work was done right.

Over the years, Masinalupe said he had seen the Ministry grow. The new Court House is one of the highlights of his time.

He also remembered that when he started back in 1975, there were only two Judges for the Supreme Court, one District Court and one Land and Titles Court Judge.

But thats a thing of the past now. With the new Court building, up to 12 different Courts can sit at the same time.

I strongly believe, if the country doesnt support us we will never move forward, said Masinalupe. If we work together, everything will be easy; my job is to make sure that everything is in place.

One of the most challenging times for Masinalupe was in 2003 when the Ministry of Justice merged with the Court Administration.

He said most of the work was targeted at changing attitudes among the workers to treat all Courts with the same respect.

He recalled that there was an attitude where officers of the Supreme Court felt they were superior to the Lands and Titles Court.

So I wanted to find a way for them to work together and know that every court is important.

The solution was found in a move to rotate the officers from Court to Court. It worked, he said.

Two months ago, his daughter Ruta Masinalupe took the oath of admission before Chief Justice and shes currently working for Apia Finance Company in the Loans and Policies Division.

Ruta is not the only attorney in the family. Her brother Ryan Masinalupe is a Principal State Solicitor at the Office of the Attorney General.

At the time of Rutas admission into Samoas Law Society she said her law degree was dedicated to her parents.

I was mostly encouraged by my father Masinalupe Tusipa Masinalupe who dedicated over 40 years of his life serving at the Ministry of Justice, Courts and Administration.

Hearing about his daily work and what he tries to offer to help the people of Samoa gave me confidence and that extra drive to pursue this degree, Ruta told the Samoa Observer at the time.
Jay Flatley, executive chairman of the DNA sequencing giant Illumina in San Diego, has been named the newest member of the Connect Entrepreneur Hall of Fame.

Connect, a local nonprofit founded in 1985 to promote entrepreneurship, plans to honor Flatley at a dinner on Nov. 30. At the same event, Connect also intends to present its annual Most Innovative New Products Awards.

Flatley led Illumina as CEO from 1999 to 2016, when the company went from being one of innumerable start-ups to achieving world dominance in the field of genome sequencing.

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While Flatley was chief executive, Illuminas sales grew from $1.3 million in 2000 to $2.2 billion in 2015. Under his leadership, the company vaulted to dominance in next-generation sequencing, propelled by its 2006 purchase of Solexa. In recent years, Illumina has expanded its offerings from research to include clinical uses.

Flatley becomes the 16th Hall of Fame member. The previous inductees were Magda Marquet, Francios Ferre, Andrew Viterbi, Irwin Jacobs, Walter Zable, Ivor Royston, William Rastetter, J. Robert Beyster, Neal Blue, Linden Blue, Peter Preuss, Gene Ray, Howard Ted Greene, Ron Taylor and Peter Farrell.

Recognizing business leaders such as Flatley provides inspiration for earlier-stage entrepreneurs, said Greg McKee, Connects CEO.

McKee said a thriving business ecosystem requires experienced, older professionals who have demonstrated long-term success. These veterans provide mentorship for newer entrants.

New entrants may develop great technology, but actually deploying that technology commercially and making a big impact in the long term requires even more skills, McKee said.

For example, he said, Qualcomm technologically innovated with its CDMA mobile telephone technology, but founders Irwin Jacobs and Andrew Viterbi didnt stop there. They propelled that technology and Qualcomm into global prominence.

Qualcomm, founded in 1985 like Connect, grew enormously. By the end of the 20th century, it was by far the most highly valued public company in San Diego County, a distinction it retains today.

You dont do what those guys did at Qualcomm overnight, McKee said.

Listening to previous inductees such as biotech veteran William Rastetter is revealing, McKee said. He heard Rastetter, a former Illumina chairman, discuss Grail, a cancer diagnostics start-up funded by investors including Illumina.

Being in that room with Bill talking about Grail was really electrifying, just to hear the excitement, McKee said.

Science Playlist  On Now In a first, scientists rid human embryos of a potentially fatal gene mutation by editing their DNA On Now Space station flyovers visible from San Diego this week 0:55 On Now UCSD's 'ghost drivers' begin testing people's reaction seemingly empty cars 1:29 On Now 10 interesting facts about Mars On Now Kids can add years to your life On Now LA 90: SpaceX launches recycled rocket On Now Big passions, big giving: Malin Burnham 2:30 On Now Big passions, big giving: Darlene Shiley 2:40 On Now Big passions, big giving: Joan and Irwin Jacobs 2:45 On Now Ocean temperatures warming at rapid rate, study finds

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020
Balboa Park, Barrio Logan and downtown Oceanside have been chosen among the states first 14 cultural districts  the most in any county.

Authorized by the Legislature in 2015, the California Arts Council will offer $10,000 in support per district during a two-year pilot period to test various ideas. The results could pave the way for more districts throughout the state as a way to highlight the states diversity and boost tourism.

The districts vary in their focuses, said the councils public affairs director, Caitlin Fitzwater. Some focus on cultural heritage, like Little Tokyo (in Los Angeles) and San Diegos Barrio Logan. Others focus on the creation and production of arts. Many are a combination and offer and highlight space where art is created and where art is consumed.

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She said the arts council is partnering with Visit California, the states tourism bureau, to promote the districts at welcome centers and in advertising.

Other states have cultural districts but California, because of its size and diverse geography and population, can count a multitude of cultural touchstones.

There was no model for California, Fitzwater said.

The districts were chosen from several dozen applications and judged on their ability to partner with key stakeholders, businesses and local resources.

The Balboa Park Cultural Partnership of museums and other institutions applied for district status for the park. The National Park Service previously declared the central part of the park as a national historic landmark and district by virtue of its hosting two worlds fairs in 1915-16 and 1935-36.

Its an opportunity to truly promote and position Balboa Park, said the partnerships executive director, Peter Comiskey, and I welcome the opportunity to position ourselves with the other two (in the county).

He said the park can help other districts learn how to capitalize on their cultural offerings and those other districts can suggest new approaches the park could take.

This just provides an amazing differentiation and greater opportunity for all of us to come to the table and recognize different opportunities, he said.

Marissa Sassani, who oversees the communitys maintenance district and Barrio Logan Association, said the communitys assets include artists, galleries, community activists and businesses, plus annual events, street markets and historic sites.

We applied as an emerging district, she said. We had to provide proof that we had a cultural heritage, had a historic establishment and already had events and things going on in the community to solidify that we are a cultural district.

She said district status provides a means to unify the many groups that comprise the barrios culture.

Its not just property owners and business owners, she said. Its residents, students, organizations, all of the above.

Oceansides cultural district was partly chosen because of the city librarys role as overseer of the citys arts commission, said city librarian Sherri Cosby.

That was not the case anywhere else, she said.

The district will encompass much of the downtown area and incorporate the Star and Brooks theaters, Oceanside Pier, the art and surfing museums and the Hill Street Country Club that is organizing art events.

Ive lived here for 30 years, Cosby said. I think people come for the community, the beach vibe  they love it. It just lends itself to being inspired to be artistic.

Other pilot cultural districts

Besides the three districts in San Diego County, the other 11 in the state are:

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roger.showley@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-1286; Twitter: @rogershowley
Disneylands Star Wars land wont open for another two years, but fans are getting a preview of the 14-acre addition at this weeks D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center.

What theyll see is a scale model of a city occupied by the New Order of baddies, a forest hideout for the Resistance and lots of space ships, robots, shops and eateries and highly detailed interpretations of life in a galaxy far, far away. A duplicate also is under construction at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., expected to open in 2019 as well.

The model looks fantastic, Disney parks chairman Bob Chapek told a media preview Thursday night. So, I will say that these lands are the most ambitious lands that we have ever built at Walt Disney Imagineering, and thats something if any of you have seen Avatar-- The World of Pandora in Orlando at Animal Kingdom.

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The new attractions were announced at the last D23 Expo in 2015 (D23 stands for Disney 23, the year Walt Disney arrived in Los Angeles and founded his company) and will include two rides, one themed to the Millennium Falcon spaceship captained by Han Solo and a dark ride pitting the good guys against the Imperials.

As with most mock-ups by the Disney engineering and design division, this one is detailed down to the flags on the buildings and tree tops in the landscaping.

But there was no map or checklist of whats what  and even the land itself and its landmarks remain unnamed as yet. Even a Disney staffer who works at Disney Imagineering couldnt say where the two rides will be located.

However, some details are self-explanatory.

There will be three entrances, one through the Resistance troops forest, another through tunnel into the center of the New Orders town and a third, also a tunnel, to the east.

The Millennium Falcon is visible in the distance to the right and several buildings look like restaurants and shops; these were verified by artists renderings hanging in the D23 Galaxy of Stories pavilion where the model is located.

There were several cases containing models of props and costumes with some details spelled out in the labels.

For example, the eight-passenger First Order Fleet Transport appears to be the ride vehicle for the attraction referred to as Battle Escape in various press accounts. Piloted by astromech droids, these vehicles are programmed with ship schematics and security access codes, the label says.

Another case contains three musical instruments, the brass chindinkalu, five-string quetarra and whiffloonorp.

The opening date for the new land has not been announced, but if Disney follows tradition, it will be in May 2019, exactly 42 years after the original Star Wars landed in our galaxy.

There are naturally many reactions posted online to the model and what it does and doesnt reveal. Even more details are expected out of the D23 Expo. But heres one posting from slashfilm.com to check out.

Meanwhile here are some pix to ponder.

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The First Orders fleet transport vehicle is presumbly what guests will ride in one of the attractions. (Roger Showley/U-T)

Han Solos Millennium Falcon is tucked away in the back of the model. (Roger Showley/U-T)

The Resistance battling the New Order hides out in a forest located at west side of the new land. (Roger Showley/U-T)

A tunnel leads will lead from Frontierland into the new Star Wars land. (Roger Showley/U-T)

roger.showley@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-1286; Twitter: @rogershowley
Misty-eyed Yadira Castro, 27, stood outside Alfred Angelos Boynton Beach store on Friday, desperate to learn about her wedding dress. Her wedding is a week from Saturday.

I dont have the money to buy a new dress. I have no time to buy a new dress, said Castro, showing a picture of the Disney character Jasmine-inspired dress she had purchased from Aflred Angelo for more than $800. With veil and accessories, she has nearly $1,250 invested in wedding attire at the store, she said.

Castro is among countless brides and bridesmaids across the country who are scrambling because of the apparent closing of the Delray Beach-based wedding dress company Alfred Angelo Bridal. There were reports from multiple cities of brides appearing at stores to pick up their wedding gowns, only to find the locations closed.

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The retailer operates at least 60 locations in the U.S., and maintains stores in Canada, Europe and Japan. Its dresses are placed with 1,400 retailers worldwide. In South Florida, its stores in Boynton Beach, Sunrise and Coral Gables are all shuttered. Its headquarters offices in Delray Beach are also closed.

In Boynton Beach, as Castro waited, a store manager showed up late Friday morning but declined to talk with the media, locking the door behind her.

In Coral Gables, bride-to-be Jessica Ringler whose Disney Belle dress, veil and belt were inside the store, stood outside the store Friday morning seeking any information. It just sucks. I dont even understand what happened, said Ringler, 33, who ordered the $2,500 dress in March for her wedding in February. Its beautiful...It was supposed to be my dream dress, she said.

Ringler said it would have been nice if they had given some kind of heads up. Now I cant get my dress. This is somebodys future.

Alfred Angelos store on Miracle Mile is a prime destination for brides-to-be, along with other bridal and wedding-related stores.

Nora Ares, an employee at nearby Bijou Bridal & Special Occasion store, said she would often refer customers to Alfred Angelo. You would never think that something so drastic would happen to a chain like that, she said. Its going to be devastating for those brides.

Closes stores in South Florida have closed signs posted, directing customers to call a law firm representing the company.

The firm, Miami-based Stearns, Weaver, Miller, Weissler Alhadoff & Sitterson, is widely known in South Florida legal circles as a specialist in bankruptcy, insolvencies and corporate restructurings.

Clerks for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida said on Friday morning that no bankruptcy petition had been filed on the companys behalf. But the company is directing brides and other customers to email bankruptcy lawyer Patricia Redmond at predmond@stearnsweaver.com for more information.

Chris Phillips of Boynton Beach arrived at the local Alfred Angelo store to check on the news for his son, whose wedding party has bridesmaid dresses at the store. His son, 25, is scheduled to get married in September.

Phillips was on his cellphone telling family members it was time to shop elsewhere. Its a done deal, he said, saying the corporate office also had closed.

At Alfred Angelos corporate headquarters at 1625 S. Congress Ave., in Delray Beach, the elevator for the fourth floor, where Alfred Angelos office was located, had been deactivated.

Phillips said he concerned about finding new dresses in time  Davids Bridal had told them they were already too late when they went shopping a few months ago.

Alfred Angelo Bridal was started more than 80 years ago by Alfred Angelo Piccione and Edythe Vincent Piccione, according to the corporate history on the companys website.

Richard Anders, was appointed CEO of Alfred Angelo Bridal in 2016, could not be reached for comment on Friday. He previously was president of retail at Nautica, a brand of VF Corp., and held positions before that at J. Crew and Old Navy, according a January 2016 story in the Sun Sentinel. He joined Alfred Angelo in 2014.

In San Antonio, Texas, police told television station WOAI that dispatchers received 911 calls about the closure.

In Reno, Nevada, KRNV-TV reported that employees at the Alfred Angelo Bridal store there were trying to assist panicked brides even as an imminent closure was looming,

I tried to pick my dress up but they said they didnt have it, bride-to-be Caitlyn Sylva told the station.

Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

This story will be updated. Check back for more information.

Brides-to-be across San Diego desperate to get their dresses after the national chain Alfred Angelo Bridal, unexpectedly shut down. pic.twitter.com/J0LE5iM564  Kimberly Hunt (@10NewsHunt) July 14, 2017

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An ongoing hearing about a permanent liquor license for the Hollywood Casino in Jamul will resume in September.

The casino off state Route 94 opened last October with a temporary license to serve alcohol. The hearings are part of a long application process that casino management must go through in order to get a license approved by the California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control.

The new date is 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 6 at Skyline Church in La Mesa. The church is at 11330 Campo Road.

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The casino is on land belonging to the Jamul Indian Village; its gaming facilities are run by Penn National Gaming Inc.

According to attorney Carrie Bonnington, who is representing the Jamul tribe and Penn, the hearing will be for closing arguments.

She said she does not expect an immediate ruling on whether or not to grant the casino a permanent liquor license. She said the decision will come come in writing from the Office of Administrative Hearings sometime in the near future.

The case was first being heard last November by ABC. The agency handed it off to the Office of Administrative Hearings earlier this year after the judge overseeing the hearings recused himself.

Administrative law Judge John W. Lewis, in a letter to concerned parties and formally addressed to county Supervisor Dianne Jacob, said he was concerned that emails that had been sent to him could prevent a fair hearing.

More than 1,000 residents of Jamul sent letters of protest to ABC, most citing concerns that casino patrons who have been drinking will make Highway 94 more dangerous. More than 180 letter-writers were invited to attend the November licensing hearings.

Supervisor Jacob, an outspoken casino critic, said in a news conference last month that statistics released by the California Highway Patrol show an increase of traffic accidents along Highway 94 since the casino opened.

A group called the Jamul Action Committee has been fighting against the casino since plans for it were first proposed by the tribe in the late 1980s.

karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.com
The family of an unarmed man shot and killed by a sheriffs deputy after a pursuit last week in Vista sat down Thursday with a sheriffs captain, demanding a thorough investigation into the shooting.

I just want justice to be done for Jonathon Coronel, the way he lost his life in the hands of the Sheriffs Department, his uncle Diego Coronel said after the meeting. Several supporters wore T-shirts with Coronels photo, and some carried signs accusing the sheriffs department of murder.

Coronel, a documented gang member, was fatally shot July 5 during an encounter in the back yard of a home after he tried to evade authorities. Coronels family and a witness to the shooting said they believe he was trying to surrender when the shots were fired.

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The shooting remains under investigation, but sheriffs homicide Lt. Kenn Nelson said Wednesday that Coronel was crouching on the ground, with his right hand covered by a T-shirt, when he turned toward Deputy Christopher Villanueva and raised his arm. The deputy feared for his life and fired 16 rounds, striking Coronel multiple times, Nelson said.

At Thursdays meeting with sheriffs Capt. Charles Cinnamo, who is in charge of the Vista station, Coronels family was accompanied by Shane Harris, president of the San Diego Chapter of the National Action Network, a civil rights organization.

Harris held a press conference after the meeting, saying his group will take a very bold stance in Coronels death.

After the meeting, the department issued a statement that it empathizes with the family and friends of Jonathon Coronel for their loss.

We also recognize their right to ask questions.  We welcome the opportunity to sit down with the Coronel family to address their concerns in a positive and constructive manner, the statement read.

The meeting came a day after the department released more details about what led to the fatal shooting.

About 10:15 a.m., Coronel ran from a car when members of the sheriffs Gang Enforcement Detail in Vista tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant. When gang officers lost sight of Coronel, uniformed patrol deputies  including Villanueva  came to help search the area, a residential neighborhood east of North Melrose Drive.

Nelson, the homicide investigator, said that when Villanueva encountered Coronel, the gang member was crouching, his right hand covered by a T-shirt. Coronel turned toward the deputy and simultaneously raised his concealed hand.

Shooting witness Jorge Valentin, who lives in the home where the chase ended, said Coronel was surrendering. He said Coronel had taken his shirt off and was on the ground, stomach down, with his shirt in his hand and his head on his hands.

The incident remains under investigation by the sheriffs homicide unit, which handles all deputy-involved shooting cases.The autopsy results have not been released.

Villanueva is one of two deputies who in August fatally shot another Vista gang member, Sergio Weick, at the end of a foot chase. Earlier this year, the District Attorneys Office found that shooting was justified.

Also attending the press conference Wednesday was attorney Kent Henderson, who is working with the Weick family on a potential lawsuit. Henderson said he is also now working with Coronels family.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT
A Cal State San Marcos student accused of rape has filed a federal lawsuit, alleging the university violated his rights to due process through an unfair investigation.

The student  who is not identified by name in the suit  was in graduate school at the university and attended a study abroad program in Germany in 2016. In late October, months after returning home, he learned that a fellow student in the program had accused him of rape, according to the lawsuit filed last week in United States District Court in San Diego.

No criminal charges were ever filed, the lawsuit said, but the university launched its own investigation.

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The students degree and transcripts were placed on hold once the investigation started, but he wasnt provided with the report, his accusers statements or other documents, the complaint states. In March, the university found him at fault for sexual misconduct. The suit argues that by withholding his academic credentials, without giving him the chance to defend himself, the university breached his constitutional rights to due process under the fifth and fourteenth amendments.

The procedure denied plaintiff any access to the investigatory reports, the details of the false accusation against him, or the opportunity to adequately prepare a defense to the allegations against him, and the opportunity for a fair and unbiased process... the federal complaint states.

Officials for Cal State San Marcos declined to comment on the lawsuit, but pointed to the universitys policies under Title IX, the federal law that forbids discrimination in education. Under that law, the schools website states, the university is committed to creating and sustaining an educational and working environment free of sexual misconduct, dating and domestic violence, and stalking.

The California State University takes allegations of sexual misconduct seriously, said Toni Molle, public affairs director for the Chancellors Office of California State University. The safely and well-being of all students is a priority for the university.

Detractors say that procedures established to handle such allegations often trample on the legal rights of students confronted with them.

Women have been victimized by campus rape, but now theyve imposed this unworkable and unreasonable system of discipline that is unconstitutional and violates basic rights and swings way too far the other way, said Victor Manuel Torres, who is representing the Cal State San Marcos student.

The lawsuit is one of several that challenge disciplinary processes for addressing allegations of sexual violence. In 2015 a San Diego judge ruled that a UC San Diego student who faced a years suspension for sexual misconduct didnt get a fair hearing from the school, noting that the student wasnt allowed to challenge the findings of a university investigator or cross-examine his accuser. Also in 2015, San Diego State University reversed the suspension of a male student after finding allegations of sexual misconduct against him were unsubstantiated. He sued for damages, and demanded an apology for an email the university distributed announcing his arrest.

Cases of overzealous investigations stand in contrast to hundreds of other instances in which universities neglect serious complaints, doing slipshod mediation or dragging out proceedings, said Irwin Zalkin, a San Diego attorney who has represented campus sexual assault victims across the country.

To make a blanket statement that universities are denying due process to persons who have been accused belies the facts of what has happened over the last five years or more, he said. Universities not pursuing what they are required to under Title IX.

The incident cited in the recent lawsuit began on the students final night of the study abroad program, when he spent the evening drinking with a female student from another Cal State University, and later had sex in a hostel room. According to his recollection, the lawsuit states, it was a consensual encounter, in which the female student climbed into his bunk bed, removed her own clothes and didnt seem overly inebriated. Her account, however, described fragmented memories of rape, and stated that she was too intoxicated to give affirmative consent  the standard the school requires for sexual contact.

Torres, the plaintiffs attorney, said that as his client attempted to defend himself, the school withheld the documents it used to find him at fault.

We asked for reports and statements from the university, said Torres. They just said, Well she just said you had sex with her without consent.

The student eventually received a draft of the investigative report, Torres said, but was dismayed to see that it discounted his testimony as not credible, while accepting the accusers account as truthful. The suit also takes issue with the standard of proof required in university investigations. Unlike criminal proceedings proceedings, which require prosecutors to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the university procedure calls for investigators to determine fault based on a preponderance of the evidence.

Youve got a quasi-criminal investigation going on, and youve got a couple officials from the university determining that its more likely than not, Torres said.

After a series of interviews, the student was notified in March that the university concluded that he had committed sexual misconduct and would face a disciplinary hearing to determine his penalties. Rather than attend that hearing, Torres said, the student filed the lawsuit.

I completely get that one of the worst things that can happen to someone is a campus rape, Torres said. But on the other hand, one of the worst things that can happen to someone is to be falsely accused of such a horrible thing.

deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan
The imbroglio involving Del Mars embattled chief lifeguard Pat Vergne deepened this week when he filed a complaint against City Manager Scott Huth and City Attorney Leslie Devaney, prompting the City Council on Thursday to decide it must hire outside counsel to investigate the matter.

Vergne, Del Mars longtime head lifeguard and director of community services, was put on paid administrative leave four months ago after a pair of internal complaints were filed against him  the first in late March and the second in early April. Huth hired an independent investigator to look into those complaints and Vergne has been sidelined ever since.

The nature and details of the complaints have not been made public, but city leaders acknowledged that an investigation has encompassed hundreds of pages of documents and testimony from more than 20 witnesses.

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Meanwhile, a group of residents mounted a campaign to have Vergne reinstated and flooded the Del Mar City Council meeting on Monday night demanding answers. Some who attended the meeting accused Huth of launching a witch hunt against Vergne  an accusation the city manager strongly denied.

Vergne filed his complaint against Huth and Devaney on Wednesday, prompting the new investigation. Huth said Thursday afternoon he doesnt know what the complaint alleges.

Ive been told a complaint was filed against me, he said. Thats all I know.

Councilman Dave Druker said the city is working to sort things out.

This adds to the complexity of the problem, and makes our frustration level a whole lot higher, Druker said, after the council concluded a closed session to discuss the complaint.

Council members Ellie Haviland and Dwight Worden will assemble a list of attorneys in hopes that the full council can appoint someone by the end of next week to lead the probe.

City officials and Vergnes attorney would not disclose details of the new complaint.

I really cant talk about anything that we just filed, Daniel Crabtree, Vergnes attorney, said Wednesday.

Druker also said Wednesday he did not know details of Vergnes complaint.

Before Thursdays meeting, Druker predicted an independent investigation would be necessary.

Its quite delicate because the only ability we have is to manage the city attorney and the city manager, and the city manager is in charge of all personnel issues within the city, he said. Its frustrating that were having such difficulty between two people who are so prominent in this town.

I dont know what my degrees of freedom are, Druker said. Im hoping there are some things we can do to communicate to the community what is happening.

Huth has won glowing praiseas well as raisesfrom the City Council in each of his annual performance reviews since becoming the citys top administrator in 2012.

But at the Monday hearing, several residents had harsh words for the city manager. Two dozen Vergne supporters packed into the councils chambers, perplexed that the dispute wasnt resolved in a matter of days or weeks, instead of half of the summer, and warning the council that the situation was only going to get worse.

Hurth said Thursday the investigation is nearing its conclusion, and it has taken the time necessary to be thorough and avoid any bias.

But several people at Mondays meeting alleged a long-simmering feud between Huth and Vergne.

It is an investigation gone wild, said Del Mar resident Hershell Price. Over the years the city manager and Pat Vergne have butted heads at times and theres no secret that theres bad blood between them.  I and a great many others in our community believe the investigation is a witch hunt with the desired outcomeand this is importantbeing the dismissal of our beloved Pat Vergne.

On Monday night, Huth briefly addressed Vergnes supporters.

I am encouraged to hear everybody show up on behalf of Pat, and I do think that Pat does have a strong history with the community and providing good service to the community, so its encouraging to hear that he has this support. I know he has more support than who showed up today, he said.

Crabtree, a Del Mar resident, was among the wave of voices on Monday demanding Vergnes reinstatement. He did not disclose details of the investigation, but urged the city to act now that the investigation has run its course.

I know why Pat was put on administrative leave with pay. Those reasons have now since passed. There is no reason in my mind why Pat Vergne cannot be put back in the tower immediately. The investigation is over. I sat through six hours of Pats testimony, the lady who did the investigation is writing that up now. There are no more witnesses for her to hear.

That report is expected by the end of the month.
Her Holiness Sai Maa Lakshmi Devi, recognized as one of the preeminent spiritual gurus in the world, will be in San Diego this week to hold a three-day event to teach wisdom and enlightenment.

Sai Maa, as she is commonly known, in 2007 became the first woman in 2,700 years to be given the highest title in Indias Vedic tradition: Jagadguru  or the guru of gurus, world spiritual master. The designation was rare not only because of her gender, but also her age. She was in her 50s; men are not usually named a Jagadguru until theyre in their 90s.

The San Diego event, which will be held at the Hilton Del Mar beginning Friday night, will be one of the peripatetic Sai Maas six appearances to be held around the globe in 2016 and her only West Coast visit.

Details What: Spiritual leader Sai Maa will lead a three-day Wisdom and Enlightenmen event, her only West Coast appearance in 2016. When: Friday through Sunday; times vary Where: Hilton Del Mar, 15575 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar; (858) 792-5200. Cost: Individual sessions range from $25 to $275; Saturdays traditional Darshan is free. Info: sai-maa.com/sandiego2016 or (303) 996-0123. For questions, email support@sai-maa.com.

The scheduled sessions include an informal discussion on Friday night, a traditional Darshan on Saturday night, where Sai Maa will offer blessings during one-on-one contact with attendees. The various sessions are ticketed events but the Darshan is free.

Speaking recently from Florida in a phone interview that combined serene statements with woman-power pronouncements, Sai Maa, 62, said she hopes people of any religion, or no religion, can come away from the event with a heightened sense of their ability to cultivate the love and wisdom thats already in them.

When I speak of love, Im not talking about romantic love, even if it is Valentines Day, she said. This is not about a relationship. It is totally different. Its a love that has no barrier, no judgment, no resentment to it. ... I seek to empower people to find their own positivity.

Defying the stereotype of the bearded guru sitting atop a mountain, Sai Maa is a polished, Western-educated, French-speaking, divorced mother of two who travels he world, from Sydney to Paris to Montreal, meeting with her students. (She eschews the terms followers or devotees to avoid any linkage with a cult or a religion, she said.) She has all the trappings a modern-day figure, complete with a publicist and a social media presence.

Born in Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, Sai Maa moved to France when she was 21 and later served on the Bordeaux city council, where she wasnt afraid to challenge the status quo.

On my first day, I looked around and it was all men smoking, the secretary taking notes, and me, she recounted. I said, Youre going to have choose between the cigarettes or me.

Later, as spiritual leader, her intent was not to break barriers among the revered gurus in India, she said. The Jagadguru title, she said, was likely bestowed because of her charitable work.

Her foundation, the Sai Maa Vishnu Shakti Trust, has carried out humanitarian and natural disaster relief programs in the U.S., Africa, India and Haiti, and includes initiatives to feed the poor, perform cataract surgeries and offer women safe shelter from abuse and violence.

Through the years, she has cultivated ties to some of the worlds most prominent leaders, including the Dalai Lama and Pope Benedict XVI.

For Rancho Santa Fe resident Paulette Schneider, Sai Maas teachings have been a changing force in her.

The married mother of three said she went to a dark place after her mother died six years ago, having been consumed by grief and anger. High stress was leading to medical issues. She sought help from a therapist.

Then she heard about Sai Maa and flew to Colorado to attend one of her programs.

Everything just clicked. It was all perfectly clear, said Schneider. I was able to release the pain and all the issues that went with that.

She said Sai Maa taught her how to take higher road, so to speak, in life.

Her main teaching is, you can live out of love or out of fear, she said. Theres no judgment there. I chose love.
Phil Landis never got involved in veterans causes  until Memorial Day weekend in 1996.

On a whim, the Vietnam War combat veteran went to a San Diego reading of the names listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall.

He didnt know anyone, so he just hovered on the edges of the gathering. Each name was read, and then a bell tolled.

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Suddenly, Landis began to weep. He cried so hard that he had to sit down on a bench. He was astonished at the depth of his reaction.

Up until that time, I had never dealt with my trauma issues. I thought that I had, said Landis, who served in Vietnam for a year in 1967 as an Army rifle platoon leader and later as a headquarters company commander.

I was inconsolable. And time goes by and Im sobbing, he remembered. I feel what I think is like a touch on my shoulder. And I heard a voice say, Its OK. I turned around and there was nobody there.

Soon after, Landis  who was a successful real estate agent  volunteered for the first time at the annual Stand Down for Homeless Veterans weekend.

The three-day event is a program of Veterans Village of San Diego, the nonprofit recovery group that Landis would go on to help lead for 20 years.

Now Landis is retiring after a decade as the groups chief executive. Prior to that, he served for 10 years on the board, including as chairman.

His story is one of finding a calling late in life and, like many Vietnam War veterans, a delayed understanding of how his combat experience shook his foundation.

I couldnt put the emotions back in a box, Landis recalled. I found that I could force myself to turn it off so I could work, but when the work was done, I couldnt stop the emotions.

A client at the 2013 Stand Down for Homeless Veterans at San Diego High School. (Howard Lipin/San Diego Union-Tribune)

He showed up for a Friday morning shift in the Stand Down clothing giveaway tent. And he has never really left.

I went home Friday evening, and I had to come back. I walked around and talked to people and sat in on groups. I worked in the kitchen. And I came back on Sunday, Landis said. I knew that whatever was going on here, I needed it.

Landis is credited with shepherding his organization through a period of explosive growth.

RELATED: An era of construction at Veterans Village 

The now $10 million-a-year organization added programs for female veterans, prevention case management and several sober-living transitional housing units, including one for permanent housing in Escondido.

The Pacific Highway headquarters complex, which started as a low-rent hotel renovated into alcohol- and drug-recovery beds, has taken over a whole block that includes a city street. Having Landis real estate background on the board didnt hurt.

If you could turn the clock back to 2008, when I joined, it was a construction site. There was a good amount of digging, holes and lumber, said Bill Kowba, a retired Navy admiral who is Veterans Villages board chairman. It was critical for the long term that we have a multi-service campus, and thats what Phil had started.

These days, the group services about 2,000 veterans a year. This month, on July 21 to 23, the group plans to host its 30th annual Stand Down event.

All these changes were in part propelled by the wave of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans returning home as new combat survivors  and developing the same problems as the Vietnam War veterans who started the group in 1981.

In 2005, the organization updated its name from Vietnam Veterans of San Diego in anticipation of the generational change.

Today, more than half of Veterans Villages clients are post-9/11 veterans.

Landis will be replaced by a veteran of the new era.

Kim Mitchell, who served as a Navy officer for 17 years, was named as the groups new chief executive.

Mitchell resigned her commission in 2012 after doing a stint in the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs Office of Warrior and Family Support. For the past five years, she worked as president of the Dixon Center for Military and Veterans Services in Washington, D.C.

So she brings a strong reputation and national connections to the new job. But leaders acknowledge that hiring Mitchell means a new chapter for the group  now led by a woman who has not seen ground combat.

Part of Landis style is his in-the-trenches approach.

Phil meets everyone who comes in to VVSD. And they know him, and he knows their name, and he talks with them, said Mike Madigan, a Navy veteran on the groups board for 17 years.

At the helm for so long, Landis has emerged as a presence on the national stage for veterans issues. For example, he recently finished a six-year term on the VA Secretarys Advisory Committee on Homeless Veterans.

Phil is a major player. Hes a true mover and shaker in the veterans service movement, said Michael Blecker, executive director of Swords to Plowshares in San Francisco, another venerable nonprofit group focused on veterans.

Organizations such as Veterans Village and Swords to Plowshares share a particular fidelity in the veterans arena.

You have the big groups, right, the American Legion, the VFW, Disabled American Vets  those are very large groups that have been around since World War II. They have their presence in Washington, D.C, and they have members, Blecker said.

But they dont really get into the service side  every day out there in the field, especially in the field of low-income and homeless vets, he added. Thats when you really need an organization that is literally hands-on.

At 74, Landis sees this as the right time to make the handoff.

Im pivoting away from working every day, Landis said. But Im going to stay active in the veteran battle space.

He has launched a fledgling consultant side business called Home Vet Consulting  he jokes that it largely consists of a Gmail account so far.

Landis also has a year-long consulting agreement with Veterans Village to help it through the next transition. Like back at his first Stand Down, the old Army veteran is reluctant to leave the field.

Its personal. Its not a job. Its not for your resume, Landis said. Thats as true today as it was then.

Military Videos  On Now D-Day paratrooper from Coronado jumps again in France  at age 96 On Now Remembering war's fallen, one name at a time On Now In Ramona, an airplane and an aviator provide living lessons on World War II 1:43 On Now Video: Navy's newest vessel sails into San Diego and a new future in surface warfare On Now Video: U.S. Navy files homicide charges over warship collisions On Now Stopping Marine hazing On Now Video: U.S. Navy Air Crew Grounded After Creating Vulgar Sky Drawing On Now Navy says Asia Pacific ship collisions were avoidable On Now Hundreds of recruits get sick at Marine boot camp On Now Cutler Dawson Talks Navy Federal

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A federal appeals court Friday reinstated a death sentence for Maria Del Rosio Alfaro, convicted of murdering a 9-year-old Orange County girl a quarter-century ago .

Alfaro was sentenced to death in 1992 for fatally stabbing Autumn Wallace during a burglary and robbery of her familys home in Anaheim Hills in 1990. Wallace, home alone after school, let Alfaro in the house because she recognized her as an acquaintance of her older sister.

Alfaro was 18 at the time and a drug addict. She had four children when she was sentenced to death at age 20. She was convicted of stabbing Wallace more than 50 times.

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U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney overturned Alfaros death sentence on the grounds that delays in Californias capital punishment system produced arbitrary results in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

But a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Friday that Alfaro should have raised that claim first in state court.

In a similar case in 2015, a different 9th Circuit panel reinstated a death sentence for Ernest Dewayne Jones. Carney overturned Jones sentence on the same grounds he had overturned Alfaros.

The majority in the Jones case ruled that that federal judges may not consider new constitutional theories in cases of habeas corpus, the legal means prisoners use to challenge their confinement.

The panel that reinstated Alfaros sentence said the Jones ruling had been undermined by subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

maura.dolan@latimes.com

Twitter: @mauradolan
A highly anticipated ruling by the state Supreme Court on Thursday sided with San Diego Countys regional transportation agency over the state attorney general and some environmental groups, which had sued to lessen spending on freeways and increase funding for mass transit.

Green groups have argued for years that the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, has underfunded public transit in favor of a car-centric approach to regional planning.

The Cleveland National Forest Foundation  with support from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris  sued the agency in 2011 over the environmental impact report for a $214 billion, long-range transportation funding blueprint.

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The lawsuit claimed that SANDAG, which is governed by a 21-member board of elected officials from around the county, didnt properly address greenhouse-gas impacts from its plan.

After a series of lower-court rulings against SANDAG, the state Supreme Court agreed to hear the case on the narrow grounds of whether the agency sufficiently took into consideration an executive order to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. That order, which doesnt carry the force of law, was issued by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The panel, in a six-to-one ruling, found that SANDAG didnt abuse its discretion when it declined to embrace Schwarzeneggers climate goal, and that it didnt improperly conceal the impacts of its plan.

We are very pleased with todays outcome, said County Supervisor and SANDAG chair Ron Roberts. Rulings by the lower courts left local governments confused about how they should analyze greenhouse-gas emissions  should we follow state law as established by the Legislature or follow executive orders issued by the governor? The court clarified today that our responsibility is to state law, and that SANDAG appropriately followed that law.

California has pledged to cut its greenhouse-emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and then 40 percent below that by 2030  benchmarks that cities and counties are increasingly pressured to follow.

But transportation agencies, including SANDAG, have their own individualized targets approved by the California Air Resources Board.

The courts decision Thursday emphasized the importance of curbing greenhouse gases in the transportation sector, which accounts for nearly 40 percent of the states climate pollution. The justices ruling also noted that the appellate court found SANDAGs environmental analysis failed to sufficiently consider ways to reduce car travel and limit increases in greenhouse-gas emissions, but didnt rule on those issues.

The high courts decision addressed only one aspect of the overall case, leaving the appellate-court decision largely intact, plaintiffs said. The full impact of the appellate courts decision is unclear, with more proceedings expected in coming months.

The appellate-court ruling already influenced a 2015 revision to SANDAGs long-range transportation plan, which gets updated every four years, said Jana Clark, a board member for the Cleveland National Forest Foundation.

San Diego residents deserve a future with increased transit, bike and walk commutes, clean air and water, and protected open space. At its core, thats what this lawsuit was about, she said. Regardless of todays narrow ruling from the California Supreme Court, our lawsuit against SANDAG has been a major victory for the health and quality of life of all San Diegans because it has initiated a changed SANDAG.

SANDAG officials have said that while sprawling, car-centric planning currently has negative environmental impacts, technologies such as electric vehicles may make such concerns largely irrelevant in the future.

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A fire that charred three acres along north Interstate 15 north of San Marcos Thursday afternoon snarled traffic for commuters, officials said.

Flames were first spotted near Deep Springs Road around 3:15 p.m. The blaze was under control by 4 p.m.

The smoke wasnt affecting the freeway and no lanes were closed, according to the California Highway Patrol, but traffic was still slow in the area.

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Fire officials did close Champagne Boulevard, which was expected to remain closed for several hours.

#BREAKING: Crews working to extinguish brush fire near I-15 and Deer Springs Rd. in unincorporated Escondido, per to @CALFIRESANDIEGO pic.twitter.com/q17A6VQxI3  KUSI News (@KUSINews) July 13, 2017

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A 70-year-old trying to back her car accidentally shot forward and ran over a man, fatally injuring him in Pacific Beach Friday, San Diego police said.

The woman was starting to pull out of a parking spot at the CVS pharmacy lot at Hornblend Street and Mission Boulevard about 11:30 a.m.

She meant to back out of the space, but accidentally put the car in drive and hit the gas, police Officer Tony Martinez said.

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Her car sped forward, jumped a curb onto a sidewalk and knocked down a 52-year-old man. He became trapped under the car.

He died of his injuries in the parking lot. His name was not released.
Editors note: The movie Dunkirk will open July 21. For the location, director Christopher Nolan chose the original French beach where the British army had faced annihilation in the early part of World War II. What is a movie today is a timeless memory for one San Diego resident.

The end of 1939 was not a great time for Great Britain.

The radio seldom gave good news. Probably thats when Britain dropped Great from its name.

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I remember how often my father could be found hunched over the wireless set in the early World War II years in our small Scottish market town of Crieff.

I was only 8 years old but knew our war against Germany was going badly. This day in late May 1940, my fathers face seemed more worried, even angry. He snapped his fingers, telling me, I must hear this. Do not interrupt!

Over the radio the BBC was reporting the news from Dunkirk that a massed force of Royal Navy ships and a flotilla of small civilian boats was trying to extricate what was left of the British Expeditionary Force and any allied forces from the coast of France.

Today, looking back as an 85 year-old American citizen who has lived in the United States since 1960, I know why my father was so troubled. He was born in 1899 and had served with the Cameron Highlanders in France in 1916. Now he was hearing that the Dutch army had surrendered to the Germans and that on May 27, 1940, Belgian King Leopold had given them his army.

Those were hard times when Britain stood alone. As the Dutch and Belgian armies fell before Nazi Germanys blitzkrieg, the flanks of the British army in Europe were exposed. Could the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), short on ammunition and food, somehow get out of France and back home to be reinforced? The BEF, picking up French and Belgian attachments, could only try.

I remember a British soldier who had been rescued from Dunkirk later telling some Territorial Army recruits (the U.K. National Guard equivalents) how even in defeat they had managed to reach the beaches. They had marched in columns of three abreast, soldiers taking their exhausted turn in the middle facing their rear, hanging from the shoulders of the outside ranks.

I remember hearing lecturers in medical school telling my class about Dunkirk Syndrome, a state of exhaustion after rescue so complete the laces on the army boots had to be cut to remove them from the swollen feet of the British soldiers.

I remember reading the historians beliefs as to why Germany didnt finish off the British Army at Dunkirk when it had the opportunity. Apparently Hitler didnt want the British army annihilated. He planned to use it in a reconciliation that would strengthen the combined forces and make Germany an even more supreme military power. He chose not to use his tanks or Goerings Luftwaffe to crush the British Army in retreat.

The story of Dunkirk is also the story of how heroic civilian small boat owners crossed over from Britain to pick up as many of scattered troops as they could load into their fragile craft at a time that was perhaps Britains closest to defeat in World War II.

I remember seeing British workers cutting down signposts and removing milestones from our country lanes especially along our south England coastal highways. Even children sensed an invasion was imminent.

My father was again hanging over his radio and gaining strength from Winston Churchills determination. And of course I can still hear and remember Churchills promise to his people from the House of Commons on June 4, 1940:

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

Anderson, a San Diego resident, came to the United States with his family in 1960 and is now a retired family physician.
Victory was finally declared in Mosul this week. But it did not feel like it. Americans watched as Iraqi forces celebrated victory among the tarnished ruins of what was the countrys second-largest city. One could not help but feel that such victory was a bit hollow; as though this was not the way in which the good guys wanted to win. The cheers of Iraqi forces reverberated across the empty shell of a city that has been completely leveled by violence, airstrikes and the tyrannical rule of an Islamic State militia. These cheers echoed throughout Mosul like ghosts of a bygone era. An era where Mosul was a city of peace. Where Christians, Shia, Sunni and Jews lived in relative harmony.

While the days of harmonic diversity have long past, it seems too as though the short-lived period of Islamic State rule is also gone. So now we are left with the uncertainty of a daunting future. We now confront the reality of a new chapter in Mosul, one where we are once again forced to decide: Do we stay or do we go?

Approximately 30,000 Iraqi Christians living in San Diego at one point used to call Mosul home. Many of these San Diegans still have relatives living in the area. They know all too well of what happens when we abandon a country in the early stages of rebuilding. The last administration left Iraq with little institutional support, no armed military for defense and with a huge arsenal of weaponry that seemed to reek of impending disaster. We cannot make the same mistake that initially led to the downfall of Iraq. We must learn the lessons of our history in a country that, for better or worse, is intertwined with ours.

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The Trump administration has assisted in the recapture of Mosul, but the job is far from finished. We need to be the ones who assist in the authorship of a new chapter for Mosul. We need to be the ones who aid the Iraqi government in fostering inclusivity, equality and diversity. It is the United States that must work to facilitate a new Mosul. Because, whether the American people like it or not, an age-old saying remains true throughout all countries, including Iraq: You break it, you buy it. And despite the murderous and dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein, most Iraqis would agree that even his cruel reign was better than life under the sword of Islamic State.

Mosul in a sense is our grounds for redemption. The destruction of this once-great city leaves an open field ready for harvest. But like any open field, it cannot be simply ignored or deserted. We must work closely with the Iraqi government and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to sow the seeds of lasting peace. This could be managed through a military presence, diplomacy or economic partnership. It is the responsibility of the United States to ensure that Iraq does not spiral downward like it did only a few short years ago. We cannot let the blood and sweat of American troops go in vain. We owe it to them.

Furthermore, we know firsthand of the consequences that come of turning a blind eye to the spread of extremist ideology in the region. A massive influx in cross-border refugee movement, greater regional instability and an enhanced threat of terrorism here in our own country are just a few repercussions. While we cannot rewrite the past, we can work toward putting in place conditions that ensure a brighter future for the people of Iraq and Mosul. We cannot be led into believing that the suffering of Iraq occurs in a vacuum. What happens in Iraq will most certainly have some bearing on our own lives in the U.S.

Perhaps like a phoenix, Mosul will rise again from the ashes. But the rebirth of what was once a great city can only be facilitated with intimate collaboration from Iraq, and, whether we like it or not  the United States of America.

Arabo, a San Diego resident, is president of the Minority Humanitarian Foundation.
The patient lay confined to his bed, tied down by a failing heart and oxygen flowing constantly to the little prongs in his nose. He had lived a long, jolly life of faith and hard work. Here, on his last bed, he was luminous. His white hair, his translucent skin, his weakening laugh, all seemed lit from within. He died peacefully, amid family, when his time came. Not by suicide.

Im a neurologist, and I know that death is hard and comes in all shapes and sizes. End-of-life care arouses strong emotions. But a small group of suicide advocates have increasingly dominated the California conversation on dying issues.

The Hemlock Society, re-branded as Compassion and Choices, has amassed a $22 million war chest, mostly from out-of-state figures like George Soros, for a three-pronged attack to pass physician-assisted suicide (PAS) in California: SB 128, a bill now moving to the state Assembly; a San Diego lawsuit saying physician-assisted suicide is already legal; and, if needed, a voter proposition. They believe the day for suicide has come.

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Physician-assisted suicide means that you could find a doctor online, who would then examine you and a write a cheap prescription for an overdose of sleeping pills. You could take it the same day or anytime later when you felt ready. Sadly, your 12-year-old or anyone else could also find and take it.

SB 128 is flawed by a lack of safeguards. While claiming to limit PAS to patients with less than six months to live, this law provides complete legal immunity to the death doctor, with no mechanism for oversight or verification. PAS must be left off the death certificate and the only cases recorded will be those voluntarily reported by the doctor.

Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Canada have similar laws on physician-assisted suicide. We know stories of individuals getting PAS without a six-month prognosis, and we also know, at least in Oregon, that only a few doctors are doing the lions share of physician-assisted suicides. Instead of your family doctor sending you for an objective second opinion by a specialist, what really happens is that patients shop for a doctor who advocates PAS, who then gets a second opinion from another advocate who always agrees. In 2014, of the 105 cases reported in Oregon, only 2 percent got psychiatric evaluation for treatable depression. Without legal immunity, this would be malpractice.

SB 128 is both dangerous and unnecessary. Unnecessary because the Hemlock Society has been telling people how to commit suicide painlessly, without help, for decades. Dangerous because the doctors lethal prescription can have complications which go unreported under the shroud of secrecy covering physician-assisted suicide laws in other states. Our prison systems continue to botch executions, even with professional supervision. How can we send a sick, frightened patient home with a bottle of Nembutal, to die alone or with family, easily vomiting, choking or otherwise suffering?

In my experience, the family left behind suffers a range of emotions, including guilt and divisive anger. You shouldnt have let Mom go, or Did I do enough to let Mom know she really wasnt a burden to us? SB 128 fails to require family notification, much less any family therapy or reconciliation before the fatal swallow.

As our teens and young adults fight a rising tide of depression and suicide, what kind of message does it send to approve PAS? The state and doctors are telling you that suicide is legal and OK, its just a choice. Besides eroding the doctor-patient trust bond for all of us, legalizing physician-assisted suicide indirectly endangers our kids and other depressed, vulnerable people.

True death with dignity would make palliative/hospice care available for all Californians. The sensitive palliative care team involves family and friends, underscores the patients true human worth, and, when needed, can legally provide terminal sedation when suffering cant be controlled.

Our representatives in the Assembly need your input now, to know how many Californians care on each side of this issue.
Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, has once again been thwarted in her attempts to put the interests of students  not teachers  first in Californias public education system. As a result, the states deeply flawed teacher tenure law  which allows new teachers to gain lifetime job protections after just 18 months  will remain in place.

Weber had introduced a bill, AB 1220, that would delay tenure decisions until after three years while allowing some promising teachers who arent given tenure after three years to work a fourth year and potentially a fifth year to demonstrate they are worthy of tenure. The measure would have aligned California with 42 states with teacher probationary periods between three to five years. It also would have made districts prioritize giving teachers in this tenure limbo help with professional development.

But this was too much for Democratic lawmakers whose calls for quality public schools are colored by their support of the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers. First, the Assembly Appropriations Committee, chaired by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego, stripped the fourth and fifth year tenure options from Webers bill without consulting her. Then Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, D-Richmond, gutted and amended a bill about foster care so it would be a vehicle for the CTAs version of tenure reform: instituting a cumbersome process under which marginal teachers could in certain cases get a third year to establish they deserve tenure.

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Weber responded by withdrawing her bill. Thurmond then withdrew his  basically an admission it was a power play to thwart Weber, not help schools.

EdSource reports that Thurmond is expected to have the CTAs backing in his 2018 bid for state superintendent of public instruction. How tidy. How typical of Sacramento. How pathetic.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion
Regarding Rep. Scott Peters Why Congress should fix the Affordable Care Act (July 6): There is a silver lining in the terrible health care bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.

If passed, Donald Trump and the Republicans will deprive many of their coverage and increase their costs. Most of all, children will suffer the most.

The silver lining is many of these Americans  Trump supporters duped into voting for this president, believing his false promises  may wake up and stop supporting him.

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Jay Jayakumar

Scripps Ranch

Rep. Scott Peters urges Congress to focus on fixing the ACA. He emphasizes the uninsured rate in San Diego fell to an all-time low and warns that if ACA is repealed millions of Americans will lose their health care. This would be a dangerous step backwards for people in our community.

As a person with type 1 diabetes and past chair for the American Diabetes Association, I know this all too well. Ive been able to manage my disease because Ive had access to health care, but many others arent as fortunate and as a result suffer from the diseases deadly and disabling consequences.

The lives of people with diabetes depend on having continuous and comprehensive access to adequate health care. I appreciate Peters recognition of whats important and his willingness to stand against these dangerous proposals.

Hillary Liber

San Diego

Letters and commentary policy

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below.

Want to see more letters that appear only online? Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.
The response to President Donald Trump s Commission on Election Integrity has been, lets just say, critical so far, and now everyday Americans are piling on with hilarious, angry and just plain troll-y comments.

Following Trumps unsubstantiated claims that at least 3 million illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election, the president established the commission on May 11 to study the registration and voting processes used in federal elections. It is tasked with producing a set of recommendations to increase the American people's confidence in the integrity of our election systems, according to Vice President Mike Pence, who oversees the effort.

Heres one more thing to know about the commission before we get into these letters from voters.

At the end of June, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who serves as vice chairman of the commission, sent letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia asking for specific information on voters. Many of the states took issue with the request, and Mississippis Secretary of State famously responded by saying, they can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico. Read about that here.

Now on to the comments from voters. Some letter writers offered serious suggestions, one sent in a 9-page list of alleged arrests or convictions of Republican office-holders, and others were more  terse.

Here are some of the most interesting ones.

These ones, for example, were quite short.

Hi, I voted in all 50 states. Just wanted you to know. Love, Beau in Oklahoma.

I hope you get just s--- and nothing else.

DO NOT RELEASE ANY OF MY VOTER DATA, PERIOD.

I pay the government a boat load of taxes, so you work for me. I think you are doing a terrible job. Explain yourself.

Go f--- yourself.

You are stupid f---s. And mean. And a-------. Stupid mean f------ a-------.

These lines were pretty wild.

Who the f--- are you evil people?

You are all about voter suppression to rig elections. You are evil. Pray there is no hell.

Just f--- off already you s--t-stain on democracy.

I removed my name from voter rolls. And Im a Republican!

You wouldnt know election integrity if it bit you on your considerable a--.

May you and all your evil ilk GO STRAIGHT TO HELL.

Hope your project is doing well. Not.

I hope and pray that you fail.

To be fair, there were a few emails encouraging and thanking the commission. But most of the notes were harsh, short insults or long explanations of frustration with Trump or the commission.

See the full batch of emails here.

After the emails and letters were released, some voiced frustration that information like home addresses or phone numbers provided by writers werent redacted.

The commissions website explained as much in its call for comments.

Please note that the Commission may post such written comments publicly on our website, including names and contact information that are submitted, it says.

The commission is expected to meet for the first time on July 19.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin
The Poway City Council will be given two options Tuesday night regarding holding future city elections by districts: Get started right away or prepare to spend $1 million for a legal fight it wont win.

In a 16-page report prepared for the meeting, City Attorney Morgan Foley laid out a step-by-step process the city can use to avoid being sued by a Malibu attorney for allegedly violating the California Voting Rights Act. The process involves hiring a consultant to prepare a map dividing the city into four voting districts and holding five public hearings between Aug. 1 and Sept. 19. The process will cost the city approximately $82,500 to complete, Foley estimates. The position of mayor would continue to be elected citywide.

As he has done to governmental agencies across the state, attorney Kevin Shenkman is threatening to sue the city, claiming that its system of electing the four city councilmembers at-large violates the law because it dilutes the ability of Latinos (a protected class) to elect candidates of their choice or otherwise influence the outcome of Poways elections. His June 2 letter to the city notes that 15.7 percent of Poways population is Latino. The contrast between the significant Latino population of the electorate and the complete historical absence of Latinos to be elected to the City Council is telling, Shenkman wrote.

The Poway Unified School District has received a similar letter from Shenkman.

Twenty-seven cities, counties and school districts have so far unsuccessfully challenged Shenkman, Foley wrote in his report, resulting in the payment of $14.78 million to plaintiffs attorneys. The amount does not include the time and money spent by the governmental agencies in their challenges.

If the City Council chooses to maintain its at-large elections and defend the threatened lawsuit the cost and attorneys fees would likely exceed $1,000,000, Foley wrote.

After reviewing the letter in a June 20 closed session, the council asked staff to prepare a resolution of intention to create and implement by-district elections. That resolution will be on Tuesday nights agenda. It includes a tentative timeline calling for public hearings on Aug. 1, Aug. 15, Sept. 5 and two hearings on Sept. 19. The first two hearings will solicit public comments on how the map should be drawn and how the by-district elections should be phased in. One or more draft maps would be the subject of the Sept. 5 and Sept. 19 meetings, with an adopting of a resolution selecting the final map also set for Sept. 19. Final adoption of a map would be on Oct. 3.

Foley wrote that the city has retained a districting consultant and demographer to evaluate the citys position under the California Voting Rights Act. Douglas Johnson and his staff will draw the proposed districts after the first two public hearings and, together with any maps prepared by members of the public, present all qualifying maps to the council. The consultant will charge approximately $42,000 for the work. Special legal counsel fees are expected to add another $40,000 to the cost, Foley estimated.

A potential challenge to those drawing the maps is that three of the four current councilmembers - John Mullin, Jim Cunningham and Barry Leonard - live fairly close to each other, in North Poway. Mullin, Councilman Dave Grosch and Mayor Steve Vaus are up for re-election in November 2018.

Advice on how the city should proceed with drawing of the districts was offered by Oceanside City Councilmember Esther Sanchez at the July 13 meeting of the Poway Democratic Club.

Based on her citys experience with drawing lines, Sanchez suggested Poway should hold community meetings in an effort to learn about what Powegians consider their communities of interest.

Sanchez described a community of interest as a group of neighborhoods that works together for a project or goal, like saving a river walk, or a group of neighborhoods that believes in walkability and bike lanes versus neighborhoods that believe roads are only for cars.

This can be a great experience in learning what really matters to the community and what they consider communities of interest, said Sanchez.

City councils are not allowed to divide their city into districts using race or ethnicity, she said, but must use communities of interest.

The city council must also be careful not to dilute a particular race or ethnicity by splitting them into multiple districts in order to lessen the impact of their votes, she said. The districts also must be contiguous (meaning they must be touching and share a common border), compact and not be gerrymandered. There will be the same amount of districts as councilmembers. Districts must also be a close in population as possible, she said.

Districts will be formed using the 2010 U.S. Census data, Sanchez said. When the 2020 U.S. Census data is released in 2021, the districts must be redrawn. Districts cannot be redrawn at any other time other than when new census data is released.

Sanchez suggested that Poway hold several community meetings with the demographer that will draw the citys districts map, to hear what the community thinks of as its communities of interest and see what maps the community puts together.

Sanchez also suggested that community members can put in writing and submit to the council what they think Poways communities of interest are and why.

Poway City Councilmember Dave Grosch, who was in attendance at the meeting along with White, invited the public to attend city council meetings and let the council know their feelings about the districts and the communities of interest.

Other council agenda items include an update on the undergrounding of utility lines along a portion of Espola Road and the likely setting of Nov. 7 as the date for a special election regarding allowing condominiums to be built at the StoneRidge Country Club.

Tuesdays meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the council chambers, 13325 Civic Center Drive. Agenda materials are available at poway.org.

(Additional reporting by Emily Sorensen.)

Email: editor@pomeradonews.com

UPDATES:

Updated on July 18 to include comments made during the Poway Democratic Club meeting.
When the opportunity arose for Sally Westbrook to move back to Ramona about nine years ago, she grabbed it, and says its the quality of life that she loves about the community.

It was her third time to live in Ramona, but even living down the hill she had continued to be involved with Ramona Soroptimist club and with the Ramona Chamber of Commerce as an ambassador.

So I was coming up here for all their events. It was just a natural thing that I moved back, said Westbook, this years chamber president.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Va., Westbrook said she grew up as a Navy brat.

So I was used to the military. I loved the military. When you live in a Navy town, youre Navy 100 percent. So it was a little bit devastating to my mother when I married a Marine for my second marriage, she said.

She and her husband and her two sons moved from Virginia Beach to Oceanside in March 1979, and she noted that it was quite a difference.

We lived through May gray, June gloom, my boys and I both in tears half the time cause we were not used to having that type of weather. But theyre typical California boys now and I dont know that well ever leave, said Westbrook.

One son lives in San Marcos and the other in North Park, and she has four grandchildren.

Westbrook first moved to Ramona in 1999, but after a divorce moved back to Oceanside to be closer to family.

She was a sales manager for a title and escrow company when she was offered a position as a regional escrow manager, overseeing seven escrow offices and 14 officers and their staff.

And we made tons of money and then the market died. We lost it all, she said. And I moved back to Ramona.

Westbrook said that after the market fell she found title companies had their own escrow people so she activated her real estate license. She moved back down the hill and sold real estate, but returned to Ramona when she was offered a position at a real estate office here.

Westbrook joined the Ramona chamber around 1999 and was an ambassador for about 10 years.

And I loved being an ambassador, meeting all the people in the community, she said.

In 2009 she was chamber Ambassador of the Year, and in 2011 was elected to chamber board.

She was a two-term president for Soroptimists and regional membership chair for Soroptimist International.

Westbrook also served two terms as president of the Ramona Real Estate Association (RREA) and is currently treasurer. She earned RREA Affiliate of the Year in 2000.

And, she is vice president of the Ramona Senior Center Board.

My devotion has always been to the community in one way or another, through the chamber, through Soroptimist International, through the RREA. I feel like Ive done really good things through all those organizations. And I want to continue doing that  just serving the community, said Westbrook.

Shes amazed at how the residents reach out to help anyone who needs it.

This community  it doesnt matter who you are, they jump in. And Ive never seen that before, even in the military, she said.

Westbrook is a real estate agent with MJN Real Estate, but says her chamber work is almost like a full-time job. In her spare time, she loves to read, spend time with her grandchildren, and enjoys dancing.

Im a busy, busy person. I love Ramona. But Im not as busy as a lot of people I work with, said Westbrook, adding with a smile. Its God, country, family, and Ramona. Hows that?
As I read Darrell Becks commentary, I was taken back along Memory Lane.

I was born close to the beginning of the Baby Boom generation. Our parents were part of what has been called the

Greatest Generation  they survived the Great Depression and were victorious in the Second World War. When they returned from war they were given the opportunity for a college education, their choice of universities, paid for by a thankful nation.

Many took that opportunity and participated in the greatest economic boom of our country.

As it turned out the advanced degrees that they attained were very useful during the Space Race with the Soviets.

The emphasis for education during the 1960s was science and when a Democratic president, JFK, challenged the U.S. to go to the moon by the end of the decade, a bipartisan majority supported this goal.

The economic spinoffs from this investment in science and the future still affect us in biotechnology, medicine, and the boom in silicon wafer technology. Educational opportunities for the Baby Boomers were plentiful and not expensive due to government support for research in science and government backed grant and loan programs for students.

Part of this growth was in earth sciences  the same science boom that took an American to the moon was able to use peer-reviewed scientific research to determine that 300+ million years of trapped CO2 released by burning fossil fuels in the 100 years or so since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution was affecting the climate of the planet. A Swedish scientist, Svante Arrhenius, was concerned about this in 1892.

CO2 is essential to the growth of plants, but at higher concentrations prevents the heat of the sun from radiating back into space. The current buzz phrase for climate change deniers describes CO2 as a harmless gas, essential to life on Earth. Several years ago the same groups of politicians begin their answers when questioned about climate change by stating Im not a scientist, but

Every day we encounter things that at low concentrations are beneficial, but at higher concentrations are harmful, even deadly. Consider Tylenol: at recommended dosage, its a wonderful, safe pain reliever, but at usage that exceeds the recommended dosage, liver damage or death can be the result.

Back to climate change and Al Gore  I did not vote for him, but his book An Inconvenient Truth is a brilliant, easy to read summary of the science and history of climate change.

The tearing down of the scientific process to move forward an agenda of denying the established facts of climate change affects the future of all areas of scientific endeavor and will be sad collateral damage if it continues. Many of the PR people that are molding the message of doubting climate change are the same people that advised the tobacco companies to deny and deny more that nicotine was addictive or that smoking had any health consequences. This was after their own scientific inquiry revealed the truth to the companies. Look up the documentary Merchants of Doubt or visit their website: merchantsofdoubt.org/.

When you talk about debating the existence of climate change, the science has taken place, the facts have been accepted by the industrialized nations of the world and 195 countries agreed to participate in the Paris Accord. No one is interested in debating that the Earth might be flat, whether smallpox can be avoided, or that men have been to the moon and back.

This is not a delusional plot by some liberal think-tank. Even the Pentagon believes that climate change is a threat to the stability of the world order, and military establishments across the world are installing alternate energy sources and trying to plan, along with coastal cities, for the disruption caused by rising sea levels and shortage of water in developing nations when the glaciers are gone. The energy companies and even the Saudis are in the process of changing their business models to develop a portfolio of income sources from other energy sources.

Forty-three percent of all new cars sold in Norway last year were electric. The government of Norway made a fortune on oil from the North Sea but has decided to move away from an unsustainable future and is investing in clean technology by giving rebates to its citizens to move away from internal combustion engines. Volvo recently announced that they will not make cars beyond 2019 that will be powered by gasoline only.

If someone accepts that the climate is changing, but is not sure if humanity plays a part, they should still be open to a solution.

The legendary politician, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said: You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.

Joel Cook is a Ramona resident.
Will Balcor please stand up? Youre due $60,140.94.

San Diego County is trying to reunite Balcor  whatever it is  with its rightful share of a $555,000 pot of overpaid property taxes, deposits for government services and money used as exhibits in court cases. Balcors slice is larger than any of the other 1,359 people and companies that Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan McAllister says are due a refund.

Its kind of a Robin Hood feeling, actually, to be able give money back, he said.

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But the rightful owner of the $60,000 hasnt been found.

McAllister said Balcor is due money from the Countys Planning and Development Services department, a hint that theyre possibly involved in the real estate or construction industry.

We are hopeful that they will step forward and claim that money, he said. We dont know exactly whether it was for building permits, or what kind of relationship with a department in the county Balcor had, but we suspect because they were in the building business, it must have something to do with buildings and permits and some sort of deposits, he said.

Theres a Texas real estate company with that name, but theyre not the right Balcor.

This money does not appear to belong to our company because we have not done business in San Diego, said Chris Balat, the companys managing director.

He said hes received several calls from people trying to reunite Balcor and its money over the years, but each time he had to explain that they couldnt ethically claim that cash.

It has unfortunately nothing to do with the Balcor company based in Houston, Texas, he said.

Security and Exchange Commission Records show that a Balcor Co. at one point was an American Express subsidiary. Bloombergs Directory of Corporate Affiliations lists an Illinois address, but the phone number that was provided was disconnected. American Express said theyre researching the link. It may be the Balcor mentioned in a 1992 Union-Tribune article about a Chicago-based company involved in a San Marcos real estate project.

The California Secretary of State has records of nine different companies with Balcor in their name, but the last time one of those firms was active was 22 years ago.

The tax collectors investigators try and locate people and businesses due a refund, but their work was also fruitless in this case, McAllister said.

They try very diligently to contact the people that we have not been able to get a reaction when we send, initially, a refund back, he said. So many times those refunds will bounce back as undeliverable.

If Balcor and the 1,359 other accounts dont step up and claim their cash, their money will be transferred into the countys general fund and the Board of Supervisors will be able to appropriate it sees fit. The personal loss could be significant; the average refund is $375.

A full list of people and businesses due refunds can be found at the Treasurer-Tax Collectors website, www.sdttc.com. Accounts that might be due a refund have until Sept. 8 to file a claim. Applications can be emailed to refunds@sdcounty.ca.gov or by calling 877-829-4732. The county mails refund checks after verifying those making the claim are the ones owed money.

In the last five years about $400,000 have been returned, but another $1.3 million wasnt claimed, McAllister said.

Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1841
SAO PAULO (AP)  The government and truck drivers unions have reached an agreement meant to end the weeklong protests by Brazilian truckers, but many drivers continued to block roads on Thursday, causing shortages of gasoline and other products.

The Transportation Ministry said the government agreed Wednesday night to avoid fuel price increases for at least six months, lower highway tolls and suspend for one year the repayment of truck-purchase loans made by the National Development Banks.

Freight cost calculations also will be revised. Truckers have been demanding they be based on the distances traveled to deliver goods and not on tonnage.

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Despite the agreement many truckers continued protesting on Thursday blocking roads and highways in at least six states and causing shortages of gasoline and other products.

Transportation Minister Antonio Carlos Rodrigues told reporters that the agreement would only be implemented as soon as truckers unblock all highways.

Dilmar Bueno, president of the National Confederation of Autonomous Truck Drivers told reporters that despite the agreement I cannot guarantee the protest will end.

The drivers must evaluate what they have achieved and determine if they should stop or continue the protests.

The National Transportation Command, a truck drivers movement, said on its Facebook page that that it would continue blocking highways.

Truckers began their protest on Feb.18 by blocking a highway in the soybean-producing state of Mato Grosso. The movement quickly spread and by Wednesday they were blocking highways, mostly in the agriculturally rich south, southeast and central-western parts of Brazil.

The protest has caused delivery delays and shortages of diesel and gasoline as well as products such as soybeans, milk and meat.

Brazil is the worlds leading supplier of sugar, coffee and orange juice and the second biggest producer of beef and soybeans. So far the protest movement has not affected the shipment of those products since ports have sufficient stocks to load incoming ships.
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/13/2017 -- Global Automotive Filters Market: Overview



Filters have become an integral part of automotive engines in the current scenario. Durability, reliability, and ease in operation of the vehicles are the key factors on which the quality of these vehicles depends. Automotive filters helps in maintaining a quality life for a vehicle. It enhances the efficiency as well as help customers breathe cleaner air. The regulations pertaining to environmental safety and emission standards set by the regulatory bodies are likely to become tougher during the forecast period. This in turn will mandate the automobile manufacturers to use automotive filters in the cars produced, thereby encouraging the growth of the market during the forecast period.



Global Automotive Filters Market: Segmentation



Based on filter type, the global automotive filters market has been segmented into air filters, fuel filters, hydraulic filters, oil filters, and others. By vehicle type the global automotive air filters market can be segmented into passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, and others. The global automotive filters market, by end-use industry has been classified into OEMs and aftermarket. The OEM segment leads the market in terms of revenue. The rising demand for passenger cars across the world has mandated car manufacturers to use various types of filters in their cars in order to adhere to various vehicular norms, which subsequently led to the increase in demand for filters in this segment. Aftermarket segment is expected to grow at a steady rate during the forecast period 2017- 2025. High replacement rate and low cost of aftermarket parts are some of the reasons for the high growth of the segment. Some filters are functionally stronger than OEM filters as well. These factors are likely to boost the growth of aftermarket end-use segment.



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Sterner regulations are likely to shape the automobile market, companies operating in the global automotive filters market are anticipated to invest heavily on their research and development to come up with advanced automotive filters. This in turn will propel the overall market for automotive filters. Moreover, adherence to these norms is compulsory for the automobile manufacturers. Therefore, the use of filters in automobiles is likely to increase during the forecast period in order to meet these regulatory norms.



Global Automotive Filters Market: Drivers and Restraints



This report on the global automotive filters market highlights the current scenario of the market along with stating the expected growth of the global market during the forecast period. Various political, social, economic and technological factors which are likely to impact the demand of automotive filters have been analyzed to include an exhaustive study of the global market drivers, restraints and opportunities, i.e. the market dynamics under the purview of the report. Further, the key players operating the automotive filters market have been profile thoroughly and competitively across the five geographic regions and their competitive landscape is inclusive of their recent developments related to automated guided vehicles and the distinguishable business strategies adopted by them. To further analyze their market positioning, SWOT analysis has been provided for each of the players. In addition, the report includes the market attractiveness analysis of the segmentation, by filter type for offering a deep insight into the major filter usage area in the vehicles. Thus, the global automotive filters market report provides an extensive study of the market along with offering the forecast of the market in terms of revenue (US$ Billion) and volume (million units) from the period of 2017  2025.



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Key Players Mentioned in this Report are:



Some of the major players in the Automotive Filters market are: Sogefi SpA (Italy), MAHLE GmbH (Germany), MANN+HUMMEL GmbH (Germany), A.L. Filter (Israel), Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), Donaldson Company, Inc. (U.S.), North American Filter Corporation (U.S.), Fildex Filters Canada Corporation (Canada), K&N Engineering, Inc. (U.S.), Filtrak BrandT GmbH (Germany), Luman Automotive Systems Pvt. Ltd. (India), ALCO Filters Ltd. (Cyprus), and Siam Filter Products Ltd., Part. (Thailand).
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/14/2017 -- WiseGuyReports published new report, titled "Cigarettes in Cuba".



"Cigarettes in Cuba, 2017" is an analytical report by that provides extensive and highly detailed current and future market trends in Cuba.



Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and one of the larger markets for cigarettes in the region. Since the early 1990s, cigarette sales have been affected by a combination of local production problems, the erratic performance of the economy and by tighter sanctions from the US. In 2016, sales were estimated at 80.9% of their level in 1990. Per capita consumption is relatively high by Latin American standards but recorded a 22.8% drop in 2016 since 1990.



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- Market size and structure of the overall and per capita consumption based upon a unique combination of industry research, fieldwork, market sizing analysis and our in-house expertise.



- Detailed information such as market shares and recent developments of the manufacturers, leading brands along with company profiles.



- Regulations, taxation, retail pricing, smoking habit and the growing health concerns affecting overall production.



- Prospects and forecasts of overall sales and consumption for 2015 to 2025.



Scope



- In 2016, sales were estimated at 80.9% of their level in 1990.



- Per capita consumption fell by 22.8% during 1990-2016.



- Changes made by the Cuban Government to ease supply problems have resulted in a market that now supports a free sector. While cigarettes sold in the free market system are more expensive, they were estimated to have taken 12.7% of the market by volume in 2001 and more recently 15%. This is largely because of the strong demand for high quality brands and the willingness of some Cubans to pay a premium for quality.



- Cuba has introduced a range of bans and restrictions on tobacco consumption that are set to place a limit on the future expansion of the market. The most significant is a ban on smoking in public places from February 2005. A national program on tobacco control was introduced in 2010.



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Table of Contents



Introduction

Executive Summary

Definitions

Background to the Market

Birth: Live Birth Rates

Birth: Live Births by Region

Birth: Measures to Boost the Birth Rate

The Consumer

Socio-Demographic Trends

Working Women

Regulations

Breastfeeding Trends

Market Overview

Key Features and Developments

Market Overview

Manufacturers shares



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A team of computer scientists and electrical engineers at the University of Washington has invented a cellphone that requires no batteries and harvests power from either ambient radio signals or light. The device is described in a paper published in the Proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.

Weve built what we believe is the first functioning cellphone that consumes almost zero power, said co-author Dr. Shyam Gollakota, from the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington.

To achieve the really, really low power consumption that you need to run a phone by harvesting energy from the environment, we had to fundamentally rethink how these devices are designed.

Dr. Gollakota and co-authors eliminated a power-hungry step in most modern cellular transmissions  converting analog signals that convey sound into digital data that a phone can understand.

This process consumes so much energy that its been impossible to design a phone that can rely on ambient power sources.

Instead, the battery-free cellphone takes advantage of tiny vibrations in a phones microphone or speaker that occur when a person is talking into a phone or listening to a call.

An antenna connected to those components converts that motion into changes in standard analog radio signal emitted by a cellular base station.

This process essentially encodes speech patterns in reflected radio signals in a way that uses almost no power.

To transmit speech, the phone uses vibrations from the devices microphone to encode speech patterns in the reflected signals.

To receive speech, it converts encoded radio signals into sound vibrations that that are picked up by the phones speaker.

In the prototype device, the user presses a button to switch between these two transmitting and listening modes.

The cellphone is the device we depend on most today. So if there were one device youd want to be able to use without batteries, it is the cellphone, said senior author Professor Joshua Smith, from the Allen School and the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington.

The proof of concept weve developed is exciting today, and we think it could impact everyday devices in the future.

The battery-free phone does still require a small amount of energy to perform some operations. The prototype has a power budget of 3.5 microwatts.

The team demonstrated how to harvest this small amount of energy from two different sources.

The battery-free device prototype was built using commercial-off-the-shelf components on a printed circuit board, the researchers said.

It can operate on power that is harvested from RF signals transmitted by a basestation 31 feet (9.4 m) away.

Further, using power harvested from ambient light with tiny photodiodes, we demonstrated that our device can communicate with a basestation that is 50 feet (15.2 m) away.

The authors demonstrated that the prototype can perform basic phone functions  transmitting speech and data and receiving user input via buttons.

Using Skype, they were able to receive incoming calls, dial out and place callers on hold with the battery-free phone.

We designed a custom base station to transmit and receive the radio signals. But that technology conceivably could be integrated into standard cellular network infrastructure or Wi-Fi routers now commonly used to make calls, they said.

You could imagine in the future that all cell towers or Wi-Fi routers could come with our base station technology embedded in it, said firstr author Dr. Vamsi Talla, also from the Allen School at the University of Washington.

And if every house has a Wi-Fi router in it, you could get battery-free cellphone coverage everywhere.

The team now plans to focus on improving the battery-free phones operating range and encrypting conversations to make them secure.

_____

Vamsi Talla et al. 2017. Battery-Free Cellphone. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies 1 (2): 25; doi: 10.1145/3090090

This article is based on text provided by the University of Washington.
[BANGKOK] Experts on education, meeting this month (56 July) in the Thai capital, acknowledged the urgent need to provide students with a curriculum that is balanced, inclusive and compatible with 21st century ideas.

Manssour Bin Mussallam, president of the Education Relief Foundation (ERF) which co-organised the workshop along with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO), spoke of an obvious imbalance and neglect of contributions from other regions and other cultures, particularly the narratives in the field of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), in that everything we know and everything modern is based on a certain specific civilisation (mostly from West) and hardly any local contribution, and even fewer from women of what is today the global south.

Children are inspired when they learn about the lives and achievements of great scientists and scholars, some of whom came from their own cultures. Salim Al-Hassani, Education Relief Foundation

This has the potential to build unconscious cultural superiority and inferiority complex when it appears that no other cultures (and gender) participated in the building of our present, modern civilisation, Mussallam tells SciDev.Net.



Salim Al-Hassani, vice-president of the ERF board, said that children are inspired when they learn about the lives and achievements of great scientists and scholars who were pioneers in building the modern civilisation, some of whom came from their own cultures, and they feel a sense of part ownership of the modern sciences.



He adds that children are moved by the lives of these pioneers particularly on the efforts to improve the quality of life of people and the positive attitude towards the environment.



Mussallam explains that these observations and discussions with various stakeholders have led ERF to propose the four pillars of balanced and inclusive education namely, intraculturalism, transdisciplinary, dialecticism and contextuality.



These four pillars are components to a solution to the worlds increasingly complex problems, Mussallam says.



For instance, we need dialecticism to respond to ever increasing necessity for critical thinking skills from the most local challenge to the most global one, he says. The method seeks to enable students to think for themselves by critically engaging with both truth and falsehood in such manner as to develop their capacity to elicit one from the other which becomes very critical in the era of fake news.

Contextuality is critical because the centralised, industrial model of education is no longer suited to our age. Society no longer requires education to only equip students with the tools necessary to become efficient factory workers or more generally a productive piece in the overall economic machine, he adds.Ethel Agnes Valenzuela, SEAMEO deputy director for programmes and development, says that challenges facing the education sector within the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region include resiliency (particularly of teachers and students) in the face of emergencies, quality improvement of teachers and barriers to inclusion such as cultural differences which prevent some marginalised groups from attending school.An intergovernmental organisation established in 1965, SEAMEO works to promote cooperation in education, science and culture within the region.This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Asia & Pacific desk.
[MADRID] Indigenous people will soon be able to put their opinions across to international policymakers thanks to an initiative which is the first to collate their views worldwide, its developers say.

The initiative, known as the Indigenous Navigator, will be officially launched at the UN General Assembly in September.



It is the largest-ever attempt to fill the data gap in development specific to indigenous people, who account for some 370 million worldwide and are overrepresented amongst the poor, illiterate and unemployed, according to the projects coordinator Ccilie Mikkelsen.

The Indigenous Navigator is a great example of how marginalised and excluded groups, who are invisible in official statistics, can collect data themselves. Birgitte Feiring

For the first time, we have global indicators for monitoring the rights of indigenous peoples, says Mikkelsen, coordinator for sustainable human development at the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). It is an awareness raising, a monitoring and an advocacy tool.



By providing a data collection method that is free, open source and available online, the initiative enables authorized contributors to answer user-friendly questionnaires at either a national or community level. Based on the responses, the tool then creates an index to illustrate the status of indigenous peoples rights in selected countries or communities.



In 2007, countries adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which set out a universal framework of minimum standards for indigenous peoples survival, dignity and well-being. Seven years later, UN member states and indigenous leaders took part in the first-ever World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.



But one of the most significant global commitments to addressing indigenous issues was the adoption of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. The ambitious goals refer to indigenous peoples six times, focusing on the systematic abuse of their rights, discrimination and other drivers that have left indigenous people behind in all measurements of human development.



The Indigenous Navigator is a great example of how marginalised and excluded groups, who are invisible in official statistics, can collect data themselves, explains Birgitte Feiring, chief adviser of human rights and development at the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR).



The active assessment of their situation will [not only] strengthen and empower communities but also give them a powerful tool to raise their issues and concerns with governments, U.N. bodies and others, she added.



Because the tool is web-based, however, some indigenous experts are concerned that the sample of indigenous leaders providing data will not be representative of the global community.



Many indigenous peoples advocates  the organisations that represent them, their community leaders  many of them are online, says Amnesty Internationals indigenous rights advisor Chris Chapman. There is a big bias among those who are online, particularly towards North America and Australia and New Zealand, so I think theyre going to have to somehow account for that.

However, Chapman added that as a tool, the Indigenous Navigator allows people to take ownership of their needs, their liberties, what is said about them and who says it  rights which are recognised in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.The Indigenous Navigator is a collaborative initiative developed and managed by IWGIA, DIHR, the International Labor Organization, the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, Philippines-based NGO Tebtebba and the Forest Peoples Programme. The initiative is also backed by the European Union.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) Three men have been arrested for their alleged involvement in kidnapping and marrying off a 13 -year-old girl who was later found to be pregnant, police said today.

The incident was reported from southeast Delhis New Friends Colony.

The girl was allegedly kidnapped on May 10 when she had gone to buy ice cream, they added.

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The girls father, who works as a driver with the Army on a contractual basis, alleged that his daughter was kidnapped by a group of 16-17 men who lived nearby. They immediately went missing after his daughter was kidnapped.

Their landlord had rented out the room without verifying their antecedents, her father told PTI.

For two months, the police conducted several raids in Etah and Hathras in Uttar Pradesh but to no avail. In the meantime, the girls father approached the Delhi High Court.

"I used to drive to places along with the police but even though we found some clues to my daughter, there was no success in tracing her. The police even cast aspersions on my daughters character which was quite hurtful, he added.

"I approached the Delhi High Court to direct the police to trace my daughter immediately. The court asked the police to produce my daughter as soon as possible," he said.

During their probe, the police also found one nikahnama which stated that the girl had been married off to someone on July 3.

The police then arrested a man who was one of the witnesses to the wedding.

On July 7, the man whom the girl had been married to, surrendered in the Saket Court along with her. She was medically examined and found to be three weeks pregnant, police said.

However, she did not want to stay with her parents so she has been put up in a shelter home, they added.

Her husband and another witness to the marriage have been arrested and are currently in judicial custody.

Her father said that he spent Rs 47,000 in helping the police trace his girl.

"I spent money on travel, food and fuel while I travelled with the police personnel to Etah and Hathras. I must have spent around Rs 47,000 on travel," he alleged.

Romil Baaniya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) said that an inquiry has been ordered into the fathers allegations about being asked to pay for the travel expenses. PTI SLB KUN

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DARLINGTON, S.C.  The Darlington County Humane Society shelter received a total of 53 animals in one day and is currently filled to capacity.

Were small and packed, and there is no more room, says Margaret West, a supervisor at the shelter.

Shelter employees encourage the community to adopt dogs and cats. Every shelter animal has a microchip to track their location, veterinary shots and treatment and is spayed or neutered. Cost to adopt a dog is $100, and cost to adopt a cat is $65.

There are a variety of breeds at the shelter.

I have something to fit everyones taste level, West said. I only want to make the best possible match because we want them in happy forever homes.

Even if adoption is not possible, West said there are still ways to contribute. The shelter is out of puppy and kitten food. Other items on the top of their list are laundry soap, Bleach, metal feeding bowls and paper towels.

We live on the blessings of others, West said.

Volunteers are another need. When dogs are walked, petted and bathed, it strengthens socialization skills and the likelihood of finding a long-term home.

Fostering dogs also increases their socialization skills and frees up space in the shelter for incoming animals.

Rebecca Ducker has fostered with the Darlington shelter off and on for more than two years. She said it is a rewarding experience.

This community is overwhelmed with unwanted animals, Ducker said. Every person who is willing to take a foster gives an opportunity to free up space for other dogs that may not have that same opportunity to get out of the shelter.

Those who foster for the Darlington shelter are able to stay in contact with the rescue group or adopter once the animal moves to a new location.

About 98 percent of animals at the Darlington shelter go to rescue groups in the northern U.S.

West said to decrease overcrowding, pet owners must take responsibility for animals by spaying and neutering them and planning for caregivers if they are out of town or pass away. The shelter often receives pets that are dropped off by vacationers or relatives of a pet owner who died.

Information about adopting, fostering or volunteering can be found on the Darlington shelters website, http://darlingtonhumane.org/, or by calling the shelter at 843-398-4402.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) A Delhi Police Control Room (PCR) van came to the aid of a 22-year-old woman who was in acute labour pain.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, PCR, Monika Bhardwaj said they received a call around 4.15 am about a woman being injured and crying in pain near a ticket counter at the Old Delhi railway station.

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But when the PCR van arrived, the policemen found Preeti was crying in labour pain and her husband, who works as a street vendor in areas near the railway station, was helpless.

The DCP said the police decided to take her to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital Hospital.

However, en route to the hospital, they had to stop the van on the Netaji Subhas Marg as she complained of unbearable pain, she said.

She delivered a baby girl in the PCR van with the help of her husband and the policemen.

The woman and the baby were later shifted to the Hospital for further treatment where both are safe, police said. PTI SLB TIR

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Abu Sayed, the head of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, was killed this week in a strike in Kunar, the Pentagon said on Friday.

By Reuters: The head of Islamic State in Afghanistan, Abu Sayed, was killed in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar province earlier this week, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement that other members of the Islamic State group were also killed in the strike on Tuesday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters, "The significance is you kill a leader of one of these groups and it sets them back ... it is obviously a victory on our side in terms of setting them back, it is the right direction."

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Sayed is the third Islamic State leader in Afghanistan to be killed since July 2016.

Former leader Abdul Hasib was killed in a joint U.S. and Afghan operation on April 27 in the eastern province of Nangarhar. Hasib's predecessor Hafiz Saeed Khan died in a U.S. drone strike in 2016.

Afghan troops, backed by U.S. warplanes and special forces, have been battling militants linked to Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan for years.

The local affiliate of Islamic State, sometimes known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan, has been active since 2015, fighting the Taliban and Afghan and U.S. forces.

General John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has vowed to defeat Islamic State there this year.

ALSO READ | Is Mosul finally free? The how, what and when of Iraq's Operation Mosul

ALSO READ | Islamic State chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi killed: Syria monitor

ALSO WATCH | ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's wife speaks out for the first time

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By PTI: Srinagar, July 14 (PTI)An Afghan national, awaiting deportation from Delhi, was arrested from Baramulla District of Kashmir as he was on his way towards the Line of Control to exfiltrate to Pakistan, police said today.

Twenty-seven year old Mohammad Dawood was taken into custody at Kralahar in Baramulla yesterday.

"Dawood, who was acquitted in case under various sections of NDPS Act in New Delhi, was to be deported but meanwhile government had decided to appeal against his acquittal.

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"His passport lies with the Special Cell of Delhi Police and he was under orders to restrict his movements to Lampur, Narela area of New Delhi," a senior police official said.

Dawood told police that he wanted to return to Afghanistan via Pakistan by crossing the LoC.

"His claim is being verified, " the official said.

Besides Dawood, police also detained two residents of Uri, the border town, and the driver of the vehicle in which they were travelling.

"The local residents claim not to be connected with him. Investigation, however, is going on to ascertain the facts," the official said. PTI MIJ DV

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The AFSPA was introduced by British as an ordinance to tackle Quit India Movement in 1942. It was enacted in 1958 giving more powers to security forces. Last year, the Supreme Court termed indefinite imposition of AFSPA a failure of civil administration.

By Prabhash K Dutta: According to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), - hearing which the Supreme Court today ordered a CBI probe into extra-judicial killings in Manipur - 1,528 people were killed in encounters by security forces in the state between 2000 and 2012.

The Indian Army, the Assam Rifles and the Manipur Police have been accused of staging encounters and killing civilians in Manipur. The forces enjoy special protection under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act imposed in the state.

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In its defence, the Indian Army told the Supreme Court on April 20 this year that it could not be subjected to FIRs for carrying out anti-militancy operations in insurgency-prone areas including Manipur. The Army also alleged local biases in judicial probe constituted against it.

The Centre, too, backed the Army saying that out of the 282 cases - referred to it for verification - 70 matters were found to be related to the Army and Assam Rifles while the rest concerned the state police.

Still, the Supreme Court not only directed a CBI probe in the killing but also decided to monitor the progress in investigation.

AFSPA AND KILLINGS

According to the Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association (EEVFAM) - the petitioner in the present Supreme Court case - and human rights activists, such a huge number of killings took place in Manipur due to the shield provided by the AFSPA.

The activists allege that the AFSPA gives blanket protection to the Army, the Assam Rifles and the Manipuri state forces to kill with impunity.

In 2013, the Supreme Court had appointed a committee headed by former apex court judge Justice Santosh Hegde to probe six "sample cases of alleged fake encounter" in Manipur. Former Chief Election Commissioner JM Lyngdoh and former Karnataka DGP Ajay Kumar Singh were other members of the committee.

The Santosh Hegde committee found that none of the encounters probed by it was carried out in "self-defence" by the security forces. The committee also found out that the encounters were not "genuine" and the victims did not have any criminal antecedent.

HISTORY OF AFSPA

The AFSPA - like many other controversial laws - has a colonial origin. The AFSPA first came as an ordinance in the backdrop of Quit India Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1942.

A day after its launch on August 8, 1942, the movement became leaderless and turned violent at many places across the country. Leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, VB Patel and a host of others had been put behind the bars.

Shaken by the massive scale of violence across the country, the then Viceroy Linlithgow promulgated the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Ordinance, 1942. This Ordinance practically gave the officers of the Armed Forces a "license to kill" when faced with a disturbance.

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After Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru decided to continue with the law and enacted the Armed Forces Special Powers (Assam and Manipur) Act, 1958. Later, it was rechristened as the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. It was confined to some "disturbed areas" in the hills. But, later, it was expanded to all of the seven states in the northeast.

It is in force for almost entire Manipur since 1980 - presently in the whole state except the Imphal Lok Sabha constituency. It was also implemented in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Punjab in 2008 became the first state to withdraw the AFSPA from the state.

WHY AFSPA IS SO CONTROVERSIAL

When the British imposed AFSPA, it laid down some checks on the security forces. Section 2 of the British law authorized an officer "not below the rank of Captain in Military Forces and any officer holding equivalent rank either in Naval or Air Forces" to issue written order to "use such force as may be necessary, even to the causing of death, against any person who-(a) fails to halt when challenged by a sentry, or (b) does, attempts to do, or appears to be about to do, any such act as would endanger or damage any property of any description whatsoever which it is the duty of such officer to protect."

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Such powers can be exercised in areas that the Centre or State has declared as "disturbed" under Section 3 of the law.

The 1942 Ordinance, however, put some conditions for exercising the power including "the proper performance of his duty" should be hampered by the individual against whom the force was to be used.

The British law was also restricted strictly to the officers of the Army, Navy and Air Force. The offender must have failed "to halt when challenged by a sentry" meaning he must have ignored a warning by the security forces.

But, under the AFSPA, 1958, those checks were removed. The AFSPA now covers state police, paramilitary forces like the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Border Security Force (BSF).

These forces are now authorized to use AFSPA "for the maintenance of public order."

HOW AFSPA WAS IMPLEMENTED IN MANIPUR

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The AFSPA mandates that the counter-insurgency operations will be carried out the Indian Army and Assam Rifles in collaboration with the Manipur Police. But, over the years the Manipur Commando or the CDOs - as they are known - have played bigger roles in these operations.

The CDOs were set up in 1981-82 by taking out personnel from the Manipur Rifles - the armed police wing of the Manipur Police. They were trained by the Indian Army. The arrangement continues even today. Around 1,600 CDOs are there in Manipur fighting insurgency.

The activists have blamed all these forces for carrying out fake encounters in Manipur. About 66 complaints have been lodged against the Assam Rifles over the last five years. But, action has not been taken in even one case.

Three of the complaints were acted upon by the Assam Rifles but the findings of the probe were not made public. Noted activist Irom Sharmila led long Gandhian battle against AFSPA before joining the democratic process earlier this year when she contested elections from two seats in Manipur. She lost from both seats.

Earlier this year a suspended constable of the Manipur Police admitted to staging encounter saying that it was part of the counter-insurgency strategy. The revelation made a strong case for revoking AFSPA from the state.

Tripura showed the way in May last year by withdrawing AFSPA from the state after 18 years. The state government credited the Narendra Modi government of the Centre for revocation of AFSPA from Tripura.

Incidentally, from December 1, last year the Manipur government extended the AFSPA in the state for another year. But, the Supreme Court ruling for CBI probe may be a ground to do away with the AFSPA - which the apex court had termed last year as "failure of the civil administration" - from Manipur.

ALSO READ |

AFSPA: Supreme Court orders CBI probe into fake encounters in Manipur

Tripura scraps AFSPA after 18 years, BJP credits Modi

ALSO WATCH | CBI to investigate extra-judicial killings under AFSPA in Manipur

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Lars Moller, who was the former ceo of Dynamic Oil Trading (Singapore) and a Danish citizen, now faces charges with committing fraud of agent by granting credit outside his mandate worth more than DKK800m ($122.7m), Reuters reported.

OW Bunker, the parent firm of Dynamic, stunned the market when it made a sudden filing for bankruptcy in Denmark in November 2014 as it revealed massive losses at its Singapore subsidiary.

A lawyer representing Moller was quoted as saying on Thursday that there had been no criminal activity involved.

Denmarks state prosecutor said it had not found any legal grounds for the criminal prosecution of other members of management within the OW Bunker group, according to Reuters report.

While there had been several suspects during the course of the investigation, the outcome of the investigation pointed to the manager of the Singapore subsidiary as having single-handedly committed the credit exaggerations that led to the downfall of OW Bunker, Reuters cited the state prosecutor as saying.
The focus on IT systems at sea follows the recent global WannaCry attack, which shut down computers used by Spanish ISP Telefonica, FedEX and the UKs National Health Service, among others, affecting some 200,000 computers in 150 countries. This was followed later in May with the British Airways outage, which saw hundreds of flights cancelled over a holiday weekend and 500 million wiped of parent company IAGs value.

Peter Broadhurst, Senior Vice President Safety & Security Services, Inmarsat, the mobile satellite company, will deliver the keynote presentation in the Knowledge Theatre, Cyber Security: Protecting the Industry, assessing the new risk factors of an increasingly connected shipping industry and how industry players can protect themselves against cyber security threats.

Hacking, ransomware and system outages have long been a concern for the shipping industry, particularly with the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the connected ship. These risks are heightened due to the significant growth in networks of physical objects accessed through the internet, said Broadhurst.

According to a 2016 global analysis report by the Ponemon Institute, which surveyed data collected from 383 companies in 12 countries, the average total cost of a data breach stands at US$4 million, a figure that has increased 29% since 2013. The average cost per lost or stolen record is $158, with a 15% average price increase since 2013. In total, the number of security incidents reported in 2015 stood 63% higher than in 2014.

Emma Howell, Group Marketing Manager, Seatrade portfolio commented, Over recent weeks and months, we have seen huge organisations crippled by ransomware attacks and IT meltdowns  compromising systems and costing some businesses many millions of dollars. The need for the shipping industry to tackle this growing menace head-on is greater than ever before and we look forward to welcoming decision makers and industry leaders to debate these important issues.

However, compounding the issue, insurance providers are yet to close all of the gaps in their policies, leaving shipping companies at even greater risk and facing huge financial losses.

Most insurance policies have Cyberattack exclusion clauses, for property damage and business interruption and this exposes shipping companies and ship owners to huge risks. We have seen some response from the insurance industry but until comprehensive products are rolled out the responsibility of backing up systems, protecting data and ensuring a network is robust and secure, very much remains with the shipping company and ship owner, added Howell.

Staying with the technological theme, the SOMWME 2017 programme will also feature sessions on SMART solutions, covering developing technologies such as automation and predictive maintenance, alongside design and development of a new generation of specialised offshore vessels, with confirmed speakers including; Arnstein Eknes, Business/Segment Director Special Ships, DNV GL, Oskar Levandar, SVP Concepts & Innovation, Rolls-Royce; and Alexander Nurnberg, Managing Director, MacGregor.

Elsewhere on the Seminar programme, discussion will turn to green and efficient vessels for the future.

Seatrade Offshore Marine & Workboats is the largest workboat and offshore marine event outside of the USA, attracting more than 200 offshore marine and workboat companies. To register, follow this link.


The Supreme Court today directed CBI probe into various killing in Manipur under AFSPA. The Supreme Court will monitor the progress of investigation in these cases.

By Anusha Soni: The Supreme Court today directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe various cases of alleged fake encounters in Manipur.

The Supreme Court also decided to monitor the CBI Investigation. The court asked the CBI to file a compliance report in January next year.

The Supreme Court ruling came during a hearing on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking probe into killings under Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur.

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The apex court directed the CBI director to constitute a team within two weeks. The Supreme Court will monitor the CBI probe into various killings.

The apex court was hearing a PIL seeking probe and compensation in alleged 1,528 extra-judicial killings in Manipur from 2000 to 2012 by security forces and police.

A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit was hearing the matter. There are 35 matters related to commission of inquiry and 37 cases of judicial inquiry or high court matters.

These cases have been transferred to the CBI for probe. There are 23 other matters under investigation by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which would be heard along with 170 cases based on written complaints.

The Supreme Court had earlier said that the state of Manipur would examine 265 cases and segregate the cases of Manipur Police.

Similarly, the Union of India will examine and segregate the cases related to the armed forces including Army and Assam Rifles, the bench said.

ALSO READ |

Manipur extrajudicial killings: SC slams Centre, Manipur for inaction in 15-year-old's rape case

Tripura scraps AFSPA after 18 years, BJP credits Modi

Watch: CBI to investigate extra-judicial killings under AFSPA in Manipur

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Press Release

July 13, 2017 Acceptance Message of Senator Loren Legarda

Conferment of "Cavaliere" in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic

13 July 2017 | Residence of the Italian Ambassador to the PHL Your Excellency, Massimo Roscigno, Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen, It is with much gratitude and great honor that I accept the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. A few years ago, I only dreamt of bringing the Philippines back to the oldest and most prestigious global art platform, the Venice Biennale. I believe that art is an enabler of development. My vision is for all Filipinos to see the importance of the arts in our soul and identity. I know that the Venice Biennale is a great platform to showcase the Filipino talent. Fifty-one years after our first national participation, we were able to return with an impressive national pavilion curated by Dr. Patrick Flores in 2015. Tie A String Around The World was well-received and included among the top ten must-see pavilions. In 2016, another milestone was achieved with our first participation in the Venice Architecture Biennale featuring Muhon: Traces of an Adolescent City, curated by Leandro Y. Locsin, Jr., Sudarshan Khadka, Jr. and Juan Paolo Dela Cruz of the Leandro V. Locsin Partners (LVLP). Now, we are proud that on our third consecutive participation, we are already in the Arsenale, one of the main exhibition spaces of the Venice Biennale, featuring The Spectre of Comparison curated by Joselina Cruz. The story of our participation in the Venice Biennale is how I envision the development of Philippine art--to continuously improve, to be seen as vital in nation building, and to be recognized in the world. In the process, we not only brought renewed hope and inspiration to Filipino artists and curators, we also strengthened the cultural bond between the Philippines and Italy. But I never realized it would merit an award--the prestigious Order of Merit. I am truly grateful and humbled; but more importantly, tremendously inspired to live up to the noble principles this award represents. I recognize that as in any award, there are responsibilities. As a cavaliere, and in my capacity as Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, I will continuously pursue stronger cultural partnership between our two nations and tap other areas of cooperation. Your Excellency, thank you once again for this esteemed recognition.
By PTI: (Photo: PTI7_14_2017_000146B)

New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) Doctors at AIIMS are examining a pair of two-year-old twins joined at the head, and will assess whether surgery can be performed to separate them.

The twins -- Jagannath and Balram -- from Kandhamal district in Odisha, were taken to AIIMS after they were brought here from Bhubaneshwar this afternoon.

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They are accompanied by their parents and Assistant Manager of National Adolescent Health Programme, Soumya Samantray.

Dr A K Mahapatra, chief of neuro sciences centre at AIIMS said the twins will undergo a series of tests such as MRI, CT scan, and angiogram, to see to what extent the veins in their brains are fused and whether surgery is feasible.

"They are craniopagus twins, that is who are connected at the head. This is a rare condition. It is very difficult at this stage to say if surgery is feasible to separate them. They will undergo several tests in the next 10-12 days after which we will decide," Dr Mahapatra said.

Dr Deepak Gupta, professor of neurosurgery, said the conjoined twins suffer from a rare condition which afflicts one in 30 lakh children, of which 50 per cent die either at birth or within 24 hours. Surgery is feasible only on 25 per cent of the survivors while the rest continue to live with the condition.

"Also, there is less than a 20 per cent chance of survival among those who undergo this surgery. Such operations are extremely challenging and doctors from plastic surgery, paediatric surgery, anaesthetists and radiologists, among others, will be involved," Dr Gupta said.

Jagannath and Balrams parents, who are poor farmers, expressed the hope that doctors would perform the surgery and separate their sons.

"We have come all the way from Odisha with a hope that the lives of our children will be transformed after the surgery. The rest is up to god, we human beings can only hope for the best," their mother said.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who came to know about the twins travelling on the Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani to Delhi, ensured medical facilities for them on board during the journey and also arranged transport to bring them to AIIMS from New Delhi station. PTI PLB KUN BDS KUN

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STATEMENT OF LIBERAL PARTY PRESIDENT SEN. FRANCIS PANGILINAN ON INDICTMENT OF PNOY OVER MAMASAPANO

The Liberal Party expresses its faith in the ability of Former President Benigno Aquino III to defend his actions before, during and after the tragic Mamasapano event.

We also express our trust in Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales: that she will oversee this necessary process of truth-seeking with fairness and credibility.

The Liberal Party stands by President Aquino, as well, in his life-long commitment to the peace process in Mindanao, and sees his actions in relation to Mamasapano as imperatives in good faith to advance the cause of justice and peace in Mindanao.
Press Release

July 14, 2017 Koko challenges village chiefs: Prove Duterte wrong Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III told barangay captains that they must clean their ranks and prove to President Duterte that there is no truth to the report that up to 40% of village leaders are involved in illegal drugs. Pimentel said this in his keynote speech to the Strategic Consultation and Workshop on Federalism, Barangay Reform, and Role of Barangays in National Security Concerns organized by the Liga ng mga Barangay (LNB). "If the report is wrong, then maybe there is no need to discuss appointments to replace barangay officials", said Pimentel. However, he added that the barangay chairmen would have to prove to the President and the anti-drug agencies like PNP and PDEA that there is no truth to the report. "So that is I think a challenge... to each and every one of you", the Senate President said. Pimentel explained, "If the barangay is drug-infested, heavily drug-infested, our intelligence community would believe that the barangay leaders are involved in drugs... that is a reasonable conclusion." Pimentel urged the barangay chiefs to show policymakers that they are making a sincere effort to defeat the drug menace. According to Pimentel, if this were done, the only question before Congress would be the postponement of barangay elections and there would be no discussion about the appointment of barangay officials. The President's chief ally in the Senate reminded the crowd that Congress and the President already postponed barangay elections in the previous year in the hopes of removing the influence of drug peddlers in the elections. He then discussed the upcoming barangay elections in October, and the President's proposal to postpone the polls and appoint replacements for the incumbents. Pimentel, a bar topnotcher, said that the constitutionality of the appointments is still under study and invited the LNB to submit its own position paper on the matter. The Senate President initially discussed his vision for a Federal Philippines, the proposed Constitution of PDP Laban, and the role barangays will play in the shift to Federalism.
Press Release

July 14, 2017 Koko calls for PH to step up intel capabilities vs terrorism Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III on Friday asked intelligence agencies to submit proposals to increase their capabilities to deal with terrorist activities. Pimentel and senators from the majority bloc were briefed by DILG Officer-in-Charge Catalino Cuy on Tuesday regarding the situation in Marawi, and the briefing included an overview of the capabilities of the country's intelligence agencies. "Terrorism is the new norm. Our intelligence agencies have the duty to be as capable as possible to deal with this threat", the Senate President said. Pimentel, who in May called intelligence agencies to task over their failure to prevent the Quiapo blasts, repeated his call for these agencies to approach Congress with their needs so they can be funded. "From what I learned, we already enjoy a good relationship with Interpol. However, we cannot maximize the relationship because of the lack of high-tech equipment necessary to keep watch on terrorist groups", said Pimentel. The Senate leader said that intelligence agencies should take the first step in alleviating these deficiencies in their abilities. Pimentel said, "Only they know what they really need. They must tell us what they want to buy, why they're needed, and how much they cost. Only then can we actually fund them in the budget." The Senate President, a native of Mindanao, is bothered by the intelligence agencies' failure to sound the alarm over the Maute group's attack on Marawi City. Pimentel said, "The equipment might be expensive, but it would be more expensive to risk the lives of our citizens and have to rebuild cities over and over again because we cannot prevent attacks." The Senate President however emphasized that this does not mean that intelligence agencies would be let off the hook if another terrorist attack happens. "I want them to be given all that they need to do their jobs. Then they will not have any excuse when called to account for what the Filipino people have spent on them if they fail", said Pimentel.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here will soon set up a skin bank for patients with severe burns and those who suffer damage during accident or surgery.

The hospitals department of plastic, reconstructive and burns surgery will launch an awareness campaign for cadaver skin donation soon, said Dr Rajesh Malhotra, the chief of AIIMS Trauma Centre.

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Malhotra said the hospital is in the process of getting regulatory approval.

"We are also in the process of buying equipment to process cadaver skin to remove infections and antigenicity," Malhotra said.

He said a person suffering more than 60 per cent burns often requires skin implantation.

As part of the procedure, the skin from the wounded part is removed and replaced either with the own skin of the patient or donated or artificial skin, he explained.

"The artificial skin available in India is manufactured and patented by a US-based company. It is quite costly. That is where skin donations come useful," he added.

Dr Maneesh Singhal, HOD of the plastics, reconstructive and burns surgery department at AIIMS said awareness about skin donation was lacking and seldom someone turns up for skin donation.

"All those who can donate eye, can donate their skins but because of lack of awareness and such facilities, the skin donation has not picked up, especially in northern India," he said.

After a person dies, within six hours the skin can be taken and after that using special techniques they can be stored for a few years.

However, there are misconceptions that taking out skin will disfigure the body which is not true as the skin is taken from selective area and no cosmetic disfigurement is produced.

He further informed that the institute is planning to start a hand transplant facility at the Trauma Centre.

"Those people who lose both their upper limbs and have not benefited by prosthesis, they may benefit from hand transplant.

"Like one donates their kidney or heart, one can donate their hands as well," he added. PTI PLB KIS

--- ENDS ---
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A single-engine aircraft crashed Thursday afternoon about 1,000 feet from a regional airport in Sonoma County, killing one man and hospitalizing three other people, officials said.

The crash was reported at 12:46 p.m., when the plane went down near the sole runway of the tiny Sonoma Skypark Airport, just north of Highway 12 in Sonoma, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The man who died was identified as San Francisco resident William Sachs Goldman, 38, by the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office.

Goldman, an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco, was the grandson of the late well-known San Francisco philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman.

USF President Paul Fitzgerald said the university community was devastated to learn of the death of Goldman, whom he called an accomplished scholar, a beloved and generous teacher, and a valued member of our community.

Richard and Rhoda Goldman were known throughout the United States for their philanthropic work, supporting a number of different movements with hundreds of millions of dollars in collective assets  including environmental and Jewish causes.

The single-engine plane, a Cirrus SR-22, which seats five people, crashed under unknown circumstances in a field about 1,000 feet west of the airport, Gregor said. Four people were on board when the plane went down, he said.

What caused the crash was not immediately clear  including whether the small plane may have crashed on takeoff or when attempting to land. Video from the crash scene taken by television news stations depicted a parachute among the wreckage.

The three injured passengers were taken to hospitals in unknown condition, according to a dispatcher with the Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services Department.

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Two of them were airlifted via helicopter to UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital Oakland, the dispatcher said. A spokeswoman there could not immediately confirm their condition.

A third person was taken via ambulance to Sonoma Valley Hospital, the dispatcher said.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @michael_bodley
The bombs exploded before sunrise.

The targets were two Bay Area corporations with ties to animal testing, quickly leading to speculation that activists already protesting company executives had decided to send a more extreme message.

Indeed, within days of the 2003 blasts, a loosely affiliated network of animal rights militants claimed responsibility for the sabotage, which caused minor damage, resulted in no injuries and ultimately led to an unsuccessful manhunt for Daniel Andreas San Diego, the son of a city manager in Marin County.

How are you sleeping? the group wrote in an email distributed at the time. You never know when your house, your car even, might go boom.

Nearly 15 years later, a huge fire at an unfinished apartment and retail complex in Oakland has again provoked rumors of politically motivated destruction in a region that has come to epitomize the fight over income inequality and gentrification. The predawn July 7 blaze follows several recent arsons at similar sites in the area.

The fires cause, however, is still being investigated, and arson experts say it would be exceedingly rare for the rash of recent fires to not only be linked, but also be driven by any type of formal political or extremist intentions.

Though there is a history of fringe environmental and animal rights groups committing such arsons in the United States, those cases have been unusual and generally are claimed by the perpetrators. Only a small fraction of all arsons are ever solved, and extremist arsons may also be set by lone individuals or those who may suffer from serious mental health conditions, rather than a recognized group or affiliated person.

The common categories have been about arson for revenge or arson as a cry for help, said Rebekah Doley, director of the Center for Forensic and Interpersonal Risk Management at Bond University in Australia and co-editor of a book on the psychology of arson. In terms of sociopolitical, we see it more as wanting to upgrade housing, or burning down churches. We see it in self-immolation, but we dont tend to see it in this way.

Local and federal fire investigators have not released any information on the cause of the most recent fire in Oakland. Nor have they found any evidence linking the previous suspicious predawn fires in Oakland and Emeryville, according to Alexandria Corneiro, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Authorities also have not suggested a possible motive for the fires that investigators have determined were intentionally set, despite concerns from building developers and Oakland leaders that they may be meant as a protest of new housing developments.

ATF doesnt speculate, Corneiro said. These are ongoing and active investigations, and there hasnt been any evidence saying that these fires are connected, at this time.

While uncommon, a series of fires in California and other states in the 1990s and early 2000s that were set on behalf of animal rights and environmental groups came to typify arson as a form of domestic terrorism in the United States.

In those cases, a specific group or individual often claimed responsibility in some way or left clues to a motive at the scene, such as in a string of luxury vehicle fires set in the suburbs east of Los Angeles in 2003.

At a Hummer dealership hit in that spree, vehicles were spray-painted with the words polluter and ELF a reference to the Earth Liberation Front, an extremist environmental group.

Similarly, at the scene of a San Diego housing development fire also claimed by the group that year, a banner of white bedsheets warned, If you build it  we will burn it. The E.L.F.s are mad.

Almost immediately someone takes credit for it, whether its a sign at the scene or an Internet post or a letter to the editor or that sort of thing, said Ed Nordskog, a criminal profiler for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and longtime arson investigator. Thats the whole purpose of an extremist group: to further their cause. They absolutely want to advertise it.

In the Oakland and Emeryville fires, authorities have declined to say whether there was any evidence suggesting a possible motive, either at the scenes or communicated online.

Extremist arsons also may be committed by people who are not associated with an activist cause, but may be suffering from serious mental health conditions, said Nordskog, who also wrote the book, The Arsonist Profiles.

In their minds, theyre secret agents or on important government missions, Nordskog said.

Other times, the connection may be more intimate than a mission espoused by an activist group, said Doley of Bond University. In those cases, a calling card would likely not be left behind and the profile of the perpetrator would be different, she said.

This would be someone who is threatened by having their residential location impacted, and feels unable to change that in any other way, Doley said. So they lash out in the most base way  so for them, fire is a means of power and control.

Arson is a notoriously difficult crime to solve and prosecute, according to investigators. Often there are no eyewitnesses because fires are set at night or early morning, and the evidence is often degraded or destroyed.

From 2006 through 2015, there were 88,502 arsons in California, according to the California Department of Justice. Of those, only about 14 percent resulted in an arrest or were exceptionally cleared, meaning a suspect was identified but could not be arrested for reasons outside law enforcements control. Those can include instances where the suspect was deceased or serving a life sentence in prison.

Typically, these arsonists are setting fires in the wee hours of the morning in empty buildings or cars, said John Darmanin, a former captain of the San Francisco Fire Departments arson task force. Unless there is video surveillance or eyewitness accounts, we are unlikely to catch them.

Darmanin, who worked in the arson task force for a year and a half before retiring in 2015, said many of the fires it investigated were connected to some other illegal activity, such as a drug lab. Insurance fraud arson also was not uncommon. But even in cases with eyewitnesses, the evidence did not always stand up in court, he said.

A 2014 series of arsons in garbage cans and near construction sites in the South of Market neighborhood revealed some of the complications investigators and prosecutors encounter, according to Darmanin.

Police initially indicated that a serial arsonist was responsible for the fires. Eventually, however, officers determined they were unrelated and arrested three suspects.

Two were convicted of misdemeanor vandalism linked to garbage can fires, with one suspect referred to behavioral health court, which is reserved for defendants who suffer from serious mental illnesses.

The third suspect was accused of breaking into a parking garage and lighting a luxury car on fire, but was later acquitted by a jury in a case his attorneys said was based on flawed eyewitness identification.

We could have a lot of evidence at the scene, but tying it to a suspect is a different thing, Darmanin said.

Because so few arsonists are caught, it is difficult to establish a comprehensive understanding of why people ignite fires, according to Dr. Renee Binder, a professor of psychiatry at UCSF who has written on fire-setting and arson.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

The general profile  that of an uneducated, unemployed, lone young male  also does not define an arsonists motivation.

For each fire, there are different motivations, Binder said. It could be to get insurance. It could be for revenge. It could be attention-seeking. It could be a cry for help. It could be lots of reasons.

An article Binder co-wrote in 2012 underscored the limitations on generalizing about arsonists, but concluded that arsonists who were arrested were more likely than the general population to have a history of substance abuse and other mental health disorders.

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In 2009, for example, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned convictions on seven counts of arson against a former California Institute of Technology graduate, ruling that the trial judge improperly excluded evidence of the mans Aspergers syndrome.

The man had been convicted of conspiracy for participating in the vandalism and fire bombing spree that destroyed more than 130 vehicles in 2003 in the name of the Earth Liberation Front.

At the time, the FBI estimated that the group and its offshoot, the Animal Liberation Front, had committed more than 600 criminal acts and had destroyed structures and other properties valued at $43 million nationwide since 1996.

The July 7 blaze at the Alta Waverly mixed-use building at 23rd and Valdez streets in Oakland occurred less than two months after arson destroyed a similar $35 million development of apartments and retail space in Emeryville for the second time in a year.

A representative of the Alta Waverly developer said the fire caused at least several million dollars of damage, but that it was too early to fully assess the cost.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Some local leaders and builders quickly expressed concerns that the fire was not only arson, but also a protest of new housing that would be too expensive for many in the area. The Alta Waverly project was slated for 196 market-rate apartments. The average rent for apartments in Oakland in June was $2,413, according to the apartment market research company Axiometrics.

In the hours after the fire, City Councilman Abel Guillen tweeted: Burning down housing doesnt help make #Oak housing more affordable.

San Francisco also has been the center of a kind of reverse speculation in recent years about major residential fires in the Mission District. In those cases, there were concerns that they had been set as gentri-fires to destroy rent-controlled apartment buildings and replace them with market-rate structures.

Investigators, however, found no evidence of arson in the major Mission fires, ruling them accidental.

In the Emeryville fires that federal and county investigators have concluded were arson, authorities have released surveillance video of a possible suspect  hooded and riding a bicycle  near the seven-story residential and business development around the time of the second fire.

Youre talking about someone who showed up prepared to do some damage, said arson expert Nordskog, who viewed the images but is not involved in the investigation. Youd want to look into some of the local extremist groups.

Emeryville developer Rick Holliday called the second fire on his property an attack on housing.

ATF also announced last week that a large fire that occurred Oct. 31 and gutted a three-story apartment complex under construction east of Oaklands Lake Merritt was an arson. ATF has not elaborated on that fire, however, or specified whether the agency has identified possible suspects.

In that case, the owner had been sued in 2015 by former tenants who claimed he drove them out to make way for a new complex, ignoring a rodent infestation and allowing construction workers to tap into tenants electricity, causing utility bills to soar.

This week the owner, Athan Magganas, said he believes that one or more arsonists entered the second level of the 41-unit complex and spread flammable liquid through the corridors and stairwell before setting the blaze. ATF has not confirmed Magganas account.

Magganas estimated the fire caused about $7 million worth of damage to the building.

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in connection with that fire. Meanwhile, two $50,000 rewards have been offered for information leading to arrests and convictions in the two Emeryville fires.

Regardless of the motives behind those fires, if the arson continues, future housing projects could be in jeopardy, said Jill Broadhurst, executive director of East Bay Rental Housing Association, an Oakland trade association that represents rental property owners.

We need housing, Broadhurst said. Unfortunately, fires like this only set back the needs that we have to address in our area.

Kurtis Alexander and Cynthia Dizikes are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com, cdizikes@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander, @cdizikes
In the hours after William Sachs Goldman died in a small plane crash that also injured his two children and their nanny, he was widely remembered as much more than just the grandson of prominent San Francisco philanthropists.

To friends, the 38-year-old was just Bill. Bill, the brilliant scholar who held a doctorate in European history from UC Berkeley. Bill, the assistant professor who livened up staff meetings at the University of San Francisco with his garrulous laugh. And Bill the pilot who loved flying his private five-seater plane, sometimes for Angel Flight West, a charity that transports critically ill patients.

It was in that single-engine, Cirrus SR-22 that he died Thursday after crashing just north of Highway 12 in Sonoma. The incident was reported at 12:46 p.m. just after the plane had taken off from the only runway at Sonoma Skypark Airport. His school-aged children and their Italian nanny sustained critical to severe injuries, Schell-Vista Fire Protection District officials said.

The minors were transported by helicopter to UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital Oakland, and the woman was sent by ambulance to Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa. Hospital officials were unable to provide updated conditions for any of the victims Friday. Calls to Goldmans wife, Serra Falk Goldman, an attorney at Falk, Cornell & Associates law firm in San Carlos, were not returned.

Investigators are focused on documenting the site and any perishable evidence, said Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. It could take a year to get to the probable cause of the crash.

In video footage taken after the crash, officers surround the crumpled plane. One of its wings is ripped off, and ragged metal parts scatter the ground. A red-and-white striped parachute lies deflated on the grass. Cirrus aircraft have parachutes as an emergency measure  but officials could not say whether it was deployed before the crash or as a result of the planes impact.

Goldman received his pilots license in February 2009, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. His plane was registered out of Palo Alto, according to an agency spokeswoman. Goldman had addresses in Sonoma and San Francisco.

USF President Paul Fitzgerald praised Goldman as an accomplished scholar, a beloved and generous teacher, and a valued member of our community.

He will be greatly missed by his colleagues, students and the countless alumni who were inspired by him in and out of the classroom, Fitzgerald said in a statement about Goldman, who was an assistant professor in international studies at the university.

Elliot Neaman, a professor of history at USF, said Goldman was a sweet man who never alluded to his privileged upbringing.

The Goldman surname is associated with millions of dollars in collective assets and a history of prestigious giving. Goldmans grandparents, Richard and Rhoda, created the Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as the Green Nobel, which gives out $150,000 awards to fund efforts to protect and enhance the environment.

He never in any way let you know that he came from such a famous family or in any way had that kind of air of someone who came from privilege, Neaman said. He was funny and personal and extremely smart. He was very, very good at what he did as a scholar. We all really liked him and are shocked that this happened.

Thomas Dandelet, a professor at UC Berkeley and Goldmans dissertation adviser, remembered his former pupil as an optimist who had a zest for life. The two would often chat over large lunches, or a glass of wine in the evening. They attended historical conferences together in Spain and Italy. Dandelet went to Goldmans wedding and frequently saw his children, George and Marie. It was a long friendship that went back to 2003, he said.

Back then, Goldman was applying to UC Berkeley, where Dandelet was on the admissions committee. In his application, Goldman reflected on studying abroad in Spain as an undergraduate at Yale University. He fell in love with the richness of the countrys culture.

He just had a lot of intellectual curiosity, Dandelet said. It was that early trip to Spain that sparked his love for the field. It was something that never really went away. He was a rising young talent taken from us before the fullness of his time. He had already contributed a great deal. He was just getting started in some ways.

And, Dandelet said, Goldman never had a negative thing to say about anyone  even his fellow graduate students.

I never heard a bitter thing come out of his mouth, which is pretty rare in my profession, he said. Hes good-natured and generous. He always understood how much good fortune he had.

Daniel Sokatch, a CEO for the New Israel Fund, a nonprofit supporting democracy and civil rights in Israel, also mourned Goldman, who served on the organizations board of directors.

His vision, idealism, and sharp sense of humor sustained us all, Sokatch said in a statement Friday. Our thoughts are with his family, and especially his children. As we begin to process this loss, we know that his memory will be a blessing, as was his life.

Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LizzieJohnsonnn
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Throughout her life, Lucy Spector played many roles  a mother to three, a boss to dozens and a female business owner in a time there werent many.

She could buy fabric from top designers in Milan one week, and come back to be a grandmother hosting family get-togethers the next, said her granddaughter Sydney Angel. She could work in a pair of badass Louboutins, and bake a mean apple pie.

Ms. Spector, co-founder of San Franciscos renowned Britex Fabrics, died July 1 at age 93. She ran the store at 146 Geary St. near Union Square for four decades, transforming it from a small family-owned business to a must-visit destination for fabric fans from around the world.

With its bold red sign hanging from the roof of its four-story building, Britex has been a fixture of the city since 1964. Geary Street and Union Square have changed over the years  what were once independent businesses in Britexs neighborhood are now high-end fashion stores like Chanel, Lacoste and Jimmy Choo.

But Britex has remained the same, mainly due to the business prowess of Ms. Spector. She built its inventory of floor-to-ceiling fabrics, wall of buttons, and yards upon yards of ribbon and trim.

The stores reputation was well-known and attracted a cast of famous visitors, including Cher, Oprah Winfrey, Donna Summer and Shirley MacLaine.

She had an incredible work ethic, said Spectors daughter and the current owner of Britex, Sharman Spector. Its really one of the finest and most beautiful stores in the United States.

Ms. Spector took over the store when her husband, Martin Spector, died in 1966. At the time, Britex was more than $1 million in debt, and Ms. Spector was raising three young daughters and caring for her aging mother.

She was more than capable of rising to the challenge, Sharman Spector and her sister, Bev, agree.

As a child, Ms. Spector lived an idyllic life in Austria with her parents  weekend picnics in the country, spending time with her cousins and learning proper European etiquette. But they were Jewish, and when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the family was scattered.

Her mother fled to London and her father escaped to Shanghai. Ms. Spector was left with her grandparents. She never saw her father again, only exchanging letters until his death in 1941.

She moved to London after a year to be with her mother, and a few years later she married. After just six months, her husband died of a heart attack. A widow at 26, Ms. Spector set sail for New York City on the Queen Mary in 1949.

There she met Martin Spector, 28 years her senior, and in 1950 they married. He was in the fabric business in New York, but fell in love with San Francisco on vacation. He moved the family to the city and opened a small fabric shop on Geary, a few storefronts from Britexs current location.

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After her husbands death, Ms. Spector developed higher ambitions for both Britex and herself. Once in charge, she was in the store six days a week, from open to close.

Britex was what made her come alive, Sharman Spector said. It was her heart, her soul. It was everything.

Ms. Spector left the day-to-day management of the store to her daughters around 2009. Even though she stepped away from the fabric business, she never lost her eye for aesthetics, her granddaughter said.

Every time I saw her, she would tell me I had beautiful eyes, Angel said, and to take off that ugly shade of nail polish.

Ms. Spector is survived by her daughters, Sharman and Bev Spector of San Francisco and Audrey Spector of Berkeley, and by Angel and five other grandchildren. Services have been held.

Alison Graham is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: agraham@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @alisonkgraham
If brick-and-mortar retailers werent already thinking about making deals, theyd better be now.

Amazon.coms pending $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods Market is a game changer: It allows the online giant in Seattle to not only meaningfully enter the grocery business but also to instantly gain access to 18.2 million square feet of prime real estate in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

Once Amazon masters food, the company will no doubt open physical stores stocked with furniture, apparel and electronics, challenging incumbents like Best Buy and Target in the Twin Cities and Gap, Levi Strauss and Williams Sonoma in San Francisco.

Historically, such blockbuster deals tend to trigger other deals in a rapidly changing industry like retail, as companies scramble to find partners before they fall into irrelevancy. And that could benefit technology firms in the Bay Area: Online last mile delivery startups like Instacart and Postmates in San Francisco and Deliv in Menlo Park could soon find themselves acquisition targets, said Brittain Ladd, a retail consultant and former strategy executive with Amazon.

The Amazon/Whole Foods combination is just the beginning, Ladd said. Everything should be on the table.

Ladd has more credibility on this subject than most. Not only did Ladd specialize in supply chain and transportation issues at Amazon Fresh, including last-mile deliveries, but he urged Amazon to acquire Whole Foods in a paper posted on LinkedIn in 2013.

Amazon Fresh never worked  it controls less than 1 percent of the grocery market  because of a variety of transportation, distribution and assortment problems, Ladd said.

It was not a strategic, well thought out initiative, he said.

By acquiring Whole Foods, Amazon gains the expertise that it lacks: how to run not only a grocery business but also brick-and-mortar stores. Traditional retailers like Target and Kroger should also acquire expertise: They obviously know how to run stores but lack the knowledge on rapid online deliveries and thus would want to buy an Instacart or Postmates, Ladd said.

They have the technology and execution experience that will be attractive to brick-and-mortar retailers to help them get up to speed on digital commerce, said Rohit Kulkarni, research director for SharesPost in San Francisco, an online platform for investors to trade shares of privately owned tech firms.

Kulkarni thinks Instacart, Deliv or Postmates would be attractive M&A targets over the six to 12 months after Amazon completes its takeover of Whole Foods.

For the record, Instacart insists it does not want to be bought, though its partnership with Whole Foods, one of the chains at which Instacart shoppers pick up groceries for delivery to customers, has put it in a particularly precarious position.

Instacart is focused on building a long-term independent company, Andrew Nodes, Instacarts vice president of retail accounts, said in an email. Our valued retail partners work with us because Instacart helps them to better compete with pure play e-commerce companies.

In any case, theres a big difference between what retailers should do and what they will do. Historically, brick-and-mortar chains have not been keen to take big risks. In the early days of the Internet  the late 1990s and early 2000s  retailers either ignored the technology or halfheartedly pursued it.

With the exception of Walmart, which recently acquired Jet and Bonobos, retailers have largely avoided mergers and acquisitions. Yes, Staples recently tried to buy Office Depot and Walgreens wanted to purchase Rite Aid (both deals came apart amid antitrust concerns). But those moves were reactive, and in the case of Staples/Office Depot, it was primarily meant to slow Amazons advance.

In other words, these deals were more about preserving the past than pursuing the future. Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York Universitys Leonard Stern School of Business, predicts the Amazon/Whole Foods combination will prompt similar moves.

It will spur consolidation  out of defense, not offense, Galloway said.

But Ladd argues that retailers, especially those with strong balance sheets like Target and Kroger, need to start getting bold  or at least creative with their cash. Amazons move for Whole Foods was both  a deal that simultaneously expanded Amazons reach by category (grocery) and format (store).

Take Target. The nations second-largest retailer, which operates an innovation center in San Francisco, certainly has plenty of financial firepower. The company will spend $7 billion over the next three years to upgrade stores and e-commerce operations.

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But Target has always been conservative with mergers and acquisitions.

Thats too bad because Target should have been the one to acquire Whole Foods, Ladd said. Target needs help with its grocery business and shares the similar upscale customers with Whole Foods, he said.

Now that Amazon is buying Whole Foods, Target should establish a strategic alliance with Kroger, if not an outright merger, Ladd said. Short of a merger  which seems unlikely given Targets cautious nature  the two could combine their loyalty programs to better combat Amazon Prime. And Target could open mini-stores within Kroger locations, Ladd said.

More importantly, Kroger could manage Targets troubled grocery business, the way Target struck a deal for CVS to take over its in-store pharmacy business  an unusual move because Target prizes simplicity and thus jealously guards its store space, as well as having pharmacy product lines of its own.

Were about to enter an era of strange bedfellows, Galloway said. Enemies are going to work together.

At Target, we are always researching and reviewing options for acquisitions, spokesman Katie Boylan said in an emailed statement. Any opportunities wed seriously consider would need to support and enhance our strategic road map, including areas like our assortment strategy, digital strategy or supply chain improvements.

Instacart  another possibility for Target, besides Kroger  would seem to fall into those areas. The two companies already partner on same-day deliveries, and Ladd thinks Target could acquire Instacart at a price below its last reported $3.4 billion private valuation, which almost certainly took a hit because of the Whole Foods deal.

Its time for traditional retailers to match Amazon, not just in price but in sheer boldness.

Thomas Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. He is author of Rebuilding Empires (St. Martins Press), his book on how Best Buy and Target will compete in the digital age. Email: tlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByTomLee
Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday threatened to cut greenhouse gas emissions through massive new regulations if California legislators fail to extend the states cap-and-trade system for fighting global warming.

His heated comments, delivered to a state Senate committee hearing, served as an unsubtle nudge to Republicans and business-friendly Democrats who have reservations about cap and trade, which uses market mechanisms to slowly lower emissions.

The current system, which the governor often touts as a model for other states and countries, may lack legal authorization to continue past 2020 unless the Legislature extends it. A bill unveiled this week by Brown and legislative leaders would keep it running through 2030.

And with a vote on the bill scheduled for Monday, Brown told senators that the alternative to cap and trade could be worse.

If cap and trade dies, the state would switch to using direct command and control regulations, Brown said  an approach that could mean ordering specific cuts from specific industries on a set timetable. Cap and trade, by contrast, gives businesses flexibility in how and when they cut emissions and is generally considered to cost less. The system is one of several elements of Californias strategy to slash greenhouse gas emissions, which must fall by more than 40 percent by 2030, according to state law.

Were not going to pull back  the only question is how to go forward, Brown told a crowded hearing of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. Are we going to do that by an extensive, massive, intrusive regulatory burden that will be three to five times more expensive? ... That is not the way to go.

The bill, he said, represents the most important vote of your life. ... Unless you think Im lying. And I was in the seminary three years.

His comments highlight the biggest point of contention in the bill, AB398.

Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

Hammered out during months of closed-door negotiations, the bill contains language that would bar state and local air regulators from imposing firm emission limits on industrial facilities already covered under cap and trade. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District had been poised to enact a rule limiting oil refinery emissions; it would have been the first local air district in the nation to do so.

We object to legislation that attempts to strip away our authority, muddle jurisdictional lines and propose flawed control strategies, said Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the Bay Area air district, in a statement.

Cap and trade works by setting an annual limit on the states greenhouse gas emissions and forcing companies to buy a permit, called an allowance, for every metric ton of heat-trapping gases they emit. The number of allowances available each year equals the cap, and both decrease over time, reducing emissions.

If companies have a hard time quickly cutting emissions, they can buy allowances from the state, or from each other.

The bill faces opposition from both the right and left, with Republicans questioning its economic impact while environmental justice advocates call it too kind to the oil industry.

Brown described the bill as a balancing act and urged legislators not to let partisanship or reservations about specific elements of the bills language block its passage.

If we look to Washington, the turmoil, the chaos, the bad feelings exist not just between the parties but inside the parties, Brown told the committee hearing. Lets not be Washington. Lets pull together and show that Republicans and Democrats can come together and respond to an existential threat.

Sen. Jeff Stone, a Republican representing Riverside County, countered that his party had been left out of the months of closed-door negotiations that produced the bill. Stone and fellow Sen. Ted Gaines, R-El Dorado Hills, voted against it.

You excluded Republicans until the last minute, when you needed a few of our votes, Stone told the governor.

After hours of discussion, the committee approved the bill on a 5-2 vote along party lines and sent it to the appropriations committee. A vote of the full Senate is expected Monday.

The California Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business group, challenged the cap-and-trade system in court as an illegal tax not long after the system launched in 2012. The California Supreme Court recently declined to hear that lawsuit, leaving in place a lower court ruling that rejected the tax argument. Still, Brown wants the bill to pass with the support of two-thirds of legislators  the level required for a new tax  as insurance against any future challenges.

The California Legislative Analysts Office has warned that the system may not have the legal authority to continue past 2020 unless the Legislature extends it. A 2006 landmark California global warning law authorized the cap-and-trade system to run through 2020, but uncertainty has simmered as to whether the law authorized it to continue past that date.

Since the bill was unveiled Monday, along with a companion bill to monitor and cut industrial air pollution, unusual coalitions have lined up on both sides.

Supporters include such environmental groups as the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund, as well as the California Chamber of Commerce  the organization that sued to upend cap and trade.

Opponents, meanwhile, include the Sierra Club  which believes the bill is too generous to oil companies  and, so far, the Senate Republican caucus.

Unfortunately, many of the mechanisms the states regulatory agencies have used to reduce carbon emissions have increased costs for consumers and for employers, read a letter that 11 of the Senates 13 Republican members sent to Brown this week. We are concerned that this rushed effort to enact a cap-and-trade extension will be no different.

David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF
Dandelion. Snapdragon. Plume.

The words evoke images of flowers or a bird spreading its wings. But theyre names in the tech industry, too  a company that will focus on bringing geothermal energy systems to homes; a Qualcomm processor; and a Palo Alto business that sells Wi-Fi signal boosters.

Companies can spend thousands of dollars on experts to come up with names that sometimes seem crazy. Finding a winner is increasingly difficult, especially as domain names for websites fill up. At the end of 2016, there were 142 million domain name registrations ending in .com and .net, up from 114 million in late 2011, according to VeriSign, a domain name registry.

A thoughtful naming can take six weeks or more  yet its often worth it, since a name can be a companys most valuable asset, said Anthony Shore, who runs Operative Words in Oakland.

It ultimately becomes everything that they are, distilled into a single word, he said.

Amanda Peterson, Googles former head of naming, said that during the vetting process, she considers what the worst headline from tech news site the Verge could be and tries to avoid potential ridicule.

When working on Verily, the new name for the Alphabet health care technology division formerly known as Google Life Sciences, we looked at a lot of words that had a sense of bringing together life and truth and data, she said. Verily means in truth, and its logo emphasized the V. According to Peterson, one of the champions behind the name was the divisions CEO, Andrew Conrad, who liked how the letter V sounds like vie, which is French for life.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on the naming process or who replaced Peterson.

Alphabet CEO Larry Page called one of the candidate names for an Alphabet project icky because of how it was pronounced, according to Peterson, who declined to share the offending moniker. Page also advised the team to cut back on the sci-fi references, she said.

His taste is very much about sound, said Peterson, who is now director of marketing at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

When working for a big brand like Google, namers also have to be careful not to be overpowering.

It can actually distract or compete or pull some of the coolness away from your main brand, Peterson said. It takes a lot more bravery in Silicon Valley to name something Google Maps than to name it something crazy-town.

For Apple, simplicity, a hallmark of the companys visual design style, also seems to be a factor, observers said. Shore noted that the company often reuses words or parts of words  like software toolkit HomeKit, speaker HomePod, laptop MacBook Air or wireless earbuds AirPods.

Apples iPad earned early ridicule because some felt it sounded like a feminine hygiene product. But as people came to like the product, the jibes faded away. In Chinese, people dont say iPhone, but they do use iPad for Apples tablets.

The iPod name came from an agency that added the term pod to Apples family of i products, like iMac computers and iBook laptops, said Mike Slade, a former adviser to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. At the time, Apple was considering other names including ones with the word tune in it, which Jobs disliked.

Steve was adamant that it was not pigeonholed as just a music player, said Slade, who went in depth on the iPods naming in an Internet History Podcast interview last month. Thats because Jobs could envision a future where the iPod could be used for more than just music. He saw that over time that more things would be available to you on small devices.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment on its naming practices.

The budget for a naming project can range from $6,000 up to six figures, according to Maria Cypher, creative director of Catchword Branding, which works with both startups and global corporations. The average cost is in the $30,000 range, she said.

If the process involves the name of a business, experts will talk with the CEO about the companys mission. If its for a new product, theyll consult the product manager and engineer.

They then write a report that sums up the meaning and themes they are seeking. A list of hundreds of names will be thoroughly vetted to reduce legal risks and avoid duplicates in the same industry as well as names already trademarked by rivals. Domain name availability and cost is usually crucial  though companies with deep pockets may spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure a mainstream domain.

At an earlier firm, Shores team was once tasked with naming a Samsung phone. Shore requested great names for a New York City nightclub rather than specifying the phone itself. The name chosen was Instinct.

I would look for its ability to tell a story, he said. Does it tie into the clients strategy and vision and messaging? Does the name have the potential to inspire?

Some names given to products get such blistering critiques that companies retrench. Netflix in 2011 said it planned to separate its mail-in DVD business into a different division called Qwikster. Critics panned the strategy as confusing, and the name didnt help. Netflix soon dropped the idea.

In 2009, an Australian Web developer named a Kraft Foods cheesy spread iSnack 2.0 as part of a naming competition  but the backlash was so intense, Kraft decided days later to rename the product.

In 2010, HP bought Palm for roughly $1 billion. As the smartphone business struggled, HP prepared to rebrand it as Gram, focusing on its WebOS software. Analysts questioned the need for the change, but HP plowed ahead, distributing Gram-branded gear to employees. In 2013, HP sold the business to LG Electronics and scrapped the Gram name. An HP spokeswoman did not return a request for comment. A San Francisco cannabis-tracking startup named Gram Health registered a trademark for Gram in February, though HP still appears to control the gram.com domain name.

Fahri Dinar, CEO of Palo Altos Plume, said his team came up with about 20 names before seeking a naming expert; one, conjured up over wine or beer, was HomeFi. Dinar said that was a name only an engineer could come up with.

The difficulty we realized is that people have a tendency to want to capture everything in a name, said Dinar, whose business sells gadgets that consumers can plug into electric sockets to expand wireless Internet coverage in their homes. We decided we needed some professional help.

Wendy Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: wlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee
The 48-year-old dropout nursing student who committed a mass shooting at Oikos University in Oakland in 2012 was sentenced Friday to seven life terms in prison  one for every victim he killed.

One Goh appeared in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, where loved ones of the victims he killed or wounded vented their anger and grief.

These past years have been really hard. My mother was a beautiful, caring, hardworking person, said Camella Seymour, whose mother, Judith, was one of the seven people Goh shot to death in April 2012.

Seymour, 34, of Sacramento, broke down in tears while addressing the court, pausing for a long period before she could speak. She said her 53-year-old mother, a San Jose resident, had enrolled in the nursing program at the university in hopes of making a better life for herself.

I cant sit in a classroom without thinking something is going to happen to me, Seymour said. Im trying to be strong ... but its hard.

Michael Howey spoke on behalf of his longtime girlfriend, Grace Kirika, who was wounded in the mass shooting and did not attend Fridays sentencing. Howey spoke directly to Goh, who wouldnt look at him.

One Goh, you are nothing but a coward, Howey told the killer. You should have decided to use the gun on yourself. You deserve everything coming to you. I hope you rot in prison.

The parents and brother of Katleen Ping, an Oikos University receptionist killed in the rampage, sat in the court gallery, periodically dabbing their eyes with tissues as they listened to the family members. The 24-year-old Ping of Oakland was killed even though Goh had promised not to hurt her if she stayed silent.

Kaine Ping, her brother, stood before the judge, sobbing uncontrollably as Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Stacie Pettigrew placed a hand on his back while wiping away her own tears.

The pain and the suffering and the grief will never end. She left behind a son whos now 9 years old, said Kaine Ping, his voice barely audible as he looked back at his parents.

On May 2, Goh pleaded no contest to seven felony murder charges and three felony attempted murder charges in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty.

Judge Jeffrey Horner sentenced him to seven life terms, or 271 years, without the possibility of parole.

Goh expressed remorse for the murder spree in a letter read in court by his defense attorney, David Klaus.

He is very, very sorry, and hell carry this shame forever, Klaus said.

Klaus added that Goh hopes his sentence will offer closure to the victims families and those who survived the massacre.

In addition to Seymour and Ping, the murder victims were Lydia Sim, 21, of Hayward; Sonam Choedon, 33, of El Cerrito; Grace Eunhae Kim, 23, of Union City; Doris Chibuko, 40, of San Leandro; and Tshering Rinzing Bhutia, 38, of San Francisco.

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.

Following the sentencing, Goh, whose wrists were locked to a chain wrapped around his waist, was placed into the custody of Alameda County sheriffs deputies and was to be transferred immediately to the state prison system.

Since the shooting, Goh has been held at the Napa State Hospital, a locked psychiatric facility, where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Shortly after his arrest in 2012, court-appointed doctors deemed him mentally unfit to stand trial. But that changed in May when doctors determined his mental capacity was restored.

On April 2, 2012, Goh walked onto the Oikos University campus with a .45 caliber handgun and took Ping hostage before fatally shooting her and six students, and wounding three others, authorities said.

Goh then took one of the victims cars and fled to a Safeway store in Alameda, where police were called after he surrendered to an employee, authorities said.

Investigators said Goh had gone to Oikos University to murder a university administrator when he was unable to get his tuition refunded after dropping out. Unbeknownst to Goh, the administrator had left her job after Goh had left the schools nursing program.

Oikos University is a small, private Christian school near Oakland International Airport that has a vocational-nursing program and offers courses in music, Bible studies and Asian medicine.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Rafe Swan/Getty Image

A 60-year-old Concord man was arrested after allegedly assaulting a child in a laundromat as her grandmother was washing clothes, officials said Thursday.

The incident, which was caught on surveillance video, occurred Monday at a laundromat on the 1900 block of Monument Boulevard in Concord, according to police.
High school students hoping to attend the University of California  but whose applications are less than academically stellar  may now have an extra opportunity to show why they should be admitted.

On Thursday in San Francisco, the UC regents approved a policy allowing application reviewers at each campus to ask for additional information that could increase a students chance of admission, including letters of recommendation, for up to 15 percent of applicants.

Applicants chosen for the augmented review are those who fall in the margins for admission but whose paperwork is too threadbare for reviewers to make a fully informed decision, according to UC President Janet Napolitanos office.

We all have a stake in giving students their best shot, said Jim Chalfant, chair of the Academic Senate for the UC system, which developed the policy. We owe this to students.

Campuses can request the extra information in three ways:

 A questionnaire designed to solicit more details about a students special talents, accomplishments, extraordinary circumstances and environment at home or school.

 Additional high school grades.

 Up to two letters of recommendation from anyone familiar with the applicants academic background, skills and talents.

Whether to allow the recommendation letters  and for what portion of applicants  has been the subject of debate among professors throughout UC. The questions have centered around fairness and whether such letters can help increase diversity at the public university system which, by state law, cant make admissions decisions based on ethnicity or gender.

Some professors feared that students from disadvantaged backgrounds would have trouble obtaining good letters, whereas students from schools with better access to counselors would get an unfair boost.

A study found little evidence of this at UC Berkeley, which has requested recommendation letters from up to 40 percent of applicants for the last two years under a pilot program. Though many applicants ignored the request for letters, application-review scores for those who provided them rose by up to four percentage points, the study found.

The additional information provided by letters helps the campus meet its goals of having a diverse student body, said Robert Powell, chairman of UC Berkeleys division of the Academic Senate, which urged the systemwide Senate to recommend that UC be able to invite all applicants to provide recommendation letters.

Ultimately, however, the systemwide Academic Senate chose not to rely on the letters to expand diversity, instead limiting requests for letters to the up to 15 percent of applicants selected for augmented review.

Were making sure we treat all applicants fairly, Chalfant said.

The new system will apply to all campuses, and its impact will continue to be evaluated.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
Counter-terrorism experts have told US lawmakers that Al-Qaeda is getting more active in the Indian subcontinent. It has cells mostly in Afghanistan and operatives are flourishing in Bangladesh.

By PTI: Counter-terrorism experts have told US lawmakers that Al-Qaeda is getting more active in the Indian subcontinent.

It has cells mostly in Afghanistan and operatives are flourishing in Bangladesh.

"By 2017, Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent boasted several hundred members and had cells in Afghanistan's Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Ghazni, and Nuristan Provinces. Al- Qaida's presence in Afghanistan was almost certainly larger and more expansive than five or even ten years before," said Seth G Jones, a strategic expert.

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He was speaking during his Congressional testimony before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counter-terrorism and Intelligence yesterday.

Also read: Cross-border terrorism threatening regional peace: India

This expansion, Jones said, may have been partly due to Taliban advances in Afghanistan and Al-Qaida's relationship with operatives from the Taliban and other groups, such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e Jhangvi.

"Al-Qaida operatives in Bangladesh were particularly active, conducting a range of attacks. In addition, Al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent conducted a steady propaganda campaign from its media arm As-Sahab," he said.

However, the group conducted few attacks in Afghanistan or Pakistan and was largely irrelevant in the Taliban-led insurgency, Jones said.

In September 2014, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had announced the creation of regional affiliate al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent, taking advantage of sanctuaries in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Also read: Syed Salahuddin's statements show how terrorist organisations enjoy freedom in Pakistan, says MEA

Qaida al-Jihad, a new branch of Al-Qaida, was established in the Indian subcontinent seeking to raise the flag of jihad, and return the Islamic rule across the Indian subcontinent.

The group was led by an Indian, Asim Umar, who was also a former member of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islamia- a Pakistan-based terrorist group with branches across the Indian subcontinent.

Umar was flanked by Abu Zar, his first deputy.

In October 2015, US and Afghan forces targeted a large training camp in Kandahar Province, killing over one hundred operatives linked to Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, Rhodes said.

According to Katherine Zimmerman, research fellow at American Enterprise Institute, the Al-Qaeda presence in the Indian subcontinent remains weak after Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the launch of a new affiliate in September 2014.

Al-Qaeda divides the Pakistani theatre by ethnic group, he said. The Pashtun are part of its Khorasan theater, which includes Afghanistan and Iran, and the Punjab is under Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), which works through the Indian Punjab and Bangladesh, Zimmerman said.

Also read: Operation All-Out: Army's master plan to flush out terrorists from Kashmir

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"A recent surge in propaganda from AQIS leadership may indicate an attempt to revive the group," Zimmerman told the lawmakers.

Zimmerman said Al-Qaeda never fully lost its sanctuary in Pakistan and used this base to project forward into Afghanistan again as the US drew down militarily.

"By 2015, Al-Qaeda was running large training camps inside Afghanistan. The US began revising its assessments of Al-Qaedas strength in Afghanistan based on the discovery of these training camps," he said.

--- ENDS ---
One of the hallmarks of the Ugly American is the habit of thinking foreigners will understand what youre saying if you just shout it louder and louder.

The Ugly Environmentalist does something similar. He exaggerates the challenge of global warming by using ever more hysterical rhetoric, thinking that if the last doomsday prediction didnt work, this one will.

For instance, Stephen Hawking, the famous astrophysicist, recently said that the consequences of Donald Trumps withdrawal from the Paris climate accord were monumental: Trumps action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of 250 degrees (Celsius), and raining sulfuric acid.

As Nathan Cofnas notes in the Weekly Standard, this is nuts. The share of the atmosphere taken up by that vile gas carbon dioxide (which just happens to sustain all plant life) is 400 parts per million. Its been much higher than that in the past without boiling the oceans or raining acid from the sky. Cofnas also mentions that Venus is nearly 26 million miles closer to the sun, and that the share of carbon dioxide in the Venusian atmosphere is 965,000 parts per million, or about 2,412 times greater than Earths.

And thats Hawking, a serious scientist (at least in his own field). Journalists, always looking for novelty and drama, can be worse. A recent New York Magazine cover story on climate change assured readers that all of the previous climate change alarmism was too tepid. Basically, by the end of the century, the living will envy the dead and much of the planet will be uninhabitable or a re-enactment of a Mad Max movie.

To the credit of some journalists and climate scientists, the New York Magazine article got considerable pushback, even from normally alarmist Penn State Professor Michael Mann.

Rachel Becker, a science writer, had a good take as well. Research shows that scare tactics can backfire when people put up their psychological defenses against the threatening information, Becker wrote at the Verge, rather than defending against the threat itself.

Thats true. The more you sound like some cowbell-wielding street preacher wearing a sandwich board that says The End is Nigh! the more likely people will ignore you. Particularly if your last few terrifying predictions didnt pan out.

But this focus on how using scare tactics doesnt persuade skeptics overlooks another problem. What about the people it does persuade? If you honestly believe that climate change will end all life on Earth (it wont) or lead to some dystopian hell where we use the skulls of our former friends and neighbors to collect water droplets from cacti, what policies wouldnt you endorse to stop it?

Theres a rich school of journalistic and academic nonsense out there about how democracy may not be up to the job of fighting climate change, and why people who question climate change must be silenced by the state. Its remarkable how many of the people who rightly recoil in horror at the idea of using, say, the war on terror to justify curtailing civil liberties have no such response when someone floats similar ideas for the war on climate change.

The environment editor for the left-wing British newspaper the Guardian, Damian Carrington, recently wrote a piece fretting about how having kids doesnt help fight climate change. Jill Filipovic, a feminist writer, endorsed the article. Having children is one of the worst things you can do for the planet, she wrote on Twitter. Have one less and conserve resources.

I found this interestingly dumb. Filipovic is precisely one of those writers youd expect to go ballistic if some conservative Christian opined about the reproductive choices women should make. But if its in the name of the environment? Lets wag those fingers, everybody! I believe, along with the late economist Julian Simon, that humans are the ultimate resource. We solve problems, and I think well solve climate change too. But if you really want to yoke your reproductive choices to the issue of climate change (a bizarre desire if you ask me), maybe you should have as many kids as possible and educate them in science and engineering so they can come up with a solution.

For instance, did you know America may end up complying with our Paris accord obligations despite our withdrawal? Its all thanks to breakthroughs in natural gas, energy efficiency and renewable energy. Thank goodness the people who came up with that stuff didnt have parents who believed all the hype.

 2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review. Email: goldbergcolumn@gmail.com. Twitter: @JonahNRO. Comment at http://bit.ly/SFChronicleletters.
An editorial board meeting with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi never fails to remind why she is the longest-serving party leader in the U.S. House since the two-decade rule of Speaker Sam Rayburn, who died in office in 1961.

As usual, her intense energy filled the room for more than 90 minutes Monday. The San Francisco Democrat covered wide territory  from local to global, from past to future  with her distinct skill of blending graciousness with a sometimes sharp edge. Its readily apparent why she is so successful at drawing monetary pledges from donors or commitments from colleagues who might be hedging on a key vote or on whom they might support for leadership.

Also not unusual: Pelosi did not miss the chance to take issue with a recent Chronicle story. In this case, it was a piece by senior political writer Joe Garofoli assessing the Democrats myriad problems and why some Democrats were questioning whether she was the right leader to pull them out of the mire.

I thought your article, if I just may say, demonstrated a lack of knowledge of Washington and how it works, and what it is that we do there, she said in her straight-ahead way.

To condense extended conversation to one paragraph, it appeared that Pelosis issues were with passages that Democrats were reduced mainly to playing defense in the GOP-controlled capital, that the party lacked a coherent message, that her signature accomplishments were seven years ago and that her distinguishing asset as party leader was her ability to raise money (I am a master legislator. ... I consider myself a policy wonk, she said at different points).

Its noteworthy that Pelosi never raised her voice during her vigorous rebuttal to the storys premises, and, as she often does, spoke of the importance of an independent press as she was leaving the office. Ive experienced similar Pelosi treatment in the past, such as a January 2014 meeting when she dissected our editorial calling for the Presidio Trust to hold off approval of filmmaker George Lucas plans to build a museum on the grounds of the national park. Again, that meeting ended with Pelosi expressing her regard for journalists and their role in holding politicians like her accountable.

This is how it should work in civic discourse, whether between politician and journalist or between Democrat and Republican, or even within a partys factions: disagree while appreciating our differing roles and values, and recognizing that the system is stronger because of these healthy tensions.

Speaking of which, Pelosi has long been a target for vilification by the right, and its hard to escape the feeling that it is due in part to her being a woman and being from a city that was in the forefront of gay rights. The disdainful references to San Francisco values in political advertising have become more subtle than when scenes from the Gay Pride Parade were employed to scare voters in the Bible Belt. But as Pelosi suggested, there was no missing the subliminal code in the sight of cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge in ads such as the ones that were used against Democrat Jon Ossoff in the recent special election for a U.S. House seat in suburban Atlanta.

LGBTQ, she said.

Ossoffs defeat was the fourth in a row for Democrats in special elections, leading some party members to grumble about the need for a changing of the guard at the top, as Garofoli detailed in his story. President Trump even tweeted that her ouster would be very bad for the Republican party. Similar discontent emerged after Democrats lost the House in 2010. It is rare for a speaker to remain as party leader when party control changes hands.

Yet Pelosi knows as well as anyone that the tides of American politics can shift abruptly and profoundly. Going into the 2008 elections, she envisioned her party on the brink of gaining a long-term majority, just as Republicans did in the Reagan era and even after the 2004 re-election of President George W. Bush. Pelosi had plenty of company in October in her certitude that a Hillary Clinton landslide would help lift Democratic congressional candidates nationwide.

An editorial board meeting never ends without Pelosi noting the plight of children in America  1 in 5 lives in poverty  and everyone in the room convinced that her drive to address that issue has not wavered, nor has her determination to pursue it from the highest office in the U.S. House.

This time, however, she offered no predictions when asked who would be speaker in January 2019, after the midterm elections.

Well have to see what happens, she said.

Dont bet against her leading the Democrats, either way.

John Diaz is The San Francisco Chronicles editorial page editor. Email: jdiaz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnDiazChron

Political prognostication can be precarious

Here is what House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has said in past meetings with The Chronicle Editorial Board:

June 2008

We won in 2006  that was step one. We couldnt get what we wanted accomplished, especially on the war, because we didnt have a Democratic president and the Republicans were obstructionists.

Democrats will reclaim the White House in 2008 and strengthen our majority in Congress, she predicted. In 2010, getting ready for redistricting, Democrats pick up more seats. By 2012, Washington will be dominated by a solid, confident, assured Democratic majority for a long time to come.

The party, she said, will then frame the debate on issues such as health care, education and global warming.

The stronger our majority, the more cooperation well get from the Republicans. And then maybe it wont matter anymore whos in charge, because the American people will have made their views known.

Outcome: Democrat Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008; two years later, Republicans gained 63 seats to reclaim control of the House, with the Democrats passage of the Affordable Care Act a major issue in many districts. Republicans regained control of the Senate in 2014.

October 2016

No way, aint gonna happen,

she said, refusing to engage a question about how she would deal with a Trump presidency.

As for the U.S. House of Representatives, she suggested Democrats would pick up 20 seats, possibly more depending on voter turnout and the magnitude of Hillary Clintons victory. Ive never seen a political situation where its so hard to handicap, because you just dont know who will turn out and where. Earlier in the month, she had told House Democrats in a conference call that the party would pick up the 30 seats required to retake control of the 435-member chamber  if the election were held that day.

Outcome: Trump won the presidency; the Democrats gained just six House seats.
John Sonntag/Associated Press

Not unlike an ice cube dropped in a drink, an iceberg  even one the size of the state of Delaware  will not cause the seas to overflow our shores immediately. But the huge chunk of ice that tore off the ice sheet hugging the Antarctic Peninsula sometime between Monday and Wednesday is in itself a testament to the scale of change being brought about by a warming planet.

Scientists watched for months as the 100-mile long rift in the Larsen C ice shelf extended and widened, finally cracking open and releasing a 1.12 trillion-ton chunk of ice  the largest ever recorded  into the Weddell Sea. There it will float free and gradually melt. The calving of the ice shelf now has opened the path to an even larger flow of ice into the oceans, which over time will result in more sea-level rise, inundating coastal communities, including many in the Bay Area.
Californias housing emergency can be measured in many ways  its 78,000 unsheltered homeless, nearly half the nations total; the 180,000 additional units a year the state needs but has no apparent prospect of producing; the tensions over urban gentrification that some are blaming for a spate of East Bay apartment building arsons.

But perhaps the most remarkable sign of the crisis is that the Legislature is at long last on the brink of doing something about it.

State Sen. Scott Wieners bill to rein in some of the worst antibuilding excesses of the states cities and towns survived its latest committee vote in the Assembly last week. Scores more housing-related measures are in the works, but Senate Bill 35 is the most relevant  and controversial  because it goes after the stubborn roots of the states daunting dwelling shortage.

Passed by the state Senate last month, SB35 could mark a heartening departure for a Legislature that has been at best slow to respond to the states most pressing problem and at worst oblivious to it. The most damning recent example was the Democratic majoritys approval of Assemblyman Marc Levines measure exempting Marin County from density standards that apply to the rest of the Bay Area. Lawmakers likewise rejected Gov. Jerry Browns proposal last year to force approval of certain housing developments despite the enticement of $400 million in housing subsidies.

SB35 echoes the governors plan. It would streamline approval of urban, multiunit developments that meet zoning, affordability and other standards in communities that arent meeting local housing needs. While the state has been carefully assessing those needs for decades, its lack of means to enforce them allows local officials to regard perpetual shortfalls with a shrug. Wiener, D-San Francisco, told the Assembly housing committee that under his legislation, local officials would be able to determine how they meet housing needs, not whether. All communities must participate, he said, if were going to dig ourselves out of this housing hole weve created.

This being Sacramento, the bill didnt come this far without some potential payoffs. A separate bill, also passed by the housing committee, would add fees of up to $225 per real estate transaction to raise $250 million a year for affordable-housing programs; another would ask voters to approve $3 billion in borrowing for such programs, dwarfing the deal sweetener Brown offered. That would provide some relief for the homeless, farmworkers and other needy Californians, and giving communities money is certainly more popular than telling them what to do. But an earlier $3 billion bond issue is credited with producing 92,000 housing units over a decade, or about half the projected need just to match a years worth of growth.

Lowering Californias formidable barriers to private development is a more promising long-term strategy, though SB35 makes concessions that may hamper its capacity to do so. It would require expedited developments to pay their workers union-level wages, for example, and allow cities like San Francisco to impose extraordinary affordable-housing requirements. Higher construction worker pay and more affordable apartments are worthy goals, but to the extent that those added burdens render development unprofitable, they would defeat the purpose of the legislation.

The compromises have won support from interests such as construction unions and the mayors of San Francisco and Oakland. But the legislation still faces diverse opposition, from governments in Marin County and Beverly Hills to neighborhood groups in Los Angeles Little Tokyo and San Franciscos Mission. The latter fear that easing development will enable gentrification to displace poorer residents, but the pressure on city neighborhoods has been exacerbated by allowing wealthier areas  like, say, Marin County and Beverly Hills  to block development. As Wiener noted last week, Displacement happens when you dont have enough housing.
Campus rapes and sexual assaults are really just about boozy encounters or unhappy breakups, so says the Trump teams top civil rights lawyer on educational matters. The crass thoughts from Candice Jackson produced a so-sorry apology, but the damage is done.

No campus or classroom topic is more volatile and loaded. Accusers say their claims arent taken seriously. Slow-reacting administrators often fumble the issue. Those accused say charges can stain them for life and are hard to refute. Jackson has just made the problem much worse.

In an interview, she glibly shrugged off the situation thusly: The accusations  90 percent of them  fall into the category of we were both drunk, or involved a complaint that trailed in after a relationship soured. Jackson, who leads the U.S. Education Departments Office for Civil Rights, later stated her regrets saying her words were flippant and noting she herself is a rape victim.

Along with her thinking, her timing couldnt be worse. Her boss, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, is holding private sessions with all sides on the topic. Jacksons blunt-edged thinking now overshadows that process, suggesting the departments mind is already made up.

Its not a distant Beltway issue. The ouster of Nicholas Dirks as UC Berkeley chancellor was partly due to his inept handling of a string of campus sex harassment claims. Before those issues boiled up, the campus faced anger from sexual assault victims who felt officials avoided dealing with the problem. At Stanford University, a furor exploded after a student athlete was given a light sentence in a sex assault case.

Other campuses across the country are facing similar trouble, compounding the tensions. The Obama administration issued legal guidelines that gave victims wider rights. But those directives brought on a counter-wave from accused males, who said the deck was stacked against them.

Enter Jackson, who has a reputation for speaking bluntly. She believes the underlying federal law, known as Title IX, isnt working fairly and gives too much sway to accusers. Her crass remarks give plain words to this outlook.

The rules on combatting campus rape may need reviewing, but a 2015 survey found that 1 in 4 women at a sampling of large universities had experienced varying forms of sexual assault. Its a real problem, not a case of government overreach or personal crusade.
The BJP plans to analyze the causes of its defeats in Delhi Assembly elections since 1993 at a two-day camp that begins today. Party president Amit Shah will inspect the party's poll preparedness and will inspect a comprehensive report on Delhi's voting demographics.

By Rakesh Ranjan: The two-day camp of BJP president Amit Shah in Delhi might see the launch of party's "Mission Delhi" to end BJP's 20-years of exile in the national Capital.

With nearly 16 meetings scheduled over two days, the BJP president will threadbare analyze the causes of BJP's successive defeats in Delhi since 1993. At the same time, he will check BJP's preparedness for polls and chalk out strategies for the same, a senior BJP leader said.

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On Friday, the Delhi BJP leadership will give a detailed presentation on the existing political equations, caste combinations and demographic divide in Delhi. Well placed sources said BJP's passive approach in nearly 15 assembly constituencies, which it has never won, has been cited as a key reason behind party's defeat.

This includes the debacle in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections, where BJP candidates lost to Congress by huge margins. The party has though managed to retain power in MCDs but lost all assembly elections since 1998.

"A comprehensive report on caste equations, slum dwellers and demographic division of Delhi's voters has been prepared. We will examine the cause of defeat as well as future strategy to strengthen party in the national Capital," a senior leader said.

The BJP finding says party's inability to win 15 assembly seats has made the biggest difference. Of these, five seats in Walled City are Muslim-dominated while five others are reserved seats.

The party's failure to win these seats over the past two decades has been the primary reason for its failure in grabbing power in the national Capital. Similarly, the BJP has been unable to project a prominent Muslim or Dalit face in these constituencies.

Dalit votes had essentially helped the Aam Aadmi Party win 28 seats in the 2013 Assembly polls, and prevent BJP from getting majority despite emerging as the single largest party.

However, sources said delimitation of assembly seats in Delhi in 2008 by Sheila Dikshit government also made these seats invincible for the BJP. The party may also consider restructuring of assembly segments or even increasing the number of assembly seats to overcome the crisis.

Party has prepared a detail presentation categorising each booths and assembly under three categories - A, B and C. 'A' category booths or assembly segments include those where party has never lost elections. 'B' category has those seats where BJP gave tough fight and 'C' are those were party has never won.

The state unit has also prepared comprehensive report on voting patterns in slums, unauthorised colonies and areas dominated by migrant voters particularly the poorvanchalis.

During the meetings with various office bearers, Shah will also examine the recent Vistarak program undertaken by the BJP to assess the ground reality and add new members to the party.

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ALSO READ | Delhi: Political uncertainties point towards likelihood of early election

ALSO READ | Is Modi baiter Arvind Kejriwal's absolute silence part of a new AAP strategy?

ALSO WATCH | MCD election 2017 results: Is AAP's defeat due to anti-Kejriwal wave rather than pro-BJP?

--- ENDS ---
California is closer to becoming one of the first states to legally recognize a third gender: nonbinary.

SB179, the Gender Recognition Act, defines nonbinary as an umbrella term for folks with gender identities that do not fit strictly as male or female or who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. The bill has cleared the state Senate and is going through the Assembly.

Why does this matter? Because people who identify as nonbinary, when compared with the general population, face more verbal harassment, are denied services and confront the possibility of physical assault because they do not conform to expected gender roles. The abuse is more likely if the nonbinary person is a person of color or faces poverty.

Having a nonbinary gender marker matters because, as folks who exist outside of typical gender roles, it is their civil right to be accurately represented on identification. For nonbinary folks, who struggle to seek acceptance, having the state affirm their gender says, We, as a community, see you, and we respect your self-determination.

SB179 seeks to make it easier to affirm ones gender by having a third gender marker on state-issued documents, such as drivers licenses. It would allow minors to change their gender marker, and would not require a court appearance for a gender-changing court order nor require medical gatekeepers to confirm ones gender identity. The Oakland-based Transgender Law Center is one of two co-sponsors.

Instead of being a burden, the proposed process will be supportive of the legal process.

Nonbinary folks are part of the past, the present, and the future. Despite facing discrimination, transgender and nonbinary folks continue to build community and advocacy. On the day of Trans March 2017, Alameda Superior Court judge Victoria Kolakowski, the first transgender judge in the nation, ordered a name and gender change with one signature.

The applicant expected only a name change and expected to have to wait another year for a gender change. Instead, the judge said she wanted to give a pride special.

The judge knew of others who issued such an order, yet it was the first time she had done so herself. What a time to be alive, she said, as she signed the paperwork to confirm the new gender marker.

The person left court smiling  feeling seen, feeling empowered, feeling ready to celebrate.

During the Trans March someone shouted, Tell me what you want, what you really need! The crowd chanted back, Trans rights! On that day, that person got it.

Roxas, a nonbinary person who lives in Oakland, strives to support others empowerment as they cultivate their own.
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An ocean conservation group is suing the Trump administration for withdrawing proposed regulations that sought to protect sea creatures off the West Coast, including turtles, dolphins and whales, from being killed inadvertently in mile-long drift nets.

The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, seeks to stop the National Marine Fisheries Service from backing out of its commitment to protect nine species that are often caught as bycatch by vessels that use gill nets to haul in swordfish off the coasts of California and Oregon.

The rules, which were the result of years of negotiations, would have shut down as many as 20 gill net boats for up to two seasons if too many whales, sea turtles or dolphins were swept up in the nets.

The nonprofit group Oceana claims the government illegally withdrew from the agreement despite the endorsement of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries experts and thousands of people who wrote in to express support.

With the rhetoric coming out of the Trump administration, no one at (the National Marine Fisheries Service) wants to be the first to protect endangered species, so they backed out, said Ben Enticknap, senior scientist and campaign manager for Oceana, which has offices in Monterey. Its an affront to the conservation of our ocean wildlife.

Jim Milbury, a spokesman for the NOAA Fisheries Service, said Thursday that it is our policy not to comment on pending litigation.

The rules were first proposed in 2015 by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which includes federal regulators and representatives of the fishing industry and state and tribal governments. The idea was to impose strict limits, called hard caps, on injuries or deaths of species imperiled by swordfish gill nets.

From 2004 to 2017, the swordfish industry discarded 61 percent of its catch, biologists said, including fin, humpback and sperm whales; leatherback, loggerhead, olive ridley and green sea turtles; short-fin pilot whales; and bottlenose dolphins.

The rules provided incentives for boat captains to switch to cleaner fishing methods such as deep-set buoys that catch swordfish lower down in the food chain or harpoon gear.

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.

But on June 12, the Trump administration threw out the rule. Michael Milstein, a fisheries service spokesman, said the impact of the rule on the fishing industry was more substantial than regulators first realized and that safety measures, like devices on nets that warn non-targeted fish with pinging sounds, had already reduced the number of whales and turtles tangled in nets.

Enticknap acknowledged that the swordfish industry had cut down on bycatch, but said too many dolphins, whales and sharks were still being killed.

This fishery has gone from horrendous to terrible, and the fishery service wants us to say that is enough, Enticknap said. Yes, its better, but theres still a long way to go to clean up this fishery.

Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite
Is it possible to be both a 164-year-old heritage brand and a fashion disrupter?

Jonathan Cheung, Levis head of global design for men and women, thinks so.

Just ask him why the San Francisco denim giant born out of the California Gold Rush endures, and hell relay a litany of reasons why the inventor of the first blue jean has for decades remained an international powerhouse that consistently breaks the mold.

From its foray with Google into wearable tech for its smart denim trucker jacket launching in the fall, to springs bare-butt jeans collaboration with Paris fashion collective Vetements, Levis continues to innovate with some of the worlds most prominent creative leaders.

Its adapt or perish, says Cheung, who can often be found tinkering at the Levis Eureka Innovation Lab, a short walk from the companys Battery Street headquarters. In this Bay Area context, you have to have that mind-set of Im going to disrupt myself rather than sit and wait to inevitably be disrupted.

Style Files The tribes of San Francisco have set sartorial and lifestyle trends ever since that first rush of gold miners in 1849. Style Files is our look back at how we dressed then, how we dress now, and perhaps what well be wearing in the future.

Despite the dominance of athleisure, sagging sales in the $12 billion U.S. denim market, and an industry reeling from the 24-hour online shopping effect, Levi Strauss & Co. has managed to grow its profits and stay true to its heritage while upping its all-important cool quotient.

Theyve never left their roots, yet theyve figured out how to get engaged in what is trending, what is important and what is needed to make their product stay relevant, says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst of the NPD Group, a market research firm. Theyre still as important to the (Baby) Boomer who basically grew up on them. And theyve become relevant to every generation from the Millennials to the Z and everyone in between.

Levi Strauss & Co. got its humble start when Bavarian-born Levi Strauss, the youngest son in a Jewish family, immigrated to New York in the late 1840s to help his two older brothers establish a dry goods business, according to Levis historian Tracey Panek.

Looking for opportunity in Gold Rush country, Strauss headed to San Francisco in 1853, setting up shop on Battery and Pine streets to expand the family wholesale business.

Strauss sold wares such as blankets, footwear and clothing to stores throughout the American West for the next 20 years, establishing himself as an eminent business leader and philanthropist throughout the city.

In the late 1850s, the discovery of Nevadas Comstock Silver Lode led Reno tailor Jacob Davis to come up with an innovative pant design for the droves of silver miners working the area.

Adding tiny copper rivets on the pockets, waistband, crotch and other stress points, Davis created a stronger waist overall that could take the daily beating of hard labor.

He got so many rave reviews for his pants that he couldnt keep up with demand, says Panek, who oversees an incomparable archive of denim collectibles at the Levis San Francisco headquarters, ranging from mud-caked cowboy 501s from the 1800s to the bedazzled super low-rise jeans Jennifer Lopez wore at the 2001 Super Bowl.

With Strauss already his fabric supplier, Davis proposed a partnership, and on May 20, 1873, Strauss and Davis received an official U.S. patent for work pants reinforced with copper rivets. The pivotal date has since come to be known as the birthday of the blue jean.

Levi's

Initially called XX and renamed the 501 in 1890, the iconic American garment has evolved from work wear to counterculture statement to modern-day wardrobe staple, and is considered Levis  and San Franciscos  single-most influential contribution to global fashion.

If you go through a whos who of who has worn Levis, they are the cultural movers and shakers, says the 50-year-old Cheung, who has led the Levis design team for the past four years. Figures from the birth of rock n roll to punk to grunge. Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe, Steve Jobs  even Einstein! It gives Levis this deep cultural historical connection that no other brand can rival in apparel.

Todays 501 jean maintains most of the same classic design details used as the industry prototype, from the signature red tab, five pockets and five belt loops to the leather patch on the waistband and trademarked arcuate back-pocket stitching.

501s will never go out of style, in the same way a Burberry trench, Manolo pump, Converse sneaker or Hanes T-shirt endure, says Emily Holt, a former Vogue editor who founded womenswear boutique Hero Shop in San Franciscos Tenderloin neighborhood in 2016.

Selling an average of 10 pairs of Levis per month, the store saw an increase of one pair sold every other day throughout April and May.

Its important to me that the store has a sense of place, and so carrying brands like Levis that are representative of the city is crucial, Holt says. It also helps that Levis have become more visible lately among the high-fashion crowd, so theyre particularly relevant for our customer.

Staying relevant and ahead of the pack is especially vital in the faltering $200 billion U.S. fashion apparel business, where denim makes up about 6 percent of the market.

A publicly held brand that also has Dockers, best known for its khakis, and value-based denim brands Denizen and Signature in its portfolio, Levi Strauss & Co. earned $291 million in net income in 2016 and has maintained top- and bottom-line growth for four consecutive years, according to the companys annual report.

Cohen characterizes the brands status as in a healthy position because, frankly, weve been ignoring our denim wardrobes for a while.

Denim is not dead; its just not as hot as it once was. For a while, people were buying five pairs a year and had 14 pairs in their wardrobes. So, between wearing those out and looking for new product, the life cycle of the denim business is starting to come back again.

Warp + Weft

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Aiding that comeback is denims entree into the technical and performance space. In recent years, Levis introduced shape-recovery jeans with a higher stretch and higher recovery ability; Warp Stretch for men with a vertical stretch that mirrors movements such as crouching and running; rugged jeans with Dyneema, an ultra-durable fiber used for climbing gear and military applications; moisture-wicking Coolmax jeans; and heat-retaining jeans with Thermolite.

According to Sarah Ahmed, the New York creative director of DL1960 and founder of the new denim brand Warp + Weft, denim consumers are demanding more utility from their jeans.

Remember in 2005 when everyone had rhinestones and crazy things on their back pockets? says Ahmed, whose new denim-for-all brand offers an unconventionally wide range of sizes between 00 and 24, with every jean priced under $100. First they wanted jeans to just look good. Then they wanted them to feel good with advancements in technology of stretch and retention. Thats where the customer is now  they want everything.

At the intersection of performance textiles and wearable tech is Levis Commuter Trucker Jacket with Jacquard by Google. The $350 denim jacket, unveiled for consumer testing at the 2017 South by Southwest Festival, features a left sleeve with wireless digital technology woven into an interactive washable fabric. Created for the urban cyclist, a tap or brush of the cuff allows the wearer to play music or map a destination.

They cover the low end, the high end, and even the super conceptual stuff, says Kiya Babzani, co-owner of Self Edge in San Franciscos Mission District, who began his selvage denim business 11 years ago stocking Levis-inspired Japanese reproductions of vintage American jeans. Theres no clothing company in the world that does so many levels of denim the way Levis does.

But even as the brand has learned to coexist with athleisure, shoppers will be hard-pressed to find a slick Levis yoga pant anytime soon.

Levi's

Thats not our identity, notes Cheung. Comfort and versatility are fantastic. But well look at that macro trend, then produce it in the Levis way.

Always walking the line between pushing the fashion envelope and remaining true to its rich history, the beloved brand is constantly iterating its fits.

For spring, Levis reintroduced the 1969 Orange Tab collection with a new line of vintage-inspired jeans, denim jackets and shirts. A limited-edition 501 capsule collection featuring hand-distressed denim, scribbled embroidery and vintage customizations dropped on May 20, which the brand celebrated as 501 Day with concerts and special events at Levis stores around the globe.

And for the first time, the iconic button-fly 501 with its classic distressed finish was offered last year in a stretch fabric, and this year in a body-conscious skinny fit.

Our heritage is our anchor, Cheung says. But newness is the oxygen of our business.

Nerissa Pacio Itchon is a Peninsula freelance writer. Email: style@sfchronicle.com. Style Files is an ongoing series that connects San Francisco's fashion past to the present. See more photos and stories at www.sfchronicle.com/style-files.
When 9-year-old Wyatt began raising money for police dogs, his parents expected he'd garner a couple hundred dollars. After a year of diligent fundraising, Wyatt handed nearly $1,400 to the Police & Working K-9 Foundation.

The cause is especially dear to the Marin County boy  his grandfather was in the San Francisco police dog unit in the late 1970s.
If you worry that Burning Man has become too corporate, you won't be reassured by the news that desert art festival's sacred temple this year will be brought to you by PG&E. Literally, they're bringing the wood to the party.

The utility donated more than 100 logs for construction of the temple, "a solemn and sacred space" in Black Rock City, Nev. The logs are from pine trees felled along Highway 108 in Tuolumne County for to protect power lines and motorists, PG&E says.

"Like a phoenix, once majestic Ponderosa pine trees, destroyed by drought and bark beetles, will obtain new life in The Temple at Burning Man," states a Currents post on PG&E's site.

It will be a very short life, of course, as the temple is burned to the ground at the end of the week-long fest Aug. 27-Sept. 4.

Now Playing: KTVU's Amber Lee has the report. Video: JW Player

"The temple has been a space where people can grapple with facing death, and it's incredibly appropriate this year that we're using the material that we are because it represents the death in the forest from drought and bark beetle," Steve Brummond, a leader of the crew that won the bid to build the temple, told the utility.

Before becoming the walls of the playa's sanctuary for death-grappling burners, the logs are milled into lumber, cut to size and assembled into a dry-run version of the temple by dozens of volunteers in Oakland. The test temple, which was being built Friday, will be disassembled before being trucked to Black Rock Desert.

You might think that a company that recently aired court-mandated ads apologizing for the deadly 2010 pipeline explosion that destroyed 38 homes in a San Bruno neighborhood might shy away from an event that promotes burning structures.

But as Corey Peters, PG&E vegetation management supervisor, explains:

"They're building this really cool temple out of trees that have died in the forests that would have had to come down and be removed, anyway. In essence, we're helping recycle the forest in a unique way."

So it's actually a recycling project.

As for Burning Man, free wood is good wood. You don't look a gift log in the knothole.
Berkeley Police Dept.

A UC Berkeley student who said Berkeley police racially profiled him when they arrested him near campus in late June is back in jail in connection with a vandalism and hate crime case BPD said it was investigating last week.

Now Playing: Berkeley police are investigating a wave of graffiti on cars and homes in one neighborhood south of the UC Berkeley campus. Video: Brandpoint

Ismael Chamu, 21, was arrested on a warrant at his San Francisco home at 9 p.m. Thursday, according to Alameda County sheriff's office records online. He is being held at Berkeley Jail on $85,000 bail on suspicion of felony vandalism causing $400 or more in damage, the commission of a hate crime, hate crime enhancements and conspiracy, said Sgt. Andrew Frankel, Berkeley police spokesman. No other arrests have been made in connection with the case.
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Online shoppers looking to score bargains during the Nordstrom anniversary sale instead faced glitches. In some cases, they saw their virtual carts emptied at checkout.

The Seattle department store chain apologized, tweeting that it was working to resolve the issue.

The sale is set to start July 21 and end Aug. 6, but Nordstrom cardholders were offered early access starting Thursday.

Frustrated shoppers took to social media to vent, with one saying it was unbelievable that Nordstrom wasnt ready to handle the traffic on such a big shopping day.

Ride services

Ubers big

Russia deal

Uber is ceding control of the Russian market by agreeing to merge its ride-hailing business in the country with Yandex, the Russian search-engine leader that also runs a popular taxi-booking app.

For Uber, the deal marks the exit from another big market after it sold its operations in China last year to local rival Didi Chuxing.

Yandex said Thursday that Uber and Yandex Taxi will combine into a new company in Russia as well as in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Yandex will own 59 percent, Uber roughly 37 percent, and employees the rest. The CEO of Yandex Taxi, Tigran Khudaverdyan, will become the chief executive of the combined company.

San Franciscos Uber will invest $225 million in the company and Yandex $100 million, putting its value at over $3.7 billion. The companies said that together they deliver over 35 million rides a month, with $130 million in gross bookings in June. Yandex is the bigger company, with roughly the twice the business Uber currently has in the region.

Housing

Mortgage

rates increase

Long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose this week for the second straight week. The benchmark 30-year rate surpassed the significant 4 percent level for the first time since May.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to an average 4.03 percent from 3.96 percent last week. It stood at 3.42 percent a year ago and averaged a record low 3.65 percent in 2016.

The rate on 15-year, fixed-rate home loans, popular with homeowners who are refinancing their mortgages, rose to 3.29 percent last week from 3.22 percent.

Unemployment

Jobless claims

fall slightly

Fewer Americans applied for jobless aid last week, as the number of people seeking benefits has stayed near historic lows pointing to a robust job market.

Weekly unemployment applications fell by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 247,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The less volatile four-week average rose by 2,250 to 245,750. The number of people collecting unemployment benefits has fallen 8.8 percent over the past 12 months to 1.9 million.

The job market appears solid as the U.S. enters its ninth year of recovery from the Great Recession. Jobless claims have come in below 300,000 for 123 weeks in a row. Thats the longest such stretch since 1970, when the U.S. population was much smaller.

The economy is expected to grow at roughly 2 percent after a weak start to 2017. That would be roughly in line with annual gains during the recovery. Consistent hiring has helped sustain the gradual recovery, although the expansion is starting to show its age as the pace of job gains has slowed this year.

Chicago

Investor group

buys Sun-Times

An investment group led by a former Chicago alderman and a coalition of labor unions are the new owners of the Chicago Sun-Times, officials announced Thursday.

We are investing in a journalistic voice thats genuine, accurate and consistently reporting news that matters to the people of Chicago, said former Alderman Edwin Eisendrath, who will serve as CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times, said in an email.

Eisendrath, who left the City Council when President Bill Clinton appointed him to a Department of Housing and Urban Development post, submitted a bid last month after Sun-Times owner Wrapports LLC announced it would enter into discussions with Tronc Inc., which owns the rival Chicago Tribune.

He said he was concerned that if Tronc took over the newspaper, the sale would lead to the demise of the Sun-Times, even though Tronc promised to run two separate newspapers. Tronc also owns the Los Angeles Times and other major newspapers.

Chronicle News Services
By India Today Web Desk: When Anushka Sharma and Vira Kohli left for New York, many thought that the lovebirds would be attending IIFA 2017 like other B-Town celebrities. In fact, many were of the opinion that Anushka is happy mixing work with pleasure when her photos with beau Virat from NYC went viral.

But if a report in BollywoodLife is to be believed, Anushka is not in New York for IIFA. The 29-year-old, who is currently enjoying some 'we' time with Virat, will soon begin shooting for Sanjay Dutt biopic, and that's the reason she's in New York.

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Ranbir, who is currently busy promoting his recently released film Jagga Jasoos, will join the actor on the film sets in New York. A source was quoted as telling the website, "Anushka is in US for Hirani's Dutt biopic. She will be filming her scenes in the movie alongside Ranbir, who will join her on the sets soon."

Earlier, Ranbir has confirmed that they are including Sanjay Dutt's drug addiction phase in the biopic, and soon enough, they will shoot for the same in New York.

Anushka will essay the role of a journalist in the film. The duo will be accompanied by Vicky Kaushal who plays Sanjay's close friend in the biopic.

ALSO READ: Virat Kohli is on a romantic getaway with his 'love' Anushka Sharma

ALSO READ: Looking back at Virat Kohli- Anushka Sharma love story

ALSO WATCH: Virat-Anushka's bhangra at Yuvraj-Hazel's wedding is too good to miss

--- ENDS ---
California has long had a reputation for having one of the most difficult bar exams in the country. Now, with passage rates sagging, the state will make it easier to pass the test, which is required to be a practicing lawyer.

The California Supreme Court, the ultimate authority over the bar exam, has decided to change the way the certification score is set. The court has not yet decided where the threshold will be, but the changes will take effect in January.

The move follows a sometimes furious debate over whether the states passing score, or cut score  144  was unrealistic.

Each state offers its own bar exam, but many are moving toward more uniform exams, especially in the multiple-choice portion. What differentiates states is where they set the line for passage. For years, California had set the threshold for passing the exam higher than any other state but Delaware.

Last year, just 62 percent of first-time test takers passed in California, compared with 83 percent in New York.

And only 51 percent of the graduates of the UC Hastings College of the Law passed the exam last July. That result, Dean David Faigman wrote the California Committee of Bar Examiners in December, was outrageous and constitutes unconscionable conduct on the part of a trade association that masquerades as a state agency.

The cut score is almost everything, said Robert Anderson, a professor of corporate law at Pepperdine School of Law, who did a study of the 10 most difficult state exams in 2013. That study concluded that Californias is probably the most difficult in the country.

If California changed its minimum score to 133, which is the same as New Yorks, then I would say Californias is easy, he added. (Delawares passing score is 145.)

Proponents for keeping the score argue that state bars have an ethical obligation to protect citizens from ill-prepared lawyers.

But deans of law schools, which have been buffeted by declining enrollments, say setting the bar licensure standard so high serves only to shield the profession by keeping out large numbers of qualified lawyers.

In February, 20 deans at American Bar Association-accredited California law schools wrote the state Supreme Court asking it to set a lower passing score. A legislative hearing considered the issue, and a study was set in motion. The state Supreme Court soon stepped in to assert its authority. In amendments adopted June 21 but released this week, the court said that it must set the passing score of the examination.

Cathal Conneely, a spokesman for the court, said Thursday that the justices would decide on the cut score after they received and considered the bar examiner committee report.

Although no date was set, the justices could make that decision in September and apply the new score retroactively for those taking the exam this month, according to a Twitter post on Tuesday by Joanna Mendoza, a trustee of the State Bar of California.

Some, including Flemings Fundamentals of Law, a California bar exam preparation business that tracks the debate over the certification score, called the courts change unprecedented.

One flash point in the debate was an announcement in April that Whittier Law School, a half-century old and accredited by the American Bar Association, would close.

Bar passage rates at Whittier, long an avenue for disadvantaged students to become lawyers, had plunged in recent years. Its passage rate hovered in the routine statewide range, about 68 percent a few years ago, but fell to 22 percent last July.

Some critics complained that a number of Whittier graduates had scores high enough that they would have passed nearly every other states bar.

The California Supreme Court also said that it would appoint a majority of the 19-member bar examiners committee, which has been criticized for including nonlawyers and political appointees.

The courts move to assert its authority was hailed by some legal professionals.

I see this development as bringing the role of the California court in bar admissions into the mainstream, said Erica Moeser, president of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, a nonprofit in Madison, Wis., that constructs and scores the professional entrance exam.

Virtually all state supreme courts exercise their inherent authority to regulate the admission of lawyers more closely than has appeared to be the case in California, she said.

Elizabeth Olson is a New York Times writer.
Pillows that track your snoozing patterns? A bed that adjusts based on how much you twist and turn? Companies are adding more technology into their products, hoping to lure customers craving a better nights sleep.

Some specialized businesses are making gadgets that promise to measure and improve the quality of slumber, while mass-market retailers like Best Buy are offering simpler ideas like the effect different lighting can have on falling asleep. But with ever-growing options, people may find items that are getting more sophisticated  but may still not be accurate.

The interest in sleep has intensified. The number of sleep centers accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine nearly tripled from 2000 to 2015, the group says. People are more likely to brag about how much they spent for a mattress than on their clothes, says Marian Salzman, CEO of Havas PR North America.

Sleep is the new status symbol, she says.

Its a big business. One of the more expensive products is Sleep Numbers 360 Smart Bed, which runs from $3,449 to $4,999. It makes adjustments based on how restless people are while theyre sleeping. The Zeeq pillow, which sells for $299 and is from bedding brand REM-Fit, monitors snoring and can gently vibrate to nudge someone into a different sleep position.

Im willing to spend more on sleep technology because it will hopefully help me fall asleep quicker, stay asleep longer and be more rested when I wake up, says Frank Ribitch, a self-described gadget junkie from Martinez who tracks his sleep with apps connected to a Sleep Number bed and the Zeeq pillow.

Insufficient sleep is a public health concern, federal officials say, with more than one-third of American adults not getting enough on a regular basis. That can contribute to problems like obesity and diabetes. And a study published by the Rand Corp. put the financial loss to U.S. companies at up to $411 billion a year.

Finding solutions could be lucrative. This year Apple bought Finlands Beddit, which was making an app and sleep monitoring device thats placed under the sheet on top of the mattress. The $150 sensor begins tracking when a person lies down, and analyzes data such as the portion of time someone is in bed asleep before waking up. It also monitors heart rate, temperature, movement  and even snoring.

Previously, it was about the sleeping pill, and people didnt want to talk about sleep apnea, Lasse Leppakorpi, co-founder and now former CEO of Beddit, said before Apple bought the company. Snoring is embarrassing. But this has been untapped opportunity.

Apple, whose Apple Watch tracks activity and offers sleep-tracking experiences through third-party apps, declined to talk about the future of Beddit. Leppakorpi noted before the acquisition that Beddit had been working with sleep labs like the MIT Lab, which used the devices to collect data on patients.

At the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, neurologist and medical director Clete Kushida tests therapies and medications. Over two years, the analysis has expanded to wearable devices. The scientists assess how well the devices match the centers own overnight sleep studies, which use measures such as heart rate and brain wave activity to determine the length and the stages of sleep.

Kushidas conclusion? Consumer wearable devices are not there in accurately detecting the stages of sleep, he said. The problem: They focus on motion, which can be deceptive since a person could be lying in bed awake.

In fact, San Francisco startup Hello, the maker of a product aimed at tracking sleep via a clip attached to a bedsheet, recently announced it was shutting down amid reports the device didnt correctly track sleep patterns.

Still, Kushida believes the consumer products are getting better and will be able to accurately monitor and solve sleep issues in the next five to 10 years.

Separate from gadgets, some stores are highlighting sounds and smells they say can help people sleep better. Longtime insomniac favorite HSN Inc. offers a $299 Nightingale Sleep System that masks indoor and outdoor noises. Best Buy has a Philips Lightings system that works with devices like Nest and Amazon Alexa to let people choose the colors and brightness of lights and program them to turn off at certain times or respond to the sun.

And a company called Sensorwake is launching a product in the U.S. that releases smells like fresh linen it says can help you sleep better.

If nothing worked and youve had a fitful night, you can at least be woken up more gently. The same company makes a $99 olfactory alarm clock, with scent options that include a strong espresso. But if you let it go for three minutes without shutting it off or hitting snooze, itll start making noise  good if you have a stuffy nose.

Anne DInnocenzio is an Associated Press writer.
The Los Angeles tech company behind Snapchat offers a simple sales pitch to investors: Well release features niftier than anything our competitors can produce.

In its first four months as a publicly traded company, Snap Inc. has kept its part of the bargain. It introduced a mapping tool that reveals the location of friends and trending events, released several short video series and made it easier for any advertiser to buy commercial time on Snapchat. The firm also caught up to Instagram by matching options for replaying messages.

Yet, despite the changes, investors dont consider Snap any more valuable than when it went public. Snap shares have fallen below their $17 opening price in March to $15.27 on Friday. The companys market capitalization of around $18 billion sits right about where it did in the months leading up to Southern Californias biggest initial public stock offering.

Theres no shortage of concerns swirling around Snap, which is scheduled to announce its second-quarter financial results Aug. 10. But chief among them, investors remain unsure whether or how Snap will make money someday. Snap declined to comment.

Financial analysts estimate the company will lose $3.3 billion this year, according to investment research aggregator FactSet. Much of Snaps expenses are stock compensation to employees.

Questions about making money dogged Snap before its IPO, too. Investors and analysts say what has led the stock to drop is a creeping sense among investors that no matter how many creative features it launches, Snapchat just may be too small a player in the app economy to command a high valuation.

At the moment, as Snap stares down the face of very pronounced headwinds, wed rather fish in better waters, said Christopher Versace, chief investment officer at Tematica Research, which provides guidance to individual investors.

Snap generates revenue by selling ads that appear in Snapchat. Varieties include 10-second commercials bought by such companies as Adidas, Spotify and Emirates in addition to small decorative graphics that anyone can buy to celebrate an event.

But it remains a work in progress for many big-budget advertisers to figure out whether the spots theyre buying are worthwhile. Snap in recent months introduced more sophisticated measures to help retailers track whether ads lead to in-store visits and purchases.

Morgan Stanley stock analyst Brian Nowak reportedly said last week that the initiatives have been underwhelming, and he lowered estimates for Snaps ad sales growth. Others have voiced concerns about users skipping ads on Snapchat and the special effort required to design commercials for the app.

Martin Sorrell, CEO of ad agency giant WPP, gave unenthusiastic mentions of Snap in TV interviews. He said Facebook  which has duplicated many of Snapchats best-known features in its Instagram and Messenger apps  had successfully countered Snap.

WPP spends about $2 billion annually buying ads on Facebook for clients such as Ford and Procter & Gamble. Its spending on Snapchat ads could double to $200 million this year.

Versace, the investment research analyst, said Snap also could take a hit if companies lower their growth forecasts after initially thinking the economy would grow faster under President Trump.

This coming earnings season, theres a high probability we see companies dialing back expectations for the second half of the year, he said. I wouldnt be surprised if we see Snap doing the same.

Credit Suisse analyst Stephen Ju said hes had encouraging conversations with advertisers about Snap being on the right track. But he still lowered second-quarter sales assumptions.

While we were hoping for Snap to exhibit a more comfortable growth path, we are reminded that nascent companies sometimes grow in fits and starts, Ju wrote.

Analysts estimate that Snap picked up $190 million in revenue during the second quarter, with a full-year estimate of $980 million.

The big concern is you have a company thats not profitable and doesnt show a clear path to how its going to become profitable, said Steven Dudash of IHT Wealth Management.

One of Snaps priorities has been a daily batch of short, scripted videos about sports, celebrity life, food and dating. But analysts are getting mixed data on whether shows and features are attracting new users or getting existing users to spend more time. More users and more time spent increase the opportunities Snap has for ads.

Snaps moves to increase use of the app may be cutting both ways. For example, its location-sharing feature led to privacy concerns that could prompt parents to more closely monitor or restrict their childrens use. On Wednesday, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge joined numerous schools and public officials in advising people to be cautious about Snap Map.

Paresh Dave is a Los Angeles Times writer.
Attorneys for the Mexican immigrant accused of murdering Kate Steinle on San Franciscos Pier 14  a shooting that sparked an uproar over immigration policies  are seeking to compel the federal ranger whose stolen firearm was used in the killing to testify in the coming trial.

Bureau of Land Management Ranger John Woychowski, 37, is the only person who knows the history of the Sig Sauer .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol that was stolen from his car in downtown San Francisco three days before the shooting, attorneys for Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez argued in court Friday.

Woychowskis testimony, they said, would provide vital information about the condition of the weapon and could support their contention that the July 1, 2015, shooting was an accident. The defense says the shot that struck Steinle traveled 100 feet and ricocheted off the ground, denting the bullet.

Mr. Woychowski is a percipient witness in the matter, said Deputy Public Defender Francisco Ugarte. Hes the last known person to have held the weapon before it was used on the pier. He knows about the condition, how the weapon was stored, the history of the weapon itself.

Steinle, 32, was strolling with her father along the Embarcadero on Pier 14 when a bullet pierced her back and went through her heart. Prosecutors charged Lopez-Sanchez, 54, with murder, saying he deliberately fired the gun along the crowded pier.

Defense attorneys subpoenaed Woychowski to testify, but the U.S. Department of Interior, which oversees the Bureau of Land Management, said in a letter to Chief Attorney Matt Gonzalez of the public defenders office that department policy was not to allow its employees to testify or to produce department records either upon request or subpoena.

The Interior Department wrote that Gonzalez must submit a written request justifying why Woychowskis testimony is relevant. The department said it will consider the appropriateness of the testimony and whether that information could be obtained from another source before allowing Woychowski to testify.

Bureau of Land Management officials did not respond to requests for comment.

He is pretty fundamental to the case and in the narrative of the case, Gonzalez said outside court. We have no interest in harassing him. Before issuing the subpoena to him, we made numerous efforts to call him. We have emailed him. He did not respond to any of these respectful, professional overtures.

Lopez-Sanchez had been on track for a sixth deportation after serving 46 months in prison for felony re-entry into the country, but he was released from San Francisco jail three months before the Pier 14 killing rather than being turned over to immigration agents under the citys sanctuary policies. Steinles death sparked a push against the policies behind his release.

Lopez-Sanchez had been transferred from federal custody to the city jail in March 2015 on an old warrant alleging he fled marijuana charges in 1995. When prosecutors discharged the case, the San Francisco Sheriffs Department released him despite a federal request to hold him for deportation.

Legislation known as Kates Law that would boost punishment for people who repeatedly enter the country illegally and a separate measure that seeks to pressure cities to abandon sanctuary policies recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lopez-Sanchezs trial could begin as early as next month. Gonzalez said he hopes jurors will be able to separate the controversial immigration issue from the facts of the case.

In the same way Americans may be charged with a crime in other countries that they are either visiting legally or have overstayed their visas, they do not want their immigration status to be the deciding factor in whether or not theyre going to win on the merits of the case, Gonzalez said. As the attorneys for Mr. Lopez-Sanchez, we dont want that to be the primary issue here.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo
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DOYLESTOWN, Pa.  A pot dealer gave police a grisly account of killing four men on his familys Pennsylvania farm, saying he crushed one of them with a backhoe after shooting him and tried to set three of the bodies on fire in the same metal bin, according to court documents filed Friday.

Cosmo DiNardo, 20, who graduated from a Catholic prep school two years ago, said he killed a former schoolmate when he arrived with $800 to buy $8,000 worth of pot. He said he shot another man in the back as he tried to run away. And he pinned one of the deaths on a cousin charged Friday in the case, although the cousin told police that DiNardo shot all four of the victims.

The only motive disclosed by investigators was that DiNardo said he wanted to set the victims up when they came to the farm to buy marijuana. One man vanished July 5 and the others two days later.

Three of the slain men were buried at the farm in an oil tank that had been converted into a cooker. The FBI found them Wednesday after four days of methodical hand-digging and sifting in a spot on the 90-acre farm that dogs had sniffed out.

Authorities might never have found the fourth body unless they worked with DiNardo, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said.

I dont know what convinced him (to confess). Id like to think he wanted to get these boys home, Weintraub said at a news conference, explaining the surprise plea agreement forged Thursday that led them to the final body.

DiNardo told police where to find 19-year-old Loyola University of Maryland student Jimi Taro Patrick, and agreed to plead guilty to four counts of first-degree murder. In exchange, he will be spared the death penalty.

Wed still be looking for Jimi Patrick had we not made this agreement, Weintraub said. It was so far away (from the others on the farm) that I started to get sick to my stomach on the ride.

DiNardos history of mental illness includes the involuntary commitment, a schizophrenia diagnosis and repeated contacts with police. He also suffered a head injury last year in an ATV accident.

DiNardo is charged with four homicide counts and 20 other crimes, including abuse of corpse, conspiracy and robbery. His 20-year-old cousin Sean Kratz faces 20 counts, including three homicide counts. Both were being held in jail without bail.

DiNardos parents, who own the farm property in Solebury as well as construction and concrete companies in Bensalem, where they live, declined to comment Thursday when they left a court building after their son confessed. Kratzs mother, Vanessa, declined to comment on her son arrests when reached by phone.

Kratz told a judge Friday that he had no lawyer. She replied that he should hire one or apply for a public defender.

The other victims are 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, 22-year-old Mark Sturgis and 21-year-old Tom Meo. Patrick was a year behind DiNardo at Holy Ghost Prep School near Bensalem.

Maryclaire Dale and Michael R. Sisak are Associated Press writers.
Jackrabbit Kitchen

Today may be National French Fry Day, but on Friday, tater tots will be taking over, at least in Bernal Heights.

Jackrabbit Kitchen, which operates food trucks and a catering business, will be hosting Tater Tot Fest, a Facebook event at Barebottle Brewing Co.
In a show of solidarity, officials from the state government and other security agencies joined in paying their last respects to the martyrs.

Army today paid tribute to two of its soldiers who attained martyrdom in Keran sector of Kupwara on July 12. (Photo: ANI)

By Ashraf Wani: Army today paid tribute to two of its soldiers who had attained martyrdom on Wednesday (July 12) in Keran sector of Kupwara. In a solemn ceremony at BB Cantt, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti joined Lt General JS Sandhu, Chinar Corps Commander and all ranks, in paying homage to the martyrs on behalf of a proud nation.

In a show of solidarity, officials from the state government and other security agencies joined in paying their last respects to the martyrs.

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Late L/Nk Ranjit Singh and Late Rfn Satish Bhagat sustained bullet injuries due to enemy fire from across the Line of Control (LoC) while they were deployed at a forward post in Keran sector. They were provided immediate first aid and evacuated from the post but unfortunately succumbed to the injuries.

Salute to soldiers who attained martyrdom in Kupwara on July 12.

Martyr L/Nk Ranjit Singh (32), who hailed from Jammu and Kashmir's Burn village, had joined Army in 2003. He is survived by his wife Neha Devi and two children.

A native of Gurhasinghu village, the young martyr Rfn Satish Bhagat was 22 and had donned the uniform in 2015. He is survived by his mother.

The mortal remains of the martyrs was flown for last rites to their native places, where they would be laid to rest with full military honours. In this hour of grief, the Army stands in solidarity with the bereaved families of the martyrs and remains committed to their dignity and well being.

ALSO READ | Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah pay tribute to martyrs of July 13, 1931; BJP skips event

Pakistan Army kills 2 jawans in firing from across LoC in Kupwara

ALSO WATCH | 2 jawans martyred in terror attack in north Kashmir's Kupwara district

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WASHINGTON  The Republican-led House decisively approved a defense policy bill on Friday that declares climate change a national security threat, demands rigorous oversight of the Pentagons cyberoperations and rejects the Trump administrations bid to close military bases.

Lawmakers voted 344-81 on Friday to pass the sweeping legislation. The bill authorizes $696 billion in defense spending for the 2018 fiscal year, including nearly $30 billion more for core Pentagon operations than President Trump requested.

Yet defense hawks pushing the hardest for the big boost in spending still face an uphill battle. For the spending increases to materialize, Congress first will have to agree to roll back a 2011 law that set strict limits on military spending. But that wont be easy. Lifting the budget caps will face resistance from Democrats who are seeking to increase the budgets for other government agencies.

The bill includes a section that says global warming is a direct threat to the national security. Its a potentially surprising addition given Trumps publicly stated doubts about climate change and his recent decision to pull the U.S. out of the landmark accord aimed at combatting global warming.

The section requires the Pentagon to deliver a report to Congress detailing the impact of climate change on the armed forces.

Over White House objections, the bill added a bipartisan measure requiring the Defense Department to inform Congress within 48 hours of any sensitive military cyber operation.

The bill rejected the Trump administrations request that the Pentagon be given the authority to start a new round of military base closings in 2021. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told the Armed Services Committee last month that closing excess installations would save $10 billion over a five-year period.

But military installations are prized possessions in congressional districts and lawmakers refused to go along with Trump just as they denied former President Barack Obamas bid to shutter facilities.

Richard Lardner is an Associated Press writer.
WASHINGTON  Senate Republican leaders unveiled a fresh proposal to repeal and replace the health care law, revising their bill to help hold down insurance costs for consumers while keeping a pair of taxes on high-income people that they had planned to eliminate.

But the measure was immediately imperiled when two Republican senators, moderate Susan Collins of Maine and conservative Rand Paul of Kentucky, announced they were not swayed  even on a procedural motion to take up the bill next week.

One more defection would doom the bill and jeopardize the Republicans 7-year-old quest to dismantle the health law that is a pillar of former President Barack Obamas legacy. In a sign that more could follow, two other Republican senators, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, introduced their own alternative plan, just minutes before Senate leaders offered their latest.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., expressed serious concerns about the Medicaid provisions in the latest draft, although she did not reject it.

With the revised bill, the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had hoped to win the 50 votes he needs to win Senate passage. But the changes may not have been enough to bridge the vast divide that has opened between the Senates most conservative Republicans, who had vowed to destroy the health care law root and branch, and its moderate Republicans, who worry that deep cuts to Medicaid would leave too many in their states without health care.

Republicans said the revised bill would provide roughly $70 billion in additional funds that states could use to help reduce premiums, hold down out-of-pocket costs and otherwise make health care more affordable. The bill already included more than $100 billion for such purposes.

But the new bill, like earlier versions, would still convert Medicaid from an open-ended entitlement to a system of fixed payments to states. In the event of a public health emergency, state Medicaid spending in a particular part of a state would not be counted toward the spending limits, known as per capita caps, a concession to moderate Republicans but perhaps not enough to get the 50 votes needed for passage.

Overall, the new version of the bill made broad concessions to conservative Republicans who had maintained that the initial draft left too much of the health care law in place. McConnell then backfilled the bill with money intended to placate moderates. That jury-rigging of the bill left neither side completely satisfied.

For instance, in a departure from current law, the bill would allow insurers, under certain conditions, to offer health plans that did not comply with standards in the Affordable Care Act. Under that law, insurers sell regulated health plans through a public insurance exchange in each state.

But health care experts worried that such a change would send healthy consumers to low-cost, basic health plans, leaving sick and older consumers to buy more comprehensive health policies at much higher prices. To compensate, Republican leaders added billions of dollars to try to offset rising premiums.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had pushed to allow stripped-down plans, and he called the inclusion of the provision very encouraging.

But Paul, an ardent conservative, remained implacably opposed. Another conservative, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, said he was undecided.

To succeed, McConnell must win over almost all the holdouts in his caucus, a daunting and delicate task given the litany of complaints he faces and the sharp policy differences that he must find a way to bridge.

McConnell is trying to avoid a repeat of his first attempt to push his bill through the chamber, when he was forced to delay a vote planned for late last month because of opposition from Republican senators.

Republicans expect that an analysis of the new bill will be released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office early next week. The previous bill would have increased the number of people without health insurance by 22 million in 2026 compared with the Affordable Care Act, the budget office found.

McConnell has said he intends to take up the revised bill next week, although it is unclear if he would try to move ahead if he did not know for sure whether he had the votes to begin debate  or to ultimately pass the bill.

Robert Pear and Thomas Kaplan are New York Times writers.
1 Travel ban: The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court for greater freedom in limiting visitors to the United States from six mostly Muslim countries and refugees from around the world. The Justice Department filed an emergency appeal with the high court late Friday that seeks to undo a Hawaii judges ruling from a day earlier. That ruling diluted President Trumps restrictions on refugees and visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The nations high court allowed a scaled-back version of the travel ban to take effect last month and set arguments for October.

2 Discrimination suit: Two top scientists are suing their employer, the Salk Institute, alleging they and other women have suffered gender discrimination at the renowned research center in La Jolla (San Diego County). Vicki Lundblad and Katherine Jones allege in their lawsuit filed this week that the institute has long been an old boys club. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported the suit describes a culture where women are paid less, not promoted and denied opportunities and benefits simply because they are women. In a statement, the institute said Jones and Lundblad have been treated generously and in a nondiscriminatory manner.
WASHINGTON  From both sides of the Atlantic, President Trump and administration officials lobbied Republicans Friday to support the Senate GOPs revamped health care bill, with the president saying wavering senators must come through to keep the measure from collapsing.

But the bill, repealing much of President Barack Obamas health care overhaul, hovered near failure as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell strained to keep more Republicans from deserting. Complicating the effort, Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich called the revised measure still unacceptable, largely because of its cuts to Medicaid, the same concern thats been voiced by holdout Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman.

McConnell, R-Ky., released the measure Thursday, a plan that caps seven years of his partys promises to obliterate Obamas 2010 law. But two GOP senators  Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky  immediately said theyd vote no on a crucial vote planned for next week. Facing uniform Democratic opposition, a third Republican defection would sink it  a reality not lost on Trump.

After all of these years of suffering thru ObamaCare, Republican Senators must come through as they have promised! the president tweeted from Paris, where he was attending Bastille Day ceremonies.

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., was also targeted as top administration officials were talking to his states GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval. Republicans consider winning over the popular Sandoval a key to gaining Hellers vote.

In an interview Friday, Sandoval said his initial understanding of McConnells new bill was that it really doesnt change the dynamic about its Medicaid cuts, and thats a big concern for me. Nevada added 200,000 new beneficiaries under Obamas expansion of the health insurance program for the poor, disabled and nursing home patients.

Heller, who faces a tough re-election next year, has stood arm-in-arm with Sandoval in criticizing the proposed Medicaid cuts. Heller has said he would have opposed McConnells original legislation, which the leader withdrew last month because it faced certain defeat.

The nations largest doctors group dealt another blow Friday, saying the plan falls short on coverage and access. The American Medical Association said Medicaid cuts and inadequate subsidies will lead to millions of Americans losing health insurance coverage.

Erica Werner and Alan Fram are Associated Press writers.
Instagram has shown off the opulent life of rich kids all over the world, but the ones in Saudi Arabia may be a step above the rest.

From cheetahs to private jets, the Instagram account Richkosaudi shows that the offspring of Saudi's wealthy live a life most only get to dream about.
By India Today Web Desk: Actor-comedian Krushna Abhishek, who will soon be seen on Sony TV in The Drama Company, recently expressed his surprise about laughter queen Bharti Singh's friendship with Kapil Sharma. According to reports, he was taken aback by Bharti's presence on Kapil's show since he had made a pact with her to never work with Kapil Sharma again. There were rumours that things were not fine between Bharti and Krushna.

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However, Bharti cleared the air on the subject while speaking to The Times of India:

"I read Krushna's interview, but let me tell you there is no bad blood between Krushna and me. In fact, he called me yesterday to inform that he had said something like this in an interview. I am absolutely fine with whatever he has said in the interview because that's the truth. We had vowed to each other that we won't go on Kapil Sharma's show but that was when we were doing Comedy Nights and Bachao, when we had work. We were already working on something, but when I was free and not doing anything, I decided to do Kapil bhai's show. I don't think there is anything wrong in it."

The talented artist further added that she is not at all upset with Krushna, and that she considers Kapil as her mentor:

"The TRP of The Kapil Sharma Show has gone up. The show has got 2.5 TRP ratings this week. I feel blessed to be working with Kapil. I am very happy ki mere aane se kuch toh faida hua Kapil bhai ka. We have so much fun when we are not shooting. I have known Kapil since my college days, he used to teach us theatre in our college. I consider him as my guru."

Bharti Singh will soon be seen as a judge on an upcoming comedy show.

Also read: Krushna Abhishek on Bharti Singh entering Kapil's show: How could she join him?

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HOUSTON (AP)  If the Trump administration gets its way, U.S. citizens boarding international flights will have to submit to a face scan, a plan privacy advocates call an ill-advised step toward a surveillance state.

The Department of Homeland Security says it's the only way to successfully expand a program that tracks nonimmigrant foreigners. They have been required by law since 2004 to submit biometric identity scans  but to date have only had their fingerprints and photos collected prior to entry.

Now, DHS says it's finally ready to implement face scans on departure  aimed mainly at better tracking visa overstays but also at tightening security. But, the agency says, U.S. citizens must also be scanned for the program to work.

Privacy advocates say that oversteps Congress' mandate.

"Congress authorized scans of foreign nationals. DHS heard that and decided to scan everyone. That's not how a democracy is supposed to work," said Alvaro Bedoya, executive director of the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown University.

More for you Disaster averted at SFO after jet lines up to land on taxiway...

Pilots projects are underway at six U.S. airports  Boston, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, New York City and Washington, D.C. DHS aims to have high-volume U.S. international airports engaged beginning next year. San Francisco International Airport, Mineta San Jose Airport and Oakland International are not included in the pilot.

During the pilots, passengers will be able to opt out. But a DHS assessment of the privacy impact indicates that won't always be the case.

"The only way for an individual to ensure he or she is not subject to collection of biometric information when traveling internationally is to refrain from traveling," says the June 12 document available on the website of Customs and Border Protection, which runs the DHS program.

John Wagner, the Customs and Border Protection deputy executive assistant commissioner in charge of the program, confirmed in an interview that U.S. citizens departing on international flights will submit to face scans.

Wagner says the agency has no plans to retain the biometric data of U.S. citizens and will delete all scans of them within 14 days. However, he doesn't rule out CBP keeping them in the future after going "through the appropriate privacy reviews and approvals."

A CBP spokeswoman, Jennifer Gabris, said the agency has not yet examined whether what would require a law change.

Privacy advocates say making the scans mandatory for U.S. citizens pushes the nation toward a Big Brother future of pervasive surveillance where local and state police and federal agencies, and even foreign governments, could leverage citizens collected "digital faceprints" to track them wherever they go.

Jay Stanley, an American Civil Liberties Union senior policy analyst, says U.S. law enforcement and security agencies already exert "sufficient gravitational pulls in wanting to record and track what masses of individuals are doing," he says.

A network of government databases collects face scans  which computers read as mathematical formulas, or algorithms, from mug shots, driver's license and other images.

In an October report, the Georgetown center estimated more than one in four U.S. state and local law enforcement agencies can run or request face recognition searches  on their own or others' databases and said federal agencies including the DEA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the IRS have all had access to one or more state or local face recognition systems.

Bedoya said the images of at least 130 million U.S. adults in 29 states are stored in face recognition databases. He says there is a danger the airport scans could be searched against them  meaning travelers' faceprints could be compared in real time against those of fugitives.

The FBI alone has more than 30 million photos in a single database, and New York state recently announced it would begin scanning the faces of drivers entering New York City bridges and tunnels.Another DHS initiative worrying privacy advocates is TSA's Precheck, the voluntary program designed to speed enrollees through airport security with more than 5 million enrollees.

Participants are not being told the digital fingerprints and biographical data they submit for background checks when enrolling are retained in an FBI identity database for life, said Jeramie Scott, an attorney with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public interest nonprofit. Since last month, trials that let enrollees use a digital fingerprint scanner to speed through TSA security are underway in Atlanta and Denver.

EPIC worries not just about potential governmental abuse but also the vulnerability to hackers. In the 2015 breach of the federal Office of Personnel Management, 5.6 million sets of fingerprint images were stolen.

The biometric exit endeavor will cost billions. That's partly because U.S. airports don't have dedicated secure immigration areas for departing international flights. Domestic and international passengers commingle in the same concourses.

Currently, foreigners arriving in the U.S. submit to photo and digital fingerprint recording, initially when applying for visas. There are no "exit" scans. U.S. citizens are subject to neither; their photos are digitally stored in a microchip in their passports with biographical data.

In written testimony to Congress in May, CBP said U.S. citizens leaving on international flights cannot be exempted from face scans because: "First, it is not feasible to require airlines to have two separate boarding processes for U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens, and second, to ensure U.S. citizen travelers are the true bearer of the passport they are presenting for travel."

Face recognition technology is getting better, but is far from perfect. A smile recorded at the gate could, for example, trigger a mismatch when compared to a serious gaze in a passport photo.

In a previous Atlanta pilot that processed about 28,000 travelers, the match rate was 90 percent or higher, said Gabris, the CBP spokeswoman.

Robert Mann, an aviation consultant in Port Washington, New York, said such a failure rate would be "a non-starter" by slowing the boarding process.

Congress last year approved up to $1 billion over the next decade collected from visa fees to get the program rolling technically. That won't cover the additional border agents needed to gate checks, for starters.

DHS officials hope to defray costs through partnerships with airlines that are incorporating biometrics to boost efficiencies. Two airlines in the pilot program  Delta and JetBlue  tout identity-verification technology's convenience for other ends: Delta for speeding baggage handling, JetBlue for eliminating boarding passes.

Airline officials reached by The Associated Press declined to discuss the programs potential pitfalls  and additional costs  reflecting concerns about whether it will significantly enhance security.

Even CBP knows it won't have a full picture of who is overstaying visas until face scans are also done at U.S. land and sea borders.

Such concerns shouldn't stop the government from moving ahead with the program and U.S. citizens have already sacrificed considerable privacy as the price of fighting terrorists, said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which promotes restrictions on immigration.

"We have as a nation a moral and security imperative to begin introduce this kind of system given the sheer volume of people who are moving in and out of our country."

But Ben Ball, a biometrics consultant and former DHS analyst, says the government hasn't yet addressed the thorniest questions.

"This is still a theoretical system," he said. "We are the first country on earth to attempt a comprehensive biometric system and it's technically very complicated."

---

Koenig reported from Dallas
The Janata Dal (United), which has 71 MLAs in the 243-seat Bihar Assembly, said it will take the party just 'five minutes' to walk out of the government if need be.

Sources said Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has already made up his mind to part ways with the RJD. (File Photo/PTI)

By Rohit Kumar Singh: The war of words between the two major allies of Bihar's Mahagathbandhan - JD(U) and RJD - is escalating by the day. Less than 24 hours after a senior RJD MLA said that being the largest constituent of the grand alliance the decision it takes should be accepted by other alliance partners, the JD(U) today hit back saying Nitish Kumar's image was more important to it than staying in power.

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The Janata Dal (United), which has 71 MLAs in the 243-seat Bihar Assembly, said it will take the party just 'five minutes' to walk out of the government if need be.

"Nitish is the leader of Mahagathbandhan, no one else. Those who are threatening of having 80 MLAs with them should not be in any kind of confusion. It will not take us even 5 minutes to quit government, power," JD(U) spokesperson Ajay Alok told India Today.

"Nitish Kumar has had an impeccable track record. They should not put the future of Mahagathbandhan into danger by giving such statements but rather come out with answers on charges that have been levelled (on Tejashwi Yadav)," Alok said.

"Power is least important for us," he said adding that the party was not satisfied with Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav's response over allegations of corruption.

Lalu Yadav's son Tejashwi has been named by the CBI in a disproportionate assets case.

The Nitish camp has made it abundantly clear that the CM at no point of time would compromise with corruption and has in the past also adopted a zero tolerance policy on this issue.

Notably, the four-day ultimatum that was given to Tejashwi by the JD(U) expires on Saturday but he is yet to come out with a point-by-point rebuttal of the allegations that have been levelled against him which has further deteriorated the relation between the two alliance partners.

According to sources, Nitish has already made up his mind to part ways with Lalu and was just buying time before taking a final call.

ALSO READ:

RJD's Plan B if Nitish Kumar sacks Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav

RJD MLA threatens ally JDU in Bihar: We are 80, what we want will happen

Will the real Nitish Kumar please stand up? On Bihar CM's penchant for keeping everyone guessing

Ceasefire for now: JDU softens stand on Lalu's son Tejashwi after Sonia rings Nitish

Was 13, didn't even have a moustache. Not quitting: Tejashwi Yadav on corruption charges

Watch: After RJD 80-seat threat, JD(U) reply: Will not even take 5 minutes to quit

--- ENDS ---

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President Trumps just-concluded second foreign trip was remarkable for what it revealed and confirmed about the controversial and complex 71-year-old rookie politician.

We have the evidence of two major trips so far. And already a pattern is clear: When Trump goes abroad, he becomes a real president, a statesman of stature who speaks with an American heart but of universal ideals.

His remarkable Warsaw speech was ostensibly to the people of Poland. But the words resonate to many elsewhere with echoes of John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. The same for his thoughtful, candid May speech to dozens of Muslim leaders in Riyadh that seems to have begun to rally the voices of reason within that sundered faith.

And Trumps human instincts are usually decent. Upon his return from Europe Saturday, the helicopter wash blew off the hat of a Marine guard standing at strict attention to greet him. It was the commander in chief himself who chased and retrieved the hat.

Trumps critics, of whom there are many who speak loudly, seem eagerly incapable of perceiving the contradictory complexities of a president they bitterly resent for snatching away Hillary Clintons rightful political inheritance, despite his obvious faults.

They seem to reflexively relish each negative incident, even inventing some and willfully misinterpreting others, as validation of their narrow-minded bitterness and justness.

Thats dangerously unproductive politically in the long-term. Because no matter their political leanings, Americans know in their honest hearts that others are not simply good or evil, no matter how much they may disagree.

The stark media caricatures of todays public figures play to stereotypes that may make for late-night laughs. But they skew our collective judgments if we allow them to be more. Those laugh lines werent true about stupid George W. Bush and arrogant Barack Obama either.

Did you notice the dearth of dumb Trump tweets during this last week? For some reason, back home Trump often succumbs to immature impulses, mainly through compulsive tweets, handing critics apt ammo to mock and deride. Overseas he acts bigger and busy being, well, presidential.

Some in that Warsaw crowd endured the Nazi blitzkrieg, occupation and Holocaust, the Warsaw Uprising and decades of Soviet Communist oppression. Several times that crowd interrupted the U.S. president, chanting, Donald Trump! Donald Trump! Donald Trump!

As a modern nation that has not endured anything even close to such awful times, we should ensure that we not allow our own stubbornly-held petty political proclivities to blind us to the possibilities others see so clearly.

Andrew Malcolm is a veteran national and foreign correspondent. Twitter: @AHMalcolm
Lalu said FIR is not a sufficient reason to resign for his son Tejaswi Yadav.

By India Today Web Desk: The political crisis in Bihar deepened tonight after RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav today made it clear that his son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav will not resign over a corruption case despite ally JD-U giving them an ultimatum on the issue.

"No question for Tejashwi Yadav to resign. As far as question on our kids and my property are concerned, we have already given all details at proper platform and all details are also with CM Nitish Kumar," Lalu Yadav said.

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He said an FIR is not a sufficient reason to resign. Lalu stressed that no attempt would be made to break the alliance from his side.

"I don't know about others. I'll not allow BJP and RSS forces to get hold in the Bihar. It is all political conspiracy," Lalu said adding that the Yadav family has been targetted.

Despite a war of words between the leaders of the two parties - RJD and JD-U - Lalu said he is still with Nitish Kumar. RJD has threatened that they have 80 MLAs in the 243-membered Bihar Assembly while JD-U said they can walk out of the government in just 5 minutes if the need be.

The RJD chief also denied reports that Congress president Sonia Gandhi spoke with Nitish Kumar.

Lalu Yadav's son Tejashwi has been named by the CBI in a disproportionate assets case.

The JD(U) has 71 MLAs and the other alliance partner Congress 27 while the BJP, which is the main opposition in the House, has 53 MLAs.

Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) had given a four-day notice to Tejashwi to tender his resignation papers or prove innocence in the land-for-hotels scam case. The deadline ends Saturday.

"Our alliance is unbreakable. The RJD will not give the BJP and the RSS any space to entre Bihar. This all song and dance with the CBI reports and the ED reports is an attempt by the BJP to break our alliance in Bihar," said Lalu Yadav.

"All tangible and intangible assets of Lalu Yadav and his family are in public domain. The RJD will not let anybody break our alliance," Yadav added.

Also read:

Yesterday, RJD gave the 80-seat threat. Today, JD(U) says it'll take 5 minutes to quit government

RJD's Plan B if Nitish Kumar sacks Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav

RJD MLA threatens ally JDU in Bihar: We are 80, what we want will happen

Will the real Nitish Kumar please stand up? On Bihar CM's penchant for keeping everyone guessing

Ceasefire for now: JDU softens stand on Lalu's son Tejashwi after Sonia rings Nitish

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Was 13, didn't even have a moustache. Not quitting: Tejashwi Yadav on corruption charges

Watch: After RJD 80-seat threat, JD(U) reply: Will not even take 5 minutes to quit

--- ENDS ---
Nick Manning moved to San Francisco from Australia only five months ago, and he got the most San Francisco wildlife experience you can get Thursday: rescuing a hawk from his apartment.

Manning, an author, was taking a break from writing at his third-story room in the Inner Sunset when he noticed a flapping sound out his window. He looked out and spotted an injured pigeon stuck to the window mesh in his narrow light well.

A half-hour later, Manning looked down the light well and found the pigeon dead next to a "bloody massive" adult hawk staring up at him. The hawk had apparently chased the pigeon down the three-story light well, and hours later it was still unable to helicopter its way out of the tight space.

ALSO Angry bird attacks people in the Castro

So Manning, who had seen his share of scary animals all his life in Australia, had to catch a predator.

He called the Bird Rescue Center of Sonoma County for advice on how to rescue the hawk without getting his eyes gouged, approaching it from a window on the ground. He was going to use his girlfriend's towel to cover the hawk, until his girlfriend vetoed that idea. So he used a couch cover from the basement.

When asked how scared he was about approaching the creature, Manning joked, "In Australia, most things will kill you. This didn't have fangs, so I wasn't worried." Though he added he wasn't as scared "because the hawk was so calm. It just stared at me and I stared at it, and I knew I might get scratched, but as long as I shielded my eyes, then it couldn't do any serious harm."

The hawk calmed down once Manning got the cover over it (just like pet birds!), and after coaxing it into a box, he took it to nearby Golden Gate Park, where hawks are abundant. There, after a short struggle, he let the understandably agitated animal back into the wild. You can watch that part in the video at the top of this story.
Boarding, security and taxiing took longer than Derrick Storys flight from Santa Rosa to San Francisco International Airport.

At 17 minutes in the air, the trip from Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport to SFO is one of the shortest in the world. But the airborne jaunt across the Golden Gate illustrates how the small airport has gone from serving just a few low-cost airlines two years ago to hosting major carriers like United and American Airlines.

American runs a daily flight to Phoenix, and United flies to SFO three times daily, allowing passengers to connect to destinations around the country and world. Previously, fliers had to drive two hours to SFO, but as tourism has boomed in Sonoma County, the airport has expanded.

The businesspeople in Sonoma are flying out of the airport as much as they can now, said Story, a photographer who publishes the Digital Story, a photography publication. Its close and its easier.

But even as large airlines add flights to and from Sonoma, some smaller ones have struggled. Allegiant Air, Sonoma Countys second commercial tenant, announced this week it was pulling out of the airport because of insufficient demand.

The airline, headquartered in Las Vegas, had been running twice-weekly flights to Phoenix and Las Vegas. But it is ending its Las Vegas service at the end of this month, and it stopped running its Phoenix flights in January, three months after American Airlines announced plans to operate daily flights to its Arizona hub.

American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Seth Kaplan, managing partner of industry publication Airline Weekly, said that efforts from American and United to match budget airline prices, along with the array of connections and services available, may have contributed to Allegiants pullout.

Those airlines dont ignore ultra-low-cost carriers anymore, he said. They will compete for every customer now, and they have weapons like their loyalty program.

Allegiant has to reorient itself because now they dont have these new markets anymore, Kaplan said.

Its unlikely that Allegiants departure will have a significant impact on the airport, aviation analyst Brian Foley said. The airline accounted for 6 percent of passenger volume at Sonoma County in March.

Instead, its those who fly out of (Sonoma County) that will most probably feel the effect as the remaining airlines raise their fares to the destinations that were previously served by Allegiant, he said.

No airline has announced service from Santa Rosa to Las Vegas. Allegiant said its decision to move was unrelated to other carriers service at the airport.

Nicholas Cheng is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Twitter: @nichocheng
Let us stipulate a distinction between the extraordinary influence Tania Bruguera has had on artists working today and the current presentation of her ideas and career at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The Cuban-born Bruguera has developed an art that is tailor-made for our times: socially engaged, politically provocative, tinged with risk. Paradoxically, Talking to Power / Hablandole al Poder, on view through Oct. 29, is a weak exhibition about a formidable artist. That is true despite  and to a large degree because of  what seems an enormous investment of gallery space and institutional resources.

Most of Brugueras work falls into the broad category of performance art, a display problem the show shares with others of the same genre. Performance generally must be experienced live; a description is merely that, and no text, photograph or video is a fully adequate substitute. But the first thing one sees in this exhibition  related to one of the artists earliest works, Destierro / Displacement (1998-99)  comes close.

Its a horrid thing: a vaguely human-shaped shell that might be a discarded demon chrysalis, or a diving suit used to plumb the depths of hell. Cankers of black and burnt umber erupt from a body of earth (Cuban earth, according to a label) studded with nails.

It is to be read as an African (Kongo) nkisi nkondi power figure. A video background shows the figure come alive, stumbling through a crowd. The wall text describes the performance as an entreaty to the masses to demand satisfaction of the political promises of the Cuban Revolution  nkisi nkondi is out to exact retribution.

The display is my favorite in the entire exhibition. I am sorry to say, it all goes downhill from there. Not that the later actions and projects, described in successive exhibition rooms, dont become richer as social activism  they do  and were not more famously influential  they were. But the works referenced in this show  the actual art  cant be experienced in this setting, and the surrogate experiences dont do justice to the originals.

In 2009, for instance, Bruguera presented Tatlins Whisper #6 (Havana Version), which encouraged ordinary Cubans at an art event to speak into an open microphone, before being walked off the podium by actors in military uniforms. She made news in 2014 when she was arrested for trying to restage the event, in defiance of the Cuban government, not in an art context but in the middle of the capitals Plaza de la Revolucion.

A full-scale stage, video cameras and standing room for audience impressively fill part of a large gallery, but it is all filler: The record of the original event, a video, runs on the tiny screens of video cameras. Elsewhere, texts and videos stand in for the authentic  all full of information, but not as helpful as the artists own exhaustively thorough website (www.taniabruguera.com).

There are numerous events tied to the exhibition that are, of course, themselves works or components of works, as the artist defines them. Our inability (or failure) to attend them only adds to the sense that the exhibition itself is missing something.

Like a padded college essay typed in oversize font, Talking to Power relies on scale to fill the blank spaces where the visual content would otherwise be. A newspaper of which the artist published a total of three editions over three years (Memory of the Postwar I, II, III 1993/1994/2003) is spread page by page across walls and a long table; probably a third of the largest gallery is occupied by couches and chalkboards for use in classes conducted within the gallery.

Another seating area is set aside in a different gallery, this one reserved for hosting conversations between and with immigrant rights organizations across the Bay Area. The space is huge but nearly empty: There are some banners bearing heartfelt slogans (Everyone is an immigrant at some point. The worlds knowledge lives in immigrants). Theres a large podium where you can address a postcard to the pope requesting Vatican citizenship for all. Some dark wall projections of websites.

But the room is dominated by what must be 20-foot-high recitations, in English and Spanish, of the 10 principles of Immigrant Movement International, an effort founded by Bruguera. Its an unsurprising end to an exhibition that started at the reception desk when the visitor was asked (though not required) to sign a document titled A Contract of Moral Commitment to Promote Immigrants Rights in the Public and Private Sphere on an Every Day Basis.

I have never been to an exhibition that felt so, well, authoritarian.

Charles Desmarais is The San Francisco Chronicles art critic. Email: cdesmarais@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Artguy1

Tania Bruguera: Talking to Power / Hablandole al Poder: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursdays. Through Oct. 29. $9-$10. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St., S.F. (415) 978-2787. www.ybca.org
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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A man was seriously injured in an assault while walking in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood Wednesday afternoon, police said.

The 51-year-old victim was walking in the 100 block of Howard Street when he was approached by a man in his 40s who began yelling at him, police said.

The victim did not know what the suspect was yelling about, police said.

The suspect then allegedly punched the victim. The victim kept walking, at which point the suspect approached from behind and allegedly punched him again before onlookers separated the two.

The victim was taken to a hospital in what police described as serious condition.

No arrest was made and police did not release a detailed description of the suspect.
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The University of California Board of Regents at its meeting in San Francisco today appointed a new provost and a new chief compliance and audit officer.

The regents approved Michael T. Brown, a veteran professor and administrator at UC Santa Barbara and former chair of the UC Academic Senate, to be UC provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs.

University officials said that as provost, Brown will serve as the UC system's chief academic officer and lead efforts to improve student success, support academic excellence and foster diversity across the 10 campuses.

Brown, who will start his new position on or about Sept. 5, will replace Aimee Dorr, who assumed the position in 2012 and is now retiring after serving the university for 36 years.

UC President Janet Napolitano selected Brown after a search that included consultation with a 15-member advisory committee of faculty, students, staff and senior academic leaders representing all UC campuses.

"Michael Brown is an exceptionally talented leader and scholar with the vision and experience to ensure UC's continued academic excellence and bring together diverse constituencies around our shared goals," Napolitano said in a statement.

Brown said, "It's an honor to be appointed by President Janet Napolitano, one of our nation's most accomplished leaders, to serve the great people of California as part of her team."

The Board of Regents also approved Alexander Bustamante to be the senior vice president and chief compliance and audit officer at UC's Office of the President.

Since 2011, Bustamante has been the inspector general for the Los Angeles Police Department, where he was responsible for providing independent oversight of the department and its approximately 12,000 employees.

Bustamante also served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California from 2002 to 2011.

"Alex Bustamante was selected for this critical position at the university based on his impressive career focused on legal and compliance matters," Napolitano said in a statement.

She said, "I'm confident his breadth of expertise and leadership will further strengthen UC's oversight systems."

UC officials said that in his new role Bustamante will be responsible for developing and overseeing UC's compliance and audit program and reports directly to the regents and the UC president.

The university said that in his role as an independent and objective officer, Bustamante will review and evaluate compliance and audit matters, and will lead efforts to monitor and report adherence to rules and regulations of the university and regulatory agencies.

"I am honored and excited about this opportunity, which allows me to return to UC, an institution that has been the foundation for my career and vital for my development," said Bustamante, who received his bachelor's degree in rhetoric from the UC Berkeley.

Bustamante, who will assume his new role on Sept. 5, will replace Sheryl Vacca, who left the university last year. John Lohse has held the position on an interim basis since November.
Thomas' family has refused to take the body that has been lying at JJ Hospital in Mumbai for the last fifteen days.

By Vidya : Bombay High Court today refused to order a second post mortem of a man whose family claims that his death was a pre-planned murder and not an accident.

Aji Thomas, a supervisor with a construction firm at Malabar Hills died on June 29 in an under-construction building.

According to the post mortem report registered by Mumbai Police, Thomas had been electrocuted. Thomas' relatives, on the other hand, claim that this wasn't an accident but a pre-planned murder. They said that though Thomas was an electrician, he mainly worked only on designing and did the paper work for the firm. The family of the deceased also claims to know of a dispute that was going on between Thomas and the firm.

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The family has asked for a copy of the post mortem report and the details of the death. The police has however agreed to hand over the report only after Thomas' relatives conduct the last rites.

The division bench of justice heard the public prosecutor A S Pai who told them that the investigation was in its initial stages and only the preliminary post mortem report points to his death being an accident.

Pai said that Thomas' family cannot insist at this stage to register a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The petitioners however insisted that they want to draw an inquest panchanama along with the post mortem report before they take the body from J J Hospital.

The division bench ordered handing over Thomas' body to his family and told the petitioners that a second post mortem can't be asked for at this stage as the detailed post mortem report is still awaited.

Also Read:

Bombay High Court asks Maha govt to fix deadline to sanction prosecution of public servants

Why did Byculla jail officials delay in taking injured inmate to hospital, asks Bombay High Court

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Malda(WB), Jul 14 (PTI) The Border Security Force (BSF) troops seized Poppy husk weighing 38 kg from near the Churiantpur border outpost (BOP) in Malda district.

BSF troops were patrolling the area when they noticed a suspected motorcycle loaded with a plastic bag coming from Bawankuri to Churiantpur yesterday. On seeing the BSF personnel the motorcycle rider jumped from the bike and fled, a BSF release said today.

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On opening the plastic bag poppy, the BSF troops found it contained poppy husk weighing 38 kg. The seized poppy husk and motorcycle has been handed over to Kaliachak police station Kaliachak in Malda district, it said..

During this year BSF South Bengal Frontier has seized a total 60.79 kg of Narcotics (including this seizure) and has apprehended 11 narcotics smugglers. PTI COR RG LNS

--- ENDS ---
At an all-party meeting at Home Minister Rajnath Singh's residence in the evening today, Modi government's ministers briefed Opposition leaders on the China issue.

By India Today Web Desk: India is trying to engage China diplomatically as the stand-off between the troops of two sides have been going on for the last few weeks in Doklam area of Sikkim sector, the NDA government said today.

At an all-party meeting at Home Minister Rajnath Singh's residence in the evening today, Modi government's ministers briefed Opposition leaders on the China issue.

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Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said during the meeting they underlined the importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy.

"The unique nature of very close and longstanding India-Bhutan relationship was recognised. There was widespread appreciation of the Astana understanding between India and China that differences between them shouldn't become disputes," Baglay said.

He said all participants expressed strong support for India's approach and also the need for national unity.

Congress leader Anand Sharma said during the meeting they made it clear that national interest is of paramount importance and non-negotiable.

Ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament which begins from Monday, the NDA government today tried its best to built a consensus with the opposition parties on two critical issues - tension in Jammu and Kashmir and border standoff with China at Doklam in Sikkim area.

PROMINENT PARTIES PRESENT AT THE MEETING

Leaders of all prominent opposition parties, including the Congress, attended the meeting where External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj briefed the leaders on the issues. Besides Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, all senior ministers were present at the opposition meeting.

Indian and Chinese soldiers are engaged in a face-off for three weeks at a tri-junction of India-China-Bhutan borders.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who is scheduled to visit Beijing for the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) NSAs meet later this month, was also present at the meeting.

In the meeting, the government also briefed opposition parties on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir where seven Amarnath pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag.

Since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016, four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- have seen an escalation in violence.

The unrest resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

The government has been facing flak on how the government has dealt with both the issues - China and Kashmir.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on China, and had also met Chinese ambassador to India.

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Rahul Gandhi had singled out Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies and the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) alliance with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's People's Democratic Party (PDP) for the increase in terror attacks in the Kashmir Valley including the Amarnath Yatra terror attack.

He had said Modi's policies have created space for terrorists in Kashmir which is a "grave strategic blow" to India.

Also read:

How India and China can defuse Doklam tension by blaming colonial Britain

Doklam standoff with China: Sashastra Seema Bal to get intelligence wing

Before Doklam standoff, Xi Jinping did an overhaul of Chinese Army

Doklam faceoff: Why China wants to grab Bhutan's land and blame India

ALSO WATCH | India to invite heads of ASEAN countries for Republic Day parade 2018. Should China worry?

--- ENDS ---
The stand-off between India and Bhutan on one side and China on the other at Doklam, a tri-junction once between India, Tibet and Bhutan, and the larger border dispute between the two Asian giants, have their origins in the British invasion of Tibet in 1904.

At the turn of the 20th century, the geopolitical balance between a crumbling Manchu empire and India was massively in favour of British India. Those were the days of the Great Game, a contest to gain influence from Iran to Tibet, played out between British India and an expanding Tsarist Russia. It was to ward off any perceived Russian influence in Tibet that Lord Curzon dispatched Colonel Younghusband on what the British called their Tibet 'expedition'.

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However, the greatest impact of the British invasion of Tibet was on Manchu China. The Qing dynasty and all previous successive dynasties saw the marauding Mongol nomads as the enduring threat to the security of the empire. In the 19th century, a new threat for the empire sailed from across the seas. Western powers subjected China to what the Chinese call 'a century of humiliation'.

While grappling with this new danger posed by the western powers, Manchu China considered Tibet its secure backyard, or as one Manchu official put it, "the hand that protects the face". The Tibetan plateau, shooting up almost three miles in the air, covering a total landmass of 2.5 million square kilometres and ringed by the mightiest mountain range in the world, was considered impregnable. However, the British breach of this buffer in 1904, which had kept the peace between India and China for centuries, alerted a dying Manchu China to the absolute necessity of securing Tibet. Manchu general Zhou Erfeng invaded Tibet in 1908. The 13th Dalai Lama fled Tibet and sought refuge in India.

The People's Republic of China's invasion of Tibet in 1949-1950 was a continuation of the strategy to fend off hostile powers from the fringes of the empire. China's occupation of Tibet gives Beijing immense strategic depth and control over most of the river waters of Asia.

The ongoing stand-off at Doklam, or as the Tibetan historian Tsering Shakya puts it, Droglam (the nomads' path), China's One Belt One Road project, the militarisation of the plateau and its massive infrastructure building in Tibet are all part of China re-starting the Great Game: expanding Chinese influence across the Himalayas and Central Asia, all the way to Europe.

Mao Zedong, a keener student of The Art of War than of Das Kapital, saw Tibet in strategic terms. He said the Tibetan plateau, which the celebrated Swedish explorer Sven Hedin described as the 'most stupendous upheaval on the face of the earth', was the palm, with Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh as the 'five fingers'. With China gaining influence in Nepal, now threatening to recognise Sikkim as independent and obliquely hinting at stoking a democratic revolution in the kingdom of Bhutan when it says the "Bhutanese are not a happy lot", Beijing may have plans to join the 'fingers' to the 'palm'.

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With Beijing exerting pressure on India on these points, it is time for India to pressure China on Tibet. In the 17-Point agreement signed between Lhasa and Beijing in 1951, China promised to respect the autonomy of Tibet. What Dharamsala wants from China is the implementation of the promised autonomy for all Tibetan people. It is not beyond India's capacity to persuade China to give the Tibetan people the autonomy they want.

Once this is done, Tibet will not serve as a buffer, but as a bridge between two ancient civilisations and now dynamic economies. Tibet will also be restored to its traditional role as a centre of learning for the whole of the Buddhist Himalayan belt, which once thrived on Tibet's Buddhist civilisation and which is firmly oriented to India because of this umbilical cultural and spiritual cord.

Thubten Samphel is the director of the Tibet Policy Institute and the author of Falling through the Roof

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: By K J M Varma

Beijing, Jul 14 (PTI) China today warned Botswana against hosting Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and facilitate a meeting with its President next month, saying the African nation should "respect" Beijings core concerns.

The 82-year-old exiled Tibetan leader is due to make a public address at the three-day "Mind and Life Dialogue" conference in Gaborone on August 19 and is set to meet Botswana President Ian Khama.

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"The Dalai Lama is in political exile and long engaged in ant-China separatist activities and attempt to separate Xizang (Chinese name for Tibet) from China under the pretext of religion," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang told a media briefing here.

"Chinese side firmly opposes the Dalai Lama engaging in anti-China separatist activities in any capacity or any name. China firmly opposes him keeping any contact with officials of any country," he said.

Apparently referring to Botswanas defiance to invite the Tibetan spiritual leader disregarding the warnings by Beijing, Geng said "hope the relevant country would respect the core interests and concerns of China".

Meanwhile, reports from Gaborone said Botswana is going ahead with the visit of the Dalai Lama next month despite opposition from Beijing. Botswanan officials also said President Khama will meet him.

Last year, South Africa declined to issue visa Dalai Lama following pressure from China. China has lodged protest with India in April this year over the Dalai Lamas visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which China considers as part of Tibet.

Chinese troops entered Tibet in October 1950 overcoming the resistance from the Tibetan army and later the Chinese control over the area was formalised in 1951.

The Dalai Lama fled from Tibet in 1959 and lived in India in exile since then. PTI KJV AJR AKJ AJR

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By PTI: Aizawl, Jul 14 (PTI) Mizorams Congress Legislature Party (CLP) today urged all the legislators in the state to vote for Meira Kumar in the presidential election, a press statement issued by CLP Secretary H Rohluna said.

It said that the meeting of the CLP, chaired by its leader Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla was held in Aizawl.

The ruling Congress has 34 legislators in the 40-member state legislature while the opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) has five MLAs and its junior partner the Mizoram Peoples Conference (MPC) has one legislator.

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MNF legislators would vote for the NDA candidate Ram Nath Govind, MNF MLA Lalruatkima said.

The MNF is a constituent of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), which supports the NDA government at the centre.

The lone MPC legislator Lalthanliana was not available for comment as he was out of station and the party leaders said that the matter was yet to be decided. PTI HCV RG LNS

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By PTI: recommended

Lucknow, Jul 14 (PTI) A powerful plastic explosive was found inside the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced today in the House, which unanimously recommended a probe by the NIA amid a suspicion of a "dangerous terror conspiracy".

About 150 grams of the white powdery explosive PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate) was found wrapped in a paper close to the seat of the Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Choudhary two days back, Adityanath said as soon as the Assembly met for the day this morning.

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The explosive kept under the cushion of a seat, third from where the Leader of Opposition sits, was found by the cleaning staff on July 12 after even the dog squad had failed to detect it, he said, describing it as a security breach.

Initially, it was thought that it was some powder or chemical but in the forensic examination, it was found to be PETN, "which is high quality Hexogene and plastic explosive," said Adityanath who chaired an emergency security meeting this morning before the sitting of the Assembly.

The quantity of the explosive was 150 grams. According to experts, 500 gm of this explosive is enough to blow up the House, the chief minister said.

"The security of the House is our concern. This is part of a dangerous terrorist conspiracy and should be exposed. The state government wants to get an NIA probe done in the matter and police verification of employees and officials working in Vidhan Bhawan," he said in a suo moto statement.

Later, the House passed a resolution recommending an NIA probe into it.

Uttar Pradesh Police swung into action and registered an FIR against unknown persons under various sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 121A (conspiring to wage war).

PETN is one of the most dangerous plastic explosives available in the black market and preferred by terrorists as the colourless crystals easily pass through security checks.

Additional Director General (Law and Order) Anand Kumar later told reporters that 150 grams of PETN was not sufficient to cause any explosion.

He explained that for an explosion, three things are needed - explosive, detonator and power pack (source of power). "Here only explosive has been found," Kumar said.

He said probe is on in the matter and CCTV footage will be studied.

In the home department press briefing, IG (ATS) Aseem Arun said the probe has been taken over by the ATS.

He said fool proof security arrangements will be made.

To a question as to from whose seat the explosive was found, Arun said, "The seat is identified and if needed we will inquire from the member and those sitting around him. We are getting support from all."

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Stressing that there should be no compromise on security, Adityanath said joint efforts were needed to ensure this.

"It is a dangerous tendency that the security of the assembly has been breached when the House is in session," the chief minister said.

"So far the government was worried about security outside the assembly, and now this has become a more serious matter," he said and appealed to Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit to ensure police verification of the assembly staff because security of over 500 MLAs and MLCs was at stake.

Adityanath noted that it was not just a matter to be condemned by the House, but the need was to give a befitting reply.

The Speaker then said, "We all agree for the NIA probe to be done in the recovery of explosives to expose the conspiracy behind this."

The chief minister also said, "As no one is allowed inside the House except legislators and marshals, the matter becomes serious. The matter is related with sentiments of 22 crore people of the state. As we have no objections in checking at airports, we (legislators) should also support this here. I also ask them not to bring mobile phones and keep their bags outside the House and a system should be evolved for this."

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He also mentioned lack of coordination between security agencies and said there was no mechanism to counter terrorist attack, if any, in the House.

"There should be Quick Response Team (QRT) at every gate and there should be a uniform security system. We have decided to pass a resolution to condemn such an act. Some persons are up to doing mischievous acts and NIA should expose them", he said.

Noting that the UP Assembly was the biggest in the country, Adityanath said the entire country keeps an eye on proceedings here with a hope to "see something new and good".

"No compromise will be made on the security of the assembly which has 503 members (including Legislative Council). A joint effort is needed for this. This is a dangerous tendency that security of assembly is breached when House is in session," he said.

After the chief ministers statement, the Speaker announced several measures to ensure security of the House besides agreeing to recommend an NIA probe. "We have met earlier (before the House assembled) and decided on several security measures to be introduced in the House. On all the gates QRT of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) will be deployed and whole body scanners will be installed. All the entry pases issued to MLAs and their representatives will be cancelled and only one vehicle pass will be issued to MLAs," the Speaker said.

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The driver of legislators will be verified and those having no pass will not be allowed entry inside assembly premises, he said. Passes issued to former MLAs and others will also be cancelled and police verification of assembly staff will be done, he said. The Speaker also allowed an Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) team inside the House, stating that "we are a family and no one will be allowed to raise a finger at it".

Parliamentary Affairs minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said all measures, as directed by the Speaker, will be taken to ensure Vidhan Bhawans security.

The Leader of Opposition said they accepted the measures stating that no one should be allowed to breach security of the House.

BSP member Uma Shankar Singh said it was a matter of concern that despite having jammers, mobile phones used to ring inside the House.

SP members expressed shock over the recovery of the explosive material.

"It is astonishing. How is it possible? Explosives reaching inside the House is a serious matter," said SP legislator Shailendra Yadav.

Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chowhdury (SP) said the matter was serious and the security of the House should be taken care of.

While some members like Nitin Agarwal (SP) got to know about the development through media reports, others were seen updating their fellow legislators about it.

Meanwhile, one person has been arrested in Deoria, 325 km from state capital Lucknow, for allegedly threatening to blow up the Assembly on August 15.

Farhan Ahmed was arrested yesterday and his mobile phone seized, Additional Superintendent of Police Chiranjeevi Sinha said.

However, ADG Anand Kumar said it would be too early to link Ahmed with the recovery of the explosive from the Assembly.

Ahmed, 20, had allegedly told the ADG (Law and Order) on his mobile phone that he would blow the UP legislature building on the Independence Day.

He is being interrogated by local police and intelligence officials from Delhi, Sinha added. PTI ABN SMI ZMN AKK AKK

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We were more than halfway through the semester when a law student stopped by my office. I invited her in. "I don't know how to say this," she hesitated. "This class has brought up so much for me -- stuff I never dealt with when it happened, and don't want to think about now."

Tears fell down her cheeks. She said she had been raped, and then described her inability to sleep or concentrate on her schoolwork now that she was reminded of the experience.

In those days, I kept a box of tissues on my desk. It wasn't the first time a student disclosed having been sexually assaulted after we covered the subject of rape in my criminal law class, and it wouldn't be the last. Then, as a professor, my job was to be supportive and get my students the help they needed. Now, as a college president, it's my job to ensure that sexual assault on campus is dealt with fairly, directly and expeditiously. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos now can help - or hurt -- that effort.

WATCH: DeVos will meet with men's rights activists (story continues below)

According to a 2016 Justice Department study, one in five women is sexually assaulted in college. It is one thing to hear or read the statistics about campus sexual assault; it is another to hear about, and see the painful impact of, some of these terrible experiences firsthand. In addition to emotional and physical trauma, sexual assault can have serious academic consequences at the time it occurs, and well afterward.

[On top of everything else, sexual assault hurts the survivors' grades]

For decades, the federal civil rights law Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education, has required schools to respond promptly and equitably to campus sexual assault. During President Barack Obama's administration, the Department of Education lit a fire under university leadership to take its responsibilities under Title IX seriously. In a 2011 letter, the department underscored, "Sexual harassment of students, which includes acts of sexual violence, is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX." But opponents of Title IX now want to douse the department's enforcement efforts.

Thursday, DeVos met with advocates on both sides of the issue to decide how the Trump administration will handle Title IX. It's a discussion already made fraught by the Education Department's acting assistant secretary for civil rights, Candice Jackson, who made the inaccurate and -- in her own words -- "flippant" assertion Wednesday that, in "90 percent" of campus sexual assault investigations, there's "not even an accusation that these accused students overrode the will of a young woman." Jackson has apologized, but I urge DeVos to consider the facts, and how easily they may be mischaracterized as she moves ahead on this issue.

Opponents of Title IX's application to campus sexual assault argue that campus disciplinary tribunals are kangaroo courts, ill-equipped to adjudicate sexual misconduct. But since the early part of the 19th century, educational institutions have used campus disciplinary tribunals to adjudicate all kinds of misconduct, from plagiarism to rioting.

Colleges and universities have occasionally adjudicated cases even more grievous than rape. In 2013, for example, a fraternity hazing incident in Pennsylvania ended in the death of a pledge by blunt force trauma. The coroner ruled the death a homicide, but the prosecutor did not file charges until two years later. The college, however, pursued disciplinary action against the students involved. Hazing and homicide are both serious crimes, but no one in that case said that the campus was ill-equipped to adjudicate the misconduct. People recognized the obvious: the college needed to protect students from harm.

Opponents argue that campus adjudication undermines the rights of those accused of sexual assault. Libertarian commentator Cathy Young, for example, has described Obama-era Title IX guidance as "marred" by a "polarizing ideology of presumed guilt." Title IX, though, isn't designed to advantage complainants over respondents. The guidance requires equal treatment of both accuser and accused, including prompt notice about procedures and rights for each. The guidance states: "Throughout a school's Title IX investigation, including at any hearing, the parties must have an equal opportunity to present relevant witnesses and other evidence. The complainant and the alleged perpetrator must be afforded similar and timely access to any information." It emphasizes that Title IX requires "adequate, reliable, and impartial investigations of complaints."

Some colleges fail to implement Title IX equitably, either denying victims a safe environment, as Title IX requires, or denying accused students disciplinary fairness, in ways that Title IX does not call for and that the Constitution does not allow. In these cases, accused students are suing colleges and even lodging complaints for gender discrimination under Title IX. And campuses are responding -- as they must -- when students prevail on either side.

We must strongly protect due process. However, opponents tend to object to campus adjudication of sexual assault, but not campus adjudication of any other serious misconduct. Their single-mindedness suggests a stronger interest in narrowing the definition of sexual assault than in protecting due process.

Opponents of Obama-era guidance argue that the prior administration lowered the standard of proof in campus disciplinary proceedings from "clear and convincing evidence" to "preponderance of the evidence." Not so. Most colleges and universities had no expressly stated standard of proof in their student conduct codes before the guidance, and, of those that did, eight out of 10 schools used the preponderance standard.

[Feminists want us to define these ugly sexual encounters as rape. Don't let them.]

Preponderance is the standard of proof that applies throughout our justice system, except when life or liberty is at stake. Since at least 1995, and during multiple presidential administrations, the Department of Education required the preponderance standard. Continuing to require it for campus sexual assault adjudication balances the equities between the parties appropriately.

Finally, opponents of Title IX argue that criminal courts are just better equipped than campuses, so victims should report their rapes to the police instead. But most allegations of campus sexual assault aren't reported to police. Sexual offenses rank among the least reported of serious crimes, and, once reported, they're frequently not prosecuted.

The campus system offers substantial advantages. Colleges can protect students in ways police cannot. Colleges can offer counseling, move students into different classes or dorms, and provide tutors to help students catch up when incidents jeopardize their academic progress. Schools can promptly discipline those found responsible for misconduct. Greater remedial flexibility on campus ensures students have equal access to education -- the point of Title IX.

Title IX's mandate should be unobjectionable: to prohibit discrimination against students based on sex and ensure that they have equal access to education. And at the end of the day, DeVos and I share a responsibility to students. Because sexual assault impedes students' educational opportunities, she should continue to prioritize the vigorous, equitable enforcement of Title IX.

- Anderson is the president of Brooklyn College.
Bastille Day in France may be a day to celebrate an important event in the European nation's storied history, but it's apparently also a day to celebrate the work of a couple of the country's more recent artistic citizens: electronic duo Daft Punk.

The performance by the military marching band of France's Republican Guard was attended by a highly amused French President Emmanuel Macron and a seemingly very bored President Donald Trump.
The city of San Francisco could be on the hook for $2.4 million in attorneys fees racked up by a former deputy city attorney who said she was fired after exposing a long-running illegal kickback scheme between city workers and plumbing companies.

The fees, awarded by a San Francisco judge this month, come after a jury unanimously found in March that the city violated whistle-blower and false-claims statutes when it fired Joanne Hoeper in 2014. The jury awarded her about $2.7 million in compensation.
Q: I am hoping that you can resolve my issue with American Airlines. I recently booked four airline tickets on the American Airlines site from Buffalo, N.Y., to Miami.

I had to change my flight, and an airline representative told me I would be charged a fee but would be refunded the $2,410 price difference. I was perfectly fine with being charged the cancellation fee.

I asked to be emailed a copy of the changes so that I could have a hard copy. The representative said I would have to call back after the flight for a receipt. I found that strange and asked her for assurance that I would be able to get a receipt. She assured me I would.

I called back after the flight to get a copy of the receipt, and it was a headache. I then checked my bank statement to see if American refunded me the difference. It didnt.

American Airlines owes me $2,410. I dont understand why the airline was so quick to charge me an additional fare and take it from my account but cant give me back the difference. Can you help?

Ahlam Shahbel, Toronto

A: American Airlines should have promptly refunded the money, as promised. Actually, it probably shouldnt have charged you a change fee at all, because you made your changes within 24 hours of making the reservation.

American Airlines has a 24-hour rule, mandated by federal law, which requires it to fully refund most tickets within a day of purchase. Because you were making your arrangements for domestic travel, that rule should have applied, even though you reside in Canada. But that isnt the real problem here  its that the airline offered you a refund but didnt follow through.

You were smart to try to get Americans promise in writing. When the airline representative didnt offer a receipt or a written assurance, you were right to be skeptical. I can understand why you would check with your bank after getting only a spoken promise. After all, when it comes to airlines, talk is cheap.

In a case like this, you really need to take your appeal up the chain of command. I list the names, numbers and email addresses of American Airlines executives on my consumer-advocacy site: http://elliott.org/company-contacts/american-airlines/.

I contacted the airline on your behalf, and it turns out theres a little more to this story. Part of the fee you paid was for your seat assignment, which is nonrefundable. But you were due a refund for the fare difference on your four tickets. Its not clear why American hadnt sent that yet, but after I reached out to the airline, it did.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. Find travel tips at www.elliott.org. Email: chris@elliott.org Twitter: @elliottdotorg
SAO PAULO  A congressional committee rejected a recommendation to try Brazils president for corruption, handing him a symbolic victory Thursday a day after a former president was convicted of graft.

The corruption cases against two major Brazilian figures underscored the extent of political turmoil in Latin Americas largest country, where a spreading corruption investigation has uncovered a scheme to exchange bribes and kickbacks for political favors and public contracts.

That probe has led to an accusation that President Michel Temer accepted bribes from a meatpacking executive in exchange for helping the company obtain favorable government decisions. Temer has denied wrongdoing.

Earlier this week, a lawmaker appointed to study Temers case recommended that the charge be accepted, a setback for Temer. But on Thursday, a Chamber of Deputies committee rejected that recommendation, swinging the pendulum back in Temers favor.

Both moves are largely symbolic. The decision to suspend Temer and put him on trial rests with the full lower house: If two-thirds of the 513 deputies should vote against Temer, lower house Speaker Rodrigo Maia would take over presidential duties while Brazils Supreme Court tried the president.

Some lawmakers complained that the extensive substitution of committee members in recent days made the committee vote a farce. Party leaders have the right to replace their members on committees as they see fit, and Brazilian media reported that parties allied with Temer made several such substitutions  in an apparent bid to guarantee the vote went the presidents way.

The mammoth Operation Car Wash investigation has led to political tensions in Brazil between those who consider the prosecutors and judges pursuing corruption to be heroes and those who think some of the prosecutions are politically motivated.

A day after being convicted of corruption, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stoked those flames Thursday with a defiant public defense accusing his political opponents of trying to prevent him from becoming president again.

A federal judge found da Silva guilty Wednesday and sentenced him to nearly 10 years in prison, though the charismatic leader remains free while an appeal is heard.

Mauricio Savarese and Sarah DiLorenzo are Associated Press writers.
HONG KONG  In a decisive blow to Hong Kongs democracy movement, a local court removed four pro-democracy legislators Friday after Beijing intervened in the citys independent legal system.

The ruling means the democracy advocates in the semi-autonomous citys Legislature will no longer have enough votes to block legislation from their pro-Beijing counterparts, assuring China greater influence over Hong Kongs government at least until by-elections are held.

Voters entrusted us with the task of monitoring the government, said Leung Kwok-hung, one of the lawmakers who was unseated. Weve lost that power.

The lawmakers removal came after the Chinese government took the extraordinary step of blocking two separatist politicians from taking office as legislators, a move critics said was a breach of the high degree of autonomy Beijing promised the former British colony when it returned to Chinese rule 20 years ago.

Its a direct interference in Hong Kongs internal affairs, a breach of both its judicial independence and separation of powers laid down by the British, said Willy Lam,a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. This is a disturbing and ominous development.

In November, Beijing intervened to bar the two elected independence advocates from office ostensibly because they inserted anti-China snubs into their oaths of office. It did so by issuing a legal interpretation of the citys mini-constitution: that legislators who deliver an oath in an insincere or undignified manner must be barred from office and not be given a chance to do it again.

The Hong Kong government, relying on the new interpretation, then sought to remove four more legislators from office. On Friday, the High Court declared their seats vacant, arguing they had failed to take the oath properly.

Its flagrant political suppression by the government, said Nathan Law, 24, one of the lawmakers who was removed. I had read the oath completely.

Law, a leader of the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests demanding freer local elections, had begun his oath saying he would never serve a regime that murders its own people and read the Cantonese word for China with an upward inflection, as if asking a question.

Alan Wong is a New York Times writer.
By Anvita Singh: Television heartthrob and actor Barun Sobti recently made his comeback to the small screen with producer Gul Khan's romantic drama Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon Season 3. And we regret to say that the show has failed Barun Sobti as an actor.

Barun began his career with a Star Plus show called Shraddha---which not many remember--- and was later seen in his big break as Shravan Jaiswal in Sony TV's Baat Hamari Pakki Hai. The show was not extraordinary, but at least the world came to know that Barun had the capability to pull off a comic role.

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Barun's next acting project was the wildly popular and hugely successful Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon Season 1. Barun slayed as the intense Arnav Singh Raizada, and his chemistry with co-star Sanaya Irani became a hit.

The actor had a few dialogues compared to co-star Sanaya Irani's hundred monologues, but Barun's soul-penetrating gaze was enough to melt anyone. His body language, his entire being had embraced the character of Arnav Singh Raizada as a kindred spirit. And the magic happened, and we were there to witness it.

When Barun was angry as Arnav, we were upset. When he was romantic as Arnav, we fell for him, and when he smiled as Arnav, we knew our hearts belonged to him.

Barun later dabbled with Bollywood with Main aur Mr Right, and failed, unfortunately. Just like IPKKND Season 3, the movie's makers were not able to realise the full potential of Barun Sobti the actor.

His movie You are my Sunday is yet to release here, but has been appreciated for its acting, and writing abroad. The movie was screened in various international film festivals earlier this year.

Before making his TV comeback with IPKKND 3, Barun was seen in Hotstar's Tanhaiyaan with Surbhi Jyoti. The show was praised for its storyline and acting.

But then IPKKND Season 3 happened. The show's unnecessary melodrama and plot twists leave no room for Barun to explore his potential as an actor.

For all his smouldering, Barun cannot save the IPKKND 3 ship from sinking.

Here's hoping some stellar work from Barun in future.

Also read: 5 times Barun Sobti made our hearts skip a beat as Arnav Singh Raizada

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CAIRO  Two German female tourists were stabbed to death while four other foreigners were wounded in an attack Friday at a hotel in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada, an Egyptian security official said.

The assault came just hours after a shooting near some of Egypts most famous pyramids outside of Cairo killed five police officers.

The motive behind the stabbing was unclear, and the Interior Ministry said the attacker at the Red Sea resort was arrested immediately.

A security official said the attacker, a man in his 20s dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans, wielded a knife and intentionally sought to attack foreigners.

Stay away, I dont want Egyptians, the assailant had said in Arabic during the attack, according to the official.

Without taking any blame for what appears to be a major security breach, the Interior Ministry said the attacker had sneaked into the hotel by swimming from a nearby beach.

In the killings of the five officers outside of Cairo, no group claimed responsibility for the attack but it bore the hallmarks of a smaller Islamic militant group known as Hasm that has been behind similar shootings in recent months.

Fridays attacks are likely to further impact Egypts deeply struggling tourism industry  a pillar of the countrys economy that employs millions of people. The industry has suffered from political instability and a fragile security situation since the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.

The attacker in Hurghada, one of Egypts most popular beach resorts and diving centers, stabbed the tourists in the face, neck and feet, according to the security official.

Two German tourists died of their wounds while four tourists were wounded, including citizens of Ukraine and the Czech Republic, the official said.

In the attack on the policemen, gunmen riding on a motorcycle opened fire on a security vehicle patrolling a Giza village, next to some of Egypts oldest pyramids outside of the capital, Cairo, killing the five policemen, the Interior Ministry and officials said.

The deadly shooting  on the Muslim weekend in Egypt, when traffic is slower  heightened fears of what has become near-weekly attacks by suspected Islamic militants after a blitz attack left 23 troops dead in northern Sinai a week ago.

Maggie Michael is an Associated Press writer.
JERUSALEM  In a bold attack outside a site sacred to Muslims and Jews, three Israeli Arabs armed with a pistol and homemade machine guns shot and killed two Israeli officers early Friday at the entrance to the Al Aqsa mosque compound.

The three assailants were then chased into the courtyard of the mosque complex, where they were shot and killed by Israeli security forces, authorities said.

Hours after the early morning shootout, Israeli forces still blocked access to the mosque area because of security concerns.

The rare closure marked the first time in years that Israeli authorities stopped Muslims of all ages from attending Friday prayers at the holy site.

Israels domestic security service, Shin Bet, said the three attackers were Israeli citizens from an Arab town in northern Israel called Umm al-Fahm and that they shared the same last name, suggesting they may be related.

The two dead Israeli Border Police officers were members of Israels small Druze community. Kamil Shnaan, 22, was the son of a former Israeli parliamentarian. Hael Sathawi, 30, left behind a wife and a 3-week-old son.

The Druze follow an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and are seen by some Sunni militant factions as apostates.

Police said the assault began just after 7 a.m. close to the Lions Gate into the Old City near one of the entrances to the complex that holds the Al Aqsa mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock, an ancient esplanade revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount.

Israeli officials identified the attackers as Muhammad Ahmed Jabarin, 29; Muhammad Hamid Jabarin, 19; and Muhammad Ahmed Mufdal Jabarin, 19. Arabs comprise 20 percent of the Israeli population.

After the attack, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas placed a telephone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to Wafa, the official Palestinian News Agency, Abbas expressed his strong rejection and condemnation of the fatal shootout that took place near Al Aqsa mosque, as well as his rejection of any violent incidents from any side, especially in places of worship.

William Booth is a Washington Post writer.
1 Acid attacks: Two teenage boys raced through London on a scooter and threw or sprayed acid in the faces of five other scooter riders apparently chosen at random late Thursday, according to police. Two boys, ages 15 and 16, were arrested in connection with the attacks, committed during a 72-minute spree in northeast London, police said. All of the victims were men, ranging in age from 24 to 52, and there was no indication that the assaults were hate crimes. Police have said that acid attacks are on the rise in the British capital, with 458 reported last year, nearly double the total of the previous year.

2 Drone strike: A U.S. drone strike in eastern Afghanistan earlier this week killed Abu Sayed, the leader of the Islamic States offshoot there, U.S. officials said Friday. A Pentagon statement said that other Islamic State members were also killed in Tuesdays operation in Kunar province and that it will significantly disrupt the terror groups plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan. U.S. and Afghan forces have been pummeling Islamic State positions in eastern Afghanistan for months in an effort to dislodge the militants from the craggy peaks and remote valleys of Nangahar and Kunar provinces.
OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images

ANKARA, Turkey  Turkey is commemorating the first anniversary of the quashed military coup that sought to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a series of events honoring some 250 people who were killed on July 15, 2016, while trying to stop the insurrection.

The coup attempt was the greatest challenge to the rule of Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003, first as prime minister and later as president. After crushing the attempted takeover, Erdogan went on to win a referendum in April that will considerably extend the powers of his office  a move that has raised fear among opponents who say he has become increasingly authoritarian.
(Updates to recast on union plans to appeal)

The pilots' union in dispute with Air New Zealand over its collective employment agreement is "considering its options" after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the national carrier.

The dispute centred on one clause in the New Zealand Airline Pilots Association's (NZALPA) collective agreement, described as a ratchet clause, where the parties agree that any agreement entered into by the company with any other pilot employee group which is more favourable than provided for in this agreement will be passed on to pilots covered by this agreement."

The union invoked this clause when they wanted to claim a more favourable pay rise for pilots of Boeing 747s and second officers after Air New Zealand had agreed with the Federation of Air New Zealand Pilots (FANZP), a newer and smaller union, to provide a pay rise of 13 percent, more than the NZALPA collective agreement provided for. Air NZ argued that each of the terms agreed to in the FANZP collective was conditional on the total deal being struck, meaning NZALPA would have to take the concessions made by the other union to get the benefits they desired.

Four of the Supreme Court's bench of five judges today ruled in favour of Air NZ dismissing an appeal by the New Zealand Air Line Pilots Association (NZALPA). Justices Terence Arnold, Mark O'Regan, Ellen France and William Young dismissed the appeal, while Justice Susan Glazebrook would have allowed it.

This ruling would normally mean the case would be sent back to the Employment Court, but it hasn't been in this case, because the two groups hadn't pursued arguments over the possible meanings of the clause in NZALPA's collective agreement and because the appeal had only been approved on the question of jurisdiction, the majority judgment said.

Justice Glazebrook, in her dissenting ruling, said the appeal court hadn't identified any errors of interpretive principle by the Employment Court, and even if it had, the case should have been remitted back to the Employment Court to determine the proper interpretation of NZALPA's contract.

The majority also stressed that, while the finding meant that the NZALPA claim failed, it had only found that the union's interpretation was incorrect, not that Air New Zealand's interpretation was correct. NZALPA says that point means the union "will be considering our options for having the contractual interpretation issue re-examined by the Employment Court.

"Taking this series of legal actions is not an easy decision for any membership organisation, but this issue is fundamentally important for our pilots, particularly when it comes to issues of fairness and treating all pilots equally regardless of what membership group they belong to," NZALPA president Tim Robinson said.

Some 84 percent of Air New Zealand's pilots are NZALPA members, and Robinson said the "continuing two-tier contractual approach remains an upsetting issue for many pilots, who feel they are treated differently to their colleagues just because they choose to belong to a highly supportive professional organisation."

The case was originally heard by the Employments Relations Authority, which agreed with Air NZ, while the Employment Court in 2014 found in favour of NZALPA. The airline then sought to appeal the Employment Court's decision in the Court of Appeal, which the court allowed, but which NZALPA disputed as it said the appeal court doesn't have the jurisdiction to hear it. The Supreme Court ruling today affirms that the Court of Appeal has jurisdiction.

The NZALPA appeal was based on the Employment Relations Act, which says the appeal court can't hear an appeal on the construction of a collective employment agreement. The Supreme Court said the dispute was a matter of interpretive principle which went beyond the construction of the particular collective agreement, and the majority found the Employment Court judge had wrongly taken into account negotiations between the two parties and their intentions.

(BusinessDesk)

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By India Today Web Desk: Well, it seems like people just can't keep calm about Deepika Padukone and her growing popularity.

This time, it's not because they are swooning over her beauty. On the contrary, social-media users are now heavily trolling her for being "too skinny".

The actress had posted some pictures on Instagram from a latest cover shoot for the jewellery edition of Vanity Fair magazine. In the last picture, she is seen in a black, slip dress, wearing a signature diamond necklace.

A post shared by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) on Jul 12, 2017 at 10:00pm PDT

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Deepika's monochrome look, however, did not go down well with her followers on social media; they felt she looked "malnourished", with one of them going to the extent of calling her a 'dead body'.

Picture courtesy: Instagram/deepikapadukone

Also Read:Plus-size model gets fat-shamed on flight; shoots video, takes the guy down like a boss

Several users expressed their concern over the actress' eating habits, wondering if she was starving herself, to become what one of them called the 'dead rat'.

Not too long ago, Indian television personality Aneri Vajani received similar comments on social media for sporting a bikini on her "too skinny" body.

Recently, Baywatch actor Priyanka Chopra was also ridiculed for "showing her legs" in front of Prime Minister Modi.

Several other women in the public spectrum have been fat-shamed on various occasions. Such crude social-media responses, though atrocious, have become almost a regular phenomenon for women in the spotlight. The question is, who is defining the "perfect body" for these social-media trolls, and who gives them the right to belittle someone on a public platform?

--- ENDS ---
More than 10 cars have been stolen from a Rohini colony in the last few months. Ironically, the colony is located barely 200 meters away from a Delhi Police anti-auto theft squad station.

CCTV camera footage shows a recent attempt in Rohini where two men managed to break in a vehicle but could not start the engine

By Chayyanika Nigam: Doubts have been raised on vigilance in the city after more than 10 cars got stolen from B-Block, Sector 11 in Rohini in the past few months. Ironically the passage of entry and exit to the colony has been bypassing an anti-auto theft squad station - barely 200 metres away from the spot of theft

Last week two thieves had tried to steal a white Scorpio parked outside a house. However, despite having opened the doors, they were unable to start the car as the smart chip - that usually autolifters carry along to start cars - didn't match the security system of the targeted car.

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The duo had arrived in a Swift car that they parked near the targeted car. They kept on trying for more than three hours. CCTV footage shows the car jackers opening the door using smart key. Once they were successful, they began trying to start the car. Having failed, they started consuming alcohol instead.

They also ended up stealing a bottle of alcohol from another car that belonged to one Ankit Bharadwaj, a resident of the area.

They reportedly even tried to push the car for a distance, but in vain. When they reached near the anti-auto theft squad in the area, they even tried to toe the Scorpio with their own car. But they failed again.

These auto-lifters did not fear of being caught at all. It is important to mention that while on the mission, they neither came across any police patrolling, nor did any cop from the anti-auto theft squad were seen stepping out.

Meanwhile, having failed to complete their mission, they ended up stealing all accessories and security feature devices in the car, following which they made an easy escape.

Talking to Mail Today, Gaurav Vashisht, 33, a businessman said: "Due to the increase in cases of autolifting in our colony, we had installed CCTV cameras. But even after these footages are handed over to the police, the culprits remain on the run."

Vashisht, who is the brother of Bharadwaj, further added that despite several complaints, no police patrolling has been arranged by the officers.

The concerned officers were contacted, but they remained unavailable for comment. Till June 15, as many as 17,949 cases of motor vehicle theft have been registered at various police stations in the Capital.

ALSO READ | Believe it or not, the crime rate in Delhi has fallen

ALSO READ | Delhi Police likely to make CCTVs mandatory outside buildings, commercial spaces

--- ENDS ---
By Abhishek Anand: A woman, in her early fifties, was found murdered at her residence at Lalita Park area of Laxmi Nagar in east Delhi on Thursday night. The deceased was identified as Sangeeta Bansal who worked at a PG.

The incident came to light around 9:30 pm when Sangeeta's in-laws found the doors of her flat bolted from outside. As they opened the door they found her in a pool of blood. Her body had multiple stab wounds on neck and torso.

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"Sangeeta was a widow. Her husband passed away two years back. Since then she was living in her flat on the first floor of a two storied building at Lalita Park. Her brother-in-law was first to spot her body. He informed the police and then informed us about the incident," said Subhash Gupta, brother of the deceased.

Sangeeta is survived by her two married daughters. Sangeeta's in-laws were staying at the ground floor, which has a separate entry. Police say they have registered a case of murder.

Delhi: A 52-year-old woman found murdered at her residence in Laxmi Nagar last night, sharp weapon injury marks found on her neck. pic.twitter.com/NrAIBCyj8Y ANI (@ANI_news) 14 July 2017

"It seems like people known to the deceased are involved. There are no signs of forcible entry. Also, two glasses of water were lying on the table which indicate involvement of two or more people," said a police official.

"We have accessed the footage of CCTV cameras installed at nearby shops to identify the accused. The case is being investigated from each aspect. The assailants will be arrested soon," the official added.

A case of murder was registered and the body was sent for autopsy, reports of which are still awaited.

Also read:

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WATCH: 26-year-old woman raped after being offered ride in Hauz Khas

--- ENDS ---
CITY HALL -- Thousands of low-income Staten Island homeowners will get $115 off their water and sewer bill, officials said on Friday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced more than 53,000 homeowners citywide, including 8,451 on Staten Island, will see the automatic credit on their next bill.

"We are putting water rate relief directly into the hands of low-income homeowners and senior citizens across the city," de Blasio said in a statement.

The combined income limit for the $115 credit is $37,399 for homeowners and their spouses.

The New York City Water Board also authorized an extension of the credit to roughly 12,000 additional senior citizen this fiscal year. A new $250 credit per residential unit will begin next year for some multi-family buildings, for a total of $10 million across as many as 40,000 units.

Staten Island officials cheered the news.

"More than eight thousand Staten Islanders getting some money back in their pockets is really good news," Borough President James Oddo said in a statement. "For our residents, especially seniors on a fixed income, every little bit helps."

Minority Leader Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island) said more needs to be done to ease financial burdens for homeowners, "but this $115 credit will certainly help." Councilman Joseph Borelli (R-South Shore) said, "This credit is a small token of relief, but a step in the right direction."

Last year de Blasio tried to provide a $183 rebate on water and sewer bills for thousands of homeowners citywide, including 110,462 on Staten Island.

But the one-time automatic credit was blocked by a judge after a group of landlords and the Rent Stabilization Association sued the city.

A de Blasio spokesman said the $115 credit and others announced on Friday are unrelated to the ongoing litigation. The city expects the Court of Appeals to hear on the case sometime this fall.

"We hope that ultimately the courts rule in favor of small homeowners in NYC," de Blasio spokesman Seth Stein said.

This article was updated with information from the mayor's office.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An alleged Staten Island mobster with ties to the Bonanno crime family was denied parole earlier this month, according to a law enforcement source.

Anthony "Skinny" Santoro, who recently pleaded guilty to attempted enterprise corruption, is next eligible for parole in December 2018, said the source.

In April, the Great Kills man was sentenced to four to eight years in prison, but since he has been incarcerated since his July 2013 arrest, he became eligible for parole on July 3.

As part of his plea, he has also waived an appeal and will pay approximately $45,900 in forfeiture.

"I did what I did. I took responsibility for what I did," Santoro told the judge during his sentencing April in Manhattan Supreme Court. "I want to get on with my life, what's left of it."

Santoro and his co-defendants -- Vito Badamo, Nicholas Santora and Ernest Aiello -- were accused of enterprise corruption, including loansharking, gambling and drug dealing, after authorities reportedly busted an alleged Bonanno nine-man crew in July 2013.

The quartet was also charged with attempted grand larceny in the second degree, while Santoro, Badamo and Santora were facing an additional charge of first-degree criminal usury.

Badamo and Aiello have also pleaded guilty, while Santora's case is still pending, according to the source. He is due back in court Sept. 15.

The defendants were on trial for three months in Manhattan Supreme Court last year, but it ended in a mistrial due to juror dissonance.

After one of the jurors was dismissed from the panel and another asked off the panel before Supreme Court Justice Mark Dwyer declared a mistrial.

Prosecutors said Santoro was a key player in the Bonanno family's gambling operation, allegedly setting the prices for drugs and deciding on opening and freezing gambling accounts.

The bulk of the state's case against him was the information intercepted from a series of wiretap calls, which implicate him using mob slang referring to illegal drug and gambling activities.

Santoro still has a pending federal case after pleading guilty to operating an illegal gambling business as part of a local Bonanno crime crew in Connecticut. In 2013, he was sentenced to eight months and arrested in the Manhattan case before he could serve that time.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Chester the cat was found in a trash can with rice scattered on his head and surrounded by plastic wrappers, an empty plastic bottle and an empty snack bag after it was beaten, tortured and starved, authorities exclusively told the Advance Thursday.

Tyrike Richardson, 21, allegedly battered his neighbor's black-and-white feline and used a dust pan to put it in the garbage before placing the bin outside his apartment on Arthur Avenue in South Beach on June 29, according to allegations in court documents.

Detective Matthew Edelman of the NYPD's Gang Squad found Chester in the garbage can outside. He then wrapped the animal in a towel and took it to a local veterinarian, he said.

"The cat was breathing very lightly," Edelman told the Advance. "It was extremely weak. It wasn't meowing. It was just frail and weak."

Edelman said he was monitoring social media when he came across a disturbing Facebook Live video of what appears to be a man torturing the 2-year-old cat. The video, Edelman said, was 32 minutes.

Edelman said he and his partner went to the location and when he went inside, he saw a large amount of blood, cat hair and the stick used to strike the animal.

The defendant was not home when the detectives arrived, said Edelman, a 15-year veteran.

After an investigation, Richardson, of South Beach, was arrested Thursday morning at the 121st Precinct stationhouse in Graniteville. He was charged with aggravated cruelty to an animal and torturing, injuring and not feeding an animal, according to an NYPD spokesman.

It is unclear how Richardson got the cat, but he told authorities it somehow got into his apartment.

"There are a lot of stray cats in my neighborhood and I didn't know it was my neighbor's cat," Richardson allegedly told police, according to the complaint.

Police said the defendant used a stick to strike Chester multiple times in the head and body, hit the cat in the face with a knife, and threw a chair on his body.

Authorities recovered a pole with blood and cat hair, an NYPD spokeswoman said.

The animal suffered multiple blunt force trauma injuries, including pneumothorax, which is air leaking out of the chest cavity, according to court documents.

Chester also suffered rib fractures, contusions on the ear, a bloody nose, blood in the urine, broken teeth, tongue abrasions, liver and kidney injuries, head trauma and severe muscle injury, said the criminal complaint.

Richardson claims the cat scratched him before he found the animal under his bed, and tried luring it out of the house with food, police said.

"...When I went under my bed, and gotten a scratch from a cat that was not mine I started to bleed and then I lift my bed off the floor and a black and white cat was there being very aggressive," Richardson told police, according to the complaint.

Richardson also told police the cat scratched his young nephew and that his mom called the ASPCA, but couldn't reach them.

An ASCPA spokeswoman said Chester is still receiving medical care for his injuries at an animal hospital.

The defendant was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child, abandonment of animals, and criminal possession of stolen property, said the complaint.

Richardson was arraigned in Criminal Court Thursday and bail was set at $50,000, according to a spokesman for the district attorney's office.

"That's what the NYPD does. We protect the innocent," said Assistant Chief Edward Delatorre, the NYPD's borough commander. "I'm very proud of the officers on Staten Island -- uncovering and taking an interest in this case and bringing it to fruition where this person can be dealt with appropriately by the criminal justice system."

District Attorney Michael E. McMahon called the allegations "disturbing and cruel."

"My office will vigorously prosecute this case - just as we do with every instance of animal abuse - to ensure justice is served for this defenseless victim," he said.

Richardson has multiple arrests dating back to when he was 14, including a sexual misconduct incident where he allegedly had sex with an underage girl, according to a source.
By Rohini Swamy: Had you thought that the arrest of Malayalam actor Dileep wouldn't affect the lives of a common man? You're probably wrong.

A family from Kottayam in Kerala was to be presented the keys to their new home by Dileep. His arrest has not only become a setback, but has also delayed their house warming ceremony. Usually, during the month of Karkiddakom, which spans over two months, no new ventures are launched as it is considered inauspicious.

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Shabi Das was a driver in Karukachal, who died on duty due to a heart attack, leaving behind his wife Sini and daughter Anugraha. A trust, of which Dileep is a member, and the Police Welfare Association, had collected money to build a home for the family as the house had no roof.

The house was constructed for Anugraha and Sini under the Surakshitha Bhavanam project, which is a scheme initiated by Dileep. The cost of the house was Rs 5. 5 lakh, which was funded by the GP Charitable Trust and Kerala Action Force. And another Rs 5 lakh was raised the local panchayat and Changanassery Pratyasha team.

Through crowd funding, an amount of Rs 5,85,500 was collected, with which, the land for the house was bought.

ALSO READ: Dileep's bail plea to be heard today

ALSO READ: Kerala actress says she had personal problems with Dileep

ALSO READ: Does the Kerala actress abduction case date back to the Dileep-Kavya affair?

ALSO READ: Dileep's rise from a mimic to a powerful force in Mollywood, before his fall

ALSO WATCH: Dileep's bail rejected, more trouble for the Malayalam actor

--- ENDS ---
CITY HALL -- Mayor Bill de Blasio's office said he has no plans to mark the third anniversary of Eric Garner's death in police custody this Monday.

The mayor will spend much of July 17 in Queens for the third installment of "City Hall in Your Borough." The same initiative was first held on Staten Island in April.

While no public appearances tied to Garner's death have been scheduled, de Blasio may speak about him at unrelated events, according to his office. A spokeswoman said de Blasio's re-election campaign has no events to observe the death either.

Garner, an unarmed 43-year-old black father of six, died after a confrontation with police on July 17, 2014, after cops attempted to arrest him for allegedly selling loose, untaxed cigarettes near Bay Street.

Cellphone footage of the altercation captured a white police officer placing Garner in an apparent chokehold, but a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict him. An internal NYPD disciplinary review is still underway pending a federal civil rights investigation. Garner's family recently met with federal prosecutors.

This is the first year since Garner was killed that de Blasio hasn't acknowledged the death in some way with a specific event.

The mayor spoke during a service for Garner at Mount Sinai United Christian Church a few days before the first anniversary of the death in 2015.

"Eric Garner did not die in vain," de Blasio said on July 14, 2015. "His life mattered."

Garner's family watched most of the interfaith service two years ago, along with borough elected officials, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Rev. Al Sharpton and a group of Staten Islanders.

"Let's never forget the name Eric Garner," his mother, Gwen Carr, said the day of the 2015 service.

Last year, de Blasio wrote an editorial for the Advance pleading for New Yorkers to remain hopeful despite the divide between police and communities that grew after Garner's death. The mayor also spoke at First Central Baptist Church in Stapleton.

"We need to overcome a history of structured racism to move forward," de Blasio said during a service on July 17, 2016.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Police are asking for the public's help identifying a man sought for questioning in connection to an assault at the Applebee's in New Dorp that occurred in June.

Police say that an unidentified man attacked a 49-year-old male in the bathroom of the restaurant at 430 New Dorp Lane on June 23 at approximately 9:00 p.m.

The victim, who was knocked unconscious, suffered cuts and swelling to his head, and was transported to Staten Island University Hospital North with non-life threatening injuries.

The individual being sought for questioning in the assault is described as a white male, medium build, and was seen wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers at the time of the incident.

Police have provided surveillance footage of the individual.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Staten Island man who neglected to seek medical treatment for his badly scalded 7-year-old daughter, has been sentenced by a Virginia judge to 10 years in prison, according to a published report on www.fredericksburg.com.

However, Brian R. Jenkins, 48, must only serve 19 months of that sentence, as eight years and five months of it were suspended, the report said.

Jenkins was living in Stafford, Va., on Jan. 11, 2015, when a younger sibling poured a kettle of hot water on the victim, who was taking a bath, said the report.

The family was using the kettle because the hot water wasn't working.

Jenkins, who was downstairs at the time doing laundry and watching sports, treated the girl's wounds with some type of ointment but did not get her medical aid, said the report.

The child suffered extensive burns to her leg and foot, and was taken to the hospital several days later when her mother, who had been away, returned home, the report said.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Two Staten Islanders are among those charged in connection to a massive, nationwide health care fraud case that involved approximately $1.3 billion in false billings, according to court documents.

Svetlana Shargorodskaya, 47, of Midland Beach, and Wael Bakry, 45, of Fort Wadsworth are the two borough residents charged along with 410 other medical professionals in what officials are calling the "largest health care fraud enforcement action in Department of Justice history."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said many of the medical professionals changed their practices into "multi-million-dollar criminal enterprises."

"Too many trusted medical professionals like doctors, nurses, and pharmacists have chosen to violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients," Sessions said. "They seem oblivious to the disastrous consequences of their greed."

Shargorodskaya, the owner of a medical diagnostic testing company in Brooklyn, allegedly submitted false claims to various health care benefit programs, including Medicare, and paid patients to receive medically unnecessary services.

Her company fraudulently billed Medicare and insurance companies for more than $13 million in diagnostic testing services, authorities allege.

She was arrested and arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn on Wednesday.

Bakry, a physical therapist, was indicted with four other medical professionals for their alleged roles in a health care fraud conspiracy in Brooklyn and Queens that billed the Medicare program approximately $100 million.

The defendants paid illegal kickbacks for the referral of patients to their clinics who, in turn, subjected themselves to purported physical and occupational therapy and other services, authorities allege.

He was arrested and arraigned before States Magistrate Judge Vera M. Scanlon at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

The Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said President Trump's administration is committed to fighting these kinds of crimes, and nodded to the President's 2017 budget request calling for a new $70 million investment in the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program.

"Healthcare fraud is not only a criminal act that costs billions of taxpayer dollars - it is an affront to all Americans who rely on our national healthcare programs for access to critical healthcare services and a violation of trust," Price said.

"The historic results of this year's national takedown represent significant progress toward protecting the integrity and sustainability of Medicare and Medicaid, which we will continue to build upon in the years to come."

Charges were levied against 412 individuals across 41 federal districts, according to a media release from the Department of Justice.
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If 19-year-old Joshua Browder had grown up in India, he would have bribed the cops and avoided ridiculous parking tickets but Browder was born and raised under stringent London laws. With the weight of 30 parking tickets on his shoulders, he decided to create the "World's first robot lawyer".

A bot that would contest parking tickets for him, his close friends and family.

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What makes this easily accessible bot a dream come true is that it's free! With its help, drivers have successfully contested more than 5 million dollar (over Rs 50 lakh) worth of parking tickets in 1,75,000 challenges. Instead of paying ridiculous fees to a lawyer for consultation, you can get free legal advice from this highly user-friendly web page.

It is currently available only in the United Kingdom and the United States, but don't worry, Browder is planning to bring it to India.

Browder, 20, is a Stanford University student and has already been featured in Forbes 30 under 30 in the Law and Policy category. The 'Robin Hood of the Internet' according to the BBC, Browder shares some insight about his brainchild 'DoNotPay' in an exclusive interview with IndiaToday.in.

What is DoNotPay? What does it do?

It's a free online robot lawyer that was designed to contest parking tickets in the UK. As of this week it has evolved into a US and UK wide robot lawyer that helps low-income people tackle more than 1,000 legal issues. If you want a refund from an airline, have trouble with your landlord or need help figuring something as trivial as how to get a refund for your toaster, DoNotPay is the answer to your problems.

How did it come out to be?

I was a terrible driver and at the age of 18, got a large number of parking tickets. After about the fourth ticket, my parents told me I was on my own, that I had to pay for my own fines. Out of necessity, I had to trawl through hundreds of pages of obscure government document, looking for the top reasons why parking tickets were dismissed. It quickly became obvious that his is something that can be automated.

Congrats on your expansion all over the US. How does it feel? Do you have any plans to expand to India?

It is so exciting. DoNotPay, up until now, just worked in the UK, NYC and Seattle and it appealed 10 million dollar worth of fines. One can only imagine the upheaval now that it's in all 50 States! As for India, I am working with some incredible people there to hopefully expand there in some capacity by the end of the summer. The law is a worldwide problem and everyone in the world hates tickets.

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It must not be easy to finance such a large initiative. Have you considered funding or getting acquired by a tech giant?

As an entrepreneur, I love to work for myself rather than do the grunt work for a faceless corporation.

Have you considered funding or getting acquired by a tech giant?

I think people love DoNotPay because they don't have to pay and I promise that it will stay that way. However, I wouldn't be against finding other ways to make money.

Do you have any advice for young kids in India who dream of being successful like you?Anything is possible. With the Internet, success is a few lines of code away! There are so many resources online (code.org, for instance), and the power to make your own products is the ultimate feeling of satisfaction.

--- ENDS ---

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Page Content

The Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Silveria Jacobs along with the President of the Culture of the Collectivite, Yolande Sylvestre, welcomed both Junior Carnival Queens of Dutch and French side, Zidania Charles-Gumbs and Doranya Pascal. Charles Gumbs won Miss Mini Model Latina and well as overall first runner-up. Pascal won first runner-up in the pageant in which she participated in. Both queens were welcomed with warm welcomes from family members, friends and supporters. Mrs. Anna Rabess-Richardson from Posh Productions, as well as members of the French Side Carnival Development Foundation were present. Minister Jacobs congratulated the Queens on a job well done on representing their country and being role models for our youth, specifically young girls.




By PTI: (EDS: Incorporates more details)

New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has busted a smuggling racket and seized gold worth Rs 7.54 crore from a man it arrested at the New Delhi Railway Station, a senior DRI official said today.

Acting on intel, the DRI officials intercepted the 33- year-old man, a resident of Dariyaganj area here, at the station yesterday, the official said, requesting anonymity.

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About 25.8 kgs of gold, valued at Rs 7.54 crore, were recovered from him, he said.

During investigation the accused confessed to have received the smuggled gold at Birtanagar in Nepal. After receiving the consignment he crossed over into India through the Jogbani-Birtanagar border, the official said.

The DRI investigation revealed that a major proportion of the gold is being smuggled into India through the land borders with the neighbouring countries, he said.

The DRI suspected the involvement of several other people in the smuggling ring.

The agency has seized 340 kgs of gold, valued at Rs 95 crore, so far in this fiscal.

Since gold is not manufactured in Nepal, trends indicate that the yellow metal is smuggled into Nepal from other countries through their land borders.

This is then smuggled by syndicates from Nepal into India, the DRI official said. PTI AKV DIP

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Something strange has happened in the two largest democracies in the world. With the election of Donald Trump as American president and the earlier ascent of Narendra Modi as prime minister in India, there has been a tangible change in the social atmosphere of both countries. Hate crimes have increased and more than ever before people feel much freer to abuse, threaten and even kill minorities. India has recently seen a spate of horrific lynchings accompanied, quite disturbingly, by prolonged silences from those in power, at the Centre and in the states. From a 15-year-old in Ballabhgarh who was knifed to death on a Delhi-Mathura train while returning from Eid shopping, to a 55-year-old dairy farmer who was hunted down and murdered by a crazed crowd on a highway in Rajasthan for allegedly smuggling cows, the nation has watched in disgust at the descent into the dark ages where the mob rules and fear reigns. A detailed report by India Today correspondents across 11 states shows that since June 2014, when a young IT professional was bludgeoned to death for 'derogatory' Facebook posts, there have been at least 50 cases of lynchings. Almost all the victims were Muslim or Dalit; 70 per cent were suspected of killing or smuggling cows.

Mohammad Akhlaq. Pehlu Khan. Junaid Khan. These are names that are branded on the nation's conscience. The reasons for this scourge are quite apparent. It seems that the state has been complicit in whipping up hysteria around cow slaughter and beef export by not condemning toxic statements from members of the Sangh parivar. Almost 60 per cent of India now lives in BJP-controlled states; cow slaughter is banned in 11 of 15 BJP-ruled states, allowing vigilantes to believe these killings have legal sanction. Coupled with this is the breakdown of law and order, deliberate or otherwise, that ensures the murderers are not always punished, and certainly not in time. Clinical psychologist Ashis Nandy, who writes in this issue, calls it the "chartered accountancy of violence" because the people who plan these attacks are not driven by faith or fanaticism but by calculations of political power. He says lynchings are a manifestation of a new type of abstracted, free-floating violence seeking a soft target. The deeper reason is that underlying tensions in society cause such resentments to explode into rage. Social mobility has not gone hand in hand with social cohesion. People are living in cities without imbibing civic values. Anyone who looks, prays, eats or lives different from the majority becomes the enemy. Sociologist Dipankar Gupta ascribes it to the imperfect establishment of rule of law. "Violence is also endemic where law enforcement officials are ambiguous about their role or partisan in the performance of their duties," he says, adding that it is worse in a society like India which is in transition.

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Fortunately, the silence around these lynchings has finally been broken. After nationwide protests by concerned citizens-spurred by social media amplification and called #NotInMyName-the prime minister made an appeal for non-violence last fortnight. But it was ineffective given that within hours of his condemnation, Asgar Ansari was beaten to death on suspicion of carrying beef in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district, and in the week that followed, at least three more people were lynched. The cover story by Executive Editor Damayanti Datta and Senior Associate Editor Kaushik Deka makes for chilling reading as it documents the horrors that are unfolding. It also analyses them in the context of rising anxieties about incomes, quality of life, relationships and public services. The mask of civility is slipping, the feral Indian is emerging. This is a far cry from the development mandate on which Prime Minister Modi was elected. It is besmirching his image as well as that of the country in the comity of civilised nations he wants so much to be part of. He cannot pretend to be an innocent bystander while these barbaric acts happen on his watch. Not anymore.

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Bombay High Court has asked Maharashtra government to clarify its stand by August first week on charges of kickbacks levelled by activist Anjali Damania against former minister Eknath Khadse in DA case.

By Vidya : Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra government to clarify its stand by August first week on the accusations of kickbacks made by activist Anjali Damania against former minister Eknath Khadse in the disproportionate assets case.

Damania had filed a 1,100-page petition, stating details of 'kickbacks that Khadse had received in many scams that he indulged in' and had elaborated on the number of properties that Khadse allegedly held across the state. Khadse had already replied to the allegations, saying that they were politically motivated and such information was selectively leaked to the press for a media trial against him.

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In his defense, Khadse had said that he was only a farmer and his farming had been giving him good yield.

KHADSE QUIT IN JUNE LAST YEAR

Khadse is considered a powerful BJP leader in Maharashtra but had to quit last year in June because of allegations of impropriety in a Pune land deal. Soon after Khadse's resignation, the Maharashtra government had initiated a judicial inquiry against him which recently submitted its report to the state.

The report has not yet been tabled. It is not yet in the public domain what have been the findings of the probe commission. But rumours have been doing the rounds that Khadse would be back in the cabinet soon.

Also read | Sidelined BJP leader Eknath Khadse targets Fadnavis government in Maharashtra Assembly

Also read | No prima facie evidence to register FIR against Eknath Khadse in land scam case, say police

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New kids on the block, Stranger Things and This is Us, have made their way into the Best Drama category.

A still from the show. Picture courtesy: YouTube

By Indo-Asian News Service: Shows Westworld and Saturday Night Live have bagged the maximum nominations in the 69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

The nominations were announced on Thursday, where HBO's Westworld and NBC's Saturday Night Live tied for the most nominations for the 2017 Emmy Awards, both earning 22 each, reports CNN.com.

Five new shows have made their way into the Best Drama category, including This Is Us, Westworld, The Handmaid's Tale, The Crown and Stranger Things. They will be competing with Better Call Saul and House of Cards.

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Atlanta, Black-ish, Master of None, Modern Family, Silicon Valley, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Veep are contending in the comedy category.

Two shows with very different political themes scored multiple nominations for Emmy Awards. HBO's satirical comedy Veep earned 17 nominations and the newcomer drama The Handmaid's Tale earned 11.

Last year's favourite show Game of Thrones isn't eligible for the Emmys this year because of its mid-July premiere date.

Stephen Colbert, host of CBS' Late Show, will host the Emmy Awards live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 17.

Also read: MTV Movie and TV Awards: Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown wins Best Actor; full winners list inside

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context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

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Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0347730)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f02b24b0)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f0347730)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f02b24b0)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f034ee78)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f02b24b0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f02b24b0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eec389f8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f018ce88)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f018ce88)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f023b3c0)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f03e0f18)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f023b3c0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f03e0f18)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f02404d0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f03e0f18)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f03e0f18)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eec389c8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0a6e150)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0a6e150)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612ea46db98)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eec389e0)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612ea46db98)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eec389e0)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe63a00)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eec389e0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612eec389e0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e7dd4490)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612ed22a200)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612ed22a200)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
Traditionally buttoned-up Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs Group has relaxed the dress code for its computer engineers in a bid to attract tech talent with a more casual environment.

The fifth-largest US bank by assets told employees in its technology division to "exercise judgment in determining when to adapt to business attire", according to an internal memo from late June seen by Reuters on Thursday.

It did not specify whether hoodies or sneakers, the ad-hoc uniform of millennial tech workers, constitute acceptable dress.

The move, one of the first by Goldman's new chief information officer Elisha Wiesel, comes as the bank makes a push to recruit and keep hold of top tech talent in the face of intensifying competition.
So, ummm, have I got this right?

Scott Ludlam, Greens senator, has to immediately stand down because, it turns out, he is also a New Zealand citizen. And of course, our constitution demands that if you are a servant of the people, you should not, cannot, must not, have even the tiniest whiff of divided loyalties. Out you go!

But hang on. What about the criteria to be our head of state? In this case, the constitution demand that he or she be 100 per cent English! (Oh alright, with some German lineage thrown in, and perhaps some Greek.) At least, the constitution demands that we find our heads of state from this one English family.

Is there anything wrong with this picture?
Ronald Blackwood was destined to be a minister. He was born on August 23, 1919 to the Reverend William and May (nee Colquhoun) Blackwood in Dimboola, Victoria. His father was the Presbyterian minister, and his parents dedicated him to the ministry of the church. The infant Ron began to practise his future vocation in Mia Mia, where he preached to the chooks from the woodpile.

The family moved to Mildura where William was minister from 1924 to 1949. Ron grew up with his brother Alan and sisters Jean and Heather. The minister's family gave hospitality to prominent people visiting Mildura. This included David Unaipon (the man on the $50 note) who made boomerangs for the boys and taught them to throw them. These boomerangs are still treasured by the family.

Ronald Blackwood, minister of the Presbyterian and Uniting churches.

Ron finished his schooling as a boarder at Geelong College. He was a member of the school's debating team and rowing crew. From Geelong he moved to Ormond College to study arts at Melbourne University. He rowed for the college in the second eight.

Before beginning theological studies he spent a year in Lakes Entrance as a home missionary. During that year he met Jean Baker of Bairnsdale through the Presbyterian Fellowship Association. They married at the conclusion of Ron's theology studies in November, 1943. They honeymooned in Lorne awaiting notification of Ron's first ministry appointment.
And now for the first time the poll watchdog has scientific proof to back up its claim.

By India Today Web Desk: Electronic Voting Machines have been under the scanner of opposition parties after allegations that the EVMs have been rigged to favour the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Election Commission had also thrown open EVM hackathon challenge, in which hardly any political party showed interest, to prove that the machines are incorruptible.

And now for the first time the poll watchdog has scientific proof to back up its claim.

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A forensic test, conducted on an EVM on the orders of Bombay High Court to check whether it can be tampered with, has proved that they found no evidence of manipulation in the machine.

It is for the first time an EVM underwent such a test.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE EVM'S LAB TEST: In May, the Bombay High Court had ordered examination of the EVMs from the Parvatti constituency in Pune. The order was issued to rule out tampering during elections to Maharashtra legislative assembly in 2014. The court had asked the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Hyderabad to examine the EVMs and opine as to whether they could have been remotely accessed. It also asked the lab to find out whether there was any additional memory chip with other data that could be activated to alter results of an election. One control unit, one ballot unit and two batteries were sent to the lab. An EVM comprises a control unit and a ballot unit. As per the report received from the lab, the machine is a stand alone, non-networked, one-time programmable unit, which is neither computer controlled externally nor could be connected internally or to any network. "Hence, it is opined that no evidence of tampering, altering or any other manipulation could be detected," the report said. The report was made public after being submitted to the high court. After the declaration of assembly poll results of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand, some parties had raised concerns over the credibility of EVMs used by the EC and had alleged tampering of the machines during the elections. In April, 13 parties had met the Commission and had urged it to revert to the old ballot paper system. After an all-party meet on the issue, the poll panel had organised a challenge to tamper with its EVMs. But no political party took part in the June 3 challenge. EVMs had replaced the ballot paper nearly 20 years ago.

(PTI inputs)

ALSO READ |

EVM row: Dhritarashtra EC wants Duryodhan to win, says Kejriwal; 13 parties to move poll panel today

How Election Commission patiently but strongly refuted allegations on EVM tampering

ALSO WATCH | Behind EVM row

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South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory have effectively declared no confidence in the federal government as it grapples with the question of whether to set up a clean energy target, deciding to go it alone and ask the Australian Energy Market Commission to draw up plans for one.

The clean energy target was the only recommendation of 50 made by chief scientist Alan Finkel not to be adopted unanimously when the state and Commonwealth energy ministers met in Brisbane on Friday.

The communique noted that the Commonwealth was still "carefully considering" the target and said the four states would separately ask the Commission to design a target as they were entitled to under its rules.
The co-deputy of the Greens, Scott Ludlam, has resigned after discovering he was ineligible to stand at last year's election, a bungle that paves the way for a 22-year-old disability advocate with cerebral palsy to take his place in Parliament.

Senator Ludlam, who was first elected to the Senate a decade ago, made the bombshell announcement in Perth on Friday afternoon.

The Western Australian, who was born in New Zealand but left when he was a child, was recently told he remains a dual citizen with that country, meaning he was disqualified from running for office at the 2007, 2013 and 2016 elections.
This is just part of the devilish difficulty that military planners face as they try to keep "all options on the table" as the Trump administration insists it is doing. Nobody is surprised by this language  diplomatic pressure is hardly persuasive without the ultimate threat of force to back it up. The problem as Bruce Bennett, a Korea expert from the RAND Corporation, points out is that "there are no good military options". It would be a war unlike any seen in generations, indeed perhaps ever if it were to go nuclear, which is entirely possible since many of the top experts believe the North already has the ability to fit a miniaturised fission device onto a medium-range missile. On paper, North Korea's military is the fourth-largest in the world, and US Defence Secretary James Mattis has said that "if this goes to a military solution, it's going to be tragic on an unbelievable scale". If it came to that, Australia would likely be involved. Under the 1953 armistice, Australia would as a signatory be expected to support South Korea if it was invaded by the North, some experts say. Indeed the United Nations force based in Japan to support South Korea is currently commanded by an RAAF officer. A spokesman for Defence Minister Marise Payne would not comment on "hypotheticals about what Australia might do in the event of a contingency on the Korean Peninsula". But he said the Armistice agreement was "not a mutual defence agreement".

Australian Strategic Policy Institute head Peter Jennings said that because of the US alliance and Australia's close economic relationship with South Korea, "we've got a big stake in the fight whether we like it or not". For now, the ball is in the court of the US and its allies in the sense that the North is cheerfully moving ahead with its nuclear and missile testing, shifting the balance day by day and making the calculus more difficult for the international community. So what are the near-term options for the US, South Korea and their allies, such as Japan? One that is most often suggested is some kind of surgical strike to take out the North's nuclear and missile facilities as well as its other most-threatening military assets. The problem with this is that it could not be done quickly or cleanly. Many of the nuclear sites and artillery and rocket batteries are dug into mountainsides and either hardened against attack or hidden.

It would take days, probably weeks, and involve hundreds of strike aircraft and missiles such as Tomahawks fired from US ships in the Sea of Japan. Meanwhile the North would hit back with everything it had. "People think we can fly in there or shoot some cruise missiles from the Sea of Japan and cleanly take them out," Kelly said. "It's not going to be like that. You're going to have to bomb the hell out of North Korea. That's not a surgical strike, that's a war. The notorious "Mother of All Bombs" that was dropped on the Taliban recently, Kelly says, was actually a signal to North Korea  a view shared by many experts. That's the kind of firepower you'd be talking about, he says.

Euan Graham, who once served as Britain's charge d'affaires in Pyongyang and now heads the Lowy Institute's international security program, has travelled through the area and makes the same observation about the North's batteries of artillery along the demilitarised zone that are aimed at Seoul just 40 kilometres away. "You see a little tunnel open at the base of a hill. That would be extremely difficult to close down. You'd need precision strikes otherwise they could just keep going in and out and resupplying theoretically until they ran out of ammunition." The ability to rain artillery down on the South's capital is really Kim Jong-un's trump card. A 2012 Nautilus Institute report found that the North could fire 4000 rounds of artillery an hour, which could kill 64,000 people on the first day, mostly in the first three hours. They would also likely target US military bases in South Korea and Japan.

The US and its allies could also consider a limited punitive strike against the Kim regime, a way of telling it to stop its nuclear program or it can expect more of the same  something like what Trump did to the Syrian regime after its use of chemical weapons. But can a hermit dictatorship see the difference between a limited and an all-out strike? The Kim dynasty has always been regarded as rational and occupied first and foremost with its own survival, though the current dictator is more reckless and provocative than his father or grandfather. But the regime is paranoid, experts agree. "An autocratic dictatorship like that is not socialised to trust or believe any kind of reassurances," said Daniel Pinkston, formerly with the International Crisis Group in Seoul and now at Troy University. "They're not going to believe we're committed to a limited operation  They're as likely to see it as the first stage of regime change and respond accordingly. We'd need to be prepared to use more force in return so I don't see how you can credibly commit to a limited strike."

The complex mechanism of deterrence and pre-emption between the North and South is a hair-trigger affair. Pulling the trigger first Late last year after seeing a string of nuclear tests by the North, Seoul unveiled a three-pillar policy to counter the threat. It consists of a "kill chain" system to carry out a pre-emptive strike against the nuclear facilities if the South is faced with an imminent threat, an air defence system to shoot down missiles and finally the "Korea massive punishment and retaliation plan"  whose name rather speaks for itself. Bennett says this pulls both sides towards a tendency for "pre-emption of pre-emption"  jumping before the other side does. The North meanwhile has an inbuilt incentive to escalate because its strengths are its heavy artillery and missiles, ultimately its nukes, whereas its conventional land forces are a case of quantity rather than quality and its air force is antiquated.

The South meanwhile has the US 8th Army's 2nd Infantry Division made up of American and Korean troops  including US special operations forces  backed up quickly by Marines from Okinawa. The Lowy's Graham says that some kind of repeat of the 1950s Korean War is unlikely. A report last year from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies similarly said that the peninsula's mountainous terrain combined with marshland and rice fields would force heavily armoured forces to use a handful of predictable routes. That said, the North does have a large number of special forces troops and is thought to have dug tunnels under the DMZ through which troops could pour. "The North would want to insert special forces deep into the South to wreak havoc and create problems, taking down the power grid or critical infrastructure  so that they might be able to create fear and undermine confidence in society," Pinkston said.

But overall, experts agree, the North's land forces would struggle. And in fact it is the weakness in the conventional domain that creates the risk the regime would go from nought to 100 rapidly and use its comparative strengths in rockets and missiles, including nukes. "What makes North Korea dangerous is its very weakness," said Graham. "It has no strategic depth, its conventional forces are no match for the [South Koreans] let alone the US and so there is the force of logic of escalation." This makes any idea of containment extremely difficult even if conflict starts from a simple miscalculation or accident. As Bennett put it: "You have a very low degree of crisis stability." And Pinkston added that "time is compressed because of the geographic proximity". In other words, with Seoul just 40 kilometres from the DMZ and Pyongyang about 135 kilometres from the zone, nobody has much time to think about how to respond in a crisis.

There is a common thinking among experts who spoke to Fairfax Media that Pyongyang might subscribe to the old Cold War thinking of "use it or lose it" regarding its nuclear weapons. Kim would know they are his enemies' prime target. "We have to assume that fairly early they are going to use them," Bennett said. The North also has large stockpiles of chemical and probably biological weapons. China's red line Where it gets "really interesting", Bennett continued, is in China's response. It is disconcertingly unclear because despite US efforts to sound Beijing out, the Chinese leadership has been reluctant to reveal where its own red lines are.

China needs North Korea as a buffer so that it doesn't have US or pro-American forces from South Korea on its own border. Therefore, Graham explains, a land occupation by the US north of the 38th parallel is generally seen as China's red line but then how far north is unclear. Pinkston says, "I can't see China sitting back and doing nothing". While the US and China would work hard to avoid some miscalculation between them, the thought of Chinese and US troops facing off even with a buffer between them would prickle nerves in the region. The other real problem is that the options are getting worse rather than better for the US and its allies as the North nears its goal of being able to deliver nuclear warheads across great distances including to the continental US.

The real question becomes how badly does the US want to stop North Korea from developing an intercontinental nuclear weapon that could could hit Los Angeles? Would the North use that new power to deter the US while it bullied the South or even tried to take it over? Opinions vary wildly on this. Kelly, who says he's no dove on North Korea, believes the nukes are more for defence and says there is no way the basket-case north could try and take over the south. Graham by contrast has a bleaker view of the North's intent, saying Kim might use his new power to coerce the South and drive the US out altogether. Which position is right determines whether it might be better to act sooner rather than later whatever the consequences. US senator Lindsey Graham for instance  an influential voice on security matters in Washington  is an advocate of acting sooner rather than later. Loading
While Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull swallowed his republican pride to meet Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace this week, it would be doubtful he could have missed the fabulous sparkling brooch Her Maj wore to mark the occasion: a diamond encrusted jewel in the form of a spray of wattle.

Indeed the wattle brooch, presented to her by Prime Minister Robert Menzies during the 1954 Commonwealth tour, remains one of her more popular baubles in the royal bling collection.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull meets the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Credit:Victoria Jones/Pool

A gift from the government and people of Australia, it comprises 150 white and yellow diamonds. Interestingly the gems were sourced from Europe rather than Australia's diamond fields, which weren't fully developed until the 1970s.

Designed and made by the Budapest-born jeweller Paul Schneller and commissioned by William Drummond & Co. of Melbourne, when the brooch first went on display in the jeweller's Melbourne window it drew crowds of admirers.
For the second time in three months, controversial Sydney socialite and publicist Roxy Jacenko's new multimillion-dollar offices have been attacked by vandals.

The beige building, home to Jacenko's business, Sweaty Betty, was splattered with red and blue paint, which appeared to have been delivered in dyed globs that had been thrown at the facade and windows.

Police were called to the Paddington address on Friday morning, while workers were frantically trying to remove the paint.

Jacenko's $300,000 Bentley convertible was parked outside the offices since early on Friday.
Unions have warned against further privatisation of Australia's borders, saying plans for private operators to run the nation's visa system could undermine a core function of government.

Fairfax Media reported this week private operators would take over large parts Australia's visa system as part of Department of Immigration and Border Protection plans to avoid cost blow-outs and cope with booming demand.

Peter Dutton says the amendments aim to clarify the laws so that they "reflect the original policy intent". Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The government floated changes to let private companies administer tests, detect fraud and recommend decisions to grant or refuse visas.

Large parts of the visa system would be transitioned to new contracts valued at up to $9 billion over 10 years.
Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd has blamed unions and protracted bargaining for top-heavy pay growth in federal departments, where the highest-paid roles have seen wage rises almost double those of the rank and file since 2006.

But the main public service union has rejected the claim, saying the Coalition government's wage freeze in bargaining combined with different remuneration rules for senior executives had caused the growth gap.

Australian Public Service commisioner John Lloyd. Credit:Jay Cronan

Median salary for level SES 3 positions grew to $327,000 last year - up 64 per cent from $198,994 a decade earlier. The growth easily outstripped every other public service ranking, which averaged 34 per cent at the APS levels.

The SES 3 pay rises were 14 percentage points higher than SES 2 jobs over the period and 21 percentage points higher than graduate wage growth.
It's one of Sydney's worst-kept secrets.

For the past year the Independent Commission Against Corruption has been conducting a major investigation into allegedly corrupt planning decisions made by the former Canterbury council.

Michael Hawatt has denied any wrongdoing. Credit:Brendan Esposito

Depending on who you talk to, what has been uncovered is rumoured to be bigger than Wollongong council  but without the sex.

In 2006, ICAC raided Wollongong council. What investigators discovered led to the "table of knowledge" sex-and-bribery scandal which rocked the council and cast a shadow over multimillion-dollar planning decisions.
Last October, when Mike Baird announced he was backing down from his decision to ban greyhound racing in NSW, he didn't muck around. "I got it wrong," declared the then premier. "We got it wrong, the cabinet got it wrong and the government got it wrong."

It was one of the great political capitulations in the face of a massive, damaging campaign by the industry and sections of the media the government had been forced to endure for months. Clearly, Baird hoped his blunt language would achieve not only an end to the campaign but also convey that he was that rare type of politician capable of sufficient reflection to acknowledge when he had stuffed up.

As was noted at the time, it was straight out of the playbook of former Queensland Labor Premier Peter Beattie who became known for his willingness to admit error when changing or dumping policies.

It failed to save the Nationals in the ensuing Orange byelection but did deliver the political dividend of ridding the government of an issue starving it of clear air.
"Even the most amazing things didn't make me happy," he says. The day his son was born, Joshua was watching the clock, waiting for the moment he could slink away into one of the hospital's bathroom cubicles to place his bets. "Nothing registered. Nothing made me happy, or made me feel anything but empty. Not being a father, or a husband. Nothing." Joshua says. "Except sex." The diagnosis that doesn't exist

"Sex addiction" is a fraught phrase. Its very existence is at the crux of long-running debates between proponents and critics among psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, counsellors and others in the medical and addiction fields. The tensions traverse a litany of clinical and cultural landmines, from adequate evidence-based diagnostic criteria to vested interests and social taboos and moralism. But the core contention is whether "sex addiction" strays dangerously close to medicalising normal sexual behaviour. Could people with hearty sexual appetites be slapped with a psychiatric diagnosis? Or has it become a convenient excuse for unfaithful partners that attracts pity instead of divorce proceedings, promoted by high-profile celebrities publicly detailing their own sex addiction demons? Is one person's sexual addiction another's weekend of endless orgasms?

Proponents argue it's a fitting diagnosis for patients experiencing a preoccupation with sex to the point of obsession. Sex addicts have lost control over their sexual urges, fantasies and behaviours, causing severe damage to their wellbeing. It ruins relationships, careers, finances, and mental health. It often piggybacks substance addictions, or other behavioural addictions like drugs and alcohol. The shame of the addiction alone can be devastating, according to the US-based International Institute of Trauma and Addiction Professionals, which runs a certified sex addiction therapist program. Sexual disorders are not recognised as addictions in the two medical tomes used to categorise mental illness. "Sex Addiction" and "Hypersexual disorder'' were rejected for inclusion in the current psychiatrist's bible, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual published in 2013. The DSM-5 does include an intriguing list of eight paraphilic disorders  or sexual disorders  exhibitionism, fetishism, frotteurism (rubbing one's genitals against an unsuspecting stranger, usually in a public place), paedophilia (attraction to prepubescent children), voyeurism, transvestic fetishism (sexually arousing cross-dressing), sadism and masochism. Sexual disorders had a fraught history of medicalising sexual appetites. Credit:Dionne Gain The manual also includes the catch-all "paraphilic disorder not otherwise specified" (PDNOS), a diagnostic home for the dozen or more paraphilias identified including necrophilia (attraction to corpses), zoophilia (sexual fixation on animals) and podophilia (foot fetishism).

Sex addiction is also absent from the World Health Organisation's ICD-10 (International Statistical Classification of Disease). However, the diagnosis "excessive sexual drive" is included as a compulsive behavioural disorder. But some psychiatry academics have suggested doctors use loopholes to diagnose their sex addict patients (especially in the US, where insurance is predicated on an official diagnosis) most commonly the DSM-5 categories "other specified sexual dysfunction" and "unspecified sexual dysfunction". "It's highly contentious," former Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry president Dr Mal Hopwood says. "There is certainly not universal agreement about there it should be diagnosed at all. "Australian psychiatrists in general view it as something to be considered with great caution," Hopwood says.

No large epidemiological studies have investigated the prevalence of sexual addiction. A systematic literature review estimated people with symptoms of compulsive sexual behaviour could be somewhere between 3 to 6 per cent, though critics argue this is excessive. Despite the lack of an official diagnosis, private rehabilitation clinics have catered to a boom in behavioural addictions in recent years, including sex addiction. The RANZCP has called for increasing regulation for private addiction treatment centres in Australia and overseas. The rise of for-profit private operators providing services to vulnerable people for a contentious condition warranted scrutiny, Hopwood says. But there was little doubt patients that are trying to wrest back control of their lives.

"All addiction problems [alcohol, drug, behavioural] share the fact that they can have a dreadful impact on people's lives and that of their partners and children,"Hopwood says. Finding treatment for a taboo Joshua's wife gave him an ultimatum: go to rehab or she would leave him. She took their children and moved interstate. "She said she'd get a lawyer, divorce me and I'd only have visitations with my kids," Joshua says. "I was so worn down. I had to sell my car, my boat. I had hit rock bottom and I was heading for suicide. I thought that was it, that I'd never see my kids again. So I gave in."

His wife did her research and footed the $14,000 bill for a 28-day program at The Cabin, Chiang Mai, Thailand, a rehabilitation centre for alcohol, drug and process, or behavioural addictions. "All I had to do was book the flight and that alone was a really big deal. It meant admitting I had a problem, but I didn't know what it was " he says. A lack of an official diagnosis leaves vulnerable patients caught in the middle of the sex addiction debate, says psychotherapist and sex addiction therapist at The Cabin, Brian Russman. "People look at sex addiction as immoral or from a religious standpoint and say to someone with a possible sex addiction that they are weak-willed because we don't have a legitimate diagnosis and it makes it difficult to offer them treatment," Russman says. The safeguard should be straightforward: to diagnose sex addiction  or any mental illness  the tipping point must be whether a person's symptoms are causing them harm.

"We don't make diagnoses on behaviours," Russman says. "If someone has kinks, fetishes, or even has a lot of sex that wouldn't necessarily make them a sex addict. "What defines a sex addict is the same addiction criteria we see in other process [behavioural] and chemical addictions. Preoccupation, withdrawal, negative consequences, internal conflict, shame, guilt, the inability to control, moderate or manage sexual activity." Historically the "harm" failsafe has been monumentally flawed for conditions that flaunt cultural taboos. When harm includes shame, isolation, depression and anxiety, the way a society moralises sex could be the difference between a mental illness diagnosis or a Casanova.

"We need to be very careful of how we make diagnoses subject to ambiguity of social and cultural views," Hopwood says. "There are significant cultural variations in a lot of flux. What we might have thought was problematic 15 years ago, we clearly have different ideas now." Madness From The Womb The history of sexual disorders is paved with women whose sexuality has been poked, prodded and derided by the clinical fraternity. Seventeenth century France, physician Lazare Riviere described a malady of epidemic proportions affecting French women. He declared unchaste women with insatiable sexual appetites and young girls pleasuring themselves were afflicted with "madness from the womb", in which noxious gases from their "seed" would infect their nervous systems and mental faculties.

Riviere's treatments for women so afflicted included leeches applied to the labia, baths filled cold lettuce heads, and shunning dances and romance stories. "Even a normally pious and reserved woman could go insane with passion this way," New Zealand academic Jesse Bering wrote in Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us. In the Victorian era, women and teenage girls with particularly stubborn cases of persistent masturbation underwent surgical clitoridectomies (female circumcision) to quell their ability to feel sexual pleasure, in some cases without their consent. The current ICD-10 still uses the gendered and archaic categories "satyriasis" for men and "nymphomania" for women. "Whereas mere masturbation was often enough to get a woman diagnosed with nymphomania, a man had to exhibit an extraordinary degree of carnality to receive a diagnosis of satyriasis," Bering wrote.

Men were also much more likely to be punished as criminals than treated as patients. Not so anymore. Men are diagnosed in far greater numbers than women, and make up the bulk of patients treated in rehab centres. Russman says "sex addiction" is no crutch or excuse for an unfaithful spouse. He doesn't allow patients to abdicate responsibility, and neither should their families. "Consequences are incredibly important for driving change and recognising the need to make changes in their life," Russman says. "I believe addiction is an illness and disease, however I don't believe it is an excuse to accept unacceptable behaviour. Loved ones need to make a decision about what's safe and appropriate for them.

"[They may say] 'I love you to death, but I'm not going to stick around for your addiction'." The Cabin After Joshua touched down in Thailand, the first person he met was a recovering addict. All counsellors at the Cabin are recovering addicts. Experience of addiction is a core part of the treatment process as staff can both embody hope of recovery and have a keen understanding of an addict's thought processes. "An addict will die an addict," several counsellors and clients say, regardless the length of their sobriety. Addiction is a constant. The compulsion is ingrained, but can be managed.

In appearance, The Cabin in the foothills of north Thailand's mountains is less rehab centre and more luxury holiday resort, in keeping with the property's previous career. The Cabin, Chiang Mai looks more luxury resort than rehab centre. The steep cost is more affordable than many Australian rehab clinics. There is little indication that guests are addiction patients. But there are a few incongruous inclusions. On arrival, luggage is rigorously searched for contraband by staff familiar with ways to hide drugs or pornography. Male and female living quarters are separated, and internet access is strictly controlled.

All clients must commit to complete sobriety, regardless of their addiction. No drugs, alcohol, sexual activity including masturbation, pornography or gambling. Sex and sobriety The first step is getting a person sober. Sexually sober, Russman says. "The foundation of sobriety is essential." But sobriety for sex addicts is not as cut-and-dry as it is for alcohol or drug addictions.

"We treat it a lot like eating disorders. You can't give up food and thankfully for sex addicts it's not about giving up sex entirely forever," Russman says. "It's about identifying behaviours that are addictive and unhealthy and will lead them back to full blown addiction, whether it be pornography, anonymous sex or sex work." The Cabin's inpatient program involves talk therapies, including psychotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy, the "12-Steps method", and a holistic approach to managing addiction including investigating core beliefs, mindfulness, meditation, and making lifestyle changes including nutrition, sleep hygiene, as well as psycho education. "We teach these guys what's going on in their brains to help them understand why we do the things we do," Russman says. "The evidence for sex addiction is much more concrete that it has previously been."

Sex addiction therapist Brian Russman during a psychoeducation session at The Cabin, Chiang Mai But the research-base for treatment models is as contentious as the diagnosis itself. "There is clear evidence about what works for traditional addictions like alcohol and opiates. There are well-established models for psychiatrist therapy, social rehabilitation and pharmacotherapy," Hopwood says. "We don't have clear evidence about what effective treatment are for behavioural addictions."

Even with evidence-based treatment, Hopwood says the relapse rate for addiction in general is "very high". The relapse rate is between 40 and 60 per cent, according to the US National Institute of Drug Abuse. The Cabin records a high recovery rate among its patients, which measures how many complete its inpatient program, but does not keep records of long-term recovery rates. For Joshua and other patients who spoke to Fairfax Media, The Cabin's most potent antidote for addiction was the connection they made with other addicts. "Knowing that I wasn't alone. I can't tell you how important that was. I realised that I wasn't the only one with these problems and my problems weren't the worst in the world," Joshua says.

"You're not ostracised. You're sitting in a room all suffering from the same disease. I barely drink and barely used drugs, but you hear the story of an alcoholic and you put their blueprint over my own? It's exactly the same." Joshua had been back in Australia and 84 days sober when he spoke to Fairfax Media. "It's a battle, but I take recovery three minutes at a time," he says. "My wife has moments where she gets triggered because of the things I've done. But she says that I'm such a different person now. She says 'I've never seen you so happy and content'." He found ways to connect with her in unlikely forms.
India Today team met several beef sellers and spoke to them about cow vigilantism and the revelations made by them were shocking.

By Divyesh Singh, Saurabh Vaktania, Mustafa Shaikh: There have been several cases across the country where beef transporters or even meat transporters were lynched on suspicion of carrying beef by self-styled gau rakshaks from various right-wing factions. India Today team met several beef sellers and spoke to them about the issue and the revelations made by beef sellers were shocking.

The information revealed by beef sellers and transporters pointed towards groups of these self-styled gau rakshaks, who had started making easy money threatening them, if they failed to pay a premium to get their consignment into area near Mumbai, their consignments would be destroyed and they'll be lynched.

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In broad daylight, these gau rakshaks pose as saviours of cows, but their real intentions were exposed when India Today conducted a detailed ground investigation through two sting operations at two major entry points of Mumbai.

GAU RAKSHAKS REAL INTENTIONS

The first sting operation was carried out on the outskirts of Mumbai on a very important national highway which comes from Gujarat carrying heavy transport. We are talking about Wada-Bhiwandi highway which originates from Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway near Manor and reaches interior Thane district passing through the Wada taluka. It is one of the most dreaded routes for businessmen getting beef from Gujarat.

On this very route is a very famous cow shelter named Gopala Gaushala in a village named Angaon. The Gopala Gaushala runs regular patrol on the highway and nearby areas with the help of Bajrang Dal activists and the team is called as Gashti Pathak. Members of the Gashti Pathak are feared by beef businessmen as they have built an image of being cow protectors, who destroy, damage if beef is found being transported irrespective of whether it's cows, bulls or bullock beef.

When we approached one of the key members of the Gashti Pathak, seeking protection for the beef we were getting from Gujarat and was to be sold in Mumbai. The person called us for multiple meetings and finally what he revealed was shocking. He agreed to give protection for a decided sum and also assured that once he was in the vehicle transporting the beef, no one including police would bother to stop the vehicle.

The Gopal Gaushala has been infamous amongst beef businessmen who cater to areas of Bhiwandi which is Muslim-dominated suburb of Mumbai.

Businessmen claim that earlier when the deals were not struck with Gaushala's Bajrang Dal activists, they would destroy the beef by throwing diesel and coal tar over it making it inedible.

BAJRANG DAL GASHTI PATHAK

The Gaushala also has a website which boasts of cow protection and activities of the Bajrang Dal Gashti Pathak (Bajrang Dal Patrolling squad). India Today reporters initially surveyed the area after meeting some beef sellers and came to know about the Gopala Gaushala and its Bajrang Dal Gashti Pathak. Accordingly the undercover reporters, initially posed as informers, met a Bajrang Dal person to provide tip-off regarding a consignment. He provided us with the number of Vasudev Patil, who is a very active gau rakshak and member of Bajrang Dal Gashti Pathak.

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The reporters called Vasudev posing as beef businessmen asking for his support and protection to bring a beef consignment safely from the Bhiwandi Wada Road. When he finally met, the meeting was recorded using a spycam. The location he chose for the meeting was an isolated spot on the highway so that he couldn't be seen by any other people. It was shocking that the same person who was referred by his fellow Bajrang Dal member from the same village for alleged seizure of a vehicle carrying beef had now started conversation on how he can assure the safe delivery of the consignment carrying beef. During conversation, he assures protection, in fact, he said he would himself sit in the vehicle and escort it safely to our destination.

Talking to India Today reporters, Vasudev, who is referred to as Vasu in his village, said, "I will get your consignment delivered safely to the said destination. You don't have to worry as now you are in touch with me. Just let me know when the vehicle arrives, I will personally sit in the vehicle and when I am around, no Bajrang Dal activists or even police will dare to stop the vehicle."

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Vasudev had been careful about the meeting and didn't want to be seen by other members of his village Gaushala during the meeting. He was more than keen on helping the India Today reporters who posed as beef businessmen.

During the conversation, he said, "We would patrol this stretch and now you don't have to worry."

Seeking details of the consignment, Vasudev asked how much beef was being brought, in what vehicle, would it be chopped and what could be it worth in the market?

He said, "I want you to be honest with me. Don't contact anyone else now. Also, don't mention anything about beef over the phone. Just call me whenever the consignment is going to be here. I will wait here at this very spot and then board the vehicle."

Once the conversation was about be completed, Vasudev discussed about the money he would charge, he said, per vehicle he would need Rs 20000 for which the reporters bargain and finally the deal was fixed at Rs 15000 per vehicle.

THE SECOND STING OPERATION

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The second sting operation was conducted in Navi Mumbai which is another major entry point to Mumbai.

A large amount of meat, beef is brought from areas like Pune, Ahmednagar and nearby areas to Mumbai and they have to cross Kalamboli and Panvel to reach Mumbai. This is where another active group of gau rakshaks who are associated with Shiv Sena are active.

While doing the investigations, India Today reporters found a person identified as DN Mishra who is former Shakha Pramukh of Shiv Sena in Kalamboli, Navi Mumbai. India Today reporters found it hard to believe how party who propagates Hindutva and his men were involved in such unethical work. The reporters got a call from his associate/relative Rajesh who told us he manages work for Mishra. India Today reporters started conversation with him. Mishra and Rajesh both had contested civic elections in Panvel, but lost.

Once Rajesh met the reporters, he explains that due to UP's Yogi Adityanath cow beef is difficult to get. Shockingly, he also reveals that once he had caught one person with beef on highway. He tried to settle the issue demanding money, but the person did not accept his offer after which his group burnt down the whole vehicle for which a case is registered against him.

Rajesh then took the two India Today reporters to Mishra's Shiv Sena office. Mishra, who was seating in his cabin, he then introduced himself the two reporters. Mishra asked about the consignment and documents for carrying the consignment.

HOW GAU RAKSHAKS LET BEEF TRANSPORTERS TO PASS THROUGH

Talking to the reporters, Rajesh said, "We will settle with the zonal DCP and also help you with the documents with help of a doctor. Bringing cow beef is risky, but you can bring it by mixing it with buffalo beef."

When reporters ask Rajesh how will he be able to prepare documents for transportation of beef being brought from Sangamner, Rajesh says that they have been doing this for a long time and there's nothing to worry.

Mishra assures that the consignment will pass the area and the reporters need not worry. He boasts about his connections saying, "I have been here for around eighteen years and have direct links with the Matoshree. From Uddhav Thackeray to everyone in the party knows me well, even the supremo (Referring to Bal Thackeray) know me well. We have very good rapport in this area. All senior leaders have farm houses in our area."

Rajesh takes over the conversation, and talks to the reporters, " This is our Shiv Sena office, we also have a office on highway. We carry out patrolling for the whole night looking for suspicious vehicles carrying beef. Locals respect us over here. We have done a lot of work for them in the area."

The two case studies expose the ongoing racket being run by self-styled gau rakshaks who are nothing but extorting money from meat and beef sellers in name of gau raksha.

ALSO READ:

Mob lynching India's shocking war within, a challenge Narendra Modi must confront

Killing in the name of gau raksha must stop: Mamata

Main suspect in Junaid lynching arrested from Maharashtra

Send gau rakshaks to fight terrorists, quips Uddhav

WATCH THE VIDEO:

--- ENDS ---
Brisbane's brewing industry has had explosive growth in the past five years with many brewers reverting back to how it was when the industry started and setting up in the suburbs.

Founder of Beer Matt and Australian Brews News Matt Kirkegaard said he was not surprised by the resurgence of local breweries and said beer had always been a local product.

Brisbane's brewing industry has had explosive growth in the past five years. Credit:Arsineh Houspian

"Unlike wine, beer doesn't travel very well. So pretty much every little town, every city would have had at least one brewery supplying its local market, because that was the way to get good fresh beer," he said.

"That started to change with the growth of railways and the ability to rapidly send beer larger distances and still keep it fresh, that started to put pressure on some of the smaller regional breweries.
Hanna Aase, founder and CEO of video-profile platform Wonderloop, recalls sessions pitching investors for capital that often resulted in more pick-up lines than term sheets. The common explanation for women raising a sliver of the financing essential to start a business is that venture capitalists tend to back entrepreneurs who have succeeded before or who fit a certain mould, like Google co-creator Larry Page. Credit:AP "The second question I get after 'What do you do?' is 'What do you do for fun?'" she says. "The third investor question: 'Do you like being called Hannah Montana?'" Some women have thrown up their hands, frustrated by years of pitches that go nowhere or quickly segue into invitations for a late-night drink. A small but growing number of women are forming women-only investment networks, or raising starter capital in other ways. Great way to get to work - one of the many attractions of Silicon Valley. Credit:JasonDoiy

With venture capital's big money bro-culture behaviour coming to light, there's a new fear, mingled with the relief: That, in reaction, male financiers will avoid women founders altogether. There's talk of some men following the "Mike Pence rule," referring to the vice president's comment years ago that he does not eat alone with any women other than his wife. Lisa Curtis, founder and CEO of food start-up Kuli Kuli, says she has already heard of investors cancelling meetings with female founders and she's worried. "I think that's the wrong reaction," Curtis says. In 2014, Lisa Wang met with a Silicon Valley venture firm to seek funding for her business. The partners mistook her as the assistant to her chief operating officer, who was an older man. Credit:LinkedIn Gaining access to the capital, counsel and contacts they need to turn a big idea into the next big thing is already tough enough, women say. When Tripping.com's O'Neal walks into the room, she says she's usually the only woman in it. In hundreds of pitch meetings, she has only ever encountered a handful of female venture capitalists.

Chrissa McFarlane, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based start-up Patientory.com, which uses blockchain to secure digital health records, says when she was trying to raise seed money in Silicon Valley, she was the only African-American woman - and the only African American period - anywhere in sight. She says she's sure she would have had more luck landing an investment had she been a white or Asian man in a hoodie. Levelling the playing field Even as women - and women of colour - scale corporate ranks, the number of female investing partners at venture capital firms is shrinking. In 1999, 10 per cent of the partners were women. By 2014, it was 6 per cent. Many top venture capital firms in Silicon Valley don't have a single female investing partner. And, when they do, many female investors feel so heavily scrutinised for taking risks on other women that they limit how frequently they make those investments. That's a significant challenge for women, who are starting their own tech companies in greater numbers even as the funding gap between male- and female-led start-ups keeps widening. Last year male entrepreneurs received $US58.2 billion in venture capital. Women received $US1.5 billion, or just 2.5 per cent. None of the most highly valued tech start-ups, called unicorns, has a female chief executive, though studies show that companies with female leadership perform better than those with male leadership. According to venture firm First Round Capital, its investments in companies with at least one female founder performed 63 per cent better than the all-male founder teams.

Until recently, bringing home some big returns has insulated venture capital from criticism over the lopsided demographics of investments. But being outed for sexist and discriminatory behavior is drawing troubling parallels to the "boom-boom room" era of Wall Street in the 1980s and 1990s. So far, the uproar has prompted the resignations of two investors who purportedly used their positions to make unwanted sexual advances to women. This week, Ignition Partners, a venture firm in Bellevue, Wash., said it asked for a partner's resignation after a complaint of misconduct. Several women who are trying to raise money for their start-ups told USA Today they are still too fearful of reprisals to publicly complain about inappropriate behavior. But more women are speaking out about their experiences. 'Don't complain, don't talk about it' Melinda Epler, founder and CEO of Change Catalyst, a group that promotes diversity in the tech industry, says she scrapped her plans to open an accelerator for women-led companies shortly after meeting with a potential investor and diversity ally at a coffee shop.

He moved his hand close to hers, let his knee brush against hers and advised her that male investors would find her attractive and she should say nothing when they spoke to her or touched her in inappropriate ways. "Don't complain, don't talk about it," he said. "Because investors talk to each other, you'll be blacklisted and you'll never be able to raise money." Some investors and trade groups are exploring ways to stamp out this sort of behavior. LinkedIn founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman has called on venture capitalists to sign a decency pledge. Sallie Krawcheck, the Wall Street veteran who is now CEO and founder of digital investment platform for women Ellevest, says they should sign a funding pledge instead. Women say they can't always be sure lacking a Y chromosome is the reason they don't land funding, but they know the playing field is far from equal. It takes them longer to secure funding and the checks are frequently smaller, the valuations lower. Research shows that women seeking funding are asked very different questions than men (about risks versus prospects) and are held to higher standards (judged on what they have already achieved versus what they have the potential to achieve), both of which affect how much, if any, capital they receive. A study in Sweden found that venture capitalists describe male entrepreneurs as "young and promising" and female entrepreneurs as "young and inexperienced." If they are pitching a product targeted at women, female founders frequently get told: "I'll check with my wife."

It's still common for women to be mistaken for someone's assistant and asked to fetch coffee when they arrive to pitch a start-up - or to be ignored. In the early years of her company, O'Neal says she prepared the pitch decks and led the pitch meetings but investors only addressed her male co-founder. He'd shake his head, point at her and say: "You should ask the CEO that question." Unlike men, women say they have to strike the right balance during these presentations. They can't come off too aggressive (then they are labelled a "bitch") or too soft (then they couldn't possibly run a billion-dollar corporation). Wonderloop's Aase says business meeting questions often turn to probing talk of her personal life. "You must have other needs than work," they say to her. "What does your boyfriend say about you travelling for work so much?" they ask. She eventually raised $US350,000 from private investors and angel investors. So many men behaving badly - even ones who publicly claim to support women in technology - has driven some women to seek alternative forms of funding.

Change Catalyst's Epler, who went on to start conferences and career fairs that promote inclusion in the tech industry, says she frequently advises women and underrepresented minorities not to waste their time trying to raise money from venture capitalists. 'It was all part of their game' Carmen Benitez, founder and managing director of a Singapore tech start-up called Fetch Plus, says she's one tech entrepreneur who no longer bothers. Benitez was delighted while working in an incubator to meet two well-known American investors. She says they dangled the potential of funding to get her to socialise with them. Months later when no funding came through, she cut ties. "It was all part of their game," she says. In 2014, Lisa Wang met with a Silicon Valley venture firm to seek funding for her on-demand, late-night munchies delivery service Fooze. The partners mistook her as the assistant to her chief operating officer, who was an older man.

An angel investor who expressed interest in Fooze invited her to drinks. When she arrived for the meeting, she found herself at a dance club where business wasn't discussed. At 2am when the investor pressured her to take him back to her place, she refused. She never heard from him again with the exception of one terse text message. Eventually Wang decided to ditch her pursuit of venture funding. Fooze was eventually sold to a serial entrepreneur on the East Coast this year for an undisclosed sum. Today Wang runs SheWorx, a collective of 20,000 female entrepreneurs trying to close the funding gap. What's alarming to Wang and others: That funding gap could have lasting consequences. The nation's booming tech sector is the 21st century's gold rush, forging companies and fortunes for decades to come. There's plenty of risk in maintaining status quo for venture capitalists as well, warns diversity advocate and venture capitalist Freada Kapor Klein. With rapidly shifting demographics, neglecting to fund businesses started by women and people of colour could significantly undercut returns for venture capital firms, she says. "There are going to be more and more women, more women of colour and more men of colour who are going to be founders. The employees and consumers of those businesses, even if we are just talking in the US, are increasingly people of colour," Klein says. "Unless (venture capitalists) have diversity at the table, they are going to miss out on a huge opportunity."
Smoke billows from Islamic State positions on the edge of the Old City, a day after Iraq's Prime Minister declared "total victory" in Mosul. Credit:AP ISalso reportedly booby-trapped much of the city's water infrastructure. But other towns and cities have been trashed too  more than 3 million people have been displaced; as many as 11 million need help to live. Ranj Alaaldin is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Doha. He writes: "There is little to suggest that the Baghdad government has either the capacity or vision to move the country forward. This is, after all, a political class that has received billions of dollars in support and investment from the international community over the past decade, yet has little to show for it." And that's just half of the problem. Mosul and Iraq's fate will be guided by events in neighbouring Syria as much as in Iraq. It's only a matter of time before Raqqa, the IS stronghold in Syria, falls to forces backed by the US-led coalition  and anticipating Raqqa's collapse, a new conflict dynamic is emerging, further threatening the region's long-term stability as heavily armed militias and their regional and international patrons position for dominance and control.

To varying degrees, intractable internal conflicts that post-Saddam Baghdad refused to address still fester. In particular, how to share the country's potentially vast oil revenue between Sunni and Shiite Arabs and Kurds; and how to allow the Sunnis a voice in political and civil affairs; and Kurdish territorial and autonomy claims. In Iraq, a stubborn refusal by successive Shiite-dominated administrations to share power and cash with the Sunni Arab community created the tension and distrust, resentment and victimhood that drove many Sunnis to join or to support IS. In Syria, Bashar al-Assad's refusal to soften the dictatorship gifted to him by his father created the civil war and chaos in which IS, a product of the post-invasion chaos in Iraq, was able to thrive. Amidst the IS crisis in Iraq, the Kurds seized more territory in the north, the oil-rich area around the city of Kirkuk in particular, and now they have set September 25 for an independence referendum. In turn, that has triggered debate among Sunnis about autonomy or independence. But with oil absent in the areas where they dominate, they'd still be seeking a cut of the national revenue. Troubling for Iraqi Sunnis too, is a push into the north and west of the country by Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation Units [PMU] who now control strategic turf through which key roads run to the Syrian border, underpinning what is read as a grand design by Tehran to secure a corridor through Iraq and Syria to the Mediterranean.

These are armed Shiite militias, elements of which battled US and Iraqi government forces in the aftermath of Saddam's collapse. To varying degrees, they are being absorbed into the national security forces and their political allegiances gives Iran further representation in the halls of power in Baghdad. "Today the highway of resistance starts in Tehran and reaches Mosul, Damascus and Beirut," Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, said in Tehran earlier this month. Along with Russia, Iran exercises great influence as a critical ally to the Assad regime in Syria; and to the government in Iraq, where Tehran capitalises on its standing as a powerful neighbour, as opposed to Washington, a distant supporter, whose commitment is at the whim of fickle political will in the US. And like the Kurds, because the PMU militias have proved themselves as fighters, they are throwing their weight around, giving rise to greater fears in the Sunni community. "Iran is further deploying and strengthening its military and political proxies in Iraq," Institute for the Study of War intelligence planner Jennifer Cafarella told Fairfax Media. "It's gearing up for the coming Iraqi elections, hoping to reduce US influence  either by the election of a weak Prime Minister who it can shape; or who is pro-Iranian."

Parsing the Iranian push into Iraq as fuel for a resurgent IS, or a new Sunni movement that would appeal for the loyalty of disenfranchised Sunnis, Cafarella asks: "What is left of the Iraq that Sunnis believed in? The government is penetrated by Iranian proxies and none of the concessions demanded by Sunnis have been granted." The US withdrew from Iraq in 2011, but returning to help Baghdad fight IS, it now has more than 5000 troops and special forces in Iraq at a cost of billions of dollars. Inevitably, their presence in the country will be a key election issue. The sense of a looming crisis was highlighted this week by Obama administration defence secretary Ash Carter, who wrote in an op-ed: "I am less concerned about the military campaign in Iraq than the political and economic campaigns that must follow. "Unless Iraqis are satisfied with what comes next, there will be a slide back to chaos and radicalism. I also believe that a sustained US military presence will be needed in order to improve Iraqi security forces and enable them to keep the peace." Carter then turned on Moscow, accusing Russia President Vladimir Putin of intervening militarily in Syria under the pretence of fighting terrorism and inducing a political transition away from Assad: "Putin did neither. Any broader US co-operation with Russia beyond deconflicting military operations would require Moscow to meet conditions that it has never met. The US should avoid being enticed by new Putin gambits along the same lines."

That seemed to be a stab at the partial ceasefire for Syria's south-west, agreed in Hamburg last week between Putin, US President Donald Trump and Jordan  and which most analysts fear will go the same way as its several failed predecessors. Making it sound like a done deal, Trump tweeted on Sunday: "We negotiated a ceasefire in parts of Syria which will save lives." But some reports say that critical detail, like who will monitor the ceasefire, is still being finalised. Ryan Crocker, whose various ambassadorships under Democrat and Republican administrations included Syria and Iraq, was withering in his critique: "Who's party to the ceasefire? Not the jihadists, not al-Qaeda nor [IS]. Even if  and it's a big if  those who are party to it want to keep it, it will be sabotaged. No doubt." Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi seemingly concurred: "No agreement would be successful without taking the realities on the ground into account."

And while all that was going on, less attention was being paid to the money question  who will fund the reconstruction of Mosul in Iraq and Aleppo in Syria and all the other towns and cities that have been destroyed in conflicts that have seen hundreds of thousands die and millions displaced? An emergency United Nations call for $US985 million for immediate humanitarian aid for Mosul has received pledges for less than half that amount. London has allocated about $US12 billion to support private investment in Iraqi infrastructure, through UK Export Finance, its export credit agency. And for now, Canberra is hedging its bets. Asked on Tuesday how Canberra might pitch in on Mosul's reconstruction, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop held to existing commitments, telling ABC Radio host Kim Landers: "In April we provided $10 million to meet immediate humanitarian needs and we're providing $100 million over the next three years to support critical stabilisation efforts and to lock in these security gains." A sad irony plays on two levels.

Something akin to a unifying sense of national purpose prevailed in Iraq as attention focused on defeating IS in the three years since it captured Mosul. Now that the battle has been won, the war will continue on different sectarian, political and economic fronts  fertile territory for the next iteration of IS to emerge. And it could be the same, perhaps even more consequential, in Syria once Raqqa falls. As in Iraq, national and non-state players in the conflict are already eyeing new Syrian turf  with a determination that leads some analysts to conclude that as with Iraq, the Syria we know may not survive  and that the US is on the verge of a direct or proxy conflict with Iran. Loading Asked about the future of Syria in the wake of IS' defeat at Mosul and chances that the Trump-Putin partial ceasefire might make a difference, veteran CIA analyst Bruce Riedel was as succinct as he was pessimistic.
Bangkok: New shocking cases of Filipino mothers live-streaming their children performing sex acts for foreigners have emerged as Australian MPs move to toughen punishment for Australian child cybersex offenders.

Police said they arrested a 35-year-old mother offering her five-year-old daughter to customers online in exchange for money, during a raid in Bacolod City, the capital of Negros Occidental, an impoverished Philippine province.

Police conduct a raid in Bacolod City, the capital of Negros Occidental, an impoverished Philippine province.

Seven children  two two-year-olds, two five-year-olds and others aged 14, 15, and 17 were rescued and taken into protective custody on Wednesday, police said. One of the two-year-old girls is the daughter of the arrested woman.

In May, Australian Federal Police helped expose a cybersex ring operating in the cybersex hotspot 717 kilometres south of Manila. The ring was live-streaming explicit videos of children to men in Australia and the United States.
Supporters of Chris Gard and Connie Yates look on as Reverend Patrick Mahoney speaks to the media outside the High Court in London on July 10. Credit:Getty Images "I did not say that," Yates said, and left the courtroom with his wife. On their return after a lunch adjournment, the judge said "I completely understand this is desperate for you". Charlie Gard at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Credit:Gard Family/AP Charlie suffers from mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome  he is one of just 16 children in the world with the rare genetic condition which gradually weakens muscles and damages organs including the brain.

Doctors said he was unable to see, hear, move, cry or swallow, and it was only the hospital machines that were keeping him alive. The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard, Connie Yates and Chris Gard arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, on Thursday. Credit:PA In April the High Court ruled that it was not in Charlie's best interests that he undergo nucleoside therapy. This was described as a pioneering treatment, available in the USA, but which had never been used on patients with this kind of disease  and experts had told the court it could not heal brain damage. (The treatment would aim to give Charlie naturally occurring compounds his body can't produce to restore his mitochondrial DNA.) The court concluded that Charlie had suffered severe and irreversible brain damage, and "the treatment was potentially painful but incapable of achieving anything positive for him". His doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital said he had reached the stage where the machines that kept him breathing should be switched off, and "he should be allowed to die peacefully and with dignity", the court said.

"The [hospital] team believe that Charlie can probably experience pain, but is unable to react to it in a meaningful way," the court said. "If Charlie's damaged brain function cannot be improved, as all agree, then how can he be any better off than he is now?" The court added in its April decision "Charlie has been served by the most experienced and sophisticated team that our excellent hospitals can offer. "It is with the heaviest of hearts, but with complete conviction for Charlie's best interests, that I find [the hospital] may lawfully withdraw all treatment save for palliative care to permit Charlie to die with dignity." The hospital was forbidden to transfer Charlie to any other hospital without a new court ruling. However the US expert, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said on Thursday there was new clinical data on the benefits of nucleoside therapy that had not been available when he gave evidence in April.

Five out of nine human patients with a similar deficiency  though one that did not affect the brain  had needed less time on a ventilator after having the treatment, the neurologist said. Asked if the treatment might improve Charlie's brain function, the doctor replied: "We would hope for improved movements due to enhanced muscle strength. "I think there's a small but significant chance of an improvement of cognitive or brain function Significantly over zero, but I cannot give a number." But he said "We cannot fix or cure his disease. I'm confident we can improve cognitive function but don't know how much." English High Court judge, Sir Nicholas Francis, who ruled in April in favour of the hospital doctors, said he would change his decision if he heard "important evidence" that suggested he should.

The family's representative in court, Grant Armstrong, said the new evidence meant the court's previous decision was "unsafe" because the proposed treatment may not be futile. In the previous hearing the neurologist said the chance of the boys' condition improving through nucleoside treatment was "highly unlikely" but he now said it was merely "unlikely". "I estimate the chance of meaningful success [of using the treatment on Charlie] to be at least 10 per cent," he said. He had "overreached" when he previously said Charlie's brain damage was irreversible, he said. The expert, who has not examined Charlie in person but volunteered to fly to the UK to do so, said tests had not shown major structural brain damage but only "disorganisation of brain activity".

Charlie's parents have privately raised more than 1.3 million ($2.2 million) to taken their son for nucleoside therapy in the US. GOSH doctors said the evidence from the drug trials was not new, but it was right for the court to consider it. In submissions to the court they said it was still "the unanimous view of all those caring for Charlie that withdrawal of ventilation and palliative care are all that the hospital can offer him consistent with his welfare. "He has no quality of life and no real prospect of any quality of life". The court on Thursday also heard debate over measurements of the baby's head  an indicator of brain development. It was told that the parents had measured Charlie's head that morning and got a result that 2 centimetres larger than the hospital's measurement.

Justice Francis, said "it is absurd that the science of this case is being infected by the inability to measure a child's skull". Earlier on Thursday morning Pope Francis and Donald Trump expressed their support for Charlie's continuing treatment. Trump tweeted "If we can help little Charlie Gard we would be delighted to do so". And the Vatican said the pope was following the case with affection and sadness, "hoping that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end is not ignored". Justice Francis said that doctors treating Charlie had been "subjected to the most vile abuse" from members of the public after Charlie's case became widely known.
Trump Tower in New York, the headquarters of Ivanka Trump's company. Credit:Bloomberg And while Ms Trump published a book this year declaring that improving the lives of working women is "my life's mission," the Washington Post found that her company lags behind many in the apparel industry when it comes to monitoring the treatment of the largely female workforce employed in factories around the world. From big brands such as Adidas and Kenneth Cole to smaller, newer players like California-based Everlane, many US clothing companies have in recent years made protecting factory workers abroad a priority by hiring independent auditors to monitor labour conditions, pressing factory owners to make improvements and providing consumers with details about the overseas facilities where their goods are produced. Workers on the assembly line at the Huajian shoe factory in Dongguan, China, where shoes for Ivanka Trump's company have been produced. Credit:New York Times But the Ivanka Trump brand has taken a more hands-off approach. Although executives say they have a code of conduct that prohibits physical abuse and child labour, the company relies on its suppliers to abide by the policy.

The clothing line declined to disclose the language of the code. A factory worker make shoes at the Chinese company Huajian's plant in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Huajian produces some Ivanka Trump products. Huajian workers in China say they face long hours, low pay and verbal abuse. Huajian has been moving some of its production to Ethiopia, where labour costs are even lower. Credit:AP Ms Trump, who now works full time in the White House, has stepped away from daily operations of her business. She has assumed a high-profile place on the world stage  a role that was on display last weekend when she briefly filled in for her father during a meeting with foreign leaders, seated between the president of China and the British prime minister. The President's daughter still owns her company, which has faced increasing scrutiny in recent months for its use of overseas factories. Some factories used by Ivanka Trump's brand have been accused of exploiting their mainly female workers. Credit:AP

Ms Trump's representatives have said she has the power to veto new deals, but she has not responded to requests for comment about what efforts she made to oversee her company's supply chain before she joined the administration. 'Concerned' about exploitation Her attorney Jamie Gorelick said in a statement that Ms Trump is "concerned" about recent reports regarding the treatment of factory workers and "expects that the company will respond appropriately." Chinese labour activists Li Zhao and Hua Haifeng (with his son) leave a police station after being released in Ganzhou following their arrest in relation to their investigations into factories used by Ivanka Trump's brand. Credit:AP In the wake of Ms Trump's departure, the brand started exploring hiring a non-profit workers' rights group to increase oversight of its production and help improve factory conditions, the company's executives said.

Abigail Klem, who has been the brand's president since 2013, said she was planning her first trip to tour some of the facilities that make Ivanka Trump products. A security guard at the Ganzhou Huajian International Shoe City Co, which has been used by Ivanka Trump's brand. Credit:AP Ms Klem said she was confident that the company's suppliers were operating "at the highest standards," adding, "Ivanka sought to partner with the best in the industry." The company had not yet matched the policies of other labels because it was newer and smaller, she added, but is now focusing on what more it can do. Ivanka Trump in Poland with her husband, Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, during the President's recent European trip. Credit:AP

"The mission of this brand has always been to inspire and empower women to create the lives they want to live and give them tools to do that," Ms Klem said. "We're looking to ensure that we can sort of live this mission from top to bottom with our licensees, with our supply chain." 'First daughter' Ivanka Trump's business empire is under growing scrutiny. Credit:AP The company still has no immediate plans to follow the emerging industry trend of publishing the names and locations of factories that produce its goods. It declined to provide a list of the facilities. Instead, The Washington Post used data drawn from US customs logs and international shipping records to trace Trump-branded products from far-flung factories to ports around the United States.

Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, both White House advisers, at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during US President Donald Trump's visit. Credit:AP 'My salary is not enough' The paper also interviewed workers at three garment factories that have made Ivanka Trump products who said their jobs often come with exhausting hours, subsistence pay and insults from supervisors if they don't work fast enough. "My monthly salary is not enough for everyday expenses, also not for the future," said a 26-year-old sewing operator in Subang, Indonesia, who said she has helped make Ivanka Trump dresses. Ivanka Trump during a meeting at the White House. Credit:Bloomberg

Like many US-based apparel companies, the Ivanka Trump brand signs deals with suppliers, which, in turn, contract manufacturing work to factories around the world. The system allows products to be sold to consumers for lower prices and creates economic opportunity  and risks  for workers in poor regions. In China, where three activists investigating factories making her line were recently arrested, assembly-line workers produce Ivanka Trump woven blouses, shoes and handbags. Labourers in Indonesia stitch together her dresses and knit tops. Suit jackets are assembled in Vietnam, cotton tops in India and denim pants in Bangladesh  a country with a huge apparel industry where garment workers typically earn a minimum wage of about $90 a month and where some have recently faced a harsh crackdown from factory owners after seeking higher pay. And in Ethiopia, where manufacturers have boasted of paying workers a fifth of what they earn in Chinese factories, workers made thousands of pounds of Ivanka Trump-brand shoes in 2013, shipping data shows. 'America first' policy not posisble

Ms Klem, the Trump brand president, said the company was exploring ways to produce some goods in the United States but that "to do it at a large scale is currently not possible." She was speaking from the fashion line's offices on the 23rd floor of Trump Tower, three floors below the headquarters of the Trump Organisation owned by the President. "The workers no longer exist here or only in very small, small capacity; the machinery in many instances does not exist here," Ms Klem said. "It is a very complex problem." Industry experts say about 97 per cent of all clothing and shoes purchased in the United States is imported from countries where wages are lower and products can be made more cheaply. If Ivanka Trump's company followed the US President's exhortations to move production to the United States, its prices would rise dramatically, potentially pushing buyers away and dragging down company profits, according to industry experts.

The Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, a non-profit organisation, estimated in 2013 that a denim shirt that cost $4.81 to make in Bangladesh would cost more than three times as much to make in the United States. Instead of pulling production back into the United States, the apparel industry has been focused on a different strategy: trying to reassure American consumers that their retail purchases are not the result of exploitation. A wide range of clothing lines now inspect their own supply chains to make sure labour standards are met. Many smaller brands turn to industry-backed groups, such as the Fair Labour Association or the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, to help address factory conditions and worker treatment. "The questions today aren't whether to engage in [monitoring factories], but whether to go beyond, all the way down to the cotton fields," said Doug Cahn, a former Reebok executive who pioneered the development of corporate codes of conduct and now consults for brands and manufacturers. The Ivanka Trump company's relatively passive approach is notable  as is its lack of participation in industry efforts to improve conditions for workers, according to labour advocates.

"I have been doing this stuff for 20 years, and I have never seen her brand in any of these venues," said Judy Gearhart, executive director of the International Labour Rights Forum. Ms Klem said that "as a small, young brand, we did not have the chance to influence the debate around social compliance issues, but that has obviously changed during this past year." "We recognise that our brand name carries a special responsibility," she added. Ivanka Trump was a 26-year-old model and guest judge on her father's reality show, The Apprentice, when she took on her first solo venture outside the family business: lending her name and creative energy to a Manhattan diamond boutique. Initially, Ms Trump's brand put an emphasis on sustainability. In 2011, her company introduced a short-lived bridal jewellry collection made from "eco-friendly" Canadian-mined diamonds and recycled platinum.

"It's just good business to care about everyone involved in the various layers of production . . . especially when the end product is such a beautiful symbol of love," Ms Trump said, according to a news release by the group. By then, she had started expanding into other products, eventually signing deals for clothes, shoes and handbags. Shipping data shows that tonnes of Ivanka Trump-brand shoes were rolling off factory production lines in Dongguan, the sprawling industrial city in southern China, and onto container ships with names such as APL Beijing and Hyundai Dynasty. Ivanka Trump's clothing line quickly became the core of her business, with mid-market prices and an expanding collection of stylish pumps, off-the-shoulder tops and flower-print cocktail dresses. In late 2012, Trump signed a deal with G-III, an established apparel group known for its work with Guess, Calvin Klein and celebrity brands such as Jessica Simpson. Ms Trump's collection flourished and, with it, production ramped up in G-III's contract factories across China and Vietnam, according to shipping data.

In 2016, G-III told Forbes that the Ivanka Trump clothing line had generated $130 million in retail revenue in the past year. In last year's presidential campaign, Ms Trump took the opportunity to showcase her products on the national stage. After she paid tribute to her father at the Republican National Convention in one of her soft-pink sheath dresses, her social media team urged buyers to "shop Ivanka's look," and the $178 Chinese-made dress quickly sold out. In the company's Trump Tower headquarters, a staff of about 16 employees runs the Ivanka Trump design team, social media accounts and branding campaigns  including #WomenWhoWork, a hashtag that emerged as the company's driving motto. Running into opposition In recent months, however, efforts to market the upbeat Ivanka Trump clothing brand have run headlong into the polarising Trump political brand.

After Nordstrom dropped her line in February, the President complained on Twitter that his daughter had been "treated so unfairly," and pro-Trump supporters rushed to buy her products. Presidential counsellor Kellyanne Conway drew a rebuke from federal ethics officials for telling TV viewers, from the White House press room, to "go buy Ivanka's stuff." Ms Klem said the controversies have not hurt sales. She declined to disclose figures, but said that the brand's business is "growing rapidly." Revenue was up 21 per cent in 2016, with continuing growth in 2017, executives said. In May, Lord & Taylor stores showcased the newest items in the Ivanka Trump denim collection. Affixed to each was a label brandishing the #WomenWhoWork slogan, featuring aspirational admonishments such as "Act purposefully" and "Invest in each other." The labels on the jeans show they were made for G-III Apparel in Bangladesh, whose garment industry has weathered a series of deadly factory disasters, including a 2013 building collapse that killed more than 1,100 workers. In the wake of that tragedy, Disney pulled its production out of the country, and brands such as Walmart and Gap vowed to pay for safety training for factory managers. Shipping records do not reveal which factories in the country produce Ivanka Trump goods, and both the brand and G-III refused to say which facilities make her products.

G-III spokesman Chris Giglio said the company's supply chain is "routinely audited by us and by independent third parties. When issues arise, we work with our local partners to find and implement safe, fair and sustainable solutions." Along with facing safety risks, Bangladeshi garment workers toil for one of the world's lowest minimum wages. "We are the ultra-poor," said Kalpona Akter, a Bangladeshi labour organiser and former garment worker who was first hired by a factory at the age of 12. "We are making you beautiful, but we are starving." Financial insecurity is also a constant companion for the predominantly female workforce at PT Buma, a factory in Indonesia's West Java province that produced a batch of Ivanka-branded knit dresses that shipping records show arrived in Newark on January 18, two days before Mr Trump's inauguration. K, a 26-year-old sewing-machine operator, said she makes the equivalent of $198 a month, the region's minimum wage. Her full name, like that of other workers, is being withheld because the workers fear being punished or fired for speaking to the media.

She said she spends $29 to rent her small studio in the bustling factory town of Subang, where she sleeps on a mattress on the floor and hangs her clothes from a string hung along the wall. She saves the rest for her two-year-old daughter but worries she will not be able to afford elementary school fees, which can cost as much as $291 a year. A 25-year-old woman said PT Buma hires her as a fabric cutter on a day-to-day basis, paying her a monthly salary that ranges between $88 to $174 for as much as 24 days of work  far below the region's minimum wage and a rate that workers advocates say is probably a violation of local law. The fabric cutter and her husband have to borrow money to cover their daily expenses and those of their 10-year-old son, who lives 45 minutes away with his grandmother. She sees him about once a month. Their possessions consist of her husband's motorbike and their clothes. "I have nothing," she said.

Inside the factory, workers said supervisors berate employees if they fall behind their targets or if stitches need to be redone. "Work faster, these clothes are urgent," one 30-year-old employee said she was told. "Why do you work slow?" PT Buma participates in Better Work, an international program to improve garment industry conditions, according to the Better Work website. When asked about the working environment at PT Buma, Ms Klem said in a statement that the brand hopes to develop programs to support the "thousands of women" in its supply chain. For K, the dresses she has helped produce seem as out of reach as the daughter of the US President herself, whose name the worker said she now wishes she had chosen for her own little girl.

"Ivanka clothes are beautiful, expensive, sexy  just perfect," she said. The dangers to workers who try to seek better labour conditions are especially acute in China, where activists say heavy surveillance and police presences are used to protect company profits and the country's lucrative reputation as the "factory of the world." Ivanka Trump's products have been made in more than two dozen factories across China since 2010, shipping data shows. Yen Sheng, a Hong Kong-based company, has shipped thousands of Ivanka Trump cowhide-leather handbags and other items since 2015, customs records show. Employees in Dongguan said the company withholds sick pay unless employees are hospitalised and avoids paying overtime by outsourcing work to the unregulated one-room factories that dot Dongguan's back streets. But pressing for change is not an option, they said.

"If you don't work, other people will," one woman at the company's Dongguan subsidiary Yen Hing Leather Works said. "If you protest, the company will ask the police to handle it. The owner is very rich. He can ask the police to come." Ivanka Trump brand executives said its products are not made at Yen Hing. A manager at the Dongguan factory, Huang Huihong, said its workers had produced Ivanka Trump goods in the past. Mondani, the Trump brand's handbag supplier, did not respond to requests for comment. The work conditions at Chinese factories that make Ivanka Trump's products have gained public attention in recent weeks after the detentions of three activists from a group called China Labour Watch who were investigating the facilities. The US State Department denounced the arrests, saying that labour rights activists "have been instrumental in helping . . . American companies understand the conditions involving their supply chains."

Ms Trump has not spoken publicly about the case. Her attorney said that because of her White House role, Ms Trump "has been advised that she cannot ask the government to act in an issue involving the brand in any way, constraining her ability to intervene personally." Ms Klem said in a statement that while the factory has not produced Trump goods since March, "the integrity of our supply chain is a top priority and we take all allegations very seriously." The company that supplies Trump-brand shoes, Marc Fisher, said it would look into the allegations. In the meantime, Ms Trump has been increasing her international profile as an advocate for working women. During a trip this year with her father to Saudi Arabia, she told a group of Saudi female leaders that she aims "to help empower women in the United States and around the globe." In May, she published her book, Women Who Work, in which she detailed her commitment to promoting equitable work conditions.
US President Donald Trump, in France for Bastille Day celebrations with French President Emmanuel Macron, defended his son as a "good boy". Credit:Getty Images He said that "as part of her work with her clients" Veselnitskaya had found that an American hedge fund was violating Russian tax and securities law and that the fund "seemed linked to the [Democratic National Committee]." He said that Veselnitskaya "left a document behind" after the session. Has Donald Trump junior given his father's enemies their smoking gun? Credit:New York Times "I was literally the only person wearing jeans and T-shirt" at the meeting, Akhmetshin said.

"I was in New York on my own, I get a phone call from her. She said I need to talk to you about something." Trump jnr has waved away concerns about the 30-minute session, which he agreed to because he was promised negative information about his father's political opponent, Hillary Clinton. He was joined at the meeting by Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, then chairman of the Trump campaign. Trump jnr has said that he did not receive the negative information on Clinton that he was promised by an acquaintance, Rob Goldstone, and that he did not know the people with whom he was meeting. Goldstone, a British music publicist, said on Friday that he had never met Veselnitskaya or her companions before the meeting and is not certain of their identities.

"I honestly paid no attention to any of them or their names  my job was to make sure they found the right security desk and signed in and found the elevator," he said. He referred all other questions to his attorney, Robert Gage, who did not return messages. A spokesman for Manafort, Jason Maloni, declined to comment. A Kushner spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. In interviews this week, Veselnitskaya said Kushner and Manafort did not seem interested in the conversation and she insisted she was not representing the Kremlin at the session. She and Akhmetshin were working at the time defending a Russian businessman from federal charges of money laundering in a suit that was settled early this year.

Akhmetshin was born in Russia, served in the Russian military and told people he had worked in intelligence, according to one person who said he worked with Akhmetshin in the past but asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak about it. Akhmetshin emphatically denied he ever worked as an intelligence agent, though he did confirm that he served as an 18-year-old draftee for two years in a unit of the Soviet military that had responsibility for law enforcement issues as well as some counterintelligence matters. He said that he became a US citizen in 2009 and is also still a Russian citizen. "I never worked for the Russian government. I served as a soldier for two years, like tens of millions of Russian young men who were drafted," he said. "I am proud of my military service. At no time have I ever worked for Russian government or any of its agencies. I was not an intelligence officer. Never."

According to AP, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the Kremlin knows nothing about Akhmetshin. Akhmetshin's participation raises the level of the concern about the meeting. The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said he was disturbed by the news. "Today's report that a former Russian counterintelligence officer was also present during the meeting with Donald Trump, jnr, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, if accurate, adds another deeply disturbing fact about this secret meeting," Adam Schiff said in a statement. Loading "Donald Trump jnr's denial of any such meetings, his misleading initial representation that it dealt only with adoptions  a statement evidently approved by the White House  and his later admission that the whole purpose of taking the meeting was to receive the support of the Russian government in the form of damaging information about Hillary Clinton paint a portrait of consistent dissembling and deceit when it comes to the campaign's meetings with Russian officials and intermediaries."
Erbil: A number of Iraqi military personnel have been suspended and an investigation launched after Human Rights Watch has condemned videos circulating on social media purportedly showing Iraqi forces killing and beating suspected Islamic State fighters in Mosul.

The videos were posted to Facebook earlier this week, a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared "total victory" in Mosul, according to The Associated Press. On Thursday, a spokesman for Iraq's Defence Ministry said he had not seen the videos but that such incidents will not be tolerated.

Earlier Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Iraqi security forces of forcibly relocating at least 170 families of alleged Islamic State members to a closed "rehabilitation camp" as a form of collective punishment.

Abadi announced victory over IS in Mosul on Monday, three years after the militants seized the city and made it the stronghold of a "caliphate" they said would take over the world.
Arahmaiani Feisal's Handle Without Care 1, 1996-97. Credit:Courtesy of the artist More than 20 years later Aaron Seeto, the Australian director of Museum MACAN  Indonesia's first world-class museum dedicated to international modern and contemporary art  told Arahmaiani the museum had purchased Lingga-Yoni 1994. "We hunted it down and found this work," Seeto says. "It's really important to the history of contemporary Indonesian art." Arahmaiani is still emotional when she speaks about it. "When Aaron told me Museum MACAN bought this one, you could not go inside my brain, I thought no, that is not possible. The work has very deep meaning for me, although it is also quite traumatic. I don't how to explain." About four years ago Arahmaiani created a new version of the artwork for a solo show in New York, which is now in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. But this is not the same as a museum in Indonesia.

"It's New York, it's not my country," she says. "Now, when I heard ... this work is back in Indonesia and it will be in Museum MACAN  wow! It's really exciting." There is no shortage of hype surrounding Museum MACAN, which will open to the public in early November. (MACAN stands for the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara, a term for the Indonesian archipelago.) The Guardian has included it in its top 10 new museum openings of 2017. The BBC asked whether Jakarta's new museum would put the "often crazy but artistically rich capital" on the map. "We really hope we are part of that broader city infrastructure," Seeto says. "In the same way when you travel on holidays you will probably go to a museum, we want to be part of people's cultural experience of a city." But more than that: Arahmaiani's elation over her art coming home is an example of what the museum means to Indonesian artists. "Artists want to have a place where their work can be seen and work can be cared for into the future," Seeto says. "Actually there is very little museum culture here in Indonesia. This will be the first of its kind." Museum MACAN's founder is Indonesian businessman and philanthropist Haryanto Adikoesoemo, whose art collection comprises more than 800 works from around the world.

Haryanto, the president director of logistics company PT AKR Corporindo, began collecting Indonesian modern and contemporary artwork 25 years ago. He was guided by a passion for art and a desire to support local artists but as his interests grew, his focus expanded internationally. His collection includes the works of acclaimed Indonesian artists such as Raden Saleh, FX Harsono, Heri Dono and Affandi, renowned modern artists Damien Hirst, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat and international contemporary artists Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Tracey Emin. "He often talks about how art allowed him to think differently about how to do things in his day to day business life," Seeto says. The purpose-built museum to share this art with the public  fully funded by Haryanto  will be in an office and residential tower in the Kebon Jeruk neighbourhood of West Jakarta.

"Even though we are privately funded we are actually a museum for Indonesia, a museum for the public, so alongside that there is a whole program for education, outreach, all of those things," Seeto says. Museum MACAN follows a similar model to David Walsh's Museum of Old and New Art, credited with getting Hobart humming, and Judith Neilson's White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney. "There's some really great private collections, not just in Australia but popping up all over the world and especially here in the region," Seeto says. "The private sector has taken up a lot of the conversations that we in the West would expect the public sector to do. Also in parts of North America even, there is a much more fluid relationship between public and private. I think in Australia we are slightly sheltered from that reality." Seeto is a veteran of the Australian art scene. Artist Lindy Lee described him as "one of Australia's most important Asian Australian curators and artists". "Not any more, that was another life," demurs Seeto when asked about his own art. (For the record, his photographic work included the series Oblivion, which reproduced internet-sourced images of the Cronulla riots as daguerreotypes to examine how they were reported and understood.) For eight years Seeto was the director of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Sydney, where he worked with some of the Indonesian artists now featured at Museum MACAN.

It was there that Arahmaiani worked on a three-year project, Edge of Elsewhere, with Indigenous Australians, Muslim immigrants and Tibetan refugees. She says Seeto will make a huge contribution to contemporary art in Jakarta. "In Indonesia, that's what's lacking, we don't have that kind of [museum] infrastructure. Unless art can be explained in a historical context, she says, what has been done is lost and artists have to start again rather than further develop. It will be really really beneficial for the coming generation." In 2015 Seeto moved to the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art to take up the role of curatorial manager of Asian and Pacific Art. When Haryanto approached him almost two years later "it was completely out of the blue", he says.

The move was a tough decision: Seeto had a fascinating job, a young family, and would have to leave the stability of the public system. "I was leading the team for the Asia Pacific Triennial [of Contemporary Art]. I wasn't looking for a job and I wasn't looking to necessarily move but it's very rare to have an opportunity to not just lead a museum but also build one." Indonesia has a vibrant arts scene and an extensive network of private collectors but the works are often not widely accessible to the public. Seeto says Haryanto's vision for Museum MACAN aligned with his own belief that art is something that can be appreciated by everyone and is "not just for certain kinds of elites". "Arts transformation allows us to think differently about how we live, about our histories, how we engage with other people. Our conversations along those lines made us realise there were similarities between our world views and at least the way we believe art plays such an important role in society."

Museum MACAN's opening in early November has been deliberately timed to coincide with two of Indonesia's biggest art events  the Jakarta Biennale and Biennale Jogja. In the lead-up to the opening, artists including Arahmaiani and FX Harsono will stage performance art previews at the museum in August and September. Arahmaiani will go back to her roots: a performance exploring the Javanese religious tradition of kejawen, which syncretises aspects of different religions. This year has seen a rise of Islamic conservatism in Indonesia, with radical groups spearheading massive protests against the former Christian governor of Jakarta, known as Ahok, whom they said had insulted Islam. Ahok lost his re-election bid in the gubernatorial elections and was jailed for two years for blasphemy.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) Top central ministers and officials today briefed opposition leaders, including from the Congress, Left and SP, on the standoff with China and the situation in Kashmir, officials said.

The briefing by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, comes ahead of the parliament session beginning Monday.

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Opposition leaders were told about the prevailing situation along the Sino-Indian border and Jammu and Kashmir and the government action, officials said.

Those who attended the meeting -- considered an effort to build consensus on dealings with Indias biggest neighbour and Kashmir -- include Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Tariq Anwar (NCP), Sharad Yadav, K C Tyagi (JD-U) and Derek OBrien (TMC).

New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Dokalam area of Sikkim.

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the Dokalam area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Armys construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

In Jammu and Kashmir, seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- have been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modis "silence" on China. On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir.

He also alleged that the prime ministers pursuit of short-term political gains from the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost. PTI ACB MIN

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We quickly lose sight of how exceptional the bizarre moments of the past six months have been. It would have seemed ludicrous one week ago that we'd be sitting here today holding an email in which Donald Trump junior seeks out negative information about Hillary Clinton from someone he believed was a Russian government official. Yet here we are.

Trump's base of support has already appeared to brush aside the obvious demonstration of a willingness to collude in the transfer of information that was "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr Trump," as the first email to Trump Jr. read. President Donald Trump once said that he could shoot someone dead in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any support. That no longer seems much like hyperbole.

Still, others will note, it's not as if Trump is popular. His approval rating remains mired in the low 40s, with most Americans viewing his job performance negatively. Doesn't that alone mean that, if some other significant revelation occurs over the next seven days, Trump's position must surely grow wobblier?

Nope. Despite a Democratic member of Congress initiating the process to remove Trump from office, there's almost no chance at all that the president would be impeached this year, no matter what happens.
Jerusalem: Three gunmen opened fire at police near Jerusalem's holiest site on Friday, killing two Israeli policemen before security forces killed the attackers, Israeli police said.

The gunmen arrived at the sacred site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Israeli-occupied Old City.

Israeli police forensic experts inspect the body of a Palestinian at the scene of an attack in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday. Credit:AP

They walked towards one of the Old City gates nearby, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

"When they saw policemen, they shot towards them and then escaped towards one of the mosques in the Temple Mount compound," she said.
Washington: The Trump administration has decided for the second time since January to certify Iranian compliance with the nuclear agreement that US President Donald Trump has called a "disastrous" deal, according to US and foreign officials.

The decision followed what several officials characterised as heated internal debate that culminated at a principals' committee last week in a clash between a number of White House officials and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks at a conference in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, July 3. Credit:AP

Tillerson has statutory responsibility for certifying Iran's compliance to Congress every 90 days, a deadline that falls next Monday. Some White House officials and lawmakers argued that Iran has breached the deal in several significant areas. But Tillerson and Mattis noted that international monitors and US allies have assessed the opposite, and said that any sharp change in US posture should await completion of an administration review of overall policy toward Iran.

As a candidate and President, Trump said he would re-examine and possibly kill the Iran nuclear deal signed under president Barack Obama. The historic agreement shut down Tehran's nuclear weapons program, in some cases for decades, in exchange for an easing of international sanctions.
PHILIPSBURG:--- On behalf of the Ministry of Tourism, Economy, Traffic, and Telecommunication (TEATT), my Cabinet and the Government of St. Maarten, I express heartfelt condolences to the family of our visitor from New Zealand who lost her life on Wednesday. We have designated Head of the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau Mr. Rolando Brison as the point person for information and he has already met with the family directly to express our condolences as well and remain available for their needs. While the family recognized that what they did was a risk in lieu of the clearly visible danger signs, they regret that risk they took turned out in the worst possible way. Right now our thoughts and prayers are with the family while we continue to investigate what transpired.
inTEST Corporation Announces Availability of 2017 Second Quarter Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast

MOUNT LAUREL, NJ  (Marketwired)  07/13/17  inTEST Corporation (NYSE MKT: INTT), an independent designer, manufacturer and marketer of temperature management products and semiconductor automatic test equipment (ATE) interface solutions, today announced that the company will release financial results for the 2017 second quarter on Thursday, August 3, 2017 after the market close.

inTEST management will host a conference call the same day at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The conference call will address the Companys 2017 second quarter financial results, and managements current expectations and views of the industry. The call may also include discussion of strategic, operating, product initiatives or developments, or other matters relating to the Companys current or future performance.

To access the live conference call, please dial (815) 680-6269 or (866) 900-9241. The Passcode for the conference call is 51056990. Please reference the inTEST 2017 Q2 Financial Results Conference Call.

inTEST Corporation will provide a webcast in conjunction with the conference call. To access the live webcast, please visit inTESTs website under the Investors section.

A replay of the webcast will be available on inTESTs website for one year following the live broadcast. To access the webcast replay, please visit inTESTs website under the Investors section.

In advance of the conference call, and for those investors accessing the webcast, inTEST Corporation welcomes individual investors to submit their questions via email to . The company will address as many questions as possible on the conference call.

About inTEST Corporation

inTEST Corporation is an independent designer, manufacturer and marketer of temperature management products and ATE interface solutions, which are used by semiconductor manufacturers to perform final testing of integrated circuits (ICs) and wafers. The Companys high-performance products are designed to enable semiconductor manufacturers to improve the speed, reliability, efficiency and profitability of IC test processes. The Companys products are also sold into the automotive, consumer electronics, defense/aerospace, energy and telecommunications industries. Specific products include temperature management systems, manipulator and docking hardware products and customized interface solutions. The Company has established strong relationships with its customers globally, which it supports through a network of local offices. For more information visit .

Hugh T. Regan, Jr.

Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer

inTEST Corporation

Tel: 856-505-8999

Laura Guerrant-Oiye

Principal

Guerrant Associates

Tel: (808) 960-2642
Cogeco Inc. Releases its Results for the Third Quarter of Fiscal 2017

MONTREAL, QUEBEC  (Marketwired)  07/13/17  Today, Cogeco Inc. (TSX: CGO) (Cogeco or the Corporation) announced its financial results for the third quarter ended May 31, 2017, in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

For the third quarter of fiscal 2017:

For the nine-month period ended May 31, 2017:

Overall we are pleased with our results for the third quarter of fiscal 2017, declared Louis Audet, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cogeco Inc. Cogeco Connexion, our Canadian broadband subsidiary, has seen marked growth in terms of both revenue and EBITDA.

Atlantic Broadband continues to produce positive results, in line with expectations, added M. Audet. Our American subsidiary is concentrating its efforts on investments in Florida, a region with a strong potential for growth. On this note, we were very pleased to announce on July 10, the acquisition of the MetroCast cable systems, allowing Atlantic Broadband to increase its presence in the growing and lucrative U.S. cable market. Moreover, we are delighted to be partnering with CDPQ in this transaction, providing us with a long-term partner with a similar vision, stated Mr. Audet.

At Cogeco Peer 1, our Business ICT subsidiary, the leadership team continues to build and consolidate its client relationships, with a focus on medium and large customers, positioning themselves as a trusted advisor bringing more relevant solutions to market and cross-selling services, stated Mr. Audet.

At Cogeco Media, our radio subsidiary, the latest Numeris ratings results confirm that we continue to maintain our leadership position in the Quebec radio market, with very strong audience ratings backed by our solid financial performance, concluded Louis Audet. Our results in this sector are excellent and I am proud of our teams outstanding work.

ABOUT COGECO

Cogeco Inc. is a diversified holding corporation which operates in the communications and media sectors. Through its Cogeco Communications Inc. subsidiary, Cogeco provides its residential and business customers with video, Internet and telephony services through its two-way broadband fibre networks. Cogeco Communications Inc. operates in Canada under the Cogeco Connexion name in Quebec and Ontario, and in the United States under the Atlantic Broadband name in western Pennsylvania, south Florida, Maryland/Delaware, South Carolina and eastern Connecticut. Through Cogeco Peer 1, Cogeco Communications Inc. provides its business customers with a suite of information technology services (colocation, network connectivity, hosting, cloud and managed services), through its 16 data centres, extensive FastFiber Network and more than 50 points of presence in North America and Europe. Through its subsidiary Cogeco Media, Cogeco owns and operates 13 radio stations across most of Quebec with complementary radio formats serving a wide range of audiences as well as Cogeco News, its radio news agency. Cogeco Inc.s subordinate voting shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CGO). The subordinate voting shares of Cogeco Communications Inc. are also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CCA).

Contacts:

Source:

Cogeco Inc.

Patrice Ouimet

Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

514-764-4700

Information:

Media

Rene Guimond

Senior Vice-President, Public Affairs and Communications

514-764-4700
Two weeks ago, we apparently made another 'tryst with destiny' when the newly minted Goods and Services Tax (GST) made its midnight debut in Parliament. Business unfortunately is not too pleased with the 'single biggest tax reform since Independence', and protests have mushroomed all over the place since the July 1 rollout. Kite-makers in Gujarat organised a kite-flying festival to protest the new levy as did cloth merchants in Surat and Ahmedabad, who went on a silent march. Idol-makers in Jaipur (photographed here) appealed to the government's Hindu sensibility to revoke the tax. Good and simple?

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Not this time. New Prairie extracts its revenge against Northridge
The National Museum recently dug up a Harappan site lying ignored for years and discovered archaeological remains that could push back the civilization's time period.

By Sweta dutta: With several missing links in its Harappan galleries, the National Museum went out digging in a Haryana village only to find a treasure trove of archaeological remains, that experts expect will push back the time period of the civilisation.

Two consignments of the archaeological remains have been sent for carbon dating in laboratories in Lucknow and Delhi and a third is set to be dispatched to a lab in Florida shortly.

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"It is very difficult to get archaeological findings in auction sales or through other sources and there were glaring gaps in our Harappan collection and we had nothing from the pre-Harappan times. We were thinking of where to source these samples from and that is when we stumbled upon the Harappan site in Kunal, Haryana, that was excavated in the 1990s but no report was finally submitted. The earlier findings date back to 3000 BC, but with the findings in Bhirrana, that is barely 20 kms away pointing to settlements dating back to 7000 BC to 6000 BC, we were confident that Kunal too had far more potential," explained BRR Mani, archaeologist and Director General of National Museum.

"For the first time National Museum made a proposal to the body to approve further work on the site. We want to expand our Harappan gallery and show the origins of the civilization...even the Chalcolithic culture."

The Haryana state archaeology department, Indian Archaeological Society along with National Museum undertook the excavation this year and is slated to continue the digging next year.

"Kunal has been excavated for four seasons already. Last week we wrapped up the ongoing excavation and hope to go back for one last time next digging season. This year we found confirmed evidence of pit dwellings and material related to them. By going a level below this we might find more crucial evidences. Two consignments of 13 samples each have been sent to Inter University Accelerator Center in Vasant Kunj and Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleo Sciences in Lucknow for carbon dating." Mani said.

ALSO READ | ASI report says even Neolithic Kashmir had textile industry

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By PTI: (Eds: Adds more details of court order)

Chennai, Jul 14 (PTI) The Madras High Court today quashed a Tamil Nadu government order reserving 85 per cent of MBBS and BDS seats to state board students and only 15 per cent for CBSE and other boards, holding that it amounted to discrimination among equals. Allowing petitions by some CBSE students challenging the June 22 G.O, Justice K Ravichandrababu held that the impugned reservation was bad in law and violated Article 14 of the Constitution (Equality before law).

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"There is no difficulty for this court to come to the conclusion that the impugned reservation amounts to discrimination among equals and that it violates Art 14 of the Constitution of India.

"It is an arbitrary exercise of power that it is totally unreasonable that under the guise of level playing, it makes the equals unequals," the Judge said in his order.

He also held that the reservation indirectly meddled with the object and process of the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET) and compromised on merits of selection.

It was not in dispute that NEET had been introduced by virtue of regulations made by the Medical Council of India and also by amending the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 stipulating that only merit in the all-India exam had to be considered for admission to medical courses, the Judge said.

He directed authorities to prepare a fresh merit list and conduct the counselling for admissions accordingly. Justice Ravichandrababu also observed that the impugned order seem to have been issued based on the recommendation of Additional Director (AD) of Medical Education, who is also the secretary of selection committee, without any discussion in the state cabinet.

"...it is evident that the policy decision as projected in the impugned GO seems to have been taken based on the proposal of the AD without there being any discussion by the cabinet to that effect," the Judge said in his order.

He noted that certainly the AD was not competent to take policy decisions, which can be taken only by the government.

The Judge said the court wanted to place on record and make it very clear that it was not against promotion of interest of students from rural background, especially those studying in state board schools.

"The court has every concern for their upliftment, but when such promotion and upliftment are sought to be achieved through some unlawful means, more particularly at the risk of causing grave discrimination among equals... the court cannot be a mute spectator," he said.

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The judge made it clear that his order was not confined to the petitioners alone and will apply to all students concerned.

The court had on July 11 reserved orders on the petitions by Darnish Kumar, a student represented by his parents, and two others and ordered status quo on the admission process till the adjudication of the matter.

The state government had defended the G.O, saying the policy of the state government was not in favour of NEET, conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

More than 50 per cent of the questions in the NEET were based on the CBSE syllabus and hence there was an inequality in the all-India exam, it had contended.

Assailing the G.O, the petitioners had submitted that the Supreme court had clearly stated that when admission is based on entrance examination NEET, it should make no difference whether the qualifying examination was conducted by the state board or CBSE because no discrimination can be made between the schools affiliated to both the boards.

As per the earlier schedule, the merit list for medical courses was to be published today and the counselling to start on July 17. PTI CORR VS DV

--- ENDS ---

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But that's not all, there was also plenty of room in the operation plan for less important issues. Police officers were not to use their private mobile phones and they were banned from uploading images from the weekend to the internet. They were also told to maintain "tolerant, open, communicative and friendly behavior."

"The police officers deployed will stand at the center of global attention," Dudde wrote. "By maintaining an immaculate external appearance and proper demeanor, every officer will make an important contribution to overall success." One outcome of the weekend was to be nice images that could be used in the election campaign, and it was Dudde's task to provide them.

Shortly before the beginning of the summit, the police superintendent ordered his subordinates to take a tough line. "A water cannon has no reverse gear," he said in a meeting. "Don't report when a street is blocked. Report when it has been cleared." Officers quickly realized, if they hadn't already, that there was no strategy for de-escalation. Dudde was seeking a showdown with the demonstrators.

The Hamburg police's operation record and the confidential situation reports produced by the Federal Interior Ministry from July 7-10 are a total of several dozen pages long. The sober language therein stands in direct contradiction to the attempts at justification made by police leaders and politicians following the summit.

In press conferences, security officials claimed they were taken completely by surprise by the extent of the violence. The Federal Interior Ministry, by contrast, wrote: "The forecasts pertaining to the development of the protests against the G-20 summit developed by (domestic intelligence officials) proved to be accurate."

A Desperate Situation in the Schanzenviertel

Furthermore, whereas Hamburg Police Chief Ralf Martin Meyer spoke of how difficult it is when "perpetrators without a connection to the summit" pursue "small group tactics," an Interior Ministry paper noted: "The mobilization method and modus operandi of militant structures (small group tactics) in addition to the violence perpetrated were per se not new." They had already been followed "in disparate campaigns and operations" carried out by the left-wing extremist spectrum.

Did the Hamburg police underestimate the potential for violence? Already on the eve of the summit, on Thursday, July 6, all signs were pointing toward confrontation. At the "Welcome to Hell" demonstration, a sea of white police helmets glittered in Hafenstrasse, the street where the march was to begin. Four water cannons were in position under a bridge facing 12,000 demonstrators, of whom around 1,000 had masked their faces in black. "Hurray! This world is ending!" read one poster.

Before long, the first bottle was thrown at the police. Officers charged at the instigators from the side and they fought back with wooden planks. Then, the water cannons sprayed the demonstrators off the street. "Dudde wanted to provoke the Black Bloc so that there would be cause for intervention," one officer said, referring to the black-clad members of the autonomous movement. The atmosphere for the coming days had been established.

The next morning, the day the summit began, as least one thing went according to plan: the journeys of the summit participants to the meeting site. "The convoy of Chancellor Merkel left at 9:05 a.m. in the direction of the exhibition center," the police reported. The Russian president's convoy set off at 9:12 a.m. and that of the American president's at 10:20 a.m.

But everywhere else, chaos reigned, as had already been the case for hours. Every few minutes, the police reported disruptive actions taken by members of the autonomous movement across the city.

At 6:33 a.m., the operation records note that police officers near the Volkspark Stadium were being "intensely" pelted by objects thrown by people wearing masks.

At 7:13, police on Schutzenstrasse went after a group of "violence-prone instigators" with truncheons and pepper spray. At 7:27 a.m., 1,000 people, around 300 of them dressed all in black, appeared at the Landungsbrucken, the docks in central Hamburg from which tourist boats depart for harbor tours.

Send Us Everything You Have

And the list kept growing. Sit-ins blocking a street, burning cars, stones thrown through the window of a municipal building. It was a game of cat-and-mouse that the police couldn't win. Those in charge decided that their only option was to call for reinforcements. At 7:53 a.m., they called for backup from Lubeck, located just northeast of Hamburg, and six minutes later, they ordered in help from the federal reserve police force near Bonn, which flew in by plane. At 8:12, mission headquarters sent out a call for help to the federal government and to all state governments: Please send us everything you have.

At this point, the summit hadn't even begun yet. But the leftist instigators had already ruthlessly run the police into the ground. The officers had been on their feet for 20 hours and during the day, many of them collapsed from dehydration and exhaustion.

By noon, the autonomists had pushed the police so far that they were no longer able to completely fulfill their most important task: protecting the summit and its participants. Many of the autonomists' attacks against delegation vehicles at various locations were successful. "No high-ranking member" in the vehicle, relieved officers reported after each such attack. At 11:45, the side window of a vehicle belonging to the U.S. delegation was bashed in.

Given the widespread violence, police leaders decided that Angela Merkel and her guests should go straight to the Elbphilharmonie concert hall from the convention center instead of stopping by their hotels first. Only one leader, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, didn't cooperate, choosing to skip the concert. It wasn't the first time that he had caused headaches for the police. On one occasion, his convoy didn't wait for a police escort and simply drove off. The result was chaos as the escort sped after the convoy to chase it down.

The weekend's primary eruption of violence, the showdown in the Schanzenviertel neighborhood, began on Friday evening just as the concert in the Elbphilharmonie got started. The first barricade was set on fire at 8:47 p.m. -- and it may be that this was the last opportunity the police had to gain the upper hand on the chaos. "There was a certain period when the Schanze could still have been flooded with police," one officer said. "But our people were tied up all across the city."

Rocks, Paving Stones and Metal Rods

Police had planted several plainclothes informants among the ranks of the left-wing autonomists, referred to by the police as "citizen observers," and operation command began receiving reports of planned ambushes. At 9:31 p.m., the informants reported that the autonomists were preparing for a fight. "Serious injuries should be expected should the police advance."

This was the moment when the police turned over the Schanzenviertel to the mob -- there would be virtually no police presence in the quarter for the few hours that ensued, a time during which much of the looting and property damage took place. One senior police officer wrote in an internal document that intervention would have meant being pelted and beaten with "rocks, paving stones, metal rods and incendiary devices."

It was now up to Bernd Burger, 40, head of a unit of crack riot police based in the Bavarian town of Dachau, to decide whether to send his charges into the inferno. Burger has been involved in several protests during his career, including violent demonstrations at the nuclear waste storage site in Gorleben and at the G-8 summit in Heiligendamm near Rostock in 2007. His unit is trained to apprehend the ringleaders of violent protests.

But he had never, Burger said, been in a position where his people faced a serious threat to their lives. And he and his commanding officers had never been faced with the difficult decision of rejecting an operational order for this reason. That, though, was the position in which he found himself at 10 p.m. on Friday, July 7.

The 130 riot police from Dachau had already been on their feet for days and had only slept for an hour in their hotel the previous night. They were at Millerntorplatz square, in the heart of St. Pauli -- Burger had just deflected a flying bottle with his arm -- when the order came: clear Schulterblatt, the main street in the Schanzenviertel.

'A Life-Threatening Situation'

They were about 150 meters from Schulterblatt, the end of which was flanked by a building completely covered in scaffolding. There were several people on the scaffolding. A helicopter circled overhead and Burger was told via radio that autonomists had carried paving stones up to the roof of the building and that they might be planning to try to kill police officers. Hamburg domestic intelligence officials had provided similar information, Hamburg police would later confirm.

It was around 10 p.m. when Burger discussed the situation with police commanders from other German states. "We quickly agreed that a further advance would carry a serious risk to the lives of our colleagues." This concern was reported to police leadership.

Another senior officer added: "These extremely well-trained people, they've spent a long time preparing for a moment like this. When they say, 'We're not going in there,' then it means something. It was simply a life-threatening situation."

Police Superintendent Dudde wasn't thrilled at first. He urged the forces to go into Schulterblatt -- to protect local residents, as Hamburg Police Chief Meyer would later say. But also because the flames in the street were threatening to spread to the surrounding apartment buildings. The discussion continued for some time until Dudde finally ordered two large units of special forces to get the people off the rooftops.

A Lawless Zone for Two Hours

Yet even though there were lots of special task force (SEK) police in the city at the time, none were initially available. The elite police were guarding the Elbphilharmonie and the world leaders gathered there. The result was a considerable delay in their deployment, the police president would later say. It remains an open question as to why none of the SEK units had been assigned specifically to the Schanze, a district well-known to police as a potential trouble spot for far-left activity.

For more than two hours, there was no police presence whatsoever in the Schanzenviertel that night. After the concert at the Elbphilharmonie, Mayor Olaf Schulz called the police command control center in Hamburg's Winterhude district. All he could do was watch powerlessly as parts of his city sank into chaos.

At 11:40 p.m., the clearing action finally began. Burger's unit was present as the police advanced on Schulterblatt; he ran behind a water cannon. Stones struck his helmet. One of his men stumbled into a manhole because someone had taken the cover off. "All of Hamburg hates the police," masked protesters would later chant. The situation wouldn't quiet down until 2 a.m.. An official at Germany's Federal Interior Ministry would later sum up the riots by saying: "The events happened just as expected."

Ralf Martin Meyer, the Hamburg police chief, rejects allegations that his forces placed a priority on protecting guests of the G-20 summit rather than local residents. "I consider the question of priority to be an inadmissible escalation" he says. "Of course, the safety of official state guests against, for example, terrorist threats had the highest priority. But that doesn't mean that protecting citizens was less important. The police sought in parallel to ensure the safety of the people to the same extent."

That's also how Mayor Scholz sees it. Three elements had the highest priority, he says: protecting the people, ensuring the safety of summit participants and ensuring peaceful protests. "It was never about attributing greater importance to protecting summit participants than protecting the people," a spokesman told DER SPIEGEL. "The discrepancy is clearly a figment of the imagination," he said. He added that the mayor had no knowledge of the operation plan.

Still, there will be consequences. Police Chief Meyer intends to rethink his deployment strategy. But he says the guerilla tactics used by the autonomous movement present a problem that is almost impossible for the police to solve. "We have to consider how were are going to deal with these criminals in the future," he says.

Thirty Hours at the Detention Center

As Marie Beier, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, walked through Hamburg that Friday, she had no idea that her day would end in a cell, without a bed or a toilet. Beier had just graduated from high school with good grades. She had also worked as a volunteer at a refugee hostel in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

She had wanted to protest against the G-20 in Hamburg, but she didn't get far. The 19-year-old was detained together with other activists on the street. The police brought her to the collection point for detainees in Neuland. The charge: a serious disturbance of the peace.

Beier exercised her constitutional right to remain silent, but the responsible public prosecutor used that against her and ordered her arrest. Apparently, the prosecutor views anyone who exercises the right to remain silent with suspicion.

What Beier experienced in the provisional jail sounds disturbing. Her lawyer Lino Peters says it was almost 18 hours before he was allowed to speak to his client and it took that much longer until her bail hearing. In the more than 30 hours at the detention center, Beier's lawyer says scenes played out that are hard to imagine. Marie Beier has serious vision impairment and she can only see shapes without glasses. Despite her complaints, her glasses were kept from her throughout her detention.

Police also took their time when she asked for a tampon. Officials allegedly mocked her and other women: "You're destroying our city. Protesters aren't allowed to have their periods."

Now Beier's mother is sitting completely disillusioned in a lawyer's office in Hamburg. She describes her daughter as being peaceful, helpful and cosmopolitan. Marie has no previous criminal record -- at worst, her mother says, she can be a bit careless in unfamiliar situations. What she has learned about her daughter's treatment in detention angers her. "It's arbitrary and inexplicable." In a telephone call, her daughter asked, "Mom, is our legal system working?"

The detention judge said the young woman faces two years in jail, citing "general prevention" as the reason, according to the arrest warrant. Beier was only released on Wednesday afternoon. Her lawyer picked her up. "I've never before seen humiliation and caprice on the scale shown during the G-20 week," he says.

Brutal Tactics

Many other young people who wanted to protest in Hamburg experienced similar treatment. The brutal tactics used by the police can be seen in numerous internet videos. They show people who are already on the ground getting kicked by officers in combat gear and beat with Billy clubs. Police break up sit-ins using tear gas. As of Thursday, 35 investigations had been opened into police officers -- in 27 cases for causing injury while on duty.

Public prosecutors have also issued arrest warrants for 51 activists -- largely for disturbing the peace, but also for committing grievous bodily harm or damaging property. Detainees report that they were forced to strip completely naked and that they had to squat and undergo anal cavity searches.

Despite the summit debacle, Mayor Scholz is still in office. He doesn't have any opponents in his party who could be of any danger to him. Already last weekend, the left wing of the Social Democratic Party in Hamburg agreed that they would continue to defend the mayor despite concerns over his comments and handling of the situation.

The head of the SPD's state chapter is also backing the mayor, as is the party group in the Hamburg city-state's parliament. SPD leaders say it was right to hold the G-20 summit in Hamburg. They're blaming the debacle on the Left Party, which they say didn't speak out clearly enough against violence. Some members of parliament have suggested the Scholz ought to be proactive in speaking to residents of the Schanzenviertel neighborhood, but he has thus far refused to do so.

Scholz also has no reason to fear an investigation by the city-state parliament. The SPD and the Greens have together agreed upon a harmless special committee. Indeed, the Social Democrats' junior coalition partner has been docile.

Merkel's Reserve

The only critical words are coming out of Berlin. "The question must be addressed as to who is responsible for the fact that there were no police in Schanzenviertel for two hours," says Jurgen Tritten, a prominent member of the Green Party. He says a decision must have been made that something was more important than the residents of Schanzenviertel. "We need to talk about that." After the events of last week, Trittin says, no mayor is going to want to host a summit again. "No one wants to end up like Olaf Scholz -- as the chancellor's human shield and aspiring fall guy," he says.

But members of the Green Party in Hamburg have shied away from breaking with Scholz. Nor does the Hamburg mayor have to worry about attacks from Merkel's conservatives in Berlin. The debate is playing to the advantage of the conservatives as it is. In a meeting of the CDU's national committee, Merkel ordered her party not to attack Scholz.

The reserve demonstrated by the chancellor has two advantages for her. For one, it comes across as statesman-like and nonpartisan for her to stand at the mayor's side. For another, though, it also helps her prevent a debate over what share of the blame should be attributed to Merkel. She, after all, is the person who first called Scholz to propose Hamburg as the site of the summit. Jorg Radek, the deputy national chair of the police union GDP, hasn't forgotten. "The risks and the side effects of such a summit were known from previous such meetings. But for political marketing reasons, these were ignored," he says. "Hamburg was supposed to serve as a stage for the big and powerful. But it was ultimately others who created the images. It has harmed the police and damaged the PR of the Chancellery."

Rather than attacking Scholz, the conservatives instead want to go after the SPD on another issue. "We must demand that left-wing parties distance themselves from the perpetrators of violence to the same degree we do from violence on the far-right," German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said during the meeting of the CDU's executive committee. The tone was set. The sharpest words came from Jens Spahn, a rising member of the CDU and a senior official in the Finance Ministry. "Left-wing extremism has been played down for years in Germany," he said. "The Left Party and parts of the SPD and Greens have turned a blind eye to it."

No one within the conservatives is seriously accusing the Social Democrats of having an ambiguous relationship to violence. But that isn't as clear when it comes to the fringes of the Greens or the Left Party. Given that many SPD politicians are still dreaming of going into a coalition government with the Greens and the Left Party after the next election, that is indeed a problem for the Social Democrats.

The result is that the SPD has had trouble pulling itself out of the defensive following the riots. The first person who attempted to steer the debate toward Merkel was Foreign Minister Gabriel, who blustered that the summit had been a "total failure." In an interview, Gabriel also said that anyone calling for Mayor Scholz to step down "also needed to call for Merkel's resignation."

'Absurd and Inappropriate'

But contrary to Gabriel's hopes, Merkel hasn't taken the bait. Other conservatives, though, have been less reserved. Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Soder, a member of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's CDU, described Gabriel's attack as "absurd and inappropriate. Rather than addressing the left-wing criminals, attacks are being launched at the chancellor." Soder then ridiculed the SPD, saying the party was getting nervous about its standing in the polls two months before the national election. "There's no other way of explaining the foreign minister's comments."

Soder has a point. More than anything, Gabriel's comments illustrate the extent to which Martin Schulz is struggling to steer has campaign in the right direction.

Following the riots, Schulz initially warned against using Hamburg for petty "partisan skirmishing." He offered praise for Merkel's chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, who had defended Mayor Scholz from attacks by the CDU in Hamburg. But it soon became apparent that this tactic wasn't working for the SPD. On Monday night, Schulz sharpened his tone. He said it was insulting for a party that had stood in the way of Hitler, as the SPD did, to be accused of having an unclear relationship with extremism. "We don't need any lectures on that," the chancellor candidate groused.

Following Gabriel's resignation as party chair in January, Schulz opted not to become a minister in the coalition government because he wanted to be independent enough to fire away at Merkel. Now he's realizing that it's not so easy. His people say that he's saving the right attacks for the final stretch of the campaign. But it may already be too late. The days of rioting in Hamburg have already dragged the SPD further down in the polls. If the party fares significantly worse than the 25.7 percent it received in the last federal election in 2012, Schulz will likely have to step down as SPD chairman. Should that happen, it's not likely that Olaf Scholz will be in the running to succeed him.

By Maik Baumgartner, Sven Becker, Jorg Diehl, Hubert Gude, Frank Hornig, Martin Knobbe, Gunther Latsch, Roman Lehberger, Ann-Katrin Muller, Ralf Neukirch, Barbara Schmid, Fidelius Schmid, Andreas Ulrich and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt
India and China have different and conflicting interpretations of the Britain engineered 1890 Sikkim-Tibet Convention, which vaguely defines the borders of the three countries including Bhutan.

By Prabhash K Dutta: Even as the Indian and Chinese armies are standing their grounds in Doklam area of Bhutan, reports suggest that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval may visit Beijing to break ice with China.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday (July 13) said that diplomatic channels would be used to defuse the Doklam tension. Earlier, it was made clear by the government at several levels that the Indian Army will not back off from their position in Doklam.

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China has used an 1890 treaty between Chinese Qing dynasty of British colonial leaders of India to justify its claim over Doklam. The treaty was formalised between Britain and Chinese kingdom. Ironically, it is being used by China to alter its boundary with Bhutan, which was not a signatory to the 127-year-old treaty. Tibet also did not sign the treaty. Britain officially negotiated on behalf of both India and the kingdom of Sikkim.

WHAT IS IN THE 1890 TREATY?

The treaty between Britain and China was signed at Calcutta Convention in 1890. Of the eight Articles mentioned in the treaty, Article 1 is of critical significance. China has cited this Article to stake its claim over Doklam.

Article 1 of the Calcutta convention reads, "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 (Gyemochen), on the Bhutan frontier, and follows the above-mentioned water-parting to the point where it meets Nipal (Nepal) territory."

This treaty was an attempt to define what has become the bone of contention now: the tri-junction or tri-boundary between India, Bhutan and China or Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet.

WHERE IS TRI-BOUNDARY?

The tri-junction or the disputed tri-boundary is an area of less than 90 sq km and is part of the Doklam plateau of Bhutan, north of which lies China (till the recent stand-off broke out).

This area is locally called not Doklam but Dolam plateau. China has claimed that Doklam tri-boundary area is its territory with "effective jurisdiction". China uses a similar language to assert its claim over the South China Sea.

The Doklam tri-boundary is very close to the passage - otherwise called Chicken's Neck or Silliguri Corridor - that connects the northeastern Indian states with the rest of India and hence of great strategic value for New Delhi.

For some distance the boundaries of Bhutan and Sikkim are separated by the Chumbi Valley of Tibet. The valley protrudes towards the tri-junction like a knife. While the Indian side of the boundary is settled and there is no dispute over it with China, the Bhutanese side is disputed. This is the present theatre of stand-off between India and China.

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CHINESE INTERPRETATIONS OF 1890 TREATY

China has used 1890 treaty to justify its claim on Doklam tri-boundary referring to specifically mentioned Gipmochi which is same as Gyemochen. China says that Gyemochen is an established tri-boundary under the Sikkim-Tibet Convention.

But, Bhutan and India don't agree. Bhutan was the first to lodge protest against Chinese construction activities in Doklam tri-boundary area. It objected to road construction by China saying that Doklam belonged to China.

India, under its security arrangement with Bhutan stopped Chinese advance in the area and asked last month the People's Liberation Army of China to hold construction of road there.

WHY INDIA SEES IT DIFFERENTLY

According to India's interpretation of the treaty and delineation of the boundaries, the phrase "crest line" assumes more significance. This is in accordance with the general principle of boundary delineation across the world for the treaties agreed on the basis of 18th and 19th century understanding of maps and cartographic practices.

India asserts that the crest line or the ridge that runs from the border of Nepal ends at a place called Batang La. Bhutan also maintains the same demarcation.

Graphics of Doklam stand-off by PTI.

Batang La is located about four kilometres north (farther from India) of Doka La, where the stand-off is going on. Gyemochen - which China defines as the tri-junction - is about two-and-a-half kilometre south of Doka La (towards India). This stretch of six-and-a-half kilometers alters strategic stakes of India considerably as it would replace Bhutan - an ally - at the vantage with China - a known adversary.

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China also ignores the phrase "Bhutan frontier" mentioned in the 1890 treaty. Use of word "frontier" means that the boundary lines were not clearly demarcated between Bhutan and Tibet in 1890 - as per British and Chinese understanding.

Technically, a frontier is a zone or area that separates two sovereign nations while border is a specifically marked line that defines sovereign control of countries involved.

WAY OUT - STATUS QUO

China has been on an information campaign to suggest that India has accepted Chinese jurisdiction over Doklam area. It produced a letter written by former Prime Minister of India Jawahar Lal Nehru to back its claim.

Chinese foreign office read the portion of Nehru's letter to suit its case. "On September 26, 1959, Nehru confirmed with Zhou that there was no dispute on the China-Sikkim border," Chinese foreign office spokesperson Geng Shuang said last month citing the letter.

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But, in the same letter, Nehru went on to state that the "Chinese maps show sizeable areas of Bhutan as part of Tibet," adding, "The rectification of errors in Chinese maps regarding the boundary of Bhutan with Tibet is therefore a matter which has to be discussed along with the boundary of India with the Tibet region of China in the same sector."

India and China have been discussing various aspects of boundary for decades. An agreement has eluded the two countries. But, the negotiators from the two countries developed broad understandings of the terms to settle their disputes.

One such understanding was reached in 2012, when the two Governments "reached (an) agreement that the tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries will be finalized in consultation with the concerned countries."

Pointing to the 2012-agreement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said, "Any attempt, therefore, to unilaterally determine tri-junction points is in violation of this understanding."

During his Beijing visit later this month, Ajit Doval may use the five-year-old bilateral understanding to blame colonial leaders of Great Britain for creating confusion and leaving the legacy of boundary disputes between India, Bhutan and China to resolve the present stand-off. Ajit Doval's visit may result in India and China finally settle for the status quo over Doklam.

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--- ENDS ---
Michael Fiddes, Head of Estates & Farm Agency for Strutt & Parker, said:

The past six months have been a time of unprecedented political and economic uncertainty, thanks to the Brexit vote and a snap general election. However, despite the turmoil, land prices have held up remarkably well.

Since its peak in 2015, the average price of English arable land has fallen back, mostly as a result of continued pressure on farm incomes. However, the most recent analysis of our Farmland Database suggests that land prices have started to stabilise.

The average price paid for arable land in Q2 was 8,400/acre  around the same level as seen during the first three months of the year. There can be a wide range in prices paid, but the majority of land sold in the 8,00010,000/acre price bracket, with most of this at the lower end of the range.

Pasture prices also remained stable at an average sale price of 7,700/acre, with a range from 5,800 to 8,875/acre.

Mr Fiddes said demand for farmland remains highly localised with some farms going under offer quickly following competitive bidding, while others are attracting much lower levels of interest.

Farms are generally taking longer to sell, particularly the smaller units of 100-500 acres, but some of the larger blocks of ground are selling particularly quickly and selling well. One factor is more activity in the market from buyers looking to roll-over windfall funds from the sale of residential development land.

Lifestyle buyers and private investors are playing an increasing role in the market.

The data points to a significant fall this year in the proportion of land selling for more than 10,000/acre, compared with 2014 and 2015.

Mr Fiddes said while it is true that most farmers are less willing to pay a premium to secure land, another factor was a smaller number of properties exchanging hands which were likely to attract a premium.

In Q1 of 2017 we saw three exceptional sales achieve prices of about 15,000/acre and while that has not been repeated in the second quarter, it is, to an extent, a reflection of the type of property that has been in the market over the past six months.

Non-farmers may still be prepared to pay a premium for the right property  particularly in the ever-popular areas west of London and up into the west Midlands.

Mr Fiddes said the year started slowly in terms of supply, however, more land has come to the market in Q2 and levels are around the five-year average.

At this point, there are no indications that more farmers are planning to sell this autumn, which would accelerate the amount of land coming onto the market, he said.

While Brexit has caused uncertainty, some farmers have been reassured by the promise that subsidies will continue until at least 2022 and the rise in commodity prices, which is a direct result of the fall in the value of sterling.

Regional outlook

Giles Allen, East of England region

More than 8,500 acres have been launched on the market in the East of England over the past six months, which is just under half of the total acreage that came to the market in the region in 2016. Farms with strong interest from a local buyer, good accessibility and appealing characteristics are achieving the highest values, but prices continue to fluctuate widely with the central range tending to be between 7,500/acre to 9,500/acre.
Farmers in this situation are faced with the option of waiting for the entire crop to reach the dry grain stage by which time harvest may be late, some of the crop will be over-ripe and in-field losses are likely to be high, or harvesting before the entire crop is ripe and potentially experiencing heating in storage.

A third alternative of running the grain through a dryer is likely to be particularly expensive as some grains will inevitably become drier than needed in order to reduce the average moisture content of the entire crop.

However, there is an easy and cost-effective solution, according to feed preservation specialists, Kelvin Cave Ltd, who say unevenly ripened crops can be harvested moist and crimped before storage.

The crimping process, which is growing in popularity across the UK but has been used for decades in cooler, more northerly climates, allows cereals to be harvested and preserved at moisture contents of up to 45%.

The technique involves rolling early-harvested cereals through a crimping machine to expose the carbohydrate and protein, and adding a preservative, such as CrimpSafe 300, through an applicator on the machine. The crop is then stored in an airtight clamp or plastic tube where it undergoes a quick and controlled fermentation and remains stable for long-term storage.

Because crimping can be carried out on crops at such a wide range of moisture contents, it is perfectly possible and very effective to crimp a crop which has ripened unevenly, says Andy Strzelecki, Kelvin Caves technical director.

This is certainly a situation I have seen on many farms this year, where spring cereals, particularly barley, were sown in very dry conditions  which continued through March, April and beyond in some areas  and germinated unevenly.

This led on to uneven ear emergence and is now seen in uneven ripening, he says.

So, rather than wait for the entire crop to ripen, Id suggest crimping the grain at the earliest opportunity.
As an entrepreneur, I am attracted to new. I love speed and growth. I am drawn to the shiny object.

I see friends of mine with really cool software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies that are growing at rapid rates, albeit typically with low profits. I see the insane multiple the market applies to the resale valuation of these companies, and it makes me want to be in the SaaS business.

I listen to people yell from the rooftops that mobile is going to take over the world and that pretty soon no one will buy anything or make a decision without first asking Siri. Hearing that makes me want to create an app.

Why am I telling you this? As entrepreneurs, we are nearly all attracted to new. Someone at some point even coined the term Shiny Object Syndrome to describe what ails us. In my 20s, I jumped from business idea to business idea; some worked and some didnt. But, the things I learned in that phase of my life may have been my most valuable business lessons.

Related: How to Start a Business With (Almost) No Money

1. Marketing assets trump marketing tricks.

In many cases, that shiny object is just crap in a shiny wrapper. The trick or tactic may work for a time, and trying it out may even be useful for a while (as long as you dont divert any other resources -- time, money, etc. -- from proven winners to make this new campaign work), but soon enough, the true colors show.

If you want to be more successful tomorrow than you are today, never stop a successful campaign to test a new idea -- no matter how bored you are with the old strategy. If you want to test a new idea, allocate additional marketing dollars to do it. Dont pull the budget from something that is working; thats how an amateur operates.

Related: 22 Qualities That Make a Great Leader

2. Retention is king.

Big business gets this, but so few of us small business owners get how important retention is to growth and profitability. Retention is simply basic math, which I get isnt sexy, but it is profitable. A percentage of annual sales needs to go toward customer retention. If you can decrease customer churn, you will massively increase growth and profits.

Let me give you a simplified explanation. Have you ever heard the media talk about the average Americans tax freedom date? Its the date that the average American has to work up to before they actually earn any money for the year. Similar to your personal taxes, your business has a churn freedom date. Its different for every customer, but its the date upon which that persons business actually helps your company grow.

In the end, churn is a real problem, and the solution for nearly all businesses starts with building a relationship. You need to be your customers friend in the business. Here at The Newsletter Pro, were experts at building relationships, and if you want our help, wed be happy to chat with you and give you a solution that will help you get the best results for your business.

Related: 5 Habits of the Wealthy That Helped Them Get Rich

3. A process for everything.

I am surprised by the number of businesses that are simply winging it -- no structure, no process, no systems. When I tell entrepreneurs they need to add processes into their business, they often say things like My business is too difficult or different, which, quite frankly, Im going to call BS on.

Im sorry to break this to you, but your company is no different than six dozen other businesses like yours. You need to have a system, and once you create that system, you need to give it time to work; then, you make tweaks to the system to improve it.

At the end of the day, business is business 99.99 percent of the time. Unless youre blazing trails in a brand-new industry like asteroid mining, your business needs just a few basic things to grow, succeed and profit. I may not be in the business of drilling teeth, but give me 12 months as the CEO of any dental office in America, and wed be well on our way to doubling the size of the practice. That sounds like an incredibly cocky statement, but my point isnt to say Im great -- my point is that your business does not need to have todays shiny object.

So what does it need?

Your business needs three things:

Marketing assets you use over, and over, and over again -- dont get bored with tactics that make you money. A focus on decreasing customer churn. Systems and processes to keep things running.

And that's it. Theres your foundation for long-term success.

Related:



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


The U.S. visit in April of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the meeting he had with President Trump at last week's G20 Summit underline the fact that China represents an attractive market for expansion -- for numerous reasons.

Related: China's Tech Scene is Poised to Explode. Here's What U.S. Startups Need to Understand.

That Asian giant is now comfortably the second-largest consumer market in the world , and it boasts a massive population of consumers who have little debt and a lot of cash to spend. In addition, many Western brands have proven to be very popular in the Chinese market.

U.S.-based businesses can also benefit from partnering with companies in China to improve their supply chain, given China's highly sophisticated manufacturing industry.

If you are planning on expanding your company to China or off-shoring production there, you must keep in mind several cultural and logistical factors that will shape your strategy as you operate within the country's borders. You will have to learn to recognize these differences and adapt your practices to find sustained success in your Chinese endeavors.

Collaborate with long-term goals in mind.

It's true in any business situation that you need to prove to your customers and vendors that you aren't there to make a quick buck off them and then disappear into the sunset with your profits. But it's even more of a sensitive issue when you're expanding into a country such as China. Local buyers and vendors may be inherently wary of you as an outsider, so you need to pay extra attention to the signals you send to the community you enter.

One strategy for success in this area is to collaborate with those who understand the vision and values you have outlined for your company, and who are invested in your long-term success. This will help you demonstrate that you view China not as a way for vendors and manufacturers to help you cut costs and increase profit, but as a conduit to mutually beneficial partnerships.

Related: What Trump Doesn't Understand About China's Entrepreneurial Culture

Consider the big cultural differences, such as the Lunar calendar.

Most Westerners are at least somewhat aware of the major differences in Chinese culture, and these can have an important bearing on your company's success in the country. For instance, colors can have very specific meanings for the Chinese people; red, for instance, is associated with good fortune. While white symbolizes purity, it is also the color most associated with death.

These facts can be crucial for your branding considerations in the country.

Another factor you need to be aware of is the importance of the Lunar calendar. Although the Gregorian calendar has been in widespread use in official and unofficial capacities for some time, specific dates on the Chinese Lunar calendar still hold importance and are considered more "auspicious" or "prosperous."

It's important, then, to be aware of these dates, because many Chinese representatives will schedule business meetings or events around them. The Chinese New Year celebration is also a major holiday that is observed for a full week (sometimes longer) throughout many different economic sectors.

Respect the Chinese view of the world.

Despite the opening of the Chinese economy to foreign investment and influence that began in earnest in the 1990s and really took off this century, Chinese culture still places a high value on the collective. It really is amazing how decades of communist rule can affect even the most personal human interactions, but such is the influence that collectivism has had on the lives of most everyday Chinese citizens since they were born.

As a Western business leader, you need to respect this influence and understand that your Chinese partners and customers may not define value the same way you do. Although some elements of Western-style individualism have begun to enter into Chinese culture, for many people individual accomplishments or desires will still be secondary to societal, familial or organizational obligations.

Understand that no company in China is disconnected from politics.

Depending on the industry, many American entrepreneurs can start and operate a business with only minimal interference from federal, state and local governmental agencies. If you operate in an unregulated sector, you may not even think about how the government affects your business until it's time to pay your taxes.

In contrast, in China, governmental agencies have their hands in everything. However, it's important to remember that in many cases, local bureaucrats may be more prominent than the central Chinese authority. Accordingly, it's crucial to study the political landscape of the area where you will be operating and learn how to navigate the unique mix of centralization and decentralization that is present throughout the economy.

Adapt your sales pitch to speak to Chinese values.

Successful sales leaders always customize their sales pitch for specific audiences. That's because they aren't selling a list of features; they are selling their aspiration that by buying the solution they sell, customers can solve their problems and improve their lives. You can use the same concept when readying your sales presentations for the Chinese market; you'll just have to take things a little further.

For example, it may seem incongruous to a Westerner that Chinese culture values austerity and saving, while the Chinese market for luxury goods has been robust in recent years. For modern upper and upper-middle class Chinese citizens, Western luxury brands represent part of a new global future and a commitment to buying quality, rather than a frivolous purchase that will haunt them down the road.

Hire local partners and learn from them.

If you're planning to expand to any foreign market, you're far more likely to be successful if you rely on local partners who can guide you through the cultural and logistical hurdles that await you. This is especially true in the case of China, a country whose values and systems are still largely misunderstood by most casual Western observers.

Related: How Your Small Business Can Sell in China Today

Find a skilled translator who can attend every meeting with you, and pay close attention to the advice given by your trusted local staff. These people will often be the difference between your making an unforgivable faux pas and successfully navigating the complex world of Chinese business.

Related:

6 Tips for Doing Business in China

KFC Now Has a Branded Smartphone

China's Tech Scene is Poised to Explode. Here's What U.S. Startups Need to Understand.



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


L ast nights spate of acid attacks across north-east London offers compelling evidence that more must be done to end the use of corrosive liquids in violent crimes. Such assaults are seemingly carried out with random casualness, yet the impact on victims is frequently life-changing. There have been a staggering 838 acid attacks in the capital since 2015.

Historically, the use of corrosive substances has been associated with domestic abuse and other crimes motivated by hate. Increasingly, however, acid has become a commonplace weapon among gangs, used to disable victims of robbery. It has the advantage of being relatively cheap and easily available. It works quickly, too, and can be thrown from a distance, meaning there is less chance of an attacker finding himself in a struggle.

Restricting the sales of the most dangerous substances is the key. Plainly, there are many household products that have corrosive properties and it is not realistic to take these off the shelves, although age restrictions could be introduced  as they have been in relation to knives.

When it comes to full-strength acids, tougher action is needed. Sulphuric acid is a reportable explosives precursor so sellers are already under an obligation to report suspicious sales to the police. Buying a small quantity, however, is unlikely at present to set alarm bells ringing. Cressida Dick, the Met Commissioner, indicated this morning that the police are working closely with the Home Office to review current laws  those discussions should lead to a more rigorous regulatory regime.

We can learn something from the example of Bangladesh, where acid violence  mostly against women  has been significantly reduced by limiting sales and increasing penalties. The Government must follow suit if it is to tackle the acid scourge here.

Cressida Dick on how easy it is to get acid

An American in Paris

Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Emmanuel Macron his wife Brigitte at the Eiffel Tower / AP

On Bastille Day, France marks the overthrowing of an old, failing elite by a popular revolt. More than two centuries on, two leaders of modern popular revolts have come together in Paris to take part in the celebrations.

On the surface, Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron couldnt appear more unalike. Mr Trump is the 71-year-old Right-wing reality TV star, who harnessed the anger of white working-class Americans at globalisation to capture the White House. Mr Macron is the 39-year-old Centrist ex-philosopher, who channelled Frances anxiety about its place in the world into a movement that celebrates modernity and internationalism. Yet, judging by their appearance together at todays military parade in Paris, the two men seem comfortable in each others company.

Perhaps that is because they recognise they have a lot in common. Messrs Trump and Macron won power by overthrowing the old political establishments; both are confident in their own abilities; they each relish the grandeur of the big stage; they share a taste in Empire-style gold furniture and mirrored halls (Macron prefers the original; Trump the replica); and both leaders are intent on making their countries great again.

Of course, Mr Trump was supposed to be visiting London this summer. Announced in January as an early success for Brexit Britains diplomacy, the trip was quietly cancelled a few weeks ago. The suspicion was that the newly enfeebled Government here wanted to avoid more controversy. But Downing Street sources said it was Mr Trump himself who had been put off by prospect of large scale protests in London. The risk of similar protests in Paris, however, dont seem to have deterred him.

Its all a bit of a mystery. All we know for sure, looking at the pictures from Paris, is that Mr Trump likes hanging out with winners.
Despite being known for her impeccable style and having one of the world's most envied wardrobes, it wouldn't be unfair to note that the Duchess of Cambridge's aesthetic is often a little safe.

Recognised all over the world, Kate Middleton has long been a fan of a Hobbs jacket and a classic LK Bennett nude heel.

But despite experimenting more recently with her look - much to the delight of Erdem and Emilia Wickstead whose clothes she is frequently spotted wearing - the fashion pack have been caught off guard more than once over the last fortnight as the Duchess made some bold sartorial moves.

With more than one of her signature moves having been challenged, we deconstruct the new direction.

The Duchess of Cambridge - style file 1 /220 The Duchess of Cambridge - style file Click through to see Kate's style evolution... Getty Images June 23, 2005 Kate and Prince William on the day of their graduation ceremony at St Andrew's University Getty Images August 6, 2005 At the Gatcombe Park Festival of British Eventing Getty Images May 6, 2006 Leaving Laura Parker Bowles wedding to Harry Lopes Getty Images December 15, 2006 At Sandhurst to see William take part in the Sovereign's Parade at The Royal Military Academy in Camberley AFP/Getty Images March 13, 2007 At the Cheltenham Race Festival AFP/Getty Images April 11, 2008 Wearing a Reiss coat at William's graduation ceremony at RAF Cranwell air base in Lincolnshire AFP/Getty Images November 16, 2010 Wearing Issa posing for photographs in the State Apartments of St James Palace after announcing their engagement Getty Images February 25, 2011 Visiting the University of St Andrews Getty Images April 29, 2011 Wearing Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen at the West Door of Westminster Abbey for her wedding to Prince William AFP/Getty Images April 29, 2011 Evening celebrations after her wedding to Prince William AFP/Getty Images June 9, 2011 Wearing a Jenny Packham dress at the 10th Annual Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) Gala Dinner AFP/Getty Images June 25, 2011 Wearing Alexander McQueen to present medals to members of the Irish Guards at the Victoria Barracks Getty Images July 1, 2011 Wearing an Issa dress at the Evening National Canada Day Celebrations in Ottawa Getty Images July 7, 2011 Wearing a Jenny Packham dress at Calgary Airport Getty Images July 9, 2011 Wearing an Alexander McQueen gown with Jimmy Choo heels at the BAFTA "Brits to Watch" event held at the Belasco Theatre Getty Images October 26, 2011 At an event in support of the 'In Kind Direct' charity at Clarence House Getty Images November 10, 2011 Wearing a bespoke Jenny Packham gown at a reception in aid of the National Memorial Arboretum Appeal at St James's Palace Getty Images March 15, 2012 Playing hockey with British hockey team members at the Riverside Arena during a visit to the Olympic Park AFP/Getty Images April 25, 2012 Wearing Matthew Williamson at the UK Premiere of 'African Cats' AFP/Getty Images June 17, 2012 Wearing Zara jeans, a Burberry shirt, Really Wild waistcoat and Le Chameau boots at an 'Expanding Horizons' Primary School camp Getty Images September 13, 2012 Wearing Alexander McQueen at an official dinner hosted by Malaysia's Head of State Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah of Kedah Getty Images September 14, 2012 Visiting Assyakirin Mosque Getty Images September 16, 2012 In Honiara on the Solomon Islands AFP/Getty Images September 18, 2012 At a 'fatale', a singing and dancing event AFP/Getty Images May 22, 2013 Wearing Emilia Wickstead at a garden party at Buckingham Palace AFP/Getty Images July 23, 2013 Wearing Jenny Packham while departing The Lindo Wing with their newborn son, George Getty Images September 12, 2013 Wearing Jenny Packham at the inaugural Tusk Conservation Awards at The Royal Society AFP/Getty Images October 23, 2013 Wearing Alexander McQueen while holding her son Prince George of Cambridge following his Christening at Chapel Royal in St James's Palace AFP/Getty Images April 16, 2014 Wearing Roksanda Ilincic at Sydney Airport Getty Images April 20, 2014 Wearing Alexander McQueen while leaving St Andrew's Cathedral following a Easter Sunday Service Getty Images June 15, 2014 With Prince George at the Royal Charity Polo during the Maserati Jerudong Trophy at Cirencester Park Polo Club Getty Images October 21, 2014 Wearing Jenny Packham at the Natural History Museum after she attended the Wildlife Photographer of The Year 2014 Awards Ceremony Getty Images March 11, 2015 Wearing Hobbs at the Turner Contemporary Art Gallery Getty Images May 2, 2015 Wearing Jenny Packham to step out with new-born daughter Charlotte outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital AFP/Getty Images October 26, 2015 Wearing a Jenny Packham gown at the Royal Film Performance of "Spectre" Getty Images March 3, 2016 During a short private skiing break in the French Alps Getty Images March 11, 2016 Visiting the mentoring programme of the XLP project Getty Images April 10, 2016 Playing cricket during the royal visit to India and Bhutan Getty Images April 14, 2016 With Bhutan's Queen Jetsun Pema at the Tashicho Dzong in Thimphu AFP/Getty Images April 15, 2016 Posing next to a prayer wheel on the trek up to Tiger's Nest Getty Images May 20, 2016 Wearing Alexander McQueen as she arrives at Land Rover BAR Getty Images July 6, 2016 Wearing a Barbara Casasola dress to announce the Victoria and Albert Museum as the winner of the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2016 prize Getty Images August 24, 2016 Wearing LK Bennett to visit the Youthscape centre in Luton Getty Images September 2, 2016 Wearing Gap trousers on the Island of St Martin's in the Scilly Isles Getty Images September 25, 2016 Wearing Alexander McQueen to greet members of the public after arriving by sea plane at the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre Getty Images September 27, 2016 Wearing Preen by Thornton Bregazzi for a reception at Government House in Canada Getty Images September 27, 2016 Wearing Dolce & Gabbana to visit Kelowna University during the Royal Tour of Canada Getty Images November 3, 2016 Wearing Self-Portrait at the UK Premiere of "A Street Cat Named Bob" Getty Images December 8, 2016 At an evening reception for members of the Diplomatic Corps at Buckingham Palace Getty Images December 25, 2016 Attending a Christmas Day service at St Mark's Church in Englefield AFP/Getty Images January 11, 2017 Visiting a Child Bereavement UK Centre in Stratford Getty Images February 5, 2017 Competing against The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry during the Team Heads Together at a London Marathon Training Day at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Getty Images February 6, 2017 Attening the Place2Be Big Assembly With Heads Together for Children's Mental Health Week at Mitchell Brook Primary School Getty Images March 17, 2017 Attending a meeting with French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace Getty Images March 17, 2017 Attending a dinner at the British Embassy in Paris as part of their official visit to the French capital Getty Images March 18, 2017 Playing rugby at the Trocadero during an official two-day visit to Paris Getty Images March 28, 2017 Wearing a Temperley gown to the Portrait Gala at the National Portrait Gallery Getty Images April 4, 2017 Wearing Marchesa at the opening night of "42nd Street" at Theatre Royal Getty Images April 4, 2017 Attending the Service of Hope at Westminster Abbey Getty Images April 16, 2017 Attending the Easter Day service at St George's Chapel in Windsor in bespoke Catherine Walker Getty Images May 3, 2017 Feeding a lamb as she visits Author Michael Morpurgo's Farms for City Children in Arlingham, Gloucestershire Getty Images May 11, 2017 Wearing an Emilia Wickstead coat on a visit to Luxembourg Getty Images May 22, 2017 Arriving at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show wearing Rochas Getty Images June 17, 2017 Wearing Alexander McQueen with Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Trooping the Colour Getty Images June 17, 2017 Wearing Dolce & Gabanna in the Parade Ring as she attends Royal Ascot 2017 at Ascot Racecourse Getty Images July 17, 2017 Wearing Alexander McQueen in Poland Getty Images July 19, 2017 Visiting the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin with Prince William Getty Images July 19, 2017 Wearing Alexander McQueen at The Queen's Birthday Party at the British Ambassadorial Residence in Berlin Getty Images July 20, 2017 Wearing Hugo Boss Breton top to compete with Prince William as they cox rowing boats in a friendly race on the Neckar River in Germany Getty Images July 20, 2017 Wearing Jenny Packham in Germany Getty Images July 20, 2017 Wearing Markus Lupfer in Berlin Getty Images July 21, 2017 Wearing Emilia Wickstead to visit the Maritime Museum in Hamburg Getty Images August 30, 2017 Wearing Prada to visit The Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace Getty Images October 10, 2017 Wearing Temperley to attend a reception on World Mental Health Day at Buckingham Palace Getty Images October 16, 2017 Wearing Orla Kiely at an event at Paddington train station AFP/Getty Images October 18, 2017 Wearing a Philosophy Di Lorenzo Serafini blazer at London's West Ham football stadium PA October 31, 2017 Looking sporty at the Lawn Tennis Association in London Getty Images November 7, 2017 Wearing Diane von Furstenburg to attend a charity dinner at the Orangery at Kensington Palace AFP/Getty Images November 8, 2017 Wearing a Goat burgundy dress for the annual Place2Be School Leaders Forum in London AFP/Getty Images November 11, 2017 In a Catherine Walker & Co coat dress at the Royal Festival of Remembrance Getty Images November 28, 2017 In a Kate Spade dress at The Foundling Museum, London Getty Images December 6, 2017 Wearing a Goat dress in Manchester Getty Images December 12, 2017 Attending the 'Magic Mums' Christmas Party in Seraphine coat dress Getty Images December 14, 2017 Attending the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service at St Paul's Cathedral Getty Images December 25, 2017 Attending the Christmas Day Church service in Miu Miu Getty Images January 30, 2018 Attending a dinner in Sweden wearing Erdem Getty Images January 31, 2018 At the Fotografiska Gallery wearing Erdem Getty Images February 1, 2018 At the Royal Palace in Oslo wearing Alexander McQueen AFP/Getty Images April 23, 2018 At the Lindo Wing wearing Jenny Packham Getty Images May 19,2018 At Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's royal wedding wearing Alexander McQueen Getty Images June 9, 2018 At Trooping The Colour in Alexander McQueen Getty Images July 9, 2018 At Prince Loui's christening wearing Alexander McQueen AFP/Getty Images July 14, 2019 At Wimbledon with Duchess of Sussex wearing Jenny Packham Getty Images July 15, 2018 At Wimbledon wearing Dolce & Gabbana AFP/Getty Images October 10, 2018 At the V&A wearing Erdem Getty Images October 12, 2018 At the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank wearing Alexander McQueen Getty Images October 23, 2018 At a state banquet wearing Alexander McQueen AFP/Getty Images November 11, 2018 Attending a service to mark the centenary of the Armistic wearing Catherine Walker AFP/Getty Images November 11, 2018 At Remembrance Sunday wearing Alexander McQueen Getty Images November 21, 2018 At UCL London wearing Paule Ka AFP/Getty Images November 28, 2018 At Leicester City Football wearing Catherine Walker Getty Images December 4, 2018 At a Christmas Party at Kensington Palace wearing Brora cardi and Emilia Wickstead skirt Getty Images December 4, 2018 At a reception for members of the Diplomatic Corps wearing Jenny Packham Getty Images December 5, 2018 At RAF Akrotiri wearing a Smythe blazer Getty Images December 11, 2018 Visiting Evelina London Children's Hospital wearing L K Bennett Getty Images December 25, 2018 At the Christmas Day service wearing Catherine Walker AFP/Getty Images January 15, 2019 The Duchess of Cambridge steps out in a Dubarry jacket, Zara jeans and Chloe suede boots Getty Images January 16, 2019 In Oscar de la Renta for a visit to The Royal Opera House Costume Department Getty Images January 29, 2019 Wearing Alexander McQueen in Dundee Getty Images January 29, 2019 Wearing Alexander McQueen in Dundee Getty Images January 29, 2019 Wearing Alexander McQueen in Dundee Getty Images February 5, 2019 In an Eponine London dress and L.K Bennett boots Getty Images February 10, 2019 Wearing Alexander McQueen Getty Images February 13, 2019 Wearing bespoke Dolce & Gabbana Getty Images February 13, 2019 In glorious Gucci Getty Images February 27, 2019 In red Carolina Herrera and L.K. Bennett boots Getty Images February 27, 2019 In a Barbour puffer jacket Getty Images February 27, 2019 Wearing New Balance trainers and a Ralph Lauren sweater Getty Images February 27, 2019 Wearing Missoni Getty Images February 28, 2019 In Mulberry coat, dark blue court heels by Rupert Sanderson and a Jimmy Choo clutch bag Getty Images February 28, 2019 In Jenny Packham Getty Images February 29, 2019 In a khaki Barbour jacket, a red J.Crew jumper and her trusty brown Chloe boots Getty Images March 5, 2019 In a bespoke dress by her own private dress maker Getty Images March 6, 2019 Wearing a Sportmax coat, a Michael Kors dress with a bag by Manu Atelier and earrings from Kiki McDonough Getty Images March 11, 2019 Recycling a Catherine Walker coat and a Lock & Co. hat Getty Images March 12, 2019 Wearing a Gucci blouse and Jigsaw wide-leg trousers Getty Images March 12, 2019 Wearing bespoke Alexander McQueen Getty Images March 17, 2019 Opting for green McQueen Getty Images March 19, 2019 Wearing a Catherine Walker coat Getty Images April 21, 2019 Wearing Alexander McQueen Getty Images April 25, 2019 In a Catherine Walker coat and a matching Rosie Olivia hat Getty Images May 1, 2019 Wearing Emilia Wickstead Getty Images May 7, 2019 In L.K Bennett trousers and a nautical jumper Getty Images May 8, 2019 In a Lorenzo Serafini blazer and black skinny jeans Getty Images May 8, 2019 Wearing a TROY London jacket and Penelope Chilvers boots Getty Images May 14, 2019 In Alessandra Rich Getty Images May 20, 2019 In floral Erdem Getty Images May 20, 2019 Wearing a broderie anglaise M.i.h blouse with brown culottes and white Superga sneakers Getty Images May 21, 2019 In an Alexander McQueen coat, a matching Juliette Botterill hat and delicate pearl earrings that once belonged to Princess Diana Getty Images June 3, 2019 In bespoke Alexander McQueen for the State Banquet Getty Images June 8, 2019 Wearing Alexander McQueen for Trooping the Colour Getty Images June 12, 2019 Wearing an off-the-shoulder Barbara Casasola dress Getty Images June 18, 2019 In Elie Saab Getty Images June 25, 2019 In Ridley London and Castaner espadrille wedges Getty Images July 1, 2019 In a Sandro dress and Accessorize earrings Getty Images July 2, 2019 Wearing a Suzannah dress and a belt and bag by Alexander McQueen Getty Images July 13, 2019 In bespoke Dolce & Gabbana and a bag by the same brand Getty Images July 14, 2019 In an Emilia Wickstead dress and Aldo shoes Getty Images September 5, 2019 Wearing Michael Kors for Princess Charlotte's first day at school Getty Images September 10, 2019 Wearing Emilia Wickstead Getty Images September 19, 2019 Wearing an Equipment blouse Getty Images September 26, 2019 Recycling her favourite Alexander McQueen coat for the fourth time Getty Images October 2, 2019 Wearing a dress from the collaboration of two lesser-known London-based brands, ARoss Girl and Soler Getty Images October 9, 2019 In Jigsaw culottes Getty Images October 14, 2019 In a custom two-piece by Catherine Walker Getty Images October 15, 2019 Getty Images October 15, 2019 Wearing a green tunic by Catherine Walker, trousers by Maheen Khan, a scarf by Satringi, and Zeen earrings Getty Images October 15, 2019 Wearing Jenny Packham Getty Images October 17, 2019 Wearing bespoke Maheen Khan Getty Images October 18, 2019 Wearing a traditional shalwar kameez - a traditional outfit of a long tunic and trousers - by Gul Ahmed Getty Images October 23, 2019 Wearing L.K Bennett PA November 18, 2019 Wearing Alexander McQueen Getty Images November 30, 2019 Wearing Alessandra Rich PA December 11, 2019 Wearing Alexander McQueen and Princess Diana's earrings Getty Images

THE HAIR

Taking to her Centre Court seat in the Royal Box on Wimbledon's opening day, Kate Middleton turned even more heads than usual. Famed for her long and lustrous locks, the Duchess arrived at the tournament sporting a new shoulder-skimming cut, complete with a loose and softly styled curl.

Having lost several inches, the Duchess's new look is not only more youthful and flattering but also feels decidedly more modern.

Providing her stylists continue to let go of the rollers and avoid over-curl, the new barnet direction gets the thumbs up from us.

THE NECKLINE

Providing her second sartorial shock of the fortnight, Kate arrived at a Buckingham Palace banquet with Spain's King Felipe and Queen Letizia wearing a plunging pale pink gown by Marchesa.

A semi-sheer lace neckline and sleeves, the gown featured one of the lowest necklines we've seen worn by the Duchess and provided an inevitable talking point.

Low enough to be surprising and directional but not too low to be seen as inappropriate, the confident new Kate is going down favourably with style critics.

THE SHOE

The Duchess's latest style surprise came in the form of a rather racy Prada sandal.

Joining Sir David Attenborough to unveil the Natural History Museum's new blue whale feature, you'd be forgiven for thinking Kate had slipped back into her old ways at first glance.

A blow-dried bob and demure pastel Preen by Thornton Bregazzi dress, it is only in a full-length shot that the mother-of-two's fashion fowardness comes to fruition.

Unlike her trusty black courts, the scalloped stilettos prove the perfect antidote to an otherwise unassuming look.
T he number of acid attacks in London has soared in the past six years with almost 1,500 reports since 2011.

Resham Khan, 21, and her cousin Jameel Muhktar, 37, were left with devastating injuries last month after an attacker sprayed acid in their faces at traffic lights.

Hospital worker Syed Nadeem, 44, was also targeted with acid last month in a moped robbery as he was leaving Whipps Cross hospital.

In 2012 business student Mary Konye, 22, attacked friend Naomi Oni, a Victorias Secret shop assistant.

Twenty people were hurt when they were doused in a corrosive substance at Mangle nightclub in Dalston in April. The attack left a 22-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man blind in one eye.

Acid Attack Victim Covered In Water

Arthur Collins, the ex-boyfriend of reality TV star Ferne McCann, was charged with five counts of causing GBH with intent and 11 counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Collins, 25, and fellow defendant Andre Phoenix, 21, strongly deny the charges, pleaded not guilty and are due to stand trial in October.

Q&A: What you need to know about the attacks:

What types of acid are used in attacks?

Sulphuric acid, which can be used as a drain cleaner, is one of the most damaging substances used, along with nitric acid. It can cause severe burns and dissolve skin and even bone.

Chromic acid solution and patio cleaner have also been used in attacks, while hydrochloric acid or ammonia, found in household products, cause less harm but are still toxic.

Cressida Dick on how easy it is to get acid

Where are they available?

It is virtually impossible to ban the sale of all corrosive substances as many are found in household cleaning products sold over the counter at DIY stores or supermarkets.

The pure chemicals can also be bought online with virtually no checks as to its intended use.

Sellers do, however, have a duty to report any suspicious purchases.

How could they be restricted?

Campaigners have called for a change in sentencing guidelines and tougher restrictions on sale, including upgrading sulphuric acid to a regulated substance requiring a licence to buy it.

MPs have also called for a specific offence of carrying sulphuric acid and a re-examination of stop and search powers. Experts say it is very difficult to prove any illegal motive in carrying it and, while a knife attack is attempted murder, being caught in an acid attack would be grievous bodily harm.

There are also calls for household cleaning products to be weakened.
By PTI: By Shirish B Pradhan

Kathmandu, Jul 14 (PTI) India today pledged financial assistance worth 41.2 million Nepali Rupees for the construction of a campus building in central Nepal.

Indian Ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri laid the foundation stone for construction of Adarsh Multiple Campus building at Gajuri Bazar, Dhading 120-km west of Kathmandu.

The campus building is being constructed with the financial assistance of NRs 41.2 million extended by the Government of India under its small development project scheme in Nepal, according to a statement issued by the Indian Embassy here.

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The campus, where more than 200 students are enrolled under the faculty of business studies, was established in 2006.

The construction of the new campus building would benefit the students of the 18 Village Development Committees especially the girls belonging to the underprivileged groups like Chepang, Tamang, and other Janjati and Dalit communities who are enrolled in the campus.

The new infrastructure would provide much needed classroom space and would create an improved environment for learning and contribute to the development of the education facilities in Dhading district. PTI SBP AMS ZH AMS

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A beautician can sue a disgraced ex-barrister for 200,000 over claims his new TV career has left her anxious and depressed, a judge has ruled.

Lorna Jamous, 54, hired Alexander Mercouris in 2008 to bring a compensation claim against Westminster city council after her son was taken into care for a year.

She was offered a 5,000 settlement in 2009 but Mercouris, 55, persuaded her to reject it. He later claimed he had managed to get the sum increased to 983,000. When the money failed to materialise, he forged a letter from Baroness Hale  now a Supreme Court justice  saying she was concerned that the payment had not been made.

In a series of lies, he claimed the payout had been stolen by his brother and that he had been abducted by fake police officers and taken to a meeting with the then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers. Mercouris said Lord Phillips had offered him 50,000 if he dropped the case, a Bar Standards Board tribunal heard in 2012.

He blamed his behaviour on a 2007 mental breakdown but was disbarred.

Ex Barrister Alexander Mercouris / Roland Hoskins

Mercouris has since reinvented himself as a commentator on world affairs for Russian TV news outlets and websites. Ms Jamous said she was alerted to his new career in March last year. She has filed a 200,000 compensation claim at the High Court, alleging she and her son were mentally scarred by his treatment of them.

This week Master Davison, sitting in the Queens Bench division, dismissed an attempt by Mercouris to have the case thrown out. The judge found Ms Jamous had a claim to bring and ordered a full trial to be heard this year, adding her son, now in his twenties, as a claimant.

Ms Jamous said: It was outrageous, I couldnt believe he was holding himself out as an expert on these shows. I have been fighting this case on my own and am pleased it will now go to trial.

Guarang Naik, for Mercouris, said the ex-barrister was opposing the claim but added: His conduct is not something thats disputed. He said Mercouris will argue his TV appearance cannot amount to causing personal injury because all he has done is moved on with his life.

Master Davison found Ms Jamouss son suffers because Mercouriss handling of the 2009 claim left him without a payout for therapy. He said through Mercouriss negligence, or worse than negligence the son was deprived of the psychiatric help he would have had.

Ms Jamouss claim of professional negligence against Mercouris was struck out as there is a three-year time limit on such cases. The personal injury claims will go to trial on a date to be decided.
A young man has been rushed to hospital after a knife attack in broad daylight in Brick Lane.

Police and paramedics descended on the bustling east London street at around 4.20pm on Friday.

Shocked witnesses described seeing crazy scenes and police everywhere following the incident.

Tower Hamlets councillor Ohid Ahmed tweeted: Another stabbing in Brick Lane. Listening to residents concerns.

Another Twitter user wrote: Walking down Brick Lane and a kid has been stabbed in the middle of the afternoon.

"Police everywhere - looking for the attacker. Rumoured to be hiding in a building."

Another Twitter user wrote: Little yout got stabbed up on brick lane damn police got the whole area shut down.

The condition of the victim  believed to be aged in his late teens or early 20s  is not known at this time, Scotland Yard said.

No arrests have been made.

Brick Lane is famous for its many curry houses, as well as shops, markets and galleries, attract thousands of tourists every day.
M ore Muslim people are reporting potential terror threats than ever before, according to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan police.

Cressida Dick said in a radio interview that information coming from Muslim communities has markedly increased with regular calls to the anti-terrorism hotline.

She also said at least five attacks had been halted in the last three to four months, with almost 20 attacks stopped in recent years.

Ms Dick told Nick Ferrari on LBC: "I get more information now from Muslim communities than we ever have on the anti-terrorist hotline.

"We get people standing up and condemning but we clearly need a lot more because what has happened in the last few months alone is horrific, she said.

Police Commissioner: Sadiq Khan and Cressida Dick at the scene of an attack in Finsbury Park / Sky News

Just in the last few weeks actually five (attacks have been stopped) and its well into the teens in the last couple of years where we know people are radicalised, are spreading hatred or supporting terrorism or want to carry out a terrorist attack.

When pushed on how close atrocities were to being carried out, Ms Dick said some were very close to an attack.

Mr Ferrari said: Literally minutes? Minutes away?

To which the commissioner replied: Yes.

She also urged communities to speak out against radicalisation in a bid to stop home-grown terrorists spreading messages of hatred on the capitals streets.

"I've worked for the last 17 years in terrorism trying to fight violent extremism in all its forms and it comes in many forms, as we saw in the Finsbury Park attack, we do see different forms of terrorism.

"We are undoubtedly seeing recently examples of people who've carried out attacks or who are violent extremists who are home-grown or who may have travelled or been influenced by someone overseas but who are living in our communities and that's a problem for all of us."

We need people to talk to the police and tell us about it, we need people to stand up, she added.

Borough Market & London Bridge terror attack tributes - In pictures 1 /25 Borough Market & London Bridge terror attack tributes - In pictures Flowers and post it notes on the wall by London Bridge Jeremy Selwyn Floral tributes and messages to those killed and injured after the London Bridge terror attack left at London Bridge Nigel Howard A message of "love not hate" posted among the tributes Jeremy Selwyn Thousands of people wrote messages to the victims Jeremy Selwyn Red roses laid out on London Bridge after the terror attack Jeremy Selwyn More flowers at Monument in remembrance of victims Jeremy Selwyn Floral tributes and messages to those killed and injured after the London Bridge terror attack left at London Bridge Nigel Howard A woman sticks a post-it note to the wall of messages Nigel Howard People from all over the world left messages of strength and support after the attack Jeremy Selwyn Onlookers take photos of the floral tributes Nigel Howard It comes as the market gears up to reopen Nigel Howard The Borough Market community left this message of strength Nigel Howard A woman takes a photo of the messages left at the scene Nigel Howard One person Rob wrote: They did not dent our democracy Nigel Howard The sea of flowers by London Bridge Jeremy Selwyn Flowers and post it notes on the wall by London Bridge Jeremy Selwyn Flowers and post it notes on the wall by London Bridge Jeremy Selwyn Floral tributes and messages to those killed and injured after the London Bridge terror attack left at London Bridge Nigel Howard A giant blue screen closes an entrance to Borough Market Jeremy Selwyn

The comments came in the wake of attacks in Finsbury Park, at London Bridge and Westminster.

Terrorist Khalid Masood rammed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in March before stabbing hero PC Keith Palmer outside Parliament.

Five victims, including PC Palmer, were killed in the attack.

A police officer places flowers and a photo of Pc Keith Palmer on Whitehall after the Westminster attacks / Dominic Lipinski/PA

On June 3, terrorists Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zagbah launched a van and knife rampage at London Bridge and nearby Borough Market, leaving eight civilians dead.

Following the attacks concrete anti-terrorism barriers were put up on bridges across the capital.

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On June 19, Darren Osborne, 47, from Cardiff, was arrested after a car ploughed into a group of Muslims outside a mosque in Finsbury Park.

Father-of-five Makram Ali, 51, was killed.

Osborne was later charged with terrorism related murder and attempted murder on Friday, Scotland Yard said.

Ms Dick said the barriers are likely to become a permanent feature across the city in some form.

The Commissioner also praised Londons resilience and said not one planned event had been cancelled amid fears of an attack.

She added: London has gone on, we have been very resilient, all of our events have gone ahead from Wimbledon to Pride. There had obviously been more protection and security and armed officers but not a single event has been cancelled.
W itnesses have told how victims were left "screaming" in agony after thugs launched a 90-minute acid attack spree across east London.

The suspects, who were riding on a moped, first struck in Hackney when they hurled a corrosive liquid in another rider's face before snatching his bike and making their escape, police said.

Four other victims were sprayed with the searing liquid in Islington and Hackney.

One man suffered life-changing facial injuries, police said.

Witness Samuel Leibowitz, 49, described seeing a man screaming in pain after acid was flung on his face in Cazenove Road, Hackney.

He saw the man sprawled against a wall holding his face as local residents put a wet cloth over his face and poured water on him.

Acid attack: Takeaway delivery drivers rushed to help a victim in Hackney, east London / Twitter/@sarah_cobbold

Mr Leibowitz, a baker, said: It was an horrific scene. The guy was screaming in pain. He was shouting Im in pain, Im in pain.

He was crying and screaming and holding his face it was shocking. He was slumped against the wall. There was a big crowd trying to help him. It was obviously serious.

Witness Sarah Cobbold saw the victim of the first attack on Hackney Road being doused with huge bottles of water by police.

Attack spree: Police at the scene of one of the incidents / Twitter/@999London

The 29-year-old sub-editor said: It was just outside my flat, the victim was literally stood on my doorstep.

Police had cordoned off the little area around the pavement and they were pouring huge, five-litre bottles of water over his head.

He was standing, he seemed to be OK. After probably about 10-15 minutes he managed to walk unaided into the ambulance. I hope that means he is OK.

Cressida Dick on how easy it is to get acid

The terrifying accounts come as Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said the force was concerned about the rise of such incidents in the capital.

She branded the attacks completely barbaric and said: "The acid can cause horrendous injuries; the ones last night involved a series of robberies we believe are linked - I am glad to see we have arrested somebody.

Horrifying scenes: A victim is doused with water

"And it is not, I don't want people to think this is happening all over London all the time, it is really not, but we are concerned because the numbers appear to be going up.

"We will arrest people, we will enforce the law as we can, and we are working very closely with the Home Office to try to see if there if any changes in the law are required."

Speaking to LBC radio, Ms Dick urged parents to challenge children caught carrying household items such as bleach.

She said: Just life if youve got a child in your family that takes a knife as they go out the door, weve got to challenge.

A male teenager has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery.

He is being held at an east London police station.

The Met Police said in a statement: "Inquiries are ongoing and officers from Hackney CID are investigating.

"Any witnesses, anyone with information or in possession of footage of these incidents should contact police on 101 or tweet @MetCC. To remain anonymous you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
T wo men on mopeds launched an acid attack rampage across London targeting five victims in just 90 minutes, police said.

One victim was left with life-changing injuries following the spree on Thursday night.

The attackers first struck as a 32-year-old moped rider waited at a junction in Hackney, east London.

They tossed the noxious substance into his face before one of them jumped on to his vehicle and drove away.

Acid attack: The men struck in Upper Clapton / Twitter/@999London

Police said the man had gone to an east London hospital and they were awaiting an update on his injuries.

Dramatic images posted on social media showed takeaway delivery drivers gather at the scene in a bid to help the injured man.

Witness Sarah Cobbold wrote on Twitter: Police and ambulances on Hackney/Queensbridge Road, possible acid/petrol attack. Lots of @UberEATS @Deliveroo drivers rallied round.

Crime scene: Police rushed to the scene of one attack in Upper Clapton / Twitter/@999London

Just 20 minutes later, at around 10.50pm, another victim was sprayed with searing liquid on the Upper Street junction with Highbury Corner, Islington.

He was taken to hospital in north London.

A third victim was targeted 11.05pm in Shoreditch High Street and suffered non life-threatening injuries.

Within 15 minutes, the pair appeared to have struck again, launching a corrosive substance at a man on Cazenove Road, Stoke Newington.

Attack spree: Police at the scene of one of the incidents / Twitter/@999London

The fourth victim suffered "life-changing" facial injuries, police said.

A final assault of the night was reported to police at 11.37pm, when another man was confronted as he sat on his moped in traffic on Chatsworth Road, Hackney.

After spraying the liquid in a victim's face, the moped was stolen and both attackers fled.

Dramatic photographs posted on social media showed huge police cordons in Upper Clapton as detectives investigated the attacks, which police believe are linked.

A male teenager has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery.

He is being held at an east London police station.

The Met Police said in a statement: "Inquiries are ongoing and officers from Hackney CID are investigating.

"Any witnesses, anyone with information or in possession of footage of these incidents should contact police on 101 or tweet @MetCC. To remain anonymous you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
A man suspected of preparing to carry out a terror attack has been arrested at London City Airport.

Counter terrorism officers detained the 49-year-old when he returned to the UK from an undisclosed location on Thursday afternoon.

He was arrested on suspicion of the preparation of terrorist acts, contrary to section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

He has been taken into custody at a south London police station and has since been released on bail to return on a date in late July.

Officers also carried out a search at an address in Essex, which is now complete.

Enquiries continue.
A crater big enough to contain the Royal Albert Hall has been excavated in central London in order to house a world-class cancer treatment centre.

The enormous hole, on the site of the UCL hospital near Warren Street tube station, reaches 28.5 metres below ground and is designed to fit five storeys.

The basement will be home to one of two NHS high energy proton beam therapy centres, offering a pioneering form of radiotherapy which causes minimal damage to the surrounding tissue.

Proton beam therapy has been available overseas to NHS patients since 2008, with 1,000 people so far participating in the programme.

Enormous: the underground excavation reaches 28.5 metres deep / UCLH/NHS

The new centre at UCL Hospital is set to open to patients in 2020. Another centre at the Christie in Manchester will open a year earlier.

Lorraine Blyth, whose son Stanley had to travel to the US for proton beam therapy when he was six, said it was amazing to have a centre in the capital.

It is much easier not having to pack up and leave when you need your friends and family nearby, she added.

Marcel Levi, CEO of UCLH, said: It is a tremendous privilege to develop a clinical facility that will truly change peoples lives. Here we will be able to treat more adults and children with proton beam therapy, ensuring better recovery and fewer side effects than possible with other treatments.

Dr Yen-Ching Chang, clinical oncology consultant at UCLH, said that proton beam therapy is advantageous when treating complex cancers such as those in the brain, spine or near reproductive organs.

It is able to protect fertility, IQ or growth and reduces the risk of new cancer developing in the future.

Dr Chang added: It is extremely exciting that UCLH with The Christie is increasing access to this type of radiotherapy.

Above the hospitals underground hub will be a further six floors, housing Europes largest centre for the treatment of blood disorders.
G oldman Sachs has relaxed its corporate dress code in the hope of attracting hipster technology workers.

The 148-year-old investment bank, which has offices in the City and New York, sent software developer and engineering staff a memo telling them they can dress casually, but might think about smartening up to meet clients.

Goldman Sachs is known in the Square Mile for its strict rules on what workers can wear, which includes a ban on short trousers for men.

But as the bank seeks to boost its digital capabilities, it is battling deep-pocketed global technology firms such as Google and Facebook and also start-ups in neighbouring Shoreditch to recruit the best talent.

Top developers and engineers are in demand by Londons booming tech firms, with many offering workplace perks such as free food, better hours and a more relaxed management style.

About 8,000 bank employees work in tech departments, whose jobs include making trading platforms more efficient and building consumer lending platforms.

In the memo seen by the Standard, chief information officer Elisha Wiesel told tech workers and engineers their departments were adopting a year-round casual dress code following suggestions from staff.

Mr Wiesel wrote: I am pleased to share that, effective immediately, we will be adopting a year-round casual dress code for Engineering globally.

Based on your suggestions, I hope this initiative will help enhance the work environment and experience of our people.

Please exercise judgment in determining when to adapt to business attire as circumstances dictate, particularly if you have a client meeting.

But while casual clothing was allowed for tech departments, bankers must stick to the strict smart dress code.

Barclays has casual Fridays and JP Morgan Chase now describes its everyday dress code as business casual.

Goldman Sachs confirmed the memo but declined to comment.
A heartbroken daughter has spoken of her devastation at not being able to recover her mother and aunts remains after the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Iranian sisters Sakineh and Fatemeh Afrasiabi became trapped on the 23rd floor of the tower block after the fire broke out.

In heart-wrenching interview Sakineh's daughter Nazanin Aklani said they were so badly burnt in the blaze that the authorities have still been unable to formally identify them.

She said her brother spoke to the sisters on the night of the fire and heard them die.

Nazanin Aklani was speaking on BBC Newsnight / BBC

Ms Aklani told presenter James OBrien on BBC Newsnight: They let them burn for too long. You know James, what is more horrendous than getting burnt alive? You know you ask yourself is there anything worse? And Im afraid there is  having no remains.

And yes its taken them so long because they failed to put the fire out when they should have.

I went to that site in the morning. We were there all day. There was still fire inside the building the next day  24 hours later.

She added: They have been so burned that the coroner defines them as calcified. There was no organic matter in the bones for them to be DNA tested.

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We have no remains. We have nothing.

Firefighters have said the fire at the tower block on June 14 was "unprecedented" in scale.

A major incident was declared as more than 200 firefighters tackled the blaze through the night and into the following day.

Dany Cotton, the London Fire Brigade commissioner, said on the day of the fire: This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter I have never ever seen anything of this scale.

At least 80 people died in the inferno while hundreds who called the block home were forced into emergency accommodation.
M embers of the grieving community who live within the shadow of Grenfell Tower have held a silent walk around the burnt-out tower block.

The event, held away from cameras, was in honour of those who were killed in the fatal fire exactly a month ago in west London.

It was also a chance for residents, who are trying to work through trauma, to come together in support and mark the night which changed their lives.

Samia Badani, chairman of the Bramley House Residents Association, broke away from march early because it became "difficult" for her.

She said: "The more we walked and came towards the tower, the more memories there were for me and it was very hard.

"Maybe because it was a silent march, I remembered too vividly and it was too much for me."

Inside Grenfell Tower 1 /17 Inside Grenfell Tower Water is sprayed on Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA Fire service personnel inside Grenfell Tower in west London PA A view inside the Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA Sniffer dogs were sent inside to the tower today PA Fire service personnel inside Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA Part of the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA A view inside the Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA

The walk was said to have been organised by Grenfell United, a collective created for those who fled the inferno on June 14.

Ms Badani believes that having the walk, which was attended by up to 50 people, was like a "blanket of security".

She said: "She said I think it was about getting together and sharing the pain and the experience with people who were there.

"Everyone saw how the community came together straight after it happened and I think this was perhaps because we wanted some of that back."

She said that now that a month has passed "we wanted to take a step back and pay tribute to our friends and neighbours and make sure they are not forgotten".

The walk rounds off a fraught few days for the west London neighbourhood, characterised by both a string of emotional vigils and a heated confrontation between residents and police at a meeting.

On Thursday, the human cost of the tragedy continued to stack up, as two more of at least 80 people who are believed to have perished in the June 14 blaze were officially named.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council said that it's next meeting on July 19 will be open to the media.

It is set to include the election of a new council leader, appointment of a chief executive and a number of petitions and debates, including some on Grenfell Tower.

London Mayor hits out at PM and council over Grenfell fire response

A public meeting in June on the tragedy was scrapped after then-council leader Nicholas Paget-Brown realised journalists were present.

The family of Yahya Hashim, 13, paid tribute to the "kind, polite, loving, generous, thankful and pure-hearted" boy who is believed to have died with his parents Nura Jamal and Hashim Kidir.

Relatives of 82-year-old grandfather Ali Jafari said he "was loved and will be greatly missed by his family and the wider community".

Meanwhile, the political tremors of the disaster continued to reverberate, as the Government was urged to end its "fatal obsession with deregulation".

Safety bodies were among more than 1,000 signatories to an open letter calling on Theresa May to rethink the drive to cut so-called red tape under the Conservatives.

A debate in the House of Lords, led by Labour peer Baroness Andrews, culminated in an agreement that safety industry representatives should meet ministers.

She told peers at Westminster: "This fatal obsession with deregulation in all forms across Whitehall has been pursued with no regards for consequences other than the benefits to business."

Two more NHS trusts in England and two schools were added to a growing list of buildings that have failed cladding fire safety checks as part of a safety operation launched in the aftermath of the deadly fire.

The National Fire Chiefs' Council said the fire risks posed by buildings with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding, which is not of limited combustibility, can be reduced by other actions and further checks.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said the Grenfell tragedy was "appalling" and she wished it had never happened.

Speaking on LBC radio, she defended the release of information by the force and the official death toll when questioned by a listener on whether she felt it was acceptable that some families may have to wait a year to find out the fate of their loved ones.

"We are really, really working on this as hard as we possibly can," she said.

"We are putting out all the information we possibly can, we are working closely with the coroner.

"We can't possibly put ourselves in the shoes of relatives who believe they have lost somebody - every single one of those has a family liaison officer with them.

"And we are doing our level best to give as much information and to be as clear as we can. But nobody would forgive us for guessing or getting it wrong, or doing a mis-identification."

Ms Dick said specialists are working through every floor and every flat "on their hands and knees, sifting every single bit of material they can find" to see if they can find any more traces or remains of people.
By PTI: By Gurdip Singh

Singapore, Jul 14 (PTI) A 29-year-old Indian-origin Malaysian man was executed today in Singapore for drugs smuggling despite calls by the UN and rights groups to halt his capital punishment.

Prabagaran Srivijayan was sentenced to death in 2014 after he was caught with 22.24 grams of diamorphine while trying to enter Singapore.

Srivijayan had his death sentence carried out at Singapores Changi Prison Complex, said the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

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He was arrested in April 2012 at Woodlands Checkpoint in the main causeway to southern Peninsular Malaysia.

Two packets of the drug were recovered from the vehicle he was driving, the CNB said in a statement.

Yesterday, Srivijayans lawyer, Choo Zheng Xi, on instructions from Srivijayans family, asked the Singapore apex court to stay his clients death sentence on the grounds that his appeal in Malaysia was pending.

Judges of Appeal Chao Hick Tin, Andrew Phang and Tay Yong Kwang called the attempt to halt Srivijayans execution because of proceedings in another country "an abuse of process".

"The judiciary of each country is entitled to act in accordance with its Constitution and its laws," The Channel News Asia quoted Judge Chao as saying.

"No judiciary of one country interferes in the judicial process of another country," he said.

Srivijayan had a pending appeal before the Malaysian Court of Appeal to institute proceedings against Singapore in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Amnesty International had raised concerns about the fairness of the trial, including the alleged failure of the authorities "to follow up leads and call on key witnesses that would corroborate his version of events".

The United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR) South East Asia Regional office had called on Singapore to halt the scheduled execution of Prabagaran, and had urged the government to immediately reinstate a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

"Drug-related offences do not fall under the threshold of most serious crimes. Furthermore, under domestic law, the death penalty is not mandatory for drug-related offences," the OHCHR said.

The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death penalty if the amount of diamorphine imported is more than 15 grams.

His petition for clemency was unsuccessful.

Srivijayan was accorded full due process under the law, and he was represented by legal counsel throughout the process, the CNB said.

It said that 22.24 grams of diamorphine is equivalent to about 1,853 straws, which is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 265 abusers for a week.

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Both Malaysia and Singapore execute murderers and drug traffickers by hanging, a system which dates back to British colonial rule.

Singapore has consistently maintained that the death penalty is an effective deterrent to crime and has rejected calls to abolish capital punishment. PTI GS KJ AKJ KJ

--- ENDS ---
A company has been told to remove its obstructive bicycles from a boroughs streets, just days after it launched a cycle-hire scheme to rival Boris Bikes in London.

The start-up firm oBike this week became the first dockless bicycle hire company to be rolled out in the capital this week.

But one local authority has since told the Singapore-based firm to remove its bikes until a consultation over the way they are placed in streets takes place.

Pictures emerged online of at least one of the bikes carrying a highway obstruction notice served by Hammersmith and Fulham Council after they spotted them in the borough.

Cycle hire: Hammersmith and Fulham Council placed an obstruction notice on one of the bikes / Michael Passingham trustedviews.com

The authority has asked oBike to temporarily remove its bicycles over health and safety concerns until a consultation takes place.

A council spokesman said: We have concerns about the way they had been placed on the streets, and protecting the health and safety of people in the borough.

Most had been left at right angles to the kerb, partially obstructing the footpath, and creating a potential hazard for pedestrians  particularly the disabled.

The company has since said it is working with local authorities across the capital to ensure its roll-out is as smooth as possible.

An oBike spokesman said the company would comply with requests from any council that asks them to remove their cycles from its streets.

He said: "We're working with councils across London to ensure the roll-out is as smooth as possible, and that oBikes are positioned in places that are convenient for the public, but do not cause an unnecessary obstruction.

Where councils ask us to move or reposition bikes, we will comply with those requests."

Like Boris Bikes, known officially as Santander Cycles, oBikes system allows cyclists to rent bicycles for a fee for every 30-minute journey.

But unlike the cycles introduced by former Mayor of London Boris Johnson, they do not need to be docked at a station.
S cotland Yard is to investigate more crimes on the telephone and online while closing half the capitals police stations in a bid to streamline the force and save cash.

The force is to launch a new telephone and digital investigation unit which will investigate crimes such as burglary where police do not need to attend a crime scene.

The force is to close police stations across London but keep at least one 24/7 front counter in each borough.

The move comes as the force has slashed costs by 600 million in recent years and now faces further cutbacks of at least 400 million.

Senior officers say few people visit police stations today to report offences and most are reported over the phone.

They are in the process of equipping all front line officers with portable tablets to create a more mobile workforce which can stay on the street longer.

Police say more people are happy to have crimes dealt with over the phone and say that if there is evidence to support an investigation or a victim needs an officer, for instance if they are vulnerable, police will always visit.

The new strategy is set out in a consultation document on public access and engagement published by Mayor Sadiq Khan today.

The Met says it deals with about 20 per cent of crime either on the phone or online. In Merseyside police deal with 40 per cent of crimes on the phone.

The new strategy states that some crimes such as domestic and sexual abuse and hate crime will always involve a visit from a police officer.

Victims of crime will be able to provide statements and other information remotely, without having to wait for officers to attend.

Officers who man the telephone investigation unit, based in west London, will be moved from desk jobs, not front line posts, the Met said.

Police are also encouraging people to report offences such as road traffic collisions or stalking online through Twitter, for example.

The Mayor says that closing stations and front counters will put an extra 10 million a year  equivalent to the cost of 170 police constables  into front-line policing.

The sale of buildings will raise 170 million to fund new technology for officers and extra officers on neighbourhood wards.

Over the past 10 years the number of crimes reported at police stations and front counters has fallen by three quarters.

Today just eight per cent of all crimes are reported at front counters, compared to 22 per cent in 2006.

Among stations earmarked for closure are Notting Hill, Dagenham, Bexleyheath, Uxbridge and Wimbledon.

Mr Khan said today: The huge Government cuts to the Met have left us with no choice but to take drastic action to protect the front line of policing.

My top priority is keeping Londoners safe, and every pound saved by closing a front counter is a pound of savings that we do not have to find by reducing the front line.

The Government urgently needs to properly fund the Met police so that they can do their job and keep Londoners safe.
J eremy Corbyn will continue his election-style summer campaign by demanding Theresa May's "zombie Government" steps aside for Labour's "government in waiting".

The Labour leader will speak to supporters in Tory-held seats in Southampton and Bournemouth on Saturday.

He will visit Labour's top target seat Southampton Itchen, which the party held from 1992 to 2015 and came within 31 votes of regaining last month.

And he will meet supporters in the far more ambitious goal of Bournemouth West, which has been Conservative since its creation in 1950 but saw a 6.6 per cent swing to Labour cut the Tory majority almost in half in June.

Long seen as an impregnable Tory stronghold, the constituency is now 117th on Labour's target list.

Speaking to a rally in Southampton, the Labour leader will say he hopes to win Itchen at the next election "whenever it is called".

He will say: "Theresa May's Government, propped up by the DUP, is nothing more than a zombie Government; with no ideas, no answers and no leadership.

"This is a Government in name only, having to ask other parties to 'clarify and improve' its policies and delaying most parliamentary business until the autumn.

"If the Conservatives are unable to govern, they should step aside. Labour is no longer just the official opposition, we are a government in waiting.

"The Conservatives' 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, that make life worse for the many to maintain the privilege of the few."

Mr Corbyn has this month already visited the Conservative marginals of Hastings & Rye, Hendon and Chingford & Woodford Green in a bid to take the fight into Tory territory in preparation for an election which Labour strategists believe could come much earlier than the scheduled date of 2022.
T he Government must address the gender imbalance in its top ranks, a Tory MP said today, after seven departments were revealed to have only male ministers.

The warning from Women and Equalities Select Committee chairwoman, Maria Miller, comes after Theresa Mays latest front bench reshuffle saw a net loss of two women.

Yesterday, MPs also voted in Robert Jenrick to replace Chloe Smith on the Conservative Party Board, meaning all three MP representatives on the group are now men. Ms Miller said: I think its the fact that we dont have a broad cross section of experience at the heart of running these important government departments thats the issue.

Theres never been a female MP in the Foreign Office since the Conservatives came into government in 2010. There are areas where women MPs voices need to be heard.

Women MPs bring a different experience into Parliament  women do have a different experience of life, not least because they endure levels of discrimination which shapes their views and thoughts, so having their voice at the heart of government is important.

Boris Johnsons Foreign Office, Liam Foxs Department for International Trade, the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Transport, the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Scotland Office and the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales Office all have male secretaries of state and ministers.

Female peers have worked for the Foreign Office, including Baroness Warsi and Baroness Anelay.

In the Prime Ministers latest reshuffle three female ministers lost their positions, including Baroness Shields, who worked across two departments, and business minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe. Ms Smith was promoted to be Northern Ireland Minister.

There are 16 female ministers and four Secretaries of State.

Ms Miller said Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau had the right approach to gender balance. She said: When he appointed half of his cabinet as women he just said its 2016.

Ms Miller added: I think this problem reflects the broader problem of encouraging more women to come into politics and for women to want to take a prominent role in politics because of the huge abuse in the media that women have endured as politicians.
B BC journalist Laura Kuenssberg was given a bodyguard after receiving a torrent of threats during the general election campaign, according to reports.

The political editor was targeted by online trolls who claimed the journalists reporting of the campaign was biased.

Much of the abuse was levelled by Jeremy Corbyn supporters ahead of the June 8 vote.

According to The Spectator, Ms Kuenssberg was so badly threatened bosses were forced to issue a bodyguard as she toured the country.

In his weekly column for the magazine, former editor Charles Moore said: Early in the campaign, Kuenssberg was assailed by Labour supporters. But later on, and in the post-election recriminations, it was Conservative supporters who were the more annoyed with her.

Perhaps this is simply explained by the fact Labour did better than expected and the Tories did worse.

However, the bit the Tories havent said in public but keep complaining about in private is that the BBC never reported that Kuenssberg was so badly threatened online by Corbyn supporters that she was given personal protection.

Mr Moore, who is also former editor of The Daily Telegraph, said the information had been informally confirmed to him within the BBC.
A n American specialist who has offered to treat Charlie Gard is due to examine the terminally-ill baby next week, a judge has heard.

Michio Hirano is scheduled to visit Great Ormond Street Hospital in London next week to discuss the case with specialists treating Charlie, Mr Justice Francis was told.

It came after the High Court judge lifted an order which barred journalists from revealing the name of the American specialist.

Mr Justice Francis ruled Dr Hirano, a professor of neurology at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, could be named in media reports.

Charlie's parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates want the judge to rule the 11-month-old, who suffers from a rare genetic condition and has brain damage, should be allowed to undergo a therapy trial overseen by Dr Hirano in New York.

The parents said they were worried publicity might put pressure on Dr Hirano

Specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where Charlie is being cared for, say the therapy is experimental and will not help. They say life support treatment should stop.

Mr Justice Francis had made an order barring journalists from naming Dr Hirano or saying where he was based early this year, shortly after litigation began.

Charlie's parents had said they were worried publicity might put pressure on Dr Hirano.

But journalists have argued naming Dr Hirano will be in the public interest - and he has now said he has no objection to being identified as the doctor involved in the case.

Charlie's parents, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, have already lost battles in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in London.

Charlie Gard's life support was expected to be turned off on Friday / PA

They have also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights judges to intervene.

The couple say there is new evidence and want Mr Justice Francis, who in April ruled in favour of Great Ormond Street and said Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity, to carry out a fresh analysis of their case.

Mr Justice Francis is considering their claims at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

Dr Hirano gave evidence, via a link from New York, on Thursday.

The judge said he wanted to hear what Dr Hirano believes has changed since he gave his ruling in April.

Dr Hirano said he has clinical data which was not available in April and he still believes the therapy is "worth trying".

The doctor estimated a 10% chance of improvement in muscle strength and a "small but significant" improvement in brain function.
P resident Trump has revealed he wants the border wall between the US and Mexico to be made see-through in order to see who is throwing "large sacks of drugs over" it.

In rare unguarded remarks made on Air Force One, the US president spoke freely to reporters about his controversial wall.

He also revealed he asked Vladimir Putin twice whether he meddled in last years US election and did everything he could to confront the Russian leader short of a "fistfight."

Mr Trump gave his first account of a closed door meeting he had with his Russian counterpart in Germany as he flew for todays Bastille Day celebrations in Paris.

The transcript was initially deemed off-the-record but was later released by the White House

In the wide-ranging discussion with reporters, Mr Trump discussed his controversial border wall with Mexico, claiming it will need to be transparent.

"One of the things with the wall is you need transparency. You have to be able to see through it," he said.

Trump's key quotes On the border wall: You have to be able to see through it because you have to see whats on the other side. When they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don't see them they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It's over. No, not joking, no. There is a chance that we can do a solar wall. We have major companies looking at that. Look, there's no better place for solar than the Mexico border. Revealing details on conversations with Vladimir Putin: I said to him, were you involved with the meddling in the election? He said, absolutely not. I was not involved. He said absolutely not twice. What do you do? End up in a fistfight with somebody, okay? Whether it's Russia or anybody else, we can't let there be even a scintilla of doubt when it comes to an election. I mean, I'm very strong on that. I'm not saying it wasn't Russia. What I'm saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is. Allegations of collusion with Russia: The Democrats have played their card too hard on the Russia thing, because people aren't believing it. When they say "treason" you know what treason is? That's Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for giving the atomic bomb, okay?

"When they throw large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you dont see them - they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? Its over. As crazy as that sounds, you need transparency through that wall."

Mr Trump also made clear that he was serious about putting solar panels on the border wall.

"No, not joking, no. There is a chance that we can do a solar wall," he added.

Revealing details of his conversations with Putin, Mr Trump said: "I said to him, Were you involved in the meddling with the election?

"He said, Absolutely not. I was not involved. He was very strong on it.

"I then said to him, in a totally different way, Were you involved with the meddling? He said, I was not  absolutely not.

"Because we can't let that happen. And I mean, whether it's Russia or anybody else, we can't let there be even a scintilla of doubt when it comes to an election. I mean, I'm very strong on that."

The US president defended his decision to change the subject after being met with two firm denials - the two men then discussed the war in Syria. "What do you do? he added. "End up in a fistfight?"

Mr Trump admitted he didnt ask the one question about the hard-fought election that he really wanted to know Mr Putins opinion about.

Who were you really for? Because I cant believe that he would have been for me, he said.

Their two-day visit will include attending Bastille Day celebrations on the Champs-Elysees / Reuters

"Me. Strong military, strong borders - he doesnt care about borders - but strong military. Tremendous."

US President Donald Trump kisses First Lady Melania Trump on their arrival in Paris / AFP

Asked for his response to Mr Putins claim at a press conference following the G-20 Summit in Hamburg that he had accepted his assurance that Moscow had not tried to influence the result of the US presidential election, Mr Trump insisted: "He didnt say that. No. He said, I think he accepted it, but youll have to ask him. Thats a big difference."

Mr Trump emphatically denied his campaign team had colluded with the Kremlin and attacked his detractors from the Democrat Party who have accused him of treasonable offences.

"When they say treason,' you know what treason is? Thats Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for giving the atomic bomb, O.K.?" he said.

China and North Korea could have also carried out the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails during the election campaign, he claimed, although US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia was solely responsible.

"Im not saying it wasnt Russia," Mr. Trump said. "What Im saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is."

The White House had initially ruled the remarks were off the record but agreed to make excerpts public last night.

While Mr Trump was seeking a distraction in France from the ongoing crisis over his teams alleged links with Russia, his personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz was forced to apologise over profanity-laced emails he sent to a stranger who suggested he should resign.

Mr Kasowitz, who is representing the president in the Russia probes, told the unnamed former public relations executive to **** off!

Minutes later, he allegedly threatened the man, telling him to watch your back, bitch.

The man is said to have responded, "Thank you for your kind reply. I may be in touch as appropriate.

"I already know where you live, I'm on you. You might as well call me. You will see me. I promise. Bro," replied Mr Kasowitz, according to the investigative news website ProPublica.

"The person sending that email is entitled to his opinion and I should not have responded in that inappropriate manner," Mr Kasowitz said in a statement yesterday.

"I intend to send him an email stating just that. This is one of those times where one wishes he could reverse the clock, but of course I cant."
D onald Trump should remove his children from the presidential administration, a congressman from his own party has said.

Representative Bill Flores of Texas said: Im going out on a limb here  but I would say I think it would be in the presidents best interest if he removed all his children from the White House.

Not only Donald Trump [Jr], but Ivanka and Jared Kushner, the Republican politician told Texas TV station KBTX. Mr Trumps daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Mr Kushner both hold posts as his senior advisors.

The advice comes after the release on Tuesday of an incendiary series of emails showing that Mr Trump Jr worked to arrange a meeting between Mr Kushner and a Russian lawyer who claimed to hold potentially incriminating material about Hillary Clinton.

"I do find issues with the meeting, that it's a meeting that should not have taken place," said Rep. Flores on KBTX.

"I think he probably thought he was looking out for his father's best interests."

Donald Trump with senior advisor Jared Kushner / Reuters

Rep. Flores later clarified his comments in a statement.

Through no fault of their own, the presence of President Trump's adult children in the White House has caused some distractions from the work the Trump administration is doing on behalf of hardworking American families, Flores said in the statement.

Given the liberal media's unwavering scrutiny of the Trump administration, it may be beneficial for the president to do all he can to remove any distractions from the administration so that he can focus on our conservative agenda.

President Trump defended his children this week, saying in Paris on Thursday: "My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer.
A drug-dealer has confessed to murdering four missing men and burning their bodies at his familys farm in the US state of Pennsylvania.

Cosmo DiNardo, 20, carried out the killings after he felt cheated or threatened during three drug transactions, a person with firsthand knowledge of his confession said.

He killed them and burned their bodies at his familys farm in a suburb of Philadelphia, the source said, adding that a co-conspirator was involved in the deaths of three of the men.

DiNardo said Im sorry as an officer escorted him in shackles from a courthouse yesterday.

Missing: Tom Meo, top left; Jimi Tar Patrick, bottom left; Dean Finocchiaro, top right; and Mark Sturgis, bottom right / AP

DiNardo, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, agreed to plead guilty to four first-degree murder counts, his attorney Paul Lang said.

He said in exchange for DiNardos cooperation prosecutors would not seek the death penalty.

The victims were 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, 19; Mark Sturgis, 22; Tom Meo, 21, and Jimi Taro Patrick, 19. Mr Patrick was last seen on Wednesday last week, while the other three vanished two days later.

Sniffer dogs led investigators this week to the spot on the family farm where they discovered human remains inside a 12-foot-deep common grave.


U S president Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have been regaled with a brass band medley of Daft Punk songs.

The military band, looking sharp and correct in uniform, played an excerpt from the electronic duo's 2013 hit Get Lucky as the presidents and first ladies watch from a platform.

Band members weave amusingly formally in tight formation as a conductor keeps the tubas, drums and trombones in time.

Mr Trump can be seen in the footage with arms crossed, taking in the show and looking unimpressed.

Unimpressed: Donald Trump

Mr Macron can meanwhile be seen with the hint of a smile on his lips.

At the end of the performance, Mr Trump clapped and whistled while his French counterpart broke into a broad smile.

Daft Punk, famed for wearing robot suits and not revealing their true identities, are one of France's most acclaimed dance music acts.

Mr Trump was visiting France this week on his first state visit to the country, and has already caused a stir with comments on Mr Macrons 64-year-old wife being in good shape.

"She's in such good physical shape," he marvelled to the French president.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 13 (PTI) The CBI has arrested Principal Commissioner Income Tax, Ranchi, Tapas Kumar Dutta after Rs 3.5 crore in cash was allegedly recovered from his house by the agency during searches in a corruption case against him.

Dutta was taken into custody late last night and would be presented before a court in Kolkata today, CBI Spokesperson R K Gaur said here.

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The searches were conducted in 18 locations in Kolkata and five in Ranchi after filing an FIR under corruption charges against Dutta and others, he had said after yesterdays CBI action.

During the searches, the agency recovered Rs 3.5 crore cash and over 5 kg of gold (about Rs 1.4 crore according to current bullion rate) from the residence of Dutta, Gaur had said.

It is alleged that Dutta during 2016-17 entered into criminal conspiracy with three other officials of the Income Tax department and Kolkata-based businessmen and entry operators, he had said.

Text messages sent to Dutta seeking his reaction remained unanswered.

In pursuance of the conspiracy, Dutta allegedly took huge illegal gratification from the businessmen through a chartered accountant to get the income tax assessment files of different assesses transfered from Kolkata/Hazaribagh to Ranchi, Gaur had said. PTI ABS DV

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T wo Israeli police and three Arab-Israeli gunmen have died after a shootout today at the entrance to the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem.

It is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam.

Three people were wounded when the gunmen opened fire at Lions Gate, one of the entrances into the complex.

The attackers then fled into the Temple Mount compound, known to Muslims as Haram esh-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), and were shot dead.

Amateur video broadcast on Israeli TV stations showed the confrontation, and two rifles, a handgun and a knife were found on the bodies of the attackers.

Temple Mount has been a flashpoint for violence in the past, with friction there sparking Israeli-Palestinian violence, including the intifada protests against Israeli occupation that lasted several years.

Israeli police said the holy site was cleared of visitors after the attack and would be closed for prayers today  the highlight of the Muslim religious week.

Thousands of worshippers flock regularly to the compound, both from Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

It is only the third time since Israels capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war that authorities have ordered the Muslim-administered holy site to be closed.

Police are investigating how the attackers were able to approach the Old City with weapons.

There is heavy security in the area, particularly on Fridays, and young Palestinian men are frequently stopped and searched.

Friday's incident was the latest in a continuing wave of Palestinian attacks that started in 2015, partly over the Jerusalem holy site.

In that time Palestinian militants have killed 43 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist in stabbings, shootings and using cars to ram into troops or civilians.

Israeli forces have killed 254 Palestinians, most of them as they carried out terrorist attacks and others in street clashes.
T wo German tourists have been killed and four others injured after a knife attack on an Egyptian beach resort.

A man wielding a large knife reportedly yelled "stay away, I don't want Egyptians" and stabbed his victims in the face, neck and feet.

Police said he had swum from a nearby public beach before carrying out Friday's attack in the popular Red Sea resort town of Hurghada.

The victims were reportedly all female and of different nationalities.

The entrance of the beach of the Zahabia hotel resort, seen after an Egyptian man stabbed two German tourists to death / REUTERS

The two women who died were from Germany, while the injured are believed to include two Czechs and two Armenians.

Pictures have emerged on social media showing a wounded woman being carried on the stretcher through the lobby of a hotel, while others purported to show the attacker being led from the beach in a trolley.

The suspect was immediately arrested and is being questioned by police. The motive of his attack is not known.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office released a statement after the attack.

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It read: "There was a stabbing incident involving tourists at a resort in Hurghada reportedly causing injuries and fatalities.

"If youre in the area, you should follow the advice of the local authorities and your travel company."

Hurghada is one of Egypt's tourist hubs, known for its scuba diving, and stretches 25 miles along the country's Red Sea coast.

It has a host of resorts restaurants, bars and nightclubs.

The attack came hours after five policemen were shot to death in Cairo's twin city of Giza when suspected Islamic militants opened fire on their vehicle early in the morning.
V ladimir Putin was spotted apparently being given a dressing down as he tried to open a car door for a woman.

Russias President was filmed stepping out of the drivers seat of a Mercedes and opening one of the passenger doors.

With a brief flick of the finger, Mr Putin was dismissed before he shut the door and walked off, according to The Times.

The awkward moment has sparked speculation over the identity of the Presidents passenger.

The Russian President was 'told off' by a mystery woman that he opened his passenger door for / EPA

Rumours circulating suggest the passenger of the ex-spy boss, known to be secretive about his private life, was his partner or one of his daughters.

Mr Putin was visiting Valaam, an Orthodox monastery on a remote island in the country, where he met Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, on Wednesday.

According to The Times, the Russian leaders spokesman said the mystery person was a member of security.

He reportedly added that Mr Putin wanted to get something from his car when he opened the passenger door.
A stuntman has died after suffering a tragic fall on the set of The Walking Dead.

John Bernecker, 33, had been on life support after he was airlifted to hospital from the set in Senoia, near Atlanta, on Wednesday, according to reports.

He died on Thursday night.

The cause of death was blunt force trauma, Coweta County Coroner Richard Hawk confirmed on Friday.

He ruled that Bernecker's his death was accidental.

US news reports have said that the stuntman suffered grave injuries after falling approximately 20ft-25ft on to concrete.

The zombie-based AMC show, which stars Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus and Chandler Riggs, was in the process of filming its eighth series, but production was halted after the incident.

In a statement published by American news organisation USA Today, the network said: "We are saddened to report that John Bernecker, a talented stuntman for The Walking Dead and numerous other television shows and films, suffered serious injuries from a tragic accident on set.

"He was immediately transported to an Atlanta hospital and we have temporarily shut down production."
F rench commentators have responded with quiet fascination to Donald Trumps remarks on Thursday about their first ladys physical fitness.

Footage was posted to the French governments Facebook page from the US presidents first state visit to the country, in which Mr Trump commented on Brigitte Macrons fine form.

Youre in such good shape, the 71-year-old says in the footage, before turning to Mr Macron to marvel: Shes in such good physical shape.

Beautiful, he adds.

Brigitte Macron is 64, while husband Emmanuel is 39. Mr Trump's wife Melania is 47.

Donald Trump tells Brigitte Macron she's "in such good shape"

While US and UK media were swift to report on accusations of sexism and ageism, the French press were more restrained.

Magazine Paris Match as well as TV network France24 both noted criticism of the comments overseas, especially in the US where Mr Trumps comments are scrutinised often for sexism.

In an article about the incident on France24, it said the comments went "unnoticed" in France, adding: If the compliment doesnt pass, its because it makes reference to Brigitte Macrons age.

Women's magazine La Parisienne wrote in an online article about the incident: Its difficult to know exactly what Donald Trump was thinking and wished to express.

Even if it were not a sexist remark or a reference to Brigitte Macrons age, the formulation appears at least clumsy.

Le Monde meanwhile ran a two-paragraph story reporting the compliment and pointing to past warnings by Mr Trumps detractors that sexist comments could lose him the election.

That wasnt the case, the article noted.

The remarks were cooler than those of several English-language critics, such as a Twitter post by US video producer Alex Berg.

People will shrug and say, Trump was just offering her a compliment! Its creepy and over the line to comment on a persons body, said the tweet.

Meanwhile, comedian Chelsea Handler joked: To be fair, Trump didnt know women lived to be 64.
W ith the new series of Game of Thrones in touching distance, its time to get up to speed with last seasons key events, find out which of our favourite characters will be returning and fact check those newcomer rumours. Heres what you need to know:

Whats happened so far?

Series six set us up with a few key players in the fight for the Iron Throne  Cersei (Lena Headey), whos clinging on to power at any cost, Jon Snow whose influence is growing and Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) who has regained control of her dragons and the city-state of Meereen.

But its not just the Iron Throne that the star characters will have to fight for. Winter is coming and the White Walkers are on the approach, putting the power plays and squabbling into perspective with their icy inhumanness. Even the most influential figures will need friends to survive.

Last series we watched the Starks struggle for power, as Jon Snow (Kit Harington) was brought back from the dead and then declared King in the North after defeating the Boltons with sister Sansa (Sophie Turner) by his side.

Game of Thrones Season 7- Official Trailer

His true lineage was also revealed thanks to one of his warg brother Bran (Isaac Hempstead)'s helpful flashbacks, all-but confirming a long-held fan theory that hes the son of Lyanna Stark and Daeneryss older brother Rhaegar, giving him quite the claim on the Iron Throne.

Meanwhile Daenerys took a detour to Dothraki lands while Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) attempted to govern Meereen in her absence with mixed results.

After escaping from the Dothraki clutches she returned to restore the city-state to her rule before setting sail for Westeros accompanied by new allies the Greyjoys to stake her claim for the Iron Throne.

Strategic alliances: Sansa plots with Littlefinger / HBO

She has quite the rival to unseat however, as series six saw Cersei vanquish her enemies in one fell swoop, including Margaery (Natalie Dormer) and the High Sparrow, with a storm of flames.

The death of his wife Margaery caused her lovelorn son Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) to commit suicide. Left with no more children, her path to the Iron Throne was clear.

Which cast-members are coming back and whos gone for good?

Castmembers who were still alive at the end of last series will be returning. Though after Jon Snows resurrection last series, the death of a character doesnt always mean the end of their storyline.

However, it seems Hodor (Kristian Nairn), Maester Pycelle (Julian Glover), Margaery Tyrell, Ramsey Bolton (Iwan Rheon), Tommen and the rest of series sixs casualties are gone for good.

Game of Thrones' Hodor stars in KFC advert

But a long-dead fan favourite could be returning as Jason Momoa who played Dothraki king and Daenerys husband Khal Drogo has been spotted filming in Ireland.

Prominent new additions include beloved British actor Jim Broadbent, who has revealed he appears as an archmaester in five of the upcoming series episodes. Fans have predicted that the character will be Maester Marwyn who will guide Samwell Tarly and meet Daenerys.

Tom Hopper will also be joining the cast as Tarlys brother Dickon after Freddie Stroma, who previously played the part, secured a lead role in new series Time After Time.

Game of Thrones series seven will air in the US on July 16 on HBO and in the UK on July 17 at 2am and then again at 9pm on Sky Atlantic
Police said the three attackers were killed by security forces.

Muslim women pray in front of the Dome of the Rock, on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount. (Picture for representation/ Reuters)

By Reuters: Three gunmen opened fire at police near Jerusalem's holiest site on Friday, wounding three Israelis, two of them critically, before the attackers were killed by security forces, Israeli police said.

The gunmen arrived at the sacred site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, and walked towards one of the Old City gates nearby, police spokeswoman Luba Simri said.

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"When they saw policemen they shot towards them and then escaped towards one of the mosques in the Temple Mount compound," Simri said. "A chase ensued and the three terrorists were killed by police."

She said three firearms were found on their bodies.

ATTACKERS TO BE IDENTIFIED

Mobile phone video footage aired by Israeli media showed several policemen chasing a man and shooting him down at the site, which is a popular place for foreign tourists to visit. Israeli authorities are still working to identify the attackers, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.

The Israeli ambulance service Magen David Adom said three Israelis were wounded, two critically.

Tensions are often high around the marble-and-stone compound that houses the Aqsa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock. It is managed by Jordanian authorities and is adjacent to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are permitted to pray.

FRIDAY PRAYERS FOR MUSLIMS TO NOT BE HELD

Police said Friday prayers for Muslims would not be held at the site following the attack.

A wave of Palestinian street attacks that began in 2015 has slowed but not stopped. At least 255 Palestinians and one Jordanian citizen have been killed since the violence began.

Israel says at least 173 of those killed were carrying out attacks while others died in clashes and protests. Thirty-eight Israelis, two U.S. tourists and a British student have been killed in stabbings, shootings and car-rammings.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem, where the Old City and the holy compound are located, after the 1967 Middle East war and regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a move that is not recognised internationally.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they want to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel blames the wave of violence on incitement by the Palestinian leadership. The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, says desperation over the occupation is the main driver.

The last, US-led attempt to broker peace between the Israelis and Palestinians broke down in 2014.

Also Read:

France: Two masked gunmen open fire outside Avignon mosque, eight injured

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Arkansas nightclub shooting: 28 injured, police say it could be gang-related

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Germany: Several injured in shooting at subway station in Munich

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Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah was recently in conversation with Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa at his Bengaluru residence. Excerpts:

Q. You are in the fifth and final year of your tenure. You have said that you have developed a Karnataka model of development in these years. What have you focused on?

A. First and foremost, we wanted to make Karnataka a hunger-free state, for which we have undertaken many programmes. We are giving 7 kg of rice free per head for everyone in a BPL category family. We have also issued BPL cards with multiple benefits to 11 million people. The government is tackling child malnutrition and improving attendance in government schools by supplementing them with nutrition-rich mid-day meals, eggs and milk for free. Apart from poverty alleviation, our priority sectors are agriculture, social welfare, irrigation, infrastructure, power and education. Unless we ensure these, holistic development of the state is not possible. Our goal remains the same-the last man/ woman in society, the vulnerable sections and the farmers should benefit the most.

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Q. Farmers have been under severe stress in Karnataka and the BJP says you neglected them.

A. That's incorrect. For the benefit of the farmers, we have implemented innovative programmes in agriculture. 'Krishi Bhagya' (focusing on management of rainwater to improve agricultural productivity), for instance, in rain-fed areas, is aimed at creating artificial ponds by drilling borewells. Water is stored in these tanks for use later. In the last three years, we have created 160,000 artificial tanks. This year, we earmarked Rs 800 crore for the programme as there is a great demand from the farming community for such tanks. We have also given adequate attention to dairy farmers (milk producers). The government is offering a subsidy of Rs 5 for every litre of milk produced by marginal farmers and landless agricultural labourers. This is basically to ensure their livelihood and to make dairy farming a profitable business for them.

Q. You have also announced a waiver of farmer loans and appealed to the Centre for help. Has it responded?

A. Yes, we took a decision to waive loans (Rs 8,165 crore) taken by our farmers from the cooperative banks. Unfortunately, the Union government did not respond to our efforts. Our farmers have taken Rs 52,000 crore in short-term loans from nationalised, rural and cooperative banks. We have done our job by waiving the cooperative sector loans (under our ambit), but the BJP is keeping quiet when it comes to nationalised and rural banks. I have written several times to the PM urging him to waive the loans, but there has been no response. I am disappointed.

Q. There have been charges that you have focused only on the backward classes or Ahinda to which you belong and neglected other communities?

A. These are again baseless allegations by the Opposition. Our Krishi Bhagya scheme is aimed at the farmers. Do you think only Ahinda farmers enjoy the benefits? Do you think farmers from the major communities are not enjoying the benefits? Our other programmes, such as Anna Bhagya, Ksheera Bhagya, Shoe Bhagya and Pashu Bhagya, are all aimed at community well-being. We are not neglecting any community, as we believe in inclusive growth.

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Q. When you came to power, you promised to improve the power, irrigation sectors. What has been done so far?

A. When the BJP was in the power in the state, they did not add even 10 MW to the state grid. We, in the last four years, added 6,000 MW in power generation. Irrigation has received major impetus. During my poll campaign, I had promised to spend Rs 10,000 crore every year on irrigation and we have spent Rs 48,000 crore so far.

Q. There is a perception that under your government, investment in industry has been neglected. Is this true?

A. It's not true. We have an investor-friendly policy. We continue to remain the No. 1 in the IT sector and Bengaluru remains the Silicon Valley and knowledge capital of the country because of that. Following our Global Investors Meet in 2016, investment inflow is much higher. In the last three months, we have surpassed even Gujarat in investments inflow. You will be surprised that we have a special impetus for industrialists from the scheduled castes and also women entrepreneurs. They are very happy with our initiatives.

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Q. How many jobs have you created after assuming power?

A. My government has given special emphasis to the skilling of youth. Last year, two lakh underwent skill development and we are targeting another five lakh this year. The training will commence in August. We have formed a separate department for skill development and it reports to me directly. We have created about 2 lakh jobs (new jobs plus the filling up of existing vacancies) in the government sector in the last four years. The government sector alone employs 6.5 lakh people. Jobs have also grown comparatively in the private sector.

Q. All these programmes and waivers come at a cost. How are you managing the funds? What about the state's fiscal deficit?

A. We are mobilising funds internally for all these programmes. We have been able to maintain the fiscal deficit under less than three per cent, in accordance with the Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act (2002).

Q. What about GDP growth?

A. We have been enjoying very good GDP growth. However, with the severe drought in the last two years, it dipped owing to loss of productivity in the agricultural sector. But we are still good.

Q. What is your opinion on the beef ban imposed by the Centre?

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A. It is an illogical decision as a beef ban cannot be imposed. The recent notification will affect farmers and the leather industry in a big way. This decision will also impact dairy farming badly, as cattle resale is not permitted. Also, I am totally against what is happening in the name of 'gau rakshak'-killing and beating up people. This is just not done? one cannot take the law into one's hands.

Q. How would you assess PM Narendra Modi's performance?

A. Modi talks a lot? he is good with speeches, but lacks in performance. He has hardly fulfilled any of the promises that he made during the 2014 polls. He is well-known for his U-turns and taking credit for the initiatives launched by the Congress. He had opposed Aadhaar and GST, but is now championing their cause. He launched 'Swachh Bharat', which was already present in the form of 'Nirmal Bharat'. He promised to create 2 crore new jobs every year-but has created only 4 lakh jobs till now. Professionals in the IT sector are losing jobs because of poor policy. He has also failed to bring back black money from foreign shores; the demonetisation move also flopped.

Q. Do you think the prime minister practices cooperative federalism?

A. He says he believes in cooperative federalism, but in reality it's not happening. He has drastically cut funding for centrally sponsored schemes and also cancelled many beneficial schemes, such as the JNNURM and the Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojana. He has the habit of taking credit even for programmes in which the states' contribution is higher. For instance, in the Smart City project, states will spend 75 per cent of the money whereas the Centre will contribute only the balance 25 per cent. Then, how can it be his programme? It is the same with the 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana' in which states must give 50 per cent. If we are contributing half, why is he taking credit for the scheme? Earlier, many of the centrally-sponsored schemes were in the ratio of 80 per cent from the Centre: 10 or 20 from the state. Now he has made it 50:50.

Q. The Congress continues to be in the doldrums nationally. What can be done to revive it?

A. The Congress has faced many such challenges in the past, and it has bounced back. It is the only all-India party. After the 2018 assembly elections in Karnataka, the Congress will stage a big comeback nationally... with victory here first.

Q. Do you think Rahul Gandhi should become the Congress president?

A. That is for the Congress high command to decide. Having said that, Rahul will have to take responsibility of the party sooner or later.

Q. If you are re-elected as chief minister, what would you do differently in your next tenure?

A. We will continue our programmes to make Karnataka the No.1 state in the country in terms of development.

Q. The BJP says you have not kept your poll promise of rooting out corruption. They say the Anti-Corruption Bureau is ineffective.

A. The ACB has been effective. All of us are aware that corruption cannot be eradicated, but please note that my government is not involved in any scandal, major or minor.

Q. There is a criticism that you have neglected the capital, Bengaluru...

A. No, we have given Bengaluru the attention it deserves. Recently, we allocated Rs 7,300 crore to improve the infrastructure of the city. This is in addition to the resources at the disposal of the city's civic agencies. The infrastructure projects are in various phases of implementation.

--- ENDS ---
A familiar grouse against the Congress high command (read Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul) is that it is reluctant to name a chief ministerial candidate in a poll-bound state, even if such a decision were to its benefit. But after being reduced to a rump of a party, they seem to have learnt the lesson.

So with nine months to go for the Karnataka assembly elections in early 2018, the all-powerful All India Congress Committee announced that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would lead the election campaign, ensuring that there was no ambiguity on that score. This was a recognition of the fact that he had performed sufficiently well as CM and remained the party's best bet to retain power in this crucial state.

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Keeping in mind the caste equations, the AICC also decided that Dr G. Parameswara, a Dalit leader, would remain state Congress president but would resign from his ministerial post and concentrate on the election campaign. Then, in a move to keep the two dominant caste groupings in the state, the Lingayats and the Vokkaligas, happy, S.R. Patil was appointed working president and D.K. Shivakumar chairman of the campaign committee. To woo the forward communities, including Brahmins, Dinesh Gundu Rao, son of late chief minister Gundu Rao, was also appointed working president. By ensuring that all the top leaders were given a major role in the campaign, the party hopes to stem infighting and keep the flock united.

All these appointments were done soon after the BJP announced that the controversial B.S. Yeddyurappa, a former chief minister, would lead the party's campaign. For Siddaramaiah, the Congress decision to go with him as the chief ministerial face, comes as a big boost. The normally reticent chief minister hasn't wasted any time going into pre-election mode. Recently, he appeared on a popular TV chat show hosted by well-known south Indian actor-director Ramesh Aravind and spent six hours answering a range of questions from the anchor and viewers.

It will, however, be a daunting task for Siddaramaiah to ensure that the Congress wins a majority again in the 225-seat Karnataka assembly (in 2013, the party had won 122 seats). The BJP's Yeddyurappa may have some skeletons in his closet, but he is still a popular leader. BSY is spearheading the party's campaign and raking up all kind of issues to discredit the chief minister and the Congress. The coastal Karnataka region, a BJP stronghold, was on the boil last week, after unknown assailants stabbed an RSS functionary to death. The BJP seized the opportunity to charge Siddaramaiah of deliberate neglect. In the last year, there have been sporadic incidents of attacks by self-proclaimed 'gau rakshaks', even as the BJP alleges that members of the Sangh parivar are being targeted. With allegations and counter-allegations becoming the order of the day, the BJP is clearly raising its pitch.

So far, though, Siddaramaiah has been up to the challenge. In April, the party won the bypolls in Nanjangud and Gundlupet, trouncing the BJP. Both these constituencies had sizeable Lingayat votes, but they didn't seem to be backing Yeddyurappa, their most prominent leader. The latter's inability to secure victory for the party clearly has the BJP worried. The infighting in the party is now more pronounced than the dissidence in the Congress. BSY has a running battle with best friend-turned-bete noire K.S. Eshwarappa, another big BJP leader in the state.

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For now, Yeddyurappa looks unfazed by the byelection result. He let loose a barrage of charges, including the accusation that the chief minister has placed the state's farming community in dire straits. But Siddaramaiah got one up on him by announcing a waiver of Rs 8,615 crore in loans taken by marginal farmers from cooperative banks. The chief minister then challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to complement his efforts by waiving loans by farmers from rural and nationalised banks. With the Centre refusing to play ball, Yeddyurappa finds himself on the back foot.

When the Congress came to power in 2013, there were several factors working in Siddaramaiah's favour. The preceding BJP-ruled government had been marred by mediocre performance and a rash of scams (the party had to change chief ministers thrice). Siddaramaiah also upped the ante by declaring a war against corruption, especially on the Bellary mining barons groomed by the BJP. The Lokayukta report on the mining scam, which indicted the BJP, also came in handy for the CM. Siddaramaiah then focused on boosting irrigation and power availability and on a host of schemes for the poor, the backward classes and the farmers (see box: Report Card). Also, there have been no major charges of corruption against his government so far.

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Although Siddaramaiah claims he has met "90 per cent of the promises made in the Congress election manifesto", critics say he hasn't delivered in some critical areas. They point out that he hasn't come down strongly on those indicted by the Lokayukta report on the mining scam, preferring instead to institute multiple inquiries that are still going on. Also, while his government may have spent over Rs 50,000 crore on irrigation projects, farmers' distress has only increased resulting in over 2,500 suicides during his tenure (the CM puts the blame on the back-to-back droughts that the state experienced).

The other major charge against Siddaramaiah is that he is focused on appeasing the backward classes and minorities to the point of neglecting other communities. The social welfare department alone has spent over Rs 80,000 crore, with another Rs 20,000 crore-plus allocated for various programmes to these sections. Denying any bias, Siddaramaiah says, "Does it mean that members of other communities have not enjoyed the benefits of our rural development programmes? I know that all communities are happy" (see interview: 'The vulnerable sections...').

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Siddaramaiah has also shown that he is a savvy politician. During the Cauvery river water-sharing dispute with Tamil Nadu, he enlisted the support of his political guru-turned-foe, former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who heads the Janata Dal (Secular). Siddaramaiah, who was a JD(S) member till he joined the Congress in 2006, still shares a personal rapport with Gowda's sons H.D. Revanna and H.D. Kumaraswamy. There is even some speculation that the Congress may enter into a pre-poll alliance with the JD(S), though both parties deny it. Siddaramaiah seems confident of coming back to power on his own. "The BJP leaders are day-dreaming if they think they will capture power in Karnataka. It will never become a reality. We will return to power with full majority," he says. Whether his confidence is justified will be known when the state goes to polls less than a year from now.

--- ENDS ---
MORRILL  Horse Creek Rendezvous Day will provide a day of fun on Saturday, July 15 to celebrate the community of Morrill.

Started as Morrill Apprecation Day, Horse Creek Rendezvous Day has been running for about 25 years, Kim Lessert said. The celebration eventually changed its name to recognize the Horse Creek Treaty of 1851 that took place in the area.

The event is meant to give the community a day to relax, enjoy, and celebrate Morrill community.

Horse Creek Rendezvous Day has activities for everyone to enjoy, including a 5K, two parades, a BBQ dinner, a free street dance and more. The Morrill Public Pool will also have a free swim day for families to cool off in the July heat.

The Cheyenne based band, Southern Fryed, will be performing at the street dance. The band includes four men from the Midwest who who grew up in either Wyoming or Nebraska.

Lessert said volunteers from Morrill have been planning the Horse Creek Rendezvous Day for the past year. The group of 25-30 volunteers met once a month, until June when they had weekly meetings.

All of the events for the celebration are brought by donations and community support.

Its a great time and a great opportunity to get out with your family, said Lesser.
DNA guru Robert Zemanek will present at the West Nebraska Family Research and History Center on July 15.

Zemanek will discuss the basics of DNA testing for genealogical purposes and answer some of the common questions people have about testing. He will explain realistic expectations of the results people will receive, how to interpret the results and the next steps after people have digested the information.

He will also provide a list of reputable places for attendees to further their research on the subject of DNA testing for genealogical research and other topics.

The session will be held at 1:30 p.m. at the center, 1602 Ave. A in Scottsbluff.

For more information, contact the center at 308-635-2400.
Karanataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today said that the public spat between two senior officials in the police department was something that should not have happened.

By Rohini Swamy: Karnataka government has issued notices to DIG prisons D Roopa and DG prisons H N Sathayanarayana Rao for violating service rules.

Karanataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who was speaking in Mysuru, today said that the public spat between two senior officials in the police department was something that should not have happened.

Keeping in mind the open spat between DG prisons H N Sathayanarayana Rao and his junior DIG prisons D Roopa was not in accordance with the police service rules, the government now has sought a thorough investigation on this.

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In his statement, Siddaramaiah said, "If there Is any evidence or documents which indicate that there has been a violation of rules or corruption, the police officer has all the right to bring it to the notice of his superior. Approaching the media is something that is a clear violation of norms, and to his effect, we have issued a notice to DIG (Prisons) Roopa for violating the rules."

Siddaramaiah also said if the report filed by DIG Roopa is true, then strict action will be taken against those who are involved in the malpractice.

In her report, D Roopa has also implicated her reporting boss, Director General of Police (Prisons) H.N. Satyanarayana.

The report also said that Sasikala and her associates were getting special treatment inside the jail. The AIADMK boss has even managed to get herself a special kitchen in complete violation of jail rules.

The explosive report further claimed that Sasikala paid Rs 2 crore to jail officials to get special facilities. It also said that Karnataka Director General of Prisons (DGP) Satyanarayana Rao was one of the top officials who were paid money.

The Karnataka government has set up an inquiry commission headed by a retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar who is expected to submit his report and findings in a week to the government.

ALSO READ:

Cop vs cop in Karnataka over special treatment to Sasikala in Bengaluru jail

Meet the firebrand top cop who exposed Sasikala's VVIP treatment in Bengaluru jail

Sasikala paid Rs 2 crore bribe to Bengaluru jail officials for exclusive kitchen, other favours: Prison report

ALSO WATCH:

--- ENDS ---
Earlier this week, I ran across an article NBC News had posted on Seven Familiar Things that Will Disappear in the Next Decade. Disappear? Oh no, I thought, what are those dastardly Russians, whose hacking skills are second only to their prowess at rubbing their hands together in diabolical glee and laughing manically, up to now?

I mean, I only believe what the national media, the Democrats in Congress, and neocons tell me every hour of the day. Russia! Russia! Russia! Russians are everywhere. A threat to our very way of life, not to mention our precious bodily fluids and tasty snacks.

What over a full decade might Vlad make disappear? Hes Hitler, you know. Middle name, in fact. Vladimir Hitler Putin.

He came for her emails. Will he now take She Who Would Have Been Our First Woman President herself from this land? Maybe Bill, too, while he is at it? Dare I even mention it, but national asset John McCain? Heaven forbid, Sen. John (Russia-is-a-greater-threat-than-ISIS) McCain. How will we ever know who to bomb into democracy this week if the esteemed Senator from Arizona were to disappear at the hands of Russian agents?

Heres where I draw a line in the sand: It is on if theyre finally able to get Moose and Squirrel, if Vladimir Hitler Putin can do what even Boris and Natasha failed at lo these many years. Wow, just wow. Im literally shaking.

I looked more into the NBC article and, shocking as it may seem, the story featured nary a single Russian. Probably a Russian trick. Theyre sneaky, just as I didnt see any Russians at the Super Bowl. But we all know what went down there. Im on to you, Vlad.

The article consulted tech experts to find out what things will be going away  just like our freedoms, if the Russians have their way. A quick side note is in order. I must give the American Left their due. I tip my hat to them. They knew that whole Soviet Union thing wasnt a problem. Back in the 1980s, they saw through war-mongering Ronnie Raygun and all that wall-tearing-down and evil-empire stuff. Cold War hysteria, thats what it was. Tail gunner Joe had returned from the grave. The Communists were just misunderstood, really the victim, commie-shamed for a couple of million corpses here, another several million there, and so on. And, well, whats the big deal? Probably our fault anyway. And gulags? Like jihad today, the whole term is misunderstood by bigots. Gulags were really all-inclusive resorts in a cold but bracing climate.

But once the Russians tossed off communism, once the Soviet Union had been shuttered, thats when the Russians started to morph into something dangerous. Now a couple of decades removed, theyre Hitler.

Back to our NBC story: Keys, parking meters, cash, ATMs and banks, desktop computers, telephones, and TVs, theyre all going to be swept away by technology. Let me tell you, I was relieved. Sen. McCain and Mrs. Clinton were not on the list. Even (another fear of mine) Chelsea Clintons Twitter account is safe.

As I began to the read the story, I became suspicious. Listen to this: Its a whole different kind of world thats waiting for us, says some doctor from some outfit called the Institute of Global Futures. The names not Russian. But theyre tricky that way. Its got to be a Kremlin-front organization.

Parking meters are going away, too: Cars of the future will communicate directly to your parking spot and charge you accordingly  with the money, Id wager, going directly to an offshore account to finance top-flight Russian hacking teams. I dont even know if there are teams. I think its just Vladimir Hitler Putin himself with a laptop.

And forget about keys. They will be ancient history Newer, more secure security systems will use a fingerprint, the iris of your eye, or your DNA, according to the article. I told you the Russians were after our precious bodily fluids. Imagine what havoc theyll be able to spread.

Wait, thats odd. The keyboard is acting strangely. My znayem gde vy zhivete. Huh? I didnt write that.

Theres a knock at the door. Id better go check.
A white University of Kentucky student accused of physically assaulting a Black student worker while repeatedly using racial slurs says she will withdraw from the school. The decision announced Tuesday by a lawyer for 22-year-old Sophia Rosing came after hundreds of students rallied on campus the night before. News outlets report the students called for unity and for the university to quickly address the situation. Officials say Rosing has been charged with assault, public intoxication and disorderly conduct. She pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Monday afternoon. The altercation at Boyd Hall was captured on video and posted to multiple social media platforms.
Here's some big news for higher ed in North Carolina (and elsewhere). From the N&O:

A $10 million gift aims to improve college advising at North Carolina high schools, where recent college graduates help low-income students find their way to higher education.

The gift, announced Thursday by the Charlotte-based John M. Belk Endowment, will go to the College Advising Corps, a nonprofit that hires recent college graduates to work in high schools in North Carolina and 14 other states. The advisers focus exclusively on helping high school seniors navigate the confusing process of applying for college and financial aid. They work to supplement the work of high school guidance counselors who are often overburdened.

CAC counselors are recent college graduates who are assigned to 640 high schools across the country.

In North Carolina, CAC advisers come from UNC-Chapel Hill (where the program was based for a while), N.C. State, Duke and Davidson and work in 127 high schools. The counselors work in a bunch of local schools  Dudley and Smith in Greensboro, Andrews and Central in High Point, five up in Rockingham County, two in Randolph County and three in Alamance County. (To see who works where, click the links earlier in this paragraph.)

The CAC says it'll use the money to do essentially three things: expand its efforts in North Carolina, launch a text-messaging program to communicate more effectively with parents and evaluate its own data. (Its current efforts seem to be working, if you take CAC's own data at face value.)

The college admissions process is both vague and opaque, and there aren't nearly enough high school counselors out there for all the students who need them. Anything that can take some of the mystery out of college admissions and financial aid is more than welcome.

Want to make sure you see these blog posts? Like me on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter.

Have something to say? Email me at john.newsom@greensboro.com.
Kalladka Prabhakar has been accused of making inflammatory statements and causing communal violence in coastal Karnataka.

By Rohini Swamy: Karnataka BJP president and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa has said that if Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, a senior RSS worker is arrested, Karnataka will go up in flames.

Attacking the current Congress government, Yeddyurappa upped the ante by saying that if the police arrest Kalladka Prabhakar, the state of Karnataka will burn. "If Prabhakar Bhat is arrested, then the entire state will go up in flames. The BJP workers will be out on the streets and the Congress government will be to blame if there is a law and order issue," he warned Karnataka government.

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Yeddyurappa's inflammatory remarks have not gone down well with the Karnataka government.

Kalladka Prabhakar has been accused of making inflammatory statements and causing communal violence in coastal Karnataka. Earlier last month, Karnataka forest minister Ramanath Rai had been caught on video telling a senior police officer to arrest Kalladka Prabhakar.

Section 144 that had been imposed in Dakshin Kannada following recent communal clashes was lifted 48 hours ago. Violence had escalated following the murder of RSS activist Sharat Madiwala and attack on another activist Chiranjeevi who was grievously injured with a sword.

Madiwala, an RSS worker, was attacked on the night of July 4 when he was about to leave home after closing his laundry shop at BC Road.

A peace vigil called by various leaders in the backdrop of attack on two RSS workers within a span of a week had caused major tension in the area.

The BJP and RSS boycotted the peace meeting by demanding that the cases against BJP leaders Nalin Kumar Kateel, Shobha Karandlaje and Kalladka Prabhakar be withdrawn. Cases were filed against them saying they were disrupting peace through their inflammatory speeches.

ALSO READ:

Karnataka minister orders cop to book RSS leader, video goes viral

Karnataka Legislative Council chairman faces no-trust motion today

ALSO WATCH

Karnataka by-poll: BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa caught on camera doling out cash to woman

--- ENDS ---
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Romania's National Defence Minister Adrian Tutuianu on Friday met Defence Minister of Montenegro Predrag Boskovic, who was paying a visit to Romania, highlighting that the recent accession of Montenegro to NATO represents proof that the Alliance's doors remain open.

"I hail the accession of your country as the 29th member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The accession of the Republic of Montenegro to NATO contributes to the regional and international peace and security, and sends a powerful signal to other states wanting to join, proving the Alliance's doors remain open. I am voicing conviction that Montenegro will display the same efforts for integrating itself with the European structures and for promoting the development of regional cooperation. I have assured my counterpart that Romania will stand by in the future, on the path to full European and Euro-Atlantic integration," the Defence Minister told a news conference at the National Defence Ministry (MApN) headquarters.

Tutuianu added that he discussed with his counterpart aspects of shared interest in respect to the regional security environment, cooperation on a bilateral level, as well as major topics that feature on NATO agenda, with an emphasis on the implementation of the decisions adopted at the meeting of the heads of state or government that took place at the end of May in Brussels.

Furthermore, Tutuianu hailed the professionalism of the Montenegrin military detachment taking part in the Saber Guardian 2017 exercise, adding that Predrag Boskovic is to participate on Saturday in the Distinguished Visitors' Day of the multinational exercise. Moreover, Defence Minister of Macedonia Radmila Shekerinska is also attending the event, with whom Tutuianu is to carry out bilateral talks.

Predrag Boskovic mentioned that his country's accession to NATO represents a good signal for all the countries that want to join this structure.

"This is my first official visit to Romania since the accession of the Republic of Montenegro to NATO. It's no coincidence that we are today in Romania, because we perceive Romania as an important point of reference in ensuring the security in the south-east of Europe. One of our priorities is to ensure peace and security in the area. In this regard, joining NATO is very important to us," Boskovic said.

Furthermore, he gave assurances that Montenegro will get involved and support Romania in ensuring stability and peace in the area.

More than 25,000 troops using over 2,000 pieces of military hardware from 22 partner countries are taking part in the Saber Guardian 2017 exercise. The exercise is led by the United States Army Europe (USAREUR) and conducted on the national soils of Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

agerpres.
No matter how ambitious it might be, no government programme is entitled to run counter to the essential requirements of stability and predictability that the economy need, President Klaus Iohannis said Friday in a message to the release of a Romanian version of the "White Paper on Romania's SMEs."

Organising the event was the National Council of Romania's Privately-owned Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (CNIPMMR), and reading out the message was presidential adviser with the Economic and Social Policy Department Cosmin Marinescu.

"I am glad to extend congratulations to representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises in this special context of the quarter of century in the life of the SME Council in Romania. All along, the Romanian economy has advanced with and through small and medium-sized enterprises," said Iohannis.

He added that the "White Paper on Romania's SMEs" has managed to reflect the most obvious trends and concerns of business people and put forth strategies to support and develop the Romanian business environment.

He mentioned having had a wide-ranging debate with Romania's business leaders, foreign investors, large, small and medium-sized companies when holding consultations over the country project, an initiative of the Presidential Administration.

Iohannis also talked about the national budget implementation the first half of 2017, as well as recently unveiled measures that could affect the business environment.

He pointed out that the business community's worries over the recently unveiled measures are justified.

"I believe business people's worries over the potential implications of recently unveiled measures over the economy are fully justified. As I said at the inauguration of the Government, changing the government programme, especially its essential fiscal and social parts does in no way provide a sign of trust the Romanians and the investment community have been waiting for ," said Iohannis.

He added that "this way of creating economic policies sow the seeds of uncertainty and worries, and the signals of late from the business community has made me warn the Government and the political coalition that such a relationship between the government and the business community threatens to endanger jobs and important investment projects, which I believe Romania badly needs."

Iohannis mentioned that the dialogue between the Government and the business community is essential. He called the SME sector the "spine of a dynamic and prosperous economy." Although the sector has evolved, "entrepreneurial density in Romania's economy puts us again on the last places in the EU, with just 2.2 SMEs per 100 inhabitants, as against an EU average of 4.5 SMEs per 100 inhabitants."

Iohannis said it is time for SMEs to turn accessing European funds into a priority.

He also mentioned an increase in the development and use of innovations as one of the instruments Romania may use to make up for its delays from other European Union member states.

agerpres.
The shock and horror of the Anantnag terror strike may also have brought in its wake a steely political resolve to turn back the clock in Kashmir.

Srinagar has turned sombre. The July 10 attack on a bus ferrying pilgrims back from the Amarnath shrine in Anantnag ominously signals that the new breed of militants in the Valley are intent on pushing boundaries that have long been held sacred amidst Kashmir's syncretic Sufi traditions.

Dangerously pushing the 'threshold of tolerance' in the Valley, the incident, coming in the wake of the lynching of a police officer in Srinagar's Jamia Masjid mosque, the disfigurement of six policemen at Achabal and the coldblooded murder of a young army officer while on leave, raises concerns on the efficacy of New Delhi's muscular Kashmir policy as well as the Mehbooba Mufti government's capacity to deliver on the ground.

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Seven pilgrims from Gujarat and Maharashtra, six of them women, were killed in what is the fourth major terror attack targeting the sacred Hindu pilgrimage since 2000, the year the Jammu & Kashmir government handed over administration of the pilgrimage to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, with the state governor as its chairman.

On August 1, 2000, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants used hand grenades and Kalashnikov rifles to kill 27 people, including devotees, porters and police personnel, at a yatra base camp in Pahalgam. Thirteen more people were killed in a grenade attack en route to the shrine, at Sheshnag, on July 20 the following year. And in a repeat of the attack in 2000, eight pilgrims were gunned down in their sleep at the camp at Nunwan on August 6, 2002.

Sharp condemnation and public outrage across the Valley in the wake of the successive attacks on the Amarnath yatra - viewed as an important symbol of the Kashmiriyat tradition - evidently provoked a rethinking amongst the jehadist leadership. There has been no attack on the yatra in the past 15 years. Even in the summer of 2008, when protests erupted in the Valley against the decision to hand over a hundred acres of forest land along the route of the yatra to the shrine board, the pilgrimage was not touched. The yatra was similarly excluded from the realm of the ongoing conflict through the violent public unrest in 2009, 2010 and, most recently, in the wake of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani's killing in July 2016.

The July 10 attack has drawn condemnation from across Kashmir's political spectrum, including from the Hurriyat separatists, who, given their slackening influence over the pro-azadi youth, are equally fearful of losing the movement to the radicalised Islamist elements amid the militant ranks. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the most intractable of the separatists, joined Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front's Yasin Malik in deploring the attack. "This incident goes against the very grain of Kashmiri ethos," they declared, noting that the centuries-old Amarnath yatra was part of the annual rhythms of the Valley, and would remain so.

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A day after the incident, crowds of human rights activists, traders, academics, local journalists and students braved the pouring rain at Srinagar's Pratap Park to register their protest against the killings. There were vociferous demands that the perpetrators be tracked down and brought to justice. Khurram Parvez, coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, pointed to the government's failure in "creating deterrence" by apprehending culprits. The activist cited a number of earlier cases including earlier yatra attacks and the massacre of Sikhs at Chattisingpora, where the truth never came out.

On the ground, though, police and security forces have no doubt that the July 10 killings were the handiwork of LeT militants active in south Kashmir. Inspector general of police (Kashmir zone) Muneer Ahmad Khan told india today that the attack was carried out by the LeT's Abu Ismail, who is 'active' and known to be involved in many recent attacks on security forces. "He (Ismail) is doing all this nonsense. He's feeling emboldened after planning some of the recent attacks. It's all being done at Pakistan's behest," Khan said on July 12.

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Photo: PTI

Interestingly, both the LeT and the United Jihad Council, an umbrella body of PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir)-based terror groups, condemned the attack. Describing the killings as "highly reprehensible" and "anti-Islamic", the UJC statement sought to blame the Indian security forces "for trying to sabotage the freedom struggle of Kashmiris".

But police officials say the LeT, which was blamed for all the three earlier yatra attacks too, has never claimed responsibility. A high-level army-led investigation instituted after the Pahalgam attack, had also pointed to the LeT, though the actual perpetrators were never caught.

"We are not going by what terror groups put out through the media," says Ram Madhav, the BJP's point person for J&K. Like most of the establishment, the BJP general secretary is clearly keen to play down the significance of the July 10 killings and what these could portend. Madhav sees the attack as evidence of the "desperation of the terrorists who have been thwarted by our security forces". In the wake of the attack on the pilgrims, the BJP has been holding out the "92 terrorists who have been neutralised in the Valley since January".

But amid all the incongruous chest-thumping, the one thing obvious is that the death of seven pilgrims was the consequence of a colossal security and intelligence failure. Consider this: there have never been more boots on the ground in the Valley. More than 40,000 police, paramilitary and army personnel have been specially deployed to protect the 250,000 lakh Amarnath pilgrims who are expected to make the pilgrimage from Jammu to the Himalayan cave shrine over 40 days. Despite this massive bandobast, three militants, assisted by motorcycle-borne riders, all of them dressed in police uniforms, managed to track and specifically target a bus ferrying Gujarati and Maharashtrian pilgrims on the national highway in Anantnag district.

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The explanation trotted out by the police is that the bus and its occupants were not formally registered as part of the yatra and had set out on the journey back to Jammu well after the permitted 7 pm deadline. Army sources blame the incident partly on the CRPF, whose duty it was to protect the route, and unregulated tourist traffic. The issue of 'unregistered, unregulated tourist traffic', a security officer says, was red-flagged in core group meetings held between the various security agencies even last month. The army feels the police and paramilitary let their guard down.

Photo: PTI

Security analyst Ajay Sahni, who runs the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), acknowledges the existence of illegal operators out to make a quick buck off the Amarnath yatra, but nonetheless insists that "the higher intelligence establishment cannot escape responsibility. They should have known about such vehicles and acted".

Meanwhile, even as the mist clears on what really happened in Batengoo, Anantnag, Mehbooba Mufti's troubled government may be on the brink of completely losing the plot. '#NotInMyName', Omar Abdullah's tweet on the morning of July 11, taking from the nationwide protest on killing in the name of protecting cows, was telling. The former J&K chief minister said that imposing President's rule in the state may now be the only option going forward. Mehbooba's position as CM, he said, is becoming untenable. But New Delhi clearly sees things differently. Madhav insists the PDP-BJP coalition is well and humming along. He points to 'more important' things: "The J&K assembly passed the GST bill," Madhav says, pointing out that the state would have been in limbo in the absence of an elected government.

Whether Delhi and Srinagar seize it or not, analysts see a sliver of opportunity in the collective, across the political spectrum condemnation of the July 10 killings in Srinagar and in Jammu. It's an opportunity to restart a dialogue, they say. But will New Delhi bite?

with Gowhar Geelani in Srinagar

--- ENDS ---
Prime Minister Mihai Tudose on Friday met Finance Minister Ionut Misa, to discuss, among other things, keeping the government deficit set at 3-percent of the GDP, financial discipline and the fight against tax evasion, official sources told agerpres.

The meeting is said to have occurred at the Government House.

Discussed at the meeting were the 3-percent government deficit target, financial discipline, predictability, a functioning Romania and the fight against tax evasion, according to the sources.

In Brussels on Tuesday, Tudose said he assured senior European officials of Romania's stability, telling them that Romania is committed to a government deficit of 3-percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

On the other hand, the Romanian Government passed a memorandum on Thursday on the establishment of a National Financial Information Centre that will unify all the fiscal databases, with support from the Special Telecommunications Service (STS).

The measure is reportedly designed to improve interactions between the citizens and the tax authorities by increasing computerisation and, implicitly, by simplifying administrative procedures.
AWARDS

Women in Automotive awarded its Breakthrough Leader of the Year Award to Kelley Haenny, director of marketing at Gateway Buick GMC in Hazelwood.

Manna Pro Products earned four first-place awards and one second-place award from American Horse Publications for its marketing efforts.

HELPING OUT

Scott Credit Union donated $20,000 to the American Cancer Society.

S.M. Wilson & Co. donated $28,000 to the Dream Factory of St. Louis.

Mr. Bs Pool Centers donated $4,000 to the Red Cross of Eastern Missouri and $4,000 to Catholic Charities to help with flood relief in Missouri.

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

Jordan Search Consultants, a health care, executive and higher education recruitment firm, acquired Health Search New England, a search firm specializing in the recruitment of health care providers throughout the Northeast.

MILESTONES

Caritas Family Solutions marked its 70th anniversary.

OPENINGS

Beyond Self Storage opened a new facility:

 2321 McCausland Avenue, St. Louis

Ruler Foods re-opened after a makeover and expansion of its product lines:

 11050 St. Charles Rock Road, St. Ann

PROJECTS

Branham Electric completed all electrical work for the new Townscape at Harmony Ridge luxury apartment complex at 601 Coatesville Parkway in Cottleville, Mo.

NewGround completed the renovation of Union Savings Banks branch in Bethel, Conn.

Louer Facility Planning Inc. completed a furniture and space redesign of Cedars of Lebanon, an affordable housing community in Lebanon, Ill.

Spencer Homes will begin construction on a new development called The Enclave at Augusta Greens in OFallon, Ill. The development will include single-family homes with lawn care and landscape maintenance services provided.
The association of Kashmiri migrant teachers in Delhi has decided to accept the Delhi government decision to relax employment criteria in order to regularise the refugee teachers' services.

By Pooja Shali: A day after the Delhi government announced relaxations in employment criteria for Kashmiri refugee teachers, the Teachers Association cautiously, but unanimously welcomed the decision.

Thursday's announcement was in in accordance with a 2015 Delhi High Court order that directed the Delhi government to make ensure that Kashmiri migrant teachers are paid at par with regular teachers.

Speaking to India Today, some members of the Teachers Association expressed apprehension about about whether the Delhi government decision would actually get implemented. Some members even indicated their belief that the decision may be mere eyewash by the Arvind Kejriwal-led dispensation.

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However, one of the members said that the association has decided to accept the relaxations, which will allow Kashmiri migrant teachers, who are employed on a contract basis, become regular teachers.

Roopkrishan Raina, a member of the Teachers Association (Migrants), said, "We will react further once we receive the official cabinet notification, approved by the Lieutenant Governor. We are awaiting implementation as was promised by Delhi government in our meetings. We, however, remain hopeful and accept the announcement by Deputy CM Manish Sisosdia. This has been a long pending demand and we hope this brings relief to our teachers working on contract since 1994."

The Delhi cabinet in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday approved some long-pending demands of the Techers Association. Among them was the decision to relax recruitment rules for Kashmiri migrant teachers in order to regularise their of services.

The relaxations are related to age and Central Teacher Eligibility Test scores.

The decision was taken considering the fact that these teachers were appointed on a contract basis in special circumstances of displacement from the valley due to political turmoil and have been working since last two decades.

A total of 170 Kashmiri migrants work as teachers in Delhi. They were appointed on a contract basis around two decades when they moved from the Kashmir Valley to the national capital. The step to regularise their services is expected to cost the Delhi government around Rs 13 crore.

--- ENDS ---
Im waging a lonely war against a rampant punctuation mark.

A year ago, the New York Times wrote forebodingly about the decline of the period, which now signifies a weighty intent if used while texting. But I am far more disturbed by the rise of the exclamation point. Everywhere I look, Im bombarded by this tall, pointed signifier of overwhelming emotion.

Has this punctuation mark become ubiquitous because our discourse has risen to a fevered pitch? Or because weve co-opted a mark of astonishment or severity to instead convey solidarity, friendship or friendliness?

I took my concerns to two language scholars who both tried to persuade me to give up the fight.

Exclamation mark avoidance is just as much a fetish as its abuse, said Geoff Nunberg, a linguist who teaches at University of California-Berkeley. Overuse is particularly vexing to writers and journalists who have been trained to use them with restraint, he said. Perhaps thats true, but I argued that those of us who use it sparingly are on the right side of language.

Relax, Nunberg practically exclaimed at me. Its not that theres a proliferation of exclamation points. Its just that we see a lot more casual conversation in the form of texts and tweets. And people attempt to reproduce the rhythms and contours of natural speech in their conversational writing, he said.

Thats true, I agreed. But I suspect theres more to it than that.

The president himself is a lover of the exclamation point, more likely to use multiple marks in a single tweet than anyone I know personally. Philip Cowell, of the BBC, writes that in 2016 alone the @realDonaldTrump posted 2,251 tweets using exclamation marks. Hes far more likely to end a tweet with a shriek than not.

Overuse of any punctuation mark tells us something about ourselves, in the same way overuse of any object does. How you punctuate your sentences might have something to do with how you punctuate your life, Cowell writes. Drawing attention to itself, the exclamation point is the selfie of grammar, he noted.

Preach, my comrade. In its excess, the exclamation point is garish and loses all potency.

Melanie Walsh, a doctoral student in American literature at Washington University, is teaching a course in the fall about the pressures that social media puts on language.

The way we use a period or other punctuation is evolving right before our very eyes, she said. But this is not a bad thing, she said. Language is always evolving and being shaped.

Maybe an individual exclamation mark doesnt have the same meaning anymore, she suggested. Maybe now five exclamation marks in a row have a new meaning.

But theres no consensus in this new meaning, I said to her. Its cloudy. Some people only use exclamations with close friends to differentiate personal from business-like correspondence. Others use more exclamation marks with acquaintances to imply a familiarity that doesnt really exist. Some use it to soften a message that may come across too strong, while others want to pump up their words with a bullhorn at the end.

Can we really trust people who end every text or tweet with an exclamation?

Walsh says she shies away from making value judgments about changes in language. Its also the change in the devices we use to communicate that affects the language we use, she explained.

When I had a flip phone, I would be stingy with exclamation points, she said. When I got an iPhone, I could rattle off a million exclamation points so easily.

Theres a lot of historical baggage in how we use language, Walsh said. It shapes the way we think of ourselves and the way the world should be. We consider it an affront when people use language in a way that we dont think is correct, she said.

Im not saying youre being nostalgic and curmudgeonly, Walsh said, in an attempt to protect my feelings. In fact, I took that description as a compliment.

To further prove my point, I searched through recent tweets about it.

Dan (@sweetdeedly) wrote: I forget that old people take the exclamation point at the end of a sentence in a text as yelling angrily and it ruins my life.

(The olds are right, Dan.)

Kara Baskin (@kcbaskin) demonstrated how women use the mark to soften the way their message is perceived:

write gentle, but firm, email

immediately feels guilty

adds an exclamation point

feels better

(Ladies, please stop feeling guilty for saying what you mean. Its OK to use a period.)

Meanwhile, JustaGuy (@JMurray247) raised an existential issue: Thx for the congratulatory text but you didnt end it with an exclamation point so not sure if youre happy for me or if you want to kill me

(The omission could signify a difference in tone or a short attention span or a lazy texter.)

After arguing my case, I realized that my discomfort with its rampant use is likely an industry-specific form of snobbery and puts me into a club of old grammar cranks.

Frankly, Im fine with that.

Note: This entire column was produced without deploying a single exclamatory missile despite the writers very strong feelings on the subject. The headline is not my fault.
The moment Bob Wood laid eyes on the Clemens House, he was mesmerized.

It was 2009, and Wood had recently completed a renovation of the Franklin School on Martin Luther King Drive as low-income senior apartments. He was asked by fellow developer Paul McKee to consider a project on the historic mansion built in 1860 by Mark Twains uncle, James Clemens, as a tribute to his deceased wife, Eliza.

Cast-iron images of Elizas face adorned fireplaces and windows, even after decades of decline. And the wood, the floors, the doors, the columns, all were designed and built with intricate detail and care.

It was magnificent, Wood said.

In early 2010, Wood and McKee received approval from the Missouri Housing Development Commission to access $1.5 million in low-income housing tax credits to help finance the development. But that was just a small piece of the financial puzzle for a projected $14 million project. MHDC staff recommended that the state issue brownfield tax credits to clean up the property, historic tax credits to help preserve the building, and tax-exempt bonds to help finance the project.

Then politics got in the way.

Gov. Jay Nixon, angry that the Missouri Legislature had failed to pass tax-credit reform, promised in a private meeting with lawmakers that he would bring developers to their knees. In May, the MHDC was set to approve the Clemens House project. Nixon allies canceled the meeting to effect an intentional slowdown of the issuance of tax credits. In June, there was another meeting scheduled  I was there  but Clemens House wasnt on the agenda. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, calling in on the phone, sought to get the project approved anyway.

Kinder, a Republican, was a longtime McKee ally, and a key cog in getting the state to approve the tax-increment finance district that is key to the developers grandiose plans for 1,500 acres in north St. Louis known as the NorthSide Regeneration Project. Nixon, a Democrat, controlled the MHDC board. Its chairman was a law school classmate of the governors.

Nothing happened with the Clemens House project. The MHDC eventually approved some of the state aid in October, but only two months before the deadline to secure financing. The delays killed the deal.

That was seven years ago.

Wednesday morning a fire that was likely started by an arsonist gutted what was left of the interior of the once glorious mansion.

Two days later, standing amid the buildings crumbling red brick, with little but exposed walls and eerie wrought-iron images of Eliza left, McKee said the fire made him sick.

This is a huge loss, he said.

For a decade, McKee has promised progress on the North Side, with little to show for it. Plenty of St. Louisans blame the developer for the loss of this piece of the citys history.

Leon Bell isnt one of them.

Bell, 69, lives not much more than a rocks throw from the Clemens House. He helps run a neighborhood watch program, and at 3:30 Wednesday morning, he opened his door to see the sky light up like the Fourth of July.

On the ground for an entire block, the street was red with embers, he said.

Bell faults McKee for his early lack of communication when buying north St. Louis properties in the early- to mid-2000s. But he doesnt fault McKees vision for trying to redevelop the North Side.

I think we all can do more, Bell said. At least he introduced an idea to try to bring us all together.

Kinder suggests those who blame McKee are missing the bigger picture.

Jay Nixon tried to strangle (McKee) and starve him for eight years, Kinder said. Indeed, the legislation that made NorthSide Regeneration possible was challenged all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court. Brownfield tax credits which could have gone to cleaning up the property were instead awarded by Nixons administration mostly to projects controlled by developer Stacy Hastie, who was involved in another protracted legal battle with McKee.

In some ways, the Clemens House is the perfect metaphor for McKees NorthSide project. It has it all.

Good intentions. Neglect. Political obstruction. Catastrophe.

Last year, though, the dominoes started falling. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency agreed to relocate to property mostly owned by McKee (and since sold to the city), north of the old Pruitt-Igoe public housing site. Today, that property is mostly cleared, awaiting rebirth.

At the corner of Cass and Jefferson avenues, just down the block from the crumbling, burned-out shell of the Clemens House, workers are demolishing another historic building, the former Buster Brown Shoe Factory, built in 1901.

The work, taking place behind the black-tarp-draped chain-link fence marking the new NGA site, is perhaps the first major sign of progress in McKees long promised regeneration of the dilapidated North Side.

One building burns. Another is purposely destroyed to make room for a billion-dollar project.

Is it tragedy or progress?

The race is on for St. Louis, Kinder says, between the decay that has been mostly uninterrupted since World War II and the green shoots of recovery trying to break through the broken-up asphalt. The outcome is very much in doubt.
ST. LOUIS  A man originally from Nigeria admitted in federal court here Friday that he was part of a tax fraud that cost the IRS $889,712 and that he had both re-entered the country after being deported and voted illegally.

Kevin Kunlay Williams, 56, first entered the U.S. in 1976 using the name Kunlay Sodipo, his plea says.

In 1985, he was convicted of a felony credit card abuse charge in Texas. In 1988, he was convicted of another felony credit card abuse charge there. Both times, he served a small portion of prison sentences of 10 and 15 years, respectively.

On Sept. 21, 1995, he was deported from New York because of the convictions.

He came back via Miami in March 1999 using the Williams name.

He registered to vote in 1999 in Missouri, falsely claiming he was born in New York. He registered again in 2012 and voted in federal and state elections in 2012 and 2016, his plea agreement says.

Secretary of state records show that Williams voted in elections in March 2001 and November of 2002, 2004, 2012 and 2016.

Williams is still registered to vote, according to state records.

The tax fraud began in August 2015.

Williams got electronic filing identification numbers from at least two people from others, and then used those IDs to set up accounts with a company that provides tax-related bank products and services to tax preparation businesses.

Those two accounts were used to file more than 2,000 2015 tax returns seeking about $12.2 million in refunds on behalf of people whose personal information was used without their knowledge.

The victims include school district employees in Alabama and Mississippi whose personal information was exposed in a data breach of a payroll company, Williams plea says. The IRS paid out $889,712, it says.

When he was arrested in February, Williams was found with a gun, the plea says.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Williams could face at least 70 months in prison at his sentencing, which is set for Oct. 13.

He will ultimately be deported.

At the beginning of the hearing, he said that he had leukemia and other health problems.

He pleaded guilty Friday to felony charges of mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, re-entry of a removed alien and making a false statement relating to citizenship.

After he admitted to the crimes in court Friday, Williams dissolved into tears.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Brocca Morrison declined to comment after Fridays hearing.

A photo of Williams was not available.
ST. LOUIS  City residents soon may face higher sales taxes and monthly garbage fees under separate proposals approved by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen Friday.

A half-cent sales tax increase, to raise money for public safety, will go before city voters Nov. 7 assuming Mayor Lyda Krewson, a supporter of the plan, approves. The mayor also must sign the trash fee increase bill before it takes effect, but no public vote is necessary.

The twin approvals came just weeks after the board finalized a tight $1 billion budget that left little room for police officers salary raises or new trash trucks. Alderman Stephen Conway, 8th Ward, introduced bills to address funding for both.

The public safety measure is similar to Prop P in St. Louis County, where voters approved an identical sales tax boost in April. Seven months after that vote, St. Louis voters will be asked to approve such an increase to hire more police officers and pay them more money.

The other city measure raises residents monthly fees for trash pickup from $11 to $14, a hike backers say will allow the city to upgrade its aging fleet of garbage trucks, install cameras to catch illegal trash dumpers and pay four police officers to respond to trash-dumping complaints.

Both bills faced criticism from some aldermen and residents, who maintain the city can do more to operate efficiently and get its financial situation in order before once again relying on taxpayers.

A competitive police department

Supporters of the sales tax increase argue that a pending 30 percent increase in pay for St. Louis County police officers forced the citys hand. They fear if the city cant offer its officers raises, theyll flock to the county.

Our goal is to be able to attract and retain good officers, Krewson told reporters after the bills passage.

If approved by voters, the measure would raise roughly $19.5 million annually, two-thirds of which would go to the police department, $5.4 million to the fire department and $1.5 million to the Circuit Attorneys Office.

An additional $3.9 million from a corresponding half-cent increase in the citys business use tax would fund after-school programs and summer jobs, recreation, social work and mental health programs.

That aspect of the proposal isnt sitting well with the St. Louis Police Officers Association, which supported Krewson in her bid to become mayor.

In a scathing letter to members last week, the associations executive board said it felt betrayed by Krewsons push to use some of the revenue generated for social programs, arguing she was siphoning proceeds from the increase to pet projects.

By the time they were done carving up the pie, only $12.8 million was dedicated to the police department, and there was no guarantee that any of that would be used for police raises, the letter reads.

Krewson pushed back on that accusation Friday.

I dont consider them anyplace close to a pet project. These are necessary things we have to do in our communities in order to have a safer community, she said.

Next steps include a campaign to voters, who will have to approve a second consecutive half-cent increase in the city sales tax. In April, voters approved Proposition 1, a half-cent sales tax increase for Metrolink expansion, bringing the combined sales tax rate in St. Louis up to roughly 9.2 percent.

The new sales tax increase proposed would bring the rate up to at least 9.7 percent; the rate would be higher in special taxing districts.

Its unclear whether the measure will have the support of the SLPOA.

If the Mayors office thinks that we are going to support a sales tax on the ballot without an enforceable agreement on competitive wages, shes simply lost touch with reality, the association wrote to its members.

Negotiations between the association and the city over union contracts for police officers are ongoing.

Digging a bigger hole

The board also approved a $3 increase to residents monthly garbage fees on Friday. Doubts persist from opponents that the city will deliver on its promises to buy more trash trucks and improve garbage pickup .

Supporters said close to 30 of the citys 79 garbage vehicles were inoperable or not functioning properly, making it impossible to keep up with trash pickup.

Trash pickup services were once provided at no cost to residents, but St. Louis began charging the current user fee of $11 in 2010.

Aldermen who voted against the bill questioned how proceeds from the fee have been spent over the last seven years. Upgrades to the citys fleet of trucks were promised when the initial fee was adopted, they said.

The service never really increased in quality, said Alderman Shane Cohn, 25th Ward.

They also shared complaints theyd heard about the trash service, including overflowing dumpsters, illegally dumped trash attracting vermin and a failure to separate trash from recyclables.

Mayor Francis Slays administration had opted to put off the purchase of new trash trucks, Conway said.

Every administration continues to kick the can down the road, Conway said. I think (Krewson) has the right perspective on trying to correct some of these problems in the short term and long term.

Supporters of the fee increase said it wasnt an easy vote, but a necessary one.

Alderman Cara Spencer, 20th Ward, said the city should avoid privatizing its garbage pickup. Residents of other cities pay $12 to $20 a month for trash services, and a higher fee would ensure garbage collectors wont be forced to work overtime because theyre stuck with poorly functioning trucks, she argued.

But others raised fear over what such proposals would do to people living in poverty or on a fixed income.

All the city is doing is digging itself into a bigger hole every day on the backs of taxpayers, said Alderman Larry Arnowitz, Ward 12.
ST. LOUIS  Police on Thursday identified a man fatally shot in an apartment last week as Darryl Smith, 57, of the 3100 block of Franklin Avenue in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood.

Prosecutors last week charged Barry Anderson, 55, with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and unlawful gun possession in Smith's death.

Smith was pronounced dead inside an apartment about 10:20 p.m. July 5 in the 3100 block of Franklin Avenue. The apartment building is near Jordan Chambers Park.

Police said Anderson went to Smith's apartment July 5 and shot him. Anderson was shot in the foot during the argument.

Anderson lives in the same block of the shooting. He is jailed without bail.
CARBONDALE  In an open letter to her Facebook friends and followers, the mother of a 19-year-old found dead in a patch of Carbondale woods in 2014 thanked the investigating agency and prosecutors who filed murder charges against the man believed to have been the last to see her son alive.

The post was written by Lovely Varughese, the mother of Pravin Varughese, a Southern Illinois University criminal justice student who was found dead Feb. 18, 2014, in a wooded area near Buffalo Wild Wings, some days after he was reported missing on Feb. 13.

On Thursday, a Jackson County grand jury returned an indictment for two counts of felony murder, first degree, against Gaege Bethune of Eldorado, Ill.. The 22-year-old Bethune, believed to be one of the last people to see Varughese, said, in one account, that the two fought and that Varughese got out of his car and ran off into the wooded area.

Bethune turned himself in on Thursday; his bail was set at $1 million. He posted bond and was released around noon Friday.

In a telephone conversation on Friday afternoon, Lovely Varughese said the investigators uncovered that there was a robbery of some sort, which figured into that night's events.

"Now we know there was a robbery," she said. "We always thought there was some kind of robbery, but I am so glad the Carbondale Police Department (was able to investigate and get the information to) the special prosecutors."

Since her son's death, Lovely Varughese has battled for information on what happened to her son, refusing to accept a Jackson County coroner's finding that her son died from hypothermia. At the bottom of that same Facebook post, she thanked the funeral director for making her look at her son's body; one photo Varughese has made available shows two dark one- and two-inch long bruises over Pravin Varughese's right eyebrow area.

The family commissioned its own autopsy, which indicated that blunt force trauma caused Varughese's death. The Varughese family sued then-Carbondale Police Chief Jody O'Guinn, the Illinois State Police trooper whose dash-cam video appears to show Bethune emerging from the wooded area off Illinois 13, near where Varughese's body was found a few days later; and Bethune.

The case garnered extra attention when the Investigation Discovery network released an eight-minute video about Varughese's death. That video includes grainy footage showing a man carrying what could have been another person across an otherwise deserted strip of residential street.

That street, Lovely Varughese said, was College Street, that video footage secured from a camera recording on that street. She said the video footage was included in the death investigation information she received from the Carbondale Police Department in May 2016.

Before he disappeared, Pravin Varughese had reportedly been partying on College Street. To Lovely Varughese, the person walking across the street carrying something appears to be dressed similarly to the person seen in the Illinois State Trooper's dash cam  allegedly Bethune. He appears to be wearing a two-tone dark top or jacket and blue jeans.

"When you put everything together, ironic isn't it?" Varughese said.

But, she said, she has no definitive proof of what the surveillance video is showing.

The Illinois state's attorney appellate prosecutors on the case, Dave Neal and David Robinson, were not reachable by telephone or email messages on Friday.

Pravin Varughese's mother praised their work, as well as that of other investigators.

"We are extremely thankful to the Special Prosecutors Mr. David Robinson, Mr. David Neal and their Director Mr. Delfino for the thorough investigation they did into this case and keeping us informed and for treating us with dignity and professionalism," Lovely Varughese writes in her Facebook post.

"We want to thank all the agencies that assisted them with forensic and all the resources they need to prove this case," she continued. "We appreciate and thank the Carbondale Police Department, Police Chief Jeff Grubbs, Lt. Goddard, Det. Weisenberger, Det. Hemmel and all the other officers who worked countless hours including coming in on weekends and work overtime in assisting the Prosecutors with this investigation. Without the assistance of these officers the Prosecutors could not have done their job and we appreciate and thank every single one of them. I know they spent countless hours following up on every lead and communicated with the Prosecutor constantly."

The Carbondale Police Department would not comment on the video or proceedings.

"We can't answer any evidence-based questions as we are precluded from doing so based upon Supreme Court rules when there is a pending prosecution," Carbondale Public Relations Officer Amy Fox said.
By Rohini Swamy: Malayalam actor Dileep's bail application was again rejected today. The Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court extended his police custody by a day.

The prosecution mentioned that the accused is not cooperating and so they are unable to proceed with the investigation.

Before announcing her decision, magistrate Leena Riyas asked the actor whether he faced any issues while in police custody. Dileep said he did not have any problems.

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The prosecution informed the court that they will be able to submit a CD with evidence to it in a sealed cover. They claimed that the CD will lend credence to their investigation.

The court extended Dileep's police police remand by one more day.

Earlier this week, actor Dileep was arrested in connection with Malayalam actress abduction and assault case.

A Suresan, who has been appointed the special prosecutor by the Kerala government, argued that the police have enough evidence against the accused but it is taking time to tie them together. He said, "The whole world is watching this event, we are not suppressing any evidence."

Dileep's lawyer K Ramkumar stated that the police are trying to go after his client by piecing together evidence which does not prove he was involved. He said, "You cannot go after an accused without witnesses. The media has taken the role of a judge."

Till 5 pm tomorrow, until the police custody of Dileep's will continue, the Kerala police have another task. They have to hunt down Appuni, Dileep's manager who has is absconding. Appuni has five mobile numbers and all of them are switched off.

The case is now not just about the attack on a Malayalam actress but also regarding Dileep's real estate investments and land related deals. More skeletons seem to be tumbling out of the closet. The Enforcement Directorate officials visited Aluva Police Club today and collected several documents in connection with the actor's land and real estate deals.

ALSO READ: Dileep's bail plea to be heard today

ALSO READ: Kerala actress says she had personal problems with Dileep

ALSO READ: Does the Kerala actress abduction case date back to the Dileep-Kavya affair?

ALSO READ: Dileep's rise from a mimic to a powerful force in Mollywood, before his fall

ALSO WATCH: Dileep's bail rejected, more trouble for the Malayalam actor

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The United States should disengage from all negotiations ongoing, and any contemplated for the future, between the Palestinians and Israel.

Our past and current involvement in these negotiations has only resulted in bitter Muslim resentment toward our government and all Americans throughout the Middle East. This Muslin bitterness is caused by their fervent conviction that we have not been, and are not, fair and even-handed in our treatment of the two parties in this 65-year dispute. The Palestinians and the Arab world are convinced of this American bias because of the demanding influence of the American Jewish lobby.

It is impossible to imagine that an American Muslim would ever be considered, or appointed, as special envoy to attempt, for the umpteenth time, a resolution of the dispute. Yet, President Donald Trump has chosen his Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is without any prior experience, to undertake this arduous task. In the meantime the Israelis just snicker and keep building homes and villages on land that was seized in the 1967 war.

I do not believe our continued attempts to broker a settlement are in the best interests of the United States. If we were to declare that we were to no longer be involved in the dispute, we would accrue significant advantage and prestige throughout the Arab world and would undoubtedly substantially reduce our exposure to the threat of terrorism.

The Israelis are capable of defending themselves, and we would continue to be a supporter of theirs in any future conflict. The American Jewish lobby would oppose such a move, but so be it.

Lee R. Pitzer  OFallon, Ill.

Colonel (retired), U.S. Air Force
By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 14 (PTI) NDAs presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will be in Mumbai tomorrow but is not scheduled to meet Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray at his residence, BJP sources said today.

According to Kovinds itinerary, he will reach here at 10 am tomorrow and go to the Garware Club in south Mumbai, where he is scheduled to address a meeting of NDA MPs and legislators in the state.

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"After the meeting and lunch, Kovind will proceed to the airport," a BJP leader, who did not wish to be named, said.

Significantly, Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, as presidential candidates of the UPA, had visited the then Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray at his residence Matoshree in suburban Bandra as the party had broken ranks with the NDA in the past two elections for the highest constitutional office.

Uddhav had announced his partys support for Kovind after a meeting of Shiv Sena leaders here last month.

"Kovind is a good candidate, a straight-forward person from a simple family and has the potential to work for the countrys benefit," he had said, after dithering for a day following the announcement of Kovinds candidature by the BJP, followed by its endorsement by most other NDA partners.

The Shiv Senas announcement to support Kovind had come amid severe strains in relations of the party with the BJP over a host of issues.

The party had pitched for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat as its first preference for the top office.

"If India has to be made a Hindu Rashtra, Bhagwat will be a good choice for President," Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had said.

After Bhagwat ruled himself out of the race, Shiv Sena suggested agricultural scientist M S Swaminathans name for the post, saying he will be able to provide solutions to the deepening agrarian crisis in several parts of the country.

BJP president Amit Shah had met Thackeray last month at Matoshree to enlist the partys support for the NDAs presidential candidate. Sena has 18 MPs and 63 MLAs.

The voting for the presidential election is scheduled on July 17 and the counting will take place on July 20, four days before President Pranab Mukherjees term ends. PTI VT RMT KIS

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By PTI: Thane, Jul 13 (PTI) Land acquisition process began today for the Maharashtra governments ambitious Nagpur-Mumbai expressway project with half a dozen farmers giving away their lands for the venture.

Six landholders signed sale deeds to mark the land acquisition process for the project, which is also called samruddhi corridor.

The sale deeds were registered at Hingna tehsil office in Nagpur district, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which is executing the project, said in a release.

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Maharashtra Minister for Public Works (Public Undertakings) Eknath Shinde, Joint Managing Director of MSRDC Kiran Kurundkar and Nagpur District Collector Sachin Kurve were present at the occasion.

Local resident Ram Asre Jokhulal Sahu became the first person to sell the land for the project and receive compensation. Besides him, five other landholders also signed sale deeds and received compensation, the release said.

A compensation of Rs 2.59 crore was paid to the landholders who sold 3.5 hectares in Hingna tehsil to the state government, it said.

Officially called the Nagpur Mumbai Super Communication Expressway (NMSCE), the project is estimated to cost Rs 46,000 crore and pass through Nagpur, Buldhana, Amravati, Wardha, Washim, Thane, Aurangabad, Akola, Bhiwandi and Nashik districts.

The project is facing opposition from farmers in Nashik district.

In Nagpur district, the state government will be acquiring 207 hectares.

Speaking on the occasion, Shinde said, "The NMSCE will be an expressway to prosperity. It will be a game changer for Maharashtra and ensure economic stability in the state." PTI COR RSY

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By PTI: London, Jul 14 (PTI) People who work long hours may have an increased risk of developing irregular heart rhythm, scientists have warned.

The study showed that, compared to people who worked a normal week of between 35-40 hours, those who worked 55 hours or more were about 40 per cent more likely to develop atrial fibrillation during the following ten years.

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For every 1,000 people in the study, an extra 5.2 cases of atrial fibrillation occurred among those working long hours during the ten-year follow-up.

"These findings show that long working hours are associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation, the most common cardiac arrhythmia," said Professor Mika Kivimaki, from the University College London (UK), who led the research.

"This could be one of the mechanisms that explain the previously observed increased risk of stroke among those working long hours," said Kivimaki.

"Atrial fibrillation is known to contribute to the development of stroke, but also other adverse health outcomes, such as heart failure and stroke-related dementia," said Kivimaki.

Researchers analysed data from 85,494 men and women from the UK, Denmark, Sweden and Finland who took part in one of eight studies in these countries.

They assessed the participants working hours when they joined the studies between 1991 and 2004.

Working hours were classified as less than 35 hours a week, 35-40 hours, which was considered as the standard working hours of full-time workers, 41 to 48 hours, 49 to 54 hours, and 55 hours or more a week. None of the participants had atrial fibrillation at the start of the studies.

During the ten-year follow-up period, there were 1,061 new cases of atrial fibrillation.

This gave an incidence rate of 12.4 per 1,000 people in the study, but among the 4,484 people working 55 hours or more, the incidence was 17.6 per 1000.

"Those who worked long hours had a 1.4 times higher risk of developing atrial fibrillation, even after we had adjusted for factors that could affect the risk, such as age, sex, socioeconomic status, obesity, leisure time physical activity, smoking and risky alcohol use," said Kivimaki.

"Nine out of ten of the atrial fibrillation cases occurred in people who were free of pre-existing or concurrent cardiovascular disease," he said.

This suggests the increased risk is likely to reflect the effect of long working hours rather than the effect of any pre-existing or concurrent cardiovascular disease, but further research is needed to understand the mechanisms involved.

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"A 40 per cent increased extra risk is an important hazard for people who already have a high overall risk of cardiovascular disease due to other risk factors such as older age, male sex, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, overweight, smoking and physical inactivity, or living with an established cardiovascular disease," said Kivimaki.

"For a healthy, young person, with few if any of these risk factors, the absolute increased risk of atrial fibrillation associated with long working hours is small," he said. PTI MHN SAR MHN

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After questioning the accused jail officials in the Manjula Shettye murder case for almost a fortnight, the Mumbai Crime Branch has told the Esplanade Magistrate Court that it does not need their custody in the case any longer.

By Vidya : After questioning the accused jail officials in the Manjula Shettye murder case for almost a fortnight, the Mumbai Crime Branch has told the Esplanade Magistrate Court through Public Prosecutor Rajendra Suryavanshi that it does not need their custody in the case any longer.

The court had remanded all the six jail officials to judicial custody for 14 days. However, the investigating officer in the case raised apprehensions about the accused being sent back to Byculla jail to be in judicial custody. "The probe is still going on and so we would request the court to not send the accused back to the same jail", said investigating officer Prabha Raul.

HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW Advocate Pankaj Bafna, who represents the accused, told the court that he feared for their life as they would have to be back in jail where the other inmates could attack them. So he too requested for the accused to be sent to another jail. In the meantime, advocate Nitin Satpute intervened on behalf of NCP leader Ramesh Kadam in the matter. Kadam has written a five-page letter stating how he had witnessed the accused jail officials destroying all the evidence in the Manjula Shettye murder case. The six jail officials are accused of beating up convict Manjula Shettye last month. They are said to have thrashed Shettye until she fell unconscious. The officials did not take her to the hospital, neither was any kind of help provided. It was only later in the day that she was rushed to the JJ Hospital where she was declared dead. A riot had broken out a day later in Byculla jail where the inmates protested against the death of Shettye. Sheena Bora murder accused Indrani Mukerjea is believed to have led the riot even as investigation into both Manjula Shettye murder case as well as rioting is still going on. Satpute also filed another application stating that since the accused were being sent to jail, they should not be given preferential treatment just because they were jailors at some point. "There should be CCTV installed where these accused are kept so that it can be monitored whether they are being given preferential treatment inside the jail", Satpute said. The magistrate court of RS Aradhye decided to hear Satpute's application on the next date. Meanwhile, the six accused were sent to Thane jail for the next 14 days.

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Also read | Byculla jail violence: 20 MPs visit Mumbai prison to enquire about inmate Manjula Shetye's death

Also read | Security of jail inmates needs to be looked into after Manjula Shetye's death: Bombay High Court

ALSO WATCH VIDEO

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Leaders of all prominent opposition parties, including the Congress, attended the meeting at Home Minister Rajnath Singh's residence where External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj briefed the leaders on the issues.

By India Today Web Desk: Ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament which begins from Monday, the NDA government today tried its best to built a consensus with the opposition parties on two critical issues - tension in Jammu and Kashmir and border standoff with China at Doklam in Sikkim area.

Leaders of all prominent opposition parties, including the Congress, attended the meeting at Home Minister Rajnath Singh's residence where External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj briefed the leaders on the issues. Besides Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, all senior ministers were present at the opposition meeting.

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Indian and Chinese soldiers are engaged in a face-off for three weeks at a tri-junction of India-China-Bhutan borders.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who is scheduled to visit Beijing for the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) NSAs meet later this month, was also present at the meeting.

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala took a jibe at the government, saying it was "satisfying" to see that the NDA government had "finally woken up" after three years to brief the opposition on the issues concerning the nation.

He said the Congress would fully "cooperate" with the government on issues relating to national security.

In the meeting, the government also briefed opposition parties on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir where seven Amarnath pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag.

Since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016, four districts of the state -- Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnag -- have seen an escalation in violence.

The unrest resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

The government has been facing flak on how the government has dealt with both the issues - China and Kashmir.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on China, and had also met Chinese ambassador to India.

Rahul Gandhi had singled out Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies and the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) alliance with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's People's Democratic Party (PDP) for the increase in terror attacks in the Kashmir Valley including the Amarnath Yatra terror attack.

He had said Modi's policies have created space for terrorists in Kashmir which is a "grave strategic blow" to India.

Also read:

While India-China tensions simmer, NSA Ajit Doval to visit Beijing for BRICS meet

Amarnath Yatra terror attack: Army chief tells jawans to keep up pressure on terrorists

Massive hunt on in Kashmir to nab Amarnath terror attack mastermind Abu Ismail

Was Amarnath pilgrim bus original target of Anantnag attack? Cops wade through maze of clues

Also watch:

Amarnath terror attack fails to scare pilgrims, yatra continues unabated

--- ENDS ---
Yes, we need to keep it under control

No, we need to learn to live with it
The Monsoon session of Parliament that begins on July 17 - the same day on which presidential elections will be held - is expected to witness stormy scenes over farmer deaths, GST and raids on Opposition leaders.

By India Today Web Desk: The Monsoon session of Parliament is commencing on July 17. It promises to be an eventful day as presidential elections would also be held on the same day.

The 18 Opposition parties would seek to corner the treasury benches over several burning issues, prominent among them being firing on farmers in Mandsaur, demonetisation and GST. Issues of investigation of Opposition leaders, raids by CBI, income tax department and the Enforcement Directorate may also be raised by the Opposition.

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The investigation against Trinamool Congress leaders in the Narada scam, raids on premises associated with former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and RJD supremo Lalu Yadav and their kin are likely to figure prominently in the Opposition's agenda, calling them vindictive action by the ruling BJP.

1. FIRING ON FARMERS

The firing last month on farmers protesting in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh may be one of the most dominant issues in Parliament. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had tried to visit Mandsaur to meet the family members of those who were killed in the police firing. He was stopped at the Rajasthan-Madhya Pradesh border.

2. GST

GST, which was launched by the Narendra Modi government on July 1, is likely to be taken up by the Opposition with gusto. Congress, Left and some other opposition parties had boycotted the function to launch GST at midnight in the Central Hall of Parliament. They had alleged that the government had implemented GST in a tearing hurry and without much preparation.

3. DEMONETISATION

Just a couple of days ago, RBI Governor Urjit Patel said that the amount of money deposited in the banks after demonetisation was being counted. He did not present any final figure while appearing before a parliamentary committee. Rahul Gandhi has already mocked Patel and the government over this statement. The Opposition generally maintains that the common man was inconvenienced and suffered losses due to notebandi.

4. AMARNATH YATRA TERRORIST ATTACK

The Kashmir unrest and terrorist attack on pilgrims of the Amarnath Yatra in Anantnag may also be raised by the Opposition. Seven people lost their lives in the attack. Congress has already criticised the Centre for lapses in security arrangements. The Opposition may also take up the unrest in Kashmir, which started after the killing of terrorist Burhan Wani on July 8 last year. The human shield incident may also be included in discussion.

5. TENSION ON CHINA BORDER

A faceoff is expected between the ruling and treasury benches over the tension on the border between India and China on Doklam. When Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj convened an all-party meeting over China, the Opposition called it a facade. The flip-flop of Congress over a meeting between Rahul Gandhi and the Chinese ambassador may be raised by the treasury benches as a counterattack.

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Also read | What is the Opposition strategy for Parliament's upcoming monsoon session?

Also read | Parliament's midnight session on GST an insult to 1947: Congress

ALSO WATCH VIDEO

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The volunteering world is changing as more young people are getting involved, but Volunteering Bay of Plenty say, there needs to be more direction.

A new partnership between Volunteering Bay of Plenty (VBOP) and Western Bay of Plenty District Council is expected to provide more support for the Otanewainuku Kiwi Trust and future volunteers.

The volunteering world is changing from an older workforce willing to give their time and skills, to a younger force who have passion, but are also asking, whats in it for me, says Volunteering Bay of Plenty manager Theo Ursum.

Theo says VBOP will help the Kiwi Trust define and channel volunteers passion into specific roles and identify their skills, so that volunteers are placed in the best positions within the organisation.

The Kiwi Trust has done a fantastic job to date, thanks to its core of volunteers, through this contract with council we aim to help the trust and other organisations grow the amount they can achieve through volunteer strength and expertise.

The council has signed a one-year contract with VBOP to help find a volunteer co-ordinator and to put together a volunteering programme for the Trust.

Councils relationships advisor Glenn Ayo says having VBOP on board is a win-win for the trust.

VBOP provides consistent recruitment practices, management and continuity for the trust. It ensures volunteers are looked after; get a quality induction and the right opportunities for their own personal development.

We have this incredible virgin forest protection programme on our doorstep, so this new approach to volunteering will be more inclusive of people in Tauranga and Western Bay. This in turn will attract more interest from the philanthropic sector funders and sponsors, says Glenn.

VBOP will work with the trust to create a new volunteer handbook, update policies, procedures and the database, and run workshops for the trustees on the art of managing volunteers.

The Kiwi Trust is a community-based conservation organisation formed in 2002 by Te Puke Forest and Bird and other members of the community concerned at the decline of North Island Brown Kiwi in the Otanewainuku Forest.
Police are appealing to the public for any information after the body of

missing Auckland man Geok Yeo was discovered in the Kaituna River in Rotorua last Saturday.



Geok Yeo, 65, was originally reported missing in the Henderson area by his family on June 16.

Detective sergeant Kelly Farrant from Waitemata Police says thoughts are with the family of Geok Yeo at this tragic time.



Police are now trying to piece together his movements between June 16 and July 8 to find out how Mr Yeo travelled from Henderson to Rotorua.



Geok does not have access to a vehicle, with police believing that he has either been given a lift to Rotorua or used public transport.



Geok was wearing a distinctive green and white striped shirt (shown in picture) when he left his home address on June 16.



He was still wearing the same shirt when his body was found on July 8.



If you saw Mr Yeo or have any information that may assist police contact Henderson Police on 09 839 0600.
Good morning sunners. It looking like a fine day in Tauranga today with rain clouds nowhere to be seen.

While the temperature is only 6.1 degrees at 7.10am, it is expected to reach about 14.

However, you will still need your winter woollies with southerly breezes still lingering and an overnight low of three being forecast.

Want to find out what is happening around the area today, check out our Whats On listings below.

Whatever you have planned, we hope you have a fantastic day!

Saturday 15 July

Bay Network Singles Social Club 55+ Who wish to make new friends & enjoy club activities, dining, shows, trips, bbqs etc. Mary-Anne 027 207 1690 or 576 9988

BOP Rose Society Are holding a pruning demo from 10am-12 noon at Mitre 10 Te Puke. Spot prizes during demo.

BOP Tree Crops Tree Sale Katikati A&P Showgrounds, Major St from 10am-12.30pm. Great selection of assorted plants, fruit and nut trees. Cash sales only. Enquiries 549 2795

CarBoot Sale And Car Wash 8-11am. Real Coffee, muffins and hot dog sausages with the works! Saturday 15th July, Community Church, 30 Evans Rd, Papamoa. $5.00 a site. Arthur 021 163 7691

Colour your world with Colour Quest Entertain the kids these school holidays. Fun photo challenge for the family. Easy to play. Download and print or view the Colour Quest Koru online, and take snaps of flora, fauna, structures and objects, man-made or natural. For full details www.virtuallyontrack.co.nz

Come Dancing Te Puke Te Puke Scottish Society monthly dance, Saturday, 15th July, Te Puke War Memorial Hall, 7.30pm. Enjoy the company of like minded people with a love of dancing. Live band, great company, lovely supper. Door charge $7. Subs now due. Valerie 573 7093

Come Dancing Tonight Come join us tonight for Sequence & Old time Dancing. Great music, supper. Entry $7.00 All welcome. Run by Tauranga Scottish Society. Greerton Hall 7-30 to 10-30pm Ph Nola 576 5076

Computer Lessons Learn in your own time, at your own pace. Tauranga Library has a free course online to meet your needs. Visit one of our libraries to register.

Friendship Force International Friendship & Home Hosting exchanges with other clubs worldwide. Barbara 574 5711 or email: regclothier@gmail.com www.thefriendshipforce.org

Ians Tai Chi Class Saturday mornings at QE Park. Cancelled for the month of June.

Leisure Marching Fun, fitness & friendship. Teams made up of adult members practice this non-competitive activity on various days & times throughout the week. Frances 544 1318 or 021 297 3407

LOL Laughter Wellness Come & laugh away your winter blues. Arataki Community Centre 11-11.45am. Koha. Trish 022 036 6768 email lollaughterwellness@gmail.com

Mahayana Buddhist Meditation Tga Intro to Meditation classes, 1st & 3rd Saturdays of every month, 10-10.50am. General classes every 1st, 2nd & 3rd Sat of the month, 11am-12.15pm. $5 suggested koha. Blind Foundation, 160 17th Ave, Tauranga (Vehicular access opposite Historic Village)

Messianic Meetings Every Sat at Hillier Centre, 31 Gloucester Rd, Mt Maunganui 10am. Seek to unite together in our walk to put truth into action on a daily basis. 544 7424 or 0210 226 3515

Narcotics Anonymous Open Meetings Sat 7.30-8.30pm & every Sun 7-8pm, Hanmer Clinic, 1235 Cameron Rd, Greerton. Mon 7-8pm & Fri 7.30-8.30pm, Hillier Centre. 31 Gloucester Rd, Mt Maunganui. Womens Meeting every Tues 10.30-11.30am Downstairs Hall, Salvation Army Recovery Church, 375 Cameron Rd. 0800 NA TODAY

Petanque @ Club Mt Maunganui Sat 1pm. Equip available, all levels welcome. Arnold 544 5598

Sunshine Dance Group Come and enjoy an evening of Sequence Dancing & Socialising. Tea Dance Sat 29 July, Baptist Church Hall cnr Cameron & 13th Ave, 5-9pm. $5pp, tea 6.45pm, BYO food/drink.

Tauranga Meditation Group Intro to meditation classes 1st Tues of month 7-8.30pm. General classes every 2nd & 4th Saturdays of the month. $5 koha. Blind Foundation, 160 17th Ave, Tauranga. (Vehicular access opposite Historic Village)

Village Radio Community radio broadcasting from Tauranga Historic Village 1368 kHz AM. Music of 1940s - 90s weekends 9am - 5pm, weekdays 10am - 5pm. www.villageradio.co.nz or 571 3710
An Olympic gold medalist, winner of the Americas Cup, and now a possible winner at the Volvo Ocean Race in 2018, helmsman Blair Tuke could be the first sailor in history to receive a triple crown.

New Zealand sailor Blair Tuke has been named the second under 30 sailor to join team MAPFRE in the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18.

Blair, who partnered along-side Peter Burling, will join skipper Xabi Fernandez in the round-the-world race, which leaves from Alicante on October 22.

Racing in a Volvo Ocean Race edition has been a long held ambition. Growing up watching Kiwi legends like Sir Peter Blake and Mike Sanderson have great success in round the world racing has inspired me and Im super excited about joining MAPFRE, says Blair.

There is a lot of experience and talent on board MAPFRE. I am privileged to have the opportunity to broaden my sailing skills while bringing my recent Olympic and Americas Cup experience to the team.

Xabi Fernandez says the idea of them teaming up together came from a conversation that they had in 2015 when Blair joined MAPFRE in a professional and amateur competition (ProAm) where he jumped off the boat before it set off.

In Bermuda, during the Americas Cup we began to talk about this edition. Blair is a really exciting sailor for the team. Nobody can doubt his talent, and I am absolutely convinced that he will be a really strong addition to the team as trimmer and helmsman.

Following his recent victory in the Americas Cup in Bermuda, Blair is due to arrive in Spain next week to join the rest of the Spanish team at their base in Sanxenxo, in the Rias Baixas region of Galicia.

It is excellent news that Blair has joined us; there is no doubt that he is one of the great names of our sport at the moment. The fact that he has accepted our invitation to join the team makes us proud and demonstrates the international prestige that MAPFRE has acquired, say MAPFRECEO Pedro Campos.

MAPFRE crew confirmed to date

Xabi Fernandez (ESP), Skipper

Pablo Arrarte (ESP), Watch captain

Rob Greenhalgh (GBR), Watch captain

Neti Cuervas-Mons (ESP), Bowman and boat captain

Willy Altadill (ESP), trimmer/bowman *Under 30

Blair Tuke (NZL), trimmer/helmsman *Under 30
The figures add up. Gibraltars chief minister, Fabian Picardo, who was a speaker at Malaga Universitys summer course in Marbella this week, told the audience of Spanish students that the economy of the Rock will continue to grow after Britain leaves the European Union, and Gibraltar will continue to prosper. He explained that Gibraltar is a small economy so it is very easy to reposition it, and compared it with a cork in water: if there is a storm a small cork will float, he said, while a large ship could find itself in difficulties.

Mr Picardo said that the repositioning of the Gibraltarian economy would be in the services sector, especially finance, insurance and online gaming. The principal clients of Gibraltar companies are in the UK, so leaving the EU will not mean a great change. He said that although the Gibraltarian people are committed Europeans who had voted overwhelmingly for Britain to remain in the EU, and were disappointed in the result of the referendum, they are having to adapt to the result.

Different status

The chief minister expressed his regret that Spain had opposed the idea of Gibraltar having a different relation with Europe than that of the UK. With creativity that would have been possible, he said, but Spain insisted that everything would have to involve joint sovereignty. With regard to workers, he stressed that Spanish people and those of any other European country would maintain their present rights in Gibraltar, no matter what position is adopted by the British government, but Europeans who go to work in Gibraltar after Brexit could find their rights affected by the double veto which Spain insisted on.
The new Gibraltar branch of the Samaritans has been awarded a 10,000 grant towards expenses and setting up costs by the government.

The cheque was handed over to Marie Lou Guerrero, the chairwoman of Gib Sams, earlier this week by Neil Costa, minister for Health, Care and Justice, and deputy chief minister Dr Joseph Garcia.

When the Samaritans service is up-and-running, the number to call will be 116123 and will operate 24/7.
Antonio Banderas is to be awarded a top prize by the Spanish government. He will be recipient of this years national filmmaking prize, (Premio Nacional de Cinematografia), which the ministry for Culture says recognises Banderass commitment and career as an actor, which opened Hollywood up to Spanish cinema.

The Malaga-born actor received the news in Italy, where he was attending the Ischia Festival .

Conscious only of the names of all those professionals who have received it before me, Iacept it with gratitude, humility and a sense of responsibility, he commented.

Banderas will receive his award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September.

He said that he wants to return to directing but beforehand will star in a biopic about the founder of Lamborghini and his rivalry with Enzo Ferrari, played by Alec Baldwin.

 The next step for me will be to get back behind the camera, he explained.
On 14 July 1997 Spains biggest ever protest took place, as two million people all over the country took to the streets to condemn the Basque separatist terrorist group ETA after it murdered Miguel Angel Blanco Garrido, a young Partido Popular councillor from the small town of Ermua, Vizcaya.

This unprecedented demonstration of grief and anger was a turning point in the publics attitude towards ETA, as people overcame their fears to express their horror and disgust at this latest killing.

Miguel Angel Blanco was kidnapped by ETA on his way home from work on 10 July. He normally travelled by train and the group had been watching his movements. He was distracted by a young lady who approached him: nobody knows what she said to him, but he accompanied her outside. He was then forced into a car, taken into hiding and the group threatened to kill him unless the government agreed to transfer all ETA prisoners to jails in the Basque Country within 48 hours.

A demonstration this week. / SUR

Despite the security forces best efforts they were unable to find where he was being held, and people in the region began to hold demonstrations calling on ETA to release him, shouting slogans such as Not in my name!

A candlelit overnight vigil was held in Ermua and this, together with the protests elsewhere in the country, marked what later became known as the spirit of Ermua.

Shortly after the deadline expired on 12 July the terrorists took Miguel Angel Blanco to a piece of wasteland, shot him twice in the head and left him there. He was found, close to death, with his hands tied, and taken to hospital but died in the early hours of Sunday 13th.

This was by no means ETAs first killing, nor would it be their last, but the cold-blooded and calculated assassination of an innocent young man caused such shock and outrage among society as a whole, including many of those who supported ETAs campaign for independence for the Basque Country, that it has become an unforgettable part of Spains history.

The prime minister of the time, Jose Maria Aznar, and his predecessor Felipe Gonzalez attended Miguel Angels funeral, together with the Prince of Asturias, the heir to the throne, and a ten-minute silence was held all over the country as people paid their respects to the young victim.

It was not until 2006 that two ETA members were tried for the murder of Miguel Angel Blanco. They were each sentenced to 50 years imprisonment.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi today described Myanmar as a "key pillar" of Indias Act East policy and expressed his firm commitment to strengthen the bilateral relationship in all areas.

He made the comments when Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Defence Services Sr Gen. U Min Aung Hliang called on him here, a PMO statement said.

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Hliang briefed the prime minister about bilateral defence and security cooperation, the statement said.

The prime minister appreciated the close cooperation between the armed forces of India and Myanmar, it added.

During the meeting, Myanmars military chief condemned the recent terrorist attack on pilgrims of Amarnath yatra in Kashmir and expressed his sincere condolences for the victims, the statement said.

Modi also conveyed his condolences at the loss of lives of Myanmar armed forces personnel and their families in the tragic air crash of June 7. PTI AKK AKK

--- ENDS ---
Syracuse, NY -- A 15-year-old boy shot to death Wednesday night on Syracuse's South Side was the brother of a teen murderer who is awaiting sentencing for a 2016 shooting, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick confirmed.

Homicide victim Akil Williams was shot at 10:52 p.m. Wednesday at Cannon Street and Fernwood Avenue, police said. He was rushed to Upstate University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Syracuse police announced a 10 a.m. news conference to discuss the case. No arrests have yet been announced. Williams is the 11th homicide victim in the city this year.

His brother, Vikal, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to shooting Tabarrie Tillie, 32, to death in May 2016 on Primrose Avenue.

Vikal Williams was 15 years old when he killed Tillie. The two had gotten into a dispute before the murder.

Another man, Jeffrey Bradshaw, is accused of helping Vikal Williams in that murder. Bradshaw's trial is scheduled for early 2018. Vikal Williams will be sentenced after that time.

Vikal Williams will spend a minimum of 7 1/2 to 15 years in prison, with the possibility of life in prison.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) Myanmars top military commander Gen U Min Aung Hlaing today called on Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and held extensive talks with the Army and Naval chiefs and explored ways to deepen security ties between the two countries, an official said.

A range of issues, including expanding cooperation between armed forces of the two countries, were discussed in the meeting between Jaitley and Gen Hlaing, who is commander- in-chief of the Myanmar Defence Services.

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Various operational matters, including enhancing cooperation between security forces of the two countries along the India-Myanmar border, were discussed in talks Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had with the Myanmarese general, the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The two generals are also understood to have discussed regional security scenario and ways to effectively combat terrorism.

Gen Rawat had visited Myanmar in May.

Myanmar is one of Indias strategic neighbours and shares a 1,640-km-long border with a number of northeastern states, including militancy-hit Nagaland and Manipur.

Gen Hlaing is on an eight-day visit to India from July 7.

His talks with the top brass of Indias defence and security establishment come at a time when the armies of India and China are engaged in a standoff in Doklam area in the Sikkim sector.

Myanmars President Htin Kyaw had visited India in August last year when the two countries had agreed to step up bilateral coordination between the two border guarding forces to ensure security in the areas along the frontier.

India has been concerned over some militant groups from the northeast taking shelter in Myanmar. The country has been assuring New Delhi that it would not allow any insurgent group to use its territory against India.

Gen Hlaing also held wide-ranging discussions with Naval Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba on defence and security cooperation.

Admiral Lanba is also chairman of the powerful chiefs of staff committee (CoSC) which comprises chiefs of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. PTI MPB KUN ZMN KUN

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A man from Otsego County is facing arson charges after State Police said he intentionally caused several fires, including one that burned down a church in March.

Gerald E. Althiser, Jr.

Gerald E. Althiser, Jr., 20, of Springfield Center, told authorities he purposely set "numerous" fires, including two that started inside campers, troopers said.

He also took responsibility for a large fire at Milford United Methodist Church in Milford, officials said. State Police did not say if Althiser is a suspect for any other fires in the area.

The fire at Milford United Methodist Church broke out around 7 p.m. March 12, with flames showing high into the air for more than three hours. No one was injured, but the church was ultimately destroyed.

Officials did not give a motive for why Althiser may have started the fires.

Althiser was charged with fifth-degree arson, a misdemeanor, and third-degree arson, a felony, and sent to Otsego County Jail.
JORDAN, N.Y. -- Pam Rasha was asleep when a car smashed into the side of her Jordan home.

The crash rattled her two-story home -- literally shaking Rasha awake.

"I thought we were having an earthquake," she said.

Rasha ran outside Friday morning and found a crumpled Chrysler PT Cruiser in her side yard. The collision severed a water main and left a gaping hole in the side of her home at 21 Elbridge St.

Rasha rushed to help two injured men inside the car.

Rasha and a neighbor cared for the driver and passenger until emergency medical services took over, said Jordan Fire Chief Douglas Milton.

"They did a great job," Milton said.

When firefighters arrived, the driver was still in the car and the passenger was on the ground, Milton said.

The accident happened around 6:15 a.m. The driver was speeding when he approached a bend on Elbridge Street, swerved off the road and crashed into the house, according to the New York State Police.

The injured men were rushed to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. The 33-year-old driver suffered a fractured hip and a lung contusion, police said. The 29-year-old passenger had cuts on his face and facial trauma, troopers said.

Both men are expected to survive, troopers said. The crash remains under investigation.

The crash smashed at least one of the residence's windows in addition to damaging the foundation. A metal sign post severed during the crash hurtled through the air and could be seen impaled in a second-story wall.

For now, Rasha -- along with her dogs and pet lizards -- will have to find a new place to stay.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- As Lady Antebellum's new horn section blared swampy wails into the night, I realized everything I thought I knew about country music was wrong.

This wasn't sudden. This understanding dawned over several country-rock shows in the last year, culminating with Thursday's performance by the Nashville-based crew at the Lakeview Amphitheater.

It's hard to admit, too, so I'll save my change of heart for the end.

Country music has evolved so much in the last decade, but Lady Antebellum has kept up, encompassing elements of classic rock, funk and blues into their 1.5-hour set. They lived up to the hype from previous appearances in Syracuse, having headlined the New York State Fair grandstand in 2011 and Chevy Court in 2010.

The original trio's chemistry endured over 10 years. They fluidly weave around each other onstage, usually with Hillary Scott and Charles Kelley leaning in to harmonize with clear, resonant voices, while Dave Haywood happily claws his guitar or banjo nearby.

Since their NYS Fair shows, all three have become young parents. They still sing about that "double shot of Crown," but the bandmates' new material reflects plenty of personal growth.

Scott shined on "Thy Will," a solo number she performs with her family band when not touring with Lady A.

"This is the most personal song I ever wrote," she told the crowd, accompanied by Haywood on piano.

Never did I think a slow, religious ballad would appeal to me, a rock fan who strayed so far from my Catholic-school upbringing that I still feel nervous around nuns. But if my childhood church had a gospel singer like Scott, I probably would've better observed the Sabbath.



Vocal chops aside, Scott (and Haywood) aren't particularly animated. After seeing a 50-something Kelley Hansen dance and hop around the stage with Foreigner on Tuesday, it's a little underwhelming to see a 30-something Scott remain mostly planted for the encore of "Bartender."



But hey, not every singer needs to kick up her heels. The trumpet/trombone players (Dontae Winslow and Sean Erick) horned into my heart with their own crisp dance moves. They added deliberate, sexy punches to "Our Kinda Love" and "You Look Good."

Lady A also added "Army" to the standard setlist, a fresh tune "for strong women" which debuted on the band's new album "Heart Break." The hook leans a little on Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" but that's where the similarities end. The slower pace gave enough breathing room for each musician to noodle around with funky solos. Kelley's powerful delivery cemented this song as a new standard in the Antebellum playbook.



Sugar-and-spice opener Kelsea Ballerini matured plenty as a performer since her last appearance at Lakeview (she opened for Rascal Flatts last summer). Her 45-minute set featured early hits like "Peter Pan" and "Dibs," along with a charming acoustic cover of "Closer" by The Chainsmokers.

All legs and sparkles, she thanked the crowd for "changing her life" and knelt down to sing directly to several wide-eyed individuals. Her voice control and pop-rock confidence sprung into a new league in just one year. Watch out, Taylor Swift.



Brett Young drew his shares of screams early in the night, with his 20-minute opening set. He returned later to sing Tim McGraw's "Something Like That" with Kelley. The two enjoyed a sweet bromance, from their matching outfits to their onstage selfies.



Kelley himself drew plenty of laughs. He complimented the "Syra-cute" audience and reminded the lawn crowd to "use protection."



"Don't do drugs, kids," he sang, joyfully off the cuff.

Humor and humility are staples at country shows. Stars joke around often, and repeatedly thank their fans for coming out, listening and singing along. They always seem earnest.

I didn't notice this pattern because I never went to see these shows live. As someone who often found country music too simple and too predictable, I stubbornly decided years ago this genre wasn't worth my time or money.

Then I took over the music coverage in 2016 and saw Zac Brown Band, Dierks Bentley, Florida Georgia Line, Rascal Flatts and Jason Aldean in Syracuse. Little by little, they shattered my preconceived notions of this genre.

As Kelley said later in the set, "I don't know what it is about New York, but you guys love country music." The fans already knew what it took me a year to understand. At its best, modern country music digs deep into storytelling at all stages of life -- a basic human value -- and does it with an expert fusion of musical influences.

It's so easy to dismiss certain types of music, especially if they're associated with people, cultures or lifestyles different from your own. It's a mistake. Education breeds understanding, which breeds appreciation.

Lady Antebellum was the final nail in the coffin for my country music skepticism. I was wrong.

Lady Antebellum set list

Thursday, July 13, 2017 | Lakeview Amphitheater

Downtown

Our Kinda Love

This City

Dancin' Away with My Heart

Heart Break

Compass / We Owned the Night

American Honey

I Run to You

Army

Thy Will (Hillary Scott's song) / Hello World

You're Still the One (Shania Twain cover)

Just a Kiss

You Look Good

Lookin' for a Good Time

Something Like That with Brett Young (Tim McGraw cover)

Crazy in Love with Kelsea Ballerini (Beyonce cover)

Love Don't Live Here

Encore:

In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins) / Bartender

Need You Now

Notes:

Amp management refused to confirm a crowd estimate, but a security official and Ballerini (onstage) estimated attendance to be about 15,000 people.

Parking and traffic for country shows are usually slow, but the Orange Lot was 98 percent clear by midnight and the show ended at 10:45 p.m.

The next concert at the Lakeview Amphitheater will be

Katrina Tulloch writes music and culture stories for Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Contact her: Email | Twitter | Facebook
Jacob Pucci | jpucci@syracuse.com

Central New York's food truck 2017

By Jacob Pucci | jpucci@syracuse.com

Our search of Central New York's best food truck took us from the shores of Lake Neatahwanta in Fulton to Pinecreek, a quaint campground outside Ithaca. We ate Orgasmac and the Phat Kow and slices of Fig 'N' Pig, Sugo and Esposito.

Each one of our six finalists brought something different to the table, or in the case of Phat Kat Foods, to the back of an SUV where we dined in a video store parking lot during a torrential downpour.

While we were visiting the six finalists, readers took part and voted for their favorite . And the winners are:

Judges' Choice: Silo Food Truck

Readers' Choice: Toss 'n' Fire Wood-Fired Pizza

Scroll down to see our thoughts on the finalists and the winners of best food truck in CNY. The finalists are listed in ascending order, from sixth place to the top prize.

Judging notes: Our judging team was Jacob Pucci, Katrina Tulloch and Jared Paventi. Jacob Pucci is the Best of Central New York reporter for syracuse.com and The Post-Standard, Katrina Tulloch is the music and culture reporter for syracuse.com and The Post-Standard and Jared Paventi is a restaurant critic for syracuse.com and The Post-Standard and beer and beverage writer for NYup.com.

We visited all six finalists and ate at least three entrees from each spot, as well as a sampling of side dishes, if available.

To learn more about each of the six stops, or you enjoy reading attempts at food-related humor, check out our log of thoughts and sights from the tour.

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Jared Paventi | Contributing writer

No. 6 - Shannon's Hot Dogs by Crystal

Shannon's Hot Dogs by Crystal was the first of three large orange trucks we visited while touring the six finalists.

The menu here is pretty simple: Hofmann hot dogs, burgers, Gianelli sausage sandwiches and sides.

Address: The truck typically makes its home at Bullhead Point Park in Fulton, along the shore of Lake Neahtawanta.

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Jacob Pucci | jpucci@syracuse.com

The food at Shannon's Hot Dogs by Crystal

Good food starts with good ingredients, so Hofmann and Gianelli sausages we tried were predictably tasty. However, the onions and peppers that topped the sausage were billed as fried, but they were flimsy and tasted as though they might be a canned product. The Texas hot sauce we ordered for our coney was good, but the cheese sauce for our frank tasted dull. The burger, a pre-made frozen patty, was fine.

We were disappointed that Shannon's was missing several menu items, including all of its side salads. The only side dishes available were bagged chips and French fries, which despite being a frozen food service product, were pretty satisfying.

See more photos from Shannon's Hot Dogs by Crystal.

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Jared Paventi | Contributing writer

No. 5 - Wolf's Patio Pizza

We caught up with Wolf's Patio Pizza at Local 315 Brewing Company in Warners for a leisurely Friday happy hour of wood-fired pizza and craft beers.

The big red trailer encompasses the wood oven, the commercial-sized refrigerators and all the other equipment needed to crank out an array of pizzas. We were impressed right off the bat.

Owner Wolfgang Dwyer was chatty and fun, at one point cracking jokes and offering free pizzas to a boozy bachelorette party stumbling out of the brewery and into their stretch SUV limo.

Address: Wolf's typically sets up shop Friday evenings at Local 315, but for the full monthly schedule, check their Facebook page.

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Jared Paventi | Contributing writer

Our pizzas from Wolf's Patio Pizza

We checked Wolf's website before heading out and were excited to try the macaroni and cheese pizza and the German flammkuchen, topped with creme fraiche, bacon, caramelized onions and Gruyere cheese.

So we were a bit bummed they weren't on the menu that day, but we found three worthy substitutes: Wolf's spinach and roasted red pepper, tomato and mozzarella and garlic meat lovers pizzas.

The pizzas definitely erred on the simple side, but they were all satisfying and filling. Judge Jared Paventi noted that with a few tweaks to the sauce and dough, "Wolf's could create a crowded city of quality pizza trucks."

See more photos from Wolf's Patio Pizza.

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Jared Paventi | Contributing writer

No. 4 - Toss 'n' Fire Wood-Fired Pizza (Readers' Choice)

This food truck has blossomed into two food trucks and a brick-and-mortar location in North Syracuse. They're a staple at the Tuesday farmers market in Downtown Syracuse, which is where we caught up with them.

Toss 'n' Fire isn't afraid to combine bold flavors into unique combinations, like the 'Cuse Salt Potato, Fig 'n' Pig and Cheeky Monkey pizzas we sampled.

Address: Toss 'n' Fire is a staple of the Downtown Syracuse Farmers Market every Tuesday, but for the latest info, check Facebook, or just head to the brick-and-mortar shop at 315 N. Main St. in North Syracuse.

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Katrina Tulloch | ktulloch@syracuse.com

Our pizzas from Toss 'n' Fire

The Cheeky Monkey (center) gets its name from the Cheeky Monkey Tomato Garlic Dipping Oil used as the base for the pizza. While we loved the idea, the flavor of the tomato oil wasn't as strong as we'd like.

The balsamic drizzle on the Fig 'n' Pig pie, topped with fig jam, prosciutto and Gorgonzola cheese, was more of a drenching than a drizzle. The pizza was good, but it would have been too sweet to eat the whole pizza as a lunch for one.

Our unanimous favorite was the 'Cuse Salt Potato, which combines smashed salt potatoes with bacon and three types of cheese. The potatoes are creamy and rich, but they didn't weigh down the pizza as one would expect from a carb-on-carb meal. The bacon was cut into large pieces and neither soggy nor too crispy.

See more photos from Toss 'n' Fire Wood-Fired Pizza.

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Jared Paventi | Contributing writer

No. 3 - Phat Kat Foods

We braved a brief, but torrential downpour to eat tacos in the parking lot of a video store. But man was it worth it.

Phat Kat is based in Oswego, but makes its home in Auburn most of the time. The menu is expansive--especially considering the size confines of a food truck--including chicken, ground beef, steak, pork and yellowtail tuna tacos.

Don't forget to grab a Buy One Get One Free coupon for Family Video on the counter of the food truck. Dinner and a movie anyone?

Address: The truck recently moved from the Walgreens parking lot on Grant Avenue to the parking lot of Family Video on East Genesee Street in Auburn. For the latest, check Facebook.

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Katrina Tulloch | ktulloch@syracuse.com

The spread from Phat Kat

We sampled the beer-braised carnitas (pork) and chicken tacos, the "Phat Kow" burrito and a side order of nachos.

Judge Katrina Tulloch raved about the price and portion size for her carnitas tacos ($5), calling them "the best bang for your buck in all of Food Truck Land."

We all gave Phat Kat bonus points for frying the tortilla chips to order and for giving us the option to top our nachos with beef, pork and chicken when we couldn't decide on one.

All the meats are boldly seasoned--no extra hot sauce required. The Phat Kow burrito comes stuffed with shredded carne asada, French fries, pico de gallo, cheese and guacamole. Your arteries will hate you, but your stomach won't.

See more photos from Phat Kat Foods.

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Jared Paventi | Contributing writer

No. 2 - Via Napoli Express

Phat Kat and Via Napoli Express were neck-and-neck for second place, but ultimately, we decided that the Neapolitan pies cooked inside the big black truck were just too good.

Culinary Institute of America grad Mike Affinito is the mind behind this truck, which we caught up with at the Fayetteville Farmers Market, held Thursdays at the Fayetteville Towne Center. There's only one table set up and the truck crew takes all the empty pizza boxes because they're not allowed to put out a garbage can, but we won't mind eating on public display if it meant eating this pizza.

Address: Via Napoli typically sets up shop at the Fayetteville Farmers Market on Thursday. For the latest info on where they'll be slinging pizzas, check Facebook.

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Jacob Pucci | jpucci@syracuse.com

Our pizzas from Via Napoli Express

The key to a great Neapolitan pie is the crust and out of the three pizza food trucks we tried, Via Napoli's crust was by far the best. Affinito told us that he makes his dough by hand and lets it long-ferment, giving the dough ample time to build gluten.

It's that gluten formation that gives the crust its silky, chewy texture pocked with air pockets that blister in the wood-fired oven.

We sampled the chicken wing, Sugo, Esposito--and after Affinito's encouragement--the Aloha pizzas.

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Katrina Tulloch | ktulloch@syracuse.com

The Sugo pizza from Via Napoli

This is the Sugo pizza, which combines candied bacon, spinach and fresh mozzarella cheese with a roasted garlic sauce. All four pizzas were fantastic, but this might have been the best of the bunch. The Sugo has been the pizza-of-choice for Via Napoli's $1 samples at the Taste of Syracuse festival and while it's great by the slice, it's even better by the pie.

See more photos of Via Napoli Express.

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Jacob Pucci | jpucci@syracuse.com

No. 1 - Silo Food Truck

The Ovid-based Silo Food Truck took home top at the 2016 NYS Fair food truck competition and after making the drive down to Pinecreek Campground in Newfield to sample their fried chicken and macaroni and cheese, we can see why.

This was the first meal we've eaten that was cooked in the back of a modified Chevy G-Series van with a mural of a majestic blue and purple chicken painted on the side, but it sure won't be our last.

Address: Silo can be found across the Finger Lakes, but they've been particularly frequent guests of Lucas Vineyards in Interlaken and around the city of Ithaca. As with all the other food trucks, Facebook is your best bet to track down this fried chicken.

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Jacob Pucci | jpucci@syracuse.com

The winning food from Silo Food Truck

Silo is your classic southern fried chicken and mac and cheese joint..until it isn't. Until that fried chicken comes topped with coconut green curry sauce and is served alongside pickled Asian vegetables and coconut sticky rice.

The mac and cheese served as the base for the Gluten-"ous" to the Maximus (topped with two pieces of fried chicken, truck gravy and pickled red onions) and the Spicy "Orgasmac" (topped with andouille sausage and homemade Peruvian pickles. Both easily lived up to their names.

"This could be the best fried chicken I've had in the Northeast," Judge Jared Paventi said, adding that the truck gravy served on top was "perfect."

Judge Katrina Tulloch raved over her mac and cheese. " The punchy, spicy "orgasmac" makes the boxed Annie's version look pathetic," she said.

It's also worth noting that the green curry sauce is apparently "Wizard-made." We agree, it was pretty magical.

Winner winner, chicken dinner.

See more photos from Silo Food Truck.

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Jacob Pucci | jpucci@syracuse.com

Honorable mentions and superlatives

We saw and tasted a heck of a lot of good food at our six finalists, so it would be a shame to not name our finalists with more specific awards:

Best location: Shannon's Hot Dogs by Crystal (Lake Neatahwanta)

Most entertaining food truck: Wolf's Patio Pizza

Best looking food truck: Silo Food Truck

Best value: Phat Kat Foods

Closest to nature: Silo Food Truck

Best sweet pizza: Via Napoli's Aloha pizza

Best overall pizza: Via Napoli Express' Sugo pizza

Best beverage selection: Silo Food Truck (San Pellegrino sodas FTW)

Best use of local ingredients: Silo Food Truck (chicken is locally-sourced and free-range)

Most likely to give you heartburn but it's worth it: Phat Kat's Phat Kow burrito

Best neighboring food truck: Dingle's Lakeside Ice Cream (next to Shannon's)

Best side dish: Daily cabbage from Silo food Truck

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Central New York's best burger 2017: And the winners are...

Still hungry? Then you'll want to get your hands on one of Central New York's best burgers.
DEWITT, NY - The Alfred Angelo bridal shop chain, which operates more than 60 stores across the U.S., appears to be closing all or most of its stores, employees are telling media outlets.

In DeWitt, store employees said they were told this morning that the shop would close permanently, and were not told why.

The shop, which is on Erie Boulevard East, will close at 8 p.m. today, they said.

A sign on the door says "Closed" and the two employees were fielding calls from customers who have heard rumors the chain was closing and are worried about getting their wedding dresses.

Employees said customers worried about their dresses are being told to call customer service at 888-218-0044 or email predmond@stearnsweaver.com. Syracuse.com called the phone number and got a recording to leave a message.

Employees at the chain's headquarters office in Delray Beach, Fla. left en masse midday today, carrying boxes, plants and other personal belongings, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Media outlets in Massachusetts, Florida and Pennsylvania were all reporting the chain's stores are closing today.

A San Antonio television station reports that an employee confirmed the company is filing for bankruptcy, and said that all of the employees were notified of the closure through a conference call on Thursday morning.

Social media buzzed with talk of the closings - and brides worried about their dresses.

@AlfredAngelo stores closing nationwide. Employee says the company filed for bankruptcy & they were told by e-mail this AM #kens5eyewitess  Sharon Ko (@SharonKoTV) July 13, 2017

The news spread on Twitter this afternoon.

i've wanted an alfred angelo disney wedding dress since i was like 12 and now they're filing for bankruptcy and my dreams are crushed  marie  (@muhhhrie) July 13, 2017

Calls to corporate headquarters have not been returned.

The Delray Beach, Florida-based company operates more than 60 Alfred Angelo Bridal Signature Stores in the United States, according to the company web site. The company's designs are sold at 1,400 retailers world wide.

The retailer was founded in 1933 by Alfred Angelo and his wife Edythe Piccione in Philadelphia.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Thursday defended his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer, characterizing it as standard campaign practice and maintaining that "nothing happened" as a result of the June sit-down.

The remarks in Paris, made in a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, came even though Trump's own FBI pick said one day earlier that authorities should be advised of requests to meet with foreign individuals during a campaign and even after Donald Trump Jr. said he would rethink his own conduct in agreeing to the meeting in the first place.

"I think from a practical standpoint most people would've taken that meeting. It's called opposition research, or even research into your opponent," Trump said.

Trump Jr. released emails this week from 2016 in which he appeared eager to accept information from the Russian government that could have damaged Hillary Clinton's campaign. The emails were sent ahead of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer that Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also attended.

Asked about the meeting on Thursday, Trump said "politics is not the nicest business in the world" and that it's standard for candidates to welcome negative information about an opponent. In this case, he added, "nothing happened from the meeting, zero happened from the meeting."

Trump's support for the encounter stood in contrast to the position of his nominee for FBI director, Christopher Wray, who at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday was asked what candidates should do if they're told a foreign government wants to help by offering damaging information about an opponent.

"Any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation-state or any non-state actor," Wray said, "is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know."

Trump Jr. himself said in a Fox News interview on Tuesday night that "in retrospect I probably would have done things a little differently."

Meanwhile, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday that he would call on Trump Jr. to testify as part of investigations into Russian meddling in last year's election and would subpoena him if necessary. Witnesses who refuse to comply with subpoenas risk being held in contempt.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he wants Trump Jr. to testify "pretty soon," and it could be as early as next week. He said he was willing to subpoena him if he refused to testify. He wouldn't say what he wants to hear from Trump Jr., but said members aren't restricted "from asking anything they want to ask." The top Democrat on the committee, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, had also called on Trump Jr. to testify and had discussed possible subpoenas with Grassley.

A lawyer for Donald Trump Jr. did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on whether his client would agree to appear before the committee. A spokesman for the Senate Judiciary Committee said the letter hasn't been sent.

The Judiciary Committee is one of several congressional panels investigating Russian meddling in the U.S. election, along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. U.S. intelligence agencies have accused the Russian government of meddling through hacking in last year's election to benefit Trump and harm Clinton, and authorities are exploring potential coordination between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, has said he would also like to hear from Trump Jr. But the committee's chairman, Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, hasn't said whether the secretive committee will call him in. Trump Jr. tweeted Monday that he was "happy to work with the committee to pass on what I know."

It's unclear whether Trump Jr. would be as eager to testify before the Judiciary panel, which generally conducts open hearings. The Senate intelligence committee interviews many of its witnesses behind closed doors, though it has held an unusual number of open hearings as part of the Russia probe.

The June 9 meeting involved a lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was described to Trump Jr. as a "Russian government lawyer" who had incriminating information on Clinton. Trump, apparently referencing an article in The Hill newspaper that said the Justice Department had enabled the attorney to be in the country, suggested Thursday that "she was here" because of Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

An assistant United States attorney in a January court hearing in New York said the federal government had bypassed the normal visa process and granted a "type of extraordinary permission" so Veselnitskaya could be in New York to defend a Russian investment firm against a Justice Department lawsuit. That was done, the prosecutor said, so that she could be with her client for a deposition.

In a statement issued by her spokesman, Lynch said she had no personal knowledge of Veselnitskaya's travel.

"The State Department issues visas, and the Department of Homeland Security oversees entry to the United States at airports," the statement said.

Also Thursday, the Justice Department released a heavily redacted page from Attorney General Jeff Sessions' security clearance application in response to a government watchdog group's lawsuit.

The application page asks whether Sessions -- a senator before joining the Trump administration -- or anyone in his immediate family had contact within the past seven years with a foreign government or its representatives. There's a "no" box checked, but the rest of the answer is blacked out.

The department had already acknowledged that Sessions omitted from his form meetings he had with foreign dignitaries, including the Russian ambassador. A department spokesman said the FBI agent who helped with the form said those encounters didn't have to be included as routine contacts as part of Sessions' Senate duties.

___

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko and Richard Lardner in Washington contributed to this report.
The LaFayette school district is considering not renewing its contract with New York state to oversee and operate the Onondaga Nation School, according to a district official.

The contract to operate the school ended June 30, 2016 and the school district and Nation are looking at other options for who would operate the school, a pre-kindergarten to eighth-grade school for the nation's children.

Onondaga Nation officials said the district first broached the idea of LaFayette dropping its contract to oversee the school.

Joseph Heath, Onondaga Nation attorney, said the nation would prefer not to sever its contractual ties with the district. It would rather work with the district to resolve issues over the nation's input into the operation of the school, he said.

Heath said that's difficult because the district "continues to make unilateral decisions without the input of the nation."

The possibility of not renewing the contract has come up following a dispute over who should be principal of the Onondaga Nation School.

Onondaga parents took their kids out of school on June 21 in protest over who would be the school's next principal.

Onondaga leaders and community members wanted Simone Thornton, a teacher at the school who is a member of the nation, to receive the job. Thornton was one of three finalists, but the district hired Warren Smith, an assistant principal at Wellwood Middle School in the Fayetteville-Manlius School District. He later turned down the job.

LaFayette Superintendent Jeremy Belfield, who became the district's new top administrator July 1, said in a letter to the LaFayette community posted today on the district's website that not renewing the contract is being considered.

Belfield told Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard today that the district has notified the state education department it is considering not renewing the contract.

The district wants to hire a consultant to see what the impact might be on the district if it stopped overseeing the nation school, he said. Nothing would happen immediately, he said.

When it comes to employment decisions, the board of education needs to have the ability and responsibility to hire personnel, Belfield said. He added, however, the district welcomes the Nation's input.

Belfield said the nation "wants more say and control" in school matters, particularly when it comes to employment issues, something the district doesn't believe it can legally give up.

"That may require us as a district to step away,'' he said.

Heath said the nation learned at a meeting Monday with district officials that the district was considering not renewing the contract.

Heath said they also learned the district had a candidate - a retired principal - in mind for the interim principal job at the school.

"They wanted our approval, but we don't know who it is," Heath said.

Belfield said the district has been trying to set up a meeting with the Onondagas to get their input on the candidate, but that hasn't happened yet. Belfield said the district hasn't made a decision yet, and wants the nation's input first.

Wendy Gonyea, an Onondaga Nation clan mother, said she was hoping the new administration under Belfield would be more receptive to listening to the nation's concerns. She said a joint committee has been set up, and she is hopeful the relationship will get better.

The district also is asking the state to add money to hire an administrative Educational Coordinator position for Onondaga Language and Culture for the Onondaga Nation School, Belfield said.
Matthew Digati | Contributing photographer

By Elliot Williams | Contributing writer

A KC-130 carrying 16 U.S. servicemen crashed in Mississippi on its way to California on July 10. Nine of the Marines were stationed at the Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y. Seven of the 16 killed were based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, including one Navy sailor.

The cause of Monday's crash is still being investigated. Lt. Gen. Rex C. McMillian issued a statement following the crash:

"On behalf of the Marine Corps Reserve, I extend my deepest sympathies to the loved ones of those who perished in last night's tragedy. The Marines and Sailor involved in this incident were among our finest. They dedicated their lives to our core values of Honor, Courage and Commitment. They will never be forgotten."

Here is information about all of the servicemen:

Don't Edit

Caine M. Goyette

Rank: Major

Duty Station: Stewart Air National Guard Base, Newburgh

Hometown: Waterford, N.Y.

Military Occupational Specialty: KC-130 Aircraft Commander

Don't Edit

Sean E. Elliott

Rank: Captain

Duty Station: Stewart Air National Guard Base, Newburgh

Hometown: Orange, Calif.

Military Occupational Specialty: KC-130 Aircraft Commander

Don't Edit

Mark A. Hopkins

Rank: Gunnery Sergeant

Duty Station: Stewart Air National Guard Base, Newburgh

Hometown: Chesapeake, Va.

Military Occupational Specialty: Tactical Systems Operator/Mission Specialist

*Note: Hopkins lived in New Windsor

Don't Edit

Brendan C. Johnson

Rank: Gunnery Sergeant

Duty Station: Stewart Air National Guard Base, Newburgh

Hometown: Chittenden, Vt.

Military Occupational Specialty: Fixed Wing Aircraft Crew Master KC-130

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Joshua M. Snowden

Rank: Staff Sergeant

Duty Station: Stewart Air National Guard Base, Newburgh

Hometown: Dallas, Texas

Military Occupational Specialty: Fixed Wing Aircraft Crew Master KC-130

Don't Edit

Julian M. Kevianne

Rank: Sergeant

Duty Station: Stewart Air National Guard Base, Newburgh

Hometown: Dallas, Texas

Military Occupational Specialty: Fixed Wing Aircraft Crew Master KC-130

Don't Edit

Owen J. Lennon

Rank: Sergeant

Duty Station: Stewart Air National Guard Base, Newburgh

Hometown: Rockland, N.Y.

Military Occupational Specialty: Fixed Wing Aircraft Crew Master KC-130

Don't Edit

Daniel I. Baldassare

Rank: Corporal

Duty Station: Stewart Air National Guard Base, Newburgh, NY

Hometown: Monmouth, New Jersey

Military Occupational Specialty: Fixed Wing Aircraft Crew Master KC-130

Don't Edit

Collin J. Schaaff

Rank: Corporal

Duty Station: Stewart Air National Guard Base, Newburgh

Hometown: Pierce, Wash.

Military Occupational Specialty: Aircraft Ordnance Technician

Don't Edit

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Robert H. Cox

Rank: Staff Sergeant

Duty Station: Camp Lejeune in North Carolina

Hometown: Ventura, Calif.

Military Occupational Specialty: Critical Skills Operator

Don't Edit

William J. Kundrat

Rank: Staff Sergeant

Duty Station: Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Hometown: Frederick, Md.

Military Occupational Specialty: Critical Skills Operator

Don't Edit

Chad E. Jenson

Rank: Sergeant

Duty Station: Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Hometown: Los Angeles

Military Occupational Specialty: Critical Skills Operator

Don't Edit

Talon R. Leach

Rank: Sergeant

Duty Station: Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Hometown: Callaway, Mo.

Military Occupational Specialty: Critical Skills Operator

Don't Edit

Joseph J. Murray

Rank: Sergeant

Duty Station: Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Hometown: Duval, Fla.

Military Occupational Specialty: Critical Skills Operator

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Dietrich A. Schmieman

Rank: Sergeant

Duty Station: Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Hometown: Benton, Wash,

Military Occupational Specialty: Critical Skills Operator

Don't Edit

Ryan M. Lohrey

Rank: Petty Officer 2nd Class

Duty Station: Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Hometown: Middletown, Ind.

Military Occupational Specialty: Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman

Don't Edit

Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com

READ MORE: Trooper Joel Davis' funeral to draw about 5,000 officers from across country

Slain trooper Joel R. Davis' funeral at Fort Drum may draw as many as 5,000 law enforcement officials from all over the country on Saturday.
India is the third among nations that trust their governments after Switzerland and Indonesia.

By India Today Web Desk: India is among the top three nations that trusts their governments, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The report states that an estimated 73 per cent of Indians have confidence in the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government.

India is on the third spot in the "Trust in government" category chart. Switzerland tops the chart with 80 per cent of confidence while Indonesia is at the second spot with 79 per cent in the global index of countries.

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The Narendra Modi government has completed more than half its tenure and the Prime Minister has been successful in ensuring political stability and providing decisive leadership with bold decisions, which were both acclaimed as well as bitterly criticised over the last three years.

India is followed by the Canadian government headed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau which has the trust of 62 per cent citizens.

Notably, the United States government led by President Donald Trump has the support of just 30% of the people while trust in the Theresa May government stands at 41 per cent, the report said.

Turkey, which witnessed a failed coup attempt in 2016 along with Russia and Germany are the other three countries rounded off the top five with confidence levels at 58 per cent, 58 per cent and 55 per cent respectively.

Greece, which had to bear the brunt of the immigration crisis while struggling with a failing economy, is at the bottom of the table with a mere 13% of citizens expressing confidence in it.

According to the report, the trust in the government is strongly correlated with citizens' approval of their country's leadership and perceived spread of corruption in government in OECD countries. Where governments are perceived to have high moral integrity, more people trust the government. Similarly, the actions of country leaders and the resulting public opinion about them may have an impact on the public perception of the government institutions they represent.

Also Read:

India Today Mood of the Nation poll: PM Modi's demonetisation move gets a thumbs up, 10 big takeaways

Narendra Modi's youngest fan: How PM broke security protocol to grant this 4-year-old her wish

Also Watch:

Mood of the Nation poll: NDA would win 360 seats if polls were conducted today

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ICS and Liberia commend MEPC on environmental issues

Commenting on the outcome of MEPC 71, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) said it was pleased with the progress made on a number of critical environmental regulatory issues.

The IMO has made a good start on the development of a CO2 reduction strategy, the ICS said, which it is confident will match the ambition of the Paris Agreement on climate change and that significant progress was made on the general outline of an initial strategy for adoption in 2018. ICS Director of Policy, Simon Bennett, said; Though no detailed decisions have yet been taken by IMO, the industrys specific proposals have been well received by a number of governments among both developed and developing nations, and there is generally willingness on all sides to give these further consideration at the next IMO working group on the strategy in October. In a submission to last weeks MEPC meeting made by ICS and other shipping associations, the industry proposed that IMO should adopt a number of CO2 reduction objectives on behalf of the international shipping sector, while emphasising that the delivery of truly ambitious CO2 reductions will be dependent on the development of alternative fossil-free fuels. Specifically, the industry proposed that the sectors total CO2 emissions should not increase above 2008 levels, thus establishing 2008 as the year of peak emissions from shipping, and that IMO should agree upon a percentage by which the total emissions from the sector might reduce by 2050. Encouragingly, there seems to be a general understanding among nearly all IMO Member States that IMO needs to adopt a truly ambitious strategy if it is to remain in control of regulating CO2 from ships, so that the application of unilateral measures, such as the proposed incorporation of international shipping into the EU Emissions Trading System and the resultant market distortion, will be unnecessary, Bennett said. ICS also welcomed the IMO decision to adjust the implementation dates of the BWMC so that existing ships, delivered before its entry into force on 8th September this year, will not be required to install treatment systems until after their first IOPP survey after 8th September, 2019. Bennett commented This is a victory for common sense that will allow shipping companies to identify and invest in far more robust technology to the benefit of the environment. ICS said that existing ships will now be able to install equipment typedapproved in accordance with the more stringent standards that IMO adopted in 2016. The industry should therefore have greater confidence that the systems ships are required to install will indeed be fit for purpose in all operating conditions worldwide, which was not the case with several of the systems approved using the old IMO guidelines. The process leading up to the entry into the force of the Ballast Convention has been difficult and fraught said Bennett. But as a result of last weeks decision by IMO the industry now has the clarity it needs to get on with the job and make the global implementation of this important piece of legislation a success. The Liberian Maritime Administration also welcomed the agreement on an implementation schedule for BWMC, which broadly incorporated the terms of an amendment initially proposed by Liberia. What is effectively a two-year deferral on the implementation schedule for existing ships will be incorporated in the BWMC as new Regulation B-3, which sets out the time frame for when ships should install a BWMS. The wording in Paragraph 10, meanwhile, reflects the desire by IMO member states to limit any further decoupling of the MARPOL Annex I IOPP certificate from other convention certificates before the 8th September, 2019 cut-off date. Alfonso Castillero, Liberian International Ship &Corporate Registry (LISCR) COO, the US-based manager of the Liberian Registry, said, We want to thank the industry and all member states for the key role they played in securing this agreement. Liberia was one of the first administrations to ratify the convention, and is entirely committed to its effective and smooth implementation. But the existence of important practical and technical considerations compelled it to seek the support of other stakeholders in securing an equitable implementation date for the BWM Convention. Liberia began proposing amendments to the convention at earlier sessions of MEPC, in the belief that the proposed implementation schedule was unworkable within the predicted time-frame and given the availability of BWMS. Following last years MEPC 70 meeting, where no clear decision was taken on the two sets of draft amendments, Liberia initiated discussions with other interested IMO member states and industry organisations to develop a single unified amendment taking into account parts of both drafts. Liberia is delighted that MEPC 71 approved the draft amendments, with a view to eventual adoption at MEPC 72. With just two months before the BWMC enters into force, the decision is timely and will ensure that the necessary pieces are in place for shipping and other stakeholders to effectively and smoothly implement the convention, with consequent positive implications for the protection of the marine environment, he concluded.




Markets - VLCCs await BOT nominations

VLCCs saw more activity and increasing rates ex MEG during the end last week.

However, disappointingly for owners, activity dwindled in the past few days, due to less demand in the spot market, Fearnleys reported. The market needs to see more action to avoid rate levels starting to ease off again. Owners are hoping that the soon to be released BOT stem nominations will support them, but on the other hand, the supply situation looks ample. For charterers, it was a game of patience in the Suezmax market. Throughout last week, there was sustained pressure from key owners driving a bullish sentiment, due to tightening lists reflecting some pressure on fundamentals, especially in West Africa with increased volumes of cargo steadily eroding tonnage. Finally, one by one owners realised that there was very little to support any rate upward movement and by the end of last week, stability had returned with last done levels being achieved at WS65 for TD 20, as the market found a balance. The Med and Black Sea saw limited enquiry and stability has also prevailed with TD6 going sideways at WS75. This week has started on a quieter note with first decade of August dates in West Africa being lighter than last month. The trend going forward is stable and time will tell if charterers can find a way to squeeze owners further. North Sea and Baltic kept moving sideways at bottom levels, as charterers fixed further forward than has been seen recently. The tonnage list is thinning out, but nevertheless, we expect rates to stay unchanged and the week to end on a quiet note. In the Med and Black Sea, owners finally saw some positive market signs. High cargo activity last week thinned out what seemed to be an endless tonnage list, and as a result, owners are now pushing for higher numbers. At the time of writing (Wednesday) WS80 was the going rate, but as we have fixed far forward, and there still are some prompt ships left on the list, we do not expect rates to go much further for the time being, Fearnleys concluded. Turning to Asian product tanker trades, Ocean Freight Exchange (OFE) said while this segment may not be as dire as the crude tanker sector, newbuilding deliveries are expected to continue to keep a lid on product tanker rates in Asia over the third quarter of this year. The pace of deliveries is expected to pick up in 2H17, bringing the net fleet growth this year to 3-4%. Around 30% of the expected LR2 newbuilding deliveries and 25% of expected LR1 deliveries this year have already entered service. On the demand side, higher June and July naphtha inflows from the West on the back of a wide East/West spread have led to a build-up in buyers inventories. As such, this is likely to displace some flows into Asia, resulting in less movements along the benchmark AG/Japan route and further pressuring LR rates in 3Q17, OFE said. According to Platts, around 1.2 - 1.3 mill tonnes of European naphtha is expected to arrive in Asia in July (flat month-on-month), almost 20% higher than the year-to-date monthly average of 1.02 mill tonnes. Moreover, while North Asian naphtha import volumes are relatively steady, naphtha imports into China have been dropping steadily, due to increased domestic output. Chinese naphtha imports during January - May were down by 22.2% year-on-year to 154,000 barrels per day, and are expected to continue easing over 3Q17. The strength in the Asian gasoil market has led to a persistently strong EFS, which has kept the East/West arb closed this year, resulting in less LRs moving along the key AG/Europe routes. This is expected to continue to weigh on the Asian LR market in the third quarter. Things look a little brighter for the Asian MR segment, which has recently rebounded from multi-year lows. Chinese product exports in 3Q17 are likely to be supported by the recent release of the third batch of fuel export quotas, the conclusion of the refinery maintenance season, as well as lower domestic demand for gasoil, due to a nationwide fishing ban. The third batch of fuel export quotas (under both processing trade and general trade terms) stand at 15.4 mill tonnes, which is 231% higher than the previous batch and 152% higher year-on-year. This leaves much room for exports to grow in the third quarter, which could help to keep a floor under MR rates, OFE concluded. TOP Ships announced this week that it had entered into two joint venture agreements, on a 50:50 basis, with trading house Gunvor Group for two 50,000 dwt product tankers Eco Holmby Hills and Eco Palm Springs, currently under construction at Hyundai with expected deliveries in the first and second quarters of 2018, respectively. The company had previously announced that it had acquired 49% of each vessel and prior to entering into the joint ventures, increased its shareholding to 50%. Top Ships also announced that upon their delivery from Hyundai, they will enter into timecharter employment with Clearlake Shipping, a subsidiary of Gunvor for three years firm, plus two additional optional years. The total potential gross revenue backlog from these contracts is estimated to be about $55 mill. Company CEO, Evangelos Pistiolis, commented: The joint ventures with Gunvor Group represent a major milestone for Top Ships and we expect that this partnership will create a lot of synergies that will be beneficial for both parties. Odfjell confirmed that the transaction to acquire five stainless steel newbuildings and its intention to form a pool of 15 x 25,000 dwt vessels has been completed. The first vessel will be delivered on 14th July, 2017 and the remaining four newbuildings will be delivered intermittently to May, 2018. Odfjell said that the five wholly-owned newbuildings and the formation of the pool are expected to have a positive contribution on its returns and will strengthen its position and competitiveness in the current state of the chemical tanker market. In the charter market, brokers reported that the 2003-built VLCC Voyager 1 had been fixed to Shell for three months at $19,000 per day with an option for a further six months at $20,000 per day. Trafigura was said to have fixed the 2007-built VLCC Gener8 Atlas for one to two months at $23,000 per day. In the MR segment, Cargill was believed to have taken the 2012-built Miss Benedetta for two to five months at $13,500 per day, while Navig8 Product Tankers was thought to have fixed the 2009-built sisters Navig8 Strength and Navig8 Success for 12 months at $11,500 per day each with options for a further 12 months at $13,500 per day. Turning to S&P deals, the 2003-built Aframax Amba Bhavanee was sold at auction for $5.6 mill. The vessel is out of class and has been idle at Aruba since 2013. Another Aframax, the 2003-built Gener8 Pericles was thought committed to Far East interests at $11.7 mill. The1998-built MR Maritime Yuan was said to have been sold to undisclosed interests for $4.5 mill, while the 2002-built MR Jenny was reportedly sold to Indian interests for $10 mill with her special survey passed. The 2002-built Handysize Acquaviva was sold for $9.5 mill to Nigerian interests identified as Matrix, while the 2004-built Handysize was thought sold to Indonesian interests for $10.8 mill. Leaving the fleet were the 1993-built VLCCs Aura and Bright said to have been sold for $330 per ldt each to unknown breakers on the basis of as is Khor Fakkan. The 1997-built Suezmax Blue Trader was thought sold to Bangladesh breakers for $378 per ldt on the basis of as is Singapore. Finally, in the newbuilding sector, Central Shipping ordered two, option two LR2s at Hanjin for $50 mill each. The high price was said to be down to their very high specifications. They are due to be delivered in 2019. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering is to build another four VLCCs for Maran Tankers Management, according to Yonhap News. DSME will deliver the 318,000 dwt vessels by 20th August, 2019, the shipbuilder said in a regulatory filing, the news agency said.




Sovcomflot calls for enhanced safety measures along the NSR

SCF Group (Sovcomflot) has called upon the Russian Government to continue its drive to improve navigational safety measures on the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and for a ban on substandard ships and crews sailing in the environmentally sensitive region.

The move follows the significant shipping traffic growth reported along the NSR and further projected growth. During a meeting, held on 10th July with the Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, SCF President and CEO, Sergey Frank, stressed the necessity of taking additional measures to ensure navigation safety along the NSR, given the significant growth of freight traffic in that area. In 2018, the two energy projects in the Gulf of Ob (Novy Port and Yamal LNG), both served by SCF vessels, are expected to generate around 11.5 mill tonnes of freight alone, almost doubling the Soviet-era NSR peak of 6.6 mill tonnes recorded in 1987. SCF shuttle tankers started year-round oil shipments from Novy Port as recently as September, 2016, and Yamal LNG is expected to come on stream later this year. Frank expressed the hope that the Russian Government will maintain the rate at which NSR infrastructure is being improved to ensure that the existing navigation safety measures remain adequate to the needs of the growing vessel traffic. These include consistently developing the navigational and hydrographic support system, boosting the readiness of rescue services and improving the reliability of navigational and communications aids. In turn, Medvedev assured Frank that the government will meet all its commitments pertaining to developing the NSR infrastructure. Frank also reported on the key results of the 2016/17 winter navigation season, as well as on the general results of SCF operations servicing energy projects in the Russian Arctic and the Russian Far East.



As at the end of 2Q17, over 200 mill tonnes of crude oil and more than 16 mill tonnes of liquefied natural gas were safely transported by SCF vessels for energy projects operating in the Arctic seas (Varandey, Prirazlomnoye, Novy Port) and in the Russian Far East (Sakhalin-1, Sakhalin-2), since the company began focusing on long-term project-based energy transportation and offshore servicing in 2006. During the first half of this year, SCF vessels shipped 17 mill tonnes of crude oil from the Russian Arctic and the Russian Far East to consumers, applying technical and operational solutions that seemed impossible only a few years ago. The environmental agenda, one of SCFs top priorities, was also discussed prominently during the meeting. Frank said that given the vulnerability of the Arctic ecosystem, sub-standard vessels and vessels manned by inexperienced and poorly qualified crews should be banned from Arctic operations.




Verifavia reaches 1,000 not out

Emissions verification company for the transport sector (aviation and shipping), Verifavia has announced that it has over 1,000 ships and Monitoring Plans (MPs) under assessment for compliance with the EU MRV regulation.

This is claimed to be a significant milestone for the company, which became the first globally accredited verifier to receive dual accreditation under ISO 14065 standard and Regulation 757/2015 three months ago. With accreditation from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and Frances national accreditation body, Cofrac, the company is able to assess or verify any ship, anywhere in the world, regardless of country of ownership, flag state, or class.



Verifavia Shipping CEO, Julien Dufour, said:We feel proud and honoured that so many shipping companies have entrusted Verifavia to ensure a smooth EU MRV verification process. Verifavia remains committed to working collaboratively with shipowners and operators to achieve EU MRV compliance in an efficient, timely, and cost-efficient manner.



Commenting on working with Verifavia, Samar Das, manager  fleet optimisation, technology & projects, Wallem Ship Management, said: Since commencing our EU MRV compliance process with Verifavia, we have been very satisfied by the teams professionalism, expertise, and knowledge of the regulation. Its reassuring to work with a verifier that appreciates the challenges we face as shipping companies, and we are grateful to the Verifavia team for always ensuring that our compliance process is easy and straightforward," he said.



As global fleet performance experts committed to providing our clients with the highest quality service, we see great synergies in the service provided by Verifavia. It has been a pleasure to work in close partnership with Verifavia to ensure that our EU MRV solution genuinely helps shipowners and operators to achieve compliance with the regulation accurately and efficiently, said Michael O'Brien, StormGeo Shipping vice president of product & business development.




By PTI: By Shirish B Pradhan

Kathmandu, Jul 14 (PTI) Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today hinted at the possibility of reviewing the provision of free visa and free ticket provided that the political parties agree on it.

Inaugurating the 25th General Assembly of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) here, he also expressed concern over the safety and wellbeing of Nepalese migrant workers, majority of whom are serving in Gulf countries in hazardous conditions.

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Deuba said he would take initiatives for forging an agreement to address the demand for reconsideration on the free visa, free ticket provision put forth by foreign employment agencies.

Expressing concern over increasing incidents of death of Nepalese workers on foreign soil, he said that all sides including manpower agencies must be sensitive for ensuring economic and physical security of Nepali migrant workers.

Contribution of foreign employment to nations economy in the form of remittance is significant, he pointed out.

Minister for Labour and Employment Farmullah Mansoor admitted that the government has failed to implement the provision of free visa, free ticket effectively.

National Human Rights Commission member Sudip Pathak expressed the view that foreign employment would be the main focus and agenda of the people in the next 10 years. PTI SBP ZH

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A U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs decision to pursue a new direction in processing health records has created a highly visible endorsement of the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) information technology by federal agencies. President Trump cited the VAs action as an example of the administrations commitment to vastly improve federal IT management.

The VA earlier this month awarded a contract to Cerner to develop an electronic health record (EHR) system for the department. The Cerner program will replace the existing VA patient data system, known as VistA, which was developed in-house and has been in use for at least 30 years.

The sheer size of Veterans Affairs, which serves 8.7 million veterans through 1,700 facilities, makes the decision to use an outside contractor noteworthy, as federal agencies strive to meet recently introduced initiatives promoting the outsourcing of information technology.

For vendors, the policy turn indicates more potential in the federal market. VA did not immediately disclose the value of the Cerner contract, but it could amount to several billion dollars. The U.S. Department of Defense in 2015 awarded a similar medical records contract to a consortium of companies including Leidos, Cerner and Accenture, which was valued at US$4.3 billion. DoD noted that the eventual cost of the program could reach $9 billion.

Time for a Change

The VistA system, which VA personnel designed in their off hours decades ago, has been heralded as a pioneering effort in EHR management. The program became a template for both government and private healthcare providers.

However, VA Secretary David Shulkin recently decided that it would be more appropriate for the agency to concentrate on healthcare and leave data processing to commercial specialists.

The departments system is in need of major modernization to keep pace with the improvements in health information technology and cybersecurity, Shulkin said.

Software development is not a core competency of VA, he added.

I said recently to Congress that I was committed to getting VA out of the software business, that I didnt see remaining in that business as benefiting veterans, Shulkin said, and because of that, were making a decision to move towards a commercial off-the-shelf product.

In addition to the need for modernization, the shift to the Cerner offering was triggered by the VA and DoDs shared goal to create a seamless health record that would follow service personnel from active duty through veteran status.

After spending hundreds of millions on the effort, the agencies abandoned the project, largely because of the inability to provide proper interoperability functions, according to Shulkin. DoD then engaged the consortium of Leidos, Cerner and Accenture to provide EHRs for the military.

The prudent course for VA would be a similar approach based on the same technology, Shulkin concluded. As a result, the Cerner contract was issued as a sole source, noncompetitive transaction that potentially will assure compatibility by way of Cerners Millenium offering as the core technology for both the DoD and VA.

Another benefit of the sole source award is that it will save time, given that the DoD competitive process took more than two years from the initial Request for Proposals to the final contract award, Shulkin noted.

The emphasis on commercial off-the-shelf solutions began late in the Obama administration.

Agencies need a more centralized and collaborative software management approach so that they can optimize utilization of commercial and COTS software licenses and maximize the use of best-in-class software purchasing and management solutions, Anne Rung, then U.S. chief acquisition officer, said last year.

The effort to upgrade federal IT has been reinforced by the Trump administration.

Our goal is to lead a sweeping transformation of the federal governments technology that will deliver dramatically better services for citizens [and] stronger protection from cyberattacks, the president said in a recent meeting with technology executives.

VA Secretary Shulkin recently announced that were upgrading technology to allow the seamless transfer of veterans medical records from the Defense Department, which has been a huge problem for decades and decades for our great veterans, Trump said.

Conversion Challenges

The VA could encounter significant hurdles in implementing the COTS system.

Many COTS solutions are built around private sector healthcare models and workflows with zero direct application to how the VA actually works, while VistA was developed specifically to meet VAs needs according to its best practices, noted Deanne Clark, senior health informatics consultant for DSS, in an online post.

Many private sector COTS vendors of EHR programs have failed to meet federal interoperability standards, she pointed out.

Additionally, the VistA system, as an open technology government-developed program, has been adopted widely for use in the private sector health system, Clark said, and it received a top ranking by 20,000 clinicians.

The VA will face challenges switching to an unproven system while simultaneously maintaining the existing VistA system during the conversion period, she said.

Despite those misgivings, Clarks company, which has been a supporting contractor to VA, hopes to remain steadfast in that role.

We want to see VA succeed at this effort, she told the E-Commerce Times.

While the VA will switch out of VistA, Clark still sees value in the private sector version of VistA that will remain a service provided by her company.

We support VA and our veterans, but we will continue to innovate, enhance, and modernize VistA for our present and future commercial clients, and hopefully throughout the duration of VAs transition to COTS, she said.

Multiple factors went into VAs choice to use the COTS approach, Clark acknowledged.

I know that Secretary Shulkin based the decision on a number of factors, and I am not aware of all of the information he had available to make that decision, she said.

Contracting Competitors Busy at VA

While potential competitors for the VA contract could be miffed that the department used a sole source procurement, several seem satisfied with their existing business with the department.

For example, VA early last year gave 21 companies spots on a multiyear IT support contract known as T4NG, with a potential value of $22 billion.

The department in 2015 awarded a $624 million IT contract for health scheduling services to a former Lockheed Martin unit that is now a part of Leidos, along with Epic Systems, a major health IT provider.

We remain focused on and committed to our mission of delivering a world-class electronic health records [system] to the men and women of our Armed Forces, said Leidos Senior Vice President Jerry Hogge.

Our MHS Genesis solution was designed with system interoperability in mind. The VA Secretarys decision to accelerate getting the DoD and VA on a common electronic health record system represents a profoundly important milestone for our nations veterans, their families and beneficiaries, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Epic declined to comment directly on competitive issues but noted its continuing work with VA.

The company is proud to serve our veterans both through the VA scheduling project and through our customers that care for millions of veterans across America, Epic said in a statement provided to the E-Commerce Times by spokesperson Meghan Roh.

In fact, there is a good possibility that Cerner might enlist other companies to support the COTS contract with VA.

We look forward to sharing more information as we build the team of innovative and experienced partners that will join us to complete this vital work, Cerner said in a statement provided to the E-Commerce Times by spokesperson Dan Smith.

In cooperation with the DoD, the VA project will improve interoperability, Cerner said, as well as the creation of a single longitudinal health record that can facilitate the efficient exchange of data for current and former service members.
The trillion-ton iceberg which makes up about 12 percent of Larsen C ice shelf finally broke off sometime between July 10 and 12, changing the Antarctic landscape for good.

Scientists have been observing the crack's movement closely for the past few months, and now that the calving is over, debates over the role of climate change on the Antarctic have begun.

Project Midas, a UK-based research team, explains that the broken off section of Larsen C covers an area of 2,300 square miles and holds twice the volume of Lake Erie, the 11th largest lake in the world with a volume of 116 cubic miles. The team has been monitoring the Larsen C crack for the past year.

"We have been anticipating this event for months, and have been surprised how long it took for the rift to break through the final few kilometres of ice ... The iceberg is one of the largest recorded and its future progress is difficult to predict," Project Midas lead investigator Professor Adrian Luckman said.

Don't Blame Climate Change

It is not just the iceberg's future that scientists are attempting to predict, because experts are also looking into why the massive break happened. Of course, calving is a natural process for icebergs, but scientists are divided over the cause of Larsen C calving due to the sheer volume of ice that broke off.

People are concerned that the rapid global warming due to human activities is one of the main reasons why the world's ice shelves are thinning and declining faster than expected. Scientists, however, believe it is too early and convenient to blame climate change for the Larsen C ice shelf break.

"We're concerned about what happens next, but I would not tie this single event to climate change," Colorado State University Glaciologist Dan McGrath said.

According to scientists, calving is really just a natural process for icebergs. There is also no cause for concern about the sea levels rising because of the massive Larsen C iceberg since it merely disconnected from the shelf.

Researchers also believe that melting icebergs are actually helping to slow down the effects of climate change since it improves the nutrients in water and promotes plankton blooms.

As for the state of Larsen C, Project Midas researchers say that it could either regrow the ice it lost or become vulnerable and eventually collapse, but there is no telling which way it would go at this time.

"Although this is a natural event, and we're not aware of any link to human-induced climate change, this puts the ice shelf in a very vulnerable position ... We're going to be watching very carefully for signs that the rest of the shelf is becoming unstable," Swansea University Glaciologist Dr. Martin O'Leary said. Dr. O'Leary is part of the Project Midas research team.

The team also added that, if Larsen C would eventually collapse, it will happen years or decades in the future.

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A Florida-based private company seeks to employ robotic spacecraft in its planned series of commercial missions to the moon.

The plan: regularly deliver payloads on the lunar surface and even on other places in space.

Maiden Mission Before 2017 Ends

Founded in 2010, Moon Express of Cape Canaveral is participating in the $20-million Google Lunar X prize, which will go to the first private initiative to get to the moon using a robotic lander by end of the year.

While they are on track to launch before deadline, chief executive Robert D. Richards envisions a bright future for the venture even without winning the prize.

I think its big, he said, adding that its design have a chance to redefine the possible for both NASA and commercial clients.

Moon Express is developing a fleet of affordable robotic vehicles that can be assembled like a Lego to cater to a wealth of missions, according to Richards. It has already raised at least $45 million from private investors to build the first lander and meet launch requirements.

The initial lander, the MX-1E, is planned to fly onboard a Rocket Lab Electron booster before the year ends.

Based on the design released by the firm, its previously doughnut-shaped look has become taller and thinner, resembling a soft drink can with landing legs. The intention is to fit it into the smaller rocket  deemed by Richards as Moon Expresss entry-level vehicle.

Future Moon Mining Missions

Moon Expresss three missions consist of:

1. Lunar Scout  Will hop around the lunar surface and deploy a tiny telescope and a laser range finder.

2. Lunar Outpost  Will scour the lunar South Pole where ice is found inside craters. Ice is a precious resource for human settlements in space in the future, serving as drinking water and holds clues to molecules from the early days of the solar system. It will also prospect water and minerals for mining in the future.

3. Harvest Moon  Will land on the moon, collect rocks and soil samples, and bring them back to Earth. It is poised to benefit science as well as commercial purposes.

Richards hopes that Moon Express would launch at least twice annually in the future, and cited that they would pay for the first mission while customers would fund the subsequent ones.

The Google Lunar X Prize focused on initiating commercial initiatives, with its deadline twice extended. Google is also offering bonus funds for other endeavors, such as traveling 3.1 miles, and touching down near an Apollo landing site or discovering proof of water.

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Google has now made the New Release Radio on Google Play Music available for all users. Basically, it's a special station on the app that delivers users a daily selection of new music they might like based on their listening history.

Google Releases New Release Radio Feature For All

The feature, however, isn't actually new  it's been out for close to a month now, but only for Samsung users. New Release Radio was positioned as an exclusive feature for Samsung smartphones, though it seems like original plans have changed.

Google now says that releasing the feature on the Galaxy S8 first was its way of gathering feedback before initializing wider rollout plans. Yet some Reddit users discovered that the app was indeed intended as a Samsung exclusive. Why Google withdrew exclusivity plans remains a question, but then again, everyone is getting New Release Radio, so there's really nothing to complain about.

Whether Google intended for the feature to remain exclusive to Samsung phones or release it to other phones later on is still uncertain. That question aside, it should come as awesome news that all Google Play Music users will now get New Release Radio, regardless if they're using Samsung phones or not.

New Release Radio: How It Works

Per Google's blog post, the feature actually uses machine learning to pick out new releases from the past two weeks based on a user's listening history and musical taste. Basically, the feature is a great, quick way to discover new music tailored to that specific user.

Google says the feature will be available throughout Google Play Music or by simply searching for "New Release Radio." The station is free for radio listeners and subscribers worldwide. Google will also deliver constant updates to the feature with latest releases.

Google Play Music is Google's proprietary on-demand music service, rivaling Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal. It boasts a catalog of over 40 million songs, though the service is still not available in some countries. An all-access subscription costs $9.99 a month, but standard accounts can listen to up to 50,000 songs from their personal libraries at no cost.

Those who haven't tried the service may sign up to avail Google's free 30-day trial, much like other streaming services that offer free trial periods. It's available for both iOS and Android but can also be accessed via a web app on the Google Play website.

Thoughts about Google Play Music or New Release Radio? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!

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Samsung has taken things to Twitter to promote its Exynos 8895, touting it as "a processor to create infinite possibilities."

But that's not the most interesting part of it, as many believe that the promotion may have revealed the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 (pictured) ahead of schedule, which is reportedly scheduled to launch on Aug. 23.

Galaxy Note 8 'Accidentally' Revealed?

Even at first glance, anyone can see it's not the Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8 Plus. The bezel at the top is noticeably thinner, and the edges of the display appear to go even further.

The biggest reason to believe this is the real deal so far is that it aligns with recently leaked Note 8 renders, but that doesn't really hold much weight to it since it's based on alleged leaks and rumors, after all.

Nowadays, "accidents" are no longer a thing in the mobile industry  at least, in Samsung's case. Exhibit A: the Galaxy J5 (2017) and Galaxy J7 (2017); exhibit B: the Galaxy S8 active.

In other words, the South Korean brand seems to be adding fuel to the fire that is the Galaxy Note 8 hype, as it's staying silent about the tweet, and it's not taking it down either.



This move is presumably in anticipation of heated smartphone competition from the likes of the Google Pixel XL 2 (possibly not the Pixel 2) and Apple's iPhone 8, which is said to finally sport an OLED panel, stepping into the same playing field as the Galaxy series in terms of display.

Galaxy Note 8? Probably Just A Generic Shell

For one thing, the so-called Galaxy Note 8 in the picture doesn't have buttons on the side, which makes it likely to just be a generic shell that Samsung used to promote the Exynos 8895.

The person to point this out is APKMirror and Android Police founder Artem Russakovskii, also known as @ArtemR on Twitter.

It's just a generic shell, likely very similar to the Note 8. Notice the lack of buttons on the side.  Artem Russakovskii (@ArtemR) July 13, 2017

It does seem suspicious that Samsung isn't deleting the tweet, perhaps to avoid confirming that the phone in the image is indeed the Galaxy Note 8. Couple that with the company's tendency to "accidentally" reveal stuff, they could be taken as signs that it really did let the cat out of the bag.

Still, at the end of the day, it seems highly unlikely to be an early look at the Galaxy Note 8, but it could still be a hint at how the phablet will turn out to be.

For the record, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus are powered by Exynos 8895 but pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 in the U.S. and Chinese markets.

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NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recently imaged a sunspot that appeared tiny but actually had a core larger than Earth.

The sunspot, classified as Active Region 12665, is the only sunspot cluster present on the sun right now. It seems to be growing over time, although it is difficult to tell how massive it could get or when it will disperse.

But what are sunspots and how do they form?

Sunspots Defined

A sunspot is a dark, cool area on the suns surface in a region known as the photosphere, Space.com reported. It looks dark in comparison with the brighter, hotter regions of the photosphere, which maintains a temperature of 5,800 degrees Kelvin, around it.

Sunspots can get quite humungous, or up to 50,000 kilometers (31,069 miles) in diameter.

How do they form anyway? Interestingly, they are produced by interactions with the magnetic field of the sun, which are yet to be fully understood. They take place in regions where there is intense magnetic action, where solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) erupt once such energy is released.

Since the early 20th century, sunspots are known to be bundles of vast magnetic field lines or the lines along which a magnets forces move. They can approximate the size of planets as well.

Sunspots are one of the most important pieces of the sun, said Shin Toriumi of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in a Popular Science report.

How They Form

Toriumis team probed sunspots further, feeding observations from two telescopes to NASAs Pleiades supercomputer to run numerical models simulating sunspot formation. The findings allowed them to observe interactions between the solar surface and its chromosphere, the gassy middle layer of its atmosphere, for the first time.

Based on the data, the suns magnetic field lines emerge at the surface as pores or small bundles. When two of those approach each other, they sandwich the plasma between them into a long system dubbed a light bridge. As that action continues, the bridges merge into a sunspot.

Magnetic fields also induce much larger solar flares or the biggest explosions in the solar system that can get so powerful they can destroy Earths tech and communications infrastructure.

Recently, images from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile exposed a turtle-shaped object on the surface of the sun, noting a sunspot in the making with a size double that of our planet.

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Honda Motor Co Ltd has recalled 1.2 million Accord vehicles over concerns on potentially fire-causing battery sensors.

The Japanese company announced Thursday, July 13, that the recall would cover Accord cars produced from 2013 to 2016.

Accord Recall Details

The recall was prompted by multiple reports of the vehicles battery sensors leading to fire in the engine. The sensors alert drivers to any problem with the battery, and Honda suspected that they may not be sealed properly against moisture.

This is why road salt as well as other substances could enter the sensor, causing it to short and create fire. Salt is used in certain states to clear roads during the winter.

There have been no reported injuries related to these incidents, the company noted in its statement.

Honda will begin to notify recall-affected Accord users by the end of the month. The 12-volt battery sensors will be replaced free of charge.

The auto maker also figured in the biggest car recall in the countrys history, where millions of its vehicles were pulled out of the market due to exploding Takata airbags. Even its luxury auto brand Acura was badly hit, CNN Money reported.

Early this week, Honda confirmed another exploding airbag-related death, bringing the number of fatalities to 12 in the United States and several more around the world.

Tough Times For The Sedan

On Friday, Honda is poised to unveil its newest-generation Accord, Reuters reported. It will be among the four re-engineered midsize sedans Asian carmakers are depending on to compete in a tough marketplace as Detroit manufacturers shift their attention to SUVs, crossovers, and pickup trucks.

The new Accord is anticipated to offer big changes in technology, fuel economy, style, and car safety. Honda, however, refused to discuss the model in greater detail ahead of the launch event to be held in Detroit.

The Accord, along with its rival Toyotas Camry sedan, serve as the backbone of their manufacturers business in the United States, selling more than 300,000 units each year. For years, it has been Hondas top-selling car in the country  a popularity eclipsed by its CR-V compact utility vehicle due to greater production capability.

Sales of passenger cars have dropped steadily since 2012, amid customers growing loyalty to SUVs and pickup trucks.

In June, Honda had to shut down its Japan-based Sayama plant after discovering that the WannaCry ransomware had affected its networks worldwide, including Japan, North America, China, Europe, and other regions. Rival companies Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co were also previously affected.

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By PTI: From Shirish B Pradhan and K J M Varma

Kathmandu/Beijing, Jul 13 (PTI) Nepal is likely to get internet connection through Chinese optical fiber from next month, ending Indias monopoly over the online services in the landlocked Himalayan country.

Nepal has relied on India for internet services for long as the country is optically connected with the southern neighbour through Bhairahawa, Birgunj and Biratnagar.

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However, the connection with China will end the monopoly of India in supply of internet bandwidth.

The long-awaited internet connection from China is expected to be completed by the end of July as the work of laying optical fiber on the Chinese side has resumed.

Nepal has already completed the task of laying optical fiber on its side for the connection.

The task of laying optical fiber was about to be completed in early June. But it could not take place after an avalanche disrupted the work on the Chinese side, an official said.

"Connection test was already conducted. Nepal would have already been connected with Chinese internet if the work was not halted in June," the official at the Nepal Telecom said.

Shobhan Adhikari, deputy spokesperson for the Nepal Telecom, said that the local government of China had suspended the work of laying optical fiber after a worker collapsed due to high attitude sickness. Now the work has already resumed.

"The work has resumed in full pace since the last week and if things go as per the plan, Nepal will be connected with the Chinese internet from the beginning of August," he added.

Adhikari said that after the disruption of work by avalanche at the altitude of 4,000 meters on the Chinese side, the optical fiber was laid through an alternative route.

"According to the Chinese company, the new route is almost 20 kilometers longer. The sudden change in the plan has delayed the project by almost a month," he added.

Once the work to lay optical fiber is completed on the Chinese side, Nepal will test the connection and subsequently work on purchasing Internet bandwidth from the northern neighbour, Adhikari said.

"With Chinese companies entering the Nepali market, users here will be able to enjoy internet at lower rates," he said.

Meanwhile, Chinas state-run Global Times today said the Chinese internet services will be available from August 1 in Nepal, "ending Indias bandwidth supply monopoly in the country."

This is set to be a great boon to the South Asian nation, which is still rebuilding its shattered economy and infrastructure after a devastating earthquake in 2015, the paper said.

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While the report sought to project Indian internet services in poor light saying that they are erratic, it was silent whether Chinese internet services will be provided without the internet firewalls which restricts the free flow of online information specially anything related to China as popular social media like Twitter, Facebook and Google.

The restrictive controls of the Chinese internet forced users especially foreigners residing in China to use the VPNs (virtual private networks) to circumvent the firewalls.

China is making a concerted push into Nepal to blunt Indias "monopoly" in the landlocked nation. It worked out a transit treaty with Nepal during the tenure of pro-China former Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli in last August and even agreed to build a rail link through Tibet.

But the process of Chinese push into Nepal slowed down under the tenure of Prachanda who recently abdicated power allowing Sher Bahadur Deuba to take over as Prime Minister.

While expanding its influence with massive investments, China is also enforcing strong curbs over the movement of Tibetans through Nepal specially to travel to Dharamsala to meet the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama. PTI SBP/KJV ZH AKJ ZH

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NASA has been preparing for a manned mission to planet Mars but the prospect of landing humans on the Red Planet faces financial hurdles. The space agency has just revealed it does not have money for a manned mission to Mars.

Manned Mission To Mars Too Expensive For NASA

In March, the U.S. Congress passed a bill that urges the U.S. space agency to send humans to planet Mars by 2033. The more optimistic President Donald Trump even moved the deadline to 2024.

NASA's chief of human spaceflight, William Gerstenmaier, however, revealed that budget constraints dampen the goal of sending crewed flights to Mars in the near future.

During an American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics meeting on Wednesday, July 12, Gerstenmaier announced that the U.S. space agency's current budget cannot afford the costs needed to send humans to planet Mars.

"I can't put a date on humans on Mars. At the budget levels we've described  it's roughly a 2 percent increase  we don't have the surface systems available for Mars," Gerstenmaier revealed during the meeting.

NASA may have successfully landed unmanned space probes on Mars in the past but sending humans to this alien world involves other challenges. Gerstenmaier said that a manned Mars mission would weigh about 20 times more than the rovers that were earlier sent to the Red Planet, and this 20-fold increase in capability means higher costs.

How Much Does It Cost To Send Humans To Mars?

Cost estimates for a manned mission to Mars vary depending on the sources.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory head Brent Sherwood said in 2012 that the project is estimated to cost up to $100 billion over a period of 30 or 40 years. Earlier this year, Pascal Lee, of Mars Institute, a non-governmental organization whose goal is to advance the scientific study and exploration of Mars, estimated that the mission could cost up to $1 trillion over a course of 25 years.

Mars One, which aims to establish a permanent settlement on planet Mars, puts the cost of sending four people there at $6 billion.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has been vocal about his vision of transporting humans to the Red Planet by as early as the 2020s, estimated the cost at $10 billion per person. Nonetheless, the billionaire said that his goal is to bring down the cost to about $200,000.

"You cannot create a self-sustaining civilization if the ticket price is $10 billion per person," Musk said.

For the 2017 fiscal year, NASA has been allocated a budget of $19.5 billion.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) Ramping up pressure on the RJD over the corruption case involving Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, the JD(U) today said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will never compromise on the issue of corruption.

"Nitish Kumars stand on corruption is well known. He will never compromise on it," JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi said.

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Asked what his party expected from the Lalu Prasad-led RJD over the charges against his son Tejashwi, he said the RJD leader should give a detailed explanation over these allegations, something his party made clear following a meeting of its leaders in Patna.

Tyagi also insisted that he never sought Congress chief Sonia Gandhis intervention to defuse the crisis in the grand alliance and only welcomed such an suggestion reportedly made by a Congress leader in Bihar.

Sonia and Congress deputy and her son Rahul Gandhi had spoken to Kumar following his partys announcement of its support to the oppositions vice presidential candidate.

The Congress, which is a partner in the grand alliance government in Bihar, insisted that the alliance was intact.

"The grand alliance in Bihar is intact. It is based on principles. The people of Bihar had rejected a coalition which wanted to break the Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb (syncretic culture) of Bihar," Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.

To a question about remarks of some alliance leaders that Sonia should intervene to resolve the crisis, he said functionaries of all the three parties should consult their leaders, including Nitish Kumar, before they speak on the issue. PTI KR ENM ZMN

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"Dialogue and negotiation in Venezuela, found at the Paris Forum for Peace, three friends: the governments of France, Argentina and the Republic of Colombia," said the president... | Read More
Around 80 people died so far due flooding and landslides in the Northeast, the Centre said on Thursday. The damage due to the flooding has been "unprecedented" and ISRO will be roped in to assess the extent of destruction, the Centre also said.

80 people have died so far in the Northeast due to floods and landslides.

By India Today Web Desk: Around 80 people have died so far in the Northeast due to floods and landslides that the Centre on Thursday termed "unprecedented".

Jitendra Singh, Union minister of state for development of north eastern region (DoNER), who on Thursday chaired a review meeting on the flooding in the Northeast, said that the devastation has hit 58 districts across Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.

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"The damage caused by the rainfall is unprecedented and a total of 58 districts have been affected due to floods/landslides in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur. Around 80 lives have been lost," Singh said.

Assam was the worst hit, with nearly 50 flood-related deaths so far in 26 districts. The state has also seen more than 17 lakh people getting affected as a result of the flooding.

Union minister Kiren Rijiju, who has been deputed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to monitor the flooding in the Northeast, on Thursday undertook an aerial survey of Assam, and later said that a high level inter-ministerial team would be deputed to the states within one month to assess the damage.

The Centre also plans to bring in experts from space technology and the Indian Space Research Organisation to assess the damage caused by floods and landslides in the Northeast.

Villagers use boat to cross flooded road in Assam's Morigaon (Reuters photo dated July 4, 2017) Click here to Enlarge Villagers use boat to cross flooded road in Assam's Morigaon (Reuters photo dated July 4, 2017)

VILLAGES UNDERWATER, CROPS DAMAGED, WILDLIFE PERILED Around 77 per cent of Assam's Kaziranga National Park, including 134 anti-poaching camps, has been inundated, leaving some animals dead and some moving to nearby highlands. According to the park's director, 58 animals, included three rare one-horned rhinos, have died as a result of the flooding. Authorities are also concerned that animals fleeing flooded areas might fall prey to poachers, but no cases of poaching have yet been reported. According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, the flooding has hit more than 17.43 lakh people across Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang, Nalbari, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, South Salmara, Goalpara, Morigaon, Nagaon, Karbi Anglong, Jorhat, Golaghat, Majuli, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, Charaideo, Cachar, Karimganj, Kamrup and Hailakandi districts. The ASDMA added that 2,450 villages are under water in Assam that that more than 86,000 hectares of crop areas have been inundated due the flooding. Across the state, 14,10,968 animals and poultry have been affected by the flood waters, the agency said. Currently, the Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger mark at five places - Guwahati, Nimatighat in Jorhat, Tezpur in Sonitpur, and Goalpara and Dhubri towns. Other rivers like Burhidehing at Khowang in Dibrugarh, Desang Naglamuragat in Sivasagar, Dhansiri at Numaligarh in Golaghat and Beki at Road Bridge in Barpeta are flowing above the danger mark as well. Arunachal Pradesh has taken a major hit to its road infrastructure with capital Itanagar getting virtually cut off. Many district headquarters in the state have also been cut off from the rest of the country, officials said. Major rivers in Arunachal Pradesh were flowing above danger levels on Thursday. Nagaland too was hit by flash floods on Thursday after torrential rains swept the state. No casualties were reported as of early Friday but officials said that crops and plantations have been destroyed, livestock has been swept away and many families have been rendered homeless. Landslides affected road transport in several parts of the state. The Dimapur-Kohima National Highway-29 has been badly damaged near Kiruphema village. In its weather bulletin on Thursday, the Indian Meterological Department predicted moderate rains and thundershowers over "many places" in Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura, and light to moderate rains and thundershowers over "few place" in Arunachal Pradesh , Assam and Meghalaya. Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week expressed pain and anguish on the situation in the Northeast saying the Centre has assured all possible help to normalise the situation. " I am anguished by the situation arising due to floods in various parts of the Northeast. I share the pain of all those affected by floods," Modi said.

Click here to Enlarge 77 per cent of Assam's Kaziranga National Park has been inundated due to the flooding in Northeast (PTI photo)

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Watch: MoS (Home) Kiren Rijiju conducts aerial survey of flood-hit regions

#WATCH MoS Home Kiren Rijiu conducted a survey of flood affected areas of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh pic.twitter.com/oR2zByWgTf- ANI (@ANI_news) July 13, 2017

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(With inputs from agencies)

ALSO READ | Devastating Assam floods put wildlife in peril, 58 animals killed in Kaziranga National Park

ALSO READ | Assam floods: Centre ready to extend all possible assistance, says CM Sarbananda Sonowal

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The scathing 275-page summary not only damned Sharif and his children for forgery and perjury, but also recommended that they be tried for corruption.

The investigation team tasked by Pakistan's Supreme Court in April to investigate allegations of corruption against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal finally submitted its report on July 10. The scathing 275-page summary not only damned Sharif and his children for forgery and perjury, but also recommended that they be tried for corruption by the National Accountability Bureau, Pakistan's anti-graft authority.

As parts of the 10-volume report became public knowledge, the stock market tanked by more than 4 per cent, the military declared it would stand by the courts and Pakistan's raucous media went into hyperdrive, predicting the end of the Sharif premiership if not the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government itself. Imran Khan, whose Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf campaigned for months against the Sharifs, declared a moral victory and demanded that the prime minister resign. By July 11, Khan's call had grown louder with the support of the Asif Zardari-led Pakistan People's Party, as well as smaller parties like the Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan and the Pak Sarzameen Party. Sharif stood alone, only supported by media groups like the Jang-Geo Network.

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Unexpectedly detailed, the report was drafted by five investigators, including representatives of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate and the Corps of Military Intelligence, with the support of foreign lawyers, forensic experts and international financial authorities. It declares that Sharif's expatriate sons, Hussain and Hassan Nawaz, were proxies involved in accumulating the family's riches and also that the accounting by the Sharifs of their declared wealth, means of income and actual assets was 'irregular'. While Sharif was accused of concealing Rs 45 million worth of assets, his first term as prime minister (1990-1993) was also linked to 'an exorbitant hike in buildup of assets'. The report also accused him of having 'unexplained inflows' to his personal bank accounts, and pretending he didn't know a maternal uncle who is also a subject of the probe. Sharif was also charged with owning another offshore company (other than those revealed in the Panama Papers scandal) - UAE-based Capital FZE.

Pakistan's social media was particularly galvanised by the findings against Maryam Nawaz, Pakistan's first daughter and Sharif's presumed political heir. Accused of being the real owner of two offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands, as well as the London flats that have been at the centre of the Panama Papers scandal for her family, Maryam was accused of submitting 'falsified documents' to investigators. Even the font used on the documents was proven to not have existed in 2006, the year in which she claimed trusteeship (and not ownership) of the properties. The report called these documents 'decoys to manipulate facts' and declared that Maryam, her brothers and husband, former army captain Muhammad Safdar, had 'signed these falsified and misleading documents'.

Pakistan's Supreme Court, which has backed military dictators (but also rejected and ejected them), will now have to deal with the investigators' findings, Sharif's lawyers (some of the best in the land) and an increasing list of plaintiffs, but most crucially, also the court of public opinion, which both pro- and anti-Sharif camps have petitioned for months. Markets, universities, TV channels, Twitter, the battle lines are drawn for Pakistan's biggest political upset in years.

Not to be overlooked in the fracas, Pakistan's powerful military has stayed unusually quiet. When asked the big question - 'Will the army step in if things get out of hand?' - an ironic retort came from a top military official: "Don't worry about us. The new martial law is the [civil] law. And the honourable judges are the new generals."

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US Republican lawmaker Ted Poe on Friday called Pakistan a Benedict Arnold ally who has betrayed US with its support for known terrorist groups. Poe is responsible for legislation that would require the US government to assess Pakistani support for known terrorists before Washington hands Islamabad military funding.

By India Today Web Desk: Pakistan is a "Benedict Arnold" ally that has 'betrayed' the United States with its support for known terrorist organisations, a US lawmaker from the state of Texas said on Friday.

Ted Poe, a Republican Congressman who recently moved an amendment to a US Congress piece of legislation, has previously called Pakistan US's "ugliest ally" and has said that it has "American blood on its hands".

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Poe's most recent comments targeting Pakistan were made after the US House of Representatives - the lower house of the country's Congress - passed bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act, which includes Poe's amendment on Pakistan.

If the bill becomes law, which would require the approval of both US Congress's upper house (the Senate) and President Donald Trump, it would require the Pentagon to asses Pakistan's support for "known terrorists" before US provides military funding to Islamabad.

"It is well known that Pakistan is a Benedict Arnold ally who supports multiple terrorist organizations, including groups that target Americans working to stabilize Afghanistan," Poe said, commenting the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Poe noted that the US already has placed certain restrictions on the funding that Islamabad receives from Washington. "But current limitations on military reimbursement funding to Pakistan only apply to one terrorist group: the Haqqani Network," Poe added.

The passage of the National Defense Authorization Act is a step that will "end Pakistan's betrayal of the US with the addition of an additional certification requirement," Poe further said.

Notably, the United States recognizes Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, both groups that India has long accused Pakistan of tacitly supporting, as terrorist organisations.

ANTI-PAKISTAN VOICES IN US

Voices questioning Pakistan's support for terrorism have been gaining more prominence in the United States, recently.

Poe himself recently authored an opinion for the Washington Times in which he called Pakistan the "ugliest of the bunch" of US allies.

"Pakistan has a long duplicitous relationship with the US", Poe wrote, accusing Islamabad of providing the al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden escape routes from Afganistsan even as the US launched an assault against the terror group in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Last week, US Senator John McCain, a noted Donald Trump critic, too called out Pakistan for its support to the Haqqani network - an Afganistan-based group that seems to have replaced al-Qaeda as the deadliest militant group in the region.

"We have made it very clear that we expect they (Pakistan) will cooperate with us, particularly against the Haqqani network," McCain said in Kabul on July 5. "If they don't change their behaviour, maybe we should change our behaviour towards Pakistan as a nation."

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Earlier, in June an American think tank blamed Pakistan for providing sanctuary for members of the Taliban and Haqqani network.

The US government too has not been shy of late to take Pakistan to the task for its support to terrorists. US intelligence services, in a recent collective assessment, blamed Pakistan's "support to anti-India militants" for the deterioration in ties between New Delhi and Islamabad.

And, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's June meeting with President Donald Trump in the US, the two "leaders called on Pakistan to ensure that its territory is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries", according to a joint statement released by New Delhi and Washington.

ALSO READ | US designates Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Syed Salahuddin as global terrorist

ALSO WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Donald Trump address joint conference, speak about terrorism

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At least four elected officials in suburban parishes around East Baton Rouge won't face challengers in the Oct. 14 election after no one else filed to run for their seats by the end of qualifying Friday.

Dozens more, though, submitted qualifying papers in various races, which includes a recently vacated judge's seat in the 18th Judicial District.

A special election was called in Division A of the 18th JDC to fill the unexpired term of the division's former judge James Best, who announced his retirement in March after sitting on the bench for 24 years. Best's term ends December 2020.

The 18th JDC includes West Baton Rouge, Iberville and Pointe Coupee parishes. Division A primarily falls in the Pointe Coupee area.

Judge James Best announces retirement, ending 24 years as judge for 18th District Judge James Best has announced he's retiring after having served 24 years as a judge for the

Three Democrats are hoping to replace Best. Among them are Kevin Kimball, a 53-year-old Iberville Parish native who has spent the last 10 years serving as a public defender for the 18th JDC. He boasts nearly 30 years of experience in law.

Kimball is joined in the race by Steve Marionneaux, who has maintained a general law practice within the 18th JDC for the past 36 years, having served as an assistant district attorney and city attorney for the municipalities of Fordoche, Livonia and Maringouin. Marionneaux is 64 years old.

Rounding out the pool of candidates is Lonny Guidroz, a 52-year-old lawyer and native of Pointe Coupee Parish. Guidroz has more than 20 years experience practicing law and served as a law clerk for Best while in law school. Currently he serves as a prosecutor for the 18 JDC on a part-time basis.

In Ascension Parish, the race for House of Representatives District 58, which covers portions of Ascension, Iberville and St. James parishes, has attracted the interest of four Democrats.

The seat was formerly held by Ed Price, of Gonzales, who won a May special election runoff to fill the state Senate seat vacated by former Sen. Troy Brown. Brown resigned in February following accusations of violence against women.

Congressman Richmond endorses Ed Price in Senate District 2 race Weighing in on a race for a state senate seat, U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond on Monday endorsed 

At the close of business Friday, Miguel D. Aubert, Ken Brass, Adrienne Ricard Conish and Alsie Dunbar all qualified for the race. Aubert and Brass both live in Vacherie, while Conish and Dunbar reside in Gonzales.

Livingston Parish saw three of the six races that will appear on its October ballot filled Friday in unopposed races.

Joe Shumate, a Republican, went unchallenged in Denham Spring's city marshal race. The same was the case for Democrat Kathleen Abels in the justice of peace election for Ward 10.

And David "Bo" Graham will retain his District 7 seat on the parish's School Board after no one filed to run against him.

Graham was unanimously appointed to the seat by the School Board back in January after the district's former representative, Jimmy Watson, was elected mayor in Walker.

Livingston Parish School Board appoints new member LIVINGSTON  David Bo Graham will serve as the interim representative for District 7 on th

Graham will finish out Watson's unexpired term, set to end Dec. 31, 2018.

In the parish's two remaining races, Damon J. Baldone, Craig C. Greene and Lenar Whitney all qualified for Livingston's public service commissioner race in District 2. All three are running as Republicans.

Among the six names for the vacated seat on City Council in Denham Springs are Republicans Amber Dugas, Scott Kimble, Brian Edward Ross, Laura Schmitt Smith and Keith Stark with Raphineas "Ray" Riley as the lone Democrat in the race.

The City Council spot opened up in March after former councilman Chris Davis announced his abrupt retirement. Davis resigned, with a year and nine months left in his term, after his family was forced to relocate to the Mississippi Gulf Coast following the historic floods in August that swamped much of Denham Springs.

In his resignation letter, he said his family's Oakwood Lane home could not be rebuilt and he had difficulty finding a new house within city limits.

In Tangiphoa Parish, five people have qualified for clerk of court and justice of the peace Ward 2 races and a new member was elected to the School Board in an unopposed race.

The parish's clerk of court race has drawn interest from Democrat Gary Stanga and Republican Arden Wells.

Kentwood residents Vickie Yarborough Blades, Juandalynn Brumfield and Margie Simmons all qualified for the justice of the peace race in ward 2. Blades entered as the Republican candidate and Brumfield and Simmons are both Democrats.

Republican Tom Tolar easily snatched up his victory in the District B seat on the parish's School Board. Tolar was unopposed.
Noida Police on Thursday brought in 13 people for questioning in connection with this week's violence at the Mahagun Moderne society over a dispute between a family and a domestic help.

Heavy police force has been deployed at the Mahagun Moderne society in Noida that was attacked by a mob

By Mail Today Bureau: Police on Thursday detained more than a dozen people a day after a riot-like situation in Noida's upmarket Mahagun Moderne housing society over a dispute between a family and a domestic help.

Sources said 13 suspects were taken into custody for questioning while about 50 more are on the cops' radar.

The family and friends of the maid went on a rampage at the apartment complex in sector-78 after she was reportedly found unconscious within the premises.

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Zohra Bibi lodged a complaint saying her employers had abused her, beaten her, locked her up and were withholding her salary. Heavy police force was deployed at the society following the incident.

However, the employers have rejected the woman's charges and accused her of theft. The residents were worried on Thursday as no domestic helps showed up for work.

"There is a little inconvenience caused by their absence," said a local, who did not wish to be named. "Though I would personally prefer it if they don't come instead of coming and becoming a threat to everyone," the local said.

Residents said the maid was neither beaten nor abducted. She was caught stealing Rs 17,000 from the family.

"Almost 200 people were inside the society, all with the intention of creating a ruckus," said Arpit Arora, a resident of Mahagun Moderne. "Kids couldn't go to school and many people couldn't leave for their workplace as the gates were blocked."

According to locals, members of the affected family were hidden in a washroom by guards. The family that lives in a ground-floor flat is disturbed and terrified, especially because it has a young child.

Residents say though the guards did an excellent job of keeping them safe, the situation would not have escalated so much if they had proper weapons. "It was a security failure. If there are around 2,700 families in a society, the guards should be provided with weapons," said Arpit.

While rumours are abuzz on the maid being a "Bangladeshi", cops have refused to say anything on the matter.

"The police came into our houses at night while we were sleeping and took into custody all the men, irrespective of their age. We don't even work in the society and we are not guilty of cresting any ruckus anywhere," said the wife of a man who was detained.

"We came in the morning but they were not allowing us to go in. Now it is afternoon and we are still waiting for our turn to come to show his ID," said the wife of another such person.

Most of the maids working in the area, including Zohra, live in Noida's Barola village. Mail Today tried to speak to some people there but they remained tight-lipped.

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ALSO READ | Violent mob, conflicting versions and FIRs: All you need to know about Noida society stone-pelting case

ALSO READ | Posh Noida neighbourhood turns into war zone after maid found in employer's car

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East Baton Rouge began the complex process Friday of distributing its share of more than a quarter-billion dollars the state of Louisiana stands to receive to improve infrastructure following the August flood, with the city-parish government launching a study of the region's drainage.

Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome's office formally asked engineering firms to submit their qualifications for the study and recommend which projects would best reduce future flooding after heavy rains.

Since the flood, there has been no shortage of ideas. Politicians, planners and engineers have all demanded the issue be addressed. However, leaders in different areas have pushed for different solutions.

There's feverish support for the Comite River Diversion Canal in Central, though it would do less for residents in south Livingston, where repairing the Amite River weir is a priority. Depending on who you ask, experts or politicians advocate for dredging Jones Creek in the southeastern part of East Baton Rouge Parish, or Bayou Manchac in Prairieville, or the Baker Canal in Baker, or the University Lakes near LSU. The proposed Darlington Reservoir could protect homes in Watson, but would accomplish less to help St. James, which is trying to complete the Westshore Levee Project. State and federal sources have also wondered if some money could be spent to reduce rain-induced flash-flooding or install a new river gauge to keep tabs on the Amite River.

"We're not dead set on any (project.) ... I want to see what the science tells us is the best approach," said Rowdy Gaudet, East Baton Rouge assistant chief administrative officer.

Louisiana will soon qualify for hundreds of millions of dollars to improve its floodwater management. After a disaster, states can access funds relative to the amount spent on recovery. Currently, Louisiana is slated to receive $257 million, though the number could vary until the first anniversary of the flood, said Mike Steele, spokesman for the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

Engineering firms may submit their qualifications to East Baton Rouge officials through Aug. 4, and the top three applicants will present their plans Aug. 30. Firms must demonstrate how they would design a stormwater management plan that considers both East Baton Rouge and the region at large, including Ascension, Iberville, Livingston and St. James parishes, according to a news release.

Central's mayor signs $4 million contract to clean ditches, improve drainage The city of Central has signed off on a $4 million contract to improve drainage by cleaning 

"There's a lot of new data out there. ... We need to know what our streams are capable of handling, and at this point we don't know that," said Fred Raiford, the East Baton Rouge transportation and drainage director. "I like to have basic data ... to show 'this will improve the upstream without causing downstream problems.'"

Raiford ticked off major waterways within East Baton Rouge that could be looked at, including Bayou Fountain, Wards Creek and Beaver Creek. While engineers will have to consider regional solutions, they'll also have to think about the local waterways, he said. In recent months, some have called for parish canals to be expanded or at least stripped of concrete liners that keep flood water from seeping into the ground.

Livingston Emergency Management Chief Mark Harrell is optimistic given that the parishes in the region have banded together to approach drainage. He's already proposed a cost-sharing agreement with Ascension and Livingston to dredge the lower Amite River and repair the weir  a worn dam-like structure located near the diversion canal between St. Amant and French Settlement.

"There's tons of projects that could possibly be done ... that would benefit both parishes," he said.
U.S. Senate Republican leaders on Thursday unveiled their latest proposal for repealing and replacing the federal Affordable Care Act, but the latest draft is already facing pushback.

Neither of Louisiana's Republican U.S. senators has taken a formal position on the latest health care bill, but both U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, of Baton Rouge, and U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, of Madisonville, released statements indicating they saw improvements over the version that failed to gain traction last month but wanted to see more.

The updated version addresses an issue that would have created a disadvantage for Louisiana because of the timing of the state's Medicaid expansion, though critics of the plan say it would still mean deep cuts to the health care program for the poor and threaten the expansion that has provided coverage for more than 425,000 Louisiana residents in the past year.

This unfair treatment would have cost Louisiana $2 billion in health care funding," Kennedy said of the initial penalty that he says has been addressed. "This was a legitimate issue that needed to be fixed, and Im pleased to say it has been. Now we can focus on creating a health care system that actually works.

Said Cassidy, The problem with Obamacare is that it picks winners and losers. As we repeal and replace Obamacare we need to do so with something that is fair to all Americans. This draft resolves a Louisiana specific issue and I look forward to working to ensure it meets all of President Trumps goals."

But just minutes before U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, released the new version, Cassidy appeared with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, on CNN to tout an amendment to McConnell's Better Care Reconciliation Act.

Their proposal attempts to direct more authority to the states to determine how to move ahead with components of the health care overhaul.

Obamacare took power from statesthis returns that power, Cassidy said in the interview. It allows the people of the states to craft something that works for them.

It's unclear how much traction their proposal will get. Their interview pushing the amendment ahead of McConnell's announcement was viewed as a surprise.

Meanwhile, at least two Republicans have already hinted toward their opposition to the Senate leadership's latest plan for overhauling Barack Obama's signature health care law  Sen. Rand Paul, of Kentucky, and Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine  leaving Republicans without a vote to spare to move the bill forward.

McConnell has said that he would like the vote to move ahead with taking up the bill to come early next week and hoped that there would be a "robust debate and robust amendment process" to address concerns as the legislation is vetted.

"I hope every senator will vote to open debate," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "That's how you change the status quo."

The Louisiana Department of Health was reviewing the latest proposal on Thursday. The Congressional Budget Office estimated a similar proposal that past the House earlier this year and the previous version of the Senate leadership bill would kick more than 20 million people off insurance in the next decade.

Andy Slavitt, former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under Barack Obama, said that the legislation is still being combed over but told reporters in a conference call that states should be cautious. "It's basically the same as their last disastrous bill, but in critical ways it's worse," he said.

Slavitt said that the legislation's cuts to Medicaid would gut expansion programs, like Louisiana implemented last year.

He also dismissed claims that a vote next week would be to move the ball forward on a more comprehensive debate.

"This is the essential vote. Any senator who cares about the health and financial security of their constituents must vote 'No,'" he said, citing Cassidy among a list of lawmakers who have voiced concerns with previous proposals. "Those senators also need to vote against the motion to proceed."

The bill attempts to address concerns over expansion by directing more money into Disproportionate Share Hospital payments, but health care experts say that could provide cover for states to eliminate expansion. It also calls for a per capita cap on state Medicaid payments, which would ultimately mean cuts to providers or patient benefits and coverage.

"The meat of this bill is exactly the same as it was before, and in some ways they managed to make it worse," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York. "This bill, like the old one, means millions of Americans will lose coverage."

U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, who is the only Democratic member of Louisiana's Congressional delegation, also offered harsh words for the latest GOP leadership proposal.

Different draft, same effect: devastating cuts to Medicaid; millions will lose healthcare; and millions more will see an increase in costs and fewer benefits, Richmond said in a statement. The Senate Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act was bad before and it is still bad today.
By PTI: probe

(Eds: Updating with details)

Lucknow, July 14 (PTI) In a major security breach, a dangerous plastic explosive was found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today informed the House, which unanimously recommended an NIA probe into it.

As soon as the House met this morning, the chief minister, who earlier chaired an emergency security meeting, informed that white powder was found wrapped in a paper close to the seat of the Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Choudhry.

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The explosive was found by the cleaning staff on July 12. After the powder was sent for FSL examination, it was found to be a dangerous plastic explosive PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate), he said. The dog squad failed to detect the explosive.

"Initially it was thought that it was some powder or chemical but after FSL (Forensic Science Lab) report it was found to be PETN, which is high quality Hexogene and plastic explosive," he said.

The quantity of the explosive was 150 grams. According to experts 500 gm of this explosive is enough to blow up the House, the chief minister said.

He said the explosive was found under the bench, third from where the Leader of Opposition sits.

"The security of the House is our concern. This is part of a dangerous terrorist conspiracy and should be exposed. The state government wants to get an NIA probe done in the matter and police verification of employees and officials working in Vidhan Bhawan," he said and urged the Speaker to take a decision.

Stressing that there should be no compromise on security, the chief minister said joint efforts were needed to ensure this.

It is a "dangerous tendency that the security of the assembly has been breached when the House is in session," he said.

"So far the government was worried about security outside the assembly, and now this has become a more serious matter," he said and appealed to Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit to ensure police verification of the assembly staff because security of over 500 MLAs and MLCs was at stake.

Adityanath noted that it was not just a matter to be condemned by the House, but the need was to give a befitting reply.

The Speaker then said, "We all agree for the NIA probe to be done in the recovery of explosives to expose the conspiracy behind this."

The chief minister also said, "As no one is allowed inside the House except legislators and marshals, the matter becomes serious. The matter is related with sentiments of 22 crore people of the state. As we have no objections in checking at airports, we (legislators) should also support this here. I also ask them not to bring mobile phones and keep their bags outside the House and a system should be evolved for this."

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The CM also mentioned lack of coordination between security agencies and said there was no mechanism to counter terrorist attack, if any, in the House.

"There should be Quick Response Team (QRT) at every gate and there should be a uniform security system. We have decided to pass a resolution to condemn such an act. Some persons are up to doing mischievous acts and NIA should expose them", he said.

The House passed a resolution recommending an NIA probe into it.

Noting that the UP Assembly was the biggest in the country, Adityanath said the entire country keeps an eye on proceedings here with a hope to "see something new and good".

No compromise will be made on the security of the assembly which has 503 members (including Legislative Council). A joint effort is needed for this. This is a dangerous tendency that security of assembly is breached when House is in session," he said.

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After the CMs statement, the Speaker announced several measures to ensure security of the House besides agreeing to recommend an NIA probe.

"We have met earlier (before the House assembled) and decided on several security measures to be introduced in the House. On all the gates QRT of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) will be deployed and whole body scanners will be installed. All the entry pases issued to MLAs and their representatives will be cancelled and only one vehicle pass will be issued to MLAs," the Speaker said.

The driver of legislators will be verified and those having no pass will not be allowed entry inside assembly premises, he said. Passes issued to former MLAs and others will also be cancelled and police verification of assembly staff will be done, he said.

The Speaker also allowed an Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) team inside the House stating that "we are a family and no one will be allowed to raise a finger at it".

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Parliamentary Affairs minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said all measures, as directed by the Speaker, will be taken to ensure Vidhan Bhawans security.

The Leader of Opposition said they accepted the measures stating that no one should be allowed to breach security of the House.

BSP member Uma Shankar Singh said it was a matter of concern that despite having jammers, mobile phones used to ring inside the House. PTI ABN SMI DV

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The Canberra Greyhound Racing Club has warned Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury to put up or shut up, after Mr Rattenbury told a radio station he'd seen reports of cruelty within the ACT industry.

The club says it has reported Mr Rattenbury to ACT Policing for failing to pass on information he claimed to have about allegations of cruelty within the ACT greyhound racing industry on 2CC on Thursday afternoon.

Leader of the ACT Greens, Shane Rattenbury. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Radio announcer Chris Coleman pressed Mr Rattenbury about why he was "more gung-ho" on greyhound owners than outlaw motorcycle gangs.

"Shutting down greyhound racing when there hasn't been in at least 25 years a proven case of cruelty by any greyhound trainer or owner or breeder in the ACT, so you're going after them, some people perceive that as a soft target while the harder target of the bikie gangs aren't getting sorted out," Mr Coleman said.
Single-use plastic bags will be a thing of the past at the checkouts of Woolworths and Coles in the next 12 months.

In a shock announcement on Friday afternoon, Woolworths revealed it would shortly begin phasing out the bags in supermarkets, Big W and BWS stores, with a total ban in place by June 30 next year.

The move was welcomed by environmental groups, which have long campaigned for a national plastic bag ban, and prompted calls for Woolworths' chief competitor to follow suit.

Less than two hours later, Coles announced it, too, would be phasing out single-use plastic bags over the next 12 months.
In a city bursting with building activity, one Melbourne building site has sat silent for years, wrapped in scaffolding and screens with an idle crane perched on top.

The land on the corner of Queen and Bourke streets was meant to make way for a glittering, 71-storey skyscraper called Tower Melbourne.

But a bitter, protracted legal stoush between two deep-pocketed Singaporean property owners has stalled the project for years leaving hundreds of apartment owners in limbo.

Singapore-listed construction giant Chip Eng Seng, the developer behind Tower Melbourne, pocketed an estimated $50 million in deposits after it controversially sold most units in the project through its local arm, CEL Australia, before gaining planning approval in 2012 for the soaring, serrated tower.
It's crunch time for David Jones.

On Friday, Woolworths Holdings, the South African owners of David Jones, released a trading update showing the first full-year slump in like-for-like sales since it purchased the department store chain in 2014.

Although overall sales for David Jones increased by 1 per cent over the 52 weeks to June 25, like-for-like sales, considered a truer measure of performance as they exclude new stores, dipped 0.7 per cent.

The company blamed a fall in consumer confidence and difficult trading conditions, especially in the second half, for the tepid result.
David Jones' crucial like-for-like sales have fallen for the year, with its parent company blaming the decline on weak consumer confidence in Australia.

Woolworths Holdings, the South African retailer that has owned the Australian department store chain for three years, said David Jones' comparable sales fell 0.7 per cent in the year to June 25.

It is the first time full-year sales have dropped under the new owner.

"Whilst relevant market share has grown, sales growth slowed in the second half [at DJs], as falling consumer confidence resulted in lower footfall," the company said in a trading update on Friday.
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said the retailers had also agreed to move from quarterly to monthly bills. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The eminent economist Ross Garnaut calls it Australia's "trifecta" in an "unhappy winner's circle"  the world's most expensive household electricity, high anxiety over reliability, and the developed country with the greatest greenhouse emissions per capita from electricity. The essential reason for this extraordinary national failure is political. Governments, state and federal, have failed to manage their electricity systems. To bring forth the potential energy embodied in the fuel in front of him, the shivering man at his cold fireplace needs matches, and the matches are good policy. The path from Australia's energy potential to its energy prosperity is good policy. And we've not had any for a decade. At the federal level, the country has failed to manage change. A rational, bipartisan response to change was under way as the Coalition government under John Howard and the Labor opposition under Kevin Rudd converged on the concept of an emissions trading scheme. When Howard lost power, the Rudd government pursued the idea with the support of the then Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull. But the temptation to break the consensus for political gain was too great for Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce, a pair of insurgents seeking personal fortune with a little political entrepreneurship.

By shattering the bipartisan approach, they exploited the moment brilliantly for their personal political ambitions. They created a populist fiction that only the status quo could deliver cheap power and reliable supply. It's unworkable to face an epochal change by defending the status quo. In his 2005 overview of the earth's energy history for Royal Dutch Shell, Frank Niele wrote that the planet was coming to the end of the sixth energy regime in its 4.5 billion years, a regime he called the Carbocultural, beginning in about 1600 with coal mining. He concluded in Energy: Engine of Revolution that the seventh energy age was upon us. In the face of such a fundamental shift, Abbott and his National Party accomplice realised the strong appeal of the energy status quo. They became its champions. They unleashed a powerful new force, a force that took Abbott and, eventually, Joyce to the leadership of their parties. It's a force that roils Australian politics to this day. It made certainty and stability in the electricity sector utterly impossible. Turnbull, inheritor of the mess, and his Environment and Energy Minister, Josh Frydenberg, have sought to recover some order and rationality by appointing Australia's chief scientist, Alan Finkel, to head a policy review. But in taking the Finkel review to his party, Turnbull has only revived the political frenzy that has bedevilled the electricity system. Interestingly enough, Abbott and Joyce are now on different sides of the disruption. Abbott, driven back to the backbench by Turnbull, has staked his comeback ambition on electricity once again. His political rationale is that he is the champion of low-cost electricity, that this is the Coalition's core advantage, and that he will champion it above all else.

As an insurgent, he is using it as his opportunity to sow mayhem in Turnbull's government and destroy his leader in the process. But Joyce now has a different incentive. No longer an insurgent, he is now the leader of the National Party and the Deputy Prime Minister. Together with Turnbull, he now bears responsibility for fixing the system, and that means change. So while Abbott and a coterie of like-minded Liberal Party conservatives run a rearguard defence of the coal industry  renewable energy will kill people, Craig Kelly said this week, by driving electricity prices to unaffordable levels for the shivering masses  Joyce opened a solar energy plant. The Deputy Prime Minister took a shovel and turned a sod at the $400 million-plus White Rock solar and wind energy complex in his electorate. Joyce knows what Kelly doesn't want to know  that lowest-cost new source of electricity capacity is solar and wind. Joyce has said that he and his party are open to the possibility of the sort of policy changes that Finkel has proposed. Finkel doesn't despair at the state of the electricity system. As the chief scientist told the National Press Club recently: "The system, it's not broken. It is, however, at a critical turning point." Globally, said Finkel "policymakers and market bodies understand that the key driver of that change  which is technology  it just cannot be reversed".

He said that, in studying other countries' progress, "the thing that made the biggest impact on me was the long-term policy certainty in other countries which enables them to officially plan for the energy transition. It is clear that in that regard, they are ahead of us". The Turnbull government has accepted 49 of Finkel's 50 recommendations. The 50th and final is his panel's recommendation that the federal government introduce a low emissions target, also known as a clean energy target. Abbott and his like-minded Liberals have fixed upon the CET as their enemy. They will do their best to prevent it being passed. If this brings down Turnbull's prime ministership, then it will have served two great aims. Finkel hasn't prescribed any fixed level for what that target should be, but its purpose is clear  it's to allow long-term certainty. Investors in the energy industry need that certainty if they are to build new electricity capacity. Companies are crying out for certainty and, specifically, for the full and fast adoption of all of the Finkel 50. The head of the electricity network owner AusNet Services, Nino Ficca, this week didn't pretend that Finkel was perfect, but he said: "An imperfect policy that is workable and stable is better than no policy at all, and that is where we are today."

Ficca said that Finkel was "a once-in-a-generational" opportunity to "get energy policy back on track". The opportunity this week to do that was Friday's meeting of the energy ministers, state and federal, under the Council of Australian Governments. So did they? The Labor states demanded that the federal minister, Frydenberg, immediately commit to the clean energy target. Frydenberg does not have the support of his government, living in fear of the Abbott-led insurgency, so he temporised. The CET is to guide policy post-2020, he says, so no need to rush. Frydenberg countered by turning the pressure onto the states, demanding that they commit to reviewing their bans on extracting underground gas. The states are afraid of their own voters, and refused. So federal political deadlock is compounded by federal-state deadlock. It's not all bad news, however. The federal and state governments have all committed to Finkel's recommendations on energy security. Among them, new solar and wind projects must install battery storage to keep power flowing even when the sun doesn't shine nor the wind blow. Coal-fired power plants will need to give three years notice of shutdown, and so on. Loading Ross Garnaut, who wrote the climate change review for the Rudd and Gillard governments, says that Finkel is worthwhile even if it's just for these commitments to improve stability. Garnaut, once an energetic reform evangelist, has become philosophical about Australia's sad electricity failure and says that it may take several more electoral cycles before the political system can return to any sort of bipartisan convergence. In the meantime, without a clean energy target, investors still have no certainty and Australia's energy debacle rolls on. Anyone got a match?
Labor also plays on popular job and wage insecurity, and how wage growth has slowed, threatening business and consumer confidence and dampening business investment. Even as a politically pragmatic government has sought to neutralise popular perceptions of cutbacks in spending on health and education, it has continued to pander to business and ideological calls for further deregulation of the labour market, tight wage restraint and cuts in public service numbers. There may be constituencies who see such conditions as creating national economic flexibility to take advantage of international market opportunities; there are others who are sullen, resentful and deeply insecure, not entirely able to be distracted by fears of an invasion of refugees, or of terrorists. Is this then the right environment for a political contest focused on any sort of battle of fundamental ideas, or in support of a reduced role for government in Australian lives? Is the Turnbull personality and style the one to win such debates? Shorten is accused of being many things, not least in the ideas and ideals department, but he is not easily painted either as an ideologue, a conviction politician, or an old-fashioned socialist. Or does going for the sensible centre simply mean being competent, if rather timid and uninspired? Fearful of changing much, lest one frighten the horses, waken enemies, or alienate existing supporters? This is government on the model of politics in the Australian states and territories, in which the primary argument is about competence rather than guiding philosophy, and about capacity to respond to events, local and international, rather than driving the society, the polity or the nation in any particular direction? It is boring government, very susceptible to complacency and corruption, ill-suited to the needs of a nation in a rapidly changing world in the 21st century. And where is this sensible centre anyway? Is it to be taken to be somewhere in the middle of the oval, more or less half way between the "centre right" and the "centre-left " team, wherever they might be at any particular time? The assumption, for those who speak of such centre ground is that such a space, rather like a Bell curve, embraces the majority of an electorate inclined to weigh arguments on either side before adopting the one making the better propositions. It is conventional wisdom that Australians hate frequent elections, and resent politicians who drag them too early and too often to the polls. In most other countries, voters might not care so much, since they can, if they want, simply not bother to vote.

It is true, of course, that most who listened to, or read, Turnbull's Disraeli Prize speech were looking for nuance in the supposed struggle with Tony Abbott for the moral leadership of the party. Abbott didn't bite, nor did many of those who argue that the membership is essentially conservative and dry rather than socially liberal and wet. [Turnbull was, of course, addressing a British conservative party which has legislated for same sex marriage, supposedly the litmus test for moral conservatism in Australia.] As Turnbull tells it, the natural inclination of the Liberal Party is towards freedom and the individual. "The Liberal Party stands for freedom or it stands for nothing. We  believe government's role is to enable citizens to do their best - and that commitment to freedom is based in a deep, instinctive respect for the dignity and the worth of every individual "Our opponents on the Left in their DNA believe to the contrary, that is, government knows best  our side of politics leans heavily in favour of freedom and the individual - preferring choice over prescription and freedom over regulation, always sceptical about the wisdom and the interference of governments." That's a fairly conventional explanation of the fundamental differences said to exist between Liberal and Labor, even if, as Turnbull candidly conceded, the anti-collectivist instincts of non-Labor parties have to be seen within the context of their times. By modern standards, for example, the founder of the Liberal Party, Robert Menzies, was a big government man with no abiding faith in unregulated capitalism, and was, by today's standards, to the left of modern Labor on the value of interfering in markets. Menzies had wanted to stand apart from the big money, business establishment politics of traditional "conservative" parties so styled of the right, as well as from the socialist tradition of the Australian Labor Party - the political wing of the union movement.

Turnbull quoted Menzies as saying: "We took the name 'Liberal' because we were determined to be a progressive party, willing to make experiments, in no sense reactionary but believing in the individual, his right and his enterprise, and rejecting the socialist panacea." "The sensible centre, to use my predecessor Tony Abbott's phrase, was the place to be and it remains the place to be now," Turnbull said. Words such as left and right, conservatism or libertarian can be handy shorthand for parcels of ideas but there are definite practical limitations to their usefulness. Most voters are not closely engaged in political struggle. Study after study of the electorate over recent decades seems to suggest that popular expectations of what government can or should do for its citizens has not changed much - certainly not as much as changing styles and philosophies of government service delivery, or fiscal and social priorities. Bob Hawke and Paul Keating embraced open markets, free trade and deregulation of the economy in the 1980s and 1990s. They received (for a time) the applause of the electorate for doing so, but there is little evidence that they actually converted their constituencies to economic liberalism. Rather they persuaded voters they were better equipped to govern than a coalition then bitterly divided and demoralised. Labor and the electorate may have abandoned, as out of date, some old notions of bank nationalisation and command economies. But the evidence generally runs against the theory that voters came to love privatisation of old government business entities, or to delight in the opportunities, insecurities, uncertainties and supposed excitement of being subject to international economic headwinds.
The news that Melbourne is on the way to overtaking Sydney as Australia's largest city has been greeted, on this side of the border, with an enormous, collective sigh of indifference. On Sydney radio, I tried vainly to interest listeners in the story.

The general view seemed to be: "Well, good on them." Frankly, if the people of Melbourne want to provide a home for, say, 10 per cent of the cars on our roads, then they should go right ahead.

Yes, 2000 people are moving to Melbourne each week. And yes, this means Melbourne will become the nation's most populous city by 2050. Again the reaction: "Anyone need a hand moving house?"

This blase attitude would not always have been the case. For much of our European history, the Sydney-Melbourne rivalry was a dominating conflict.
By PTI: probe

Eds: Incorporating FIR registration, home dept briefing

Lucknow, Jul 14 (PTI) In a major security breach, a powerful plastic explosive was found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today informed the House, which unanimously recommended an NIA probe into it.

Uttar Pradesh Police swung into action and registered an FIR against unknown persons after recovery of the explosive.

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The FIR was lodged under various sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 121A (conspiring to wage war).

As soon as the House met this morning, Adityanath, who earlier chaired an emergency security meeting, informed that white powder was found wrapped in a paper close to the seat of the Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Choudhary.

The explosive was found by the cleaning staff on July 12.

The quantity of the explosive was 150 grams. According to experts, 500 gm of this explosive is enough to blow up the House, the chief minister said.

After the powder was sent for FSL examination, it was found to be a dangerous plastic explosive PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate), he said.

The dog squad failed to detect the explosive kept under the cushion of a seat.

"Initially it was thought that it was some powder or chemical but after FSL (Forensic Science Lab) report it was found to be PETN, which is high quality Hexogene and plastic explosive," he said.

PETN is one of the most dangerous plastic explosives available in the black market and preferred by militants as the colourless crystals easily surpass security checks.

Adityanath said the explosive was found under the bench, third from where the Leader of Opposition sits.

Additional Director General (Law and Order) Anand Kumar later explained to mediapersons that for explosion three things - explosive, detonator and power pack (source of power) - are needed. "Here only explosive has been found," he said, adding that 150 grams of PETN was not sufficient to cause any explosion. He said probe is on in the matter and CCTV footage will be studied. In a related incident, one person has been arrested in Deoria, 325 km from state capital Lucknow, for allegedly threatening to blow up the Assembly on August 15. Farhan Ahmed was arrested yesterday and his mobile phone seized, Additional Superintendent of Police Chiranjeevi Sinha said.

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Ahmed, 20, was being interrogated by local police and intelligence officials from Delhi, Sinha added.

Ahmed had allegedly told the ADG (Law and Order) on his mobile phone that he would blow the UP legislature building on Independence Day.

However, the ADG said, it would be too early to link Ahmed with the recovery of the explosive from the Assembly.

In the home department press briefing, IG (ATS) Aseem Arun said the probe has been taken over by the ATS.

He said fool proof security arrangements will be made.

To a question as to from whose seat the explosive was found, Arun said, "The seat is identified and if needed we will inquire from the member and those sitting around him. We are getting support from all."

In his suo motu statement, the chief minister said, "The security of the House is our concern. This is part of a dangerous terrorist conspiracy and should be exposed. The state government wants to get an NIA probe done in the matter and police verification of employees and officials working in Vidhan Bhawan."

Stressing that there should be no compromise on security, he said joint efforts were needed to ensure this.

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"It is a dangerous tendency that the security of the assembly has been breached when the House is in session," he said.

"So far the government was worried about security outside the assembly, and now this has become a more serious matter," he said and appealed to Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit to ensure police verification of the assembly staff because security of over 500 MLAs and MLCs was at stake.

Adityanath noted that it was not just a matter to be condemned by the House, but the need was to give a befitting reply.

The Speaker then said, "We all agree for the NIA probe to be done in the recovery of explosives to expose the conspiracy behind this."

The chief minister also said, "As no one is allowed inside the House except legislators and marshals, the matter becomes serious. The matter is related with sentiments of 22 crore people of the state. As we have no objections in checking at airports, we (legislators) should also support this here. I also ask them not to bring mobile phones and keep their bags outside the House and a system should be evolved for this."

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He also mentioned lack of coordination between security agencies and said there was no mechanism to counter terrorist attack, if any, in the House.

"There should be Quick Response Team (QRT) at every gate and there should be a uniform security system. We have decided to pass a resolution to condemn such an act. Some persons are up to doing mischievous acts and NIA should expose them", he said.

The House passed a resolution recommending an NIA probe into it.

Noting that the UP Assembly was the biggest in the country, Adityanath said the entire country keeps an eye on proceedings here with a hope to "see something new and good".

"No compromise will be made on the security of the assembly which has 503 members (including Legislative Council). A joint effort is needed for this. This is a dangerous tendency that security of assembly is breached when House is in session," he said.

After the chief ministers statement, the Speaker announced several measures to ensure security of the House besides agreeing to recommend an NIA probe. "We have met earlier (before the House assembled) and decided on several security measures to be introduced in the House. On all the gates QRT of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) will be deployed and whole body scanners will be installed. All the entry pases issued to MLAs and their representatives will be cancelled and only one vehicle pass will be issued to MLAs," the Speaker said.

The driver of legislators will be verified and those having no pass will not be allowed entry inside assembly premises, he said. Passes issued to former MLAs and others will also be cancelled and police verification of assembly staff will be done, he said. The Speaker also allowed an Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) team inside the House stating that "we are a family and no one will be allowed to raise a finger at it".

Parliamentary Affairs minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said all measures, as directed by the Speaker, will be taken to ensure Vidhan Bhawans security.

The Leader of Opposition said they accepted the measures stating that no one should be allowed to breach security of the House.

BSP member Uma Shankar Singh said it was a matter of concern that despite having jammers, mobile phones used to ring inside the House.

SP members expressed shock over the recovery of the explosive material.

"It is astonishing. How is it possible? Explosives reaching inside the House is a serious matter," said SP legislator Shailendra Yadav.

Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chowhdury (SP) said the matter was serious and the security of the House should be taken care of.

While some members like Nitin Agarwal (SP) got to know about the development through media reports, others were seen updating their fellow legislators about it. PTI ABN SMI ZMN

--- ENDS ---
Who knows for sure why anything goes viral on the internet. There's a bright future for the person who can figure that out. Surely, though, the reason ABC political editor Chris Uhlmann's assessment of Donald Trump's performance at the G20 meeting took off was that it showed Americans from the perspective of an informed outsider just how far and fast the reputation of not just the US Presidency but of the US itself is falling under Trump. By hastening the decline of America, Trump himself is the biggest threat to the values of the West he claims to hold dear, Uhlmann said. At the G20 he isolated and diminished his nation; he confused and alienated his allies. To Americans, struggling to parse their situation amid the chaos, it might have been like walking past a shop window and being shocked that the lonely, decrepit figure looking back at you is you. Donald Trump jnr admits with the benefit of hindsight he might have done things differently. Credit:AP The analysis gained prescience from the week's revelations that the President's son Donald Trump jnr, his son-in-law and White House advisor Jared Kushner and his election campaign chair Paul Manafort met with a Russian lawyer with close Kremlin ties during the election campaign, expecting to get a delivery of dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government. What did the President know, and when did he know it? This was the cut-through question asked by Republican senator Howard Black at the 1972 Senate Committee investigation into the Watergate break-in, a crime that ultimately brought down president Richard Nixon. Fast forward 45 years and it's the pivotal question again, in relation that meeting.

Other questions arise, such as how long can the Trump presidency last? How much more damage will it inflict on the institutions of American democracy? By how much will it hasten America's decline as a global power? It must be hard for Russia's President Vladimir Putin to contain his glee or at least astonishment at how easily the now-evident Russian campaign to interfere in the election has messed with America's politics, undermined its institutions and exploited a gullible president. China, too, will be paying utmost attention to the developments in Washington for their strategic implications for its global rise. The Trump camp's actions and its dishonesty are delivering a massive blow to trust in the US Presidency at home and abroad. What does it mean, if Americans can no longer trust their president to tell the truth, or even to put America first? What does it mean if American foreign policy is being driven by favours owed to Putin? A cavalry of distinguished American lawmen has lined up to say that Donald Trump jnr's agreement to and attendance of the June 2016 meeting was probably illegal and maybe even treason. An ethical campaign would have immediately referred the approach for a meeting, made explicit in the email as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr Trump", to the FBI. The President's lame response so far has been to declare his son a good man and dismiss digging dirt on rivals as standard practice in election campaigns. It's almost as if he doesn't comprehend or care about the seriousness of such an alleged breach of national security. Yet he must, because why else would he have fired James Comey, the FBI chief who resisted pressure from Trump that he drop the investigation into Russian interference in the campaign? Comey left no doubt as to his opinion in testimony to a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing a month ago: "I was fired because of the Russian investigation," he said. "That is a very big deal." It's also a big deal that Donald Trump jnr earlier labelled allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government "disgusting" and "phoney", claiming "I can't think of bigger lies". His father the US President told the Russians that James Comey was "crazy, a real nut job". He's also insisted there was no collusion with the Russians, adding, "I can only speak for myself."
The effects of catastrophic climate change warrant a scare campaign of their own. The final pencil strokes on Kelly's vignette of doom come in the form of a cancer warning. Kelly says people will be forced to burn wood in their homes because they can't afford to turn on their heaters, which will lead to increased air pollution. Result: LUNG CANCER. POSSIBLY SINGED FINGERS AS WELL. Kelly's logic is spectacular in its circularity  note he is actually admitting that burning carbon is toxic to humans, but no way is he letting that sway him into thinking we might want to come up with a few alternatives to burning it globally, on a massive scale.

You really have to hand it to the Member for Hughes  he has cornered what is a very full fear-mongering market. He knows conditions are perfect for his high-stakes play  when you have Alan Jones thundering that Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg's career is "finished" because he hasn't yet tattooed to his forehead his commitment to coal-fired power into the unending future; and Tony Abbott using his considerable spare time to remind everyone how spectacularly he came to power on the promise of lower electricity bills  well, you know you are riding the zeitgeist. Kelly's death predictions operate in a fact vacuum  next he will be warning us of the risk of viral epidemics because the shivering masses will be forced to huddle together for warmth. But it's not his absence of proof, or even his lack of compunction to show vague causality, which is galling. It's the fact that he has stolen the thunder of those who urge climate change action on the basis of the extinction of the species if we leave things as they are.

Death, high cancer rates, drownings  that territory is supposed to be the environmentalists' (speedily defrosting) tundra. Climate scientists, not by nature a rowdy crew, have, for decades now, been politely ahemming at the back of the room to get our attention, so they can warn us about all the various ways our children are going to get cooked if we don't act collectively soon. A New York Magazine cover story published this week entitled The Uninhabitable Earth, laid out some of the terrifying scenarios that could eventuate "absent aggressive action", broken down into cheerful subheadings like "Poisoned Oceans", "Climate Plagues" and "Permanent Economic Collapse". It was criticised as being overblown by some climate scientists and focusing on the worst, worst-case scenarios, but not before it lodged firmly in the amygdalas of hundreds of thousands of readers. It lays out what the author says are the possibilities of unmitigated climate change  including the annihilation of Bangladesh and Miami, tens of millions of climate refugees, deadly heat waves, cities like Kolkata and Karachi becoming uninhabitable for humans, and greater social conflict leading to war, not just because of the food shortages and shrinking land resources, but because everyone is so irritable from the heat. A number of climate scientists have since objected to the piece, saying it is too dire  as Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania said, "the evidence that climate change is a serious problem that we must contend with now, is overwhelming on its own". But the piece also mentions a phenomenon called "scientific reticence", which describes the habit climate scientists have of being so cautious and self-censoring they fail to communicate how dire the threat is.
Abdel-Magied's savaging has been so grotesque in its meanness, ugly in its intolerance and alarming in its violence, that it's obvious something else is going on, too  something has been legitimised and unleashed. And it seems to be hostility to Islam, as well as women. Just two years ago, Abdel-Magied was made Queensland's Young Australian of the Year for her work in founding Youth Without Borders, an organisation that helps young people work for positive change in their communities. In Yassmin's own words, "I do not hold an elected office, I do not officially represent any racial or cultural group, and I have never been part of a political party, union or even political student organisation ... if a few words that I put together are enough to terrify institutions into attacking me  then one has to ask, what are they so afraid of?" What, indeed? Racism, sexism and Islamophobia make a potent brew. Almost 90,000 words, by one estimate, have been written about Abdel-Magied in three months. She gets daily death threats, has had to change her phone number and move house. Then, when she said she was moving to London, trolls sent songs: "You are a c---." Others taunted her "funny hat" and asked why it took so long, adding "good bloody riddance"; now "London will be an Islamic shithole", "don't f---ing come back", "hope you never return".

And foolish  Abdel-Magied's most vehement critics are those who say they oppose extreme Islam. Most experts will tell you their best shot of doing this is through empowering progressive Muslims. But when one sticks their head above the parapet, they are shot down. So how many will want to enter the fray now? After all, Abdel-Magied is also attacked by conservative Muslims for who she is, how she looks and how she thinks. Remember when we ostensibly invaded Afghanistan so Muslim women could be more free? We seem more comfortable with Muslim women being victims than being actors  even worse, assertive actors using their freedom to freely disagree. This week, a multi-university report found Muslim women were the victims of two-thirds of all Islamaphobic attacks in Australia. Globally, when antipathy to and anxiety about Islam flares, it is the women who get burnt. Last month a bag of vomit was thrown at Muslim women driving in Lancashire. A pregnant Muslim woman was kicked in the stomach in a UK supermarket and lost her baby. A Scottish Muslim woman visiting New York had her shirt set on fire when she was standing in the street. In Sydney in May, four women wearing the hijab were assaulted by a 39-year-old woman who said in court: "Only thing I did was ... hit a Muslim. I don't see any problem with that." On Wednesday, Abdel-Magied tweeted: "Striving to always respond from a place of forgiveness and grace, inshallah."
Malcolm Turnbull heads the 1999 Australian Republican Movement campaign, whose failure has been tipped as a wake-up call to those who plan to push for same-sex marriage. Credit:AP "The level of support amongst Australians for the Queen is enormous," says Australian Monarchist League spokesperson Rachel Bailes. "Her Majesty is a meaningful anchor of stability and endurance for the Australian people." This is a far cry from public perceptions of the Queen 20 years ago, as an out-of-touch monarch presiding over a dysfunctional family. The 1990s seemed to have bring one disaster after another for the Queen, from Charles and Di's messy divorce, to Fergie's cringe-worthy toe sucking incident and Diana's tragic death. In a recent article in the Australian Journal of Political Science, Luke Mansillo notes there have been "considerable improvements" in the monarchy's public profile with Prince William and Kate Middleton's 2011 wedding and the arrival of their children George and Charlotte in 2013 and 2015. Along with these positive happenings, the young royals have remained scandal-free (apart from the odd Nazi costume). They also appear more modern than previous generations, speaking out on issues such as mental health and doing relevant jobs, such as serving in Afghanistan or working as an air ambulance helicopter pilot. Says Sydney University's Mansillo, young Australians who don't have constitutional angst over the 1975 Dismissal or memories of the Charles and Di mayhem have "no reason to dislike the monarchy".

The gossip magazines (and mainstream news sites) continue to whir with breathless minor updates of Kate, William and Harry's exploits. This has recently included the news that the Duchess of Cambridge attended Wimbledon, had a haircut and wore a tiara that Diana used to like. "[The royals] are the ultimate celebrities in a way, they don't disappear," Mansillo adds. And yet, despite the good press  and the squeamishness around republic chatter while the Queen is alive  polling indicates that goodwill towards the Queen is not overwhelming. The Australian National University's Australian Election Study tracks attitudes towards the Queen since the 1960s. In 2016, 43 per cent of respondents rated the Queen as "important", up from a low of 30 per cent in 1998  a year after Diana's death  but still below a high of 54 per cent at the end of the 1970s. Social researcher at Essential Media, Rebecca Huntley, cautions that there is no significant research to indicate whether being fond of the royal family means people are less likely to be republican. Dr Huntley adds it is possible to be interested in the monarchy  and say, the latest updates about Prince George's cheeks  and still back a republic. "We could look at the young royals and think we really admire them. But does the system represent us?"

But the do-nothing Elizabethan argument is helped by the fact that there is little buzz around a republic. According to the ANU poll, only a slim majority of Australians support a republic. As of 2016, 53 per cent favoured the change, down from 66 per cent in 1998 ahead of the referendum. The Australian Republic Movement, however, reports it has been revitalised in recent years. While he will not specify numbers, national director Michael Cooney says membership has grown "five fold" in the past two years. The ARM is pushing for a plebiscite in 2020 to determine the model for a republic, followed by a referendum in 2022 and is devoting its energies to generating grassroots support. "We're moving from being a lobby association to being a campaign," says Cooney. Cooney, a former adviser to prime minister Julia Gillard, dismisses the idea that the republic can't be contemplated while Queen Elizabeth is alive. "The Queen herself is undoubtedly more popular than the institution of the monarchy. [But] we don't get to choose who the next one is. And we basically get a Queen Elizabeth every 400 years." Australian National University emeritus professor and former ARM chair, John Warhust, cautions the Elizabethan argument puts the republic on a "hiding to nothing", given the popularity of the William and Co. coming up behind their grandmother.
Only a Green could tweet his resignation from Parliament like this.

"hey everyone. i'm sorry about this, but it's a thing. i'll really miss it, but there are other ways to make trouble. love and thanks."

And with that, Scott Ludlam, Greens senator, announced what "the thing" was. He'd been taking the Queen's shilling - $199,000 last year - for nine years. And had never been entitled to a cent of it.
The latest crazy craze trending in the US right now is dimpleplasty. And apparently it's big among Millennials.

Miranda Kerr has the perfect set and, for a price (from around $2000) so could you.

Miranda Kerr is the dimple queen. Credit:AP

Some very serious and important research reveals the list of celebrities with dimples is quite impressive and includes Matthew McConaughey , Sam Claflin, Bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt, Joseph Gordon-Levitt  and that's just the men. Cameron Diaz, The Duchess of Cambridge, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Ariana Grande, Kirsten Dunst and Carey Mulligan are also part of the club.

Thing is though, only around 20 per cent of the population have been blessed with dimples.
When the 29-year-old athlete and author met a local pregnant villager, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to capture a special bonding moment as expectant mothers to share with her Instagram followers.

The couple, who've been travelling in Africa since June, have both taken to Instagram to share the first images of Pitt's growing baby bump.

Just a few weeks after announcing they were expecting their first child, Turia Pitt and her fiance Michael Hoskin have shared a touching moment with Namibian villagers during a safari getaway.

"Whenever I meet new people, the first thing I do is find something in common with them. This remote Himba tribe was easy once I lifted up my shirt."

In earlier posts the couple revealed that their African safari was their first long trip in years, and they had been taking the time to switch off and immerse themselves in the culture.

"As you can probably tell by our sick hats, Michael and I are about to head off on an epic safari through Namibia! We're taking this time to just switch off and enjoy the company of each other, and I suppose, a lion or two as well," she wrote on Instagram.

Pitt revealed to 60 Minutes in early June that she found out about her pregnancy just three days before she was to embark on a climb to the Everest Base Camp in Nepal, a trek she has since decided to cancel due to risk factors. The trek was part of her work as an Interplast ambassador, an organisation which provides life-changing plastic surgery and medical training across the Asia-Pacific.
On day four of his defamation action against the Australian Jewish News, the rabbi began to pace.

It was complicated to explain why he said he did not know it was a crime to touch a child's genitals and what he meant when he said rabbis should deal with allegations of child abuse internally.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman claims the Australian Jewish News misrepresented his opinions on child abuse.

Yosef Yitzchak Feldman's frustration had apparently overwhelmed his ability to sit still.

Justice Lucy McCallum addressed his barrister. "Mr Cohen, I'm finding your client's pacing around and going to the side of the courtroom very distracting," she said.
Another head has rolled at Queensland Rail, following revelations the train timetable could have faced further "stress".

Transport Minster Jackie Trad said QR this week advised her it required an exemption from a national regulation that would have prevented Citytrain crew working more than 12 shifts in a 14-day period.

Queensland Rail has asked for an exemption to train crew rules. Credit:Glenn Hunt

The regulation came into effect on July 1.

"This can occur on a voluntary basis and is in line with current EBA provisions and existing rigorous fatigue management provisions that were in place before July 1," Ms Trad said in a statement.
"If you start to weaken encryption, whether that be for lawful interception or any other reason, you start to put at risk the very premise of why we have encryption in the first place, which is to keep messages private", says security researcher Troy Hunt. Apple and many other companies and individuals oppose government decryption of any data. Credit:Glenn Hunt "Yes, you might give our government access, you may also give unfriendly governments access, you may also give criminals access". Take a service like Telegram, for example, which is used by a huge number of people but has been frequently referenced as an app used by terrorists and other criminals to plan attacks and crimes. It uses end-to-end encryption, meaning that if law enforcement intercepts the message between the two parties, it cannot be read. Even if the government takes the garbled message to Telegram and asks it to translate, it won't be able to. Security researcher Troy Hunt says leaks by former contractor Edward Snowden, pictured, revealed overreach by the NSA that had done law enforcement and tech companies 'a lot of harm'. Credit:Getty Images

Asking Telegram to change its systems so it could decrypt on request "is not really feasible", Hunt says. "Not if you still want end-to-end encryption". So what is the government proposing? The information given at the press conference was very general, but the recurring theme was that the government wanted the same laws that apply to the collection of physical information to apply to the collection of data, and that means the ability to decrypt. If you start to weaken encryption, whether that be for lawful interception or any other reason, you start to put at risk the very premise of why we have encryption in the first place.

"It has always been accepted that in appropriate cases, under warrant, there can be lawful surveillance of private communications," Attorney-General George Brandis says. The use of the word "surveillance" seems to indicate a desire to intercept communications in a way that would require a back door, but Hunt says that's not necessarily the case. "[End-to-end encryption systems] have been designed in such a fashion  that there's absolute privacy between the two parties, at those two ends," he says. "The most feasible way of being able to get law enforcement the data they need is not to break encryption but rather to move the discussion to one of those ends." This means that law enforcement would need to get direct access (through physical aquisition or digital monitoring) to a device being used by the target of their investigation, rather than plucking the communication from the internet as it travelled between users.

If the device itself was encrypted, as many are, authorities would presumably require the device's manufacturer to have a way to decrypt it. And there are other ways to get at information without creating back doors too, supposing tech companies are co-operative. "If there is data which is residing on servers that the likes of Apple or Microsoft or whoever has access to, then that's quite a different discussion to back-dooring encryption," Hunt says. The Silicon Valley problem Mr Turnbull noted the "very libertarian culture" of many US tech companies, which had informed technologies designed specifically to keep governments from snooping on encrypted messages.

"The reality is, however, that these encrypted messaging applications and voice applications are being used, obviously by all of us, but they're also being used by people who seek to do us harm. They're being used by terrorists, they're being used by drug traffickers, they're being used by paedophile rings." At the recent G20 summit in Hamburg, Mr Turnbull addressed world leaders by saying: "There should be no ungoverned space on the internet. We need more assistance to ensure that higher and higher levels of encryption are not being used to conceal terrorists and criminals." But it's not clear that many in Silicon Valley are keen (or even able) to provide such assistance, and it's hard to blame them, some argue, given prior events in their home country. "We have these NSA precedents from the Snowden leaks where we saw illegal behaviour, we saw massive overreach and we saw things happening which really should not have been happening in the first place," Hunt says. "The US government has done law enforcement a lot of harm and also done US tech companies a lot of harm as well."

Laurie Patton, executive director of not-for-profit advocacy group Internet Australia, says the government's assurances about back doors don't inspire confidence. "Based on our experience with the flawed data retention scheme, we are very concerned," he says, pointing out that encryption systems protect everything from modern banking systems to local and global business. "The risk is that in a well-intentioned effort to deal with a serious issue we inadvertently create an even bigger problem." Finding a balance "The reason this is causing such debate is that there are no easy answers," Hunt says.
Ram Nath Kovind's ascent to the highest public office will be the first for a leader reared in the RSS.

Kovind's victory is considered a certainty because the electoral college is loaded in favour of the ruling BJP.

By Reuters: Indian lawmakers are set to elect the country's next president, drawn from the main Hindu nationalist group, in a vote on Monday, tightening the control of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing associates on positions of power.

Ram Nath Kovind's ascent to the highest public office will be the first for a leader reared in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) or National Volunteers' Association, the ideological mentor of Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its affiliates.

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Under India's constitution, the prime minister and his cabinet colleagues wield executive power and the president remains above the fray.

But the president has a key role during political crises, such as when a parliament election is inconclusive, by deciding which political party is in the best position to form a government.

Some presidents, such as the current incumbent, Pranab Mukherjee, have tried to act as conscience-keepers, using their constitutional authority as the head of state to defend India's founding principles as a secular and diverse democracy.

BJP, OPPOSITION ON KOVIND

Kovind, 72, a low-caste Dalit politician who served as the government's lawyer in the Supreme Court as well as a state governor, said he would uphold the dignity of the president's office.

"Ever since I took over as governor, I have no political affiliation. The president of India is above politics," he said, while filing his nomination last month.

The BJP itself has been playing up Kovind's credentials as a candidate from the lowest Dalit caste in the Hindu social hierarchy which has been oppressed for centuries but is now being wooed by political parties for its votes.

But the opposition said Kovind's roots in the RSS, which has long espoused a Hindu India, remain a concern at a time when the Modi government is pursuing a partisan agenda and Hindu hardliners have whipped up an atmosphere of fear among the country's minorities.

Meira Kumar, the opposition candidate put up by the centrist Congress and communist parties, said her candidacy aimed to fight the ideology Kovind represents .

"This is an election to the country's highest office," she said. "I respect Kovindji. My fight is not against him but the ideology he represents."

Kovind's victory is considered a certainty because the electoral college, consisting of members of both houses of the federal parliament and state assemblies across the country, is loaded in favour of the ruling BJP.

Voting concludes on Monday and votes will be counted on Thursday.

STRENGTHENING GRIP OF HINDU?

Kovind's election will cap a series of top appointments Modi has made, strengthening the grip of the Hindu right on public offices, such as state chief ministers and governors, but also academic institutions and thinktanks.

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In March, Modi picked Hindu hardliner Yogi Adityanath, who has been accused of inciting violence against India's Muslim minority, to lead the country's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh after his party won a landslide victory.

He has supported strong measures for cow protection, and also said minority groups that oppose yoga should either leave the country or drown themselves in the sea.

A long-time propagandist of the RSS runs the state of Haryana, neighbouring Delhi and home to the global outsourcing industry, while more than half-a-dozen governors have had early training in the RSS drills and patriotic lessons held countrywide at dawn each day.

A background in the RSS, known for its service to the country, can only help those in public life, the editor of an RSS mouthpiece said.

"A swayamsevak thinks about the motherland and unity of society. Anyone who is associated with this ideology should be widely respected," said Hitesh Shankar, editor of Panchjanya.

ALSO READ | How Ram Nath Kovind was Amit Shah's best kept secret until the last moment

Ram Nath Kovind for President: Nitish and Uddhav, two tales of shifting goalposts

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Freedom of press is under threat: Opposition's presidential nominee Meira Kumar

ALSO WATCH | Presidential election 2017: Bihar's ex-Governor Ram Nath Kovind versus Bihar ki beti Meira Kumar

--- ENDS ---
Few coffee addicts would doubt the merits of their daily dose of caffeine. But here's another reason, it's good for humanity.

For many decades the stimulant has been helping babies as the go-to drug to encourage breathing in infants born very prematurely, by stimulating the brain.

Meredith Capp and her 13-year-old twins Sophie and Tilly, who were born 15 weeks premature. Credit:Eddie Jim

Now fresh Australian research from a longitudinal study has concluded the treatment could also deliver unexpected long-term benefits to infants as they grow up, including better co-ordination as children.

The findings stem from a research project that began 17 years ago and saw more than 2000 premature babies born across the globe given caffeine to treat breathing problems or, alternatively, a placebo.
Warning: Readers might find the content of this story distressing.

Three children are to give evidence against their parents in a trial over the alleged neglect death of an elderly woman at her family's home.

Police allege the woman, aged in her 80s, did not get the care she needed from her son and his wife in the nine months before she died in October 2013.

Ambulance paramedics were called to the family's Melbourne house after the woman died, and alerted police when they were appalled by the sight of her in a soiled nappy on a rotten mattress, with food scraps strewn around and a stench through the home.

A medical examination later found the woman's 34-kilogram body had begun to decompose, that her limbs, chest and forehead were covered either in bruises or scabs, and that parts of her body were discoloured, according to court documents.
Travis Wacey, national policy research officer at the CFMEU, told the inquiry in Melbourne on Friday that dodgy certificates pretending building products comply with local safety rules were rife on Australian building sites.

The inquiry into non-conforming building products has gathered pace after the fatal fire at the Grenfell Tower fire in London last month.

Fraudsters are making fake safety certificates for building products, a Senate inquiry has been told.

The Lacrosse building in Melbourne's Docklands was hit by fire in 2014. Credit:Scott Barbour

"Sometimes these guys [construction workers] can't have confidence in some of the declarations that are being made about products ... due to the prevalence of fraudulent behaviour," Mr Wacey said.

Each state and territory in Australia has its own laws and regulators, with problems often passed between the federal competition regulator, customs, and state-based fair trading offices.

The Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner, for example, seeks to improve the safety of companies bidding for large government building and construction projects.

Labor Senator Kim Carr called the office a "paper tiger" after the Federal Safety Commissioner, Alan Edwards, told the inquiry it had done no building audits in the past seven months and was limited by its small budgets and staff numbers as well as a lack of expertise.
Commuters who suffered through Melbourne's peak-hour rail meltdown on Thursday will be automatically compensated the cost of a two-hour fare, Metro Trains says.

But the company has not offered to repay the taxi or Uber fares paid by commuters, some of whom were slugged heavily by Uber's surge pricing regime.

Instead, anyone who touched on between 3pm and 7pm will be reimbursed on their myki account, either $4.10 for full-fare passengers or $2.05 for concession travellers.

Commuters will not have to fill in a form, but it will take Metro 30 days to process the repayments, the company said.
A pedestrian has died after a crash in Heidelberg Heights on Friday night in Melbourne's north-east.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the man, who is yet to be formally identified, left a premises on Bell Street about 10.45pm and crossed the road when he was struck by a vehicle.

The man was taken to hospital but died shortly afterwards.

The driver of the vehicle, an 82-year-old Coburg man, is assisting police with enquiries.
[Warning: graphic images and descriptions]

A fox squeals helplessly and thrashes back and forth as a dog gnaws on its tail. "Oi, quick get it on video," a man yells.

The cries of a large goat are heard across an empty field. "Dogs found some goats," another man says, as the animal is savaged by three canines, from the front, back and middle.

A small brown dog walks around a living room with a tiny black kitten in its mouth, "Marley, come on buddy, Marley come on," a man encourages the dog, which drops the cat on the ground and ravages it.
These were the families police identified in 2011 as causing most of the trouble in the band, which stretches roughly from Coburg North to Campbellfield, then in an arc around to Altona in the west. They were hardly as connected as the mob in Manhattan, but they had serious clout. There were few major drug or weapon importations in the state that police could not, in some way, trace back to these families. Their hold on the region no longer remains absolute. Some criminal networks were recently identified as having more than 1000 members, of various ages and ethnic backgrounds; unlike the five families, they were not simply the first generation of children born in Australia to parents hailing from northern Lebanon. But many of the major players now are either related to these families, or closely linked within the criminal milieu. The families have been involved in drug trafficking since at least the turn of the century, or, in the case of Macchour Chaouk, the patriarch of that family, since 1983. They grew to become serious forces, in part, because of failures by police to respond to the problem.

The crimes committed by the families were left to locally-based detectives to investigate, rather than specialist squads, until the Santiago Taskforce was formed in 2008. That same year, seven drug-linked executions were reported in 10 months. The strength of the families now  almost a decade after the launch of Santiago  are largely determined by how many of them have been killed or locked up. At one stage last year, there was only one of the six Chaouks, father and sons, that were alive and free. At the moment, the five Haddaras are similarly constrained, with only one of them free, two dead and two in prison. Of those in prison, one was jailed for having guns that so troubled a judge she described them as "the sort of weapons that were used down in Tasmania", a reference to the Port Arthur massacre. Similar to the Chaouks and Haddaras, the Kassabs and the Kheirs  who are related clans  remain a factor, although their involvement is more peripheral than before.

Which leaves one of the five families  the Tibas. When police showed their hand regarding the organised crime threat, back in 2011, the Tibas were at war with the Kassabs and Kheirs. Now, it appears the Tibas are at war with everybody. Prison bashing Since last September, the Tibas are suspected of involvement in at least six non-fatal shootings, a bashing and multiple home invasions. Some of the shootings are retribution for the severe prison bashing of Bassam Tiba, underworld sources say. Others relate to significant organised crime figures, and their businesses, such as tattoo parlours. The Tibas are the only clan in the five families that can boast three generations of serious offenders  from murderers to drug traffickers.

Abdul Tiba has eight sons, aged from their 50s to their 20s. At least six have faced significant criminal charges. A grandson, also called Abdul, was considered such a threat he was subject to a National Anti-Gang Squad investigation last year  the Australian Federal Police led team that represents an even greater escalation in the police response than the formation of Santiago. Also last year, Osman, 32, one of the middle brothers, was released from prison. In a video published online in December, he spoke about how he had overcome drug addiction, and detailed the cycle of using, getting hooked, needing money, and then committing crime. He is, of course, one of many ensnared in that cycle, particularly in the north-west, which consistently ranks among the worst in the state for employment, education and substance dependence. The irony  not lost on police, community members and other underworld figures  is that while Osman may be a victim of that cycle, his family have survived from perpetuating it.

No empathy It is hard not to be shocked by the footage of Oueida's shooting. Four men walking to a car, a silver four-wheel drive pulling alongside and obscuring them from view, and then Oueida writhing on the ground, before he hobbles for his life, back towards the Coburg Mosque, where he had just finished afternoon prayer. But it is also hard to feel any empathy, or concern  as Victorians do about other crimes against more innocent victims  that it could happen to them. That is why, police say, it is important to consider what the shooting represents, rather than the act itself. Oueida amassed a fortune before he was imprisoned in 2011, and had done so through dealing drugs, and doing it more rapaciously than anyone in recent history: hence the $6 million in a Swiss bank account, light plane, Ferrari and $2.8 million mansion he had when he was arrested. Not only did victims of drug addiction build that fortune, but there are the consequences of maintaining this empire. That, in turn, drives a burgeoning black market for firearms, and has made the north-west the centre of the gun trade in this state.

Brighton terrorist Yacqub Khayre allegedly was only a phone call to a north-west contact away from being able to obtain the shotgun he used to kill a man, take a woman hostage and shoot three police last month. But for every Khayre, a case most people have heard of with a clear link to the north-west, there are dozens more that barely make a ripple. Almost all the of shootings in the north-west, one underworld source said, relate to those at the bottom of the criminal food chain. They are the dealers  who, as Osman Tiba alluded to, were probably driven to the job because of their own addictions  who cannot afford to forgive a middling debt, even if it is only for a few hundred dollars. These shootings rarely involve significant figures, such as Oueida, or Nabil Maghnie, who was shot in the head last September but survived, or George Marrogi, who was charged with a shooting murder that same month. Detective Inspector Wayne Newman, from the North-West Metro region, says there has been an increase in higher ranking organised crime figures in the area insulating themselves from possible harm by using youth networks to do the grunt work. He said the so-called Fagin Laws, which were introduced last year and allow police to charge adults who coerce children to offend, would be useful in dismantling these networks. "More senior criminal figures are exploiting the vulnerabilities of younger or less sophisticated offenders," he said.

It is a misconception that the battles are over territory. No particular families run any particular suburbs; they are all dealing, all the time, to whoever buys. The shootings can be over particularly petty reasons, not just the drug trade: women, a perceived slight, or, increasingly, a prison feud. This can drive a surge in shootings, and then be forgotten again just as quickly, said Detective Inspector Stephen Clark of the armed crime squad. And  as is believed to have been the case when a large drug shipment made its way to the region in the past five years, and the Kassab/Kheir family made temporary peace with the Tibas  that can sometimes mean forming a truce to distribute the product, and ensure its security. Staying on top of the machinations of the underworld can be difficult, Detective Inspector Clark said, but the increased strength of police intelligence meant they were able to increasingly charge gunmen, regardless of whether their victims spoke. It frustrates police that low-level gangsters without a shred of integrity jut their chins out and shake their heads in a misplaced attempt at honour when asked who shot them, despite, in many instances, being maimed for life.

Years after he was blasted with a shotgun by a crime figure who continues to wield influence in the north-west, one victim is still dealing with his injuries. Police agree it would be futile to appeal to gun-slingers on the grounds that they could ruin a rival's life. But, they believe, the deterrent effect of jailing them, even if their victim remains tight-lipped, will have an impact. "The message is, if you get shot, even if you don't tell us who did it, we are still going to investigate it, and we're still highly likely to get a result," Detective Inspector Clark said. "I wish it was as simple as saying all our non-fatal shootings went back to five families, because if it did, we would target those five families and we'd kick it in the guts, but it's actually not that simple." The cost to Melbourne's north-west is huge. Aside from being the Wall Street of Victoria's firearms and drugs market, and the enormous consequences this trafficking has on the state, and the impact on the medical system of record numbers of people being maimed, there are the people who die completely innocently because the rules of these markets means shooting first has become an unwritten rule. While both Detective Inspectors want to reiterate this is rare, it is also their worst fear, and what they are working to stop.

These victims include Rachad Adra, who was killed and his four-year-old son injured, when a gunman with a high-powered weapon shot the wrong house in Thomastown in October 2015, and Khaled Abouhasna, who was killed in a shooting ambush six months earlier when he was mistaken for a ruthless standover man. Family ties The solution will not be found in just policing, Detective Inspector Newman said, in a common refrain from the modern police force. In this case, it carries particular weight: police are trying to break the hold, in some cases, of family ties that go back generations. To do so, they are increasingly trying to appeal to the maternal side of these families, and helping mothers and their children escape the criminal elements in their home, before another brood is infected. The stakes are too high for it not to work, Detective Inspector Clark said. "There's a lot of luck good and bad in a non-fatal shooting, You can be shot once and die, or you can be shot five times and live.
A man wanted by federal police since 2013 for his alleged involvement in people smuggling will face a Perth court on Friday.

The 35-year-old Afghan man has been wanted to face prosecution for 10 alleged people smuggling offences.

Federal police formally charged the man on Thursday.

The Australian Federal Police will allege the man was involved in organising and facilitating the suspected illegal entry of vessels from Indonesian to Australia on four occasions between 2009-2010.

He had been detained by Indonesian authorities and was surrendered to AFP officers in Jakarta on Thursday.
London: Six years after officially acknowledging that marriages might not last forever, Malta has become the European Union's 15th country to legalise same-sex marriage.

The staunchly Roman Catholic island nation in the Mediterranean had long been one of the continent's most conservative - banning divorces until 2011.

European Council President Donald Tusk, left, with Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at an EU summit in Brussels in June. Credit:AP

But with Wednesday's nearly unanimous parliamentary vote to amend Malta's law, marriage is now no longer restricted to the union between a man and a woman. Back in 2014, the country already legalised same-sex civil unions and said it would also recognise same-same marriages from other countries.

"It's a historic vote. This shows that our democracy and society have reached a level of maturity and we can now say that we are all equal," said Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. Since Muscat was voted into office in 2013, he has pursued a number of policy changes that have drawn praise from liberals and harsh condemnation from the Catholic Church.
Priyanka Chopra gave the ongoing IIFA Awards a miss and flew down to Mumbai, where she will celebrate her birthday.

By India Today Web Desk: Priyanka Chopra will turn a year older on July 18, and decided to ring in her special day with family and friends back home. The desi girl took a break from the shooting of her third Hollywood flick, Isn't It Romantic, and flew down to Mumbai. But it's not all leisure for Priyanka, as she will use the opportunity to promote her Marathi production, Kaay Re Rascalaa, which hits the theatres today.

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Reports suggest that Priyanka will have a big bash to celebrate her 35th birthday. Most of her film industry friends are currently in New York for the IIFA Awards, but are likely to return to the country before her birthday. It is likely to be a double celebration, as Priyanka's brother, Siddharth, also turned a year older earlier this week.

Summer sun calling #mumbaibound #mumbaimerijaan ??????????????? #birthdaytime #familynfriends A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Jul 12, 2017 at 9:28am PDT

Happy birthday to my baby brother. @siddharthchopra89 You will always be the apple. May you smile laugh and always spread ur joy. Love you lots. #throwback ??????????????? A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Jul 12, 2017 at 6:19am PDT

On the work front, Priyanka Chopra has signed two Hollywood films after Baywatch - A Kid Like Jake and Isn't It Romantic? Speculation is rife that she will play Amrita Pritam in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Sahir Ludhianvi biopic. However, the actor has not confirmed being a part of any Bollywood film as of now.

ALSO READ: Get ready to lose your heart to the hotness that Priyanka Chopra is in this pink dress

ALSO READ: Priyanka Chopra was asked a dirty question about her Baywatch guys and she handled it like a boss

ALSO WATCH: I wanted to be seen as a modern actor, says Priyanka Chopra

--- ENDS ---
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Steinbach Prides second annual March for Equality takes place on Saturday morning, and a spokesperson for the events organizing committee has indicated this year will bring both continuity and change.

Co-chair Chris Plett called 2017 a transition year for the event, with organizers looking to capitalize on what worked last year, recalibrate what did not, and lay the groundwork for an expanded event in 2018. Cultivating a consistent public profile in the community, to increase the groups visibility year-round, is also a priority for the steering committee, Plett said, adding Michelle McHale will step back from her lead role after this years event.

For now, however, organizers are focused on finalizing practical details.

IAN FROESE | CARILLON ARCHIVES Michelle McHale, Karen Phillips, and Chris Plett march in last years Steinbach Pride March for Equality.

We had a few surprises in the preparation, Plett acknowledged. The City of Steinbach, he explained, is requiring the private event to cover the cost of signage and barricades, and have the necessary insurances in place.

We just had to pull up our socks and get the money raised, Plett said.

Attendance expectations for this years march are comparable to those for last year, with allies and community groups from Manitoba and beyond communicating their intent to attend, Plett remarked.

Steinbach Pride organizers are also paying close attention to the tone of this years event, which Plett said will feature more of a gentle stand, while holding firm on its core convictions and goals.

Last year it was aggressive, he acknowledged.

To that end, a theme has been chosen for this years march: neighbours.

The whole Good fences make good neighboursthat is so not true. We want to tear those fences down and get to know our neighbours, Plett stated. We want to stand beside each other because the job is huge in Steinbach. We want to build a bridge.

Organizers have therefore decided to scratch politician speeches at the march, as feedback from last year indicated personal or heartfelt messages from members of the Steinbach and Manitoba Pride communities were more widely appreciated than partisan political speeches, Plett explained.

Every Pride should be a little political, but we wanted to remember that theres a lot of issues going on right now, he said.

This years event will also employ the acronym 2STLGBQ*. According to Steinbach Pride, the ordering of the letters foregrounds the struggle of transgender individuals to share fully in the advances achieved by Pride movements, and acknowledges that Two-Spirited people predated the arrival of colonial settlers in Canada.

While last years event broke new ground in Steinbach, Plett said this years march has the benefit of building upon related community events from the past year, most notably a Steinbach Neighbours for Community drama production entitled Still ListeningVoices Among Us, with which Plett was involved. He listed local gay-straight alliances and mental health awareness efforts as two other related social currents that function as stepping stones for the march.

While the question of which, if any, local elected officials would attend the inaugural march dominated news headlines across Canada a year ago, Plett seemed unconcerned with pinning down politician attendance this year.

Provencher MP Ted Falk said last year he would never attend a Steinbach Pride event.

In February, Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen issued a statement confirming he would not attend the march, and said last years event dedicated too much time to shaming individuals.

On Wednesday, Steinbach mayor Chris Goertzen told The Carillon he will not attend Saturdays march due to a family event. Asked if he would attend in the march in the absence of conflicting engagements, he replied, At this time, no.

Whats important is that when we build a communitywe work, not just one day, but 365 days, at making our community better, and thats what well concentrate on, he elaborated.

While Plett said the absence of local elected officials continues to be disappointing, he expressed a desire to dialogue with them in the coming year, as people across the table.

Its not okay, he said. But were not going to chase after them. We have our hand extended.

He later clarified, We all have been shamed enough in our lives that we know that we dont want to shame other peopleall were trying to do is hold our elected officials accountable, which is the democratic process.

March participants are being asked to assemble in K.R. Barkman Park at 10:30 a.m. Following an Indigenous blessing from Harmony Knott, speeches will commence at 11 a.m., featuring remarks from McHale, Plett, Gay Boese, Brielle Arian Beardy-Linklater, Andra MacAuly, and Uzoma Chioma.

Next, a 1,500-metre march will take participants west down Main Street to Reimer Avenue, and back to K. R. Barkman Park via Elmdale Street. Eastbound lanes on Main Street will remain open to traffic, while westbound Main Street traffic east of the water tower will be detoured onto Hespeler Street and McKenzie Avenue. Reimer Avenue between Main Street and Elmdale Street, and Elmdale Street to Kroeker Avenue, will also be closed during the march, but will reopen soon after. RCMP will direct traffic and provide security for march participants.

Those interesting in volunteering at the event can message the Steinbach Pride Facebook page, or email pride.steinbach@gmail.com. Attendees are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items for South East Helping Hands.
While most B-Town celebs are busy attending the IIFA Awards in New York, Priyanka Chopra flew back to Mumbai.

By India Today Web Desk: While the whole of B-Town is in New York to attend the 18th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards, Priyanka Chopra is back home from USA.

PeeCee was spotted in a floral printed maxi dress, denim jacket and Lennon shades at the Mumbai airport on Thursday morning.

It's quite surprising that the desi girl is giving one of the biggest Bollywood events of the year, IIFA, a miss. Explaining her absence from the award ceremony at Big Apple, a source told Mid-day, "With (American series) Quantico and some international films, like Isn't It Romantic? and A Kid Like Jake in her kitty, Priyanka now considers herself a Hollywood star. She perhaps thought it best to stay away from IIFA this year."

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However, the actor's spokesperson refuted the reports and told the daily, "Priyanka Chopra had not made any commitment to the awards show organisers, so there's no question of her skipping it. She's in Mumbai as her Marathi production, Kaay Re Rascalaa, releases today. PeeCee and her mother Madhu will address the media at a Juhu five-star this evening."

According to reports, Priyanka is scheduled to leave Mumbai on Sunday, just as IIFA ceremony gets over in New York.

ALSO SEE | Priyanka Chopra and Rebel Wilson are a sight for sore eyes on Isn't It Romantic set

ALSO READ | Priyanka Chopra was asked a dirty question about her Baywatch guys and she handled it like a boss

ALSO WATCH | After Quantico, Priyanka Chopra in Hollywood film Baywatch now

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By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) In the wake of floods in the Northeast, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today asked senior rail officials to work in close coordination with state governments of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to ensure smooth relief and rescue operations.

Prabhu convened a special meeting of Railway Board officials to take stock of the flood situation.

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He also asked the officials to ensure that drinking water supply, food grains, medicines and healthcare facilities movement for North East is given priority and ensure their smooth transportation by the Railways.

He directed the officials to extend possible assistance in repairing roads so smooth connectivity may be provided for rescue and relief.

Rail services are fully operational in the states and have not been affected by the floods, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Railway officials of North Frontier Railways are keeping a watch on the situation and a special control room has been set up, the official said.

Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain, who is from Assam, was also present in the meeting.

As many as 80 people have lost their lives in the floods that have hit 58 districts in the Northeast, Union minister Jitendra Singh had said yesterday.

Singh, who reviewed the flood situation in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur with officials of these states, said the damage caused by the rains was "unprecedented". PTI ARU KIS BDS KIS

--- ENDS ---
College Station police on Friday were investigating a report of a man forcing his way into an apartment and attacking the resident.

Police said officers were called to an apartment complex in the 1500 block of Harvey Road just before 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The resident told officers there was a struggle, and the resident was able to fight off the unidentified man, who left before officers arrived.

The resident was treated for injuries by paramedics.

The man was described as white, in his early 20s, 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet tall with an average build and dark hair.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 764-3600.
The College Station City Council on Thursday rejected two low bids from a general contractor whose president bilked the city out of over $100,000 more than a decade ago, while acknowledging the city needs a policy in place that makes clear who it will not do business with.

The council moved in a pair of 6-1 votes to reject the low bids from Texcon General Contractors for two different city projects on the recommendation of city staff. In 2009, Carey Smith, president of Texcon, was sentenced to 10 years of deferred adjudication probation after admitting to committing bribery, a second-degree felony, related to payments that were made to a former supervisor with the College Station Public Works Department over a two- to three-year period beginning in 2000.

Councilwoman Julie Schultz, who had the lone dissenting votes, said rejecting Texcon's low bids sets a precedent, and asked repeatedly when it's OK for the city to conduct business with people who have committed crimes. The city continues to work with people who in the past have "done a lot of bad things to the city," Schultz said, though it was unclear to whom she was referring.

"If we're gonna do this, then a policy needs to be written that strictly lays out what our policy is, so in the future when whoever is interested as a member of our community, no matter what their past transgressions, they know what we will allow and what we won't," Schultz said. "We have been lax in not putting that out there and allowing the bids to come through and opening them ... That's ridiculous."

City Attorney Carla Robinson said the city is required by law to open each bid that is received for a project, which is posted on an online system. She said staff members have already prepared a draft policy in light of the situation with Texcon.

Mayor Karl Mooney agreed that a policy needs to be established, but said the council needed to "set the tone" and say where the city stands by rejecting Texcon's bids.

"This went beyond just trying to cheat the city. This was collusion," Mooney said. "This was an abridgment of what we are supposed to be as far as our staff, ourselves up here, in being ethical. And this went beyond just simply trying to skim the money off. This was a deliberate act."

While serving as superintendent of streets and drainage for the city, Paul Urso signed invoices for work that was exaggerated or that Texcon never completed, according to The Eagle archives. In exchange, the company paid Urso more than $100,000, which prosecutors said he spent on trucks, rent and a Caribbean cruise, and was also gifted a guided hunting trip to Montana.

Urso reached a plea agreement to serve 180 days in prison and 10 years on probation for two first-degree felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity. In addition to paying $100,000 in restitution and performing 600 hours of community service for the city, he also was required to stand handcuffed before the City Council at the time and apologize for the crime.

Smith, meanwhile, was ordered to serve a 180-day jail sentence, pay $150,000 in restitution and perform 300 hours of community service. Charges against Smith's company were dropped as part of the deal.

Texcon's attorney, Robertson Neal, attended Thursday's council meeting to protest the bid rejections. He said if Texcon's case "is gonna become the litmus test," the city needs to require that each contractor it does business with provide background checks for each of their employees.

The two projects were instead awarded to the next-lowest bidders. Contracts were awarded to Brazos Paving Inc. for an amount not to exceed $472,000 for asphalt work and to Palasota Contracting LLC for an amount not to exceed $286,088 for drainage improvements to Southwest Parkway.
WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, a Bryan Republican, called on President Trump to eject his children from the White House in light of continuing revelations over their activities in the 2016 presidential campaign.

"I'm going out on a limb here, but I would say that I think it would be in the President's best interest if he removed all of his children from the White House," Flores told KBTX Thursday morning. "Not only Donald Trump, but Ivanka and Jared Kushner."

Flores was referring to Donald Trump, Jr., who posted on Twitter on Tuesday an email exchange from June 2016 in which he displayed an eagerness to collaborate with a Russian official to obtain damaging information on the Democratic nominee, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Trump Jr. does not formally work for the White House but Ivanka Trump and her husband, Kushner, are considered some of President Trump's most influential advisers.

Kushner, Donald Trump, Jr. and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort ultimately met with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a woman identified as a "Russian government attorney" to discuss incriminating information about Clinton last year at Trump Tower in New York City.

"I do find issues with the meeting. It's a meeting that should not have taken place," Flores said of Trump Jr. "I think he thought he was looking out for his father's best interest."

Flores later sent a statement to The Texas Tribune expanding on his comments to KBTX.

"President Trump is doing a great job and I support his efforts to make America great again," Flores said. "Through no fault of their own, the presence of President Trump's adult children in the White House has caused some distractions from the work the Trump administration is doing on behalf of hardworking American families. Given the liberal media's unwavering scrutiny of the Trump administration, it may be beneficial for the president to do all he can to remove any distractions from the administration so that he can focus on our conservative agenda."

"President Trump's family members have been successful running their outside businesses and I am confident that their success will continue outside of the White House," Flores added.

Flores' remarks are striking in a larger context. Since Congress returned from a Fourth of July recess period, many GOP members in both chambers have contorted themselves to avoid questions about Trump's relationship with Russia.

A special counsel is investigating the matter, along with several ongoing investigations within the Congress. The more immediate matter is whether to impose new sanctions on Russia as punishment. The Senate passed such a measure last month by a near-unanimous vote.

The House, meanwhile, is mired in procedural stalemate with both parties  and chambers  blaming one another. White House officials have used that opportunity to lobby for watered down sanctions, according to multiple media reports.

Back in February, Flores called for sanctions against Russia as he reacted to the firing of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned after lying about conversations he had with Russian officials.
Two men were injured Tuesday after an aggravated robbery, and authorities say one person has been arrested.

According to the Brazos County Sheriff's Office, deputies and a Texas Ranger were called to a home on F.M. 2223 on Wednesday after a call about a robbery the day before. A 26-year-old man told authorities he and two men were at the home Tuesday when a group of several armed men arrived. The victim said one man, Timothy Wayne Bridgewater, 20, was holding an AK-47, a report notes.

Bridgewater is accused of using the gun to strike a man in the head, then used a bayonet to slice his face. An incident report states Bridgewater turned to the victim and hit him several times in the head with the gun and demanded his car keys and wallet. As Bridgewater and the other men left with the victim's car keys, cellphone and $2,000 in cash, one man fired what was described as a sawed-off shotgun into the ground. The men drove away in one of the victim's cars, authorities said.

Authorities later located the stolen vehicle in Bryan and found a single-shot shotgun at the scene that was left by one of the assailants.

Bridgewater is charged with two counts of aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 99 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. He is also charged with parole violation.
Writer Ramachandra Guha talks to India Today on how history is repeating itself and the 10th anniversary edition of his India after Gandhi.

Ramachandra Guha talks to Kai Friese on how history is repeating itself and the 10th anniversary edition of his India after Gandhi.

Q1. This is a very fat book! Can we expect an update every 10 years?

A. I don't know! I had the energy to do this, and obviously, some quite dramatic developments have taken place over the last ten years, so I put those in. I'll figure out in eight years if I want to do it again.

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Q2. The book begins with the moment of Independence, Partition riots and 'parricide'. Given what happened recently in Basirhat, West Bengal, do you wonder whether we remain trapped in the consequences of that moment?

A. Yes, to some extent. But I think from the 19th century onwards the question 'can Hindus and Muslims live peaceably in a single nation?' had faced the national movement. It's been an uneasy coexistence, but religious pluralism is hardwired in India, and a lot depends on the courage and sagacity of the political class. If you look at the last few months, the immediate parallel is with Ram Janmabhoomi, not Partition, which was on a much larger scale.

Q3. Apart from the 70th anniversary of Independence, this year will also mark Indira Gandhi's 100th and the 40th anniversary of the end of the Emergency. Does the Emergency deserve more attention as an episode that shaped India's polity? Facilitating the rise of the BJP? The Jan Sangh got its first taste of national popularity thanks to it...

A. They might have got it anyway. Even the Congress in the 1920s and '30s had a strong conservative Hindu current-Nehru and Gandhi vanquished it, but it was there, so one could argue that it would come back again.

But there are some striking parallels between Indira Gandhi's and Modi's style of governance: hegemonic control of the party, with only one person to trust-Amit Shah, and in her case, Sanjay Gandhi-no one else. Attempts to manipulate the judiciary and control the media.... The use of governors to intrigue against opposition state governments. I don't think there'll be another Emergency, it can't happen. But in the design to control, subordinate and manipulate public institutions, Modi is like Indira Gandhi, without a doubt.

Q4. How do you think the Indian press today compares with what we saw during the Emergency? Has there been a sharp decline in independence?

A. One of the things that happened as a consequence of the Emergency is the rise of Indian language journalism in 1978-81. What is heartening today is the rise of quality websites, and there are a few. Even if sections of the press are too timid or compromised, there is some very good reporting even in the mainstream press. TV, of course, is totally compromised.

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Q5. Ten years since the first edition of this book, are you more optimistic or less?

A. India is such a large and complex country that if there's progress in one sphere, there's regression in another. The bureaucracy is compromised, arbitrary use of state power is on the increase, the criminal justice system has declined in the past four years, everyday corruption is probably as bad or worse, Hindu-Muslim violence seems to be increasing... On the other side, there is more autonomy, more freedom. In two respects, Indians are freer than ever before-caste is now delinked from occupation/profession and young Indians are freer to fall in love with whom they want.

In 2007, I called us a 50-50 democracy; I'd still say that. At the same time, I'm also worried about the rise of majoritarianism-I totally subscribe to the Gandhi-Nehru idea of India not being a Hindu Pakistan.

--- ENDS ---
Despite no shortage of immediate, crucial issues to debate - fracking, tidal power, air pollution, public transport, cold homes, neonicotinoids and glyphosate, a tidal wave of plastic pollution - not to mention the bigger, broader issues of climate change, biodiversity and bioabundance loss and human health, the environment hardly got mentioned in the recent UK General Election.

The Green Party carried a green question mark around London asking where the debate was, but no serious answer came.

What's gone wrong? Get any collection of environmental experts in a room and you'll find deep, urgent, desperate concern - often near despair - about the future of our planet, but that's not at the forefront of public concerns.

There's clearly been a failure not just in politics, which is failing in so many ways, but also in environmental communication - a failure to reach people's hearts and minds with the urgent need for change.

Partly, that's an understandable function of the state of our economy and society. With millions of households not sure where their next meal's coming from, fear and stress about insecure, low wage employment and inadequate benefits, it's entirely understandable that they're not looking beyond next week's rent or food shop.

But that's not true for many, and yet they too aren't prioritising the environment - which is after all entirely what the economy depends on. As the saying goes, there are no jobs on a dead planet.

I think of a young student I met on a doorstep in Sheffield. He confessed he knew nothing about politics, but wanted to vote. I ran through the mechanics and then asked what issues he was concerned about.

"What about climate change?" I asked. "Well I know I'm supposed to care," was his response.

He's of an age where the climate change already built into the system is certainly going to impact significantly on his life and prospects, and if we don't change course soon, impact on them disastrously.

We know that now, he even at some level knows it, but it isn't cutting through to action.

Why is this? Partly it is because we haven't overcome the sense of guilt that makes people want to not think about the environment because they don't want to think about their own actions. They don't want to inventory their own life and feel they should do things differently.

But that's not the point - not the issue. It's not what I'm concerned about.

No one individual can by changing their own behaviour make a significant difference, no matter how "saintly" their environmental life.

What we need is system change, so that doing the environmentally (and socially) responsible thing is the easiest, simplest, cheapest choice - the one everyone will naturally, logically make. That means political change.
Making a return to our two favourite summer locations, Mount Maunganui and Nelson in early January 2023, we've got whiff of the first release lineup and me oh my, yes boy
Parts of Smith Mountain Lake may be unsafe for swimming because of high levels of E. coli  bacteria that can cause cramping, diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue and fever  found in the lake at the beginning of the month.

When it come to bacteria in the lake, the Virginia Department of Health typically worries most about gastrointestinal sicknesses, which come from swallowing the water.

Jim Bowles, environmental health manager with the department within the Central Virginia District, said it is most important to not swallow the water while swimming in the lake and to not swim right after a heavy rain or for a few days after. Swimmers should also avoid dirty areas of the lake.

If the water doesnt look clean, it probably isnt, he said.

Water quality samples were taken through the Smith Mountain Lake Associations water quality monitoring program in conjunction with Ferrum Colleges Water Quality Program. The tests showed high levels of E. coli bacteria at two lake locations; the end of the cove in the back of Beckys Creek on the Franklin County side of the Roanoke River and in the Bull Run area of the lake.

According to a July 9 email sent to homeowners from Larry Iceman, water quality program chair for the SML Association, the samples were taken July 5.

He said in the email the bacteria levels exceed the health departments standards for recreational waters at two locations on the lake.

The water sampled at 12 other sites was deemed acceptable.

Remember that we live in a rural area with an abundance of both wildlife and farm animals, which the streams and rivers feeding SML pass through, Iceman said in the email.

Since 1987, Ferrum College has worked with the association to coordinate the efforts of volunteer water quality monitors in measuring and tracking water quality parameters for the lake, according to the schools website.

Bowles said the Virginia Department of Health is not involved with the sampling efforts but is available to provide guidelines for when bacteria is found in any natural body of water.

He said E. coli is found everywhere: in soils, in water and in animals.

There will always be a certain amount of bacteria found in lakes, but when it gets too high, it is often caused by runoff.

Im not sure how often the lake is sampled, but it is sampled routinely, Bowles said. We would look at an average over a period of time rather than a single sample.

A 2016 report prepared by Ferrum Colleges School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics states the Virginia health standard for recreational water is 126 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters.

The report states bacteria populations, especially in E. coli, in the lake in 2016 were significantly higher than they were in 2015 and 2014.

By the time results come from a water sample from a place like the lake, the water quality has probably already changed, Bowles said.

It can be misleading, he said.

The health department recommends avoiding swimming around ducks, geese and other birds, farm animals or wildlife. It also advises not swimming with open wounds and to shower after swimming.

It is okay to swim, water ski and enjoy being in or around the water at SML, just please take the advice of The Va. Dept. of Health, Iceman said in the email.
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WESTPORT  For 84 years, Westporter Jean Fellows exchanged letters, cards and Christmas gifts across the Atlantic Ocean with her longtime pen pals, a Welsh family. This June, a birthday card from the family  listing the prices of groceries and household items a century ago  stood out among well wishes for her 100th birthday.

Fellows, who has lived in town for nearly 50 years, celebrated the milestone birthday on June 13. Asked how it felt to turn 100, she laughed, Well, Im waiting until I get to be 200.

She said, Im just going to go along and enjoy myself.

Born in small-town LaSalle, Ill., Fellows worked as a teacher and recalled happy times horseback riding and traveling through the country with her parents growing up. In 1941, she married a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy who served in World War II and the couple had three daughters. They were married for 57 years before his death.

Its been a really good life, Fellows said. I think Ive been very lucky.

Fellows moved to town with her husband in 1970 and built a house the following year where Fellows still lives.

Over her years living in Westport, Fellows has watched the town change. She recalled Main Street lined with more local shops, including Kleins of Westport and the Remarkable Book Shop.

I like the old Main Street much better. They had mom-and-pop stores. They had a place where you go in and buy fabric if you want to sew  all that sort of thing  and it was fun to walk down Main Street, she said. Now, its the big stores and everything that dont hold a candle as far as Im concerned to the way it used to be, but I still love Westport. I think its nice. The facilities are good here, and I feel very comfortable.

Fellows has enjoyed the open space Westport offers and her strongest memories of town are walking down Main Street and entertaining at her home.

Enjoying traveling and cruises, Fellows has explored far beyond town lines, visiting every continent except Antarctica. She fondly recounted trips to Alaska, China, Australia, Singapore and Paris, but said shes generally liked all the places shes visited.

We go all over. You name it Ive been there, and its always with family, she said. We have a really good time.

Her travels also included a flight on the Concorde, a supersonic passenger jet that could traverse the Atlantic in about three-and-a-half hours. Fellows said they treated you like royalty on her trip from New York to Paris.

She has also voyaged to Wales to meet the family she has exchanged letters with since age 16. Fellows began writing to her pen pal, Irene, 84 years ago and while she was never able to meet her, the pair became close, sharing correspondence for years. After Irene died of cancer, Fellows wrote to her original pen pals husband and she now writes to Irenes daughter. Along with the 100th birthday card, the pair exchange letters and gifts.

After her husbands death, Fellows was also engaged to a longtime friend for several years. Her daughters, Holly and Kaye, visit and call often, and Fellows described her life with a smile as good and busy.

Reflecting, she recalled the start of WWII. Living in Boston at the time, she remembered the news of Japans attack on Pearl Harbor in the Sunday newspaper. She also recounted feeling politics have changed with time. As a young girl in LaSalle, she remembered roller skating around her block and scrawling Republican President Herbert Hoovers name in chalk on the sidewalk.

I do think that politics has gotten to be just terrible, said Fellows, who describes herself as a Trump sympathizer.

I just feel that poor man has everything going for him, but hes had so much opposition, she said, and you know, people can disagree and they have a right to their opinion, but not get violent the way they do and break things down and ruin cars and shoot people. That parts awful.

lweiss@hearstmediact.com; @LauraEWeiss16
October 2016 saw a massive breach of financial data in India, with banks reporting that as many as 3.2 million debit cards had been compromised. State Bank of India, HDFC, ICICI, YES Bank and Axis Bank were among the worst hit. They swung into action, cancelling compromised cards and issuing new ones. The source of the breach was located in China, said to be caused by fraudsters looking to steal money and financial data. This should have triggered an effort to beef up data security, but banks turned their attention to scare-management instead, underplaying the fraud and saying that only 641 customers had complained, involving transactions of just Rs 1.3 crore.

In a recent move, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced the concept of 'limited liability' for customers who become victims of such fraud. Customers will have zero liability for a fraudulent transaction if the bank is found to have been negligent. Customers will also not be liable if there is a thirdparty breach, even without the bank's involvement, if the fraud is reported to the bank within three working days of the customer receiving communication regarding an unauthorised transaction.

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In order to ensure that customers get timely information, banks will now have to link customers' mobile numbers with their bank accounts and enable replies to text messages containing transaction alerts. Banks will also have to make provisions on the home pages of their websites for customers to report unauthorised transactions. The RBI move is a timely acknowledgement that data vulnerability can sour India's grand ambition to become a digital powerhouse.

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NORWALK  Julia Dufort, a rising sophomore at Norwalk High School, loves nature, hiking and cool, crisp weather.

So when she heard about the opportunity to take a trip to explore Iceland this summer alongside nearly 20 classmates as a part of the Norwalk STEM Travelers, it only made sense for her to get involved.

In less than two weeks Dufort and her classmates will depart Norwalk, take a flight to Reykjavik  Icelands capital  and embark on a weeklong journey studying Iceland, its history, culture and various aspects of its natural landscape.

The group, led by Norwalk High School science teacher Caitlin Engle, will hike across a glacier, take a dip in the naturally heated Blue Lagoon and, hopefully, even dive down into the water between the North American and Eurasian continental plates.

Along the way, the students  ranging from freshmen to newly graduated seniors  are expected to complete a STEM-related project.

Dufort will research ways Iceland preserves its environment and try to identify ways the U.S. could apply some of those methodologies when she gets back home.

When researching Iceland, I found that it is one of the most environmentally friendly places in the world, Dufort said. I figured we could learn a thing or two from them.

Rising senior Kevin Cayo will study how glaciers have shaped Icelands landscape.

Others will look into how the natural landscape informs the country's architecture, how the country relies heavily on geothermal energy and more.

Celina Hunter, a recent Norwalk High graduate, will study the mythology and folklore of Iceland, to learn more about it and see how it shapes and impacts their culture.

Engle said she started the club at Norwalk High in 2008 as a way to allow kids the opportunity to have the traveling experience through the lens of STEM.

Its a club that we started because for science there is not a specific class that would lend itself to an international tour, Engle said. So to be more encompassing we started this club so there were more opportunities outside of history or world language for kids to have an international tour experience.

Since that time, Engle has taken groups of Norwalk students to the Galapagos Islands, Belize, Costa Rica, Greece and Iceland.

We try to go once per year, she said, depending on funds, tours available and scheduling.

For the Iceland trip, the group goes in the summer time to get better weather. The kids don't want to go somewhere cold, Engle joked. The trips to other locations tend to take place in February or April breaks.

The tour is part of Education First. Through that program the students complete their projects using the learning platform weShare and are ultimately able to earn one elective credit to go on their high school transcript.

But the trip is meant to be more than just the science project experience.

Our vision for having these tours, Engle said, is to have the kids become better global citizens. Yes, they are learning about the science, they are learning about the technology, they are learning about the culture, but more importantly is learning how to travel, how to be accepting of a different culture, how to work in a group with each other.

Any student at Norwalk High School can sign up to be a part of the Norwalk STEM Travelers. Though the families of each student do have to fund the trips, ranging from $1,800 to $3,500 per expedition. Engle said the group does do fundraising to help offset the costs.

For the snorkeling trip in the waters between the North American and Eurasian continents, for example, Engle is looking to raise $1,200 dollars to cover the expenses. So far, she has been able to raise $500, which was donated by King Industries of Norwalk.

The group is searching for local funders to cover the rest of the price tag to make the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity possible. (Anyone looking to donate funds can do so by calling Norwalk High School at 203-838-4481 and asking for Engle.)

Though its a lot of work to make the trips possible, Engle said its worth it for both her personally and what it means for the kids.

This is my favorite part of teaching, Engle said. If I could do this every day, I would. It renews my faith in education. ... To see kids learn something for the first time while they are experiencing it in another country is truly a privilege.

KSchultz@thehour.com; 203-842-2567; @kevinedschultz
Women have moved into the marijuana industry in impressive numbers, making up a large segment of both customers of the product and the entrepreneurs producing it.

One study showed that women make up 36 percent of the executives in the marijuana industry, with the numbers especially high in cannabis testing labs, marijuana infused-products businesses and ancillary cannabis ventures.

Against that backdrop, women in the cannabis industry from around the country plan to come to Los Angeles on July 22 for the Cannabis Business Womens Empowerment Summit.

There are more women leaders in the cannabis industry than any other industry, the summits site states. However, there is still much work to be done.

Related: Marijuana Workers Now Outnumber Bakers and Other Common Careers

Issues Women Face

The marijuana industry, still very much in its early days, does offer a wealth of opportunity for entrepreneurs. But while the number of women leaders in the marijuana industry is impressive, they still can face the same sort of glass ceiling issues they face in other areas.

The event this month in Los Angeles is geared toward pairing women who are entering the cannabis business with mentors who have already achieved a great deal of success. Every woman attending the conference will be put into groups lead by mentors.

Those invited to speak and/or mentor include Sara Batterby, president and CEO of HiFi Farms in Oregon; Celeste Miranda, founder of The Cannabis Marketing Lab in California; Ariel Clark of the Clark Neubert law firm that specializes in the cannabis business with offices in Santa Monica and San Francisco; and Alexis dAngelo, a Los Angeles-based technology expert and vice president of Business Development at Women Grow.

The topic focus for the panel discussions offers a clear indication of the issues women face. They include:

Challenges and business successes. A panel of successful women in the marijuana industry discuss the challenges they overcame, including getting funding, to succeed in the industry.

Negotiating Your Worth. Offering insights into negotiating sales, business development and laws governing negotiations.

Being Assertive. Tips on how to become more assertive and learning how to say no.

More Resources

The summit in Los Angeles is just one of many efforts taking place across the cannabis industry to encourage and support both new entrepreneurs and those already in the industry.

Related: Getting Healthy, Not High: Using Cannabis to Fight Cancer

For example, LIV Advisors, which is hosting the summit, offers a podcast in which they interview women in the industry. And Los Angeles-based Women Abuv Ground seeks to bring together women in the cannabis industry, including meet ups held at various locations on investing in cannabis and marijuana-related business opportunities. One is scheduled for August in Atlanta.

Simone Cimiluca-Radzins, co-founder of LIV Advisors, also has hosted a number of videos on the cannabis business, including business formation, development and taxes, including the Coffee & Cannabis series.

Follow dispensaries.com on Twitter to stay up to date on the latest cannabis news.

Related:

Women Cannabis Entrepreneurs Gather In L.A. for Empowerment Summit

Oakland Strives to Rejuvenate Economically by Becoming California's Cannabis Capital

Marijuana Workers Now Outnumber Bakers and Other Common Careers



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


Erick Covarrubias was sentenced this week to at least 14 years in jail for his role in a 2016 accident that left his adult passenger seriously injured.

Tanya Weiss was injured in the accident, which occurred July 14, 2016, on Seedling Mile Road.

Covarrubias, 31, pleaded no contest to first-degree assault, failure to stop following a personal injury accident and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony.

District Judge Teresa Luther sentenced Covarrubias Monday to seven to nine years in jail for first-degree assault. For failure to stop following a personal injury accident, he was sentenced to three to four years. For use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, the sentence is seven to eight years.

The first two sentences will run concurrently. The sentence for use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony shall be consecutive to the other two.

On all three sentences, he was given credit for 176 days already served.

Covarrubias was also ordered to pay $12,000 in restitution at the rate of $200 per month for 60 months, beginning 30 days after his release from jail.

Use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony is a Class 2 felony. In this case, the weapon was a motor vehicle. First-degree assault is also a Class 2 felony. Failure to stop following a personal injury accident is a Class 3 felony.

The one-vehicle accident took place at about 9:15 p.m.

Covarrubias was driving a 2001 Ford Expedition west on Seedling Mile near Gunbarrel Road when he lost control on a curve. The vehicle struck a parked car and came to rest against a tree in the yard of 3810 E. Seedling Mile Road.

Weiss, his former girlfriend, was ejected from the vehicle. According to an affidavit written by a Nebraska State Patrol investigator, Weiss had part of her scalp torn off. She also suffered a broken leg, broken ribs, had her right ear ripped off and experienced a broken scapula.

An arrest warrant was issued for Covarrubias after he fled the accident scene.

According to the affidavit, Weiss and Covarrubias had been dating for two years but their relationship had ended a couple of weeks earlier. The affidavit said Covarrubias punched Weiss in the face approximately 60 times before the crash. At the time of the accident, Weiss was 39.

The other passenger in the vehicle was Weiss 1-year-old grandchild.

The Ford Expedition was owned by Crystal Fenster. According to the affidavit, Covarrubias used the vehicle without permission.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy Hall County Attorney Sarah Hinrichs. The defense attorney was Galen Stehlik.
Our Saviours Lutheran Church in Dannebrog is planning a murder mystery dinner fundraiser on Aug. 20.

The dinner will be from 5 to 8 p.m., or until the mystery is solved. Snobby attire is encouraged.

Participants will play along with the roles of the largely dysfunctional members of the Stout family and solve the mystery of Malachai Stouts murder.

One of the family members has committed murder, but the solar eclipse has knocked out the phone lines and the tremendous traffic has backed up all the roads to town. No one leaves until the murderer has been apprehended.

Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door, but seating is limited. For reservations, contact Coryn Nielsen at jcnielsen@nctc.net or Sharon Fries at sharonafries@aol.com. Checks or cash are preferred.

Seventh-day Adventist VBS to focus on why God made us

The Seventh-day Adventist Church and School in Grand Island will present its vacation Bible school, Maker Fun Factory, July 24-28.

The program we are putting on this year is called, Maker Fun Factory.

Children ages 3-13 will be discovering how they were made, by whom they were made and what Gods purpose was in making them. There will be crafts, singing, Bible lessons, snack time and games.

This program will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The church and school are located at 636 S. Shady Bend Road.

To get registered early or for any questions, call Peggy Feddersen at (308) 529-3025.

Abundant Life VBS to take kids on a safari

Abundant Life Christian Centers vacation Bible school this year will be a Summer Safari planned for July 24-28.

There will be Bible stories, fun characters, games, crafts, science, snacks and more.

Preschoolers who are potty trained through children entering the sixth grade are welcome. VBS will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. each day.

The church is located at 3411 W. Faidley Ave. in Grand Island.

To register online, go to https://vbspro.events/p/events/summersafari, or call the church office at (308) 382-4861 or email to office@alccgi.com.
By PTI: By Chandan Prakash Singh

Itanagar, Jul 14 (PTI) Union minister Kiren Rijiju and Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu today undertook an aerial survey of flood-hit districts in the state where all major roads and highways have been damaged by landslides due to heavy rains.

The minister of state for home, who is leading a high- level central team comprising senior officials of the NDRF, the NDMA and the Niti Aayog, took stock of the situation in the entire state along with Khandu, deputy speaker of the Assembly Tumke Bagra and MLA Kaling Moyong.

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They undertook an aerial survey of flood-affected Bambuk, Mebo, Nausai, Niyun and Sagalee areas where most parts have been either inundated or damaged because of landslides.

Floods and landslides triggered by incessant rain in the last couple of days have cut off large areas, including many district headquarters, in the state from the rest of the country, officials said.

Rijiju said, "Though the entire state has suffered and borne the brunt of rains and landslides which have damaged highways and roads, I have asked the authorities to restore the roads within a month."

Khandu said that landslides triggered by heavy rains in the last one week have affected a large part of the state and authorities are working hard to restore roads and connectivity.

"Many areas, including the Papum Pare district, have been affected by floods and landslides. Continuous rains and bad weather have been hampering efforts to improve the situation. Though some areas are yet to be visited, the government is working round the clock to help the people," the chief minister said.

"I thank the Centre for all the help they have extended to the state government," he said.

Yesterday, the Centre had released Rs 51.48 crore to the state government under the State Disaster Response Fund.

The state capital was virtually cut off with its lifeline NH-415 getting totally eroded at the entry point.

The alternative road via Jullang was also blocked, leaving only one road open through Hollongi en route Lakhimpur district in Assam, they said.

At least 14 people were killed in Laptap village when their homes were swept away in a landslide on July 11. PTI CPS AKV NSD BDS NSD

--- ENDS ---
This is a Fourth of July message direct from God to America  and every other nation. Proverbs 14:34 tells us: Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

Some nations were raised up by God for a specific purpose in history. Others have thrived as God blessed them for honoring him. We may not know exactly where America fits into Gods plan for the rise and fall of nations, but perhaps there is a divine principle we can learn from the four main words of our sermon text:

I. Righteousness. We dont hear politicians talking about righteousness. They argue about whos right (them) and whos wrong (everybody else), but say nothing of personal righteousness.

Righteousness implies a standard. Gods word says in Psalm 119:142 that His righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and His law is the truth.

Righteousness implies sovereignty. If there is going to be a standard, someone with the undisputed right and power to rule is going to have to set it. If there is a God, he is the authority on righteousness and everything else. If there is no God, there is no necessary reason to think of anything as right or wrong.

Righteousness suggests the question of compliance. Its one thing to admit that there is a standard, its quite another to personally or collectively live it.

II. Exalts. America has been exalted; God has been the exalter. Why America? Perhaps because of the way Americans of the past honored Gods word and his commands. Perhaps because of churches and missionaries who have carried out the great commission at home and abroad. Perhaps because of Gods gracious choice.

The exalted nation is set apart, lifted up, made high. The Bible teaches that God himself is exalted, Scripture is exalted, and Israel was and will be exalted above other nations. In addition, our sermon text says that righteousness will exalt any nation, and, at least in the past, America has experienced that.

To exalt also means to raise high like an inaccessible fortress, out of the reach of danger. An exalted nation is safe.

The exalted nation is strong, exalted by triumph over enemies. This was especially true for America at the beginning, as God sovereignly allowed the colonies farmers and trappers to defeat the most powerful nation of the 18th century world in the struggle for independence. Even the Civil War could not divide our nation. We can be thankful for every year, every day Gods hand of protection keeps us united and strong.

III. Sin. As surely as righteousness exalts a nation, sin destroys it. Some want to create their own God. We like a God of mercy and love, but not so much a God of judgment and justice. Our sermon text shows us two truths about the one true God. The God of protection and love also must and will judge sin.

Sin can mean missing the mark, as an archer misses his target. God has set the mark. Mankind, since the fall, cannot hit it. How many even try?

To sin can mean to stumble, to err from the path. It can also mean outright rebellion against the good and right. America will only ever be as righteous as the sum of the righteousness of its people.

We cant imagine a world without evil and suffering. The problem is not liberal or conservative, not Christian or Muslim, white or black, rich or poor, educated or uneducated. The problem is sin. If there were no sin, there would be no hunger, no disease, no crime, no natural disasters, no war, no selfishness, no racism, no lying, no exploitation of others, no separation from God, and no death.

Sin is in the world because it is in us; because the first man chose to sin, and because we all chose and choose to sin.

There is only one cure for sin: Jesus blood and righteousness. If we accept his salvation, Jesus blood can forgive our sin, and his righteousness will one day make us perfect, removing the last trace of the power of sin when Christ returns to earth. In the meantime, the more we walk in Gods ways, the more we will already experience his blessings.

IV. Reproach: to be brought low. Nehemiah reported (1:3) that, because of their sin, the Israelites were in great affliction and reproach. They had lost everything, and lived in ruins. God is bound by his justice to judge the sin of any and all nations and people.

Reproach can mean to be ridiculed or reviled. What do other nations think of our government, our culture, our impact on the world?

Reproach also means to strip away all that is good. A crumbling moral base can be the beginning of the end for a nation. Then the pursuit of pleasure and greed and apathy lead to even more immorality, while the unscrupulous vie for power and use fear and despair to manipulate the helpless, ultimately resulting in anarchy.

America has been great because of Gods blessing, Gods exalting. If America falls, it will be because we failed to honor the sovereign God and walk in his ways. His ways are the ways of righteousness  according to his standard, not mine or that of the mob.

What would Gods message to America be if he spoke to us on this 4th of July? Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. Blessed is the man, woman, child and nation who not only hears this truth, but lives it. America can be great again, when America is godly again.
The Hall County Fair got underway Thursday as youth contestants entered the show ring for the hog and poultry competitions at 8 a.m.

The hog show opened with the open class competition. Some of the first contestants in the ring were Katie Collins son, Bryten Collins, 3, and Brytens cousin, Kayde Samway, also 3.

This wasnt Brytens or Kaydes first time in the show ring, though. This is the third year that both of the young boys have shown a hog at the Hall County Fair during the open class show.

Collins and her son live on the family farm where they raise cattle and hogs.

They are excited about this until they come into the arena and they get nervous, Collins said. We should probably work with them a little more.

But the exposure to the ring is a good experience, she said, as the boys will become 4-H Clover Kids at 5 years old, beginning their 4-H experiences. Some of the youth contestants at the Hall County Fair have been showing at the fair for more than 12 years.

Collins said giving Bryten and Kayde an opportunity to show at the fair gives them good experience.

It gives them the experience of being in front of people, she said. It gives them a chance to work on their social skills.

Collins was also a 4-Her but has no recollection of how old she was when she first showed at the Hall County Fair.

Attending with Collins was Keyra Samway, who is Kaydes older sister. She is 8 years old. Keyra is a veteran of the show ring and, like her aunt, has no idea the first time she showed.

The best thing Keyra likes about showing hogs is when the hogs dont get into fights.

A lot of years they have been getting into fights, she said.

The hogs the kids are working with are market hogs and have more than a 250-pound advantage over them.

But the fact that the hogs are so large doesnt faze the showmen a bit. As they get older, like Keyra, they become more focused on both the hog and the judge while showing in the ring.

They arent really intimidated, Collins said.

Judging the young kids for both the open class and the 4-H hog show was Kaden Roush of Lebanon, Kan.

With the young kids, Im just looking to see how in tune they are with their project, Roush said. I like to see that they spend a lot of time with it, that they are getting some education from it and learning knowledge. At that stage, it is all about the experience.

When the contestants get older, Roush said, his focus changes to wanting the kids to demonstrate more detailed knowledge about their project and where they are taking it.

Ill ask some questions about what they know as far as the swine industry and how it is affecting the world and that sort of thing, he said.

During the years Roush has been a judge, he has seen the progress from kids just starting to show to the veterans who have been showing at their local county fair for more than a decade.

Along with paying attention to the youth presenters, he looks at the animals the kids bring into the ring and evaluates them on such things as how much muscle they have and how they walk around the ring.

Overseeing the 4-H livestock side of the Hall County Fair is Melinda Vlieger, youth development specialist for the Hall County Extension Service. She said the 4-H shows are only for youths age 5 to 18, though kids younger than 5 can enter the open class competition.

Vlieger said there are about 60 hogs entered in the years Hall County Fair.

Walking through the barn adjacent to the Five Points Bank Livestock Arena at Fonner Park, fairgoers can see that 4-Hers have brought a wide variety of critters to the fair, from cattle and hogs to sheep, goats, chickens, ducks and horses. There is also a 4-H dog show.

While Hall County is an urban county, with Grand Island making up the bulk of the countys population, Vlieger said the 4-H program is holding steady.

It has held steady from year to year for a few years now, which is always great to see, she said.

From large to small animals, Vlieger said hundreds of 4-Hers also have static exhibits they bring to the Hall County Fair. Those exhibits are located in the Pinnacle Bank Expo Building.

4-H has so many opportunities, she said. The fact that the 4-H program is holding steady is shown by our enrollment numbers. That shows how well supported it is in the community.

Many of the kids who are showing at the Hall County Fair will return to the same facility a month from now for the Nebraska State Fair.

On the other end of the age spectrum Thursday was Ross Otto, who is 17 and a member of the Town and Country 4-H Club.

Otto has been showing at the Hall County Fair for more than a decade. He likes showing hogs, which he has been showing since he was in the seventh grade.

They work pretty good and they are easier to handle than other animals, said Otto, who will be a senior this year at Northwest High School, where he is also a member of the FFA chapter.

The Hall County Fair will continue through Sunday and many activities and events are planned.
The Edwardsville Community Foundation (ECF) is pleased to announce that Walt Williams has recently been appointed as the Foundations newest board member.

Williams currently serves as the City of Edwardsvilles Economic/Community Development Director. He has over 25 years of experience working on community development and redevelopment projects. In this capacity, Williams has been directly responsible for attracting over $988.8M in new investments in the communities he has worked, which resulted in the creation of over 4,500 jobs. Williams role in economic development can best be described as a facilitator.
By PTI: (Eds: Updates with more reax)

Bengaluru, July 14 (PTI) The Karnataka government today served a notice on a top police officer for going to the media on her controversial report on alleged special treatment in jail to AIADMK (Amma) leader V K Sasikala, even as she stood her ground, asserting she had not violated any conduct rules.

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As the report by DIG (Prisons) D Roopa erupted into a major controversy, a red-faced government asked her to explain her conduct, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, saying it was "absolutely against the rule book."

"It is inappropriate on her part to share details with the media," Siddaramaiah told reporters in Mysuru, expressing open displeasure over the public comments by Roopa, whose report has also brought her superior and other prison officials under a cloud of bribery allegations.

Siddaramaiah said she could have approached any of her superiors about her charges against senior officials and that her allegations before the mainstream and social media has brought embarrassment to the police department.

Roopa has been asked to give a reply to the notice served on her, the chief minister said. He said a probe by a senior retired officer has been ordered into the charges made by Roopa against DGP (Prisons) Sathyanarayana Rao, who has rubbished her allegations. Unfazed, Roopa said "I stick to my report and I stand by it, but I have not divulged details of the contents anywhere." She said she had not divulged details of the allegations but it was done by others and"hence Ihave not violated the conduct rule." Roopa said the DGP (Prisons) was the first one to talk about the report and only after that she gave her reaction. "Running away from the media will be misconstrued and therefore I had to clarify as I gave the report," she said. She said she also welcomed the high-level probe ordered into her allegations by the government. "Whatever enquiry the Chief Minister has ordered is most welcome and (I have) no qualms about it. That is fair enough and there should be free and fair enquiry. I will cooperate and the truth has to come out." "And if any confidential information has been leaked which is adamaging one there should be an enquiry. Let it be conducted," she said. Roopa also alleged that "an artificial strike" by prisoners was organised against her in the jail. "They (officials) are supposed to contain any such protests and if they are organising it and releasing the strike footage to the media then that also should be enquired into." In her report submitted to Rao, Roopa had alleged that there was "talk" that Rs two crore had exchanged hands to provide preferential treatment to Sasikala and even said there were allegations against him as well. Rao, however, has rubbished Roopas charge against him, terming it "absolutely false, baseless and wild." He said he would take legal recourse against his junior. He has said no special treatment was being given to Sasikala. In her four-page report after visiting the central prison on July 10, Roopa had said a special kitchen was functioning in the jail here for Sasikala, a convict in a corruption case, in violation of the rules.

Sasikala has been lodged at the Parappana Agrahara central jail here since her conviction in February in a disproportionate assets case along with her two relatives, V N Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, all serving a four-year jail term.

Taking "serious cognisance" of the allegations of irregularities in the central prison, Siddaramaiah yesterday ordered the probe and warned of "strict action" based on the enquiry report, if anyone was found involved in wrong-doing.

In the report, Roopa has also mentioned about the "preferential" treatment being provided to fake stamp paper scam kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi in the prison. Undertrials in his cell are allegedly being used to do his personal work like massaging his shoulders, arms and legs. Noting that six months ago there was a court direction to provide Telgi with assistants as he was using a wheelchair, the DIG in her report said though now he was not dependent on it and was walking properly, three to four undertrials are still allowed in his cell to do his work. "I think you too might have seen this on the CCTV installed in your chamber. Allowing undertrials with convicts like Telgi is against the prison rules. Despite knowing this, the superintendent of the jail has not taken any action," she said. PTI BDN RA APR GSN

--- ENDS ---

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Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 08:19 1947 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8cb53a 4 Editorial #Editorial,Perppu,mass-organizations,Hizbut-Tahrir-Indonesia,democracy,human-rights,#Democracy,#humanrights Free

The scene could not be more symbolic and the parallel could not be more striking. On Wednesday, from a lectern set up inside the State Palace, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto announced the issuance of a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) granting the government the sweeping power to disband mass organizations without judicial process.

It is fitting that a draconian law was announced by a holdover from the New Order regime. Wiranto served as Indonesian Military (TNI) chief under Soeharto and during the countrys transitional period in the late 1990s, so he definitely knows a thing or two about quashing opposition.

Rights groups have rightly condemned the new regulation, saying that with the Perppu, President Joko Jokowi Widodo was turning back the clock to an era when the government could disband mass organizations willy-nilly using the argument that it posed a threat to Pancasila and the Constitution.

The new Perppu gives authority to the Law and Human Rights Ministry to disband a mass organization within a week after issuing only one warning letter, a radical departure from the 2013 Law on Mass Organizations (Ormas) that requires the government to seek a court ruling to ban aberrant organizations.

Its a slippery slope from here. Wiranto himself said that the government will expand the definition of anti-Pancasila ideologies, which currently only refer to atheism, Marxism and Leninism. Western liberalism has been the bete noire of authoritarian regime the world over and with the surge populism, it is easy to imagine that its values could be seen as contradicting Pancasila.

What if the authority decided that labor unions demand for better living for workers had gone too far and branded their fight as inspired by communism? Once the government is in possession of a hammer, it will treat everything as if it were a nail.

It is certainly a risk not worth taking, considering that the Perppus issuance was motivated by the desire to disband the hard-line Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), whose aspiration for establishing a global caliphate not only contradicts the countrys founding principles, but also basic democratic norms (HTI leaders have consistently argued the democratic system is not consistent with Islamic teachings, as sovereignty is in the hands of God).

Without doubt, the presence of HTI and other hardline organizations, especially those that promote violence, are a threat to liberal society, but the government has at its disposal a variety of means to deal with them. For groups like HTI, which campaigns to replace existing order with a caliphate, police could charge members with treason as regulated by the Criminal Code (KUHP).

For hard-line groups that continued to promote violence, there are numerous articles in the KUHP that could be used to punish them. Or, if these groups promoted hate speech or violence on the internet and social media, the Electronic Information and Transaction Law could be a powerful tool to deal with them.

The government may have good intentions in banning HTI, but the means do not justify the ends.
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Linkedin Rahmat HM (The Jakarta Post) Pangkep  Fri, July 14, 2017

While the fourth Indonesian Diaspora Congress held in Jakarta on July 1, featuring Barack Obama as the keynote speaker, made headlines across mainstream and social media, a little-noticed gathering of Indonesian diaspora in the small regency of Pangkep, South Sulawesi, coincidentally took place on the same day.

The gathering, called the Pangkep Diaspora Network (PDN), inspired by the national congress, aimed to create a platform for Pangkep migrants, professional workers, and international students who originate from the regency.

The congress focused on the tradition of mudik (homecoming) and the custom of countless school reunions held during the Idul Fitri or Lebaran holiday.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Klaten, Central Java  Fri, July 14, 2017 10:02 1947 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8cfeca 1 Art & Culture pottery,Klaten,Central-Java,Pagerjurang,handicrafts Free

Sitting to the side of a slanted potters wheel, the woman's hands skillfully shape the clay atop a spinning base. Simultaneously, her foot moves a rope cast over a bamboo support structure and around the axel of the wheel. It is the continuous movement of her foot that spins the wheel head.

When the turning is over, the clay has been transformed into functional shapes like bowls, cups, plates, jugs, cobek (mortar) and vases.

This earthenware turning technique is known as gerabah putaran miring (sideways pottery turning), in which the artisan sits on the floor with their body positioned sideways to a slanted pottery wheel locally called perbot. The circular wooden base of the wheel is slanted at around a 45-degree angle to the floor. The turning technique is considered unique and has been passed down through the generations in Pagerjurang hamlet of Melikan village, Wedi district, Klaten regency, Central Java.

The technique is said to have existed in Pagerjurang 300 years ago, during the era of Javanese Islamic cleric Sunan Bayat, also known as Sunan Pandanaran.

Read also: Klipoh, under the radar pottery village in Magelang

According to Melikan village secretary, Sukanta, the pottery artisans in Pagerjurang at the time were women donning kebaya (traditional Indonesian female attire) and kain jarik (traditional Javanese cloth), while the men were tasked to search for clay.(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)

According to Melikan village secretary Sukanta, the earthenware artisans in Pagerjurang at the time were women who wore kebaya (traditional female blouse) and kain jarik (traditional Javanese cloth, worn by wrapping), while the men were tasked with searching for clay.

He added that it was Sunan Bayat's idea to slant the wheel head down for ethical reasons, as the cleric considered it indecent for a woman to spin the pottery with straddled legs like men.

"Since then, the pottery technique used here has been known as gerabah putaran miring," said Sukanta, himself an artisan.

The women currently wear long pants or long skirts instead of kain jarik when turning pottery.

"The sideways turning technique is used to make small and fine pottery, such as dinner sets, fruit plates, jugs, bowls and teapots, which is the task of women," said one of the artisans, 45-year-old Lastri. She inherited the pottery-making skills from her grandfather and parents, and now continues the family business with her husband.

Read also: Bantul's rustic pottery in demand in Europe

An artisan prepares pottery that will be burnt.(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)

Meanwhile, the men are tasked to create earthenware that are bigger and thicker, such as flowerpots and gentong (large storage vessels), using the gerabah putaran datar (flat pottery turning) technique. The hamlet is home to at least 200 earthenware home industries, which are famous for using natural glazes.

"[The pottery] are fired for 24 hours using wood. Afterwards, we have to wait another 12 hours before we take out the pottery," said 50-year-old Sarmidi, adding that the firing process made Pagerjurang pottery safe for cooking, eating and drinking.

The hamlet's earthenware business did not make much money for the artisans though, he said. People today preferred using tableware and storage containers made of plastic or aluminum instead of clay.

"Currently there are also many modern pottery products, either in their technique or design. But you can only find traditional pottery here, of which we are very proud," Sarmidi added. (kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 15:05 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8e041c 1 Art & Culture ubud-writers-readers-festival,Ubud,Literature,#literature,#ubud-writers-and-readers-festival,writers Free

Fifteen emerging writers from across Indonesia have been selected to participate in the upcoming Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2017 (UWRF) slated for Oct. 25 to 29 in Ubud, Bali.

According to Antara news agency, the selected writers are Abdul Azis Rasjid from Banyumas, Ade Ubaidil from Cilegon, A. Nabil Wibisana from Kupang, Aksan Taqwin Embe from Tangerang, Bayu Pratama from Mataram, Erich Langobelen from Maumere, Ibe S. Palogai from Makassar, Mohammad Isa Gautama from Padang, Morika Tetelapta from Ambon, M. Subhan from Padang, Naimatur Rofiqoh from Ponorogo, Rahmat Hidayat Mustamin from Makassar, Rizki Amir from Sidoarjo, Taufiqurrahman from Yogyakarta, and Seruni Unie from Surakarta.

The events national program manager, I Wayan Juniarta, said the writers would fly to Ubud to participate in literary discussions with international writers. Aside from that, the selected works will be translated into English and published in the Anthology 2017 book, he added.

There were reportedly 913 submissions for this years UWRF. They consisted of short stories, poems, novels, essays, non-fiction pieces, dramatic scripts and more. Interestingly, most of the submitted works were poems (377), followed by short stories (278).

Read also: ASEAN Literary Festival to bring influential writers to Jakarta

The emerging writers, who are students, journalists, laborers and fishermen, among other things, were selected by a panel of curators that included senior journalist Seno Gumira Ajidarma, writer Leila S. Chudori and poet Warih Wisatsana.

'Emerging' is the term used by UWRF for Indonesian writers with quality works that haven't yet been properly published, Juniarta explained.

Seno said the event received many submissions about metaliterature this year, with themes that questioned literature and language. This is very interesting because that means young Indonesian writers have started to explore from a more intellectual point of view."

Meanwhile, Warih said the writers' various backgrounds contributed to the creation of interesting works. The selected works use daily life themes and that is how true literature works. Of course, it's very interesting to read works about life in a quite secluded area."

It was also revealed that six of this year's selected writers come from the eastern part of Indonesia. (mas/kes)
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Linkedin Carla Bianpoen (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 11:51 1947 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8d7b7b 4 Art & Culture art-and-culture,painting,exhibition,Aborigin,batik,Australia,Australia-Indonesia Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodos vlogging with Australias Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, and the collaborative canvas by Aboriginal Jandamarra Cadd and Indonesian artist Jerry Thung at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta show the same spirit of communication and collaboration in good humor.

The opening of an exhibition on indigenous art at the Australian Embassy on July 11 was marked by these features made visible on the canvas, which was placed as the center piece of the show. The show runs until Friday.

Cadd, known as a specialist of portraiture, and Jerry, a versatile artist who has delved in the philosophies of both the East and the West, decided to take land, water and sky as a joint theme for their collaborative canvas.

The serpent on Cadds side of the canvas denotes the myth of creation, the dots reflect the seas, while Jerry takes into the skies symbolized by clouds that are often seen in the Megamendung batiks of Cirebon, West Java.

The exhibition proper is in fact an allegory of art works made by aboriginal people, from the very simple drawings of fish to the abstract dots, the figurative and the realistic, including portraiture.

Read also: Australia-Indonesia cultural relationship: Those who shaped our critical mind

But the most interesting might be the dot paintings, made up of small dots of paint colors like yellow (representing the sun), brown (the soil), red (desert sand) and white (the clouds and the sky).

Batik touch: A collaborative canvas by Aboriginal Jandamarra Cadd and Indonesian artist Jerry Thung is on display at an exhibition on Australian indigenous art at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta until Friday.(JP/Carla Bianpoen)

For those unfamiliar with aboriginal dot painting, a first impression could be that of pointillism, the dotted art from early modernity that developed in the late 1880s and was first used to describe the work of French artist Georges Seurat. Or maybe the dots in Japanese artist Yayoi Kusamas works come to mind.

But the dots in aboriginal art were first used hundreds of years ago as a form to disguise the sacred designs that belonged to a particular ceremony. Originally made on sand, the practice later (only in the 1970s) went over to canvas, which made the paintings more durable (and commercially viable). Sometimes, the dots are so tiny that they appear as a line. This is apparent in, among others, the painting Mulligan-Goorbadjim by Judy Mengil, which used natural earth pigments and synthetic polymer binder.

While originally, the colors used were yellow, brown, red and white, in a later development, other colors became prominent, as seen in the green colored painting Kata Ala by Maringka Baker.

Read also: Indonesian language literacy: What Australia can learn from South Korea

Of course Australias proximity to Indonesia is generally well-known, particularly Arnhem Land in Northern Australia, where the Bugis seafarers left their trace, among others in the name Marege for Arnhem, a Makassar word that is originally combined with leleng, which means black.

This connection with Indonesia is also evident in the batik cloth that was based on a bark painting and created by an elder artist in residence under the North-East Arnhem Lands Yirrkala Arts Center, who was inspired by his ancestral links to Makassar.

Also from Arnhem Land is the Lorrkon, or hollow log coffin, featuring a tree trunk hollowed out by termites and painted before the deceaseds bones were laid inside.

Ambassador Paul Grigson expressed his delight to present the Indigenous Artwork Collection of the Australian Embassy Jakarta for the first time in a single space.

The works are usually on display in three separate locations: The Chancery Building, the Executive Residence and the Ambassadors Official Residence.

It is a token of respect for indigenous Australians values and connection to the country, Grigson said.
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Linkedin Asmara Wreksono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 14:02 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8dd2ed 1 Science & Tech bekraf,startup,creative-economy,#startup,Government-Incentive-Assistance Free

The Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) launched the Government Incentive Assistance (BIP) program, to provide capital access for creative economy businesses in the digital application, game development and culinary sub sectors, on Thursday at Balai Kartini in South Jakarta.

BIP is a non-banking capital assistance scheme for creative economy businesses in the form of working capital top-ups and/or fixed assets investments facilitated by Bekraf.

"BIP 2017 is a pilot project of capital assistance distribution by the Bekraf capital access deputy. This is one of our efforts to increase the business capacity and production of creative economy businesses in the form of capital top-ups," Bekraf capital access deputy Fadjar Hutomo explained.

In its effort to accelerate the growth of the creative economy in Indonesia, Bekraf has identified the problem of capital access. "One of the problems faced by small-medium enterprises is always collateral problems, while the banks surely cannot abandon their collateral principles in order to build its customers' credibility," Fadjar said.

Read also: Bekraf head gets Korea diplomatic medal

A solution that can help small-medium enterprises, Fadjar suggests, is for these businesses to build their own digital credibility.

"In the olden days, whenever a customer applied for credit from a bank, he had to prove his business earnings by providing his bank transfers documents. The process would then be followed up by trade checking by the bank where a bank official would physically visit the businesses' premises to do a sample survey. All of this was to build the customers' credibility," he said. "Today, this kind of data is available digitally."

Bekraf seeks to fill the gap in a startup's 'valley of death' stage during which nine in ten startups fail due to funding problems. Aside from providing capital access assistance, the agency also hopes to create a conducive capital ecosystem by encouraging participation and contributions from private companies and the government.

Read also: Registration is open for local creative talents to join SXSW 2017

The capital access assistance program is available for Indonesian nationals (preferably with incorporated businesses) who have not received any assistance similar to the BIP from any ministry or governmental body in 2017. BIP applicants will have to include a proposal with supporting documents that outline their planned utilization of BIP in their businesses.

Applicants will then be required to undergo interviews and give presentations to the curators before a final verification process to receive the BIP. Online applications are open from July 13 to 24 at Bekraf's official website.

Fadjar said that if this pilot project was successful, Bekraf would be open to providing more capital next year.

"The main consideration for a business to be awarded with this assistance is the business' sustainability," he said. "My message to the recipients is that this is the trust we're putting in you. We are hoping the creative economy can become the backbone of the Indonesian economy so the nation will not only depend on its natural resources, but also on the intellect of its people." (asw)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 18:00 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8e7b20 2 National MK,Constitutional-Court,Arief-Hidayat,justice,chief-justice Free

Incumbent Arief Hidayat was elected Constitutional Court (MK) chief justice for the 2017-2020 period, following a three-hour meeting among justices to choose a new leader on Friday.

Speaking to reporters after the closed-door meeting, held at the Constitutional Court building on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, Arief promised that the nations top court would to be more optimal in handling cases under his leadership.

Arief, whose first term started in 2015, said he hoped the Constitutional Court would handle no more regional election disputes, saying the top courts justices, nine in total, had been overwhelmed by the task.

It would be better if there was a special court for regional election disputes as stipulated [by the Regional Elections Law]. Therefore, we can focus on carrying out our tasks as stipulated in the Constitution, said Arief, a law professor from Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java.

People have voiced hope that Fridays election would bring a new dawn for the Constitutional Court, which is recovering from a series of scandals in recent months, such as a corruption case involving disgraced justice Patrialis Akbar and the theft of documents related to regional election disputes.

Court secretary-general Guntur Hamzah said it was possible there would for another chief justice election in 2018 because Ariefs five-year term as a justice would end in April next year. (mos)
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Linkedin Becky Davis (AFP) Shenyang, China  Fri, July 14, 2017 07:45 1947 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8c9ab3 2 World Beijing,China,Liu-Xiaobo,One-China-policy,CommunistParty,communism,Nobel-laureate,Nobel,Nobel-Peace-Prize,Nobel-Prize,Tiananmen-Square Free

China's Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo died Thursday after losing his battle with terminal cancer, remaining in custody under guard in hospital until his last breath as Beijing faced a wave of criticism over its treatment of the Tiananmen Square protest veteran.

China bears a "heavy responsibility" for the death of Liu, the Nobel Committee said, less than two months after the 61-year-old was transferred to hospital from prison.

International human rights groups, Western governments and Chinese activists had urged authorities to free Liu and grant his final wish to be treated abroad.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed Liu as a "courageous fighter for human rights", while British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said it was "wrong" China did not allow him to travel overseas for treatment.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on China to free Liu's widow, who has been under house arrest since 2010 but was allowed to be at the hospital as he said his final goodbye.

Liu became the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in custody since German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky in 1938, who had been held by the Nazis.

The Nobel Committee said in a statement: "We find it deeply disturbing that Liu Xiaobo was not transferred to a facility where he could receive adequate medical treatment before he became terminally ill."

"The Chinese government bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death."

However, even as Germany called him a "hero" of democracy and voiced "regret" that China brushed off its offer to host Liu, US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron offered praise for China's Xi Jinping at a press conference Thursday in Paris, avoiding comment on Liu's death.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply saddened" but refrained from criticising China for refusing to allow the Nobel laureate to receive treatment abroad.

The legal bureau in the northeastern city of Shenyang said on its website that Liu succumbed to multiple organ failure, three days after being taken into intensive care at the First Hospital of China Medical University.

His family was by his side and he said goodbye to his wife, the poet Liu Xia, and in his final moments told her to "live well", his main doctor said at a news conference.

The bespectacled writer's death silences a government critic who had been a thorn in the side of the authorities for decades and who became a symbol of Beijing's growing crackdown on dissenting voices.

Liu was detained in 2008 after calling for democratic reforms and sentenced to 11 years in prison for "subversion" a year later.

He was represented by an empty chair at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo in 2010.

- 'Giant of human rights' -

International human rights groups, Western governments and local activists had urged authorities to free Liu and alow him to be treated abroad.

But China's foreign ministry repeatedly said other countries should not interfere in its internal affairs.

Chen Guangcheng, one of China's best-known activists who fled to the US in 2012, said Liu was "deliberately killed" by the country's rulers, urging the international community to maintain pressure on Beijing.

"He was killed by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), deliberately killed by them," Chen told AFP in a telephone interview from Washington.

Chen alleged that China had refused to allow Liu to travel abroad for treatment because they "were likely to discover what was really wrong with him and would probably reveal that they had been harming him with medication or some such things".

Germany had offered to host Liu as recently as Wednesday, calling for a "signal of humanity" from Beijing. The US and Taiwan were also willing to take him in.

Liu's Chinese doctors had said he was not healthy enough to travel abroad, a position contradicted by US and German medical experts invited by the hospital to examine Liu's condition last weekend.

But Liu Yunpeng, the hospital's head of internal medicine, said Thursday that the writer's condition abruptly deteriorated after the foreign doctors requested an assessment to determine if he could travel.

"The danger (of travelling) was extremely great," doctor Liu said.

Rights groups accused authorities of manipulating information about his health and refusing to let him leave because they were afraid he would use the freedom to denounce China's one-party Communist regime.

"The Chinese government's arrogance, cruelty, and callousness are shocking  but Liu's struggle for a rights-respecting, democratic China will live on," said Human Rights Watch's China director Sophie Richardson.

- 'I'm sorry, Xiaobo' -

Liu was arrested nine years ago after co-writing Charter 08, a bold petition that called for the protection of basic human rights and reform of China's political system.

During the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, he helped negotiate the safe exit of thousands of student demonstrators on the night of June 3-4, 1989 when the military bloodily suppressed six weeks of protests.

Fellow activists and family friends were in mourning.

"I'm sorry, Xiaobo. I'm sorry. We put forth our greatest effort, but we could not win your freedom while you were still living," Beijing-based activist Hu Jia said on Twitter.

"But we will continue fighting for freedom for your love Liu Xia. The world is sorrowful. Your unfulfilled wish is our mission." (**)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 23:50 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8e6fd8 1 City LBH,LBH-Jakarta,Jakarta-Legal-Aid-Institute,IdulFitri,Idul-Fitri,Idul-Fitri-2017 Free

The Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) has called on the government to impose tougher measures on companies refusing to pay holiday bonuses (THR) to their employees.

Citing a report released on Thursday, the Jakarta-based rights advocacy group said during the period of June 15 to July 3, 63 individuals and groups from across Indonesia had submitted 1,411 THR-related complaints for this years Idul Fitri.

It shows a significant increase from the number of complaints submitted last year, when only 98 complaints were lodged by 19 individuals and groups.

Most of them complained because they had not received their Idul Fitri bonuses, LBH Jakarta activist Aprilia Tengker told journalists on Thursday.

LBH found that 34 of the total 64 complaints reported that companies refused to pay THR while 14 others said their THR payments were delayed. The remaining 15 complaints stated various problems, such as the amount of THR paid by companies not being in accordance with the Manpower and Transmigration Minister Regulation (Permenaker) on religious festivity allowance payment.

LBH Jakarta has opened posts for workers to lodge complaints since 2010. The step was taken to defend the rights of workers. However, the group said, it had not yet seen improvements in the approach taken by the government to deal with companies violating the Permenaker.

The pattern of complaints are similar with what we received when we first opened the post seven years ago, said another LBH Jakarta public activist, Eny Rofiatul. (hol/ebf)
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) Markets regulator Sebi today ordered four former directors of MARS Agrofarm Developers Ltd (MADL) to refund money raised fraudulently from public, along with interest.

Ajigul Haque, Seikh Sarafat Ali, Arup Bhattacharya and Sheik Saukat Ali were directors of the firm between November 2010 and December 2011.

The latest order comes more than a year after the regulator had directed the firm and its three other directors -- Sekh Sahadat Ali, Abu Taleb Mohammod and Tushar Kanti Kanti Samanta -- to refund the money which was raised from the public through Redeemable Preference Shares (RPS) without complying with the public issue norms.

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MADL had mobilised Rs 25 lakh by issuing RPS to 237 investors during Financial Year 2010-11.

The regulator said in an order that Ajigul Haque, Seikh Sarafat Ali, Arup Bhattacharya and Sheik Saukat Ali should "jointly and severally" along with the company and others, refund the money.

Sebi reiterated its earlier direction, passed in February 2016, against the company and the three other individuals.

"The repayments and interest payments to investors shall be effected only through bank demand draft or pay order," the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said.

The regulator also directed the four former directors to issue public notice, in all editions of two national dailies (one English and one Hindi) and in one local daily with wide circulation, detailing the modalities for refund, including details of contact persons including names, addresses and contact details, within fifteen days.

Sebi also said it "may initiate appropriate action" against the four erstwhile directors, including adjudication proceedings, in case of failure to comply with the directions of the regulator on expiry of three months from the date of the order. PTI VRN ABM

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Linkedin Moses Ompusunggu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 14:20 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8dd84b 1 National MK,Constitutional-Court,chief-justice-candidates,Patrialis-Akbar Free

Constitutional Court justices are gathering to elect a leader for the 2017-2020 period.

Court spokesman Rubiyo said all of the courts nine justices arrived at 8:30 a.m. at the court building on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, to attend a closed-door meeting aimed at reaching a consensus on who will be elected chief justice.

"All of the justices have the same chance to be elected [chief justice for the upcoming period]," Rubiyo told reporters.

(Read also: YLBHI, ICW oppose reelection of Constitutional Court chief)

Rubiyo said incumbent Arief Hidayat, a law professor from Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, who assumed his position in 2015, could also be elected for a second time, according to a prevailing regulation on the chief justice election mechanism.

If the meeting fails to reach a consensus, the justices will elect a leader through a vote. A justice who secures a majority of votes will be automatically elected the new chief justice. The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for Friday afternoon.

Critics have voiced hopes that Fridays election will deliver a new dawn for the Constitutional Court, which is still recovering from a series of scandals in recent months.

These include a corruption case involving former justice Patrialis Akbar and the theft of documents related to a regional election dispute case. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 17:00 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8e7dff 2 National ignasius-jonan,TNI,Indonesian-Military,terrorists,Gatot-Nurmantyo Free

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry seems to mean business in protecting state energy and mining assets against acts of terror even though no vital installations in the country have been targeted by terrorists to date.

The ministry signed an agreement on Friday with the Indonesian Military (TNI) on the role of the armed forces in securing exploration activities of natural resources across the country managed by the ministry. It made a similar deal with the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) a few months ago.

Its especially for vital installations, such as upstream oil and gas exploration, and power and fuel installations, Energy Minister Ignasius Jonan said after the signing ceremony at TNI headquarters in Jakarta, as quoted by kompas.com.

TNI chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo said he would deploy personnel to several onshore and offshore exploration sites as they could face security threats at any time. When ministry officials conduct [field] studies in the sea, they are often bothered by [foreign] vessels, he said.

In March, the ministry signed a similar memorandum with the BNPT, during which the ministry also requested the help of the BNPT to compile standard operating procedures for the protection of state assets. At that time, Jonan said the level of security was different depending on the operators.

Meanwhile, BNPT chief Suhardi Alius said that although there was no indication that terrorists would target energy or mining assets, it was important to take precautionary measures. (yon)
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Linkedin Moses Ompusunggu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 23:49 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8e6644 1 National Research-Technology-and-Higher-Education-Ministry,Mohamad-Nasir,Rudiantara,West-Java,radicalism,Padjadjaran-University Free

Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Mohamad Nasir has called on universities in West Java to step up their efforts to prevent the spread of radical teachings among students.

Speaking in front of top officials from 44 universities in the province on Friday, Nasir said radicalism "could de-stabilize" campuses, which were expected to increase their competitiveness, such as through research publications.

Representatives of the 44 campuses in West Java, which was widely known as Indonesia's most intolerant province, signed an anti-radicalism declaration at Padjadjaran University in Bandung. In the declaration, campuses are urged to embody nationalism values that are important to unite the diverse peoples of Indonesia.

Nasir ordered rectors to carry out intensive monitoring of activities inside campuses, including "discussions on campuses."

"Rectors are responsible for this thing [countering radicalism] and have to know the condition of lecturers and students," Nasir said.

Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara, West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) rector Hery Suhardiyanto and a number of lawmakers attended the event. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 14:40 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8de5aa 1 National House,setya-novanto,KPK,e-ID,#e-ID,graft,corruption-eradication-commission,corruption,House-speaker,Golkar,GolkarParty Free

House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto appeared at the headquarters of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Jakarta on Friday to attend a questioning session as a witness in the e-ID case.

The Golkar Party chairman served as a witness for businessman Andi Agustinus, aka Agus Narogong, the businessman who won the tender process for the Rp 5.9 trillion (US$442 million) project.

Accompanied by Golkar secretary-general Idrus Marham, Setya arrived at the headquarters at around 9:50 a.m.

He declined to give any comment.

Setya fulfilled the KPK summons after failing to show up last week, citing health reasons.

Setyas role in the case was revealed in an indictment read out at a hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court related to former home ministry officials Irman and Sugiharto.

The documents claim that Setya, who was a Golkar Party faction chairman when the case occurred, allegedly helped Andi secure the Houses approval to disburse Rp 5.9 trillion from the state budget for the project between 2010 and 2013.

In return, he allegedly received Rp 574 billion. (kuk/ebf)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jambi  Fri, July 14 2017

The Jambi District Court has sentenced Malaysian national Yeuw Kong Yuleh, also known as Alung, to one year and six months in prison for money laundering. The defendant was also ordered to pay Rp 50 million (US$3,747) in fines or serve an additional two months in prison.

The sentence, which was handed on Wednesday, was lighter than prosecutors demand of two years imprisonment.

The defendant has been found guilty as he cannot prove that his wealth did not come from selling wild animals, presiding judge Barita Saragih said.

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Linkedin Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara  Fri, July 14, 2017 12:15 1947 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8d9f1b 1 National lobsters,lobster-seeds,Lombok,West-Nusa-Tenggara,maritime-affairs-and-fisheries-ministry Free

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry claims that fishermen catching lobster seeds in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), do not object to switching occupations as recommended by the government.

The ministrys fish cultivation director general, Slamet Soebjakto, said his officials had been dispatched to fishing villages in Central Lombok and had found that not a single fisherman opposed the idea of finding new work.

They have all agreed to voluntarily switch occupations from catching lobster seeds to cultivating fish, said Slamet, speaking after a meeting with NTB Deputy Governor Muhammad Amin in Mataram on Thursday.

Slamet said this year the ministry would allocate Rp 50 billion (US$3.75 million) to help 2,246 families in West, Central and East Lombok switch occupations.

Slamet said the program was an alternative for fishermen affected by Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Regulation (Permen) No 56/2016. The regulation bans the catching of crab and lobster seeds.

He said the ministry, together with the NTB provincial and Lombok regency administrations, introduced the assistance program several months ago

Slamet said through the program, fishermen were given equipment and training, not cash, to cultivate fish or seaweed. Lombok had significant lobster resources that needed to be protected, he added. (ebf)
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Linkedin Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara  Fri, July 14, 2017 23:43 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8e5db1 1 National lobsters,lobster-seeds,NTB,West-Nusa-Tenggara,Lombok,conservation Free

With lobster populations facing rapid decline, regulating the exploitation of lobster seeds is crucial to ensure economic benefits can be enjoyed while at the same time preserving the species' survival.

According to official data, at least four million lobster seeds were sent out of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) before Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Regulation (Permen) No 56/2016 banning the catching of crab and lobster seeds was issued.

After the issuance of Permen No.56, at least 1.9 million lobsters seeds have been seized during smuggling attempts thus preventing Rp 98 billion (US$7.34 million) in financial losses to the state.

The regulation was issued to preserve lobster populations, the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministrys fisheries cultivation director general Slamet Soebjakto.

(Read also: Lobster fishermen have no objection to switching occupations: Ministry)

NTB Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Agency head Lalu Hamdi said the province was the production center of lobsters and lobster seeds involving over 10,000 fisherfolk families in Lombok and Sumbawa.

For preservation reasons, after 2015, the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has banned the catching of lobster seeds weighing 200 grams and less, he added.

Lalu said many fishermen in NTB had lost their livelihoods because of Permen No.56 while others faced legal processes for violating the ban.

This year we have received Rp 50 billion of cultivation packages. We will focus on fishermen who have had to switch their occupations, Lalu said. During the third week of July, participants in an occupation switch program will receive training and supervision. During the fourth week they will receive the packages. (ebf)


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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 13:58 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8dc802 1 City robbery,Grogol-Petamburan,robbery-attempt,West-Jakarta Free

Feby Ferdian, 23, a shop attendant at an Indomaret in Grogol Petamburan, West Jakarta, sustained gunshot wounds to his leg after an assault by robbers, who attempted to steal his motorcycle parked at the store on Wednesday.

Feby foiled the attempt by kicking out the robbers, who were about to flee the scene with his Honda Scoopy motorcycle. Frustrated by the shop clerks brave resistance, one of the perpetrators fired a bullet into the clerks right leg.

The victim saw that the perpetrators were attempting to steal his motorcycle and quickly chased them. They shot him and left the motorcycle, Tanjung Duren Police criminal unit head Adj. Comr. Rensa Aktadivia said as quoted by tribunnews.com on Thursday.

He said Feby was rushed to Sumber Waras Hospital to undergo surgery following the attack.

A 9 millimeter calibre projectile is being examined at the National Police forensic laboratory, Rensa said.

The police are currently investigating the case. (fac/ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 11:54 1947 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8d8418 1 Business Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati,tax-revenue,state-budget,2017 Free

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has asked the Directorate General of Taxation to increase tax revenues by Rp 20 trillion (US$1.49 billion) from what was stipulated in the draft 2017 State Budget Revision.

Previously, Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution announced that in the draft of the revised budget, the government had cut the tax revenue target by about Rp 50 trillion to Rp 1.45 quadrillion (US$108.35 billion) from nearly Rp 1.5 quadrillion.

If Sri Mulyanis proposal is approved by the House of Representatives, the cut will only be Rp 30 trillion from the original target listed in the 2017 State Budget.

Sri Mulyani has expressed optimism that her target can be achieved.

[The target can be achieved] with extra effort in collection, investigation and gijzeling (the use of incarceration to punish tax evasion), said Sri Mulyani as reported by tempo.co.

Previously, Darmin said the Rp 50 trillion cut was designed to make the state budget more realistic.

Imagine if we do not cut the target by Rp 50 trillion. Investors can calculate [that we will miss the target]. The impact will be worse if we do not make a correction, said Darmin.

Sri Mulyani claims that despite missing the target, tax revenue collection in the first half of the year has been fairly good. Collection grew 9.6 percent compared to the figure recorded in the same period last year. (bbn)
By PTI: (Attn EDS: With additional quotes of Athawale)

Mumbai/Ahmedabad, July 14 (PTI) Union minister Ramdas Athawale has equated "so-called" cow vigilantes with cannibals and said that everybody has the right to eat beef.

Contending that "violent cow vigilantes" were defaming the Modi government, he demanded severe punishment for such people as he denounced the killing of a man in Nagpur two days back over the suspicion of carrying beef.

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"Everyone has the right to eat beef. Since goat meat is expensive, people eat beef. I condemn the Nagpur incident. It is not right to become a nar-bhakshak (cannibal) in the name of being a gau-rakshak (cow protector)," the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment told reporters in Mumbai today.

He said cow vigilantes should not take the law into their hands. "Such violent cow vigilantes should be punished," Athawale said.

A 31-year-old Muslim man, with links to the BJP, was brutally thrashed in public by alleged cow vigilantes in Nagpur on Wednesday on the suspicion that he was carrying beef.

"Such incidents should not recur anywhere in the country. The Maharashtra government has already initiated action against those involved in the Nagpur incident. People who take law into their hands in the name of cow protection will be dealt with very strictly," the minister told reporters in Ahmedabad.

"I condemn whatever is happening in the name of saving cows in the country. These so-called gau-rakshaks are actually nar-bhakshaks who are defaming our government by such acts," he added.

Appealing to people to maintain a peaceful atmosphere, Athawale said, "Recently, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned these cow vigilantes to stop hooliganism in the name of cow protection. We are having a zero tolerance policy for such acts and our government will teach a lesson to these elements".

Meanwhile, about the explosives found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Athawale said this was a "very serious matter".

"This incident is similar to the attack on Parliament (in 2001)," he said.

"There is no conspiracy to kill Yogi (Adityanath), but there should be an investigation into the matter. Its possible terror links should be also probed," he said.

In a major security breach, a powerful plastic explosive was found in the UP Assembly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today informed the House, which unanimously recommended an NIA probe into it.

On NDAs presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, who is scheduled to visit Mumbai tomorrow, the Dalit leader said, "He should visit Matoshree and meet (Shiv Sena president) Uddhav Thackeray. Pranab Mukherjee had also visited Matoshree when his candidature was announced (for the post of president)".

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Sources in the BJP had earlier said Kovind was not scheduled to visit Thackerays residence during his Mumbai visit.

Athawale had visited Ahmedabad yesterday to take part in the regional conference of the ministers of Social Welfare departments from Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and the Union Territories of Diu & Daman and Dadara & Nagar Haveli. PTI ND NP PJT PD NSK AKK

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 23:55 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8e79b6 1 National Indonesian-Military,energy-and-mineral-resources-ministry,ignasius-jonan,Gatot-Nurmantyo,oil-and-gas,Oil-and-gas-lifting Free

Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo and Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan signed on Friday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on a cooperation between the two institutions on security precautions for natural resource exploration activities in the country.

Jonan said the TNI would secure all exploration and exploitation activities conducted by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.

We first signed an MoU that will be later materialized in the form of an agreement. This partnership is to secure vital objects, especially in oil and gas upstream exploration and exploitation activities, and in electricity and fuel installations, the minister said as quoted by kompas.com during a press conference after the MoU signing ceremony at TNI headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta.

Jonan further said the cooperation was part of a wider effort to ensure all oil and gas exploration and exploitation activities in Indonesia remained secure.

Gatot said the TNI would provide security on land and sea.

Exploitation points managed by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry often faced interference from third parties.

Ministry research has revealed that [off shore drilling] activities have often been disturbed by foreign-flagged vessels. To secure them, Indonesian Navy personnel will be deployed to provide security, Gatot said.

He further said that the TNI would also monitor the implementation of the governments one-fuel-price policy across Indonesia, especially in remote areas. (yon/ebf)
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Linkedin Chris Lefkow (AFP) Washington, United States  Fri, July 14, 2017 08:59 1947 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8cd61a 2 World DonaldTrump,Donald-Trump,Russia-scandal,Jared-Kushner,Hillary-Clinton,US-election Free

Donald Trump's eldest son Don Jr may be in the media spotlight over his notorious Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton.

But the latest revelation in the burgeoning scandal has added to the pressure on another family member who was at the meeting and is already in the crosshairs of investigators -- Jared Kushner, the president's influential son-in-law.

Democrats are up in arms, demanding that the 36-year-old Kushner -- a senior adviser to the president with an office in the White House -- be stripped of his security clearance.

"There doesn't seem to be any ethical standard in the White House," Democratic House minority leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted on Thursday.

"Jared Kushner's security clearance must be immediately revoked."

Even some from Trump's Republican Party are not so sure that Kushner -- who is married to the president's eldest daughter Ivanka -- should remain in the West Wing.

"I'm going out on a limb here  but I would say I think it would be in the president's best interest if he removed all of his children from the White House," Texas Representative Bill Flores told local television Thursday.

"Not only Donald Trump (Jr.), but Ivanka and Jared Kushner."

- Omissions on security clearance forms -

While Donald Jr has no role in his father's administration -- he is helping run his corporate empire -- Kushner is one of Trump's closest advisors.

The Harvard graduate is also the progeny of a powerful New York real estate family, and has long been in Trump's inner circle.

It was actually an omission on a government security clearance application filed by Kushner that led to the revelation of the meeting between himself, Donald Jr, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and the Russian lawyer.

It also led Donald Jr to release an email chain about the planning of that meeting -- which is now being cited as the most serious evidence yet of alleged collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia.

In the June 2016 emails, Donald Jr eagerly agrees to a meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer who is said to possess incriminating information about Clinton and invites Kushner and Manafort to come along.

Kushner, filing a security clearance document known as an SF-86, initially neglected to mention that he attended the meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya -- as well as contacts he had with several other Russians, including Moscow's ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.

The meeting with Veselnitskaya came to light only after Kushner filed an amended SF-86 form.

Veselnitskaya confirmed to CNN and MSNBC that Kushner attended the meeting but said he was there for only "seven to 10 minutes" and she had never intended to hand over damaging information about Clinton anyway.

- Russia ties under microscope -

But even before revelations of the Veselnitskaya meeting came to light, Kushner's other dealings with Russian officials have been facing scrutiny.

According to The Washington Post, Kushner -- at a December 2016 meeting with Kislyak -- raised the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications link between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin.

That same month, Kushner also met with Sergey Gorkov, chief of Vnesheconombank and a former member of Russian intelligence. The bank, a key arm of the Russian government, is under tough US sanctions.

The Post reported last month that Kushner's finances and business dealings were being examined as part of the probe led by special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller into whether the Trump campaign teamed with Russia to help tilt the presidential race in favor of the billionaire tycoon.

And this week, the McClatchy newspaper group reported that congressional and Justice Department investigators were looking into whether the Trump campaign helped Russian cyber operatives bombard key voting districts with "fake news" about Clinton.

Kushner was in charge of the Trump campaign's digital operations. He now plays a major role in shaping foreign policy.

- 'Witch hunt'? -

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a massive effort to swing the election to Trump, including hacking and leaking embarrassing emails from Democrats.

Trump has vehemently denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia and repeatedly claimed to be the victim of a "witch hunt" by the media and sore loser Democrats.

Kushner is expected to discuss his Russian contacts at some point with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is leading one of the several probes into Russian election interference.

But ahead of that testimony -- and with unanswered questions mounting around him -- opposition Democrats are demanding action now.

"It is unclear why Mr. Kushner continues to have access to classified information while these allegations are being investigated," said a letter from nearly 20 members of the House Oversight Committee sent to the White House last month. (**)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, July 15 2017

A construction firm linked to Jakartas deputy governor-elect, Sandiaga Uno, has been declared the first corporation ever to be named a corruption suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).



Publicly listed PT Duta Graha Indah (DGI), which has changed its name to PT Nusantara Konstruksi Engineering, has been named a suspect in a corruption case involving the construction of a hospital at state-run Udayana University in Bali during the 2009-2010 fiscal year.



Yes, this is a first for the KPK, to charge a corporation, agency commissioner Laode Muhammad Syarif said on Friday.



We will start naming [other] corporations suspects in the near future.



On Friday, KPK investigators questioned Sandiaga  a business tycoon who along with Anies Baswedan won a highly divisive Jakarta gubernatorial election earlier this year  as a witness in the case.



A former member of DGIs board of commissioners, Sandiaga claimed he did not have any knowledge about the current management of the firm.



He was first questioned as a witness in the case in May.



The questioning revolved around the same issue raised by the KPK in May, said Sandiaga, who is slated to be sworn in as Jakartas deputy governor in October.



DGI has been plagued by the case as it forged a partnership with former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin, who is now serving 13 years in prison for his involvement in a string of graft cases, for the construction of the hospital.



The KPK has received new legal firepower to pursue corporations apparently involved in graft cases after the Supreme Court in 2016 issued a regulation outlining directives for handling corporate crimes, paving the way for law enforcement agencies to name any company in any criminal case, such as corruption, or environmental and fishery crimes.



Meanwhile, the KPK questioned House of Representatives speaker and Golkar Party chairman Setya Novanto over his alleged role in the e-ID graft case, which has been touted as the biggest example of corruption in the countrys history, earlier on Friday.





While Setya refused to comment about the interrogation, KPK leaders were optimistic that the agency would soon name a high-profile figure as a new suspect in the case.



I cant detail the progress of the investigation into the case, but one thing is for sure: The new suspect wont disappoint the public, said KPK deputy chairman Saut Situmorang.



The e-ID case, believed to have cost the state Rp 2.3 trillion (US$171 million), has implicated scores of individuals from different professions. Dozens of lawmakers, former government officials and top executives of private companies have already been summoned by the KPK for questioning.



Three people have been named suspects in the case so far, namely Irman and Sugiharto, both former high-ranking Home Ministry officials, and Andi Agustinus, alias Andi Narogong, a former contractor at the ministry.



Irman and Sugiharto are currently on trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court, while Andi has been detained for questioning.



Setya was questioned twice earlier by the KPK, on Dec. 13 last year and on Jan. 10.



He arrived for the five-hour interrogation accompanied by the partys secretary-general, Idrus Marham.



Setya, according to the KPKs indictment, is said to have played a key role in the alleged corruption scandal.



Setya was then an executive of the Golkar Party, among the largest parties in the House. He has been accused of helping Andi lobby members of House Commission II to approve the budget allocation for e-ID cards. According to the indictment, Setya was promised Rp 574.2 billion of the allocated e-ID funds.



Apart from Setya, the KPK also questioned on Friday another Golkar politician, Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa, who currently heads the controversial House inquiry committee into the KPK.



In the indictment document, Agun was mentioned as having received $1 million of the allegedly misappropriated funds.



Agun said before his interrogation that he would use it for the interests of the inquiry committee because he would be able to see for himself the new KPK headquarters and how the investigators did their job. (kuk)

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Linkedin Nikko Dizo (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) Manila  Fri, July 14, 2017 10:52 1947 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8d0d12 2 SE Asia #Philippines,#SouthChinaSea,#SouthChinaSeaDispute,#China,#ChinaMilitary,#China-sea-dispute,#Duterte Free

What is the point of no return for the Philippines in its maritime dispute with China in the South China Sea?

With the about-face policy of Duterte administration a year after the countrys victory in the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), the point of no return for the Philippines will range from the environmental degradation and militarization in the South China Sea to Chinas exhaustion of all economic benefits, according to experts.

University of the Philippines (UP) professor Jay Batongbacal said on Wednesday, the Philippines has been moving towards an irreversible situation concerning the environment and Chinas militarization in the South China Sea.

For the environment, the point of no return is the collapse of the natural resources particularly the coral reefs and fishes. There is data indicating that we are approaching this point in the South China Sea, Batongbacal said at a forum organized by the ADR Institute led by former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario to mark the first anniversary of the Philippine victory in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

Batongbacal, the director of the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Seas, said that with respect to militarization, we are rapidly reaching that point.

I think the only thing left for the island [building of China] is the activation of the defenses and the basing of actual assets, he said.

Batongbacal said jurisdiction will follow after those two.

If we are no longer able to have our fishermen fish freely, and our [government forces] are no longer able to effectively operate in that area then that would mean we have passed the point of no return, Batongbacal said.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and former National Security Adviser (NSA) Roilo Golez both said the Philippines should be careful not to waive its sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the South China Sea.

If the present administration will waive our sovereign rights and jurisdiction, that is the point of no return Under international law, we cannot lose our sovereign rights due to unlawful actions of other states, Carpio said.

According to Golez, the dynamics of geopolitics and geostrategy are reasons why there is unlikely to be a point of no return. Moreover, Golez said, the situation might change after five years, referring to the remaining period of the Duterte administration.

But Carpio added that the Philippines might lose the economic benefits of its sovereign rights if Beijing took Scarborough Shoal to complete its capability to physically control the South China Sea and exhaust the oil, gas, and other natural resources.

The option is do we want $24 billion or do we want the West Philippine Sea? Carpio said, referring to Beijings investment pledges secured by the Duterte administration. The value of the resources in the sea is seven times the value of the resources on land as assessed by experts, according to Carpio.

I am sure the value of the resources of the WPS is much much higher than US $24 billion, Carpio said.

Carpio added that China signing a Code of Conduct (COC) would be a case of good news and bad news.

When China says it is ready to sign the COC, it is of course good news. But at the same time it is also bad news because it means China will soon reclaim Scarborough Shoal since China will sign the COC only after it completes its radar and anti-aircraft missile coverage of the South China Sea, he said.

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This article appeared on the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 15:33 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8e0a6c 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,tourism,Lion-Air,China,Batam Free

The maiden flight of Lion Air's latest route from China to Batam has safely landed in Hang Nadim International Airport in Batam, Riau Islands, on Thursday.

The plane carried up to 212 tourists from China, which is the first round of 1,700 foreign tourists who are scheduled to travel to Batam.

Upon arrival, the passengers were welcomed by Batam Tourism Agency head and BP Batam Promotion and Human Resources director, among others.

This maiden flight took three months to prepare. The flight used Boeing 737-900ER JT 2733 that carried 212 tourists from Changsha to Batam. They landed at 4:45 a.m. said Lion Batam Airport manager Nico Giyansyah. They were greeted with a welcome dance and a launching ceremony."

Nico explained that the plane landed earlier than the initial schedule, which was at 6 a.m. The entire trip itself took 4.5 hours.

Read also: Lion Air Group opens new domestic, international routes

The opening of this new route is the result of a partnership between Lion Air and PT Eco Indo, a travel company under Jetwings Group that began its first official operation in Batam in May.

Throughout the month of July, three flights, or six round trips, are scheduled for the China - Batam route. In August, plans are in store for eight round trips, said Nico.

Apart from the city of Changsa, Lion Air has also opened direct flights to other secondary cities in China, such as Wuhan, Macau, Shenzen, Chongqing and Shanghai.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said that China served as one of Indonesia's most important tourism markets. The number of potential tourists from the country reaches 120 million, but currently only 1.2 million of them have traveled to Indonesia.

"We are targeting to attract at least 2 million Chinese tourists to come to Indonesia," said Arief. (kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 14, 2017 14:36 1946 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a8de1d7 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,tourism,International-Tourism-Table-Top Free

For the first time ever, tourism ministry is holding International Tourism Table Top (ITTT) in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar from July 10 until 14.

The event aims to attract Southeast Asian tourists to visit Indonesia, Southeast Asias economic growth is going upward, there are so many Southeast Asian countries that can be developed. Around 40 percent of tourists in Indonesia are from the Southeast Asia region, said deputy tourism minister for overseas promotion I Gde Pitana.

The festival is held in Cambodia and joined by 39 Cambodian travel agents and nine sellers from Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bali and Lombok.

We begin with the Table Top first before doing a direct promotion, its cheaper to do a business-to-business meeting and travel agents can influence their clients, Pitana added.

Read also: Why American tourists should come to Indonesia

Cambodia is considered as a potential market beside the primary targets such as Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Cambodian people have a high buying power and the number of tourists from the country increases every year.

In 2016, the number of Cambodian tourists who traveled abroad amounted to 1.4 million people, a 20 percent increase from 2015. For the January  March period of 2017, the number of Cambodian tourists who traveled abroad has reached 386,345 people, a 12 percent increase from the same period last year.

In Singapore and Malaysia, the ITTT event had already been held twice in both countries.

Aside from business, the event also showcases Indonesian traditional dances and food.

Read also: Tourism Ministry targets Middle East market for summer vacation

In this ITTT, the ministry would also like to show their support for airlines that wish to open new international routes. For instance, if we want to develop Belitung, we will need international flights to and from Belitung. If the airlines are yet to determine their market for this route, the tourism ministry will help promote Belitung to neighboring countries like Singapore, said Rizki Handayani, assistant deputy for Southeast Asian tourism promotion at the Tourism Ministry.

Were going to take over their regional budget for promotion, I hope the district head can give their support, she added.

Tourism minister Arief Yahya said that in the near future hes going to lobby airlines to open direct flights from Cambodia and Myanmar to Indonesia. Tourists from these countries are directed toward destinations in Central Java.

Why Central Java? Cambodia and Indonesia both have Buddhist relics, in Cambodia theres Angkor Wat and here we have Borobudur Temple, he said. (asw)
I always enjoy meeting our summer interns.

Every summer, the company welcomes a group of college students into our internship program. For nearly 10-weeks, these interns are placed in various divisions, covering areas such as home, fashion and product design, video production, and editorial development. Managed by our Human Resources department, the program also aims to foster creativity, team work, and camaraderie among its students through mentoring and hands-on experience.

Yesterday, I hosted a luncheon and presentation for our group of curious interns at our New York City headquarters. It was a great way to explain how the company started, and how it has evolved over the years. Enjoy these photos.
Nine people were killed and several injured after a bus collided with a lorry in Vallam of Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district.

By Pramod Madhav: A government bus carrying passengers traveling from Thiruppur to Kumbakonam collided with a lorry near Vallam killing nine on the spot including the driver.

The lorry that was on its way from Thanjavur to Trichy had head on collission with the bus near Vallam bridge.

The lorry driver and 6 passengers from the bus died before any help could reach them.

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There were about 60 passengers aboard the bus out of which 25 suffered severe injuries. The injured were rushed to the nearest hospital.

The reason for the accident is not known yet but commuters claim that rash driving has been a major reason for most accidents on the stretch.

Salem Collector Anna Durai and Superintendent of Police Mahesh reached the spot and has been supervising the rescue operations.

Also Read:

Rameshwaram: State transport bus mows down man, locals vandalise buses

Woman killed after being hit by an overspeeding biker in Coimbatore, 3 injured

--- ENDS ---
All eyes are now on Bihar CM Nitish Kumar whether he will sack Lalu Yadav's son Deputy CM Tejashwi who has been named by the CBI in a corruption case.

By Sujeet Jha: As uncertainty over whether Deputy CM Tejashwi would step down or not continues, Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is ready with its Plan B.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar had on Tuesday gave the RJD a 4-day ultimatum to take a call on Tejashwi who has been named by the CBI in a corruption case. The deadline ends on Saturday (July 15).

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While the Nitish's Janata Dal (United) wants the CM to remove Tejashwi from his cabinet, the RJD has come out in full support of its leader. With the bickering between the two parties showing refuses to end, the Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance, which also includes the Congress, is facing its toughest test yet.

Will the Grand Alliance break apart if Nitish decides to remove Tejashwi? As far as Lalu Yadav is concerned he would never like that to happen to allow the BJP an easy opportunity to take a shot to form the government in Bihar.

After the JD(U) asked him to come clean, Tejashwi had virtually ruled out his resignation , while dubbing the FIR registered against him under various anti-graft provisions as "political vendetta."

RJD'S PLAN B

Sources said the RJD is ready with its Plan B in case Tejashwi has to resign. According to the plan, all RJD ministers in Nitish cabinet would offer to resign in solidarity with Tejashwi. However, the RJD would keep supporting the alliance government to prevent the BJP from trying to return to power.

At a time when Lalu and family is facing fresh action from central agencies like the CBI and ED, the RJD can ill afford to be put of power in the state and hence it will keep supporting Nitish Kumar even if it has to make the prime sacrifice of Tejashwi's removal.

Interestingly, Nitish Kumar has maintained a silence over the issue so far allowing party spokespersons and veteran party leader Sharad Yadav to respond to the media. The CM also didn't react to the CBI raids on Lalu and his family over alleged benami property deals. Now, all eyes are on him whether he will walk the talk of leading a corruption-free government by removing Lalu's son.

In the 243-seat Bihar Assembly, the RJD has 80 seats, JD(U) 71 and the Congress 27. The BJP has 53 MLAs.

ALSO READ:

RJD MLA threatens ally JDU in Bihar: We are 80, what we want will happen

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Will the real Nitish Kumar please stand up? On Bihar CM's penchant for keeping everyone guessing

Ceasefire for now: JDU softens stand on Lalu's son Tejashwi after Sonia rings Nitish

Was 13, didn't even have a moustache. Not quitting: Tejashwi Yadav on corruption charges

Nitish Kumar gives ally Lalu Prasad 4 days to decide on son Tejashwi Yadav

WATCH: Journalists assaulted by Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav's bodyguards outside Bihar Secretariat in Patna

--- ENDS ---
A mental health charity has praised Love Island contestant Chris Hughes for being himself and showing his emotions.

In a Tweet, Hertfordshire based charity, Signpost Counselling, wrote: "They say men younger & older don't feel safe to show their emotions ... shout out to Chris #LoveIsland for being himself and bearing all."

They say men younger & older don't feel safe to show their emotions ... shout out to Chris #LoveIsland for being himself and bearing all pic.twitter.com/wZhXfoiVHI  Signpost Counselling (@SignpostNews) July 13, 2017

Earlier this week Chris broke down in tears in the beach hut after Olivia Attwood said they should put their romance on hold.

It came after Olivia was ranked one of the most unpopular islanders in a public vote and suggested Chris was part of the reason for her unpopularity. She felt he was bringing out her worst side, and said because of that they should end things.

As well as breaking down in the beach hut, Chris has also been seen openly showing his emotions during times Olivia has become argumentative with him.

In one tense incident, she shouted at him: Dont cry again because thats the whole reason were in this situation.

Many men are repeatedly told that emotional expression isnt a part of masculine identity, with phrases like man up and boys dont cry said to them from a young age. Because of this young men can grow up afraid or embarrassed of their emotions.

Chris has been very open about his past battles with anxiety and panic attacks. Just last year in a heartfelt Instagram post he revealed he had received help from a hyponotherapist in 2013 for his anxiety - folowing what he called the most sickening months of my life. He urged anyone else who was suffering to seek help, too.

Viewers have called out Olivia for the way shes treating Chris, saying the way she talks to him is disgusting, pointing out she is being emotionally manipulative and that her behaviour amounts to bullying.

I worry that Olivia's behaviour is so toxic and actually may affect Chris in later relationships. It's awful to watch. #LoveIsland  Em Sheldon (@emshelx) July 12, 2017

If this was a guy berating his girl like this it'd be labelled as emotional abuse in seconds. Olivia. Stop. Bullying. Chris. #LoveIsland  Nikta (@NiktaPersian) July 12, 2017

Olivia angers me, taking it out on Chris because the public dislike her, you've brought this on all yourself love #LoveIsland  Adam Jukes (@AdamJukes1) July 12, 2017

Olivia is pure evil. She did all of this just to get an emotional response from Chris. I'm fuming for the lad. #LoveIsland  Russo 0.7 (@Russo_knows) July 6, 2017

Basically Olivia is toxic and loves attention poor Chris he's actually grown on me , leave her , she's stresssssss #LoveIsland  itsTahiryy.x (@tahiry_17) July 6, 2017

Liv saying the reason that the two of them are in this situation is because of chris crying #LoveIsland pic.twitter.com/6ImFFGlpu7  ellie (@ellie_slater_) July 12, 2017
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It would be a game changer.

That is what Romulus Economic Development Director Timothy Keyes said about the possibility of a $4.2 billion factory settling in the city.

City officials were downright excited to learn Romulus is in the running to land mega Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.).

The group makes liquid-crystal display screens and is the worlds largest contract electronics manufacturer.

At the height of that excitement is hearing the factory could draw as many as 5,000 jobs.

Keyes said local officials have not been a part of the decision-making process and much of the information officials have received has come from a third party.

As he understands it, Romulus is one of several sites in Michigan, and one of several states in the running.

Other states, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, also are being considered.

Wayne County Commissioner Abdul Haidous (D-Wayne) said if Romulus is selected it would be a tremendous boost.

It would have an impact on everything, including schools, Haidous said. It would have a ripple effect on the standard of living in the area. Romulus has a lot to offer. Im proud to say it is in my district.

Both men believe having at least four major highways coming through the area is a huge plus for Romulus.

Having Detroit Metropolitan Airport right in its backyard flying to a multitude of international destinations also makes the city attractive.

Along with that, Haidous is quick to promote Michigan as a good state for economic growth.

The GOP-led Legislature approved a $200 million business tax incentive plan, which just might be the lure needed to help swing the decision in favor of Romulus or another location in Michigan upon final approval by Gov. Rick Snyder.

Keyes said state officials are working hard to put the area in position to land the business.

Until they make a decision on which state they are going to choose, we are going to sit back and wait on them, Keyes said.

Keyes said it will be monumental for the region wherever Foxconn goes.

We are going to keep our fingers crossed, Haidous said.
By PTI: rape and murder

Dharamsala, Jul 14 (PTI) BJP leader Anurag Thakur today accused Himachal Pradesh Chief minister Virbhadra Singh of "callous attitude" towards the rape and murder case of a minor girl in Kotkhai.

"The Chief Minister has all the time to visit Delhi over and again for his different cases but has no time to visit the victims family at a time when the the entire state is concerned due to this heinous incident," he said in a statement issued here.

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Thakur said there was anger among the people regarding the statement issued by the Chief Minister after the incident.

"The Chief Minister came out with a statement that the people of Kotkhai area are extra smart, which was an insult to the residents of the area and it was their right to protest against the failure of the government in maintaining law and order,? he said.

Thakur said, "This is not the first occasion when the Chief Minister has shown insensitivity towards a serious matter. In the past as well when there was Jaundice outbreak in Shimla, he took up the position that such instances occur and termed this as a minor instance. Similarly in the major bus accident cases, he has never tried to visit the families of the deceased, rather he has been selective."

He said such a government has "no right" to remain in office for a single day and needs to be dismissed by the Governor as it has "failed on all fronts". PTI Corr AQS AQS

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Ahmedabad, Jul 14 (PTI) The death toll in the violent clashes between members of Bharwad and Rajput communities in Gujarats Morbi and Surendranagar districts has risen to two, police said today.

Two persons were also injured in the clashes that took place yesterday.

Internet services have been suspended in both districts for the time being to curb rumour-mongering on social media, as per a government order.

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Incidents of arson, stone-pelting and rioting were reported from near Morbi districts Halvad town and in some villages around Surendranagars Dhrangadhra town yesterday, the police said.

"A man died of a bullet injury last evening in Halvad while another person, who was attacked with a sword at a village near Dhrangadhra, succumbed in the early hours today. Both of them were from the Bharwad community. Few others were also injured," Surendranagar Superintendent of Police Dipak Kumar Meghani told PTI.

"We have formed three teams to nab culprits," he said.

Members of the Rajput community had an altercation with Bharwads while they were going to Dhrangadhra for a condolence meeting of Rajput leader Indrasinh Zala, who was hacked to death last Friday, an official at Morbi police control room said.

"Some Rajputs and Bharwads came face to face near Halvad after some persons hurled stones on the former. The groups clashed when Rajputs from different parts of Morbi district were headed towards Dhrangadhra to attend Zalas besna (condolence meet)," Morbi SP Jaypalsinh Rathod said.

During the clashes in Halvad yesterday, around 30 vehicles were torched. One person from the Bharwad community died in firing during the clash, while two others were seriously injured. One person also died in the adjoining Surendranagar district, he said.

"The situation is under control as a large number of police personnel have been deployed on the Halvad-Dhrangadhra road," the SP said.

Gujarat Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja urged the people from both the communities to remain calm.

"To prevent the spread of rumours, we have suspended Internet services in Morbi and Surendranagar. As many as seven companies of the State Reserve Police have been sent to control the situation," Jadeja said.

"The SPs of Rajkot, Jamnagar and Gandhidham districts along with three Range IGs were also sent to the affected areas," he said.

Zala, a former president of Dhrangadhra municipality, was in jail since 2013 in connection with the murder of a Bharwad community member and was hacked to death a day after he was released on parole.

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Since then, the situation in Dhrangadhra has been tense, an official at Surendranagar police control room said.

According to SP Meghani, the violence in Halvad sparked clashes near Dhrangadhra.

"After Halvad, clashes spread to Dhrangadhra. A mob also torched several vehicles and attacked shops at Chuli village in Surendranagar," Meghani said. PTI PJT PD GK DV

--- ENDS ---
UK Police has released a video of a bank heist where robbers used a forklift truck to smash the walls of the bank to smithereens.

By India Today Web Desk: A bank heist in the UK went to the next level recently after the criminals used a forklift truck to shatter through a wall and steal an ATM.

The footage of the blow-up was later released by UK detectives.

The dramatic bank heist happened just after 3am on Monday. The gang used the industrial truck to wreck through the branch of the Nationwide Building Society in Leicestershire, according to an RT report.

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Watch: UK criminals steal ATM using forklift truck to smash through walls of bank

Ashby ATM theft - CCTV footage issued. Do you recognise these vehicles? Any information? Call 101 pic.twitter.com/miUafn91p9- LeicestershirePolice (@leicspolice) July 13, 2017

According to the police, three vehicles were used during the robbery. The bank heist caused a lot of damage to the building.

"We have released the CCTV footage which clearly shows three vehicles in the area and the incident itself taking place," investigating officer, Detective Constable Granger said in a press release.

FYI || CCTV footage: Armed robbers open fire in Mathura jewellery shop, gun down two traders ||

FYI || Watch: This CCTV footage of 2 men robbing a woman in Amritsar will scare you ||

--- ENDS ---
Watertown landowners will be involved in new Corps flood-control study
By PTI: Colombo, Jul 14 (PTI) A special UN rapporteur today criticised Sri Lanka for its "painfully slow" reconciliation process with the minority Tamils and expressed concern over the "virtual halt" in the implementation of the UNHRC resolution on rights accountability.

Concluding his four-day visit to Sri Lanka to assess its progress in transitional justice at the end of the separatist campaign by the LTTE, special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism Ben Emmerson described the island nation as one of the worst countries for the practice of torture.

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"Despite the shocking prevalence of the practice of torture, there is a lack of effective investigations," he said airing his displeasure over the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

The PTA has been criticised by Tamil and rights activists as it allows indefinite detention of people without charges. During the over three-decade armed campaign by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, many rebels were held under the PTA.

Referring to a UN Human Rights Council resolution on rights accountability, Emmerson said "progress in achieving the key goals set out in in the resolution is not only slow but seems to have ground to a virtual halt".

The resolution calls on the UNHRC to continue to assess progress on the implementation of its recommendations and other processes related to reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka was granted 18 months by the UNHRC resolution in October 2015 to initiate a credible investigation into the abuses committed during the civil war with the LTTE. It has sought more time to deliver on the accountability mechanism.

Emmerson said Sri Lanka has already spent four months of the two-year extension to implement the resolution. "But very little progress has been shown."

He said Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the countrys Army chief Mahesh Senanayake have both assured him of continued measures for transitional justice.

According to the special UN rapporteur, 81 people were currently held under the PTA, 70 of them have been in detention without a trial for over five years and more than 12 had been without trial for over 10 years.

He said the PTA impacted the minority Tamil community and urged the government "not to allow the transitional justice process to be diverted by retrograde elements in the security establishment and their allies in the government." PTI CORR ABH AKJ ABH

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The apex court, which was to pronounce quantum of the sentence today against Mallya, who has already been convicted for its contempt, said proceedings can't move further unless the businessman is produced before him.

By Anusha Soni: The much controversial case of Vijay Mallya at the Supreme Court seems to be now in a cold storage. The top court bench has made it clear unless the government produces him in court, the court cannot sentence him.

On the last hearing on July 10, no senior counsel was present in the court to represent the Centre. Many questions were raised on the sincerity and efforts of the Centre to bring Mallya back.

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This time the Supreme Court has expressed its intentions very clearly.

When newly appointed Attorney General K.K Venugopal tried to apprise the court of the steps that the government is taking, the bench made it clear that they won't monitor the extradition proceedings.

Despite being declared guilty of contempt of court by the Supreme Court of India, Vijay Mallya did not appear in court.

Not that one really expected him to but the Supreme Court rules mandate that on issuance of a mere notice in contempt of court-in person presence is necessary.

The case at the apex court is by the consortium of public banks which have sought recovery of debt of up to Rs 9000 crore including the interest.

PROCEEDINGS AT DEBT RECOVERY TRIBUNAL ON

The proceedings at the Debt Recovery Tribunal are still on and the apex court held him guilty for not revealing payments of 40 million dollars that were received to the company from Diageo.

A bench led by Justice Adarsh Goel told the Attorney General, "the sentencing can happen only when you produce Mallya,".

With the slow pace of extradition proceedings, it seems unlikely Mallya would be back anytime soon. This is presuming that India wins the case in United Kingdom.

At best the order on conviction from the Supreme Court of India will serve as a leverage for the government in the extradition proceedings.

He is already declared as a proclaimed offender by the Mumbai court and warrants have been issued against him in other cases.

ALSO READ:

Missing India? There's nothing to miss, says Vijay Mallya

What it means to be Vijay Mallya: A house in English countryside, a condo in Trump Plaza and a red Ferrari

ALSO WATCH:

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It's our annual Labour Weekend tradition ...The Sound 'Hall Of Fame' Countdown... Where we honor the greatest 500 songs of all time as voted by you.
In a unique predicament, the class 12 topper's name appears in JU merit list in four subjects without him ever applying to the varsity.

Archisman Panigrahi's name tops the Jadavpur University merit list in four subjects without him ever applying to the varsity.

By Indo-Asian News Service: West Bengal Class 12 topper Archisman Panigrahi is in a unique predicament, his name tops the Jadavpur University (JU) merit list in four subjects without him ever applying to the varsity.

"I never applied to Jadavpur University but I came to know through a friend that my name figured in the top in the merit list for Physics, Chemistry, Geology and Mathematics. The marks and birth date were not mine," the student said.

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He said he has informed the varsity authorities.

"I have written to the dean highlighting that I had not applied and I can see my name on the top," he said.

According to varsity vice chancellor Suranjan Das the matter will be taken up with the cyber crime department of the police.

ALSO READ | Jadavpur University students march in solidarity with Gurmehar Kaur

Bankura girl tops Bengal board Class 10 results with record score

Kolkata: Student goes missing at Jadavpur University after 'public shaming' on social media

ALSO WATCH | Jadavpur University echoes with pro-Afzal and Ishrat slogans

--- ENDS ---
The help desk for undergraduate admissions at Delhi University remained closed on Friday, causing a great deal of inconvenience to admission seekers who were seen returning disappointed without having their grievances settled. The DU help desk is supposed to be a single window to address all grievances related to admissions.

It was closed to protest the alleged misbehavior of a student leader with members of the grievance committee over an admission-related grievance. Admission seekers paid the price in this dispute between the varsity administration and student leaders.

Many students who visited the conference centre in DUs north campus said the closure of the help desk without prior notice at this crucial juncture may affect their careers, as they might not get admission if their grievances are not redressed. Admissions against the fourth cut-off list announced on 12 July will be over on 15 July. Only one day is left for settlement of grievances.

Madhu, who came from Jharkhand, was as clueless as Divya and Richa from Delhi. Pragiti from Nepal also found herself in a helpless situation. A young boy who did not wish to be named said he had to settle a problem related to fees, which has been sorted out at the level of the college and now requires to be resolved by the help desk.

However, though the help desk was closed, officials including Deputy Dean Students Welfare Amrita Bajaj and Gurpreet Singh Tuteja were seen helping the aspirants. They were counseling and helping the aspirants settle their grievances.
Even as students are on relay hunger strike at the gates of Delhi Universitys Arts Faculty, the Executive Council (EC) of DU will decide on whether to conduct a common entrance test for M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes in its meeting on 14 July.

Such a proposal was passed in the Academic Council (AC) meeting held last month in which it was decided that, there shall be a common Entrance Test for M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes to be conducted by the University, once a year, where both programmes are offered by the Departments. However, it has to be ratified by the EC, the highest decision-making body.

A row erupted and students began an indefinite fast after the repetition of about 90 per cent questions in the paper for the entrance test to M.Phil. and Ph.D. in the department of Buddhist Studies. They demanded action against the head of the department.

As of now the university conducts separate entrance tests for the two programmes. Conducting a common entrance test for both M.Phil and Ph.D would be quite challenging, many teachers felt.

AK Bhagi , EC member from the National Democratic Teachers Front (NDTF), is of the view that conducting a common single test for both M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes is not logical as a post-graduate student may apply for both M.Phil and Ph.D thereby competing with an M.Phil student who has applied for Ph.D. This will lead to unhealthy competition in which a student of M.Phil may have an edge over the post-graduate student. He advocated more clarity and the setting up of a proper mechanism.

Fire-brand EC member Rajesh Kumar Jha of Academics for Action and Development (AAD) is of the view that entrance tests for the programmes should be left to the departments to decide and things should not be micromanaged. Common entrance is fine but every department has its own decision-making body and has quite capable professors who should be left to decide upon such matters, said Jha.
Delhi University's Dyal Singh College (Evening) is all set to become a morning college, the varsity's Executive Council decided in its meeting on Friday.

The decision will entail two morning colleges now in the same premises until a new planned building materialises. Ram Lal Anand College and Deshbandhu College of DU already two morning colleges each. Both the colleges used to have an evening adjunct earlier.

The future bifurcation will be done in phases subsequently, with first year students accomodated in morning shift, and second and third year in the afternoon, a college faculty member said.

"We are so happy with the decision. There was a dire need for optimal utilisation of resources since there is space crunch and everyone is going vertical," said Bhawna Pandey, an Economics teacher and Public Information Officer of the college.

She said that that the conversion was long due as the evening college had lost its rationale long before.

"We haven't had any working students for the last 25 years, the very reason for the existence of evening colleges. And having limited resources, we could not even start new courses which we had been planning for a long time.. but now we will be able to afford them," she said.
Cracking sexist jokes and commenting on women at your workplace is the worst thing you can ever do.

By India Today Web Desk: Gone are the days when corporate and government offices were male dominated. Women are extremely productive members of every workforce, and their contributions are celebrated in most fields.

And yet, we find just as many creepy male colleagues today, who bring in sexist comments and jokes into the everyday office vocabulary--much to the discomfort and disgust of female colleagues.

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This disturbing little phenomenon isn't restricted to typical offices either. During his recent visit to France, Donald Trump told the French First Lady, Brigitte Macron, that she was "in such good shape". He turned back at her again to add a little, harmless "Beautiful" to the comment. The lady's response was unclear, but Trump drew a lot of flak on social media for his sexist comments, and rightly so.

Photo: Reuters

Also Read: Do women in India need period leave? Will it ostracise women in the work space?

Now, before you dismiss Trump as the ultimate creep, who has and will make these comments everywhere, irrespective of the propriety of the occasion, allow us to share this: He's not the only American President to make uncomfortable and gendered comments in passing.

Back in 2012, Barack Obama had to issue a formal apology to his friend and colleague, Kamala Harris, because he had introduced her as a brilliant, dedicated, tough and "by far the best looking attorney general in the country".

Which just goes to prove the point that anybody, no matter what your standing or background, can be a sexist, and yes, a creep too. Thankfully though, there are some steps you can take to avoid being that workplace creep every female colleague skirts around. Here are some dos and don'ts you should follow every day.

Dos:

1. Think before you speak

Your female co-worker is as much of a human being as you are. She's a person with feelings, and yet, her gender has nothing to do with her capacity to deliver at work. So always think before you speak. Ask yourself, will I be able to recieve a comment that I'm passing on her? If the answer is no, spare yourself some embarassment (and charges of harassment). Don't dish it out if you can't take it yourself.

2. Gender-neutral compliments

Stick to compliments that you'd like to hear about yourself and your work. 'Good work' or 'I loved your ideas for that project' are fine, because they're exactly what you'd say to a co-worker, without thinking about their gender. Gender at the workplace does not make any difference to productivity, then why should it make any difference in vocabulary?

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3. Merit-based compliments

It's quite natural to want to compliment a colleague on a job well done. But what does their gender have to do with it? Nothing. So keep your remarks professional and base them on your colleague's merits. If she has done a good job on a project or assignment, praise her. If you have some constructive criticism to share, do so without bringing her gender into the conversation. 'You only got it done because you're a woman' is never a nice thing to hear for a hard-working woman.

Picture courtesy: Pexels/iPrice Group

Also Read: These women will tell you how they struggled for success in a man's world

Don'ts:

1. Avoid objectification

Let's just make it clear again: your female co-worker is a human being. Not an object, and definitely not a sex object. If you're going to talk about her, make it about her professional life, and not her body or shape. 'That's a sexy skirt' and 'I love your skin, and the way your hair smells' are downright creepy comments, which prove that you want to have nothing to do with the person she is, and everything to do with her being a woman.

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2. No personal comments

'Is it that time of the month?' or 'You're so emotional. No wonder your subordinates don't listen to you' are comments that are in no way related to someone's capacity to work. Nor is calling your female colleague 'bitchy', or asking her if her recent promotion will leave her any time to take care of her husband and kids. Keep it work-related, and you should be fine. But get personal and make derogatory remarks, and you'll be known as a certified creep.

3. Just, don't be creepy

You might think that women tend to club everything they don't like about men into that one broad term, creepy. That's actually not true. All human beings can read each other for emotional connections, genuine sympathy and true sportsmanship--and women are no different. You gestures, tone and look can be in direct opposition of a comment like 'good job!', and women know it. If you're used to making eye contact with her breasts instead of her eyes, she'll call you a creep. If you complain about her long maternity leave, she'll call you a creep.

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The best way to not come across as a creep is to make sure that you understand the boundaries of the workplace. Keep you comments work-related, and don't bring in your female colleagues' gender into every conversation. Keep her personal life and personal space (her body) out of consideration.

And if you still don't know how not to be a creep, then just abstain from passing any comment, ever. Even that's better than the sexist and misogynist comments that might spill out of your mouth.

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Qatar Airways' outspoken boss Akbar Al-Baker accused neighbouring Gulf states on 13 July of "bullying" his country during the region's political crisis and said his company's profits would be hit by the dispute.

Baker insisted that Qatar could sustain the impact of what he called a blockade imposed on Doha, but conceded that an impact on profits was inevitable for the Gulf carrier.

"It has to (affect profits) because we have additional costs to operate in and out of the country," he said.

"And this is normal when you are blockading somebody.

They will have additional costs to operate in and out of the region."

Pressed on how much of an impact there would be, Baker declined to give numbers.

Last month the airline announced profits of $540 million for the financial year to March 2017, a 22 per cent increase on the previous 12-month period.

But the airline faces a hit after the June 5 decision by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to impose sanctions on Qatar, over accusations it supports Islamist extremism and was too close to Iran.

Among the sanctions was a decision to close the airspace of the countries to Qatar Airways.

This means the Doha-based carrier can no longer continue its lucrative services to Dubai and Saudi Arabia, and has to divert some flights on longer routes because of airspace restrictions.

Qatar denies the charges.

Baker said Qatar could endure the crisis for "as long as it is there".

"All the people have a normal life, all the supplies are available, actually more than what it was before, so what is the problem?

"We need our neighbours to know that this kind of bullying doesn't work because the people of Qatar are very robust and we have no issue to have our normal life.

"This is a loss for them not for us."

He was speaking at a ceremony in Doha to show his company's support for Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al- Thani.

Qatar Airways unveiled the latest in a growing number of huge billboards that have sprung up around Doha depicting a profile of the emir, with the words "Tamim the glory".

The image has become the symbol of the country's defiance during the crisis and Qataris and non-Qataris have queued up to sign the boards expressing their support for the government.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday called a meeting with high officials after an explosive was found by the security personnel in the state Assembly on Thursday evening and said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) should probe the matter.

Stressing that there should be no compromise on security, the chief minister termed it as a conspiracy and said joint efforts were needed to ensure this.

"It is a dangerous tendency that the security of the assembly has been breached when the House is in session," Yogi said.

"So far the government was worried about security outside the assembly now this has become a more serious matter," he added.

He appealed to Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit to ensure police verification of the assembly staff because security of over 500 MLAs and MLCs was at stake.

According to reports, 60 grams of suspicious white powder was found in Uttar Pradesh Assembly during the ongoing session on Thursday with the help of dog squad. The white powder, PETN- a powerful explosive was kept under a seat of an MLA.

As soon as the material was found security officials reached the assembly and recovered it. The powder was then sent to the forensic lab for testing.

According to reports, the Assembly session began this week in which the Yogi Adityanath government presented its maiden budget of Rs.384,659 crore  a hike of 10.90 per cent over the previous fiscal  in the state assembly on Tuesday.

(With inputs from agencies)
Communication  be it verbal or non-verbal  forms the essence of everything in life.

An integral part of verbal communication is a language. In todays globalised world, where almost everything is so fast paced, understanding this world of ours, which is constantly shrinking is vital, and an important aspect of this understanding is the understanding of the countries that make it, along with their cultures and languages. As Goethe said Those who know nothing of foreign languages, know nothing of their own.

They say that for every new language you speak, you live a new life.

In India, many students learn foreign languages because of varied reasons. And, it is not only the language learnt, but, in addition, and most importantly, the associated culture understood.

Pedro Navarro Serrano, Head of Studies, Instituto Cervantes elaborates In India, thousands of students have learnt Spanish ever since its inception, since the 1970s, at the University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University. At Instituto Cervantes  the Spanish Cultural Center  which is, in fact, attached to the Embassy of Spain, more than ten thousand students have learnt Spanish till date,across various levels offered, since the institutes inception in 2009. Spanish, besides being one of the official languages of the United Nations, is also the second language of the United States, an important strategic partner of India. It is also currently the third most commonly spoken language worldwide and hence important for international relations.

Higher remuneration potential, growing bi-lateral relations, tourism, scholarships and higher studies are some of the most prominent reasons for studying a foreign language. Having said that, how true is it that learning a language actually means understanding the culture associated?

"Spanish is a language of culture  be it in its rich literature or the energy-packed dances like Salsa, Tango and many others. Not to forget the Spanish cuisine, which is now being widely sampled, Serrano adds.

Travelling to another part of the world: Korea. Roughly 700 students are currently studying Korean language in Delhi and NCR itself, out of which approximately 230 students are studying at Sejong Hakdang, a language institution in the Korean Cultural Centre India (KCCI). Of course, there may surely be more people learning Korean all over India, but an accurate number is not known. The presence of a number of Korean companies in India, tourism and education serve as the main motivators, amongst Indian students, for studying the language. At the institute, it is understood that learning a language needs a deeper understanding of the culture, as both are strongly interconnected. Many students are interested in Korean culture, which is what they understand better when they learn the language. Different types of courses are offered, as per the requirements: right from certificate courses to advanced levels, weekday and weekend courses and so on.

The language is learnt within the synthesis of four different skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. The instructional language is, however, English. Many students are pursuing their goals in academics and employment, which requires them to take the TOPIK or Test of Proficiency in Korean, the preparation of which is facilitated by the institute itself.

French is another language which sees an active enrolment of students. According to Alliance Francaise (AF) in New Delhi, the year 2016 saw more than 40,500 students enrol for French courses, with the AF institutes across India and Nepal, of which approximately 25,700 students had enrolled for the very first time as complete beginners! The courses are offered in a manner enabling either extensive or intensive learning, depending on the time available.

India and France share strong bi-lateral relations, with Indian students sharing a rich interest in arts and cuisine, enabling an ease in expression through the language itself. Most new French learners we meet, wish to move to France or another Francophone country in order to pursue education in the fields of art, business, gastronomy and literature, amongst others. Many of them wish to have a certain flair for a new expression, in a new language, in order to immerse in a new culture and to grow as an individual, Head Counsellor, AF Delhi, Rachit Dhawan says.

So is learning a language synonymous with getting to know the culture?

Dhawan elaborates Indeed, as they are the two sides of the same coin. An individuals personality not only adapts to the new words and sounds of a new language, but one grows internally to a new cultural expression. It not only offers a new way of life but also a connection with another part of the self.

Teaching a language, is known to be quite a creative challenge, and not without reason. Serrano agrees In the case of teaching Spanish, the opportunity for linguistic immersion is scarce, mainly due to the geographical distance between the two countries. Interactive didactic tools and techniques are an integral part of the teaching process, for which instructors receive constant training and scholarships in order to upgrade their skills at various universities across Spain.

At the institute, emphasis is laid on teaching a language in a creative and interactive way. We employ the use of various tools and techniques which are more example, activity, imitations and action based; and the medium of instruction has to be the language itself, even if it is a beginners class. The idea is to acclimatize the learner with the accent, encourage a simplified thought-process and reduce word-to- word translation, Dhawan adds.

Another European language, which gaining popularity is Portuguese. As per the Portuguese Embassy Cultural Centre, 400-500 students enrol annually. However, with the BPO and KPO sectors hiring Portuguese speakers, this number has been rising steadily.

Here again, the culture of the country is showcased through the medium of language, and with the usage of audio and visual didactic material. Students are encouraged to attend cultural events and talks, conferences and seminars on Indo-Portuguese themes or topics related to Portuguese speaking countries. This also provides the students the unique opportunity to speak with native speakers. Beside this, regular screening of films and documentaries provide the students additional exposure to the language.

As Nelson Mandela once said If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart. No wonder languages are the best ice breakers in the worldthey touch the heart more than anything else
BJP president Amit Shah will over the next two days meet party's Delhi unit leaders and eminent citizens as part of his efforts to strengthen the organisation across the country.

He will hold meetings with the core group and office bearers of Delhi BJP at the NDMC Convention Centre tomorrow and visit the local unit office on July 15, the party said in a statement.

Shah will also meet MPs, MLAs, district presidents, general secretaries tomorrow, it said. He will also interact with BJP's municipal councillors and members of Delhi cantonment in another meeting.

He will also review the ongoing exercise to mark the birth centenary of party ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay.

Shah will meet members of various departments of the state unit and also speak to the mayors and standing committee members of all three municipal corporations of Delhi on July 15, the party said.

All the seven Lok Sabha MPs from the national capital belong to the BJP and it also has majority in all three corporations.

Shah's two-day programmes in the city are part of his 110-day nation-wide tour across the country to strengthen the party, it said.

The party has claimed that more than 4,00,000 of its workers across the country have pledged to give either 15 days, or six months or one year as full-timers to strengthen it at the booth level.
The CPI-M on Friday said the Opposition will "fully support" the Centre in its efforts to resolve the India-China standoff in Doklam area through diplomatic channels.

CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury made the remarks after the government briefed the Opposition on the standoff and also on the Kashmir issue.

Yechury, however, asked the government to reflect and introspect why "suddenly" India's neighbourly ties in the region have "deteriorated".

The Marxist leader sought to know why the intelligence inputs available before the attack on Amarnath pilgrims "was not used" and how the bus carrying pilgrims was allowed to go off on its own, as he demanded accountability for the "lapse" be enforced immediately.

In his Facebook post after the meeting, Yechury also claimed that the government had no answers when the opposition expressed "puzzlement" as to why no terror group took responsibility for the attack.

"The government briefed us on the stand-off with China and said that efforts are on to resolve this through diplomatic channels and talks.

"We fully support the government in these efforts. We are for peace and tranquillity with all our neighbours. This is in India's supreme interest," he said in the post.

Yechury reiterated the opposition's position that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has "worsened" in the past three years and asked the government to correct its "faulty" approach.

He also accused the government of going back on its promises made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India that "it shall implement confidence-building measures and start the political process with all stakeholders".

"The government must answer," he stressed.

The Rajya Sabha member also said that the "growing" instances of lynchings and attacks on minorities and Dalits are also adding to the view that the deteriorating internal security environment in the country is a "matter of grave concern".
The rift between the warring alliance partners in Bihar government widened further on Friday with the chief minister Nitish Kumars JD-U asking the RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav to declare his assets and reveal the source of income. The statement is a clear indication that the ruling grand alliance is inching towards a split.

Ye sampatti kahan se aayi? Source of income kahan hai (how did you acquire these properties and whats the source of income)? a JD-U spokesman, Neeraj Kumar, referred to RJD president while talking to a news channel on Friday. He said the RJD president should convince the opposition through credible evidence on assets and source of income.

The RJD, however, objected to such demand by its ally, asking for restraint. RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha said the party chief had been routinely filing IT returns and that his income was an open secret. He also urged the JD-U not to play in the hands of the BJP, which is waiting in the wings to see a split in the alliance.

The JD-Us move reminded the tone of the BJP which for the past two months has been attacking the RJD chief and his family for acquiring properties through fraudulent means. It was the BJP that initially revealed how the Lalu family was given three acres of land at a prime location in Patna in lieu of leasing out railway hotels when Lalu was the railway minister.

The trouble started last week after the CBI made Lalus younger son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav an accused in the corruption and also raided his residence in Patna. Subsequently, the JD-U asked the deputy CM to resign, citing the chief ministers zero tolerance on corruption. The RJD, however, announced that he will not resign, leading to the confrontation.

The RJD claims the deputy chief minister has been implicated in a false case under a deep-rooted political conspiracy and that mere filing of a case doesnt prove someone is guilty. But the JD-U has been hell-bent on seeking resignation of Tejashwi. As pressures mounts, the RJD has reportedly chalked out a new plan. Under this plan, all its ministers will resign if Tejashwi is forced to do so. The idea is to let the Nitish Kumar government run with its (RJD) outside support.
Senior union ministers on Friday held a meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, ahead of a meeting with opposition parties on the border stand-off and Kashmir situation.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah were present at the meeting, held at Singh's residence.

Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj will on Friday evening brief opposition parties on the India-China standoff in Doklam and on the situation in Kashmir ahead of Parliament's monsoon session that begins on Monday.

The all-party meeting, to take opposition leaders into confidence on the two key issues, would also be held at the Home Minister's residence.
The French President and the German Chancellor on Thursday said it was necessary to maintain a close dialogue with their US counterpart, despite disagreements on topics such as the fight against global warming.

Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel had just finished a Franco-German council of ministers meeting when they discussed Donald Trump, Efe reported.

"The US is a strategic partner for France and for Europe in many areas," Macron said, adding that it was for that reason that frequent dialogue with Trump was important.

Trump had arrived for a visit to Paris and was preparing to take part in the Bastille Day celebrations on Friday.

"I invited President Trump and it surprised me that it caused so much debate and protest, because it is the 100th anniversary of the American army's intervention on our side in World War I," Macron added.

Merkel reiterated Macron's sentiment, insisting that cooperation with the US, especially with regards to security, was necessary in the global war against terror.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday that the US must respect Iran nuclear deal as an international treaty, Tehran Times daily reported on Friday.

"We expect all the sides to abide by their commitments, but the US has remained committed to the agreement at the least level," Zarif said upon arrival in New York to participate in the meeting of the High-Level Political Forum 2017 in the UN headquarters, Xinhua reported.

"The US administration has not respected and supported the spirit of the deal by adopting wrong approaches and policies," he said, adding that the US government "has not let Iran gain benefits from the deal completely."

Iran has said Washington should be committed to its obligations under the nuclear agreement which endorses the removal of sanctions and barriers of banking transactions.

During his campaign, US President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized the Iran nuclear deal, calling it "the worst deal ever negotiated."

In July 2015, Iran and six world powers, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, reached an agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue, which put it on the path of sanctions relief but with more strict limits on its nuclear program.

The deal set limits on Iran's nuclear activities as it would take Tehran at least one year to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, and allowed regular inspections of the facilities inside Iran.

In return, the United States and the European Union will suspend nuclear-related sanctions against Iran, including recalling all past UN Security Council sanction resolutions.
The Sri Lanka Navy on Thursday arrested seven Indian fishermen for illegally poaching in the island's northern seas, officials said.

Two fishing trawlers belonging to the Indian fishermen were seized, Xinhua news agency reported.

The fishermen were engaged in bottom trawling in Sri Lankan territorial waters northwest of Delft Island, the Navy said.

The trawlers were brought to Karainagar and the fishermen were handed over to the Jaffna Assistant Director of Fisheries.

Sri Lankan and Indian fishermen often face arrests when they enter each other's territorial waters illegally. India and Sri Lanka are divided by a narrow strip of sea.


By PTI: (Eds: Adding details of proceedings)

New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) The Supreme Court today told the government that it would proceed against beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya, who has been held guilty of contempt, only when he is produced before it.

A bench comprising Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit considered the submissions of Attorney General K K Venugopal that proceedings to extradite Mallya were going on in London and the Centre was taking steps to secure his presence before the apex court.

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When Venugopal referred to the status report filed by the government, the bench observed, "we cannot analyse it in his (Mallya) absence. You have to produce him before us. When you will produce him here, we will then proceed".

"As and when you will produce him before us, we will go ahead and will see what is to be done," the bench told the Attorney General.

"The contemnor has failed to appear. The Government of India has taken steps to secure his presence. The extradition proceedings are going on. Let all steps be taken. Matter be put up before us on his (Mallya) production before this court," the bench noted in its order.

The apex court had on May 9 held Mallya, who is in the United Kingdom, guilty of contempt on a plea by the consortium of lender banks led by the State Bank of India for his failure to furnish details of all his Indian and offshore assets.

It had directed Mallya to appear before it on July 10 to argue on the quantum of punishment but he had failed to do so.

The offence of contempt of court entails a maximum imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of upto Rs 2,000 or both.

India had recently asked Britain to ensure early extradition of Mallya, an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The top courts order had come on a plea by the consortium of banks, which had said that Mallya had allegedly transferred USD 40 million received from British firm Diageo to his children in "flagrant violation" of various judicial orders.

The bench had reserved its order on two pleas of the lending banks seeking contempt action and a direction to Mallya to deposit USD 40 million received from offshore firm Diageo respectively.

The banks have alleged that Mallya had concealed facts and diverted the money to his son Siddharth Mallya and daughters Leanna Mallya and Tanya Mallya in "flagrant violation" of the orders passed by the Karnataka High Court.

The bench had also pulled up Mallya for not giving details of the USD 40 million which he had allegedly received from Diageo in February last year, saying it was of the "prima facie view" that proper disclosure as per its earlier order was not made.

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The banks had on August 29 last year told the apex court that Mallya had deliberately not made full disclosure of his assets including the USD 40 million he received on February 25 from Diageo. PTI ABA MNL SJK RKS ARC

--- ENDS ---
Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, condemning the terror attack that killed seven Amarnath pilgrims, the government said on Thursday.

Suu Kyi also offered condolences to the victims of the July 10 terror attack.

"Myanmar State Counsellor @OfficialSuuKyi writes to PM @narendramodi, condemns #AmarnathYatraattack and offers heartfelt condolences," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted.

Leaders of several nations have condemned the attack on Amarnath pilgrims.
US President Donald Trump is willing to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House, but not yet, according to official remarks released today.

During a conversation aboard Air Force One flying into Paris, Trump said he was willing to engage the Russian leader despite controversy over the country's involvement in the 2016 US election.

Asked whether he would invite Putin, Trump said he would "at the right time. I don't think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would."

Trump argued that shunning Putin would be the easy thing to do, but it would not be smart, according to the comments released by the White House.

Trump has been embroiled in a scandal over his campaign's ties with Russia  which US intelligence agencies say tried to tip the 2016 US election in his favour.

Trump denies allegations of collusion, but the recent publication of his son's emails show Donald Jr did solicit dirt on Hillary Clinton from a Russian contact.

"Look, it's very easy for me to say absolutely, I won't.

That's the easy thing for me to do, but that's the stupid thing to do," Trump said.

"Let's be the smart people not the stupid people. The easiest thing for me to tell you is that I would never invite him. We will never ever talk to Russia. That all of my friends in Congress will say, oh he's so wonderful, he's so wonderful.

"If you don't have dialogue, you have to be fools.

Fools."

During a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron today, Trump said that a ceasefire in Syria  which he agreed with Putin last week  was evidence that engagement works.

He added that a second ceasefire in another region of Syria was also under consideration.
The US said on Thursday it would add an additional $119 million for humanitarian aid in Iraq.

The announcement was made by Brett McGurk, the US special envoy for the coalition against the Islamic States (IS), in a meeting in Washington. It came three days after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared that Mosul in northern Iraq was liberated from the IS after nine months of fierce fighting, Xinhua reported.

The victory has been seen as a major milestone in the fight against the extremist militants in Iraq.

In the anti-IS meeting, McGurk also said that the United States hoped to see "similar contributions" from the coalition partners over the coming weeks.

McGurk mentioned that the United Nations had outlined a total appeal of 1.3 billion U.S. dollars for post-IS humanitarian and stabilization requirements.

After the liberation of Mosul, Iraq faces the immense challenge of restoring essential services and rebuilding its infrastructure. More than one million people from Mosul have been displaced by IS brutal rule.




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Organisation: Uganda Christian

University (UCU)

Duty Station: Kampala,

Uganda

About UCU:

Uganda Christian University was founded when the historic Bishop Tucker

Theological College was promoted as a university in 1997. Bishop Tucker

Theological College trained clergy and educators during its 84-year history

from 1913-1997. The local chief, Hamu Mukasa, granted land for the college to

operate in Mukono. International partnerships were part of the Colleges

missionary history. The Church Mission Society teamed with Ugandan leaders and

others to assure the College had the necessary intellectual and other capital.

By the late 1990s, the Church of Uganda sought to have a broader impact on

society through the higher education  not only of clergy but of other

professionals as well. Uganda Christian University was established in 1997.

Job Summary: The

Administrative Assistant will provide Secretarial and Administrative services

to the Faculty



Responsibilities: Key Duties andResponsibilities:

The jobholder will organize and maintain

files and records at the department

Prepare Faculty and Departmental Board

meetings

Receive, enter, process and manage exams

and results of students.

Make appointments and update the Deans

diary

The Admin will also take minutes and

distribute information to the Teaching Staff

Receive and direct visitors

Oversee and carry out various day to day

administrative functions

Prepare and coordinate information and

mail

Perform basic liaison function with

students and staff members of other departments

Explain policies and procedures, answer

various questions related to the office, handle problems, and route them

to the supervisor as appropriate

Handle all student matters especially

those concerning their academic welfare

Receive and make important phone calls in

and out of the School

Perform any other official duties as

assigned by the Supervisor.



Experience: Qualifications, Skills andExperience:

The ideal candidate should preferably hold

a Bachelors degree from a recognized Institution of Higher learning

A minimum of two years of related experience

performing administrative tasks

Excellent computer skills (Word, Excel,

Access, Power point and internet)

Previous experience in minute taking

Excellent interpersonal skills especially

when dealing with students, staff and visitors

The applicant must be a person of high

integrity with an excellent work ethic

Ability to work under pressure to meet

deadlines and be available to work after normal working hours

Must be a committed and practicing

Christian

How to Apply:

All qualified candidates should send two (2) copies of an application

letter clearly demonstrating suitability together with updated Curriculum Vitae

and three (Academic, Leadership, Pastoral) references. Please remember to

attach two (2) copies of academic and professional certificates and transcripts

to:

The Manager, Human Resource & Administration,

Uganda Christian University,

Pilkington Building,

P.O. Box 4, Mukono, Uganda

Email: jobs@ucu.ac.ug

(Applications sent online should be in one PDF document)

st July 2017

by 5:00 pm Deadline: 21July 2017by 5:00 pm
Organisation: United States

US Embassy, US Mission in Uganda

Duty Station: Kampala,

Uganda

Salary Grade: FSN-7 Ugshs

46,440,981 p.a. inclusive of allowances

Vacancy Announcement Number: 34-17

Reports to: Information

Resource Center (IRC) Director

About US Embassy:

The United States Embassy in Kampala, Uganda has enjoyed diplomatic

relations with Uganda for over 30 years.

Ambassador Deborah R. Malac currently heads the U.S Mission to

Uganda. The Mission is composed of

several offices and organizations all working under the auspices of the Embassy

and at the direction of the Ambassador.

Among the offices operating under the U.S Mission to Uganda are:

United States Agency for International

Development (USAID)

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

Peace Corps

Job Summary: The Information

Resource Center Assistant provides programmatic support to IRC programs and

promotes IRC services to target audiences within and outside the Mission. The IRC Assistant advises on collection

development and also recommends and implements innovative outreach programming

for target audiences. The assistant

supports mobile outreach efforts, including mobile spaces. The assistant uses electronic and traditional

resources to respond to inquiries of moderate complexity from the target

audience.











Experience: Qualifications, Skills andExperience:

NOTE: All applicants must address each selection

criterion detailed below with specific and comprehensive information supporting

each item.

The applicants for the United States US

Embassy Information Resource Center Assistant job placement should have

completed secondary school with both O and A level is required. The applicant must possess a university

degree in business administration, liberal arts, or science

A minimum of three years of progressive

work experience in library services, office management, public relations,

or project management in a medium to a large organization is required.

Excellent service orientation,

communication and cross-cultural skills.



Proven ability to rapidly perform complex

reference services and work effectively with American and local

staff.

Ability to plan, organize, and carry out

assigned responsibilities, including a coordinated outreach plan. Work in close coordination with Public

Affairs staff to determine resource needs to support mission is required.

Extensive knowledge of electronic

retrieval and delivery tools.

Knowledge and understanding of standard

information science practices and procedures.

General knowledge of PD organization and

objectives.

Some knowledge of U.S. culture and society

as well as U.S foreign policy is required.

Language: Level IV (Fluent) in

both written and spoken English is required.

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified and interested candidates who wish to join the

United States Embassy in Kampala are encouraged to Apply Online by following

the instructions below;



under the careers page for US Embassy Kampala using the link, Click Here Applicants shall be required to registerunder the careers page for US Embassy Kampala using the link,

You will receive confirmation of

registration and proceed to apply.

On completion of this process you will

receive an auto response via your email.

NB: Applicants claiming a

U.S. Veterans preference must submit written documentation confirming

eligibility (e.g., Member Copy 4 of Form DD-214, Letter from the Veterans

Administration, or certification documenting eligibility under the VOW Act with

an expected discharge no later than 120 days after the certification is

submitted) by the closing date of the vacancy announcement. If the written

documentation confirming eligibility is not received in the HR office by the

closing date of the vacancy announcement, the U.S. Veterans preference will

not be considered in the application process. Specific criteria for receiving a

U.S. Veterans preference may be found in HR/OEs Family Member Employment

Policy (FMEP).

Deadline: 10th November 2017

The US Mission in Kampala provides equal opportunity and fair and

equitable treatment in employment to all people without regard to race, color

religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, political affiliation, marital

status, or sexual orientation. The

Department of State also strives to achieve equal employment opportunity in all

personnel operations through continuing diversity enhancement programs.
While addressing party workers in Mangaluru, Yeddyurappa had said that if Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, a senior RSS worker, is arrested then Karnataka will go up in flames.

By Rohini Swamy: The Karnataka DGP Roop Kumar Dutta has said that based on video graphic evidence if they find that BJP state president Yeddyurappa' s speech inflammatory, then, they will take action against him.

Dakshin Kannada has been on the boil after the attack on two RSS activists.

While addressing party workers in Mangaluru, Yeddyurappa had said that if Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, a senior RSS worker, is arrested then Karnataka will go up in flames.

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Kalladka Prabhakar has been accused of making inflammatory statements and causing communal violence in coastal Karnataka.

The Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too has reacted to Yeddyurappa's statement tersely in three of his tweets which translates ...

"BJP says the rioters have to be caught, if we catch them they say they will create trouble..this is the zenith of betraying oneself.

Boycotting the peace meeting shows BJP's true colours. They want unrest, we want peace"

"We have scissors to cut, we also have needle to sew, the ultimate victory is of needle not scissors," Siddaramaiah tweeted.

A peace meeting was called by various leaders in the background of the attack on two RSS workers in the span of one week that had caused major tension in the area.

The BJP and RSS boycotted the peace meeting demanding that the cases against BJP leaders Nalin Kumar later, Shobha Karamdlaje and Kalladka Prabhakar be withdrawn. Cases were filed against them saying they were disturbing peace through their inflammatory speeches.

Yeddyurappa took his attack on the present Congress government one notch higher by saying that if the police arrest Kalladka Prabhakar, the state of Karnataka will burn.

"Take this as a warning," said Yeddyurappa.

"If Prabhakar Bhat is arrested, then the entire state will go up in flames. The BJP workers will be out on the streets and the Congress government will be to blame if there is a law and order issue," he said.

ALSO READ

Karnataka will be up in flames if RSS leader Prabhakar Bhat arrested: BS Yeddyurappa

Karnataka minister orders cop to book RSS leader, video goes viral

--- ENDS ---
Patnaik's close aides say that to understand him, one has to understand his empathy

By Pratul Sharma/Photos Sanjay Ahlawat
Myanmar's Defence Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who is on an official visit to India, on Friday held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The commander-in-chief briefed the prime minister about bilateral defence and security cooperation. He also condemned the recent terrorist attack Amarnath yatra pilgrims and expressed condolences.

Prime Minister Modi appreciated the close cooperation between the armed forces of India and Myanmar.

He said Myanmar is a key pillar of India's 'Act East Policy' and expressed his firm commitment to strengthen the bilateral relationship in all areas.

The prime minister conveyed his condolences at the loss of lives of Myanmar armed forces personnel and their families in the air crash on June 7, 2017.

Senior General Hlaing is on an extensive eight-day tour of India which kicked off from Gaya last Friday. He also visited Varanasi, Ahmedabad and Vishakhapatnam and will meet several military and civilian leaders.
Politicos miffed over mot receiving invite to 'all-party meet'

by Namrata Biji Ahuja

The twin ministries on Raisina Hillthe ministry of home and external affairswere on their toes on Friday after the rough start to an "all party meet " convened by the government to take everyone along on critical security issues. The government was briefing the opposition parties on the burning issues of stand off with China and the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir which witnessed a terror attack on the Amarnath yatra, killing seven pilgrims.

A lack of clarity and confusion prevailed over how the government sent invites to select leaders since all political parties did not find representation at the meet.

Instead, the proposed meet turned into a closed door gathering of select leaders of prominent political parties, keeping in some and leaving a few others who were livid at the government response.

"It is not an all party meeting as we have not been invited. There was no invitation. Ideally, the government should have called all the political party representatives and taken them into confidence on such serious issues concerning national security," senior CPI leader D. Raja told THE WEEK. Raja was at the CPI headquarters when the all party meeting began. However, the meeting

had representation from the CPI(M).

"We have not been informed about today's meeting which seems to be inviting only select political leaders," Raja said.

Raja, who is also a member of the Rajya Sabha, said ahead of the Parliament session, the parliamentary affairs minister is expected to brief all the representatives of political parties. However , this meeting is scheduled to take place only on July 16.

Days ahead of the monsoon session set to begin July 17, realising that the twin issues of Kashmir and China can rock the session, the home minister briefed leaders of prominent opposition parties on Friday evening. National security advisor Ajit Doval had briefed Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj ahead of the meet .

The government wants to build a consensus to deal with China as well as firm up its response to the Kashmir situation which it alleges is the handiwork of Pakistani forces and vested interests in the Valley. The Congress has been lashing out at the government with Rahul Gandhi questioning the silence of the prime minister.

(File photo) Representational image

Govt aims to double income of farmers with agri reforms

by Vijaya Pushkarna

Farmers may commit suicide and those protesting may face trouble, but farm production is always about breaking previous records and reaching new heights of food grains production, unless there is a terrible, terrible drought. Minor droughts don't seem to deter farmers or affect the output in the fields.

In the current year too, this has been the case. Union Agriculture Minister Radhe Mohan Singh on Friday said the third advance estimates point to increased food grain production, touching 273 MT in 2016-17. Oil seeds production touched 32.5 MT and sugarcane to 306 MT. Records were indeed broken and even vegetables and fruits were grown in much larger quantities.

Why then has the farmers not got a proportionate increase in earnings? That is a question Singh and others tried to find answers to at the National Summit on Smart Agriculture Marketing Solutions to Double the Farmers Income.

The minister admitted that it was only through cross-pollination of expertise and innovations and thereafter synergy during implementation of the programmes conceived could farm incomes be doubled by 2022a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The government expects to find the route to that doubling of income through agriculture reforms, primarily the model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitating) Act 2017 that aims at abolishing the old Agriculture Produce Marketing Committeesbetter known as the mandis, where lalas tend to benefit from the supply and demand scenario.

The model law, according to Singh, has found favour with the state governments. And farmers too welcomed it as it will end the monopoly of the APMC, allow more entrants, create more opportunities, and make way for better storage, sorting, reduction in transport costs and distress sales.

(File photo) Thirty-nine Indian workers, mainly from Punjab, have been missing in Mosul since 2014

Efforts to trace missing Indians in Mosul gains further momentum

by Rekha Dixit

The liberation of Mosul gives a ray of hope to India. Thirty-nine Indian workers, mainly from Punjab, have been missing in Mosul since 2014. It is believed that they were abducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Authorities believe they are still alive.

Within days of the news that Iraqi forces had wrested the city from ISIS, Minister of State for External Affairs General V.K. Singh set off for Iraq, His visit is to convey India's support in the fight against terror,'' said ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay.

Singh visited Erbil and Baghdad, where he met the Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and expressed India's congratulations on the victory besides extending support in the ongoing fight. He also spoke about the India's concern for its missing workers.

The Iraqi government, according to India's foreign ministry, has sensitised its officials that as they clear out the city of Mosul, to report to the authorities any Indian they may come across, whether he is from the list of 39 or not. The airports have also been alerted to look out for Indians flying out.

There have been numerous reports of sightings of these workers over the last three years, but with the city under ISIS, these reports weren't confirmed. One of the original 40 who went missing escaped and was finally sent to India, where he was kept in a safe house for some months before being released. However, he has not had it easy with the families of the others who took him to court on charges of trafficking and he was in jail for some time.
By PTI: Washington, Jul 14 (PTI) Practising yoga may protect against cognitive decline in old age by increasing the thickness in brain areas associated with attention and memory, a study claims.

Scientists in Brazil imaged elderly female yoga practitioners brains and found they have greater cortical thickness in the left prefrontal cortex, in brain areas associated with cognitive functions like attention and memory.

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The results suggest that yoga could be a way to protect against cognitive decline in old age.

As we age, the structure and functionality of our brains change and this often leads to cognitive decline, including impaired attention or memory, researchers said.

One such change in the brain involves the cerebral cortex becoming thinner, which scientists have shown is correlated with cognitive decline.

Yoga practitioners consciously maintain postures, and perform breathing exercises and meditation.

"In the same way as muscles, the brain develops through training," said Elisa Kozasa of Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

"Like any contemplative practice, yoga has a cognitive component in which attention and concentration are important," said Kozasa.

Previous studies have suggested that yoga can have greater health benefits than similar aerobic exercises, and yoga practitioners have shown improved awareness, attention and memory.

Older adults with mild cognitive impairment have also shown improvements after a short yoga training programme.

The team wanted to see if elderly long-term yoga practitioners had any differences in terms of brain structure compared with healthy elderly people who had never practiced yoga.

They recruited 21 female yoga practitioners (also known as yoginis) who had practiced yoga at least twice a week for a minimum of 8 years, although the group had an average of nearly 15 years of yoga practice.

The researchers compared the yoginis with another group of 21 healthy women, who had never practiced yoga, meditation or any other contemplative practices, but who were well- matched to the yoginis in terms of their age (all the participants were 60 or over) and levels of physical activity.

They scanned the participants brains using magnetic resonance imaging to see if there were any differences in brain structure.

"We found greater thickness in the left prefrontal cortex in the yoginis, in brain regions associated with cognitive functions such as attention and memory," said Rui Afonso, a researcher involved in the study published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

The results suggest that practicing yoga in the long-term can change the structure of your brain and could protect against cognitive decline in old age. PTI SAR SAR

--- ENDS ---

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Israels plan to build 14,000 housing units in PA (Palestinian Authority) Kalkilye has been placed on hold.

The matter was to be voted on by the Political Security Cabinet on Wednesday evening but this did not occur as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu realized he lacked a majority. Hence, the plan is automatically placed on hold.

The Bayit Yehudi party and others were outraged upon hearing of the plan. Leaders of communities in Yehuda and Shomron expressed anger and astonishment, explaining there is virtually no construction in Jewish communities while the government now speaks about building 14,000 housing units for PA residents.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
President Donald Trump on Thursday defended his sons meeting with a Russian lawyer, characterizing it as standard campaign practice and maintaining that nothing happened as a result of the June sit-down.

The remarks in Paris, made in a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, came even though Trumps own FBI pick said one day earlier that authorities should be advised of requests to meet with foreign individuals during a campaign and even after Donald Trump Jr. said he would rethink his own conduct in agreeing to the meeting in the first place.

I think from a practical standpoint most people wouldve taken that meeting. Its called opposition research, or even research into your opponent, Trump said.

Trump Jr. released emails this week from 2016 in which he appeared eager to accept information from the Russian government that could have damaged Hillary Clintons campaign. The emails were sent ahead of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer that Trumps former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also attended.

Asked about the meeting on Thursday, Trump said politics is not the nicest business in the world and that its standard for candidates to welcome negative information about an opponent. In this case, he added, nothing happened from the meeting, zero happened from the meeting.

Trumps support for the encounter stood in contrast to the position of his nominee for FBI director, Christopher Wray, who at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday was asked what candidates should do if theyre told a foreign government wants to help by offering damaging information about an opponent.

Any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation-state or any non-state actor, Wray said, is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know.

Trump Jr. himself said in a Fox News interview on Tuesday night that in retrospect I probably would have done things a little differently.

Meanwhile, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday that he would call on Trump Jr. to testify as part of investigations into Russian meddling in last years election and would subpoena him if necessary. Witnesses who refuse to comply with subpoenas risk being held in contempt.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he wants Trump Jr. to testify pretty soon, and it could be as early as next week. He said he was willing to subpoena him if he refused to testify. He wouldnt say what he wants to hear from Trump Jr., but said members arent restricted from asking anything they want to ask. The top Democrat on the committee, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, had also called on Trump Jr. to testify and had discussed possible subpoenas with Grassley.

A lawyer for Donald Trump Jr. did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on whether his client would agree to appear before the committee. A spokesman for the Senate Judiciary Committee said the letter hasnt been sent.

The Judiciary Committee is one of several congressional panels investigating Russian meddling in the U.S. election, along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. U.S. intelligence agencies have accused the Russian government of meddling through hacking in last years election to benefit Trump and harm Clinton, and authorities are exploring potential coordination between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, has said he would also like to hear from Trump Jr. But the committees chairman, Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, hasnt said whether the secretive committee will call him in. Trump Jr. tweeted Monday that he was happy to work with the committee to pass on what I know.

Its unclear whether Trump Jr. would be as eager to testify before the Judiciary panel, which generally conducts open hearings. The Senate intelligence committee interviews many of its witnesses behind closed doors, though it has held an unusual number of open hearings as part of the Russia probe.

The June 9 meeting involved a lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was described to Trump Jr. as a Russian government lawyer who had incriminating information on Clinton. Trump, apparently referencing an article in The Hill newspaper that said the Justice Department had enabled the attorney to be in the country, suggested Thursday that she was here because of Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

An assistant United States attorney in a January court hearing in New York said the federal government had bypassed the normal visa process and granted a type of extraordinary permission so Veselnitskaya could be in New York to defend a Russian investment firm against a Justice Department lawsuit. That was done, the prosecutor said, so that she could be with her client for a deposition.

In a statement issued by her spokesman, Lynch said she had no personal knowledge of Veselnitskayas travel.

The State Department issues visas, and the Department of Homeland Security oversees entry to the United States at airports, the statement said.

Also Thursday, the Justice Department released a heavily redacted page from Attorney General Jeff Sessions security clearance application in response to a government watchdog groups lawsuit.

The application page asks whether Sessions  a senator before joining the Trump administration  or anyone in his immediate family had contact within the past seven years with a foreign government or its representatives. Theres a no box checked, but the rest of the answer is blacked out.

The department had already acknowledged that Sessions omitted from his form meetings he had with foreign dignitaries, including the Russian ambassador. A department spokesman said the FBI agent who helped with the form said those encounters didnt have to be included as routine contacts as part of Sessions Senate duties.

(AP)
Asa Resource Group was one of the biggest risers on the junior market this week after Rich Pro Investments (RPI) launched a takeover bid for the Africa-focused miner.

Shares in Asa shot up by 40 per cent to 1.95p on the cash offer, though this is still some way below the 2.1p offer price being dangled before Asa shareholders by RPI.

The bid looks opportunistic given that Asas share price has fallen by a third this year, and RPI was laying it on thick, pointing out a number of risks and uncertainties face Asa, such as the standard ones overhanging junior explorers  namely a lot of debt and a frightening cash burn rate.

Bright outlook: Asa Resource Group was one of the biggest risers on the junior market this week after Rich Pro Investments (RPI) launched a takeover bid for the Africa-focused miner

RPI said there are also 'several material uncertainties as to the good-standing or longevity of certain of the wider ASA Group's mining licences' and exposure to multiple legal disputes, accounting uncertainties and foreign exchange restrictions.

All of which makes you wonder why they want to buy the company in the first place Well, one market rumour doing the rounds is that former executive chairman Yat Hoi Ning  sacked for his part in Asas accounting scandal earlier this year  is behind the bid as he looks to regain control.

At the other end this week was 88 Energy which saw more than a third wiped from the value of its share price after it unveiled plans to shut-in the Icewine-2 well on Alaskas North Slope to allow pressure to build up and soaking to occur.

The oil exploration firm is in the middle of flow-back operations after fracking two zones in the HRZ shale  a discovered but as yet untested shale play.

'After analysing the performance of the well to date, and comparing to results from other plays, a decision has been made to shut the well in for six weeks to allow for pressure build up and imbibition to occur,' the company told investors.

Its a course of action that the dual-listed company had previously hinted may be necessary, but that warning seemingly went unheeded.

Shares dropped 34 per cent to 1.82p across the week.

Elsewhere, investors also took aim at Dart Group this week after the Jet2 airline operator reported a drop in annual profits and warned that its longer term outlook is clouded by the 'unsettling' uncertainty brought on by Brexit negotiations.

The AIM-quoted group cautioned that leaving the EU  which also means leaving Open Skies, the EU-wide agreement which allows flights to operate between the UK and continental Europe  could affect its routes.

Dart believes the government 'recognises the importance' of the UKs aviation services which should mean a favourable outcome, but investors were more unsettled than understanding, with shares down 18 per cent at 526p.

Taking flight: Investors took aim at Dart Group after the Jet2 airline operator reported a drop in annual profits and warned that its longer term outlook is clouded by Brexit negotiations

That was kind of how it went more generally on the junior market this week as the FTSE 100 notched up another victory over its smaller brother.

The AIM All-Share was 0.4 per cent, or 3.5 points lower for the week at 955.5, while the blue chips on the FTSE 100 managed to add 0.5 per cent, or 40 points to 7,391.

Botswana Diamonds was one of those trying its damnedest to drag the junior market higher as it sparkled late on in the week.

The explorer told investors that prospecting work on the Ontevreden licence in South Africa held by Vutomi had identified a group 2 kimberlite pipe  an important source of mined diamonds.

Initial indications show a size of 1.5 to 2.5 hectares in an area containing high interest garnets and further work will follow to see whether it contains commercial diamonds.

Botswana Diamonds will be hoping that Ontevreden follows in the footsteps of Petra Diamonds' nearby Helam diamond mine which has a grade of 85 carats per hundred tonnes.

Jewel in the crown: Botswana Diamonds will be hoping Ontevreden follows in the footsteps of Petra Diamonds' Helam diamond mine which has a grade of 85 carats per hundred tonnes

As Newton once found though, every action has a larger and opposite reaction  or something along those lines.

Tailored clothing specialist Bagir was the one out of fashion after it warned that second half profits will be materially below forecasts due to slower than anticipated progress on the development of new production lines in Vietnam and Ethiopia.

The first half numbers werent exactly stunning either, with profits stagnating on weaker revenues compared to the same period last year.

Its a bitter blow for Bagir which, by its own admission, had made 'significant progress' in 2016 as it repaid all borrowings, slashed its cost base and seemed to be creating what many analysts had regarded as a stable platform for growth.

Investors were quick to unstitch their share holdings, which shed 28 per cent over the week to 3.12p.
By Siraj Qureshi: At a time when even US President Donald Trump is openly praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that he wants to follow the steps taken by Modi in bringing his country back on track, the American media is busy maligning Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his state.

On Friday, the people of Agra were enraged upon reading a malicious news about Yogi Adityanath published in the New York Times entitled "Firebrand Hindu Cleric Ascends India's Political Ladder" and claimed that it was an attempt of the New York Times to malign Yogi Adityanath and his growing stature in Indian politics. Simulated copies of New York Times were burned at several places in protest of the news.

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Talking to India Today, members of the group Hindustani Biradari said that Yogi Adityanath is carrying out the agenda of 'Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas' as set by Prime Minister Modi and he is working towards the progress of Uttar Pradesh.

IMAGE TRANSFORMATION

Secretary Ziauddin said that Yogi Adityanath's image has gone through a tremendous transformation ever since he became the chief minister of UP and whatever the New York Times has written against PM Modi and Yogi Adityanath, appears to be following an anti-Modi agenda.

He said that many 'elite' westerners, as well as Indians, are still unable to digest that an ascetic like Yogi Adityanath could become the chief minister of the most populous state in the country and a tea-seller like Narendra Modi could become the Prime Minister of the largest democracy of the world.

He said that the article portrays Yogi Adityanath as the leader of a militant sect of Hindus, which creates a misunderstanding among the international readers that Uttar Pradesh has been taken over by militant Hindus and it is not safe to come here. He said that when even US President Donald Trump is praising PM Modi, New York Times appears to be doing just the opposite by questioning PM Modi's judgment in appointing Yogi Adityanath as UP chief minister.

MISLEADING ARTICLE ON CM, PM

Social activist Amir Qureshi said that Yogi Adityanath is not a PM candidate as this article seems to be portraying. While Modi is busy developing the country, Yogi Adityanath is working hard to bring Uttar Pradesh among the top states of the country. The agenda of these two is only development, not making India a Hindu nation like what the New York Times is saying.

Qureshi added that the New York Times reporter appears to have written the news sitting in America when he should have visited Uttar Pradesh and seen by himself how these two are working hard for the country.

He said that the New York Times story is a pack of lies and the 20 crore Muslims in India do not consider themselves separate from their Hindu, Christian and Sikh brethren and minor incidents between these communities should not be given so prominence as this is a very big country and such disagreements are bound to happen even in small families.

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COMMUNAL HARMONY PERSISTS HERE

Senior citizen Rama Shanker Sharma, a founding member of the Sanatan Dharma Sabha in Agra said that he has been to numerous countries but the communal harmony seen in India cannot be seen anywhere else in the world. Even in the United States, he saw a vast difference between how a white citizen was treated and how an African-American was treated even by the police.

Sharma added that no matter what Yogi Adityanath may have said when he was not the chief minister, when he assumed this constitutional post, he became the chief minister of all the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and people of other faiths living in the state and it is his constitutional duty to take care of all the UP residents, not differentiating them according to their caste.

Also Read:

Uttar Pradesh ups security for Kanwar Yatra after Amarnath attack

Yogi Adityanath seeks NIA probe after PETN explosive found inside UP Assembly

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Watch: Bomb found in UP Assembly: CM Adityanath proposes bags, phones not to taken inside Vidhan Sabha

--- ENDS ---
CM Adityanath, while confirming that an explosive was found in the Assembly, pressed for more vigilance in Uttar Pradesh, more particularly in the Assembly and rued the absence of a Quick Response Team (QRT) for the state.

By India Today Web Desk: In a major security breach in Uttar Pradesh Assembly, an explosive was found by the security personnel with the help of dog squad on July 12 in the premises. 150 grams of white powder, wrapped in small plastic bag, was found in the State Assembly during an ongoing session.. Later, it was sent to forensic lab which confirmed the presence of PETN, which is a powerful explosive.

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CM Adityanath, while confirming that an explosive, by the name of Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), was indeed found in the Assembly, pressed for more vigilance in Uttar Pradesh, more particularly in the Assembly and rued the absence of a Quick Response Team (QRT) for the state.

"The packet of the explosive was found under the chair of the Opposition's leader. It was 150 gm of PETN. 500 gm of PETN is enough to blow the whole Assembly off. This shows the severity of the situation. I suggest that everybody present in the Assembly should be investigated by the police and that the NIA should investigate into the matter," he said.

"It's unfortunate that the largest Assembly of the country doesn't have a QRT," he added.

Adityanath also said that this incident could be in connivance with a terrorist or militant group and that the security of the state and the country is paramount.

Aditynath also urged the officials to not compromise on the security of the state and the nation, more so considering the current situation of the country.

He also said that MLA's and lawmakers should either not be allowed to carry mobile phones in the Assembly premises or should put their phone on silent as the noise breaks the gravity of discussions.

Security personnel reach Uttar Pradesh assembly, after suspicious white powder was found yesterday. (Photo: ANI)

UP Assembly speaker Hridaya Narain Dixit has said provincial armed constabulary and Quick Response Teams will be deployed at Assembly premises.

"There will be a Pradeshik Armed Constabulary (PAC) team at every gate of the Assembly. There will also be a full body scanner at every gate. Moreover, a QRT will also be deployed," he said.

WHAT IS PETN PETN (Pentaerythritol Trinitrate ) is one of the most powerful explosives and is very difficult to detect. Due to its plastic nature, the explosive can easily pass metal detectors and security check points. PETN is non-metallic so it does not show up in x-ray machines. Also the bomb-sniffing dogs cannot detect it because of its low pressure molecules. The small quantities of this explosive can cause enormous damages. It is so deadly that even 100 grams of PETN is enough to blast a car. PETN is relatively stable and is detonated either by heat or a shockwave. Very hard-to-detect plastic-based explosive PETN was used in September 2011 Delhi High Court blast. PETN was also used in the bomb plot on a Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in which a passenger tried to set off plastic explosives sewn to his underwear in 2009. It was also used by terrorist Richard Reid, commonly known as the 'shoe bomber', in a bid to blast off American Airlines Flight 63 on December 22, 2001. The same explosive was also found in two cargo planes from Yemen to the US in October 2010.

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The state government has beefed up the security in the entire state specially in the western and poorvanchal region, in view of the Kanwar Yatra in progess.

Yogi has also assured protection to the devotees, who participate in thousands in the one-month religious event, Saavan.

(With inputs from Alok Ranjan)

Also read:

Uttar Pradesh ups security for Kanwar Yatra after Amarnath attack

Amarnath Yatra attack: Bodies reach Gujarat's Surat, states announce relief to kin

Amarnath Yatra attack: Terrorists acted out of desperation, early assessment shows

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Watch: Bomb found in UP Assembly: CM Adityanath proposes bags, phones not to taken inside Vidhan Sabha

--- ENDS ---
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By Naeisha Rose

A Better Jamaica, a southeast Queens arts organization in its 10th year, will be hosting its first-ever Saint Albans Craft Walk at St. Albans Park Saturday.

The event takes place during Black Spectrum Theatres St. Albans Jazz Festival from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The park is located at 115th Avenue and Sayers Avenue on Merrick Blvd.

Kool Bubba Ice is hosting the event.

Musicians at the festival include Alyson Williams, Leon and the Peoples, Lola and Freddie Dugard & the Hit Squad, according to a representative of Black Spectrum Theatre.

Greg Mays, the founder of ABJ, created the showcase for local artisans in southeast Queens to keep them from leaving the region and to introduce artisans from outside the borough to residents in the area.

Our goal is to bring artisans and patrons together  locally, Mays said. For too long, our artisans have gone to other neighborhoods and boroughs to present their wares. Its important that we provide opportunities for local artisans and patrons to connect. It is also important that we present the work of non-local artists to our local patrons.

The event will feature quilts, paintings, jewelry and handmade skincare products by artisans from Queens, Brooklyn and Harlem, according to Mays.

One of the artisans participating at the event is jewelry maker Donna Emanuel from South Jamaica, who lives in Harlem. Her business name is Shimoda and her jewelry line is Shimoda Accessories, which can be found online.

Her jewelry is crafted with beads, freshwater pearls, and semi-precious stones like onyx and jasper.

Before moving to Harlem in the late 80s, Shimoda was working at Barnes & Noble while pursuing jazz, but had an epiphany one day that she really wanted to work with her hands.

She later sought counsel with a friend who is a jewelry maker herself, Monifa Edwards, and learned everything that she could from her, including metal work and beading.

Shimoda did not take to the metal work, but loved beading.

I love combining the different shapes and colors, Shimoda said.

Shimodas work garnered attention in 1991 when super-model Naomi Campbell wore her jewelry on the cover of Essence magazine.

Presenting her work at St. Albans Park is like going full circle for her.

When I was a kid, I used to hang out at St. Albans Park, Shimoda said.

Katrina Barr of St. Albans is another participant. Barr is happy that St. Albans has a place that celebrates artisans. When she was raising her three daughters, she would have to travel to Harlem to enjoy a craft event like this.

Im excited, Barr said. Ive always wanted to do something like this here.

Her skincare line, Artisanal by M.E., will feature products such as body scrubs, a beard serum, a face serum and a hair souffle made from fine oils and sea salt.

Barr has been creating artisanal products for a year and half and was inspired to do so by her grandmother Mae Etheridge, who died at 91 in 2010. Hence the initials M.E. at the end of her skincare lines name.

Its in honor of my grandmothers memory because she always loved to do things with her hands, Barr said. I enjoy making the scrubs, the serums and the souffles.

Shimodas and Barrs handiwork will be on display along with crafts from many other artisans outdoor at St. Albans Park .
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By Naeisha Rose

Police were searching for a Far Rockaway man who had been missing since early July.

Wilson Lopez, 58, was reported missing July 12 and was last seen at 11 a.m. on July 3rd at his apartment complex at 407 Beach 20th St., according to authorities.

Police described Lopez as a Hispanic man who is 5 feet, 11 inches tall and 190 pounds with gray hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts was asked call the NYPDs Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or for Spanish call 1-888-57-PISTA. All calls are strictly confidential.
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By Bill Parry

Three residents of a homeless shelter for young men in Jamaica were arrested and charged in the sexual assault and gunpoint robbery of a 50-year-old churchgoer after a staffer at the group home informed the NYPD after overhearing the suspects brag about the attack.

Detectives from the Queens Special Victims Squad arrested suspects Justin Williams, 17, Julisses Ginel, 19, and Brandon Walker, 20, Thursday on charges including criminal sex act, robbery and sex abuse, according to prosecutors.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said the three, along with an unidentified fourth suspect, operated with a pack-like mentality against the defenseless woman.

The defendants were arraigned Friday before Queens Criminal Court Judge Danielle Hartman on multiple criminal complaints. Police continue to search for the fourth suspect.

The unidentified mother of two had left the Celestial Church of God on Liberty Avenue last Tuesday night when she was confronted by Williams with what appeared to be a firearm at the intersection of 150th Street and Beaver Road. Williams demanded she give up her money and cell phone, according to the criminal complaint. After Williams took the victims cell phone and MetroCard, it is alleged that Walker then approached and demanded she take off her clothes. Williams and Walker then demanded that she perform oral sex on them, according to the complaint.

When the victim refused to comply, Ginel and the fourth unidentified suspect approached and threatened to shoot her. Finally, it is alleged that Walker and Wiliams had the victim perform a sexual act on them according to the criminal complain.

The crimes that the defendants are accused of committing that night are despicably and are deserving of significant punishment, DA Brown said. Two of them are alleged to have subjected her to heinous acts of sexual abuse.

The woman was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center where she was in stable condition, police said.

Bail was set for all three defendants at $500,000 bond and $250,000 cash bail on the sex charges and $50,000 bond and $25,000 cash bail for the robbery. Their next court date is July 28 and if convicted, the defendants each face up to 25 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Police were tipped off by an employee of the group home on South Road, according to the SCO Family of Services, which operates the shelter.

One of the employees at a transitional independent living program for young adults discovered that temporary residents served through the program might be linked to the attack reported in the media, an SCO spokesman said in a statement. Our staff took action and alerted the authorities, which directly led to the arrests.

Two of the defendants have also been charged in an armed robbery that occurred last Wednesday, July 12. Williams and the unidentified suspect approached three men standing in front of 147-12 105th Ave., displayed what appeared to be a firearm and demanded cash and cell phones, according to the criminal complaint.

Ginel allegedly admitted that he was present at the time of the robbery and that his role was to be a lookout for his friends so that no one interrupted the robbery.

DA Brown said that the investigation is ongoing.
Bridgewater looks to become a regional nightlife hub in western PA

Bridgewater bars offer patrons a nightlife experience that is unique from any other in western Pennsylvania
State Division of Criminal Justice Services

WHITEHALL  A 78-year-old woman who had been missing since Thursday night was found safe with her dog midday Friday in Essex, Vermont, the state Division of Criminal Justice services said.

Grace Heath left her Whitehall home in her car between 10:15 p.m. Thursday and 6:30 a.m. Friday, sparking a State Police search.
Amtrak's chief operating officer on Friday said that major track repairs at Penn Station are "at to a little bit ahead of schedule," one week into the summer-long effort.

Scot Naparstek declined to comment on reports that Gov. Andrew Cuomo had doubted Amtrak could complete the project before the Labor Day weekend.

"My focus is on getting the work done," Naparstek told reporters during a conference call Friday afternoon. "I feel pressure because I have passengers on Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit who are counting on me to get the job done."

Since Monday, more than 90 percent of the trains using Penn operated on time, Naparstek said.

The emergency track work followed two derailments this spring. Amtrak reduced capacity at the station, forcing NJ Transit and the LIRR to cut their own schedules, as it pulled tracks out of service at what is already a station operating beyond its capacity.

Amtrak also reduced its own service at Penn, the nation's busiest rail station.

For Capital Region commuters, the service changes had one plus. Three weekday round-trips from Albany-Rensselaer have been re-routed to the historic Grand Central Terminal while the work is being performed at Penn.

Empire Corridor trains began and ended their trips at Grand Central until 1991, when a former freight line was repurposed to take upstate trains into Penn, where passengers could easily connect to the rest of the Amtrak network in the Northeast.

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But Grand Central, which unlike Penn Station, was saved from the wreckers' ball, is a far grander space, with shops and restaurants. Penn Station was reduced to a series of underground passages after its main terminal building was demolished in 1964.
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Albany

The trial of former western New York state Senator and Republican power broker George Maziarz is set for September, with an Albany judge on Friday rejecting a call to dismiss the case.

Maziarz is accused of filing false campaign finance reports in connection with the alleged shielding of fund payments to a former staff member.

"We have a trial date on Sept. 25, Maziarzs lawyer, E. Stewart Jones said.

Jones appeared before state Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch in an attempt to dismiss the case and seek a hearing during which he could question the evidence to be used against his client, who served in the Senate from 1994 to 2014.

Lynch rejected Jones argument that prosecutors were engaged in selective enforcement and that they should have gone after Maziarzs campaign staffers in the case, which centers on the misuse of campaign funds.

Those people, Jones contended, had carried out an orgy of crime, regarding the funds.

That is the core of our argument, Jones said during the court hearing.

Jones said the decision to go after Maziarz rather than campaign staffers represented the desire by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to garner headlines.

Assistant Attorney General Christopher Baynes argued that it made sense to go after the senator because he was ultimately responsible for what happened on his staff and in his campaign.

To build your case to target the person at the top of the organization is a rational decision, Baynes said.

He said Alisa Colatarci-Reimann, who was Maziarzs chief of staff, had been cooperating with prosecutors.

Her lawyer, Gabriel Nugent, in an email said she has cooperated with federal and state authorities.

Lynch in his written decision concluded that the defendant has failed to establish that there was no rational basis for the prosecution.

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Fridays arguments came less than a month after Lynch dismissed charges against Maziarzs successor, GOP Sen. Rob Ortt.

He had been accused of padding his pay when he was the North Tonawanda mayor through a no-show job for his wife. Meghan Ortt had received $21,5000 over four years from the Niagara County Republican Committee through a pair of politically connected marketing firms.

Lynch ruled that there was no evidence Ortt knew where the payments came from, however.

Schneiderman, a Democrat, served in the Senate with Maziarz before being elected attorney general in 2010.
Dr Kris Erickson , many cultural institutions already use volunteers for that purpose, and crowdsourcing expands on these existing practices. This effort poses certain practical difficulties, but innovative solutions to those difficulties as appearing, as highlighted by Prof Dan Hunter in his presentation of Blockchain technology as a way to facilitate diligent searches. The EnDOW platform , launched at the symposium in its Beta version by Maarten Zeinstra and the researchers of the EnDOW project , sets out to enable diligent searches in a streamlined and effective way.Meanwhile, a review of the legislative efforts suggested that these attempts to deal with the problem are unconvincing. In the US, scepticism on these efforts came from Prof Peter Jaszi s tale of repeated pushes for legal intervention being ground down by endless congressional negotiations and mismanagement. Paradoxically, the lack of orphan works legislation in the US favoured the proliferation of digitisation projects relying on the flexibility of fair use. By contrast, as shown by Prof Maurizio Borghi and Dr Marcella Favale , the over restrictive scheme introduced in EU Member States by the Orphan Works Directive has substantially failed to deliver its promises.A particular problem was identified by Associate Prof Lilla Montagnani through the survey of 20 EU Member States diligent search standards : the process and the sources which cultural institutions need to go through to satisfy the standard of diligent search. Though many Member States used the same sources of the Directive, overall more than 1,700 different sources are listed when tallying these various Member States; Italy alone lists over 300. A particularly thorny problem was the fact that many of those sources could not be accessed freely, a limitation which hits non-profit archives the hardest.A common solution  reversing the burden of proof so that works were assumed to be cleared until a rights holder came forward  was given its chance by the French authorities, as explained by Associate Prof Franck Macrez
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Live, from Los Angeles, it's the Emmy nominations  and "Saturday Night Live" is proving it's not a joke when it comes to Emmy dominance.

NBC's venerable late-night comedy series earned its highest number of Emmy nods ever with 22. The show has now garnered a total of 231 nominations since its debut in 1975.

Boosted by the election of President Donald Trump, "SNL" enjoyed some of its strongest buzz in years along with ratings that were 20 percent higher than last season.

Included in the nomination windfall was a supporting actor in a comedy series nod for Alec Baldwin's frequent portrayals of Trump as well as supporting actress nods for cast members Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Vanessa Bayer. McKinnon was also a fixture of the show's political material, appearing as Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway and Cabinet members Betsy DeVos and Jeff Sessions.

The show also earned nominations in the guest acting category for Melissa McCarthy, whose impression of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was a viral hit, and hosts Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dave Chappelle and Tom Hanks.

 Tribune News Service

Carter dehydrated, under observation

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was treated at a hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Wednesday after becoming dehydrated while helping to build houses in Canada for Habitat for Humanity.

The 92-year-old former president known for his post-presidential humanitarian work was taken to a hospital in Winnipeg as a precaution for rehydration, spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said.

Habitat's CEO Jonathan Reckford said the former president was "dehydrated working in the hot sun" at a build site in Winnipeg. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, are in the middle of a project building houses in various Canadian cities.

"President Carter told us he is OK and is being taken offsite for observation," Reckford said. "He encourages everyone to stay hydrated and keep building."

 Associated Press

'Big Bang' star expecting baby

"Big Bang Theory" star Melissa Rauch is expecting her first child with her husband, screenwriter Winston Rauch.

The actress revealed her pregnancy in an essay for Glamour magazine in which she also opens up about a miscarriage she suffered. She writes that she's "terrified at the moment that it will happen again," but is making the news public before someone sees her pregnant and announces the news first.

She says the miscarriage "was one of the most profound sorrows" she has ever felt and led to a bout with depression.

The 37-year-old Rauch plays Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on the CBS sitcom.

 Associated Press

LaBeouf is sorry about racist tirade

Shia LaBeouf apologized Wednesday for a racist tirade against Georgia police officers and jailors who arrested him Saturday for public drunkenness.

The actor wrote in a statement posted on Twitter Wednesday that he has been publicly struggling with addiction for "far too long." He called his behavior a new low and attributed it in part to his complete disrespect for authority.

The statement, which was confirmed as legitimate by LaBeouf's publicist, asked for forgiveness and said the actor was taking steps to get sober. He did not elaborate.

LaBeouf's apology came hours after celebrity website TMZ posted video taken while the actor was being booked when he accused police of being racist and told a black officer he was going to hell. The actor made several other profane remarks before being released on $7,000 bond.

The "Transformers" actor was arrested in a hotel lobby at 4 a.m. Saturday by the Savannah Police Department and released.

He was also accused of disorderly conduct and obstruction.

"I am deeply ashamed of my behavior and make no excuses for it," LaBeouf wrote on Twitter.

"My outright disrespect for authority is problematic to say the least, and completely destructive to say the worst," LaBeouf, 31, wrote. "It is a new low. A low I hope is bottom. I have been struggling with addiction publicly for far too long, and I am actively taking steps toward securing my sobriety and hope I can be forgiven for my mistakes."

LaBeouf is in the Savannah area filming his new movie, "The Peanut Butter Falcon," which also stars Dakota Johnson.

 Associated Press
Guilderland

The Savage family got a big surprise Thursday, when Baking Memories 4 Kids presented them with a week's vacation at theme parks in Orlando, Florida this coming winter. The Rockland County-based charity was established by cancer survivor Frank Squeo to benefit ill children and their families. Summer Savage was the special recipient of the prize. Born in 2008 with Down syndrome, she required heart surgery and treatment for a subsequent bout of meningitis. She had two brothers, and after she was born, her parents adopted two more children with Down syndrome from Ukraine. Summer's father Marshal died of a heart attack suddenly this past January. An earlier Times Union article recalled him as an "all-around nice guy."
Slippery "snot snakes" created quite a mess for the Oregon State Police on Thursday after a truck carrying a batch of slime eels was overturned near milepost 131 on Highway 101, on the Oregon Coast due west of Salem.

Known scientifically as hagfish and even more colloquially as snot snakes, the fish are not exactly the stunners of the sea. But they play an important role in the oceans ecosystem by burrowing into the carcasses of dead and dying sea creatures and eating them, thus keeping the oceans clean.

The snot snakes were being shipped to Korea for consumption, according to police. Hagfish are, apparently, prized as a delicacy, even considered an aphrodisiac (probably by blocking out what they look like and focusing on what they taste like). Their hides are also used to create wallets.

READ MORE: Polar bears hurt by climate change are more likely to turn to a new food source - humans

All in all, theyre pretty valuable little buggers, which is why theres been a fairly robust industry of capturing them off the Oregon coast (since 1988) and shipping them to Korea.

The biggest problem is that, when captured, they secrete the microfibrous slime for which theyre known, which can expand into up to more than five gallons of the material when combined with water, and fisherman have to make sure they dont suffocate themselves.

READ MORE: 'Unique:' Lion seen nursing leopard cub in Tanzania

And, of course, that they dont get overturned and left on Highway 101.

The OSP have not yet said when they thought the roads would be clear. But suffice it to say that theyve got a clean up on their hands. Alternate routes advised.
GUILDERLAND  A Newburgh man faces weapons possessions charges after being stopped Thursday for doing doughnuts in a parking lot behind Stuyvesant Plaza, town police said.

After someone called Guilderland police at about 5 p.m. to report an erratic driver whipping around the Tower Place parking lot, an officer arrived and stopped the 2016 Ford Mustang.
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Albany

Molly Sear celebrated her 18th birthday Friday as she has every other one, surrounded by her family and nurses at St. Peters Hospital.

Shes not sick. Sear and her family drive from Johnstown to the hospital each year to count their blessings and thank the staff. The young woman began life as a preemie in the hospitals neonatal intensive care unit, so small that her fathers wedding band fit around her arm.

It was a miracle, said Sears mother, Lisa Smith. She was given a 20 percent chance of living, and she beat all the odds.

Sear was born on July 6, 1999, three months earlier than expected, Smith recalled Friday. The baby weighed 2 pounds, 12 ounces. She had an E. coli infection whose cause was never determined; Smith was not infected.

Gale Breton, Sears grandmother, recalled her late husband Reals reaction when he saw his newborn granddaughter in St. Peters NICU.

He was afraid she wasnt going to make it, Breton said.

Smith lived at the hospital for two months, she said. Anne Riley, Ann Whitelonis and other nurses became extensions of her family. Each year, she said, it feels like a reunion.

Its not uncommon for families to stay in touch for a while after traumatic births, the nurses said. They often see children in their early lives, stay in touch through Facebook posts or get together with them for an annual walk thats a fundraiser for the March of Dimes, a charity that works to prevent birth defects.

But coming back every year until youre an adult? Thats special, they said.

I look at her now and its amazing, Whitelonis said of Sear, recalling how fragile she was at birth. That really makes everything we do so worthwhile.

Most years, Smith has brought cookies and brownies to the staff. This year, as when Sear turned 10, the hospital treated the family to a spread. On Friday, it was sandwiches and birthday cake in one of the hospitals conference rooms. In addition to her mother and grandmother, Sear brought three sisters, her stepfather and two friends.

Sear never thought it odd to celebrate her birthday at the hospital, she said. She would peer through the window at the babies in the NICU. Over time, she came to understand the significance of the place and how lucky she was.

I come back and thank everybody that Im still alive, Sear said.

A recent high school graduate and an athlete, she is heading to Ithaca College in the fall to study television and radio communications and to run track.
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NORTH GREENBUSH  A love story between Kaylee Dedrick and fellow Occupy Wall Street protester Robert Grodt ended in tragedy when Grodt was killed July 6 by a land mine in Syria where he volunteered as a medic for a Kurdish militia.

The couple met during the rallies in New York City's Zuccotti Park when he cared for her after she was hit in the face with pepper sprayed Sept. 24, 2011 by a New York Police Department commander.

From that moment, their relationship blossomed. The couple came to the Capital Region where Dedrick's Wynantskill family is well known in political and education circles.

Dedrick and Grodt's daughter Tegan Kathleen Grodt was born in 2012 at Albany Medical Center Hospital. Tegan was quickly nicknamed the "Occubaby" in the media.

"What a story his life has been. Amazing," Martha Dedrick said Thursday about the 28-year-old Grodt.

"He was so intelligent. It's an immeasurable lost," Dedrick said.

Dedrick paused as she spoke to deal with the emotion of losing Grodt. She described how her daughter and the Dedrick and Grodt families are grappling with Grodt's death working with a Kurdish militia group, the People's Protection Units, also known as the YPG.

Grodt and Dedrick had been living in the Capital Region raising their daughter. In February, Grodt decided to head to the Middle East to aid the Kurds, Martha Dedrick said.

Videos of Grodt were posted by the YPG. In them, he explained why he had volunteered. This week, the YPG reported his death near Raqqa, Syria where fighting had been taking place against the Islamic State group.

Grodt's survivors are reconciling his loss with his staunch beliefs.

Kaylee Dedrick is the daughter of Charles S. Dedrick, head of the New York State Council of School Superintendents and former superintendent of Capital Region BOCES, as well as a former North Greenbush Democratic councilman. She's also the niece of William Dedrick, a former Democratic Rensselaer County legislator.
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FORT EDWARD - Matthew Slocum is going to back to prison for 82 years to life for the horrific night he wielded a 12-gauge shotgun and brutally fired bullets into the head of his mother, stepfather and stepbrother before setting their home ablaze.

Slocum, 29, listened as three loved ones of the victims - including Slocum's own uncle - unloaded on the killer and implored Washington County Judge Kelly McKeighan to impose the maximum penalty.

The judge did not mince words. He told Slocum he should leave prison in a "pine box."

Moments earlier, Slocum dismissed the judge's offer to address the court.

"I'm good," Slocum said.

"Rot in hell, scumbag!" a man in the courtroom yelled at Slocum as officers escorted him away.

Jurors convicted Slocum at a retrial last month of the second-degree murder of his mother, Lisa Coon Harrington, 44; stepfather Dan Harrington, 41; and stepbrother Joshua O'Brien, 24, at 118 Turnpike Road in White Creek on July 13, 2011.

"He should die in prison. That's not excessive. That's justice," Ray Harrington, the father of Dan Harrington, told the judge during an emotional speech in which he raised his voice several times.

"Your Honor, when we are born we draw our first breath of air until our last breath of air leaves our (bodies). Everything in between is our lives," he said. "It can be very fragile or almost indestructible. The bottom line, it's our life. Nobody - and I mean nobody!-- can end that life. The law has a duty to deal with a crime at the highest level."

Slocum, he said, took three lives.

"He chose his path," he said.

Ray Harrington said Slocum was quoted saying, "When I was 10 or 11, I knew I could kill somebody and not even think about it."

"This speaks volumes to who he really is," Harrington said.

Raymond Coon, the older brother of Lisa Coon Harrington, spoke briefly but showed no less passion.

"Matthew Slocum, six years and one day ago you murdered my sister. Your mother! Your own mother! My brother-in-law! His son, Joshua O'Brien. Josh was probably the best friend you had!" he said. "How could you do this?"

He said he hoped the victims would haunt him until the day he dies.

O'Brien's mother, Polly Harrington, also addressed the court. She wears some of her son's ashes in a locket, she said.

"That's all I have left of him," she said.

"Losing a child is a parent's worst nightmare," she said. "Losing a child to murder is inconceivable."

The mother, who stopped to compose herself, said she often thinks about her son's last terrifying moments.

"My 24-year-old son looked into the eyes of his murderer," she said, crying. "He knew he was going to to die. A bullet blasted through his head and my beautiful, handsome son's life was taken."

Albany County Assistant District Attorney Eric Galarneau, joined by Assistant District Attorney Linda Griggs, special prosecutors due to a conflict in Washington County, asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence.

Washington County Public Defender Michael Mercure asked for a sentence of concurrent time, which would still have only limited his client's jail time to 25 years to life.

Slocum was initially found guilty of the crimes in 2012. The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court reversed the conviction because it determined police continued to interview Slocum after he asked for a lawyer. As a result, Slocum's confession to police - "I just shotgunned my mother, dude" - was ruled wrongfully obtained and inadmissible.

That conviction was tossed by the Appellate Division when it ruled that Slocum had legal counsel in New York and should not have been interrogated in New Hampshire. Washington County Public Defender Michael Mercure had told police not to question Slocum.

Slocum got a new trial but the results were the same. He faced the same star witness from prosecutions, ex-girlfriend Loretta Colegrove, who was in the home during the bloodshed and joined Slocum on a two-state escape with their baby, Raymond.

Slocum torched the house and he, Colegrove and their infant son went to first to Colegrove's mother's home in Adams, Mass., then to a pawnshop in Springfield and another one in New Hampshire, where Slocum planned to stop at an uncle's home.

Instead, they surrendered to police in the woods of New Hampshire. A Washington County jury convicted Slocum of murder charges on June 20, setting the stage for his sentencing Friday by McKeighan.
* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati received the 2022 Adepi Award

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the World Intellectual Property Review's "Influential Women in IP" of 2020.

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2018.

* IPKat founder and Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy Phillips listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

* Recommended by the European Patent Office as reading material for candidates for the European Qualifying Examinations, 2013.

* Listed as "Top Legal Blog" in The Times Online, March 2011.

2010 ABA Journal 100. * One of the only two non-US blogs listed in the Blawg100.

* Court Reporter Top Copyright Blog award winner, November 2010.

* Number 1 in the 2010 Top Copyright Blog list compiled by the Copyright Litigation Blog, July 2010.

* Selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs as of 2010.

* Top Patent Blog poll 2009: 3rd out of 50 in the "Favourite Patent Blog" poll and 2nd out of 50 in the "Most-read" poll.

Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008.
I read with interest Casey Seiler's column ("Just a few notes on a native son," June 25) on a genuine Albany treasure, William Kennedy.

While of different generations, I am proud to have shared the same neighborhood and city growing up.

I was raised in the projects in North Albany and would sit on the steps of the house he was born in on North Pearl Street waiting for the city bus to go to Philip Schuyler high school and anywhere else.

The column reminded me of Albany's rich history.

I grew up hating Albany and left for New York City in my late teens to study art at the Art Students League of New York. Starvation helped in my decision to return to Albany. Feelings for my home unchanged, my completion of graduate school sent me running back to New York City for the longest and certainly most important part of my life. I've always considered it a low point when I returned to Albany to temporarily teach graduate and undergraduate classes at upstate colleges and universities.

During my travels, I read all of Kennedy's fiction. I was easily seduced due to the fact that I knew every inch of location so intimately. What I think was paramount, though, was the fact that everyone from the least to the most is worthy of a great book, novel or opera. All our lives are an ongoing narrative. It simply takes the eyes, ears and patience of a master storyteller who writes like a great architect builds. Kennedy changed my whole sense of place in relation to how I look at my home and work as well.

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To be a great storyteller as well as a master craftsman makes Kennedy one of our greatest assets.

Michael Mooney

Albany
Even the most ardent optimists have their days of doubt. Martin Luther King Jr., who faithfully insisted during the most stressful days of the civil rights movement that "the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice," conceded at a darker moment that "human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable."

That sounds like realism to me, in this season of regression and retreat. All over the place are signs that we're not as smart as we recently thought we were, our human impulses perhaps not all that far removed from pre-civilization's brutality.

Or is that overstatement? Let's just say that the 21st century seems so far to be on a path toward reclaiming some of the unsavoriness of the 20th and the 19th.

Take, for example, this week's decision by a federal appellate court that Sheldon Silver, the former New York State Assembly speaker, didn't violate anti-corruption laws when he arranged for real estate developers in Manhattan to send business to a law firm that in turn paid Silver millions of dollars. Silver also pushed state grants to a medical researcher who obligingly sent patients to another law firm that gave Silver checks with seven digits before the decimal.

More Information Rex Smith is editor of the Times Union. Share your thoughts at http://timesunion.com/rex_smith. See More Collapse

In this behavior, Silver revealed himself as the rightful heir to George Washington Plunkitt, one of the great powers of the Tammany Hall machine that ruled New York politics through the middle of the 19th century and the first three decades of the 20th.

"There's an honest graft, and I'm an example of how it works," Plunkitt said in one conversation transcribed precisely by a newspaper reporter at the turn of the last century. "I seen my opportunities and I took 'em."

Plunkitt proudly recounted buying property where he knew a bridge was to be erected, so he could profit when the approaching highways needed to be built. He did the same when his friends in public office were putting down tax dollars to buy parkland, or vast reaches of rural countryside to build reservoirs north of the city.

"Somehow, I always guessed about right," he said slyly, "and shouldn't I enjoy the profit of my foresight?"

Silver was distinctly less forthright than Plunkitt, but no less opportunistic. He was convicted in 2015 of depriving citizens of his "honest services" during the 21 years he ran the Assembly but, to his great good fortune, a Supreme Court decision while his appeal was being argued narrowed the definition of what constitutes bribery, leading to his conviction being tossed.

The new standard set by our nation's highest court seems more accommodating to the behavior of folks like Sheldon Silver and George Washington Plunkitt. You might say that the moral arc of the court is bending a bit less these days toward justice for those lacking resources to buy political influence.

If you think there's backsliding in the everlasting fight to reduce corruption in government  it has been going on, you know, since long before Julius Caesar's ill-fated day at the Roman Senate  what can you say about the attack on environmental protection, which is undermining efforts only a few decades old?

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President Donald Trump is determined to slash the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency, reduce pollution monitoring and back off from the global effort to curtail human-caused climate change. Those priorities can't be seen as anything except callousness about dangerous environmental degradation.

"Even if you don't want to believe in climate change," Christine Todd Whitman, who was George W. Bush's first EPA administrator, told Politico, "you've got to believe that carbon and mercury are not good for you." Or so good people have agreed since the Nixon Administration created the EPA.

But consider the history here: The modern environmental movement was born in an era of disgust at the toxic dumps and fouled rivers of the mid-20th century, and elevated to confront a crisis as scientific consensus about climate change emerged a decade ago. America's contemporary effort to clean up politics arose from the tumult of the 1960s and the scandal of Watergate in the 1970s.

Both movements, then, grew from a point of deep distress. That fact reinforces a concept that students of human behavior often stress: The greatest motivation to success often arises at the point of the most arduous struggle. That is, disappointment and failure are typically necessary precursors to progress.

Dr. King, for one, well understood that. In the moment after he voiced doubt about human progress, he added this: "Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."
The second of three reports into rural crime has revealed that there were 1,512 incidents of agricultural crime in the study period between January 1, 2014 and May 31, 2016.

The report was commissioned by the ICSA and carried out by Dr Louise Moore Walsh and Louise Walsh of Waterford Institute of Technology.

The incidents occurred under the headings of vandalism / criminal damage / trespass (771); theft (652); criminal assault (76), and fraud (73).

The financial costs of agricultural crime is an unacceptable burden and one that cannot be written off as part and parcel of life in rural Ireland, said ICSA president Patrick Kent.

We now have proof that agricultural crime is hitting farmers pockets at a time when most are struggling to make ends meet at all. Theft, vandalism and fly-tipping all have serious cost implications for farmers, as do increased insurance premiums when farmers have to make a claim. The report is hugely important as determining the costs of agricultural crime provides the justification for spending scarce resources on tackling the issue, he said.

The results of the survey indicate for the first time the real costs of agricultural crime to the farm business. The report also found that many farmers were reluctant to report thefts due to the risk of rising insurance premiums. It found that on average farmers were willing to take a financial hit of 1,771.00 rather than report the incident.

The survey was carried by online with 861 respondents, with 351 experiencing 652 incidents of theft. The approximate total value of assets stolen in the incidents of theft was 963,375. The average value of assets recorded as stolen in an incident of theft was 1,818. Respondents recorded 14 of these incidents as robbery. The average value of farm related assets stolen in an incident of robbery was 4,375.

The farm assets were divided into machinery and equipment / vehicles, which account for almost half the theft incidents and the highest average value of asset(s) stolen; tools, chemicals, materials and miscellaneous personal property, and livestock / feed / products.

Incidents of theft of vehicles, including vehicle parts, accounted for one in ten theft incidents and was the type of theft incident with the highest average value of assets stolen at 5,744. By comparison incidents of theft of fuels and oils was the most prevalent type of theft incident (124 incidents) but was the second lowest average value of asset(s) stolen in a theft incident at 579. Theft of fuels and oils mainly comprised theft of agricultural diesel, which was the specific asset with the most incidents of theft recorded (108 incidents). The average value of agricultural diesel stolen in an incident of theft was 560.

Some 814 respondents recorded whether they experienced vandalism / criminal damage / trespass (VCDT), with 316 respondents experiencing 711 incidents. The approximate total value of costs arising from the incidents of VCDT was 236,100. The average value of cost recorded as arising from an incident of VCDT was 359.

The types of VCDT incidents recorded were trespass, destruction or injury to personal property (including crops), and destruction or injury to land.

A total of 50 respondents recorded experiencing 73 incidents of fraud, including being sold a stolen farm good(s), being sold a counterfeit farm good(s), and being provided with a forged farm related document(s). The total costs arising from the fraud incidents was 88,805.

When it came to assault, 781 respondents recorded whether the farmer, farmers family and / or farm employee(s) experienced criminal assault occurring on the farm or during farming related activities. Some 43 recorded 76 incidents of criminal assault either by coercion, physical assault or threat.

As a consequence of crime, 490 respondents indicated a length of time spent dealing with its aftermath, with 17 saying that dealing with the aftermath of agricultural crime was either ongoing or they were now fearful of crime, and, as a consequence, always thinking about it or conscious of crime.

The report's authors note that the extent, nature and cost of agricultural crime in Ireland, rather than rural crime, had never been the subject of a specific crime survey.

However, the results also indicated some farmers may have difficulty identifying and quantifying various agricultural crime costs consequently the financial costs of agricultural crime is likely to be underestimated and under-reported.

Two thirds of respondents experienced incident(s) of agricultural crime, and the approximate total of all the financial costs of agricultural crime recorded by these respondents was 2,445,105 or an average of 4,328 per respondent.

However, the one third of respondents who did not experience an incident(s) of agricultural crime still incurred a total cost of 431,921, or an average cost of 1,459 per respondent, on insurance and crime prevention measures to minimise exposure to financial loss if agricultural crime were to occur.

Commenting on the survey findings, ICSA rural development chairman Seamus Sherlock said: As well as the financial cost, there is also the unseen cost of fear and stress caused when your home or farm has been targeted by criminals. We are witnessing the whole fabric of rural society being decimated with farmers feeling more and more isolated and side-lined. Nobody should have to live in a state of constant fear and anxiety.
Tipperary County Council is to relax its planning regulations to allow developers build housing clusters in villages even where there is no mains sewerage.

The new change was revealed by planning officer Brian Beck at Nenagh Municipal District Council.

We want our villages to have a future and to see new life coming into them, he said.

Mr Beck said the council hoped to publish its new guidelines in the coming months.

The council will no longer wait for Irish Water to put in infrastructure or upgrade current water treatment plants before granting permission for housing development.

Under the guidelines, developers will only need outline planning permission as a guarantee for full planning permission.

We will put in septic tanks. The cluster guidelines are not about having treatment plants, it's about houses, he said.

Mr Beck said the guidelines would open up sites and relieve pressure.

You just have to design a house and planning will be through in eight weeks. It doesn't open up the floodgates, he said.

The planner said that landowners can get OPP and then sell off sites.

No village should not be allowed provide a cluster, said Mr Beck.

Under the proposed guidelines, it will also not be a condition that the person building a house in a village or rural area must originally be from that area.

The proposed changes have been welcomed by councillors with Cllr Ger Darcy saying: You would do an awful lot for rural lIreland if you can achieve that.

The Fine Gael councillor maintained that during the Celtic Tiger it was a case of you could build a city or have no development. It was 100 houses or none, he said.

Two or three houses could keep a teacher in a school or help a hurling team survive, said Cllr Darcy.

The move was described as the council's planning department thinking on its feet by Cllr Michael O'Meara.

Cllr Joe Hannigan said that the council was now taking a common sense approach to building.

Cllr Phyll Bugler has urged the council to consider the needs of the elderly when building clusters, saying there was a need for such a plan under the new National Planning Framework, Towards 2040.

Figures released to councillors by the planning department show that there were 77 planning applications made in the Nenagh district to April 2017 compared to 108 for the same period last year. There was a total of 285 planning applications for 2016. A total of 98 applications have been approved to date, with three refusals.

The council has received 64 complaints to May 31, 2017, in relation to alleged unauthorised development.

Meanwhile, district manager Marcus O'Connor has told Cllr Joe Hannigan that resources for tertiary roads was stretched and the council had to be careful when taking over a road as it had to go through a process.
ARCONIC INVESTOR ALERT: Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Encourages Investors Who Suffered Losses Exceeding $100,000 Investing In Arconic Inc. To Contact The Firm

Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential securities fraud at Arconic Inc. ("Arconic" or the "Company") (NYSE:ARNC).

The investigation focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by providing potentially illegal building materials for the construction of Grenfell Tower in London.

Specifically, Reuters (News - Alert) published an article on June 24, 2017, claiming that Arconic supplied combustible cladding aluminum panels to a distributor for use at Grenfell Tower, the sight of a building blaze that resulted in the death of 79 people on June 14, 2017. On June 26, 2017, the Company announced that it would discontinue sales of Reynobond PE, the panel model allegedly used at Grenfell Tower.

On this news, Arconic's share price declined, causing harm to investors.

Ifyou invested in Arconic stock or options and would like to discuss your legal rights, click here: www.faruqilaw.com/ARNC. 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.

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[July 13, 2017] Class Counsel Announce Classes Certified in Federal Class Action Lawsuit Against DIRECTV Over Alleged Violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act

Two proposed plaintiff classes have been certified in a federal lawsuit against DIRECTV over allegations the company violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA") and related rules promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission by making unwanted telemarketing phone calls to consumers. The case is Cordoba v. DirecTV (News - Alert) LLC, No. 1:15-CV-3755-MHC, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Congress enacted the TCPA in 1991 to protect the privacy interests of residential telephone subscribers by placing restrictions on unsolicited, automated telephone calls to the home and to facilitate interstate commerce by restricting certain uses of automatic dialers. Later enhancements to the TCPA prohibit sellers from making phone solicitations to people who list their numbers on the National Do-Not-Call Registry and on federally-mandated seller and telemarketer "internal do-not-call lists." When these procedures are not followed, each call made by a telemarketer constitutes a violation of the TCPA and FCC (News - Alert) regulations, and any person who receives two or more such calls to a non-business number has the right to enjoin the violation and recover up to $500 in damages, or up to $1500 if the violations are willful. The lawsuit alleges that, between March 2015 and March 2016 alone, DIRECTV's telemarketing agent placed over 60,000 sales calls that did not comply with the mandatory minimum procedures required by the law. The lawsuit claims that DIRECTV's agent did not maintain an internal do-not-call list and called individuals despite their phone numbers being on the National Do Not Call Registry. The lawsuit seeks relief in the form of statutory damages as well as injunctive relief to prevent future telemarketing violations under the TCPA. DIRECTV sought to evade liability by arguing that even if its telemarketers violated the TCPA, the plaintiff consumers failed to allege sufficient harm from the unwanted and illegal telemarketing conduct that is the subject of the lawsuit, but the Court rejected this argument, holding that previous rulings by the Eleventh Circuit make it clear that the plaintiff need not suffer any monetary loss in order to successfully prosecute a damages lawsuit under the TCPA. The Court further noted that "an overwhelming majority of courts...have continued to hold that the mere receipt of faxes, telemarketing calls, and/or text messages in violation of the TCPA constitute sufficient harm."



DIRECTV also argued that it would be too difficult to figure out which consumers were called, and separately, that some of them might have an existing business relationship with DIRECTV, which would preclude liability to those consumers; the Court rejected both these arguments. The Court further found that numerous threshold tests of the suitability of the class action resolution mechanism had been sufficiently met. The case will now proceed to trial. Lieff Cabraser partner Daniel Hutchinson, who represents the class, along with co-counsel from L. Lin Wood, P.C., Meyer Wilson Co., LPA, and King Yaklin & Wilkins, LLP, stated, "This decision is a great initial victory for plaintiffs, and reflects the seriousness of these intrusions into plaintiffs' privacy through repeated, unwanted telemarketing calls. We are eager to move forward and obtain justice for the plaintiffs and the classes harmed by DIRECTV's violations of their rights under the TCPA."

National Telephone Consumer Protection Act Lawyers at Lieff Cabraser The Telephone Consumer Protection Act prohibits abusive telephone practices by lenders and marketers, and places strict limits on the use of autodialers to call or send texts to cellphones. Lieff Cabraser has spearheaded a series of groundbreaking class actions under the TCPA. The settlements in these cases have put a stop to collectively millions of harassing calls by debt collectors and others and have resulted in the recovery by consumers across America of over $300 million to date, with additional actions continuing. If you have received what you feel are unwanted or abusive cell calls or text messages, please contact a national consumer protection attorney at Lieff Cabraser for a free review of your case. About Lieff Cabraser Lieff Cabraser advises consumers as well as businesses whether and how to pursue legal action to halt and obtain compensation for the deceptive practices of large corporations. With a blend of courage, superior legal skills, and high principles, we protect our clients' interests and help them achieve their goals by winning highly-complex consumer protection lawsuits against those that have defrauded consumers. About L. Lin Wood, P.C. L. Lin Wood, P.C., is a dynamic Atlanta-based litigation boutique with a national reputation and practice. With over 65 combined years of experience, the professionals at L. Lin Wood, P.C., have the expertise to handle any civil matter from inception through trial and appeal. The firm is dedicated to aggressive representation, combined with delivering excellent work product and living up to a full commitment to the causes of its clients. About Meyer Wilson Co., LPA Meyer Wilson is devoted solely to investor claims and class and mass actions. The firm's robocall class actions have resulted in over $250 million in cash recoveries for consumers around the country. Additionally, over the past 15 years, more than 1,000 investors have selected the firm to fight to recover investment losses caused by the misconduct of their financial advisor or stockbroker. About King Yaklin & Wilkins, LLP King Yaklin & Wilkins represents corporate and individual clients in complex business, construction, fiduciary, and domestic relations disputes pending in State and Federal courts throughout the United States. The firm's attorneys are AV-Rated and recognized by SuperLawyers as experts in business and general litigation, which services include representation from contract negotiation through a jury trial or arbitration. Notice on Attorney Advertising This press release may be considered attorney advertising in certain jurisdictions. Any testimonial or endorsement does not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of your legal matter. Every legal matter is different. The outcome of your claim or case depends upon many factors, including the specific facts of your claim or case. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170713006258/en/

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[July 13, 2017] SHAREHOLDER ALERT: The Law Offices of Vincent Wong Notifies Investors of an Investigation Involving Possible Securities Fraud Violations by the Board of Directors of Arconic Inc.

The Law Offices of Vincent Wong reminds investors of an investigation concerning whether Arconic Inc. ("Arconic") (NYSE: ARNC) violated federal securities laws. Click here to learn about the case: http://docs.wongesq.com/ARNC-Info-Request-Form-1649. There is no cost or obligation to you. On June 24, 2017, The New York Times published an article describing the causes of the June 14, 2017 fire at the Grenfell Tower apartment complex in London, England that killed at least 79 people. The article reported that Grenfell Tower's facade consisted of panels containing combustible polyethylene cores, manufctured and marketed by Arconic that "enabled the fire to spread rapidly on the exterior of the building." The article further reported that Arconic's U.K. marketing materials for the facade panels contain a less detailed safety warning than the Company's marketing materials for other European countries. Then on June 26, 2017, Arconic announced it would discontinue global sales of the tiles "because of the inconsistency of building codes across the world and the issues that have arisen in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy regarding code compliance of cladding systems in the context of buildings' overall designs."



To learn more about the investigation of Arconic contact Vincent Wong, Esq. either via email [email protected], by telephone at 212.425.1140, or visit http://docs.wongesq.com/ARNC-Info-Request-Form-1649. Vincent Wong, Esq. is an experienced attorney that has represented investors in securities litigations involving financial fraud and violations of shareholder rights. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

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[July 13, 2017] Top 3 Trends Impacting the Global Library Furniture Market in the Education Industry Through 2021: Technavio

Technavio's latest market research report on the global library furniture market in education industry provides an analysis of the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2017-2021. Technavio defines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170713006118/en/ Technavio has published a new report on the global library furniture market in the education industry from 2017-2021. (Graphic: Business Wire) This report is available at a USD 1,000 discount for a limited time only: View market snapshot before purchasing Buy 1 Technavio report and get the second for 50% off. Buy 2 Technavio reports and get the third for free. The top three emerging market trends driving the global library furniture market in the education industry according to Technavio research analysts are: Online sales of library furniture

Increasing popularity of makerspaces

Flexible learning commons Looking for more information on this market? Request a free sample report Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report including the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more. Online sales of library furniture With the advent of the Internet, several vendors have got the opportunity of showcasing their products on the websites, and thus creating an online marketplace for the global furniture market. The rapid adoption of smartphones and digitization has enabled the school and higher education authorities to take appropriate decisions about the furniture they will prefer in their premises. The specifications and nitty-gritty of the library furniture can be modified according to their requirements using the online platform of sales. Thus, the online sale of library furniture market in the education industry is expected to drive the market in the long run.



Market vendors like Wayfair and Overstock.com are dedicated to selling library furniture online. However, observing the success of the online channel in the sale of library furniture, many conventional players have also entered the digital space, thereby driving the market via both online and offline sales. Increasing popularity of makerspaces

With the continuous involvement of technology in the learning environments, students expect a platform for practically implementing their knowledge. Therefore, K-12 schools and colleges are working to create spaces that provide an encouraging platform for creating an effective learning environment in the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and maths) subjects for the students. Libraries are increasingly being converted into makerspaces, having open areas with LEGO Wall, where students can create projects using doodles with the whiteboard tables and wall. Makerspaces have ample storage equipment like bins and shelves for storing in-progress assignments. Makerspaces are also gaining popularity among teachers as well because they can create educative collaborations with students, imparting blended learning to students. "Makerspaces help educators, students, and administrators create a learning environment that hones certain skills including problem-solving, creativity, and teamwork. Therefore, the rising popularity of converting libraries into makerspaces is expected to drive the library furniture market in the education industry during the forecast period," says Jhansi Mary, a lead analyst at Technavio for school and college essentials research. Flexible learning commons With the advancement in technology, modern school and college libraries are changing as well. There is a continuous increase in the dependence of students on digital sources of information. Therefore, schools are changing the designs of learning spaces to break the one-size-fits-all norm. The learning commons are designed for students to find them flexible enough to work according to their individual as well as collaborative requirements. Librarians have taken up the role of collaborative educators. Manufacturers are designing furniture for modern libraries, to accommodate the dynamically changing needs of students and educators. Modern libraries in schools and colleges are working on creating a flexible and interactive learning space that allows students to demonstrate their learned lessons in innovative ways using media centers. This helps them in creating a dual communication with the educators, thereby providing them experiential learning. There has been a continuous integration of learning tools, such as interactive whiteboards in modern libraries, to let the students share information or for reviewing lectures. "The digital dependence of students and teachers, to create a collaborative learning environment, requires flexible and adaptable furniture solutions. Therefore, manufacturers are creating products suitable for both students and educators. This, in turn, is expected to increase the demand for library furniture over the next few years," says Jhansi. Browse Related Reports: Stationery and Cards Market in North America 2016-2020

School Furniture Market in GCC 2016-2020

Office Stationery Market in Europe 2016-2020 About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 10,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170713006118/en/

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[July 13, 2017] SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Goldberg Law PC Announces the Filing of a Securities Class Action Lawsuit against Arconic Inc.

Goldberg Law PC, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit against Arconic Inc. ("Arconic" or the "Company") (NYSE:ARNC) (NYSE:ARNC-P) (NYSE:ARNC-PB) for violations of 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors who purchased the Company's shares between February 28, 2017 and June 26, 2017, inclusive (the "Class Period"), are encouraged to contact the firm before September 11, 2017, the lead plaintiff motion deadline. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss during the Class Period, click here to participate. We also encourage you to contact Michael Goldberg or Brian Schall, f Goldberg Law PC, 1999 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert) 90067, at 800-977-7401, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at http://www.goldberglawpc.com/, or by email at [email protected].



The class in this case has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. The Complaint alleges that during the Class Period, Arconic made false and/or misleading statements, and/or failed to disclose material information, to investors. On June 14, 2017, a fire broke out at the 24-story Grenfell Tower in London, which destroyed the building and caused at least 80 deaths and over 70 injuries. On June 24, 2017, The New York Times reported on the causes of the Grenfell Tower fire and attributed the rapid spread of the fire to highly flammable Reynobond PE cladding panels manufactured by the Company and used in the building's construction. On that same day, Reuters (News - Alert) published an article revealing that sales managers at Arconic were aware that flammable panels would be distributed for use at Grenfell Tower but that the Company claimed it was not its role to decide what was compliant with local building regulations. On June 26, 2017, the Company issued a press release announcing that it would discontinue global sales of Reynobond PE for use in high-rise buildings after the material was suspected to have contributed to the spread of the deadly fire at the Grenfell Tower. Following this news, Arconic's stock price dropped materially, which caused investors harm.

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/20170713006273/en/

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[July 14, 2017] Singapore Cloud Startup Vodien Merges in a S$30m Deal and Expands to Asia-Pacific

SINGAPORE, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Vodien was founded with the belief and vision to connect people online. Having more than 15 years of experience in the industry, our CEO and COO, Alvin Poh and John Lee, Singapore Management University and National University of Singapore alumni respectively, are always looking at ways to help businesses get online. As part of our expansion strategy, we are proud and excited to announce that we have joined forces with Australia's leading online solutions provider, Dreamscape Networks (ASX:DN8), to empower businesses in Asia-Pacific to build their own digital footprint. This S$30m merger is the largest deal size for a pure-play hosting provider n Southeast Asia, and brings about two leading founder-led organisations to create an Asia-Pacific powerhouse in the online solutions space. Vodien is Singapore's leading web hosting provider, and the merger with Dreamscape will not only strengthen our Asia-Pacific presence, but also our company's vision of connecting people online. Like Vodien, Dreamscape deeply believes in helping their customers' succeed by establishing, maintaining, and growing their online presence. All this whilst providing excellent 24/7 customer service.



"The merger means great synergies, and combining of talent and resources of the two companies," said Alvin Poh, CEO of Vodien. "Our customers can expect to see even more improvements - even better support response times, higher hosting performance, more robust security, and much more to come. John and myself are looking forward to join the senior management team of Dreamscape, and to further drive our growth in Asia under the Vodien brand." Vodien, as a division of Dreamscape Networks, will be poised to grow both organically and through M&As with other web hosting providers in SEA countries, including but not limited to countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia.

SOURCE Vodien

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[July 14, 2017] Building a Pan-Canadian Innovation Community

11 Incubators from coast-to-coast join SingularityU Canada Summit Community TORONTO, July 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Thousands of Canadian social, business, and technology innovators from coast-to-coast-to-coast will be joining the SingularityU Canada community through a network of strategic partnerships across the country. Announced today, an initial group of 11 leading innovation hubs have partnered with SingularityU Canada Summit to inspire Canadians to think BIG and leverage an exponential mindset to take on the world's biggest challenges. The initial Community Partners Include:







BC Tech Vancouver Communitech Waterloo District 3 Montreal Ryerson-DMZ Toronto [email protected] Vancouver Innovate Calgary Calgary NEXT Canada Pan-Canadian MaRS Toronto OneEleven Toronto Startup Zone PEI Wavefront Vancouver

"When we made the decision to bring SingularityU to Canada, it was with a vision of creating a dynamic, diverse and engaged community of innovators and change-makers across the country," said Oren Berkovich, CEO of SingularityU Canada Summit. "By collaborating with this amazing group of strategic partners, we will be able to build an inclusive community that reflects and amplifies the incredible diversity and creativity of Canadians. We are on a mission to inspire and enable leaders and entrepreneurs from across the country to change the future of Canada by solving some of the world's biggest problems." Satellite Events

To expand the SingularityU Canada Summit experience, a number of community partners are also hosting satellite events in their local communities on October 11 and 12. These local events will leverage the Summit live-stream and will enable students, young entrepreneurs and other local curious minds to come together to discuss the exponential technologies and the future of energy, the environment, healthcare, citizenship and prosperity. Further, the local partnerships provide an opportunity to profile and share the stories of local innovators who are driving innovation every day in communities across Canada. The Summit will take participants on a journey from inspiration to action by bringing the top global experts, together with Canadian leaders from across business, technology, and government. Start your journey today  watch the SingularityU Canada Summit Trailer. To purchase tickets to the Summit, and for more information, please visit: SingularityUCanadaSummit.Org Local Chapters

With a vision of building a pan-Canadian movement and catalyzing an exponential mindset in communities across Canada, the Summit team is seeking to expand the network of local SingularityU chapters in Canada by working with the Canadian SingularityU alumni community. By activating in major cities across Canada, SingularityU Alumni are bringing a platform for exponential thinking to their local communities. Reach out to [email protected] to learn how to get involved with a chapter in your community. About the SingularityU Canada Summit SingularityU Canada Summit is the premier launch event of a new movement in Canada seeking to bring together the leading Canadian and International thought leaders to inspire Canadians to shape the Future of Canada and drive global impact. A forum for true debate and uncommon conversations about how technologies like artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and digital medicine will impact the way we live and work. The inaugural SU Canada Summit will take place on October 11  12 at the Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto, Ontario and will move to different cities every year. Building the Canadian incarnation of Singularity University was made possible when a grassroots movement of Canadian SU alumni brought together a visionary group of founding members including BMO, CIBC, CN, Deloitte, FairVentures, Goodmans LLP, Google, the Government of Ontario, RBC, Rogers Communications, Scotiabank, ATB Financial, Suncor, and TD Bank Group. Together this initial group is on a mission to share SU's exponential mindset and bold thinking with Canadians from coast to coast to coast. The group is working closely with leading edge innovation hubs, academic institutions, and NGOs across the country to create a pan-Canadian network of partners who wish to come together and discuss Canada's role in shaping our collective future ABOUT SINGULARITY UNIVERSITY (SU) Singularity University is a global learning and innovation community using exponential technologies to tackle the world's biggest challenges and build an abundant future for all. SU's collaborative platform empowers individuals and organizations across the globe to learn, connect, and innovate breakthrough solutions using accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital biology. SU was founded in 2008 by renowned innovators Ray Kurzweil and Peter H. Diamandis and has partnered with leading organizations including Google, Deloitte and UNICEF. To learn more, visit SU.org, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @SingularityU, and download our SingularityU Hub mobile app from the App Store. BC Tech Association

Rocky Ozaki, Vice-President, Community "The BC Tech Association, like Singularity U, believes that innovation through technology will drive the exponential change needed to solve our world's most urgent challenges. The inaugural Singularity U Canada Summit is a place where people and organizations will gather to share, inspire and partner on breakthrough solutions. It is impeccably aligned with our spirit of collaboration." Communitech

Iain Klugman, CEO, Communitech "Singularity University is a community of leaders who have the vision to change the world for the better," said Iain Klugman, CEO, Communitech. "We're excited to support the Singularity University Canada Summit, and help bring Canadian technology to the forefront of global innovation." District 3

Xavier Herve, Executive Director "District 3 is proud to partner with SingularityU Canada. Together, we can empower and expose the next generation of Canadians to emerging technologies and show how they can be used to create positive change and economic growth in Canada." DMZ (Ryerson)

Abdullah Snobar, Executive Director "We're excited to see the inaugural SingularityU Canada Summit bringing together innovators to tackle the biggest challenges facing us today," said Abdullah Snobar, executive director of the DMZ. "Our home grown talent is our greatest resource and bringing their bold ideas and energy into one space will help drive Canada's ability to shape the world." [email protected]

Barry Yates, Managing Director [email protected] is excited to join the global community of leaders and innovators through SingularityU Canada. We see a great opportunity to connect with the community, while leveraging UBC's research engine and entrepreneurial resources to push new impactful ideas forward. Innovate Calgary

David Chavez, VP, Entrepreneur and Enterprise Development "Innovate Calgary is excited to partner with Singularity University because our startup clients will benefit hugely from SU's insights around exponential thinking as they grow their enterprises and create prosperity in Alberta". MaRS

Salim Teja, Executive Vice President of Ventures "Canada's startup ecosystem has reached a tipping point. Our talented people and thriving tech sector makes us a top choice for entrepreneurs from around the world. It's perfect timing for Singularity University's Summit to arrive here. I'm thrilled that they've selected Toronto for their inaugural event and I'm looking forward to working together to champion our innovators." NEXT Canada

Jon French, Director of Marketing & Communications "NEXT Canada is very excited to be partnering with Singularity U Canada" said Jon French, Director of Marketing & Communications at NEXT Canada. "There is great alignment between our two organizations when it comes to overcoming some of the world's greatest challenges through science, technology and innovative thinking" OneEleven

Bilal Khan, Founding Managing Director "We're thrilled to support and champion the inaugural SingularityU Canada Summit," said Bilal Khan, Founding Managing Director of OneEleven, North America's largest scaleup innovation hub. "This event will foster and celebrate big, bold Canadian ideas that have the potential to create exponential change and develop a more prosperous and inclusive future for citizens around the world." Startup Zone

Doug Keefe, Interim CEO "We are thrilled to be partnering with Singularity University to livestream the SingularityU Canada Summit here in Prince Edward Island. This event is sure to surface new big ideas, inspire big innovations, and lay the foundation for transformational changes that will benefit Canadians and the world. We believe that improving the future of Canada is truly a national endeavour and are confident that PEI will play an important role in our Nation's future. " Wavefront,

Michelle Sklar, VP, Marketing & Communications "It is Wavefront's goal to help build community across Canada's technology innovation ecosystem." said Michelle Sklar, VP Marketing & Communications at Wavefront "Partnering with Singularity University Canada on their inaugural Summit is a great way to bring new ideas and connections to the forefront and be catalysts for both national and global change." SOURCE SingularityU Canada Summit

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[July 14, 2017] SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Pomerantz Law Firm Investigates Claims On Behalf of Investors of Amec Foster Wheeler plc - AMFW

Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Amec Foster Wheeler plc ("Amec" or the "Company") (NYSE:AMFW). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980. The investigation concerns whether Amec 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 July 11, 2017, Amec advised investors tat the Company was under investigation by the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office ("SFO"). In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Amec disclosed that the SFO's investigation "focuses on the past use of third parties and possible bribery and corruption and related offences."



On this news, Amec's American Depositary Receipt price fell $0.27, or 4.57%, to close at $5.64 on July 11, 2017. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170714005603/en/

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Mega Millions numbers for Friday, Nov. 11, 2022

Here are the winning Mega Millions numbers and results for the lottery jackpot drawing on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022.
Part of the article states: There are about 200 newspapers in Iran and their circulation is between 200 to 300 thousand copies per day. If we leave aside several newspapers in the capital, the circulation of the rest, especially the town newspapers, will be about 100 copies sold per day! 

And if we divide the whole circulation into the number of all the newspapers, every newspaper will have 5,000 copies printed! 

Noteworthy for readers: No publisher agrees to print less than 10,000 copies of a newspaper. As a result, the newspaper chiefs sign a print contract for 10,000 copies, but on the sidelines they agree to print only 100 copies! 

And thus, the regime claims that in this country, as in all parts of the world, there is a newspaper, a magazine, a periodical, etc.

This, of course, represents only one fact, and the fact is that there is a deep and incessant interruption between the nation and the regime. Because when we look at non-government media like social networks, statistics are basically something else.

Pavel Durov, the owner of the Telegram messaging system had said that Telegram has about 40 million users in Iran! Naturally, other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and so on, each have their own special customers among Iranians, and thus the news and cultural communication between Iranians is the best and where it is interrupted it is between the people and the regime and government media.

This disconnection does not include only the media of the hardliners (Khameneis bands), but also newspapers affiliated to Rouhani (incumbent regimes president) are no better than this, and this is where people are well aware and have problems for the recognition or adjustment of the relationship with the whole system and various regime bands.

The statistics show that if the Iranian regime can raise the small number of electoral votes and display them as large by adding a large coefficients to the number of votes in the vote aggregation rooms, but in the case of the press and the media, this is no longer possible, and the result is that the organ of the Revolutionary Guards has declared that the state-run newspapers including itself have little circulation!

There is an old saying that the circulation of the newspapers and the media of a country is a symbol of the nations relations with the ruling system and indicative of the political atmosphere of the country.

Here it is also necessary to refer to the Mojahed publication, the official organ of the Peoples Mujahidin Organization of Iran (MEK) during the first few years of the revolution before the 30 June 1981 and the closure of the political space.

In those years, the circulation of the Mojahed magazine reached the limit of one million copies a day! The statistics received from the regime indicate up to 500 thousand copies per day and, more recently, 700 thousand copies per day have been revealed and acknowledged by the political deputy the Interior Ministry during the era of the regimes former president Mohammad Khatami.

Perhaps this publication does not indicate anything for some, especially young people, but it worth noticing and would be significant when we consider that the MEK were publishing a newspaper with a circulation of one million mostly in secret printing shops, with no state-owned racks, no official printing press, and not even official distribution network! And when sometimes the cargo of their publications went down, like when one of the secret printing presses was discovered in 1979, the Revolutionary Guards burned and destroyed 60,000 copies of the Mojahed publication.

On the other hand, the massive transfer of the Mojahed publication to the distant cities and districts of the country was another issue and a challenge in the distribution of the journal, a factor that is never understood by the government newspapers.

But many patriotic and revolutionary drivers volunteered to visit the MEKs secret places every day, and receive the city circulation quotas and deliver them to their respective destinations, a practice that in the suppressive atmosphere of the country was often considered a suicide operation.

So today, at a higher pace, the MEK are still an unmatched flagship leader of a progressive culture with millions of supporters. The culture that was irrigated in the country with the blood of tens of young and teenage girls and boys, supporters of the MEK, during the distribution of the Mojahed publication.
Doors open: 8 pm * Program: 8:45 pm As the summer of 1981 comes to an end at Camp Firewood, the counselors and campers are in a state of chaos. Romantic entanglements. An all-or-nothing talent show. And a piece of NASA's Skylab is hurtling towards the camp.
"Mike Shanin interviews Burns & McDonnell CEO Ray Kowalik about the private financing proposal for a single terminal KCI. Mary Anne Murray Simons, Woody Cozad, Laura McConwell and Patrick McInerney discuss recent Kansas revenue numbers which exceeded projections, the potential for Josh Hawley to enter the Missouri senate race against Claire McCaskill and the veto of funding for a UMKC Arts Campus."

Quick glimpse of thein Kansas City discourse that takes on a variety of local topics and the ongoing debate betwixt corporate welfare and neighborhood concerns..Here's the latest episode:You decide . . .
Naturally, this situation casts doubt upon the prospects for the long term success of the agreements. And in fact, earlier ceasefires have failed on multiple occasions, with Iran and its local proxy forces frequently taking a major share of the blame. Following the siege of Aleppo, for instance, Iran-backed forces halted civilians in the midst of their relocation and demanded the simultaneous relocation of Shiite partisans out of rebel-controlled territory. This speaks to the apparent Iranian effort to partition regional conflict zones along sectarian lines as the Islamic Republic angles to make itself the head of a Shiite crescent extending from Tehran to Beirut.

This ambition has also been cited as the essential reason for Tehrans objection to the southern deconfliction zone, because it allows US-backed forces to become further entrenched there, and likely cuts off a planned Iranian route passing from Tehran through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Shiite paramilitary Hezbollah is headquartered.

The development of this Shiite crescent has been driven in large part by Irans promotion of local Shiite paramilitaries in both Syria and Iraq. Hezbollah itself is among these, and the Syrian Civil War has apparently allowed it to develop a permanent foothold in the Golan Heights, just across the border from Israel. Meanwhile, other paramilitary organizations have been described as being significantly modeled after Hezbollah, meaning that to a great extent they are poised to be appendages of the Iranian regime in surrounding territory.

The further escalation of this situation is viewed as a threat by various Arab governments in the region, and of course also to Israel. The Canadian Press explains that the establishment of the southern deconfliction zone was made more imperative by growing concerns from the Jordanian and Israeli governments. One Jordanian official said that moves toward the development of a Shiite crescent would be considered a super red line, and he went on to also highlight concerns about the establishment of Iranian missile production inside Lebanon, and the ongoing link-up of Syrian and Iraqi forces that are backed by Iran.

Concerns abound about the growing influence and territorial reach of these sorts of forces. And those concerns are by no means limited to the Jordanians and Israelis. On Wednesday, The Iranian featured an interview with a spokesman for one such militia, centered in the Iraqi province of Kirkuk. And although that spokesman sought to downplay the extent of Iranian backing and influence, the interview repeatedly emphasized the concerns that have been voice by the Kurdish military and other groups involved in the fight against the Islamic State militants. Many of them do not wish the Shiite militia groups to participate in that fight, fearing potential consequences such as the promotion of Iranian candidates for local government positions and the permanent establishment of a paramilitary presence that answers directly to Iran.

The spokesman, Ali al-Husseini, denied that his militia takes orders directly from Iran, but he also proclaimed that the organization was proud to have Iranian backing, and he acknowledged that their loyalty was not restricted to the Iraqi government but also extended to the head of the Badr Organizations and other Shiite militia commanders, many of which are in turn under the direct influence of Tehran.

Whats more, in some cases these organizations fight alongside the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps or even under the command of IRGC officers. This fact was highlighted, for instance, by Ya Libnan on Tuesday, in an article detailing boastful comments made by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah regarding the extend of Iranian power and influence Syria and Iraq. As well as quoting Nasrallah as dismissing the significance of US-led coalition air strikes and crediting Iran with the victory of Islamic State forces at Mosul, the article also pointed out that Qassem Suleimani, the head of the IRGC Quds Force and Nasrallahs boss, was reportedly at the head of the Shiite militants who fought IS in and around Mosul.

At the same time that this highlights some of the reasons behind international demand for a southern deconfliction zone in Syria, it also goes to show that the establishment of that zone may not be sufficient on its own to alleviate concerns about the development of an Iran-led Shiite crescent. Furthermore, whatever effectiveness is promised by that zone, it will only be realized to the extent that the agreements enforcement is successful. And with Irans history of breaking previous agreements, that remains much in doubt.
KSHB: City Council continues to move forward on a resolution reaffirming the citys support for the Paris Climate Agreement to fight climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.





The City Council Finance and Governance Committee approved the measure this week . . . The move by City Council comes just over a month after President Donald Trump announced that the United States would be pulling out from the international climate agreement.

In addition to so many development schemes and the constant threat of violent crime this Summer, Mayor Sly and some members of the City Council have found a way to save the planet.Maybe.Here's the damage . . .While today was kinda cool, there's still fear that. . .maybe provide more reliable Northland crossing than the currently old and busted Broadway/O'Neil Bridge.You decide . . .
The Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) inaugurated its representative office in Russia yesterday.

The office was opened in Moscow in the presence of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani and the Ambassador of Bahrain to Russia Ahmed Al Saati.

The launch of the representative office comes in line with the BTEAs strategic outreach programme to promote the tourism brand 'Ours Yours aimed at showcasing Bahrain as an ideal tourism destination to the regional and international markets and further promote the kingdoms touristic offering as a main contributor to the overall economic growth in line with the Economic Vision 2030.



The dinner ceremony was also attended by BTEA director for tourism marketing and promotions Yousif Al Khan, alongside representatives from the national carrier of Bahrain, Gulf Air.

The delegation had the opportunity to meet the representatives from travel agencies in Russia in order to discuss the kingdoms key touristic offerings to the Russian market.

The Kingdom of Bahrain has a strong and long standing relationship with Russia, and through the inauguration of the representative office, both countries will be able to utilize this opportunity to increase the existing trade relations and develop stronger tourism relations between both nations, said Al Zayani.

We are pleased to meet with representatives from the tourism industry to promote and strengthen the position of the Kingdom as an ideal tourist destination as well as enhance the relationship between both countries in order to increase the tourism influx which will contribute to the growth and development of the tourism sector and the overall national economy, he added.

On the sidelines of the office inauguration, BTEA hosted an event for the Russian media to discuss the kingdoms key touristic offerings and positioning. TradeArabia News Service
As the Washington Examiner pointed out, the letter signed by Senators Tom Cotton, David Perdue, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio drew attention to two simultaneous problems: the persistent doubts about Irans commitment to its own requirements, and the notion that even if it lives up to its bargain the deal will have an adverse effect on regional and global stability.

In the first place, the doubts relate in large part to Irans refusal to grant international inspectors access to the countrys nuclear research and military sites. And these doubts are exacerbated by recent threats from the likes of Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, claiming that the Islamic Republic is prepared to resume nuclear enrichment at a higher level than it had been maintaining prior to the implementation of the JCPOA. This, of course, suggests that the country has been continuing work on enrichment technologies in secret and in violation of the terms of the agreement.

In the second place, the letter emphasized: Even if we put aside issues related to Irans violations of the [nuclear deal], the full suspension of U.S. sanctions falls far short of being vital to the national security interests of the United States, as required by [federal law], they wrote. In fact, a continuation of current policy would be tantamount to rewarding Irans belligerence.

That belligerence has been evident in a number of Iranian behaviors, some of them directly specifically against the United States and some of them simply adverse to Western interests in Syria, Iraq, and the rest of the Middle East. And as an editorial at Voice of America pointed out on Wednesday, some of these behaviors were addressed in recent United Nations discussions regarding the enforcement of Security Council Resolution 2231.

Coinciding with the implementation of the JCPOA, that resolution governs the enforcement of the agreement and also makes mention of issues that were left out of the agreement, including Irans work on potential delivery systems for a nuclear warhead. The resolution warns Tehran against further development and testing of ballistic missiles and other nuclear-capable weapons, and yet the Iranian regime has blatantly disregarded that provision, carrying out several ballistic missile tests since the conclusion of nuclear negotiations.

Whats more, last month Iran utilized ballistic missiles in its first missile strike on foreign territory in 30 years. While this was supposedly directed against Islamic State militants in eastern Syria, it was also cited by one general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a message of strength directed at Iranian adversaries, particularly the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Jeffrey Feltman, the UN Undersecretary General for Political Affairs, called attention to these illicit launches when he presented the findings of the Secretary Generals report on the implementation of Resolution 2231. He also highlighted other facts that were indicative of Iranian non-compliance, including the seizure of arms shipments bound out of Iran last year and the interference of Iranian forces in Iraqi affairs, some of it directed by IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani, who is banned from travel to UN states as a result of his record of support for international terrorism.

The VOA editorial also reiterates that US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has insisted that the Secretary Generals report is filled with devastating evidence of the nature of the Iranian regime. Haleys remarks, not the first of their kind, are one aspect of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to focus international attention upon Iranian malfeasance and to encourage consensus on a policy of more extensive economic and diplomatic pressure on the Islamic Republic.

These efforts no doubt contribute to hope among Senator Cotton and his colleagues that the Secretary of State and the White House as a whole will respond favorably to their urging for the effective cancellation of the JCPOA. Indeed, while the Washington Examiner acknowledges that the Trump administration certified Irans compliance the first time it was required to do so, Mr. Tillerson also suggested that this might be a temporary measure as the White House conducted a complete evaluation of the JCPOA. The president is required to submit evidence of Irans compliance to Congress every 90 days, and the absence of such evidence would supposedly trigger near-immediate re-implementation of the congressional sanctions suspended under the nuclear deal.

At the same time that some lawmakers are pushing for the White House to pull this trigger, others are focusing their efforts on increasing sanctions on the Islamic Republic in other areas, not directly related to the nuclear agreement. Prominent among these are sanctions on individuals and entities with ties to the Iranian ballistic missile program, some of whom have already been newly sanctioned upon presidential authority.

The Countering Irans Destabilizing Activities Act is currently pending in Congress and aspires to sanction the Islamic Republics ballistic missile activities and also extend all anti-terrorism sanctions to the IRGC, in line with President Trumps former recommendation that the hardline paramilitary be designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The bill initially passed the Senate by the staggering margin of 98-2, indicating the extent of popularity for measures aimed at restricting the activities of the Iranian regime. But it subsequently stalled on procedural grounds in the House of Representatives. According to Reuters, an identical bill has now been introduced by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on the expectation that this will resolve those procedural issues and allow the sanctions to quickly go into effect.

Meanwhile, some legislators and other government officials are also keeping up efforts to pressure Tehran over still other matters, unrelated either to the JCPOA or to Resolution 2231. For instance, the Sun-Sentinel reported that Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson had spearheaded a letter urging President Trump to re-engage with Iran over the disappearance ten years ago of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who was evidently detained and taken to an undisclosed location by Iranian officials when he was on Kish Island as part of a private endeavor for the CIA.

Levinsons disappearance has been cited as an example of a pattern of hostage-taking of US citizens, utilized for political ends by the Iranian regime. Furthermore, this pattern has also been described as continuing unabated in the aftermath of the JCPOA negotiations. American businessman Siamak Namazi and his father Baquer Namazi, as well as IT professional Nizar Zakka and San Francisco graduate student Robin Shahini are all examples of persons who have been arrested while visiting Iran, with the primary basis for their arrests apparently being their connections to the US.

The continuation of these arrests contradicts promises by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that under his administration Iranian expatriates would be able to return to their home country without fear of reprisal. In a larger sense, it also contradicts the expectation advanced by the previous American presidential administration that the Rouhani presidency and subsequent JCPOA negotiations would lead the way to moderation in Tehrans behavior.


Search News Archive : Fast Travel News Promotion Via Search, Social Media + Email Follow Us On : ASCOTT'S CEO LEE CHEE KOON RECEIVES BUSINESS CHINA YOUNG ACHIEVER AWARD FOR ASCOTT'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO SINGAPORE-CHINA RELATIONS Industry: Events

SINGAPORE - July 14th, 2017 - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.



1. When Xueling, the CEO of Business China, first contacted me, I thought she had wanted me to participate in some of the programmes organised by Business China. So when she informed me of this award, I was completely taken aback. Its been quite a few years since I returned from my overseas posting in China, but I remain a strong believer and supporter of the strong relationship between our two countries Singapore and China. I therefore feel particularly honoured and humbled to stand here before you this evening to receive this award. 2. Ascott has grown very significantly, having more than doubled our growth in the last five years. If we look at most of the big international hospitality companies, like Marriott in the US, AccorHotels in Europe, and China Lodging Group in China, these companies started off with a huge natural advantage because they had a domestic hinterland where they could first build a good base for their business before venturing overseas. But Singapore, as it has been said many times, is a city-state without any natural endowments or hinterland. That Ascott has managed to grow an international hospitality business out of Singapore is a commendable achievement. 3. Without a doubt, China has been a big part of our growth and transformational journey. Ascott started out in China in 1998 with our first serviced residence in Shanghai. Today, it is our fastest growing market with more than 100 properties across 29 cities. More than 60% of our customers in China are local Chinese, and they are the fastest growing group of customers. China generates more than four billion in domestic travel[1] and 130 million in outbound travel[2], and I believe Ascott is well positioned to capture this growing market. 4. Ascott has always been on the lookout for opportunities to work with Chinese firms. I am pleased to count Vanke, Yuexiu, and China Merchant among some of our valuable China partners. To further spur innovation in our business, Ascott took a stake in Tujia.com (commonly known as Chinas AirBnB) and formed a strategic partnership with Alibabas Fliggy to reach out to more Chinese travellers on their platforms. We are currently working on a number of other interesting tie-ups in China, and I hope to share more good news with you when we are ready. 5. I am extremely heartened by the progress Ascott has made in China. These achievements are only possible because of the people we have in the company. As the Chinese saying goes: , we need extraordinary people to achieve extraordinary outcomes. At the heart of Ascotts achievements is my core team. They are some of the most intelligent, capable, dedicated, responsible and resourceful colleagues I have ever met. Of course, we cannot forget many key people who have been instrumental in laying the foundation for Ascott, so that my colleagues and I can reap the fruits of the labour. So rightfully, this Business China Award should belong to CapitaLand, to Ascott, and to all the extraordinary colleagues who have been involved in this amazing journey. 6. Before I end, I would like to thank my wife Melanie, who is also here tonight; for being a loving and understanding wife, for being the greatest mummy to our three lovely young children, and for being my best friend and my soulmate. Once again, thank you for this great honour. -END-

[1] Chinese took 4.4 billion domestic trips in 2016 (10 January 2017), Travel Daily Asia [2] China outbound tourists spent US$261 bn overseas in 2016 (19 April 2017), China Internet Watch ANNEX A: BACKGROUND INFORMATION OF ASCOTT IN CHINA

Ascott has achieved remarkable growth in China, its biggest market. Chinese are amongst Ascotts top customers globally with revenue increasing 35% year-on-year. Last year, about 62% of its guests in China are Chinese. To remain a market leader in China, Ascott not only secures management contracts and acquiring properties, but also forms strategic alliances with some of the biggest property developers and construction firms in China such as Vanke, Yuexiu and Dongfu. In addition, Ascott partnered new economy leaders like Tujia and Alibabas online travel service platform Fliggy to enhance its online presence and reach out to more customers. It also formed a joint venture with Tujia to operate serviced residences under the Tujia Somerset brand to cater to the growing middle class travellers in China. To capture the booming millennial market, Ascott launched its new co-living concept lyf in China last month with two properties in Shenzhen and Dalian, as well as one in Singapore. Given its growth momentum, Ascott will achieve its target of 20,000 units in China well ahead of 2020, and is confident of exceeding its global target of 80,000 units by 2020. ANNEX B: MEDIA STATEMENT

I am humbled and honoured to receive this years Business China Young Achiever Award. Ascott started out in China in 1998 with our first serviced residence in Shanghai. Today, it is our fastest growing market with more than 100 properties across 29 cities. Ascott has always been on the lookout for opportunities to work with Chinese firms. I am pleased to count Vanke, Yuexiu, and China Merchant among some of our valuable China partners. To further spur innovation in our business, Ascott took a stake in Tujia.com (commonly known as Chinas AirBnB) and formed a strategic partnership with Alibabas Fliggy to reach out to more Chinese travellers on their platforms. We are currently working on a number of other interesting tie-ups in China, and I hope to share more good news with you when we are ready. These achievements are only possible because of the people we have in the company. As the Chinese saying goes: , we need extraordinary people to achieve extraordinary outcomes. At the heart of Ascotts achievements is my core team. They are some of the most intelligent, capable, dedicated, responsible and resourceful colleagues I have ever met. Of course, we cannot forget many key people who have been instrumental in laying the foundation for Ascott, so that my colleagues and I can reap the fruits of the labour. So rightfully, this Business China Award should belong to CapitaLand, to Ascott, and to all the extraordinary colleagues who have been involved in this amazing journey. Attribution:

Mr Lee Chee Koon, CEO of Ascott





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The BBC made reference to the bans and their defiance after reporting that the hashtag #18Tir had become popular in recent days as activists and pro-reform Iranians called attention to the legacy of the 1999 student protests, which had their anniversary on Sunday. The incident led to police and civilian militias storming a Tehran University dormitory where students had been protesting the banning of a reformist newspaper. The clashes left at least five students dead, and another was arrested at his home only to disappear while in custody, never to be seen again.

Eighteen years later, the case of Saeed Zeinali continues to be championed by Iranian activists especially around the anniversary of the protests. It also calls attention to the broader problem of what the United Nations Commission on Human Rights refers to as enforced disappearances  something that has been known to take place on a fairly regular basis in the Islamic Republic. Other examples of the same have been given similar attention in recent months in spite of the regimes efforts to suppress public dialogue. Prominent among these are the enforced disappearances of an estimated 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988.

It is well understood that virtually all of the people involved in that incident were executed following their trials before the Death Commission that was tasked with ferreting out persistent opposition to the clerical regime and allegiance to dissident organizations near the end of the Iran-Iraq War. However, the vast majority of the victims are at least arguably categorized as enforced disappearances because their bodies were never released to their families and their places of burial were never revealed.

The Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran, which was the main target of the 1988 massacre, has identified probable locations of some of these mass graves, as well as providing the international community with fairly detailed accounts of how the executions and burials were carried out. But the PMOI has also repeatedly urged the United Nations, the European Union, and other global powers to order an investigation into the massacre and to hold its chief perpetrators to account.

Veils of Silence Lifted

These appeals were renewed last year after new information became publicly available about the trials and killings. This also led to unprecedented awareness and discussion of the massacre within Iranian society, particularly on social media. The information took the form of an audio recording from the time of the killings, in Ayatollah Ali Hossein Montazeri, then the next in line for the supreme leadership of the Islamic Republic, reprimanded some of his colleagues for their culpability in the worst crime of the regime up to that point.

The recording was briefly made available online by Montazeris son and continued to be distributed by various activists after the regime ordered it taken down. Ahmad Montazeri was also made subject to national security charges including spreading propaganda and was initially given a lengthy prison term before having that sentence reduced and then suspended. Meanwhile, after the previously enforced veil of silence on this matter was unexpectedly lifted, some officials began to publicly defend the killings. Among them was Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who served on the Death Committee in 1988 and now serves as Justice Minister within the supposedly moderate presidential administration of Hassan Rouhani.

The regime also inadvertently kept public dialogue about the massacre alive by fielding Ebrahim Raisi, another leading participant in the killings, as the main challenger to the incumbent Rouhani in presidential elections that took place on May 19. This led to members and supporters of the PMOI placing posters and painting graffiti in the run-up to the election, describing Raisi as a murderer and Rouhani as an imposter and urging the Iranian people to vote for regime change.

Public Relations Stunts

While Tehran no longer seems capable of containing public dialogue about the massacre, the July 1999 protests, or other such hot-button social media topics, the regime does continue to flatly deny the well-established international criticisms of its human rights record. Toward that end, the Center for Human Rights in Iran reported on Thursday that a heavily stage-managed event had taken place to show off a sanitized version of Evin Prison to various countries ambassadors to the Islamic Republic.

The notorious Tehran institution is the home to three wards for political prisoners controlled separately by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Intelligence Ministry, and the intelligence branch of the judiciary, as well as another that is not under the control of any particular organization, and one that is used exclusively to house clerics who have generally been imprisoned for views that differ from the regimes official, fundamentalist interpretation of Shiite Islam.

Each of these wards, as well as much of the prison itself, have been sites of recurrent human rights abuses, including beating and torture, the denial of medical treatment to prisoners in ill health, and the failure of authorities to address unsanitary and inhuman conditions that have been known to exacerbate health problems and give rise to prisoner complaints and protests, which are often violently suppressed.

One common tactic for these protests is the hunger strike, and many high profile instances of this have taken place in recent months, some of them lasting for several weeks and putting protestors at severe health risk. In some cases, the regime has brought an end to such protests by promising action on prisoners demands, whether for review of individual cases or for the improvement of prison conditions. But more often than not, it seems, these promises are quickly broken after protestors have halted their hunger strikes and faded somewhat from international headlines.

This was the case, for instance, with Ali Shariati, who was the subject of another report by the Center for Human Rights in Iran. That report described Shariati as having been tricked into ending his hunger strike in January, after approximately two months. Authorities promised him conditional release, far surpassing his request for a judicial review of his case, which stemmed from his pro-reform activism at the time of Rouhanis campaign for a first presidential term in 2013. While Shariati was being interrogated following his arrest in June 2014, the interrogator reportedly taunted him by saying that Rouhani was doing nothing to help his case, in spite of his promises of an improved domestic situation and the end of some repressive practices.

Pressure on an Unchanging Regime

The persistence of poor prison conditions, arbitrary punishments, and excessive use of the death penalty are all factors that have been cited to support the conclusion that promises of moderation have not come to fruition under Rouhanis presidency. The ambassadorial visit to Evin Prison only serves to highlight that no major faction of the regime is concerned with addressing the existing problems, being instead focused on publicly denying them and contradicting widely supported, independent reports on the human rights situation.

The Center for Human Rights report points out that the renowned and now exiled Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi published an open letter in response to the visit. The letter notes that at least 20 political prisoners were transferred just ahead of the ambassadors arrival, in order to isolate them away from the demonstration. Ebadi addressed the ambassadors directly to ask several questions about the visit, including whether they had been shown the solitary cells without windows, ventilation or toilets or even informed about the existence of the political wards wherein treatment is frequently much worse.

Much as political prisoners were isolated away from the demonstration, the regime has also sought to prevent them or any other potential spokespersons for the prison population from speaking to international human rights organizations or the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Iran. This situation has been enforced since 2005, and yet investigators have managed to obtain crucial information, such as the fact that in 2007 the overall population of Evin Prison was more than 5 times over capacity.

Such overcrowding is all but certain to continue in the near future, in light of the numerous reports of a crackdown on activists, journalists, and allegedly pro-Western citizens, which is being driven simultaneously by the IRGC and the Intelligence Ministry. Naturally, the enhanced social media activity related to such things as the 1988 massacre and the 1999 protests has contributed to this situation. In the midst of the presidential election campaign, the IRGC reportedly arrested dozens of group administrators for the enormously popular and relatively secure messaging app Telegram.

Various other groups have also been identified as contributors to the swelling ranks of political prisoners, among them the ethnic and religious minorities that are generally understood to be viewed by the clerical regime as a threat to its ideological integrity. World Watch Monitor was among the outlets to report this week on the apparent surge in convictions for persons arrested on the basis of their Christian faith. There have been at least 12 such convictions in the last month, with four receiving 10-year sentences just last week.

The relevant article quoted one human rights advocate as saying that the crackdown is evidently motivated by fear of the growth of Christianity, which is technically legal in Iran but only for people who were not formerly Muslim. The growth of illegal conversion seems to be taking place in parallel with the growth of social media activism and direct protests against the clerical regime. In the annual Free Iran gathering in Paris on July 1, representatives of the National Council of Resistance of Iran called attention to at least 11,000 protests that had been identified over the previous year and argued that this made Tehran vulnerable to regime change.
Different media give different impressions of the productivity of the talks. While the Daily Mail simply states that the multi-party dialogue failed to yield and agreement, the Tehran Times describes the outcome as a partial agreement. Both sources agree, however, that the participants in the peace talks still hope to hammer out a complete consensus by the end of August. But there is some question as to how feasible this goal is, as long as the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to wield its current levels of influence over Syria.

An article in the Syrian Observer went into significant detail regarding the nature of the diplomatic failure at the Astana talks. It emphasized that Tehran objects to a southern deconfliction zone that is among a total of four. The Observer indicates that Russia, out of deference to its ally, is helping to keep discussion open about the southern zone, which is currently slated to be enforced by Russia without an Iranian presence, and which would cut off Iran from the development of a planned land route linking Tehran to the Beirut headquarters of Hezbollah, by way of Iraq and Syria.

These Iranian designs are generally understood to be a major reason for the increased US presence in Syria, which is at odds with President Donald Trumps previous statements suggesting that he would keep the US out of such foreign entanglements while focusing on domestic issues. Present American involvement is still not direct, however, being instead focused on the support and promotion of moderate rebel groups that have lost ground to the Assad regime as a result of its Iranian and Russian support. But the US military has shot down one Syrian warplane and at least two drones in recent weeks, as well as launching strikes against Iran-backed forces, all with the intention of safeguarding the southern rebel stronghold of al-Tanf.

The US has already succeeded in cutting off the Iranians from their original planned northern route to link Tehran, Damascus, and the Mediterranean. And if the southern route remains cut off as a result of further peace talks, the only alternative left to Iran will be a central route focused on the area of Deir el-Zour, which is one of the last areas of serious ISIL activity. Tehrans unwillingness to accept this constraint appears to be the central reason for the delay in achieving a multilateral agreement at Astana.

In the wake of past Syria peace talks, the Islamic Republic has been blamed for the failure of ceasefires that were supposed to halt fighting between pro and anti-Assad forces, in order to allow the international community to focus attention on the fight against ISIL. For instance, following the siege of Aleppo, Iran-backed militants reportedly violated an internationally brokered ceasefire by firing on rebels and stopping civilians from fleeing to rebel-held territory. Additionally, Iran and its proxies demanded the release of prisoners from other rebel territories as a condition for allowing people to pass checkpoints leaving Aleppo. Analysts were quick to explain these moves in the context of an ongoing Iranian project of shifting sectarian populations in order to have better defined Shiite corridors under the control of Irans Shiite theocracy.

This promotion of sectarian conflict against the backdrop of the Syrian Civil War is paralleled by Irans apparent exploitation of a similar crisis in Iraq. The Iranian regime has long been blamed for encouraging a purge of Sunnis in the Iraqi government under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and it has also contributed to the proliferation of Shiite militant groups in Iraq as well as in Syria.

But Irans strategic preoccupations in those areas are not just limited to a clash or religious ideologies. Iranian strategies in Iraq have also allegedly taken aim at ethnic groups that boast separatist groups in both countries, which are apparently regarded as existential threats to the Iranian regime.

On Wednesday, Voice of America News quoted Kurdish officials in Iraq as saying that Iran had launched a cross-border artillery strike, which, though allegedly targeting militant separatist groups, forced hundreds of civilians to flee their homes over the course of several hours of shelling. The Kurdish groups in the Haji Omaran region denied responsibility for recent border clashes that were cited by Iran as the reason for the strike. And one official with the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan suggested that the violent Iranian reprisals would only further galvanize Kurdish opposition to Irans regional imperialism.

But meanwhile, Iranian officials and particularly the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps are making similar claims about the ability of public displays of military might to solidify Islamic unity behind the banner of the Islamic Republic of Iran. These were the words used by IRGC Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, according to an article in Jokpeme. Jafari asserted that the IRGC had contributed to collective security in the region and used this to advocate for superior power to be wielded throughout the region by the Islamic Republic.

Though Jafaris speech claimed the IRGC was interested in peace, it also justified the continuance of belligerent actions and rhetoric by saying, in reference the US and its allies, We are faced with an enemy that only understands the language of force. So we cannot speak with them in a tongue they do not understand, and expect to achieve result.

Last month, Iran carried out its first missile strike on foreign territory in 30 years. Although initially portrayed as retaliation against ISIL targets in eastern Syria following a dual terror attack in Tehran, the ballistic missile launch was also described by one IRGC commander as a message intended for the US and Saudi Arabia. Jafaris speech endorsing more such actions coincided with the announcement that he had been re-appointed as head of the IRGC for an additional three years. The previous three years of IRGC action had largely been characterized by provocative gestures toward traditional Iranian adversaries. These moves included ballistic missile launches that allegedly violate UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and close encounters between Iranian fast attack vessels and American warships, some of which involved the IRGCs refusal to disengage until warning shots had been fired by the US Navy.

Other IRGC officials have joined Jafari this week in boasting of the potential effects of an escalating region-wide Iranian military presence. Al Waght reported that Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour had declared the IRGC would target counter-revolutionary forces, outlaws, and terrorists in any place, without regard for national boundaries. Although Tehran purports to play a leading role in fighting terrorists across the region, the international community generally agrees on the designation of the Iranian regime as the worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism. Iranian state media tends to use the terrorist label to describe any of its own non-state enemies, like the Syrian rebels, while denying that label to all of its non-state allies, like Lebanons Hezbollah paramilitary and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

In another example of IRGC justification of Irans imperialism, Irans own Tasnim News Agency quoted Brigadier General Hossein Salami as saying the growing strength of the IRGC Ground Forces makes the borders of Iran immune from infiltration of foreign agents. The specter of foreign infiltration has been commonly cited by Iranian hardliners particularly in the wake of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, which those hardliners feared would lead to expectations of general rapprochement between the Islamic Republic and its traditional Western adversaries.

Salamis remarks were delivered at a ceremony for the inauguration of a new IRGC airbase, which could have the effect of bolstering Iranian force-projection across the broader Middle East and even beyond. In time, such bases could be relevant to the issue of Irans potential nuclear weapons capability, which was ostensibly shunted to the side by the 2015 nuclear agreement, but which many critics of the Islamic Republic fear was ineffectual at actually preventing Iran from obtaining the most destructive weapons and possibly channeling them into the hands of terrorist groups.

In a recent interview with Breitbart News, former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton advised policymakers to always think of Iran alongside North Korea as much of US foreign policy remains focused on the latter nations pursuit of long-range delivery systems for the nuclear warheads it already possesses. The interview called renewed attention to the ways in which Iran and North Korea have worked together in the past, and Bolton speculated that the Islamic Republic might even have looked to the Asian dictatorship as a means of concealing nuclear activity beyond Irans own borders.

Such claims have the potential to bolster the sorts of talking points advanced by President Trump while visiting Poland on Thursday. In a speech in the capital of Warsaw, Trump suggested that hostile regimes, including Syria and Iran should be considered common enemies by the community of responsible nations. The Independent Journal Review quoted Trump as saying that fighting these regimes would serve the defense of civilization itself. The US President thus urged Russia, as a party to the Syria peace talks, to halt its current defense of Iran and Syria and move the diplomatic discussions in the direction of a resolution that can only be achieved in the absence of Irans bid for ever greater shares of regional power.
Srinagar, July 14

Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by a DIG-rank officer, to probe the July 10 terror attack on a bus carrying Amarnath Yatra pilgrims in south Kashmir.

We have constituted the six-member SIT headed by South Kashmir Deputy Inspector General of Police S.P. Pani for speedy investigation in this important case, Inspector General of Police Kashmir Munir Ahmad Khan said.

Other members include Anantnag Senior Superintendent of Police Altaf Ahmad Khan, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, and other officers who will assist in the probe.

Seven pilgrims were killed and 19 injured when their bus heading towards Jammu from Srinagar was attacked by militants at 8.30 pm at Batengo in Anantnag district on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway on July 10.

The bus was not registered with the Amaranth Shrine Board and had reportedly violated the travel rules.

Soon after the attack, the Kashmir IGP had said that the Lashkar-e-Toiba was behind the attack.

Initial investigation reveals it is a group of Lashkar militants headed by Abu Ismail of Pakistan who carried out the attack, the IGP had said.  IANS
Srinagar, July 14

The security forces on Friday arrested a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant in Jammu and Kashmirs Bandipora district, police said.

The militant, identified as Shahnaz Mir, is a resident of Hajin in north Kashmir. He was arrested from an orchard in Markundal village, the police added.

A pistol, two magazines and a hand grenade have been recovered from him, the police said. IANS
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 14

Security forces arrested a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant in north Kashmirs Bandipora district.

Sources said Lashkar militant Shahbaz Rasool Mir, a resident of Hajin, was arrested in an orchard at Markundal in Pushwari by the Armys 13 Rashtriya Rifles and Bandipora police this morning after an input about his movement.

A pistol, magazine, hand grenade and four rounds were recovered from him, the sources said.
Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 14

The authorities continued to impose restrictions on various areas in Srinagar city to prevent protests even as a shutdown was observed in south Kashmirs Pulwama district, officials and locals said.

The restrictions in Srinagar were mostly limited to the densely populated old city which continued for the third consecutive day even as authorities allowed telecom companies to restore only low-speed 2G internet services in the region.

A police official said restrictions were imposed in areas falling under the jurisdiction of five police stations in the old city and two police stations in the citys civil lines.

The restrictions were imposed on areas falling under the jurisdiction of Rainawari, Khanyar, Nowhatta, MR Gunj and Safa Kadal police stations in Srinagars old city and those under the jurisdiction of Kralkhud and Maisuma, the official said.

The weekly Friday congregational prayers at Srinagars Jamia Masjid were also barred for the fourth consecutive week. A heavy police and paramilitary force was deployed across the old city and rolls of concertina wires were laid out to block roads.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a separatist politician who delivers weekly sermon at the mosque, criticised the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for disallowing the prayers at Jamia Masjid.

Unrelated from the events of Srinagars old city, a shutdown was also observed in Pulwama district of south Kashmir to protest the use of force on Thursday against demonstrators at Chatpur village, where a teenager had suffered a bullet injury.
Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 14

On a weeklong state visit, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat today discussed the functioning of the PDP-BJP government in J&K with the local leadership.

Although formal discussions about achievements of this regime would be discussed in the national executive meeting of the RSS beginning July 18, Bhagwat received feedback from the local leadership, which is in favour of this unique alliance.

Besides Bhagwat, other top leaders of the RSS, including Sarakaryavah (general secretary), Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi,

Dattatreya Hosabale, Suresh Soni and Dr Krishna Gopal, sahasarakaryavahs (joint general secretaries), have already arrived in Jammu for finalising the agenda for the highest apex body, Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha meeting.

Sources said as the RSS had for the first time chosen Jammu as the venue for its highest apex body meeting, discussions on J&K would be on the top of the agenda.

After reaching Jammu this morning, the RSS chief discussed security scenario and other related issues with the local leadership of the Sangh Parivar, a source said, adding that the top brass of the RSS also participated in the meeting.

Sources said the Kashmir agenda in the proposed apex body would be finalised only after the RSS top brass would get feedback about the performance of the coalition government in general and BJP ministers in particular. Some offshoots of the Sangh Parivar have expressed reservation about the functioning of the PDP-BJP regime in J&K. VHP firebrand leader Parveen Togadia has already demanded dismissal of the Mehbooba Mufti government in which the BJP was equal partner. Earlier, Bhagwat inaugurated the newly constructed office of the RSS where the apex body meeting will be held. Local leaders of the RSS - Ramesh Pappa, Brig Suchet Singh (retd) and Parshotam Dedechi - were also present.
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 14

While multiple operations have been launched to hunt the mastermind of the attack on Amarnath pilgrims, the J&K Police have constituted a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the attack that left seven pilgrims dead and 19 others injured.

We have formed a SIT headed by the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of south Kashmir for speedy probe, said DGP Sheesh Paul Vaid. Anantnag Senior Superintendent of Police Altaf Ahmad Khan is also the member of the SIT.

On Monday evening, the militants attacked the yatra bus at Batingoo, Anantnag, along the Srinagar-Jammu highway and later escaped.

Police investigation has so far has found that Lashkar-e-Toiba was behind the ambush and Pakistani militant Abu Ismail is the mastermind of the attack. The attack on pilgrims sparked widespread condemnation from the mainstream as well as separatists. Lashkar has, however, denied any role in the attack, terming it un-Islamic.

Security forces have launched a massive manhunt to track down Lashkar commander Abu Ismail and his associates. After the attack, forces have increased their footprints across the yatra route to avert the Botengoo incident.

Security agencies claim that they are getting human and technical inputs about Ismail.

We frequently get multiple inputs about Ismail and we have launched multiple operations. Today also an operation was launched next to Anantnag. It is just a matter of time before we get him, said a senior security official. The official said initially there was an input that all four foreign militants were involved in the attack on pilgrims. But now we believe two among them were local militants and worked in coordination, he added.
Patna, July 14

Amid growing rift within the members of the coalition government in Bihar, the JD(U) on Friday mounted pressure on the RJD, asking it to come clean on allegations against party minister Tejashwi Yadav with facts and not to display arrogance of having 80 MLAs.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Yadav, the son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, is the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and has been named by the CBI as an accused in its probe into land-for-hotels scandal.

The RJD, which is showing arrogance of 80 MLAs, should not forget that it was reduced to 22 MLAs in 2010 state poll and in the elections in 2015, there number swelled due to the credible face of Nitish Kumar as head of the coalition, state JD(U) chief spokesman Sanjay Singh told PTI.

In the 243-seat Bihar Assembly, the RJD has 80 seats, the JD(U) 71 and the Congress 27. The BJP has 53 MLAs.

Be within limits and come clean on accusations (against Tejashwi) at the earliest, Singh said, strongly reacting to the 80-MLA remark of Ram Chandra Purve, the Bihar unit chief of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and others.

JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar, in an apparent reference to Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav, said those against whom accusations have been levelled should explain the source of their property to silence the Opposition.

His colleague Sunil Singh echoed similar views and made it clear that the party would in no case compromise with the clean image of Nitish Kumar, saying the JD)U) president and Bihar Chief Minister is known for his politics of principles and zero tolerance to corruption.

Meanwhile, a section of media reported that Tejashwi Yadav has made up his mind to tender resignation and the decision to this effect could be announced after the return of RJD president Lalu Prasad tomorrow from Ranchi, where he has gone for appearance in a fodder scam-related case.

However, the Deputy Chief Minister in a tweet ridiculed these reports.

Some media in the name of utpati (destructive) sources is running one-point programme of BJP...I feel like laughing at it loudly, he said.

Sources in the Congress here said party president Sonia Gandhi has been playing a peacemaker between the warring Grand Alliance partners by talking to both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad to find out a mutually acceptable solution to keep the coalition intact. PTI
Darjeeling/New Delhi, July 14

The pro-Gorkhaland agitators again went on rampage on Friday on the 30th day of the indefinite shutdown in the Darjeeling hills, setting afire an RPF office, a state-run library and a police outpost here amid unabated violence.

The agitators set aflame a Railway Protection Force (RPF) office in Kurseong and a police outpost in Sukhiapokhri in the wee hours of Friday, the police said.

A state-run library in Mirik sub-division too was set ablaze last night by Gorkhaland supporters. The library was reduced to ashes, they said.

The hills witnessed violence despite continued deployment of three columns of the Army in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sonada.

The security forces maintained a close vigil at all police stations, camps and outposts besides the entry and exit routes to prevent attacks by pro-Gorkhaland agitators, the official sources said.

With food supply severely hit due to the indefinite strike, which entered the 30th day on Friday, the GJM and various NGOs of the hills distributed food items among people.

"Until we get Gorkhaland, the shutdown in the hills will continue," a senior GJM leader said.

Barring medicine outlets, all shops, schools, colleges have remained closed with internet services too straying suspended for the 27th day today.

The picturesque hill station had earlier witnessed a 40-day bandh in 1988 and a 44-day shutdown in 2013.

Meanwhile, the Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court that it was deploying four additional companies of CRPF to maintain law and order in Darjeeling and Kalimpong, which have been hit by the agitation for a separate Gorkhaland.

The government told a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra that 11 CRPF companies are already deployed in Darjeeling and Kalimpong and they have decided to send four more companies to ensure the safety of citizens and to maintain law and order there.

Attorney General KK Venugopal told the Bench, which also had AM Khanwilkar and MM Shantanagoudar on it, that the Calcutta High Court today asked the government to deploy four additional companies of CRPF there and they are rushing additional paramilitary forces there.

A Calcutta High Court bench of acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatre and Justice T Chakraborty directed the Centre to provide CRPF battalions in addition to 11 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) already deployed there.

The court also asked the state government to provide additional forces from its own resources to bring back normalcy in the hills.

The Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC) has decided to postpone its fast-unto-death programme from July 15 due to upcoming presidential elections.

"We have decided to postpone the programme of fast-unto- death as presidential elections are nearby. We will take a call on it at our next all-party meeting on July 18," a member of GMCC said. PTI
Lucknow, July 14

In a major security breach, a powerful explosive was discovered inside the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath informed the House today.

Adityanath recommended an investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the presence of explosives inside the Assembly, which is currently in session. The House later passed a resolution to hand over the probe to the NIA.

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Adityanath said on July 12, a day after the Budget was presented, the staff found white powder wrapped in a piece of paper on the floor behind the designated seat of the Leader of the Opposition.

A forensic report confirmed it was PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate), a powerful plastic explosive. It was 150 grams of powder, white in colour and even the dog squad did not detect it, the CM said.

Additional Director General (Law and Order) Anand Kumar later said 150 grams of PETN was not sufficient to cause any explosion.

The CM said an attempt had been made to muffle the voice of 22 crore people by jeopardising the lives of 403 MLAs and 100 MLCs. He said he would recommend strict security steps, including possible frisking of members.  TNS

Man threatens to blow up House, held

Lucknow: A university dropout from Deoria has been arrested for allegedly threatening to blow up the Vidhan Sabha on Independence Day. In a telephone call to ADG (Lucknow zone) on July 6, Farhan Ahmad had reportedly threatened to blow up the House. TNS
New Delhi, July 14

The issue with China and growing unrest in the Kashmir Valley will be raised in the Parliament session beginning next week by Opposition parties, who were on Friday briefed by the government about the situation on both the fronts.

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Emerging from the meeting, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma told reporters that their party has raised some doubts before the government but made it clear that nation is firstbe it China or Kashmir.

There is too much of tension and that should be lowered through diplomacy. We will also raise the issue in Parliament, both the leaders said.

Sharma said that the Congress made its view clear that national security was the priority and advised the government to rise above politics and tackle the situation diplomatically.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek OBrien said that his party raised some serious questions and claimed that the government had no answer to his question on preparedness for such incidents.

The Opposition leaders were briefed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, ahead of the Parliament session beginning Monday.

The Opposition leaders were told about the prevailing situation along the Sino-Indian border and Jammu and Kashmir and the governments action.

Others who attended the meetingconsidered an effort to build consensus on dealings with Indias biggest neighbour and Kashmirincluded Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Tariq Anwar (NCP) and Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi (JD-U).

New Delhi has expressed concern over China trying to change the status quo at the India-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in Dokalam area of Sikkim.

China and India have been engaged in the standoff in the area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Armys construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

CPI-M General Secretary Yechury said that the government conveyed to the participants about the efforts being carried out to resolve the dispute.

Union Minister Paswan said the External Affairs Minister and Foreign Secretary gave detailed information on the border issue, especially in Dokalam.

Everybody promised support to the government, he said.

On Jammu and Kashmir, governments chief spokesman Frank Noronha said the basic purpose of the meeting was to apprise the MPs from different parties of the situation following the attack on Amarnath yatris on July 10.

The MPs were informed that 2.2 lakh pilgrims had visited the cave shrine last year and this year 1.86 lakh pilgrims have already visited till today. The yatra will continue till August 7.

Seven pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on Monday.

Four districts of the statePulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Anantnagare on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.

The unrest has resumed since the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Opposition leaders have been criticising the government for the way it has handled China and Kashmir.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modis silence on China. On Wednesday, he accused Modi of pursuing policies that created space for terrorists in Kashmir.

He also alleged that the Prime Ministers pursuit of short-term political gains through the BJP-PDP alliance in the state has cost the country dear and resulted in innocent lives being lost. PTI
Muzaffarnagar (UP), July 14

The brother of the alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant Sandeep Sharma, who was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir, has been held for questioning over Rs 2 lakh bank deposit, the police said today.

Praveen, who works as a taxi driver in Haridwar, was taken into custody here yesterday. The police found a bank account in Haridwar in which Rs 2 lakh was deposited from Mumbai some months ago. There were also two transactions of Rs 50,000 each in the account.

Sandeep alias Adil was arrested by the J-K Police on Monday. Earlier, Sharmas mother Parvati and sister-in-law Rekha were also interrogated by a team of the UP ATS. Parvati had told reporters here that if my son is a militant he must be punished. Due to his actions we are facing problems and shame.

Both Parvati and Rekha work as domestic helpers in the district. Sharma, alias Adil, had left the district in 2012. His father died in 2007.  PTI
New Delhi, July 14

Myanmars Defence Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hliang, who is on an official visit to India, on Friday held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Commander-in-Chief briefed the Prime Minister about bilateral defence and security cooperation. He also condemned the recent terrorist attack on pilgrims of the Amarnath Yatra and expressed condolence for the victims.

Modi appreciated the close cooperation between the Armed forces of India and Myanmar.

He said Myanmar is a key pillar of Indias Act East Policy and expressed his firm commitment to strengthen the bilateral relationship in all areas.

The Prime Minister conveyed his condolences at the loss of lives of Myanmar Armed forces personnel and their families in the air crash of June 7.

Senior General Hliang is on an extensive eight-day tour of India which kicked off from Gaya last Friday. He also visited Varanasi, Ahmedabad and Vishakhapatnam and will meet several military and civilian leaders. ANI
Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 14

Bowing to public pressure over the alleged shoddy police probe and attempts to shield the real culprits, the Himachal Pradesh Government today handed over the rape and murder case of a 16-year-old schoolgirl from Kotkhai in Shimla to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

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The decision came hours after an irate mob gathered near the Theog police station, about 30 km from here, and damaged government vehicles.

Calling for a CBI probe amid anti-police sloganeering and hurling of stones, the protesters threatened to set the police station afire if their demand was not met. Shimla Superintendent of Police DW Negi, too, was manhandled.

Even as the public fury kept mounting and National Highway-22 remained blocked, the decision to hand over the case to the CBI was taken only after Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh returned from Kullu in the afternoon. Keeping in view the sensitivity of the case and to remove all doubts, if any, the government has decided to refer the matter to the CBI, he said.

The protesters, however, refused to clear the blockade without proof of the official communication to the central probe agency. The was brought under control only after the Theog Sub-Divisional Magistrate produced a copy of the order.

Apart from Theog, people poured onto the streets in Shimla, Kotkhai and Jubbal. There was also a scramble among politicians to hog the limelight and pledge support to the family.

While the girls uncle stood with the protesters in Theog, the victims parents left for Haridwar to perform the minors last rites.

On July 4, the Class X student was reportedly offered a lift in a car by one of the accused on her way home from school. Her body later was recovered from a forest area.

A Special Investigation Team had yesterday claimed the case had been cracked with the arrest of six youths. The people, however, refused to buy the police theory.

Social media went abuzz with allegations of attempts to shield some well-connected persons and also that the crime took place in a house, and not in the forest area as claimed. Doubts were also raised on the alleged involvement of two Nepalese labourers, who did not flee after committing the crime.

Accused face mob fury

Five of the six accused in the case, who were taken to Shimlas Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for a check-up, had to face mob fury. People from all walks of life, including women, gathered outside the hospital. Despite the large police presence, the men in khaki had a tough time trying to save the accused from being beaten up.

Issue being politicised: virbhadra

The mayhem at Theog and the destruction of public property were politically motivated. Instead of sympathising with the victims family, some people are giving a political colour to the incident The police convoy in which the accused were being brought to Shimla was ambushed by an organised group.  Virbhadra Singh, HP CM
Simran Sodhi &

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 14

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today briefed Opposition members on the governments stand on China and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

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The Opposition in turn asked the government to de-escalate the situation in the Doklam region using diplomatic channels, while pointing out security lapses with regards to the terror attack on the Amarnath yatris in Jammu and Kashmir.

The prime agenda of the meeting, which lasted a little over three hours, was to brief the Opposition ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament that begins on Monday. It was also attended by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

Emerging out of the meeting, ruling NDA ally and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan said leaders cutting across party lines felt there should be no compromise on integrity and national security.

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma told The Tribune that the Congress made it clear that the security of the country was paramount. He said it wasnt a question of satisfaction or not, but the fact that the government had now taken the Opposition on board.

It is learnt that Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar informed the leaders that China was trying to encroach on Indias territories, which had so far been thwarted by the Indian forces. Jaishankar argued that China was violating the agreed positions on the border and India was protecting not only its own interest but also that of Bhutan.

Sources said the Opposition leaders were informed that when Doval travels to China later this month, he will take up the matter in an attempt to de-escalate the situation.

JD-U leader KC Tyagi, while talking to The Tribune, said the government gave two presentations  one on China and the other on the Amarnath yatra attack.

Tyagi said: The government gave us its view on the Doklam standoff. Later, the Opposition leaders suggested to the government that it should take appropriate measures to de-escalate tension on the border by using appropriate tools.

The official spokesperson for MEA said: All parties appreciated the briefing. All participants expressed strong support for Indias approach and also for the need for national security.

The spokesperson reiterated the fact that there was widespread appreciation of the Astana meet that differences should not be allowed to become disputes between the two nations.

The meeting was attended by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge (both Congress), Sitaram Yechury (CPM), Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP), Tariq Anwar (NCP), Sharad Yadav, KC Tyagi (JD-U) and Derek OBrien (TMC), among others.
Phagwara, July 14

The residents of Phagwara cutting across religions observed a day-long bandh on Friday in protest against the killing of seven Amarnath pilgrims in a terrorist attack in Kashmir.

Various Hindu outfits gave the bandh call, and Muslims extended their support to it.

As a precautionary measure, authorities diverted Sada-e-Sarhad buses plying between Delhi and Lahore, Phagwara Superintendent of Police PS Bhandal said.

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While the bus bound for Delhi from Lahore took the Kartarpur-Subhanpur-Kapurthala-Noormahal-Phillaur route, the Lahore-bound bus took the Phillaur-Noormahal-Nakodar- Kapurthala-Kartarpur route, he said.

In Phagwara, the residents took out a rally from the Hanumangarhi temple complex and marched through the city streets, police said. Most of shops were closed and vehicles remained off the road.

A huge police force was deployed in the city to maintain peace.

Addressing the rally, Gulam Sarvar Saba, a member of the Punjab Haj Committee, called the killing of Amarnath pilgrims an anti-Islamic act.

Islam teaches us to respect all religions and the killing of Amarnath pilgrims was an anti-Islamic and anti- mankind act, he said.

Leaders of various Hindu groups and the BJP also addressed the rally.

Seven Amarnath pilgrims were killed and several others injured in the terrorist attack in South Kashmirs Anantnag district on July 10. PTI
Chandigarh, July 14

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has taken exception to the appointment of the Punjab Human Rights Commission (PHRC) chairperson by the Congress government without taking the principal opposition party into confidence.

AAP legislator and state co-convener Aman Arora said today, It smacks of not only sheer autocracy on the part of the Capt Amarinder Singh government but also its complete disregard for the law of the land and the democratic system enshrined in the Constitution.

Arora said it was laid down in the Protection of Human Rights Act that the chairperson and members of the commission had to be appointed by the Governor on the basis of the recommendation by a committee comprising the Chief Minister, Vidhan Sabha speaker, Home Affairs Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

This is the same party which had accused the then SAD-BJP government of muzzling the voice of the Opposition for the past 10 years, he added.

Arora said it appeared that the government was looking for an opportunity to appoint its handpicked favourites soon after it learnt that AAP legislator HS Phoolka had resigned from the post of Leader of the Opposition.  TNS
Dehradun, July 14

Eight Hemkund Sahib pilgrims from Amritsar, reported missing since July 6, are feared dead, the police said on Friday.

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While conducting a rescue operation near the Alaknanda river, Chamoli Police found a broken light of a car and two turbans, apparently belonging to the pilgrims.

We have also found marks of a car near a bridge between Govindghat and Vishnuprayag, a police official said.

The families of the pilgrims have identified the turbans and the broken light.

The rescue operation is under way. Members of the SDRF are also involved in the operation along with the police, he said.

We are facing a lot of problem as the current of the river is very strong, he said.

The pilgrims were from Amritsar and en route to the Sikh shrine of Hemkund Sahib which reopened on May 25. The pilgrims had contacted their family members last on July 6 from a small town near Govindghat. PTI
Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, July 14

Taking cognisance of dismissed Suwidha centre employees working in government offices, DC Amit Kumar has ordered a probe to identify such persons.

A time-bound inquiry by a senior officer is underway in view of media reports as well as complaints by residents that people were being tricked into giving bribes for getting their work done in government offices.

The lid was blown off the scandal when a former employee was trapped by the vigilance bureau after he was trying to fleece residents while working the Batala SDMs office.

Some official documents and rubber stamps were recovered from him that had officials scurrying for cover when the VB conducted a raid.

Identified as Santokh Singh, the former employee had opened a parallel office adjacent to the main SDM office from where he operated.

Some officers pointed out that this incident was just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Insiders claim that several employees were still working in public dealing offices. There are many people, who claim to be government employees, and are openly working in the tehsil and DTO offices. Such persons trick gullible residents into getting their work done, albeit for a fee, said an officer not willing to be quoted.

A few months ago, the government had dismissed such employees ago after they resorted to an agitation for regularizing their services.

Now these people, in connivance with officials, are indulging in corrupt acts. Since they have the backing of officers, they brazenly flaunt their powers in the corridors of power, said a tehsil officer.

The DC added that criminal cases will be registered against such persons as per the enquiry report.

Operating from parallel office
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 13

Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) legislator Simarjit Singh Bains said here today that various parties should come together on the SYL issue and ensure that Punjab was not forced to share its water.

Addressing a press conference, Bains said the Congress government should call an emergency session of the Vidhan Sabha and table a Bill that must be passed unanimously.

Once the Bill reaches the President, he would take a call on whether Sections 76, 77 and 78 of the Reorganisation Act, 1966, are unconstitutional as far as Punjab is concerned, said Bains.

The legislator added that former CM Parkash Singh Badal should ask his daughter-in-law Harsimrat Badal to resign from the Union Cabinet as a mark of protest on SYL.

Not a drop of Punjabs water will be shared with any state. I am ready to face police lathis in the states interests, he added.

Fight for river waters to continue: Badal

Muktsar: Former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday said the SAD had always tried its best to save river waters of the state and would continue to do so. State Congress leaders were in attendance when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had performed the ground-breaking ceremony of the SYL canal whereas we, the SAD leaders, had staged a protest, he said. Badal toured some villages in the Lambi Assembly constituency on Thursday and visited some houses to condole the death of their family members. When asked if all political parties in the state should join hands on the SYL issue, he said: It will be seen when the final stage comes. TNS
Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, July 14

Two young girls from Gurdaspur drowned while allegedly attempting to click a selfie from the edge of a bridge on Friday morning. They slipped into the swirling waters of the UBDC canal.

College student Lovepreet Kaur Masih (21) and her friend Nisha (18), a school girl, were clicking selfies when Nisha, who was perched dangerously on the edge of the Sathiali bridge, suddenly slipped and fell into the canal.

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Eyewitnesses claimed that as she started falling she held on to the arm of Loverpreet Kaur which proved to be fatal for both.

Villagers, who were gathered at the spot, informed Deputy Commissioner (DC) Amit Kumar.

The DC, in turn, immediately asked the authorities concerned to reduce the flow of the water.

The SDM was entrusted with the responsibility of supervising the rescuing operation while heavy police force arrived within minutes.

The incident occurred at 5.30am and 30 minutes later half a dozen divers of district administration had started the rescue.

By noon, when the divers failed to trace the girls, the DC requisitioned their more experienced Army counterparts from the nearby Tibri cantonment.

Villagers tried every trick in the book to locate the girls. Some of them even used their turbans to go down into the canal.

Experts camping at the site said that the chances of finding the bodies appeared to be bleak because of the strong current of water.

I have made arrangements for flood lights so that the operation can continue at night, said DC Amit Kumar.

At the time of filing this report, the operation was still going on.
London, July 14

The worlds first robot lawyer--which has so far overturned parking tickets worth USD 10 million in the UK and the US--can now help people tackle legal disputes regarding landlords, credit card fraud and harassment at work free of cost.

The online tool, developed by 20-year-old British student Joshua Browder at Stanford University in the US, has been upgraded to fight legal disputes in 1,000 different areas.

These include fighting landlords over security deposits and house repairs, and helping people report fraud to their credit card agency.

Theres so much exploitation going on where landlords arent behaving properly. Im really excited about how it can help people, said Browder.

I really hope it will help people stand up for their rights for free and instantly, he said.

To get robot advice, users need to type their problem into the DoNotPay website, which directs them to a chat bot that can solve their legal issue.

It can draft letters and offer advice on problems from credit card fraud to airline compensation, The Telegraph reported.

It can also understand complex disputes such as employment rights and offer a range of suggestions.

With problems around parental leave and harassment at work it provides options with different levels of formality.

It can send a casual letter, an official one, and file a complaint to the regulator.

The tool can fight parking tickets in just 30 seconds.

DoNotPay had negated more than 375,000 tickets worth around USD 10 million in the UK, New York and Seattle.

At present the robot lawyer can solve problems that involve a single document, such as filling out a form or writing a letter.

Browder is now planning to develop the tool so it can handle more complicated processes. PTI
THE Hon. Mr. Rangaswami Iyenagar, B.A., whose political views on self-government have been repudiated by forty zamindars claiming to be his electors, has exposed the unreality of the counter agitation to self-government that is cleverly engineered by some persons. Mr. Iyenagar has already told us that his constituency consists of 134 zamindars and that repudiation by 40 electors is of no great consequence. In a letter to the Bombay Chronicle he says that out of 40 who have disowned his views only 21 belong to his constituency, and that many of them are not voters for the Imperial Council. Persons having no voting qualification should have requisite intellectual qualification to weigh the consequences of their repudiation. It is worth knowing how many of the forty have had opportunities of discussing the merits of the reform scheme.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 14

Government Doon Medical College and Hospital and 35 other government hospitals will start giving teleradiology services to patients in the coming two days.

The Chief Minister, Trivendra Singh Rawat, who also heads the department, yesterday said the services would greatly help the state tide over the shortage of radiologists in the state. This service will benefit a large number of patients as against the requirement of 135 radiologists, we have only 33, he said.

The state Department of Health has signed an agreement with a vital teleradiology firm to start the initiative in the Doon hospital.

The company has already started the service at the Haldwani medical college.

With the help of teleradiology, the radiologists sitting in far-off places would be able to examine the X-rays, CT reports and MRI and write the reports within a few minutes and also dispatch them for further action.

Normally, these reports take two to three days to be ready for patients.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 14

Uttarakhand Finance Minister Prakash Pant has announced that the government will soon come up with a social security scheme for women, who remain underpaid, unrecognised and unpaid. He stated this at a state-level meeting held here today to discuss the issue of unpaid work and women,

Pant said it was the duty of the government to provide social security to women and the BJP government was ready to shoulder the responsibility. During the tenure of the BJP government in 2007, we had created a social security fund by imposing a cess on construction work. A sum of Rs 176 crore has been accumulated in the fund and we will soon utilise it for providing social security to women workers, said Prakash Pant.

On the other hand, the state Women Commission chairman lamented a delay in drafting a policy for women and called upon women to come up with their suggestions.

She also highlighted the need to focus on the financial, social and health security of single women. The issue needs to be taken up properly, she said.

Uttarakhand Women and Child Development Minister Rekha Arya stressed the need to craft a policy for women. She said their government would soon set up vending machines in rural areas where women would be able to buy pads for Rs 10. We will soon launch sanitary napkins that every woman in the village would manage to get. It is important for their health and well-being, she said.

However, Renu Thakur, a social activist, said these napkins should be made available free of cost. The GST on sanitary napkins will make them costly. These should not be taxed and should be free of cost, said Thakur.

The consultation on Recognising, Reducing and Redistributing Womens Unpaid Work was organised jointly by UN Women, ARPAN and Action Aid (Lucknow). The findings of a study conducted in Dharchula block of Pithoragarh district on the issue of unpaid work and women was also presented.
[July 13, 2017] Publication in Cell Demonstrates Moderna's Zika mRNA Vaccine Prevents In Utero Transmission of Zika Virus in Mice, Protects Against Zika-Related Congenital Damage

Moderna Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company that is pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines to create a new generation of transformative medicines for patients, today announced new data demonstrating that its Zika mRNA vaccine prevented Zika virus transmission from pregnant mice to their fetuses. The findings, which were published today in Cell, also demonstrated that Moderna's Zika mRNA vaccine protected the placenta and fetus from Zika virus-induced injury. In the study, Moderna's Zika mRNA vaccine was evaluated in addition to a live-attenuated vaccine candidate developed by the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). The research was conducted by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Washington University School of Medicine and UTMB. Children born to mothers infected with Zika can develop microcephaly, a severe disease characterized by abnormally small heads and severe neurologic disabilities. Zika infection is also strongly associated with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), an autoimmune disease that attacks the peripheral nervous system, leading to rapidly progressive and potentially life-threatening muscle weakness. GBS can lead to death caused by respiratory arrest if a patient is not ventilated. There are no treatment options or approved vaccines for the Zika virus or congenital Zika syndrome. This is the first study to establish vaccine protection from the Zika virus during pregnancy. "We're highly encouraged by these preclinical findings demonstrating the ability of our mRNA vaccine to provide robust prevention of maternal transmission of Zika and protection against congenital defects," said Giuseppe Ciaramella, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Moderna's infectious disease-focused venture, Valera, and an author on the paper. "The threat to pregnant women and women who may be planning on getting pregnant remains a serious concern in certain regions of the U.S. and abroad. We look forward to further study of our Zika mRNA vaccine to prevent Zika infections, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes for mothers, their children, and families in the U.S. and globally." About the Zika mRNA Vaccine Findings The study was designed to evaluate protection of fetuses during pregnancy in mice. Researchers gave a cohort of non-pregnant female mice (n=20) a 10 g intramuscular (IM) injection of the Zika mRNA vaccine followed by a boost at 28 days. An additional cohort of non-pregnant mice (n=20) received placebo injections at the same time points. At day 49, the mice that received the mRNA vaccine produced high levels of neutralizing antibodies against Zika virus in their blood compared to placebo. Both cohorts were then mated and infected with the Zika virus. After seven days, most fetuses in the vaccinated mice showed no evidence of having Zika virus transmitted to them from their pregnant mothers compared to placebo. In addition, vaccinated mice had significantly lower levels of Zika virus RNA in maternal, placental and fetal tissues compared to placebo-injected mice, resulting in protection against damage to the placenta and fetus. Specifically, Placenta and fetal heads from the placebo cohort showed high levels of viral RNA levels while corresponding tissues in mice immunized with Moderna's Zika mRNA vaccine showed marked virologica protection (placenta, 200-fold mean reduction; fetal head, 13,000-fold mean reduction).

10 of 19 (53%) placentas and 11 of 19 (58%) fetal heads from mice who received Moderna's Zika mRNA vaccine had viral RNA levels at the limit of detection of the assay, suggesting virtually complete protection, and the remainder had substantially lower levels than those detected in samples from mice in the placebo cohort.

Only three of 19 (16%) of placentas and 0 fetal heads from maternal mice immunized with Moderna's mRNA Zika vaccine were positive for the infectious virus compared to 21 of 23 (91%) of placentas and 10 of 23 (43%) fetal heads from placebo-vaccinated maternal mice.



"These are very promising findings and, as the first study to demonstrate protection from Zika in the pregnancy setting, are an important development in our efforts to combat Zika virus," said Michael Diamond, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Departments of Medicine, Molecular Microbiology, Pathology & Immunology, and Associate Director, Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Program at Washington University School of Medicine, and a lead author on the Cell paper. "This type of collaboration, fusing the expertise of academia, government and industry, will be critical in order to speed advancement of novel vaccines like the mRNA vaccine and live-attenuated vaccine involved in this study."

Moderna's Zika mRNA vaccine, mRNA-1325, is currently in Phase 1/2 clinical study in healthy volunteers. The company's pipeline includes seven additional mRNA prophylactic vaccines, all of which address infectious diseases for which there currently are no approved vaccines. In February 2017, a paper published in Cell demonstrated that Moderna's mRNA vaccine protected mice against Zika. In April 2017, Moderna published human data for its mRNA vaccine technology in Molecular Therapy, which showed that its first prophylactic vaccine candidate, mRNA-1440 -- an mRNA prophylactic vaccine against avian H10N8 influenza - induced high levels of immunogenicity and was safe and well tolerated. About Moderna's Zika mRNA Vaccine Messenger RNA (mRNA) plays a fundamental role in human biology, directing protein production in cells. When used as a drug, mRNA can direct cells to produce therapeutic proteins (mRNA therapeutics) to fight disease or antigenic proteins (mRNA vaccines) to prevent disease. Moderna's Zika mRNA vaccine encodes for viral antigenic proteins (Zika virus prM and E) associated with the Zika virus. The mRNA directs cells to produce and express the proteins on the cell surface, much like a native infections would do, but without the ability to cause disease. This is because no other viral proteins are present to enable the production of an infectious Zika virus. As a result, the immune system recognizes the antigenic proteins as foreign to the body and produces antibodies that have the potential to neutralize the Zika virus, and prevent infections in the event the vaccinated person is exposed to the actual virus in the future. In 2016, Moderna received a funding award of up to $125 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to accelerate development of its Zika mRNA vaccine. Moderna's preclinical work for mRNA-1325 was funded through a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). About Moderna Therapeutics Moderna is a clinical stage pioneer of messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, an entirely new drug technology that directs the body's cells to produce intracellular or secreted proteins. With its breakthrough platform, Moderna is developing a new class of mRNA medicines for a wide range of diseases and conditions, in many cases by addressing currently undruggable targets. Moderna is developing its innovative mRNA medicines for infectious diseases, cancer (immuno-oncology), rare diseases, cardiovascular disease and pulmonary disease, through proprietary development and collaborations with strategic partners. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., privately held Moderna currently has strategic agreements with AstraZeneca, Merck, Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Vertex (News - Alert) Pharmaceuticals, as well as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense; the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. To learn more, visit www.modernatx.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170713005587/en/

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Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 14

Even as the state government has ordered a probe into alleged suicide by a farmer of Udham Singh Nagar district in the state a few days back, this latest case of farmers death, fourth in the state, has caused widespread resentment.

The victim, Balwinder Singh of Bajpur in Udham Singh Nagar district, who had allegedly taken a loan to the tune of Rs 7 lakh, committed suicide after receiving a notice from the bank. The state government was forced to order a probe into the matter as it did not rule out even personal reasons behind the farmers death, further infuriating farmers in the state.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) has yet again reiterated its demand for waiving farmers loans in the state. BKU leader Ajit Singh Randhawa threatened to launch a widespread agitation in the state if the state government did not waive the loan of the victim within four days, besides providing a government job to his wife.

The Kisan Sangharsh Samiti has protested over farmer suicides in the state. Samiti president Balwant Singh today accused the state government of being totally insensitive towards farmers plight. He also threatened to hold widespread farmer agitations in the state if the farmers loans were not waived within 10 days.
Beijing, July 14

China said on Friday that awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo amounted to blasphemy and lodged protests with several countries, including the US, for making irresponsible statements on the death of the prominent dissident.

Liu, Chinas best-known human rights prisoner, died on Thursday at the age of 61 following a battle with liver cancer. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who spent his last eight years as a prisoner of conscience, died at a hospital in Shenyang, China.

He was granted medical parole in June after receiving his diagnosis in prison, but China did not let him seek treatment abroad despite Lius wishes and international pressure.

Lius death led to international criticism of Chinas handling of the issue. The leader of the Norwegian Nobel committee Berit Reiss-Andersen said the Chinese government bore a heavy responsibility for Lius death.

Answering a barrage of questions on Friday over the death of Liu, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China had lodged protests with certain countries for interfering in its judicial sovereignty.

Liu is a prisoner who was sentenced to imprisonment in accordance with Chinese law ... conferring the prize to such a person goes against the purposes of this award. Its a blasphemy of the peace prize, Geng said, referring to the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Liu in 2010.

China is a rule of law country and everyone is equal before law. Anyone who violates law will be punished, and remarks by certain countries constitute interference in Chinas internal affairs. That goes against the spirit of international law, Geng said at a regular news conference.

China has lodged a protest with the US to show its dissatisfaction following remarks from Washington about Lius death, he added.

Geng specially targeted UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al Hussein for his statement that Liu devoted his life to defending and promoting human rights, peacefully and consistently, and who was jailed for standing up for his beliefs.

The UNHCR chief should respect the judicial sovereignty of China and not interfering in Chinas internal affairs. He should fulfil his duties in objective and fair manner. I can tell you that we also made representation with him for his above-mentioned remarks, Geng said.

Liu had been transferred from prison last month, where he was serving an 11-year term for subversion.

Geng also said China would not make a pre-judgment about whether Lius widow, Liu Xia, who has been kept under house arrest since 2010, would be allowed to go overseas as demanded by several countries and human rights groups.

As for situation of Lu Xia, I am not aware of that. I can tell you that China is a rule of law country. We will handle relevant case in accordance with law, he said.

Liu Xia, whose current whereabouts are unknown, is said to be suffering from depression after spending years under house arrest and heavy surveillance. She was allowed to visit her husband in hospital.

Germany, UK, France, the US and Taiwan have called for China to allow Liu Xia to travel and leave the country if she wishes.

Responding to the issue, Geng said, We have lodged representations with the countries that made irresponsible remarks.

He said that Beijing had lodged protests with Germany, France and the UNs human rights high commissioner following criticism over its handling of Lius death.

Asked whether Lius death has badly dented Chinas image as he was second Nobel laurate to die in prison after first such incident took place in 1938 under Nazi Germany, Geng said Chinas status and image is all there to see.

Some irresponsible comments and remarks cannot represent whole international community, he said and referred to the situation in the Middle East.

If you look at todays Middle East, does this need so called preachers of human rights to reflect on what they have done, he said.

He once again defended Chinese Foreign Ministrys move to delete all questions and references to Liu from the official transcripts of the press conferences posted on its website, saying that like media, it is prerogative of the ministry to post the material it chooses appropriate.

Meanwhile, responding to Lius death, Salil Shetty, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, commented that he was a man of fierce intellect, principle, wit and above all humanity.

Today we grieve the loss of a giant of human rights, Shetty said.

For decades, he fought tirelessly to advance human rights and fundamental freedoms in China. He did so in the face of the most relentless and often brutal opposition from the Chinese government, he said in a statement.

The death of Liu lays bare the Chinese governments ruthlessness toward peaceful proponents of human rights and democracy, Human Rights Watch said.

Even as Liu Xiaobos illness worsened, the Chinese government continued to isolate him and his family, and denied him freely choosing his medical treatment, said Sophie Richardson, China director of HRW.

The Chinese governments arrogance, cruelty, and callousness are shocking  but Lius struggle for a rights- respecting, democratic China will live on, she said in a statement. PTI
Washington, July 14

WASHINGTON: A Chinese spy ship has been sailing in international waters off the coast of Alaska for several days, having first arrived in the area shortly before the test of a US missile defence system, the media reported.

US Navy Captain Scott Miller, spokesperson for the North American Aerospace Defence Command, told CNN late Thursday the ship is believed to be a "communications" or "intelligence" vessel and confirmed it has been in the area for the last few days.

Miller would not speculate on the reason for the ship being there.

Two US military officials told CNN that the ship is operating approximately 100 miles off the Alaska coast in international waters.

The officials pointed out that the Chinese ship is operating legally and said the US does not have security concerns about the vessel.

US ships also regularly operate in international waters near China.

The officials said it is possible the ship was there to observe the latest successful Terminal High Altitude Area Defecse (THAAD) missile system test off Alaska, but the US has not confirmed it.

China has long protested the US-South Korea decision to deploy THAAD to the Korean peninsula, saying that it could be used to target Chinese missiles.

South Korean and US officials say the system would be used to intercept missiles coming from North Korea.

IANS
Lima, July 14

Former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and his wife were taken in custody after a judge ordered them held during an investigation into money laundering and conspiracy accusations tied to the scandal-tainted Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Soon after the judge issued his order on Thursday night, Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, were driven to the courthouse under a heavy police escort. There was no immediate word on where they would be held.

Prosecutors filed a petition early in the week asking for preventative detention, arguing the couple might flee Peru to evade justice. Judge Richard Concepcion ordered them held for up to 18 months while they are investigated.

The former president has denied the allegations, which arose from testimony by the former head of Odebrecht saying he illegally contributed USD 3 million to Humalas 2011 presidential campaign.

The couple is also accused of taking undeclared funds from the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez during a previous, unsuccessful presidential bid. Humala, who finished his term in 2016, never declared the contributions and prosecutors argue that he and his wife conspired to hide them for personal gain.

Humala and his wife didnt attend the hearing, but he has said he looks forward to defending himself.

As the couple headed to the courthouse, Humala said in a tweet: This confirms the abuse of power which we will confront in defence of our rights and those of everyone.

Before the ruling, he said there was no need for detention.

Were staying here, weve even handed over our passports, Humala told reporters who had been gathered outside his home for three days. In every moment weve shown our roots and goodwill. But the prosecutor sees everything we do in the opposite light. I think hes been poisoned.

The same judge previously ordered the arrest of another former Peruvian president, Alejandro Toledo, for related charges.

Toledo is in the US fighting attempts by Peruvian authorities to have him deported to answer the charges.

Authorities across Latin America have been moving to charge officials accused of taking some USD 800 million in bribes from Odebrecht. The company acknowledged the bribes when it signed a plea agreement in December with the US Justice Department.

The bribes include some USD 29 million paid in Peru for projects built during the administrations of Toledo, Humala and former President Alan Garcia.

The same scandal has ensnared former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was convicted on Wednesday and sentenced to almost 10 years in jail for taking gifts from another Brazilian builder that, along with Odebrecht, paid bribes to politicians in exchange for government contracts.

Silva denies the accusation and will remain free while he appeals what he says are politically-motivated charges. AP
Washington, July 14

President Donald Trump was deeply saddened by the death of prominent Chinese political prisoner" Liu Xiaobo, the White House said on Friday, describing him as a courageous advocate who dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy and liberty in the Communist nation.

Liu, who had spent more than a decade behind bars in China for his advocacy of political reform, including taking part in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, was serving a 11-year prison term for subversion when he was diagnosed with late stage liver cancer in May this year.

Beijing had refused to allow him to seek treatment abroad despite Lius wishes and international pressure. His death, of multiple organ failure at the age of 61 on Thursday, makes Liu the first Nobel Peace laureate to die in state custody since Carl von Ossietzky in Nazi Germany in 1938.

President Donald J Trump was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent Chinese political prisoner Liu Xiaobo, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

The Presidents heartfelt condolences go out to Liu Xiaobos wife, Liu Xia, and his family and friends. A poet, scholar, and courageous advocate, Liu Xiaobo dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy and liberty, Spicer said in a statement.

Just a day before Lius death, the US had called on China to release him from custody so he could see his family and pursue the medical care.

Several American Senators also expressed their sorrow over Lius death.

Today the world lost a hero of liberty and freedom, said Senator Ted Cruz, the Republican Senator from Texas.

Ever since leaving the safety and comfort of America to lead the protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989, Liu sealed his fate as a persistent focus of persecution from the authoritarian PRC (Peoples Republic of China), Cruz said.

From re-education through labour and deprivation of property to unjust imprisonment and physical abuse, Liu bore the brunt of the Communist Partys wrath for daring to challenge their immoral system of political oppression, he added.

Senator John McCain said the death of Liu in a Chinese prison represented an egregious violation of the fundamental human rights for which he spent his life.

Unfortunately, and as Dr Liu would have wanted everyone to remember today, this is only the latest example of Communist Chinas assault on human rights, democracy, and freedom, he said.

McCain said the Chinese governments delay in his treatment was the last barbaric violation of Lius human rights.

The news of Liu Xiaobos death today is beyond tragicfor his beloved wife Liu Xia, for his family, and for the millions of supporters of his courageous efforts to champion human rights and democracy in China, said Senator Marco Rubio.

He said the Chinese government must give Lius remains to his family and grant his wife an exit visa to leave the country.

There should be an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Dr Lius death, his treatment in detention, the timing of the diagnosis of his late-stage liver cancer, and countless other questions that need to be answered, he said. PTI
Paris, July 14

French President Emmanuel Macron and US counterpart Donald Trump marked Frances National Day together today at a military parade that showcased their warming relations.

Macron invited Trump to be his guest of honour at the pomp-filled military parade down the Champs-Elysees which the two men watched with their wives. The Bastille Day celebrations were also tinged with mourning, one year on since a vicious Islamist attack in the Mediterranean city of Nice where a man drove a truck into a crowd, killing 86 persons.

The Paris parade this year marked the centenary of the US entering World War I in 1917 and was set to feature 63 planes, 29 helicopters, 241 horses and 3,720 soldiers.

Macron, standing in a jeep surrounded by dozens of republican guardsmen on horseback, smiled and waved to the crowds amassed along the Champs-Elysees as he arrived for the parade.

This is a wonderful national celebration, Trump said at a joint news conference with Macron yesterday, adding: We look very much forward to it. Spectacular. Our two nations are forever joined together by the spirit of revolution and the fight for freedom, he added.

Macron rolled out the red carpet for Trumps two-day visit, hoping to improve relations and persuade the US President to change his mind about withdrawing from the global Paris agreement on climate change. The warm body language between the two leaders evident in Paris was at odds with broader concerns about the transatlantic relationship since Trumps election victory in November last year.

The Trumps and Macrons enjoyed a dinner between friends yesterday at a Michelin-starred restaurant on the Eiffel Tower, enjoying beef with truffle sauce and warm strawberry and yogurt sorbet. Trump also said yesterday the bond between the US and France, as well as the friendship between him and Macron, was unbreakable.

Bastille Day commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789  the start of the French Revolution and a turning point in world history.

This years celebrations are likely to be more sombre than usual, with Nice remembering last years victims when a Tunisian man drove a truck in into a crowd of families watching a fireworks display. In less than three minutes, 86 people lost their lives, and another 450 were hurt.  AFP

Trump saddened by Lius death

President Trump was deeply saddened by the death of prominent Chinese political prisoner Liu Xiaobo, the White House said on Friday, describing him as a courageous advocate who dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy and liberty in the Communist nation. "The Presidents condolences go out to Liu Xiaobos wife, Liu Xia, and his family, WH Press Secretary Sean Spicer said. pti
Washington, July 14

The 10 senators who represented the United States at the 21st Conference of Parties in 2015 have urged President Donald Trump to reconsider and reverse his decision to withdraw from the historic Paris accord on climate change.

More than 900 US businesses support keeping the US in the Paris Agreement, including 20 Fortune 500 companies. American businesses need the US government at the negotiating table to represent their interests, the 10 senators wrote in a letter to Trump.

Their support for the Paris Agreement is evidence that the Agreement is in fact a good deal for America.

We are ready to work with you and your administration on advancing these important economic and environmental goals and, once again, urge you to reconsider and reverse your decision, said the senators in the letter released to the press on Thursday.

Led by Senator Ben Cardin, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the letter was signed among others by Sheldon Whitehouse, Tom Udall, Jeanne Shaheen, Jeff Merkley, Al Franken, Chris Coons, Brian Schatz, Ed Markey and Cory Booker.

In Paris, Trump indicated that he might reverse his decision.

Something could happen with respect to the Paris Accord. Well see what happens, Trump told reporters in a joint news conference with the French President Emmanuel Macron.

But we will talk about that over the coming period of time. And if it happens, that will be wonderful. And if it doesnt, that will be okay too. But well see what happens, Trump said in response to a question, adding that they briefly discussed the Paris Accord.

Macron said he remains extremely attached to the framework of the Paris Accord, which has been a major international breakthrough.

It is within that framework that Im working on priorities, including for the European Union, he said.

In their letter, the 10 Senators said they travelled to Paris in 2015 to participate in the 21st Conference of Parties and engage in the development of the Paris Agreement.

We experienced the international communitys overwhelming appreciation and support for the US leadership in achieving this landmark achievement.

As senators who have invested considerable time and energy to advancing US action on climate change, we respectfully disagree with your decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, they said.

As you reconsider this decision, to demonstrate the US commitment to climate change leadership and maintaining the American private sectors advantage in a changing global economy, we strongly encourage you to utilise the several America First clean energy export tools at your disposal, the letter said.

The senators insisted that the US must continue to reduce domestic emissions to maintain its credibility on climate leadership. PTI
Washington, July 14

President Donald Trump was captured complimenting the French Presidents wifes appearance as he toured a famous Paris landmark.

Video footage posted on the French governments official Facebook page showed Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and their wives chatting after their tour of the museums at Les Invalides.

As they were saying their good-byes, Trump turned to Brigitte Macron and gestured towards her body. You know, youre in such good shape, Trump said, before repeating the observation to her husband. Beautiful, he added.

Brigitte Macron was her husbands former high school teacher and their relationship has drawn global attention because of their significant age difference.  AP
[July 13, 2017] Namecheap Introduces EasyWP Beta: New Managed WordPress Hosting

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[email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/namecheap-introduces-easywp-beta-new-managed-wordpress-hosting-300487999.html SOURCE Namecheap

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#TrafficAlert

ASO is still on scene assisting FHP and ASO is still on scene assisting FHP and @MCSOFlorida with the large crash reported on I75 in Micanopy. pic.twitter.com/dbeHbbu6M9 July 14, 2017

#TrafficAlert

ASO is still on scene assisting FHP and ASO is still on scene assisting FHP and @MCSOFlorida with the large crash reported on I75 in Micanopy. pic.twitter.com/dbeHbbu6M9 July 14, 2017

Yesterday I was involved in an accident that took the life of my dear friend and band mate David Z Rock and left 3 of our crew in critical condition. I'm overwhelmed with sorrow. I am so grateful for the out pouring of love we have received from around the world. Please continue to pray for David's family during this difficult time. And those in critical condition. I want to personally thank Marine Lance Cpl. Patrick Dumon for his bravery in assisting me pull our Driver Jason from the wreckage and for attending to his wounds. And for helping me to secure and attend to Jane once I was able to get her free from the fire. Without his selfless act of courage I would not have been able to get them clear of the RV before it was engulfed in flames. On behalf of my band and crew I thank you.ADRENALINE MOB  the band featuring Russell Allen (vocals; also of SYMPHONY X) and Mike Orlando (guitar)  was involved in a fatal crash Friday afternoon (July 14) in Florida.One person died and six were injured when a tractor-trailer veered off Interstate 75 near Micanopy and struck the group's RV that had pulled off the highway with a flat tire.Out of the nine people who were in the vehicles, one died, six were taken to area hospitals, and the other two declined medical treatment. Of the six injured, three were listed in critical condition and the other three in stable condition.ADRENALINE MOB's soundman, Robert Dressler, who was one of the people who had been riding in the RV told Gainesville.com he heard a "boom" when the truck hit the RV. He was in a bunk at the time.No names have yet been released of any of the deceased or the injured. The deceased is said to be a man who was in the RV. The injured include bandmembers.
A Creek County man who received a multimillion-dollar court settlement over his treatment in jail that cost him both his legs is back in the same jail facing state and federal charges.

Russell Martin Mounger, 45, has been held at the Creek County Jail since February, facing drug- and weapons-related offenses, records show.

Mounger received a $2.7 million settlement from county officials in 2009 after he filed a lawsuit regarding an earlier stay in the Creek County Jail.

A two-week jail stint in 2007 ended up costing Mounger both his legs when an infection caused by blood clots progressed to the point that doctors had no choice but to amputate, according to World archives.

The Oklahoma State Department of Healths Jail Inspection Division determined at the time that Mounger did not receive required medication and care and was improperly held in a restraint chair.

Mounger pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute marijuana in the 2007 case and received a five-year probated sentence.

In the more recent case, Mounger has spent the past five months in the Creek County Jail after he was charged in District Court with nine counts, ranging from endeavoring to manufacture/possess a controlled dangerous substance to possession of mercury.

The charges stem from a search warrant Mannford police executed at this residence in February, according to Mannford Police Chief Lucky Miller.

We did a search warrant at his residence and found everything under the sun  methamphetamine, marijuana; he was in possession of over a pound of mercury, which is a felony, Miller said.

The search of his residence in the 33200 block of Deer Run Road also turned up home computers and cellular phones, which were sent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for analysis, Miller said.

According to them, there was well over 600 images of child pornography on several of his devices,

A federal grand jury indicted Mounger earlier this week on possession of child pornography. The images involved the use of at least one prepubescent minor and a minor that had not attained 12 years of age engaging in sexually explicit conduct, according to the indictment.

Marvin Lizama, Moungers private attorney, said Thursday that he had just seen the indictment.

We have been awaiting for the feds to look at the information and see if they were going to file an indictment or not, Lizama said.

Moungers experience this time at the Creek County Jail has been relatively unremarkable, according to Lizama.

Everything has been working fine simply because we have a history, Lizama said. They are treating him with kid gloves, so to speak. They are making sure that nothing goes wrong.

Attempts to reach a spokesperson for the Creek County Sheriffs Office were unsuccessful.
The attorney for a man charged in a teens death during an alleged theft of fireworks said Friday that the district attorneys decision to prosecute his client is outrageous.

The Tulsa County District Attorneys Office filed a first-degree manslaughter charge Friday morning against 32-year-old Johnny Mize Jr. under two theories: that he fatally shot 15-year-old Jake Ulrich during a period of anger and that Mizes decision to shoot Ulrich was an overreaction to Ulrich and his cousin, Jack Ulrich, stealing from the fireworks stand owned by Mizes father.

Authorities said they found Jake Ulrichs body slumped over in the cab of Jack Ulrichs truck, which had been abandoned in the 6500 block of West Edison Street. The fireworks stand was in the 600 block of South 65th West Avenue.

Jack Ulrich, 27, faces a misdemeanor larceny count in the theft. First Assistant District Attorney Erik Grayless said the value of what hes accused of stealing, $600, no longer meets the threshold for a felony charge because of a change in the law that took effect this month.

By that rationale, Ulrich cannot be charged with felony murder, a charge that can be applied when a death occurs during the commission of a felony.

Tulsa-based attorney Nathan Milner, who represents the Ulrich family, told the Tulsa World the family is pleased to see charges filed against Mize. Jail records indicate that Mize posted $50,000 bond and was out of custody as of Friday afternoon.

Weve been adamant that this was unjustified and unwarranted, Milner said of the shooting. This (incident) was a larceny at best  a misdemeanor.

But defense attorney Kevin Adams told the World the prosecution is blaming the wrong person for Jake Ulrichs death. He said the evidence clearly shows Mize is innocent of any crime, and he alleged that the District Attorneys Office seems to be just anti-Second Amendment based on its handling of the case and others such as that of former Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby.

I cannot believe they did this to the Mize family, Adams said. Its mind-blowing that this is the decision theyve decided to make.

Grayless said the Sheriffs Offices affidavit gave the state cause to question Mize Jr.s actions in the altercation both due to his emotional state and what he said the Ulrich cousins did. He said the states second manslaughter theory, which isnt used as often as a basis for prosecution, fits well for a situation such as the one involving Mize Jr.

Im not speaking about the facts of this case, but just to give the easiest example, two kids walk into a convenience store. One of them steals gum, and they attempt to flee, Grayless said. The store owner shoots one of them. Wed all agree that was an unnecessary and overreaching act to prevent that stolen gum. In other words, he took it too far.

A probable cause affidavit states that Mize told Tulsa County Sheriffs Office detectives that he saw two people in a green truck steal a box of fireworks, which prompted him to jump over the counter and point a gun at the people to scare them. Mize said he thought someone fired a shot at him because he heard a pop sound, and he told deputies he fired his gun after hearing the noise but wasnt sure what, if anything, he hit.

Mize said he then jumped into the bed of the pickup, but he told detectives the driver of the truck swerved in an effort to throw him from the truck bed. He said he then shot out one of the pickups tires and that the driver fled on foot after the pickup came to a stop.

Jack Ulrich was interviewed about the events July 6 and was released.

Although Mize said he remembered the driver, later identified as Jack Ulrich, yelling after the truck stopped, he said he couldnt remember details because he might have blacked out.

Mizes father, Johnny Mize Sr., said in his interview with deputies that he saw a flash come from the green pickup before his son shot at it.

Mize Sr. said he also tried to jump into the truck bed but was unable to when it fled from the fireworks stand at a high rate of speed. Once he caught up with his son at Edison Street, Mize Sr. said both loaded the stolen fireworks from the green truck into their vehicle and drove back to the stand.

Nobody likes to be stolen from, and we understand that, but there are rules about guns and when to use them, Milner said Friday.

Adams said he and his co-counsel, Stephen Lee, will represent the Mizes even if they cant afford to pay them because this case is that outrageous and the defense attorneys dont think some nerd with a law degree should tell a working-class family how to defend their business from criminal activity.

My guy was doing the right thing trying to protect himself, Adams said.
[July 13, 2017] smartTrade Technologies Awarded Best Liquidity Aggregation System Provider

smartTrade Technologies, a pioneer in multi-asset electronic trading solutions, announces that LiquidityFX has been awarded - Best Liquidity Aggregation System of the Year by FX Week. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170713005956/en/ e-FX best aggregation system The award recognises LiquidityFX, smartTrade's end-to-end solution which includes a sophisticated aggregation engine, for its excellence and capacity to meet today's FX requirements. LiquidityFX Aggregation enables buy-side, sell-side, and corporate clients to obtain a single view of external and internal liquidity sources in real time. Clients can gain additional value by adopting other LiquidityFX's modules such as order management, market taking and making connectors, a pricing and distribution system, risk management capabilities, FIX API, and a rich and flexible HTML5 user interface. Finally, in this strong regulatory context, LiquidityFX helps clients achieve better execution transparency and enables them to conduct pre and post-trade analysis thanks to a wie range of detailed reports generated by smartAnalytics, our powerful big data engine.



"We are honoured to receive this award from the renowned FX Week team and their industry experts jury. Our experience and ability to successfully deliver quality eFX platforms within challenging timeframes is the reason why we benefit from an excellent track record. LiquidityFX's versatility has allowed us to increase our footprint within buy-side and sell-side firms as well as corporate institutions." commented David Vincent, Chief Executive Officer of smartTrade Technologies. He added: "We constantly enrich our aggregation system with new functionalities to ensure our offering stays ahead in term of versatility, performance, speed and user-friendliness." About smartTrade Technologies:

smartTrade Technologies, a pioneer in multi-asset electronic trading solutions, delivers innovative and intelligent technology enabling you to focus on your trading and grow your business while lowering total cost of ownership and allowing you to quickly adapt to changing market requirements. smartTrade Technologies provides agile end-to-end trading solutions supporting Foreign Exchange, Fixed Income, Equities and Derivatives asset classes with connectivity to over 95 liquidity providers, aggregation, smart order routing, order management, pricing, distribution, risk management capabilities and a HTML5 user interface. We work with a variety of clients ranging from banks, brokers and hedge funds to proprietary trading desks. LiquidityFX for FX and smartFI for Fixed Income, are solutions available as software only or as a fully managed and hosted service, collocated in all the main market places globally. For more information, visit www.smart-trade.net. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170713005956/en/

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A Tulsa police sergeant surrendered to authorities Thursday after he was charged with felony assault and battery on claims that he hit another officer in the face at a childs birthday party.

Dedlorn Sanders Jr., 51, is accused of assaulting Tulsa Police Officer Heath Brownell on June 30 while both were at the scene of a reported disturbance near Fourth Street and Sheridan Road. He was booked into the Tulsa Jail at 5:56 p.m. and was released on $5,000 bond about 20 minutes later.

A probable cause affidavit from Sgt. Dave Walker says Sanders was restrained at the scene but wasnt arrested at that time following a decision from Tulsa Police Department command staff.

The Tulsa Worlds police salaries database shows that Sanders has been with the department since Jan. 16, 1996. Brownell joined the department in 2016.

The affidavit indicates that Sanders responded to a call from his daughter for help mediating a disagreement between her and her babys other family members. Sanders, who was off-duty at the time, took the infant and prepared to leave when Officer Joshua Griffith stopped his vehicle.

Walker reported that Sanders became upset and animated after he got out of his car and was told he could not legally leave with the child. Sanders reportedly then got into a confrontation with Brownell in which he reiterated that he was leaving with the baby and Brownell said Sanders was not free to leave.

Brownell drew his Taser when Sanders tried to get to the drivers side of the car and another officer stepped in to get Sanders away from it, the affidavit states. However, Sanders returned to the drivers-side door, prompting Brownell to grab Sanders arm, Walker wrote in the document.

At that point, Sanders hit Brownell in the face with his right hand, Walker said.

The altercation was captured on Griffiths patrol car dash camera.

Sgt. Shane Tuell told the Tulsa World that in accordance with Chief Chuck Jordans instructions, Sanders will be on administrative leave with pay while his case is pending.
There were some mixed signals, but it has seemed clear for awhile that Second District U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin was going to run for re-election to his fourth term  despite his earlier promises to return to Westville after six years in office.

Mullin removed any lingering doubt on Independence Day, when he and his wife posted an 11-minute video interview, in which they confirm that hell be back on the Republican ballot in 2018. That has drawn him the opposition of former U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, once the most popular elected official in Oklahoma.

Coburn told 1170 KFAQ that Mullins decision reflects the arrogance of power, strong words from a man who has never suffered fickleness gladly.

When a mans word doesnt mean anything, nothing else matters, Coburn said.

If you wondered what a congressman who has no intent to run again would look like, cast your eyes on First District U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, who made the same promise at the same time as Mullin and is living up to it.

The contrast in their political behavior has been pretty stark in the past two years.

Bridenstines short-timer status allowed him to stay aloof from the House power structure and sometimes fight against his own leadership.

Bridenstine is a part of the choleric Freedom Caucus, which helped bring down Speaker John Boehner in 2015.

Mullin serves as a deputy whip under Boehners replacement, Paul Ryan.

If youre planning to leave after six years, theres not much reason to seek a junior leadership role ... or to compromise, and Bridenstine hasnt.

Meanwhile, Mullin was jumping into the GOPs inner circle with both feet.

Last year, when Bridenstine was making his last re-election campaign, he made it clear that it was his last time at bat. A promise is a promise, and he repeated it proudly in his television advertising.

And Mullin ... when confronted with his previous term-limit pledges ... said he was still praying about it.

Will the Second District reject Mullin because he reneged on his six-and-out promise? Perhaps, perhaps not.

His explanation  that after prayerful consideration he has determined that he now has a chance to accomplish some things hes been working on for a long time  has a ring of authenticity about it. Even when hes saying hes not as good as his word, Markwayne Mullin sounds genuine.

Depending on what conclusion you were planning to come to anyway, you can chalk up his explanation to new maturity or becoming addicted to the thrill of being called congressman, a seductive narcotic indeed.

Constituents have no contractual restraints on their congressmen. If House members dont so outrage their fellow congressmen that they refuse to allow them in the chambers  a distinction that has thus far been reserved for those who have taken up arms against the United States or received bribes  they are essentially untouchable.

Constituents have only their congressmans word on what they will do and the only enforcement mechanism is the ultimate term limit, the ballot box.


With every Emmys announcement its always fascinating to see who missed out too.

It was great to see Nicole, Judy & Geoffrey get nods -Nicoles category is ridiculously crowded, up against Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon, Reece Witherspoon, Carrie Coon & Felicity Huffman. Every one of them a winner.

Geoffrey Rush has it nearly as tough, against Riz Ahmed, Robert De Niro, Ewan McGregor and John Turturro.

Both Hollywood Reporter and Variety note other big omissions.

Series not nominated for major Emmys this year include The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Insecure, The Good Fight, The Big Bang Theory and The Young Pope.

Girls and The Leftovers also dipped out in major categories despite their final seasons (the latter is the bigger surprise there).

The Americans missed out for a Best Drama nod, while Transparent was a no show for Best Comedy.

Homelands Claire Danes did not get a nod for best actress in a drama. Better Call Sauls Michael McKean would have been great to see in the drama supporting actor category.

There is some fuss Oprah Winfrey was overlooked for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks -dunno, I didnt catch that one. Rami Malek missed out on a nomination for Mr. Robot after his surprise win. It seems to have lost its buzz.

Black Mirror got a nod as a movie. Who knew?

And I will never get why Survivor is snubbed over The Amazing Race every year (other than the latter is admittedly, harder to film on the fly). It got a casting and cinematography nod. Probst is a superior storyteller (sorry Phil!).

But the biggest surprise of all? According to the chatter its Shannon Purser in a guest actress nod for her Stranger Things role as Barb.

Corrected: Ben Mendelsohn is nominated for guest actor for Bloodline.
[July 13, 2017]

NeuroCog Trials Introduces NCT Pathway: Next Generation eCOA For Clinical Trials

DURHAM, N.C., July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- NeuroCog Trials (NCT), a clinical technology and research services company dedicated to supporting global drug development, announces the general availability of its new flagship eCOA platform, NCT Pathway. Developed with input from seasoned clinical investigators, Pathway has the dynamic technical capabilities and user-driven design to meet the needs of virtually any clinical trial, from Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia to oncology and cardiology. The platform is currently in use by large sponsors in several late stage clinical trials.

"I am thrilled to be presenting Pathway to the clinical trials community. We have dedicated ourselves to creating a tool that has a beautifully simple user interface, rigorous attention to scientific and regulatory detail, and a seamless back-end data transfer and storage system," said Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. Richard Keefe.

Other key benefits of NCT Pathway include: automated features and assisted scoring for improved protocol compliance, real-time data capture, central review portal, CDISC compliant storage and data transfer, and integrated security and regulatory compliance features. Recognized globally for expertise in clinical and cognitive measurement and data quality assurance, NeuroCog Trials implements rigorous testing and validation procedures to proactively anticipate challenges and ensure the highest level of performance across all its software solutions. NCT delivers innovative technology and science-driven data solutions with unrivaled dependability.

To learn more about NCT Pathway, please visit http:/www.neurocogtrials.com/products/pathway-ecoa/.

About NeuroCog Trials

NeuroCog Trials (NCT) is a cognition and clinical assessment services and technology company devoted exclusively to applying rigorous standards for key endpoints in multi-site clinical trials in many different indications. It has provided consulting, site screening, rater training and certification, translation, and data services for more than 100 clinical trials in over 25 countries. Founded in 2005, NCT is a privately held, certified woman-owned business, headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.









Contact Jenna Piunti Office +1 919 433 2429 Switchboard +1 919 401 4642 Email [email protected] Website www.neurocogtrials.com



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SOURCE NeuroCog Trials
Internally displaced Congolese father Bernard, 25, sits on the floor of a former clinic in the town of Idiofa, Kwilu Province, with his sons.  UNHCR/John Wessels

IDIOFA, Democratic Republic of the Congo  Twenty-five-year-old Bernard* is a strong and healthy father of three. He does not seem like the type to be easily thrown off course by life. But right now, he is at a complete loss.

The children keep asking me, daddy, where is mama? They think of her a lot and cry, he says. I sometimes take my mobile phone and pretend to call her and then I tell them that she will be coming soon. But this does not calm them anymore.

For Bernard, one fateful day in April changed his life. He was in his office in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, scheduling the years final exams for the school where he worked as an administrator.

I suddenly heard people crying out and running. He learnt that one of the militia groups which had sprung up in the area, was launching an attack nearby.

Shocked, he took off towards home. When I got to my street, I saw that my house was in flames, he says. Everything was lost, everything was completely burnt.

DR Congo: Thousands flee escalating violence in Kasai province (Thomas Nicolon, producer/camera)

He puts his arms around his two boys, Raoul, two and Ramazani, five. I found my boys standing alone, crying and afraid. As he ran off with them, he saw his wife down the street. She had been brutally murdered by militia fighters, dozens of whom were nearby.

He could not find his seven-year-old daughter, Ngalula, and does not know what has become of her.

He now sits stoically on a wooden bench outside a former clinic in Idiofa, a town in central Kwilu Province, about 500 kilometers east of the capital, Kinshasa.

As his boys run around and play nearby, he recalls how different life was three months ago. We had a really good life. I received my pay at the end of the month. The family house had "four rooms, a roof with 53 iron sheets and a TV".

We had never heard a gunshot in our lives.

Now, they are among more than 1.3 million people that have become internally displaced by a conflict that has in recent months ravaged Kasai, a vast area almost the size of Germany in the heart of DRC.

The Kasai region has been known for stability that allowed its residents to live peaceful lives. All that changed last year when militia violence, followed by an army crackdown, pitched the area into chaos.

It began in August when a traditional chief, Jean-Pierre Mpandi -- better known by the tribal name Kamuina Nsapu -- was killed in a clash with the Congolese authorities. By early 2017, the conflict had spread to several provinces, with many militia groups springing up, most of them claiming to fight the government.

Bernard, like many others, is experiencing conflict for the first time. We had never heard a gunshot in our lives, he says.

Internally displaced Congolese families from Kasai province wait in line for food in the grounds of a former clinic in the town of Idiofa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.  UNHCR/John Wessels

Women and children from Kasai Province take refuge in the grounds of a former clinic.  UNHCR/John Wessels

Displaced people from Kasai province seek refuge in the town of Idiofa.  UNHCR/John Wessels

He and others from the town escaped into the thick forest, so dense that even at noon you thought it was night. The group avoided the main roads due to militia presence. But with hardly any food or drinking water, some died during the two-week march to safety.

Along the way they occasionally found support from villagers, who provided shelter and what little food they could. Bernard remains grateful for this unexpected assistance even as he struggles to understand why they were attacked. We dont know what this wars objective is. We have become victims of things we dont know.

A few kilometers away, Francois, a man in his fifties, leads a group of 10 men and a woman carrying a baby as they enter Idiofa. Like Bernard, they have walked for weeks through the forest.

Back home, I was a teacher, says Francois. He explains that he lost his wife and his two children. The group continues to the clinic where Bernard is also staying.

"When I got to my street, I saw that my house was in flames. Everything was lost.

About 100 people arrive in Idiofa daily, often on foot, while many more stream into nearby towns in the province. Currently, there are 350 displaced people staying at the clinic with as many as 50 sleeping in a room, on the bare floor.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is working with a local NGO, the Association for Social Development and Safeguarding of the Environment, to provide hot meals and water to the new arrivals. This support has encouraged over 3,000 displaced people sheltered by local families, in churches and in mosques, to come forward to be included in beneficiary lists.

The process is important as it helps us identify vulnerable people like unaccompanied children who need special support, says Ann Encontre, UNHCRs representative for Central Africa.

We are working with local partners to support the displaced, while we focus on protecting the most vulnerable people, she adds.

Bernard and his family are grateful to be alive, but the pain of losing his young daughter continues to haunt him. I loved her so much, but I do not know how I can see my daughter again, he says. Maybe she fled with a woman who has a good heart.

*Name changed for protection reasons
A mother and child cross the bridge linking Cucuta, Colombia with Venezuela, in June 2010. The number of Venezuelans seeking asylum in other countries, including Colombia, is soaring.  UNHCR/Boris Heger

As the situation in Venezuela continues, the number of asylum applications by citizens of that country has soared. Last year, there were some 27,000 Venezuelan asylum seekers worldwide. So far in 2017, nearly 50,000 have applied for asylum.

The main countries of destination for Venezuelan asylum seekers this year have been the United States (18,300), Brazil (12,960), Peru (4,453), Spain (4,300) and Mexico (1,044). Aruba, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Ecuador and Trinidad and Tobago, have also received asylum applications by Venezuelans in 2017.

The above figures represent only a fraction of the total number of Venezuelans who may be in need of international protection, as many do not register as asylum seekers, despite the fact that many have indicated that they fled because of violence and insecurity, as well as an inability to meet daily subsistence needs.

Thanks to a long standing tradition of solidarity in Latin America, Venezuelan citizens in neighbouring countries can benefit from various forms of temporary residence in those countries. However, due to bureaucratic obstacles, long waiting periods and high application fees, many Venezuelans opt to remain in an irregular situation instead of using asylum or migratory procedures to regularize their stay.

It is estimated that among the 300,000 Venezuelans in Colombia, 40,000 in Trinidad and Tobago and 30,000 in Brazil, many may be in this situation. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is working with the authorities of these countries to step up registration and profiling, reinforce reception capacities and provide basic humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers with specific needs. Faced with large arrivals, all three countries have initiated response plans. The Colombian and Brazilian authorities are coordinating their responses and discussing harmonized approaches.

Some of the major challenges posed by the large influx of Venezuelans in neighbouring countries include international protection and physical security considerations, lack of documentation, sexual and gender-based violence, exploitation and abuse, and lack of access to basic rights and services. In certain areas, armed groups and criminal gangs are exploiting the newly-arrived Venezuelans and the local population.

UNHCR is also concerned that indigenous groups living along Venezuelas borders with Brazil and Colombia are being increasingly affected by the situation and have fled their home territories. Particular attention to the rights of these communities as well as a differentiated and targeted protection and humanitarian response is required.

Considering the evolving situation in Venezuela, it is projected that people will continue to leave the country. UNHCR is stepping up its response accordingly. In Colombia, UNHCR has carried out interviews of Venezuelan arrivals to establish protection needs and is strengthening its presence in border areas and its capacity to provide basic humanitarian assistance, including through multi-purpose cash grants, to Venezuelan asylum seekers with specific needs.

In Brazil, UNHCR, through a national partner, is providing funds to cover some activities carried out by civil society organizations in Boa Vista, Pacaraima and Manaus. The Federal Police, with UNHCR support, has deployed additional staff to Roraima State to assist with the registration of asylum claims. In Trinidad and Tobago, UNHCR is assisting the government to progressively assume responsibility for registration, issuance of documentation and refugee status determination.

UNHCR reiterates its call to States to protect the rights of Venezuelans, particularly the right to seek asylum and to have access to fair and effective asylum procedures. Effective access to protection requires the adoption of measures to facilitate documentation, access to basic services and livelihood options. At the same time, Venezuelans who do not wish to apply for asylum or whose asylum claims have been rejected should be helped to regularize their situation through alternative means. There should be no involuntary returns to Venezuela.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
Jumaa Alo, a 52-year-old Kurdish Syrian from the town of Afrin, puts his arm around his wife Nabihas shoulders. Finally safe in a new home in Greece, their eyes fill with tears as they think back to the conflict that forced them to flee in 2011.

Their new home, shared with sons Mitan and Akid, daughter-in-law Zainab, and two-year-old grand-daughter Silina, is a former childrens hostel on the edge of the lakeside city of Ioannina. The family are among the first 90 refugee residents to live at Agia Eleni, which was offered to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, a year ago.

Then abandoned and in a state of disrepair, it has since been renovated thanks to European Commission funding and transformed into a self-contained model in the agencys accommodation programme, with capacity for about 500 people.

The programme is part of larger efforts aimed at ensuring that a sustainable and adequate reception system is put in place by the Greek Government, requiring the provision of more urban accommodation opportunities and improving living conditions.

I will never ever forget that day."

Jumaa and his family fled Syria for Lebanon in 2011, afraid that their youngest son would be forced to join the Syrian army. They lived in the neighbouring country for four years, working on farms or in fruit-packing plants. But life was tough and, after making to Turkey, they decided to make the perilous journey by boat to Europe.

We had always heard that in Europe all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law, says Jumaa. This is something we never experienced in Syria.

After six attempts, he and his family finally made it to the Greek island of Chios in February this year. I will never ever forget that day, he says. It was as if a man who had been in the grave suddenly got a chance to step out into the world again.

Refugees are relocated to the new facility on the mainland.  UNHCR/Christos Tolis

Jumaa and Nabiha leave UNHCR apartments on the island of Chios.  UNHCR/Christos Tolis

Jumaa, Nabiha and Mitan reach Piraeus, on their way to Agia Eleni.  UNHCR/Christos Tolis

Jumaa and his family arrive at Agia Eleni.  UNHCR/Christos Tolis

The family now dream of opening a pastry shop. Jumaa and his sons know how to prepare more than 100 different types of sweet baked treats. Back in Syria, the family owned two patisseries, but they were all stolen and also my house. There is nothing, everything was stolen, Jumaa explains.

Staff from UNHCR and its NGO partner Intersos are helping them to get settled in the spacious facility, whose distinctive and attractive stone and timber buildings were designed more than half a century ago by the late Constantinos Doxiadis, a Greek architect best known for leading the team that created Pakistans capital, Islamabad.

It was as if a man who had been in the grave suddenly got a chance to step out into the world again.

Agia Eleni has living, dining and sleeping quarters, areas for indoor and outdoor activities and sports, and water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure. Families can prepare meals and access nearby shops, where they are able to buy basic provisions with cash cards issued by UNHCR under a scheme funded by the European Commission. A full range of basic services will be provided by UNHCR and partners in coordination with the Ministry of Migration Policy.

Jamaa and his wife, who have health problems, are now looking forward to a brighter future, and one where they can be reunited with their three other sons who had made their way earlier to Greece, where they were taken to Athens and accepted for relocation in the Netherlands.

Twenty-four-year-old Mitan is very grateful. We are surrounded by such warm and friendly people, he says, smiling. We feel welcome and safe here.
[July 13, 2017] Renowned Fashion Icon Tim Gunn Returns as Guest Speaker for ideation 2017

TOLLAND, Conn., July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Gerber Technology is proud to announce that Tim Gunn, famed fashion and television personality, will return by popular demand as a guest speaker at ideation 2017. Tim Gunn will engage in a fireside chat with Gerber Technology's senior vice president and general manager, Software Solutions Group, Karsten Newbury as they explore how attendees should embrace digitization, making it easier for anyone in the world to design, manufacture and sell beautiful garments. Ideation, the premier software conference for the fashion, apparel, accessories and footwear industries, will be held in Los Angeles at the Sheraton Universal. Tim Gunn is the Emmy-winning co-host and mentor for Lifetime's Project Runway, where he also serves as one of the show's producers. In addition to his television prowess, he served as Fashion Dean at Fifth & Pacific, where he was responsible for attracting, retaining and developing the creative talent within the portfolio of brands. Prior to his office at Fifth & Pacific, he was the Chief Creative Officer at Liz Claiborne Inc. Gunn served as a member of the administration and faculty at Parsons School of Design, an institution he shares a rich and deep history with having served there for 29 years where he was Design Chair of the Department of Fashion Design. Gunn is also a New York Times best-selling author pennig Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style, Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work, and Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible: The Fascinating History of Everything in Your Closet. Tim released his fourth book, Tim Gunn: The Natty Professor: A Master Class on Mentoring, Motivating, and Making It Work! in Spring 2015.



"Tim Gunn's energy and passion as keynote speaker at ideation 2015 was both inspirational and entertaining. His dedication to design education and technology-led solutions will help attendees gain important knowledge and invaluable insights on how to navigate and thrive in an ever-transforming market," said Newbury. "Mr. Gunn exemplifies the dynamism, creativity and innovation of fashion and we are honored to welcome him back to ideation." For over 15 years, Gerber Technology's ideation conference has been the premier software event dedicated to fashion and retail professionals who rely on CAD and PLM solutions to get their products to market faster, minimize costs and ensure quality.

To register for ideation 2017, please visit: http://www.gerbertechnology.com/ideation/ About Gerber Technology Gerber Technology delivers industry-leading software and automation solutions that help apparel and industrial customers improve their manufacturing and design processes and more effectively manage and connect the supply chain, from product development and production to retail and the end customer. Gerber serves more than 78,000 customers in 130 countries, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies in apparel & accessories, home and leisure, transportation, packaging and sign & graphics. The company develops and manufactures its products from various locations in the United States and Canada and has additional manufacturing capabilities in China. Based in Connecticut in the USA, Gerber Technology is owned by AIP, a New York-based, global private equity firm specializing in the technology sector and has more than $3.0 billion assets under management. Visit www.gerbertechnology.com for more information. Contact: Jamie Bibb

Tel: +1 419 244 7766

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[July 13, 2017] Amazon's Alexa Latest Skill Helps Connect People with God Through Christian Meditation with Abide

Amazon's Alexa can now help individuals better connect with God thanks to the Abide Flash Briefing skill. On the heels of Amazon Prime Day, users need to enable the skill and simply ask Alexa, "What's my flash briefing?" to hear a daily prayer provided by Abide, the Christian meditation and prayer app. "We live very busy, hectic lives that make it difficult to find a moment to pray and be still with God," said Neil Ahlsten, CEO and co-founder of Abide. "The Abide Flash Briefing provides a quick prayer that can help believers re-focus their mind and find their place of peace when surrounded by all the noise they experience every day." Through Alexa, users can receive a two-minute daily prayer similar to the ones found on the Abide app. These prayers open the door to a moment of reflection and Christian meditation, needed for all Christ followers every day. "Millions of people use Alexa to help them intheir daily lives from creating shopping lists, ordering a pizza and listening to music," said Ahlsten. "But through the Abide skill with Alexa, she can now also help individuals do the most important thing - speak about and meditate upon the Word of God."



The Abide Flash Briefing is not the only skill for believers to take advantage of. A recent blog post on Abide's website highlights six other skills individuals can use to build upon their faith and Biblical knowledge. "Technology is often frowned upon for the way it has changed our world; however, Alexa and the Abide app are providing a better opportunity for believers to use this technology to have a deeper relationship with God and grow in their faith," explained Ahlsten. "We now have more resources and opportunity which creates an endless amount of possibility."

The Abide Flash Briefing is available for use through any of the Amazon Echo family products enabled with Alexa. The Abide app is available for download on iTunes and Google Play. About Abide Abide is a Christian prayer and meditation app developed by Carpenters Code, a fellowship of technologists from Google, Tesla, Ebay, Microsoft (News - Alert), and other firms seeking to use their gifts to bring people closer to God. Abide offers meditative guides for every season of life with a goal to touch the world with meaningful, scriptural prayer so everyone may know God's love and be transformed by His Spirit. For more information, visit Abide.is. NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information about the Abide app, please visit Abide.is. To arrange an interview with a spokesperson, please contact Kristin Nill at 972.267.1111 or [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170713006201/en/

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Study: Mountaintop Coal Mining Causes Appalachian Rivers to Run Consistently Saltier

A portion of the Hobet 21 coal mine in West Virginia shows the effects of mountaintop-removal mining, which, new research shows, causes many streams and rivers in Appalachia to run consistently saltier for up to 80 percent of the year. (Fabian Nippgen Photo)

Mountaintop-removal coal mining causes many streams and rivers in Appalachia to run consistently saltier for up to 80 percent of the year, a new study by researchers at the University of Wyoming and Duke University finds.

The scientists examined water quality in four watersheds that flow into southern West Virginias Mud River basin, the site of extensive mountaintop mining in recent years. In mountaintop-removal mining, underground coal seams are exposed by blasting away summits or ridges above them. Any leftover debris and crushed rocks are deposited in neighboring valleys, creating valley fills that can stretch for long distances and bury entire streambeds.

Over time, alkaline salts and other contaminants from the coal residue and crushed rocks in these valley fills leach into nearby streams and rivers, degrading water quality and causing dramatic increases in salinity that are harmful to downstream ecosystems, says Fabian Nippgen, assistant professor of ecosystem science and management at UW.

To compound matters, the porosity of the crushed rocks increases the water storage capacity of the valley fills. This decreases natural storm runoff during high-flow winter months while contributing proportionately more water to streamflows during the drier months that make up about 80 percent of the regions calendar year.

These significant alterations are likely to lead to saltier and more perennial streamflows throughout Appalachia, where at least 7 percent of the land has already been disturbed by mountaintop-removal mining, says Nippgen, who notes that mountaintop removal is not part of Wyomings coal industry. Its not just the mountains that are being changed.

The new findings have implications not just for Appalachia, but for large portions of the eastern United States, other coal-mining regions and other areas where humans have dramatically changed Earths surface, says Matthew Ross, a Ph.D. student at Dukes Nicholas School of the Environment.

The consequences are both an altered hydrologic regime -- which has implications for farming, urban water use and the environment -- as well as degradation of streamwater quality, he says.

Nippgen, Ross and their co-authors published the peer-reviewed study this week in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

It is among the first studies to document mountaintop-removal coal minings long-term impacts on watershed, and to show how mined areas contribute to local and regional streamflow.

This work demonstrates that mined watersheds contribute disproportionately to summer baseflow through the Appalachian region, so that mine-derived pollutants are at higher concentrations, and are transported farther downstream, during these low-flow times of year. That means many more Appalachian rivers are now flowing year-round and are consistently salty, says Brian L. McGlynn, professor of watershed hydrology and biogeosciences at Dukes Nicholas School.

Emily S. Bernhardt, the Jerry G. and Patricia Crawford Hubbard Professor of biogeochemistry at Duke, co-wrote the paper with Nippgen, Ross and McGlynn. Funding came from the National Science Foundation.

An interactive website detailing the new research is online at https://mtm-hydro.web.duke.edu.


Two of the nations champions for clean energy, Senator Harry Reid and Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, have teamed up to bring back the nations foremost clean energy conversation (Pictured: Senator Harry Reid Speaks at National Clean Energy Summit 8.0  Photo credit: Isaac Brekken for Getty Images).

National Clean Energy Summit 9.0: Integrating Innovation will return to Las Vegas at the Bellagio Resort & Casino on Friday, Oct. 13, 2017.

Industry executives, nonprofit advocates, thought leaders, public officials and bipartisan decision makers will once again come together to exchange ideas and build connections that will drive the integration and widespread deployment of new and innovative clean energy technologies that deliver economic and environmental benefits.

For eight years, the National Clean Energy Summit was at the epicenter of this nations clean energy progress. Discussions at previous summits were vital to achieving the incredible innovation in clean energy weve seen since we held the first summit 10 years ago, said Senator Harry Reid. Now, more than ever, these conversations need to happen on a bipartisan basis, and Im pleased one of the nations leading governors on clean energy and other issues important to Nevada, Governor Brian Sandoval, has agreed to co-host the National Clean Energy Summit and continue the dialogue and encourage innovation.

Im proud that Nevada is a leader in the clean energy conversation. The state has a history of collaboration and thoughtful discourse which results in effective policy-making and the Summit will provide a platform for energy leaders to come together to discuss new ideas and share best practices, said Governor Brian Sandoval. Energy storage, rooftop solar, battery technologies and renewable innovations are all playing a meaningful role in Nevadas future. This Summit places Nevada in the spotlight of the clean energy conversation, which is exactly where it should be.

Sponsored by Clean Energy Project and MGM Resorts International, National Clean Energy Summit 9.0 will feature a diverse set of respected policymakers and industry leaders as speakers and panelists. Past speakers at the Summit include Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elon Musk, and many more. More information about panels and speakers will follow.

Now is the perfect time to bring back the National Clean Energy Summit, said Karen Wayland, Executive Director of Clean Energy Project. Greater deployment of clean energy resources requires a commitment from policymakers, investors, innovators and business leaders. As weve seen here in Nevada under the leadership of Governor Sandoval and Senator Reid, the states are taking the lead in promoting clean energy as a driver for economic development. The summit provides a national forum for exploring the clean energy innovations that create jobs, enhance national security, make the grid more reliable, and deliver solutions that will contribute to a stronger and safer world.

With a theme of Integrating Innovation, this years event will focus on how to maximize the benefits of innovative clean energy technologies, how state and local governments have integrated clean energy solutions to benefit the public, how the military is incorporating advanced energy into its core mission, new ways to integrate innovation in building design and operation, the electric vehicle revolution, and how the developments of the past decade have dramatically changed the nations energy landscape.

Jim Murren, Chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts International, said, MGM Resorts is proud to host National Clean Energy Summit 9.0: Integrating Innovation at Bellagio in Las Vegas. Environmental responsibility is a core value of our company and as such we support the philosophy of clean energy and its critical importance in preserving the planet. This summit brings leaders together and forms the center of the national clean energy conversation. MGM will continue to advocate for the on-going development and innovation of clean energy and its role in our legacy for future generations.


The classic American restaurant, B&B Burger & Beer at The Venetian Las Vegas, welcomes the warm weather with delicious, seasonal menu additions for the months of July and August (Pictured: Allen Brothers Certified Angus Beef Hot Dog).

National Hot Dog Day is July 19 but at B&B Burger & Beer, they will celebrate the entire month with the Allen Brothers Certified Angus Beef Hot Dog ($12). Toppings will include yellow mustard, white onion, dill pickle, tomato slices, sport peppers and celery salt on a natural casing hot dog in a poppy seed hot dog bun.

For National Sandwich Month in August, The Turkey Club ($14) sandwich will feature in-house roasted turkey with provolone cheese, Bibb lettuce, vine ripened tomato and Heritage Foods U.S.A bacon on sourdough toast.

The fall collection of burgers will be announced later this summer.

For B&B Burger & Beers full menu, click here.
(Photo: Dorothea Lange)

(Photo: Dorothea Lange)

(Photo: Dorothea Lang)

(Photo: Dorothea Lange)

Wayne Jacobs drove to and found the original building in Gordonton which is northeast of Burlington, N.C. (Photo: Wayne Jacobs)

And, as luck would have it, a man and his son saw us photographing the old building and told him that the man standing in the doorway of the original photo was Raney Banes, his Great Uncle! (Photo: Wayne Jacobs)

Jacobs used a copy of the original photograph to place his tripod and camera in exactly the same spot that Dorothea Lange used to make the original photographs in 1939. This is his photograph after converted it to black and white. (Photo: Wayne Jacobs)

"Since my photograph was taken from almost the exact same spot as the original photograph was taken, with a little Photoshop work, I can place the men back into the present-day building." (Photo: Wayne Jacobs)

The story began when Wayne Jacobs discovered this colorized picture on Shorpy in early April of 2014. The original photo was taken in July of 1939 by Dorothea Lange, the famous photographer who shot those powerful pictures of the Dust Bowl during the Depression.The detail in the photo, the advertising signs on the exterior of the gas station, and the men, all make this photo a unique "moment in time.""I also learned that her original photo was in Black and White of course, but that someone had recently colorized it, resulting in this amazing photograph." - He says on his website Below are some alternative versions:But here is where this story gets really interesting: The gas station in the photographs was located in the little crossroads community of Gordonton, North Carolina, and the building in the photograph (the gas station) is still standing - more than seventy years later!
The leader of the government also affirmed that the BMW Group in Germany had no part in these violations, only its dealership in Vietnam. Hence, BMW must change its dealer in Vietnam to help maintain a transparent and attractive business environment, according to newswire vnexpress.

In order to be able to continue its business in Vietnam, the German automaker will have to terminate the rights of its current partner to import and distribute BMW cars in the country, while looking for another distributor.

Dealer replacement is needed

Since 2006, Euro Auto, as the officially authorised distributor of BMW in Vietnam, has helped the company to become one of the most successful luxury car brands in the market after previous failures in manufacturing cars locally, which eventually led to its withdrawal from the Hoa Binh Automobile joint venture.

In fact, Euro Auto is backed by Sime Darby Group (Malaysia). By the end of 2013, Sime Darby Motorsa major affiliate of the Malaysian multidisciplinary grouphas acquired a more than 90 per cent stake in Euro Auto Corp. (EAC) by purchasing Europe Automobiles Corp. Holdings (EACH) and other shareholders stakes.

Via Euro Auto, Sime Darby has brought several luxury and premium car models to Vietnam, for example the MINI and BMW brands, through a chain of showrooms and stores in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Currently, Sime Darby is the world's third largest distributor of BMW. The giant also holds the rights to sell Land Rover, Mini, Rolls-Royce, Jaguar, Lamborghini or Porsche in many neighbouring countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and China.

In early 2016, Sime Darby established another subsidiary named Performance Motors Vietnam with similar functions to Euro Auto, selling BMW cars, spare parts, and accessories. When this company came into operation, Euro Auto shifted focus onto imports, while Performance Motors was responsible for distribution. Still, there was no clear separation between the firms regarding their functional businesses as they were both reported doing retail activities in Sime Darbys 2016 annual report.

However, after being accused of conducting fraudulent paperwork and declaring low import prices to evade tax, Euro Auto has apparently lost its credibility with other firms.

In December 2016, the BWM dealer was found to have sold a shipment of imported cars while it was still waiting for clearance from the Ho Chi Minh City customs agency, in addition to violating multiple regulations, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

The company was accused of forging documents, including purchase contracts and receipts, while failing to provide certificates of origin for its carsa sign of fraud and scamming. It also bought BMW vehicles without completing customs clearance or receiving the necessary customs authority permits. In December Vietnamese customs officials were ordered to halt all clearance procedures for BMW cars after MoF reported import violations, a ban that is said to be still in effect.

Afterwards, the Ministry of Public Security announced on April 27 that Nguyen Dang Thao, general director of Euro Auto, and two other individuals involved had been arrested in the course of an investigation of a batch of German luxury cars smuggled into Vietnam. The names of the other two persons have been kept undisclosed.

A BMW manufacturing plant in Vietnam

At the meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the top executives of BMW also said that the company was seeking to invest in a factory in Vietnam as it would increase the localisation rate of many car components.

According to experts, in order to achieve such a goal, the world's big players usually choose to participate in a joint venture and technology transfer agreement with a local car manufacturer.

There are many firms wanting to become BMW's new distributor, including well-known names of the automobile industry and other multidisciplinary corporations that want to expand their portfolios. Yet for BMW, a joint venture with a local firm appears to be the best fit, to assemble cars in Vietnam.

Financial capability is not the key factor. Experience and the network infrastructure for distribution are supposed to be the core, said the director of a luxury car company.

This is also the path BMW and Sime Darby are pursuing in Malaysia. The joint venture between these two corporations was established in 2003, with a 51 per cent stake held by BMW and a 49 per cent by Sime Darby.

Shortly after its establishment, the company started manufacturing some of the very first BMW models in Malaysia. To date, the plant has manufactured approximately 20 different commercial vehicle models under the brand names BMW and MINI, including Series 1, Series 3, X1 to X5 or Countryman, among others.

Most recently, in April 2016, BMW Malaysia unveiled a plan to boost the assembly of BMW 3, 5, and 7 series sedans in Malaysia for export to Vietnam and the Philippines via Sime Darby's distribution channels.

Were it not for the Euro Auto incident, according to the companys plan for 2018, Vietnamese customers would have purchased more BMW cars imported from Malaysia, not Germany. Then, BMW would have been granted tax incentives, particularly a zero per cent import tax, for import activities within the region as long as it could meet the requirement of a 40 per cent localisation rate.

If BMW also adopts this model in Vietnam, the best possible way is to find a partner with good financial capabilities, a well-established distribution network across the country, and more importantly, a string of readily available factories and warehouses or bases for expansion. Other things involve agreements signed to regulate capital contributions and technology transfer or to attract investment from car accessory manufacturers and gradually increase the localisation rate.

A long way ahead

In Vietnam, the availability of these conditions is actually very limited. A prediction from industry insiders reckons that Sime Darby will still be in charge of the distribution of BMW cars, but through a different firm, not Euro Auto.

It could be Performance Motors or a different agency. However, whoever will be BMWs new representative, the giant still needs to invest in a joint venture with a large Vietnamese corporation so as to develop the plan to manufacture and assemble cars in Vietnam.

If BMW cars are assembled and imported in Vietnam by a big company, the model used 20 years ago will come back. Around 1994, BMW cars were assembled at the factory of Hoa Binh Automobile Company (VMC), along with Mazda and Kia cars. However, all companies decided to get out because of undesirable failures. Mazda and Kia later came back to Truong Hai and started thriving.

If BMW ties the knot with a big company, it will be the starting point of a new era for it to become the second luxury car brand manufactured in Vietnam, after Mercedes. The price may decrease if the proportion of domestic factors increases. The battle in the luxury car segment is also getting tougher with more noticeable opportunities for sales booming.

After all, the luxury car brand of Bavaria is looking for a safe haven in Vietnam. It does not only want an extensive distribution system, services, factories, and warehouses ready for assembly and manufacturing, but also requires a stable policy framework in the long run.
Metro line 1 in Ho Chi Minh City and similar projects are turning the heads of foreign investors

On July 12, 2017, Keximbank leader Young Pyo Hong met with Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia to discuss the possibilities of investing in metro line projects in Ho Chi Minh City.

"With experience and strong financial capacity, Keximbank has built metro systems in South Korea. We are interested in metro lines in Ho Chi Minh City, especially the package linking to Tan Son Nhat International Airport, metro line 4, and metro line 5," said Hong.

German industrial giant Siemens is also interested.

At a meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc as part of his official visit to Germany during July 5-8, Siemens expressed interest in joining metro line projects in Ho Chi Minh City.

Andreas Mehlhorn, head of Siemens AGs IT Solutions, Mobility and Logistics, once told VIR that Siemens had been pursuing the Metro Line 2 project in Ho Chi Minh City since 1993.

Under Siemens Metro Line 2 study, the 10.2-kilometre metro line will run mostly underground, beneath the busiest parts of the city and potentially handle two million passengers a day.

Siemens has worked on metro systems throughout the world, including Singapore, where Siemens signalling and electrification systems have been used.

Not only Keximbank and Siemens, but also Lotte Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. a subsidiary of the fifth-biggest corporation in South Korea, Lotte Group, is venturing further into the Vietnam transport infrastructure segment, with metro lines in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City among the focuses of operation expansion.

Lotte E&C is also interested in the North-South Expressway, the North-South High-Speed Railway, Long Thanh International Airport.

"We want to invest in sustainable, long-term projects in Vietnam," a Lotte spokesperson for overseas investment projects noted.
Did you know that there are 720 million technology system hack attempts every 24 hours worldwide? On average, companies lose $9 million each year due to cybercrime and many times it takes a business up to 99 days to detect malicious code in their systems.

Over the years, cybercrime has grown significantly in volume and sophistication with the largest threats coming from China, Iran, North Korea and professional cybercriminals. These attacks have the potential of wreaking catastrophic effects on the financial industry, businesses of all sizes and personal accounts.

What are you doing to protect your data and technology systems? Protecting your Business against Cybercrime and Ransomware will be offered on Wednesday, July 26, from 7:30 to 9 AM in the basement meeting room of the Charleston City Hall at 520 Jackson Ave.

Plan now to attend this informative seminar to learn what you should be doing today to safeguard your business from cybercrime in the future.

The registration cost is $10 per person for Charleston Chamber members and $15 per person for non-Chamber members. A light breakfast will be provided.

Everyone is urged to attend this seminar -- this information is not just for IT professionals. Business owners, employees, individuals and customers are all being targeted and no one is safe from cybercrime.

Plan now to join us to learn how to protect your business and personal data from cybercrime and ransomware.

A variety of topics will be discussed during the workshop including:

What is Cybercrime?

What types of Cybercrime are there?

Who are the Cyber Criminals?

How do Cyber Criminals attack?

What precautions can you take?

How to educate your employees to recognize potential cyber attacks.

All seminar attendees will receive a voucher for a FREE 30-minute risk assessment of their technology systems.

Mike Miller, President and Senior IT Consultant of Team ITS, LLC will be the seminar facilitator. Team ITS, LLC, formerly Information Technology Services, is an information technology consulting company that services small to medium size businesses in east central Illinois.

With over 47 years of collective experience, the consultants at Team ITS provide customers with a full range of affordable enterprise-class security, hardware, software, networking and managed services solutions

The Charleston Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting the workshop. The deadline for registration is Tuesday, July 25.

Call the Charleston Chamber office at 217-345-7041 for more information or to reserve your seat today. Registration for the workshop can also be done online at www.charlestonchamber.com.
The Vietnamese Government is committed to providing the best possible support to German investors and is ready to talk to address outstanding problems encountered by foreign investors in Vietnam, the Ambassador said during his working sessions with the citys officials on July 11.

Meeting with Rostock Mayor Roland Methling, President of the Rostock Council Wolfgang Nitzsche and Senator Peter Stein, Ambassador Hung said Vietnam has many seaports and port cities like Rostock, which holds potential for bilateral cooperation.

According to him, there are about 176,000 Vietnamese in Germany and around 100,000 German-speaking Vietnamese in Vietnam, who serve as an important foundation for the two countries to enhance their relationship.



The Rostock officials appreciated the integration and contributions of the Vietnamese community to the city and expressed their wish to partner with Vietnamese localities, particularly in areas of Rostocks strength like industry, seaport and education.



The same day, Ambassador Hung and his entourage visited Liebheer Group, which specializes in providing cranes for container handling. The group has operated in Vietnam since 1995.



He suggested the group select Vietnam as a production base to supply products and services to other countries, especially ASEAN nations.



The ambassador also visited the Dien Hong association which gathers Vietnamese in Germany.



Rostock is the largest and most important city of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in terms of culture and economy and the second largest port city in Baltic, following Lubeck.
Director of the Hue Relics Preservation Centre Phan Thanh Hai said this is the second year in a row the Hue Imperial Citadel has received the title. The most visited tourist site is Thang Long Imperial Citadel in Hanoi.



The Hue Imperial Citadel has attracted a large number of visitors thanks to the tour  Hue - One destination  Five heritage, including complex of Hue ancient capital, Hue royal court music, moc ban (wood blocks) and chau ban (official documents) of Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945), and poetry in Chinese-language scripts on Hue royal architecture which was recognised as world documentary heritage by UNESCO.



Numerous products have been offered to lure tourists, such as sight-seeing at Dai Noi by night, Hue traditional cuisine tour, Emperor Dragon Boat tour, community-based tours, among others.



The programme Dai Noi by night is designed to provide tourists with an experience of ancient royal rituals, traditional dances and art performances as well as Hue traditional crafts and other royal activities. The tour welcomes between 4,000-9,000 visitors each night.

During the National Reunification Day (April 30) and May Day holidays, the relic site received more than 30,000 tourists, including over 9,000 foreigners.



In 2017, the province aims to draw between 3.3-3.5 million tourists, with foreign visitors accounting for 40-45%, generating VND3.2-3.3 trillion (US$140.7-145.1 million), up 8% in volume and 3% in value from 2016.



By July 10, the Hue Relics Preservation Centre served 1,650,000 tourists, earned 175.4 billion VND (7.7 million USD), up 17.9 percent year on year.
The textile industry must move towards smart manufacturing to develop sustainably. - Photo tapchitaichinh.vn

Truong Van Cam, VITAS vice chairman, said that it was critical for Vietnamese textile firms to renovate their manufacturing systems toward smart production amid the industrial revolution 4.0.

The industrial revolution 4.0 will bring significant changes and moving towards smart manufacturing is necessary for labour-intensive industries like textiles in which labour can easily be replaced by machines, Cam said.

Cam said opportunities would be there for those who took action to move towards smart manufacturing.

Smart manufacturing would bring a number of benefits such as increasing productivity, output, reducing costs, enhancing management efficiency and improving the working environment.

At the conference, Vietnamese firms learned about smart manufacturing trends from leading Korean experts in dying, smart fabric management and 3D design, to improve competitiveness of Vietnamese firms.

According to Vu uc Giang, VITAS chairman, South Korea was the fourth largest garment and textile importer of Viet Nam with import revenue jumping from US$979 million in 2011 to $2.28 billion in 2016.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Siemens president and CEO Joe Kaeser. (Photo: Kenneth Lim)

The hub in MacPherson brings together specialists like data scientists, software engineers and solution architects from various sectors. These professionals will experiment, develop and test-bed innovations to help businesses become more efficient, said Siemens in a news release.

Key target areas are urban infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and healthcare.

The launch of the digitalisation hub took place simultaneously at parallel events in Singapore and at Siemens' headquarters in Munich.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is in Germany for a week-long working visit, witnessed the launch via satellite from Siemens headquarters, alongside the German conglomerate's president and CEO Joe Kaeser.

PM Lee said the fact that people in both Munich and Singapore are witnessing the launch through live video feed shows how technology can change our everyday lives, improve the way we do things, and bring people closer together".

In his speech, Mr Lee lauded the longstanding and deep partnership between Singapore and Siemens, which will mark 110 years in Singapore next year.

The companys ASEAN regional headquarters is based in Singapore, employing more than 1,500 people. Around S$1 billion of Singapore's Gross Value Added are also linked to Siemens operations, the company said.

Siemens has been a steadfast partner and participant of Singapores development story, Mr Lee said. "(It has) created jobs and helped build up Singapores technical competencies in key industries such as oil and gas, power, transport and healthcare.

But besides having the infrastructure, Mr Lee also stressed that the Singapore workforce must have the right skills and abilities to support these efforts.

On his part, Mr Kaeser said Singapore's Smart Nation push and advanced infrastructure makes the country "the ideal location" for the digitalisation hub.

Group photo in Singapore at the Siemens hub launch. (Photo: Calvin Hui)

SIEMENS TO HIRE 300 DIGITALISATION SPECIALISTS BY 2022

Singapore currently hosts about 50 per cent of Southeast Asias data centre capacity. With the new hub, which is supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), Siemens is set to develop smart grids and new mobility applications with firms like Singapore Power and ST Electronics, among other solutions.

The German conglomerate added that 60 specialists from various disciplines will work at the hub for a start, with the number of digitalisation experts expected to reach 300 by 2022.

EDB chairman Beh Swan Gin said that the hub will also help expand the pipeline of digital-ready talent in Singapore.

To mark the launch, three collaboration agreements were signed by Siemens with Nanyang Technological University, SP Group and ST Electronics. Projects range from mobility solutions based on self-driving vehicles to creating a multi-energy urban microgrid solution to help consumers of electricity save energy and cost.

Digitalisation was one of the key themes at the recent G20 summit in Hamburg, where PM Lee called on world leaders to play an active role in helping workers and businesses embrace new technology.

PM Lee pointed out on Monday that the Singapore Government is helping to train people at a young age, by introducing basic coding skills in schools, mandatory digital literacy modules in universities, and study awards or training schemes under the SkillsFuture programme.
US President Donald Trump (L) and French President Emmanuel Macron avoided comment or criticism over Chinese Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo's death AFP/SAUL LOEB

Trump described Xi, the Chinese president, as a friend and patriot, refraining from offering any remarks on the death of Liu, a prominent dissident who lost his life to cancer while in detention.

Of Xi, Trump said: "He's a friend of mine. I have great respect for him.

"We've gotten to know each other very well. A great leader. He's a very talented man. I think he's a very good man. He loves China. I can tell you. He loves China."

That praise was echoed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who described as "extremely fruitful and positive" his first contacts with Xi.

The French leader later paid tribute to Liu in a tweet, praising him as "a freedom fighter" and saying his thoughts were with his family.

Earlier Trump's Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praised Liu and called for his wife to be released.

"Mr Liu dedicated his life to the betterment of his country and humankind, and to the pursuit of justice and liberty," Tillerson said in a statement.

"I call on the Chinese government to release Liu Xia from house arrest and allow her to depart China, according to her wishes."
All batches of products made from Siluriformers fish, including tra, basa, tre and lang fish, that are to be shipped to the US will have to undergo food safety tests from August 2, 2017, instead of September 1.

The National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on July 10 sent this announcement to processors and exporters of Siluriformers fish after the department received a letter from the US Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) under the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the US Embassy in Vietnam.

FSIS announced that all shipments of imported Siluriformers fish and fish products must be presented at an Official Import Inspection Establishment for re-inspection by FSIS personnel, according to the US Federal Register issued on July 3.

To apply for import re-inspection, applicants must submit a paper or electronic inspection application form to FSIS ahead of the shipments arrival and no later than when the entry is filed with the US Customs and Border Protection. The applicant must identify the official import inspection establishment where re-inspection will occur.

FSIS encouraged importers and brokers to communicate and coordinate with their respective FSIS District Office to facilitate compliance.

Truong Thi Le Khanh, Chairwoman and General Director of Vinh Hoan JSC, one of Vietnams leading tra fish exporters to the US, said Siluriformers fish and fish products are likely stuck in the US as construction of several official import inspection facilities in the US is still underway.

Sharing Khanhs views, Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said there are only 40 official inspection facilities authorised by the USDA scattered across the US. Few of them offer complete services while others specialise in only meat or frozen products.

He also expressed his concern over these facilities inability to perform food safety tests for Siluriformers fish and fish products, which, he said, may lengthen the duration of storage and FSIS inspections.

As a result, exporters will have to pay more storage fees and struggle to deliver their shipments on time, Hoa added.

Given this, he suggested the MARD work with the USDA to remove these bottlenecks.

Nguyen Nhu Tiep, head of NAFIQAD, told the Vietnam News Agency that in a diplomatic note sent to NAFIQAD, FSIS explained that the adjustment of the test schedule is in response to the US Congresss Budget Control Act.

NAFIQAD then sent a diplomat note to FSIS expressing its concern over the change and suggesting the US create the best possible conditions for Vietnamese exporters to ensure the smooth delivery of Siluriformers fish to the market.

He further explained that businesses were not informed prior to the test schedule adjustment. Therefore, those who planned to ship Siluriformers fish to the US after August 2, 2017 will incur extra costs at official import inspection facilities.

NAFIQAD also urges local tra fish processors and exporters to contact US importers to learn more about new food safety regulations, he added.

At a recent conference on the tra fish sector in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam stressed that Vietnam will cooperate and negotiate simultaneously when penetrating the US market.

According to the VASEP, the US market has potential for pangasius fish products, however, the market has anti-dumping duties and technical standards that are too defensive and too strict, exceeding requirements for food safety.

Therefore, Vietnamese pangasius fish processors and exporters face many obstacles in exporting to the American market. In fact, only a few enterprises have been able to export to this market.

The US is currently thesecond largest importer of Vietnamese tra fish, behind China.

In the first four months of this year, Vietnams total export value of tra fish to the US stood at US$90.2 million, a year-on-year drop of 21.7%.
The decree will make sure less buyers get their fingers burnt

Among the big projects to be launched is An Khanh New City Developments sale of its first phase this quarter. The mega $2 billion project is developed by South Koreas Posco E&C and Vietnams Vinaconex, located in Hanois Hoai Duc district, along the Thang Long Boulevard.

Scheduled for completion in 2013, the city is expected to supply 6,440 apartments, equivalent to 392,319 square metres of accommodation, enough for 30,000 people.

Even though Hoa Phat Group, the investor in a more than 1,000 apartment Mandarin Garden in Cau Giay districts Tran Duy Hung road, refused to release its launching time, real estate experts predicted the project would be soon launched.

At the beginning of this month the CT7D, located in Le Van Luong street and invested by Nam Cuong Group and the FLC Landmark Tower of FLC Group will also be launched, with a total of 200 units and prices ranging from VND23 million ($1,200) to VND28 million ($1,470) per square metre.

In Gia Lam district, over the Red River, the second lot of Rung Co Residentials belonging to the Eco Park is also being launched, with around 1,500 apartment units.

In addition, Victoria Van Phu, Star City, Diamond Tower and Song Da City View will also add apartments to the mix.

Real estate consultant CBRE Vietnam expected that there would be 3,000 units in Hanoi launched this quarter, compared to 1,950 units in the third quarter. There were more than 4,600 units launched in the second quarter.

This decline, according to CBRE Vietnam, could be due to the Decree 71, effective on August 8, 2010 providing guidance on the Housing Law, which caps the proportion of units sold via capital contribution contracts at 20 per cent with the remaining 80 per cent sold on transaction floors.

This decree, CBRE Vietnam said, had put a pressure on developers with low financial capabilities and enhanced market transparency.

However, CBRE Vietnam executive director Richard Leech said new project launches would continue trending towards more affordable options.

With the opening and improvement of major infrastructure routes, the capitals western and southern districts are attracting new residents with easier access for commuting into the core urban districts, Leech said.

He said that the Decree 71 was expected to benefit the market by enhancing transparency, placing pressures on developers with low financial capabilities, lessening the threat of price bubbles and limiting speculative forces.

Tran Nhu Trung, Savills Vietnam associate director, said the Decree 71 had showed off its advantages to clearly regulate five types of mobilising capital investment. However, Trung said the procedures to implement Decree 71 were still complicated and wasted customers time and energy.

The more simple it [decree] regulates, the more it is practical in the real life, Trung said.
Minister Chu Ngoc Anh was not tight-fisted with compliments for Viettel's achievements

During the June 7 meeting with Viettel Corporation, Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh was given a summary of Viettels most distinctive breakthroughs and successes in its short 10 years of development, as well as the new image of the corporation. The minister lauded Viettels robust growth both in the fields of economy and technology innovation.

Impressive 10 years of development

According to his observations on Viettels 10-year road, Minister Ngoc Anh said that the company has been developing strongly, starting from the hi-tech industry and moving on to the defence industry.

With the policy of development closely related to the policies of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the government, and the Ministry of National Defence, Viettel has made large contributions to national production and facilitated national defence as well as cooperated with other factories and agencies to invest in qualified projects.

Viettel has been consistently setting the bar high, scoffing at challenges and looking for the most efficient approach in research and development. According to the minister, Viettels achievements were widely recognised not only in Vietnam but on various international forums.

Viettel is currently the No. 1 Vietnamese brand in technology and telecommunications, and has valiantly fought its way to the Top 100 most valued telecom companies worldwide.

Domestic and international recognition has brought many great prizes to Viettel, from international media awards to information technology prizes and accolades for innovative solutions and applications. Viettel lays special focus on national security and inter-services health system projects.

Minister Ngoc Anh said that in addition to being an international corporation that provides content, telecommunications services, IT and electronics, the company is looking to develop personalised approach solutions.

According to the minister, the world is preparing for the 4.0 Industrial Revolution, expecting incredible developments in broadband, 5G, and personal services. If Viettel positions itself right, it could lay solid foundations for a series of science and technology breakthroughs concocted in its research laboratories, achieving much more economic success.

Powerful impact on technology

Viettel is considered a top-tier corporation in the fields of economics and telecommunication. At recent governmental meetings, an important question arose: How to improve enterprises technological capacity in order to be internationally competitive and contribute more to the economy? The answer lies in technology-driven corporations.

A telling example would be the case of Samsung in Vietnam. It is commonly believed that Samsung has no domestic supporting businesses in Vietnam, but this is only half true. When Samsung started working in Vietnam they brought almost every supportive business along, barring local producers from joining its supply chain.

Likewise, if Viettel became stronger, it would lead and support other domestic companies. Currently, Vietnam has about 300 companies, not to mention the multitude of many institutes with strong technology apparatus.

In terms of civil products, Viettel could manufacture all the core, transmission, and access network components in the near future. The corporation has also introduced 15 military products and is currently researching 25.

Furthermore, the minister added that with the products of the A1 project, Viettel helps the Military Science and Technology Institute and the General Department of Defence Industry to approach projects quicker by a shorter progress of transfer and receipt.

As a state-owned enterprise operating in the defence sector, Viettel has been very lively, developing successfully in both economical and national defence factors, Minister Ngoc Anh said.

Minister Chu Ngoc Anh praised Viettel's unique position to fight at the forefront of technological development and drive Vietnamese policy making at the same time

Viettels impact on science and technology policy

At the meeting, Minister Ngoc Anh said that today national policies on science and technology aim to bring all new technology achievements into life as fast as possible. However, scientific and technological research receives only 2 per cent of the national budget, and actual disbursement is relatively low, while the government has not called for major capital from the private sector.

In the near future, we will have to focus on calling investment from the private sector by utilising all resources, especially from leading domestic enterprises like Viettel. We are in desperate need of leading corporations, such as Viettel, who has contributed 10 per cent of its profit, an equivalent of VND4.5 trillion ($198 million), to domestic research and development, said the minister.

Besides the financial contributions to the development of domestic technology, Viettel has also come out with innovative ways to promote scientific and technological research within its own groves as well as for startup groups.

For example, Viettel used to buy out good startup companies by acquiring 100 per cent equity. Today, Viettel only buys less than 20 per cent to motivate young people to keep working hard, supporting them with the necessary finances and technological know-how.

This policy of Viettel has positively influenced many technology projects, and thereby, these projects have positively influenced the way policies and regulations on science and technology are conducted.

In fact, while amending the current technology regulations, the authorised agencies were in direct discussion with Viettel and received numerous new comments on technology regulations. This contribution will create a foundation for the establishment of new business models and many other policies of Viettel.

As a leading enterprise in its field, Viettel also participated in the most important national science and technology programmes. Viettel is the No.1 company in network security and is therefore an active participant in creating products to ensure network security and safety.
July 17-21

Mid-Illinois Senior Services, Inc.

114 E. Jefferson, Sullivan, 217-728-8521.

Monday  11:30 a.m., Peace Meal; 1 p.m., bingo with Leanna from Mason Point.

Tuesday  8:30 a.m., coffee and donuts; 11:30 a.m. Senior Club Potluck; 12:30 p.m., Quilters.

Wednesday 11:30 a.m., Peace Meal; 1 p.m., Wii bowling.

Thursday  8 a.m., Peace Meal Breakfast, 8:30 a.m., SBLHC BP check; 9 a.m., SBLHC bingo; 11:30 a.m., Peace Meal; 12:30 p.m., hand and foot cards.

Friday  11:30 a.m., Peace Meal; 1 p.m., pool tourney.

Shelby County Senior Center

325 E. N. Ninth St., Shelbyville, 217-774-2251.

Monday  8:30 a.m., coffee; 11:30 a.m., Peace Meal; 1 p.m., sewing club.

Tuesday  7:30 a.m., exercise; 8:30 a.m., coffee/shuffleboard; 10 a.m., TRIAD; 11:30 a.m., Peace Meal; 12:30 p.m., dominos; 1 p.m., bunco.

Wednesday  8:30 a.m., coffee; 11:30 a.m., Peace Meal Soup and Salad and Bingo with Hollybrook; 12:30 p.m., Canasta; 1 p.m., Medicare assistance.

Thursday  7:30 a.m., exercise; 8:30 a.m., coffee/shuffleboard; 11:30 a.m., Peace Meal.

Friday  11:30 a.m., Peace Meal.

Call Margery, 217-774-5595, to make reservations.

Arcola Senior Center

107 W. Main, Arcola, 217-268-3442.

Senior Center is open Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m.-noon for anyone who wants to walk. For Meals on Wheels delivery, contact Arcola Health Care Center at 217-268-3022.

Wednesday  1-4:30 p.m., marbles.

Thursday  1-4 p.m., quilting

Life Center of Cumberland County

507 E. Main St., Toledo, 217-849-3965.

Lunch, prepared by Peace meal staff, is served at noon each week day. Please RSVP at 217-849-3965 by 10:30 a.m.

Chair aerobics exercise available on requested basis. Come in and cool off from the heat outside. We are cool and comfortable.

Saturday, July 15  RIDES will take seniors to the Senior Citizen Prom in Casey. Tickets are $12 per person and include a catered meal. Call 866-384-0503 to get your name on the list or for more information.

Monday  8 a.m., coffee, Skip-Bo, jigsaw puzzles, games, and visiting; noon, Peace Meal.

Tuesday  8 a.m., coffee, Skip-Bo, jigsaw puzzles, games, and visiting; 10:30 a.m., seniors, come in to our center and play Wheel of Fortune, sponsored by Mason Point in Sullivan  its a whole lot of fun!; noon, Peace Meal.

Wednesday 8 a.m., coffee, Skip-Bo, jigsaw puzzles, games, and visiting; 10:30 a.m., Blast to the Past  the interview will be based on a book written by Kathy Swearingen Wolf, titled, Letters From Toledo; noon, Peace Meal. Rides Mass Transit will take seniors shopping in Mattoon. Call 866-384-0503 by noon Monday before the trip.

Thursday  8 a.m., coffee, Skip-Bo, jigsaw puzzles, games, and visiting; 10:30 a.m., Bingo; noon, Peace Meal.

Friday  8 a.m., coffee, Skip-Bo, jigsaw puzzles, games, and visiting; 10 a.m., movie day, seniors come in an enjoy; noon, Peace Meal.

See Joannie Roberts, senior information specialist, for help in filling out forms or applying for insurance, Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, license-plate sticker discounts or other information. Call 217-849-3965 for information or appointment.

Peace Meal menu

July 17-21

Monday  Roast beef in gravy, mashed potatoes, seasoned green beans, whole grain dinner roll, pineapple.

Tuesday  Saucy ham loaf, creamed peas and onions, corn, whole grain wheat (1), graham crackers (1), cantaloupe.

Wednesday  Meatballs w/tangy BBQ sauce, honey glazed baby carrots, kidney bean salad, Texas toast, warm cinnamon pears.

Thursday  Chicken parmesan, Au Gratin potatoes, Midori blend vegetables, Texas toast, fresh fruit.

Friday  Sub sandwich w/lettuce, tomato, and mayo packet, broccoli soup, perky cottage cheese, crackers and bun, fruit salad.
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Emmy nominations: Voters just cant let go  even when they should
EFFINGHAM -- Lake Land College students who are enrolled for fall 2017 in a Workforce Ready program may be eligible to receive additional financial assistance in addition to their Pell and MAP grants if their program is approved through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and they meet eligibility requirements for WIOA funding.

Students are encouraged to visit with a C.E.F.S. representative at the Lake Land College Kluthe Center on Wednesday, July 26, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to see if they qualify. Additional financial assistance may include tuition, fees, and required items such as uniforms, tools, supplies, transportation and child care assistance. This assistance would be in addition to any financial aid, such as Pell and MAP grants, or scholarships a student may already be receiving.

Approved Workforce Ready programs are those that prepare a student for an immediate career upon graduation. These programs include many certificate and degree programs at Lake Land College. Some examples of programs are Nursing, Physical Therapy Assistant, CNA, Dental Hygiene, and many more. The major must be approved by WIOA as an Occupational Skills Training program. C.E.F.S., the WIOA Services Provider, will meet with students in a private, brief meeting to determine eligibility and verify the student is enrolled in a WIOA approved program.

Lake Land students who are unable to attend this day can contact the Effingham C.E.F.S. office at 217-342-4382 (use extensions 226, 227 or 228). Students must be registered for the fall semester at Lake Land College to receive benefits before the semester begins on Aug. 21. Students who register after the semester begins will have to wait until the next semester to receive any benefits.

A Lake Land College academic counselor will also be on hand at the Kluthe Center during this same time to advise potential students who would like to register for fall.

Additional questions can be directed to Karen Kull, director of the Kluthe Center, at 217-540-3500.

The Lake Land College Kluthe Center is located at 1204 Network Centre Drive in Effingham.
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.
Disability Act 2017 (Agnes' Law)

The Minister for Equality, Samantha Sacramento, has delivered on a further milestone for equality. The Disability Act 2017, which will also be known as Agnes Law, was passed in Parliament yesterday.

'The 1992 Disabled People Act was outdated and failed to meet the needs of a modern inclusive society such as the one that this Government is keen to establish', explained a spokesperson for the Govt. 'It has therefore been repealed and substituted by this new legislation, which aims to create an equal playing field in all aspects of society for people with disabilities.'

The Disability Act, Agnes Law, is modelled on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in a way that is relevant to our community. Whilst the fundamental right not to be unfairly discriminated against is already enshrined in the Constitution, this new legislation will provide further safeguards; it clarifies existing obligations and duties and provides a framework to give practical effect to the Conventions and this Governments aims, which is to provide equal enjoyment by all.

In Parliament yesterday, Minster Sacramento noted that stigma, prejudice and discrimination against individuals with disabilities is unfortunately still prevalent and that although there is still a long way to go in changing cultural norms, perceptions and attitudes, this law aims to build on and give effect to the right not to be treated less favourably and put the rights of people with disabilities on an equal footing with everyone elses.

The Minister for Equality also noted that the law by itself was not enough and in order for it to be meaningful, continuous education, awareness and training were essential to ensure that the community properly understands its obligations and becomes more responsible in the way that it treats people with disabilities.

The legislation is named in honour of the late Agnes Valarino, former Chairperson of the Disability Society, who was dedicated to the rights of people with disabilities and whose ambition was to see legislation specifically for people with disabilities.

The Chief Minister said: Historically, disability legislation has been an area of our law that has been overlooked. Equality is an important principle for my Government and Minister Sacramento has once again led on delivering for our community. Agnes law represents another pioneering step for this Government. Minister Sacramento is the most committed advocate for the advancement of civil rights of all the members of this Parliament and I commend for a magnificent job in that respect. I also commend the work of those advocates who have fought so hard to achieve this important milestone.

Samantha Sacramento said: I am proud to be part of a Government that has an ongoing commitment to and delivers on Equality. This is not a new subject matter - it is one that has existed for many years - but has only come to the forefront and been given its due importance since our Government took office and made significant advancements in this field on many fronts. We have raised the profile of the rights and abilities of people with disabilities in a way that is unprecedented and we will of course continue.

The ultimate purpose of the Disability Act is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all fundamental rights and freedoms by people with disabilities and to promote respect for their inherent dignity. This new law is therefore a significant step forward and will make important changes to the lives of people with disabilities and their families.

We need everybody to embrace the principle of disability equality and while as a Government we have provided a statutory framework, as citizens we each have an individual and collective responsibility to go beyond this and make Gibraltar a place that is inclusive of people with disabilities.

I have referred to the law as Agnes Law as I felt that it was a fitting tribute to a lady who was a true pioneer and champion of the rights of people with disabilities in Gibraltar.

I am grateful to the Disability Society and all the other Disability NGOs and individuals I have worked with, as well as to the Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Small Business and the Unite Equalities Committee.
Photo: Joshua Sudock/Disney

Although you wont be able to travel to a galaxy far, far away at Disney theme parks until 2019, Disney has offered a detailed first look into the Star Wars Land expansion for Disneyland and Walt Disney Worlds Hollywood Studios at the D23 Expo. In an exhibit, Disney showed off a model of the huge addition to the two theme parks. Judge a model by its size, do you? Well, dont. Not only is there an X-Wing, an A-Wing, and a TIE fighter visible in D23s smaller-scale presentation, but you can even scope out the Millennium Falcon, which will be part of a ride that will let you pilot the fictional ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. At the event in Anaheim, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Bob Chapek described the forthcoming attractions as epic and immersive. Check out the pictures of the model from the expo below, and see if you agree.
Photo: Mike Lawrie/Getty Images

DMX has run afoul of the law again. According to the Southern District of New Yorks branch of the U.S. Attorneys Office, Earl Simmons has surrendered himself to law enforcement for engaging in a multi-year scheme to conceal millions of dollars of income from the IRS and to avoid paying $1.7 million of tax liabilities. He will be presented in federal court tomorrow in Manhattan. Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim had this to say about DMXs arrest:

For years, Earl Simmons, the recording artist and performer known as DMX, made millions from his chart-topping songs, concert performances and television shows. But while raking in millions from his songs, including his 2003 hit X Gon Give it to Ya, DMX didnt give any of it to the IRS. Far from it, DMX allegedly went out of his way to evade taxes, including by avoiding personal bank accounts, setting up accounts in others names and paying personal expenses largely in cash. He even allegedly refused to tape the television show Celebrity Couples Therapy until a properly issued check he was issued was reissued without withholding any taxes. Celebrity rapper or not, all Americans must pay their taxes, and together with our partners at the IRS, we will pursue those who deliberately and criminally evade this basic obligation of citizenship.

According to the release from the SDNYs office, DMX earned more than $2.3 million between 2010 and 2015, but filed no personal income tax during that span. To avoid taxes, the rapper orchestrated a scheme that included maintaining a cash lifestyle, avoiding the use of a personal bank account, and using the bank accounts of nominees, including his business managers, to pay personal expenses. He also filed a false affidavit in U.S. Bankruptcy Court lying about his earnings. For his actions, DMX faces 14 counts: one count of corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of Internal Revenue Laws, one count of evasion of payment of income taxes, six counts of evasion of assessment of income tax liability, and six counts of failure to file a U.S. individual income tax return. The maximum combined sentencing for all these counts would be more than 40 years in prison, but that will be determined by a federal court judge.
Steve Whitmire. Photo: Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Vulture Festiva

Steve Whitmire has been involved with the Muppets for 38 years, and he has been the voice of Kermit the Frog for 27 of them  since Muppet master Jim Henson died and bestowed the honor upon him in 1990. News came out a few days ago that Whitmire would no longer be voicing the venerable character, but as The Hollywood Reporter said at the time, The Muppets Studio spokeswoman declined to discuss the details behind Whitmires departure. Today, Whitmire is using the internet to share his side of the story, and it will really make you sad. In what seems to be his first blog post, Whitmire says he was dismissed by Disney in October of last year, and that he has waited this long to speak out in hopes that the people in charge at the Muppets Studio would change their minds and take him back. This man is dedicated to his Muppet family.

For me the Muppets are not just a job, or a career, or even a passion. They are a calling, an urgent, undeniable, impossible to resist way of life. This is my lifes work since I was 19 years old. I feel that I am at the top of my game, and I want all of you who love the Muppets to know that I would never consider abandoning Kermit or any of the others because to do so would be to forsake the assignment entrusted to me by Jim Henson, my friend and mentor, but even more, my hero.

Whitmire says that he has offered multiple remedies to their two stated issues which had never been mentioned to me prior to that phone call, and insists this isnt even about him, but about whats best for all of Muppet Nation. Doing what is best for the Muppets is the lens through which all my interactions have been filtered, he said. Given the opportunity I remain willing to do whatever is required to remedy their concerns because I feel my continued involvement with the characters is in the best interest of the Muppets. Whitmire never elaborates on what the two stated issues were that contributed to his dismissal, but he does close his post by saying he is devastated to have failed in my duty to my hero. Kermit duties will now be carried out by Muppets performer Matt Vogel, and he will make his debut in next weeks Muppet Thought of the Week. Hes got some very dedicated felt shoes to fill.
Galactic Starveyors VBS to be held

MARSHALL -- Marshall Baptist Church, 1608 N IL HWY 1, will host the Galactic Starveyors Vacation Bible School from Sunday-Thursday, July 16-20, from 6-8:30 p.m.

Children age 4 through youth are welcome to attend. For more details email marshallbaptist@gmail.com.

Gospel Glory, Inc. to appear at Friendship Baptist

CHARLESTON -- Gospel Glory, Inc., featuring Bill and Linda Lewis from Midlothian, Va., will be at the Friendship Baptist Church, 18709 East Harrison St., at 6 p.m. Sunday

Bill and Linda have been with Friendship Baptist the past number of years and they look forward to seeing and hearing the Gospel. Pastor Tom Skinner invites any and all to join them this event night of music, preaching and testimony.

Maker Fun Factory VBS to be held at Zion Hill Church

MATTOON -- Maker Fun Factory VBS will be held from 5:30-8:30 July 17-21 at Zion Hill United Methodist Church, 2436 N. County Road 150E.

Meet new friends while participating in amazing experiments, creative games and surprising adventures.

Arrive at 5 p.m. Monday for pre-registration.

On closing night, attend from 5:30-6:30 to see the FunMakers Village that the students built, then stay for the closing program at 6 p.m., the Wabash volunteer firefighters at 6:30 p.m. and the wiener roast at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, call Pam Guy at 217-273-8277.

Blessing to be held at First Christian Church

MATTOON -- First Christian Church invites everyone to a blessing at 8 a.m. Sunday.

The Irish Circle will be performing a pre-service concert and then providing music for the worship service at 8:30 a.m. They offer traditional music, using an assortment of instruments such as the fiddle, Scottish bagpipes, mandolin, banjo, penny whistle and guitar.

Come early for the best seat. First Christian Church is located at 1600 Wabash Ave. Call 217-234-2928 or visit Facebook or www.mattoonfcc.com for more information.

Jon Burnham to be guest at Terre Haute After 5

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Terre Haute After 5 will host a guest night at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at The Red Barn of Sycamore Farm, 5001 Poplar St.

Speakers will be Jon Burnham, former Baltimore Orioles pitcher; Brian Dorsett, an MLB catcher; and music with John Henderson. The cost is $16 and payable at the door. Reservations and cancellations can be made by phone or email.

Terre Haute After 5 is affiliated with Stonecroft.org. For more details, call or email at 812-239-2519 or cwcafterfive@gmail.com.

Challenge Conference to be held at Restoration Ministries

CHAMPAIGN -- Restoration Urban Ministries, 1213 Parkland Court, will host the 2017 Challenge Conference Thursday-Saturday, July 20-22, from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and again at 6 p.m. daily.

The focus of the conference will be identity, wholeness and being equipped. The cost is $40 for all three days and it includes a continental breakfast and lunch each day.

For more details call or email 217-355-2662 or info@restorationurbanministries.net.

Bible to come to life at Effingham VBS

EFFINGHAM -- Effingham Bible Church, 710 W. Jefferson Ave., will host The Bible Comes to Life Vacation Bible School from Wednesday-Friday, July 19-21, from 6-9 p.m.

Children ages 5-12 years are welcome to attend. The final night, Friday, will be held at Evergreen Area Kluthe Memorial Pool from 7-9 p.m. Transportation is available by calling.

For more details call or go online at 217-501-5066 or at www.facebook.com/Effingham-Bible-Church-131731616887882/.

Camp Out VBS to be held at Revival Church

MATTOON -- On July 21-22 from 5:30-8 p.m., kids K-sixth grade are invited to attend Vacation Bible School at The Revival Church, 2520 Shelby Ave.

The theme this year is Camp Out and the main Bible point will be Jesus is the light. There will be music, games, skits, crafts, and interactive demonstrations to get kids involved with the Bible point.

Pre-registration is recommended, but not required. To do so, call 217-218-7924 or visit www.therevivalchurch.com to print off the form and bring with you.

Jordan Feliz to perform at Bagelfest

MATTOON -- Jordan Feliz will be in concert at the Mattoon Bagelfest on Thursday, July 20, at 8 p.m. at Peterson Park, 500 Broadway Ave.

This is a free concert and gates open at 6 p.m. Please bring a lawn chair or blanket for seating. All ages are welcome; please, no pets. For more details, call or go online at 800-500-6286 and tourism@mattoonillinois.org or at www.mattoonbagelfest.com.

Family Worship Center presents Hero Central VBS

MATTOON -- Family Worship Center, 5475 Lerna Road, needs you to grab your cape and head out to their Hero Central Vacation Bible School this summer from 5-8 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday.

The event is for children ages pre-school through fifth grade and will include and all-chruch pool party, the VBP Hero Plunge, at Mattoon's Lytle Pool from 8-10 p.m. Sunday.

At VBS Hero Central, your children will enjoy an interactive, energizing, Bible-based good time as they discover their strength in God. They will become heroes and explore how to serve God and God's mission for their lives. Pre-register your child online at www.mattoonfamilyworshipcenter.com. You can also pre-register on Sunday mornings at the Hero Central Station.

For more information, or if you are interested in volunteering to be a Hero Helper for the VBS, call Kidstyle Worship Team Lead Brooke Alexander at 217-259-3400.

Overnight/sleepover event to be held at chapel

SULLIVAN -- Come join us for a weekend of finding your true identity from 6 p.m. Friday to noon Saturday at Solid Rock Chapel, 1213 E Jackson St.

Do you or your daughters struggle with things like, body image, peer pressure, self-worth, self-control, purity, and big feelings? If that sounds familiar, this event is for you. This will be an overnight/sleepover event filled with teaching, games, crafts, a video chat with the church's Nicaragua friends, and food.

Registration is required and is $20. This includes a T-shirt, food, and a gift. If you are registering more than one person per household, additional registrations are $15. Girls 10 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

To register, call Amy Fultz at 217-259-1591 or Jessi Jess at 217-962-1231.

Learn about Paul and the Underground Church

SHELBYVILLE -- Shelby Christian Church VBS -- "Rome: Paul and the Underground Church Shelby Christian Church" -- will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday to 8 p.m. July 21 at 200 N Hickory St.

Signup is for 3-year-olds (as of July 16) up to those going into fifth grade.

Step back in time with the Apostle Paul and experience what life was like in first-century Rome. For more information, visit vbspro.events/p/3caa23.

Vacation Bible School 2017 to be held

SULLIVAN -- Vacation Bible School this year is July 1721 and registration is officially open at First Christian Church Sullivan, 1357 CR 1200E. This year, children enter a world where curious kids become hands-on inventors who discover theyre lovingly crafted by God.

VBS at FCC is open to children preschool through fifth grade. There is no cost to attend. We start with dinner at 5:30 p.m. and the program is 6-8 p.m.

For more information go to www.fccsullivan.org.

Drive up pork chop and BBQ dinner scheduled

SHELBYVILLE -- Quester's Class Drive Up Pork Chop and BBQ Dinner Drive Up Dinner Fundraising Event will be held from 4-6:30 p.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church, 205 W. Main St.

For more information visit shelbyfumc.com/ or call 217-774-4131 or email shelbyvillefumc@consolidated.net

Prophetic Art Workshop to be held at Vineyard Church

URBANA -- Create through the Holy Spirit. The Vineyard Church, 1500 N. Lincoln Ave.,is offering an educational and Spirit-led art workshop on Saturday from 10 a.m.- 3 p.m. in Room C3. You will learn drawing/painting techniques, get an introduction to prophetic art, and make your own inspirational creation.

Those 14 years and older are welcomed. Workshop cost is $15 for lunch and supplies. Registration is limited to 25 people.
Jim Jarmusch. Photo: Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Anthology Film

As a denizen of early-80s New York, director, producer, and musician Jim Jarmuschs interdisciplinary appetite was influenced by the citys melding of hip-hop and punk and by no-wave films and the cinema of transgression. As the citys creative class embraced collaboration and experimentation, working within one genre took a backseat to focusing on the feelings, and intentions, they produced. Following suit, Jarmuschs approach to making both filmmaking and musical composition continues a distinctly New York hybrid between street culture and the avant-garde. No matter his medium, he continues the practice of staying open to the boundless creativity happening all around him, and crafting his own, distinct visions from all that inspiration.

From singing and playing keyboards with short-lived no-wave band The Del-Byzanteens in the early 80s, Jarmusch went on to write and direct celebrated films that ooze minimalist cool, cutting his vast network of musical friends, and their tunes, into the picture.

1986s Down by Law cast Tom Waits as an escaped convict and used tracks from his classic Rain Dogs, while 1989s Mystery Train featured late Clash front man Joe Strummer and late blues shock-rocker Screamin Jay Hawkins in prominent roles. Neil Young wrote the score to 1995s Dead Man, which also starred Iggy Pop (whom Jarmusch would later honor with his 2016 Stooges documentary, Gimme Danger) alongside Johnny Depp. Jarmusch also captured the spiritual philosophy underscoring the Wu-Tang Clan in 1997s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and RZA wrote the score. Waits, Pop, and RZA also appeared in 1999s Coffee and Cigarettes.

But it was another member the Coffee and Cigarettes ensemble who convinced Jarmusch to return to playing music: Jack White enlisted him to craft a remix for the White Stripes Blue Orchid single in 2005. Since then, Jarmusch has steadily collaborated with Dutch lute player Jozef van Wissem on two albums for Sacred Bones records, and evolved his project SQURL into a band that flirts with seemingly disparate, esoteric genres like drone and post-rock to soundtrack a spiritual state of mind  a term dubbed ecstatic music.

SQURL began under the name Bad Rabbit in 2009, when Jarmusch and producer Carter Logan decided to soundtrack Jarmuschs The Limits of Control themselves after unsuccessfully sourcing other music for the film. Together with sound engineer Shane Stoneback, theyve since released three EPs and scored Jarmuschs 2014 vampire flick, Only Lovers Left Alive, along with his story about a bus-driving poet, 2016s Paterson.

SQURL remain busy  their fourth release, the numerology-focused EP #260, is out July 14 on Sacred Bones, and their Paterson soundtrack will soon be released on Jack Whites Third Man Records  inviting curious listeners into the space where their musics genre labels become far less relevant than the state of heightened awareness it creates.

Vulture caught up with Jarmusch and Logan to learn how they embrace contradiction through film, sound, time, and space, creating ecstatic music across multiple disciplines.

How did SQURL form?

Jim Jarmusch: When we were putting music together for The Limits of Control, I was trying to source the score from existing music, and there were just certain places in the film where I couldnt find what would work quite right. So we decided to make it ourselves. Carter and I did the same thing with the score to Paterson, which we made electronically. After Limits of Control we just decided to keep making music as a band, so we did three EPs, the soundtrack to Only Lovers Left Alive with Jozef van Wissem, and continued after that when we scored Paterson.

We have another film were gonna do, and other projects as SQURL up our sleeve. Im preparing a small recording studio now where we can work easily, so were just continuing more as a band. But we really like this new EP being instrumental, and, I dont know, we got inspired. Im talking too much, and leaving out that we do live scores to Man Rays films.

Those live scores are more in the vein of this new EP, right?

Jarmusch: A bit, but you know, when we went off and played as SQURL doing the live score, we started talking a little bit between us about ecstatic music. We realized Swans were definitely ecstatic music, and a lot of other different music that we heard.

Carter Logan: Right, Terry Riley is definitely ecstatic music in the same way that Swans are.

Jarmusch: Well, it could be old music like [German Benedictine saint, composer, and mystic] Hildegard von Bingen. Or it could be [drone-metal band] Sunn O))). Its not the noise factor so much as the intention to  without being pretentious  almost be spiritual.

Thats the point where the genre becomes immaterial?

Logan: Yeah. Its more about the intent to elevate through sound some level of consciousness or understanding that transcends genre.

Jarmusch: And it happens in trance music, it happens in [Moroccan mountain band] the Master Musicians of Joujouka, it happens in modern classical music like Morton Feldman, it can happen in very old, 16th-century polyphony, it can happen in so-called avant-garde post rock, which is what SQURL is if you have labels on these things.

Jozef once said you make films like a musician. Is the inverse also true? Do you make music like a filmmaker?

Jarmusch: I find it hard to be self-analytical. I know that the music SQURL is doing now, and planning, is a bit more like making movies that are no imagery, just aural. For me theyre so interrelated that its hard to analyze.

Logan: Doing that Man Ray project is another way that our consciousness got realigned [to] how moving images and sound work together. The Paterson score grew out of that as well as this material. Despite the fact that some of it is louder, or softer, were using a lot of the same instruments.

Working with silent film and trying to build something around it, were not trying to do a Mickey Mouse-ing of the score. These are very out there films  sometimes they require a delicate touch and sometimes they need to be more forceful  but over the course of doing them, we discovered the films were kind of the third band member onstage. So were interacting with each other, and also the film, at the same time. The only difference is, Jim and I are constantly changing what were doing, and the films dont really change. But our perception of them does. Weve watched them over and over and I still find new things that are inspiring.

Jarmusch: Weve realized that when we play as SQURL in the future, we want to have something visual behind us. We do not like being the show when we play live. We dont like having a spotlight put on us if one of us is singing. In Iceland we had so much smoke machine I could hardly see Carter right next to me at a certain point. But the visual part of our presentation is already verging on a cinematic thing.

Jim, you wrote in the press materials for EP #260 that this number is contradictory and imperfect. Do you care a lot about numerology?

Jarmusch: Part of it is just a gag, in a way, but its not completely. We are very interested in contradiction and mathematics, for sure  we love Fibonacci numbers and stuff like that, however were the farthest you could possibly be from so-called math rock  you know what I mean? Its sludge, not trigonometry.

Logan: A lot of it has to do with the cyclical and interconnected nature of life and the universe for us in a farther out way. Not really focused on the minutiae of numbers, but the idea that things repeat over and over again throughout nature, mathematics, and our own personal experiences in the world. To that degree, its in our music, too.

Theres that scene in Mystery Train where the Japanese tourists are looking at pictures of Elvis on the floor of the hotel, and comparing him to pictures of Buddha and Madonna, right?

Logan: And the Sphinx, yeah.

So there are these seemingly far-off connections between disparate things across time and history, in patterns that emerge in both your music and your films?

Jarmusch: Yeah, those things guide me sometimes. In Paterson, for example, there are scenes of twins in the films that werent in the script. But for some reason, while preparing the film I kept seeing twins. And with some of the extras, they were bringing twins. I thought something was telling me the twins needed to be in.

Things like that happen to me a lot. In Dead Man we refer to William Blake, and at the time I was reading Black Elk and a bunch of Native American stuff, then William Blake sounded so connected that he somehow just entered the script while I was writing it. Sometimes its important to just have antennae and let things come to you without really understanding what they mean. But the connections become fascinating, circumstantial, and sometimes not analyzable.

[Musician] Black Marble told me he remembers your birthday party years ago, around the late 80s. He saw Martial Canterel playing an elaborate analog synth in your bathroom, and that evening greatly inspired his own body of work. How transformative was that period in New York music history, when punks started playing synthesizers? It seems to explain a lot of the different sounds that SQURL embrace. Did those days leave any lasting impression on your creative mind?

Jarmusch: Yeah, completely, for various reasons. One being that people were inspired by just wanting to express themselves, not by career moves or it being commercial. That was a big inspiration. But also, the kind of cross-pollination of so-called post-punk at the same time as early hip-hop, graffiti, and all those incredible things swirling around is still so deep in me. I love hip-hop culture and the history of graffiti. All those things were just formative for me.

It seems you could easily work across mediums back then without having to explain yourself as both a filmmaker and a musician.

Jarmusch: Thats true. And if youre known for one thing then people kind of treat you as a dilettante, which for me is not an insult. But some people think Lou Reeds photographs are secondary to his songwriting because we know him first as a songwriter. Its a close-minded way to look at creative people and their outlets.

You two work together, and seem to keep a lot of the creativity in-house, bringing friends back for certain projects. But Soho isnt what it used to be  artists arent getting certificates from the city to pay subsidized rent. La Monte Young isnt running around town anymore. How do you keep that incubator spirit intact and stay open?

Jarmusch: We all have a lot of input. We see art, we see a lot of movies, live music, we read books. And not, How can I apply this to my career? If something strikes you as moving, you keep it in you. It becomes part of you.

Logan: You have to build that circle of people with that mentality around you, too. I had no idea, I went out to a talk and ran into a production designer weve worked with several times, Mark Friedberg, there. And five other people that I knew, colleagues from work and music, whatever it is. You build out your universe of people who like to expose themselves and share new ideas with each other. Its essential. A lot of that happens online now.

Online correspondence is often about speed and expediting things, though, and you both seem to work at a much slower pace.

Jarmusch: I dont know. I dont think of the rhythm thats expected. Carter and I just try to find our own rhythms in the music, and its more an instinctual thing than something premeditated. I talk slow, I love music, so maybe I have a slow rhythm in me? I like fast stuff, too, but I dont really create fast things.

You said La Monte Youngs not out running around, but if you hang around, I just saw [photographer and filmmaker] Robert Frank on the street the other day. Ive run into [former Suicide member] Martin Rev or [famed subway graffiti artist] Lee Quinones, you know what I mean? Theres still people out there. [Filmmaker] Jonas Mekas is still out there.

Are there more venues and places in New York for people to make weird work than there used to be?

Logan: The new music world is thriving, and there are new, exciting places for performance popping up and closing down daily. I play in another band, the Space Merchants, with a greater frequency than SQURL, and we play a lot of DIY venues that are around for a year and then close. The city is a microcosm and it continues to grow with tendrils spilling out in all directions.

Jarmusch: I agree. Again, you just have to have antennae. There might be a band at Saint Vitus or Babys All Right. We saw Ty Braxton at the Spring Break art show. Wheres something interesting? I think thats always been the case. In the late 70s all these places changed, too. Danceteria didnt last that long, or Tier 3, or the Mudd Club.

Logan: Yeah, the legendary period of CBGB was like three years [laughs].

Ive heard that by 1976, Macys was already selling pink spandex shirts with safety pins in them.

Jarmusch: Well, as things shift in real estate, thats how culture shifts. You can chart the West Village in the 50s and people moving to Soho, which was an abandoned industrial place in the early 70s, you know? It always shifts. Somebody said to me a few months ago, The East Village is the new Williamsburg! [Laughs.] Its just a cyclical thing that happens, but New Yorks always been about real estate, so culture follows that in an odd way.

Its about staying open to those loops and patterns before they eat themselves.

Jarmusch: Yeah, its a puzzle.

This interview has been edited and condensed.
Internet favorite, Barb. Photo: Netflix

Justice has finally come for Barb. In the form of an Emmy nomination.

Shannon Purser, who portrayed the normcore-rockin Barbara Barb Holland in a few episodes in Netflixs 80s extravaganza Stranger Things before meeting her demise  damn those Demogorgons  was honored with a coveted nomination yesterday in the Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama category. The young actress is nothing less than over the moon about it, especially when you consider that Stranger Things is her very first onscreen credit. Earlier today, Vulture chatted with Purser about her nomination, what her plans for the big night are, and her ideal scenario for Barbs Stranger Things return.

Congratulations on this big achievement! How do you feel?

Oh dear, I honestly have no idea. [Laughs.] Im ultimately grateful and blown away. I never expected this.

It must be particularly humbling to get an Emmy nomination with your first acting role, too.

Absolutely. I definitely owe so much and give a lot of the credit to the Duffer brothers and Netflix for giving me this opportunity. Its very humbling and I hope I can use it to fuel my energy and my passion for my work in the future.

Have you been able to fully celebrate yet?

Im a real homebody, I dont do a whole lot. I took a nice bath and I ordered room service at this hotel that Im staying at. [Laughs.] That was about it  Im crazy! Im in Vancouver shooting the second season of Riverdale, so I couldnt be with all of my friends. Hopefully when I get home well have a party or something. Today is actually my first day of shooting Riverdale, yesterday I went in for a fitting. Its been really exciting  Ive gotten some of the scripts and got an idea of what season two is about. Im really excited to see the rest of the cast today and get to work.

Ive talked with Millie [Bobby Brown] and David [Harbour] briefly over Twitter, too, and I know theyre over the moon. And so deserving, obviously. David has been in this business for a long time and is incredible at everything he does. And Millie, shes a prodigy. The work that she did with so little dialogue is so amazing, and Im so excited and proud of them.

Have you thought about what youre going to do on Emmys night yet?

Well, I always had this running joke with my mom that if I ever got nominated for an Emmy I would take her, so shes been talking to me about it. Thats definitely going to happen and Im going to be bringing her. Right now, Im totally geeking out about dresses because I love dressing up. So Im trying to figure out what Im going to wear! Its totally surreal. This is the thing that I dreamed about as a kid and it never seemed possible. Its really amazing.

Its been almost a year since people were introduced to you on Stranger Things, and yet your character has persisted as a cultural icon. Why do you think people have continued to be so transfixed with Barb?

It really is amazing for me to watch. I think there are a lot of reasons for it. Barb as a character is very relatable to a lot of people. Shes certainly relatable to me. In a way I feel like  we see a lot of beautiful people on television who seem popular and funny and capable, and when I was in high school, sometimes I just felt really weird and out of place, kind of like an outcast. Its really interesting to see how a lot of people felt that way too and really saw themselves in Barb.

Im surprised that no fancy eyewear retailer has begun selling a Barb frame yet.

[Laughs.] I know, right?! Okay, I was obsessed with those glasses and I wanted to keep them so bad but they wouldnt let me. Im still sad about it.

With this nomination, I think the least they can do is send you those glasses.

Send me those glasses, Netflix!

Will you ever truly get tired of people saying Justice for Barb whenever they see you?

Right now, I think this nomination is really incredible and in an ultimate way gives me some closure. Not only for the character, but for this whole phenomenon. Im always going to love Barb and Im always going to be grateful to Stranger Things and for the incredible opportunity Ive had. But Im very excited for my work to continue and to expand my horizons. Itll be interesting to see how long Barb is really the icon that she is right now.

Stranger Things was my first job, and I was learning everything as I was doing it and it was such a whirlwind. I feel this incredible amount of pride for all of it. The ideas and knowledge that people have taken from Barb has given me this confidence in myself and in my abilities as an actress. Thats one of the most important things that Ive gained from this experience  I can overcome my insecurities and realize within myself that this is what I love and this is what Im meant to do.

I know you cant comment on this, but if Barb were to return to Stranger Things for the upcoming season, in what circumstance would you like to see her return?

My go-to fanfiction for what would happen to her is that somebody goes back into the Upside-Down to retrieve her body  probably the scientists from Doctor Brenners team wanted to experiment on her. And then, thinking that shes dead but shes not, she wakes up and has Eleven-style powers. That would be awesome.

I was bummed to hear that you wouldnt be playing Squirrel Girl in Freeforms new series, Marvels New Warriors, especially since you seem perfect for it and you previously expressed interest in the role. Did you get far along in the audition process?

I did have an audition, yes. I love the character and I definitely wouldve loved to have played her, but at the end of the day, I feel really confident about the work that I did and the work I put out at that audition. Theres no bad blood. I wish the actress who got the part the best of luck, she has this really incredible opportunity to play this fun character, so itll be cool to see what she does with it.

Lets hope its a blessing in disguise, and Marvel will come knocking in a year with a big-screen Squirrel Girl opportunity for you.

I would absolutely die.

This interview has been edited and condensed.
Of all the characters who returned to Showtimes Twin Peaks revival, perhaps none have been met with a more surprising heros welcome than Bobby Briggs. In the 25 years since we last saw him, the former floppy-haired teen punk with a knack for mischief has climbed the ranks to become an esteemed deputy at the Twin Peaks Sheriffs Department, working alongside Deputy Hawk and Sheriff Truman to alleviate a drug epidemic plaguing the area. However, the day-to-day operations of busting the drug trade are soon given a backseat in favor of curious intel about the long-disappeared FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, which comes from a special message via Bobbys father, Major Garland Briggs, from beyond the grave. Bobby, and only Bobby, can decipher the code that the Major wrote and stored in a chair for safekeeping.

Somehow he knew that it would all turn out well, Bobbys mother, Betty, explains in a particularly poignant scene in episode nine. He saw this life for you. Your father never lost faith in you. The road to finding the truth about Agent Cooper and his doppelganger may soon lie in the hands of this reformed deputy. Earlier today, Vulture called up the very affable Dana Ashbrook to discuss Bobbys evolution on Twin Peaks, the art of crying on cue, and his salt-of-the-earth pal Robert Forster, who plays Truman.

After episode nine, my friends and I decided that Bobby has had the most wonderful arc in Twin Peaks so far.

Thats great. I never know what order things are. I knew clearly that Bobby became a cop and all that stuff, but I didnt think anything outside of that. I didnt think about how it was going to be perceived, so its funny to see how it falls into place and hear peoples reactions. They get a little flavor of the old Twin Peaks in there with a little twist! People seem to be diggin that. Im just so pleased and thrilled that people like the show. I think its a work of art.

I wish it was eligible for Emmy consideration this year!

Im not that up in all of that stuff, admittedly, but yeah. Its fun when that kind of thing happens. That recognition would be amazing for the show.

A few of the other cast members told me about different ways David Lynch informed them that the show would be returning. How did you personally find out?

Sheryl Lee and I were going to London to a U.K. Twin Peaks festival. She was going from Los Angeles and I was going from New York, and we were texting back and forth when she was getting on the plane. I was like, Cool, see you soon in London, blah blah blah. Wed heard whispers of things  I think the tweet about the gum coming back in style had come out already  so there were frenzied whispers going around. Sheryl talked to David when she was in the car on the way to the airport, and he said, Yeah, its gonna actually happen, and youre gonna be a part of it. I dont know their exact conversation, but that was the extent of it. She said, Jeez, Im gonna go see Dana in a few hours  should I tell him that hes in it, or is he not in it?! David was like, Yeah, tell him hes in it! [Laughs.] She told me when I got to London, and we told the people at the U.K. festival that we were at least going to be a part of it. I had no idea in what capacity, of course. I wouldve done anything. I wouldve been a PA on it, honestly. I was lucky that I was able to be anything. Its been so much fun to see all of the people doing their thing together. Im like, Oh my God, theres Tim Roth, one of my favorite actors, and hes just popped up!

Id argue that Bobby is channeling the most Twin Peaks nostalgia after Agent Cooper, since hes been given the most development as a character. What does it mean to you that hes now a deputy at the sheriffs department?

Its fun that I get to do the evolution of Bobby. The fact that Im a cop now instead of some degenerate in the town is great. Its hard to put into words, honestly. I think its a wonderful evolution of a character. That scene that Bobby and the Major had in season two, where he describes Bobbys future, had a very strong impact, and was a beautifully written scene by Mark [Frost.] Its a good and realistic payoff that hes a cop.

Were you worried that Bobby would be a punk in his adult life?

No. [Laughs.] I speculated as soon as I knew that I was going to be in the revival. All of my friends and my wife and anybody who knew the show were speculating about what happened to Bobby. Did he put on a bunch of weight? There was a bunch of funny stuff floating around. It was as fun for me as it was for anybody else to see what their ideas for Bobby were.

Why do you think the audience responded to Bobby so strongly?

I really dont know. All I know is that you get what was written. [Laughs.] I got very lucky that they wrote me what they wrote me. Its sheer dumb luck, honestly. Who knows whats to come for all of those returning characters  were only halfway through. Who knows. Bobbys been a taste of the old Twin Peaks and got a good character evolution there, thats probably it. But thats only the first nine episodes! Im so excited to see it, because I have no idea what happens with other characters. You havent even seen Audrey yet. Theres much more to come, which Im as excited for as a fan.

Well, Ill cross my fingers that youre not a dirty cop like Chad.

[Laughs.] Ill only say that Im excited to see what comes out, thats for sure.

Youve had two weeping scenes so far, with Bobby tearing up when he sees Laura Palmers photo, and when his mom tells him about the Majors prophecy for his future. Whats the best trick youve learned about crying on cue?

Im the new Andy. [Laughs.] Crying has always been hit-or-miss for me. You just gotta put yourself in the situation that the characters in and do a little imagination about it. Theres a little bit of menthol that can be sprayed in your eyes to help you get going. It helps when youre feeling it and makes it a little more realistic if you feel real emotion. Its easy when you feel comfortable in a situation. With David, its just the most comfortable acting situation you could possibly be in. I mean, look at what Matthew Lillard had to do! Hes the man, hes amazing! He had to wail and scream!

And talk about scuba diving!

While hes screaming and crying! Its always a challenge and always fun to see how it comes out. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt.

The crux of the ninth episode hinges on the Majors message to his son, which can only be opened and deciphered by Bobby. Could you have imagined a more full-circle moment?

Its crazy, because I miss Don [S. Davis] a lot. [Editors note: Davis, who played Major Briggs, died in 2008.] I love that guy. He was such a fantastic actor and such a fantastic person. I really miss that aspect of working with him. When we filmed that diner scene 25 years ago, he made it so much more powerful and he gave me so much to work off of. I was just a young guy starting out, and he would help me out. A great actor in every sense of the word. I really miss him when I do those scenes. It was also wonderful to hang out with Don after we wrapped filming, too. We would go to Twin Peaks festivals and he was there, and I got to know him really well on a social level. He was a great guy. As far as the character, there was a similarity in real life, because Don had a great influence on me as a young actor. That translated to the on-screen moments.

Im amazed at how flawlessly the deceased actors have been given their due on-screen. The Major and BOB still get a significant amount of narrative action, plus those moving scenes with the Log Lady before Catherine E. Coulson passed away.

David has paid homage to and honored those people so beautifully. And weve lost a lot of people since the beginning. Its a tearjerker. Catherine was really hard for me particularly and everybody else, too. She was one of Davids really dearest friends, and that all went down while we were working. That was pretty, pretty heavy. I loved the way that she got to be in it, because she loved the show and being the Log Lady. She kept that log with her. She was in charge of the log. She was a beautiful person and it was devastating for everybody. We were actually working when that all went down, so to see how David worked to ensure she was in it was heart-wrenching. The fact that those other actors were factored in, and in such a big way, was beautiful. I have no idea how he did it. David makes it classy. He doesnt do it in any sort of tacky or exploitative or weird way. Hes a classy guy. Catherine was one of his oldest and dearest friends. It was tough on everybody.

Do you think Bobby will be receptive to the supernatural elements of the town, just like his father?

Oh jeez, I dont know. Im not sure on that one. Its only going to be answered by watchinggggg!

Well, you looked like you had a lot of fun breaking open that metal vial!

That was a very fun scene to do, for sure. Its even more fun having Robert Forster and Michael Horse right next to me. How can you beat that? How can you beat that?! Robert! Forster! I mean, come on.

Its a bummer that Michael Ontkean didnt return, but Robert is a legend.

Hes honestly one of the most salt-of-the-earth, best guys Ive ever met. I text him every once in a while, its really funny. All of the police stuff is a joy to shoot because hes new on the force, too. Sheriff Truman and Bobby are the two new guys. Andy and Hawk have been on the force for a while, so were the Sheriffs Department newbies.

Is Robert good at texting for a 70-year-old?

Hes spot-on. Hes sharp as a tack, that guy. I used to see him in the hotel while we were filming; he would be sitting in the common area and going over the next days work and eating dinner. Hes the best. Hes an inspiration. If I could emulate his career, Id be very happy.

Is there any chance that Bobby and Shellys relationship has survived over the past 25 years?

Oh, yeah, Id float the possibility. Sure. Their relationship could be stronger than ever. Who knows. [Sings.] Who knowsssss!
Following reports Thursday that The Walking Dead stuntman John Bernecker had been hospitalized following a fall on set, TMZ confirmed that he has since succumbed to his injuries. Bernecker, 33, had reportedly been on a ventilator since Wednesday, and sources told the site he died in the hospital Thursday evening surrounded by friends and family, including his girlfriend, who is also a stuntwoman on the show. The AMC series suspended production on its eighth season after Bernecker suffered a head injury from a 20-foot fall on set at Raleigh Studio in Georgia. According to Variety, an assistant director told police that Bernecker missed the mat he was supposed to land on just by inches. SAG-AFTRA and the Atlanta office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have launched separate investigations into the accident. Bernecker was a seasoned stunt performer and fight coordinator with over 90 IMDb credits. He worked most recently on Logan, Get Out, and Marvels Black Panther.

Update, July 14: Both The Walking Deads showrunner and AMC have released separate statements about Berneckers death. Our production is heartbroken by the tragic loss of John Bernecker, showrunner Scott M. Gimple said in a statement. Johns work on The Walking Dead and dozens of other movies and shows will continue to entertain and excite audiences for generations. We are grateful for his contributions, and all of us send our condolences, love, and prayers to Johns family and friends. The cable network added in an additional statement: We are deeply saddened by this loss and our hearts and prayers are with Johns family, friends, and colleagues during this extremely difficult time.
Normally, the body cools itself by sweating. However, if temperatures and humidity are extremely high, sweating is not effective in maintaining the bodys normal temperature. If the body does not cool properly or does not cool enough, a person may suffer a heat-related illness, which can become serious or even deadly if unattended.

Warning signs and symptoms vary but may include:

Heat Exhaustion Symptoms:

Heavy sweating

Weakness

Skin cold, pale, and clammy

Weak pulse

Fainting and vomiting

What You Should Do:

Move to a cooler location

Lie down and loosen your clothing

Apply cool, wet cloths to as much of your body as possible

Sip water

If you have vomited and it continues, seek medical attention immediately.

Heat Stroke Symptoms:

High body temperature (above 103 degrees F)

Hot, red, dry or moist skin

Rapid and strong pulse

Possible unconsciousness

What You Should Do:

Call 911 immediately -- this is a medical emergency

Move the person to a cooler location

Reduce the persons body temperature with cool cloths or a bath -- Do not give fluids!

People most vulnerable for heat-related illness include the elderly, those who work or exercise outdoors, infants and children, the homeless or poor, and people with a chronic medical condition. The Illinois Department on Aging encourages relatives and friends to make daily visits or calls to senior citizens living alone. When temperatures and humidity are extremely high, seniors and people with chronic health conditions should be monitored for dehydration and other effects of extreme heat. Additionally, seniors should eat lighter meals, take longer and more frequent rests, and drink plenty of fluids.

Never leave anyone, including pets, alone in a closed, parked vehicle. The air temperature inside a car rises rapidly during hot weather and can lead to brain damage or death.

Log onto www.ready.illinois.gov for more heat safety information and updates on statewide weather watches, warnings, and advisories. This is an important message from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In a heat wave, keeping your cool will keep you healthy. People and animals should stay indoors. If you dont have air-conditioning, go to the mall or the library or a community relief shelter. Remember to drink more fluids, but avoid alcohol and high sugar drinks. To learn more, call 800-CDC-INFO.

And, speaking of safety... Your Safety Matters, sponsored by AARP Illinois, and hosted by your LifeSpan Center. An identity is stolen every two seconds! Securely disposing of your material containing confidential information is one good way to protect yourself. Presenters will help you take more control of your own safety and that of your family.

Mark your calendar for Wednesday, July 26 beginning at 1 p.m. Please call 217-639-5150 to reserve your seat at this free workshop. In addition, AARP Illinois will provide a shredding truck to help us fight back against fraud. Safely destroying your sensitive, outdated, and unwanted personal documents on site at your LifeSpan Center from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

The Coles County Council on Aging offices are located at the LifeSpan Center, 11021 E. Co. Rd. 800 N., Charleston. The telephone number is 217-639-5150 for the Coles County Council on Aging and LifeSpan Center. The telephone numbers for the programs are as follows: Coles County Telecare -- 217-639-5166; Family Care Giver Resource Center -- 217-639-5168 and Dial A Ride -- 217-639-5169 or 1-800-500-5505. See you at your LifeSpan Center.
SULLIVAN  The Mattoon woman charged in a February bus accident that sent five Teutopolis students to the hospital waived her right to a jury trial in Moultrie County Court on Thursday.

Scarlett McKinzie, 36, appeared in Judge Hugh Finsons courtroom with her court-appointed attorney, Public Defender Marvin Hanson, for a scheduled pretrial hearing.

Hanson told the court he expected a plea agreement after McKinzie undergoes a psychological evaluation. She has pleaded not guilty to aggravated driving under the influence in the accident.

Court documents show her blood-alcohol level was 0.25 percent, and a urine test was positive for cocaine. The accident happened at the intersection of Illinois Route 32 and the BruceFindlay Road in Moultrie County.

Finson questioned why the evaluation had not happened since McKinzies last court appearance May 10.

If they havent called you with an appointment, you need to call them back, he told her. Dont let this drag on.

McKinzies next scheduled court appearance is Aug. 22.
The Texas Veterans Land Board will host a Texas Veterans Benefit Fair from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Doris Miller Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 4800 Memorial Drive.

Information will be provided about state and federal benefits available to military veterans at the free come-and-go event.

For more information, call 800-252-8387.

Trafficking education

Methodist Childrens Home Family Outreach will host a Human Trafficking: Protecting Our Families program from 1 to 2:30 p.m. July 15 in the Mulkey Building at the Methodist Childrens Home, 1111 Herring Ave.

The program will include information about human trafficking, available resources and how to protect our children.

All parents, caregivers and high-school youths are welcome to attend.

For more information, call 750-1263.

MCC alumni nominations

The Highlander Alumni and Friends Association at McLennan Community College will accept nominations through July 15 for its 2017 Distinguished Alumni and Distinguished Leader awards. Nomination forms for both awards are available at alumni.mclennan.edu.

To be eligible, nominees must have successfully completed a minimum of a one-year certificate or two-year associates degree program or have earned a minimum of 60 transferable hours without a degree from MCC.

The Distinguished Young Leader Award is presented to a 2016 graduate or completing student of MCC.

For more information, call 299-8481 or email alumni@mclennan.edu.

Singing senior sessions

The Baylor Singing Seniors will host informal reading sessions at 9 a.m. July 17 in the Choir Suite at First Woodway Baptist Church, 101 Ritchie Road.

Membership in the Singing Seniors is open to all senior adults, with a suggested age of 55 and older.

No musical training or audition is required.

The purpose of the summer sessions is to introduce new musical selections for the fall and for members to stay in touch during the summer break.

Coffee and refreshments will be served.

For more information, visit www.baylorsingingseniors.org.
The family of a longtime AT&T employee who was slain on the job last year in Waco alleges in a lawsuit that company officials failed to protect him after sending him into a neighborhood the company had flagged as dangerous.

Andrea Christian and Amber Hicks, the daughters of Kenneth Cleveland; and Zella Cleveland, his mother, are seeking more than $1 million in damages in their lawsuit against AT&T as a result of Kenneth Clevelands violent death in April 2016.

The suit, filed this week in Dallas County, alleges gross negligence against the mammoth telecommunications corporation and charges the company is aware of a history of violence against its employees and failed to act accordingly.

Kennys death was tragic and our thoughts remain with his family, an AT&T spokesman in Dallas said Wednesday in response to the lawsuit. The safety and welfare of our employees is of paramount concern to us. We have assisted the authorities with their investigation and have offered a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Waco attorney Rick Bostwick represents Clevelands family.

Our client was brutally murdered in an area of town that AT&T had red-lined as a dangerous area, yet he was not accompanied by another employee nor was he given any kind of panic device of the sort that cashiers at convenience stores have that are commonly available, Bostwick said. Also, nobody checked on him despite his being out there for almost four hours.

Cleveland, 61, of Hewitt, worked for AT&T 43 years. He was sent to a work area near Barron Avenue and Novelty Street and arrived there about 8:30 a.m., the suit says.

Thirty minutes later, he reported to AT&T that he was experiencing some sort of issue and/or altercation.

The job was routine in nature, and Cleveland normally would have reported to an AT&T dispatcher that he was finished, the suit alleges.

Yet, despite AT&Ts knowledge that Kenneth Cleveland was alone in a dangerous area, that he had called a dispatcher at 9 a.m. reporting that he was experiencing an issue and/or altercation at the job location and that he had not contacted a dispatcher within several hours, AT&T did not attempt to contact or communicate with Kenneth Cleveland before approximately noon that day.

Clevelands burned body was found in an alley behind the house where he had been working. An autopsy showed he had been stabbed more than 20 times in the head, face and neck. He also had defensive stab wounds to the hands, indicating he was fighting for his life before he died, according to the lawsuit.

The autopsy said he died from homicidal violence including blunt-force injuries, sharp-force injuries and chop wounds.

No arrests have been made, and the Waco police investigation continues, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said Thursday. Swanton declined further comment on the case.

The suit contends there is a history of violent attacks on AT&T employees working in dangerous communities.

AT&T service technicians carry valuable equipment and tools with them to each service call, making them especially vulnerable to potential perpetrators and assailants, the suit claims. AT&T has internally identified dangerous areas in communities where crime rates are the highest known as awareness zones and/or red zone neighborhoods. AT&T maintained a practice of identifying red zone neighborhoods for a number of years prior to Kenneth Clevelands death.

The suit alleges AT&T was negligent by not requiring that at least two technicians be sent together into such neighborhoods and by not having any type of panic button available to its employees.

The suit references the case of Kevin Mashburn, an AT&T service technician of more than 40 years who was killed on a service call in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2012.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined AT&T after Mashburns death, citing AT&T for serious violations related to workplace safety, the lawsuit alleges.

OSHA, according to the suit, concluded that AT&T failed to ensure employees needing emergency assistance have a means of continuous communication to readily summon assistance when needed.

The agency recommended AT&T provide panic buttons to employees.

Communications Workers of America, the labor union representing AT&T employees, has lobbied for years to force AT&T to instill better safety procedures in dangerous neighborhoods, according to the lawsuit.

Kenneth Cleveland died a gruesome and horrific death because of AT&Ts systematic and continuous failure to provide protection for its employees in red zone neighborhoods, the suit alleges.

Two of Clevelands other daughters, Elizabeth Needler and Tiffany McCollum, filed a similar lawsuit in Dallas last year against AT&T and reached a confidential settlement with the company in April.

What happened to Kenneth Cleveland was absolutely horrific, said Waco attorney Craig Cherry, who represented Needler and McCollum. While I cannot discuss the terms of the agreement, it was a privilege for me to represent two of Mr. Clevelands daughters and help them during a traumatic time in their life.
Are you ready to USE your TALENTS to make the world a better place for Children?





If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the worlds leading childrens rights organization would like to hear from you.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote childrens survival, protection and development. The worlds largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
Juliece Payne closed her eyes, and her swinging feet came to a stop under her chair.

She said she heard birds chirping, trees rustling in the wind and dogs barking. She heard doors shutting and cars rolling by as she described what it has been like to attend a summer program at the South Terrace Apartments, one of Wacos three public housing complexes.

The biggest thing Ive learned is how the brain helps you, (how) the brain controls your body, Juliece, 8, said. It feels like happiness. Whenever I go back to school, I can tell some of my friends about the brain and what weve learned.

She was demonstrating how she has learned to listen to the world around her before reacting to what is happening. She picked up the skill during Summer Breakout, a seven-week course hosted by VOICE, a nonprofit that teaches healthy living skills to students in 138 Texas schools, including in Waco ISD.

In its fifth year in Waco and third year at South Terrace, Summer Breakout is seeing its highest enrollment yet, to the point that VOICE representatives had to limit the number of participants because there isnt enough space for more students, officials said.

Payne, a San Angelo elementary student visiting cousins in Waco through July, spends most of her day fluttering with 44 of her peers between an apartment-turned-classroom, a playground and a youth center at the complex along Kennedy Circle in South Waco.

But the program isnt like a typical summer camp, prevention specialist and coordinator Pauli Ramos said. With curriculum and reading time focused on life skills and three parts of the brain, Ramos and other VOICE representatives use a classroom setting to teach first- through eighth-grade students in low income areas about how the brain influences learning and behavior.

What we teach them though is theyve got to learn to stop and think, Ramos said. Were also teaching them some behavior skills, how to take a deep breath, how to count, how to find a safe place to go to in that moment and take a break before they respond.

While we may not be able to do anything about how we feel, we can do something about how we respond, especially with the at-risk students we serve. Theyre in situations a lot of times where its not their fault.

Summer Breakout started with 11 first- through fifth-grade students at the Kate Ross Apartments on South 11th Street. But when the enrollment outgrew the space available, VOICE moved it to South Terrace and expanded grade levels, Ramos said.

And daily lessons in respect, behavior and nutrition keep students coming back, she said. She has been with Summer Breakout since it started in Waco, and shes heard a lot of stories from the children in the program about trying to cope with loss, with confusion and with anger throughout the seven weeks, she said.

The teachers use part of the curriculum to get students talking about difficult issues, often asking them to share a sunshine moment and a cloudy moment to teach them not all bad moments will last forever. Other lessons cover concepts like fight or flight behavior, she said.

Thats when we get a lot of the stories, from My uncle got shot, or My dads now in jail and I havent seen him,  Ramos said. We talk about finding safe adults to talk to and it being OK if they want to cry, and being OK if they want to be angry, but they have to find a safe way to release that.

Minnie Kings daughter has been part of the program since it moved to South Terrace, she said. The program helped her daughter become more social and active, and King enjoyed watching her daughters improvement enough that she now spends part of each summer helping out, she said.

With several other family members attending Summer Breakout, she has become an honorary mother to some of the other students, too. She often plays games and even sits in on some of the classes as teachers cover topics that range from the importance of exercising to how to spot bullying, King said.

I really wish we could get more kids. We have a lot of kids over here who dont come, King said. The impact is really good. They learn a whole lot. They learn Yes Maam, No Maam. Before then, they didnt do that, and now they do.

Ramos hopes the program will eventually expand back out to other public housing locations in Waco, but that might be awhile.

For now, shes just happy to see the mental impact the program is making, she said. Some of the programs most behavior-challenged students have become some of the best-behaved students since Summer Breakout started, and thats been the biggest impact, Ramos said.

Weve built that trust with them, Ramos said. Theyve seen were not just here because its a job, we really do care about them.
Christopher Kazanas, a Midway High School rising senior, took part in Texas Boys State, sponsored by the American Legion, for a week in June.

During the week, Christopher was elected as a county and state delegate, and ultimately, an associate justice of the Court of Appeals.

The Boys State delegates voted to secede from the nation, a story that was featured in The Washington Post.

He is the son of Kim and George Kazanas.

Boys State educates future leaders about government, civics, and patriotism in a learn by doing environment. Each delegate had finished his junior year of high school and was picked by teachers, counselors and local American Legion posts throughout Texas to attend the one-week seminar.

During the week, the delegates were evenly split into fictional parties of the Nationalist and Federalists. Each party drafted party platforms, elected party officials, nominated candidates via primary elections, and contested a general election against the rival party and its candidates.

On June 15, Boys State participants had a parade from the University of Texas at Austin campus to the Texas Capitol, where they toured the building and dropped in on their hometown representatives offices.
Four people were arrested Thursday after Mart police found three young children covered in dog feces, two of whom also had blistering burns on their bodies, arrest affidavits state.

Doyle Wayne Cross, 62, Jana Cara Fisher, 24, Wesley Wayne Stanford, 23, all of Mart, and Darious Johnson, 24, of Waco, were each arrested on a state jail felony charge of child endangerment. Cross was also arrested on a charge of failure to identify himself while police investigated a house they later described as "nauseating."

Police received a complaint from neighbors about a house in the 500 block of East Bowie Street on Tuesday, claiming that the house was an "eye sore," that a smell was coming from the home, trash was in the yard and a molding pool was not being maintained.

An officer went to the home after the complaint and told Cross he had 10 days to bring the property into compliance with city ordinances.

Child Protective Services officials went to the home Thursday for a welfare check stemming from the police report of the initial visit.

The affidavit states residents denied CPS workers access, so the CPS workers notified police.

"(Officers) were met by Mr. Cross, who failed to identify himself to (officers), stating that he 'didn't have to tell us anything without a warrant' and also denied entry to the residence," the affidavit states.

Cross was detained as Johnson exited the home. Johnson said he lived there with his 2-year-old daughter and he would not allow police inside, the affidavit states. Fisher and Stanford then arrived at the home.

Police heard children crying from inside the home, Mart Police Chief Paul Cardenas said. When they went inside, officers found three children, the 2-year-old girl, a 2-year-old boy and a 1-year-old boy.

"All three children appeared to be covered in dog feces," the affidavit states.

Two children belonging to Fisher, the two boys, were wearing saggy, dirty diapers and had what appeared to be third-degree burns on their shoulders that were blistering, according to the affidavit.

"When Mrs. Fisher was asked why the kids were burnt, she stated they were out in the sun with insufficient sunscreen protection and became sunburnt," according to the affidavit.

All four adults were arrested on child endangerment charges, and the children were placed in protective custody.

"All the officers entering the home gagged at the smell upon entry," the affidavit states. "There appeared to be dog feces on the furniture, beds and floors. Most the feces was smeared in, which was most likely what the children were covered in. There were at least four dogs located inside the residence."

The four adults were taken to McLennan County Jail, where they remained jailed late Thursday night. No bond information was immediately listed.
Students from California Polytech University have located a sunken British World War II Fairey Swordfish off the coast of Malta as part of an underwater search and mapping project, a Californian newspaper called The Tribune reports.

The Swordfish was reportedly flying off the coast of Malta when it suffered engine trouble and had to resort to an emergency landing in the Mediterranean Sea. The pilot and co-pilot were both luckily rescued as it had transpired that two Englishmen who were on leave just happened to be sailing out at sea on the day in question. While the crew was saved, the plane sank to the bottom.

Students used a 6-foot robot to locate the sunken airplane. It is an autonomous underwater vehicle, using sonar, photography and video technology to search the seabed. After collaborating with University of Malta in order to verify that the sunken plane was indeed the one they were after, it was found at a depth of around 60 meters.

The plane is known as a Fairey Swordfish, which is a biplane torpedo bomber used by Englands Royal Navy in World War II and in the 1930s. The Fairey Swordfish, the legendary Stringbag, was a Torpedo Spotter Reconnaissance biplane dive-bomber which went into service with the Fleet Air Arm pre-war in 1936. Initially, Swordfishes operated from the large fleet carriers. Later Swordfishes operated from escort carriers, and were very effective against U-boats. The nickname Stringbag indicated the versatility of the Swordfish, which could carry an unlikely combination of loads, but also referred to its jungle of bracing wires, which belonged to a past age. The Swordfish remained operational until the end of the war, gaining the distinction of being the last biplane to see active service.

The bomber in question is said to have gone down some three miles off the coast of Sliema. Divers with the University of Malta marine archaeology department examined the Swordfish bomber. It was found in a state of decay, down to a skeleton forming part of an ecosystem for baby fish and crustaceans. The plane is going to be left where it was found. The Cal Poly team, working with Harvey Mudd College and the University of Malta, is part of a three-year programme called ICEX (International Computer Engineering Experience) that develops search and mapping algorithms and conducts expeditions, writes the Tribune.

From the way it was found, researches deduced that the sea landing was a controlled one. This could be seen from the intact skeleton. Had the landing not been controlled, the plane would have gone into free fall and usually the structures integrity is not kept intact, neither were several pieces found scattered on the seabed.
Editors note: Ground Zero travels this month to restaurants near Lincoln.

CEDAR BLUFFS  Some of the best prime rib often is found in small town restaurants such as Todds Tavern & Cafe in Cedar Bluffs.

The little Nebraska town is 9 miles west of Fremont and about 13 miles north of Wahoo.

Available on Saturday nights, Todds prime rib is a 12- to 16-ounce cut  mine was closer to 16 ounces  served with choice of potato (mashed, baked, fries, hash browns or tots), vegetable, garlic toast and an iceberg lettuce salad.

It costs just $19.95  thats reason enough to take the 50-minute trip (from north Lincoln).

There are other reasons, too, such as the Blue Moon Burger ($10.95) my wife enjoyed. The half-pound patty, smothered in Buffalo sauce and topped with blue cheese crumbles, comes with the fixings (lettuce, tomatoes, onions and pickles) and choice of a side. Its one of six burgers on the menu.

Todds is named for owner Todd Phillips, who took over the vacant storefront in downtown Cedar Bluffs four years ago. It originally was the towns post office, which now sits across the street, before becoming home to various bar and grills over the years, according to Todds employee Jana LeGrande.

Before opening, Phillips did an extensive renovation  you can see photos of him building the bar on Todds Facebook page.

The result is bar and grill with some character, especially in the bar area, which, according to LeGrande, is where the town residents prefer to sit. It features exposed brick, hardwood floors, knotty pine on some of the walls and a variety of seating options (regular and high top tables and stools at the bar).

The dining room is impressive, too, just not as cozy and intimate as the bar area. Its a large room, also with hardwood floors, with booth and table seating. The walls are adorned with framed animal prints that LeGrande said Phillips brought from home.

The restaurant also has a large party room at the back.

Todd's menu is typical bar and grill, filled with burgers and sandwiches such as a Reuben, Philly steak, pork tenderloin and a club.

But there are specialty nights. Thursday, for instance, boasts Mexican fare and $1 margaritas, which the bar, to no surprise, sells a bunch of. And on weekends, youll find three or four dinner specials, including a fish of some sort on Fridays and the prime rib on Saturdays.

Food ranges from $7.95 (for the tavern burger) to $19.95 (for the Saturday prime rib). The portions, as noted before, are large.

The other thing, besides the food, that I enjoy about my July excursions is meeting and talking with people from the small towns. In my follow-up call to Todds, I chatted with LeGrande, an employee whos been with Phillips since he opened the tavern.

LeGrandes husband has a relation who worked for many years with my father on the Nebraska State Patrol. LeGrande then asked me if I was related to the podiatrist who used to work in Fremont. Yes, thats my uncle, I told her. Nebraska can be a small state.
Theres not a lot of mystery in Moka. What there is in the psychological thriller is a pair of stellar performances by two of Frances best actresses who are pitted against each other  one secretly investigating the other, aiming to confirm suspicions about the death of her son.

The investigator is Diane (Emmanuelle Devos), who we first see escaping from a hospital, where, we soon learn, she has been since her son was run over and killed by a brown Mercedes with French license plates.

Getting four plate numbers for coffee-colored Mercedes in nearby French cities from a private detective, Diane drives from Lucerne, Switzerland, to Evian, France, where after tracking down one car thats a miss, she finds a Mercedes with a repaired fender  and a owner who could have been the blonde driver spotted when the car hit young Luc.

The blonde is Marlene (Nathalie Baye), a beauty shop owner, who lives with her partner Michel (David Clavel). Snooping around, Diane discovers the old Mercedes is for sale, takes a test drive with Michel and makes an offer.

Then she heads to the shop for the first of a series of uncomfortable encounters with Marlene. Claiming shes a writer in Evian to work, Diane has her makeup done by Marlene while trying to feel out whether she was the driver that killed her boy, even to flipping through the shops calendar to find the day in question when Marlene leaves the room.

Theres no reason to give away any more of the plot of Moka or to even hint at the answers to Did she do it? and What revenge will Diane extract? Suffice it to say I guessed the outcome of the mystery with about 30 minutes left in the 90-minute picture.

But it held the interest nonetheless, thanks largely to the work of Devos and Baye. Devos makes Diane both sympathetic and scary, a deeply wounded, psychologically troubled woman who gathers up a gun she doesnt know how to use to try to do something to make her life right again.

Baye is her opposite, a kind, engaging shopkeeper who cant quite figure out why the writer keeps turning up at her store and bumping into her on the streets.

Their scenes together are riveting and Devos carries the rest of the film by making Diane disturbingly believable and very likely to get disastrously caught in her off-the-books investigation.

Director Frederic Mermoud keeps this adaptation of a novel moving, effectively capturing the locations  the shop, a nightclub, hiking trails and highway  and the two women in them.

Yes, there are other characters in Moka and they figure prominently in the films outcome. But the movie is about is Diane and Marlene, and Devos and Baye portraying them are superb.
Counting matters. Australia used to conduct a world-leading Time Use study but 2006 was the last time the ABS did that work. Those results gave deep insight into how Australia was changing and in 2008, when the results became public, it became clear we were working longer hours, sleeping less, doing less physical activity. We spent less time playing.

Women's work is invisible and nothing we can do as individuals will make that any different. We do the bulk of the housework, the childcare, the shopping, the volunteering, the caring of all kinds. None of it counts and that's partly because it's not counted.

For so many years, I picked up and dropped off. For decades, I've been a volunteer. All my life, I've cared for someone in one capacity of another.

We can't go to work and abandon our children. Credit:Belinda Pratten

Here's what this important study surveyed: domestic activities, childcare, purchasing, voluntary work, care. It's how our world works but here in Australia, we would never know. And it's here where our private productivity exists, thrives. By international standards, we live glorious lives but the secret of those lives is hidden. This erasure affects women most  you only had to look at the last Census to see who did the bulk of the chores  but it also affects men. It makes the unpaid part of our lives mysterious and it extends that key myth of capitalism  that only paid productivity matters.

The decision, time and time again, by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to 'postpone' a new Time Use study makes that private productivity invisible  as if all that matters is what we get paid for.

Lyn Craig is at her wit's end. The former University of NSW academic now University of Melbourne's new professor of sociology and social policy is so frustrated with the ABS' decision not to fund the survey, she's threatening to do it herself. Which will delight the ABS. When I asked this week if it would ever consider reinstating the survey, this was the response: "[The ABS] would welcome the opportunity to conduct another time use survey if resources were available. With strong, ongoing interest in time use data, the ABS has been consistently considering ways of including the collection of time use data in their survey program, and have been seeking partnerships around funding potential development options."

In other words, it knows just how important this data is  but it has no money to fund the work. This is how funding cuts result in inefficiency dividends. Perhaps Craig can find the money to run a survey through the University of Melbourne and we can all find out how time slips through our fingers.
Tech giants Facebook and Apple say they will resist the Turnbull government's push for them to decrypt messages and hand them over to law enforcement agencies, as they already provide as much help as they can.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Friday said technology companies such as Facebook and Apple need to "face up to their responsibility" to help prevent terrorism and solve crimes.

Acknowledging "this is not without some difficulty", Mr Turnbull said the government would legislate to force companies to provide encrypted communications requested by the police and other agencies.
Technology companies such as Apple and Facebook will be forced to hand over encrypted messages to police under new laws to be introduced this year by the Turnbull government.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said law enforcement authorities needed the powers to target terrorists, paedophiles and organised crime gangs.

"We cannot allow the internet to be used as a place where terrorists and child molesters and people who peddle child pornography and drug traffickers to hide in the dark," Mr Turnbull told the Sunrise program on Friday.

"Those dark places online must be illuminated by the law.
On days when I'm tired or not in the mood, I have to play mind games to make myself to exercise.

After sitting in the car for five or 10 minutes resisting the run, I'll say to myself, "You can just walk today." With a sigh, I'll relent and drag myself from the car. Having willed myself to the first steep set of stairs, I'll negotiate: "Why don't you try just running up these steps and see how that feels", which I'll do and inevitably feel energised and with the momentum activated, the rest of the run is easy.

Over a lifetime, exercise affects our brain in different ways. Credit:Stocksy

The knock-on effect is multi-faceted: I finish in a better mood, am subsequently better company and, with a cleared-head am better able to work.

Exercise benefits us psychologically and it is a protective factor against heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, hyper-tension, obesity, and some cancers. For these reasons, it is considered a "positive event", but researchers of a new study wanted to explore the cascade effect of exercise into other areas of our lives.
Consumer group Choice is urging the government to simplify health insurance policies after it found nearly half of Australians believed the process of finding a suitable policy was too difficult.

Its survey found 44 per cent of policyholders believed comparing policies was "difficult", while the rest was split between "neutral" and "easy".

"Health insurance is so complex that it's become toxic," said Choice's Matt Levey. "People are buying or sticking with policies that they may not understand or may not work for them."

Respondents said it was hard to compare policies side by side, out-of-pocket hospital costs and extras rebates, and they were baffled by the inconsistent terminology and technical language.
A blind Perth man is launching legal action against his superannuation fund and their insurers after allegedly being denied access to his disability insurance benefit.

Stuart Oldham, 33, is registered as legally blind with the Association for the Blind and requires the assistance of his guide dog - Daisy.

Stuart Oldham with his dog Daisy.

Having left school at the age of 14, he held down various jobs in his adult life such as a labourer and storeman.

But he stopped working in 2008 after the total and irrecoverable loss of sight in both eyes, and also due a range of other medical conditions, including osteoporosis.
Editors note: If you are traveling to other parts of Nebraska during our states 150th birthday celebration this year, consider seeing Nebraskas waterfalls! Read on to learn more.

When National Parks Service personnel cataloged the waterfalls in the Niobrara River area, they were shocked. To their surprise, they found almost 200 sets of falls within a 20-mile radius.

While some of the waterfalls are smaller, three in North Central Nebraska are of significant size. Visitors can hike to all three. Two of them, Smith Falls and Fort Falls, are fairly close to the town of Valentine. Nebraska State Park permits are required to enter both areas.

Smith Falls, Nebraskas tallest

For a long time, Smith Falls was on private property. Initially, access to the falls was limited until the second landowner made a change. When Fred Krzyzanowski created a rural campground on his land, he opened up one of the most scenic spots in Nebraska to travelers. Almost every day he would hike down to talk to those who came to camp near Smith Falls. His welcome made visitors want to return.

Although this stretch of land was first homesteaded by Frederic Smith, Krzyzanowski was the one who put the falls on the map. Despite the remote location, many came to see this hidden wonder. Krzyzanowski encouraged exploration.

Eventually, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission took over Smith Falls and established a 250-acre state park. Visitors can still camp on site. Trails are maintained for hikers. But the most impressive part of this location will always be the 70-foot-high Smith Falls.

When visitors arrive at Smith Falls State Park, the parking lots and visitors center are located above the park. A steep outdoor staircase leads to a small grassland area with a path that leads to the falls. Campers can drive down to the lower portion; this may also be helpful for visitors who have difficulty walking.

Once visitors are down on the lower level, this set of waterfalls is actually the easiest to reach. To improve accessibility and protect the natural landscape, a wooden walkway bridge leads directly to the waterfalls. With some assistance, even those with limited mobility can get close to Smith Falls.

The bridge is about a half-mile long. One does not have to walk very far before seeing the impressive falls in the distance. Photo opportunities are numerous, as the wooded area provides the perfect backdrop for the falls. The path leads visitors to a spot within about 15 feet of Smith Falls.

At the end of the wooden walkway are deep steps that lead into the waterfall pool. The experience of getting underneath the waterfall is breathtaking. Literally. The water is quite cold. Climbing down into the pool requires maneuvering on slippery rocks. Getting back up onto the wooden landing requires climbing a large step. Solo hikers may want to wait for another group before climbing down in case they get stuck. (Unless getting wet is a part of the plan.)

Experiencing the wonder of Smith Falls is highly recommended for all Nebraska travelers.

Fort Falls

In the middle of the Fort Niobrara Wildlife Refuge, you will find another taller waterfall. Fort Falls is a short but steep hike from the parking lot. Although the path may not be level, it is maintained. This waterfall feels a bit more rustic. A simple branch fence provides a barrier between the visitors and the waterfall. Photographs are encouraged. Climbing into these falls is not recommended. If visitors continue on the dirt path past the falls, they will reach the Niobrara River.

Snake River Falls

This set of waterfalls is over 20 miles southwest of Valentine. The land where the falls are located has changed ownership often. Because of this, visitors have not always been able to access these falls. Currently the private owners do allow visitors to hike to this set of waterfalls for a small fee. Hikers can explore above the falls as well as walk into the stream. Snake River Falls is the largest set of Nebraska waterfalls by volume when the area streams are at full capacity.

Other Cherry County waterfalls

As for the other Cherry County waterfalls, most of them are not found on public land. Access is limited. One of the best ways to see many of them is to take a water trip. If you choose to boat or tube down the Niobrara River, many smaller waterfalls will be visible on your journey. Before deciding to hike to any other waterfalls, research first.

Contacting Nebraska Game and Parks can help you determine if the area you want to visit is accessible to visitors. Tourism officials at the Valentine Chamber of Commerce/Cherry County Tourism are also glad to help you plan your Niobrara River and waterfall adventures. They can help you find an outfitter or point out places where you can unload boats along the river for a small fee.

Exploring the waterfalls in Cherry County, Nebraska, is well worth the effort.
A Lancaster County jury Thursday found a 20-year-old Alvo man not guilty in a first-degree sexual assault case that came down to "he said, she said" accounts on the witness stand about whether sex had taken place at all.

Justin Hennessy said it didn't. His accuser said it did.

She waited weeks or months before telling a friend they'd had sex. She later said Hennessy had raped her. When word spread, she told her mom, which led to a report to the Lancaster County Sheriff's office.

But this wasn't a matter of whether the then 14-year-old had consented to sex with Hennessy, who was 19 and had just graduated high school. By Nebraska law, a 14-year-old can't consent to sex.

The state prosecuted it as a statutory rape case, meaning if the jury found there was evidence the two had sex, then Hennessy was guilty.

"The state isn't saying he's a monster," Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Nick Freeman said in closing arguments Thursday. "But he committed a crime."

Freeman told jurors they may not like the law, which allows a 19-year-old to be charged for having consensual sex with a 14-year-old. But he told them to hold Hennessy accountable in the case about desire, abuse and assault.

Defense attorney Bob Creager contended the case was about people who lie about sex.

In a forensic interview, Hennessy's accuser said he took off her clothes, then his and held her down by her shoulders and forced himself on her.

On the stand, she didn't give a lot of detail, but did say if she had said no, he might've stopped. She also said it was her first time, something an ex-boyfriend was called to the stand after to rebut.

Hennessy said she masturbated him, but they didn't have sex.

Both sides pointed to digital evidence. In Snapchat screenshots between Hennessy and his accuser, with an investigator watching on her end, Hennessy said he had worn a condom, which Freeman pointed to as a smoking gun. Creager pointed to texts where she told a friend she was "f*ing with Justin."

"In the end, that's why we're here," Creager said.

The jury got the case at 11:46 a.m. and returned at 2:25 p.m. finding Hennessy not guilty.
A Lincoln woman was arrested after leading Nebraska State Patrol troopers on a high-speed chase on Interstate 80 near North Platte on Friday, according to a news release.

Claire Mason, 33, was cited for 18 separate crimes, including fleeing to avoid arrest, a felony, and reckless driving after speeding away during a traffic stop near Sutherland and leading troopers on a miles-long chase.

A trooper pulled over Mason on westbound I-80 for speeding at about 11:30 a.m., according to the release.

Mason refused to get out of the car and gave the trooper a fake name. She also told the trooper that her license was suspended and she had a warrant for her arrest.

Mason then sped off and a pursuit began, with speeds reaching 100 mph.

Troopers used a tire deflator on Mason's car near mile marker 173, but the pursuit continued for 10 more miles. Mason was stopped and arrested a mile west of North Platte.

She had five active Lancaster County warrants, according to the release, and is lodged in the Lincoln County Jail.
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Four region teams look to advance tonight in football playoffs
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 13, 2017 | 10:17 PM | MAYFIELD, KY

A Graves County man was arrested Thursday after he reportedly tried to use counterfeit money at a local restaurant.

According to the Mayfield Police Department, an officer was dispatched to the Sonic Drive-In on Paris Road for a reported counterfeit fifty dollar bill being passed off to one of the employees there. Upon arriving on the scene, the officer made contact with the suspect, 24-year-old Thomas Clapp of Mayfield.

During the investigation, Clapp was found in possession of a second counterfeit fifty dollar bill that was identical to the one that was passed to the Sonic employee. Clapp was arrested and taken to the Graves County Jail on a charge of criminal possession of a forged instrument.
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It was set in olden times; it was set in modern times. That's the main conceit of Matthew Dunster's new stage adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities  but sadly, it fails to really become a potent tale for anyone's time. Dickens' story of how sacrifice and forgiveness eventually help break cycles of violence and vengeance, set during the French Revolution, becomes a long hard trudge here, not gaining much by being on stage  or by evoking present refugee camps and border control issues between France and England.

There's just so much plot. The whole review could be spent summarising Dickens' improbable but hugely satisfying plot. But the thing is, it's no longer satisfying onstage  it's hard to follow, and requires great lumps of leaden exposition and back story. Information is withheld then revealed, but Dunster's script  and Timothy Sheader's production  fail to make such revelations thrilling; more often, you just wonder if you're missing something.

While they have a laudably diverse cast, I did wonder if the decision to cast a black man and a white man with absolutely zero physical resemble as Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton was more point-making than helpful: the plot rests on the fact that no-one can tell them apart (twice!). Yes, it's a bold move and yes, suspend your disbelief, but in a show already struggling with narrative clarity, it felt obtuse rather than story-serving.

The script is starchy, neither fully aping Dickens nor committing to modern vernacular, and key performances are almost uniformly flat; there's a lot of physical gurning among grotesque aristos and baying mobs alike, but individuals don't get much characterisation.

Fly Davis' set of stacked shipping containers on a revolve is really clever, although experienced technical difficulties on press night  when it works, it allows a slick moving between scenes and locations, and helps set up modern resonances. In the beginning, most of the cast are in scuzzy sportswear; gradually, everyone moves to period garb, before returning to contemporary clothes for the final scenes. A chorus share a microphone to narrate events; Brechtian scene titles and  yawn  contemporary news footage flash on naff little electronic screens which sit oddly amongst the trees at the side of the stage.

It should all feel stylish and punchy, but somehow lacks conviction. Same goes for the stylised approach to showing the monstrous arrogance of French aristocrats: bursts of banging dance music, gold lame leggings and glitter scream excess, but they also scream enjoyable camp. Disco doesn't quite set the scene for the callous death of a small child. The tone is all off.

It's a shame, as the thinking behind it all makes sense: A Tale of Two Cities is an angry story of the one per cent screwing over the masses, and this modern version does newly-mint the novel's concerns with exiles fleeing violence, crossing borders. But even this goes skew-whiff at the end: returning to London from Paris, the Darnay family is split apart. This seems just wrong-headed  they have only escaped together because the character of Carton has made the ultimate sacrifice. If actually they're torn apart at the border, denied entry, was his redemption all in vain? It is a far, far more pointless thing  and a depressing ending to a woeful rewrite.

A Tale of Two Cities runs at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre until 5 August.
An Omaha dentist was among more than 400 people who are accused of taking part in health care fraud and opioid scams that totaled $1.3 billion in false billing.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday the collective action was the "largest health care fraud takedown operation in American history." He said it indicates that some doctors, nurses and pharmacists "have chosen to violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients."

In Nebraska, 58-year-old Gregory Garro Jr. was among those indicted for receiving reimbursement from Nebraska Medicaid for dental services he did not actually provide. The indictment alleges he received more than $82,000 for 129 claims over three years for service he didn't provide.

Among other charged are six Michigan doctors accused of a scheme to prescribe unnecessary opioids. A Florida rehab facility is alleged to have recruited addicts with gift cards and visits to strip clubs, leading to $58 million in false treatments and tests.

Officials said those charged in the schemes include more than 120 people involved in illegally prescribing and distributing narcotic painkillers. Such prescription opioids are behind the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in U.S. history. More than 52,000 Americans died of overdoses in 2015  a record  and experts believe the numbers have continued to rise.

"In some cases, we had addicts packed into standing-room-only waiting rooms waiting for these prescriptions," acting FBI director Andrew McCabe said. "They are a death sentence, plain and simple."

Nearly 300 health care providers are being suspended or banned from participating in federal health care programs, Sessions said.

"They seem oblivious to the disastrous consequences of their greed. Their actions not only enrich themselves, often at the expense of taxpayers, but also feed addictions and cause addictions to start," Sessions said.

Health care fraud sweeps such as Thursday's happen each year across the country, but law enforcement officials continue to grapple over the best way to fight the problem.

The people charged were illegally billing Medicare, Medicaid and the health insurance program that serves members of the armed forces, retired service members and their families, the Justice Department said. The allegations include claims that those charged billed the programs for unnecessary drugs that were never purchased or given to the patients.
OMAHA  Mayor Jean Stothert is forming a Native American advisory board, and local police officers will receive training on indigenous culture after a man died in police custody last month.

City officials and leaders in the indigenous community met June 28, more than three weeks after the death of unarmed Native American Zachary Bearheels, 29.

Police said Bearheels died after officers shocked him 12 times with a Taser, punched him and dragged him by his hair. Police alleged they were responding to a call at a convenience store for a disturbance involving a person who was refusing to leave the store.

According to his family, Bearheels had mental illnesses and was lost in Omaha after being kicked off a bus going from South Dakota to Oklahoma. Relatives said they think Bearheels stopped taking his medicine.

Lucas LaRose, a commissioner on the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, said the meeting was scheduled to discuss how Native Americans are treated in Omaha.

"There's this general belief that if you're a person of color in this city, a lot of times your opinion doesn't count," LaRose said. "Having them (city officials) take the time out of their day to really address this issue shows that they're serious. I was encouraged by the fact that they confessed to some errors."

In the past, Stothert has created similar boards focused on LGBTQ, veterans and millennial issues.

Police Chief Todd Schmaderer will organize training on Native American culture sensitivity. Rudi Mitchell, another commissioner on the state Indian Affairs Commission, has offered to train officers.

Mitchell said long hair is considered sacred for Native American men, so he and LaRose said it was troubling when they heard an officer used Bearheels' ponytail to drag him across a parking lot.

Schmaderer recommended the city fire Scotty Payne and Ryan McClarty, two of the officers involved in Bearheels' death. Officers Jennifer Strudl and Makyla Mead, who were at the scene before Payne and McClarty arrived, are on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.
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This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Royal Manitoba Theatre Centres anticipated production of the Tony-winning musical Come From Away has announced its Canadian-heavy cast well in advance of its opening early next year.

Written by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, the musical, still enjoying its Broadway run, is set in Gander, N.L., immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., when the town had to find a way to accomodate 6,579 passengers and crew from 38 diverted planes as North America suddenly became a no-fly zone.

The Broadway show was nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book for a Musical but won only one for director Christopher Ashley, who will be at the helm of the Canadian production from David Mirvish and Junkyard Dog Productions. Come From Away also won awards for most outstanding musical from the Drama Desk Awards and the Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Broadway-based organizations that hand out awards in the weeks prior to the Tonys.

MICHAEL ZORN / INVISION FILES The Broadway cast of Come From Away perform at the 71st Tony Awards in New York.

The musical also won four Helen Hayes awards for its run in Washington, D.C., including for oustanding musical and most outstanding ensemble for a musical.

The cast includes Lisa Horner as Gander resident Beulah Cooper, Eliza-Jane Scott as real-life retired pilot Beverley Bass and Kristen Peace as SPCA manager Bonnie Harris, charged with caring for the animals aboard the diverted planes.

George Masswohl is Gander Mayor Claude Elliott, and Barbara Fulton and James Kall will star as Diane and Nick, stranded passengers who fall in love over the course of the unscheduled three-day layover.

Boston-born film and theatre veteran Jack Noseworthy (Event Horizon, The Brady Bunch Movie) would be the sole American in the cast, except he is a part-time Toronto resident in his capacity as husband to Toronto-based choreographer Sergio Trujillo. Also, Noseworthys grandparents are originally from Newfoundland, according to a Mirvish representative.

During its run on Broadway, Come From Away became a setting of Canadian-U.S. diplomacy as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended a performance with Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, in March.

The shows four-week engagement at Royal MTC runs Jan. 4-Feb. 3, ahead of its Toronto showcase commencing Feb. 13.

randall.king@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @FreepKing

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Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 13/07/2017 (1948 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a day that began with elation for volunteers thrilled to work on Habitat for Humanity homes alongside a tireless former U.S. president.

But joy turned to concern mid-morning Thursday when 92-year-old Jimmy Carter slumped, suffering from dehydration.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter helps build steps for a home on Lyle Street. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)

Yet even as he was being whisked by ambulance to St. Boniface Hospital, the humanitarian and 39th U.S. president said that work on the 21-house building blitz should go on as planned.

After a smooth start, the troubling incident struck out of the blue. In his first visit to the construction site  the former Winnipeg Police Service St. James district station  Carter arrived to a standing ovation, delivered a lively devotion and then wasted no time picking up tools to work on one of the houses.

But after 90 minutes labouring in the sweltering sun, Carter went to sit down. As he sank into a chair, he appeared to wobble and look faint. Secret Service agents rushed to his side, taking hold of his arms to help keep him upright.

Carter leaned on the agents for support as he walked towards a private trailer. An ambulance arrived minutes later and paramedics attended to the ex-president. Staff blocked the medias view with plywood and vehicles.

Former President Jimmy Carter prepares to sit down and have a break after building steps for a home. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)

The ambulance left the site about 30 minutes later  its siren remained silent  followed by Carters motorcade.

In the end, word came down that it was nothing too serious. Carter simply became dehydrated, Habitat for Humanity International CEO Jonathan Reckford later told reporters, and had been taken away for observation.

He told us that he was OK, Reckford said. He encouraged everyone to stay hydrated and keep building.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter stayed by her husbands side in hospital. Their grandson, Jason Carter, later told the Washington Post the former president was doing fine.

Security rush in to help former U.S. president Jimmy Carter after he sat down to take a break. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)

When a former president is unwell, the world quickly takes notice. Within minutes, journalists from MSNBC, the Associated Press and other American outlets had picked up the story, igniting a flurry of chatter on social media.

On Twitter, a spokesman for George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara relayed their wishes for Carters speedy recovery. God bless him, and we hope he is fine, the other former first couple said in a statement.

Yet in the midst of the concern, the mood at the site remained stoic. There was no panic among staff and volunteers continued to build. Habitat officials calmly held a late-morning press conference in place of the Carters.

Reporters, however, had no questions prepared to direct to the Habitat executives.

Oh, I understand, Reckford said with a laugh, adding that he, too, would be more interested in the ex-president.

I dont take it personally.

Security personnel carry former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)

Carter, who served in the White House from 1977-81, had originally planned to work on the house all afternoon. The schedule also called for him to cap the day by greeting cyclists returning from the Cycle of Hope charity ride.

For a while, reporters lingered in the media tent, unsure if the Carters would return.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter helps build steps for a home. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)

If it was up to him, Id say he will, one Carter Work Project staffer said, with a smile. Knowing him.

Its a comment that speaks to something essential: less than two years after a successful battle with cancer, and at an age where anyone would be forgiven for a short photo-op visit, Carter  perhaps stubbornly  makes the effort to do more.

One of the protocols of the Carter Work Project builds is that when the couple joins a Habitat crew, they must be given meaningful work. What that means has been adapted over the years, but their presence is never simply for show.

Thats real critical, said LeRoy Troyer, a close friend of the Carters who has worked on their builds for 32 years. Hes very focused on the productivity and the work. He doesnt want people to just stand around and take pictures.

So as news of the incident spread through Twitter, Carter admirers from across North America fretted over his health, noting his tenacity. This man is working too hard! one woman wrote. Please, someone, tell him to take it easy!

House construction on Lyle Street in Winnipeg for the Habitat for Humanitys 34th Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)

When the Carters arrived at the Lyle Street site just before 8 a.m., they were warmly greeted with a standing ovation by more than 500 volunteers.

After stepping out of a van, the first thing Carter did was rush to the other side to reach for his wifes hand. The couple, who met through Carters sister Ruth, celebrated their 71st wedding anniversary last week.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter leaves St. Boniface Hospital and gets into a secret service van Thursday afternoon. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)

I just wanted to say how pleased we are to be here, the 89-year-old former first lady told the excited crowd. Somebody just asked us if we could see the change in Winnipeg from the time we were here before (a Habitat build in 1993), but we dont remember!

She paused for a moment, and laughed. It was a long time ago.

The former president opened the morning devotion by offering a greeting from Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., where he still teaches a Bible class most weekends.

We have about 30 members at Maranatha, and we have about 250 to 850 visitors come to hear a politician teach the Bible, Carter said, and added a wink. Youre all welcome to come. Not the same Sunday, but you can come.

For the next 14 minutes, Carter offered a glowing testament to his deep Christian faith. He also poked gentle fun at his own storied life, joking that he couldnt hold a regular job after he left the navy and took up peanut farming.

Discovering Habitat for Humanity in 1984 gave me the best opportunity I had to break down the barriers between people like myself, that had everything I ever wanted, and people in need of a decent home. Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter

I was president of the United States, as some of you may remember, he quipped. When I was president, I dealt with big things. I had about three million people working for me and I dealt with general things like human rights.

And I tried to put into practice some of the moral and ethical principles of my life but I was kind of isolated, so I didnt have a chance to get directly (in contact) with people who were in need.

Discovering Habitat for Humanity in 1984, he continued, gave me the best opportunity I had to break down the barriers between people like myself, that had everything I ever wanted, and people in need of a decent home.

Minutes after finishing the devotion, the Carters went to work. They joined the crew at the house that will become home to Todd Gauthier and his daughters, nine-year-old Chloie and seven-year-old Carmin.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter receives a standing ovation when he and his wife Rosalynn arrive for devotions and to start work Thursday morning. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)

Under the watchful eye of stern-looking Secret Service agents, Gauthier and the rest of the houses volunteers gathered for a brief chat with the Carters before picking up their hammers and getting back to the task at hand.

He just introduced himself and said he wants to get going on the work and get it done, Gauthier said as the Carters sawed boards for his future homes front steps.

It was just straightforward, wanting to get the project going and complete it. It was pretty cool.

The Carters began the week in Edmonton, where 70 homes are rising as part of Habitats Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 13/07/2017 (1948 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A local real estate developer has begun removing trees at the Parker wetlands, a 42-acre ecosystem in Fort Garry.

Members of this community have been fighting to preserve this wetland for seven years, so today is a devastating day for them, said Fort Garry-Riverview MLA James Allum, a longtime supporter of the wetlands who came to see what was happening with his own eyes Thursday afternoon.

The deforestation had begun in the area of the wetlands behind the Winnipeg Humane Society headquarters on Hurst Way.

BEN WALDMAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Parker wetlands, a 42-acre ecosystem in Fort Garry, as seen on Thursday.

I would invite the mayor and City Council to come down here and have a look at just whats happening because this is a tragedy.

Gem Equities Inc., the development company, acquired the wetlands property in a controversial land swap with the City of Winnipeg in 2009. In June, Gems Andrew Marquess told the Free Press that there were no plans to remove any trees on the wetlands until the company had an agreement with the City on potential locations of naturalized greenspace that are to be protected.

In an email Thursday, Marquess clarified that though development would not begin until the city approved the development plan, tree clearing would occur in selected areas.

A private land owner can clear trees, Marquess wrote, adding the land is currently zoned as industrial. A tree protection plan was sent to the city showing the areas of trees to remain until the final greenspace location has been chosen regarding the future redevelopment plans.

In June, a spokesman for the provinces department of sustainable development said no permissions were required from that office for bulldozing, assuring that Gem does own the property outright as Marquess said.

But while the deforestation is within Gems legal rights, Allum said that still doesnt excuse the tree removal.

The owner may be within his legal right, but he certainly didnt have social license to proceed with this demolition today, Allum said. He certainly shouldve waited until council had approved his secondary plan and made sure that there was responsible public consultation going forward on this valued site that seemingly is no longer going to exist.

Allum was joined by two representatives of the Parker wetlands conservation committee at the site around 4 p.m. Thursday, when a site worker patiently asked them to leave the property.

The representatives from the conservation committee estimated that between one quarter and one third of the trees on the wetlands had been either removed or impacted. When asked if that was an accurate estimate, Marquess said he didnt know exactly the area of trees removed.

Clearing trees is not beginning development of the site, Marquess also wrote.

As Allum and the committee members left the site to go back to their cars in the Humane Society parking lot, a lone piece of machinery was still at work.

Allum looked outward at what was now essentially a field, where a single tree remained standing.

Its just a tragedy, he said.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 13/07/2017 (1948 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba health professionals who work with patients undergoing hip and knee replacements are worried about the pending removal of outpatient hospital physiotherapy services.

They say the savings  estimated at $3.5 million for the entire system  may be squandered through higher hospital readmission rates and a failure to identify post-operation complications soon enough.

Patients undergoing knee operations must perform exercises to improve their mobility and strengthen their quad muscles. Many patients attend knee classes at hospitals to aid them with their exercise program. These hospital outpatient services are currently offered free of charge.

Phil Hossack / Winnipeg Free Press Files A knee replacement implant gleams under the surgical lights at Concordia Hospital.

Our knee patients have to keep going (exercising). Otherwise, we put in the joints for nothing, said one Winnipeg hospital nurse who asked not to be identified.

Joint replacements are carried out at Concordia and Grace hospitals. Manitoba has had some of the longest waits for joint replacement in Canada.

Bob Moroz, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, which represents many of the physiotherapists working in hospitals, said his members are reluctant to speak on the record.

At Concordia, he said, all patients who are to receive a hip or knee replacement are seen by a hospital physiotherapist in advance of surgery to determine a baseline for care.

The knee classes that are held after surgery are done in a group setting and are carried out in an efficient manner, Moroz said. As many as 10 or 12 patients are put through their paces at the same time by one physiotherapist and one rehab assistant.

Concordia runs about a dozen knee classes a week. Patients attend twice a week for four to eight weeks.

The physiotherapy protocols are developed in conjunction with the surgeons and other health professionals, Moroz said. So the surgeons know exactly what theyre going to get with inhouse physiotherapy.

The exercise regime is less complicated for hip-replacement patients, as walking is the best thing they can do to aid in their recovery.

Officials say physiotherapists are able to detect infections and other surgical complications that might require readmission. The sooner these problems are caught the better.

Normally, physiotherapists will see a knee-replacement patient two weeks after surgery; the surgeon wont see them for six to eight weeks after the procedure.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has said it plans to end its adult outpatient hospital physiotherapy and occupational therapy services by mid-October as part of its mandate from the Progressive Conservative government to find $83 million in savings this budget year.

The hospital nurse the Free Press spoke with Thursday expressed concern patients may not be willing or able to pay to receive post-op physiotherapy at a private clinic. Many lack secondary health insurance, she said.

I find that there are a great number of patients who cant afford things that they need for knee-replacement surgery at the best of times, she said, including an anticoagulant used to prevent blood clots.

What Im afraid of is that there is a whole population that dont have Blue Cross (insurance), that arent going to be able to afford to continue with their knee classes or seeing a physiotherapist. So there is potential for people to be neglected.

Sarah Eisbrenner, president of the Manitoba Physiotherapy Association, said if patients arent able to receive adequate post-operation physiotherapy, they could wind in at a hospital emergency room.

She said her members are concerned about the impact on patient care of the decision to cease most hospital outpatient physiotherapy and occupational therapy services.

(There are exceptions. Folks who need special rehab services and those whose incomes fall below a yet-to-be-established threshold will continue to receive free service at Health Sciences Centre. A special rehab program at Misericordia Health Centre will also be maintained.)

It evokes a lot of emotions and frustration and uncertainty and confusion and questions, Eisbrenner said Thursday.

We want to make sure that the patients are going to access the services that they need, get the care that they need, in order to maximize quality of life.

A WRHA spokeswoman said late Thursday the health regions surgery and physiotherapy programs are working together to ensure that appropriate discharge information continues to be provided to patients whove recently received surgery.

Patients receiving hip and knee surgery are first seen in a preoperative clinic where they are assessed by a variety of health professionals including physiotherapists, Bronwyn Penner Holigroski said in an email. During a patients stay in hospital, after surgery, their care is provided by a team that includes a physiotherapist. The physiotherapist will provide specific exercises and demonstrations (for) patients before they are discharged.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba judge has dismissed a last-minute request to have an unprecedented case tossed out of court because of delay.

Two hours before a Winnipeg mother was set to be sentenced for hiding the remains of dead babies in a storage unit, the trial judge was considering the defence teams request to drop the case because of unreasonable delay.

Andrea Giesbrecht, 43, has been convicted on six counts of concealing a childs body after U-Haul staff discovered decayed and mummified human remains in October 2014. The Crown is seeking an 11-year sentence; the defence argued Giesbrecht, who was behind bars 168 days before being granted bail, should not spend any more time in jail.

Provincial court Judge Murray Thompson sentenced Giesbrecht Friday afternoon, a date arranged three months ago. But he first had to decide whether the case should be tossed out altogether because of delays in getting it to court. Ultimately, the judge agreed with the Crown that the defence request should be dismissed.

Raising the spectre of a motion for unreasonable delay (at the sentencing hearing), when a conviction was entered months ago, sentencing dates have been set for months, and distracting a judge writing an important and detailed decision is unacceptable, Thompson said in his decision.

Public confidence in the justice system is enhanced when important legal issues are decided in a timely way and in accordance with rules set out by the law. Ironically, this is a motion for delay that has been delayed and asks for further delay, he said.

The defence filed the motion arguing that her Charter rights have been violated because of unreasonable delay at 4:30 p.m. July 11. Manitoba courts rules for lawyers require constitutional challenges to be filed with at least 30 days notice.

But lawyer Greg Brodsky argued Giesbrechts Charter rights should not take a backseat to the timelines for filing legal motions.

Brodsky told Thompson Friday morning his client is nervous about spending time away from her two children.

She wants every argument thats available to her to be made to the court, he said.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Andrea Giesbrecht, 42, leaves court in 2016 after she appeared on six charges of concealing a child's body.

The judge questioned why the motion was filed at the last minute, and Brodsky said it was because he needed to see recent court decisions, referencing the Supreme Courts Cody decision, which was released June 16, as well as a June 29 Manitoba Court of Appeal decision in the Schenkels case.

Neither decision changed the law regarding unreasonable court delays. Both uphold the Supreme Courts July 2016 Jordan decision, which directed provincial court trials to be completed within 18 months from the date charges are laid. Superior court trials  Court of Queens Bench in Manitoba  must be completed within 30 months, the high court ruled.

In Schenkels case, the Appeal Court said defence delay motions should be filed by the time trial dates are set, rather than at the last minute.

Giesbrecht was charged in October 2014 and the trial stretched on until Oct. 5, 2016, even though the defence decided to skip a preliminary inquiry in the case. The defence argues theres been a delay of more than 30 months. The Crown says the time from arrest to trial amounts to 23 1/2 months and argues the actual delay in the case is only two months past the Supreme Courts deadline, which wasnt imposed until the case was already before the court.

The Crown has asked Thompson to dismiss the defence request, particularly without a reasonable explanation as to why it was made so late. Its not in the best interest of the justice system to allow this case to be tossed out due to unreasonable delay, the Crown argued.

Surveillance footage of Andrea Giesbrecht from the McPhillips Street U-Haul in Winnipeg on October 3, 2014. The footage was supplied as evidence in the trial.

Brodsky said if the Crown needs more time to consider his request, hed be happy to accommodate, suggesting the judge put the sentencing decision on hold.

I dont want to spring something on the Crown, he said.

It seems like thats exactly whats happening, Thompson replied, noting Brodskys objection to delay in the case flies in the face of his willingness to further delay the matter.

The case has been described as the worst case of concealing infants remains in Canadian law because of the number of fetuses involved. The decomposed bodies of five boys and one girl were discovered within plastic totes and pails in the McPhillips Street storage unit after Giesbrecht failed to pay her rental fee. Some were encased in a concrete-like substance, bagged up and stored along with miscellaneous items, including childrens toys.

All of the fetuses were found to be between 34 and 42 weeks gestation. The remains were too badly decomposed for investigators to figure out how they died, but medical experts testified during the trial that they were likely born alive. The chance of all six babies being stillborn was one in 500 trillion, court was told.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay

TREVOR HAGAN/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Files U-Haul self-storage lockers at Elgin Avenue and McPhillips Street, where, human remains were discovered inside a 'delinquent unit.'
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 13/07/2017 (1948 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Giving back to the city they now call home has earned four recent high school graduates $1,000 scholarships from the mayor.

Any high school graduate who is a community leader is eligible for the mayors award. Five were awarded scholarships Thursday, but only four of them were able to meet with the mayor.

The more you get involved in Winnipeg, the more you love it, said Mirianna Pozdirca, who came to Canada from Moldova when she was four. Pozdirca remembers crying when she first got to Canada because she didnt want to leave her hometown. She cried again during her 2013 visit to Moldova, one of the poorest countries in Europe, because she missed Canada.

STEFANIE LASUIK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS This year's Mayor's Community Leadership award-winners dedicated countless hours to their communities, and were recognized with a ceremony Thursday. From left to right: Kidega Sabil, Mirha Zohair, Mayor Brian Bowman, Juanita Garcia, and Marianna Pozdirca. Missing: Nathan Dueck.

Pozdirca started Friends Around the World Club, which helps Canadians and newcomers bond. She was also the co-chair of Miles Macdonell Collegiates youth philanthropy program, and led a paper-reduction initiative in River East Transcona School Division. Shes going to University of Manitoba in the fall and hopes to become a pharmacist.

I really think its a responsibility to use any talents weve been given to give back to our community, to give back to the people, because there are so many who have come before us who have made this city better who have made it into something we can be proud of, she said.

For Juanita Garcia, it was a matter of giving back to a place that gave her the security she didnt have in Colombia.

I feel like Ive received so much from my community that its important for me to share all my gifts with the community, she said.

Garcia moved to Canada two years ago. Since then, shes volunteered with special-needs children, helped at Meet Me at the Bell Tower, guided people at Folklorama and distributed food hampers. She also organized Way of the Cross, a Catholic event that commemorates Jesus carrying of the cross before the crucifixion. She will go to University of Manitoba and take medicine.

Mirha Zohair, a fellow recipient, will join her in medicine or get a law degree. She hasnt decided yet, but knows she feels its her duty to help people. She routinely visits Pakistan, where she was born, and gets a glimpse into the life she couldve lived.

Being in Winnipeg, having moved to Canada, Ive been given so many opportunities that others arent given, its more like a responsibility that I have to give back, she said.

Kidega Sabil, who lived in Uganda and Kenya before coming to Winnipeg, says community improvement is more than an individual effort.

Throughout my travels, Ive realized that the whole world isnt exactly what it seems and unless people work together and actually manage to give back to each other, were not going to make it any better, he said.

Sabil volunteers with Living Bible Explorers, Siloam Mission and Turtle Island Community Centre. Hes a member of the Winnipeg School Division student advisory committee and theatre with community action troup, which puts on plays about youth issues.

Nathan Dueck, who wasnt able to attend Thursdays ceremony, served as the co-president of Westgate Mennonite Collegiates senior council and gay-straight alliance, organized a fundraiser for Syrian refugees, volunteered as a camp instructor and life guard, and was a member of the Millennium Library youth advisory council. Hes attending Canadian Mennonite University in the fall in hopes of going to law school.

Mayor Brian Bowman called their resumes mind-boggling and said such young people are the reason he believes Winnipegs best days are ahead.

Theyre going to do an even better job than our generation at leading this city to new heights, he said.

stefanie.lasuik@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister believes a small-business coalition opposed to any form of carbon tax is misguided.

This campaign tells Manitobans we should do nothing, Pallister told reporters Friday. The campaign launched (Thursday) is misguided.

The coalition, which unveiled a campaign Thursday targeting rural Tory MLAs, includes organizations usually among Pallisters most vocal cheerleaders, such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Organizations representing Manitoba businesses and residents held a new conference in Winnipeg Thursday to announce the formation of a coalition to fight carbon taxes in the province.

We shouldnt misconstrue that carbon tax is the only way to deal with climate change, Pallister told a news conference outlining issues hell raise at next weeks premiers conference in Edmonton.

There isnt an option to do nothing.

The premier continued to insist the province will devise a made-in-Manitoba solution that will take into account how much it has already achieved in cutting emissions and providing clean energy. If Manitoba does nothing, he said, We will have a made-in-Ottawa plan, well have a Trudeau carbon tax.

Ottawa has proposed a carbon tax of $10 for every tonne of emissions, climbing to $50 per tonne by 2022. The tax would begin next year.

We dont agree with the boil-a-frog plan, said Pallister, comparing Ottawas plan to slowly increasing the temperature in a boiling pot.

No one likes to pay any form of tax, he acknowledged. In a message for those such as the coalition who complain about the cost of fighting climate change, Pallister said: Well, darn, its too hard on me right now  sorry.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A woman who was found unconscious in the roadway on Main Street early Friday morning is in critical condition in hospital.

Const. Tammy Skrabek said police were called at about 1:30 a.m. about the injured woman lying in the street near Polson Avenue in the Luxton neighbourhood.

Skrabek said the woman has not yet been identified.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg police have the southbound lanes on Main Street at Polson Avenue closed to traffic Friday morning after an unconscious woman was found there overnight.

The southbound lanes of Main Street in that area are closed for the police investigation and are expected to remain closed through the morning.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 13/07/2017 (1948 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

She died of hypothermia walking through farm fields on foot  quietly determined to enter Canada to visit her daughter in Toronto, and meet her new grandbaby, Rebecca.

A month after the Ghanaian womans body was found on May 26 in a ditch just south of the Canadian border, Mavis Otuteyes remains were quietly buried in Hallock, Minn.

Her husband from Ghana and her daughter, Peace Lani Otuteye from Toronto, were at the June 28 graveside service, said Maggie Yeboah, president of the Ghanaian Union of Manitoba.

FACEBOOK Mavis Otuteye died of hypothermia trying to enter Canada on foot.

The last time I spoke to (Peace) was when they were on their way to Minnesota to go bury her mom, said Yeboah. The grieving daughter flew to Winnipeg, then drove to her moms burial in the United States, she said.

Her dad got his visa to go to the funeral, said Yeboah.

Mavis married Dick Otuteye in 1990 in Ghana, where he resided, according to her obituary in the Kittson County Register. It said she was 46 years old, not 57 as U.S. authorities reported.

It said she was from the greater Accra area in Ghana and studied dressmaking and fashion at trade school.

Mavis Otuteye lived in Delaware and Silver Springs, Md., and worked distributing health supplements and designing and sewing custom clothing for customers in Ghana, the obituary said.

She travelled to and from the U.S. with her fashion and design business, it said.

Otuteye was living in the U.S. for more than a decade, but it was not her official home, according to authorities. She was trying to enter Canada undetected because her temporary visa had expired in 2006, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have said.

After she was reported missing in May, U.S. Border Patrol officers searched the area in northwestern Minnesota between Noyes and St. Vincent. They found her body west of Highway 75 and less than a kilometre south of the Canadian border.

Her death was investigated by the Kittson County Sheriff in Hallock, Minn.

The final autopsy report is complete with the cause of death  hypothermia, said Chief Deputy Matthew Vig in Hallock.

Members of the Ghanaian community had expressed concern that the middle-aged woman with a bad back would knowingly and willingly agree to walk such a distance over uneven terrain. They wondered if the driver who left her to walk more than a kilometre through ditches, coulees and farm fields to Canada might have been partly responsible for her death.

The case is still open for investigation, however the Kittson County Prosecutors present opinion is that there are no criminal charges under the provisions of Minnesota law that would be applicable to Otuteyes death, Vig said.

Plans for a memorial service for Otuteyes friends and family in Maryland are in the works, said Winnipegs Yeboah.

Family members in the U.S. and Canada had initially hoped to raise enough money to have her body flown back to Ghana for burial, but the cost was prohibitive. Then they planned to raise money to have her remains buried in Maryland, which was too costly, as well.

In the end, Otuteye was laid to rest at Union Liberty Cemetery in Hallock  31 kilometres south of where she died trying to get to the Canadian border.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobas small-woodlot owners say they should be excluded from the softwood lumber tariff from the United States because they operate on private land.

The provinces 14,000 woodlot owners say they are caught in the crossfire of the trade dispute between Canada and the U.S., even though they grow and cultivate trees for sale on private lots as small as 40 acres in size.

Its an important revenue stream for some people, even if its not their primary source of income, said Bob Austman, a director of the Woodlot Association of Manitoba.

SUPPLIED Bob Austman believes private woodlot owners should be excluded from a new softwood lumber agreement between Canada and the United States.

A lot of rural people depend on a woodlot for secondary income.

Yet, they are being hurt by the 27 per cent American tariff levied in April that targets large Canadian logging companies that harvest on Crown land.

The United States claims it is an unfair trade advantage, despite the fact Canadian loggers pay stumpage fees.

However, woodlot owners operate on private land, similar to giant American companies. Manitoba woodlot operators individually will own anywhere from 40 to 320 acres of forest, Austman said. They take the mature stuff off and let the forest regrow.

The dominant wood they sell into Ontario and Minnesota mills is poplar. The big mills chew up our poplar for oriented strand board, he said.

But the 27 per cent U.S. tariff on Canadian softwood lumber, with threat of an additional 11 per cent coming, shuts down that income stream, Austman said.

The Woodlot Association of Manitoba joined forces Thursday with the Canadian Federation of Woodlot Owners, calling on Ottawa to seek exemptions in its negotiations with the U.S.

Private woodlot owners make up 15 per cent of wood sales to the U.S., the federation said in a teleconference call.

The federation has a seat on a federal trade panel involved in softwood tariff discussions.

Weve been working with the federal government since the trade dispute with the Americans started, seeking its support for an exemption on private forests, said president Peter deMarsh.

Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, where industrial-scale harvesting is performed on private land, have been exempted from U.S. tariffs in the past. Border mills in Quebec that buy much of their timber from the U.S., have also been exempted.

A system that traces the origins of logs, whether from private or public land, is feasible as tracing is already done for environmental protection, the federation said.

The U.S. has arbitrarily launched a softwood lumber tariff several times before, only to have it overturned by an international trade tribunal.

U.S. President Donald Trump wasted little time after assuming power this year in slapping the tariff down again. It will stay in place until another international trade court ruling.

The last softwood lumber tariff was removed in 2015, which resulted in heavy selling into the U.S. by woodlot owners.

There are nearly a half-million private woodlot owners in Canada, the federation said.

There is value to having a wooded property, Austman said.

It helps to keep the soil intact. Recreation is a big deal, too. A lot of folks have hunting camps they lease out. Most firewood also comes from private woodlots.

The woodlot operators also provide spinoff business for local truckers.

It does have an impact on the rural economy, Austman said.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
Fox News host Sean Hannity told Donald Trump Jr. Tuesday night that he had run out of questions about the president's son and a Russian government effort to help his father win the election.

"I wanted to ask every question I could think of regarding this issue," Hannity confided. "I can't think of any more in all honesty."

I can.

What about: Mr. Trump, you received an email that explicitly described a Russian government effort to help elect your father? Do you consider Russia to be an adversary of the United States? If not, why not? If so, why did that not set off alarm bells? You say, "People are trying to reach out to you all the time with this"? Are any of these people from foreign governments? In retrospect, do you believe this meeting to have been appropriate or not?

Mr. Trump, you said, you received the email "pre-Russia mania ... I don't even think my sirens went up." But the email described the information as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." Is that effort something about which you had previous knowledge?

Just to be clear, did the email trail you shared with your brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, and your father's then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, include the reference to the Russian government's effort to help the Trump campaign? Were they aware of the identity of the Russian lawyer and her alleged government connection, before, during or after the meeting? Please describe any in-person, email or other discussions you had with them, before or after the meeting, about the meeting or any other Russian involvement with the campaign.

Please describe the conversation at the meeting in more detail. What incriminating information did the lawyer suggest there might be about Hillary Clinton or the Democrats? Did she ask that your father, if he became president, lift sanctions on Russia?

Mr. Trump, asked by Hannity whether you met with other Russians during the course of the campaign, you left the door pretty wide open: "I've probably met with other people from Russia, certainly not in the context of an actual, a formalized meeting or anything like that." What other meetings with Russians, whether formal or incidental encounters, do you recall during the course of the campaign?

Speaking of recalling, as you said, the meeting took place before the story about Russian involvement with the campaign exploded. After those reports came out, did you mention this encounter to anyone from the campaign? Did you not think it might be relevant?

Indeed, in a July 2016 interview with CNN, you called suggestions that Russians were behind the hacking of DNC emails "disgusting" and "phony," adding, "I can't think of bigger lies, but that exactly goes to show you what the DNC and what the Clinton camp will do. They will lie and do anything to win." Had you forgotten about the meeting you attended a month earlier? If not, what is your explanation?

Similarly, in an interview with The New York Times in March, you said, "None that were set up. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form.'' Asked whether you had ever discussed government policies related to Russia, you said, "A hundred percent no.''

Given the fact of this meeting and that it was attended by two other senior campaign officials, how do you justify that statement?

You said that you did not mention the meeting to your father at the time because, "It was such a nothing, there was nothing to tell." Please describe how and when you did inform your father of the meeting or, if you did not do so directly, how he was informed. Please describe any conversations you have had with your father, his attorneys or White House officials about the meeting.

Mr. Trump, you said that you released the emails because "I wanted to get it all out there" and you accused critics of "trying to drag out the story. ... They want to drip a little bit today, drip a little bit then."

But you have provided shifting accounts of the meeting, first describing it as being "primarily" about the adoption program. Only when confronted did you acknowledge that it concerned possible dirt on Hillary Clinton. You released the emails only after being informed that The New York Times was about to do so.

Who, exactly, is trying to drag out the story? Does this constitute transparency, in your view?
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In March, Premier Brian Pallister claimed that for every one per cent the province lowered (or didnt raise) wages for 120,000 provincial public-sector workers, it would save $100 million.

This simple calculation provides grist for Bill 28, the Public Services Sustainability Act, which mandates all those who employ provincial public-sector workers to hold future increases to zero per cent for the first two years of a new contract, no more than 0.75 per cent for the third, and no more than one per cent for the fourth.

But will the province save $100 million? Not really. If we dig deeper, we see why.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Brian Pallister has stated that Bill 28 will save the province more than $100 million.

If we lump together all the 123,000 public servants (which includes not only those civil servants actually employed by the province but also all workers employed by health-care authorities, education and Crown corporations), the total bill for their wages and benefits is $9.6 billion, so a one per cent cut would save $96 million.

But the premier failed to account for the money the government would tax back from this income, which, using information from the Manitoba Bureau of Statistics, is at a rate of 16 per cent. So the reduction in taxes from the public-sector wage freeze would be $15.4 million, reducing the net saving to $80.6 million.

Even that number is an overestimate, because the wage freeze will reduce demand in the province and lower other Manitobans incomes. Using multipliers obtained from the bureau, we calculate that overall labour income decreases by $1.20 with a $1.00 initial change in demand, so labour income in the province will fall by an additional $19 million for a total of $115 million ($96 million plus $19 million). The loss of $19 million will reduce tax revenue another $3 million, for a total reduction in tax revenue of $18.4 million. That reduces the $96 million saving to the province to $77.6 million. But we also have to remember that the total $115 million hit to labour income will negatively affect the provinces GDP.

Even that smaller $77.6-million saving is questionable because not all these employees work directly for the province. Universities and school boards cut the cheques for workers in education. Health-care professionals are paid by regional health authorities and agencies.

In fact, the province only directly employs around 14,000 civil servants and pays a bill for wages and benefits of $1.1 billion. A one per cent decrease in their wages would save the province $11 million. Subtracting the tax lost, just from the civil servants wage freeze, brings that down by $1.8 million to $9.2 million. When the declines in civil servants salaries trickle down through the incomes of the people that they purchase from, the province-wide reduction in tax is $2.1 million, for an overall saving of $8.9 million. So, the direct savings to the provincial budget from Bill 28 are less than $9 million, less than one-tenth of the $100-million figure.

The provincial government might argue that although it does not directly employ public servants outside the civil service, the legislated wage freeze does save public-sector institutions money, which makes it possible to reduce their provincial grants. But it is the amount of the grants that directly impacts the provincial budget, not the wages of those who work for publicly funded institutions.

Bill 28 is an unnecessary intrusion into the governance of public institutions. The University of Manitoba, for example, claimed that the provinces interference in its collective bargaining process was unwanted, and only followed it under threat. The province should have established a grant level for the university and let the university and its union follow the regular collective bargaining process to see how to allocate the university budget between salaries and other demands on the university budget. This less heavy-handed approach would also avoid a costly and contentious legal battle.

A recent press release from the Manitoba Federation of Labour officially launched that challenge. At issue is whether any province can dictate to institutions that employ public-sector workers how much they can and cannot pay their employees. Other provinces have passed such legislation (B.C. and Saskatchewan) only to have it struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada. The SCC found that the Charter protected unionized workers right to engage in collective bargaining with respect to collective agreements.

Given that the SCC has upheld unionized workers right to collectively bargain, the only way the province can ultimately try to affect wages is by reducing how much money it transfers to institutions. It can better control the wages of those who work directly for the province, but even then the SCC would stipulate that the government, as the employer, has to bargain in good faith with its employees when collective agreements expire.

Manitoba now faces an expensive legal challenge that could take years to move through the courts and will further lower the value of any savings. The government knew the challenge was inevitable, but no doubt takes comfort in knowing it will at least be able to defraud workers of their rights as the legal procedures play out.

Premier Pallister claims he is an old union guy and understands workers concerns. But his governments bad-faith tactics and sloppy fiscal calculations would indicate that he is not an honest broker in his dealings with public-sector workers  and with Manitobans in general.

Lynne Fernandez holds the Errol Black Chair in Labour Issues at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives MB and Ian Hudson is professor of economics at the University of Manitoba.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Theres been a great deal written about Omar Khadr in the past few days and Im not going to pen yet another column on the subject. What is so revealing, however, is the response to the governments apology and payment from the Conservative party and its followers.

Frankly, Khadr has become a poster boy for right and left and no political wing comes out of this particularly well. I happen to believe that he was a victim, that we acted incorrectly and that contrition and reparation were due. Stephen Harpers intransigence was a major cause of the problem but former Liberal governments are also culpable.

Yet Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer immediately called the action disgusting and a secret deal  the latter, of course, playing to the rightist notion that hidden elites plan and plot behind our backs. He also said, This payout is a slap in the face to men and women in uniform who face incredible danger every day to keep us safe, when it has nothing whatsoever to do with our military and, if anything, in confirming the rule of law and human rights goes to the very heart of what our soldiers fight to maintain.

JUSTIN TANG / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Conservative party Leader Andrew Scheer has spoken out against the government settlement to Omar Khadr.

The increasingly hysterical Michelle Rempel, when not blocking people on Twitter, described Khadr as a convicted terrorist, when she must surely know that he was offered a transfer out of the hellish Guantanamo Bay only if he confessed to terrorism. He was a child soldier when the event happened, and still a young man in prison.

But this was nothing compared to the responses from conservatives on social media and in the press, who indulged in what I like to refer to as Omar Khadr derangement syndrome. Suddenly it was claimed that anybody who thought the man was poorly treated supported terrorism, that the whole thing was a liberal plot, that Harper would never have been so soft, that immigration is a threat, that terrorism is everywhere, that Muslims are bad and so on.

Which leads to the greater question of when did Canadian conservatism become this harsh, thoughtless, extreme and  well  American?

We certainly saw a glimpse of it at the federal Conservative partys leadership contest, when hard-line social conservatives attracted more than 15 per cent of the vote. Their candidates were strictly opposed to abortion and equal marriage and represented a strain of fundamentalism that most of us thought was long gone. The very fact of the victory of Scheer was a shock. A perennial smile should not obscure the fact that the new Tory leader is on the right of his party, and makes someone like Brian Mulroney look like a screaming lefty.

Throw into this heated stew the success of the painful and nasty Rebel Media platform under Ezra Levant, repugnant comments made by Tory MP and leadership candidate Kellie Leitch, and the number of Conservatives who look to Donald Trump as an example and inspiration, and the menu is complete. This, as it were, is not your parents Tory party.

There was, until two or three decades ago, something quintessentially Canadian about the federal Progressive Conservative Party and the greater conservative movement. It generally stood at the right-of-centre side of the Canadian political purview, part of a civilized discourse that was perhaps limited but always reasonable and informed. Not today. Rumour becomes fact, accusation replaces argument and venomous character attacks  especially of Justin Trudeau  are standard.

Ironically, while the Canadian version of Toryism has moved to the right and increasingly resembles the Republicans in the U.S., the European conservative parties have emulated the Canadian version. On climate change, one of the most profound issues of modern politics, Canadas right stands almost alone with the U.S. right while its European equivalents boast of their green credentials. On LGBTTQ* equality, Britains former Tory prime minister David Cameron made the cause a central plank for his party, while our Conservative leader is a right-wing Roman Catholic who is opposed to same-sex marriage. Germanys conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel is committed to welcoming refugees; our new-look Tory party is peppered with anti-immigrant sentiment.

The indications are that this will become worse and not better, and thats a shame  not just for Canadian conservatism, but also for Canadian politics in general. I like to think that the people of this country are too sensible to fall for it. Good Lord, I hope Im right.

Author and broadcaster Michael Corens latest book is Epiphany: A Christians Change of Heart and Mind over Same-Sex Marriage.
The Winona YMCA has announced new partners as they continue moving forward with plans for a new east end location.

Derek Madsen, YMCA CEO, said Friday that in addition to the previously planned partnership with Winona Health, they will also have offices of the American Red Cross and Live Well Winona in the new facility.

Madsen said they have been negotiating while simultaneously developing the facilities plans, so they were able to easily incorporate the organizations into the building.

The specifics of the facility building plans are expected to be announced publicly in late-July or August.

Madsen said the organizations were able to form a bond, particularly on the commitment to health and wellness as well as organizing in the community.

Theres a lot of mission alignment, Madsen said. Theres a common theme of engaging with volunteers.

All partners also have financial arrangements and ties to the building project.

Prior to the announcement they had an arrangement with Winona Health to house their physical therapy facilities, which will continue.

In a statement the leaders of the partnering organizations said they thought all parties would benefit from the proximity to each other.

Janneke Sobeck, community wellness director for Live Well Winona, said partnerships are crucial to being a community health hub that promotes and facilitates health and wellness initiatives.

This collaboration will help all the partners leverage our respective strengths, expertise and resources to enhance the quality of life in our community, Sobeck said in the statement.

Live Well Winona, a local nonprofit, was founded in 2011 to engage the community in a culture of wellness that results in longer, better, healthier lives.

Similarly, the American Red Cross, serving southeast Minnesota, said the move will be beneficial to local Red Cross volunteers and also aligns with the organizations plan to allocate more resources to programs.

Melanie Tschida, executive director for the local American Red Cross, said in a statement that the organization had recently done a needs assessment and determined that they were in the right communities but could improve upon their building, which is currently on Kraemer Drive.

Sharing space within the Y allows us to work more efficiently and share responsibilities so we can maximize the use of donor dollars to serve more people, Tschida said. What we do is not about facilities, but rather connections with individuals and community partners.

The new YMCA facility also planned to have a community room named in honor of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, as a component of the partnership.

The space is intended for community use and for Red Cross training and services. In addition to the facility partnership, the Red Cross and YMCA will collaborate on training services through scholarships, and on a program to increase the number of AEDs  automated external defibrillators  in the community.

Madsen said the YMCA is usually looking for ways to partner with the community, not just through the physical building.

I think were constantly looking for partnership, Madsen said.

The YMCA announced in early May that it was negotiating with a new buyer for its present building.

Partners In Excellence is an autism treatment center with facilities in La Crosse, North St. Paul, Burnsville and Minnetonka. Since 2001, they have operated fully inclusive, center-based autism programming that ranges from intensive one-on-one therapy services to interaction in natural and small group settings.

According to the tentative timeline, the new buyer should take over the Ys present facility in January 2019, allowing the construction of the new Y without a lapse in services.

The YMCA expects to seek out bids for construction of the new facility near Winona Health  between Lake Winona, Dairy Queen and Wells Fargo  by the end of 2017.

The initial plans include pools, gymnasiums and an expanded fitness center, along with the physical therapy location for Winona Health, and now the addition of the new offices.

This spring the organization announced that it had gathered around $9.5 million toward its $13 million goal  with another $300,000 pledged and the public phase of the fundraising campaign yet to start.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Psst. Wanna hear something bad about your opponent?

As any political strategist can attest, opposition research is a lifeblood of campaigning, with documents, recordings and tips streaming in from all directions claiming evidence of a rival's misdeeds.

"Oppo research," as it's also known inside the Washington Beltway, burst onto the public stage with the disclosure that Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, welcomed an offer to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from a Russian lawyer. But oppo has been a booming business in political circles for years.

Here's what it is:

THE DEFINITION OF OPPO

Put simply: It's the goods on an opponent  which is often pretty bad. Research can take the form of anything from arrest records to recordings of a candidate saying something untoward. It's all about building a negative story line about an opponent, preferably one that taps into doubts voters might already have.

WHO DOES IT

Opposition research was largely a campaign side project until this decade. Ahead of the 2016 presidential race, it fully blossomed into a multimillion-dollar industry because deep-pocketed donors saw it as the perfect way to spend their money.

"Some people have this idea of opposition research being shady people diving around in dumpsters," said Colin Reed, senior adviser to America Rising, a Republican-supporting oppo group. "But in the last few years it has become accepted by most campaigns as just as critical as get-out-the-vote and communications operations."

America Rising started tracking Clinton in early 2013. Its Democratic counterpart, American Bridge, kept tabs on more than a dozen Republican presidential hopefuls beginning in 2011  before the previous presidential race was even over.

Dozens of other boutique oppo firms also have sprung up. Some are registered as political action committees, meaning the public can see who is donating and how the money is being spent. Many others are private companies or even nonprofit groups that keep their finances under the radar. That's part of why wealthy donors like them so much.

WHERE IT COMES FROM

As smartphones have become ubiquitous, oppo groups and the campaigns themselves deployed "trackers" to follow their political nemeses' every move, documenting everything they can.

One example of a recording making a difference: In August 2012, an American Bridge tracker assigned to monitor Missouri's Republican Senate candidate, Todd Akin, heard him talk about "legitimate rape" during a local morning show. The group blasted the clip out to the media. His campaign never recovered.

Researchers also pore over paperwork, looking for every scrap of information that voters might find compelling. Reed says the "vast majority" of opposition research involves publicly available records, compiled by professionals into easily digestible memos. In fact, America Rising has a full-time employee who does nothing but file Freedom of Information Act requests.

That sort of document work has been proving its worth for years: Think back to 2008 Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards's $400 haircut  not a great look for a candidate pitching himself as an everyman. An adviser to Barack Obama's campaign later outed himself as the source of the Politico scoop; saying it was an opposition researcher who'd plucked it out of a publicly filed campaign finance report.

WHAT CAMPAIGNS DO WITH IT

Once a campaign or outside group gets juicy oppo, they must decide what to do with it. Sometimes, the information becomes what voters say they hate most about elections: attack ads. There are rules about patently false advertising, but in politics, truth-stretching abounds.

Other times, oppo is shared with reporters in the hopes of generating what's called "earned media"  that is, publicity that they don't have to pay for. When political operatives hand off information to journalists, they often ask for anonymity. Reporters must weigh the ethics and news value of the information they're given, and, of course, verify it.

Increasingly, Reed, says, oppo is going straight to voters in the form of social media posts. America Rising has been posting video directly on the internet.

"I don't know if there has ever been a time when that transparency has been more important than it is today," said Adrienne Watson, communications director of the Democratic National Committee's ongoing opposition research project on Trump.

PUSHING THE LIMITS

The bitterly fought 2016 presidential race featured 17 Republican candidates on one side and on the other a come-from-nowhere senator who hadn't even been a member of the party versus a seasoned politician. Then Clinton and Donald Trump squared off in a race overflowing with money and bad blood.

Those factors contributed to some of the more boundary-pushing  and some argue illegal  opposition research ever seen. Last year, a private research firm compiled a dossier making unproven allegations about Trump, including that there was close coordination between his inner circle and Russians who hacked into Democratic email accounts. The firm's work was first funded by a wealthy Republican and then picked up by Democrats; none of those patrons have been revealed.

Now comes the revelation that in June last year, just before the general election campaign began, Trump Jr. was eager to receive information from Russian sources about wrongdoing by Clinton.

Although Trump Jr. defended himself by saying he felt he "had to listen," political operatives in both parties denounced the incident.

"Just to state the obvious," 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's strategist Stuart Stevens wrote on Twitter. "This is all completely insane."
With the blessings of the Portage Common Council Thursday, a comprehensive study of water quality in Silver Lake is about to begin.

The council unanimously approved an intergovernmental agreement with Columbia Countys Land and Water Conservation Department to analyze not only the cleanliness of the lakes water, but also to determine what contaminants are getting into it, and from where.

Its really a blueprint for how to manage the lake and resolve the perceived and observed problems with water quality, City Administrator Shawn Murphy said.

Silver Lake, located entirely within the Portage city limits, is a 70-acre lake with a maximum depth of 42 feet. Theres a city-operated park and swimming beach along Silver Lake Drive that is billed on the citys Park and Recreation website as one of the finest beaches in the area.

When the lake ices over, its typically covered with ice fishing shacks. Crappie, large-mouth bass, bluegill and northern pike are just some of the species of fish that anglers can catch in Silver Lake.

But its been about a decade, Murphy said, since there has been an updated management plan for the lake.

Since then, the lake has evolved a lot, Murphy said  which is why the study will include the types and sources of materials and substances that infiltrate the lake and affect the quality of the water.

Columbia County received a pair of grants, totaling $50,000, from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for the study. Murphy said the city will contribute $15,000, plus in-kind contributions such as city staff time, for the study.

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Points Center for Watershed Science and Education will collect the data for the study, and the county LWC Department, which has created management plans for several other Columbia County lakes, will help formulate the management plan.

This is a good example of government entities working together, Murphy said.

Alderman Bill Kutzke said he hopes the study results in two things: a comprehensive analysis of the factors affecting Silver Lakes water quality, and a strategy that city officials can use in addressing the quality of Silver Lake and other water bodies.

This is clearly something we need to do more of, Kutzke said.

The Council also approved an ad hoc committee to oversee the Silver Lake study.

Parks and Recreation Manager Dan Kremer will be the chairman, and members will be Leon Howlett, Kathy Howlett, Dan Brunt, Mark Curran, Todd Kreckman and Chuck Eberle. Ex-officio (non-voting) members are Scott Maass, Chris Arnold, Ryan Haney, Paul McGinley and Columbia County LWC Director Kurt Calkins.

Murphy said there would be many opportunities for the public to be involved in the study, which will be announced as the study proceeds.
Dear Rep. Fortenberry:

What weve learned about President Trumps meeting with Vladimir Putin, little though it is, and what weve learned about contacts between his campaign and Russian sources in recent days make two things clear.

* The House of Representatives must act on the Senate bill that would prevent Trump from lifting the current sanctions on Russia. You and your colleagues must pressure the House leadership to bring this bill to a vote as quickly as possible and then you must pass the bill.

* The House Judiciary Committee must begin the process of impeaching President Trump. We now know that his campaign actively sought the assistance of the Russian government to defeat Hillary Clinton. That is exactly the kind of high crime and misdemeanor the framers of the Constitution wanted to punish with impeachment.

The question now is do you and your colleagues have the courage to protect the United States, or should we all start learning Russian?

John R. Bender, Lincoln
Despite planning their wedding with miles separating them, Natalie and Marshall were able to enlist friends and family to utilize each of their unique talents to create the wedding of their dreams while also remaining on budget.

Natalie Overman and Marshall Joers were married Dec. 3 at Lutheran Church of Resurrection.

Natalie answered these questions for Racine County Bride:

How did the two of you meet?

We both were students at UW-Stevens Point. We actually did not know each other until we both went on a mission trip to Ghana through a Christian organization on campus called Cru in the summer of 2013. We stayed in touch that following school year, and eventually started dating.

How did he propose?

He proposed to me at his familys cabin up north. We went hiking and had a picnic, and then he popped the question. I truly did not see it coming. We still laugh about it because I was too shocked to even say yes. I just kept staring at him and saying yes in my head, but wasnt able to say it out loud.

Where and when was your wedding and reception?

Our wedding was on Dec. 3, 2016, in Racine. We had our ceremony at Lutheran Church of the Resurrection, which is the church I had grown up in. Our reception was at UW-Parkside, and they did a fantastic job.

Who did most of the planning for the wedding?

We were pretty serious about splitting the tasks evenly, but I would have to admit I did most of the planning. In his defense, he was out of the country for part of the engagement.

How many attendants did you have?

We had six bridesmaids and six groomsmen.

How many guests?

We had about 275 people  so a relatively large wedding.

What were your biggest challenges in planning the wedding?

I would say staying on budget was a huge challenge. I feel like the cost of weddings is just getting so out of hand, and a lot of the things just are not necessary. At the end of the day, we had to remember that our wedding was not about any of that, but rather our love for each other, and honoring God in our marriage.

We also were long-distance for our entire engagement, which at times was very difficult. We had to plan mostly everything over phone calls, Google docs and weekend traveling.

In what areas did you splurge?

Our photographer I would say was our biggest splurge, but we are so happy with the memories that were captured. Oh, and my wedding dress was much more expensive than what I originally budgeted for, but I definitely dont regret it.

What did you do to save money?

We wanted our wedding to be very personal, so a lot of our friends pitched in and shared their talents with us to make our day special and on budget. Our friend Tim did videography and that was a huge blessing. Our friend Alex made the cake and guestbook. My cousin Anthony, a chef, made all the food for my bridal shower. One of Marshalls former coworkers and dear friend Erick did all of our music at the ceremony. And my friend Maddie from high school did my hair as her wedding gift to me. We were really so fortunate to have people stepping up to help us out.

What personal touches did you have in the ceremony and/or reception?

At our ceremony, we wanted to have a special unity ceremony. We planted a small tree and will eventually be permanently planting it at his familys cabin where Marshall had proposed to me.

We also chose to write our own vows, which was something that initially made us both a little nervous since we knew we would be emotional. We ended up both writing our vows only a day or two before the wedding, which made it so much more beautiful because we were really in the moment. I would recommend writing your own vows to anyone  you will be glad you did.

At our reception, we had a table with wedding pictures from our grandparents, parents and us. My friend Sara painted a wooden sign that said Our Love is Here to Stay. It was such a sweet way to commemorate our loved ones!

What song did you have for your first dance?

XO by John Mayer. We are huge John Mayer fans.

Who did your cake and what was it like?

One of our college friends is talented with baking and made our layer cake. It was a naked cake, so the sides of the cake werent frosted and you could see the layers. It had flowers on it cascading down as well  super unique. For our guests, we had Italian cream cake which was a fun twist.

What was your favorite memory of the day?

When I look back on my wedding day, the one thing that I remember vividly is looking around and seeing everyone we love in one place. Everyone who has supported us, walked alongside us, grown with us, all there cheering us on. Aside from everything else, that would be the sweetest memory of all.

Tell us a little bit about your honeymoon.

We stayed at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico. We actually left first thing the next morning after our wedding, and it was so fun to just be able to get away together. We spent the week there, basically just relaxing on the beach. We wouldnt have it any other way.

Any advice for other couples planning a wedding?

My advice would be to not feel like you have to have it all. A wedding is not worth going into debt for it. Choose two or three things that you value and those will be what you focus and splurge on. Other than that, there are ways to save money and still have the wedding of your dreams.
WJP journalist honoured

Wits Justice Projects Carolyn Raphaely receives honorable mention in coveted 2017 WJP Anthony Lewis Prize.

The award for exceptional rule of law journalism was announced during World Justice Forum V held in The Hague, Netherlands, this week. The Forum is the annual premier international event of the World Justice Project (WJP), an independent, multidisciplinary organisation working to advance the rule of law worldwide.

The Anthony Lewis Prize was created to acknowledge journalists from around the world who have contributed to increased awareness and understanding of the foundational importance of the rule of law. This years winner was the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS).

Raphaely was among five journalists who received an honorable mention in recognition of their extraordinary reporting on rule of law.

Competition judge Martha Mendoza of the Associated Press wrote of the nominees, Im stunned by the courage and profound commitment of these reporters  their stories, often told in obscurity, are shining lights of justice and transparency in incredibly obscure and dangerous places.

Raphaely is a senior journalist at the Wits Justice Project is a programme of the Journalism Department that uses the power of investigative journalism to cover miscarriages of justice whilst utilising the media environment to educate and raise public awareness on extensive and systemic problems in the criminal justice system.

About Carolyn Raphaely

With a psychology and drama degree, a Masters in City and Regional Planning, stints as associate editor of the Financial Mail, features editor of Finance Week, Johannesburg bureau chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and communications manager of Conservation Corporation Africa under her belt, she brings a maverick approach to the Wits Justice Project. Raphaely cut her journalistic teeth exposing the pitiful conditions experienced by migrant workers living in employer-provided housing in the Western Cape. Subsequently, shes written extensively about socio-political, human rights and lifestyle issues, housing, business and the environment.

Shes also written about travel, decor, design and architecture as a freelancer and spent lengthy periods in some of Africas most wild and wonderful places. Right now, shes obsessed with righting wrongs in SAs justice system by drawing attention to the mostly ignored plight of people behind bars. Raphaely was named print Legal Journalist of the Year by Webber Wentzel in 2011 and runner up in 2012 and 2015. She was Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Award finalist in 2013 and 2014.
Mandela Washington Fellows Come to W&M

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YALI Opening Ceremony U.S. Senator Tim Kaine was the keynote speaker at the welcome of the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellows at the University of Virginia.

Yali Ideas Summit The 2016 Mandela Washington Fellows presented their projects at the City of Williamsburg's Stryker Center.

YALI 2017 Opening Reception The fellows met with staff of the Presidential Precinct at the opening ceremony reception. Photo - of - Hide Caption

On July 15, 2017, William & Mary will welcome 25 of Africas brightest, emerging civic leaders for 15 days of leadership training, public policy seminars, mentorship and collaboration with local faculty and community members. This is the fourth year that William & Mary and its partners in the Presidential Precinct have been selected as hosts for the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.

The Presidential Precinct program has hosted the Mandela Washington Fellows since June, offering academic coursework and mentoring in Charlottesville and Orange, Virginia. Comprised of two of Americas leading universities and three presidential sites in Virginia, the Presidential Precinct is one of 40 institute partners, the only consortium and the only host in Virginia to be selected for the fellowship that will bring 1,000 emerging African leaders to the U.S. this year.

The William & Mary portion of this years Civic Leadership Institute culminates in the Africa Ideas Summit, July 26 from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at Miller Hall. The fellows will present their proposals and projects for their communities. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is online. It will also be streamed live at facebook.com/presidentialprecinct.

Being able to host the Mandela Washington Fellows as members of the Presidential Precinct is a great opportunity for William & Mary, said Teresa Longo, acting vice provost for international affairs and director of the Reves Center for International Studies. We look forward to learning from these distinguished African leaders, and to nurturing connections with them that we hope will last a lifetime.

The fellows, who are between the ages of 25 and 35, have established records of accomplishment in promoting innovation and positive change in their organizations, institutions, communities and countries. The 2017 cohort attending the Civic Leadership Institute at the Presidential Precinct represents 18 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 48 countries are represented in the fellowship nationwide.

The cohort of fellows hosted by Presidential Precinct is part of a larger group of 1,000 Mandela Washington Fellows being hosted at higher education institutions across the United States this summer through the U.S. State Departments Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). Fifty-one fellows identify as having a disability, and 50 percent of the fellows are women.

Following their six-week curriculum, all 1,000 fellows will come together in Washington, D.C., for a three-day Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit, July 31  August 2, 2017. A select group of 100 fellows will remain in the United States after the Presidential Summit for an eight-week internship at a relevant U.S. business, NGO or government agency. Further, the Mandela Washington Fellowship includes robust programming in Africa, including networking opportunities, continued professional development and access to seed funding.

2017 Mandela Washington Fellows at the Presidential Precinct

Fellows bios & photos are online

About The Presidential Precinct

The Presidential Precinct is a Virginia-based nonprofit organization that empowers and inspires emerging global leaders by providing leadership tools, training and a virtual network for continuing education and collaboration. Since 2012, more than 450 leaders from 115 countries have joined Presidential Precinct programs that facilitate dialogue, generate solutions to pressing governance and development challenges and create lasting professional relationships. The precincts consortium is made up of six prestigious institutions  the University of Virginia, William & Mary, William Shorts Morven, Thomas Jeffersons Monticello, James Monroes Highland and James Madisons Montpelier.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is a U.S. government program that is supported in its implementation by IREX.
Along with the couples first dance and tossing of the bouquet, the moment when the happy couple ceremoniously cut the wedding cake is one of the signature moments at a wedding reception.

With a bit of thought and planning, the cake can be as memorable and personal as every other aspect of your special day. Here are some ideas from local wedding cake experts to help you decide on the perfect cake.

First, pick a flavor that you like and that your guests also will enjoy. Basic white and chocolate cakes are perennial favorites, but fruit-based flavors are becoming extremely popular, said Kim Nellen, wedding cake decorator for Gooseberries Catering in Burlington. Raspberry mousse and lemon are favorite fillings among their wedding customers, she noted.

At Country Rose Bakery and Cafe in Union Grove, Danish layer cake is the pick of many couples, according to Rose Laketa, who co-owns the bakery with her sister, Rita Zadursky. Champagne-flavored cake is another popular choice, she said.

Danish layer is also a top choice for couples ordering wedding cakes at O&H Danish Bakery, noted Katie Vukobrat, an O&H wedding consultant. Couples from out of town who havent tasted Danish layer cake before are especially smitten with it, Vukobrat said. Red velvet and carrot cakes are also customer favorites, she added, along with gluten-free options.

Textures and flowers

When it comes to the decoration and frosting, the elaborate designs that were in vogue in years past have gone out of style.

Brides are going for simpler and easier, Laketa said. A lot of their ideas come from Pinterest.

Textured frosting, in which a cake decorator uses a spatula to sculpt lines and waves in the frosting, creates a look of understated elegance, said Nellen. Other couples opt for fresh flowers to accent their cake.

Naked cakes are also trending in popularity.

The cake has a layer of icing that is really light and you can see the cake underneath, Vukobrat explained.

Round rules

When it comes to the shape of the cake, a round cake is the hands-down top choice among couples, the cake experts said.

Expect to spend $2.50 to $3 per slice for a wedding cake, they said. In addition, some venues may charge a cutting fee.

To save on costs, couples can order a small cake for display and order a large sheet cake for the guests to eat, Nellen said.

Dessert tables featuring a variety of treats  small cakes, cookies, brownies, cream puffs, mini cheesecakes and more  to satisfy the sweet tooth of every guest are becoming popular, too, the wedding cake experts said.

Make sure to order your cake at least a month in advance of your wedding, they advised. A bakery can bake and decorate only a set number of wedding cakes per week, so the sooner you put in your order, the better.

And before your special day ends, dont forget to save a piece for your one-year anniversary. Nellen suggests freezing the cake, then wrapping it in cling wrap and placing it in an airtight container.




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BURLINGTON  In a sign of progress, authorities reopened bridges over the swollen Fox and White rivers on Friday evening.

The Burlington Overpass, Adams Street, East State Street/Adams Street Bridge, East Chestnut Street Bridge and Bridge Street all were reopened Friday evening. The Milwaukee Avenue Bridge was set to be reopened by 10 p.m. Friday. The Jefferson Street Bridge remained closed as of Friday evening.

"Be advised that water is still rapidly flowing in the Fox River. Use all caution especially in Echo Park and along the Fox River," City of Burlington spokeswoman Amy Luebke said.

The curfew was still in place again for overnight from 10 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday.

"We are asking the general public to avoid these flooded areas for your own safety. Do not drive through roads that are covered in water," Luebke said.

Authorities plan to drain Echo Lake in Burlington due to erosion near its dam caused by the historic flooding.

"They are going to check the dam and flow of water every hour, Burlington Police Chief Mark Anderson said. Slowly, if all is going well  and its expected to be  (the city will) open the dam in small increments.  The effects of them opening this dam a small amount at a time should be unnoticeable to those living along the Fox River.

The dam will be opened about 6 inches a day, an inch at a time, to avoid any effects downstream.

City water is safe

Burlington residents can safely drink from municipal water, officials said, but were advised to abstain from drinking well water if they believe it to be contaminated by flood waters. The Racine County Health Department recommends well owners chlorinate and test wells for contamination, Anderson said.

We Energies is gradually restoring power one area at a time. Should residents need their power turned off due to further flooding, they are urged to call We Energies to shut off the service temporarily, he said.

Burlington residents also are encouraged to call 211 to report damages to help the area qualify for state and federal aid.

Flooded basements

Corey Straube lives in the Bay Ridge subdivision. He not only had to deal with days without power, a flooded basement, but also a damaged sewer lift station nearby that forced his family to be without a working toilet for a while.

"We didn't have any back-ups. I realized the kids don't flush anyway, so it wasn't a big deal," Straube said.

He credits the quick work by officials to get things going again.

Straube closed his small engine repair business for the week to deal with the aftermath of the storm at home.

Like many residents, he pulled wet carpet from his flooded basement, called the insurance company and watched the kids play with water toys in the saturated front yard.

"At the height of the flood, the water was up on the grass near the house," Straube said. "We dodged a bullet, for sure."

When the power went out, Straube was able to use a portable generator from the garage to connect to the sump pump.

"The water was coming in so fast the sump pump couldn't keep up," Straube said.

He said many of his clients were surprised to learn their own generators didn't work because they sat too long.

"I tell people they need a fuel stabilizer. It could be sitting for a year not used. That thing is not going to start," Straube said.

Clean-up concerns

One thing he hadn't heard much about is the danger of black mold as his basement begins to dry out.

"We're waiting for the insurance company to tell us what to do," Straube said.

That's something Racine County has prepared for by sending hundreds of cleanup kits courtesy of the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

The flood cleanup kits come in a 5-gallon bucket and include a mop, broom and brush, gloves, respirator mask, cleaner and bleach.

Flood victims can pick them up at three recovery sites at the Town of Waterford Hall and Police Department, 415 N. Milwaukee St., Waterford, on Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon; Union Grove Piggy Wiggly, 4400 67th Dr., Union Grove, on Saturday and Sunday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; or Burlington High School, 400 McCanna Parkway, Burlington. The school is currently in operation 24 hours a day.

The sites are staffed by representatives of the Racine County Human Services Department.

Flood victims can obtain help applying for emergency food, apply for unemployment insurance, access computers and receive information on other disaster recovery services.
Rosatom's overseas contract value rises 20% in 2016

14 July 2017

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Rosatom saw the value of its long-term portfolio of foreign orders "continue to grow" last year - by 20.9% to $133.4 billion. In a statement to accompany publication of its annual report for 2016, the Russian state nuclear corporation said this meant it had retained its "world-leading position" in terms of contracts to build nuclear units for overseas customers - 34 reactors in 12 countries at the end of last year.

The company recorded a 5.3% increase in revenue last year to RUB864.6 billion ($14.5 billion) according to International Financial Reporting Standards.

It described its access for the first time to the fuel market for Western-designed reactors as one of its main achievements last year.

In December, Swedish utility Vattenfall signed long-term supply contracts with three nuclear fuel manufacturers, adding Rosatom's nuclear fuel manufacturer subsidiary TVEL to its established relationships with French Areva and American Westinghouse. The agreements - worth SEK1.2 billion ($131 million) in total - cover 19 consignments to Ringhals 3 and 4 between 2018 and 2025. TVEL will account for about a fifth of these, while Areva and Westinghouse will supply the remainder. TVEL's contract with Vattenfall - signed on 30 November - covers the supply of TVS-K fuel for the Ringhals plant and includes delivery of commercial reloads of nuclear fuel assemblies starting from 2021.

Rosatom said yesterday that TVEL's "long-term efforts" to enter the Western reactor fuel market had also led to a contract for the pilot production of its TVS-K fuel for the USA. In May last year, TVEL and Global Nuclear Fuel Americas announced they had agreed to work together to introduce Russian-designed pressurised water reactor fuel into the USA. They will introduce lead use assemblies of TVEL's TVS-K fuel design and seek licensing approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to supply the fuel in reload quantities.

On progress with its other "major achievements" in foreign markets, Rosatom noted the handover of the first two units of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant to its Indian customer, and the pouring of first concrete for units 3 and 4. ASE Group, Rosatom's engineering subsidiary, and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) announced the "final acceptance" of Kudankulam 1 in April this year. Kudankulam 1 entered commercial operation in December 2014, while unit 2 reached 100% of its operating capacity in January this year. Also in April, NPCIL signed an agreement provisionally accepting Kudankulam 2 from its Russian suppliers and thus marking the unit's entry into commercial operation. The unit reached first criticality in May 2016 and was connected to India's power grid in August. Two further VVER-1000 units - Kudankulam 3 and 4 - are to be built at the site in a second construction phase, with more units to follow. The first pouring of structural concrete for units 3 and 4 was marked with a ceremony on 29 June at the site in Tamil Nadu, India.

The laying of the first foundation stone for units 2 and 3 of the Bushehr nuclear power plant at the construction site in southern Iran in September was another highlight in 2016, Rosatom said.

The report noted that 2016 was another record year for generating electricity at Russian nuclear power plants - 196.4 billion kWh were produced and the share of nuclear power in Russia's energy mix was 18.3%. This was facilitated by the commissioning of the Beloyarsk 4 - the BN-800 fast neutron reactor - as well as the start-up of Novovoronezh II 1, which was officially commissioned in February this year.

New products

Kirill Komarov, Rosatom deputy director-general for international business, said the 2016 financial year had been successful due the development of new business. The ten-year portfolio of orders for new products increased by 74.6% to RUB1018.8 billion, he said, while revenue for new products rose by 52.6% to RUB190.8 billion.

One of the key events of the year, he said, was winning contracts to build wind power plants in Russia with a total capacity of at least 610 MWe.

"According to our strategic goal, revenue from new products should be at least 30% of total revenue by 2030. When we think about the development of certain product lines, we immediately determine whether in the future we will be able to enter the international market with the product and be competitive there," Komarov said. "To realise a project, we build a complete production chain in order to present a comprehensive offer to our foreign partners," he added.

Rosatom has meanwhile briefed the Russian parliament on its work on advanced technologies.

Vyacheslav Pershukov, Rosatom deputy director general and head of innovation, earlier this week outlined the state nuclear company's strategy for advanced technologies to the lower house of parliament, the State Duma. Pershukov said Rosatom was "systematically developing the most advanced and innovative technologies - from the accumulation of energy to artificial intelligence".

Pershukov took part in a round table discussion Nuclear energy technologies of the new generation: legislative aspect held at the State Duma on 11 July.

"Rosatom is forming business in the field of additive technologies, creating industrial 3D printers that print in metal, and developing nuclear batteries," he said. "Rosatom's main principle is not to miss anything that can be realised as business in the future."

Pershukov said the Russian nuclear industry is a "recognised leader" in the world market for nuclear technologies. The company is the "world's first" in terms of the number of nuclear power plants being built simultaneously, it supplies 40% of the world market in uranium enrichment services and 17% of the nuclear fuel market, he added.

He also noted Rosatom's efforts to create an International Research Centre based on MBIR - the multipurpose sodium-cooled fast neutron research reactor that is under construction at the site of the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors (NIIAR) at Dmitrovgrad.

"Global interest in MBIR is huge," he said, "because everyone understands that the research reactor park has practically exhausted itself, and MBIR could become the only world centre for research into creating nuclear energy of the future."

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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Construction of two Korean reactors put on hold

14 July 2017

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Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) has decided to temporarily suspend construction of units 5 and 6 at the Shin Kori nuclear power plant in south-eastern Korea. The move comes two weeks after South Korean President Moon Jae-in issued an administrative order to halt construction of the reactors.

An artistic impression of how Shin Kori 5 and 6 could look (Image: KHNP)

President Moon last month outlined his intended nuclear energy phase-out policy. Moon was one of seven candidates in the May presidential election who signed an agreement in March for a "common policy" for phasing out the country's use of nuclear energy. At a ceremony on 19 June to mark the permanent shutdown of Kori 1, he said plans for new power reactors will be cancelled and the operating periods of existing units will not be extended beyond their design life. At that time, Moon said he would reach a "social consensus" as soon as possible on whether the construction of Shin Kori 5 and 6 will proceed.

Following a board meeting today, KHNP said it will suspend construction work on the two APR1400 units for a three-month period as soon as the government-appointed committee is formed to discuss South Korea's nuclear energy policy. Should the committee fail to reach a decision within that time, KHNP said its board will meet again to reassess its suspension of the construction work.

Worker protests



The KHNP board had been due to meet at KHNP's headquarters in Gyeongiu yesterday to make a decision on suspending work on Shin Kori 5 and 6. However, the meeting had to be cancelled as seven of the board's 13 directors were prevented from entering the building by "hundreds of union workers", the Korea Times reported. The board meeting was instead held today at a nearby hotel.



Union leader Kim Byung-gi said workers will not accept the decision by the board, saying the union will take all possible measures until its demands are met. "The board's decision is not legally binding" he said. "The union and concerned residents will not remain idle. We will continue to protest until matters are rectified."

Although first safety-related concrete has yet to be poured for Shin Kori 5 and 6, KHNP noted that work on the foundations of the reactor buildings - which it says is very important for reactor safety - will "inevitably" be completed by the end of August.

KHNP said it expects the temporary suspension to cost it about KRW100 billion ($88 million) for maintaining equipment and the construction site. The company said it plans to carry out "special safety measures, such as construction site inspections, equipment cleaning, anti-rusting and packaging by making full use of the local labour force so that quality problems will not occur in the future" as a result of the suspension of construction work. KHNP added it will "take measures with partner companies to minimise the cost and impact on the local economy".

The construction of Shin Kori 5 and 6 was approved by South Korea's nuclear regulator last June. Actual construction of the reactors was due to start this year. The 1400 MWe units are scheduled to begin operating in March 2021 and 2022, respectively.

In late May, KHNP announced that it had suspended design work for the planned units 3 and 4 at the Shin Hanul plant - also APR1400 units - until the government policy on the construction of new nuclear power plants is confirmed.

South Korea has 24 power reactors in operation with a combined generating capacity of 22,505 MWe. Together they provide about one-third of the country's electricity.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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IAEA praises Italy's decommissioning efforts

14 July 2017

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Italy is committed to the safe and effective decommissioning of nuclear sites and management of associated radioactive waste, an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission has concluded. However, it noted areas for potential improvement.

Italy operated a total of four nuclear power plants starting in the early 1960s but decided to phase out nuclear power in a referendum that followed the 1986 Chernobyl accident. It closed its last two operating plants, Caorso and Trino Vercellese, in 1990. Plans for waste management include the development of a national repository for the disposal of low- and intermediate-level waste and interim storage of high-level waste. State-owned Societa Gestione Impianti Nucleari SpA (Sogin) was established in 1999 to take responsibility for decommissioning Italy's former nuclear power sites and locating a national waste store.

At the request of the Italian government, the IAEA has conducted its first integrated review service for radioactive waste and used fuel management, decommissioning and remediation programs, referred to as Artemis. Artemis missions provide independent expert opinion and advice, drawn from an international team of specialists convened by the IAEA. Reviews are based on the IAEA safety standards and technical guidance, as well as international good practices.

An Artemis team concluded a 12-day mission today to review Italy's program for decommissioning its nuclear facilities and managing its radioactive waste. The team comprised six experts from France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the USA, as well as two IAEA staff members. They held discussions with Sogin officials at the company's headquarters in Rome and visited the Latina, Caorso, Garigliano and Trino nuclear power plants. The also visited fuel cycle facilities at Trisaia, Saluggia and Casaccia.

A number of good practices were identified by the team, including a transparent, well-defined process for developing decommissioning budgets. It also noted Sogin effectively uses proven technologies, as well as novel approaches to tackling challenging scenarios. It said the company takes a proactive approach to knowledge management and to developing skills and competencies.

However, it made several recommendations and suggestions aimed at improving efficiency and reliability in decommissioning. It said all Italian stakeholders should assign high priority to the national repository's siting and completion by 2025 as planned. It said Sogin should further enhance its planning and risk-management processes related to "uncertainties of such complex decommissioning projects". The team also called on Sogin to develop innovative solutions that address the technical challenges.

Mission team leader Michel Pieraccini, international development director at France's EDF Ciden, said: "Italy is going through a challenging period in implementing its nuclear decommissioning strategy. Our recommendations highlight Sogin's strengths as well as the value of sharing international best practices."

The team will deliver its final mission report to Sogin in about two months.

Sogin president Marco Ricotti said, "This was the IAEA's first peer review of a decommissioning program on a national scale. The Artemis team members, comprising top-level international experts from a variety of technical backgrounds, provided us with new perspectives on our activities. At the same time, it helped us recognise that our experiences on decommissioning and waste management can be of assistance to other countries facing similar challenges."

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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A survey carried out by the Pew Research Center identified 2.19 billion Christians in 2010 which is a huge leap from the figure of 600 million in 1910. Protestantism has recorded rapid growth in the contemporary society. The countries predicted to have the highest number of Christians in the year 2050 are discussed below:

1. The US

The US is projected to have 329,343,000 adherents of Christianity in 2050. A bout 75% of polled adults in the US in 2015 identified as Christian making the religion the most observed in the nation. With roughly 280 million Christians, the US boasts the largest Christian community in the world. According to a 2015 study, 450,000 American Muslims had shifted to the Christian faith, and the bulk of them joined a Pentecostal congregation. An estimated 130,000 Iranian-Americans, as well as 180,000 Arab-Americans, had converted to Christianity in 2010. It is estimated that 20,000 adherents of Islam shift to Christianity per year in the US thus fueling the growth of Christianity. The conversion to Christianity has also been identified in communities such as Korean, Japanese, and Chinese in the US.

2. Brazil

Christianity is the dominant religious movement in Brazil. A 2010 census revealed that 88.77% of Brazil's inhabitants observe Christianity. Of this number, 64.63% are Roman Catholics while 22.16% are Protestants. Protestantism has reflected increasing support in Brazil in the last decade. In 1970, only 5% of the Christian community in Brazil identified with Protestantism, and the figure has now risen to 22%. Evangelical Churches have been reaching out to people with the aim to get converts in the nation. Some of these Churches have established rehab and prayer centers across the country making them more visible to people of all levels. Roman Catholics in Brazil have also been converting to Evangelism. It is estimated that Brazil will have 235,666,000 Christians by 2050.

3. Ethiopia

About 60% of the total inhabitants of Ethiopia adhere to Christianity. The Ethiopian Church is the biggest African pre-colonial Church, and it has a congregation of 40 to 46 million, most of whom inhabit Ethiopia. The Protestant communities in the country have about 13.7 million Ethiopian members. Adherents of indigenous faiths in Ethiopia have been switching to Protestantism which is growing at a rate of 6.7% annually. Protestantism has made headway in regions such as the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples where it has gained converts from Animism. The growth of Protestantism in the country has, in turn, fueled the growth of Christianity and it is estimated that Ethiopia will have 179,493,000 Christians in 2050.

4. The Democratic Republic of Congo

Approximately 95.7% of the inhabitants of the DRC observe Christianity in various denominations. Roman Catholicism commands about 50% of the population of DRC followed by Protestantism at 20% and the unique Kimbanguism at 10%. The DRC is expected to be home to some of the largest Christian communities in Africa in 2050 at 170,380,000 followers.

5. Mexico

82.7% of Mexico's population was identified as adhering to Catholic Christianity in 2010. The Catholic population in Mexico has been reducing in the recent decades because of the growing popularity of other Christian denominations. Protestant congregations and Mormonism, in particular, have been reflecting dynamic growth. Evangelical communities in the country such as Baptist and Jehovah's Witness have been extending their presence in various regions of Mexico drawing in new followers including converts from Catholicism. Evangelical mega-churches have been sprouting up which offer several services in a week. The growth of Evangelism in Mexico is one of the reasons for the growth of Christianity in Mexico. By 2050, the country is expected to have 139,773,000 Christians.

6. Nigeria

21.4% of Nigerians adhered to Christianity in 1953 compared to the 48.2% in 2003. This growth is attributed to the large missionary community in the country. 50% to 67.4% of Nigerians are currently Christians, most of whom inhabit the central and southern areas of Nigeria. Islam dominates the northern region where Muslims have been switching faiths to Christianity despite persecution. Nigeria already has the largest African Christian congregation as over 85 million people identify with a denomination. Protestant communities have been increasing their presence in the country such as the Nigerian Baptist Convention and the Seventh-day Adventists. By 2050, the number of Christians in Nigeria is projected to top 127,374,000 followers.

7. Uganda

More than 84% of Uganda's population professed the Christianity faith in a 2014 census followed by Islam at 14%. Roman Catholics form the largest Christian community in Uganda. Evangelicals are at the forefront of the rise of Christianity in Uganda, and they enjoy strong links with the Evangelical community in the US. The Ugandan Evangelicals engage in social initiatives such as building health centers, schools, and orphanages with aid from Americans. The Evangelicals also take a central role in politics and also aggressively search for converts. It is estimated that by 2050, Uganda will be home to 123,415,000 Christian followers.

8. Russia

Orthodox Christianity is identified as Russia's largest as well as the traditional religion. 71% of Russians said they were adherents of the Eastern Orthodox in a 2015 survey undertaken by the Pew Research Center. About 140,000 inhabitants of Russia are Roman Catholics, most of who live in western Russia. The Orthodox Church enjoys a harmonious relationship with the Russian State, and it has been able to grow its influence and be viewed as part of Russian culture. The country has also undertaken to rebuild churches and build new ones after they had been de-popularized by the Soviet Union. It is estimated that Russia will be home to 115,756,000 Christians in 2050.

9. Philippines

Nearly 92% of the people in the Philippines identify with Christianity, where 81% are Roman Catholics while 11% belong to autonomous Catholic denominations and Protestant Communities. The number of Christians in the Philippines in 2050 is projected to be 112,756,000. Protestantism has also been gaining more presence in the country, and it includes notable congregations such as Iglesia ni Cristo translated to Church of Christ.

10. China

China is one of the Asian nations projected to have large populations of Christians by 2050. An estimated 102,208,000 Christians will live in China in 2050. One of the primary factors driving this growth is high conversion rates, especially among indigenous communities and Buddhists. The conversion rate in China is estimated to range between two to eight times that of the growth of population.

Trends

The world Christian population has been changing the base from Europe to Africa. About half of the international Christian population currently inhabit Africa as well as the Latin America and Caribbean regions. The Pew Research Center estimates that these regions will have over six in ten of the global Christians whereas only a quarter of the world's Christians will inhabit Europe and North America by 2050.
BURLINGTON  National Guardsmen blockaded streets and businesses stayed closed for lack of electricity as Burlington remained in crisis mode Thursday due to unprecedented flooding.

The city continued dealing with historic and dangerous flooding Thursday that affected nearly every property in the community. Police Chief Mark Anderson opened a Thursday evening press conference by saying that the Fox River crested at 16.5 feet early Thursday, but has since begun receding and is expected to continue to do so going forward.

What we are dealing with in the City of Burlington is unprecedented, Anderson said.

The Wisconsin National Guard was called in to help, with many roads and bridges impassable and about 4,900 people still without power Thursday. About 85 guardsmen blockaded bridges and streets covered with standing water while, according to Captain Joe Trovato, some others conducted approximately 120 welfare checks through the community.

Theyre checking in to make sure those people are in good condition, Trovato said. We will be here as long as the incident commander requires.

Walker in Burlington

At noon Thursday, guardsman lifted caution tape on the Milwaukee Avenue Bridge to allow a cadre of local and state officials to cross above the surging river. The group included Gov. Scott Walker, State Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, State Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, along with Burlington Mayor Jeannie Hefty, Fire Chief Al Babe, City Administrator Carina Walters and Anderson. Walker held an impromptu news conference at the foot of the bridge to address the situation. Something of this magnitude is not only an all-time high for Burlington, it is one of the most aggressive flooding efforts weve seen in the state in some time, Walker told reporters. That we dont have a serious injury or fatality is certainly remarkable, and I think is a testament to the first responders of this community stepping up.

Walker said the dam was inspected and remained stable Thursday afternoon and he declared a state of emergency for Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties. He added that safety is the top priority as officials monitor flood conditions and work to restore power.

Following his news conference, Walker led the group through Downtown Burlington, shaking hands with residents and business owners, many of whom were in the midst of removing water from their homes and businesses. Two of those residents were Sharry Sullivan and Bob Rubach, who were pumping water out of the basement of The Coffee House at Chestnut and Pine streets in the heart of the Downtown area.

Weve got probably about 15, 18 inches (of water), Rubach said. We were really lucky.

The river is expected to dip below the major flood stage level of 14 feet by mid-day Saturday, Anderson said Thursday evening. He added that it will reach normal flood levels by Tuesday.

But Anderson warned that flooding conditions in the city change rapidly and residents should stay away from the river. Officials encouraged those living near the Fox River to evacuate.

The best news I can tell you is that weve had no reports of loss of life or serious injury, Anderson said.  Lets make this tragedy a successful tragedy.

Anderson added that the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew imposed Wednesday night would again be in effect overnight Thursday and early Friday morning.

Many without power

For many, power outages have been a major headache.

Anderson said that 4,000 people in the Burlington area were still without power as of early Thursday evening. We Energies crews may not be able to restore electricity to some of those customers until Friday afternoon or later, a company spokeswoman said. The outages were caused by a substation submerged in floodwater.

When flooded, our substation cannot deliver electricity to the wires that serve these customers. Water really can damage our equipment inside that substation, spokeswoman Amy Jahns said. Due to our substation still being submerged, we have not been able to even get in there because its unsafe at this time.

Still, Anderson said that thats down from an initial 25,000 customers who were without power at one point in the flood.

The target restoration time is tomorrow around noon, but be prepared for longer, Anderson said. Dont rely on the fact that you have been told that power may be turned on by tomorrow.

The company planned to bring in mobile transformers, a complex process that will change the way power is delivered to customers in the affected area, Jahns said.

911 service has not been affected, but the citys non-emergency number has. Residents should call 262-763-9558 for non-emergency situations. The Burlington Police Department has about 5 feet of water in its basement, which is where its electronic equipment is stored, Anderson said.

Burlington City Hall was closed and could not receive phone calls or emails. City officials are providing updates on the citys Facebook page.

Recovery beginning

Sandbags are being filled and distributed to the community, with two pick-up points at Walgreens, 680 Milwaukee Ave., and Karcher Middle School, 225 Robert St. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections sent about 20 inmates from the Robert Ellsworth Correctional Center in Dover to help with sandbagging, according to a release from the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs.

Disaster recovery sites were set up at Gateway Technical College, 496 McCanna Parkway, and Gooseberries, 690 W. State St.

Tina Henning, the social services director at Love Inc., 480 S. Pine Street said that while their facility did experience some flooding, they were focused on aiding the community as quickly as possible. Love Inc. is partnering with Kwik Trip, the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army to provide water, emergency housing and supplies to those affected.

Our stuff is secondary compared to what our clients and our community are dealing with, she said. We wouldnt be an agency without our community.

Many people and organizations have contacted the city to donate goods, food and services to the community, Hefty said.

We are working on creating a process and plan for those requests, Hefty said. We will be letting the public know what they can do to help us as soon as we can.

In the meantime, people can make cash donations to flood relief efforts at any southeastern Wisconsin BMO Harris Bank, Babe said.

Widespread damage

The Fox River water level shatters the previous record of 13.5 feet set in 2008. Flood stage begins at 11 feet.

Everyone in Burlington is dealing with some type of flood damage, Anderson said. That includes popular restaurant Freds Burgers, 596 N. Pine St., which had roughly 4 feet of water in its basement, according to Ben Mabson of the family that owns Freds.

All our inventory is downstairs, thats all gone, Mabson said. No structural damage, though.

And while some struck a solemn tone, some tried to make the best of the situation, like Joseph Terry, who sat outside his Pine Street apartment with a half dozen friends drinking beer.

We decided to sit out here and see how the United States of America reunites, Terry said. Everybody seems to be coming together all of a sudden.

Patrick Leary and Mark Schaaf contributed to this story.
Papua New Guinea is a country located in Oceania and is one of the independent Commonwealth realms headed by the Crown. The country gained independence in 1975 and promulgated its constitution which provided for the establishment of a parliamentary representative democratic republic.

The Constitution of Papua New Guinea

The Constitution of Papua New Guinea is the supreme law in the country and is an entrenched constitution in which all ordinary statutory enactments are subordinate to its provisions. All rights and freedoms of Papua New Guinea's citizens are protected by the constitution and are outlined in its articles. The constitution was drafted between 1973 and 1975 and established the country as a Commonwealth realm headed by The Crown, or by Queen Elizabeth in particular (the Queen is formally addressed as The Queen of Papua New Guinea).

Governor-General of Papua New Guinea

The Crown is the head of state in Papua New Guinea, but since the queen cannot serve in Papua New Guinea in that capacity, a governor-general is appointed as the crowns representative in the country. The governor-general is nominated by Parliament through a simple majority vote among the members. The governor-general is elected to serve a maximum of two terms, with the second election requiring a two-third majority vote from parliament. In the event where the office of the governor-general is prematurely vacated, the speaker of parliament assumes the role of governor-general, albeit temporarily, until the monarch appoints a new governor-general. Parliament has the authority to dismiss a sitting governor-general through an absolute majority vote.

National Assembly of Papua New Guinea

The national assembly is the arm of government mandated in the formulation of legislation and is made up of a single-chambered unicameral parliament. Parliament is made up of 111 seats, where 89 seats are reserved for elected members from single-member constituencies, while the remaining 22 seats are reserved for members elected from the 20 provinces of the country along with the national capital district, as well as the autonomous province of North Solomons. All members are drawn from the various political parties in the country and are elected by universal adult suffrage to serve five-year terms. Upon the completion of the elections, the Crown, through the governor-general, invites the party with the highest number of members of parliament to form the government, with the leader of such party becoming the prime minister. The speaker of parliament is the head of the national assembly and is mandated to preside over parliamentary proceedings and upon the premature vacation of the governor-generals office, the speaker is required to assume the title of governor-general until the appointment of a new candidate by the monarch.

Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea

The prime minister of Papua New Guinea is the head of government and is the head of the executive branch of government. The prime minister is appointed by the governor-general after the completion of the general elections. After appointment, the prime minister is required to appoint cabinet ministers from the members of parliament.

Judiciary of Papua New Guinea

In Papua New Guinea, the judiciary is the arm of government tasked with the protection and interpretation of the law, as well as solving disputes. The constitution provides for the independence of the judiciary from the executive as well as the legislature. The chief justice is the leader of the judiciary and is appointed by the governor-general after being nominated by the national executive council. The chief justice, together with the deputy chief justice and 21 other judges, preside over cases in the supreme court, which is the highest court in the country.
Council Tenants Invited To Reconsider Housing Improvement Refusals

This article is old - Published: Friday, Jul 14th, 2017

Wrexham council tenants who have previously opted out of the installation of new kitchens and bathrooms will be offered a second chance to take part in the improvements programme.

Upgrade work on the kitchens and bathrooms across Wrexham Councils housing stock began in 2013 as part of the requirement to achieve the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) by 2020.

All local authorities in Wales are required to achieve this standard by a 2020 deadline.

Across Wrexham 11,300 homes are set to benefit from the improvement works, which also include internal and external improvements such as electrical rewiring, central heating, external insulation and roofing.

Details of the spend on the improvement works for the last financial year are detailed within Wrexham Councils Capital Programme 2016/17  2020/21, which was presented before the Executive Board earlier this week.

Within the report it is noted that there is just over a 2.7 million underspend on the kitchens and bathrooms programme, with the meeting told that the past 12 months there were 767 tenant refusals for the new kitchens and 781 tenants who have refused the bathroom installations.

The report presented to councillors noted that refusals have taken place for a variety of reasons, including tenants not wanting the disturbance or having previously replaced the kitchen themselves.

Council Leader Mark Pritchard explained the local authority had aspirations to fit every kitchen and bathroom in its stock, and that tenants who had previously refused upgrades will receive another opportunity to take part in the programme.

However Wrexham Councils HRA also benefited by half a million pounds on roofs and structures due to extremely competitive tender rates meaning more roofs replaced at a lower cost.

Cllr Pritchard said: In respect of the Housing Capital programme changes the spend was around 2.7 million less than planned. The majority of the underspend was due to tenants refusing kitchen and bathroom upgrades.

Just to touch a little more on this as I wouldnt want anyone to think were not going to go back. What we do is we have a 2.7 million underspend on kitchens and bathroom programme and we will be going back to the tenants who refused. We have aspirations to fit every kitchen and bathroom within our council stock.

Sometimes its difficult because we have tenants who have been there a long time who dont want the changes and the kitchens and bathrooms because theyre fearful and scared of the upheaval and the mess it will make.

We will endeavour to go back and complete the programme so we have 100% uptake in it. If we do get 100% I will be delighted. But we also have to remember that we have to respect the rights of our sitting tenants.

Lead member for housing Cllr David Griffiths added: To reaffirm what the Leader has said, we will be going back to tenants who are refusing for whatever reasons.

We have to respect their wishes but we might have to go back and their views might have changed, so not the end of it, it will to carry on until we hopefully get everyone.
RACINE  An autopsy was performed Thursday on 3-year-old Jere'Miah Pitt, who is at the center of a death investigation being conducted by the Racine Police Department and assisted by the Wisconsin State Patrol.

"We're hoping the autopsy will provide more information, but we cannot guarantee it will clear things up for us," said Racine Police Sgt. Adam Malacara.

Police were called to the 1800 block of Howe Street at about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday after Pitt was discovered shot to death. During the investigation, officers recovered the gun but did not say who it belonged to or where it was found.

Investigators have not ruled out a homicide, negligence or an accidental shooting as they sort through all the variables that come into play and the "misinformation from various sources" that has been discovered through the process.

Family has expressed frustration on the delay in finding answers to what happened to the boy.

"What exactly happened is still under investigation," Malacara said. "We understand the family's frustration, but we have to be thorough."

Late Wednesday, Racine police took a person of interest into custody after interviewing them. The identity has not been released, pending a determination from the Racine County district attorney on possible charges. No charges were issued Thursday.

A prayer vigil is scheduled for Sunday evening for the toddler.

The vigil, slated to take place at 6 p.m. in the 1800 block of Howe Street near the child's home, will be led by the Rev. Tony Larsen and other members of the Racine Interfaith Coalition.

Anyone with information about the fatal shooting is asked to call the Racine Police Department Investigations Unit at 262-635-7756.

Those who wish to remain anonymous can contact Crime Stoppers at 262-636-9330, or text 274637 (CRIMES). The text message should begin with RACS.

The story was updated to reflect the correct spelling of the boy's name.
Partnership Working Key to Business and Careers Support Says Cabinet Secretary

This article is old - Published: Friday, Jul 14th, 2017

Economy Secretary Ken Skates has said closer working between Business Wales and Careers Wales could help improve support for both individuals and firms in Wales.

In a speech in Wrexham this morning the Economy Secretary said partnership working between the two organisations could improve the advice and support given to both businesses and individuals seeking careers and training advice.

Currently the Welsh Government provides support and guidance for businesses and entrepreneurs through business Wales and funds the provision of independent careers advice and guidance for people of all ages through Careers Wales.

However the Economy Secretary said there is growing recognition that the challenges that businesses and individuals face are interlinked.

Speaking following a business breakfast event in Wrexham, Ken Skates said: Talking to businesses and individuals over the last few months it is clear that Business Wales and Careers Wales do an important job in supporting Welsh firms and those looking for training.

Im keen that we look to build on that work and explore where stronger collaboration between the two organisations could strengthen services delivered by Business Wales and Careers Wales.

We know that businesses need the right staff and the right skills to maintain and grow their operations. We also know that individuals need up to date information on what future skills are needed in their local economy or advice to help them set up their own business. These issues are very closely linked and very often overlap.

With the business and career support both funded by Welsh Government, it is important we explore the potential for closer alignment between those bodies with a view to better connecting the delivery of business support and employer-engagement with the economy and skills systems.

He added: I believe closer alignment and integration could deliver a more streamlined and effective approach for businesses and individuals and ultimately improve the level of service we provide. This would also have a tangible and positive impact on our economy and our communities too.

Minister for Skills and Science Julie James said: The Welsh Government will now look at options for greater alignment between Business Wales and Careers Wales and consider what benefits could be gained out of greater collaboration.

I want this to be very much an open process and in doing so meaningfully engage with both organisations, their staff and all the key stakeholders that work with them. We want to encourage every good idea to come forward and be heard.

An initial review of the options for taking this initiative forward is expected to be completed by the Autumn
This is the second in a two part series, read part one here.

Prior to and during the C2S contract negotiations process, Amazon demonstrated its willingness to collaborate with the IC to stifle growing opposition to American imperialism and its spy agencies. In November 2010, AWS deliberately crashed WikiLeaks website after the organization began publishing the Cablegate documents.

After WikiLeaks had already published the Afghan and Iraq War Logs, numerous politicians had denounced the organization, with some calling for the execution of Assange. Right-wing Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, who was instrumental in forming the Department of Homeland Security and served as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee from 2007 to 2013, publicly called upon Amazon and other companies to sever ties with WikiLeaks, declaring, No responsible company, whether American or foreign, should assist WikiLeaks in its efforts to disseminate these stolen materials. Amazon dutifully complied, cutting off the publics access to WikiLeaks web page.

In response, WikiLeaks tweeted: WikiLeaks servers at Amazon ousted. Free speech the land of the freefine our $ are now spent to employ people in Europe.

Amazons sabotage of WikiLeaks forced the organization to find a new server provider, and demonstrated to the state Amazons readiness to crack down on those opposed to the governments criminality. This nefarious use of its power to control Internet communications no doubt piqued the interest of the CIA, which two years later would include AWS as a bidder for its private cloud contract.

In the summer of 2013, two months after Snowdens first revelations of massive spying by the American government, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos purchased the highly influential newspaper the Washington Post for $250 million.

After winning the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service in 2014 for its coverage of the Snowden leaks, in 2016 the Post became the first newspaper to call for the criminal prosecution of its own source. In an article headlined No pardon for Edward Snowden, the Post Editorial Board denounced those calling for Snowdens pardon and demanded that he stand trial on espionage charges.

During the 2016 election campaign, the Post endorsed Hillary Clinton, the military and intelligence communitys favored candidate. Since the election of Trump, the Post has been one of the leading outlets engaged in a hysterical campaign of anti-Russia propaganda, intended to force the Trump administration to shift its foreign policy orientation toward continuing the drive to war with Russia begun under Obama. They have served as a direct conduit for the CIA and other intelligence agencies, repeatedly releasing sensationalist breaking news stories citing anonymous intelligence officials, in an attempt to stampede public opinion behind the right-wing campaign against Trump.

Undoubtedly, AWSs undermining of WikiLeaks, combined with Bezoss purchase of the Post and the increasing dominance of Amazon as a multinational corporation, influenced the CIAs decision to award the C2S contract to the company. The company was recognized as a willing and competent ally in the fight to suppress free speech and democratic rights.

Cementing ties between Amazon and the military

In September 2013, while the Court of Federal Claims was determining whether the CIA would need to re-open the bidding competition between Amazon and IBM, AWS went ahead and posted more than 100 job listings for engineers possessing the highest security clearance offered by the US government, Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information.

The jobs were listed for an AWS center in Herndon, Virginia, a 20-minute drive from CIA headquarters. Last month, Amazon announced that it will be locating its new AWS East Coast corporate campus at One Dulles Tower in Herndon, and are expected to employ up to 1,500 tech workers at the campus. The company situates most of its data centers in the northern Virginia area, through which an estimated 70 percent of global Internet traffic flows.

Further developing its connections to the state, in 2015 Amazon partnered with the Department of Defense (DoD) to create a program titled AWS Military Fellowship, in which active-duty military personnel spend time working for Amazon. The company currently has at least three soldiers working at AWS.

In its statement announcing the program, Amazon wrote that it is intended to build a unique cadre of officers who understand not only the profession of arms, but also the nature of the strategic problems facing the DoD, and the organizational and operational opportunities made possible by revolutionary changes in information and other technologies. These officers will be at the forefront of transforming defense strategy, military forces, and the supporting infrastructure.

In March 2016, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter visited Amazon headquarters in Seattle, as part of a West Coast swing aimed at strengthening ties between the Department of Defense (DoD) and the tech community, according to an Amazon blog post on Carters visit.

Carter first met with the AWS Military Fellowship employees, then held a meeting with Jeff Bezos and other key figures in AWS leadership, to discuss innovation topics and ways to strengthen military exchange programs and partnerships with the technology industry, the report notes. Reports also suggest that there were discussions of expanding the Pentagons use of AWS cloud-computing technologies.

During his West Coast tour, Carter also announced the formation of the Defense Innovation Advisory Board, which would be headed by Carter and Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. In July 2016, Bezos was invited to join the board, whose purpose is to further integrate leading figures from the technology sector with the military. It is a component of the broader Third Offset Strategy, which seeks to maintain the global supremacy of the American military over potential rivals, in particular Russia and China.

Announcing the program, Carter declared that the board is charged with keeping DoD imbued with a culture of innovation in people, organizations, operations, and technology ... and also to ensure that were always doing everything we can to stay ahead of potential adversaries.

Over the past year, the board has met with leading figures in the military, including at the headquarters of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida. In early January, the board voted to approve 11 recommendations to enhance the military in areas ranging from strengthening cybersecurity for advanced weapons to increasing funding for artificial intelligence research.

During the 2016 election campaign, Bezos made mild criticisms of Trump, who accused the Post of being a fake news outlet. Since Trumps inauguration, however, the two have reconciled their differences, with Trump appointing Bezos to the American Technology Council that he formed in May. Bezos and the 18 other tech executives on the council met cordially with Trump in June.

The fight against Amazon requires a struggle against imperialism

The integration of Amazon with the state and its spy agencies typifies a broader trend of modern capitalism, in which all of the major corporations closely collaborate with their respective governments and facilitate imperialist war abroad. This is one of the defining features of imperialism.

Under the catch-all justification of protecting national security, a euphemism for upholding the global interests of the American capitalist class, the military-intelligence apparatus has carried out unremitting atrocities abroad and erected the infrastructure for a police state within the US. Since its contract with the IC in 2013, Amazon has directly facilitated these behind-the-scenes machinations.

As Lenin noted in the Preface to his 1917 work State and Revolution, written during World War I and in the midst of the Russian Revolution, The imperialist war has greatly accelerated and intensified the transformation of monopoly capitalism into state-monopoly capitalism. The monstrous oppression of the laboring masses by the statewhich connects itself more and more intimately with the all-powerful capitalist combinesis becoming ever more monstrous. The foremost countries are being convertedwe speak here of their rearinto military convict labor prisons for the workers.

Amazon exemplifies these characteristics described by Lenin. While collaborating with the spy agencies to wage war abroad, Amazon subjects its workforce in the US and around the world to brutal sweatshop working conditions.

As the International Amazon Workers Voice (IAWV) has reported, the company pushes its workers to their utmost limit, causing widespread workplace injuries and even fatalities. It tracks employees movements and enforces ever-increasing productivity requirements, creating conditions at Amazon warehouses that increasingly resemble the convict labor prisons described by Lenin.

The struggle to put an end to class exploitation and war are inseparably connected. There can be no fight against war without a fight against its root cause, capitalism and its division of the world into rival nation states. The resources squandered on imperialist war and the spy agencies, and the immense wealth accumulated by figures like Bezos, must be seized by the working class and redirected to provide for social needs, not private profit or the destruction of foreign countries.
More than 14,000 people in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) have been forced from their homes as hundreds of wildfires rage in the provinces central and southern interior. Provincial authorities declared a state of emergency last Friday and military units have been placed on stand-by to intervene.

The fires have been fueled by several weeks of hot and dry weather. As of Thursday evening, the province reported 183 wildfires were burning, down from 220 earlier in the week. BC Wildfire Services has 1,000 firefighters tackling the wildfires, along with private contractors and several hundred firefighters from other provinces.

Darren Campbell, head of the emergency response centre for the Cariboo Regional District, said that strong winds forecast for the weekend could lead to the threatened areas expanding significantly, especially in Chilcotin and north Cariboo. We might be dealing with some new situations in some new areas, he said Thursday.

Bob Turner of Emergency Management BC said that plans are being developed for mass evacuations, most likely from Williams Lake, with a population of over 10,000.

Those who were forced from their homes were given virtually no warning of the approaching blaze and some fear they have lost everything. Were going back to nothing, one resident staying at an emergency centre in Kamloops told CBC. All the trailers and everything are just laying flat. We probably wont even be able to save a picture.

Many people went to Kamloops in the south to escape the fire, but the city has become overwhelmed, so evacuees are now being told to drive to Prince George, several hours to the north. Most have left everything behind, including their animals.

BC Bus Service has stopped running into Williams Lake as an evacuation order was issued by Cariboo Regional District for Wildwood, Soda Creek and Fox Mountain, the Lakeside Area of Williams Lake, White Road, Ross Road, Glen Road, South Lakeside, Miocene, Wildwood and Lexington, and 150 Mile House. Ashcroft, Cash Creek, and Princeton have also been evacuated.

At least 60 homes have been destroyed in the village of Cache Creek.

Harrowing stories have emerged of families driving through fires to escape. Sally Aitken uploaded a video to Twitter showing the vehicle she was travelling in with her husband surrounded by fire.

Since April, 78,000 hectares have been burned by over 600 wildfires, according to BC Wildfire Services. The fires currently burning cover a total area of between 2,000 and 12,000 hectares.

The chaotic response to the wildfires, with many families being left to sleep in parking lots, is a damning indictment of governments at the provincial and federal level. Wildfires are not an unusual occurrence in BC, which has witnessed hot and dry summers over recent years. The last time a state of emergency was declared was in 2003, when the Okanagan Mountain and Barriere wildfires wrought substantial damage. 200 homes in Kelowna were destroyed.

Despite this, successive BC Liberal governments have restricted wildfire management budgets. Including 2015, the province overspent its wildfire budget in nine out of the 10 previous years.

In 2015, the BC government allocated a paltry $63 million for fighting wildfires and had used up the budget in a matter of weeks. By mid-August the total bill for fighting wildfires had risen to over $180 million.

Although wildfires are natural phenomena, measures could have been taken to mitigate the damage and disruption they have caused. Scientists were well aware that the Cariboo region represented a high risk and have been warning governments more generally across Canada about the increased danger of large-scale fires due to climate change.

Daniel Perrakis, a research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, told CBC in an interview that a multi-year drought in BCs central and southern interior contributed to the blaze. [T]he rain and snow that fell over the winter, was insufficient to saturate the soil and the wood fuels in the forest. And the other issue there is that the most heavily impacted area by the recent mountain pine beetle outbreak and so the forests in that area are dominated by Douglas Fir and Lodgepole Pine trees. And the Lodgepole Pine, the majority of the trees there, are dead, and they were killed probably between 10 years ago and five years ago, and so they are just like standing firewood in the forest and they are very, very dry and very susceptible to starting fires and spreading fires.

In a society capable of rational, scientific planning, such a state of affairs would be the occasion for vast resources to be made available to mitigate the dangers posed by fires. But under capitalism, virtually nothing was done to combat such risks. Forest fire specialists have repeatedly criticized provincial governments for spending too little on preventive measures and relying instead on emergency budgets to fight fires when they break out.

Lori Daniels, a fire expert at the University of British Columbia, told CBC in 2015 that while the government spent $200 million on combating fires that summer, less than $1 million was spent to take preventive measures in the high-risk southern interior.

In neighbouring Alberta, inadequate wildfire budgets and a lack of preventative measures played a significant role in the exacerbation of the catastrophic fire that engulfed Fort McMurray in May 2016, forcing some 90,000 people from their homes.

FortMcMurray, at the heart of the provinces multi-billion dollar tar sands operations, only had one exit road and was surrounded on all sides by forest. Despite repeated warnings about the need to establish fire breaks, the only facilities accorded this protection were the oil companies installations, which survived the blaze largely intact. Over 2,000 buildings were destroyed in the city.

As in last years disaster, stories coming out of the affected areas tell of many residents being largely left to fend for themselves.

Tletinqox First Nation Chief Joe Alphonse said Sunday his community made up of five bands near Williams Lake is preparing to protect itself, refusing to leave although under a provincial evacuation order. We are bringing in machinery to build a fire guard. We have three firefighting unit crews registered with the province and we are going to set up our own internal firefighting crew thats not registered and starting fighting it on our own. The community has no power and is surrounded by wildfires, yet the residents refuse to leave except for those sick and elderly with respiratory problems who have been evacuated.

Historic Lees Corner has been burned to the ground and homes and businesses have been lost in the village of Boston Flats, where 30 homes in the trailer park were burned to the ground. Fortunately everyone survived.

The loss to the town has been devastating. CBC carried an interview with dairy farmer Rob Donaldson of Bradner Farms who lost his 300 milk cow barn, a multi-million dollar operation, in a matter of 20 minutes. As the barn burned, 30 family, friends and strangers tried to save the trapped animals. Donaldson blew through the barn wall with a bobcat skid-steer loader and drove through flames to get most of his cows out to where they could make a run for it. They are like my family, he said.

Farmers forced to evacuate have left behind an estimated 10,000-20,000 cattle. Ranchers could also face heavy financial losses because grazing areas are threatened by the fires, raising the likelihood that feed will have to be purchased for their animals at considerable cost.
Hundreds of villagers protested near Pointpedro on Monday and Tuesday over the police shooting of a young worker. The town is situated on the northern-most point of the Jaffna Peninsula, where the Tamil residents were the victims of racist police violence and killings in 1984.

Yogarajah Thinesh, a 24-year-old man from Thunnalai village, was killed on Sunday evening while riding on the back of a lorry. He was sitting on a load of sand. According to reports, police opened fire with a T-56 assault rifle, hitting him in the chest and hip.

The police claimed the lorry was carrying illegally mined sand and they opened fire because the driver failed to heed orders to stop. The police admitted that two officers from a police post chased the vehicle by motorcycle and shot at it.

The vehicle driver and another person allegedly fled the scene and the police launched a search operation to apprehend them. Under normal police practices, officers are supposed to stop suspect vehicles and make arrests but they appear to have deliberately fired at Thinesh.

According to reports, angry and distraught Thunnalai villagers and nearby residents attacked the areas police post and the home of the police sub-inspector involved in the shooting. A police jeep was also damaged. Heavily-armed Special Task Force (STF) members and an armoured vehicle were mobilised to intimidate villagers and break up the protests.

In an attempt to cover up the cold-blooded killing and deflect residents outrage, Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara dispatched a special police unit to Jaffna to investigate the incident. The two police involved in the shooting were suspended and remanded until July 29. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunesekera evasively told the media the officers used excessive power.

Yogarajah Thineshs death is not an accident but the by-product of the ongoing police and military occupation of the poverty-stricken and war-torn region.

While the 26-year communalist war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended eight years ago in 2009, Northern Province residents still live under de facto military rule. Young people, in particular, face constant police and military intelligence surveillance.

The Colombo government, with the tacit backing of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), has suppressed investigations into the militarys numerous war crimes during the conflict.

Thunnalai is one of many impoverished towns and villages in the Northern Province. Residents have no permanent work and attempt to survive by doing all sorts of odd jobs. Some youth try to earn money in the sand-mining business, with lorry owners paying up to 300 rupees per load. Others travel many kilometres to mangrove swamps to collect firewood and sell it for domestic use. Police frequently arrest youth, claiming they are destroying the forests.

Thineshs family is typical of thousands in the area. Relatives and friends said the young man, who abandoned his education because of the familys economic circumstances, was a calm and kind individual, not involved in any criminal activities.

We are a poor family, Thineshs sister told the WSWS. Our father left us during our childhood and we had to live with my mother. Even though she did various odd jobs, she could not get a proper living and our uncles had to help us. Our childhood was very tragic.

My brother Thinesh went to Saudi Arabia where he worked hard for two years. We were unable to pay back in full the money we borrowed to send him for that job. In Saudi Arabia he had an accident and received medical treatment for three months. He came here for a vacation and was going to return after three months. Now he has been killed by the police.

One of Thineshs uncles said: They talk about the war [being over] but the killings are still taking place. We voted for [President] Maithripala Sirisena and [Prime Minister Ranil] Wickremesinghe but we dont see any change in our life conditions.

The TNA is supporting the government; theyre doing nothing for us. The price of essentials is going up and there are no proper jobs for our people. [Northern Province Chief Minister and TNA leader C.V.] Wigneswaran has said we needed Tamil police but what weve seen is Tamil police killing Tamil people.

One of Thineshs close friends denounced the police actions. He told the WSWS: The police could stop a vehicle but under what authority can they shoot people? There is not a war going on, so why are the police taking up arms and going around? The police repression is continuing in our area and we oppose it. We have no proper employment here, and that is the main problem.

The ongoing police and military repression aims to suppress the explosive social and political conditions in the province. Last October police shot and killed two Jaffna University students, Pawnraj Sulakshan and Nadarasa Gajan, who were riding a motorbike. The police claimed the students refused to stop the vehicle. The court case against the policemen involved in that shooting is still dragging on.

After two days of complete silence about last Sundays shooting of Thinesh, the so-called Tamil leaders offered crocodile tears. TNA leader M.A. Sumanthiran declared: The police cannot take the law into their hands. If individuals are involved in illegal sand mining then the police can take legal action but they cannot take peoples lives.

Northern Province Chief Minister Wigneswaran said: We cannot tolerate this incident because the Tamil young man was shot by Tamil police.

Wigneswaran has been campaigning for more Tamil police, claiming they would serve the Tamil population. But the repressive nature and actions of the capitalist state apparatus are no different, irrespective of whether it is administered by the Tamil bourgeoisie or other ruling elites.

The TNA, which fully backs the pro-US government, is the main instrument helping to maintain the anti-democratic repression in the islands North and East, where majority of Sri Lankan Tamils live.

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[21 June 2017]
South Korean autoworkers are preparing labor actions in the coming days to demand higher wages and improved working conditions. Union members at GM Korea last Friday voted to strike by a wide margin while those at Hyundai and Kia are also in the process of approving their own walkouts. Contract negotiations are similarly taking place at Renault Samsung Motors and SsangYong Motors.

GM Korea workers voted 79.49 percent in favor of striking, with 11,572 out of 13,449 union members taking part in the vote. They are demanding an increased monthly wage of 154,883 won (US $135.15) and 500 percent of their basic wages as a bonus, or 4.25 million won (US $3,709). Other demands include the implementation of a salary system instead of receiving hourly wages and an 8+8 shift schedule, with an eight-hour second shift, rather than a nine-hour one, which would finish at 12:40 am.

Dang Sung-geun, spokesman for the GM union stated, Last year, the company agreed to start the 8+8 system from June 1 this year, but we have had a meeting only once with the management to discuss follow-up steps to adopt the 8+8 system.

The company has offered only a 50,000 won (US $43.64) monthly wage increase and a 9 million won (US $7,854) bonus per worker, which includes a 4 million won (US $3,491) performance-based bonus and a 5 million won (US $4,364) signing incentive.

On top of this, workers are facing an imminent attack on their jobs and GM headquarters in the United States is considering pulling out of the South Korean market altogether, citing three straight years of falling sales. GM has been eyeing layoffs at its factory in Gunsan, one of three in South Korea, since 2014.

The Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU), which ostensibly represents GM workers, will not wage a genuine struggle in defense of jobs or working conditions. In 2015, the KMWU, an affiliate of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), sanctioned the elimination of an entire shift at the Gunsan plant with promises that the workers would be relocated to other positions. However, this paved the way for the firing of hundreds of irregular workersthose without contracts making significantly less than their regular counterpartsand laying the groundwork for more sackings in the future.

Hyundai and Kia workers, also with the KMWU, are demanding the same wage increase as at GM as well as 30 percent of net profits and operating profits from last year as bonuses respectively. Hyundais 50,000 unionized workers will vote Thursday and Friday on strike action. Workers at the smaller companies of SsangYong and Renault Samsung are not affiliated with the KMWU, but the deals struck by the main auto union set the standards for others. SsangYong workers want a monthly wage increase of 118,000 won (US $104) while details from Renault have not been made public yet.

If any labor action is taken, the KMWU will likely limit it to partial strikes, short-term walkouts during shifts after which the union will send workers back to their posts. This tactic is designed to lessen the immediate impact on the company while lost production will be made up through enforced overtime and speedups.

The KMWU is also planning a weeklong Social Solidarity General Strike of All-out Struggle beginning July 19. Neither the union nor the larger KCTU will call out its full membership to participate in this so-called all-out struggle, but will instead stage a few protests to allow workers to blow off steam as they have done in recent weeks.

Furthermore, with President Moon Jae-in and the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) in power, the KCTU is striking an increasingly nationalist tone to defend the government and big business while driving wedges between workers internationally. On June 21, approximately 8,000 members of the KCTUs construction union took part in a protest in Seoul calling on companies not to hire foreign workers over Koreans.

Immigrant workers, particularly those from Southeast Asia, are heavily exploited with little de facto legal protection. Rather than denounce the government as it did under ousted leader Park Geun-hye, the KCTU, as an ally of the DPK, is utilizing Korean chauvinism and blaming these vulnerable layers for low wages and poor working conditions, ultimately justifying the poor and racist treatment they often receive.

A larger protest, dubbed a general strike, of approximately 50,000 people was held on June 30 where the KCTU put forward the paltry demand for an increase in the minimum wage to 10,000 won (US $8.73) as well as the end of irregular labor. Yet the KCTU has never waged a genuine struggle for these demands. In fact, the KCTU has made clear it represents no danger to capitalism.

The strike is not to drag down the current government, Han Sang-gyun, the KCTU leader wrote in a letter from prison, where he is held on trumped-up charges related to the November 2015 protest that turned violent following police provocations.

His oppressive situation does not negate his defense of South Korean capitalism. It is a continuation of the spirit of the candlelight vigils of Gwanghwamun Square (against former president Park), to ask (the Moon administration) for protection of labor union members, an increase in the minimum wage, the rooting out of corruption in the government, reform of the conglomerate-based economy and an end to non-salaried employment.

In other words, according to the KCTU, an improvement in workers living standards can be achieved under Moon and the DPK, a party that has carried out privatizations, mass sackings of workers and casualization of the labor force, all while participating in the United States imperialist wars whenever it has been in power.

This is also an indictment of the South Korean pseudo-left organization Workers Solidarity (WS), which painted the removal of Park as a great victory for workers. WS hailed the participation and supposed leadership of the KCTU from the beginning of the anti-Park protests last year, working to prop up the Democrats and only offering mild criticisms for the sake of appearances. The trade union confederations support for Moon and chauvinist attacks on foreign workers exposes WS as the pro-capitalist and nationalist organization that it is.

The pseudo-left attempts to disorient workers and youth into believing the unions will wage a struggle in their interests. In reality, whether it is the KMWU, KCTU or WS, none of these organizations are opposed to capitalism nor do they speak for workers in South Korea or internationally. Their goal is to prevent the working class from breaking with the DPK and waging an independent struggle for its own interests.
At 7:00 a.m. on Thursday the Tufts Medical Center in Boston locked out some 1,200 nurses after they conducted a one-day strike Wednesday. Tufts University police stood at the entrances to the hospital, refusing to allow the nurses in even though they were seeking to return to work.

Passing public transit bus drivers honked their horns in support of the nurses who picketed outside, and nurses from the Mass General, Brigham and Womens, and Newton-Wellesly Hospitalsall part of the larger Partners Healthcare organizationturned out in support. Last summer nearly 2,350 Brigham and Womens nurses voted to approve a walkout, but the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) brokered a deal with Mayor Marty Walsha Democrat and former Building Trades union officialto accept concessions and prevent a strike.

Prominent Democrats, including US Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Stephen Lynch, are once again posturing as friends of nurses, showing up Thursday to serve coffee, muffins and pizza and hold a rally. The predicament nurses faceunderstaffing, attacks on their wages, health benefits and pensionsis largely the outcome of the Obama administrations attack on health care, which is now being accelerated by Trump.

The striking nurses will not be paid during the five-day lockout. Nonetheless, one told the World Socialist Web Site,Were not backing down. Were too strong.

Nurses at the Tufts Medical Center, who often work 16-hour double shifts without a chance to sit down or stretch, have been without a contract since April 2016. Their pay is often $8-$12 per hour lower than that of nurses in Partners HealthCare hospitals. Partners is much larger than the Wellforce Health System to which Tufts belongs and can therefore negotiate higher reimbursement rates with insurance companies in a system that puts revenues before the health of the working class.

The frenzy for insurance and hospital revenues will become more feverish after the announcement today that Mount Auburn Hospital, Lahey Health, Beth Israel Deaconess, and some smaller hospitals are forming their own health system.

The Tufts nurses are fighting for better wages and against management attacks on their pension and sick time benefits. The WSWS spoke with Kathy, Anne, Eileen and Chris who are Tufts operating room nurses with decades of experience. They responded in unison that, even while fighting for their own rights, they consider short staffing and the resulting threats to patient safety to be the most pressing issue. Particularly since Tufts joined the Wellforce network in 2014, the volume of ICU and operating room patients has increased dramatically while staffing levels have stayed the same.

Anne said, We do it all the time: work 16, 17 hours, come back and work another 10, 12 the next day.

The trauma unit and operating rooms at Tufts are so overbooked now that patients are sometimes routed to the endoscopy room. Kathy said, Theres not enough of us to provide the correct, safe care.

She continued, Where we strive for excellence, and we always have, now its almost like were settling for mediocrity. Not nurses, but the hospital.

Anne agreed, adding, Its all quantity and not quality. After 30 years, you cant change your nursing practice to just get by.

According to the nurses interviewed, ambulances are not bringing trauma patients to Tufts Medical Center during the lockout. Given that Tufts has a Level 1 trauma unit, managements brutality is putting lives at risk.

Other Tufts Medical Center workers such as scrub technicians are supporting the strike. Management has already forced sick-time cuts on the technicians similar to those it is planning for nurses.

The technicians, who are not unionized, have not been locked out. Nonetheless, according to Anne their support is part of what gave us the strength to come out this time.

Tufts Medical Center, Wellforce, and the larger Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) to which they belong are seeking to make an example of the Tufts nurses as they prepare further attacks on the rights of health care workers.

According to Anne, We have the feeling, just by their actions, that they had every intention of forcing us into a strike. Kathy agreed, saying, They wanted to see us go.

The MHA, an employer organization, which according to its web site represents 78 hospitals, is providing money for the strikebreakers, said the nurses. Calling the national companies that recruit and farm out scab nurses sketchy, Kathy and Anne pointed out the obvious fact that decades of operating room experience cannot be replaced overnight.

Calling Wednesdays one-day strike irresponsible and unfortunate, the MHA issued a statement threatening that the targeted action will ultimately harm the nurses themselves and cost millions that will be drawn from the funding the hospital had available for nurses wage increases.

These threats against the livelihood of nurses give the lie to claims that Massachusetts 2006 health insurance lawa prelude to Obamacare which included an individual insurance mandateprovides health care for all.

Even while crying poor, Tufts Health Care has hired PR firms and a real estate manager as it seeks to expand its campus. Its CEO, Dr. Michael Wagner, made nearly $1.1 million in 2015 while eight of its trustees raked in at least $500,000 each, according to its Form 990 filing.

According to masslive.com, Wagner said on Tuesday, There is no more money. Wellforces revenues are approximately $1.6 billion per year.

Ellen Zane, Wagners predecessor as Tufts CEO and a current member of the Tufts and Wellforce boards, boasted to Boston Magazine in 2011 that after the 2006 law she quickly realized that her nimble midsize company could outmaneuver Partners in this new value-driven healthcare economy under her watch, Tufts doctors have been paid 20 to sometimes 40 percent less than Partners doctors.

As for the nurses, Anne told the WSWS with the raises management wants to give, It will take four or five years before we get to where other nurses are now.

The limited strikes called by the MNA and its promotion of the Democrats can only lead nurses to a dead end. There is widespread support for struggle for the right to high-quality and free health care. This social right will not be won through impotent appeals to Bernie Sanders and the Democrats, but only through an industrial and political counter-offensive by the working class to break the grip of the corporate and financial elite over every aspect of life, including life itself.
RACINE COUNTY  While Burlington continued to deal with historic flooding on Thursday, other western Racine County communities hit by the heavy rains this week managed to escape with far less damage, officials said.

About 6 to 8 inches of rain fell across parts of Racine, Walworth and Kenosha counties between Tuesday and Wednesday night. But in Racine County, it was the far southwestern most part of the county, where Burlington is located, that suffered the most.

And although communities along the Fox River, including the Village of Rochester, and the town and village of Waterford, saw road damage and backups in private homes, those areas received less rainfall than Burlington.

Even the 6 to 7-mile distance between the communities and Burlington was enough to make a difference, said Ben Herzog, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sullivan.

Really the whole area, from Kenosha County to Walworth County and even far southwestern Racine County, they just saw rain for a much longer period of time than the other places, Herzog said. These storms just continued to generate over the exact same area and so those areas just saw multiple hours of rain without stopping, whereas in other areas it wasnt that continually regenerative.

Damage assessments

That isnt to say those communities didnt have their hands full.

The situation was most serious in the Town of Waterford, where the Fox River came within a foot in one area of reaching peoples homes, said Town Chairman Tom Hinz.

There were also some road closures, and undercutting of culverts caused by flooding, but as of Thursday evening, things had mostly subsided, Hinz said.

Were in pretty good shape right now, he said.

Calculating the damages and mitigation expenses on Thursday, Village of Waterford staffers estimated the storms cost the municipality between $265,000 and $320,000 in damage, with another $500,000 in flooding damage to private structures.

As of Thursday afternoon, only a portion of one roadway in the village of roughly 5,350 people was still closed  Foxmead Drive from Fox Lane to Sixth Street  and the River Rhythms Concerts planned for Thursday and Friday nights were slated to go on as scheduled.

A handful of older homes saw a few inches of storm water in their basements, but that was mostly due to the high water table, Village Administrator Rebecca Ewald said.

The storm caused $250,000 to $300,000 in damage in Rochester, at North River Road where it crosses Eagle Creek, and $10,000 to $15,000 in road shoulder erosion on Oak Knoll Road, North Rochester Street, East Spring Street and Springwood Lane.
During a visit to Europe this week for the G20 summit in Hamburg, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull gave a speech in London that caused consternation in Australias media and political establishment because it exacerbated the rifts in his fractured government.

Turnbulls July 10 speech was an obvious bid to rebuke his predecessor Tony Abbott, whom Turnbull ousted in September 2015. The occasion was Turnbulls acceptance of the Disraeli Prize from a right-wing think tank, Policy Exchange, in honour of the 19th century British Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

Turnbull used the event to insist that the Liberal Party, which he currently leads, represents a marriage of liberalism and conservatism, and not just the socially conservative wing identified with Abbott, who increasingly has been attacking Turnbulls leadership.

Turnbulls European trip came amid rising popular hostility toward the Liberal-National Coalition government that has for four years sought to slash social spending and working conditions, deepening the offensive launched by the previous Labor government.

This opposition has only grown since the government barely survived last Julys election, which Turnbull called in an unsuccessful bid to break through the parliamentary impasse caused by the widespread resistance to the austerity program.

Yet Turnbull is also facing mounting criticism by the corporate ruling class for failing to carry through the full assault that he promised to deliver when he ousted Abbott. This is aggravating fissures in the Coalition, intensified by Abbotts efforts to muster support among the most openly right-wing Liberal Party elements for a challenge to Turnbull.

Two weeks ago, Abbott issued a Make Australia Work Again manifesto, echoing Donald Trumps Make America Great Again rhetoric, setting out an authoritarian blueprint for suppressing working-class resistance. Abbotts proposals include abolishing the powers of the Senate to block legislation, gutting public spending, cutting immigration and deploying the military for domestic repression.

With an eye to Washingtons agenda, Abbott also added military policy to his campaign against Turnbull, calling for the acquisition of US nuclear-powered submarines and for the government to follow the Pentagon in sending Australian ships and planes into the 12-mile territorial zones around Chinese-controlled islets in the South China Sea.

Turnbulls speech outlined his bid to outdo Abbott, not just in supporting the US alliance but in repelling refugees and boosting the powers and resources of the police-intelligence apparatus.

His address was ironically titled In Defence of a Free Society. He argued that the labels of conservative and liberal have lost almost all meaning, exceptin a swipe at Abbottwhen they were appropriated, often cynically, by one politician or another as it suits their purpose.

The convergence between the two strands of the Liberal Party, Turnbull said rested on standing for freedom, which now meant bolstering security. He cited the phrase the paradox of freedom coined by the anti-communist political philosopher Karl Popper. Turnbull quoted a passage from Popper demanding that the state should limit freedom to a certain extent.

Turnbull asserted that security and freedom were not opposites. Rather, freedom depended on security and therefore must be subordinated to it. The crucial question, he declared, was what security is required to enable our freedom.

Concretely, this meant, first of all, keeping Australias borders shut to all refugee boats. According to Turnbull, weak borders fragment social cohesion, drain public revenue [and] raise community concerns about national security.

In reality, unknown numbers of boats have sunk and asylum seekers have perished as a result of the militarys Operation Sovereign Borders. Hundreds of refugees remain incarcerated in offshore detention camps. This brutality inflicted on innocent refugees fleeing wars, starvation and persecution is also a warning of the repressive methods being prepared against the working class as a whole.

Turnbull proposed that the Australian experience offered the seeds of a potential solution for Europe, as it grapples today with unsustainable inflows of migrants and asylum seekers.

Western governments are already turning to the Australian model as a means of scapegoating refugees and whipping up nationalism as a diversion from escalating social inequality and discontent. In presenting the Disraeli Prize to Turnbull, British Home Secretary Amber Rudd actually praised him for doing so much to promote immigration and integration.

Turnbull likewise declared his government is playing a leading role in fighting Islamic terrorism, which he called the greatest threat to freedom. He boasted of heading a push at the G8 summit for draconian state controls over social media.

Turnbull called for measures to force online service providers, like Facebook, Google and Twitter, to take down extremist material and compel encrypted messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal to unlock their codes.

Earlier, at a joint media conference with his British counterpart Theresa May, whose government also hangs on a knife-edge, Turnbull extolled the tough laws his government has introduced, supposedly to fight Islamic State and other terrorists. He also reiterated his statements at the G8 summit, backing the Trump administrations military threats against North Korea and demands on China to cripple Pyongyangs economy.

In an editorial, while voicing support for Turnbulls security initiatives, the Australian castigated Turnbull for having only fanned the flames of disunity by drilling down into the Liberal Partys ideological schism.

Perhaps unwittingly, Turnbull pointed to the deeper historical forces tearing apart the Liberal Party. He claimed the authority of former Prime Minister Robert Menzies, who adopted the label Liberal in founding the party in 1944 in order to appeal to small business and other middle-class layers, whom Menzies dubbed the forgotten people.

Menzies sought a lesser role for government in citizens lives than Labor did, but by our 21st century standards he was hardly an economic liberal, Turnbull noted. He believed in a highly regulated economy with high tariffs, a fixed exchange rate, centralised wage fixing and generally much more government involvement in the economy than we would be comfortable with.

Of course he was not alonehis UK and even American counterparts had similar views. It was a different age.

The globalisation of production over the past four decades has shattered the entire framework of nationally regulated economies and the reformist political parties based upon them, including Australias Liberal and Labor parties. An enormous social divide has opened up between a small wealthy elite and the vast majority of the population, including most of the forgotten people of the middle.

During his trip, Turnbull tried to revive the claim he made, when ousting Abbott, that he would provide the optimistic economic narrative that Abbott lacked, as means of drumming up public support for the agenda of austerity and militarism.

Weve got our skates on and were getting things done, getting the initiative, the momentum going on all of these matters, he stated at a UK media conference. At the same time, speaking in one of world capitalisms biggest financial centres, he pledged to step up his efforts to cut corporate taxes.

Were inspired by some of your reformsand particularly your reduction in company tax, he told May at their joint media event. Youre already at 19 percent, you said, and heading to 17. Weve made some progress in that direction but weve got a way to catch up.

To match British standards would mean almost halving the current company tax rate in Australia. This drive to satisfy the dictates of global finance capital epitomises the new age. It means dismantling welfare, housing, public healthcare and education, and preparing a police-state apparatus to confront the inevitable resistance of the working class.

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President Trumps signing into law of the Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act last month marks a deepening of the administrations attack on federal workers. The legislation erodes job protections for Department of Veterans Affairs employees; limiting their abilities and time windows to appeal unjust firings while cutting off benefits for workers who are under review for disciplinary action.

The legislation received bipartisan support, with 231 Republicans and 137 Democrats in the House of Representatives voting yes, while passing by a voice vote in the Senate. Trump signed the bill into law on June 23. The legislation was endorsed by a number of right-wing groups, including the Koch brothers-funded Concerned Veterans for America (CVA).

The Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act allows [the] VA to take action more expeditiously and to more easily defend its actions on appeal, as judges must now afford deference to VAs choice of penalty and must uphold actions when VA proves misconduct by substantial evidence, VA spokesperson James Hutton told the Washington Post.

Under the new law, VA workers will have only seven days to appeal a firing. In addition, firings will be carried out on a flimsy and circumstantial basis, allowing for substantial evidence rather than a preponderance of evidence to be marshaled to justify a dismissal. Senior officials facing termination will be deprived entirely of an independent appeals process through the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). Under the new law, the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs will have direct oversight of the charges, disciplinary actions taken and deciding of appeals for executive officials facing removal.

In addition, payouts of over $5,000 to workers who challenge their dismissal will need the approval of a senior official, supposedly in the name of stopping payouts to silence employees speaking out against the agency.

The legislation builds upon an earlier law, the 2014 Veterans Choice Act, passed by the Obama administration in the wake of the VA scandal of that year, in which officials suppressed stories of veterans dying or committing suicide after facing obscene lengths of time on federal wait lists to get care. Since 2001, nearly 128,000 US military veterans have committed suicide due to post-traumatic stress disorder and other afflictions stemming from their military service.

The Obama administrations law made it easier for the department to fire employees at will, while reducing the time window for a VA executive to appeal a firing to just one week. In addition, the administration introduced a voucher system for veterans, allowing those fed up with the lengthy wait periods to seek help in the private sector.

I need, as secretary, if Im going to change this organization, the ability to remove employees that clearly no longer in my view should have the privilege of serving our veterans, stated VA secretary David Shulkin during a press conference organized by the Christian Science Monitor last month. Shulkin, the only Obama administration holdover in Trumps cabinet, said of the VA that he wished to run this organization the way that the private sector runs organizations, thus demonstrating the essentially right-wing outlook of the previous Democratic administration.

In an unprecedented move Friday, Shulkin released publicly a list of adverse actions taken against over 700 VA employees since January 20, when Trump first took office, 526 of which were firings. The department released a statement declaring, together with the Accountability bill the president signed into law recently, this additional step will continue to shine a light on the actions were taking to reform the culture at VA  Veterans and taxpayers have a right to know what were doing to hold our employees accountable and make our personnel actions transparent.

The list of firings gives the lie to the administrations claim that it needs extraordinary powers to terminate government employees and enforce accountability within the federal workforce. While the VA fired over 2,575 employees for disciplinary infractions in 2016, the Trump administration is set to eliminate more than double that number in its first year in office, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

The Trump administration, rather than supplying the VA with the resources and staff it needs to deliver care for the millions of veterans injured in combat, is engaged in an effort to starve the agency of needed funding and resources, so as to facilitate the eventual privatization of the service altogether. The VA is currently understaffed by nearly 50,000 positions.

Between 2000 and 2014, the federal government has fired more than 77,000 workers, or roughly 5,000 a year. In addition, the number of federal government employees has remained virtually static since the 1960s, despite the growth of the US population during the intervening period.

The law will put workers even more at the mercy of their superiors. These provisions strike at the heart of the career-run merit based civil service system by empowering the VA Secretary and political appointees to conduct wholesale political firings of VA senior executives, stated Senior Executives Association President Bill Valdez in a letter to Congress last month. Valdez warned that the law could trigger a return to the spoils system of patronage, in which job positions would be filled on the basis of recipients having the appropriate political connections.

Union officials from both the SEA and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents over 70 percent of all VA employees, failed to return a request for comment issued by the World Socialist Web Site regarding plans to oppose the new law. Both unions embrace the Trump administrations phony arguments about accountability and discipline, fearing that a wave of mass firings could radicalize the workforce and lead to opposition going beyond the narrow confines of the trade unions and the Democratic Party.
On Thursday, the Washington Post, a newspaper wholly owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, published an editorial branding Russia a hostile power because it is opposed to bedrock American values like self-determination and a free press.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, writes the Post, favors spheres of influence over self-determination; corruption over transparency; and repression over democracy.

One reads these lines not knowing whether to be more amazed by their arrogance or their utter blindness. Bezoss newspaper indicts Russia for a set of circumstances that apply to the US as much asor morethan they do to Russia.

There is no doubt much to be criticized in Russian society and the Putin regime. The Russian working class, as it recovers from the trauma of Stalinism and the restoration of capitalism, will draw upon the lessons of its revolutionary history and deal as it must with this reactionary regime. But the Russian working people and youth, as they prepare to settle accounts with the Russian oligarchs, will not need (or heed) lessons in morality from the American oligarchs and their editorial mouthpieces. Dear American physicians of imperialist morality, they might rightly reply to Bezos and the scribes of the Washington Post, heal thyself!

The Post accuses Vladimir Putin and his cronies of becoming immensely wealthy at the expense of Russian society. But the editorial appears in a newspaper owned by a man who, as Americas second-richest person, controls more wealth than the five richest Russian oligarchs.

The United States is the most socially unequal developed country in the world. Every aspect of American society is dominated by exploitation and social inequality. It is a society with levels of concentrated poverty and social misery seen only in former colonies.

Mr. Bezos, who may well have commissioned the editorial, exemplifies this great social ill. This sweatshop kingpin, with a net worth of over $80 billion, earns $25,000 every minute by paying hundreds of thousands of people poverty wages.

Why doesnt Mr. Bezos walk through an Amazon factory and look at the conditions that his workers are forced to toil under? The workers who make $12 an hour or less are monitored every second of the workday and are penalized for going to the bathroom. And yet this modern-day slave-driver wants to lecture others about becoming immensely wealthy.

The Post further complains that Putin has maintained the trappings of democracya parliament, national electionseven as he has made them meaningless by shuttering most independent media and eliminating most political opposition.

That is an interesting observation, given the fact that Russias parliament has six political parties, while the United States House and Senate have only two! The despised two-party duopoly in the US maintains its grip simply because any oppositional party that attempts to get on the ballot is systematically excluded, whether through restrictive ballot access laws, spurious challenges by the established parties, or just the overriding domination of money over the whole process.

The Post adds that Putin favors corruption over transparency; and repression over democracy. Yet in the United States, despite two voluminous reports, one by the Senate and another by a special government commission, detailing widespread and specific criminal actions that led to the 2008 financial crisis, not a single banker has gone to jail.

In no country are elections more openly bought by the rich than in America. The US is so corrupt that one researcher recently calculated exactly how much money it takes in campaign contributionsi.e., legalized bribesto get a law passed in Congress.

As for the independent media, the major news outlets in the US are so derided that the word media has become a swearword. They simply spout whatever lies the military, intelligence agencies and billionaire oligarchs demand of them.

The Post declares that in Russia, unlike in the US, when people try to expose the corruption, they are imprisoned or killed. We are simply expected to forget Chelsea Manning, who was imprisoned for seven years and subjected to what the United Nations called cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment for exposing American war crimes.

And then there is Julian Assange, who has been effectively imprisoned in Londons Ecuadorian embassy for exposing official corruption and criminality. Edward Snowden was forced to flee his home country to Russia because he revealed systematic violations of the Constitution by the US government.

As far as Americans being killed for exposing corruption, there is no shortage of dark rumors, from the unexplained death of Democratic Party staffer Seth Rich, who Assange said may have leaked the transcripts of Hillary Clintons speeches to Wall Street, to journalist Michael Hastings, who died in a suspicious car crash after he ran afoul of General Stanley A. McChrystal.

The Post s editorial has one more crowning hypocrisy: its lionization of the corrupt and hated war criminal Hillary Clinton. Putins antipathy toward Hillary Clinton, writes the Post, was not personality-driven but based on her advocacy of values that would threaten his rule.

The name Clinton stinks to high heaven. After leaving the White House, Hillary and Bill Clinton amassed a huge fortune, racking up a quarter-billion dollars in personal wealth over the past 15 years.

So mad for money was this American Lady Macbeth that she decidedagainst the advice of many of her staffersto give paid speeches to banks like Goldman Sachs, which were vastly enriched by the elimination of financial regulations under her husbands presidency.

But Clinton, who laughed over the fact that her actions led Libyan President Mummar Ghadaffi to be sodomized to death with a bayonet, is held up as the ideal of democratic values. After all, the newspaper declares, she supported Ukraines democratic aspirations. This is what Bezos newspaper terms the 2014 fascist-led putsch aimed at reversing the outcome of the countrys 2012 election.

The Post declares that Russia, unlike America, favors spheres of influence over self-determination. This comes in defense of a country that spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined, and which declares itself to be the only military hegemonnot just globally, but in every region of the world. Russia maintains military bases in eight countries; the United States maintains them in over 70.

According to the Post, Russia is a hostile power. But Saudi Arabia, if one is to rate it by the scale of US arms exports, is Americas closest ally.

The United States spies on the people of every nation, including its allies (such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel). It has sponsored coups and destabilization operations throughout South America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. It has killed more people in wars than any country since Adolf Hitlers Germany.

The Post has the gall to dispense its cheap moralism in the very week that the press has been flooded with images of the ruins of the Iraqi city Mosul, in what Amnesty International described as an American war crime.

And perhaps one should ask the people of Haiti, Iraq or Afghanistan about the United States governments attitude toward self-determination.

Ultimately, the Post argues that the conflict between the United States and Russia is of an entirely moral character, devoid of economic and geopolitical interests. The US and Russia, the Post declares, are not about to go to warthey are two continental powers on opposite sides of the world with no territorial disputes.

But this is just a half-hearted lie, contradicted by repeated statements of US military officials. In testimony before Congress in May, General Curtis M. Scaparrotti, head of United States European Command, said a resurgent Russia is seeking to reassert itself as a global power, leading the United States military in Europe to return to our historic role as a war fighting command.

Five or six years ago, we werent concerned about being ready [to fight] today, Scaparrotti added. That has changed.

This state of affairs has changed, despite the insistence of the Post, because Russia got in the way of the United States plans for regime change in Syria.

There is perhaps no better analysis of the Posts sad attempt to wrap US geopolitical machinations in cheap moralism than that offered over a century ago by the critic of British imperialism John A. Hobson, who wrote:

It is precisely in this falsification of the real import of motives that the gravest vice and the most signal peril of Imperialism reside. When, out of a medley of mixed motives, the least potent is selected for public prominence because it is the most presentable, when issues of a policy which was not present at all to the minds of those who formed this policy are treated as chief causes, the moral currency of the nation is debased. The whole policy of Imperialism is riddled with this deception.
The war waged against Yemen by the Saudi monarchy, launched in March 2015 and supported extensively by the United States government, has produced a social catastrophe that easily ranks among the worst war crimes in history. The virtually complete destruction of Yemens social infrastructure, through deliberate and relentless bombing, has fueled an explosion of hunger and disease that continues to intensify with each passing day.

The past three months have witnessed a meteoric growth of cholera cases throughout the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation, with outbreaks reported in over 95 percent of Yemens internal subdivisions, resulting in 1,600 confirmed deaths thus far.

More than 300,000 cases were registered by the Red Cross this month, up from only 35,000 in April. Some 100,000 new cases were recorded during the past two weeks alone. Many of the victims are stranded in the countryside and unable to reach medical facilities.

So systematic and deliberate has been the Saudi assault against Yemens medical infrastructure that public health experts are describing the Saudi war policies as involving the weaponization of disease.

The Saudi-led bombing campaign has destroyed or damaged as many as 160 medical centers across Yemen, and fewer than half of Yemens health facilities remain functional. Saudi forces have actively blocked medical supplies from reaching affected areas. The World Health Organization (WHO) cancelled the delivery of half a million cholera vaccines this week, citing concerns that the scale of the outbreak and the intensity of the violence will make delivery of the medications impossible.

This cholera scandal is entirely manmade by the conflicting parties and those beyond Yemens borders who are leading, supplying, fighting and perpetuating the fear and fighting, UN official Stephen OBrien noted in a statement to the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

Yemen is facing critical stoppages of hospitals and a lack of doctors and nurses. The health system has essentially collapsed, OBrien said.

All of this is entirely man-madethis is a result of the conflict, UN aid coordinator for Yemen Jamie McGoldrick reiterated.

Two years of bombing and naval blockade have brought normal economic activity to a grinding halt, resulting in the non-payment of salaries and wages, and the widespread breakdown of basic services. In addition to hospitals, Saudi air strikes have regularly targeted markets, residential areas, and education centers.

As a result, more than two-thirds of Yemens population requires humanitarian assistance, with some 16 million going without reliable sources of clean water. More than 2 million children under five years old are in imminent danger of starvation.

The humanitarian situation in Yemen is appalling. The people are suffering from war, hunger and cholera, which has spread further during the last few weeks. The country is not suffering from a single emergency but a number of complex emergencies, which have affected more than 20 million people and whose scale and effect will be felt long after the end of the war, UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in prepared remarks Wednesday.

Although clothed in the usual rhetoric about human rights and international law, the Saudi war, supported by American imperialism and a coalition of regional allies, including UAE, Morocco, Qatar, Bahrain, Sudan, Kuwait, and Egypt, is motivated by geopolitical considerations, foremost among which is the struggle to control the highly strategic Bab el Mandeb waterway, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Most of the worlds crude oil supply from Gulf States passes through the Yemeni port (Bab el Mandeb) to Suez Canal. The route further stretches to the Red Sea and from there all the way to Europe, USA and North Africa. Approximately 3.3 Million barrels of world crude oil passes through Bab al Mandeb of Yemen to Suez Canal which makes Yemen a strategic trade route, the Pakistan Alternative Policy Institute noted in a July 9 report.

For the Saudis, the war has also served as the occasion for the establishment of a coalition of Arab nations, the so-called Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism (IMA), which Riyadh aims to employ as an instrument of its power struggle against the government of Iran. With its recent war ultimatums against Qatar, the Saudi government has made clear that the Yemen war represents only the opening phase of its larger regional agenda.

The evident failure of the war in military terms has not deterred Riyadh, which is sponsoring new offensives by Yemeni government troops in Saada and Jawf provinces, and tightening its blockade of Yemens coastline.

Their [Saudis] plan was to bomb Houthis to submission and that clearly didnt work. The two-year campaign is a failure. Houthis were not defeated and they are stronger, the country is disintegrating, and Yemen is the worlds worst humanitarian disaster, Yemen expert Nadwa al-Dawsari recently told Middle East Eye .

The Saudi leadership is now reportedly considering the reinstatement of longtime Yemeni dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh, who earned the hatred of ordinary Yemenis over many years of oppressive rule, was removed from power in 2011, as part of a US and Saudi-backed transition process.

Under conditions in which the outbreak of mass struggles associated with the Arab Spring threatened to divide the Yemeni national military and destroy the regime entirely, Salehs removal represented an attempt to salvage a Yemeni state apparatus whose close ties to the Pentagon had been cultivated over decades.

The failure of this policy become clear in early 2015, when Salehs successor, Abd Rabbuh Hadi, was forced to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia, after Houthi rebel militias captured the capital city and seized control of his personal residence at gunpoint. The possibility of Salehs return to power, after more than two years of bloody warfare waged in the name of returning the democratically elected Hadi to power, starkly demonstrates the lying nature of the official justifications put forth for the war.

Despite the formal leadership of the war by Saudi Arabia, final responsibility for the historic crimes unfolding in Yemen lies squarely with the American ruling class and state.

Last month, the US Senate approved the sale of $500 million worth of advanced weaponry to Riyadh. During the past eight years alone, the Obama administration authorized the transfer of more than $115 billion in weapons, military equipment and training to Saudi Arabia.

Throughout the Yemen war, American warplanes and intelligence and logistics personnel have aided the Saudi war effort on a daily basis. During its first months in power, the Trump administration approved a renewal of direct ground operations in Yemen by American ground forces.

The trajectory of Yemeni society during the past two and a half decades is a microcosm of the evolution of world history, and in particular of the fate of the ex-colonial countries, during the period following the breakup of the Soviet Union.

The unification of Yemen in May 1990, carried out through the absorption of the Soviet-aligned South Yemen into a political framework dominated by the imperialist-backed northern elites, was supposed to mark the beginning of a new era of democracy and stability. Instead, the intervening period has seen a steady escalation of American military violence against the country, with US drones and commando teams carrying out regular missions from 2001 onward, under the banner of the Global War on Terrorism.

Fifteen years of unending war, waged and sponsored in various forms by the United States, have left Yemen utterly shattered, politically, socially, and economically. The unity of the nation established amid the breakup of the USSR is today mocked by the ever greater breakup of the country into smaller fragments, controlled by various armed factions. The admonition of UN official Stephen OBrien, that we should all feel deeply guilty for what is happening in Yemen, could just as well read, we should all feel deeply afraid. The fate of Yemen only shows, in far advanced form, the future which imperialism is preparing for humanity as a whole.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - They say research shows homework at the elementary school level isn't as meaningful as reading to a child.

So, that's the plan, 20 minutes a night instead of daily assignments.

We spoke to Leon County School Board member Rosanne Wood about this new approach.

She said studies show the pros and cons of homework but reading and encouraging families to get involved is the key.

Wood said parents have shared concerns about their kids being overworked for the sake of testing and Marion County's new policy could be a solution.

"It has to be quality homework for there to be any sort of pro to it. Busy work, of course, is not productive," said Wood. "The main thing we want is parents reading with their children at night. That has proven to be the highest corollary of good reading -- it's that they read what they want to read with their parents 20 minutes a night. So, we certainly don't want homework to get in the way of that.

The Marion County School District says students will pick books and texts that inspire and encourage them to read.

This is not a policy Wood says Leon County needs to adopt, but it should prompt a conversation about what's needed in a child's education.
BURLINGTON  Burlington could receive federal financial aid to help deal with this weeks flooding, House Speaker Paul Ryan said during a press conference Thursday evening in Burlington.

Though it is too early to tell if the Federal Emergency Management Agency threshold for damage has been met, Ryan urged victims of the flooding to record their damages and report it in order to get the most accurate numbers.

Victims are urged to report damage reports by calling 211 or toll free at 866-211-3380.

Federal aid is not a sure thing; a certain level of damages must be incurred before Gov. Scott Walker can request assistance from President Donald Trump.

Its not a subjective process, Ryan explained. Its a data-driven process. If the data is such that it rises to the level of hitting that federal FEMA formula, then federal assistance occurs.  It will take awhile to figure out just what kind of damage were talking about here.

The fact that there were no reported injuries or deaths is perhaps the most impressive part of this whole ordeal, Ryan said. He commended first responders who ensured public safety.

This happened so fast, Ryan said. So many people were caught off guard, so its a real blessing that we did not have the kind of loss of life or injury that could have happened.

The number-one thing for residents affected by the rushing waters to do is remain safe, Ryan said.

Ryan could not help but relate this flooding to 2007s devastating Midwest flooding, which caused nearly $550 million in damages and 14 deaths throughout Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The Fox River flooded during that 2007 time period, cresting at 12 feet. The water peaked at 16.15 feet Wednesday, according to National Weather Service data.

The 2007 flood was only the third-highest crest reported by the National Weather Service until this week; the Fox River also crested at 13.5 feet in 2008  when the Root River reached record level  and 12.9 feet in 2013.

I was here in the 2007 flood, Ryan said. This was so much more devastating than the 2007 flood. This is much, much higher than what we had in 2007 when the Fox flooded then.

Meeting with constituents

Burlington Mayor Jeannie Hefty got a bear hug from Ryan after the press conference and then he turned to some local residents who appeared to be surprised when they spotted him downtown.

Ryan walked right up to Burlington natives Mark and Jackie Enright, who live off of State Street, to ask if they had water.

Yep. We have a whole basement full, Jackie Enright said. We dont have electricity.

Enright has spent all of her free time cleaning up her damaged house and took a break to check out the swollen river downtown when she saw Ryan. She admits it was a thrill, especially when he asked for her name.

I appreciate him coming down and caring. A lot of us are hurting and going through a rough time. Its good that people like him come and see what were going through, Jackie Enright said.

While shes taken showers at a relatives nearby home, Enright said a big focus has been the constant struggle with rising water, which has stayed in the basement despite constant pumping.

Its going out and its coming back in, Jackie Enright said. Until the level goes down, were going to continue to have water.

Even so, Enright said shes been blessed by the people who have helped her.

Until the water goes down, well be pumping it out of there, she said.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The Able Trust is recognizing four students with disabilities after their participation in the Florida High School High Tech Speech and Research Contest.

The Able Trust, also known as the Florida Endowment Foundation for Vocational Rehabilitation, recently recognized four students with disabilities for their research, public speaking and communication skills in its Florida High School High Tech (HSHT) Speech and Research Contest.

The winning students moved to the finals after competing in local and regional contests. Two of the finalists, including the first place winner, are from the Big Bend:

First place: Mackenzie Pugh of Wakulla HSHT for her presentation on increasing civic participation among Floridians.

Second place: Abria Preyer of Foster Care HSHT Orange County for her presentation on bullying in schools and the workplace.

Third place: RJ Curtis of Pasco HSHT for his presentation on encouraging adoption from the foster care system.

Fourth place: Riley Littlefield of Leon HSHT for his presentation on increasing civic participation among Floridians.

This is the second year the contest has been held, which required the students to research and present a topic relevant to Floridians.

For over 26 years, The Able Trust has supported a diversity of projects and programs statewide, and has helped thousands of Floridians with disabilities gain employment. For more information visit www.TheAbleTrust.org.
PELHAM, GA (WALB) - The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating a shooting in Pelham that happened Thursday morning.

It happened in the 200 block of Martin Luther King Junior Blvd just before 1 a.m.

Officials say a man was sent to the hospital after someone shot him and then stole his car.

The victim's vehicle was found in Mitchell County.

The shooter has not been caught and the investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with any information on this shooting is urged to call the Pelham Police Department or the GBI.

Copyright 2017 WALB. All rights reserved.
Full repeal of Wisconsins prevailing wage requirement is regaining momentum after its lead state Senate supporter said it must be included in the next state budget.

The demand from Assistant Senate Majority Leader Leah Vukmir, R-Brookfield, inserts another wrinkle into talks about how to break the state budget impasse. Lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker already missed a July 1 deadline to enact the new two-year spending plan.

Twenty-four GOP lawmakers included prevailing wage repeal in a separate proposal, made public Thursday, that they say would cut costs at the state Department of Transportation.

Back on the table

Together the developments re-ignite a prevailing wage repeal debate that, at least publicly, had grown dormant in recent weeks.

Two years ago, GOP lawmakers and Walker partially repealed prevailing wage, the minimum pay requirement for workers on public construction projects, by removing it from projects funded by local governments.

Vukmirs proposal would abolish it entirely by removing it from state-funded projects. Only projects with federal funding would remain subject to the federal prevailing wage requirement, known as Davis-Bacon.

The repeal measure enjoys broad support from business groups, GOP lawmakers and Walker, who included it in his original budget proposal. The Legislatures budget-writing committee removed it from the budget in April along with other non-fiscal provisions.

Prevailing wage repeal bills sponsored by Vukmir and state Rep. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, were heard by lawmakers this spring, but little has been said publicly about them since.

Now, Vukmir and at least two other senators say prevailing wage repeal needs to be back in the state transportation budget. Without a revenue infusion or new borrowing, lawmakers face a nearly $1 billion funding gap to match what they approved for highway improvement spending in the last budget, according to the states nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Any viable transportation proposal must include the repeal of this unnecessary law to receive the support it needs to pass the Senate, Vukmir said in a statement.

Vukmir has said she is considering seeking the Republican nomination in 2018 for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, of Madison.

Senators whose offices told the Wisconsin State Journal they side with Vukmir include Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, and Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg.

Kapenga, in a statement, said any discussion on a viable transportation package must start with reforming the way WisDOT conducts business and must include a full repeal of prevailing wage.

Not all senators are taking a hard line. Sen. Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, said hes fine with repealing prevailing wage as part of the budget or as a standalone measure.

Spokespersons for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, did not respond to requests to respond to Vukmir.

Vos said Thursday he supports the inclusion of prevailing wage repeal in the DOT efficiency proposal offered by the 24 lawmakers, which also include Hutton.

Eric Bott, a spokesman for Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin, a conservative advocacy group that has helped lead the push for prevailing wage repeal, said his group fully anticipates that it will be put back in the budget.

Counting votes

If at least three GOP senators side with Vukmir, they could attempt to ensure prevailing wage be included in any final budget deal. Thats because a budget likely must be passed with only Republican votes  all Democrats are likely to oppose it  and Republicans hold a 20-13 edge in the Senate.

A full repeal of prevailing wage would be another resounding defeat in Wisconsin for labor unions, which helped enact such measures nationwide during the New Deal era.

Democrats and labor groups say prevailing wage ensures all contractors have a level playing field when bidding for public projects. That helps Wisconsin contractors compete with those from out of state, while also preventing shoddy contractors from landing state jobs, they say.

Prevailing wage repeal supporters say the move is needed to cut costs for transportation projects. Vukmir has said it would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over time.

The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau found research on the impact of prevailing wage laws on construction costs is mixed and inconclusive.

A fiscal estimate for the bill from the state DOT predicted it will save the department money but said its impossible to predict how much. The estimate notes that since most highway projects use federal funds, the bill only would exempt a small minority of projects from prevailing wage.

An estimate from the University of Wisconsin System said it cannot predict the bills impact on the Systems budget.
In two packed meetings Tuesday, Yakima Valley residents and members of the medical community voiced support and concerns over the proposed pur
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Assuming there is a large and bad fire burning under the heavy smoke screen surrounding the submarine affair , assumingwith a certain amount of confidencethat this is much more than a storm in a teacup, and in light of the fact that the nations finest sonsa retired major-general, a retired brigadier-general, a senior officer and several other officers whose names have yet to be revealedare reportedly involved in this affair, let every Jewish mother know who are the people sitting at the centers of the State of Israels most security-sensitive junctions, junctions that are sensitive to its sons fate.

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Dont be deceived by the fact that the lawyers representing the suspects have expressed full confidence in their integrity and decency. Its the lawyers job to say these thingspardon me, to recite them like a sort of mantra: "My client, bla bla bla, is happy the investigation is now out in the open, bla bla bla, and hes being given the chance to prove his innocence." Hes really happy. Each one of them is happy and theyre all happy together, and were the only ones who are becoming sadder every day.

Maj. Gen. Marom, former high-ranking officers say, was an outstanding professional in his field, but there was a reason the Navy commander who preceded him tried to thwart his appointment (Photo: Gil Nechushtan)

Were talking about suspicions of bribery, fraud, breach of trust and what not. The Germans, organized as usual, called it useful expenses. Those were the exact words of an official document issued by the Thyssenkrupp company. And this is what it said about Israel and India: The activity in developing markets makes the payment of useful expenses necessary. In other words, its not a regular necessity in the companys international dealsbut only when it comes to two countries: Israel and India. Good company, a great honor. Not to mention the fact that Israel, one of the worlds biggest buyers of weapons, was defined there as a developing market, which begs the following question, of course: Developing where? On its way into deep water in an effort to break new records of deterioration, just like the Sea of Galilees red line, which drops further and further in each measurement. In a moment, it will be lower than the Dead Sea.

Its embarrassing and shameful. Is it possible that these were all good, worthy and loyal people with a sense of mission, who turned into what theyve become a moment after removing their uniform, allegedly trading in the states security to pocket a few more millions, or tens of millions?

Former top-ranking Navy officers say they werent surprised when the names began emerging in the media months ago. Major-General (res.) Eliezer Chiney Marom , they say, was indeed an outstanding professional in his field, but there was a reason the Navy commander who preceded him, Major-General (res.) Yedidya Yaari, went to so much trouble to try to thwart his appointment, an appointment which was eventually carried out after Major-General David Ben-Beshts early retirement.

The fact that later on, as Navy commander, Marom was spotted partying at a strip club but in plain clothes, didnt surprise anyone either. They were surprised neither the fact that he was there, nor by the fact that he provided a twisted series of excuses, such as I was invited to a birthday party, I left after 10 minutes, etc.especially as the club owners told the media that Marom had been a regular visitor.

And the same applies to the others. There are no surprises, I was told by a very senior officer. People dont change their spots, its only the opportunities that change. And so the good fellows from the sea went along, and in the bring a friend method, they allegedly concocted dish which is unusual even in the Israeli reality. Its unusual not just in the volume of the useful expenses, allegedly of course, but also in the security-related meaning of this affair, especially in terms of the ships that were supposed to provide protection for the gas fields off Israels shores. Sort of white elephants that could have simply docked in front of Tel Avivs Atarim Square, for the glory of the State of Israel.

And now what? Now we just have to wait and see what will happen, what interpretation will the lawyers provide for the useful expenses on their clients behalf, what else will be uncovered once the curtain is raised, and what will the system do to assure us once again that a moment after the generalsnot all or most of them, of course, just few of themslip into plain clothes, we wont have to find out in which hands we put our future and our childrens future.
Dozens of religious lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT), along with their families, took part in a new campaign aiming to raise awareness and acceptance or religious LGBTs.

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The campaign is titled, the Beautiful Faces of our Loved Ones, Women and Men who Wish Us Well with a Loving Heart, Who Held Us Tight when We Told Them Who We Are. It includes the photos of a mother and her son, an uncle and his niece, a grandmother and her grandson, a brother and sister, and of best friends. Their photos will be shown on billboards in time for the Jerusalem Pride parade in August, whose theme this year is LGBTs and Religion.

Religious LGBTs chanting a call for love and acceptance at the Jerusalem Pride parade (:  )

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The campaign was spearheaded by the gay religious organization Havruta (Friendship), in cooperation with other organizations from the gay religious community, such as the religious lesbian organization Bat-Kol (Voice), the religious tolerance organization Shoval and the LGBT center Jerusalem Open House.





Elik and Yafa Auster, a grandmother and her grandson (Photos: Dor Lubton, Hila Shiloni and Alona Meshulami)

"I may not love enough to announce my love, but other than that I say what I want," stated Yafa Auster, who was photographed with her grandson, Elik.

"A big part of why I'm religious today is because of her," added Elik. "My grandmother's stories have become part of my own, linking me to the larger story of the People of Israel. The world will be a better place with people prefer grandmothers over ideology."

Helen and her son's partner, Yair

"'The world will be a better place when parents accept their children as they are," said Helen Albom, the mother of Chaim, who defines himself as gay. Helen decided to be photographed with Chaim's partner, Yair Strauss. "The Blessed G-d created them, and we have to believe in Him and accept this with love. Because everything comes from G-d and it is all for the best.

"The world will be better society realizes that the Blessed G-d doesn't make mistakes. We were all made in His image, and we want a life of truth and happiness out of the belief that the Lord loves us," added Strauss.

The campaign asks its participants the same list of questions. It is a continuation of last year's campaign, which included religious LGBTs publicly identifying themselves as such for the first time.

Though many in today's religious community do not accept its LGBTs members or the Pride parade and other LGBT events, in the past Jewish communities did show some level of acceptance toward its LGBT members, and saw same-sex inclinations as a natural human occurrence.

Helen answered one of the questions presented to her by saying, "I'll never forget the delicious yeast cake he (Yaired) brought me when he came to visit me with Chaim for the first time." She added that "I wanted to tell him that I was so happy he is my son's partner, because I could see the positive connection between them. That I was happy for them."

Havruta Chairperson Daniel Jonas said that "this campaign is another step in recognizing religious LGBTs. We came to show that we have the growing support of our families and the communities in which we live.

"Even if we could be ignored, our families, friends and those who surround us cannot be. We are flesh of their flesh, (as well as) the flesh of the religious community." Jonas added that this year's theme in Jerusalem, of LGBT and religion is "an opportunity to once again call out loudly, 'We're here, and we're not going anywhere!'"
HONOLULU - A US soldier accused of wanting to commit a mass shooting after pledging loyalty to the Islamic State group believed the moon landing was faked, questioned the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and thought the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were an inside job coordinated by the US government, according to a former Army bunkmate.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang was ordered held without bail in federal court in Honolulu Thursday after a brief detention hearing. Kang's court-appointed attorney Birney Bervar did not contest his client's detention but said after the hearing that he will ask for a mental health evaluation.

A "turning point" for Kang's mental state seems to be a 2011 deployment, Bervar said: "He's a decorated American soldier for 10 years, goes to Afghanistan and comes back and things start going off the rails."

Bervar said his client may suffer from service-related mental health issues of which the government was aware but neglected to treat.

"It looks like rather than helping him, the government exploited and took advantage of him," Bervar said.
WASHINGTON - Michael Caputo, who was an adviser to President Donald Trump's presidential campaign, said on Thursday he would testify on Friday to a US House of Representatives committee investigating possible Russian involvement in the 2016 election.

Caputo, a political consultant, issued a statement saying he would testify on Friday at a closed meeting of the House Intelligence Committee.

The committee does not comment on people it plans to interview or when.

Caputo resigned from the Trump campaign last year after writing: "Ding Dong the witch is dead!" on Twitter after Trump fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in June 2016.
WASHINGTON - Russia has said it is willing to deploy monitors to prevent any violations of a ceasefire in southwestern Syria by Syrian government forces, a senior US official said on Thursday.

Brett McGurk, US special envoy for the coalition against Islamic State, said the United States was "very encouraged" by the progress since the ceasefire arranged by the United States, Russia and Jordan took effect on Sunday.

"The Russians have made clear they're very serious about this and willing to put some of their people on the ground to help monitor from the regime side," McGurk told reporters. "They do not want the regime violating the ceasefire."
During an arrest operation in the Dheisheh refugee camp, rocks and heavy objects were thrown at the security force from rooftops.

The force opened fire in response, critically injuring an 18-year-old Palestinian who was among the rioters.
The breaking news report by Qatari-owned TV network Al Jazeera on the terror attack Friday morning at the Temple Mount completely ignored the attack itself, noting only that "At least three Palestinians killed in shooting in Jerusalem's Old City."

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An initial tweet about the incident made no mention of the fact the three attackers, who arrived at the Lions' Gate armed with rifles and a handgun, opened fire at Israeli police officers and wounded three people.

Only 40 minutes later did the network post a tweet saying "Israel says the three Palestinians were shot dead after they opened fire on police in Jerusalem's Old City."

Al Jazeera has often been accused of bias against Israel. Furthermore, Arab nations boycotting Qatar have accused the network of encouraging terrorism and demanded Al Jazeera's closure.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly considering closing Al Jazeera's offices in Israel, and the Government Press Office (GPO), the Foreign Ministry, the Shin Bet and the rest of the security establishment have all begun studying the issue.

Jordan and Saudi Arabia have already shut down Al Jazeera's offices as part of an Arab boycott against Qatar. Israel likely wants to take advantage of the situation to pull the plug on the Doha-based network's activity in the country.

There have been numerous calls to close Al Jazeera's offices in the country over the last few years because of the network's negative coverage of Israel.

However, concerns such a move would be a PR disaster for Israel along with the fact most of Al Jazeera's 34 employees are Israeli Arabs have so far stayed the government's hand on the matter.

Walid al-Omari, Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Jerusalem, defended the network, telling Ynet, "We don't incite against Israel or anyone else."

"We convey the news. It's not our fault if the news is ugly," al-Omari added. "We convey everything that happens to our viewers and to our target audience. In Israel, we put on air people from the government and the opposition, the right and the left, and even settlers... Even the prime minister himself was on our channel when he was the head of the opposition in 2009."

He said the fact Israel is considering closing down the network's offices in the country is a form of incitement. "I don't know why Israel needs to be dragged after everything that happens in the Arab world... Al Jazeera is a media body that operates lawfully and legally in Israel and in other country in the world," al-Omari claimed.

Al Jazeera is expected to petition the Supreme Court against such a move. "We've been in this type of situation many times, be it in Israel, in Arab countries, or in other places," he said.

"The Israeli government can't force itself on the world... and behave like a dark dictatorship. This is unacceptable," al-Omari added.
The terror attack on Friday morning calls for special attention and treatment because it happened on the Temple Mount. This fact has many implications that need to be addressed immediately in order to prevent greater escalation.

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First, we need to find out quickly whether the terrorists came armed from inside the Temple Mount, and if they were in the compound with weapons during the night.

Security forces at the Temple Mount (Photo: AFP)

If this is the case, Israel must immediately file a complaint with the Jordanian government, which is responsible for safeguarding and protecting the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, and is the one paying the salaries of the Waqf guards acting on its behalf.

Second, the aforementioned Waqf guards must be questioned and banned from the Temple Mount until measures are taken to preserve the security and sanctity of the site.

Third, the circumstances behind the incident must be made public quickly to prevent an "alternative truth" that would incite the local populace.

Final moments of the attack

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Al Jazeera has already reported that "At least three Palestinians killed in shooting in Jerusalem's Old City," and this narrative will resonate not only in the Arab world but in the Muslim world and the West if Israel does not take quick action to explain the true circumstancesthe terrorists were the ones who violated the sanctity of the place and not the other way around.

In the 1970s, when an Australian citizen named Denis Michael Rohan set fire to the pulpit of the al-Aqsa Mosque, extremely violent and dangerous riots broke out in the territories, and were subdued only with great efforts. Shooting dead the terrorists who fled to the Temple Mount may spark similar riots.

It is reasonable to assume this is a so-called "local cell." The question is who provided them with the money to buy their firearms. It is still necessary to find out where they trained, and most importantlywhen and how they smuggled the weapons into the complex.

Two of the terrorists on the Temple Mount

Additionally, the fact the terrorists are Israeli Arab citizens from Umm al-Fahm could indicate their possible collaborators, and what was the background for the attack.

Finally, there is a police station on the Temple Mount with about a hundred police officers who are tasked with maintaining the order and security in the area. How did the terrorists slip through the checkpoints and gates? Apparently there is a security breach that needs to be closed shut.

The two slain officers

These are the immediate questions needed to be asked and the lessons needed to be learned from the attack. The rest will come following a thorough and meticulous investigation by the Shin Bet, the IDF and the Israel Police.

We must also remember such attacks have many imitators, and therefore the precautionary measures must be increased on the Temple Mount to prevent another incident. The closure imposed on the Temple Mount in the meantime is necessary to prevent further religious incitement.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the phone and condemned the attack on the Temple Mount.

In the conversation, Abbas demanded that the decision to close the Temple Mount to worshipers be canceled, warning of the consequences of such a move or of exploiting it to change the religious and historical status quo existing in the area.

Netanyahu, on his part, made it clear that there would be no change in the current status quo.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on the offensive on Thursday night amid criminal investigations against two of his close associates, primary Bezeq shareholder Shaul Elovitch and attorney David Shimron.

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In a rare interview with Channel 20, which is considered friendly towards the prime minister, Netanyahu launched yet another attack against the Israeli media.

"They know I cannot be defeated in elections, so they're trying to put scandals on me," Netanyahu said in the interview aired shortly before midnight.





Prime Minister Netanyahu (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

"We're at the midst of an unprecedented media campaign meant to besmirch me using empty accusations in an effort to change the government," he asserted. "I don't want to turn the other cheek; I want to give some slaps back. Since almost the entire media is part of this campaign, only on Channel 20 I get to finish my sentences."

Netayahu claimed no knowledge of the ties between Elovitch and Communications Ministry director-general Shlomo Filber, who is currently suspected of revealing classified information to Elovitch, which Bezeq then benefitted from. "I have no idea, I don't know anything. Nothing," he said.

Shlomo Filber, left, and Shaul Elovitch (Photos: Orel Cohen, Yuval Chen)

A law enforcement official noted there is no evidence at this point to indicate Filber acted at the orders of then-communications minister Netanyahu.

Concerning the investigation into corruption surrounding the procurement of submarines and patrol ships from German conglomerate ThyssenKrupp, in which Shimron is a main suspect, Netanyahu clarified "the attorney general explicitly said there are no suspicions against me. This doesn't stop the media from coming at it with full force and blowing the case out of proportion."

Netanyahu giving interview to Channel 20

On Shimron's client, businessman Miki Ganor who represented ThyssenKrupp in Israel, the prime minister insisted, "I don't know who he is, I've never met him. And I have no idea what is attributed to him and what isn't. I only know one thing... I am not a suspect and I didn't do anything improper."

He also came out in defense of Shimron and Filber, saying, "I know them as honest and ethical people and I have no doubt nothing will come out of this. Besides, a person under investigation is not guilty. Additionally, these investigations have nothing to do with me. Nothing," he stressed.

Attorney David Shimron (Photo: Yair Sagi)

On his Facebook page, Netanyahu posted an image branding most of Israel's leading media organizations as "Fake news," including Ynet, Channel 2 and Channel 10, Channel 2's website Mako, Walla! News, Haaretz, and its financial newspaper The Marker.

"The fake news system is simple: they simply paste the photo of the prime minister under bombastic headlines with baseless accusations and expect the brainwashing to get the job done and sway public opinion," Netanyahu wrote in his post.

"In the past, it worked when we got (Ehud) Barak in 1999 with promises of a 'dawn of a new day' and buses blowing up every other day. Unfortunately for them, these days it doesn't work, because the people of Israel have the ability to speak their mind, learn the truth, and expose the lies on social media," he added.

Talking points to Likud members

Earlier in the day, the prime minister summoned his close confidants in the Likud party for a meeting in his office, instructing them on how to respond to the recent affairs.

"There's an attempt to lynch me and a campaign against me," Netanyahu told ministers Yariv Levin, Ze'ev Elkin, Miri Regev and Ofir Akunis, as well as MKs David Bitan, Miki Zohar and Amir Ohana.

"The goal is to bring me and the Likud down. Political elements and media figures are joining forces," he accused.

"According to the Justice Ministry and the comptroller report, I did not make any controversial decisions. In the submarines investigation, it was explicitly clarified I was not involved. But that doesn't matter. You know why? Because Bibi is guilty even if his innocence is proven," he went on to say.

The ministers and MKs were given talking points and several of them were also scheduled to appear on different TV and radio shows.

Netanyahu's talking points about the submarine investigation

"I invited you over to tell you the facts, and you'll present them in interviews you give to the media," the prime minister told them.

But not all members of Likud were on board. "I'm not willing to participate in Netanyahu's campaign, because I don't want this entire thing to stick to me later," said one senior Likud official. "The fact is that many of the senior Likud minister have not come to his aid."





Netanyahu's talking points about the Bezeq investigation

A senior Likud official said Thursday that Netanyahu "is not worried about the legal aspect of these affairs, but about the damage caused to his and the Likud's image."
Police detained the top Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, Grand Mufti Mohammed Hussein, following the deadly Palestinian shooting attack that took place at the Temple Mount Friday morning.

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Hussein's son, Omar, told The Associated Press that police detained his father Friday and took him to an Old City police station.

Mohammed Hussein (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

The police also brought in for questioning Hussein's predecessor, Ekrima Sa'id Sabri, who currently delivers the Friday sermon at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Sabri served as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem between 1994 and 2006 and was dismissed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas due to his extremist views, which were not consistent with the PA's official policy.

Sabri has indirectly expressed his support for terror attacks against Israel over the years, and according to his public statements, he shares many of his opinions with Hamas. As a result of his extremist views, he has been under the scrutiny of the Israeli defense establishment for some time.

Ekrima Sa'id Sabri (Photo: Atta Awisat)

Friday's shooting from inside the walled compound in Jerusalem's Old City killed two Israeli policemen. Police gave chase and killed the three assailants.

The sacred site is revered by both Muslims and Jews, known respectively as the Noble Sanctuary and the Temple Mount.
Iran has leased a military airfield from the Syrian government in the center of the country in order to station fighter aircraft. Iran is also negotiating with the Syrians to establish a land base for Shiite militiamen and a port in the city of Tartus.

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The land base would be an Iranian autonomous base capable of supporting 5,000 Iranian militiamen believed to be mercenaries from Afghanistan and Pakistan under the command of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

These steps represent a move by Iran to establish a long-term presence in Syria and pose a threat to Israel.

Iranian army troops in Tehran (Photo: AP)

They also represent an annexation plan by Iran to take control of a series of territory in the Middle East with the goal being to create territorial and maritime contiguity from Iran to Lebanon, Sudan, the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, and on to Iraq and Jordan before reaching the Israeli border.

Intelligence sources in the West note that the Iranian measures are reminiscent of a similar move by the Russians in 2015, in which the Khmeimim airport in Syria was leased, setting up an air force and declaring the region autonomously Russian.

In an interview published Thursday with leading Russian newspaper "Kommersant," Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman warned against Iranian entrenchment in Syria.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

"The establishment of an air and sea base and the attempt to permanently station 5,000 Shiite fighters on Syrian soil are not acceptable to us, and will have heavy consequences. Iran is attempting to make all of Syrianot just the southwestinto a frontline base against Israel. We will not accept it. We insist that there be no trace of Iranian presence on Syrian soil, and we insist on this arrangement in every settlement," said Lieberman, whose comments were quoted in all major Russian news agencies.

Lieberman officially confirmed in the interview that Iran is pumping $800 million annually into Hezbollah. He also said that Hezbollah was trying to establish a front base in Syria that would threaten Israel.

The defense minister also revealed that American and Russian representatives will soon meet with Israeli representatives in Vienna and will update them on the cease-fire agreements in Syria that were signed between the sides.

Hezbollah (Photo: AP)

"If the details of the agreement provide satisfy us, we will more than welcome the initiative to calm the situation," said Lieberman.

When asked about the Moscow's recognition of the Assad regime as legitimate, Lieberman said that Israel would not intervene or interfere in Syria's internal affairs, except in cases where Israeli sovereignty is violated from within Syria.

"We react when Syrian army shells fall in our territory, but we do not respond apparently strong enough. The Russians would have reacted much more strongly in the same situationwe react forcefully even when we recognize the establishment of a base designed to open another front against us," warned Lieberman.
A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a security vehicle in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem.

The police reported that two passengers and an infant were lightly injured from smoke inhalation.

Security forces are currently looking for suspects.
Thousands of mourners attended the funerals of Staff Sgt. Maj. Ha'il Satawi, 30, and Staff Sgt. Maj. Kamil Shnaan, 22, of Maghar and Hurfeish, respectively, who were both murdered in a terrorist attack Friday morning at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

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Satawi is survived by his three-week-old son, his wife, parents and three brothers.

Numerous government officials attended both funerals, including Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan, Labor Party Chairman Avi Gabbay, Opposition Chairman Yitzhak Herzog, Minister of Education Naftali Bennett and MK Amir Peretz.

Satawi (R) and Shnaan (L)

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh spoke at Satawi's funeral, saying, "Today you shouldn't have been at the Temple Mount, but you switched with a friend who needed help. That is who you were, ready to volunteer for any mission."

Alsheikh continued, saying, "As usual, you were the first to run to the source of the shooting, and unfortunately for us, you found your death with your head held high, you and Kamil. Ha'il, your friends cannot digest the fact that you are not among the living anymore.

"More and more security missions are falling to the police; police who serve on the frontline on a daily basis. You served in the most sensitive place in the world, in order to preserve freedom of worship. There, vile people decided to thwart this right. We will not allow it."

Ha'il Satawi laid to rest (:  )

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Through tears, Kamil's father, former MK Shachiv Shnaan, said, "I am proud of my son, who is here wrapped in the flag of the country. I saw the reports about the attack and the headlines, and I did not imagine that I was the father of one of the fallen.

"He did not answer his phone and I realized that something had happened. In the name of the people of Israel, I wish these will be the last of the fallen. My heart is also with the Satawi family and I wish a speedy recovery to our brothers, the Kablan family. Enough of the crying and tears. It is my prayer that the rifle is replaced with the flower."

Kamil Shnaan laid to rest (:  )

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Avi Gabbay spoke at Shnaan's funeral, saying, "This is a day in which two outstanding officers fell during their duty. This is a day when the Druze community again mourns two of its sons who protected the citizens of the state with their bodies. We have a pact of life and blood with the Druze community, and we need to give this pact more weight."

Gabbay emphasized, "Even on a day when Arab citizens have hurt us, we need to remember to separate the murderers and the inciters from the general society."

Photo: Avihu Shapira

Photo: Elad Gershgoren

Mayor of Maghar, Ziyad Dagash, said, "Today a black day passes over us as two policemen were murdered. Dearest Ha'il, we will always remember your friendly personality. As we do, we will accept this sentence upright, because it is the will of God."

Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan also eulogized Ha'il, saying, "Unfortunately, I did not get to know you personally, but from all your friends and relatives we heard that you were a loved and promising man. It is extremely painful to know that you only just recently started your own family. You were a good friend and an amazing police officer.

Photo: Elad Gershgoren

Photo: Avihu Shapira

"What you did saved many lives and represented the values you believed in. The best are those who choose to stand in the front and that is who you were, Ha'ilit is our misfortune that those are the first to fall; the heart breaks, but you are the strongest of us all."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement, saying, "On behalf of all the citizens of Israel, I would like to send heartfelt condolences to the families of those murdered in today's criminal terror attack on the Temple Mount.

Kamil Shnaan

"This is a sad day in which our brothers from the Druze community pay the heaviest price in our joint mission to defend the security of our country. I salute them and their heroism, and their memory will always be preserved in our hearts."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected demands by Jordan Friday night to immediately reopen the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was closed following a terrorist attack Friday morning

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According to officials, Netanyahu said, "Instead of denouncing the terror attack, Jordan chose to attack Israel. It is appropriate that all parties involved, including Jordan, maintain restraint and refrain from flaming the atmosphere."

Photo: AFP

Officials also noted that Israel "protects the worshipers and preserves freedom of worship in the area. Israel will not tolerate attacks on the holy places and it maintains the status quo in them."

In a statement issued Friday afternoon by Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Al Momani, Jordan demanded that Israel immediately open the Al-Aqsa mosque to worshipers and not take steps that could change the historic status quo in Jerusalem and the mosque.

"The Jordanian government opposes any attack against Muslims in carrying out religious rituals in their holy places freely and without any obstacles," wrote Al Momani.

Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg

Al Momni condemned the escalation on the Temple Mount and demanded an immediate and comprehensive investigation into the incident. He did however clarify that "Jordan's principled position is condemnation of violence."

Al Momani further claimed that Jordan exerted intense pressure to reopen the mosque immediately, noting, "Jordan will continue to take utilize all diplomatic, legal and political tools to block any attempt to change the legal and historical status quo in Jerusalem."

Despite Netanyahu's rejection of the Jordanian demand to reopen the mosque immediately, Netanyahu did indicate that the area would be "gradually reopened" to worshippers Sunday.
YORK  The La Leche League of York will once again host their Baby and Toddler Photo Display in the newly air conditioned Mercantile Building at the York County Fair Aug. 3 to 6, Thursday through Sunday.

To enter the contest, provide one snapshot / photo per child (one child per photo, please) maximum 4 x 6 with entry fee for each photo. Please enclose information (PRINTED) with the childs name, birth date, parents name (or person providing information) with address and phone number of who to notify. Please state if you do or dont want the photo returned. If photo is to be returned, include a self-addressed, stamped ample sized envelope. Mail or deliver: 1) picture(s), 2) $3 entry fee(s), 3) information, 4) SASE; to Baby & Toddler Display, 711 North Maine, York NE 68467. An entry form is not required when the information is printed with fee, photo and data. The entry deadline is Friday, July 28, 2017. Please attach the same information to the back side of each photo

entered. The deadline may be extended IF ample space is open through Sunday, July 30.

The public is invited to vote in the MERCANTILE Building at the La Leche League booth. The cost is a penny per vote. One dollar equals 100 votes. Awards will be given in two age groups: 5 prizes for

Birth  12 months; 5 prizes for 13 - 36 months. Age group determined on Aug. 1, 2017. First place awards  $100 York Chamber Check for each age. Publicity and entry forms are provided in main businesses, most banks, some libraries throughout York County towns.

Proceeds will benefit the La Leche League of York, a non-profit organization, offering education and support to pregnant and nursing women. Breast-feeding literature, DVDs, and other resources are available from accredited volunteer leader, Gloria, at (402) 362  6875 or turnbull@inebraska.com during the month. Babies welcome, THIRD TUESDAY, 7 p.m. at monthly meetings, lower level of the York Medical Building, 2222 N. Lincoln Ave.
'Scrap affiliation to Universal Medical College'

Ten doctors associations have demanded the government to immediately scrap affiliation to Universal Medical College and warned that they would intensify the protest if their demand was not addressed.
YORK  City officials will be discussing the idea of installing raised medians and automated arms at the railroad crossing on County Road 14 (east of the county shop area) with county officials next Tuesday.

This particular crossing is outside city limits  but it is an integral location in the theory of a quiet zone in York.

The total cost of the project at the crossing would be $400,000  which is $250,000 higher than originally planned. But the city council has already given its blessing to the extra expenditure because the modifications there would provide extra safety precautions and lower liability issues.

During a recent city council meeting, it was clarified that even though these new physical modifications would be made, farm equipment would still be able to pass over that crossing as the width would be accommodated.

The change was brought forward after there were liability concerns regarding an agreement with the railroad that the city has to sign in order to move forward with the quiet zone project.

The conversation between the city and county officials is scheduled for 11 a.m., during the county commissioners regular meeting.

As explained by York Public Works Director Mitch Doht, if the county agrees to the modifications, this will start the clock on a 60-day review period for the railroad and state agencies.

Also during next Tuesdays meeting:

 The county commissioners will meet with officials from District 5 probation, to again discuss office space. The question at hand is whether or not the county should move the probation office (which it pays for) back to the courthouse and if cost-sharing with other counties should again be pursued (although the other counties served by this particular office havent participated in the past). Probation officers have indicated that they would like the office to stay where it is, in a separate building a block from the courthouse.

 Bids will be opened for a new cooling unit that provides air conditioning to the jail. This unit has been in jeopardy for some time and the commissioners have talked about the replacement having to take place now.

 Madonna Mogul, executive director of the York Area Chamber of Commerce, will provide an update on Yorks downtown revitalization process and potential projects that might come from it.

 Paul Moyer with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture will discuss the countys weed program.

 Deb Robertson, director of the Kilgore Library, will make her annual report and budget request.

 Carmen Hinman, representing the Hope Crisis Center, will make her annual report and budget request.

 Jay Spearman with Ameritas will discuss the procedure for bonding in order to fund infrastructure construction projects. The county has bonded twice before, in order to pave roads and replace structurally deficient bridges. As the last bonding period is nearing closure, the commissioners are looking at doing it again in order to accomplish projects that cannot be afforded otherwise.

 The board will hold at least one property valuation protest hearing.

 A possible personal property penalty will be addressed.

 The commissioners will look at on-call compensation for county employees.

 The county board members will take their quarterly tour of the jail.

The public is encouraged to attend the meeting, which will begin at 8:30 a.m., in the basement of the courthouse.
YORK  Numerous charges, including that of robbery, have been bound over to District Court against Michael R. Coleman, 29, of Omaha, after he allegedly attacked numerous people and tried to steal vehicles at the McDonalds restaurant in York.

The bizarre series of acts unfolded at the York interchange in late May when Coleman left the scene of a nearby accident, allegedly tried to steal several vehicles, damaged vehicles and assaulted several random strangers.

According to investigators, the situation started when officers with the York Police Department responded to an accident at the westbound off-ramp from Interstate 80.

The accident had been called in as possibly involving injuries. When they, along with a deputy from the York County Sheriffs Department and a trooper with the Nebraska State Patrol arrived, they tried to get the driver of the vehicle to cooperate . . . but he allegedly got out of the vehicle and ran.

They say Coleman was driver.

From there, he allegedly went to a nearby gas station and tried to break into a vehicle. When he had no success, he allegedly walked across the street to McDonalds and assaulted people.

It is alleged that he tried to steal vehicles while people were waiting in the drive-through. In doing so, he allegedly assaulted several people and at one point was able to actually get inside a vehicle. The owner of that vehicle, however, was able to pull the keys from the ignition.

Then, it is alleged that Coleman walked into the restaurant and indicated he wanted to order some food, as if nothing else had taken place prior.

Officers arrived and Coleman was taken into custody.

While no one was seriously physically injured, an elderly woman was taken to the hospital after being emotionally traumatized.

Coleman has been charged with the following felonies: terroristic threats, assault of an officer, criminal mischief having a value of more than $5,000, robbery, attempt of a Class 2 felony and being a habitual criminal.

A search of Nebraska prison records show that Coleman served a one-year sentence for being in possession of a stolen firearm in Douglas County. He was also sentenced in Douglas County to 18 years in prison for being the accessory to first degree murder  he began that sentence in 2008 and was discharged in October of 2016.
HOLDREGE  Rural Nebraska artists who want to show and sell their paintings, sculptures, drawings or photographs are encouraged to submit samples of their work to the Nebraska Rural Living Online Art Gallery by Aug. 1.

Art submissions are juried by a professional sculptor, painter and photographer who also live in rural Nebraska, and chosen artists will gain a store front on the Nebraska Rural Living online art gallery where they can promote, display and sell their art.

The online gallery launched a year ago, and now 21 artists are promoting their art to thousands of Nebraska Rural Living readers around the world at www.nebraskaruralliving.com/art-gallery. Artists have also benefitted from additional opportunities to share their work at public events through their selection into the gallery.

The Nebraska Rural Living online artist submission form is also available in Spanish (online) to encourage a culturally diverse group of artists to submit their work.

The goal of the gallery is to give artists a platform to share and sell their art while at the same time increase knowledge and appreciation of life in rural Nebraska.

Art will be accepted throughout the year for future consideration in the gallery. Submissions will be juried each quarter with the following deadlines: Aug. 1, Nov. 1, Feb. 1 and May 1. New artists will be added each quarter if selected.

To submit art for review, artists must have a Nebraska address in a rural town with a population of 10,000 or less. Artists must also have a website so that patrons can purchase their work if they are chosen for the gallery. Four types of art can be submitted: paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs.

Nebraska Rural Living, founded in 2006, educates its more than 30,000 readers that rural Nebraska is vibrant and business-friendly with amenities that appeal to families, retirees, entrepreneurs and tourists.
YORK  York Adopt a Pet submitted the following announcement of the organizations receipt of a major financial gift:

Susan White was like many of our great citizens residing in York and the surrounding communities; she believed in a cause that not only helps animals, but serves the citizens of our great community. She believed in the mission of York Adopt a Pet, its volunteers and supporters, and most importantly, helping the defenseless who are in the greatest need of security, shelter and love  the homeless animals. She generously supported that cause by volunteering and contributing to the greater mission of York Adopt a Pet for years.

White believed in a cause, supported this cause in life and beyond by naming York Adopt a Pet as one of the beneficiaries in her will.

Her generous gift will allow York Adopt a Pet to pay off the USDA loan that was required to build the shelter and help to continue the effort to care for homeless animals in our community. Because of Susans gift, York Adopt a Pets legacy will live on for generations to come. Her generosity will forever change the lives of so many homeless cats and dogs. Make no mistake; this is more than a monetary gift. This is a gift of love, compassion and hope.

The animals seeking forever homes need our kindness and compassion. Susan lived her life with kindness and compassion. This was reiterated when in June of 2014 she adopted little Emma, a senior Schnauzer who was left without a home when her owner had passed away. Susan lavished love and affection on this sweet little dog. Everyone at York Adopt a Pet was concerned and worried about little Emma when Susan passed away.

But once again the Adopt a Pet Family banded together and Larry and Donna Rhoades, longtime supporters and volunteers for York Adopt a Pet, opened their hearts and home to this sweet little senior dog. Susan was well known for her kind smiling face. We know that her radiant smile is beaming down on Emma, Larry and Donna and the continued efforts of York Adopt a Pet.

York Adopt a Pet is so grateful that Susan chose the gift of love, compassion and hope for all of the animals that will seek refuge and safety today and into the future.

On behalf of the board of directors of York Adopt a Pet, the volunteers, loyal supporters and, most important, the dogs and cats we unite in saying: Thank you Susan for your gift of love, your gift of compassion and your gift of hope.

We have been blessed with great community support and we thank each and every one of you who have given your time, donations, and support to York Adopt a Pet. As needs grow each year York Adopt a Pet will continue to need the communitys support. We cannot slow our pace in our fundraising efforts. We hope that Susans story will inspire others to give. No amount of support is too small. Remember what makes our community so great are people like Susan, people like you, the people who live in this community and call it home.

Susan you are York Adopt a Pets guardian angel. We will forever hold you dearly in our hearts.

White, age 78, died in late May 2016. She was born, grew up in York, attended Duchesne College in Omaha and in February 1964 married Richard White of Atkinson.

Judi Nordlund recalls, Dick and Suz lived across the railroad tracks from us on Delaware where they fostered YAAP dogs on their farm. Their favorite breed was the wiener dogs which they fostered and kept.

With her own initiative, said Nordlund, she had ceramic piggy banks made and they were distributed to whoever was interested and the money collected was donated to YAAP, (the pigs) were very clever with special names. She colored and decorated them.

Nordlund continued, Suz worked at the desk for several years and was a delight to all. A good sense of humor and a welcoming personality.

The board fully realizes donations will still be critical going forward if the shelter and the services it provides free to animals and the community alike is to remain open and viable. The gift, while extraordinary, nonetheless applies only to debt on the new building itself. Overhead and maintenance on the structure, constant and substantial veterinary costs, medicine and similar expenses must be met just as before.
This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company.

As of 2020, Minuteman Review is now the proud owner and operator of Your Defence News, a website with a long history of breaking huge news stories and investigative journalism.

We hope you are equally as excited as us.

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Zabka, Warszawa, 166 m2

Lokal znajduje sie w budynku apartamentowym Unimax Development w inwestycji Viva Vitolin, przy ul. Grochowskiej 87 w Warszawie. Bedzie dostepny w 4Q 2023 roku (podpisanie umow przeniesienia wasnosci).
250 tonnes of ginger stranded in Makwanpur

More than 250 tonnes of ginger have been stranded in Makwanpur after India restricted exports for the past two weeks, affecting large number of farmers and traders.
30pc coming in via informal channels

Governments effort to bring in wage earners remittances through formal channels is facing challenges due to poor financial access and lack of education, the concerned stakeholders said on Thursday.
Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years.
Chettri takes charge as chief secretary

The government on Thursday appointed Rajendra Kishor Chettri as the new chief secretary.
Dhurmus-Suntalis model settlement plan in dispute

The plan of Dhurmus Suntali Foundation to build a model settlement on 1,000 ropanis of land in Mahatagaun Sallaghari Forest Area in Lele, Lalitpur, has landed in a dispute following a protest from some locals, who say the project development could cause environmental disasters like landslides, destruction of wildlife habitat and pollution of water sources, among other things.
Ex-Kamaiyas unable to earn their own lands

Hundreds of former bonded labourers (Kamaiyas) in Bardiya district have complained about not being able to plant crops on the land distributed to them by the government. They say the plots are already being used by other Kamaiya families who are yet to receive land from the government.
Fugitives arrested after 23 years in hiding

Crime Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police arrested two persons convicted in a murder case that took place 23 years ago from Balaju of Kathmandu on Thursday evening.
YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. Sergey Avetisyan  head of the General Department of Civil Aviation, participated in the 6th World Civil Aviation Chief Executives Forum entitled Advancing Aviation: Fortifying Fundamentals in Singapore, press service of the Department told Armenpress.

The Forum focused on issues relating to new challenges faced by the world civil aviation field, the necessary steps of states to counter them and the importance of preparation and training of specialists of the field.

An importance was attached to proper implementation of security measures in the circumstances of increase in the volume of passenger transportations and the regulation of operation of UAVs which have undergone noticeable progress in the recent period.

Within the frames of the Forum, Sergey Avetisyan had several meetings with partners during which issues of bilateral interests were discussed and agreements over future cooperation were reached.
YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. Members of the U.S. Congress will join victims of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans security details May 16th attack on peaceful protesters in Washington, DC at a July 19th Stand for Free Speech at Sheridan Circle, site of the unprecedented foreign assault against U.S. protesters which hospitalized 9 people, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) reported.

The early morning event will start at 8:30 am and continue until approximately 10:00 am. Among the U.S. legislators who have agreed to take part and offer remarks are Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), who Co-Chairs the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and Rep. Dave Trott (R-MI), Co-Chair of the Congressional Armenian Caucus.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan s bodyguards have attacked peaceful protesters in Washington D.C. The demonstration, which began at Lafayette Square at noon, was organized by a coalition of organizations, including the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and the American Hellenic Council. Several different groups, which included representatives from the Armenian, Greek, Kurdish, and Assyrian communities, participated in the protest, while President Erdogan met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House. Later the footage shows that Erdogan personally ordered the security detail to attack the protesters.

During a press conference on June 15, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham announced that arrest warrants have been issued for the arrest of 12 members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans security detail and Turkish police officers in connection with the May 16 attack. Two Americans of Turkish heritage have already been arrested for assault.

With a vote of 397 to 0, the U.S. House of Representatives on June 6 unanimously condemned Turkey, sharply criticizing the brutal May 16th Erdogan-ordered attack.






YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan visited the Embassy of France in Yerevan on July 14 on the occasion of the French National Day - Bastille Day, press service of the Presidents Office told Armenpress.

The President congratulated and addressed wishes to Ambassador Jean-Francois Charpentier, the Embassy staff and the friendly people of France.

Once again stating that France is a friendly country for the Armenian people and reliable and good partner for Armenia, President Sargsyan assured that Armenia will continue the efforts aimed at strengthening the bilateral ties and the friendship of the Armenian and French peoples. Serzh Sargsyan asked the Ambassador to convey his warm greetings to President Emmanuel Macron.

The President and the Ambassador discussed the opportunities to expand and deepen the Armenian-French multi-sector relations at different spheres and attached importance to the mutual partnership also within the frames of the Francophonie summit to be held in Armenia.

Ambassador Jean-Francois Charpentier thanked the President for the visit, warm congratulations and wishes.

Serzh Sargsyan also addressed a congratulatory message to President of France Emmanuel Macron.

The centuries-old friendship between Armenia and France and the existing unique relations between our states, the high-level political dialogue and mutual trust are stable base for further comprehensive development and deepening of the Armenian-French mutual partnership.

I am convinced that we will continue strengthening via joint efforts the ties uniting Armenia and France both at the bilateral and multilateral formats for the benefit of our peoples.

Armenia attaches great importance to the efforts of France, as an OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair country together with Russia and the US, over the peaceful settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict for the sake of peace and stability in the region.

I highly appreciate Frances assistance to making Armenia closer to the European family, as well as the close cooperation established between our countries at international platform, including within the frames of the International Organization of La Francophonie.

Once again congratulating on the National Day of France, I wish you success and good luck, and further progress and welfare to the friendly people of France, reads the Presidents congratulatory message.


YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. By the initiative of the Indian side, Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian and Indias Minister of State for External Relations Shri Akbar on July 14 held a phone conversation, press service of the Ministry told Armenpress.

During the phone talk the two Ministers discussed the process of implementation of agreements reached with Armenias leadership during the Indian Vice-Presidents visit to Yerevan, exchanged views on ongoing steps aimed at developing the bilateral cooperation at different spheres.

Edward Nalbandian and Shri Akbar also touched upon issues relating to mutual partnership within the frames of international organizations.
YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. 4th industrial revolution today is the most widely discussed relevant topics at global platforms, Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan said during the presentation of Armenias 2017 National Competitiveness Report on July 14, reports Armenpress.

The PM said a good tradition has been formed to discuss the analysis of research centers over various issues of Armenias social-economic life at such platforms and find the right formula to move forward.

We are open to the ongoing developments in the world, and it is very important for us to understand and form how our participation is in these processes, what affect the 4th industrial revolution will have on our life and what we need to do today to overcome these challenges tomorrow and moreover, to maximally use its positive results and opportunities, the PM said.

He said the report is quite interesting, and the important for Armenia is that both opportunities and risks are mentioned in it.

It is obvious that automation as a result of development will significantly impact the current labor market, technologies will replace many people in their workplaces. Moreover, this will not only refer to the classical fields, such as production where robotics will lead to more optimal solutions, but also other fields, such as consulting field where artificial intelligence will carry out numerous functions instead of us. Or even the financial management field where as well technologies will replace people, he said.

He attached importance to right prediction of future professions in order to avoid unemployment phenomenon.

We will have a need to acquire new skills and knowledge. Therefore, its important to correctly predict the entirety of future professions to which we need to prepare our citizens starting from today in order to avoid the unemployment phenomenon emerged due to technology development. This requires from us a coordinated approach, and the education system here is at the foreground. Finally, the 4th industrial revolution brings the need to use non classical mechanisms for strategy development mostly based on solutions proposed in the report - create diversity, select and multiply, Karen Karapetyan said.

The PM stated that quick adaptation to the current challenges will enable Armenia to assume new qualitative role both in the region and the global platforms.

We can reach competitiveness, effectiveness, increase in production in case of forming a respective environment and will be able to greatly promote revealing new talents and their presence in quite new markets and platforms. This should enable us to understand our place and role, as well as the possible benefits in this new reality, PM Karapetyan concluded.
YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian community of France plans to carry out active works for the recognition of Artsakh, Murad Papazian  Co-Chair of the Coordination Council of the Armenian Organizations of France, told a press conference in Armenpress, adding that they plan to expand the number of international figures gathered over Artsakh.

As you know, the city of Alfortville signed an agreement with Artsakhs Berdzor community. This means that the French city recognizes Berdzor as an Armenian town. This is very important. Such examples need to be a lot. When the number of the French cities will reach 20-25 that signed cooperation agreements with the towns of Artsakh, we can state that we have recorded progress in our activity. This can help Artsakh to be recognized as an independent Republic, Murad Papazian said.

He said till now a serious work has been carried out and it will continue so that Artsakh will have a political sympathy in France. They will continue gathering influential political figures aimed at promoting this path among the government, the president and the MPs.

I have serious ties in diplomatic, political, governmental circles and I can state that Turkey and Azerbaijan are unable to deceive the French people. They know very well what is happening in Turkey, they know what is Aliyev regime. Aliyev regime is not respected in France. All know that the ties with Turkey and Azerbaijan cannot go far away. We need to use this situation for our success, he said.

Papazian stated that people in France are well aware of the Karabakh issue. They know that Azerbaijan doesnt want to establish peace and also know that Azerbaijan wants to solve the issue by military means.

The day when a decision will be made over the Artsakh issue is not far away. Such situation since 1994 is unacceptable for the peoples, he stated.
YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. A group of disabled tourists from Lebanon are impressed with the Armenian hospitality and reception, reports Armenpress.

Their trip in Armenia continues. They plan to visit Garni, Geghard, Etchmiadzin, Khor Virap within a week.

The State Tourism Committee of Armenia received a request several months ago which said a Lebanese company plans to organize the visit of a group of disabled tourists to Armenia so that they can reveal Armenia with their own experience and asked the Committee for assistance.

The Committee thanks Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan and the Yerevan Municipality for providing a comfortable transportation to the guests.

The group consisting of 38 disabled people is impressed with the Armenian hospitality. The Committee decided to meet and communicate with the guests.

They were very impressed and highlighted the attention and care of Armenians. Some of the tourists are interested in the Armenian brandy and wine. They look forward to the visit to the Ararat brandy company. The guests also mentioned the safety issue in Armenia, adding that they feel very safe here.
YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. Ukrainian law enforcement have seized 12 billion dollars in cash from the apartment of Alexander Klimenko, a former minister of state revenue of the country, according to Ukrainian media.

The confiscation amounts 12 billion dollars and it has great significance in terms of our further procedural actions, Ukrainian media quoted the countrys interior minister Arsen Avakov as saying.

Klimenkos other apartments are also being searched.
YEREVAN, 14 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 14 July, USD exchange rate down by 0.02 drams to 478.88 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.79 drams to 546.64 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.02 drams to 8.02 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 1.93 drams to 620.72 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 0.76 drams to 18766.61 drams. Silver price up by 1.84 drams to 245.57 drams. Platinum price down by 77.57 drams to 14072.26 drams.
House panel to govt: Recover taxes from Ncell immediately

The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee has asked the government to immediately recover the outstanding capital gains tax from the Ncell buyout deal that was completed in April 2016.
YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian and Russian foreign ministries held consultations on July 14 in Yerevan on cooperation of the two countries regarding human rights in international organizations.

The ministry told ARMENPRESS the consultation from the Armenian side was led by Vahram Kazhoyan, head of the international organizations department of the ministry, and from the Russian side  Anatoly Viktorov, head of the humanitarian cooperation and human rights department of the foreign ministry.

The entire circle of issues of mutual interest in the UN General Assemblys third committee and the human rights council were discussed.

After the consultations, the Russian delegation was received by deputy FM of Armenia Ashot Hovakimyan.
YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. Two Armenian citizens have been wounded as an unknown knife-wielding assailant attacked tourists in a Hurghada hotel in Egypt.

According to preliminary information two citizens of Armenia have been wounded in the Hurghada incident, Armenian foreign ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan said on Twitter.

An unknown individual attacked tourists in a hotel in Hurghada, Egypt. The assailant was armed with a knife. Two tourists, presumably Ukrainians, have been killed.

Reports suggest four others have been wounded. The attacker entered the hotel and randomly attacked the tourists.

At the same time, the countrys interior ministry said six people have been wounded in the attack and their citizenship is being clarified. The victims have been hospitalized.
MONTREALWritten and directed by Nica Noelle, new Icon Male release Age of Innocence tells a tale of sexual awakening and is now available on DVD through Mile High Media.

Age of Innocence stars Troy Accola, Jaxton Wheeler, Rodney Steele, and Pierce Hartman in an erotic tale of a conflicted youth and older men.

Nica has put together an outstanding film that blends compassion and human drama with amazing erotic moments, Mile High vice president Jon Blitt said. With its talented cast and compelling storyline, Age of Innocence is a great showcase for Icon Male as it continues to demonstrate its role as a leading provider of high-quality gay content.

Age of Innocence tells the story of a sensitive teen, Troy Accola, who must take care of his troubled mom and work a full-time job instead of going to school. But on one of his lonely walks by the lake, he happens upon older fisherman Rodney Steele, who hands the young man a rod and teaches him to fish. Soon, fatherless Troy is escaping his difficult life by staying at Rodney's, where he meets hot, manly couple Jaxton Wheeler and Pierce Hartman. But soon, Troy is forced to choose between his idyllic life with fatherly Rodney and his family obligations.

The latest Icon Male trailers can be seen on IconMale.com

For Icon Male sales and distribution contact [email protected]
Warburtons is helping children learn about wheat and sustainable farming by visiting working farms.

Children recently visited Claxby Grange, Market Rasen, as part of a countrywide programme developed by Warburtons in partnership with The Country Trust and Openfield.

During the visit, Year 6 pupils from Weelsby Academy, Lincolnshire, had the opportunity to explore a working farm, learning about the cycle of wheat, and explored the importance of soil, water and wildlife through activities.

Warburtons devised the project to educate children about the role the countryside plays in providing the key ingredients to create bread.

Brett Warburton, executive director at Warburtons, said the visit had been a success.

This programme is a crucial learning experience for young people, many of whom may not have an understanding of how vital a role the countryside plays in providing the raw ingredients required to put food on our plates, Warburton said.

By teaching children to enjoy and care for the natural world around them, this programme helps ensure the future of our countryside and the farming industry is protected for generations to come.

Warburton was joined by the CEOs of The Country Trust and Openfield, Jill Attenborough and James Dallas, to celebrate the success of the pilot programme, which has been running since June. Seventeen visits have been completed to date.
Great Northern Bakehouse managing director Ian Cross on transforming Olivias Artisan Bakery into a growing wholesale business.

Seven months ago, staff at Olivias Artisan Bakery were in fear for their jobs. Today, they are working for thriving business the Great Northern Bakehouse.

Olivias 13 staff were set to be laid off after the business  a combination of retail sites and a bakery - fell into financial difficulty. However, a group of investors stepped in to buy the assets and re-employed all staff, creating new business the Great Northern Bakehouse, based in Darlington, County Durham.

One of the investors, Charles May, was described by Great Northern Bakehouse managing director Ian Cross as a white knight with a track record of saving companies.

He belongs to a little group of like-minded investors based in the north east who run their eyes over businesses and look for an opportunity, Cross told British Baker. If they feel its appropriate, then they approach them.

When he joined the new business, Cross said he wanted to reassure staff about the future through actions rather than words.

When you come in as a new organisation, you have to demonstrate through actually spending money, he explained. Not only taking cash out of the business when it becomes available, but being prepared to put it back in again to fund new equipment and machinery and new plants.

You need to make sure the equipment is serviced correctly and that a long-term viable business has everything in place.

Cross and operations manager Jen Stockdale have been described by some of the workforce as pivotal figures in keeping the business afloat.

It was simple, added Cross. We tried to identify where the strengths and weaknesses of the business were, and how we could improve the overall robustness.

I think purchasing, distribution, manufacturing and the people were the main drivers behind the resurrection.

While Olivias had a combination of retail outlets and wholesale bakery, Cross said the new company planned to focus on wholesale.

The plans are very clear at the moment, he added. We want to revolve ourselves around manufacturing, production and being creative in terms of our menu and communicating effectively with our customers.

The Great Northern Bakehouse product range includes gluten-free lines, and the business recently announced it would be supplying gluten-free Battenburgs to 73 stores run by cancer charity Marie Curie.

Our manufacturing process is clear and well defined, to a point where we can produce efficiently and effectively, said Cross.

Since the start of the year, the company has increased its workforce from 13 to 19 and is supplying baked goods to Michelin-starred restaurants.

The bakers are a really strong bunch of people and are passionate about what they produce, Cross said. To have the stress of redundancy and liquidation hanging over them was very destructive and concerning for them.

It is a tremendous weight off their shoulders and gives them a chance to concentrate on what they are good at, which is producing high-quality bread.
Gluten-free family bakery Bells of Lazonby has secured an export deal with Australian business Bakery Depot to send its We Love Cake brand Down Under.

The family-run bakery will send 200,000 mince pies and 100,000 Iced Fruit Cake Slices for Australian customers to enjoy for the first time this year. The products will be sold from September onwards and will be available across 700 Woolworth stores.

Bakery Depot specialise in the importation and distribution of bakery products across Australia.

Michael Bell, marketing director for Bells of Lazonby, said that the company is delighted to be partnering Bakery Depot.

They are assisting us in continuing the successes of our We Love Cake brand overseas, Bell said. We plan to visit Australia in the run up to Christmas to see our products on shelf and also discuss further opportunities.

The appetite for British cakes is increasing in Australia as Premier Foods recently launched its Cadbury cake range into its market.

Bells said that they are planning to extend its range in 2018 to export more all-year round gluten-free products to the nation.
Twice in my life I tried seeking help when I was feeling suicidal: once from an in-person counselor, and once from a phone based hotline. Both services failed to provide the support I needed, and I left the experience feeling just as bad, if not worse. Thanks to mobile technology and one great idea, we now have another option  Crisis Text Line  and they need volunteers who can text, particularly late at night, since peak crisis hours are between 8pm and 4am.

How it works: anyone in the midst of any kind of crisis sends a text to 741741. It can start with any words, like 'hello,' 'help,' or 'I'm scared.' A Crisis Counselor immediately responds  247  with confidential support. A crisis can fall into a wide range of categories like family problems, school bullying, drug use, depression, or abuse. It's all anonymous, it's encrypted, and it's free. Crisis Counselors can be anywhere as long as they have a computer and an Internet connection.

Volunteer Crisis Counselors go through background checks and receive 34 hours of online training to learn how to validate texters' emotions, help problem solve, and move texters from frightening moments of crisis to a calmer state. The Crisis Text Line database helps the counselors identify key words that are related to certain types of crises. For example, the combined use of 'numbs' and 'sleeve' indicates a likely cutting problem. Crisis Text Line also aggregates the data to identify trends, i.e. the worst day of the week for eating disorders is Monday.

Crisis Counselors also have a wide range of resources at their disposal to connect people in a crisis with the help they need moving forward. If someone needs help with substance abuse, the Crisis Counselors know which drug clinics are located near the texter. And Crisis Counselors can apply the skills they develop in their own relationships and in their communities, spreading the value of the service beyond texting.

In the four years since Crisis Text Line launched, they have exchanged over 40 million messages with people in crisis, and they've built the largest real-time mental health data set in the world at crisistrends.org. Meanwhile, use of Crisis Text Line is growing in major U.S. cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area, where they have local advisors like me who help get the word out about their important work. They're partnering with companies like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to make sure users who search 'suicide' or post a concerning status update will be prompted to connect with a Crisis Counselor. Crisis Text Line also works with physical locations like the Golden Gate Bridge, the number one site of suicide in the nation, to add signs with Crisis Text Line's number all over the bridge.

So please spread the word. Crisis Text Line is an incredibly helpful service available to anyone who needs it, any time. And if you're interested in becoming a Crisis Counselor, just sign up to learn more about volunteering. The goal of Crisis Text Line is to respond to every texter in under 5 minutes. In order to achieve that, they need more help  especially from West Coasters and night owls. If you can type, you can help.
GABORONE (Reuters) - Botswana will host the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, next month, officials said on Thursday, risking a backlash from China, a major investor in the African country's economy. The Dalai Lama is expected to address a human rights conference in the capital Gaborone on August 17-19 and will also meet Botswana's president during the trip. "President Ian Khama will meet the Dalai Lama when he is in Botswana. But the president's attendance at the conference, for the official opening or otherwise, will be determined by his schedule," Khama's office? said in a statement. The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, has long been at loggerheads over Tibet with China, which brands him a reactionary and a separatist. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, says he seeks greater rights, including religious freedom, and true autonomy for Tibetans. Neighboring South Africa has denied a visa to the Buddhist monk three times since 2009 in what opposition parties and Archbishop Desmond Tutu say shows the extent of China's sway over Pretoria. China's fast-growing demand for raw materials has made it one of the biggest investors in Africa and its largest trade partner. Chinese state-owned companies have been awarded contracts worth billions of pula to build roads, dams, power stations and airports in Botswana. Tang Shenpieng, the director of politics at the Chinese Embassy in Botswana declined to immediately comment, saying his office would issue a statement on the Dalai Lama's visit soon. But Lin Songtian, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's director-general for African affairs, told reporters last Wednesday in Beijing that allowing the Dalai Lama to visit Botswana would set back relations between the two countries. "Botswana should not harm such a true friend and reliable development partner as China and challenge the core interest of China and the dignity of Chinese people," he was reported as saying. (Writing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Catherine Evans)
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - An anti-migrant billboard campaign by the Hungarian government that features the image of U.S. financier George Soros will come to an end on Saturday, the government spokesman said on Thursday. The billboards and full-page media ads that have appeared across Hungary depict a smiling Soros -- a vocal critic of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing government -- with the caption: "Don't let Soros have the last laugh." Some Soros billboards have been defaced with graffiti that reads "stinking Jew". The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Federations (Mazsihisz) has urged Orban to halt the campaign, which a spokesman for Soros said earlier this week was reminiscent of "Europe's darkest hours". Orban's government has strongly denied that the billboard campaign is anti-Semitic. Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs told Reuters the campaign, which was a follow-up to the launch by Orban of a "national consultation" on issues of foreign influence and mass immigration, would expire on July 15. "The six-week follow-up campaign will run out on July 15," Kovacs said in an emailed reply to Reuters questions. Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew who has spent a large part of his fortune funding pro-democracy and human rights groups, has repeatedly been targeted by Hungary's right-wing government, in particular over his support for more open immigration. Kovacs said the campaign's end-date had nothing to do with the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Budapest next week. He declined to say how much the massive billboard campaign had cost. Orban will seek a third consecutive term at elections in April 2018. He launched the poster campaign portraying Soros as an enemy of Hungary after voters who responded to the government's "national consultation" rejected both "foreign influence" and mass immigration. Israel's ambassador to Hungary initially denounced the campaign, saying it "evokes sad memories but also sows hatred and fear", an apparent reference to Hungary's part in the deportation of 500,000 Jews during the Holocaust. But the Israeli foreign ministry later issued a "clarification" saying that Soros was a legitimate target for criticism, a move that appeared designed to align Israel more closely with Hungary ahead of Netanyahu's visit to Budapest. Israel is normally quick to denounce anti-Semitism or threats to Jewish communities anywhere in the world. While it made that point in the statement, it chose to focus on the threat it believes Soros poses to Israeli democracy. Among the organizations Soros funds is Human Rights Watch, which is frequently critical of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and its policies toward the Palestinians. Soros, 86, who emigrated from Hungary after World War Two, made his fortune in the United States and has long supported groups promoting liberal, democratic and open-border values in eastern Europe. Orban has long proclaimed zero tolerance for anti-Semitism, though he has more recently risked angering Jews with remarks apparently meant to court far-right voters. In a statement on Thursday, former United Nations chief Kofi Annan expressed deep concern about the poster campaign, which he said played on "xenophobic sentiments". Noting the thousands of Hungarians who emigrated after the 1956 revolution, Annan said he hoped Hungary would "find a way out of its current isolation and back to the values enshrined in the U.N. refugee convention and U.N. charter for human rights". (Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Human right to water

Revitalising Kathmandus ancient water system can address issues of water insecurity, vulnerability to disasters and loss of cultural heritage
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Shia LaBeouf apologized on Wednesday for his expletive-filled rants hurled at the officers who arrested him in Georgia last week on charges of disorderly conduct and public intoxication, and said he was seeking help for addiction. The "Transformers" actor said he was "deeply ashamed of my behavior" and "my actions warrant a very sincere apology to the arresting officers, and I am grateful for their restraint," in a statement posted on his Twitter page. LaBeouf, 31, was arrested in the lobby of his Savannah hotel in the early hours of Saturday, booked into jail and released a few hours later, police said. Four videos from police bodycams released by the Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department on Tuesday show LaBeouf being handcuffed and becoming increasingly irate, throwing expletive-filled insults at both the male and female officers and questioning whether they were American. In his apology, LaBeouf said: "My outright disrespect for authority is problematic to say the least, and completely destructive to say the worst." "It is a new low. A low I hope is a bottom. I have been struggling with addiction publicly for far too long, and I am actively taking steps towards securing my sobriety and hope I can be forgiven for my mistakes," he said. LaBeouf, who rose to fame on the Disney Channel before moving into action and independent movies, previously sought treatment for alcoholism, following a 2014 arrest for disturbing a performance of the musical "Cabaret" in New York. He pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct violation and received outpatient care for addiction. More recently, LaBeouf was arrested in January after a scuffle outside a New York museum where he was chanting: "He will not divide us" during a live-streamed protest against President Donald Trump. (Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Peter Cooney)
By Johan Ahlander and Mansoor Yosufzai STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden has intensified its crackdown on illegal immigrants after a failed asylum-seeker killed five people in Stockholm, but the move has raised concerns that more migrants will be driven underground to join a shadowy underclass. In the past months, police have staged wider sweeps on workplaces to check papers, netting undocumented workers, sending a warning to employers and sparking heated debate in a nation that has been traditionally tolerant to migrants. In May, police carried out their biggest raid so far when dozens of officers swooped on a constructions site in Stockholm. Nine were caught and sent to detention centers, while another 40 escaped by scrambling onto scaffolding and across roof tops. Swedish authorities had already started to tighten up on illegal immigrants, but police stepped up their activities after Uzbek construction worker Rakhmat Akilov drove into Stockholm shoppers in April. "We have an unlimited amount of work," said Jerk Wiberg, who leads the Stockholm police unit in charge of domestic border controls. A 22-year veteran who has caught thousands of illegal immigrants, Wiberg led the raid at the construction site in May. After Akilov became another militant in Europe to use a truck as a weapon, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven made it clear that "no means no" for those whose asylum bids are rejected. Akilov, whose lawyer said he had admitted to committing the crime, had been in hiding after his asylum request was denied. The Migration Agency estimated 10,000 asylum-seekers a year will choose to disappear rather than be deported. Up to 50,000 undocumented immigrants already work in hotels, transport, construction and restaurants, the agency said last year. Migration Minister Morgan Johansson said that a "dual labor market ... where a growing group lives on the outside of society and remains in Sweden" after having been denied residency was unacceptable. "It also increases the risk of them being exploited. We cannot have it that way," he said, adding: "One way is to go after the employers ... (using) expanded workplace checks." While cheap migrant labor is welcomed by some small businesses, government officials and economists worry that the shadow economy undercuts Sweden's economic model, whose generous welfare provisions and high wages are built on high rates of productivity and one of the world's heaviest tax regimes. ANTI-IMMIGRANT PARTY Tough measures against immigrants go against the grain for many in Sweden, a country of 10 million which once called itself "a humanitarian superpower" that generously welcomed migrants fleeing conflict in the Middle East and Africa. But attitudes appear to be changing and a 2017 study by Gothenburg University showed 52 percent favored taking fewer refugees into the country with 24 percent opposed. Two years ago 40 percent backed reducing refugee numbers with 37 opposed. The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats are now the second biggest party in polls with support of around a fifth of Swedes. The Social Democrats, the country's biggest party in every election since 1917 and leader of the governing coalition with the Greens, has been forced to balance its traditional left-wing credentials with the need to enforce immigration laws. Despite political support for the crackdown and tougher rules on immigration, police struggle to enforce deportations. Between January and April police deported just under 600 people, a third fewer than in the same period last year. Some of those caught were freed because detention centers were full, while others cannot be deported as they don't have passports to prove their country of origin or their home countries refuse to take them. The government never discloses how many are held in detention centers, saying there are about 360 beds and deportees are normally repatriated within three weeks. The government has told the migration agency to add another 100 beds. An extra 800 million crowns ($95 million) has been added to the police budget this year to bolster the clampdown, but senior officers say this is not enough. WIDENING THE NET In 2016, police made about 1,100 unannounced workplace checks, almost three times more than in 2015, and caught 232 illegal immigrants. A further increase is expected in 2017 as the net widens. Illegal immigrants are also detained through checks at transport hubs, on vehicles or after committing crime. Deportations made up a small fraction of the 20,000 rejected asylum seekers who left Sweden last year. "We have been able to increase the number of people who leave Sweden substantially. But we're listening to the police and we have paved the way for more resources and wider powers," Johansson said in an interview, adding: "We will have to increase that number further." Expanded police powers include workplace checks without concrete suspicion of a crime, to be allowed from next year, with sharply higher fines for employing illegal immigrants. Immigrants themselves have been unnerved. When police burst into a pizzeria in the southern city of Malmo where Ehsanulla Kajfar, a 38-year-old Afghan refugee, was working in May he said he thought they were looking for "terrorists or drug dealers". He was surprised to be handcuffed and placed in the back seat of a police vehicle as tax officials scrutinized the restaurant's employee ledger. He was told his papers were not in order and was taken to a detention center. "Sweden used to be a nice country, even when I was living underground," he told Reuters. "Now although I have a residence permit from Italy and I am registered at the tax agency in Sweden, I'm still locked in a detention center." IMMIGRANTS FEARFUL Nicaraguan Hugo Eduardo Somarriba Quintero, 37, said he was wrongly detained in the big raid in Stockholm in May due to an error by authorities and then released. Migration Agency records confirmed the details of his case. "But I've lost my job  the company where I was working was dropped from the construction site (because of irregularities in not checking work papers properly). Now I am looking for work and there is no job for me," he tearfully told Reuters, adding: "Before there was a lot of tolerance for migrants. Now the laws are harder." Muhammad, a 22-year old Afghan who declined to give his family name, has been in hiding for three years in Malmo since his asylum application was rejected. He has moved three times this year and never stays in a place longer than three months. All his belongings are packed in a suitcase and two plastic bags if he needs to leave in a hurry. Muhammad relies on food stamps from the church and leftover food from restaurants and grocery stores. He has learned to avoid the city center when there is an increase in policing and gets help from other immigrants and volunteers who work for asylum-seekers' rights. They warn each other of police checks and raids through text messages. "Last time the police made a push to find immigrants, my friend stayed inside for 15 to 20 days," Muhammad said. "But I can't stay inside all the time, its too depressing." (Reporting by Johan Ahlander and Mansoor Yosufzai, additional reporting by Alister Doyle, editing by Peter Millership)
By Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Syria's government and opposition negotiators could soon hold face-to-face talks for the first time, U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday, the penultimate day of a round of peace talks in Geneva. He did not expect the opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) to unite with two other dissident groupings, the "Moscow" and "Cairo" platforms, in time for direct talks with Syria's government during this round. But asked if it could happen before the next round of Geneva negotiations, slated for late August, de Mistura told reporters: "Perhaps even earlier." "I'm not pushing for it. Because I want, when it happens, that there should not be a row but should be real talks. We are actually pushing for areas where they do have common points." The Moscow and Cairo platforms each comprise a handful of activists and are named after the cities where they first convened, at meetings held with Russia's approval and support. They do not control territory on the ground or have strong links with armed groups engaged in the war. De Mistura was speaking before a meeting with Syrian government negotiator Bashar al-Ja'afari, promising to "go into much more substance on the political side". The glacial pace of the Geneva talks, which some observers see as simply a way of keeping an avenue for peace talks open in case of an unexpected breakthrough, owes much to the fact that de Mistura has to meet each delegation separately. Some diplomats suspect the Moscow and Cairo platforms, which are much less opposed to President Bashar al-Assad than the HNC is, are little more than a mechanism created by Assad's ally Russia to prevent direct negotiations and force the HNC to dilute its stance. "Its always been a trap for the opposition laid by the Russians, through their continual needling of the HNC about there being more than one opposition, which is mostly nonsense with the relative weight of these groups," a Western diplomat said. "If the HNC succeed in defusing this trap, and coming together with the Moscow and Cairo groups in some way, then it puts Jaafari under quite a lot of pressure." Another Western diplomat said it was a "Russian narrative" that the various groups needed to unite. "I feel this is a lever the Russians will keep to destabilize the opposition, they want to have a handle to weaken the opposition, therefore to have a handle on the process as such. "To us, the broader the opposition the better, but at the same time the most important thing is to have an opposition that is cohesive, can act as one party in the political process." The three opposition groupings have recently held technical talks, aligning their positions to the extent that they might be able to field a single delegation, if not a united one. "We're coming together on substance, not just principles but operationally," HNC negotiator Basma Kodmani told Reuters. "We're building an alternative to Assad." (Writing by Tom Miles; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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New York, July 14, 2017Ukrainian authorities should cease harassing journalists and employees of the Vesti media company, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. National police and military prosecutors today raided the Kiev office of Media Holding Vesti, which includes Radio Vesti, the daily newspaper Vesti, and the news website Vesti-ukr.com, according to its editor and Ukrainian officials.

Vestis editor-in-chief, Oksana Semchenko, wrote on her Facebook page that security forces briefly knocked the radio stations live broadcast off the air. She wrote that the soldiers gathered 30 journalists in a conference room for questioning and searched their mobile phones, including their contacts and messaging applications. Pictures from the raid Semchenko posted on Facebook showed military vehicles outside the building and security forces wearing armor and facemasks searching journalists bags. The Ukrainian TV station Hromadske reported that 80 officers with machine guns participated in the raid.

When a military prosecutor sends elite forces with machine guns to raid a radio stations office and search its journalists mobile phones for contacts and text messages, there can be but one interpretation: This is an attempt at intimidation and a serious threat to press freedom, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said from Paris. We call on Ukrainian authorities to cease harassing Radio Vesti journalists and to cease violating the integrity of their communications with sources.

Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios, who led the raid, said at the press conference that security forces would today search 183 properties, including the Vesti media group, owned by former minister of income and taxes Oleksandr Klymenko, seeking evidence in a fraud investigation into the former minister. Klymenko fled Ukraine for Russia after former President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from power in 2014. The Ukrainian online news agency UNIAN quoted Minister of Interior Arsen Avakov as saying that Klymenkos assets in Ukraine, which he valued at the equivalent of U.S. $12 billion, were blocked today. The independent Ukrainska Pravda daily published a list of Klymenkos property based on the information Avakov provided to journalists.

Avakov, the interior minister, denied that the media group was targeted for its coverage. This raid is not about journalistic reports published in various media outlets. Its only about fraud, he said in remarks published by UNIAN.

Klymenko wrote on his Facebook page that he was surprised by the raids, calling them an attempt to take over his property for political reasons.

Todays raids came days after CPJs Simon and Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova on July 12 launched in Kiev a special report on the July 20, 2016, murder of investigative journalist Pavel Sheremet, who worked at Radio Vesti at the time of his death. Ognianova and Simon met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on July 11. At that meeting, Poroshenko reiterated his commitment to bringing those responsible for Sheremets murder to justice. He also said the Ukrainian investigators would soon hold a press conference to make the results of their investigation public, according to a statement on the presidencys website.
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The history of modern Turkish politics is rife with military interventionthe army has toppled elected governments four times since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the modern Turkish state in 1923, and has strong-armed them into submission countless other times. One of President Recep Tayyip Erdogans greatest accomplishments has been returning the military to the barracks and diminishing its influence in public life. But last year, on July 15, a rogue segment of the Turkish Armed Forces tried and failed to overthrow the government of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Parties from across Turkeys political spectrum condemned the treacherous act. Even the fiercest critics of the AKP defended the elected government. For a brief time at least, Turkey was a country united. A grand rally in Istanbul, attended by many political parties, gave those who attended hope that the coup attempt, traumatic as it was, might have brought a polarized country together. That hope was soon dashed.

Having lived through similar experiences, Turks know what to expect after a coup detat or an attempted coup: limitations on rights and freedoms; government control of the news media; an extended state of emergency; mass arrests; courts, laws, and decrees to legalize the governments directives; nationalist rhetoric conflating criticism with treason; fear.

The past year has been no exception. At the end of last year, Turkey jailed more journalists than any other country had in any year since the Committee to Protect Journalists began keeping records in the early 1990s. The government purged the police, the judiciary, academic, and government institutions. The Turkish news media were hollowed out. More than 100 outlets were closed. Journalists were jailed or pushed into exile to avoid retaliation for their work. Hundreds of media workers were left unemployed. Pro-Kurdish media was almost entirely decimated. Any media outlet accused of any affiliation with the movement of exiled preacher Fethullah Gulenwhom the Turkish government accuses of being the mastermind of the coup attemptwas closed. Small leftist publications were closed.

Ceren Sozeri, an associate professor at Galatasaray Universitys Faculty of Communication, told CPJ that a key outcome of this purge has been omnipresent self-censorship. She said journalists face a daily dilemma: Will publishing this article result in prosecution, arrest, or worse? Is running this story worth the risk?

While online media, including social media platforms, have filled some of the gap left by the shuttering of traditional outlets, The Internet is still the news source of the young, Erkan Saka, an associate professor at Bilgi Universitys Department of Communication Design and Management, told CPJ. Older Turks, and those in the countryside especially, depend on TV and radio.

The purge has affected the flow of information to the public.

News on corruption has significantly diminished, Sozeri said. It has become very hard for journalists to reach sources.

Sozeri says that while it is still possible to report on financial wrongdoing in private businesses, coverage of government corruption has all but stopped because of journalists fear. And if pro-opposition commentators are allowed to speak in the mainstream media, even if briefly, pro-government commentators quickly shout over them.

A year after the coup attempt, the government continues to rule by emergency decree. Constitutional amendments narrowly passed in a referendum bestowed the president with sweeping new powers. Having won the referendum, the president has shown no interest in easing the media crackdown. Instead he has justified anti-press actions as targeting not journalists but criminals and terrorists.

There is no difference between a person who pens headlines and newspaper articles under a terrorist organizations order and one who arms himself and goes into the mountains to engage in an armed conflict, Erdogan said while addressing a group of media representatives, the pro-government Daily Sabah reported on June 18, 2017.

As the editor of the leftist daily newspaper Evrensel, Fatih Polat is in the lonely and uncomfortable position of shepherding one of the few independent news sources left through dangerous waters.

Turkey has a unique place in the world thanks to the number of the imprisoned journalists and the unending press trials that haunt us like a nightmare, he told CPJ. We live with the worry that we can be shuttered by a government decree at any moment. How do we continue with our Plan B to continue with a new newspaper if we are shuttered? What will we do for a Plan C, if that newspaper is also shuttered? We think about these questions all the time.

While the international limelight has been on jailed journalists and those forced into exile, one devastating side effect of the crackdown in Turkey is the vast unemployment of those who worked in the news media. According to Turkish media groups, hundreds of journalists have lost their jobs in the crackdown and have been unable to find work because their experience brands them as potential traitors or terrorists.

An editor who lost her job at a mainstream national daily newspaper, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions for her or her family, told CPJ that she sees no point in looking for a journalism job in Turkey today and now works as a corporate copywriter.

There is no media left in Turkey, she said. I did not look for a job in journalism because there is no way to do genuine reporting when a single voice is dominant, when ties to reality have been completely severed. Much of Turkish journalism now is nationalist fiction, she said.
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I have no pity for Chinese President Xi Jinping, who dug himself into a deep public relations hole with the unnecessarily cruel treatment of Chinas Nobel Laureate and political dissident, who died this week. Liu died of liver cancer in a Chinese hospital, after receiving medical parole in June from prison, where he was diagnosed with late-stage cancer. He asked to go overseas for treatment and to die in a free land, and China refused

President Xi faced a hard choice, but it was a dictators dilemma of his own making, of whats worse: to let Liu die in China or show a little kindness and free him to go overseas to the same fate. Xi missed an opportunity. But there are plenty of others just waiting for him. Even for Xi, who has mounted an ever escalating campaign against freedom of expression, this was a terrible choice that only confirmed his global image as someone who is heartless.

Lets be blunt. The Chinese people dont matter here. Chinas control over the internet and news distribution is so complete that few Chinese know whats going on. Whether President Xi kept Liu locked away and isolated in a Chinese hospital ward, or freed him to go overseas, where he might have enjoyed a few days of free speech before the end, would not have had any measurable impact on Chinese public opinion. Most Chinese would never know.

The only audience that matters is outside of China, and Xi flubbed it.

As Liu Xiaobo fades, his hopes for reform in China are dying as well https://t.co/zyMTu2Vz9C  The Guardian (@guardian) July 8, 2017

Surely, Im not the only one moved to near tears at photographs of a frail-looking Liu with his almost equally frail-looking wife Liu Xia. One photo, in particular, conveys deep love and longing, Liu Xiaobo standing in blue striped pajamas, open at the neck, his eyes seeming to smile, his arm around Liu Xia, perhaps for support. Liu Xia looks up to him in a deeply loving gaze, her shaved headshaved in protest since his sentencing to 11 years in prison on subversion charges in 2009screaming devotion to him, and his cause of human rights and democracy. The stark image also speaks of her own suffering these past few years  struggling with isolation enforced by police, heart ailments and depression.

Lius death in China reinforced suspicions that Chinas hiding somethingthat prison authorities denied Liu the medical care he needed when it could have made a difference, in effect executing a death sentence. Yet Xis refusal to let Liu travel overseas was both cruel and a show of weakness and cowardice. Was Xi so afraid of what Liu might have said beyond the reach of Chinese censors? Showing a bit of mercyand courageby letting him go could have helped to repair Xis badly damaged overseas image, just a little.

Unfortunately, Xi has many more opportunities to exercise his crueltyor, conversely, to show mercy by assuring that other prisoners of conscience do not suffer the same fate in Chinas gulag. There are many cases where China has been accused of denying health care to dissidentstoo many to accept Chinas denials that this happens.

So heres some friendly advice for President Xi. Why dont you start taking better care of dissidents in jail? For example, why not let imprisoned journalist and activist Huang Qi, founder of the human rights news site 64 Tianwang, see his doctor and assure the world that you are caring properly for his acute nephritis, a kidney disorder that if left untreated could lead to kidney failure?

After nearly seven months in prison in Mianyang City, Sichuan, kept in isolation by the police on charges of leaking state secrets, Huangs mother and friends are worried sick. And while you are at it, why not let his lawyer in to see him? And maybe you can talk his mothers former employer into releasing her pension payments and paying her medical bills which, according to an associate of Huangs, are being withheld on the grounds that shes related to a political offender.

Does China need to be this cruel? An associate of Huangs at 64 Tianwang tells me theyve met police 10 times to try to work something out, and to seek release on bail for humanitarian reasons, to no avail. I bet a nudge from the president of China would make a difference, quickly.

It would be nice if freedom and free speech could be granted to the 38 imprisoned Chinese journalists that the Committee to Project Journalists documented at the end of last yearone less now that Liu has died. But at the very least, China doesnt need to be so heartless toward prisoners whose only offense has been to exercise free expression.

Its too late for Liu Xiaobo, but perhaps his death creates an opportunity for President Xi and China to show a little kindness, at little cost. It would do Chinas global image a world of good.

EDITORS NOTE: A version of this article was first published on Impact.Vice.com.
Controlling a speedboat thats traveling at around 110km/h while carrying up to 1,200 kilos of hashish on board is not easy. Having the courage  and the recklessness  to ride out a police chase without throwing the cargo overboard means that you are made of stern stuff. And thats something that is handsomely rewarded.

Civil guards push a speedboat used by drug gangs in the Strait of Gibraltar. MARCOS MORENO

Up to 60,000 per load is paid out to boatmen who work for the drug trafficking gangs based around Campo de Gibraltar, in the south of Spain. These kamikaze pilots are the most valued and best paid, but they are not the only people on the payroll of the Cadiz-based gangs, who pay out a minimum of 1,000 to their employees.

They work in a network thats perfectly hierarchical, explains Miguel Gil, the head of the Algeciras customs surveillance unit. Francisco Mena, the coordinator of the Nexos federation of counter-narcotics associations, describes these gangs as being like a commercial company that is able to create jobs and a narco-economy. And in these corporations of crime, the fieldwork always begins in the sea.

In these corporations of crime, the fieldwork always begins in the sea

Together with the sought-after boatmen, two or three crew members are also usually on board. They take care of the gasoline, of watching over the millions of euros of merchandise that they are carrying, and using radar and sonar, explains Jose Encinas, a Civil Guard officer. For their trouble they can expect to be paid between 3,000 and 5,000, according to Mena.

On land, meanwhile, the network is even bigger. On the lowest rung are the lookouts, who are paid 1,000 a day just for warning if there are any police around. Proving that they are involved in a drug haul is very complicated, Encinas explains, given that their involvement is minor. Then come the longshoremen, who are paid up to 3,000 for unloading the hashish once it arrives on the coast, Encinas explains. They have little more than two minutes to get the drugs off the boat and load it onto the all-terrain vehicles that are waiting for them.

The longshoremen are paid up to 3,000 for unloading the hashish once it arrives on the coast

Thats when the drivers come in. Up to three vehicles are usually used for each load: one to clear the route, one to carry the drugs and a third that is there to ram police cars if need be. They drive incredibly dangerously, explains Encinas. Almost without any respect for human life.

Pocketing around 6,000 per trip, the drivers head for the warehouses or properties where the drugs are stashed before the packages begin their journey to the rest of Europe. The guards in charge of protecting these locations are paid differing amounts, according to the amount of drugs they are taking care of and how long for, Mena explains.

The drug money stays in the local economy, and creates a tolerance for the business in part of society

Some of the heads of these gangs are well known, such as Ivan Odero, nicknamed El Nino, or Abdellah, known as El Messi. Some have been arrested while others are still being sought by the authorities. They usually work as subcontracted employees for Moroccans, who rely on them to move the drugs, explains Gil. Between all of them, they share out the spoils in a business where a kilo of hashish is worth between 1,400 and 2,000.

That money stays in the local economy, and creates a tolerance for the business in part of society. In an area that has been punished by unemployment, as this one has [there is a 30% jobless rate in La Linea de la Concepcion], [the drug trade] actually keeps the legal economy moving, explains Mena. Thats the most perverse part of drug trafficking.

English version by Simon Hunter.
Indian man held with 130 Tola gold

Nepal Police arrested an Indian man with 130 tola of illegal gold from Hetauda on Thursday.
British Prime Minister Theresa May and Felipe VI of Spain met at 10 Downing Street on Thursday to discuss bilateral relations as part of the Spanish monarchs three-day state visit to the United Kingdom. May welcomed Felipe VI outside the official residence before going inside, where she praised her guests address to parliament a day earlier.

Felipe VI and Theresa May at 10, Downing Street. Ballesteros (EFE)

But prior to the meeting, Downing Street underscored that the sovereignty of Gibraltar, the disputed overseas territory in the south of Spain, is not up for debate. The reminder came a day after Felipe VI encouraged dialogue between Madrid and London to find a mutually acceptable solution to the ongoing dispute.

I am certain that this resolve to overcome our differences will be even greater in the case of Gibraltar and I am confident that through the necessary dialogue and effort, our two governments will be able to work toward arrangements that are acceptable to all involved, said Felipe on Wednesday before a joint session of parliament.

But government officials noted that, while Britain and Spain enjoy a strong relationship, Gibraltar is an issue on which we do not see eye to eye; our position is clear: the sovereignty of Gibraltar is not up for discussion.

Felipe VI speaking at the UK-Spain Business Forum on Thursday. Angeles Rodenas (EFE)

Following the meeting, a Downing Street spokesperson said that the Prime Minister welcomed the kings warm speech in Parliament yesterday, in which he reiterated the friendship between our two countries, and she agreed that the UK and Spain enjoy an incredibly strong relationship.

The prime minister highlighted the scale of Spanish investment in the UK as a sign of the depth of our commercial ties. They agreed on the importance of standing up for free trade, and also highlighted the significance of our close cooperation on security and counter-terrorism, added the release.

Im delighted to welcome further Spanish investment into the UK today, as we remain Spains number-one destination in Europe for direct foreign investment

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox

Regarding Brexit, the prime minister said that we will seek a new, deep and special partnership with the whole EU as we leave, and that we are committed to ensuring we strengthen the bilateral ties between our two countries. She said we have made it a priority in the negotiations to guarantee the status of Spanish and other EU citizens living in the UK as part of a reciprocal deal that also provides the same certainty for UK citizens living in Spain and other EU countries.

There are currently more than 300,000 Britons living in Spain, and around 130,000 Spaniards living in the UK.

Business forum

Day two of the monarchs state visit began on Thursday morning with a business forum at Mansion House meant to highlight the high levels of Spanish investment in Britain. Spain is also the 10th largest export market for UK companies, according to British government figures.

Britain's Prince Harry (l), Queen Letizia and King Felipe during the laying of a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior during a visit to Westminster Abbey. BEN STANSALL (AFP)

Im delighted to welcome further Spanish investment into the UK today, as we remain Spains number-one destination in Europe for direct foreign investment, said International Trade Secretary Liam Fox ahead of the UK-Spain Business Forum.

Downing Street noted that on the same day, Spanish manufacturer CAF announced plans to build trains and trams at a new factory in South Wales, where it will invest 30 million and create 300 jobs.

Meanwhile, Spanish airport operator AENA is participating in expansion work at Luton airport, where it has a majority stake; and Spanish steel producer Gonvarri Steel Services, part of the Gestamp Group, is building a 26 million factory on a Steel & Alloy Processing site in Oldbury.

Westminster

Also on Thursday, the royal couple visited Westminster Abbey for a traditional tribute before the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. The guests of honor also stopped at the tomb of Eleanor of Castile, a daughter of King Ferdinand III of Castile who married the future Edward I of England in 1254. Felipe VI and Letizias eldest daughter carries the same name in its Spanish version, Leonor.

On Wednesday, Queen Elizabeth honored Felipe VI and Letizia with a banquet at Buckingham palace. Britain has been putting on a great display of pomp and ceremony on the occasion of this state visit, the first by a Spanish monarch since 1986.

English version by Susana Urra.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14



Trend:



Baku hosted the event Dastan of July 15 dedicated to the anniversary of the military coup attempt in Turkey on July 15-16, 2016.



Ali Hasanov, Azerbaijani presidents aide for public and political affairs, Erkan Ozoral, Turkish ambassador to Azerbaijan, Mubariz Gurbanli, chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations and other officials took part in the event.



At the beginning of the event, its participants with a minute of silence honored the memory of the martyrs who gave their lives for the independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and Turkey, and then the national anthems of the two countries were played.



Further, a film dedicated to July 15 - the Day of Democracy and National Unity, was shown and the verses from the Holy Quran were read.



Ali Hasanov read out a letter of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev addressed to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the occasion of the anniversary of the military coup attempt.



Speaking at the event, Ali Hasanov noted that all that went down on July 15, 201 was very hard.



"In the film, shown at the event, we saw that terrible night. If anyone doesn't know, Azerbaijani people are well aware of such events. That is because we ourselves experienced such events in 1993, and the following years. In October of 1994 and in March of 1995, there were coup attempts in Azerbaijan. In both cases, the traitors, which put their own ambitions above the will of people, tried to take over the state, statehood, used weapons and tried to overthrow the legitimate power in the country. However, people sitting here, know very well what happened," Hasanov said.



He went on to add that the events Azerbaijan experienced and the events Turkey experienced a year ago, showcase the harsh truth.



People dealing with politics and those looking for power must know about this, Ali Hasanov said. First, no one can defeat the will of people, this will is above everything, and nobody has yet succeeded in defeating it and probably will not succeed in the future, either.

Ali Hasanov noted that the events that took place in Turkey couldnt defeat the will of the people.

He said that this coup was prevented by people who had risen up and given up their lives. He went on to say that those, who play with the lives of people and build political, personal interests upon lives of others, are doomed to fail.

Those guilty of killing 250 people in Turkey have already been punished and should have been punished, Ali Hasanov added. The measures taken by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the past year have given their results. Today in Turkey, the statehood, in the full sense of this word, is being strengthened, national reconciliation and solidarity are increasingly strengthening in the country, and the power built upon this national reconciliation and solidarity in Turkey is turning into a serious and strong factor both in the country, our region and the world.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

The necessity of political compromises for the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts peaceful settlement  security guarantees for the population, living near the line of contact and the confidence building  has to be emphasized in all negotiations and bilateral meetings with the parties.

This was noted in the statement of Stephan Mayer, a member of the German Bundestag and domestic policy speaker of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, regarding the Armenian provocation in the Alkhanli village of Azerbaijans Fuzuli district.

It should be noted that on July 4 at about 20:40 (GMT+4 hours), the Armenian armed forces again violated ceasefire and, using 82-mm and 120-mm mortars and grenade launchers, shelled Azerbaijani positions and territories where the civilian population lives, namely the Alkhanli village of the countrys Fuzuli district, thereby grossly violating the requirements of international law, the Azerbaijani defense ministry said earlier.

As a result of this provocation, the residents of the village Sahiba Allahverdiyeva, 50, and Zahra Guliyeva, 2, were killed. Salminaz Guliyeva, 52, who got wounded, was taken to the hospital and was operated on.

Touching upon the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mayer noted that the UN Security Council resolutions on the settlement of this conflict havent been implemented yet.

The world community recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan, says the statement.

According to the Bundestag member, it is both Germanys and the European Unions (EU) position that the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can solely be achieved through peaceful means.

Neither Germany nor the EU acknowledged the parliamentary election in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2010, added Mayer.

The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan must be restored, the IDPs must return to their homeland, says the statement.

The Bundestag member also called on international organizations to intensify their efforts to resolve the conflict.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva  Trend:

The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh is not connected with the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and must be resolved in line with international law through negotiations, said Timur Urazaev, Kazakhstans extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to Armenia, in his interview with Sputnik Armenia.

We dont link the Nagorno-Karabakh issue with the Organization in any way, because this is a regional conflict that must be resolved in line with international law, noted the ambassador.

He said that Kazakhstan supports the conflicts settlement through negotiations.

I can only call on the parties to resolve the issue peacefully, added Urazaev.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva  Trend:

Norway, at an informal ministerial meeting of OSCE foreign ministers in Austria this week, called on the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Sebastian Kurz to protect the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Addressing the informal ministerial meeting of OSCE foreign ministers in Mauerbach, Norways Deputy Foreign Minister and State Secretary Tone Skogen said that in times of crisis, changing security landscapes and an uncertain future, international cooperation based on common principles and norms is more important than ever.

The OSCE commitments are our common heritage, carefully elaborated through consensus. We need to recommit to these standards and to this spirit of cooperation, she noted.

Today, unfortunately, we witness that some participating states fail to comply with their OSCE commitments, said Skogen. This is the reason for the deadlock we are in right now. This is the reason for the lack of trust and compromise in our organization.

Threats to and violations of participating states sovereignty and territorial integrity persist, be it in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova or Azerbaijan, added he Norwegian official, these are threats to international order and to our common security.

According to her, unity can only be built on compliance with and full respect for OSCE commitments and international law.

I can assure you, Norway will continue to stay principled  true to international law and our OSCE commitments. Norway will continue to exercise its right to voice concern and convey constructive criticism, noted Skogen.

The OSCE is and must remain a key platform for dialogue, added the Norwegian deputy minister.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of France Emmanuel Macron.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to you and through you to your people on the occasion of national holiday of the French Republic, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter.

We attach special importance to Azerbaijani-French relations, which have rich traditions. I am pleased to note that over 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties our bilateral relations have acquired a new meaning and gone through a path of dynamic development. Today our political, economic, cultural relations successfully develop and expand.

I believe that we will make joint efforts to more effectively use the current potential of our mutually fruitful cooperation on bilateral and multilateral formats, said President Aliyev.

We also pin great hopes on efforts of France, as an OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, and your efforts personally, Mr President, in the fair and peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on the principles of international law and within the framework of Azerbaijans territorial integrity in order to put an end to Armenias occupation of Azerbaijani territories and ensure the return of more than one million our fellow countrymen, who became refugees and IDPs as a result of this occupation, to their ancestral lands.

On this remarkable day, I wish you robust health, success in your activities and the friendly people of France lasting peace and prosperity, Ilham Aliyev added.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

The problem regarding the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress has nothing to do with politics, Vladimir Dorokhin, Russian ambassador to Azerbaijan, said in Baku at a conference of public associations of Russian compatriots in Azerbaijan.

On May 15, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation cancelled the registration of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress.

The envoy noted that the people who were supposed to provide legal support for the Congress could not cope with this.

The Congress has repeatedly received warnings from the Russian Ministry of Justice but did not react, according to Dorokhin.

We proceed from the fact that all organizations should act within the limits of legislation of the host country, the envoy said, adding that all organizations of Russians, which operate in Azerbaijan, comply with the countrys legislation.

For Russia, relations with Azerbaijan are of great value, and we hope this incident will not influence our ties, Dorokhin added.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

Trend:

Terrorism is a crime against all mankind no matter where it occurs, said Anar Alakbarov, assistant to the first vice-president of Azerbaijan, executive director of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

Alakbarov made the remarks at the official opening ceremony of the Days of Azerbaijani Culture ongoing in Cannes, France.

Touching upon the terrible terrorist attack that led to the death of a big number of people in Nice on July 14, 2016, Anar Alakbarov noted that Azerbaijan, from its own experience, understands well what terrorism, bitterness and pain of innocent people mean.

The Armenian army constantly commits provocations against civilians living in the frontline territories of Azerbaijan. Ten days ago, as a result of the shelling of the Alkhanli village of Azerbaijans Fuzuli district, a two-year-old child, Zahra Guliyeva, was killed, he noted.

Azerbaijan is the herald of peace and security in the world, and takes a principled stand against racial, national and religious discrimination, he added.

Our state resolutely condemns any manifestation of terrorism, which has become a terrible disaster for the world. We believe that all peoples, by mobilizing their forces, will be successful in suppressing terrorism that has targeted innocent people and is a threat to human security, democratic values, rights and freedoms of citizens, added Alakbarov.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

Azerbaijan and Iraq have good relations in the sphere of security and fight against terrorism, Fadhil Awad Jebur AL-Shuwaili, charge d'affaires of Iraq to Azerbaijan, told a briefing in Baku.

The two countries intend to further expand cooperation in this area, he said July 14.

The diplomat added that the Iraqi side welcomes the measures taken by the Azerbaijani security forces in the fight against terrorism.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan made a great contribution to ensuring security in Iraq.

Azerbaijani servicemen were in Iraq in 2003-2008 to guard a hydropower plant and a reservoir in the Haditha city.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

July 15 marks the first anniversary of the prevention of an attempted coup d'etat to overthrow the legitimate government of the Republic of Turkey, the letter said. The bloody events that took place that night, dedication of the Turkish people, who courageously defended the country's constitutional building and sacrificed their lives, are revered as a true example of heroism in Azerbaijan. Millions of citizens rose up to defend democracy and the rule of law on that day, once again proving that nobody can overcome the will of the people and that any attempt against statehood is doomed to failure.

As soon as I learned about the incident, I immediately expressed my support for the legitimate government of Turkey, unequivocally condemned the traitors, who attempted to infringe the country's constitutional building, and also gave appropriate instructions to members of the government of Azerbaijan in this regard, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter.

I am confident that the courage of the citizens, who demonstrated the unshakable will to maintain the statehood, democratic values and the accomplishments made in all areas of public life under your leadership, and the memory of the martyrs will live in our hearts forever, the letter noted. It is your leadership, solidarity and dedication of the Turkish people that provided an impenetrable shield against the treacherous intentions and helped the Turkish state survive great dangers.

By mobilizing the people, you have done a great job to develop your country and strengthen its influence among world states, and overcame the anti-national forces, who put their personal goals above the will of the people, the Azerbaijani president added. Like all the citizens of brotherly Turkey, we are also happy for this. It is with immense pleasure that I recall our recent meeting with you at the World Petroleum Summit in Istanbul, and I believe that the discussions we held will have a significant impact on the strengthening of our future relationship.

Dear brother, may the martyrs of July 15 rest in peace, said the letter. Once again I wish their relatives patience and the brotherly people of Turkey endurance, and express my solidarity with you on all crucial issues.
Massive fire in Itahari, losses incurred may tip 70 million

A massive fire at the main marketplace of Itahari Sub Metropolis  6 in Sunsari district has inflicted a loss estimated at around Rs 65 million.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

The 2017 has been an outstanding year, the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the official visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Paris on March 14, said Frances ambassador to Azerbaijan Aurelia Bouchez during the event dedicated to the French National Day, Bastille Day.



She noted that the meeting with Francois Hollande confirmed the excellent quality of political dialogue between the two countries on all topics.



"It stressed the key role played by Azerbaijan for EU energy security," said the ambassador.



During the visit by President Aliyev to France, the importance of reaching a negotiated and lasting solution to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was once again underlined by France as the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, added the ambassador.






Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

Trend:

Days of Azerbaijani Culture have kicked off in Cannes, France, organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva attended the event.

The opening ceremony of "Toghrul Narimanbeyov: the melody of colors" exhibition was held as part of the Culture Days at the Gare Maritime exhibition pavillion.

Addressing the event, assistant to the first vice-president of Azerbaijan, Executive Director of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Anar Alakbarov hailed the importance of such projects organized by the Foundation in different countries in terms of promoting Azerbaijan's history and culture and delivering Azerbaijani realities to the world.

Highlighting the creative activity of artist Toghrul Narimanbeyov, who played a crucial role in the fine arts of Azerbaijan, Anar Alakbarov thanked those who contributed to this project, including the Cannes Mayor's office.

Deputy Mayor of Cannes Frank Chikli noted that organizing the Azerbaijani Culture Days in the city has become a tradition. He noted that Azerbaijan and the city of Cannes attach great importance to culture. Chikli said that the works demonstrated at the exhibition will introduce Azerbaijans folklore and culture to Cannes' residents and tourists.

"Such kind of cultural events contribute to strengthening relations between the two countries."

The exhibition, which features more than 30 works of Toghrul Narimanbeyov, will be open to public until August 1.

The Days of Culture featured a concert program of Azerbaijani musicians.

Speaking prior to the concert, Anar Alakbarov extended Azerbaijani First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyevas best wishes to the event participants.

The executive director of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation congratulated the people of France on the Bastille Day, and wished them peace and tranquility.

President of the Association of Friends of Azerbaijan in France Jean-Francois Mancel hailed the excellent organization of international events in Azerbaijan.

Deputy Mayor of Cannes Frank Chikli handed a portrait of Azerbaijan's First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva, drawn by French artist Olivier Domin, to Anar Alakbarov.

The event then featured fireworks made as part of the traditional Festival d'Art Pyrotechnigue in Cannes.
Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) hosted the very first graduation ceremony. The ceremony gathered SOCAR President, Deputy of Milli Mejlis Rovnag Abdullayev, BP Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Gary Jones, and Deputy Minister of Education of the Azerbaijan Republic Firudin Gurbanov. Representatives of management of SOCAR and BP companies, rectors of national higher educational institutions, representatives of transnational companies, representatives of Heriot-Watt University (HWU), Great Britain, BHOS professors and teachers, graduates and their parents also participated in the event.

At the beginning, a video presentation on opening ceremony of the Higher School new campus on May 1st, 2017, with participation of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev was shown. Opening the graduation ceremony, the Rector Elmar Gasimov welcomed the guests, expressed his sincere congratulations to the graduates and wished them every success in the future. He emphasized that due to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs attention to the issues of young generation, all necessary conditions were created for youths development in all spheres including opportunities for their education at national higher educational institutions.

It is a great pleasure and honor for us to see BHOS graduates, the most intelligent young people in Azerbaijan, who managed to gain highest scores at entrance exams and become our students, he said. Speaking about the Higher School graduates successes, the rector informed that a number of them were awarded with scholarship and admitted to the most prestigious universities of the world, while others were selected for jobs at well-recognized international companies including BP, STAR Refinery and SOCAR Turkey.

Having congratulated the newly qualified engineers, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev wished them to follow traditions of the Higher School, which is recognized as a national brand of the education in Azerbaijan, and to become excellent professionals of the oil and gas sector. We successfully implement the strategy of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev aimed at transferring oil capital into human capital. And you, young specialists, are the builders of the future of the country, who can make a solid contribution towards its development and prosperity, told Rovnag Abdullayev.

Speaking about BHOS achievements in developing international cooperation, BP Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Gary Jones emphasized that the Higher School achievements in this sphere would help BHOS to be become one of the most internationally recognized universities.

Deputy Minister of Education of the Azerbaijan Republic Firudin Gurbanov also expressed his congratulations to BHOS graduates on the remarkable day in their life and spoke about successes achieved by the Higher School in training of Azerbaijani specialists with good knowledge of English language for oil and gas industry. He expressed his confidence that the representatives of new generation of Azerbaijani engineers would make a valuable contribution towards further economic development of the country and would honorably serve the interests of Azerbaijani state.

Dean of Engineering of Heriot-Watt University Dr. Peter Kew also extended his sincere congratulations to the graduates and wished them to attain great achievements in the future. I have no doubts that BHOS graduates will be the best Azerbaijani engineers wherever they work, he said.

Then a ceremonial presentation of the diplomas started. One hundred and two young petroleum and chemical engineers received diplomas of BHOS and HWU. The dual diploma program is being implemented according to an agreement between the British university and the Higher School, whose academic programs are developed on the basis of the Heriot-Watt Universitys syllabi. Graduate of Petroleum Engineering department Ibrahim Mamedov and graduate of Chemical Engineering department Akhmed Gelenderli, who graduated with honors, were presented with plaquettes. In addition, Ibrahims name badge was placed on a symbolic tree stump.

On behalf of all graduates, Fahmin Husuzadeh and Fidan Selimzadeh expressed their deep appreciation to the Higher Schools professors and teachers and thanked everyone who helped them to become true professionals and good specialists. Speaking on behalf of the graduates parents, Faig Aliyev, father of Kamran Aliyev, who graduated from Chemical Engineering department, extended his gratitude to BHOS management and teachers for their efforts and contribution towards education and training of young engineers.

Representatives of the Caledonian Society of Baku and Azerbaijani famous musical band Natiq ritm qrupu performed during an artistic part of the event. At the end of the ceremony, the graduates threw graduation caps as per a centuries-long tradition, and commemorative photos were taken.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

Azerbaijans Sumgait city has hosted the groundbreaking ceremony of the first plant for the production of solid drugs.

The ceremony was attended by Azerbaijans Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev.

During the event, it was noted that products of the plant, which is being built by Indias Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Sun Pharma), will meet the European GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) standards.

The plant will produce medicines for cardiology, nephrology, gastroenterology and diabetes, as well as other necessary medicines for the Azerbaijani market.

Products of the plant, production capacity of which is 200 million tablets, 40 million capsules and 20 million ampoules per year, are also planned to be exported to CIS countries and other foreign markets.

The plant will start to operate in late 2018.

Sun Pharma, with its capital of $39 billion, ranks first in India and fifth in the world. The companys products are exported to 150 countries and it has 49 plants. Sun Pharma has been working on the US market for about 20 years, and its annual turnover in the country is more than $2 billion.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to approve a loan on November 1 for Azerbaijans Tamiz Shahar JSC, established to improve the ecological condition of Baku city, says an EBRD message posted on its website July 14.

Currently, the bank is reviewing the projects concept, according to the message.

A loan in the amount of up to $39 million will be allocated for financing the domestic waste management in Baku and adjacent settlements on the Absheron peninsula (Big Baku), says the message.

The funds will be used to finance the construction of two transfer stations and sorting facilities, which will allow optimizing the transportation of waste products and reducing the volume of their utilization, according to the message.

The proposed project is consistent with the EBRDs Transition to a Green Economy approach by reducing carbon dioxide emissions and reducing the overall volume of waste transportation, says the message.

The projects goal is to improve the efficiency of solid domestic waste management in big Baku.

The project will bring significant environmental benefits and operational efficiency, according to the message.

Total cost of the project is $39 million. In total, the EBRD, together with the technical assistance, will allocate $40.3 million for the project.

Azerbaijan has been cooperating with the EBRD since 1992.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Israeli gas supply to Europe is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor concept, Sohbet Karbuz, Director of Hydrocarbons, Mediterranean Energy Observatory (OME), France told Trend.

He was commenting on the possibility of building a gas pipeline from Israel to Turkey and further to Europe.

Building a pipeline from Israel to Turkey depends on many parameters, including political, commercial, financial and legal. Of these, commercial parameter is of paramount interest, said the expert.

Karbuz pointed out that if the landing price of the Israeli gas is not competitive and yet there is still a will to bring it to Europe, then one needs to ask whether buyers are ready to pay a premium for the sake of diversification of gas supply sources and routes.

Southern Gas Corridor aims to bring Caspian, Central Asian, Middle Eastern and East Mediterranean gas into European markets. So, in fact bringing gas from Israel to Europe either through Turkey or through Greece is part of the Southern Gas Corridor concept. The intention is to improve Europes gas supply security by diversifying away from Russian gas, he added.

Earlier, Israeli Minister of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz said during the 22nd World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul that Turkey and Israel intend to sign an agreement on construction of a gas pipeline to Europe by late 2017.

We are confident that in the future, Europe will buy gas produced in the Eastern Mediterranean. Currently, intensive talks are underway on building two pipelines. We plan to build one of them to Turkey and further to Europe. Another pipeline is planned to be constructed through South Cyprus and Greece to Italy, said the minister.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.



At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.



As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans Adriatic Pipeline.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

There is no point to expect much from the upcoming talks between OPEC and US shale producers, Fenner Stewart, Director of Midwest Center for Energy Law & Policy, assistant professor, University of Calgary told Trend.

Earlier, OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo said that another meeting will be held with companies producing shale oil in the US in 2017.

If US shale producers were to decrease output, and that is a very big if, then I expect that this is the start of a very long conversation. I am not even sure that this is possible in any practical way (i.e., for private for-profit actors to coordinate with OPEC to control global oil supply), said Stewart.

He recalled that there have been three moments in history in which a group of powerful oil actors have been able to coordinate the industry and successfully controlled global oil supply:

1) 1875 to 1880: when John D Rockefeller united the 15 largest oil refineries in the US, bringing under control about 80 percent of US capacity;

2) 1928: when Henry Deterding (Royal Dutch Shell), Walter Teagle (Standard Oil) and John Cadman (Anglo-Persian) met in Achnacarry Castle (Scotland) and worked out an agreement to coordinate competition to stabilize the global oil market;

3) 1965 to 1973: when OPEC took control of the global price for oil.

Stewart pointed out that today, markets are far more complex than they were the last time that private actors attempted to coordinate competition in 1928.

Moreover, I find it hard to believe that the will exists to attempt to coordinate competition between producers in Texas, he added.

The expert believes that there is a danger in attempting to characterize U.S. shale producers as a monolith.

It is a diverse group of competing for-profit actors, who are pressured by markets in different ways (e.g., think of the range of pressures associated with just financing projects either through equity markets, or debt financing, or some variation of both). In addition, US shale producers rarely share similar corporate cultures, he added.

Regarding the situation in the oil market, Stewart noted that the impacts associate with upturns and downturns on oil prices affect different players differently, depending on a multitude of factors.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and Deputy Chairman of Turkmen Cabinet of Ministers - Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov discussed cooperation at the meeting in Dushanbe, Tajik presidential press-service said in a message July 14.

Tajik president noted that both sides should make efforts to enhance cooperation.

Tajik president and Turkmen foreign minister stressed the need to activate partnership within the Tajik- Turkmen intergovernmental commission on trade and economic, scientific and technical cooperation in order to ensure a permanent dialogue of the business community and state companies, and opening of trading houses of both countries.

The sides expressed interest for cooperation in economy, trade, energy, including the construction of a regional gas pipeline, implementation of joint projects in road transport, especially ensuring of regular direct flights between the countries, construction of regional railways, greater interaction in science, education, culture and healthcare.

Emomali Rahmon and Rashid Meredov also discussed the issues related to security, combating international terrorism and extremism, illegal drug trafficking and situation in Afghanistan.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 14

By Demir Azizov Trend:

The Uzbek parliament must become a school of real democracy, the Uzbekistan National News Agency (UzA) cited the countrys President Shavkat Mirziyoyev as saying.

Mirziyoyev made the remarks at a video conference devoted to the analysis of the activity of the chambers of the parliament, political parties, the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan, regional, district and city councils.

The meeting has been recently held in the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis (lower house of the Uzbek parliament). The activity of authoritative bodies, political parties and the Ecological Movement over the past period was analyzed.

The president said that the representatives of political parties, MPs and senators should be not only participants of large-scale reforms in Uzbekistan, but also their initiators and main executors.

According to the president, political parties have not fully and effectively fulfilled the promises, given to their electorate, and their pre-election programs.

There are no concrete proposals and initiatives on the implementation of the priority goals and objectives in the activity of parties and their factions in the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis.

The People's Democratic Party, which acts as a defender of the interests of pensioners and low-income layers of the population, does not offer initiatives to improve their living standards, social activity and support for the participation of these layers of population in exercising public control over the activity of state bodies.

Milly Tiklanish (National Revival) Democratic Party, which sets the tasks of reviving, enriching the national heritage and values, developing tourism, does not show sufficient activity in improving the relevant legislation and monitoring the implementation of laws.

Adolat (Justice) Social Democratic Party, acting for the sake of social justice, protecting the interests of the population in science, education, health care, does not show initiative in improving medical services and providing the population with medicines.

The Movement of Entrepreneurs and Businessmen  the Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, which is considered to be the leading political force in the country, does not meet the requirements of the electorate either.

"Any political party can be considered a political force only when it is in step with the times," the president said.

As part of the implementation of Uzbekistan's Development Strategy in 2017-2021, the measures were determined to resolve topical issues reflected in the programs of political parties.

The political parties are not active in implementing those measures.

"The political parties should review their goals and tasks, work in the ideological direction, make necessary changes and additions to their programs, by studying international experience and strengthening international cooperation," the president said.

The activity of political parties in dialogue with people, enlightenment and cooperation with the media was analyzed at the meeting.

The president also stressed the need for unconditional implementation of the Oliy Majlis's programs on parliamentary control over the activity of state administration bodies, the implementation of adopted laws and state programs.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 14

By Demir Azizov Trend:

Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, said in a report that it has affirmed the long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of Uzbek Industrial and Construction Bank (Uzpromstroybank; UPSB), Asaka Bank (Asaka), Agrobank OJSC and Microcreditbank (MCB) at 'B+', the outlooks are stable.

Short-term foreign currency and local currency IDRs of UPSB, Asaka, Agrobank and MCB have been affirmed at 'B', Support Rating Floors (SRFs) - at 'B+', support rating - at '4', according to the report.

Viability Ratings (VRs) of UPSB and Asaka have been affirmed at 'B', while the VRs of Agrobank and MCB  at 'B-', the report said.

The affirmation of the long-term foreign currency IDRs and SRFs of all four banks at 'B+' reflects Fitchs view of a high propensity of the Uzbek authorities to support the banks, in case of need.

In Fitchs view, the Uzbek states ability to provide support is currently solid, considering the moderate size of the banking sector relative to the Uzbek economy (loans/GDP ratio of around 37 percent at the end of 2016) and reasonably large foreign currency reserves.

Fitch believes that the Uzbek state is likely to retain majority stakes and operational control in the banks, and its propensity to support them should therefore remain strong.

The affirmation of UPSBs and Asakas VRs at 'B' reflects the banks reasonable performance and asset quality metrics to date, according to the report.

Agrobanks and MCBs VRs at 'B-' reflect the banks weaker asset quality and profitability metrics, said the report.

At the same time, all four banks VRs continue to reflect Uzbekistans difficult operating environment, Fitch said.

UPSB and Asaka reported low non-performing loans (NPLs) at the end of 2016 (below 1 percent and 2 percent respectively, fully covered by reserves), the report said. Agrobank also had low NPLs (2.5 percent at the end of 2016), but its asset quality remains weakened by unreserved problem receivables (7 percent of total assets). MCBs NPL ratio was 13 percent at the end of 2016.

Loan books are more concentrated and dollarized in UPSB (78 percent) and Asaka (57 percent), Fitch noted. Agrobanks and MCBs loans are mostly in local currency and more granular by borrower, albeit concentrated on the agricultural industry.

Profitability was moderate at UPSB and Asaka in 2016 (return on average equity (ROAE) of around 11 percent at both banks), and weak at Agrobank (2 percent) and MCB (negative 11 percent), according to the report.

Capitalization was moderate at UPSB (15 percent at the end of 2016), MCB (13 percent), modest at Asaka (11 percent) and weak at Agrobank (6 percent), the report said.

The banks funding is mainly sourced from customer deposits and government and quasi-government entities, Fitch noted. Depositor concentrations were high at UPSB, Asaka and MCB, with 20 largest depositors accounting for 45 percent, 70 percent and 46 percent of total customer funding, respectively. Agrobank's deposits were more granular (15 percent). UPSB is the only bank with meaningful borrowings from foreign financial institutions (21 percent of liabilities).

All four banks hold large enough foreign currency liquidity buffers to withstand a substantial reduction in foreign-currency-denominated customer funding, according to the report.

All four banks VRs could be downgraded as a result of deterioration in the banks asset quality if this is not fully offset by fresh equity injections, Fitch said.

Upgrades of the VRs could result from improvements in Uzbekistans operating environment and strengthening of the banks commercial franchises, said the report.
MoU signed between Nepal and Australia on bilateral consultation mechanism

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Nepal and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia on establishment of bilateral consultation mechanism has been signed in Canberra of Australia on Friday.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

The trade turnover between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan increased by 1.5 times in 1H2017 compared to the same period of 2016.

This fact was noted at the meeting of meeting of Kyrgyz Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Uzbekistan Daniyar Sydykov and Chairman of Uzbek State Statistics Committee Bakhodir Begalov, Kyrgyz foreign ministry said in a message.

The sides also discussed cooperation between Statistical Committees of two countries in exchange of information, experience, publications, as well as the organization and coordination of statistical work.

Kyrgyz Ambassador also met with Chairman of Uzbek Chamber of Commerce and Industry Adham Ikramov. They discussed the implementation of the tasks set by the presidents of two countries after the meeting in December 2016 in Samarkand, regarding increasing the bilateral trade and holding of joint Kyrgyz-Uzbek business forum and an exhibition of Kyrgyzstans achievements in Tashkent.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 14

By Demir Azizov  Trend:

Uzbekistans Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov and Director-General of the European Commissions Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO) Stefano Manservisi discussed the current state and prospects of cooperation between Uzbekistan and the European Union (EU), including the upcoming bilateral contacts, on July 14, the Uzbek Foreign Ministrys press service said in a message.

As it was previously reported, a delegation of EU representatives led by Manservisi has recently arrived in Tashkent.

The sides discussed the current state and prospects of cooperation between Uzbekistan and the EU in political, trade and economic, investment, cultural and humanitarian and other spheres, as well as the implementation process of EUs new partnership strategy with Central Asia in terms of increasing its efficiency.

Preparation for the upcoming meeting of the Cooperation Council between Uzbekistan and the EU in Brussels, the visit of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini to Uzbekistan, holding the next interregional meeting EU-Central Asia and other joint events were viewed by the two sides, according to the message.

According to the press service, the parties confirmed their mutual consent for the establishment of a new cooperation body  a subcommittee on cooperation for development, which will work to strengthen ties in the financial and technical sphere.

An exchange of views on topical issues of international and regional agenda was also held during the meeting between Kamilov and Manservisi.

Head of EU Delegation to Uzbekistan, Ambassador Eduards Stiprais also took part in the meeting.

During the Tashkent visit, the EU delegation is expected to meet with representatives of the Uzbek government, State Committee for Investments and other state structures of the country, during which it is planned to discuss the priority areas of cooperation, including agriculture, economic development, private business and entrepreneurship, water management, energy and border management.

The delegation will also hold several meetings with the diplomatic missions of the EU member states in Uzbekistan, as well as development agencies  Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UNICEF Fund, World Bank  to discuss key development issues and opportunities for strengthening cooperation.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

Chairman of the State Border Committee of Belarus Major-General Anatoly Lappo and Deputy Chairman of Uzbek National Security Service - Commander of the Border Troops of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan, Major-General Rustam Eminjanov discussed bilateral cooperation within a working meeting in Minsk and Brest July 11-14, Belarusian State Border Committee said in a message.

The sides discussed issues of cooperation within the framework of the Council of Commanders of the Border Troops of the CIS member states and in a bilateral format, the Committee said.

They also exchanged information regarding the situation on the state border of the two countries, as well as threats and problems affecting the state border security.

Lappo and Eminjanov noted the need to continue cooperation in exchanging experience in border protection and improving the border infrastructure.

The sides agreed to develop partnership in operational and service activities, training for personal and logistical and technical support.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 12



By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:



Production of oil cake, cooking oil and soy could help Iran save up to $4 billion per year, an agricultural official said.



Alireza Mohajer, an official with the countrys agriculture ministry, has said that the country spends $4 million on importing the oil products per year and the domestic production of these would help Iran cut expenses, IRNA news agency reported.



Urging for manufacturing oil products inside the country, he added that about 90 percent of oil consumed in Iran are being imported.



According to the official, cooking oil in Iran is mostly obtained from palm and soy which are imported in various quantities from Brazil, Argentina, Malaysia and Indonesia.



He further added that the per capita consumption of oil in Iran stands at 20 kilograms per year. Iran has earlier announced plans to produce 200,000 tons of rapeseed over the current fiscal year ending March 20.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14



By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:



Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called on the US to reconsider its approach towards the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA aka nuclear deal).



Zarif said that the nuclear deal is an international accord and the US should revise its policy towards the historic deal reached between Iran and the world powers in 2015, IRNA news agency reported.



The top diplomat made the remarks upon his arrival at the New York airport.



He termed the accord as the best achievable deal that all parties to the JCPOA could reach.



Zarif further criticized the US over its failure to properly implement the nuclear deal and said the US policies towards the JCPOA have prevented Iran from enjoying the full benefits of the agreement.



Zarif has arrived in the US to attend the High-Level Political Forum 2017 organized by the UN.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:

The Israeli gas quantities itself are not sufficient to influence the European market, Dr. Oded Eran a senior researcher at the Israeli Institute for Strategic Studies and former Israeli Ambassador to the EU believes.

But the combined quantities from the region may become significant for Europe and the countries on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, Eran told Trend.

Earlier at the 22nd World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said that Turkey and Israel plans to sign an agreement on a gas pipeline construction until the yearend.

"We want to build a pipeline stretching from Israel to Turkey in order to able to export natural gas from Israel to Turkey," Steinitz said, adding that the Israeli gas could be delivered to Europe and to the Balkans through Turkey.

According to Eran, it is quite possible that initially gas will be used by Turkey as the sole consumer.

Meanwhile if the pipeline can be build with capacity to carry bigger quantities from other gas sources for example, Egypt, Gaza, Lebanon and etc., this may create the possibility of gas from the East Mediterranean flowing to Europe, he said.

Eran does not exclude that Israeli gas could further join the Southern Gas Corridor and be pumped by the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), however he noted that this will depend on the entry point of this gas on the Turkish side and its destination.

The analyst noted that the pipeline route has to be decided by geological, financial and political considerations.

The most economic route is not necessarily politically feasible since the pipeline will have to cross the Economic Excusive Zones of Cyprus or Syria and Lebanon, Eran said, adding that legally this is possible to build such a pipeline but it may run into political problems.

In Israel, two giant fields - Tamar and Leviathan were discovered in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Gas reserves of these fields amount to tens of trillion cubic feet.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 14

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

The Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) terrorist group is no longer on Iraqs territory, Fadhil Awad Jebur AL-Shuwaili, charge d'affaires of Iraq to Azerbaijan, said July 14.

However, there are still small terrorist units in the country, which will be eliminated soon, he told a briefing in Baku held on the occasion of liberation of Mosul from IS.

We put an end to the terror in our country, the diplomat said, adding this happened thanks to the unity of the Iraqi people.

Certain countries helped the Iraqis in this fight, so this is not only our victory but their victory too, he said.

The further steps will be aimed at bringing back refugees and restoring Mosul, said Fadhil Awad Jebur AL-Shuwaili.

The IS terrorist group committed indescribable atrocities against the Iraqi people  it burned women, in particular those of Kurdish origin, Shiites, and involved children in combat operations, he said. Civilians were used as human shields, and religious shrines, mosques and monuments were destroyed.

On July 10, Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi officially announced victory over the IS in Mosul. The city has been under the IS control since June 2014.
Daesh terrorists group has declared the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, a state independent from the so-called caliphate, Al Sumaria Iraqi TV channel reported citing a local source in Nineveh province, Sputnik reported.

"The leaders of Daesh in Tal Afar in a brief statement declared the above-mentioned city a state, independent of what is called the Caliphate, and threatened those who disobey their orders with cruel punishments," the source said as quoted by the broadcaster on Wednesday.

The source added that Tal Afar was currently controlled by Arabs and foreigners, as Iraqi leaders were killed in a series of public executions over the past weeks.

According to earlier reports, all Iraqi leaders of Tal Afar were killed by Arab and foreign IS militants, along with hundreds of civilians accused of having collaborated with the Iraqi security authorities or trying to flee the area.

In 2014, the IS captured vast territories in Iraq and Syria, declaring a caliphate.
A Brazilian congressional committee on Thursday voted against sending a corruption charge against President Michel Temer to the Supreme Court for the leader to be put on trial, Reuters reported.

The vote is non-binding and the full house must still vote on the charge, which would only be approved if two-thirds of legislators vote for it.

Temer was charged last month in connection with a graft scheme involving the world's largest meatpacker, JBS SA. General Prosecutor Rodrigo Janot accused Temer of arranging to receive a total of 38 million reais ($11.85 million) in bribes from JBS in the next nine months.

($1 = 3.2072 reais)
U.S. President Donald Trump, who is fighting off allegations of ties between his election campaign and Moscow, said he would invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House but added that now was not the right time for that, Reuters reported.

The Republican president drew criticism last week from Democrats who accused him of not pressing Putin hard enough at a meeting they held in Germany over Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

Accusations that Moscow meddled in the election and colluded with the Trump campaign have dominated Trump's first months in office. Russia denies meddling, and Trump says there was no collusion.

Trump's comments came as he defended his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign after he was told she might have damaging information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Trump told Reuters on Wednesday that he did not know about his son's meeting until recently. But in a conversation with reporters later that day, Trump said that "in fact maybe it (the meeting) was mentioned at some point," adding he was not told it was about Clinton.

Trump has said he wants to work with Moscow on issues like Syria, and told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One to Paris that he was open to the idea of inviting Putin to the White House at some point.

"I dont think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would," when asked if he would extend such an invitation to the Russian leader. The comments were released by the White House on Thursday.
Nepal awaits Icao audit report with bated breath

Nepal will have to wait for two weeks to get an early indication whether it has successfully passed a safety audit by the worlds aviation regulatory body.
At least two female tourists were killed and four other foreigners injured in mass stabbings at a hotel in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada, Egypt's Interior Ministry and security sources say, PressTV reported.

The ministry said on Friday a preliminary investigation showed the attacker had swam from a nearby public beach to gain access to the holiday resort in Hurghada, some 400 km (250 miles) south of the capital Cairo.

The suspected assailant was taken into custody and is being interrogated by the police to determine his motives, it added.

Other victims were taken to hospital but their nationalities were not immediately known.

In January 2016, two knife-wielding men with suspected links to the Daesh terrorist group attacked the Bella Vista Hotel in Hurghada and wounded two Austrians and a Swede.

Meanwhile, five Egyptian policemen, two officers and three conscripts, were killed on Friday after gunmen ambushed a security checkpoint opened fire on a car in an area south of Cairo the state-run MENA news agency and the Interior Ministry said.

The raid took place when three gunmen on a motorbike attacked police in al-Badrasheen area of Giza Province, 30 km (20 miles) south of Cairo.

A police officer who was near the site of the attack exchanged fire with the assailants forcing them to flee," the ministry statement said.

According to witnesses, the attackers blasted the vehicle with automatic rifles, took equipment and threw petrol bombs inside the car before fleeing.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but it came after police and the army said they were closing in on militants in the Nile Valley and the Sinai Peninsula.

Egyptian security forces have long been battling Daesh-affiliated militants in the restive northeast and managed to kill a large number of them while suffering fatalities as well.

The militants frequently attack Egyptian security forces, as well as foreign tourists and the countrys Coptic Christians.

In May, gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians in a bus travelling to a monastery and killed 29 people. Two deadly church bombings in Alexandria and Tanta took more than 45 lives in April.
Senior US and Thai officials discussed joint counter-terrorism activities and the threat posed by North Korea at the sixth Strategic Dialogue meeting in Washington, DC, the US Department of State said in a media note, Sputnik reported.

"The Dialogue addressed a wide variety of issues of mutual interest, including shared concerns with the security threat posed by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and collaborative efforts to counter terrorism," the note stated on Friday.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton led the US delegation and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Busaya Mathelin led the Thailand delegation, the State Department noted.

The delegations discussed deepening collaboration in regional security, cyber policy, counter-terrorism and commerce through forums like ASEAN and the Lower Mekong Initiative, according to the media note.

The United States welcomed Thailands intention to hold elections in 2018 and return to elected government, the note added.
"Democracy watch" rallies marking the first anniversary of last July's coup attempt will officially start on Saturday, the president announced Thursday, Anadolu reported.

After last year's coup attempt, democracy watch rallies were held all across the country for several weeks.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke at a memorial service held at Bestepe National Congress and Culture Center in Ankara to commemorate the martyrs of last July 15's coup attempt.

Erdogan said the watch will start on July 15. 2017 at 12.13 a.m. (2113GMT) with imams reciting Quran prayers simultanously.

The nationwide democracy watch will continue till July 16, 2017 midnight, Erdogan officially announced the launch of the event.

He added that democracy watches could take place after Sunday midnight.

The events and ceremonies, which will be attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will be open to the public.

Additionally, various activities will also be organized by non-governmental organizations, municipalities and institutions.

July 15 documentary

On Saturday, July 15, the General Assembly of the parliament will convene at 1.00 p.m. local time (1000GMT) in Ankara with a special agenda followed by a meeting with international press members two hours later.

In Istanbul, a "National Unity Walk" will start at 6.30 p.m local time with the participation of Erdogan, veterans, and the relatives of martyrs. President Erdogan will address the public after the screening of a July 15 documentary. He will also attend the opening ceremony of a martyrs' memorial.

Erdogan is scheduled later to depart for Ankara where he will address the parliament at 2.32 a.m., the time the parliament was bombed on the night of the coup attempt.

Sunday's program will begin with a morning prayer at Ankara's Bestepe Millet Mosque followed by the opening of the July 15 Martyrs' Monument at the presidency complex.

Throughout the week, Turkish embassies across the world will hold memorial services and issue press releases about the coup attempt. Messages will also be shared on mainstream and social media.

According to the Turkish government, the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
Ankara, Turkey, July 14

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Azerbaijan has repeatedly proved its fraternity with Turkey, Mahir Unal, deputy chairman and spokesman of the ruling Justice and Development Party of Turkey (AKP), told Trend July 14.

He noted that on the day of the military coup attempt in Turkey (July 15, 2016), Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev clearly expressed his position and supported the people and the government of Turkey.

We are grateful to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the Azerbaijani people for their support, Unal said.

On July 15, 2016, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country as a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them. However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed. More than 200 people were killed during the attempted coup.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
HAVANA, Cuba (July 13, 2017) - Experts from WCS's Global Conservation Programs and WCS's Bronx Zoo assisted Cuban conservationists in the recent release of 10 Cuban crocodiles (Crocodylus rhombifer) into Cuba's Zapata Swamp as part of an ongoing recovery strategy for this Critically Endangered species.

These genetically pure crocodiles came from a breeding facility near the Zapata swamp. Hybridization with American crocodiles, which occur in the Southwestern tip of the Zapata Peninsula, is an ongoing issue and has contributed to the Cuban crocodile's continuing decline. Cuban crocodiles face other threats, such as an increase in illegal hunting in recent years, so the release of captive bred Cuban crocodiles and the protection of these reptiles from poaching and hybridization is critical to the survival of the species in the wild.

The crocodiles were released in the Wildlife Refuge Channels of Hanabana (Refugio de Fauna Canales de Hanabana) - a 570 hectare (1,400 acre) mosaic of water channels, lagoons, marsh grasslands, and swamp forests in the easternmost Zapata Peninsula where Cuban crocodiles historically occurred. Marsh grasslands in this refuge provide crucial habitat for not only Cuban crocodiles, but prey including bird, fish and mammal species. No American crocodiles or hybrids are found in this Wildlife Refuge.

The recent release, which took place on June 8th, is the second reintroduction since Cuba started to release Cuban crocodiles in 2016. The decision to release the crocodiles followed a workshop of crocodile experts organized by WCS and Cuban institutions, including the Fundacion Antonio Nunez Jimenez, CITMA Cienaga de Zapata, and Empresa Nacional para la Proteccion de la Flora y la Fauna. The workshop brought together 40 Cuban nationals working for the conservation of crocodiles in Cuba, and 30 international experts.

The workshop resulted in a series of agreed priorities for improving the conservation of crocodiles, including: strengthening the research and monitoring of Cuban crocodiles in the wild; increasing efforts to reintroduce and monitor reintroduced animals in Channels of Hanabana; working with local communities to reduce poaching through alternative livelihoods and environmental education; and working with local authorities to strengthen compliance to reduce illegal selling of crocodile meat.

Said Natalia Rossi, WCS Cuba Program Manager: "This workshop was important because it enabled the second release of Cuban crocodiles into the wild and motivated all participants to do even more to save this critically endangered species. Our workshop was fundamental to bring everyone together to share the work being done to save the Cuban crocodile."

The critically endangered Cuban crocodile has the smallest, most restricted geographic distribution among all living crocodilian species, being only found in parts of the Zapata and Lanier swamps. Historically it was found throughout the Zapata Peninsula, but indiscriminate hunting for skins beginning in the second half of the 19th century and lasting until the early 1960s decimated most populations. Today, Cuban crocodiles inhabit a territory of about 77,600 hectares (191,700 acres), sharing habitat with the American crocodile and the hybrids of both species.

WCS's John Thorbjarnarson began working on Cuban crocodiles in the 1990s, and WCS's Bronx Zoo was the first U.S. zoo to successfully breed Cuban crocodiles. The first one hatched in 1983; six more hatched in 1984, and 21 in 1985. There has been no reproduction since then, but the zoo has a new young pair of crocodiles that will be introduced to each other late this year.

Kevin Torregrosa, Herpetology Collections Manager for WCS's Bronx Zoo, attended the workshop to establish collaboration opportunities with individuals working with crocodiles in the breeding centers as well as with wild populations.

Said Torregrosa: "Cuba is a fairly isolated island and getting the chance to see the conservation effort in practice was very enlightening. I believe the Cubans were very happy to have the opportunity to show the international community the work that they have been doing."

WCS's Cuba Program has helped establish strong collaborations in the pursuit of safeguarding the island nation's wildlife and natural resources. In addition to working to conserve both Cuban and American crocodiles in Zapata and Birama Swamps, WCS has helped protect raptors in the inland forests of eastern Cuba and shark species inhabiting the rich coastal waters of Jardines de la Reina National Park. WCS-Cuba has partnered with national agencies to help train three generations of conservation educators and decision makers through professional exchanges and applied ecological teaching, and worked to balance conservation with support for local livelihoods and culture.

###

WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society)

MISSION: WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. To achieve our mission, WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo, harnesses the power of its Global Conservation Program in nearly 60 nations and in all the world's oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York City, visited by 4 million people annually. WCS combines its expertise in the field, zoos, and aquarium to achieve its conservation mission. Visit: newsroom.wcs.org Follow: @WCSNewsroom. For more information: 347-840-1242.
Nepali Congress to hear from Province 2 leaders ahead of polls

In a bid to take into account the ground reality in Province 2, the Nepali Congress has called a meeting next week of the partys leaders from the eight districts.
By Alana Wise, David Shepardson and Tom Finn

(Reuters) - Qatar Airways said it will go ahead with plans to buy a stake in American Airlines Inc <AAL.O> even though the U.S. carrier is ending their code-share agreement.

American announced on Wednesday that it was cancelling code-share agreements with Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways as "an extension of our stance against the illegal subsidies that these carriers receive from their governments." Both Middle East airlines deny they are state subsidized.

American's decision to end the agreements which allow airlines to book passengers on each other's flights, ramps up an acrimonious dispute between U.S. carriers and Gulf competitors over competitive advantages.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker said on Thursday he was disappointed by the decision, but it would not affect the Middle East carrier's plans to buy up to a 10 percent stake in American, announced last month.

"Our stock purchase request and filing is going ahead as normal. We had to clarify certain questions of the regulator, which we compiled with," al-Baker told reporters in Doha.

Qatar Airways sent a revised antitrust filing to U.S. regulators on Wednesday seeking clearance to buy up to a 10 percent stake in the U.S. carrier, according to the filing.

A stake in American would add to Qatar Airways' investment portfolio, which already includes a 20 percent stake in British Airways-owner International Airlines Group <ICAG.L> and 10 percent of South America's LATAM <LAN.SN>.

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, however, said in a letter to his employees last month that "We aren't particularly excited about Qatar's outreach" and that it was puzzling given the U.S. carrier's very public stance on state support given to Gulf carriers.

"ANTI-CONSUMER"

American and other U.S. carriers have charged that state subsidies allow Qatar Airways, Etihad and Emirates [EMIRA.UL] to offer lower fares and more amenities to long-haul, international travelers.

Story continues

They are pressing the United States government to curb the Middle Eastern carriers' access to U.S. airports, and the White House is considering their request, according to government officials and airline executives who have spoken to the White House.

Al-Baker said American's decision to end the code-share agreement was "not in the spirit of the one world alliance" and that Qatar Airways had other partners in the United States "who want to work with us."

Qatar Airways, American Airlines, IAG's British Airways, Iberia and LATAM are all members of the one world airline alliance.

Al-Baker previously said Qatar Airways would buy American shares on the open market before formally seeking board approval from the U.S. carrier to increase its ownership. [nL8N1JX389]

The U.S. airline's own rules require advance approval from its board for the purchase of a stake of 4.75 percent or more.

American said on Wednesday that cancelling code-sharing agreements with Qatar Airways and Etihad would not have a material financial impact for the U.S. carrier.

Etihad, which flies to six U.S. cities, accused American of being anti-competitive and anti-consumer" and said it was disappointed with the decision.

An interline relationship between Etihad and American, which allows customers from two airlines to buy connecting flights on one ticket, would remain in place to connect passengers to secondary markets, an Etihad spokeswoman said.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Alana Wise, Reporting by Tom Finn in Doha; Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Dubai; Editing by Leslie Adler and Susan Fenton)
Aircraft giant, The Boeing Company BA, has entered into a draft deal for delivering three Next-Generation 737-800 airplanes to Algeria-based Tassili Airlines, per Reuters. Although the details of the contract have been revealed recently, the order was announced during the Paris Air Show, last month.



However, at that time, Boeing's orders & deliveries website had attributed the order to an unidentified customer.



Coming back to the details, the contract is valued at $294 million at list prices. Per the terms, Boeing will deliver these airplanes during the second half of 2018.



A member of the Next-Generation 737 family, the 737-800, continues to be extremely popular as a single-aisle aircraft. This is because of its advanced technology, and low operation and maintenance costs.



The new 737s will feature the Boeing Sky Interior  the 787 Dreamliner inspired cabin  that provides passengers a sense of space with decorative sidewalls, larger windows, LED mood lighting and larger pivot overhead stowage bins.



Recent Deals Inked at the Paris Air Show



Demand for Boeings commercial airplanes has been rising, owing to a steady increase in passenger and freight traffic. This has been even more strongly reflected in recent times, when the aerospace behemoth successfully won the maximum number of contracts at the Paris Air Show. In addition to the aforementioned deal, other notable contracts secured by Boeing at the Air Show, include a commitment from the Kuwait-based ALAFCO Aviation Lease and Finance Company for 20 737 MAX 8s, valued at $2.2 billion at current list prices. Moreover, Lion Group is committed to buy 50 737 Max 10 jets from the company for $6.24 billion.



Also, Boeing signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SpiceJet for 40 737 MAX airplanes worth $4.7 billion. Another MOU worth $2.5 billion was signed with Tibet Financial Leasing for 20 737 MAX airplanes. Moreover, Boeing signed an MOU with BOC Aviation Limited for 10 737 MAX 10 airplanes, worth nearly $1.25 billion.



Apart from this, the company clinched an order from AerCap for 30 787-9 Dreamliners, worth $8.1 billion. Given the huge commercial demand, Boeing is expected to witness significant traction going ahead, especially in the single-aisle market.



Single-Aisle Aircraft in Demand



Boeing anticipates demand for 29,530 single-aisle jets, worth $3.2 trillion, in the next 20 years. This projected figure reflects a 5% increase over last year's projection.



Moreover, the company expects single-aisle jets to be the major driver of demand growth, comprising 72% of the total commercial jets demand projection. While the new 737 MAX and the 737-800 is likely to grab the lions share of the new orders, Boeings arch-rival Airbus Group SEs EADSY A320neo is expected to pose significant challenges.



Nevertheless, Boeings 737 model remians one of the best-selling planes in the single-aisle market, thanks to its fuel efficiency and passenger comfort. Therefore, to maintain its dominance in the commercial aerospace market, this aerospace behemoth continues to invest in research and development for upgrading and churning out upgraded versions of its existing planes.



Q1 Order Details



Boeings second-quarter 2017 order details show that the company booked 183 net commercial orders (accounting for cancellations). In the first half of 2017, it booked 381 net commercial orders. On the contrary, Boeings rival, Airbus registered net bookings of just 203 aircraft in the same period, trailing far behind.



Since, Boeing and Airbus are the two largest players in the commercial aircraft space their direct rivalry is quite evident. This, in turn, leads to intensifying competition in the AerospaceDefense industry. Nevertheless, the huge orders Boeing has won recently places it in a better position in the industry.



Price Movement



Share price of Boeing has increased 55.8% in the last 12 months, outperforming the Zacks categorized AerospaceDefense industrys gain of 26.7%. This could have been driven by the companys strong balance sheet and cash flows that provide financial flexibility in matters of incremental dividend, ongoing share repurchases as well as earnings accretive acquisitions. Additionally, the stocks performance is in line with that of General Dynamics Corp. GD and Textron Inc. TXT that also surpassed the industry mark.

Story continues





Zacks Rank



Boeing currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!



It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.



Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020. Click here for the 6 trades >>



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T-72B1 Russian tank

In late June, the Defense Intelligence Agency released a lengthy unclassified report on the Russian military for the first time since 1991, and it contained an interesting detail about Russian military-hardware exports.

Rosoboronexport, the Russian state-owned military company accounting for about 85% of all exports, alone sold military equipment to about 70 countries in 2015, the DIA report said.

Fifteen smaller companies make up for the other 15% of exports, which totals about $2 billion a year, the DIA report said. This means that the actual number of countries that bought military equipment from Russia in 2015 could easily be more than 70, DIA spokesman Navy Cmdr. William Marks told Business Insider.

Moscow also said last year that it sold $14.5 billion in military equipment overseas in 2015, the DIA report said.

The information in their report was gathered in a number of ways, including human intelligence, satellite imagery, and public information, among others, Marks said.



The report does not list the specific countries purchasing such equipment from Russia because that information is classified, Marks said.

From 2012 to 2016, Russia sold weapons to 50 different states, as well as rebel forces in Ukraine, and Moscow remains the second-biggest arms exporter in the world  behind the US.

Russian S-400

The DIA report, however, has been criticized by some for being too hawkish, just like previous DIA reports on the Soviet Union.

Sim Tack, an analyst at Stratfor, told Business Insider that previous DIA reports had been attacked for trying to influence policy, and, "the number of countries buying those kind of spare parts or peripherals [from Russia] could easily be that high" because "Russia has sold military equipment to 96 different countries" since the end of the Cold War.

Story continues

Marks told Business Insider that "we absolutely do not try to influence policy," and that DIA intelligence assessments are based on strict standards to which the larger intelligence community also adheres.

While Tack said he didn't find anything in the report that seemed misleading, he added that he thought "the discussion about it being a hawkish report is more about the question of 'why do we need to publish a report about the Russian capabilities' and 'and why now?'"

NOW WATCH: Trump appeared in a Russian pop singer's music video, and it may be connected to Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian Lawyer





More From Business Insider


Jamie Dimon

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon said during an earnings call Friday its almost an embarrassment being an American citizen traveling the world because of policies hindering business growth.

Dimon added that corporate tax reform is critical to bringing back capital from overseas.

If we dont get our act together, we can still grow. Its just unfortunate because its hurting the body politics, its hurting the average American that we dont have these policies. So, no, in spite of the gridlock, we will still grow at 1 or 2%, Dimon said on the companys earnings call on Friday morning, according to a transcript from Bloomberg.

I dont buy the argument that were relegated to this forever. Were not, Dimon said. And if this administration will make great moves in taxes and infrastructure reform, we have the most  one of the most bureaucratic, confusing, litigious societies in the planet  its almost an embarrassment being an American citizen traveling around the world and listening to the stupid s we have to deal with in this country. And at one point, we have to get our act together.

He reiterated that corporate taxes are important for businesses and business growth, but theyre also important for wage growth and jobs for everyday Americans.

Dimon was responding to a question from an analyst about when political dysfunction would start to dent the underpinnings of the economy.

I would look at it the other way around. Since the Great Recession, which is now eight years old, weve been growing at 1.5 to 2% despite the stupidity and political gridlock, Dimon said.

He added that the American business sector will continue to grow, but it wont be as strong until there are some policy changes.

What Im saying is it would be much stronger growth had we made intelligent decisions and that gridlock  and thank you for pointing it out  because Im going to be a broken record until this gets done. We are unable to build bridges, were unable to build airports or industries. School kids are not graduating. I was just in France, in Argentina, Israel, Ireland, we met with the Prime Minister of India and China. Its amazing, to me, that every single one of those countries understands that practical policies to promote business growth is good for the average citizens of those countries for jobs and wages and somehow this great American free enterprise system, we no longer get it.



Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
loretta lynch

Former US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who served in President Barack Obama's administration, is backing away from accusations she had a hand in allowing Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who is at the center of Donald Trump Jr.'s email scandal, into the US.

A spokesperson for Lynch said the former attorney general "does not have any personal knowledge of Ms. Veselnitskaya's travel," The Hill reported Thursday evening.

"The State Department issues visas, and the Department of Homeland Security oversees entry to the United States at airports," Lynch's spokesperson said according to The Hill.

President Donald Trump earlier Thursday attempted to blame Obama's Justice Department for allowing Veselnitskaya into the US in the first place, months before she met with Trump Jr. on the premise that he would receive damaging Hillary Clinton emails courtesy of the Russian government.

"Somebody said that her visa or her passport to come into the country was approved by Attorney General Lynch," Trump said. "Now, maybe that's wrong. I just heard that a little while ago, I was surprised to hear that. She was here because of Lynch."

Veselnitskaya was temporarily allowed into the US in fall 2015 when an earlier visa request was denied. The temporary grant was due to expire in January 2016.

Trump sought to play down the June 2016 meeting between Veselnitskaya, Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort: "Most people would've taken that meeting," Trump said. "It's called opposition research."

The scandal has since ballooned, after Trump Jr. made a number of conflicting statements about the meeting this week.

NOW WATCH: ABC calls out Kellyanne Conway over Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer after previously denying any contact with Russians





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Screen Shot 2017 07 13 at 5.23.25 PM

A GOP donor and opposition researcher who said he tried to work with Russian hackers to retrieve deleted emails from a private server used by Hillary Clinton, has died in a suicide, according to public records cited in a Chicago Tribune report.

Peter Smith killed himself days after an interview with The Wall Street Journal in which he said he sought out Russian hackers to try to retrieve some 33,000 deleted Clinton emails and pass them to Michael Flynn, then a campaign adviser to Donald Trump.

Death records from Minnesota show that Smith, 81, died in a hotel of "asphyxiation due to displacement of oxygen in confined space with helium" on May 14. Smith was found with a note that said there was "NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER" regarding his death.

Smith also apologized to the authorities for his death and attributed his final decision to a "recent bad turn in health," according to the records cited by the Tribune, which reported that he also said his $5 million life insurance policy was close to expiring.

The Mayo Clinic located near the hotel in Rochester, Minnesota, declined to confirm whether Smith was a patient, the Tribune said. Smith's former associates reportedly said he was suffering from health issues and frequently complained of heart problems.

Smith gave his interview to The Journal 10 days before his death. He said he had assembled a group seeking to obtain emails Clinton deleted from the private server she used during her tenure as secretary of state. Smith implied that, when reaching out to several hacking groups, he was working with Flynn. Details on whether Flynn was involved in Smith's mission are not known. Smith told The Journal he knew Flynn but did not say whether Flynn was involved.

Smith's account is consistent with the findings from US investigators examining Russia's involvement in the 2016 US presidential election, according to sources cited by The Journal. Reports compiled by intelligence agencies say Russian hackers discussed ways to acquire emails from Clinton's server and give them to Flynn through an intermediary.

Story continues

Clinton's emails were a major talking point for Trump and his surrogates during the 2016 presidential campaign, one that only escalated after the FBI recommended that prosecutors not bring charges against Clinton.

NOW WATCH: People on Twitter are loving how baffled Buzz Aldrin appeared by Trump's 'space' talk





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Every day is a National Day for something. Theyre the modern-day equivalent of Saints days in this 21st century era of brand messaging and the thirst to go viral, days that most people remain unaware of but happen literally every day.

According to the National Day calendar, Wednesday was National Different Colored Eyes Day, and National Pecan Pie Day. Thursday is National French Fry Day and also National Beans N Franks Day.

Friday is the very civilized National Grand Marnier Daythough it doesnt appear to be on their website. It could get a little wildthe 80 proof liqueur shares the day with National Nude Day and National Tape Measure Day.

Unlike Saints days, National Days have brands on their sides, tirelessly pushed by brands on social media and other advertising means, so this information is communicated to the public. (Blue Bell is introducing its new ice cream flavor  Sweet n Salty Crunch to coincide with National Ice Cream Day). And it can actually work.

National Ice Cream day actually works

Companies creating or pushing these special days can get a meaningful bump (and ice cream lovers can get deals on Ben & Jerrys and Carvel). Every year, apparently, the third Sunday in July (July 16 this year) is National Ice Cream Day, and its the most popular day of the year to buy ice cream, according to data from Square, a popular method for handling credit card payment services for small businesses like ice cream shops.

Last year, the 2,500 ice cream shops that use Squares card readers saw a 50% spike in sales on National Ice Cream Day compared to the rest of July, and that third week was the biggest week of the year.

Squares analysis also found some other interesting things about how America eats ice cream. Adjusted for population, the top five states for ice cream consumption per capita were Hawaii, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Oregon. Chocolate beats vanilla by a factor of almost three to one, and mint by 10 to one. And cones are twice as popular as cups.

Story continues

Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance focusing on consumer issues, tech, and personal finance. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann. Got a tip? Send it to tips@yahoo-inc.com.

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donald trump jr trump tower

A Soviet military intelligence officer turned lobbyist attended the meeting at Trump Tower last June with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and a Russian lawyer, NBC News reported Friday.

Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-born lobbyist who since at least last year has been working with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to overturn a US law sanctioning Russians, confirmed his participation in the meeting to the Associated Press. He said that Trump Jr. asked Veselnitskaya for information on illicit money flowing into the Democratic National Committee but that Veselnitskaya had nothing substantive to provide.

Trump Jr. has said that he agreed to meet with Veselnitskaya last June at Trump Tower to discuss compromising information she said she had on Hillary Clinton but that he was disappointed the meeting instead focused on Russia's adoption policy. Veselnitskaya later told NBC News that she didn't have derogatory information on Clinton and asked for the meeting to talk about the Magnitsky Act.

The Magnitsky Act was passed to punish those suspected of being involved in the death of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered a $230 million tax-fraud scheme in 2008 that implicated high-level Kremlin officials and allies of President Vladimir Putin. The scheme quickly snowballed into one of the biggest corruption scandals of Putin's tenure. The law authorizes the US president to deny visas to, and freeze the assets of, Russians believed to have been complicit in Magnitsky's death. Russia retaliated by barring Americans from adopting Russian children.

NBC News initially declined to name Akhmetshin as the lobbyist who attended with Veselnitskaya. But William Browder, the founder of the investment advisory firm Hermitage Capital who spearheaded the Magnitsky Act, told Business Insider that there was "only one person" who fit the profile described by NBC News.

Browder added that Akhmetshin's presence was highly significant.

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"In the world of Russian intelligence, there is no such thing as a 'former intelligence officer,'" he said. "So in my opinion you had a member of Putin's secret police directly meeting with the son of the future next president of the United States asking to change US sanctions policy crucial to Putin."

There may also have been a sixth person at the meeting, Trump Jr.'s lawyer told NBC News on Friday morning, who was a friend of Emin Agalarov and served as a translator. Veselnitskaya told the New York Times earlier this week that an interpreter accompanied her to the meeting, but she did not mention Akhmetshin.

Agalarov, a Russian pop star and son of Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov, asked his publicist Rob Goldstone to arrange the meeting between Trump Jr. and Veselnitskaya.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty profiled Akhmetshin, who has denied any current relationship to Russia's spy agencies, last July  roughly one month after he organized the showing of an anti-Magnitsky Act film at the Newseum in Washington, DC. Akhmetshin was part of "a team of political and legal operatives" put together by Veselnitskaya to lobby for the repeal of the Act, The New York Times reported last week.

I am an American citizen since 2009 who pays taxes, earned his citizenship after living here since 1994, and swore an oath of loyalty to the United States of America, Akhmetshin, a dual Russian-American citizen, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty last year.

Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who founded the opposition-research firm Fusion GPS, was also part of the team, The Times said. Simpson, who hired Christopher Steele to produce the Trump-Russia dossier, has denied being tied to efforts to overturn Magnitsky.

Additionally, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, Akhmetshin visited the Russia-friendly congressman Dana Rohrabacher last May along with Ron Dellums, a former California congressman and longtime Washington lobbyist. Veselnitskaya, too, reportedly attended a dinner with Rohrabacher and Akhmetshin last year.

Dellums said the initial meeting with Rohrabacher in his office was to discuss Russia's adoption policy, while Akhmetshin said it was to discuss the real-estate firm Prevezon.

When Veselnitskaya met with Trump Jr., Prevezon was under investigation by the Department of Justice over whether it laundered millions of dollars  allegedly stolen in the tax-fraud scheme that Magnitsky uncovered  into New York City real estate.

Denis Katsyv, the owner of Prevezon and the son of a senior Russian government official, Pyotr Katsyv, is represented by Veselnitskaya and has been at the center of efforts to overturn the adoption ban  which would start with the repeal of the Magnitsky Act. In February 2016, the younger Katsyv registered a nonprofit company in Delaware called the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation, the stated aim of which is to overturn the ban.

Records list Akhmetshin as the lead lobbyist for the foundation, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

A Russian mining company accused Akhmetshin of orchestrating a smear campaign against them in November 2015 that involved hacking into the company's private documents and disseminating them, The Daily Beast reported on Friday, citing court records. But the company suddenly withdrew all allegations gainst Akhmetshin last year.

NOW WATCH: Here's the TV segment that prompted Trump's vicious Twitter attack on Mika Brzezinski





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Sprint (S) would like you to get one number out of your mind when you shop for a phone: its price.

Instead, the nations fourth-biggest carrier wants you to consider leasing  and not just to get the high-end phones it previously reserved for such programs. Its new Flex option covers every phone it sells.

Sprint wants you to lease your phone.

But while Flex will make it easier to upgrade every year, it will come with costs and limits of its own  starting with an end to installment-payment pricing at the carrier. In other words: Sorry, there will be math.

How it will work

Flex, announced Friday morning, starts with relative simplicity. Pay no money down, then pay a lease fee equivalent to the monthly installment-payment plans on other carriers.

After 12 months, you can turn in that phone and get a new one at no extra cost if its a new Apple (AAPL) iPhone or Samsung Galaxy. Thats much like Sprints current iPhone Forever and Galaxy Forever programs  but with Flex, you can reserve an annual upgrade on other phones if you opt into paying $5 more a month at sign-up.

On any Flex-leased phone, after 18 months you can choose to turn it in and get a new one or pay off the balance, either all at once or in six installments. Sprint can then refurbish the phone and unload it in the U.S. or elsewhere (its parent company SoftBank owns the phone-distribution firm Brightstar).

You will still be able to buy a phone from Sprint, but youll need to pay the full price upfront.

A separate Flex Deals option will cover some cheaper phones and also permit annual upgrades without the $5 monthly surcharge.

Four low-end modelsthe Samsung Galaxy J3, LGs Tribute HD, the ZTE Max XL and the Alacatel Go Flip  will lease for $5 a month and require $25 upfront. Another fourused and refurbished iPhone 6s, the Galaxy J7 Perx and the LG Stylo 3 and X Powerwill lease for $10 a month after $30 upfront.

Cost comparisons

Will you save money? Compare your costs to get a new iPhone every year via the two other major annual-upgrade schemes, Apples iPhone Upgrade Program and AT&Ts (T) Next Every Year.

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At Apple, an iPhone 7 with 32GB of storage would cost $32.41 a monthincluding AppleCare+ device protection. After a year, youd have spent $389. Because Apple sells iPhones unlocked under this program, you could hop from carrier to carrier in that time and use cheap prepaid SIMs when traveling internationally.

At AT&T, youd spend $27.09 a month for a one-year total of $325. That doesnt include a device-protection plan and would keep the phone locked. Travel overseas with it, and youre stuck with extortionate roaming rates that start at $40 for 200 megabytes of data.

Sprints $27 lease rate for that iPhone 7 also adds up to $325 after 12 months. And because youre renting, you also wouldnt owe sales tax in states that collect one.

It is unclear whether you could get a Flex-leased phone unlocked for international travel. Sprints policy as of Thursday reads: Sprint may be able to unlock some SIM-based devices to allow a foreign carriers SIM card to be inserted.

But you can also sell a used phone after a year yourself, provided you pay up any remaining balance  thats the only option at T-Mobile (TMUS) and Verizon (VZ), but an impossibility with Sprints Flex leases. The device-resale site Gazelle.com estimates that it will pay $300 for an unlocked iPhone 7 with 32 GB in good condition.

So if you bought one on an installment plan from a carrier a year ago, paid off the balance and then collected your $300, your net expense would have been $350little more than your costs with Apple, AT&T and Sprints annual-upgrade plans.

Lets not go crazy with annual upgrades

Sprint positions this as an equitable way for customers to get new phones when their favorite manufacturers ship them.

As Kohposh Kuda, Sprints director of marketing, said Wednesday: [Manufacturers] bring a new phone every year, and consumers want an upgrade every year.

But the case for annual upgrades looks increasingly thin, thanks to the slowing pace of evolution in smartphones.

An upgrade every two years hits the sweet spot between being financially responsible and taking advantage of the new technology, said Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics.

Ordinary users will do fine hanging onto a phone for two or three years, said Jan Dawson, analyst at Jackdaw Research. But he cautioned that this wont be the case for lower-end Android models.

Sadly, those cheaper devices are also less likely to get Android upgrades from Google (GOOG, GOOGL) on a timely basis.

The case for annual upgrades may be stronger with carriers, Entner added. Carriers should like faster upgrade cycles, because people with newer devices are happier with their phone, he said. And they use it more.

Meanwhile, remember to consider the carriers networks too. Sprints continues to trail others in such large-scale, third-party tests as those released this year by OpenSignal, PCMag, and RootMetrics. And its that, not saving $25 or $50, that should determine which carrier gets your business.

If Sprints coverage does work for you, then by all means go ahead with Flex. But dont pay a $5 premium for an annual upgrade you dont actually need, and remember that you can turn this lease into a purchase after 18 months of paying rent.

Disclosure: Verizon is the parent company of Yahoo

More from Rob:

Email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro.
Whitney Tilson, the CEO of KASE Capital, changed his mind on Google and Facebook after listening to Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger speak.

Hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson, the founder of KASE Capital, is now long Facebook (FB) and Googles parent company Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), calling them the two greatest businesses on earth.

An influential value investor, Tilson had previously been a Google skeptic.

He changed his mind after listening to legendary value investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger at the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) shareholder meeting, exclusively streamed in May 2017 by Yahoo Finance.

One shareholder asked Buffett and Munger about what they learned investing in technology companies.

Well, we avoided the tech stocks, but as we felt we had no advantage there and other people did and I think thats a good idea not to play where the other people are better, but you know, if you ask me in retrospect, what was our worst mistake in the tech field, I think we were smart enough to figure out Google, Munger said. Those ads worked so much better in the early days than anything else. So I would say that we failed you there and we werent smart enough to do it and didnt do it. We do that all the time too.

Buffett agreed, explaining that Geico was Googles customer very early on.

As I remember, we were paying them $10 or $11 a click or something like that and any time youre paying somebody $10 or $11 every time somebody punches a little thing where you have no cost at all, you know, thats a good business unless somebodys going to take it away from you and so we were close-up seeing that, Buffett said.

Tilson found clarity in their answers.

These comments led me to ask myself why, if Buffett and Munger admit they failed shareholders and blew it by not buying Alphabets stock in the past, they didnt fix the mistake by buying Alphabet now? Tilson said in a new presentation. The simple answer, perhaps, is that Alphabet was cheaper then, whereas they dont think its cheap enough to buy today. But I think theres more to it than that.

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He noted that if Buffett purchased $10.8 billion of Alphabet stock instead of IBMs (IBM) in 2011 and was sitting on a large gain, he doubts that Buffett would be trimming or exiting the position. Alphabets stock has tripled since 2011.

Rather, I think hed be delighted to own ~$35 billion of Alphabet stock right now and would view this as one of Berkshires permanent stock holdings, like Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo and American Express, Tilson said. Triggered by this realization, I decided to take a fresh look at Alphabet and a handful of similar companies.

He expects both Alphabet and Facebook to outperform the S&P 500 over the next five or 10 years.

Previously, Tilsons skepticism about Google ran deep. In a 2004 column on Google, Tilson wrote that he was quite certain that there is only a fairly shallow, narrow moat around its business.

Think about it. What are the odds that it is the leading search engine in five years (much less 20)? 50/50 at best, I suspect, and Id wager that odds are at least 90% that its profit margins and growth rate will be materially lower five years from now, Tilson wrote at the time. Yet investors appear ready to value this company at as much as $36 billion, nearly 200 times trailing earnings! Google with the same market cap of McDonalds (a stock I own)?! HA! I believe that it is virtually certain that Googles stock will be highly disappointing to investors foolish enough to participate in its overhyped offering  you can hold me to that.

He was proven wrong.

A decade later, in 2014, he admitted that it was his worst call ever after the stock had increased by more than 10 times. Alphabets stock has continued to climb and its earnings have continued to grow.

Even still, Tilson avoided buying the stock. For starters, it appeared expensive to him. He also doesnt like to own what everyone else owns and felt extreme regret for not having purchased the stock.

Thats all changed, and hes an investor now.



Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
Panchthar man nabbed for killing wife

Police on Thursday arrested a man for murdering his wife at Phalgunanda Rural Municipality in Panchthar.




betsy devos

A top official in President Donald Trump's Education Department said she believes that nine out of 10 sexual assault cases can be summarized by "we were both drunk."

On Thursday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is meeting with various advocates and university officials as part of efforts to review former President Barack Obama's policies on how colleges handle sexual assault.

Candice E. Jackson, who heads the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, organized the talks because she believes that people accused of sexual are often unfairly targeted and labeled "rapists" by universities in their rush to support victims. The meeting will give equal time to survivors and to "men's rights" activists. She made the controversial comments about rape in an interview with The New York Times to preview the meeting.

"[Usually, there's] not even an accusation that these accused students overrode the will of a young woman," Jackson said. "Rather, the accusations  90 percent of them  fall into the category of 'we were both drunk,' 'we broke up, and six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation because she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right.'"

Title IX is a 1972 act that prohibits discrimination based on gender in educational institutions and was, under Obama, often used by colleges to look into alleged instances of sexual assault.

While studies have found that one in every five women are sexually assaulted in college, in more than 90% of cases, they don't report it to the school, often because of fear of retaliation or that it won't resolve anything.

The statement received sharp criticism from advocates against campus sexual assault, who argue that focusing solely on the rights of the accused ignored that only 2% to 10% of sexual assault allegations tend to be false.

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"That statement put a pit in my stomach when I read it," Jess Davidson, managing director of End Rape on Campus, told TIME. "The statement made it sound like she believes that 90% of accusations are false reports."

Buzzfeed reported that two Democratic senators have sentletters to DeVos, saying Jackson's comments point to a larger problem that her department "is not prepared to take accounts from survivors seriously," and that inviting men's rights groups to the meeting was "a slap in the face to the victims of campus sexual assault."

Jackson later apologized for her comment, saying that her words were "flippant" and not meant to offend survivors of sexual assault. "All sexual harassment and sexual assault must be taken seriously," she said in a statement.

NOW WATCH: 'This is not something that we can ignore': Michelle Obama slams Trump over sexual assault claims





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The Internet of Things

A disaster for no good reason

Originally published: 7/7/2017

This page is written in 100% conventional HTML. If your device is offering a "mobile-friendly view," it should format this article very nicely and I recommend you try it.

Update (5:24 PM PST 14/7/2017):

This article has been linked on hacker news, far more visibility than I ever expected, and unsurprisingly someone in the comments says they worked on it and my accusations are unfounded and it doesn't run Linux.

I'm not going to double down on factual inaccuracies; if it doesn't run Linux, it doesn't run Linux. I did do some research, I just didn't pour hours into it - I didn't expect anyone besides a few twitter followers to read this, in all frankness, and I admit that I looked up the MCU but didn't realize it wasn't sophisticated enough to run a full-stack PC OS.

I don't think it invalidates my suspicions about the failure mode in a high level sense, and more importantly I disagree with the adequacy of their precautions. Simply put, if they'd done their due diligence and done their job competently, the reported problems would not have happened. Decades of perfectly functional, reliable alarms prove that. They took a solved problem and de-solved it, made a product worse than it was, and it was a product that couldn't tolerate that. Excuses excuses, I'm not interested in them and neither is a family without parents or possessions or a home.

I've written a lot of tweets and had a lot of conversations with a lot of people about IoT. It's bullshit, no question, let's get past that part. It's not hard to find evidence of this; some light googling, or reviewing any website under the sun from Reddit to Slashdot, and you'll find yourself ankle-deep in stories about failures of slick, flashy, aspirational miracle devices.

To wit:

This article is what got me going on this today. It's about Google's acquisition of Nest and what a poor job they've done. It isn't a terribly in-depth article, but it reminded me of the fiasco of the Nest Protect and the video of it going off indefinitely. I remember watching that and being shocked at the incompetence of the device, despite long since having accepted that IoT was a dead end.

The reason this particular video stunned me the way it did was because I simply cannot figure out how they fucked up a smoke alarm. This is a technology that has been established for decades. I remember reading about the Radioactive Boy who built a breeder reactor from smoke alarm components and that was in '94. And they work, I mean, I don't have statistics but I've never seen one set off by not-smoke, personally. So they seem pretty robust, the tech seems pretty close to "finished."

So how, how, how did Nest screw up this finished product?

Well, I haven't had one open, so I can't tell you. These folks have:

Needless to say, this being a tech gadget, it looks just like you'd expect inside: a cellphone-esque ultra-micro PCB with bleeding-edge SMD components, the best refinements in production process tech that the industry has to offer, natch. LEDs and BGA chips and off the shelf radio ICs of all sorts and so on.

I considered buying one of these off eBay (I can probably get four for $10 it looks like) but a glance through this teardown tells me I wouldn't learn anything. Jellybean parts plugged together with a nest ha of invisible traces, all speaking digital soup - never going to pry any truth out of it. I can only speculate on how it works, so speculate I will.

What would cause a smoke alarm to go off interminably? Let's consider some theories. Please note that this will be a very technical article since this is a very technical subject; bear with me.

Technical Analysis - Conventional Smoke Alarm

In a conventional smoke alarm (teardown) you can expect to find a sensor (one of several designs), a handful of passive components, a transistor or two, and maybe a dedicated smoke detector IC. This is what I found in several designs I just looked up, including the linked teardown and several pictures on Google image search.

The reliability and behavior of resistors and transistors is extremely well known. The IC in the linked teardown is a MC145017. I looked up a datasheet and found Freescale Semiconductor makes these. They are probably second-sourced from a number of other extremely well known semiconductor manufacturers, and therefore have a considerable pedigree. Looking at the datasheet, I find the IC has a sensor input pin, some analog calibration inputs, and an oscillator source. That's it.

Note that I didn't say a clock source. An oscillator, because this is not a digital device. At all. Despite being "a chip", there are no digital electronics inside. The datasheet contains a block diagram which shows that the internals are all analog components - transistor logic gates, comparators, latches. This is not a computer.

Interestingly, the datasheet provides no information on how to silence the alarm. My assumption is that this is not included in the design; if you want to interrupt it, you - the equipment manufacturer - solve that on your own. I imagine a transistor and capacitor arrangement are used to temporarily disconnect power to the detector when the user presses silence.

Conclusion

The cases where this type of detector is likely to go off interminably include:

The sensor trips from something that is not smoke

The sensor fails completely and outputs nonsense values

The monitoring circuitry falls out of calibration

The monitoring circuitry fails in a way that shorts rather than opens a connection

The silence button breaks

That's very very rough, there's more to list, but the point is, these are all very general, "analog" circuit failures. In other words, they could happen to anything, and are basically unpreventable within reasonable constraints. Also, I've never seen this happen. I've lived with probably... twenty smoke detectors or more in my life, and I've never had one fail in either direction (false positive or false negative.)

There are a number of ways to design a "smart" smoke detector. Let me just jump straight to telling you how I think Nest did it.

Technical Analysis - Smart Smoke Alarm

I need to preface this by saying that I have very little faith in the worldliness or general sense of Silicon Valley hardware engineers. I have seen a long history of extremely poor decisions from that part of industry, so I will assume they made all the worst decisions.

The Smart device engineer does not begin by disassembling ten smoke alarms to see how they work. They do not begin by reading papers written by fire chiefs and scientists. They do not look at the statistics on fire-related deaths with and without smoke alarms of different eras (although the marketing department director does). They begin by contacting a company that sells smoke sensors and ordering a batch of sample parts. And when they arrive, the engineer connects them to the holy, unifying hub of all technology: The computer.

I don't know what modern hardware engineers start with. Probably some Atmel demo board. Doesn't matter. They plug it into an I/O line and start writing code, blowing smoke over the sensor and watching the 0 in their debug console go to 1. Maybe it's a really advanced device, it spits out an analog value, so they plug it into an ADC channel and watch the float value drift up and down and they take notes and figure out what candle smoke, steam, vape smoke, fog machine fog, and so on produce.

They try all the sensors they ordered and then, in the case of Nest apparently, they decide none of them are any good because they suffer from false positives. (Nest blog) So they contact a hardware engineering company and they start a six month process to develop a completely new sensor, one that doesn't suffer from those problems. They come up with a novel design that nobody in the smoke alarm industry has ever seen before, and it has a tenth the false positive rate. Progress! Innovation! The Free Market! It's all working!

They rewrite the basic code to read the new sensor output and sound the alarm. It reads from the ADC and turns on or off a transistor to activate the piezo buzzer if the smoke detection threshold is over 0.63. They demonstrate it to their bosses and get approval to continue and everyone has a few beers and the next day they move on. With the first 90% complete, now they just have to do the other 90%.

A whole firmware dev team is involved now. They start with a Linux base - busybox - and add drivers for WLAN, BT, custom software to talk to the LEDs and the motion sensors and so on and so forth. Another team is working on the cloud backend. They're adding features at a breakneck pace, everything's going great.

Problem is, the last five paragraphs were all mistakes. Every single step of the way they made critical errors and then compounded them.

Conclusion

The sensor fails electrically

The sensor is out of calibration

The LED / photocell in the sensor fail

The sensor corrodes due to solvents used on the ceiling nearby

The microprocessor crashes or fails

The battery dies

The OS kernel crashes

The OS kernel spinlocks

The OS process scheduler gives too much time to the WLAN driver

The smoke alarm process crashes

Memory becomes corrupted

The raw I/O driver reports incorrect values

I could probably list forty or fifty more items if I took the time but it'd be better to focus on why these are categorically different types of problem.

There are two absolutely critical errors made here, unquestionably, and then a third that is more philosophical. The two critical errors were:

Monitoring a smoke alarm sensor solely with a computer

Putting a completely novel design of sensor in an expensive mass market smoke alarm without years of testing

And the philosophical error:

Reinventing every part of the wheel down to the molecules

The Critical Errors

The reason I call these errors "critical" is that, simply put, this is irresponsible and dangerous behavior. This is a safety-critical device. If it fails, human beings die. That means it is unethical to sell one that is not known to be safe, and that means that any ethical, knowledgeable person in this industry would act conservatively when designing such a product.

The sensors in $10 mass-market smoke alarms have been in use for decades. Their behavior is known - it's known well enough that the ICs that drive them are purpose-built. That doesn't happen until something is established as a standard, because Freescale is not a company that spins up to produce 5,000 of an IC. If they made these, they made millions, and that's because they had a market waiting for them.

On that topic, the IC (at least the example I looked at) is designed using very conservative design principles. It contains no computer, no microprocessor to make decisions using complex logic. The design uses analog circuitry which behaves consistently - it doesn't start acting strange when the voltage drops below a perfect 3.33V (it has a comparator circuit that makes it shut down completely if that happens), it doesn't have memory to get corrupted and cause invalid instructions to execute. It cannot reboot. As long as power is applied, it is continuously operating.

Because all of this is purpose-built, these devices can run on a single 9V battery (which have awful energy density) for many months. They are designed "down" to this purpose.

All this means that if you use these components and this basic design, there's almost no chance that the device will fail unless you screw up the design or manufacturing fundamentally - and it takes a LOT to mess up a design this basic. You could dead-bug wire up a smoke alarm with $6 in parts and a handful of random wires and the likelihood it would fail is infinitesemal. In other words, this is a solved problem. But look at the decisions made by Nest here.

The Sensor

They chose to use a completely novel component - one that had never been out in the world, had only ever experienced their labs and their chosen test environments. Whatever tests they put it through, they couldn't hold a candle to the acid test of being installed in random customers homes. Until that's done, there's no telling how the device could fail. Maybe it stops working if it gets a drop of Formula 409 on it, and they just didn't happen to test that. Someone installs one in a bathroom and it turns out continuous high humidity fouls the sensor. Who knows?

"But," you might say, "the sensors in normal smoke detectors had to go through all that to gain a track record too!" You aren't wrong, but: they already did. The work had to be done, and it was scary, dangerous work that could have failed and killed people, but it was done, and now those sensors have been proven. You have to have a damn good reason to put consumers through that dangerous process again, you don't just do it for kicks. This isn't a game, this isn't a market that needs Disruption. You don't Disrupt someone's heart-lung machine. You leave it the hell alone and let it do its job.

And those sensors were designed by companies that make smoke detectors. Not a computer software company doing this for the first time. I'm sure they went to a hardware designer that has some experience in this, but the question is, as acceptors, is Nest / Google qualified to determine whether their vendor provided an adequate product? The traditional sensors were almost certainly tested more thoroughly, by more experienced people, and their manufacturer had more stake in the outcome, whereas to Nest / Google - this is just another product to succeed or fail. It won't hurt their name.

The Computer

All that wouldn't be so bad except that they went on to compound the problem by putting it all through a computer. Computers are bad, they're broken, and relying on one is a death sentence.

Maybe someone reading this is mad at me now. "What about realtime computing, what about the computers in jets and the ones that monitor reactors," so on and so forth. Sure, those exist, they're trustworthy. But that's not what they used. That's not what Silicon Valley ever uses because they only make one product: software. Not hardware, not firmware.

If I may opine freely? Thanks: nothing with Linux in it has "firmware." A 1998 LCD-display programmable thermostat has firmware: purpose-built code that does one thing. Something that is not a general-purpose computer. Something that does not have a process and thread hierarchy that is scheduled on the fly by a kiiiiiind-of deterministic system. There are no instructions in it that aren't pertinent to the job at hand. When the device is idle, the CPU is sitting in a tight loop checking a clock periodically or even waiting for an interrupt to continue execution, at which point it'll check the temperature, and if there's nothing to do according to its 12 bytes of programming, it goes back to waiting, sucking up almost no power.

Linux-based integrated devices do not have "firmware," they're just PCs running on really basic hardware. There is no significant difference between a PC with Linux, a Raspberry Pi or a Netgear router. And Linux - and any other "fat" PC OS - is disastrously unpredictable. The most basic Linux system invariably has a plethora of software that is always doing something. Linux systems can't sit still. There's always a fantastic array of network services running, and the more things the system can potentially do, the more things it's always doing.

Precision timing doesn't exist; if you want to check the status of an I/O line every 10ms, will that really happen? Or will the userland process that does this get delayed for 40ms because something was doing a DNS lookup and the wifi was down for a moment? Nothing can be truly interrupt triggered because you can't just have an interrupt abruptly redirect processing right in the middle of, say, a TCP packet being transmitted. So everything on a PC OS is fungible, unpredictable, shiftable. It's all fluid. And that's just not how hardware works, and that's not how the real world works.

To get overly technical: the job of any digital device that interacts with the physical world is to attempt to reconstruct a reasonable facsimile of it's environment through sampling, a basic concept of information theory, and a device that can't sample at a consistent speed above the "Nyquist rate" is subject to aliasing; in other words, its view of its environment looks correct but isn't. When you're on a multitasking system, especially one that has external timing dependencies, especially networking, operations are effectively nondeterministic, meaning you can't predict how long anything will take.

The Nyquist rate of a smoke sensor is probably very very low, on the order of hertz (e.g. it only needs to be sampled a few times a second) and well within the capabilities of a modern computer... in theory. In practice, well, it all depends how things are architected. In theory, even if other processes on the machine are completely hung, preemptive multitasking should context-switch them out so that the task that reads the sensor status can be serviced. Emphasis on the "should," however - I've seen networking tasks hang entire Linux machines, causing basically all system calls to block until e.g. a DHCP request completed, taking thirty seconds or more. That's long enough to seriously delay detecting actual smoke. And reading an alarm silence button or motion sensor definitely requires a sample rate in at least the hundreds of hertz, which I can easily see a PC failing to achieve.

Further issues: the number of ways that a computer can fail is unbelievable. I simply won't get deeply into it here, the topic is too incomprehensibly big to discuss. The problem is that computers are just too complex, they have too many parts, too many dependencies. The simplest computer you can buy now has millions of components and hundreds of discrete functional blocks. The smoke detector sensor chip I looked at probably contains less than a hundred components total.

The PC As A Safe Space

The PC is all that Silicon Valley understands. The people working there are either elitist or naive depending on how you read it. You could say that they want every car they get into to be a Cadillac - "I want all the features! All the bells and whistles! Minibar in the back!" - or you could say that without training wheels, they can't even ride - "I don't understand, how do i turn on and off an LED without an external driver that accepts i2c?" Either way, they get very uncomfortable leaving the PC-esque environment, working outside the bounds of Processes and Threads and a Kernel and a Filesystem and so on.

There is a tremendous chasm of disconnect between software people and hardware people. A lot of programmers know literally nothing about how computers or electronics work. This is fine, their job usually doesn't require it. But when you take those people and tell them to do hardware development, what are they going to do? The natural thing, they're going to coerce all the concepts they don't understand into something they're comfortable with. That means that job one is "get everything into the computer." Get the ADCs, get the I/O chips, get the external digital sensors and plug them all in to the computer.

Oh, that breath of fresh air, the relief as everything becomes comprehensible. Manageable. Comfortable. Safe. Like that feeling when you get home from a day out running errands and sit down at your "battlestation", you settle into your worn-in chair and your hands fall on your keyboard and mouse right where you always keep them and suddenly all the worries and anxieties fade away because this is where you thrive, this is where you're king. Once you have all those externalities - sensor readings, button presses - transformed into a set of API calls, everything becomes an elaboration on a set of standard phrases. It's quantized, normalized, you've converted the unknowable uncertainties of life into numbers and synchronous calls and now you can treat them the same way you do everything; just data.

But, that's not how life works. Life doesn't wait for you to be ready to process it. A fire will not wait for you to get an IP address (the radio signal dropped out, see) and authenticate with a cloud service so that you can be totally certain your settings are up to date and that you aren't going to set off an alarm when the user asked you not to alarm for a while. And a real, actual human being, on the phone with the hospital, is not interested in your excuses about synchronous API calls or security-critical firmware updates when they can't hear the nurse telling them the condition of their husband that just got brought in from a car crash. The world will not wait for computers.

For the record, I read several stories about the Nest Protect going into permanent alarm, and you know what my hunch is? The same thing I always assume: "Dumb Linux crap." The culprit was probably some shell script that opened /opt/smoked/detect and output 1 to it and then left the file locked so nothing else could touch it or forgot to delete a pid file or whatever. This is what I always assume when I read about Linux integrated devices screwing up, and on the occasions I've actually heard what the cause was I usually end up right.

Disruption Is Stupid Bullshit

OK but listen

The initial release of the Nest Protect should have looked like a smoke alarm. It should have been in a round box with a red blinking battery LED, run off a 9V or two, and had a silence button. Instead, Nest decided to throw literally everything out the window and reinvent the entire product from the ground up. They didn't use the same sensor, the same design, the same interface, the same behavior or the same circuitry.

That means that they took a risk that every one of those things could be a poor decision, and indeed, they ended up recalling half a million of these devices because they reached too far. On their VERY FIRST maiden voyage into this market they refused to even consider any of the ideas that came before them. This is really common for Tech, NIH syndrome applied to everything at all scales.

This keeps happening. IoT stuff - and other tech products - keep coming out that throw away everything that came before them, so if they fall short of their stratospheric goals for revolutionizing the way we shell peanuts or make shopping lists or whatever, they end up being completely worthless. If the Nest Protect had been an ordinary smoke alarm that could also send you a notice on your phone, then if that latter part didn't work you could still use it as a smoke alarm. If the Protect had been an ordinary smoke alarm with an optional voice module, if the voice module malfunctioned, you could turn it off. Instead these companies bet the whole farm on a brand-new design and often close up shop when it fails.

A Better Way

I didn't write all of this just to complain, I wrote it because it makes me furious seeing this crap when none of this needs to be this way. Here's how you design a smart smoke alarm that doesn't suck:

First, begin with a smoke alarm. A tried and true design that you can buy for $10. Buy the exact parts that are already in use, and put them in your final product. The smoke sensor, the transistors, the through-hole resistors, the Fairchild IC, the 9V, the LED. Buy all of that and use it in your final product.

Next, build your gadget. Get your SoC, roll your Linux image, write your software. But when you add the computer to the design, don't put it between the sensor, the silence button and the buzzer. Put it on top. Connect the I/O lines on your little PC to the output of the smoke detector chip. Let it do the heavy lifting, the stuff that you aren't sure you can do safely and which it has proven it can do for decades.

The Protect has a feature where it plays a voice alert for ten seconds before the alarm goes off. That's fine, you can do that. On the analog side of the system, where you have the original smoke alarm circuitry, add circuitry to produce a one-time delay, so that when the alarm goes off it takes ten seconds before a transistor begins conducting and lets the buzzer go off. Then your SoC reads the signal from the detector chip, and if the user decides to remotely silence it, an I/O line triggers the alarm silence circuitry from the original design.

In the above implementation, if the SoC catches fire and is reduced to carbon, the smoke alarm will still work. There will be a ten second delay now, to give the computer right of first refusal on alarms, but if the computer is nonresponsive or hung or dead that won't stop the alarm from marching on and doing its job. You can add circuitry - again, analog - to notice if the "silence" output line from the computer has been stuck high for a long time and suppress it, so that a hardware failure or software malfunction that causes the machine to try to constantly silence the alarm can't do it for more than a few minutes before it returns to normal operation.

This is a failsafe design. You think it out. You consider the worst cases and how to prevent them within reason, and then once you have that nailed down you look for ways to add sophistication. You figure out how to make the critical functionality of the device minimally complex. That is where tech falls on its face, complexity. Silicon Valley wants to cram as much functionality and as much flash into everything as they possibly can, and as a result everything they make is fragile, has single points of failure, and in the case of safety-critical things like smoke alarms and locks and cars, is outright dangerous.

This is the kind of design that should be used throughout IoT, especially at this early stage. IoT door locks should be ordinary locks with just enough modification to allow a computer to control them by rotating the lock control just like a human would. IoT washing machines should be ordinary washing machines that just have an extra computer glommed on that monitors the signals in the existing design, or has additional sensors separate from the ones that allow the core machinery to function. IoT lightbulbs should turn on bright white if the computer doesn't respond within a few seconds after startup, and they should have a switch to bypass the computer if it goes on the fritz. In other words, the computer should always be optional.

The reason I'm frustrated is because if these things were designed this way, I would WANT them. I really wish my washing machine would tell me when the wash is done because I am EXTREMELY bad at remembering to go check on it. But I can't buy that, I can't buy something that just has a $5 microprocessor with just enough intelligence to connect to the internet and send me an email or a push notification if the buzzer on the washer goes off. The only thing I can buy is a washing machine that's had a horrible, unreliable PC full of quarter-baked software crammed into it which will stop working when some godforsaken cloud service is "sunset", and which is so dependant on the reliability and trustworthiness of the software on the computer that if someone hacks it or the software has a bug, the washer can start spraying water at me when I have the loading door open.

IoT is desirable, but it is too aspirational, it promises too much for such an early technology, and it is too dependant on technology that we know, from incredible amounts of experience in every field, is not an acceptable substitute for "old fashioned" process control circuitry. Even if we assume the players in the market are acting in good faith - which I seriously doubt in most cases - the products they are trying to sell just don't make sense.

Disclaimer & Contact

This is my opinion. I do not work in this industry or anywhere in hardware or software development. I base this on my autodidactic knowledge of these topics. I do not personally own a Nest Protect, and I don't know how much of the information I've read is relevant to the first version vs. what might be unique to the second version. I did some research, but I wouldn't say it was extensive because this article is about the industry as a whole, and even if these complaints aren't 100% accurate for this specific product, IoT is categorically guilty of all of these mistakes.

If you have factual contradictions of anything I've written here, email them to articles@gekk.info and I will consider revising my article or including your commentary.
CALGARY, Canada , July 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. ANY FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF U.S. SECURITIES LAW

High Arctic Energy Services Inc. (High Arctic or the Company) (TSX:HWO) is pleased to provide an operational and financial update on its International Operations in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Following several contract extensions in relation to heli-portable rigs that are managed for a significant customer, High Arctic is now in a position to provide additional details on developments towards solidifying its position as the leading drilling services provider in PNG.

High Arctic has been providing drilling services and related rentals to exploration and production companies in PNG for over ten years. PNG is one of the global low cost producers of liquid natural gas (LNG) and it continues to be one of the most competitive and geographically advantaged sources of LNG supply in a challenged hydrocarbon environment. High Arctics business in PNG is in a strong position, and the Company is committed to continuing to strengthen its position as a top service provider to its customers in this strategic market.

The Company has been in productive discussions with key stakeholders about how to meet its clients needs for effective rig management and availability between its owned and operated rigs and potential new rig and service requirements in the country. This discussion has been against a backdrop of strengthening High Arctics business in the PNG market. The global downturn in the energy economy has further impacted these discussions as High Arctic sought to simultaneously streamline its cost structure in order to deliver significant savings to its clients.

New Joint Company and Contract Update

High Arctic is pleased to announce that it has entered into formal and exclusive negotiations to exchange an equal share of its owned rigs (rigs 102, 115 and 116) for an equal share of the rigs that it has historically managed for its key customer under long term management agreements (rigs 103, and 104) in a company to be jointly owned by High Arctic and its customer. High Arctic will provide the management of this joint company. As part of the proposed arrangements, High Arctic will operate the rigs under a minimum three year exclusive call rig services agreement.

As part of High Arctics continuing efforts to reduce costs and provide efficient operations to its customers to remain competitive in the current commodity environment, High Arctic has committed to reducing operating costs in the joint company. Correspondingly first year rates under the new rig services contract are likely to be approximately 20% to 23% less than under the previous contract. It is contemplated there will be scope within the agreement for rates to rebalance in the event that the commodity environment recovers. These rate reductions will not impact the Corporations existing contracts for rig 116 or High Arctics rental equipment in PNG.

High Arctic also contemplates that the agreement will include two-way option clauses which would allow or require High Arctic to increase its interest in the proposed joint company over time.

The proposed joint company will focus exclusively on rig ownership and High Arctic will focus on operational efficiencies and optimal rig performance. The Companys significant business of providing rental equipment (e.g. rig mats, heavy and light equipment, etc.) to its customers in the oil and gas, mining and civil engineering sectors (including the proposed joint company) will continue to be wholly owned by High Arctic and will not be part of the proposed transaction. It is anticipated that the discussion on the joint company could be concluded as soon as year-end, and High Arctic will provide additional details as they become available. In the interim, the current contracts for the operation of rigs 103 and 104 are expected to be extended for one year at the new rates.

Mike Maguire, President International commented, This joint company is an innovative solution to meeting our key customers chief driver of reducing well costs and providing cost efficient drilling solution in PNG. The PNG market is an extraordinary long-term energy sector opportunity. High Arctic has become the local domain expert delivering top tier drilling services in a challenging logistics region. We are excited to complete negotiations on this complex transaction, as early as year-end to cement our position as a long term player in this market.

The agreements required to effect the proposed transaction will be subject to approval by High Arctics and the customers respective Boards of Directors.

Fast Moving Rig Contract

The Company is pleased to announce that its major client accepted a proposal for a new highly mobile land rig, subject to finalization of lease and drilling services agreements. This rig is expected to start working this fall on an initial six month term. The project is to prove the efficacy of a small footprint rig for field optimization work in areas with or close to existing roads. With success, the contract proposal has terms for extension and would roll in to the joint company.

Foreign Currency Controls

As the Company has previous disclosed in its Managements Discussion and Analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2016, High Arctics US dollar bank account has been re-approved under a Bank of Papua New Guinea review of its currency control regulations. This will allow High Arctic to continue to operate in PNG on a US dollar basis and in Kina, the local PNG currency as appropriate and outlined under the regulations, provided that High Arctic seeks approval from the Bank of PNG for future customer contracts to be settled in US dollars on a contract by contract basis.

Michael Binnion, Chairman commented further, We have been working in PNG for over ten years and we are a material source of foreign exchange, taxes and employment. Our local knowledge, contacts and reputation is well reflected in this recent affirmation of our positive contribution to the country and its people.

Safety Performance

High Arctic values and prioritizes its culture of safety and focus on safe operations for our employees and customers across our business. In relation to our International Business, the 2016 annual safety statistics for the Australasian Chapter were released recently. High Arctic represents approximately 25 percent of the work hours in the Australian markets. Our safety statistics continue to outperform the regional average. Top tier safety results, in a very difficult operating environment, continue to be a key competitive advantage of the Company.

Rig Activity Updates

Rig 104 is currently on warm stack upon completing work on the exciting new discovery at Muruk. It is anticipated that Rig 104 will either move to an exploration or appraisal well in the highlands later this year.

Rig 115 was successfully demobilized exclusively with Mill 8 helicopters. It was on standby until the end of June and is currently stacked in Port Moresby. The lack of availability of Chinook helicopters validated the value of this light load heli portable rig. Our client achieved significant savings on the demobilization as result.

Rigs 102 and 103 are on cold stack and Rig 116 is on standby. High Arctic anticipates Rig 103 will mobilize in the second half of 2017 to drill a new well in the Western Province.

A major client recently announced a significant exploration farm-in agreement with a super major oil and gas company in PNG that has promise to lead to future work for High Arctic and the joint company.

Tom Alford, Interim President and CEO said, Our strategy is to build and grow the Company to provide superior shareholder returns in a challenging commodity price environment. Our Canadian and International businesses provide diversification and resilience while we seek additional growth opportunities in our core businesses. We will seek to continue to build our Canadian service offering following the completion of the acquisition of Tervitas Production Services Division.

Forward-Looking Statements

This Press Release contains forward-looking statements. When used in this document, the words may, would, could, will, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, seek, propose, estimate, expect, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the Corporations current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause the Corporations actual results, performance or achievements to vary from those described in this Press Release. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in this Press Release as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Specific forward-looking statements in this Press Release include, among others, the Corporations ability to negotiate and execute agreements to effect the proposed joint company and the fast moving rig project with its key customer; the results of the Corporations discussions with its key customer regarding extensions for drilling and related services contracts for Rigs 103 and 104; commodity prices and the impact they have on industry activity; projections of market prices and costs; the Corporations ability to finance a possible purchase of the customers interest in the proposed joint company, treatment under governmental regulatory regimes and political uncertainty and civil unrest; and the Corporations ability to have contracts settled in US dollars and repatriate excess funds from PNG as approval is received from the Bank of PNG. In addition to the risk factors set out above and elsewhere in this Press Release, readers are directed to the additional risk factors set out in the Corporations most recent Annual Information Form filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking statements contained in this Press Release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. These statements are given only as of the date of this Press Release. The Corporation does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise, except as required by law.

About High Arctic

High Arctic is a publicly traded company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HWO. The Corporations principal focus is to provide drilling and specialized well completion services, equipment rentals and other services to the oil and gas industry.

High Arctics largest operation is in Papua New Guinea where it provides drilling and specialized well completion services and supplies rig matting, camps and drilling support equipment on a rental basis. The Canadian operation provides well servicing, well abandonment, snubbing and nitrogen services and equipment on a rental basis to a large number of oil and natural gas exploration and production companies operating in Western Canada.
From The HHL Blog: This Was My December: Leipziger vs Dresdener Weihnachtsmarkt

With two weeks to go till the First Deadline, here's a short read of what you can expect from the city of Leipzig. Dewi Kreysa is a MBA student at HHL and she shares her experiences during what is undoubtedly the cheeriest time of the year...Christmas!Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you goThe most beautiful time of the year, Christmas, is just around the corner. It is a perfect timing to explore two of German well-known Christmas market.After an intense first three months of full-time MBA program at HHL, Christmas market is definitely a nice treat for my eyes, nose, ear, and of course belly. Huge Christmas tree with pretty decorations and lights, plenty of beautiful hand crafted gifts and souvenirs (candles, wooden crafts, knitted accessories, etc.), live music along the whole market from Peter Strasse to Grimmaische Strasse, smell of smoked sausage and other yummy food I just cant tell which one is which food , and most importantly (very important) indulgence for tummyIt is the first time I am experiencing the real Christmas market in Germany, and indeed Leipziger Weihnachtsmarkt is an excellent place to start. The Leipziger Christmas market is open from 22nd of November until 24th of December in a centralized location in the city center. With three different styles of Christmas market from approximately in 7-8 spots of the city center, it is a lovely area to just stroll around the city centre.When I wanted to explore other Christmas market aside from Leipzig, I just took a bus to Dresden which only used up an hour of travel. It was the perfect time to go in early December when the Christmas market was fully settled. I realize that Christmas market in Dresden is slightly bigger than Leipzig and they also have more selections of food, drinks, and souvenirs. Each of the shops are decorated differently that makes them very unique and astonishing to see. Best to see the top overview of the Christmas market is from Kreuzkirche, it was indeed the best way to close the day-trip.Here are some of my must try list (after trying pretty much all of the food and drinks selection I could find in both market) when you visit Leipzig and Dresden Christmas market:1. Gluwein (Mulled wine)  Oh yes, this just cant be missed! First thing to have once you step in the entrance of the market.2. Eierpunch  Punch made from eggs. It is a definitely a punch to your belly, stronger than Gluwein.3. Bratwurst  Smoked sausage, who doesnt like it? (except vegetarian) I just cant get enough with this. It normally comes with small baguette or just normal German bread, although I prefer to substitue it with Pommes frites (french fries), and best to have both ketchup and mustard on top of it. But of course it depends on your own preference.4. 1/2 meter Wurst  you can tell from the name, it is that long! The taste is slightly different from Bratwurst. But generally is an experience to have that long sausage that you barely find in other country.5. Dresdener Handbrot  handmade bread with melting cheese as the filling and can choose either mushroom or ham to go with it. Super filling! And I can basically smell the food from 20 meters away of the shop. It is a typical Dresden food, however, can also be found in Leipzig.6. Krappelchen  small fried dough with powdered sugar topping. Ensure to find the shop that sell fresh made one, it taste so much better when it is still hot and warm Yummyyyy.I hope some of food & drinks recommendation helps for the newbie in the town during Christmas period. Looking forward for the next Christmas market and hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas. Happy New Year 2016!
Re: Universal preschool is a misguided use of public funds [ #permalink

4 Kudos
- A Nigerian man and his wife have witnessed God's faithfulness first hand

- Festinus Okoye and his wife have been married for 11 years and desperately desirous of having a child

- After 11 years, God blessed them with beautiful twin babies

Mr Festinus and his wife are a couple who one might refer to as the love birds who never gave up. The Christian couple who have been married for eleven years almost lost hope until God reminded them of his miraculous ways.

READ ALSO: Davido narrowly escapes being beaten in London

Festinus shared good news on his social media page, showing off his family which is now complete with additional twin babies. Going by African societal standards, a married couple of eleven years without any child appear to be having issues. Most times, the trying times collapses the marriage.

It however wasn't the case for the Okoyes, who waited eleven years, believing God for a miracle and boy, did they get it in double.

READ ALSO: Olakunle Churchills alleged side chick Rosy Meurer comes for Tonto Dikeh

The excited the new father shared his joyous news on social media while showing off his sweet family. He also shared a touching clip of people looking to God for miracle and how God singled him out to be blessed.

But the Okoyes are not the only ones receiving God's blessings. Legit.ng earlier reported how a 70-year-old woman allegedly delivered her first child in nothing short of a miracle.

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Watch Legit.ng video on family of six with four children born blind:

Source: Legit.ng
Anil Giri is a reporter covering diplomacy, international relations and national politics for The Kathmandu Post. Giri has been working as a journalist for a decade-and-a-half, contributing to numerous national and international media outlets.
- A group of evangelical leaders were invited to pray for Donald Trump on Monday, July 10

- They laid hands on the president as they prayed for him in the oval room

A group of evangelical leaders led by Evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne gathered at the Oval Office to lay hands on President Donald Trump.

The moment was described as humbling and surreal by the head pastor. Donald Trump on the other hand was said to have been strong and focused as they prayed for him.

Howard-Brownes wife was also present in the White House where the prayer session took place. Mike Pence, the vice president, also took part in the prayer as he was seen bowing his head solemnly.

The evangelical leaders prayed for Donald Trump. Source: Dailymail.

READ ALSO: Pastor Adeboye celebrates wife as she turns a year older

The group was said to have prayed for the president during a meeting with members of the Office of Public liaison. Prominent persons like Jack Graham, the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas and Michele Bachmann, the former Republican congresswoman from Minnesota were seen there.

The men prayed for the president during a meeting. Source: Dailymail.

Howard-Browne is a South African who moved to America in 1987 after being called by God. He described the experience as being humbling as he had the opportunity to pray for the forty-fifth president of the United States.

According to the Facebook post he made, they had the opportunity to pray for wisdom, guidance and protection for the president. This would make them experience a spiritual awakening according to him.

A former senior vice president at Liberty University, Johnnie Moore, also had the opportunity to be at the meeting. He revealed that they used to pray with Obama but things are a little different with Trump.

Donald Trump with some of the pastors. Source: Dailymail.

''When we are praying for President Trump, we are praying within the context of a real relationship, of true friendship,'' he said.

Howard-Browne and his wife. Source: Dailymail.

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Moore went on to describe the attitude of the president during the prayer session. ''He was as strong and focused as I have ever seen him. It was as if he was entirely above the fray.''

Those present took turns to pray for the president.

Watch the Legit.ng TV video below to see how some Nigerians reacted when asked if they would love Donald Trump to bomb the Boko Haram camp:

Source: Legit.ng
Hawaii Legislates Assistance for Family Caregivers

State offers voucher to help families pay for support services for elders, a growing segment of the population.

In a development that could mean good news for providers and their patients in the aloha state, Hawaii has passed the Kapuna Caregiver Assistance Act, which was sponsored by State Representative Gregg Takayama.

The program, named after the Hawaiian word for elder or grandparent, provides a voucher of up to $70 per day for elder care support services, giving a break to family caregivers of HME patients.

According to Caring Across Generations, a national campaign to improve care for elders and people with disabilities, there are currently 43.5 million family caregivers in the United States, providing $470 billion dollars worth of care annually. Many of these caregivers are women who sacrifice their careers through decreased work hours, declined promotions, leaves of absence or early retirement, losing an average of $324,044 in wages and benefits over her lifetime.

This act will help Hawaiis family caregivers balance their responsibilities to both their employers and their kupuna, said Senator Roz Baker, in a prepared statement. Nobody should lose their job or their own retirement benefits in order to take care of their aging loved ones.

This issue of particularly relevant to Hawaii, where the senior population is growing four times faster than the total population. By 2030, 30 percent of the population may be seniors in the state, which also has the nations highest life expectancy at 82 years.




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Saarc Home Ministerial meet ends in Colombo

A team led by Home Minister Janardan Sharma arrived here in Kathmandu on Friday after attending a meeting of Home Ministers, immigration officials, and home secretaries from Saarc countries held in Sri Lanka. The three-day event was held in Sri Lankan capital Colombo from July 11 to 13.
MD/MS admission: Two medical colleges seek hefty extra sums

Flouting the fees limit set by the Tribhuvan University, private medical colleges have demanded additional Rs1.6 million to Rs1.8 million from students who are on the merit list for enrolment in MD/MS courses.
New Delhi, July 13 (IBNS): India strongly rejected to China's offer to mediate in Kashmir with an aim to bring peace in the region on Thursday, media reports said.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay was quoted by NDTV: "We are ready to talk Kashmir with Pakistan, but no third party mediation...Our stand is absolutely clear. You are aware that the heart of the matter is cross-border terrorism emanating from a particular country that threatens peace and stability in the country, region, and the world."

As the border standoff with China snowballs into a big issue that the opposition finds handy to bash the Government, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has called an all-party meeting on Friday where she is expected to brief them on the situation along with the attacks on Amarnath pilgrims in Kashmir which took place recently, reports said.

The meeting will be held at the residence of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh where several other Ministers, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will also be present.

Swaraj is likely to apprise the opposition parties of the month-long chain of events and the steps initiated by the Narendra Modi Government.

The Government move to convene the all-party meeting is being seen as a measure to take along side the opposition on the sensitive issue and avoid trouble in the next Parliament session.

The ongoing military standoff has heightened tension at the Bhutan-India-China tri-junction in Doklam, a disputed territory claimed by both Bhutan and China, where the Indian Army have reached to stop China from building a road.

Taking a serious note of the Chinese activities, Delhi has described it as a major security concern since it gives China access to the narrow strip of land connecting mainland India to its north-eastern states.

China has accused India of trespassing into its territory and demanded withdrawal of troops leading to a heated exchange.

While India and Bhutan say the land belongs to the tiny Himalayan kingdom and that the Indian troops are there at the request of Bhutan, China has warned that it will not accept any dialogue till Indian soldiers pull out from Doklam.

The opposition, particularly the Congress, has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the confrontation and the way the situation is being handled.

Regarding the attack on Amarnath pilgrims, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had accused PM Modi for the whole situation. "Modis policies have created space for terrorists in Kashmir. Grave strategic blow for India" he said on Twitter yesterday.

Image: File.


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If DART can improve its service to its poorest commuters, it would do more than reduce the time and money they pour into getting to work and back. Far better, it would broaden the pool of jobs they can get to from where they live.

Meanwhile, the long commutes lay waste to the budgets of working-poor households. Thats a big reason why the working poor in Dallas spend so much of their monthly budget on transportation costs. Plenty can't afford a car at all, and thats where DART comes in  at least, that's where it should come in. In Dallas, 40.5 percent of workers who use transit to get to their jobs live in households without a single vehicle. No surprise, then, that the working poor are nearly twice as likely to use transit to get to work and back  and those transit commutes are 50 percent longer than DART commuters who arent in poverty.

Two things about that scenario make it difficult for the working poor to get ahead. First, there arent enough affordable homes near the jobs they need. Second, there arent enough of the right jobs near the homes they can afford. The city needs to work on improving both those scenarios, but fixes won't be quick or cheap.

The median commute times for the working poor vs. those working and not in poverty, by commute type:

But DART isnt doing enough to help. The agency looked recently at how peer transit agencies are doing. The answer, when it comes to buses: much better.

Los Angeles public transit serves almost four times as many people as DART, across an area 2  times as large. Its transit agency spends almost four times as much on bus service as DART does. But it provides more than 10 times as many trips each day.

Houston spends about 40 percent more to operate its buses but provides 62 percent more trips a year  60 million compared with DART's 37 million.

By comparison, DART's bus service is anemic. No surprise, then, that DART's own numbers show that bus ridership has been flat or falling for years.

Source: Dallas Area Rapid Transit Planning Committee Laurie Joseph/Staff Artist

DART's light-rail numbers do not compare favorably, either.

Denver, with its relatively new light-rail system, moves nearly as many people as DARTs. Even much smaller Portland provides 60 million bus trips each year, to DART's 37 million  and nearly 10 million more light-rail trips, too.

Since 2000, Dallas has gained nearly 90,000 workers, but not a single net new transit commuter. Today as then, about 26,000 workers use transit to get to their jobs and back, according to figures from the 2000 census and the 2015 American Community Survey.

The light-rail network in North Texas has been a fantastic, even audacious achievement, removing tens of thousands of vehicles from our clogged highways each day. But DART, and its member cities, need to recognize that nearly 30 years of prioritizing rail over buses has had consequences, especially for the working poor. And it's time to do something about it.

This isn't DART's problem alone to fix. Dallas must work harder to encourage business to put jobs nearer to where the working poor live, and to encourage builders to put more affordable houses near those jobs or the rail stations that can transport people there.

In the meantime, DART must put more buses, operating more often, on more routes that more conveniently link the working poor to their jobs. Even if that means pressing a pause button for some other projects already on the books.
Customers at a Washington DC falafel shop are praising the tasty food as well as the owners efforts to help refugees.

Falafel Inc. is located in the Georgetown area, one of the citys most expensive places to eat and live. Many people cannot believe they can buy a falafel sandwich at the shop for $3.00.

The shop opened just two months ago. It stays very busy, especially around midday when workers in the area are buying lunch.

But the shop is different from most others. The owner, Ahmad Ashkar, gives some of the money he earns to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). For every $10 Falafel Inc. makes, he donates about 50 cents to the U.N. agency. This is enough to feed one refugee for a day.

Ashkar told VOA that while there are many ways to help refugees, he found a way that works well with his business.

We chose falafel for two reasons. One, because falafel stands are prevalent around refugee camps around the world, it's actually the main food in most refugee camps. Because it's so cheap, and it's affordable, and it's highly nutritious. Second is my personal love and passion for falafel.

The idea to help refugees by selling falafels is welcomed by customers like Nick Wright.

I think what they are doing with refugees is a very good cause and I support it.

Lunch buyer Roland Spier agrees.

The food is delicious and hearing about the owners story before we went in was really inspiring. And I think it makes the food all that more enjoyable.

Ashkar grew up on the falafels cooked by his Palestinian mother. And he makes them exactly the same way for his shop. Since the shop only makes falafels and small sides, it keeps costs low.

Donating 50 cents might not sound like a lot, but the money adds up. The shop has already donated enough money to feed almost 10,000 refugees.

Ashkar said he is looking into opening up more falafel shops around the world. He has a goal of at least 100 franchises, which would allow him to feed about 1 million refugees a year.

But he wants to do more than just feed refugees. He also wants to employ them in shops and eventually give them a chance to be more than a worker.

We're looking at a place where the refugee can actually become, after 24 months of employment, an actual owner of the stores themselves.

Ashkar said every day the number of worldwide refugees seems to grow. So he thinks expanding his business is one way to help solve a problem that he sees getting worse before it gets better.

Im Bryan Lynn.

June Soh reported this story for VOA News. Bryan Lynn adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Do you like falafels? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

customer  n. person who buys goods or services from a business

sandwich  n. two or more pieces of bread with a filling in the middle

prevalent  adj. occurring in large amounts

cheap  adj. low cost

passion  n. strong belief in or commitment to something

delicious  adj. very tasty

inspiring  adj. causing someone to want to do something

franchise  n. the right to sell a companys goods or services in a particular area
When Betsy DeVos was selected by President Donald Trump to head the U.S. Education Department, some said she would do more to help charter and private schools than public schools.

DeVos, a wealthy businesswoman from the state of Michigan, said that is not true.

Lets be honest. Theres no such thing as a cure-all in education, DeVos said in a recent speech. Even the best school in the country with the best-trained educators and the most resources will not be the perfect fit for every child.

Who is Betsy DeVos?

Betsy DeVos attended a private religious school in Michigan and also sent her four children to religious schools.

She was a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. She also led a group, the Great Lakes Education Project, which successfully pushed Michigans Legislature to allow public charter schools. Public charter schools are mostly run by private groups and can operate independently of local school districts.

DeVos also supports government vouchers that help low-income parents pay to send their children to private schools.

The Senate voted February 7 to approve her nomination as Education Secretary by a vote of 51-50. Vice President Mike Pence gave her the needed 51st vote.

Opponents and supporters speak out

Her opponents said she did not have enough education training and would move federal money to private and charter schools at the expense of public schools.

Public schools educate 90 percent of Americas K-12 students.

But defenders said DeVos, as an education outsider, would bring important reforms to a system that has underperformed for poor children.

First-term Republican President Donald Trump is a supporter of vouchers. As a candidate for president, he proposed $20 billion in federal money to help parents send their children to private schools.

His first budget proposal as president calls for $1 billion to allow states to move forward with more school choice. It includes $250 million to help low-income students attend private schools and another $167 million to start or expand charter schools.

As Trumps Secretary of Education, DeVos said the budget proposal is aimed at increasing choices for parents.

A system that denies parents the freedom to choose the education that best suits their childrens individual and unique needs denies them a basic human right, DeVos said in a June speech to the National Alliance for Charter Schools.

Charter schools performance

But there is little agreement about the performance of students who attend charter schools, or use vouchers to attend private schools.

One of the largest voucher programs in the United States operates in the Midwest American state of Indiana.

Here is how the Indiana program works: It provides vouchers of up to $4,500, enough to cover tuition at many, but not all private schools in the state. To get a full voucher, a family of four can earn no more than $45,000 a year.

When serving as Indianas governor, Pence, the current vice president, oversaw a big increase in private school vouchers in his state.

Joseph Waddington of the University of Kentucky and Mark Berends of the Notre Dame University recently released a study of Indianas voucher program.

They looked at students in grade 3-8 who moved from public schools to private schools. On average, the students saw drops in math scores during the first and second year at their new private school. The study found no difference in test scores in English language.

Other studies found problems with voucher programs in Louisiana and Ohio. Waddington and Berends said government-supported private school voucher programs operate in 16 of the 50 American states and Washington D.C.

Robert Enlow is president of an Indiana group called EdChoice. It supports private school voucher programs.

About the research suggesting declines in math performance and no change in English test scores, Enlow said it is because most students who attend new schools no matter how good have a period of adjustment.

For many students, it takes time to adjust to the more difficult subjects offered at their new private schools, he said. Many parents want their students to attend religious schools that offer morality- and values-based programs.

Milwaukee first to offer vouchers

Milwaukee is the first-American city to create a scholarship program that helps low-income parents pay for tuition at private schools. The program started 26 years ago.

The citys public school superintendent is Darienne Driver. She said the voucher program takes money away from public schools. After 26 years, it is only now that private schools receiving vouchers are being asked to show their test scores.

So, there has been no accountability, no way to compare them with public schools, Driver said.

Despite their differences on vouchers and other programs, Driver is not giving up on DeVos. She met with the secretary and had a telephone discussion with her.

Driver said she is pleased with the discussion. DeVos said she is willing to look at federal rules that Driver and other local school officials believe are unfair to public schools.

Proposed cuts unify supporters and opponents

Both supporters and opponents of vouchers and charter schools agree that the proposed education spending cuts of 13.5 percent in President Trumps budget are wrong.

Driver said the cuts would make it more difficult for schools to provide special services for low-incomes students.

Jacqueline Cooper is president of the Black Alliance for Educational Options. She praised Trump for supporting federal money for private school vouchers and charter schools.

But she added that the proposed cut in federal education money is the wrong way to put families and children first.

I'm Jill Robbins.

And I'm Bruce Alpert.

Bruce Alpert reported on this story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and share your views on our Facebook Page. What kind of choices do you and your parents have about what schools you can attend?

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

push - v. to encourage

voucher - n. a document that gives you the right to get something such as a product or service without paying for it

suit - v. to provide what is required or wanted by someone

tuition - n. payment required to attend classes at a school

adjustment - n. a change that improves something or makes it work better

accountability - n. required to explain actions or decisions to someone
Officials in Egypt continue to detain and send ethnic Uyghur students to China.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports the students were studying at Al-Azhar Islamic University in Cairo.

RFA and VOA are each part of the United States government-supported Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Uyghurs are a mostly Muslim ethnic group in China and Central Asia. Most live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China.

RFA reported in May that Chinese officials had begun ordering Uyghurs studying outside of China to return to their hometowns.

A Uyghur student at Al-Azhar told RFA at the time that classmates who had returned to China seem to have disappeared.

We havent been able to contact any of them, the student said.

More than 200 Uyghurs, many of them religious students, have been detained in Egypt since July 4. Some were seized in restaurants or at their homes. Others were stopped at airports while trying to flee to safer countries, sources told RFA.

The Middle East Monitor reported that as many as 80 Uyghur students may have been seized on Wednesday. They were arrested for alleged problems with their Egyptian residency papers, the Monitor said in its report.

Criticism of China's treatment of Uyghurs

Human rights and Uyghur exile groups have condemned China for violating the rights of the Uyghurs and for breaking a United Nations treaty.

The agreement bars forced repatriations.

Sandra Jolley is with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedoms. She told RFA that the Egyptian governments actions violate international rules against torture.

Such rules protect people who may face imprisonment, torture and death should they be deported to their homes, Jolley said.

She and others are urging the Grand Imam at Cairos Al-Azhar Islamic University to help stop the forced repatriations of Uyghurs.

Dr. Ahmed El-Tayeb currently serves as the schools Grand Imam.

He has a powerful voice. He leads Al-Azhar, and he should accept some role in protecting the students who attend this very prestigious university, Jolley said.

Call for protection

A group of Uyghur students living in Cairo have also appealed to El-Tayeb. In a letter, they asked him to prevent future deportations.

Our only sin is that we want to learn and study religion, the students said.

The Arabic-language news service HuffPost Arabi received a copy of the letter.

Last week, Al-Azhar said in a statement that no Uyghur students had been arrested on the universitys grounds or while in any buildings connected with the school.

I'm John Russell.

Radio Free Asia reported this story, and VOA Learning English adapted it. George Grow was the editor.

__________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

source - n. a person, book, etc., that gives information

alleged - adj. said to have happened but not yet proven

repatriation - n. the return of (someone) to his or her own country

sin - n. an action that is considered to be wrong according to religious or moral law

residency - n. the state or fact of living in a place

prestigious - adj. respected and admired
Not that this should come as any surprise, but it turns out that if you crack open the case of Samsungs newly released Galaxy Note Fandom Edition (FE) smartphones, what youll find is a device that looks virtually identical to last years Galaxy Note 7. The only difference? A smaller battery.

Samsung pretty much told us thats what youd find, but its always nice to receive confirmation. So the folks at iFixit got their hands on one of the new/old phones, tore it to pieces, and photographed the insides.

The new phone has the same 4-out-of-10 repairability score as last years model, because it really is last years model.

Hopefully it has a much lower flammability score though.

After numerous reports of Note 7 phones spontaneously catching fire, Samsung issued a massive recall and worked with wireless carriers to remotely disable phones to protect customers/encourage them to return their phones.

Samsung conducted a massive investigation and ultimately decided that several problems related to the batteries were the culprit. And rather than throw all of the extra phone parts the company had lying around into a landfill, Samsung re-released the phone as the Samsung Galaxy Note FE. Its currently only available in South Korea, and the slightly smaller battery will probably take a slight toll on battery life. But before the whole unexpectedly-catching-fire thing, the Note 7 had received pretty positive reviews.

Initial reports indicate that the resurrected phone is selling well in Korea, and Samsung may eventually decide to offer it in other markets as well.

Later this year the company will probably introduce a new model called the Galaxy Note 8. But folks who are comfortable with last years bleeding-edge specs instead of this years may have a cheaper option in the Note FE.

via iFixit
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Infographics summarizing Engel et al. Credit: Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen / Marion Engel

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can result in structural changes within the lungs over time. Scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen have now been able to show that these changes not only affect the organ itself, but also the bacteria that live in the lung. The results have been published in PLOS ONE.

Coughing, breathing difficulties, and strong mucous production in the lungs are typical symptoms of COPD. The disease is often triggered by smoking, and, according to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), it could become the world's third most common cause of death in 2030. "COPD has various subtypes that, for example, can be verified by use of quantitative computer tomography (qCT)," explains PD Dr. Wolfgang zu Castell, head of the Research Unit Scientific Computing (ASC) at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen. "We wanted to investigate if the microbiome in the lungs changes in a way that depends on these subtypes," adds Prof. Dr. Michael Schloter, head of the Research Unit for Comparative Microbiome Analyses (COMI) at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen.

Microbiome and CT scans analyzed

For this purpose, scientists from the two research units examined samples gathered from nine healthy individuals and 16 COPD patients. They were all participants of a Europe-wide population study (EvA Consortium; Emphysema versus Airways Disease). On the one hand, CT scans were used to analyze the lungs and assign the patients to the respective COPD subtypes. On the other hand, the scientists used brush samples from lungs to determine the composition of the lung microbiome using certain marker genes.

"This allowed us to show that the composition of the bacterial community in the lungs of COPD patients without structural changes is very similar to that of healthy subjects," explains Dr. Marion Engel, scientist in the Complex Systems Research Group in the ASC and the study's first author. "On the other hand, the bacterial composition in the lungs of ill subjects with structural changes differ significantly from those of the other two groups, regardless of the severity of the disease."

Streptococci suspected

According to the study, Streptococci are often found in structurally altered lungs. This genus includes many pathogenic representatives that are also often detected in the presence of exacerbations. In the lungs of healthy subjects, on the other hand, there was an increased presence of the genus Prevotella, to which a number of probiotic characteristics have also been attributed.

Taken together, these findings indicate that for certain subtypes of COPD, changes occur in the bacterial communities in the lungs that can promote an increase of potentially pathogenic bacteria. With regards to personalized medicine, it would therefore be expedient also to keep an eye on the microbiome, for instance when considering whether or not antibiotics or glucocorticoids should be administered in the event of a particular COPD subtype.

More information: Marion Engel et al. Influence of lung CT changes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on the human lung microbiome, PLOS ONE (2017). Journal information: PLoS ONE Marion Engel et al. Influence of lung CT changes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on the human lung microbiome,(2017). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180859
Credit: CDC

Global malaria elimination funding is declining at a time when it remains crucial to eliminating the disease worldwide, according to a study published in the open access Malaria Journal.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco Global Health Group suggest that while government funding for malaria elimination has been increasing in many affected countries since 2000, the increase in government financing does not fully bridge the gap from a decline in external funding that emerged in 2010. Lack of funding or inefficient use of funds may increase the risk of malaria resurgences.

Rima Shretta, the corresponding author said: "Our findings demonstrate growing uncertainty about the future availability of donor funding for malaria. The study highlights the need for sustainable financing solutions that bridge the gap between the amount of funding a government can provide based on its economy and the amount donated by external partners, which declines as the country moves closer to becoming malaria-free."

This is the first study that systematically tracks Development Assistance for Health (DAH) - donor funding - and Government Health Expenditure (GHE) - government funding - for 35 malaria eliminating countries from 1990 to 2013 with projections to 2017.

Between 2000 and 2010, DAH funding for the 35 malaria-eliminating countries included in this review increased from just over $5 million to $176 million. However, overall funding in these countries fell to $62 million in 2013. The largest source of DAH, the Global Fund, provided 96% of funds in 2013. Donor financing is expected to decline further as donors re-allocate funds to prioritize high burden countries and other health priorities. The authors suggest that with declining DAH, resources will need to be more effectively targeted to ensure value for money. While DAH has declined, government funding for the 35 malaria eliminating countries has steadily increased since 2000 from about $131 million per year to about $250 million in 2014.

Dr Shretta said: "Our study details the interventions on which funding was spent. We found that there was high growth in donor funding spend on vector control interventions - particularly on insecticide-treated nets - peaking in 2010. In some countries, such as Bhutan, 80% of total malaria donor funding was spent on vector control. By contrast, expenditure on surveillance, a key malaria elimination intervention and a pillar of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Technical Strategy, decreased between 2010 and 2012. Overall, less than 10% of malaria donor funding is spent on surveillance in the eliminating countries included in this study. Donors will need to assess whether a shift towards more support for operational improvements, surveillance, and program management will be required to support elimination goals."

Between 2000 and 2015, global malaria incidence and death rates fell by 41% and 62%, respectively, according to the WHO. In order to reach malaria elimination goals and to continue the significant global decline of malaria, key decision makers need to be made aware of the threat of undermining elimination if funding falls short, according to the authors.

More information: Rima Shretta et al, Tracking development assistance and government health expenditures for 35 malaria-eliminating countries: 19902017, Malaria Journal (2017). Journal information: Malaria Journal Rima Shretta et al, Tracking development assistance and government health expenditures for 35 malaria-eliminating countries: 19902017,(2017). DOI: 10.1186/s12936-017-1890-0
Credit: University of Melbourne

Melbourne researchers have unlocked important information that could lead to improved treatment of a rare and serious genetic condition.

Sengers syndrome is a genetic mitochondrial disease. Most children born with it die as babies, but a milder form of the disease also exists with some people surviving for multiple decades.

The new research, which involved a collaboration between the University of Melbourne's Bio21 Institute, the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Monash University and La Trobe University, uncovered an unexpected link between the gene that causes Sengers syndrome, AGK, and a cellular process referred to as "protein transport".

Professor David Thorburn's team identified changes in the AGK gene as the cause of Sengers syndrome in 2012. However, it was unclear how the expected function of AGK led to the abnormal mitochondrial function they found in the two Australian patients identified at that time. Subsequently another 30 patients have been described internationally, most of whom suffer from severe heart disease and cataracts.

Dr Diana Stojanovski investigated the inner workings of AGK and what she found could lead to improved treatments and therapies for the incurable condition.

Dr Stojanovski explains that the mitochondrion is an organelle found in all cells of our bodies and considered the "powerhouse" of the cell, where the food we eat is metabolised into energy to sustain life and organ function. When mitochondria don't function properly organs fail and people get sick.

Mitochondria is bound by a double membrane with "gate-keepers" or "carrier proteins" embedded in the inner membrane that regulate which molecules and metabolites can enter.

The molecules that pass through these gate-keepers are needed for various important processes, such as the metabolism of fats and proteins for energy.

"Inside the mitochondria you have a number of tiny molecular machines that are responsible for assembling these gate-keeper molecules so they can do their job," Dr Stojanovski says.

"This is a highly tuned process. When these machines have faulty parts, then it can have severe effects on our metabolism, like what we see in Sengers sydnrome."

Dr Stojanovski's team found the AGK belonged to a molecular machine known as TIM22, which organises tunnel-like carrier proteins into the inner membrane, which then transport molecules into and out of the organelle.

This function was crucial for various processes, including energy production.

"Until this discovery Sengers syndrome was believed to be a defect of lipid metabolism in cells," Dr Stojanovski says. "Our work is paradigm-shifting and suggests defects in the process of protein transport leads to the disease."
A new study of pregnant women shows that restless legs syndrome (RLS) is common and is strongly associated with poor sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness, and poor daytime function, which are frequent complaints during pregnancy. Results show that 36 percent of women in their third trimester had RLS, and half of the women with RLS had moderate to severe symptoms. Compared with pregnant women without RLS, those with RLS were twice as likely to report poor sleep quality and poor daytime function, and they were also more likely to have excessive daytime sleepiness. Additionally, the study found a positive dose-response relationship between RLS severity and the sleep-wake disturbances. Credit: Dunietz GL, et al. J Clin Sleep Med. 2017;13(7):863-870. American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

A new study of pregnant women shows that restless legs syndrome (RLS) is common and is strongly associated with poor sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness, and poor daytime function, which are frequent complaints during pregnancy.

Results show that 36 percent of women in their third trimester had RLS, and half of the women with RLS had moderate to severe symptoms. Compared with pregnant women without RLS, those with RLS were twice as likely to report poor sleep quality and poor daytime function, and they were also more likely to have excessive daytime sleepiness. Additionally, the study found a positive dose-response relationship between RLS severity and the sleep-wake disturbances.

"While we expected that RLS would be relatively common in pregnant women, we were surprised to observe just how many had a severe form," said lead author Galit Levi Dunietz, PhD, a T32 post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Center in Ann Arbor. "These women experienced RLS symptoms at least four times per week."

Study results are published in the July 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

The study involved 1,563 pregnant women with an average age of 30 years, each of whom was in her third trimester. RLS was diagnosed using the standardized criteria of self-reported symptoms and frequency. Demographic and pregnancy data were extracted from medical records, and sleep information was collected with questionnaires. The study found no evidence for any association between RLS and delivery outcomes.

According to the authors, health care providers often dismiss patient complaints of poor sleep and daytime sleepiness during pregnancy.

"These sleep-wake disturbances are considered common symptoms in pregnancy and are frequently attributed to physiological changes that occur in normal pregnancy, but our data suggest that RLS is an additional contributor to these symptoms," said Dunietz.

The authors suggest that the identification and treatment of RLS in pregnancy - using non-pharmacological approaches - may alleviate the burden of these symptoms for many women.
Functional reach is a measure of dynamic balance, and is performed by first obtaining the measurement on the metre rule at the position of the middle finger. The participant is then asked to reach out as far as possible without falling over, and the new measurement obtained. The distance between the first and second measurement is the functional reach. Credit: Prof Dr Norlisah Ramli

Researchers from Malaysia assessed the whole brain microstructural integrity of major nerve tracts among older fallers and non-fallers. They proposed the potential synergistic relationship between blood pressure fluctuations with standing, balance disorders and structural brain abnormalities observed among fallers.

Falls are common in the older population. The annual incidence of falls is nearly 30% in individuals 65 years and above and the number is expected to increase further as the population ages. Falls in older people lead to physical disability, psychosocial problems, and deterioration in quality of life and reduced survival. It often results in hospitalization and institutionalization with expensive medical costs.. Falls in the elderly are associated with numerous risk factors, e.g. physical limitation, gait and balance deficits, visual impairment, chronic medical illness, neurological disorders and postural hypotension (a condition linked to a drop in blood pressure withstanding). The study by a group of researchers from University of Malaya recruited older people who had at two falls or one fall with injury over the last 12 months. Their brain image were then compared with similar age people with no history of fall using MRI. A special advanced feature of MRI, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), was utilized in the study, allowing assessment of the white matter tracts within the brain.

The study assessed the whole brain microstructural integrity of major nerve tracts among the older individuals with a history of falls compared to non-fallers. 85 participants were evaluated clinically and using MRI of the brain [Figure1]. DTI was utilized to study the microstructural integrity of these white matter nerve tracts. Many clinical variables and risk factors known to be related to falls were also collected and analyzed using advanced statistical tests. It was proposed that there is potential synergistic relationship between blood pressure fluctuations with standing, balance disorders and structural brain abnormalities observed among fallers. This is the first study of its kind to utilize DTI for whole brain white tracts analysis while taking into account many contributing factors of fallers in an ageing multi-racial Asian population.

To measure postural hypotension, haemodynamic changes with standing is obtained using beat to beat blood pressure with continuous ECG monitoring. In individuals who have difficulty standing independently, this is performed using a tilt-table. Credit: Prof Dr Norlisah Ramli

The researchers found several white matter nerve tracts that were significantly different between fallers and non-fallers, and the findings were published in Plos One. Those tracts included the major nerve fibers that connecting the right and left cerebral hemisphere, as well as the cerebral and the lower brain (cerebellum, brainstem and spinal cord). The changes occur in several DTI metrics known as mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD) and radial diffusivity (RD). The researchers' earlier works showed that an AD change not accompanied by FA changes is thought to represent widespread tissue damage, gross tissue loss and increased extracellular space. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBBS) was used to analyze the DTI metrics. TBBS is an advanced computerized technique to overlay the fallers tracts over the normalized non-fallers tracts (known as TBBS skeleton), to highlight the nerve tracts which are significantly different between the two [Figure 2].

Besides the imaging features described above, there were other clinical and imaging variables which demonstrated significant differences between fallers and non-fallers such as the age, clinical parameters for gait and balance (functional-reach and time-up-and-go tests), white matter lesions volume (high signal focus on T2-weighted MRI sequence), hypertension, postural hypotension as well as fainting spells.

Using multivariate statistical analysis, the study showed that only presence of orthostatic hypotension, presence of hypertension, increased white matter lesions volume and decreased in functional-reach distance demonstrated statistical significant differences between fallers and non-fallers. No significant differences were found in the DTI metrics above when taking into account age and the four variables as covariates.

To highlight the white matter tracts affected in fallers we use the tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). The white matter nerve tracts that demonstrated significant differences between the fallers and non-fallers are highlighted as follows with significance levels gradient (red < orange < yellow). TBSS baseline skeleton (green). Credit: Prof Dr Norlisah Ramli

Therefore it was concluded that DTI metrics abnormality is not a singular factor that contributes independently to the fall outcomes. Instead, this novel finding importantly highlights the potentially synergistic effect between blood pressure changes, balance disorders and structural abnormalities of the brain in elderly falls. Nevertheless, the DTI aspect of this study helps to understand further the neurobiology underpinning movement and coordination disturbances in older population with falls. It may also serve as potential biomarkers in future falls intervention trials.

More information: Lord SR (2007) Falls in older people. Risk factors and stategies for prevention. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge United Kingdom Lord SR (2007) Falls in older people. Risk factors and stategies for prevention. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge United Kingdom Bloem BR, Steijns JAG, Smits-Engelsman BC (2003) An update on falls. Curr Opin Neurol 16:1526 Tan MP, Kamaruzzaman SR, Zakaria MI, Chin AV, Poi PJH (2016) Ten-year mortality in older patients attending the emergency department after a fall. Geriatrics & Gerontology International 16(1): p. 111-117. Englander F, Hodson TJ, Terregrossa RA (1996) Economic dimensions of slip and fall injuries. J Forensic Sci 41:733746 Axer H, Axer M, Sauer H, Witte OW, Hagemann G (2010) Falls and gait disorders in geriatric neurology. Clin Neurol Neurosurg 112:26574 Ambrose AF, Paul G, Hausdorff JM (2013) Risk factors for falls among older adults: a review of the literature. Maturitas 75:5161 Ramli N, Wong YQ, Tan LK, Seow P, Abd Kadir KA, Vijayananthan A and Tan MP (2017) Microstructural integrity of white matter tracts amongst older fallers: A DTI study. PLoS ONE 12 (6): e0179895 Veeramuthu V, Narayanan NV, Tan LK, et al (2015) Diffusion tensor imaging parameters in mild traumatic brain injury and its correlation with early neuropsychological impairment: A longitudinal study. J Neurotrauma 13:113 Journal information: Maturitas , PLoS ONE

Provided by University of Malaya
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

(Medical Xpress)A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in China has located a part of the brain in male mice that appears to play a key role in dominance behavior with other male mice. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes experiments they carried out with mice using brain scans, optogenetics and plastic tubes.

Mice are known to be social animals, and prior research has shown that dominance plays a role in maintaining social orderdominance levels lead to establishment of hierarchies, which helps to maintain peace within communities. While size has been shown to play a role in dominance in mice, prior research has determined that some behaviors, particularly persistence, play an even stronger role. In this new effort, the researchers sought to learn more about what goes on in the male mouse brain when males are forced into a situation in which dominant behavior is encouraged.

The experiments consisted of monitoring the brain waves of mice as they performed a standard dominance testtwo male mice were placed nose-to-nose into a clear tube that did not leave enough room to turn around or pass by one another. The only way out was for one to concede and walk backwards to the end of the tube and exit. In so doing, the researchers found that the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) was more active in the mouse that won such contests. More specifically, they found that when performing such actions as initiating a push, pushing back against a push or resisting, the dmPFC was more active. Conversely, during such activities as retreating, the same region was less active than it was for the one showing dominance.

Researchers measure social dominance in mice by analyzing how much each one pushes, pushes back, retreats or remains still. Credit: Zhou et al., Science (2017)

After testing several mice, the team was able to identify which mice were more dominantthey then quashed that dominance by giving the mice a drug known to quiet the dmPFC, suggesting that they had found the correct region of the brain responsible for controlling dominance. The researchers then used optogenetics to stimulate the dmPFC in less dominant mice and found that doing so caused those mice to become more dominantan effect that lasted for at least a whole day after photo-stimulation ceased. The researchers report that they plan to continue their research to learn if the same part of the brain is involved in dominance for female mice.

When scientists stimulated a subset of neurons in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, this dramatically increased the chances that a mouse will be socially dominant over a mouse that does not receive the stimulation. Credit: Zhou et al., Science (2017)

More information: History of winning remodels thalamo-PFC circuit to reinforce social dominance, Science 14 Jul 2017: Vol. 357, Issue 6347, pp. 162-168 , History of winning remodels thalamo-PFC circuit to reinforce social dominance,14 Jul 2017: Vol. 357, Issue 6347, pp. 162-168 , DOI: 10.1126/science.aak9726 Abstract

Mental strength and history of winning play an important role in the determination of social dominance. However, the neural circuits mediating these intrinsic and extrinsic factors have remained unclear. Working in mice, we identified a dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) neural population showing "effort"-related firing during moment-to-moment competition in the dominance tube test. Activation or inhibition of the dmPFC induces instant winning or losing, respectively. In vivo optogenetic-based long-term potentiation and depression experiments establish that the mediodorsal thalamic input to the dmPFC mediates long-lasting changes in the social dominance status that are affected by history of winning. The same neural circuit also underlies transfer of dominance between different social contests. These results provide a framework for understanding the circuit basis of adaptive and pathological social behaviors. Journal information: Science

 2017 Medical Xpress
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

These are findings being presented on Thursday 13 July at the British Psychological Society's 30th Psychology of Women conference in Windsor by Megan Kenny from University of Huddersfield.

A total of 261 women aged 13-72 took part in an anonymous online survey about their online experiences, with 46 per cent reporting sexual victimisation. The most frequent experience was being asked to share sexual images of themselves, followed by receiving unsolicited sexual images and requests to talk about sex.

Of those questioned 41 per cent had experienced threatening behaviour online, the most common being receiving offensive messages, 38 per cent had experienced humiliating contact and 15 per cent had experienced sexual, threatening or humiliating contact.

Some participants admitted being perpetrators of cyberviolence, with 13 per cent admitting to sexual behaviour and 12 per cent admitting to threatening and humiliating behaviours.

The research also revealed that as a result of cyberviolence women reported negative feelings about themselves and perpetrators, women also developed coping strategies to manage such negative contact which include the use of humour and defiance, as well as minimising behaviour and reporting indifference.

Ms Kenny said, "These results suggest that cyberviolence via social media is a problem for female social media users, across various social media platforms and has lasting offline consequences. If you are a victim of this kind of behaviour document everything using screenshots, making note of dates and report the individual to the platform in the first instance. If you believe you are at serious risk of harm, ensure you have documented as much as possible and contact the police."
The biggest challenge technology companies face in South Africa is the quality of the education system and its ability to produce much-needed skills.

The challenge for tech companies is always going to be having sufficient human capital, having sufficient skilled resources available in the marketplace, EOH CEO Zunaid Mayet told MyBroadband.

To access this, the country needs a sound education system that creates talent and skilled young people for technology companies to tap into, he said.

On that score weve started our own programme to create our own pipeline of talent, said Mayet.

EOH has established a youth job creation initiative which aims to achieve two goals:

Contribute towards the reduction in youth unemployment, and ultimately poverty alleviation, in South Africa. Give EOH an opportunity to create its own pipeline of talent.

What weve sought to do is evangelise the programme to get other organisations, our partners, our customers, to let us help them replicate it in their businesses.

Technology a great opportunity

Mayet added that technology is a great enabler for human and economic development in South Africa.

Technology underpins many of the goals set out in the countrys national development programme, he said.

For example, the National Development Plan includes the goal of providing every citizen in the country with access to broadband.

Access to the Internet, research has shown, is a significant enabler for economic development for people to get access to a whole lot of things: resources, services, jobs, skills, and education.

Technology, and the availability of skills in the field, will help arrest South Africas economic decline by enabling economic development and ultimately job creation, said Mayet.
Newspaper: Armenia authorities trying to find legal grounds for signing peace treaty

Newspaper: People of Karabakh not going to tolerate final destruction of their army

Texas woman sentenced to death for killing pregnant woman, removing fetus from victim

Van Gogh's painting sold for a record $117 million

Gentiloni: EU countries have accumulated enough gas to get through the coming winter

Several dozen activists detained at protest rally in Baku: They chant slogans 'Freedom!', 'Resign!'

Princess Haya seeks asylum in Wales

Pashinyan: Iran is concerned about the presence of other actors in our region, which are not in the territory of Armenia

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: Russia cannot withdraw from Karabakh unless it creates additional guarantees for peacekeeping mission

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: We believe there should be a dialogue between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh

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
As before, Baku and Ankara block the thought of opening the road passing through Abkhazia, whereas Tbilisi depends on them a lot to be able to insist otherwise.

Russian political scientist and historian Alexander Krylov told the aforementioned to Armenian News-NEWS.am, when asked to comment on the Russia-Georgia talks on this matter.

In his words, even though something may come about on technical issues, the principal obstacles before this matter are in another dimension, as both Azerbaijan and Turkey uproot this idea.

Georgia has already favored the opening of the road, but it is dependent a lot on its western and eastern neighbors to be able to resist their pressure, Krylov said. The main reason for Bakus and Ankaras hindering it is apparent: the interests of Armenia. The routes passing through Abkhazia and South Ossetia will strengthen its ties with Russia, and make them more stable.

Alexander Krylov added, however, that Russia had always supported this idea.

To note, Zurab Abashidze, the Georgian PMs special representative for relations with Russia, had issued a statement, according to which Armenia should not pin hopes on the opening of the Abkhazia corridor.
YEREVAN.  The European Union wants to support initiatives of women and youth by launching new project in Armenia, head of EU delegation Piotr Switalski said.

The official ceremony of launching EU-funded Commitment to Constructive Dialogue Project (CCD) took place in Yerevan on Friday.

The voice of women and youth is not always heard, they are given less attention. The EU ambassador said that talking to him the young people complained that the government's new program only once mentions about working with young people.

Of course, the main thing is content. And we are sure that the government will gain a lot if it directs the efforts of active citizens, including women and youth, for the benefit of the country, the head of the EU delegation said.

The program provides training for NGOs in Yerevan and regions, as well as the opening of centers for the support of civil society in Yerevan and four regional centers (Gyumri, Vanadzor, Gavar, Kapan). NGOs that have completed the training will be able to participate in project competitions: small (up to 10 thousand euros), as well as team cometion - middle (up to 22.5 thousand) and large (up to 40 thousand euros).
The prosecution demanded that blogger Alexander Lapshin be sentenced to 6.5 years in prison.

The state prosecutor made such a motion during Fridays trial at the Baku Court of Grave Crimes, in the case into Lapshin, who is under arrest in Azerbaijan, according to Haqqin.az news agency of the country.

The defense will deliver its remarks at the judicial hearing scheduled for July 19.

After his visits to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in 2011 and 2012, blogger and journalist Alexander Lapshinwho is a citizen of Russia, Israel, and several other countrieswas blacklisted by Azerbaijan.

In June 2016, however, he paid a visit to Azerbaijanbut with a Ukrainian passportand, subsequently, he published several articles criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities.

Afterward, Azerbaijan issued an international search for this famous blogger. On December 15, 2016, Lapshin was detained in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk, and based on this search.

On January 26 of the current year, the Minsk city court dismissed the bloggers appeal of the Belarusian General Prosecutors Office decision to extradite him to Azerbaijan.

On February 7, the Supreme Court of Belarus dismissed the appeals that were filed into this case, and upheld the aforesaid decision by the General Prosecutors Office.

And on the evening of the same day, Belarus extradited Alexander Lapshin to the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku, where he was taken into custody.
Tourists who were killed as a result of an attack at a hotel in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada, were citizens of Germany, Washington Post reported quoting Egyptian Ministry of the Interior.

According to the newspaper, a 20-year-old man stabbed six female tourists, two of them fatally. The conditions of the surviving women were not immediately available.

The killed women were initially identified as being from Ukraine, but the Red Sea Security Directorate confirmed that they are German, and said that two of the surviving women are from Czech Republic and the other two from Ukraine.

However, Hurghada General Hospital, where the women were taken, said that three of the wounded women are Armenian and one is Czech.

Egypts internal ministry said that the incident took place on Friday morning. The attacker was arrested, he is being questioned.

An eyewitness told the privately owned Al-Masry Al-Yawm newspaper that the attacker, who was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, was speaking on the phone just before the assault. He also added that he had an encounter with the suspect, and that the man told him to stay away from him because he does not want Egyptians. They are not the ones wanted (targeted).

The women were stabbed in the face, neck and feet.
1. Yes. Taxpayers are funding its operation; they should have a voice in the naming process.

2. Yes. The city should operate with a spirit of inclusivity. Residents will be responsive.

3. No. Public input can be problematic; rejection of suggestions can be divisive for residents.

4. No. Residents elect council members to make decisions on their behalf. No input is needed.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say whether public input would be more of a benefit or a hindrance.

Vote

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Whether you already own one or have thought about it, you probably know Google Home ($129) is one of those popular voice-activated personal assistants for the home.

After saying the wake words "OK, Google" (or "Hey Google"), ask a question or give a command, and you'll hear a human-like female voice respond from its clear speakerwhether you want to hear a specific song, set a timer for the oven, or control your smart devices in your home (such as a Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat).

But you already know all this, you say?

The following is a handful of lesser-known Google Home features, including a few tips and tricks, and hidden Easter Eggs.

Google Home can help you remember where you left things. Say something like "Ok Google, remember my passport is in the top drawer." When you need it in the future, ask "OK Google, where's my passport?" and it will tell you where it is, and what date you asked it to remind you.

Funny sounds. Want to entertain the kids? Google Home can play you recordings of animal noises and vehicle sounds. For example, ask what a horse or train sounds like. Google will sing for you, too! Simply say "Hey Google, sing a song" or "OK Google, serenade me," and you'll hear the assistant belt out a ditty. Ask it to do it again and it'll likely be a different tune. You can also ask it to drop a beat if you want to rap on top: say "OK Google, beatbox."

Play that song. Speaking of music, Google Home will find a song for youeven if you don't know the title. For example, say "Ok Google, play that song that says 'passionate from miles away'" and it will play Drake's Passionfruit. Your personal assistant can also be an instrument tuner; if you have a guitar on your lap, say "Hey Google, start an instrument tuner" and it will ask what musical note you want to hear.

Get flight prices ASAP. Say something like "OK Google, how much does it cost to fly from Los Angeles to New York today, returning Monday?" and you'll hear the lowest roundtrip cost. It can keep track of the cheapest flights for those dates and even email you a summary to your Gmail account.

Play games with Google Home. Say "OK Google, Mad Libs" ("the world's greatest word game") or "Hey Google, play Lucky Trivia." Expect more games to be added over time.

Personalize. You might've heard Google Home can detect different voices in your home. Therefore, if you ask how long it'll take to get to the office this morning, you'll hear a different response than if your partner asks the same question.

Shortcuts. Did you know you can create custom shortcuts for long phrases you commonly ask? For example, instead of "Hey Google, turn off all the lights in the house," you can say something like "OK Google, good night." To create a shortcut, open the Google Home app on your smartphone, enter Settings, and you'll see "Shortcuts" under "More" settings.

Google Home helps with homework. You can ask math questions ("OK Google, what's the square root of 729?"), get history help ("OK Google, who founded the United States?") or learn geography facts ("OK Google, what's the capital of India?"). You can even ask how to spell something, such as "OK Google, how do you spell 'emancipation'?" Try something trickier like "OK Google, what's 'quantum theory'?" or "Ok Google, search for monkey facts."

Weather forecasts. You likely know you can ask for weather information, but you can also for multi-day forecasts, too, in any city. For example, say "OK Google, "what will the weather be like over the next 5 days in Kingston, Jamaica?"

Voice volume. You can adjust Google Home's volume by swiping your finger on top of the unit, but you can also use your voice to change volume. Say something like "OK Google, volume at 50%," if you're not near the speaker.

Random. Google Home has a Magic 8-ball, of sorts. Say "OK Google, Crystal Ball" and ask a yes or no question.

Get organized. Google Home lets you access your calendar by simply asking for info like "OK Google, what meetings do I have today?" But you can also add events to your calendar using Google Home, too, such as asking "Ok Google, add dinner with Kellie tomorrow at 8 PM to my calendar."

My day. When you wake up, say "OK Google, tell me about my day," and you'll hear the date and time, weather, calendar events, and news. You can also change where you get your news from by opening the Google Home app and selecting desired sources.

Jetsons skills. If you own a Roomba, you can now initiate the vacuum cleaner using your voice. After you pair your Roomba with Google Home, say "Ok Google, ask Roomba to start cleaning." The future is here!

2017 USA Today

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Will this week's high temperatures make it into the record book? Can we top 122 F? We don't know yet, but as we move through this extreme heat spell, one thing is for certain, the unpredictability of the weather means records will continue to fall, says Randy Cerveny, an ASU President's professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.

Cerveny is the Rapporteur on Climate Extremes within the United Nations-affiliated World Meteorological Organization (WMO). He literally is the keeper of Earth's weather extremes, recording and verifying (or repudiating) weather extremes as they are reported around the world.

Here, Cerveny talks about the current heat spell in the Valley and what it means for the rest of the summer.

Q: Why is it so dang hot right now?

Cerveny: We have a large upper-air ridge of high pressure centered over our area, in essence a large "heat dome." Because air in a high-pressure ridge sinks and, as it sinks, warms, and is associated with clear skies, we have the opportunity for substantial warming. Finally, moisture (humidity) in our atmosphere absorbs heat  that's why places like Florida don't get up into the 100s. But presently the atmospheric moisture over Arizona is extremely limited, so the air and ground can heat up  in this case tremendously.

Q: When and where is the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth?

Cerveny: Death Valley in California officially reached a temperature of 134 F on July 10, 1913. The next hottest temperature was a temperature in northern Africa of 131 degrees Fahrenheit in 1931. We are currently evaluating two temperatures of 129 F (in Kuwait last summer and in Pakistan last month) that, if verified, will be the 3rd hottest temperatures ever officially recorded on the planet.

Q: If we were to break the record temperature, does it tell us anything about the way the weather is trending right now?

Cerveny: This actually is the normal time of the year when we have our hottest temperaturesjust before the onset of the wet phase of the monsoon. In fact, these hot temperatures are needed aspects for creating the shift in winds that allows moisture to flow up from the Gulf of California and Pacific Ocean. In other words, if it weren't for these hot temperatures now, we wouldn't have thunderstorms next month.

Q: Is this a sign of the times, temperatures rising and weather extremes becoming more regular?

Cerveny: Yes, we are consistently breaking more and more "high" temperatures and fewer and fewer "low" temperature records. That consistency in trend is something that has been going on consistently now for several decades.

Q: Is this a sign of global warming?

Cerveny: No, any individual heat wave is not a sign of global warming. But a growing consistency in the occurrence of heat waves (such as mentioned in the last question) is. In other words, as we continue to set new heat records next year and the year after, that is a sign of changing climate.

Q: Why are we fascinated by weather extremes?

Cerveny: I think that our culture has always tended to promote the biggest, the highest, the strongest, etc., and that interest has led to great interest in the extremes of weather. Books from organizations such as the Guinness Book of World Records have always captured the interest of the public. Having been fascinated by those type of books as I was growing up, I find it interestingand a bit humblingto now be one of the group of experts that Guinness now calls to verify its own weather records.

Q: Will we see more records fall in the future?

Cerveny: Absolutely. Our climate has changed, is changing and will continue to change, and as part of that, the extremes of climate also will continue to change. With the creation of the WMO's Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes under the authority of the United Nations (and hosted through Arizona State University), we will continue to officially monitor and verify those extremes.
Experts from WCS's Global Conservation Programs and WCS's Bronx Zoo assisted Cuban conservationists in the recent release of 10 Cuban crocodiles (Crocodylus rhombifer) into Cuba's Zapata Swamp as part of an ongoing recovery strategy for this Critically Endangered species. Credit: Andre Baumgarten/WCS

Experts from WCS's Global Conservation Programs and WCS's Bronx Zoo assisted Cuban conservationists in the recent release of 10 Cuban crocodiles (Crocodylus rhombifer) into Cuba's Zapata Swamp as part of an ongoing recovery strategy for this Critically Endangered species.

These genetically pure crocodiles came from a breeding facility near the Zapata swamp. Hybridization with American crocodiles, which occur in the Southwestern tip of the Zapata Peninsula, is an ongoing issue and has contributed to the Cuban crocodile's continuing decline. Cuban crocodiles face other threats, such as an increase in illegal hunting in recent years, so the release of captive bred Cuban crocodiles and the protection of these reptiles from poaching and hybridization is critical to the survival of the species in the wild.

The crocodiles were released in the Wildlife Refuge Channels of Hanabana (Refugio de Fauna Canales de Hanabana) - a 570 hectare (1,400 acre) mosaic of water channels, lagoons, marsh grasslands, and swamp forests in the easternmost Zapata Peninsula where Cuban crocodiles historically occurred. Marsh grasslands in this refuge provide crucial habitat for not only Cuban crocodiles, but prey including bird, fish and mammal species. No American crocodiles or hybrids are found in this Wildlife Refuge.

The recent release, which took place on June 8th, is the second reintroduction since Cuba started to release Cuban crocodiles in 2016. The decision to release the crocodiles followed a workshop of crocodile experts organized by WCS and Cuban institutions, including the Fundacion Antonio Nunez Jimenez, CITMA Cienaga de Zapata, and Empresa Nacional para la Proteccion de la Flora y la Fauna. The workshop brought together 40 Cuban nationals working for the conservation of crocodiles in Cuba, and 30 international experts.

The workshop resulted in a series of agreed priorities for improving the conservation of crocodiles, including: strengthening the research and monitoring of Cuban crocodiles in the wild; increasing efforts to reintroduce and monitor reintroduced animals in Channels of Hanabana; working with local communities to reduce poaching through alternative livelihoods and environmental education; and working with local authorities to strengthen compliance to reduce illegal selling of crocodile meat.

Said Natalia Rossi, WCS Cuba Program Manager: "This workshop was important because it enabled the second release of Cuban crocodiles into the wild and motivated all participants to do even more to save this critically endangered species. Our workshop was fundamental to bring everyone together to share the work being done to save the Cuban crocodile."

The critically endangered Cuban crocodile has the smallest, most restricted geographic distribution among all living crocodilian species, being only found in parts of the Zapata and Lanier swamps. Historically it was found throughout the Zapata Peninsula, but indiscriminate hunting for skins beginning in the second half of the 19th century and lasting until the early 1960s decimated most populations. Today, Cuban crocodiles inhabit a territory of about 77,600 hectares (191,700 acres), sharing habitat with the American crocodile and the hybrids of both species.

WCS's John Thorbjarnarson began working on Cuban crocodiles in the 1990s, and WCS's Bronx Zoo was the first U.S. zoo to successfully breed Cuban crocodiles. The first one hatched in 1983; six more hatched in 1984, and 21 in 1985. There has been no reproduction since then, but the zoo has a new young pair of crocodiles that will be introduced to each other late this year.

Kevin Torregrosa, Herpetology Collections Manager for WCS's Bronx Zoo, attended the workshop to establish collaboration opportunities with individuals working with crocodiles in the breeding centers as well as with wild populations.

Said Torregrosa: "Cuba is a fairly isolated island and getting the chance to see the conservation effort in practice was very enlightening. I believe the Cubans were very happy to have the opportunity to show the international community the work that they have been doing."

WCS's Cuba Program has helped establish strong collaborations in the pursuit of safeguarding the island nation's wildlife and natural resources. In addition to working to conserve both Cuban and American crocodiles in Zapata and Birama Swamps, WCS has helped protect raptors in the inland forests of eastern Cuba and shark species inhabiting the rich coastal waters of Jardines de la Reina National Park. WCS-Cuba has partnered with national agencies to help train three generations of conservation educators and decision makers through professional exchanges and applied ecological teaching, and worked to balance conservation with support for local livelihoods and culture.
New study simulates the formation of protein fibers and suggests, contrary to other studies, that these structures all follow a general physical principle. Credit: Martin Lenz and Thomas Witten

Alzheimer's disease results from a dysfunctional stacking of protein molecules that form long fibers inside brain cells. Similar stacking occurs in sickle-cell anemia and mad cow disease.

Scientists know these orderly fibers develop from a wide variety of molecules, but could there be a common reason they form?

In new research, physicists at the University of Chicago and Universite Paris-Saclay suggest that such protein fibers are a manifestation of a general physical principle. And that principle offers the possibility of new medicines and tools for engineering desirable protein structures. The findings were published earlier this month in Nature Physics.

"We have strong evidence that there's a principle shaping how things aggregate that can be used both to understand disease and modify it and to make things self-assemble in a way that we dictate," said co-author Thomas Witten, the Homer J. Livingston Professor Emeritus of Physics at UChicago.

Proteins aggregate all the time. But mostly they make amorphous blobs similar to those in egg drop soup. "We're trying to find out what makes some molecules assemble to form a fiber instead of a glop," Witten said.

The proteins that form fibers are identical but irregular; they don't fit together cleanly. Witten and his collaborator Martin Lenz, a researcher at Universite Paris-Saclay, wondered if that irregularity might hold a key to fiber formation. Using computers, Lenz, lead author of the study, devised a mathematical model to simulate how identical but ill-fitting objects would clump together. He used pentagons and other simple polygons to represent the irregular, fiber-forming proteins.

"We didn't have a lab and test tubes. We just had these little shapes," Witten said.

A simulation of how protein fibers form. Credit: Martin Levy and Thomas Witten

The researchers made the interaction of the polygons depend on just two attributes without incorporating any other features of real molecules. As in a real fiber, all of the sub-units are identical and irregular. They are also what Witten calls "sticky"they attract each other but they don't feel the attraction until they touch. They "want" to touch, and they gain energy if they do. But because the shapes don't fit together cleanly, "their surfaces can't touch and feel the stickiness and get that energy unless they distort," Witten said.

Their propensity is to elongate themselves as much as possible to maximize the amount of their surface that is in contact. "But distortion costs them energy," Witten said. "They have to exert forces to get the surfaces to meet. So there is a competition between the energy gained by sticking and the energy cost of distortion."

The simulations done by Lenz embodied that competition. The shapes could attach along any surface. The scientists varied the degree of stickiness relative to the energy cost of distortion for each shape and looked at the various structures that formed across the range of values. The results were striking: No matter what shape they used, when stickiness and the energy cost of distortion were more or less equal, they got fibers every time.

An additional feature was needed to form the fibers. The growth needed to be irreversible with every surface that sticks needing to stay stuck. Without this irreversible feature, often seen in real molecules, the long fibers would eventually melt into roundish blobs.

The research differs from the approach taken by scientists who study the diseases caused by protein fibers. "They have done a lot of work on the particulars of the molecules involved, and there are strongly held ideas about how those particulars cause the fibers to form," Lenz said.

"We're saying, 'You don't need a specific molecule: it's a general principle.' They're skeptical about that, but despite their skepticism, they acknowledge that our idea deserves a hearing," Witten said.

So far, Lenz and Witten have tried only a small array of shapes in two dimensions. They plan to try to see if the principle holds true for arbitrary shapes, in three dimensions, and abstract the essence of what's going on in the simulations.

"We want to have a theory that predicts things that we can then verify on the computer, a theory that doesn't use specific features of a particular particle shape but just uses the stickiness and the distortion," said Witten. "We may be able to prevent the mad-cow and the sickle cell fibers, if we understand this principle. And we should be able to use the principle to make fibers when they are beneficial. Just put in the right stickiness, put in the right distortion, adjust everything and get the fibers we want."

More information: Martin Lenz et al. Geometrical frustration yields fibre formation in self-assembly, Nature Physics (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nphys4184 Journal information: Nature Physics
Scene of Mississippi River. Credit: Jackson Hill

Many studies say capturing Mississippi River sand through diversions is key to rebuilding Louisiana's vanishing coast. But a new study in the open-access journal Earth Surface Dynamics of an old levee breach, or crevasse, along Bayou Lafourche indicates that mud, the most plentiful sediment type carried by the river, may be the most powerful tool in building land.

Researchers from Tulane University, Coastal Carolina University and The Water Institute of the Gulf found that retention of river diversion sediment in wetlands could be increased to more than 75 percent, if the outflow area is protected from waves and tides. Diversion sites on the open coast retain only 5 to 30 percent of incoming sediment.

By examining an old crevasse along Bayou Lafourche, a precursor of the Mississippi River, the researchers found that mud can build enough land to keep up with sea level rise if the diversion flows into existing vegetated areas protected from marine forces. This crevasse, located near Napoleonville, La., is mostly made of mud deposits that have remained stable enough over the centuries to support farming more than five miles from the Bayou Lafourche channel.

"Crevasse splays like this one are extremely common in the Mississippi River Delta and all of them consist mainly of mud," said Torbjorn Tornqvist, Vokes Geology Professor at Tulane University.

Since sediment carried by Bayou Lafourche 1,200 to 600 years ago only contained about 20 percent sand, but an abundance of mud, the researchers suggest that land building can be maximized by gearing muddy diversions toward vegetated areas rather than to capture sandy deposits along the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

"These issues are not unique to the Mississippi River Delta," said report lead author Christopher Esposito, a research scientist at The Water Institute of the Gulf who undertook this study as part of his doctoral dissertation at Tulane University.

More information: Christopher R. Esposito et al. Efficient retention of mud drives land building on the Mississippi Delta plain, Earth Surface Dynamics (2017). DOI: 10.5194/esurf-5-387-2017
Pests and parasites compete with the poor and their livestock in rural economies. A new framework analyzes ecological, economic and epidemiological factors that can trap people in poverty. Credit: Upstream Alliance

Deep in landlocked Africa, a miracle is unfolding. Less than a generation after a genocidal civil war left it in ruins, Rwanda is defying poverty traps that ensnare many other natural resource-dependent developing countries.

The "land of a thousand hills" today has one of the continent's strongest economies and healthiest populations. This success story is borne out by a newly developed method for modeling rural poverty that could inform interventions to improve economies, health and ecosystems.

"The livelihoods of the rural poor are literally consumed by other organisms in complex ecological systems," said co-author Matthew Bonds, a visiting assistant professor of medicine at Stanford. "The environment's influence on poor rural economies makes them fundamentally different from the economies of more developed countries."

Rural economics 101

Of the 1 billion people living below the international poverty line, most live in rural communities where the natural resources around them present a double-edged sword. Ecological systems provide subsistence, but also spread high rates of infectious diseases through pathogens carried by agricultural pests, rodents, parasites and other vectors.

"These natural enemies compete with the rural poor for resources," said co-author Giulio De Leo, a professor of biology at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station. "They consume biological capital in the form of human health or crops, livestock, forests, wildlife, soils and sheries, thus eroding people's livelihood and well-being."

The picture is further complicated by the need to balance nutrition and health care with investments in land, livestock and crops. This complex web of interactions leads to grim statistics: More than 75 percent of rural poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia die from infectious diseases. It also leads to a poverty trap  the inability to earn enough to save and invest in future earnings. If a farmer or their livestock become unhealthy, income suffers.

Understanding poverty traps

The study, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, takes a significant step toward understanding persistent poverty and finding solutions for long-term sustainable development. It presents a first-of-its-kind general theoretical framework for modeling subsistence and health of the rural poor by analyzing ecological, economic and epidemiological factors.

For lead author Calistus Ngonghala, a mathematician at the University of Florida, the work hits close to home. "Growing up in rural Cameroon, my family and friends had subsistence lifestyles and my community suffered from a continuous burden of deadly diseases such as malaria and HIV," Ngonghala said.

The study's models show that disease transmission and recovery rates are the most consistently important determinants of long-term health and wealth dynamics. The framework also highlights feedbacks, processes and parameters that are important to measure in future studies of rural poverty. They could help identify effective pathways to sustainable development and better predict countries' resilience to economic, health and environmental shocks.

Case in point: A major, one-time wave of support  such as an injection of capital or agricultural supplies  might be enough to disrupt the vicious cycle of feedback between poverty and disease and set a country on a path of healthy development. However, this widely adopted development approach would only provide temporary relief in some circumstances, the study shows. In those cases, only permanent and sustained system changes can create lasting economic development and public health improvement.

Rwanda is a shining example. It provided broad and robust access to health care for the poor through social insurance systems. Dramatic economic growth followed.

More information: Calistus N. Ngonghala et al. General ecological models for human subsistence, health and poverty, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0221-8 Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution
Two employees of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry say the agency briefly suffered an unspecified computer outage after a flurry of suspicious emails.

The extent of Thursday's disruption wasn't immediately clear. One of the employees says ministry servers were out for several hours but that email access has been restored.

Both relayed the information on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The ministry did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Worries over politically motivated hacking have been accentuated by the publication of emails stolen from the U.S. Democratic Party in 2016 and members of French leader Emmanuel Macron's campaign earlier this year.

In 2014, the U.S. State Department took its unclassified email system offline in an effort to lock out persistent intruders.

 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Efforts praised to get more women in Australian astronomy, but more needs to be done. Credit: Flickr/Paean Ng, CC BY-NC-ND

The number of women at the most senior levels in the Australian astronomical community remains low despite many positive steps in supporting gender equity. Women make up only 17% of positions at full or associate professor level.

Astronomy is not alone in having a gender gap in its workforce. Despite decades of positive initiatives, the number of women working day-to-day in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) fields overall in Australia is low.

About 43% of the total STEMM workforce are women compared to men at 57%, based on 2014 figures. This gap widens at the most senior levels, with women making up only 21% of the senior professor positions.

Programs to improve the gender gap in astronomy have been recognised this week by the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA). At its annual science meeting, this year in Canberra, it announced 12 recipients of its Pleiades awards.

The awards are aimed at encouraging astronomy departments to make a commitment to improving gender equity. We can see the rewarded programs are already having an impact.

Focus on recruitment, flexibility and mentors

Now in their third year, the first gold Pleiades award went to the ARC Centre for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), a collaboration of several university astronomy teams. Four silver and seven bronze awards were given to other astronomy groups.

CAASTRO's award recognises the group's longstanding commitment, with initiatives such as changes to recruitment practices, increased workplace flexibility (such as advertising the opportunity for part-time work), mentoring and improved conference participation by female astronomers.

These policies have resulted in an increase in the number of female researchers from roughly 15% at the centre's inception in 2011, to more than 40% this year.

Conference participation is at almost at parity in terms of the number of participants, speakers and session chairs. CAASTRO has also created a gender action toolkit, a resource that any department or institute can use.

The gender gap

Other efforts are also being made to address the gender gap in STEMM with Australian institutions gearing up for their first submissions to the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) pilot, due at the end of March, 2018.

The scheme is based on the UK's Athena SWAN program on improving gender equity, established in 2005. Over the past 12 years the Athena SWAN program has led to positive transformations in workplace culture and women being more visible in key positions and senior roles in STEMM fields in the UK.

But unlike SAGE's institution-wide approach, the Pleiades awards take a department-by-department approach.

As a direct result of the Pleiades awards program, every Australian astronomy department now has an equity and diversity committee to consider and monitor these matters and many have undertaken workplace culture surveys.

The next steps

Despite this and other efforts to bridge the gender gap, there are still hurdles to be overcome such as hiring practices, unconscious bias and the amount of housework that women undertake in Australia (an issue raised by Annabel Crabb in her book The Wife Drought).

One pragmatic action is to advertise female-only positions which the University of Melbourne has now done for a senior position in astronomy.

The new ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astronomy in 3 Dimensions has gone one step further, and requires gender balance at all levels of the Centre, from students to the executive.

The gender balance issue is worse for women who are also in other minority groups due to race, sexuality, disability, religion and more.

While we have made some progress in gender equity in astronomy, we have now started to broaden the conversation beyond gender alone, to recognise intersectionality which describes how gender equity is impacted by also being members of other minority groups. The ultimate aim is an equitable workplace that allows all women to achieve their full potential.

Year by year we are learning more about how best to support women. With each round of the Pleiades awards we further develop the selection criteria to ensure departments keep improving their workplaces.

We also expect our astronomy departments to take on new initiatives to retain or progress in the Pleiades awards scheme.

The awards have shown the positive effect such a scheme can have in driving cultural change. As the SAGE pilot develops, we expect similar positive change in culture across the whole sector, beyond astronomy alone.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Experimental network (right) and four modules with different living conditions. Credit: Andrew Gonzalez, Luis J. Gilarranz et al./CSIC

(Phys.org)A team of researchers from Spain, Switzerland and Canada has used common springtails to prove the soundness of a theory that suggests that modularity limits disturbance effects in networks. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their experiments and what they observed. Marta Sales-Pardo with Universitat Rovira i Virgili offers a Perspective piece on the work done by the team in the same issue along with a short history of the theory behind the work and an explanation of why it matters in the modern world.

Many modern networks are built on the principle that networks that are made with a modular structure are less likely to experience global failure than are those that are notthe theory behind the principle has been around for some time. But as the researchers with this new effort note, the theory has never actually been tested in a real-world environment. Because of that, they looked to nature to provide a possible example.

To conduct their experiments, the researchers obtained samples of springtails (Folsomia candida), which are microarthropods that live in soil throughout the world. They were encouraged to multiply and inhabit patches (representing nodes) that were connected in a modular way. To allow the environment to truly resemble a network, the researchers made sure the tiny creatures were able to move between nodes. At the onset of the experiment, all of the nodes were populated with the same number of specimens, allowing the network to reach a stable point. Then, the researchers introduced a disturbance by simply removing specimens from nodes, one at a time. The team reports that doing so did not lead to population reductions in other nodesthe modular nature of the network offered a buffer of protection, preventing extinction of the network as a whole. According to researchers, the natural network offered evidence suggesting that the original theory appears to be correct.

The researchers found something else too, the stability provided by noded modules came at a costreductions in population growth. But as with real networks, it would appear the benefit of added protection for the network as a whole is well worth cost of slowed growth.

More information: Effects of network modularity on the spread of perturbation impact in experimental metapopulations, Science 14 Jul 2017: Vol. 357, Issue 6347, pp. 199-201, DOI: 10.1126/science.aal4122 , science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6347/199 Abstract

Networks with a modular structure are expected to have a lower risk of global failure. However, this theoretical result has remained untested until now. We used an experimental microarthropod metapopulation to test the effect of modularity on the response to perturbation. We perturbed one local population and measured the spread of the impact of this perturbation, both within and between modules. Our results show the buffering capacity of modular networks. To assess the generality of our findings, we then analyzed a dynamical model of our system. We show that in the absence of perturbations, modularity is negatively correlated with metapopulation size. However, even when a small local perturbation occurs, this negative effect is offset by a buffering effect that protects the majority of the nodes from the perturbation. Journal information: Science

 2017 Phys.org
ECRS Self-Service Solution Now Has Seiko Qaliber Receipt Printer Option

Torrance, CA, July 13, 2017 Seiko Instruments USA Inc. (SII) Thermal Printer Division, a globally recognized leader in thermal printer technology, today announced that it has signed a technology agreement with ECRS, a leading manufacturer of POS retail technology products and services. The agreement will allow ECRS and its reseller partners the opportunity to offer Seikos RP-E10 Qaliber receipt printer as an add-on component to its bundled Express Market solution, as well as to any other solution where a compact and rapid-performing printer is needed.

As a result of this agreement, the solution will feature Seiko Instruments sleek and fast Qaliber Point-of-Sale RP-E10 Receipt Printer, which offers industry-leading print speeds of approximately 1.15 feet per second, as well as a minimum 93 miles of printing and 2 million cuts. The printer was selected by ECRS for this technology solution because of its ability to meet more than one challenge faced by the companys customers with each transaction. This coupled with the printers strong reputation of producing quality, precision electronics and its compact size and small footprint also makes it an ideal choice for a setting where space saving within front-end real estate is top-of-mind.

The agreement was a natural choice for both ECRS and Seiko; both companies have a solid reputation that is consistent with the cutting-edge of developing technologies: ECRS offers the only truly holistic, vertically built, unified retail automation platform on the market, while Seiko has experienced unbridled success in working with customers worldwide who have sold hundreds of thousands of embedded printers annually within POS, small business, and a variety of other applications.

As more retailers and resellers are looking to expand their options to fit the needs of todays consumers at the point-of-sale, it made perfect sense to establish this partnership with ECRS, said Yoshi Murakami, General Manager, Seiko Instruments USA. We are excited that our Qaliber Receipt Printer will now be offered in this Express Market solution offered by ECRS to further an area, such as self-service, in which many consumers have now come to expect as the norm. In combining ECRS high-level POS technology with our fast and efficient and space-saving receipt printer; it will be a win-win for retailers and the customers they serve.

We wanted to bring this solution to market for our retailers who demand the fastest checkout experience possible, said Pete Catoe, Founder & CEO, ECRS. These retailers will clearly appreciate the combination of the Seiko receipt printer, which provides class-leading print speeds with our very fast and capable CATAPULT Transaction Server POS and Self Service software. Its a wonderful partnership for our retailers and their most demanding consumers.

About Seiko Instruments Inc.

As a Seiko Holdings Corporation subsidiary, Seiko Instruments (SII) represents a globally recognized brand, embodying innovative design and precision manufacturing excellence. Founded in 1937, SII currently has more than 13,000 employees worldwide. The company manufactures and markets electronic components, consumer electronics, communication and network technology, scientific instrumentation, precision manufacturing technology, and a complete lineup of receipt printers, mobile printers, kiosk printers, and OEM printing solutions.

About ECRS

ECRS, founded in 1989, is a privately-held Retail Success Company driven by a desire to change the way retailers use technology in their operations. ECRS uses a value-focused, customer-centric approach to create success stories, not only through a comprehensive, unified commerce platform, but also with a team of highly-experienced retail automation specialists who will help retailers extract the maximum value from their investments. ECRS has over 4000 active retail locations, with installations in all 50 states, Canada and the Caribbean.

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By Tom Allard and Bernadette Christina Munthe JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia renamed the northern reaches of its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea as the North Natuna Sea on Friday, the latest act of resistance by Southeast Asian nations to China's territorial ambitions in the maritime region. Seen by analysts as an assertion of Indonesian sovereignty, part of the renamed sea is claimed by China under its contentious maritime boundary, known as the 'nine-dash line', that encompasses most of the resource-rich sea. Several Southeast Asian states dispute China's territorial claims and are competing with China to exploit the South China Sea's abundant hydrocarbon and fishing resources. China has raised the ante by deploying military assets on artificial islands constructed on shoals and reefs in disputed parts of the sea. Indonesia insists it's a non-claimant state in the South China Sea dispute but has clashed with China over fishing rights around the Natuna Islands, detaining Chinese fishermen and expanding its military presence in the area over the past 18 months. Unveiling the new official map, the deputy of maritime sovereignty at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Arif Havas Oegroseno, noted the northern side of its exclusive economic zone was the site of oil and gas activity. "We want to update the naming of the sea [and] we gave a new name in line with the usual practice: the North Natuna Sea," he told reporters. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he didn't know anything about the details of the issue, but said the name South China Sea had broad international recognition and clear geographic limits. "Certain countries' so-called renaming is totally meaningless," he told a daily news briefing. "We hope the relevant country can meet China halfway and properly maintain the present good situation in the South China Sea region, which has not come easily." 'CLEAR MESSAGE' I Made Andi Arsana, an expert on the Law of the Sea from Indonesia's Universitas Gadjah Mada, said the renaming carried no legal force but was a political and diplomatic statement. "It will be seen as a big step by Indonesia to state its sovereignty," he told Reuters. "It will send a clear message, both to the Indonesian people and diplomatically speaking." Euan Graham, director of the international security program at the Lowy Institute, said Indonesia's action followed renewed resistance to Chinese territorial claims by other Southeast Asian states. "This will be noticed in Beijing," he said. Last week, Vietnam extended an Indian oil concession off its coast while a joint venture led by state-owned PetroVietnam commenced drilling further south. China has a territorial claim in both areas. Meanwhile, the director of the Philippines Energy Resource Development Bureau, Ismael Ocampo, said on Wednesday that the country could lift a suspension on oil and gas drilling on the Reed Bank by December. The underwater mountain, lying 85 nautical miles off the Philippines coast, is also claimed by China. Exploration activity was suspended in late 2014 as the Philippines sought an international ruling on China's territorial claim. The Philippines won the case in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague one year ago. China refused to recognise the decision. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who took office on June 30 last year, expressed reluctance about enforcing the decision at the time, as he sought deeper diplomatic and economic ties with China. However, the Philippines lately has become more assertive about its sovereignty. More than two dozen oil, gas and coal blocks, including additional areas in disputed waters, may be offered during the December bidding, Ocampo said on Wednesday. (Reporting by Tom Allard and Bernadette Christina Munthe; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Cambodia has outlawed sand exports from a coastal region where it has been primarily funnelled in huge quantities to Singapore, a move met with scepticism from activists who said previous bans on the destructive industry had failed to take root. Environmental groups have long accused Cambodia of running damaging and corrupt sand dredging operations along the southwest coast and the Mekong river. Most of the sand has been shipped to Singapore to fuel the wealthy city-state's rapid expansion -- a resource plunder that activists say has devastated local Cambodian communities and ecosystems. The new decree, issued on July 10, bars all exports of "construction sand and mud sand" from southwestern Koh Kong province to overseas but stops short of outlawing domestic sales. It was issued in response to environmental concerns, said Meng Saktheara, a spokesman for Cambodia's mining and energy ministry. "If we continue to allow large-scale sand dredging (in Koh Kong) for exports, it would hugely affect the natural environment and local communities," he told AFP. Environmental activists welcomed the move but expressed doubt it would fully halt a trade that has survived previous bans. "There has been such a ban in recent years, but they (companies) still operated and exported," said Meng Heng, from the environmental group Mother Nature. The new directive comes after Phnom Penh temporarily suspended sand exports in November following controversy over large discrepencies in Cambodian and Singapore trade records for how much of the commodity was being shipped. Environmental groups say illegal exports have continued despite that order. Koh Kong province is the main region where sand is excavated and shipped to foreign countries, according to Meng Heng. But there are also concerns about damage wrought from dredging along the Mekong River. "We want a ban of exports of sand from the whole country, including sand from the Mekong river," he said.
The school year is ending in the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau, but some pupils will hardly notice the difference. Long-running pay disputes have kept teachers out of the classrooms for long stretches of the last four decades in this former Portuguese colony, where a dysfunctional government struggles to provide basic services to its citizens. The problem is so acute that despite widespread poverty, parents have launched an initiative to pay all, or part of teachers' salaries directly, hoping their children will not miss out on more precious years in the classroom. "We thought it was necessary to create a sustainable programme to try and give our children a year at school, asking for a contribution from each parent," said Alberto Suleimane Djalo, head of the parents' association at Ho Chi Minh high school in the northern town of Canchungo. "We have around 150-200 parents who support us," he added. Local official Pedro Mendes Pereira described the Canchungo school community as heavily drawn from "impoverished" rural areas in the west African nation, who nonetheless began making payments "so that the teachers don't go on strike". Teachers' salaries are erratic if they are paid at all and drawn-out strikes are common in this small, unstable nation. An ongoing government shutdown and, in previous years, a succession of coups d'etat have eroded the normal functioning of the state -- and its ability to pay salaries. Meanwhile, the country's national parents' association is experimenting with autonomous schools in the northern Cacheu and southern Quinara regions, setting households a monthly fee of 500 CFA Francs (75 euro cents) per child. "We want to roll this out in every region of the country," said Papa Landim, the president of the national parents' group. - Cashews for courses - The refusal by many teachers to show up for work has also prompted innovative schemes by parents to help staff return to their place at the front of the classroom. In the village of Eticoga on the distant island community of Orango Grande, six hours by boat from the capital Bissau, parents contribute five-kilogram (11-pound) sacks of cashews, rice, fish or palm oil, which is sold at market in the closest town or on the mainland. The money collected is kept in a communal pot guarded by the village chief and used to pay the costs of a dozen teachers in charge of almost 300 children in the local area, as well as school maintenance. "If we cancel our lessons and go back to Bissau, it would be very difficult for us to come back to work once the strike was suspended because of the remoteness of the islands and difficulties of transportation," said primary school headteacher Joao Gomes. "So we prefer to stay in the village and reach an understanding with the parents of the pupils," he added. "There is trust, and that makes it work." The farmer and fishermen parents of Orango Grande's schoolchildren are well aware that things are unlikely to change anytime soon after what UN education and culture agency, UNESCO, has described as "40 years of institutional instability." - Lack of support - The National Institute for the Development of Education (INDE in its Portuguese acronym) says just 30 percent of the curriculum on average was completed in primary and secondary schools in the last 20 years. And parents in a country, where the average citizen makes just $620 a year, according to the World Bank, frequently cannot make up the massive shortfall. "Most of our classmates ended up leaving because they can't pay," said Eugenio Gomes, a pupil at the Ho Chi Minh school. A UNESCO report from November showed that Guinea-Bissau's households nonetheless contributed 63 percent of the country's total educational expenditure. Even taking into account the country's "meagre" budget, the report said, the proportion earmarked for education was one of the lowest in Africa. Against this backdrop, "life expectancy is 50 years, 70 percent of the population live below the poverty line and 50 percent of adults can neither read nor write," it added, hindering the country's development. "Successive governments tout education as one of their priorities, but they don't care if the teaching is of good quality or not," said Braima Djalo, of the National Institute for the Development of Education.
By Arnab Paul and Sankalp Phartiyal BENGALURU/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Infosys Ltd, India's No. 2 software services exporter, eked out a slight rise in first-quarter profit, although the outlook for more earnings gains remains cloudy due to higher labor costs and unfavorable currency rates. India's more than $150 billion software services sector faces headwinds in its biggest market, the United States, as clients hold back technology spending amid concerns about President Donald Trump's review of a visa program for highly-skilled workers. Net profit rose 1.4 percent to 34.8 billion rupees ($540 million) in the April-June quarter from a year earlier, just a tad above expectations. Infosys retained its annual revenue outlook at between 6.5 percent and 8.5 percent growth on a constant currency basis. But Mumbai brokerage Emkay said in a client note that the company's failure to lift its revenue guidance indicated first-quarter pricing gains were not sustainable and profitability could see a "downtick" in the coming quarter on lower growth, wage hikes and rupee appreciation. After Trump targeted outsourcing firms, Infosys said in May it plans to hire 10,000 U.S. workers in the next two years - a move that will likely lead to higher labor costs. It is also due to give annual salary increases to employees this month. "We'll be announcing the compensation hikes and we are also ramping up the U.S. talent model," Finance Chief M.D. Ranganath told reporters. The Indian rupee has also risen 5.4 percent against the U.S. dollar this year, adding to the woes of outsourcers who bill for the majority of their services in foreign currencies. But Infosys fared better than bigger rival Tata Consultancy Services which missed analysts' expectations on Thursday with a 6 percent drop in first-quarter profit. Shares in Infosys, valued at about $35 billion, ended 0.5 percent lower. Infosys has had a rocky year with some founders and former executives of the company publicly accusing its board of governance lapses and urging it to reward shareholders through a share buyback. The company plans to return about $2 billion to shareholders this financial year, but has yet to detail the manner of the payout. At end-June, Infosys had a record $6.1 billion cash balance, Ranganath said. IT outsourcing firms are also facing pressure as traditional businesses such as routine infrastructure maintenance are seeing their margins squeezed as clients demand more work for less money, pushing the sector to develop cloud, data analytics and cyber security services. Infosys lost one client in its $100 million category during the quarter from the previous quarter, but total active clients rose by a net of 2 to 1,164. (Reporting by Arnab Paul and Sankalp Phartiyal; Additional reporting by Swati Bhat; Writing by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Stephen Coates and Edwina Gibbs)
By Krishna N. Das KUTUPALONG MAKESHIFT CAMP, Bangladesh (Reuters) - As fellow Muslims were celebrating the end of Ramadan late in June, Noor Ankis and her neighbours buried her husband at the refugee camp in Bangladesh where he had lived for years. Mohammed Ayub's body - his throat slit and hands tied behind his back - had been found dumped in a desolate corner of the camp for Rohingya Muslims who have fled neighbouring Myanmar. Thirty-year-old Ayub was one of three Rohingya men whose bodies were found over the past few weeks. Aid workers and long-time residents say the incidents, along with the stabbing of a community leader, amount to the worst violence in the camps since the Rohingya began fleeing Buddhist-majority Myanmar more than a quarter of a century ago. Refugees, whose numbers have swelled since fighting late last year in Myanmar's Rakhine state, also report masked men roaming the dark streets of the two camps in Kutupalong at night. Bangladesh police and aid workers say a struggle for control of supplies to the camps is behind the violence. "They beat me and my sister and dragged him out of the house," Ankis told Reuters, as her 7- and 3-year-old children slept by her on the newly cemented floor. "The kidnappers called me from his number and threatened to kill me too. I'm also getting threats in the name of al-Yaqin." She was referring to the militant group Harakah al-Yaqin, or "Faith Movement", whose attacks on Myanmar border police posts in October prompted a security crackdown in which troops have been accused of murder and rape of Rohingya civilians. Police say it is unclear whether the insurgent group, which now wants to be known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, was involved in the violence in the camps or whether others were using its name to intimidate refugees. The group, whose leader spoke to Reuters in an interview in March, did not respond to an email seeking comment. RESOURCE GAP More than 75,000 Rohingya have fled northwestern Rakhine state to Bangladesh over recent months, joining tens of thousands already there. Myanmar's military and government have denied almost all allegations of atrocities by security forces. While the government announced the end of its counterinsurgency operation in February, tensions in Myanmar have risen again in recent days after village administrators were murdered and troops killed three people while clearing a Rohingya militant camp. The population of the official and makeshift camps in Kutupalong, around 400 km (250 miles) southeast of Dhaka, has swelled to around 86,000, from 49,000, since the October exodus, according to a Bangladeshi government document seen by Reuters. While the nearly 14,000 refugees in the registered camp receive medical care and food from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the majority living in plastic-and-mud huts of the cramped makeshift camp are largely left to fend for themselves. "There's always that resources gap and that's the reason there is always tension between the registered refugees and those outside," said Sanjukta Sahany, a senior official with the International Organization for Migration in Bangladesh that is charged with coordinating relief efforts by various UN agencies. "Post-influx the security situation has deteriorated." A recent cyclone and floods that put added strain on limited aid supplies have also made things worse, aid workers said. Shinji Kubo, UNHCR's Bangladesh boss, said he was pressing the local government to let his agency expand its role beyond the two registered camps in the country. MASKED MEN Ayub's wife, Ankis, said her husband had been involved in an ongoing dispute with drug users in the makeshift camp in Kutupalong, according to a police report seen by Reuters. He was kidnapped by a group of 20-25 machete-wielding men who barged into their shack on the night of June 14, she said. Reuters reported in February that Bangladesh blames the Rohingya influx for the soaring use of methamphetamine drug in the country. Ayub's body was recovered from a muddy wasteland between two hillocks in Kutupalong on June 25. The body of another man, Mohammed Selim, who was also abducted on June, had been found in a similar state at the same place a week earlier. Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and killing of Ayub, though the motive remained unclear, senior police officer Afruzul Haque Tutul said. In the camps, refugees remain fearful of the mysterious masked men who continue to be reported moving around at night. "I was sleeping with my two children and my wife when they called my name," said a 30-year-old registered refugee, who was twice approached by groups of 10-12 men, though he did not open his door. "The one hour they waited outside my home was the longest one hour of my life." (Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Alex Richardson)
By Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia sought to reassure NATO on Thursday that its war games in September would respect international limits on size, but NATO's chief remained wary about their scale and scope. Russia and Belarus aim to hold manoeuvres that some NATO allies believe could number more than 100,000 troops and involve nuclear weapons training, the biggest such exercise since 2013. NATO allies are nervous because previous large-scale Russian exercises employed special forces training, longer-range missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles. Such tactics were later used in Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and in its intervention in Syria, NATO diplomats say. After a meeting on Monday of the NATO-Russia Council, a liaison forum, Moscow's ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization called on the alliance to stop "demonising" the exercises. "Today was a major step, we were asked to brief on (the) Zapad exercises and I really hope this will help stop the demonising ... and rumours about threats," Alexander Grushko told reporters, using the Russian name of the manoeuvres. "The problem is..., we read a lot of speculation and have heard from NATO countries. Some were saying it would be 200,000 in number, some were saying 100,000. Today we gave our figures," Grushko told a news conference. He declined to give details. Under a Cold War-era treaty known as the Vienna document, which sets out rules for large-scale exercises, war games should not number more than 13,000 troops, should be publicised well in advance and should be open to observers. Grushko said that if Zapad reached the Vienna threshold, Moscow would invite observers. TENSIONS PERSIST NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg declined to discuss Russian troop numbers that were divulged at the session of the NATO-Russia Council, which brings together NATO envoys and Russia's top diplomat to the alliance. However, he said that judging by past experiences, Moscow could still mask the true size and scope of the war games. "From previous experience, related to previous exercises, we have every reason to believe that there may be substantially more troops participating than the official reported numbers," Stoltenberg told a separate news conference. The Baltic states have said they will press the United States and NATO to take additional security measures in the region. Estonia has said Russia may leave troops in Belarus after the exercises finish. Such a move could see Russian troops on the border with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia just as U.S.-led NATO stations multinational battalions in the Baltic region in response to Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea. Despite what officials said was a calm and professional meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, the public comments pointed to tensions that persist between Russia and NATO since Crimea's annexation and Moscow's support for separatists in Ukraine. Little progress appeared to be made on efforts to fly warplanes more safely over the Baltic Sea after the latest intercepts that both sides say involved dangerous pilot manoeuvres. NATO wants Moscow to file the flight plans of Russian pilots, respond to air traffic control or identify themselves with cockpit transmitters, known as transponders. The Kremlin says all Russian flights over the Baltic are conducted in strict accordance with international law. (Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Signed with pomp and fanfare on July 14, 2015, the Iranian nuclear agreement was heralded as a triumph for American diplomacy and international cooperation on nonproliferation. Two years later, it has few friends in the Trump administration or in Tehran. When it was signed in Vienna, President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry, claimed the pact -- commonly known as JCPOA, for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action -- as an undeniable success. Their Iranian counterparts, President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, were equally ebullient. The pact was also signed by China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany, lending it additional weight. In force since January 16, 2016, the JCPOA provides for international monitoring of Tehran's nuclear program to ensure its purely peaceful, civilian use. In exchange, Tehran was promised the gradual lifting of the international sanctions that have strangled the Iranian economy for years. But during his presidential campaign, billionaire Republican Donald Trump made the accord a favorite target. In campaign speech after campaign speech, he pronounced it "the worst deal ever," and he vowed, if elected, to "rip it up." As president, however, Trump has not carried out his threat. In May, the Trump administration even decided to pursue the Obama policy of easing some sanctions at least while completing a JCPOA review to decide -- in principle by Monday -- whether to continue lifting sanctions. - Obama legacy at stake - After vowing to drop out of the Paris climate agreement and questioning the Obama-era opening to Cuba, Trump would be dealing a terrible blow to his predecessor's legacy if he decided to abandon the JCPOA. The former real estate mogul has already staked out contrary positions to Obama in the Middle East, tightening US ties to Saudi Arabia's Sunni leaders while calling for the "isolation" of their Shiite rivals in Iran. Washington accuses Tehran of posing a regional "threat" that "destabilizes" Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, either directly or through its "terrorist" proxies. The Republican-controlled US Senate passed a bill in June to impose new sanctions on Tehran for its "support for international terrorism." Meantime, the State Department, which since 1984 has declared Iran a "state sponsor of terror," continues to punish Tehran for its ballistic missile program. The JCPOA nonetheless still has its fervent supporters in Washington. - 'An existential threat' - The accord "removed an existential threat to the United States and our allies and partners," said a statement from Diplomacy Works, a pressure group founded by John Kerry and some former advisers. The lobbying group added, "We encourage the administration to recertify Iran's compliance -- which they must do in order to reissue sanctions waivers due Monday." As Jonathan Finer, a former Kerry chief of staff, told AFP, "The nuclear agreement is working... It would be hard to understand why the administration would want to generate a crisis" by tearing up the accord. In a letter to Trump, 38 retired US generals and admirals stressed that the agreement had "successfully blocked Iran's paths to a nuclear weapon." "Iran dismantled two-thirds of its centrifuges, gave up 98 percent of its stockpile of sensitive uranium and poured concrete into the core of its heavy-water reactor," the retired officers wrote. In fact, the UN nuclear monitoring authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), praised Iran last month for respecting its commitments. Europeans are deeply concerned, however, about the path Trump might take. "What we are telling the Americans is that the JCPOA is not perfect but (is) much better than other options," a senior European official told reporters, speaking on grounds of anonymity. "Losing the JCPOA would be a mistake." The retired officers warned against "aggressive posturing that could pave the way to war" with Iran, something that seemed a possibility in the early 2000s. - Dashed hopes in Iran - In Tehran, too, the euphoria of July 2015 has given way to disillusion. Even if the desire for closer ties with the West remains strong among many Iranians -- as shown by the re-election in May of the moderate Rouhani -- the much-anticipated economic fruits of the nuclear deal have been slow to materialize. The continuing American sanctions frighten bankers and scare away international corporations. While the French oil company Total did recently sign a $4.8 billion gas deal with Iran, foreign direct investment in the country topped out last year at $3.4 billion, a very long way from the $50 billion that Rouhani once promised. And that provides grist for ultraconservative factions in Iran hostile to America. As the holy month of Ramadan was ending in June, and just before a speech by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the official poet of the Islamic Republic proclaimed: "Too much excitement over the JCPOA was a mistake, Relying on Uncle Sam was a mistake, O friends, we made a pact with a thief."
The United Nations said it will ask countries to voluntarily hand over $40.5 million remaining from the budget of the soon-to-close mission in Haiti to help victims of cholera there. The General Assembly adopted a resolution endorsing a proposal from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who is facing a major shortfall in the $400 million needed to help Haiti recover from the epidemic. Haiti has been in the grips of a raging, years-long cholera epidemic that has claimed some 9,500 lives, after infected UN peacekeepers from Nepal introduced cholera. The peacekeepers were sent to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon was forced to apologize to the Haitian people for the cholera outbreak, but the United Nations insists it is not liable for the damage. The UN mission in Haiti known as MINUSTAH will shut down in October, ending a 13-year operation that fell out of favor with Haitians. Guterres will ask all contributors to the peacekeeping budget to notify him within 60 days whether they are willing to shift their share of the unspent money to the cholera fund. The United States, the biggest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping, last month announced that it will be taking back its share of the unspent budget and will not be making a contribution to the fund. US Deputy Ambassador Michele Sison said Washington has already provided $100 million to help Haiti respond to the cholera outbreak and that "the United States is not in a position to contribute in this way." President Donald Trump's administration is seeking deep cuts to its funding for the United Nations and its peacekeeping missions. Addressing the assembly, Jamaica's Ambassador Courtenay Rattray said the United Nations must not "turn a blind eye" to Haiti's cholera crisis "which stands starkly as a stain against the good name of the United Nations." Rattray said the funds from the mission's budget "would be small relative to the amount required" for the $400 million trust fund but that "every feasible source of funding can make a difference. Launched in October last year, the fund has failed to draw contributions. Only seven countries have so far contributed -- Chile, France, India, Liechtenstein, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Britain -- for a total of $2.67 million. Canada and Japan have separately granted $8.5 million to help Haiti.
Study: On climate change and elsewhere, politicians more conservative than citizens

Posted on 14 July 2017 by dana1981

Academics have identified a skew in American politics, in which policies that are implemented are much more conservative than average Americans prefer. A new paper by David Broockman at Stanford University and Christopher Skovron from the University of Michigan suggests a cause for this disparity: American politicians perceive their constituents positions as more conservative than they are in actuality on a wide range of issues; for example, Republican politicians tend to overestimate support for their conservative health care views by a whopping 20 percentage points. As Broockman and his colleague Christopher Warshaw of MIT put it in an article for the New York Times: Research shows that politicians are surprisingly poor at estimating public opinion in their districts and state, Republicans in particular. This in turn appears to be caused by greater political engagement among conservative constituents, who contact their members of Congress more frequently than liberal voters.

The study's authors looked at data surveying thousands of American politicians perceptions of their constituents opinions, and compared those results to actual public opinion. They found that both Democratic and Republican politicians perceive that public opinion is more conservative than it is in actuality, but its especially true among Republican legislators. That matches patterns in grassroots mobilizationRepublican voters are about 40 percent more likely to contact their member of Congress office than Democratic voters, especially when their member of Congress is a fellow Republican.

The conservative bias in Republican politicians perceptions of constituent opinion extended to every question in the survey, on issues such as firearms background checks, where GOP politicians perceive 36 percent more support for their conservative positions than there actually is among the general publicsomething that statisticians call skew. Similar overestimates occur regarding the depth of support for conservative positions on the banning of assault rifles (overestimated by about 18 percent), granting amnesty to illegal immigrants (9 percent), banning abortion (9 percent), and gay marriage (7 percent). This again matches statistics on grassroots mobilizationconservative constituents are especially well-organized and vocal on the issue of gun control.

The survey didnt include any questions about climate change, but thats another issue on which Republican politicians perceptions of constituent opinion appear extremely skewed. For example, 75 percent of Americans support regulating carbon as a pollutant, and 62 percent of Trump voters support a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system. But despite the sentiments of an overwhelming number of their constituents, the vast majority of Republican Party politicians oppose all climate policies and the GOP stands alone as the only climate-denying major political party in the world. In fact, Republican politicians climate policy opposition is so strong that 22 of 52 Republican senators sent a letter to Donald Trump urging withdrawal from the non-binding Paris climate accord. This position was again out of step with Republican voters, a majority of whom supported participation in the Paris agreement, including a strong plurality of Trump voters.

The question then ariseshow do Republicans keep winning elections if the policies they implement are more conservative than voters prefer?

Click here to read the rest
The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers a range of skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, cleansing devices, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, nail polishes, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools. The company also provides fragrance products in various forms comprising eau de parfum sprays and colognes, as well as lotions, powders, creams, candles, and soaps; and hair care products that include shampoos, conditioners, styling products, treatment, finishing sprays, and hair color products, as well as sells ancillary products and services. It offers its products under the Estee Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, MAC, Bobbi Brown, La Mer, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin, Smashbox, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle, GLAMGLOW, Kilian Paris, Too Faced, Dr. Jart+, DECIEM, and The Ordinary brands. The company sells its products through department stores, specialty-multi retailers, upscale perfumeries and pharmacies, and salons and spas; freestanding stores; its own and authorized retailer websites; third-party online malls; stores in airports; and duty-free shops. The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Youve built it  but have they come?

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Theory  July 14, 2017  Ingo Schmidt

One hundred and fifty years after the first volume of Marxs Capital was published in 1867, Marx remains a common point of reference but his magnum opus is by no means widely read. Once he was thrown off pedestals across the former Soviet Union, Western business media adopted Marx as a principal witness for the capitalist cause. In 1998, 150 years after the publication of the Communist Manifesto , Marx and Engels were hailed as prophets of globalization. In the aftermath of the 2007/08 world economic crisis, a string of articles portrayed Marx as the one who saw it coming. Similar articles commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Capital and will, in all likelihood, also appear next year in commemoration of Marxs 200th birthday.

A common theme running through these articles is that Marx was a master analyst of capitalism but a lousy political theorist. The first claim echoes discussions amongst unrepentant Marxists who all know, as Terry Eagletons contention Why Marx Was Right (2012) but argue endlessly what that actualy means. Different currents in these discussions (and there are many) can be traced back to efforts to refine existing forms of Marxian socialism or, if such refinement was considered impossible, invent new such forms. Even the most abstract readings of Capital or other works by Marx, such as those advanced by Louis Althusser or members of the Frankfurt School, were motivated by the recognition that the socialist projects of their days had reached an impasse. Such recognition was denounced by some as retreat from political engagement but seen by others as a necessary step toward moving forward. Todays situation is different: The socialist projects that dissident movements sought to renew have either collapsed, like the Soviet Union and its satellites in Eastern Europe; or adapted to neoliberal capitalism, like Western Europes social democrats and Chinese Communists. Efforts to forge a unified left out of diverse new social movements have either been integrated into international neoliberalism or marginalized.

Debates and Popular Mobilizations

Theoretical debates that once inspired and guided various forms of Marxian socialism have become isolated vestiges of these socialisms after their disappearance from political life. Isolated not only from much of todays left organizing but also in competing circles whose members rather talk about each other than with each other. In fact, a fair number of leftists participating in self-encapsulated theoretical discussions do engage in social movements of all sorts, too. But this activism has little to do with their theoretical considerations. Experiences made in various movements leave little impact on theoretical debates let alone trigger major theoretical developments. At the same time, theories that may have been connected to political practice in the past offer neither strategic guidance for todays movements nor do these theories deliver a vocabulary through which actual and potential activists could express themselves and develop shared identities. Yet, theoretical interventions that could serve as rallying points for a new form of Marxian socialism may be the missing link between widespread discontent and effective social movements capable of overcoming the economic and political conditions causing such discontent. After all, there was no shortage of somehow left leaning mass movements since the Soviet Union collapsed, the Chinese communists reconciled themselves with neoliberal capitalism, and Western social democrats took the Third Way to neoliberalism.

Altermondialistas rallied at various places around the globe. A Pink Tide swept across much of Latin America. There was the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street in the U.S., Idle No More, and the Maple Spring in Canada. What these mobilizations have in common is their unexpected burst onto the political scene followed by a rather quick disappearance that left few traces besides unsettling neoliberal hegemony and thereby an opening, against all intentions, for various forms of right-wing populism or authoritarian regimes. Whether the recent election campaigns of Bernie Sanders, Jean-Luc Melenchon and Jeremy Corbyn will transform into effective movements capable of fighting against an increasingly embattled neoliberal centre and surging right-wing formations remains to be seen.

1867: Capital and the Making of a European Workers Movement

It surely wont hurt to reconnect theory and practice in such a way that activists experiences are translated into theoretical questions, which, in turn, could produce the kind of new ideas needed to devise strategies, organizing principles and mobilizing vocabularies in order to move from protest bubbles to a growing and sustainable force on the left. This is what happened, admittedly over a rather long period of time, with the ideas Marx put forward in Capital . After the defeat of the 1848 revolution in Europe, Marx retreated from political engagement to work on the critique of political economy. When the first volume of Capital appeared in 1867, Marx would describe the purpose of this inquiry to lay bare the economic law of motion of modern society and also made clear that he considered his work to be the product of scientific inquiry. This focus on the logic of Capital, a term Lenin coined in his Conspectus of Hegels Book The Science of Logic (1914), seems to be quite removed from the class struggle to which he and Engels had committed themselves in the Communist Manifesto . Workers dont get much show time as a class struggling against capitalist exploitation in Capital , mostly the reader sees them from the capitalists perspective  as owners of an exploitable commodity, labour power.

Marx insisted that, in order to overcome capitalist rule, understanding the sources of capitalist power, wealth and accumulation was more important than moral condemnation. This conviction was the whole point of his critique of political economy. Yet, he must have been aware that the morally charged language he used, notably his labelling of surplus value produced by workers as exploitation, did help fan the flames of discontent amongst socialist readers of Capital or any of the works that helped popularize ideas developed in Capital in the nascent workers movement. This was made all the easier by the fact that many workers, at least those labouring in industrial environments similar to those Marx had used to illustrate his otherwise highly abstract analyses, could recognize themselves in Marxs expositions. They were treated in real life in just the same way that Marx revealed as the necessary treatment of workers by capitalist if the latter wanted to stay in business.

Marx, while insisting on the scientific nature of his inquiries into the logic of capital, also helped popularize his ideas. He and Engels revised, for example, the second edition of Johann Mosts widely circulated summary of Capital (1876). Marx also contributed a chapter to Engels Anti-Duhring (1877), a book that included an exposition of Marxs and Engels political economy but also chapters on philosophy and socialism. Along with Kautskys Economic Doctrines of Karl Marx (1887), Anti-Duhring was arguably the key text to spread the Marxist message in Europes emerging workers movement and thereby gave it some ideological coherence that drew ever more workers into the movement. More important than this propagandistic work, though, was Marxs involvement in the First International from 1864 to 1876.

The declarations he drafted for the International Workingmens Association, later known as the First International, portray a proletariat much more diverse than the one that appears in Capital . These declarations also demonstrate a clear sense that the capitalist mode of production operated in a much larger world of contradictions that couldnt be reduced to a standoff between an increasingly unified proletariat and a capitalist class weakened by crises. During the last years of his life, after the First International had fallen apart, Marxs scientific interest actually shifted to the study of pre-capitalist societies outside of Europe. He concluded from these studies that, as his posthumously published notebooks show, the economic law of motion he had deduced from his earlier studies of capitalist development in Western Europe might not apply in other places. Yet, rather than publishing any of these new insights or continue his work on Capital , he immersed himself more and more in his studies. Therefore, growing numbers of followers in the Second International (18891916), who knew popular versions of Capital but neither the endless pages of drafts on political economy nor his notebooks on pre-capitalist societies, had good reason to see Capital , including volumes two and three edited and published by Engels in 1885 and 1894, respectively, as Marxs final word on capitalism. This included the belief that his dictum that the country that is more developed industrially only shows, to the less developed, the image of its own future was referring to the entire world and not just Western Europe. Not surprisingly, then, the Second International focused on organizing growing numbers of workers into parties and unions, expecting that experiences made by workers under the capitalist regime would sharpen their class consciousness and thereby prepare them to fight once capitalist crises would bring the antagonistic interests between workers and capitalists to a boiling point.

However, the fact that Marx buried his notebooks on pre-capitalist societies along with piles of other manuscripts never published during his lifetime, in some cases not until very recently, didnt mean that the effect of the continued existence of such societies have on capitalist development and working class struggles would go away. A period of slow growth from 1873 to 1896, at the time dubbed the Great Depression, confirmed a reading of Capital expecting an imminent capitalist breakdown. Yet, instead of a breakdown, by the late 1890s a new wave of accumulation set in. This may have been spurred by the emergence of entirely new industries, notably chemical and electrical; but contemporary Marxists mostly understood revived accumulation as the result of a new wave of colonization that had begun during the 1880s. This led some currents in the Second International to drop the ideas of economic breakdown and subsequent revolution and pursue social reform at home on the basis of colonial exploitation abroad. The Marxist left rejected this revision of an allegedly successful orientation toward revolution. Yet, the insistence on economic breakdown as trigger for revolution seemed rather helpless during a time of continued accumulation. The argument that present day accumulation marked just a short delay of an otherwise lingering breakdown, advanced to defend this orthodoxy, made this position probably less rather than more convincing. Moreover, the wait-and-see-approach implied in this argument flew in the face of the rhetoric of revolutionary activism.

The Marxist orthodoxy, though well founded in Marxs work and advanced by him, was at an impasse. The strategic way out led through new readings of Capital . Hilferdings Finance Capital (1911) and Luxemburgs Accumulation of Capital (1913) developed their analyses of capitalism and imperialism, which brought the relations between capitalist and non-capitalist parts of the worlds into the picture, out of their respective readings of Capital shortly before the outbreak of WWI. Lenin, feeling the urgency for strategic renewal much stronger after the outbreak of war, fused Hilferdings analysis of monopoly capitalism and John Hobsons proto-Keynesian analysis of imperialism as a vent for surplus in his Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916). Theoretically, this blend was less systematically developed out of Capital as Hilferdings or, with a different angle, Luxemburgs analysis but allowed far-reaching political conclusions. These were not just contrary to the reformist implications in Hilferdings and Hobsons work but turned out to be guidelines for much of the 20th century communist left in its different incarnations. Though Lenin and his followers still considered working classes as the key agencies in the drama of socialist revolution, the peasant populations of Russia and all over the colonial world were assigned a political role that took more and more centre stage from the 1917 Russian revolution through to the 1979 Nicaraguan revolution.

1917: From the Revolution against Capital to Postwar Prosperity

Antonio Gramsci, a militant of the Italian socialist party at the time of the Russian revolution, called it a Revolution Against Capital (1917). Seen through Second International eyes with their focus on the development of industrial capitalism as a precondition for workers revolutionary or just reformist movements, this was a fair judgment. From the angle of Lenins analysis of imperialism it simply missed the point. This analysis suggested that colonial exploitation strengthened the imperialist centres by providing a constant stream of surplus-profits that strengthened bourgeoisies in the centre and even allowed them to nurture a labour aristocracy.

Consequently, chances for a revolutionary breakthrough were poor in the centres but good in the peripheries. There, industrial capitalists were competing with landowning classes for hegemony, industrial working classes were small but untainted by the spoils of colonial exploitation and peasants suffered super-exploitation from domestic and foreign masters. Under these circumstances, Lenin argued over and over again, a worker-peasant alliance could wage a successful war of manoeuvre, to employ the language Gramsci developed as communist prisoner of Mussolinis fascists, against an internally divided ruling class.

Lenin expected that breaking the weakest chain of the imperialist chain would trigger revolution in the West and thereby unravel the whole chain. This didnt happen. But his analytical framework was flexible enough to provide Soviet communists and the Third International strategic guidance after hopes for a revolutionary breakthrough in the West had been shattered in the early 1920s. New readings of Capital delivered the theoretical tools to refine Lenins analysis accordingly. His notion of capitalist decay was developed into a theory of general crisis of capitalism in which capitalism was not only bedevilled by underconsumption, in Eugen Vargas version of this theory, or a falling rate of profit, in Henryk Grossmanns version, but also found its sources of colonial profits drying up due to the consolidation of the Soviet Union and the rising tide of anti-colonial movements. In this picture, the Soviet Union was the cornerstone where revolutionary forces could await the next wave of class struggles in the West but that also represented the protecting power of anti-colonial movements in the South.

To play this role, it needed a solid industrial basis. Discussions about the mobilization of the resources needed to build such a basis in a country cut off from the world market unfolded in the framework of the economic two-sector model Marx had used to analyse the process of capitalist circulation. This model had also been the analytical backbone for Luxemburgs and, at least in parts, Hilferdings theories of finance capital and imperialism and Vargas and Grossmanns different versions of theories of crises. Soviet planners turned it into a blueprint for state-controlled accumulation. The terror that came with the realization of these blueprints undermined Soviet self-projections as the beacon of world revolution. Yet, dissident communists who sought to build a political alternative to the Stalinist dictatorship shared Moscows official line according to which capitalism was in its death throes. Even bourgeois economists, most prominently Alvin Hansen and Joseph Schumpeter, were resigned to the idea that capitalism was mired in stagnation and decay. They thought another lease of life was the best they could hope for. Between the two world wars, and notably the Great Depression of the 1930s, this dire outlook on the future of capitalism seemed to be confirmed by the facts. During the long boom that followed WWII any Marxian analyses clinging to the proposition that capitalist breakdown was nigh appeared utterly out-dated, along with socialist strategies based on such analyses.

During the age of catastrophe from 1914 to 1945, theoretical and political debates were marked by a stand-off between liberals who stubbornly insisted that unfettered markets, if left to themselves, would, if only in the long-run, revive capitalism and Marxists proclaiming an inevitable trajectory from economic crises to war and revolution. As neither side was able to rally enough troops to tip the balance in its favour, fascism could present itself as an alternative that would replace the old liberal politics, or what was left of it after the late 19th century turn to protectionism and state-controlled war economies from 1914 to 1918, with massive state intervention. At the same time, fascists declared that the fight for national and racial superiority would supersede class struggle. This equally murderous as megalomaniac project forged an unlikely alliance between the U.S. and the Soviets that allowed both sides to drop ideas and policies that had led to the 1920s and 1930s stand-off between the political project each side claimed to represent.

The Soviets dropped the idea of imminent economic collapse in the West and adopted the claim to be more efficient managers of economic growth than Western capitalists. The latter, grudgingly and in cooperation with their respective governments, took up the challenge by further advancing Keynesian means to promote high levels of employment, economic growth and a compromise between capital and organized labour. Most of its advocates presented Keynesianism as a radically new theory leaving the 19th century traditions of, and divisions between, liberalism and Marxism, behind. But it might as well be argued that Keynesian theory was a perfect reflection of the compromise between capital and organized labour. Keynesianism retained the liberal idea that markets were best suited to allocate capital in the most profitable manner but used macroeconomic aggregates as the theoretical framework for economic policy making. Macroeconomic thinking had been one of the hallmarks of classical political economy but, in the face of the Marxist challenge, been dropped by advocates of the neoclassical economics in the late 19th century. Ironically, this kind of thinking survived in the Marxist tradition from where it could be reintroduced to fashion the social liberalism, or: Keynesianism, that came to signify the postwar boom in the West. In this sense, Paul Mattick had a point when he quipped Marxism: Last Refuge of the Bourgeoisie (1983, posthumously). Not surprisingly, Mattick used his Marx and Keynes (1969) to point at the Limits of the Mixed Economy, which is the subtitle of that book, and theoretically reject the Marxian-Keynesian blend distilled by Baran/Sweezy and a few others.

Meanwhile, the Soviets claimed that Capital was a guide to fast and efficient growth that would allow them to out-compete the West. They also presented the fast-paced industrialization they had gone through during the 1930s as a model for anti-colonial movements burgeoning all across the South during the post-WWII era. The message resonated not only among movements who, like the Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese, were explicitly communist but also by movements trying to steer a course independent from Moscow or Washington. Whereas welfare states in the West marked a domestic class compromise, many developmental states in the South marked a compromise between Soviet communism and U.S.-led capitalism. Both used Keynesian means. Welfare states used them with a focus on sustaining high levels of employment and sharing productivity gains more or less evenly, at least on a macroeconomic level, between labour and capital. Developmental states used them to balance present generations interest in rising levels of consumption with the investments needed to enable future mass-consumption associated with fully industrialized countries in the East or West. Keynesianism in the West and in the South sustained and transformed macroeconomic ideas adopted from Capital . Soviet communism openly referred to Capital as its intellectual inspiration. Yet, their reading of Capital replaced the critique of political economy as an intellectual contribution to the larger political project of workers emancipation by technocratic policy prescriptions imposed onto workers by ruling party bureaucrats. This reading of Capital was as positivistic as the Keynesianism that guided policy makers in the West and parts of the South during the postwar boom.

1967: New Left Challenges, Neoliberal Responses

Seen through Great Depression eyes, the postwar boom must have looked like the panacea for the social tensions and political turmoil that built up over the 1930s and exploded in WWII. Yet, under the surface of seemingly pacified societies new forms of discontent were brewing. There were widespread fears that Western economies would slide back to depression due to the shortfall of arms spending after the war waned in the mid-1950s, partially because the Cold War created, in Michael Kidrons terms, a Permanent Arms Economy (1967) but also because mass consumption invaded private households on a massive scale. The arms race also created fears of a third  this time thermo-nuclear world war. Accordingly, a movement for nuclear disarmament accompanied the early years of the postwar boom. Further discontent was brewing when women found out that they werent part of the deal between unions and capitalists. They were either expected to be stay-at-home wives completely dependent on a male-breadwinner or reduce that dependency somewhat by working double shifts  one unpaid at home, the other for low wages with little to no benefits. Ethnic minorities and immigrants also found themselves as outsiders of the capital-labour accord. The lucky few who worked under collective agreements were relegated to the lowest-paying, dirtiest, and most dangerous jobs. Public services in minority and immigrant neighbourhoods were significantly lower quality than anywhere else.

In many countries of the South, people found out that political independence didnt necessarily lead to industrialization and thus fulfill future prospects of rising standards of living for the majority. Where industrialization did happen, it came with sweatshop labour and much of the profits skimmed by foreign capitalists. In many countries, though, the colonial plunder of cheap resources and agricultural products simply continued under formally independent political regimes. A series of military coups and interventions from Guatemala to the Congo to Vietnam suppressed efforts to break such neo-colonial ties. In the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite countries, workers were relieved when the Stalinist reign of terror ended. They even enjoyed levels of social security and equality unthinkable in the West. However, bureaucratic rule remained in control and took on an increasingly paternalistic character that stood in sharp contrast to official ideology that told workers that they were in power. Another part of this ideology stirred discontent, too. Claims to eventually surpass Western economies in terms of growth and standards of living reminded workers in the East constantly of the fact that their standards of living were considerably behind those of Western countries. When discontent turned into mass uprisings, as it did in East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia, bureaucracies responded heavy-handedly and thereby crushed all hopes that socialism with a human face could eventually develop out of the former Stalinist dictatorships. Ironically, it was Eastern Europe that saw the kind of mass workers rebellions that activists and theoreticians from the First to the Third International had expected in the West. Until the late 1960s there were no signs that the social movements triggered by the various discontents in the West would converge into mass revolts comparable to those in Eastern Europe. Capitalist rule in the West could rely on consensus and restrict coercive rule to minorities and, of course, unruly regimes in the South.

Under these conditions a New Left was neither concerned with welfare state expansion, as the heirs of the Second International, nor with drumming support for the Soviets. The questions it dealt with were: How could Western capitalism move from depression and escalating discontent to prosperity and consensus? How could the West sustain its rule in the South against anti-colonial challenges? What could a socialist alternative to bureaucratic communism look like. Marxs Capital didnt seem to have much to offer in these regards. It was often, and with some reason, considered as one of the intellectual backbones of the technocratic and productivist regimes in the East and West. Moreover, with a majority of the population enjoying rising standards of living, the concept of exploitation, key to the analysis in Capital , lost much of its political currency. Alienation, a concept developed in Marxs Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (1844), seemed to capture conditions of work and life during the postwar boom much better. Overcoming alienation became the goal of a socialist humanism that served as an alternative to Soviet communism whose bureaucratic rule resembled state and corporate bureaucracies in the West in more than one way. Analyses of alienation in advanced industrial society, a term used by Herbert Marcuse in One-Dimensional Man (1964), were supplemented with the Freudo-Marxist blend originally used by Critical Theorists in the 1930s to understand how fascism could attract a mass basis although these masses could have known that fascism in power would tyrannize them. Under conditions of postwar prosperity, social psychology was used to explain why widespread feelings of alienation didnt translate into mass rebellion.

On the margins of the capitalist world-system, Capital was of more interest. Not only, where political conditions allowed such efforts, as a guide to catch-up industrialization but also as starting point for a deeper analysis of (neo-)colonial exploitation. Hilferding and Luxemburg had focused on the reasons of colonial expansion in their respective analysis. Luxemburg also depicted the destruction of pre-capitalist societies at the hands of imperialist invaders. Lenin argued that colonial exploitation created the basis for the creation of reformist labour aristocracy but never took the time to demonstrate how this exploitation actually worked and how its spoils were distributed in the imperial centres. Yet, beginning with Arghiri Emmanuels Unequal Exchange (1962) a number of Marxists drew on Marxs labour theory of value, developed in volume one of Capital , to show how some of the wealth created in the peripheries ended up in the imperialist centres. These analyses followed in the tracks of the anti-imperialist readings advanced by Hilferding, Luxemburg, and Lenin. But they expanded the scope of analysis by systematically considering the relations between unevenly developed parts of the capitalist world-system. This new wave of theories of imperialism also drew on a controversy between Paul Sweezy, who saw colonial exploitation as the key factor triggering the industrial revolution, while Maurice Dobb stressed the changes of class forces inside Western Europe. This controversy on the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism began in the 1950s and was published in a book in 1976. The super-exploitation of Southern peripheries could explain the radicalization of anti-colonial movements but also prosperity in the centres. This interpretation of the postwar capitalism also retained elements of Vargas theory of a general crisis of capitalism. Even if Keynesian demand-management could suspend tendencies toward crisis inherent in unregulated capitalist economies, an argument made in Baran/Sweezys Monopoly Capital (1967), the rising tide of revolution in the South would eventually dry out the sources of prosperity in the centres. Consequently, crises and revolution would also return to the centres.

In the mid-1960s, such prospects looked still out of touch with reality. Frustrated with the dead-end road in which socialist strategies clinging to Third International traditions found themselves, Althusser, himself a member of the French Communist Party, and his collaborators took a radically different approach to Reading Capital (1965). They suggested abandoning all conflations between Capital and the linked histories of capitalism and socialist movements. Historical readings of Capital , they argued, lent themselves to passively awaiting crisis and revolution, a teleological worldview that leaves socialist movements helpless if the expected crisis doesnt come. As an alternative, they suggested to strictly focus on the text, discard meanings commonly associated with the concepts used by Marx to uncover the elements of the scientific revolution Marx had started but not finished. Interestingly enough, Alhussers structuralist reading of Capital led to similar conclusion as readings inspired by the Frankfurt School, which he despised as much as anything smacking of historicism or socialist humanism. Neither Althusser nor the Frankfurt School had room for agency in general or class struggle in particular. New readings of Capital , and Marxs entire oeuvre, that were inspired by Althusser and the Frankfurt School were further stimulated by Isaak Rubins Essays in Marxs Theory of Value (1928, first English edition 1972) and Roman Rosdolskys Making of Marxs Capital (1967, first English edition 1977).

Though developed on a highly abstract level, such arguments reflected a reality in which protest movements came and went without, at least not on the face of it, leaving many traces. However, times were changing fast in those years. By the end of the 1960s, it seemed that scattered protests from the mid-1950s onwards had been the prelude to popular uprisings in the West, uprisings that coincided with, and were also inspired by, anti-colonial movements in the South and a new wave of rebellions in the East. The time to immerse oneself into Capital or the manuscripts Marx wrote on the way to Capital was over. The Prague Spring and the general strike in France in 1968 and the Hot Autumn in Italy a year later signalled the need for strategic guidance in re-awakened class struggles, and quickly.

One way to produce such advice was to keep Althussers back to the original text-slogan but abandon his structuralist interpretations. Now was the time to start Reading Capital Politically , as Harry Cleaver (1979), looking back on autonomous workers movements in their final stages, suggested. This reading abandoned political mediations by parties and unions, and thus retained New Left scepticism toward Second and Third International traditions on the left. The political leadership or even vanguardism with which these traditions were associated was replaced by rank-and-file activism and an unmediated confrontation with capital. Indeed, an upsurge of labour militancy during the final years of the postwar boom, in which many strikes had no union backing and were more concerned with the factory regime than wages and hours, suggested an interpretation of Capital that focused very much the ongoing warfare on the shop-floor that Marx depicted notably in his analysis of the working day. But where Marx presented workers fighting back against capitalists insatiable thirst for profits, the political reading of Capital in the 1970s, more precisely during the decades pre-crisis years, portrayed workers as the ones being on the offensive. Alienated from factory work, they rebelled against the factory regime. Direct action from work-to-rule to outright sabotage and strikes squeezed capitalists profits, pushed capitalism into crisis and thereby opened the road to the emancipation of workers from work or any other kind of subjugation. That was the idea.

In the mid-1970s the postwar boom came to an end. Workers who lost their jobs by no means felt emancipated from work. Fears of job loss grew quickly and put an end to the assertive militancy many workers had displayed during the preceding boom years. Labour struggles that still happened took on a much more defensive character, many of them trying to avert layoffs. With workers bargaining power on the shop floor weakened, the need for political action became more urgent. This fostered organizing efforts of different Maoist and Trotskyist groups that had already begun at the height of the 1968 protest and strike movements but, with their references to guerrilla wars in faraway countries or the Great Depression of the 1930s, seemed out of touch with economic conditions and political sentiments of the late 1960s. References to the depression became more persuasive during the second half of the 1970s. Crises during those years were nowhere as deep as during the 1930s and welfare states provided a measure of social security that would have seemed unimaginable in the 1930s. Things looked different to a generation of leftists that grew up during the postwar boom, though. To them, the turn from boom to bust was just the beginning of a long period of economic troubles, social polarization and political unrest. Ernest Mandels Late Capitalism (1972) had come out just in time before the 1974/5 world economic recession. His argument that the long wave of postwar accumulation would soon come to an end couldnt have been timed any better. His book was soon followed by a whole string of works, succinctly reviewed in James OConnors The Meaning of Crisis (1987), that drew on Marxist theories of crises developed during the 1920s and 1930s and tried to use them to come to terms with the prospects of capitalist development in the 1970s.

A common frame for these analyses was the expectation that late 1970s developments would unfold as a replay of the 1930s, just this time the left would win. This framework was most common amongst new, and sometimes not so new, communist organizations. But it was also underlying many analyses and strategic proposals advanced by reformist currents within social democratic parties and Eurocommunists trying to dissociate themselves from the Soviets. However, the 1930s replay didnt happen. On the left, the largest of the new communist organizations were happy if they reached the membership that dissident groups, who nowhere attracted more than a fraction of the communist parties, had in the interwar period. Efforts to move social democratic parties from the junior partner role they had acquired during the postwar boom to some blend of Kautsky and Keynes succumbed to the social democratic right that was increasingly willing to substitute Keynes for Friedman and Hayek if only they could continue to play capitalisms junior partner.

Neofascist groups, whose emergence was part of the 1930s-replay-frame, were much too weak to serve convincingly as the bugbear as which they were portrayed across the left political spectrum. Capitalists in the 1970s had no taste for fascism. Confronted with the dual challenge of rising discontent and economic crisis, they developed a strategy that would coopt much of the New Left and the then-new social movements and roll back the social reforms that had been won and institutionalized in Western welfare states and Southern developmental states. In the South, the door to this strategy was opened by a combination of military interventions and financial strangulation. To this strategy, later branded neoliberalism, the left had no effective response. The various communist groups understood the need for mass mobilizations but the idea of class they advocated to rally the troops was so reductionist, often amalgamating a poorly digested reading of Capital and selected images from labour history books, that their appeal remained very limited. In their efforts to move social democratic parties to the left, socialist currents never got passed the image as top-down technocrats that had penetrated these parties so deeply during the postwar era. The same was true for Eurocommunists who were often seen as another incarnation of Soviet-controlled front organizations. Many in the new social movements whose thinking was shaped by the postwar ideology of the end of ideology and class conflict had little interest in questions of strategy and power in the first place. The elections of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan marked the breakthrough of neoliberalism in the West. After that, inhibitions to apply the treatment that Chiles socialist government had gotten in 1973 all across the South were dropped. Neoliberalism was on the march.

2017: Reclaiming Left History, Reading Capital , Building a Movement

Capitalism, led by its neoliberal vanguard, reached its final destination when Soviet communists vacated the Kremlin to IMF advisors and the Chinese communists, eager to ward off the fate of their erstwhile comrades in Moscow, reinvented themselves as managers of export-oriented capital accumulation. This at least was the sense among ruling elites in the early 1990s that Francis Fukuyama succinctly expressed by proclaiming the End of History and the Last Man (1992). This sense of capitalist triumphalism is no longer present. Fukuyama has since revoked his claims about the end of history. However, the small bunch of unapologetic leftists who already denounced Fukuyama as utterly wrong back in the day might have missed the more subtle points in his analysis. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Chinese turn from cautious market reforms to fully-fledged support for capital accumulation signalled the end of the left as a material force. There was no end of history, but there was an end to histories of the left. These histories had begun with a multitude of socialist and communist hypotheses and circles, took on more organized and coherent forms through the First and Second Internationals and became a force capitalists had to reckon with after the Russian Revolution. Seen as a premature revolution against Capital by some leftists right from the start, it became a beacon of hope for many others. Oddly enough this was even true during the height of the Stalinist reign of terror, which coincided with the Soviets setting an example of fast-paced industrialization outside the capitalist world market and the Red Army doing most of the fighting against the Nazi Wehrmacht. After WWII, the very existence of the Soviet Union propped up the countervailing powers of unions and social democrats in the West and opened up some wiggle room for anti-colonial movements in the South. Already under pressure from the neoliberal offensive, the collapse of the Soviet Union sealed the fate of developmentalism in the South and welfare capitalism in the West. The South African ANC turned onto the capitalist road just like the Workers Party in Brazil, the post-communist parties of Eastern Europe and the social democratic parties in the West. Smaller left currents who thought of Soviet communism as betrayal of revolutionary fervour and true socialism found out quickly that, rather than benefiting from the disappearance of this embarrassment, they took a beating, too.

After 1991, it turned out that pretty much all strategic debates on the left had Soviet communism, if only in a negative way, as their point of reference. This was obvious in the case of efforts trying to unlock the revolutionary process that was first stopped by the failure of the revolution in the West and later subordinated to the Cold War standoff between Moscow and Washington. But this was also true for social democrats who didnt want to succumb to the role of capitalist junior partner, including the non-aligned movement and even new social movements who defined themselves by dissociating themselves from the just-mentioned old lefts altogether. Whether in a positive or negative way, Soviet communism had been the universal point of reference for the entire left. Its collapse did signal, as Eric Hobsbawm suggested, the end of the short 20th century, indeed. What remains of the various 20th century lefts is a spectre that haunts todays left possibly more than its capitalist adversaries.

From 1917 to 1991, capitalist crises were not only caused by the unfolding of the inherent contradictions of the logic of capital but also by the various forces of the left threatening profitability, via the quest for higher wages and welfare state provisions, or markets, via the expansion of state-ownership and public sectors. Before and after, crises of capitalism were, and now are, entirely of its own making. A series of crisis beginning in Mexico 1994, moving to Asia in 1997, on to Brazil and Russia in 1998, to Argentina and the U.S. in 2001, and the turning into a world economic crisis in 2007/08 used up pretty much all of the ideological credit that capitalism had earned for winning the Cold War. Yet, the forces of the left are too scattered to mount a serious challenge to capitalist rule.

Looking back, it appears that Capital , even if only a minority of activists at any given point in time ever read it, did play its part in pulling together individuals and groups that sought to change the world. It allowed a positioning for the forces of the left and an evaluation of the forces of capital. On that basis, organizing and mobilizing strategies could be developed and a vocabulary offered that allow individuals to find common ground. Marx began working on Capital after the defeat of the 1848 revolution and continued to work on it while he was also engaged in the First International. In the Second International it seemed that Marxs idea of building a socialist workers movement around an analysis of the capitalist adversary was successfully put to practice. When this turned out illusory, socialists reread Capital to expand the scope of analysis and differentiate between time- and space-bound aspects of the original text and those aspects that could also be used to analyse capitalist development at other times and places. In this vein, Capital was read as a guide to catch-up industrialization and anti-imperialist struggles. It even helped, sometimes amended by social psychology, to understand failures and shortcomings of socialist strategy. The engagement between Marxism and feminism, racism and ecology, pioneered by a 1960s New Left never managed to forge the convergence between the best traditions of the old left and the issues that were raised by then new social movements but possibly prepared the ground in which a new socialism can sprout in the future.

The point of reviewing past readings of Capital is not to find out whether one was better than another but to identify the traces of political struggles connected to respective readings left in todays world.

One could think that past readings of Capital lost their significance once the political projects they have been attached to were moved into the dustbin of history. Yet, they left traces that shape and impact present-day capitalism. For one, state apparatuses that developed as part of the welfare and developmental projects of the postwar period havent disappeared. They have been retooled to serve the neoliberal purposes of opening new markets, providing cheap labour and natural resources, and therefore have become major sites of struggle against the capitalist offensive. Moreover, the spectre of past socialisms appears as nostalgia, which has become a widespread sentiment at a time where discontent with neoliberal capitalism is growing by the day but alternative futures still seem unthinkable. If this is the case, past readings of Capital might actually serve as a key to understand the interplay of the logic of capital and class struggles that shape the capitalist world of today. The point of reviewing past readings of Capital is not to find out whether one was better than another but to identify the traces of political struggles connected to respective readings left in todays world.
They require documents from people and threaten a fine of up to 33,000.

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Slovakias Financial Administration is warning people about a false website and a false call to deliver documents. Its website has again become a target of fraudsters with the aim of getting data from clients.

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We thus call on people visiting the website of the Financial Administration to check the address properly and do not respond to any sent mail in any case, said Patricia Macikova, spokesperson for the Financial Administration, as cited by the TASR newswire.

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The fraudsters have been sending people mail from the address judita.novakova@financna/sprava.org and require the submission of transfer documentation while threatening to fine up to 33,000, if the subject does not do so.

At the end of the letter they refer the target to a website that looks exactly like the website of the genuine Financial Administration.

The Financial Administration is announcing that it is sending no mail with a call for transfer documentation nor is it threatening to fine anybody up to 33,000 if they do not do so, said Macikova. Judita Novakova is not an employee of the Financial Administration and thus she is not empowered to carry out deeds on their behalf.

The Financial Administration warns people against opening any links from this site. The address of the Financial Administrations website is www.financnasprava.sk and the administration is not responsible for any other addresses.

For the second time

Data of all its clients continues to be safe and making a false copy of the Financial Administration does not have any influence on them, according to Macikova.

Macikova recalled that fraudsters made a false copy of the Financial Administrations web site earlier this year. At that time, they urged people to install malicious software on their computers which they labelled as an electronic communication. This ransom ware then encrypted their files in the infected computer and the fraudsters required ransom for decryption.
The doctor promised extra healthcare and new ways of treatment.

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The Judge of the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) handed down a sentence of imprisonment to a consultant S.P. from Presov haematology department, accused of taking bribes. The reason for the incarceration was concern about the continuation of the criminal act, Katarina Kudjakova, the spokesperson for the court stated for the TASR newswire.

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The policemen of the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) will remove the doctor from his workplace in the Faculty Hospital.

The statement from the hospital made by J. A. Reiman in Presov, as quoted by TASR reads, We have not been officially informed about this.

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Neither the investigator, the police nor the person involved has contacted us yet. Our information comes from employees who were in the workplace at that time stated the hospital as quoted by TASR.

The consultant took bribes from oncological patients and their families. He promised them extra healthcare and new ways of treatment.

The accused made a complaint about the decision of the court, according to Kudjakova. The matter was referred to the Supreme court.
Professional Development

Personalized Learning Residency Places Teachers at Summit Public Schools

Image: Summit Public Schools.

As personalized learning (PL) made headlines this week for improving student achievement in math, one nationally recognized public school system operating 11 schools in California and Washington has added a new PL professional development opportunity for teachers.

Summit Public Schools (SPS), known for its personalized learning model used by 300-plus schools across the United States, Thursday launched a new teacher residency program.

According to a prepared statement from SPS, its yearlong Summit Learning Residency Program is designed to mirror the experience of Summit students  training residents how to be self-directed, self-paced and project-based.

This fall, 24 residents will be placed at each of SPS California schools, where they will engage in a project-based learning curriculum while completing the credentialing coursework necessary to receive a California Single Subject Preliminary Teaching Credential. (Notably, the program provides priority hiring for full-time teaching positions at SPS sites the year following the residency.)

Applications for the 2018-19 school year will be available Nov. 1. Learn more about the residency program here.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China warned Botswana on Friday against hosting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who is due to visit there next month, saying it hoped Botswana could make the "correct" decision about the trip. The Dalai Lama is expected to address a human rights conference in the capital, Gaborone, on Aug. 17-19 and will also meet Botswana's president. China is a major investor in Botswana's economy. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing that the Dalai Lama wears the cloak of religion to engage in anti-China, separatist activities and China opposes any foreign official meeting him in any form. "We hope the relevant country can clearly recognise the essence of who the Dalai Lama is, earnestly respect China's core concerns, and make the correct decision on this issue," Geng said. He did not elaborate. The Dalai Lama, who fled from Tibet into exile in India in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule, has long been at loggerheads with China, which brands him a dangerous separatist. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, says he seeks greater rights, including religious freedom and genuine autonomy for Tibet. Visits by the Dalai Lama to foreign countries infuriate China. It often retaliates by stopping high-level meetings or taking economic steps, like last year when it imposed new border fees following a visit by the Dalai Lama to Mongolia. Botswana's neighbour South Africa has denied a visa to the Buddhist monk three times since 2009 in what opposition parties there, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, say shows the extent of Beijing's influence over Pretoria. China's fast-growing demand for raw materials has made it one of the biggest investors in Africa and its largest trade partner. Chinese state-owned companies have been awarded contracts to build roads, dams, power stations and airports in Botswana. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Gergely Szakacs CANTAVIR, Serbia (Reuters) - Antal Kracsun was about to convert a barn next to his house into a pigsty to make ends meet, when a Hungarian government grant gave his small welding business in northern Serbia a shot in the arm. The 800,000-Serbian dinar ($7,600) grant under Prime Minister Viktor Orban's cross-border stimulus programme, for poorer, ethnic Hungarian regions in central Europe, enabled Kracsun to buy expensive welding machinery which would otherwise have been beyond his means. More than one million ethnic Hungarians live in neighbouring Serbia, Romania, Ukraine and elsewhere, descendants of Hungarians who found themselves outside their homeland when the country's borders were redrawn at the end of World War One. With a parliamentary election in April 2018 drawing closer, 54-year-old Orban is expanding his political arsenal to include ethnic Hungarians like Kracsun through grants and heavily-subsidised loans to small businesses. As a first step, Orban gave these ethnic Hungarians citizenship after a 2010 landslide, followed by voting rights. That helped Orban eke out a two-thirds parliamentary majority at the last election in 2014 as such voters overwhelmingly backed him. "Our workload has doubled," thanks to the new machinery purchased after receiving the grant, Kracsun said in the shade of his rudimentary workshop. "We have not had such an opportunity in this country or this region so far," Kracsun said, adding that he intended to support Orban's ruling right-wing Fidesz party next April because of the measures he was taking to support voters outside Hungary. "They take care of us. It is a good feeling. We have always felt Hungarian, regardless of the border." That sentiment was widespread in Vojvodina, a northern region in Serbia and home to about a 200,000-strong Hungarian community. Most of the ethnic Hungarians Reuters interviewed for this story and who were grant recipients plan to vote for Orban next year. TEMPLATE FOR ROMANIA Latest opinion polls show Orban's Fidesz party is a clear favourite to retain power in 2018. Political analysts said ethnic Hungarian voters could help Orban regain the two-thirds majority he has since lost. "It is in the government's interest to have these sympathetic voters turn up at the election in the largest possible numbers," said Attila Tibor Nagy, an analyst at the Centre for Fair Political Analysis think-tank. A two-thirds parliamentary majority enabled Orban to rewrite the constitution and pass major laws without support from other parties. The government in Budapest estimates ethnic Hungarian votes could sway two out of 199 seats in parliament. Of an 8.25 million-strong electorate, nearly 290,000 ethnic Hungarians are registered to vote, their ranks having increased since the last election. Orban's three-year, 50-billion-forint ($185 million) stimulus plan in Vojvodina could also be a template for a bigger programme in fellow European Union member Romania, home to the region's largest ethnic Hungarian community. Once a grant has been successfully applied for, it is disbursed through a local foundation linked to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, which says the main goals of the scheme are to support local families and small businesses and to help ethnic Hungarians stay where they are. "PEOPLE DECIDE" Hundreds of thousands of Hungarians have moved to western Europe in search of higher-paid jobs over the past years and the latest census figures showed a fall in the number of ethnic Hungarians living in Serbia as well. "This programme is obviously part of the broader strategic concept launched seven years ago and I think this will continue," Deputy Secretary of State Peter Kiss-Parciu said. "I am sure this will motivate people to take a more active role in the matters of the Hungarian community," Kiss-Parciu said, when asked whether the funds could be a boon for Orban at the election, adding: "As to how people vote, that is for them to decide." Sitting on Hungary's southern border, Vojvodina is among Serbia's more developed regions, but even so, living standards languish below those in a neighbouring poor region of Hungary. Vojvodina, through which the Danube river flows, is the breadbasket of Serbia providing much of its grain and makes up about one quarter of its territory. The capital Novi Sad was heavily bombed in 1999 when NATO intervened to halt killing of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by Serb forces. Daniel Ferencz, a beekeeper in the town of Backo Petrovo Selo, surrounded by lush forests and dazzling sunflower fields, received a grant of about 860,000 Serbian dinars, which he used to buy swarms of bees, 50 hives and a honey-bottling machine. Ferencz, 34, said the financial support convinced him he could make a living at home instead of moving elsewhere. "It is an uplifting feeling," he said near a colourful row of hives. "It is good to be a Hungarian here because no one else has ever provided similar support." For others, like Nikoletta Futo, 22, and her husband, who have a three-year-old daughter and triplet sons turning two in November, the 1.2-million-dinar grant also made the difference between staying and leaving the area. Using the grant and some savings, they were able to buy a bigger house on the outskirts of Kanjiza, just across the Hungarian border in Serbia. "We used to live in a smaller house with two rooms, but the six of us had to share a single room there," said Futo, with her daughter, Nora, sitting on her lap. LOW INTEREST RATES In the next phase of the programme, Hungarian OTP Bank's tiny Serbian unit will provide loans to Hungarian small businesses for projects worth over half a million euros each in agriculture and industry. Nearly three dozen such projects are being assessed, Kiss-Parciu said, adding government subsidies will allow companies to borrow at 1-2 percent interest, far below the Serbian base rate, which at 4 percent is the highest in the region. Deputy Chief Executive Laszlo Wolf told Reuters that OTP was looking to boost its low market share in Serbia and Romania, possibly through acquisitions. OTP declined further comment on its Serbian expansion plans. Officials in Belgrade were not available to comment about the grants and loans for this story but have not criticised Orban's stimulus plan. Then Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, who is now president, said at a joint government meeting in November relations between Serbia and Hungary have never been better. But not everyone is so happy. Hungary's Socialists, trailing far behind in the polls, say Orban is using Hungarians across the border as political tools, also criticising his stimulus programme for what they see as a lack of transparency. And, early last month, Serbian tabloid Kurir, a Vucic critic, ran a headline reading: "Orban takes over Vojvodina." (Writing by Gergely Szakacs; Additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Peter Millership)
In Star Trek, Captain Kirk beams up to the starship Enterprise at the flick of a switch  and this week, the idea became reality.

On a very, very small scale, anyway.

Chinese scientists announced that the Chinese Micius satellite had detected the first object teleported from Earth to orbit  a single light particle, or photon.

But could we ever transport a human being in the same way  using the same quantum entanglement used to teleport subatomic particles?

Its not impossible, some scientists believe, or at least it might not be in the far future  but there are some pretty major obstacles to overcome first.

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How does quantum teleportation work?

The experiment in which Chinese scientists teleported a photon isnt unique  such teleportation has been carried out several times on Earth before.

The experiments work using pairs of tiny particles which are entangled  ie they have linked properties.

Using the weird phenomenon of quantum entanglement, scientists can transmit the information about a particle (ie whether its polarised) over a distance.

The particle doesnt travel  but the information about it arrives in another place, instantly, due to scientists manipulating the other linked particle.

Its pretty baffling stuff  Einstein described the idea as spooky action at a distance.

Scientists believe that  while physical teleportation is unlikely  the technology could lead to technologies such as ultra-secure communications, where information teleports from one place to another.

Is it possible to scale this up to teleport people?

In theory, theres no law of physics which forbids using quantum entanglement to transmit information about every particle in a larger object simultaneously.

But there are are enormous problems to overcome first  and scientists say that if teleporting people does ever happen, it will be very, very far in the future.

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What we are teleporting is the state of a particle, Ronald Hanson, from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, said after a successful teleportation experiment in 2014.

If you believe we are nothing more than a collection of atoms strung together in a particular way, then in principle it should be possible to teleport ourselves from one place to another.

.

I would not rule it out because theres no fundamental law of physics preventing it. If it ever does happen it will be far in the future.

So whats the problem?

There are several very major roadblocks which mean that teleporting a human being is basically impossible  and likely to remain so for a very long time.

For a start, the amount of information inside a human being.

We can transmit information about one photon, sure  but University of Leicester students calculated how much information there actually is in a person, including the information in every cell and in a human brain.

Transmitting this information via radio waves would take 350,000 times the age of the universe (which is 14 billion years), the students said  commenting that it would be easier to walk.

Transmitting this amount of information via quantum entanglement, and then reassembling the body in another place is impossible without the invention of technologies we cant even imagine at present.

Also, even if you could do it, theres no reason to think that the new person would actually be alive.

Is anyone more optimistic?

As with everything from time travel to cloning, theres a few scientists who believe it will happen a little sooner.

Physicist and science populariser Professor Michio Kaku has said he thinks teleportation might happen in the 22nd century  although Kaku is known for his fondness for outlandish ideas such as parallel universes.

Kaku said, You know the expression, Beam me up, Scotty? We used to laugh at it. We physicists used to laugh when someone talked about teleportation something like that, but we dont laugh anymore.

At an atomic level we do it already. Its called quantum entanglement. think within a decade we will teleport the first molecule.

Kaku believes that scaling this up to larger objects  or even people  is simply an engineering project  and that by next century, it might be possible.
By Mohamed Abdellah and Ahmed Tolba CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian man stabbed two German tourists to death and wounded four others on Friday at a popular seaside vacation spot on the Red Sea, after apparently searching out foreigners to attack, officials and witnesses said. The knifeman killed the two German women and wounded two other tourists at the Zahabia hotel in Hurghada, then swam to a neighbouring beach to attack at least two more people at the Sunny Days El Palacio resort before being caught by staff and arrested, officials and security sources said. It was the first major attack on foreign tourists since a similar assault on the same resort more than a year ago, and comes as Egypt struggles to revive a tourism industry hurt by security threats and years of political upheaval. "He had a knife with him and stabbed each of them three times in the chest. They died on the beach," the security manager at the El Palacio hotel, Saud Abdelaziz, told Reuters. "He jumped a wall between the hotels and swam to the other beach." Abdelaziz said two of the injured were Czech and two Armenian, but other officials said one of the women was Russian. They were being treated a local hospital. The Czech Foreign Ministry tweeted that one Czech woman had sustained a minor leg injury. The German Foreign Ministry said it had no definite information, but could not rule out that German citizens were among the victims. The German Embassy in Cairo was working closely with the authorities, a ministry spokesman said. ISLAMIST INSURGENCY The attacker's motive was still under investigation, the Interior Ministry said. "He was looking for foreigners and he didn't want any Egyptians," said one member of staff at the Zahabia Hotel. Egypt is fighting Islamist insurgents in the Sinai Peninsula, where they mainly target security forces, but militants have also attacked tourist targets in the past, as well as Coptic Christians and churches. Hurghada, some 400 km (250 miles) south of the capital Cairo, is one of Egypt's most popular vacation spots on the Red Sea. In January 2016, two assailants armed with a gun, a knife and a suicide belt landed on the beach of a hotel in Hurghada, and wounded two foreign tourists. Egypt has been hoping that investments in airport security and the cheaper Egyptian pound will bring tourist visits to its beaches and ancient sites back up to levels seen before its 2011 uprising. The industry, a crucial source of hard currency, has struggled since then with years of political turmoil and mass protests, as well as the fallout from the crash of a jet taking Russian holidaymakers home from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in October 2015, in which 224 people died. Islamic State said it had brought the plane down with a bomb. Friday's attack came on a day that five policemen were killed by gunmen on a motorbike who ambushed their car just south of Cairo. (Additional reporting by Mostafa Hashem in Cairo, Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, Robert Muller in Prague, Andreas Rinke in Berlin; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Kevin Liffey)
Sarah Gustavus vividly remembers covering the Las Conchas Fire about six years ago.

It was interesting for her to have a crew return six years later to see how the landscape has changed.

The story is part of tonights New Mexico PBS New Mexico in Focus new segment called Our Land: New Mexicos Environmental Past, Present & Future.

It airs the second Friday of each month during New Mexico in Focus, and Gustavus is a producer. It airs at 7 tonight on New Mexico PBS.

Each segment will run five to 10 minutes within the hourlong program. Laura Paskus, an environment reporter for NM Political Report, is the correspondent in the piece.

I covered that fire for NPR and KUNM, she says. Going up there to see whats happening there today. We are taking folks out there to conceptualize for the viewers. Its just not a sad story. The forest has changed permanently. Were trying to be honest and real about the issues that exist now.

Gustavus says the segment looks at many issues.

It is six years after the fire threatened Los Alamos and burned thousands of acres into four pueblos, including Santa Clara Pueblos watershed. The crew looks at what has happened to the land.

This was a fire which blazed so hot and fast, that it behaved as fires dont  burning down hills, scorching across previously burned scars, baking the soil and vaporizing all seeds, she says.

The segment looks at how the land recovers from such devastation.

It also answers the questions what is needed? And how long will it take? And is there still danger of flash flooding?

This segment gives us a chance to step back and look at issues in a broad way, Gustavus says. We thought doing it once a month was great. Having it be a regular part of the series. I hope to grow it. Im making sure that we have some depth in each piece.

With each piece, Gustavus says, there is a one- to two-month planning period.

She has been a producer since December 2014 and is often staying in tune with whats happening in the world.

Im taking a look at whats happening in the world and getting some incredible local people and sharing some insight, she says. I love piecing that together.

Funding for Our Land: New Mexicos Environmental Past, Present & Future is provided in part by the Neeper Natural History Programming Fund for KNME-TV.

In addition to the land segment, the show will also have a four-part series called Brain Drain. The second segment airs tonight on New Mexico in Focus.

The four-part series takes a look at the thousands of the states best and brightest college graduates, many are planning to move out of state in search of better job opportunities.

SEND ME YOUR TIPS: If you know of a movie filming in the state, or are curious about one, email film@ABQjournal.com. Follow me on Twitter @agomezART.
Sometimes, the smallest of things can make the biggest of differences in our lives.

For Albuquerques Jim Gallegos, the little thing that marked a huge turning point in his life was a die-cast, Matchbox toy model of a Greyhound bus. Matchbox toys, introduced in 1953 by the British company Lesney Products, were designed originally to be small enough to fit into a matchbox.

Gallegos, now 59, got his miniature Greyhound in the late 1960s when he was about 10. It fascinated him.

There were other (Matchbox toys) before that, but that was the one that got me going, Gallegos said during a recent phone interview. I had never been on a Greyhound, but I had seen them. The (Matchbox Greyhound) was realistic, something I could relate to.

Just weeks after obtaining the Greyhound, he got a Matchbox Ford GT and his passion for miniature wheeled vehicles started shifting into high gear.

Today, his collection of miniature vehicles numbers in the many thousands and the Matchbox Convention he started in Albuquerque in 2003 will hold its 15th gathering Friday through Sunday, July 21-23, at the Albuquerque Marriott.

Gallegos said the Albuquerque event is the only Matchbox convention, other than one in Germany, that the Mattel toy company actively supports. Mattel, which launched the miniature vehicle Hot Wheels line in 1968, purchased Matchbox in 1997.

Gallegos calls his convention the Matchbox Collectors Annual International Gathering of Friends. He said about 30 collectors from throughout the country attended the first one and there were about 20 tables at that initial conventions toy show. Two hundred collectors are registered for this years convention, and there will be 100 tables at the toy show, which is open to the public.

It has grown slowly and this years convention will be our largest one ever, Gallegos said. All the top collectors will be there. They come from the United States, Japan, Brazil, Germany, England, Belgium, Mexico and Canada. We have an 82-year-old man and his wife who come from Japan each year.

Gallegos said he believes it is the bond of friendship among collectors more than their shared interest that makes the convention successful.

Thats why I started it, he said. Before the Internet got popular, a group of us collectors communicated by phone and mail, but we rarely got to see each other.

The convention provides an opportunity for face-to-face exchanges among members of the collecting community.

Gallegos, a 1975 graduate of West Mesa High School, is retired from AT&T and works now as a sales manager for Presbyterian Health Plan. Dating back to that Matchbox Greyhound bus, he has collected all kinds of toy vehicles and antique toys.

When you consider how much space it would take to display a collection of miniature toys as large as the one owned by Gallegos, not to mention the amount of time required to dust it, its fortunate that his wife, Vicki, and his son, Shaun, now 32, share his enthusiasm for toys.

Vicki has several different collections, Gallegos said. She collects vintage plastic toys and antique toys  anything from old wind-up toys and different mechanical toys that date back to the turn of the (20th) century. There is a lot of history, engineering and art in toys, and Vicki really appreciates that aspect of it. She used to play with her brothers Matchbox toys.

Back in the 1990s, long before Gallegos launched his Matchbox convention, he and Vicki did antique toy shows around Albuquerque. Thats when they really got into the immense universe of collecting. Gallegos said his database contains the names of 12,000 collector friends in 72 countries.

When he was a kid, Gallegos said, Matchbox toys sold for 59 cents to 69 cents each. They cost only about $1 today. But some models  depending on rarity, condition and popularity  sell for big bucks in the collectors market today.

Its not unusual to find Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars selling for $10,000, he said. The highest price paid for a Matchbox toy was $25,000 for a one-of-a-kind fire engine.

The record price for a Hot Wheels toy is about $70,000 or so, paid for a rare Volkswagen Beach Bomb, a VW microbus with a pair of surfboards poking out the rear window.

Gallegos said none of the toys in his collection are for sale. He still owns that Greyhound bus and the Ford GT. He said they are not worth much to collectors, but to him they are priceless. They changed his world.
Tommy Hook was haunted by the way his career came to a close at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, an old colleague says, and that caused his life to spiral out of control.

Hook, a former LANL official who was a plaintiff in a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against the University of California, which used to run LANL on its own, was found unconscious in a Tucson strip club bathroom just before 1 a.m. June 25 with signs of trauma and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Hook, 64, once had a high-ranking position at LANL as an internal auditor, former lab colleague Chuck Montano told the Journal in an interview.

Hook and Montano maintained that lab officials retaliated against Hook after he gave a deposition in a 1995 lawsuit on behalf of several laid-off employees by taking away some of his duties. The move caused Hooks life to go downhill, Montano said.

I believe the lab had an adverse affect on him as a person, Montano said. I believe the institution has a way of haunting you. He would have been better off if he never worked at the lab.

In June 2005, an incident at another strip club  Cheeks on Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe  briefly put Hook in the national spotlight.

Hook was severely beaten in the parking lot of Cheeks. He had filed for whistleblower protection over alleged financial irregularities at the lab and was scheduled to talk to a congressional investigator the following week.

Hooks then-wife, Susan Hook, speaking for her husband who was in the hospital, said at a press conference after the attack that someone called Hook at home earlier that night and told him to meet up at Cheeks, which was about 50 minutes from their house in Los Alamos.

Susan Hook, who wasnt home herself and was in Albuquerque that night, said Hook thought he was going to meet with an informant who had information about the lab, but that person never showed up.

Susan Hook said a group of men pulled Hook from his car and beat him, adding that the attackers told him if you know whats good for you, youll keep your mouth shut. Hook suffered a broken jaw, herniated disk, concussion and several missing teeth, and a photo of the injured Hook was circulated to the news media.

Hook was scheduled to meet an investigator with the House Energy and Commerce Committee in regards to the alleged misconduct at LANL, prompting the FBI to get involved in the investigation. Susan said her husband didnt frequent bars and believed his account.

The story was covered by CBS, CNN and The Washington Post, among other national news outlets. It spurred comparisons to the case of Karen Silkwood, a labor activist whod raised concerns about nuclear safety issues at an Oklahoma facility. She died in a car crash in 1974 while on her way to meet a New York Times reporter.

But Santa Fe police and the District Attorneys Office later determined that Hooks severe beating had nothing to do with anything at LANL and said that Hook got into a fight after he backed into a pedestrian while leaving the Cheeks parking lot.

A lawyer for Cheeks also said that a dancer maintained that Hook paid for a $50 lap dance that night, although Hook and his wife continued to dispute that. Two men, Joseph Sandoval and Zeke Nevarez, were indicted in the attack and sentenced to probation. I can tell you this is not an unusual case, said Henry Valdez, Santa Fe district attorney at the time. We do get lots of cases similar to this  fights in and around bars at closing time.

This week, the Tucson Police Department did not respond to a records request for police reports in Hooks death, but the department posted details about the case to Facebook.

Detectives named 23-year-old Fredric Stephen Bayles and 33-year-old Davaress Devon Bolden as suspects shortly after the beating at the Venom nightclub and put out arrest warrants for manslaughter. Bolden turned himself in to Phoenix police June 27 and Bayles turned himself in to Tucson police the following day, according to Tucson police Facebook posts.

A family member confirmed Hooks death, but declined to comment on his passing.

Divorce claims

In the Hooks 2008 divorce documents, Susan Hook claimed that Tommy was spending a large portion of their money on trips to casinos and gentlemens clubs. His divorce attorney told the Journal that year that since the beating at Cheeks, his client had suffered ongoing mental problems and been under regular treatment by a psychiatrist. Hook was granted disability retirement in August 2005, two months after the beating, according to court documents.

Montano said he worked under Hook as an internal investigator and was a co-plaintiff with him in the 2005 whistleblower suit. He said he hasnt had contact with Hook in several years, but that Hook was devastated after he gave a deposition in a lawsuit against the lab on behalf of several workers who had been laid off in 1995.

He did the right thing, said Montano, a longtime critic of lab management, who retired in 2010 as part of an undisclosed settlement of his own claims of retaliation over changes in his job duties that he maintained resulted from a report detailing extensive fraudulent billings at the lab.

He told the truth, and his career came tumbling down after that, Montano said of Hook. I do believe the lab is an institution that has a culture that turns on you. The lab over the years rejected the whistleblower claims.

Montano said all issues within the lab would fall on Hooks desk and Hook would assign those cases to different investigators. After Hook gave the deposition, Montano said LANL officials took internal audit control away from Hook and employees who used to report to him started reporting to someone else.

Thats the way they destroy your career, Montano said. For that to happen, I think, was devastating for him. He had everything taken away from him. This is the kind of (expletive) that happens to people who are doing their jobs for the taxpayers. He fell all the way down to where he ended up  in a bathroom dead in Tucson. Some people can deal with it, others cant.

A LANL spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
As she colors in her painting of a traditional Indian bride, Manisha Mishra points out a pair of footprints she drew next to the womans face that she later fills in red.

In her culture, she said it is a wedding tradition to put the brides feet in red water. When she walks through her new home, her new role and presence is physically symbolized with the red footprints.

She brings wealth and prosperity in the new family, Mishra said. Her art is derived from Madubahni traditions of painting wedding messages and symbols on walls, which she has translated into smaller paintings on paper and other canvases. She also paints other symbols of life and new beginnings, including bamboo, fish and turtles. The turtles, she said, represented how to face life as hard on the outside, but soft on the inside.

Mishra was one of seven international artists who demonstrated their crafts in galleries and stores along the Santa Fe Plaza on Thursday after arriving for this weekends International Folk Art Market. Among her were jewelry-makers, weavers, textilians and ceramicists from across the globe.

As a first-time demonstrator and third-time vendor, Mishra said she enjoys sharing her craft with passersby and hopes to inspire others by letting them into her culture. What she loves about the annual market is the friendliness. I feel at home here, she said.

For first-time vendor Juana Pumayalli, the market, as well as her craft, is a family affair. Though she has never sold before, the Peruvian weavers mother and other family have come to Santa Fe in years past. She learned traditional weaving when she was 7 years old.

Thursday afternoon, she attracted a large crowd at Workshop and Santa Fe Dry Goods, 53 Old Santa Fe Trail, while remaining focused on her back-strap loom. Her piece would likely become a shawl or a tablerunner. Larger pieces like those could take her up to a month. Through a translator, Pumayalli said shes hoping for a lot of success selling.

After several years of showing in the market, Algerian jewelry-maker Karim Oukid Ouksel said the market itself has changed parts of his craft. He showed off some of his new work while demonstrating at the Rocki Gorman Gallery, 119 Old Santa Fe Trail. Though he currently lives in Spain, his work is inspired by designs in Algerian folk textiles and crafts. He made jewelry from a silver base that was then designed with melted, colored glass placed into small sections; he then heats up the glass to make it solid again. Now, he says, hes trying new, non-traditional colors, like turquoise, and utilizing new stones like amethyst. He said the market burns his desire to try new designs and elements, but also preserve his traditional style.

I am one step of this change and I have to make it the best I can, said Oukid Ouksel.

Other selected demonstrators included Uzbekistans Rustam and Damir Usmanov; Indias Dayahal Kudecha; Frances Blaise Cayol; and Tarek Abdelhay Hafez Abouelenin and Ekramy Hanafy Ahmed Mahmoud from Egypt.

The 2017 International Folk Art Market taking place this weekend on Museum Hill features about 160 artists from nearly 55 countries.

If you go

WHAT: Santa Fe International Folk Market

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

WHERE: Museum Hill on Camino Lejo

TICKETS: $20 Saturday, $15 Sunday; special Early Bird entry Saturday at 7:30 a.m., $75.
LA BAJADA  Residents of this tiny village and surrounding Cochiti Pueblo are at odds as the two sides discuss land and water access issues that the pueblo says have been put off for more than three decades.

On one side of the fence, literally, are about 40 residents of La Bajada in unincorporated Santa Fe County. Theres now a fence between them and their water supply: an irrigation reservoir, ditch and spring in a Santa Fe River canyon, accessible only through Cochiti Pueblo land. A road that skirts the village also now hits a dead end.

La Bajada residents say they and their ancestors moved freely through the area for nearly 300 years. Between August and October last year, the pueblo began fencing off land that includes the water supply.

A Cochiti official says the barriers were needed to prevent damage from hikers or others using pueblo territory to get to public land in the nearby Santa Fe National Forest. More than one fence was erected directly in front of the water system.

La Bajada resident Alonzo Gallegos says that while the pueblo granted temporary permission to pass through the fence to the reservoir in March, that isnt enough.

The villagers maintain their access is protected by a federal law under which Cochiti acquired the land in 1984 and which says the pueblo should not deprive any individual or entity of any legal existing right of way or legal water rights.

Gallegos says public historic areas have been cut off, as well, among them parts of Camino Real from Mexico City and pieces of the original Route 66 highway climbing the landmark La Bajada hill above the village.

Cochiti Pueblo environmental director Jacob Pecos says no public areas have been blocked off  those lands can still be accessed through Forest Service land uphill from the village.

He says La Bajadas water supply was developed before the pueblo acquired the land in 1984 via congressional action. According to Pecos, there is no legal documentation proving La Bajada has a legal right of way through pueblo land.

The issue has been over the last 30 years, (the land) had been used inappropriately in a lot of ways, Pecos said. It was treated as their property when it isnt.

The two parties are at least talking about how the villagers can get to their water supply. On Saturday, La Bajadas village committee is hosting a public meeting to discuss what Darrin Muenzberg, the committee chairman, says is an offer from the pueblo for two years of access to the water sources. The two sides also have been in joint meetings with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs since March.

Grazing permits expired

Over the past three decades, Pecos said, Cochiti did not fence its property because it was honoring three grazing permits granted before Congress passed the land to the pueblo.

After those permits recently lapsed, Cochiti decided to fence the land to prevent further damage the pueblo maintains the property sustained over the years. He suspects damage and litter came from non-Native hikers and tourists.

Pecos said there was a hiker who would walk through pueblo land with a hammer and pound a specific boulder because it made a bell-like sound. The rock had significant petroglyphs that the tribe wants to preserve and the hammer did obvious damage. For some, its recreation, Pecos said. For us, its a way of life.

Many people, he said, didnt realize they were trespassing because of the lack of well-marked boundaries. Now, the tribe wants to ensure security for future generations.

It should have gone up 30 years ago, he said of the fencing. If the public looked at (the fencing as) abrupt, it was 30 years in making.

Both Gallegos and eighth-generation La Bajada resident Muenzberg say there was no prior warning about the fences going up, which Cochiti denies. Muenzberg said that while there may be a need to block access to problem visitors, locals deserve some level of controlled access. Instead, he said the tribe wants him and his neighbors to beg for permission to get to the water.

The dispute is now evident in dueling signs posted around the village.

The fences are posted with no trespassing notices. But about two weeks after the fences went up in October, La Bajada residents put up their own right of way signs just past the fencing in order to mark what they view as their territory. Muenzberg said the community members have been asked to remove the signs, but refused.

What theyre failing to recognize is weve used this land without interruption for 300 years, he said.

Pecos said his pueblos dealings with La Bajada isnt the major problem  the real concern is getting information out to the greater public about why the pueblo land and its resources need protection.

The idea that Cochiti barred complete access to the original Route 66 road or ways to get to popular hiking areas in La Bajada Mesa is a misconception, he said, because those areas can be accessed from U.S. Forest Service land east and north of the village. A road from the Airport Road area on Santa Fes southwestern outskirts, County Road 56C, provides access to national forest land.

USFS: No public land blocked

Forest Service spokeswoman Julie Anne Overton said no federal land has been blocked and the Forest Service has not received any complaints about not being able to access trails. Muenzberg, however, said he has encountered disgruntled people passing through the village who reach a new dead end on a road outside the village. The main paved road to La Bajada, Tetilla Peak Road off N.M. 16  which runs off an Interstate 25 exit  remains open.

Muenzberg accused Cochiti of using high-powered attorneys as a form of intimidation to get the village to back down. But Pecos said he wants to remedy the situation and find a fair solution.

The only thing the parties seemed to agree on was how La Bajada community supported Cochiti Pueblo as it was acquiring the land in the 1980s.

Reflecting on their amicable past, Muenzberg described the recent tension as a disgrace, something his parents or grandparents never experienced. To him, the situation is an attempt to take advantage of the small community because of the false idea that its a ghost town, where older residents are dying off and younger ones are leaving.

They misjudged the community, he said.  Theres men, women, dogs and a lifestyle here. Were still around.
DOYLESTOWN, Pa.  A marijuana dealer gave police a grisly account of killing four men on his familys farm, saying he crushed one of them with a backhoe after shooting him and tried to set three of the bodies on fire in a metal bin with the help of his cousin, according to court papers filed Friday.

Cosmo DiNardo, who graduated from a Catholic prep school two years ago, said he killed a former schoolmate when he arrived with $800 to buy $8,000 worth of pot. DiNardo, whos charged along with his cousin, said he shot another man in the back as he tried to run away.

DiNardo, 20, pinned one of the deaths on his cousin, who was charged Friday, although the cousin told police that DiNardo shot all four of the victims.

The only motive disclosed by investigators was that DiNardo said he wanted to set the victims up when they went to the farm to buy marijuana. One man vanished July 5, and the others vanished two days later.

Three of the slain men were buried at the farm, in Solebury, in an oil tank that had been converted into a cooker. The FBI found them Wednesday after four days of methodical hand-digging and sifting in a spot on the 90-acre farm that dogs had sniffed out.

Authorities might never have found the fourth body unless they worked with DiNardo, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said.

I dont know what convinced him (to confess). Id like to think he wanted to get these boys home, Weintraub said, explaining the surprise plea agreement forged Thursday that led to the final body.

DiNardo told police where to find 19-year-old Loyola University of Maryland student Jimi Taro Patrick, who was a year behind DiNardo at Holy Ghost Prep School near Bensalem, and agreed to plead guilty to four counts of first-degree murder. In exchange, he will be spared the death penalty.

Investigators would still be looking for Patricks body had they not made the agreement with DiNardo, Weintraub said.

It was so far away (from the others on the farm) that I started to get sick to my stomach on the ride, he said.

DiNardos history of mental illness includes involuntary commitment, a schizophrenia diagnosis and repeated contacts with police. He also suffered a head injury last year in an ATV accident.

The commitment meant he was barred from possessing guns, but nonetheless he had one in February when police charged him with having a shotgun. He also used at least two guns in the slayings, investigators said.

A person with firsthand knowledge of DiNardos confession said he acknowledged selling a variety of handguns to local residents. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity on Thursday because he was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the case.

DiNardo is charged with four homicide counts and 20 other crimes, including abuse of a corpse, conspiracy and robbery.

Im sorry, DiNardo said Thursday as he was led into a police van.

His cousin Sean Kratz, 20, faces 20 counts, including three homicide counts. Both were being held in jail without bail.

DiNardos parents, who own the farm property in Solebury and construction and concrete companies in Bensalem, where they live, declined to comment Thursday when they left a court building after their son confessed. Kratzs mother declined to comment on her son arrests when reached by phone.

Kratz told a judge on Friday that he had no lawyer. The judge replied that he should hire one or apply for a public defender.

The other victims were 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, 22-year-old Mark Sturgis and 21-year-old Tom Meo.

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AP reporter Anthony Izaguirre contributed from Philadelphia.

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This story has been corrected to show DiNardo is 20, not 22.
LONDON  An American doctor who specializes in conditions such as that affecting Charlie Gard will travel to Britain next week to assess the critically ill baby.

High Court Judge Nicholas Francis said Friday he is open-minded about the evidence to come after the visit of Dr. Michio Hirano of Columbia University.

The 11-month-old boy suffers from mitochondrial depletion syndrome, a rare genetic disease that has left him brain-damaged and unable to breathe unaided.

Hiranos research focuses on mitochondrial diseases and genetic myopathies and he has treated others with conditions similar to Charlies.

They boys parents are fighting an emotional legal battle with Britains most famous childrens hospital over whether trying an experimental treatment is in Charlies best interest. The case attracted international attention after Pope Francis and President Donald Trump weighed in.

They have been fighting to take him to the United States for treatment.

Hirano will assess Charlie, meet his current immediate-care team and other specialists, including a doctor from the Vatican childrens hospital. Charlies mother, Connie Yates, fought to attend and was given permission  even though it would not normally be allowed.

It may be unconventional but this case is full of unconventional aspects, the judge said.

Francis has promised to rule by July 25.

Charlie suffers from mitochondrial depletion syndrome, a rare genetic disease that has left him brain-damaged and unable to breathe unaided.

Specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital have fought the parents bid for treatment because they dont think it will help and may cause him pain. The hospital says Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity.

A succession of courts has backed the hospital, but the case returned to the High Court Thursday after claims of new evidence and the high-profile interventions

Hirano, who testified via video-link on Thursday, said it was worth trying treatment that has recently emerged.

Hiranos name appeared in public only on Friday, as a court order had previously blocked its mention.
NEW YORK  More than four years after it was imposed, Russias ban on adoptions by Americans is back in the news, rekindling frustration and sadness among some of those affected by it.

Chuck Johnson, CEO of the National Council for Adoption, worries that any efforts by President Donald Trumps administration to get the ban lifted might now be more complicated because of revelations regarding Donald Trump Jr.

The younger Trump, explaining a meeting last year with a Russian lawyer, initially issued a statement saying the subject was the adoption ban, but later released emails showing his motive was to obtain negative information about Hillary Clinton.

Because Russia is so much in the news, its now made lifting the ban even more awkward and difficult, Johnson said. Youd have Democrats and the hawkish Republicans who would see it as further collusion.

The ban has had disastrous results for orphans in Russia, said Johnson, a leading advocate of international adoption.

Signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December 2012, the ban served as retaliation for a U.S. law targeting alleged Russian human-rights violators. It also reflected resentment over the 60,000 Russian children adopted by Americans in the previous two decades, about 20 of whom died of abuse, neglect or other causes while in the care of their adoptive parents.

More than 200 U.S. families were in the process of trying to adopt children from Russia when the ban took effect. Many of those children have now been placed in Russian homes; the fate of other children remains unknown to their would-be adoptive families.

Thats the case for a Minneapolis-area couple who adopted a boy from Russia in 2008 and were trying to adopt his biological brother, Nikolai, when the ban was imposed.

The wife, Renee Carlson  who is now divorced and remarried  campaigned relentlessly for an exception to be made for her family. She even traveled to Moscow in early 2014 and made an emotional appeal on Russian television, but the second adoption never went through.

In an email this week, Carlson said she was told by some of her Russian contacts that Nikolai may have been adopted in Russia, but that she has been unable to confirm that.

The Russian people I met with were just like us as Americans, good people, just perhaps had their hands tied by their administrations direction, she wrote. I respect and understand, as we face similar politics in the U.S.

Resumption of adoptions from Russia has been a goal of the Trump administration, as it had been for the Obama administration. But there was no movement until Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed in April to include the matter in high-level talks aimed at resolving festering conflicts that have hindered cooperation on broader strategic and security issues.

Those talks, between the third-ranking U.S. diplomat, Tom Shannon, and Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, were suspended by Moscow last month after the Treasury Department hit Russia with new sanctions for its actions in Ukraine. But the State Department now says a new round of talks between Shannon and Ryabkov will take place in Washington on Monday.

Estimates of the number of orphans in Russia vary widely, but the country has been trying to place more of the orphans with Russian families through an expansion of domestic adoption.

A U.S.-based organization, Kidsave, has been assisting in those efforts, arranging for hundreds of orphans to visit Russian families during weekends and holidays with the aim of encouraging the families to consider adoption. According to Kidsave, more than 1,000 children in the Smolensk region found homes outside the orphanages or established long-term connections with mentors.

Tatiana Stafford, who oversees Kidsaves Russia program , said the adoption ban was unfortunate but didnt affect the program.

A lot of families who were in the process of adoption  they suffered, the children suffered, she said. But at the same time, it gave momentum to domestic adoption.

This will be the last full year of Kidsaves Russia operation. It plans to transfer the program to a Russian nonprofit next year.

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AP reporter Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. Follow David Crary on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CraryAP
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo.  A Steamboat Springs lodging company is down one Suburban after a bear ransacked the vehicle.

The Steamboat Pilot & Today reports (http://bit.ly/2tTY9kT ) the vehicle was left unlocked on Thursday by housekeepers. Moving Mountains owner Robin Craigen says when the employees returned to the vehicle, they noticed a black bear face staring at them from inside it.

Witnesses believe the bear broke into the vehicle and then the door closed behind it.

Craigen says a maintenance worker made a bad choice to open a vehicle door and let the bear out, instead of calling Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers.

Craigen says the 2001 Suburban might be totaled.

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Information from: Steamboat Pilot & Today, http://steamboatpilot.com/
WASHINGTON  Republicans latest health care plan would create winners and losers among Americans up and down the income ladder, and across age groups.

It would give consumers more responsibility for their insurance choices, a goal long held by conservatives who argue thats key to a true health care market. Younger adults and healthy people in the solid middle class may find more agreeable options. But low-income people may not be able to afford coverage, along with older and sicker adults.

And there are potential unintended consequences for people with employer-provided insurance, currently about 170 million Americans. Allowing individuals to pay premiums from tax-sheltered accounts may create incentives for employers to stop offering coverage, say some independent analysts.

The legislation would put limits on federal spending for Medicaid, a partnership program with states to cover low-income people, the disabled and nursing home residents. The drawback is that state officials could eventually face no-win choices, such as having to pick between paying for coverage for low-wage working mothers and support services for elderly people trying to stay out of nursing homes.

As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., steers toward debate and votes next week, here is a look at some of the latest changes and major issues:

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CRUZS PLAN

The new Senate bill incorporates the core of a proposal from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that would reorganize the market for policies purchased by individuals. As many as 20 million Americans get coverage this way, about half through subsidized markets like HealthCare.gov, created under former President Barack Obama.

Cruz would change basic requirements that Obamas law imposed on individual plans, including standard benefits such as pregnancy, maternity and newborn care; wellness visits and mental health treatment. The law also requires the same premium rates for sick and healthy people.

Under the Cruz approach, an insurer can offer plans that dont comply with such requirements, provided they also offer coverage that does. The problem, say critics, is that the healthy would flock to low-premium, skimpy plans, leaving the sick to face escalating prices for comprehensive coverage.

Healthy people would have opportunities to buy lower-premium, skinnier plans, while people with pre-existing conditions not eligible for premium subsidies could find themselves priced out of insurance, said Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

The latest bill includes another $70 billion to help states keep health insurance affordable for older, sicker customers. But its not clear how those backstops would work, and the federal funding eventually would end.

Some insurers are worried because of a technical change with huge practical implications: Health plans that enroll healthier customers would no longer have to cross-subsidize those with sicker patients, as is currently required.

We think it is unworkable, said Justine Handelman, top Washington lobbyist for the BlueCross BlueShield Association. She predicted skyrocketing costs for taxpayers also, stuck with the bill for sicker patients.

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EMPLOYER ESCAPE HATCH?

McConnells new bill made a major change to tax-sheltered health savings accounts, which was also advocated by Cruz.

Under the bill, health savings accounts could be used to pay premiums with pre-tax money. Under current law, they can only be used to cover out-of-pocket costs, such as deductibles and copayments.

The change is meant to level the playing field for people buying individual plans, as compared to people getting employer coverage. The value of workplace insurance is tax-free for employees and tax-deductible for employers.

But some analysts say McConnell risks undermining workplace coverage.

The upside is that the change might encourage more self-employed people to buy individual health insurance policies. The downside is that some employers may see it as an invitation to drop health benefits, particularly since the GOP also would repeal Obamas requirement that larger companies provide health care or face fines.

Allowing individuals to purchase insurance with pre-tax dollars eliminates one of the advantages to employer-provided insurance, said Elizabeth Carpenter of the Avalere Health consulting firm. That may lead some employers to consider whether or not they want to continue to offer health insurance.

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THE POOR AND THE SICK

McConnell kept some of the Obama-era tax increases used by Democrats to finance expanded coverage. But the money will be going to shore up private insurance, not the Medicaid program. Medicaid accounts for half or more of the 20 million Americans gaining coverage as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

Medicaid covers low-income people, from many pregnant women and newborns, to disabled people and many elderly nursing home residents. The GOP bill would start by phasing out enhanced federal financing for Obamas Medicaid expansion, adopted by 31 states. Perhaps more significantly, it would limit future federal funding for the overall program. As a result, its estimated Medicaid would cover 15 million fewer people by 2026.

The bill would add $45 billion to help states confronting the opioid epidemic pay for treatment and recovery. But that hasnt swayed the American Medical Association, which points out that people in recovery also need comprehensive health insurance.

Republican governors dont like the Medicaid cuts, and some have been vocal. About half the states that expanded Medicaid now have GOP chief executives.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican who oversaw a Medicaid expansion, said more than 200,000 people gained coverage in his state.

You think about 210,000 men, women and children, senior citizens, the drug addicted, the chronically ill, Sandoval said. These are people that used to get their treatment in emergency rooms, if they got any treatment at all. I keep going back to the fact that they are living a better quality of life.

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Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.
Dozens of lawsuits filed against New Mexico businesses for alleged disability violations should be dismissed because they are malicious, a chief federal magistrate says in a recent filing that ripped into a cottage industry of such legal complaints.

New Mexico Chief U.S. Magistrate Karen B. Molzen recommended the 99 lawsuits filed by Santa Fe lawyer Sharon Pomeranz against a variety of businesses be dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cant be refiled. Her recommendation goes to Chief U.S. District Judge M. Christina Armijo.

Pomeranz did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Pomeranz had filed the lawsuits early this year on behalf of Alyssa Carton, an Albuquerque resident who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair, alleging violations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The complaints used boilerplate language to claim the businesses had violated ADA requirements ranging from signs marking van-accessible parking spaces, proper access to towel dispensers and an unobstructed reach to the soap dispenser. The only differences among the suits were the business name and address and a single paragraph listing the supposed violations, and those were marked with many misspellings, Molzens filing said.

The filing called it troubling that Pomeranz did not follow her clients desire to first contact the businesses informally so they could fix any violations before going to court.

Carton, who said she wanted to benefit people with disabilities, answered a Craigslist ad last year placed by Litigation Management and Financial Services of Arizona that offered to help provide litigation support, the ruling said.

Litigation Management paid $50 to Carton and $100 to Pomeranz for each ADA case filed, the ruling said. It also provided support to Pomeranz, including a website, receptionist and consulting services with company attorneys. The firm was to be reimbursed from any legal settlements or court victories, and any remaining money was to go to Pomeranz.

The filing had this to say about Carton: Thus, as in a carnival shell game, Ms. Cartons expectation for receiving any settlement proceeds was illusory.

Molzen determined that the lawsuits were primarily filed for an improper purpose. It appears that Attorney Pomeranz and LMFS are using the judicial process to harass defendants into settlements to obtain financial gain  and not to remedy ADA violations that served as barriers to individuals with disabilities in accessing goods and services.

Although Carton had requested court costs be waived, Molzen said theres no legal provision allowing that and so she still owes $40,000.

Molzen noted that some of the businesses that were sued have asked that their attorney fees be repaid. Some even said they plan to file counterclaims against Carton. Molzen recommended Armijo set a deadline for attorneys to formally make those requests.
HISTORY TV18 is introducing an all new series inspired by real military missions. The series called SIX makes its debut on the channel on 15th July, 2017 at 9PM. SIX describes the story of Navy SEAL Team SIX, a group of elite warriors who are on a mission to eliminate a Taliban leader in Afghanistan.

The 8 episodic series is an authentic portrayal of what it means to be a member of SEAL Team Six,. Actors -Walton Goggins, Barry Sloane, Kyle Schmid and Juan Pablo Raba star as members of Navy SEAL Team SIX, who must make life-and-death decisions after a covert mission goes awry and one of their own is taken captive.

The show also depicts the human side of Team SIX as they grapple with the enemy and their personal lives. These warriors are just regular guys when they are not on missions. The series, which is inspired by actual events, is written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter William Broyles Jr. and military special operations veteran David Broyles.

Tune in to SIX starting 15th July, at 9pm only on HISTORY TV18
WHIPPANY, N.J., July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Bayer and the White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) announce that two-years into their partnership and less than one year from community project launch, their Every Woman Every Child commitment to empower women to practice self-care has reached 1,200 women in 91 communities across four developing countries. The announcement comes after the July 2016 release of self-care policy recommendations from Bayer and WRA, and the partnership's launch of local community programs to support the reduction and prevention of maternal, newborn and child mortality in developing countries including Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Indonesia and Bolivia.

Self-care is the foundation of maternal, newborn and child healthcare. This includes giving people the tools, knowledge and resources to get well, be well and stay well. In Indonesia, the self-care project addresses current health care needs; in Bangladesh it addresses birth preparedness and education; in Bolivia it addresses nutrition and in Zimbabwe, the self-care project addresses the high maternal mortality rate in Kwekwe District by increasing effective birth preparedness for emergency situations, increasing knowledge about birth complications and informing community members of their rights.

"I booked my prenatal care appointments early so that I can be assessed and be given information about the pregnancy, for example, the well-being of the baby and myself. That gave me satisfaction and confidence," said one woman in Kwekwe who participated in the project.

"When we're talking about how to transform health for women and girls, we should be talking about a fundamental change in how we think about health care," said Erica Mann, President Consumer Health Division and Member of the Board of Management, Bayer AG. "When women can access and understand health information, their health and well-being and that of their children are less at risk. Self-care gives women the tools and skills to take charge of their own health, which in turn improves their lives and the lives of generations of girls and women, and eases the burden on overstretched health systems by reducing costs and increasing effectiveness."

Bayer/White Ribbon Alliance Partnership

Today's announcement comes at the two-year anniversary of the Bayer/WRA commitment in support of the United Nations Every Woman Every Child movement and contributes to the success of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Established through a three-year, $1.3 million commitment from Bayer in 2015, the self-care programs complement work that is underway by WRA in Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Indonesia, and expands their work to Bolivia.

With a goal of providing self-care knowledge to underserved women and their families, these programs deliver education and skills to give women the confidence to take charge of their personal and family health before, during and after childbirth. White Ribbon Alliance leads the implementation effort, which focuses on vital health issues and barriers to care, including nutrition, birth preparedness, newborn care, hygiene and self-care policy advancement and advocacy.

The partnership is key in Bayer's commitment to continuing progress in this critical time of need, as outlined in public policy recommendations released by White Ribbon Alliance and Bayer in 2016. The policy paper, "Self-Care: A Cost Effective Solution for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health for All," underscores the potential of self-care to drive forward recommended global policies and interventions.

"We must reframe healthcare and put women at the center in partnership with health providers the health system," said Betsy McCallon, CEO, White Ribbon Alliance. "When women and communities are equipped with information about health services and rights, they become empowered agents to improve their health and that of their families, making self-care a vital component of global, national and local health policy and practice."

"In Zimbabwe women do not have adequate information they need to make decisions about their health before, during and after childbirth. This increases the chance of complications that lead to illness and death among women and newborns," said Gretel Mahere, District Nursing Officer for Kwekwe. "The good news is that the work we are doing is already having a powerful impact, improving the knowledge and confidence of the women in the program and is showing early signs of success in our community."

Every Woman Every Child

The Bayer and WRA partnership is part of the Every Woman Every Child movement.

"The Bayer, White Ribbon Alliance commitment to Every Woman Every Child directly contributes to the Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health and the success of the Sustainable Development Goals," said Natalie Africa, Senior Director for Private Sector Engagement for Every Woman Every Child. "This mission aims to keep women, children and adolescents at the heart of the sustainable development agenda, unlocking their vast potential to transform their lives and their communities."

Previous self-care efforts have not achieved broad reform, focusing instead on disease-specific or physician-specific initiatives. But self-care must start more broadly and focus on the individual in order to be effective for long-term health impact personally, societally and across generations.

With nearly 1,200 women impacted through their work thus far, Bayer and White Ribbon Alliance, supported by Every Woman Every Child, are committed to addressing obstacles to self-care in maternal, newborn and child health. By continuing to implement systemic and structural changes on global, national and local levels, health systems can empower women to trust themselves, know their rights and take actions which improve their health and that of their community.

Bayer: Science For A Better Life

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the Life Science fields of health care and agriculture. Its products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life. At the same time, the Group aims to create value through innovation, growth and high earning power. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development and to its social and ethical responsibilities as a corporate citizen. In fiscal 2016, the Group employed around 115,200 people and had sales of EUR 46.8 billion. Capital expenditures amounted to EUR 2.6 billion, R&D expenses to EUR 4.7 billion. These figures include those for the high-tech polymers business, which was floated on the stock market as an independent company named Covestro on October 6, 2015. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

About White Ribbon Alliance

White Ribbon Alliance is a powerful network of advocates working for maternal and newborn health and rights at the local, national and global levels. With members throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States, WRA mobilizes citizens, helping them recognize and seize their power to demand that all women and their children are safe and healthy before, during and after childbirth. For more information, visit our website at whiteribbonalliance.org.

About Every Woman Every Child

Launched in 2010 and led by the UN Secretary-General, the Every Woman Every Child movement aims to intensify national and international commitment and action by governments, the UN, multilaterals, private sector and civil society to keep women's, children's and adolescents' health and wellbeing at the heart of development. As a multi-stakeholder platform to operationalize the Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health, the movement mobilizes partnerships and coordinated efforts across sectors to ensure that all women, children and adolescents not only survive, but also thrive to help transform the world. Since 2015, 62 country and around 150 multi-stakeholder commitments have been pledged in support of the EWEC Global Strategy, totaling nearly US$30 billion to deliver on the promises of a sustainable future for all. More information at http://www.everywomaneverychild.org

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SOURCE Bayer
LONDON, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Rapid Growth, Reforms, and Partnerships are Transforming Healthcare Systems in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia



Southeast Asia (SEA) is emerging as the gold mine for both local and international healthcare vendors. Within SEA, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia still have unexplored and under-served markets providing boundless opportunities for healthcare vendors with innovative products and services.





Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5001034/







To be able to capitalize on the market, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and digital health vendors need to understand the market trends unique to each of these 3 countries.



However, the healthcare industry in these countries evolves rapidly, as they constantly find ways to upgrade the quality of the healthcare systems. Due to the turbulence in the market, there is a need to understand the key trends as well as predictions for each of these countries to foresee how the future would be like.



This research highlights the key trends and provides some predictions and suggestions to healthcare vendors. This research will help vendors align their strategies accordingly and develop innovative solutions and products that will help them to capitalize on the opportunities in these markets.



Research has found that medical tourism will continue to be one of the major focus areas for Malaysia and a lot of investments are already being done by the private sector.



In Singapore, the opportunity is in the areas of aged care and home care markets, as the government is actively promoting step down care. In Indonesia the opportunity lies in digital technological solutions that enhance the operational efficiency, as the country is revamping its healthcare system. Healthcare and non-healthcare participants need to understand where and how they can capitalize on the opportunity in the long run.



This study, however, does not provide an in-depth analysis of the market dynamics for each of these countries.



Project Scope

 Geographic Coverage: Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia

 Market Segmentation: Advance Medical Technology, Life Sciences, and Digital Health

 Base Year: 2016

 Forecast Period: 20172022

 Study Period: 20102022



Key Questions This Study Will Answer

 What are the key trends in the healthcare industry in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia?

 What is the impact of these trends on the medical devices, pharmaceutical, digital health, and healthcare services markets?

 What does it mean to the healthcare vendors operating in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia?

 What are the predictions for the healthcare industry in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia? How will the current scenario change in the future?

 What are the implications of these predictions for healthcare vendors?

 What are the strategic imperatives for growth and success in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia?



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5001034/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: query@reportbuyer.com

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/malaysia-singapore-and-indonesia-transformational-health-insights-2017---2022-300488276.html

SOURCE ReportBuyer
A new app developed by Samsung Electronics called Game Live leaked online on Friday, having originally been spotted on one file sharing website. Just like its name suggests, the app is essentially a gaming service meant to allow mobile gamers to stream their playing sessions directly from their Android-powered smartphones and tablets. The South Korean tech giant has yet to disclose that its working on such a solution in any official capacity, though the newly emerged app has undoubtedly been signed by the company and didnt originate from another party.

Upon first launching Game Live, the app asks you for a wide variety of system permissions, some of which are easy to explain, though others arent. The permissions to access photos, media, and other files on your device, as well as take pictures and record audio and your screen are all understandable requests from a mobile streaming app. On the other hand, Game Live also wants to be able to make and manage your phone calls, view your SMS messages and send new ones, in addition to asking for access to your contacts. The latter likely pertains to its ability to share your streams directly with people from your address book, while the SMS-related permission may have something to do with authentication that some streaming services could require, though the nature of the phone calls permission has yet to be determined.

Game Live works natively with Samsungs Game Launcher, allowing you to quickly select an Android game you want to stream, then sends you to another screen where youre able to choose your desired streaming channel. The experimental version of the app seems to natively support Twitch, Facebook Live, and YouTube Live, though the streaming functionality itself is still far from stable and the app is prone to crashing, even on Samsungs Galaxy devices. Its currently unclear when the Seoul-based company is planning on officially releasing the new service, though the fact that its tied to Game Launcher implies that Game Live could be a Galaxy exclusive for the foreseeable future. An update on the matter may follow in the coming months.
Carrier customers in the United States are primarily concerned with the cost of their plans and network performance, according to a survey conducted by Jefferies. The first concern, the cost of plans, holds true for the subscribers of the larger US carriers Verizon and AT&T. These two carriers have considerably more expensive postpaid plans compared to smaller competition and MVNOs. T-Mobile and Sprint successfully lured subscribers from both carriers after offering unlimited plans. To prevent the further exodus of consumers from its networks, both carriers have since offered their own versions of unlimited data plans. Aside from pricing, the fine print associated with these carriers plans and contracts is also a source of frustration among Verizon and AT&T subscribers.

Speaking of the two smaller carriers, consumers on both carriers are primarily concerned about the performance of their respective networks. The key issues with network performance include coverage and data speeds. Survey results emphasized that the subscribers on the smaller carriers, especially T-Mobile, have been in situations where they lose cellular connection. The carriers have been trying to reduce the occurrence of similar situations with T-Mobile rolling out LTE network on the better propagating 600MHz spectrum as soon as broadcasters vacate the aforementioned frequency. In addition, customers of Sprint and T-Mobile still have the impression that they are getting comparatively slower speeds from their carriers compared to the subscribers of AT&T and Verizon. This is despite the efforts of both carriers to increase data speeds by deploying small cells in urban locations and rolling out relevant technologies like carrier aggregation.

Jefferies also asked the survey respondents on whether they plan to switch carriers within the next 12 months. Survey results indicate that Sprint customers are the most likely to consider switching carriers. On the other hand, AT&T subscribers are the least likely to do the same thing, with Verizon and T-Mobile trailing the carrier. The increased likelihood of Sprint customers to leave the carrier is attributed to the sudden termination of customer-luring promos like the discounted plans. The behavior observed among Sprint subscribers is a manifestation of another interesting trend uncovered by Jefferies, wherein more than three-fourths of survey respondents may change carriers or transfer to a cheaper plan once prices increase.
Qualcomm on Friday argued over a $910 million antitrust fine that the company was hit with in South Korea in late 2016, asking the countrys Fair Trade Commission (FTC) to postpone the enforcement of its sanction until the companys lawsuit against the order is processed, local media reports. During a public hearing at the 7th Administrative Division of the Seoul High Court, the San Diego, California-based chipmaker claimed that the Korean government will inflict irreparable damage to its operations if it proceeds with enforcing the correction order momentarily, claiming that such a scenario must be avoided as its lawsuit may change the legality of the measure.

The company pleaded for the order to be delayed for a limited period of time, with its representatives not giving a more detailed estimate as to when they expect their lawsuit to be processed. Qualcomm originally started the litigation in late February, filing a lawsuit seeking to cancel the order with the Seoul High Court. The sanction itself was issued after the FTC decided that Qualcomm was abusing its dominance in the mobile modem market and bullied a number of companies into paying unfair licensing fees for what it deems are essential patents. Koreas competition watchdog specifically mentioned Samsung Electronics and Apple as being affected by Qualcomms patent licensing practices that it concluded were monopolistic and must be corrected.

The competent court has yet to make a ruling on Qualcomms plea but is expected to do so shortly. The original fine that the chipmaker is now appealing amounted to $854 million last year but due to currency fluctuations, 1.03 billion won now translates to around $910 million. That figure marks the largest antitrust penalty ever issued in the history of the Far Eastern country, though it remains to be seen whether Qualcomm is required to pay it in the end. The company has been dealing with accusations of anti-competitive practices on numerous fronts in recent years and is even currently involved in a legal battle with the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), also due to its supposedly unfair licensing fees. An update on Qualcomms efforts to resolve its disputes with various antitrust authorities should follow later this year.
The unmistakable new GT2RS  A post shared by DDWCarsinAZ (@ddwcarsinaz) on Jul 13, 2017 at 10:27am PDT

And the latest sighting of the 2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS comes from the Instagram post you can find at the bottom of the page. This treats us with a White example of the 700 hp monster.Unlike the Lava Orange example of the supercar we recently brought you, the one we're looking at here won't trigger purists, since it does feature the Weissach Package - yes, you can have those eye-catching magnesium wheels in a black finish.While we're at it, we'll remind you that we showed you a car with a similar spec yesterday (yes, it could be the same machine), albeit with the Rennsport animal going for a leisure drive.Returning to the teasing game we mentioned in the intro above, we have to mention that the German automotive producer continues to keep us on our toes.To be more precise, Porsche still hasn't announced the Nurburgring lap time of the 2018 911 GT2 RS. And, since the yet-unreleased 991.2 GT3 RS (this could land next year) is expected to be a sub-7 car, the rumor mill talks about the GT2 RS potentially setting a new production car lap record.And the 208 MPH Green Hell maximum velocity mention Mark Webber made at Goodwood added quite a lot of fuel to this fire. For one thing, the said speed, which was reportedly hit on the infamous German track's main straight, is superior to the velocity values achieved by the Lamborghini Huracan Performante or the Lanzante-backed Mclaren P1 LM.
A 57-year-old tourist from New Zealand was killed earlier this week when she was knocked off her feet and into a retaining wall while watching jets depart from the St. Maarten Airport. Even if the name is unfamiliar, most pilots are familiar with pictures of baby-blue KLM 747s flying low over the heads of tourists on a narrow, white sand beach. The proximity to landing and departing aircraft has made the narrow stretch of Maho Beach a global tourist attraction, but one not entirely free of risk.

Most visitors watch the jets taking off and landing for the sheer joy of being sandblasted by high-bypass turbofans, which has proven to be fairly safe. Local tourism official Rolando Brinson says fewer than 10 people have been hospitalized from jet blast injuries in the 50 years the airport has been in operation. The woman killed this week was said to have been hanging onto the airport fence across the road from the beach. Although this marks the first fatality at the spot, in 2014 a woman was seriously injured when she let go of the same fence and tumbled head first into a retaining wall. That incident was captured on video and later shared on YouTube.
Bob Withrow, VP of Engineering at Scaled Composites, in Mojave, California, says the company will offer 40 forums during EAA AirVenture on all aspects of homebuilding, plus insights into the companys unique aircraft designs.
Two Armenian nationals were wounded on Friday in a mass stabbing in Egypts Red Sea resort of Hurghada which left two other foreign tourists dead.

News reports said an Egyptian man stabbed two German women to death and wounded two other tourists at a local hotel and then swam to a neighboring beach to attack at least two more people at the Sunny Days El Palacio resort before he was arrested. The motive for his attack was not immediately known.

The Egyptian Interior Ministry said that the wounded tourists were rushed to a local hospital. The security manager at the El Palacio hotel told Reuters that two of them are Armenians.

Armenias Foreign Ministry confirmed that, citing information received from the Armenian Embassy in Cairo. The Embassy has contacted the injured Armenian citizens, it said on its Twitter page. Their life is not in danger. Medical aid is provided.

The ministry spokesman, Tigran Balayan, tweeted separately that the attacker was neutralized with the help of our wounded citizen.

The stabbings came hours after five Egyptian police officers were shot to death in Cairo's twin city of Giza. Twenty-three Egyptian troops were killed in Egypts Sinai peninsula a week ago, in an assault claimed by the so-called Islamic State militant group.

The Foreign Ministry in Yerevan urged Armenians to refrain from trips to Egypt following the October 2015 bombing of a Russian plane over the Sinai. The ministry repeated the warning in January 2016.
14 July 2017 11:33 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) under the Economy Ministry of Azerbaijan held business forum on July 13 in Dellekoba district of the Masalli region.

Following the business forum, in which about 60 businessmen took part, the NFES has started accepting entrepreneurs' proposals for financing investment projects on development of livestock, viticulture, tea growing, creation of greenhouse farms and enterprises for the production of bread and furniture.

In the framework of the mentioned business forum, entrepreneurs received preferential loans worth 309,000 manats ($181,500). To date, entrepreneurs from the Lankaran economic region received preferential loans in the amount of 119.1 million manats ($70 million) for implementation of more than 3,100 investment projects.

Deputy Executive Director of NFES Arif Valimammadov, addressing the forum stressed that the Fund has issued soft loans worth 65.3 million manats ($38.4 million) to 840 entrepreneurs, since early 2017, which will create more than 2,600 new workplaces.

About 150 million manats ($88.1 million) will be issued for granting preferential loans to entrepreneurs in 2017.

The Fund, created in 1992, issues loans to entrepreneurs through authorized banks and non-bank lenders.

The main goal of the Fund is to provide preferential loans from the state budget for small and medium business, in order to develop entrepreneurship in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Allocation of funds by NFES is aimed at the mitigating of the impact of global economic crisis to the national economy and minimization of its dependence on the oil sector.

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14 July 2017 12:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

The governments of Azerbaijan and Tajikistan reached an agreement to ban import and sale of goods, produced in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, in Tajikistan.

The agreement, which was reached during the 4th meeting of the Azerbaijani-Tajik intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation in Baku on July 13, also prohibits involvement of Tajik companies in any economic activity in these territories.

For more than two decades 20 percent of Azerbaijans territory has been occupied during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a result of the military aggression by Armenia. Despite four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions Armenia has not yet implemented them.

Azerbaijan considers any activity conducted in the occupied territories as illegal, thats why countrys friends and partners bypass this territory.

The sides further discussed possibilities of exporting agricultural and industrial products from Azerbaijan to Tajikistan, expanding investment activities in areas of mutual interest and creating joint ventures.

Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev, who is also a co-chair of the commission, noted the successful development of political, economic and cultural ties between the two countries. He reminded that Azerbaijan and Tajikistan have already signed 45 documents on cooperation in various fields.

The minister spoke about the expansion of trade ties between the two countries over the past two years, saying that the trade turnover increased by 91 percent by the end of 2016.



Tajikistan imports alumina and petroleum coke from Azerbaijan for the production of aluminum. Annually Ganja combine produces 420,000 tons of alumina, more than 300,000 tons of which are usually exported to Tajikistan. At the same time, Tajikistan imports pomegranate juice, butter, sugar and agricultural products from Azerbaijan.

Speaking about the transportation projects implemented by Azerbaijan in the region, and the work of Azerbaijani Coordinating Council on Transit Freight, Mustafayev noted that Tajikistan can take advantage of these opportunities.



Transit transport is an important component of trade and economic relations between the countries. One of the important ways for Tajikistan to deliver products to the world market is the corridor of Turkmenbashi-Baku-Poti.

The minister also noted that Tajikistan already uses the services of the first Azerbaijani telecommunications satellite and can also use it to create topographic and cadastral maps and conduct environmental monitoring.



Azerspace-1, launched in 2013, provides a variety of services, such as digital television, data transmission, VSAT multi-service networks, and governmental communications.

A protocol was signed following the meeting of the intergovernmental commission.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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14 July 2017 13:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the first plant for production of solid consistency drugs in Azerbaijan.

The plant, which will be commissioned in late 2018, will produce cardiological, nephrological, gastroenterological, diabetic and other medicine necessary for the Azerbaijani market.

The products of the plant, being built by the Indian company SunPharma, which is the 1st in India and the 5th in the world pharmaceutical company, will meet the European standards GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice).

Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev took part in the ceremony that took place in Sumgayit on July 13.

The plants production capacity will be 200 million tablets, 40 million capsules and 20 million ampoules per year. The produces medicines will also be exported to CIS countries and other foreign markets.

In late 2015, the government announced that Azerbaijan will create its own enterprises that will manufacture medicines to cease dependence on imports. Today, the local market of medicines is heavily dependent on imports.

To this end, the Pirallahi Industrial Park is established by the order of President Ilham Aliyev On Establishment of Pirallahi Industrial Park dated September 14, 2016.

Currently, 3 pharmaceutical plants are being constructed in the Pirallahi Industrial Park.

The first plant is a joint venture with a group of companies R-Pharm (Russian Federation), Vita-A LLC (Azerbaijan) and Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC). The foundation of the Hayat Farm was laid in November 2016.

The total preliminary investment in the project exceeds $70 million. The plant should be producing finished products by the end of 2019.

The joint pharmaceutical plant between Iranian company Tamin Pharmaceutical Investment Company (TPIC) and Azerbaijans Azersun Holding, Caspian Pharmed became the second resident of the plant. The foundation of the plant was held in January 2017.

The project cost is more than $20 million. The joint plant is to be operational in summer 2018 and in the first stage it will produce 84 medicines.

The Azerbaijani company Diamed Co, founded in April 2017, is the third resident of Azerbaijans Pirallahi Industrial Park.

The plant, covering an area of one hectare, will produce 55-58 million syringes annually, based on advanced European, Japanese and Korean technologies.

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14 July 2017 16:35 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

To date, the self-employment program in Azerbaijan covered about 1,400 people.

Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Salim Muslimov made the remarks at an event dedicated to the results of the journalistic contest Self-Employment: Create Your Employment and Get a Family Business on July 14.

"Within the framework of the program, there were selected 1,400 people, who passed relevant trainings and whose business plans were recognized as successful. Of the total number, 322 are women and 303 are young men. Since February, the process of providing these individuals with assets has started. The process of issuance of assets is planned to be completed next month, Muslimov said.

Based on the assessment - the purpose, structure and content of the business plan, the relevant commission under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population provides the applicants with goods and materials, helping them to create and manage family business. Only those who are able to justify their business plan benefit the program.

Enlarging self-employment has been determined as a perspective business task in Azerbaijan.

In September 2016, Simplified support to family business (ABAD) under the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations operating under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (ASAN) was created in order to support the active participation of citizens in the social and economic development of Azerbaijan, the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), increase of employment of the population.

Moreover, it is planned to create the Agency of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Guarantee Credit Fund in 2017-2018. Similar agencies already operate in Europe, the UK, the USA, China, Singapore and other countries, stimulating the development of small and medium-sized businesses.

In these agencies, any representative of SMEs can relatively quickly and easily find out about all the opportunities for the company's development, new methods and technologies, about raising the qualification of employees, and assessing the risks of working in another country. Also, the Fund introduces a huge number of various programs on concessional lending, which include special loans, credit risk insurance and subsidies. In general, the agency's mission is to help and protect the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises, create free market competition, and support and strengthen the country's economy in whole.

People engaged in business in Baku pay 4 percent of the income, while in other regions they must pay 3 percent. In the sphere of trade and public catering, income tax equals to 6 and 8 percent, respectively.

To assist to self-employment the Presidential Reserve Fund allocated 6 million manats ($3.5 million) to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Azerbaijan.

That will ensure the transition from activities on the unsustainable passive social security of low-income families to the activities of sustainable active employment programs.

Unemployment rate in Azerbaijan is 5 percent, while the poverty level equals to 5.3 percent.

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14 July 2017 17:27 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to approve a loan on November 1 for Azerbaijans Tamiz Shahar JSC, established to improve the ecological condition of Baku.

The EBRD reported on July 14 that the bank is reviewing the projects concept.

The goal of the project is to improve the efficiency of solid domestic waste management in Baku.

The project, with the total cost of $40.3 million, is expected to bring significant environmental benefits and operational efficiency. In particular, the optimization of waste transportation will significantly reduce CO2 emissions from vehicles, the total costs of transportation and illegal waste disposal.

Loan will be allocated for financing the domestic waste management in Baku and adjacent settlements on the Absheron peninsula (Big Baku).

The funds will be used to finance the construction of two transfer stations and sorting facilities, which will allow optimizing the transportation of waste products and reducing the volume of their utilization. The proposed project is consistent with the EBRDs Transition to a Green Economy approach by reducing carbon dioxide emissions and reducing the overall volume of waste transportation, the bank stated.

Tamiz Shahar JSC is a state organization providing waste disposal services in Baku.

The Company has introduced a number of important projects such as Waste-to-Energy Plant, Material Recovery Facility and is also carrying out very active promotion campaigns in order to increase public awareness on waste problem and to stimulate people to protect environment through proper waste treatment.

The main goal of Tamiz Shahar is to create up-to-date and sustainable waste management system in Baku and bring the latest novelties in waste management sphere to the country through sharing experience with foreign countries and international companies.

EBRD has allocated more than 3 billion to Azerbaijan for implementation of 160 projects since 1992.

One of the main tasks of EBRD is to ensure stable development of Azerbaijan's non-oil sector by investing in small and medium-sized private enterprises.

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14 July 2017 11:48 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan's northeastern region, Guba has hosted a gala concert with participants of the 2nd International Folk Dance Festival "Bridge of friendship", organized by the Baku City Main Department of Culture and Tourism.

"Bridge of friendship" festival was held at the Azerbaijan State Theatre of Young Spectators on July 7-13.

More than four hundred dancers from Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Israel, Moldova, Latvia and Georgia joined the grand event organized by the Baku City Main Department of Culture and Tourism in Baku, Trend Life reported.

The festival aimed at promotion of youth folk art and creating cultural bridges between countries.

The tours around major landmarks of Baku were organized as part of the event.

Before the concert, guests visited the Guba Genocide Memorial Complex in Guba city - monument created in memory of tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis killed during the genocide and massacre perpetrated on Azerbaijani lands by the Armenian armed forces in 1918.

Addressing the event, the head of Guba City Executive Power noted that Azerbaijan is a genuine example of multiculturalism and tolerance, inter-civilizational and inter-religious dialogue, where for centuries peacefully together coexisted the representatives of various peoples, ethnic groups, religions.

The guests expressed their gratitude for the hospitality. Then the participants made a procession through the territory of the Green Theatre dressed in national costumes and gave a concert, which was met with applause of spectators.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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14 July 2017 15:33 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

A concert of graduate of Baku Musical Academy and the Norwegian Education Institution Grieg Academy, Humay Gasimzadah (pianoforte) and graduate of Baku Musical Academy Zhala Aliyeva (cello) has been held at the Azerbaijani Embassy in Hungary.

The event was co-organized by the Azerbaijani and Norwegian Embassies, Report.az reported.

Speaking at the event, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Hungary Vilayat Guliyev touched upon the Azerbaijani-Norwegian ties highlighting the importance of similar events in the promotion of the Azerbaijani culture and art that has rich history.

In his speech, Ambassador Olav Berstad noted that 15 years ago he worked in the Norwegian Embassy in Azerbaijan and during the activities he had the opportunity to look more closely at the rich Azerbaijani culture and arts.

Before the start of the concert, the performers honored with a minute of silence the memory of two-year old Azerbaijani resident Zahra Guliyeva and her grandmother Sahiba Allahverdiyeva killed as a result of another provocation of the Armenian armed forces on July 4.

Afterwards, the young musicians performed famous works of Azerbaijani and Norwegian composers. The excerpts from the works of Edvard Grieg, Fikrat Amirov and other classical and contemporary composers sounded at the concert.

Since the beginning of the 1990s Azerbaijan and Norway have developed an increasingly strong relationship. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on June 5, 1992. The Norwegian embassy in Baku was opened in June 1998.

The co-operation has been growing especially in the field of energy, and several Norwegian companies have established themselves in Baku.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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14 July 2017 11:19 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

As many as 20,000 Iranians have signed a document condemning the murder of the 2-year-old Azerbaijani girl Zahra and her grandmother by Armenian armed forces as a result of the recent provocation on the frontline.

Iranian MP from Urmia Nader Ghazipour, informing about this APA, added that the murder of the child must be condemned.

The shelling of the Alkhanli village of Fuzuli region by Armenian armed forces and the murder of civilians should be raised before international bodies, said Ghazipour.

On July 4 evening, the Armenian armed forces using mortars and grenade launchers shelled Azerbaijan's Alkhanli village. As a result of this provocation, a resident of the village and her two-year-old granddaughter were killed. Another resident, who got wounded, was taken to the hospital and was operated on.

Ghazipour further added that Iran has always condemned the killing of children in different countries  Yemen, Syria and other states.

The Azerbaijanis are our Muslim brothers and neighbors. We are against any wars. We believe that the region needs peace and stability, Ghazipour said, adding that Iran advocates a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The MP suggested a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers that could be organized by the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran: "Iran has the potential to resolve the conflict by diplomatic means. Iran is a peaceful country.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

Baku has repeatedly expressed its consent to come to the negotiating table with Yerevan to solve the conflict by peaceful means, but Armenia continues to play for time and avoids substantive negotiations in order to preserve the inadmissible status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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14 July 2017 11:01 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh is not connected with the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and must be resolved in line with international law through negotiations, said Timur Urazaev, Kazakhstans extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to Armenia, in his interview with Sputnik Armenia.

We dont link the Nagorno-Karabakh issue with the Organization in any way, because this is a regional conflict that must be resolved in line with international law, noted the ambassador.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

Despite the official ceasefire, each year the conflict becomes a cause of the deaths of dozens of civilians and military. The latest outbreak of violence on the contact proved that it is impossible to resolve the conflict by keeping a status quo.

He said that Kazakhstan supports the conflicts settlement through negotiations. I can only call on the parties to resolve the issue peacefully, added Urazaev.

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14 July 2017 15:38 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The trial on blogger Alexander Lapshin, detained in Azerbaijan, continued in the Baku Grave Crimes Court on July 14.

During the trial presided over by judge Alovsat Abbasov, the prosecutor demanded 6.5 years of imprisonment for Lapshin.

The trial will continue on July 19.

Earlier, the blogger answered the questions at the trial and said that he visited the occupied Azerbaijani territories twice, but pleaded not guilty.

Lapshin illegally visited Azerbaijans Armenia-occupied lands and now is charged under the articles 281.2 (appeals directed against state) and 318.2 (illegal border crossing) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. He violated Azerbaijani laws on state border in April 2011 and October 2012.

Helped by his accomplices in the occupied territories, Lapshin paid a number of visits to Azerbaijan`s occupied lands, where he voiced support for "independence" of the illegal regime, and made public calls against Azerbaijan`s internationally recognized territorial integrity on April 6 and June 29, 2016.

The blogger was arrested in Minsk in late 2016 and transferred to Baku in February 2017.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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14 July 2017 18:01 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Deputy Foreign Minister of Norway Tone Skogen has called on the OSCE Chairman to protect the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Skogen, while addressing the OSCE Informal Ministerial Meeting in Austria this week, said that during the crisis period, changes in security landscapes and an uncertain future, the international cooperation based on common principles and norms is more important than ever.

The OSCE commitments are our common heritage, carefully developed on the basis of consensus. We must confirm these standards and this spirit of cooperation, "Skogen said, appealing to OSCE Chairman-in-Office Sebastian Kurtz.

Unfortunately, some participating states do not fulfill their obligations to the OSCE, she said. This is the reason of the impasse, in which we are now. This is the reason for the lack of trust and compromise in our organization. Threats and violations of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the member states remain, whether in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova or Azerbaijan. This is a threat to the international order and our common security.

She added that the unity can only be built on full respect for the OSCE commitments and international law.

For about three decades Armenia and Azerbaijan are in a state of war following Yerevans aggression, ethnic cleansing policy and illegal territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenia keeps under control over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions in a brutal war in the early 1990s.

Despite a fragile ceasefire agreement signed in 1994, Armenia keeps violating armistice with Azerbaijan.

The OSCE Minsk Group mediators from Russia, France and the United States, who are engaged as a mediator in the conflict resolution, have failed to achieve any tangible result so far.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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13 July 2017 16:53 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received credentials of newly appointed Ambassador of Turkmenistan Mekan Ishanguliyev on July 13, Azertac reported.

Ambassador Mekan Ishanguliyev reviewed a guard of honor.

Mekan Ishanguliyev presented his credentials to President Ilham Aliyev.

President Ilham Aliyev then had a conversation with the ambassador.

The head of state stressed that the brotherly people of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have enjoyed friendship and cooperation for centuries. President Ilham Aliyev noted that today the intergovernmental relations between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan actively strengthen. The head of state noted that Azerbaijan is interested in strengthening the relations in political, economic, transport, humanitarian and other areas. The bilateral relations are successfully developing and are exemplary.

President Ilham Aliyev wished the ambassador success in his activities and expressed his hope that Mekan Ishanguliyevs diplomatic tenure will contribute to bringing the two countries closer to each other and to developing the relations in all areas.

Ambassador Mekan Ishanguliyev extended President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov`s greetings to President Ilham Aliyev. The ambassador noted that he will spare no efforts to expand and strengthen the relations between the two brotherly countries and peoples during his tenure. Saying that the two countries historically enjoyed relations of good neighborliness, Mekan Ishanguliyev pointed out the existence of necessary potential for strengthening cooperation in political, economic, diplomatic, trade and cultural areas. The ambassador noted that transport sector is one of the key priorities of cooperation. Hailing favourable geographical location of both Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, the ambassador noted that trade routes historically passed through the two countries. Mekan Ishanguliyev said the international cooperation issues are actively discussed by appropriate authorities of the two countries. The ambassador described meetings between the Turkmen and Azerbaijani presidents as the main factor in revitalizing cooperation. The ambassador said the Asian Games will start in Turkmenistan on September 17, adding that the President and people of Turkmenistan are looking forward to President Ilham Aliyevs participation at the event.

President Ilham Aliyev said relations between the two countries actively develop. The head of state noted the importance of high-level meetings in strengthening the bilateral relations, adding that cooperation between related authorities, including state and private companies, should match up to this level. The head of state extended his congratulations on Turkmenistan`s hosting the Asian Games.

President Ilham Aliyev wished the ambassador success in his future activities.

The head of state thanked for the greetings of Turkmenistans President and asked the ambassador to convey his greetings to Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

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14 July 2017 10:05 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The work on cadastral registration of land in Azerbaijan will be completed by 2020.

Chairman of the State Committee on Property Issues Karam Hasanov announced about this at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to results of socio-economic development in the first half of 2017 and objectives for the future.

Hasanov went on to say that to prevent violations of the land legislation, employees of local executive authorities and municipalities are invited to carry out activities to improve public awareness in this regard.

Over the past 6 months of 2017, there were drafted 1,700 administrative protocols related to offenses against the land use, fines amounted to 1.2 million manats ($705,000) and 240 cases were sent to the relevant law enforcement agencies.

"In some areas, where land reform has not yet completed, appropriate steps are taken by means of cadastral accounting work. So, within the framework of the taken measures, the long-term problem with the land of more than 1,000 families in Khachmaz, Siyazan, Imishli and Beylagan regions was solved, the head of the Committee added.

Hasanov also said that digitization of orthophotomaterials for land cadastre has been completed and relief maps have been prepared covering the territory of 4.1 million hectares.

The Chairman stressed that for the first time on the basis of the data of the land cadastre, there were compiled digital cadastral maps of Baku, Sumgayit and Ganja.

The World Bank approved a loan worth $30 million to Azerbaijan for the project Cadastre and registration of real estate in March 2007. The aim of the project was to provide reliable, transparent and effective system of registration of real estate. The share of the Azerbaijani government in the project was $8 million.

The project was completed in April 2016. It consisted of four components: registration of real estate, which will provide more efficient services to clients in the registration of property rights and the use of automated systems and online services; improvement in the management of state property; usage of geodetic innovations; conducting of trainings.

Hasanov further added that the Information System of Address Register has been created in the country. The Address Register includes about 30,000 streets and avenues from 57 cities and regions of the country.

An accurate and continuously-updated GPS navigational system, AzNav has been developed on the basis of the database of the Information System of Address Register, he said.

The system covers the entire territory of Azerbaijan, and has capabilities of search and determining the necessary address, the shortest route from one address to another one, showing all the alternative roads. It works both in online and offline mode on all mobile devices with operating systems Android, iOS, Windows CE. The system is available through the Play Market or App Store.

The AzNav system is very useful for ambulance and police, in case of critical emergency and fire, postal services, taxi operators and freight, tourism activities.

Speaking about the real estate market, he said that despite the decline in economic activity, revival in the countrys real estate market is observed. Azerbaijan took the 22nd place in the World Bank's (WB) Doing Business report among 190 countries in terms of real estate registration.

The government of Azerbaijan plans to introduce a mechanism of preliminary registration of real estate, in order to prevent the possibility of selling apartments to several people. Preliminary registration of real estate will ensure proper documentation during the construction.

Today, the share of the construction sector in Azerbaijans GDP amounts to about 10 percent.

The government plans to achieve a GDP growth by 249 million manats ($ 141.2 million) until 2020, through the implementation of measures envisaged in the Strategic Road Map for the development of housing provision at a reasonable price.

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14 July 2017 10:35 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijani Defense Minister, Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov met with U.S. Ambassador Robert Cekuta.

The sides exchanged views on military, military-technical, military education issues and organizing of mutual visits at the level of specialists and trainings, as well as on cooperation issues in defense, joint fight against terrorism and peacekeeping operations, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said July 13.

Touching upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Hasanov said that Armenia is a source of separatism, terrorism and extremism.

Stressing that this is a threat not only for Azerbaijan, but also for the region, the minister said that the joint work of international organizations is required to prevent this threat.

The U.S. diplomat stressed that the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is important for ensuring the security and development of the South Caucasus region.

Cekuta expressed deep condolences to the relatives of people who died as a result of the conflict, in particular, civilians killed in Alkhanly village of Azerbaijans Fizuli district.

The U.S. ambassador stressed the successful development of cooperation between the US and Azerbaijan in a bilateral format and within the NATO.

Cekuta expressed gratitude for Azerbaijans contribution to the peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan.

Then the ambassador introduced Adam Kavlick, new U.S. military attache to Azerbaijan, to the Azerbaijani defense minister.

Congratulating the new US military attache with the beginning of the mission in Azerbaijan, the minister wished him success in the work on expanding the ties between the armed forces of the two countries.

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14 July 2017 10:15 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta has visited Baku branch of Lomonosov Moscow State University to meet its Head, Academician Nargiz Pashayeva.

Nargiz Pashayeva highlighted the activity of the university, as well as its future development.

They talked about the universitys current international relations, as well as its cooperation with the University of Oxford.

The academician spoke of the activity of Scientific Center of Azerbaijan and Caucasian Studies named after Nizami Ganjavi at Oxford University.

The Center is involved in research, academic exchange, scientific and practical conferences, scholarship programs, implementation of cultural projects. One of the functions of the Center is to collect scientific information, resource and library fund related to Azerbaijan.

The popularization of science and public figures of Azerbaijan through the translation and publication of their work in English, French and German is an important part of the Center's activity.

Academician Nargiz Pashayeva touched upon excavation works carried out in Barda, which was the capital of Caucasian Albania in the late period of the Roman Empire.

Ambassador Robert Cekuta expressed confidence that Scientific Center of Azerbaijan and Caucasian Studies named after Nizami Ganjavi will carry out a number of great projects in the future.

Nargiz Pashayeva also highlighted the activity of the British Foundation for the Study of Azerbaijan and the Caucasus that is officially registered in the UK.

Ambassador Robert Cekuta thanked for the meeting and said relations between Azerbaijan and the U.S. dynamically develop and expand.

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14 July 2017 10:42 (UTC+04:00)

Foreign Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania Teodor Meleshkanu had an exchange of congratulatory letters on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov mentioned that during the last 25 years bilateral relations have steadily progressed and now the cooperation expands to all fields including the political, economic, cultural and people to people fields, Azertac reported.

Minister said that today multifaceted cooperation existing between Azerbaijan and Romania is based on solid background, which is constantly widening and deepening.

Elmar Mammadyarov expressed his gladness with the current state of bilateral relations which has reached Strategic Partnership level. Also, Minister pointed out that the Joint Action Plan on the implementation of Strategic Partnership is a key document, which lays down concrete measures to bolster cooperation in all fields of mutual interest, including political, international security, energy and economic. Elmar Mammadyarov mentioned that among them the development of political relations remains top priority to ensure comprehensive and deeper development of partnership.

Minister appreciated Romanias consistent and principal position on the settlement of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania Teodor Meleshkanu in the letter addressed to Elmar Mammadyarov mentioned that Romania was second country, after Turkey, to have recognized the independence of Republic of Azerbaijan, on December 11, 1991, and the relations between two countries have constantly developed ever since.

T.Meleshkanu said that the Declaration on the establishment of a Strategic Partnership between Romania and the Republic of Azerbaijan, dating back to 2009, represents a milestone in bilateral relations, creating the basis for deepening cooperation in every field.

Also T.Meleshkanu expressed his conviction that the good collaboration and mutually beneficial dialogue between countries will continue to expand in the years to come, to the benefit of both Romania and the Republic of Azerbaijan.

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14 July 2017 15:19 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan provides all peoples living here legal frameworks for the preservation of their language and culture, according to Russian Ambassador to Baku Vladimir Dorokhin.

The ambassador, addressing a conference of public associations of Russian compatriots in Azerbaijan on July 14, said that unlike many other countries, in Azerbaijan the Russian language does not face discrimination, it is widely used, and this attitude is very valuable.

Dorokhin reminded that Azerbaijan accommodates the largest Russian community in the Caucasus and Russian citizens of Azerbaijan remain its patriots.



Russia is doing a great job to support its compatriots in Azerbaijan, the envoy said, noting that Azerbaijan is an oasis for the Russian language and culture.

Dorokhin added that today an information war being waged against Russia and the country needs support more than ever.

"Russia is a big and strong country, but any voice of support is valuable and expensive for us, so we are very grateful to Azerbaijan," he said.



He mentioned that in 2016, 202 Azerbaijani students received scholarships from the Russian government to receive education in Russia. Data for 2017, according to the ambassador, is not available yet, but Russia is one of the most popular countries among Azerbaijani students.

In the fields of education and science, the development of Russian language is one of the factors bringing the two countries and nations closer to each other.

Branches of two prestigious Russian universities  Lomonosov Moscow State University and Sechenov State Medical University in Azerbaijan and a branch of Azerbaijan State Economic University in Derbent successfully operate. Azerbaijani students study at Russian educational institutions, while a total of 90,000 students receive education in Russian language in secondary schools of the country.

Overall, Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation signed more than 90 agreements in various spheres of science, culture and education, which attest to the development of the humanitarian relations.

Speaking on liquidation of All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress, the ambassador said that the problem with the Congress has nothing to do with politics.

People who were supposed to provide legal support to the Congress could not cope with this, according to Dorokhin. The congress repeatedly received warnings from the Russian Ministry of Justice and did not react in any way.

"We proceed from the premise that all organizations must act within the legislation of the host country," Dorokhin said, adding that all organizations of Russian compatriots operating in Azerbaijan are in compliance with Azerbaijani legislation.

"For Russia, relations with Azerbaijan are of great value, and we hope that this incident will not affect our relations," Dorokhin said.

He noted that appropriate measures will be done to resolve this issue.

The Supreme Court of Russia, on the basis of an appeal by the Justice Ministry of the Russian Federation, liquidated the registration of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress on May 15.

The Congress, which unites more than 2 million Azerbaijanis living almost in all regions of Russia, was established in 2001 on the initiative of national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev and President Vladimir Putin.

Throughout 16 years of its activity, the organization has played a huge role in strengthening of civil peace and interethnic harmony in Russia, development and deepening of socio-economic and cultural cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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14 July 2017 15:46 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijani Culture Days have kicked off in Cannes, France, aiming at bringing the two nations and peoples closer to each other.

Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva attended the event, organized by the Foundation on July 14.

The opening ceremony of "Toghrul Narimanbeyov: the melody of colors" exhibition was held as part of the Culture Days at the Gare Maritime exhibition pavilion, Azertac reported.

Assistant to the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, Executive Director of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Anar Alakbarov, addressing the event, hailed the importance of such projects organized by the Foundation in different countries in terms of promoting Azerbaijan's history and culture and delivering Azerbaijani realities to the world.

Highlighting the creative activity of Toghrul Narimanbeyov, who played a crucial role in the fine arts of Azerbaijan, Anar Alakbarov thanked those who contributed to this project, including Cannes Mayor's office.

Deputy Mayor of Cannes, Frank Chikli noted that organizing the Azerbaijani Culture Days in the city has become a tradition. He noted that Azerbaijan and the city of Cannes attach great importance to culture.

Chikli said that the works demonstrated at the exhibition will introduce Azerbaijan`s folklore and culture to Cannes' residents and tourists. "Such kind of cultural events contribute to strengthening relations between the two countries."

The exhibition, which features more than 30 works of Toghrul Narimanbeyov, will be open to public until August 1.

The opening ceremony of the Culture Days also featured a concert program of Azerbaijani musicians.

Speaking prior to the concert, Anar Alakbarov extended Azerbaijani First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva`s best wishes to the event participants.

He congratulated the people of France on the Bastille Day, and wished them peace and tranquility.

President of the Association of Friends of Azerbaijan in France Jean-Francois Mancel hailed the excellent organization of international events in Azerbaijan.

Frank Chikli handed a portrait of Mehriban Aliyeva, drawn by French artist Olivier Domin, to Anar Alakbarov.

The event then featured fireworks show made as part of the traditional Festival d'Art Pyrotechnigue in Cannes.

Starting its activity since 2004, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation has been actively participating in building a new society and contributing to the social and economic development of Azerbaijan, by implementing various projects in spheres such as education, public health, culture, sports, science and technology, environment, and social and other spheres.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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14 July 2017 17:14 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

As a year passes since the attempted military coup of July 2016, Turkeys political elite is marking this monumental turning point in their political history.

The deadly coup attempt, which claimed the lives of more than 240 people and injured over 2,000, is regarded as a test democracy for the nation in Turkey. Weakening and destabilizing Turkey were the main aims of the military coup attempt, Ankara stated after defeating the coup attempt.

Speaking about the day, Mahir Unal, deputy chairman and spokesman of the ruling Justice and Development Party of Turkey (AKP) said that Azerbaijan has repeatedly proved its fraternity with Turkey.

On the day of the military coup attempt in Turkey, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev clearly expressed his position and supported the people and the government of Turkey, he told Trend.

We are grateful to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the Azerbaijani people for their support, Unal said.

The deadly coup attempt in July 2016 was the bloodiest coup attempt in Turkeys political history. On July 15 2016, a section of the Turkish military launched a coordinated operation in several major cities to topple the government and unseat the president.

Soldiers and tanks took to the streets and a number of explosions rang out in Ankara and Istanbul. Fighter jets dropped bombs on the parliament, while the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Hulusi Akar, was kidnapped.

As news of the coup attempt spread via social media and TV, thousands of ordinary citizens gathered in streets and squares around Ankara and Istanbul to oppose the coup.

The crowds resisted tank fire and air bombardments and, with the help of loyalist soldiers and police forces, they together with the government defeated the coup attempt in early hours of July 16.

Turkey's government has repeatedly said the deadly plot, which martyred more than 240 people and injured more than 2,000 others, was organized by followers of U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen.

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14 July 2017 17:06 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of France Emmanuel Macron over the Bastille Day.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to you and through you to your people on the occasion of national holiday of the French Republic, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter.

We attach special importance to Azerbaijani-French relations, which have rich traditions. I am pleased to note that over 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties our bilateral relations have acquired a new meaning and gone through a path of dynamic development. Today our political, economic, cultural relations successfully develop and expand.

I believe that we will make joint efforts to more effectively use the current potential of our mutually fruitful cooperation on bilateral and multilateral formats, said President Aliyev.

We also pin great hopes on efforts of France, as an OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, and your efforts personally, Mr President, in the fair and peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on the principles of international law and within the framework of Azerbaijans territorial integrity in order to put an end to Armenias occupation of Azerbaijani territories and ensure the return of more than one million our fellow countrymen, who became refugees and IDPs as a result of this occupation, to their ancestral lands.

On this remarkable day, I wish you robust health, success in your activities and the friendly people of France lasting peace and prosperity, Ilham Aliyev added.

The July 14 Fete de la Federation - which marked the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille - became a French national holiday in 1880 and has been observed ever since.

The main event is a military parade in Paris attended by the President of the Republic, currently Emmanuel Macron, who often invites other political leaders.

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14 July 2017 12:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

The decision of the U.S. authorities to introduce anti-dumping measures against the steel of Turkish production caused discontent of Ankara, which appealed to the World Trade Organization with a complaint against Washington.

Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci named the anti-dumping investigation and introduction of additional tariffs on Turkish steel exports to the U.S. as unjustified.

Zeybekci stated the unacceptability of the position of the American authorities, Anadolu news agency reported.

Turkey already brought this issue to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for discussion two years ago and the corresponding process is underway, according to Zeybekci.

"The U.S. authorities conducted three investigations to spread anti-dumping measures to steel produced in Turkey, but could not make a proper decision. It was taken only with the fourth attempt," the Turkish minister said.

Turkey has filed a complaint against the U.S. in the WTO, but nevertheless there should not be such problems between the allies, the minister said.

"However, when it comes to economic interests, the U.S. itself supports the production of American production. For example, we are aware of the support of U.S. companies from the American Cotton Exporters Association (U.S. Cotton). We took a step back and the investigation revealed that Turkey was right in its suspicions," he added.

Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he is considering quotas and tariffs to deal with steel dumping from China and other countries, despite warnings from economists that such an action could lead to damaging consequences.

Currently, the U.S. maintains more than 150 countervailing and antidumping duties on steel imports, including some as high as 266 percent.

Turkey's steel export to the U.S. stood at $1.1 billion in 2016, with a 7.15 percent decrease from the previous year. On the basis of volume, Turkey's steel export in 2016 increased by 2.4 percent, reaching some 16.5 million tons.

Due to the decrease in commodity prices, the total value of steel exports amounted to $9.1 billion, an 8.1 percent decrease compared to that of the preceding year.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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14 July 2017 14:07 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan discussed the organization of cargo transportation from Uzbekistan through Kazakh port of Kuryk in the Caspian Sea.

The issue was discussed at a meeting of the head of national railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, Kanat Alpysbayev, and the Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister  Chairman of the Board of the Uzbek railway company Uzbekiston Temir Yullari, Achilbay Ramatov, in Tashkent.

Cargo can be delivered to the ports of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran from the Kuryk port.

Currently, work is underway to expand the range of goods transported through the port of Kuryk, and first of all, exports of goods from Kazakhstan are being processed. Opportunities for the return transportation of transit cargo in the direction of Uzbekistan are being worked out. For example, raw sugar. Volumes are now being discussed. We are talking about 150,000-200,000 tons before the end of the year, Alpysbaev said.

During the meeting, issues of further development of cooperation in the field of railway transport were also mulled

The parties discussed issues of flexible tariff policy, increase of cargo transportation along the Trans-Caspian international transport route, organization of container trains and deliveries of Kazakhstan railway engineering products to Uzbekistan.

Later, an agreement on the electronic exchange of data on goods imported to Kazakhstan was signed.

Moreover, an agreement was reached on the timely transportation of Uzbek fruits and vegetables to Kazakhstan and Russia.

The Kuryk port with a total area of 40 hectares is located on the Trans-Caspian international transport route (TITR), which is of great importance for handling the cargo going via this route.

TITR, which is created to provide transport connections between the East and West of Eurasia, runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and then to Europe via Turkey and Ukraine. The route was launched in October 2013. About 300,000-400,000 containers are expected to be transported via the Trans-Caspian international transport route by 2020.

Cargo transportation by rail between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan amounted to 7.554 million tons in January-June 2017, which is 4 percent more than in the same period of 2016, according to Kazakhstan Temir Zholy.

As many as 156 container trains went from China to Uzbekistan through the territory of Kazakhstan in the first half of this year, while last year, only a total of 110 container trains went the route.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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14 July 2017 12:23 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called on the US to reconsider its approach towards the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA aka nuclear deal).



Zarif said that the nuclear deal is an international accord and the US should revise its policy towards the historic deal reached between Iran and the world powers in 2015, IRNA news agency reported.



The top diplomat made the remarks upon his arrival at the New York airport.



He termed the accord as the best achievable deal that all parties to the JCPOA could reach.



Zarif further criticized the US over its failure to properly implement the nuclear deal and said the US policies towards the JCPOA have prevented Iran from enjoying the full benefits of the agreement.



Zarif has arrived in the US to attend the High-Level Political Forum 2017 organized by the UN.

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14 July 2017 15:55 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

The ISIS militants have been effectively defeated and the country was saved from terror.

The Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) terrorist group is no longer on Iraqs territory, Fadhil Awad Jebur AL-Shuwaili, charge d'affaires of Iraq to Azerbaijan, said on July 14.

However, there are still small terrorist units in the country, which will be eliminated soon, he told a briefing in Baku held on the occasion of liberation of Mosul from IS.

We put an end to the terror in our country, the diplomat said, adding this happened thanks to the unity of the Iraqi people.

Certain countries helped the Iraqis in this fight, so this is not only our victory but their victory too, he said.

The further steps will be aimed at bringing back refugees and restoring Mosul, said Fadhil Awad Jebur AL-Shuwaili.

The IS terrorist group committed indescribable atrocities against the Iraqi people  it burned women, in particular those of Kurdish origin, Shiites, and involved children in combat operations, he said. Civilians were used as human shields, and religious shrines, mosques and monuments were destroyed.

The campaign to expel the IS militants from Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq and the main bulwark of terrorists, began in October last year. It involves the army special forces, the Federal Police, the rapid reaction force and the Iraqi Armed Forces. Air support is provided by the aviation of the international counter-terrorism coalition led by the United States and the government air forces of the republic.

On July 10, Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi officially announced victory over the IS in Mosul. The city has been under the IS control since June 2014. The victory marks the beginning of a long work on rebuilding the city.

Abadi's announcement of victory over ISIS was met with international praise from a number of countries still actively battling the militants, including the U.S., Russia, Iran and Syria, where the remaining half of ISIS's self-proclaimed caliphate lies.

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14 July 2017 16:20 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The trade turnover between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan increased by 1.5 times in 1H2017 compared to the same period of 2016.

This fact was noted at a meeting of Kyrgyz Ambassador to Uzbekistan Daniyar Sydykov and Chairman of Uzbek State Statistics Committee Bakhodir Begalov, the Kyrgyz foreign ministry reported.

The sides also discussed cooperation between Statistical Committees of two countries in exchange of information, experience, publications, as well as the organization and coordination of statistical work.

The Kyrgyz Ambassador also met with Chairman of Uzbek Chamber of Commerce and Industry Adham Ikramov.

They discussed the implementation of the tasks set by the presidents of two countries after the meeting in December 2016 in Samarkand, regarding increasing the bilateral trade and holding of joint Kyrgyz-Uzbek business forum and an exhibition of Kyrgyzstans achievements in Tashkent.

In 2015, bilateral trade amounted to only $148 million, a paltry total for two countries, according to the Uzbekistani Foreign Ministry.

In 2017, the two countries committed to boosting that figure to $500 million within two years.

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14 July 2017 16:42 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

The issue of supplying Russian S-400 system to Turkey was repeatedly discussed in late 2016 and early 2017, however, concrete prospects have remained unclear until recently.

Turkish Ambassador to Russia Hyussein Dirioz recently announced that a progress has been achieved in the issue of supplying Russian S-400 systems, RIA Novosti reported.

"Technical advances are progressing in a positive direction, contacts are continuing," the ambassador said, answering the question on whether a contract has already been signed for the delivery of Russian S-400 air missile defense system to Ankara.

The envoy further added that Turkey's membership in NATO does not prevent the supply of Russian S-400 SAM systems.

"Turkey's membership in NATO does not hamper the implementation of a multi-vector foreign policy, including the delivery of S-400 complexes to Ankara," the ambassador said at a press conference.

Previously, Presidential Aide Vladimir Kozhin noted that Russia sees no obstacles to the delivery of the S-400 to Turkey in connection with its membership in NATO.

In early June, General Director of Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, said that Russia and Turkey agreed on all technical issues on the conclusion of a contract for the supply of Ankara S-400 surface-to-air missile systems.

The S-400 is Russia's next-generation air defense system, carrying three different types of missiles capable of destroying aerial targets at a short-to-extremely-long range. The weapon is capable of tracking and destroying all existing aerial targets, including ballistics and cruise missiles.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
14 July 2017 16:50 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who recently visited a number of Middle East countries, believes that all conflicting parties should sit down at the negotiating table in order to resolve the ongoing situation around Qatar.

"Now the parties do not communicate with each other at any level. We would like to put them at the negotiating table face to face to launch dialogue on the solution of these problems," Tillerson said on the way from Qatar to Washington.

The U.S. top diplomat noted that his country needs this part of the world to be stable while this particular conflict ... clearly doesnt contribute to this.

He said that the American side supports Kuwait, which acts as the main mediator in the conflict resolution, but Washington could offer its ideas on ways to settle the current situation.

Tillerson added that some problems between the countries have existed for a long time, and therefore will take more time to solve them.

U.S. Secretary of State in efforts to resolve the Gulf crisis visited Doha and Saudi Arabia, where he took part in a meeting of countries boycotting Qatar. On July 13, he returned to Qatar to meet with the emir.

Earlier, State Department spokesman Heather Nauert said that the United States observed "some progress" in the situation around Qatar. The fact that Tillerson consulted with the conflicting parties is already a step towards resolving the crisis.

This trip marked the new level of U.S. involvement in Qatari crisis, which continues to escalate and causes growing concern.

On July 11, Tillerson signed an agreement with Qatar for the two countries to work together in countering terrorism financing, a separate deal which, however, addressed one of the main demands of the Arab nations which put the blame on Qatar of supporting terrorism and extremism.

Nevertheless, the reaction of Saudi-led block to the agreement was far from positive as they called the deal insufficient.

In early July, the Arab states sent a list of demand requiring Doha to cut diplomatic relations with Iran, close the Turkish military base, eliminate Al-Jazeera TV channel, extradite all persons wanted in four countries on charges of terrorism and pay compensation.

Doha refused to fulfill these requirements calling the list unrealistic and not actionable. Four Arab states claimed that economic boycott against Qatar will remain in place until the country changes its policies for the better.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
14 July 2017 18:22 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

The Kharkov aircraft factory will build an An-74 aircraft for Kazakhstan. This was stated by the general director of the enterprise Alexander Krivokon, Kazinform reported.

The customer has already paid $15 million for the aircraft, but has not received it yet.

Krivokon informed about his meeting with representatives of the newly established Ministry of the Military Industry of Kazakhstan.

"We have finalized the contract and agreed that the production of the aircraft will go through a tolling scheme, while Ukrspetsexport will be the guarantor of completion. It is expected that the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) will allocate money for the next year under the contract. We will begin assembling the aircraft at the end of the summer, and in September 2018 it is planned to release it. Then other orders for four more aircrafts for Kazakhstan are expected," Krivokon said.

He also stressed that there are two more AN-140 at the plant.

"If we fail to sell them, it is planned to complete them with the help of a domestic carrier and launch them on flights," Krivokon added.

New planes are expected to contribute to Kazakhstan's air safety record, which in recent years has been a cause of concern. There have been several crashes including the one in December 2012 that killed the border guard chief and 26 others. In January 2013 there was another plane crash (SCAT) that killed 20 more people.

Kazakhstan has airports in Shimkent, Atbasar, Karaganda, Kyzyl-Orda, Balkhash, Burundai, Zaisan, Petropavlovsk, Semipalatinsk, Ust-kamenogorsk, Uralsk, Taldy-Kurgan, Kokshetau, Pavlodar, Zhezkazgan, Atyrau, Zhambyl, Zhairem, Ekibastuz, Almaty, Aktau, Kostanay, Aktyubinsk, Arkalyk, and Astana cities.

Kazakhstan's existing airlines are Air Astana, Air Company MEGA, Avia Jaynar, Bek Air, Berkut Air, Euro-Asia Air, Excellent Glide, Irtysh-Air, SCAT, Semeyavia, Zhetysu, and Zhezkazgan Air.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
14 July 2017 17:40 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Cruise tourism is one of the steadily growing segments of the tourism sector and can make a significant contribution to a destinations economy.

Generating an estimated $18 billion a year in passenger expenditure, cruise tourism is a luxurious form of travelling, involving an all-inclusive holiday on a cruise ship.

The Caspian Sea, the Earth's largest inland body of water, enjoys good potential to be among the most popular destinations on the cruise tourism map.

Although no sea voyages across the Caspian Sea are available for now, the littoral states seek to join efforts to create the joint cruise tourism product.

The Russian Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturizm) took the initiative and plans to develop cruise tourism in the Caspian Sea with the involvement of the littoral countries - Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

Head of Rosturizm Oleg Safonov told TASS that the agency is preparing the plan for development of cruise tourism in the Caspian Sea, which is, according to them, is one of the important directions.



This fundamentally new high quality tourist product, which is something new for the region, will be very promising for the Caspian region.

The main problem, in the development of cruise tourism, according to Safonov is the creation of infrastructure -- quay walls, passenger stations, checkpoints, etc., which must be prepared by next year.

We see a very big interest of our colleagues and friends. I mean Iran and Azerbaijan, everyone is interested, and we are actively moving to create these routes. At a meeting with the head of Dagestan we also discussed this topic, he also supports this idea, the head of Rosturizm said.

In March, the Dagestan (a federal republic of Russia) authorities presented a project on the development of international cruise shipping on the Caspian Sea at the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi. The new project involved the creation of nine cruise routes "The Caspian Sea - the Sea of Friendship" on the route Makhachkala-Derbent-Baku-Enzeli-Turkmenbashi-Aktau-Astrakhan-Makhachkala.

The talks about creation of a new cruise line in the Caspian Sea arose in 2005, when the sides planned to open the cruise-passenger along the route Astrakhan (Russia) - Baku (Azerbaijan) - Enzeli (Iran) - Aktau (Kazakhstan) - Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan). However, the cruise line has never opened and the issue was always postponed for subsequent years.

The Caspian Sea, with enormous deposits of oil and gas as well as rich fisheries, can rightfully become popular cruise destination. Fresh water flows into the sea via the Volga River and Ural River in the north, however, the sea remains somewhat salty, central and south.

The flora and fauna of the Caspian Sea is not only rich and diverse, but also different from the fauna and flora of other seas and lakes. The sea is home to 755 species and subspecies of plants, and also inhabits about 920 species of animals, and among them there are many that you will not find anywhere else in the world. For example, the Caspian seal is the only mammal of the Caspian Sea, and this subspecies is not found anywhere else in the world.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Deanna.Congileo@cartercenter.org

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was discharged from St. Boniface General Hospital this morning to return to the Habitat for Humanity build site in Winnipeg. He attended the morning devotional at 8 a.m. kicking off the last day of the annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project in Canada.

President Carter became dehydrated the morning of Thursday, July 13, during the build. As a precaution, he was transported to St. Boniface General Hospital for rehydration.

He and Mrs. Carter extend their appreciation for the many well-wishes he received worldwide.

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Cemex Aggregates signs new lease agreement

14 July 2017

Cemex Aggregates has signed a new 10 year-lease for an 8.2 acre marine terminal with the Port of Redwood City in South San Francisco Bay, USA, with an option to extend the lease for another decade.



Cemex Aggregates imports building materials from Canada, including sand and aggregated, used in Silicon Valley and Redwood City construction projects. Over the past three years Cemex has imported nearly 4Mt of building materials. Cemex also has the capability to use port docks for cement import through ship unloaders.



The high quality of the sand and gravel aggregates from British Columbia combined with the dwindling supply of these materials in Northern California because quarries are unable to expand have triggered and sustained a strong demand that the Port benefitted from, said Mr Giari.



One of the terms of the new lease is for Cemex Aggregates to relocate a new and/or upgraded

hopper and enclosed conveyor system to the ports new Wharves 1 & 2 by 30 June 2018.





Published under
Snap Inc. is a social media company operating globally. The company was founded in September 2011 by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy. Originally known as Snapchat, the company changed its name to Snap in order to represent its offerings better as it grew over the years. The companys headquarters are in Santa Monica, California and it is a very tightly held company. The original founders, Evan Speigel and Bobby Murphy own a combined 45% of non-dilutable shares with ownership transferable to the other upon death. The two remain active in the company today serving on the board and acting as CEO (Speigel) and CTO (Murphy).

The company was formerly known as Snapchat, Inc. and changed its name to Snap Inc. in September 2016. Snap Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Over the years it has been courted by most of the big tech companies including Facebook and Google but has always opted to remain a standalone company. The business went public in 2017 and raised $30 billion on its opening day which is about 10 times the expected amount.

Today, Snap operates as a camera company internationally. The companys main revenue streams are Snapchat, a mobile app for cameras and communications, and Spectacles, a wearable augmented reality device. Snapchat is a camera app that allows users to take pictures and tell stories, the platform also permits ad sales which is an integral part of the revenue and earnings. The companys mission? To empower people to express themselves in todays digital world.

Spectacles is a hardware device that can connect with Snapchat to deliver pictures and video from a point-of-view perspective. The company has since made three upgrades to the original version and has a Next Generation model available too. The Next Generation of Spectacles are not intended for sale but will be made available to creators who wish to push the boundaries of video and digital communications.

In October 2022 the company reported it had more than 347milion daily active users with more than 250 million engaging with AR each day. The platform had more than 250,000 Lens creators (Lenses are AR experiences) with more than 2.5 million lenses created. There were more than 6 billion lens plays each day and more than 75% of 13-34-year-olds in 20 countries were users.
Duck Creek Technologies, Inc. provides software-as-a-service core systems to the property and casualty insurance industry in the United States and internationally. The company provides Duck Creek Policy, a solution that enables insurers to develop and launch new insurance products and manage various aspects of policy administration ranging from product definition to quoting, binding, and servicing; Duck Creek Billing that provides payment and invoicing capabilities, such as billing and collections, commission processing, disbursement management, and general ledger capabilities for insurance lines and bill types; and Duck Creek Claims that supports entire claims lifecycle from first notice of loss through investigation, payments, negotiations, reporting, and closure. It also offers Duck Creek Rating that allows carriers to develop new rates and models and deliver quotes in real-time based on the complex rating algorithms; Duck Creek Insights, an insurance analytics solution that allows carriers to gather and analyze data from internal and external sources and facilitate analysis and reporting on a single system; Duck Creek Digital Engagement that offer digital interactions between property and casualty insurers and their agents, brokers, and policyholders; and Duck Creek Distribution Management that automates sales channel activities for agents and brokers, including producer onboarding, compliance, and compensation management. In addition, the company provides Duck Creek Reinsurance Management that automates financial and administrative functions; and Duck Creek Industry Content that provides pre-built content, including base business rules, product designs, rating algorithms, data capture screens, and workflows for insurance lines of business, such as commercial auto, inland marine, and workers compensation. It has a partnership with Shift Technologies, Inc. to implement AI fraud detection. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Evangelical pastor John Piper says he has never desired another woman in his nearly 50 years of marriage

Evangelical theologian John Piper said he has "never felt enticed" to have sex with another woman during the nearly 50 years he has been married to his wife, Noel.

In a letter to "a would-be adulterer," Piper said he has "never been attracted to another woman romantically" and has "never desired sexual relations with another woman. The only woman he has been sexually attracted to for the past five decades is Noel, his wife of 48 years.

The 71-year-old author and founder of desiringGod.org clarified that he is neither disinterested in sex nor does he have deficient hormones. In fact, he said he has "enjoyed a life of sexual intimacy with my wife, that is, I think, as intense as any can reasonably hope for."

He further noted that he is not immune to temptation, stating that he is not designed for beach evangelism.

"My eyes are as magnetized toward excessive female skin as most men's," the Bethlehem College and Seminary chancellor wrote.

But there are parameters he puts in place to make sure his eyes don't wander.

"I have zero tolerance for nudity in films  or even suggestiveness (which rules out almost all of them). One reason (among many) is that any sexually charged image lodges itself in my mind, with regrettable effects," he noted.

Offering counsel to husbands, Piper shared some of the ways he was able to get to a place of desiring no other woman but his wife.

Firstly, ask God to "take away any desire for any woman other than your wife."

For Piper, he considers it a pure gift of God that he has never found another woman sexually attractive.

Secondly, "feel how revolting and disgusting adultery truly is."

It's not just about believing adultery is morally wrong but actually feeling sickened by it, the influential author stressed.

Ever since he fell in love with Noel in 1966, Piper said "the very thought of touching another woman sexually became disgusting, sickening."

"This may sound weird. I have not talked about it with many people," he wrote. "But I have said to myself often, with amazement, 'The thought of having sex with any other woman besides Noel feels as nauseating to me as the prospect of having sex with a man.'

"God worked a miracle to make adulterous touching not just morally wrong, but physically revolting. That is one of the greatest works of divine grace I have ever experienced."

Piper believes his aversion to adultery likely came from having grown up with the Bible  specifically, its clear condemnation of lust and adultery and the threat of suffering in hell.

Thirdly, the theologian advised husbands not to trade permanent pleasures for temporary trysts.

Early on, Piper felt a sense that "there is something stupendously wonderful and joyful to be experienced beyond the sensuous pleasures of the body."

As his desire for real "Pleasure in God" grew stronger, his physical revulsion toward sexual sin also grew in proportion.

To him, it was a choice between brief physical sensations or something "much more substantial and lasting and satisfying."

"In other words, sexual immorality cuts off the wings that lift us toward the highest, richest, most durable Joy," he wrote.

This article was originally published in The Christian Post.
Leading evangelical condemns CofE General Synod: 'God's word was mocked openly'

A leading evangelical is the latest to speak out in condemnation of the Church of England's latest move towards affirming LGBT equality.

Susie Leafe, director of the conservative group Reform, has condemned the latest General Synod meeting which voted to condemn 'conversion therapy' and also voted to consider liturgical support to Christians who 'transition' from one gender to another.

Her paper comes after Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, leader of the Anglican Church in Nigeria, slammed the synod for 'false teaching' and warned that it is in 'grave spiritual danger'.

Leafe also warns that the future of the Church is imperilled.

'Again and again, both the decisions made, and the manner in which they were made, showed scant regard for Scripture or the traditions of the Church. Instead, members were asked to base their decisions on emotional stories or the impact of secular headlines,' she writes.

'More worryingly, perhaps, was the atmosphere of the chamber; God's word was mocked openly and decisions were made lightly, with arrogant laughter. As one member put it: "God is not mocked. The laughter and lack of respect for those who bravely gave the alternate case was beyond words. Bruised, battered, bullied, betrayed, bewildered."'

Criticising the debate on Jayne Ozanne's private member's motion describing 'gay conversion therapy' as harmful, Leafe says it was 'chaired poorly' by the Bishop of Manchester, David Walker. 'At key points in the debates members were called to share stories of those who had committed suicide, but very few conservatives were called to speak.'

Leafe also writes that there are different understandings around 'gender dysphoria' and gender identity. 'The preparation of liturgy to mark gender transition raises substantial theological and pastoral issues,' she says.

She complains that the synod rejected an amendment to another motion which stated: 'Urge all bishops, clergy, and lay people at this time of anxiety and uncertainty to take every opportunity to commend to all the people of England faith in Jesus Christ, who is King of kings, the Prince of peace and the Hope of every nation.'

Leafe concludes: 'In the space of four days, the General Synod of the Church of England have, in effect, rejected the doctrines of creation, the fall, the incarnation, and our need for conversion and sanctification. Instead we have said that we are "perfect" as we are, or as we see ourselves, and that the Church should affirm us and call on God to validate our choices. No wonder we do not want to proclaim Christ's unique identity and significance for all people.

'We have chosen to understand the world through secular reports, unconscious bias training, the teaching of other religions and the results of polls and media headlines, rather than the unchanging word of God.

'Paul warns us what happens when we do this in Romans 1:28: "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave then up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done."'

But God does not abandon his people, she says, noting the recent consecration of Andy Lines as a missionary bishop to Europe by 11 leaders of Anglican provinces and three Archbishops, at the instigation of the conservative GAFCON fellowship headed by Archbishop Okoh.

'Don't fear  we are not alone  but decisions will need to be made,' she warns.

Jayne Ozanne, a member of General Synod who advocates for the LGBQ community, told Christian Today: 'I don't think the majority of synod members will recognise Susie's description of synod at all. It seems she and others are set on depicting synod's considered decisions in a poor light in order to suit their own purposes. Saying we are not committed to scripture and mission is just ridiculous, as are their assertions that God's word was mocked. I begin to wonder what their real objective is?'

Meanwhile, by contrast, Bishop Walker has written his own blog for Via Media News, praising the synod.

'In two debates, over consecutive days, attention was turned first to the practice of "conversion therapy" and then to support for those who have transitioned. Both debates were characterised by the passion, courtesy and good humour that had been heard in February. Beyond this, Synod showed an overarching desire to hear the voices of LGBT+ people, whether expressed directly or through their stories being shared by their friends. And most important of all, we heard from a Synod that wanted decisive change and action now. Members listened to, but clearly rejected, demands that these matters required further study, be it theological or scientific, ahead of any decision.'

He adds: 'Synod has set its new tone, and begun to speak compassionately and clearly in the voice it has found. I look forward to hearing what it says next.'
Stefan Karl Stefansson health condition latest news: 'Robbie Rotten' star goes home to Iceland as over 65k fans sign petition for Robbie Rotten statue

In his latest social media post, famous "Robbie Rotten" villain Stefan Karl Stefansson is back home in Iceland with his family.

On Facebook, the actor posted a selfie that shows a statue of his character behind him. He then captioned the photo with, "Met an old friend in Borgarnes Iceland today." His message also includes an Icelandic translation of his message, and was warmly received by his fans who responded with well wishes and positive words.

Meanwhile, in the internet world, a petition dedicated to Stefansson has rounded up thousands of signatures that it made Reddit's front page. To honor the actor who is now battling the final stages of pancreatic cancer, one of his fans started an online petition calling for a Robbie Rotten statue to be built in Iceland, and the said petition has now gained over 65,000 signatures.

The petition posted on Change.org by a user named Adem A. seeks to "forever immortalize and honor" the actor's amazing legacy by getting him a statue in his hometown of Hafnarfjorur. Adam's appeal was then followed by tidbits of information about the actor, his previous works, and the current situation of his health.

Not much is known about Adem except for the details he shared in the petition. He did not reveal his country of origin, but he wrote that he is not from Iceland. And apparently, the user is a longtime fan of Stefansson as he highlighted that his younger 2004 version is among the children that the actor helped through his shows that raised awareness on bullying.

Toward the end of the petition, Adem penned a short message dedicated to the actor that reads, "Mr. Stefansson, in the unlikely chance you ever get to read this, I would personally like to thank you for the incredible impact you've had on my childhood and present life."

Aside from Adem's petition, there is also a Go Fund Me page that has now raised over $150,000 for Stefansson's medical bills.
WATCH: Dash-cam footage released of US Episcopal priest's arrest on road rage gun charge

Florida police have released dash-cam footage of the arrest of the US Episcopal priest last week for allegedly threatening someone with a gun from his car. The footage shows his capture and arrest.

North Carolina Episcopal priest William Rian Adams was arrested by police on July 8 in connection with a road rage incident on the turnpike (toll-road) in Palm City, Florida, according to ABC News. As dashcam footage now shows, Adams was stopped on the highway and ordered out of his red Chevrolet Corvette.

In the video Adams, who is 35, says he was on holiday with a female theology professor and that he had a concealed carry permit for the handgun under the front seat of his car.

A 54-year-old 911 caller said she and her 24-year-old son had earlier pulled up alongside the corvette after to ask Adams why he slammed on his brakes, according to CNN. She said that he then pointed a gun at her.

'This guy in a red corvette slammed his brakes on front of us and I pulled up to him and said "What are you doing?" and he pointed a gun at me...he cursed me and everything and then just pulled a gun out,' the caller said.

Adams said the 911 caller had thrown a coke bottle and other objects at his car.

A Florida Highway Patrol report said that Chevrolet Silverado pick-up truck had been closely following the Corvette before Adams put on his brakes in response. Then, 'As the victim [the 911 caller] attempted to pass the Corvette, the driver [Adams] pointed a semi-automatic hand gun at them.'

Adams gun, a Glock 22, has been taken as evidence, and he has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Adams' church congregation, Calvary Episcopal Church in Fletcher, North Carolina, is reportedly in the process of having a 'conversation' about the situation.
This week, the Pulitzer Prizes announced longtime New York Times journalist Dana Canedy as its new administrator. Effective July 17, Canedy will replace Mike Pride, editor emeritus of the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, who plans to retire after three years in the role.

Canedy joined the Times in 1996 following eight years of reporting and editing at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. She was part of the team that won the Pulitzer for National Reporting in 2001 for the series How Race is Lived in America. She also covered the 2000 presidential election recount and flight-school trainings of the 9/11 terrorists, and led national breaking-news coverage at the Times. Following the death of her partner, First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, in 2006, she published her memoir, A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor, using the journal entries he wrote while in Iraq. Most recently, she worked as a senior editor at the Times, as well as a special adviser to its CEO and executive editor.

CJR spoke with Canedy about diversity in journalism, the evolution of the Prizes, and the importance of the Prizes in an increasingly anti-media environment. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Youre the first woman, first person of color, and the youngest person selected as Pulitzer administrator. What do you think your selection means for the Prizes?

First of all, I commend the search committee and board for a very rigorous process that really pushed and stretched me to think about what this means. And I think what it ultimately means is they selected somebody who will always be deferential to the boards final decisions on things, but [who] will push the board to think in new ways as the industry evolves. I also think it means the organization has established itself as a leader on diversity and journalism. I think my selectionin fact, I was toldhad nothing to do with gender and race, but it is true, as you stated, that I am the first woman and person of color, and I think theres no longer any excuses for any news organization to say there are no qualified women or people of color. Im not a unicorn. There are so many women and people of color out there who can perform at high levels. I think that the Pulitzers should be commended for setting the standard in the industry, even though that was not the primary [factor] in my selection. Its a byproduct and benefit of it.

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We did a study at CJR on the Pulitzer Prizes last year and found that since 1917, 84 percent of winners had been men and 84 percent had been white. How do you see the Prizes evolving under your leadership?

First of all, I do think thats changing, if you look at the most recent selections. Its an incredibly diverse group, and so its already changing. During the interview process, there were discussions and questions of diversity in terms of the jury pools and so forth. Thats a place where we can make some progress, and will. There are a lot of ways we can move the dial on this, and I will be sitting down with the board to discuss their thoughts on diversification. I have a lot of thoughts on it, some of which I havent been able to share with the board yet and still need to ponder, but this is going to be one of my priorities.

ICYMI: Journalist behind depressing, viral Trump Jr. tweet speaks

When it comes to diversity, were not just talking about the people nominated. How will you address the lack of diversity in the kind of content recognized?

Thats a really fabulous question. As jury pools become more diverse, what is considered as finalists will evolve as well. I also think news cycles will drive some of that; immigration is a huge story. Theres lots of work coming in about issues related to policing and race, racial inequality, but [theres] also a lot to celebrate when it comes to work done by women and people of color in everything from medicine to technology. Theres so much going on in our country that speaks to diversity that will drive diversification. But our selection of a more diverse jury pool will impact that as well.

What are some of the other changes youre hoping to bring to the Prizes?

So I think youre going to continue to see an evolution in terms of the categories and eligibility rules just as there is an evolution going on in the journalism industry. In this age of digital transformation and new platforms for consuming news and social medias role in news. Specifically how that will look Im gonna need to talk to the board about some of my ideas, hear what priorities are for them, and build from there. I think its premature to announce what we will be doing, a lot of it is still being considered. But Im excited that there is so much openness from the board about continuing to invigorate and evolve as an organization.

I will also say, having come from a news organization that had a storied brand and an amazing history, Im profoundly sensitive to being judicious towards a brand like the Pulitzers, and in some respects, well be conservative with the brand. But [well] also realize [that], like the industry, we have to evolve. There will be some ways, Im sure, where we will keep things the way they are, and other ways we will profoundly change.

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How do you think the Pulitzer Prizes have changed as the industry as changed?

Last year, you saw an amazingly diverse of selection of winners, and part of the evolution. My predecessor Mike Pride and his team, which will now be my team, have done an amazing job at improving the use of social media, updating the website. I still want to do some things along those lines; theres still some work to be done.There are tremendous [ways] we can still evolve and modernize. My ideas around that kind of work are why I was selected.

You won a Pulitzer back in 2001. How does winning one of the Prizes change the trajectory of someones journalistic career?

So I came from an organization that was blessed with a long history of winning Pulitzers. The Times is a place where, obviously, Pulitzer Prizes are very important, but its also a place where people dont rest on their laurels, and we didnt. Its wonderful to have a prize that celebrates the best of American journalism, but I never got into this field to win a Pulitzer. I actually think its the wrong approach to journalism, to have that be the end goal. The goal of any journalist should be to do the best work possible, groundbreaking work that can influence institutions and organizations and agencies and affect peoples lives. It should always be about the work.

How is the role of the Pulitzer Prizes changing in this era of fake news? Does it take on even greater importance?

Absolutely. I think my first year will really be dedicated to becoming the expert on the Pulitzer Prizes, and the process, and building my relationship with the board members and my staff. One of the things we need to do, and I said this during the interview process, is look at ways we can uplift and support journalism in a time when its under siege. Its premature for me to comment on what thats going to look like, but I have some very strong thoughts and ideas about other ways we can use our brand to support journalism.

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Meg Dalton is a freelance journalist and audio producer based in Connecticut. She's reported and edited for CJR, PBS NewsHour, Energy News Network, Architectural Digest, MediaShift, Hearst Connecticut newspapers, and more. Follow her on Twitter: @megdalts. Find her on Twitter @megdalts.
The new Senate health-care bill, released yesterday by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is getting front-page coverage across the country. Thats a good thing for a document with the potential to reshape one-sixth of the American economy. The process by which the bill was drafted has been shrouded in secrecy, and the speed with which GOP leaders hope to put it to a vote means that Americans need every chance they can to learn about whats in the legislation.

Earlier this week, CJRs Trudy Lieberman spoke with several veteran health-care reporters about the differences in covering this years attempt at reform as compared to past efforts. Along with issues surrounding secrecy and speed, Voxs ace health-care reporter Sarah Kliff told Lieberman that one of the differences is that, in 2009 the goals were very clearcover more people and reduce costs. When you talk to Republicans and ask whats the point of their bill, they say, We need a bill that can get 51 votes.

That attitude seems to be reflected in much of the press coverage. Whether Republican leadership can muster the votes necessary to pass the bill is ultimately, of course, central to whether Americans will see their health care change. But a perusal of stories dominating front pages in print and on the Web shows a focus on vote counting that calls to mind critiques of election coverage dominated by horse-race politics rather than policy issues.

To be sure, every article Ive read addresses actual changes to policy that Republicans hope to make, but the dominant theme of many stories is whether senators who are on the fence will be convinced by one added provision or another. Health-care legislation is notoriously difficult to cover, and many readers undoubtedly lack a nuanced understanding of the issues being debated. All the same, the best reporting is the type that focuses on whats changing in the bill, and what effect those changes will have on Americans lives.

Below, more on the new Senate health-care push.

The new bill, explained: Voxs Kliff walks readers through whats different, and whats not, about the new bill .

Few winners in an attempt to win votes: The New York Times s Margot Sanger-Katz offers a critical take on the bills impact .

Cheaper plans, fewer benefits: A team of CNN reporters highlights key changes to the bill , focusing on an amendment put forth by Texas Senator Ted Cruz that would offer slimmed-down plans to those that want to pay less, but that critics say could result in skyrocketing costs for those already sick.





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Pete Vernon is a former CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon.
The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Kroger: 84.51 HQ Building Company LLC, 84.51 LLC, Alpha Beta Company, Ansonborough Square Investors I LLC, Ansonborough Square Retail LLC, Ardrey Kell Investments LLC, Bay Area Warehouse Stores Inc., Beech Tree Holdings LLC, Bleecker Ventures LLC, Bluefield Beverage Company, Box Cutter Inc., CB&S Advertising Agency Inc., Cala Co., Cala Foods Inc., Cheeses of All Nations Inc., Country Oven Inc., Crawford Stores Inc., Creedmoor Retail LLC, Dillon Companies LLC, Dillon Real Estate Co. Inc., Dillons, Distribution Trucking Company, Dotto Inc., Edgewood Plaza Holdings LLC, Embassy International Inc., FM Inc., FMJ Inc., Farmacia Doral Inc., Food 4 Less GM Inc., Food 4 Less Holdings Inc., Food 4 Less Merchandising Inc., Food 4 Less of California Inc., Food 4 Less of Southern California Inc., Fred Meyer, Fred Meyer Inc., Fred Meyer Jewelers Inc., Fred Meyer Stores Inc., Glasswing Labs LLC, Glendale/Goodwin Realty I LLC, Grubstake Investments LLC, HT Fuel DE LLC, HT Fuel NC LLC, HT Fuel SC LLC, HT Fuel VA LLC, HTGBD LLC, HTP Bluffton LLC, HTP Plaza LLC, HTP Relo LLC, HTPS LLC, HTTAH LLC, Harris Teeter, Harris Teeter LLC, Harris Teeter Properties LLC, Harris Teeter Supermarkets Inc., Harris-Teeter Services Inc., Healthy Options Inc., Henpil Inc., Home Chef, Hood-Clayton Logistics LLC, Hughes Markets Inc., Hughes Realty Inc., I.T.A. Inc., IRP LLC, ITAC 119 LLC, ITAC 265 LLC, Inter-American Foods Inc., Inter-American Products Inc., J.V. Distributing Inc., Jondex Corp., Jubilee Carolina LLC, KCDE  2013 LLC, KCDE-2 LLC, KCDE-3 LLC, KCDE-4 LLC, KCDE-5 LLC, KGO LLC, KPF LLC, KPS LLC, KRGP LLC, KRLP Inc., KV Anderson LLC, Kee Trans Inc., Kessel FP, Kiosk Medicine Kentucky LLC, Kirkpatrick West Retail LLC, Kroger Community Development Entity LLC, Kroger Dedicated Logistics Co., Kroger Fulfillment Network LLC, Kroger G.O. LLC, Kroger HQ LLC, Kroger LM Real Estate Holdings LLC, Kroger Limited Partnership I, Kroger Limited Partnership II, Kroger MC Holdings LLC, Kroger MTL Management LLC, Kroger Management Co., Kroger Management  Corryville LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Athens I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Champaign I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Champaign II LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Cincinnati I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Dallas I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Danville I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Logansport I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Missouri I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Oak Ridge I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Olney I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Omaha I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Portsmouth I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Starkville I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Topeka I LLC, Kroger NMTC Fremont I LLC, Kroger OZ1 Inc., Kroger OZ1 LLC, Kroger OZ2 Inc., Kroger OZ2 LLC, Kroger OZ3 Inc., Kroger OZ3 LLC, Kroger Opportunity Fund I Inc., Kroger Prescription Plans Inc., Kroger Specialty Infusion AL LLC, Kroger Specialty Infusion CA LLC, Kroger Specialty Infusion Holdings Inc., Kroger Specialty Infusion TX LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy CA LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy FL 2 LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings 2 Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings 3 Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings I Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy LA LLC, Kroger Texas L.P., LCGP3 Home Cooking Inc., Latta Village LLC, Local Mkt LLC, Main & Vine LLC, Matthews Property 1 LLC, Mega Marts LLC, Michigan Dairy L.L.C., ModernHealth LTC, Murrays Cheese LLC, Murrays Cheese LLC, Murrays LIC LLC, Murrays Table LLC, Pace Dairy Foods Company, Paramount Logistics LLC, Pay Less Super Markets Inc., Peyton's-Southeastern Inc., Plum Labs LLC, Pontiac Foods Inc., Queen City Assurance Inc., RBF LLC, RGC Southeast Properties LLC, Ralphs Grocery Company, Relish Labs LLC, Rocket Newco Inc., Roundy's, Roundys Acquisition Corp., Roundys Illinois LLC, Roundys Inc., Roundys Supermarkets Inc., Second Story Inc., Shop-Rite LLC, Smiths Beverage of Wyoming Inc., Smiths Food & Drug Centers Inc., Southern Ice Cream Specialties Inc., Stallings Investors I LLC, Sunrise R&D Holdings LLC, Sunrise Technology LLC, TLC Corporate Services LLC, TLC Immunization Clinic LLC, TLC of Georgia LLC, The Kroger Co. of Michigan, The Little Clinic LLC, The Little Clinic Management Services LLC, The Little Clinic of Arizona LLC, The Little Clinic of Colorado LLC, The Little Clinic of IN LLC, The Little Clinic of Kansas LLC, The Little Clinic of Mississippi LLC, The Little Clinic of Ohio LLC, The Little Clinic of TX LLC, The Little Clinic of Tennessee LLC, The Little Clinic of VA LLC, Topvalco Inc., Ultimate Mart LLC, Ultra Mart Foods LLC, Vandervoort Dairy Foods Company, Vine Court Assurance Incorporated, Vitacost, Vitacost.com Inc., Woodmont Holdings LLC, and YOU Technology.

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Dril-Quip, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sells, and services engineered drilling and production equipment for use in deepwater, harsh environment, and severe service applications worldwide. The company's principal products include subsea and surface wellheads, subsea and surface production trees, mudline hanger systems, specialty connectors and associated pipes, drilling and production riser systems, liner hangers, wellhead connectors, diverters, and safety valves, as well as downhole tools. It also provides technical advisory services, and rework and reconditioning services, as well as rental and purchase of running tools for use in the installation and retrieval of its products; and downhole tools comprise of liner hangers, production packers, safety valves, and specialty downhole tools that are used to hang-off and seal casing into a previously installed casing string in the well bore. The company's products are used to explore for oil and gas from offshore drilling rigs, such as floating rigs and jack-up rigs; and for drilling and production of oil and gas wells on offshore platforms, tension leg platforms, and Spars, as well as moored vessels, such as floating production, storage, and offloading monohull moored vessels. It sells its products directly through its sales personnel, independent sales agents, and representatives to integrated, independent, and foreign national oil and gas companies, as well as drilling contractors, and engineering and construction companies. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Lockheed Martin Corporation, a security and aerospace company, engages in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of technology systems, products, and services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control, Rotary and Mission Systems, and Space. The Aeronautics segment offers combat and air mobility aircraft, unmanned air vehicles, and related technologies. The Missiles and Fire Control segment provides air and missile defense systems; tactical missiles and air-to-ground precision strike weapon systems; logistics; fire control systems; mission operations support, readiness, engineering support, and integration services; manned and unmanned ground vehicles; and energy management solutions. The Rotary and Mission Systems segment offers military and commercial helicopters, surface ships, sea and land-based missile defense systems, radar systems, sea and air-based mission and combat systems, command and control mission solutions, cyber solutions, and simulation and training solutions. The Space segment offers satellites; space transportation systems; strategic, advanced strike, and defensive missile systems; and classified systems and services in support of national security systems. This segment also provides network-enabled situational awareness and integrates space and ground-based systems to help its customers gather, analyze, and securely distribute critical intelligence data. It serves primarily serves the U.S. government, as well as foreign military sales contracted through the U.S. government. Lockheed Martin Corporation was founded in 1912 and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland.
There is a massive expansion project underway in Torshavn, with 900 meters of additional berth space to be added by late 2019.

The depth will be between 15 and 30 meters, allowing us to berth more ships, said Annfinn Hjelm, finance manager for the port. Additionally, the tug capacity has been increased significantly in the past couple of years, improving the regularity and safety of all maritime operations.

For 2017, the capital of the Faroe Islands is expected to have about 50 ships, which Hjelm told Cruise Industry News he regarded as quite good.

The outlook is positive and things are moving in the right direction, Hjelm said.

We are strategically very well located right between UK and Iceland, meaning you cant miss us when going north or south, Hjelm continued. Additionally we are also only an overnight away from the Norwegian coast, and many lines take advantage of this. At the same time, the Faroes are so small that if you berth in Torshavn harbor, you can travel to 80 percent of the Faroes on the same day thus creating a variety of excursions that the lines appreciate highly.
Charles Purvis, president and CEO of Coastal Federal Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C., will testify on NAFCUs behalf regarding principles for housing finance reform during a July 20 hearing by the Senate Banking Committee.

Purvis will testify before the panel on NAFCUs core principles for housing finance reform and on ways such reform could affect credit unions and their members access to mortgage credit. NAFCU is working to ensure that any housing finance reform plan includes unfettered access to the secondary mortgage market for credit unions, with fair pricing based on loan quality rather than volume.

Chaired by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the Senate Banking Committee is looking at a broad array of issues related to reforming housing finance, including how to preserve a secondary mortgage market and the future of entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been in conservatorship since 2008, as well as the Federal Home Loan Banks.

NAFCU submitted its core principles to the committee in advance of its June 29 hearing on this issue and is urging their inclusion in any final reform plan.
Thats what Canadian credit unions cant say anymore beginning June 30, 2018. They cant use the words bank, banking, banker. No more banking made easy or check out our mobile banking.

I reached out to my good friend, and Canadian, Tim McAlpine to find out whats what.

Tim is the President and Creative Director of Currency Marketing and is best known in the U.S. for developing the Young & Free Marketing program as well as the CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec competition. But what many people dont know, Tim is also the board chair of Mount Lehman Credit Union, a small, single-branch credit union in Canada. Heres what Tim has to say about this ruling:

The no bank, banking, banker rule has been part of the Canadian Bank Act for some time, its only recently that OSFI (The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions) issued a letter to credit unions stating that its illegal to use these words and if a credit union continues to do so, the officers of the credit union can be criminally charged. OSFI is not messing around! Why now? With the advent of so many non-bank, unregulated fintech startups hitting the market, the banks have lobbied hard to OSFI to enforce the rules. Unfortunately, credit unions are lumped into the non-bank category even though they are regulated. The CCUA (Canadian Credit Union Association) has done a good job to activate the credit union industry across the country. From my point of view, credit unions in Canada have been moving away from their roots for some time now. In fact, 11 of the largest 20 Canadian credit unions have dropped credit union from their outward branding. This rule enforcement could be the catalyst needed to get back to the co-operative roots and really define their own place in the Canadian consumers minds. Well see how it all plays out.

I think this presents an interesting challenge. I began my credit union (not banking) career in 1980. It was drilled into me early on that we had members not customers (the c word) and that they were owners. Their $5.00 membership share was proof. We just began offering share draft accounts  not checking accounts. Because we were different. We talked a lot about our governance back then. A volunteer board of directors elected by the membership at the annual meeting (that members actually attended). Each member in good standing could run for the board. We were essentially owned and operated by our members. And we had what Seth Godin would call a Tribe.

Then things started to change. Share drafts were dumped for checking accounts because thats what people were used to (from the banks). Adult learning theory would say this makes sense. Adults learn when they can relate it to something they already know and understand. They have a bank account at Wells Fargo and it sucks. We dont suck as much  we have better banking. Many members will say I bank there! and are talking about their credit union. They dont know they belong.

We continue to struggle to differentiate ourselves from the B word so imagine if WE were no longer allowed to use bank/banker/banking?

I just pulled up my credit union website and in the first click saw Online services that includes mobile banking, text banking, and online banking. Nope.

Ill admit it, Ive never been fond of the words credit union. I wish we had swapped those out for financial cooperative decades ago. It would tell a better story. Then people could have said, I belong to the co-op. My money is cooperating, not banking. Or something like that.

People are already worried that the U.S. bankers are going to run with this and try to adopt the same ruling. The reason behind this ruling in Canada should save us:

The Canadian Bankers Association argues that the word bank conveys a mark of security, reliability, and oversight that consumers have come to trust.

Enough said.
Alteryx, Inc. operates in analytic process automation business in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and internationally. The company's analytics platform enables organizations to enhance business outcomes and the productivity of their business analysts, data scientists, citizen data scientists, and data engineers. Its analytics platform comprises Alteryx Designer, a data profiling, preparation, blending, analytics, data science, and process automation product; Alteryx Server, a server-based product to manage, automate, and govern processes and applications in a web-based environment; Alteryx Intelligence Suite, an augmented machine learning, auto-modeling, and text mining product; Alteryx Connect, a collaborative data exploration platform; and Alteryx Promote, an analytics model management product for data scientists and analytics teams to build, manage, monitor, and deploy predictive models into real-time production applications. The company's platform also offers cloud-native products comprising Alteryx Designer Cloud, a browser-based version of Alteryx Designer product; Alteryx Machine Learning, an automated machine learning product to build, validate, iterate, and explore machine learning models; Alteryx Auto Insights, an analytics solution that automates insights for business users; and Alteryx Trifacta, an open and interactive cloud platform for data engineers and analysts to collaboratively profile, prepare, and pipeline data for analytics and machine learning. In addition, it provides technical support, instruction, and customer services. It serves retail, food services, consumer products, telecom and cable, media and entertainment, professional services, financial services, energy and utilities, public sector, manufacturing, travel and hospitality, healthcare and insurance, and technology industries. The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.
Genpact Limited provides business process outsourcing and information technology (IT) services in India, rest of Asia, North and Latin America, and Europe. It operates through three segments: Banking, Capital Markets and Insurance; Consumer Goods, Retail, Life Sciences and Healthcare; and High Tech, Manufacturing and Services. The company offers CFO advisory services; and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) services, such as data management, carbon accounting, human rights assessment, sustainability diligence, and ESG reporting. It also provides finance and accounting services, which include accounts payable, such as document management, invoice processing, approval and resolution management, and travel and expense processing; invoice-to-cash services, including customer master data management, credit and contract management, fulfillment, billing, collections, and dispute management services; record to report services comprising accounting, treasury, tax, product cost accounting, and closing and reporting services; financial planning and analysis consisting of budgeting, forecasting, and business performance reporting; and enterprise risk and compliance services, including operational risks and controls. In addition, the company provides supply chain advisory services, and after-sales services; sourcing and procurement services comprising direct and indirect strategic sourcing, category management, spend analytics, procurement operation, and master data management; and sales and commercial services, including campaign, order, and dispute management, lead generation, pricing, and promotion optimization. Further, it offers IT services, which comprise end-user computing support, infrastructure management, application production support, and database management services; and transformation services that include digital solutions, consulting services, and analytics services and solutions. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.
AutoZone, Inc. retails and distributes automotive replacement parts and accessories. The company offers various products for cars, sport utility vehicles, vans, and light trucks, including new and remanufactured automotive hard parts, maintenance items, accessories, and non-automotive products. Its products include A/C compressors, batteries and accessories, bearings, belts and hoses, calipers, chassis, clutches, CV axles, engines, fuel pumps, fuses, ignition and lighting products, mufflers, radiators, starters and alternators, thermostats, and water pumps, as well as tire repairs. In addition, the company offers maintenance products, such as antifreeze and windshield washer fluids; brake drums, rotors, shoes, and pads; brake and power steering fluids, and oil and fuel additives; oil and transmission fluids; oil, cabin, air, fuel, and transmission filters; oxygen sensors; paints and accessories; refrigerants and accessories; shock absorbers and struts; spark plugs and wires; and windshield wipers. Further, it provides air fresheners, cell phone accessories, drinks and snacks, floor mats and seat covers, interior and exterior accessories, mirrors, performance products, protectants and cleaners, sealants and adhesives, steering wheel covers, stereos and radios, tools, and wash and wax products, as well as towing services. Additionally, the company provides a sales program that offers commercial credit and delivery of parts and other products; sells automotive diagnostic and repair software under the ALLDATA brand through alldata.com; and automotive hard parts, maintenance items, accessories, and non-automotive products through autozone.com. As of August 27, 2022, it operated 6,168 stores in the United States; 703 stores in Mexico; and 72 stores in Brazil. The company was founded in 1979 and is based in Memphis, Tennessee.
Babcock International Group PLC, together with its subsidiaries, provides value-add services for aerospace, defense, and security in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, Africa, North America, Australasia, and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Marine, Nuclear, Land, and Aviation. It designs, procures, operates, and manages critical utility and process equipment; offers asset management, defense and maritime training, information and intelligence, equipment and system, and facilities and infrastructure services, as well as naval platforms; and designs, manufactures, and provides through-life support for mechanical and electrical systems and equipment. The company also offers naval architecture, engineering, and project management services; submarines and complex engineering services in support of various decommissioning programs and projects, training and operation support, new build program management, and design and installation; critical vehicle fleet management, and equipment support and training services for military and civil customers; and designs, assesses, manufactures, installs, maintains, and decommissions vehicles for police, fire and ambulance, civil service, military, and other security-focused organizations. In addition, it provides plain line track renewal services; and engineering services for track projects, signaling, telecommunications, and on-track plants. Further, the company offers critical engineering services to defense and civil customers, including pilot training, equipment support, and airbase management, as well as operates aviation fleets that provide delivering emergency services. Babcock International Group PLC was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
UGI Corporation distributes, stores, transports, and markets energy products and related services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: AmeriGas Propane, UGI International, Midstream & Marketing, and UGI Utilities. It distributes propane to approximately 1.4 million residential, commercial/industrial, motor fuel, agricultural, and wholesale customers through 1,600 propane distribution location. The company also distributes liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) to residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, wholesale and automobile fuel customers; and provides logistics, storage, and other services to third-party LPG distributors. In addition, it engages in the retail sale of natural gas, liquid fuels, and electricity to approximately 12,600 residential, commercial, and industrial customers at 42,400 locations. Further, the company distributes natural gas to approximately 672,000 customers in eastern and central Pennsylvania counties through its distribution system of approximately 12,400 miles of gas mains; and supplies electricity to approximately 62,500 customers in northeastern Pennsylvania through 2,600 miles of lines and 14 substations. Additionally, it operates electric generation facilities, which include coal-fired, landfill gas-fueled, solar-powered, and natural gas-fueled facilities; a natural gas liquefaction, storage, and vaporization facility; propane storage and propane-air mixing stations; and rail transshipment terminals. It also manages natural gas pipeline and storage contracts; develops, owns, and operates pipelines, gathering infrastructure, and gas storage facilities. UGI Corporation was incorporated in 1991 and is based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
SunTrust Banks, Inc. operates as the holding company for SunTrust Bank that provides various financial services for consumers, businesses, corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit entities in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer and Wholesale. The Consumer segment provides deposits and payments; home equity and personal credit lines; auto, student, and other lending products; credit cards; discount/online and full-service brokerage products; professional investment advisory products and services; and trust services, as well as family office solutions. This segment also offers residential mortgage products in the secondary market. The Wholesale segment provides capital markets solutions, including advisory, capital raising, and financial risk management; asset-based financing solutions, such as securitizations, asset-based lending, equipment financing, and structured real estate arrangements; cash management services and auto dealer financing solutions; investment banking solutions; and credit and deposit, fee-based product offering, multi-family agency lending, advisory, commercial mortgage brokerage, and tailored financing and equity investment solutions. This segment also offers treasury and payment solutions, such as operating various electronic and paper payment types, which comprise card, wire transfer, automated clearing house, check, and cash; and provides services clients to manage their accounts online. The company offers its products and services through a network of traditional and in-store branches, automated teller machines, Internet, mobile, and telephone banking channels. As of December 31, 2018, it operated 1,218 full-service banking offices located in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia. SunTrust Banks, Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
The following companies are subsidiares of Tenneco: A.E. Group Machines Limited, AE International Limited, Anand I-Power Limited, Anqing TP Goetze Liner Co. Ltd., Anqing TP Goetze Piston Ring Co. Ltd., Anqing TP Powder Metallurgy Co. Ltd., Armstrong Properties (Pty.) Ltd., Ateliers Juliette Adam SAS, Autopartes Walker S. de R.L. de C.V., Beck Arnley Holdings LLC, CATAI s.r.l., CEDS Inc., Carter Automotive Company LLC, Clevite Industries Inc., Componentes Venezolanos de Direccion S.A., Cooperatief Federal-Mogul Dutch Investments B.A., Coventry Assurance Ltd., DRiV Automotive Inc., DRiV IP LLC, DRiV Incorporated, Dongsuh Federal-Mogul Co. Ltd., F-M Holding Daros AB, F-M Holding Goteborg AB, F-M Holding Mexico S.A. de C.V., F-M Motorparts Limited, F-M Motorparts TSC LLC, F-M TSC Real Estate Holdings LLC, F-M Trademarks Limited, FDML Holdings Limited, FM International LLC, FM PBW Bearings Private Limited, FM Participacoes e Investimentos LTDA, Farloc Argentina S.A.I.C. y F., Federal Mogul (Thailand) Ltd., Federal Mogul Aftermarket Egypt Ltd., Federal Mogul Argentina S.A., Federal Mogul Dis Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Federal Mogul Hungary Kft., Federal Mogul Powertrain Otomotiv Anonim Sirketi, Federal Mogul SAS, Federal Mogul Services Sarl, Federal Mogul Systems Protection SAS, Federal-Mogul, Federal-Mogul (Anqing) Powder Metallurgy Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (Changshu) Automotive Parts Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (China) Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (Chongqing) Friction Materials Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (Langfang) Automotive Components Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (Proprietary) Limited, Federal-Mogul (Shanghai) Automotive Parts Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (T&N) Hong Kong Limited, Federal-Mogul (Tianjin) Surface Treatment Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul (Vietnam) Ltd., Federal-Mogul Aftermarket Espana S.A., Federal-Mogul Aftermarket France SAS, Federal-Mogul Aftermarket GmbH, Federal-Mogul Aftermarket Southern Africa (Pty) Limited, Federal-Mogul Aftermarket UK Limited, Federal-Mogul Anand Bearings India Limited, Federal-Mogul Anand Sealings India Limited, Federal-Mogul Asia Investments Holding Korea Ltd., Federal-Mogul Asia Investments Limited, Federal-Mogul Automotive GmbH & Co. KG, Federal-Mogul Automotive Pty Ltd, Federal-Mogul Automotive Verwaltungs GmbH, Federal-Mogul Betriebsgrundstucke Burscheid GmbH, Federal-Mogul Bimet Spolka Akcyjna, Federal-Mogul Bradford Limited, Federal-Mogul Bremsbelag GmbH, Federal-Mogul Burscheid Beteiligungs GmbH, Federal-Mogul Burscheid GmbH, Federal-Mogul Canada Limited, Federal-Mogul Chassis LLC, Federal-Mogul Componentes de Motores Ltda., Federal-Mogul Controlled Power Limited, Federal-Mogul Coventry Limited, Federal-Mogul Deva (Qingdao) Automotive Parts Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Deva GmbH, Federal-Mogul Dimitrovgrad LLC, Federal-Mogul Distribucion de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Dong Feng (Shiyan) Engine Components Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul EMEA Distribution Services, Federal-Mogul Employee Trust Administration Limited, Federal-Mogul Engineering Limited, Federal-Mogul FIL-P43 S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul FIL-S43 S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Filtration LLC, Federal-Mogul Finance 1 LLC, Federal-Mogul Finance 2 LLC, Federal-Mogul Financial Services Poland Sp.z.o.o., Federal-Mogul Financial Services S.A.S., Federal-Mogul Financing Corporation, Federal-Mogul Friction Products Barcelona S.L., Federal-Mogul Friction Products Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Friction Products GmbH, Federal-Mogul Friction Products International GmbH, Federal-Mogul Friction Products Limited, Federal-Mogul Friction Products Ploiesti SRL, Federal-Mogul Friction Products S.A., Federal-Mogul Friction Products a.s., Federal-Mogul Friction Spain S.L., Federal-Mogul Friedberg GmbH, Federal-Mogul Garennes SAS, Federal-Mogul Germany Investments Holding GmbH, Federal-Mogul Global Aftermarket EMEA, Federal-Mogul Global Growth Limited, Federal-Mogul GmbH, Federal-Mogul Goetze (India) Limited, Federal-Mogul Gorzyce Sp. z o.o., Federal-Mogul Holding Deutschland GmbH, Federal-Mogul Holding Sweden AB, Federal-Mogul Holdings Ltd., Federal-Mogul Iberica S.L., Federal-Mogul Ignition GmbH, Federal-Mogul Ignition LLC, Federal-Mogul Ignition Products India Limited, Federal-Mogul Ignition Products SAS, Federal-Mogul Industria de Autopecas Ltda., Federal-Mogul Investment Ltd., Federal-Mogul Investments B.V., Federal-Mogul Italy S.r.l., Federal-Mogul Izmit Piston ve Pim Uretim Tesisleri A.S., Federal-Mogul Japan K.K., Federal-Mogul Juarez S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Lighting S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Limited, Federal-Mogul Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Federal-Mogul MP US LLC, Federal-Mogul Motorparts (India) Limited, Federal-Mogul Motorparts (Netherlands) B.V., Federal-Mogul Motorparts (Pinghu) Trading Limited, Federal-Mogul Motorparts (Qingdao) Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Motorparts (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Motorparts (Thailand) Limited, Federal-Mogul Motorparts (Zhejiang) Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Colombia S.A.S., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Holding B.V., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Holding GmbH, Federal-Mogul Motorparts LLC, Federal-Mogul Motorparts Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Minority Holding B.V., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Philippines Inc., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Ploiesti SRL, Federal-Mogul Motorparts Poland Sp.z.o.o., Federal-Mogul Motorparts Pty Ltd, Federal-Mogul Motorparts Services SRL, Federal-Mogul Naberezhnye Chelny, Federal-Mogul Nurnberg GmbH, Federal-Mogul Operations France S.A.S., Federal-Mogul Piston Rings LLC, Federal-Mogul Plasticos Puntanos S.A., Federal-Mogul Powertrain (Netherlands) B.V., Federal-Mogul Powertrain Eastern Europe B.V., Federal-Mogul Powertrain IP LLC, Federal-Mogul Powertrain Italy S.R.L, Federal-Mogul Powertrain LLC, Federal-Mogul Powertrain Mexico Distribucion S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Powertrain Russia GmbH, Federal-Mogul Powertrain Solutions India Private Limited, Federal-Mogul Powertrain Systems S A (Proprietary) Limited, Federal-Mogul Powertrain Vostok OOO, Federal-Mogul Products US LLC, Federal-Mogul Pty Ltd, Federal-Mogul R&L Friedberg Casting GmbH & Co. KG, Federal-Mogul Risk Advisory Services LLC, Federal-Mogul S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul S.A., Federal-Mogul SP Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Sealing System (Nanchang) Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Sealing Systems GmbH, Federal-Mogul Sejong Co. Ltd, Federal-Mogul Sejong Tech Ltd, Federal-Mogul Serina Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Sevierville LLC, Federal-Mogul Shanghai Bearing Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Shanghai Compound Material Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Singapore Investments Pte. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Sistemas Automotivos Ltda., Federal-Mogul Sistemas de Limpadores de Para-Brisas Ltda, Federal-Mogul Sorocaba-Holding Ltda, Federal-Mogul Systems Protection Hungary Kft., Federal-Mogul Systems Protection Morocco SARL AU, Federal-Mogul TP Europe GmbH & Co KG, Federal-Mogul TP Liner Europe Otomotiv Ltd. Sti, Federal-Mogul TP Liners Inc., Federal-Mogul TP Piston Rings GmbH, Federal-Mogul TPR (India) Limited, Federal-Mogul Technology Limited, Federal-Mogul Transaction LLC, Federal-Mogul UK Investments Limited, Federal-Mogul UK Powertrain Limited, Federal-Mogul VCS Holding B.V., Federal-Mogul VCS LLC, Federal-Mogul Valve Train International LLC, Federal-Mogul Valve Train S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul Valvetrain GmbH, Federal-Mogul Valvetrain La Source SAS, Federal-Mogul Valvetrain Limited, Federal-Mogul Valvetrain Schirmeck SAS, Federal-Mogul Valvetrain s.r.o., Federal-Mogul Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, Federal-Mogul Verwaltungs-und Beteiligungs-GmbH, Federal-Mogul Wiesbaden GmbH, Federal-Mogul World Trade (Asia) Limited, Federal-Mogul World Wide LLC, Federal-Mogul Yura (Qingdao) Ignition Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul Zhengsheng (Changsha) Piston Ring Co. Ltd., Federal-Mogul de Costa Rica S.A., Federal-Mogul de Guatemala Sociedad Anonima, Federal-Mogul de Matamoros S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Federal-Mogul de Venezuela C.A., Federal-Mogul of South Africa (Proprietary) Limited, Felt Products MFG. CO. LLC, Ferodo America LLC, Ferodo Limited, Fonciere de Liberation, Forjas y Maquinas S. de R.L. de C.V., Frenos Hidraulicos Automotrices S.A. de C.V., Fric-Rot S.A.I.C., Gabilan Manufacturing, Gasket Holdings LLC, Gillet Exhaust Manufacturing Limited, Gillet Pressings Cardiff Limited, Goetze Wohnungsbau GmbH, ISA Installations Steuerungs und Automatislerungs GmbH, J.W. Hartley (Motor Trade) Limited, Jurid do Brasil Sistemas Automotivos Ltda., KB Autosys (Zhangjiagang) Co. Ltd., KB Autosys Co. Ltd., KB Autosys India Private Ltd., Kinetic Pty. Ltd., Kontich, Leeds Piston Ring & Engineering Co. Limited, Maco Inversiones S.A., McCord Payen de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., McPherson Strut Company LLC, Monroe Amortisor Imalat Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Monroe Australia Pty. Limited, Monroe Czechia s.r.o., Monroe Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., Monroe Manufacturing (Proprietary) Ltd., Monroe Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Monroe Packaging BVBA, Monroe Ride Performance Sweden AB, Monroe Springs (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Montagewerk Abgastechnik Emden GmbH, Motocare India Private Limited, Muzzy-Lyon Auto Parts LLC, Parts Zone (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Payen International Limited, Piston Rings (UK) Limited, Precision Modular Assembly Corp., Productos de Frenos Automotrices de Calidad S.A. de C.V., Proveedora Walker S. de R.L. de C.V., Pullman, Pullman Standard Inc., Qingdao Tenneco FAWSN Automobile Parts Co. Ltd., Raimsa S. de R.L. de C.V., Ride Performance Canada Inc., Ride Performance Japan Ltd., Ride Performance Korea Limited, Ride Performance Mexico Holding LLC, SAXID Limited, Sapav Marketing Ltd, Saxid, Saxid s.r.l., Servicio de Componentes Automotrices S. de R.L. de C.V., Servicios Administrativos Industriales S. de R.L. de C.V., Shanghai Tenneco Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Sibirica Energy Limited, Sintration Limited, Speyside Real Estate LLC, Subensambles Internacionales S. de R.L. de C.V., T&N Industries LLC, T&N de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., TA (Australia) Group Pty. Ltd., TM S.r.l, TMC Texas Inc., TPR Federal-Mogul Tennessee Inc., Taiwan Federal-Mogul Motorparts Co. Limited, TecCom GmbH, Tenneco (Beijing) Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Beijing) Ride Control System Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Changzhou) Ride Performance Co. Ltd., Tenneco (China) Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Dalian) Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Jingzhou) Ride Performance Co. Ltd., Tenneco (MSCan) Operations Inc., Tenneco (MUSA), Tenneco (Mauritius) Limited, Tenneco (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Suzhou) Emission System Co. Ltd., Tenneco (Suzhou) Ride Control Co. Ltd., Tenneco (TM Asia) Ltd., Tenneco (TM Belgium) BVBA, Tenneco (Tianjin) Ride Performance Co. Ltd., Tenneco Asheville Inc., Tenneco Asia Inc., Tenneco Automotie Nederland B.V., Tenneco Automotive (Thailand) Limited, Tenneco Automotive Brasil Ltda., Tenneco Automotive Deutschland GmbH, Tenneco Automotive Eastern Europe Sp. z.o.o., Tenneco Automotive Europe BVBA, Tenneco Automotive Europe Coordination Center BVBA, Tenneco Automotive Foreign Sales Corporation Limited, Tenneco Automotive France S.A.S., Tenneco Automotive Holdings South Africa Pty. Limited, Tenneco Automotive Iberica S.A., Tenneco Automotive Inc. Nevada, Tenneco Automotive India Private Limited, Tenneco Automotive Italia S.r.l., Tenneco Automotive Operating Company Inc., Tenneco Automotive Polska Sp. z.o.o., Tenneco Automotive Port Elizabeth (Proprietary) Limited, Tenneco Automotive Portugal  Componentes Para Automovel Unipessoal LDA., Tenneco Automotive RSA Company, Tenneco Automotive Second RSA Company, Tenneco Automotive Services Societe Par Actions Simplifiee, Tenneco Automotive Servicios Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Tenneco Automotive Trading Company, Tenneco Automotive UK Limited, Tenneco Automotive Volga LLC, Tenneco Automotive Walker Inc., Tenneco Brake Inc., Tenneco CA Czech Republic s.r.o., Tenneco CA Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Tenneco CA Netherlands BV, Tenneco Canada Inc., Tenneco Clean Air Argentina S.A.I.C., Tenneco Clean Air India Private Limited, Tenneco Clean Air Spain S.L.U., Tenneco Clean Air US Inc., Tenneco Deutschland Holdinggesellschaft mbH, Tenneco Eastern European Holdings S.a.r.l., Tenneco Eberspaecher (Beijing) Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Tenneco Emission Control (Pty) Ltd, Tenneco Etain Societe Par Actions Simplifiee, Tenneco Europe Limited, Tenneco FAWSN (Changchun) Automobile Parts Co. Ltd., Tenneco FAWSN (Foshan) Automobile Parts Co. Ltd., Tenneco FAWSN (Tianjin) Automobile Parts Co. Ltd., Tenneco Fusheng (Chengdu) Automobile Parts Co. Ltd., Tenneco Global Holdings Inc., Tenneco GmbH, Tenneco Holdings Danmark ApS, Tenneco Hong Kong Holdings Limited, Tenneco Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Tenneco Industria de Autopecas Ltda., Tenneco Innovacion S.L., Tenneco International Holding Corp., Tenneco International Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Tenneco International Manufacturing S.a.r.l., Tenneco Japan Ltd., Tenneco Korea Limited, Tenneco Lingchuan (Chongqing) Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Tenneco Management (Europe) Limited, Tenneco Mauritius China Holdings Ltd., Tenneco Mauritius Holdings Limited, Tenneco Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Tenneco RP Germany GmbH, Tenneco Ride Control South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Tenneco Ride Performance US 4 LLC, Tenneco Ride Performance US 5 LLC, Tenneco Silesia spolka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Tenneco SpinCo Incorporated, Tenneco Sverige AB, Tenneco Walker (Tianjin) Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Tenneco Zwickau GmbH, Tenneco-Eberspaecher (Dalian) Exhaust System Co. Ltd., Tenneco-Walker (U.K.) Limited, The Pullman Company, The Tenneco Automotive (UK) Pension Scheme Trustee Limited, Thompson and Stammers (Dunmow) Number 6 Limited, Thompson and Stammers (Dunmow) Number 7 Limited, United Piston Ring Inc., VTD Vakuumtechnik Dresden GmbH, Walker Australia Pty. Limited, Walker Danmark ApS, Walker Electronic Silencing Inc., Walker Europe Inc., Walker Exhaust (Thailand) Company Limited, Walker Gillet (Europe) GmbH, Walker Limited, Walker Manufacturing Company, Walker UK Ltd, Wellworthy Limited, Wimetal Societe Par Actions Simplifiee, and Wuhan Tenneco Exhaust System Co. Ltd..

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By Tim Radford

U.S. scientists have just added a new dimension of horror to the modern airport experience: global warming could take heat wave temperatures to the point where it becomes simply too hot to fly.

And as the mercury rises, those aircraft that are cleared for takeoff may have been forced to take off a dozen protesting passengers, to lighten the load and get the rest of them safely off the ground.

Aircraft now contribute an estimated two percent to the greenhouse gas emissions that generate global warming. In the course of 2016, according to the World Bank, 3.7 billion people took flights, so even a small percentage of disruptions could affect huge numbers and keep them, fuming with impatience, in the flight lounges.

According to researchers from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, disruption is on the way.

Offloads needed

They report in the journal Climatic Change that, if humans continue to burn fossil fuels at an accelerating rate, and as average global temperatures creep up by the predicted 4C above historic levels, then on the hottest days, between 10 percent and 30 percent of fully-loaded planes may have to remove fuel, cargo or passengers before they can take off: either that, or flights will have to be delayed to the cooler hours.

This is not the only problem that global warming and associated climate change will deliver to the airlines. Other researchers have warned more than once that as temperatures rise, so will the challenge of clear air turbulence.

But passengers wont just have to keep their seat belts lockedthey may have to stay locked in for longer, as jet stream wind patterns change. Other research teams have found that slower progress against headwinds will mean dramatic increases in fuel demands.

Too heavy

But the Columbia team may be the first to have thought about the problems that warming will bring to the airport tarmac. Warmer air means thinner air. As the air thins, wings generate less lift as the plane accelerates along the runway. If the temperature gets too high, the plane may be too heavy to take off at all.

Average global temperatures have increased by almost 1C since 1980. Late in June, American Airlines cancelled more than 40 flights out of Phoenix, Arizona as daytime temperatures inched up to 48C.

And heat waves are expected to become more frequent, more prolonged and more intense with global warming. By 2100, temperatures on airport runways could have reached 4C to 8C higher than they are now.

The Columbia scientists considered the performances of five Boeing and Airbus commercial aircraft, and 19 major airports, and then worked with projections of future climate change to see how this would affect air traffic.

They found that tomorrows aircraft would have to lose weight to gain altitude: up to four percent. For an aircraft of 160 seats, this would mean the loss of 12 or 13 passengers.

Our results suggest that weight restriction may impose a non-trivial cost on airlines and impact aviation operations around the world, said Ethan Coffel, a Columbia University doctoral student. The sooner climate can be incorporated into mid- and long-range plans, the more effective adaptation efforts can be.

And his co-author Radley Horton, a climatologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said, This points to the unexplored risks of changing climate on aviation.

As the world gets more connected and aviation grows, there may be substantial potential for cascading effects, economic and otherwise.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Climate News Network.
Despite the Koch brothers best efforts, it looks like gas guzzlers are on the way out. Sales of electric vehicles will surpass those using internal combustion engines by 2038, a new analysis has found.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) projects that electric cars will outsell fossil-fuel powered vehicles within two decades as battery prices plunge, turning the global auto industry upside down and signaling economic turmoil for oil-exporting countries  [displacing] about 8 million barrels a day of oil productionmore than the 7 million barrels Saudi Arabia exports today.

This is economics, pure and simple economics, BNEFs lead advanced-transportation analyst Colin McKerracher said. Lithium-ion battery prices are going to come down sooner and faster than most other people expect.

The reports bold forecast was also bolstered by surging investment in lithium-ion batteries, higher manufacturing capacity at companies like Tesla Inc. and Nissan Motor Co., as well as rising demand for EVs in China and Europe.

BNEF admitted that its report is the most bullish to date and is more aggressive than projections made by the International Energy Agency.

Here are other notable projections for the booming category, according to BNEF:

In just eight years, electric cars will be as cheap as gasoline vehicles, pushing the global fleet to 530 million vehicles by 2040

Electricity consumption from EVs will grow to 1,800 terawatt-hours in 2040, or 5 percent of global power demand, from 6 terawatt-hours in 2016

Theres around 90 gigawatt hours of EV lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity online now, and this is set to rise to 270 gigawatt hours by 2021.

Charging infrastructure will continue to be an issue with bottlenecks capping growth in key Chinese, U.S. and European markets emerging in the mid-2030s

The report is another sign of the shifting energy landscape. Just this month, France joined Norway, Germany and Kenyas efforts to ban gasoline- and diesel-powered cars. Also, Volvo became the first major carmaker to phase out vehicles powered by fossil fuels. Finally, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that his company is building the worlds largest lithium ion battery to solve in South Australias energy woes.

Meanwhile, DeSmog reported that conservative oil billionaires Charles and David Koch are funding a campaign called Fueling U.S. Forward to squash the rise of electric vehicles. The group released a video called the Dirty Secrets of Electric Cars., featuring blatant factual errors, misleading statements, and glaring omissions, DeSmog writes.

Interestingly, the BNEF points out that the worlds Electric Car Revolution could be well underway except for one major factor: Donald Trump.

According to the report:

In Europe, almost 67 percent of new cars sold will be electrified in 2040, and 58 percent of sales in the U.S. and 51 percent in China, BNEF said. Though theres uncertainty in the U.S., where President Donald Trump could dramatically disrupt electric vehicle growth by withdrawing support for the technology in the worlds second biggest car market.
By Jessica Corbett

Last year was the deadliest in history to be an environmental activist, according to a new report that found, on average, nearly four people were killed per week.

Defenders of the Earth, released by UK-based human rights group Global Witness, lists the names and locations of 200 environmental advocates who were killed around the world. While the report found Brazil, Colombia and the Philippines were the nations with the most murdered environmentalists in 2016, Honduras has been the deadliest country for environmental activists over the last decade.

Last year, Nicaragua was the most dangerous country per capita, where at least 11 environmental activists were killedall but one were indigenous. In 2013, the Nicaraguan government agreed to allow a Chinese company to build a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; the canal will also force up to 120,000 indigenous people to relocate, according to the report.

We have carried out 87 marches, demanding that they respect our rights and we have had no response. The only response we have had is the bullet, Nicaraguan activist Francisca Ramirez said of her governments response to protests. They sell the image that we are against development. We are not against development, we are against injustice, added Ramirez, who has been threatened, assaulted, and arrested for protesting the canal.

Governments, companies and investors have a duty to guarantee that communities are consulted about the projects that affect them, that activists are protected from violence and that perpetrators are brought to justice, Global Witness campaigner Ben Leather said in statement. States are breaking their own laws and failing their citizens in the worst possible way. Brave activists are being murdered, attacked and criminalized by the very people who are supposed to protect them.

Key findings from the report include:

The phenomenon isnt just growing, its spreading. In addition to a nearly 10 percent increase from deaths documented in 2015, Global Witness reported murders in 24 countries, eight more than those documented the previous year.

Among those killed, 60 percent lived in Latin America, and 40 percent of all victims were indigenous.

Conflicts over the control of land and natural resources were an underlying factor in almost every killing in 2016. The most dangerous sectors to protest are logging, agribusiness, and mining, with at least 33 activists killed for organizing against mining and oil projects.

John Knox, UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, said to the Guardian:

There is now an overwhelming incentive to wreck the environment for economic reasons. The people most at risk are people who are already marginalized and excluded from politics and judicial redress, and are dependent on the environment. The countries do not respect the rule of law. Everywhere in the world, defenders are facing threats.

There is an epidemic now, a culture of impunity, a sense that anyone can kill environmental defenders without repercussions, eliminate anyone who stands in the way. It [comes from] mining, agribusiness, illegal logging and dam building.

James Savage of The Fund for Global Human Rights responded to the findings on Twitter:

Compelling, disturbing new report from @Global_Witness on killing of #EnvironmentDefenders is reminder of collusion btw companies & states https://t.co/Exh6RIbqSu  James Savage (@jamesmsavage) July 13, 2017

Since 2010, Global Witness has recorded nearly 1,000 murders of environmental activists, with many more facing threats, attacks, harassment, stigmatization, surveillance and arrest.

Though the group did not document any murders of environmental activists in the U.S. in 2016, U.S. environmentalists across the country encountered violence. Notably, as Common Dreams reported, North Dakota police, clad in riot gear, responded to Indigenous-led protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) with rubber bullets, water cannons and teargas grenades. Though the DAPL protests carried on for several months, in a single night last November, 26 unarmed protesters were hospitalized and more than 300 were injured following a confrontation with law enforcement.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Common Dreams.
Oscar-nominated actor James Cromwell is reporting to jail at 4 pm Friday in upstate New York after he was sentenced to a week behind bars for taking part in a nonviolent protest against a natural gas-fired power plant. Cromwell said hell also launch a hunger strike. He was one of six activists arrested for blocking traffic at the sit-in outside the construction site of the 650-megawatt plant in Wawayanda, New York, in December of 2015. The activists say the plant would promote natural gas fracking in neighboring states and contribute to climate change.

James Cromwell is known for his roles in some 50 Hollywood films, including Babe, The Artist, The Green Mile and L.A. Confidential, as well as many television series, including Six Feet Under. Democracy Now! spoke to him Thursday along with one of his co-defendants, Pramilla Malick. She is the founder of Protect Orange County, a community organization leading the opposition of the fracked gas power plant. She ran in 2016 for the New York state Senate.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Democracy Now!
The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting has completed a two-year investigation into 10 years of labor complaints against some of the biggest seed production companies in the world.

The report, released by Laird Townsend, outlines repeated allegations of labor violations made by migrant farm workers against seed giants Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer for work completed under the supervision of farm labor contractors (FLCs). Townsend reviews government documents, Monsanto records and lawsuits in conjunction with expert interviews to show allegations including broken recruiting promises, minimum-wage violations, improperly withheld pay and substandard living conditions in seed-corn production.

The day after publication in late June, a federal class action lawsuit was filed against Monsanto on behalf of two migrant laborers.

The class action suit alleges that Monsanto treated farm workers in a manner that violated two federal labor laws: the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Agricultural Workers Protection Act. The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record-keeping and child labor standards affecting full-time and part-time workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The Agricultural Workers Protection Act protects migrant and seasonal agricultural workers by establishing employment standards related to wages, housing, transportation, disclosures and record-keeping, while also requiring federal registration of FLCs.

The plaintiffs allege that Monsanto failed to pay the minimum wage, failed to pay when payment was due, did not keep adequate records of payroll and misrepresented the way workers would be paid, originally stated as flat rate pay per acre. Both plaintiffs in the suit worked in the fields on roguing corn plantsremoving from the field those plants with undesirable characteristicsand detasseling, which involves taking off the plants pollen producing tops. Detasseling is a common method of corn plant hybridization.

Specifically, one plaintiff was promised good wages and housing by her contracted recruiter, but found neither enough beds nor enough work. They said that easily in the first week we would be getting anywhere from US$800 to US$900 or more depending on how fast we worked. And then to get US$300? That was not fair, said the plaintiff. Conditions in the fieldswhere 45 workers shared one portable toiletwere also poor.

According to Teresa Hendricks, director of the Michigan Migrant Legal Assistance Project and co-counsel in the suit, the suit is believed to be the first of its kind because it addresses work completed in Missouri, Michigan and Illinois. Damages are estimated to reach US$2 million, which Hendricks said could be the highest yet for a suit of this kind. Hendricks points out that the suit could affect hundreds of similarly-situated migrant agricultural workers who did detasseling work on Monsantos corn crops.

The suit, however, does not list among the defendants the FLCs or Crew Leaders, who big seed companies commonly hire to recruit workers and oversee work on the farms.

Hendricks said FLCs are excluded because the crew leaders are not the ones with any real control. They are typically undercapitalized and struggle themselves with Monsanto, some have sued Monsanto even for pay. Hendricks plans to depose them as witnesses in the case. Hendricks believes the company builds in crew leaders in between Monsanto and the workers  to hide behind contractors to absolve themselves of responsibility for the wage theft.

The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting cites that FLCs often have tight margins for employing farm workers and meeting company standards. Townsend found that seed companies can pay FLCs a lump sum without a guarantee of compensating for extra work time necessary to complete the work as required, leaving contractors to determine how to pay workers for their additional labor.

Greg Schell, a Florida lawyer who has represented farm workers for more than three decades, told Townsend that there is a real incentive for the labor contractors to skim from the workers. The fee paid the contractors by Monsanto and the other seed companies [is] insufficient in many instances for the contractors to pay the workers the wages required by law, pay all taxes and the like, and still make a profit.

Monsanto not only delegates work to contractors that is typically completed by formal employers (like keeping timesheets and worker payment records) but also repeatedly rehired three contractors against whom workers had filed complaints of labor violations, the report states. According to Townsends research, complaints ranged from paying far fewer hours than they worked to failing to provide [required] toilet facilities, hand washing facilities with potable water and cool potable drinking water.'

Use of FLCs in the seed-corn industry has increased since the 1980s as the demographic of Midwestern farm workers has shifted from local teens to increasingly migrant populations, according to experts in Townsends report. FLCs can help as bilingual go-betweens [and] risk absorbers, even in such instances as immigration raids, said farm labor statistician Philip Martin of the University of California-Davis.

Townsend said legal aid lawyers find that Monsanto [does] not explicitly accept liability for all [its] contractors actions. Monsanto representatives communicating with Townsend maintained their stance that FLCs are the employers of the seed-corn farm workers and that these independent contractors are responsible for acting within legal bounds of employment and labor regulations.

Even considering the 2007 appeals court ruling in Reyes v. Remington Hybrid Seed Co., which stipulated that seed-corn companies are responsible for the actions of their contractors in charge of recruitment and supervision of workers, seed-corn companies fail to accept responsibility, according to the lawyers.

Monsanto and other large seed production companies have faced numerous allegations related to violated labor laws in the last decade, the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting found, with a history of settling individually with workers. The companies generally deny wrongdoing or claim insufficient knowledge to respond to the allegations, the report says, and settlements normally explicitly stipulate no admission of wrongdoing on the part of the defendant.

In recent years, settlements have become the norm. Illinois Legal Aid attorney Keberlein Gutierrez believes Monsanto has built in an amount of roughly US$500 per person as an average settlement. These settlements, which can increase slightly in negotiations, can be irresistible to farm workers, Gutierrez said, because a family of four only makes an average of US$14,000 a year.

Legal aid lawyers and experts told Townsend the cases they see are a small sample of all the violations that occur. Migrant workers, one lawyer said, are hesitant to voice concerns out of fear [of] losing their wages, forfeiting scarce work the subsequent year or being stranded with no funds to get home. The president of Farmworker Justice told Townsend in the report, almost any time we talk to farm workers, we find theyre suffering illegal conditions.

Furthermore, as about half of all farm workers are undocumented, about half of the farm labor force is ineligible for representation by legal aid groups. This is due to mid-1990s Congressional legislation that has effectively prevented legal aid organizations from representing some legal immigrants and all undocumented workers, according to Townsend.

The rise of labor contracting systems in the seed-corn industry, say legal aid attorneys, has paralleled the rise in labor violations complaints. However, the experts cited in Townsends report expect that labor violations in other crop industries might be even more severely underrepresented by lawsuits than in seed-corn. This is because seed-corn farm workers make a relatively high wage (nearly minimum wage, compared with US$2 to US$3 per hour for some farm work), meaning positions are disproportionately filled by documented workers.

Furthermore, seed-corn companies tend to be large, with deep pockets and in the public eye, bringing more attention from legal aid clinics. Smaller operations, Gutierrez told Townsend, might be committing even more serious violations outside of the spotlight.
The worlds last remaining tigers are living under severe threat of extinction, having lost 93 percent of their historical range and suffered a population crash of 95 percent during the past century.

The major threat to their continued existence on Earth is poaching to meet the high demand in Asia for their parts and derivatives.

This demand is exacerbated by the legal trade in lion bone, so it was with dismay that the Environmental Investigation Agency witnessed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) 17th Conference of the Parties last year decide to allow South Africa to export up to 800 lion skeletons a yearas long as the lions were sourced from captive breeding facilities in South Africa.

Ahead of next weeks 29th meeting of the CITES Animals Committee, in Geneva, Switzerland, the Environmental Investigation Agency has produced the detailed briefing The Lions Share: South Africas trade exacerbates demand for tiger parts and derivatives outlining the threat.

Any quota for a trade in captive-bred lions is of major concern. Not only is it likely this decision will negatively impact wild lion populations but it will also adversely impact on other large big cat species, especially the endangered tiger.

South Africa currently has up to 200 facilities breeding lions, with as many as 8,000 captive lions dwarfing the estimated 3,490 free-roaming lions found in the country.

Tigers are also being commercially bred in South Africa. In 2015, there were a known 44 facilities with at least 280 tigers being bred for trophy hunting and tradein direct contravention of a CITES decision.

Legal exports of lion skeletons and parts from South Africa have increased markedly since 2008; exports of bodies and skeletons alone during this time period account for more than 4,200 lions.

The main destination countries for skeletons, bodies, claws and teeth are within AsiaVietnam and Laos alone imported 755 bodies, 5.87.5kg of bones (equivalent to 65 lions), 54 claws, 3,125 skeletons, 67 skulls and 90 teeth, all commercial purposes.

Exports of lion parts from South Africa undermines enforcement efforts to end illegal tiger trade since without DNA analysis it is very difficult to distinguish between tiger and lion bone, teeth and claws. Exports also stimulate demand for tiger parts and derivatives since large amounts of lion bone and derivatives are marketed as tiger and offered for sale in China and South-East Asia. For example, in May last year a Vietnamese national was arrested with 680 tiger claws in their possession although DNA testing showed they were in fact lion claws.

Discerning consumers preferring wild-sourced tiger parts desire proof that purported tiger bones and their derivatives are genuine, requesting the display of skins and/or carcasses as evidence. Such demand drives the poaching of wild tigers. Since 2000, globally more than 950 tiger skins have been either seized or observed in the illegal trade; more than 270 carcasses, 1,800kg of bones and 12,000 bottles of tiger bone wine have also been seized.

It is clear that a legal trade in captive lion parts is unworkable. The government of South Africa must adopt urgent action to end this trade which feeds a market not only consuming captive-bred lions but also wild tigers.

The Environmental Investigation Agency urges the South African Government to stop all commercial exports of lion parts and derivatives, to implement CITES decisions applicable to tigers (amending legislation if required to do so) and to undertake targeted intelligence-led enforcement operations in cooperation with main demand countries to dismantle criminal networks facilitating the lion and tiger trade.
DARIEN, IL - July 14, 2017 - A new study of pregnant women shows that restless legs syndrome (RLS) is common and is strongly associated with poor sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness, and poor daytime function, which are frequent complaints during pregnancy.

Results show that 36 percent of women in their third trimester had RLS, and half of the women with RLS had moderate to severe symptoms. Compared with pregnant women without RLS, those with RLS were twice as likely to report poor sleep quality and poor daytime function, and they were also more likely to have excessive daytime sleepiness. Additionally, the study found a positive dose-response relationship between RLS severity and the sleep-wake disturbances.

"While we expected that RLS would be relatively common in pregnant women, we were surprised to observe just how many had a severe form," said lead author Galit Levi Dunietz, PhD, a T32 post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Center in Ann Arbor. "These women experienced RLS symptoms at least four times per week."

Study results are published in the July 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

The study involved 1,563 pregnant women with an average age of 30 years, each of whom was in her third trimester. RLS was diagnosed using the standardized criteria of self-reported symptoms and frequency. Demographic and pregnancy data were extracted from medical records, and sleep information was collected with questionnaires. The study found no evidence for any association between RLS and delivery outcomes.

According to the authors, health care providers often dismiss patient complaints of poor sleep and daytime sleepiness during pregnancy.

"These sleep-wake disturbances are considered common symptoms in pregnancy and are frequently attributed to physiological changes that occur in normal pregnancy, but our data suggest that RLS is an additional contributor to these symptoms," said Dunietz.

The authors suggest that the identification and treatment of RLS in pregnancy - using non-pharmacological approaches - may alleviate the burden of these symptoms for many women.

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This study was partially supported by a T32 Grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH/NINDS T32 NS007222) and by the Gene and Tubie Gilmore Fund for Sleep Research, the University of Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR) grant UL1TR000433, MICHR seed pilot grant F021024, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R21 HL089918).

For a copy of the study, "Restless Legs Syndrome and Sleep-Wake Disturbances in Pregnancy," or the commentary, "Shaking Up Perspectives of Restless Legs Syndrome in Pregnancy," or to arrange an interview with the study author or an AASM spokesperson, please contact AASM Communications Coordinator Corinne Lederhouse at 630-737-9700, ext. 9366, or clederhouse@aasmnet.org.

The monthly, peer-reviewed Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine is the official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a professional membership society that improves sleep health and promotes high quality, patient-centered care through advocacy, education, strategic research, and practice standards. The AASM encourages patients to talk to their doctor about sleep problems and visit http://sleepeducation.org/ for more information about sleep, including a searchable directory of AASM-accredited sleep centers.
Immune response in people infected by Zika virus during 2016 epidemic was milder than suggested by previous studies using cultured cells and rodents

Individuals who are infected by Zika virus after having dengue fever do not appear to become more severely ill than people with Zika who have never had dengue. This is the conclusion of a study published on June 20 in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The study involved 65 people who live in and around Sao Jose do Rio Preto (Sao Paulo State, Brazil), where dengue is endemic and there was a particularly rapid outbreak of Zika during the 2016 epidemic.

The study is the first to show that prior dengue infection in human beings infected by Zika does not necessarily lead to a worse illness. Previous research using only cells and rodents suggested prior dengue infection would intensify Zika disease by facilitating replication of the virus.

Some physicians and virologists suspected this possible viral amplification could explain the concentration of Zika-associated microcephaly cases in the Northeast of Brazil, where dengue is more prevalent than in other regions of the country.

"Our results show this aggravation doesn't occur, or occurs only very rarely and can't be detected by a study such as this," said virologist Mauricio Lacerda Nogueira, a professor at the Sao Jose do Rio Preto Medical School (FAMERP) and principal investigator for the study.

The study was performed in partnership with researchers at US institutions and three others in Sao Paulo State: Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), the University of Sao Paulo (USP), and Butantan Institute.

During the period when the Zika epidemic was at its most intense, between January and July 2016, Nogueira's team collected blood samples from 65 people who presented with fever and symptoms of dengue or Zika (similar and easily confused) at the emergency unit of the reference hospital in Sao Jose do Rio Preto, a healthcare hub for northern and northwestern Sao Paulo.

Analysis of the viral genetic material found in these blood samples showed 45 patients had been infected by Zika and 20 by dengue. The tests also showed 78% of those with Zika (35 people) and 70% of those with dengue had been infected previously by dengue virus.

Shortly after the Zika epidemic emerged, it began to be suspected that prior infection by dengue could lead to more severe clinical manifestations of Zika, similar to those of dengue hemorrhagic fever, such as bleeding under the skin, a large decrease in blood pressure and even shock in particularly severe cases. About 90% of patients with dengue hemorrhagic fever have previously had dengue and are infected by a different subtype (there are four subtypes of dengue virus).

The problem is that the antibodies produced by the immune system against one subtype do not always effectively neutralize the other subtypes, leading to only partial immunity.

According to a hypothesis called antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), incomplete immunization appears to help the virus enter defense system cells, where it reproduces, increasing the number of copies of itself in the organism and intensifying the severity of the infection. Because dengue and Zika are both flaviviruses and genetically similar, it was believed that the partial immunization observed after dengue infection might also occur in Zika-infected individuals with prior dengue infection.

This suspicion was strengthened in mid-2016, when research first showed that antibodies against dengue virus also protect individuals against Zika virus but do not neutralize it completely. In March 2017, US researchers found partial immunization to be the explanation for multiplication of Zika in a study using mice with weakened immune systems.

The study just published in Clinical Infectious Diseases now suggests what is true of cells cultured in vitro and laboratory mice does not necessarily apply to humans.

With the help of immunologist Jorge Kalil Filho, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo's Medical School (FM-USP), Nogueira and his team measured the numbers of Zika virus copies in the blood of patients previously infected by dengue and compared them with the numbers found in the blood of patients who had never been exposed to dengue. If prior dengue infection facilitated the multiplication of Zika, the number should be much higher in the former group, but the researchers found both groups had similar viral loads.

"Our study had sufficient statistical power to detect a very small difference in viral load - a difference of only ten times, in fact," Nogueira said. If ADE had occurred in this situation, viral load should have been tens of thousands of times greater.

"These findings don't entirely rule out the possibility that ADE occurs, but they constitute importance evidence that having had dengue doesn't increase the severity of Zika disease," said Kalil, a co-author of the study. "In fact, some people who have had dengue present with a milder form of infection when they contract Zika according to unpublished reports."

"If ADE caused by dengue led to microcephaly, we would have identified hundreds of cases in Sao Jose do Rio Preto and Ribeirao Preto, but we found none at all," Nogueira said.

His team also monitored 55 women who had Zika during pregnancy in Sao Jose do Rio Preto. They all gave birth to infants without microcephaly; some had neurological damage, but much milder than the cases reported in the Northeast.

"This article [in Clinical Infectious Diseases] undoubtedly has far-reaching implications, both in epidemiological terms and for the development of vaccines. These findings suggest other factors may be responsible for Zika congenital syndrome," said Nikos Vasilakis, a researcher at University of Texas Medical Branch and also a co-author of the study.

The early evidence that prior dengue infection might lead to more severe Zika disease raised concerns about the development of vaccines, especially against dengue. A dengue vaccine is currently being tested in Brazil. "There were fears that vaccinating people against dengue could lead to more severe cases of Zika," Kalil said. "The results we've obtained now suggest this problem may not exist."

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Coughing, breathing difficulties, and strong mucous production in the lungs are typical symptoms of COPD. The disease is often triggered by smoking, and, according to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), it could become the world's third most common cause of death in 2030. "COPD has various subtypes that, for example, can be verified by use of quantitative computer tomography (qCT)*," explains PD Dr. Wolfgang zu Castell, head of the Research Unit Scientific Computing (ASC) at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen. "We wanted to investigate if the microbiome in the lungs changes in a way that depends on these subtypes," adds Prof. Dr. Michael Schloter, head of the Research Unit for Comparative Microbiome Analyses (COMI) at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen.

Microbiome and CT scans analyzed

For this purpose, scientists from the two research units examined samples gathered from nine healthy individuals and 16 COPD patients. They were all participants of a Europe-wide population study (EvA Consortium; Emphysema versus Airways Disease). On the one hand, CT scans were used to analyze the lungs and assign the patients to the respective COPD subtypes. On the other hand, the scientists used brush samples from lungs to determine the composition of the lung microbiome using certain marker genes.

"This allowed us to show that the composition of the bacterial community in the lungs of COPD patients without structural changes is very similar to that of healthy subjects," explains Dr. Marion Engel, scientist in the Complex Systems Research Group in the ASC and the study's first author. "On the other hand, the bacterial composition in the lungs of ill subjects with structural changes differ significantly from those of the other two groups, regardless of the severity of the disease."

Streptococci suspected

According to the study, Streptococci are often found in structurally altered lungs. This genus includes many pathogenic representatives that are also often detected in the presence of exacerbations**. In the lungs of healthy subjects, on the other hand, there was an increased presence of the genus Prevotella, to which a number of probiotic characteristics have also been attributed.

Taken together, these findings indicate that for certain subtypes of COPD, changes occur in the bacterial communities in the lungs that can promote an increase of potentially pathogenic bacteria. With regards to personalized medicine, it would therefore be expedient also to keep an eye on the microbiome, for instance when considering whether or not antibiotics or glucocorticoids should be administered in the event of a particular COPD subtype.

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Further Information

* Unlike conventional computer tomography (CT), quantitative (q) methods analyze the physical density with great precision.

** Exacerbations denote a (mostly non-linear) progression of the symptoms

Background:

The presence of bacteria in the lungs is absolutely normal. It was also previously known that the composition of the bacterial communities in the lungs are changed in people with progressive COPD and that pathogenic bacteria and viruses can exacerbate the state of health, according to the authors. What is primarily new here is that structural changes in COPD patient lungs that can be detected with CT are associated with the composition of the lung microbiome, but not with the severity of the disease.

Original Publication:

Engel, M. et al. (2017): Influence of Lung CT Changes in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) on the Human Lung Microbiome. PLOS ONE, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180859

The Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, the German Research Center for Environmental Health, pursues the goal of developing personalized medical approaches for the prevention and therapy of major common diseases such as diabetes and lung diseases. To achieve this, it investigates the interaction of genetics, environmental factors and lifestyle. The Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen is headquartered in Neuherberg in the north of Munich and has about 2,300 staff members. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association, a community of 18 scientific-technical and medical-biological research centers with a total of about 37,000 staff members. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/en

The Scientific Computing Research Unit (ASC) is a part of the Institute of Computational Biology (ICB). The research unit combines the organization of the central data center of the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen with research components in scientific computing. Therefore the mission of the research unit is twofold: First, to provide professional ICT services for all organizational units of the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen. Second, to develop and apply mathematical methods for computational analysis and simulation of biological systems. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/asc

The Research Unit for Comparative Microbiome Analyses (COMI) strives to elucidate elementary modes of action in microbiome development and the associated formation of networks which occur independently from any particular environment and can thus be considered as general principles of microbe - microbe interactions. A major issue will be to improve our understanding on the role of microbial networks for stability and resilience towards stressors or changing environmental conditions. This focus of research will not only unravel microbial functions in different environments, where microbes play an essential role, but it will also improve our in-depth understanding of microbiome interactions from different environments. Further results will allow the development of tools to restore microbiomes and thus improving the health of the hosts (contributing to the "red" and the "green" research fields of HMGU. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/comi

Contact for the media:

Communication Department, Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstadter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg - Tel. +49 89 3187 2238 - Fax: +49 89 3187 3324 - E-mail: presse@helmholtz-muenchen.de

Scientific Contact:

Dr. Marion Engel, Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Research Unit Scientific Computing, Ingolstadter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany - Tel. +49 89 3187 1226 - E-mail: marion.engel@helmholtz-muenchen.de
Scientists from the Polytechnic University of Cartagena and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias have discovered one of the brightest thanks to an amplified image produced by a gravitational lens and the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS

According to Einstein's theory of General Relativity when a ray of light passes close to a very massive object, the gravity of the object attracts the photons and deviates them from their intial path. This phenomenon, known as gravitational lensing, is comparable to that produced by lenses on light rays, and acts as a sort of magnifier, changing the size and intensity of the apparent image of the original object.

Using this effect, a team of scientists from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) led by researcher Anastasio Diaz-Sanches of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPT) has discovered a very distant galaxy, some 10 thousand million light years away, about a thousand times brighter than the Milky Way. It is the brightest of the submillimetre galaxies, called this because of their very strong emissionin the far infrared. To measure it they used the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafia, La Palma).

"Thanks to the gravitational lens" notes Anastasio Diaz Sanchez, a researcher at the UPCT and first author of the article " produced by a cluster of galaxies between ourselves and the source, which acts as if it was a telescope, the galaxy appears 11 times bigger and brighter than it really is, and appears as several images on an arc centred on the densest part of the cluster, which is known as an "Einstein Ring". The advantage of this kind of amplification is that it does not distort the spectral properties of the light, which can be studied for these very distant objects as if they were much nearer".

To find this galaxies, whose discovery was recently published in an article in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a search of the whole sky was carried out, combining the data bases of the satellites WISE (NASA) and Planck (ESA) in order to identify the brightest submillimetre galaxies. Its light, amplified by a much nearer galaxy cluster acting as a lens, forms an image which appears much bigger than it should, and thanks to this effect they could characterize its nature and properties spectroscopically using the GTC.

Forming stars at high velocity

The galaxy is notable for having a high rate of star formation. It is forming stars at a rate of 1000 solar masses per year, compared to the Milky Way which is forming stars at a rate of some twice a solar mass per year. Susana Iglesias-Groth, an IAC astrophysicist and a co-author of the article, adds. "This type of objects harbour the most powerful star forming regions known in the universe. The next step will be to study their molecular content".

The fact that the galaxy is so bright, its light is gravitationally amplifed, and has multiple images allows us to look into its internal properties, which would otherwise not be possible with such distant galaxies.

"In the future we will be able to make more detailed studies of its star formation using interferometers such ast the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA/IRAM),in France, and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), in Chile" concludes IAC researcher Helmut Dannerbauer, who is another contributor to this discovery.

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From your phone case to airplane windows, polycarbonates are everywhere. Several million tons of polycarbonate are produced every year around the world. However, worries about the dangers of this material are increasing because of the toxicity of its precursors, especially bisphenol-A, a potential carcinogen.

Now, a team of chemists led by Arjan Kleij, ICIQ group leader and ICREA professor, developed a method to produce polycarbonates from limonene and CO2, both abundant and natural products. Besides, limonene is able to replace a dangerous building block currently used in commercial polycarbonates: bisphenol-A (also known as BPA). Although BPA has been repeatedly classified as a safe chemical by American and European agencies, some studies point out that it is a potential endocrine-disruptor, neurotoxic, and carcinogen. Some countries like France, Denmark and Turkey have banned the use of BPA in the production of baby bottles.

'BPA is safe, but still causes concerns and is produced from petroleum feedstock,' Kleij points out. 'Our approach replaces it with limonene, which can be isolated from lemons and oranges, giving us a much greener, more sustainable alternative,' he adds. Because fully replacing BPA for limonene can be complicated for most industries at this moment, Kleij explains that BPA can increasingly take over. 'We can start adding small quantities of limonene, then progressively substituting BPA,' he comments. 'Step by step, the adaptation process could lead to new limonene derived biomaterials with similar, or even enhanced and novel properties.'

The researchers not only succeeded in producing a more environmentally friendly polymer, but they also managed to improve its thermal properties. This limonene-derived polymer has the highest glass transition temperature ever reported for a polycarbonate. 'We were quite surprised to find this, because known bio-plastics have worse thermal properties than classic polymers,' explains Kleij. 'We were first sceptic about these findings, but we were able to reproduce these features consistently'. Having a high glass transition temperature has other implications: the new plastics require higher temperatures to melt, which make them safer for everyday use. Moreover, this new polymer can also offer a myriad of new applications for polycarbonates and block copolymers using appropriate material formulations.

Kleij and co-workers are currently negotiating with plastic producers to further advance the industrial manufacture of limonene-derived biomaterials.

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Members of the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine at the Lomonosov Moscow State University have determined the structure of a peptide complex, formed in the brain at the early stages of Alzheimer's disease progression. The research results will contribute to the rational design of compounds, capable to block disease progress.

Alzheimer's disease is associated with the aggregation of amyloid- peptide in the human brain. The scientific team from the Lomonosov Moscow State University under the leadership of Vladimir Polshakov, Doctor of Chemistry, has studied molecular mechanisms of -amyloid aggregation among the carriers of pathogenic familial Taiwanese mutation, described the structure of emerging complexes and established the role of zinc ions (Zn2+) in their formation.

-Amyloid is a small peptide, implementing important physiological functions, for instance, protecting the brain from potential pathogenic agents. Normally, after fulfilling its functions the peptide is cleaved by proteases and utilized. However, in some cases molecules of this peptide start binding with each other, forming complexes toxic for neurons. Processes of -amyloid aggregation into such complexes are initiated by transition metal ions.

During several years the scientists from the Lomonosov Moscow State University in cooperation with their colleagues from the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology have been studied the molecular mechanism of zinc-mediated aggregation of -amyloid peptide. They have chosen the peptide carrying the Taiwanese mutation as a model. Alzheimer's disease inevitably progresses among the carriers of such mutations at a relatively young age. The researchers have revealed that the structure of the -amyloid complexes, consisting of mutant peptides, turns out to be tighter and more stable compared to the complexes from native peptides. Zinc ions (Zn2+) play the key role in their formation.

Vladimir Polshakov comments: "We were surprised to see that interaction between a fragment of this peptide and zinc ions has led to formation of a stable complex, where two peptide chains are tightly fastened by two zinc ions. Similar binuclear structures haven't been described in the literature yet. It's important to notice that interaction between metal ions and ;-amyloid peptides usually leads to the variety of peptide chain conformations. The emerging complexes are sort of "breathing", passing from one conformation to another. But in case of the peptide - product of Taiwanese mutation we observed the only single conformation, which allowed us to determine its structure with high accuracy and precision, using the methods of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy."

The obtained results will help to design compounds, capable to block zinc-mediated -amyloid aggregation, which, in its turn, would stop the progress of Alzheimer's disease at early stages. Vladimir Polshakov shares with the research perspectives: "Using the information on the molecular mechanism, revealed in this project, which initiates pathogenic aggregation of -amyloid peptide, our colleagues from the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology have already taken out patents for two compounds, capable of terminating -amyloid aggregation. Studies of properties of these compounds on animal models have proved that they are able to reduce by several times the risk of progress of a disease, analogous to Alzheimer's disease in human."

The members of the Laboratory of Magnetic Tomography and Spectroscopy, working at the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine, the Lomonosov Moscow State University have conducted the research in tight collaboration with the scientific team from the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology (Russian Academy of Sciences) under the guidance of Academician Alexander Makarov.

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Scientists had long believed that the waters of the Central and Northeast Pacific Ocean were inhospitable to certain species of deep-sea corals, but a marine biologist's discovery of an odd chain of reefs suggests there are mysteries about the development and durability of coral colonies yet to be uncovered.

Scientist Amy Baco-Taylor of Florida State University (FSU), in collaboration with researchers from Texas A&M University, found the reefs during an autonomous underwater vehicle survey of the seamounts of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

In a paper published today in the journal Scientific Reports, Baco-Taylor and her team document the reefs. They also discuss possible explanations for the reefs' appearance in areas considered hostile to large communities of scleractinia -- small, stony corals that settle on the seabed and grow bony skeletons to protect their soft bodies.

"I've been exploring the deep sea around the Hawaiian Archipelago since 1998, and have seen enough to know that the presence of the reefs at these depths was definitely unexpected," Baco-Taylor said.

Some ocean areas, such as the North Atlantic and South Pacific, are particularly fertile habitats for deep-sea scleractinian reefs, but a combination of factors led scientists to believe that finding these coral colonies was exceedingly unlikely in the deep waters of the North Pacific.

The North Pacific's low level of aragonite, an essential mineral in the formation of scleractinian skeletal structures, makes it difficult for the coral polyps to develop their rugged skeletons.

In addition, North Pacific carbonate dissolution rates, a measure of the pace at which carbonate substances such as coral skeletons dissolve, exceed those of the more amenable North Atlantic by a factor of two.

In other words, said Baco-Taylor, the reefs simply should not exist in the North Pacific.

"Even if the corals could overcome low aragonite saturation and build up robust skeletons, there are areas on the reefs that are just exposed skeleton, and those should be dissolving," Baco-Taylor said. "We shouldn't be finding an accumulation of reefs."

The researchers suggest potential reasons for the improbable success of these hardy reefs. Among them, higher concentrations of chlorophyll in the areas of reef growth suggest that an abundance of food may provide the excess energy needed for calcification in waters with low aragonite saturation.

But that doesn't tell the whole story.

It doesn't explain "the unusual depths of the reefs, or why, moving to the northwest along the seamounts, they get shallower," Baco-Taylor said. "There's still a mystery as to why these reefs are here."

The unexpected discovery of the reefs has prompted some scientists to reconsider the effects of ocean acidification on vulnerable coral colonies. At a time when stories about the wholesale demise of reefs around the world are sparking alarm, these findings may offer a glimmer of hope.

"These results show that the effects of ocean acidification on deep-water corals may not be as severe as predicted," said David Garrison, a program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research. "What accounts for the resilience of these corals on seamounts in the Pacific, however, remains to be determined."

The reefs occur primarily outside the protected Papahanamoukuakea Marine National Monument, which means they exist in areas where destructive trawling is permitted and active.

Researcher Nicole Morgan of FSU, also a co-author of the paper, said that locating the survivalist reefs is crucial because it gives scientists a chance to preserve them.

"We want to know where these habitats are so that we can protect them," Morgan said. "We don't want important fisheries to collapse, which often happens when reefs disappear."

The discovery of the puzzling reefs shows that there are still gaps in scientists' understanding of the deep sea. The success of hypothesis-driven exploration, like the kind that produced these findings, demonstrates the importance of continuing to strike out into the unknown, said Baco-Taylor.

"These results highlight the importance of doing research in unexplored areas, or 'exploration science,' as we like to call it," said Brendan Roark of Texas A&M University, project co-principal investigator with Baco-Taylor.

If there are additional similar reefs sprinkled across the Northwestern Hawaiian seamounts, Baco-Taylor wants to find them. Further study of these reefs could reveal important information about how they might endure in a time of climbing carbon dioxide levels and increasing ocean acidification.

"If more of these reefs are there, that would run counter to what ocean acidification and carbonate chemistry dictate," Baco-Taylor said.

"It leaves us with some big questions: Is there something we're not understanding? How is the existence of these reefs possible?"

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Unabated climate change would bring devastating consequences to countries in Asia and the Pacific, which could severely affect their future growth, reverse current development gains, and degrade quality of life, according to a report produced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

Under a business-as-usual scenario, a 6 degree Celsius temperature increase is projected over the Asian landmass by the end of the century. Some countries in the region could experience significantly hotter climates, with temperature increases in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the northwest part of the People's Republic of China (PRC) projected to reach 8 degree Celsius, according to the report, titled "A Region at Risk: The Human Dimensions of Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific."

"Risk of plummeting into deeper poverty": Susantono

These increases in temperature would lead to drastic changes in the region's weather system, agriculture and fisheries sectors, land and marine biodiversity, domestic and regional security, trade, urban development, migration, and health. Such a scenario may even pose an existential threat to some countries in the region and crush any hope of achieving sustainable and inclusive development.

"The global climate crisis is arguably the biggest challenge human civilization faces in the 21st century, with the Asia and Pacific region at the heart of it all," said Bambang Susantono, ADB Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development. "Home to two-thirds of the world's poor and regarded as one of the most vulnerable region to climate change, countries in Asia and the Pacific are at the highest risk of plummeting into deeper poverty -- and disaster -- if mitigation and adaptation efforts are not quickly and strongly implemented."

"Asian countries hold Earth's future in their hands": Schellnhuber

"The Asian countries hold Earth's future in their hands. If they choose to protect themselves against dangerous climate change, they will help to save the entire planet," said Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, PIK Director. "The challenge is twofold. On the one hand, Asian greenhouse-gas emissions have to be reduced in a way that the global community can limit planetary warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, as agreed in Paris 2015. Yet even adapting to 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature rise is a major task. So, on the other hand, Asian countries have to find strategies for ensuring prosperity and security under unavoidable climate change within a healthy global development. But note that leading the clean industrial revolution will provide Asia with unprecedented economic opportunities. And exploring the best strategies to absorb the shocks of environmental change will make Asia a crucial actor in 21st-century multilateralism."

More intense typhoons and tropical cyclones are expected to hit Asia and the Pacific with rising global mean temperatures. Under a business-as-usual scenario, annual precipitation is expected to increase by up to 50% over most land areas in the region, although countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan may experience a decline in rainfall by 20-50%.

Coastal and low-lying areas in the region will be at an increased risk of flooding. Nineteen of the 25 cities most exposed to a one-meter sea-level rise are located in the region, 7 of which are in the Philippines alone. Indonesia, however, will be the most affected country in the region by coastal flooding with approximately 5.9 million people expected to be affected every year until 2100.

Economic impacts can be significant

Increased vulnerability to flooding and other disasters will significantly impact the region -- and the world -- economically. Global flood losses are expected to increase to $52 billion per year by 2050 from $6 billion in 2005. Moreover, 13 of the top 20 cities with the largest growth of annual flood losses from 2005-2050 are in Asia and the Pacific: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Zhanjiang, and Xiamen (PRC); Mumbai, Chennai-Madras, Surat, and Kolkata (India); Ho Chi Minh City (Viet Nam); Jakarta (Indonesia); Bangkok (Thailand); and Nagoya (Japan).

Climate change will also make food production in the region more difficult and production costs higher. In some countries of Southeast Asia, rice yields could decline by up to 50% by 2100 if no adaptation efforts are made. Almost all crops in Uzbekistan, meanwhile, are projected to decrease by 20-50% by 2050 even in a 2 degree Celsius temperature increase (Paris Agreement scenario). Food shortages could increase the number of malnourished children in South Asia by 7 million, as import costs will likely increase in the subregion to $15 billion per year compared to $2 billion by 2050.

Marine ecosystems, particularly in the Western Pacific, will be in serious danger by 2100. All coral reef systems in the subregion will collapse due to mass coral bleaching if global warming increases by 4 degree Celsius (global business-as-usual scenario). Even with a 1.5 degree Celsius temperature increase, 89% of coral reefs are expected to suffer from serious bleaching, severely affecting reef-related fisheries and tourism in Southeast Asia.

Effects on health and on migration

Climate change also poses a significant risk to health in Asia and the Pacific. Already, 3.3 million people die every year due to the harmful effects of outdoor air pollution, with the PRC, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh being the top four countries experiencing such deaths. In addition, heat-related deaths in the region among the elderly are expected to increase by about 52,000 cases by 2050 due to climate change, according to data from the World Health Organization. Deaths related to vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue may also increase.

A business-as-usual approach to climate change could also disrupt functioning ecosystem services, prompting mass migration -- mostly to urban areas -- that could make cities more crowded and overwhelm available social services.

Moreover, a warmer climate for the region could endanger energy supply. Climate change can exacerbate energy insecurity through continued reliance on unsustainable fossil fuels, reduced capacities of thermal power plants due to a scarcity of cooling water, and intermittent performance of hydropower plants as a result of uncertain water discharges, among other factors. Energy insecurity could lead to conflicts as countries compete for limited energy supply.

Investment decisions can help to stabilize our climate

To mitigate the impact of climate change, the report highlights the importance of implementing the commitments laid out in the Paris Agreement. These include public and private investments focused on the rapid decarbonization of the Asian economy as well as the implementation of adaptation measures to protect the region's most vulnerable populations.

Climate mitigation and adaptation efforts should also be mainstreamed into macro-level regional development strategies and micro-level project planning in all sectors, in addition to the ongoing renewable energy and technology innovation efforts in urban infrastructure and transport. The region has both the capacity and weight of influence to move towards sustainable development pathways, curb global emissions, and promote adaptation, the report concludes.

ADB approved a record $3.7 billion in climate financing in 2016 and has committed to further scale up its investments to $6 billion by 2020.

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More information on the report: https://www.adb.org/publications/region-at-risk-climate-change

Key facts and figures for the subregions/countries: https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/related/76496/ADB-PIK%20Climate%20Change%20Impact%20Report%20-%20Fast%20Facts%20on%20Subregions%20and%20Countries%20%28FINAL%29.pdf

BACKGROUND INFO: ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, ADB is celebrating 50 years of development partnership in the region. It is owned by 67 members--48 from the region. In 2016, ADB assistance totaled $31.7 billion, including $14 billion in cofinancing.
Portland State University has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to study the feasibility of bringing new methods of harnessing the power of geothermal energy to previously untapped regions of the United States such as Portland.

PSU was one of six universities throughout the U.S. to receive a collective $4 million in grants from the DOE. Portland's share is $720,000, and will be split between PSU and local partners including the U.S. Geological Survey, City of Portland, AltaRock Energy, and OHSU.

The money will be used to research a new kind of geothermal technology called Deep Direct-Use.

Unlike traditional geothermal power, which relies on natural sources of subterranean hot water such as hot springs and volcanoes, Deep Direct-Use passively heats water above ground during the warm months, stores it underground and then uses the stored heat in the winter. The study will analyze Portland's underlying geology to see if it has enough insulating ability and storage capacity to make that happen.

The study will look at several areas, including OHSU and Portland International Airport. The two locations sit in different parts of the Portland Basin, but both could see significant benefits from successful use of Deep Direct-Use.

If PSU shows this renewable energy technology is feasible, it could deliver direct geothermal energy to many parts of the U.S. that lack conventional hydrothermal resources. It could potentially power buildings and replace conventional heating and cooling systems in military installations, hospital complexes, office buildings and hotels.

"The city of Portland and Portland State are very much behind the idea of this kind of renewable energy," said PSU geology professor John Bershaw, who will be heading the project with Dr. Erick Burns at the USGS. "I think that if there's anywhere in the country where this might work, it's right here in Portland."

Bershaw said OHSU could potentially incorporate the geothermal energy source as it builds new buildings on Portland's South Waterfront neighborhood.

The DOE study is expected to take two years and will involve PSU geology faculty Ashley Strieg and Ben Perkins, along with multiple graduate students.

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About Portland State University (PSU)

As Oregon's only urban public research university, Portland State offers tremendous opportunity to 27,000 students from all backgrounds. Our mission to "Let Knowledge Serve the City" reflects our dedication to finding creative, sustainable solutions to local and global problems. Our location in the heart of Portland, one of America's most dynamic cities, gives our students unmatched access to career connections and an internationally acclaimed culture scene. "U.S. News & World Report" ranks us among the nation's top 10 most innovative universities. http://www.pdx.edu | @PSUinfoandnews
HOUSTON - (July 14, 2017) - A little fluorine turns an insulating ceramic known as white graphene into a wide-bandgap semiconductor with magnetic properties. Rice University scientists said that could make the unique material suitable for electronics in extreme environments.

A proof-of-concept paper from Rice researchers demonstrates a way to turn two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) - aka white graphene - from an insulator to a semiconductor. The magnetism, they said, is an unexpected bonus.

Because the atomically thin material is an exceptional conductor of heat, the researchers suggested it may be useful for electronics in high-temperature applications, perhaps even as magnetic memory devices.

The discovery appears this week in Science Advances.

"Boron nitride is a stable insulator and commercially very useful as a protective coating, even in cosmetics, because it absorbs ultraviolet light," said Rice materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan, whose lab led the study. "There has been a lot of effort to try to modify its electronic structure, but we didn't think it could become both a semiconductor and a magnetic material.

"So this is something quite different; nobody has seen this kind of behavior in boron nitride before," he said.

The researchers found that adding fluorine to h-BN introduced defects into its atomic matrix that reduced the bandgap enough to make it a semiconductor. The bandgap determines the electrical conductivity of a material.

"We saw that the gap decreases at about 5 percent fluorination," said Rice postdoctoral researcher and co-author Chandra Sekhar Tiwary. The gap gets smaller with additional fluorination, but only to a point. "Controlling the precise fluorination is something we need to work on. We can get ranges but we don't have perfect control yet. Because the material is atomically thin, one atom less or more changes quite a bit.

"In the next set of experiments, we want to learn to tune it precisely, atom by atom," he said.

They determined that tension applied by invading fluorine atoms altered the "spin" of electrons in the nitrogen atoms and affected their magnetic moments, the ghostly quality that determines how an atom will respond to a magnetic field like an invisible, nanoscale compass.

"We see angle-oriented spins, which are very unconventional for 2-D materials," said Rice graduate student and lead author Sruthi Radhakrishnan. Rather than aligning to form ferromagnets or canceling each other out, the spins are randomly angled, giving the flat material random pockets of net magnetism. These ferromagnet or anti-ferromagnet pockets can exist in the same swatch of h-BN, which makes them "frustrated magnets" with competing domains.

The researchers said their simple, scalable method can potentially be applied to other 2-D materials. "Making new materials through nanoengineering is exactly what our group is about," Ajayan said.

Co-authors of the paper are graduate students Carlos de los Reyes and Zehua Jin, chemistry lecturer Lawrence Alemany, postdoctoral researcher Vidya Kochat and Angel Marti, an associate professor of chemistry, of bioengineering and of materials science and nanoengineering, all of Rice; Valery Khabashesku of Rice and the Baker Hughes Center for Technology Innovation, Houston; Parambath Sudeep of Rice and the University of Toronto; Deya Das, Atanu Samanta and Rice alumnus Abhishek Singh of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Liangzi Deng and Ching-Wu Chu of the University of Houston; Thomas Weldeghiorghis of Louisiana State University and Ajit Roy of the Air Force Research Laboratories at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Ajayan is chair of Rice's Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering and a professor of chemistry.

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The research was supported by the Department of Defense, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and its Multidisciplinary University Research Institute, the National Science Foundation and Indian Department of Science and Technology Nano Mission. The Indian Institute of Science provided supercomputer resources.

Read the abstract at http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700842

This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews

Related materials:

Ultra-flat circuits will have unique properties: http://news.rice.edu/2016/07/25/ultra-flat-circuits-will-have-unique-properties-2/

Battery components can take the heat: http://news.rice.edu/2016/04/11/battery-components-can-take-the-heat-2/

Ajayan Research Group: http://ajayan.rice.edu

Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering: https://msne.rice.edu

Images for download:

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/07/0717_SEMICONDUCTOR-1-WEB-yq54kt.jpg

Rice University graduate student Sruthi Radhakrishnan shows samples of pure hexagonal boron nitride and fluorinated hexagonal boron nitride. Fluorination turns the material known as white graphene, a common insulator, into a magnetic semiconductor that may be suitable for electronics and sensors in extreme environments. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/07/0717_SEMICONDUCTOR-2-WEB-w3cvcn.jpg

A density functional theory calculation showed the magnetic properties of a fluorinated sample of hexagonal boron nitride. This version is ferromagnetic, determined by how the fluorine atoms (red) attach to the boron and nitrogen matrix. (Credit: Ajayan Group/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/07/0717_SEMICONDUCTOR-3-WEB-sgj56i.jpg

A density functional theory calculation showed the magnetic properties of a fluorinated sample of hexagonal boron nitride. This version is anti-ferromagnetic, determined by how the fluorine atoms (red) attach to the boron and nitrogen matrix. (Credit: Ajayan Group/Rice University)

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for happiest students and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.

David Ruth

713-348-6327

david@rice.edu

Mike Williams

713-348-6728

mikewilliams@rice.edu
Deep in landlocked Africa, a miracle is unfolding. Less than a generation after a genocidal civil war left it in ruins, Rwanda is defying poverty traps that ensnare many other natural resource-dependent developing countries.

The "land of a thousand hills" today has one of the continent's strongest economies and healthiest populations. This success story is borne out by a newly developed method for modeling rural poverty that could inform interventions to improve economies, health and ecosystems.

"The livelihoods of the rural poor are literally consumed by other organisms in complex ecological systems," said co-author Matthew Bonds, a visiting assistant professor of medicine at Stanford. "The environment's influence on poor rural economies makes them fundamentally different from the economies of more developed countries."

Rural economics 101

Of the 1 billion people living below the international poverty line, most live in rural communities where the natural resources around them present a double-edged sword. Ecological systems provide subsistence, but also spread high rates of infectious diseases through pathogens carried by agricultural pests, rodents, parasites and other vectors.

"These natural enemies compete with the rural poor for resources," said co-author Giulio De Leo, a professor of biology at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station. "They consume biological capital in the form of human health or crops, livestock, forests, wildlife, soils and ?sheries, thus eroding people's livelihood and well-being."

The picture is further complicated by the need to balance nutrition and health care with investments in land, livestock and crops. This complex web of interactions leads to grim statistics: More than 75 percent of rural poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia die from infectious diseases. It also leads to a poverty trap - the inability to earn enough to save and invest in future earnings. If a farmer or their livestock become unhealthy, income suffers.

Understanding poverty traps

The study, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, takes a significant step toward understanding persistent poverty and finding solutions for long-term sustainable development. It presents a first-of-its-kind general theoretical framework for modeling subsistence and health of the rural poor by analyzing ecological, economic and epidemiological factors.

For lead author Calistus Ngonghala, a mathematician at the University of Florida, the work hits close to home. "Growing up in rural Cameroon, my family and friends had subsistence lifestyles and my community suffered from a continuous burden of deadly diseases such as malaria and HIV," Ngonghala said.

The study's models show that disease transmission and recovery rates are the most consistently important determinants of long-term health and wealth dynamics. The framework also highlights feedbacks, processes and parameters that are important to measure in future studies of rural poverty. They could help identify effective pathways to sustainable development and better predict countries' resilience to economic, health and environmental shocks.

Case in point: A major, one-time wave of support - such as an injection of capital or agricultural supplies - might be enough to disrupt the vicious cycle of feedback between poverty and disease and set a country on a path of healthy development. However, this widely adopted development approach would only provide temporary relief in some circumstances, the study shows. In those cases, only permanent and sustained system changes can create lasting economic development and public health improvement.

Rwanda is a shining example. It provided broad and robust access to health care for the poor through social insurance systems. Dramatic economic growth followed.

Bonds, an economist and ecologist at Harvard Medical School, is currently a fellow at Stanford's Center for Innovation in Global Health and a visiting scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. De Leo is a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and faculty director of the Program for Disease Ecology, Health and the Environment.

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Co-authors of "General Ecological Models for Human Subsistence, Health and Poverty" include Mercedes Pascual of the University of Chicago and the Santa Fe Institute; Donald Keenan of the Universite de Cergy-Pontoise et THEMA; and Andrew Dobson of the Santa Fe Institute and Princeton University.

The research was done in collaboration with the Program for Disease Ecology, Health and the Environment, a joint initiative of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford School of Medicine. It was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies.
The prestigious Tinker-Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica for 2017 has been awarded to (University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) scientist Professor Matthew England in recognition of his outstanding research, leadership and advocacy for Antarctic science.

The US $100,000 prize, awarded by the Tinker Foundation and administered by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, is presented annually to an individual whose work has enhanced the understanding and/or preservation of Antarctica.

Scientia Professor England, of the UNSW Climate Change Research Centre, was honoured for his "sustained and seminal contribution to Antarctic science through profound insights into the influence of the Southern Ocean on the continent and its role in the global climate system".

He was also recognised for his significant leadership roles in international programs such as the Climate and Ocean - Variability, Predictability, and Change (CLIVAR) project and the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) project of the World Climate Research Program, where he has demonstrated a strong commitment to collegiality, capacity building and the global impact of Antarctic science. "Importantly, Professor England has consistently shown a rare ability to translate global issues to local impacts, and in an engaging and accessible way to the general public," the prize citation reads.

"He has led the world in championing the importance of Southern Ocean water masses and circulation in global climate, pioneering our understanding of the Southern Annular Mode and its influence on the coupled ocean-ice-atmosphere system, quantifying rates and pathways of the Southern Ocean overturning circulation, and discovering new insights into the physics of tropical high-latitude teleconnections."

Professor England said: "I am delighted to receive this award and I wish to pay tribute to my research team and collaborators - past and present - for inspiring my work in Antarctic and Southern Ocean science.

"Antarctica plays a crucial role in regional and global climate. This award will further focus my efforts to better understand Antarctica's climate as well as the ocean circulation around the continent, aiming to improve our knowledge of the region's vulnerability to climate change.

"Preserving the Antarctic environment requires limiting carbon emissions to keep global warming below 1.5-2 degrees Celsius. We need to ensure this commitment is met. Every fraction of a degree of warming poses a greater risk for Antarctic ice sheet stability and catastrophic sea-level rise."

UNSW Dean of Science Professor Emma Johnston said: "We congratulate Matthew on receiving this well-deserved prestigious award. The Antarctic continent and its surrounding oceans are a critical component of the earth's climate system. What happens in this oft-forgotten region of the world matters to all of us. Matthew is an outstanding scientist who has dedicated his career to the southern oceans and this is due recognition of his enormous contributions.

"Matthew is also an inspirational leader, training the next generation of Antarctic scientists and using his talent as a science communicator to advocate for strong policy on climate change," she said.

England completed his studies in oceanography, applied maths and climate dynamics at the University of Sydney between1984 and 1992, obtaining a BSc (Class 1 and University Medal) followed by a PhD. His doctorate was completed under the supervision of Professor Matthias Tomczak and Dr Stuart Godfrey, who both sparked an early interest in the circulation of Antarctic water masses.

In 1990, England was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to visit the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US, where he worked with climate modelling pioneers Kirk Bryan and Syukuro Manabe on the representation of Antarctic water masses in the most sophisticated climate models available at the time. This led to his lifelong interest in climate physics and ocean circulation modelling with a focus on the Southern Hemisphere.

After appointments at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Toulouse France, and then CSIRO in Australia, England joined UNSW Sydney in 1995 where he has held Australian Research Council Federation and Laureate Fellowships. In 2007, he established the UNSW Climate Change Research Centre with Professor Andy Pitman. The CCRC became the host institution for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science in 2011.

England's Antarctic research spans oceanography, climate dynamics, atmospheric processes, climate variability, paleoclimate and ice-ocean interactions. He has written seminal papers on the topics of Antarctic water-mass formation, ocean-atmosphere interactions, Southern Hemisphere climate variability, and Southern Ocean ventilation rates, including pioneering work on the use of tracers to evaluate large-scale ocean circulation in the Antarctic region. He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed journal articles during the past 25 years.

England has also been highly active in teaching, research supervision, media and outreach, lecturing to more than 3000 students and supervising projects for more than 50 PhDs and early career scientists.

In 2014, England was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and in 2016 he was elected a Fellow of The American Geophysical Union.

The award will be officially presented to him at the 12th International Conference for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography, AMOS-ICSHMO 2018, to be held at UNSW Sydney, Australia from 5 to 9 February 2018.

The Tinker-Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica includes a US $100,000 unrestricted award presented to an individual in the fields of Antarctic science or policy that has demonstrated the potential for sustained and significant contributions that will enhance the understanding and/or preservation of Antarctica. The prize is funded by the Tinker Foundation, whose goal is to recognise excellence in Antarctic research by honouring someone in the early to mid-stages of his or her career. The Prize is inspired by Martha T. Muse's passion for Antarctica and is a legacy of the International Polar Year. For further details, please visit the Muse Prize website.

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By Moses Ndhaye

Kampala Capital City Authority has ordered the closure of Old Kampala Senior Secondly School following a students strike in which some of them were shot and injured by police this morning.

The directive has been issued by the authoritys Director Education Juliet Namudu who has asked the students to go home for one week as the authorities address the issues which caused the strike.

The students were protesting a move to replace their head teacher Azida Ntegana Nsubuga.

Nsubuga, who has been at the school for two years, is to be replaced by James Muloni, the former head teacher of Nabumali high School.

However, opposed to the move, the students went on rampage destroying school furniture, windows and other properties. Three of the students have been seriously injured and taken to Kampala Muslim hospital for treatment.
MADISON, Wisconsin - Since highly versatile human stem cells were discovered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison nearly 20 years ago, their path to the market and clinic has been slowed by a range of complications.

Both embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells are valued for their ability to form any cell in the body.

This week, a UW-Madison team reports in Nature Biomedical Engineering that they have jumped a major hurdle on the path toward wider use of stem cells. Using an automated screening test that they devised, William Murphy, a professor of biomedical engineering, and colleagues Eric Nguyen and William Daly have invented an all-chemical replacement for the confusing, even dangerous materials, now used to grow these delicate cells. "We set out to create a simple, completely synthetic material that would support stem cells without the issues of unintended effects and lack of reproducibility," Murphy says.

Stem cells respond to chemical signals that trigger their development into specialized cells in the brain, muscles and blood vessels. In the lab, researchers use a "substrate" material that anchors the cells in place and allows the necessary signaling. Matrigel, currently the most popular of these substrates, is a complex stew derived from mouse tumors. "Matrigel can be a very powerful material, as it includes more than 1,500 different proteins," says Murphy, "and these can influence cell behavior in a huge variety of ways. Matrigel has been used as a Swiss army knife for growing cells and assembling tissues, but there are substantial issues with reproducibility because it's such a complex material."

And given its biological origin, Matrigel can carry pathogens or other hazards.

In an advance that has already been granted two U.S. patents, Murphy's group has developed new substrates for:

Raising stem cells for a wide variety of uses in regenerative medicine. Because the substrate is produced entirely from chemicals, the danger and confusion caused by the mouse proteins in existing substrates are eliminated, and

Growing veins and arteries from stem cells, which can serve as a test-bed for evaluating drug toxicity or discovering drugs that influence blood vessel growth (such as drugs that "starve" tumors by blocking vessel growth).

The widespread toxicity of drugs to developing blood vessels is one reason why so many drugs cannot be used by women who may become pregnant. Blood vessel cells derived from stem cells could also provide a new method to screen environmental chemicals for vascular toxicity, which explains why the Environmental Protection Agency has funded Murphy's work, alongside the National Institutes of Health.

To find an improved chemistry that would hold and support stem cells as they change into specialized cells, Murphy used robotic instruments to squirt arrays of more than 100 materials on a glass slide. "We developed a process that allowed us to test an array of materials -- each one slightly different in terms of stiffness or ability to attach to stem cells -- on a single slide," he says. "It was automated, using a liquid-handling robot, and we could screen hundreds of materials in a month; which we can now do in a week."

In the "olden days," Murphy says, each experiment would only be able to screen about 10 materials, which means that their current weekly screen would have taken years.

A UW-Madison spinoff called Stem Pharm has licensed patents for the materials from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and is starting to sell the system to pharmaceutical companies and scientific institutes, says Murphy, who is Stem Pharm's co-founder and chief science officer. "Increasingly, pharmas are externalizing innovation, because internally they don't have as much capacity to innovate as before," Murphy says. "A number of companies have expressed a strong interest in moving away from Matrigel, and our vascular screening product has already been successfully beta tested at multiple locations."

Finding a better growth substrate for stem cells may seem less sexy than identifying the cells in the first place, but it's one of the roadblocks that must be cleared so these ultra-flexible cells can realize their potential, says Murphy, who is co-director of UW-Madison's Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center. "The next step in delivering on the promise of human stem cells involves more effectively manufacturing the cells themselves, and the tissues they create. We have shown that simple materials can serve as the chisels and hammers of stem cell manufacturing."

###

David Tenenbaum, 608-265-8549, djtenenb@wisc.edu
Friday, July 14, 2017

On Friday, July 21 at noon, Gail Rubin presents A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Dont Plan to Die at the conference room next to Habitat for Humanitys ReStore at 4900 Menaul Blvd. NE.

Despite the fact that humans have a 100% mortality rate, less than 25% of adults do any end-of-life planning: wills or trusts, advance medical directives and pre-need funeral planning. That means 75% of our loved ones will scramble to collect information and make expensive decisions under duress of grief.

It doesnt have to be that way. Just as talking about sex wont make you pregnant, talking about funerals wont make you dead  and your family will benefit from the conversation.

Come on out for an upbeat presentation chock full of great ideas!

RSVP for this free one-hour talk through this link to Albuquerques Habitat for Humanity website.

Gail Rubin is a Certified Thanatologist (a death educator), a credential awarded by the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC). As the Doyenne of Death, she uses her writing and speaking skills to encourage the general public to plan ahead on end-of-life issues.

She is the award-winning author of A GOOD GOODBYE: Funeral Planning for Those Who Dont Plan to Die,Hail and Farewell: Cremation Ceremonies, Templates and Tips, and Kicking the Bucket List: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die.

She pioneered the Death Cafe movement in the United States and is the event coordinator for the inaugural Before I Die Albuquerque festival. Her website is www.AGoodGoodbye.com.

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A farmer will be arrested after going to a well-known farming show instead of turning up for court.

The farmer in question, 49-year-old John Priestly, has been charged with failing to comply with an enforcement notice.

The notice was issued by Kirklees Council. Mr Priestly has allegedly ignored warnings to stop using land in Batley, West Yorkshire, for waste storage.

This included the removal of equipment and vehicles used in waste processing and demolishing two buildings on the site.

Mr Priestly, who farms at Silverdale Farm near Leeds, had been due at Kirklees Magistrates Court to enter a plea to the charge.

But prosecutors told the court that Mr Priestly had rang to say that instead of going to court for his hearing, he was off to the Great Yorkshire Show instead.

They said Mr Priestly 'does what he wants' and has 'no regard' for people living near him.

The court agreed to issue a warrant for Mr Priestley's arrest to secure his attendance at court next time.
A Northern Irish farmer has been fined 1,500 for polluting a waterway in County Londonderry.

The farmer pleaded guilty and was fined 1,500 plus an Offenders Levy of 15 at Coleraine Magistrates Court.

William Millar Henry from Ballyrashane Road, Coleraine was fined for causing a polluting discharge to a waterway.

On 11 February 2016, Water Quality Inspectors, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) inspected a waterway adjacent to 46 Ballyrashane Road, Coleraine and observed grey fungus in the waterway.

The discharge was traced to farm premises owned by Mr Henry.

A sample taken at the time of the incident confirmed that the discharge contained poisonous, noxious or polluting matter which was potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway.

Anyone wishing to report a pollution incident can call the 24 hour Water Pollution Hotline on 0800 80 70 60.
Agricultural tenants in Scotland are being urged to explain to their landlords of any improvements that might been notifying.

NFU Scotland and Crown Estate Scotland are urging agricultural tenants to be aware of the waygo amnesty for tenants improvements, and to consider if they have improvements which need to be notified.

To encourage uptake of the amnesty and raise awareness, Crown Estate Scotlands Head of Property Andy Wells is writing to all agricultural tenants with a copy of the accompanying Code.

The amnesty, which was introduced by the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016, commenced on 13 June for three years.

It allows landlords and tenants of 1991 Act, 2003 Act, and 2016 Act tenancies to seek to rectify any outstanding issues around notification of tenants improvements which should qualify for waygo compensation.

The Code of Practice has been produced by the Tenant Farming Commissioner Bob McIntosh in partnership with industry bodies such as NFU Scotland.

'Promote best practice'

NFU Scotland Policy Manager Gemma Cooper commented: Both Crown Estate Scotland and its tenants are keen to promote best practice for relationships between landlords and tenants.

The Tenant Farming Commissioners first Code has been produced to accompany the start of the amnesty, and the Union encourages landlords and tenants to familiarise themselves with this.

During discussions around agricultural holdings it was clear that uncertainty over waygo was a key issue that required further consideration.

NFU Scotland is pleased that Crown Estate is taking the lead in actively providing all of its agricultural tenants with a copy of the Code to allow them to make an informed decision about whether to utilise the amnesty.
The UK should provide more incentives to farmers growing fuel crops to double production of biofuels, according a new study.

The report, from the Royal Academy of Engineering, balances out the pros and cons of biofuels.

It said growing energy crops is recommended, particularly where it can be done on marginal land that is unsuitable for food production, housing or has been degraded through deforestation.

The report said incentives should be given to farmers to increase production of fuel crops like Miscanthus.

And the UK is being urged to convert waste cooking oil and dregs from whisky production into useful energy.

These are the so-called 'second generation' biofuels. They are mainly waste products.

The report said growing energy crops is recommended

High-risk land use

Biofuels have a role to play in meeting the UKs commitments to climate change mitigation.

European Union has mandated that 10% of transport fuels should come from sustainable sources by 2020.

The report states that such fuels can be sustainable and could make a real impact in reducing carbon emissions, although action is needed to manage the risks involved, improve traceability and avoid fraudulent practice.

The report finds that scientists and farmers now understand much more about what specific crops and regions pose a high risk of land-use change and how these risks can be managed, and it sees a continued role for biofuels from some agricultural feedstocks.

Waste cooking oil

It calls on government to incentivise the development of second generation biofuels in the UK, in the first instance those derived from wastes and agricultural, forest and sawmill residues.

These might include converting waste cooking oil, municipal solid waste, the dregs from whisky manufacture or even fatbergs - the bane of sewer management companies - into useful fuel.

While in countries like the US and Brazil biofuels are mainly made from maize or sugar cane, the main sources in the UK are wheat and used cooking oil.

First generation biofuels manufactured from crops like corn have proved controversial.

There have been concerns that increased demand for crops drives the conversion of land to agriculture, with the consequent risks of an increase in deforestation, drainage of peatlands, loss of biodiversity, as well as associated usage of freshwater, fertilisers and pesticides.
The appearance of a wild boar in Gloucester this week has sparked a debate over the animals and its affect on the UK domestic pig industry.

In a Twitter post, Gloucester police asked: Have you lost a #pig? Ones been roaming Westgate Street in Gloucester tonight. If its yours, please ring 101 and let us know!

Survey figures last year estimated there were 1,562 feral wild boar roaming the forest of Dean, which is near Gloucester, with populations spreading to new areas.

Local resident Ian Hatton said on Facebook: "That's not a pig; that's a boar. It may be wild but it's worrying if they are coming into Gloucester."

Twitter

While the animals have caused havoc for local residents, the main concern for the UK pig industry is that wild boar pose a threat to the health status of commercial pig herds.

'Devastating consequences'

National Pig Association (NPA) chief executive Zoe Davies said: Wild boar have played a major part in spreading African Swine Fever in Eastern Europe and this highlights once again the need to ensure we have robust control measures in place to prevent our wild boar populations spreading out of control.

If an exotic disease like ASF got into the UKs wild boar population, it would become almost impossible to prove that the disease had been stamped out. This would wreck our burgeoning export market, now worth 350 million a year, with devastating consequences for the industry.

In addition, local businesses and tourism would suffer greatly as the whole area would be under restriction indefinitely. We only need to look back to the last foot-and-mouth disease outbreak to know exactly what impact this can have on local communities.

The NPA said the latest cull of wild boar in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire had 'clearly failed' despite the efforts of local Forest Services staff.
When the boss of one of the EUs biggest dairies warned last week of a looming butter and cream shortage, the NFU dismissed the comments as scaremongering.

Peder Tuborgh, chief executive of dairy farming co-operative Arla, whose brands include Anchor and Cravendale, says not enough milk is being supplied by farmers.

The slowdown in milk production began in 2016 when farmers put the brakes on, he adds, and consumers could, therefore, see a shortage of these products this Christmas.

See also: Experts caution against expansion as prices rise

His comments sent national media into overdrive. The Sun carried the story on its front page on 7 July, with the headline: I cant believe theres no butter.

The tabloid reported wholesale butter prices had risen 88% in a year and it carried quotes from unnamed farmers suggesting Britain was on course for its worst butter shortage since rationing during the Second World War.

For dairy farmers, how the national press handled the story added further confusion to an already muddling picture.

But how should they respond to recent signs of a recovery in markets  especially on the back of a severe and prolonged downturn?

Improving picture

Dairy analyst Chris Walkland says several global matters out of farmers control are working in their favour.

These include:

Increased demand for UK and EU dairy exports  especially cheese  from countries such as China

Drought impacting milk production in countries such as New Zealand and the US

A fall in production in Germany and France

The EUs decision to pay producers to limit production.

Agriculture is such a weather-dependent industry and its always very hard to predict the vagaries of production, says Mr Walkland.

This year was always going to be a weather-driven market. Back in the spring, the buyers thought prices would come down because there would be a lot of milk about.

Milk volumes were lower than people expected, but they werent terrible. But then the demand picked up significantly and we are where we are now.

Furthermore, a number of studies reporting the health benefits of dairy products, including butter and cheese, have increased consumer demand.

The Brexit effect has also triggered uncertainty over trade and retailers have been focusing on buying more British, again shortening supplies, says Mr Walkland.

They (retailers) have been trying to mop up what they can. Import figures for Ireland show there is less Irish cheddar being imported this year than last, he adds.

Market transparency

Michael Oakes, NFU national dairy board chairman, says there needs to be greater focus on processors intentions.

He would like Defra to introduce a mandatory price reporting system for dairy prices such as the one introduced by the US Department of Agriculture.

This system sees pricing information on different classes of dairy product published every fortnight, which allows farmers to study trends, assess the market and whether to forward-sell milk.

If we had more genuine, real-time market information, the processors wouldnt be able to resist when the market was moving forward, he explains. They could not hide behind misinformation.

Only in March, Arla UK was asking its farmers to produce more milk, but the market price was going down.

At the same time, Mr Tuborgh was telling farmers in Denmark there was too much milk in Europe, the market was cooling  and then the milk price dropped.

Literally, we have gone from him [Tuborgh] saying there was too much milk in March, to him saying at the beginning of July we have a massive shortage of butter and cream because there is not enough milk, says Mr Oakes.

We need better market information than that. As farmers, we cannot react that quickly. Many farmers balances are still suffering from the downturn. They are not in the right financial situation to do it.

Producer response

But how are UK farmers positioned to respond to the increased demand?

On the one hand, producers are well placed to boost output.

Edward Lott, a partner at dairy business consultancy Kite Consulting, says: We have had good conditions for grass utilisation. Maize, in general, has been established well  that will come later in the autumn.

There have been some negatives recently with the heat, especially in East Anglia. That has knocked production. But cows that we see are generally in good condition.

Silage quality that has been made from the first cuts is some of the best they have ever seen. A lot of the building blocks are in place for cows to produce more milk.

Despite this, the NFU says dairy farmer confidence is at an all-time low.

Farmers who may be looking to expand are cautious about putting on more cows. Prices are rising at auctions and the devalued sterling means buying in cows from the EU is expensive.

But with prices improving, Mr Lott says there may be an incentive to put more feed into cows now.

The ratio of feed price to milk price has moved into positive territory, especially for the milk price increases for July, he says (see Milk to feed price ratio is at its highest since 2014).

For putting another kilo of feed in, youre going to get an economic response back, he adds.

Mr Lott says the processors could introduce incentive schemes for farmers to produce more milk. In the past, processors put on 2-4p/litre extra above the previous years production. We havent seen those yet.

Producers need to work closely with processors to determine whether they want extra milk and if so, how much, he adds.

The key thing is farmers need to be in line with what their processors need. If the processor wants more milk, thats fine. We should be in a place to respond, says Mr Lott.

But farmers need to be wary of throwing on more milk without clear reasoning. We dont want to chase the current issue of butter prices, if its going to damage the future of the industry.

30p/litre price rises on the way  AHDB Dairy The AHDB has predicted dairy farmers will enjoy strong milk prices this summer and into the autumn amid warnings by Arla of a butter and cream shortage this Christmas. Chris Gooderham, an AHDB Dairy analyst, said a number of farmgate milk prices were still in the 25-28p/litre range, which looked poor compared with buoyant commodity market returns. Arla has announced a 1.44p/litre price increase from July, while Muller is increasing its milk price by 1.5p/litre for August. This will bring their prices to within the 27-28p/litre range. According to Mr Gooderham, latest actual milk price equivalent (AMPE) and milk for cheese value equivalent (MCVE)  which track the basic wholesale commodity prices for butter, skimmed milk powder, mild cheese and cheese by-products  are sitting above 36p/litre at the factory, reflecting the value of spot sales of butter/powder and mild cheddar in June. Farmgate milk prices are only just starting to reflect the increased value of dairy markets, but further rises are imminent. The increases are significant, with AMPE up nearly 9p/litre since April, and MCVE rising more than 5p/litre over the same period, he says. Only a handful of other milk buyers have announced increases so far, with the majority still not moving. This will change over the coming weeks though, as a number of milk buyers set prices based on a basket of other milk buyers, and many of these will include Arla and/or Muller. By June, the fat element accounted for two-thirds of the total return for AMPE, and fat continues to be the dominant factor behind overall market rises he adds. However, latest milk compositional data shows butterfat levels in the UK continue to run down year-on-year. With markets now showing signs of recovery, the prices that were most heavily influenced by markets on the downturn should show the most rapid increase on the upturn, he adds. As ever, Mr Gooderham says the challenge for the industry will be how to balance reaction to market prices with delivering some price stability. The UK milk price to feed price ratio (MFPR) tracker gives an indication of the balance between milk income and feed costs. However, it is not a replacement for analysis on the full costs of production. The ratio, provided by Kite Consulting, shows there has been a steady recovery since April. The ratio is projected to rise to 1.35 by August, up 0.57 since July 2016. Edward Lott, a dairy analyst at Kite Consulting, says with prices improving, some dairy farmers may decide there is an incentive to increase production. The milk price to feed price ratio has definitely moved into positive territory, he explains. A ratio of about 1.2 is seen as the balance  neither an incentive or disincentive to produce milk. But we are now moving into ratios with current feed costs and the milk price increases for July, getting into the 1.3 range, which is an incentive for milk production.
Every food-exporting nation on earth wants a slice of China, and its no surprise.

Six years ago, China surpassed the US to become the worlds largest consumer market for food and drink.

By next year, the Association of Food Industries in the US believes it will be the worlds biggest consumer of imported food.

In the first of a special series on China,our deputy business editor visits the vast country to see what opportunities are available for British farmers.

Across the country  not just in the well-known east coast cities such as Shanghai and Beijing  the rapidly rising middle classes are increasingly buying imported food.

They are visiting high-end retailers or vast e-commerce platforms, eating in Western-style burger and pizza joints, stopping by cheese and wine bars and visiting hotels for cream teas.

Decades of targeted building and development have made this all possible.

But things arent stopping there and the Chinese government is now planning to pour billions of dollars into reinvigorating trade along the old Silk Route, promising to connect the East and West like never before.

Will Chinas demand for food imports continue?

Yes. In the concrete jungles of major cities its hard to imagine that China has much more growing left to do.

But it does, and thats where the opportunity lies, say analysts at The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Chinas $11.2 trillion (8.7 trillion) GDP is expected to grow at a rate of 6.3-6.5% over the next three years  slower than its previous double-digit growth, but enough to ensure that three-quarters of the population are middle-income earners by 2030, says the EIU.

By then, those moving into the upper-middle and high-income earner categories will have swelled to 276m and 204m people respectively, according to the EIU.

For the first time this will be driven by consumer spending rather than government spending. As disposable incomes rise, more people will buy goods such as imported food for the first time, while there will be significant demand from higher-earners to upgrade to premium and branded products, it says.

Where will the growth be?

British food companies and producers will need to take time to understand where the growth lies for their product in China.

By 2030 the number of residents in the main first-tier cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen with a high disposable income will double, with Shanghai crossing the 10m mark (43.2% of its population).

But the strongest growth in high-income residents will for the first time be in cities further inland.

The number of high-income consumers in the western municipality of Chongqing, for example, will increase almost tenfold, raising the overall number above 4m. Similar growth is also expected in interior provincial capitals such as Chengdu, Xian, and Changsha.

Is there an opportunity for British food?

Yes, undoubtedly there is. While China may have been the UKs fastest-growing export market for food and drink in 2016 (up 51%), according to the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), there are still relatively few British products on the shelves there and buyers seem keen to hear more from UK producers and companies.

China was also only the UKs ninth-biggest export market for food and drink last year by value (439.5m), according to the FDF, despite having a population of 1.37bn people.

In comparison, Ireland  our closest neighbour, but with a population of just 4.6m people  was the UKs top export market, buying 1.4bn-worth of food and drink in 2016.

So there is room to unlock more trade and this is also the case with market access  currently the UK has health certification and access to for pig meat, dairy and grain based products and is actively trading. Access for beef and sheep meat are still being worked on.

See also: How to avoid the tax traps of farm diversifications

To make the most of the opportunity, British producers and companies will need to be highly competitive in an ever more crowded market, says Mick Sloyan, strategy director at AHDB Pork and deputy chief executive at AHDB.

This will mean focusing on the UKs unique selling point (USP)  high-quality products and welfare  rather than trying to compete on volume and prices with big commodity producers such as the US, Canada and Brazil.

Its not true Chinese consumers are not interested in welfare, says Mr Sloyan. People are interested in quality; food safety and traceability is hugely important.

The British brand itself  the UKs heritage and culture in particular  also has a big appeal in China and could be used much more.

However, the UK is far from the only country offering quality food with a strong story. Germany, France, the Netherlands and Australia, for example, have a strong presence and are among some of Chinas biggest exporting partners.

How easy is it to successfully sell food products?

Doing business in China takes a real commitment of time and resources to understanding the market, says Antoaneta Becker, regional manager for the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC)in the South West and adviser to the UK Department for International Trade.

The Chinese market is different, she says. Sometimes people assume is will be a one-market product entry, but China is not one homogenous market  it has regional cuisines and purchasing preferences and has a seasonal culture. Its about understanding how and where the opportunity is.

Because the country is developing so rapidly, consumer behaviour is too, so being flexible enough to change tack is also important, says Ms Becker.

Companies that succeed tend to start small by focusing on understanding one city or area and then expanding. So dont expect to crack China.

Every British company exporting to China successfully will talk about the importance of business relationships and networking  guanxi  which also means that getting a foot in the door takes time and patience, but can be invaluable once gained.

Several British food firms  such as pig-processor Cranswick and organic milk producer Diaoni  have opened small offices there to do this more effectively.

Others, such as British cheese distributor Sommerdale, employ a distributor in China to help promote their products and maintain relationships.

Technology is also moving rapidly and the Chinese now buy more online than anyone else in the world, according to the CBBC and the EU SME Centre, so being able to exploit this is key.

Exporters should also expect to have to navigate Chinas complex legal, regulatory and certification rules  which have been tightened after several terrible food scares. In addition, processing facilities all have to be checked  again, a time-consuming task.

There are also logistical difficulties to be aware of if transporting beyond the major east coast cities  Chinas cold storage network is not always reliable, so products needing to be kept chilled or frozen can be at risk.

All in all, there is a lot to understand and keep on top of.

The good news is that UK producers and food companies have a wealth of resources and expertise to hand, with an overlapping network of people and organisations in the UK and China dedicated to sharing contacts and expertise.

These include AHDBs export teams, with a food consul based in Beijing, CBBC, plus British government staff working for the Department for International Trade in major Chinese cities.

Could Chinese production wipe out import demand?

China faces considerable challenges to its food production, which means that it is unable to keep up fully with the demands of its consumers.

It has a relatively small area of agricultural land  only 11% of its land mass is cultivated, compared with nearly 26% in the UK, according to the World Bank.

Additionally, it is facing serious problems of pollution, soil erosion and water scarcity, according to Seth Cook, senior researcher, natural resources, at the International Institute for Environment and Development.

Many of Chinas farms are also very small  less than 1ha, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)  and the industry is facing a huge loss of young people to the cities.

The government is acutely aware of these problems and has made agriculture its top priority in its national five-year plan, with a focus on upskilling farmers and improving the efficiency  and productivity  of agriculture.

There is also a growing number of large privately owned and state-owned farming companies bringing in more efficient and productive practices  some with 10,000-head dairy and beef herds.

This all points to Chinas agricultural productivity increasing in the future  but it is not expected that this will keep pace with demand.

Beware boom and bust in a massive market that reacts as one

Richard Herzfelder, senior adviser at commodity analyst Gira, tells Farmers Weeklys deputy business editor Jez Fredenburgh why UK food producers should be cautious of putting all their eggs into Chinas basket.
US newspapers plan to strike Google, Facebook over ad revenue News oi -GizBot Bureau The News Media Alliance in the US has started reaching out to Capitol Hill to sound out the chances for an exemption in ad revenue.

With Facebook and Google grabbing vast majority of the digital ad market, many newspapers in the US are planning to strike at the tech giants to get an antitrust exemption from Congress to negotiate collectively over advertising revenue.

According to a report in Washington Times on Monday, the News Media Alliance, that represents roughly 2,000 US' national and local newspapers including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, has started reaching out to Capitol Hill to sound out the chances for an exemption.

"We're not looking to break up Google and Facebook by saying they have a duopoly here, what we are saying is there has got to be a way to improve the business model," Paul Boyle, Senior Vice President (Public Policy) News Media Alliance was quoted as saying.

According to Boyle, newspapers had thought allowing their articles to be shared on social media would earn them a piece of the digital ad market.

"But Facebook doesn't always allow the reader to click through to the publisher's website, denying the news website ad revenue from that reader," he stated.

Facebook, however, said the company is committed to helping quality journalism thrive on its platform.

"We have already been working with publishers and we're making progress through our work and have more work to do," the report quoted Campbell Brown, Head of News Partnerships at Facebook, as saying.

According to media reports, Google and Facebook control nearly two-thirds of the digital advertising industry, and newspaper revenue from advertisements declined to $16 billion in 2016, down from about $50 billion 10 years earlier.

"Google and Facebook dominate web traffic and online ad income. Together, they account for more than 70 per cent of the $73 billion spent each year on digital advertising, and they eat up most of the growth," David Chavern, President of News Media Alliance, was quoted as saying.

"Nearly 80 per cent of all online referral traffic comes from Google and Facebook. This is an immensely profitable business," Chavern said.

Reacting to the News Media Alliance's latest move, Google said it wanted to help news publishers succeed and lately, it had built numerous specialised products and technologies, developed specifically to help distribute, fund, and support newspapers.

"This is a priority and we remain deeply committed to helping publishers with both their challenges, and their opportunities," Google was quoted as saying in a press statement.

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Haiti - Social : Former DG of FAES and Martelly Advisor commits suicide





On Wednesday, Klaus Eberwein, former Director General of the Social and Economic Assistance Fund (FAES), was found dead at a Hotel Quality Inn in Miami. According to Veronica Lamar, Veronica Lamar, Miami-Dade medical examiner records supervisor "He shot himself in the head" listing his time of death at 12:19 p.m.



Let's recall that Klaus Eberwein, a graduate of the Faculty of Science of the State University of Haiti (UEH), has led FAES for almost three years (May 2012 - February 2015) under the presidency of Michel Martelly, whose he was also the Advisor.



Klaus Eberwein was also a shareholder in the Fast Food restaurant chain "Muncheez". Gilbert Bailly, his associate who was very hard-pressed by this death, which nothing could be presumed, said that they were both working on a project of a new restaurant "Muncheez" in Sunrise and that at their last meeting two weeks ago, Ebwerwein seemed in a good mood.



"The Directorate General of FAES presents its sympathies to the bereaved families, friends and collaborator that this mourning afflicts. The FAES flag will be flown at half-mast from Wednesday 12th to Tuesday 18th July 2017. May his soul rest in peace," Charles Ernest Chatelier, Director General.



HL/ S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH : Deportations, recommendations of the Consulate of Haiti to the Haitians in DR





Wednesday, the Consulate General of Haiti in Santiago urged the Haitian community to be very vigilant due to the intensification of the deportation process https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21499-haiti-flash-more-than-140-000-haitians-turned-back-at-the-dominican-border.html



The consulate "strongly recommends Haitian nationals to always travel with their valid passport, with a visa or residence permit, in order to avoid any confrontation with the Dominican authorities.



Moreover, to avoid all kinds of physical and psychological abuse, Haitian citizens in an illegal migration situation on Dominican territory, when arrested by immigration officials or other Dominican authorities, must not resist."



The Consulate reminds the Haitian community that an emergency number is available 24/7 to provide the necessary assistance to the extent possible.



Emergency number: (809) 671-IJAN / (809) 671-4526



Moreover, following the intensification of the operations of Dominican immigration and the deportations of Haitian nationals residing in Santiago, the representatives of the Consulate General of Haiti in Santiago, Minister Counselor Jacques Pierre Matilus, Consul Carl Edouard St Remy, the Consul Delinx Pierre Louis met with Dionicio Jerez, the representative of the Human Rights Commission in Santiago, to discuss the important points relating in particular to the closing of the stalls operated by Haitian traders in the market Mercado Nuevo "Plaza el Sombrero"



Subsequently, they met again with Colonel Green, Head of the Deportation Center in Santiago, expressing Consulat's concern about the treatment of Haitian citizens during the repatriation process before discussing with Jose Andres Rodriguez, the President of the Union of Cibao Workers, in the marketplace where they took the opportunity to make a statement of the situation.



Recall that the Mayor of Santiago, Abel Martinez, faced with the occupation of parks, many sidewalks, street traders in the streets and complaints of citizens, issued the municipal bylaw that specifies for all foreigners in the territory of the city, to make formal or informal business must have a valid Dominican residence permit and hold a municipal license. In the absence of this license illegal trades will be closed, the goods seized and if the trader is in irregular migration situation it will be handed over to the Migration service for deportation in his country of origin.



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Haiti - Security : 102 boat-people repatriated to Cap-Haitien





Wednesday, the Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk crew repatriated 102 Haitian migrants Wednesday to Cap-Haitien, these latter was interdicted Tuesday approximately 22 miles south of Great Inagua, Bahamas.



This is the largest U.S. Coast Guard migrant interdiction in more than a year.



"The Caribbean and Florida Straits are dangerous and unforgiving for migrants on illegal and ill-advised voyages in overloaded vessels," said Capt. Jason Ryan, chief of response for the Seventh Coast Guard District. "The Coast Guard and its partner agencies continue to maintain a strong presence along our maritime border and will continue to interdict and rescue those who embark on these illegal voyages in unsafe vessels such as this one." Once aboard Coast Guard cutters, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and medical attention.



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Haiti - Social : Latest tribute to Jean Claude Fignole





Ralph Youri Chevry, Mayor of Port-au-Prince :

The Mayor of Port-au-Prince, Ralph Youri Chevry has learned with deep emotion of the death at the age of 76, of the famous writer and former Mayor of Apricots, Jean Claude Fignole whose he salutes the memory.



"This great art critic, journalist and teacher in addition, has built a great ideological and stylistic originality through time, until becoming without a doubt one of the greatest authors of frictional works of the end of 20th century in Haiti and in the French West Indies," aid the Mayor of the Capital, adding" [...] Jean Claude Fignole, former Mayor of the city of Abricots and President of the Association of Mayors of Grand'Anse was a citizen committed, a great passionated of tourist sites of Haiti, of the Francophonie, of the integrated development and education in particular.



[...] On behalf of the Municipal Administration of Port-au-Prince, Mayor Ralph Youri Chevry, bowed before the body of this native of Grand'Anse and expressed his condolences to all those that this disappeared afflicts."



Pierre Josue Agenor Cadet, Minister of Education :

"Pierre Josue Agenor Cadet, Minister of National Education, has learned with dismay the sad news of the death of Jean-Claude Fignole, teacher, co-founder of the Jean Price-Mars college and writer emeritus of Haitian literature, author of 'Les Possedes de la pleine lune' a work that will have marked a whole generation of young people.



His involvement in the life of the community and the sustainable development of his native land can serve as an example of a committed citizen, protector of the environment and heritage, so sought after for the renewal of this country that is dear to us.



Minister Cadet bows to this "Mapou" of Haitian literature and invites young people to draw on his convictions and his continuous commitment to the new Haiti, respectful of democratic values [...] and presents his sympathies to his family and to his friends affected by this painful disappearance."



Limond Toussaint, Minister of Culture :

"Limond Toussaint, the Minister of Culture, is saddened by the death of the eminent Haitian writer, Jean-Claude Fignole, one of the most prolific writers of our time. His works, of an exceptional literary style, are appreciated both in Haiti and abroad. He was a founding member of the great contemporary literary current: Spiralism [...]



It is with great humility that I bow to the work of the immense Haitian writer, Jean-Claude Fignole, who has gone to the afterlife. He alone contributed to the enrichment of our Literature with more than twenty works. This makes him, one of the undisputed leaders of contemporary thought in Haiti [...]



In this painful circumstance, Minister Toussaint expresses his deepest sympathies to the members of the family of the extinct poet, members of the literary spiralism movement, his close relations, the literary sector and the entire Haitian Nation."



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21491-haiti-social-passing-of-the-poet-writer-jean-claude-fignole.html



HL/ S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politics : New grants of $155M from the World Bank





On Wednesday, Jude Alix, the Minister of Economy and Finance, signed five new World Bank grants to the Republic of Haiti for a total amount of nearly US $155 million, to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of Cap-Haitien and the communities affected by the passage of Matthew in the departments of the South, in October 2016.



"This funding will help sustainably strengthen the country's resilience to climate shocks and support post-Hurricane Matthew reconstruction efforts," said Raju Singh, World Bank's Director of Operations, adding, "The World Bank Is committed alongside the Haitian population to better deal with natural disasters."



The five agreements signed relate to :

A funding of nearly $ 55 million for a municipal development and urban resilience project in Cap-Haitien to improve municipal services and reduce flooding risks in the short and medium term. This project is funded by the International Development Association (IDA) for $48 million and a grant from the Climate Investment Fund (CIF) for $7 million;



Four additional funds totaling $100 million mobilized by the International Development Association (IDA) crisis response mechanism to support reconstruction after the devastating hurricane Matthew.



These 4 funding aim to :



Rehabilitating roads and bridges in southern Haiti and strengthening disaster preparedness capabilities ;



Restoring the ofer and the quality of health services and boosting efforts to combat cholera ;



Ensure the reliability and resilience of the water supply ;



Supporting agricultural production through subsidies and cash for work in the most affected areas of the country.



With 100 million in grants awarded in June by the World Bank https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21238-haiti-post-matthew-additional-$80m-grants-from-the-world-bank.html it is 1/4 billion dollars that the World Bank has granted to Haiti in less than 2 months.



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Haiti - News : Zapping...





Gang dismantled in the airport area

The deputy spokesperson of the National Police of Haiti (PNH), the chief inspector Gary Desrosiers, confirms the dismantling of a gang operating in the area of International Airport Toussaint Louverture. 9 members of this gang whose leader: Desire Jean-Baptiste, were arrested.



IDB : 10 million donation for the Caravan

On Tuesday, the Haitian government signed a US $ 10 million Memorandum of Understanding with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The agreement aims to assist the State in carrying out infrastructure works, river clearing, construction of roads and others, which are part of the Caravan of Change in the great south of the country.



Waste disposal : 10 citizens arrested

Agents of the Cap-Haitien Town Hall handed over to the National Police of Haiti (PNH) ten individuals who were throwing garbage in the streets of the city.



Several stretches of road, under construction in the South

Fritz Caillot, the Minister of Public Works confirmed that several road sections, including Camp-Perrin-Jeremie, are under construction as part of the Caravan of Change...



Martine Moise visited the village of Noailles

Wednesday, visit of the First Lady Martine Moise in the village of Noailles in Croix-des-Bouquets. The village of Noailles, founded in 1953, is gathering more than 95 workshops with nearly 300 craftsmen working in the cut iron. "Our artists are ambassadors for the country, they deserve to be supported and encouraged," said the First Lady.



New installation at MICT

On Tuesday, Max Rudolph Saint-Albin, Minister of the Interior and Territorial Communities accompanied including its Director General, Fednel Monchery and his Chief of Staff, Jehan Colimon, proceeded to the installation of Georges Garnier as new Coordinator in charge of the Departmental Coordination Unit for Delegations and Vice-Delegations. He replaces Gassendy Brave, who had held the position since 2012.



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Jean Philip Dupre has been named General Manager of Alt Hotel Ottawa. He joined Group Germain Hotels in 2015 as director of Housekeeping at Alt Hotel Winnipeg and has since held positions as director of Rooms, Alt Hotel Winnipeg; director of Operations, Alt Hotel Ottawa; and Business Development manager at Alt Hotel Winnipeg. Upon taking the helm of Alt Hotel Ottawa in April, the 27-year-old became Group Germains youngest General Manager.
The executive team at the award-winning Barnsley Resort, situated on 3,000 acres nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is pleased to welcome John Steffes as regional sales manager for the resort. In his new position, Steffes will collaborate with the sales team in building relationships with potential clients within key geographic markets to drive group business to the northwest Georgia resort. Bringing with him over 25 years of experience and an extensive background in hospitality sales and marketing, Steffes was previously senior sales manager at the Windsor Court in New Orleans for six years. He began his career in sales at the Audubon Institute for the Audubon Aquarium and Audubon Zoo, and from there, went on to serve as director of sales and marketing at the Holiday Inn New Orleans - Downtown Superdome. Additionally, the team is proud to announce that regional sales manager Ginny Izydore received the Hall of Fame Award at the recent Meeting Professional International Georgia Chapter Phoenix Awards. The Hall of Fame Award recognizes a lifetime of commitment to and achievement in the meetings industry. Ginny Izydore joined the resort in October 2014 with more than 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry and has since been responsible for Atlanta-based sales efforts, as well as growing corporate meeting and group event business.
Join us in July 2017 for four unique networking receptions across the US. Each reception will feature its own unique program, with special extended programs in Atlanta and Boston. These fantastic networking events each feature their own unique live program focusing on a very timely topic. ALIS Summer Update provides another opportunity to network with the hotel investment community across America. Nearly 600 registered delegates helped us celebrate ALIS Summer Update in 2016.

For more information please contact [email protected]

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Peter Drucker's journey from Drucker the innocent' to Drucker the world- renowned genius Millions worldwide have heard the name Peter Drucker. Peter Drucker was the most famous management thinker over the last hundred years, and perhaps of all time. However, Drucker could easily have qualified as a self-help and motivational guru. Drucker not only believed in and taught self-development, but he practiced the methods he developed (which he called self-management) himself. He believed that every person was responsible for his own development and for learning and application of the principles to reach his or her personal best. The Secret Mind Methods Drucker Developed to Reach Success His own career and accomplishments confirmed his belief. As I said, Drucker reached even the loftiest of his intended goals and dreams. There are hundreds of great executives and distinguished professors by the bunches who could potentially claim the title that Drucker holds. Yet, if you input The Father of Modern Management into a search engine, you will see whose name pops out --- every time. How did this inexperienced young man, born and raised in Austria early in the last century become a seer predicting events decades in the future, an adviser of powerful chief executives and heads of state about what they should or should not do, or writing books which years after his death are read by tens of thousands of execut...
Kolkata, July 14 (IBNS): A career as a fitness or a gym instructor can be a rewarding experience provided one has the right training and certifications, said Kaizzad Capadia, co-founder and director of K11 Academy of Fitness Sciences (K11), recently, while announcing that an academy will be soon opened in Kolkata.

According to business reports, fitness industry in India is growing at a rate of 18%.

A rise in disposable incomes of Indians in recent years, and subsequently the desire to look and feel good, coupled with a preventive approach to healthcare, has led to a continuous increase in demand for well-trained and qualified fitness Personal Trainers in India.

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a funding body under the Central government's Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), has committed to fund K11 to the tune of Rs 8 crore over the next five years, said Capadia.

The first tranche was disbursed in late 2016 and was utilized to start an academy in New Delhi. The tranches are released based on reaching the employment targets set by the NSDC.

The second tranche is due and that will be used to fund the center in Kolkata.

We are committed to the mandate put upon us by NSDC to up-skill and provide employment to 50,000 Indians by 2022, said Capadia.

The primary aim of K11 is to open an expansive ultra-modern academy, spread across nearly 5,000 square feet, to impart requisite skills to youth residing in West Bengal and North Eastern states and keen on becoming world-class certified Personal Trainers.

These trainers, young boys and girls, either get employed in gymnasiums or health clubs or work as personal trainers on freelance basis.

Said Capadia, So far my academy has trained over 50,000 Indians in the last 14 years. We are by far the largest provider of qualified human resource to the Indian fitness industry. We continue to provide highly skilled fitness trainers to most reputed gymnasiums and gym chains across India. We have a stellar track record. Hence, NSDC considered us as an ideal partner to promote its mission of skilling young Indians.

The Ministry of Skill Development And Entrepreneurship aims to to up-skill 55 million Indian citizens by 2020.



(Reporting by Camellia Chatterjee)
Islamabad/New Delhi, Jul 14 (IBNS): Pakistan Foreign Office said on Thursday that it was considering granting visa to Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother, report said.

"Pakistan is considering the Indian request for the grant of visa to the mother of Kulbushan Yadav," state-run Radio Pakistan quoted Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria as saying.

Kulbhushan is presently locked up in Pakistan, where he is facing spying charges and has been sentenced to death, only to be stayed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) following India's successful appeal.

His mother Avantika had made repeated pleas earlier, which went unreciprocated by the neighbouring country.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's consideration comes days after being castigated by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

In her diatribe, Swaraj exposed Pakistan's lack of diplomacy and was severe on her counterpart Sartaj Aziz.

"We also have a visa application pending for an Indian national Mrs.Avantika Jadhav who wants to meet her son in Pakistan against whom they have pronounced a death sentence,' her tweet read.

"I wrote a personal letter to Mr.Sartaj Aziz for the grant of her visa to Pakistan," another tweet suggested.

"However, Mr.Aziz has not shown the courtesy even to acknowledge my letter," an ensuing tweet read.



Sartaj Aziz Image: Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Wikipedia
Lucknow, Jul 14 (IBNS) : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has called an urgent high level security meeting after an explosive substance was found inside the state Assembly on Wednesday, media reports said.

About 60 grams of a suspicious material in the form of powder, found on one of the Assembly benches has been sent for forensic testing.

NDTV quoted its sources as saying that a report of the forensic laboratory identified the powder as being a plastic explosive, PTEN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate).

Demanding a probe into the startling incident opposition parties have alleged gross security lapse in the legislature.

Image: Official Facebook page of Yogi Adityanath.
Srinagar, Jul 14 (IBNS) : Security forces on Friday captured a recently-recruited militant from an orchard in North Kashmiras Bandipora town.

According to reports, Shahbaz Ahmad who joined militant ranks on June 26, 2017 was arrested by a special group of the state police and the Army's 13 RR unit during checking in th Markandul area.

Shahbaz was an active militant in the area and was affiliated with Laskar-e-Taiba. We have recovered a pistol and a grenade from his possession, said a senior police official.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
Mumbai, July 14 (IBNS): Comedy group AIB has landed itself in a controversy after they were accused of posting offensive content on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In its Facebook page, the group posted a photo of a Modi lookalike with a Snapchat dog filter and captioned it Wanderlust', triggering a controversy.

As per media reports, an FIR has been filed against the group.

The Mumbai Police tweeted: "Thank you for bringing this to our notice.We are forwarding this to the cyber police station."

The group has deleted the image from Facebook.

But a group member, comedian Tanmay Bhat tweeted: "PS: Will continue making jokes. And deleting if necessary. And making jokes again. And Apologizing if necessary. Don't care what you think."

Image: AIB Facebook page
Kolkata, July 14 (IBNS) Pranab Mukherjee, President of India, inaugurated the new school of Satya Bharti Foundation at Kanidighi in Murshidabad district of West Bengal on Friday.

This is the 10th school of Satya Bharti Foundation in Murshidabad district as also in the state.



Speaking on the occasion, the President said that Satya Bharti schools are providing quality education to the students with main focus to girls belonging to the weaker sections of the society.

He appreciated the Satya Bharti Foundation for establishing schools in rural areas to cater educational needs of local children. Children eagerly want to get admission in these schools to get a standard and quality education, he added. It is proposed to be an elementary school with classes from pre-primary level up to class VIII.

Presently, the school begins with classes up to class II. One class will be added every subsequent year. In addition to local students, this school will also cater to students from neighbouring Satya Bharti Schools.



The President also launched a special compendium that captures the dreams and aspirations of an ideal schooling experience as expressed by the students under various education programs being run by the Bharti Foundation across the country.



The Satya Bharti School Program currently operates 249 primary/elementary schools and five senior secondary schools across six states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Utter Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. It focuses to empower girls and underprivileged children across rural India through its flagship initiative.



Abhijit Mukherjee, MP, Jangipur, Subrata Saha, MLA, Sagardighi, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Co-Chairman, Bharti Foundation and Shri Vijay Chadda, CEO, Bharti Foundation were also present on the occasion.
New Delhi, July 14 (IBNS): Leading political parties on Friday supported the NDA government's stand on the Doklam situation, which has led to a month-long stand-off with China at the Sikkim border.



"All participants expressed strong support for India's approach and also for the need for national unity," the office of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

Giving assurance that parties will rise above politics, the importance of India and China to remain engaged through diplomacy was underlined in the meeting.

"There was widespread appreciation of the Astana understanding between India and China that differences between them should not become disputes," the statement said.

"The unique nature of very close and longstanding India  Bhutan relationship was recognised," it further said.

Union Minister Rajnath Singh chaired the meeting of all parties.
New York, July 14(Just Earth News): The United Nations Security Council on Thursday expressed concern at the ongoing clashes between armed groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) and deplored that civilians from some communities, UN peacekeepers and aid workers continue to be targeted.

In a Presidential statement read out at a formal meeting, members of the Security Council said they believed this violence continues to destabilize the country, cause many civilian casualties and cause large displacements of the population, even though the parties to the conflict have agreed to put an immediate end to hostilities.

The Security Council deplored all attacks against civilians, human rights violations and violations of human rights and reiterated the urgent need to bring to justice all perpetrators of these violations or abuses, their status or political affiliation.

The Council reaffirmed that some of these acts may constitute crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and recalled that, at the request of the national authorities, the Prosecutor of the Court opened an inquiry in 2014 on crimes allegedly committed since 2012.

Clashes between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition and anti-Balaka militia, which are mostly Christian, have plunged the country of about 4.5 million people into civil conflict since 2012. In addition to those displaced within the CAR, more than 484,000 people from the country have been forced to seek refuge in neighbouring nations.

In its Statement, the Council stressed the importance of combating impunity, and called for the Special Criminal Court to be operational and for the judiciary, the penitentiary system and the criminal justice system to be restored throughout the country.

The Council also expressed its deep concern about the humanitarian situation in CAR and once again called on all parties to authorize and facilitate the safe and timely passage of humanitarian assistance for to those who need it.

Reiterating support for the President of the CAR, Faustin-Archange Touadera, the Council welcomed his efforts to advance dialogue with armed groups and extend the authority of the State throughout the country. It also encouraged the authorities to carry out without delay an open political process.

The Statement went on to strongly condemn the violence perpetrated by armed groups and called upon all leaders of these groups to make the provisions of the agreement  signed in Rome on 19 June 2017 under the auspices of the Sant-Egidio community  known to their members so that they immediately implement the cessation provisions and to honour, without any restriction, their commitment to the process of disarmament, demobilization, reintegration and repatriation.

Finally, the Council called upon all partners in CAR, particularly the African Union and neighbouring States, to adopt as a matter of urgency the Joint Action Plan concluded on 21 June in Brussels on mediation with armed groups, and to support its implementation, with a view to achieving a lasting cessation of hostilities throughout the territory.

Photo: OCHA CAR

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 14(Just Earth News): The liberation of Mosul has marked an aimportant milestonea in the global fight against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh), the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, welcoming the announcement by Iraqi authorities that the city has been freed of the terrorist group.

As the Iraqi Security Forces liberate the remaining pockets of ISIL-controlled territory [] all parties must comply with their obligations under international law, including, as applicable, human rights and international humanitarian law, particularly with respect to the protection of the civilian population, the Security Council members said in a press statement on Thursday.

They also recognized the Iraqi Government's ongoing partnership with the UN to stabilize liberated areas across the country and called on all Iraqis to continue to work towards that end, including through a redoubled focus on national reconciliation and the safe and voluntary return or reintegration of the millions displaced.

The members of the Council also called for ensuring accountability for all violations and abuses of human rights and humanitarian laws.

Further to the statement, the Council members expressed their sympathies and condolences to all those who have suffered, and to the families of those who have perished in the fight against ISIL.

They also underscored the need to ensure justice for ISIL's victims and survivors of its crimes, in Iraq and across the region.

Photo: OCHA/Themba Linden

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 14(Just Earth News): Noting the challenges that continue to hamper sustained progress in combating cholera in Haiti, the United Nations General Assembly underscored the need to strengthen national health, sanitation and water systems on the island to promote the well-being of the population as well as contributing to Haitias sustainable development efforts.

In a resolution adopted on Thursday, the General Assembly recognized the efforts made by the Organization in alleviating the cholera epidemic in Haiti, in particular through the new UN approach to cholera in Haiti and the decrease in the number of suspected cases as a result of intensified response efforts under the approach.

In addition, the Assembly underscored that maintaining the intensified cholera response and control remained critical and invited UN Member States, donors, financial institutions and the private sector to provide voluntary funding and support for the new UN approach.

The 193-member General Assembly also called for greater international and regional cooperation and technical assistance, including through bilateral, North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation.

Further in the resolution, the Assembly welcomed the intention of the Secretary-General to invite UN Member States to voluntarily direct their share of the unencumbered balance and other income for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym, MINUSTAH, to support the new approach.

MINUSTAH is drawing down its operations in Haiti and transitioning into a new, smaller follow-on presence to assist the Government in strengthening rule-of-law institutions, security sector and human rights monitoring.

The Assembly also called on the UN chief to rigorously pursue and complete the liquidation of the assets of MINUSTAH and when disposing of the assets, to consider their potential use by the UN country team and the Government in supporting the cholera response, as well as sustainable development of Haiti.

Photo: UN Photo/ Logan Abassi

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 14(Just Earth News): The humanitarian situation in Eritrea a which is quite isolated and off the media radars a is aon a positive trajectorya but international donors need to give malnourishment and food insecurity continued attention, a senior United Nations relief official on Thursday said.

Back from a three-day fact finding trip to the east African country, John Ging, Director of the Operational Division at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told journalists in New York that food and security remains a key concern there.

Eighty per cent of the population depends on subsistence agriculture. The country is susceptible to harsh climatic conditions, especially what we saw with El Nino, he said.

He noted that half of all children under the age of five in Eritrea suffer from stunting, and 39 per cent are underweight.

We have to work very actively in that particular area to make sure we are addressing those who are suffering, said Ging, noting an extensive programme to aid children in the country run by the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF).

Among other concerns, he mentioned the need to lower infant mortality, to provide people with greater access to clean drinking water and to improve sanitation.

Eritrea, which has a population of roughly 3.5 million, sits at number 179 out of 188 countries on the UNs Human Development Index, which measures indicators such as life expectancy and education.

The UN is assisting at nutritional feeding centres and health clinics, and has helped Eritrea achieve a lot of progress on the universal development goals.

I dont want to overstate the progress  it is significant because it is on a positive trajectory  but we have a long way to go, Ging said.

He noted the modest appeal under way for $328 million over the next five years to sustain and build on these programmes. The previous programme was 83 per cent funded.

The momentum is there but there is a long way to go, so we have to give attention so it continues on that trajectory, he reiterated.

Photo: UN

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 14(Just Earth News): Amid rising terrorism and violent extremism in West Africa and the United Nations envoy for the region called on the Security Council to further support national and Regional efforts to combat this "serious threat", including strengthening the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel.

The efforts of the region's States towards broader development, increased investment, improved infrastructure and job creation are being undermined by factors of insecurity both traditional and new, warned Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the head of the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWAS).

Terrorism and violent extremism, which aggravate humanitarian crises and erode the integrity of the region's States, have exacerbated traditional threats in West Africa and the Sahel region, which includes Mali, Mauritania, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Nigeria and Niger and Chad.

These factors, combined with climate change, youth bulge and unemployment and unchecked urbanization constitute veritable push factors underpinning the surge in irregular migration and human trafficking, he explained to the Council.

In the Sahel, the envoy continued, instability in Mali continues to spread into north-eastern Burkina Faso and western Niger, as evidenced by the recent deadly attacks in the border areas between these three countries. In the Liptako-Gourma region, which links Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, the past month has been marked by an intensification of terrorist activities and violent extremism, including coordinated cross-border attacks on border crossings.

The leaders of those three countries met in Niamey on 24 January, and announced the formation of a multinational security force. The announcement came in the context of ongoing discussions on the operationalization of the G5 Sahel Joint Force (FC-G5S), an initiative that also includes, in addition to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Chad and Mauritania. He called on the Security Council to further support the national and regional initiatives of the Sahel States against violent extremism and terrorism.

Turning to the situation in the Lake Chad Basin, Chambas said that despite the remarkable efforts of the Multinational Joint Force against Boko Haram, recent attacks demonstrated that the terrorist group remains a serious threat to the region. The mode and sophistication of these attacks, he added, suggest that the terrorist group has benefited from reinforcements.

The attacks, the UNOWAS chief stressed, have devastating humanitarian consequences in the Lake Chad Basin, where 5.2 million people, many of whom are displaced, are in a vulnerable situation.

At the same time, the threats posed by extremists and terrorist groups should not obscure other traditional threats to security in the region, such as the rise of inter-communal tensions in several countries, including clashes between herders and farmers. Also of concern is the intensification of smuggling, cross-border crime and human trafficking in areas where State structures are scarce.

This insecurity, he said, also extends to the Gulf of Guinea, where piracy is increasing.

In view of these threats, he considered that the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel presents an effective multidimensional response to streamline efforts and reduce duplication between the various initiatives in the Sahel.

In that context, Chambas said he is ready to continue working with the States of the region to strengthen justice, the rule of law, security reform and national reconciliation.

Photo: UN Photo/ Pierre Peron

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Jerusalame, Jul 14 (IBNS) : Three Palestinians opened fire in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday, wounding three Israelis, before they were killed in a gunfight.

Al Jazeera has quoted Israeli police as saying that the three gunmen reached one of the gates near the Al Aqsa compound, opened fire and fled towards Al Aqsa mosque where they were shot dead by Israeli police officers.

The Jerusalem Post has reported that three Israeli males, including two police officers, were injured. Of them two are now in a very critical condition, one had been lightly wounded and is fully conscious.

According to reports, the Palestinians exchanged fire with the police officers near the Dung Gate of the Old City.

Al Jazeera has quoted the Al Aqsa mosque management as saying that the bodies of two Palestinians were inside the courtyard of the mosque compound.

Israeli police ordered the closure of the compound, saying there would be no prayers at the site on Friday.

The ancient, marble-and-stone compound houses the Al Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, and the 7th century Dome of the Rock, Thousands pray there every Friday.

The western wall of the compound, also known as the Wailing Wall, is considered the holiest site in Judaism.

In a separate incident on Friday, Israeli forces shot dead an 18-year-old Palestinian during a raid in Dheisheh refugee camp south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

Image: Internet Wallpaper
London, Jul 14 (IBNS): Police have arrested a teenager on suspicion that he was involved in acid attacks which plagued London on Thursday night, reports said.

At least five acid attacks were reported from several places in the capital, which according to the police, took place within 90 minutes, starting at 10:25 pm.

Though most injuries amounted to non-life threatening, one person was said to be critical and sustained a life-changing-injury.

The teenager is presently kept in an east London police station, the BBC reported.

The police quoted a victim as saying that two people riding a bike approached him before splashing him with a corrosive substance and vanishing with his moped.

The Met said that they have initiated an investigation.

Acid attack cases in London have risen in the past two years.

While 261 acid attacks were recorded in 2015, over 400 cases were registered in 2016.

So far, 119 cases have been recorded this year, the Met data showed.

Tweeting about the incident, Shadow Home Secretary and Stoke Newington MP Dianne Abbott said, "More terrible acid attacks, Why would you scar someone for life just to steal a moped."

Met have also said that about one third of these attack last year took place in Newham, a borough in London.



Met Police Image: twitter.com/metpoliceuk

Acid attack poster: Wallpaper
Jerusalem, July 14 (IBNS): Two policemen were killed and one was injured during a shootout in Jerusalem on Friday, media reports said.

"They were shot by three Israeli Arabs close to the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary)," BBC reported.

Police shot the attackers dead.

The attackers were reportedly aged between 19 and 29, media reports said.

They reportedly came from northern Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm.

Image: Internet Wallpaper


London, July 14 (IBNS): A teenager was arrested by police in connection with acid attack cases in London, officials said.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: "A 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery. He is currently in custody at an east London police station."

Police have appealed for witnesses and information after a spate of acid attacks in east London.

Officers were called by the London Ambulance Service on Thursday, 13 July, at 22:25hrs to Hackney Road junction with Queensbridge Road, E2 to a robbery. Officers attended and found a 32-year-old man suffering from facial injuries, read a statement issued by the police.

The victim had been on a moped when another moped, with two male riders, pulled up alongside him.

The males threw a corrosive substance in the victim's face, with one stealing his vehicle and the other making off on the moped they arrived on.

The man was taken to an east London hospital.

His injuries are not being treated as life threatening or life changing.

Following this incident, a corrosive substance was reported to have been thrown in the face of a man (no further details) by two males on a moped in Shoreditch High Street, E8 at 23:05hrs.

The victim was taken to hospital and his injuries are not believed life threatening or life changing.

At 23:18hrs, police received a call to a robbery in Cazenove Road, E5 where a corrosive substance had been thrown.

Officers attended and found a man in his mid-20s suffering from facial injuries. He was taken to an east London hospital. His injuries are described as life-changing. A crime scene remains in place.

A fourth incident was reported to police at 23:37hrs in Chatsworth Road, E5. A man stated he had been on his moped in traffic when two males on another moped pulled up alongside him and sprayed liquid in his face. They stole his moped and made off.

The victim (no further details) made his way to his home address before contacting police. He was taken to an east London hospital. His injuries are not life threatening and not-life changing

Following the incidents in Hackney, officers were made aware of a similar attack reported in Islington. At 22:49hrs, a man was reported to have had a corrosive substance thrown in his face by two males on a moped in Upper Street junction with Highbury Corner.

He was to a north London hospital and we await an update on his condition.

All five incidents are being treated as linked at this time.

Enquiries are ongoing and officers from Hackney CID are investigating.

Image: Wikimedia Commons
New York, July 15 (Just Earth News): The third consecutive failed rainy season in East Africa has seriously eroded families' resilience, and urgent and effective livelihood support is required, the United Nations agricultural agency has warned.

According to an alert released on Friday by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), poor rains have worsened hunger and left crops scorched, pastures dry and thousands of livestock dead.

This is the third season in a row that families have had to endure failed rains  they are simply running out of ways to cope, said FAO's Director of Emergencies Dominique Burgeon in a news release. Support is needed now before the situation rapidly deteriorates further.

The most affected areas, which received less than half of their normal seasonal rainfall, are central and southern Somalia, southeastern Ethiopia, northern and eastern Kenya, northern Tanzania and northeastern and southwestern Uganda.

Increasing humanitarian need

The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in these five countries, currently estimated at about 16 million, has increased by about 30 per cent since late 2016.

In Somalia, almost half of the total population is lacking reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

The food security situation for pastoralists is of particular concern, in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, where animal mortality rates are high and milk production from the surviving animals has declined sharply with negative consequences on food security and nutrition.

When we know how critical milk is for the healthy development of children aged under five, and the irreversible damage its lack can create, it is evident that supporting pastoralists going through this drought is essential, said Burgeon.

Poor crop prospects

In several cropping areas across the region, poor rains have caused sharp reductions in planting, and wilting of crops currently being harvested. Despite some late rainfall in May, damage to crops is irreversible.

In addition, fall armyworm, which has caused extensive damage to maize crops in southern Africa, has spread to the east and has worsened the situation.

Cereal prices are surging, driven by reduced supplies and concerns over the performance of current-season crops. Prices in May were at record to near-record levels in most markets and up to double their year-earlier levels.

Photo: Rita Maingi/ OCHA

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 15(Just Earth News): The United Nations on Friday expressed concern about the situation in Venezuela, where nearly 100 people have died since April and more than 1,500 were injured in connection with ongoing protests.

Briefing journalists in Geneva, a spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), noted that it has received accounts from several sources that some members of the Venezuelan security forces have used repressive tactics, intimidating and instilling fear, to try to deter people from demonstrating.

In addition, thousands of demonstrators have reportedly been arbitrarily detained.

We are very concerned that more than 450 civilians have reportedly been brought before military tribunals, OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssel said.

We urge the Government to immediately end this practice, which is against international human rights law, particularly due process guarantees. Civilians accused of a crime or an illegal act should appear before a civilian court, Throssel said, urging all those who have been arbitrarily detained to be released.

This Sunday, Venezuela is scheduled to hold a public consultation organized by the opposition-led National Assembly and other groups. Questions will include President Nicolas Maduro's plans to rewrite the constitution.

The OHCHR spokesperson urged authorities to respect the wishes of those who want to participate in this consultation and to guarantee people's rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.

An independent human rights expert on Friday echoed the concerns, urging Venezuelan authorities to comply with international rights standards.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, Annalisa Ciampi, said she was also worried about alleged intimidation of protesters and opposition members by police.

Coercion is never an answer to the legitimate demands for democracy and to people's expression of frustrations against the background of economic and social unrest triggered by increasing poverty and deteriorating living conditions, Ciampi said.

As the situation in Venezuela continues, the number of asylum applications by citizens of that country has soared and is projected to continue growing, according to UNHCR.

Last year, there were some 27,000 Venezuelan asylum seekers worldwide; this year, over 52,000 have applied for asylum.

UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler said even this figure represents only a fraction of the total number of Venezuelans who may be in need of international protection, as many do not register as asylum seekers, despite fleeing because of violence and insecurity.

Due to bureaucratic obstacles, long waiting periods and high application fees, many Venezuelans opt to remain in an irregular situation instead of using asylum or migratory procedures to regularize their stay, Spindler told journalists in Geneva.

He added that the large influx of Venezuelans has posed challenges, including international protection and physical security considerations, lack of documentation and exploitation, among others.

UNHCR is also concerned that indigenous groups living along Venezuela's borders with Brazil and Colombia are being increasingly affected by the situation and have fled their home territories, Spindler said.

Particular attention to the rights of these communities as well as a differentiated and targeted protection and humanitarian response is required, he added.

photo: Helena Carplo/ IRIN News

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Beijing, Jul 14 (IBNS): With a deluge of criticism coming its way from international platforms, China has remained apathetic towards Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo's death, who expired on Thursday at the age of 61, at a hospital in his home country, reports said.

The communist nation has also shunned coverage of the death, with little or no note being carried on the newspapers.

It has asked other countries to maintain dignity and not meddle with their 'internal affairs' as they were in no position to 'pass improper judgements'.

Xiaobo, one of China's most prominent critic, was locked up and had been serving a 11-year old prison term (in four terms, the latest of which was from 2009) for subversion.

He was disallowed from travelling abroad for treatment and was later granted medical parole on Jun 26, earlier this year, after doctors diagnosed him with terminal liver cancer.

The Nobel committee, who bestowed upon him the Peace Prize in 2010, while in prison, said that China was 'heavily responsible' for Xiaobo's death.

Condoling the loss, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said, "The human rights movement in China and across the world has lost a principled champion who devoted his life to defending and promoting human rights, peacefully and consistently, and who was jailed for standing up for his beliefs."

He also urged Beijing to release Xiaobo's wife, who has been placed under house arrest.

"I urge the Chinese authorities to guarantee Liu Xia's freedom of movement, and allow her to travel abroad should she wish so,' he said.

Meanwhile, following his death, officials stated that the Nobel Laureate died of multiple organ failure.

His final words directed towards his wife were: "Live on well," reports said.



Image: Youtube Screengrab
Ontario, July 14 (IBNS): The family of a first nation woman of Canada demanded justice for her death in the police custody, media reports said.

The family of the dead woman Debra Chrisjohn, held two police officers as the reason for her death.

Demanding justice for her mother, Deinaira Doxtator said: "I want to see the system still works the way they say. I want answers and I want those officers to know what I feel."

Following the demand, the two police officers were charged by the Special Investigation's Unit of Ontario on Thursday. They were charged for negligence in the custody and not providing the basic necessities of life to the dead prisoner.

The accused police officers will appear before the court late this month.

Chrisjohn was arrested back on September 7, 2016 and later sent to a hospital the same day, where she was pronounced as dead.

The woman, who was living with her father and two children, suffered from substance abuse and mental illness.

(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh)

Image: Facebook profile of Debra Chrisjohn.
Last month, President Donald Trump said he had his eyes closed when he approved the Dakota Access Pipeline . More recent comments appear to confirm he recalls little about the controversial project.

According to a transcript of his remarks with reporters aboard Air Force One this week, Trump insisted that the pipeline goes to the "Pacific" when it goes nowhere near that particular body of water. His defense was that the crude oil project boosts America's security and economic interests.

"Dakota Access takes it to the Pacific," Trump told reporters, according to the transcript posted by The New York TImes. "Who do they compete with? Russia."

Trump also insisted that Hillary Clinton , his Democratic rival in the 2016 presidential race, "would have never" approved the pipeline. He followed that up with one of his characteristically muddled asides about "the reservation" but it's not clear exactly what he meant with his use of that particular word.

"Hillary would have never signed  that was with the reservation  she would have never signed it," the president said.

Nobody thought any politician would have the guts to approve that final leg and I just closed my eyes and said, 'Do It'

--President Donald Trump on the Dakota Access Pipeline. June 7, 2017

"The other one I signed, that was the Keystone. That was dead. That was dead for two years. It was never going to happen. I revived it on day one," Trump said, according to the transcript, parts of which were incomplete because the White House did not allow his entire remarks to be made public.

Trump, incidentally, waited four days to take action on both pipelines . While oil is flowing through Dakota Access as of June 1 , Keystone XL is far from becoming a reality amid opposition from tribes, environmentalists and property owners in Nebraska and South Dakota.

"But that goes to the Gulf, right? Competes with Russia," Trump said. Keystone XL does include a component that would reach the Gulf of Mexico.

Dakota Access does reach a body of water that Trump did not mention. The portion his administration approved crosses the Missouri River, where the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe hold water, fishing and other rights guaranteed by treaties with the United States.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved that final portion without addressing the tribes' rights, a federal judge ruled on June 14 . He ordered the Trump team to complete an environmental impact statement for the project but there are no signs that the administration is heeding the court's order -- as of Friday morning, nothing has been sent to the Federal Register to restart the review process.

The first thing I signed, the first day, was the Keystone Pipeline. That first * was the Keystone and the Dakota Access Pipeline  also Dakota Access. Now, what does that mean? Dakota Access takes it to the Pacific. Who do they compete with? Russia. Hillary would have never signed  that was with the reservation  she would have never signed it. I was given great credit for that one. That was a tough one. First day. Its also 48,000 jobs between both of them. The other one I signed, that was the Keystone. That was dead. That was dead for two years. It was never going to happen. I revived it on day one. You know, youll check, please check it. I have to be exactly accurate. Theyll say, oh I wasnt totally accurate. But that goes to the Gulf, right? Competes with Russia.

According to The New York Times, Trump's comments were made as he traveled to France on Wednesday evening. The partial transcript of Trump's remarks about the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL Pipeline follows, with an asterisk (*) representing a portion that the White House left out:

Federal Register Notices: Notice of Termination of the Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement in Connection With Dakota Access, LLC's Request for an Easement To Cross Lake Oahe, North Dakota (February 17, 2017) Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement in Connection With Dakota Access, LLC's Request for an Easement To Cross Lake Oahe, North Dakota (January 18, 2017)

Dakota Access Pipeline Approval Documents:

White House Documents: Presidential Memorandum Regarding Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (January 24, 2017) Presidential Memorandum Regarding Construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline (January 24, 2017) Executive Order Expediting Environmental Reviews and Approvals For High Priority Infrastructure Projects (January 24, 2017) Presidential Memorandum Regarding Construction of American Pipelines (January 24, 2017) Presidential Memorandum Streamlining Permitting and Reducing Regulatory Burdens for Domestic Manufacturing (January 24, 2017) Press Release: President Trump Takes Action to Expedite Priority Energy and Infrastructure Projects (January 24, 2017)

Join the Conversation

Related Stories: North Dakota still hoping to secure taxpayer funds for #NoDAPL response (July 14, 2017) YES! Magazine: Native activists continue to pressure banks on pipelines (July 10, 2017) Albert Bender: Judge waited for oil to flow through Dakota Access Pipeline (July 6, 2017) Dakota Access still fighting small fine for disturbance of tribal artifacts (July 5, 2017) Officials in North Dakota claim ignorance on Dakota Access security firm (June 29, 2017) Dakota Access security firm was denied license but kept working anyway (June 28, 2017) Tribes in for long haul as oil continues to flow through Dakota Access Pipeline (June 23, 2017) Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe welcomes 'victory' in Dakota Access Pipeline case (June 16, 2017) Mark Trahant: Dakota Access decision offers a chance to return to respect (June 16, 2017) Jacqueline Keeler: Connecting the Dakota Access Pipeline to history (June 15, 2017) Indian Country celebrates as judge orders environmental review of Dakota Access Pipeline (June 15, 2017) Albert Bender: Judge drags his feet in Dakota Access Pipeline case (June 12, 2017) Dakota Access faces fines for disturbing artifacts in North Dakota (June 8, 2017) President Trump put wealthy firm first in approving Dakota Access Pipeline (June 7, 2017)
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Variable clouds with snow showers. High 38F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 60%..

Tonight

Variable clouds with snow showers. Low 28F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
Asia Murders, Masked men Spook Rohingya in Bangladesh Camps

Noor Ankis, 25, whose husband Ayub, a leader of the unregistered makeshift camp in Kutupalong, was killed late last month, poses for a picture with her two children in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, on July 9, 2017. / Mohammad Ponir Hossain / Reuters

KUTUPALONG MAKESHIFT CAMP, Bangladesh  As fellow Muslims were celebrating the end of Ramadan late in June, Noor Ankis and her neighbors buried her husband at the refugee camp in Bangladesh where he had lived for years.

Mohammed Ayubs bodyhis throat slit and hands tied behind his backhad been found dumped in a desolate corner of the camp for Rohingya Muslims who have fled neighboring Myanmar.

Thirty-year-old Ayub was one of three Rohingya men whose bodies were found over the past few weeks. Aid workers and long-time residents say the incidents, along with the stabbing of a community leader, amount to the worst violence in the camps since the Rohingya began fleeing Buddhist-majority Myanmar more than a quarter of a century ago.

Refugees, whose numbers have swelled since fighting late last year in Myanmars Rakhine State, also report masked men roaming the dark streets of the two camps in Kutupalong at night.

Bangladesh police and aid workers say a struggle for control of supplies to the camps is behind the violence.

They beat me and my sister and dragged him out of the house, Ankis told Reuters, as her 7- and 3-year-old children slept by her on the newly cemented floor.

The kidnappers called me from his number and threatened to kill me too. Im also getting threats in the name of al-Yaqin.

She was referring to the militant group Harakah al-Yaqin, or Faith Movement, whose attacks on Myanmar border police posts in October prompted a security crackdown in which troops have been accused of murder and rape of Rohingya civilians.

Police say it is unclear whether the insurgent group, which now wants to be known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, was involved in the violence in the camps or whether others were using its name to intimidate refugees.

The group, whose leader spoke to Reuters in an interview in March, did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Resource Gap

More than 75,000 Rohingya have fled northwestern Rakhine State to Bangladesh over recent months, joining tens of thousands already there. Myanmars military and government have denied almost all allegations of atrocities by security forces.

While the government announced the end of its counterinsurgency operation in February, tensions in Myanmar have risen again in recent days after village administrators were murdered and troops killed three people while clearing a Rohingya militant camp.

The population of the official and makeshift camps in Kutupalong, around 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of Dhaka, has swelled to around 86,000, from 49,000, since the October exodus, according to a Bangladeshi government document seen by Reuters.

While the nearly 14,000 refugees in the registered camp receive medical care and food from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the majority living in plastic-and-mud huts of the cramped makeshift camp are largely left to fend for themselves.

Theres always that resources gap and thats the reason there is always tension between the registered refugees and those outside, said Sanjukta Sahany, a senior official with the International Organization for Migration in Bangladesh that is charged with coordinating relief efforts by various UN agencies.

Post-influx the security situation has deteriorated.

A recent cyclone and floods that put added strain on limited aid supplies have also made things worse, aid workers said.

Shinji Kubo, UNHCRs Bangladesh boss, said he was pressing the local government to let his agency expand its role beyond the two registered camps in the country.

Masked Men

Ayubs wife, Ankis, said her husband had been involved in an ongoing dispute with drug users in the makeshift camp in Kutupalong, according to a police report seen by Reuters.

He was kidnapped by a group of 20-25 machete-wielding men who barged into their shack on the night of June 14, she said.

Reuters reported in February that Bangladesh blames the Rohingya influx for the soaring use of methamphetamine drug in the country.

Ayubs body was recovered from a muddy wasteland between two hillocks in Kutupalong on June 25. The body of another man, Mohammed Selim, who was also abducted on June, had been found in a similar state at the same place a week earlier.

Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and killing of Ayub, though the motive remained unclear, senior police officer Afruzul Haque Tutul said.

In the camps, refugees remain fearful of the mysterious masked men who continue to be reported moving around at night.

I was sleeping with my two children and my wife when they called my name, said a 30-year-old registered refugee, who was twice approached by groups of 10-12 men, though he did not open his door.

The one hour they waited outside my home was the longest one hour of my life.
Burma Experts Urge Govt to Embrace Renewable Energy

From right to left: Hans Josef Fell, U Aung Myint of REAM, and Mirco Kreibich of Heinrich Boll Foundation at the energy lecture in Yangon on July 13, 2017. / Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Experts urged the government to consider including renewable energy sources in the national energy plan at a talk concerning a clean energy vision for Myanmar in Yangon on Thursday.

U Aung Myint, the director of Renewable Energy Association Myanmar (REAM) said that they had expected that the National League for Democracy government would implement a sustainable policy approach for the new energy sector. However, he noted that this has not been the case.

The current circumstances show that Myanmars energy sector is going against the direction widely accepted in the world, U Aung Myint said, referring to a focus on the greater use of renewable energy sources.

On Wednesday in Naypyitaw, civil society groups, members of the private sector and international lenders participated in a roundtable discussion with the Ministry of Electricity and Energy.

The coalition of energy experts said in a statement that since Myanmar is focusing largely on coal and large hydropower plants, it is missing a major opportunity to develop its renewable energy potential.

The coal plants and mega dams are dinosaur technologies that have severe negative impacts on climate change, public health, biodiversity and local livelihoods, the statement said.

Renewable energy sources as such solar and wind power are the cleanest and cheapest options, said Hans-Josef Fell, a renewable energy expert from German Energy Watch. He is a former member of Parliament, representing his countrys Green Party, and has advocated worldwide for a stronger embrace of renewable energy.

He shared experiences from Germany, as well as those of China and Bangladesh, concerning the uses and benefits of renewable energy.

Fell said that when Germany started the use of renewable energy 17 years ago, the situation was comparable to present-day Myanmar. They started with a target of six percent use in 2000, and have increased to 35 percent in 2017.

Solar and wind power generate an abundance of electricity and sell at cheaper prices than heavily financed coal plants, Fell explained, adding that Germany has a target of 100 percent use of renewable energy by 2030.

In order to maintain power plants, Myanmar would have to import coal, part of the previous U Thein Sein-led governments plan to achieve 33 percent electricity generation from such plants.

The chief ministers in Mon and Karen states have urged the establishment of coal plants as an immediate solution to meet the demand for electricity, despite civil society groups objecting to the energy source.

Earlier this week, on July 11, the Shan Human Rights Foundation said that residents of Nanma village in northern Shan States Hsipaw Township, have been experiencing health concerns after inhaling dust from coal mines in the region.

U Aung Myint urged the National League for Democracy government to act in accordance with its election manifesto and promote renewable energy as a matter of political and economic importance.

If the government hopes to be together with the people it needs to show that it is willing to listen to concerns about its energy development and grid extension plans before making decisions, he added.

Hans-Josef Fell echoed that political will and support would be key in succeeding in developing renewable energy sources and strengthening the stability of the electricity grid.

He also highlighted the cost-effective aspect of these provisions, and that it could create jobs.

Myanmars recent energy master plan lacks an outline of renewable energy uses, including biomass energy that could be generated in the country, U Aung Myint said.

U Win Myo Thu, an environmentalist and the director of EcoDev, said much information is available to policymakers, but that the desire to create change would depend upon them.

He told The Irrawaddy that Myanmar needs the political leadership to take a new path for the challenge, as people tend to be attached to the existing method, which does not need much effort.

The government needs to consult with the public in order to conduct hydropower plants, which are not mega dams, the environmentalist said, adding that the project could go ahead if the government acts transparently.

If we are able to use efficient technology for small and medium hydropower plants for electricity generation, then we wouldnt have to use mega dams, U Win Myo Thu said.
Burma Govt Refuses to Deal With Wa-Led Alliance as Bloc

UWSA members at the second session of the Panglong Conference in Naypyitaw in May, 2017. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  The government has rejected the idea of holding peace talks with an alliance of seven ethnic armed groups based in northeast Myanmar as a single entity and will only negotiate with them separately, according to the governments peace commission.

We dont accept the northern groups, said the commissions spokesperson U Aung Soe, referring to the alliance. We have already made it clear that we dont accept it. We are ready to meet and negotiate with any of them separately anytime.

Led by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the alliance also comprises the Arakan Army (AA), Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP), and National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA)

The alliance said it would only hold talks with the government as a coalition under its name the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee (FPNCC), which it formed in the third week of April.

TNLA spokesperson Brig-Gen Mai Bone Kyaw told The Irrawaddy that the FPNCC expected the governments refusal to deal with them as a single entity.

We FPNCC members need to hold a meeting to decide if we can meet separately with the government, he told The Irrawaddy.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) government offered to hold talks with each member or the UWSA, SSPP and NDAA as one group, and the KIA, TNLA, MNDAA and AA as another group, via Chinas special envoy on Asian Affairs Sun Guoxiang in mid-June. But the FPNCC rejected the offer.

In an appearance brokered by the Chinese government, representatives of the seven ethnic armed groups attended the second session of the 21st Century Panglong conference in May and held private talks with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi during the event.

Clashes are ongoing between the Myanmar Army and the KIA and TNLA in Shan and Kachin states.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma Lawmaker Criticizes Military Action in Illegal Mining Areas

Internally displaced persons who fled to the border following clashes in Kachin States Waingmaw Township. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Lower House lawmaker representing Kachins Tanai Township U Lin Lin Oo criticized a military crackdown on illegal gold and amber mines in the township during a parliamentary session on Thursday.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation and the Kachin State government should take the lead in handling this problem. Military action is not at all the right approach, U Lin Lin Oo told Parliament.

The lawmaker submitted a proposal to the Lower House urging the ministry and state government to properly handle illegal gold and amber mines in Tanai and Hpakant townships.

He quoted Article 37 of the 2008 military-drafted Constitution, stating that the Union is the ultimate owner of all lands and all natural resources above and below the ground, above and beneath the water and in the atmosphere in the Union.

There is a need for the Union government to exercise this executive power vested by the Constitution to adopt a policy to prevent the loss of the countrys resources, said U Lin Lin Oo.

Citizens and ethnic people have suffered unnecessarily from the consequences of a military crackdown on illegal mining in the area, he criticized.

Hundreds of gold and amber miners have fled the area and sought shelter in Tanai since clashes broke out between the Myanmar Army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in early June.

More than 100,000 people living in the area have also fled to Tanai, Hkamti in Sagaing Division, or to their hometowns.

Myanmar Army helicopters dropped leaflets in the second week of June, asking people in the mining areas to leave by June 15 or else be recognized as insurgents supporting the KIA. Then, it launched attacks. Military tensions between the two sides persist in the area.

U Tin Soe, Lower House lawmaker representing Hpakant Township, seconded U Lin Lin Oo, saying clashes have also affected Hpakant.

He said locals started mining illegally in the 2000s in Tanai and Hpakant, and since then, thousands of Kachin locals and other internal migrants have arrived to work in the area.

Besides miners, many people in the area earn their livelihoods through trading gold, driving taxis, and selling mining equipment, fuel, food, and consumer goods and more.

U Tin Soe said there were more than 500,000 people working in or near the amber mines in 2014.

In July of last year, the Myanmar Army conducted clearance operations in gold mines in two villages along Ledo Road in Hpakant Township, forcing workers to flee.

Parliament approved discussion of U Lin Lin Oos proposal.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
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By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) |  

As the date for a Baghdad summit on unity nears, the cracks are showing. It seems the countrys Sunni politicians cant even get together to discuss their possible unity, in post-Islamic State Iraq.

In mid-July, there is to be a conference in Baghdad for Sunni Muslim political leaders, from all parties and groups, with the aim of creating a united leadership for Sunni Muslims in Iraq, now that the extremist Islamic State group has been partially driven out of the country. This is important because the extremist group based their ideology on a version of Sunni Islam and most of the areas they controlled were populated by the countrys Sunni Muslims.

However, almost immediately it has become clear how difficult it is to get the countrys Sunni politicians to agree on anything. To date, there have been three different conferences announced, all to discuss the same topic.

The largest one is that being organized by Salim al-Jibouri, one of the most senior Sunni politicians in Iraq who is also the Speaker of Iraqs parliament, in cooperation with two other senior Sunni politicians from the Sunni-majority Iraqi National Forces Alliance. It was expected that a new Sunni alliance would result from the conference.

It is quite possible that the current crisis between the various Gulf Arab nations is also having an impact.

This conference will be different because it is supported locally, regionally and by international interests, Sunni MP Khalid al-Mufraji told NIQASH. The conference organisers are serious about uniting the Sunni community and rival Sunni forces, as well as reconstructing destroyed Sunni cities.

Supposedly also attending the Baghdad conference were several more controversial figures from the Sunni Muslim political world. One of these would be former minister of finance, Rafi al-Issawi, a prominent Sunni leader from Anbar. Major protests broke out in 2012 when former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, issued a warrant for al-Issawis arrest; these could be seen as the beginning of the opportunities that allowed the Islamic State, or IS, group to flourish in Iraq. Another invitee is Sunni businessperson, Khamis al-Khanjar; the latter used to act mainly behind the scenes but is now playing a more public role in Iraqi politics. Al-Khanjar is well known for his support of the idea of a semi-autonomous region for the countrys Sunnis.

But because the latter two figures are controversial in Iraq, and because there are still arrest warrants issued for al-Issawi, another conference also had to be planned. This one would take place in Erbil, in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, where those more at-risk individuals could enter without getting in trouble  the Iraqi government issued statement saying it would not interfere with cases already in the court system, such as, for example, al-Issawis. In other words, despite supporting the idea of Sunni unity, the Iraqi government could not guarantee the safety of those controversial individuals.

Already the idea of another conference elsewhere seemed to put the idea of Sunni unity at risk, before anyone had even booked a hotel meeting room.

The main parties representing Iraqs Sunni Muslims are as follows: The Iraqi Islamic Party, led by al-Jibouri, the United for Iraq party led by senior Sunni politician Osama al-Nujaifi, the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, the National Movement for Development and Reform which is more commonly known as the Solution movement, and the National Accord which is headed by Ayad Allawi.

And these parties are competing for power in different parts of Iraq. In Mosul, the Iraqi Islamic Party is jostling with United for Iraq for influence. In Anbar, its a three-way tussle between the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Solution movement, and the National Accord. In Salahaddin, the Front for National Dialogue and the Iraqi Islamic Party are scrapping with the National Accord.

To make things more confusing, a third meeting for Sunni unity has also been announced. A separate group of Sunni MPs have announced they will attend neither the Baghdad conference nor the Erbil one and they have decided to organize a totally separate summit, for next Thursday, two days before the conference organized by al-Jibouri.

The third conference appears to have a lot to do with Mahmud al-Mashhadani, a former speaker of the Iraqi parliament and yet another senior and influential Sunni Muslim politician. Al-Mashhadani is well known for his behind-the-scenes negotiations and in a statement, he announced that this third conference would be attended by both former and current MPs, as well as tribal leaders from the provinces where the IS group once held sway.

Also well-known is the fact that al-Mashhadani is closer to Shiite Muslim groups in Iraq. For example, the son of one of the other politicians who is very supportive of this third conference, Mishaan al-Jibouri, leads the formerly-volunteer militias in Salahaddin province. His Sunni militias work closely with the Shiite Muslim militias in the area.

Meanwhile the National Accord party, which is led by former Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, and has a majority of Sunni Muslim members, has said it wont be attending any of the three events on offer.

It is quite possible that the current crisis between the various Gulf Arab nations is also having an impact. The Sunni Muslim political parties are often supported by one or other of the Gulf states, whose populations are Sunni Muslim majority. The current problems between those states and Qatar may well be causing a rift in Iraqs Sunni parties too.

For instance, the alliance led by Salim al-Jibouri has a good relationship with the Qataris and the pleasant relationship between al-Jibouri and Iraqs Shiite Muslim parties can be seen as a reflection of the better relationship that Sunni-led Qatar has with Shiite-led Iran. Iraqs Shiite Muslim parties did not complain about the first conference organized in Baghdad.

Meanwhile the other Sunni Muslim group, led by senior Sunni politician, Osama al-Nujaifi, working together with the likes of businessman Khamis al-Khanjar, is closer to Saudi Arabia and the other emirates arrayed against Qatar. Shiite Muslim parties have said they are opposed to that group of Sunni politicians, including the controversial individuals like al-Issawi and al-Khanjar  this is why the second conference is being held in Iraqi Kurdistan.

All told though, the reasons behind the divisions in Iraqi Sunni politics start to look meaningless compared to the massive destruction that locals in places like Mosul and Salahaddin have seen. Millions are displaced and billions worth of damage has been done. The countrys Sunni Muslims need their politicians united, if they are to help their constituents. Given the inability of the politicians to even organise one meeting to talk about potential unity, the outlook is grim.

Via Niqash.org



Related video added by Juan Cole:

France24: THE DEBATE  After Mosul: Winning the peace in Iraq
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

French President Emmanuel Macron and his American counterpart Donald J. Trump consulted on a number of bilateral issues on Wednesday, including cooperation in Syria and Iraq.

Trump says he was in France to attend Bastille Day and commemorate the centenary of the entry of the US into WW I. It seems fairly obvious, though, that while his Paris trip was not planned to get out of town during the controversy of Don Trump Jr.s meeting with a Russian lawyer represented as having dirt on Hillary Clinton, at the least it came as a welcome escape from the Washington feeding frenzy.

Macron said that they had agreed to work toward another cease fire in Syria.

Trump maintained that the agreement reached with the Russian Federation and the Syrian government on deconfliction zones in Syria had saved a lot of lives.

Likewise, Macron made it clear that he no longer insists on the resignation of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as a precondition for participating in peace talks regarding Syria. His position is that terrorism is a greater threat than is al-Assad, a stance similar to that of Trump himself.

Macron also underlined the military cooperation of France and the US in operations against ISIL in eastern Syria. Paris was hit by ISIL in November, 2015, and France is determined to destroy the last vestiges of the terrorist caliphate. Macron, a national security hawk, wants to enshrine state of emergency measures like warrantless house searches and banning of demonstrations in law. There were things he could agree on with Trump.

Macron said he respected the wish of the American people as it manifested itself in the election of Trump, to pull out of the Paris climate

Trump for his part seemed to waver, some seven weeks after his decision to pull out, saying that some piece of news on all that could be forthcoming.

Philippe Bernard writes in Le Monde about the irony that Trumps July trip to Europe should have been to France rather than to the UK. Prime Minister Theresa May is probably closer to Trump ideologically, and she needs him more. With Britain pulling out of the European Union it needs a free trade treaty with the US if it is going to avoid economic isolation, he says. But the threat of mass street demonstrations, the negative comments of prominent parliamentarians and Trumps attacks on London mayor Sadiq Khan all come together to convince Trump to postpone any visit until 2018.

Macron appears to have been able to tempt Trump over to Paris in part by the prospect of Bastille Day military parades. Trump likes spectacle of that sort.

The meeting in Paris was overshadowed by the Donald J. Trump, Jr. email scandal, given the smell of collusion that was exuded by the emails he released.

The blue lobster on which they dined at the end of the day in the Jules Verne restaurant atop the Eiffel Tower probably exhibited more substance than did the consultations with a distracted and flighty Trump, who told Madame Macron she looked in great shape (for an older woman?)

If Trump and Macron did decide anything about Syria, the problem is that Trump is unlikely to remember it or stand by it even into next week.



Related video:

ABC News: President Donald Trump, French Pres. Emmanuel Macron full remarks in Paris
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By Peter Certo | (Otherwords.org) |  

The billionaires who backed Trump are making out a lot better than Putin.

Ive always been a little skeptical that thered be a smoking gun about the Trump campaigns alleged collusion with Russia. The latest news about Donald Trump, Jr., however, is tantalizingly close.

The short version of the story, revealed by emails the New York Times obtained, is that the presidents eldest son was offered some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and would be very useful to your father.

More to the point, the younger Trump was explicitly told this was part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump. Donald, Jr.s reply? I love it.

Trump Jr. didnt just host that meeting at Trump Tower. He also brought along campaign manager Paul Manafort and top Trump confidante (and son-in-law) Jared Kushner.

We still dont have evidence they coordinated with Russian efforts to release Clinton campaign emails, spread fake news, or hack state voting systems. But at the very least, the top members of Trumps inner circle turned up to get intelligence they knew was part of a foreign effort to meddle in the election.

Some in Washington are convinced theyve heard enough already, with Virginia senator (and failed VP candidate) Tim Kaine calling the meeting treason.

Perhaps. But its worth asking: Whos done the real harm here? Some argue its not the Russians after all.

The effects of the crime are undetectable, the legendary social critic Noam Chomsky says of the alleged Russian meddling, unlike the massive effects of interference by corporate power and private wealth.

Thats worth dwelling on.

Many leading liberals suspect, now with a little more evidence, that Trump worked with Russia to win his election. But weve long known that huge corporations and wealthy individuals threw their weight behind the billionaire.

That gambits paying off far more handsomely for them  and more destructively for the rest of us  than any scheme by Putin.

The evidence is hiding in plain sight.

The top priority in Congress right now is to move a health bill that would gut Medicaid and throw at least 22 million Americans off their insurance  while loosening regulations on insurance companies and cutting taxes on the wealthiest by over $346 billion.

As few as 12 percent of Americans support that bill, but the allegiance of its supporters isnt to voters  its plainly to the wealthy donors whod get those tax cuts.

Meanwhile, majorities of Americans in every single congressional district support efforts to curb local pollution, limit carbon emissions, and transition to wind and solar. And majorities in every single state back the Paris climate agreement.

Yet even as scientists warn large parts of the planet could soon become uninhabitable, the fossil fuel-backed Trump administration has put a climate denier in charge of the EPA, pulled the U.S. out of Paris, and signed legislation to let coal companies dump toxic ash in local waterways.

Meanwhile, as the administration escalates the unpopular Afghan war once again, Kushner invited billionaire military contractors  including Blackwater founder Erik Prince  to advise on policy there.

Elsewhere, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and other architects of the housing crash are advising Trump on financial deregulation, while student debt profiteers set policy at the Department of Education.

Chomsky complains that this sort of collusion is often not considered a crime but the normal workings of democracy. While Trump has taken it to new heights, its certainly a bipartisan problem.

If Trumps people did work with Russia to undermine our vote, they should absolutely be held accountable. But the politicians leading the charge dont have a snowballs chance of redeeming our democracy unless theyre willing to take on the corporate conspirators much closer to home.
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By IPS World Desk

ROME/AMMAN (IPS)  More than ever before, the Arab region now registers an unprecedented youth population growth while facing huge challenges such as extremely high unemployment rates more than half of all regional jobless population, and inadequate education and health provision, in particular among young women.

These challenges come amidst increasing population pressures, advancing drought and desertification, and alarming growing water scarcity, all worsening as a consequence of climate change.

One of the main consequences is an increasing social unrest like the one that led to so the so-called Arab Spring in 2011. Let alone massive migrationnow it is estimated that 25 to 35 per cent of Arab youth appear to be determined to migrate. (See: What Future for 700 Million Arab and Asian Youth?).

What to Do?

More than 100 Arab and Asian legislators are set to focus on these and other related challenges in Amman, Jordan, during the Asian and Arab Parliamentarians Meeting and Study Visit on Population and Development (18-20 July 2017).

Organised by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA), which is the Secretariat of the Japan Parliamentarians Federation for Population (JPFP), in close consultation with Forum of Arab Parliamentarians on Population and Development (FAPPD), participants have been selected based on their needs for capacity enhancement and priority policy interventions where knowledge-sharing can be most effective.

According to APDA, over the past decades, while the Arab region has shown remarkable socio-economic improvement including education and health, it has faced profound changes and challenges. Among them is the youth bulge, which describes the increasing proportion of youth in relative to other age groups.

Such increase, together with overall Arab population pressures, has resulted in an unprecedented youth population growth in the regions history, it adds.

One of the most challenging issues facing young Arabs are the high-unemployment rates. The region has one of the highest regional youth unemployment rate seen anywhere in the world, it warns, adding that in 2009, more than 20 per cent of Arab youth were unable to find a job, which constituted more than half of the total unemployment.

Such high youth unemployment, combined with a demographic youth bulge, provoked the Arab Spring, a civil uprising mainly by Arab youths, and regional instability, according to APDA.

Moreover, despite overall progress in the health sector in many Arab countries over the past years, Arab youth still suffer from inadequate health provision and poor access to health facilities, lack of access to health information and services, especially for reproductive health.

This is especially true for young women, youth in rural areas, and youth with disabilities and putting many in a vulnerable situation. 

The Youth Bulge

Organised under the theme From Youth Bulge to Demographic Dividend: Toward Regional Development and Achievement of the SDGs, the Amman meeting aims at enhancing the roles of parliamentarians in enacting legislation to formulate policies and mobilize budget that takes population issues into account is a driver to promote socio-economic development.

In fact, legislators have a significant part to play in linking demographic dimensions with sustainable development and turning them into advantages to produce socio-economic outcomes.

For instance, the youth bulge presents not only development challenges but also opportunities, if appropriate policies are adopted to invest in the youth and reap the full potential of them. 

The Amman event will be followed by one in India on mid-September, and another one in the Republic of Korea towards the end of October 2017.

The Asian Population and Development Association has supported activities of parliamentarians tackling population and development issues for 35 years.

This time, in close consultation with Forum of Arab Parliamentarians on Population and Development and its Secretariat in Amman, Jordan, the event is intended to highlight and call attention of Asian and Arab parliamentarians to population perspectives in the 2030 Agenda.

As well, it will focus on parliamentarians important roles and tasks in addressing population issues aligned with the new goals and targets, and related policies and programmes that advance social inclusion and population stability in the region.

Licensed from Inter Press Service



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Atlantic Council: Youth in the Middle East: Liability or Opportunity?
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - July 14, 2017) - Emerita Resources Corp.(the "Company" or "Emerita") (TSX VENTURE:EMO) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive agreement (the "Definitive Agreement") with Vale S.A. ("Vale") and IMS Engenharia Mineral Ltda. ("IMS") pursuant to which Emerita has agreed to acquire the Salobro zinc project (the "Salobro Project") located in the Municipality of Porteinha, Minas Gerais State, Brazil.

In connection with entering into the Definitive Agreement, Emerita and IMS have entered into a binding letter of intent ("LOI") pursuant to which Emerita has agreed to incorporate and organize a Brazilian subsidiary ("PurchaseCo") to formally acquire the Salobro Project from IMS. Emerita will initially own 75% of PurchaseCo with an exclusive right to acquire the remaining 25% interest of PurchaseCo from IMS at its sole option (the transactions contemplated in the LOI together with those in the Definitive Agreement are hereinafter collectively referred to as the "Transaction"). The Definitive Agreement and the LOI are described in greater detail below.

The Salobro Project:

The Salobro Project is comprised of two (2) mining applications covering 1,209.75 hectares in the Municipality of Porteirinha, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, in an area well serviced with infrastructure including paved roads, cellular coverage, rail, water and power (see Figure 1 below). The mineralization is hosted in the Riacho dos Machados group, which is described as a metasedimentary sequence of Archean or Paleoproterozoic age. The mineralization is stratabound with sphalerite and galena as the main ore minerals. The metasedimentary sequence comprises carbonates, banded iron formations and banded cherts, suggesting either a Mississippi Valley Type or Sedex depositional environment for the sulphide accumulations. The thickest intercept to date is 13.92 meters grading 10.39% zinc and 2.13% lead.

The known mineralization occurs in three (3) lenses all of which remain open for expansion by further drilling (see Figure 2 below). The historical mineral resource estimate is provided below for information only and should not be relied upon. A summary of the historical resource estimate can be found on the Company's website in a report entitled "Mineralizacoes De Zinco E Chumbo Do Deposito Salobro, Porteirinha (Mg) (2006)". According to the report, the Salobro Project deposit is estimated to contain 8.3 million tonnes grading 7.12% zinc plus lead. The database used to establish the mineral resource estimate includes 40 diamond drill holes (13,884.94 meters of drilling). All borehole collar and down hole surveys, as well as a topographic survey with contour lines spaced at five meters, were provided to Emerita from the previous operators of the Salobro Project. Historical technical reports that included specific gravity and other technical commentary have also been provided to Emerita. All assays were completed at Vale's laboratory and there is no reference to external and independent duplicate assay samples in the data base. A "qualified person", as defined in National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"), has not done sufficient work on behalf of Emerita to classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource and Emerita is not treating the historical estimate as a current mineral resource or mineral reserve. Further work must be completed in order to demonstrate whether a reasonable expectation for commercial extraction exists. The mineral resource estimate is a historical estimate and should not be relied upon. Emerita has engaged an independent technical consultant to complete a NI 43-101 technical report on the Salobro Project and the technical report will be filed on SEDAR.

Figure 1. Salobro Project Locations





Figure 2. Section Orientation





The Definitive Agreement:

Pursuant to the Definitive Agreement, Emerita agrees to pay USD$6.5 million in cash to Vale. The cash payments will be made by Emerita over seven (7) years on the following schedule:

US$350,000 within 30 days from the date that the request for assignment of the mining rights which comprise the Salobro Project (the "Mining Rights") to PurchaseCo is filed by IMS or Emerita with the DNPM, Brazil's national mining agency and subsequent to Vale its pending claims against IMS (see below);

US$1,650,000 on or before the first anniversary of the Definitive Agreement;

US$1,500,000 on or before the third anniversary of the Definitive Agreement; and

US$3,000,000 on or before the seventh anniversary of the Definitive Agreement (collectively, the "Consideration").

The rights to the Salobro Project are currently subject to litigation between Vale and IMS. In connection with this Transaction, Vale will withdraw its claims pending against IMS in the Civil Court of Belo Horizonte in respect of the amounts Vale claims are owing to it in relation to IMS's previous acquisition of the Salobro Project. Such claims currently are registered as encumbrances on the Mining Rights (the "Encumbrances"). Emerita will pay Vale's legal fees and court costs in connection with withdrawing such claims. Vale's legal fees are R$750,000 (approximately CAD$300,000) and its court costs are estimated to be R$10,000 (approximately USD$245,000 or CAD$315,000 in total).

PurchaseCo shall hold the Salobro Project in trust for Vale until the Consideration has been fully paid by Emerita. If Emerita fails to pay any instalment of the Consideration to Vale and Emerita does not remedy this breach within 30 days, Vale may request that the Salobro Project be returned by PurchaseCo or IMS, as applicable, to Vale and Vale shall retain any portion of the Consideration it has received up until such time. Vale shall not refund any of the legal fees and court costs paid by Emerita in connection with this Transaction.

The Transaction remains subject to certain customary closing conditions, including (i) the lifting of the Encumbrances; and (ii) the approval of the Transaction by the TSX Venture Exchange.

Pursuant to the Definitive Agreement, the conditions described in (i) and (ii) are required to be satisfied within three (3) months from the execution of the Definitive Agreement. If these conditions are not satisfied within this timeframe, Vale and Emerita may agree to extend the deadline for the satisfaction of this condition or terminate the Definitive Agreement at no additional cost to either Vale or Emerita.

The acquisition of the Salobro Project is an arm's length transaction and Emerita is not paying any finder's fees in connection therewith.

The IMS Binding Letter of Intent:

In connection with the parties entering into the Definitive Agreement, Emerita and IMS have entered into the binding LOI pursuant to which Emerita has agreed to incorporate and organize PurchaseCo. Emerita will own 75% of the voting securities of PurchaseCo and IMS will own 25% of the voting securities of PurchaseCo.

As consideration for IMS transferring the rights to the Salobro Project to PurchaseCo, Emerita shall issue 1,000,000 common shares in the capital of Emerita (the "Emerita Shares") to IMS or its nominee on the date the DNPM approves the transfer of the Mining Rights from IMS to PurchaseCo.

Emerita has the right to acquire IMS's 25% interest in PurchaseCo, up to 48 months from the date of Definitive Agreement execution, by paying CAD$2,000,000 in cash to IMS or its nominee and issuing an additional 1,000,000 Emerita Shares to IMS or its nominee. Emerita and IMS expect to sign a definitive agreement within the next 90 days.

All issuances of Emerita Shares will be subject to a statutory hold period and approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The Transaction is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Management Commentary:

David Gower, Chairman of Emerita, commented: "Emerita is excited to commence work on such an exciting zinc project. The Salobro deposit mineralization was delineated by the highly respected technical group of Vale and remains open for future expansion. The Project is located in an area with excellent infrastructure and a supportive environment for responsible mine development. Emerita has an exceptional technical team in Brazil and is ready to advance the project quickly."

Joaquin Merino, President and CEO of Emerita, stated: "This is an exceptional opportunity for Emerita given the successful drilling to date by the previous operators. Emerita also continues to be fully committed to acquiring the Aznalcollar zinc project in Spain and with success, will have a very strong, advanced zinc project portfolio going forward."

Corporate Update:

The Company also announces that the non-binding letter of intent with a large mining company regarding the proposed acquisition of the Masa Valverde Project by the Company has been terminated.

Qualified Person

Dr. Fernando Tallarico, P.Geo., and Carlos Cravo Costa, P.Geo., are each a "qualified person" as such term is defined in NI 43-101 and have reviewed and approved the technical information related to the Salobro Project included in this press release and have approved its dissemination. Each of Dr. Tallarico and Mr. Costa are considered independent of Emerita.

About Emerita Resources Corp.

Emerita is a natural resource company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in Europe, with a primary focus on exploring in Spain and Brazil. The Company's corporate office and technical team are based in Sevilla, Spain with an administrative office in Toronto, Canada.
ANGOLA  The Steuben Lakes Regional Waste District Board of Trustees hired a new superintendent at Thursday nights meeting.

Bryan Klein of Greentown will begin his duties with the SLRWD beginning Sept. 5, learning under current Superintendent Tim Frederick. Klein was hired by an affirmative vote of six board members, with Lyndon Tucker abstaining. Klein did not attend the meeting.

Frederick is employed with the district through Dec. 31. He announced his plans to retire more than a year ago, and an employee search committee spearheaded planning for his replacement.

Frederick was hired 22 years ago after the board for the district, which was established in 1975, decided a full-time employee was needed to keep it afloat.

When I came to work for them they were two months behind on their bills. They didnt have a budget, said Frederick. He said his greatest accomplishment was bringing the district to financial stability.

Im happy to be able to turn this over to the new guy, said Frederick.

As it prepares for a major project on its northeast edge and a revamping of its physical plant, Frederick said he believes the district is on solid footing.

To that end, he indicated Class 2 users, who currently pay $79.95 a month, should be included in a rate study underway by Umbaugh and Associates. The board unanimously approved the measure. While users in other classes may have significant rate increases, it is likely Class 2 users, the majority of customers, would sustain a $1 to $2 increase on monthly bills when rate adjustments are considered.

The districts first cluster systems were installed in 1979 at Lone Tree Point. That area, which includes lanes on Snow Lake, encompasses Class 1, about 200 customers, and is the area in most need of repair. The northeast corner project addresses it in its first phase.

Thursday night, the board gave the go-ahead to engineer Jones Petre Rafinski to begin seeking easements and acquiring land for lift stations in the project area, which includes Pokagon State Park.

Frederick saw the expansion of the district and the construction of the plant in 2003-05. At the time, in part due to financial concerns, it was decided to use a retention pond system. As the years progressed, problems have arisen, and testing was recently completed on an aerated filter system that would discontinue the ponds.

Thursday, the district board approved a $7,000 preliminary investigation report by JPR. It will create a budget and conceptual layouts for the changeover at the sewer plant.

Frederick said the filter system provided by Aqua-Aerobics is solid technology.

As equipment ages districtwide, he said upgrades will continue to be necessary. One of Kleins challenges, he said, will be maintenance of the main sewer infrastructure, which is now 13 years old.

Along with his duties as SLRWD superintendent, Frederick was a member of professional associations, and this year is the president of the Alliance of Indiana Rural Water. Last year, he won the Indiana Water and Wastewater Agency Response Networks 2016 Reggie Baker InWARN Award. Frederick, who is also active in the Indiana Regional Sewer District Association, the SLRWD and its staff have won a number of awards and commendations over the years.
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- TMAC Resources Inc. (TSX:TMR) (TMAC or the Company), provides an operations update together with its updated Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources as of June 30, 2017.

Operations Update

Dr. Catharine Farrow, Chief Executive Officer of TMAC, commented: The ramp up continues to be slower than anticipated and has resulted in less than budgeted cash inflows. We anticipate that recoveries will improve as we continue to optimize the plants performance. As recoveries increase, we will increase the tonnes of ore being processed, increase the tonnes of ore being mined and hauled to surface and increase the grade of ore being processed, all resulting in greater revenues and cash inflows. Our entire site-based teams focus, assisted by our metallurgical consultants and Gekko, the manufacturer of the processing plant, and other vendor and consultant teams, is to improve plant availabilities and ramp up to planned rates through an optimization process. We acknowledge their dedication to ensure that the process continues in a safe and systematic manner.

The tonnes of ore being fed from the ore stockpiles into the processing plant continue to be lower than planned due to the processing plants ramp up proceeding slower than expected. While the underground development at Doris North and Doris North BTD continues as planned, the daily mining rate at Doris North remains less than planned due to the reduced number of tonnes being fed into the processing plant and the large stockpile of ore remaining on surface. To June 30, 2017, 79,600 tonnes of ore have been processed and 15,880 ounces of gold have been sold. As at June 30, 2017, the surface stockpile comprises 105,000 tonnes at 15.2 grams per tonne containing 51,000 ounces. In addition, there are multiple stopes underground that have been drilled and are awaiting blasting and mucking, the tonnes from which can be brought to surface relatively quickly to replenish the stockpile.

The processing plant can and has operated at or in excess of its design capacity of 1,000 per day, but its average daily throughput continues to be lower because of variable and sometimes low plant availabilities. As part of the normal ongoing ramp up process that all processing plants go through, modifications have been made and will continue to be made. The focus to date on the pre-concentrator installed in the upstream half of the processing plant (the Python) has been on the jig and gravity circuits. By the end of June, the Python was producing a concentrate for treatment at the concentrate treatment plant (the CTP) that averaged 80% of the contained gold in the ore feed. Further optimization of the Python is ongoing to increase its recovery rate and the concentrate grade being sent to the CTP.

The CTP, in the downstream half of the processing plant, continues to have lower than expected throughput availabilities and recoveries due to a variety of challenges including design issues and mechanical failure. The CTP recoveries of the gold in the concentrate from the Python remain below expectations. Although the recoveries have also reached 80%, they have not done so on a sustainable basis. For the month of June, overall gold recoveries for the processing plant were 67%. Ramp up and optimization of the CTP is ongoing with the target of bringing the overall gold recoveries for the processing plant up to those estimated by the Preliminary Feasibility Study issued in 2015.

Third party metallurgical consultants advise the Company that the expected throughputs and recoveries can be achieved with continued optimization and improvements in both the Python and CTP.

The inconsistent availability and recoveries of the CTP have negatively affected the tonnes of ore being fed to the processing plant as well as the number of tonnes of ore mined daily and put on the ore stockpile. In addition, the grade of the ore sent to the processing plant has deliberately been kept lower than planned resulting in the amount of gold produced and sold being significantly lower than planned which, in turn, results in lower revenues and higher costs. An increase in CTP recoveries is a prerequisite for the Company to start processing ore from its high grade stockpiles and achieving previously stated guidance. TMAC will update its guidance at the time of releasing its second quarter results.

Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources Highlights

Total Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves at Hope Bay have increased by 100,000 contained gold ounces to 14,529,000 tonnes at 7.7 g/t Au for 3,607,000 contained gold ounces.

Madrid North Proven and Probable Reserves have increased by 126,000 contained gold ounces to 8,350,000 tonnes at 6.7 g/t Au for 1,802,000 contained gold ounces.

Inferred Mineral Resources at Doris East Limb and Extension BTD (formerly known as Doris North Deep) are 200,000 tonnes at 14.7 g/t Au for 94,000 contained ounces.

First Probable Reserves at Doris East Limb BTD are 72,000 tonnes at 14.5 g/t Au for 34,000 contained ounces.

Dr. Catharine Farrow, Chief Executive Officer of TMAC, stated, We are pleased to provide an update to TMACs Hope Bay Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource statement. As of June 30, 2017, Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves have increased by 100,000 ounces of gold, which more than replaces the ore mined over the past year and a half at Doris. The results of diamond drilling at Doris and Madrid North, and the more than a year and a half of mining at Doris, have significantly improved our understanding of the structural controls on gold mineralization and have thereby refined our geological models. The new ramp development below the dyke at Doris North has allowed us to carry out detailed drilling to further test areas of new Mineral Resources and Reserves reported here. We are optimistic that current 2017 diamond drilling programs at both Doris and Boston will have positive impacts and will continue to add to the Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource base, thereby replacing mined Reserves.

Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves for the Hope Bay Project have increased 2.9%, from 3.51 million ounces in 2015 to 3.61 million ounces at the end of June 2017, compared with the March 31, 2015 pre-feasibility study (PFS) Mineral Reserves. Significant factors that contributed to the revised reserve estimate include;

At Doris, total Proven and Probable Reserves, including the surface stockpile, decreased by 25,900 ounces of gold compared with the PFS Mineral Reserves. Pre-production sill development and associated mapping and sampling in Doris North, have refined the geological model and resulted in a highly constrained resource estimate. Some areas previously interpreted as bends in the mineralized quartz vein have been identified as fault offsets resulting in an overall decrease in contained ounces of gold. Pre-production development (including Newmont test mining) in ore of 182,500 tonnes grading 14.0 g/t Au, totalling 82,300 ounces of gold have been mined to June 30, 2017 and transferred to the surface stockpiles. As of June 30, 2017, 105,000 tonnes, grading 15.2 g/t Au, and containing 51,100 ounces of gold remains in the surface stockpile after processing. Mining depletion has been partially offset by the addition of initial reserves in a portion of the high grade Doris North BTD zone, where 2016 diamond drilling was sufficient to allow reserve estimation.

At Madrid North Proven and Probable Reserves have increased by 125,900 ounces of gold. The change is a result of diamond drilling in 2015 and 2016 and associated detailed geological interpretation and modelling. Mineral Reserves at Naartok and Rand total 1.26 million ounces of gold, 40,000 ounces less than the PFS Mineral Reserves, as a result of refined geological modelling. Mineral Reserves at Suluk total 538,400 ounces of gold, an increase of 165,400 ounces over the 2015 PFS estimate due to diamond drilling and increased Indicated Resources and conversion to Probable Reserves.

Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves at Madrid South and Boston remain unchanged over the PFS estimates as no additional diamond drilling had been completed at those locations since 2015.

Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources were last updated and published in conjunction with the PFS. Mineral Reserves reported here were estimated using a long-term gold price of US$1,250/oz and US$/C$ exchange rate of 0.85. Mineral Resources were estimated using a long-term gold price of US$1,400/oz and US$/C$ exchange rate of 0.85.

TABLE 1: HOPE BAY PROVEN AND PROBABLE RESERVES  JUNE 30, 2017

Proven Probable Proven and Probable Tonnes Grade Ounces Tonnes Grade Ounces Tonnes Grade Ounces (Au (Au (Au Zone (kt) g/t) (koz) (kt) g/t) (koz) (kt) g/t) (koz) Doris North 38 15.9 199 54 8.3 14 442 15.0 213 Surface Stockpile 105 15.2 51 105 15.2 51 Doris Connector/Central 1,415 8.0 366 1,415 8.0 366 Doris Connector/Central BTD 111 8.0 28 111 8.0 28 Doris North BTD (East Limb and Extension) 72 14.5 34 72 14.5 34 Doris Total 493 15.8 250 1,652 8.3 442 2,145 10.0 692 Suluk 2,420 6.9 538 2,420 6.9 538 Naartok and Rand 5,931 6.6 1,263 5,931 6.6 1,263 Madrid North Total 8,350 6.7 1,802 8,350 6.7 1,802 Patch 14 432 12.2 170 432 12.2 170 Wolverine 261 7.2 60 261 7.2 60 Madrid South Total 692 10.3 230 692 10.3 230 Boston 657 8.5 180 2,687 8.1 703 3,343 8.2 883 Boston Total 657 8.5 180 2,687 8.1 703 3,343 8.2 883 Grand Total 1,150 11.6 430 13,381 7.4 3,177 14,531 7.7 3,607

Notes:

1. CIM definitions were followed for Mineral Reserves.

2. Mineral Reserves are estimated using a cut-off grade of 4.4 g/t for Doris and Madrid North. Madrid South and Boston use a 4.7 g/t Au cut-off grade.

3. Mineral Reserves are estimated using an average long-term gold price of US$1250 per ounce and a US$/C$ exchange rate of 0.85.

4. A minimum mining width of 1.5 metres for longhole mining and 3 metres for Drift and Fill mining was used.

5. Density was calculated using the geological block model density field.

6. A 95% extraction factor was applied to longhole mining.

7. The application of dilution varied by deposit, and depended on stope thickness.

8. Numbers may not add due to rounding.

Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources for the Hope Bay Project have increased 9% from 4.51 million ounces in 2015 to 4.91 million ounces at the end of June 2017, compared with the March 2015 PFS Mineral Resources. Significant factors that contributed to the revised resource estimate include;

At Doris, Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources decreased by 96,300 ounces of gold. Reductions as a result of pre-production mining and refined geological modelling, have been partially offset by an increase in Mineral Resources below the diabase dyke (BTD). Indicated resources in the high grade Doris North BTD East Limb area total 68,000 tonnes grading 18.3 g/t Au containing 40,000 ounces of gold. Initial BTD resources are constrained to the portion of the East Limb that could be drilled sufficiently in 2016 from the exploration development above the dyke. The BTD access ramp has since progressed below the dyke and results from the current drill program will be incorporated into the 2018 Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource statement. An increase of 27,000 ounces of gold is attributed to lowering the cut-off grade at Doris from 4.5 g/t Au to 4.0 g/t Au.

At Madrid North, total Indicated Mineral Resources have increased 496,000 ounces of gold, most significantly as a result of diamond drilling in 2015 and 2016. An increase of 243,000 ounces of gold is attributed to lowering the cut-off grade at Madrid North from 4.5 g/t Au to 4.0 g/t Au. Indicated Resources in the Suluk zone have increased 79% or 350,000 ounces of gold and now total 794,000 ounces of gold.

Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources at Madrid South and Boston remain unchanged from the 2015 PFS. TMAC opened the Boston camp in June 2017 and will complete 7,500 metres of surface diamond drilling. Results of the current drilling program at Boston will be incorporated into the 2018 Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource statement.

TABLE 2: HOPE BAY MEASURED AND INDICATED RESOURCES  JUNE 30, 2017

Measured Indicated Measured and Indicated Grade Grade Grade Tonnes (Au Ounces Tonnes (Au Ounces Tonnes (Au Ounces Zone (kt) g/t) (koz) (kt) g/t) (koz) (kt) g/t) (koz) Doris North 281 22.9 207 91 9.1 26 371 19.5 233 Doris Connector/Central 1,539 9.4 463 1,539 9.4 463 Doris Connector/Central BTD 141 8.4 38 141 8.4 38 Doris North BTD (East Limb and Extension) 68 18.3 40 68 18.3 40 Doris Total 281 22.9 207 1,838 9.6 567 2,119 11.4 774 Suluk 3,195 7.7 794 3,195 7.7 794 Rand 807 6.3 165 807 6.3 165 Naartok 7,441 7.5 1,800 7,441 7.5 1,800 Madrid Total 11,443 7.5 2,759 11,443 7.5 2,759 Patch 14 359 17.7 204 359 17.7 204 Wolverine 212 11.5 78 212 11.5 78 Madrid South Total 571 15.4 282 571 15.4 282 Boston UG North 236 6.0 46 236 6.0 46 Boston UG B2 608 10.3 201 2,189 9.6 673 2,798 9.7 874 Boston UG B3/B4 677 8.1 176 677 8.1 176 Boston Total 608 10.3 201 3,103 9.0 895 3,711 9.2 1,096 Grand Total 889 14.3 408 16,954 8.3 4,503 17,843 8.6 4,911

Notes:

1. CIM definitions were followed for Mineral Resources.

2. Mineral Resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 4.0 g/t Au for Doris and Madrid North, and 4.5 g/t Au for Madrid South and Boston.

3. Mineral Resources are estimated using a long-term gold price of US$1400 per ounce, and a US$/C$ exchange rate of 0.85.

4. A minimum mining width of approximately 1.5 metres was used.

5. A 50 metre crown pillar allowance was applied to resources located below lakes.

6. Numbers may not add due to rounding.

7. Doris North has been depleted based on surveyed mining cavities up to the end of May 2017. For the month of June 2017, a mathematical depletion was used based on production figures and the average dilution used for the Mineral Reserve estimate for Doris North.

8. Mineral Resources are inclusive of those resources converted to Mineral Reserves.

9. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Inferred Mineral Resources for the Hope Bay Project have increased 19% from 1.43 million ounces in 2015 to 1.69 million ounces at the end of June 2017. Significant factors that contributed to the revised resource estimate include;

At Doris, the most significant increase to Inferred Mineral Resources is from the high grade Doris BTD East Limb and Extension drilled during 2016. Current Inferred resources in the Doris BTD East Limb and Extension are 200,000 tonnes, grading 14.7 g/t Au, and containing 94,000 ounces of gold. Underground infill and expansion drilling in the Doris North BTD Extension area commenced in June 2017 from the BTD access ramp. The results of the 2017 diamond drilling will be incorporated into the 2018 Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource statement. An increase of 28,000 ounces of gold is attributed to lowering the cut-off grade at Doris from 4.5 g/t Au to 4.0 g/t Au.

At Madrid North, Inferred Mineral Resources total 843,000 ounces of gold. Subtractions due to upgrading of Inferred Resources to Indicated Resources were offset by increases from expansion diamond drilling. An increase of 128,000 ounces of gold is attributed to lowering the cut-off grade at Madrid North from 4.5 g/t Au to 4.0 g/t Au.

Inferred Mineral Resources at both Madrid South and Boston remained unchanged from the 2015 PFS.

TABLE 3: HOPE BAY INFERRED RESOURCES  JUNE 30, 2017

Inferred Tonnes Grade Ounces Zone (kt) (Au g/t) (koz) Doris North 62 6.9 14 Doris Connector/Central 204 5.8 38 Doris Connector/Central BTD 1,055 7.5 254 Doris North BTD (East Limb and Extension) 200 14.7 94 Doris Total 1,521 8.2 400 Suluk 2,583 6.3 524 Spur 188 5.5 33 Rand 238 5.6 43 Naartok 1,115 6.8 243 Madrid Total 4,125 6.4 843 Patch 14 182 6.8 40 Wolverine 238 10.7 82 Madrid South Total 420 9.0 122 Boston UG North 628 6.5 131 Boston UG B2 594 8.1 155 Boston UG B3/B4 172 7.8 43 Boston Total 1,393 7.4 330 Grand Total 7,459 7.1 1,694

Notes:

1. CIM definitions were followed for Mineral Resources.

2. Mineral Resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 4.0 g/t Au for Doris and Madrid North, and 4.5 g/t Au for Madrid South and Boston.

3. Mineral Resources are estimated using a long-term gold price of US$1400 per ounce, and a US$/C$ exchange rate of 0.85.

4. A minimum mining width of approximately 1.5 metres was used.

5. A 50 metre crown pillar allowance was applied to resources located below lakes.

6. Numbers may not add due to rounding.

7. Doris North has been depleted based on surveyed mining cavities up to the end of May 2017. For the month of June 2017, a mathematical depletion was used based on production figures and the average dilution used for the Mineral Reserve estimate for Doris North.

8. Mineral Resources are inclusive of those resources converted to Mineral Reserves.

9. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

The qualified persons are not aware of any environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, marketing, political, or other relevant factors that could materially affect the Mineral Resource or Mineral Reserves estimates.

ABOUT TMAC RESOURCES

TMAC holds a 100% interest in the Hope Bay Project located in Nunavut, Canada. TMAC is an emerging gold producer with the Doris Mine pouring first gold in the first quarter of 2017 and achieving commercial production in the second quarter of 2017. The Madrid and Boston are expected to commence production in 2020 and 2022, respectively. The Company has a board of directors with depth of experience and market credibility and an exploration and development team with an extensive track record of developing high grade, profitable underground mines. TMACs shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the trading symbol TMR.

QUALIFIED PERSON

The mineral resources for the Hope Bay Project disclosed in this press release have been estimated by Mr. Sean Horan, P. Geo., an employee of RPA and independent of TMAC.

The mineral reserves for the Hope Bay Project disclosed in this press release have been reviewed by Mr. David Robson, P. Eng., an employee of RPA and independent of TMAC. By virtue of their education and relevant experience Mr. Horan and Mr. Robson are "Qualified Persons" for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Horan, P. Geo. and Mr. Robson, P. Eng., have read and approved the contents of this press release as it pertains to the disclosed mineral reserves and mineral resource estimates.

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Information of a scientific or technical nature in respect of the Hope Bay Project, other than new information related to Doris mine development, is based upon the Hope Bay Technical Report, as filed on TMACs profile at www.sedar.com. Scientific and technical information contained in this document was reviewed and approved by David King, P. Geo., the Vice President, Exploration and Geoscience, Mr. Nicolas Yugo, P. Eng., Technical Services Superintendent of TMAC. Scientific and technical information concerning the processing plant was reviewed and approved by Mr. Phil Price, Corporate Metallurgist of TMAC. Each of the individuals named is a Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - July 14, 2017) - Robex Resources Inc. ("Robex" and/or the Company) (TSX VENTURE:RBX)(FRANKFURT:RB4) confirms a drilling plan of 16,525 meters for the year 2017, with the vast majority concentrated around the main pit of the Nampala mine in Mali.

In early 2017, ROBEX agreed with the world-renowned firm INNOVEXPLO. Over the past few weeks, they have carried out a geological reinterpretation of the main pit of the Nampala mine. This step was crucial to understanding the mineralization controls in order to properly plan and implement the drilling strategy.

The objectives of drilling the 16,500 meters will be to test the extensions of the mineralized zones of the Nampala pit, to confirm and extend the gold values previously intersected in the neighboring areas to the pit and confirm the presence of mineral resources that could enter directly into the current mine plan to increase mine life.

The plan proposed by INNOVEXPLO consists of 4,750 meters of core drilling and 11,775 meters of reverse circulation drilling ("RC"). The drillings will begin once the rainy season is over, around October 1, 2017 and will take place in the last quarter of 2017.

The drilling campaign will test five different targets.

In the immediate extensions to the south and west of the main pit in order to confirm the extension of the known mineralized zones, in the pit in operation to delimit and test the homogeneity of economic zones and finally, to the east and on the extension of the mineralized corridor to the south in order to identify areas potentially capable of increasing the resources of the operating area.

As a result of this work, Robex will be able to have a better quantitative and qualitative understanding of the mineralization system contained and surrounding the current pit. All the work related to the development and maintenance of the drilling campaign as well as the characterization of the mineral resources will be done under the supervision of the firm INNOVEXPLO. The latter will manage the integration of the new information with the current database with the ultimate aim of developing a new mineral resource estimate as well as the preparation of an updated technical report complying with the standards of regulation NI 43-101.

ROBEX intends to extend their prospecting effort over the next few years on the overall exploration of the Mininko permit, where the Nampala mine is located.

The geological information contained in this press release has been validated by Francois Kerr-Gillespie, geo, M.Sc. (OGQ # 2021) of INNOVEXPLO, a qualified person within the meaning of NI 43-101, responsible for the exploration on the Nampala site, in Mali.

Annual General Shareholders' Meeting

Robex Resources Inc. held their annual general shareholders meeting on June 15, 2017 in Quebec City. At this meeting, the following directors were re-elected for a one-year term: Mr. Georges Cohen, Mr. Richard Faucher, Mr. Julien Cohen, Mr. Michel Doyon, Mr. Claude Goulet, Mr. Christian Marti and Mr. Benjamin Cohen.

Mr. Georges Cohen and Mr. Richard Faucher were elected by the directors of the Company respectively as President and Vice-president of the Board of Directors. In addition, the following directors were re-elected as members of the Company's audit committee for a one-year term: Mr. Julien Cohen, Mr. Michel Doyon and Mr. Claude Goulet.

Robex Resources Inc. shareholders voted in favor of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopes LLP / s.r.l / s.e.n.c.r.l., who will be responsible for the audit of the Company's financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2017.
Yonsei University professor Moon Chung-in, who is also President Moon Jae-in's special adviser for unification and national security affairs, speaks during a recent interview with The Korea Times in his office at the East Asia Foundation in Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



By Kim Rahn

North Korea should show flexibility regarding President Moon Jae-in's forward-looking proposals aimed at resuming inter-Korean ties and finding solutions to the nuclear standoff, according to his special security adviser.

"The ball is in Pyongyang's court. Pyongyang needs to make a wise choice," Moon Chung-in, a distinguished professor at Yonsei University, said in an interview, Monday.

The professor, who helped create inter-Korean rapprochement policies under the previous liberal governments, is now serving as a special adviser for unification and national security affairs to President Moon.

"This is a critical time for the two Koreas. President Moon has made an offer to turn the situation around. Pyongyang should grab this opportunity. It has to reciprocate," Moon Chung-in said.

The professor emphasized that this is only his personal opinion as a "scholar," not as a presidential adviser, saying he does not want to create "unnecessary" disputes over his remarks about North Korea-related issues. "Here, I'm speaking as a scholar. I cannot say anything as a presidential adviser," he said.

The professor highly recognized President Moon obtaining support from other heads of states during recent summits, including U.S. President Donald Trump, for taking a leading role on the North Korea nuclear issue, calling on Pyongyang to take this chance for dialogue and to be more flexible.












ANGOLA  Angola Police arrested a Michigan man Thursday afternoon outside a local drug store after an armed robbery, an Angola Police news release said.

At about 1:50 p.m., around 10 police vehicles swarmed the CVS Pharmacy in the 700 block of North Wayne Street after receiving a call reporting a robbery in progress, the report said.

The suspect, Kenneth Alan Baker, 53, Eaton Rapids, Michigan, was arrested after being shot with a Taser after leaving the store, police said.

Baker has been incarcerated on preliminary charges of felony robbery, pointing a firearm, felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a stolen vehicle. He also is facing a parole violation out of Michigan.

After receiving the call police rushed to the scene and set up a perimeter around the store.

Because the caller gave detailed information about the alleged suspect, police were able to identify Baker as he exited the building, police said.

Baker allegedly ignored officers commands to stop so the Taser was deployed, police said. He was subdued then taken into custory. Prior to that, several officers could be seen standing over a man lying on his back, prone on the sidewalk on the south side of the building.

While the scene developed, a crowd started to gather on the surrounding sidewalks. At one point, upon seeing Baker on the ground, a child called out, Is he dead?

Baker was taken to Cameron Memorial Community Hospital for treatment then was booked into the Steuben County Jail, police said.

Baker allegedly entered the store and went to the pharmacy counter and demanded medication and money, the police report said. The pharmacist complied and no one was injured. All of the money and medicine was recovered and a small gun was allegedly carried by Baker.

Though police did not list the exact initial charges in a report Thursday night, armed robbery is a Level 3 felony, punishable by up to 16 years in prison.

It is expected that Baker will be arraigned in a Steuben County court today.

Angola Police were assisted by the Steuben County Sheriffs Department, Indiana State Police and Fremont Police Department.

The case remained under investigation Thursday night.
Los Angeles, CA A California labor lawsuit filed against Nike and other defendants alleging the retail chain violated California labor law over an alleged requirement by staff to purchase their own uniforms, will remain in federal court after a federal judge in US Court denied a motion to have the lawsuit returned to state court.

The California labor code lawsuit is, Case No. 8:17-cv-00600, in the. Plaintiff Omran Hamid, the lead plaintiff in a proposed class action, asserts that a uniform policy maintained by Nike required store employees to wear Nike-branded attire during work hours. It is also alleged that employees were required to wear, and maintain up-to-date apparel of each seasons product line. The allegation is that employees were required to pay for this attire, by way of deductions from their wages.According to California labor law, employers who require their employees to wear specific uniforms while on the job are required to provide, and maintain those uniforms. It is not to be the responsibility of the employee, and employees are not to assume the costs, according to language in California labor employment law.The California labor lawsuit cites various claims against Nike Retail Services Inc. and a district director. Claims include illegal terms of employment and unlawful collection or receipt of wages due, amongst other alleged violations to the California labor code.It is unclear as to why the defendants felt they could circumvent California labor laws, as they were alleged to have done with regard to the uniform issue. While Nike operates several retail outlets in the state, the company maintains headquarters and is based in the state of Oregon.Hamid worked at a Nike retail location in San Clemente from October, 2015 until January of this year. He originally filed his California labor code lawsuit in California Superior Court, Orange County. Nike moved to remove the lawsuit to federal court in April, but Hamid wanted the lawsuit returned to state jurisdiction on grounds that, in his view most of the potential class members live in California  where the alleged harms are claimed to have occurred  and the district director named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit is also a resident of California.However, last month US District Court Judge David O. Carter denied the remand, and has compelled the matter to remain in federal court. Amongst his reasoning is the fact that Nike Retail Services Inc. is based in Oregon, and the claims against the company are more numerous and compelling than the claims leveled at the California-based district manager.Hamid had also referenced exceptions under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) in support of his bid to have his California labor lawsuit moved back to state court. The plaintiff asserted exceptions identifying local controversy and home state under CAFA, applied to his case.However, Judge Carter disagreed. Plaintiff here is challenging a statewide policy, which strongly indicates to the court that the statewide management of Nikes operations forms the basis of the allegations, and not the actions of any individual district director alone, the order said, amongst other points supporting an order to retain the California labor lawsuit in federal court.
Metformin is a prescription drug used primarily in the treatment of Type II diabetes. It can be used on its own or combined with other medications. In the United States, it is sold under the brand names Fortamet, Glucophage, Glumetza and Riomet.

"Metformin is very often prescribed as the first step in a diabetic's regime," said Ken Sternfeld, a New York-based pharmacist.

How it works

"When you're diabetic you lose the ability to use the insulin you need to offset the food," Sternfeld explained. "If you eat a carb or sugar that can't be metabolized or offset by the insulin you produce, your sugar levels will be higher. Metformin and drugs in that category will help your body better metabolize that food so that insulin levels will be able to stay more in line."

Metformin aims to decrease glucose production in the liver, consequently lowering the levels of glucose in the bloodstream. It also changes the way that your blood cells react to insulin. "It makes them more sensitive to insulin," said Dr. Stephen Neabore, a primary care doctor at the Barnard Medical Center in Washington, D.C. "It makes the same amount of insulin work better. It transports the insulin to the cells in a more effective way."

Metformin may have a preventive health role, as well. New research presented at the American Diabetes Association 2017 Scientific Sessions showed that long-term use of metformin is particularly useful in preventing the onset of type II diabetes in women who have suffered from gestational diabetes.

Because metformin changes the way the body uses insulin, it is not used to treat Type I diabetes, a condition in which the body does not produce insulin at all.

Metformin & PCOS

Metformin is sometimes prescribed to treat polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), according to Neabore. "I can't think of a time when I've seen major side effects," he said. Clinical studies by the University of Chicago have supported its efficacy. Using metformin to treat PCOS is not yet approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), however. Neabore recommends talking to a doctor about the drug's potential in this category.

According to the University of Chicago Medical Center, lowering insulin levels also lowers the amount of testosterone produced, thus theoretically decreasing the symptoms of PCOS that are associated with excess testosterone. Metformin may help restore regular menstrual cycles and improve metabolism, thus possibly leading to weight loss in women with PCOS. It may also help reduce the chance of miscarriage or gestational diabetes and improve the chance of successful in-vitro fertilization (IVF), though according to the NIH, research is inconclusive on all of these topics.

Dosage

Sternfeld emphasized the importance of adhering to the metformin dosage and schedule laid out by your doctor and also discussing it with your pharmacist. "Metformin is a maintenance drug and you need to take it as prescribed forever," he said. "If you don't take it at that dosage level, your sugar level will go up. There's a direct relationship between adherence to the drug and disease state. If you don't manage your sugar levels, you're not just looking at being diabetic but at being someone who has multiple blood sugar problems."

Metformin can be taken as a tablet, an extended-release oral tablet or a liquid. Extended-release tablets should be swallowed, not chewed, crushed or split. The regular tablet is taken with meals two or three times a day, the extended-release tablet is taken once a day with a meal in the evening, and the liquid is usually taken with meals once or twice a day. "Its effects can greatly depend on the time of day you take it. Patients are always advised to take it after meals to avoid stomach distress," Sternfeld said.

Doctors often start patients on low doses of metformin and gradually increase the dosage. "If you start someone on too high a dose, they may have severe diarrhea," Neabore said. Patients must carefully monitor blood sugar while taking metformin so that doctors will be able to determine how well the drug is working. The NIH stresses that patients should not stop taking metformin without consulting a doctor, even if they feel well. Metformin cannot cure diabetes, only help control it.

In the case of a missed dose, the patient should take the missed dose as soon as he or she remembers it, unless it is almost time for the next dose. In that case, the patient should skip the missed dose and continue on the regular dosing schedule. The NIH says that patients should not take a double dose to make up for a skipped one.

It is important for diabetic patients to follow a healthy eating and exercise routine as outlined by their doctor, Neabore said. "We recommend lifestyle changes as a primary intervention or at least along with medication," he said. In rare cases, serious and sustained lifestyle changes may even change the amount of metformin a patient may need in the future. "You might be able to reduce the dose or even discontinue it eventually," he said. "But lifestyle changes take some time and in the meantime it can be good to take medicines."

In the case of eating or exercising more or less than usual, a doctor should be informed. Such change can affect blood sugar levels, and doctors will provide specific instructions should this happen.

Drinking alcohol can potentially lower blood sugar levels, so it is important for patients to talk to a doctor about how much alcohol, if any, is safe to drink while taking metformin.

Side effects

"The most common side effect of metformin is stomach distress  diarrhea, bloating, stomach pain, gas, indigestion, constipation," Sternfeld said.

According to the NIH, other common side effects of metformin include:

unpleasant metallic taste

heartburn

headache

skin flushing

changes in finger or toenails

muscle pain

If any of these side effects persist, become severe, disappear and then return, or only appear after taking metformin for a long time, a doctor should be consulted.

More serious side effects are chest pain and rash. If these side effects occur, patients should immediately consult a doctor or seek emergency treatment. Patients should talk to their doctor and pharmacist about other risks of metformin. Before beginning metformin they should talk to their pharmacist about managing side effects and about any other drugs they are currently taking to avoid bad reactions, Sternfeld said.

Risks

The NIH notes that metformin may rarely cause lactic acidosis, a serious, life-threatening condition. People over 80 years old who have had a heart attack, stroke, diabetic ketoacidosis, coma, or heart, kidney or liver disease should talk to their doctors about this risk of taking metformin.

Drinking alcohol can also increase the risk of lactic acidosis.

The research is inconclusive on whether or not metformin is safe to take during pregnancy. For example, the Mayo Clinic suggests that it is safe, while a 2008 study in the U.S. National Library of Medicine says, "is currently recommended that metformin be discontinued with the first positive pregnancy test result." Before getting a prescription, women should tell their doctors if they are pregnant, breast-feeding, or planning to become pregnant. If they get pregnant while taking metformin, a doctor should be informed immediately.

Abuse and overdose

Though not categorized as a controlled substance, it is possible to overdose on metformin. According to the NIH, symptoms of overdose include:

hypoglycemia and its symptoms

extreme tiredness

weakness

discomfort

vomiting

nausea

stomach pain

decreased appetite

deep, rapid breathing

shortness of breath

dizziness

lightheadedness

abnormally fast or slow heartbeat

flushing of the skin

muscle pain

feeling cold

In the case of overdose, patients should contact their local poison control center. If the patient isn't breathing or has collapsed, call 911. Patients should go over dosing instructions and requirements thoroughly with a pharmacist to help avoid risk of overdose, Sternfeld said.

New developments

A 2017 study published in Pediatrics found that metformin might be helpful in treating the effects childhood obesity in prepubescent children. Overweight prepubescent boys who took metformin for six months saw improvement in insulin sensitivity and other inflammatory and cardiovascular-related obesity parameters. Similar results might be achieved through lifestyle changes, however. Pubescent children did not see any results.

Additional resources
"Perfect forms" carved in ivory reveal humanity's oldest set of ropes, research suggests.

At first glance, the discovery in Germany's Hohle Fels cave looked like it could be the mock-up for a 42,000-year-old set of brass knuckles: four carefully carved small holes placed close together on an 8-inch-long (20 centimeters) strip of mammoth ivory.

But the Hohle Fels cave dwellers had neither brass nor the know-how to make it. Also, the inner surfaces of the holes were intricately carved in a spiral pattern, like the rifling inside a modern gun barrel. [Top 10 Mysteries of the First Humans]

"These people were interested in making these perfect forms," said Nicholas Conard, an archaeologist at the University of Tuebingen, who helped to discover the ivory.

Conard and his multinational team said they may have found the earliest evidence of human rope-making. In the study, Veerle Rots, of Belgium's University of Liege, an expert in scientific analysis of Paleolithic materials, fed raw fibers through the rifled holes in a bronze replica of the ivory artifact to create four separate twisted strands. Subsequent experiments reinforced the initial results.

"This is completely new," Conard told Live Science. "What we've done strongly suggests that it could be used to make rope. I've never run into anyone else who can suggest" that any artifact this old could be used to make rope. Still, he added, "there is no real proof."

This is because figuring out how humanity's ancestors lived is a two-sided conundrum, and scientists usually have only one side of the evidence. Stone and bone tools survive, said University of Tulsa archaeologist Danielle Macdonald, a materials analyst who did not participate in the Hohle Fels discovery, but hides, wood, fibers and foods  the materials worked by the tools  do not.

"There is never a stand-alone object," MacDonald added. "We look at the microscopic records of wear and tear on stone and bone materials, and make inferences of what people were doing with them."

Hohle Fels, in the Ach Valley of southwestern Germany, is a rich source of human prehistory, best known for artifacts made by the first modern humans in Europe, around 42,000 years ago.

The mammoth ivory tool was found 50 feet (15 meters) inside a narrow tunnel leading to the Hohle Fels amphitheater  "protected from the weather but with enough daylight to make it easy to work," Conard said. The team found the four-holed mammoth ivory tool in 15 "little broken pieces, crushed in place and beautifully preserved," Conard added.

Initially, the scientists interpreted the find as artwork, but archaeologists had never found anything that remotely resembled the ivory piece, the researchers said. Instead, the rifling, etched in the bone with incredible care, suggested a practical use: fiber forced through the holes could produce four strands of rope with a right-hand twist that could in turn be fashioned into a larger rope, the study said. Using a bronze casting of the artifact (it is illegal to take such objects out of Germany), Rots and her Liege staff made 10 feet (3 m) of rope in 15 minutes.

Yet, although "rope seems the most likely product, they may [also] have been winding fibers to make mats," Conard said. "We're not ruling that out." The team published preliminary results last July in the German journal Archaologische Ausgrabungen Baden-Wurttemberg. Conard said the team is testing different materials over the course of a full year to see whether the tool proves effective for all seasons.

The Liege researchers used cattails, common, reedy wetlands plants, "but it seems you can use inner [tree] bark or any plant with long fibers," Conard said. Each of the fibers is about 3 feet (about 1 m) long, and "you wind the next one into the previous one," he said. "They shoot out the other side like large strands of spaghetti."

Original article on Live Science.
When a person has a severe allergic reaction, an injection of epinephrine can be lifesaving, and the sooner, the better.

But a new study finds that less than 40 percent of kids who had this type of allergic reaction, called anaphylaxis, received an injection of epinephrine before they got to the emergency room or an urgent care clinic.

Epinephrine can be given immediately to a child with anaphylaxis using an epinephrine auto-injector, a device that automatically injects a dose of the drug into a person's body. EpiPens are one type of epinephrine auto-injector. [8 Strange Signs You're Having an Allergic Reaction]

In the study, the researchers looked at medical records from more than 400 kids and teens who went to either the emergency room or the urgent care clinic at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio for a severe allergic reaction. Nearly half of the patients were ages 5 or younger.

Only 36 percent of the kids in the study received epinephrine before arriving at the hospital or clinic, the researchers found. Not every patient included in the study ended up being treated with epinephrine once they arrived, the researchers noted. But 50 percent of the patients in the study did receive it when they arrived at the hospital or clinic, including some who had already gotten it before seeking care, the researchers found.

The children and teens were more likely to have received the drug prior to arriving at the hospital if their allergic reaction struck while they were at school, the researchers found.

"Treatment with epinephrine is often delayed or avoided by parents and caregivers," lead study author Dr. Melissa Robinson, an allergist at the National Jewish Hospital in Denver, said in a statement. "And sometimes, antihistamines are used even though they are not an appropriate treatment." Antihistamines are another common type of allergy medicine.

A majority of the kids and teens included in the study had had an anaphylactic reaction in the past, the researchers noted, but less than half of those patients had been prescribed an epinephrine auto-injector. And among those who did have a prescription, only about two-thirds had the device with them at the time of allergic reaction.

But the symptoms of anaphylaxis "occur suddenly and can progress quickly," senior study author Dr. David Stukus, an allergist at Nationwide Children's Hospital, said in a statement. "It's vital to keep your epinephrine with you if you suffer from any sort of severe allergy."

In fact, people with such allergies should also carry a second dose of the medicine, Stukus said. "When in doubt, administer [that second dose], too."

The study was published July 12 in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Originally published on Live Science.
Using the brightest light ever produced, University of Nebraska-Lincoln physicists obtained this high-resolution X-ray of a USB drive. The image reveals details not visible with ordinary X-ray imaging.

The world's brightest laser  which is so powerful that it can produce light pulses that are 1 billion times brighter than the surface of the sun  can "transform" visible light into X-rays, making the shape and color of objects appear different, new research shows.

These X-rays could be much less harmful than current computed tomography (CT) machines and provide much-higher-resolution images, the researchers said.

In the new study, published online June 26 in the journal Nature Photonics (opens in new tab), a team from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln led by physicist Donald Umstadter described an experiment they had conducted using their superpowerful Diocles laser, named after an ancient Greek mathematician. [The 18 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics]

When directed onto a beam of electrons, the photons of the laser beam started scattering in a completely different way than when illuminated by weaker light, the researchers found.

"Normally, as you turn up the light brightness with the room light dimmer switch, everything in the room looks the same as it did at lower brightness of lighting but just brighter," said Umstadter, who works at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Extreme Light Laboratory.

When the physicists turned the brightness of the laser to a much higher level, the scattering process changed in a way that would make, for example, objects in a room appear differently.

A scientist at work in the Extreme Light Laboratory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. (Image credit: University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

Scattering is a process in which light particles are deflected from their trajectory after hitting other particles. In the case of the Diocles laser, a single photon would scatter with a single electron, Umstadter said. The electron would, as a result, emit a single photon of light. However, as the light intensity of the laser reached a certain point, every electron started scattering simultaneously with a large number of photons.

"As a result, the electron emitted a photon, which had the sum of all the energies of those photons that were illuminating it, and so the scattered light had a much higher energy than the photons that illuminated it," Umstadter said. "In fact, the energy was so high that it would be in the X-ray regime of light. It was an X-ray, not a visible photon as our laser is."

The angle of the emitted light changed, which means an object illuminated with such bright light would suddenly have a different shape, Umstadter said. In addition, the energy of the light, which determines color, changed.

Still, even though it acquired X-ray properties, the light emitted by the electrons behaved differently compared with conventional X-rays. "Typical X-rays are produced by a completely different mechanism, and they look more like a light bulb," Umstadter said.

"If a light bulb is a white light, it has all colors represented," Umstadter added. "A laser is typically one color, and it is a very narrow beam  it's what we call coherent. Our X-rays are much more coherent than typical X-rays, and they have a much higher resolution."

Umstadter said an imaging system based on the technology would be able to see much smaller details than conventional X-ray machines can. For example, in medical applications, this could lead to the ability to detect changes in tissues, such as cancer tumors, at earlier stages.

Umstadter said that using X rays based on the technology would allow decreasing the dose of radiation up to ten times, which would reduce the patients risk of developing cancer.

It is known that even small doses of X rays can increases cancer risk although by a very small amount. The smaller the amount however, the lower the risk.

Original article on Live Science.
North Korea's latest missile test has brought simmering tensions between the notoriously reclusive country and the United States to a head. But are fears of nuclear war premature? Are North Korean rockets capable of reaching American shores?

It's possible, according to John Schilling, an American aerospace engineer and North Korea analyst.

Schilling, whose experience includes developing rockets for the U.S. Air Force, said the latest North Korean missile is the first with sufficient range and payload capacity to deliver a single nuclear warhead into United States territory. [North Korea: A Hermit Country from Above (Photos)]

The July 4 test launch was "definitely unprecedented," Schilling told Live Science. "They've used bits of technology that they've been testing in smaller missiles, but this is the first time they've tested a missile of this scale."

Schilling is a consultant for 38 North, a website devoted to expert analysis of North Korea, run by the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.

The North Korean news agency KCNA broadcast a video of the launch and reported that the missile reached a maximum altitude of 1,741 miles (2,802 kilometers) and flew for 39 minutes before it impacted in the Sea of Japan "more than 930 km" (580 miles) from its launch site near Kusong, in the northwest of the country.

In a blog post, David Wright, director of the Global Security Program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, estimated that the new missile has a theoretical maximum range of around 4,160 miles (6,700 km) from launch sites in North Korea.

"In its present form, it couldn't reach much farther than Alaska or maybe Hawaii," Schilling said, "but we think it can be fairly easily extended to cover the West Coast of the United States."

Nuclear threat

There can be little doubt about North Korea's intended targets for its missiles  the country's state media regularly issues dire warnings to South Korea, Japan and the United States, which it accuses of meddling in Korean affairs. [7 Technologies That Transformed Warfare]

"I expect they will eventually try to develop something bigger to cover the entire United States, but would expect this one to go into service as a weapon, at least in the near term, over the next year or two," Schilling said.

That means North Korea is on the verge of creating a truly intercontinental nuclear threat: "Missiles of this scale are almost always equipped with nuclear warheads," he said. "It's just not cost-effective with anything less."

Schilling estimated that North Korea could have around 20 nuclear warheads that could be used on such a missile, "but there is substantial uncertainty on that," he said.

He also noted that, unlike earlier North Korean missiles, the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that was tested earlier this month is fitted with a payload shroud, which hides the payload from external view.

"That sort of design suggests that they're planning on incorporating decoys, in addition to just a single warhead  but that would be several years down the road, requiring additional development and testing," Schilling said.

Home grown

North Korea's nuclear missile program is made possible by a massive commitment of money and resources, reported the Washington Post, even though the country is thought to be one of the poorest in the world, and where inhabitants endure frequent power outages and shortages of basic supplies.

Schilling said each rocket based on the Hwasong-14 would probably costs tens of millions of dollars to build, and the North Koreans are expected to put several such rockets into service over the next few years.

The technologies used in the latest rocket also showed how North Korea's missile technology has advanced since its earlier reliance on missile technology from post-Soviet Russia, in addition to covert assistance in the past from Pakistan and Iran.

"We think this is a home-grown design." Schilling said. "Getting to this stage over the last 20 years has involved some foreign collaboration, but at this point, we think that they've taken the training wheels off, and they're doing this on their own, with just an incredibly focused effort from a relatively poor nation."

Reliability risk

Schilling said North Korea still faces many engineering challenges before the Hwasong-14 can be an effective weapon, particularly when it comes to ensuring that the missiles can function under the haste and uncertainty of combat conditions.

"We are actually surprised that this one worked at all  their missiles rarely work on the first try," he said.

Developing precise guidance systems for the missiles would be another challenge: "They've done launches which suggest they have guidance technology that would at least be accurate enough to hit city-sized targets," Schilling said. "Anything more precise than that would probably require a great deal of testing to calibrate the guidance systems."

The next stages of North Korea's missile development will probably only be known when it tests another missile. And only North Korea knows when that may be.

"That's hard to read," Schilling said. "They may just consider this success to be sufficient for the moment, and not risk embarrassing themselves with a failure."

Original article on Live Science.
A healthy coral reef is a magical place, teeming with diverse communities of colorful marine life. The enormous, stony structures of well-known reefs such as Australia's Great Barrier Reef can extend for thousands of miles, and appear almost indestructible. But reefs today face a deadly threat from an invisible foe  excess carbon dioxide produced by human activity, which is warming Earth's oceans at an alarming and unprecedented rate, leading to widespread coral bleaching and death.

"Chasing Coral," which premieres today (July 14) on Netflix, offers a window into some of the worst bleaching events that corals have ever faced, all of which have occurred within the last few decades. The documentary features scientists at the forefront of ocean research, and describes the efforts that are already underway to protect vulnerable reefs. The documentary also outlines what still needs to happen to mitigate the effects of climate change and limit global warming, before coral reefs as we know them disappear forever. [Worst Coral Reef Bleaching on Record for the Great Barrier Reef | Aerial Video]

In "Chasing Coral," the filmmakers set out to do something that had never been done before  document the changes in coral reefs over weeks as they bleached and died, to underscore the severity and speed of climate change's impact on reef ecosystems, and to convey the urgency required for individual and collective action to preserve corals in a warming world.

Scientists first observed large-scale coral reef bleaching  when expanses of multiple reefs turn white across many ocean locations  in the 1980s, the film's chief scientific adviser Mark Eakin, coordinator of the Coral Reef Watch program for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), told Live Science.

A reef's rocky structure is a sprawling skeleton built by a colony of tiny, soft-bodied coral polyps. Corals are extremely sensitive to changes in water temperature, and when conditions are stressful  if waters become too warm for too long  they expel the microscopic algae that lend them their color and make their food. Bereft of algae, corals' transparent flesh reveals the white skeleton underneath, making the reef appear "bleached." If these conditions persist, the corals will eventually die.

In "bleached" reefs, the corals' white skeletons are visible under their transparent flesh. (Image credit: Chasing Coral)

Researchers identified the first global bleaching event in 1998, which was followed by another in 2010, Eakin said. A third mass bleaching episode that began in 2014 was still underway in 2015, when the "Chasing Coral" filmmakers installed stationary time-lapse cameras at reefs in Hawaii and in the Bahamas. And the bleaching continued into 2016, as the team shot manual time-lapse footage at locations at the Great Barrier Reef.

This large-scale coral bleaching was the first global event to last for more than a year, and its effects were so devastating that even the filmmakers were stunned by what they saw. One especially sobering scene shows Zackery Rago, a camera technician for the film and a self-described "coral nerd," at a site on the Great Barrier Reef, holding a piece of dying coral as its transparent flesh disintegrates in his hands.

"It was far worse than we ever thought it would be," Jeff Orlowski, the film's director, told Live Science. But that made them only more determined to share what they found, he said.

"We knew we need to get this story out to the world," Orlowski said. "This was too important to let go, we needed to get imagery that was as powerful as possible." [Gallery: Peek Inside a Coral Nursery]

"Chasing Coral" producer and director Jeff Orlowski inspects a custom-built camera drone. (Image credit: Copyright Chasing Coral, photo by Catherine Yrisarri)

Not all corals die after bleaching, and some species are proving to be more resilient than others, Ruth Gates, "Chasing Coral" science adviser and director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawaii, told Live Science.

Scientists are studying the factors that help corals recover from bleaching, ranging from genetics to alliances with microorganisms to partnerships with more resistant corals. But seas are heating up so quickly and bleaching events are occurring so frequently that even hardier corals may ultimately not survive, Gates said.

"The intensities of temperatures are overwhelming everybody's capacities," she said. "Temperatures have been so high for so long that even the most resistant corals, in some cases, are not looking good."

And no mitigation strategy will be enough to save coral reefs if fossil fuel use continues unchecked and Earth continues to warm, Gates told Live Science.

"If we dont intervene in the next 10 years, we'll be discussing the demise of reefs in our lifetime," Gates said.

In "Chasing Coral," filmmakers and scientists come together to explore the devastating impact of climate change on reef systems around the world. (Image credit: XL Catlin Seaview Survey)

While "Chasing Coral" doesn't pull any punches about the precarious future of reefs, it also highlights the fascinating biology of corals and the beauty of reef ecosystems. They are home to diverse populations of fish and invertebrates, many of which sustain human populations as well, Orlowski said.

And perhaps the film will help audiences to recognize the urgency of preserving these threatened environments, particularly when climate change's devastating impact is already underway, according to Eakin.

"A lot of people feel that climate change is something that's going to happen in the distant future, or in some faraway place," Eakin told Live Science. "This shows that there are very important ecosystems that people depend on that are already affected by climate change  and it's getting worse. So hopefully that'll help bring people together on the fact that we need to do what we can to save these reefs," he said.

Original article on Live Science.
Lions and leopards normally don't get along, but one wild lioness  recently spotted nursing a leopard cub in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area  apparently didn't get that memo.

"It's unprecedented," said Luke Hunter, president and chief conservation officer of Panthera, a global wild cat conservation nonprofit based in New York City. "It's the first case of any big cat in the wild suckling a cub of another species."

It's a mystery how the 5-year-old lioness encountered the approximately 3-week-old leopard. But because the lioness has a litter of cubs that are about the same age as the leopard, it's possible that her maternal instincts kicked in, prompting her to nurse the furry babe instead of kill it, Hunter said. [See Photos of the Lioness Nursing the Leopard Cub]

A guest at the Ndutu Lodge in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area took the photos Tuesday (July 11). The guest alerted KopeLion, a nongovernmental organization that works to promote lion and human coexistence and tags lions with radio collars to track them (including the nursing lioness, known as Nosikitok).

KopeLion works with Panthera, so representatives from the organization emailed the "genuinely unique" photos to the nonprofit to spread the news, Hunter told Live Science.

There are cases of mountain lion and leopard mothers adopting cubs within their own species, but it's unheard of for a big cat to nurse a cub from another species, Hunter told Live Science. (Image credit: Joop Van Der Linde/Ndutu Lodge)

While people may see the lioness's maternal gesture as adorable, the future of this leopard cub is dangerously uncertain, Hunter said. Lionesses have their litters in seclusion, away from the pride. So, technically, Nosikitok could bring the leopard cub back to her litter and raise it with her offspring. Leopards and lions diverged about 2.5 million years ago, but they still have similar milk and nursing periods, Hunter said.

However, after about eight weeks, lionesses bring their cubs to the pride, and then raise them communally with the other adults. If the leopard cub makes it this far and is introduced to the pride, that meeting could be its last, Hunter said.

"It would be unlikely that the rest of the pride would accept it," Hunter said. "You never know, because up until this week, I would have said this doesn't happen. You can never predict, can you? But it seems really unlikely."

As of Thursday evening (July 13), the lioness had caught up with some other adult members of her pride, but it's unclear where the leopard cub has gone. "We're holding our breath to see what's going to happen with this," Hunter said.

In the best-case scenario, the leopard's mother would emerge and reclaim her cub.

"I'm hoping that its mum is still around and retrieves it, and we all go back to normal," Hunter said. "That would be its greatest chance for its survival. But we'll just wait and see; we're not sure what's going to happen."

It's unclear where the leopard's mother is, but wildlife experts hope she will come forward to reclaim her cub and finish raising it. (Image credit: Joop Van Der Linde/Ndutu Lodge)

There are other cases of big cats adopting cubs that are not their own, but it's always within the same species. For instance, there's a record of a leopard adopting a leopard cub that was not biologically hers, and two records of mountain lions (also known as pumas) in Wyoming adopting cubs that were not theirs, Hunter said.

"Very occasionally, we do record that," Hunter said. "But again, it's strictly within the same species, not across these species' lines. [This new case] is really, really unusual."

Original article on Live Science.
Nursing story

(Image credit: Joop Van Der Linde/Ndutu Lodge)

In an unexpected first, wildlife experts have identified a lioness nursing a leopard cub. Normally, these two big-cat species do not get along, and it's surprising the lioness didn't kill the cub outright, experts told Live Science.



Perhaps the "genuinely unique" experience happened because the lioness has a litter of cubs that are about the same age as the approximately 3-week-old leopard, and her maternal instincts kicked in when she encountered the cub, said Luke Hunter, the president and chief conservation officer of Panthera, a global wild cat conservation nonprofit based in New York City.



Whatever the reason, the cub's future is uncertain. If the lioness brings it back to her litter, it's unlikely that the rest of the pride would accept it, Hunter said. The best-case scenario would be for the leopard's mother to reclaim her baby, he said. [ Read the Full Story on the Lioness Nursing the Leopard Cub]

Dinner time

(Image credit: Joop Van Der Linde/Ndutu Lodge)

A guest staying at the Ndutu Lodge in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area snapped these photos on Tuesday (July 11).

Fuzzy cub

(Image credit: Joop Van Der Linde/Ndutu Lodge)

The last common ancestor of the lion and leopard lived about 2.5 million years ago, but the two species still have similar milk and comparable nursing periods.

Collared mother

(Image credit: Joop Van Der Linde/Ndutu Lodge)

The lioness has a collar with a GPS tracking device so that KopeLion can keep records of her whereabouts. KopeLion is a nongovernmental organization that works to promote a sustainable lion and human co-existence.

Different species

(Image credit: Joop Van Der Linde/Ndutu Lodge)

There are cases of mountain lion and leopard mothers adopting cubs within their own species, but it's unheard of for a big cat to nurse a cub from another species, Hunter told Live Science.

Cubs galore

(Image credit: Joop Van Der Linde/Ndutu Lodge)

The lioness, known as Nosikitok, was less than a mile from her litter when she suckled the leopard cub, Hunter said. Nosikitok later joined with some other adults from her pride, and it's unclear where is leopard cub is now.

Vulnerable species

(Image credit: Joop Van Der Linde/Ndutu Lodge)

The leopard (Panthera pardus) is listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Wild leopards live throughout Africa and Asia, but their populations have become reduced and isolated from one another, the IUCN said.



Leopards are now regionally extinct in these areas: Hong Kong, Jordan, the Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Singapore, the Syrian Arab Republic, Togo, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan, the IUCN reported.

Little cub

(Image credit: Joop Van Der Linde/Ndutu Lodge)

The lioness gave birth to three cubs of her own in late June. It's possible she might bring the leopard cub back to her litter and raise them together, Hunter said. But were the lioness to take the leopard to the pride, the other adult lions would probably kill it, he said.

Leopard babe

(Image credit: Joop Van Der Linde/Ndutu Lodge)

It's unclear where the leopard's mother is, but wildlife experts hope she will come forward to reclaim her cub and finish raising it.



[ Read the Full Story on the Lioness Nursing the Leopard Cub]
Scientists have re-created a relative of the smallpox virus in a lab, from scratch.

This virus, called the horsepox virus, is not harmful to humans, but the new findings suggest that it's possible for people to make the deadly smallpox virus in a lab. That virus was eradicated from the world in 1980, according to the journal Science.

Re-creating the horsepox virus wasn't a trivial feat, but it did not require extensive resources, either. The researchers ordered the DNA fragments they used to make the virus from a company that makes DNA pieces for researchers, with made-to-order sequences, and sends them through the mail. In total, the project cost $100,000 and took six months, Science reported. [The 9 Deadliest Viruses on Earth]

The researchers, from the University of Alberta in Canada, hope their effort could one day lead to a better smallpox vaccine. Although most people no longer receive smallpox vaccination, the shot is sometimes given to people who may be at risk for contracting the disease, such as those who work with smallpox or similar viruses in a lab. A small percentage of those vaccinated with the current vaccine may experience serious, life-threatening side effects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Canadian researchers are working with the pharmaceutical company Tonix to develop a smallpox vaccine. In March, Tonix issued a statement announcing that it had used the horsepox virus to develop a potential smallpox vaccine, which showed protective effects in an early study in mice.

Although many researchers assumed it would one day be possible to re-create poxviruses  the family of viruses to which smallpox and horsepox belong  there was still some debate about the issue. David Evans, the lead researcher of the horsepox virus work, told Science that he performed the feat in part to put an end to the debate. "The world just needs to accept the fact that you can do this, and now we have to figure out what is the best strategy for dealing with that," Evans told Science.

Some experts praised the work. "I think he did a terrific service," Peter Jahrling, chief of the Emerging Viral Pathogens Section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, told The Washington Post. "You had a lot of people saying this can't be done. And he said yes it can."

Evans' findings have not yet been published, but he presented the work in November 2016 at a World Health Organization meeting. In a summary report of that presentation, the committee said it acknowledged that "given the advent of synthetic biology, it was no longer possible for society to entirely rid itself of the threat of smallpox or, indeed, other dangerous pathogens."

However, there are already measures in place to prevent people from re-creating smallpox. The World Health Organization recommends that no institution should be allowed to possess more than 20 percent of the smallpox genome, according to The Washington Post. And companies that synthesize DNA for research purposes are required to check the orders they receive for matches against certain human pathogens, the Post reported.

Original article on Live Science.
Chinese scientists have just shattered a record in teleportation. No, they haven't beamed anyone up to a spaceship. Rather, they sent a packet of information from Tibet to a satellite in orbit, up to 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.

More specifically, the scientists beamed the quantum state of a photon (information about how it is polarized) into orbit.

Not only did the team set a record for quantum teleportation distance, they also showed that one can build a practical system for long-distance quantum communications. Such a communication system would be impossible to eavesdrop on without alerting the users, which would make online communications much more secure.

Experiments like this have been done before, but Howard Wiseman, director of the Center for Quantum Dynamics at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, told Live Science in an email that this one expands the possibilities for the technology. [10 Futuristic Technologies 'Star Trek' Fans Would Love to See]

"This is much more difficult, because it is to a rapidly moving target, and you have your quantum detectors way out in space where they have to work without anyone fiddling with them," he said. "It is a big step towards global-scale quantum communication."

Spooky pairs

The experiment takes advantage of one of several phenomena that describes quantum mechanics: entanglement, or "spooky action at a distance," as Albert Einstein called it. When two particles are entangled, they remain connected so that an action performed on one affects the other as well, no matter how far apart the two are. In the same vein, when one measures the state of one particle in the entangled duo, you'd automatically know the state of the second. Physicists call the states "correlated," because if one particle  a photon, for example  is in an "up" state, its entangled partner will be in a "down" state  a kind of mirror image. (Strictly speaking, there are four possible combinations for the two particles to be in).

The weird part is that once the state of the first particle is measured, the second one somehow "knows" what state it should be in. The information seems to travel instantaneously, without a speed-of-light limit. [8 Ways You Can See Einstein's Theory of Relativity in Real Life]

Teleporting information

In June, the same researchers reported another feat in quantum teleportation: They sent entangled photons from the Micius satellite to two ground stations over distances between 994 miles and 1,490 miles (1,600 and 2,400 km), depending on the location of the satellite in its orbit. While this experiment showed that entanglement can happen over long distances, the new experiment uses that entanglement to transmit a photon's quantum state to a distant location.

In their latest experiment, the Chinese team, led by Ji-Gang Ren at the University of Science and Technology in Shanghai, fired a laser from a ground station in Tibet to a satellite in orbit. That laser beam carried a photon entangled with another photon on the ground. They then entangled the photon on the ground with a third photon, and measured their quantum states. But the scientists didn't actually reveal the states themselves. They just asked whether their states (in this case, their vertical or horizontal polarizations) were the same or different. There are four possible combinations: vertical-vertical, vertical-horizontal, horizontal-vertical and horizontal-horizontal. Since the states of the particles on the ground were correlated with the one on the satellite, an observer looking at the satellite's photon, meanwhile, would know that that photon has to be in one of four possible states that correlate with the two photons on the ground.

If there were a person riding in the satellite, once they were told that the states of the ground-based photons were the same or different, they would know enough to be able reconstruct the state of the ground-based photons and to duplicate it in their single photon on board. The photons on the ground would have had their quantum state teleported to orbit.

While it sounds like information is traveling faster than light, there's no way to use this property as an instantaneous messaging system. That's because even though the states of entangled particles are correlated, you can't know what they are before you measure them, nor can you control the state.

But what entangled particles can do is act as perfect authenticators for messages. The reason is that the act of observing a particle changes its behavior. If an eavesdropper were trying to intercept the transmission between the satellite and the ground in this recent experiment, the quantum states of the photons (as measured by the scientists) would not be correctly correlated.

The Chinese team managed to make entanglement work over distances of 310 miles (500 km) to 870 miles (1,400 km), the maximum distance to the satellite. This is farther than anyone has ever managed to send entangled states. Entangled photons can't interact with anything else on the way to their destination, because once they do, their states have been "observed"  revealed by the interaction. Hence, the teleportation doesn't work if the photons are observed before they get to their destination. When scientists conduct experiments like this one, they don't just send single photons, one at a time; to get the measurements they want, they need to send lots of them. Even in the vacuum of space, out of millions of photons sent, the satellite was only able to reliably receive 911 of them, according to the study. [Infographic: How Quantum Entanglement Works]

If these same photons were sent over fiber-optic cables, rather than through space, the connection between the photons would be destroyed by interference from factors such as heat and vibration, or even random interactions with the cable. As such, it could take 380 billion years to get a measurement from an entangled photon. A satellite, on the other hand, is outside of the atmosphere, and there's much less chance of the entangled photon getting spoiled.

"With fiber you lose many of the photons," said Bill Munro, a senior research scientist at NTT's basic research laboratory, in an interview with Live Science. Beaming photons to orbit means that you could build an actual communications system. "You could beam from China to Washington or New York." The problem of reducing the interference with the signals and getting more photons through, Munro said, is a technical and engineering problem that can be solved.

Both Munro and Wiseman noted that often people think of teleportation as moving an actual object (or a photon) form one place to another. "People have this 'Star Trek' approach," Munro said. "They think of atoms being teleported. What we're moving is information from one [quantum] bit to another [quantum] bit. There's no matter  only information. That's hard to get your head around."

The study appeared in the ArXiv on July 4.

Originally published on Live Science.
A new type of cancer treatment that involves altering a person's genes  and could save children's lives  passed a major hurdle this week, when a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel recommended that the agency approve the therapy, The New York Times reported. But how does the treatment work?

The treatment is for an uncommon type of leukemia, called B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, that affects mainly children and young adults, according to the Times. The success rate of the treatment that was seen in a recent clinical trial was "astonishing," said Lee Greenberger, chief scientific officer of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). Greenberger was not involved directly in the research of the new therapy, but the LLS has contributed significant funding toward the work.

Leukemia is cancer of white blood cells, and it starts in the bone marrow, the soft material found in the center of bones that produces blood cells. [11 Surprising Facts About the Immune System]

Simply put, the new treatment works by rewiring a person's own immune cells to fight cancer.

To do this, doctors first remove millions of the immune cells, called T cells, from a patient's blood, Greenberger told Live Science. Normally, T cells help destroy infected or cancerous cells.

These T cells are sent to a lab to be purified, and then are genetically engineered, Greenberger said. Scientists mix the cells with a virus that works as a "vector" to insert a bit of genetic material into the cells' DNA. (Viruses commonly insert their DNA into living cells.) In this case, the vector that's used is an inactive form of HIV. After 15 to 25 days  during which the cells have started to produce the new protein that is encoded by the DNA, as well as grow and multiply  the "gene-altered" T cells are infused back into the patient.

"It's basically a one-time therapy," Greenberger said.

The genetic material that the virus inserted into the T cells makes the cells do two things when they are put back into the patient's body, Greenberger said. First, the T cells produce an antibody that sits on the cell's surface, he said. This antibody enables the T cells to recognize the cancer cells. Also, the new genetic material activates the T cells so that, when they arrive at the tumor cells, they not only recognize them but also latch on and destroy them. [10 Do's and Don'ts to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer]

Once in the body, these "hunt and destroy" T cells multiply, so the patient ends up with an "army" of them in the blood, Greenberger said.

The entire process of the T cells killing the cancer cells lasts a couple of weeks, Greenberger said. But when the treatment is working, it can cause some serious side effects, he noted. The side effects include a condition called cytokine release syndrome, which can cause fevers, and another condition called neurotoxicity, which can cause symptoms such as disorientation and an inability to speak.

These side effects start as the T cells begin to kill the tumor cells, and when the tumor cells are depleted, the symptoms calm down, Greenberger said. During the entire process, however, the patient stays in the hospital and is monitored very carefully. In some cases, patients need intensive care.

In addition, some normal, noncancerous cells also carry the protein that the T cells are engineered to recognize. That means that the T cells will also kill these healthy B cells. "But people will survive without those [B cells]," Greenberger said. They do, however, need to get regular infusions of "immune globulins," which help to boost the immune system.

The FDA panel's recommendation was based on the results of a clinical trial run by the drug company Novartis, The New York Times reported. In the trial, 63 patients were given the new therapy, and 52 of them, or 83 percent, went into remission  meaning the cancer went away. The other 11 patients died.

Greenberger noted that the treatment is being recommended for leukemia patients who have no other options left. And based on the results of the research, "it works," he said. The FDA panel recommended that it be approved specifically for patients whose cancer has not responded to other treatments or whose cancer returned after treatment.

So far, the patients who were successfully treated with the new therapy sometime between April 2015 and August 2016 haven't had their cancer return and haven't developed any serious side effects, Greenberger said. Still, they'll need to be monitored over the long term to see if anything changes. Novartis plans on monitoring the patients for 15 years.

Originally published on Live Science.
Medibio, an Australian medical technology company, has developed an evidence-based test for mental health disorders such as depression, chronic stress, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Over 300 million people around the world have been estimated to suffer from depression, and depression is estimated to cost the US economy $210 billion a year. The company identified a series of circadian, sleep, and autonomic system biomarkers that can indicate certain mental health issues. The test is reported to be non-intrusive, rapid, and objective. One aspect of the test involves heart rate monitors to measure changes in heart rate during sleep. Some initial data collected by independent researchers validating the approach were announced at the recent Sleep 2017 conference in Boston.

Medgadget had the opportunity to ask Jack Cosentino, CEO of Medibio, some questions about the technology.

Conn Hastings, Medgadget: Please tell us about yourself and how you got into this area.

Jack Cosentino, Medibio: I come from a deep medical device background and am motivated by developing solutions to address under-served patient communities. Mental health is the largest and most under-served community today. We have a real opportunity, in collaboration with our ecosystem of world-class corporate and academic partners, to significantly improve the current paradigm in mental health care. The challenge inspires me and the opportunity to make a difference motivates me and the team.

Medgadget: Is there a mental health crisis at the moment, or are we just getting better at diagnosing mental health issues?

Jack Cosentino: Mental health is an under-appreciated and grossly under-diagnosed condition. There are over 350 million people worldwide dealing with serious depression and the World Health Organization recognizes mental illness as the #1 issue in terms of disability adjusted life years. To compound the issue, there are simply not enough psychiatrists to serve the patient community. Access in the US is a real issue and there are ~8 psychiatrists per 100,000 people. In places like India, where mental health issues are exploding, its simply an intractable problem as there are just 0.3 psychiatrists per 100,000. As a result, care gets pushed down to the primary care level where diagnostic accuracy is at best 3050%. Mental health is the clinical, economic and societal problem of our generation.

Medgadget: What problem does the technology solve? Is it currently difficult to diagnose mental health disorders accurately?

Jack Cosentino: The statistics are alarming. Less than 10% of patients are accurately diagnosed and prescribed the right therapy on the initial assessment. It usually takes many months and various treatment regimens to get it right. The essential issue underlying that statistic is that diagnoses of mental health disorders are completely subjective. A patient is asked a series of basic questions and a diagnosis is made. There are no objective tools or measurements available. In stark contrast, the cardiovascular area has a multitude of biomarkers and imaging measurement devices (ECG, ultrasound, CT, etc.) to mechanistically understand the core issue. We aim to bring objectivity to mental health care. By leveraging a panel of biomarkers related to the autonomic, circadian and sleep systems, Medibio has developed an objective way to diagnose and manage patients.

Medgadget: Please tell us in simple terms how the test works.

Jack Cosentino: The patient wears a clinical grade or consumer wearable device for a couple of days. Our system then processes the heart-rate and activity data with a proprietary set of algorithms to characterize the mental state of the individual. A comprehensive summary report is then provided to the doctor and/or user.

Medgadget: What mental health disorders can the system diagnose? Are the biomarkers for each disorder very different?

Jack Cosentino: Our approach is aimed at broad spectrum mental illness diagnosis and characterization. For generations, patients and doctors have empirically known that mental illness differentially effects the sleep and autonomic systems. Patients with anxiety disorders often talk about the difficulty in settling down and falling asleep while folks with depression often experience early rise. These phenomena are of course reflected in specific dynamics of the circadian, autonomic and sleep systems. Mental illnesses disrupt these systems in specific ways and our biomarker approach is able to characterize and accurately diagnose the underlying condition. We are now at a point where we can cost effectively capture longitudinal physiologic data on folks at scale and that provides us with the opportunity to apply our solution to a broad set of conditions.

Medgadget: How do you envisage the system being used in the future? Do you think that self-testing will be a phenomenon, or would the test be administered by healthcare professionals?

Jack Cosentino: Serious mental health issues should always be managed with a healthcare professional in the loop. However, I do see new models being deployed in the future in which physical visits are augmented with non-pharm therapies delivered via the mobile phone. I believe telepsychiatry will also play a key role in increasing access and extending the touch of healthcare professionals. I do see a self-management and consumer role in helping identify and manage conditions before they reach clinical severity levels. At the core of all these offerings will need to be an objective way of diagnosing and tracking patients and that is what Medibio will continuing building.

Link: Medibio homepage
by Tobi Elkin @tobielkin, July 10, 2017

MediaRadar's 2016 Consumer Advertising Report, analyzing ad spend, formats, and ad buying patterns among marketers, found that programmatic ad buying declined 12% in Q1 of 2017 vs. Q1 2016.

According to the ad sales intelligence platforms data, 45,008 advertisers purchased ads programmatically in Q1 2016, while in Q1 2017, the number of programmatic advertisers dropped 12% year-over-year, down to 39,415.

For many years, the transition of dollars from direct ad buying to programmatic seemed inevitable, and impossible to roll back. But the near-constant drumbeat of concern over brand safety and fraud in the first six months of 2017 has slowed the tide. There is more buying of direct advertising, especially sponsored editorial, and programmatically, there is a flight to quality. Investment is moving actively into private marketplace programmatic, Todd Krizelman, MediaRadars CEO and co-founder, shared with Digital Daily News via email.

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In general, researchers have been bullish on programmatic ad buying projections despite ongoing woes over fraud, a lack of transparency on pricing, consolidation in the ad tech space, brand safety, measurement, and other concerns in the beleaguered digital ad sector. An eMarketer forecast estimated that nearly four of every five U.S. digital display dollars will transact programmatically this year, amounting to $32.56 billion.

The MediaRadar report identified the top programmatic advertisers by number of placements in 2016 as Ford, Reckitt Benckiser Group, Exponation, Toyota, Verizon, Comcast, Procter & Gamble, National Amusements, NSGV, and the United States of America.

Notably, Media Radar found the number of high-CPM ad formats increasing, especially in mobile and native (which tracked the biggest gains). The number of native ad buyers rose 74% from Q1 2016 to Q1 2017, representing the biggest growth in buyers for any ad format. In addition, demand for native has nearly tripled since January 2015, which logged fewer than 1,000 buyers (981). In January 2017, there were almost 3,000 (2,882).

Advertisers will keep spending because native outperforms traditional ad units," Krizelman said. "Audiences look at native ads more frequently than non-native ads. Similarly, the click-through rate on mobile native is also four times higher than it is for non-native."

He added, "Overall, native is a knockout for publishers. It helps them win more ad dollars from brands.

The top 10 categories in 2016 for native advertising were media and entertaining, professional services, financial and real estate, technology, wholesale, home, travel, apparel and accessories, food, and toiletries and cosmetics.

The top five native advertisers by ad placements in 2016 were Secco Squared, Answers Corp., NextAdvisor, Potential Investments, and JPMorgan Chase.

When it comes to video, Comcast, Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Toyota, and Verizon ranked as the top five brands by number of video ad placement in 2016.

The top five brands in mobile by number of placements were Brown-Forman, Time Warner, Anheuser-Busch, Simplisafe, and Liberty Interactive.

For the report, MediaRadar analyzed data from 266,324 advertisers in 2016 (and through Q1 2017) and examined patterns in their buying of digital, native, mobile, video, email, and print advertising.
by Mike Azzara , Op-Ed Contributor, July 13, 2017

The iconic scene in The Graduate when, amid the hubbub of a cocktail party, Benjamin Braddock is given profound career advice summed up in the single emphatic word Plastics! was reflected in real life a few weeks ago on stage at the Business Marketing Associations (BMAs) Masters of B2B Marketing Conference.

If a career in plastics was a virtual guarantee of success in the 1960s or 1970s, what is the equivalent for the age of artificial intelligence  i.e., 2017 onward? Data scientist? Maybe; maybe not.

The BMA moment was precipitated by an audience question put to Jon Iwata, IBMs senior vice president, marketing and communications, after his presentation about the imminent impact of AI on marketing, in general, and of Watson, in particular. The query: Knowing what you now know about data and artificial intelligence, what would you do differently if you were starting your career today?

Iwata paused long enough to get some sympathy chuckles from the audience, since in that pause you could nearly see the smoke rising, as my grandpa used to say. He took the question seriously and thought hard before coming up with an answer I esteem worth sharing, verbatim:

My mind quickly went not to technology, but to behavior. Like, its never the data, its the questions you want data to answer. So much of this is about really understanding people, like our conversation just now about emotional states.

I guess I would want to spend more time in behavioral economics or other behavioral sciences, so I could then step into the world of marketing and data and AI and say, we could learn so much about people based on things like tone, face, use of language, their interaction mode. All those things are known, but theyre not in the marketing sciences or computer sciences, theyre in other parts of the university. And I would probably go and spend some time over there.

One reason Iwatas answer struck a strong chord for me is that a current project finds me reviewing recent research on the inner workings of the human brain, beginning with Carl Sagans Pulitzer-winning The Dragons of Eden. Now, Im reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, who won the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for the pioneering work.

Reading this stuff is hard work. Im working my way up to the hardest science: Antonio Damasio, the only actual neuroscientist in this bunch. The Web record shows he caused a stir with his first (1994) book, Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. He analyzes the best current scientific understanding of consciousness in his most recent (2010), Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain.

As I understand so far from reading about his work, Damasio shows how the brain uses the entire body and all our senses to think, and that rationality actually requires emotion. The sound bite I first encountered from the 2010 book was, Humans are not either thinking machines or feeling machines but rather feeling machines that think.



Oh boy. Learning how your brain really works, and what can influence its workings and how those influences work, must give us pause. While not necessarily questioning free will, it certainly raises new questions about its nature.

For example, priming is a real thing. Think of it as a subconscious influence that affects your thinking or actions without you realizing it. Kahneman explains that when you show people five words related to old age (Florida, forgetful, bald, gray, wrinkle) and then ask them to walk down the hall, they walk slower than a control group. Thats called the ideomotor effect.

Ideas can be primed. I saw Stanford University professor Robert Sapolsky, a neuroendocrinologist, explain that if you put people in a room with smelly garbage, their views on social issues become more conservative. Kahneman describes experiments in which people subtly primed by money concepts experience increased individualism: a reluctance to be involved with others, to depend on others, or to accept demands from others.

Given the direction of big data analytics and AI, this brings two scary thoughts to mind:

First is the common sci-fi disaster scenario: Hold on, what the hell are we doing building these disembodied brains modeled after what we think we know about how human brains work, when the people who know the most keep saying we dont know enough? Those stories never end well.

Second is, even if we never get to Ray Kurzweils singularity and Skynet never enslaves humankind, we are facing an extraordinary cascade of ethical issues.

Ive written a prior column, "AI, Big Data And Ethics," about how in the coming age where big data and machine learning algorithms enable you to learn and infer stuff about individuals that are profoundly invasive, marketers -- and companies in general -- will need to openly explore where their ethical boundaries lie. But the problem is exacerbated many times if the analysis, subsequent decision-making, and actions are all being automated through AI brains whose inner workings may be inexplicable.

To paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, I just happen to know what the moral of this column is: Bone up on your behavioral science, and neuroscience (if you have the stomach for it). Itll be good for you.
Putting its ad operations in good hands, Pinterest on Thursday named Jon Alferness as its new head of ad products and Meredith Guerriero as head of partnerships in the East Region.

Both industry veterans, Alferness previously spent 13 years at Google, where he most recently served as vice president of product management and head of the search giants shopping and travel products.

Prior to that role, Alferness spent more than six years working across Googles ads programs, including search ads, mobile display and AdMob.

Guerriero most recently built and led Facebooks sales efforts for the healthcare, grocery, politics and advocacy verticals. Also a Google alum, Guerriero served several roles at the tech titan, including leading global strategy and commercialization for its programmatic offerings.

At Pinterest, Alferness will be responsible for leading the partners product organization and defining a long-term vision for the companys global advertising products, including targeting features and ad formats.

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Based in the companys San Francisco headquarters, Alferness will report directly to Pinterests president Tim Kendall. He is expected to get started at the end of August.

Beginning July 24, Guerriero will also serve as head of Pinterests New York office.

Hardly new to the advertising game, Pinterest reportedly expects to rake in $3 billion in revenue in 2018. If accurate, that would be dramatically higher than the roughly $100 million in revenue Pinterest reportedly took in last year.

Yet Guerriero insists the company has plenty of room to grow. Weve only scratched the surface in terms of solutions well be able to provide to partners, she stated.

Among other efforts, the pin-based platform is pushing brands and businesses to set up Promoted Pins. As encouragement, the visual search and sharing network recently began rolling out a new Promote button to launch Promoted Pin campaigns in as little as nine seconds.

Investors continue to watch for signs that Pinterest is preparing to go public. Fueling their interest, the company recently brought on Todd Morgenfeld -- formerly VP of finance at Twitter -- as its first CFO.
by Tanya Gazdik , July 14, 2017

Despite the typical deluge of promotional marketing connected to the Fourth of July holiday, online car shopping activity was down, according to Dealer.com.

The Cox Automotive brand responsible for operating more than 60% of dealership websites nationwide, found that the average visits per dealer website clocked in at 188 for July 4th versus 235.68 per dealer website for the three prior Tuesdays in 2017.

The average quality visits (those with the intent to purchase) rolled in at 112.5 per dealer website on July 4 vs. 143.4 per dealer website for the three prior Tuesdays in 2017. However, overall views per dealership are still trending higher year-over-yearrunning 4% higher than June 2016.

This is following a trend we have been seeing throughout 2017 for car shopping in general, James Grace, Cox Automotive senior director of analytics products, tells Marketing Daily. After a record 2016, we were expecting a drop in car-buying this year so that is playing a factor.

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When it comes to digital advertising to car shoppers, there also was a massive explosion in average cost per clicks for digital spend. Auto marketers/advertisers faced an average of $3.44 CPC on July 4th, skyrocketing the average of $3.14 for the three prior Tuesdays in 2017.

Search advertising cost per click rates in June marked the fifth consecutive month-over-month increase, up 1% at $3.35. OEMs and dealerships have increased bidding on paid search, thus driving up the cost per click. Furthermore, Google eliminated the paid search ads on the right-hand rail of the search results page, also driving up further bidding increases in recent months.

Dealers should really focus on the quality of their digital marketing investments, and measure which of their investments is producing the highest quality traffic, Grace says. This will help them invest where they are seeing results, and identify savings opportunities. With advertising costs continuing to increase, its increasingly important for dealers to be able to measure what is working, and make sure they are spending their marketing dollars wisely.

SUVs continue to fair well in the vehicle popularity contest. The segment is still receiving the lion's share of views at 36% for June, up from 35% in May 2017. Over the same time period, sedan demand continues to slide further in online popularity to 24% from 25%, and trucks are reporting no movement.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, July 14, 2017

Radio is continuing a transformation that will put the medium back in vogue. A move toward streaming radio on smartphones will likely make preferences, location-based data, and near-by triggers the next targeting options for audio ads.

Since it's no longer enough to stream radio on demand, Google Play Music on Friday rolled out New Release Radio. It serves new music culled from the user's personal tastes and preferences. The station uses machine learning to select releases from the past two weeks, based on listening history and musical preferences.

Google only serves ads on the free service, not on the paid subscription service.

NextRadio president Paul Brenner viewed the Google New Release Radio feature while in beta. He agrees it's a natural progression to use location-based targeting options and preferences to support advertisers.

He said location-based targeting, at least per ZIP code and near-by points of interest, will increase the value of the ad inventory.

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"Radio will need to reinvent itself," he said. "That's what the buying community expects."

As radio moves to personalization and people-based advertising in Google's world, the industry supporting radio ads will need to develop a new pricing model. Perhaps something similar to a cost per click, cost per action, or cost per thousands model as songs or audio ads get tagged on smartphones.

Even for mass-market radio, the media-buying cost structure will alter.

The value of the inventory during a moment in time will dictate change. The huge amount of data now available will let advertisers pinpoint the audience they want to reach, even in mass-market radio, he said.

"Call it paid search if you want, because you're searching for an audience," he said. "It's just that you can apply it to a mass-market media," he said.

Google managed to gain input through a Samsung partnership announced in July that made Google Music the default music player and music service on Samsung phones and tablets globally. The service launched on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+.

The New Release Radio station, featuring country artists like Darius Rucker and Blake Shelton, as well as Coldplay, is available free to radio listeners and subscribers globally. Google said it will continually update the platform with the latest new releases.
Well, humanity, weve had a great run.

We put men on the moon, invented the frork, and, every once in a while, we can make a summer blockbuster movie thats as thoughtful as it is exciting.

The new War for the Planet of the Apes is such a movie, and its something to celebrate, even though the movie puts the future of the human race in doubt. And, it suggests, our extinction might not be such a bad thing.

War caps a trilogy of recent films which rebooted the iconic Planet of the Apes franchise of the 1970s, 2011s Rise of and 2014s Dawn of being the other two. Unlike Tim Burtons campy 2000 Planet of the Apes, these three films treat the concept of super-intelligent talking apes with dead seriousness. The films have been a surprising mix of rousing action, state-of-the-art visual effects, political allegory and bleak social commentary.

In Rise, Caesar (Andy Serkis) was a former lab chimp given a dose of a new serum that made him and other apes super-smart  but also unwilling to be treated like mere animals. The serum also unleashed a plague that wiped out most of humanity.

In Dawn, apes and the surviving humans tried to forge an uneasy alliance, which was sabotaged by mistrusting factions in both camps. That movie ended with a steely eyed Caesar preparing for battle against the remnants of the U.S. Army.

War opens two years later, with Caesar and his hundreds of ape followers holed up in the woods of northern California, fighting off attacks led by the ruthless, Kurtz-ian Colonel (Woody Harrelson). When the Colonel kills Caesars wife and son, the ape leader vows revenge. He sends most of his tribe eastward to a rumored promised land while he and a small band of lieutenants stay to hunt down the Colonel.

Caesars plan for revenge goes awry, and the apes find themselves imprisoned by the Colonel and his troops in an abandoned weapons facility. Its here that the films political and religious allusions become the most vivid, as the apes imprisonment is meant to remind us of oppressed people from the Israelites to African-American slaves. Caesar becomes sort of an inspirational Spartacus figure to the other apes, hatching plans to break his apes out of the Colonels prison. (Call it The Great Esc-ape. And I promise thatll be the only ape pun in this review.)

While the trailer promises lots of battle sequences, War is actually rather light on action. Director and co-writer Matt Reeves (who also made Dawn) instead spends his time building this brutal world and detailing the characters in it. That gives War the sweep and depth of an epic, rich and haunting at times.

While the first two Ape films split their time between the human and ape worlds, War keeps the focus on the apes. Using real actors in motion-capture suits, the apes prove to be more complicated characters than the humans. There are long stretches in the ape camp without any dialogue, and we dont really need it, as were able to read the subtle expressions on the apes faces. Thats astonishing, given that those faces were created on a desktop.

Each of the apes has his or her own distinct personality, whether its the wise, empathetic orangutan Maurice (Karin Konoval) or Caesars loyal chimp lieutenant Rocket (Terry Notary). Adding a note of comic relief to such a grim story is Steve Zahn as an escaped zoo animal who calls himself Bad Ape.

While other films had some sympathetic humans, here the only non-ape character worth anything is Nova (Amiah Miller), a mute girl that Maurice adopts on their travels. The rest, led by a scary Harrelson, are bloodthirsty warmongers worried that they're on the wrong side of the evolutionary ladder. The plague that nearly wiped out humanity returns with a savagely fitting new mutation in this film.

While the Planet of the Apes films are known for their bleak endings  remember Charlton Heston discovering the Statue of Liberty on the beach in the original?  War at least finds its way to something close to a happy ending.

Its just not a happy ending for us. Its for the apes.
by Wayne Friedman , July 14, 2017

TV stations are counting heavily on local news programming in the coming years  even as their viewership continues to drop.

All four main local TV newscasts sank in 2016 versus 2015, when looking at combined viewership on ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates, according to Pew Research Center analysis of Nielsen results for the four sweep periods.

Late news sank 11% to 20.3 million in 2016, from 22.8 million the previous year. Morning news fell 9% to 10.8 million from 11.9 million. Early evening news lost 9%, from 22.8 million to 20.7 million.

These stats represent an ongoing downward trend since 2007 -- in which late news has dropped 31%, early evening news 19% and morning news has lost 12%.

This has occurred as TV stations increased local TV news content in 2016. According to the RTDNA/Hofstra University survey, local TV stations averaged 5.7 hours for news programming per weekday, up from 5.5 hours in 2015.

On the upside, seven major publicly held local TV station companies  Tribune Media, Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Tegna, Gray Television, Media General and E.W. Scripps  reported higher political advertising revenues, partly as a result of their TV news content.

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These station groups collectively reported a total of $843 million in political advertising revenue, up from $696 million in 2014 and $574 million in 2012.

Overall, local TV station revenue was up 11% to 20.6 million in 2016 versus the year before. Total digital advertising revenue increased 10% in 2016, reaching a total of about $1 billion.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, July 14, 2017

YouTube's new ad policies, aimed at making the service safe for brands, resulted in a massive drop in revenue for the popular video channel Zombie Go Boom, its owners allege in a new lawsuit.

James Sweet and Chuck Mere allege that they were earning between $10,000 and $15,000 a month in ad revenue until late March of this year -- when YouTube rolled out new guides aimed at preventing ads from appearing on potentially offensive videos. After March 27, a date Zombie Go Boom refers to as "Adpocalypse," its ad revenue fell to between $20 and $40 a day, Sweet and Mere say in a potential class-action filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

"YouTube intentionally caused Adpocalypse to occur, in an effort to appease its advertising partners, at the expense of its content providers," they allege in a complaint accusing YouTube of violating California's unfair competition law and breach of contract.

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Sweet and Mere allege that their videos, which they say are similar to TV programs like "Mythbusters" and "The Walking Dead," were "demonetized" as part of Google's initiative to reassure advertisers that their ads won't support problematic content -- including material flagged as violent or offensive.

They allege that YouTube's new policies amount to an unfair "secret rating system," and are seeking a court order requiring the company to reveal the details of its new brand-safety algorithms.

"YouTube has a duty to disclose, with detailed specificity and complete transparency, the terms by which content is selected or deselected for monetization," they argue in their complaint. "Failing to disclose this essential information to content providers, along with maintaining unilateral control to change the terms and conditions which govern the payment received by content providers for their creative work is anti-competitive, harmful to the creative content market, and also a breach of good faith and fair dealing."

Sweet and Mere are seeking to represent a class of YouTube content creators whose material was on the site after March 1.

Google said on Friday that it has "always worked hard to provide creators with the opportunity to earn revenue on our platform."

Last month, YouTube addressed some of the concerns raised by Sweet and Mere in a blog post for content creators. "We know that revenue fluctuations have been unsettling and want to reassure you that were working closely with our advertising partners to make sure that YouTube continues to be a great place for creators to earn money," the company wrote. "We know we have to improve our communications to you, our creators. We also need to meet our commitment to our advertisers by ensuring their ads only appear against the content they think is suitable for their brands."

Zombie Go Boom could have an uphill fight in court, according to Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman. He points out that many Web platforms claim the right to revise their policies -- to the detriment of users.

"If you're building on a shaky foundation, you shouldn't be surprised if things change," he says.

Google itself has defeated other lawsuits by companies that alleged their businesses were harmed by a change in policy. Most recently, a judge dismissed a lawsuit against Google by e-ventures Worldwide, which claimed its business suffered after its sites were removed from the search results. In that matter, a federal judge ruled that Google has a free speech right to decide which search results to display.
by Ray Schultz , July 14, 2017

ISPDigital, a marketing-services holding company, has agreed to acquire React2Media, a New York-based provider of email and other digital services. The purchase is being made through one of ISPDigitals companies, Antevenio, a provider of publishing and marketing technologies with presences in Southern Europe and Latin America, Portada reports.

ISPDigital, a global firm, already owns Digilant, a Boston-based media services company. In March, Digilant acquired Anagram. But this marks Antevenios entry into the United States.

Antevenio will first buy a 51% share in React2Media, and will acquire the remainder of the digital agency by 2021, per Portada. Until then, the balance of the shares will be held by cofounders Alexander Schaller and Jordan Galbraith and Chief Revenue Officer Casey White.

They will participate in the firm for at last three years, while Joshua Novick, CEO of Antevenio, will supervise the integration, Portada adds. The story notes he was born in the U.S.

Alan Osetek, CEO of Digilant, will join React2Medias board.

According to React2Medias website, the firm offers web, mobile app, email and social-media services.

Executives of React2Media did not answer any queries by press time.
Turkish import scrap prices dipped when seven cargoes were transacted on July 13, and this downward movement was mirrored in the Indian import markets. However, the Taiwanese import markets pushed upward, bucking this trend.

Turkey imports

After a brief hiatus, Turkish mills emerged successful from negotiations to secure seven cargoes from the Baltic Sea and Europe at slightly lower prices on Thursday.

A steel producer in the Marmara region booked a European cargo, comprising 22,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (75:25), 5,000 tonnes of shredded, 2,000 tonnes of HMS 1, 9,000 tonnes of bonus and 2,000 tonnes of busheling, at an average price of $296 per tonne cfr.

The same mill also booked a UK cargo, comprising 20,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $293 per tonne and 25,000 tonnes of shredded at $303 per tonne cfr.

A steel mill in the Iskenderun region booked a Baltic Sea cargo, comprising 25,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $296 per tonne and 5,000 tonnes of bonus at $306 per tonne cfr.

The same mill booked a UK cargo, comprising 30,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $295 per tonnes, 5,000 tonnes of shredded at $300 per tonne and 5,000 tonnes of bonus at $305 per tonne cfr.

A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Baltic Sea cargo, comprising 27,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $298 per tonne, 3,000 tonnes of shredded at $302 per tonne and 5,000 tonnes of bonus at $307 per tonne cfr.

A second steel mill in the same region booked another Baltic Sea cargo, comprising 40,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (95:5) at $303 per tonne cfr.

The same mill booked a second Baltic Sea cargo, comprising HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $296 per tonne, shredded at $301 per tonne and bonus at $306 per tonne cfr. The breakdown for this cargo was not clear at the time of publication.

USA exports

US ferrous scrap export prices were stable, with no fresh USA-Turkey trades since July 5.

Offer prices for US cargoes reached $300 per tonne for HMS 1&2 (80:20), sources said, and one US supplier was said to be offering a full cargo of shredded scrap to Turkey at $305 per tonne cfr.

I think there is room for a little increase but not much more, a trading source said. The ceiling should be around $300-310 [for HMS 1&2 (80:20)]; otherwise, Turkey will shift to [imports of] billet.

A second trading source was less optimistic about Turkish scrap import pricing, noting that current prices could very well be at a short-term peak before the traditional summer slowdown begins.

The Turks have been very strategic when they come in and out of the market during their buys. They know when they are in a position where they dont need to pay more for scrap, he said.

There is no shortage of bulk cargoes being offered by global exporters in the deep-sea market right now, a factor which could only strengthen Turkeys position at the negotiation table.

Taiwan imports

Taiwans import prices for containerised HMS-grade ferrous scrap rose by $5 per tonne this week as some buyers who are in need of material conceded to attempts by US suppliers to gain a premium.

The US suppliers are trying to push up prices. Taiwanese buyers have been resisting, but have had to accept at least some increases if they need to buy, a trader said.

Prices have been rising in line with the growth in the Turkish import scrap price in recent weeks.

Metal Bulletins price assessment for imports of USA-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) into Taiwan was $255-265 per tonne cfr for the week ending July 14, up by $5 per tonne from $250-260 per tonne cfr last week.

Deals were said to have been done between $258 and $265 per tonne cfr Taiwan, according to local traders, with most business reported at $260-263 per tonne cfr.

At the same time, however, a source on the producers side said that he has made purchases at $255-257 per tonne cfr Taiwan this week.

Offers for USA-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) were said to be between $262 and $268 per tonne cfr.

Offer prices for Japanese H2-grade bulk cargoes were heard at $275-280 per tonne cfr this week in Taiwan, according to sources.

Domestic scrap traders in Taiwan were said to be unhappy with too wide a gap between their deal prices and those for imports, and were said to be holding back from making offers until mills are ready to pay higher prices.

For now, it is just pushing the mills to import more [volumes], a trader said.

What is limiting import scrap demand, though, is lower production at the mills due to summer maintenance work, market participants said.

With the rise in import scrap prices, Taiwanese mills production costs are getting higher, a trader said. So, there is an expectation of a rise in the rebar offer prices next week.

Indian imports

Containerised shredded scrap import prices in India declined this week as buyers stood their ground and sellers agreeing to a discount in order to complete sales.

Metal Bulletins index for containerised shredded scrap imports into India was $308.89 per tonne cfr Nhava Sheva on Friday, down by $2.49 per tonne week-on-week.

Buying activity for shredded scrap has been limited over the past few weeks, with many market participants grappling with technical problems linked to Indias new goods & services tax (GST).

But Metal Bulletin heard of a handful of deals concluded this week at prices comfortably below the average offer price of $315 per tonne cfr Nhava Sheva.

One deal for 10,000 tonnes of mixed-origin material was heard at $308 per tonne cfr Nhava Sheva, while USA-origin material was heard sold at $310-312 per tonne cfr.

Other deals were heard concluded in the range of $305-308 per tonne cfr.

Aside from continuing GST issues, market activity was also constrained by a number of other factors.

Nothing much is happening because of the rains. For the past 2-3 weeks, we have been very cautious, one trader said. Indias monsoon season has now started and usually continues until October.

There are no sales for finished products, another trader said, while another source highlighted the fact that domestically produced direct reduced iron (DRI) is trading at competitive prices.

Most of the mills are not buying scrap  local scrap and DRI are much cheaper, one seller said.

Despite the factors weighing on the Indian import scrap markets, certain sources believed that prices could rise over the coming weeks.

One seller attributed the fall in shredded prices to a lack of market knowledge among some market participants.

If Im in India, I know to hold the material, [but] people who are not well-informed are not holding and are selling cheap. We expect that, by September-October, this will be a very solid market, the seller said.

We expect that prices will go up, so everyone is holding [material] this week, one trader said.

Turkey domestic

Turkish domestic scrap prices inched up further, under pressure from healthy finished steel demand and the surge in imported scrap prices last week.

Cem Turken in Istanbul, Lee Allen in London and Nadia Popova in Moscow contributed to this report.
Westlake Corporation manufactures and supplies petrochemicals, polymers, and building products worldwide. It operates through two segments, Performance and Essential Materials; and Housing and Infrastructure Products. The Performance and Essential Materials segment manufactures and markets polyethylene, styrene monomer, ethylene co-products, PVC, VCM, ethylene dichloride chlor-alkali, and chlorinated derivative products. The Housing and Infrastructure Products segment manufactures and sells residential PVC siding; PVC trim and moldings; roofing applications; decorative stone; windows; PVC decking; PVC films for various inflatables, wallcovering, tape, and roofing applications; polymer composite roof tiles; PVC pipe and fittings; PVC compounds; and various consumer and commercial products such as landscape edging; industrial, home and office matting; marine dock edging; and masonry joint controls. The company offers its products to a range of customers, including chemical processors, plastics fabricators, small construction contractors, municipalities, and supply warehouses for use in various consumer and industrial markets, including residential construction, flexible and rigid packaging, automotive products, healthcare products, water treatment, and coatings, as well as other durable and non-durable goods. The company was formerly known as Westlake Chemical Corporation and changed its name to Westlake Corporation in February 2022. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Westlake Corporation is a subsidiary of TTWF LP.
KAZ Minerals PLC, together with its subsidiaries, engages in mining and processing copper and other metals primarily in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan. It operates through Bozshakol, Aktogay, East Region and Bozymchak, and Mining Projects segments. The company operates the Aktogay and Bozshakol open pit copper mines in the east region and Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan; three underground mines in the east region of Kazakhstan; and the Bozymchak copper-gold mine in Kyrgyzstan. It also develops greenfield metal deposits; operates Koksay deposit in Kazakhstan, and the Baimskaya licence area in the Chukotka region of Russia; and produces and sells various by-products, such as gold, silver, molybdenum, and zinc. In addition, the company supplies and distributes heat, water, and electricity; and offers construction, project management, financing, management, sales and logistics, and repairs and maintenance services. The company was formerly known as Kazakhmys PLC and changed its name to KAZ Minerals PLC in October 2014. KAZ Minerals PLC was founded in 1930 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.
Mizuho Financial Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in banking, trust, securities, and other businesses related to financial services in Japan, the Americas, Europe, Asia/Oceania, and internationally. It operates through five segments: Retail & Business Banking Company, Corporate & Institutional Company, Global Corporate Company, Global Markets Company, and Asset Management Company. The company provides deposit products; syndicated, housing, and card loans; business matching services; and advisory services related to overseas expansions, and mergers and acquisitions-related services. It also offers consulting services, including asset management and asset succession; payroll services; and sells lottery tickets issued by prefectures and ordinance-designated cities. In addition, it offers financial solutions, such as bonds, mergers and acquisitions advisory, risk hedging products, etc. for corporate customers to meet their needs in fund-raising, investment management, and financial strategies; solutions based on their capital management, business strategy, and financial strategy; real estate agency services; advisory services and solutions, such as advice on proposals on various investment products to financial institutions; and financial services that include funding support and public bonds underwriting. Further, the company offers sales and trading services to meet needs for customers; investment products for individual customers; and consulting services for institutional investors. Additionally, the company provides products and services related to trust, securitization and structured finance, pension, and stock transfers; securities services; and research, private banking, and information technology-related services. Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
The following companies are subsidiares of Clean Harbors: Ace/Allwaste Environmental Services of Indiana LLC, Altair Disposal Services LLC, Aquilex Finance LLC, Aquilex Intermediate Corporate Holdings LLC, Aquilex Intermediate Holdings LLC, Aquilex LLC, Baton Rouge Disposal LLC, Bridgeport Disposal LLC, CARBER Holdings Inc., CB Canada Acquisition Inc., CB Canada Holdings Inc., CB US Holdings Inc., CH International Holdings LLC, Car-Ber Investments Inc., Clean Harbors Andover LLC, Clean Harbors Aragonite LLC, Clean Harbors Arizona LLC, Clean Harbors BDT LLC, Clean Harbors Baton Rouge LLC, Clean Harbors Buttonwillow LLC, Clean Harbors Canada Inc., Clean Harbors Caribe Inc., Clean Harbors Chattanooga LLC, Clean Harbors Clive LLC, Clean Harbors Coffeyville LLC, Clean Harbors Colfax LLC, Clean Harbors Deer Park LLC, Clean Harbors Deer Trail LLC, Clean Harbors Development LLC, Clean Harbors Disposal Services Inc., Clean Harbors El Dorado LLC, Clean Harbors Energy Services ULC, Clean Harbors Energy and Industrial Services Corp., Clean Harbors Energy and Industrial Services LP, Clean Harbors Energy and Industrial Western Ltd., Clean Harbors Environmental Services Inc., Clean Harbors Exploration Services Inc., Clean Harbors Exploration Services LP, Clean Harbors Exploration Services ULC, Clean Harbors Florida LLC, Clean Harbors Grassy Mountain LLC, Clean Harbors India LLP, Clean Harbors Industrial Services Canada Inc., Clean Harbors Industrial Services Inc., Clean Harbors Innu Environmental Services Inc., Clean Harbors Kansas LLC, Clean Harbors Kingston Facility Corporation, Clean Harbors LaPorte LLC, Clean Harbors Laurel LLC, Clean Harbors Lodging Services LP, Clean Harbors Lodging Services ULC, Clean Harbors Lone Mountain LLC, Clean Harbors Mercier Inc., Clean Harbors Pecatonica LLC, Clean Harbors Production Services ULC, Clean Harbors Quebec Inc., Clean Harbors Recycling Services of Chicago LLC, Clean Harbors Recycling Services of Ohio LLC, Clean Harbors Reidsville LLC, Clean Harbors San Jose LLC, Clean Harbors San Leon Inc., Clean Harbors Services Inc., Clean Harbors Surface Rentals Partnership, Clean Harbors Surface Rentals ULC, Clean Harbors Surface Rentals USA Inc., Clean Harbors Tennessee LLC, Clean Harbors Westmorland LLC, Clean Harbors White Castle LLC, Clean Harbors Wichita LLC, Clean Harbors Wilmington LLC, Clean Harbors of Baltimore Inc. (DE Corp.), Clean Harbors of Braintree Inc., Clean Harbors of Connecticut Inc. (DE), Confined Space Services L.L.C., Cousins Waste Control LLC, Crowley Disposal LLC, Cyn Oil Corporation, Debusk Industrial Services Company LLC, Disposal Properties LLC, Emerald Services Inc., EnviroSORT Inc., EnviroSORT Inc., Eveready, Evergreen Holdings, GSX Disposal LLC, Global Vapor Control Inc., Green View Technologies Inc., HPC PetroServ Inc., Hilliard Disposal LLC, HydroChem Canada ULC, HydroChem Industrial Cleaning LLC, HydroChem LLC, HydroChemPSC, IISG Central Region LLC, IISG Gulf Coast LLC, IISG Real Estate LLC, Industrial Service Oil Company Inc., Inland Industrial Services Group LLC, Inland Waters Pollution Control Services LLC, Inland Waters of Ohio LLC, Jesco Industrial Service LLC, LJ Energy Services Holdings LLC, LJ Energy Services Intermediate Holding Corp., Lonestar Sylvan Inc., Lonestar Vacuum Inc., Lonestar West, Lonestar West Enterprises LLC, Lonestar West Inc., Lonestar West Services LLC, Murphy's Waste Oil Service Inc., Northeast Casualty Insurance Company, Omnichem LLC, PMS Industrial Services LLC, PSC Industrial Holdings Corp., PSC Industrial Inc., PSC Industrial Outsourcing LP, PSC Industrial Outsourcing of Michigan LLC, PSC LDAR Services LLC, Peak Energy Services, Philip Services/North Central LLC, Plaquemine Remediation Services LLC, Power Vac Construction L.L.C., RMF Aquilex Corp., Roebuck Disposal LLC, Romic Environmental Technologies, Rosemead Oil Products Inc., SK D'Incineration Inc., Safety-Kleen, Safety-Kleen Canada Inc., Safety-Kleen Envirosystems Company, Safety-Kleen Envirosystems Company of Puerto Rico Inc., Safety-Kleen Inc., Safety-Kleen International Inc., Safety-Kleen Systems Inc., Safety-Kleen of California Inc., Sawyer Disposal Services LLC, Seaport Environmental LLC, Service Chemical LLC, Speed Industrial Corporate LLC, Speed Industrial Service Catalyst LLC, Speed Industrial Service LLC, Speed Industrial Service of Beaumont LLC, Speed Industrial Services of Lake Charles LLC, Speed Industrial Services of Louisiana LLC, Speed Industrial Services of Texas LLC, Spring Grove Resource Recovery Inc., The Solvents Recovery Service of New Jersey Inc., Thermo Fluids, Thermo Fluids Inc., Tri-vax Enterprises Ltd., Tulsa Disposal LLC, Universal Environmental, Veolia North Americas U.S. Industrial Cleaning Services Division, Versant Energy Services Inc., Versant Energy Services LP, and Vulsay Industries Ltd..

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The following companies are subsidiares of Novo Nordisk A/S: Aldaph SpA, Beijing Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals Science & Technology Co. Ltd., CS Solar Fund XIV LLC, Calibrium, Corvidia, Corvidia Therapeutics Inc., Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc., Emisphere Technologies, Emisphere Technologies Inc., MB2 LLC, NNE A/S, Neotope Neuroscience Limited, Novo Nordisk, Novo Nordisk (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Novo Nordisk (Pty) Limited, Novo Nordisk (Shanghai) Pharma Trading Co. Ltd., Novo Nordisk B.V., Novo Nordisk Canada Inc., Novo Nordisk Colombia SAS, Novo Nordisk Comercio Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Novo Nordisk Denmark A/S, Novo Nordisk Egypt LLC, Novo Nordisk Farma OY, Novo Nordisk Farma S.R.L., Novo Nordisk Farma dooel, Novo Nordisk Farmaceutica Limitada, Novo Nordisk Farmaceutica do Brasil Ltda., Novo Nordisk Finance (Netherlands) B.V., Novo Nordisk Health Care AG, Novo Nordisk Hellas Epe., Novo Nordisk Holding Limited, Novo Nordisk Hong Kong Limited, Novo Nordisk Hrvatska d.o.o., Novo Nordisk Hungaria Kft., Novo Nordisk Inc., Novo Nordisk India Holding Pte Ltd., Novo Nordisk India Private Limited, Novo Nordisk Kazakhstan LLP, Novo Nordisk Kenya Ltd., Novo Nordisk Lanka (PVT) Ltd, Novo Nordisk Limited, Novo Nordisk Limited Liability Company, Novo Nordisk Ltd, Novo Nordisk Mexico S.A. de C.V., Novo Nordisk North America Operations A/S, Novo Nordisk Norway AS, Novo Nordisk Panama S.A., Novo Nordisk Pars, Novo Nordisk Peru S.A.C., Novo Nordisk Pharma (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Novo Nordisk Pharma (Private) Limited, Novo Nordisk Pharma (Singapore) Pte Ltd., Novo Nordisk Pharma (Taiwan) Ltd., Novo Nordisk Pharma (Thailand) Ltd., Novo Nordisk Pharma AG, Novo Nordisk Pharma Argentina S.A., Novo Nordisk Pharma EAD, Novo Nordisk Pharma GmbH, Novo Nordisk Pharma Gulf FZE, Novo Nordisk Pharma Inc., Novo Nordisk Pharma Korea Ltd., Novo Nordisk Pharma Limited, Novo Nordisk Pharma Ltd., Novo Nordisk Pharma Operations (Business Area) Sdn Bhd, Novo Nordisk Pharma Operations A/S, Novo Nordisk Pharma S.A., Novo Nordisk Pharma SARL, Novo Nordisk Pharma SAS, Novo Nordisk Pharma Sp.z.o.o., Novo Nordisk Pharma d.o.o., Novo Nordisk Pharma d.o.o. Belgrade (Serbia), Novo Nordisk Pharmaceutical Industries LP, Novo Nordisk Pharmaceutical Services Sp. z o.o., Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals (Philippines) Inc., Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals A/S, Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals Pty. Ltd., Novo Nordisk Pharmatech A/S, Novo Nordisk Pharmatech US Inc., Novo Nordisk Production SAS, Novo Nordisk Production Support LLC, Novo Nordisk Producao Farmaceutica do Brasil Ltda., Novo Nordisk Region AAMEO and LATAM A/S, Novo Nordisk Region China A/S, Novo Nordisk Region Europe A/S, Novo Nordisk Region Japan & Korea A/S, Novo Nordisk Research Center Indianapolis Inc., Novo Nordisk Research Center Seattle Inc., Novo Nordisk S.P.A., Novo Nordisk Saglik Urunleri Tic. Ltd. Sti., Novo Nordisk Saudi for Trading, Novo Nordisk Scandinavia AB, Novo Nordisk Service Centre (India) Pvt. Ltd., Novo Nordisk Slovakia s.r.o., Novo Nordisk Tunisie SARL, Novo Nordisk US Bio Production Inc., Novo Nordisk US Commercial Holdings Inc., Novo Nordisk US Holdings Inc., Novo Nordisk Ukraine LLC, Novo Nordisk Venezuela Casa de Representacion C.A., Novo Nordisk d.o.o., Novo Nordisk s.r.o., PT. Novo Nordisk Indonesia, S.A. Novo Nordisk Pharma N.V., UAB Novo Nordisk Pharma, Xellia Pharmaceuticals, Ziylo, and Ziylo Limited.

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The man, and lone occupant of the vehicle, was driving on Hwy. 54, attempted to turn onto the Interstate 94 ramp, traveled sideways, went air born over the eastbound lanes of I-94, landed on the guardrail in the median, traveled across the westbound lanes and rolled into the gore area, according to an investigation.
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.
14.07.2017 LISTEN

A Worship Summit will be held today Friday 14th July, 2017 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons to mark the first anniversary of the passing of gospel legend Danny Nettey.

The summit is themed on Philippians 1:21: More than a song  A life of Worship  For me to live is Christ to die is gain.

Danny's schoolmates at Accra Academy with whom he ministered from his early days, Pastor Abu Baku and Pastor Andy Yawson, will be speaking at the event.

Ministering at the summit are Pastor Helen Yawson, Nii Okai, Patrick Masoperh, Calvis Hammond, Teddy Zaroe and Joycelyn Armah.

Danny Nettey has contributed immensely to the gospel music industry and has inspired many through his songs. He is among the people that fronted contemporary gospel movement in Ghana.

He started music by forming his own group, Danny Nettey and Pals. The group took the gospel to the Secondary Schools and ministered in churches across West Africa through the word and song ministration.

He has three albums to his credit: Positive Change, This Time and I believe.

On July 15, 2016, he passed away at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

By: Kwame Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Shatta Wale and Burna Boy have been named as the headline artistes for the maiden edition of a musical concert dubbed 'Ghana Meets Naija UK' which will take place on August 25 at the O2 Arena in London.

They are expected to delight fans with their danceable songs and stagecraft.

The concert is being organised to celebrate what the two countries (Ghana and Nigeria) have in common as neighbouring countries, and not as a battle for musical supremacy.

Sharing the idea for taking the concert to UK, a source close to the organiser said, We definitely want to extend the 'Ghana meets Naija' fever to Europe, and we are starting this year with UK.

We are very excited to bring Shatta Wale and Burna Boy together to perform at the event. The presence of the two artistes will guarantee a stunning and memorable music spectacle on August 25, he said.

According to him, the event will also feature an incredible line-up of Ghanaian and Nigerian award-winning hip-hop, hiplife and dancehall artistes who have a number of hit and danceable songs to their credit.

He disclosed that the full list of other performing artistes invited to perform alongside Shatta Wale and Burna Boy will be unveiled at the launch of the official launch of the event in London soon.

By George Clifford Owusu
Versatile artist Kwame Akoto Bamfo is receiving applauds around the world for sculpturing some 1,300 pieces of heads that collectively represent the multitude of West Africans who were captured and taken to the Americas and Caribbean during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

The sculptures which are from his 'Nkyinkyim Installation' recall Africa's past from pre-history to the present day and are, among other objectives, to prompt today's African youth to appreciate the struggles of the past.

He told NEWS-ONE's Francis Addo that it took him over four years to put together the pieces.

Currently, sculpturing in Ghana is considered an emerging market with great prospects even though it is not getting that over-the-top media attention. There are more youth with keen interest to earn a living from sculpturing.

It took me about four and half years to make these heads. And I also did a lot of research to come out with this work. It is a day and night thing for four years, Kwame said about the time he spent on working on the sculptures.

I do other art works aside this but this particular one is meaningful to me because I want leave to something for the next generation. So if you go through my portfolio you will see so many art works I do, he added.

The pieces are currently being exhibited at one of the largest exhibition of its kind under the theme: 'In Memoriam; Portraits of the Middle Passage in Situat the Cape Cost Castle' as part of Ghana at 60 celebrations.

The exhibition was installed at Cape Coast Castle from June 17 and it would be there till next month August 19, 2017.

The sculptures have been placed in situ, facing the Atlantic Ocean.

The exhibition's opening ceremony month back featured musical performances by Daniel Dunson, Veronica Bain, Afro Maestros Orchestra and poetry by Hakeem Adam and others.

There was also an African heritage dinner immediately after the viewing of the exhibition to raise funds for Kwame's project to put up a park in Ada to help people experience sculpturing.

According to Kwame, he is inspired by literatures on some of the thing which occurred during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

The whole inspiration came from me wanting to know myself more as an African or Ghanaian and every time I go online or pick a book to read, the middle passage of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade will pop its head out of the pages, he stated.

Kwame is a master's degree holder in Fine Art and a BFA (Sculpture) from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

He is not only into sculpturing but fashion, painting, among other arts forms in the creative business. He won the 2015 Kuenyehia Prize instituted for contemporary Ghanaian Art.

He was a full time lecturer at one of Ghana's premier universities but he quit to give full attention to his creative business.

Currently, he is one of the best sculptors the country can boast of.

However, he thinks artistry is taken for granted in Ghana. To him, not major attention is given to the industry, especially by the media.

And one of his reasons was that, we still have a negative connotation, especially towards sculpture, due to a legacy we got from slave trade. For example, anything carved from Italy is appreciated but if it is done in Ghana, it is seen as fetish. And for a Ghanaian artist to sell, it means you have to go outside of the country to make it big before Ghana will celebrate you.

I have done a lot but I don't feel the acceptance. I hope my new installation will get the necessary push,he added.

By Francis Addo (Twitter: @fdee500 Email: [email protected] )




YaoundA (AFP) - Two bombers blew themselves up in northeastern Cameroon killing 14 people and injuring 30 people in an attack likely staged by Boko Haram jihadists, security sources said Thursday.

The bombings, which took place on Wednesday evening in Waza near the Nigerian border, targeted a busy area in the market town, the sources said.

The bombers struck an area with "restaurants, telephone cabins and kiosks", a local official said.

"The town has been sealed off. Nobody can enter and nobody can leave," the source said, adding that some of the wounded were in "quite serious" condition.

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 a regional force to fight back.

Cameroon's 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 in mid-June in a double suicide attack in Kolofata, and two others died in Limani at the start of last month 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 homes in fear of the violence.
WASHINGTON (TNS)  Donald Trump Jr.s meeting with a Russian lawyer aimed at obtaining derogatory information about Hillary Clinton last June had another, previously undisclosed participant  a former Soviet military counter-intelligence officer.

Rinat Akhmetshin, who received U.S. citizenship and became a Washington lobbyist after emigrating from Russia more than a decade ago, confirmed in an email message Friday that he had joined the meeting with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Neither the White House nor Trump Jr. had previously revealed Akhmetshins presence at the meeting, despite repeated public statements about it.

The belated disclosure will almost surely increase the controversy that already surrounds the session.

A friend of Trump Jr.s who helped set up the meeting had described Veselnitskaya to him in emails as a Russian government lawyer. The friend said she could offer information about Clinton as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump, according to emails released Tuesday by Trump Jr.

Akhmetshin also spoke with The Associated Press and said that at the June 9, 2016, meeting, also attended by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Trump Jr. asked Veselnitskaya for evidence of illicit money flowing to the Democratic National Committee.

When Veselnitskaya said she didnt have that information, Trump Jr. lost interest, Akhmetshin told the AP. They couldnt wait for the meeting to end, he said.

Akhmetshin, who describes himself as a friend of Veselnitskayas, denies any current links to Russian intelligence. He lobbies the U.S. Congress, often on behalf wealthy businessmen or politicians from former Soviet republics, records show.

His role at the meeting is unclear. He is fluent in Russian and English, however. Veselnitskaya has said that she cannot read or write English, but may speak some. NBC reported Friday that a translator also participated in the meeting, in addition to Akhmetshin and Veselnitskaya.

Trump Jr. said in statements this week that Veselnitskaya had no information about Clinton and shifted the conversation to the Magnitsky Act, the U.S. law that imposes sanctions on Russian businessmen.

Akhmetshin said the meeting was not substantive and he actually expected more serious discussion.

I never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest, he told the AP.
A police officer, Corporal Ebenezer Kofi Okyere, attached to the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Unit of the Ashanti Regional Police Command, has reportedly killed himself after he allegedly became emotionally distraught over a paternity issue.

The 33-year-old policeman reportedly took his life in the early morning of yesterday at his private apartment at Tafo, a suburb of Kumasi.

Her girlfriend was said to have visited him a day before the tragic incident.

Sources told DAILY GUIDE that the cop died from a traumatic wound after a shot in the throat with his AK 47 assault rifle, which produced a booming sound that attracted a sizable crowd of neighbours and co-tenants to his room, as his girlfriend, a supposed Allied Science student, ran out of the apartment in a panic-stricken manner.

Corporal Okyere reportedly started dating his girlfriend about six years ago after parting ways with a certain lady whom he reportedly had a child with.

Since he was off-duty on Tuesday, DAILY GUIDE learned that Cpl Okyere invited his girlfriend (name withheld) over to Kumasi to spend the night with him, which she obliged.

Around 6:30 am the following day (yesterday), whilst he was preparing to go to work, the cop was said to have received a telephone call from his ex-girlfriend, who purportedly told him that he was not the father of the child.

Whilst his girlfriend was trying to iron his uniform for him, Cpl Okyere at that point, was heard threatening to kill himself to end it all.

Lo and behold, the police officer allegedly dashed for his AK 47 rifle and reportedly pointed the nozzle at his throat as his girlfriend rushed out to call for intervention.

His remains were taken to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital by his colleagues who were invited to the residence after the tragic incident.

At the time of filing this report, the police command was still tight-lipped over the incident, with the excuse that it was yet to inform the family members of what had happened.

From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi


Kamwenje (Kenya) (AFP) - Footsteps came first, then unfamiliar voices, the smell of cow dung and the kicking in of the front door.

Suddenly awake, John Mbogo wrapped his 11-year-old daughter Tabitha in his arms and rolled under the bed. His wife, Anne, crawled next to them, eyes wide.

Torchlight fell on the now empty beds and they saw naked legs smeared in manure, a "shuka" blanket rolled at the waist and the muzzle of a gun.

"There was nothing I could do but hide," said John, recounting the June invasion by armed herders, dressed for battle, at their small family compound in Kamwenje, a mostly ethnic Kikuyu settlement in Laikipia, high on the eastern rim of Kenya's Rift Valley.

John Mbogo, his wife and daughter hid under the bed during a June invasion by armed herders at their small family compound in Laikipia, high on the eastern rim of Kenya's Rift Valley.

Such raids have become common in recent months in the counties of Laikipia and neighbouring Baringo, with pastoralists invading private land, raiding homes, burning property and driving livestock into farms.

But where the government blames bandits, victims see political intrigue.

Kenyans vote in a general election on August 8. The unrest echoes the politically motivated ethnic violence that has prefaced almost every election since multiparty politics was introduced a quarter of a century ago.

Since voting in Kenya tends to follow ethnic lines, evicting different tribes so that another can dominate a constituency is a pragmatic political strategy.

"They want to drive us away so that they can take over our land," says John, who has farmed a vivid green field of maize in Kamwenje since 1997.

His family's clothes, food and possessions were stolen during the attack, but others have suffered worse: neighbours have been raped and shot. Some have already fled.

- 'Politics is fuel of chaos' -

Victims of the raids believe politics is the motive, not pasture, as Kenya gears up for an August 8 general election.

The raiders come from the Pokot tribe, pastoralists for whom cows are at the heart of social life. Cattle raids serve as a test of manhood as well as a way to get rich and gain enough cows to pay for a wife.

The easy availability of illegal weapons means that cattle raiding has grown more violent, while poor rains and large herds prompt pastoralists to roam further in search of adequate pasture.

But the spike in attacks ahead of elections and their brutality has locals convinced that grazing is not the main motive.

"This is not about pasture. This is politics," says Paul Njoroge, a 53-year-old father of four, farmer, paralegal and Kikuyu community leader.

"The motive is to evict the farmers and own everything. Politics is the fuel of this chaos."

Njoroge has lived and farmed on a ridge above Kamwenje since 1983. Currently, he sleeps alone at night, his family, like others, has become what he calls "day scholars": working the farm by day but staying with neighbours at night where they feel safer, a few miles further from the county boundary.

Residents say that barely a night goes by without gunfire, an ambush or a home invasion.

On worn sheets of folded notepaper Njoroge keeps a running tally of murders, rapes and thefts. So far, Njoroge said, more than 40 families have chosen to leave and he wonders how much longer the rest of them will hold out.

The future Njoroge fears can be found 28 kilometres (17 miles) due west and 1,000 metres below Kamwenje, deep in the belly of the Rift Valley, in Eldume, a forlorn settlement of hundreds of stretched tarp tents.

More than 700 people have settled in Eldume in tarp tents after fleeing a deadly attack on their nearby village in mid-March.

The more than 700 people living here are the surviving ethnic Ilchamus population of the nearby village of Mukutani.

- 'Slaughtered like goats' -

They fled after an attack by the Pokot in mid-March in which nine of their people died -- a revenge raid of extraordinary cruelty that terrorised the whole community into abandoning their homes.

Queen Siambui, 22, lost her younger sister, Janet, who was murdered as she sheltered with her daughters, five-year-old Nasinya and three-year-old Vicki. Siambui wept as she recounted the attack: Janet was shot in the chest and then she and her children had their throats slit.

"They slaughtered the women and children like goats," said Benjamin Lecher, the 45-year-old chief of the Mukutani Ilchamus.

"We left Mukutani because of the attacks by the Pokot community," he said, sipping tea outside his rough tent as the morning's heat cranked up.

"We have been evicted and they have occupied our land."

Voting in Kenya tends to follow ethnic lines so evicting different tribes so that another can dominate a constituency is a pragmatic political strategy.

Tit-for-tat cattle raids are common between the Ilchamus and Pokot. Young men known as "morans" are regularly killed in skirmishes, but the deliberate murder of women and children, Lecher said, was different.

"It has become a tribal thing, it's not banditry. This is not cattle rustling," Lecher said. "Politics is fuelling this issue, these people are expanding their territory by evicting others."

In an act of violent gerrymandering, the displacement means Lecher and his people may be unable to vote in August.

Yet the Pokot and their politicians -- some of whom hold senior posts in Baringo county, dominated by the ruling party -- are not exempt from violence, though widely blamed for it.

A belated government security operation has, they say, disproportionately targeted the Pokot, while at least three prominent Pokot politicians have been killed in recent months.

Their murders, like the crimes in Kamwenje and Mukutani, are unsolved.
A Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Okudzeto Ablakwa has justified government's decision to set up a diplomatic mission in Kuwait.

There have been a series of reports on maltreatment of Ghanaian who go that country as domestic workers in Kuwait.

But Mr. Ablakwa believes the establishment of a mission in Kuwait will tackle the inhumane treatment some Ghanaians go through during their stay there.

I will say that honourable Foreign Minister did provide a comprehensive response but I think this should be the beginning of how moving forward, we guarantee better protection of our citizens in the Gulf regionSome people will send videos of their relatives in the Gulf state and we need to put in an emergency response to rescue a number of our citizens who are in distress

Mr. Ablakwa further indicated that the move will afford government an opportunity to register its displeasure over the abuse of Ghanaian citizens to government officials in Kuwait.

It is clear to me, listening to the Minister today, that there is the need now for emergency response. As we speak, we do not even have a hotline for emergency response. There are female workers who are being raped , enslaved, assaulted on a daily basis We also have not had a high level delegation go to these countries to meet these governments to communicate our strongest revulsion and opposition to what is happening in this country and to urge them to take action.

Meanwhile, National Security has been tasked to probe allegations of maltreatment meted out to some 63 Ghanaians who were recently deported.

According to the Foreign Affairs Minister, this has become necessary due to conflicting reports received from the deportees and the US Embassy on the treatment on the board a chartered flight to Ghana.

This particular matter is the word of the US authorities against that of the Ghanaians who were repatriated but we haven't instituted any investigation into the matter because that lies in the domain of the national security and we expect them to do so, she said.



By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @EfeAnsah
Alhaji Abubakar Sadique Boniface has admonished the people of Zongo to consider unity as a common grounds for the development of Zongo communities.

Unity with a purpose among Zongo people he said, will enable the smooth implementation of policies for the Zongo Ministry's agendum.

He indicated that backbiting, jealousy, acrimonies , hatred amongst others derogatory tags will not help in the smooth running of the Zongo affairs.

It is therefore important to see your follow brother in zongo as an agent for change and development rather than an enemy because of political affiliations, he added.

The minister made these assertions at the annual tribal culture festival in Kumasi on Sunday.

The event under the theme " Unity is strength" is to bring all tribal groups in Ashanti Region under one umbrella to display their various culture.

Alhaji Sadiq noted that ,as people it is always important to look for long term goals instead of short term goals for the benefit of the future generations.

The supremo minister hinted that, the Zongo Ministry will be looking at some thematic areas including security and crime control, sanitation and infrastructure enhancement, economic empowerment, social development and culture promotion .

Government officials at the event includes, His excellency T B Damba, Ambassador designate for Saudi Arabia, Hon Alidu Seidu, MCE ,Asokore Mampong and others.
14.07.2017 LISTEN

The Proprietress of Golden Intellectual School in Sunyani, Mrs Ranti Adjaku, has called on churches and mosques to build mini libraries at their worship centers to encourage reading and inculcate the habit of continual acquisition of knowledge.

She also suggested that men of God should allow at least thirty minutes of the children's Sunday school time for all kids to quietly sit and read good books every week after Sunday school or their Islamic school.

Mrs Adjaku made the call at the launch of ten books she has written and published by Golden Voice for school children in Sunyani.

She used the occasion to honour the Krontihene of the Sunyani Traditional Area, Oboaman Bofotia Boamposem II and the Brong Ahafo Regional Chief Imam, Sheikh Umar Abdul Kadiri, for distinguishing themselves in the area of education and child literacy.

Mrs Adjaku said reading makes children wise, and when become wise they shun social vices such as cheating, mob action and armed robbery. When our children read good books, they become wise and they avoid cheating, corruption, mob action, armed robbery, she said.

The proprietress and author therefore urged parents and caretakers to invest in good reading material for children and wards to enable us nature wise and effective leaders. Let's invest in our children by buying for them good books which give them rick knowledge. Do not forget that in this wise saying that "my people perish for lack of knowledge ", she said.

Mrs Adjaku charged parents to constantly encourage children to read at least seven pages before bed time and visit libraries regularly. She also reminded parents to set aside thirty minutes every day to read to their kids.

This according to her would inculcate the habit of reading into children at the very early stages in their lives.

Mrs Adjaku also encouraged pregnant mothers to read to their unborn babies since there is evidence to support that children whose parents read to them while in the womb tend to become good readers. The Proprietress asked parents to control the number of hours and contents children consume behind Television.

The ten books are captured under three series, the Naughty Ranti series, the Unique Animal series and the naughty Ranti Writing series.

The Naughty Ranti series has four books, Honesty Pays, Its Hazy to be Lazy, Why the Lie? and Dont Cheat.

The Unique Animal also has four books namely, Its Funky to Be Donkey, Its Awesome to be An Antic Child, Chameleonic Kids Are Charming and Being a Bubbling Beeic Child. The Naughty Ranti writing series has two books, Naughty Ranti Writing 1Aand Naughty Ranti Writing 1B. The books are available in all leading bookshops including, Ebenezer bookshop, Methodist bookshop, New Page bookshop, Challenge bookshop, and Mr Grant on 0243905777.
The Ghana Secondary Technical School (GSTS) Alumni Association of North America celebrates its 10th Anniversary and Annual Convention with a Fundraising Dinner Dance on Saturday, July 22, 2017, starting at 6:30 pm at the Marriott Fairview Park in Falls Church, Virginia, United States (US).

Attending the anniversary as a Special Guest is Commodore Steve Obimpeh (Rtd) of 61 year group, former Navy Commander and Minister for Health and Agriculture in Ghana.

The current Headmaster of GSTS, Mr. Samuel K. Essel, will travel from Ghana to serve as a keynote speaker at the event. He would also tour a couple of US high schools including the Worcester Technical High School in Worcester, Massachusettes and the Brooklyn Technical High School in New York during his visit.

Wing Commander William K. Kekrebesi (Rtd) of 71 year group, President of the GSTS Alumni Association (GAA), also will make a keynote address.

Money raised from the event will pay for critical infrastructure upgrades at GSTS, such as sanitation facility reconstruction and Dormitory restoration; Solar Electricity Project and Laboratory and workshop modernization.

This years event is themed The Role of the GAA  Past, Present and the Future.

GSTS is located in the coastal city of Takoradi in the Western Region of Ghana. As a high school known for science and engineering, this educational gem is critical to the economic, scientific, and technological future of Ghana.

Many of its alumni currently make the United States their home. Some own their businesses, while others can be found working in various disciplines and institutions such as NASA, hospitals, engineering firms, and several universities across the US.

About Ghana Secondary Technical School and US Alumni

As an old school  108 years this year  it has not seen any major renovation in decades, and several of its infrastructures are on the brink of collapse. The evening of fundraising will help to stop this trend.

All alumni of GSTS and other schools, as well as members of the general public and the Ghanaian community, are cordially invited to this event.

The mission of the GSTS Alumni Association is to foster growth, academic and infrastructure development as well as student motivation at their alma mater; Ghana Secondary Technical School (GSTS) in Takoradi.We are 501(c) (3)

The Ghana Secondary Technical School Alumni Association of the US is a 501(c) (3) tax-exempt organization with exclusively charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes.

For more information regarding this dinner or to purchase tickets, please visit:

http://www.gstsnorthamerica.com/events/upcoming-events/ . Also, contact Tony Ashon via email at [email protected] .

Contact GAA

Contact: Tony Ashon

Organization: Ghana Secondary Technical School (GSTS)

Alumni Association of North America (GAA-NA)

Telephone: +1508-873-5378

Email Address: [email protected]

Website URL: www.gstsnorthamerica.com

Source: Ghana Secondary Technical School North America Alumni Association
Accra, July 13, GNA - The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) has begun series of engagements with various stakeholders in an effort to create dialogue and examine key provisions in its Act to bring them in line with the Centre's investment drive.

Mr Yofi Grant, the Chief Executive of the GIPC, said a key objective of the engagement was to meet in the process of reformation and review to make the country's economy attractive for investment.

'To put it plainly the major goal is to make Ghana the best place to invest in and do business in Africa ,' he told journalists at a meeting with public sector stakeholders.

Mr Grant said it was the responsibility of the GIPC to ensure that things that ought to be done to position the country as the most attractive investment opportunity on the continent and a hub in West Africa was done.

A major review of GIPC legislation occurred in 2013 with the passage of the GIPC Act 2013, Act 865.

Mr Grant said after more than three years of operation it had become appropriate to assess the effectiveness of the revised law and make any necessary amendments to develop the Ghanaian economy through investment.

It is also to ensure that the law creates the regulatory environment towards making Ghana the preferred investment destination in Africa and its legislation facilitates government's investment initiatives.

Mr Grant said it was about time the country found the right intervention for the business people to enable them to grow to become global competitors.

He said many investors were keen to seeing Ghana reposition itself to play a lead role in the economic integration of the West Africa sub-region.

Mr Grant said many other countries in Africa had undertaken reforms which had led to major economic benefits, adding that Ghana could do same on the back of her impeccable democratic credentials to position itself as the hub and entry point to West Africa.

The Centre had met previously with three categories of stakeholders and would be holding sessions with private and public stakeholders.

The Centre is also using the same avenue to highlight its new strategic direction led by the CEO, Mr Yofi Grant, to make Ghana the most preferred investment destination in Africa.

Mr Grant said views from the various stakeholder meetings would be collated and presented to cabinet to know what the thinking is and to shape them into productive outcomes.

The GIPC is a government agency, responsible under the GIPC Act, 2013 (Act 865) to encourage and promote investments in Ghana, provide for the creation of an attractive incentive framework and a transparent, predictable and facilitating environment for investments in Ghana.

GNA
14.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July. 13, GNA - Mr Iddrisu Musah Superior, the Metropolitan Chief Executive Officer(MCE) of Tamale Northern Regional capital has arrived in Washington D. C, United States on an investment tour.

His decision to tour the United States to seek investment was preceded by a similar one he undertook in Ghana where he had major responses from corporate Ghana and business institutions.

The main reason for the US tour is to engage business institutions, individuals and strategic institutions that could mobilise resources for the development of the Tamale Metropolis.

The MCE is scheduled to meet US Former President Bill Clinton, Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and some diplomats in Virginia.

He is also scheduled to meet officials of Louisville to revive a broken 35 year-long Sister-City relationship with the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly.

In a telephone interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Musah Superior indicated that he planned to have broader and wider discussions with the individuals and institutions on how to mobilise resources to harness the development of Tamale and the nation at large.

'Another reason for our tour is to attend the 61st Anniversary of the Sister-City National Conference in Virginia from July 13-15.

He said: 'the agenda to revive the relationship with Louisville requires discussions with the city authorities.'

The MCE said the support for development from the Central government was inadequate, hence there was the need to move around the world to mobilise investors into the Metropolis.

He said this would be done by bringing to the fore an innovative type of leadership in marketing the Tamale Metropolis to the outside world.

GNA

By Amadu Kamil Sanah, GNA
Benjamin Mensa, GNA

Accra, July 13, GNA - The Builsa Community Bank at Sandema, in the Upper East Region has supported 7,000 smallholder farmers within its catchment area with GH7 million from December, 2014 to December, 2016.

Mr Awudu Hayatudeen, General Manager and Secretary to the Board told the Ghana News Agency in interview ahead of the bank's annual general meeting that majority, about 70 per cent of the loan beneficiaries were market women and peasant farmers.

'This is an achievement which was recognised by independent bodies in recent times. It will interest our stakeholders to know that the Bank has received two awards at the 2017 Ghana Agribusiness Investment Summit held at the Kempinski Gold Coast City Hotel, Accra,' Mr Hayatudeen said.

The awarding institution, USAID FinGAP arrived at the conclusion, when it recognised the Builsa Community Bank as being 'the Best Bank for financing the greatest number of agribusiness Small, Medium including Large Scale Enterprises (SMiLEs) nationwide in the Rice, Maize and Soy Value Chains; and also the Best Bank for financing the greatest number of female-led agribusiness SMiLEs nationwide in the rice, maize and soy value chains.

The annual general meeting, (AGM) the seventeenth of the Bank, will be held at the Azenero Social Centre, Sandema, on Saturday, 22nd July, 2017 at 1000 hours.

At the meeting, shareholders would receive the report of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, consider and adopt the financial statements of the Bank for the year ended 31st December, 2016, elect new Directors in place of those retiring, authorise the Directors to fix the remuneration of the Auditors, approve Directors Allowances/Fees, and to transact any other business appropriate.

Mr Hayatudeen announced that every shareholder would be entitled to attend and vote at the meeting or appoint a proxy to attend and vote on their behalf.

On other corporate social responsibility activities, Mr Hayatudeen said the bank donated 100 Bags of Cement for the renovation of the District Police Station in Sandema, spent an amount of GH4,500.00 to repair the Fumbisi District Police vehicle, to aid patrols in the District, and donated laboratory equipment to the Kanjarga Health Centre worth over GH6,000.00.

The bank also donated to the government in support of the Annual Farmers' Day Celebration in Builsa North and Builsa South District Assemblies, the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly, Upper East Regional Co-ordinating Council.

It also donated a new motorbike to the Yagaba Police Station, and assisted brilliant but needy students at the secondary and tertiary school levels and has acquired a piece of land for the construction of the bank's permanent structure in Bolgatanga.

On achievements during the year, Mr Hayatudeen said all was set for the bank to become one of the first regional community banks nationwide to deploy ATM services for its clientele.

It was adjudged by the Association of Rural Banks Ghana (ARB) as the 'Second Runners- Up - Loan Financing Category' at the Second Edition of the RCBs Excellence Awards Night held at Winneba in November 2016.

It also registered and paid over 20,000 LEAP beneficiaries in more than six Districts in collaboration with GhIPSS and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the highest number of beneficiaries handled by a single financial institution nationwide.

It is also partnering the government of Ghana in the implementation of 'the Planting for Food and Jobs' in the Builsa North and Builsa South Districts.

GNA
Accra, July 13, GNA - China, on Thursday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ghana, for the provision of a 50-million Chinese Yuan Renminbi aid to the Ghana Armed Forces to execute its mandate effectively.

The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Madam Sun Baohong, signed on behalf of the Ministry of National Defence of the People's Republic of China, while the Minister of Defence, Mr Dominic Nitiwul, initialled for the Ministry of Defence.

Under the agreement, the Asian giant would provide financial aid and logistics to the Forces more viable in international peacekeeping and regional security.

The deal is in fulfilment of a promise made by the Chinese Government during Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia's recent visit to that country.

Commenting on the agreement, Madam Sun said it formed part of China's efforts to deepen her already good bilateral ties with Ghana, especially in the area of security.

Madam Sun said Ghana continued to perform well in international peacekeeping, therefore, it was only appropriate for her Government to support Ghana to continue with the good work.

The Chinese Ambassador congratulated Vice President Bawumia for a successful trip to China and urged the Government to ensure that the $15 billion worth of financial package was duly delivered and used successfully towards the implementation of all the projects outlined by the Government to improve the standard of living of Ghanaians.

'We need to implement the follow-up actions of this visit and the MoU is the first step in fulfilling that promise,' she added.

Mr Nitiwul commended the Chinese Government for the continuous support and pledged the commitment of the Ministry towards ensuring the successful usage of the grant towards making the Armed Forces better and stronger.

He said China was in the process of shipping four patrol boats, which were pledged last year for the Ghana Navy, and they were expected to arrive by the end of the month.

'Six people would also be sent to China to be trained on how to use the boats,' he added.

He said the Chinese Government was offering 28 full scholarships to some military men and women to go and study in China in the areas of Security and Defence.

'The beneficiaries would be drawn from the Navy, Army and the Air Forces,' he said.

The selection would be done using appropriate procedures,' the Minister said.

China has also pledged 100 Million Chinese Yuan Renminbi towards cushioning the Ghana Police Service to make it deliver on its mandate effectively.

GNA

By Gideon Ahenkorah, GNA
La Crosse police warn that a South Side La Crosse gas station has been selling what it calls a brown bag special meant to be used as a drug pipe  and its perfectly legal.

Customers at the station at 1914 State Road have been able to purchase a glass pipe disguised as a pen or other household item for $5.

A Tribune editor on Thursday brought two snack items to the checkout counter and requested a brown bag special, please.

Behind the counter, the cashier filled a small paper bag with a copper scrubber and a glass tube with the components of a ballpoint pen that when assembled wouldnt write.

Theres no logical reason to sell these items together other than the obvious  drug consumption, said La Crosse police Capt. Jason Melby, who added the agency is aware of the items for sale.

A cashier later told the Tribune she had never heard of a brown bag special.

What is that? she said. I have no idea about that.

When told the Tribune captured the transaction on video, the cashier said the glass cylinder is a tobacco pipe and referred questions to the stores owner.

The owner, who would not provide his name, said the business provides only beer and alcohol in brown bags. He then said the item sold was a pen that doubles as a tobacco pipe and accused the newspaper of discrimination. He then called police.

We dont have anything like a brown bag special, he said before ending the call.

The property at 1914 State Road is owned by AKD Petroleum LLC of Thiensville, Wis., according to La Crosse County property tax records. The registered agent lives in Mequon.

With the copper scrubber serving as a filter, the glass tube functions as a pipe, which Melby said can be used to smoke methamphetamine, cocaine or heroin.
Accra, July 13, GNA - The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Ghana on Thursday elected Mrs Juliet Aboagye-Wiafe, the former Vice President, as the new President of its 2017-2019 Governing Council at the Annual General Meeting in Accra.

Together with Mr Daniel Quampah, the new Vice President, and seven officers, the nine-member Council is expected to facilitate the smooth running of the Institute which is dedicated to the promotion and development of the practice of internal auditing in Ghana.

The new President expressed the Council's appreciation to the Institute stating that their election indicated the trust and confidence members had in their abilities to deliver, and promised not to disappoint them.

She charged internal auditors in the country to be vocal on the media, to educate the public on the duties of internal auditors and dispel any misconceptions about the profession, as well as speak on topical issues in the country.

Mrs Aboagye-Wiafe observed that the internal committees instituted by the IIA Ghana had remained dormant for too long and renewed the Council's commitment to ensure that the committees would perform the functions for which they were set up.

She pledged to ensure close collaboration with senior auditors to assist the Council run its affairs to promote internal audit practice in the country.

Mr Richard Ntim, the immediate past president of the outgone council, was appreciative of the opportunity given to him and his team to serve the Institute for the past couple of years and entreated the newly constituted council to continue in the advocacy drive to create awareness of the work that internal auditors do.

He said there were some erroneous notion that internal auditors were 'policing' organisations just to find faults inherent in their operations, which he said, affected the working relationship and consequently their recommendations.

Mr Ntim said the aim of internal audit was to 'identify lapses, inefficiencies, weaknesses, and risks associated in the work we do in organisations and things that can prevent management from achieving organisational objectives.'

He added that internal auditing went beyond financial, as people usually thought, to encompass various issues that could forestall organisational growth including; judicious utilisation of available resources.

He said when people understand the role they play and appreciate their work, they would have a better collaboration with their stakeholders so that they could do their work better.

Meanwhile, the Institute, according to him, has commenced the initiative to gain recognition from the government.

The election of the new Governing Council of the IIA Ghana had been preceded by the ratification of proposals for amendment of the Institute's constitution which was critical to the present election.

The amendment had been necessitated by the need to address observed lapses in the constitution concerning council members' tenure of office and other pertinent issues.

Included in the approved proposal were key considerations of the length of term of office for Council members, which had to conform with the global tenure of office to create a requisite turnover of council members, strengthening the capabilities of members to facilitate succession planning as well as creating a 'pool of professionals' abreast of the workings of the internal audit globally.

Currently, the IIA Ghana has a membership of over a thousand internal auditors with Ghana representing the West African sub-region on the governing council of the African Federation of Institutes of Internal Audit (AFIIA).

GNA

By Deborah Apetorgbor, GNA
14.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 13, GNA - Ms Esther A.N. Cobbah, the Chief Executive Officer of Stratcomm Africa, has called on businesses to be analytic and strategic in the use of social media channels to their advantage.

'Today's world has a lot of social media channels we can benefit from but unfortunately we find that probably we are not equipping ourselves enough to use them to our advantage,' she said.

Ms Cobbah was speaking at the ongoing two-day Social Media 360 Summit in Accra on the theme: 'Creating Digital Ideas, Building Your Business.'

The summit, organised by Innovare in partnership with Stratcomm, seeks to address developmental elements, principles and governance requirements to provide organisations with the direction and relevant information that will enable the development of actionable strategies.

It was designed to provide corporate organisations and social entrepreneurs with the direction on how to utilise this resource for business benefit, how to measure and how to setup effective governance structures.

Speaking on the topic: 'Social Buzz: More Platform for Communication,' Ms Cobbah said businesses needed to think strategically about what they wanted to achieve on the minds of the people and choose the right channels.

She said businesses must be able to put together the right content and deliver in a timely manner, adding that choosing the right combination of channels would impact greatly on the public.

She said it was important that companies analysed their content and channels and bring them together to present the right message to help meet the demands of their target audience to create a meaningful impact.

Ms Cobbah said the business community had largely become aware of social media channels and though some had been able to use them effectively others were still struggling hence the summit.

Social media has become an integral part of life online as social websites and applications emerge.

Social media, as a means of reaching out to the general public, hold a lot of prospects for businesses all over the world and organisations had really exploited their advantages.

Social Media 360 Summit is designed to provide corporate organisations and social entrepreneurs with the direction on how to utilise this resource for business benefit, how to measure and how to set up effective governance structures.

The summit will also provide numerous networking opportunities with professionals and consultants who can share experiences.

GNA

By Morkporkpor Anku, GNA
Latest statistics by UNICEF have shown that the gap between the rich and the poor in Ghana continues to widen due to a lack of inclusive development.

The statistics show that the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions continue to suffer the lowest pace of development and highest rate of poverty. This comes despite a drop in the poverty level from over 70% to 44% in the Upper East Region from 2006 to 2013, and from 56% to 50% in the Northern Region within the same period.

Speaking to Citi Business News on the matter, Vice President of the National Development Planning Commission, Dr. Esther Ofei Aboage said government should continue to invest in local poverty eradication programmes such as LEAP, the National Health Insurance Scheme and the School Feeding Project to correct the development.

One out of eight households eligible for LEAP is receiving the cash.We need to upscale extensively the same way we need to upscale school feeding extensively.

She added that government should put in place measures to ensure that beneficiaries of poverty eradication programmes attain skills to make them self-dependent.

We need to also build in the linkages with these initiatives as the labour intensive public works policy but most importantly we have to make the necessary physical space

Dr. Esther Ofei Aboage added that government should strengthen the local systems of eradicating poverty and not rely so much on foreign aid

We need to make sure that we can feed our own children so that we don't depend on development partner sources for these interventions and programmes and otherwise the reliability of these transfers I mean you do something and it's a good thing and the next day there's no money for it and that willnot sustain the momentum that we want we want to draw attention to it we want to encourage our government to prioritize and continue to fund these interventions.



By: Anita Arthur/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
John Dramani Mahama was the immediate past President of the Republic of Ghana. He became a president by default after the sudden Demise of president Mills after a short illness on July 24, 2012. He successfully led the NDC into the 2012 elections. The 2012 NDC campaign was perhaps the most decorated and most festive looking campaign ever.

NDC paraphernalia decorated every street, every corner, almost every vehicle and every home and the chant of EDE BEE KEKE was heard from the lips of even new born babies. That was how far Ghanaians appreciated the good works of LATE PRESIDENT MILLS vis:

MILLS LEGACY

* Implementation of SSSS

*Increase of trainees allowances

* Recruitment into the public/civil service etc.

Mills was touted as A KING OF PEACE for his demeanor and humility. This was what Mahama inherited.

Amidst shouts of ede bee keke, sympathy votes, incumbency advantage, John Mahama and the NDC polled a little above 5 million votes beating the NPP by a slim margin of 300, 000 votes.

THE REAL TEST FOR MAHAMA-2013-2016

The then opposition NPP started spreading rumors that the IMF was going to intervene in our economy. Mahama government vehemently denied it. Government organized a workshop at Senchi in which all the economic gurus were assembled to make input concerning the well being of the state. The final paper was dubbed: SENCHI CONSENSUS.

Few months after Senchi Consensus, government went to the the IMF with cup in hand, kneel on the ground and tears flowing uncontrollably and pitifully. We were told the IMF had agreed to OUR OWN DOMESTIC POLICIES ( SENCHI CONSENSUS).

JM LEGACY

Lo and behold, we started hearing freeze on public sector employment, removal of trainees allowances, suspension of LESDEP program and many other irritating news. To make things worse, Ghana was hit with the worst power crisis in our history which lasted almost the entire tenure of Mahama. Finally, when Ghana overcame the power crisis in early 2016, the poor citizen was asked to pay unbearable electricity tariff. Between the power crisis and the high tariffs, it was difficult to choose the lesser evil.

To make matters worse, president Mahama had declared he was "A DEAD GOAT WHO FEARED NO KNIFE" in response to critics who complained about economic difficulties. He danced to YENTIE OBIAA SONG by Lumba as if to say he was not bothered about the plight of the ordinary Ghanaians. He jabbed his critics on a rally organized by the Greater Accra branch of the NDC saying HIS CRITICS HAD NEVER BEEN PRESIDENTS SO THEY COULD NOT ASSESS HIM WELL. He further dared trainees to do their worse since he would never reinstate their allowances.

For once, Mahama's campaign was occasionally greeted with placards:

WE WONT VOTE

WE WANT OUR ALLOWANCE BACK

REDUCE LIGHT BILLS

WE WANT JOBS

WE ARE SUFFERING etc

Eventually, passionate Mahama reinstated Nursing trainees allowance ( amount significantly reduced) and the money was hurriedly paid on table top. Our elders say WHEN YOU FAIL TO PLAN, YOU PLAN TO FAIL.

The end result was a disappointing 44.4 % election results for any sitting president.

SHOULD MAHAMA COMEBACK?

The question is what will he do differently? From my observation so far, the most dangerous attempt by Mahama is to try to lead the NDC as the flagbearer. If Mahama contests, these are possible consequences:

*He will lose respect as a statesman

*He will be denigrated

*His legacy will be destroyed by his own people

*He will not be trusted to do anything differently

*He cannot bring on board supporters who are peeved

*His managers are not remorseful and continue to silent dissenters

*Assuming he wins the primaries, and fails to beat the NPP, will he come again in 2024?

*If he is beaten again and decides not to contest again in 2024, the NDC will be in danger of staying in opposition for 12 to 16 years. That will be the longest since 1992

Finally, the NDC will be more divided if Mahama contests as we are seeing already. Coming events, they say cast their shadows. The best person who could have united the party is Mahama. Unfortunately, he has decided to be a player instead of the referee. I love Mahama and I would have wished he kept his legacy and his image in tact instead of subjecting himself to a needless assessment.

We must all prepare ourselves physically and psychologically for the trials and tribulations ahead of us before and after the NDC primaries.
Washington (AFP) - A federal judge weakened the terms of the Trump administration's controversial travel ban on visitors from six majority-Muslim countries, dealing another legal setback to the government.

Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii ruled Thursday that grandparents and some other relatives of people in the United States should be exempt from the clampdown, saying the original terms of the ban defied common sense.

His decision was hailed as a victory by opponents of the ban, who say it singles out Muslims in violation of the US constitution.

The Trump administration insists the restrictions are necessary to keep out terrorists.

The US Supreme Court had allowed part of the ban to go into effect on June 29, putting an end, at least temporarily, to five months of politically charged skirmishes in the lower courts.

Specifically, the court allowed a 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and a 120-day ban on refugees, with exceptions for people with "close family relationships" in the United States.

The Trump administration defined that to be parents, spouses, children, sons- and daughters-in-law, siblings and step- and half-siblings.

Map showing Muslim-majority countries affected by US President Donald Trump's travel ban

But Watson found that "the Government's narrowly defined list finds no support in the careful language of the Supreme Court or even in the immigration statutes on which the Government relies.

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," he wrote.

"Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The Government's definition excludes them. That simply cannot be."

Watson ordered Homeland Security and the State Department not to enforce the ban on "grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins of persons in the United States."

The judge also ruled that refugees who had assurances of a placement by a resettlement agency in the United States should also be exempt.

Such an assurance "meets each of the Supreme Court's touchstones: it is formal, it is a documented contract, it is binding, it triggers responsibilities and obligations, including compensation, it is issued specific to an individual refugee only when that refugee has been approved for entry by the Department of Homeland Security, and it is issued in the ordinary course, and historically has been for decades," Watson wrote.

Volunteer lawyers from various organizations sit at a table offering free legal advice to travellers at the International Arrivals section at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California on June 30, 2017

"Bona fide does not get any more bona fide than that."

Douglas Chin, attorney general for the state of Hawaii, which filed the lawsuit against the Trump administration, welcomed the ruling.

"The federal court today makes clear that the US Government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit," said Chin.

"Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough. Courts have found that this Executive Order has no basis in stopping terrorism and is just a pretext for illegal and unconstitutional discrimination."

The Departments of Homeland Security, State and Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment early Friday.

Under the version of the travel ban allowed to go forward by the Supreme Court, citizens from the six targeted countries with "bona fide" ties to the United States -- such as a job or acceptance to a university -- are permitted entry.

The high court will review the overall case in October, after both bans on travelers and refugees have largely run their course.

While the ban itself did not single out Muslims, judges in lower courts had cited Trump's repeated statements during last year's presidential race that he intended to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

His original measure, issued by executive order in January, set off chaos and protests at airports and was almost immediately blocked by the courts.
Constituency delegates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the Builsa South Constituency in Upper East Region, have called for the amendment of the Partys Constitution to include Constituency Secretaries to the membership of the Regional Executive Committee and be given voting rights too.

Currently, the Regional Executive Committees of the Party across the country are made up of the Regional Executive Officers and all Constituency Chairmen/women, which the Builsa South Constituency delegates think was not complete, hence, their call for the amendment.

The Constituency delegates also asked members of the NPP who will be participating in the National Delegates Congress to be held from August 25 to 27, at Cape Coast in the Central Region, to support their call for the amendment of the Partys Constitution, so as to make all executive positions elected positions.

The Builsa South Constituency Secretary of the Party, Joseph Apandiok in an exclusive interview with DAILY GUIDE, after the Annual Constituency Delegates Congress at Fumbisi said, recent situations and behaviours of some appointed Executives of the Party have necesitated that all Executives be made to compete for their positions, so as to handle the positions with care.

The Constituency Chairman of the NPP, Kofi Atafoe commended all delegates for their roles in the 2016 elections, saying, even though the NPP could not win the Parliamentary Seat, their efforts contributed to the Partys victory in 2016.

The Upper East Regional Organizer of the Party, Jerry Asamani, said the Akufo-Addo led government has come to improve the lives of the citizenry, especially the poor, hence, the need for all hands on deck to hasten the development of the country.

District Chief Executive for Builsa South, Daniel Kwame Gariba, said the district is lagging behind in terms of development and called on the Partys delegates and the entire district to support his efforts at attracting development projects to the area.

From: Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Fumbisi


The Abeka District Court in Accra has set July 26 to deliver its ruling in the case in which Jihad Chabaan, the embattled Ablemkpe branch manager of Mawarko Restaurant, is standing trial for allegedly assaulting a cateress at the eatery.

The court, presided over by Victoria Guansah, scheduled the judgement date yesterday after both parties had closed their cases.

The five-month old trial saw the prosecution lining up four witnesses to affirm its charges against the accused manager.

Mr Chabaan on the other hand, called one witness  Abigail Aduamoah  to parry the charges preferred by the prosecution led by Chief Inspector H.A. Hanson. He had earlier indicated that he would be calling two witnesses to testify in the case.

The accused had in the course of the trial denied his statement to the police, indicating that it was twisted to mean he dipped the face of the complainant into blended pepper.

Defence lawyers had accused the complainant of initiating the action because she wanted to make money out of the case.

Evelyn Boakye, the complainant, had dragged Jihad, 26, before the court for assault.

The accused is reported to have dipped the head of Evelyn into blended pepper on February 26, 2017.

According to the prosecution, Jihad offensively conducted himself when he angrily called the complainant a prostitute.

He is facing an additional charge of intentionally and unlawfully causing harm to Evelyn when he dipped the face of the complainant in the blended pepper.

[email protected]

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson


Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, Education Minister

14.07.2017 LISTEN



THE UNIVERSITY Teachers' Association of Ghana (UTAG) has given the government a two-week ultimatum to have all public universities' councils constituted.

The association has also charged the government to make conscious efforts within the two-week period to pay the Book and Research Allowance (BRA) effective July 12, 2017.

UTAG made this known in a press release signed by its president, Dr. Harry Agbanu.

UTAG has noted with extreme dismay that Government, since taking office on the 7th of January, 2017, has not been able to constitute the councils of public universities in Ghana, the statement indicated.

The government's inability to do this, whilst having constituted otherimportant boards of the state after six good months in office, we believe, demonstrates government's lack of concern of the health of public universities, UTAG lamented.

It therefore threatened, UTAG would advise itself, should government fail to appreciate our concerns and comply accordingly.

According to the release, UTAG had noted with grave concern government's steps with regard to two major issues currently affecting lecturers and the administration of public universities in the country.

These, the association maintained, are delay by government in the constitution of the various councils of the public universities and its

implications on management and administration of the universities; delay in the release of the 2016/2017 Book and Research Allowances and its implications on research, teaching and learning.

The Acts establishing all public universities require that university councils preside over or have oversight responsibility over the administration of these institutions.

It is common knowledge that the absence of statutory boards like the university councils, almost incapacitates the smooth and cohesive running of the public universities in Ghana and, therefore, cannot carry out their legitimate businesses properly and as independent academic institutions, the association noted.

In effect, it observed, All the public universities in the country are in a state of some sort of inertia.

BY Melvin Tarlue


The Accra Central District Court has adjourned until July 27 the hearing of the case involving the suspected killers of Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North in the Eastern Region.

This is to afford state prosecutors enough time to further investigate the case.

Detective Inspector Simon Apiorsornu at the hearing yesterday, said further investigations into the matter were still ongoing, urging the court to remand the accused persons  Daniel Asiedu aka Sexy Don Don, 19  a phone dealer  and Vincent Bosso aka Junior Agogo  a phone repairer  into police custody.

It may be recalled that the prosecution on July 29 told the court that the police had stumbled over fresh leads in the case.

Although the prosecution did not disclose the nature of the leads to the court, the prosecutor emphasized that the police were working on them.

He said in the court presided over by Arit Nsemoh, that investigation into the case was also ongoing, after which a duplicate docket would be sent to the Attorney General (AG) for advice.

The accused persons were hauled before the court two days after an Accra high court had discharged them over the murder of the legislator.

The Attorney General and Minister for Justice had earlier entered Nolle Prosequi (NP) to drop previous charges against the accused persons in respect of the case, which was at the stage of empanelling a seven-member jury for the trial.

Sefakor Batse, a senior state attorney, had told an earlier court, presided over by Justice Lawrence L. Mensah, that per Section 54 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, the AG had entered NP in respect of the case.

Daniel Asiedu and Bosso were subsequently rearrested minutes after their discharge and fresh charges preferred against them.

In the instant case, Sexy Don Don has been slapped with the charge of murder while Agogo faces abetment of murder.

In the case of Agogo, the prosecutor, DSP George Amegah, held that he at about 1:00 am on February 9, 2016 at Shiashie, East Legon, in Accra, abetted Sexy Don Don to commit murder.

Don Don, according to the prosecution, on the same day and time, intentionally and unlawfully caused the death of Mr JB Danquah, fondly called JB.

The pleas of the two have not been taken.

[email protected]

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson


The gunned down policeman and his motorbike on the N1 Highway at Abeka Lapaz, with the rubbers fleeing

A police officer was reportedly shot dead while another got severely injured at Abeka Lapaz, Accra, in their attempt to stop a robbery operation in front of Las Palmas Restaurant yesterday.

The two cops, (names withheld) attached to the Community Policing Unit, Tesano, according to information, were patrolling the area using a motorbike when they had information that armed men had attacked someone in front of the restaurant.

According to reports, one of the policemen was shot three times, leading to his demise, while the other who received gunshot wounds, is receiving treatment at the Police Hospital.

The two, according to witnesses, were among a team of cops who were chasing the armed men who attempted to escape on a motorbike.

An eyewitness account indicated that the slain police officer was closer to the escaping robbers.

In the full glare of traders and other travelers, the armed men were said to have abandoned their motorbike, snatched a metallic ash Hyundai Sonata car from its driver and sped off towards Awoshie, Mallam Junction direction.

The eyewitness said traders and drivers who could do nothing to save the situation had to run for their lives.

Meanwhile, the Accra Regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Effia Tenge, who confirmed the death, has stated that the incident occurred around 1:20 pm on the George Bush Motorway at Abeka Lapaz.

The police are still gathering information to get the perpetrators arrested, she said.

( [email protected] 

By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey


Members of Our Saviors Lutheran Church at 612 Division St. will install the Rev. Joanne S. Richmond as its senior pastor at 3 p.m. Sunday.

The public is invited to the installation of Richmond, the first legally married lesbian senior pastor in the La Crosse Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Delivering the installation message will be the Rev. Elizabeth Howe, assistant to the bishop/evangelical mission director for of the La Crosse Area Synod.

Richmond, who began serving at Our Saviors on July 1 and delivered her first sermon on July 2, previously was executive of the Hunger Task Force of La Crosse and a full-time philosophy instructor and interim associate dean/assistant at Western Technical College in La Crosse.

She started her ministry as an associate pastor at Coon Prairie and Vang Lutheran churches in Westby. She then served at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and Lutheran Campus Ministry in Houghton, Mich.

Richmond, who also was pastor at Dana College in Blair, Neb., has a bachelors degree in religion from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis.; a masters in divinity from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif.; and a masters in public policy, with an emphasis in ethics, from the University of Northern Iowa.

Richmond and her wife, Jeanne Johnson, live on French Island.

Our Saviors services take place at 9 a.m. and noon on Sundays.
The maternal family of the late President John Evans Atta Mills has said it would support any attempt by the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the late head of state.

Prof. Mills died suddenly on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 when he was preparing to contest for a second term in office. Since then, details about what caused his death are still shrouded in secrecy.

We won't mind if the new government probes what actually caused the death of our brother, the President. We don't mind if they do that so that everything will be clarified, Ato Harry Brew, an 85-year-old first cousin of the late president, told DAILY GUIDE in an exclusive chat in Accra on Monday.

If the opinion of the country is that it should be done, then it has to be done, he said from his Ashongman Estates residence when he took DAILY GUIDE through the family history of the late president.

Ato Harry Brew

He said the maternal family of Prof Mills  who was a Tax Law Expert  is called Nkuma-Kyerba Twidan Ebusua of Tantri, Cape Coast.

Mr. Harry Brew's mother (Emma Dawson-Ahmoah or Nee Emma Dawson Brew) and the late President Mills' mother (Mercy Dawson-Ahmoah/Nee Mercy Dawson Atta Mills) are sisters from the same mother called Kyereba aka Esi Yaunde or Esi Amoanua (because she was born in Cameroon) from Kotokuraba, Cape Coast.

Mr. Harry Brew, who is the first African Cocoa Insect Pollinator Biologist/Taxonomist, said, I fully support what Cadman said if the investigation into what killed President Mills was done during the NDC's tenure, many people would not have believed the outcome.

I feel once there is a new government we should all, especially the family, get to know the circumstances surrounding his death, if that is what a lot of Ghanaians want.

He said the NDC administration blocked the family from sending President Mills to the United States for further medical attention because the government officials said the 2012 general election was getting close.

They said they were going to have election and when they send him to the US it will affect the election and all that. I said but he is a human being and he is my brother; if he is sick and we are taking him, what is their problem? Mr Harry Brew, who is still a consultant in industrial etymology, disclosed, adding, It was politicized. I am telling you I told Cadman to take him to the US for medical attention.

I saw him on Saturday but he was speaking through the nose.

He debunked rumours that Prof Mills' body was sent to South Africa for autopsy. They even said the body was dressed in South Africa. It was all untrue.

The Lashibi Funeral Home where he was kept belongs to my wife's sister. It was there the government put my brother's body. They had removed him from the 37 Military Hospital Morgue. So it was never true that the body was flown to South Africa, he cleared the air.

When asked whether the government disclosed any autopsy results to him as family head, Mr Ato Harry Brew asked rhetorically, Would they even do that?

Cape Coast/Otuam Debate

Taking DAILY GUIDE through volumes of documents, including archival images dating back to the 1890s, he slammed all those who are claiming that President Mills came from Ekumfi Otuam in the Central Region.

Of course, we are matrilineal. We are not from Ekumfi Otuam. It was his father who came from Otuam. We are from Kotokuraba, Cape Coast, he underscored.

He said it was President Mills' father called John Evans Atta Mills Senior who hailed from Otuam; and once Fantes practise matrilineal inheritance, the family could not be said to be coming from that town.

If you want gains you can formulate something and that has misfired so long as I am alive, he stressed, adding, The Otuam people cannot lay claim to President Mills. We are matrilineal and we are Akans and therefore, nobody can use a false tongue to change and hang anything on our necks. These things must cease before the fifth anniversary comes.

Twin Myth

Mr. Harry Brew also said that President Mills was never a twin but was rather named after his paternal grandfather called Edward Atta Mills.

Prof. Mills was named after his paternal grandfather called Edward Atta Mills and the Fantes called him Mbir Atta. The name was however, Anglicised to Atta Mills, he explained.

Some have strongly claimed that his twin brother is Cadman Mills, but the family head said that cannot also be true.

Prof was born in 1944 and Cadman was born in 1946 so how can they be twins? Mr Brew wondered.

Read the full exclusive interview with Mr Ato Harry Brew tomorrow.

By William Yaw Owusu


An Accra Human Rights High Court has dismissed an application filed by 11 LLB graduates seeking to halt entrance exams into the Ghana School of Law slated for today.

The court, presided over by Justice Anthony Yeboah, said the applicants failed to demonstrate that they would suffer irreparable damage if the examination was allowed to take place.

Ruling

He said the applicants ought to have convinced the court that the balance of convenience tilts unfavorable towards them.

Justice Yeboah stated that the matter before the court bordered on human rights and was not sure that the applicants had painted the picture that they would suffer any hardship if the application was not granted.

In the view of the judge, the court must be convinced that the applicants seeking the injunction had a prima facie case.

Justice Yeboah held that the declaration of the entrance exams as unconstitutional by Supreme Court was conditional, as it was given in a certain context.

He noted that there was wisdom in the decision of the judges of the apex court, stressing that he does not think there was a blanket declaration of unconstitutionality as the applicants argued.

Arguments

The ruling has paved the way for the GLC to hold the exams today after which it can no longer administer these examinations and interviews without reference to any existing legislation as ordered by the Supreme Court.

Prof. Kweku Ansah Asare, in an over an hour argument for the injunction, among others, stated that allowing the exams would amount to the court granting immunity to a body that has acted with impunity.

Nana Yaw Twafo, lawyer for the GLC, contended that the issued raised by the applicants were dead on arrival and had exposed the frivolity of the case of the applicants.

He urged the court to dismiss the case of the students.

Reliefs

The 11 LLB students, in the suit filed through their lawyers Hencil Chambers in Accra after a petition they sent to the council did not yield dividends, wanted a declaration that the General Legal Council is a creature of statute i.e. the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32), and therefore should obey the orders of the court.

They are asking for further declaration that as the statutory body responsible for the organization of legal education in Ghana, it comes under a statutory duty under the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32) and the Professional Law Course Regulations, 1984 (L.I. 1296) to comply with the terms of the law regarding admission of law graduates into the Ghana School of Law.

According to the students, the court should also declare that the passage of L.I. 1296 under the powers conferred on the defendant (council) by Section 14 of the Legal Professional Act, 1960 (Act 32) makes Regulations 2 and 3 (L.I. 1296) the only lawful criteria for admission of the plaintiffs into the Ghana School of Law.

The applicants wanted the court to declare that the plaintiffs and other persons with the requisite qualifications in terms of the law (i.e. Act 32 and L.I. 1296) automatically qualify for admission into the Ghana School of Law.

They sought a declaration that the admission criteria imposed by defendant (council) in terms of an entrance examination and an interview for admission into the Ghana School of Law since 2015 contravene the provisions of Act 32 and L.I. 1296.

The students prayed for an order of the court setting aside the unlawful criteria complained off as illegal and unconstitutional and an infringement upon the plaintiffs' fundamental human rights enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.

Being itself a creature of statute by virtue of the 1992 Constitution and the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459), the court could not fail to take up the issue of illegality arising from breaches by defendant of Sections 13 and 14 of the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32) and Regulations 2 and 3 of the Professional Law Course Regulations 1984 (L.I. 1296) which had come to its notice.

They said the court should also declare that the Independent Examinations Board, which is to administer the entrance examination on Friday, 14th July, 2017, has no legal right to do so because it is unknown to either the Legal Profession Act 1960 (Act 32) or the Profession Law Course Regulations, 1984 (L.I. 1296).

The students also wanted an order prohibiting the so-called Independent Examination Board, a faceless body unknown to Ghanaian Jurisprudence, from administering the entrance examination for admission into the Ghana School of Law planned to take place on Friday, 14th July 2017.

[email protected]

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
The Chinese Government has supported the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) with an amount of 50 million Yuan Renminbi  equivalent to $7.5 million  to support its activities.

The money is among the fruits the recent visit of Vice President Dr Mahamadu Bawumia to China has yielded.

In addition, four patrol boats promised by the Chinese government last year for the military are expected in the country this month, according to the Chinese Embassy in Ghana.

The Ambassador to Ghana, Sun Baohong, in an address, said the aid offered the military came out of the visit of Ghana's Vice President Dr Mahamadu Bawumia to China recently.

Dr Bawumia's visit, the envoy indicated, was very successful and that China needed to implement the decisions reached.

As part of the implementation, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Ministry of Defence and the Chinese Ministry of Defence represented by the Chinese Ambassador, as a starting point of what was discussed during the visit.

During the visit to china the two national leaders had successful talks between themselves and the Chinese vice president pledged China's support to deepen the cooperation in military, peace and security affairs, Ms Sun Baohong posited.

She said over the years, China and Ghana have been enjoying long-standing traditional friendship and very fruitful cooperation, including cooperation in military, peace and security.

Ms Sun Baohong disclosed that China had intensified its efforts to support Ghana to play a leading role in international defence and also in peace and security of the region.

China is also supplying military equipment to the Ghana Armed Forces and training about 28 military officers in China. The four patrol boats will be shipped to Ghana this month and next month we hope to commission it for the military, she announced.

Ghana's Minister for Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, stressed that the military aid is not a loan or international agreement from the Chinese government, but a grant.

He said the obligation for the military in receiving the money is how to use the money.

The Chinese government has not asked for anything in return for giving out the money, but as part of the outcome of the vice president's visit to China, he pointed out.

Mr Nitiwil averred that the military lacks offices accommodation, equipment and logistics and that the money would be used to upgrade the training facilities for the GAF.

Recently, I visited the Shai Hills where personnel are trained and the accommodation for trainers was so bad that I had to look for $50,000 dollars to immediately renovate it.

We also need grant to help put up a headquarters for the Ghana army since it does not have one, he added.

( [email protected] )

By Linda Tenyah- Ayettey& Austin Hicks


It hurts to tag parliament as a useless entity, Second Deputy Speaker Joe Osei-Wusu has complained.

I read yesterday from somewhere that somebody says parliament is useless, it should be removed; well we are entitled to our views, Mr Osei-Wusu said in an interview aired on Friday 14 July in reference to comments made by financial analyst Sydney Casely-Hayford at a summit on the theme: The Economic and Political Rise of Africa.

Mr Casely-Hayford told an audience at that summit that: The first thing Ill do in Ghana if I had the opportunity [is that] Ill break down parliament. We dont need it.

According to him, the MPs are just wasting money and doing nothing useful. These people are sitting there, spending money like crazy, making stupid decisions, and passing stupid laws, Mr Casely-Hayford said.

They [MPs] dont read the papers that they are given, they dont think through what the challenges are. All they can think of is: lets pass this thing quickly, lets take some money, lets go to Senchi Royal, lets go and sit there and chill and come back and thats the pattern.

The social commentator, therefore, suggested that the house be used as a tourist attraction. So me the first thing I say [is]: lets use it [parliament]. Maybe if you break it down, you are wasting money so we wont break it down but we can use it as a tourist attraction. We can say: this is what we used to do in the past, so you come for a tour and then we should just poster it all so people can see.

According to Mr Casely-Hayford, rather than having a central legislature, we should have regional parliaments, every region, we have 10 of them in Ghana, every region must have its own little parliament, every region must have its own law courts, every region must have its ministries and down at that level, let the decisions be made as to where they want to go.

He has subsequently apologised for his comments which he described as harsh and over the top following a statement on the floor of the house by Kumbungu MP Ras Mubarak who demanded he be hauled before the Privileges Committee of the house to face contempt charges.

Speaking in an interview with Kojo Yankson on Accra-based Joy FMs Super Morning Show, Mr Osei-Wusu expressed pain that such comments could be made by people who should know better.

 Those who really want to talk about parliament, I think it will be fair for them to engage here [parliament], find out what committees go to do at the meetings they go to; why is it that committee work is being done or parliament work is being done on a weekend?  If any of them, either in their private or public places, work on the weekend, will they claim overtime [allowance], will they claim overnight allowances, will they claim their transport if the organisation is not transporting them? Yet these same people who are criticising parliament for taking these payments also claim them in their organisations he said.

Because parliament itself is a body that interfaces with the people directly, I think people take the institution for granted. Its really hurting to hear, for example, somebody say parliament is useless. Now if that person met me in my private organisation as a private lawyer, he will pay me any amount I demand to use my services, that service that I am using to take monthly salary, the amount I take monthly here [parliament], he will pay one day for one document, that same expertise

According to the former CEO of the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), all the MPs in the house are professionals who have either worked with the public sector or run their private businesses successfully without blemish before becoming legislators and so he found it puzzling for the collective of them to be branded useless. How did we become useless only because we came together? Its a pity, most especially when it is coming from people who know and can find out, the Bekwai MP added.
Dominic Nitiwul with Babara Mahama, widow and Dennis Mahama, father of Major Mahama

The family of the late Major Maxwell Mahama has called on the Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, to ensure that the killers of Major Mahama who are currently facing trial are punished.

Zakaria Sakara Ahmed, spokesperson of the family and leader of the delegation, expressed appreciation to the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) for the role they played in the burial of the army soldier, who was promoted posthumously by President Akufo-Addo to the rank of a Major.

When the news of Maxwell's death was broken to us, you did not leave us alone, your ministry the Military High Command, the deputy minister and you stood by us and you in particular spent so much time in consoling us.

As a family we found the role you played very significant and wish to thank you and the military for the support and help you gave us during our difficult times.

The Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, on his part, told the family that the people of Ghana owed them the duty and praised the way they carried themselves during the death of Major Maxwell Adams Mahama.

He said his ministry was just carrying out its duty since it was the people of Ghana that sent the late Major Mahama there to fight 'galamsey' activities in the area.

Even telling you we are sorry cannot solve the problem, because our younger brother is no more alive but we will still tell you.

We should use his death as a wakeup call to stop the phenomenon called instant justice, he added.

Mr Nitiwul averred that instant justice is an outmoded practice that should never be done anywhere.

Speaking with ardor, Mr. Nitiwul said, When you have instant justice, it means that you have been able to capture or arrest the person so why do you kill the person.

He said the only people who have legal rights to judge who is right or wrong is our judges, our chiefs and God so we should be able to stop that phenomenon.

The Minister of Defence said government was committed to fulfilling its promise.

The government promised giving the late soldier a state burial and did it; it promised erecting a monument in honour of his memory and would do it in consultation with the family and promised to set aside an endowment fund for the family as well, he affirmed.

Mr Nitiwul confirmed that the normal compensation had been paid to the family, but an Endowment Fund Bill had been drafted and sent to the Attorney General.

It is yet to be sent to Cabinet for discussions after which it will be sent to parliament for the passage of the bill.

Once the bill has been passed by parliament; the Finance Minister has been instructed by the President to release an amount of GHC500,000 to the Endowment Fund.

Touching on the erection of the monument, the minister said the family would be given the chance to determine where it should be placed and the type of monument they want.

Nineteen persons, including one woman, have been charged by the state for the murder of Major Maxwell Adams in Denkyira-Obuase in the Central Region.

They are part of 32 suspected persons initially dragged before the Accra Central District Court for allegedly playing various roles in the murder of the 5 Battalion of Infantry soldier on May 29, 2017.

Major Mahama was the commander of a military detachment stationed at Diaso in the Upper Denkyira West District of the Central Region to check the activities of 'galamsey.'

( [email protected] )

By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey &Austin Hicks


Management of the Ghana Ports & Harbours Authority (GPHA) has dissociated itself with statements made by Emmanuel Ashaley Neequaye, one of its terminal supervisors at Tema recently in a news report.

Reacting to the piece attributed to Mr Ashaley Neequaye titled Upgrade Your Systems  GPHA Advises GCNet, in a statement issued and signed by Esther Gyebi-Donkor, Acting General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Affairs, GPHA stated: The authority wants to state categorically that the content of the article with the title and details above is not the position nor statement of the Port Authority, and as such no section of that piece was espoused by any member in management position of the Port Authority contrary to the attributions made in the said article.

It admitted that the said Emmanuel Ashaley Neequaye is known to the Authority as a Terminal Supervisor. However, we also wish to make it clear that Mr. Emmanuel Ashaley Neequaye was not speaking in an official position on behalf of Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority.

It continued: Management of the Port Authority therefore wishes to reiterate that it has cordial as well as mutual relationship with GCNet spanning over a decade as partners in business and has no intention to disparage their contribution to the success of the ports and maritime industry.

Of course, no system is 100 percent perfect but in the case of GCNet, there have been adequate response to any challenge to their system when such occur and swift recovery response has always been assured.

Again, the Port Authority does not reserve any right to determine which entity should provide Technical Service to the State's revenue agencies and will therefore not meddle in any such discourse.

A business desk report


Financial Analyst Sydney Casely-Hayford has apologised and withdrawn his comments, which sought to cast a slur on parliament's image.

The leading member of pressure group Occupy Ghana says he is looking forward to meeting the House to discuss other ideas he has about making the country's legislature more efficient.

In an interview with Joy News' Evans Mensah on Top Story programme Thursday, he said his comments were in line with advocating for a new paradigm of how parliament should be coordinated across the country.

My delivery was that instead of having a single parliament sitting in the centre of Accra we should have ten regional parliaments where each parliament could manage the affairs of their region separately to take care of the need of their communities and localities.

In the event, I got passionate and I might have used a few strong words here and there but basically it was about how parliament could work better.

I must admit that on hindsight, I did go over the board and apology is in order because I was a bit extreme but it was a passionate delivery, he said.

The outspoken anti-corruption campaigner Occupy Ghana said the legislative body has outlived its usefulness and the first thing I will do if I had the opportunity, is to break down parliament. We don't need it.

Mr Hayford said the country would be better off saving money as the legislature only adds to the nation's budget but does little to develop it.

He made the comments at a summit last Saturday on the topic 'The Economic and Political Rise of Africa.'

Mr Hayford observed, these people are sitting there, spending money like crazy, making stupid decisions, and passing stupid laws. They don't read the papers that they are given, they don't think through what the challenges are.

All they can think of is, let's pass this thing quickly, let's go to Senchi Royal, let's go and sit there and chill and come back and that's the pattern, he added.

According to him, maybe if we break it down we are wasting money but maybe we can use it as a tourist attraction, we can say, this is what we used to do in the past, so come for a tour.

We should have regional parliaments, every region, we have 10 of them in Ghana, every region must have its own legal parliament, every region must have its own law courts, every region must have its ministries and down at that level, let the decisions be made as to where they want to go, he said.

His comments have angered members of Parliament who are threatening to drag him before the Privileges Committee of Parliament.

Hayford later told Evans Mensah what happened was not in character of him at all. It was not intended to insult or maim anyone in parliament, it was passion and nothing else.

Parliament reacts

Enraged by the comments, Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak urged parliament to invite Mr Hayford to the House to answer for his insulting comments which he said impugned the integrity of the House and legislators.

Making the plea for Hayford to be brought before the Privileges Committee, Mubarak said on the floor of the House, Thursday, the comments are not only an attack on the integrity of all members of Parliament, past and present but it even bothers on promoting hatred and vandalism when he talked about breaking down parliament.

He described the comments as damn right offensive, they are outrightly benighted.

And coming from a man who seems discombobulated from the world he inhabits, his comments if allowed to pass will set a very bad precedent and create more room for people to impugn the reputation of this House.

Following his pleas, the Speaker has referred the matter to the leadership of the House to consider its next move.

Mr Hayford said although he is close with the Kumbugu MP, he could not hide his surprise for his actions but it is okay, somebody has to bring it up if he feels concerned about it.

He said he would not mind appearing before the Parliaments Privileges Committee adding, I would be happy to have an opportunity to explain my position and render an apology for the way it came out.

-Myjoyonline
Nottingham (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Heino Kuhn held firm as South Africa made a sound start to be 56 for one after a rain-interrupted session at lunch on the first day of the second Test against England at Trent Bridge on Friday.

Kuhn was 34 not out and Hashim Amla 16 not out, having become the fourth South African following Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers to score 8,000 Test runs.

The Proteas, 1-0 down in the four-match series after a 211-run defeat inside four days at Lord's last week, saw their top order go some way to repaying the faith of returning captain Faf du Plessis, who opted to bat first after winning the toss.

Trent Bridge has a reputation for aiding swing bowling and Du Plessis, who did not play at Lord's following the birth of his first child, admitted it had been a "tricky decision" to bat under cloudy skies.

But the 33-year-old Kuhn, out for just one and nine on Test debut at Lord's, seized upon anything over-pitched or loose on a ground where England have not lost a Test in a decade.

England's Ben Stokes asks for a review during the second Test against South Africa at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, on July 14, 2017

He on-drove veteran paceman James Anderson for four and later square cut Ben Stokes for another boundary.

South Africa did lose a wicket, however, when opener Dean Elgar, their stand-in captain at Lord's, pushed out on six to Anderson and was well caught by a diving Liam Dawson at backward point to leave the Proteas 18 for one off nine overs.

Kuhn had a nasty moment when, on 13, he took his eye off a bouncer from fast bowler Mark Wood and was hit on the side of the helmet.

Amla, meanwhile pulled all-rounder Stokes for a four that saw him to 8,000 Test runs.

After rain stopped play for 20 minutes, England wasted an lbw review after replays showed Amla, then on 14, had inside-edged Stokes onto his pad.

South Africa made three changes to their side from Lord's, with Du Plessis returning in place of out-of-form batsman JP Duminy.

Rain stopped play on the first day of the second Test between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge in Nottingham

Fast bowler Duanne Olivier, playing in his second Test, started instead of Kagiso Rabada, serving a one-match suspension as a result of swearing at Stokes at Lord's.

South Africa also brought in pace-bowling all-rounder Chris Morris for Theunis de Bruyn.

England were unchanged from the side that marked Joe Root's first match as captain with a thumping win in which the new skipper scored 190.
Rome (AFP) - With a flood of migrants arriving on Italy's shores, a bitter debate has erupted over whether children born on Italian soil to foreign parents should have citizenship rights at birth.

According to a poll published Thursday in the Messaggero daily, the idea of "ius soli" is losing support among Italians, even though such a path to citizenship exists in many other EU countries.

The Latin term "ius soli" refers to rights linked to the land (where you are born) as opposed to "ius sanguinis", where rights are based on blood ties.

Children currently must have at least one Italian parent to enjoy citizenship rights. Those who do not can apply when they turn 18 but rules on time spent out of the country mean some are rejected.

Back in October 41 percent of people polled said they were in favour of "ius soli", but now that number has dropped to 32.3 percent.

Italy's high-profile battle with Europe over who should deal with the hundreds of thousands of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean and brought ashore since 2014 has sparked a backlash over a proposed bill and even fisticuffs in parliament.

After 15 years of debate, the draft law establishing "ius soli" was adopted by Italy's lower house in 2015. Two years later, after a series of amendments, it is now being debated in the upper house with the support of the centre-left.

The draft law also provides for nationality via "ius culturae" for children not born in Italy who have spent at least five years in the country's education system.

Italy's anti-immigrant Northern League has slammed the proposal as a "cultural mistake". Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, founder of the centre-right Forza Italia, said it would send the wrong signal to those already attracted to Italy's shores.

"Making it known that it's easier to become Italian will create false hopes in Africa and increase migratory pressures," he warned.

Over 86,000 migrants have arrived so far this year, up over 10 percent compared with the same period in 2016.

800,000 new nationals

The adoption of "ius soli" would bestow Italian nationality on around 800,000 children immediately, and another 60,000 newborns a year, according to the Italian Institute of Statistics (Istat).

"The children born in Italy are Italians and it is the duty of a civilized country to welcome them," Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said earlier this week. The proposed bill is also passionately supported by his predecessor Matteo Renzi.

Gentiloni has brushed aside attempts by critics to link the issue of citizen rights to that of national security, saying "the way to reduce risk is not through exclusion but dialogue and inclusion".

But with unemployment towering at 11 percent -- well above the average in the eurozone -- and soaring to 37 percent among young people, the age-old narrative of foreigners stealing locals' jobs has reared its head.

That fear has not been eased by new figures this week showing 4.5 million Italians are living in absolute poverty.

According to Il Messaggero, those polled in Thursday's survey said it would be better to postpone the debate on citizenship rights until after the general election in spring next year.

Italy in 2016 bestowed the highest number of citizenships in Europe at 205,000, up from just 63,000 in 2012.

Adopting "ius soli" would bring Italy into line with the majority of its European neighbours -- from Belgium and Britain to France and Portugal -- where the law already applies in various forms.
Canchungo (Guinea-Bissau) (AFP) - The school year is ending in the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau, but some pupils will hardly notice the difference.

Long-running pay disputes have kept teachers out of the classrooms for long stretches of the last four decades in this former Portuguese colony, where a dysfunctional government struggles to provide basic services to its citizens.

The problem is so acute that despite widespread poverty, parents have launched an initiative to pay all, or part of teachers' salaries directly, hoping their children will not miss out on more precious years in the classroom.

"We thought it was necessary to create a sustainable programme to try and give our children a year at school, asking for a contribution from each parent," said Alberto Suleimane Djalo, head of the parents' association at Ho Chi Minh high school in the northern town of Canchungo.

"We have around 150-200 parents who support us," he added.

Local official Pedro Mendes Pereira described the Canchungo school community as heavily drawn from "impoverished" rural areas in the west African nation, who nonetheless began making payments "so that the teachers don't go on strike".

Teachers' salaries are erratic if they are paid at all and drawn-out strikes are common in this small, unstable nation.

Pupils in class at a school in Canchungo, Guinea-Bissau on June 7, 2017

An ongoing government shutdown and, in previous years, a succession of coups d'etat have eroded the normal functioning of the state -- and its ability to pay salaries.

Meanwhile, the country's national parents' association is experimenting with autonomous schools in the northern Cacheu and southern Quinara regions, setting households a monthly fee of 500 CFA Francs (75 euro cents) per child.

"We want to roll this out in every region of the country," said Papa Landim, the president of the national parents' group.

Cashews for courses

The refusal by many teachers to show up for work has also prompted innovative schemes by parents to help staff return to their place at the front of the classroom.

In the village of Eticoga on the distant island community of Orango Grande, six hours by boat from the capital Bissau, parents contribute five-kilogram (11-pound) sacks of cashews, rice, fish or palm oil, which is sold at market in the closest town or on the mainland.

The money collected is kept in a communal pot guarded by the village chief and used to pay the costs of a dozen teachers in charge of almost 300 children in the local area, as well as school maintenance.

"If we cancel our lessons and go back to Bissau, it would be very difficult for us to come back to work once the strike was suspended because of the remoteness of the islands and difficulties of transportation," said primary school headteacher Joao Gomes.

"So we prefer to stay in the village and reach an understanding with the parents of the pupils," he added. "There is trust, and that makes it work."

The farmer and fishermen parents of Orango Grande's schoolchildren are well aware that things are unlikely to change anytime soon after what UN education and culture agency, UNESCO, has described as "40 years of institutional instability."

Lack of support

The National Institute for the Development of Education (INDE in its Portuguese acronym) says just 30 percent of the curriculum on average was completed in primary and secondary schools in the last 20 years.

And parents in a country, where the average citizen makes just $620 a year, according to the World Bank, frequently cannot make up the massive shortfall.

"Most of our classmates ended up leaving because they can't pay," said Eugenio Gomes, a pupil at the Ho Chi Minh school.

A UNESCO report from November showed that Guinea-Bissau's households nonetheless contributed 63 percent of the country's total educational expenditure.

Even taking into account the country's "meagre" budget, the report said, the proportion earmarked for education was one of the lowest in Africa.

Against this backdrop, "life expectancy is 50 years, 70 percent of the population live below the poverty line and 50 percent of adults can neither read nor write," it added, hindering the country's development.

"Successive governments tout education as one of their priorities, but they don't care if the teaching is of good quality or not," said Braima Djalo, of the National Institute for the Development of Education.
ST. PAUL, Minn.  A mental health hotline thats served Minnesotans for nearly 50 years will keep operating thanks to an eleventh-hour infusion of money. Crisis Connection had been scheduled to shut down Friday evening, but a grant from the state health department means the service will continue linking people suffering mental health emergencies to professional counselors.

The state of Minnesota grant of $139,000 comes from federal funds for suicide prevention. Its enough to keep Crisis Connection going through September, and perhaps longer.

Matt Eastwood is CEO of Canvas Health, which operates Crisis Connection. He says financial problems had been mounting for years, with six-figure annual losses. And this year, state lawmakers declined to set aside the $1.4 million requested to fund the hotline.

Weve been reaching out to the staff who were being let go and have been confirming with them their interest in remaining with us, and we should be totally staffed up and up and running.

Eastwood says hes hopeful that additional private money will keep Crisis Connection going until the next legislative session starts in February. Thats when hell take another crack at getting permanent state funding.

If were not able to get the Legislature to support this, and ultimately the governor to sign a bill, whenever that is next session, we will be right back where we are today, Eastwood said.

Sue Abderholden, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness says Crisis Connection is a critical public service because suicides are on the rise in Minnesota. In 2015, 726 people killed themselves, the most recent data available. Thats the highest rate since record keeping started.

Abderholden said there are dozens of mental health crisis lines in Minnesota because counties are required to have them. But she says the geographically disparate patchwork of numbers can be confusing for someone in an emergency. Crisis Connection is a single point of contact with a phone number that health care providers have given out for decades.

Even in the metro area, they have different numbers for children and adults and which county youre in, so I think that really complicated things, so it was much easier just to give the Crisis Connection number, Abderholden said.

Leslie Martin of Mendota Heights remembers calling that number just before Labor Day last year. Thats when Martin, who has had depression since she was young, injured her shoulder and couldnt work. When Martin learned it would take a few days for insurance to approve an MRI, Martin says she left the clinic and was overcome with hopelessness at the unbearable pain.

I was crying, sobbing. I didnt know what to do, Martin recalled. All I could think of was Im going to drive this car into a brick wall and end it all.

Martin knew she needed help, but feared calling 911 would bring an overwhelming response of police and paramedics. Then she remembered Crisis Connection. Shed heard her therapist recite the phone number on his voicemail every time she called after hours. She called the number and began talking with a counselor right away.

Martin said the counselor talked with her calmly, contacted clinic staff to help with her shoulder pain, and got in touch with her husband. Looking back nearly a year later, Martin says the mental anguish she suffered that day was far worse than the physical.

I absolutely credit them with saving my life. If it hadnt been for Crisis Connection, I dont think I would be here today.
The President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, will make an official visit to Yaounde, Cameroon, from 15 to 18 July 2017.

During his stay in Cameroon, Adesina will meet with President Paul Biya, key government officials and development partners.

This visit aims to strengthen existing ties between Cameroon and Africas premier development finance institution.

Cooperation between the Bank and the Republic of Cameroon has existed for 45 years. It began in 1972 with the construction of the Douala international airport terminal financed by the Bank.

To date, the Bank has provided loans and grants to Cameroon amounting to some US$ 2.5 billion, nearly XAF 1436 billion, to finance about 100 development projects in the areas of national and sub-regional infrastructure, agriculture, energy, water and sanitation and governance.

The ongoing operations and programs are in line with the Bank's ten-year strategy (2013-2022) and its High5 priorities: Light up and power Africa, Feed Africa, Industrialise Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.
To mark the 60th anniversary of BBC Somali, specially commissioned programming will be broadcast starting today (Friday 14 July).

BBC Somali launched on the 18th July 1957, and now reaches Somali-speaking audiences around the world on TV, online, social media and on radio, where the service began.

This will culminate in an event on the day of the 60th Anniversary (Tuesday 18thJuly) in Hargeisa to announce the winner of BBC Somalis first ever Young Female Poet of The Year Award. Listeners will hear the winning poem as well as special features from the event.

Other content will include:

style="margin-left:36pt; margin-right:0cm"> Interviews with past BBC Somali presenters, looking back at how things have changed since the very first bulletin.



 The stories of young BBC Somali social media fans across different Somali regions.



 The views of those from Dadaab, one of the largest refugee camps in the world and how Somali content reaches and affects them, especially Baafin (programme about missing people).



 Highlights from the BBC Somali 60 years of archives and a look-back at key events that the service has covered.



 A live discussion looking at the future of BBC Somali, with participants in Africa and the UK.



 A look at culture in the Somali community and how this has changed over the years.

Caroline Karobia, Editor BBC Somali says We have achieved 60 great years of broadcasting and have made many improvements to keep up with our audiences. This is an exciting time for BBC Somali and with the recent introduction of Somali TV we are looking to engage with our audiences of the future.
14.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra July 14, GNA - The Civil Society Organisations' Platform on Ghana IMF programme says an extension of the package will best serve the nation's interest since it will allow for better implementation of the structural reforms.

Dr Godfred Alufar Bokpin, a Lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, said there was the need to extend the agreement in order to drive the much needed reform to improve the fiscal governance framework.

He was speaking at the Fourth National Civil Society Forum on Ghana's International Monetary Fund Programme in Accra on Thursday, on the theme: 'Three Years into the IMF-Supported Extended Credit Facility Arrangement: Is the Ghanaian economy on the right path?'

He explained that the programme had achieved limited effectiveness in the light of the fact that most of the programme objectives had not been met, especially in 2016, with fiscal deficit at 10.3 per cent on commitment basis in 2016, about the same as when the negotiation fort the programme started in 2014.

'Whatever gains we made in the first year of the programme implementation were effectively reversed during the election,' he said, adding that this in theory, effectively ended the programme as the conditions were not met.

'What we should be asking for now is to demonstrate how we can correct the deficiencies that we have seen in the programme and get back on track and probably ask for extension,' he stated.

Dr Bokpin said the strength of the IMF-supported programme should be seen in terms of the structural reforms that were contained in the programmes especially as Ghana was unable, on its own, to develop and execute those reforms.

Some of those reforms, including the Bank of Ghana Act and the Public Financial Management Act though they had been passed, did not contain exactly what Ghana needed thus there was room for some amendments which an extension will allow.

'The IMF itself has incentive to ensure that the programme is extended because Ghana for a while had been a success of the IMF programmes in sub-Saharan Africa and they don't want this to be tainted and if a request comes from the Government, they will not say no,' he said.

Ms Natalia Koliadina, the IMF Resident Representative in Ghana, said though the programme had had its ups and downs, the current government's continuity with the programme indicated its desire to depoliticise macro-economic policies and showed its commitment to reinstate fiscal discipline, especially in light of the limited fiscal space it had to carry out its agenda.

She took participants through the implementation of the programme so far and it's current status and also expressed the hope that Ghana would graduate from fund-supported programmes.

'It can and should be done,' she stated, adding that civil society organisations could play an important role in the prioritisation of development projects, which was necessary to manage expenditure and ensuring value for money,' she said.

Dr Joe Abbey, Executive Director for the Centre for Policy Analysis and Chair for the forum expressed the important role of civil society in such programmes, saying Ghanaian must own such interventions.

'It is to us to make these programmes our own because they are not owned by the politicians.

'When things go awry thy will fall on us so let's claim the ownership. That's what all this is about,' he stated.

He said civil society in Ghana must insist and get there was a legislation that made it possible for government to make available to them the information that it gave to institutions like the IMF and World Bank so that they would not have to go through the IMF to get access to such data.

GNA

By Belinda Ayamgha, GNA
Atwedie (Ash), July 14, GNA - The National Commission for Civic Commission (NCCE) has called for every Ghanaian to demonstrate strong feeling of love and loyalty to the nation.

Mr. Patrick Asare, a Civic Education Officer at the Asante-Akim South District of the Commission, said that was the way forward to achieve meaningful progress.

He was speaking at a meeting with the congregation of the Atwedie Presbyterian Church at Atwedie near Juaso.

It formed part of the stepped-up effort by the NCCE to sensitize and encourage people in the district to carry out their civic duties passionately - galvanize them to actively participate in the democratic governance.

Mr. Asare said all should have a part to play find to bring about the much needed socio-economic transformation they had been yearning for.

He criticized the situation where many had allowed personal greed to overcome their social conscience and said that could not continue.

He reminded the church to use its enormous influence with the people to get them to do the right things to make the society a better place.

The expectation was that Christians would become the embodiment of ethical and moral values, he added.

Mr. Kwame Owusu-Ansah, Choir Master of the church, applauded the Commission for the initiative and asked that the education campaign was sustained.

He said it was important to help the citizens to become adequately informed and encouraged to live up to their civic responsibilities. GNA

By Yussif Ibrahim, GNA
Vice President, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia has assured that government will launch the national digital address system in a few months time.

This he says will be merged with a post code to ensure the unique identification of various addresses.

In the next couple of months, we want to launch the National digital address system for Ghana. It is going to be revolutionary. Every piece or square meter of land in Ghana is uniquely identified by a GPS code so we are going to adopt that technology, leverage on it and make sure that everywhere in Ghana can be uniquely identified by a digital address and by a post code as well. he assured.

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) had earlier listed the absence of street names as a major challenge that hinders and impedes tax collection in Ghana.

But Dr. Bawumia said the exercise will be completed in a few months to create a transparent system for businesses to thrive in Ghana.

These financial services enable investment, savings and risk mitigation all of which contribute to economic growth, poverty alleviation and job creation.

Dr Bawumia also called on the post office to amalgamate the digital addresses with the post code to ensure a solid address system in Ghana.

So we are asking the post office to merge the digital addresses with the post code so that everywhere is uniquely identified.

Meanwhile he also assured that government is finalizing the financial inclusion strategy to increase access to financial services.

On the matter of financial inclusion, government is currently finalizing the financial inclusion strategy that seeks to increase access to financial services and this is very critical to our national development. he added.

He spoke at a dinner organized by Express Capital on becoming a savings and loans company now Direct Savings and Loans Limited.



By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
It seems anti-corruption campaigner and member of pressure group, Occupy Ghana, Sydney Casely-Hayford, is not out of the woods yet despite his apology to outraged members of Ghana's legislature, who are bent on grilling him for supposedly insulting them.

Casely-Hayford has been cited for a possible contempt of Parliament after he said at a programme that Ghana's Parliamentarians make stupid decisions and that he would have demolished it and turned it into a tourist site if given the chance.

Sydney Casely-Hayford

He has subsequently apologized explaining that he didn't mean to attack Parliament and that he went over the top.

I indeed went over the top, I do apologize for that. I used some language which I supposed I should not have used. I unreservedly apologize because in matured conversation, when you say something that you offend somebody and you are prompted, the least you can do is to say I'm sorry, it wasn't meant to be offensive, this is where I was going and if it came out the wrong way then I do apologize sincerely, I have no reservation doing that, he said on Eyewitness News.

But the Member of Parliament for the Kumbungu constituency, Ras Mubarak, who drew the Speaker of Parliament's attention to Casely-Hayford's comments described the apology as weak.

It's a very weak attempt to water down the impact of the sort of very outrageous things he said. A person with his pedigree and stature shouldn't be making sweeping comments, very derogatory comments, comments that impugn the reputation of parliament. And I think he knew what he was doing. Again the suggestion that we should break down Parliament; that is like encouraging vandalism, he fumed.

Ras Mubarak insisted that, Casely-Hayford's comments were meant to impugn the integrity of Parliament and I'm sure he was excited when he was getting all the applause.

I see what he is doing now is an attempt to water down what he said. The most important thing is that it's been raised on the floor of Parliament. We are hoping that leadership will deal with it with a lot of alacrity so that tomorrow people will respect the integrity and authority of Parliament, he added.



By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @AlloteyGodwin
15.07.2017 LISTEN

First, I think Mr. Sydney Casely-Hayford comment about Ghana Parliament was not polished and raw. He should have polish his comment. Putting aside some of the offensive comments in his statement, I think he was delivering a message that every Ghanaian see about our Parliament, but we do not say or discuss it because of fear of contempt. Let us condemn the bad words he used but what influenced him to say this? What was the rationale of his statement? Is the Parliament of Ghana always right? And that Mr. Casely-Hayford is wrong?

Some of our government institutions are becoming a new dictator to us. They honestly hate people giving a negative comment about them. For example the Judiciary, Police, Arm Forces, Parliament, etc. do not like it when you talk about them negatively. They assume their authority is above citizens and that we should worship them by hook or crook!

Can these institutions take ballistic attacks from the general public just like how the Presidents get? Since the on set of the fourth Republic of Ghana, our Presidents J.J. Rawlings, John Kuffour, Attah Mills, John Mahama, and Nana Addo has been exposed to public insults and all sort of comments. But we did not see anyone charged contempt by these Presidents.

The freedom of speech was not made to attack only Presidents rather, if you see something, say something. I do agree that you have right to say anything, but your right should not infringe on others. But under this context, I am not talking about infringing on others right; rather we must do away with the fear some state institutions are putting in us. That if you talk about us, you may be beaten, threatened or subject to contempt. Having said this above, it is also important to respect our state institutions.

The need to create a space to criticize every organization is important in a democratic environment. Citizens should not be made to fear to talk about the Arm Forces, Police, Judiciary, Parliament, or any institutions in the country. We did not create these institutions to give us a new form of dictatorship because we have had autocratic regimes a lot. We want to live freely in a democratic setting without fear or favor and freely express ourselves.

Say No To Institutional Dictatorship!
Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump's administration vowed Friday to appeal to the Supreme Court after a federal judge dealt a fresh setback to the president's ban on travelers from six mainly Muslim countries and refugees as unfairly excluding the grandparents and grandchildren of people living in the United States.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in a strongly-worded statement announcing the appeal, accused the Hawaii court of having "undermined national security, delayed necessary action, created confusion and violated a proper respect for separation of powers."

He charged the lower court had "improperly substituted its policy preferences for the national security judgments of the executive branch in a time of grave threats, defying both the lawful prerogatives of the executive branch and the directive of the Supreme Court."

It was unclear how quickly the Supreme Court -- now in summer recess but able to act on emergency motions -- might be able to respond, and when or if the expanded terms set by the Hawaii judge might take effect. If they do, thousands of potential travelers could be affected.

The travel ban, which the administration insists is necessary to keep violent extremists out of the country, has faced a series of judicial roadblocks from lower courts.

But the administration gained partial satisfaction in June when the Supreme Court ruled that it could proceed with its plan to prohibit the entry of some people from countries deemed dangerous, while still allowing visits by people with "a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States."

The Supreme Court's ruling allowed a 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and a 120-day ban on refugees to come into force, with exceptions for those people with "bona fide" relationships.

That June 29 ruling, which capped months of legal wrangling, left unclear the question of just who had such a "credible claim." The Trump administration then provided a list defining that category as including parents, spouses, children, sons- and daughters-in-law, siblings and step- or half-siblings.

But the Hawaii judge, Federal Judge Derrick Watson ruled that the administration's criteria unfairly exclude grandparents and grandchildren.

The decision late Thursday thus expanded the exceptions to the ban, ordering that the list include grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins of people in the United States.

'Common sense'

Watson said the government's "narrowly defined list finds no support in the careful language of the Supreme Court or even in the immigration statutes on which the government relies."

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," he wrote.

"Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The government's definition excludes them. That simply cannot be."

The judge also ruled that refugees who have assurances of a placement by an agency in the United States should be exempt.

White House Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert told journalists the ruling seemed "fairly broad," adding that he would be troubled "if it was as broad as reported."

The original ban, announced days after Trump became president on January 20, was successfully challenged in lower courts on the grounds that it overstepped Trump's presidential authority and discriminated against Muslims in violation of the US constitution. A revised version also did not pass legal muster.

Judges in lower courts had cited Trump's repeated statements during the presidential campaign that he intended to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

'People have suffered enough'

Douglas Chin, attorney general for the state of Hawaii, which filed the lawsuit against the Trump administration, welcomed the Thursday ruling.

"The federal court today makes clear that the US government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit," said Chin.

"Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough. Courts have found that this executive order has no basis in stopping terrorism and is just a pretext for illegal and unconstitutional discrimination."
14.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 14 GNA - Mr Ernest Henry Norgbey, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashaiman has called on the security agencies especially the Police to clamp down on contaminated fuel dealers in the area.

He said the activities of these fuel dealers was a threat to national security and the community in which they live.

Mr Norgbey made the call when he spoke to the media at Parliament on an incident in his constituency where two persons were killed when they tried putting a contaminated fuel into a motorbike.

He said the victims of the contaminated fuel fire who were okada riders dealing in adulterated fuel died from their burns and while a number of people were on admission receiving treatment.

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) confirmed that the two companies alleged to have purchased the more than 5 million litres of contaminated fuel under suspicious circumstances from the BOST Company were not licensed.

The Ministry of Energy setup an eight-member ministerial Committee to investigate the case.

The MP said although the recent issue about contaminated fuel had died down the products were still in the system.

He said people had hoarded it and were now trying to sell them on table-top as far as in Wa, Bolgatanga and Tamale.

Mr Norgbey warned that if care was not taken the problem could escalate in Ashaiman and cause more difficulties in other parts of the country.

He called on the NPA and Environmental Protection Agency to collaborate to clamp down on the contaminated fuel dealers.

He said Ashaiman was a densely populated area and if people hoard such products in their rooms and selling them, it posed a great danger to their neighbours.

'Some people in Ashaiman now cannot sleep because they are scared because of what their neighbours are dealing in could catch fire and they will be affected,' he added.

Mr Norgbey said the adulterated fuel business that was going in Ashaiman was an illegality and must not be supported.

GNA

By Christopher Arko, GNA
Sometimes its dangerous it to take things at face value. That goes double for financial markets.

Think of a CEO talking up their companys prospects. Or you may read a bullish brokers report on some cutting edge, high-tech company, ready to rocket to the moon.

Or it may be some fund manager calling the next collapse.

But how can you tell whether that CEOs forecast, or the bullish brokers report, or the bearish fund manager is anywhere near the truth?

The charts will tell you.

If you can bring up a relevant chart, it will tell you the truth  if you know how to read it.

Heres why.

Those who have inside knowledge will act on that information. Im not suggesting anything illegal, its just that somehow the news gets out.

And that insider buying and selling cant be hidden.

It must show up on a chart.

Then, if you can learn to read a chart, you can get on the inside, to a certain degree.

Think of times when a company announces really bad news, or even worse, when the shares are suspended and the company goes into administration.

Investors invariably throw up their hands and say they never saw it coming.

But while investors may not have known of troubles within the company, someone did know. And was acting on that information, by selling their shares.

If its in the news, its in the price.

That selling must show up on a chart.

This highlights why the chart will tell you the truth.

Because when theres money blowing in the breeze, people will act on what they know. Its human nature.

On every occasion, youll find that the market knew long ago that bad news that was coming.

And this leads me to another point. If youre reading some story in the financial press, youre reading old news! It really is old news to the market.

Theres a traders saying that goes, If its in the news, its in the price. And Ive found it to be true.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, catches the market by surprise.

If youre getting your investing information from the financial press, not only are you reading old news, much of it is misinformation.

Let me give you just one example.

You might read in the press some fund manager calling an imminent recession and market collapse.

These fund managers study the market full time and handle billions of dollars. They should know a thing or two about markets.

Youd think.

So if youre fully invested in the market, and youre reading those headlines, it can be really distressing.

What to do?

Like I said, bring up a relevant chart.

Maybe bring up the charts of say, office and industrial REITs.

If those companies are making new highs, then thats telling you revenues are growing and rents are rising. It also suggests theres increasing demand for industrial and office space.

So then you have to think to yourself, How can increased demand for commercial office space happen in a recession scenario?

And the answer is, it cant!

So you put the fund managers call aside, along with all the other calls of collapse. And get on with trading markets.

I remember in January 2016 when the Royal Bank of Scotland came out with their call advising clients to sell everything.

While markets were in panic and the world financial system seemed to be on the brink of collapse, I went through this very same process. And when I did, I was able to put the call aside.

I was able to say in real time, in the heat of the moment, that that the Royal Bank of Scotland was WRONG!

All on record!

Ive marked the Royal Banks call to sell on a chart of the S&P 500 stock index



Source: Optuma

[Click to enlarge]



As you can see, selling at that point was the very worst thing you could have done. It brought in the low, and markets have rocketed up ever since.

I remember writing at the time that the only reason the Royal Bank of Scotland was still around was because of a record taxpayer funded bailout after it collapsed in 2008. The banks losses in that year were the worst in British history.

Charts aside, I thought if they couldnt see the real crisis coming in 2008, then how would they be able to see the next one?

Their call just lacked a bit of credibility.

Theres another lesson here too, which the Royal bank throws up in sharp relief.

Markets cannot collapse while everyone is sitting in cash, waiting on the sidelines, expecting a collapse.

Markets will only collapse when everyone is fully invested, and theres only blue skies ahead.

The Royal Bank is simply the best example of that. They were completely blindsided by the events that led to their 2008 collapse.

So this is just one example (among many) of how following what you read in the financial press can really mislead you.

Dont get your information from the financial press. Get it from the charts instead. It will tell you the truth of a situation, months before youll read it in the press.

Its the only thing that will set you free from all the misinformation, opinions and nonsense you will read concerning markets.

I was able to call the Royal Bank of Scotland wrong in the heat of the moment not because I have any special insights or superior intelligence. I havent developed some special algorithm which gives me the key to future market behaviour.

What I have developed is a basic chart reading ability, which you might like to develop to.

Learning how to read a chart is what we do every day at Money Morning Trader. If that should interest you, go here.

Regards,

Terence Duffy,

Lead Researcher, Cycles, Trends & Forecasts
Speaker Paul Ryan has done something I never expected: He listened to women.

The Republican from the other side of Wisconsin told reporters Thursday that he directed the House sergeant-at-arms to update the dress code after it was criticized as sexist and outdated.

Ryan was at the center of a social media storm earlier this month after Haley Byrd, a congressional reporter for Independent Journal Review, said she was kicked out of the Speakers lobby  a favorite room to grab a quick interview with lawmakers  because she wore a dress without sleeves.

The criticism stemmed not from a belief people shouldnt appear professional when reporting on Congress but rather from the way the rules are enforced.

Dress codes get a lot of flack because they are so often terrible and sexist  particularly in schools. Any dress code that describes typical girls clothing, such as leggings and tank-tops, as distracting deserves some close scrutiny. It is sexist to send a girl home for wearing pants someone determines are too tight because a boy was staring at her rear end. Teach boys to concentrate on the task at hand instead of teaching girls that they need to dress for boys comfort rather than their own.

Anyway, to get back on topic, according to CBS News, this particular dress code has been in place for years in the House but is vague when it comes to womens attire and haphazardly enforced.

The dress code for men requires a jacket and tie. While that seems excessive to me  particularly in Washingtons summer months  at least its clear. Plus the House has been known to provide ties for men who dont have them, which is nice.

But while open-toed shoes and sleeveless dresses are banned in practice, the only written rule for women requires them to wear proper attire as determined by the Speaker, according to CBS News.

Billy House of Bloomberg News, who chairs a committee of congressional correspondents, told CBS that there isnt a specific ban on any articles of clothing, including open-toed shoes and sleeveless dresses.

However, for anyone hoping to find any actual, official code of attire? Good luck, he said.

Look, I can see the problem. Mens fashion is simple and has largely remained unchanged for decades. Womens fashion, on the other hand, can get complicated and changes a bit each year.

However, while thats a challenge to address, saying women should have proper attire and leaving it up to some guy to decide what that means isnt the way to deal with it.

Its unreasonable to expect your average security guard to be an authority on womens fashion and determine whats appropriate and whats not. Its understandable that the guys in charge, who dont particularly want to spend too much time dealing with clothing, would settle on things like No shoulders and toes showing, since those are fairly common traits for sundresses and beach sandals, which no one would suggest are professional. But its not a fair way to police womens clothes.

Ryan responded this week with plans to address the complaint.

Decorum is important, especially for this institution, and a dress code in the chamber and in the lobby makes sense, Ryan told Politico on Thursday.

You wont hear me say this a lot, but Ryan isnt wrong. It is important to dress professionally in a professional setting. It shows you take the responsibility of your job seriously, and you should absolutely respect the institution of the U.S. Congress, even if you privately think all its members are the worst.

Ryan then added, But we also dont need to bar otherwise accepted contemporary business attire, so look for a change on that soon.

Sleeveless dresses are professional attire. Not all of them certainly, but simply whether a dress lacks sleeves isnt a good indicator of whether its appropriate. Look to Ivanka Trumps outfit while she sat in the House gallery during the presidents February address to Congress or Michelle Obamas dresses during several State of the Union addresses. Both womens clothing was perfectly professional. Or look to Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., who more recently wore a sleeveless dress to work Wednesday to prove they are acceptable in some cases.

Ryan did. He listened to the experts on womens fashion  you know, women who need to look good every day to be taken seriously  and will modernize the rules. And Im glad to hear it.
CHP San Andreas logo View Photos

Wallace, CA  A Stockton man was arrested for drunk driving before being flown from the scene of a two-vehicle collision on Highway 12 in Calaveras County near Wallace.

The crash happened just after 3 p.m. on Wednesday on the highway west of Southworth Road. The CHP reports that Matthew Giles, 35, of Stockton was driving a 2006 Ford F150, eastbound at an unknown rate of speed and due to his intoxication allowed the truck to go off the roadway. Meanwhile Richard Lokey, 43, of Altaville was behind the wheel of a 1999 Peterbuilt Big Rig westbound. The passenger side of Giles pickup smashed into the front of the semi. Officer Toby Butzler indicates, Mr. Lokey, he locked up the brakes and was trying to stop. He could actually see it coming. He saw the guy drive off the road. Unfortunately, he couldnt stop in time. Thankfully, there was no passenger in that side of the pickup.

Giles was flown from the scene to a nearby hospital suffering moderate to major injuries. Lokey was not injured.
CHP San Andreas logo View Photos

Update at 4:40 p.m.: The CHP has identified the semi driver killed in a crash Thursday night on Highway 49 near Mokelumne Hill. The victim is 42-year-old Michael D. Clark of Sacramento. Neither drugs nor alcohol played a role in the crash according to the CHP. (Further details on the wreck can be viewed below.)

Original post at 9:30 a.m.: Mokelumne Hill, CA  A man driving a big rig truck, carrying asphalt, was fatally injured in a crash on Highway 49 near Mokelumne Hill.

The CHP reports that the crash occurred at 8:30pm last night. The unidentified 42-year-old male from Sacramento was in the process of hauling asphalt from Carson Hill Rock Products in Angels Camp to a highway paving project on Highway 88 in Amador County.

CHP Officer Toby Butzler reports that the big rig truck was northbound on Highway 49, descending on the grade, towards the North Fork Mokelumne Bridge. Officer Butzler reports that the driver was traveling too fast for the grade and went off the highway and up an embankment along the east roadway edge. As the truck started to tip back onto the highway, the man came out of the cab, and was tragically struck by the trailer as it overturned onto its left side. The victim sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead by arriving emergency responders.

Highway 49 was closed for an extended period last night as the crash was investigated, and spilled asphalt was removed from the highway.
Making soap at home is a great idea for those who want to try something new, want to dispose of the old pieces of soap or just dont trust the chemicals that are usually found in liquid soaps. The liquid soap making process is fairly easy and does not require a lot of ingredients. Less talk and let's get into soap making!

How to make liquid soap in Nigeria?

It's not a secret that there are a lot of different soap making recipes. The main difference between them is the ingredients. We will tell you two main recipes, and you may choose whatever you like. You can also add something new to them and create a unique soap! The recipes are:

1. Basic liquid soap for dishwashing

When we say basic, we really mean that the soap is basic. You will need only three ingredients in order to make this soap. It is simple but not perfect for everyone. There are no glycerin or oils in it so the soap may dry your skin. It's simply Basic!

2. Liquid dish soap with soda and essential oil

It is a more complex version of a basic liquid soap. It will take more time and effort, but its worth it.

Before making the soap, note that the quality of your soap depends on the water that you are using (the pH level, hardness, etc.) Usually, the soap turns out good, but there may be exceptions. So dont try to make a lot of it by increasing the quantities of the ingredients - you may end up with a bad quality soap. First, try with amounts that we suggest and if it turns out good then make more.

READ ALSO: Two simple ways to make almond oil at home

If your soap does not turn out as good as you want it, then try to change the proportions of water and other ingredients. Sometimes soap making requires experimenting! Lets start with the basic liquid soap, shall we?

Note that for both recipes you will need:

- Medium sauce pan;

- Tablespoons and teaspoons;

- Measuring cups;

- A bottle for your soap. It can be a used soap dispenser.

The basic liquid soap

It may take you about an hour to do it and this includes the melting and cooling process. Before making the liquid soap, prepare all the needed utensils and ingredients to make it even faster.

The ingredients are the following:

- 470 ml (or 2 cups) of water;

- 9 g ( cup) of soap flakes;

- 1-2 tablespoons of white vinegar. Distilled!

The basic liquid soap making process

When you have all the ingredients, it is time to make some soap. Soon you will know how to make liquid soap for dishwashing! Follow the instructions listed below:

1. Take your medium sauce pan, add the water and soap flakes. Stir the ingredients with a spoon until they are mixed.

2. Heat the mixture on medium and stir it with a spoon from time to time. The soap has to melt completely. It may take about 15 minutes. But dont let the mixture boil!

3. Make sure that the soap is fully melted. When it's ready, remove the pan from the stove and leave your mixture to cool for 10 minutes.

4. When the mixture has cooled down, add the distilled vinegar. But dont add too much! The amount depends on the consistency of your mixture. If it is thin already, add one tablespoon. If it is thick, you may add two tablespoons. Stir the mixture while adding.

Tip: If you dont like the smell of vinegar, you can add fresh lemon juice instead. The vinegar is used to cut grease, and the lemon can do that as well.

5. Cool the mixture completely. It may take up to 20 minutes. Take your bottle for soap and pour you mixture into the bottle.

And there you have it - the basic soap for dishwashing. The next step is to make another, more complicated kind of soap - the liquid dish soap with soda and essential oil.

Liquid dish soap with soda and essential oil

The process of making this liquid soap is quite similar to the basic recipe.

For soap making you will need the following ingredients:

- 350 ml (about 1  cups) of water;

- from 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon of super washing soda;

- 9 ml of grated castile bar soap and 60 ml of liquid castile soap;

-  teaspoon of glycerin;

- Up to 40 drops of essential oil;

The soap making process

1. Pour your water into a medium sized saucepan and add the grated soap. Place the pan on the stove, turn on the medium heat. Stir the mixture until the soap melts. It may take up to 10 minutes.

2. Remove the pan from the stove, add the liquid castile soap, the washing soda, and glycerin. Stir the mixture.

3. Now comes the longest part - let your soap mixture to set for 24 hours. Yes, that's right - it has to set. You also need to stir it from time to time, because it may get more thick overtime. So make sure to check the consistency!

If it is still too watery, then warm the soap up, add  teaspoon of soda and mix again. If you need even thicker soap, then repeat the process, but add  teaspoon increments until you are satisfied with the consistency.

4. Add the essential oil - the amount is up to you. Stir the mixture and pour it into a soap bottle.

Congratulations - now you know how to make soap! Try different variations of essential oil to get various effects. You can also try and add some coloring, but it is better to buy the coloring that is meant to be used for soap making. The reason is that food coloring, for example, may dye your hands and leave marks on the dishes. You dont want that, right?

READ ALSO: Shea butter for skin lightening

Source: Legit.ng
- Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the growth of Kano state was due to other ethnic groups

- The governor said the country has benefited from Nigeria's unity

- He said Kano state has historically been accommodating of other groups

Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje who is the governor of Kano state has revealed that the states status as a commercial hub was reached by the help of other nationalities especially the Igbos.

The Punch reports that the governor made this statement when he received Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia who came to commiserate with him over the death of Danmasanin Kano, Alhaji Maitama Sule.

Ganduje said: Sometimes, you can have knowledge without wisdom; that is the basis of what is happening to our present elite. That is why we have these ethnic agitations. It has no wisdom.

READ ALSO: Nigerian military reacts after reported planned coup against Osinbajo

Your coming to Kano to console us tells a lot across the divide. It speaks much about the national integration we are trying to achieve.

It pains us that some people are calling for separation. When the ejection order or migration order was given, we in Kano said no; that nobody was going anywhere. Here in Kano, we discussed with our youths and we discussed with the people and we discussed with those, who are being referred to as non-indigenes.

We have abolished that boundary in Kano as everybody residing in Kano is an indigene of Kano State. You can only say that you are an indigene of Kano with primordial claims elsewhere. But as far as we are concerned, you and your children are indigenes of the state.

He noted that Kano state has historically been accommodative of other ethnic groups.

Kano being the commercial nerve-centre of the North, Kano being the commercial nerve-centre of some West African countries, could not have attained that status without other nationalities or without other parts of the country, especially the Igbo. So, if that is our pride, why do we have to break our backbone of commerce?

We need to maintain our status. And to maintain our status, we need people from all over the country to be with us. America is great because people from different cultures, people with different comparative advantages were put together; everybody came with his talent, with his own initiation, with his own wisdom. That is what made America to be great. You can hardly be great with homogeneity; heterogeneity is the way to development all over the world, he added.

Ikpeazu in his remark said the country was better as one noting that he stayed in Maiduguri for a number of years and has visited all the states in the country.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

My position is that the unity of Nigeria is not questionable. I spent the entire seven years at the University of Maiduguri from age 16 and I took my Masters degree from there. I have also worked in Lagos in the West. I have seen the entire states in Nigeria and I have seen the rainbow that beautifies the country.

I have seen the importance of unity in diversity and all I can say is that the only thing we need in Nigeria is to go by the paradigm or by the idiom that says that if you have a dirty hair, you dont cut it off, you wash it. If there are issues to discuss, let us sit down to talk about them. I do not think that to break the egg would give us the end we desire.

Meanwhile, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) rejected the call to implement the 2014 National Conference report describing it as undemocratic.

There has been call for the country to adopt the report of the conference held during the administration of former president, Goodluck Jonathan, but the ACF has insisted that it will not support its implementation.

This decision was reached after the National Executive Council meeting of the apex northern group on Wednesday, July 12.

In a communique released after the meeting, the group explained to the federal government that its reason for rejecting the confab report was in the interest of the country.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video below of acting resident, Professor Yemi Osinbajo speaking about the country's unity:

Source: Legit.ng
- The chairman of Capital Oil Ifeanyi Ubah has accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of being economical with the truth

- Ubah said the corporation is owing his company N16 billion

- He also said NNPC has failed to conduct a reconciliation with his company before making allegations against it.

The chairman of Capital Oil Ifeanyi Ubah has accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of owing his company N16 billion.

Ubah while explaining the role of his company in an alleged disappearance of 82 million metric litres of Petrol belonging to NNPC at the Lower House said the corporation owed Capital Oil N16 billion.

The public hearing which was organized by the committee on petroleum downstream of the House of Representatives was held in Abuja.

READ ALSO: Biafra: We will not recover land from Boko Haram only to break up because of you -Bishop Kukah sends strong warning to Kanus IPOB

Ubah also accused the NNPC of blowing the issue surrounding the disappearance of the petroleum products out of proportion.

He said: "The contract which is what we operate with NNPC puts us in a position of a stock manager which is somewhat the vessel akin to an oil bank."

This allows for coming in and loading out of products so long as we ensure that all parties having products in our storage ultimately receive their total stock.

READ ALSO: When Buhari is declared dead, El-Rufai will be made president in 2019 - Fani-Kayode reveals Tony Blairs role

The NNPC in the past has also borrowed products from us to keep their supply and distribution chain running.

NNPC claimed that we owe N11 billion but failed to reveal that they owe us N16 billion with a key portion of the debt spanning over two years.

The Capital Oil boss also said his company has some products which belongs to the corporation but that the NNPC has failed to conduct a reconciliation with his company before making allegations against it.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

Legit.ng earlier reported that the NNPC during a hearing with lawmakers on Wednesday, July 12, said that Ubah returned N2 billion out of N11 billion owed to it.

The corporation also said the money was part of the fund owed by Capital Oil for products diverted by the company.

Ubah was earlier arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) had arrested Ubah over his alleged engagement in the diversion of petroleum products.

The DSS had accused the Capital Oil boss of engaging in acts inimical to Nigeria's security.

Ubah with his company was alleged involved in the diversion and illegal sale of petroleum products stored in his tank farm

You can watch this Legit.ng video of the former group managing director of NNPC Andrew Yakubu in court:

Source: Legit.ng
Is it your dream to visit the USA? Lets talk about documents required for US visa interview. As soon as you accurately provide all the required documentation, you have more chances of being allowed to visit the United States.

If you are planning a trip to the United States for any purpose, you will need to obtain a visa. To do this, you have to apply and pay the consular fee. Also, you need to collect the necessary documents (the list of papers is different for various visa types). At the end, you should pass an interview an the embassy or consulate of the United States. After all the necessary procedures, employees of the embassy or consulate will then decide whether to give you a visa to the US or refuse.

If you are determined to go the US, be prepared: the process of getting your desired visa will be long and complicated. So, first, you have to decide what visa type you need. Visa type depends on the purpose of the trip. Visa type determines the documents you need to collect before the interview.

Types of US visas

Nonimmigrant Visas

Immigrant Visas

Nonimmigrant Visas include visas for temporary stay. Immigrant Visa is the kind you need if you want to permanently live in the USA.

Nonimmigrant Visas are divided into the following types:

Business / Tourist Visa (B-1 / B-2)

Work Visa (H (H-1B, H-1B1, H-2A, H-2B, H-3, H-4), L (L-1 L-2), O, P, Q, R)

Student Visa (F-1, M-1)

Exchange Visitor Visa (J-1, J-2)

Transit / Ship Crew Visas (C, D, C-1 / D, B-1 / B-2)

Domestic Employee Visa (A-3, G-5, B-1)

Journalist and Media Visas (I)

US visa application in Nigeria

How to apply for an American visa? There are particular clauses and documents necessary for obtaining these types of visas:

A Nonimmigrant Visa Electronic Application, Form DS-160. A passport. It must be valid for travel to the US (if not country-specific agreements ensure exemptions). If more than one person is indicated in your passport, you must submit the application for every one indicated. One 2x2 (5cmx5cm) photo.

More details about this can be found on the official websites: www.ustraveldocs.com or www.travel.state.gov.

Payment terms and clauses depend on the visa type. Business or Tourist, Student, Work, Transit or Ship Crew, Journalist and Media Visa are paid in a standard way. Along with the documents, you will also be required to submit a receipt for payment of 160 US dollars for nonimmigrant visa application processing.

Payment is made in local currency and is not refundable, regardless of the interview outcome. In Nigeria, a vast number of visa applicants pay 160, 190 or 265 US dollars at GT Bank. It depends on your visa type. How much is US visa fee in Naira? It costs 64000.00, 76000.00, or 106000.00 Naira accordingly.

If a visa is issued, there may be an additional reciprocity fee for visa issuance. It depends on your nationality. Detailed information on whether you need to pay a reciprocity fee for visa issuance and what amount can be found on the website of The Department of State's www.travel.state.gov.

As for an Exchange Visitor visa, if your program is not paid by the US government (type G), you need to provide a receipt for payment in a standard way.

Regarding the payment of Domestic Employee Visa, if you are issued a B-1 visa, you pay on a general basis. Only applicants for visa A-3 and G-5 are exempt from payment.

Read information about documents required for visa interview, specifically for each type of visa. How to apply for US visa in Nigeria? Keep reading and keep learning.

General recommendations on documents

Any documents confirming the fact that you are not going to stay illegally in the US can be useful.

Only submit originals. Photocopies are not advised.

Do not try to falsify documents. If any sign of deception is found out, you may lose the opportunity to enter the US forever.

It is not necessary to send documents by mail or fax if consulate employee does not require it.

Employees of the consulate or embassy adhere to confidentiality while working with your documents.

A decision to grant a visa will be taken by the consular employees after an interview and according to the laws of the United States.

Documents required for US visa

Business or Tourist Visa

These visas are for people who want to travel to the USA or go on a business trip.

Documents required for the interview:

A valid evidence of income, tax payments, possession of property or business and other assets.

Your travel route and other information about your planned trip.

A letter from your employer with the details of your position, salary, terms of your employment and vacation, as well as the business goal of your visit.

Criminal/court records relating to any arrest or conviction anywhere, even if you have finished your sentence or were later forgiven.

Depending on your reason for travel, you have to take the following documents:

Students. Take your latest school results, and degrees or diplomas. In addition, take a proof of financial endorsements such as bank applications, fixed deposits, or other proofs.

Working adults. Take the letter from your boss that you are employed and payrolls for the last three months.

People in business and company heads. Take a proof of your position in the company and salary.

Visiting a relative. Bring copies of a status certificate for your relative (Green Card, certificate of naturalization, valid visa, and so on).

Prior visitors to the US. If you have once visited the United States, take any documents that verify your immigration or visa status.

READ ALSO: Apply for US visa in Nigeria

Applicants Looking for Medical Care. If you want to visit the US for medical treatment, you have to present the following additional details to the documents listed above:

A medical diagnosis from a doctor interpreting the nature of your illness and the reason you need treatment in the United States.

A letter from a medical practitioner in the United States about the readiness to treat this particular disease. They also need to include the details of the planned costs and expenses for treatment (including doctors' fees, fees for hospitalization, and all medical expenses).

Payment for your medical care in the US. It could be paid by you or someone else. Take a proof of financial ability from the payer. The individuals guaranteeing payment of these costs must have evidence of their ability to do so, either in the form of bank or other declarations of income.

Work Visa

It is a visa for individuals who want to work temporarily in the US according to the law. The type of visa is chosen according to the type of work that is planned to be done.

To obtain such a visa, you must include the following documents:

Proof of your job qualifications plus any university diplomas.

Original letters from present and previous employers confirming your position and projects.

If you are working now and receiving an H-1B visa, please take your payrolls for the current calendar year and your Federal tax returns (IRS Form 1040 and W-2) for all the years when you have worked in the United States.

Payrolls from your current or latest place of employment.

Personnel managers' names and phone numbers at your current and previous jobs..

Your CV.

If you are going to take dependents with you, you should have the following nonimmigrant visa documents:

Marriage certificate for your spouse (original) and/or birth certificate for unmarried children under 21 (original).

Confirmation from your spouse's employer regarding his/her continued employment.

If your spouse is working now in the United States on an H1-B visa, his/her payrolls for the current calendar year and federal tax returns (IRS Form 1040 and W-2s) for all the years when he/she has worked in the United States on the H-1B visa.

Student Visa

This visa is for foreigners to study. Documents required:

An accepted Form I-20 from your US school or program.

Documents confirming strong financial, social, and family connections to your home country that will oblige you to come back to your country after the conclusion of your study in the US.

Financial and other documents supporting your application and prove that you have enough readily available funds to meet all expenses for the first year of study and that you have enough money to cover all costs while you stay in the United States. M-1 applicants must show the ability to pay education and living costs for the whole period.

Only original copies of bank declarations, scholarship and grant letters, and so on.

If you being financially sponsored by another person, take along with you evidence of your relationship to the sponsor, the sponsor's latest original tax forms and the sponsor's original bank declarations and fixed deposits.

Documents confirming preparation for studying, school transcripts with grades, certificates of public examination, standard tests, and diplomas.

Supporting documents for dependents

Applicants with dependents should take:

Evidence of the student's relation to his or her spouse and child (certificates of marriage and birth).

It is better for family members to apply for their visas at the same time, but if the spouse and child must apply apart later, they have to take the passport and visa copies of the student visa holder with other necessary documents.

Exchange Visitor Visa

This type of visa is for foreigners who take part in exchange programs.

The same documents as for Student Visa plus:

If your sponsor is an organization, please take a certified letter confirming the amount of the financial support and the terms.

A spouse or child should have their Form DS-2019. This form is used to get the visa necessary for the spouse or child to enter the US with you as the main holder of an exchange visitor visa, or to join you in the US later.

Transit or Ship Crew Visa

This one is used for transit routes.

The same documents as for Business/Tourist Visa plus:

Its necessary to submit a letter from the headquarter of your company and/or a list of the sea men.

Domestic Employee Visa

This visa is given for personal or household staff (to foreign diplomats or government).

The same documents as for Business/Tourist Visa plus:

Evidence of the ability of your employer to pay the promised salary. Note: If you apply for an A-3 or G-5 visa, you can do so only if the employer has a diplomatic counselors rank or below.

If you apply for an A-3 or G-5 visa, you can do so only if the employer has a diplomatic counselors rank or below. Proof that your staying in the US will be temporary.

Journalist and Media Visa for foreign mass media

The same documents as for Business/Tourist Visa plus:

Press card or letters of credence.

A letter from your employer with the aim of your trip, the intended terms of your stay, the number of years you have worked with your employer and the journalism experience you have.

Evidence of publication including samples of previous articles, if you have.

Documents for dependents

If your spouse and child apply for a visa later, a copy of your media visa should be submitted along with the application.

Here, we have provided for you the requirements for US visa. Dont hesitate to apply. Good luck and Bon Voyage!

READ ALSO: Likely interview questions at the US embassy

Find out if Thiery Henry is also 'Igwe' in the kitchen on Legit.ng

Source: Legit.ng
- Senator Ahmed Makarfi has announced what will be the penalty for those who plotted against PDP

- Makarfi was on Wednesday July 12 declared the authentic chairman of the party by the Supreme Court

- He, however said despite causing crisis in the party, Ali-Modu Sheriff would be forgiven

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ahmed Makarfi has declared general amnesty for its members involved in the leadership tussle that last for over one year.

Legit.ng gathered that Makarfi made the announcement while fielding questions from journalists on whether the party would sanction the sacked National Chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.

Addressing reporters in Abuja through the spokesperson for the caretaker committee, Dayo Adeyeye, Makarfi said while the party will overlook the sins committed by those set of people involved in the partys crisis, anyone who participates in fresh plot against the new leadership will not be forgiven.

READ ALSO: Kenya's election: Your questions answered

The former Kaduna state governor urged members with pending cases against the party at state levels to withdraw them.

Adeyeye said: No, we wont punish anyone for what had happened in the past. Our doors are open for everyone, including those who are not members of the PDP.

It is general amnesty for all. It is when you begin to commit fresh sins or causing fresh troubles that we will then look at it.

We want to appeal to everybody, those who have cases in courts, to withdraw them in the interest of the party. You can see that everybody is happy because of the outcome of the case.

Adeyeye also claimed that the All Progressives Congress, APC, had failed Nigeria.

He claimed that Nigerians were in search of another party that would offer solutions to current challenges.

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APC is a monumental disaster. People are looking for alternative and now the Supreme Court has restored their hope. We will provide the alternative platform.

As we can see now, 2019 election will be a walkover in our favour. APC will begin to see virile opposition henceforth, he added.

Legit.ng had previously reported that Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, the ousted former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) made a complete turn-around, after initially congratulating Ahmed Makarfi over his victory at the Supreme Court.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video as Nigerians react to the calling for restructuring of Nigeria:

Source: Legit.ng
Other countries provide health care and free education. We, the richest nation in the world, do not.

A third political party is definitely needed.

The Electoral College must be abolished for this to happen.

Politicians should have no better health care than the rest of us.

No security out of our pocket should be provided for their bad behavior.

They should receive no health care, security or perks when they are out of office.

There should be no health care of pharmaceutical lobbyists allowed in Washington.

They should not be allowed to vote themselves raises. It must be publicly approved by referendum.

No billionaires should be allowed to support a candidate.

No out-of-state money should be allowed in statewide races, such as for governor.

We need term limits and we must abolish misused executive orders.

A unanimous vote of both parties should be required before engaging in war.

No government entity may do business with anyone or any corporation that profits during war.

If a military draft is used, eligible children of every politician must serve in battle, not a desk job.

Any corporation that leaves the country for cheap labor may not sell its products in the United States.

If you want America first and less government, all of these steps must happen first.

A national health-care system that we all would contribute to is the only way  through taxes or out of the paycheck, not unlike Medicare.

This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. Its an American national issue.

Government, wake up and do your job.
They say 'what a man can do, a woman can do it better' this young lady may have just proven that saying to be true with her big accomplishment as a pilot.

Legit.ng gathered that a beautiful young lady, Captain Joan Obasi, recently became the youngest female pilot in Nigeria.

Captain Obasi who was recognised by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is currently a pilot with Arik Air, flying the Lagos-Johannesburg flights. She has also been included in the FAA Airmen Certification Database.

Prior to becoming a certified pilot, Obasi had first worked as a flight attendant.

READ ALSO: Beauty & brains: model/pilot Eniola Lawrence's very cute pics

See pictures of her below:

Captain Joan Obasi recently became the youngest female pilot in Nigeria. Photo: Facebook/ Joan Obasi

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ Gossip App

Captain Joan Obasi mans flights international flights. Photos: Facebook/ Joan Obasi

Captain Joan has been certified in the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Photo: Facebook/Joan Obasi

Awesome!

Meanwhile, see this video of Nigerian Air Force flying officers getting winged:

Source: Legit.ng
- N-Power, the empowerment scheme instituted by the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari, seems to be gaining much acceptance

- As part of activities to monitor its activities and testimony, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, visited the N-Power call centre

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo was at the federal governments N-Power scheme call centre in Abuja on Thursday, July 14, Legit.ng understands.

Osinbajo also extended the registration for the scheme by two extra weeks to allow more Nigerians come in.

With this, the application portal will now close on July 27.

The scheme was initiated by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to reduce the number of unemployed Nigerians in the country.

READ ALSO: Buhari's government cancels dichotomy between HND and university degrees

At the centre, Osinbajo monitored activities and operations as well as the schemes impact on beneficiaries, according to the presidency which released a set of tweets to confirm the acting president.

Legit.ng had earlier reported that the Nigerian government on Tuesday, July 11, explained why it was carrying out validation of the Bio-metric Verification Number (BVN) for participants of the N-Power empowerment scheme.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

The federal government said the validation process is expected to avoid previous issues experienced by the participants of the programme.

The federal governments N-Power scheme also released new information for applicants recently.

According to the information on their official twitter page, Applicants who applied for N-Agro will now commence their assessment tests, Monday, 10th July, 2017.

Acting President Osinbajo at the N-Power call centre in Abuja. Credit: Presidency.

Watch this video as Nigerians speak about the hardship in the country:

Source: Legit.ng
- A group of creative designers have reportedly built a seat for IPOB leader, Nnamd Kanu

- The seat has the Biafra flag colour and is being referred to by the builders as 'Biafran throne'

- It is however yet to be presented to Kanu

The agitation for secession by the Indigenous People of Biafra has taken yet another turn when some members of the group built a 'throne' for their leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

Legit.ng gathered that the Biafran themed chair is reportedly to be presented to Kanu later by the designers.

Recall that this will not be the first time IPOB members will create something in honour of their leader.

READ ALSO: Desist from attacking Buhari - Group tells Fayose

The seat is to be presented to Nnamdi Kanu later. Photo credit: Biafra Voice

In June, 2017, a sculptor and IPOB member, Okwuchukwu Njoku, carved an image of the Biafra activist, Kanu, with a broken chain to symbolize his released from kuje prison where he was locked up for close to two years.

Watch video of the 'Biafran throne' below:

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has given reasons why it called for the boycott of elections in the South-East and South-South, starting with Anambra state.

The group in its statement signed by Emma Powerful, the media and publicity secretary of the IPOB said Nnamdi Kanu is very strategic in his approach to restore Biafra.

The IPOB said regardless of its impact, the boycott of the Anambra election by its members will not only benefit those from the South-East and South-South region but all ethnic nationalities.

Watch Legit.ng video of Nnamdi Kanu addressing followers in Isiama Afara, Abia state:

Source: Legit.ng
- Abba Kyari posted photos of his visit to Kaduna, where he spent time with seven men, presumably police officers, whom he referred to as one of his best teams

- Kyari was the officer who led the operation that resulted in the fateful arrest of notorious billionaire kidnapper Chukwudi Onuamadike aka Evans

- The senior police officer is an assistant commissioner of police in charge of the IGPs Intelligence Response Team (IRT)

Abba Kyari, the celebrated police officer who master-minded the capture of billionaire kidnapper Evans, recently paid a visit to one of his best teams in Kaduna state.

The development was made public by Kyari himself, via a post on his Facebook page.

READ ALSO: Nigeria will remain united - Bishop Kukah tells IPOB

He wrote: Visited one of my best Teams in Kaduna Today.

Also attached to the post were pictures of the visit in which the top police officer can be seen posing with his men.

See photos below:

Abba Kyari (center) smiles as he poses with his top team in Kaduna (Photo credit: Facebook: Abba Kyari)

ACP Abba Kyari takes another group photo with his men (Photo credit: Facebook: Abba Kyari)

Kyari was promoted to the position of assistant commissioner of police to head the inspector-general of polices Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in 2016; and he is also the head of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) at the Lagos police command.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Kyari who led the Special Intelligence Response Team (SIRT) of the Lagos state police command that arrested notorious kidnap kingpin, Chukwudubem Onwuamadike popularly knows as Evans, has declared that about ninety percent of information being reeled out about Evans on social media is false.

The senior police officer said that just like most Nigerians; he woke up every morning to hear different false stories on social media pertaining to how they arrested Evans, and what he said.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video asking if Evans should be jailed or employed by the federal government:

Source: Legit.ng
- Nigeria spends a staggering amount of money on imported items

- The Muhammadu Buhari administration is set to change the status quo

- The government's 'Buy Made-in- Nigeria Products' project is gaining grounds across the nation

The minister of state for industry, trade and investment, Mrs. Aisha Abubakar, has said about N7 trillion was spent on the importation of consumables and household items into Nigeria in 2015.

Abubakar made the comment in her address in Kano on Friday, July 14, at a stakeholders meeting on "Buy Made-in- Nigeria Products" organised by her ministry in collaboration with the federal ministry of information and culture.

The minister said the staggering amount being spent on importation of goods is unacceptable to the present administration hence the national orientation to change the perception of Nigerians towards patronizing locally made products.

Mrs Abubakar said the importation of goods is unacceptable to the present administration. Photo credit: Bank of Industry

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Her words: In 2015 alone, over N6.7 trillion was spent on the importation of goods and services for which the nation can produce locally.

N1.09 trillion was reportedly spent on imported foods and drinks; N1.5 trillion on spare-parts; N123.01 billion on shoes and clothes and N399 billion on household items. Imagine if this had been spent on our local industries.

She said in government's determination to encourage the patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products by Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo signed the Executive Order 3 aimed at ensuring that 40% goods procured by government agencies are made locally.

She therefore urged Medium, Small, Small and Micro Enterprises to register on the website of the Bureau for Public Procurement to enable them to take advantage of the provisions of the Executive Order 3.

Also in pursuant of the federal government's commitment to the support for Made-in-Nigeria Initiative, the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, signed on the 18th May 2017, Executive Order 3.

As part of the implementation of the Executive Order 3, Made-in-Nigeria products shall be given preference in the procurement of the following items: Uniforms and footwear, food and beverages, stationary, motor vehicles, pharmaceuticals, construction materials and information and communication technology and at least 40% of the procurement expenditure on these items in all MDAs of the federal government of Nigeria shall be locally manufactured goods and service providers, she said.

Meanwhile, organisers of the federal government's youth employment scheme, N-Power, have released more information for its 2016 and 2017 beneficiaries via its Twitter handle.

Legit.ng monitored the ever-busy Twitter handle of the scheme, and realised that new information were released for the beneficiaries on Tuesday, July 4.

Legit.ng checks revealed that the N-Power TAX assessment tests will continue. Accordingly, applicants who registered for N-TAX and whose BVN records match their application will still be sent text messages to log in.

READ ALSO: Acting President Osinbajo visits N-Power call centre in Abuja

Watch the Legit.ng TV video report of the newly reopened Nyanya bus station in Abuja after it was bombed by Boko Haram:

Source: Legit.ng
Millennial women are more complex about the natural products they buy, meaning they do more research and consider many factors before purchasing compared to male Millennials or females from other generations. Millennial women also like to show off their natural lifestyle to their social media networks. This gives brand a large opportunity to provide quality products to women who can become advocates, according to Lisa Mabe, Founder & CEO, Green Purse PR.

In this podcast with Sandy Almendarez, editor in chief, INSIDER, Mabe discusses how brands can connect with the female Millennial, including:

Seven steps to creating loyal female Millennial consumers

The differences between older and younger Millennials, and why its important to understand the distinction

Creating social media content thats sharable for women to expand a brands reach.

Mabe will be speaking at the Supplyside West Workshop, How Millennials Are Transforming Modern Marketing on Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 9 a.m. to noon. Check out supplysideshow.com to learn more and to get registered.
Due to magnetism iron should  theoretically  be a poor superconductor. Nevertheless certain iron based materials possess fine superconducting properties. Why? Because the five unbound electrons found in iron  as a result of individual modes of operation, it turns out  facilitate superconductivity.

This may come in very handily in future attempts to tailor new superconductors, says Brian Mller Andersen, condensed matter physicist at NBI and one of the scientists behind the research.

Brian Mller Andersens field is exotic phases in condensed matters  i.e. phases and conditions where materials display reactions markedly different from what is seen under so called normal circumstances  and he specializes in superconductors: Matters and materials, typically metals or alloys, that can transmit electricity without loss of energy, in reality a cable void of resistance.



Scientist at Cornell University (USA) used this custom-built microscope  a Spectroscopic Imaging Scanning Tunneling Microscope  to monitor electron-activity in iron-based superconductors. The microscope is 1 meter tall. At the top equipment can lower the temperature to -273 Celcius, a fraction above absolute zero. Photo: Cornell University/J.C. Seamus Davis. (Graphic image, red & blue, on black)

Such superconductors exist and can e.g. be found in the vast number of magnets which CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, has installed in its subterranean particle accelerator (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland  which makes it is possible to study particles at sub-atomic level. The research community is, however, also very eager to develop superconductors for rather more mundane purposes  not least transmission of electricity to the general public  but still needs to come up with economically viable solutions.

The need for such transmission systems undoubtedly exists  the present international system, including Denmark  is based on high voltage cables which have significant resistance resulting in transmission-losses of up to 10 percent along the road from power plant to end-consumer.

But in spite of more than one century of intense research science has not yet been able to come up with superconductors that function at room-temperature  hence the situation still being that materials tested for superconductivity need to be cooled well down toward absolute zero (-273,15 Celsius).

Even when working with the most recent generation superconductors the cooling-down will always have to exceed -100 Celsius  and as things stand, cooling demands more energy than what could theoretically be saved by transmitting electricity via superconductor-based cables made from the materials examined. Which is why the method as such is not yet economically viable.

Stack of iron sheets

A member of the youngest generation of zero-resistance conductors  iron-based superconductors  are at the very center in the report researchers from NBI, Cornell University (USA), Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA), University of St. Andrews (Scotland) and from a number of other scientific institutions publish in this weeks issue of Science.

This type of superconductors was developed 7-8 years ago at Tokyo Institute of Technology by Professor Hideo Hosono, a Japanese materials specialist  and he really caught the attention of colleagues from all over the globe when he published his research.

Iron, being magnetic, has long been seen as a no-go when selecting candidates for new superconductors  for the very reason that magnetism and superconductivity are traditionally considered incompatible. Professor Hosono, nevertheless, succeeded in constructing a new type of superconductors by using as building materials certain iron derivate which he manipulated, iron selenide (FeSe) being one of them.

In principle Hosono stacked a large number of ultra-thin iron sheets  gluing them together with heavy atoms  and thus ended up with a glulam-like construction with fine superconductive properties, says NBI-physicist Brian Mller Andersen: And with superconductivity appearing at roughly -150 Celsius.

Not even Hosonos iron selenide superconductors are, however, economically viable for energy transmission purposes. And since the Japanese professor published his results one question has remained un-answered: What is, more specifically, prompting the superconductivity in this glulam-like iron construction  and how can one, given the presumed incompatibility between magnetism and superconductivity  theoretically understand the fine superconductive properties in Hosonos sheets?



This illustration is based on a theoretical understanding of microscope-based measurements carried out by Cornell University. It shows a 2-dimensional iron-layer. The lattice seen here roughly measures 10/1.000.000 of 1 millimeter on each side. The red and dark blue clover-like structures represent two different iron electrons  each individually expressed (orbital state). In order to arrive at superconductivity the electrons must form groups of two (Cooper pairing)  symbolized by the light blue eclipses. They are superconductive  while the red do not form Cooper pairs because they predominantly contribute to the upholding of magnetism in the entire system.

The scientific article from the Niels Bohr Institute, Cornell University, University of St. Andrews et.al. demonstrates for the first time ever, that the five unbound iron electrons behave fundamentally different during the state of superconductivity. Illustration: Cornell University

Science  Discovery of orbital-selective Cooper pairing in FeSe

In copper

Brian Mller Andersen and his colleagues looked into just this in the Science-article  and the researchers conclude that the answer somehow hinges on the fact that the five unbound electrons found in iron, hence also in Hosonos superconductors, turned out to have individual physical properties and modes of operation; features not previously reported in iron.

The existence of these features could be stated for certain after a number of experiments carried out at Cornell University  whereupon Brian Mller Andersen and other members of the team subjected the results to an extensive computational process in order to understand the somewhat enigmatic phenomenon from a theoretical point of view.

The Science-article cannot in detail explain the working modes of iron-based superconductors, says Brian Mller Andersen: But we were able to see that some of the five unbound electrons which are part of Hosonos superconductors interact with particular intensity  and at the same time we could see that these electrons have a pronounced tendency to become magnetic. These are the very electrons behind the efficacy of iron-based superconductors  they; so to speak, clear the track necessary for this material to be able transport electricity without any resistance.

By establishing this, the scientists have at the same time succeeded in widening the general understanding of another group of newcomers  copper-based superconductors  who, like iron-based superconductors, operate by means of strong electron-reciprocal actions and at relatively high temperatures, says Brian Mller Andersen:

In conclusion we seem to get closer to being able to provide a more general understanding of superconductivity at high temperatures. And if we succeed, that information could be instrumental in future attempts to build new and more efficient superconductors.
The United States Air Force is suffering a global air superiority crisis after 26 years of combat operations. Today, the service possesses just under 1,000 aircraft capable of air-to-air combat  F-15s, , F-22s, and F-35s. That is down more than 65 percent since the end of the Cold War. Given the global demands of our national security strategy, operational considerations, and force rotation factors, this amounts to fewer than 100 fighter aircraft available in a particular location at any given time.

Fighters are employed in a rotational fashionwith one third of aircraft on station, another third returning to base, and the last third preparing to launch. That means in reality only about 30 fighters are immediately able to engage at any given time in a particular region. Put bluntly, that number does not cut it when it comes to projecting necessary air-to-air capability to meet increasingly lethal threats that are more challenging today than during the Cold War.

The F-22 boast impressive capabilities, the reality is that the few that we have are not enough to meet the demands of our defense strategy. History is replete with examples when air superiority was the fundamental lynchpin of military successDesert Storm, D-Day, and the Battle of Britain are some of the most well known. The fate of nations has resided on air superiority more than onceand it will again one day in the future.

The US Air Force recommends 

While maintaining the current inventory, we must increase the number of operational fighters. A reasonable near-term goal is to buy back 250 air-to-air capable fighters that were ceded as part CAF REDUX. That measure was never intended to be permanent and it is time to replace that cut. The F-35 build rate could be accelerated to at least the original plan of 100 Air Force F-35As per year. In addition to increasing capacity, this would reduce per-unit cost, total program cost, and populate fighter squadrons with a vast increase in capabilitysomething enormously important when we need to make the most of every aircraft.
Viroqua, population 4,362, is the subject of a song by the Nashville-based folk-Americana duo The Rough & Tumble.

The duo  Mallory Graham and Scott Tyler  wrote the song, Viroqua, WI from a strangely-fated evening in the citys Walmart parking lot. The song will be performed when they come to Driftless Books and Music, Thursday, July 20.

Graham said it was 2015 when they were traveling from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Tennessee via Chicago. Friends had recommended they stop in Viroqua to shop at the food co-op and stock up on groceries.

We stopped at the co-op and it got later than expected, and the closest Walmart was Viroqua, she said.

They drove their 16-foot camper to the Walmart parking lot to spend the night. Graham said they bought Klondike bars, and when they returned to the camper, a white Cadillac drove into the lot at a fast speed.

It was heading toward us, she said. We looked over and thought, Were going to get hit and well die in Viroqua. It veers to the right, stops and the driver falls asleep.

He left his lights on, Tyler said.

They approached the car, which had its drivers-side window open a crack.

The stench in the car said he needed to sleep it off, Tyler said. We knew he would need a jump. So the couple found their jumper cables and waited for the driver to wake up.

The driver woke up, scanned the parking lot and saw them about 10 feet away.

He says, Nice night. My car wont start, Graham said. Tyler connected the jumper cables and was ready to give the Cadillac a jump.

The guy said he couldnt do it because it was a Cadillac and Cadillacs can only be jumped by another Cadillac, Graham said. We knew that wasnt true, but he said it with such confidence.

The driver told them he had a friend in the next town with a Cadillac who could jump start the car.

He said to get to the next town its 6 miles to get there and its 7 miles to get back again Graham said. Im not sure if its 7 miles to get back home but we wrote a song based on (that event).

The song will be on The Rough & Tumbles next record which will come out in 2018.

The July 20 performance is their first in Viroqua.

We are excited; we have heard wonderful things about Driftless Books, Graham said. We are trying to hit Wisconsin because of our experience in Viroqua. We want to see what it is like.

They recently performed in Oconomowoc. We love Wisconsin, Tyler said.

Graham and Tyler formed The Rough & Tumble in 2011. In 2015, the couple sold everything they couldnt store in boxes small enough to fit in Grahams sisters spare closet, quit their day jobs and bought a camper to venture on the open road, playing shows nationwide. They travel with two rescue dogs  88-pound Butter and 85-pound Pud  both of whom are Mastiff mixes.

They are wonderful, Tyler said.

Theres no better way to travel, Graham added.

They both sing and play multiple instruments. Tyler plays guitar, kick drum and harmonica. Graham plays toy piano, bajulle (a stringed instrument which is a half banjo and half ukulele), accordion and bells. She also has shakers, rattles and whistles in an old vegetable crate she calls Tumble Box of Magical Options and uses them during performances.

Those who attend the concert can expect a personal experience.

We like to put on a show thats personal, Tyler said. We talk during the set and after.

We put ourselves into songs, Graham said. They might hear of our travels, hear of our parents and whats on our minds.

Tyler said its not like therapy, but we like to keep it interesting.
What It Looks Like To Us and the Words We Use

Ada Limon

All these great barns out here in the outskirts,

black creosote boards knee-deep in the bluegrass.

They look so beautifully abandoned, even in use.

You say they look like arks after the seas

dried up, I say they look like pirate ships,

and I think of that walk in the valley where

J said, You dont believe in God? And I said,

No. I believe in this connection we all have

to nature, to each other, to the universe.

And she said, Yeah, God. And how we stood there,

low beasts among the white oaks, Spanish moss,

and spider webs, obsidian shards stuck in our pockets,

woodpecker flurry, and I refused to call it so.

So instead, we looked up at the unruly sky,

its clouds in simple animal shapes we could name

though we knew they were really just clouds
From Common Dreams

"Time is Not on Our Side": Former senior US government officials say there must be dialogue with North Korea

Despite the rhetoric from the Trump administration about military confrontation with North Korea, the common theme of many U.S. experts on North Korea is that the U.S. presidential administration MUST conduct a dialogue with North Korea -- and quickly! Military confrontation is NOT an option according to the experts.

And most importantly, the new President of South Korea Moon Jae-in was elected in May 2017 on a pledge to engage in talks with North Korea and pursue diplomacy to finally officially end the Korean conflict. Nearly 80 percent of South Koreans support a resumption of long-suspended inter-Korean dialogue, according to a survey by a presidential advisory panel showed in late June.

On June 28, 2017, six former high-level experienced U.S. government officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations over the past 30 years sent a letter to President Trump stating that "Kim Jong Un is not irrational and highly values preserving his regime... Talking is not a reward or a concession to Pyongyang and should not be construed as signaling acceptance of a nuclear-armed North Korea. It is a necessary step to establishing communication to avoid a nuclear catastrophe. The key danger today is not that North Korea would launch a surprise nuclear attack. Instead the primary danger is a miscalculation or mistake that could lead to war."

The signatories to the letter were...

William J. Perry, 19th U.S. Secretary of Defense under the Clinton administration;

George P. Shultz, 60th Secretary of State under the Reagan administration and now Distinguished Fellow, Hoover institution, Stanford University;

Governor Bill Richardson, U.S. Secretary of Energy and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under the Clinton administration;

Robert L. Gallucci, former negotiator in the Clinton administration and now with Georgetown University;

Sigfrid S. Hecker, nuclear weapons expert and the last U.S. official to visit the North Korean nuclear facilities and now with the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University; and

Retired U.S. Senator (Republican) Richard G. Lugar, and now president the Lugar Center

Together, they wrote: "there are no good military options, and a North Korean response to a US attack would devastate North Korea and Japan. Tightening sanctions can be useful in increasing pressure on North Korea, but sanctions alone will not solve the problem. Pyongyang has shown that it can make progress on missile and nuclear technology despite its isolation. Without a diplomatic effort to stop its progress, there is little doubt that it will develop a long-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the United States."

The experts ended their letter to President Trump by calling for quick action: "Today there is a window of opportunity to stop these programs, and it may be the last chance before North Korea acquires long-range capability. Time is not on our side. We urge you to put diplomacy at the top of the list of options on the table."

Two weeks earlier, on June 13, 2017, former Secretary of Defense William Perry and University of Chicago Korean War historian Bruce Cummings both strongly advocated for dialogue with North Korea at the Korean Peace Network's conference "Off Ramps to War" hosted by the Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia program at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington, DC.

William Perry said, "North Korean leadership may be ruthless and reckless, but they are not crazy." He added, "Why do we have a double standard for North Korea? We accept Saudi Arabia as it is with its human rights violations, but we do not accept North Korea as it is -- a nuclear power. Refusing to listen to the North Koreans about their goals and needs has meant that in the 17 years since the last relevant dialogue, the North Koreans have developed and tested nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles."

The Bush administration's naming North Korea as part of the "Axis of Evil" in 2002 and the Obama administration's subsequent "Strategic Patience" policy were not forms of diplomacy, argued Perry, but instead were "miserable policy failures." According to Perry, the U.S. has not had a negotiating strategy with North Korea in 17 years, and during that time, North Korea has continued to do what the U.S. and other major powers do not want it to do -- test nuclear weapons and missiles.

Perry said that the North Korean government has three goals:

Staying in power;

Gaining international respect;

Improving their economy.

Perry emphasized that the North Korean government will sacrifice the last two goals -- gaining international respect and improving the economy -- to achieve the first goal, which is staying in power.

Because of the lack of listening to and acknowledging North Korean objectives on what its goals are -- which includes signing a peace treaty to take the place of the 50-plus year armistice, signing a nonaggression pact and reducing U.S.-South Korean military war games, Perry believes that the best outcome available to negotiators is to freeze the nuclear weapons and the ICBM programs, not their elimination.

Perry said he believes North Koreans would never use nuclear weapons as those weapons "are valuable only if they DON'T use them. They know the response from the U.S. would be devastating, should North Korea explode a nuclear weapon."

University of Chicago history professor Bruce Cumings, author of The Korean War: A History, said at the symposium that the Clinton administration achieved very important goals with North Korea, including "North Korea freezing its plutonium production for eight years (1994-2002) and, in October 2000, indirectly working out a deal to buy all of North Korea's medium and long-range missiles -- and signing an agreement with North Korean General Jo Myong-rok in a meeting in the White House stating that neither country would bear 'hostile intent' toward the other."

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From Counterpunch

It is time for an urgent clarion call.

Given the retrograde pits inhabited by our ruling politicians and the avaricious over-reach of myopic big-business bosses, the self-described pillars of our society must step up to reverse the decline of our country. Here is my advice to each pillar:

1) Step up, lawyers and judges of America. You have no less to lose than our Constitutional observances and equal justice under law. A few years ago, brave Pakistani lawyers marched in the streets in open protest against dictatorial strictures. As you witness affronts to justice such as entrenched secrecy, legal procedures used to obstruct judicial justice, repeal of health and safety protections and the curtailment of civil liberties and access to legal aid, you must become vigorous first responders and exclaim: Stop! A just society must be defended by the courts and the officers of the court -- the attorneys.

2) Step up, religious leaders, who see yourselves as custodians of spiritual and compassionate values. Recall your heroic forebears who led non-violent civil disobedience during the repression of civil rights in the Nineteen Sixties -- as with the leadership of the late greats Martin Luther King Jr. and William Sloane Coffin. Champion the Golden Rule for those who don't believe that "he who has the gold, rules."

3) Step up, business people -- large and small. Some of you are enlightened and motivated enough to stand tall against the cruel, monetized minds that are harming low-paid workers, cheating consumers, denying insurance to patients, avoiding or evading taxes, swindling investors and undermining communities across the country.

You have good examples from history, including those business leaders who recently quit the US Chamber of Commerce over the necessity to confront climate change or the 150 business leaders who issued strong support for the successful Legal Services Corporation for low-income Americans that Trump's budget would eliminate entirely.

4) Step up, academic professors and teachers, and protect your students from politicians intent on undermining the public school system and turning its budgets into cash cows for commercial vendors. You can help the cause by demanding that practical civic skills and experience become part of the curriculum. You can demand that Trump's increasingly bloated war budget not be funded at the expense of our children's education and deteriorating physical facilities. You can point out waste and administrative bureaucracy to strengthen this already compelling University professors can establish active brain trusts to educate the public and rebut the avalanche of fake news and political insults.

5) Step up,doctors and nurses, in whose trust is placed the lives of millions of people. Polls show over half of you want full Medicare for all with free choice of physician and hospital. This should come as no surprise since it is much more efficient, eliminating much of the bookkeeping and lengthy billings that drain your time away from practicing healthcare. Above all, Medicare for all saves lives and prevents trauma and disease when people can afford early diagnoses and treatment.

Already prominent economists, business magnates like Warren Buffett and over 60 percent of Americans want single payer. Your strong voices together can sober up those politicians in Congress hell-bent on coarse pullbacks that will make the present situation even worse and more perilous. Imagine our elected, well-insured, representatives pushing a huge tax cut for the rich, at the expense of hospitals and clinics and big time reductions in Medicaid.

6) Step up, public relations professionals, who can take an active role in facilitating a public conversation on the need for important social services and reforms that improve their implementation.

7) Step up, veterans, including high-ranking military, national security and diplomatic retirees, who can advocate for waging peace instead of reckless wars of aggression and other armed force violations of US and international law. Some people incorrectly think that veterans monolithically support all military interventions. But no one knows the horror of war better than those soldiers who have fought them (A large majority of soldiers in Iraq wanted us to get out of that disastrous quagmire in a January 2005 poll).

Over 300 retired generals, admirals and national security officials openly opposed Bush/Cheney's criminal invasion of Iraq in 2003. Veterans For Peace makes eloquent arguments for waging peace. Now is the time to learn from their experience, stand for smart diplomacy and avoid succumbing to provocations and the boomeranging impacts of Empire.

8) Step up, members of the media, both corporate and public. Give voice to the vast civil society and citizen groups that are vital to our democracy. They have long been practicing and strengthening democratic practices. Allow their voice of reason, sanity and evidence-based proposals to reach millions of Americans.

9) Step up, scientists and technologists. You must strongly organize against the corrosive effect of medieval myths about the natural world and habitat-destroying toxins pouring from unaccountable industry. Champion the necessity of science for the people, not for militarism and a global arms race.

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From Gush Shalom

THE WHOLE thing could have been a huge practical joke, if it had not been real.

All of Israel was taken in. Left, right and center. All the newspapers and TV networks, without exception.

There it was: UNESCO has declared that the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron is a Palestinian heritage site.

I ADMIT that I was taken in, too. The news was so clear and so simple, its acceptance so uniform, that I too accepted it unthinkingly. True, it was a bit strange, but stranger things happen.

The "Cave of Machpelah" is no cave at all. It is a large building, which the Arabs call al-Haram al-Ibrahim, the Mosque of Ibrahim, in the center of Hebron, the town the Arabs call al-Khalil, the Friend of God (meaning Abraham).

According to the Bible, Abraham, the forefather of the Jews, bought the place from its local owner as a burial plot for his wife, Sarah. When his time came, he was also buried there, as were his son Isaac with his wife Rivka and his grandson, Jacob, with his wife Leah. (His other wife, Rachel, is supposed to be buried on the way to Bethlehem.)

And here comes UNESCO, the anti-Semitic cultural branch of the anti-Semitic UN, and declares that this is a Palestinian holy site!

Is there no limit to Jew-baiting?

A tsunami of emotions surged over Israel. Jews were united in protest. Everybody vented their anger as loudly as possible. Rarely was such unanimity seen here.

IF I had stopped to think for a moment, I would have realized that the whole thing was nonsense. UNESCO does not assign places to nations. World Heritage sites are -- well -- the heritage of the entire world. As a detail, these declarations mention in which country each World Heritage site is located.

The holy church in Nazareth is located in Israel, but it does not "belong" to Israel. The graves of holy Jewish rabbis in Russia or Egypt do not belong to Israel. UNESCO did not say that the Machpelah-al-Haram al-Ibrahim site belongs to the Palestinians. It said that it is located in Palestine.

Why Palestine? Because, according to international law, the town of Hebron is part of Palestine, which was recognized by the UN as a state under occupation. Under Israeli law, too, Hebron is not a part of Israel proper but under military occupation.

I am grateful to an ex-Israeli called Idan Landau who lives in the US. He took the trouble to read the original text and sent us emails to correct our impression. The moment I read it, I hit myself on the brow. How could I have been so stupid!

The UNESCO resolution is fair and correct. It remarks that the site is holy to the three monotheistic religions, as indeed it is. Because of this, a Jewish fanatic -- a settler from America -- once murdered dozens of praying Muslims there. Jewish fanatics have settled nearby.

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There's a possibility for making a better relationship between the United States and Russia, but the knives are out.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met recently in Hamburg, Germany, and had what appeared to be a very constructive meeting. The two discussed a range of issues including the war in Syria, the battle against terrorism, cyber security, and the charges of Russian meddling in the US presidential election last year.

The two leaders were able to strike an agreement for a cease-fire in a section of Syria and coordinate with each other in the battle against ISIS. They agreed to disagree on the claim of Russian hacking.

According to Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies at Princeton University and New York University, the Trump-Putin meeting may augur a new day in Russia-US relations.

Cohen said the meeting represented a "potentially historic new de'tente, anti-Cold War partnership begun by Trump and Putin." He noted that the relations between the two nuclear-armed superpowers are at their lowest point in decades.

"What we saw today was potentially the most fateful meeting between an American and Russian president since the wartime (World War II)," said Cohen, who witnessed the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meetings in the 1980s. "The reason is the relationship between the US and Russia is so dangerous."

But Cohen, speaking on the Tucker Carlson show on Fox television on Friday, hours after the meeting, cautioned that the proposed new partnership will likely come under "vicious attack."

How right he was. Over the next few days there was a fierce pushback. On Sunday, three longtime critics of Trump and Russia took to the airwaves to criticize Trump's performance in Hamburg and blast the idea of a partnership.

Neo-con senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said it made no sense to forge a new agreement with Russia without punishing Russia first for the alleged cyber attacks in the US election last fall.

They and others keep insisting that Russian responsibility for the hacking is flat fact, despite serious doubts raised by a number of cyber experts, the fact that the report on the hacking was done not by the FBI but by a company hired by the Democratic National Committee, the fact that the company's chief technical officer is an anti-Putin Russian e'migre', and the fact that a full National Intelligence Estimate on the hacking, involving all 17 intelligence agencies, was never done (contrary to assertions by many politicians and the media).

Speaking on the NBC show "Meet the Press," Graham said Trump gave a "terrific speech" in Poland earlier in the week on his European trip, but then had what he called a "disastrous meeting" with Putin in Germany.

The senator said the president has a "blind spot" on Russia and his attitude that we should "forgive and forget when it comes to Putin regarding cyber attacks is to empower Putin and that is exactly what he is doing."

McCain criticized Trump's tweet over the weekend that he "looked forward to working constructively with the Russians" --- actually, a thoroughly laudable goal, in my view.

But McCain demanded that Putin must pay a stiff price for the claimed hacking. "Otherwise he'll be encouraged to do it again," he said.

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It's Friday night, you're meeting your friends for dinner in West Hollywood and for some reason you'd decided to drive instead of taking an Uber. Now you're circling the same blocks again and again, over and over, like Sisyphus with his rock, trying to find a parking spot. You were actually five minutes early when you got here, but now you're 20 minutes late and still haven't found something.

You're wasting time spent doing other things, no doubt. But how much of an Angeleno's time (nay, life) is wasted looking for parking in a given year? 85 hours, at least according to the number crunchers at global traffic data firm Inrix. That's about as long as watching the entirety of The Sopranos plus the entirety of Big Little Lies PLUS the entirety of Master of None (yeah, weird combo, we know, but, hey, we're down if you are).

So, you spend more than 3.5 days of your life each year just looking for parking. And if you think Angelenos have it bad, we're only second on the list. New Yorkers spend a whopping 107 hours (almost 4.5 days) a year searching for parking (that's like The Sopranos plus Master of None plus.nevermind).

But the figures go on. The report suggests that this perennial search costs $1,785 per Angeleno per year ($3.7 billion total). In New York City, that number is $2,243 per person per year, or $4.3 billion for the whole year. Yikes.

Luckily, the Auto Club of Southern California has some tips for parking. "Its really best to find one parking row and wait for someone to come out and leave that space, rather than driving around and wasting money and gas, Doug Shupe, spokesman for the organization, said, notes KPCC. Other pointers? Arrive earlier (duh) and consider parking farther away (walking is healthy, so, sure).

Seems like self-driving cars can't come fast enough. Then again, anyone ever heard of public transportation?


World Trade Center , New York , USA

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Article at YourNewsWire.com:

"... 79-year-old retired CIA agent, Malcom Howard, has made a series of astonishing claims since being released from hospital in New Jersey on Friday and told he has weeks to live. Mr. Howard claims he was involved in the "controlled demolition" of World Trade Center 7, the third building that was destroyed on 9/11... "

"... Mr. Howard, who worked for the CIA for 36 years as an operative, claims he was tapped by senior CIA agents to work on the project due to his engineering background, and early career in the demolition business..."

"... Trained as a civil engineer, Mr. Howard became an explosives expert after being headhunted by the CIA in early 1980s. Mr. Howard says has extensive experience in planting explosives in items as small as cigarette lighters and as large as "80 floor buildings." ".....YourNewsWire.com

Article at YourNewsWire.com:
From Smirking Chimp

In 2012, the bin Ali Jaber family gathered in Khashamir, Yemen, for a wedding celebration. Ahmed Salem bin Ali Jaber (Salem) was asked to deliver a guest sermon, which challenged al Qaeda to justify its attacks on civilians. In response to his sermon, three strange men arrived to see Salem.

Fearing trouble, Salem asked Waleed bin Ali Jaber (Waleed), a police officer, to accompany him to meet the three men. A US-operated drone deployed four Hellfire missiles, killing all five men. Salem and Waleed were not the intended targets of the drone strike. The three strangers were not "high-level, high-value targets to the United States." This was a "signature strike" in which the government targets anonymous suspected militants solely based on their pattern of behavior.

The Yemeni government ordered that the victims' families receive approximately $55,000 as "condolence" payments. When a member of Yemen's National Security Bureau offered a family member $1,000,000, the official stated the money was from the US government, but he later recanted when Faisal bin Ali Jaber (Faisal) asked the official to produce his statement in writing.

Drone Victims' Relative Sues in Federal Court

Faisal, who was Salem's brother-in-law and Waleed's uncle, sued the US government in federal district court. He requested an apology for the wrongful deaths of his relatives and a declaration that the drone strike violated domestic and international law.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiff made the following allegations:

-- "No urgent military purpose or other emergency justified" the drone strike;

-- Killing the alleged targets was not "strictly unavoidable" to defend against an "imminent threat of death" to the "United States or its allies"; and

-- The risk to nearby civilians was excessive in comparison to the military objective since "there [was] no evidence" the three men were "legitimate military targets," and "there were no US or Yemeni forces or military objectives in the vicinity that were in need of protection against three young Yemeni men."

The district court dismissed the case, concluding it had no jurisdiction to adjudicate the issue of legality of the drone strike because that was a "political question" reserved to the executive branch.

On June 30, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the dismissal. Relying on a prior decision of the DC Circuit, the judges ruled that courts cannot review military targeting decisions by the executive without violating the separation of powers doctrine.

Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote for the panel, "It is not the role of the Judiciary to second-guess the determination of the Executive, in coordination with the Legislature, that the interests of the US call for a particular military action in the ongoing War on Terror."

Courts Are Competent to Review Executive Targeting Decisions

As law professors Mary Ellen O'Connell and Douglas Cassel pointed out in their amicus brief filed in this case, courts regularly adjudicate the legality of the use of military force. They cited the United Nations Charter, which permits a country to attack another country only in self-defense or with the approval of the Security Council.

"Military force in self-defense may be used only in response to a significant attack and only when the response is necessary and proportionate to the threat," the professors wrote, citing a case from the International Court of Justice, the judicial arm of the UN system. "Moreover, the response may be directed only against the territory, planes, or ships of a state responsible for the initial significant attack," they added.

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In these times of hyper-partisanship, the reciting of the pledge has become a competitive sport. I have long noticed that Tea Party types like to emphasize "under God", perhaps to compensate their imagined attacks on their Christianity. In the Trump era, progressives have taken to putting an emphasis on "justice for all" in a display of resistance. Still said out of habit but ignored in deed is poor "indivisible". There is little room for such a quaint notion as the opposing sides prepare to engage in verbal, and sometimes physical, battles.

The truth is that deep divisions have been ingrained in our country since its birth. The men who fathered our nation and who are looked at with great reverence only counted some humans as worth 3/5 the value of others and excluded women from all the rights granted "we the people". Still, they were able to set aside their differences and compromise their moral principles to set a foundation that could be improved upon. The greatness America has not always been about our accomplishments but what we aspired to be.

Aspiration is a powerful trait that will not allow a permanent compromise with evil. Eventually, our nation paid the price for its original sin with the Civil War. This purged us of slavery, but not its residual effects. Black Lives Matter is an attempt at drawing attention to how the past echoes into today. Unfortunately, those who would benefit the most from hearing their message are too busy vilifying the messengers to listen. Instead of providing a starting point for dialog it shows just one more way that we are divisible.

As a progressive in the age of Trump, it is important to realize how much our country changed in my lifetime. I remember the feeling of pride as we elected Obama, the first African-American president, an accomplishment that I did not truly believe was possible. Yet, in that same election, California voters voted to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation with the passage of Proposition 8. Just a few years later the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage on a nationwide basis. The winds of change were blowing at hurricane levels.

On November 8, 2016, further change seemed imminent with the breakage of the glass ceiling and the election of our first woman president. Instead, the presidency was handed to a man with no government experience who propagated the Birther movement that tried to delegitimize President Obama, ran six companies into bankruptcy and had so little respect for women that he bragged about being able to "grab 'em by the p*ssy." What could go wrong?

The election of Trump has brought the deep divisions within our country out into the open. My fellow progressives have stood their ground, determined to protect the hard-fought changes of the Obama years, drawing insults and sometimes violence from their opposition. Bigots who would like to make America great again by returning to the days when they did not have to hide their hatred have been emboldened by the Trump presidency and feel free to show the real content of their character. The Republicans control all three branches of government, but Trump complains that it is the Democratic minority who is obstructing progress. Meanwhile, right-wing mobs shut down city council meetings, obstructing local politicians from doing the work of the people.

The unwillingness of the right to condemn Russian meddling in our elections shows that even a common enemy cannot inspire cohesion in today's political life. Their liberal use of "alternative facts" means the real debate about policy is out of the question. Progressives should not acquiesce to the right's fear of change by compromising on the rights of women and minorities. Clearly, we are divisible. Can we remain one nation under these circumstances?


Adolfas Ramanauskas, Famous Estonian partisan fighter.

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On Wednesday NATO and Russia have got a new reason to argue and make claims to each other. NATO posted an 8-minute online documentary feature video, glorifying activity of the Baltic partisan movement "Forests Brothers".

The matter is for the Baltic States WWII did not end in 1945, as well as for the Soviet army soldiers who faced unexpected violent resistance from national partisans. The Forest Brothers actively fought the Soviet army from 1948 until the late 1950s or early '60s.

It should be noted that the Forests Brothers' activity is little known and controversial piece of history of the Baltic States. There are two radically opposite points of view. From one point of view the Forest Brothers were partisans who continued armed resistance to the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania after the end of the Second World War. From the second point of view such treatment of their activity is very contradictory, because there are facts that many of the Forest Brothers were former Nazi collaborators and members of the Baltic Waffen SS, and that members of these groups killed thousands of civilians in their raids. Where is the truth? I wouldn't take the responsibility of a single answer.

It seems as if in this particular case NATO has gone about the Baltic States and puts itself in an uncomfortable position, supporting the possible misinterpretation of historical facts.

A similar dispute has become a cause of contention between Ukraine and Poland, which differently interpret Stepan Bandera's role in history. Ukraine considers Stepan Bandera a hero. Poles mainly remember him for collaborating with the Nazis and for his followers slaughtering Polish civilians. Poles find Ukraine's version of a common history "a problem" and emphasize that they will not accept "ideology and actions that allow murder of innocent civilians, even in the name of the highest goals, to which undoubtedly fight for state independence belongs." The matter is very similar to what is going on between NATO and Russia just now.

Such political interference into the history of separate countries in bitter moments of the past wouldn't make NATO stronger, wouldn't make relations between opponents warmer, wouldn't make the continent more peaceful. There are enough problems in contemporary history that should be solved immediately and a new one makes the situation even harder. As for the Baltic States they simply want NATO's attention, and common Soviet past with Russia gives a good opportunity attract necessary attention and, probably, money...
The world watches with a great amount of trepidation as North Korea and the U.S. engage in a confrontation over North Korea's determination to develop a nuclear weapons system. This is a very tenuous situation, like a ticking time bomb, that could go off at any given time.

Quite possibly we're witnessing the opening of a new chapter in the exercise of military power in the world. We might say that the U.S. military is "Standing at the gates" of North Korea, ready to launch its monumental power at that nation but, because of the unique circumstances involved, it is stymied, it cannot act, at least for now.

When is the last time that a relatively small nation of just over 25 million people confronted such a military giant that was primed to launch a massive attack against it, and was able to hold that power in check?

How did all this come about? After many years of working on developing a nuclear program, North Korea finally launched an ICBM that, based on the conclusions drawn by experts in the field, has the range to hit Alaska. That's quite a frightening thought. The U.S. government, as well as nations around the world, are gravely concerned that subsequent tests will result in an increase in the range and effectivity of the rockets. And then the next step will be to connect the rocket with a nuclear bomb, a nightmare in the making.

At this point in time, North Korea has a distinct advantage over the U.S. and its powerful military. It could be said that North Korea holds most of the aces in this deadly game of military poker. That's because it and its leader Kim Jong-un have thousands of powerful artillery pieces and missiles located on the border with South Korea. They are pointed directly at that country and the huge city of Seoul. Should the U.S. dare to take some kind of military action against North Korea it will immediately launch a devastating attack on the South.

So we have an ongoing standoff in which there seems to be no real answer, no good solution to the problem. Let's review the various options:

*It should be clear that a pre-emptive U.S. military strike is not the answer and should be considered only as a last resort.

*Use of diplomacy in which the leaders of North Korea, the U.S. and, possibly, the participation of South Korea and China try to reach some kind of settlement. This is a very good option but it would be extremely difficult to get North Korea's leaders to the negotiating table. They are quite paranoid, and their safety and security is their primary objective. Also they have a great distrust of the U.S. government and the many highly aggressive military actions it has taken over many decades. However, this option must be pursued.

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Mosul has fallen, and everyone else is standing around, not sure about what to say. After months of frenzied battle, the ISIS-held city submitted to the force of Iraqi arms. The flag over the town is of a traditional, mostly sovereign power. Tim Arango of the Times explained that

As Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited Mosul to declare victory and call for unity, civilians on the longer-secured east side of the city danced and waved Iraqi flags. Some called for brotherhood between Sunnis and Shiites, or chanted, By our souls and blood, we sacrifice for you, Iraq! It is a moment for Iraqis to celebrate after nearly nine months of bloody warfare against the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State. But despite the flaring of hope for a new national unity, the governments costly victory in Mosul and the questions hanging over its aftermath feel more like the next chapter in the long story of Iraqs unraveling.

What questions? In another story for the same paper, Hubbard and Schmitt argue that ISIS still has the power to inspire global attacks:

But the loss of its two largest cities will not spell a final defeat for the Islamic State  also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh  according to analysts and American and Middle Eastern officials. The group has already shifted back to its roots as an insurgent force, but one that now has an international reach and an ideology that continues to motivate attackers around the world. These are obviously major blows to ISIS because its state-building project is over, there is no more caliphate, and that will diminish support and recruits, said Hassan Hassan, a senior fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington and a co-author of a book on the group. But ISIS today is an international organization. Its leadership and its ability to grow back are still there.

What ISIS did cannot be erased so easily. In itself, ISIS is merely another American innovation, like many of our other groundbreaking creations: vulcanized rubber, gamer culture, al-Qaeda, Eric Garlands tweet stream. In each case, without really intending to, we stumbled over something new, and before we knew it, the monstrous birth had grown beyond our ability to control it. So it is with ISIS, our weird, black-flagged stepchild, which in its brief run, did an untold amount of damage: to human lives, human property, American credibility, and, finally, to the illusions of state power. When I say there is more ISIS in our future, I am not being grandiose. ISIS is not a global superpower. It never was. It is merely the forerunner of the coming age. The future of conflict, of every kind, will be with marginalized, idea-bound groups, tied together from afar, who can project power with the flimsiest of materials.

The capture of Mosul is not the end of ISIS, or the organizations like ISIS, any more than the destruction of al-Qaedas Afghanistan career killed al-Qaeda. Since 9/11, there has been an extraordinary number of thinkpieces about how al-Qaeda was unlike any adversary we had ever known. According to these scholars, we were required to fight in a unique way now, under different laws and different ethics. Most of these were the delusions of aged international affairs hacks who had been yelling about dangerous foreigners since the days of European colonialism. But even the hollowest can knows how to roll downhill. Many of the pundits who wrote after September 11th had at least one point right: we are facing a challenger who does fight in a new way. We are witnessing, in military affairs, the end of the state. For now, the state will continue to be the major player, able to kit out and arm regiments of coherent, consolidated troops obedient to rules of engagement and battle standards. For now.

At present, private military operations waltz to the fiddle of ministries of defense. Theres no other way to do it: states are the whales of power on the Earth. But continents tilt in new directions now. ISIS was a collection of zealots, and they were combatted in part by militias on the ground. These were thrown-together clumps of partisans fighting for (depending on who you ask) liberty, self-determination, the Kurdish nation, against Assad, for real Islam, against religion, for their town, village, or region  in the end, ISIS was defeated as much by a constellation of several different forces as it was done in by the will of one institution.

When I wake up in the morning, after noticing the sun has once again decided to grace us with its boiling presence, my next thought is usually: Let me get through this day, and every day of my immortal life, without quoting Thomas Friedman. So far, I have made good on this highly moral pledge. But everybody ought to have one freebie. Much as crocodiles can teach you everything you ever wanted to know about evil, so Friedman can occasionally be counted on to drift near a sharp idea. The man made a good point once, a long time ago when the world was young. While overpraising the chomping maw of globalization, Friedman tripped over a rather novel bit of insight:

Whether by enabling people to use the Internet to communicate instantly at almost no cost over vast distances, or by enabling them to use the Web to transfer money or obtain weapons designs that normally would have been controlled by states, or by enabling them to go into a hardware store now and buy a five-hundred-dollar global positioning device, connected to a satellite, that can direct a hijacked airplane  globalization can be an incredible force-multiplier for individuals. Individuals can increasingly act on the world stage directly, unmediated by a state.

Friedman, with his fixation for dropping commercially-friendly labels on simple ideas, dubs these folks super-empowered individuals. He describes these people with all the born insight of a man who owns a town-sized mansion in Connecticut. He writes that some of these super-empowered men and women are quite angry, some of them quite wonderful, but all of them can act directly and much more powerfully on the world stage. Before Friedman advocated invading Iraq and creating ISIS, he wrote the following words about Bin Laden:

Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States in the late 1990s. After he organized the bombing of two American embassies in Africa, the U.S. Air Force retaliated with a cruise missile attack on his bases in Afghanistan as though he were another nation-state. Think about that: on one day in 1998, the United States fired 75 cruise missiles at bin Laden. The United States fired 75 cruise missiles, at $1 million apiece, at a person! That was the first battle in history between a superpower and a super-empowered angry man. September 11 was just the second such battle.

The future will be interactions between super-empowered individuals and states dancing around one another. Much as transnational corporations have used their strength to make satire of democratic laws and republican government, so too will the battles of the future invalidate much of what we know about war. The fall of Mosul is the eventual fall of governments. They havent realized it yet. The way of the gun turns with the earth, and the ground the path leads to is surprisingly level. Oceans rise, empires fall, but conflict remembers, and builds upon what it has done. Small armies with large guns are the road before us. Brecht said it best: War is like love; it always finds a way.
Some African migrants have told The Chronicle that the hospitality of Ghanaians had brought them into the country to beg for alms on the streets.



These migrants, who The Chronicle interacted with at different locations at the Nima, a suburb of Accra, said they are from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Mali, and according to them, they came by foot, whilst others said they came by road.



The beggars, who pleaded to speak on condition of anonymity, said begging for alms is a 'profession' they had adopted to survive in the country, and to take care of their children back home in their respective countries.



An 80-year-old street beggar, who said she is from Zaria, in Northern Nigeria said she came to Ghana by foot, however, she could not recollect the number of days she spent walking from Zaria to Ghana.



She confidently indicated that begging for alms is what she had lived on since arrival in the country at a youthful age. The Zaria native said she was a divorcee.



According to her, her children had abandoned her because their father poisoned their minds against her.



In this regard, she said she would rather die and be buried in Ghana than go back to her homeland, where she would hardly have something to eat.



"I am not ready to go home because I have no one to take care of me. Here in Ghana, I have a lot of companions around me who are also beggars. So, I am more comfortable here," she said.



A Nigerian beggar, with a calabash in his hand, also approached there reporters to beg for alms.



According to him, God had destined him to beg for alms to provide for himself and his family.



Speaking in pidgin English, he said: "My sister, give me GH10 and God will bless you."



After collecting the money, he became furious when these reporters asked him how he arrived in Ghana.



Shop owners around the beggars location told The Chronicle that the beggars are really making a great deal as much GH50 or more daily.



One of the shop owners said the beggars come in batches, and after making enough money, they convert the amount into CFA, then leave for their country.



"You would be shocked the amount of money these beggars carry on them. Sometimes, the coins alone they bring to us to change for them is a lot," the shop owner said.



According to the shop owner, the beggars, because of their old age, send their children or other family members to continue the trade on commission basis when they leave the country.



The shop owner added that some of the beggars chase and embarrass drivers, especially saloon car drivers for money.



The Imam of Kaldof Mosque at Nima, Abdul Rahman Abdullah told The Chronicle that Islam frowns against the practice where Moslems force people for charity.



Imam Abdul Rahman Abdullah said they had sacked the beggars from coming to the Mosque for alms because the Mosque was currently under construction.



However, he said, the beggars would not leave the area, saying their presence was causing a nuisance to the community.





Source: The Chronicle









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Ghana's Embassy in Saudi Arabia is processing 800 illegal Ghanaian migrants there for deportation following the expiration of an amnesty granted illegal residents to leave or be sanctioned.



According to the Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, government is subsidising the travelling cost of these individuals.



"The Riyadh Mission has already processed over 800 Ghanaians for departure. In order to discourage people from violating the amnesty and risking arrest, the Mission is making effort through social and electronic media to propagate the information in Ghana and Saudi Arabia.



She said the International Organisation on Migration (IOM), which helps in such situation has also been contacted to help in getting the deportees back home safely.



The Minister was in Parliament Thursday to respond to questions about what is being done to protect Ghanaian migrants in the Middle East from abuse.



She announced government plans to set up a secretariat to deal with the issue of human trafficking.



Regarding the issue of some Ghanaian who died on June 1 this year in Libya while trying to reach Europe, she said the Ministry is yet to get a concrete information on the incident.



Some survivors told Red Cross that 44 people they were travelling with died of thirst after their truck broke down in the Sahara Desert in northern Niger.



They say several children were among the dead. The Ghanaians and Nigerians were trying to get to Libya, reports Nigerien news site Sahelien. But the Minister said since the report the Ghana Embassy in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso, which has concurrent accreditation to Niger, is yet to receive any formal notification or request for assistance from Nigerien authorities.



The Ghana Embassy has requested information from the relevant Nigerian authorities and the outcome will guide responses. Red Cross, which reported the incident and numbers, have also not notified the Embassy and the Ministry.



She said the Ghanas Red Cross office said the information it has on the issue is inconclusive, so the veracity of the information is yet to be established.



On recent media reports that some Ghanaians deported recently from the US were maltreated whilst on the flight, she disclosed the US Ambassador was summoned by her office over the issue.



But the US diplomat denied they were handcuffed, starved and were not allowed to use the washroom. Robert P. Jackson explained to the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament Thursday, that those affected were deported involuntarily as they had attempted to resist deportation.



The deportees are being sent home for various offences, ranging from drug possession, larceny, assault, theft, sexual assault, identity theft, illegal entry, forgery/fraud, resisting arrest and other non-criminal offences.

Source: Joy News









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A Look at Some of the Biggest Movers on Day 3 of the WSOP Main Event

July 14, 2017 Kim Yuhl Contributor

Day 3 of the World Series of Poker Main Event started with the announcement that the players would play until the money bubble burst. The goal of the majority of players in the Main Event is to reach the money, so Day 3 is always an exciting day.

It's exciting for the amateurs as they try to hold on tight to their chips. And it's exciting for the professionals as they seek to pry them away from their opponents. One thing is for sure as the play progresses closer to the money bubble, the play will slow down, and those players with stack will capitalize on their position.

We monitored where the chips were headed throughout the day and talked to one player every level who some significant growth in their stack.

Level One - Allen Cunningham

Allen Cunningham wasted no time making his move early in the day. He started the day with 131,000 and had 630,000 heading into the first break. Maybe being on the feature table brought attention to it, or maybe it was the fact that he more than quadrupled his holdings. Whatever the reason, the usually quiet pro, couldn't avoid the scrutiny.

Cunningham explained his quick rise in the chip counts.

"It was a good five hands. I started with 130,000 and five hands later I had 550,000. The very first hand of the day, I won a nice 30,000 pot in the big blind. On the second hand, I had aces versus someone's ace-king and broke her for another 100,000-plus. The third hand, I think I stole the big blind. The next hand, I flopped fives full of deuces. My opponent made four deuces on the turn and I rivered quad fives. He was one of the guys at the table who covered me."

When asked how he felt, Cunningham just smiled, and said, "Honestly, I'm a little bit chip drunk right now. I'm not even sure how to play. I have to regroup and create a new game plan."

After we talked with Cunningham, we kept an eye on him and his stack and he seemed to hover around the 600,000 mark for most of the day. He lost a bit in the later levels to end the day with 427,000.

Level Two - Matthew Moss

As the players headed into the second break of the day, we caught up with Matthew Moss, who has the distinction of being the first player in the tournament to reach a million chips after starting with just 300,200.

"It feels pretty good," said Moss when describing what it's like to be atop the chip counts. "It's been an epic day. Everything has gone really, really well so far. I've just had a bunch of really good hands."

When asked how he plans to capitalize on his stack, Moss didn't even hesitate, "I'm definitely going to have to put the pressure on in the next couple of levels. I'm not a tournament player so much, so I'm not used to that. But I've been told I have to start bullying some people. I'm going to have to get on that."

The tournament's first millionaire isn't a millionaire any longer. Moss seemed to have a lost a little ground since our conversation early in the day. He is sporting a healthy 872,000 going into Day 4 and will try to run it back up.

Level Three - Patrick Clarke

It was late in Level 3 when the stack of Patrick Clarke caught our eye. The Irish poker pro seemed to have a strong command of his table as we caught up with him heading into the dinner break.

He won two big pots, to help him go from 262,00 to 978,000, but mostly he just chipped away at his opponents to add to his big stack.

When we asked about his table draw, Clarke seemed very pleased.

"I'm very happy with my table today. I've had great tables for the last two days but I don't feel like I've been tested that much. I've been very happy with my draws."

Pros like to use their big stack to bully their table. We asked Clarke if this is his strategy.

While laughing, he said, "A little bit, maybe, but I can afford to be. No one is playing back at me, so I'm just going to keep playing my game."

Clarke continued to chip away at his opponents and added to his stack. He's bagging up 1,200,000, good for one the top stacks in the field.

Level Four - Ben Jacobs

Ben Jacobs, or "Honolulu Ben" as his friends know him, is visiting the desert from Kaui, Hawaii. He started Day 3 sitting with a stack with 204,000 chips and early in level four boasts a top-five stack of 850,000.

This primarily Hawaiian home-game player was lucky enough to double and then double again early in the day and continue chipping up throughout.

Playing in his first Main Event, we asked Jacobs what his strategy was to ensure he makes the money.

"It's a pretty standard table. As the big stack, the other players have to fit into their roles. There's not a lot they can do about it. I'm just trying to play my position and play smart. I'm going to keep playing my game. I'm getting cards, and the deck is hitting me hard which helps. My plan is to keep riding this lucky wave."

Jacobs had a bit of a rollercoaster ride after we met up with him. He would lose some, win some and lose some more. But he ended on a high note with 956,000, his highest count of the tournament.

Level Five - Michael Krasienko

Michael Krasienko started Day 3 with about 561,000 ... and the flu. Nothing's worse than sitting through a 12-hour day at the tables, playing the premier event of the year, when you feel awful.

But that's not stopping Krasienko as he's built a solid stack of 1,200,000. He's using the adrenaline that comes with playing the Main Event and nearing the money to push him through.

When asked what his secret was to building an epic chip tower, he responded, "Basically, I played tight most of the day, made some hands, and ran pretty well."

This mainly PLO cash player has only played the Main Event twice. What about the Main Event entices him to pony up $10,000?

"It's such a great tournament. It's the best tournament in the world. The best structure. The best field. I just really enjoyed it when I played it last year, so here I am. Outside of this pretty much all I play is PLO cash."

When we caught up with him during the last break of the day, Krasienko had just moved to a new table. And this was what he had to say about the last level.

"I'm going to feel the table out and see how they're playing. Mostly, I'm just going to play my game, and play solid poker. Nobody's super short, so I just need to keep it solid and see what happens."

While not the chip leader anymore, Krasienko ended the day nearly where he was we met up with early in level 5. He will be bringing 1,246,000 into Day 4 of the Main Event. Not bad for a PLO player.

Other Day 3 Movers

Antoine Saout opened his bag to 341,400 and claimed 1,529,000 at the end of play.

opened his bag to 341,400 and claimed 1,529,000 at the end of play. Dominik Nitsche : 888poker Ambassador , came into Day 3 with a measly 53,800 and ran it up to 829,000.

: , came into Day 3 with a measly 53,800 and ran it up to 829,000. Sofia Lovgren , 888poker Ambassador , started the day with 133,200 and ended the day holding 996,000.

, , started the day with 133,200 and ended the day holding 996,000. Kenny Hallaert grew a stack of 331,800 into 1,258,000.

grew a stack of 331,800 into 1,258,000. Ben Lamb began play with a stack of 327,800 ended up bagging 1,150,000.

Now that the money bubble has burst, you can expect a lot more chips to be flying on Day 4, as players position themselves to make a deep run. Follow all the action right here at PokerNews.com.
Money Bubble Bursts as 1,084 Advance to Day 4 in WSOP Main Event

July 14, 2017 Mo Nuwwarah Editor

For the first time in the 2017 World Series of Poker Main Event, all of the players still alive in the tournament gathered under one roof on Day 3. There were 2,572 left, and while it took about 14 hours, the money bubble finally burst a little after 1 a.m. local time.

When hand-for-hand play began an hour into the extra level, four different tables saw all-in pots right away. The first two at-risk players, including 2005 WSOP Main Event third-place finisher Tex Barch, found themselves in dominant positions when the cards were tabled and survived.

Roger Campbell, however, got in a raising war on a three-heart flop with ace-king with the ace of hearts. He was all in against Kenny Shih, who flopped a queen-high flush. No further hearts emerged from the deck, leaving Campbell eliminated shy of the money.

At another table, Quan Zhou and Davidi Kitai played a three-bet pot with the Belgian bracelet winner holding kings and making kings full on the river. Zhou tried an all-in overbet bluff on the river with ace-high after missing his gutshot straight draw and got snap-called. With Kitai covering him, that meant Zhou was out on the bubble as well and the remaining players were in the money.

Of course, that set off a raucous celebration that featured plenty of beer and shots going down gullets at tables throughout the Rio. However, there was still the matter of the free seat into next year's WSOP Main Event to settle. Zhou won the flip over Campbell to claim the seat, and everyone else bagged up their chips.

That means 1,084 will come back in the money. Foremost among them in terms of chip stack is Patrick Lavecchia, who bagged 1,552,000. He's followed by Pawel Brzeski (1,546,000), former WSOP Main Event final tablist Antoine Saout (1,529,000), Jeremiah Fitzpatrick (1,523,000), Derek Bowers (1,376,000).

Brzewski said he was happy to bag in second, but he isn't looking too far ahead.

"Of course it feels nice to be second in chips, but we still have more than 1,000 people left, so it doesn't mean much," he said. "But I guess more chips is more life in tournaments. I can lose some flips and still be alive, so that's always nice."

Another player bagging a pile was Mickey Craft. The Wilmington, N.C., native finished with 1,345,000. He said he started with a nice stack and a lot of shorter stacks around him and was able to bully the tight group of opponents to keep building.

However, the fun for him really started when he got moved to Brasilia. There, he sat at a deeper-stacked table with experienced players like Liv Boeree. Instead of looking at it as a challenge, Craft saw it as a fun opportunity to play some more interesting poker.

"This room has been such a blast, people were more fun here," he said after bagging. "They were talkative, plus they had a lot of chips. It was so much more fun. That was a grind, and this was fun."

Craft was able to continue chipping up from about 850,000 to north of 1.3 million. He attributed that in part to having more fun with his new tablemates.

"I like to have fun when I play poker, and I feel like I do better when I'm having fun," Craft said. "The money does mean something. Anyone who says it doesn't is crazy. But, the fun in poker means more than anything money can ever buy."

"Of course, there's way better players than me. There's no doubt. If I get to the final table and there's Daniel Negreanu over here, Jesus Ferguson over here, and whats-her-face over there... I'm going to be the one with the beer in my hand."

Among the players busting before the money bubble were Brian Rast, Cary Katz, Mike Matusow, Sam Greenwood, Adrian Mateos, Jason Mercier and former Main Event champs Joe Hachem, Johnny Chan, Greg Raymer and Tom McEvoy.

The remaining players will come back with just over one hour on the clock in Level 16 (3,000/6,000/1,000). They'll get going early again at 11 a.m., so come back to PokerNews then for more Main Event coverage.

WSOP Main Event Day 3 Leaders

Place Player Country Chip Count 1 Patrick Lavecchia United States 1,552,000 2 Pawel Brzeski Poland 1,546,000 3 Antoine Saout France 1,529,000 4 Jeremiah Fitzpatrick United States 1,523,000 5 Derek Bowers United States 1,376,000 6 Ibrahim Nasief Mexico 1,350,000 7 Mickey Craft United States 1,345,000 8 Scott Blumstein United States 1,340,000 9 Artan Dedusha United Kingdom 1,288,000 10 Greg Dyer United States 1,276,000
Band reunions get a bad rap.

It breaks the mythology: bands that have been going on for decades, your Pearl Jam or (until this decade) your Sonic Youth or R.E.M. unchallenged. But the breakup, an essential element of the rock band myth, so perpetuated by Jack Black, is supposed to be definitive. We're supposed to wish they would get back together but they never actually should.

The Feelies were an icon of the late '70s scene, a group of New Jersey kids who commuted to CBGBs to pall around Television, Johnny Thunders and Patti Smith, adding to the punk din simmering over the summer of '79. Their debut, 1980's Crazy Rhythms, would become an iconic piece of New York cool, glibly referenced by Weezer on the cover of their own debut a decade and a half later. More important was the version of punk the Feelies perfected: long, tense jams made out of the pop-inflected noise the Ramones were serving deep-dish from Queens. Spin "Fa Ce-La" and you've never heard anything like it before except for everything trying to sound like it. But that's history, stuff for the press release on the Hall of Fame tour. The band is playing their first music festival this weekend in Chicago, an event following the release of their second album since the end of their extended hiatus, In Between, which came out on Bar/None this February.

Before giving it a rest in '92, right before the music festival boom hit the alternative scene big time, they had released four records of tightly packed post-punk pop, a complete-enough discography for confessed fans like Rivers Cuomo and Martin Courtney of Real Estate to find and name check in interviews on their own press tours. So, why come back?

(John baumgartner)

"I'm not really up on new music," Glenn Mercer admitted when I called him by phone the other day. His voice was courteous, yet firmly curt. Polite but not too chatty. I asked if he had checked out any of these newfangled music festivals that the kids seems to be into these days and, without a moment thought, he answered: "Once, 1972," referring to a festival in Long Pond, Pennsylvania where Rod Stewart opened for Three Dog Night before being rained out and Perry Farrell had barely plucked his first string. It wasn't that big of a deal, back then, Mercer said.



He hadn't cared much, either, for making it in the alternative rock rat race that he and his band abandoned sometime after appearing in a Jonathan Demme movie and before "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was in every radio DJ's hands. Mercer gives me a story about doing a video segment, never used, for a forgotten music television program in 1990. "It was ill-conceived," he said, before dropping the subject.

In Between is dark piece of melancholy, charging against the present with the moaning noises of a past that's pat-pat-patting against today's obelisk. Where most band's post-reunion careers showcase attempts to rehash old glories, the Feelies' latest offering depicts "an ongoing struggle against doubt," per Ed Whitelock at PopMatters. "It's not a particularly joyous time to be alive," Mercer told me when I brought up the message behind songs like "Been Replaced," where his icy voice chattered the song's title like the empty desks at an abandoned office.

"The world has gotten so loud that we have shut our ears off, we're in self-preservation mode," Mercer went on. "We shut our ears off and we start to hear things. There's minimalism and emptiness and space. There's no total lack of sound but subtleties emerge."

The Feelies are playing the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago on July 15th.

In Between is out on Bar/None. Check it out.

Andrew Karpan really doesn't have better material. He's sorry. You can follow him on Twitter.

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PR-Inside.com: 2017-07-14 16:42:01

A.M. Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Milli Reasurans Turk Anonim Sirketi

A.M. Best

Konstantin Langowski

Financial Analyst

+44 20 7397 0318

konstantin.langowski@ambest.com

or

Mathilde Jakobsen

Director, Analytics

+44 20 7397 0266

mathilde.jakobsen@ambest.com

or

Christopher Sharkey

Manager, Public Relations

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

or

Jim Peavy

Director, Public Relations

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5644

james.peavy@ambest.com

A.M. Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B+ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of bbb- of Milli Reasurans Turk Anonim Sirketi (Milli Re) (Turkey). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) remains negative.

The ratings reflect Milli Res strong business profile in the Turkish market as well as its strong earnings track record which, however, remains highly reliant on investment income. The negative outlook of the ratings continues to reflect the marginal consolidated risk-adjusted capitalisation.

Milli Re has a strong business profile in its domestic market, operating as the only Turkish-domiciled reinsurer. In addition, Milli Re benefits from its association with its majority-owned insurance subsidiary, Anadolu Anonim Turk Sigorta Sirketi (Anadolu), which is a market leader in Turkeys direct insurance market.

Milli Re benefits from strong consolidated operating results, as demonstrated by a five-year average operating ratio of 93% (2012-2016). However, profitability is dependent on investment income as consolidated technical performance has been poor, evidenced by a five-year average combined ratio of 103.5%. Milli Re has sought to address underperformance within segments of its stand-alone reinsurance portfolio; however, profitability continuous to be negatively affected by run-off accounts and persistent competitive conditions in Turkey. The underwriting performance of Milli Res direct insurance subsidiary, Anadolu, which historically has contributed positively to Milli Res technical performance, weakened during 2015 and 2016. This was largely due to reserve strengthening in the motor portfolio following regulatory and legal changes to motor liability compensation. Going forward, A.M. Best expects that Anadolus technical performance will improve, as the company has now addressed the resultant reserve deficiencies. Additionally, strong rate increases for motor third party liability business are expected to support Anadolus technical results.

Milli Res consolidated risk-adjusted capitalisation remains marginal for the rating level. Capital and surplus grew by 12% during 2016, but this was fully offset by an increase in required capital due to significant growth in net premium and reserve risk. Over the medium term, A.M. Best expects capital adequacy to be supported by robust internal capital generation, assuming moderate premium growth. However, A.M. Best notes that capital requirements continue to be driven in part by the operations of Anadolu. Growth of Anadolus business beyond A.M. Bests expectations would put further negative pressure on Milli Res consolidated capital adequacy.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on A.M. Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see A.M. Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Understanding Bests Credit Ratings. For information on the proper media use of Bests Credit Ratings and A.M. Best press releases, please view Guide for Media - Proper [..].

A.M. Best is the worlds oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2017 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201707140053
PR-Inside.com: 2017-07-14 13:00:13

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for GreenBank Capital Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - GreenBank Capital Inc. (CSE:GBC). has issued a press release with the following headline:GreenBank Distribution AdjustmentTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on GreenBank Capital Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/GreenBank Capital Inc.Source: GreenBank Capital Inc. (CSE: GBC, WKN: A1W8UJ, ISIN: CA3935762029)Date: July 14, 2017Time: 7:00 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of GreenBank Capital Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2017-07-14 15:37:13

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Saville Resources Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, B.C. (FSCWire) - Saville Resources Inc. (TSX Venture:SRE). has issued a press release with the following headline:Saville Resources Inc. Closes $857,300 Private PlacementTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Saville Resources Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Saville Resources Inc.Source: Saville Resources Inc. (TSX Venture: SRE, ISIN: CA80517N1078)Date: July 14, 2017Time: 9:37 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Saville Resources Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2017-07-14 16:17:01

Strategic Review Concludes with Sale of High Speed 1

Bell Pottinger

Charlie Harrison

M +44 7500 578 179

E charrison@bellpottinger.com

or

Liz Morley

M +44 772 2557

E lmorley@bellpottinger.com

or

InfraRed

Latika Shah, Tulchan Communications

T +44 (0) 20 7353 4200

M 07950 671 948

E lshah@tulchangroup.com

Borealis Infrastructure (Borealis), the infrastructure investment manager of OMERS, and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers) announce they have entered into a definitive agreement to sell High Speed 1 (HS1) to a consortium comprising funds advised and managed by InfraRed Capital Partners Limited (InfraRed) and Equitix Investment Management Limited (Equitix) (together, the Consortium).

As part of this transaction, InfraRed is advising third party funds including HICL Infrastructure Company Limited (HICL) and the National Pension Service of the Republic of Korea (NPS). The members of the Consortium will acquire interests in HS1 pro rata by reference to their respective shareholdings, with HICL and the Equitix funds acquiring 35% each, and the NPS funds managed by InfraRed acquiring the balance of 30%.

HS1 operates the 109km high-speed rail line connecting London St Pancras International station with the Channel Tunnel, under a 30-year concession agreement with the U.K. Secretary of State, signed in 2010. HS1 is responsible for the operations, maintenance, and renewal of the track and associated infrastructure, as well as the four stations served by the route: St Pancras International; Stratford International; Ebbsfleet International; and Ashford International. The rail line is predominantly a high-speed passenger railway, providing track access to domestic commuter services throughout Kent and international services to destinations in Europe such as Paris and Brussels via the Channel Tunnel. In 2016, HS1 handled over 75,000 train services and its principal customers, London and South Eastern Railway and Eurostar, carried over 20 million passengers.

The Consortium is committed to ensuring HS1 continues to serve all stakeholders well. Each of the Consortium members has a proven track record of owning and managing UK infrastructure businesses and collectively bring significant financial and operational expertise to HS1.

Jo Taylor, Senior Managing Director of Ontario Teachers, said: HS1 has delivered significant economic benefits to the UK and has enabled the regeneration of a number of areas along the route. We are confident that HS1 will continue to prosper under its new ownership, while Ontario Teachers remain committed to the UK as an attractive destination for future investment. The Governments approach to the concession agreement partnership with the international investment community reflects an excellent model for infrastructure opportunities moving forward.

Ralph Berg, Executive Vice President & Global Head of Infrastructure, OMERS Private Markets, said: We are proud of the successes that HS1 has achieved since our acquisition in 2010. The business has become a reference point for the quality and reliability of its service. We are confident that HS1 will continue to excel under its new ownership. We remain strongly committed to the UK and continue to see opportunities to invest in infrastructure assets  whether in the UK, or in other key markets.

Ben Loomes, Managing Partner and Head of Infrastructure, InfraRed, said: We are very pleased to be investing in HS1, a strategically important and core UK infrastructure asset. We look forward to working with the management team and our partners to further build on the success that the business has enjoyed to date and facilitate the continued delivery of a high-quality service for passengers.

Hugh Crossley, Chief Investment Officer, Equitix, said: We are delighted to acquire the high quality UK PPP asset which is attractive to our underlying Limited Partners and we expect to remain invested in it for the full duration of the concession.

ENDS

About High Speed 1

HS1 is a modern high-speed rail line allowing speeds of up to 300 kph and 230 kph for international services and domestic services, respectively. HS1 connects at several points to the classic rail network and provides passenger connectivity with other public transport options.

Domestic passenger services are operated by London and South Eastern Railway Limited, which currently holds the South Eastern franchise. LSER has delivered >10% passenger growth since the start of high speed domestic operations in December 2009. International passenger services have been operated by Eurostar International Limited for over 20 years with 10 million passengers p.a. on its two core routes to and from Paris and Brussels, which account for 97% of passenger demand. Newer routes include Marseilles (launched May 2015) and Amsterdam (launching December 2017).

HS1s four rail stations generate income through the provision of unregulated activities, comprising retail leases and car parking facilities. St Pancras, located in Central London, is the flagship station generating 98% of the Companys total retail income. St Pancras has 108,100 sq. ft. of prime retail space and attracts c.50million visitors a year.

About InfraRed Capital Partners

InfraRed Capital Partners (InfraRed) is a leading international investment manager focused on infrastructure and real estate. It operates worldwide from offices in London, Hong Kong, New York, Seoul and Sydney. With over 120 professionals it manages in excess of US$9bn of equity capital in multiple private and listed funds, primarily for institutional investors across the globe.

Since its inception, InfraRed has launched 17 funds, including two companies listed on the London Stock Exchange: HICL Infrastructure Company Limited and The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG), both of which are members of the FTSE 250. To date, InfraRed has realised six funds, demonstrating its ability to create real value for its stakeholders.

InfraRed has been investing in the Infrastructure market for over 20 years and is one of world's largest managers of social and transportation infrastructure projects. InfraRed has evolved its business from principally managing PPP projects at its inception to a diversified and international investment business, with around 60 infrastructure investment professionals, managing over 200 investments in PPP projects, renewable energy, regulated and economic infrastructure businesses.

InfraRed implements best-in-class practices to underpin asset management and investment decisions, promotes ethical behaviour and has established community engagement initiatives to support good causes in the wider community. InfraRed is a signatory of the Principles of Responsible Investment and its infrastructure business has been awarded the highest rating. Further details can be found on InfraRed's website, www.ircp.com/ .

About Equitix

Equitix is a leading developer, investor and long-term fund manager of core infrastructure assets, predominately in the UK. It has over 2billion of equity under management and invests for the long-term in investments with stable, predictable yields.

About OMERS

OMERS Private Markets (Borealis Infrastructure and OMERS Private Equity) invests globally in infrastructure and private equity assets on behalf of OMERS, the pension plan for Ontarios municipal employees. Investments are aimed at steady returns to help deliver strong and sustainable pensions to OMERS members. OPM's diversified portfolio of large-scale infrastructure assets exhibits stability and strong cash flows, in sectors including energy, transportation and government-regulated services. OPM has offices in Toronto, New York, London and Sydney. OMERS is one of Canada's largest pension funds with net assets of more than C$85 billion. Visit www.omers.com or www.omersprivatemarkets.com

About Ontario Teachers

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers') is Canada's largest single-profession pension plan, with $175.6 billion in net assets at December 31, 2016. It holds a diverse global portfolio of assets, approximately 80% of which is managed in-house, and has earned an average annualized rate of return of 10.1% since the plans founding in 1990. Ontario Teachers is an independent organization headquartered in Toronto. Its Asia-Pacific region office is located in Hong Kong and its Europe, Middle East & Africa region office is in London. The defined-benefit plan, which is fully funded, invests and administers the pensions of the province of Ontarios 318,000 active and retired teachers. For more information, visit otpp.com and follow us on Twitter @OtppInfo.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201707140053
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.




Deka Immobilien GmbH has signed a new lease agreement in the Oval Tower office building in Amsterdam Southeast. The agreement concerns approximately 2,100 sqm and 20 parking places. The property is part of the portfolio of the real estate mutual fund Deka-ImmobilienEuropa. Savills advised Deka Immobilien GmbH. The leasing of

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On the first Monday in Julya day it seemed like everyone else in Washington, D.C., took off to start celebrating the Fourth earlyJason Reynolds walked from his home to a coffee shop on H Street, a mile or so away. He had work to do.

Reynolds works a lot. He will have published eight novels in less than three years, including three coming out this fall: Miles Morales: A Spider-Man Novel (Marvel, Aug.); Patina (Atheneum/Dlouhy, Aug.), a sequel to his National Book Award finalist Ghost; and Long Way Down (Atheneum/Dlouhy, Oct.), a standalone YA that will likely ratchet his reputation up another notch.

After 13 years in Brooklyns Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Reynolds moved back to Washington a year ago to be closer to his 72-year-old mother, Isabell, who still teaches special education in a Maryland public school.

But actually being at home is a rarity for Reynolds, whose meteoric rise has made him a highly sought-after speaker. He admits to having trouble saying no. Its hard, because I will hear from a teacher who says, My kids could really benefit from hearing your story, and the kids shes talking about are like the kids I grew up with, he says. So I give all that I have, three to four talks a day, 100 times a year, every year for the last three years. This opportunity means the world to me.

Kids Like Him

Though he was born in D.C., Reynolds moved two blocks across the Maryland border as a child so his mother could have a yard and enough space to shelter grandparents, aunties, and cousins, if need be. The third of four children, he graduated from Bishop McNamara High School in 2000 (11 years after fellow alumnus Jeff Kinney) and went on to the University of Maryland, where he earned a degree in English while working part-time at the now-closed Karibu Books, a chain that specialized in African-American literature.

Reynolds says that, until college, the major influences on his imagination had been almost exclusively rappers. Biggie, Queen Latifah, and Tupac Shakur spoke far more directly to him than the books he had been assigned to read in high school.

Hip-hop saved me, he notes. It gave me permission to use language in a certain way. It validated my community and my friends. It gave our slang a certain elegance. The blowback from people who criticized the music eventually worked in his favor. I have a chip on my shoulder I pet every morning, a constant feeling like I have something to prove, Reynolds says. Hearing that the canon cant be diversified, theres no room for more brown facesthat fueled my fire. I loved music that people said was not music, that it was too violent, too crass, too sexual. And now everyone in the world is rapping Hamilton.

At Karibu he found literature he had never encountered in grade schoolstories about the black experience by black writers. His college introduction to the work of people like Langston Hughes refocused his creative energy on writingand recitingpoetry.

After graduation, he and a classmate, Jason Griffin, moved to Brooklyn and self-published My Name Is Jason. Mine Too., a poetry collection written by Reynolds and illustrated by Griffin. The autobiographical work tells the story of two broke young men with the same first name and the same dream: becoming artists.

Though the book didnt find a wide readership, it caught the attention of former HarperCollins editor Joanna Cotler, who republished it for teens. It was quirky, but it was a way for me to get him on my list, Cotler recalls. I think its really clear when you meet someone who has something powerful to say. You cant fake that. He had the gift.

When Cotler decided to retire, she suggested to Reynoldss agent, Elena Giovinazzo of Pippin Properties, that Caitlin Dlouhy, who had worked with Cotler at HarperCollins, might be a good editor for whatever Reynolds wrote next. Giovinazzo invited Dlouhy to her agencys annual picnic. Without telling either of us what she had in mind, she introduced me to Jason, just to see what our rapport would be like, says Dlouhy, who now has her own imprint at Atheneum. We hit it off immediately.

Dlouhy has since edited seven of his novels, beginning with When I Was the Greatest (Atheneum/Dlouhy, 2014), for which he won the 2015 John Steptoe Award for New Talent from ALAs Coretta Scott King committeethe first in a long list of awards his subsequent books have received.

Its a lot in a short amount of time, but its rare to find an author who has so many ideas and each one is a gem, Dlouhy says. And he isnt just firing them out. Every word matters. Its the poet in him.

Coming Full Circle

Though there is great anticipation for Miles Morales, Reynoldss Spider-Man novel, and Patina, the first book he has written from a female viewpoint, the fall title that is likely to get the most attention represents a return to his earliest literary love: Long Way Down is his first novel in verse.

The story centers on 15-year-old Will Holloman, who gets on the elevator in his building with a gun, intent on killing the person who just murdered his older brother. But as the elevator descends, it stops for passengers, each an important figure from Wills life who has been victimized by gun violence. Reynolds calls it Christmas Carol magic, adding: Its not waving a wand, but it is magic. Hes being revisited by people from his own life, but are they ghosts, or are they his subconscious telling him to think?

The story was inspired by Reynoldss frequent visits to juvenile detention centers. Most of these boys are in detention because of gang violence and dont realize this turf stuff exists in its own vacuum, he says.  You shoot me, I shoot you, and its been like that for decades.

Reynolds knew that world. When he was 19, one of his best friends was murdered, execution-style. He and his friends vowed to exact revenge but never followed through on their plan; they didnt know for sure who had pulled the trigger. After we did not murder that asshole I realized how lucky that was, he says.

Reynolds hopes the story helps boys who are confronted with terrible choices to think twice before they act. The reason he tours all these juvenile detention centers is that he wants those boys to know, I couldve been you. I was you. But you could be me,  Dlouhy says. Those are the readers he most wants to speak to.

Re-establishing His Roots

Reynolds has two books scheduled for publication next year. One, Jump Anyway, was written years ago. Its a lengthy poemmaybe a letter to himself, he saysthat he originally read at the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington. Dlouhy is packaging it as a gift book, to give to graduates. He talks to kids in a way thats not gilded, to prepare them for how hard it might be, but also to say how important it is to have a dream and go for it anyway, Dlouhy says.

In May, Reynolds signed a seven-figure deal for four more as-yet-untitled books with Dlouhy. When he isnt traveling, hell continue to write from early morning until midafternoon in coffee shops along the H Street corridor. Most of the people in his neighborhood dont know who he is, and the people who do know of him arent aware he lives here. I have walked into the public library on 17th Street and the librarians were like Whaaaaaaat?  he says.

Reynolds does not intend to rest on his laurels. Success, he says, is weird. He adds: The people who know me do not ask me about the next book, or how its going, they ask, Jason, are you sleeping? because they know my brain will not shut down. There are so many things I want to do, so many things I have to say. I got into this to serve children. I love children dearly. But I also intend to be great. There are no other options.
San Jose store hits a milestone; a library rebrands its bookstore; B&N gets a new head of retail; the bookstore that inspired Hogwarts; and more.

San Jose Bookstore Celebrates 50 Years: Eric Johnson, the owner of Recycle Bookstore, discusses the store's anniversary.

Pennsylvania Library Rebrands Bookstore: The Ephrata Public Library is rebranding its former Books & Stuff bookstore as the .002 Booksellers.

Chicago Bookstore Relocates: Bookie's, a new and used bookstore, has moved to a new, expanded 2,000 sq.-ft. location.

B&N Hires New Exec from Hospital Sector: Carl Hauch has been named v-p of stores at Barnes & Noble. His previous position was COO of walk-in clinic network at CityMD.

Indian Bookstore Holds Third Cover Contest: Delhi's famous Oxford Bookstore has opened its third annual book cover competition to entries.

How a Portuguese Bookstore Inspired Hogwarts: Livraria Lello in Porto is said to have given J.K. Rowling ideas for the design of the school in the Harry Potter novels.
David Burr Gerrard. Putnam, $27 (432p) ISBN 978-0-399-57543-3

Gerrards (Short Century) superb second novel has an exhilarating premise: what if there were a machine that could reveal your deepest secretthe uncomfortable truth about yourself you choose to overlookby tattooing it on your forearm? The novel is composed of rules about the machine, testimonials, descriptions of quasiprophetic operator Adam Lyons, and excerpts from books by the mysterious Steven Merdula about the machinebut primarily the book is Venter Lowoods memoir about coming of age in New York at the turn of the 21st century. Lowood contemplates and discusses American political history from the American Revolution to the War on Terror, raising questions about privacy, destiny, responsibility, and truth. Gerrards deft command of character, humor, and metaphor keep this intricate, philosophical novel fast-moving, poignant, and fun. In snarky banter, Venter and his best friend Ismail Ahmed communicate their deep affection and their playful rivalry, and in Venters tense conversations with his father (whose forearm reads SHOULD NEVER BECOME A FATHER) readers can see the painful legacy of the Lowoods encounters with Lyons and the machine. The figurative language is inventive and insightful: Life is an extended freefall. An epiphany may help you see better.... Rather than a meaningless blur, you will see rocks and trees and lizards. An epiphany is not a parachute. This is a wildly charming, morally serious bildungsroman with the rare potential to change the way readers think.
Expanding its exposure of Russian-language programming available in Asia Pacific region, satellite operator AsiaSat has closed a deal with media solutions provider Globecast to ensure the broadcast of RTR-Planeta Asia.





An international service owned by the Russian state television and radio broadcaster VGTRK, RTR-Planeta Asia provides cultural and prime time news, sports, movies and documentary films. The satellite operator is gathering momentum in further expanding its Russian TV neighbourhood, serving Russian-speaking viewers residing across the Asia Pacific region. Globecast is providing RTR-Planeta with complete distribution services to the channel via this deal, including across Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America, building upon Globecast and RTRs longstanding relationship, which began in 2003. RTR-Planeta is available free to air on AsiaSat 5 at 100.5 East transmitting in DVB-S2.Commenting on the deal, RTR-Planeta senior legal advisor media Vladimir Zhdanov, said: With the sheer volume of programming we offer, we need technology partners that deliver faultless services, and there is no better choice for this project than Globecast and AsiaSat. Through our partnership with them, we can now deliver our content further across Asia, without hassle or worry.Added Biliana Pumpalovic, general director at Globecast in Russia (pictured), added: We have a very well established relationship with AsiaSat and this deal is another example of the benefits to broadcasters that this brings. We also have significant reach across the Russian market, working with a variety of channels. We are very pleased to see this expand even further with our increased partnership with RTR-Planeta, providing it with great reach across Asia to Russians living there.
A British man was sentenced to prison after a court in Britain ruled he illegally entered eastern Ukraine in 2015 to fight alongside Russia-backed separatists against the central government.

Benjamin Stimson was sentenced on July 14 to five years and four months in prison by the Manchester Crown Court after pleading guilty to a charge of assisting others in committing terrorism, officials said.

Various reports put his age at 41-43 years old.

Police say Stimson traveled to Moscow in August 2015 before illegally entering eastern Ukraine to fight alongside separatists against Ukrainian forces.

He was arrested in November 2015 upon returning to the Manchester Airport after earlier giving an interview to the BBC in which he said he was prepared to kill people if necessary in an act of war.

Police said they seized paramilitary clothing from him at the airport.

Detective Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson said Stimson went to Ukraine with the intention of joining militia groups fighting against the Ukrainian government, and the images of him holding a rifle and wearing military clothing are deeply concerning.

Russia illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimea region and has been backing separatists in the country's east in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014.

Based on reporting by ITV and the BBC
Ukrainian law enforcement agents on July 14 raided property allegedly controlled by a former official under toppled pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych as part of an $800 million corruption investigation.

Ukraine's chief military prosecutor, Anatoliy Matios, said investigators carried out 183 raids in the capital Kyiv on property owned by former Income and Tax Minister Oleksandr Klymenko, who now is believed to live in Moscow.

Investigators carried out raids in the Gulliver shopping mall and the pro-Russian Vesti media holding, of which Klymenko is a beneficiary.

Klymenko on Facebook described the raids as "banal banditry" by the government, while saying they had a "political rationale."

The military prosecutor accused Klymenko of registering a number of offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and Cyprus between 2011 and 2013 and using offshore accounts to launder money stolen from the Ukrainian state budget.

The illegal scheme saw $788 million transferred to private companies and then spent on luxury apartments, cars, and office and retail premises, Matios said.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on his Facebook page that "nine of the main suspects are under arrest in a temporary detention facility."

He said that Klymenko's assets would be "frozen until a final court decision that I expect will confiscate them for the benefit of the state."

In May, law enforcement agents arrested 23 former high-ranking tax administration officials in the same investigation.

Klymenko fled the country after a bloody revolt that took place in central Kyiv in winter 2013-2014 ousted Yanukovych.

Based on reporting by AFP and Interfax-Ukraine


WASHINGTON -- Moldova is among the most vulnerable countries in the world in terms of energy security, with protracted conflicts in Transdniester and Ukraine potentially putting it in a perilous position, an expert on the region says.

Lyndon Allin, an associate at Baker McKenzie, told a conference on July 13 that of total energy consumption in the former Soviet republic, 98 percent is imported, most of it from Russia, and the imports are transported through the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniester

Of Moldova's electricity usage, 70 percent is generated in Transdniester, said Allin, who served with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's mission to Moldova.

"That's quite some challenge for the folks in Chisinau to ensure that they're able to keep the gas fired and keep the lights on," he said.

Transdniester is a breakaway area that is not under the control of the Chisinau authorities. It declared independence in 1992 and has received economic, political, and military support from Moscow ever since.

Allin, speaking at the Energy (In)security In Russias Periphery conference sponsored by the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, cited statistics placing Moldova as the ninth-most-risky country in terms of short-term energy security.

He said Moldova was heavily reliant on Russian natural-gas giant Gazprom, which sends its supplies through Transdniester.

Allin said Gazprom had been supplying gas to Transdniester through the same pipeline, but had not been requiring payment, as a means of subsidizing the separatists against Chisinau, leaving an unpaid debt of some $6 billion.

However, should Russia ever want to put pressure on Moldova to prevent a tilt toward the West, Gazprom could theoretically decide to collect that debt from Moldova, although it is disputed who actually owes the money.

As it stands, Gazprom at this time would be hesitant to cut off supplies to Moldova because many of its customers are downstream from the country, meaning it would lose revenue if it tried to punish Moldova.

However, Allin said, once alternative pipelines -- Nordstream 2 and Turk Stream -- are completed, supplies could be sent westward without passing through Moldova, making the countrys energy security even more precarious.

One option being explored to relieve Moldovas reliance on Russia and Transdniester is a gas interconnector with Romania, although that system is not currently able to come close to meeting Moldova's needs.

The European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the European Investment Bank are providing about $105 million in financing for a gas pipeline from Romania to Chisinau in hopes of increasing capacity to get gas from Romania.

Another possibilities being explored is the possible exploitation of shale-gas supplies in the country, Allin said, citing an agreement by the Moldovan government in January 2017 with a U.S. company, Frontera Resources, to explore its development.

Hydropower is also a possibility, Allin said, although the Dubasari hydroelectric dam is inside of Transdniester and, so far, Moldova does not benefit from its production.

And, he said, there is also a plan to connect to the Romanian electricity grid, but technical and cost challenges have slowed that development.

Ukraine does supply some Moldovan electricity, he said. But he noted that most of the transmission lines go through Transdniester, which in theory could in the future cut the lines.

In conclusion, he said, "In Moldova...there needs to be more of an effort to solve 'own' problems and not look only to foreign partners for solutions."

"Funding, sure...advice, sure...but there is a fatigue level with folks not solving their own problems, while recognizing that these are difficult problems."

Moldova has been courted by the West as well as Russia. Its current president is Igor Dodon, the pro-Russian leader of the Socialist Party.

However, the country is divided, and Dodon has clashed repeatedly with the West-leaning government over ties with Russia.

While the government has said it wants to join the EU and NATO, Dodon has opposed membership and said he would like to cancel Moldova's EU Association Agreement.
U.S. forces have killed the leader of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan branch in a raid in the northeastern province of Kunar, the Pentagon said on July 14.

"U.S. forces killed Abu Sayed, the emir of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) -- in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, July 11," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement, using an alternative name for the group.

"The raid also killed other ISIS-K members and will significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan," the statement said.

IS leaders chose Abu Sayed to lead the group after Afghan and U.S. forces killed the previous ISIS-K leaders -- Hafiz Sayed in late July last year and Abdul Hasib in late April.

"Afghan and U.S. forces launched a counter-ISIS-K offensive in early March 2017 to drive fighters from Nangarhar [Province] and send a clear message to ISIS that there is no sanctuary for their fighters in Afghanistan," the statement said.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
WASHINGTON -- As recently as last year, Rinat Akhmetshin could be seen regularly pedaling through downtown Washington, D.C., nattily dressed, with a pocket square and heavy-framed thick glasses, riding a retro hipster orange bicycle.

He also showed an affinity for vintage motorcycles, which he parked for two years in the Washington driveway of renowned investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.

Hersh later gave a public endorsement to a controversial film linked to Akhmetshin that sought to undermine a 2012 U.S. law that infuriated the Kremlin.

Now Akhmetshin, a dual Russian-American citizen who has both denied and bragged about being a former Soviet military intelligence officer, is at the center of a growing scandal reaching high into President Donald Trumps White House.

U.S. media reported that he attended a June 9, 2016, meeting with Trumps son, Donald Jr., accompanying a Russian lawyer who was also seeking to undermine the 2012 law.

Akhmetshin did not respond to an e-mail, text messages, or a voice mail from RFE/RL on July 14. But he told the Associated Press that the lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, gave Trump associates at the meeting information on what she said were funds being illegally funneled to the Democratic National Committee and suggested the information could help the Trump campaign.

"This could be a good issue to expose how the [Democratic National Committee] is accepting bad money," Akhmetshin was quoted as recalling Veselnitskaya saying.

Until last year, Akhmetshins longtime behind-the-scenes work in and around Washington lobbying circles had escaped wider notice. But his work is substantial, stretching back two decades.

He has been a key figure in past PR campaigns to bolster Kazakh opposition figures, to discredit a Russian member of parliament, to lobby on Azerbaijani politics, and to undermine a Russian-owned mining company that sued another in a Dutch lawsuit.

Its not cheap work, as Akhmetshin himself stated in an affidavit as part of a 2015 lawsuit: He said he charged $450 an hour for his services.

In 1998, Akhmetshin said he founded the Washington office of an organization called the International Eurasian Institute for Economic and Political Research, to help expand democracy and the rule of law in Eurasia.

In the late 1990s, he organized meetings with journalists, elected officials, and policymakers in Washington for opposition lawmakers from Kazakhstan. Later, he worked to undermine a businessman and diplomat who was divorced from the daughter of Kazakhstans longtime president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, and then had a falling out with Nazarbaev.

In 2011, Akhmetshin was accused of involvement in a smear campaign aimed at maligning a former Russian lawmaker who sought political asylum in the United States.

The goal, according to court documents, was to persuade U.S. officials to revoke the lawmakers asylum status, and force him to return to Russia, where he was involved in a dispute with a billionaire businessman over a Moscow hotel project.

Akhmetshin was not the target of the lawsuit but, according to the complaint, he was enlisted, along with a Washington public relations company and private investigators, to portray the lawmaker as anti-Semitic.

During the suit, Akhmetshin fought to keep his e-mails from being released to the opposing lawyers.

Some of my clients are national governments or high ranking officials in those governments, he said in an August 21, 2012, affidavit. My government clients have highly sensitive discussions in my emails concerning the location or relocation of American military bases in areas within the former Soviet Union.

The underlying lawsuit, and a related countersuit, were dismissed in March 2014.

A more recent legal fight concerned a $1 billion dispute over a potash mining operation in central Russia. While the main fight took place in European courts, a sideshow unfolded in U.S. courts beginning in 2014 when Akhmetshin was accused of hacking into the opposing parties computers.

Court papers filed New York State Supreme Court accused Akhmetshin of being a former Soviet military counterintelligence officer who developed a special expertise in running negative public relations campaigns.

In e-mail and in-person interviews with RFE/RL last year, Akhmetshin denied working for Soviet or Russian military intelligence. However, in private conversations and other published reports, he spoke openly about it.

The campaign he was associated with last year focused on the 2012 Magnitsky Act. That law imposed visa bans and other measures against Russian officials involved in the death of Russian whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky and the $230 million tax-fraud scheme he helped uncover.

The campaign was two-pronged. The first involved the ban on adoptions of Russian children by American parents, which President Vladimir Putin imposed in retaliation for the Magnitsky Act.

Akhmetshin set up a benign-sounding organization to lobby Congress ostensibly in an effort to restore Russian adoptions. He enlisted former congressmen, and set up meetings with current members, including Representative Dana Rohrabacher (Republican-California), long known for his rosy rhetoric regarding the Kremlin.

Veselnitskaya said she discussed the adoption issue in her meeting with Donald Trump Jr.

The second involved organizing  screening at Washingtons Newseum of a Russian directors film that took a semifictionalized look at Magnitskys whistle-blowing and his death. The screening happened on June 13, 2016, four days after he joined Veselnitskaya at the meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr.

Veselnitskaya, who also attended the screening, served as a lawyer for a Russian-owned company known as Prevezon that U.S. prosecutors had accused of laundering some of the Magnitsky tax-fraud money. In May 2017, that case was settled on the eve of its trial with Prevezon admitting no wrongdoing and paying $6 million.

Another Washington public relations firm, along with Akhmetshin, was also connected to the effort to undermine the Magnitsky Act: Fusion GPS, which was behind the so-called Steele dossier, a compilation of damaging information about Donald Trump that was put together by a former British spy.

In May, Senator Chuck Grassley (Republican-Iowa) asked the Justice Department to investigate both Fusion and Akhmetshin, suggesting that they were unregistered agents of Russian interests.

Prior to the screening, Hersh, the renowned investigative reporter, told RFE/RL that he had seen the film a few months prior at Akhmetshins behest. Hersh said he was intrigued enough by it that he agreed to Akhmetshins request to host a postscreening discussion free of charge.

Hersh also told RFE/RL that he knew Akhmetshin through mutual acquaintances and that he had let Akhmetshin park several antique motorcycles in the driveway of his Washington-area home, motorcycles he said Akhmetshin had bought thinking they dated from World War II but in fact they were of German manufacture and had been painted over to look like Soviet motorcycles.

At the conclusion of the June 13 film screening, as the discussion turned loud and rowdy, Hersh said the film goes a long way toward deconstructing a myth.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-installed head of the North Caucasus Republic of Chechnya, has criticized the recent conviction and sentencing of five Chechens for the 2015 murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.

According to a statement posted on the Chechen government's website, Kadyrov told a government meeting on July 13 that the five men were convicted on "doubtful evidence."

Kadyrov reportedly said he was surprised that prosecutors sought a life sentence for the convicted triggerman, Zaur Dadayev, as he could not recall a similar punishment being handed down in comparable criminal cases.

In a video recorded after the meeting, Kadyrov described the men as "completely innocent."

Nemtsov, who was a vocal critic of Kadyrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead near the Kremlin on February 27, 2015. The five Chechens with ties to Kadyrov's security forces were given long prison terms by a Moscow military court on July 13.

Kadyrov also said the killings of Chechens and other Caucasians in Russian cites were routinely ignored by human rights activists.

"I am convinced that a well-financed, intentional informational and ideological war is being waged against Chechnya and its people," Kadyrov said.

Earlier this week, Amnesty International urged the Kremlin to investigate a Novaya Gazeta report that 27 people had been summarily executed by Chechen security forces in January.

Security forces controlled by Kremlin-installed Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov have been accused of gross human rights abuses for many years, including abductions, torture, and killings.
Officials in Russia's Orenburg region say they are looking into a request for clemency filed by the former security chief of the now-defunct Yukos oil company, Aleksei Pichugin.

In July 13 statement, the regional administration said Pichugin's request was under consideration by a special commission which, if it approves the request, would send it to federal agencies for consideration.

It is not clear for how long the procedure might last.

Pichugin's lawyer, Ksenia Kostromina, said earlier that her client had filed a new petition for pardon.

Pichugin is serving a life sentence for allegedly organizing killings of businessmen who threatened Yukos, as well as that of a Russian mayor. He maintains his innocence.

Yukos was once Russia's largest company. It was dismantled after the 2003 arrest of its CEO, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was later convicted and imprisoned on charges of fraud, tax evasion, and embezzlement in a case his supporters say was aimed at thwarting his political ambitions.

Khodorkovsky spent 10 years in prison and was pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013.

Pichugin's previous petition for clemency was declined by Putin last year.

On July 13, the head of the Russian Presidential Human Rights Council, Mikhail Fedotov, urged the Orenburg regional governor to support Pichugin's pardon request.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax
A leading Tatar activist will remain under police supervision for eight years after his expected release from prison later this year.

In what lawyers are describing as an unprecedented decision, a court in Russia's Komi region ruled on July 11 that Rafis Kashapov, chairman of the Tatar Public Center, be barred from political and public activities for eight years under parole-like supervision.

Kashapov's lawyer, Ruslan Garifullin, told RFE/RL on July 13 that Russian law allows postsentence restrictions placed on those who "systematically violate penitentiary regulations," but being placed under police supervision for eight years is unprecedented in Russia.

Kapashov was convicted of calling for separatism and inciting ethnic enmity in his native city of Chally in September 2015. He was sentenced to three years in prison, including time served, and is set for release in December.

He posted several articles on the Internet in 2014 that harshly criticized Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea and its treatment of Crimean Tatars, as well as Moscow's involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine.

Kashapov says his case was politically motivated.

Kashapov's Tatar Public Center is an NGO in Tatarstan's second-largest city, Chally, which campaigns to preserve Tatar national identity, language, and culture.
Moscow expects "substantial" proposals on improving relations during diplomatic talks between the United States and Russia set for Washington on July 17.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on July 13 that Moscow could be forced to respond to the December 2016 expulsion by the United States of 35 Russian diplomats and the seizure of two Russian diplomatic compounds.

Moscow did not retaliate when those sanctions were imposed by then-President Barrack Obama in response to a U.S. intelligence finding that Moscow had sought to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Zakharova said the United State had refused to issue visas to candidates submitted to replace the 35 expelled diplomats, leaving an imbalance in the two countries' respective representations.

"So one of the options is that apart from expelling the corresponding number of diplomats, we will just have to even the number of personnel," Zakharova said.

She added that Moscow expected the July 17 meeting between Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon to be more than just a "protocol event" or "idle talk."

On July 12, deputy assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump Sebastian Gorka suggested the Russian diplomatic compounds could be restored "if we can see acts of good faith" from Russia on the conflict in Syria.

Frants Klintsevich, head of the Russian Federation Council's Defense and Security Committee, told TASS that it was illogical to link the compound issue to Syria.

"If we adopted such an approach, then there would be no U.S. diplomatic property left in Russia," Klintsevich said.

Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, TASS, and Interfax
Uzbek officials have confirmed that the seven victims of a July 13 fire in northwestern Russia were Uzbek nationals.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministry issued a statement on July 14, saying that all the fire victims were males of the age between 19 and 50 from Uzbekistan's west-central region of Xorazm.

The fire at an industrial facility in Russia's Leningrad region took place early in the morning on July 13.

The migrant workers also were living on the premises, regional officials said.

The Investigative Committee's branch in St. Petersburg said on July 13 a probe had been launched into the fire.
U.S. House of Representatives minority leader Nancy Pelosi (Democrat-California) has renewed calls for an independent commission to investigate Russias interference in the U.S. electoral process and its possible ties to President Donald Trump's administration.

Pelosi in a July 14 news conference also said presidential adviser Jared Kushner's security clearance should be revoked in view of his attendance at a meeting with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 along with Donald Trump Jr. and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Kushner is also Trump's son-in-law.

According to multiple U.S. media reports, the Russian lawyer who met with Trump Jr. in June 2016 was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist who is suspected of being a former Soviet counterintelligence officer.

The presidents son agreed to take the meeting after receiving an e-mail stating he would be given derogatory information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and that the information was purportedly coming from the Russian government.

The president and his son have claimed that the meeting was not unusual in politics and that no information was shared.

In the news conference on July 14, Pelosi and other top House Democrats said they will attempt to force a vote on the need for an independent commission, although as a minority party their power is limited.

The commission would be in addition to investigation into Russia-related matters by at least two congressional panels and a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP
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
U.S. President Donald Trump has said his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer last year in hopes of obtaining damaging information about his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton is "standard practice" during a political campaign.

"Most people would have taken that meeting," Trump said at a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron. "It's called opposition research, or research into your opponent."

"I've only been in politics for two years, but I've had many people call up, 'Oh gee, we have information on this factor or this person or frankly Hillary,' -- that's very standard in politics. Politics is not the nicest business in the world, but it's very standard," he said.

Trump's latest defense of his son Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya came as U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan urged Trump Jr. to testify before Congress about the meeting.

The younger Trump has offered to cooperate with Congress about the matter and would be the first member of the president's inner circle to testify before committees that are investigating Russian attempts to influence the election.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley said on July 13 that he will send Trump Jr. a letter asking him to testify in public, and Ryan said he supported that request.

"I think any witness who's been asked to testify in Congress should do that," Ryan said.

Trump Jr. disclosed this week that he agreed to meet with Veselnitskaya in June 2016 after he was told she represented the Russian government and had damaging information on Clinton.

Trump Jr. said he would "love it" it that were the case, and he invited his brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Trump's campaign chairman at the time, Paul Manafort, to join the meeting, according to e-mails Trump Jr. released this week.

The e-mails are the most concrete evidence to date that Trump's campaign might have been willing to accept Russian help to win the election and are now a major focus of investigations in Congress.

The president stressed that Veselnitskaya was a private attorney and not a Russian government lawyer, and that nothing of substance came out of the meeting.

Meanwhile, U.S. citizen groups filed a complaint against Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort on July 13 with the U.S. agency that oversees elections, arguing that the three violated the law by meeting with the Russian.

The complaint with the Federal Election Commission was signed by Common Cause, the Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21, and two campaign lawyers involved with those groups.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will not roll back sanctions on Russia unless Moscow agrees to negotiated peace deals between warring parties in Ukraine and Syria.

"I would never take the sanctions off until something is worked out to our satisfaction and everybody's satisfaction in Syria and Ukraine," Trump told reporters on July 13 aboard Air Force One on the way to Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"I've made great deals.That's what I do. Why would I take sanctions off without getting anything?" he asked, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not raise the issue of sanctions in their meeting last week in Germany.

Trump's sanctions comments were initially made off-the-record and later published by the White House.

Trump has repeatedly pledged to abide by the sanctions imposed on Russia over its aggression in Ukraine by his predecessor Barack Obama since a bill passed the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly last month to cement those sanctions into law and enable Congress to block Trump from easing them.

The White House opposes the bill's congressional override provision, which is says impinges on the president's constitutional duty to carry out foreign policy, and is seeking changes to the legislation in the House.

Based on reporting by dpa and TASS
Two foreign women tourists were killed on July 14 and four others were wounded when an attacker stabbed them at the Egyptian Red Sea beach resort of Hurghada, officials and media said.

The governor of Red Sea Province, where Hurghada is located, said two "foreign residents" of the city were killed in the attack, a statement said, without mentioning what country they had come from.

There were conflicting reports about the nationality of the victims.

Egypt's official Al-Ahram newspaper reported on its website that two Ukrainian female tourists died in the stabbing and that four others were injured.

But Ukraine's ambassador to Cairo told Kyiv-based broadcaster Channel 112 that no Ukrainians had been killed.

Major General Muhammad el-Hamzawi, security manager of Red Sea Province, told Reuters that the two victims had been identified as Germans. He said two Czech women were also injured in the attack.

The attacker swam from a nearby public beach to the Zahabia Hotel, where he killed two women and wounded two others before attacking two more people at the adjacent Sunny Days El Palacio resort in Hurghada, security sources said.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that the attacker was arrested and was being questioned.

"We don't know his motives yet, he could be crazy or disturbed -- it's too early to tell," a senior ministry official said.

In January 2016, three tourists in Hurghada were wounded in a stabbing assault by two assailants with apparent Islamic State group (IS) sympathies.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the July 14 stabbing.

Hurghada is one of Egypt's most-popular beach resorts, especially with Ukrainians and European tourists.

Security has been boosted in resorts around the country, as the tourism industry provides Egypt with much-needed revenues.

An IS bombing of a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from a south Sinai resort in 2015 killed all 224 people on board and badly affected the country's tourism sector.

Russia suspended all flights to Egypt in response and has yet to resume them.

The July 14 attack came hours after five Egyptian police officers were shot to death in Cairo's twin city of Giza.

In that attack, gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on a security vehicle patrolling a Giza village near some of Egypt's oldest pyramids, the Interior Ministry and officials said.

The latest attacks come after 23 Egyptian troops were killed in the Sinai a week ago, in an assault claimed by IS.
Amnesty International says it has information that a missing Ukrainian blogger is being held by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk.

In a July 12 statement, Amnesty said it had received information on July 8 from sources in the Donetsk region saying that Stanislav Aseyev is being held by the self-styled security organs of the Russia-backed separatists.

Aseyev, who writes under the name Stanislav Vasin and who contributes to RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, disappeared in Donetsk on June 2.

The separatists who control some parts of the Donetsk region have repeatedly denied having any information regarding Aseyev.

But Amnesty said it was a common practice for the separatists to keep in custody people they suspect of disloyalty to what they call the Donetsk People's Republic or of "subversive" activities incommunicado while denying knowledge of their whereabouts.

Amnesty also said that Aseyev remained at risk of torture and other ill-treatment and called for immediate action to release him.

RFE/RL Editor in Chief Nenad Pejic said earlier that Aseyev's detention, if true, was "deeply alarming and lawless" and demanded his immediate release.

On June 12, Ukraine's National Union of Journalists asked the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for assistance in locating Aseyev.
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."

WATCH: Local residents welcomed Ukrainian soldiers into Snihurivka on November 10, as advance forces of the Ukrainian military recaptured the town in the southern Mykolayiv region. Other footage from the village of Blahodatne in the Kherson region shows a massive cache of abandoned weapons left by the Russian troops after their retreat.

"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 Russian lawyer who met with the eldest son of U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials of his presidential campaign in June 2016 was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist who is a former Soviet counterintelligence officer, according to multiple U.S. media reports.

The lobbyist, Rinat Akhmetshin, on July 14 confirmed to the Associated Press that he had been at the meeting. He told the news agency he had once served in a Soviet military unit that was part of counterintelligence but that he was never formally trained as a spy.

NBC reported on July 13 that the lobbyist, whom the network did not name at the time, accompanied Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya to the meeting with Donald Trump Jr.; President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The NBC report described the man as a "Russian-born American lobbyist [who] served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship."

Akhmetshin was a known associate of Veselnitskaya's in a multifaceted lobbying and public-relations effort in the United States in mid-2016 against the Magnitsky Act, legislation that imposes sanctions on human rights abusers.

The Financial Times reported on July 10 that Veselnitskaya had hired Akhmetshin during this period.

E-mail, phone, and text queries by RFE/RL to contacts previously used by Akhmetshin went unanswered on July 14.

Contacted by RFE/RL, a representative for Veselnitskaya in Russia said on July 14 she was too "busy" to comment on the Akhmetshin reports.

Akhmetshin has said previously that he served in Soviet counterintelligence, although he denied in an interview with RFE/RL last year that he had served in Soviet military intelligence.

In April, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent the Department of Homeland Security an information request as part of a probe into possible illegal lobbying by Akhmetshin, saying he was suspected of conducting "subversive political influence operations often involving disinformation and propaganda."

NBC reported that Alan Futerfas, Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyer, said his client had met with the former counterintelligence officer in question, without using his name. Futerfas said he himself had spoken to "that individual," who denied he was working for the Russian government.

"I have absolutely no concerns about what was said in that meeting," Futerfas said.

Representatives of Kushner and Manafort refused to comment for the NBC report.

In an earlier interview with NBC, Veselnitskaya said she was accompanied to the meeting by at least one other person whom she declined to identify.

On July 11, Donald Trump Jr. released e-mails that showed he had accepted the meeting after being told Veselnitskaya had damaging information about Democratic Party presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that was purportedly provided by the Russian government.

Akhmetshin told AP that Veselnitskaya gave the Trump associates at the meeting information on what she said were funds being illegally funneled to the Democratic National Committee and suggested the information could help the Trump campaign.

"This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money," Akhmetshin recalled the lawyer as saying.

President Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have said there was nothing improper about the meeting.

With reporting by NBC and The Financial Times
It has been quite some time now that the rumors of a new motorcycle form Kawasaki, with a twin cylinder engine to compete with new gen bikes like the KTM RC390, Yamaha R3 and Honda CBR250RR, has been making rounds. It seems, Kawasaki is planning to launch a 400 cc twin cylinder, if we are to believe new reports from the US.

New Kawasaki Ninja 400 has been reportedly spotted while it was out for a TVC shoot in the US. The news about the Kawasaki Ninja 400 leaking has been purely coincidental. Local news channels in Milwaukee reported that Kawasaki has shut down streets of the city to shoot a TVC. In some footage of this report, the Ninja 400 was leaked.

Ninja 400 mentioned on the license plate.

From the spy shots, it seems that the Ninja 400 will be inspired by the big brother Ninja 1000. It is seen here in the traditional green and black Ninja livery. Other details that can be seen from the spy shots  larger fairing in the front, LED tail lamps, black alloys, wider rear tyres, split seats with a taller stance for rear seat, LED side blinkers and higher windshield visor.

In addition to this, one can expect features like ABS, digital instrument console, projector headlights, LED DRL etc to be on offer. Mechanically, expect the new 400 cc twin cylinder engine to deliver about 50 PS and 40 Nm, which is higher than what rivals from Honda, Yamaha and KTM offer. Transmission will be via a 6 speed gearbox.

Expected to be launched in the coming days, it is not clear whether the Ninja 400 will be launched in India or not. But considering that the demand for higher cc bikes is on the rise, Kawasaki India might just launch the Ninja 400 and take the entry level sportsbike segment by surprise.
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Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

A few passing clouds, otherwise generally sunny. High 76F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to occasional showers later during the night. Low 54F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
WASHINGTON  Two people who served on the NASA transition team for the Trump administration said July 11 they don't expect the White House to rush the development of a new national space policy.

In a panel discussion at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Propulsion and Energy Forum in Atlanta, Sandra Magnus and Chris Shank said they expected the Trump administration to use the newly-reestablished National Space Council to draft such a policy, but that it would not necessarily be a priority for it.

"There are some other pressing problems to be had there as well, as well as the annual budgeting and appropriations," said Shank, who chaired the agency review team, or "landing team," assigned to NASA by the incoming administration, and who is now senior advisor to the secretary and the under secretary of the Air Force. [Presidential Space Visions: From Ike to Trump]

"I bet it would take them a couple of years, at a minimum, if they started right away," said Magnus, the executive director of AIAA who served on the landing team. Both panelists noted they were speaking for themselves and not their current organizations.

The discussion was prompted by an audience question about the timing for the development of an overarching national space policy. The Obama administration released its national space policy in June 2010, less than 18 months after taking office.

The George W. Bush administration did not release its space policy until mid-2006, five a half years after taking office. However, it did release policies on specific issues, from space transportation to commercial remote sensing, earlier in the administration.

Shank suggested that the White House might take incremental measures leading up to a policy. "There's a speed of government and a speed of business," he said. "I think the speed of business for a number of folks within the administration is to make little shifts along the way as opposed to waiting."

The National Space Council, which last operated at the end of the George H.W. Bush administration in 1993, was formally reestablished by President Trump in an executive order he signed June 30. Vice President Mike Pence said in a July 6 speech at the Kennedy Space Center that he expected the council to hold its first meeting by the end of the summer.

Shank noted in his remarks in the panel that he was asked for advice on how to set up the council in February by Pence's office. "He was personally interested in the [NASA] agency review team report in January, and was telling his staff to get going on the space council," Shank recalled.

That work included discussing how the council would work with other groups, like the National Security Council and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. "There's more details than simply what's in that executive order itself," he said.

Magnus, who attended the executive order signing ceremony at the White House on behalf of AIAA, said she was "cautiously optimistic" about the prospects of the new council. "I think there's a lot of potential here," she said. "What we could use as a nation is an integrated strategy for how we want to approach space."

She also defended the administration's delays in selecting a NASA administrator. Despite rumors of interviews of candidates and impending announcements, the White House has yet to nominate someone for that position, as well as the post of deputy administrator.

"I don't think that it signals that it is a low priority" for the administration, said Magnus, a former astronaut who has been among those rumored to be in consideration for the job. "They have a lot of things on their plate and they keep putting things on their plate. There are fires that are a little bit more important to put out before they get to NASA administrator."

"Personnel vetting takes times," added Shank, who noted the delays in getting positions filled at the Pentagon. "I don't think this is a lack of priority at all by the administration."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
It's hard to believe that it's already been two years.

On July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft zoomed within 7,800 miles (12,550 kilometers) of Pluto, capturing the first-ever up-close looks at the dwarf planet system.

Since its 1930 discovery, Pluto had remained but a blur of pixels in even the best imagery, so the flyby was a revelation. New Horizons' photos revealed Pluto to be a diverse world with a stunning variety of features, including a 620-mile-wide (1,000 km) plain of nitrogen ice and water-ice mountains that rise 2 miles (3.2 km) into the dwarf planet's exotic sky. [Pluto Flyby Anniversary: New Horizons' Most Amazing Photos]

"I think the most surprising thing is how complex that little planet is," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, told Space.com via email.

"It outstripped everyones expectations, and I am certain that were going to need an orbiter follow-up to make sense of Pluto," Stern added. "Fortunately, now we know how to do that and what new instruments to bring to bear."

The flyby also revealed, among many other things, that Pluto is slightly larger than scientists had thought; that its many-layered atmosphere is blue; that an ocean of liquid water might slosh beneath the dwarf planet's surface; and that all five of its moons are the same age (and therefore were probably all formed by a colossal impact between Pluto and another object billions of years ago).

Future generations will likely look back on the $700 million New Horizons mission, which launched in January 2006, as a groundbreaking example of cost-effective space exploration, Stern said. [New Horizons' Pluto Flyby: Complete Coverage]

"New Horizons will best be known, I think, for showing how to do outer planet exploration less expensively and for delivering spectacular science to boot," he said. "But Id be remiss if I didnt add that itll also be known for completing the first era of planetary reconnaissance by finally revealing Pluto, the last of the planets known at the dawn of the space age."

Indeed, the other eight originally recognized planets had already gotten an up-close visit by the time of New Horizons' Pluto flyby. The most recent such unveiling came back in August 1989, when NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft cruised past Neptune. (Of course, the International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006, reducing the number of "officially recognized" planets in our solar system to eight  a decision that remains controversial to this day.)

Speaking of legacies is a bit premature, however, for New Horizons' work isn't done. The probe is now embarked on an extended mission that's centered on a second flyby, which will take place on Jan. 1, 2019. On that date, New Horizons will zoom close to a small object called 2014 MU69, which lies about 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Hello Pluto!

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

On July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft made history. It became the first probe ever to fly by the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons. We're celebrating the epic feat with some of the most amazing images from the Pluto encounter, even as New Horizons looks ahead to an even more distant rendezvous at the edge of the solar system. Click the arrows to see the best photos from (at Pluto and on Earth) from New Horizons' encounter.

Majestic Mountains

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASAs New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Plutos horizon. The smooth expanse of the informally named icy plain Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to the west (left) by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) high.

Blue Skies

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Pluto's haze layer shows its blue color in this picture taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera. The high-altitude haze is thought to be similar in nature to that seen at Saturns moon Titan. The source of both hazes likely involves sunlight-initiated chemical reactions of nitrogen and methane, leading to relatively small, soot-like particles called tholins that grow as they settle toward the surface.

Wright Mons

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Scientists have assembled this high-resolution color view of one of two potential cryovolcanoes spotted on the surface of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015. This feature, known as Wright Mons, was informally named by the New Horizons team in honor of the Wright brothers. At about 90 miles (150 kilometers) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) high, this feature is enormous. If it is in fact an ice volcano, as suspected, it would be the largest such feature discovered in the outer solar system.

Strikingly Different

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

This composite of enhanced color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left), was taken by NASAs New Horizons spacecraft as it passed through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. This image highlights the striking differences between Pluto and Charon. Pluto and Charon are shown with approximately correct relative sizes, but their true separation is not to scale. The image combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the spacecrafts Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera.

Surprising Sight

Bill Ingalls/NASA

Members of the New Horizons science team react to seeing the spacecraft's last and sharpest image of Pluto before closest approach later in the day on July 14, 2015 at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

Craters and Plains

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

This highest-resolution image from NASAs New Horizons spacecraft reveals new details of Plutos rugged cratered plains, including the layering in the interior walls of many craters. Layers in geology usually mean an important change in composition or event, but at the moment New Horizons team members do not know if they are seeing local, regional or global layering. The origin of the many dark linear features trending roughly vertically in the bottom half of the image is under debate, but may be tectonic. Most of the craters seen here lie within the 155-mile-wide (250-kilometers) Burney Basin, which is informally named after Venetia Burney, the English schoolgirl who first proposed the name "Pluto" for the newly discovered planet in 1930.

Varied Terrain

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

High-resolution images of Pluto taken by NASAs New Horizons spacecraft just before closest approach on July 14, 2015 reveal details down to scales of 270 meters. In this 75-mile (120 kilometers) section taken from a larger, high-resolution mosaic, the textured surface of a plain surrounds two isolated ice mountains.

Surface Diversity

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

This 220-mile-wide (350 kilometers) view of Pluto from NASAs New Horizons spacecraft illustrates the incredible diversity of surface reflectivities and geological landforms on the dwarf planet. The image includes dark, ancient heavily cratered terrain; bright, smooth geologically young terrain; many mountains; and a mysterious field of dark, aligned ridges that resemble dunes whose origin is under debate. The smallest visible features are 0.5 miles (0.8 km) in size. This image was taken as New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 50,000 miles (80,000 km).

Psychedelic Pluto

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

New Horizons scientists made this false-color image of Pluto to highlight the many subtle color differences between Pluto's distinct regions. The image data were collected by the spacecrafts Ralph/MVIC color camera on July 14, 2015, from a range of 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers).

Best Image Yet

Bill Ingalls/NASA

Members of the New Horizons science team react to seeing the spacecraft's last and sharpest image of Pluto before closest approach later in the day on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.
Images captured from Solar Dynamics Observatory's red, green and blue color channels were combined to create this view of the extreme ultraviolet radiation released by the sun's corona layer in May 2010 on the left half of the image, as well as in December 2014 on the right half.

Never judge a quiet sun by its boring name. A trove of data from a NASA mission finds that the seemingly low-activity areas of the sun are not as dormant as the name might suggest.

Researchers in Wales used the NASA data to examine the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere known as the solar corona. Studying the solar corona is of great importance for understanding what drives the solar cycle, which is an 11-year period of change the sun experiences. The corona can also tell us how the cycle affects the sun's light and heat output, and how cycle-related changes may affect Earth.

The sun's corona, which means "crown" in Latin and Spanish, is made up of plumes of gas and plasma  and temperatures can reach extremes of 3.5 million degrees Fahrenheit (2 million degrees Celsius). Huw Morgan, a researcher at Prifysgol Aberystwyth University in Wales, spent many weeks processing seven years' worth of coronal data.

He found that the quiet sun  the parts of the corona that had low activity and no sunspots  experienced surprisingly hot temperatures. The new work was detailed today (July 14) in the journal Science Advances.

This image was created by combining 54 observations of the sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona, in 2013. The horizontal bands above and below the equator are "activity belts" that start closer to the poles and gradually move to low latitudes as the 11-year solar cycle progresses. The dark spaces are known as the quiet sun. (Image credit: NASA/Hinode/XRT)

Past studies of the solar corona have been largely limited to much smaller data sets or particular regions, Morgan told Space.com. This study used data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spanning 2010 to 2017. The tremendous amount of information that contributed to Morgan's findings was collected from SDO instruments such as the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA).

"During the solar cycle, there's more activity, and we have more sunspots  and that's no surprise," Morgan told Space.com. "That's been known for decades. But for me, it's what's happening in what we call the quiet sun  that was interesting as well."

Prominences, solar flares and sunspots excel in the solar popularity contest; the attention-grabbing images that the SDO features of those solar events are certainly an indication of large public and scientific interest in them. These features are most common during the peak stage of solar maximum of the sun's 11-year cycle of change. The new findings indicate that there is also plenty to learn by studying the relatively calmer periods, known as the solar minimum.

"The active regions, the sunspots, get a lot of attention," Morgan said. "But in fact, they're only a small area of the whole sun."

According to the study, looking at the quiet-sun area of the corona allows scientists to understand more about the outermost layer of the star, which, in turn, can help them better grasp other important phenomena. For instance, a clearer understanding of how the quiet sun changes over time and across the star's surface will give scientists insight into what kind of light or heat output Earth will receive over a solar cycle. This matters for many reasons, one of which is that an excess of ultraviolet exposure on human skin, for instance, can cause cellular damage.

This image shows the solar corona's temperature and emission measure (EM) in January 2011. It is an analysis of extreme ultraviolet waves from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on the Solar Dynamic Observatory. (Image credit: NASA AIA/SDO/H. Morgan/Aberystwyth University )

To gain a clearer picture of what was going on, Morgan looked at data from three different instruments on the SDO.

"We are actually looking at a lot of layers at the same time, and they may be at different temperatures, so it is not as simple as being able to hold some instrument up and get one temperature," he said. "What we do, in fact, is look at lots of different wavelengths and use this information to try to estimate the distribution of temperatures we are looking at. So, it could be quite a wide [range]: You could have plasma at a million degrees [Celsius], and also, along the same line, you could have plasma at 2 million degrees [Celsius]."

This type of measurement is known as the differential emission measure. By estimating how the plasma in the corona is distributed, scientists can get a big-picture view of the sun's dynamics and their consequences.

In the future, Morgan hopes researchers will probe the quiet sun's temperature distributions in more detail, to learn what else the less-active regions can reveal about the nature of the sun.

Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter @salazar_elin. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
New research suggests some asteroids started as giant mud balls. The largest objects in the Asteroid Belt, like Ceres (shown here), might still harbor mud at their hearts.

The most common asteroids in the solar system may have started out as giant balls of mud, rather than as rocks, as scientists previously thought, a new study finds.

Such mud balls could still exist today in the heart of the largest asteroids, according to the study.

More than 75 percent of known asteroids are carbonaceous in composition; these grayish asteroids probably consist of clay and stony rocks, and inhabit the main belt's outer regions. [The Asteroid Belt Explained: Space Rocks by the Millions (Infographic)]

One key reason scientists investigate carbonaceous asteroids is that they were probably the building blocks of the rocky planets of the solar system, said study lead author Philip Bland, a planetary scientist at the Curtin University of Technology in Australia. Analyzing these giant rocks could shed light on the origins of Earth, Mars and the other terrestrial planets.

However, the way carbonaceous asteroids formed in the early days of the solar system is still mysterious. "There have probably been about a dozen different models to explain the origins of these primitive objects over the years, and they've all been limited in one way or another," Bland told Space.com.

Researchers have observed carbonaceous asteroids and analyzed meteorites thought to come from them to glean details about their composition. However, scientists had trouble devising a model that could explain all of these features of the asteroids, Bland said.

"For instance, one model might find there is a lot of water getting circulated around inside the asteroids, so they could lose heat  which would explain why meteorites from these asteroids appear to have experienced alterations at relatively low temperatures," Bland said. "However, if you have a lot of water circulating inside asteroids, it would strip elements from the rock, and you would get a very different chemical composition than what we see in the meteorites."

"If there wasn't water inside the asteroids, you wouldn't mess up the chemistry we see, but the asteroids would not lose heat as easily," Bland added. "One way around that is to have the asteroids be smaller so they would cool down more easily, but we don't see that today."

All of these previous models assumed the asteroids had lithified  that is, had become rock. "Most people look at meteorites, and they're rocks. So the natural thing to assume would be that the asteroids they came from were rocks, too," Bland said. "We were interested in seeing what happened if we deleted that assumption."

Prior work suggested that carbonaceous asteroids formed from round, porous mineral pellets known as chondrules, as well as fine-grained dust, and ice. When pockets of these materials got pulled together by their own gravity, they would not have become rock, the researchers suggested. Instead, when radioactive materials inside the dust and chondrules melted the ice, the result would have been a sludgy mud, they said.

"When you stop to think about it, there's no reason that asteroids would be rocks right at the beginning," Bland said.

The scientists devised computer models that simulated how pockets of dust, chondrules and ice might act with different concentrations of these various ingredients and the density at which these materials were packed together. They found that not only could asteroids emerge from these building blocks without lithification, but the way in which mud churned in these mud balls could help explain the chemical and thermal details seen from carbonaceous asteroids.

"I feel like this helps plug a gap in knowledge when it comes to the question of what happened inside what are amongst the most important objects in the history of our solar system," Bland said.

After the mud balls formed, they could have lithified in various ways. For instance, if these mud balls hit each other, the force of the impacts would have generated heat that could have welded the components of these mud balls together into rock, Bland said.

As for whether the mud balls might still exist in the solar system, when the researchers modeled Ceres, the largest asteroid, they "found there was a reasonable chance of temperatures above freezing in its interior, so there could still be quite a bit of a mud ball inside Ceres," Bland said.

Future research could explore how the other kinds of asteroids in the solar system were born, and how asteroids in other star systems might arise and, in turn, influence the formation of alien planets, Bland said.

Bland and his colleague Bryan Travis at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, detailed their findings online July 14 in the journal Science Advances.

Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter@cqchoi. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
An artists concept for Mars Base Camp space station proposed by Lockheed Martin. Representatives from several space companies say private partnerships could accelerate NASAs push to Mars.

Commercial space companies today (July 13) urged legislators to extend NASA's successful public-private partnerships for International Space Station transportation to future programs, including human missions to Mars.

NASA already is working with six firms to develop prototype habitats that would augment the agency's multibillion-dollar Orion capsule and Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket. NASA has said it intends to use the system to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.

Additional taxpayer investment in private companies could accelerate the initiative and cut costs, SpaceX Senior Vice President Tim Hughes told the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness. [SpaceX's Mars Colonization Plan in Pictures]

Technologies that SpaceX would be interested in developing in partnership with NASA include heavy-cargo missions to Mars, deep-space communications systems, and demonstrations of vertical takeoff and landing on the moon, Hughes said.

He pointed to the results from NASAs Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program, which leveraged $800 million of taypayer dollars with millions commercial investment to develop two medium-class launch vehicles and two cargo capsules at a far lower cost and much faster than any previous space vehicle development effort.

The key beneficiaries of COTS  SpaceX and Orbital ATK  now regularly fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA under separate launch service contracts. A third company, Sierra Nevada Corp., is expected to add its winged Dream Chaser space plane to the fleet in late 2019.

NASA also is funding COTS-like partnerships with SpaceX and Boeing to develop two transportation systems for astronauts.

"The features associated with the COTS program can be more broadly applied now to the development of deep-space exploration systems for transportation, habitats, communications, reconnaissance and resource utilization," Hughes said.

SpaceX is planning its own private mission to Mars using its Dragon spacecraft. (Image credit: SpaceX)

Under COTS, NASA paid its partners only when they achieved specific technical milestones. The agency set goals for its partners, but did not dictate how those goals would be met. [6 Private Deep Space Habitat Ideas for Mars]

"This encourages fresh thinking and creative problem-solving," Hughes said, adding that competition is critical to the success of COTs-like programs.

Jeff Manber, founder and chief executive of Houston-based NanoRacks, told the Senate subcommittee that public-private partnerships could also help the country transition to an Earth-orbiting research base after the International Space Station is deorbited. Whether the station's mission ends in 2024 or beyond, the United States should avoid a gap in low-Earth orbit human spaceflight, Manber said.

The retirement of the shuttle in 2011 left the country dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the station until at least 2019, when Space and Boeing hope to begin crew ferry flights

"It's critical that we don't end the International Space Station until we have established commercial operations in low-Earth orbit," said Kennedy Space Center director Robert Cabana. "Right now, the space station serves as a critical destination for our commercial partners."

Irene Klotz can be reached on Twitter at @free_space. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Bir Lehlu, July 14, 2017 (SPS) - The government of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (the SADR) and the Saharawi national liberation movement, the Polisario Front, has welcomed an announcement today that there would be no further defence of a case by Moroccos state company OCP SA over a cargo of phosphate mineral rock detained under court order in South Africa.

The 55,000 tonne cargo had been illegally exported from occupied Western Sahara in April for delivery to the New Zealand fertilizer company Ballance Agri-Nutrients Limited. Carried aboard the m.v. NM Cherry Blossom, it was detained on May 1 under a civil court order after an application by Saharawi authorities in South Africas High Court. On June 15, the Court determined that the claim should proceed to a full trial, noting that the Saharawi government had prima facie ownership of the cargo. A copy of the decision in Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and Another v Owner and Charterers of the MV 'NM Cherry Blossom' and Others [2017] ZAECPEHC 31 is available at: <www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAECPEHC/2017/31.html>.

In its decision, the Court noted that OCP and [its subsidiary company] Phosboucraa do not claim to have mined the phosphate in Western Sahara with the consent of the people of the territory. They do not and cannot claim to do so on behalf of its people. Their claim to mine phosphate for the benefit of the people is disputed by the SADR and the [Polisario Front]: as most of the Sahrawi people live to the east of the berm or in refugee camps in Algeria, those who may benefit from the mining of phosphate are not the people of the territory but, more likely, Moroccan settlers.

The SADR government recognizes the withdrawal of what would have been an untenable defence as a helpful step, both for ensuring clarity of what the High Court has determined on abundant evidence and as a contribution to the application of the rule of law in the continuing occupation of Western Sahara and a denial to its people of the right of self-determination.

The SADR senior official responsible for the case, Emhamded Khadad, explained: It is unfortunate that the Moroccan company made remarks which denigrate the South African High Court. Such statements are contemptible and unworthy of a state owned company that otherwise seeks the protection of the law in its commercial dealings. South Africas courts are universally regarded for their independence and sophistication. Tarnishing a courts reputation in the giving-up of a hopeless defence of stolen property is a sad thing to do.

The SADR government also welcomed the pending resolution of the case in the context of the m.v. NM Cherry Blossom being able to return to trade. Our government has been clear from the start to hold out the prospect that cargo  and ship  could sail away from South Africa after a posting of security for the Saharawi claim to ownership, explained Khadad. This is how things are worked out in maritime law cases. But neither OCP nor Ballance Agri-Nutrients would respond. And so the ship has stayed anchored at Port Elizabeth for more than 70 days.

The SADR government continues to explore the interdiction of phosphate rock and fisheries cargos in other states, and how historic claims against certain phosphate purchasing companies and shipping carriers will next be pursued. (SPS)

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Paris, July 14, 2017 (SPS) - Sahrawi political prisoners of the Gdeim Izik group, detained at Sale prison (Morocco), have called for restoring their rights and freedom before the long-awaited verdict of the Rabat court of appeal, which postponed the sixth and final phase of the trial to 18 July.

"We call on the Saharawi militants, international observers, associations, lawyers, journalists and all sympathizers and solidarity of freedom and human rights to attend massively the sessions of this 'trial' in order to shed light on the exactions of the Moroccan occupier and the aberrations of its corrupt judicial system which is at the service of the Makhzen and also to put pressure on the Moroccan authorities to restore our rights and our freedom," they declared in a statement.

They indicated that the Moroccan authorities force them to attend (their) mock trial, "since we decided to boycott and refuse to participate in this masquerade."

The 24 Sahrawi militants were arrested, tortured and sentenced to heavy sentences on the basis of confessions signed under torture because of their participation in the Saharawi protest camp in Gdeim Izik in 2010, it should be recalled. (SPS)

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A piece of the iceberg which is largely hidden broke off this week and floated to the surface of public consciousness. Donald Trump Jr acknowledged receiving an email stating that the Russian government was prepared to offer very high-level and sensitive information as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr Trump that would incriminate Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr arranged to receive the information at a meeting attended by himself, his brother-in-law Jared Kushner and his fathers campaign manager, Paul Manafort that, in the event, proved disappointing.

As former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said this week: I cant believe this one exchange represents all there is  We are headed for a constitutional crisis. Where would be the endgame of such a crisis?

One possibility is impeachment. Although most attention has been focused on the Presidents culpability for having obstructed justice by attempting to thwart the FBI investigation into the Russian connection, a more promising possibility is impeachment for bribery. Most people think of the bribery listed in the constitution as a basis for impeachment as the taking of a bribe, and this is certainly true. But equally important is offering a bribe. By determining that the head of the FBI, James Comey, wished to continue in his post, the President came perilously close to violating the constitution when he then stated that he would think about it, and raised the subject of Comey terminating the Russia investigation. Indeed, the offering of such a bribe formed one of the counts in Richard Nixons impeachment when it was alleged he offered a judicial promotion to a judge for favourable treatment in court.

A second possibility is indictment for the violation of a criminal statute such as the Espionage Act, lying to a federal officer, the suborning of perjury or the obstruction of justice. But since a sitting President cannot be indicted, and can only be prosecuted once he has been removed from office  or ended his term  this is for the time being unlikely.

The likeliest possibility is the Presidents resignation, as a consequence of the criminal prosecution of his children. Whatever his policy goals, it has long been clear that creating a dynasty  having destroyed the two reigning political dynasties in the last campaign  is his greatest objective. Resignation, as remote as it seems right now, might well be a choice the President would make to save his children from prison, and himself from future prosecution.

Would the President pardon them? If he did, it would seal his impeachment and his own prosecution.

Donald Trump defends 'wonderful' son's meeting with Russian lawyer

Philip Bobbitt is professor of law at Columbia University
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In July 2017 the United States agreed to provide Poland with the most capable version of the Patriot anti-missile missile. This follows Poland agreeing to buy a less capable version of Patriot in 2015. At that time the U.S. would not provide Poland with the most effective anti-missile missiles for Patriot in order to appease Russia. Poland is to receive eight batteries of the American Patriot anti-aircraft missile system with the first battery arriving in 2019 and the last one by 2023 and these will be able to use the latest anti-missile capabilities.

Each Patriot battery is manned by about a hundred troops who operate and maintain a radar/fire control system and four launchers. A battery can fire two types of Patriot missile. The more expensive (about $4 million each) PAC 3 missile is smaller than the anti-aircraft version (PAC 2). Thus a Patriot launcher can hold sixteen PAC 3 missiles, versus four PAC 2s. A PAC 2 missile weighs about a ton, a PAC 3 weighs about a third of that. The PAC 3 has a shorter range (about 20 kilometers) versus 160 kilometers for the PAC 2 anti-aircraft version used against low flying UAVs. The latest version of PAC-3 has a range of 35 kilometers. Using its anti-aircraft missiles one Patriot battery can cover more than 200 kilometers of land and coastal borders. Patriot can also take down cruise missiles as well, giving Poland some protection against just about everything the Russians have to throw at them.

The selection process has been going on for nearly a decade, with systems from France, Israel and the United States being the leading contenders. It is believed that Patriot won because it has the most impressive combat record and when the U.S. recently sent Patriot batteries to help defend Poland the visit included letting Polish officers and troops watch the operation of the Patriot up close.
In mid-2017 the U.S. Navy announced changes in its promotions policy to allow sailors to spend more time in their current rank before being forced out of the navy because of the post-World War II "up or out" policy prevalent throughout the American military. What up or out meant was that if you were not promoted within a certain number of years (of your last promotion), you had to leave. That meant capable, often very capable sailors and officers with jobs that had little opportunity for promotion were often forced to leave because of this rule. Over the last 60 years the military, including the navy, has adapted by retraining many of these veteran and capable NCOs (sergeants and petty officers) for other jobs where there were shortages. But whenever there were major reductions in military personnel it was common for a lot of very competent NCOs and officers to be up or outed and the navy want to avoid doing it again.

But sometimes that was not possible and after 2001 this became a major problem for the navy and air force because they were actually downsizing while the army and marines were expanding. The navy now allows sailors more time to find another career field they can train for and get promoted before they are hit with up or out. The latest change means junior petty officers (NCOs in ranks E-4, E-5 and E-6) get a break. E-4s can now spend ten years in that rank instead of the current eight before they are forced out. For E-5 it goes from 14 to 16 years and E-6 it goes from 20 to 22 years. The sailors benefitting from this are veterans with records of good performance, especially when it comes to supervising other sailors.

Since 2003 the U.S. Navy has been seeking other solutions to this problem, especially at a time downsizing and changing technology. Early on in this process the navy knew it was forcing out veteran sailors and officers and eventually that was recognized as a serious problem. According to the feedback the navy was getting, the system was not always getting rid of the worst performers, or retaining the true keepers. At first the navy responded by adding more screening (to make sure the right people got to stay) and more warning (so excellent sailors in overmanned job areas could decide whether they wanted to retrain for a more-in-demand job, or just leave). At the same time the navy was also raising its standards for new sailors and officers. In short, it's been more difficult to get into the navy, and to stay in. But for over a decade the emphasis has been on more accurately evaluating those who should stay long term.

The core program in this initial effort was "Perform To Serve" (PTS). This was instituted in 2003 and keeps evolving. PTS was originally an effort to get rid of people the navy didn't need (not possessing skills still in demand) or want (disciplinary or physical fitness problems). Initially only first term sailors, seeking to reenlist, had to endure PTS, and basically had to reapply for their jobs. After a few years, junior NCOs also had to do so, including those with 10-14 years of service. About 90 percent of those NCOs who applied kept their jobs. But among the other ten percent there were often people worth keeping. The screening system was found to be flawed, and the navy lost another good sailor who was not allowed to reenlist.

The basic cause of the downsizing and PTS is that changing technology has caused shortages in some jobs, surpluses in others and the elimination of many because of automation. The PTS program allows sailors in overmanned jobs to take aptitude tests to see if they qualify for training in another job. Some sailors can't make the cut, and have to leave. Others may score low on the aptitude test, but have excellent leadership skills. Since NCOs don't do a lot of the actual work, the leadership talents are much more important. For a long time the navy was not checking for this.

After 2008 navy began conducting a review of all its senior NCOs (Chief Petty Officers with 20 or more years of service). Initially about 97 percent were judged fit to continue serving, leaving about 150 a year forced to retire. But the army, with twice as many senior NCOs, only forced 30-40 a year while using a similar program. The navy believed that the main reason for this was the fact that, because so many army NCOs have been in combat in the last decade, and under a lot of stress, the ones who were not up to the job had already left, and some questionable sergeants still in service were cut some slack.

The navy was different from the army in other ways. While officers command the navy, and the ships, it's the "Chiefs" who run the navy where the work is actually done. Those chiefs with over twenty years service (and thus eligible for retirement at half pay) are considered the most essential. But it was always known that some of these senior chiefs were just coasting, and not living up to their responsibilities. Thus review boards were established to measure the performance, over five years, of all the most senior chiefs. Anyone with disciplinary problems, or low performance evaluations, would be in danger of not being "continued" (allowed to reenlist). Eventually chiefs who don't make the cut were forced into retirement immediately. Retirement can cost some chiefs a lot of money, because those with less than 30 years service, will lose out on the 75 percent pay you get when you retire at 30 or more years. You get half pay if you leave after 20 years. The navy did not set any quotas for how many chiefs to boot, they just wanted the low performers gone.

Aside from wanting to improve the quality of the senior NCO force, the additional retirements make it possible for more qualified chiefs to get promoted, and for junior NCOs to become chiefs. Because of the recession, more senior chiefs are putting off retirement, and promotions to chief have slowed. The new review of the chiefs also motivates many marginal chiefs to operate more effectively.
U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancers assigned to the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, fly with South Korean F-15 and U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula, July 7. The Lancers departed Andersen Air Force Base, Guam to conduct a sequenced bilateral mission with South Korean F-15s and Koku Jieitai (Japan Air Self-Defense Force) F-2 fighter jets. The air forces successfully integrated and flew with one another despite inclement weather, demonstrating their ability to adapt to and overcome the elements. The mission is in response to a series of increasingly escalatory action by North Korea, including a launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on July 3. (photo courtesy of Republic of Korea air force)

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It was recently revealed that two known pirate gangs in the north (Puntland) which were suspected of having switched to smuggling (between Somalia and Yemen) had used contacts with Islamic terrorists (developed while operating as pirates) to later get work smuggling weapons and people for both al Shabaab and the local branch of ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). This was long suspected but detailed evidence was scant.

Further south al Shabaab, the main local Islamic radical group in the region since 2006 has been greatly diminished since 2011 but not completely destroyed. In fact al Shabaab related violence left some 4,000 people dead in Somalia and Kenya during 2016. This was the most for any Islamic terrorist group in Africa that year. But the violence al Shabaab brings with it has had noxious side effects for all concerned, including al Shabaab. An example of how this works recently played out in central Somalia.

The Bakool Breakdown

At the end of June several hundred additional troops passed through Hudur, the capital of the Bakool region in central Somalia. The soldiers were there in case fighting broke out between the local al Shabaab commander Mukhtar Robow and other al Shabaab factions that want to kill him for negotiating with the government. Robow has been feuding with other al Shabaab leaders since 2010 over strategy and since 2013 has essentially declared that his al Shabaab faction (from his Rahanweyn clan, which dominates the region) was going to defend clan territory and do little else for al Shabaab. That meant al Shabaab men could move through Bakool but government forces would be resisted.

Back in 2012 the U.S. had offered a $5 million reward for anyone who would make it possible to capture or kill Robow. But in mid- June 2017 that reward was quietly withdrawn. This soon led to several al Shabaab leaders demanding that al Shabaab mass its depleted forces and punish Robow for this suspected betrayal. Many al Shabaab still blame Robow for the loss of Mogadishu in 2011. That mess began in 2010 when Mukhtar Robow (then al Shabaab deputy commander-in-chief) split with the group and withdrew his forces from Mogadishu. That also meant he was no longer the spokesman for the group or the deputy commander. The weakened and disorganized al Shabaab forces were then much less able to resist the pro-government clans/peacekeeper offensive to take control of the city.

Robow's complaint was that foreign terrorists were increasingly taking over al Shabaab, sometimes killing those who objected. At the time six al Qaeda foreigners were members of the ten man Sura Council (the al Shabaab supreme command) versus four Somalis. The defection of Robow meant al Shabaab lost about a quarter of its gunmen. That was when al Shabaab began recruiting more teenagers (who are easier to recruit, but aren't as effective in combat) to replace the older, more experienced men they were losing to combat injuries, desertion and defection. Al Shabaab also has to contend with the fact that most Somalis now hated the Islamic radicals and were increasing demonstrating that attitude by fleeing areas ruled by al Shabaab.

The feuding among senior al Shabaab leaders has never really ended but that sort of thing rarely makes the news. One exception occurred in early 2013 when al Shabaab ordered one of their more visible leaders, American born (but with a Syrian father) Abu Mansoor al Amriki (Omar Hammami) to turn himself in or be hunted down and killed. Hammami did not surrender and was caught by al Shabaab and killed in September 2013. Because Hammami was an American citizen that was considered news in most of the world. It all began at the end of 2012 when Hammami was expelled from al Shabaab and accused of spreading discord and disunity inside al Shabaab by going public about a dispute within al Shabaab over enforcing Islamic lifestyle rules. Hammami also accused al Shabaab leaders of corruption and incompetence. Al Shabaab quickly announced that Hammami was no longer their spokesman. Hammami has been with al Shabaab for seven years and had become a public face of the terrorists via his video releases on the Internet. Hammami grew up in Alabama, but came to Somalia and joined al Shabaab in 2006. Once he began appearing in al Shabaab videos he became a target for those fighting Islamic terrorists. The FBI named Hammami one of their most-wanted felons in late 2012 but that did not help get him out of Somalia safely.

In mid-2017 the Somali government does not want Mukhtar Robow to get killed by al Shabaab because that would cause more fighting in central Somalia and enable al Shabaab to continue moving through an area that is the safest route for al Shabaab from northern to southern Somalia. If Robow makes a peace deal with the government al Shabaab suddenly has a much more difficult time moving from north to south and, in effect, al Shabaab forces in the south (mostly near the Kenyan border) and north (mostly in Puntland) are isolated from each other and easier to defeat. Robow is apparently taking advantage of the situation and trying to make the best deal (for himself and his clan) he can with the government. Meanwhile he and several hundred of his armed followers have fortified a village 18 kilometers from Hudur and await developments.

The Larger Mess

The main threat in Somalia is the corruption and factionalism that have always defined and defiled Somali culture. Since 2013 Al Shabaab has been driven out of most of the territory it controlled for years but remnants fought on in thinly populated areas of central Somalia, the far north (Puntland border) and far south (Kenyan border). The defeated al Shabaab split into factions and most of the international (pro-al Qaeda) group has seized control of what was left. An elected Somali government, propped up by foreign aid (most of which gets stolen) has been around since 2012. Despite all that Somalia is still a failed state that defies every attempt at nation building. The situation is worse than it appears because Somalia was never a country, but rather a collection of clans and tribes that fight each other constantly over economic issues (land and water). The country remains an economic and political mess, a black hole on the map.

Pirates became a major problem after 2006 and in response the major trading nations launched a counter-piracy effort which since 2012 reduced pirate success (captured ships) considerably. In fact, no large ships have been captured in since early 2012 even though some of the pirate gangs are still operating up there. There are not many pirate groups left because of the lack of multi-million dollar ransoms.

In the far south (where the second major port, Kismayo is) a third statelet (after Puntland and Somaliland in the north) is trying to exist as Jubaland. The UN backed government in the center is trying to prevent this but the problem remains the independent minded clans. There is not a lot of enthusiasm among local leaders for a national government.

July 13, 2017: In the southeast (Lower Shabelle region) a raid by Somali and American commandos killed several al Shabaab men at one location while at a nearby site (which al Shabaab was using as a jail) several prisoners were freed.

July 10, 2017: In the north (Puntland) local troops completed a four day operation in the Galgala hills to find and destroy six al Shabaab camps in the area. While many al Shabaab men escaped 18 were killed and large quantities of food, other supplies and weapons were seized.

July 7, 2017: In the south, across the border in northeast Kenya, al Shabaab killed three policemen and then continued moving towards villages near the coast (Lamu). The Islamic terrorists sought out Christian residents in two villages and beheaded nine of them. Survivors of the attack reported that some of the al Shabaab men appeared to Kenyans (ethnic Somalis). Over the next few days Kenyan forces used ground troops and air strikes to attack suspected al Shabaab camps in the area, especially the Boni forest along the border. Kenya also imposed a dusk to dawn curfew in the Lamu area for the next 90 days.

July 6, 2017: In Burundi the government insisted that Burundian soldiers serving as peacekeepers in Somalia will receive their salaries. The soldiers have gone unpaid for a year. The EU (European Union) provided pay six months worth of salaries but refused further payments as a way to bring pressure on the Burundian government. At first Burundi threatened to withdraw its troops from Somalia but as news the corruption scandal spread the government changed its mind. Stealing pay and other money provided by the UN for peacekeepers is not an unusual even with African contingents.

July 5, 2017: In the south, near the port of Kismayo, Somali and U.S. forces attacked an al Shabaab camp and killed at least 13 Islamic terrorists. This operation was to disrupt a major attack al Shabaab was planning on a nearby Somali military base. Apparently al Shabaab had recently attacked that base and been repulsed and were regrouping to attack it again.

July 4, 2017: In Mogadishu several mortar shells were fired at a peacekeeper base. There were no casualties and Al Shabaab was suspected.

July 3, 2017: In Mogadishu a policeman died when a bomb planted in his vehicle went off. Al Shabaab was suspected.

July 2, 2017: In the south (Middle Jubba) American aircraft carried out an airstrike against an al Shabaab training camp near the town of Sakow.

July 1, 2017: Near Mogadishu an al Shabaab roadside bomb went off near a van killing two civilians and wounding six others.

June 29, 2017: In the north (Puntland) the local government executed seven al Shabaab men who were recently convicted of terrorism activities. The prompt prosecution and execution was prompted by the June 8th incident where al Shabaab attacked a Puntland military base and adjacent village (Af Urur) near the coast killing about fifty people.

June 23, 2017: In the south, across the border in Kenya (Mandera) five al Shabaab men in a car drove into a town firing their weapons. This left two civilians and a policeman dead. The vehicle then sped off for the border, which was seven kilometers away. The killers made it across the border before police could alert the border guards.

June 20, 2017: In Mogadishu an al Shabaab suicide truck bomber attacked a government compound leaving about twenty dead and at least as many wounded. Elsewhere in the area two Kenyan civilians were wounded when their vehicle triggered a roadside bomb.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents being allowed to search travelers' mobile devices without probable cause has long been a contentious issue. But we now know a little bit more about what officers can and can't do. Trawling through data stored locally on a phone is allowed, but anything found solely on the cloud is off limits - and that includes your social media accounts.

Acting US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McALeenan revealed the rules in a letter, sent in response to questions submitted to the CBP by Sen. Ron Wyden earlier this year.

The agency stated that: "CBP's authority to conduct border searches extends to all merchandise entering or departing the United States, including information that is physically resident on an electronic device transported by an international traveler. Therefore, border searches conducted by CBP do no extend to information that is located solely on remote servers."

Wyden had asked Homeland Security to explain the increase in the number of electronic devices being searched - there were only about 4,500 searches in 2015, but in 2016 this jumped to 23,000 searches. CBP maintains that searching travelers' phones without probable cause protects against child pornography and threats to national security.

While agents don't have the authority to access remote server data - Facebook and Twitter accounts are safe - the use of the word "solely" means they could examine recent emails and social media messages that are also stored on the device itself at the time of the search.

The letter goes on to state that anyone entering the country can refuse to hand over passwords to their phones and laptops when asked, but border officials may detain the devices for 'further examination', and any non-citizens risk being denied entry if they do so.
In the wake of Silk Road's closure by the FBI back in 2013, a number of other dark web marketplaces sprung up in its place, the most successful of these being AlphaBay. But when the site, which sells a variety of illegal goods, went offline earlier this month, many assumed the admins had absconded with users' Bitcoins. But it seems the blackout was the result of a joint takedown operation by authorities in the US, Canada, and Thailand.

Like Silk Road's alleged mastermind Ross Ulbricht, the man accused of being behind AlphaBay, Canadian citizen Alexandre Cazes, found himself behind bars after his arrest at the request of US authorities.

He was taken into custody in Thailand on July 5th - the day AlphaBay went dark. According to sources in Thailand, Cazes took his own life on July 12. He was found hanging from a towel in his cell at the Narcotics Bureau of Bangkok on the same day he was due to meet a lawyer in preparation for his extradition to the US.

Cazes had reportedly turned AlphaBay into a lucrative business. The Bangkok Post reports that local police impounded his four Lamborghinis and three houses, which added up to a total value of $11.8 million. Police believe the marketplace's total daily sales were between $600,000 - $800,000 at its height.

According to Pol Maj Gen Chayapote Hasoonha, intelligence section commander at the Bureau, Cazes had fled to Thailand eight years ago to avoid a drug prosecution in the United States. He worked as a computer programmer and had a Thai wife who had no doubts that his death was a suicide.
Three suspects have been arrested in Gulfport Mississippi in connection with an alleged assault that was broadcast as it happened on Facebook Live. Tuesday night at 11:46 p.m. Gulfport Police responded to reports of an assault occurring on the 3100 block of 7th avenue. Officers arriving on the scene discovered that a woman had been physically and sexually assaulted while someone else recorded it on Facebook Live. Police investigated the video and issued arrest warrants.

Haleigh Alexis Hudson, 19, surrendered to police at 7 p.m. Wednesday night. She has been charged with felony kidnapping and sexual assault. Her bail is set at $400,000.

Ezzie Johnson, 17, was taken into custody at 8 p.m. Wednesday and charged with felony kidnapping. Gulfport Police Chief Leonard Papania said Johnson will be charged as an adult. His bond is at $200,000.

A third suspect, Kadari Fabien Booker, 17, was arrested at 10:44 p.m. Wednesday night. He faces felony kidnapping and sexual assault charges. Booker's bail is $500,000.

Harrison County Justice Court Judge Brandon Ladner remanded the three to the Harrison County jail awaiting bond. Chief Papania said more arrests will be made as the investigation continues.

"We are also evaluating the actions of other people present in order to determine if other charges will be forthcoming and I can tell you with certainty; there will be."

The incident started at a gathering at Hudson's home. A 23-year-old unidentified female was the apparent victim of the assault. Police say that the 17-year-old Johnson was the one recording the event and posting it on Facebook Live. People on Facebook who claim to know the victim stated that she is mentally disabled. Police are looking into the matter, and if the victim is indeed a "special needs" individual, additional charges will be pressed for abusing a vulnerable adult.

The video got around 46,000 views, and Papania said he was bothered by the attention that it got. "I can't help but be disturbed by the incredible numbers of shares and views of this crude and despicable event," he said. "We videotape pain and suffering, then we share it, and then we view it over and over."

The Gulfport police received some criticism that they did not act quickly enough in making a statement on the case. The chief said that his department "conducts investigations at the speed of proper police work, not the speed of Facebook." He also acknowledged and thanked the Gulfport community for responding with tips, which helped in leading the police to the suspects identities.

This is not the first time a crime has been chronicled on Facebook. Back in April, Steve Stephens murdered Robert Godwin Sr. on camera and posted it to his wall. Just days later a Wuttisan Wongtalay killed his 11-month-old daughter in Thailand on the Live platform. It's a problem that is hard to handle without diligent moderation, which is difficult conceding the number of users who post content to the social media leader.
BEIJING, July 10, 2017 -- HNA Group, a Chinese multi-national corporation headquartered in Hainan Island, starting as a local air carrier and growing up to a Global Fortune 500 company with multiple businesses operations including tourism, finance, logistics and eco-technology, is celebrating its 24th anniversary.

During the group's anniversary celebrations, HNA Group's partners have commended the group for its outstanding achievements through the years and given their support for continued growth and success in the future. Bob Leduc, president of Pratt & Whitney, an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations, said, "Over the past 24 years, HNA Group has gone from a local air transport company based in Hainan Island to a Global Fortune 500 conglomerate. The story of the group makes for an inspiring chapter in the global aviation industry."

Committed to developing green aviation

HNA Group established the Green Aviation Initiative & Network in cooperation with key strategic partners, Pratt & Whitney and its parent company United Technologies in June 2016, as a move to boost the future development of the green aviation industry in the course of becoming an environmentally responsible aviation.

Doug Cai, president of Greater China, Pratt & Whitney, said, "The Green Aviation Initiative & Network aims to build an environmentally responsible aviation ecosystem via communication, dialog and innovative solutions."

How to use energy more efficiently, how to protect the environment and how to reduce the carbon footprint have been some of the hot topics across the world's civil aviation industry. The Green Aviation Initiative & Network serves as an international exchange platform for connecting the entire industry chain at a global level as well as encouraging cross-border interaction, industrial collaboration and joint innovation.

As of June 2017, the one-year old Green Aviation Initiative & Network has already made some notable achievements, one is which is bringing together 27 leading companies and organizations with a presence in the aviation industry to sponsor and support the platform construction of the project. In November 2016, 12 organizations, including HNA Group and United Technologies, jointly released Green Aviation Whitepaper 2016 through the network, drawing much attention and receiving positive feedback from players across the Chinese aviation industry.

Mr. Cai commented, "From a new perspective focusing on sustainable development, the Green Aviation Whitepaper reviews the development of the aviation industry, while HNA Group and United Technologies' strategic cooperation in green aviation allows them to make a contribution to the building of a sustainable and environmentally responsible aviation environment."

By researching the aviation industry's low energy consumption, low emission and low pollution practices across the entire process, from design to testing and manufacturing, the whitepaper advocates industrial competitiveness, moving the industry from a sole focus on creating market value to comprehensive economic, social and environmental value creation, as well as improving the respond capability to climate change. Over the next two years, the Green Aviation Initiative & Network plans to expand its presence across all aviation-related industries by demonstrating the basic benefits of an environmentally responsible aviation ecosystem.

Promoting the development of a green aviation industry with clean power

Both as joint sponsors and members of the executive committee of the Green Aviation Initiative & Network, HNA Group and United Technologies have formed a long-term and in-depth partnership based on their shared passion for environmental protection and the public interest as well as their strong sense of responsibility for the development of the industry.

In 2002, HNA Group received its first Boeing 767 wide-body aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney's PW4056 engine.

Due to continuous technological advances in the aviation industry, energy efficiency improvement and carbon emissions reduction through the application of advanced technologies have become a standard approach in the industry. In tandem with the trend, HNA Group has equipped its fleet with Pratt & Whitney's revolutionary PurePower geared turbofan engine. The advanced PurePower engine has been proven to reduce energy consumption by 16 percent, nitrogen oxide emissions by 50 percent and engine noise footprint by 75 percent when compared to traditional engines.

Mr. Cai explained, "Selecting the new energy-saving and environment-friendly engine reflects HNA's lasting focus on environmental protection."

An innovative approach to making a contribution for the benefit of the greater good

Mr. Cai indicated that, innovation is a driving force to sustainable development for both Pratt & Whitney and HNA Group.

He added, "We look forward to working with HNA Group to open a new chapter in the aviation industry characterized by innovation driven by a changing environment."

As a case in point, HNA Group continues to innovate in its approaches to environmental protection and contribution to the public interest, as well as pioneer in incorporating public interest programs into its daily operations while enhancing its social responsibility commitment. At the end of 2016, HNA Group initiated the Green Tour program, a public benefit program in the form of carbon footprint offset. As the first innovative public interest program launched by a Chinese airline, Green Tour aims to become a benchmark brand in the green aviation sector through enhancing public awareness by inviting travelers to become the advocates of environmental protection. Passengers of HNA Group's flights are invited to offset their carbon footprint through voluntary donations or Fortune Wings Club points. The passenger can calculate the extent of their carbon footprint using the Carbon Footprint calculator which could be found on Hainan Airlines' official website, their mobile phone or at the airport self-check-in terminals. The donations will be used to support the reforestation program of the China Green Carbon Foundation.

To date, the Green Tour program has donated 500,000 yuan (approx. US$73,561) to the China Green Carbon Foundation for the conservation and recovering of the Dongzhaigang Mangrove Forest in Haikou, Hainan province, China Further donations will go to a program to plant trees and conduct conservation campaigns in cities across China struggling to control smog and desertification. The Green Tour program will provide HNA Group's Fortune Wings Club members with a carbon footprint offset map, which includes graphs showing the ways the carbon footprint is offset. The open and transparent program allows more passengers to participate in environmentally-friendly carbon offset efforts. The program is expected to go a long way in conveying the concept of green and low-carbon development and enhancing the airline's commitment to build a green aviation together with their passengers.

With the mission of becoming an advocate of an environmentally responsible lifestyle, a green industry leader, a green service supplier and a green development pioneer, HNA Group will continue promoting a green, low carbon economy and supporting to develop the ecologically sound development and environmentally responsible China in the world. HNA Group's subsidiaries and affiliates are also targeting towards key strategic green growth. In March 2015, Hainan Airlines inaugurated China's first passenger flight running on sustainable biofuel.

The fight, carrying more than 100 passengers from Shanghai to Beijing, was powered by a fuel blend, half of which was an aviation-grade biofuel while the remainder was traditional petroleum-based fuel. The biofuel was derived from discarded cooking oil. Compared to the petroleum-based fuel, the biofuel, which can be produced sustainably, is able to reduce the carbon emissions by between 50 and 80 percent and plays a key role in supporting the development of the aviation industry while ensuring the industry's commitment to environmental protection.

A focus on both growth and social responsibility

Over the past 24 years, HNA Group has made quantum leaps in performance and has been praised by industry watchers as a miracle in the history of aviation business. From a traditional air transportation company starting on a small island South of China to a large global conglomerate with presence all over the globe, from three leased aircraft to operating and managing a comprehensive fleet exceeding 1,250 airplanes, including wide-body aircraft, regional jets and helicopters, and overseeing 1,200 routes crisscrossing the planet, HNA Group is a proud global company to ranks 353rd on the Fortune Global 500 list. By the end of 2016, the group created more than 410,000 working opportunities and achieved annual revenue of over 600 billion yuan (approx. US$88.3 billion). Pratt Whitney is very proud of HNA Group's achievements in terms of the speed of the group's growth and the outstanding performance over the 24 years. Mr. Cai noted that Pratt & Whitney looks forward to even greater successes in its collaborations with HNA Group in the coming years. Most notably, HNA Group's ultimate goal aims at making contribution to the society and benefit for the greater good.And it has always been at the core of the group's corporate philosophy since the day one.

To date, HNA Group has donated over 10 billion yuan (approx. US$1.47 billion) to worthy charities. The group has cooperated with UNESCO, the World Food Programme and UNICEF, to deliver philanthropic activities such as Ghana School Feeding Program, Change for Good and Inspired Gifts, as well as many other programs supporting education and women rights in Asia and Africa. In addition, the group is committed to long-term public welfare programs in China, including Brightness Action, Benevolence Well and Send Love Home. Over the next decade, HNA Group also plans to donate 1 billion yuan (approx. US$150 million) to ecological protection poverty alleviation programs for those financially disadvantaged in Hainan province.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/when-aircraft-meets-purepower-hna-and-pratt--whitney-partner-in-building-an-environmentally-responsible-aviation-ecosystem-300485068.html

SOURCE HNA Tourism Group

CONTACT: Wang Wen, +86-152-0130-8751, wen.wang1@hnair.com
AUTO LAB RADIO LIVE SATURDAY MORNING! - Auto Lab Call-In Radio Worldwide From New York City LIVE 7-9 AM Saturdays







Auto Lab Talk Radio

The Auto Lab Radio Show LIVE every Saturday 7 to 9 AM On New York City's WNYM Radio AM 970 and Streamed Worldwide On The Auto Channel

This Weeks Show Broadcast Date: July 15, 2017

Car Question or Concern? Call Toll Free 888-692-7234

Auto Lab is a 28 year old interactive automotive-focused New York area radio call-in show hosted by Professor Harold Wolchok. Each week a cadre of experienced hands-on automotive experts are in-studio with advice for the New York area's 12 million people, providing listeners with honest, practical and street-smart car repair and buying advice.

Auto Lab is also about the automotive industry, its history, and its culture, presenting the ideas and advice of leading college faculty, authors, and automotive practitioners in a relaxed, conversational interactive format.

Listeners can hear the past 18 years of archived Auto Lab shows as simulcast on www.theautochannel.com.

Listen - Auto Lab Page (Includes Audio-on-Demand Archives, Auto Programs at Community College Database, Guests Pictures

This Weeks Show: July 15, 2017

Auto Lab In-Studio Auto Experts Discuss: Repairs, Second Opinions, Regular Maintenance, How To's, Safety, Used and New Car Buying, Ombudsmen Suggestions

Harold Bendell - Major Auto

Tim Cacace - Master Mechanix Auto Repairs

Libby Demarco-Broadway Sunoco

Audra Fordin-Great Bear Auto Repairs & What Women AUTO Know

David Goldsmith - Urban Classics Auto Repairs

Jerry Pastore-D & J Diagnostic

Johanna Pastore-D & J Diagnostic

Nicholas Prague- MTA and Rockland Community College, SUNY

Auto Lab Correspondent Interviews: Featuring Auto Safety News, New Car Reviews, Technology and Latest Auto World Information That Will Effect You!

Broadcast Date: July 15, 2017

Robert Erskine, Senior European Correspondent, Suffolk England

CAN'T PASS WON'T PASS

Russ Rader, Vice President Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

THREE LARGE CARS JOIN RANKS OF IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ WINNERS

Robert Sinclair Jr.- AAA Northeast

E-Z PASS' DIRTY LITTLE SECRET; MILLIONS OF USERS CHARGED CASH RATE

John Russell Senior Correspondent

Impressions Of The 2017 INFINITI QX 70
Nissan TITAN Lands Association with Renowned Whitewater Kayaker, Kayak Builder and Pro Fisherman Eric Jackson

 Nissan announces partnership with whitewater kayaker and professional fisherman Eric Jackson in support of TITAN full-size pickup lineup

 Announcement made during ICAST, the world's largest sport fishing trade show

 Jackson will use a new Nissan TITAN XD Crew Cab pickup for all professional events and appearances

 Jackson to appear in Nissan booth at ICAST on July 12 and 13

ORLANDO, FL - July 14, 2017: It's not often you find Eric Jackson on dry land. The renowned whitewater kayaker and innovative kayak builder, as if he wasn't busy enough, recently added the title of professional fisherman to his resume.

Today, Jackson took time from his schedule to join Nissan at the annual ICAST (International Convention of Allied Sport Fishing Trades) event in Orlando to announce a partnership to promote the Nissan TITAN full-size pickup lineup. The association provides Jackson with the use of a new TITAN XD for all his professional appearances and for hauling his various modes of on-water rides, be they his own line of custom kayaks or his Ranger bass fishing boat.

"It's a rare occasion when Eric Jackson is not on a lake fishing or navigating the most treacherous whitewater rapids," said Fred Diaz division vice president and general manager, North America Trucks and Light Commercial Vehicles, Nissan North America, Inc. "We're proud that he has selected TITAN XD as his wheels of choice. With its powerful Cummins 5.0-liter V8 Turbo Diesel engine, and the security of America's best truck warranty 1 , he might even be convinced to spend a little more time on terra firma."

Jackson has won more than 100 international freestyle kayaking events, the most of any competitor in history and was a member of the USA Kayak Team from 1989 to 2015 - and just qualified for the 2017 team this past month. Jackson also represented the USA in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. In 2003, he founded Jackson Kayak, which has become one of the leading manufacturers of competition and recreational kayaks in the world. In 2015, Jackson fulfilled a childhood dream and became a professional fisherman, joining the Fishing League Worldwide (FLW). He is bringing the same passion to competitive fishing as his extreme whitewater kayaking.

"The Nissan TITAN is an incredible machine that can handle my lifestyle, work and sports. From hardcore whitewater kayaking, negotiating 4x4 roads with all of my gear and family, to towing my Ranger to the FLW Tournaments, it is the best tool for the job," said Jackson. "When off the job, my wife and family get to enjoy the comforts and safety of the most sophisticated full-size truck on the market."

Nissan didn't have to look very far to find the latest member of the TITAN team  the company and Jackson are both headquartered in Tennessee. The Nissan TITAN XD Diesel is assembled in Canton, Mississippi, with engines assembled in Indiana.

"At Jackson Kayak, we work hard to make sure we make everything we can in the USA and Nissan does the same with the TITAN," added Jackson.

Jackson will be appearing in the Nissan display (Booth #4043) at ICAST, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, July 12 from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. EST and July 13 from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m EST.

About the 2017 Nissan TITAN XD The 2017 Nissan TITAN XD Diesel shakes up the highly competitive full-size pickup segment with a bold design and capabilities that stake out a unique position in the segment between traditional heavy-duty and light-duty entries. It offers the effortless towing and hauling of the larger, more expensive heavy-duty trucks  including an available maximum towing capacity of 12,640 pounds and maximum payload capacity of 2,420 pounds (when properly equipped)  yet has the fuel-efficiency and affordability closer to a half-ton pickup.

The TITAN XD Diesel is anchored by a powerful Cummins 5.0L V8 Turbo Diesel rated at 310 horsepower and 555 lb-ft of torque. Helping handle the power and torque of the engine is a heavy-duty 6-speed Aisin A466ND automatic transmission developed and tuned exclusively for the TITAN XD.

TITAN XD is available in three body configurations  Crew Cab, King Cab and Single Cab  and in five well equipped trim levels  S, SV, PRO-4X, SL and Platinum Reserve. All are offered with a choice of 4x2 or 4x4 drive configurations, except for the PRO-4X model, which is available exclusively as a 4x4.

Like all 2017 TITAN models, the 2017 TITAN XD is covered by "America's Best Truck Warranty"1  featuring bumper-to-bumper coverage of 5-years/100,000-miles, whichever comes first.
Bunge Limited operates as an agribusiness and food company worldwide. It operates through four segments: Agribusiness, Refined and Specialty Oils, Milling, and Sugar and Bioenergy. The Agribusiness segment purchases, stores, transports, processes, and sells agricultural commodities and commodity products, including oilseeds primarily soybeans, rapeseed, canola, and sunflower seeds, as well as grains primarily wheat and corn; and processes oilseeds into vegetable oils and protein meals. This segment offers its products for animal feed manufacturers, livestock producers, wheat and corn millers, and other oilseed processors, as well as third-party edible oil processing and biofuel companies; and for industrial and biodiesel production applications. The Refined and Specialty Oils segment sells packaged and bulk oils and fats that include cooking oils, shortenings, margarines, mayonnaise, and other products for baked goods companies, snack food producers, confectioners, restaurant chains, foodservice operators, infant nutrition companies, and other food manufacturers, as well as grocery chains, wholesalers, distributors, and other retailers. The Milling segment provides wheat flours and bakery mixes; corn milling products that comprise dry-milled corn meals and flours, wet-milled masa and flours, and flaking and brewer's grits, as well as soy-fortified corn meal, corn-soy blends, and other products; whole grain and fiber ingredients; quinoas and millets; die-cut pellets; and non-GMO products. The Sugar and Bioenergy segment produces sugar and ethanol; and generates electricity from burning sugarcane bagasse. Bunge Limited was founded in 1818 and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.
Boston Scientific Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets medical devices for use in various interventional medical specialties worldwide. It operates through three segments: MedSurg, Rhythm and Neuro, and Cardiovascular. The company offers devices to diagnose and treat gastrointestinal and pulmonary conditions; devices to treat various urological and pelvic conditions; implantable cardioverter and implantable cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators; pacemakers and implantable cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers; and remote patient management systems. It also provides medical technologies to diagnose and treat rate and rhythm disorders of the heart comprising 3-D cardiac mapping and navigation solutions, ablation catheters, diagnostic catheters, mapping catheters, intracardiac ultrasound catheters, delivery sheaths, and other accessories; spinal cord stimulator systems for the management of chronic pain; indirect decompression systems; and deep brain stimulation systems. In addition, the company offers interventional cardiology products, including drug-eluting coronary stent systems used in the treatment of coronary artery disease; percutaneous coronary interventions products to treat atherosclerosis; intravascular catheter-directed ultrasound imaging catheters, fractional flow reserve devices, and systems for use in coronary arteries and heart chambers, as well as various peripheral vessels; and structural heart therapies. Further, it provides stents, balloon catheters, wires, and atherectomy systems to treat arterial diseases; thrombectomy and acoustic pulse thrombolysis systems, wires, and stents to treat venous diseases; and peripheral embolization devices, radioactive microspheres, ablation systems, cryotherapy ablation systems, and micro and drainage catheters to treat cancer. The company was incorporated in 1979 and is headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
The Clorox Company manufactures and markets consumer and professional products worldwide. It operates through four segments: Health and Wellness, Household, Lifestyle, and International. The Health and Wellness segment offers cleaning products, such as laundry additives and home care products primarily under the Clorox, Clorox2, Scentiva, Pine-Sol, Liquid-Plumr, Tilex, and Formula 409 brands; professional cleaning and disinfecting products under the CloroxPro and Clorox Healthcare brands; professional food service products under the Hidden Valley brand; and vitamins, minerals and supplement products under the RenewLife, Natural Vitality, NeoCell, and Rainbow Light brands in the United States. The Household segment provides cat litter products under the Fresh Step and Scoop Away brands; bags and wraps under the Glad brand; and grilling products under the Kingsford brand in the United States. The Lifestyle segment offers dressings, dips, seasonings, and sauces primarily under the Hidden Valley brand; natural personal care products under the Burt's Bees brand; and water-filtration products under the Brita brand in the United States. The International segment provides laundry additives; home care products; water-filtration systems; digestive health products; grilling products; cat litter products; food products; bags and wraps; natural personal care products; and professional cleaning and disinfecting products internationally primarily under the Clorox, Ayudin, Clorinda, Poett, Pine-Sol, Glad, Brita, RenewLife, Ever Clean and Burt's Bees brands. The Clorox Company sells its products primarily through mass retailers; grocery outlets; warehouse clubs; dollar stores; home hardware centers; drug, pet and military stores; third-party and owned e-commerce channels; and distributors, as well as a direct sales force The company was founded in 1913 and is headquartered in Oakland, California.
Friday, July 14, 2017





Watata Mwenda, center, and his sons, in an apartment in Fayetteville, Ark. They turned solemn after learning that a family member, John Feruzi, was not allowed to travel to the United States. Credit Andrea Morales for The New York Times

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times reports on one of the last refugee families without close relations in the country to be admitted into the United States before President Trumps moratorium took effect. Beginning yesterday, only refugees who have a bona fide relationship with a close relative or entity in the United States will be eligible to enter for the next 120 days, pursuant to the Supreme Court order that allowed part of Mr. Trumps travel ban to proceed.

The family was from the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to the story, "eight years ago, six militiamen invaded the family compound, murdered his oldest son and his sons wife and briefly kidnapped Mr. Mwenda. The family left everything behind, and after four days of travel by foot, car and dinghy made it to safety in a refugee camp more than 1,000 miles away in Malawi."

This month, the International Organization for Migration helped the family travel to the United States.

"An estimated 60 percent of refugees resettled in the United States already have family ties in the country, but only about a quarter of those from Congo and Syria, two blood-soaked countries that are among the biggest sources of refugees, have any connection to America, according to Church World Service, a large resettlement agency."

KJ

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2017/07/the-last-refugee-family-at-least-for-a-while-without-ties-to-the-united-states.html
The Nygard name is synonymous with flowing blonde locks (founder Peter Nygard), mid-market fashions (TanJay etc.) and an entire line named after one of the leaders offspring (Bianca Nygard).

A coalition of worker rights groups now wants to add deadbeat to the Canadian fashion companys list of corporate attributes. Theres something right in the consortiums initiative. But theres something wrong too.

Export data obtained by the Clean Clothes Campaign, which includes Labour Behind the Label in the U.K. and the Workers United Canada Council, show Nygard as the consignee for five clothing shipments out of Cambodia between November 2015 and April 2016 from Chung Fai Knitwear. Chung Fai is, or rather was, one of the multitude of garment manufacturers operating in the Meanchey district in the countrys capital, Phnom Penh. Export data obtained by Clean Clothes documents substantial shipments of garments to Nygard from Chung Fai, entering North America through California.

A simple Google search produces a bill of lading documenting knitted blouses and sweaters made for Nygard at Chung Fai and shipped via Singapore and Los Angeles to a final destination of Laredo, Texas.

In June of last year, the Chung Fai factory ceased production and more than 200 workers have been protesting since for payment of lost wages and severance. The Phnom Penh Post reported that some of the workers had put in more than 15 years at the factory. Chung Fai is assumed bankrupt. The workers received their last pay in May 2016, and are owed an estimated $550,000 (U.S.).

Heres a line from the Clean Clothes Campaign: As they stitched clothes for UK brands Marks and Spencer and Bonmarche, as well as Canadian brand Nygard, the workers are demanding that these companies take responsibility and give them the legally due payments that their supplier failed to provide.

Whats right about the campaign is the implicit naming and shaming of companies that are still woefully behind the times in terms of supply chain transparency. This is a story that runs on an endless reel, albeit with notable progress from some retailers.

In April, a report entitled Follow the Thread championed those companies that meet the reasonable standard of naming their supplier factories, with addresses, parent company, number of workers and the category of products made. Mountain Equipment Co-Op is one example of a Canadian company whose factory disclosure list is posted, with factory names and addresses, though absent parent company information.

The No More Operating in the Dark campaign that resulted from the Follow the Thread report specifically targeted Canadian Tire, which makes clothing under the Denver Hayes label, for its failure to introduce full supply chain transparency.

It is the consumer who could hold the balance of power here. And it cant be restated often enough that Canadian companies have been laggards on this issue compared with European pacesetters.

What does Nygard do? Its supplier compliance policy is available online, stipulating, for example, that suppliers will not use any form of forced or indentured labour, and will operate in compliance with applicable labour laws. Nygard believes in Partnering with out Suppliers LONG TERM  giving us consistency of Supply Chain Quality and transparent working relationships . . . 60% of Nygard Suppliers have been with us for more than 5 years  this leads to outstanding communication and ACTION where needed day to day respecting the rights of Factory Workers.

But who are those suppliers? The company does not say.

Seeking clarification about Chung Fai proves challenging. In an email, a corporate media spokesperson writes that Nygard International has had no direct connection or any legal contracts with Chung Fai. When asked about the bill of lading, the company responded that it has never ordered goods from Chung Fai nor were we ever billed by them.

If the work was subcontracted then Nygards supply chain relationships are not as transparent as claimed. Asked if the work was subcontracted, Nygard sidesteps the question by responding that there is no documentation relating to any contract between Nygard and Chung Fai for the ordering or billing of goods from Chung Fai.

It is this kind of dancing around that, post Rana Plaza, caused reporters and rights activists to urge garment workers throughout Southeast Asia to secret labels out of factories to see which garments were being made there.

Transparency is not the principal focus of the current Clean Clothes Campaign. Restitution is. Back in January, the Workers United Canada Council wrote directly to Nygard, asking the company to put pressure on [Chung Fai] to pay the workers the money that they are owed, or failing that, compensate the workers directly. The campaign launched this week takes that appeal public.

But the wage and severance dispute lies within the purview of Cambodias labour laws. The department of dispute resolution has already ruled that the responsibility rests with Chung Fai.

Should it be Nygards responsibility to make amends when due process fails? That case cant be made.

What the campaign has done is shine a light on the lack of transparency in Nygards operations. The company has been wholly transformed from its modest polyester beginnings in Winnipeg in the mid-1960s. It just hasnt kept up with the times.

jenwells@thestar.ca

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The per square foot price of Toronto area condos rose in the second quarter of this year as investor inquiries migrated to Montreal developments, according to a report from BuzzBuzzHome.

The online real estate hub says investor inquiries for Ontario developments declined 72 per cent between the first and second quarter. In the same period, information requests from investors interested in Montreal properties increased 91 per cent.

Greg White, vice-president of data for BuzzBuzzHome, said his company doesn't have precise information on how many of those inquiries are from outside Canada.

The company, which tracks new home construction, attributes the shift in investor interest to Ontario's Fair Housing Plan, announced April 20. Aimed at cooling the province's hot housing markets, it includes a 15 per cent foreign buyers tax and expanded rent controls.

About a third of Toronto's rental stock is in condos.

"Whether this is a short-lived reaction to perceived policy effects or a long-lasting shift remains to be seen," says the report.

In most parts of Montreal, the median per square foot price for condos increased about 5 per cent.

In Toronto, the price per square foot rose in the second quarter in every part of the Toronto region except Durham, which remained steady at about $400 per sq. ft.

That part of the region still has limited condo development, but that is changing, said White.

"There are some projects that are happening in Durham, that may change the urban style along the lines of what you're seeing in York Region or Mississauga," he said.

Because it reports on inquiries, BuzzBuzzHome gets a sense of buyer profiles before sales actually take place, said White.

It saw a slight increase in the number of downsizers interested in Toronto area condos in the second quarter. That suggests some strength in the mid-market range of the category as those buyers are looking for something above the entry-level and below the higher end offerings.

White speculated that empty nesters don't want to spend all their home equity on a condo.

"Downsizers need to cash out and get a little bit more liquid because they've got their retired lives to pay for. They need to transition some of that equity to annuity types of investments," he said.

Condo inventory was down 52 per cent in the second quarter in the Toronto region. More lower-priced units were sold in the first quarter, which has raised the median price per square foot of available condos, said White. Prices for high-end condos have not moved downwards, he added.

Although it accounted for fewer than 2,000 units, Halton Region saw the sharpest price rise in the area  from about $500 per sq. ft. at the start of April to about $700 per sq. ft. by the end of June.

In Toronto, which dominates the regional condo market, there were about 90,000 units available in the second quarter, when prices rose from about $625 per sq. ft. to about $750.

The new home market in Calgary hasn't recovered from the oil price decline in 2014, in the same way as the re-sale market has, said BuzzBuzzHome.

"Multi-family inventory in the pipeline increased 2.6 per cent quarter-over-quarter, suggesting possible oversupply problems," said the company's New Home Market Update for that city.

Condo inventories were down quarter over quarter in Vancouver but inquiries increased in the second quarter mostly from investors, move-up buyers and downsizers, said BuzzBuzzHome.

That could signal a healthy economy but it also creates challenges for younger, less affluent buyers, said the real estate hub.

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We live in Minnesota, but we speak the language of love in our house  you know, French.

After living abroad for several years, it seemed natural that children could easily learn to speak two or three languages. I lived in the Netherlands far longer than in France, but my Dutch remains fairly atrocious  so it made sense to go with French, a love I chose back in high school.

This experiment was a one-sided affair until a few months ago, when my then 16-month-old son, Theo, smiled and uttered his first word: tetine.

Tetine is French for pacifier. To my American ears, the word seems too sleek to describe something a toddler sticks in his mouth. It sounds more like a piece of jewelry worn by someones mistress (surely there is a French word for that?), or a speedy little convertible perfect for driving on the winding roads along the Cote dAzur.

I was taken aback when he said it. I was fairly certain that my choice to speak mostly French at home, even though Theo hears English nearly everywhere else, would result in, at best, a fondness for the song Frere Jacques. At worst, I imagined linguistic confusion that could last well into kindergarten, rendering Theo unable to articulate the worlds most important question, Wheres the bathroom? in any language.

I was pleasantly surprised that one of his first words was French, and not just a phrase like creme brulee or Gerard Depardieu that an American might casually utter in the course of conversation.

But what if the language you speak with your children isnt your native language? I am not French, and all teenage fantasies to the contrary were crushed on my first day as an exchange student at a Grenoble lycee. In the way you might immediately recognize a yeti if one wandered into your campsite, the French kids clocked me as une Americaine from a mile, or rather a kilometre, away.

I speak French with an American accent, Ive been told. My grammar isnt perfect and my vocabulary is full of holes. I speak in the manner that my Minnesota high school French teacher taught me: with a textbook formality that means I am very good at talking about the weather and discussing what hypothetical French people named Paulette and Jean-Baptiste might pack for a picnic at the beach. But there are important subjects that remain beyond my grasp.

For example, I recently took Theo for a routine checkup. A young medical student accompanied the pediatrician, and asked if he could lead me through the standard developmental questions.

Yes, Theo was turning the pages of books, matching lids with containers, shaking his head no and, to my mild horror, climbing stairs.

The doctor chimed in: Was I also naming body parts, so that Theo could learn to refer to them?

Yes, pretty much, I said, but even a lie by omission seemed unethical.

The medical student raised his eyebrows.

I dont know the French word for penis, I admitted.

Oh, the pediatrician said. She put her hand up to her mouth to stifle a yawn, or maybe it was a laugh.

That seemed weird, so I tried to clarify. When I was an exchange student there, it was just never a word I needed to learn.

Ah, the medical student said. One corner of his mouth was quivering now.

But obviously I will look it up. Ill Google it tonight.

He shook his head like this was a bad idea. You might just want to put it into a French translation website, he offered. If you Googled that, you might get more than you bargained for.

Or you could just say penis  the pediatrician said, since Theo understands English too.

Was my attempt to teach Theo French a fruitless attempt to vicariously live near the Mediterranean rather than the Midwest? And more importantly, was Theo even learning French? The word tetine aside, this seemed unclear.

My friend Anna, who spent the first half of her childhood in St. Petersburg and the second in Brooklyn, gave me fair warning: Like her son, who understands Russian but generally responds in English, my French conversations with Theo would remain primarily one-sided. Tantrums, for example, would definitely be conducted in English.

That gave me pause. I imagined us shouting across the gaping abyss of the Atlantic. If I said pomme de terre, hed say potato. Frites would remain french fries.

Also, when my limited French vocabulary fails me, I sometimes switch to English for words like thunder, promising myself Ill look them up later. Or, even worse, I imprecisely paraphrase the meaning in French: thunder became la pluie qui fait un bruit fort, which means rain that makes a loud noise.

When I commit these acts of approximation or substitution in public, I look furtively over my shoulder, convinced that an emissary of the French language police is waiting in the shadows to correct me.

Yet the research suggests such anxieties are unfounded. According to the Linguistic Society of America, bilingual children often mix words from both languages. Its called code-switching, and apparently these kids dont, as I feared, get confused.

Despite the fact that I was studying grammar in a French class for three hours each week, I was still getting frustrated with my frequent mistakes. Yet just as I was about to jeter leponge (in France, they throw the sponge when theyre about to pack it in, rather than throw in the towel), Theo began to name creatures in his story books. Hibou (owl). Papillon (butterfly). Elephant (you know). There was a dhole in one of his books about baby animals, but I didnt know what that was, and wasnt sure it belonged in a childrens book. After looking it up, I found out that a dhole, in French, is also a dhole in English, which seemed strangely philosophical.

And in the end, isnt that one of the most compelling reasons to teach a child another language? To open their eyes  and ears  to the wonderful strangeness of the world?

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TARRAGONA, SPAINThis beautiful coastal region is just an hours train ride from Barcelona, and theres so much more to it than its golden beaches.

Visit Reus: The town of Reus is Antoni Gaudis birthplace. Visit the Gaudi Centre to learn more about one of Spains most famous artists before stopping by the beautiful Placa de Prim, which is where youll find the Fortuny Theatre, a spectacular baroque building. Equally stunning is the Esglesia Prioral de Sant Pere de Reus. This church, built in the sixteenth century, is famous for its colourful stained glass windows.

Check out Salous dancing fountains: The small but beautiful town of Salou is famous for its Font Lluminosa Salou, meaning illuminated fountain. There are over 200 variations of the daily performances, which involve light, music and 200 jets of water. The most spectacular performances take place at night. The fountains were designed in the 1970s by engineer Charles Bulgas, who also created Barcelonas famous Magic Fountain of Montjuic.

Sign up for a Tarragona tour: The town of Tarragona is Spains second-most important Roman site. Its filled with ruins, including the worlds only amphitheatre with a church in the middle. Its medieval centre is an explosion of gothic architecture and theres a spectacular cathedral. Its built with the golden sandstone that gave this part of Spains coastline its name: Costa Dorada, which means golden coast.

Hit the beach: Tarragona has some wonderful beaches. The golden stretches of sand which can be found in Tarragona town are beautiful and the water is crystal clear, but they can quickly become crowded. But we still recommend a visit to Platja del Miracle, in the shadow of the towns amphitheatre. For something more secluded, head to Cala Fonda on the outskirts. Its a smaller beach that is accessible only on foot.

Visit an archeology museum: The National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona in the centre of Tarragona was founded in 1848, and its the oldest archeology museum in Catalonia. A huge number of the exhibits were found during excavations of the nearby Roman and paleo-Christian Necropolis, and they provide a fantastic insight into the importance of this town in Roman times. There are ceramics, sculptures and mosaics alongside interactive displays, and there are workshops and other activities to keep younger visitors entertained.

Tamara Hinson was hosted by the Spanish tourist board, which didnt review or approve this story.

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OTTAWAJustin Trudeau says he shares the concerns of Canadians who object to reports of the governments multimillion dollar settlement with Omar Khadr.

But the prime minister says if the government hadnt settled with the former Guantanamo Bay inmate, it would have cost as much as $40 million to put an end to the case.

I can understand Canadians concerns about the settlement. In fact, I share those concerns about the money. Thats why we settled, Trudeau said Thursday.

Khadr had filed a $20-million lawsuit against the government for violating his Charter rights, and has received an out-of-court settlement reportedly worth $10.5 million.

Read more:

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Omar Khadr settlement far from unprecedented

If we had continued to fight this, not only would we have inevitably lost, but estimates range from $30 to $40 million that it would have ended up costing the government, Trudeau said.

This was the responsible path to take.

Khadr was sent to the notorious U.S. prison after being captured during a firefight with U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2002. He was 15 years old when he was wounded in a battle in which U.S. Sgt. Chris Speer was killed and fellow Delta Force soldier Layne Morris was blinded in one eye.

Khadr was interrogated in 2003 and 2004 by Canadian intelligence officials. Khadr says his jailers threatened him with rape and kept him in isolation, and once used him as a human mop to wipe up urine.

Khadr, now 30, pleaded guilty to five war crimes before a widely condemned military commission at Guantanamo Bay in 2010. He said he agreed to the plea so he could get out of the American prison and return to Canada. He was released on bail in 2015 pending his appeal of the war crimes conviction.

In 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Canadian officials violated Khadrs rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms during their interrogations. It found they were participating in the then-illegal military regime at Guantanamo.

The government payout has angered rank-and-file Canadians, as well as veterans groups, and has exposed the Liberals to scathing political attacks from the opposition Conservatives.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper issued a statement last week condemning the settlement as simply wrong and now is reported to have contacted both Morris and Speers widow to express his outrage.

The Toronto Sun reported Thursday that Harper called Morris at his Utah home on Wednesday and apologized for the settlement in a six-minute conversation.

The Sun said it is believed Harper made a similar call to Tabitha Speer, but added that has not been confirmed.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation dropped off a petition at Trudeaus office Thursday bearing the signatures of more than 133,000 Canadians opposing the payout.

Trudeau said the lesson for future governments is that when they violate a Canadians rights, everyone pays.

The measure of a society  a just society  is not whether we stand up for peoples rights when its easy or popular to do so. Its whether we recognize rights when its difficult, when its unpopular.

A group of veterans also voiced their unhappiness, given their ongoing battles to seek compensation for injured ex-soldiers.

The most prominent is a class-action lawsuit in B.C. that alleges the government is violating the rights of todays veterans by refusing to give them the same lifetime disability pensions as previous generations.

Some veterans have also threatened to sue the government after the military forced them to take the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, which they say caused psychological damage.

This justice we see with Khadr is something we would like to see ourselves, said John Dowe, who says he was forced to take mefloquine while serving in Somalia.

That sentiment was echoed by the Equitas Society, which is leading the legal battle in B.C. for a return to the lifetime disability pension that Trudeau promised to bring back in the last election.

I know many Canadians are outraged by Mr. Khadr receiving over $10 million dollars of tax payer money, Equitas Society president Marc Burchell said in a statement.

But every Canadian should be even more outraged that Prime Minister Trudeau is treating our disabled veterans so very poorly.

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Canadians across the country have been reaching into their wallets to donate money to the family of an American soldier whom Omar Khadr is accused of killing in Afghanistan 15 years ago.

The online fundraising effort  part political protest, part generosity  comes amid a furor over the $10.5 million the federal government reportedly paid Khadr for breaching his charter rights while he was an American prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.

Jerome Dondo, of St. Claude, Man., who said he donated $10 to the campaign, decried the federal payout while the widow and children of U.S. special forces soldier Sgt. Chris Speer were fighting in Canadian court for that money.

The Canadian government should have at least waited until a court decision was made before sending the payment, said Dondo, a married accountant with nine children. This was my way of showing the Speer family support for their loss.

Read more: Everything you need to know about the Omar Khadr case, but were afraid to ask

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated his sympathies for the families of the alleged victims of Omar Khadr Friday, but unlike his prime ministerial predecessor, said he has not reached out to them directly.

Its an omission Opposition Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said he intends to rectify, arguing it is important the families know that not all Canadians agree with a decision by the Liberal government to settle Khadrs multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

That message was communicated once already this week; former prime minister Stephen Harper is reported to have called and apologized to the families of both U.S. Sgt. Chris Speer, who died, and fellow Delta Force soldier Layne Morris, who was blinded in one eye, during the 2002 incident that led to Khadrs imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay and the subsequent interrogation and torture.

Scheer said he finds it difficult to believe Trudeau cares about the money, calling it just a rounding error for the government, and accused of him of shifting around the Liberals defence of the payment in a bid to ease the public outcry.

Nobody believes that Justin Trudeau is trying to save taxpayers money, Scheer said.

I do think that outrage thats being expressed by Canadians is certainly more than what the Liberals were expecting. And I think it certainly shows that they are out of touch with Canadians on this one.

Over the past week, more than 2,200 donors in both Canada and the United States have contributed $134,000 to Tabitha Speer and her two children, Taryn and Tanner, now in their mid- and late-teens.

The family, and blinded former U.S. soldier Sgt. Layne Morris, failed this week to freeze Khadrs assets while they try to enforce a $134-million (U.S.) wrongful-death award against him from a Utah court.

Heike Pfuetzner, a retiree in Abbotsford, B.C., called it a personal thing to donate $15.

I am disgusted with the government giving so much money to a convicted criminal, Pfuetzner said. Im just really upset.

Ottawa-based talk-radio host Brian Lilley, co-founder of right-wing Rebel Media, who started the fundraising campaign, said he shared the anger of many Canadians over the settlement and wanted to channel the outrage into something positive.

Its trying to show generosity out of a political situation, Lilley said.

While most people tell him theyre are glad he started the fundraiser, he said, a small number have accused him of grandstanding.

Speer has not responded to requests to talk about the situation but in the past expressed appreciation for a similar fundraiser in 2012, when Khadr was returned from Guantanamo Bay to Canada to serve out his sentence. That campaign raised about $100,000  with about half coming from the Edmonton-based South Alberta Light Horse Regiment.

The current campaign aims to raise $1 million over a month. Donors who give at least $2,500 will have their names engraved on a solidarity plaque that will be sent to Speer but most donated amounts range from $10 to $100. Lilley could not say how many donors were from the United States.

Georges Hallak, 47, a businessman in Montreal put up $25.

Its very simple: I find it unfair that (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau is allowed to give money to a convicted terrorist . . . and (the widow of the) person that he killed  or supposedly what he was tried for  shes getting nothing, Hallak said.

Khadr, now 30, is on bail in Edmonton while he appeals his 2010 conviction for five war crimes before a widely discredited military commission in Guantanamo Bay.

He argues that the acts he is accused of committing as a 15-year-old in Afghanistan were not war crimes at the time. He says he pleaded guilty to throwing the grenade that killed Speer only as a way out of American captivity.

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PROVIDENCE, R.I.The Canadian government has gotten what it wanted during U.S. meetings this week: clear, public assurances from powerful Republican politicians that the North American Free Trade Agreement will be preserved.

Those soothing messages came just days before the U.S. government is set to release its positions for NAFTA negotiations, which are scheduled to begin next month under the shadow of intermittent threats by President Donald Trump to rip up the three-country deal.

Those reassurances didnt just come from the state governors gathered in Rhode Island for their summer meetings. They also came from Vice-President Mike Pence, who promised a collaborative approach.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in the room  he applauded the remarks.

We will modernize NAFTA for the 21st century so that it is a win-win-win for all of our trading partners in North America, Pence said in a speech to dozens of state governors, as Trudeau clapped and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland took notes.

I know youll be hearing from Prime Minister Trudeau in a few minutes. Let me assure you: The United States and Canada have already built a remarkably strong relationship under these two leaders . . . . Were grateful for the prime ministers leadership and his early outreach to this administration. President Trump recognizes that every trade relationship can improve and ... were looking forward to bringing NAFTA into the future in a way that will equally benefit both our countries.

Trudeau became the first foreign leader to address the annual governors gathering. It was the culmination of a months-long Canadian strategy of reaching out to governors in 11 politically important states, to encourage them to speak up in defence of NAFTA.

The prime minister said he was gratified by the response from various levels of government and urged more trade, not less: We must get this right, Trudeau said.

Sometimes getting it right means refusing to take the politically tempting shortcuts. More trade barriers, more local-content provisions, more preferential access for homegrown players in government procurement, for example, does not help working families over the long term, or even the mid-term.

Such policies kill growth.

He found a receptive audience. The Republican governor of Kentucky dismissed as absurd the notion that his country might impose trade barriers, like the idea of a border tax being suggested by some people in Washington.

Theres a lot of concern, a lot of talk, a lot of hypotheses about what might happen, as things are renegotiated and things are re-discussed, said Gov. Matt Bevin.

Were each others strongest trading partner, were each others closest ally, literally and figuratively. The idea that it wont come out in good measure for both parties is preposterous. I mean, the idea that it wont be continuing a strong relationship is something, I think, people shouldnt even waste time thinking about. Cross-border taxes dont do anybody any good. Us starting to do tit-for-tat ultimately creates more trouble.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker left his meeting with the prime minister acknowledging differences over dairy policy, but he downplayed the idea that any single irritant could cause the dismantling of the three-country trade pact.

I dont think you need to blow it up. I think it needs to be improved, Walker told a group of Canadian reporters. For the businesses in Wisconsin ... we want to make sure that our largest market in the world is still accessible.

Trudeau met the governors of five states  Kentucky, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Iowa and Colorado. He was assisted by a broader delegation that including Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, provincial representatives from Quebec and Nova Scotia, and members of the House of Commons and Senate from different parties.

Wynne said shes leaving these meetings more confident. She said she now believes that there will be many forces in the United States pushing back against any move to cancel NAFTA, should such a move occur.

Ive spoken now to 21 or 22 governors, Wynne said in an interview.

The ones Ive spoken to are going to be working hard to make sure that doesnt happen. Because they know thats not in their best interest. If it were to happen I think there would be many and immediate calls to the decision-makers in Washington to say, This is a dangerous path, and we cant go down that path.

Read more:

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Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says he is taking seriously allegations that management at Canadas spy service operates an old boys club where employees fear reprisal if they speak out against their bosses Islamophobic, racist or anti-gay slurs.

Goodale said in a statement that he will ensure CSIS is a workplace free from harassment, but did not directly address calls by the NDP and a Muslim civil rights group to order an immediate investigation into the management culture at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The damning allegations that working at CSIS means enduring a toxic environment surfaced this week as part of a $35-million lawsuit launched by five intelligence officers and analysts.

The Toronto Star first reported Thursday about the 54-page statement of claim about one of the countrys most secretive agencies.

Listed in the claims are excerpts of emails sent to one of the complainants, an intelligence officer who is gay and has a Muslim partner. An October 2015 email allegedly sent by one of his managers stated: Careful your Muslim in-laws dont behead you in your sleep for being homo.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Read more:Five CSIS employees are accusing the spy agency of Islamophobia, racism and homophobia in a $35-million lawsuit

On Friday, Matthew Dube, the NDP critic for Public Safety, wrote in a statement calling for an investigation: These shocking allegations of consistent harassment, fuelled by racist, homophobic and Islamophobic notions suggest the presence of deep rooted bigotry within CSIS.

Such treatment would be totally unacceptable in any workplace in Canada, but here constitutes potential concerns for Canadas national security as those accused serve as supervisors within our most powerful and secretive agency. With its expanded powers and limited accountability, CSIS must perform its duties with the utmost professionalism.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims also issued a statement Friday demanding an investigation. For several years, concerns have been frequently raised about racial profiling and discrimination by CSIS against Canadian Muslim communities, and against other minorities. If proven, these allegations point to a poisonous culture within the Service and raise questions about its ability to carry out its mandate for the benefit of all Canadians without discrimination, wrote NCCMs Executive Director Ihsaan Gardee.

Toronto lawyer John Phillips, who represents the five CSIS employees, said in an interview yesterday that the complainants had been betrayed by the Service.

The statement of claim uses pseudonyms to refer to the officers and analysts, along with the mangers mentioned in the suit. Under Canadas Security of Information Act identifying a spy can be considered an offence.

My clients have tried over the course of the last year or more  individually and sometimes together  to try to get this addressed internally to CSIS, all to no avail, he said. They truly regret theyve had to take the step of proceeding with the claim but something to be done.

David Vigneault, who was appointed CSISs director last month, said he could not respond to the allegations at the matter was before the courts.

I believe strongly in leading an organization where every employee promotes a work environment which is free from harassment and conducive to the equitable treatment of all individuals, Vigneault wrote in a statement released to the Star Thursday night and posted on CSISs website Friday.

CSIS does not tolerate harassment, discrimination or bullying under any circumstances.

Here is the statement of claim filed in Federal Court this week:

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Five intelligence officers and analysts with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service are accusing the spy agency of being a toxic workplace with managers who openly espouse Islamophobic, racist and homophobic views.

The employees this week launched a $35-million lawsuit in Federal Court.

Read more:Careful your Muslim in-laws dont behead you in your sleep for being homo: CSIS employees sue spy agency over alleged Islamophobia, racism and homophobia

CSIS director David Vigneault told the Star in a statement the spy agency takes any allegations of inappropriate behaviour very seriously.

I would like to reinforce that, as an organization, CSIS does not tolerate harassment, discrimination or bullying under any circumstances. The Services values and ethics must be reflected in all of our behaviours and decision-making, and reflect the CSIS Employee Code of Conduct principles of respect for democracy, respect for people, integrity, stewardship, and professional excellence.

The five intelligence officers and analysts are identified by pseudonyms, the claim states, because they have been warned by their employer, CSIS, that they are forbidden from publicly identifying themselves, or any colleagues.

None of their allegations have been proven in court.

Here is the statement of claim:

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Yasmin Mumed remembers the brand new pale pink dress with embroidered flowers.

She remembers the morning trip to the busy market with her grandmother. And the candy she got to eat. It was a sunny, happy day.

Then her mind flashes to the dark room filled with women. The blindfold. Being laid on her back. The confusion, the fear and the piercing pain.

When it was all over, and the blindfold came off, she remembers looking down and seeing a patch of blood on her dress, just below her belly button.

Read more:

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Mumed was subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, at the age of 6 in her village in Ethiopia before immigrating to Canada. She grew up in Scarborough and, now 23, studies at the University of Guelph. She is one of more than 200 million girls worldwide who have been cut.

An ongoing Toronto Star investigation has revealed that the federal government is aware of cases in which Canadian girls have been taken abroad to be cut. Canada has failed to address and measure the scope of the problem.

Unlike the United Kingdom, which has undertaken research and is tracking FGM cases, Canada has not collected data on Canadian women who, like Mumed, are living with the physical and psychological effects of FGM, regardless of where and when it happened to them. In the U.K., there are an estimated 137,000 women and girls affected.

Experts say there is also a lack of local services for women in Canada, and far too few trained professionals, such as doctors and counsellors, to offer support.

Mumed was cut three years before she immigrated to Canada at the age of 9. She is now fundraising to go to California to have reconstructive surgery.

I know theres a lot of young girls out there who are just like me, with a similar background, similar childhoods, who have never heard anyone that looks like them talk about this, says Mumed of what is often a stigmatized and incredibly private topic. She never spoke about her cutting with her grandmother, who raised her and took her to have it done. She has also never spoken about it with her mother.

There are no health benefits to FGM, which varies from partial removal of the clitoris to its most severe form, a procedure known as infibulation, in which the clitoris and labia are excised and the vulva stitched together, leaving only a small opening.

Mumeds clitoris and part of her labia were cut, preventing her from feeling sexual pleasure in the same way other women do. She looked for support services in the Toronto area to help her live with the anxiety and confusion she was feeling, and to help her navigate day-to-day life, including dating.

She didnt find any.

Instead, Mumed found Dr. Marci Bowers in California, who has placed her on a wait list for a surgery, which some consider controversial, that would remove the scar tissue on her clitoris. It has given her some hope.

For the past several years, after she became sexually active, Mumed has relived the vivid memories of the day she was cut. At times, the flashbacks have left her with crippling anxiety.

She remembers walking back to her village from the market with her grandmother and stopping at her great-grandmothers home, which was at the end of a row of houses. It was sunny outside, but dark inside. A group of older women were huddled together, with one very elderly woman sitting and holding a bowl of water.

The women then took hold of Mumed, some holding on to her arms and others, her legs. Another, her head.

I just started panicking and didnt know what was going on  I was just kind of freaking out and trying really hard to get out of the situation, she says. I didnt understand what was happening. There was no conversation about what was happening.

She was blindfolded and put on her back. Thats when she felt the pain shoot through her body. I just remember screaming, she says. Because she was fighting so much, the square-shaped razor the size of a paint chip that the woman used to cut her clitoris slipped and also cut part of her labia. When she stood up, the blood wasnt just on her new dress but also pooling on the floor.

I remember standing up and I remember my grandma sitting in the crowd, looking at me. It was like she was sad but also trying to be strong. She gave me this look to also stop crying, says Mumed. I always wanted to make my grandma proud and for her to know that Im strong.

Her great-grandmother made a paste of herbs to place on the wound to help stop the bleeding. For the next several days Mumed stayed in bed, as family members, neighbours and even acquaintances from nearby villages came to bring treats of sweet tahini halvah and say hello. Her great-grandmother checked in on her often to make sure there was no infection.

I just remember people celebrating, people looking at me, she says. I felt kind of happy after. I guess the way people were acting with me was very proud. I felt I was at this different stage of my life.

Soon, Mumed pushed the day out of her mind completely. She moved with her grandmother to Ethiopias bustling capital, Addis Ababa, to live with her uncle, leaving behind the village, with its open fields and nights lit by oil lamp. Her mother immigrated to Canada when Mumed was a toddler, after her husband, Mumeds father, died. She had remarried and was trying to bring her only daughter to Canada.

At the same time, her grandmother was also preparing to leave Ethiopia because of the persecution of her Oromo ethnic group. One day, Mumed woke up and the woman who raised her was gone, having left for a refugee camp in Kenya. Mumed stayed with her uncle until her immigration paperwork came through. The only reminder of her cutting, her pink embroidered dress, was now stained with brown spots from where the blood had faded over the years.

She continued to wear the dress. It was the nicest garment she owned.

For many years  growing up in public housing in Scarborough, learning English, adapting to life in Canada  Mumed, whose Oromo name, Galme, is a reference to the book that holds the history of her people, never thought of her cutting. She took care of her younger half-brother. She spent most of her free time at the local community centre that became her refuge. Her relationship with her mother, who had her when she was just 15 years old, was rocky. When she was a teenager, Mumed left home, sleeping on friends couches before a family in her neighbourhood took her in.

The first time she thought at all about the issue of FGM was in her early teens. She was watching an episode of Americas Next Top Model, when a Somali contestant tearfully shared shed been cut and couldnt experience sexual pleasure. Even then I still didnt make the connection, she says.

Soon after, when Mumed was in Grade 11, she had her first sexual experience. When I found out something was different with me, I immediately started having all these flashbacks, she says. She turned to the internet and discovered a familiar story. Of the hut. The ambush. The group of women holding down flailing arms and legs.

She became depressed. Its like my whole life had been kind of a lie, Mumed says. I just felt like I wasnt woman enough or I wasnt whole. Like I wasnt normal.

Then she became angry. By that time her grandmother had been granted refugee status in the U.S. and was living in Seattle. I remember I would be angry to even want to talk to her, she says.

Looking back on it now, though, Mumed does not feel resentment towards her grandmother, who died three years ago.

She believes that the woman she loves, and whom she credits with teaching her how to be the resilient person she is now, wanted her to be cut because she knew her granddaughter was destined to live in another culture.

It was her trying to protect me, Mumed says. She knew I was going to be raised in a world thats completely different  It came from a really loving place and a place of just genuinely trying to pass something down to me that she genuinely felt was really important.

FGM is practised in 29 countries around the world, mainly in Africa, the Middle East, India and other parts of Asia. It is seen by some as a rite of passage into womanhood or a condition of marriage. Though it is not considered an Islamic practice  it predates the religion  for some, it is a religious ritual or requirement and there is tremendous societal pressure placed on families to have it done.

In her village in Ethiopia  a country where, today, 63 per cent of women are believed to have been cut, according to UNICEF  it was the norm. If anything, for people who werent cut, I remember that they would feel that they didnt fit in or something was weird with them, says Mumed.

Thats not to say she believes that any young girl should endure what she did. She worries for her little cousins  three girls under the age of 5.

Mumed believes the best way to tackle FGM is by complicating the conversation  by humanizing the people who are often demonized for perpetuating the practice, but who often do it out of love, and by girls like her speaking out about it in a way that shows respect and sensitivity, and takes the issue out of the shadows.

If were talking to each other and were tackling it within ourselves, thats the only way any type of real change, real understanding, is going to happen, she says. She and her friends talk about the complexities of the issue and how they dont want to continue the tradition with their own children.

We talk about it stopping with us, Mumed says.

It wasnt until last fall that Mumed began searching for resources, to help her talk about the traumatic memories of her cutting, or her body image or dating as a young woman. The urge came about because she had met someone she liked through mutual friends. They started talking through FaceTime. But the fact that she might have to tell this person about such a private thing filled her, again, with anxiety. She started losing sleep.

When (Im) not in an intimate relationship, I dont have to think about it, but as soon as something happens where I might have to be intimate with somebody or Im attracted to somebody, thats something that automatically comes out of nowhere, she says.

While every womans experience and memories are different, FGM can cause post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression, says Dr. Jasmine Abdulcadir, a gynecologist working at a specialized clinic for women with FGM at the Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland. Negative public messages about FGM and warnings of serious complications, such as lack of sexual pleasure, that are aimed at preventing the practice in future generations can also contribute to the stigmatization of women who are already cut, Abdulcadir says.

Mumed looked on the web for anything in the Toronto area that might help her  a support group, specialized health-care professionals, an organization that focuses on FGM. She couldnt find anything. Her case demonstrates that there is a lack of local services available for women living with FGM, experts say.

Its still something that people think doesnt happen, says Reyhana Patel of Islamic Relief Canada, whose organization has done research on the issue, adding that if there are services here, no one knows about it.

Patel and her organization are calling on the Canadian government to do more, starting with conducting research to understand the issue nationally.

When you get a sense of whats happening, you can start applying appropriate services, she says.

In the U.K., for example, the Royal College of Nursing has undertaken efforts to create an enhanced data set on FGM. In 2015-16 there were 5,700 new FGM records, including 18 cases in which FGM had been undertaken in the U.K. There is also a government-funded national centre that provides support for survivors of FGM, including directing them to local resources.

Mumed is waiting for her reconstructive surgery with Bowers, a gynecologist who specializes in transgender surgery. In her clinic south of San Francisco, she has performed more than 250 operations on women who have had FGM. Bowers learned how to do the operation  which removes the scar tissue from the clitoris and cuts ligaments around it, allowing it to descend, in the hopes of giving the woman back some sensation  from Dr. Pierre Foldes in Paris, who pioneered the technique.

A non-governmental organization called Clitoraid, based in Las Vegas, covers the cost of the surgery, but Mumed is fundraising for her airfare and accommodation, as well as prescription drugs. She is also required to bring a friend for support. Her GoFundMe page has raised more than $3,000 of her $6,650 goal.

In order to get approval for the surgery, Mumed had to see a gynecologist in Canada to send confirmation to Bowers office that she had indeed been cut and that her clitoris had been damaged.

The entire process was a negative experience, she says. When she went to the walk-in clinic to get a referral, the doctor there didnt seem to know what she was talking about, Mumed says. When she went to see a gynecologist in December, she says the doctor told her he didnt think she needed the surgery because she had not been cut enough to cause problems with going to the bathroom or giving birth.

He said, Youre perfectly fine. I said, Thats not what Im here for, Mumed says, adding that the doctor made her feel as though she existed only to give birth.

She left the office and cried.

Bowers office let her send in photographs instead to qualify for the surgery.

Its heartbreaking to see your friend go through that, says Mumeds friend Shabina Lafleur-Gangji, who was with her at the gynecologists appointment. Its just one more hard and difficult step.

In 2003, former midwife and anti-FGM campaigner Kowser Omer-Hashi co-authored a book with Beverley Chalmers about giving proper obstetric care to women who have had FGM. At the time, she heard from dozens of women who reported hearing hurtful comments from caregivers. It really makes me sad, she says. Years later we are sitting here discussing the same issues.

While Omer-Hashi says shes grateful for Canadas health-care system, she says there should be more education and training about FGM.

Not all doctors agree on Dr. Bowers technique.

In 2012, Foldes, the doctor who invented the surgery, and his colleagues published a study in the medical journal the Lancet, which found that after a one-year followup of 866 patients, most reported an improvement in clitoral pleasure and just over half experienced orgasm.

In response to Foldess study, a group of British doctors wrote to the Lancet, saying his claims were not anatomically possible. (Foldes rejected their remarks.)

While Mumed hopes the surgery will work, she is not certain it will. Her decision to pursue it is, more than anything, about making her own choice about her own body, she says.

Its something that was taken away from me without my consent, she says of her cutting, adding that she is pursuing the surgery to have that power back.

Ive made a decision over my body and Im choosing to do it. Not everyone makes the same choice. Everyone needs to do their own journey.

Jayme Poisson can be reached at jpoisson@thestar.ca or 416-814-2725.

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A neurosurgeon who owns a Hamilton pain clinic was disciplined in Minnesota for unprofessional and unethical conduct that allegedly led to the death of one patient, left another a quadriplegic and resulted in fractured vertebrae for a third patient.

Dr. Stefan Joseph Konasiewicz practises at Universal Interventional Pain Clinic at 554 Main St. E. as well as at clinics he owns in Richmond Hill, Newmarket and Toronto.

The 54-year-old Canadian was reprimanded by the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice on Sept. 11, 2010, and the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board on June 15, 2011.

His licence was limited for two years after Minnesotas complaint review committee determined his practices in treating four patients as inappropriate in such a way as to require Board action.

He also had conditions temporarily placed on his licence by the Texas Medical Board on Feb. 8, 2013.

A number of malpractice suits were filed in Texas and Minnesota  some were dismissed, others closed and some are pending.

An investigation to determine if Dr. Konasiewicz is incompetent or reckless was requested in 2008 by deputy medical examiner of St. Louis County at the time, Dr. Donald Kundel, in a letter to the Minnesota board published in the Duluth News Tribune.

Kundel died in 2012, but two former colleagues spoke about Konasiewicz.

He was a nightmare, said Dr. David McKee, a neurologist at Northland Neurology and Myology, Pa., in Duluth, Minn. If I hear that hes practising I think, Oh, my God, who is (he) hurting now? 

McKee refers patients to neurosurgeons in Duluth, where Konasiewicz practised at St. Lukes Health Care System from 1997 to 2008.

He says the first patient he referred to Konasiewicz died despite the biopsy required being incredibly simple and super low risk.

Konasiewicz did not comment when the Spectator called both his Hamilton clinic and the main Toronto office of his business, Dr. Stefan Konasiewicz Medicine Professional Corporation.

An Ontario patient searching Konasiewicz through official regulatory bodies would not know of his past in the U.S.

How can that be allowed to happen? asks Dr. William Himango, a retired Duluth neurosurgeon who used to work with Konasiewicz at St. Lukes.

Im appalled ... Why is he still practicing?

Konasiewicz trained at Queens University and the University of Toronto, winning awards as a neurosurgical resident.

He is certified in neurosurgery by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada since Aug. 28, 1996, and the American Board of Neurological Surgery since at least 2000.

His profile with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) shows no practice restrictions, no notices and no past findings of the discipline or fitness to practise committee.

He appears on the Hamilton Academy of Medicines Find a Doctor website for patients because he is in good standing with the CPSO.

You just trust theyre not going to send you to a person with a bad reputation, Brantford patient Andrea Lerner said.

Another case examined by the Minnesota board involved alleged nerve root injury following rhizotomy injections. It is not clear which procedures are currently being done at the clinics Konasiewicz owns.

The Hamilton clinic was not yet open when it was inspected so the pass was conditional on the assessment team returning within six months of it becoming operational to observe procedures and review record-keeping documentation. No second inspection is yet listed on the CPSO website.

Another clinic with the same name owned by Konasiewicz at 491 Lawrence Ave. W. in Toronto received a pass with conditions on Sept. 5, 2014, and an unconditional pass on June 23, 2015.

If the discipline in the United States had happened today, it would be listed on his CPSO profile. But that rule only came into place as of Sept. 1, 2015.

Matters that occurred prior to Sept. 1, 2015, are not available on the public register, CPSO said in the statement.

The profile also doesnt include Minnesota in the section requiring Ontario doctors to list other jurisdictions where they are registered to practice because Konasiewicz no longer has an active licence there.

It expired March 31, 2009, while he was already working in Texas. He practised at the South Texas Brain and Spine Center in Corpus Christi from around 2008 to the fall of 2011. The centre said it was unable to comment about Konasiewicz because no one currently practicing there worked with him.

Konasiewicz was reprimanded by the Minnesota Board in 2010  18 months after his licence expired.

He was ordered to obtain a supervising physician specializing in neurological surgery and approved by the complaint review committee. That doctor was to observe at least five surgeries every three months for at least two years and submit quarterly reports to the board. Konasiewicz was to meet with a designated board member every three months.

Months later, Wisconsins board also concluded Konasiewicz committed unprofessional conduct based on the same four cases as Minnesota and made his licence conditional on him complying with the Minnesota order.

After two years, Konasiewicz petitioned the Minnesota board to take the conditions off his cancelled licence.

The complaint review committee concluded hed met the terms of the order and removed the conditions on Nov. 10, 2012.

He made a similar request to the board in Wisconsin and had the conditions removed in January 2013. His licence remains active there. A month later, the Texas board examined two cases. An informal show compliance proceeding and settlement conference concluded he met the standard of care.

However, he was still ordered to enrol in 16 hours of continuing medical education  eight hours on medical record-keeping and eight hours on risk management.

He completed the requirements by April 16, 2013, and his licence has had no conditions in Texas ever since.

It distresses Barbara Carlyon to think Ontario patients have to do their own digging to get what she considers crucial information about Konasiewicz.

She says her 75-year-old sister, Wanda McCarty, died days after he performed surgery on her in Texas.

We just understood that he was the doctor on duty. She says if theyd known about the issues in Minnesota, We would have consulted another doctor. We wouldnt have used him.

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After an apparent fake call about a shooting, police surrounded a house in Rosedale early Thursdaybut when they broke down the door, nobody was home.

On its face, it seems as though it was not a legitimate call, said Mark Pugash, director of communications with Toronto police. But we are investigating.

Just after midnight, somebody called police saying there was a shooting in a house on Elm Ave. and Dunbar Road, said Const. David Hopkinson.

Video from the scene shows armed Emergency Task Force officers in the area with dogs.

But when officers forced their way inside, there was nobody there, Pugash said.

The incident may be a case of swatting a hoax in which people call 911 to report a fake crime in hopes of dispatching a large-scale police response  or SWAT team  to an unsuspecting persons home.

The hoaxers often use spoofed phone lines, so that it seems like the call is coming from inside the targeted building.

Pugash would not use the term swatting, saying it has no legal meaning. But he called hoax calls dangerous and very serious, because they take significant police resources away from real emergencies.

It was a distracting night for Toronto police, who also received a 911 call Wednesday from a man complaining that someone hadnt flushed the toilet in a restaurant.

Pugash said they are investigating that call as well.

That is dangerous. Its reckless. And it endangers people who are in genuine emergencies, he said.

Toronto police dont keep statistics on swatting calls, but Pugash said theyre not common in Toronto. Anecdotally, hes only heard of one or two incidents.

But Const. Andy Pattenden, spokesperson for York Regional Police, estimates they get swatting calls at least once a month.

We dont often publicize all of them, because it just creates that sort of copycat type behaviour, he said.

Pattenden said 911 call-takers are getting better at identifying hoaxes, and in some cases theyre dispatching fewer resources to those calls.

In 2015, a family in Richmond Hillbecame a target of swatters. York Regional police received a realistic 911-call from a man, claiming that his schizophrenic father had shot and killed his mother with an assault rifle.

But when police broke down the door, they found two adults and two children who had no idea why police were in their home.

Pattenden said nobody was charged in the incidentand thats typical. He said that its often hard to track down the person behind a swatting call. The calls could come from anywhere in the world, he said, and people often use different IP addresses and disguise their voices.

Beyond tying up police resources, Pattenden said swatting calls can also put innocent people at risk. When police blast into a home with guns out, very horrible things could happen, he said, adding that its also emotionally traumatic for the victims.

Pugash would not speculate on specifics, but said hoaxers and reckless 911-callers could face criminal charges. He asks anybody with information about the incident to contact police.

With files from Bryann Aguilar

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Fifty years ago when the Toronto-Dominion Centres first black slab tower appeared on the citys skyline it preceded Stanley Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey by a year. In the Kubrick film, an impenetrable black rectangular monolith lands on prehistoric Earth from some alien civilization, causing momentous things to happen.

Archival pictures of the TD Centre rising above Toronto in the mid-60s has the same kind of resonance: a low-scaled, provincial city, with an assortment of buildings in various classic and colonial styles surround an austere black tower that seems like it landed from another planet.

The space ship that is New City Hall had already opened a few blocks north, having caused a stir here when completed in 1965. But the TD Centre was much taller and dominated a skyline that was once the dominion of the Royal York Hotel, Commerce Court and various church steeples.

That it was one of the last projects by German-American architect Mies van der Rohe, a continuation of the International Style themes he made famous with his 1958 Seagram Building in New York and others that followed, added to its gravitas.

Mies original plan was for two towers and the banking pavilion at the corner of Bay and King Sts., but in the decades after his 1969 death, three more towers were added. Purists say the towers diluted his rather pure vision, but most people passing by or through the complex wouldnt notice unless they looked closely, save for the final Ernst & Young tower that was built slightly differently and over the old Toronto Stock Exchange.

Though not an official centennial project, TD Centre shares a 50th birthday with quite a few other modern Canadian buildings from that year with their forward thinking and stark newness that still seems new today. However, like many 50-year-old humans, age is catching up, and it needs some rehab so Cadillac Fairview, its owner, is in the midst of a multi-year, $250 million rehabilitation of all six buildings and exterior plazas.

It takes six years to repaint the tower, says Dora Yeoh, senior manager of tenant projects for Cadillac Fairview, glancing up at the workers dangling on rigs suspended on the side of the original and tallest tower. Hopefully this will last 25 years.

An architect, Yeoh has been with Cadillac Fairview for six years and before that was with B+H Architects, the firm that was contracted to work on the TD Centre and, when they were known as Bregman & Hamann, were one of the Toronto firms Mies collaborated with on the original plan and who also designed the subsequent towers on the site.

Mies famously said God is in the details, and Yeoh is the guardian and caretaker of his Toronto details.

The challenge of this complex is its steeped in architectural history, she says. Sometimes we have to remind people of that. On a recent tour of the buildings I asked her if, after all these years caring for these buildings, if she has Mies dreams. Yes, she chuckled.

The buildings are austere monoliths only from a distance, and walking around the complex Yeoh referred to the many details that she and her team worked on, such as the tower directories. The directory and lobby in the original tower remain as they were in 1967, with each occupant listed on a backlit panel, a detail that is part of the buildings heritage designation. Yeoh pointed out that if one tenant takes up multiple floors, it leaves an awful lot of blank space on the old style directory. The other lobbies have had touch screens fitted into the original directory frames, and LED lights have been added in another building lobby. Its about tweaking the original design while respecting it, says Yeoh.

Other tweaks include a lush green roof over the banking pavilion, white rather than black-grey rooftops to keep them cooler, and reglazed windows, all things that have contributed to the Centres LEED Platinum certification, the highest environmental efficiency ranking possible.

The centre remains a unique aesthetic experience to walk through today, distinct from the heterogeneous jumble of much of downtown. The way the towers are set in urban space with all this open and green space is outstanding, says Yeoh. It set a precedent that very few developers have been able to match.

Below those vast plazas is one of the oldest parts of the PATH system too. Its interconnected and near-identical labyrinthine corridors can confuse even long-time Torontonians and downtown dwellers with repeating chain stores and food courts, but you could always tell when you were in the TD Centre. It was calming, clean and uniform, distinct from the visual clutter and noise in much of the rest of the PATH.

However, that rigorous attention to detail changed a decade ago when the uniform white-on-black typeface Mies designed himself for the underground shops was largely scrapped, and each store allowed to install their own individual vernacular signage. Perhaps only those who care about these things will notice the Miesian bits that are gone and those that are still there, but it remains a shame: Toronto had a mall designed by Mies van der Rohe. Now it has more of the same.

The Mies legacy is much better preserved above ground at the TD Centre and seems quite safe in the hands of Yeoh and her team. The current renovation is a lesson in the importance of maintenance, being true to good design and reinvesting in the buildings weve already built. As so many mid-century towers and structures reach a time in their lives when they need some renewal, the attention to detail and mostly gentle tweaks the TD Centre receives should be, as it was in 1967, trendsetting.

A visual and video display commemorating the 50th Anniversary of TD Centre runs until the end of August in the lobby of 66 Wellington St. W.

Shawn Micallef writes every Saturday about where and how we live in the GTA. Wander the streets with him on Twitter @shawnmicallef

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The family of a First Nations woman who died in police custody in Ontario says her death is part of larger widespread tensions between police and Indigenous communities.

Relatives of Debra Chrisjohn say they still have questions about what happened to the 39-year-old from the Oneida Nation of the Thames despite the fact that two police officers are now facing charges in her death.

Ontarios Special Investigations Unit announced Thursday that Const. Mark McKillop of the Ontario Provincial Police and London, Ont., police Const. Nicholas Doering are charged with one count each of criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessaries of life.

Both interacted with Chrisjohn at some point between her arrest on Sept. 7, 2016 and her death later that night.

A lawyer representing Chrisjohns family says any future discussion of the officers conduct needs to focus on why they did not seek medical attention for Chrisjohn when it should have been apparent that she required help.

She says Chrisjohns death is an example of what she calls the problematic relationship between police forces and Indigenous communities across Canada.

What happened to Debra is not an isolated incident, said Caitlyn Kasper with Torontos Aboriginal Legal Services. It is very obvious that it isnt these types of issues just in London or the Oneida First Nation. Its a concern we hear about in Toronto, all across Ontario and all across Canada.

Robert Chrisjohn, Debras father, said the family has been devastated by his daughters death.

Why didnt the police take her to the hospital sooner when they knew she was sick and needed help? he asked in a public statement issued Friday. The police arrested her and were responsible for making sure she was OK. This happens way too often in our community. This happens all the time. The police just dont seem to care.

Details of Debra Chrisjohns final hours are still vague, though the SIU released some information in announcing the charges against McKillop and Doering.

The SIU, which probes incidents involving police where someone is killed, injured or accused of sexual assault, said Doering was among those who responded to a call for a traffic obstruction on Sept. 7 in London.

Police found Chrisjohn at the scene and arrested her, only to discover that she was wanted on an outstanding charge in nearby Elgin County. Kasper said that outstanding charge was for shoplifting.

She and the SIU said Chrisjohn was transferred from the custody of London police to the provincial force to answer to the outstanding charge.

At some point during that time Chrisjohn went into medical distress and was rushed to the St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital. She was pronounced dead there later that night.

The SIU has declined to offer further comment on the case, since it is now before the courts.

Both Kasper and the SIU declined to release the cause of death, but Kasper said police had enough information on hand to handle Chrisjohns case differently.

She said Chrisjohn, who had a documented history of both substance abuse and mental illness, had interacted with London police officers just the day before her death.

On that occasion, she said police did not arrest her but instead took her to hospital for treatment. She said the family feels officers should have responded the same way the following day, adding there were clear indications that Chrisjohn needed medical attention rather than time in police custody.

Kasper said Chrisjohns relatives are pleased that officers are now facing charges, but said theyre bracing for a lengthy legal process.

She said the ensuing case should focus on what she called the foundational relationship between police and Indigenous people from coast to coast, saying current headlines are rife with examples of how the troubled dynamic plays out.

She pointed to the need for a national inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, which has recently been mired in controversy among a spate of resignations from key staff members and even a commissioner.

She also cited recent deaths of several Indigenous people in Thunder Bay, Ont., who were all pulled from a local river after moving to the city from remote northern communities. Indigenous leaders have called upon the RCMP to take over a probe into those deaths, citing a lack of trust in either city or provincial authorities.

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To the regular readers of this column, my apologies in advance for inflicting upon you the sorry apology issued by the abomination that is Shia LaBeouf.

If youre like me  that is, the wrong demographic  that might be a name youve come across once or twice for, what was that again? Hollywood guy in trouble with the cops for drunken driving or bar fights or one of those crimes that Hollywood types are regularly in trouble for without real consequences.

But hey, isnt he one of the good guys, the outspoken anti-Trump man, with the four-year-long art project  a live video stream in which LaBeouf and others chant You will not divide us. His arrest in January happened because of a fight he got into with a man who said Hitler did no wrong into the camera. See? Great guy.

Sadly, as he showed this week, the world isnt divided into two groups: racists and anti-Trump-ites. In other words, opposing Trump doesnt exempt you from being racist.

On July 8, LaBeouf was arrested and charged with public intoxication, disorderly conduct and obstruction in Savannah, Ga.

Read more: Shia LaBeouf arrested in Georgia for public drunkenness

You are going straight to hell, bro he told the police officers in footage captured on video.

You especially, deputy, he said. And eventually, Cause you a Black man.

He then accused the deputy of being racist for being a Black man, who arrested me for being white.

At another point, he jeers at one of the officers, Hey, when you go home to your wife, what do you tell her at night? You know she watches porn . . . likes looking at Black d---.

You get the picture.

This is one of those guys who, instead of working on the biases that exist in all of us, merely represses their expression when sober.

An apology came  eventually  on July 13.

My outright disrespect for authority is problematic to say the least, and completely destructive to say the worst, LaBeouf said. It is a new low. A low I hope is bottom.

Really, LaBeouf? You thought disrespect for authority was your biggest problem there? Anything else? Theres a clue in your own apology, I am grateful for their restraint.

Yeah, about that.

You know that had you been Black or brown-skinned you would not be able to: struggle, get aggressive with police, yell profanities at them, run away when they were trying to arrest you without possibly deadly consequences. You know further that being openly racist to police and accusing them of being racist are actions that result in a few angry tweets, a few raised eyebrows and calls to help you, that they are textbook examples of the unearned privilege conferred upon you for the colour of your skin.

Do you think the words racist or race or racism deserved a place in your apology? No? Well, why would you?

In your world, being racist isnt a crime. Only those who live with the consequences of racism are treated like criminals. Overt racism is never your fault. Its invariably the fault of addiction or mental illness. Its an act that cries out for compassion and forgiveness.

The system works for people like you. It works to erase the bits that reflect badly on other people like you. Look at all the stories eager to exonerate you.

Heres CNN: Body camera video released by authorities showed a surly, unco-operative LaBeouf yelling profanities at police.

The very progressive Rolling Stone says, the actor apologized for his language, in a story that doesnt mention the racist rants at all.

The headline in Variety: Shia LaBeouf Calls Police Officer Dumb F in Arrest Footage

It does list his racial tirade in another piece about the apology, but doesnt mention that he didnt apologize for the racism.

Turns out that in 2017, we still live in a place where profanities offend puritanical morals. Racism, not so much.

Shree Paradkar tackles issues of race and gender. You can follow her @shreeparadkar

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The aftermath of a fatal split-second decision behind the wheel erupted in a bizarre altercation Thursday, between the grieving family of a dead man and the driver who says he ran him down to save another life.

Anthony James Kiss has been charged with manslaughter in the death of Dario Humberto Romero, who was struck and killed in the early hours of June 7 in west-end Toronto.

Kiss said Romero was chasing a woman on to the street with a knife, and that he drove into him to stop the attack.

Read more: Pedestrian killed in Eglinton Ave. W. hit-and-run

Romeros family confronted Kiss in the hallway prior to his court appearance Thursday, with Romeros girlfriend Cecilia Tofalo telling him that her husband had a 12-year-old son.

You left him without a father! Tofalo yelled at Kiss.

You killed an innocent person! screamed a friend of Romeros.

He was about to kill someone! Kiss shouted back.

Kiss, who has been out on bail and was accompanied by his mother Carole, was escorted out of the courthouse by police after they broke up the argument.

Of course were going to have an emotional outburst, one of Romeros sisters said after the verbal confrontation.

My nephew is fatherless, we lost another sibling, said Romeros sister Paola, referring to a 1999 house fire that killed their sister Daniella. We dont know why (Kiss) did what he did.

The case was put over until Aug. 3. Kiss, 31, also faces charges of impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death, over 80 mgs operation of a motor vehicle causing death, and failure to stop at scene of accident causing death.

I had to make a quick decision to use my vehicle to stop him, Kiss told the Star last month in a phone interview. I didnt want death, thats why I was trying to do this, do what I did, to prevent death.

Kiss was sitting in his car at a red light near Black Creek Dr. and Eglinton Ave. with his girlfriend, when he said he saw a man standing at a nearby bus stop pull a knife on a woman.

I look back at the light, its still red, I look back at them, and by then the male had pulled a knife and went for the woman like three or four times, stabbed at her, Kiss said.

Kiss, a father of four and Wasaga Beach resident, attributes his actions that night to his training as a security guard.

Im observant, I look around, thats how I am, he said. And I looked at him again then this guy just pulled out a knife, man, and just went right at her.

He says he hasnt talked to the woman and doesnt know if she knew the man or what may have sparked the alleged attack.

She was off to the side minding her own business with her arms crossed, just waiting for the bus, he said.

His girlfriend, Michelle Adams, corroborated his account in a separate interview with the Star.

I hear Anthony screaming like, oh my God hes stabbing her, hes going to kill her,  Adams said. I looked over again and I realized that he was making stabbing motions towards her.

The woman then began to run across the street, both said. They could hear her screaming for help with the man trailing her, he said.

Anthonys still freaking out in the car at that moment and then all of a sudden the car just went flying towards him, Adams said. So he went towards the man and obviously hit him. The woman had made it to the median in between the two lanes.

Romero, 37, died from the impact at the scene.

He was a good guy, very family oriented . . . He would give you the last dollar in his pocket if you needed it, said his brother-in-law, who did not want to be identified due to the nature of his job with children.

He was a father. He was a brother. He was an uncle, said the brother-in-law. He was an embedded individual in our family.

The brother-in-law said that Romero suffered with mental illness, and was diagnosed with extreme paranoia, triggered from the trauma of losing his sister in the house fire in 1999.

Toronto police Det. Susan Gomes, the investigating officer on the case, has said she could not comment because the case is an active investigation and further is currently before the courts. A police news report issued at the time of the incident said a 59-year-old woman at the scene suffered injuries unrelated to the collision.

When reached by the Star, the woman said, I cannot talk to you, Im sorry.

Kiss said he left the scene because he was panicking.

I was straight shocked, I couldnt believe what had just happened in front of my eyes, Kiss said. It was insane, I just witnessed some male pull out a knife and try to kill a woman right in front of me.

He said police stopped them shortly after on the highway as they were heading towards Barrie.

Kiss said he and his girlfriend were coming from a CKY concert and had hung out with the metal band in their tour bus afterwards.

He said he blew just above the legal limit.

I wasnt intoxicated; I had a few beers within eight hours that was it, Kiss told the Star in an earlier interview on Facebook.

Kiss said he has had trouble sleeping, and that he has been crying constantly ever since the collision. He said he is now working with a mental health professional.

His girlfriend said some people dont understand Kisss decision.

There are a lot of people who are sending him messages saying that he was wrong and stuff, Adams said. But, I mean, whos to say what they would have done, everyone would say would have, could have until theyre in that position, right?

Adams expressed sympathy for Romeros family.

Im hurting for his family because they lost someone too, she said. I want the family of the man to know that nobody meant to kill him, never meant for his life to end.

I just hope that they know why it happened. And that they dont just blame Anthony for attacking him for no reason or something.

A GoFundMe page was launched by a friend of Kiss last month with a goal of $30,000 to help fund Kisss legal and trauma counselling fees. So far it has raised $895.

Right now, he looks like a monster, Adams said. It sucks that he did something that has messed him up so bad for someone and then is taking such bad backlash for it.

I want them to look at him as someone who risked his life to go to jail for a stranger.

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Two Toronto officers caught mocking and laughing at a woman with Down syndrome on a dashcam video in November will appear at a tribunal to face Police Service Act charges, says a spokesperson.

Consts. Sasa Sljivo and Matthew Saris were heard calling 29-year-old Francie Munoz a little disfigured as she was sitting in the back seat of her mothers Jeep during a traffic stop.

Her mother was being ticketed by the officers for an alleged traffic violation. The interaction on a dashcam video showed the officers calling Francie different, laughing again, before saying Artistic. Thats gonna be my new code word for . . . different.

The two officers face a police tribunal hearing Aug. 15 to face charges under the Police Services Act, Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray said Friday.

Gray said further details on the exact charges will be released when they appear in court.

In a letter dated Friday and sent directly to the family, Sljivo and Saris apologized for their inexcusable remarks and took full responsibility.

A family is outraged after a Toronto police dashboard camera video caught two officers insulting a woman with Down syndrome.





We regret the emotional distress we caused to you, your family and the broader community. You have our assurance that our lapse in judgment will not be repeated, the letter read.

The Munoz family told the Star that the tribunal wasnt enough, and they want a public apology from the officers.

They insulted a whole community, Francies father, Carlos Munoz said Friday morning after he had been told by the head of the Toronto police union Mike McCormack that his daughter wont be receiving a public apology.

The reason we are asking for a public apology is so people can judge by themselves whether the officers are truly remorseful for their actions or if they are just upset that they came off impolite.

McCormack told the Star in an email that repeated attempts were made to arrange an in-person meeting with Francie and her family.

Mr. Munoz made a demand that he would not meet with the officers unless there was a public shaming, McCormack said.

He added the officers have accepted responsibility for their comments from the beginning and have always wished to make a personal and meaningful apology.

They have taken a lot of justified criticism from the public and their peers and regret their comments, McCormack wrote.

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SAO PAULOFormer president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launched a defiant public defence Thursday after being convicted of corruption and money laundering, accusing his political opponents of trying to prevent him from becoming president again.

A federal judge found Silva guilty the previous day and sentenced him to nearly 10 years in prison, though the charismatic leader remains free while an appeal is heard.

Read more:

Former Brazilian president Lula da Silva convicted of corruption, money laundering

Despite several corruption charges, former Brazilian president Lula primed for another run

Brazils President Michel Temer says corruption charge is fiction, theres no proof

In a brief, at times emotional speech, Silva told supporters in Sao Paulo that the court had no proof and the conviction was politically motivated. To cheers, he said he wants to run for re-election next year.

From this moment I want to ask the Workers Party for the right to be a candidate for president, he shouted.

Lula for president! the crowd responded.

The man more commonly known as Lula was accused of receiving a beachfront apartment and repairs to the property as kickbacks from construction company OAS. Silva never owned the apartment, but prosecutors argued it was intended for him.

The case is part of Brazils largest-ever graft investigation, and dozens of top politicians and businesspeople have already been jailed. But Silva is the highest-profile figure to be convicted so far, and the first Brazilian ex-president to be found guilty in a criminal proceeding at least since the restoration of democracy in the 1980s.

Silva was Brazils first working-class president and remains beloved in many quarters, though the corruption probe has dented his reputation. He faces charges in four other cases but has been considered a front-runner for next years election.

He left office at the end of 2010 with sky-high popularity after riding an economic boom to fund social programs that pulled millions out of poverty and expanding the international role of Latin Americas biggest nation.

The case now goes before a group of magistrates. If they uphold the conviction, Silva would be barred from seeking office.

Prosecutors said they would appeal seeking to increase the 9 1/2-year sentence.

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DOYLESTOWN, PA.A drug dealer has confessed to killing four young men separately after selling them marijuana and then burning their bodies at his familys farm, a person with firsthand knowledge of his confession said Thursday.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorized to publicly discuss details of the case. The person said a co-conspirator was involved in the killings of three of the men, who had been reported missing.

The details were provided after one of Cosmo DiNardos lawyers said Thursday that DiNardo had confessed to murdering the missing men, who included a Maryland college student.

DiNardo, 20, confessed to taking part in the four slayings and agreed to plead guilty to four first-degree murder counts, attorney Paul Lang said outside court, where DiNardo had met with investigators.

Im sorry, a shackled DiNardo said as he left the courthouse.

The person with firsthand knowledge of DiNardos confession said the men were killed after DiNardo felt cheated or threatened during three drug transactions. DiNardo sold quarter-pound quantities of marijuana for several thousand dollars and sold handguns to area residents, the person said.

Every death was related to a purported drug transaction, and at the end of each one theres a killing, the person said.

Authorities had charged DiNardo earlier this year with having a gun despite an involuntary mental health commitment. In seeking $5 million bail on a stolen car charge this week, prosecutors said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He also suffered a head injury in an ATV accident about a year ago.

DiNardos parents declined to comment after leaving a government building where he spent several hours with Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub and other investigators.

In exchange for the co-operation, Lang said, prosecutors were taking the death penalty off the table. There was no immediate comment from prosecutors, but they retweeted news reports of DiNardos confession.

The mystery of the four mens disappearances transfixed the Philadelphia area over the past week, taking a grisly turn when human remains were discovered in a 12 -foot-deep grave on a farm. But what sort of evil befell them, and why, had remained shrouded in secrecy.

The prosecutor, who has held twice-daily briefings, made it clear Thursday he knew a lot more than he was saying, citing the need to protect the investigation. That only added to the speculation and rumours before DiNardos confession.

The four men, all residents of Bucks County, disappeared last week. At least three knew each other. The remains of only one, 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, have been identified, though authorities said other remains were found in the hole as well.

DiNardo, whose parents own the farm, remained in custody on $5 million cash bail, accused so far only of a gun possession charge and trying to sell one of the victims cars.

Police were back at the farm Thursday, digging away in the dust and the 90-degree-plus heat and using plywood to shore up the deep, tent-covered trench that they excavated at the spot where Weintraub said dogs smelled these poor boys 12  feet below the ground.

For days, TV news helicopters trained their cameras on the excavation, creating an unsettling racket but allowing the public to follow the forensic work from their office computers. Viewers could watch investigators haul up buckets of dirt and sift it through hand-held screens in what looked like an archeological dig.

When the prosecutor held a dramatic midnight Wednesday news conference to announce the discovery of remains, Claire Vandenberg, of neighbouring New Hope, gathered around a TV with a group of friends to hear developments on what she said is all we talk about.

It seemed almost like a horror film or something, just unravelling before our eyes, she said.

Eric Beitz, who said he had hung out with DiNardo in recent weeks, told philly.com that DiNardo routinely sold guns and on multiple occasions had talked about weird things like killing people and having people killed.

DiNardos father bailed him out, but he was jailed again later in the week on the stolen-car charges, and bail was set much higher, after a prosecutor said he was a danger to the community because he had been diagnosed as schizophrenic.

The other missing men are Mark Sturgis, 22, and Thomas Meo, 21, who worked together in construction, and Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, a student at Loyola University in Baltimore. Patrick and DiNardo had attended the same Catholic high school for boys.

It was the discovery of Meos car on a DiNardo family property a half-mile from the farm that led to Cosmo DiNardos re-arrest.

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NASHVILLEThe famed Scopes monkey trial pitted two of the nations foremost celebrity lawyers against one another, but only one of them was memorialized outside the Tennessee courthouse where the landmark case unfolded  until now.

On Friday at the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton the public will behold a three-metre statue of the rumpled skeptic Clarence Darrow, who argued for evolution in the 1925 trial. It will stand at a respectful distance on the opposite side of the courthouse from an equally huge statue of William Jennings Bryan, the eloquent Christian defender of the biblical account of creation, which was installed in 2005.

The trial that unfolded there nine decades ago garnered national headlines in what historians say started as a publicity stunt for the small town. Formally known as Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes, the case generated front-page headlines nationwide and was immortalized in songs, books, plays and movies. Dayton hosts its annual Scopes Trial festival for 10 days, starting Friday, featuring a theatrical production.

Historians say the trial came about after local leaders convinced Scopes, a 24-year-old high school teacher, to answer the American Civil Liberties Unions call for someone who could help challenge Tennessees law that banned teaching evolution. He was found guilty but didnt spend time in jail.

Bryan, a three-time Democratic candidate for president, died just five days after the trial ended.

In Dayton, home of a Christian college thats named for Bryan, its not hard to envision the community accepting a statue venerating the august champion of the faith.

But Darrow is another matter.

Rifts over evolution and creationism continue almost a century later, and the Darrow statue was requested by atheist groups.

Pockets of opposition in the town suggest many Christians still see the science of evolution as clashing with their faith. Dayton resident and minister June Griffin has led much of the backlash against the Darrow statue, citing religious convictions.

This is a hideous monstrosity, Griffin said. And God is not pleased.

Two weeks ago about 20 supporters and 20 protesters clashed peacefully at the courthouse over the statue, said Rhea County Sheriffs Department Special Projects Coordinator Jeff Knight.

Nevertheless, the Darrow statue hasnt drawn teeming crowds in Dayton like the ones that forced some of the 1925 trial proceedings to be moved outdoors.

Regardless of how peoples beliefs differ, the statue helps represent history, said Rhea County historian Pat Guffey. Most people seem OK with it, she added.

I just think that something that is history should stay, or should be put up, no matter what, Guffey said. I dont think we should try to change history.

Philadelphia-based sculptor Zenos Frudakis crafted the new statue, funded largely by $150,000 from the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The group said the project would remedy the imbalance of Bryan standing alone.

Bryan was there as an attorney, a prosecutor, and Clarence Darrow as a defence attorney. And now, the history has been restored, Frudakis said.

Frudakis, an admirer of Darrow, said the sculpture offers an honest look at the lawyer.

He looks like he slept in his suit, which he often did. Sometimes his shirts were torn, Frudakis said of Darrow. He smoked too much. He drank too much. He was a womanizer. I got as much of that as I could in the sculpture.

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MOSUL, IRAQThere was a smell of death in Mosuls Old City when Ayman Hashem came back this week to see what happened to his home. His neighbourhood was unrecognizable.

All thats left is rubble and the bodies of families trapped underneath, the 23-year-old said. He flipped through photos on his phone, showing picture after picture of wreckage. His own house was cut in half, he said. He had to cover his nose with his T-shirt because of the smell of buried, rotting bodies.

Iraqs U.S.-backed forces wrested Mosul from Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, at the cost of enormous destruction. The nearly 9-month fight culminated with a crescendo of devastation  the blasting of the historic Old City to root out the deeply dug-in militants.

Read more:

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declares total victory over Daesh in Mosul

Iraqi PM declares victory in Mosul, a major blow to Daesh

U.S.-backed forces breach Daesh capitals ancient wall

Nearly a third of the Old City  more than 5,000 buildings  was damaged or destroyed in the final three weeks of bombardment up to July 8, according to a survey by UN Habitat using satellite imagery. Across the city, 10,000 buildings were damaged over the course of the war, the large majority in western Mosul, the scene of the most intense artillery, airstrikes and fighting during the past five months. The survey only covers damage visible in satellite photos, meaning the real number is likely higher.

The population, once numbering 3 million, is battered and exhausted, with hundreds of thousands displaced. Without a swift campaign to rebuild Mosul, aid and rights groups warn the current humanitarian crisis will balloon and resentment will likely give way to extremism, undermining the victory.

If the western half is ignored it will produce a social disaster and this social disaster will create bigger destruction if its not addressed, said Khatab Mohammed al-Najjar, a resident of eastern Mosul who watched the Old City burn from across the Tigris River during the operation.

West Mosul produced Daesh, and it is very possible it may produce a new Daesh, he said, referring to west Mosuls historically more religious and traditional residents. He used the Arabic acronym for Daesh.

When Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory in Mosul Monday, he pledged reconstruction would begin soon. But his government still struggles to finance day-to-day workings of the state amid low oil prices.

Thousands of Mosul families have been left without a home. Schools have been levelled, utility grids wrecked, highways pounded into broken dirt roads.

All five of the citys bridges spanning the Tigris River have been damaged. The main hospital complex where a battle raged for more than a month is a burned out shell. Mosuls airport looks like a derelict parking lot, booby-trapped with explosives by fleeing Daesh fighters.

In eastern Mosul, the destruction was less intense. More than 160,000 of the 176,000 people who fled the east have returned, according to the U.N. Residents have begun rebuilding homes, shops have reopened, and demining is underway.

But west of the Tigris, neighbourhoods have been rendered into ghost towns. There, coalition strikes killed some 5,805 civilians between Feb. 19 and June 19, according to Airwars, a London-based monitoring group tracking civilian deaths resulting from coalition actions.

Fewer than a tenth of the more than 730,000 people who fled western Mosul have filtered back.

Saif Mohammed recently reopened his sandwich shop on a main avenue in the west, repairing war damage with the help of a $5,000 loan from relatives. On the same street, only two or three other shops are open. The other storefronts are bombed out and burned, the corrugated Iron doors warped by explosions.

His shop is a bet that residents will return. But what people really need is government help, he said. If the government doesnt give money, there wont be any rebuilding.

Hiyam Mohammed hid in her home with her family on the edge of the Old City throughout the fight. They could see the cemetery from their house.

Some days the funerals lasted from dawn into the night. There were so many bodies piled up, it looked like a hill, she said. I thought I was going crazy seeing this. They didnt even have time to wash the dead.

She said the only way to justice is if the government and coalition pay compensation to those who lost relatives or property.

The government brought Daesh to us, she said, referring to sectarian rule that fuelled Sunni extremism and corruption that weakened the countrys security forces. This mess is Gods revenge for that.

But some in the security forces have resentments of their own, blaming Mosul residents for supporting Daesh.

The people here have always had a rebellious nature, so they should take some responsibility for what has happened, said Maj. Imad Hassan, a federal police officer from Baghdad.

During the campaign, his unit fought to capture a stretch of the corniche running along the Tigris, hammering it with artillery for weeks to clear out Daesh resistance. The former municipal centre was shredded, rows of buildings blackened, palm trees lining the boulevard burned.

I hope this destruction teaches them their lesson, he said.

Iraqi and coalition officials say the devastation was the result of the Daeshs tenacious grip. Daesh transformed the city into a fortress. Its fighters used hospitals and schools as military bases, moved civilians from the rural outskirts into central neighbourhoods to use as shields from airstrikes and rigged hundreds of houses and roads with explosives.

Nearly 10 years ago, Maj. Maher Aziz Khalaf fought Daeshs predecessor, Al Qaeda, in Mosul alongside U.S. forces. But when he rolled into western Mosul with the first wave of Iraqi special forces troops in early February he said he immediately realized this battle would alter the city in a way previous fights hadnt.

In 2008 it was different. We would just identify which houses the terrorists were living in, come in at night and arrest them, he said. We were fighting gangs, not an entire city.

A coalition spokesman, Col. Joe Scrocca, said the forces had to balance between protecting non-combatants and infrastructure on one hand and moving quickly on the other. Another factor, he said, was that the longer it took to free the city, the more danger civilians were in, whether from lack of food or Daesh retaliation.

Hesitant to risk casualties along their own troops, Iraqi military commanders relied on air power and artillery to clear neighbourhoods where a handful of Daesh fighters armed with light weapons and civilians as human shields repeatedly stalled entire units of Iraqs military.

As the fight moved to the Old City, rights groups and the UN warned the coalition and Iraqi forces against using large munitions. Still, the U.S.-led coalition repeatedly approved the use of 500- and 2,000-pound bombs inside the densely populated district.

As waves of civilians fled the Old City, more than a dozen individuals told the AP they knew of multiple families killed under their homes by what they believed to be airstrikes.

The buildings can be rebuilt, but the human lives lost cannot, said Iraqi special forces Lt. Gen. Abdul-Ghani al-Asadi from a base on the edge of Old City on Tuesday.

But the buildings in the Old City were all very old anyway, he said. Now we can demolish them and build apartment buildings.

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A federal judge in Hawaii ruled that the Trump administration didnt conform with the Supreme Courts instructions in rolling out its temporary travel ban.

The decision means many people covered by the governments restrictions would be allowed to enter the U.S. In an order issue late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu said the government shouldnt limit entry for visa applicants from six mostly Muslim nations and refugees worldwide to only those with members of their nuclear family already living in the U.S. The Justice Department may appeal the decision over what counts as a bona fide relationship.

Watson has already stopped two previous versions of the presidents executive order from being enforced. This time, the ruling halts the presidents edict, which could cause further confusion among U.S. customs officials at points of entry. The ruling is a victory for opponents of the administrations immigration agenda.

Read more: U.S. Supreme Court allows limited version of Trumps travel ban to take effect

The Justice Department defended its definition of close family ties in court filings, saying it followed the Supreme Courts June 26 filing in excluding grandparents, aunts, uncles and others consistent with the Immigration and Nationality Act. The government urged Watson to defer to the Supreme Court.

In sum, the governments definition of close familial relationship is not only not compelled by the Supreme Courts June 26 decision, but contradicts it, Watson stated in his written order. Equally problematic, the governments definition represents the antithesis of common sense. Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents.

Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas declined to immediately comment on Watsons ruling, saying a statement is likely to be issued later Friday.

Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin, a Democrat who filed the case, said he would continue to prepare for a hearing before the Supreme Court.

The federal court today makes clear that the U.S. government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel ban as it sees fit, Chin said in an emailed statement. Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough. Courts have found that this executive order has no basis in stopping terrorism and is just a pretext for illegal and unconstitutional discrimination.

The Supreme Court said it will hear the administrations appeal of lower-court orders blocking the ban from taking effect in its next nine-month session starting in October. Meanwhile, the court allowed the restrictions to take effect, with caveats, five months after the initial lawsuits challenging the presidents original order.

Because of the temporary nature of the 90-day ban, it isnt clear exactly what will be left for the justices to decide in October. One possibility is that Trump could issue a new executive order once officials complete their review of vetting procedures for immigrants.

When the nine-member Supreme Court partially revived the travel ban on June 26, justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they would have let the entire ban take effect immediately. Thomas warned that the definition of bona fide relationships would open the door to a flood of litigation as U.S. customs and border officials wrestle with whether travelers from the six countries have sufficient ties.

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WASHINGTONA Russian-American lobbyist says he attended a June 2016 meeting with U.S. President Donald Trumps son, marking another shift in the account of a discussion that was billed as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republicans White House campaign.

Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his participation to The Associated Press on Friday. Akhmetshin has been reported to have ties to Russian intelligence agencies, though he denies those links.

The meeting has heightened questions about whether Trumps campaign co-ordinated with the Russian government during the election, which is the focus of federal and congressional investigations. In emails posted by Donald Trump Jr. earlier this week, an associate who arranged the meeting said a Russian lawyer wanted to pass on negative information about Democrat Hillary Clinton and stated that the discussion was part of a Russian government effort to help the GOP candidate.

Read more:

Donald Trump Jr. farce makes Russia story more ridiculous, more serious: Analysis

Trump Jr. was informed in email of Russias effort to aid fathers candidacy

Read the Donald Trump Jr. emails: An offer of documents and information that would incriminate Hillary

While Trump Jr. has confirmed that Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya was in the meeting, he did not disclose Akhmetshins presence. The presidents son has tried to discount the meeting, saying that he did not receive the information he was promised.

Akhmetshin said Trump Jr. asked the attorney for evidence of illicit money flowing to the Democratic National Committee, but Veselnitskaya said she didnt have that information. She said the Trump campaign would need to research it more and, after that, Trump Jr. lost interest, according to Akhmetshin.

They couldnt wait for the meeting to end, Akhmetshin said.

Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and current White House senior adviser, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting.

Asked about Akhmetshins participation in the meeting, Manafort spokesperson Jason Maloni declined to comment. A spokesperson for Kushner did not respond to inquiries, nor did Trump Jr.s attorney.

Akhmetshin said the attorney brought with her a plastic folder with printed-out documents. He said he was unaware of the content of the documents or whether they were provided by the Russian government, and it was unclear whether she left the materials with the Trump associates.

Akhmetshin said the meeting was not substantive and he actually expected more serious discussion.

I never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest, he told the AP.

The Russian government has denied any involvement in or knowledge of the June 2016 meeting. Asked Friday about Akhmetshin, Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: We dont know anything about this person.

In reports this week, Akhmetshin has been identified as a former Russian counter-intelligence officer. He denied ever serving in such a capacity.

That is not correct, Akhmetshin said. He said he served in the Soviet Army from 1986 to 1988 after he was drafted, but was not trained in spy tradecraft.

Akhmetshin said he has not been contacted by the special counsels office or the FBI about the meeting with Trump Jr., but said he is willing to talk to investigators.

I think I have a legal right to tell my story, he said.

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Google grabbed headlines late last month when the European Commission handed it a record-breaking $2.7 billion antitrust fine for abusing its dominance as a search engine.

While the penalty was historic in its size, the decision against the Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) - Get Free Report unit is hardly an isolated case. Instead, it's the opposite, being one of a growing number of cases where the European Union has cracked down on a Silicon Valley giant over matters concerning competition, taxes and privacy. Google, Facebook Inc. (FB) - Get Free Report , Apple Inc. (AAPL) - Get Free Report , Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) - Get Free Report and Microsoft Inc. (MSFT) - Get Free Report have all found themselves in the sights of the European Union's foremost antitrust regulator on various occasions.

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On Wednesday, Google was handed a rare reprieve, however, when a French court threw out a roughly $1.3 billion tax judgment against the company. The French tax administration argued that the search giant owed taxes for the years 2005 to 2010. French officials have said they will appeal the decision.



Despite Google's win on Wednesday, the EU doesn't pose any less of a threat to Silicon Valley.

Google still faces several ongoing antitrust battles with the EU surrounding its Android and AdSense businesses. Facebook could also become a target of the EU if Germany's Federal Cartel Office can establish a link between Facebook's data collection practices and its market power. The antitrust watchdog is currently investigating whether Facebook's dominance has given consumers no choice but to agree to its terms and conditions -- a practice the Cartel Office describes as "extorting" information from users.

Analysts say tax disputes like those faced by Google and Apple (the Cupertino, Calif.-based company owes $14.5 billion in back taxes, according to the EU) are small potatoes compared to the wider implications of EU investigations into competition and privacy concerns.

"Those are sideshows to the big event," said Jonathan Taplin, a professor at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab and author of Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy. "[Competition and privacy issues] change the nature of the business for Facebook or Google."

As part of the EU's decision, Google has 90 days to stop breaking EU rules, or it will face more fines that could cost it billions. It may also hurt Google's business depending on how it decides to resolve the issues with its Google Shopping platform. Until now, Google has displayed paid product listings at the top of its search results, with unpaid search results appearing below them. Changes like these to the company's practices may hurt its revenue growth, according to Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser, who lowered Google's stock price target to $980 from $990 because of the risks.

"Other investigations could lead to more fines and changes to business practices which could further reduce growth," Wieser explained in a note to clients on Tuesday. "We don't see the European Commission letting up any time soon."

Google and Facebook could come under further pressure once the EU's set of new, stricter privacy rules go into effect in May 2018. The General Data Protection Regulation will allow the EU to fine tech companies up to 4% of their annual revenue for privacy violations. Under the new laws, users can opt out of giving personal data, which could represent a gigantic shift in Facebook and Google's typical data collection practices because for most users, agreeing to terms and conditions is a pretty mindless thing, Taplin noted.

"Significant fines may cause industry participants including marketers (who could be liable for fines themselves) to become hyper-cautious in use of media owners' data, and invest more heavily in first-party data," Wieser noted. "This could limit the advantages that Google and Facebook possess."

In time, America's stance on the tech giants may inch closer toward being similar to the EU, said Keith Hylton, an antitrust professor at Boston University. President Donald Trump has said he'd bring renewed antitrust scrutiny to tech giants like Amazon and Google. The search giant had close ties to the White House under President Barack Obama, but now that's no longer the case.

"There's a general perception that the Obama administration was hands off on Google," Taplin said. "But Trump seems to have indicated that that's not the operative anymore."
House Democrats are using a new tactic to gather information on Deutsche Bank (DB) - Get Free Report as part of a broader party effort to push action on inquiries into President Donald Trump's ties to Russia.

Democrats will offer measures known as resolutions of inquiry, an investigative procedure that House of Representatives members can employ to make a direct request for information to the executive branch. The resolutions automatically trigger floor votes if they don't get action in committee within 14 legislative days. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) on Friday will file a resolution to push for information on Trump, those in his orbit and Deutsche Bank.

The resolution, introduced by Waters and Representatives Daniel Kildee (R-MI), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Al Green (D-TX) and Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), asks Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to provide records from his department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network that detail Trump's ties to Russia as well as those of his family members and associates.

House Democrats have sent four letters requesting information on Trump and Deutsche Bank since March -- two to Deutche Bank directly, one to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and one to Mnuchin.

"We have to get all the information we can find about [President Trump] and his business relationships," Waters said in a recent interview with TheStreet. "It is extremely important, and I don't care where it comes from."

Specifically, Democrats are seeking details on the bank's conduct in the Russian mirror trading scandal, through which it helped wealthy Russians move $10 billion out of the country from 2011 to 2014, and its relationship with Trump.

The German banks is one of the few banks that still lends money to the president after his bankruptcies and financial woes. His financial disclosure, released by the U.s. Office of Government Ethics last month, shows liabilities for Trump of at least $130 million to Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, including at least $50 million for the Old Post Office that houses Trump's Washington, D.C. hotel.

Waters, ranking member on the Financial Services Committee, and fellow committee Democrats will request through resolution of inquiry from the Treasury Department information on credit extended by Russian banks and Russian government officials to Trump and those in his orbit and information on the Russian mirror trading scandal. They are seeking information on money laundering and sanctions violations by those in the president's orbit as well.

The ROI lists off Trump's properties, past and present, including the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, Trump National Doral in Miami and the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. It also targets properties owned by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Democrats also specify several figures of interest. Trump's family members are listed, as well as figures such as campaign chairman Paul Manafort, activist investor Carl Icahn, Russian-born associate Felix Sater, operative Roger Stone and attorney Michael Cohen. They also list members of the administration, including Gary Cohn, Wilbur Ross, Rex Tillerson and Jeff Sessions.

The resolution also requests information on the president's long-time assistant, Rhona Graff, and publicist Rob Goldstone, two figures tied into the brewing scandal surrounding Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer last summer. Emails released by Trump Jr. earlier this week just minutes before The New York Times was set to break a story on them revealed he accepted a meeting last year with a Russian lawyer on the promise that she could offer damaging information about Hillary Clinton. The emails also said the Russian government was supporting his father's presidential bid.
Ride-hailing company Grab, Uber's biggest rival in Southeast Asia, is in talks to receive an investment of up to $2 billion from Japan's Softbank Group Corp. (SFTBY) and Chinese firm Didi, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

If it receives the full $2 billion investment, Grab would be valued at about $5 billion, giving it the push it needs to compete with Uber in its home territory.

Grab, which is based in Singapore and was launched in 2012, operates in 65 cities across seven countries in Southeast Asia.

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More issues for food makers: As if food makers such as Kraft Heinz (KHC) - Get Free Report and grocery retailers like Kroger (KR) - Get Free Report and Walmart (WMT) - Get Free Report didn't have enough issues on their plate thanks to Amazon's (AMZN) - Get Free Report advances.

A significant demographic headwind could add further pressure on the packaged food and grocery store sectors in the years ahead, according to Wolfe Research analyst Scott Mnushkin. The U.S. government reported recently that the fertility rate in the U.S. (births per 1,000 women) hit a record low of 62.0 in 2016, with the number of births down about 1% from the prior year. With births declining and immigration slowing, population growth in the U.S. has stalled.

For the aforementioned sectors, Mnushkin points out, it's critical households are formed in order for demand to materialize. The fact that's not happening at a decent clip is troublesome.

All eyes on Apple's iPhone 8, per the usual: Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz is not buying the projected "super cycle" in Apple's (AAPL) - Get Free Report stock after the tech titan releases its highly anticipated iPhone 8 later this year. Amid reports that the highly anticipated smartphone may not include wireless charging, enhanced 3D technology, or Touch ID, Moskowitz contends that the phone's OLED display, the lone headline feature, won't be enough to convince consumers to upgrade.

"With OLED, we struggle to see the incremental benefits visually that would inspire a customer to replace an adequately-performing device," he noted.

Hard to argue with this one: Count Foursquare co-founder and executive chairman Dennis Crowley among the big fans of Amazon's surprise move to acquire Whole Foods (WFM) for $13.7 billion in mid-June.

Crowley, who built the location intelligence company into a service with 50 million monthly active users across its two apps since founding the company in 2009, spoke with TheStreet'S Natalie Walters at the company's hip headquarters in Soho, New York.

"I can see what Amazon is trying to do there," Crowley said. "I think it's super brilliant." As for what Crowley is up to at FourSquare right now, check out TheStreet this weekend.

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AstraZeneca plc (AZN) - Get Free Report shares are down after rumors began swirling that its CEO Pascal Soriot is on his way to Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) - Get Free Report ahead of key drug information release.

But amid the rumors of his departure, which comes as AstraZeneca is ready to release key data for its Mystic oncology program, there is a murmur that if Soriot jumps ship the company could be susceptible to a takeover.

"His exit would leave [AstraZeneca] rudderless in the wake of several other recent departures," wrote Seamus Fernandez of Leerink Partners in a note Thursday, echoing the sentiment of several other analysts. "In a best case scenario, we could see a change in management as an opening to a potential merger."

According to Calcalist, an Israeli business website, Soriot met with Teva's search committee and chairman and agreed to take the position, which comes with a salary nearly double Teva's last CEO's, which was $5.7 million, plus a signing bonus of $15 million to $20 million. The companies have refused to comment on the rumors.

Teva stock traded up almost 4% and AstraZeneca stock fell 1.6% by Thursday's close. AstraZeneca stock was up 4.5% by Friday's close, and Teva's was down 3.9%.

The rumors come after Martin Mackay, president of research and development, and Tony Zook, global commercial executive vice president, had their roles eliminated on Jan. 31 and as AstraZeneca's one-time hostile bidder, Pfizer plc (PFE) - Get Free Report , as well as other big pharma companies, may soon have access to large overseas cash hoards to fuel M&A. A management shake-up of this proportion could also make the company susceptible to an activist investor, especially as the company could be sitting on potentially valuable assets with a management team in flux.

"If true, the optics around his departure would be terrible ahead of the Mystic readout," Fernandez said, adding that the results are expected "any day now."

"Realistically it would leave the company in a state of flux ahead of both this important IO catalyst as well as upcoming data readouts from several other key pipeline assets," Fernandez added, referencing Lynparza, an ovarian cancer treatment, and roxadustat, which addresses chronic kidney disease and anemia, among other assets.

Pfizer, which made a $110 billion bid to acquire AstraZeneca in 2014, has left the door open for large-scale M&A as well.

"We will continue to evaluate deals," Pfizer CEO Ian Read said on a conference call with investors in May. "We never say never, but I believe the current environment needs to stabilize in order to be an advantageous market for big deals."

To be sure, there is no promise that Pfizer or any other large-cap pharma company is in a position to actually acquire an $80 billion-plus-market cap company like AstraZeneca. Or that anything in the way of corporate tax cuts like those that could help Pfizer get a deal done for AstraZeneca will actually come to fruition. However, if the company does indeed watch its CEO walk, anything is possible.

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Can a social activist fund target a passive investor?

That's what appears to be happening at index fund behemoth Vanguard. Environmental, social and governance firm Walden Asset Management has submitted a shareholder proposal asking the $4.4 trillion index fund giant to review its voting practices related to climate change issues and issue a report on the subject.

The measure is scheduled to come up for consideration at Vanguard's 2017 shareholder meeting, scheduled for Nov. 15 in Scottsdale, Ariz. Walden is permitted to submit a proposal for consideration because it participates in two Vanguard funds, the 500 Index Fund and Total Stock Market Index Fund.

And the proposal up for a vote in November is nonbinding, which means Vanguard isn't obliged to do anything about it even if it gets a strong vote of support. Nevertheless, Walden's director of engagement, Timothy Smith, argues that the measure is designed to drive Vanguard to vote more proactively on important social and environmental issues. Smith said he hopes that both retail and institutional investors back his measure.

"The issues of how institutions are voting is under significant scrutiny right now and there is a lot of pressure for funds to set up principals for investing," Smith said.

Even so, Vanguard's vote patterns may be changing. The index fund was among a number of passive investors to back a high-profile environmentally-themed activist shareholder proposal seeking to have Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) - Get Free Report produce a report on the impacts of "technological advances" and "climate change policy" on its oil and gas reserves, according to a person familiar with the situation. The backing of major index funds was a large reason why the measure received the support of a majority of participating shares - about 62% -- at the company's annual meeting in May. In addition, Vanguard backed a similar proposal at Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) - Get Free Report , he added.

However, Smith argues that supporting the climate change proposal at Exxon isn't enough. He noted that there are dozens of similar proposals that come up for votes every year that he argues Vanguard hasn't historically supported.

In a statement, Vanguard said it believes climate risk is an important consideration and one it "frequently" addresses, when engaging with a "increasing number" of corporations and their boards. However, the fund noted that the Walden proposal is duplicative and overlaps its already existing proxy voting policies related to climate change risk.

"Vanguard historically has voted against social and environmental resolutions while it has voted for numerous good governance resolutions, as they saw governance changes as being responsive to shareholder interests," Smith said.

The giant index fund isn't required to have an annual meeting, but it does have to have one when it considers important business matters to consider. Its last meeting took place in 2009. The announcement of the meeting comes as Vanguard announced Thursday that it was installing Tim Buckley as its CEO, replacing Bill McNabb on Jan. 1.

Vanguard has $4.4 trillion in assets under management, an amount that has grown significantly in recent years and is expected to continue to grow in the years to come.
U.S. Representative David Cicilline (D-RI), the top Democrat on the House of Representative's Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel, has pushed for the group to hold a hearing on Amazon.com's (AMZN) - Get Free Report acquisition of Whole Foods Market (WFM) , Reuters reports.

Cicilline requested the hearing in a letter to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee and the subcommittee chairman.

"Amazon's proposed purchase of Whole Foods could impact neighborhood grocery stores and hardworking consumers across America," Cicilline said in a statement. "Congress has a responsibility to fully scrutinize this merger before it goes ahead."

The deal must be approved by U.S. antitrust enforcers, most likely the Federal Trade Commission.

While Congress plays no formal role in the process of approving the deal, hearings are often used to highlight the possible impact of deals on consumers.

What's Hot On TheStreet

More issues for food makers: As if food makers such as Kraft Heinz (KHC) - Get Free Report and grocery retailers like Kroger (KR) - Get Free Report and Walmart (WMT) - Get Free Report didn't have enough issues on their plate thanks to Amazon's (AMZN) - Get Free Report advances.

A significant demographic headwind could add further pressure on the packaged food and grocery store sectors in the years ahead, according to Wolfe Research analyst Scott Mnushkin. The U.S. government reported recently that the fertility rate in the U.S. (births per 1,000 women) hit a record low of 62.0 in 2016, with the number of births down about 1% from the prior year. With births declining and immigration slowing, population growth in the U.S. has stalled.

For the aforementioned sectors, Mnushkin points out, it's critical households are formed in order for demand to materialize. The fact that's not happening at a decent clip is troublesome.

All eyes on Apple's iPhone 8, per the usual: Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz is not buying the projected "super cycle" in Apple's (AAPL) - Get Free Report stock after the tech titan releases its highly anticipated iPhone 8 later this year. Amid reports that the highly anticipated smartphone may not include wireless charging, enhanced 3D technology, or Touch ID, Moskowitz contends that the phone's OLED display, the lone headline feature, won't be enough to convince consumers to upgrade.

"With OLED, we struggle to see the incremental benefits visually that would inspire a customer to replace an adequately-performing device," he noted.

Hard to argue with this one: Count Foursquare co-founder and executive chairman Dennis Crowley among the big fans of Amazon's surprise move to acquire Whole Foods (WFM) for $13.7 billion in mid-June.

Crowley, who built the location intelligence company into a service with 50 million monthly active users across its two apps since founding the company in 2009, spoke with TheStreet'S Natalie Walters at the company's hip headquarters in Soho, New York.

"I can see what Amazon is trying to do there," Crowley said. "I think it's super brilliant." As for what Crowley is up to at FourSquare right now, check out TheStreet this weekend.

Apple is a holding Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL? Learn more now.

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The House of Representatives passed a defense spending bill that increases the Department of Defense's budget 12% to $696 million from $619 million by a 344-81 margin Friday.

The bill received bipartisan support with 117 Democrats joining 227 Republicans in support of the measure, while 73 Democrats and 8 Republicans opposed the bill.

The bill includes a 25% increase in missile defense spending and a 2.4% raise for U.S. troops, their largest pay increase in eight years.
Provident Financial Services, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Provident Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals, families, and businesses in the United States. The company's deposit products include savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, money market deposit, and certificate of deposit accounts, as well as IRA products. Its loan portfolio comprises commercial real estate loans that are secured by properties, such as multi-family apartment buildings, office buildings, and retail and industrial properties; commercial business loans; fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgage loans collateralized by one- to four-family residential real estate properties; commercial construction loans; and consumer loans consisting of home equity loans, home equity lines of credit, marine loans, personal loans and unsecured lines of credit, and auto and recreational vehicle loans. The company also offers cash management, remote deposit capture, payroll origination, escrow account management, and online and mobile banking services; and business credit cards. In addition, it provides wealth management services comprising investment management, trust and estate administration, financial planning, tax compliance and planning, and private banking. Further, the company sells insurance and investment products, including annuities; operates as a real estate investment trust for acquiring mortgage loans and other real estate related assets; and manages and sells real estate properties acquired through foreclosure. As of December 31, 2021, it operated 96 full-service branch offices in northern and central New Jersey, as well as in Pennsylvania and New York counties. The company was founded in 1839 and is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Forum Energy Technologies, Inc. designs, manufactures, and distributes products serving the oil, natural gas, industrial, and renewable energy industries in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Drilling & Downhole, Completions, and Production. The Drilling & Downhole segment designs, manufactures, and supplies products, and provides related services to the drilling, well construction, artificial lift, and subsea energy construction markets, including applications in oil and natural gas, renewable energy, defense, and communications. This segment offers drilling technologies consisting of capital equipment and a line of products consumed in the drilling process; well construction casing and cementing equipment, and protection products for artificial lift equipment and cables; and subsea remotely operated vehicles and trenchers, submarine rescue vehicles, specialty components and tools, and complementary subsea technical services. The Completions segment offers hydraulic fracturing pumps, cooling systems, high-pressure flexible hoses, and flow iron for pressure pumping, hydraulic fracturing and flowback services markets; wireline cable and pressure control equipment for well completion and intervention service markets; and coiled tubing strings and coiled line pipe. The Production segment designs, manufactures, and supplies products, and provides related equipment and services for production and infrastructure markets. This segment offers engineered process systems, production equipment, specialty separation equipment, and various industrial valves for oil and natural gas customers, power generation, renewable energy, and other general industrial applications. The company was formerly known as Forum Oilfield Technologies, Inc. and changed its name to Forum Energy Technologies, Inc. in August 2010. Forum Energy Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
The Pixel 2 XL is the best pure Android phone you can buy, with a gorgeous 6-inch OLED screen, easy access to Google Assistant, sharp cameras and very long battery life.

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

Update: Google has discontinued the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, although you can buy them used. We recommend the newer Google Pixel 4a.

The Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are anything but conformists. Unlike with other flagship phones, you won't find dual-lens cameras or edge-to-edge screens on these handsets.

Instead, Google focused on making these the smartest smartphones ever. And based on my testing, the new Pixels aptly fit that description, with a versatile Google Assistant you can now summon with a squeeze and a new object-recognition feature in the camera app that's truly impressive.



Design

"Send it back  it still needs more bezel!" Thats how I imagine the insane conversation about the regular Pixel 2 took place at Google's headquarters. At a time when other phones are stretching their screens to reach practically from one corner to the other, the front of the Pixel 2 is a throwback in the worst possible sense of the word.

I measured the top and bottom bezels at over 0.6 inches, compared to 0.2 inches for the Galaxy S8. Seeing that gorgeous 5-inch OLED screen sandwiched between such large blocks of black glass is downright offensive.



It's not all bad news, though, as the two front-firing stereo speakers get nice and loud, offering richer audio than the speaker on the bottom edge of the Galaxy S8. Plus, if you're adamant that a phone be easy to use with one hand, you'll prefer the Pixel 2's more-compact dimensions of 5.7 x 2.7 x 0.3 inches, versus 6.2 x 3 x 0.3 inches for the Pixel 2 XL. The Pixel 2 weighs a fairly light 5 ounces, compared to 6.2 ounces for the Pixel 2 XL.

The Pixel 2 XL also has a much more modern vibe, as its 6-inch display covers much more of the phone's face. The top and bottom bezels measure a more eye-pleasing 0.4 inches and 0.35 inches thick, respectively. This handset also sports stereo speakers above and below the screen.



Around back, you'll find Googles trademark two-tone design on both phones, with a stripe of black glass across the top around the camera and flash, and sturdy aluminum covering the bottom three-quarters of the phones. The fingerprint sensor is positioned right in the center, beneath the stripe, making it easy to reach.

Google offers a range of colors for the Pixel 2, including Just Black, Clearly White, Black and White (which reminds us of the cookie), and Kinda Blue. The Pixel 2 XL comes in Just Black and Black and White.

Unfortunately, neither the Pixel 2 nor the Pixel 2 XL features a headphone jack. Google includes a USB-C dongle in the box, but you're probably better off just going wireless.

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL: Specs Compared

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Pixel 2 Pixel 2 XL Price $649 $849 OS Android 8.0 Android 8.0 Display 5 inches (1920 x 1080 pixels) 6 inches (2880 x 1440 pixels) CPU Snapdragon 835 Snapdragon 835 RAM 4GB 4GB Storage 64GB, 128GB 64GB, 128GB Rear Camera 12 MP (f/1.8) 12 MP (f/1.8) Front Camera 8 MP (f/2.4) 8 MP (f/2.4) Battery 2700 mAh 3520 mAh Headphone Jack No No Charging USB-C USB-C Size 5.7 x 2.7 x 0.3 inches 6.2 x 3 x 0.3 inches Weight 5.01 ounces 6.2 ounces

Durability: Not the toughest phone

We tested the Google Pixel 2 XLs toughness by dropping it on its face onto wood from a height of 4 feet and 6 feet; we then dropped it on its edge and face onto concrete from 4 feet; we then dropped it on its edge and face from 6 feet onto concrete.

The Pixel 2 XL survived drops from 4 and 6 feet onto wood with no issues. However, when this phone landed on its face from 4 feet onto concrete, the screen cracked, obscuring the front camera.

An edge drop from 6 feet didn't do too much more damage, but a face drop from that height caused half the screen to go black. As a result, the Pixel 2 XL earned a fairly weak toughness score of 4.3 out of 10.

To see the results of other smartphones, as well as our complete scoring methodology, check out our smartphone drop tests.

Google Assistant: Squeezable and smart

When I first heard about Active Edge on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, I thought it was a gimmick. But after using it just for a few minutes, I changed my mind. With a firm, quick squeeze toward the bottom of the phone, you can activate Google Assistant, which is faster and more accurate and versatile than Siri.

For instance, I said, "Play BoJack Horseman on my living room TV," and Google Assistant on the Pixel 2 launched the Netflix app right to this deranged cartoon on my big screen. Of course, it helps that I had a Chromecast plugged in to the set, but that's exactly Google's plan: to show you how its hardware and software work well together across its growing ecosystem of products. The Google-owned Nest thermostat also works with Google Assistant, so you could say, "Set the temperature to 68 degrees."

With the Assistant just a squeeze away, I had no problem finding out how the Yankees were doing against the Astros (not great), telling the Pixel 2 to snap a selfie, summoning up all the photos I took that day, or firing up my Liked from Radio Playlist on Spotify. Sure, I could do all of this by saying, "OK, Google," first, but I found it more convenient and less awkward to use Active Edge.

You can also adjust the sensitivity level of the squeeze required and allow the Active Edge feature to work when the screen is off. I rarely activated the Assistant by accident.

While Apple charges $999 for the privilege of owning a colorful OLED display and enjoying its wide viewing angles and perfect blacks on the iPhone X, and while the OLED Galaxy S8 starts at $750, you can get this screen tech on the Pixel 2 for $649

The Pixel 2's 5-inch screen isn't the sharpest, at 1920 x 1080 pixels, and it's much smaller than the 5.8-inch Galaxy S8, but it produced an excellent 148 percent of the sRGB color gamut. When I watched the Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer on the Pixel 2's display, the golden orange around the insanely cute porg's eyes popped against its white fur, and the reflection of two clashing weapons in Captain Phasma's gleaming, silver helmet looked gorgeous.

The Pixel 2 XL's 6-inch screen sports a sharper, 2880 x 1440-pixel resolution. This panel registered a slightly lower 130 percent of the color gamut, but its colors are just about as accurate on paper. The Pixel 2 XL's display scored 0.26 on the Delta-E error test (0 is perfect), and the Pixel 2 hit 0.29.

The Pixel 2 XL's had some issues at launch. We found that there is a blue tint present on the Pixel 2 XL's panel at off-angles and that there was some graininess when viewing solid colored backgrounds. The Pixel 2 XL was also reportedly suffering from burn-in issues, with the icons at the bottom of the display staying on the screen even when they're not supposed to be present.

MORE: The Best Smartphones You Can Buy Today



Fortunately, a new update from Google provided more saturated hues via a new mode, and it should also mitigate burn-in.

The Pixel 2 XL is the phone you want to have outdoors, as it registered a higher 438 nits on our light meter, compared to just 346 nits on the Pixel 2. The Galaxy S8 notched 437 nits. The smartphone category average is 433.

Similar to the Galaxy S8 and Note 8, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL offer always-on displays, which show you the time and notifications at a glance. But the new Pixels go even further, with a Now Playing feature that can recognize music playing in the background and automatically display the title and artist.

From there, you can double tap the track to learn more about the song or to play it. It sometimes took 30 seconds or more for Now Playing to kick in, but it's not designed to replace Shazam; it's more about serendipitous discovery.

Google Lens: Amazing potential

While the cameras on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL take great-looking images, that's not what really makes the photo experience stand out. That would be Google Lens, an object-detection feature in the Camera and in Google Photos app.

With Google Lens, the Pixel 2 can recognize landmarks with ease, such as the Flatiron Building in New York City. I just snapped a photo, then tapped on the lens icon on the bottom of the screen; Google Assistant then displayed an information card on the building with info from Wikipedia.

I had mixed results when taking pictures of businesses. After I took a shot of the neon sign for Gleason's Tavern, Google Assistant gave the the star rating and a brief description of the establishment, along with its hours of operation. But Google Lens didn't recognize the sign for Dough, which is a premium donut shop.

Google Lens worked pretty well on a business card; the phone easily picked up the email address of the contact and his phone number. Last but not least, I tried photographing a Spider-Man Homecoming movie poster, and the phone returned a synopsis and rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

Google Lens will be coming to other Android phones later, but for now at least, it's a Pixel exclusive.

There's one other camera feature that's coming that I did not have a chance to test, which is AR stickers. With this perk, you'll be able to insert characters from franchises like Stranger Things and Star Wars right into your images.

Cameras and Image Quality: Great, but no iPhone 8 killer

Considering the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL sport single rear 12-megapixel cameras, you might think that they're snapping pics with one arm tied around their backs compared to dual-lens camera phones. Nope. They aren't, and that's because these phones are smart enough to offer a Portrait mode (bokeh effect) through software that works even on the phones' front 8-MP camera.



In one portrait I took of my colleague Cortney with the Pixel 2, the New York City skyline blurred into the background, but not too much  just enough for her red-orange hair, blue shirt and green jacket to pop. As I zoomed in, though, I noticed that one part of a building behind her didn't have the blur effect. It's too bad that you can't preview Portrait Mode results in real time, as you can with the iPhone 8 and Galaxy Note 8; the bokeh effect is applied after you take the shot.

In terms of overall image quality, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 Plus give the best camera phone, the iPhone 8 Plus, a run for its money. But they don't surpass it.

In this shot of the Flatiron Building, the Pixel 2's HDR+ setting brought out more details in the shadows than the iPhone 8 Plus did. The iPhone's image has a bit better contrast, but overall, the Pixel 2's image is the one I would share on Facebook or Instagram.

The iPhone 8 Plus pulled ahead with this shot of an outdoor art piece. The iPhone 8 Plus delivered a brighter image with more vibrant oranges, blues, purples and pinks.



Indoors, at the Lego store, it was a toss-up between the Pixel 2 and iPhone 8 Plus. The image of a Lego man in a top hat captured by Google's phone delivered more-realistic hues, while Apple's camera delivered a brighter image.

The iPhone 8 Plus won on this close-up of a lantana flower. The image turned out brighter than the Pixel 2 XL's shot, making it easier to tell that the sun was shining, although I could make out a great amount of detail in the leaves on both photos.



If you're an Android fan and you've been jealous of Apple's Live Photos, you'll get a kick out of the Motion photos feature on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 Plus. It captures a few seconds of video with each image and plays it back with a loop-like effect, as I noticed in one shot I took that had moving cars in the foreground.

Performance: Faster real-world speed

With the same Snapdragon 835 processor as the Galaxy S8 and the same 4GB of RAM as the Galaxy S8 and S8+, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL might be expected to offer the same performance. Actually, they're faster in real-world tasks.

On our video-editing test, in which we transcode a 2-minute 4K video clip to 1080p in the Adobe Clips app, the Pixel 2 took 2 minutes and 55 seconds, compared to 4:07 for the Galaxy S8. The Galaxy Note 8 took 3:03, and that phone packs 6GB of RAM. The Pixel 2 still wasn't nearly as fast as the iPhone 8 and its A11 Bionic chip, which needed 42 seconds.

Next, we opened up a 5.1 MB PDF file. The Pixel 2 took just 2 seconds, compared to nearly 6.41 seconds for the Galaxy Note 8. The iPhone 8 took 0.74 seconds.

The Pixel 2 didn't fare as well on synthetic benchmarks. On Geekbench 4, which measures overall performance, the Pixel 2 notched 6,282. That's a little bit behind the Galaxy S8's score (6,295) and well short of the Galaxy Note 8's showing (6,564). The iPhone 8 was in another league, at 10,170.

When performing everyday tasks, like running two apps side by side in split-screen mode, the Pixel 2 felt snappy and responsive. I played the demanding Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade game  busting up tanks with my mech  without any lag.

Battery Life: Excellent

Both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL beat their Apple and Samsung foes in endurance. On the Tom's Guide Battery Test, which involves continuous web surfing over 4G LTE (in this case on Verizon), the Pixel 2 lasted a strong 11 hours and 7 minutes. The Pixel 2 XL lasted about an hour longer, at 12:09.

These runtimes far surpass the 9:40 smartphone average, and they beat the respective times of the iPhone 8 (9:54) and iPhone 8 Plus (11:16) and the Galaxy S8 (10:39) and Galaxy S8+ (11:04).



The Pixel 2 XL easily makes our list of the longest-lasting phones. Plus, you can expect even longer battery life should you choose T-Mobile for your Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL, as we've found that phones tend to last longer on that network.

One bummer, though, is that neither the Pixel 2 nor the Pixel 2 XL supports wireless charging. You'll need to plug in a USB-C cable if you want juice. Google claims that you'll get up to 7 hours of power in just 15 minutes. On our tests, we saw the Pixel 2 get up to 19 percent capacity in just 10 minutes, reaching 39 percent by the 30-minute mark.

Android Oreo: Minor (but welcome) upgrades

It's no surprise that Google's own phones are the first to ship with the new Android Oreo software installed. The updated OS doesn't offer dramatic improvements, but there are some worthwhile new features.

The new picture-in-picture mode isn't one of them. Although you can already run two apps side by side, picture-in-picture lets you exit an app and still see a floating window of one of the supported apps, such as YouTube and Google Maps. In the case of YouTube, you need to be signed up for YouTube Red ($9.99 per month) for this feature to work. I was able to easily drag a small window of the playback window around the screen as I worked in another app, but I just didn't see it as very practical.

I found the app shortcuts feature, which is similar to the 3D Touch feature on iOS, more useful. You long press an app icon to activate various shortcuts without having to open the app; for instance, you can long press the Phone app to quickly dial one of your top three contacts, or long press the Camera app to Take a video or Take a selfie.

Similarly helpful are the notification dots. When you log press an icon that has a dot on the upper right corner, you'll see the waiting notification without having to open the app. This came in handy for the Gmail app.

With Google's new ARCore initiative, compelling augmented reality apps will be making their way to certain Android Oreo phones, such as the Galaxy S8. The apps will be hitting the Google Play store this winter.

Oreo has lots of other features, including ones under the hood to optimize performance and battery life, as well as to enable stronger security. See our full Android Oreo review along with a look at the top 21 Oreo features.

Accessories: Not your average add-ons

With a lot of phones, the accessories are an afterthought, but not with the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. The new Pixel Buds ($159) are wireless headphones that let you carry on a conversation with someone else in their native language. Leveraging Google Translate and Google Assistant, these headphones help you say phrases in any one of 40 languages, and your Pixel 2 will utter that phrase aloud so that the person you're speaking with can understand you.

(Image credit: Google Pixel Buds. Credit: Google)

I did not have an opportunity to test out the Pixel Buds yet, but I look forward to it.

Another new accessory on the way is Google Clips, a pricier $249 camera that you can attach to pretty much anything to record video of loved ones, allowing you to keep your hands free. Because it uses machine learning, the Clips camera not only knows when there's a person in the frame to take a shot, but it can also learn who your friends and family members are over time.

If you're looking to get into virtual reality, there's also a new version of the Google Daydream View headset ($99), which offers improved comfort and optics with a wider sweet spot for content and increased resolution.

Bottom Line

With the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, it's clear that Google has chosen AI as its weapon of choice to fight the smartphone war. And given the company's prowess in machine learning, this is a smart move that has paid off. I found myself using Google Assistant a lot more in just a few days than I do Siri in a whole month with the iPhone, and not just because I was testing the new Pixels. Google Assistant understood me even when I didn't utter the exact right words, and I loved being able to summon it with just a squeeze.

If you own other Google gear, such as the Google Home Mini (which you can get for free right now when you order the Pixel 2) or Chromecast, the Assistant's powers multiply. In a way, Google is starting to pull away from other Android phone makers, because the company is creating its own Apple-like walled garden. It's a more purposeful fragmentation.

The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL also benefit from faster performance than the Galaxy S8, stellar front and back cameras and long battery life. Overall, I prefer the sleeker designs and curved edge-to-edge displays on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, and the iPhone 8 Plus remains the king of camera phones. But if you want a pure Android experience, you'll love the $849 Pixel 2 XL. The Pixel 2's bezels are just way too big and it's screen too small for me to take this phone seriously, even for its relatively low $649.

Credit: Shaun Lucas/Tom's Guide


It's good news... but we shouldn't be eating tuna at all.

The worlds biggest canned tuna company, Thai Union, has finally capitulated to Greenpeaces demands. After several years of campaigning, the two adversaries have come to an agreement: Thai Union will clean up its act and start implementing measures that will improve labour practices and fishing methods.

Thai Union is responsible for 1 in five cans of tuna sold worldwide and supplies major retailers with popular brands such as Chicken of the Sea. It has a horrible track record of less-than-ethical practices, both from environmental and human rights perspectives.

In 2016 the Associated Press released a scathing (and award-winning) report that revealed slavery conditions for workers aboard fishing vessels, including those owned by Thai Union; and Greenpeace has been fighting against the companys use of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs), which are a major source of bycatch  unwanted species that are caught inadvertently and thrown back into the water, dead.

 Greenpeace

The new agreement focuses on four main areas:

1) Reducing the number of FADs by 50 percent by 2020

2) Reducing the use of longlines for fishing, which are risky to other species such as turtles, seabirds, and sharks

3) Extending a moratorium on transshipment, which is the transferring of catch to other ships, enabling enormous factory ships to stay at sea for up to 2 years

4) Improving labor standards and following a new code of conduct

Greenpeace sounds very optimistic in its press release. International Executive Director Bunny McDiarmid said:

This marks huge progress for our oceans and marine life, and for the rights of people working in the seafood industry. If Thai Union implements these reforms, it will pressure other industry players to show the same level of ambition and drive much needed change. Now is the time for other companies to step up, and show similar leadership.



While I recognize the value of these pledges, I cant help but question, Why are we even talking about this? Not to detract from Greenpeace's important work, which I respect greatly, I think that no matter what Thai Union does to improve its practices, we should not be eating tuna.

Ever since I heard someone describe tuna as the lions of the sea, it has seemed absurd to be hunting and packing this mighty, magnificent sea creature as one of the cheapest forms of protein for humans. We wouldnt sell canned lion for mere cents a can, so why do we do it for tuna?

I dont eat tuna anymore because, no matter what happy-looking stamps or certifications appear on the can, I cant justify eating such a complex, slow-growing animal.
- Three Royal Media journalists who sustained injuries following a plane crash are out of danger

- The trio sustained light injuries after the light aircraft they were in crash landed at Kibera, Nairobi soon after take off

- The pilot and co-pilot are still in hospital following serious injuries

- Both Uhuru and Raila have wished the injured quick recovery

The names of three journalists who cheated death after an aircraft they were travelling in crashed can now be revealed.

Camera man Mauritius Oduor, Citizen TV reporter Sam Ogina and Citizen Radio's Joseph Njane sustained light injuries when a ligh craft they were using to fly for a NASA rally in Kabarnet crash landed in Kibera near the Southern Bypass.

The pilot and co-pilot sustained serious injuries and are admitted in hospital.

The plane which crashed with journalists inside.

READ ALSO:

Following the chilling accident, both President Uhuru Kenyatta and NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga sent the three get well soon messages.

READ ALSO:

READ ALSO:

"His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta has learnt with shock, the news of the plane crash this afternoon of Citizen TV and Radio Citizen journalists.Just yesterday, President Kenyatta spoke to one of the journalists, Joseph Njane Gatete, in an interview at State House, Nairobi...the prayers of the President and his family are with them and he wishes them a quick recovery," said Uhuru in a statement by State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu.

Raila on the other hand said the journalists are some of the finest in the country adding that the accident was a reminder of the many struggles journalists go through in their quest to inform the public.

READ ALSO:

"We thank God for their saved lives and we assure the reporters, the Kenyan media fraternity and the Royal Media family in particular that our thoughts and prayers are with them.It is my hope and prayer that we will see Oduor, Ogina and Njane back on the campaign trail before Election Day," he added in a statement.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Only Soul Alive, other Memorable, Hilarious Phrases by William Chepkut

Former Ainabkoi Member of Parliament William Chepkut passed away on Saturday, October 8 at a Nairobi hospital. We now look at some of his memorable quotes.
- Raila has spoken of his next move should he lose the August General Election against Uhuru Kenyatta

- Raila said that the leadership of Kenya as a nation does not end with him - that Kenya will still go on without him

- If he loses to Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila will retire from active politics and will act as a political advisor should the need arise

NASA flag-bearer Raila Odinga has revealed what awaits him should he lose the August Election to Uhuru Kenyatta.

READ ALSO: Nkaissery's sons will drink blood and then smear animal fat on their bodies, details of Nkaissery's funeral rituals

Previously, Raila has not entertained the thought that NASA would lose to Jubilee. Especially after the claims that NASA has 10 million voters in its strongholds.

Raila on a tour of Murang'a county where he addressed residents of the county. Photo: Raila Odinga/Facebook

However, while speaking to NTV at an interview in his Karen home, Raila said that should he lose, he will not seek elective positions but take up a political advisory role.

"Kenya is not me, Kenya will move on with me as a leader or not, I will be around as a political advisor, " Raila told NTV.

READ ALSO: Never before seen photos of Nicholas Biwott's family, wives

A man of his many talents, Raila added that there would always be something for him to do. Being a political advisor falling within the realm of possibilities.

Raila Odinga will face off with his opponents from 2013; Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto.

Raila in Murang'a. Photo: Raila Odinga/Facebook

While campaigning recently in Murang'a, Raila expressed optimism that he is the turn-about that Kenya needs.

READ ALSO: Crowd in Thika pelts Raila's motorcade with stones and TUKO.co.ke has all the details

He explained that the current government has fleeced public coffers and taken up huge loans that will be repaid on the backs of Kenyan taxpayers.

What if Uhuru Kenyatta loses the elections? - Gatundu residents speak:

Have something to add to this article or suggestions? Send to news@tuko.co.ke

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone as a result of hostilities in Donbas over the past 24 hours.

Defense Ministry's Spokesman for ATO Andriy Lysenko stated this at a press briefing, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. No Ukrainian soldiers were killed but two servicemen were wounded as a result of the enemy shelling in Marinka in last day, he said. ish
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko thanked Ukrainian lawmakers for supporting the pension reform bill in the first reading.

"I am grateful to the Government and the Verkhovna Rada which for finally lauching the pension reform. I am glad that my proposals were heard and supported. Ukrainians deserve fair pensions," President Poroshenko wrote on his Twitter page.

On Thursday evening, Ukrainian lawmakers supported in the first reading the government bill No. 6614 on amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine on raising pensions, which is part of the package of draft laws on pension reform.

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Boryspil International Airport is resuming negotiations with Irish low-cost airline Ryanair in a new format, the airport's director general, Pavlo Riabikin, has reported on Facebook.

"I have met with representatives of the country's leading television media. Such interaction with journalists helped deeply consider urgent issues without unnecessary emotions. I'm confident that we managed to explain that in the situation with Ryanair there is no room for categorical conclusions... We are resuming negotiations with Ryanair in the format of the [Infrastructure] Ministry, Boryspil Airport and the Ukraine Investment Promotion Office," he wrote.

Riabikin added that he was "unanimous with the prime minister that low-cost companies must come to the Ukrainian market and for this purpose it is necessary to prepare the proper regulatory framework."

As earlier reported, on July 10, Irish low-cost airline Ryanair refused to launch its planned entry into the Ukrainian market as Boryspil Airport failed to fulfill an agreement, which was signed with the Infrastructure Ministry in March this year.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman instructed the Infrastructure Ministry and Boryspil Airport management to resume talks with Ryanair, as well as to involve Daniel Bilak, director of the Ukraine Investment Promotion Office, in the negotiation process.

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The Government of Ukraine plans to elaborate the targeted farmer support program by August 1.

The funds for the programs implementation are expected to be received during the next review of changes in the state budget in September-October.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman said this, speaking during an hour of questions to the Government in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"It is important to unlock and take full advantage of our potential in agriculture, live stock breeding, crop raising and processing. I have recently created a working group on the agro-industrial complex, which involves representatives of all the farmer associations. We will meet next week. We will elaborate a targeted farmer support program. I would like this program to be formed before August 1," Groysman said.

According to him, this program will cover targeted support for different types of farms.

"It is important for us to give impetus to the restoration of farming in the countryside, small farms that should become the basis of our agrarian sector. Therefore, we present an approach that will be coordinated with the farmer associations," Groysman said.

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The European Commission will allocate additional EUR 50 million for the needs of the territories adjacent to the line of demarcation in the east of Ukraine.

European Commissioner for the Euro and Social Dialogue Valdis Dombrovskis said this today during a briefing in Mariupol.

"We will continue to provide financial assistance to Ukraine, in particular in the framework of macro-financial assistance, but we will also use other forms. It has been recently decided to provide Ukraine with additional EUR 200 million, 50 million of which will be spent on the territories adjacent to the line of demarcation," Dombrovskis said.

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The situation in Ukraine was one of the main issues at a meeting between U.S. and French Presidents Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

The U.S. leader said this at a joint press conference in the French capital on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We did discuss many things today, including the ceasefire in Syria. We discussed Ukraine. We discussed a lot of different topics," Trump said.

He noted that they had also discussed new threats from North Korea, the situation in Libya and other countries, as well as challenges posed by global terrorism for security around the world. Separately, the presidents discussed the Paris climate agreement.

The U.S. president and First Lady Melanie Trump on Wednesday began an official visit to France at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron. The visit is dedicated to the national holiday in France - the Bastille Day, as well as the 100th anniversary of the participation of U.S. troops in the First World War. The U.S. president will stay in the French capital for two days.

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US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker will make another visit to Kyiv in the coming days.

Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Kostiantyn Yeliseyev said this on the air of Channel 5.

"It has been agreed that he will make another visit to Ukraine in the coming days. Of course, it [the date of the visit] will depend on his schedule as he wants to intensively enter the process of consultations both with the Ukrainian side and our partners within the Normandy format," Yeliseyev noted.

The Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine also said that the President of Ukraine and Kurt Volker had "fairly frank", "intensive and strategic" conversation, during which some innovative elements that could be used to achieve peace in Donbas had been discussed.

Yeliseyev also noted that the issue of Ukraine had united the legislative and executive branches of power in the United States.

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First Deputy Head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine Alexander Hug intends to visit Donbas.

Ukrinform learned this from the headquarters of the organization.

"Alexander Hug will visit eastern Ukraine during the period of July 16 to July 22 to assess the security situation and the situation of the civilian population and also to encourage everyone to continue working for peace and normalization of the situation in the country," the report said.

The deputy head of the OSCE SMM will visit Donetsk and Luhansk regions, meet with observers and staff of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination and other institutions. He will also join the SMM patrol mission on one of the days and visit the demarcation line.

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin believes that the possible introduction of visas with Russia will create problems for the movement of Ukrainians from the occupied territories.

He said this during an hour of questions to the government in the Verkhovna Rada on Friday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The usual introduction of visas will not give us the desired effect. On the contrary, it [the visa regime] will create significant problems, because Russia will use these problems to make provocations and conduct conscious policies on restrictions for Ukrainian citizens living in the occupied territory, in the territory of the occupied Crimea, and moving to the territory of Ukraine," the minister said.

Klimkin stressed that in this regard, on the basis of a detailed analysis, the National Security and Defense Council had decided to introduce a system for taking biometric data from foreigners and stateless persons on the border with Ukraine. According to him, this system will help effectively control movement through Ukrainian territory.

As earlier reported, on July 10, the National Security and Defense Council made the decision on the crossing of the Ukrainian border with biometric passports, as well as the mandatory collection of biometric data from citizens of other countries and stateless persons, except for the states with which Ukraine has the relevant agreements.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov said that the introduction of biometric control for foreigners at the crossing of the Ukrainian border could be completed by the end of 2017.

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A new Supreme Court, deprived of corruption, will be formed in a few weeks, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

"A new Supreme Court will be formed within two or three weeks - a court that will finally have confidence, a court that will be free of corruption, a court where every Ukrainian uses his right to justice," he said during a working visit to Ternopil on Friday.

The president expressed hope that after a respective vote in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine would see "a new, transparent, effective, professional and patriotic Supreme Court."

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Ukraine is actively preparing a memorandum within the framework of the lawsuit against Russia to submit it to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in June next year.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the Netherlands Vsevolod Chentsov said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"It may seem at the first glance that we have a significant period of time. However, if we take into account the requirements for such documents, there is really little time. The Ukrainian side has enough materials to submit and they are being actively prepared. Nevertheless, much remains to be done for careful selection of evidence, their systematization and quality presentation," the Ambassador said.

The diplomat recalled that the document would state in writing Ukraines standing on the nature of Russia's violations of its obligations under the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

As reported, March 6, the International Court of Justice in The Hague started the consideration of the lawsuit of Ukraine seeking to punish Russia for support of terrorists in eastern Ukraine and discrimination in Crimea.

April 19, the International Court of Justice in The Hague did not indicate provisional measures against Russia in accordance with the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (ICSFT) but ruled to apply provisional measures against Russia under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

Later, the Court determined the dates for submission of the memorandum by Ukraine (June 12, 2018) and the counter-memorandum by the Russian Federation (July 12, 2019).

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Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has congratulated the French people on their national holiday - Bastille Day.

The greetings have been posted on his official page on Facebook.

"I sincerely congratulate the French people on their national holiday - Bastille Day! This day is a symbol of the unity and strength of the spirit of the French people," Groysman wrote.

The prime minister wished success and prosperity to French President Emmanuel Macron and the people of France.

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UNICEF/Romenzi

BAGHDAD, 13 July 2017  Although the battle for Mosul is coming to an end, childrens deep physical and mental scars will take time to heal. Some 650,000 boys and girls, who have lived through the nightmare of violence in Mosul, have paid a terrible price and endured many horrors over the past three years.



Some children continue to suffer in the pockets of violence that persist in the old part of west Mosul. One doctor we spoke to told us that infants as young as one week old, children and mothers were emerging wounded and covered in dust and soil, some were malnourished. The toll children are paying from living for nearly ten months under heavy fighting.



In the past three days, UNICEF and its partners have seen an increase in the number of extremely vulnerable unaccompanied children arriving at medical facilities and reception areas. Some babies brought in have been found alone in the debris.



Unaccompanied infants and children who arrive at trauma centres and assembly points are immediately referred to UNICEF and other humanitarian organisations so they can be assisted and where possible reunified with their families.



The needs and the future of children must remain a top priority in the weeks and months to come. UNICEF reiterates its call on all parties to the conflict in Iraq to treat all children as children, wherever they are born, whoever they belong to. Now is the time for them to recover, overcome their trauma, reunite with their families and reclaim some of their lost childhood.



###



Notes to editors:



Photos and video assets from Mosul available for download here: http://weshare.unicef.org/Folder/2AMZIFLBU49R
Representatives of the Bunong indigenous group living in the reservoir zone of the near-complete Lower Sesan II dam have called for a planned test of the project to be postponed.

The dam, a joint venture between Cambodias Royal Group and Chinas HydroLancang International, is scheduled to be tested on Saturday, reportedly flooding an area where villagers have refused to leave.

Choeun Sreymom, a Kbal Romeas community representative, called on the authorities to give villagers one month to remove their possessions before testing took place.

Two communities of some several hundred people, Kbal Romeas and Srekor, have refused compensation offers and remain in the reservoir zone.

Duong Pov, Stung Treng deputy governor, said there would be no delay in the testing process, saying the villagers had already been offered relocation sites. There will be a problem if they want to move to a safe place when the water floods their area. Thats their choice, he said, adding that government aid would be provided to residents if needed.

Sreymom said that villagers would move temporarily but that it should not be construed as an acceptance of compensation.

The indigenous minority people have collective land, burial sites, land for rotational farming, orchards. So when the authorities give us five hectares per family, there will be no more collective ownership, she said.

The $800 million Lower Sesan II dam will produce up to 400 megawatts of electricity.

Pov said that Prime Minister Hun Sen would inaugurate the project in September and the armed forces would be guarding the dam against sabotage.

Dam Samnang, another Kbal Romeas representative, said villagers would protect their ancestors burial grounds. We are also human beings. I want to protect the identity of my indigenous minority people.
Researchers have said governments in the Mekong region should consider alternatives to large hydropower dams, including renewable energy.

A new report by the Stimson Center, titled Mekong Power Shift: Emerging Trends in the GMS Power Sector, contends that a policy shift in the region is needed to deal with the environmental and social fallout of large-scale hydropower development.

The area we try to impact is the policy level. To change the way that the policymakers think about the future of the Mekong basin. We try to steer the thinking away from hydropower, said Brian Eyler, director and senior associate with the Southeast Asia program at the Stimson Center.

Laos is preparing to build a new dam on the Mekong, the Pak Beng, which research suggests will have significant negative impacts downstream.

This will have devastating impacts on Cambodian fisheries and the Vietnam Mekong Delta, he added.

Laos two other major hydropower projects, the Xayaburi and Don Sahong, have become a major concern for environmentalists and downstream communities who rely on the river ecosystem.

International Rivers, an NGO, has said that the eight planned Mekong dams in Southeast Asia could threaten the future of the ecosystem on which millions depend.

The dams might be okay, but what about solar power? What about wind power in Laos? There are other ways to substitute and replace forms of energy generation, Eyler said.

Courtney Weatherby, a research associate at the Stimson Center and co-author of the report, said governments had the opportunity to cancel some of the more damaging projects and replace them with energy efficient, renewable alternatives.

The report suggests Laos and Cambodia should form a new power development plan that not only examines the business-as-usual scenario of proposed projects but also considers a variety of alternative economically feasible development scenarios for the coming decade."

This alternative scenario consideration will be a key enabler for policy-makers who want to quickly adjust to market changes that could impact the economic competitiveness and long-term feasibility of existing plans, it said.

It adds that multilateral financial institutions should prioritize solar and wind power projects in developing countries.

Daovong Phonekeo, the permanent secretary of Laos Ministry of Energy, said hydropower dams were the most sensible solution to the countrys energy woes.

This is about the economy. First we must build the economy. You have to think of your country, he said.

Sao Sopheap, Cambodian environment spokesman, said each country had its own interests to consider when energy production was concerned. Thats why we need a clear environmental impact assessment, he said.

He added that the Cambodian government had established a team of experts to assess the feasibility of financing renewable energy alternatives.

If the countries with this modern technology share it with developing countries and the price is low, we are happy to use it, he said.

Cambodias first large solar farm, built in Svay Rieng province by a Singaporean firm, is due to go online in August.

According to official figures, about half of the countrys energy needs are currently met by hydropower, while almost a fifth is still imported from neighboring countries.

Tek Vannara, executive director of the NGO Forum on Cambodia, said renewable energy solutions were the better choice for the environment, a sentiment echoed by Maureen Harris, Southeast Asia director at International Rivers, who urged the Mekong River Commission to consider the alternatives.

The stakes for the Mekong and the people of the region are too high to get it wrong on Mekong dams, she said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has wrapped up a visit to France, where he was the guest of honor Friday at this years Bastille Day celebrations and commemorations. It also marked the centennial of Americas entry into World War One. For France, hosting Trump was deeply symbolic at a time when Western European leaders are increasingly alarmed at what they perceive as the U.S. administration's isolationist and protectionist tendencies. VOA Europe Correspondent Luis Ramirez reports.
U.S. officials and dozens of their global partners wrapped up three days of meetings this week on how to intensify global pressure against Islamic State militants. Members of the 72-nation anti-IS coalition gathered in Washington this week, just days after as Iraq declared victory over the extremists in Mosul after months of battle. Experts are looking toward rebuilding and stabilizing areas the militants once controlled. VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching has more.
U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Smith said at a hearing Friday that the death of Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo was a "catastrophic loss for China, and really, the entire world."

Smith described China's imprisonment of Liu in 2009 as a "death sentence" and said China's role in his death should not be forgotten.

"No nation should be judged entirely by crimes of the past, but this crime, the death and silencing of Liu Xiaobo, should follow the Chinese Communist Party like an unwashable permanent stain," Smith said.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce issued a statement Friday saying Liu efforts to promote democracy "were not in vain."

"His sacrifice and death while in the custody of the Chinese government while serving an unjustified 11-year sentence has shined a light on the sad state of human rights in China," Royce said.

Chinese dissident and Initiatives for China President Yang Jianli testified at the hearing that Liu "faced one of the most evil and most inhumane regimes in the history of mankind" and added "the Chinese Communist regime is responsible for Liu Xiaobos worsening health and for his death."

Yang, who resides in the U.S., accused Western nations of adopting an "appeasement policy" to address China's human rights abuses, in effect making them "accomplices of Liu Xiaobo's slow murder."

Yang warned if world leaders continue to "acquiesce" to China,"more human rights activists will languish and disappear in Chinese prisons."

The subcommittee hearing, titled "The Tragic Case of Liu Xiaobo," comes hours after Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu in 2010 was "blasphemy."

"Conferring the prize to such a person goes against the purposes of this award. It's a blasphemy of the peace prize," Geng said.

Liu, China's best-known human rights prisoner, died Thursday at age 61 following a high-profile battle with liver cancer that made his death as controversial as his life.

He spent his last eight years as a prisoner of conscience and died at a hospital in Shenyang, China, where he had been moved from his prison cell in the final stage of his illness. The judicial bureau in Shenyang announced the cause of death as "multiple organ failure."

Thursday, President Donald Trump was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Liu, a White House statement released Thursday said.

"The Presidents heartfelt condolences go out to Liu Xiaobos wife, Liu Xia, and his family and friends," the statement said.

U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad said, "China has lost a deeply principled role model who deserved our respect and adulation, not the prison sentences to which he was subjected."

The leader of the Norwegian Nobel committee said the Chinese government bore a "heavy responsibility" for his death. "We find it deeply disturbing that Liu Xiaobo was not transferred to a facility where he could receive adequate medical treatment before he became terminally ill," said Berit Reiss-Andersen. "The Chinese Government bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death," she said in an emailed statement.

China has lodged complaints against Germany, France, the U.S. and the United Nations human rights high commissioner over criticism about the handling ofLiu's death.

Foreign ministry spokesman Geng blasted "certain countries" for interfering in China's "judicial sovereignty."

"China is a country under the rule of law. The handling of Liu Xiaobo's case belongs to China's internal affairs, and foreign countries are in no position to make improper remarks," Geng said.

The ruling Communist Party newspaper said Liu liveda "tragic life." The Global Times said, "Lui's last days were politicized by the forces overseas. They used Liu's illness as a tool to boost their image and demonize China."

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called for Chinato release Liu's widow from house arrest. "I call on the Chinese government to release Liu Xia from house arrest and allow her to depart China, according to her wishes."

"Even as Liu Xiaobo's illness worsened, the Chinese government continued to isolate him and his family, and denied him freely choosing his medical treatment," said Sophie Richardson, China director of Human Rights Watch. "The Chinese government's arrogance, cruelty, and callousness are shocking - but Liu's struggle for a rights-respecting Democratic China will live on."
Corruption is undermining all efforts to rebuild Ukraine in line with European Union norms, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday, as President Petro Poroshenko vowed to pursue ever-closer integration with the bloc.

Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk were in Kyiv for a 24-hour summit with Poroshenko following the final ratification of a new trade pact that has angered Russia.

What we are asking ... is to increase the fight against corruption, because corruption is undermining all the efforts this great nation is undertaking, Juncker said at a joint briefing. We remain very concerned.

The criticism suggests the EU delegation may have taken a tougher-than-expected line in talks forecast to be largely upbeat after the confirmation on Tuesday of an association agreement for closer political and trade ties.

Seven conditions still in works

Separately, European Commission Vice president Valdis Dombrovskis said Kyiv had a shrinking window to meet 21 conditions to unlock 600 million euros ($684 million) of further financial assistance from the EU, of which seven are outstanding.

These conditions include making sure that a landmark reform forcing officials to declare their assets online is properly implemented, and Kyiv lifting a ban on wood exports.

What we are emphasizing currently is that we have quite limited time, Dombrovskis told reporters. So all the conditions need to be implemented already in October ... because the macrofinancial assistance program ends on Jan. 4 next year.

Reforms lead to investments

The pro-Western government in Kyiv has sought to boost EU relations since the ousting of a Moscow-backed president in 2014, implementing reforms in exchange for billions of dollars in aid and a new visa-free travel deal with the European Union.

But Ukraine's allies have repeatedly expressed concern that vested interests and corrupt practices remain entrenched, partly due to weak rule of law.

The European Union and the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine's main financial backer, have called for the creation of a specialized anti-corruption court, but Juncker said a new solution had been agreed at the summit.

Today we agreed that if Ukraine establishes ... a special chamber devoted to this issue, that will be enough, he said.

EU membership remains far off

Mykhailo Zhernakov, a judicial expert at the non-governmental coalition Reanimation Package of Reforms, said the agreement would be a disappointment to those campaigning for greater accountability.

There's no way that a chamber in any court will be as independent as a separate court, he told Reuters. It's not going to help.

While full EU membership for Ukraine remains far off, Poroshenko stressed that Kyiv hopes to integrate further by joining the customs union and becoming a member of the bloc's Schengen open-border zone.

As early as today, it's important to start developing a roadmap to the realization of our dreams, he said.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One that the "media witch hunt" linking his 2016 presidential campaign to Russia was "bad for the country," because "there's no collusion, there's no obstruction, there's no nothing."

Trump accused Democrats of playing "their card too hard on the Russia thing, because people aren't believing it," especially in making accusations of treason.

"When they say 'treason'  you know what treason is? That's Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for giving the atomic bomb [to the Russians], OK?" the president said.

Trump, during a one-hour conversation on his plane as it flew to France, defended face-to-face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he met last week in Germany, because of mutual interests concerning Syria and other geopolitical issues.

"If you don't have dialogue, you have to be fools," Trump said. "Let's be the smart people, not the stupid people."

Question for Putin

Trump said he wanted to ask Putin, at their next meeting, whom the Russian leader really wanted to win last year's U.S. presidential election, "because I can't believe that he would have been for me." Trump contended that his stances on defense and energy policy were more detrimental to Moscow's interests than those of his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The president, when asked about sanctions in place against Russia and whether he might relax them  despite opposition in Congress to doing that  replied that the United States has "very heavy sanctions on Russia right now. I would not and have never even thought about taking them off."

Trump denied that Putin had raised the issue during their discussions at the Group of 20 meeting in Hamburg.

He said he was willing to invite Putin to the White House, but "I don't think this is the right time. But the answer is, yes, I would."

Trump's conversation on the plane was initially deemed to be off the record, but on Thursday in Paris he queried one of the reporters from the flight about why his comments had not been published.

In the exchange with New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, in the office of French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump "asked if I had heard him say it could be on-record," she recounted in a pool report.

"Your pooler replied truthfully, 'no' (co-poolers also were not under the impression it was on-record, since Sarah Huckabee Sanders had declared it off-record)," Haberman wrote.

Excerpts released

After that exchange, Sanders, the primary deputy White House press secretary, told reporters traveling with the president that excerpts of the Air Force One conversation would be released. A transcript, in excess of 3,500 words, was sent to reporters Thursday afternoon, detailing the wide-ranging conversation.

Some of what the president said about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting in June 2016 with a Russian lawyer reflected what the president had said in two interviews Wednesday and at his news conference with Macron on Thursday.

"Honestly, in a world of politics, most people are going to take that meeting," Trump said, according to the White House transcript.

Both the senior and junior Trumps have been criticized by people on both sides of the political aisle for asserting it is not a problem to accept an offer of derogatory information from a foreign government on a political opponent.

Trump told the reporters on the flight that twice he asked Putin whether the Russian government interfered in last year's presidential election.

"He said absolutely not, twice," according to Trump. "What do you do? End up in a fistfight with somebody?"

Trump also had blunt words about U.S. trade deficits with China and South Korea.

"We are being absolutely devastated by bad trade deals," he said. "We have the worst of all trade deals with China. We have a bad deal with South Korea. We're just starting negotiations [to modify the free trade agreement] with South Korea."

Trade negotiations

Trump also linked trade negotiations to his push to have Beijing increase pressure on Pyongyang because of the fast-developing North Korean ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.

"In terms of North Korea, our strength is trade [with China]," he said. "You make reciprocal deals, you're talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. But before I did that I wanted to give it a good shot."

Trump, when queried by a reporter about retaliatory action against Beijing for dumping of Chinese steel onto the U.S. market, replied that "there are two ways  quotas and tariffs. Maybe I'll do both."

He also told the journalists that his previous remark about placing solar panels on his proposed border wall with Mexico was no joke.

"We have major companies looking at that," Trump said. "Look, there's no better place for solar than the Mexico border  the Southern border. And there is a very good chance we can do a solar wall, which would actually look good."

Because of the presence of natural barriers, Trump said, the solar wall would need to span only 700 to 900 miles (1,127 to 1,448 kilometers) to be effective in halting illegal migration.
Five countries in East Africa face dire food insecurity after a third poor rainy season in a row, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday.

Areas in five countries - Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda - received less than half of their normal seasonal rainfall.

"The current phenomenon encompasses an area of about 1 million square kilometers, which is roughly twice the size of France," FAO economist Alessandro Costantino told VOA's Africa division.

The extended drought along with a pest called an armyworm has drastically reduced crop yields, leaving millions in East Africa without enough food.

"About 16 million people are estimated to be food insecure in these countries and food insecurity actually increased by one third in the last six months," he said, adding that in Somalia alone, the food insecure case load tripled in the last 12 months.

Besides the widespread loss of crops, livestock herds have been decimated, causing milk production to plummet, further adding to food insecurity.

The U.N. agency says rangeland and livestock conditions are expected to continue deteriorating at least until October, when the next rainy season is due.
"If they are in Raqqa, they're gonna die in Raqqa."

America's top envoy to the coalition battling the Islamic State, Brett McGurk, declared last month open season on the terror group's foreign recruits in the besieged northern Syrian city.

More than 2000 IS militants are believed still to be fighting in Raqqa, many of them thought to be foreigners from North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. But even after the Islamic militants are defeated in the coming weeks in their self-styled Syrian capital, the terror group still will have an estimated 13,000 or so fighters in Syria and Iraq, posing a remaining threat in the Levant, warn U.S. officials and independent analysts.

They expect the terror group to revert back, in the words of analyst Bruce Hoffman, to its "fundamental DNA" as "a terrorist-cum-insurgent group, not a proto-state exercising sovereignty." Most of the leadership hasn't stood to fight in Raqqa, as it didn't in Mosul, fleeing both cities to set up in remoter territory and smaller towns along the Syrian-Iraq border in the Euphrates River Valley and Iraq's western Anbar province.

Defeated, not eradicated

IS hopes to emulate its precursor jihadist organizations, which were able to weather military defeats inflicted on them by U.S. forces during the 2007-08 surge in Iraq.

IS's official spokesman, Abu Mohammad al Adnani, before his death in a targeted drone strike last year, referenced the strategy in an audio-message to followers, referencing the 2007 U.S. Surge, saying: "Were we defeated when we lost the cities in Iraq and were in the desert without any city or land? It is the same, whether Allah blesses us with consolidation or we move into the bare, open desert, displaced and pursued."

Analysts expect IS to exploit strategic depth in rugged territory both in west and east Iraq  including the Jalam desert east of Samarra and in the Hamrin mountains  to launch hit-and-run attacks from villages and hideouts on government forces, as the group began to do in April.

Whether it can hang on will likely depend on two key factors  the effectiveness of anti-IS security forces on both sides of the border and the attitude of the locals. Heavy-handed counter-insurgency operations, along with revenge killings and sectarian-based governance, risk feeding into the Sunni disaffection that gave rise to IS in the first place, breeding yet more new recruits for the terror group and giving it a chance to recover and reconstitute itself.

Stability is key

Analysts worry that neither Baghdad nor Washington have developed coherent stabilization plans involving transitional justice and inclusive governance ready for Mosul and other towns grabbed back from IS.

"We should be concerned about the lack of stabilization plans for territory from which ISIS is expelled," says Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a counter-terrorism analyst with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank. "We are in grave danger of once again winning the war but losing the peace. Absent stabilization plans... well, we've seen this movie before. In addition, the U.S. should take steps to counter atrocities that Iranian-backed forces, including the popular mobilization committees that have been a part of the anti-ISIS offensive, may commit against Sunni civilians," he adds.

In northern Syria, Washington would appear to be adopting more of a hands-off off approach when it comes to civilian affairs in Raqqa once the U.S.-backed Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, have secured the city. In an email, a spokesman for Central Command, or CENTCOM, said: "When ISIS has been defeated in Raqqa, authority will rest with the Raqqa Civilian Council and security will be maintained by the Raqqa Internal Security Force."

When asked whether U.S. authorities have discussed the treatment of IS suspects, the CENTCOM response was: "Detainees are handled by local authorities." But it added: "The Coalition supports the laws of armed conflict and works hard in training to ensure partner forces are aware of and understand the requirement for a professional fighting force to abide with these laws."

Violations are already being alleged, as VOA reported earlier this week, with some locals saying they are confronted by an immediate assumption that they must be IS members or sympathizers as they remained in the city under militant rule.

In Iraq, rights groups have already documented revenge killings by some Iranian-influenced Shi'ite militias. And a recent video of brutal Iraqi interrogation methods of suspect militants in Mosul is adding to the alarm of rights groups. On both sides of the border, IS will be quick capitalize on Sunni grievances.

Which is the top terrorist group?

"Outside of the Syria-Iraq theater, expect the group to try to continue to demonstrate that it is the foremost jihadist terrorist organization," says Gartenstein-Ross. "Terrorist attacks across the globe demonstrate its potency, relevance, and in ISIS's estimation are likely to draw more recruits to its cause," he adds.

Like rival al-Qaida before, IS has established affiliates elsewhere in the Mideast and North Africa, notably in Libya and Egypt, readying for a long war. Last year, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi assured his followers in a rare audio message that the group would defeat efforts to oust it from its major population centers in Syria and Iraq but appeared to be preparing for their eventual loss by urging foreign recruits to migrate to the affiliates.

Whether IS once its caliphate has been crushed and its nation-building pretensions shattered remains as alluring for militant recruits is one of the big questions.

The caliphate ambitions marked it out as different from al-Qaida, allowing it to boast that it had gone one better than Osama bin Laden. Aside from doctrinal objections, al-Qaida strategists opposed the establishment of the caliphate from the beginning because tactically they calculated its foes would quickly invade and crush it, as is happening.

Now al-Qaida will likely seek to demonstrate that it and not IS is the foremost global jihadist group and has already been grooming, some analysts argue, bin Laden's 28-year-old son Hamza as a figurehead leader, featuring him in four recent propaganda videos for the group.
European Union chief Donald Tusk says Serbia needs to stick to good governance and anti-corruption reforms as part of its drive to become an EU member, but couldn't promise a fixed timeframe for joining.

After talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday, Tusk said that any timing will depend on how fast Belgrade can push through reforms.

Tusk said, however, that the ultimate goal was clear with ``the end game of the dialogue and Serbia's reform efforts is full membership.''

Vucic acknowledged that for the time being, with the EU still regrouping in the wake of Britain's decision to leave the bloc, "it is not possible to get an exact date."

Serbia started its accession talks three years ago.
A recently arrived species of armyworm has spread to 21 African countries and threatens the continent's main food staple, maize, report experts from the U.S. Agency for International Development.



USAID senior biotechnology advisor Joseph Huesing says the fall armyworms -- transported from their usual habitat in the U.S. state of Florida or the Caribbean -- are attacking maize crops all over sub-Saharan Africa.



"From Nigeria and Ghana all the way to South Africa to Ethiopia. The most recent one is South Sudan, which reported fall armyworm infestation toward the end of June," Huesing tells VOA's Horn of Africa service.



Fall armyworms pose a big threat to the continent's agriculture, says Huesing. When they invade a maize field, he says, the pests can eat 30 percent or more of the crop.

They consume other crops too. We assume that anywhere there is a green plant or maize in Africa, fall armyworms will show up in a short period of time," Huesing says.





Challenge to Control



Fall armyworms got their name from the time of year when they do the most damage in the northern part of the United States. The first publication describing their presence in Africa came out in early 2016, which suggests the pests had already been there for a year.



For several reasons, the fall armyworms may pose more problems for farmers than the indigenous African armyworm.



Fall armyworms can breed continuously under warm and humid tropical conditions and can feed off more than more than 80 species in 27 plant families, says Yene Belayneh, senior technical advisor for pests and pesticides at the USAID.



When they assume their adult form as a moth, fall armyworms can fly up to 100 kilometers per day if pushed by winds, or much longer if the pests hitch a ride on a jet.



If there is an outbreak for example in Ethiopia, alerting Sudan or Eritrea would be a wise thing, he says.



In fact, there is an outbreak in Ethiopia. The country's Plant Protection Directorate said that as of July 10, fall armyworms have infested more than 440,000 hectares of crops. It said that about 305,000 hectares had been protected, either through "cultural means," such as picking up the pests by hand and crushing them, or chemical spraying.

Harder to detect



But spraying may be less effective with the new invaders than with indigenous armyworms. The fall armyworm "penetrates the plant and feeds from inside," says Belayneh, making it harder to detect and harder to kill.



The species is vulnerable to freezing temperatures, but those happen rarely if ever in much of Africa.



Regina Eddy heads the USAID's armyworm response team. She says her departments priority is to provide training and technical options, taking Brazil as a model. Brazil spends an estimated $600 million per year to control armyworms, according to a recent USAID report.



One control measure experts are taking is to more carefully inspect food arriving at African airports. The fall armyworms may have arrived on the continent through a food shipment from abroad.



Eddy says the fall armyworm is not causing a crisis yet. For now the infestation is relatively at an early point, and we havent seen widespread food insecurity as a result of crop loss from the fall armyworms, and experts are on the fields assessing, she says.



But Belayneh says no one is taking the situation lightly. Africans are used to coping with the native armyworms, he says, whereas with this new species, everybody is trying to find out the best options to prevent, control and manage."
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was treated at a hospital in Canada Thursday after becoming dehydrated while helping to build houses for Habitat for Humanity, a charity he has championed for more than 30 years.

President Carter has been working hard all week. He was dehydrated working in the hot sun, Habitat for Humanity CEO Jonathan Reckford said in a statement. President Carter told us he is OK and is being taken off-site for observation. He encourages everyone to stay hydrated and keep building.

Carter had been working for about 90 minutes when he went to sit down in a chair, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. He appeared to wobble, so Secret Service agents led him to his motorcade. He was treated by paramedics who took him away in an ambulance, the newspaper said, to a hospital in Winnipeg as a precaution, for rehydration.

The 92-year-old statesman, the 39th president of the United States, was in the White House from 1977-81. He has been treated for cancer since 2015, when he underwent surgery to remove a small mass on his liver; the cancer was found to be melanoma, and was in his brain as well as his liver.

Carter took a course of immunotherapy, using a drug that adjusts the bodys immune system to attack cancer cells, and radiation therapy, and he was pronounced cancer-free four months after the initial diagnosis. He has remained cancer-free and traveled to Washington for President Donald Trumps inauguration in January, becoming the oldest ex-president to attend the quadrennial swearing-in ceremony.

Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were in Canada this week, working with Habitat for Humanity to help build 150 homes in honor of the countrys 150th anniversary. The international nonprofit group, devoted to building simple, decent and affordable housing, is based in Atlanta, where it was founded in 1976.

Since they began working with the nongovernmental group, the Carters have had a hand in the building, renovation and repair of more than 4,000 homes, according to Habitat for Humanitys website.
U.S. President Donald Trump was the guest of honor Friday at Frances Bastille Day celebrations, an elaborate display that included military bands, flyovers by American jet fighters, and a parade that lasted more than two hours to mark the centennial of the U.S. entry into the First World War.



The American flag flew along with the French flag on Paris famed Champs Elysees, where U.S. troops marched in a parade with thousands of French soldiers, tanks, missile launchers, and armored personnel carriers.



More than 3,500 police took positions along the parade route to guard against potential terrorist attacks.

"We have also found sure allies, friends, who came to help us," Macron said."The United States of America are among them. This is why nothing will separate us, never.The presence today of the U.S. president, Donald Trump, and his wife is the sign of a friendship that lasts through time."

WATCH: Having Trump at Bastille Day Deeply Symbolic

In saying goodbye Friday, the Trumps, President Macron and his wife, Brigitte, walked together before Macron took Trump's hand and shook it firmly for several seconds -- in what has appeared to become a tradition for the two men.President Trump and first lady Melania Trump then went by motorcade to Orly Airport, where they boarded Air Force One for their flight to their next stop in New Jersey.



The celebrations in Paris came one year after a truck attack in the Mediterranean city of Nice killed 86 people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

Agreement on counterterrorism

Counterterrorism was a central point when Trump met with Macron a day earlier, in an agenda that was otherwise marked with differences including on issues of climate change and trade.



In an atmosphere where French and other western European leaders are alarmed by what they perceive as Trumps isolationist and protectionist tendencies, Macron worked to play up the things that he and the U.S. administration have in common. The fight against terrorism topped that list.



After their discussions on Thursday, the French leader said the proper answer to terrorism is to strengthen cooperation between the two countries and sustain a never-ending fight against terrorists no matter where they are.



In this respect, Macron said, there is no difference and no gap between the French and the American positions.

Symbolic guest of honor

Having President Trump as the guest of honor for the commemoration on Frances National Day is deeply symbolic and a sign that France and Europe need Americas engagement as much as ever.



France on July 14 marks the 1789 storming by rebels of the Bastille prison in Paris, an event that signaled the start of the French Revolution.



This year, leaders coupled the festivities with the 100th anniversary of the U.S. decision to enter the First World War. The U.S. Congress declaration of war happened on April 6, 1917, but the anniversary is the subject of yearlong celebrations in France.



The United States entered the war against the Central Powers of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria almost three years after it started and participated for only 19 months. However, Washingtons economic help and manpower helped the allies win a war they, broke and overstretched, could have easily lost.



Many people in America had opposed involvement in the war, causing the administration of then-President Woodrow Wilson to hesitate. Wilson ran for reelection in 1916 on the premise that he had kept the U.S. out of the war, but called for a declaration of war once he was reelected.

Watch: Trump, Macron Work to Bridge Differences, But No Promises on Climate

Hoping Trump will change positions

Analysts say Frances new leaders hope that by engaging President Trump, they can influence him to change positions on issues like climate change and steer him away from perceived protectionist measures like the tariffs he has threatened to slap on steel imports that could hurt EU members like Germany.



Hours before Macron met with President Trump on Thursday, he had consulted with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who paid a quick visit to Paris as Trump was arriving in the city.



After his discussions with Macron, President Trump gave indications that he might change his thinking on his decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord.



Something could happen with respect to the Paris Accord. We'll see what happens. But we will talk about that over the coming period of time. And if it happens, that will be wonderful, the U.S. leader told reporters Thursday. And if it doesnt, that will be okay, too, he said.
The electricity supply to Gazas 2 million residents has dropped to unprecedented lows, with blackouts lasting for more than 24 hours, the territorys power distribution company said Thursday, prompting fears of a humanitarian and environmental crisis.

The Palestinian enclave needs at least 400 megawatts of power a day, but only 70 megawatts were available as of late Wednesday, when Gazas power plant shut down after fuel shipments from Egypt were interrupted following a militant attack last week.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said the power cuts have caused a rapid deterioration in basic services, especially health and environmental services, including water and sewage draining.

The coastal strip had been experiencing the worst electricity shortage in years, limiting Gazans to about four hours of electricity per day.

Abbas asks Israel to cut shipments

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently asked Israel, the main provider of power to Gaza, to cut shipments as a way of pressuring the Islamic militant group Hamas, which seized power in Gaza a decade ago.

Several neighborhoods were without electricity for more than 24 hours Thursday.

Late Thursday, Hamas said 27 Egyptian trucks with 1.5 million liters of diesel entered Gaza for the power plant. It was unclear when operations would resume.

Diesel fuel from neighboring Egypt had kept the station running at half capacity since June 21, but deliveries were interrupted after a deadly attack on Egyptian soldiers last week near the border. Gazas power station has low storage capacity, and requires new fuel shipments on an almost daily basis.

Abbas pressures Hamas

Abbas has tried to squeeze Hamas financially in recent months, hoping to force it to cede power. He slashed salaries of his employees there, stopped payments for ex-prisoners and reinstated heavy taxes on the power plants fuel.

Palestinians have been split since 2007, with Hamas ruling Gaza and Abbas governing parts of the West Bank. Repeated reconciliation attempts have failed.

The Egyptian diesel shipments were facilitated by Mohammed Dahlan, a former leading figure in Abbas Fatah movement who fell out with the Palestinian president in 2010, went into exile and has since forged strong ties with the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
A Guatemalan judge has issued arrest warrants for a former ambassador to the United States and another top ex-official in connection with a wide-ranging graft investigation.

A U.N. anti-corruption commission and Guatemalan prosecutors allege that former Ambassador Julio Ligorria was linked to a scheme that involved construction contracts.

Those involved in the scheme also allegedly funneled illegal political contributions to the party of former President Otto Perez Molina.

The commission said Friday that a warrant also has been issued for former Communications Minister Alejandro Sinibaldi, who also served under Perez Molina.

Ligorria and Sinibaldi have not been arrested and it is unknown if they have retained lawyers.

Perez Molina resigned in 2015 amid revelations of a corruption and fraud network. He is in prison on trial and denies the accusations.
Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a security vehicle Friday killing five policemen just a short distance from some of Egypt's oldest pyramids in Giza, officials said.

The shooting in the early hours of the morning took place in the village of Abusir in Badrashin, part of Greater Cairo, and the slain policemen were part of the force tasked to guard the district of Saqqara, one of Egypt's most popular tourist sites and host to a collection of temples, tombs and funerary complexes.

Authorities cordoned off the area and ambulances rushed to the site of the attack, which is located near the famous Step Pyramid of King Djoser. It is the oldest of Egypt's more than 90 pyramids and the forerunner of the more familiar straight-sided pyramids in Giza on the outskirts of Cairo.

Attackers stole the weapons and radios of the victims and tried to set fire to the bodies but fled upon seeing people gathering nearby, witnesses said.

The Interior Ministry said that the militants sprayed the policemen's vehicle with bullets from machine guns as the security force was on the move to patrol the surroundings. They fled after one policeman returned gunfire, the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier, officials said that the attackers were masked and that they targeted a checkpoint.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The attack comes a week after Islamic militants killed 23 army personnel in Sinai Peninsula. Egypt has been under a state of emergency since April after suicide bombers struck two churches north of Cairo, killing scores of Christians.

Insurgents have carried out a number of attacks in Egypt since the 2013 military ouster of an elected Islamist president. The violence has been concentrated in the northern Sinai Peninsula, but attacks spread in the mainland, including in the capital where suicide bombers have struck churches and security headquarters.

The Islamic State group affiliate has claimed responsibility for major attacks. However, a shadowy group called Hasm, or "Decisiveness," which the government suspects is linked to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, has claimed responsibility for similar drive-by shootings and attacks targeting police, military, judges and pro-government figures.

The brotherhood won a series of elections in Egypt following the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, and Mohammed Morsi, a senior Brotherhood leader, became Egypt's first freely elected president the following year. His brief rule proved divisive, and the military overthrew him in 2013. Authorities outlawed the Brotherhood a few months later, declaring it a terrorist group.

Last Friday, IS claimed responsibility for a stunning attack on a remote Egyptian army outpost in the Sinai Peninsula with a suicide car bomb and heavy machine gun fire Friday, killing at least 23 soldiers. It was the deadliest attack in the turbulent region in two years. On the same day, Hasm claimed responsibility for shooting and killing a policeman as he was heading for Friday prayers.

Over the past days, the government announced killings of members of Hasm in alleged shootouts with security forces. In previous incidents, families of the slain suspects challenged authorities' accounts and accuse them of illegal detentions, torture, and executions of their beloved ones. Last week, Hasm accused authorities of killing its detained members and vowed to continue its attacks on security forces.

While Hasm distances itself from attacking Egypt's Christians, the IS affiliate has concentrated its campaign on Coptic Christians, calling them the group's "favorite prey" and over the past months, suicide bombers struck three churches and a bus carrying Coptic Christians killing more than 100 people. Egypt's Christians account for about 10 percent of the country's 93 million people and extremists use Christians' support for the military ouster of Morsi as a justification for attacks.

The attacks prompted the Egyptian churches to suspend religious festivals and group tours for the remainder after authorities warned them about possible attacks by Islamic militants. Troops backed by armored vehicles and snipers would be deployed outside monasteries hosting major religious festivals in coming weeks. At least two of these festivals will take place in Assiut, home to a sizeable Christian community. In addition to the major suicide bombings, militants have forced displacement of scores of Christian families in northern Sinai after a spate of shootings.
U.S. authorities sent home about 100 Haitian immigrants discovered on a rickety boat this week, the most found at sea in more than a year and a sign of more people likely to flee the impoverished island, advocates said Thursday.

Haitians are struggling to survive a homeland devastated by natural disasters and disease, and the situation could worsen if U.S. officials return home more than 50,000 Haitians in the United States on temporary visas, they said.

Special immigration status

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has cast uncertainty over whether to extend a special immigration status that has been granted to Haitians since a 2010 earthquake.

The Haitians in the United States send money, or remittances, home to families that rely on them heavily, said Steven Forester, a spokesman for the Boston-based Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH).

Haiti is in no condition to both deal with the overwhelming challenges of the disasters that have struck ... much less to replace the remittances they send back to support hundreds of thousands of family members, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Haitians take to the sea

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was hit hard in October by Hurricane Matthew. The storm left about 1.4 million people in need of assistance and resurrected a deadly cholera outbreak. The country also has faced huge problems trying to rebuild.

A growing number of Haitians are likely to be willing to undertake the dangerous journey by sea or land to flee, advocates say.

The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted 102 Haitian migrants crowded on a rickety sailboat about 20 miles (35 kms) south of Great Inagua, Bahamas and sent them home Wednesday.

The Coast Guard in a statement said it was the largest such interdiction in more than a year.

The Caribbean and Florida Straits are dangerous and unforgiving for migrants on illegal and ill-advised voyages in overloaded vessels, said Jason Ryan, chief of response for the Seventh Coast Guard District.

Always expect migration

U.S. immigration officials said in May that Haitis special status designation would be extended for six months rather than the usual 18 months.

While sending Haitians back could worsen conditions, residents of the island nation will try to leave as long as they have few economic opportunities at home, said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at New York University School of Law.

We should always expect migration pressure from Haiti, Chishti told the Foundation.

More than 9,000 Haitians have been found trying to enter the United States along its southwest border with Mexico so far in the current fiscal year, compared with about 300 in 2015, according to U.S. government statistics.
A House of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee has advanced a spending bill that would cut the State Department's 2018 fiscal budget by 14 percent compared to this year's budget.

The proposed cuts are less than the 37 percent cut over several years proposed in the Trump administration's budget.

Ahead of Tuesday's mark-up, Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, a Republican, encouraged support for the $47.4 billion dollar budget, which includes funding for the State Department and Overseas Contingency Operations.

"This bill will target funding to where it's needed the most, ensure U.S. dollars are being put to good use to expand democracy and peace, and provide critical humanitarian assistance in war-torn, disaster-affected, and impoverished areas or the world," Frelinghuysen said.

State and Foreign Operations subcommittee Chairman Hal Rogers, also a Republican, asked other members of the panel to support the bill.

"This bill strikes the appropriate balance of fiscal responsibility and support for United States diplomatic engagement and foreign assistance," Rogers said.

Lowey troubled by budget

But the Appropriations Committee's ranking Democrat, Nita Lowey, said she is deeply troubled, both by the president's request, and the allocation for this bill, which is $10 billion below the total enacted in fiscal year 2017.

"While the bill rejects many of the most extreme cuts proposed in the president's budget, the cuts in this bill would make regions less stable and diminish our global leadership by severely reducing or eliminating funding for programs such as multilateral cooperation, international family planning and climate change," Lowey said.

Asked what level of budget cuts the State Department supports, a department official told VOA: "Secretary Tillerson and the State Department continue to support the President's FY [fiscal year] 2018 Budget Request, which includes $37.6 billion for State Department and USAID programs. The FY [fiscal year] 2018 request for the State Department and USAID will advance our foreign policy goals, while ensuring we are using U.S. taxpayer dollars as effectively and efficiently as possible."

But Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker has said the Senate would never approve drastic cuts to State's budget.

Former envoy disagrees with cuts

Some former U.S. diplomats also oppose the cuts. Former U.S. ambassador and veteran diplomat Laura Kennedy told VOA many Americans are not aware of the great work U.S. Foreign Service officers and consular officials are doing around the world.

"There has always been a strain of isolationism throughout American history which is particularly virulent now. The world is indeed a complex and scary place and there may be a sense that we will be better off if we can retreat behind our walls. That doesn't work," Kennedy said.

Kennedy said the president may have influenced House members.

"Unfortunately, I think there is a particular animus toward State on the part of President Trump which has certainly been communicated to the House," she said.

The spending bill will now go to the full House Appropriations committee for a vote next Wednesday. The spending bill would have to be approved by both the House and the Senate before it goes to the president for his signature.
Even as Taiwan loses diplomatic allies to its bigger rival China, the increasingly isolated government has bested Beijing at a level of international relations that common people can feel: the number of countries that let citizens enter visa free.

Taiwan has persuaded 166 countries to allow their 23 million citizens to enter without visas or with simplified visa applications, sometimes over fears that China would retaliate, foreign ministry sources say. Just 21 countries offer visa-free entry to people from China.

The rise of visa-free countries from 10 years ago to places such as the United States and Europe indicates that Taiwan can expand diplomatically in at least one way despite Chinas countermeasures and have something to show citizens who want more foreign policy achievements.

Personal experience

Because for most of the people foreign relations is a very distant thing, but the ability to travel free around the world is a direct and personal experience, said Joanna Lei, chief executive officer of the Chunghua 21st Century think tank in Taiwan.

If Taiwan continues to enjoy visa-free travel, that means a lot of countries recognize the administration and allow the people from Taiwan to their lands, and that will be a major, major foreign affairs achievement, Lei said.

Beijing has claimed sovereignty over, and insists on eventual reunification with, self-ruled Taiwan since the 1940s and tries to limit its international profile. To cast Taiwan as a part of China rather than a country, Beijing has barred it from joining United Nations agencies since the 1970s. It also offers aid to countries that switch allegiance from Taipei to Beijing. Taipei has 20 allies left following Panamas recognition of China last month. Beijing is recognized by more than 170 countries.

Visa-free treatment

The push to expand visa-free treatment for Taiwanese took off under former president Ma Ying-jeou, who held office from 2008 to 2016. China and Taiwan had set aside political grievances then to build trust through economic deals, making it hard for Beijing to stand in the way of Taiwans informal or people-to-people relations abroad.

Cables regarding that were sent to all the offices and missions abroad, and we kept reminding officials of the importance and urgency of getting visa waivers or visas upon arrival, said Huang Kwei-bo, chair of the foreign ministry research and planning committee from 2009 to 2011.

The government in Taipei also tightened passport renewals to reduce the percentage of counterfeited documents, allaying another concern overseas, Huang said.

We tried to tell those potential targeted countries not to feel worried about punishment from the Beijing authorities, because warmer ties under Ma would make the visa waiver issue less sensitive in the political term, Huang said.

Taiwan passports ranked No. 28 in the world in 2015 in terms of visa-free access to other countries, according to the Henley & Partners 2015 Visa Restrictions Index. China ranked 93rd.

Relations could chill waivers

Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen lacks the trust of Beijing, though she hasnt crossed Chinas red line of seeking legal independence to consecrate self-rule. That chill in relations could make it harder for Taiwan to add countries to its visa waiver roster, said Liu Yih-jiun, public affairs professor at Fo Guang University in Taiwan.

But Tuesday, Taiwan and its diplomatic ally Paraguay agreed to let each others citizens enter without visas. The foreign ministry is also preparing to let Filipinos enter visa free, even though Manila still requires visas of Taiwanese.

Countries have let Taiwanese enter visa-free for economic benefits as well as to get along better with Taipei, according to Taiwan foreign ministry spokesperson Eleanor Wang.

For other countries to want to let in Taiwan passport holder without visas, they can attract more Republic of China (Taiwan) people to go visit, which can help two-way relations and help their economy  all sorts of advantages  so they agree to exempt visas, Wang told reporters Tuesday.

Taiwanese not eager to flee

China struggles to earn visa waiver rules abroad because its citizens sometimes migrate illegally for economic gain. Chinese use illegal smuggling networks to enter Europe and may be exploited by traffickers, said human rights group Council of Europes Parliamentary Assembly in 2015.

In Taiwan, the country has achieved a certain level of economic sufficiency, therefore its citizens are not that eager to flee from the country and get settled in other countries, said Lin Chong-pin, a retired strategic studies professor in greater Taipei.

Most of them want to come back. They find Taiwan more comfortable, he said. Countries that give Taiwan visa waivers are not threatened.


Iraq's military may try to eradicate the Islamic State's remaining forces by simultaneously attacking the terror group on multiple fronts in the hopes of taking advantage of infighting and a weakened leadership.

The strategy would be a bold one given the casualties Iraqi forces suffered while trying to retake Mosul.

The U.S. Defense Department estimated IS forces inflicted a 40 percent casualty rate on Iraq's elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) in the nine months it took for them to reclaim the city. And the U.S. commander of the global coalition against IS described the fighting in Mosul as the "most extended and brutal combat I have ever witnessed."

Iraqis visit Pentagon

But Iraqi military officials visiting the Pentagon this week, following the declarations of victory over IS in Mosul, appeared undaunted.

"Very soon, we'll start military operations to liberate the remaining Iraqi areas under occupation," Joint Operations Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool said through a translator.

"We could start military operations toward different areas at the same time," Rasool added. "We're confident that we are capable of having a number of operations simultaneously."

Rasool and the other government officials indicated Iraqi leaders have yet to make a firm decision on exactly how the campaign should play out, though potential targets include Tal Afar, about 60 kilometers to the west of Mosul, and the town of Hawija in Iraq's Kirkuk province.

U.S. officials have said efforts to clear Mosul of pockets of Islamic State fighters could last for weeks.

Iraqi soldiers told VOA that the remaining IS fighters, as well as women and children  all wearing suicide vests  are now launching attacks from basements and tunnels under the city.

Striking at IS

Still, Iraqi and U.S. officials see an opportunity to strike at IS while it is weak and still reeling from the loss.

"They're fighting among themselves in Hawija and Tal Afar, currently," Rasool said Thursday, when asked about what is left of IS leadership following the battle for Mosul.

"We killed a large number of the leadership, and they collapsed within their structure," he said.

U.S. officials estimate there are still a couple of thousand IS fighters spread throughout Iraq. Some analysts suggest the numbers could be even higher, and both officials and experts worry about the presence of so-called sleeper cells in all the territories that have been reclaimed from IS forces.

Aside from strongholds in Tal Afar and Hawija, IS still controls swaths of lands in Iraq's Anbar province, where they continue to enjoy some freedom of movement despite pressure from the coalition's ongoing air campaign.

Iraqi officials say continued coalition air support will be crucial for their continued success, and admit additional help will be needed.

"What we would like from the international or global coalition is the continuous support to Iraqi forces," said Brig. Gen Saad Maan, a spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command and the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior. "This also requires additional training, and providing the basic services, and cameras, and surveillance equipment so that we'll be able to stabilize the area."

Tough fight ahead

As far as how long it will take to subdue what remains of IS, neither Iraqi nor coalition officials have been willing to say.

"It's been a tough fight. There's a lot of tough fighting ahead," U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday.

"We're there to help them fight and defeat and destroy that physical caliphate and I'm sure we'll continue to bring in air support," Mattis said.

The U.S. and other coalition partners, including Australia, Finland and Britain, have also continued to train Iraqi forces for the battles ahead.

"The Iraqi Security Forces and the coalition have a plan to get after them. And we will move with all due speed to do that," Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, Operation Inherent Resolve Commander, told Pentagon reporters on July 11. "We'll be at it until it's done."

For their part, despite a looming referendum on Kurdish independence, peshmerga officials say their forces are ready and willing to support Iraqi military efforts to wipe out IS.

"We can launch a number of operations," said Brig. Gen. Halgwrd Hikman Ali, who was visiting the Pentagon with his Iraqi counterparts.

"We can launch a military operation toward Tal Afar and another one toward Al-Qa'im, and another one toward  maybe another one toward Hawija," he said. "We have enough forces to liberate what is remaining."
Iraqi officials are downplaying allegations by human rights groups about high numbers of civilian casualties and abuses following the battle to retake Mosul from the Islamic State terror group.

Military officials visiting the Pentagon Thursday placed the blame for civilian deaths during the fighting in Mosul on the tactics employed by IS fighters as Iraqi forces closed in on their positions.

They also suggested videos purporting to show Iraqi forces beating or abusing suspected IS fighters who had been taken prisoner may be fakes.

"There are those who would like to make the victories made by the military of Iraq not as significant," Brig. Gen Saad Maan, a spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command and Iraq's Interior Ministry, said through an interpreter.

"There are a lot of fabrications and rumors and false news regarding what happened," Maan added.

Confirmed location

Human Rights Watch said Thursday it had used satellite imagery to confirm that a video posted to Facebook the day before had been taken in west Mosul.

The video shows men in Iraqi military uniforms beating a detainee and shooting at him.

Maan told Pentagon reporters that Iraqi officials had looked at the images and that some military personnel had been suspended, pending the outcome of an investigation.

The Iraqi officials also responded to a Human Rights Watch report that at least 170 families allegedly connected to IS had been forcibly relocated to a "rehabilitation camp" outside of Mosul.

"Iraqi authorities shouldn't punish entire families because of their relatives' actions," HRW Middle East Director Lama Fakih said in a statement. "These abusive acts are war crimes and are sabotaging efforts to promote reconciliation in areas retaken from ISIS."

Iraqi Joint Operations Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool said through a translator: "There is no situation or scenario where the Iraqi forces will forcefully get people out of their homes."

Rasool said officials were still seeking "precise information," but added there were instances in which Iraqi forces aided civilians trying to safely leave the city.

Human rights groups also have been raising concerns about the number of civilians killed during the operation to retake west Mosul from Islamic State.

IS tactics

But Rasool put the blame for those deaths on IS tactics.

"This terrorist organization was trying to cause the most civilian casualties knowing very well they had lost the battle of Mosul," he said.

"They booby-trapped everything. The small areas. The alleyways," Rasool noted. "They were using hundreds of booby-trapped vehicles and they used it among civilians."

Human rights group Amnesty International released a report Tuesday saying at least 400 civilians died just in west Mosul between January and mid-May.

Growing concerns about potential human rights violations and the high civilian death toll come as Iraqi forces remain engaged in efforts to clear parts of Mosul, where pockets of IS fighters are either hiding or trying to hold out.

At the same time, Iraqi officials are starting to shift some of their focus toward the next steps in the campaign to eradicate IS from its remaining strongholds.

IS fighters remain

U.S. officials estimate that aside from perhaps a few hundred IS militants left in Mosul, there could be as many as another 2,000 fighters holding out in other parts of Iraq, although their grip on what is left of their self-declared caliphate is slipping.

"With the coalition's help the ISF will keep the pressure on this enemy while they are on their heels," Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon said.

He described Islamic State's military decline as "increasingly rapid."

Iraqi military officials said their next target could be Tal Afar, about 60 kilometers to the west of Mosul, or the town of Hawija, to the southeast, in Iraq's Kirkuk province.

They also said that despite the toll IS was able to inflict on Iraqi forces during the nearly nine-month battle for Mosul, the military still could launch simultaneous operations in multiple locations against the terror group.
The U.S. State Department said Friday that it is reviewing a ruling by a federal judge that may allow thousands more travelers and refugees excluded from the United States by a presidential order to obtain travel documents.

In late June, the U.S. Supreme Court said part of President Donald Trump's executive order, known as the travel ban, could go into effect. But the court provided exceptions for travelers from the six affected countries, as well as refugees, who could prove a "bona fide" relationship to family or "entities" in the U.S.

The federal government interpreted that to mean parents and siblings, in part, but excluded grandparents, uncles, aunts, and other relatives.

But U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu on Thursday found that "the government's narrowly defined list finds no support in the careful language of the Supreme Court or even in the immigration statutes on which the government relies."

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," he wrote.

"Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The government's definition excludes them. That simply cannot be."

Watson ordered Homeland Security and the State Department not to enforce the ban on "grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins of persons in the United States."

The judge also ruled that refugees who had assurances of a placement by a resettlement agency in the United States should also be exempt.

The decision to expand the definition of "bona fide" could re-open admission to more than 24,000 additional refugees who otherwise would have been blocked, Melanie Nezer, vice president of global refugee resettlement group HIAS, told Reuters.

"We are reviewing the decision and will be in consultation with Department of Justice to ensure immediate implementation," a State Department spokesperson told VOA Friday morning.

The legal tangle of two travel-related executive orders from the Trump administration is in its sixth month. Lawsuits from coast to coast - including in Hawaii - have stymied the government's full roll-out of what were initially months-long bans on refugees and some travelers from six countries.

Attorneys for the U.S. government have defended the limitations imposed on travelfrom Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen as reasonable; critics call the orders by Trump, which he framed as national security decisions, discriminatory based on the disproportionate impact the bans would have on Muslims.
Two tourists were killed and four other foreigners wounded by an attacker armed with a knife at an Egyptian Red Sea holiday resort, Egypt's Interior Ministry and security sources said on Friday.

The attacker swam from a nearby public beach to access the Sunny Days El Palacio resort in Hurghada, the ministry and sources said. He was arrested. The motive for the attack is under investigation Egypt is fighting an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula and militants have previously attacked tourism targets.

The slain tourists were Germans, not Ukrainians as originally identified, Major Gen. Mohamed El-Hamzawi, security manager of Red Sea region, told Reuters.

He said two Czech nationals were also among the four people wounded.

El Palacio is a large seafront property with a private beach in Hurghada, one of Egypt's most popular holiday resorts, some 400 km (250 miles) south of the capital Cairo.

In January 2016, two assailants armed with a gun, a knife and a suicide belt landed on the beach of a hotel in Hurghada, wounding two foreign tourists, security sources said.

Friday's attack came on a day that five policemen were killed by gunmen on a motorbike who ambushed their car just south of Cairo.
The malaria parasite owes its devastating success to a finely tuned genome that can survive attacks and evade human immune defenses because it retains only the bare essential genes it needs to thrive, scientists have found.

In a detailed study analyzing more than half the genes in the genome of Plasmodium, the parasite that causes malaria, researchers found that two-thirds of those genes are essential for survival. This is the largest proportion of essential genes found in any organism studied to date, they said.

The scientists discovered that the parasite often disposes of genes that produce proteins that give its presence away to its host's immune system. This allows malaria to swiftly change its appearance to the human immune system and hence build up resistance to a vaccine, posing problems for the development of effective shots.

"Our study found that below the surface the parasite is more of a Formula 1 race car than a clunky people carrier: The parasite is fine-tuned and retains the absolute essential genes needed for growth," said Julian Rayner, who co-led this study at Britain's Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Good and bad

He said this discovery, published Thursday in the journal Cell, had both positive and negative implications.

"The bad news is it can easily get rid of the genes behind the targets we are trying to design vaccines for, but the flip side is there are many more essential gene targets for new drugs than we previously thought," he said.

Malaria kills about half a million people a year, the vast majority of them children and babies in the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Beyond that, almost half the world's population is at risk of becoming infected with malaria, and more than 200 million people fall sick with it each year, according to World Health Organization figures.

Despite decades of scientific endeavor, the genetics of Plasmodium parasites have proved tricky to decipher.

This is partly because they are ancient organisms and about half their genes have no similar genes  homologs  in any other organism, Rayner's team explained, making it difficult for scientists to find clues to their function.

Francisco Javier Gamo, a malaria expert at GlaxoSmithKline, a British drugmaker active in this field of research, said the highest achievement for malaria scientists would be to discover genes that are essential across all of the parasite life cycle stages.

"If we could target those with drugs, it would leave malaria with nowhere to hide," he said.
An escalating war of words between Myanmars powerful but sensitive military and a senior official in de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyis government shows just how lightly Myanmars new leaders must tread amid the countrys volatile transition to democracy.

Speaking to former political prisoners at a conference July 9, Yangons Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein appeared to warn participants the army still retained strong influence, citing the fact that civilian leaders had to treat the commander-in-chief as a virtual head of state.

This is not democracy, he said, according to a video recording of the remarks. The military responded by calling the statement an insult to the head of the army, Min Aung Hlaing, and filing a complaint with the government.

Rare comments

A former political prisoner himself and member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Phyo Min Thein was appointed by Aung San Suu Kyi to the chief minister post following historic elections in 2015 that were meant to lurch Myanmar toward civilian rule after decades of military dictatorship.

His comments are extremely rare, as the party has avoided criticizing the military while stressing national reconciliation. But they also point to an uncomfortable reality of Myanmars precarious transition. More than a year into the NLD-led government, relations with the armed forces remain tense and uneasy.

I think for the military, their position is to remain in the leading role or the drivers seat as long as possible, so long as they are not sure about their own position or if they are not sure about civilian politicians, especially once they are opponents, they will continue to be behaving like this in the short and middle term, said Soe Myint Aung, an analyst with the Yangon-based Tagaung Institute of Political Studies.

Treading lightly

Party insiders have stressed repeatedly that they need to be careful about what they say so as to work with the military to achieve their goals, mainly signing peace deals with the countrys ethnic armed groups. Aung San Suu Kyis defenders have highlighted this to explain why she has not spoken out more about the countrys beleaguered Rohingya Muslim minority and other human rights abuses that point back to the armed forces.

But Soe Myint Aung said the approach has not worked, adding that their overcautious style may have ironically made the military more sensitive about its interests.

I dont think the NLD-led government has a strategy about civil-military relations or how to deal with the Burmese armed forces. Thats the whole point. But on the contrary, I think the Tatmadaw, the military, I think they have some ideas about how to be treating the civilian government, he said, using the Burmese name for the military. That makes the whole difference.

The Tatmadaw still controls 25 percent of parliament and three ministries, and shows no interest in attempts to reform the 2008 constitution that affords them this share of the political pie. It has responded to criticism with lawsuits, and last month the army arrested three journalists and accused them of assisting insurgents.

Prickly military

Alex Dukalskis, a lecturer at University College Dublin who specializes in Asian politics, said in an email that the prickly nature of the military is an enduring feature of the institution.

The military has always been quite sensitive to criticism. Before 2010 virtually all criticism of the military  even if it was minor  was censored, he said, adding the current situation is difficult because of the power the army retained in the form of its ministerial portfolios, including Home Affairs.

It could do a lot to frustrate the transition to more democratic politics, so the NLD does have some reason to tread lightly. In the back of many peoples minds there still may be a fear that the military could return to power, he said.

Assassination stokes fear

The assassination in January of government legal adviser U Ko Ni, who had been working on amending the 2008 constitution, has helped stoke similar fears.

While authorities have not accused the army of involvement in the murder, some of the suspects in the case are retired military, and the sole fugitive was last seen in Naypyitaw, the capital built by the former junta. Despite knowing him for years, Aung San Suu Kyi did not attend his funeral, and it took weeks for her to say anything publicly about the case.

So far the government is not defending Phyo Min Thein, though it is unclear whether that could result in him being removed from his position. He could not be reached for comment.

Government spokesman Zaw Htay told the Irrawaddy news website Thursday that Phyo Min Theins comments do not reflect the governments position and that we have instructed him to do what he needs to do. He did not elaborate.
The top Islamic State official in Afghanistan has been killed in a U.S. airstrike, the second such targeted killing in the past four months and third in the past year.

U.S. military officials said Friday that Abu Sayed was killed July 11 in a strike on the group's headquarters in the northeastern Afghan province of Kunar. Other IS members were also killed.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis called the strike a sign U.S. efforts to counter the terror group in Afghanistan were going in the right direction.

Every time you kill a leader of one of these groups, it sets them back, Mattis told Pentagon reporters, refusing to go into more detail on the operation.

We will continue until they are annihilated, Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said separately in a statement. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan.

IS leader

Sayed took over as leader of the Islamic State's self-styled Khorasan province branch in late April or early May of this year, after the previous emir, Abdul Hasib, was killed in a U.S.-Afghan raid on a cave-and-tunnel complex in the Achin district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.

That raid also killed another 35 IS fighters after what U.S. officials described as a brutal, three-hour-long firefight. Two U.S. special operation force soldiers were also killed.

The U.S. military killed the group's initial leader, Hafiz Sayed Khan, in late July 2016.

U.S. and Afghan forces had launched a counteroffensive against IS this past March, focusing on fighters in eastern Nangarhar province.

Islamic State numbers dropping

In April of this year, the U.S. targeted an extensive IS tunnel-and-cave complex in Nangarhar with the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal, a GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb.

Officials said the ordinance, also known as "the mother of all bombs," killed 92 Islamic State fighters, though as many as 800 may have been in the area.

At its height, intelligence and military officials and analysts say, IS may have boasted as many as 2,000 to 3,000 fighters in Afghanistan. More recent estimates put the number of IS fighters in Afghanistan at fewer than 1,000.
A Peruvian judge on Thursday ordered the arrest of former President Ollanta Humala, 55, and his wife while they are under investigation on money-laundering and conspiracy accusations linked to a scandal involving giant Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

Judge Richard Concepcion ruled in favor of preventive detention of Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, while prosecutors prepare formal charges against them.

The court order came after prosecutor German Juarez successfully argued the couple represented a flight risk to evade justice and that would interfere with his nearly three-year investigation.

The allegations against Humala followed the testimony by a former head of Odebrecht, who said he illegally contributed $3 million to Humala's 2011 presidential campaign.

Humala and Heredia are also accused of receiving money from the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez during a previous, unsuccessful presidential bid.

Prosecutors have argued that Humala, whose term ended in 2016, never declared the contributions and that he and his wife conspired to hide them for personal gain.

Humala has denied the charges, calling them baseless.

In February, the same judge ordered the arrest of another former Peruvian president, Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), on related charges.

Peru believes Toledo is living in the U.S. state of California and has asked U.S. President Donald Trump to consider deporting him to face charges of taking bribes in a far-reaching regional graft probe.

The bribes paid by Odebrecht include about $29 million paid in Peru for projects built during the administrations of Toledo and two of his successors, Humala and Alan Garcia.

Top officials across Latin America have been accused of taking an estimated $800 million in bribes from Odebrecht. The company acknowledged the bribes when it signed a plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department in December 2016.

The same scandal involves former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was convicted Wednesday and sentenced to 9 years and six months in jail for taking gifts from another Brazilian builder.
Radio Flyer is rolling its largest "little" red wagon into its hometown of Chicago in celebration of the company's 100-year anniversary.

Radio Flyer's gargantuan wagon was the centerpiece for the company's anniversary event Thursday in the city's downtown area, the Chicago Tribune reported. The wagon was created 20 years ago for the brand's 80th anniversary.



Attendees of the event had the opportunity to take a photo with the large wagon and participate in free giveaways. Radio Flyer also will donate 2,000 wagons to children's hospitals across the country in partnership with Starlight Children's Foundation.

According to Guinness World Records, the wagon, which is 27 feet (8.23 meters) long and weighs over 15,000 pounds (6803.96 kilograms), is the world's largest toy wagon. It was inspired by a 1930s statue featured in the World's Fair in Chicago.

Radio Flyer has locations around the world, but Robert Pasin, chief wagon officer of Radio Flyer, said Chicago is still the company's home.

"Chicago has so much to do with our heritage and story," Pasin said. "It's truly a part of the brand's DNA."

The company has evolved since its establishment in 1917 and now offers customizable wagons made of various materials and other products, including tricycles, bicycles and scooters.
A lack of coordination between the European Union and the United States can undermine sanctions against rogue nations, said a new report from the Royal United Services Institute, a British research group.



The report's authors also called for improved guidance for the private sector in implementing the penalties.



The assessment came as the United States pushes for stricter controls following North Koreas test earlier this month of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Washington wants new sanctions against both Pyongyang and the foreign firms, most of them Chinese, that it says provide North Korea with an economic lifeline.



We intend to present these firms with a clear choice. You can do business with us or you can do business with North Korea, but you cannot do business with both, Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen told reporters Wednesday after presenting a bipartisan bill in Washington.



The fragmented nature of international sanctions, which are enforced separately by the United Nations, U.S. and EU, renders them less effective against Pyongyang, argued report author Emil Dall.

North Korea relies on a complex network of overseas front companies, shell companies, agents that are acting on behalf of the North Korean regime  people that are simply not captured on sanctions lists, he said.



Dall noted recent examples of effective coordination. It has been two years since the so-called P5+1 countries  the United States, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, plus Germany  agreed on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran. That agreement saw the EU and U.S. lift some sanctions on Iran in return for limits on Tehrans nuclear program.

The United States and Europe have also implemented coordinated sanctions against Russian individuals and companies following its forceful takeover of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014.

The nature of the EU means targets are often able to evade its sanctions over time.

Youve got all member states who have to agree unanimously to imposing new sanctions. In the European Union, there is also the prospect of legal challenges in the European courts, said Dall.

He added that U.S. sanctions are more adaptable as rogue states try to evade the measures.



The U.S. is able to more rapidly put in place new measures and new designations that counteract that," he said. "The solution is closer communication both between the U.S. and the EU on sanctions regimes, but its also closer communication with the private sector.



Britains pending EU exit, known as Brexit, complicates the picture further. The report said London will be able to move more quickly in imposing and adapting sanctions outside the bloc  but any measures will have less clout without European enforcement.
Airstrikes on the outskirts of Damascus killed at least two people on Friday, a Syrian first responders' group reported as pro-government forces intensified efforts to push rebels away from the country's capital.

The Syrian Civil Defense group, more popularly known as the White Helmets, posted a video of rescue workers retrieving one of the victims from the rubble of a building.

It said at least one other person was killed and several people were wounded in the strikes on Ein Terma, a contested suburb on the northeast edge of Damascus. The Syrian and Russian air forces are the only ones known to fly raids in the area.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported ten airstrikes on Ein Terma by midday Friday. It said 3 civilians had been killed.

Ein Terma lies at the edge of the opposition's Eastern Ghouta enclave outside Damascus. It is among the rebels' last footholds around the Syrian capital.

Local rebel commander Abdelnasser Shamir wrote on Thursday on Twitter that the last four weeks of fighting have been the ``most vicious'' in recent memory.

Also Thursday, footage emerging from the government's side of the battle showed soldiers struggling to pull their wounded from under a hail of sniper and machine-gun fire. In the video from the Russian internet portal Federal News Agency, rebels and pro-government forces are seen fighting building to building.

The video, which was posted on Youtube, could not be independently verified though it conformed with other accounts collected by The Associated Press from the area.
A Russian-American lobbyist says he attended a June 2016 meeting with President Donald Trump's son, marking another shift in the account of a discussion that was billed as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republican's White House campaign.

Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his participation to The Associated Press on Friday.

The meeting heightened questions about whether Trump's campaign coordinated with the Russian government during the election, which is the focus of federal and congressional investigations. In emails posted by Donald Trump Jr. earlier this week, an associate who arranged the meeting said a Russian lawyer wanted to pass on negative information about Democrat Hillary Clinton and stated plainly that the discussion was part of a Russian government effort to help the GOP candidate.

While Trump Jr. has confirmed that the Russian attorney was in the meeting he did not disclose Akhmetshin's presence. The president's son has tried to discount the meeting, saying that he did not receive the information he was promised.

Akhmetshin said the meeting was "not substantive" and he "actually expected more serious" discussion.

"I never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest," he told AP.

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and current White House senior adviser, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting.

Asked about Akhmetshin and his possible participation in the June 2016 meeting, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Friday: "We don't know anything about this person."
South Sudanese judges said Friday that despite President Salva Kiir's decision to fire 14 of their colleagues, they will continue their strike until their demands are met.

The judges went on strike May 1, demanding that Kiir increase their pay, improve working conditions and remove Chief Justice Chan Reec Madut from the bench for ignoring their demands.

At a news conference in Juba, Justice Bold Lul Wang, chairman of a general assembly representing South Sudan's judges, said judges were shocked by Kiir's move, announced in a presidential decree Wednesday.

"We are expecting the presidency should look into the problem which we submitted, because when someone comes to you to complain, you cannot punish the complainant. You have to answer his demand or say to him, I'm sorry I cannot help your demand,' " Wang said.

Wang said South Sudanese judges held an urgent meeting Friday in Juba and other towns across the country to talk about the fired judges.

"The [judges'] general assembly has resolved to continue the general strike in solidarity with our honorable dismissed judges and justices until all our demands are met," Wang said.

The judges are calling on the president to immediately reinstate the sacked judges and reconsider their demands. Wang said all judges stand in solidarity with their fired colleagues.

"We are, therefore, placing the matter into the able authority of his excellency, the president of the republic, to either meet all our demands  including the immediate reinstatement of our dismissed honorable colleagues who have been championing our cause  or to dismiss us all who are on strike," Wang said.

When Kiir fired the 14 judges, which Wang believes was recommended by Chief Justice Madut, he said the president did not follow proper procedure.

"The president has the power to remove some judges, but through certain procedures which were not met. And in our humble view, we think that the chief justice has misled the president because he is the one to guide the president through the right procedure," Wang said.

Most South Sudanese courts are backlogged with criminal cases because there are not enough judges to hear the cases and conduct trials.
Turkey has deployed warships to Cypriot waters in the latest escalation over contested gas exploration rights.

Turkey is determined to protect both its own rights and interests in its continental shelf and to continue its support to the Turkish Cypriot side, said a toughly worded statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry late Thursday.

Two Turkish frigates and a submarine are reportedly monitoring the exploration ship West Capella. The ship, contracted by France's Total and Italy's ENI, started drilling on July 12 under an exploration license granted by the Greek Cypriot government. Since 1974, Cyprus has been divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities after a Turkish invasion following a Greek-inspired coup.

The Greek Cypriot administration is the only internationally recognized government, but Ankara maintains the Turkish Cypriots must have a say in the exploration and development of what is believed to be the island's considerable energy resources.

We cannot remain indifferent to these kinds of unilateral actions, warned Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at a press conference Thursday. At the moment, we are planning the steps we will take with our Energy Ministry.

Greek Cypriot reaction unclear

Nicosia sought to play down tensions. We are prepared for various scenarios," said Greek Cypriot Energy Minister George Lakkotrypis. Our perception is that Turkey will continue to challenge us one way or the other, he said, adding, It is more appropriate to focus on what we do, and the best answer is to keep a low tone and respond, through our actions at sea.

How the Greek Cypriots will react at sea remains unclear. The Greek Cypriot side, which is a member of the European Union, is seen to be in a diplomatically powerful position. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, a close ally, gave unequivocal support to Nicosia this week, dismissing Turkish threats toward the Greek Cypriots.

I remember a saying that I always keep in my mind, that the best guard dog is not the one that barks  good guard dogs don't need to bark, Tsipras said Thursday. We don't bark that much, but, I believe, we effectively defend our country's sovereign rights.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry dismissed the remarks, saying top Greek politicians should show a responsible stance in issues regarding Turkey.

Both sides need to benefit

The dispute over exploiting the island's gas reserves threatens to embroil international energy giants. Energy companies who involve themselves in irresponsible steps taken by the Greek Cypriot side can never be met with understanding, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the World Petroleum Conference in Istanbul. They could lose a friend in Turkey.

Turkey made it clear on every occasion these energy resources around the island, they are the resources of both sides," said former Turkish Ambassador Mithat Rende, who is an expert on eastern Mediterranean energy issues. They [Greek and Turkish Cypriots] have to sit together and have to probably establish a committee on how to benefit from the resources. The Turkish side made clear that what is unilaterally done is totally unacceptable.

Observers point out the Greek Cypriots may be reluctant to take such a step, as it could be viewed as a move toward legitimizing the Turkish Cypriot administration and undermining Nicosia's sole status as the only internationally recognized government.

The risk of direct confrontation over the current gas exploration is minimized because it is being carried out in waters off the Greek Cypriot side of the island. Future explorations carry greater risks. "The Turkish Cypriots have licensed blocks [areas of sea] to a Turkish petroleum company to explore, and these blocks overlap areas being explored by the Greek Cypriots, said Rende.

Both sides being blamed

The growing dispute over energy exploration erupted days after the collapse of U.N.-backed reunification talks. Already Ankara is crying foul. Instead of focusing on a solution, they have launched an exploration in a bid to provoke these talks. It's because of their insincerity that the 10-day-long talks did not lead to any results, Cavusoglu said.

Both sides are engaged in blaming one another for the failure of the talks. The Mediterranean island's massive energy potential had been touted as a powerful incentive to unification efforts, but now it only threatens to exacerbate divisions.

While the oil and gas in the region in the eastern Mediterranean and the discoveries are very important, and to have Turkey as an outlet for this to Europe is very important to Ankara, there has to be a political settlement [on Cyprus] before the economic side benefits kick in, said veteran Cyprus watcher Semih Idiz, a columnist with Turkey's Al-Monitor website.
Thailand is facing a renewed dilemma over the fate of more than 60 ethnic Uighur asylum seekers amid reports of pressure by China for the groups return.

The 62 men and women, held in detention centers, represent the last of more than 350 Uighurs found by authorities in Southern Thailand in 2014 who were seeking to travel to Turkey.

Thailand is a key destination for ethnic Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim Turkic minority originating in western Chinas Xinjiang province.

Human rights groups say unrest in Xinjiang in recent years was followed by a Chinese central government crackdown against the Muslim community.

Rights groups accuse Beijing of ethnic discrimination, and what they call "severe religious repression and increasing cultural suppression."

Beijing accuses the Uighur community of having links with separatists and terrorist organizations, such as Islamic State.

Hundreds of Uighurs have traveled clandestinely through Southeast Asia in an effort to reach Turkey, which already hosts large Uighur populations.

Thailands military government came to power in May 2014 and faced Western international isolation over the deposing of an elected government. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, said this isolation led to Thailand moving closer to China.

In 2015, Beijing stepped up pressure on Thailand for the Uighurs to be sent to China. At the same time, Turkish diplomats also insisted the people be transferred to Turkey.

In July 2015 Thailand allowed 172 Uighur men, women and children to travel to Turkey. But Thailand faced international condemnation after it deported 109 Uighurs  mostly men  to China. Grim CCTV footage reportedly showed the group in flight back to China, their heads hooded, and security officials sitting on either side of the detainees.

The transporting of the Uighurs to China triggered angry protests against Thai diplomatic buildings in Turkey. In August 2015, a bomb blast at a shrine in central Bangkok, popular with visiting ethnic Chinese, left 20 people dead and dozens injured. A second bomb plot, targeting a restaurant catering to Chinese tourists, failed to go ahead.

The arrest of two ethnic Turks followed, with police blaming the bombing on the breakup of a human trafficking ring. But reports said the attacks masterminds had fled the country, and analysts suggested a link between the bombing atrocity and the earlier sending of the Uighurs to an unknown fate in China.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha called the bombing "the worst in the countrys history."

Analysts said the bombing also led to divisions within the government.

"It also plays into domestic Thai politics about who is in charge and about the dynamics of the people in charge. Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan appears more pleasing to the Chinese whereas maybe the Prime Minister Prayut is a little more detached or impartial," Thitinan said.

In May 2016, Uighurs held in Thai detention went on a hunger strike, saying they feared for their safety if returned to China.

Panitan Wattanayagorn, an adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Prawit, said a final decision on the Uighur  and other groups  is still pending.

"The situation is we are still  the National Security Council in particular, is still evaluating the possibilities of sending back different groups, including the Uighur group, to their origin countries or the third party countries," Panitan told VOA.

Prime Minister Prayut is the chair of the National Security Council.

"Its there in the process. They are evaluating but no major decision has been made yet, so that it means they are on hold  and this is not the Uighur alone but for all groups," Panitan said.

Thailand is also evaluating its access to assess the Uighurs once they are back in China.

But rights groups say major concerns remain over the well-being of the ethnic minorities.

Dolkum Isa, secretary general of the World Uyghur (sic) Congress based in Munich, in emailed comments to VOA, said he fears for the safety of those still in detention.

"The Thai government must act in accordance with its international obligations in terms of ensuring that the Uighurs held there indefinitely [in detention centers] are processed in a speedy fashion," Isa said.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch Asia Director, Brad Adams, in emailed comments, said no Uighurs be returned to China because of the threat of them disappearing, "into the maw of a non-transparent, non-accountable prison system, where they are liable to be tortured and worse."

Thitinan said the combination of fears of another terrorist attack if the Uighurs are transported to China, combined with Thailands improving international diplomatic ties, including with the United States, may ease the pressure from China.

"So perhaps this is a big difference to two, three years ago. China is not the only game in town. If the Western countries show some movement then that could lead to some leverage for the military government to deal with China." "So Thailand is not fully beholden to Chinese preferences," he said.
The Ralbovskys' spare bedroom in a leafy Washington suburb is empty.

Sure, there is the white day bed pushed against the bright purple walls below a map of Syracuse, New York, where the couple met, a computer on a corner desk beside an inflatable globe, a picture-dictionary binder on a nearby bookshelf.

But the arrival of the couple's foster son - a 17-year-old boy living in an Ethiopian refugee camp - is weeks overdue.

"There's a physical hole in our house, where there's a completely empty room," Carissa Ralbovsky says. "It's just this hole that's shaped like this kid, and nothing else can fit it."

Foster families across the United States await dozens of refugee children like this one who are under 18, and who by definition have no close family to care for them.

For weeks, there has been doubt over whether the children would be blocked from travel under recent U.S. guidelines that require a "bona fide" close family connection or relationship with an "entity" for admittance to the country.

Late Thursday, a judge in Hawaii ruled that the resettlement agencies that serve newly-arrived refugees count as a "formal" and "documented" relationship with an entity, in a move that could allow these children to be united with their foster families.

A spokesperson for Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, which manages the Carissa and Joe Ralbovsky's case, said the agency is "hopeful that last night's court ruling regarding the definition of 'bona fide relationships' will reopen the door for the refugee youth..."

But the agency has not yet received word from the U.S. State Department about how refugee officials will interpret the ruling.

WATCH: Travel Ban Complicates Wait for Refugee Foster Children

"We are reviewing the decision and will be in consultation with the Department of Justice to ensure immediate implementation," a State Department spokesperson told VOA early Friday.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), one of two non-profit refugee agencies that serves the country's Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM) program, says it has a list of 39 children who have already been matched with families and only need to be approved for travel by U.S. officials, including the Ralbovskys' foster son

Kay Bellor, a vice president at LIRS, said the agency has asked the government for a blanket waiver to exempt all URMs from the "bona fide" relationship standard. If that fails, they will try to obtain humanitarian waivers on an individual basis.



"We are prepared to file one individually for every child we've got," says Bellor.

Under the guidelines prompted by the U.S. Supreme Court and explained by federal officials late last month, foster parents are not mentioned under the list of "bona fide" relationships that the government says constitute a close relative in the U.S.

LIRS and Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area said earlier this week that they had not received clear indication from federal officials of if or when the refugee children will be able to travel. The State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement did not answer VOA's questions about the future of the URM program under the guidelines issued in late June.

Does she like kittens?

Two guest rooms in Irene Stevenson's Washington, D.C., home are furnished and sparsely decorated. As she went through the training and certification to become a refugee foster parent, she thought maybe a pair of siblings would need a home, and she had the extra space.

She was instead matched with one teenager, an ethnic minority who fled Somalia to Kenya. If the teen does arrive, she will be welcomed at the rowhouse along a wide avenue by two lumbering Russian wolfhounds, a poofball of a gray cat, and a woman who has prepared her family and friends to be the girl's support system.

Stevenson has known the name and a bit of her foster daughter's background for a few months, but like other refugee foster parents, she's never seen a photo, or talked with her. She put blinds up in the girl's bedroom, but there are no curtains yet - she's waiting to learn what the teen likes.

"I don't know her favorite color. I don't know if she likes kittens. I don't know any of these things that you know about your child," says Stevenson."But what I do know is that this is a girl that needs me. And so I think about her. I pray for her. I hope that she's going to come here."

Stevenson and the Ralbovskys began the process to become foster parents before the November 2016 presidential election, and the inauguration of a president focused on slashing the country's refugee program to ensure national security.

"As the rhetoric of the 2016 campaign was going on, it was obvious that refugees and Muslims were being targeted as other'," says Stevenson.

Two federal appeals courts agreed, upholding lower courts' decisions to block the Trump administration's travel ban on six countries and all refugees. The Supreme Court will hear the cases in the fall.

So the aspiring parents continued the process, attending parenting classes, providing fingerprints and information for background checks, opening their doors to home inspections and interviewers late into the evening, and learning CPR. They turned down jobs outside of the D.C. area, planned vacation time to spend with the kids over the summer, and invited family for the scheduled arrival dates.

'Trying to be a parent'

In late June, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed exceptions to the travel ban for refugees and citizens of the six countries, if the travelers could prove a "bona fide" relationship with close relatives or an entity in the U.S.

"Fostering is a little bit outside that relationship - there is no blood, but there is a full responsibility relationship," Stevenson explained. "They have no one in the world, there's no one lobbying on their behalf."

The foster parents don't know what the teens know - would it help them to hear that they have bedrooms ready and foster grandparents desperate to meet them? Parents who planned adventures around teaching them to use the subway? A bike waiting in a backyard? Maybe it's better if they don't know, the parents wonder, so they aren't disappointed again.

On a Tuesday morning in July, when Joe Ralbovsky has stepped out of the house, his cell phone rings with a Washington number. Carissa hesitates, but answers - because it could be a response to any of the dozens of calls and inquiries they've made to government officials and members of Congress about how to get their foster son to the U.S.

Instead, it's someone from the English language classes they had already enrolled the boy in, since they expected him in late June, hoping to give him a head start ahead of high school in the fall. Maybe he'll be here in time for a session later in the summer, she wonders out loud.

"Even though there's a small chance - a very small chance - that our kid and the others that are in his situation will get the help that they need, that's enough of a chance for us to keep trying until there's absolutely no opportunity left," says Joe Ralbovsky. "We're not trying to be friends or sponsors or patrons of these people who need help What we're trying to be is a parent. We're trying to be the guardians of this kid. We wouldn't be doing our jobs if we gave up before it was too late."
U.S. President Donald Trump says he, not the officials who work for him, will make the final decision on whether to do away with a law that protects more than 750,000 children of illegal immigrants from deportation.

While visiting Paris Thursday, Trump was questioned about a remark by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly that the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was likely illegal.

Speaking to members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in a closed-door meeting Wednesday, Kelly told lawmakers that he personally supports the program but thinks it would not stand up to a legal challenge. He declined to say whether the Trump administration would mount such a challenge.

On Thursday, Trump said the decision about whether to challenge the program "is a decision that I make and it's a decision that's very, very hard to make."

The president, while asserting his authority, did not commit to a yes or a no. "There are two sides of a story," he said. "It's always tough."

During his campaign for the presidency, Trump pledged to "immediately end" the program, which is often referred to as DACA. As president, Trump has backed off of that pledge, saying his administration is "not after the dreamers [a nickname given to people who entered the United States illegally as minors], we are after the criminals."

A Homeland Security spokesman, David Lapan, told reporters after Kelly left his meeting without comment that the legal experts Kelly spoke with about the issue "felt that DACA, as it exists, is not legally sustainable."

Legislators' comments

Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas told the Dallas Morning News that he asked Kelly "very directly whether the administration would defend DACA and he couldn't give me a conclusive answer." More than half of Castro's Texas constituency identifies as Hispanic.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last month threatened to sue the federal government if DACA is not withdrawn by September.

Representative Luis Gutierrez of Illinois said in a statement after Wednesday's hearing, "We have to prepare for the worst and get ready to fight mass deportation." More than half of Gutierrez's constituency describes itself as Hispanic.

While he quoted Kelly as saying Attorney General Jeff Sessions, not Trump, was in charge of the decision whether to fight DACA, Gutierrez said, "Kelly was basically telling us DACA is facing a death sentence."

The program

The program was first enacted under former President Barack Obama in 2012 and expanded in 2014.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it had received nearly 850,000 applications for DACA status by June 2016.

The Pew Research Center estimates as many as 1.7 million people might be eligible for DACA status.
Turkey fired more than 7,000 police officers, government officials and academics on Friday, the eve of the one-year anniversary of a failed military coup.

A government order, published by the official state-run Gazette, shows those dismissed include 2,303 police  including some high-ranking officers  along with more than 300 academics from universities.

The decree also strips 342 retired officers and soldiers of their ranks.

The order was published under a state of emergency imposed after last year's attempted coup to seize power from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

More than 240 people were killed in the violence.

Turkey claims the coup was led by a cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States for nearly two decades. Gulen denies any involvement.

Since the coup attempt, Erdogan dismissed at least 100,000 civil servants he has characterized as supporters of the aborted coup. The government has arrested another 50,000 people.

The Turkish opposition says that Erdogan's government has been moving toward authoritarianism, while the Turkish leader says that the crackdown on rights is necessary to thwart security threats to the ruling government.
Turkey marks the first anniversary of a failed military coup (July 15) against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In a subsequent purge, about 100,000 government employees were dismissed and 40,000 were arrested. Last April, the country's authoritarian leader further consolidated his power through a constitutional referendum. The United States has condemned the coup, but has disagreed with Ankara on several issues. Zlatica Hoke reports.
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar's staunch regional ally in its dispute with Gulf Arab neighbors, hopes to visit the Gulf soon to discuss efforts to resolve the crisis, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar on June 5 over allegations it funds terrorist groups and is allying with their arch-foe Iran. Qatar denies the accusations.

"All our efforts are focused on a solution that suits the laws of brotherly relations," Cavusoglu told reporters after talks in Ankara with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.

Erdogan has criticized a list of demands made by the four Arab states to end the sanctions, including a requirement for Turkey's military base in Qatar to be closed.

Turkey has also sent 200 cargo planes with supplies to Qatar since its Gulf neighbors cut air and sea links. Qatar's only land border is with Saudi Arabia.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson left Qatar on Thursday after a tour of Gulf Arab countries aimed at easing the worst regional dispute in years, saying he had made proposals that would help resolve the crisis.

During his trip Tillerson signed a U.S.-Qatari accord on combating the financing of terrorism in an effort to help ease the crisis.

Qatar's opponents said it fell short of allaying their concerns, but Cavusoglu said it showed the Gulf state's sincerity.
Since the failed military coup in Turkey one year ago, it's been harder for startups to attract foreign investment, said entrepreneurs at a recent tech conference in California.

After the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, the Turkish government cracked down on perceived opponents to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Many have lost their jobs and thousands have been imprisoned, including journalists, academics and activists.

For Mustafa Acet, an entrepreneur in Istanbul, the coup and its aftermath have been a setback for the burgeoning tech ecosystem in Turkey. He recently attended Etohum San Francisco, an event bridging the Turkish startup community with Silicon Valley.

We want everything to be stabilized, he said. We don't want any more military coups. We just want to improve our businesses and create our businesses.

Investors are wary

The perceived instability in the country has made investors wary, he said.

Definitely investors are worried about it, said Acet, who has created an app for water delivery. Foreign investors, in particular, don't want to enter a country that is experiencing turmoil, he said.

The speakers at the conference didn't address politics in Turkey but focused instead on how to build businesses, attract investors and find customers.

The path from Turkey to Silicon Valley has been forged by people like Eren Bali, founder of Udemy, an online education site, and Magdalena Yesil, founding investor and board member of Salesforce and a venture capitalist. Both spoke at the event.

Companies waiting for funding

Despite being a market of nearly 80 million people, Turkey is still limiting for companies ready to becoming bigger, said Elif Ceylon, U.S. program coordinator for ITU Gate, which is a program out of Istanbul Technical University trying to bring successful Turkish startups to the United States.

There's some really quality engineers in Turkey and a lot of amazing ideas but not a lot of investing going on, she said. There's a lot of amazing companies that get a great start and they need funding, and because they can't find the funding, they kind of die down.

The companies she brings to the U.S. have proven themselves in Turkey with revenue of around $5 million to $10 million. In the U.S., they are encouraged to open U.S. entities to help attract investors and customers.

Inspired by march

Ceylan says she was inspired by the recent 400-kilometer protest march from the Turkish capital, Ankara, to Istanbul.

It made people excited again, she said. It made people think again that something can change and something can happen.

While the country marks the coup attempt's anniversary, these entrepreneurs say the way forward will be through Turkey's talent and hard work.

I believe in Turkey and Turkey will be a huge economy, especially because of the entrepreneurs, said Acet. It will grow day by day. It will be a powerful country. I believe. I hope.

Deana Mitchell contributed to this report.
The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution Thursday to transfer unused funds from the peacekeeping mission in Haiti to help fight a cholera epidemic.

The 13-year-long peacekeeping mission ends in October, and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says $40.5 million will be left over. He is giving countries that are part of the mission 60 days to inform him whether they are willing to carry out the transfer of unspent money.

Deputy U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison has said the U.S. will not contribute, noting it has already spent $100 million to help Haiti fight cholera.

U.S. President Donald Trump has called for cuts in U.N. peacekeeping spending.

Haiti's cholera outbreak erupted in 2010 when Nepalese peacekeepers helping with earthquake recovery inadvertently contaminated water with raw sewage.

More than 9,500 people have died since the outbreak began.

The U.N. formally apologized and took moral but not legal responsibility for the epidemic, frustrating Haitians and their lawyers who attempted to take the U.N. to court.
Nearly 1,000 women struggling to put food on their tables in Boko Haram-hit northeast Nigeria have received goats as emergency assistance, the United Nations said Thursday.

The region is threatened with famine after the militants' eight-year insurgency to create an Islamic state, which has killed more than 20,000 people and forced 2.7 million people to flee their homes.

Many women, traditionally responsible for small livestock, have had their animals stolen or were forced to leave them behind to escape, leaving them with virtually no source of food and money for their families, aid agencies say.

"Many are alone because ... men have left, been injured, disabled or even killed," Patrick David, Nigeria country representative for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

FAO said it delivered 3,600 goats to about 900 women in the northeastern Borno state. Each received three breeding females and one male.

The "emergency distribution" targeted families hit hardest by the conflict, such as those displaced or who recently returned home in areas taken back by the Nigerian army, the agency said in a statement.

"My husband is paralyzed for the last five years due to injuries sustained during the conflict. As an only earning member, I will keep these goats to reproduce so we can sell some of them and buy grains," Bintu Usman, 35, was quoted as saying by the FAO.

Families living in towns or villages where displaced people have sought shelter also received help, said David.

"Animal restocking is crucial for the benefit of women for whom goats play a major role for the household nutrition security through the provision of milk and a source of revenue," he said.

More than 5 million people do not have enough to eat in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, including 50,000 living in famine-like conditions.

Nigeria's army and troops from neighboring countries have pushed Boko Haram out of most of a swath of land about the size of Belgium that it controlled in early 2015. But insurgents continue to carry out suicide bombings and raids in northeast Nigeria, as well as in Cameroon and Niger.

A suicide attack in Borno's capital of Maiduguri killed 17 people and injured 21 on Wednesday.
Key U.S. lawmakers investigating charges of Russian meddling in the 2016 election want Donald Trump, Jr. to testify about his June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York with a Russian lawyer thought to have information that could damage Democrat Hillary Clintons campaign.

The revelation that the Trump Campaign eagerly intended to possibly collude with Russia is deeply disturbing, Democratic House minority leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted Thursday.

Besides his eldest son, President Donald Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, 36, is expected to testify in closed session. Democrat lawmakers are also demanding that Kushner, a senior adviser to the president, be stripped of his security clearance.

There doesnt seem to be any ethical standard in the White House, Pelosi tweeted. Jared Kushners security clearance must be immediately revoked.

Trump Jr. asked to testify

Even some members of Trumps own Republican Party have said it would be in the presidents best interest if he removed all of his children from the White House, including Kushner, who is married to the presidents eldest daughter Ivanka.

In Washington, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the younger Trump asking him to testify about his June 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. Donald Trump Jr. has said he is willing to testify voluntarily, but Grassley said he would be subpoenaed if need be.

Grassley said no questions would be off limits as the panel investigates what the U.S. intelligence community has concluded was Moscows election interference personally directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said, I look forward to asking Donald Trump Jr. what the heck he was thinking in embracing a meeting with someone who said they were representing one of our foremost adversaries in the world?

Grassleys committee is one of several congressional panels investigating the Trump campaigns links with Russia, while Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, is heading a criminal probe into the election interference and whether the president obstructed justice by firing another FBI director, James Comey, while he was heading the Russia probe before Mueller took over.

The leader of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, Speaker Paul Ryan, urged the younger Trump to honor Grassleys request that he testify.

I think any witness whos been asked to testify in Congress should do that, Ryan said.

Watch: Trump Defends Outreach to Russia and His Son Donald Jr.

Trump: 'Most people would have taken that meeting'

Speaking to reporters jointly with French President Emmanuel Macron Thursday in Paris, Trump defended his eldest sons meeting with Veselnitskaya last year.

I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting, Trump said Thursday of Donald Trump Jr.s decision to talk with the lawyer after being told by an intermediary that she was a Russian government attorney and would offer him material as part of Moscows election support of Trump.

Its called opposition research or even research into your opponent. Thats very standard in politics; politics is not the nicest business in the world but its very standard where they have information and you take the information, Trump said as he stood alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at a Paris news conference.

Trump, who is facing months of investigations in the U.S. about his aides contacts with Russians during his run to the White House, said, Nothing happened from the meeting, zero happened from the meeting, and honestly I think the press made a very big deal over something that really a lot of people will do.

As far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful young man, Trump said. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer. It was a short meeting, it was a meeting that went very, very quickly; very fast.

Trump was asked whether he agreed with Christopher Wray, his nominee to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that his son should have called FBI investigators when offered the meeting because it was supposedly coming from a foreign adversary, Russia. But Trump simply praised his appointment of Wray.
Venezuela's crude and fuel deliveries to Cuba have slid almost 13 percent in the first half this year, according to documents from state-run oil company PDVSA viewed by Reuters, threatening to worsen gasoline and power shortages in the communist-run island.

Cuba's government since 2016 has reduced fuel allocations 28 percent to most state-run companies, and has cut electricity consumption. Public lighting was cut 50 percent, while residential electric use was spared.

Beginning in March, Cubans also have reported minor gasoline and diesel shortages at service stations.

Cuba's economy depends heavily on Venezuelan crude shipments under a series of bilateral agreements started in 2000 by the South American country's late President Hugo Chavez. In return, the island nation has provided Venezuela with Cuban doctors and other services.

Venezuela's shipments of crude for Cuba's refineries dropped 21 percent to 42,310 barrels per day (bpd), the documents showed. Last year, Venezuela made up for a shortfall in crude shipments by sending Cuba more fuels, but this year's data showed refined products sent to Cuba remained almost unchanged at around 30,040 bpd.

In total, PDVSA sent Cuba an average of 72,350 bpd of crude and refined products in the first half of 2017, down almost 13 percent from the same period of last year, according to the data from internal PDVSA trade reports.

"Cuba needs at least 70,000 bpd from Venezuela to cover its energy deficit and avoid deeper rationing. A larger or total loss of the Venezuelan supply would have a high political and financial cost for Cuba," which has been gearing up to welcome more tourists, said Jorge Pinon, a Cuban energy expert at the University of Texas in Austin.

Cuba suffered severe energy rationing in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, an ally that had provided cheap fuel. In 2016, Cuba's economy went into recession for the first time since those days, declining almost 1 percent as shrinking export earnings left it short of funds to import oil on the open market and replace declining Venezuelan supplies.

With Venezuela's crude production sliding in 2017 for the sixth year in a row, the OPEC nation has had less oil to send Cuba and other customers in regions from Asia to North America and the Caribbean.

Cuba, which produces extremely heavy crude used by industry and power plants, received 103,226 bpd of oil from Venezuela in the first half of 2015, according to the same data.

PDVSA, whose full name is Petroleos de Venezuela SA, did not reply to a request for comment.

Venezuela's oil shipments to Cuba have been falling since 2008, when they peaked at 115,000 bpd mainly due to a decline in crude exports. The poor shape of Venezuelan refineries cut into fuel exports this year, and Venezuela has also had to boost fuel imports to meet domestic demand.

Cuba, in addition to rationing fuel, is seeking oil cargoes from other producers including Russia, something it had not done for more than a decade.

In one of several recent shipments, the Ocean Quest tanker loaded with fuel oil at Russia's Tuapse terminal, arrived in Havana on July 9 and is waiting to discharge, according to Reuters vessel tracking data. The Tuapse terminal is operated by state-run Rosneft.

Cuba's three aged refineries have been operating at reduced rates since last year due to a shortage of light crude, which also affects Venezuela's 1.3-million-bpd refining network.
A cholera epidemic in Yemen, which has infected more than 332,000 people, could spread during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in September, although Saudi authorities are well prepared, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

The pilgrimage draws 2-4 million Muslims every year, including 1.5-2 million foreigners, raising the risk from diseases such as dengue, yellow fever, Zika virus and meningococcal disease as well as cholera, the WHO said.

"The current highly spreading outbreak of cholera in Yemen, as well as in some African countries, may represent a serious risk to all pilgrims during the [hajj] days and even after returning to their countries," a WHO bulletin said.

Dominique Legros, a WHO cholera expert, said Saudi Arabia had not had a cholera outbreak in many years thanks to reinforced surveillance and rapid tests to detect cases early.

"Don't forget that today we are speaking of Yemen but they are receiving pilgrims from a lot of endemic countries, and they managed not to have an outbreak, essentially by making sure that living conditions, access to water in particular, hygienic conditions, are in place," he told a regular U.N. briefing.

"They are well-prepared in my view."

The incubation period of the disease, which spreads through ingestion of fecal matter and causes acute watery diarrhea, is a matter of hours. Once symptoms start, cholera can kill within hours if the patient does not get treatment.

But people with symptoms are just the tip of the iceberg because 80 percent of patients show no symptoms, Legros said.

"That's why we advise countries against airport screening for patients. The Saudis don't do that. It's useless, technically speaking."

The United Nations has blamed the warring sides in Yemen and their international allies, including Saudi Arabia, for fueling the 11-week cholera outbreak, driving millions of people closer to famine, and for hindering aid access.

The WHO has rolled out an emergency treatment program, based on the vestiges of Yemen's shattered health system, to try and catch new cases early and stop the explosive spread of the disease.

The number of new cases has continued to grow by about 6,000 per day, but the number of deaths appears to have slowed dramatically, according to Reuters analysis of WHO data.

Death rates have slumped from 20-40 in recent weeks to an average of nine per day over the past six days.
Botswana will host the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, next month, officials said on Thursday, risking a backlash from China, a major investor in the African country's economy.



The Dalai Lama is expected to address a human rights conference in the capital Gaborone on August 17-19 and will also meet Botswana's president during the trip.



"President Ian Khama will meet the Dalai Lama when he is in Botswana. But the president's attendance at the conference, for the official opening or otherwise, will be determined by his schedule," Khama's office said in a statement.



The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, has long been at loggerheads over Tibet with China, which brands him a reactionary and a separatist. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, says he seeks greater rights, including religious freedom, and true autonomy for Tibetans.



Neighbouring South Africa has denied a visa to the Buddhist monk three times since 2009 in what opposition parties and Archbishop Desmond Tutu say shows the extent of China's sway over Pretoria.



China's fast-growing demand for raw materials has made it one of the biggest investors in Africa and its largest trade partner. Chinese state-owned companies have been awarded contracts worth billions of pula to build roads, dams, power stations and airports in Botswana.



Tang Shenpieng, the director of politics at the Chinese Embassy in Botswana declined to immediately comment, saying his office would issue a statement on the Dalai Lama's visit soon.



But Lin Songtian, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's director-general for African affairs, told reporters last Wednesday in Beijing that allowing the Dalai Lama to visit Botswana would set back relations between the two countries.



"Botswana should not harm such a true friend and reliable development partner as China and challenge the core interest of China and the dignity of Chinese people," he was reported as saying.
Zimbabwes President Robert Mugabe has not yet returned home after he left the country on Monday for Singapore where he is receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment.

Government officials told the state-controlled Sunday Mail a few days ago that the president will be back in the country on Wednesday.

Indications are that President Mugabe will return home Saturday morning and leave for a party meeting in Manicaland province on Sunday.

Most Zimbabweans, who responded to a VOA Studio 7 Facebook thread on Mr. Mugabes visit to Singapore, said they are not happy that the president appears to be now ruling from a hospital bed.

But some said the president has a right to seek medical care in any nation of his choice.

President Mugabe has been in power for more than 37 years and will be contesting the 2018 presidential election at the age of 94.

Critics say he has destroyed a once prosperous nation but his ruling Zanu PF party and state officials have blamed Zimbabwe's economic decay on targeted sanctions imposed on the president and his inner circle by the West.

America, Britain and several nations imposed the sanctions claiming that Mr. Mugabe and his colleagues violated human rights and rigged elections.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled a revised Republican health care bill Thursday that includes a controversial amendment that would allow insurers to sell more limited plans that do not cover certain "essential" health benefits as currently required.

Critics of the amendment from Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, contend the more basic plans would be less costly for healthier people who need less care, a development that would increase rates for sicker and older people who buy more comprehensive coverage in the individual marketplace.

The amendment is aimed at garnering more Republican support to begin debate on the bill next week, but allowing insurers to sell less comprehensive plans threatens to weaken support among moderates and some conservatives. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, last month withdrew an earlier plan after it became clear there was not enough support for it in the Republican-led Senate.

Senate leaders are maintaining the option of changing or abandoning the amendment after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) releases an analysis next week.

CBO analysis

The CBO will provide two versions of the analysis, one without the Cruz provisions and another that includes details on the amendment. A CBO assessment of the previous Senate bill concluded the number of uninsured Americans would rise by 22 million over the next decade compared with the current law, the Affordable Care Act. It's commonly known as Obamacare, named for former President Barack Obama.

The latest Republican bill also maintains taxes for the wealthy that are included in Obamacare and more financial assistance for insurance for low-income people and includes billions of dollars to combat the nation's opioid epidemic.

Trump has been vocal this week in pushing Senate Republicans to finish work on a health care bill before leaving for their annual August vacation.

His latest comments came Wednesday in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. He said he would be "very angry" if a health care bill did not pass.

McConnell has postponed the scheduled August recess by two weeks in order to give lawmakers more time.

Republican majority

The Republican Party has a 52-48 majority in the Senate, and with no Democrats voicing support for the effort to revamp the health care system they passed under Obama, it would take only a few Republican opponents to stop the measure from passing.

McConnell's latest effort to dismantle Obamacare suffered a setback Thursday when Republican Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina unveiled their health care proposal on CNN only minutes before McConnell was preparing to brief Republican colleagues on his measure in a closed-door setting.

Cassidy and Graham said their bill would shift billions of federal dollars currently allocated to Obamacare to the state level.

The main Republican criticisms of Obamacare are that it is too costly and unfairly requires people to purchase health insurance or else face a penalty.

Some senators want to eliminate as much as possible of Obama's signature law, while others are looking to preserve popular parts of it, including insurance funding for poorer Americans.

The House of Representatives narrowly approved a health care overhaul in May. Trump initially cheered the passage of that bill at a White House rally, but since has called it "mean" and lobbied the Senate to approve an overhaul with "heart."
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), a freshman congresswoman from New Yorks 22nd District, wants to add flatware to a list of products that the military has to buy from a U.S. manufacturer. (Sebalos/Getty Images/iStockphoto)

As the Trump administration moves to limit the militarys reliance on foreign products and raw materials, some lawmakers are rallying to the cause.

Seizing on the opportunity to boost the economic interests of their home districts, a few are seeking to make small changes to U.S. law to give local firms an advantage on government contracts.

In this case, its not in support of aircraft carriers. Or spyware.

They are fighting for forks.

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), a freshman congresswoman from New Yorks 22nd District, wants to add flatware to a list of products that the military has to buy from a U.S. manufacturer.

If the push succeeds it could be a windfall for Sherrill Manufacturing, also known as Liberty Tabletop, which is based in Tenneys district.

Sherrill is the modern-day incarnation of a once-mighty New York manufacturer called Oneida, which in its heyday employed thousands of factory workers in Upstate New York. Its fortunes turned for the worse in the early 2000s when competition from overseas manufacturers drove down prices. The firm closed its New York operations in 2004 and sold its much-diminished local assets to what is now Sherrill Manufacturing.

Today Sherrill gets about a third of its revenue from a government contract with the General Services Administration. The company and its advocates say it is the only flatware firm that fully sources its products from inside the country, drawing on a supply chain that spans five states and dozens of companies, including an Ohio-based steel supplier.

But competition from abroad is still a challenge.

The business isnt what it used to be, chief executive Greg Owens said. Back in the good old days, we used to do $5 million or $6 million a year with the [General Services Administration], but now weve been doing about $800,000 a year.

Part of the problem, Owens says, is that he suspects independent buying is taking place at military installations, allowing agencies to buy silverware that isnt made by his firm. As recently as this week, the Defense Departments inspector general found 19 government contracts for a variety of goods worth $453.2 million that were not compliant with Buy American laws.

Sherrills predecessor, Oneida, operated as the only U.S. flatware producer compliant with the Berry Amendment, which requires that the Pentagon rely on American firms when it buys basic necessities such as food and clothing. But the legal protection for U.S.-produced flatware was removed in 2006 amid a broader legislative effort to loosen domestic sourcing restrictions for certain specialty metals.

There was no domestic provider of steel flatware at the time, so there was no need to cover it under the Berry Amendment, said Jeff Green, a lobbyist who worked on the 2006 policy change when he was a House Armed Services Committee staff member.

Today, Owens and his allies in Congress see a new political tail wind.

President Trump stormed into office on promises that he would rip up international trade agreements and put American interests first. Trumps Commerce Department is weighing broader restrictions on steel and aluminum that some worry could spark a trade war. The administration is working within the Pentagon bureaucracy to limit foreign companies footprint within the militarys vast supply chain by more closely enforcing Buy American laws, including the Berry Amendment.

Owens has been working with Tenney and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to find ways to sway government policy in his companys favor.

Tenney tried and failed this week to pass an amendment that would add stainless steel flatware to a list of products the military has to buy from manufacturers with U.S.-based supply chains.

Hannah Andrews, a spokeswoman for Tenneys office, said were going to keep up the fight to get this into law. Their next plan is to work through a separate committee to get it added to the omnibus spending bill that will eventually head for the presidents desk.

Schumer may introduce a similar amendment in the Senate.

A March 2016 letter signed by Schumer says that the GSA promised to remove 11 companies that had been falsely listing their products as Made in the U.S.A., from a GSA website.

In it, Schumer praised Sherrills homegrown credentials.

Sherrill Manufacturing produces high-quality American-made products, Schumer wrote.

Sherrills flatware lists on the GSAs procurement website alongside competing global suppliers with the proud tagline The ONLY flatware Made in the USA.

Budget hawks tend to oppose domestic sourcing requirements on the grounds that they reduce price competition.

Men and women in uniform deserve the best product at the best price, said Steve Ellis, of Taxpayers for Common Sense. This is Congress putting their thumb on the scale, and its eventually going to cost taxpayers.

Tenneys office says nothing is stopping another U.S. firm from creating a made in America supply chain to compete with Sherrill. Her plan calls for a one-year grace period, which could give competitors time to make changes.
The U.S. economic plan by President Trump, shown in Paris on Thursday, would reportedly cut government spending by $4.2 trillion over 10 years compared with existing law. (Julien De Rosa/European Pressphoto Agency)

President Trumps budget would not add to economic growth or eliminate the deficit in coming years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Thursday, casting doubt on a plan the White House has touted as central to achieving the presidents domestic agenda.

The CBO projected that the economy would grow at only 1.9 percent under the White Houses plan  far below the 3 percent goal the administration continued to outline as recently as Thursday. It also warned that contrary to White House claims that deep cuts to the safety net in the budget would lead to a financial surplus in a decade, the deficit would actually be $720 billion.

The report was one of several big questions that emerged Thursday about whether Trump would be able to deliver on the central promises of his populist agenda for governing.

He had pledged to replace President Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act with a better policy that guaranteed insurance for everybody. But Republican Senate leaders on Thursday were advancing a proposal  its fate uncertain  that would still swell the nations ranks of the uninsured by tens of millions.

Trump also faced questions about whether he would follow through on repeated promises to stop foreign competitors from killing our companies and our workers by dumping steel at ultra-cheap prices onto the global market  and he repeated to reporters traveling on Air Force One during his trip to France that itll stop.

(Jenny Starrs,Daron Taylor/The Washington Post)

Yet he has been promising action for weeks, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross would only tell a meeting of senators on Thursday that he planned to provide options to Trump soon.

Trumps combination of setbacks and delays on key policy initiatives highlight how the president is struggling to advance a populist vision of governing in a Republican Party that historically has not been receptive to such an approach.

With his budget and health care, Trump is falling in line with some of his partys most conservative voices, even if the policies threaten to harm many of the working-class voters who elected him.

On trade  an issue where he could act unilaterally  Trump is facing opposition from companies, foreign allies and numerous White House advisers who say restricting imports could hurt U.S. industry broadly far more than it helps steel companies.

The delay on steel imports follows a decision not to label China a currency manipulator as he advocated during the campaign, and a last-minute decision not to abandon the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he had often maligned.

He certainly, as a president, has not been able to articulate a coherent agenda that responded to the concerns of the country, or the concerns of the people who elected him. A lot of them were low-income blue-collar whites, and his agenda is not addressing those concerns or those problems, said Peter Wehner, a former speechwriter for Republican president George W. Bush. House and Senate Republicans werent in tune with what he was running on either, so that was always going to be a problem.

As it emphasized progress on health care and trade, the White House dismissed the CBO report as flawed because it had earlier misjudged how many people would sign up for the Affordable Care Act.

Its not surprising that a bureaucracy which underestimated by more than 100 percent Obamacare participation would also underestimate the economic benefits of MAGAnomics, Office of Management and Budget spokesman John Czwartacki said, using a new buzzword for the administrations economic policy that stands for Make America Great Again-economics. They are great people, but are just wrong on this.

Building a coalition

The CBO report Thursday creates new complications for Republicans who need to build a coalition of conservatives and moderates to vote for a single budget proposal, the first step for what the GOP hopes will be an ambitious fall of policymaking.

By rejecting the White Houses declaration that large-scale spending reductions and unspecified tax cuts will lead to economic growth, the CBO could make it harder for this coalition of GOP lawmakers to band together.

Some key elements of the White Houses agenda rely on Congresss ability to pass a budget. Only 50 Republicans are needed in the Senate to approve a tax plan if it is part of an already authorized budget plan, through a process known as reconciliation. If Congress does not pass a budget plan, however, the Senate will need 60 votes to authorize tax cuts  and the GOP has only 52 seats.

The CBOs projections came with a caveat. It said the lack of detail the White House has provided about its plans  primarily its plan to overhaul the tax code  made it difficult for the agency to determine what the economic impact of these ideas would be. The White House has put out only a sparse, one-page blueprint for overhauling the tax code.

The Presidents proposals would affect the economy in a variety of ways, the CBO wrote in its assessment. However, because the details on many of the proposed policies are not available at this time, CBO cannot provide an analysis of all their macroeconomic effects or of the budgetary feedback that would result from those effects.

If the CBO, which is run by a Republican appointee, raises questions about the lack of details in the White Houses tax plan now, it could serve as a warning to the White House and other Republicans as they try to design a more comprehensive plan in the coming months that is still expected to rely in large part on the assumption that the economy will grow markedly because of large tax cuts.

Overall, the CBO said the White Houses plan would cut government spending by $4.2 trillion over 10 years compared with existing law.

The White House seized on this element of the CBOs assessment.

This administration is committed to making the necessary investments to restore our military, secure our borders and modernize our infrastructure, OMB spokeswoman Meghan Burris said.

The White Houses budget proposal was released in May, to set government spending levels for the year that begins Oct. 1. It essentially makes recommendations to Congress, which is responsible for drawing up the budget and appropriating funds to use. Congress often uses the White Houses budget proposal as a set of guidelines.

Whole bunch of home runs

Trumps allies point to several successes, including reducing regulations and making good on his promises to withdraw from international agreements the he argued subordinated U.S. interests  the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris climate accord.

Hes hit a whole bunch of home runs, said Larry Kudlow, who has advised the president on taxes.

Those initiatives have not required congressional approval. Within the areas that the president has control over . . . he is doing a magnificent job, said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, who served as the Labor Departments chief economist under President George W. Bush.

Meanwhile, Trump suggested Wednesday once again he is planning to take action to restrain imports of steel into the U.S. market, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that China and other countries were dumping steel.

Were like a dumping ground, okay? Theyre dumping steel and destroying our steel industry. Theyve been doing it for decades, and Im stopping it, he said.

When asked if he was considering tariffs, the president replied, There are two ways  quotas and tariffs. Maybe Ill do both.

Trumps comments came as company executives and foreign leaders eagerly await a decision on two separate investigations that the Trump administration launched in April, into the potential for imports of steel and aluminum to threaten U.S. national security.

If the Trump administration finds that imports are threatening security, it could take broad action to limit shipments through tariffs or quotas  an action that could spark retaliation from trading partners and cause prices to spike throughout the supply chain for the many U.S. industries that use steel.

Ross had said that the reports findings would be available by the end of June. But a decision has been delayed because of pushback from steel-using industries in the United States and members of the administration who fear igniting a trade war.

Meeting with senators on the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, Ross said he would present Trump with a menu of options next week for how he could act, the lawmakers said. Ross suggested different countries could be treated differently under any restrictions, and he singled out Canada, which he said had not dumped an oversupply of steel, unlike other countries, a person in the meeting said.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) gave Ross a copy of a letter from agricultural groups at the meeting that warned of the potential retaliatory blowback that could occur if the White House cracks down too harshly on steel.

In a letter sent Tuesday, 18 agricultural groups, including the National Pork Producers Council, argued that the restrictions on steel and aluminum could result in other countries retaliating by restricting their products, an outcome that they said would be disastrous for the global trading system and for U.S. agriculture in particular.


(Illustration by Beady Eyes for The Washington Post)

This should be the U.S. Chamber of Commerces moment.

A businessman occupies the White House. Republicans, who have received generous campaign donations from the Chamber, control both houses of Congress. And the agenda is full of favorite business issues such as tax reform, regulatory rollbacks and infrastructure spending.

Yet in recent months, the U.S. Chamber  historically one of the cornerstones of Washington politicking and policymaking  has been deeply shaken. Members are divided over the border-adjustment tax, health care and climate change. Some want the Chamber to more vigorously stand up to President Trump to protect free trade.

There has also been turbulence on the foreign front. The U.S.-India Business Council has operated under the U.S. Chambers wing since its founding in 1975. But on July 7, the councils high-powered board  including top executives of PepsiCo, Cisco, Warburg Pincus, and MasterCard  voted 29-0 to break away, saying in a letter to members that the Chamber adds no value, but imposes unnecessary bureaucracy.

General Electric  the nations 1oth-largest company and maker of products as varied as CT scanners, software and gas turbines  has considered pulling out of the Chamber because it views the group as part of an antiquated Washington influence establishment, too exclusively aligned with the Republican Party, and no longer an effective advocate for GEs interests or views, according to people familiar with the companys thinking.

[High-powered CEOs at U.S.-India Business Council vote to split from Chamber]

Companies like GE, which long relied on the Chamber to be their guide and advocate in Washington, are now as politically sophisticated and connected as the Chamber  if not more so. And in an era that allows virtually unlimited independent political spending, they can form their own more focused, and perhaps more effective, associations. Many lobbyists who represent companies individually think the Chamber has taken on the lumbering character of its aging building, a 92-year-old limestone edifice lined with Corinthian columns overlooking the White House.

If there was a time in the past when they needed the Chamber for access to the White House, thats kind of gone, said a public affairs consultant who had worked with three Fortune 500 companies that have weighed leaving the Chamber. Companies have the tools to create coalitions of like-minded firms on issues that are important to them.

This comes on top of high-profile defections in recent years. Apple and Pacific Gas & Electric dropped support in 2009 in response to the Chambers attempts to cast doubt on scientific evidence of global warming and play down its economic significance. And Nike quit the Chambers board, saying we fundamentally disagree with the groups climate posture, though it has remained a member.

Hewlett-Packard, Mars, Unilever and Yahoo have also dropped out.

Currently our focus is on participating in trade associations that directly impact our business strategies and product portfolio, Mars spokeswoman Denise Meredith Young said.

The pharmacy giant CVS quit in 2015 over the Chambers lobbying to ease restrictions on tobacco sales; CVS removed cigarettes from its stores in 2014.

Yet many of Americas biggest corporate names have chosen to remain  if not enthusiastic, at least mum and on the Chambers roster  paying dues to the association or its wholly owned affiliates devoted to specific issues. At least one major firm, investment manager BlackRock, has joined so it could monitor discussions on Securities and Exchange Commission regulations.

One reason for staying in the Chamber: Companies want to be on the same side as combative Chamber President Thomas J. Donohue, nearly 80, who took the reins of the group two decades ago and remains a formidable figure and fundraiser. The Chamber and its affiliates spent just under $104 million on lobbying in 2016, more than any other corporation or industry association by a whopping margin, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Chamber under Toms leadership has been a real force, said Charles O. Holliday Jr., chairman of Royal Dutch Shell and former chief executive of DuPont. I dont necessarily agree with all their policies, he added, singling out climate change, but I think their voice has been useful.



In recent months, the U.S. Chamber  historically one of the cornerstones of Washington politicking and policymaking  has been deeply shaken. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Getting the policy right

Founded in 1912, the U.S. Chamber sits atop a nationwide network of local chambers of commerce that operate largely on their own. It does not publish lists of members or their contributions.

It takes more than $4 million a week to run the 500-person national organization, which paid Donohue a handsome $6.6 million in 2015, according to the Chambers most recent Form 990 filing to the IRS.

Some Chamber members think that its time for Donohue, who bought a $2.8 million house in North Palm Beach, Fla., in 2011, to step down. But people who know him say he is staying. He has said that people will know hes dead when he is carried out of the office in a box with flowers.

He looks at his sustained activity in Chamber as keeping him alive and active and he looks at [longtime Motion Picture Assocation President] Jack Valenti who retired and died a short time later, says Craig Fuller, a Reagan White House official who met Donohue in the mid-1970s.

At the Chamber, fundraising remains a strength. Companies, for instance, can pay $100,000 a year and the Chamber says it will be their voice in Washington.

When it comes to a big company, Donohue often puts on his gladiator uniform, said an admirer, and presses for contributions. He went at least once to Walmarts headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., and received multimillion dollar contributions. Walmart, like many companies, steers its money toward Chamber affiliates, vehicles for promoting specific projects such as tort reform or compelling online retailers to pay sales tax.

The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, a particularly popular affiliate, collected $44.8 million in 2014, according to its Form 990. It has filed lawsuits or briefs in cases that would limit employee class actions. The Partnership to Fuel America, part of the Chambers Institute for 21st Century Energy, worked to win approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

But the sheer size of the Chamber can make it difficult unify positions.

The Chamber says it avoids issues that split its members, such as the border-adjustment tax. GE, for example, favors the proposed levy while Walmart opposes it.

Yet it has alienated some members and pleased others  notably big insurance firms  by giving its stamp of approval to GOP efforts to roll back former president Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act.

The larger you get, the tougher some of the issues become, said Fuller, who has been a Chamber board member. Most of time there is a sense that for the greater good well stay engaged at the Chamber.

Donohue said in a speech that the test for any policy boils down to a simple question: Will it speed growth or will it impede growth?

Neil Bradley, the Chambers chief policy officer, says that the Trump administration offers opportunities to advance its issues. Items on Trumps agenda  regulatory relief, tax reform, an infrastructure plan and rolling back Obamas health-care plan  are the substantive things we expected and hoped to be dealing with, Bradley said. But Trumps protectionist views and desire to limit immigration conflict with the Chambers.

Many members would like the Chamber to be a more high-profile leader in promoting free trade, providing cover to companies that might be vulnerable if defying the president on their own.

You could always say someone needs to yell louder or make a big stink about something, Bradley said, but he added that when it comes to trade, the Chamber is focused on getting the policy right.

The Chamber says it has relaunched a media campaign called Faces of Trade to highlight U.S. exporters. And Donohue has traveled to Canada and Mexico for talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement, whose termination he said would be devastating for U.S. companies and jobs.

The Chamber asserts that its efforts saved the Export-Import Bank, which provides U.S. government credit for exporters and which conservative Republicans wanted to abolish. During the 2016 campaign, Trump called the institution excess baggage, only to let it stand this year.

But one GOP lobbyist cautioned that they didnt really save it. Trump has nominated to its board two former members of Congress  Scott Garrett and Spencer Bachus  who have rejected its mission and vowed to close it. They could curtail the banks lending.



U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue, nearly 80, took the reins of the group two decades ago and remains a formidable figure and fundraiser. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Bipartisan support is lacking

Many companies complain that the Chamber has become too closely aligned with the Republican Party.

In 2016, in direct contributions, the Chamber gave money to 17 Senate Republicans and no Democrats. Including the House, 95 percent of the Chambers contributions went to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.

Its independent spending on elections came to $29.1 million, none of it for Democrats and only $199,861  less than 1 percent  against Republicans in primaries.

In a move that infuriated Democrats, the Chamber spent $1.4 million on television ads last year to defeat Evan Bayh of Indiana in a race for his old Senate seat, even though Bayh, a centrist, had worked for the Chamber for five years.

Evan Bayh is, well, more liberal than you may think, one ad said, and defenders of the Chamber say Bayhs voting record on business issues was far weaker than his opponents.

The Chamber says it applies a litmus test, backing lawmakers who support 70 percent of its priority measures.

In his last year in office, Bayh voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which passed the Senate on a vote of 61 to 36. The Chamber counted that as a mark against Bayh, lowering his score to 43 percent. Another of the seven key votes that year: Bayh voted in favor of the Affordable Care Act, which the Chamber opposed.

By contrast, the Business Roundtable, a group of leading chief executives, does not score members of Congress or contribute to political campaigns.

Defeating Bayh helped dash Democratic hopes of retaking control of the Senate. Scott W. Reed, the Chambers senior political strategist, acknowledges that was the goal for 2016. Last cycle, it was to make sure that [Sen.] Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was leader of Senate, he said. Theres no comparison between McConnell and [Sen. Charles E.] Schumer (D-N.Y.) about whos going to be more pro-growth and support the free-enterprise system.

Schumers spokesman Matt House replied that the Chamber has devolved into a totally partisan organization, doing a disservice to its members and making it less effective.

The Chambers campaign tactics can be harsh.

[How big business lost Washington]

Last year, the Chamber spent $4.2 million on ads opposing Katie McGinty, a former White House environment official, deriding her far left agenda and suggesting that McGinty would kidnap high-energy children to tax them. Run Jimmy! Run! a mother cries out as a woman wearing high heels steps out of a black car.

Reed says the Chamber has altered its approach. This year, it ran ads supportive of Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Claire McCaskill (Mo.) on specific bills, even though this is not an election year. And last year, it spent money to help defeat a Freedom Caucus member, incumbent Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), in a Republican primary, which Reed said sent a strong signal to the Freedom Caucus. We think its important to rebuild the middle in both parties, he said.

Though Donohue opposed Obamas health care, financial and energy reforms, he still had access to senior officials at the White House, notably Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett and later Jeff Zients, who was head of the National Economic Council. Donohue visited the White House nearly a dozen times from February to June in 2009, including three encounters with the president, White House visitor logs show.

Later, Donohue backed Obama efforts on immigration reform and trade.

But on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a complicated trade deal that the Obama administration forged, the Chamber did less arm twisting than I would have anticipated, said a former senior Obama administration official.

I think theyve become more oriented toward the Republican Party, said Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), a former chief executive who first ran for Congress in 2012 and later received a Spirit of Enterprise award from the Chamber.

Its unfortunate, because I think on many issues, the Democrats have been more supportive of things that would help the private sector, Delaney added. But I dont think the Chamber has embraced the opportunity to build with Democrats bipartisan support.



When President Trump announced his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, he repeatedly cited a report co-commissioned by the Chamber. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Climate change is sticky issue

Perhaps the most nettlesome issue for the Chamber has been climate change.

The Chamber asserts that it is neutral on the Paris climate accord that Obama helped forge, but the Chamber has provided ammunition for foes of the agreement.

[Trump announces U.S. exit from Paris climate deal]

On June 1, when Trump announced his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, he repeatedly cited a report co-commissioned by the Chamber. It was done by NERA Economic Consulting, a firm that has done studies paid for by the oil and natural gas industry.

The report said the economy would lose 2.7 million jobs, suffer 12 to 38 percent drops in industrial production, and cut average U.S. household income by as much as $7,000 by 2040. But Kenneth Gillingham, an assistant professor of economics at Yale University, said that the study omitted the influence of technological change, assumed that other countries had no carbon policies, and did not count benefits from climate policies.

The Chamber issued a statement saying the study used regulations proposed by the Obama administration, but Gillingham, who worked at the Council of Economic Advisers under Obama, calls that blatantly false.

The Chamber has long tried to instill doubt about climate change. In 2009, the New Mexico utility PNM Resources quit the group after a Chamber official suggested holding a climate change trial like the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial over evolution.

Later the Chamber joined states including Texas and Virginia as well as fossil fuel companies in suing the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming that the EPAs determination that greenhouse gases endanger human health was capricious and arbitrary. The courts dismissed the lawsuits.

A long list of high-profile companies in the Chamber support the Paris accord, including GE, Microsoft and the Walt Disney Co. At least eight of the 25 companies that signed a letter in a New York Times ad supporting the Paris accord are members.

Bruce F. Freed, co-founder of the Center for Political Accountability and a critic of the Chamber, said companies have real problems when their spending conflicts with their business strategies and policy positions.
Faced with a burgeoning sexual harassment crisis, leaders in Silicon Valley have come up with a very Silicon Valley solution: Use technology to create a blacklist.

One of the regions most prominent firms recently emailed an online reporting form to 3,500 entrepreneurs, encouraging them to blow the whistle on sexual harassment by venture capitalists. Now it is spearheading an effort to create an app that could provide reviews of financiers, akin to Yelp or the workplace-review site Glassdoor.

We dont call it a blacklist, but that is essentially what is happening, Kat Manalac, a partner at the influential start-up incubator Y Combinator, said of the blast email. There has always been a whisper network, where investors and entrepreneurs know which other investors are bad actors. Two other groups are also launching tech start-ups to help victims share their experiences.

The efforts by Y Combinator and others are part of the industrys urgent search for answers in the wake of sexual harassment scandals that have cemented Silicon Valleys reputation as hostile to women.

But for all the success the tech industry has had in building products based on ratings systems and online feedback, this is uncharted territory for Silicon Valley and may be fraught with risk, legal experts say.

Anonymous apps, blacklists and databases could backfire  on the makers of the apps, on people who felt unfairly accused or on women themselves  and exacerbate the problem of gender discrimination and harassment, said Debra Katz, a partner with Katz, Marshall and Banks, a Washington, D.C.-based firm specializing in employment law.

Silicon Valleys long-standing problem with gender discrimination and harassment came to a head in recent weeks, as the Internet lit up with unprecedented outpourings of rage, soul-searching and stories from female start-up founders who publicly said they had been violated by prominent venture capitalists.

The testimonies highlighted the unusual amount of power that venture capitalists  almost all of whom are male  hold in Silicon Valley. Companies have human resources departments with defined sexual harassment policies, but no formal rules govern the relationship between entrepreneurs and financiers, whose whims can make or break a start-up idea.

Some women said they were harassed or touched inappropriately when they went to pitch their companies or sought advice. Others said they were pressured to have sex with promises that their business plans would be funded.

A report last month in the technology publication the Information included detailed descriptions by six women of unwanted advances by Justin Caldbeck, a well-known local investor. The women said Caldbeck sent unwanted explicit text messages in the middle of the night, groped one underneath a hotel bar, and tried to have sex with several when they sought funding. The news sent shock waves through the clubby tech world. Caldbeck resigned from his post, but the fallout continued when his partners quit and investors began to pull money from his firm, Binary Capital.

After similar stories appeared in mainstream media outlets, other venture capitalists apologized and resigned from their companies, including Dave McClure, founder of the start-up incubator 500 Startups.

When you are in a mind-set when you need to raise money, you will bend over backwards, and a lot of investors take advantage of that, said Elizabeth Yin, one of the 500 Startups partners who quit in disgust after news emerged that her firm had not acted quickly on news of McClures inappropriate behavior. The power dynamic is appalling.

Chris Sacca, an early-stage investor in Twitter, Uber and Instagram, who retired from investing this year, was also named in a report by the New York Times and issued a public apology online. 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 cant be their authentic selves, Sacca wrote on the blogging site Medium.

Their mea culpas highlighted the challenges women face and the stark gender inequality in the Valley. But solutions have not come easy.

One group of women has already founded a start-up, BetterBrave, that aims to be an online hub for female workers who felt they were sexually harassed at work. SheWorx, composed of female entrepreneurs, is planning an online database that would enable women and others to report unethical behavior by investors. Meanwhile, a $112 million venture fund serving female entreprenuers, ReThink Impact, plans to splash an open letter to female founders across the homepage of its website on Monday, inviting those who are frustrated with the current system to seek funding from other women.

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman called on all venture capital firms to sign a decency pledge, while a group of venture capitalists published template wording for a sexual harassment policy that firms could adopt.

A number of firms have tweeted support for the pledge, but several prominent women in the industry say that none of these efforts requires companies to make concrete commitments such as a binding agreement to hire more women, disclose harassment to funders or fire people who have broken pledges or policies.

Were seeing this movement in Silicon Valley toward pledges, mea culpas and quick fixes, said Y-Vonne Hutchinson, a Silicon Valley recruiter who focuses on diversity. I think thats dangerous. That doesnt get at the heart of whats really driving our issues with sexual harassment.

Y Combinators recent email blast to thousands of entrepreneurs asked them to fill out a form with the names of investors who may have engaged in inappropriate sexual or romantic behavior toward company founders. Accusers could choose to remain anonymous, the email stated. Those named could be cut off from Demo Day, Y Combinators highly anticipated biannual event when entrepreneurs pitch venture capitalists on some of the years hottest deals. Partners at Y Combinator are also discussing funding an app that would expose harassers.

Y Combinator said maintaining such a list could protect more women from being victimized and, perhaps for the first time, create real consequences for people who act inappropriately. For legal reasons, Y Combinator changed the reporting form last week to no longer be anonymous.

In addition, the incubator is using its clout to shame investors who behave badly. Investor at demo day asked a female founder to babysit his kids, Y Combinator partner Adora Cheung tweeted in March. Hes been uninvited from future events. Cant make this stuff up.

She also tweeted that Y Combinator had disinvited an investor who was trying to replace a female chief executive with a white male.

Manalac said she was struck by reports from women saying they felt that they had no choice but to tolerate harassment, because they felt it was simply the cost of being a nonwhite female executive.

She has doubts about creating a public app such as Glassdoor. She was concerned about whether it could be manipulated by certain users  to act out vendettas against rivals, for example  and whether it would be tainted by conflicts of interests, because it would be funded by the very investors being rated.

I still have reservations, she said. But Im starting to think that maybe its time for a resource like that to exist.

Researchers say gender dynamics in Silicon Valley are worse than in other industries because of a confluence of factors: the bleak male-to-female ratio in venture firms and at tech companies; the informal nature of venture fundraising and of start-up culture; and financial power imbalances between women and men.

Venture capital is more of a boys club than even Wall Street. Of the five top venture firms  Sequoia, Greylock, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark  three lack a female general partner. (Sequoia has a female investing partner. Benchmark, the largest investor in Uber, has one female partner, whom it poached from Greylock in May, amid the controversies at the ride-hailing giant.)

The tech industry has the biggest gender gap of any profession, with less than 15 percent of the most sought-after and highly compensated engineering roles in Silicon Valley companies filled by women, according to a database of 272 start-ups maintained by Tracy Chou, a Pinterest engineer and founding member of Project Include, a diversity program for chief executives.

Many insiders worry that the efforts could cause a backlash.

We are hearing VCs saying that they wont take women entrepreneurs out to dinner or get drinks  only meetings at the office, said Hutchinson, the recruiter. Then women will be at a further disadvantage.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that four out of the five top venture capital firms in Silicon Valley lack a female general partner. The number is actually three out of five. Sequoia Capital has one female investing partner in the United States.

Jena McGregor in Washington contributed to this report.




Senate Republican leaders unveiled a new version of their health-care bill Thursday after the first version failed to get enough support. The bill takes major steps to roll back provisions of the Affordable Care Act, with spending cuts to Medicaid and marketplace subsidies funding a substantial tax cut for the health-care industry.

Senate leadership can only afford two no votes from the GOP, but many Republican senators opposed or expressed concern about the previous version of the bill.

Loosening insurance regulations attracted some conservatives





The biggest change to the bill, pushed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), allows insurance companies to offer bare-bones health-care plans and charge sicker people more than healthy people, as long as they also offer at least one plan that complies with the ACAs standards. This change moves the bill to the right in an attempt to sway conservative votes.

Opioid money may not woo senators from the most afflicted states





The bill also allocated an additional $45 billion to combat the opioid crisis, which has hit especially hard in states such as West Virginia, home to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R). Capito, as well as Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) cited the lack of opioid funding as one of the reasons they objected to the previous bill, alongside its steep Medicaid cuts.

Additional funding for Alaska





A provision was added to give Alaska $1.3 billion in additional funding to keep its insurance markets stable. The state would have been hit especially hard by the previous version of the bill, since its health-care costs are significantly higher than other states. Alaska was projected to lose $643 million of funding under the previous version of the bill, according to data from the Urban Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The influx of money may be able to reverse Alaskas losses.

Just as interesting as who was targeted by these changes is who wasnt targeted. The bill makes almost no effort to recruit moderates such as Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has already stated her objection to the new bill.

Those senators have asked for more Medicaid funding, which the CBO projected would be cut by 26 percent over the next decade and 35 percent the decade after. Tax credits for people buying insurance on the exchanges, which would decrease by more than $400 billion under the bill, did not increase either. Planned Parenthood will still lose Medicaid funding for a year, which Collins and Murkowski have called a dealbreaker.

A vote could come as early as next week.
In the late 20th century, American readers went Pole-crazy. The fad may have been kicked off by Roland Huntford, whose Scott and Amundsen (1979) dragged a muckrake across the grave of revered British explorer Robert Falcon Scott. Hoping to be the first man at the South Pole, Scott got there in 1912 only to find a Norwegian flag flying, planted a month earlier by his better-prepared rival Roald Amundsen. Huntford portrayed Scott as a bumbler whose Englishmen-know-best ineptitude doomed not only himself but also four companions, all of whom perished on the return trek. (One telling difference: While Amundsen and his crew rode on sleds pulled by dogs, Scott and company walked!) Other writers came to Scotts defense; Huntford followed up in 1985 with a splendid, adulatory biography of another Scott rival, the Irishman Ernest Shackleton; and it wasnt long before the Far North and its explorers were rediscovered, too.

Its in this context that Cooper Gosling, the protagonist of Ashley Shelbys enjoyable first novel, South Pole Station, applies for a fellowship to study in the Antarctic. Cooper belongs to a polar family  not polar by personal experience, but through books, notably Apsley Cherry-Garrards The Worst Journey in the World (1922) and her own fathers storytelling. She and her brother David, she lovingly recalls, used to pretend we were members of the Scott party, back when we were kids. By the time the adult Cooper, a professional artist, reaches the coldest continent under the auspices of a National Science Foundation arts program, Davids long battle with schizophrenia has ended in suicide. To his sister, then, the South Pole is more than just the stuff bucket lists are made of.

[3 books on the Earths poles]

Shelby, who has also written a nonfiction book about a disastrous North Dakota flood, has fun with the sort of people Antarctica attracts: misfits and eccentrics, who are stuck with one another for months at a time, almost entirely indoors and thousands of miles away from the nearest flowering of normal life. Among several vivid characters are an assistant chef who stoops to thievery in her campaign to become top cook; a representative of the NSF whose unflappability keeps most of his charges in line; and a handsome astrophysicist named Sal, who, when not conducting experiments to understand how the universe originated, acts as Coopers love interest. Because polar residence is inevitably transient, theres a special term for Antarctic liaisons of convenience: ice marriages. Cooper and Sal, however, seem to be aiming for a frost-free relationship.

The author Ashley Shelby (Erica Hanna)

And then we have Dr. Frank Pavano, a climate-change denier whose presence brings out the worst in practically everyone at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. His polar peers  who bracket the word scientist with air quotes when applying it to Pavano  are not content to let him fail on his own; they nudge the process along by sabotaging his work. Because Cooper has been nice to him, Pavano invites her to help him with an outdoor experiment. She agrees, and the collaboration ends badly for them both, not least by incurring the wrath of climate-change naysayers in Congress who control the NSFs purse strings.

Theres a lot going on in South Pole Station, and Shelby does better with some of its themes than with others. Coopers attempts to come to terms with her brothers death are surprisingly unmoving, for example, while Sals pursuit of a theory as to how the world came into being makes for gripping reading. (More than once, in fact, I found myself wondering if Shelby hadnt picked the wrong member of her romantic duo to build the novel around.)

But Shelby is very good on social interactions at the end of the earth, and South Pole Station crackles with energy whenever science takes center stage. She makes Sals abstruse theorizing both comprehensible and exciting, and excels at dramatizing the conflict between the Beakers, as the polar scientists are known, and the visiting congressional troglodytes. The novel might also give comfort to bucket-list worrywarts, who now have good reason to skip Antarctica. As Cooper notes on her first day there, You think Antarctica is going to be the purest place in the world . . . and you get here and its like Akron.

Dennis Drabelle is a former contributing editor of Book World.


A detail from Parallax Gap in the Renwick Gallery's Bettie Rubenstein Grand Salon. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Ribbons of gray, coral and pink swirl overhead in the second-floor gallery at the Renwick Gallery before forming an intricate vaulted ceiling. Illusions of domes and boxes appear and then fall away as viewers move through the room. Realism turns abstract.

The overhead magic is created by Parallax Gap, a new installation that plays with perspective and illusion as it transforms the museums stately Grand Salon.

Commissioned by the museum for the large room where Janet Echelmans woven sculpture, 1.8 Renwick, was displayed, the work depicts nine ceilings from 19th- and 20th-century buildings, including designs from Philadelphia City Hall, the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco and the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

The work by design firm FreelandBuck is on view until February. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Layers of fabric stretched on frames are hung in layers from above. The work spans 67 by 38 feet and takes up 10,000 square feet, but it still allows parts of the gallerys own ornate ceiling and skylights to peek through. The individual ceilings overlap and collide with one another, depending on a visitors point of view. Its name plays on its jumpy perspective, as a kind of optical interaction.

Brennan Buck and David Freeland, partners at the architecture practice FreelandBuck, created the piece, which was selected by the museum in its ABOVE the Renwick competition in 2015. It will remain on view through Feb. 11.

Parallax Gap, which is the first architecturally focused work commissioned by the Renwick, pushes the definition of craft in the same way the nine site-specific works in Wonder did, says Abraham Thomas, curator-in-charge of the Smithsonian American Art Museums satellite space for contemporary craft and decorative arts. Wonder was the blockbuster exhibition that celebrated the Renwicks reopening in 2015 after a two-year, $30 million renovation.

Thomas said he wants to build on the experimental nature of that show, which pushed the boundaries of American craft to include large-scale works of contemporary art. This installations focus on architectural is the next step in defining craft as a process, he said.

[Newly scrubbed Renwick Gallery opens Friday]

Craft is a verb, not just an object. It is an attitude, he said.
A 32-year-old non-local worker died at a construction site in Taipa. According to a report by TDM, the Fire Service Bureau presumed that the death had been caused by heat stroke, although an injury was later found on the chest of the deceased. The Judiciary Police (PJ) believes that there are no suspicious causes behind the death. The case has been forwarded to the PJ for further investigations. The Labor Affairs Bureau has also stepped in to assist in the case.

Smoking penalty may increase to MOP1,500

The Legislative Assembly will vote on an amendment of the citys tobacco control bill today. The amendment suggests increasing the penalty for irresponsible smoking to MOP1,500. During a TDM radio show yesterday, tobacco control officer Tang Chi Hou, from the Health Bureau (SSM), said that within the number of 5,000 people who are repeatedly displaying irresponsible smoking behaviors, 92 percent of them are MSAR residents. Tang said that SSM hopes that the amendment can improve the citys tobacco control effect. Tang is calling for the public to use the tobacco control hotlines more often.

Jaywalking cases surge

In the first half of 2017, there was a total of 254 jaywalking cases recorded, according to the latest data released earlier this week by the Public Security Police Force (PSP). The number represents a 119 percent increase compared to the same period of last year. In addition, there have been 943 recorded occurrences of cars that did not give way to pedestrians on zebra crossings, while in the first half of 2016 the number was 872. In the same period, 399 overloaded cars were reported, down 46 percent compared to the previous year. This figure in the first half of 2016 was 737.

38 school snack shops evaluated as healthy

Thirty eight school snack shops have been evaluated as healthy shops by the Health Bureau (SSM). The 38 shops represent 60 percent of the total number of school snack shops across Macau. Currently, local non-tertiary schools are required to establish healthy dining instructions, as well as to mark their food with red, yellow, or green labels and to stock these foods in amounts that correlate to a sales ratio. For instance, food marked with red labels can correspond at most to 20 percent of all food being sold. The aforementioned healthy dining instructions were first established in 2008/2009, in primary schools. The SSM, together with the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, hopes to instill an attitude to food based on healthy eating principles in the younger generation.

Man arrested for social network posts

A 32-year-old local man was arrested this week in Zhuhai for posting videos online calling the public to subvert the Macau SAR government, according to a report by Macao Daily News. Last May, the man posted a video online saying he could commit murder in exchange for MOP500,000. The local resident, who is now under arrest, consistently posted videos where he declared that subversion of the Macau government starts by assassinating the Chief Executive. With the help of the mainland policy authority, the Judiciary Police arrested the man, and charged him with inciting violence. Once the accusations against the suspect are confirmed, he will be sentenced to jail for a period between one and eight years.
The House Appropriations Committee late Thursday advanced a measure to repeal the Districts assisted suicide law, known as Death with Dignity, opening a new front in the citys battle for self-determination.

The measure, introduced by Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), must still be approved by the full House and Senate, as well as President Trump, before it can take effect.

We have the absolute ability to judge anything that the District of Columbia does that we think is bad, bad policy, Harris said during debate on the measure. This is really bad policy.

His amendment to squash the assisted suicide law passed 28 to 24 along party lines except for Reps. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), who joined the Democrats to vote against the measure. Newhouse comes from one of six states where assisted suicide is legal.

None of the members opposing our law were elected to represent our residents, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said in a statement on the House committees passage of the assisted-suicide rider. This is not a federal issue. This is a local issue. Members of Congress who are interfering with our laws must begin to realize what they are really doing: attempting to sidestep the democratic process to impose their personal beliefs on 681,000 Washingtonians.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the citys nonvoting representative, said she will try to strike the District-related measures when the budget bill goes to the House floor so that no member will get a pass on stepping on D.C. home rule and violating the basic Republican principle of local control over local affairs.

Harris, a longtime antagonist of the District, also offered but then withdrew an amendment that would have blocked the city from using its funds to enforce a law that prohibits disposable wipes in the citys sewer system.

The committee passed three other measures that limit D.C. autonomy and have become routine under GOP House budget bills. They say the District cannot spend money without federal say so, block the city from using local tax dollars to subsidize abortion for low-income women, and prevent the city from spending money to regulate the sale of marijuana.

D.C. Council Member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), the author of the assisted-suicide law, said in a statement that Harriss bill would directly result in the prolonged suffering and pain of District residents who are terminally ill.

The D.C. Council passed the assisted suicide law by an 11 to 2 vote after more than a year of intense discussion and lobbying on the part of lawmakers, advocates and opponents.

Advocates say the measure would allow terminally ill patients to choose the timing and manner of their deaths. But social conservatives oppose assisted suicide because they see it as undermining the sanctity of life.

The District is the first predominantly black community to legalize assisted suicide. Some African American residents, along with advocates for the disabled, fear that the law will steer some people to premature death.

(Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)

The citys assisted suicide law faced multiple opponents, including a contingent of House Republicans, after Bowser quietly signed it late last year. Trumps budget proposal prohibited funding for the D.C. law.

Under the laws current implementation timeline, terminally ill District residents will be able to legally end their lives with the help of a doctor beginning in late September.

The legislation was modeled after the nations first physician-assisted suicide law, enacted in Oregon. It would allow doctors to prescribe fatal medication to patients believed to have less than six months to live. Patients would have to make two requests over two weeks and ingest the drugs themselves.

Harris, an anesthesiologist who specializes in obstetrics, called the law a poorly written and misguided policy that would have doctors encouraging patients to commit suicide.

New, stunning cures in medicine occur each and every day, he said in a statement Friday. Encouraging patients to commit suicide deprives them of the opportunity to potentially be cured by new treatments that could ameliorate their condition and even add years to their lives, if not cure them completely.

During the committee vote Thursday, Harris said he worried people will flock to the District to get a lethal injection at the prescription of a physician who plays God.

Kim Callinan of national group Compassion & Choices noted the law does not call for an injection and likened the process to taking a sleeping pill.

Youve got dying people who get peace of mind knowing this option is available, she said. [Members of Congress] did an end-run around the system and put their personal interests ahead of the interests of the people of D.C.

Harris, the only Republican in Marylands congressional delegation, represents the states rural, conservative Eastern Shore.

His local colleagues on the House Appropriations Committee voted in line with their parties. Rep. Scott Taylor (R-Va.) voted for Harriss amendment; Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) voted against it.

peter.jamison@washpost.com


The Lerner Enterprises property that was once Landover Mall has been mostly vacant waiting for a major development. Lerner Enterprises erected a sign heralding the coming of new development officials had hoped would have been the new FBI headquarters. ( Arelis R. Hernandez /The Washington Post)

Prince Georges political leaders have so often invoked plans for a grand new FBI headquarters complex as one of the countys economic triumphs that it almost felt like a done deal.

County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) even included the project when describing $12 billion in projected investment during his two terms in office  a fitting narrative for his nascent gubernatorial campaign.

Then the federal government pulled the plug.

The Trump administrations decision this week to halt new headquarters contract caught Baker and other politicians by surprise, and left residents and local business owners wondering what other projects could be lured to the large parcels in Greenbelt and Landover that were finalists in the FBIs search (the third finalist was in Springfield, Va.).

[Feds cancel costly, decade-long search for a new FBI headquarters]

County officials had hoped a headquarters complex would trigger the kind of transformative growth that the Pentagon did when it was built in Arlington decades ago. Now they are waiting to see whether the General Services Administrative may pursue a smaller FBI relocation that would still work for one of the parcels.

(Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)

And they say they are prepared to keep pushing forward with their development strategy of attracting big business and government agencies to the county, which sits just east of the nations capital.

This wont deter us, said Bakers top economic development aide, David Iannucci. The FBI wouldve been a critical, wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but its a lost opportunity, not a negative.





Each Prince Georges site has specific challenges that could have county officials working from scratch to attract investors there.

The 82-acre Greenbelt property is mostly comprised of Metro parking lots controlled by developer Renard Development through an agreement with the transit agency, which would have been included in an FBI deal. That prospective partnership could dissolve without a large employer interested in the site.

Garth Beall, manager of Renard, said he would be watching closely in the coming weeks to see if the GSA and FBI quickly restart the search in some way that could make Greenbelt viable, but he was not optimistic. This thing could easily slip years, he said.

Although Renard and the county have spent more than $1 million on infrastructure improvements and set aside more revenue to make the property shovel-ready, environmental concerns and the need for a new highway interchange could push the cost of developing the area above what any business would want to pay.

At the same time, the visibility of the site and its proximity to mass transit would make the property a tempting locale for a global or national corporation, or a cybersecurity firm seeking proximity to the states flagship university.

It really has to be something that is sizable enough to justify those expenditures, Beall said. The property is a blank slate.

Greenbelt Mayor Emmett Jordan said more than 1,000 people have moved into newly-constructed residential properties at the south end of the Metro stations property. City officials and local business owners had hoped the FBI headquarters would help jump-start commercial redevelopment to serve those new residents.

Im not sure people who are living there moved to be next to FBI, but to be near the Metro station, Jordan said. We are still open for business.

[Congress leaves FBI headquarters underfunded]

Landover is the 88-acre home to a demolished shopping mall owned in part by Lerner Enterprises, the real estate firm of Washington Nationals owner Theodore N. Lerner. The property has sat almost empty for nearly 15 years, a weeded-over parking lot with jersey barriers and chain-link fencing lining the perimeter.



Lerner Enterprises, which partly owns 88 acres at Maryland Route 202 in Landover, was one of three finalists bidding on the FBI headquarters project. ( Arelis R. Hernandez /The Washington post)

Overgrown shrubbery partially blocks the propertys newest feature, a billboard reading: Home to Future Development, Prince Georges County Continues to Grow.

The Lerners years ago pursued a regional hospital complex for the property  a project that is now being built in Largo. They have considered housing as well.

Executives from Lerner Enterprises, which was also a finalist to build the now-canceled project, were not available to comment, a spokeswoman said.

But former state delegate Jolene Ivey, who did community relations work for the Lerners bid, said the property remains a great value for any investor seeking a large parcel with access to major roadways and downtown Washington.

I cant see why it cant attract another big project, she said. Why wouldnt the federal government want to put something there that would be a money-saver in the long run?

Lyric Hawkins scouted out the location for her day care, Rockstar Prep 4 Kids, before she knew the FBI could become a neighbor.

But when she read up on the proposals for a 2.1 million-square-foot campus capable of serving 11,000 employees, Hawkins prepared for a major boost in business at her storefront in the nearly empty Landover Crossing strip mall.

It was definitely on my radar. I figured that the FBI employs lots of people and at least half of them have to have kids, said Hawkins, who plans to make the day care a 24-hour operation for parents who work late shifts. But now Ive got to scratch that off my list.

Long Hos Lowest Price Auto Service is the only business at the site of the old Landover Mall. He had hoped to be bought out by the federal government if the FBI headquarters was built there.

I was expecting to get paid, Ho said laughing. But no, we are still working like normal, trying to reassure our customers that we are still here. If the FBIs not coming, we expect something else will happen [on the property] soon.



Weeds grow through cracks in the parking lot at the Landover property. ( Arelis R. Hernandez /The Washington Post)

Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said Prince Georges remains well-positioned to receive top consideration from federal agencies seeking space close to Metro stations, especially if the county government focuses on creating the kind of neighborhoods where todays federal employees want to work and live.

We should be looking at integrating large employers with a more walkable, mixed-use environment. We can do that at Greenbelt and other Metro stations, Cort said. Designing public spaces and streets can create a sense of place that can attract employers, but its important the county continues to shape that.

Terry Clower, director of George Mason Universitys Center for Regional Analysis, said the cancellation of the project may mean that developers pause to reassess the risk before jumping into future federal deals.

But by their very nature, he noted, developers are optimists and will do what they can to land their next opportunity.

Nothing is certain with these projects, Clower said. Anyone competing for any major presence in the market or corporate headquarters knows this. Some win, some lose.

Robert McCartney, Jenna Portnoy and Katherine Shaver contributed to this story.


Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), right, chats with Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert) during a bill signing ceremony in April. Hogans chief spokesman has accused Miller of holding up a Cabinet appointment in hopes of overturning a ruling by the state hospital commission. (Patrick Semansky/Associated Press)

Two Maryland cabinet secretaries are the unlikely figures at the center of a growing political brawl between the states Republican governor and the Democratic-majority legislature that could end up in court.

The dispute, over whether the legislature can prohibit the state from paying appointees whose nominations were sent to the state Senate but not approved, prompted an extraordinary allegation this week from Doug Mayer, Gov. Larry Hogans chief spokesman.

Mayer accused Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), the most powerful Democrat in Annapolis, of threatening to kill one of the nominations unless Hogan forced the state hospital commission to stop the creation of a new cardiac program at Anne Arundel Medical Center.

Miller has strongly denied the allegation, and Mayer has offered no proof the conversations happened, although Dennis Schrader, the acting health secretary, echoed his account.

Mayer made his claim after state Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp (D), under advice from the office of state Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D), refused to pay Schrader and acting planning secretary Wendi Peters past June 30, the end of the fiscal year.

In addition to their salaries, the executives are at risk of losing their benefits, including health insurance coverage.

Acting Maryland health secretary Dennis R. Schrader (Joe Andrucyk/Maryland state government)

Schrader, 64, was named in December to lead Marylands 9,000-employee health department, which is trying to address the states opioid epidemic and deal with the possible repeal of the federal Affordable Care Act and the loss to the state of up to $2 billion in Medicaid funds.

A director of the Office of Homeland Security under the states last Republican governor, Robert Ehrlich, Schrader has a degree in industrial engineering but no background in health policy.

He spent two years as deputy administrator for national preparedness at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and worked for 16 years at the University of Maryland Medical System, serving in roles including facility management, director of operations and the vice president for project planning.

The Senate Executive Nominations Committee, which includes Miller, never scheduled a vote on Schraders nomination during this years legislative session. With days to go, Hogan withdrew his name from consideration.

Miller, the longest serving senate president in the country, said he told both Hogan and Schraders wife, who is a former state senator, he planned to support the nomination.

But he and other senators first wanted Hogan to withdraw the nomination of Peters, who they said was not qualified. Mayer says Hogan and Schraders wife were told no such thing.

Peters, 54, was tapped by Hogan in July 2016 to run the small state planning agency after serving about a year as its deputy. She studied political science at Loyola University and worked nearly 30 years as a paralegal before taking the deputy job. She also served six years on the Mount Airy planning commission, and was elected to the council in 2004 and again in 2008.

Acting Planning Secretary Wendi Peters (Maryland Dept. of Planning)

Miller said senators had received numerous complaints about Peterss handling of the department, and he thought it was best for Hogan to move her to another position.

Mayer says Peters ran the department for nearly two years, and had as much local planning experience as her predecessor, David Craig.

But the Senate panel rejected Peters nomination, calling her unqualified and saying she lacked the planning and managerial experience to run the agency.

Hogan reappointed both Schrader and Peters to their posts in April, just days after the General Assembly adjourned.

Hogan was told by the attorney generals office he had the authority to withdraw the nominees names and reappoint them after the session.

But the Democratic-majority legislature passed a budget provision barring the payment of anyone who is reappointed after their nomination was rejected or not acted upon.

After the fiscal year began July 1, Frosh said in a letter the secretaries should not be paid. Sen. Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), the chairman of the Senate nominations panel, sought the attorney generals opinion.

Robert F. Scholz, Hogans chief legal counsel, said the provision is inappropriate, and violates separation of powers.

He said the legislature is attempting to control the governors appointments through the budget appropriations. But Senate Democrats argue Hogan is trying to upend the Senates role in the confirmation process.

They say the budget language was added as a precaution in response to Peterss nomination.

Minority Leader J.B. Jennings (R-Harford County), who is also a member of the nominations committee, said the confirmation process needs to be preserved because of the vital role the Senate plays in ensuring nominees are qualified.

At the same time, he said he was deeply concerned the state health secretary is not being paid, especially during crucial negotiations over the future of health care on the state and federal levels.

When hes in Washington fighting on this, how is he being perceived? Jennings asked. Are federal agencies going to listen to him? I want to make sure the governor has the people in place to fight for us. And now he doesnt, and its wrong.

After Kopp decided not to pay Schrader and Peters, Mayer decried the confirmation process, saying an influential senator  who he would not name  had told Hogan Schraders appointment would be blocked unless he or the governor got the health commission, which is independent, to change its decision.

Miller is a strong proponent of the Prince Georges hospital system and its cardiac program, and has been critical of the Maryland Health Care Commissions decision to let Anne Arundel have a similar program in proximity.

The request [was] incredibly unethical, and the action would have been flat out illegal, Mayer said. A day later, Mayer identified the senator he was accusing as Miller, who dismissed the allegation as absolutely false.

Miller said he was surprised when Hogan withdrew Schraders name.

Hogan, who was in Rhode Island at a governors conference, was not available for an interview Friday. Schrader also declined to be interviewed, though he echoed Mayers allegations in an email. He said Miller asked him to get involved in the commissions approval of the Anne Arundel cardiac program, and said his confirmation would not happen until the approval was pulled. Schrader would not say when the alleged conversations took place.

Jennings said he heard rumorsduring the legislative session that Miller was pushing to cancel Anne Arundels cardiac-surgery certificate, but he was assured by Miller that Schrader would be confirmed.

Mayer said he did not reveal Millers alleged threats until this week, months after they allegedly occurred, because the administration thought cooler heads would prevail.

But unfortunately they chose a different path and decided to withhold the salaries, he said.

Mayer said there are no plans from the governors office to initiate an ethics review against Miller: It is our hope that we can move forward from this and continue to work in the largely successful way that we have with the Senate president.

In the meantime, the governor, Peters and Schrader have requested outside counsel and are exploring their options, including a legal challenge.
Metro said Friday it has fired a track supervisor for collecting overtime pay for periods when he was not working, a dismissal that results from what appears to be a major new investigation of overtime fraud at the transit system.

Other supervisors were also under administrative review for possible overtime abuse after the agencys new inspector general found that some track managers had earned more than double their base salaries in overtime for several years, according to a Metro statement.

The action drew praise from Metro board members and area politicians who expressed hope it would save money and improve Metros reputation as an agency that holds its staff accountable.

Its to send a message to our employees that you cant do this, you cant . . . game the system and collude with other people, Metro Chairman Jack Evans said.

Metro did not identify the fired supervisor and released little information about the case, but there were signs the inquiry may be far-reaching.

Both Metros administrative reviews and the investigation by Inspector General Geoff Cherrington were continuing.

[Metros new watchdog: Where theres money, theres often fraud, and if it exists, we want to find it.]

General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld said Metro was adopting changes in business controls recommended by the inspector general to prevent future overtime fraud.

It is disturbing and disappointing that any employee would misuse overtime, Wiedefeld said. The supervisor in this matter has been dismissed effective immediately. . . . We have a code of ethics that prohibits abuse of employment here for private gain.

The managers dismissal came after suspicions were raised by an IG analysis of overall overtime earnings at Metro.

The study found that certain track managers earned more than double their base salary in overtime, a pattern that was recurring over several years prior to the SafeTrack initiative, said a five-paragraph Metro statement announcing the dismissal. SafeTrack, an accelerated repair and rehabilitation project, began in June 2016.

Track supervisors base salaries range from a minimum of $59,091 to a maximum of $88,637, a Metro spokesman said. The midpoint is $73,864.

Cherrington confirmed the investigation was underway but declined to comment further. He took office in April, pledging to intensify investigations of corruption and raise the profile of the inspector generals office.

His predecessor, Helen Lew, had come under criticism during her 10 years in the position for a perceived failure to be proactive in hunting down wrongdoing and for directing attention at issues some considered too low-priority.

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) said he wants Metro to pursue criminal charges in the case if appropriate, though he acknowledged he was not familiar with details of the termination.

These are tax dollars were talking about here, Connolly said. In the federal government, if you were caught falsifying a time sheet, you would be prosecuted for that.

The overtime case is the second IG inquiry to become public this month. In the other, the inspector general is looking into complaints alleging racial and sexual harassment by a top MetroAccess official.

[A woman who alleged harassment at Metro was fired. Now, theres an internal inquiry into its handling of the case.]

Evans and Wiedefeld praised Cherrington for helping Metro to police itself.

The IG and Paul [Wiedefeld] are really scouring the employees overtime, Evans said. Among other things, he said, that will help Metro hold down costs as its begins this fall to prepare its budget for the next fiscal year.

Metro spends a lot on overtime, Evans said. We want to be in a position in September, October, when we put the budget together, where Paul can say, There is no other place we can go to get money. 

Metro budgeted $77 million for overtime pay in its budget for the fiscal year that ended June 30. Thats 8.6 percent of total salaries and wages.

Board member Michael Goldman, who chairs the boards Finance Committee, said theres been progress on reducing excessive overtime.

My impression is that overtime abuse was a big issue with the track inspection group but as a general matter, Paul [Wiedefeld] and [Chief Financial Officer] Dennis [Anosike] have brought excessive overtime under control, Goldman said.

Fridays firing is the latest in several punitive measures taken against employees who administrators believe have committed wrongdoing. Earlier this year, Wiedefeld fired one-third of Metros track inspection department because, he said, they were found to be falsifying inspection reports.

[One-third of Metros track inspection department has been fired for falsifying records, Wiedefeld confirms.]

And in February, Metro instituted a new policy on extended leave, aimed at cracking down on excessive worker absenteeism and saving costs on health care and pensions.

Connolly said such steps were a sign of improvements made under Wiedefeld. He said the practice of falsifying documents  whether they are forged overtime sheets or the alleged fraudulent track inspection sheets reported earlier this year  is an endemic problem at Metro. Fixing those problems, he said, is a key to garnering more support for Metro from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Falsifying documents  its more evidence of a culture of complacency and mediocrity that has been allowed to set in, Connolly said. Credibility is really important, and one of the problems with Metro is that the workforce problem has to be tackled. Its not just a problem of nuts and bolts.
The man carrying a silver revolver didnt travel far in his spate of robberies in Northeast Washington, according to D.C. police, who say he held up five businesses in 17 days.

Three restaurants were on the same block of Minnesota Avenue, and one was hit twice. Two other robberies occurred at the same grocery store two blocks away on Benning Road, according to police.

He got at most $659, but typically it was $200 or less, police said in reports. The establishments were all targeted between June 28 and Monday. Police said in some cases, the man wore a mask or a red bandanna over his mouth.

Police on Friday arrested Abdullah Malik Thomas, of Southeast, and charged him with five counts of armed robbery. He could make an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Saturday.

All of the businesses were located within a half-mile of Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road, a busy commercial strip just off the Anacostia Freeway.

Police said the man robbed a Dunkin Donuts on June 28 in the 4000 block of Minnesota Avenue NE, then twice robbed the Sharks Fish and Chicken restaurant in that same block on July 2 and 8.

The owner of the restaurant, Mohammed Abdul Quayum, said each robbery lasted a matter of seconds. In the first at his restaurant, he said he was in a back office and had no idea what happened until a worker told him. He was not at the establishment when it was robbed the second time.

Quayum said he got good video of the robbery on his surveillance camera and that the business owners on his street have been talking about the attacks, and realized early on they were most likely by the same person. It was the same guy with the same clothing, Quayum said.

A police report says the man also robbed Mikes Market in the 4200 block of Benning Road NE on July 4 and on Monday. A typical demand, police said, was Open the register and give me your phone.
A jogger found her body on a cold afternoon in November, along a bicycle trail that runs through the woods near Suitland Parkway and Barry Farm in Southeast Washington.

Antina Cindette Pratt, 40, had been stabbed 29 times, her family said. Her cellphone was missing, but her ID, backpack and purse were all there.

D.C. police identified a suspect in January  Elliott Avery Starks, 34  who lived in the same apartment complex as Pratt on Pomeroy Road, a short walk from the bike trail. Starks has not yet been arrested, but authorities recently added new urgency to their search for him, announcing that the FBI has joined the manhunt.

The Safe Streets Task Force, a group of FBI agents and D.C. police officers, is now helping in the case. While the task force typically focuses on violent drug trafficking and gangs, in this case it is working to find the suspect, who Pratts family believes has fled south.

Along with the statement from the FBI came a new revelation.

Antina Cindette Pratt, 40, is shown in this undated family photo. She was found fatally stabbed Nov. 8, 2016, in the Districts Barry Farm neighborhood. (Family photo)

Starks, charged in a warrant with first-degree murder in Pratts death, had been convicted of murder.

Five months before Pratt was stabbed, Starks had been released from prison after serving 16 years for killing a man at the same apartment complex on Pomeroy Road. He was 16 when, in 1999, he shot the unarmed victim in the head during a dispute between two families in a crowded hallway, according to court documents. He was charged as an adult, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 14 to 42 years in prison.

Pratts oldest sister, Alecia McDonald, has waged a relentless campaign with police to not give up on the case.

Weve been searching for clues since the day it happened, said McDonald, who lives in Greenbelt, Md. It doesnt get any easier. We understand how it feels to not have the guy who did this, and not be able to look him in the eye and ask him, Why? Why 29 times? It is clear to us that whoever did this did not want her to survive. The reason? We dont know. We need him to stand trial. We need to face him so he understands he has broken our family.

[Police identify suspect in killing of woman in Southeast Washington]

McDonald said it is not clear whether her sister knew Starks. Police have released surveillance video taken Nov. 8, the night before Pratts body was found. It shows a person who appears to be Pratt, wearing a backpack, meeting up with a man police say is Starks in the apartment parking lot before they disappear into the woods. The sister said police have shown her, but not released publicly, a second video showing the man emerging from the woods 30 minutes later. McDonald said he was alone.

Antina was so generous, so willing to sometimes trust people too quickly, said McDonald, noting that it appears from the video that her sister and the man walked together as if they knew each other. Pratt had just come from a bus stop on her way home from a job as a waitress. We have looked at this video over and over, McDonald said. What is the connection? Why wasnt her boyfriend there that night? . . . She didnt appear to be nervous or scared. We made the conclusion she felt comfortable enough to talk to this person.

Photographs of Elliott Avery Starks, 34, who is charged in a warrant with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Antina Cindette Pratt. The photo on the left is from 1999 and the one on the right is from June 2016. (D.C. police )

Pratts family spoke first to WTTGs Fox-5 TV station.

Pratt was one of four daughters born into a family that lived in Northeast Washington. Her mother died when she was a week old, and she and others were raised by their grandmother. For a time, Pratt lived a normal, although difficult life. A single mother of three sons, she worked with developmentally challenged children in D.C. charter schools and owned a house in Northeast.

But McDonald said financial troubles overwhelmed Pratt. She said her sister lost her home and then her job, and for years she and her sons lived out of a small car, too proud to ask relatives for help.

She had a generous heart and the most bubbly of smiles, McDonald said. She loved people, and people truly loved her. She was trying to [be] the best mom. Her sons are now 17, 19 and 22. McDonald said Pratt took particular joy in her job. She loved that the children would smile at her when she came into the classroom.

Shortly before she was killed, Pratt got a job as a waitress at a Dennys restaurant in the District, and moved in to the Pomeroy Road apartments with her boyfriend and his family. Her youngest son was with them. Starks and his family lived one building away. McDonald said she is not in contact with the boyfriend.

[Womans body found in woods in Southeast]

Pratts family does not believe her killing is related to the fatal shooting in 1999. Starkss attorney in the murder trial did not respond to interview requests. Starkss relatives could not be reached.

Court documents filed in connection with the fatal shooting in 1999 show that Starks had an extensive juvenile record before the killing, including gun offenses. At the time of the shooting, he was on juvenile probation for carrying a firearm. He argued self-defense.

Judge Ann ORegan Keary, who sentenced Starks, urged the D.C. jail to ensure that he receive counseling while in prison, noting his youth and immaturity, and his tendency to act on emotion rather than reason. The judge said significant monitoring would be needed to further Starkss development from boyhood through adolescence into manhood.

Keary warned that even if Starks served the full 42 years, he will still have a substantial portion of his life to live upon release. Given the poor history Mr. Starks already has handling difficult situations, it is clear that if he is left untreated, he will remain a severe danger to the community.

It could not be learned what programs, if any, Starks received in prison, and now authorities are hunting him again. Its been eight months but its as if were still in November 8 and this just happened, McDonald said.

Of Starks, she said, How far can you run?
A panel of federal judges on Friday sided with Republicans challenging Marylands electoral map, saying there is convincing evidence that the states Democratic leaders intentionally drew voting boundaries to make it easier for their party to pick up another congressional seat.

One judge described the politically motivated mapmaking as nefarious activity.

But the three-judge panel was divided about whether the contours of the 2011 redistricting plan were the direct cause of longtime GOP Rep. Roscoe G. Bartletts loss in 2012, and whether officials should literally have to go back to the drawing board before next years election.

The judges at the U.S. District Court in Baltimore were considering a request for an immediate injunction that would scrap the electoral map at least for one congressional district, which lies mostly in Western Maryland but includes parts of Montgomery County. The hearing centered on the motivations of the states Democratic establishment when it redrew boundaries in 2011.

Inside the wood-paneled courtroom, lawyers displayed photos and videotaped depositions of top Democratic officials, including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., House Speaker Michael E. Busch and former governor Martin OMalley.

Then-Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), center, in the Maryland State House with Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D), left, and House Speaker Michael Busch (D) in 2013. (Patrick Semansky/Associated Press)

The half-day session in Baltimore also reflected growing concern nationwide about gerrymandering, which is the subject of a Wisconsin case that is headed to the Supreme Court in the fall term, and which U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar on Friday called a cancer on our democracy.

Looming over the hearing was a question of timing and how the Supreme Courts decision to take the Wisconsin case will affect the challenge in Maryland, which also seems destined for the high court.

The Supreme Court has thrown out state voting maps drawn to weaken the influence of racial minorities, but it has have never settled on a test to measure whether a plan is unconstitutional because of partisan gerrymandering.

[Supreme Court to hear major case on partisan gerrymandering]

In the Maryland case, challengers are Republican voters who say they were punished because of their party affiliation and voting record when the Democratically controlled state government intentionally diluted the strength of GOP voters in the 6th District.

For two decades, the district was represented by Bartlett. After the lines were redrawn to include more residents from heavily Democratic Montgomery, John Delaney (D) was elected. He still holds the seat.

The office of Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D), which is defending the plan, said state officials wanted to create a more competitive district, but that the election outcome was far from guaranteed.

Assistant Attorney General Sarah Rice told the judges that forcing the state to redraw its electoral map now, less than a year before the 2018 primary, would be extraordinary. It would require a special session of the General Assembly, creating confusion for voters and forcing current candidates to campaign under a cloud of uncertainty. Her office wants to delay the lawsuit until after the Supreme Court rules in the Wisconsin case.

[Md. redistricting case could stall while Supreme Court hears Wisconsin case]

Even as all three judges accepted what they called substantial and overwhelming evidence of partisan gerrymandering, two of the three seemed deeply skeptical that there were not other factors at work in Bartletts defeat. They also questioned the reliability of the measurements political consultants used to shift likely Republican and Democratic voters from one district to another.

Can you prove it? Wheres the concrete evidence that displaced voters would have voted for Bartlett? U.S. District Judge George L. Russell pressed attorney Michael Kimberly, who represents the challengers. Youve got to demonstrate the results would have been different.

Russell and Bredar noted the difficulty of predicting individual voting patterns and pointed to the surprising outcome in the 2016 presidential election, when states that had supported Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012 backed Republican Donald Trump. Closer to home, the judges noted the election of Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2014 in a state where registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans more than 2-to-1.

It is an overwhelming case, said Bredar who had earlier described the redistricting as nefarious activity. But, he said, that still doesnt answer the question of whether it worked.

The third judge, Paul V. Niemeyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, had no problem connecting the dots. It seems to me they were highly successful in getting exactly what they wanted, he said of the Democrats who oversaw redistricting. These politicians had the power to make the map the way they wanted it.

An OMalley spokesman declined to comment but pointed to a speech this year in which the former governor called for redistricting reform and said he believed in 2011 that he should wield his power to favor Democrats. Busch and Miller did not respond to requests for comment.

In its brief, the attorney generals office said there were other reasons for Bartletts defeat. At 85, his popularity was waning and he was having trouble raising money, the court filing said. The brief also noted that Delaney came close to being unseated by a Republican challenger in 2014.

The judges did not indicate on Friday how quickly they will rule. If either side appeals the outcome, the case goes directly to the Supreme Court, which must either affirm, reverse or accept the case for oral arguments.

Robert Barnes contributed to this report.
A group of Iraqi army officers have staged a coup in Iraq and overthrown the monarchy.

Baghdad Radio announced the Army has liberated the Iraqi people from domination by a corrupt group put in power by imperialism.

From now on Iraq would be a republic that would maintain ties with other Arab countries. It said some 12,000 Iraqi troops based in neighboring Jordan have been ordered to return.

Major-General Abdul Karim el Qasim is Iraqs new prime minister, defense minister and commander-in-chief.

Baghdad Radio also announced that Crown Prince Abdul Illah and Nuri es Said, prime minister of the Iraq-Jordan Federation, had been assassinated.

It said the body of the Crown Prince, the powerful uncle of 23-year-old King Faisal, was hanging outside the Defense Ministry for all to see.

Reports from the US Embassy in Baghdad say the British Embassy has been ransacked and set on fire. The ambassador, Sir Michael Wright, and his wife were held at the embassy until late this afternoon when they were released. They are now in a Baghdad hotel.

Unconfirmed reports suggest King Faisal himself has also been killed. His cousin, King Hussein of Jordan, has declared himself head of the Arab Federation  the five-month alliance between Iraq and Jordan  in the absence of King Faisal.

In a broadcast to his subjects, King Hussein condemned the coup as the work of outsiders. While Iraqis are celebrating on the streets of Baghdad, the news is a cause for concern for western powers worried about their oil interests and instability in the region.

The insurrection was probably inspired by a similar uprising staged in Egypt by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser six years ago. In February this year he formed a political union between Egypt and Syria known as the United Arab Republic (UAR).

Radio stations in the UAR are naturally delighted by news of the Iraq coup. But leaders of Jordan and Lebanon fear it might inspire Arab nationalist rebellions in their own states and have appealed to Britain and the United States to send troops to their countries.

The US President Dwight D Eisenhower is said to be extremely disturbed by the Iraqi revolt and has called for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council.

Officials in Washington fear the Iraqi coup will mean the end of the Baghdad Pact whose members include Turkey, Persia and Pakistan. It was intended to stem the influence of the Soviet Union in the region.

There are fears the Iraq coup will have a domino effect and that the pro-Western oil regimes of Kuwait, Bahrain and the Trucial States may fall to Arab nationalists.

Courtesy BBC News

In

context

The following day 1,700 Marines of the US Sixth Fleet arrived in Lebanon and two days later 2,000 British paratroopers were flown into Amman after reports that Syrian troops were massing on the border with Jordan.

The Soviet Union supported Arab nationalist Colonel Nasser, president of the United Arab Republic (now Egypt), so tensions rose further when the USSR announced major manoeuvres close to the Persian and Turkish borders

On 19 July, barely a week after the coup, President Nasser signed a defence pact between the UAR and the new Iraqi regime.

The UAR collapsed in 1961 when Syria withdrew from it after a military coup, but Egypt kept the name until 1971.

The Baghdad Pact was renamed CENTO (Central Treaty Organisation) in 1959 after Iraq pulled out and Ankara in Turkey became its headquarters.

Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan withdrew in 1979, spelling the end of CENTO. They felt the US and UK were more interested in the pact as an anti-Soviet alliance than as a way of improving the economy of the region.

Iraqs coup leader and prime minister, Abdul Karim el Qasim, was ousted and killed in 1963 in a coup led by the Arab Socialist Baath Party.
A 43-year-old man who was fatally shot earlier this month after having appeared to have shed his violent past was killed during a drug transaction in Northeast Washington, police said in court documents made public Friday.

The new information is contained in an affidavit filed in the arrest of Lamont McDonald, a 16-year-old from Southeast who is charged as an adult with second-degree murder while armed.

The victim, Malachi Yisrael, of Southeast, was shot several times shortly before 10 p.m. on July 5 in a courtyard of a public housing complex in the 300 block of 50th Street NE, in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood.

In 2013, Yisrael graduated from a District-run jobs program that helped him secure work in the construction industry, testing the strength and durability of concrete and taking soil samples at building sites.

The Washington Post profiled Yisrael that year, noting his efforts to change his life after convictions for drug crimes and robberies. He grew up in Lincoln Heights, dropped out of school in the fifth grade and shot a man when he was 13.

[Man who escaped life of crime shot dead on D.C. street]

At the time he was shot, he had just finished working for a company that installed windmills in Iowa and had returned to the District with a small company building a walkway in Bethesda. He was married, with five children and five stepchildren, and had moved away from Lincoln Heights. One of his sons is a junior at Morgan State University in Baltimore, and a nephew is a state delegate in Prince Georges County.

Relatives did not return calls seeking comment on Friday.

Police said it appears Yisrael had returned to his old neighborhood. The night he was shot, police said in the affidavit, a witness saw him engaged in what appeared to be a drug deal with a youth, who police identified as McDonald.

The witness told police that after the transaction, Yisrael and McDonald argued, and then Yisrael hit the teen, knocking him to the ground. Police said McDonald got up and shot Yisrael. The affidavit says another man then shot McDonald. That man has not been arrested.

Malachi Yisrael, shown on a construction site in Northeast Washington in 2013, was fatally shot on July 5 in a courtyard of a public housing complex in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

McDonald was critically injured and remained hospitalized for more than a week. A D.C. Superior Court judge on Friday ordered him detained until a preliminary hearing on July 25. His attorney with the Public Defender Service did not respond to interview requests.
The way Kempton Bonds described it, Tyonne Johns moved toward him faster than he could process what was happening.

His back was against a railing, more than nine feet above the ground, and soon her hands were around his neck and his left hand was trapped between their bodies, Bonds testified Thursday, taking the witness stand in his defense.

He told the jury what was going through his mind: Shes right on top of me, and shes pushing me and I cant breathe, I cant move, I cant breathe, and I just know I have to get her off of me, Bonds said. I open the knife, and I stab her to get her off of me.

Johnss mother left the courtroom crying as Bonds, who is charged with second-degree murder, described stabbing her daughter during an altercation after a wedding reception at a Chantilly park. Fairfax County Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Brandon Shapiro and witnesses, including the bride and a wedding guest, had said Johns never touched Bonds, a park employee.

Bonds testified for hours on the fourth day of his trial in Fairfax County Circuit Court. The jury will decide whether the stabbing in August last year at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park was a crime or if Bonds acted in self-defense.

Kempton A. Bonds, of Clifton, Maryland, has been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly stabbing a woman catering a wedding at a Chantilly, Virginia, park on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016. (na/Fairfax County Police photo)

Shapiro and defense attorney Peter Greenspun are expected to give their closing arguments Friday before the jury begins deliberations.

The prosecution has portrayed Bonds as a stickler to the venue rules who had aggravated the wedding party and guests and then turned violent. But the defense countered that Bonds, now 20, felt threatened by Johns, 35, who was the wedding caterer and a friend of the bride and groom.

Earlier this week, Greenspun told jurors a story of a young man getting ready to head off to Virginia Commonwealth University and who was trying to follow the rules of his employer.

He was so upbeat. We were having a wonderful time going linen shopping, buying accessories for the apartment, daily living things, Bondss mother, Madelyn Smith, testified Thursday. Her son was optimistic and very much looking forward to his life.

The knife Bonds used to stab Johns twice in her chest, tearing through her chest cavity, lung and puncturing her heart, was a weapon made by his father who had died two years before the incident, said Smith, who was married 23 years ago Sunday at the location of the killing.

Bride Camellia Southerland, 37, testified this week that Bonds was very sarcastic and rude throughout the night.

Soon after they finished cutting the wedding cake, Bonds shut off the music. This was before Southerland had her first dance with her husband, she said.

Although Bonds was following rules in the contract for the venue  which required that the music be ended at 9 p.m.  Southerland said she didnt realize this would happen. Along with some guests, she said, she pleaded with him to turn the music back on. After heated conversations with Bonds and his manager, the music resumed.

But at this point, Southerland testified, she felt like her wedding was a complete disaster.

Southerland cried on the stand as the prosecution played a video, recorded by Bonds, of wedding guests yelling curse words at Bonds outside the venue before he fatally stabbed Johns. Southerland said that she doesnt usually curse and that her behavior reflected her annoyance with Bondss behavior throughout the night.

I was irate. I was completely out of character, she testified. It had been five hours of dealing with the worst day of my life possibly. I just wanted to load the chairs and go home.

She identified a voice in the video that said Ill smack you because Ive got bail money . . . leave her alone its her wedding night and Im going to knock you out as Johns.

But Southerland testified that she never thought Johns would actually assault Bonds and said she never saw Johns touch him. Others used similar phrases, but she didnt see anyone hurt him, she testified.

What was supposed to be a special day for me was ultimately ruined by him, she said.

Bonds, who had called police earlier in the night after tensions grew between him and the wedding guests, testified that he shouted for police after the stabbing, believing an officer might still be nearby. When no one responded, he called 911.

On that call, played in court, he yells for the wedding guests to stay away from him and then tells the official on the phone hed been threatened all night.

He tells the dispatcher: I was supervising them packing up their stuff . . . at one point the caterer just came straight at me and started putting her hands around my neck.

The dispatcher then asks Bonds whether he knows anything about a stabbing at his location.

Yes, they attacked me. I defended myself, Bonds replies.

You stabbed somebody? the dispatcher asks.

She had her hands around my throat, Bonds says before asking the dispatcher to send police.
Firefighters were called to a middle school in Prince Georges County after a copy machine caught fire, authorities said.

At around 5 p.m., firefighters responded to Kenmoor Middle School in Landover after a copy machine caught fire, causing sprinklers to go off, according to Mark Brady, spokesman for Prince Georges County Fire Department.

The sprinklers held the fire in check until officers could get in the building, Brady said, and smoke and water damage was minimal.

There were no injuries, and employees can return to the building in the morning, according to Brady.

This story has been updated.
Two former staff members have been charged in the circulation of nude images and video of an elected representative to Congress and her husband, federal prosecutors and the U.S. Capitol Police announced Thursday in Washington.

Juan R. McCullum, 35, of Washington, was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of cyberstalking, and a co-worker, Dorene Browne-Louis, 45, of Upper Marlboro, Md., was indicted on two counts of obstruction of justice, said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Channing D. Phillips and Capitol Police Chief Matthew R. Verderosa in a statement.

The charging documents state that both defendants worked for the same official, who is identified in the filings by the initials S.P.

Virgin Islands Del. Stacey Plaskett (D), confirmed Thursday in statement that she is S.P., saying that last year, my privacy was invaded, which was followed by an organized smear campaign and defamatory press reports concerning both me and my family.

Plaskett said of her family that we continue to be saddened by the damage we suffered as a result of those egregious acts, while thanking investigators for their work and people in the Virgin Islands for their support.

A 2003 photo of Juan McCullum when he was a Mississippi State student body vice president. (Joe Ellis/The Clarion Ledger, via AP, File) (Joe Ellis/The Clarion Ledger/via AP)

Some of the personal photographs surfaced on the Internet in July 2016 shortly before a primary election.

According to the indictment, McCullum worked from April 2015 until June 2016 in the House members legislative office in Washington. Browne-Louis worked in the same office from January 2015 until April 2016.

Public staff records show both worked for Plaskett during those times, McCullum as a legislative counsel and Browne-Lewis as a scheduler.

According to an indictment handed up Tuesday and unsealed Thursday, McCullum offered in March 2016 to help take a House members malfunctioning, password-protected iPhone to a local Apple store to be repaired.

McCullum was not given permission to take, copy, or distribute any of the contents of the iPhone, which contained the private, nude images and videos, authorities alleged.

In July 2016, when the personal images appeared on the Internet, Plaskett condemned the public unauthorized distribution of private photographs she had shared with her husband, Jonathan Buckney-Small, and the posting of a playful video of our family, that included one of their children.

To say my family and I are greatly upset would be a tremendous understatement, she said at that time, adding that the dissemination of the images was a shockingly disgusting invasion of my familys and my privacy  not to mention criminal acts . . .

Browne-Louis pleaded not guilty before a U.S. magistrate Thursday to the obstruction of justice charges, which carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and was released on personal recognizance, authorities said. Her attorney declined to comment Thursday.

McCullum has not yet appeared in court on charges that carry a maximum of five years in prison.

Attorneys for McCullum could not immediately be identified.

In July 2016, after McCullum left the congressional members staff, he allegedly created a Hotmail account and a Facebook account under a fake name to post the material and encouraged sharing it, the indictment states. The indictment also alleged that McCullum texted Browne-Louis as early as July 2, 2016, and emailed her some of the material.

Federal investigators launched an investigation within days, and alleged that Browne-Louis deleted McCullums texts from her phone and gave false and misleading statements to them and the grand jury. Browne-Louis is set to return to court Wednesday.

Congressional employment records show that after McCullum left Plasketts office, he worked for a few months in 2016 for Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.). A spokeswoman for Wilson declined to comment Thursday.

In 2015 McCullum, posing with his English bulldog, was cited in an annual list of the 50 Most Beautiful by the Hill, which said he had been a former reality TV star known as Pretty on VH1s I Love New York.

Plaskett, 51, a lawyer and former New York City prosecutor and Justice Department official, was overwhelmingly reelected to her second House term last year after winning an August Democratic primary with 85 percent of the vote.
The Virginia State Corporation Commission announced Friday that it will reconsider its decision to allow the route of a set of Dominion Energy power lines to cut through land near Haymarket that has been owned for more than a century by descendants of a freed slave  a case connected to a project for a new computer data center that has faced fierce community opposition.

Commission spokesman Ken Schrad said the panel will weigh two appeals filed by local resident groups this week before reaching a final decision on whether to stick with a route along Carver Road or choose a different path. The six-mile project between Haymarket and Gainesville requires 100-foot-high transmission towers supporting lines carrying 230,000 volts of power.

Opponents argue that the health and environmental impacts along Carver Road would be too great and that VAData  an Amazon.com subsidiary that is pursuing a data center project on 38 acres of land  does not need the extra capacity to operate because the company said it does not yet know when it expects to build its two warehouse-size buildings.

What the commission did was agree for the time being to keep its options open to address the issues raised in the motions for reconsideration, Schrad said.

An Amazon representative did not respond to requests for comment Friday. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.)

Dominion spokesman Charles Penn argued that the project is needed to serve both the proposed data center and the wider Haymarket area, which has been growing.

The company said it will work with local residents along whichever route is chosen to purchase the land it needs.

This project has broad public benefit and on Day One of completion will serve more than 450 customers directly, and improve reliability for more than 6,000 customers in western Prince William County, Penn said in a statement.

Residents have been pushing for the transmission lines to be located along Route 66 with a portion of the lines buried  an option the state commission ruled would be too expensive.

The commission had favored an alternative path along a nearby freight rail line, but Dominion failed to secure an easement needed for the project from Prince William County.

Elena Schlossberg, director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County  one of the groups that filed an appeal  said her organization will continue fighting against the Carver Road route.

Our arguments are strong, she said.

Nathan Grayson, a descendant of Livinia Blackburn Johnson, the ex-slave who purchased some of the Carver Road land in 1899, said he and the roughly 30 siblings and distant cousins who live there have been filled with anxiety over the possibility of having to leave the property.

People have been living not knowing whats going to happen from day to day, not knowing what to do, he said.
The former president who brought Brazil to prominence on the world stage has been found guilty of corruption and money laundering  a historic judgment underscoring that no one is out of reach of this Latin American countrys sprawling graft investigation.

Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvas conviction Wednesday was the highest profile victory yet for the probe, which has already brought charges against dozens of political and business elite and recovered more than USD3 billion in ill-gotten gains.

While Judge Sergio Moro defended the decision as one based purely in the law, Silva derided the trial as a political witch hunt and is expected to rally his supporters to his cause with a news conference he called for Thursday.

Brazils first working class president, sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison, will remain free while an appeal is heard, but he is now the countrys first former president to be convicted in a criminal proceeding at least since democracy was restored in the 1980s.

Meanwhile, the current president, Michel Temer, is facing his own corruption charge.

Its very unusual to have a former president convicted of corruption and at the time same a sitting president also being investigated, said Sergio Praca, a political scientist at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas university in Rio de Janeiro. Today is a huge moment in Brazilian history, for better or worse.

Brazilians have lived through three tumultuous years as the ever-spreading Operation Car Wash investigation has revealed corruption on a scale that has shocked even the most cynical. At the same time, Dilma Rousseff was impeached and removed from office for illegally managing the federal budget. And now her successor, Temer, is under siege as the lower house of Congress decides whether he should be suspended and put on trial.

The probe initially focused on members of Silvas Workers Party, but it has since brought charges of wrongdoing against politicians of all stripes, feeding anger against those at the top as Brazils struggles with its worst economic slump in decades. Brazilians are frequently in the streets, either to voice support for politicians they feel are being unfairly attacked or to back the prosecutors and judges who are investigating them.

Traditionally, no one has been better at drawing a crowd than Silva.

He will try to mobilize his crowd, his group, but I dont think hes noticed that the times have changed, that the battle is not fought on the streets, said Praca. People are just plain tired of everything.

A few hundred Silva supporters did protest his conviction in Sao Paulo on Wednesday night, and a somewhat smaller group was also out to cheer Moros decision.

The charismatic leader left office at the end of 2010 with sky- high popularity, after riding an economic boom to fund social programs that pulled millions of Brazilians out of poverty and expanding the international role of Latin Americas biggest nation.

In many quarters, the man known to Brazilians simply as Lula remains revered  both for his economic policies and his role in fighting for democracy during the countrys dictatorship. The 71-year-old has been considered a front-runner for next years presidential election.

Silvas defense team issued a scathing statement after the verdict, calling the charges an attack on democracy and vowing to prove the former presidents innocence.

President Lula has been the victim of lawfare, the use of the law for political ends, the famous method used to brutal effect in various dictatorships throughout history, the lawyers said.

Silva was accused of receiving a beachfront apartment and repairs to the property as kickbacks from construction company OAS. Silva never owned the apartment, but prosecutors argued it was intended for him. Prosecutors also alleged that OAS paid to store Silvas belongings, but Moro dismissed that part of the case.

Silva also faces charges in four other cases. He denies doing anything wrong. AP
Oklahoma

Tulsa officer acquitted in fatal shooting resigns

A white Oklahoma police officer recently acquitted of fatally shooting an unarmed black man submitted her resignation from the Tulsa police department Friday, saying the desk job where she had been assigned made her feel isolated from fellow officers.

Betty Shelbys resignation is effective Aug. 3, said a news release from the Tulsa branch of a national police union. She also said she was praying for healing for the family of Terence Crutcher, who died after she opened fire on Sept. 16, 2016.

Shelby, 43, was acquitted in May of manslaughter in Crutchers slaying. Police Chief Chuck Jordan put her in an administrative role two days after her acquittal. She was not allowed on street patrol while an internal department probe continued.

 Associated Press

Immigration The murder trial of the man who killed Kate Steinle is inching closer to starting, two years after the fatal shooting set off a fierce immigration debate.

A judge on Friday ordered Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, 54, back to court on July 21 with the hope that an open courtroom can be found in San Francisco to the start trial. President Trump seized on the shooting to argue for tougher immigration enforcement and for the abolition of so-called sanctuary cities like San Francisco, which prohibits police officers from cooperating with federal authorities on most deportation matters.

 Associated Press
RUSSIA

Man gets 20 years in killing of Nemtsov

The man convicted of gunning down Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on a bridge near the Kremlin was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors had asked for life imprisonment for Zaur Dadayev in the 2015 killing and did not say whether they would appeal.

Four others convicted in the killing were sentenced to terms ranging from 11 to 19 years.

Nemtsov was an opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He had been working on a report about Russias military involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine and in the annexation of Crimea.

Dadayev was an officer in the security forces of Chechnyas Kremlin-backed leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.

 Associated Press

BRITAIN

U.S. doctor says new therapy could aid baby

A U.S. doctor testifying in the case of a British couple seeking the right to take their critically ill infant to the United States for treatment said Thursday it was worth trying a new experimental therapy for the baby.

The doctor, whose name and institution cannot be named because of a court order, told Britains High Court that new clinical data has recently emerged about the effectiveness of the treatment proposed for 11-month-old Charlie Gard, who suffers from a rare genetic condition and is on life support.

The doctor estimated the chance of clinical meaningful success for an improvement in Charlies muscle use to be at least 10 percent, but did not say whether the infants brain function would improve.

Judge Nicholas Francis said the doctor should come to London to see Charlie and meet other experts, which the doctor said he was willing to do.

 Associated Press

EGYPT

Fearing ISIS attacks, churches cancel events

Egyptian churches suspended pilgrimages, conferences and holidays through August on Thursday after authorities warned of possible attacks by Islamic State militants.

Ishak Ibrahim, an activist and researcher on the Egyptian church, reported the suspension by the majority Coptic Orthodox and the smaller Anglican and Catholic churches. Security officials, pastors and others confirmed the suspension.

They said the warning was delivered to church officials at a meeting this week with top army and security commanders in the southern city of Assiut.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sissis government is trying to crush an insurgency led by the Islamic State terrorist group in northern Sinai. Militants have targeted Egypts Christians for their support of Sissi.

 Associated Press

U.S., Somali forces reportedly kill al-Shabab extremists: A senior Somali intelligence official said that American and local forces raided a rebel-held village in southern Somalia early Thursday and killed several al-Shabab extremists. The official said Somali commandos aided by U.S. forces in two helicopters raided two locations, including a detention center run by al-Shabab in Kunya-Barrow village in the Lower Shabelle region. He said the detainees were freed. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Africa Command.

3 dead in Kenya kidnapping: Suspected al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab extremists briefly took a Kenyan government official hostage in the countrys volatile southeast, leaving three people dead, officials and police said.

A top public works official, Maryam Elmaawy, was on her way to visit families who had fled recent al-Shabab attacks when her convoy was attacked, said Coast Regional Police Commander Larry Kieng. Elmaawy was rescued by Kenyas military but suffered injuries, Kieng said. Police sources said two police officers and a civilian were killed.

German court convicts Turkish man as terrorist: A German court has convicted a former leading member of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, of membership in a terrorist group and sentenced him to three years and three months in prison. The Stuttgart state court said the 47-year-old, a Turkish national whose name it did not release, was one of four PKK sectoral leaders in Germany and a leading official with the group in the Dortmund and Dusseldorf areas. The PKK wants greater autonomy for Kurds living in Turkey.

 From news services
BRITAIN

2 teens arrested in London acid attacks

British police arrested two teenagers Friday after five acid attacks on moped riders in less than 90 minutes across east London the night before left several people with facial burns, including one with severe injuries.

Two assailants on a moped pulled up alongside a 32-year-old man in the Hackney area of east London at 9:25 p.m. Thursday and threw acid in his face before one of them made off with the victims moped.

In the next hour and a half, three other men across Hackney and one in neighboring Islington had corrosive substances hurled at them, police said.

After one of the robberies in Hackney, a man was left with facial injuries described by police as life-changing.

Police said they arrested a 15-year-old boy in Stoke Newington, northeast London, and a 16-year-old boy at a separate address in north London on suspicion of grievous bodily harm.

 Reuters

TURKEY

7,000 more dismissed a year after putsch

Turkey dismissed more than 7,000 police officers, civil servants and academics Friday, the eve of the anniversary of last years attempted coup.

The latest decree is part of a crackdown triggered by the coup attempt, which Turkey says was organized by U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Gulen denies the allegation.

In all, Turkey has fired or suspended more than 150,000 officials, and arrested about 50,000 people from the military, police, judiciary, academia and other sectors.

The latest decree dismissed 2,303 police officers, including some from senior ranks, as well as 302 academics from universities across the country. The decree also stripped 342 retired officers and soldiers of their ranks and grades.

More than 240 people were killed last July during the attempted coup.

 Reuters

SRI LANKA

U.N. official decries continued abuses

A United Nations rapporteur said Friday that torture remains endemic and routine in Sri Lankas counterterrorism methods and that the detention of people without trial under a harsh anti-terror law is a stain

on the country.

Ben Emmerson, a U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, said at the end of a five-day visit to Sri Lanka that he is concerned that even those arrested as recently as late last year have been subjected to torture, despite a new government promising to end such practices.

In Sri Lanka, however, such practices are very deeply ingrained in the security sector, and all of the evidence points to the conclusion that the use of torture has been, and remains today, endemic and routine, Emmerson said.

Sri Lankas bloody civil war ended in 2009 when government troops crushed ethnic Tamil rebels 26-year campaign for an independent state. Both sides were accused of serious human rights violations in the conflict.

 Associated Press

Attack in Congos capital kills at least 2: Congo police say a group of assailants carrying guns and machetes staged an attack in the capitals main market, killing at least two people and seriously wounding six police officers. Col. Pierrot Mwanamputu, a police spokesman, said the market administrator and the deputy police commissioner were killed in the afternoon attack in Kinshasa. One attacker was captured, he said , while others fled, leaving behind their AK-47s and causing panic. It wasnt clear who staged the attack, but in May, members of the Christian sect Bundu Dia Mayala stormed a prison, freeing their leader and dozens of other inmates.

Macron vows merciless fight against terror: French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to fight without mercy inside and outside France to end extremist attacks like the one that killed 86 revelers on Bastille Day in the Riviera city of Nice one year ago. In a speech on the anniversary of the atrocity, Macron said, This is what we owe you. Some of the victims and their families, as well as dignitaries and first responders, were among those he addressed. Commemorations followed Bastille Day celebrations for Macron, who traveled to Nice for a solemn remembrance of the lives lost when a huge truck barreled down a famed beachside promenade, mowing down revelers awaiting a fireworks display on Frances national day.

 From news services
An illustrtaion of the stranded Donner Party in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Timothy R. Smith is a former staff member of Book World.

Sarah Murphy Foster sat by a campfire in the early winter of 1847, grieving the death of her brother, Lemuel.

She looked up, the historian Michael Wallis writes, and noticed some of the emigrants on the other side of the fire roasting meat spitted on sticks. Suddenly, Sarah realized she was watching someone eat the broiled heart of her cherished younger brother.

Her husband guided the distraught woman away.

[A wilderness survival course leaves a novice camper hungry, cold and triumphant]

The Best Land Under Heaven, by Michael Wallis (LIVERIGHT)

Foster was a member of the Donner Party, a band of American pioneers who had set out for California in the spring of 1846. After a series of mishaps, the party became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Lemuel Murphy died of starvation, one of 35 to perish that winter.

Their story is told by Michael Wallis in The Best Land Under Heaven, an even-handed, briskly written history of the party, destined to become the standard account of this horrid chapter of American history.

Much of the Donner Partys journey was typical of the voyage west. The pioneers traded with Indians, visited fur-trading posts, hunted buffalo. There were births and marriages, deaths and burials. A cattle driver amputated a boys leg with a common butcher-knife, a carpenters handsaw, and a shoemakers awl to take up the arteries.

The operation lasted 105 minutes, and the boy died. Wagon accidents, Wallis reports, were the most frequent cause of injury and death on the pioneer trails.

That was hardly the worst of it for the Donner Party.

The group, much delayed by a tendency to dawdle, made a crucial error when it diverged from the well-established California Trail above the Great Salt Lake for a shortcut through the desert salt flats below the lake. That route was offered by Lansford Hastings in an 1845 guidebook for Oregon and California pioneers. It proved to be the partys undoing.

The toll of the desert crossing was the loss of three dozen animals, four wagons, many of the emigrants belongings and, most important, eleven precious days, Wallis writes.

The party entered the Sierra Nevada in late fall, the worst timing possible. Hastings explained why: Unless you pass over the mountains early in the fall, he wrote, you are very liable to be detained, by impassable mountains of snow, until the next spring, or, perhaps, forever.

The group was walloped by snow, one of 10 monstrous, unforgiving storms to pound the Sierras that winter.

Stranded in the mountains, the party subsisted on field mice and twigs and a broth of boiled cattle and bison hides. The meager supplies did little to stave hunger.

They grew weaker and frequently felt dizzy as their fat reserves and muscles were depleted, Wallis writes. The simplest tasks became difficult. Diminished circulation caused feet, ankles, and hands to swell. With continued weight loss, the emigrants experienced painful constipation followed by uncontrollable diarrhea. Their immune systems broke down, which made them susceptible to various infections.

Some members of the party resorted to cannibalism.

It took four relief parties until the spring of 1847 to rescue the 46 survivors.

The Donner Partys fate, Wallis writes, resulted from poor decisions, inadequate preparation, quirks of fate, squadered opportunities, and failure to learn from mistakes.

One survivor later offered a hard-earned lesson: Remember, never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can.
The Russia scandal has entered a new phase, and theres no going back.

For six months, the White House claimed that this scandal was nothing more than innuendo about Trump campaign collusion with Russia in meddling in the 2016 election. Innuendo for which no concrete evidence had been produced.

Yes, there were several meetings with Russian officials, some only belatedly disclosed. But that is circumstantial evidence at best. Meetings tell you nothing unless you know what happened in them. We didnt. Some of these were casual encounters in large groups, like the famous July 2016 Kislyak-Sessions exchange of pleasantries at the Republican National Convention. Big deal.

I was puzzled. Lots of coverup, but where was the crime? Not even a third-rate burglary. For six months, smoke without fire. Yes, President Trump himself was acting very defensively, as if he were hiding something. But no one ever produced the something.

My view was: Collusion? I just dont see it. But Im open to empirical evidence. Show me.

(Adriana Usero,Kate Woodsome/The Washington Post)

The evidence is now shown. This is not hearsay, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr. himself. A British go-between writes that theres a Russian government effort to help Trump Sr. win the election, and as part of that effort he proposes a meeting with a Russian government attorney possessing damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the Kremlin is willing to share troves of incriminating documents from the Crown Prosecutor. (Error: Britain has a Crown Prosecutor. Russia has a Prosecutor General.)

Donald Jr. emails back. I love it. Fatal words.

Once youve said Im in, it makes no difference that the meeting was a bust, that the intermediary brought no such goods. What matters is what Donald Jr. thought going into the meeting, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, who were forwarded the correspondence, invited to the meeting, and attended.

It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame, Donald Jr. told Sean Hannity. A shame? On the contrary, a stroke of luck. Had the lawyer real stuff to deliver, Donald Jr. and the others would be in far deeper legal trouble. It turned out to be incompetent collusion, amateur collusion, comically failed collusion. That does not erase the fact that three top Trump campaign officials were ready to play.

It may turn out that they did later collaborate more fruitfully. We dont know. But even if nothing else is found, the evidence is damning.

Its rather pathetic to hear Trump apologists protesting that its no big deal because we Americans are always intervening in other peoples elections, and they in ours. You dont have to go back to the 40s and 50s when the CIA intervened in France and Italy to keep the communists from coming to power. What about the Obama administrations blatant interference to try to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest Israeli election? One might even add the work of groups supported by the U.S. during Russian parliamentary elections  the very origin of Vladimir Putins deep animus toward Clinton, then secretary of state, whom he accuses of having orchestrated the opposition.

This defense is pathetic for two reasons. First, have the Trumpites not been telling us for six months that no collusion ever happened? And now they say: Sure it happened. So what? Everyone does it.

1 of 58 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  A look at President Trumps first year in office, so far View Photos Scenes from the Republicans first months in the White House. Caption Scenes from the Republicans beginning months in the White House. Jan. 25, 2017 Trump signs an executive order for border security and immigration enforcement improvements at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Pool photo via Bloomberg News Wait 1 second to continue.

Whats left of your credibility when you make such a casual about-face?

Second, no, not everyone does it. Its one thing to be open to opposition research dug up in Indiana. But not dirt from Russia, a hostile foreign power that has repeatedly invaded its neighbors (Georgia, Crimea, eastern Ukraine), that buzzes our planes and ships in international waters, that opposes our every move and objective around the globe. Just last week the Kremlin killed additional U.N. sanctions we were looking to impose on North Korea for its ICBM test.

There is no statute against helping a foreign hostile power meddle in an American election. What Donald Jr.  and Kushner and Manafort  did may not be criminal. But it is not merely stupid. It is also deeply wrong, a fundamental violation of any code of civic honor.

I leave it to the lawyers to adjudicate the legalities of unconsummated collusion. But you dont need a lawyer to see that the Trump defense  collusion as a desperate Democratic fiction designed to explain away a lost election  is now officially dead.

Read more from Charles Krauthammers archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
The Fire Services (CB) registered a decrease in the need for their services during the first six months of 2017, when compared to the same period of last year. The general decrease was quoted at about 4 percent, according to a press conference held by the CB at its Nam Van Headquarters yesterday.

According to the figures presented by the Fire Services Chief, Cheong Chi Wang, during the first six months of the year the CB registered 893 fewer cases (compared to the corresponding period last year) requiring their attention and action, which is the equivalent to a decrease of 3.84 percent.

From the range of services CB provides, the one that registered the most significant drop was calls to fires. In the first six months a drop of 84 or 15.5 percent was registered. Dropping less significantly were calls for ambulance services, which slipped by a mere 2.56 percent in the same period. This result was regarded by Chief Cheong as a demonstration that our tasks regarding prevention of the abuse on the use of ambulances reached the expected outcome.

The CB head also noticed that besides the significant drop in the assistance to fires, in 76.64 percent of the cases there was not a need to use the fire hoses, as the cases were already solved by the time the firefighters arrived to the scene or the size of the fire was too small and did not necessitate the use of such equipment.

Cheong also noticed that fire prevention performance has increased, with the number of preventive inspections on buildings said to have risen by 23.4 percent.

Regarding the operations of the CB, Cheong said that following requests and suggestions from residents we are going to start sending an immediate-rescue motorcycle to the place of the accident. The aim of this new service: the immediate dispatch of a vehicle and the respective rider will be to provide help as quickly as possible in serious accidents to shorten the intervention time. When necessary this service will be followed by ambulance attendance.
Americans, you need to start paying attention. Like, really paying attention  to the issues that actually matter.

Stop getting distracted!

Take this Russian collusion nonsense. Lots of Americans are obsessed with it, but its just a shiny distraction.

Yeah, sure, it looks as though members of the Trump campaign lied repeatedly, including on live TV and in Senate testimony and on security clearance forms, about their contacts with Russians. It looks as though they may have been eager to get their hands on possibly illegally obtained information from a hostile nation. I love it, Donald Trump Jr. wrote when offered dirt on Hillary Clinton explicitly offered as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump.

But thats merely what the nine-dimensional-chess players in the White House want you to be obsessing over.

(Adriana Usero,Kate Woodsome/The Washington Post)

Focusing on the terrible things Team Trump did during the campaign and transition conveniently distracts you from all the terrible things Team Trump is doing during the presidency.

The administration is repealing consumer and environmental protections left and right. The Education Department is making it easier for for-profit colleges to defraud students. The Environmental Protection Agency has delayed an air pollution rule that the agency had determined would likely prevent the poisoning of children.

The Trump deregulatory team is rife with former lobbyists and others who have conflicts of interest. President Trump and his family members likewise appear to be financially benefiting from his role in the White House.

Yet fussing over regulatory decisions and vaguely sleazy behavior is itself a distraction from an even more important issue: the fact that Republicans are trying to remake one-sixth of the U.S. economy, largely in secret, while ripping health insurance away from 22 million Americans.

Theyre laying out changes opposed by insurers, providers and patient advocacy groups. They are doing so with no hearings and no expert input, and reportedly with a scheme to sideline the one neutral referee of the laws potential impact, the Congressional Budget Office. Attention must be paid!

However, all the noise over health-care reform is itself a ruse intended to distract voters from Republicans real policy agenda: tax cuts for the rich.

The entire point of the Obamacare repeal, at least for House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), is to pave the way for tax cuts. Slashing Medicaid and tax subsidies for people on the individual insurance market would help offset the costs of repealing taxes on rich people imposed by the Affordable Care Act.

The latest Senate health-care bill has complicated that plan somewhat, but plans for major tax cuts for rich people and corporations are still advancing behind the scenes and garnering precious little news coverage.

What scant awareness is being given to tax cuts, however, is diverting the publics deficient attention from a far more insidious scheme: efforts to systematically undermine democratic values and institutions.

Theres the Election Integrity Commissions fishing expedition for state voter data  which may have been deliberately bungled in an attempt to distract voters from Republicans real, secret goal of dismantling the National Voter Registration Act, or Motor Voter law.

There are also the unending attacks on freedom of the press and other First Amendment rights. This includes a fight picked with MSNBC hosts, which White House aides lamented as a distraction from the far more important fight with CNN.

But wait. All of this silliness is really a form of misdirection so that Americans will forget North Korea recently fired an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting Alaska. And that no one is even nominated for critical diplomatic and national security posts, such as ambassador to South Korea and assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation.

But worry about such personnel vacancies is of course a distraction from the fact that the man at the top of the food chain is impulsively tweeting out provocations to both enemies and allies.

And Trumps tasteless Twitter feed is also cleverly designed to distract you from noticing that an iceberg nearly the size of Delaware just broke off Antarctica.

Getting drawn into a debate about whether climate change is to blame, and whether American global leadership could make a difference either way, would surely sidetrack us from the vital question of whether our president is in hock to Russia.

And second verse, same as the first.

Welcome to 2017, the ouroboros of distractions, where every terrible thing is a head-fake for a ruse for a diversion for a misdirection from something else much, much worse.
Boris Johnson is Britains foreign secretary.

Wherever you look in the Middle East, America and Britain are working hand-in-glove to resolve one burning crisis after another. It may sound improbable, but things could be worse.

Suppose that on top of carnage in Syria, civil war in Yemen and the ravages of ISIS in Iraq, we were also facing an Iran on the threshold of a nuclear weapon?

Imagine if Irans leaders were only months or even weeks away from laying their hands on enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb?

The truth is that without the nuclear deal, signed two years ago Friday, this scenario would have come about, adding yet another crisis to the bursting budget of crises in the Middle East.

So far, the deal  officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)  is working, and we believe it represents the best option for the international community.

Before the agreement, Irans underground nuclear facilities contained almost 20,000 centrifuges and more than eight tons of low-enriched uranium.

If you run that stockpile through all those centrifuges, you can break out and make enough weapons-grade uranium for one nuclear bomb in a few months.

Iran was steadily acquiring more centrifuges, so the situation was actually more dangerous; if nothing had been done, the breakout time would have fallen to a matter of weeks.

Thankfully, under the JCPOA, Iran gave up two-thirds of its centrifuges and 95 percent of its uranium stockpile.

Today, Iran is not weeks but at least a year away from having enough weapons-grade uranium for one bomb.

And because the nuclear agreement gives sweeping new powers to international inspectors  indeed the most intrusive monitoring applied to any country in the world  we would have a far better chance of spotting any Iranian attempt to go for a bomb.

The inspections confirm that, so far, Iran is keeping its side of the bargain. Extending the breakout period to at least a year allows us time to react to any breach of the deal.

And Britains view is that enforcing the JCPOA binds Irans hands far more tightly than it does ours.

What would happen if the agreement collapsed? The truth is that Iran  not the United States or Britain  would regain the most freedom of action. Without the constraints on their nuclear program, Irans leaders could bring back the centrifuges and rebuild the uranium stockpile.

The outcome would almost certainly be an Iran that strives to restore its capacity as a nuclear threshold state while continuing to threaten Israel and sponsor allies across the Middle East.

What options would the United States and Britain gain? In theory, we could reassess sanctions, but in the meantime we would face all the perils of Iran rebuilding its nuclear program  and cutting that breakout time to months or weeks.

True enough, the nuclear agreement was never intended to resolve all our problems with Iran. In one stricken country after another, Irans interventions are causing conflict, whether in Syria or Yemen.

I share Americas strength of feeling over Irans disruptive role in the region. You can be sure that Britain stands alongside the United States in resisting Iranian interference.

President Trump is right to insist on rigorous enforcement of the JCPOA; Britain continues to be robust in its defense of these terms.

Yes, Iran has benefited from a partial lifting of sanctions, but there is no evidence that the JCPOA has provided a windfall for Irans campaigns across the region.

Is there a danger of Iran copying North Korea and building an illicit nuclear arsenal? As it happens, North Koreas first bombs were made not from uranium but weapons-grade plutonium  and, sure enough, Iran built a plutonium reactor at a place called Arak.

But there the comparison ends. Under the JCPOA, Iran removed the core of that reactor and poured liquid concrete over what remained, rendering Arak permanently incapable of producing anything dangerous.

In the troubled landscape of the Middle East, success is measured by the crises we avoid. The JCPOA has neutralized the supreme danger of a nuclear-armed Iran for at least a decade. Thats one less threat to worry about.
The diplomatic machinations that have enveloped Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar may seem like a membership feud in a Persian Gulf club for the wealthy. But their quarrel highlights battles that have been roiling the Middle East since the Arab Spring began nearly seven years ago.

The boycott against Qatar announced last month by the Saudis, Emiratis, Bahrainis and Egyptians took the Trump administration by surprise  and triggered a mediation effort this week by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. He is said to view the conflict as counterproductive  damaging all the feuding countries and helping their common rival, Iran.

Tillerson is right to see this as a fratricidal dispute that should be resolved through negotiation. The allegation that Qatar supports terrorism is weak, especially after it signed a memo with Tillerson on Tuesday committing to a joint counterterrorism battle with the United States. The demand that Qatar close Al Jazeera is outrageous; the region needs freer media, not more censorship.

The Saudis and Emiratis basic problem is that they find Qatar a meddlesome and untrustworthy neighbor. But by escalating the family quarrel so radically, they have hurt themselves. The longer this battle goes, the more damage it will do to gulf relations with Washington, stability in the region and, perhaps most important, hopes for modernization and reform in Saudi Arabia.

If Tillerson wants to resolve this dispute, he needs to reckon with the intensity of the anger that triggered it. The fuse was lit in 2013, but its roots go back to 1996, when a branch of the ruling family the Saudis didnt like took power against Saudi wishes. For Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Qatar feels like a thorn in the side, much as Cuba did for the United States for more than 50 years.

This secret history emerges in documents published this week by CNN. The network obtained a copy of a handwritten accord signed Nov. 23, 2013, by the ruling monarchs of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. Its basically a mutual non-interference pact, with the additional stipulation that no signatory will destabilize Yemen or support the Muslim Brotherhood.

Its the Muslim Brotherhood issue that has caused the most bitterness. Qatar has argued that the Brotherhoods involvement in politics will defuse extremism, rather than augment it. The Obama administration took a similar view in its outreach to the Brotherhood in Egypt after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, and in its support for President Recep Tayyip Erdogans government in Turkey. Both Obama policies are now widely judged to have been failures.

President Barack Obamas pro-Muslim Brotherhood actions were poisonous to the Saudis and Emiratis and help explain the deep split that developed after Mubaraks departure in 2011. Rage at Obama deepened as he negotiated the nuclear deal with Iran, another bitter enemy of the gulf Arabs.

The gulf Arabs responded by squeezing Qatar to protect their flanks. The secret November 2013 agreement came just five months after a coup ousting the Brotherhoods Mohamed Morsi in Egypt, and after Iran had signed a framework nuclear agreement.

Hoping to compel Qatar to cease its regional activism, the gulf states signed a second pact on Nov. 16, 2014, which was described as a rescue of the first agreement, Saudi sources said. It was broadened to include the rulers of Bahrain and the UAE. And it added a joint commitment to protect Egypts stability (meaning, help suppress the Brotherhood).

Qatari officials argue that they have abided by the non-interference terms of the agreement and that Al Jazeera and other media outlets operate independently. They protest that any complaints regarding the 2014 pact should have been referred to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The Saudis privately concede that they acted unilaterally because they didnt have GCC consensus.

What complicates this feud is that nearly everyone has been playing both sides of the street. The Qataris do maintain contact with the Taliban and al-Qaedas affiliate in Syria, but they coordinate some of their activities with the CIA. The Qataris do broadcast some extremist Islamist rhetoric, but they also host the biggest U.S. air base in the region. The Saudis and Emiratis want to be Americas best friends, except when they decide that their interests compel unilateral action.

The Qatar quarrel may seem like a tempest in an Arabian teapot. But at its heart is the question that has vexed the world for a decade: Is there a role for political Islam in the modern world? Qatar says yes. The UAE counters that Islamist agitators are the enemy of tolerance and modernity. It falls to Tillerson to see whether theres a middle ground.

Read more from David Ignatiuss archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
As you read about Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who died in Chinese captivity Thursday, ask yourself this: Why are his jailers  President Xi Jinping and the rest of Chinas Communist regime  so afraid?

I wonder about that question sometimes when I think of another of their captives, someone you are less likely to have heard of, a man named Wang Bingzhang.

Wang is, at this point, one of Chinas longest-serving political prisoners. He is 69 years old and in poor health. He has been locked up since 2002, when Chinese agents kidnapped him from Vietnam, hauled him across the border, kept him incommunicado for six months and then sentenced him, in a one-day, closed-door trial held without notice to family or friends, to life in prison.

Wangs crime? Like Liu, he had campaigned, peacefully, for democracy in China. He had argued that freedom is not a Western value but a desire and a right of all human beings.

For that, he, like Liu, had to be locked away and prevented from communicating with the world. As with Liu, whose wife, Liu Xia, has been subjected to a tormenting, bullying, isolating house arrest though she has never been charged with any crime, Wangs family must be made to suffer. His daughter Ti-Anna Wang, who is Canadian and a friend of mine, has not been permitted to visit her father since she published an op-ed in The Post urging his release 8 years ago.

(The Washington Post)

Why are they so afraid?

Why would they keep Liu Xiaobo in his cell until his cancer was so advanced that he was near death  and then keep him from traveling abroad, where he might yet have gotten care? Why would they keep Wang from spending his last years with his children and grandchildren?

What fear could motivate such cruelty?

The answer, I believe, has something to do with the story Chinas rulers tell their people, and maybe themselves, to cling to power.

The story, its important to note, is partly true: The regime has, in the past quarter-century, presided over steady economic growth that has brought hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and into the middle class. On its scale, it is a unique achievement in human history.

But their story is also, in many respects, false. Far from being selfless patriots, the ruling elite has grown fat off the state. They do not want Chinese people reading about their overseas bank accounts or their children attending elite foreign prep schools and universities.

Far from being an alien Western import, democracy has proved to be a universal aspiration that has been embraced successfully in Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and  most dangerously for Beijing  Taiwan.

Far from delivering continuous progress for an ever-happier nation, the regime since 1949 has intermittently plunged China into disastrous famines and spasms of internecine violence that have cost tens of millions of lives. Today it must employ tens of thousands of censors and lock away hundreds of lawyers, journalists and religious believers to maintain the facade of universal acclaim.

Perhaps most perilously, the Communist Party rules over a population that no longer believes in communism. The regimes only remaining justification is that it delivers economic growth. Yet, as the economy becomes more complex, growth becomes more and more dependent on people being free to think, read, challenge and compete. The regime is caught in this paradox  and afraid.

Any government that jails its own people for political dissent still has a long way to go to become a respected member of the international community, Ti-Anna Wang wrote in that 2009 op-ed.

On some level, the regime must understand that. If it enjoyed international respect, it would not have to browbeat and bully other governments not to meet with the Dalai Lama and other peaceful critics.

And Chinas leaders must understand that the same logic applies at home: If they enjoyed the respect of their own people, they would not have to shut down every blogger, newspaper and website that expressed an opinion contrary to the party line. They would not have to keep Liu Xiaobo from traveling to Norway to pick up his Nobel Prize. They would not have to lock up 69-year-old Wang Bingzhang to keep him from extolling the virtues of democracy.

On some level, Xi and his colleagues must know that Liu and Wang are right and they are wrong. Clearly they fear that their people will come to that realization. Maybe they are also afraid to admit it to themselves.

Read more from Fred Hiatts archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
In his July 9 Sunday Opinion essay, Media myopia on health care, Gary Abernathy wrote that an anti-government political bent is common among Ohio residents, presumably including those who use public highways, public schools, the public court system, subsidized hospitals and public utilities and who gain protection from multiple public police forces and a huge public military. These are communities, he wrote, where people dont look to the government to solve all their problems. Good to know.

Mr. Abernathy further claimed that these Ohioans are dedicated to the principle of freedom from government mandates. Putting aside the fact that another word for government mandates is laws (do they really value freedom from laws?), lets assume he was referring only to Obamacares individual mandate to buy insurance. The hatred of the mandate has been covered extensively in the news media, contrary to Mr. Abernathys thesis. And what it means is that these Ohioans have been misinformed about or dont understand a key concept of insurance: that a large pool of healthy applicants helps ensure coverage for the sick, which we all will be before the end.

Brad Bonhall, Reno, Nev.

Instead of defending Trump supporters dedication to the principle of freedom, Gary Abernathy should be using his position in the media to educate the voters. (I realize how crazy that sounds: the media ignoring stories about the current political circus to focus on issues and policy? Oh, if only it were so.) Repealing Obamacare and reducing Medicaid will result in the uninsured flooding emergency rooms for treatment for which they will not be able to pay. Does freedom mean that you let the taxpayers of your state pay for your health care?

We have become such an entitled society that a large swath of this country thinks that personal responsibility is a great thing and the government should stay out of their lives, as long as they themselves do not have to be responsible and the government programs from which they benefit are left intact. I am convinced that had the rural, blue-collar Trump voters been properly advised before the election as to what they were actually getting by voting for him, they would have wholeheartedly rejected him. But this would have taken real political leadership and a media that takes its Fourth Estate responsibilities seriously. Unfortunately, we have neither.

John F. Kelly Jr., Reston
Regarding the July 11 front-page article White House defends Trump Jr.:

Russian President Vladimir Putin must be ebullient now with the state of the West in general and the United States in particular. Russia has managed to take advantage of a reasonably cohesive but slightly dysfunctional society, exploit minor fissures and transform them into enormous chasms with the latest brouhaha about Donald Trump Jr.

We have devolved into a bunch of squabbling nincompoops because weve been so artfully played. Ideally, the media and politicians would remind us that were on the same team. That is a tall order because so much of our collective discourse has become personal, and its extremely difficult to admit fault. But it must be done.

Bill Marriott, Springfield

President Trump famously stated that he could shoot someone on New Yorks Fifth Avenue and he wouldnt lose supporters. It appears he was right. Thanks to Donald Trump Jr., we have direct evidence of intentional contact with a hostile foreign power to gain domestic political advantage, yet the presidents support among Republicans remains steady.

GOP leaders silence is disturbing. I refuse to believe that the GOP has sold its soul and our future to a man who respects neither them nor our institutions. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will always be my hero. Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and others are patriots who love this country every bit as much as I do. They have seen the information on the suspicious and highly questionable activities of Trump associates. Many of them have probably seen even more. Yet most remain remarkably mum. The ends do not justify the means. No tax reform bill or health-care legislation is worth it.

In a few weeks, my son will take the oath and join the military. He will be promising to risk his life to support and defend the country from all enemies foreign and domestic. My son! I am asking GOP leaders to remember the oaths they took and set limits on where politics ends and patriotism begins.

Kevin Brady, Olney
Susan B. Glasser is chief international affairs columnist for Politico. She and her husband, Peter Baker, former Moscow bureau chiefs for The Washington Post, are co-authors of Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putins Russia and the End of Revolution.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his confidants deal readily in the dark arts of kompromat, the not-at-all subtle use of damaging information, real or faked, against enemies. Its straight out of the KGB playbook in which Putin was trained and a staple of Moscow politics during his long reign.

I immediately thought of this sordid signature of the Putin era when news broke the other day that Donald Trump Jr. had an email from a supposed intermediary of the Russian government that promised help in supplying kompromat on Hillary Clinton  as part of Russia and its governments support of Mr. Trump.

To an American ear, the offer seemed like something operatives might think but would never put in writing  more like a plot twist from House of Cards too implausible to be believed. But it makes a lot more sense if you read up on Putin and the Russia he has led for 17 years. A whole stack of brilliant books make abundantly clear that Putins Russia is a land of political intrigue and suspicion, where conspiracy theories often turn out to be true, kompromat is the weapon of choice and power is centralized to a surprising degree around the new tsar in the Kremlin (which also happens to be the title of Steven Lee Myerss very good 2015 biography of Putin ).

Perhaps the best guide to the troubled soul of Russias tough-guy leader remains Putins 2000 campaign autobiography, First Person, which more or less lays out how hed bring his KGB style to the presidency. The book portrays Putin as a street hooligan from Leningrad who grew up dreaming of escape by becoming a secret agent. One spy, he says revealingly in the book, could decide the fate of thousands of people. Or millions, as it turned out in his case.

Besides Putins own words, there are dozens of other books that offer insight into his mind and his Russia  and the scandal unfolding around his countrys ties to Americas unlikely new billionaire president. I have bookshelves full of them and could recommend many; here are a few that I keep turning back to as this extraordinary story plays out.

Before my husband and I moved to Moscow at the start of the Putin era to serve as Moscow bureau chiefs for The Washington Post, we went to see David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, who had covered the end days of the Soviet Union a decade earlier as a correspondent for The Post, to ask how we should prepare. Read Chekhov, he advised.

We did, but luckily there are many significantly more contemporary accounts of how Russia got to its troubled post-Soviet present that we found indispensable as well  not least of which was Remnicks Pulitzer Prize-winning book on the Soviet collapse, Lenins Tomb.

To get Putin and why he has such grievance against his interlocutors in the West, its crucial to understand that Soviet implosion, which he memorably called the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. And indeed, his account in First Person vividly recalls the moment when, as a Soviet spy based in East Germany, he watched in dismay as the country crumbled, and frantically shredded documents as protesters threatened his KGB headquarters in Dresden. When he called for military backup, Putin remembers being told: We cannot do anything without an order from Moscow. And Moscow is silent.

Putin views this as the signal tragedy of his era. I got the feeling then that the country no longer existed, he says. That it . . . had a terminal disease without a cure  a paralysis of power.

The collapse of the Moscow center was a trauma for Putin, and it went on to become the foundational myth of his presidency, the rationale for what he invariably portrays as a decades-long exercise to restore the Russian state  and even, as his takeover of Crimea in 2014 and aggressive moves since then suggest, to recover parts of the lost Russian empire, too.

Remnick was perhaps the best in-the-moment chronicler of that Soviet collapse and the passing optimism that quickly descended into dysfunctional politics. Others have trenchantly captured the pathologies of the 1990s. In The Oligarchs, David Hoffman depicted the looting of the state and the rise of the super-rich plutocrats after the Soviet implosion; so did Chrystia Freeland, a journalist turned politician who is now Canadas foreign minister, in Sale of the Century. Strobe Talbott, President Bill Clintons deputy secretary of state, recounted in his memoir The Russia Hand the backstage politicking that led to NATOs expansion and other current disputes with Putin.

To understand why Putin inevitably emerged on the scene, readers must go back even further, to the Soviet regime, and there are many excellent books covering that period. A few histories of the era seem especially well-timed to todays controversies. In Iron Curtain, Anne Applebaum documents the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe after World War II, which was eerily similar in some respects to Putins recent machinations in areas Russians still refer to as the near abroad. And Timothy Snyders Bloodlands, which excavates the horrific history of the countries caught between the Soviet Union and Germany in World War II, puts the current Ukraine-Russia conflict in context.

As for the spy turned president, a number of credible Putin biographies help illuminate this moment when he occupies such an outsize place in the American national conversation. In addition to Myerss comprehensive book, Id recommend Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin, by Brookings Institution scholars Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy. Gaddy and Hill, who is now the top Russia hand on Trumps National Security Council, portray the enigmatic president in all the various guises he has adopted, from mafia don and outsider with a chip perpetually on his shoulder to self-described savior of a struggling nation.

Ed Lucas of the Economist was an early voice on that savior complex; his book The New Cold War, published in 2008, reads now as a prescient polemic about where Russia was headed. Another Economist writer, Arkady Ostrovsky, last year won Britains Orwell Prize for The Invention of Russia, which helps explain how Putin has cemented his rule by media manipulation and the march to war against enemies foreign and domestic.

The costs of all this? There was no braver journalist exploring the dark corners of Putins Russia than Anna Politkovskaya , murdered near her doorstep in 2006, and her book A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches From Chechnya is well worth reading. And Im looking forward to activist and author Masha Gessens new book The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, out this fall.

My husband, Peter Baker, and I produced our account in 2005, Kremlin Rising, which chronicled Putins rapid ascent to power  and swift dismantling of the fledgling democratic institutions he inherited. After the Trump Jr. email revelation, I turned back to our book and found on Page 52 the story of how kompromat arguably brought Putin to the presidency.

In 1999, an obscure Putin was embattled President Boris Yeltsins new head of the FSB, the domestic successor to the KGB, when he found himself embroiled in a kompromat war. Yeltsin allies were trying to take out a prosecutor-general who was poking around too closely in Yeltsin family business. After they released grainy video footage of the prosecutor cavorting with scantily clad prostitutes, Putin obligingly stepped forward at a key moment to authenticate the footage.

Putins loyalty didnt just help dispose of the prosecutor. It also confirmed Yeltsins view of the FSB head as a man he could trust. Within nine months, Yeltsin would name Putin president of Russia in his stead  and here Putin is today, still confounding the West 17 years later.

Putin is playing chicken with Russia, Hill and Gaddy wrote, and it is an observation as relevant now as ever. He is daring the population to call his bluff.

So why is Putin still in power? Why do Russians put up with the corruption and the uncertainty, the ever more constrained public space, and the epic disregard for them by the nations smug, oil-fueled elites?

In Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible, Peter Pomerantsev captures as well as anyone the money-soaked cynicism and manufactured media echo chamber of Moscow under Putin.  Everything is PR has become the favorite phrase of the new Russia, Pomerantsev writes. His entertaining memoir recounting his adventures in the dark heart of the propaganda machine helps shed light on why Putins gilded, image-conscious Moscow seems so appealing to Americas TV-obsessed new president and his clan.

But Moscow and St. Petersburg are most decidedly not Putins Russia. To get outside the cosmopolitan, corrupt capitals and into the rest of the country, you will find no book better describing the vast craziness of the post-Soviet realities than Secondhand Time, an oral history by Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich.

It is the single best guide I have found to Putins subjects, a beautiful, heartbreaking tribute to people who hoped for something better out of the Soviet breakup, but in the classic words of 1990s Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, it turned out as always.
In the late 1980s, a friend of mine got a call at work that, while on a business trip, his male partner had been shot and rushed to the emergency room. My friend then spent four hours on the phone with the hospital, trying desperately to persuade them to tell him  a legal stranger, whose relationship he did not dare explain  whether his beloved was dead or alive. Shocked, my own partner and I quickly bought a do-it-yourself legal book, typed up health-care proxies, went out to get them notarized  and endured the notarys and witnesss sneers and stares as they realized that we were queer.

All of which is to illustrate how unimaginable, back then, it was to think about being able to marry. In 1990, lesbians and gay men were presumptive felons in 25 states and the District of Columbia. If newspapers mentioned us at all, they called us homosexuals. Men were dying of AIDS and being told they deserved it. The religious right was running horrifying ballot measures against us in state after state. Hundreds of thousands of us blurred our pronouns when talking to co-workers and ducked family questions about when we were going to get married (When hell freezes over, Aunt Jean. Can I bring my roommate to Thanksgiving again this year?).

And yet by 2015, large swaths of Americans, gay and straight alike, were upset that same-sex couples werent already free to marry. What was taking so long, went the refrain, on a matter of simple and obvious justice?

[In historic decision, Taiwanese court rules in favor of same-sex marriage]

Awakening: How Gays and Lesbians Brought Marriage Equality to America, by Nathaniel Frank, (Harvard University Press/Harvard University Press)

What the heck happened in just 25 years?

A lot happened. Last year, in The Gay Revolution, Lillian Faderman gave us a broad and rollicking history of what we now call the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) movement, revealing a vast and roiling landscape of those who challenged our exclusion from full citizenship and changed the world.

But even the richest history of social transformation cant show everything. Now researcher Nathaniel Frank fills in an indispensable part of the story. Awakening reports meticulously on the gay and lesbian lawyers who envisioned and ran the fight for marriage and the funders who helped put the effort over the finish line, carefully recounting the legal arguments and opinions all along the way. This book doesnt paint the entire marriage fight; ground organizing and legislative battles get short shrift. But Frank is correct: The push for marriage equality was primarily conceived, led, managed and won by the movements legal advocates, whose story he tells. As he puts it, marriage equality arrived because of the incremental strategy that LGBTQ legal advocates had formulated and refined over two decades: carefully assess the legal landscape; understand those you need to persuade, including judges; build familiarity [among the nongay mainstream] with committed same-sex couples through discussion and exposure to gay families; and accumulate state wins as building blocks to national marriage equality at the right time.

This is a broad mural of collective strategizing. Within that, the most credit goes to Evan Wolfson, who  astonishingly  in 1983 wrote a visionary law school paper, 141 pages long, arguing that marriage rights had to be the central goal of the gay movement. At the time it seemed ridiculous. But he persisted  for decades. As a newly minted lawyer who found his way into a then-small cadre of full-time gay and lesbian civil rights advocates, Wolfson had to battle almost universal opposition to the pursuit of marriage in the movement as a whole.

Why opposition? There were two main lines of reasoning. A liberationist/radical feminist faction rejected what it saw as the confining patriarchal institution of marriage; it wanted queers to be a revolutionary vanguard inventing new legal forms of family, not retreating into normalcy. Another faction  call them the whoa there, Nellie folks  thought marriage might be a good goal someday, but for Gods sake, not yet. Their oft-used metaphor was that marriage rights were the roof of a house  and the LGBT movement hadnt even cleared the ground, much less built the foundation. People were still getting fired or losing custody of their children for coming out; aiming for marriage so soon would only bring on a backlash and ugly case law, slowing progress.

All this got hashed out at the Gay Rights Litigators Roundtable, a little-known working group that Frank reveals as a critical source of strategy, tactics and an internal moot court testing every idea. For several years Wolfson was ordered to stand down, staying away from any potential marriage cases. But in 1993, a rogue lawsuit in Hawaii, brought by outsiders to the movement, was taken seriously at the Hawaii Supreme Court. Those justices thought denying marriage licenses because of gender smelled like sex discrimination  and sent the case back to trial under a higher standard. Wolfsons boss at the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund sent him to Hawaii to help run that effort.

That hint of homosexuals marrying, coming just as President Bill Clinton was trying to let lesbians and gay men serve openly in the military, started a feverish nationwide debate  no, lets call it a panic  about what people then called gay marriage, before Wolfson rebranded it marriage equality. Religious-right groups and Republican operatives rushed to put referenda on ballots and bills in front of legislators to define marriage as between one man and one woman. By 1996, 26 states and the federal government had passed Defense of Marriage Acts (DOMA) to protect innocent men, women and children from being overrun by married homosexuals, pedophilia, plague, incest, polygamy, bestiality and general apocalypse  and no, I am not exaggerating about the rhetoric. Hawaii voters passed one such measure, mooting the Hawaii lawsuit.

But by then Wolfson had a partner in Mary Bonauto, civil rights director at New Englands Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, who quickly became the movements chief marriage litigator. They won over the rest of the legal roundtable to what became their state-by-state impact litigation strategy: carefully identify states where there was already a strong foundation of laws and court rulings in favor of LGBT rights, and where the constitution was hard to amend; bring lawsuits under the state constitution, never implicating the federal government; work closely with the statewide infrastructure of LGBT activists and power brokers to prepare for and protect any win; and chloroform  er, persuade  individual rogue plaintiffs not to bring marriage lawsuits in states where theyd almost certainly lose, leaving behind trouble that would be hard to clean up.

It was a winning strategy, especially as carried out by Bonauto, who successfully plotted the lawsuits and marshalled the effort to win the first breakthroughs: civil unions in Vermont in 2000; marriage in Massachusetts in 2004; marriage in Connecticut in 2008. Wolfson, meanwhile, backed by visionary funders, launched a national organization to support activists who wanted to prepare the way for marriage in their own states. For several years he seemed to be everywhere, speaking and writing incessantly, fundraising and organizing, urging the troops onward, exhorting us all to do our part to win in public opinion as well as the courts.

While the roundtable strategy was winning, California became proof that the improv approach  lets do it because its right!  made a big mess. In 2004, the straight mayor of San Francisco, acting with no legal authority and without consulting any LGBT advocates, started marrying same-sex couples. While the lines to city hall to marry were long and giddy, those marriages legal status was entirely uncertain. California had passed a Defense of Marriage Act in 2000. And so those rogue marriages set off a cascade of competing lawsuits, state court decisions, another referendum, and still more lawsuits and state and federal court decisions. Finally an impatient young activist named Chad Griffin met with some rich, straight Hollywood liberals and brought to life the legal roundtables nightmare: a lawsuit in federal court claiming that it was unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the right to marry. Republican legal big shot Ted Olson teamed up with Democratic legal big shot David Boies in hopes of galloping to the Supreme Court with Hollingsworth v. Perry, which sought a ruling akin to Loving v. Virginia on interracial marriage, striking down every ban on marriage equality in the country at one blow.

[Why Angela Merkel, known for embracing liberal values, voted against same-sex marriage]

Fortunately, Bonauto had already filed a more sensible and restrained federal lawsuit that challenged the federal DOMA on behalf of couples married in Massachusetts who were denied the federal recognition that all other Massachusetts marrieds got. That lawsuit was soon joined in the federal system by similar DOMA challenges. Awakening explains clearly why so many of us were relieved when, once at the Supreme Court, Perry was decided on very narrow grounds, letting Californians marry but not taxing the justices to decide the constitutionality question just yet. Meanwhile Windsor v. United States, which challenged only the Defense of Marriage Act, won.

And as Frank details, the success of Windsor set off a flurry of challenges everywhere in the country. Within two years, all those DOMAs had crumbled into dust, blown away by the Supreme Court declaring a federal freedom to marry.

It turns out that while the whoa-Nellies had been right about the backlash, Wolfson and others of us had been equally right about how marriage rights would transform understanding of lesbians and gay men. Marriage made us socially comprehensible to those around us, visible within the structure that organizes so much of our culture. We werent just people who had yucky sex; we were married or single, parenting or child-free, widowed or divorced, people who fell in love and organized our lives around the resulting commitments. Those who wished to reject marriage because it was confining or patriarchal or what have you could still reject it  just as similar straight couples did.

Awakenings isnt perfect. It starts too early, spending too many indifferent pages sketching the LGBT movements background. It misses the vast uprising of ordinary lesbians and gay men who pushed their reluctant leaders to focus on marriage. It doesnt show the ugliness of the attack ads against marriage, the front-line fights to win state campaigns and change legislative minds, the bitter internal divides about how to run those campaigns, or the breakthrough door-to-door strategy and television ads that finally turned the tide.

Most puzzlingly, this is a book about marriage that lacks personal stories. For so many of us, the marriage fight was intellectually thrilling and emotionally explosive, passionate and personal, complete with extreme swings of emotion, hope and terror, exhilarating wins and despairing losses. I remember sitting in the Supreme Court press gallery for the Perry and Windsor cases, and looking down at rows of the legal roundtable  our superheroes, our gods and goddesses  filling rows at the court as honored guests, while the dignity of our lives was fought out in the gladiators arena we call a courtroom. Such heart-stopping moments arent captured in this books careful academic prose.

But I dont want to make the mistake of reviewing a book the author didnt intend to write. Frank gets it down and gets it right. He has clearly mastered every document, interviewed every principal, detailed every legal argument and given credit where its due. His book is the text from which other histories will be written, and the textbook from which future impact litigation and advocacy will be planned.
SENATE REPUBLICANS released Thursday a new version of their Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill. It is arguably worse than the unpopular bill that preceded it.

The Congressional Budget Office projected that the previous iteration would result in 22 million more uninsured in a decade. Looking at the revised Senate health bill, its hard to see how it could meaningfully alter CBOs projection of how the uninsured will grow, the Kaiser Family Foundations Larry Levitt noted. The revised Senate bill reinstates taxes on wealthy people, but it mostly does not spend that money on health care for low-income people.

In their revision, Senate leaders tried to blunt the charge that the GOP wants to cut poor peoples health care to fund tax cuts for the rich. Taxes on wealthy peoples investment income were indeed maintained. But the bill would deeply slash Medicaid, the state-federal program covering the poor and near-poor, just as before. And it would still use the savings to fund an array of tax cuts, including a break for medical-device manufacturers. It would even add a new tax break expanding tax-advantaged health savings accounts, which would mostly benefit wealthier people who have savings to put into them.

Moderate senators who earlier claimed to have concerns about cutting off poor people have no reasonable justification for supporting this bill. If they vote for it in anticipation that its Medicaid cuts would phase in as planned, they would support a massive blow to low-income people in their states. If they vote for the bill with the calculation that future Congresses would cancel its Medicaid cuts, then their vote would likely equate to support for expanding the national debt, because the Medicaid savings are the major source of financing for the bills many tax cuts.

Medicaid is not the only way to cover people, of course. But the new bill would chop up the private market for individual insurance. A new provision from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) would divide healthy people buying cheap and skimpy plans from less healthy people who want comprehensive coverage. The flimsy plans would cover little and come with few consumer protections, a grave risk for anyone who ended up needing care. The more comprehensive plans would become increasingly unaffordable as the least healthy  and therefore, to insurance companies, most expensive  customers found themselves increasingly isolated.

(Lee Powell,Rhonda Colvin,Victoria Walker,Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

Even if the market avoided a death spiral, federal assistance offsetting premiums for those seeking comprehensive coverage would still be pegged to much thinner plans than the current standard. Despite GOP carping about high deductibles under Obamacare, their alternative is destined to increase these and other out-of-pocket costs.

States could lower costs with a pot of federal money set aside for experimentation and market stabilization. But these funds, even if fully appropriated, would be inadequate to the many tasks assigned them: addressing potentially skyrocketing premiums in the sicker market, ensuring that skimpier coverage does not lead people to forgo needed care and stabilizing the finances of insurers who may find the individual insurance market difficult.

The CBO, slated to release its analysis of the updated bill early next week, should have the final say. But we cannot imagine it will contain good news for the bills backers  nor, more important, for Americans who want access to affordable health care.
The mother of Yoav Hattab, a French Jew killed in the attack on a kosher grocery store in Paris, is comforted during his funeral procession in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv on Jan. 13, 2015. (Oded Balilty/Associated Press)

Ira Forman and Hannah Rosenthal each served as the State Departments special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. Jonathan Greenblatt is chief executive and national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

Since the beginning of the Trump administration, the State Department post of special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism has remained vacant. Judging by recent remarks from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the administration is still vacillating on whether it is important enough  or enough of a priority  to continue the office. When testifying before Congress in June, Tillerson said that, even as he has considered making the appointment, he has been vexed by the concern that anti-Semitism could actually get less attention if the special envoy position continued to function. The secretary stated: One of the things we are considering  and we understand why (the envoys) were created and the good intentions behind why they were created  but one of the things we want to understand is, by doing that, did we weaken our attention to those issues? Because the expertise in a lot of these areas lies within the bureaus, and now weve stripped it out of the bureaus.

We couldnt disagree more. Two of us are former special envoys on anti-Semitism, and the other is the leader of an organization that works daily to combat anti-Semitism and bigotry of all forms, and we submit that the problem of global anti-Semitism is getting renewed awareness and attention around the world precisely because of the existence of this office.

Founded in 2004 to ensure that the United States had a permanent diplomat applying pressure on foreign governments and to alert the president and members of Congress when anti-Semitism reared its ugly head, the envoys office has existed for 13 years and under three presidents. In that time, the United States has taken a unique leadership position in the world in the struggle to push back against anti-Semitism. The special envoy has enhanced the work of our embassies, consulates and regional bureaus in combating anti-Semitism.

We have made significant progress. In the years before the office existed, global platforms such as a 2001 U.N. world conference on racism held in South Africa were turned into anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate-fests. That same year, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that Jews were responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks spread like wildfire, especially in parts of the Muslim world. In the next few years we witnessed a surge of anti-Semitic violence in France and elsewhere in Europe that raised concerns for the continuing viability of certain European Jewish communities.

These and other manifestations led to the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush and mandated the creation of a new envoy in the State Department to monitor, report and raise awareness of anti-Semitism. Since that time there have been many occasions when action by the special envoys office  working closely with other State Department offices, the White House, Congress, our democratic allies abroad and nongovernmental organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League  helped protect Jewish communities abroad and, at times, spurred governments and presidents to modify problematic policies. The special envoy traveled to the Baltics to protest the inclusion of the Waffen-SS in an independence parade in Latvia. In 2012, the State Department produced a study of anti-Semitism in Saudi textbooks, and we put pressure on the government to remove the anti-Jewish and anti-Christian themes being taught in Saudi schools.

Perhaps most importantly, the special envoys office successfully urged our democratic allies and other nations to adopt a working definition of anti-Semitism. Significantly, the definition singled out as anti-Semitic the demonization of Israel and creating a double standard for Israel with the expectations of behavior not demanded of other democracies. The United States has also pressed other nations to create diplomatic envoys to fight anti-Semitism.

It is not only the American Jewish community supporting the continuation of the special envoys office. Tillerson need only talk to Democrats and Republicans in Congress, to nongovernmental organizations such as Human Rights First, to our democratic allies in France, Germany and Britain, and to our professional diplomats who have served in dozens of countries where anti-Semitism has surfaced. If he were to do so, he would find essentially unanimous support for the strengthening of this office.

Threats to Jews have not diminished: Witness recent events in France, Belgium, Hungary, Venezuela and Turkey, the terrorist attacks around the world inspired by anti-Semitic propaganda on the Internet and the spread of anti-Semitism virally on social media. Americas voice in the fight to counter anti-Semitism is desperately needed  now more than ever.
A Texas man who became trapped inside an ATM slipped notes to customers via the receipt slot pleading for them to help him escape, police said yesterday.

The contractor became stuck Wednesday when he was changing a lock to a Bank of America room that leads to the back of the ATM, Corpus Christi police Lt. Chris Hooper said. He couldnt let himself out of the room because he didnt have a keycard on him and was unable to notify bank employees for help.

Apparently he left his cellphone and the swipe card he needed to get out of the room outside in his truck, Hooper said.

When he realized customers were retrieving cash from the machine, he passed notes to them through the ATM receipt slot. One read, Please help. Im stuck in here and I dont have my phone. Please call my boss 

Some customers appeared to dismiss the notes as a gag, Hooper said. But one called police, who detected a faint voice coming from inside the ATM. An officer kicked in the door to the room and freed the man, whose name has not been released.

Everyone is OK, but you will never see this in your life, that somebody was stuck in the ATM. It was just crazy, Richard Olden, a police senior officer, told KRIS-TV.
I traveled with my family in Australia for three weeks as a guest of the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne, invited to explain whats happening in President Trumps America.

As if there were an explanation.

Of more interest was what I learned from the Australians. To visit this stalwart ally and talk with its people was to see how the United States, in the space of just a few months, has utterly lost its moral authority.

You see it at the street level: Off Sydneys Circular Quay, where, just down the street from the felicitously (if coincidentally) named Trumps Alto Ego salon, Trump look-alikes wearing orange wigs and too-long red ties amuse passersby with boorish antics; on Melbournes Hosier Lane, a street-art haven now featuring a mural of children throwing rocks at a tank emblazoned with Trumps scowling face; and even in little Port Douglas in the tropics, where anti-Trump graffiti is spray-painted on the trash bin in the marina.

You see it, too, in only slightly more diplomatic terms, at the highest levels:

Paul Keating, the former Labor prime minister, declared in response to Trumps election that Australia should cut the tag with the United States. He later warned that the United States threatens to involve Australia in war.

Penny Wong, shadow foreign minister for Labor, which is favored to win the next election, wrote that Trumps views are counter to what are core values for most Australians and suggested Australia orient itself more to the Asia-Pacific region.

Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister, asserted last month that the U.S.-anchored rules-based order can no longer be taken for granted. Turnbull said foreign policy should be determined by Australias interests alone, and he declared that the U.S. alliance isnt a straitjacket.

It isnt just rhetoric. In late June, Australia, one of the coalition partners in Syria, suspended air operations over that country after the U.S. military downed a Syrian jet.

Simon Jackman, chief executive of the U.S. Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, sees a dramatic rethinking in the country about the United States. Australians, he says, are asking: So why are we so close to this country again?

There were already differences on gun laws (Australias are strict) and inequality (Australia is more egalitarian). But Trump has pushed forward on a new set of issues that offend or frighten Australians: building a border wall, abandoning the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and the Paris climate-change accord, trying to take away health insurance from millions of Americans (Australia has universal coverage) and making noises about war with North Korea. The changing U.S. domestic policy leads people to believe our military policy ought not to be so closely entwined with Americas, says Jackman.

Polling by the U.S. Studies Centre finds that in the past two years, the number of Australians who say the United States has the most influence in Asia has dropped by half. More Australians see the United States as a force for harm in the region and in Australia than did two years ago.

Trump is the reason. When a half-sample of poll respondents were asked the U.S.-influence question with the phrase now that Donald Trump is president inserted, negative responses jumped 20 percentage points. Similar results were found in Indonesia, Japan and South Korea.

This is consistent with the Pew Research Center poll of 37 countries released while I was down under. A median 22 percent of those surveyed have confidence in Trump to do the right thing in international affairs, down from 64 percent who had confidence in President Barack Obama. The percentage abroad with a favorable view of the United States has fallen by 15 points. Some of the sharpest drops were among allies.

This will have consequences. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland says that Americas questioning of the very worth of its mantle of global leadership puts in sharper focus the need for the rest of us to set our own clear and sovereign course. And Germanys Angela Merkel memorably said in reaction to Trump that Europe must take our fate into our own hands. This became only more clear after last weeks Group of 20 meeting, where Trump was the sole dissenter on the Paris accord and his protectionist talk set off fears that a trade war was forming.

Allies alienation from the United States will increase, I suspect, when they come to realize what theyve seen over the past six months is unlikely to change soon. At almost every stop in Australia, I detected an innocent optimism that the Trump effect would be short-lived: How long until hes impeached? Cant he be removed on grounds of insanity? Surely his fellow Republicans wont tolerate this for long?

I wish I could have reassured them.

Twitter: @Milbank

Read more from Dana Milbanks archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Manisha Sinha, the Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut, is the author, most recently, of The Slaves Cause: A History of Abolition.

The black intellectual and activist W.E.B. Du Bois identified the problem of the 20th century as the problem of the color line. Its roots lay in the conflict over slavery and black citizenship in the early American republic. Statesmen, abolitionists, slaveholders and the enslaved themselves participated in this debate, which eventually begat the Civil War and emancipation.

In this dual biography of Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams, Fred Kaplan, who has previously written biographies of both men, compares Lincoln unfavorably with abolitionists on the great issues of the day. Unlike the abolitionists, Lincoln  in Kaplans telling  opposed emancipation and black rights through much of his life not because he was an anti-slavery moderate, as most historians have argued, but because he was an incorrigible racist and anti-abolitionist. Seeking to revise hagiographic views of Lincoln, whom he calls an antislavery moralist, Kaplan places Adams, whom he dubs an antislavery activist, with the abolitionists, even though Adams throughout his long political career never considered himself among their ranks.

[How Lincoln grew during his wilderness years into a politically savvy statesman]

The title of this book is a misnomer, as it is not a sustained look at the relationship between Lincoln and the abolitionists. Abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips and Frederick Douglass pop in and out of the book, but one gets no sense of the movement. Instead, Kaplan, a professor emeritus of English at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, deploys the views of abolitionists and Adams selectively, mainly to highlight Lincolns shortcomings and his allegedly unchanging conservatism on slavery and race. Unlike Douglass, Kaplan places Lincoln not at the head of a great anti-slavery movement but as a lifelong proponent of a lily-white America.

Lincoln and the Abolitionists, by Fred Kaplan (HARPER)

That Lincoln was not an abolitionist, even though he morally abhorred slavery, is not news to historians. Kaplan highlights Lincolns role as a lawyer for a slaveholder seeking to remand his slave, Jane Bryant, and her four children back to slavery; Bryant had lived in Illinois and married a free black man. The author is on less sure ground when he discusses Lincolns reaction to the murder of Elijah Lovejoy, the abolitionist editor killed while defending his printing press from a mob in 1837. Not only did Lincoln vote against anti-abolitionist resolutions in the Illinois legislature, he also penned a protest arguing that slavery was an injustice and bad policy but that abolition may increase rather than abate its evils. In a speech a year later, Lincoln condemned mobs that throw printing presses into rivers and shoot editors. Yet Kaplan with typical overstatement concludes that Lincoln saw slavery and abolition as equally evil. In fact, while Lincoln consistently condemned slavery as wrong, he came to appreciate the role abolitionists played in the coming of emancipation during the Civil War. But Kaplan lumps Lincoln in the same category as his co-counsel in the Bryant case, Usher Linder, the pro-slavery state attorney general who persecuted Lovejoy and made sure his murderers got off scot-free.

Adams fares better in Kaplans book. Like many of the Northern founders, including his father, Adams put the interests of the nation above his qualms over slavery early in his career. Kaplan is at his best in describing anti-slavery in New England and Southern slaveholding moderates as those who opposed slavery in principle but happily profited from it. By the 1830s, Adams was a fellow traveler of the abolitionist movement but not a member. Kaplan spends a lot of time writing about Adamss reaction to the Missouri crisis and Lovejoys murder, but says surprisingly little about his virtually one-man opposition to the gag rule against abolitionist petitions in the House of Representatives and absolutely nothing about his defense of the Amistad slave rebels before the Supreme Court.

Kaplans understanding of the interracial abolitionist movement is outdated, quaint and erroneous, which undermines his attempt to set it up as a foil to Lincoln. He dismisses Lovejoy as a moral absolutist, misidentifies the American Anti Slavery Society as the American Abolition Society and claims that some abolitionists were colonizationists. Abolitionists rejected the program of the American Colonization Society, founded in 1817 to repatriate all free blacks back to Africa.

[Book review: The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams, by Phyllis Lee Levin]

Kaplan praises Adamss rejection of colonization in contrast to Lincolns long-standing support of it. Lincoln admired Henry Clay, the slaveholding Whig senator from Kentucky, a founding member and president of the American Colonization Society and author of the most important sectional compromises before the Civil War, as his beau ideal of a politician. In the crisis decade before the war, however, Lincoln began sounding a lot more like Adams than Clay. One can trace his evolution in the politics of anti-slavery from his reluctant support of the Fugitive Slave Law to his eloquent denunciation of the Dred Scott decision. Kaplan rarely engages with Lincolns words, which lay bare the dilemma of a moderate wrestling with his competing loyalties to the Union, the Constitution and anti-slavery. During the war, Lincoln would move from the non-extension of slavery to abolition, and from colonization to black citizenship, but Kaplan is not impressed by his capacity, as Garrison put it, to grow in office. He reproduces abolitionists denunciations of Lincoln for his slowness to act but rarely their praise of him when he adopted emancipation. Lincoln fulfilled Adamss prediction of the destruction of slavery during a military conflict that would allow the president to evoke his war powers under the Constitution to abolish slavery. In this sense, Lincoln was a political heir to Adams.

Kaplan also does not note that abolitionists such as Owen Lovejoy, brother of the martyred Elijah, and Charles Sumner emerged as confidantes of the president, but he faults Lincoln for making the worst vice-presidential choice in U.S. history, Andrew Johnson, during his reelection bid in 1864. But neither Lincoln nor the abolitionists foresaw that he would be assassinated and that Johnson, the wartime governor of Union-occupied Tennessee known for his hatred of the slaveholding elite, would become president and issue wholesale pardons to them. (Tennessee, contrary to Kaplans claim, did secede from the Union.) And just when he should have left his narrative well alone, Kaplan indulges in a bit of counterfactual history, gratuitously predicting that if Lincoln had lived, he would not have prevented the overthrow of Reconstruction, Jim Crow or even the criminalization of blackness, because for him only white lives mattered. The black abolitionist H. Ford Douglas, who criticized Lincolns failure to support black citizenship before the war, knew better. The war he predicted would educate Lincoln on colonization. It would also lay the foundation for an interracial democracy that the nation still aspires to achieve.
Avik Roy, president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, served as a policy adviser to Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and Marco Rubio.

Sen. Barack Obama, campaigning in Nevada in early 2008, expressed his presidential ambitions in an eyebrow-raising way: by professing admiration for Ronald Reagan.

Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and a way that Bill Clinton did not, Obama said. He put us on a fundamentally different path. It gave Democrats the heebie-jeebies to think that their nominee might see the greatest conservative politician of the 20th century as his model.

But what if Obama  and everyone else  is wrong? What if Reagan, far from being a transformational political figure, was merely continuing the ideas and policies of the greatest progressive politician of the 20th century?

Thats the thesis of The Working Class Republican, by Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. I grew up as a conservative Republican in Ronald Reagans California, Olsen begins, a die-hard Reaganite who saw the Gipper as the nations right-wing standard-bearer. But in the Obama years, as Olsen began reviewing Reagans speeches and writings, what I found shocked me. Everything I had been told about Reagans philosophy, by the Right and the Left, had been wrong.

Working Class Republican, by Henry Olsen (Broadside/Harper Collins)

[Finale review: A novel of the Reagan years thats packed with real-life barbs]

Reagan, in Olsens telling, was to his last breath an FDR Democrat in GOP clothing. Indeed, Olsen contends, Franklin Roosevelt and Reagan were both ardent anti-communists who supported a limited but significant role for the federal government to intervene on behalf of the common man.

The New Deal dramatically expanded the role of the federal government in the U.S. economy, but its reforms were often carefully calibrated to provide social insurance to the working poor, in ways that frustrated the left in the years between the New Deal and Lyndon Johnsons Great Society.

In effect, while Olsens book focuses on the life of Reagan from the 1930s to the 1980s, it makes two revisionist arguments: first, that Reagan was much less conservative than previously understood; and second, that Roosevelt was much more conservative than previously understood.

Most provocatively, Olsen wants todays GOP to embrace the legacy of FDR, to reapply the cardinal principle enshrined in the New Deal, that government has a limited but strong role to play in helping the average person achieve his or her dreams.

President Trumps appeal, Olsen says, is a direct result of the fact that the core thrust of [Trumps] argument regarding governments ultimate purpose bears poignant similarities to Reagans New Deal conservatism.

Olsen is at his most effective when he contrasts the anti-government absolutism of Barry Goldwater with the more nuanced rhetoric of Reagan. It was no accident, Olsen implies, that Goldwater won six states in the 1964 presidential election, while Reagan won 49 in 1984.

Take the example of health care. Most readers of Olsens book will be surprised to learn that Reagan embraced universal coverage. In A Time for Choosing  Reagans celebrated conservative manifesto delivered at Goldwaters 1964 Republican National Convention  Reagan declared, No one in this country should be denied medical care for lack of funds. In a speech to the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce  in Goldwaters backyard  Reagan said, Any person in the United States who requires medical attention and cannot provide for himself should have it provided for him.

While Reagan opposed compulsory health insurance through a government bureau for people who dont need it or who have . . . even a few million dollars tucked away, he championed the Kerr-Mills Act of 1960, a law introduced by two Democrats that gave federal money to states with which to provide medical care for the elderly in need. Reagan said that he was in favor of this bill  and if the money isnt enough, I think we should put up more.

Goldwater, on the other hand, brimmed with contempt for bills like Kerr-Mills, calling them in The Conscience of a Conservative a sinister mixture of blackmail and bribery.

Olsen fails to address an obvious rejoinder to his argument: that the same policies, in different eras, can represent different directions for the country. In 1932, a politician arguing for the New Deal was outlandishly left wing; in 1980, a politician arguing for a reversion to the New Deal was outlandishly right wing.

[Book review: The Candidate by Samuel Popkin]

Olsen is confusing when he tries to draw policy lessons for todays Republicans from Reagans philosophy. He slams House Speaker Paul Ryans approach to entitlement reform, even though it is entirely consistent with Reagans belief that voluntary programs are superior to compulsory ones and that private businesses are more responsive to ordinary people than government bureaucrats are. Olsen criticizes Obamas support for free-trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, even though Reagan was a committed free-trader.

Theres one huge difference between FDR and Reagan that Olsen entirely ignores: their appeal to African Americans. In 1932, Republican Herbert Hoover won a majority of blacks. By 1936, Democrat FDR had captured 71 percent of the black vote. Reagan succeeded at appealing to the white working class but failed to reverse the GOPs decline among minorities.

There is a strong case that The Working Class Republican tries to solve the wrong problem. The GOP has done quite well with the white working class: in the South and the West for years, and now in the Rust Belt with Trump. But many Republican voters resent the growing number of Americans  equally hard-working  whose ancestors came here from somewhere other than Europe. On where the GOP went wrong with minorities, and how to win them back, Olsen has almost nothing to say.

But he captures, in a way few Reagan biographers have, the Gippers eloquent calls for Washington to actively take the side of those who struggle in the modern economy. Todays Republicans  the ones who pepper their speeches with the name Reagan  would be well-served to reflect on Olsens insights.
The latest revelations about Russia and President Trumps campaign are useful because they might help unravel the mystery that has always been at the center of this story. Why has Trump had such a rosy attitude toward Russia and President Vladimir Putin? It is such an unusual position for Trump that it begs for some kind of explanation.

Unlike on domestic policy, where he has wandered all over the political map, on foreign policy, Trump has held clear and consistent views for three decades. In 1987, in his first major statement on public policy, he took out an ad in several newspapers that began, For decades, Japan and other nations have been taking advantage of the United States. In the ad, he also excoriated Saudi Arabia, a country whose very existence is in the hands of the United States, and other allies who wont help.

This is Trumps worldview, and he has never wavered from it. He has added countries to the roster of rogues, most recently China and Mexico. On the former, he wrote in his presidential campaign book, There are people who wish I wouldnt refer to China as our enemy. But thats exactly what they are. During the campaign, he said: We cant continue to allow China to rape our country. A few months before announcing his candidacy, he tweeted, I want nothing to do with Mexico other than to build an impenetrable WALL and stop them from ripping off U.S.

Trump is what historian Walter Russell Mead calls a Jacksonian on foreign policy (after Andrew Jackson), someone deeply skeptical and instinctively hostile toward other nations and their leaders, who believes in a fortress America that minds its own business and, if disturbed, would bomb the s--- out of its adversaries and then retreat back to its homeland.

This was Trumps basic attitude toward the world, except for Russia and Putin. Ten years ago, when Russian money was pouring into the West, Trump began praising the country and its leader: Look at Putin . . . hes doing a great job in rebuilding the image of Russia and also rebuilding Russia period. In 2013, Putin wrote an op-ed in the New York Times to try to dissuade the Obama administration from responding to the Syrian governments use of chemical weapons. In it, he argued that the poison gas was actually used by the Syrian opposition to trick Washington into attacking the regime. Trumps reaction was lyrical. I thought it was an amazingly well-written . . . letter. . . . I think he wants to become the worlds leader, and right now hes doing that.

Trump so admired Putin that he imagined that the two of them had met, making some variation of that false claim at least five times in public, and playing down any criticisms of him. In all fairness to Putin, youre saying he killed people. I havent seen that, he said in 2015. Have you been able to prove that? When confronted on this again earlier this year, he dismissed it, saying, Weve got a lot of killers. What, you think our countrys so innocent? Trump could not have been making these excuses for any political advantage. The Republican Party was instinctively hostile toward Russia, though in a sign of shifting U.S. alignments, Republicans today have a more favorable view of Putin than Democrats by 20 points.

Theres nothing I can think of that Id rather do than have Russia friendly, Trump declared at a news conference last July. His campaign seemed to follow this idea. He appointed as a top foreign policy adviser Michael Flynn, a man who had pronounced pro-Russian leanings and, we now know, had been paid by the Russian government. Paul Manafort, who was for a while the head of Trumps campaign, received millions of dollars from Ukraines pro-Russia party. During the Republican convention, there was a very unusual watering down of hawkish language on Russias invasion of Ukraine. And once elected, Trump chose as his secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who had been awarded one of Russias highest honors for foreigners and had a very close relationship with Putin. Finally, there are the repeated contacts between members of Trumps campaign and family with key Russian officials and nationals, which again appear to be unique to Russia.

It is possible that there are benign explanations for all of this. Perhaps Trump just admires Putin as a leader. Perhaps he has bought in to the worldview of his senior adviser Stephen K. Bannon, in which Russia is not an ideological foe but a cultural friend, a white Christian country battling swarthy Muslims. But perhaps there is some other explanation for this decade-long fawning over Russia and its leader. This is the puzzle now at the heart of the Trump presidency that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III will undoubtedly try to solve.

Read more from Fareed Zakarias archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Over the past week, President Trump seemed unusually subdued as the nation absorbed the news that his oldest child, Donald Jr., last year exulted in the prospect of getting derogatory information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government. His son, the president said, is a high-quality person, a wonderful young man. It wasnt until the end of the week that Trump defended his sons decision to meet with the Russian lawyer who supposedly had the dirt: Most people would have taken that meeting.

There was simply no way this president was going to distance himself from his sons actions, as he often does when a White House aide displeases him. In business and now in politics, Trump reserves his most effusive praise and his deepest trust for his flesh and blood, handing Ivanka a White House portfolio and his boys the run of the Trump enterprises.

Through the years, Trump has spoken about Donald Jr. very much as he describes himself: as a smart, ambitious, crafty guy who loves to win and has a mischievous streak that sometimes gets him in trouble. The president talks about his other adult children in similar ways. Ask about his kids, and Trump talks about how theyre like him  Ivanka, for example, has his business savvy and, as he once put it in an interview, his interest in sex.

Some psychologists have concluded that Trump sees his adult children as extensions of himself. They are his world because they are him, said Elan Golomb, a psychologist who wrote Trapped in the Mirror: Adult Children of Narcissists in Their Struggle for Self . They dont exist as separate entities. To a narcissist, the child is seen as me. 

Even his children agree that there is little separation between them and their celebrity father. Weve all made peace with the fact that we will never be able to achieve any level of autonomy  from him, Ivanka told an interviewer in 2004. No wonder Trump places them in positions of power.

But the same instinct that induced the president to have Ivanka sit in for him briefly at the Group of 20 talks in Hamburg this month makes it difficult for him to distance himself from them or contradict them, as he often has when his staff advisers leave him angry or disappointed. Which raises this question: When Trump Jr. walked into that meeting to get the dirt on Clinton from the Russian lawyer, was he by default acting on his fathers behalf?

Presidents relatives have long served as distraction, embarrassment and vital support. President Jimmy Carter had to cope with an occasionally wayward brother, Billy. President Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger for a cocaine distribution conviction . At the other end of the scale, President John F. Kennedy relied on his brother Bobby as his attorney general and close adviser, and George W. Bush served a similar, though informal, role as counselor to his father, President George H.W. Bush.

But Trump is the first president who has arrived in office with his children as his most important and trusted advisers. Last year, when I asked Trump whom he would turn to in a moment of great crisis, he said it would not be any close friends  his friendships were mainly just business relationships, he said  but rather his adult children. One thing I get a lot of credit for is my children, he said. Theyre good children. And theyve been smart. They went to great schools. Always got top-of-the line marks. . . . I get along with my children a lot.

Trump grew up in a tight-knit family business. Groomed to take over Fred Trumps New York real estate empire, Donald has always spoken of his father more as a businessman than as a parent. He has a standard few pat lines about Fred: He praises his father as an accomplished builder and role model who, alas, lacked his sons unbridled ambition to play on the biggest stages. Trump has little to say about his mother, other than that he got his showmanship gene from her.

But ask Trump about his adult children, and a notoriously nonlinear storyteller suddenly grows effusive. The president virtually melts at any mention of Ivanka, and he rushes to defend her from criticism, as he did this month after the kerfuffle about the G-20 meeting. He exhibits a charming pride about sons Donald Jr. and Eric, repeatedly saying that his business is secure in their hands.

The Trump children know this role and accept it. Ivanka told Politico that what her father cared about when they were growing up was respect. You would never hear us yelling at our parents or using a tone that was inappropriate or disrespectful. Even a tone.

Everything weve ever done, weve done as a family, Eric told The Washington Post last year. Every project weve ever built, weve built as a family. The Apprentice we did as a family.

President Trump has written about the importance of narcissism in his success and in the achievements of any business leader. He believes that an emphasis on his own ego not only promotes his brand, but gives him the confidence and standing to achieve more. And psychologists who study narcissism say such people often view their children as mirrors of themselves.

The main issue with narcissists is that people have to 100 percent agree with me about everything,  Golomb said.  They have to be on my side. And they often are: Usually the parent is so fearful of criticism coming his way that he makes the child fearful of ever expressing their misery. They have to agree with and support the narcissistic parent.

Which may explain why Trump often speaks of his children and his parents through the prism of his own life. At his fathers funeral, Trump talked mainly about himself. His siblings told stories about their father; Donald instead recited a list of his accomplishments, noting that his father had stood by him at each turn.

Gwenda Blair, the author of The Trumps, a multi-generational study of the family, concluded that Donald, his father, Fred, and his grandfather Friedrich Trump had a foundational similarity: All three were energetic people who would do almost anything to make a buck; all three possessed a certain ruthlessness; all three had a free and easy way about the truth, Blair wrote.

Of the presidents adult children, Donald Jr. is perhaps the most like his paternal lineage.

Donald Jr. is different from Ivanka and Eric in that he rebelled against his father. He was 15 in 1993, when his father married Marla Maples in the aftermath of his tabloid-chronicled divorce from Ivana Trump. The oldest child hit back hard against a wrenching, all-too-public trauma. You dont love us, he told his father, according to an oft-cited account in Vanity Fair. You dont even love yourself. You just love your money. But in that same era, Don Jr. defended his father with his fists, punching back at kids who taunted him about the divorce.

Donald Trump in those years was frank about his distance from his children, telling interviewers that he didnt do things like change diapers or play ball with them. Statistically, my children have a very bad shot, he told Playboy in 1990. Children of successful people are generally very, very troubled, not successful. More recently, Trump joked that demographically, his kids should have ended up in rehab.

But today, he takes evident, abundant pride in the fact that they instead have become essential cogs in the family business. He told me in an interview last year that by bringing them into the enterprise in their teens  as his own father did with him  he turned their relationship around. I mean, I love my children, he said, but I got to know my children much better after they graduated from college, in a sense, because they came to work here.

Trump Jr. has said he was raised largely by his mother and her Czech parents. After the divorce, he refused to speak to his father for more than a year. But the icy relationship thawed with time. Trump Jr. told The Posts Dan Zak last year that it wasnt a Hey, son, lets go play catch in the back yard kind of father-son relationship. . . . It was: Hey, youre back from school? Come down to the office. 

Despite the early distance  which included boarding school and, in Dons case, a couple of years of bartending, camping and partying in the Colorado Rockies  the Trump children developed an abiding loyalty to their father. By the time Trump Jr. joined the family company in 2001, he sounded very much like his dad: brash, confident, a son of a wealthy man who nonetheless came off like a street fighter.

For the Trumps, generation after generation, the family is the business, and the business is the family.

Once the kids accepted the terms of their relationship with their father, he became their booster  and he began to praise them in familiar terms. He loves to quote people he met on the campaign trail who told him how great his children are. He seems especially impressed that even people who said they would never vote for him told him he did something right in bringing them up.

Children of narcissists are often high achievers because they live in fear that their parent will cut them off for a while if they fail to reflect him, Golomb said. Its a very isolating way of being raised. They know exactly what will upset him, and they behave to protect him. They cant become autonomous.

People who study narcissism say such parents often demand unquestioning acceptance and threaten their children with rejection if they seem disobedient. But in some families headed by narcissists, its little more than a threat, because the adult children have learned their roles so well. They labor as a matter of course to stay in their parents good graces.

This past week, when Trump Jr. went on TV to defend himself and his father, the president hardly needed to mount a vigorous argument on behalf of his oldest. His next son did it for him. Eric Trump tweeted: This is the EXACT reason they viciously attack our family! They cant stand that we are extremely close and will ALWAYS support each other.

marc.fisher@washpost.com

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Donald Trump Jr. is seeking to write off as a nonevent his meeting last year with a Russian lawyer who was said to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton. It was such a nothing, he told Fox Newss Sean Hannity on Tuesday. There was nothing to tell.

But everything we know about the meeting  from whom it involved to how it was set up to how it unfolded  is in line with what intelligence analysts would expect an overture in a Russian influence operation to look like. It bears all the hallmarks of a professionally planned, carefully orchestrated intelligence soft pitch designed to gauge receptivity, while leaving room for plausible deniability in case the approach is rejected. And the Trump campaigns willingness to take the meeting  and, more important, its failure to report the episode to U.S. authorities  may have been exactly the green light Russia was looking for to launch a more aggressive phase of intervention in the U.S. election.

Lets start with the interlocutor: Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. When arranging the meeting, music promoter and Trump family acquaintance Rob Goldstone referred to a Russian government attorney. Both Veselnitskaya and the Kremlin have subsequently denied any association. Whats beyond dispute is that she has lobbied for the United States to repeal Magnitsky Act sanctions against Russian officials, that she regularly represents the interests of the Moscow regional government and that her clients include the vice president of state-owned Russian Railways.

My read, as someone who has been part of the U.S. intelligence community for more than four decades, is that Veselnitskaya is probably too well-connected to have independently initiated such a high-level and sensitive encounter. If she had, her use of known Trump and Kremlin associates (Aras and Emin Agalarov) to help make introductions and the suggestion, in Goldstones account, that she wanted to share official documents and information as part of Russia and its governments support for Trump could have gotten her into significant trouble. Her efforts to meet Trump associates would have surely come to the attention of Russian authorities at some point, given Russian government email monitoring and other means of surveillance. The Kremlin would look harshly on someone going rogue in a manner that would surely damage ongoing Russian intelligence efforts related to the campaign.

[I was an FBI agent. Trumps lack of concern about Russian hacking shocks me.]

(Adriana Usero,Kate Woodsome/The Washington Post)

A better explanation is that Veselnitskaya is far enough removed from Moscows halls of power to make her a good fit as an intermediary in an intelligence operation  as a cut-out with limited knowledge of the larger scheme and as an access agent sent to assess and test a high-priority targets interest in cooperation. She may have had her own agenda going into the meeting: to lobby against the Magnitsky Act, which happens to affect some of her clients. But her agenda dovetailed with Kremlin interests  and it would have added another layer of plausible deniability. Russian intelligence practice is to co-opt such a person. News Friday that she was accompanied by Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist who is reportedly suspected of having ties to Russian intelligence (which he denies), further bolsters this reading.

Trump Jr.s assertion that Veselnitskaya didnt deliver the promised dirt in that meeting is also consistent with how Russian intelligence operates. So, too, is Akhmetshins account that Veselnitskaya presented a document that she said suggested illegal payments to the Democratic National Committee, but told Trump Jr. that supporting evidence would require more research. Russia would have wanted to feel out the campaign before sharing its most prized material. Intelligence officers prefer to dip their toes in the water before taking a plunge. And its too risky to attempt a blunt approach to an extremely sensitive target (such as the son of the Republican front-runner for president), especially on hostile (in this case, American) soil.

Moreover, Russian intelligence presumably would not have risked passing high-value information through Veselnitskaya. As an untrained asset or co-optee  not a professional intelligence officer by any account  she would not have been entrusted with making a direct intelligence recruitment approach, including the passage of compromising information. Formalizing a relationship with the Trump campaign would be left for another day. If and when that day came, the pitch would be carried out by an experienced intelligence officer in favorable circumstances, with the right Trump associate and on friendly turf.

But even at the soft-pitch stage, standard Russian intelligence practice would require making clear what was on offer. The point is to test the target. Are they open to entering into a compromising relationship? Will they rebuff the mere suggestion of such impropriety? Will they alert authorities and thus stand in the way of Russian efforts?

And here, the deal should have been obvious to everyone. Moscow intended to discredit Clinton and help get Trump elected, and in exchange it hoped the Republican would consider its interests  in sanctions relief and otherwise. The Russian government appears to have signaled its direct involvement and real intention in advance of the meeting, presumably to avoid the possibility that its offer might be misconstrued, perhaps naively, as an innocent gesture of support and nothing more.

[The Clinton campaign warned you about Russia. But nobody listened to us.]

From the Russian perspective, the fact that Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting would have been the first promising sign. That veteran political operative Paul Manafort and senior adviser Jared Kushner showed up with him would have furthered the impression that there was strong interest in Russian assistance (and vulnerability to compromise) on the part of the campaign. But, according to standard espionage tradecraft, the most notable achievement of this encounter lay in the campaigns failure to report it to the appropriate U.S. authorities  as Russia would have realized when there was no immediate, dramatic increase in U.S. counterintelligence scrutiny of its election-related operations.

We should be cautious about overestimating the significance of this episode in isolation. Russia may have extended other feelers to other Trump associates at other points in time. Indeed, the Steele dossier suggests that the Kremlin was trying to cultivate the Trumps as far back as 2011. But, based on the publicly available information, the June 2016 overture seems to have been a win for Russia. It helped set the stage for the possibility of subsequent contacts between Trump associates and witting agents of the Russian government. (Some of these contacts are now known; others, perhaps not.) And it would have allowed Russian intelligence to be comfortable initiating the next phase of its operation  systematically leaking information on Clinton and trying to penetrate the U.S. voting process  with the knowledge that the Trump campaign was interested in such Russian government assistance.

Although the Kremlin could have meddled without active or tacit approval from the campaign, having the campaign on board would have made the meddling more effective. For example, Russia could be sure that its actions would fit with Trump campaign strategy. Even Trump Jr.s initial thought to drop the Clinton information later in the summer would be valuable for the Kremlin to know in terms of best timing.

Russia also would have wanted an implicit if not explicit agreement that intelligence assistance would be rewarded by a grateful Trump administration willing to relieve sanctions and embark on a more constructive relationship. The president presumably would not be nearly as willing to shift the long-standing, hard-line U.S. approach toward Russia  or its position on Ukraine, NATO and other issues  if he didnt have a full appreciation for the Russian contribution to his election victory.

And after Russias overtures to the Trump campaign and the Trump campaigns public denials that it had ever interacted with Russians, Vladimir Putin may have had the kompromat he needed to indirectly influence the Republican Party (such as the GOP platform on Ukraine) and Trump if he made it to the White House. The worst outcome would be that Trump would lose the election and, as a billionaire with global interests, still be a very useful ally for Putin.

Had this Russian overture been rejected or promptly reported by the Trump campaign to U.S. authorities, Russian intelligence would have been forced to recalculate the risk vs. gain of continuing its aggressive operation to influence U.S. domestic politics. Russian meddling might have been compromised in its early stages and stopped in its tracks by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies before it reached fruition by the late fall.

So the suggestion that this was a nothing meeting without consequence is, in all likelihood, badly mistaken.

outlook@washpost.com

Ryan Goodman, a professor at New York University School of Law, an editor at Just Security and a former special counsel to the general counsel of the Department of Defense, contributed to this essay.

Read more:

Ive done political opposition research. Donald Trump Jr. has no idea what it is.

Donald Trump Jr.s Russia meeting may have been legal. But thats a low bar.

How Russian kompromat destroys political opponents, no facts required

Follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter.
Gov. Terence McAuliffe (D-Va.), right, speaks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before he addresses session on the global economy at a gathering of the National Governors Association in Providence, R.I., on Friday. (Stephan Savoia/AP)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an impassioned defense of free trade here Friday, appealing to the nations governors to help spread a positive message ahead of the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement demanded by President Trump.

Trudeaus keynote speech marked the first time a foreign leader of Trudeaus rank has addressed the National Governors Association. His appearance underscored the efforts by both Canada and Mexico to court state executives as potential allies at a time when the presidents trade rhetoric has raised doubts about the U.S. commitment to multinational free trade agreements.

Trudeau stressed that NAFTA has provided enormous benefits to all three countries and underscored his belief that the vitality of the relationship between the United States and Canada must be maintained through the coming negotiations.

Sometimes getting it right means refusing to take the politically tempting shortcomings, he warned. He cited such possible changes as new trade barriers, preferential provisions for local content or homegrown players. The consequences, he said, could be harmful to all parties, and he warned, Once we travel down that road, it can quickly become a cycle of tit for tat, a race to the bottom where all sides lose.

Trudeau was not the only representative of a foreign government at this weeks governors meeting. He was joined by several others from his administration as well as regional leaders. Mexico countered with a delegation of its own including Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera, who also heads the organization Conago, a Mexican counterpart to the governors association. China and Japan also sent representatives.

(The Washington Post)

The prime minister said Canada welcomes a renegotiation. NAFTA isnt perfect, he said. No such agreement ever is. We think it should be updated and modernized, as it has been a dozen times over the past quarter-century. But he said he hopes the outcome would mean a thinner border for trade, not a thicker one.

Trudeau was asked by Gov. Brian Sandoval (R-Nev.), the incoming NGA chair, why he had chosen to appear at an NGA meeting. The Canadian made clear his motivation was the uncertainty surrounding the future of NAFTA under the Trump administration. We reach out, we think and we plan, he

said, and we thought this would be a great opportunity to step up our engagement with all levels.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), the outgoing NGA chairman, pushed to enlarge the attendance by leaders of other countries. He was explicit that, given the climate in Washington toward trade agreements, other nations should come directly to the states. We will do business with you, McAuliffe said.

Trump promised during the campaign to either repeal or renegotiate NAFTA. Earlier this year, aides signaled he was preparing to abrogate, but after phone calls from Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, both of whom implored the president not to take such a drastic step, he pulled back and agreed to a renegotiation.

Trudeau reminded his audience the U.S.-Canadian trade relationship dwarfs that of all others with whom the United States does business.

Trudeau noted two-thirds of the states count Canada as either their first- or second-most important trade partner.

Canada is the U.S.s biggest, best customer by far, he said  bigger than China, Japan or the United Kingdom. No one even comes close, Trudeau said.

As a candidate, Trump repeatedly called NAFTA one of the worst trade agreements in the history of the country.

More of Trumps attacks during the campaign were aimed at Mexico than Canada. But in office, trade wars with Canada have flared over dairy and lumber, and the president has been outspoken in his criticism.

Vice President Pence spoke just before Trudeau, devoting most of his talk to a defense of the Senate health-care bill. But Pence sounded a more positive tone about the coming NAFTA negotiations than Trump.

We will modernize NAFTA for the 21st century so it is a win-win-win for all of our trading partners in north America, Pence said.


Leslie Koth, wearing an Ivanka Trump dress, poses for a portrait outside her house in Carterville, Ill., in June. After Nordstrom decided to pull Ivanka Trump merchandise from its stores, Koth purchased a dress from the line to wear to a party with a Kentucky Derby theme. (Whitney Curtis/For The Washington Post)

Leslie Koth was scrolling through her Facebook feed in early February when she saw the news that Nordstrom, citing low sales, had decided to stop carrying Ivanka Trumps clothing line. She immediately went online and snapped up a Trump-branded plum-and-pink sunburst dress selling for $138.

I want her to continue to be a good role model for women in business and forge on, said Koth, 46, a stay-at-home mother of four in Carterville, Ill., who posted a photo of herself wearing the dress for a Kentucky Derby-themed fundraiser in May, with the caption, My Ivanka Trump Derby dress! and an American flag emoji.

I just think it is wrong for her to be attacked, Koth said.

[She talks about working women. Her father says buy American. We go inside Ivanka Inc.]

Buffeted by her fathers tumultuous tenure in the White House and increasingly polarized views about her family, the first daughters clothing company appears to have found a new and growing base of customers: women who view purchasing her products as a way to make a political statement.

They post selfies while wearing her dresses, citing their pride in supporting Trump and her family, and urge other women to join the cause.

Trump customers, for the most part, are undeterred by any potential disconnect between her business model  in which clothing, footwear and handbags are all produced in foreign factories  and the presidents call for U.S. companies to hire American workers. The arrangement is simply a reality of the modern garment industry, they say.

When you think about it, what clothing isnt made overseas? said Bethany Rhoads, a 31-year-old traveling nurse, whose favorite Trump piece is a black-and-white sleeveless dress made in Indonesia.



Bethany Rhoads wears her favorite Ivanka Trump dress in Spout Spring, Va., in May. (Jay Westcott/For The Washington Post)

The loyalty of these customers reflects an unusual dynamic at play for President Trump and his daughter  business executives who are new to government and have insisted on retaining their financial holdings while in the White House. While both have pledged to step away from daily management of their companies, their businesses have nevertheless been evolving along with their political activities.

The presidents hotel and real estate company, long focused on luxury properties in big cities, is launching a new low-price hotel brand called American Idea inspired by visits the Trump family made to rural communities during the campaign. And Ivanka Trump brought her brands #WomenWhoWork motto into the White House as part of her role as an adviser to her father, taking on family leave and child-care issues as a major part of her portfolio.

The customer demographic attracted to Ivanka Trumps clothing line has increasingly moved from folks on Fifth Avenue to Main Street, said Allen Adamson, a corporate brand marketing consultant.

She was Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,  Adamson said, adding: But theres been a shift in the political stance and polarization of the entire country. . . . The people in her base are more passionate than ever.

Ivanka Trumps company told The Washington Post that it has experienced a sales surge during the time that Donald Trump emerged as the Republican nominee and won the presidency  with revenue up 21 percent in 2016 and rising again this year, executives said.

The figures could not be independently verified, as the company is privately held, and executives declined to release additional data.

We are proud that our business is growing rapidly and that our brand resonates strongly with women who are inspired by our messaging and excited about the polished and chic solution-oriented products that we offer, Abigail Klem, the companys president, said in a statement.



Carly McKenzie, shown outside her business Bay Creek Salon in Lumberton, Miss., wears a white patterned chiffon dress from the Ivanka Trump line in June. (Ben Depp/For The Washington Post)

Among the new customers is Carly McKenzie, a hair salon owner in Lumberton, Miss., who bought her first Ivanka Trump item earlier this year when she encountered a white patterned chiffon dress on sale at a local store.

I loved the dress, said the 31-year-old single mom, who has worn it to church and a family reunion. But her purchase was also driven by another motivation: to support President Trump and his eldest daughter.

I love the way she carries herself, the way she represents her father. I think she portrays a different side of Trump, said McKenzie, who posted a photo of herself in the dress on a pro-Trump Facebook page with the hashtag #adorabledeplorable  a riff on Hillary Clintons jab calling Trump supporters a basket of deplorables, which some refashioned into a point of pride.

For many of the women who buy Ivanka Trump clothes, the purchases are a way to send a message about what they like about the administration.

I think she is the best part of it, Rhoads said, adding that the first daughter brings a very simple approach to what feels like a media circus and a political circus.

Rhoads said she began to admire Ivanka Trump after seeing her on her fathers reality show on The Apprentice.

While she is a billionaire heiress, she still posts pictures of herself playing with her kids on the floor, Rhoads said. She seems very, very down-to-earth  the kind of mom that working women aspire to be.

Tracie Stradling, a 47-year-old medical assistant who lives in Gilbert, Ariz., said she first started buying Trump-brand clothes about five years ago because she likes the cut of her dresses.

You dont have to look like Ivanka for it to look good, she said.

When Nordstrom announced that it was no longer going to carry Trumps line, Stradling said she rushed out and bought four dresses. She now has more than two dozen Ivanka items.

Stradling noted that many U.S. brands make their clothes overseas.

Yes, I would like to see jobs stay local, she said. But nobody hated on her clothes until Trump became president.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, Chinas most prominent political prisoner, died yesterday at a hospital in the countrys northeast, officials said. He was 61.

Liu had been transferred to the hospital after being diagnosed with advanced liver cancer in prison in May but remained under police custody. In an online announcement, the judicial bureau of the city of Shenyang said he died of multiple organ failure.

Liu was only the second Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in prison, a fact pointed to by human rights groups as an indication of the Chinese Communist Partys increasingly hard line against its critics. The first, Carl von Ossietzky, died from tuberculosis in Germany in 1938 while serving a sentence for opposing Adolf Hitlers Nazi regime.

Hitler was wild and strong and thought he was right  but history proved he was wrong in imprisoning a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said Mo Shaoping, an old friend and Lius former lawyer, adding that he was heartbroken by Lius death. The authorities consider Liu Xiaobo guilty, but history will prove he is not.

Lius supporters and foreign governments had urged China to allow him to receive treatment abroad, but Chinese authorities insisted he was receiving the best care possible for a disease that had spread throughout his body.

News of Lius death triggered an outpouring of dismay among his friends and supporters.

There are only two words to describe how we feel right now: grief and fury, family friend and activist Wu Yangwei, better known by his penname Ye Du, said by phone. The only way we can grieve for Xiaobo and bring his soul some comfort is to work even harder to try to keep his influence alive.

Liu was imprisoned for the first time in connection with the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010 while serving his fourth and final prison sentence, for inciting subversion by advocating sweeping political reforms and greater human rights in China.

What I demanded of myself was this: whether as a person or as a writer, I would lead a life of honesty, responsibility, and dignity, Liu wrote in I Have No Enemies: My Final Statement, which he had hoped to read out in court when being sentenced in 2009. He was not permitted to do so and received an 11-year prison sentence.

He came to prominence following the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered in Beijings Tiananmen Square, which he called the major turning point in his life. Liu had been a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York but returned early to China in May 1989 to join the movement that was sweeping the country and which the Communist Party regarded as a grave challenge to its authority.

When the Chinese government sent troops and tanks into Beijing to quash the protests on the night of June 3-4, Liu persuaded some students to leave the square rather than face down the army. The military crackdown killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of people and heralded a more repressive era.

Liu became one of hundreds of Chinese imprisoned for crimes linked to the demonstrations. It was only the first of four stays in prisons owing to his ideology.

His final prison sentence was for co-authoring Charter 08, a document circulated in 2008 that called for more freedom of expression, human rights and an independent judiciary in China. Although Liu wasnt the initiator, he was a prominent force behind it and already well known to the authorities.

The sentence only increased Lius prominence outside of his country.

In 2010, while Liu was serving his sentence in a prison in a small city in Chinasnortheast, he was awarded the Nobel Prize, with the Norwegian-based committee citing Lius long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.

The award enraged Chinas government, which condemned it as a political farce. Within days, Lius wife, artist and poet Liu Xia, was put under house arrest, despite not being convicted of any crime. China also punished Norway, even though its government has no say over the independent Nobel panels decisions. Chinasuspended a bilateral trade deal and restricted imports of Norwegian salmon, and relations only resumed in 2017.

Dozens of Lius supporters were prevented from leaving the country to accept the award on his behalf. Instead, Lius absence at the prize-giving ceremony in Oslo, Norway, was marked by an empty chair. Another empty chair was for Liu Xia.

Liu was born on Dec. 28, 1955, in the northeastern city of Changchun, the son of a language and literature professor who was a committed party member. The middle child in a family of five boys, he was among the first students to attend Jilin University when college entrance examinations resumed following the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

Liu studied Chinese literature there and later moved to the capital, first as a graduate student and then as a lecturer at Beijing Normal University.

After spending nearly two years in detention following the Tiananmen crackdown, Liu was detained for the second time in 1995 after drafting a plea for political reform. Later that year, he was detained a third time after co-drafting Opinion on Some Major Issues Concerning our Country Today. That resulted in a three-year sentence to a labor camp, during which time he married Liu Xia. He is survived by his wife and by his son from his first marriage.

Released in 1999, he joined the international literary and human rights organization PEN and continued advocating for human rights and democracy.

Liu Xias brother was convicted on fraud charges and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment over a real estate dispute which supporters said was designed to further persecute Liu Xiaobos family over his actions.

Two years after Lius Nobel prize, a Chinese writer won the Nobel Prize for Literature, to the delight of Chinese authorities. Mo Yan is not a critic of the Communist Party, and after initially evading questions from reporters, he eventually said he wished for Liu Xiaobos freedom.

Other Nobel laureates were more outspoken. In 2012, an appeal by 134 Nobel laureates, including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, called the detentions of both Lius a violation of international law and urged their immediate release. Fellow PEN members such as Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie appealed for his release in a letter on June 29 after he was transferred from prison to the hospital.

Their appeal fell on deaf ears. Christopher Bodeen, Han Guan Ng, AP
A Russian American lobbyist and veteran of the Soviet military said Friday that he attended a June 2016 meeting between President Trumps oldest son and a Kremlin-connected lawyer.

The presence of Rinat Akhmetshin adds to the potential seriousness of the Trump Tower gathering that is emerging this week as the clearest evidence so far of interactions between Trump campaign officials and Russian interests.

And it underscores how, despite Donald Trump Jr.s pledge this week to be transparent, new details about the encounter continue to become public amid investigations by Congress and a special counsel into alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Emails released this week show that Trump Jr. believed he was meeting with a Russian government lawyer who would provide damaging information about Democrat Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian effort to assist his fathers presidential campaign. He was joined at the meeting by Jared Kushner, President Trumps son-in-law, and Paul Manafort, then a top campaign aide  but Trump Jr. said this week that nothing came of the discussion.

The attendance of Akhmetshin, who says he holds U.S. and Russian citizenship and who has been accused by some U.S. critics of having links to Russian spy services, also appears to tie the Trump Tower meeting to a broader effort underway at the time to influence U.S. policy toward Russia.

Akhmetshin says he has never had ties to Russian intelligence, and he and lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya have both said their efforts were not coordinated with the Russian government. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday that the government was not familiar with Akhmetshin.

But in the same period that he was meeting with Trump campaign officials, Akhmetshin was also orchestrating a Capitol Hill lobbying effort that coincided with one of the Kremlins top priorities  to scale back U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia by Congress for human rights violations.

Akhmetshin told The Washington Post on Friday that he did not know how the Trump Tower meeting was set up. He said that he had lunch with Veselnitskaya that day a few blocks from Trump Tower and that she asked his advice on what to say at the session.

She said, Why dont you come with me?  he recalled.

He said that Veselnitskaya, who was representing a Russian businessman who had been sued by U.S. authorities in New York, had found what she believed to be violations of Russian law by a Democratic donor. Akhmetshin added that the Russian lawyer described her findings at the meeting and left a document about them with Trump Jr. and the others.

In an interview Friday evening, an attorney for Trump Jr., Alan Futerfas, again dismissed the notion that the meeting was significant. He said recalling attendees at the session was difficult because of the amount of time that had passed  and the lack of significance attached to the conversation. The frustrating part of all this for me is that this meeting occurred 13 months ago, he said. There is no record, no list of who was there. It was not a memorable meeting for anyone. Now 13 months later, everyone expects we should have a perfect recollection.

But while the Russians were granted a high-level audience with the Trump campaign, their efforts were setting off alarms in some corners of Washington.

(Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)

Veselnitskaya was rebuffed after pushing to testify at a House hearing that took place days after the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Edward R. Royce (R-Calif.) rejected an attempt by the Russian team and its allies to screen a Russian-made documentary designed to undermine the arguments for a 2012 sanctions law, according to GOP congressional staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Russians argued that the Magnitsky Act, named for a lawyer who died at age 37 in a Moscow prison after accusing Russian officials of a massive tax fraud, was based on a false story.

In retaliation for the passage of the law, Russia had halted the adoption of Russian children by American families. Veselnitskaya and her lobbying team would present their efforts in Congress and at Trump Tower as an emotionally powerful effort to end the prohibition on adoptions and help children.

They found an ally in Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who has in recent years become an advocate for warmer U.S.-Russia relations. Rohrabacher attempted to organize a hearing featuring critics of the sanctions  an effort that was also thwarted by Royce, according to the congressional staffers.

In a statement, Royce did not specifically address his efforts to block the anti-sanctions advocates but acknowledged that he and Rohrabacher have sharp disagreements on policy.

Rohrabacher was not available for comment Friday, but a spokesman, Ken Grubbs, acknowledged deep differences on Kremlin-

related policies between the two Republicans. They are very good friends, and they have very strong disagreements on Russia, Grubbs said.

The events unfolding on Capitol Hill and at Trump Tower in June 2016 followed a series of interactions a few months earlier in Moscow that may have played a role in shaping the lobbying efforts. In April 2016, Rohrabacher led a small congressional delegation to Moscow. During the trip, Rohrabachers spokesman confirmed, Rohrabacher met with a top Russian prosecutor who provided him documents making a case that the Magnitsky story was a fraud.

[Analysis: Another shoe drops in the White Houses burgeoning Russia scandal]

Akhmetshin said he became involved in the lobbying effort in late 2015 after he was introduced to Veselnitskaya by a Russian public relations manager he declined to identify.

Veselnitskaya told the Wall Street Journal in Moscow on Friday that although she had exchanged information with the Russian prosecutors office, her efforts were not undertaken on the governments behalf.

Akhmetshin said that he thought her arguments had merit and arranged for a nonprofit organization that hired U.S. lobbyists and consultants to press her case before Congress. The group was funded, he said, by Veselnitskayas client, Denis Katsyv, and friends of his in Russia.

Akhmetshin was a controversial figure. In a letter this spring to U.S. government officials, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) described Akhmetshin as a person who apparently has ties to Russian intelligence.

Akhmetshin said he never worked as an intelligence agent, but he did say he was drafted as a teenager and served for two years in a unit of the Soviet military that had responsibility for law enforcement issues as well as some counterintelligence matters. He immigrated to the United States in 1993 and gained citizenship in 2009.

I was not an intelligence officer. Never, he said.

In the spring of 2016, as the presidential race was heating up, Akhmetshin and lobbyists he hired sought meetings on Capitol Hill to make their case against the sanctions law. Akhmetshin hired former Democratic congressman Ron Dellums, along with a team of lobbyists from the law firm of Cozen OConnor.

Steve Pruitt, a business colleague speaking on Dellumss behalf, said his involvement was brief and ended when he determined that Congress was unlikely to change the law.

In June, after visiting Trump Tower in New York, Veselnitskaya came to Washington to lend a hand in the lobbying effort.

She attended a meeting of the team at the downtown offices of Cozen OConnor, where she spoke at length in Russian about the issues but confused many in the room, who had not been told previously about her involvement, according to several participants.

A spokesman for Cozen said the firm had been hired by the nonprofit. But in a statement, the firm said that the role and involvement of the Russian lawyer was not at all clear.

While Veselnitskaya was not allowed to testify in Congress, she did secure a prime, front-row seat for a June 14 hearing in the House on Russia-related issues.

Her high-profile spot in the room gained notice this week with the circulation of a photo in which she looms over the shoulder of former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, an adviser to President Barack Obama and a witness before the panel. Some conservative blogs this week have said the photo suggests she had accompanied McFaul and was a Democratic plant.

In fact, her seat had been reserved for her by a Republican consultant with close ties to the Trump campaign.

Lanny Wiles, whose wife, Susie, was then chairing the Trump campaign in Florida, said in an interview that he came early to scout out the seat and was there at the request of Akhmetshin, with whom he was working as a consultant on the sanctions-related adoption issue.

Lanny and Susie Wiles both said she was unaware of his role in the lobbying effort. Lanny Wiles said he was unaware that the Russian lawyer whose seat he was saving had just days earlier met with Trump Jr.

I wasnt part of it, Susie Wiles said.

Alice Crites contributed to this report.
For two hours Friday morning, President Trump looked happy.

He was the honored guest at Pariss Bastille Day military parade and had a prime seat that gave him a view straight down Avenue des Champs-Elysees and a first glimpse at the tanks, armored vehicles, gun trucks, carriers and troops in historical uniforms headed his way.

He eagerly leaned forward as he took in the spectacle, frequently jostling his wife or French President Emmanuel Macron when he saw something that particularly delighted him. Whenever troops were before him, Trump jumped to his feet and applauded with an enthusiasm that exceeded the response of those around him. For the first time in months, he looked relaxed and to be thoroughly enjoying himself.

The parade is an annual tradition that dates back to 1880, and this year it included a tribute to the centennial anniversary of the United States entering World War I. The parade featured U.S. and French flags, 200 American troops marching in uniforms from 1917 and eight U.S. Air Force planes.

Mr. Trumps presence at my side is a sign of an enduring friendship, and I want to thank him, Macron said in brief remarks after the parade. Nothing can ever separate us. . . . I want to thank America for the choice made 100 years ago.

F-16 fighter jets pass over the annual Bastille Day parade in Paris on Friday. (Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/AFP/Getty Images)

Trump has long been delighted by grand displays of military strength, and he has filled his Cabinet with numerous military leaders, although he was disappointed that they could not wear their military uniforms to their new civilian jobs in the administration. Trump wanted to have heavy military equipment and troops at his inauguration parade in January, but that idea was blocked for logistical reasons.

When Macron invited Trump to the parade in a June 27 phone call, the president promised to be there  forcing his staff to quickly scramble to plan a last-minute trip.

The two-hour parade featured one spectacle after another, a demonstration of Frances military history and current capabilities. The parade began with dozens of soldiers on horseback riding along the cobblestone avenue that runs from the Arc de Triomphe to the viewing station where Trump sat. Macron arrived in a military jeep that he rode as if it were a chariot.

At least three military bands took turns playing a parade soundtrack, and massive screens showed an action-movie-style video that explained the significance of the equipment on display, from vintage tanks that slowly and noisily charged down the avenue to a sleek new armored vehicle from which a handful of troops emerged to act out a mission.

There was then a roar in the sky as nine fighter jets flew overhead, leaving a trail of red, white and blue smoke  representing the French tricolor flag. Dozens of other planes followed. The video screens played footage taken from on board as well as wide shots showing the jets flying over iconic Paris sites.

[Excerpts from Trumps comments on Air Force One]

Trump watched the show in awe, as did 8-year-old Wissem Reimann, who wants to be a pilot when he grows up and attended the parade with his mother.

1 of 42 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  See President Trump and the first lady on their visit to France View Photos Beginning a 24-hour trip that coincides with Frances national day and the 100th anniversary of U.S. involvement in World War I, President Trump arrived in Paris for a visit filled with Bastille Day pomp. Caption Beginning a 24-hour trip that coincides with Frances national day and the 100th anniversary of U.S. involvement in World War I, President Trump arrived in Paris for a visit filled with Bastille Day pomp. July 14, 2017 French President Emmanuel Macron and President Trump watch the Bastille Day military parade in Paris. They are joined by their wives, Melania Trump and Brigitte Marcon, and the French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, left. Julien De Rosa/European Pressphoto Agency Wait 1 second to continue.

When the planes flew by, it was magnificent  it touched me deeply, the boy said, adding that he likes Macron because hes happy, young but that Trump is just okay.

Most of those at the parade were there to celebrate the national holiday and take in the spectacle  not to see Trump, who is deeply unpopular here in France.

It doesnt please me at all, said Lola Chauvel, 30, who stood on the banks of the Seine to watch the planes with her 4-year-old son, Mateo. Im really not for Donald Trump. He doesnt at all have the same values as we do.

Donald Trump? I dont like it. I dont understand why hes here, said one of the spectators at the military march, Riad Jhops, 33, an Algerian living in Drancy, a Paris suburb, who works for an Algerian aluminum company. He says he has a problem with our climate treaty, and then he comes for the 14th of July.

The president was largely shielded from any sign of dissent, and scattered protests were small, peaceful and far from the parade route  nothing like the violent demonstrations last weekend in Hamburg, where anti-capitalist protesters attempted to make a grand statement at the meeting of the worlds 20 largest economies. There were small protests Thursday night in the symbolic Place de la Republique, where pinatas of the U.S. president were on full display, and in the Place des Etats-Unis, where Democrats Abroad staged a protest.

After Trump departed, there was another in the Place de Clichy on Friday afternoon.

Were protesting Trump coming to Paris  his racism, his sexism, his actions against the environment, and against migrants and Muslim communities. And the fact that hes been given legitimacy by this invitation, said Sylvestre Jaffard, 46, who teaches IT skills in Paris and who on Friday was holding one end of a large sign that read Paris against Trump.

[Trumps legal team struggles to rein in their client]

But their anger was not directed solely at Trump. Workers collectives picketed Macron, who plans a drastic overhaul of Frances labor market this fall.

After the air show came the hundreds of troops in vintage uniforms, starting with 200 marchers wearing U.S. uniforms from World War I. Suddenly, the sky filled with helicopters. Afterward, police on motorcycles came speeding down the avenue, followed by a seemingly never-ending stream of heavy military equipment, small jeeps, armored vehicles of all sizes, tanks, flatbed trucks hauling bulldozers and even more tanks. It felt like the grand finale of a fireworks show, as military equipment continued to appear.

There were red emergency response vehicles and a brass band riding horses as they played.

And there was a military band featuring players from several French military branches who played the anthem of the town of Nice, which is mourning the first anniversary of a terrorist attack that killed 86 following Bastille Day festivities. Macron planned to travel to Nice on Friday afternoon to remember those who were killed.

The musicians also played a medley of songs by the French electronic group Daft Punk, which was especially popular with younger people in the crowd  including the 39-year-old Macron, who smiled and slightly bobbed his head, while Trump, 71, looked a little confused.

Soon the event was over, and Macron walked Trump to the motorcade that would take him to the airport for a flight to New Jersey.

The two men shook hands, as their shoulders touched, and Trump patted their clasped hands. They continued holding hands as Trump leaned over to kiss the cheek of Macrons wife, Brigitte Macron, then held her hand while continuing to hold her husbands hand. He finally released their hands but patted Macrons shoulder one more time.

Throughout the whole goodbye, the president broadly smiled.

Trump tweets that hell back in Bedminster this weekend
Marc Kasowitz, attorney for President Trump, makes a statement to the media during a news conference at the National Press Club on June 8. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

The challenge for President Trumps attorneys has become, at its core, managing the unmanageable  their client.

He wont follow instructions. After one meeting in which they urged Trump to steer clear of a certain topic, he sent a tweet about that very theme before they arrived back at their office.

He wont compartmentalize. With aides, advisers and friends breezing in and out of the Oval Office, it is not uncommon for the president to suddenly turn the conversation to Russia  a subject that perpetually gnaws at him  in a meeting about something else entirely.

And he wont discipline himself. Trumps legal team, led by Marc E. Kasowitz of New York, is laboring to underscore the potential risk to the president if he engages without a lawyer in discussions with other people under scrutiny in widening Russia inquiries, including Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser.

Nearly two months after Trump retained outside counsel to represent him in the investigations of alleged Russian meddling in last years election, his and Kushners attorneys are struggling to enforce traditional legal boundaries to protect their clients, according to half a dozen people with knowledge of the internal dynamics and ongoing interactions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter candidly.

Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to President Trump, listens during session with cybersecurity experts at the White House in January. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Compounding the challenges have been tensions between Trumps and Kushners legal teams in a frenzied, siege-like environment. Senior White House officials are increasingly reluctant to discuss the issue internally or publicly and worry about overhearing sensitive conversations, for fear of legal exposure.

Stuff is moving fast and furious, said one person familiar with the work of the legal teams. The tensions are just the tensions that would normally exist between two groups of lawyers starting to work together and struggling with facts that we dont all know yet.

A third faction could complicate the dynamic further. Trumps eldest child, Donald Trump Jr., hired his own criminal defense attorney this week amid disclosures that he met with a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin who he thought could provide incriminating information about Democrat Hillary Clinton during the campaign. Trump Jr. also is considering hiring his own outside public relations team.

In remarks to reporters on Air Force One before his arrival in Paris on Thursday, Trump defended his son as a good boy who had done nothing wrong and suggested he would support Trump Jr. testifying about the case if he wants to.

[Category 5 hurricane: White House under siege by Trump Jr.s revelations]

As in Trumps West Wing, lawyers on the outside teams have been deeply distrustful of one another and suspicious of motivations. They also are engaged in a circular firing squad of private speculation about who may have disclosed information about Trump Jr.s meeting with the Russian lawyer to the New York Times, said people familiar with the situation.

Michael J. Bowe, a partner at Kasowitzs firm and a member of Trumps legal team, said the lawyers are collaborating effectively. The legal teams have worked together smoothly and professionally from the start, he said.

Another question is who will pay the legal fees for the president and administration officials involved in the Russia inquiries. Some in Trumps orbit are pushing the Republican National Committee to bear the costs, said three people with knowledge of the situation, including one who euphemistically described the debate as a robust discussion.

Although the RNC does have a legal defense fund, it well predates the Russia investigations and is intended to be used for legal challenges facing the Republican Party, such as a potential election recount.

The RNC has not made a decision, in part because the committee is still researching whether the money could legally be used to help pay legal costs related to Russia. But many within the organization are resisting the effort, thinking it would be more appropriate to create a separate legal defense fund for the case.

RNC officials declined requests for comment. The White House has not said whether Trump, Kushner and other officials are paying their legal bills themselves or whether they are being covered by an outside entity.

Those retained by the parties involved include Kasowitz, Bowe and Jay Sekulow for Trump; Jamie S. Gorelick and Abbe Lowell for Kushner; and Alan Futerfas for Trump Jr.

The president has been irritated with Kasowitz, which the Times first reported this week. The two men have known each other for decades, and both are hard-charging, prideful and brash.

[Trump is struggling to stay calm on Russia, one morning call at a time]

But people briefed on the evolving relationship said Trump has made Kasowitz absorb his fury about the Russia inquiries  in keeping with how the president treats his White House staff, quick to blame aides when things go awry.

The lawyers are now faced with the challenge of trying to force change on Trump, 71, who throughout his life has often thrived amid freewheeling chaos. He made his name as a flamboyant Manhattan developer, trafficking in hyperbole and mistruth  or puffery, as one former aide put it  while exhibiting little discretion in his daily conversations. For Trump, this was a formula for success.

Theres no question that Donald Trump has lied flagrantly and almost pathologically his entire life, said Timothy L. OBrien, author of the Trump biography TrumpNation and a Bloomberg View columnist. For good parts of his life, hes been insulated from the consequences of doing that.

Trump is now the highest elected official in the nation, and with that outsize perch comes potentially outsize consequences. His legal team is trying to impress upon him and those in his orbit that there could be severe ramifications for lying to federal investigators or congressional committees.

OBrien said, He is now in a completely different world, and its a world unlike any hes ever existed in before  both in terms of the sophistication and honesty thats required of him to do his job well, and most especially the titanic legal and reputational consequences of Donald Trump continuing to be the same old Donald Trump.

[A million miles per hour: Inside Trumps campaign when Trump Jr. met with Russian]

The president, however, believes he has done nothing wrong and is the target of what he repeatedly has called a witch hunt. His instinct, those close to him have said, is to trust his gut and punch back.

Barry Bennett, who was a Trump campaign adviser, said that Trump isnt used to losing and that he never stops fighting. Thats what life has taught him. In Washington, politics is a full-

contact sport, and its certainly tougher than having it out with a magazine. Its a new arena for him and hes treating it like every arena hes ever been in. He may be right, but its messy.

During last years campaign, Bennett recalled, do you know how many times people came to him and said, That was lethal, youre never going to survive it? Every time, he survived. When somebody tells him he cant do something, hes at a minimum circumspect.

When it comes to Twitter, however, the president is hardly circumspect. His political advisers have long urged him to restrain his first impulses on social media and to think twice before tweeting  and now, his lawyers are asking the same.

Still, the president persists.

Its my voice, Trump said in a recent interview with the New York Times Magazine. They want to take away my voice. Theyre not going to take away my social media.

Robert Costa, Rosalind S. Helderman and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.
Armed Israeli police exit the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday. (Abir Sultan/European Pressphoto Agency)

In a bold attack outside a site sacred to Muslims and Jews, three Arab Israelis armed with a pistol and homemade machine guns shot and killed two Israeli police officers early Friday at the entrance to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

The three assailants were then chased into the courtyard of the mosque complex, where they were shot and killed by Israeli security forces, authorities said.

Hours after the early-morning shootout, Israeli forces still blocked access to the mosque area because of security concerns.

The rare closure marked the first time in years that Israeli authorities stopped Muslims of all ages from attending Friday prayers at the holy site.

Israels domestic security service, Shin Bet, said the three attackers were Israeli citizens from an Arab town in northern Israel called Umm al-Fahm and that they shared the same last name, suggesting they may have been related.

The two dead Israeli Border Police officers were members of Israels small Druze community. Kamil Shnaan, 22, was the son of a former member of parliament. Hael Sathawi, 30, left behind a wife and a 3-week-old son.

The Druze follow an offshoot of Shiite Islam and are seen by some Sunni militant factions as apostates.

Police said the assault began just after 7 a.m. close to the Lions Gate into the Old City, near one of the entrances to the complex that holds al-Aqsa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock, an ancient esplanade revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount.

The site is a scene of frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces, but not shootouts involving multiple fatalities.

Israeli police released a security camera clip that showed one of the attackers rushing toward an Israeli Border Police officer and shooting him in the back.

A photograph published on one of the attackers Facebook pages a day before the assault shows two of the gunmen posing for a selfie in front of the Dome of the Rock. The caption reads, Tomorrow our smiles will be sweeter.

Israeli officials identified the attackers as Muhammad Ahmed Jabarin, 29; Muhammad Hamid Jabarin, 19; and Muhammad Ahmed Mufdal Jabarin, 19. Arabs constitute 20 percent of the Israeli population.

After the attack, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas placed a telephone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, Abbas expressed his strong rejection and condemnation of the fatal shootout that took place near Al Aqsa mosque, as well as his rejection of any violent incidents from any side, especially in places of worship.

Jerusalems police chief , Yoram Halevi, canceled Friday prayers at the mosque and ordered the complex cleared and the entrances shut. The narrow alleys around the mosque were filled with Israeli police and soldiers.

During the phone call, Abbas called on Netanyahu to end the closure imposed on the holy site, warning of the consequences of such measures.

In a statement, Netanyahu said Fridays closure was for security reasons and did not represent a change in what is called the status quo agreement about the care, custody and access to the religious site.

The Associated Press reported that a top Muslim cleric at al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalems grand mufti, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, was brought in for questioning at the Israeli police station in the Old City, according to his son.

We insist on reaching the al-Aqsa Mosque and performing prayers there, Hussein said.

Before his detention, Hussein told the Palestinian news agency Maan that it was the first time that Israel had put a blanket block on Muslims performing Friday prayers at al-Aqsa since 1967.

Israeli reporters said the last time the mosque was closed for Friday prayers was 1990.

Several times before, Israeli authorities have imposed restrictions on Muslims entering the mosque area, including temporarily banning men under 50 in 2014 during a period of heightened violence.

Israeli police said the three assailants were armed with a knife, a pistol and two homemade machine guns, the type manufactured in clandestine workshops in the West Bank. These kinds of weapons have been used in attacks in recent years, including a mass shooting in 2016 at a Tel Aviv food court in which four people were killed.

Soon after the attack, Netanyahu called a meeting of his top security ministers as condemnations against the assault poured in.

The U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, tweeted: Shocked and horrified by the despicable attack today in Jerusalem. Terrorism must be condemned by all and defeated. We pray for the victims.

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